Nov 02

Today’s News 2nd November 2024

  • The Paradigm Shift Is Here
    The Paradigm Shift Is Here

    Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

    Some wild shifts are taking place in our time…

    The low-tariff global trade order is falling apart.

    Nationalist movements are gaining strength in every Western nation, not just the United States.

    The major media is under serious financial strain to the point that the owner of the Washington Post has penned an editorial decrying the tendency to speak only to elites.

    A presidential candidate is talking about scrapping the income tax.

    The Supreme Court earlier this year ruled that 40 years of regulatory jurisprudence is essentially contrary to the Constitution.

    The list goes on and on with the rise of homeschooling, the reliance on alternative media, the dramatic shift in partisan affiliations over healthy food, the unpredictable alliances over the U.S. role in the world, and so much more.

    People are asking fundamental questions about issues that only a few years ago seemed fully settled. What was stable is unstable and what was believed by nearly everyone is now widely doubted.

    It’s enough to make one’s head spin. What is happening and why is it happening?

    The short answer is that we are living through a class paradigm shift.

    One is going away and another is coming. We are in pre-paradigmatic times, which are surely the most exciting times to be alive.

    The word paradigm entered into the mainstream of thought with an important book by Thomas Kuhn. His “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” appeared in 1962, and it completely upended the dominated assumptions about how science works.

    More than that, it implicitly shook how people came to understand how progress takes place. He said it is not a linear process with every generation absorbing the best from the last but rather that progress is episodic, a shift from success to failure and back again, through titanic movements of large paradigms.

    Kuhn arrived at this conclusion by looking at the long history of science and noticing the tendency toward complacency around an orthodoxy of some sort. This is the period he calls “normal science.” The practitioners have all been schooled in a certain way, deferring to teachers and dominant institutions that have captured government and the public mind. It’s a way of understanding the world and within that the main practitioners focus on problem-solving and applications.

    This period of normal science can last a month or decades or centuries, rarely questioned. And then something happens. Kuhn writes that this orthodoxy comes to be challenged by certain features of reality that are not explained by normal science. Once these are more closely investigated, the anomalies start to pile up and then overwhelm the explanatory power of the settled paradigm. The longer this goes on, the more the paradigm comes under strain, as a new generation seizes on the failures and highlights the incapacity of the orthodoxy to account for the reality all around us.

    That’s when the settled science breaks down. It can happen slowly or quickly, and sometimes paradigms overlap both in their popularity and their collapse. That collapse does not mean that every mind is changed. Kuhn observes that the practitioners of the old science continue on their merry way through retirement and final expiration, while the younger people work on cobbling together a new way of thinking that gradually emerges as the dominant paradigm.

    Kuhn was writing about science and the profession thereof but his insight has broad application to sociological, cultural, and political ideas too. They do not evolve in a linear fashion, piling victory upon victory, as a Whiggish perspective of the 19th century would have it. Instead, change occurs episodically. One generation is as likely to forget the wisdom of the past as it is to overthrow the orthodoxies of the present. We are in a forever state of cobbling together truth rather than progressively unfolding it.

    We’ve seen this happen in the postwar world, as planners built structures that were supposed to govern the world forever. But in a few short years, the world came to be divided rather than united by the Western perception of the new threat of Russian imperialism. That created the Cold War which lasted for 40 years until a new “end of history” was born, which put freedom, democracy, and U.S. hegemony on the commanding heights. That turn has been challenged by the rise of China and huge industrial shifts in the 21st century.

    A worker is pictured with car batteries at a factory of Xinwangda Electric Vehicle Battery Co. Ltd., which makes lithium batteries for electric cars and other uses, in Nanjing in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province, on March 12, 2021. STR/AFP via Getty Images

    If we were to name one dominant factor that has provoked the big change in our time, it would have to be the global response to the lab-created virus of SARS-CoV-2, which was met with Chinese Communist Party-style universal quarantines all over the world, and followed by shot mandates on most public institutions and many private businesses. These policies were extreme beyond which had been practiced in any period of history but also, and in many ways, merely an extension of the “normal science” of times.

    The media, large corporations, and nearly all governments got behind the pandemic response and jeered the non-compliers. This was a huge error because it gave rise to a full generation of the incredulous who lost trust in elites at all levels: medical, academic, media, and government. It has all fallen apart in our time, leaving people scrambling in all directions for explanations of what could have gone so wrong and what should be done about it.

    What fascinates me about our election year is not so much the issues on the table but the underlying template that everyone knows is there but no one dares mention; namely the utter discrediting of elite opinion over the last four years.

    The claims of the experts simply became too implausible to compel public assent. And this time it was personal. People’s schools and churches were closed, loved ones forced on ventilators to die alone, and whole communities were shattered when public spaces were blocked.

    In other words, the “normal science” became a threat to people’s lives, especially once the vaccine mandates came along that most people did not want or need and which ended up being far less effective and far more dangerous than advertised. That was the turning point, the mark at which the anomalies overwhelmed the orthodoxies and the expert classes fell into disrepute.

    Nothing about any of this would shock Thomas Kuhn, who gave us a map of understanding back in 1962. Finding that new way of thinking is the essence of our times, which is why everything seems to be in question. The other day, Elon Musk suggested cutting $2 trillion next year from the federal budget. It barely made the headlines, even though it is a highly credible promise.

    That’s the new world in which we live. It is being built on the embers of the old.

    To be sure, this shift will not happen all at once. It will happen in fits and starts and be accompanied by a great deal of alarm and even pain along the way. But one way or another, it is going to happen, and for one simple reason. As Jeff Bezos explained in the Washington Post, reality is an undisputed champion.

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 23:25

  • Car Thefts In Washington Rise 65% As Number Approaches 1 Million Nationwide
    Car Thefts In Washington Rise 65% As Number Approaches 1 Million Nationwide

    As Democrats swear up and down that crime across the country is under control, the data continues to prove them otherwise. This week it was Washington stolen vehicle data, which showed the number of cars stolen across the nation is steadily approaching the 1 million mark. 

    In fact, vehicle thefts jumped nearly 14% nationwide from 2020 to 2022, according to data by LendingTree and reporting by KOMO News. 

    In Washington, the data was clear. Thefts rose by over 65%, with Oregon seeing a 40% increase, placing both states among the top five nationwide. Three Washington cities—Kennewick, Bremerton, and Wenatchee—rank in the nation’s top 10 for theft spikes, according to KOMO News.

    The KOMO News report says that theft rates rose in 34 states, with Vermont leading. While theft impacts insurance rates, Washington’s rates remain 22% below the national average due to other balancing factors.

    Rob Bhatt, LendingTree auto expert and insurance agent, commented: “We’re talking about smaller places that we don’t necessarily associate with big city problems like car thefts.”

    “Some of the other things that play in to the equation include things like crash rates and also the cost of medical treatment, the cost of car repairs and all those things,” Bhatt added. “The auto makers have provided a fix and I think that’s working its way through the system. Why they didn’t have this anti-theft technology in the first place is baffling.”

    Recall at the end of summer we wrote how car thefts were becoming a nationwide “epidemic”. 

    We wrote that the number of cars seized at the Port of Newark was on the rise. Jeffrey Greene, acting director at the Port of New York and Newark, oversees customs officials using x-rays to inspect containers and seize stolen cars.

    In one case this year, two junk vehicles concealed a pristine Mercedes, while another container held a stolen Chevy Silverado.

    So far this year, they’ve seized 331 vehicles, on pace to surpass last year’s total. Investigators say West African markets, especially Nigeria, offer the highest prices. Social media videos show luxury SUVs being unloaded from containers, sometimes still sporting American license plates.

    Greene commented: “So last year, the Port of New York-Newark here, we led the country in seized vehicles … We had 368 vehicles. That’s more than a car a day.”

    The CBS report says young people are often recruited for car thefts, according to Homeland Security Special Agent William Walker, who leads an auto crime task force.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 23:00

  • The Biden-Harris Administration Wasted Nearly One Billion Dollars On Misinformation
    The Biden-Harris Administration Wasted Nearly One Billion Dollars On Misinformation

    Authored by Ian Miller via The Brownstone Institute,

    The party of “Science” apparently misled hundreds of millions of people on the actual science surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic. Stop the presses.

    Starting in early 2020, the combined efforts of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services, and their partners in the media caused an untold amount of damage to society and public health and might have even created conditions for increased Covid spread. How? By repeatedly, profoundly, and often purposefully communicating inaccurate information while spending hundreds of millions of dollars to get their preferred messages across.

    Now, a new, massive 113-page report from the US House of Representatives Energy & Commerce Committee has detailed the remarkable abuses from the Biden-Harris administration and the manner in which they communicated during Covid. 

    Biden, CDC Partners Literally Wasted a Fortune to Lie to the American People

    The report details a number of unbelievable inaccuracies in 2021 coming from the Biden administration’s communications team and the CDC’s messaging apparatus. Fauci and Francis Collins’ National Institutes of Health were also responsible, creating guidance using taxpayer money, nearly $1 billion per the report, that misled millions of people and caused unimaginable harm in the process.

    While the Biden-Harris administration’s public health guidance led to prolonged closures of schools and businesses, the NIH was spending nearly a billion dollars of taxpayer money trying to manipulate Americans with advertisements—sometimes containing erroneous or unproven information. By overpromising what the Covid-19 vaccines could do—in direct contradiction of the FDA’s authorizations—and over emphasizing the virus’s risk to children and young adults, the Biden-Harris administration caused Americans to lose trust in the public health system,” Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) said after the report’s release. “Our investigation also uncovered the extent to which public funding went to Big Tech companies to track and monitor Americans, underscoring the need for stronger online data privacy protections.”

    One of the most damaging, and woefully incorrect messaging campaigns centered on vaccine efficacy against infection. As the report details, Biden’s “Stop the Spread” campaign was a pervasive marketing effort in conjunction with the CDC that claimed vaccines would end the pandemic by reducing infections. That had enormous knock-on effects, including decreasing trust in all vaccinations and ultimately harming public health.

    “The entire premise of the Biden-Harris ‘Stop the Spread’ campaign was that if you got vaccinated for COVID-19, you could resume daily activities because they said vaccinated people would not spread the disease,” said Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chair Morgan Griffith (R-VA). “Despite lacking scientific basis, the administration bought into this CDC claim and misled the American public. As a result, vaccination coverage with other vaccines appears to have declined, I believe because of a growing distrust of information coming from our public health institutions.”

    This campaign was even more disingenuous and purposefully misleading than previously realized. The “Stop the Spread” publicity blitz hid in plain sight a message from the CDC that even they didn’t know whether the vaccines actually stopped infection or transmission. The report shared a screenshot of a page from the Biden administration’s marketing that specifically said “science” wasn’t sure how well the vaccines worked against infection. 

    Yet the Biden administration made life-altering policy decisions such as vaccine mandates, discriminatory entry processes, and military vaccination requirements regardless. And that was in addition to the less quantifiable impacts like nudging millions of people to follow their preferred course of action.

    CDC Guidance Exacerbated Existing Problems

    The report also explains how the Biden administration relied heavily on guidance from the CDC, an organization that thoroughly disgraced itself during the pandemic. There were several examples highlighted, chief among them that CDC “experts” went far beyond what even the FDA claimed Covid vaccines could do.

    Without evidence, the report says Biden’s marketing claimed that “COVID vaccines were highly effective against transmission.” Within just a few months, it was clear that all the available evidence pointed towards the exact opposite direction. Per the report, this had a “negative impact on vaccine confidence and the CDC’s credibility when proven untrue.” 

    The CDC also had “inconsistent and flawed messaging about the effectiveness of masks,” which created seemingly endless mandates and, again, overconfidence in an ineffective policy. Some of those mandates even continue to this day.

    That’s just the tip of their misinformation. A wealth of data and public embarrassments for the CDC confirmed that the organization “consistently overstated the risk of COVID-19 to children,” the report states. That fear-mongering had disastrous consequences, from unnecessarily terrifying parents to prolonged school closures and lack of socialization—setting an entire generation of children back in the process.

    Still, after being repeatedly and profoundly proven wrong, the CDC has demonstrated they’ve yet to learn their lesson. In late 2024, the CDC continues to recommend Covid-19 vaccines for babies starting at six months old. That makes the US a global outlier compared to European nations that have maintained at least some level of intellectual honesty.

    How Do We Fix CDC Abuses?

    The report detailed several recommendations to fix these organizations after their disastrous work during the pandemic. Even implementing just a select few, listed below, would do wonders for fixing the institutional rot that influenced these mistakes. 

    • Congress should consider clarifying responsibility for evaluating the safety of vaccines and streamlining existing reporting systems for capturing vaccine injuries and adverse reactions.

    • HHS and its agencies should embrace a culture of transparency and accountability.

    • The CDC and federal public health officials should not attempt to silence dissenting scientific opinions.

    Also highlighted in the report is how the CDC and NIH used their weight in their attempts to censor scientists who dissented from their preferred narratives. Beyond their mistakes, profound inaccuracies, and nearly unlimited spending, their censorship efforts are equally concerning.

    As we learned during Covid, if there’s one thing “experts” hate, it’s being told that they were proven wrong. Instead of learning, adjusting, and apologizing, they move to censor, criticize and mislead. This new report is the latest confirmation of these unacceptable “mistakes.” And reaffirms the importance of ensuring they never happen again.

    Republished from the author’s Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 22:35

  • Is Metformin More Than Just A Diabetes Treatment?
    Is Metformin More Than Just A Diabetes Treatment?

    Authored by Mary West via The Epoch Times,

    Metformin, a common Type 2 diabetes, may offer protection against a subtype of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), according to a study published in Investigative Ophthalmology & Vision Science (IOVS).

    This is the latest among other studies suggesting that the medication may have several uses beyond diabetes, such as promoting longevity and weight loss and protecting against neurological disorders, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. Most of the proposed uses are off-label, which means the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved the medication to treat those conditions.

    While research on some off-label metformin uses is promising, studies on other uses are inconsistent. Some are controversial because they may not offer the best approach for addressing a health issue. Additionally, although metformin is generally well-tolerated, it does have some adverse effects and is not for everyone.

    Metformin and Macular Degeneration Subtype

    Macular degeneration, a condition mainly associated with aging, affects the retina and involves the loss of central vision. The primary types of AMD are wet AMD and dry AMD. Geography atrophy (GA) is a subtype of dry AMD. GA leads to legal blindness in 16 percent of those who have it.

    In recent years, anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) medications, which decrease the growth of blood vessels in the eye, have revolutionized treatment for wet AMD.

    Conversely, treatments for GA have lagged. In 2023, pegcetacoplan and avacincaptad pegol came on the market, but they only slow GA’s progression rather than prevent the condition.

    Studies on the treatment of dry AMD with metformin have been encouraging, but they have not focused on GA specifically. Because of the limited research on metformin’s effect on GA and the condition’s debilitating visual effects, researchers undertook the IOVS study.

    This case-control experiment involved older individuals with new-onset GA and a control group who did not have it. The researchers looked at exposure to metformin in the preceding year to determine whether any correlations were present. Data analysis indicated an association between metformin and reduced risk of new-onset GA. The researchers concluded that further research is necessary to verify the findings, but metformin may provide a noninvasive alternative treatment in preventing GA.

    Mechanisms of action underlying the benefit of metformin on GA are unclear, but there are several possibilities. Instead of the protective effects stemming from a blood sugar-lowering action useful for diabetes, the effects may be due to the medication’s anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, based on animal and test tube studies.

    Metformin and Aging

    Is it possible that taking a pill can prolong your life? A review published in Frontiers in Endocrinology noted that metformin may decrease the likelihood of early death associated with diabetes, cancer, cognitive decline, and cardiovascular disease, which could lengthen the period of life spent in good health.

    Factors underlying metformin’s anti-aging effects include its ability to lower high blood sugar, boost insulin sensitivity, and decrease oxidative stress. The medication also has a direct protective effect on blood vessel function, which may improve blood flow.

    Despite these positive effects, the researchers expressed reservations about using metformin as a prophylactic (preventive) measure to promote longevity. Dependence on a pill could reduce the incentive to adopt healthy lifestyle practices, such as exercise and a nutritious diet, which have proven beneficial. Additionally, long-term metformin use may cause vitamin B12 deficiency. In light of these considerations, people should not view the drug as a “quick fix” for aging.

    Dr. Markus Ploesser, a psychiatrist and integrative medicine physician at Open Mind Health, concurs with the researchers’ viewpoint. In an email to The Epoch Times, he stated that metformin has several beneficial effects that may enhance longevity; “however, its use as an anti-aging drug is still not fully proven.”

    Ploesser added that it is essential to balance the possible benefits against risks and to consider it within a broader context of other longevity-promoting strategies, such as diet, exercise, sleep optimization, and stress management.

    “Taking a pill alone is unlikely to be the healthiest approach for most people, as a comprehensive lifestyle strategy has much stronger evidence for promoting longevity,” he said.

    Metformin and Weight Loss

    Metformin may promote weight loss, but its use is best reserved for a select population.

    A review published in Current Obesity Reports stated that it suppresses the appetite and may also increase the abundance of bacterial strains in the gut microbiome, an effect associated with healthier weight. However, research on the weight-loss effects of metformin shows either modest improvement or inconsistent results. Consequently, the FDA has not approved the medication for obesity.

    Guidelines from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and the American College of Endocrinology advise the use of metformin for obese individuals who have prediabetes or insulin intolerance and have not responded to other medications for obesity or lifestyle modifications. Current use of the drug for obesity is strictly off-label, but doctors often prescribe it for people with a high risk of obesity-related complications who can’t tolerate other interventions, noted the Current Obesity Reports review.

    Dr. Michael Lahey, a physician specializing in metabolic health and weight management at My Weight Loss Partner, told The Epoch Times via email that although some research shows metformin might promote weight loss, it is not an anti-obesity medication.

    “In my experience, I stand to defend the facts that making the necessary lifestyle changes—such as proper dieting, reliable exercise, and positive behavioral change—has the strongest bearing for long-term, effective weight loss,” he said. “It can be suggested that metformin may be used as a second-line treatment, in particular, if insulin resistance is quite pronounced; nonetheless, it should not be used alone.”

    Metformin and Neurological Disorders

    A review published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences indicates that metformin may protect against neurological conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and major depressive disorder.

    The mechanisms that underlie the protection are not fully understood, but several actions may play a role. Metformin may help prevent damage to the blood-brain barrier (BBB), a tight layer of cells that prevents harmful substances from entering the brain. Damage to the BBB can result in neuroinflammation and injury, leading to neurodegeneration.

    Metformin also moderates autophagy, a natural cleaning process that improves cellular function. It also regulates synaptic transmission, where neurotransmitters are released that send signals from one nerve cell to another, and plasticity, or the ability of neural networks to grow and reorganize.

    Metformin and Cardiovascular Protection

    A review published in Pharmaceuticals reported that an estimated two-thirds of the deaths of people with diabetes are attributable to cardiovascular disease. Among this group, approximately 40 percent stem from coronary artery disease, 15 percent from heart failure and other types of heart disease, and about 10 percent from stroke. Consequently, reducing the likelihood of these risks is paramount.

    Most clinical studies indicate that metformin may decrease the likelihood of chronic blood vessel-related complications of diabetes and significantly lower modifiable cardiovascular risk factors. The latter includes increased platelet aggregation, unhealthy blood lipids, belly fat, obesity, oxidative stress, high blood glucose, and inflammation.

    Metformin and Kidney Protection

    According to the Pharmaceuticals review, chronic kidney disease affects about 30 percent of people with Type 1 diabetes and approximately 40 percent of those with Type 2 diabetes. This result of chronically high blood sugar affects tiny blood vessels and frequently leads to end-stage kidney disease. Existing medications are ineffective, and many people eventually need dialysis or a kidney transplant.

    Metformin has kidney-protective properties that can stop kidney tissue injuries caused by various toxins, including high blood glucose.

    This benefit’s underlying mechanisms of action are complex and not fully known. A factor that plays a key role is metformin’s activation of the enzyme AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which results in beneficial effects in kidney cells. AMPK serves as a vital energy source in the cell and regulates cellular protein, glucose, and lipid metabolism.

    Metformin and Cancer

    People with diabetes, particularly Type 2 diabetes, have a higher risk of developing certain cancers, including breast, bladder, endometrium, pancreas, liver, and colon and rectum, noted the review in Pharmaceuticals. Metformin has a desirable effect on certain cancer risk factors, such as high body weight, high blood sugar, and insulin sensitivity.

    Research shows the medication reduces the risk of cancer in people with diabetes, but exactly how it achieves this protective effect is only partly understood. One factor involves an indirect action on tumor cells caused by the blood sugar- and insulin-lowering effects, which may suppress cancer cell proliferation. Additionally, researchers have proposed that metformin has several direct anti-cancer effects, such as the activation of AMPK in tumor cells.

    While some studies suggest the medication may reduce the risk of cancer, others do not. The inconsistency shows that randomized studies are needed to determine the value of metformin in cancer.

    Safety Concerns

    Metformin is generally well-tolerated, but up to 30 percent of people experience gastrointestinal effects, such as nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting.

    Australian physician and board-certified nutritionist Dr. Peter Brukner told The Epoch Times via email that people with the following conditions or risk factors should avoid metformin:

    • Kidney problems: The kidneys remove metformin from the body, so the medication is not eliminated properly if they are not working well. This can cause lactic acidosis, a complication where the blood pH drops and becomes acidic, causing severe illness.

    • Liver problems: The liver also has a job in handling metformin. Liver disease puts a person at risk of lactic acidosis.

    • Breathing problems or heart issues: A person with severe breathing problems or heart issues might not get enough oxygen. This, too, can make them more likely to develop lactic acidosis.

    • History of lactose acidosis: If someone has experienced lactic acidosis before, it is a good idea not to take metformin because the problem may come back.

    • Pregnant or breastfeeding women: Metformin is not always suggested for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding since its impact on the baby is not entirely known. Doctors often seek safer choices in such situations.

    • Certain medications: Some medications do not go well with metformin and can create problems. These include those that raise the risk of lactic acidosis, such as bupropion, carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, and cephalexin and medications that enhance its blood sugar-lowering effect, such as salicylates and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Individuals should inform their doctor about all the medications they use to avoid drug interactions.

    Anyone desiring to take metformin with one of these conditions should discuss it with their doctor, Brukner advises.

    Risk Versus Benefit

    While further research is needed, metformin’s uses for disease prevention may be valid. However, doctors must weigh the benefits against the risks for each individual. In cases where a person is highly likely to develop a particular condition, the benefits may exceed the risks.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 22:10

  • Did The Latest BRICS Summit Achieve Anything Of Tangible Significance At All?
    Did The Latest BRICS Summit Achieve Anything Of Tangible Significance At All?

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

    Over a week has passed since the latest BRICS Summit in Kazan so it’s possible to assess what exactly it achieved now that the dust has settled. The primary takeaway is the Kazan Declaration, which Director General of the prestigious Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) Andrey Kortunov described as “a manifesto for the new world order”. His praise shouldn’t be taken lightly since he’s an archetypical realist who also earlier tempered expectations about what BRICS was capable of agreeing to.

    Titled “What BRICS Cannot and What It Can Deliver”, Kortunov explained that: “BRICS cannot become a global economic integration project”; BRICS will not turn into a multilateral political or security alliance of an anti-Western nature”; BRICS is not likely to contribute a lot to resolving disputes between its members or disputes between its members and third parties”; and “BRICS will never become an analogue to G7.”

    He then juxtaposed these assessments with his expectations that “BRICS can promote trade and investments among its members, as well as contribute to economic and social development of these members”; “BRICS could help to shape common non-Western approaches to global problems”; “BRICS is capable of contributing to the dialogue of civilizations”; and “BRICS can become an important source of ideas and proposals for UN, G20 and other universal bodies.”

    This background places his description from the introduction into context, which will now be elaborated on. According to Kortunov, “For the first time in BRICS’ history, the Declaration sets out in detail the group’s shared vision of the current state of the international system, the common or overlapping approaches to the fundamental global problems of our time and to acute regional crises, and the contours of a desirable and achievable world order as the members of the group currently see it.”

    He then immediately added that “While the document does not provide specific timetables for individual tasks or roadmaps for specific areas of work, it does cover a number of key objectives that the group should or could pursue over the next few years.” In his assessment, “there is a clear balance between the security and development agendas”, which he considers to be a deliberate choice “to maintain its very broad mandate” instead of focusing on purely economic and financial affairs.

    He thus surmised that “BRICS intends to position itself as a multitasking laboratory of global governance, where new algorithms of multilateral cooperation and innovative models for solving the world’s major economic and political problems can be tested, including trade, finance and strategic stability.” To that end, BRICS is balancing between reforming the Western-centric world order and creating alternative institutions, and it’s the latter which excites the group’s enthusiasts the most.

    Before proceeding, however, it’s important to clarify a few matters. Putin declared prior to the summit that a common BRICS currency isn’t currently being considered and then he said during the event that Russia isn’t fighting against the dollar. Kremlin spokesman Peskov later added that BRICS as a whole isn’t trying to defeat the dollar either and that their financial messaging service won’t be an alternative to SWIFT. These policy reminders bring the analysis around to discussing the group’s three main initiatives.

    Sputnik published a handy guide here about BRICS Bridge, BRICS Clear, and BRICS Pay, which are correspondingly a financial messaging service, an independent blockchain-based depository system, and a cashless payment service. As was earlier written, they don’t aim to replace their Western antecedents but simply to create alternatives for others to use in order to hedge against the risk of the West one day weaponizing these existing platforms against them like they did against Russia from 2022 onward.

    None of them have yet to be rolled out, but progress was made on their creation and eventual implementation during the summit. The same goes for Russia’s proposals to set up grain and precious metals exchanges, which could in theory help form the foundation for a new currency or at least a common unit of account that some have simply called “the unit”. This could consist of a combination of commodities and a basket of members’ currencies, but it’ll likely take years to agree upon, if ever.

    Much more successful was BRICS’ bestowing of partnership status on around a dozen countries, though no official list has yet to be published, but some countries like Cuba already celebrated receiving this status while others like Venezuela were upset that they didn’t get it (in this case due to Brazil’s veto). Even so, it was explained last month that “BRICS Membership Or Lack Thereof Isn’t Actually That Big Of A Deal”, namely because any country can voluntarily coordinate their financial policies with BRICS.

    In other words, while this distinction is prestigious and being snubbed like Venezuela was by Brazil is thus a deep insult, it doesn’t really matter whether any country participates in discussions on financial multipolarity processes as an official member, observers as a partner, or hears about the outcome afterwards. All cooperation is voluntary so anyone – be they a member, partner, or non-associate – can either implement BRICS’ proposals or decline if they feel that they don’t meet their national interests.

    Seeing as how one’s ties with BRICS therefore don’t really matter either way, the group’s partnership expansion is thus purely symbolic, which means that nothing of tangible significance was agreed to during last week’s summit. The same came be said about every prior summit apart from the Fortaleza one in 2014 where members agreed to create the New Development Bank (NDB), which is the only tangible manifestation of BRICS’ efforts to create alternative institutions, but it’s also clearly imperfect.

    NDB President Dilma Rousseff confirmed in July 2023 that “The NDB reiterated that it is not planning new projects in Russia and operates in compliance with applicable restrictions on international financial and capital markets.” Simply put, the NDB that Russia itself co-founded complies with the US’ sanctions against it, thus making this less of a real alternative to Western institutions and more of a complement. That might also have to do with China, where it’s based, complying with most Western sanctions.

    “Russia & China’s US-Provoked Payment Problems Caught Most BRICS Enthusiasts By Surprise” after RT revealed the extent of these long-running challenges in early September here once they began to reach critical proportions following the latest US pressure on China at the time. Although India is reportedly defying these restrictions and is on pace to become the world’s third-largest economy by 2030, without China doing the same, BRICS as a whole will struggle to create truly alternative institutions.

    China has been more cautious about provoking the US’ threatened secondary sanctions than India due to it being considered by the US to be a systemic rival, the perception of which it doesn’t want to inadvertently confirm, hence why it’s complied with so many of the sanctions so far. In fact, Russia’s Special Presidential Representative for SCO Affairs Bakhtiyor Khakimov revealed last week that his country can’t even pay its dues because the bank is located in China and they also only use dollars.

    If the political will was present, then China would have devised a workaround by now instead of dragging the issue on for so long that Khakimov felt compelled to complain to the public about it, which just goes to show how strictly China is complying with the sanctions inside BRICS and even the SCO. To be sure, bilateral trade continues to grow so some alternative channels have been created, but they’re seemingly segmented based on industry (ex: energy, tech) and don’t facilitate payments to others like the NDB.

    Reflecting on everything that was shared, both Kortunov’s insight and that which followed, the latest BRICS Summit was symbolic just like every prior one apart from 2014’s that led to the creation of the clearly imperfect NDB. BRICS’ purely voluntary nature means that it’ll never become what its enthusiasts expect since there are too many asymmetries between its members. There’s also no realistic chance of BRICS making compliance with its proposals mandatory either since that would lead to its dissolution.

    These observations greatly limit what BRICS could foreseeably achieve, but they don’t rule out the creation of more alternative institutions like those represented by BRICS Bridge, BRICS Clear, and BRICS Pay. Grain and precious metals exchanges are also possible, but in those cases, only on the basis of minilaterals within BRICS that are then given the group’s branding after everyone else agrees. A common BRICS currency or a common unit of account is a much longer-term goal that’s unobtainable for now.

    The disappointing precedent established by the NDB’s compliance with US sanctions makes one worry about just how much of a true alternative the abovementioned institutions that Russia seeks to also co-found will be. There’s no doubt that Russia learned from that experience so nobody should assume that it already invested the time and resources required for creating these new institutions without first devising a way to prevent them from sanctioning it too, but it remains to be seen how this will work.

    The conclusion is that it’s a lot easier to talk about creating truly alternative institutions than actually doing so, which means that BRICS will likely just remain a talking club, or a “multitasking laboratory of global governance” as Kortunov diplomatically described it. That’s not to downplay the group’s role since it’s important for major and developing non-Western countries to discuss pressing issues of the evolving world order, especially economic-financial ones, but that’s not the same as what enthusiasts expected.

    At the end of the day, the Alt-Media Community went overboard hyping up BRICS and the latest Kazan Summit, only for nothing of tangible significance to emerge from the first since 2014’s decision to create the clearly imperfect NDB that later sanctioned Russia while the second had no tangible outcome at all. The latter did indeed lay the basis for creating more alternative institutions, although it’s unclear when they’ll be unveiled and how Russia will ensure that they don’t sanction it like the NDB ended up doing.

    The Kazan Summit therefore wasn’t a failure, and in fact, it succeeded in its only realistic goal all along of gathering its members and partners together to discuss ways to voluntarily accelerate financial multipolarity processes such as through the increased use of national currencies. The outcome was always going to be more symbolic than tangible due to the group’s purely voluntary nature, though some observers had false expectations and thus feel bitter, but now they know what BRICS is really about.  

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 21:45

  • Mapping America's Wine Consumption By State
    Mapping America’s Wine Consumption By State

    From coast to coast, wine is often seen as a staple on tables across the U.S, with certain regions raising their glasses a little more often.

    From California’s Napa Valley to New York’s Finger Lakes, the U.S. is home to several world-renowned wine regions, and ranked third in Forbes’ list of top 10 countries for wine lovers.

    This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Kayla Zhu, visualizes the annual per capita ethanol consumption of wine in gallons in 2022, by state.

    The data comes from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), which measures alcohol consumption in ethanol volume.

    For reference, the average bottle of wine (750 mL, 12.9% ABV) contains 0.0256 gallons of ethanol.

    Consumption figures only include residents age 14 or older, and is based on alcoholic beverage sales data collected by the Alcohol Epidemiologic Data System (AEDS), the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association, and from various reports produced by beverage industry sources.

    Which States Consume the Most Wine?

    Below, we show the per capita ethanol consumption in gallons of wine for each state.

    State Per capita ethanol consumption in gallons of wine
    District of Columbia 1.05
    New Hampshire 0.8
    Vermont 0.72
    Delaware 0.68
    California 0.62
    Hawaii 0.58
    Florida 0.57
    Massachusetts 0.57
    Nevada 0.57
    Oregon 0.57
    Alaska 0.53
    Connecticut 0.53
    Rhode Island 0.52
    New Jersey 0.51
    Virginia 0.51
    Montana 0.5
    North Carolina 0.49
    Washington 0.49
    Illinois 0.48
    Colorado 0.47
    New York 0.46
    Maine 0.42
    Michigan 0.39
    Minnesota 0.39
    Wisconsin 0.39
    Arizona 0.38
    Indiana 0.36
    Missouri 0.35
    Maryland 0.34
    Tennessee 0.34
    Louisiana 0.33
    Texas 0.33
    North Dakota 0.31
    Ohio 0.31
    New Mexico 0.3
    Pennsylvania 0.3
    Idaho 0.29
    Wyoming 0.29
    Georgia 0.25
    Alabama 0.24
    South Carolina 0.24
    Arkansas 0.23
    Iowa 0.22
    Kentucky 0.22
    Nebraska 0.21
    South Dakota 0.21
    Mississippi 0.19
    Oklahoma 0.18
    Utah 0.17
    Kansas 0.15
    West Virginia 0.11

    The average annual per capita ethanol consumption from wine in the U.S. is 0.42 gallons, which is equivalent to about 16.4 bottles of wine.

    Overall wine consumption in the U.S. has been on the decline in the past few years, according to reports by Silicon Valley Bank.

    Wine sales and tasting room visitations both dropped for the second straight year, and as of 2024, an oversupply of planted vineyards may lead to discounting and price reduction.

    In 2022, D.C. residents had the highest per capita wine consumption in the U.S., with an annual average of 1.05 gallons of ethanol from wine, or 41 bottles of wine.

    New Hampshire’s lack of state sales tax makes alcohol, including wine, significantly cheaper than in neighboring states, which likely drives higher wine purchases and consumption as residents from nearby areas cross state lines to take advantage of the lower prices.

    To learn more about alcohol consumption in the U.S., check out this graphic that shows beer consumption by U.S. state.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 21:20

  • WHO: Global Tuberculosis Cases Hit Highest Number Since Monitoring Began In 1995
    WHO: Global Tuberculosis Cases Hit Highest Number Since Monitoring Began In 1995

    Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

    New cases of tuberculosis globally reached a record high in 2023, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

    Roughly 8.2 million individuals were newly diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) last year, which is the highest number since the organization began monitoring the disease in 1995, the WHO said in an Oct. 29 statement.

    “This represents a notable increase from 7.5 million reported in 2022, placing TB again as the leading infectious disease killer in 2023, surpassing COVID-19,” the WHO stated.

    TB caused an estimated 1.25 million deaths last year, according to an Oct. 29 WHO report.

    The total number of people falling ill with tuberculosis has been rising since 2021, the report said. Last year, 10.8 million individuals contracted the disease, a small increase from 10.7 million in the previous year, but much higher than the 10.1 million in 2020.

    The WHO noted that most of the increase in TB cases between 2022 and 2023 reflected population growth. The rate of incidence largely remained similar in both years.

    Just five nations accounted for 56 percent of new annual tuberculosis cases—India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, and Pakistan.

    Dr. Tereza Kasaeva, director of the organization’s Global Tuberculosis Program, called the numbers a “sobering reality,” stressing the need for collective action to deal with the issue. There is an “urgent need to tackle drug-resistant tuberculosis, a significant driver of antimicrobial resistance.”

    “Reductions in the number of deaths from TB since 2022 and the slowing increase in the TB incidence rate are the result of substantial post-COVID recovery in TB diagnosis and treatment,” the report said.

    The WHO noted that a key barrier to plugging diagnostic and treatment gaps among TB-affected individuals is the financial costs. Roughly 50 percent of individuals face medical costs that are more than 20 percent of their annual incomes, which the WHO called “catastrophic.”

    “The fact that TB still kills and sickens so many people is an outrage when we have the tools to prevent it, detect it, and treat it,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

    US Tuberculosis Situation

    According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were 8,331 reported tuberculosis cases in the country in 2022. The agency further estimated that up to 13 million individuals in the United States could be living with latent or inactive infection.

    “During 2020, TB case counts and incidence rates declined substantially, likely because of factors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, TB case counts and incidence partially rebounded, but remained lower compared with 2019,” the agency said.

    “In 2022, reported TB cases and incidence rates increased for the second year in a row, but remained lower compared with 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

    The CDC pointed to birth outside the United States as a “key risk factor” for tuberculosis. Incidence rate among non-U.S.-born individuals was 17.1 times higher compared to those born in the country.

    While several types of bacteria can cause TB, the majority of American cases are from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the agency noted.

    Symptoms include a cough that lasts for three weeks or longer, weakness or fatigue, coughing up blood, loss of appetite, fever, chills, and chest pain. The CDC warns that active TB can be fatal without proper treatment.

    In April, Chicago’s Health Department revealed that some of the illegal immigrants who had recently entered the city had tuberculosis. The agency estimated that 10–20 percent of people who come from Central and South America already have latent tuberculosis.

    California issued a health advisory in April, warning about a “substantial increase” in TB cases in the state. In 2023, California reported 2,100 tuberculosis infections, up 15 percent from the previous year.

    In many cases, the individuals had latent TB before the disease became active, by which time it had spread to other individuals.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 20:55

  • BlackRock Reportedly Uses TikTok Influencers At ETF Launch Party
    BlackRock Reportedly Uses TikTok Influencers At ETF Launch Party

    Larry Fink’s BlackRock appears to have used a PR agency to tap TikTok influencers for a launch event in New York City to promote a new exchange-traded fund focused on the top 20 US stocks. 

    According to TikTok influencer Piper Cassidy Phillips, she and other influencers were invited “to an influencer event with BlackRock” earlier this week. They were invited to a wine bar in the West Village. 

    Phillips said this was the first time she had seen a financial institution inviting influencers to an event to promote an ETF product. She added that Fink’s BlackRock worked with “a huge PR agency” to put on the event. 

    Phillips discussed the iShares Top 20 US Stocks ETF (TOPT) in the video, which is focused on the 20 largest US stocks by market capitalization. 

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

    Many of Phillips’ followers on the Chinese social media platform were upset that BlackRock used influencers to promote financial products to retail investors.

    “FINRA is gonna have a field day with this one,” one TikToker wrote. 

    X users respond…

    Here’s where we are in the cycle. 

    “Selling your soul to BlackRock for a couple bucks,” another TikTok said. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 20:30

  • The Illusion Of Growth: How Inflation Skews Our Perception Of The Stock Market
    The Illusion Of Growth: How Inflation Skews Our Perception Of The Stock Market

    Authored by Alexander Frei via The Epoch Times,

    Americans can readily see the effects of record-high inflation every time they shop. Prices have soared, from the grocery store to the gas pumps. Although inflation has cooled, families are still feeling the pinch.

    And the harm doesn’t end there: Inflation also is making stock markets appear stronger than they really are and cutting into returns for everyone, including those with retirement accounts.

    We seldom hear about that last point. When media outlets discuss the latest inflation rate, they typically highlight the average annual percentage change in the consumer price index. The CPI tracks a basketful of goods, including housing, food, energy, insurance, and more, measuring the average price increases of these items over time.

    From 2016 to 2020, the inflation rate averaged 1.9 percent, which resulted in a cumulative price increase of about 7.7 percent over four years. The Federal Reserve’s target rate—about 2 percent—typically goes unnoticed by consumers, as wages tend to rise at a similar pace.

    But from 2021 to the present, the inflation rate has averaged 4.9 percent, leading to a cumulative price increase of 19.6 percent. At these elevated levels, wages struggle to keep up, making inflation more noticeable for consumers. A recent poll revealed that 63 percent of voters say they believe the U.S. economy is on the wrong track and 62 percent characterize it as weak.

    Yet despite this negative sentiment, the stock market appears to be booming. On Oct. 21, the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 hit all-time highs.

    However, these indexes alone don’t tell the full story.

    Inflation can distort how we perceive market gains. Although it may appear that investments in the stock market are yielding record-breaking returns, these returns are more moderate once they’re adjusted for inflation.

    In short, inflation not only hurts consumers, it hurts investors—which includes most Americans. This hidden tax on savings and investments quietly eats away at real profits, leaving Americans with far less purchasing power than it appears on the surface.

    To estimate how this would affect someone who invested in the stock market in January 2021, you compare the Dow Jones Industrial Average with its inflation-adjusted counterpart. Although the nominal stock market gains since 2021 show an increase of 39 percent, this growth shrinks to just 15 percent when adjusted for inflation.

    Inflation, often overlooked in stock market discussions, has a tangible impact on investment returns. Investors who focus solely on nominal gains without considering inflation may develop a false sense of optimism about their portfolio’s performance.

    So how can inflation have such a notable effect?

    In simple terms, as prices rise, even significant returns lose their purchasing power. More money is required to buy the same goods and services, eroding the real value of one’s gains. As everything becomes more expensive, higher earnings or investment returns don’t stretch as far, making it harder to keep up with the true cost of living.

    For comparison, one can track the average returns starting from 2016 to 2020. During this period, both the Dow and the inflation-adjusted Dow are much closer together, suggesting that inflation had a lesser effect on eroding profits. Indeed, despite the COVID-19 shock, the inflation-adjusted Dow rose by approximately 65 percent while the non-adjusted Dow increased by 81 percent.

    Inflation is not just a consumer issue—it affects everyone, from families trying to make ends meet to investors on Wall Street. The disconnect between nominal market gains and their inflation-adjusted counterparts helps explain why many Americans, despite a seemingly booming stock market, voice concerns about the economy.

    This illusion of growth highlights the need for a sharper focus on controlling inflation. Reducing wasteful government spending and bringing down inflation is essential not only to preserve the real value of investments, but to ensure that economic prosperity is felt across all levels of society.

    Reprinted by permission from The Daily Signal, a publication of The Heritage Foundation.

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 20:05

  • "Fraudulent" Mail Ballot Request Forms Found In Another Pennsylvania County, District Attorney Says
    “Fraudulent” Mail Ballot Request Forms Found In Another Pennsylvania County, District Attorney Says

    Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

    Officials in Pennsylvania’s Monroe County announced this week that they discovered mail ballot request forms in the county that were found to be fraudulent.

    Monroe County District Attorney Mike Mancuso wrote on social media that after a regular review of mail-in ballot requests and voter registration request forms, the Monroe County Board of Elections found “approximately 30 irregular forms,” which were then segregated.

    “Several of the Voter Registration Applications and Mail in Ballot Request forms have been found to be fraudulent as they were not authorized by the persons named as applicants,” he said on Tuesday, noting that the named applicant in one instance “is in fact deceased.”

    The fraudulent registration forms were traced to a specific individual and a company, Field and Media Corps, an Arizona-based organization and subsidiary of Fieldcorps working out of Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County.

    The company “in turn was responsible for submitting the forms in question to county officials,” the district attorney’s office said.

    “The broader investigation continues with reference to Fieldcorp’s involvement. Our office is in regular contact and working with investigators from the Attorney General’s Office as well as others.”

    The company is a consulting firm that specializes in media and field work for its clients, its website shows. It also helps with voter registration drives, phone banking, and text campaigns, it adds.

    Officials in Pennsylvania have said that Field and Media Corps, also called Field+Media Corps, was linked to voter registration forms and mail ballot applications that are being investigated in York and Lancaster counties.

    Field and Media Corps has also been linked to voter registration forms and mail-in ballot applications that are being looked at by York County officials, according to a report by Harrisburg TV station FOX43.

    The Epoch Times contacted Field and Media Corps for comment on Thursday but received no response by publication time.

    The company released a statement to a local news outlet, the Allentown Morning Call, that it attempted to contact York County and will speak to officials in Monroe County.

    “We are proud of our work to help expand access to voting through our nonpartisan voter registration program. We have not been contacted by election officials in PA counties and we have no additional information on the alleged problematic registration forms,” the company said in a statement.

    “We would hope that if Field+Media Corps were the subject of any active investigation, that we would be proactively contacted by the appropriate officials. If we are contacted, we will work with local officials to help resolve any discrepancies to allow eligible people to vote.”

    For the 2024 election, Pennsylvania is considered a key battleground state that could determine who wins the presidential contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. It is one of the most closely observed states and was the subject of considerable litigation in the 2020 election.

    New Legal Challenges

    The Pennsylvania Democratic Party submitted a lawsuit on Wednesday in Pennsylvania’s Erie County arguing that a number of voters have not received a mail-in ballot ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

    In their lawsuit, Democrats alleged that between 10,000 and 20,000 voters who requested the mail ballots “have not received or submitted such ballots” to date and that the return rate for mail ballots in the county is 15 percentage points below Pennsylvania’s mail-ballot average.

    Some 552 voters, the lawsuit also alleged, contacted a hotline that was set up by the Democratic Party in Erie County because they received “an incorrect mail-in ballot or have yet to receive any mail-in ballot whatsoever.”

    Erie County’s election board released a statement on Tuesday saying it was aware of the issue and that voters haven’t received mail-in ballots after they requested them. But the board did not disclose why the mail ballots weren’t sent out.

    “The Board has been working diligently with the Voter Registration Department, the Pennsylvania Department of State, and the United States Post Office to determine the origin and scope of this matter,” the statement said.

    A judge this week sided with Trump’s campaign and Republicans by agreeing to extend the in-person voting option in Bucks County, a suburb of Philadelphia that saw long lines this week at early polling sites.

    Judge Jeffrey Trauger wrote in a one-page order that Bucks County voters who want to apply for an early mail ballot now have until Friday, Nov. 1.

    The lawsuit sought a one-day extension, through Wednesday at 5 p.m., for Bucks County voters to apply in person for a mail-in ballot, a method referred to as on-demand mail voting in Pennsylvania. The judge’s order permits applications through the close of business on Friday.

    “Today’s ruling really is kind of a victory for making sure Pennsylvanians are going to have a secure and orderly process,” said Bill McGinley, an attorney for the Republican National Committee and Trump campaign.

    Pennsylvania does not allow early voting on voting machines in polling places, as some states do. A RealClearPolitics aggregate of recent polls shows Trump with a 0.7 percent lead over Harris in the state, which has 19 electoral votes.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 19:40

  • They're Doing What They're Accusing Us Of Doing…
    They’re Doing What They’re Accusing Us Of Doing…

    Authored by Kevin Finn via AmericanThinker.com,

    Earlier on, I argued why I think it’s useful to debate Leftists online, knowing that it’s unlikely they” change their minds on anything.

    It’s good practice as it forces us to learn their arguments and how to counter them, and there are usually others silently following along who can be convinced.

    But another Leftist tactic is psychological projection, which is ascribing to another person one’s own feelings, thoughts, or attitudes.

    Projection is used to relieve a sense of guilt or other unpleasant feeling. Blaming your own problems on someone else seems to be de rigueur in our society of late.

    It’s worth noting that there is a great deal of overlap between lying and projection.

    In some cases the circles on the Venn diagram would exactly coincide.

    Accusations of hypocrisy are also common and it’s worth pointing out the difference between it and projection.

    In brief, hypocrisy reflects on one’s own behavior while projection concerns oneself and one’s behavior towards others.

    It would be hypocritical for person (A) who frequently rolls past stop signs to say that person (B) should always observe stop signs. It would be projection for person (A) to silently assume person (B) rolls past stop signs. It would be both hypocritical and projection for person (A) to falsely accuse person (B) of rolling past stop signs.

    In today’s heated socio-political climate I contend that we’re seeing both hypocrisy and projection being utilized on a daily basis. How many times have we heard a Leftist claim that Donald Trump is “a threat to our democracy”?

    The better question to ask is, “Who on the Left has not made that claim?”

    The people attesting to this have been noticeably silent on the case of the FBI lying to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in their quest for surveillance warrants on Carter Page.

    How much of a threat to democracy was it to conduct what amounts to a coup to remove a sitting president in the final months of his campaign and replace him with someone who never earned a single primary vote? Has that ever happened before in America?

    Practically every outlet in the Democrat Media Industrial Complex (DMIC) has accused Trump of being an authoritarian, a tyrant and a dictator. They cite examples such as President Trump is “tearing up trade deals and stepping back from global institutions.” The Paris climate greement placed unfair restrictions on Americans, even while “U.S. emissions of criteria air pollutants that impact human health and the environment declined by 74% between 1970 and 2018.”

    President Trump cancelled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran which enriched the regime while doing little to nothing to curb their nuclear ambitions.

    The people who decried these decisions either cheered or were silent when President Biden transferred student loan obligations to the taxpayers despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that it was unconstitutional to do so.

    Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senators Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris supported the impeachment of President Trump for his telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with “no one is above the law.”

    When the transcript of that phone call was released, it was found that President Trump did not, in fact threaten to withhold military aid in exchange for an investigation into Burisma Holdings. At the time, Burisma was paying Hunter Biden $85k/month for … what, his expertise in the extraction, processing, sale and distribution of petroleum products? Joe Biden is on video bragging about withholding U.S. aid to Ukraine unless they fired the prosecutor who was investigating Burisma Holdings.

    Response from the Left? Crickets.

    The same Leftists who pilloried President Trump for an innocent phone call to President Zelensky gave a pass to then Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton when she illegally used private electronic devices to send and receive classified information, and then destroyed both the messages and the devices after they were subpoenaed by Congress.

    The reason for the pass? They claimed she didn’t intend to do anything wrong and “Because the government is awash in secrets, they are regularly mishandled unintentionally.” In other words, “She didn’t mean any harm and besides, everybody else is doing it!”

    I wonder how often Secretary of State Clinton emailed President Obama on one of those illegal devices. All emails to the POTUS must be cleared through the White House Communications Agency (WHCA). Ms. Clinton was not using a .gov email address, which means that WHCA and President Obama knew that she was using unauthorized devices. I suspect that when James Comey said that: “No reasonable prosecutor would indict Secretary Clinton” that he was protecting Obama, and not Ms. Clinton.

    Those are just a few of the more egregious examples of Leftists employing projection against their opponents in order to distract from their own nefarious actions. The fact that Leftists were engaging in the same, or worse actions that they were falsely accusing Donald Trump and others of committing reveals an entrée of Projection with a side order of Hypocrisy. There are many, many more examples.

    For example, Democrats have claimed that:

    • – Republicans suppress voters while Democrats founded the KKK, enacted Jim Crow Laws and, more recently committed so many suspicious actions during the 2020 and 2022 elections that Americans have lost faith in our elections.

    • – Republicans carried out an insurrection while Leftists rioted nation-wide in 2020.

    • – Republicans are Nazis while Democrats imprison grandmothers who pray in front of abortion clinics.

    • – President Trump is Putin’s stooge while the Biden family takes cash from Russia, China and Ukraine.

    In all of these examples the accusations against Republicans are false (lies) while Democrats have engaged in those or similar behaviors themselves.

    So where do we go from here? Speaking for myself, whenever I come across a claim against conservatives or Republicans from Leftists or Democrats I immediately assume that not only is the opposite true, but that their accusation is probably more accurately applied to the Left. This means that to determine the truth I need to investigate the story and find out what isn’t being told. I spend a great deal of time every day sifting through news stories on various news sites. I no longer get my news from the television or print media. This is what I think we all need to do in order to be properly informed.

    “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” –author unknown

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 19:15

  • Nvidia To Replace Intel In The Dow Jones Industrial Average; Stock Jumps
    Nvidia To Replace Intel In The Dow Jones Industrial Average; Stock Jumps

    Just when it seemed that Nvidia’s recent record rally was in danger of fizzling, a Deus Ex Machina arrived late on Friday when the determinations committee of S&P Dow Jones Indices, the owner of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, announced that Nvidia would replace Intel on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (which has clearly become anything but), a shakeup to the blue-chip index that replaces a flagging semiconductor company with the primary vendor of GPUs for AI. Separately, Sherwin Williams will unironically replace one-time chemical giant (and Dow Jones eponym), Dow, Inc, in the average as well. The switch will take place on Nov. 8.

    Intel shares were down 1% in extended trading on Friday. Nvidia shares rose 1%.

    Nvidia shares have climbed over 180% so far in 2024 as investors bet the company has emerged as the primary beneficiary of the AI boom. The fast rise of Nvidia on the back of its data center AI processors has led it to be one of only a handful of companies with a market cap over $3 trillion, alongside Microsoft and Apple, both of which are already included in the DJIA.

    Over the last five years, NVDA and The Dow look a little different but we are sure it will fit right in…

    On the other hand, Intel shares have tumbled more than 50% so far this year as the company struggles with manufacturing challenges, new competition for its central processors, and the sad reality that this once glorious chipmaker has missed out on the AI trend.

    The Dow contains 30 components and is weighted by the share price of the individual stocks instead of the companies total market value. Nvidia put itself in better position in May, when the company announced a 10-for-1 stock split. While doing nothing to its market cap, the move slashed the price of each share by 90%, allowing it to become a part of the Dow without having too heavy a weighting.

    The switch is the first change to the index since February, when Amazon replaced Walgreens Boots Alliance. Over the years, the industrial-heavy Dow has been playing catch up and gaining exposure to the largest technology companies. With the addition of Nvidia, four of the six trillion-dollar tech companies are now in the index. The two not in the index are Alphabet and Meta.

    The 30 companies that make up the DJIA currently are shown below:

    • 3M
    • American Express
    • Amgen
    • Amazon
    • Apple
    • Boeing
    • Caterpillar
    • Chevron
    • Cisco
    • Coca-Cola
    • Disney
    • Dow
    • Goldman Sachs
    • Home Depot
    • Honeywell
    • IBM
    • Intel
    • Johnson & Johnson
    • JPMorgan Chase
    • McDonald’s
    • Merck
    • Microsoft
    • Nike
    • Procter & Gamble
    • Salesforce
    • Travelers
    • UnitedHealth Group
    • Verizon
    • Visa
    • Walmart

    Some will point out that such Dow Jones moves tend to be a bottom or top tick opportunity, and point to the August 2020 switch in the Dow Jones when Salesforce replaced Exxon. Since then XOM has more than doubled, while CRM is unchanged.

    Will the Dow Jones also top-tick Nvidia this time, while unleashing a new golden age for Intel?

     

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 18:50

  • "I Was Wrong": CNN Panelist Retracts Trump-Cheney "Firing Squad" Propaganda
    “I Was Wrong”: CNN Panelist Retracts Trump-Cheney “Firing Squad” Propaganda

    Update (1836ET): After the MSM spent the day in histrionics peddling the falsehood that Trump said Liz Cheney should face a firing squad, – when he was simply calling her a chickenhawk – CNN panelist Jonah Goldberg offered a mea culpa, and has retracted his claim that Trump called for Cheney’s execution.

    “This morning on CNN I referred to Trump’s “rifles” quote as him advocating a ‘firing squad’ for Liz Cheney,” said Goldberg. “I was wrong to say he was calling for a firing squad execution. After I said that, my co-panelist, Brad Todd made the case that I was wrong.”

    “I let my disgust at Trump’s comments get the better of me as this was the first time I’d heard them.“

    Watch:

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    This is going to make the decision by Arizona attorney general Kris Mayes (D-ildo) to investigate Trump’s remarks look even more idiotic.

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

    Meanwhile the nevertrumps are fighting, with Joe Walsh of all people defending the former president.

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    *  *  *

    The left has fabricated a new hit on Donald Trump – suggesting that he said Liz Cheney should be executed after he clearly said she should fight in the wars she advocates for.

    While discussing Cheney with Tucker Carlson, Trump said:

    “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, ok? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.

    “You know they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying ‘oh gee, let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.”

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    Here’s Drudge:

    Here’s CNN:

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

    CNBC‘s Jim Cramer and Karl Quesadilla:

    Here’s Politico senior political columnist repeating the ‘firing squad’ lie (Jonathan you typically don’t give the condemned their own rifle in a firing squad situation):

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

    KamalaHQ seized and pounced:

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

    Anyone with an IQ north of double-digits sees this for what it is:

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

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

    Meanwhile…

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

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 18:37

  • Candace Owens Denied Australian Visa Amid Government Concerns Over 'Discord'
    Candace Owens Denied Australian Visa Amid Government Concerns Over ‘Discord’

    Authored by Monica O’Shea via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Prominent U.S. conservative commentator Candace Owens has disputed allegations that she would incite discord in Australia after the Albanese government rejected her visa application.

    Candace Owens speaks at the Young Women’s Leadership Summit at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas, on June 10, 2023. Bobby Sanchez/The Epoch Times

    Owens expressed concern about Palestine deaths and said the claims against her were “untrue” during a podcast to millions of online viewers.

    This comes after Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on Oct. 27 that “Australia’s national interest is served when Candace Owens is somewhere else.”

    “From downplaying the impact of the Holocaust with comments about Mengele through to claims that Muslims started slavery, Candace Owens has the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction,” he told reporters.

    In response, Owens expressed shock on her show, The Candace podcast, explaining that she found out about her visa cancellation at the “same time as the press.”

    “This is supposed to be a private application process, so unless I spoke about this, no one should have known about this, but they chose to leak this, which I think is absolutely stunning,” she said.

    “I am just very interested in what goes on in this country, which is supposed to be a free country, but I guess the immigration minister can unilaterally make this sort of decision.”

    She explained she had travelled all over the world, from China to Tokyo, Hungary, Croatia, Italy, and France, and had never been in any trouble.

    “And yet the reason that he gave to the public was because I had the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction … of course that’s not true,” she added.

    “I have no idea how you are alleging I am both anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic. Again all of this is just to try to present me as some sort of very scary person akin to Adolph Hitler.”

    Concerns About Palestine Deaths

    Owens, who has 5.8 million followers on X and 5.4 million followers on Instagram, said that people do not want her to get in front of an audience, adding that the “audience understands what the reason is.”

    She goes on to explain her concern about the ongoing violence in Gaza.

    “I am not comfortable with the amount of death that is taking place in Palestine. And that’s where I am at. I have made my bed, I have chosen to lie in it,” she said.

    “To me, I am not going to remove my humanity for money. It doesn’t work for me, it doesn’t work for me as a Christian.”

    Owens, 35, parted with the Daily Wire in March, and converted from Protestantism to Catholicism in April 2024. Her husband, George Farmer, is a devout Catholic.

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, Owens criticised Australia’s lockdown policies, calling the country’s response “totalitarian” and suggesting troops should be deployed to Australia.

    She also played a major role in opposing Black Lives Matter and co-founding Blexit, a movement that stands for “Black Exit” from victimhood mentality.

    Tickets Still Available Amid Potential Legal Action

    Tickets for the Candace Owens Live 2024 tour in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide are still available from $95 online for general admission. In Adelaide, a VIP Meet and Greet session at $295 per person is sold out.

    Multiple Australian ticket pages for the event confirm Owens is planning to file an appeal and will process a refund if this fails.

    “The Event Organiser and Candace Owens have confirmed they will be filing an appeal, and the case will be reviewed by a federal judge in the coming days,” the notice states.

    “While they are optimistic about a favourable outcome, should the appeal be denied and cancellation become necessary, we will promptly notify all ticket holders and begin processing refunds automatically on the organiser’s behalf. Thank you for your understanding.”

    On her X page, Owens shared a post by Australian political and economic commentator John Adams stating that an appeal would be filed against the decision of Minister Burke.

    “I wonder whether the Federal Court of Australia is brave enough to allow Australians to listen to a black Catholic woman and make up their own minds,” the post states.

    John Ruddick, NSW Libertarian Member of the Legislative Council, said Candace Owens should not be banned from Australia, explaining what anyone thinks of Candace Owens’ views should be immaterial.

    He said Australia should let everyone in to speak and then the Australian people can “weigh it up.”

    “In the age of the internet, it is absurd to try and prevent anyone’s views being heard,” Ruddick said.

    “It is counter-productive state-sponsored vindictiveness against certain views. As Martin Luther King taught us, let freedom reign … especially the freedom to share ideas that some politicians and bureaucrats think are dangerous.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 18:25

  • Joe Rogan Says He Gave Harris Campaign "Open Invitation", Offer Still Stands
    Joe Rogan Says He Gave Harris Campaign “Open Invitation”, Offer Still Stands

    Podcaster Joe Rogan said in an Oct. 30 episode of his show that he gave Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign an “open invitation” to sit down for an interview at any time.

    “I said anytime. I said if she’s done at 10, we’ll come back here at 10. I’ll do it at 9 in the morning, I’ll do it at 10 p.m. I’ll do it at midnight if she’s up, if she wants to, you know, drink a Red Bull,” he said, recalling what he told the campaign.

    Rogan’s show features around 14 million subscribers on Spotify, making it the top show on the platform, but it also generates significant traffic and engagement on YouTube.

    His interview with former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, released late last week, has garnered more than 41 million views on YouTube so far.

    While speaking to comedians Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster during episode 2220 of The Joe Rogan Experience…

    …Rogan said that Harris “actually reached out when she found out that [Trump] was coming on.”

    “So their camp reached out to me,” he said.

    “So I said, ‘Great, I would love to talk to her.’ But it was very difficult to tie it down. They wanted [me] to travel, and see, the thing is, if I go somewhere, then there’s going to be other people in the room. And they want to control a lot of things, I’m sure.”

    As The Epoch Times’ Jack Phillips reported, Harris was in Houston last week and held a rally there featuring an endorsement and speech from pop singer Beyoncé.

    In a social media post earlier this week, Rogan said that the Harris campaign had conditions for the Democratic presidential nominee to do the interview.

    The Epoch Times previously reached out to the campaign, which has not responded to Rogan’s remarks, for comment.

    “For the record, the Harris campaign has not passed on doing the podcast,” Rogan wrote in a social media post on Tuesday.

    “They offered a date for Tuesday, but I would have had to travel to her, and they only wanted to do an hour. I strongly feel the best way to do it is in the studio in Austin. My sincere wish is to just have a nice conversation and get to know her as a human being. I really hope we can make it happen.”

    During the episode with Kisin and Foster, Rogan also addressed speculation that he might be a covert Trump supporter.

    “Just because of my appearance, there’s always been this assumption that I’m some right-wing MAGA guy,” he said, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

    “I’m a politically homeless person for sure. You know, I always considered myself a left-wing person. I never thought I would ever vote right-wing, but then the tides of culture shifted in a very bizarre way. And it just made me, over time, much more aware of what this stuff is really all about.”

    Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), will also air on Rogan’s show after being interviewed at Rogan’s Austin studio on Wednesday.

    Both Trump and Harris have engaged in a flurry of campaigning as the race draws to a close. Both candidates have taken part in several podcasts ahead of the 2024 General Election as they attempt to reach new audiences.

    More than 60 million people have cast early ballots so far ahead of the Nov. 5 contest, according to data released by the University of Florida’s Election Lab.

    The Epoch Times contacted the Harris campaign for comment about Rogan’s claims but didn’t receive a reply by publication time.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 18:00

  • CNN Admits Signs Are There For A Second Trump Term
    CNN Admits Signs Are There For A Second Trump Term

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modenrity.news,

    CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten said Wednesday that there are clear signs that president Trump is on his way to winning the election.

    Enten noted that voter dissatisfaction with the course the country is on, combined with Joe Biden’s ongoing unpopularity, as well as high Republican registration numbers are all pointing to a Trump victory.

    “Just 28% of Americans, voters think the country is going in the right direction, is on the right track. And I want to put that into a historical perspective for you,” Enten began.

    He continued, “Okay, what’s the average percentage of the public that thinks that the country is on the right track when the incumbent party loses? It’s 25%.”

    “That 25% looks an awful bit like that 28% up there. It doesn’t look anything, anything like this 42% [average when the incumbent party won] doesn’t look anything like this 28%,” the analyst added.

    “So the bottom line is very few Americans think the country is on the right track at this particular point. It tracks much more with when the incumbent party loses than with [when] it wins,” Enten further highlighted.

    “In fact, I went back through history, there isn’t a single time in which 28% of the American public thinks the country is going on the right track in which the incumbent party actually won,” he further urged. 

    “They always lose when just 28% of the country believes that the country is on the right track,” Enten declared.

    He also pointed out that Republicans appear to be doing better than Democrats for registrations in key states.

    “Republicans are putting more Republicans in the electorate, the Democratic number versus the Republican number has shrunk,” he said.

    Enten concluded that “the bottom line is if Republicans win, come next week, Donald Trump wins comes next week, the signs all along will have been obvious… You can’t say you weren’t warned.”

    Meanwhile, a Harris campaign advisor was adamant in comments to CNN that Biden’s garbage remarks won’t make any difference, claiming “We won’t lose a single voter because of it.”

    That may be so, however some who were on the fence before might not appreciate being called “garbage” and stump for Trump.

    Indeed, as we highlighted, Trump has hit an all time high against Kamala Harris on the political betting platform Polymarket.

    Pollster Frank Luntz also adamantly told CNN that the “garbage” comment was a turning point which will have a “huge” effect on moving voters away from supporting Harris.

    *  *  *

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

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 17:40

  • North Korean Official In Moscow: US & S.Korea Plotting Nuclear Strike
    North Korean Official In Moscow: US & S.Korea Plotting Nuclear Strike

    There’s been more fallout in the wake of Thursday’s North Korean test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), widely described as registering the country’s longest ever flight time for a ballistic missile.

    First, South Korea has slapped new sanctions on over a dozen North Korean individuals and entities. Seoul has roundly condemned the launch. The US is also likely to ramp up its sanctions even further. 

    But to be expected, Kim Jong Un has hit back. He was cited in state KCNA as saying: “The new-type ICBM proved before the world that the hegemonic position we have secured in the development and manufacture of nuclear delivery means of the same kind is absolutely irreversible.”

    Pyongyang officials have since identified the massive rocket, which they dub “the world’s strongest strategic missile,” as a new Hwasong-19 ICBM. Given that nuclear warhead-capable ICBMs can reach several thousands of miles away, such a missile would have the capability of hitting the continental United States. And the timing has not been lost on anyone, as it was a mere days before the US presidential election.

    “It can be stored and moved anywhere, allowing for excellent mobility, stealth and survivability,” said Kim of the rocket. State media has subsequently released carefully edited, high quality footage of the ‘perfected’ missile launch, which has been widely circulating on Friday:

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

    “The increased length likely means a greater fuel capacity, which directly affects thrust and potentially increases range,” Kim added.

    And new statements from North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui suggest tensions with the West are higher than ever. She said from Moscow, where she is meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, that her country is coming under nuclear threat by the US and South Korea.

    She “accused the United States and South Korea of plotting a nuclear strike against her country,” Reuters reports Friday. “She did not provide evidence to back her assertion, but spoke of regular consultations between Washington and Seoul at which she alleged such plotting took place.”

    The top diplomat also pledged that North Korea will not stop helping Russia until it achieves ‘victory’ on the battlefield in Ukraine.

    Pyongyang and Moscow have over the past year been deepening their defense ties, having inked a new pact this past summer, and the Kremlin has cited this as the legal basis for North Korean troops being hosted in Russia.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 17:20

  • "The American System" Made America Great
    “The American System” Made America Great

    Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

    It’s hard to believe, but the presidential election is just days away. It’ll all come down to the key swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.

    It’s a tight race, although it appears to be breaking for Trump.

    The Democratic strategy is essentially to call Trump Hitler and a would-be dictator who would jail his political opponents (sound familiar?) and destroy democracy.

    Though they focus much more on Trump the man than his actual policies, it’s important to understand Trump’s position on tariffs, for example, because it would impact millions of Americans.

    Donald Trump recently did an interview with John Micklethwait, Bloomberg’s top editor and a former editor of The Economist.

    Micklethwait made the tired point that Trump’s tariffs would raise prices and be bad for Americans.

    The Argument for Free Trade

    Most of us have been taught that free trade is good and that tariffs are bad.

    And on the surface it certainly seems true. The theory of free trade based on comparative advantage was advocated by British economist David Ricardo in the early 19th century.

    Ricardo’s theory said that trading nations are endowed with attributes that give them a relative advantage in producing certain goods versus others.

    These attributes could consist of natural resources, climate, population, river systems, education, ports, financial capacity or any other factor of production. Nations should produce those goods as to which they have a natural advantage and trade with other nations for goods where the advantage was not so great.

    Countries should specialize in what they do best, and let others also specialize in what they do best. Then countries could simply trade the goods they make for the goods made by others.

    All sides would be better off because prices would be lower as a result of specialization in those goods where you have a natural advantage.

    It’s a nice theory often summed up in the idea that Tom Brady shouldn’t mow his own lawn because it makes more sense to pay a landscaper while he practices football.

    For example, if the U.K. had an advantage in textile production and Portugal had an advantage in wine production, then the U.K. and Portugal should trade wool for wine.

    Is Free Trade Everything It’s Cracked up to Be?

    But if the theory of comparative advantage were true, Japan would still be exporting tuna fish instead of cars, computers, TVs, steel and much more.

    The same can be said of the globalists’ view that capital should flow freely across borders. That might be advantageous in theory but market manipulation by central banks and rogue actors like Goldman Sachs and big hedge funds make it a treacherous proposition.

    The problem with this theory of comparative advantage is that the factors of production are not permanent and they are not immobile.

    If labor moves from the countryside to the city in China, then suddenly China has a comparative advantage in cheap labor. If finance capital moves from New York banks to direct foreign investment in Chinese factories, then China has the comparative advantage in capital also.

    Trump understands this, Micklethwait doesn’t. Trump didn’t just make polite conversation in the interview. He called out Micklethwait by saying, “It must be hard for you to spend 25 years talking about tariffs as being negative and then have somebody explain to you that you’re totally wrong.” Ouch!

    Tariffs Are as American as Apple Pie

    Micklethwait certainly isn’t alone. Listening to hysterical commentary from the mainstream media about Trump’s tariffs, one would think his policies were in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

    Nothing could be further from the truth. By advocating tariffs, Trump actually wants to return to what made America great in the first place.

    In fact, tariffs are as American as apple pie.

    From 1790–1962, the United States pursued high tariff policies under a program known as the American System.

    It was created by George Washington’s secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, who drafted a report to Congress called the Report on Manufactures presented in 1791. Hamilton proposed that in order to have a strong country, America needed a strong manufacturing base with jobs that taught skills and offered income security.

    To achieve this, Hamilton proposed subsidies to U.S. businesses so they could compete successfully against more established U.K. and European businesses.

    These subsidies might include grants of government land or rights of way, purchase orders from the government itself or outright payments. This was a mercantilist system that encouraged a trade surplus and the accumulation of gold reserves.

    175 Years of Prosperity

    Hamilton’s plan was later proposed on a broader scale by Kentucky Sen. Henry Clay. This new plan began with the Tariff of 1816. Later on, Abraham Lincoln adopted the American System as his platform in the election of 1860, and it became a bedrock principle of the new Republican Party.

    It was affirmed by William McKinley at the end of the 19th century and by Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s. The 19th and early 20th centuries were a heyday of the American System. This period was characterized by enormous economic growth and population expansion by the U.S.

    The American System was also accompanied mostly by low inflation or even deflation (which increases the purchasing power of everyday citizens) despite occasional financial panics and some inflation during the Civil War.

    The key takeaway is that America grew rich and powerful from 1787–1962, a period of 175 years, using tariffs, subsidies and other barriers to trade to nurture domestic industry and protect high-paying manufacturing jobs.

    The Triumph of Free Trade Doctrine

    But under the neo-liberal, globalist international order that prevailed in the decades after World War II, free trade doctrine supplanted the American System.

    Globalism requires free trade, open borders and free capital flows or as close as you can come. In theory, this allows for price discovery, lower costs and higher returns to capital.

    In reality, it causes lost jobs, lost competitiveness and lower wages, especially for Americans. U.S. industry was stripped bare and U.S. jobs were lost by the millions, with China being the main beneficiary.

    Globalists embrace what they call “encasement.” The idea is that national governments don’t matter. What does matter is that all global powers — democratic, communist, socialist, kleptocratic — play by the same supranational rules that encase the system of sovereigns.

    Free trade is part of that system (in reality, it’s not free trade but managed trade).

    Trump is rejecting the globalist playbook. He’s pursuing the same basic policies that predominated in the U.S. from George Washington through Dwight Eisenhower.

    He simply wants to return to the American System that once made America great.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 17:00

  • US Big Banks Suffer Biggest Deposit Outflow Since April… Until The Fed 'Adjusted' Them
    US Big Banks Suffer Biggest Deposit Outflow Since April… Until The Fed ‘Adjusted’ Them

    Money market funds saw yet another week of inflows (+$40BN), taking the total AUM to a new record high of $6.508 TN…

    Source: Bloomberg

    The inflow into MM comes as bank deposits (on a seasonally adjusted basis) dropped a modest $13BN to the week-ending 10/23…

    Source: Bloomberg

    But, on a non-seasonally-adjusted basis, total deposits plunged $133BN (the biggest weekly decline since April)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Excluding foreign deposits, it’s even uglier. On an NSA basis, US deposits plunged $131BN – the biggest weekly drop since April (Large banks -$97BN, Small banks -$34BN). But, by the magic of The Fed’s PhDs, the ‘seasonal adjusted’ domestic deposits fell just $3BN (Large banks +$8BN, Small banks -$11BN)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    This is the biggest Large bank deposit drop since May…

    Source: Bloomberg

    This should only be worrying if we see liquidity problems in the banking system starting to occur.

    Wait, what?

    Finally, something remains afoot in the financial plumbing world. SOFR-Swap Spreads are blowing out (signaling some credit/liquidity stress)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …and reverse repo usage is collapsing (liquidity needs?)

    Source: Bloomberg

    Is that why USA sovereign risk is blowing out?

    Source: Bloomberg

    Are they holding back a banking crisis for Trump’s victory?

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 16:40

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Nov 01

Today’s News 1st November 2024

  • State Department Threatens Georgia With 'Consequences' Amid Rigged Election Claims
    State Department Threatens Georgia With ‘Consequences’ Amid Rigged Election Claims

    Authored by Connor Freeman via The Libertarian Institute,

    The State Department and the European Union are demanding Tbilisi repeal “anti-democratic” legislation and investigate election “irregularities” respectively after the Georgian Dream Party won this weekend’s parliamentary elections. Georgian leaders including Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and President Salome Zourabichvili are at odds, with Zourabichvili accusing Kobakhidze’s party of winning a “total fraud” election.

    Per the official tally, Georgian Dream won 54% of the vote, with multiple opposition parties earning between 3-11%. Georgian Dream will form the country’s next government as they now hold a minimum of 90 out of the national parliament’s 150 seats. However, four opposition parties which favor integration with the EU are refusing to participate in the new legislature, deeming the election stolen, and accusing the ruling party of pushing Georgia towards a pro-Russia direction. President Zourabichvili called for protests and vowed she will not recognize the plebiscite’s results.

    Tens of thousands of Georgians protested for hours outside parliament on Monday night, the demonstrations reportedly ended with no plans for further action but dispersed peacefully. The Georgian government and electoral commission have dubbed the election free and fair.

    State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller threatened Georgia with “consequences” before adding his demands. Miller characterized the election as having taken place within an “environment shaped by the ruling party’s policies including misuse of public resources, vote buying and voter intimidation.”

    He made clear the path Georgia is taking does not bode well for its future in America’s orbit, “We encourage Georgia’s governing officials to consider the relationship they want with the Euro-Atlantic community rather than strengthening policies that are praised by authoritarians.”

    Finally Miller, speaking for a government which has extensively meddled in Georgian elections including staging a coup in the 2003 Rose Revolution, warned “We do not rule out further consequences if the Georgian government’s direction does not change.” He then insisted that Tbilisi begin “withdrawing and repealing anti-democratic legislation.”

    The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe praised Georgia’s voter participation, substantial presence of citizen and party observers, as well as the diversity of ballot choices during the election. OSCE observers “found the legal framework to be adequate for holding democratic elections.” Although they also accused the ruling party of exploiting an “already uneven playing field,” and claimed there were instances of intimidation, coercion, and pressure being put on voters including public sector employees.

    EU Council chief Charles Michel is calling on the relevant authorities in Georgia to “swiftly, transparently, and independently investigate and adjudicate electoral irregularities and allegations thereof.” He added, “These alleged irregularities must be seriously clarified and addressed.”

    Western governments are condemning Georgia’s ‘law on transparency of foreign influence,’ which requires agencies to register as “agents of foreign influence” if they are operating within Georgia and foreign sources account for over 20% of their funding. Georgia’s parliamentary speaker signed the bill into law after it was vetoed by President Zourabichvili earlier this year. The law operates similarly to the US Foreign Agents Registration Act.

    The West is also in an uproar against Georgian laws banning gender reassignment surgery, gay marriage, and so called LGBTQ “propaganda” including PRIDE-style events along with certain books and films. Although, polling shows significant public disapproval in Georgia of same-sex marriages.

    Last month, a senior US official told Voice of America, the American state-funded media outlet, that Washington is preparing sanctions on former Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream’s influential founder, over his opposition to Tbilisi joining NATO and the EU.

    An analysis by Ian Proud published by Responsible Statecraft makes the case that the ruling party’s victory can be explained not by election rigging but as a popular response to various economic and immigration crises.

    Proud notes the uneven trade relationship the Caucasian country maintains with the EU since signing the EU Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement ten years ago. EU states benefit from robust exports in Georgia while purchasing four times less Georgian imports. The trade balance is more even with the Eurasian States, although they too export 1.8 times more than they import.

    At the same time, the Washington-led proxy war with Moscow in Ukraine is both funded and championed by the EU. The war has caused an immigration crisis in Georgia with nearly 90,000 people emigrating from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine between 2022 and 2023. This has led to a surging unemployment rate of over 26%, while housing prices are up 35% and rent prices have risen as much as 50%.

    In 2008, at NATO’s Bucharest Summit, Brussels announced both Tbilisi and Kiev would one day join the Washington-led military bloc which has been mired in disastrous wars in the Balkans, North Africa, and Central Asia. The admission of both states to the alliance is viewed in the Kremlin as a major national security threat and provoked Russia’s invasions of both Georgia sixteen years ago and now Ukraine.

    As Scott Horton, the Libertarian Institute’s director, has detailed, the now jailed former president Mikheil Saakashvili, the victor of the US-backed Rose Revolution, “was incentivized to take bigger risks due to the Bucharest Declaration of America’s intent to bring them into the NATO alliance just four months before, U.S. military support and vague security assurances the Bush government had given his government that spring.

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

    Saakashvili launched an attack on the breakaway province of South Ossetia in the southern Caucuses Mountains, then enjoying full autonomy and protection by Russian peacekeepers under a deal that had been brokered by [the] European Union… The Russians, suffering casualties in the initial assault, quickly struck back, destroying Georgia’s invading force and securing South Ossetia’s independence from Georgian rule.”

    Barack Obama’s administration orchestrated a coup and overthrew the government in Kiev during the 2014 Maidan Revolution. Subsequently during the Donald Trump years, the White House armed Ukraine’s military, including Neo Nazi militias ingratiated in the National Guard. Concurrently, Kiev entrenched ties with US special operations forces and the CIA as it waged a war against ethnic Russian separatists in the Donbas region.

    Under the current White House, as tensions mounted over the Donbas, the erstwhile USSR state became a de facto NATO member as Washington eschewed diplomacy with the Kremlin, refusing to discuss rescinding Ukraine’s invitation for membership with the alliance, culminating in Russia’s 2022 invasion.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 11/01/2024 – 02:00

  • Chinese Hackers Compromised Multiple Canadian Government Networks For Years, Stole Info: Security Agency
    Chinese Hackers Compromised Multiple Canadian Government Networks For Years, Stole Info: Security Agency

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

    Cyber threat actors from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have been implicated in multiple breaches of networks associated with federal government agencies and departments, according to a report from the national cybersecurity agency.

    CSE chief Caroline Xavier appears at the Foreign Interference Commission in Ottawa on Sept. 26, 2024. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

    “Over the past four years, at least 20 networks associated with Government of Canada agencies and departments have been compromised by PRC cyber threat actors,” said the National Cyber Threat Assessment 2025-2026, released Oct. 30 by the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.

    The centre identifies China as the top threat actor targeting Canada, noting that its cyber operations are “second to none” in scale, technique, and ambition. Beijing’s objectives include espionage, intellectual property theft, malign influence, and transnational repression, the centre says. 

    While the report highlights China’s hacking of 20 federal government networks in the past four years, information elsewhere in the report shows that Chinese hackers have had access to multiple government networks longer than that. The report says that Chinese agents have compromised Canadian government networks over the past five years, collecting communications and other valuable information.

    “While all known federal government compromises have been resolved, it is very likely that the actors responsible for these intrusions dedicated significant time and resources to learn about the target networks,” the report reads.

    At a press conference on Oct. 30, Caroline Xavier, chief of the Canadian Communications Security Establishment (CSE), would not  comment on the details of the breaches, but said mitigation measures had been “effective.”

    “The key message for us—when there are incidents that occur—is really being focused on ensuring [we] minimize the impact to the government department that may have been compromised. And that is exactly where our focus has been,” she told reporters. “We do feel that the measures were taken to be able to mitigate any of the risks, and to address the incidents in an effective manner.”

    The cyber centre is hosted within CSE, Canada’s electronic spy agency, which is responsible for collecting signals intelligence and defending against cyberattacks.

    China Targets

    In addition to federal agencies, provincial and territorial governments are also seen as valuable targets for Beijing, the report said, noting that these governments hold decision-making power over regional trade and commerce, including the extraction of critical minerals and other natural resources.

    Xavier said this targeting indicates Beijing is a “sophisticated, consistent, and persistent actor,” and that Canada needs to address the threat with a more comprehensive approach.

    “We have work to do as a nation, to continue to work, in particular with the provinces, territories, indigenous communities, because we recognize that we’re all vulnerable, or we all could be vulnerable, and we really want to continue to raise Canada’s cyber resilience,” she said.

    The cyber centre also echoed previous reports from various human rights groups, warning that Beijing’s transnational repression has primarily targeted five specific communities, referred to by the regime as the “five poisons.” These include Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, supporters of Taiwanese independence, and pro-democracy activists.

    “PRC actors very likely facilitate transnational repression by monitoring and harassing these groups online and tracking them using cyber surveillance,” the report said. “For example, the PRC has been publicly linked to cyber espionage operations against the Uyghur minority group, including members living in Canada, using spear phishing emails and spyware.”

    Other Countries Named

    Other state-backed threat actors highlighted in the cyber centre report include Russia, Iran, and India.

    Russia’s cyber operations are characterized as “a multi-layered strategy” that combines conventional cyber espionage and computer network attacks with disinformation. Its primary goal is to enhance Russia’s global status while undermining democratic institutions in Canada and among its allies.

    A specific case cited in the report involves a breach detected by Microsoft in January, where a Russian state-sponsored cyber threat actor known as Midnight Blizzard accessed the company’s cloud-based enterprise email service.

    The group infiltrated correspondence between Microsoft and government officials in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Initially, the actors sought information about Russia itself, but later used personal data and credentials from the emails to gain access to Microsoft customer systems.

    Meanwhile, the report said Iran has been expanding its cyberattacks to western countries amid its ongoing military conflict with Israel.

    “Iran has taken advantage of its back-and-forth cyber confrontation with Israel to improve its cyber espionage and offensive cyber capabilities and hone its information campaigns, which it is now almost certainly deploying against targets in the West,” the report said.

    During the press conference, Xavier also identified India as an “emerging threat” to Canada.

    “India very likely uses its cyber program to advance its national security imperatives, including espionage, counterterrorism, and the country’s efforts to promote its global status and counter narratives against India and the Indian government,” the report said.

    Citing her recent testimony before the foreign interference inquiry, Xavier noted India could potentially “flex those cyber threat actions against Canadians” amid ongoing diplomatic tensions.

    Earlier this month, Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, prompting a reciprocal move by India, which also expelled six Canadian diplomats. This dispute arose after the RCMP announced its investigation into criminal activities allegedly involving “agents of the Government of India.” 

    ‘Ever-Present’ Threat

    The Centre for Cyber Security says Canada has entered a new era in which cyber threats are “ever present.”

    “Canadians will increasingly feel the impact of cyber incidents that have cascading and disruptive effects on their daily lives,” the report said.

    The centre says the threat has expanded as Canadians increasingly rely on online platforms and digital technologies to go about their lives.

    “These systems record and process vast amounts of data about us, often over poorly secured or untrustworthy digital networks,” it said.

    Aside from the threats from hostile state actors, the centre notes that the cybercrime business model is “underpinned by flourishing online marketplaces” where leaked data is sold along with cyber tools for criminals.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 23:55

  • "A Breach Of Protocol": White House Overrode Stenographers, Altered "Garbage" Transcript
    “A Breach Of Protocol”: White House Overrode Stenographers, Altered “Garbage” Transcript

    In a mad scramble to cover for President Biden calling half of the country “garbage,” White House press officials altered the official transcript, overriding official stenographers who objected to the alterations, the Associated Press reports.

    According to the pre-altered transcript, Biden said “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

    However White House press office added an apostrophe, reading “supporter’s” rather than “supporters,” in order to peddle the falsehood that Biden was criticizing comic Tony Hinchcliffe, who referred to the US island territory of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

    The change was made after the press office “conferred with the president,” according to an internal email from the head of the stenographers’ office that was obtained by The AP. The authenticity of the email was confirmed by two government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

    The supervisor, in the email, called the press office’s handling of the matter “a breach of protocol and spoliation of transcript integrity between the Stenography and Press Offices.” -AP

    According to the email, the press office demanded that stenographers quickly produce a transcript of Biden’s call with Latino activists to discuss Hinchicliffe’s comments, while Biden’s social media team posted on X that he was not calling all Trump supporters garbage – and that he was specifically referring to the “hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally.”

    The two-person stenography team on duty that evening, a “typer” and a “proofer” said that any edits to the official transcript would have to be approved by their supervisor, the head of the stenographer’s office – who was unavailable. Because of this, the White House press office went ahead and published an altered transcript on the White House website and distributed it to the press and social media in a mad scramble.

    The supervisor did not like that…

    “If there is a difference in interpretation, the Press Office may choose to withhold the transcript but cannot edit it independently,” wrote the supervisor, adding “Our Stenography Office transcript — released to our distro, which includes the National Archives — is now different than the version edited and released to the public by Press Office staff.“

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    The supervisor, a career White House employee, raised concerns about the alteration in an email to White House communications director Ben LaBolt, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and other officials.

    “Regardless of urgency, it is essential to our transcripts’ authenticity and legitimacy that we adhere to consistent protocol for requesting edits, approval, and release,” he wrote.

    The alteration was done as the White House scrambled to respond to a cascade of press inquiries over Biden’s comments – which completely upstaged Kamala Harris’ closing argument speech outside the White House.

    As journalist Michael Shellenberger points out, it was likely illegal.

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    Biden’s comment was a gift to the Trump campaign, which immediately capitalized on it – fundraising off the quote, while Trump himself held a photo op inside a garbage truck on Wednesday.

    Harris also moved to quickly distance herself from Biden’s comments, telling reporters “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for.”

    Meanwhile, House Republicans have been discussing launching an investigation into the fabrication – with House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-(NY), and House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-(KY), on Wednesday accusing the White House of “releasing a false transcript” of Biden’s remarks, and called on White House counsel Ed Siskel to retain documents and internal communications related to Biden’s remarks and the transcript.

    “White House staff cannot rewrite the words of the President of the United States to be more politically on message,” the lawmakers wrote, noting that it may have been a violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978.

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 23:30

  • After Godwin’s Law, Dems May Try One Last 'Get Trump' Gambit On Election Day
    After Godwin’s Law, Dems May Try One Last ‘Get Trump’ Gambit On Election Day

    Authored by Ben Sellers via Headline USA,

    Apart from getting booed by Beyoncé fans and heckled by Hamas supporters, nothing could have been more pathetic than the Kamala Harris campaign’s pivot back to Bidenesque fearmongering in the desperate final stretch of the 2024 election.

    An Iranian video imagines an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump while golfing at his Florida resort. / IMAGE: @basedmikelee via Twitter

    The Adolf Hitler trope now being deployed by Democrats is so overwrought that, since 1991, it has had its own special name in online culture: Godwin’s law.

    And yes, the eponymous law’s creator, Mike Godwin—a former senior fellow at the R Street Institute and contributing editor at Reason magazine— has often addressed, in response to media inquiries, whether former President Donald Trump deserves a special-exception rider.

    “My name gets cited in a lot of these discussions. And of course my ears are burning,” Godwin explained in a 2018 op-ed for the newly neutral Los Angeles Times.

    “It hasn’t mattered that I’ve explained GL countless times,” Godwin continued. “Some critics on the left have blamed me for (supposedly) having shut down valid comparisons to the Holocaust or previous atrocities.”

    The problem the Democrats have is that they sought precisely the same carve-out for many other Republicans: Ronald Reagan, John McCain, Mitt Romney, George W. Bush and, of course, Dick Cheney. Four have since become staunch Trump critics, and one is now actively campaigning for the Democrats.

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    “They’ve been saying that about Trump for years,” observed conservative pundit Megyn Kelly during a recent interview with Bill Maher. “They’ve been saying that about Republican candidates for years. … If you are at all center or center-right, you are used to having your candidate of choice completely demonized.”

    As Godwin clarified, his law was never intended to suggest that all comparisons to Hitler and the Nazi regime were spurious—only that most were.

    Republicans have countered the constant barrage of ad hominem attacks by pointing to the very valid ways in which the Democrats have, themselves, become the party of anti-liberal, authoritarian values, using their Trump Derangement Syndrome as justification to act on their worst impulses by shutting down all criticism and debate, while pursuing a Stalin-inspired “ends justifies the means” approach to politics.

    “I saw the party that used to have courageous voices and leaders, calling for peace, now becoming the party of warmongers,” said newly red-pilled Republican Tulsi Gabbard at a rally Saturday in Charlotte, N.C.

    “It has become the party of war,” the one-time Democratic presidential candidate added. “It used to be the party of working people.”

    INCOMPATIBLE WITH DEMOCRACY

    The resulting death spiral has left the Democratic Party in a condition where, without significant reform, it is no longer compatible with the precepts of democracy because its ideas, when it bothers presenting any, are so far on the fringe that they are rejected by the public.

    They have, instead, fallen back on astroturfing, gaslighting and importing new voters through a complex ploy that involves simultaneously undermining U.S. border security and election-integrity laws, while actively attacking any efforts by the states to address their negligence.

    Although they have set themselves up with the capabilities to steal any election, relying on both traditional ballot-harvesting methods and technological manipulation of equipment, their one vulnerability could be a landslide election in which, given the loss of credibility in the media and many government institutions, the American public outright fails to accept a fraudulent outcome.

    While polls still suggest a tight race, many other bellwethers now indicate a potential Trump blowout, at least in the Electoral College.

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    With Trump notably leading polls in the critical battleground of Pennsylvania, even Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., recently acknowledged the GOP nominee’s strong position to hold the Keystone State, according to a New York Times interview.

    Trump need only secure his 2020 states, along with Pennsylvania and Georgia, to reclaim the presidency, with four additional “swing states”—Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada—only bolstering his advantage.

    As of Sunday, the latest polling averages from RealClear Politics indicated that Trump had narrow leads in all of them. He had a 0.1% lead nationally.

    By contrast, on Oct. 27, 2020, President Joe Biden reflected a 7.4% lead nationally. Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016, had a 5.6% advantage.

    IMPLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY

    Trump’s success, moreover, in clinching key minority demographics creates an optical problem for Democrats, who can no longer use the fig leaf of “voting rights” as a pretense to undermine election integrity.

    Democrats who disfranchise voters in the black and Hispanic communities now risk losing them permanently and incurring the same level of minority-driven anger and outrage against them that they weaponized against Trump during the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots.

    Most worrisome of all for Democrats may be that in Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina, early voting indicated that more Republicans had turned out as of Friday, Oct. 25, according to Bloomberg.

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    Three other battleground states—Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin—do not track party registration for early voting, suggesting Trump may be leading there, as well.

    This trend could further explode the narrative pushed during recent election cycles that Republicans simply waited until Election Day and were bested by Democrats’ early get-out-the-vote initiatives.

    If Trump is leading by a notable margin even going into Nov. 5 and Republicans continue to turn out at higher levels, there will be no plausible deniability for Democrats (and some corrupt GOP election officials) to delay releasing the results as they continue to scrounge up late-surfacing ballots in blue enclaves such as Arizona’s Maricopa County and Nevada’s Clark County, both of which have previously pulled last-minute reversals in 2020 and 2022.

    Having already tipped their hand to their tactics, all eyes will be watching to see whether they have the temerity to engage in what could be deemed nothing less than a seditious conspiracy.

    DESPERATE MEASURES

    With all other options exhausted, Democrats’ only hope now may be to drive massive turnout on Election Day itself. But that is a task not easily accomplished. Undoubtedly, they would need some sort of precipitating event to rally any remaining voters to the polls.

    What could it be? Here are a few possibilities that they might still pull off with just over a week remaining.

    • Escalation of war/act of terrorism:

    “I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to conclude that I am the best man in the country; but I am reminded, in this connection, of a story of an old Dutch farmer, who remarked to a companion once that ‘it was not best to swap horses when crossing streams,”’ wrote Abraham Lincoln in a June 1864 letter making his case for reelection.

    The axiom has led other presidents, while politically flailing, to try to “wag the dog” by using war as a means to drive patriotic sentiment. In the Biden–Harris regime, while the patriotism may not be present, the anxiety of a foreign attack is still a powerful tool for manipulation.

    Both China and Iran have made clear their preference for the current administration—of which Kamala Harris would be, at best, an extension—over Trump’s “America First” presidency. A false flag attack on Ukraine to stir up anti-Russian sentiment is another possibility. Trump has pledged to end the war there even before taking office.

    • Intel psy-op

    We are all too familiar with the intelligence community’s role in fomenting violence at events like the 2017 Charlottesville “Unite the Right” protest and the Jan. 6, 2021 “Save America” rally. Perhaps the Harris campaign’s decision to feature them as a focal point in its closing argument is not so much an act of desperation but portention.

    There are several signals indicating that there may be a heightened presence of election-meddling FBI operatives and others on-site at polling places, who are specifically tasked with monitoring MAGA. Might the goal be to instigate some sort of unrest during the election as a weapon of mass distraction?

    • Executive Order 14019

    The Biden administration has been abjectly dishonest about many things, but its unusually opaque approach to President Joe Biden’s March 2021 edict has long raised suspicions that it could weaponize the entire federal bureaucracy as a de-facto ballot-harvesting operation for Democrats.

    In keeping with the blueprints of anti-American subversive Saul Alinsky, the Left has sought to pre-emptively accuse the Trump campaign of a nefarious plot to reshape the government through talking points about the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. Yet, Executive Order 14019 could be everything that it accuses Project 2025 of being and then some. The only problem is that the lack of transparency makes it impossible to tell just how Democrats intend to use this.

    • Presidential death/health crisis

    The Democrats and their deep-state allies have failed, thus far, in killing Trump, and to do so now would undoubtedly turn him into one of the greatest martyrs in U.S. history. JD Vance would coast to victory in a landslide, and with trusted college pal Vivek Ramaswamy at his side, he would set up the GOP for generations of political dominance.

    Yet, assuming Biden hasn’t been actively trying to torpedo the Harris campaign, he might be persuaded to step aside early due to a health emergency, installing the current veep as the incumbent, which would allow her to finish the final stretch with images being sworn in by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, shoring up the identity politics vote. It would, of course, leave little time for her to actually implement any policies that would sour voters further against her.

    Although Biden has recently indicated the need to “lock up” Trump—politically, he claims—Trump shrewdly hinted that he might be open to considering a presidential pardon for Hunter Biden, which could prove to be a powerful bargaining chip.

    Nonetheless, there is another president who could similarly stir up superficial sentiment at the last minute. Centenarian Jimmy Carter may, in fact, already be dead.

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    Barring further proof of life, one might be hard-pressed to believe that Carter—his mouth agape, and his skin appearing jaundiced or discolored as he lay in state at his 100th birthday celebration—still inhabits this mortal plane.

    However, maintaining the illusion is necessary, for now, since Carter already cast an early ballot for Kamala Harris, which would be invalidated, in theory, if he were to die before Election Day.

    Carter’s passing, followed by a prompt cremation, could be announced next Tuesday as voters in Georgia are heading to the polls, throwing in to disarray a must-win state that Trump appears to have locked in.

    • Literally locking Trump up

    This risky move may backfire, as all the earlier lawfare actions taken against Trump only helped to further bolster his popular support due to backlash. Nonetheless, the psychological impact of having their candidate in detention could cast enough doubt to keep some Republicans home, and would certainly motivate Democrats.

    As it stands, corrupt New York Judge Juan Merchan has pushed back Trump’s sentencing in his porn-star case to Nov. 26. The GOP leader also still remains under gag order in the D.C. trial led by dubiously appointed special counsel Jack Smith, whom Trump recently called a “scoundrel.”

    Smith and his accomplice, D.C. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, might unseal additional accusations to bait Trump into a response of some kind that could violate the order and land him in the gulag with countless other Jan. 6 detainees.

    Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 23:05

  • South Korea's Chip Output Drops For First Time In 14 Months Amid Slowdown At Samsung
    South Korea’s Chip Output Drops For First Time In 14 Months Amid Slowdown At Samsung

    Concerns over the stability of the artificial intelligence bubble intensified this week. 

    Advanced Micro Devices released a disappointing earnings report on Tuesday, revealing slower-than-expected growth in AI sales. Adding to the uncertainty, Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, reported overnight about uninspiring demand for advanced chips in mobile devices and PCs. 

    The largest takeaway from Samsung’s third-quarter earnings report was an underwhelming performance in the company’s chip division, posting a surprise drop from the previous quarter. At the same time, overall profit was marginally higher than Wall Street estimates. Also, it saw smartphone sales slowing by the end of the year and only increasing by about 1% in 2025, despite the hype surrounding AI-enabled smartphones and other handheld devices. 

    In addition to company-level developments, new data from South Korea’s chip manufacturing base shows that production fell in September for the first time in 14 months—yet more troubling signs showing the AI boom cools. 

    More from Bloomberg:

    Nationwide semiconductor production slid 3% in September, a sharp reversal after they gained 11% a month earlier, according to data released Thursday by the government statistical office. The growth in shipments also slowed to 0.7% from 17% in August.

    Source: Bloomberg 

    Still, inventory levels showed stockpiles continue to be worked through at a rapid clip, as they declined 41.5% from a year earlier in September. The numbers paint a picture of an industry that may be cooling gradually as demand for memory chips peaks out.

    South Korea’s chip production is viewed as a proxy for global chip demand because these components are used in a wide range of electronics, from smartphones to servers to automobiles. Given the hype around AI adoption from phones to computers, this week’s news from AMD, Samsung, and now South Korea’s chip base could be symptoms of a cooling bubble. Certainly not the headlines chip bulls want to see.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 22:40

  • Restoring America's Common Enterprise
    Restoring America’s Common Enterprise

    Authored by Peter Berkowitz via RealClearPolitics,

    The United States is days away from a portentous presidential election that, however it turns out, promises to leave around half the nation believing that catastrophe has been narrowly averted and the rest believing that all is lost. Desperate hopes and apocalyptic fears suffuse the electorate. Significant swathes of the right and left – especially among the intellectual class – believe that the other side is dishonest, wicked, and bent on overthrowing democracy in America. This tendency to loathe those in the rival political camp presents an overriding threat to the nation.

    To endure, a rights-protecting or liberal democracy needs citizens who regard themselves as engaged in a common enterprise. They must share a language. They must respect basic moral and political principles. They must take pride in their nation’s accomplishments while facing up to and correcting their country’s flaws by upholding the best in the nation’s traditions and heeding justice’s enduring imperatives. They must trust that as they generally follow society’s written and unwritten rules, so too will others. And they must partake of a broad commitment – that receives expression in the exercise of toleration and civility – to securing a freedom for each consistent with a like freedom for all. Otherwise, democracy will dissolve into authoritarianism as citizens lose the ability to cooperate in nurturing their communities, maintaining a prosperous economy, and protecting their equal rights.

    Seeing themselves as engaged in a common enterprise can be a challenge for citizens of a rights-protecting democracy. That’s because rights and democracy encourage individuals – and the groups to which they belong – to go their own ways. Endowed with differing abilities and dispositions, free citizens develop distinctive interests, hold a diversity of opinions, and pursue happiness in their own manner.

    To preserve unity within this diversity, rights-protecting democracies must educate citizens about their common enterprise. That common enterprise consists in large measure, citizens must learn, in maintaining a political order that enables individuals and families – and the associations they form – to disagree peacefully and even productively not only about ordinary public policy but also about ultimate questions concerning moral excellence and the path to salvation.

    A rising challenge to America’s common enterprise stems from adamant calls to discard the Constitution. The formal crystallization of the country’s dedication to equal liberty under law, the Constitution – its premises, operations, and goals – is permanently open to discussion. But instead of arguing about the interpretation of this or that constitutional provision and rather than debating schools of constitutional jurisprudence, prominent progressive voices increasingly condemn the Constitution as a whole. To take one conspicuous example, Harvard Law School Professor Ryan D. Doerfler and Yale Law School Professor Samuel Moyn argued in the New York Times in “The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed” that to save democracy we must “reclaim America from constitutionalism.”

    Leading members of the so-called “new right” – a loose association of national conservatives and common-good conservatives – join, in effect if not intent, progressives in repudiating the Constitution. Self-styled “postliberal” conservatives identify classical liberalism as the root cause of America’s moral, political, cultural, economic, and national-security woes. But the Constitution – which seeks to secure the unalienable rights affirmed by the Declaration of Independence through limited government grounded in the consent of the governed – is steeped in classical liberalism. Consequently, the new right’s attacks on classical liberalism make common cause with progressives who wish to rid the country of the Constitution.

    Against the enthusiasms for overcoming the Constitution, eminent conservatives maintain that recovery of the Constitution’s underlying political theory and its judicious design of primary political institutions can avert the crisis of democracy in America. These conservatives tend to be steeped in history and political philosophy, ancient and modern. They are disposed to support former president Donald Trump without disregarding his shortcomings. And they are well represented in “Democracy in America: a symposium,” which appears in the New Criterion’s October issue.

    Embracing its responsibility as a journal of arts, letters, and the larger public interest – and as a leading publication of thoughtful conservatism – The New Criterion addresses head-on the central issues. In his introduction to the symposium, magazine editor Roger Kimball argues that democracy in America confronts a “siege” that has been gathering momentum for more than 15 years. “Barack Obama’s victory in 2008, followed by the incomprehensible victory of Donald Trump,” writes Kimball, “has radicalized and emboldened the Left.”

    In its emboldened radicalism, Kimball argues, the left has combined in a single indictment the contention that Trump aims to institute despotism and the accusation that the Constitution undermines democracy and subverts the common good. The proof that our Constitution is anti-democratic and dysfunctional, progressive intellectuals contend, is that it allowed Trump to win election as president once and may do so again.

    In contrast, the contributors to The New Criterion symposium maintain that a principal source of the nation’s ills is the disparagement of, and departures from, the Constitution. The contributors highlight the spirit of liberty under law that animates the Constitution and the structure of government by which it maintains freedom. Inspired by Tocqueville’s 19th-century masterpiece, “Democracy in America,” they also stress such non-governmental supports of freedom as family, faith, civic association, liberal education, and the moral and intellectual virtues.

    In “Our Athenian American democracy” my Hoover Institution colleague Victor Davis Hanson argues that contrary to the Constitution’s design – and notwithstanding progressive complaints about democracy’s demise – the United States has embraced, to the detriment of freedom, a purer form of democracy. In its classical form – direct rule of the people – democracy lacked checks on majority will. Indeed, “there was never an Athenian effort to guarantee the rights of the individual against the state,” writes Hanson. “That idea only arrived in the Middle Ages, when it was embodied in Magna Carta, and it later figured prominently in the European Enlightenment and the foundation of the American Republic.” While members of America’s founding generation quarreled vociferously about proper constitutional limits, they were all but unanimous in believing that formal constraints on legislation, executive action, and judicial authority were crucial to the protection of individual rights. Hence, argues Hanson, “the greatest threat to the republican system of the United States may well be the efforts of Washington bureaucrats and agencies to destroy some 236 years of constitutional checks and balances and the political customs that have evolved along with them.”

    In “Tocqueville vs. progressive democracy” Daniel Mahoney, professor emeritus at Assumption University, agrees with Hanson that progressive conceptions of democracy subvert the basic rights and fundamental freedoms on which the American experiment in ordered liberty rests. That’s in part, argues Mahoney, because progressive conceptions of democracy incorporate highly partisan positions that erode the habits of heart and mind necessary for self-government. These include antipathy to tradition, particularly traditional views about religion and sex; preference for cosmopolitanism mixed with distaste for patriotic nationalism; and celebration of self-creation combined with disparagement of self-restraint, honor, and duty.

    Manhattan Institute senior fellow James Piereson contends in “The Washington octopus” that the current strife between the people and the elites in American reflects the old “conflict between ‘country’ and ‘court’ parties” that marked 18th-century politics in Britain and America. Like the court party, contemporary progressives endeavor to direct citizens’ lives from the capital city. Like the country party, many on the right today want to preserve, consistent with basic rights and fundamental freedoms, local control over local affairs. Reformers, argues Piereson, must reverse the concentration of power in Washington built up over decades owing to FDR’s New Deal, post-World War II national-security demands, and LBJ’s Great Society. For starters, he proposes transferring elements of the federal bureaucracy out of Washington – relocating, say, the Department of the Interior to “Montana, Idaho, Utah, or the Dakotas” and the FBI or the Department of Education to “Kansas City, Wichita, Dallas, or any number of other cities.”

    In “Tocqueville’s limitations” Claremont Institute Fellow Glenn Elmers offers a friendly corrective to the great Frenchman, who understood equality as primarily a “sociological force” fueled by a passion to level human affairs. In contrast, America’s founders viewed equality in terms of formal rights that must be institutionalized. A return to equal rights under law, argues Elmers, would limit contemporary managerial elites’ schemes to shift power from the people to federal bureaucrats in Washington. This would hinder the capital city’s imposition on the nation of versions of equity and social justice that seem to many ordinary people neither equitable nor just.

    Confronting what he regards as the progressive juggernaut, Kimball concludes “that conservatism has three main choices.” The first, “outright surrender,” is dishonorable. So is the second – “the dhimmitude of the well-pressed but housebroken Right that exchanges its pampered place on the plantation for political irrelevance.” Accordingly, Kimball opts for the third – “the perhaps paradoxical option of what we might call Alinskyite conservatism, after the canny left-wing activist Saul Alinsky.” It “eschews the quietism of surrender for the activism of what Donald Trump calls ‘winning.’”

    The activist option aimed at winning is preferable provided two conditions are met. Activism must revolve around the energetic defense of constitutional essentials. And winning must signify the restoration of a common enterprise to secure the liberty under law that is the enduring promise of rights-protecting democracy in America.

    Peter Berkowitz is the Tad and Dianne Taube senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. From 2019 to 2021, he served as director of the Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. State Department. His writings are posted at PeterBerkowitz.com and he can be followed on X @BerkowitzPeter.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 22:15

  • Police Crack Down On Street Takeovers With High-Tech Surveillance As 4th Amendment Battles Loom
    Police Crack Down On Street Takeovers With High-Tech Surveillance As 4th Amendment Battles Loom

    Authored by Beige Luciano-Adams via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    LOS ANGELES—As police across California crack down on illegal street racing, takeovers, and sideshows, technology companies are marketing new surveillance tools to meet the demand—prompting questions about the implications for privacy rights and Fourth Amendment protections.

    An automated license plate reader mounted on a pole in San Francisco, on June 13, 2024. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

    In the Bay Area and Los Angeles, where incidents have become increasingly brazen and violent in recent years, often drawing hundreds of attendees and overwhelming police, agencies already rely on planes, drones, and automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras as they aim to reduce the risk to first responders.

    And they’ve begun to see results.

    On Oct. 25 in the Bay Area, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) reported the seizure of 16 vehicles that had been involved in two separate takeovers a month prior. Officers couldn’t reach the center of the sideshow before it moved to another location, but they collected video evidence from cameras placed around the Bay Bridge. That led investigators to a list of vehicles, allowing them to request seizures orders from a judge.

    Armed with these technologies, CHP officers sent to Oakland to crack down on illegal sideshows and rising violent and retail crime have seized more than 2,000 stolen vehicles since February.

    And a controversial surveillance system used by police to detect gunshots and fireworks is now being remarketed as a tool to listen for the sounds of illegal street racing, takeovers and sideshows—like screeching tires—according to an Oct. 23 announcement from Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based company that leases surveillance systems to thousands of law enforcement agencies across the United States.

    Audio detection offers an additional angle that can be integrated with existing camera networks and analytics, which Flock said in its announcement will provide a “deeper layer of insight, enabling [police] to track repeat offenders and analyze patterns linked to sideshows.”

    When the cameras mounted at intersections are used in conjunction with audio detectors, the analytics system generates a report that lists vehicles, ranked by frequency, near confirmed shootings, fireworks, sideshows or takeovers, according to the company.

    The selling point is that the AI-powered system identifies patterns nearly instantly that would typically take hours or days for humans.

    The newly reconfigured technology raises old questions about the balance between privacy and public safety, which civil rights groups have already been litigating—in the courts and in the public sphere—for years.

    For critics, the deployment of such technologies is part of a long march, a stealth encroachment on constitutional rights that has accelerated in the years since 9/11.

    “Some of these are mass surveillance technologies that shouldn’t be permitted to operate in a democratic society,” Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, told The Epoch Times. “We don’t watch everybody all the time, just in case somebody does something wrong somewhere.”

    An automated license plate reader is seen mounted on a pole in San Francisco on June 13, 2024. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

    Technologies like Flock’s cameras and audio detection devices, mounted at public intersections throughout the country in an increasingly dense network, raise questions about the “boundary between what can be done in today’s technology and what should be done,” Stanley said.

    According to a February 2020 report by the state auditor, nearly all of California’s law enforcement agencies already use surveillance cameras that automatically read and report license plate data along with other details of the vehicle, time, and location.

    These typically use infrared cameras to read license numbers and feed them into databases, but some cameras, like Flock’s, can capture more than license plates—things like car color and make, as well as small identifying details.

    According to Flock’s website, police departments in New York, California, Illinois, Texas, and Louisiana are among those already using the company’s Raven system for gunshot detection, which the company claims is 90 percent accurate in identifying gunshots.

    Accuracy Claims

    Various reports have called such claims into question—including a May annual review by the City of San Jose, which initially found around half of alerts were confirmed to be gunshots, with around a third being false positives. After some adjustments to the system, the confirmed number went up to nearly 80 percent.

    Critics argue the tendency of acoustic gunshot detection toward false positives can put people at risk, for example by sending police to a location expecting gunfire where there are innocent people. Such technologies can also record human voices, which law enforcement agencies have used in court.

    “As is so often the case with police surveillance technologies, a device initially deployed for one purpose (here, to detect gunshots) has been expanded to another purpose (to spy on conversations with sensitive microphones),” said the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit focused on the intersection of civil rights and digital technology.

    Some cities have canceled contracts with Flock or similar providers after analysis revealed disappointing results.

    A 2021 investigation of Flock competitor ShotSpotter found the acoustic gunshot detection system generated more than 40,000 dead-end deployments in Chicago in less than two years, with the vast majority of alerts turning up no evidence of gunfire or related crime.

    The Champaign Police Department in Illinois last year opted not to renew its contract with Flock after results fell short of marketing claims. Data obtained by local journalists showed 59 out of 64 alerts were “unfounded,” with 21 of those likely caused by fireworks.

    “To date, the system has not yet lived up to performance expectations, including misidentifying some sounds—such as fireworks or a vehicle backfire—as possible gunfire,” a police official told CU Citizen Access.

    Flock did not offer an estimate of accuracy in its announcement of the Raven systems repurposed to listen for vehicular chaos, nor did it respond to an inquiry about how many communities use Raven to detect the sounds of street takeovers. But other media have reported at least two Bay Area law enforcement agencies are already using it.

    Vehicles drive over tire skid marks from other drivers doing burnouts and donuts as area residents protest an increase in street racing takeovers in the Angelino Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles on Aug. 26, 2022. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

    A Growing Network

    Cameras that read license plates and microphones that listen for gunshots have been around for decades, but in recent years, California municipalities have expanded their surveillance networks—and rapidly developing AI-powered technology is adding an unprecedented accelerant.

    On Oct. 22, the San Diego Sheriff’s Department announced plans to install 60 additional cameras in unincorporated areas, adding to five cities that have already used them with “significant investigative success,” including solving homicides, kidnappings, vehicle theft, burglaries, and assaults.

    Nodding to privacy and data security concerns, the Department said it has implemented “strict protocols,” including adherence to Senate Bill 34, state legislation from 2015 that regulates how data is used, stored, and shared, and requires regular audits to ensure compliance. San Diego keeps ALPR data for a maximum of one year unless it is being used in ongoing investigations.

    Earlier this year, San Francisco installed 400 ALPR cameras, and Oakland, in partnership with the California Highway Patrol, installed 480 Flock cameras that read license plates and other identifying details.

    “When we’re talking about car break-ins and car theft … when we’re talking about sideshows and some of the other issues that have happened in our city, automatic license plate readers can play an invaluable role in helping us to track some of the perpetrators of these crimes and hold them accountable,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed said at the time.

    In some California cities, police can now also access private security camera networks if neighbors grant them permission.

    For example, Sacramento currently has 809 cameras registered in a program that allows people to register their cameras with the police department, which lets investigators know where the camera is and request video evidence in case of an incident. Businesses and residents can also choose to “integrate” their cameras, giving the police department direct, live access to the feed.

    And “real-time crime centers” in major cities across the United States already combine these modalities. Last month, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department opened its first center in Agoura Hills, and LAPD plans to open multiple in the coming months.

    These centers can tap into license plate readers and existing cameras at intersections, as well as footage from private cameras if businesses or residents allow it.

    Citing low staffing levels and rising crime—including 50 car burglaries across the course of a single weekend in one L.A. City Council District—an LAPD report to the Board of Police Commissioners cited “an acute need to explore new measures, like the use of technology, to mitigate these impacts and improve the department’s response to crime.”

    Privacy Regulations

    In an April memo, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said the “crime-fighting cameras” installed at Oakland intersections would protect privacy by limiting data storage to 28 days and not disclosing footage to third parties beyond other law enforcement agencies, while complying with recent bulletins from the California Attorney General’s office outlining state law that governs data collection, storage and use, including SB 34.

    Police can use ALPRs to match license plates with those on a “hot list” of known offenders. But even if they don’t match, the data is still stored in a database, prompting questions about how it is protected and used.

    The ACLU raised this issue in a 2013 report titled “You Are Being Tracked,” noting that the readers “would pose few civil liberties risks if they only checked plates against hot lists and these hot lists were implemented soundly.” But the networked systems store the compiled data, not just license plates of vehicles that generate hits.

    The “enormous databases” of motorists’ location information that are created as a result, and often pooled among regional systems, are often retained permanently and shared with little to no restriction, the report argued.

    The 2020 state auditor report found that while most California law enforcement agencies use the technology, “few have appropriate usage and privacy policies in place.”

    Special cameras, like the one found on this police car, snap pictures of license plates that pass by. Police say the technology has helped them catch criminals, but some are concerned that authorities are using the system for warrantless tracking. Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images

    The report looked at four agencies—the Fresno and Los Angeles police departments, and the Sacramento and Marin County sheriff’s offices. All of them accumulated a large number of images in their ALPR systems, but most of those did not relate to criminal investigations.

    For example, 99.9 percent of the 320 million images Los Angeles stored at the time were for vehicles that were not on a hot list when the photo was taken.

    And according to a Sacramento grand jury investigation, a vast ALPR system deployed by the county’s sheriffs department and city’s police departments couldn’t distinguish between cars used for criminal activities and those operated legally.

    “And we subsequently learned that both the Sheriff’s Office and Sacramento Police Department have been lax in following state law regarding how ALPR data is shared with other law enforcement entities,” the report said.

    In fact, the investigation found that those departments regularly shared license plate data out of state, which is prohibited by SB 34.

    In an emailed statement, the California attorney general’s office told The Epoch Times such technological tools “are helpful in deterring and investigating crime, serving both to prevent wrongdoing and ensure accountability for those who violate the law,” but that they must be used with “the utmost respect for ethical and legal standards.”

    The attorney general’s office said that recently it has been working with local agencies “to ensure that they are using ALPR systems for their intended use.”

    4th Amendment Concerns

    A federal lawsuit filed Oct. 21 against the use of Flock’s surveillance network in Norfolk, Virginia, alleges the city is violating Fourth Amendment rights by tracking “the whole of a person’s public movements,” thus amounting to a search.

    The City of Norfolk gathers information about “everyone who drives past any of its 172 cameras to facilitate investigating crimes,“ and in doing so, ”violates the long-standing societal expectation that people’s movements and associations over an extended period are their business alone,” the complaint states.

    With all of this done without a warrant, the complaint continues, “This is exactly the type of ‘too permeating police surveillance’ the Fourth Amendment was adopted to prevent.”

    Flock released a statement to media countering that Fourth Amendment case law shows license plate readers don’t constitute a warrantless search because they photograph cars in public, where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy, and case precedent in numerous states has upheld the use of evidence from ALPRs as constitutional without requiring a warrant.

    Jay Stanley, the ACLU policy analyst, noted courts are still in the relatively early stages of grappling with these technologies.

    “But courts have also made a number of rulings that sweeping surveillance technology is not consistent with the Fourth Amendment. … I think that automatic license plate readers raise a lot of the same concerns that the Supreme Court addressed in some of the big privacy cases in recent years,” he said.

    Among those are United States v. Jones, in which the government tracked someone’s vehicle with a GPS tracker without a warrant for 28 days, subsequently securing a conviction with the resulting data; the court held that such constituted a search under the Fourth Amendment. Previously a lower court had ruled the data was admissible because the suspect had no reasonable expectation of privacy when his car was on public streets.

    And in Carpenter v. United States, the court held that acquisition of a suspect’s cell-site records—historical location data from cell phone providers, obtained without a warrant—constituted a Fourth Amendment search.

    “When you have enough license plate readers out there, it becomes tantamount to being tracked with a GPS. And so it raises the same issues that the court has already ruled on,” Stanley said.

    He suggested that communities need time to digest these technologies and their potential consequences before adopting them at such speed and scale.

    “Communities need to decide whether they want to allow the police departments that serve them to have the new powers these technologies convey and whether they’re even effective at reducing crime and ultimately making communities a better place—which is the whole point of law enforcement and government,” he said.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 21:25

  • Watch: DC Begins Boarding Up Ahead Of Election Over Social Unrest Fears 
    Watch: DC Begins Boarding Up Ahead Of Election Over Social Unrest Fears 

    Washington, DC authorities are hardening security for potential social unrest after next week’s presidential election. With four days remaining, workers have been busy boarding up government buildings and retail stores with plywood. 

    “Work crews have begun covering up the windows of buildings and stores near the White House as the election comes down to the final week,” DC resident Andrew Leyden wrote on X. 

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    Leyden posted a video on YouTube of himself riding around on a bike near the White House complex, showing the various buildings being boarded up. 

    In the video’s description, he wrote, “When there is a threat of civil unrest, these landlords cover their windows, much like you do when a hurricane is coming.” 

    “We do expect the Capitol complex to be much more hardened,” DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said last week, who was quoted by Axios. She told residents to be “flexible” as demonstrations and detours emerge. 

    The ultra-hardening of security around and near the White House might be preparation for a possible Trump victory. With far-left corporate media outlets pushing ‘Trump Nazi,’ ‘Trump Hitler,’ and ‘Trump fascist’ rhetoric nonstop ahead of the election, this hate speech propaganda could certainly fuel leftist radicals to become violently unhinged if Trump wins next week.

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    A new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey showed that most Americans are somewhat worried about social unrest after or during next Tuesday night’s election results. 

    Ohio Rep. (D) Greg Landsman told Axios that even as September approached, security was “preparing in a way that is very different from what has happened in the past,” adding, “I had never seen anything like it.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 21:00

  • Natural Gas And AI Data Centers Provide Unique PA Political Opportunity
    Natural Gas And AI Data Centers Provide Unique PA Political Opportunity

    Authored by Tim Ryan via RealClearEnergy,

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) is more than the latest buzzword. It’s rising rapidly, permeating across industries, and is already present in our daily lives. Netflix uses AI to personalize recommendations to users, 50% of global organizations reported adopting AI in at least one business area in 2022, and more than half of Americans use voice assistants to receive information.

    Behind this tech revolution are electricity-thirsty data centers dotting America’s landscape, processing AI, crypto, e-commerce, and cloud computing. The collective rise in demand to our power grid is something not seen in decades.

    An AI Google search, for example, needs 10 times the amount of energy as a normal Google search, and all of the current data centers worldwide combined consume more power than all but 16 countries.

    AI alone is expected to add 20% more to US electricity demand by 2030 and Goldman Sachs projects natural gas will cover 60% of demand. Our grid is bound to hit a limit in its current state, according to Microsoft leadership. To provide the steady, reliable, and affordable power these facilities need, natural gas-powered electricity is increasingly the obvious choice.

    As the second-largest natural gas production state, Pennsylvania is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this opportunity quickly, benefit from new job creation and investment, and power our high-tech future if we collectively embrace natural gas as part of that solution. Doing so would be welcome news for trade unions and high-tech professionals alike, alongside local communities who benefit from new tax revenues.

    It’s clear Vice President Kamala Harris’ thinking has evolved on energy, along with other Democrats across the country.

    Harris had a front row seat as American natural gas rapidly secured our allies abroad against the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And she understands how critical natural gas is in achieving her Administration’s goals of reshoring critical manufacturing jobs, alongside renewables, that benefit America’s heartland in states like Pennsylvania. Notably natural gas, more than renewables, is the primary source of America’s world-leading carbon reductions over the last two decades and will continue to be a low-carbon solution deployed abroad to replace coal and fight climate change.

    It is this debate on natural gas: balancing economic strength, technology, global competitiveness, staying ahead of China, and fighting climate change, where Harris can cement her political position as a sensible Democrat who uniquely understands Pennsylvania.

    The Keystone State is already home to 71 data centers, with hubs in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and has potential to attract even more given its proximity to the Marcellus Shale gas formations that have led Pennsylvania’s energy revolution in recent years. Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro has taken notice of this potential, speaking at an AI forum at Carnegie Mellon this month.

    Data centers that power AI are so energy-intensive and desperate to meet these power demands that a mothballed nuclear plant once set for decommissioning, Three Mile Island Unit 1 near Harrisburg, will be restarted as part of a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft. This is a positive development, but its potential to be replicated is limited. Natural gas is abundant, flexible, and affordable.

    Some will say to build renewables only instead, but that is simplistic thinking.

    We’re already far behind the massive and costly 60% expansion of America’s power grid that Princeton University says is needed just to transition our existing grid to a net-zero future. While solar and wind are vital to a clean energy future, their weather dependence cannot fulfill 24/7 power needs.

    Harris has a track record on aligning natural gas with opportunity. Under her Administration, the U.S. became the global leader of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, and was the largest LNG supplier to Europe in 2022 and 2023, stabilizing the economies of our Allies after Russia’s Ukraine invasion.

    Pennsylvania workers were part of that victory.

    Other statewide Democrats get it. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and John Fetterman (D-PA) have stood up to their Party and supported the natural gas industry, and Governor Shapiro has laid out plans for a diverse, resilient electricity grid. Pennsylvanians agree: 74% support building more natural gas infrastructure and 79% said natural gas drilling is important to the state’s economy.

    Pennsylvania has the natural resources, the infrastructure, and the know-how to power the AI boom and benefit so many across the Commonwealth. Natural gas remains the obvious choice to scale up fast to meet new demands, protect our environment, and support Pennsylvania jobs. Balance is key. AI is the future, and the United States can only lead on it with practical energy policy that starts in key states like Pennsylvania.

    Presidential candidate Harris would be smart to embrace it.

    Tim Ryan served ten terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2003 to 2023. He serves as the co-chair of the Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future Leadership Council.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 20:35

  • Israel-Hezbollah Ceasefire Possible Within 'Days': Lebanese PM
    Israel-Hezbollah Ceasefire Possible Within ‘Days’: Lebanese PM

    Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has issued a surprisingly optimistic assessment of the possibility of peace in Lebanon. On Wednesday he said that a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah might be achieved in the coming days.

    He cited a ‘hopeful’ conversation with US special envoy Amos Hochstein, related to a new Washington-backed ceasefire proposal. “We are doing our best… to have a ceasefire within the coming hours or days,” PM Mikati told Lebanese broadcaster Al-Jadeed. He said he remains “cautiously optimistic.”

    Mikati explained he has reason to believe that a full ceasefire is possible and even realistic prior to the US election on November 5. On the other side, an Israeli official has told ABC News of “significant progress” toward a ceasefire in Lebanon.

    Caretaker PM Najib Mikati, via Al Monitor

    Two senior White House advisers have meanwhile arrived in Israel Thursday as part of an effort to finalize and close the deal. Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk are said to be going into it with the belief that Hezbollah has so many blows, especially the death of its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, that it is looking to disassociate itself from Hamas and the Gaza war.

    According to Axios: “A deal that would end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah could be achieved within a few weeks, Israeli and U.S. officials said.” The same report has listed out the following simultaneous diplomatic engagements of the US in the region:

    • Israeli officials said Biden adviser Amos Hochstein was waiting for Israeli leaders to decide about whether to move forward with the deal before he traveled to Israel.
    • The fact that he and Biden adviser Brett McGurk are coming suggest Netanyahu is in favor of pursuing the deal, they said.
    • CIA director Bill Burns will be in Cairo on Thursday “to engage with Egyptian counterparts on bilateral matters as well as the process to secure the release of hostages,” the official said.
    • “CENTCOM Commander Gen. Erik Kurilla is traveling to the region to discuss regional defense and will visit Israel to engage with counterparts and U.S. personnel.”

    Israeli media has said that contents of the US-proposed deal have leaked online, citing Kan public broadcaster.

    “The ceasefire proposal begins with a 60-day implementation period, during which time the Lebanese army will deploy along the border and confiscate Hezbollah arms in southern Lebanon,” Times of Israel says of the documents.

    “The IDF will be required to pull all troops from Lebanon within seven days of the end of hostilities, and will be replaced by the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF),” it adds. UN peacekeeping troops will reportedly facilitate the transition, and some 10,000 Lebanese national army troops. According to more:

    At the end of the 60-day implementation period, Israel and Lebanon will hold indirect negotiations via the US on fully implementing Resolution 1701 and resolving border disputes.

    A new International Monitoring and Enforcement Mechanism (IMEM) will be created, with the US serving as chair and with the participation of Italy, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, UNIFIL and regional countries.

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    But in the meantime Israel’s airstrikes on positions in the south, Beirut, and even in the northeast have continued. They’ve even expanded, with the Bekaa Valley getting pounded, and Tyre getting hit again on Thursday.

    But the same day Israeli is reporting that at least six civilians have been killed by Hezbollah rocket attacks on the north, including some foreign workers in the city of Metula. An Israeli woman has also been killed in Haifa Bay.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 20:10

  • Secret Service Brass Interfered In IG Assassination Probe
    Secret Service Brass Interfered In IG Assassination Probe

    Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClearPolitics,

    Secret Service leaders meddled in an independent government investigation of the July 13 assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump and are still not following many basic agency security protocols for presidential candidates, presidents, and vice presidents in the final days before the election, according to emails reviewed by RealClearPolitics and several sources in the Secret Service community.

    As Secret Service failures came to light in the weeks after the July assassination attempt, USSS managers sent emails to employees asking them to alert them to any “direct requests for information or interview” from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, or DHS OIG. The internal government watchdog is conducting its probe of the failures that led to the near assassination of Trump, the killing of fireman Corey Comperatore, and the wounding of two other rally-goers at the western Pennsylvania campaign event.

    The emails, which RealClearPolitics reviewed, contained the subject line “DHS OIG Inquiries” and directed employees to tell their supervisors if an OIG official reaches out to them so Secret Service managers could coordinate “an organized response.” Supervisors sent the email five days after the same inspector general issued a negative report on the Secret Service’s actions before and on Jan. 6, criticizing the agency for failing to detect a pipe bomb near Vice President Kamala Harris and not flagging signs of potential violence to other agencies.

    Normally, responding to DHS OIG investigators without talking to superiors would not warrant coordination with supervisors, the email stated. But after the first assassination attempt against Trump, USSS leadership needed to provide the proper context and a coordinated response.

    “Generally, not an issue; however, this is NOT the normal course of action, and the Service needs awareness and to ensure an organized response with information in the correct context,” Secret Service supervisors wrote in the emails, noting that “only we know what we do.”

    The email is now under Senate scrutiny. Sen. Chuck Grassley, a longtime champion of government whistleblowers, on Wednesday sent a letter to Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe expressing concern that the email and any other communications like it could have “a chilling effect” on employee disclosures to the inspector general’s office, as well as on congressional investigations.

    “If this email is an accurate representation of the actions taken by Secret Service management, it could have a chilling effect on its employees from fully cooperating and providing information to the DHS OIG as well as congressional investigations out of fear of retaliation since supervisors will apparently be keeping tabs on their communications,” Grassley wrote in the letter, a copy of which his office provided to RCP.

    Instead of trying to control the flow and context of information, Secret Service leaders should be “encouraging” employees to “come forward to provide truthful information to the DHS OIG and Congress so that lessons can be learned to prevent future assassination attempts,” Grassley added.

    The Iowa Republican set a deadline of Nov. 13 for Rowe to hand over all records “between and among Secret Service personnel” related to providing information to the DHS OIG and congressional investigations into the July 13 attempted assassination.

    Tristan Leavitt, an attorney and president of Empower Oversight, which represents Secret Service, IRS, and other government whistleblowers, said the email demanding that potential whistleblowers coordinate communications with their bosses stifles the free flow of information, which could help improve the agency’s performance and which federal law protects.

    “Secret Service employees have every right to anonymously contact the DHS OIG without informing their supervisor,” Leavitt said. “While this email is purportedly aimed at employees contacted directly by the OIG, it will undoubtedly discourage employees who may have information about wrongdoing from contacting the OIG or Congress.”

    The Secret Service acknowledged receipt of Grassley’s letter but declined to respond to RCP’s questions about how many supervisors sent the email and whether there were other attempts to pressure employees from independently discussing problems they’ve experienced in the Secret Service with DHS OIG or congressional investigators.

    “The U.S. Secret Service is in receipt of the letter sent by Senator Grassley,” an agency spokesman said in a statement. “The Secret Service has been and will continue to examine the events of the July 13 assassination attempt and will fully cooperate with Congress and other relevant investigations. We respect the Senator’s role of oversight within the Senate Judiciary Committee and will respond through official channels.”

    In the hectic waning hours before Election Day, Secret Service agents are also complaining about security shortcuts that agency leaders are allowing, sometimes requiring, to handle last-minute venue changes and adjustments to Trump’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’s break-neck campaign schedule.

    The Secret Service still has not provided Trump’s campaign with a military aircraft three weeks after it was requested, even though President Biden said earlier this month that he had authorized the Department of Homeland Security to “give him every single thing he needs.”

    Sources in the Secret Service community tell RCP that Trump’s campaign staff have made significant changes to his schedule less than 12 hours before arrivals, hamstringing the advance team’s ability to plan, coordinate, and obtain manpower and resources properly. The last-minute changes, which are typical in the final weeks of a presidential campaign, have posed significant challenges to providing security for Trump, who is still facing known threats from foreign and domestic actors.

    After a second attempt on Trump’s life, the Secret Service started using ballistic glass to provide extra security for the Republican presidential nominee at outdoor and other venues. But at times, late schedule changes have prevented the glass from being in place when it should have been and has led to a shortage of security manpower, these sources assert.

    Secret Service agents also complain that the agency’s managers devoted to Harris’ security have instructed advance personnel to submit manpower and resource requests without knowing any of the sites in Harris’ schedule. They also complain that Harris’ staff are “disorganized” in determining sites and are dictating what resources the vice president should have against the Secret Service advance team’s strong recommendations without any pushback from agency leaders.

    “This is not new, just a continuation of poor USSS leadership,” a source tells RCP. “It puts the entire Secret Service into a cross-your-fingers-and-hope-nothing-happens situation. Sound familiar?”

    The Secret Service also has come up short in securing Harris’ communications with her advance team, so they don’t share vital movements and logistics with the public or unwanted parties, according to several sources. The White House Communications Agency provides secure communications services for only the president and vice president but does not extend those to Trump because of a lack of resources.

    However, even Harris’ campaign staff and her Secret Service advance teams have been using unauthorized communications because of a dearth of WHCA manpower and resources coupled with last-minute changes to the vice president’s campaign schedule, the sources contend.

    Secret Service sources argue that the security procedures have not only failed to improve since July 13 but have further deteriorated.

    The USSS workforce is “aggressively communicating” to their supervisors that they are providing inadequate security that fails to meet agency standards, while the agency’s leaders, ensconced in their Washington offices, are assuring everyone that “they’ll be fine and to keep up the good work,” one source argues.

    “It’s those on the front lines, who do the long hours and impossible tasks, who get thrown under the bus when everything does go wrong while leaders simply retire and move on,” the source told RCP. “No accountability.”

    The agency did not respond to questions about these alleged deviations from agency security protocols.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 19:45

  • China Weaponizes Supply Chain, Sends America's Largest Drone Maker Into Crisis
    China Weaponizes Supply Chain, Sends America’s Largest Drone Maker Into Crisis

    America’s largest drone company and supplier of unmanned aircraft to the Ukrainian Armed Forces has been thrown into a supply chain crisis after Beijing imposed sanctions, barring it from sourcing drone parts from Chinese suppliers, according to a new Financial Times report. This is another wake-up call for American companies heavily reliant on China, highlighting the urgent need to ‘friend-shore’ or ‘reshore’ critical supply chains away from the world’s second-largest economy.

    Sources familiar with the situation told FT that Beijing imposed sanctions on Skydio to prevent it from sourcing battery components from Chinese firms. 

    On Wednseday, Skydio said the sanctions by China were “for selling drones to Taiwan, where our only customer today is the National Fire Agency.”

    Skydio CEO Adam Bry met with US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and senior White House officials last week to discuss the dire situation as the Chinese paralyzed part of the drone company’s supply chain.

    “This is a clarifying moment for the drone industry,” Bry told customers in a letter obtained by FT. He said, “If there was ever any doubt, this action makes clear that the Chinese government will use supply chains as a weapon to advance their interests over ours.”

    Bry continued, “This is an attempt to eliminate the leading American drone company and deepen the world’s dependence on Chinese drone suppliers.” 

    China initially unveiled the sanctions on October 11 as retaliation for Washington’s move to sell attack drones to Taiwan. The FT noted that the company recently secured a contract with Taiwan’s fire agency. 

    FT sources did not mention which of Skydio’s Chinese suppliers were affected by the sanctions.

    Using public trade data compiled by counterparty and supply chain risk intelligence firm Sayari, about 94.44% of Skydio’s drone component shipments came from Vietnam, 4.9% from Hong Kong, and .65% from China. 

    Source: Sayari 

    A list of Skydio’s suppliers – mainly in Asia. 

    Source: Sayari 

    Here is the latest drone part shipment data for Skydio. 

    Source: Sayari 

    One official told FT, “We suspect Skydio was targeted by Beijing because it is likely seen as a competitor to DJI,” adding, “If there is a silver lining, we can use this episode to accelerate our work to diversify drone supply chains away from . . . China.”

    It seems like a tit-for-tat-sanction war between America and the Chinese to weaken each other drone-manufacturing capabilities.

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    These Chinese sanctions undermine US defense and drone manufacturers … it’s time for ‘America First’ policies to avoid this kind of shitshow. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 19:20

  • "It Did Occur" – Kentucky County Clerk Confirms Voting Booth 'Glitch' Shifted Trump Votes To Kamala
    “It Did Occur” – Kentucky County Clerk Confirms Voting Booth ‘Glitch’ Shifted Trump Votes To Kamala

    Earlier in the day, a video went viral of voters in Kentucky having ‘issues’ with an electronic voting machine that selected “Kamala Harris” when the voter had pressed on “Donald Trump”…

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    Admittedly, we have seen a few of these style of clips over the past few weeks and viewed it with the same level of skepticism we usually do.

    However, this time is different because the local County Clerk just issued a statement on Facebook confirming the issue “did occur”… but not before he had denied it occurred.

    According to the Laurel County Clerk Tony Brown, the machine was taken out of service while waiting for a rep from the AG’s Office.

    Screenshot here (just in case something interesting happens to the statement)

    So, the initial reaction was:

    There is no vote rigging here. It’s just a vast right wing conspiracy.

    Then, 3 hours later…

    Ok, the voting machine was busted, but it really was just a “ballot marking device” and as long as you triple checked everything, you must have caught the error

    Here’s the full statement:

    The Attorney General’s office has been to the vote center to check the device that has been shown across social media today. In full disclosure, after several minutes of attempting to recreate the scenario, it did occur. This was accomplished by hitting some area in between the boxes. After that we tried for several minutes to do it again and could not.

    Since this is going out across the USA and the world, I want to explain to everyone that this is a ballot marking device. You insert your blank ballot into it to vote your specific ballot for your precinct. It shows you who you have chosen for each race and notifies you if you didn’t make a selection in a race before it allows the voter to continue to the next page. When you come to the end of the ballot it shows you how you voted in every race and issue.

    It confirms with each voter that they are satisfied with their selections twice before printing the ballot. Once you receive your ballot back from the ballot marking device you can review your choices again before placing it into the scanner. If you made a mistake, you may spoil that ballot and receive another one, Kentucky Law allows two spoiled ballots only. Once you are satisfied with your ballot you may place it into the scanner, and it verifies that it has been counted.

    These ballot marking devices are set for a voter to touch Inside the whole box with the name of the candidates. In the video posted you can see us going back and forth through the names with no issues. This is the same machine used by the voter in the video.

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    It remained at its location in the vote center and was set face down until the representative from the Attorney General’s Office arrived to investigate. There were no claims of any issues with the device prior, and none since it went back into service. The voter who posted the video did cast her ballot which she said was correct.

    I hate that this has occurred here in Laurel County.

    We strive to have accurate, secure and safe elections that we are proud to provide to our citizens. I hope all can get to the polls and make your voice heard November 5th. If you read through this entire post, thank you very much for your time.

    …isn’t it ‘funny’ how these ‘glitches’ are never in Trump’s favor?

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 19:00

  • Mail Ballots Without Dates Must Be Counted: Pennsylvania Court
    Mail Ballots Without Dates Must Be Counted: Pennsylvania Court

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A Pennsylvania court ruled on Oct. 30 that the state’s requirement for mail-in ballots to be correctly dated in order to be counted is unconstitutional, though the 3–2 decision, according to the judge’s opinion, applies only to a past special election.

    Poll workers demonstrate how ballots are received, processed, scanned, and stored on Election Day, at the Philadelphia Election Warehouse in Philadelphia on Oct. 25, 2024. Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images

    A Commonwealth Court panel upheld a ruling by a Philadelphia judge stating that 69 ballots from the special election, submitted on time but lacking handwritten dates, must be counted.

    While Pennsylvania law requires those voting by mail to date the envelope in which the ballot is returned, “multiple state and federal courts have determined that the dating provisions are meaningless, as they do not establish voter eligibility, timely ballot receipt, or fraud,” Commonwealth Court Judge Ellen Ceisler wrote for the majority.

    “We cannot countenance any law governing elections, determined to be mandatory or otherwise, that has the practical effect in its application of impermissibly infringing on certain individuals’ fundamental right to vote,” she said later. “We are not being asked to make changes with respect to the impending 2024 General Election.”

    In a dissenting opinion, Commonwealth Court Judge Patricia McCullough said the court should not have decided on the matter now because it “surely will confuse the expectations of both voters and county boards of elections alike.”

    “The only reason that either the trial court or the Majority would rule on this question now is precisely to change the rules for the already underway general election,” she said, referring to the Nov. 5 election in which some voters are casting early or absentee ballots.

    The timing of the decision deprives the Pennsylvania Supreme Court of a reasonable opportunity to review before the Nov. 5 election, Commonwealth Court Judge Matthew Wolf said in another dissent.

    “Pennsylvania voters cannot be disenfranchised for trivial reasons,” Stephen Loney, senior supervising attorney of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, which is representing plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement. “The dates written on return envelopes are completely meaningless, and everyone agrees that these ballots are from eligible voters and were timely received. Disqualifying voters for minor errors is a violation of the state constitution, which errs on the side of the voter.”

    The ruling went against the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, which, as intervenors, had asked the appeals court to overturn an earlier ruling by Court of Common Pleas Judge James Crumlish III. Crumlish’s ruling required the counting of the 69 ballots after finding that the date requirement violated the Pennsylvania Constitution.

    The Republicans have not yet reacted to the ruling.

    The Philadelphia Board of Elections, the defendant in the case, and which also appealed Crumlish’s ruling, did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

    Pennsylvania’s Department of State said in an Aug. 30 social media post that writing the date on ballot envelopes “provides no purpose to election administration.”

    Earlier this year, the Commonwealth Court also found the date requirement unconstitutional for voters who returned their ballots on time. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated this decision, stating that the Commonwealth Court lacked the authority to review the case due to the involvement of county election boards as defendants.

    McCullough said that the new ruling suffered from some of the same problems as the ruling that was vacated.

    Mimi McKenzie, legal director of the Public Interest Law Center, said after the latest ruling that the date requirement may be adjudicated further in the future and encouraged voters to still date the envelope in which a ballot is returned.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 18:55

  • North Korea Test Launches ICBM, Capable of Hitting US, With Record-Setting Flight
    North Korea Test Launches ICBM, Capable of Hitting US, With Record-Setting Flight

    North Korea is increasingly back in the news amid soaring tensions on multiple fronts, especially following accusations that it sent some 10,000 of its troops to Russia to prepare for possible deployment to fight in Ukraine.

    Pyongyang on Thursday test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time in almost a year. What’s more is that the flight is widely being described as a North Korean rocket’s longest ever flight time.

    Given that nuclear warhead-capable ICBMs can reach several thousands of miles away, such a missile would have the capability of hitting the continental United States. And the timing has not been lost on anyone, coming a mere days before the US presidential election.

    Via Reuters/illustrative: North Korea has been test-firing long range missiles such as the Hwasong-18, shown in this photograph from 13 July last year.

    “I affirm that the DPRK will never change its line of bolstering up its nuclear forces,” Kim Jong Un declared.

    The following detailed description and analysis of the launch’s implications was provided by NBC:

    The missile was launched from a site near the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, at 7:10 a.m. local time (6:10 p.m. Wednesday ET), South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. Spokesperson Lee Sung-joon said the missile was fired “at a very high altitude” and traveled more than 600 miles before it landed in the sea off North Korea’s east coast.

    The launch might have been held so close to the U.S. election to strengthen North Korea’s negotiating leverage and grab attention, Lee said.

    He said the weapon might have been fueled by solid propellants, which allow missiles to be launched faster and move more discreetly than liquid-fueled ones, and that it might have been fired from a 12-axle launch vehicle, which was revealed last month and is North Korea’s biggest mobile launch platform. 

    This might also be response to recent threatening language and warnings issued by US, NATO, and Ukrainian officials related to reports of North Korean troops in Ukraine.

    For example the US warned a UN security council meeting on Wednesday that North Korean troops will “come home in body bags”.

    Washington is also busy reaffirming the South Korea that it calls under America’s nuclear umbrella, according to treaties:

    “I assured Minister Kim today that the United States remains fully committed to the defense of the ROK and our extended deterrence commitment remains ironclad,” Austin said. “That commitment is backed by the full range of America’s conventional missile defense, nuclear and advanced non-nuclear capabilities.”

    He added that the US and South Korea will be returning “to large scale exercises” and “strengthening [their] combined readiness and our interoperability.”

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    And yet it is drills just like these which Kim Jong Un has cited over and over again as being justification enough to expand his nuclear arsenal.

    Pyongyang and Moscow are also in parallel deepening their defense ties, having inked their own pact this summer, and the Kremlin has cited this as the legal basis for North Korean troops being hosted in Russia.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 18:30

  • Watch: RFK Jr. Explains Plan For Reforming The CIA
    Watch: RFK Jr. Explains Plan For Reforming The CIA

    Authored by Ken Silva via Headline USA,

    Former President John F. Kennedy threatened to “splinter [the CIA] into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds” before he was assassinated in 1963. JFK’s nephew, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., wants something perhaps less dramatic.

    In a Trump campaign event with Tulsi Gabbard on Saturday, RFK explained his idea for reforming the CIA. According to him, reforming the CIA is as simple as splintering the “espionage” and “plans” divisions, which handle matters of intelligence and paramilitary operations, respectively. Those divisions are referred to today as the Directorate of Intelligence and Directorate of Operations.

    RFK said the two divisions need to be reorganized so the intelligence/espionage area has oversight of the paramilitary operations. He said his father had a similar plan when he was Attorney General.

    “My father had a reform plan … Break up espionage division from the plans division, which is paramilitary division that fixes elections, buys newspapers, assassinates foreign leaders and so on,” he said.

    “I would break up those divisions and … put espionage division oversight of plans division.”

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    Such a plan may seem tepid for a man who’s accused the CIA of being involved in the murder of his uncle. But RFK’s been surprisingly cordial with the agency. His daughter-in-law and campaign manager, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, was a CIA officer for 10 years.

    RFK also revealed at Saturday’s campaign event in North Carolina that he had dinner with former Trump-era CIA Director Mike Pompeo. RFK called Pompeo a “neocon” and said he disagreed with him on many policies, but also said he admired him, calling the former agency director brilliant.

    RFK said Pompeo told him that “The worst mistake of my public lie was not fixing CIA. I could have but I didn’t do it.”

    “The entire upper echelon of that agency is made of individuals who don’t believe in the institutions of the United States of America,” RFK said.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 18:05

  • Iran Readies Major Retaliatory Strike From Iraq 'In Coming Days': Israeli Officials
    Iran Readies Major Retaliatory Strike From Iraq ‘In Coming Days’: Israeli Officials

    Axios is reporting Thursday that Iran is still preparing a major retaliation in response to the Israeli aerial attack of the overnight and early morning hours of last Saturday. Israel’s strikes on missile and military facilities was itself a much anticipated response to the Oct.1st ballistic missile attack.

    While most regional observers believe the tit-for-tat has cooled down, reflected in declining oil prices this week, the Axios report cites a pair of Israeli officials to say “Israeli intelligence suggests Iran is preparing to attack Israel from Iraqi territory in the coming days, possibly before the US presidential election.”

    Wiki Commons

    This would involve large numbers of drones and ballistic missiles, they say. Throughout the Gaza war, there have been sporadic drones launched by Iran-backed paramilitary units in Iraq, but nothing on a major scale.

    Israeli sources on Thursday have suggested Iran is actually moving ballistic missiles to prepare for such an attack.

    Also, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Hossein Salami has been cited as saying that Iran’s response will be “different from any scenario” Israel might expect.

    CNN too has been reporting the fresh threats, on Wednesday writing the following based on Iranian military sources:

    Israel’s recent attacks on Iran will be met with a “definitive and painful” response that will likely come before the US presidential vote, a high-ranking source told CNN on Wednesday.

    The remarks signal a departure from Iran’s initial attempts to downplay the severity of the strikes carried out by Israel on October 25, which marked the first time Israel has openly acknowledged striking Iranian targets.

    “The response of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the aggression of the Zionist regime will be definitive and painful,” the source, who is familiar with Iran’s deliberations, said.

    Although the source did not provide an exact date for the attack, they said it “will probably take place before the day of the US presidential election.”

    Meanwhile, the Iraqi government is seething over Israeli warplanes violating its airspace during last weekend’s attack. It has lodged an official protest note with the United Nations about the illegal breach.

    It appears the some one hundred Israeli jets reportedly used in the attack fired on Iran from over neighboring Iraqi airspace. Such a tactic has long been utilized by the Israeli Air Force in attacking Syria, as it typically fires from over undefended Lebanese airspace.

    Currently US and Israeli negotiators say they are getting close to achieving a ceasefire with Hezbollah, but any new large-scale attack from the ‘Iranian axis’ would surely jeopardize such a potential deal.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 17:45

  • Make Election Day A Federal Holiday, Require In-Person Voting
    Make Election Day A Federal Holiday, Require In-Person Voting

    Authored by Ethan Watson via RealClearPolitics,

    Our calendars are full of useless holidays. Just last week, we saw Credit Union Day, Mashed Potato Day, and Raw Milk Cheese Appreciation Day. While observances like these are otherwise irrelevant at the national level, there is one day of the year that has long lacked federal “holiday” status: Election Day.

    Unlike offhanded observances such as Earth Day, on which life goes on as usual, Election Day ought to be an official federal holiday like Presidents’ Day or Thanksgiving, with all non-essential workers receiving a paid day off to carry out their civic duty. Establishing this yearly event as a federal holiday would increase voter turnout, restore faith in our elections, and, most importantly, boost morale through a shared civic display.

    Designating Election Day as a national holiday and giving workers the day off would largely mitigate the need for accommodations like mail-in voting and early voting, allowing policymakers to require in-person voting except in special circumstances. This would also make possible a mass return to paper ballots, eliminating the need for voting machines which have been swamped in scandal since 2020.

    Some say mail-in voting is ripe for manipulation; others contend voting machines are prone to hacks and glitches. While it’s difficult to quantify how much voting machines or absentee ballots have increased the risk of election-rigging, if at all, it’s clear that a significant number of Americans have lost faith in our elections – just as they’ve lost faith in our media, our government, and their friends and neighbors.

    In a world where most Americans have the day off work and vote in person, on a paper ballot, many common doubts about our election system become moot. Of course, exceptions will apply for essential workers or citizens temporarily living in a different state, but the vast majority of Americans would have to physically go to a polling place on Election Day and vote. Volunteers would then count the paper ballots onsite, significantly reducing doubts about voting machine integrity or ballots lost in the mail.

    Prominent right-wingers like Vivek Ramaswamy have actually promoted this plan over the course of the 2024 election, citing election integrity concerns. Yet, making Election Day a federal holiday would go far beyond healing the election-denial wound – it would generate patriotism with a new shared tradition.

    Civic virtue is a good thing, and public reminders of it are even better. To appreciate our democracy and commit ourselves to maintaining it, we need a public reminder that tyranny, not democracy, has been the norm throughout human history. The United States is exceptional because we establish power not through strength, but by consensus.

    As humans, we need physical reminders to keep us mindful of such abstract truths. That’s why we build churches, write great works of literature, and even get tattoos. If the principles we hold dear aren’t manifested in anything, we lose them.

    A mass migration of Americans to the polls every year would become a powerful symbol of our democracy’s resilience, a shining example to the world that our grand experiment worked. Moreover, a whole day for voting could inspire people to participate in state and local elections – affairs that have an even greater impact on their daily lives than national elections.

    People would look forward to voting. It would become a celebrated ritual in a public life otherwise devoid of shared traditions. One could imagine pre-voting brunches and post-voting barbecues. Families could go to the polls in the morning and spend the rest of the day enjoying their freedom and leisure together. Children would grow up looking forward to participating in their citizenship, just like we look forward to Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the first day of summer vacation.

    These days, Americans can’t even agree on whether the Fourth of July is a day worth celebrating (spoiler alert, it is). But without a shared culture, we cannot have a nation. It’s time to start rebuilding that shared culture with a national day that puts our exceptional founding ideals to work.

    Ethan Watson is a Young Voices contributor working towards a Master of Accounting degree at the University of Kansas. He holds dual undergraduate degrees in Accounting and Political Science with an eye toward law school in the near future. Follow him on X: @erwatson13.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 17:25

  • Apple Slides After Guiding Below Consensus, Missing On Wearables, China And Service Revenues
    Apple Slides After Guiding Below Consensus, Missing On Wearables, China And Service Revenues

    Update (530pm ET): AAPL is sliding to session lows after hours after revealing some very lukewarm guidance on the call, saying it now expects Q1 revenue to grow in the low to mid-single digits YoY (assume 4-6%). The sellside consensus is at 7%.

    As Bloomberg notes, “low to mid single digits” growth means a slowdown for Apple, which just reported a 6% sales rise. So it’s understandable why shares moved south after that pronouncement. They’re now down about 2% in extended trading.

    So much for the AI revolution sparking  a new iPhone supercycle (which would lead to double digit revenue growth).

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    * * *

    Ahead of earnings, UBS had Apple sentiment at a relatively subdued 6/10. That’s because despite AI enthusiasm following Apple’s WWDC event over the summer, UBS analyst David Vogt’s checks and other ancedotal evidence indicated iPhone unit sell-through in the Sept quarter was effectively flattish year over year at around 46 mn versus global sell-through up 2% y/y. Vogt previewed, anticipating September Quarter results largely in line with his forecast of $94 bn/$158 bn with a chance for upside driven by iPad and flattish iPhone units of 46 mn versus sell-through up 2% y/y. Factoring in 5 mn iPhone channel fill, David forecasts 51 mn iPhone units and iPhone revenue of $45.7 bn and expectations of 4-5 mn beat (following a report from IDC suggesting 56 mn units in Q3) with balanced December Quarter commentary. David anticipates only a modest tailwind from AI in the Dec Quarter and forecasts 78 mn iPhone units and remains at neutral and a $236 price target.

    Furthermore, despite multiple observations that AI is not boosting iPhone sales (see “Apple Intelligence is here. Early users are underwhelmed”), investors continue to give Apple the benefit of the doubt of a successful iPhone 16 launch, which thus far is not overly supportive based on checks/sell-through. Many appear to be holding out for further confirmation until the rollout of Apple Intelligence but David anticipates balanced commentary regarding December Quarter iPhone demand. Valuation is a common pushback, but absent a significant iPhone miss UBS is not sure the Q3 results will be much of a catalyst either way for the stock. In terms of flows, more long only demand/buyers for the most part.

    So with all that in mind, here is what AAPL just reported for the quarter ended Sept 30:

    • Adjusted EPS 1.64 c vs. $1.46 y/y, beating estimates of 1.58
    • Revenue $94.93 billion, +6.1% y/y, beating estimates of $94.36 billion
      • Products revenue $69.96 billion, +4.1% y/y, beating estimates $69.15 billion
        • IPhone revenue $46.22 billion, +5.5% y/y, beating estimates  $45.04 billion, and an all time record for the company’s fiscal Q4.
        • Mac revenue $7.74 billion, +1.7% y/y, in line with estimates $7.74 billion
        • IPad revenue $6.95 billion, +7.9% y/y, missing estimates $7.07 billion
        • Wearables, home and accessories $9.04 billion, -3% y/y, missing estimate $9.17 billion
      • Service revenue $24.97 billion, +12% y/y, missing estimate $25.27 billion

    The one – very big – fly in the ointment was the usual suspect: China, where revenues unexpectedly dropped again, down 0.3% YoY:

    • Greater China rev. $15.03 billion, -0.3% y/y, missing estimate $15.8 billion

    Going down the line”

    • Total operating expenses $14.29 billion, +6.2% y/y, below estimates $14.35 billion
    • Cost of sales $51.05 billion, +4% y/y, above estimates $50.81 billion
    • Gross margin $43.88 billion, +8.5% y/y, above estimate $43.46 billion
    • Cash and cash equivalents $29.94 billion vs. $29.97 billion y/y, above estimate $26.04 billion

    And so on:

    Looking at a breakdown of sales by product category we find that revenue from the iPhone came in higher than expected, lifting overall revenue. It came in at $46.2 billion, beating estimates of $45 billion and growing over $1 billion year-over-year. Yet while Apple’s marketing engine around Apple Intelligence worked, the number came in somewhat shy of the more optimistic forecasts.

    The rest of the product suite was mixed with Mac revenue coming in line with est at $7.74bn, while both iPads and wearables missed expectations ($6.95BN vs exp. $7.07BN, and $9.04BN, vs exp. $9.17BN).

    • Macs came in with an about $100 million annual revenue increase, meeting Wall Street estimates of $7.7 billion. New Macs released this week should help that product segment in the current quarter. 
    • The iPad was a surprising miss, coming in just shy of $7 billion despite the release of the new iPad Pro and iPad Air models earlier this year. A new iPad mini released this month is unlikely to help materially.
    • Wearables, Home and Accessories was another disappointment, declining considerably and missing Wall Street expectations. There simply is not a lot of excitement in Apple’s wearables segment right now — and the new AirPods are now an early-adopter product that aren’t likely to generate much momentum in the fourth quarter.
    • The other concerning part about Wearables, Home and Accessories is that revenue continues to fall despite Apple launching a $3,500 device that is its first major new product category in a decade as part of the segment this year.

    As Bloomberg notes, the iPad and Wearables numbers “are pretty concerning” and it feels like the overall wearables segment for Apple is tapering –– but it’s worth noting two of the bigger drivers there (the Apple Watch Ultra and AirPods Pro) haven’t seen meaningful updates in two years.

    To be sure, it wasn’t all bad news: the fact that sales of iPhone — despite looking the same for half a decade and including little to no compelling upgrades over the prior few models — increased is a testament to Apple’s marketing might and brand strength. There are no signs of the iconic product slowing down.

    But, at some point, Apple is going to need to inject some innovative — not iterative — changes in order to once again stand out from the crowd. Apple is extraordinarily lucky that its competitors in the consumer electronics space are doing absolutely nothing to take advantage of the opportunity in front of them to outpace Apple.

    There was another disappointment: contrary to expectations for a modest rebound, China sales declined for a fifth consecutive quarter, down 0.3%, and printing at $15.03BN, below the $15.8BN estimate. The rest of the world saw growth, modest in the Americas at 3.9%, and stronger in Europe and APAC, both double digits.

    As Bloomberg notes, Greater China continues to be a weak spot for Apple and the company hasn’t done much to push new products, pricing and initiatives in that market — or other emerging areas — to offset the issues.

    The weakness there, which Apple will try to explain away in its conference call, is because of a combination of nationalism and interest in local products, whose designs are getting better. The local players are also trying new things like foldables while Apple continues to use the same design it rolled out five years ago.

    Still, while revenues have declined for 5 quarter, the modest upward movement in YoY sales is encouraging.

    Once again, Apple reached a new record in terms of its installed base of devices around the world. Yet with iPhone revenue ahead but China revenue missing, there’s a question: Did iPhone grow in China?

    And while we wait for the answer, there was more disappointment for AAPL because after wearables and China missed, so did Service revenue, which at $24.97BN, up 12%, came light of estimates $25.27BN.

    While services revenue was at an all-time record, the softness could become even softer in the future if governments continue to get their way and make Apple open up its App Store to alternative distribution and payment methods.

    Commenting on the quarter, CFO Luca Maestri said that “our record business performance during the September quarter drove nearly $27 billion in operating cash flow, allowing us to return over $29 billion to our shareholders. We are very pleased that our active installed base of devices reached a new all-time high across all products and all geographic segments, thanks to our high levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty.”

    Well at least the company is buying back stock hand over fist (it repurchased $25BN in the quarter), because shareholders are increasingly leery to do so. And speaking of blemishes, it is also worth noting that the dollar value for inventories in the quarter was around $900 million higher than the same period a year ago. Suppliers are a part of that: remember, Apple doesn’t make its own phones!

    Putting it together, these mixed results will affirm concerns among investors that Apple is losing its shine considerably in China while continuing to flood the market with products that consumers simply don’t find appealing, as well as devices that are only iterative tweaks from prior versions. And so far, nothing Apple has shown in terms of its AI technology has the look of a company that is set to own a core piece of that industry moving forward.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/31/2024 – 17:16

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Oct 31

Today’s News 31st October 2024

  • The Politics Of Fear: Laying The Groundwork For Fascism, American-Style
    The Politics Of Fear: Laying The Groundwork For Fascism, American-Style

    Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.”

    – Edward R. Murrow, broadcast journalist

    America is in the midst of an epidemic of historic proportions.

    The contagion being spread like wildfire is turning communities into battlegrounds and setting Americans one against the other.

    Normally mild-mannered individuals caught up in the throes of this disease have been transformed into belligerent zealots, while others inclined to pacifism have taken to stockpiling weapons and practicing defensive drills.

    This plague on our nation—one that has been spreading like wildfire—is a potent mix of fear coupled with unhealthy doses of paranoia and intolerance, tragic hallmarks of the post-9/11 America in which we live.

    Everywhere you turn, those on both the left- and right-wing are fomenting distrust and division. You can’t escape it.

    We’re being fed a constant diet of fear: fear of terrorists, fear of illegal immigrants, fear of people who are too religious, fear of people who are not religious enough, fear of extremists, fear of conformists, fear of the government, fear of those who fear the government, fear of those on the Right, fear of those on the Left… The list goes on and on.

    The strategy is simple yet effective: the best way to control a populace is through fear and discord.

    Fear makes people stupid.

    Confound them, distract them with mindless news chatter and entertainment, pit them against one another by turning minor disagreements into major skirmishes, and tie them up in knots over matters lacking in national significance.

    Most importantly, divide the people into factions, persuade them to see each other as the enemy and keep them screaming at each other so that they drown out all other sounds. In this way, they will never reach consensus about anything and will be too distracted to notice the police state closing in on them until the final crushing curtain falls.

    This is how free people enslave themselves and allow tyrants to prevail. 

    This Machiavellian scheme has so ensnared the nation that few Americans even realize they are being manipulated into adopting an “us” against “them” mindset. Instead, fueled with fear and loathing for phantom opponents, they agree to pour millions of dollars and resources into political elections, militarized police, spy technology and endless wars, hoping for a guarantee of safety that never comes.

    All the while, those in power—bought and paid for by lobbyists and corporations—move their costly agendas forward, and “we the suckers” get saddled with the tax bills and subjected to pat downs, police raids and round-the-clock surveillance.

    Turn on the TV or flip open the newspaper on any given day, and you will find yourself accosted by reports of government corruption, corporate malfeasance, militarized police and marauding SWAT teams.

    America has already entered a new phase, one in which children are arrested in schools, military veterans are forcibly detained by government agents because of their so-called “anti-government” views, and law-abiding Americans are having their movements tracked, their financial transactions documented, and their communications monitored.

    These threats are not to be underestimated.

    Yet even more dangerous than these violations of our basic rights is the language in which they are couched: the language of fear. It is a language spoken effectively by politicians on both sides of the aisle, shouted by media pundits from their cable TV pulpits, marketed by corporations, and codified into bureaucratic laws that do little to make our lives safer or more secure.

    This language of fear has given rise to a politics of fear whose only aim is to distract and divide us. In this way, we have been discouraged from thinking analytically and believing that we have any part to play in solving the problems before us. Instead, we have been conditioned to point the finger at the other Person or vote for this Politician or support this Group, because they are the ones who will fix it. Except that they can’t and won’t fix the problems plaguing our communities.

    Nevertheless, fear remains the method most often used by politicians to increase the power of government.

    The government’s overblown, extended wars on terrorism, drugs, violence, disease, illegal immigration, and so-called domestic extremism have been convenient ruses used to terrorize the populace into relinquishing more of their freedoms in exchange for elusive promises of security.

    An atmosphere of fear permeates modern America. However, with crime at an all-time low, is such fear rational?

    Statistics show that you are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack. You are 11,000 times more likely to die from an airplane accident than from a terrorist plot involving an airplane. You are 1,048 times more likely to die from a car accident than a terrorist attack. You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack. You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocating in bed than from a terrorist attack. And you are 9 more times likely to choke to death in your own vomit than die in a terrorist attack.

    Indeed, those living in the American police state are 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist. Thus, the government’s endless jabbering about terrorism amounts to little more than propaganda—the propaganda of fear—a tactic used to terrorize, cower and control the population.

    In turn, the government’s stranglehold on power and extreme paranoia about the citizenry as potential threats has resulted in a populace that is increasingly viewed as the government’s enemies.

    Why else would the government feel the need to monitor our communications, track our movements, criminalize our every action, treat us like suspects, and strip us of any means of defense while equipping its own personnel with an amazing arsenal of weapons?

    So far, these tactics—terrorizing the citizenry over the government’s paranoia and overblown fears while treating them like criminals—are working to transform the way “we the people” view ourselves and our role in this nation.

    Indeed, fear and paranoia have become hallmarks of the modern American experience, impacting how we as a nation view the world around us, how we as citizens view each other, and most of all how our government views us.

    The American people have been reduced to what commentator Dan Sanchez refers to as “herd-minded hundreds of millions [who] will stampede to the State for security, bleating to please, please be shorn of their remaining liberties.”

    Sanchez continues:

    I am not terrified of the terrorists; i.e., I am not, myself, terrorized. Rather, I am terrified of the terrorized; terrified of the bovine masses who are so easily manipulated by terrorists, governments, and the terror-amplifying media into allowing our country to slip toward totalitarianism and total war…

    I do not irrationally and disproportionately fear Muslim bomb-wielding jihadists or white, gun-toting nutcases. But I rationally and proportionately fear those who do, and the regimes such terror empowers. History demonstrates that governments are capable of mass murder and enslavement far beyond what rogue militants can muster. Industrial-scale terrorists are the ones who wear ties, chevrons, and badges. But such terrorists are a powerless few without the supine acquiescence of the terrorized many. There is nothing to fear but the fearful themselves…

    Stop swallowing the overblown scaremongering of the government and its corporate media cronies. Stop letting them use hysteria over small menaces to drive you into the arms of tyranny, which is the greatest menace of all.

    As history makes clear, fear and government paranoia lead to fascist, totalitarian regimes.

    It’s a simple enough formula. National crises, reported terrorist attacks, and sporadic shootings leave us in a constant state of fear. Fear prevents us from thinking. The emotional panic that accompanies fear actually shuts down the prefrontal cortex or the rational thinking part of our brains. In other words, when we are consumed by fear, we stop thinking.

    A populace that stops thinking for themselves is a populace that is easily led, easily manipulated and easily controlled.

    The following, derived by from John T. Flynn’s 1944 treatise on fascism As We Go Marching are a few of the necessary ingredients for a fascist state:

    • The government is managed by a powerful leader (even if he or she assumes office by way of the electoral process). This is the fascistic leadership principle (or father figure).

    • The government assumes it is not restrained in its power. This is authoritarianism, which eventually evolves into totalitarianism.

    • The government ostensibly operates under a capitalist system while being undergirded by an immense bureaucracy.

    • The government through its politicians emits powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.

    • The government has an obsession with national security while constantly invoking terrifying internal and external enemies.

    • The government establishes a domestic and invasive surveillance system and develops a paramilitary force that is not answerable to the citizenry.

    • The government and its various agencies (federal, state, and local) develop an obsession with crime and punishment. This is overcriminalization.

    • The government becomes increasingly centralized while aligning closely with corporate powers to control all aspects of the country’s social, economic, military, and governmental structures.

    • The government uses militarism as a center point of its economic and taxing structure.

    • The government is increasingly imperialistic in order to maintain the military-industrial corporate forces.

    The parallels to modern America are impossible to ignore.

    “Every industry is regulated. Every profession is classified and organized. Every good or service is taxed. Endless debt accumulation is preserved. Immense doesn’t begin to describe the bureaucracy. Military preparedness never stops, and war with some evil foreign foe, remains a daily prospect,” writes economist Jeffrey Tucker.

    “It’s incorrect to call fascism either right wing or left wing. It is both and neither… fascism does not seek to overthrow institutions like commercial establishments, family, religious centers, and civic traditions. It seeks to control them… it preserves most of what people hold dear but promises to improve economic, social, and cultural life through unifying their operations under government control.”

    For the final hammer of fascism to fall, it will require the most crucial ingredient: the majority of the people will have to agree that it’s not only expedient but necessary. In times of “crisis,” expediency is upheld as the central principle—that is, in order to keep us safe and secure, the government must militarize the police, strip us of basic constitutional rights and criminalize virtually every form of behavior.

    We are at a critical crossroads in American history.

    As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, fear has been a critical tool in past fascistic regimes, and it has become the driving force behind the American police state.

    All of which begs the question what we will give up in order to perpetuate the illusions of safety and security.

    As we once again find ourselves faced with the prospect of voting for the lesser of two evils, “we the people” have a decision to make: do we simply participate in the collapse of the American republic as it degenerates toward a totalitarian regime, or do we take a stand and reject the pathetic excuse for government that is being fobbed off on us?

    There is no easy answer, but one thing is true: the lesser of two evils is still evil.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 23:50

  • Did Boston Dynamics Get Jealous After Spotlight On Tesla's Optimus Robot?
    Did Boston Dynamics Get Jealous After Spotlight On Tesla’s Optimus Robot?

    Less than a day after Tesla CEO Elon Musk made bold claims at the Future Investment Initiative Conference in Saudi Arabia, touting big AI growth in the coming years, which is only suggestive of powerful tailwinds for his Optimus robot, Boston Dynamics—once the leader in viral humanoid robot videos—published a clip on YouTube on Wednesday morning showcasing its robot performing typical warehouse tasks usually carried out by workers in Amazon distribution centers.

    Maybe a bit of jealousy is unfolding between Boston Dynamics and Musk’s Optimus robot, which has received a lot of attention in October – from the “We, Robot“ event on October 10 to Musk’s comment at the event in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday:

    “I think by 2040, probably there are more humanoid robots than there are people. Every country will have an AI or multiple AIs, and there will be a lot of robots, way more robots than people.”

    Back to the We, Robot event, where Musk said Optimus will cost less than $30,000 and forecasted that the humanoid robot will be the company’s most popular product in the years ahead… 

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

    Maybe all this attention on Optimus provoked Boston Dynamics to release a video of its bipedal humanoid robot, Atlas.  

    Here’s more from Boston Dynamics:

    Atlas is autonomously moving engine covers between supplier containers and a mobile sequencing dolly. The robot receives as input a list of bin locations to move parts between.

    Atlas uses a machine learning (ML) vision model to detect and localize the environment fixtures and individual bins [0:36]. The robot uses a specialized grasping policy and continuously estimates the state of manipulated objects to achieve the task.

    There are no prescribed or teleoperated movements; all motions are generated autonomously online. The robot is able to detect and react to changes in the environment (e.g., moving fixtures) and action failures (e.g., failure to insert the cover, tripping, environment collisions [1:24]) using a combination of vision, force, and proprioceptive sensors.

    Suppose robots and AI are forecasted to lead to millions of job losses in the years ahead. Then why did Democrats facilitate the greatest migrant invasion this nation has ever seen with low-skilled, unvetted illegal aliens when many of those jobs are likely to be automated away? Ah, yes, it’s all about the votes.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 23:25

  • The Spinal Tap Election: Everything Is Turned Up To 11
    The Spinal Tap Election: Everything Is Turned Up To 11

    Authored by Charles Lipson via RealClearPolitics,

    To hear the candidates and their surrogates tell it, we live in Weimar Germany 1932. There are only fascists fighting communists, with nobody in the middle. The candidates have eagerly pinned those noxious labels on their opponents.

    MSNBC, which competes with ABC and CBS for dreadful news judgment, drove home that point with its coverage of Trump’s closing rally at Madison Square Garden. Amid clips of the Trump event, they spliced clips of Nazi rallies. Subtlety be damned.

    A better analogy than Weimar is “Spinal Tap,” the mockumentary about a hapless heavy metal band. In one scene, the band’s guitarist, Nigel Tufnel, explains why his amplifiers are louder than everyone else’s. Their amplifier dials only go up to 10. His go up to 11.

    Tufnel: It’s one louder, isn’t it? … What we do is if we need that extra … push over the cliff … you know what we do?

    Interviewer Marty DeBergi: Put it up to eleven.

    Tufnel:  Eleven. Exactly. One louder.

    That is American politics today. One louder. But with everyone louder – and angrier – no one can hear each other.

    With the amps at 11 and the country ideologically polarized, we are pushing America toward the cliff. Both parties think that’s the other’s fault.

    These intense passions won’t end when the ballots are counted, especially if the results are close. In 2020, Trump impugned the results and the winner’s legitimacy. In 2016, after Hillary Clinton lost, she repeatedly denounced Trump as an illegitimate president. That rhetoric mobilizes the most extreme followers. It’s kindling wood for violence, exactly what a constitutional democracy should avoid with the peaceful transfer of power.

    This turbulence has two sources. One is short-term, a cynical tactic to increase partisan turnout. Get them to the polls by playing on their fears. The other is long-term. Both sides are genuinely scared about what the other side will do if they win. Those two sources, long-term and short-term, reinforce each other.

    They push us toward the cliff. Before plunging over, it’s time for sensible people to take a deep breath and assess the real differences, not the hype, and consider how to cope with the dangers.

    The most fundamental point is this: America’s best protection against extreme dangers are robust constitutional institutions, combined with impartial law enforcement.

    What are these vital institutional protections?

    • Separation of powers
    • Respect for the rule of law
    • Impartial enforcement of our laws
    • Protection for the minority party’s rights, ensured by the Senate filibuster
    • Limits on presidential fiat, not governance by constant Executive Orders
    • Requirements that major rules proposed by administrative agencies receive clear approval from elected representatives before they can be implemented
    • Restraint and effective oversight on the enormous, secretive power of the FBI, Department of Justice, and intelligence agencies, whose actions must be kept within constitutional bounds and never used for domestic political gain or political blackmail

    These institutional protections are the load-bearing walls of constitutional democracy. All of them have been under enormous strain, mostly by partisans who care far more about achieving their preferred outcomes than about preserving constitutional methods for achieving them. Indeed, they would readily change those methods, such as packing the Supreme Court, to achieve their goals.

    The dangers have grown because the policy differences between the two parties today are deep and fundamental. These are not the differences between Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson, or between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. They are deeper, angrier, and laden with almost-religious fervor. Apostates are excommunicated.

    These opposing views are amplified in today’s media landscape, which is characterized by separate silos for separate audiences. People tune in to see their views confirmed and others’ denigrated.

    Amid these changes, the base constituencies of both parties have moved away from the center, away from the possibilities of compromise.

    These cleavages are prominent in issues freighted with social and cultural meaning. That’s certainly true for disputes surrounding abortion and transgender rights. Both issues have practical consequences, but the disputes go further. They are fights over cultural symbols that matter to many people who have no direct, personal stake in reproductive rights or gender changes.

    For many women, abortion is a hard-won right and they believe that they alone should decide whether to keep their pregnancy or terminate it. Achieving that right (codified in the 1973 Roe v .Wade decision) was the most important feminist victory since the advent of voting rights for women. Their political opponents say pregnant women should not have unfettered discretion to deal with pregnancy since it involves another, innocent life. The debate over women’s rights, human autonomy, and the protection of innocents is suffused with both practical consequences and symbolic weight.

    The same is true for transgender rights. The right of adults to choose their gender is now widely accepted, a major change from 20 or 30 years ago. The battles now are whether children should be subject to irreversible changes, who should make those decisions, whether transgender women (born men) should compete against biological women and girls in sports, whether biological and transgender girls should use the same bathrooms and locker rooms, and whether taxpayers should pay for gender-changing operations on prison inmates and illegal aliens. The numbers involved in these issues are relatively small, but their symbolic weight is large. Opposing sides face each other across a cultural chasm, drenched with contempt for the opposition.

    These differences are playing out against a disorienting background condition, which is often ignored when we discuss politics and culture. The basic structure of modern economies is changing rapidly. The last such disorienting economic change was the Great Depression and, before that, the Second Industrial Revolution in the 1890s (the advent of big steel, oil, chemicals, and large corporations to manage them). Both the 1890s and 1930s produced long-lasting shifts in voters’ political alignments.

    We are seeing another great realignment now, driven (on the economic side) by rapid innovation in computer technology, artificial intelligence, and robotics. When those are combined with low-cost transportation, virtually free communication, and trade rules that encourage globalization, the result is social dislocation and disorientation. There is a palpable threat to employment in American manufacturing and, increasingly, in service industries.

    Both political parties have responded by supporting trade protection, with Trump taking the lead. Doing so has helped him forge a populist Republican Party, centered on the working-class.

    Amid these vast changes and bitter ideological differences, it is hardly surprising to see our political discourse becoming more virulent, depicting the opposition as “enemies,” as Trump has done for some elected representatives (and not just violent extremists).

    The only way to contain those differences peacefully is to channel them through established democratic institutions, using well-established procedures. That’s the only hope the losing side will accept the results as legitimate.

    To propose major changes to those institutions risks further undermining their already-wobbly legitimacy. To impose those changes for immediate political victories, to impose them with support from only one party, is worse than foolhardy. It’s dangerous. It would keep the amplifiers pinned on 11 while we scream at each other across the deafening noise.

    Charles Lipson is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University of Chicago. His latest book is Free Speech 101: A Practical Guide for Students. He can be reached at charles.lipson@gmail.com.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 23:00

  • Trick-Or-Treat Around The World
    Trick-Or-Treat Around The World

    Trick-or-treating has been associated with Halloween celebrations in the U.S. and Canada since the early 1900s, but, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz shows below, traditions of children going door to door in a quest for treats exist in many parts of the world, with one European custom being widely recognized as the precursor of the North American tradition.

    Infographic: Trick-or-Treat Around the World | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    As far back as the Middle Ages, people in the British Isles dressed up for holidays and went from door to door performing scenes in order to receive a thank-you in the form of food and drink.

    The tradition is preserved today in Scotland and Ireland under the name guising and features dressed-up children rather than theater displays.

    The origin of Halloween, celebrated on October 31, also goes back to Celtic traditions, more specifically the Samhain festival, which marked the beginning of winter and a time when fairies and spirits needed to be appeased. 

    Like many Christian holidays, All Saints’ Day (November 1) and its eve, All Hallows’ Day, coincide with the pagan festival and trick-or-treating is done in Portugal on the first day of November.

    All Saints’ Day also has a big significance in Mexico (celebrated as Day of the Dead there) but U.S. Halloween traditions have also been adopted, most heavily in the Northern and Central parts of the country, where the custom is named calaverita (litte skull) after the sugar skulls which are gifted for the festival.

    But scary dress and trick-or-treating antics are not tied to a single date: Scandinavian children engage in them around Easter, while those in Northern Germany and Southern Denmark pick New Year’s Eve. In Southern Germany, Austria Switzerland, the Netherlands and Flanders in Belgium, treats are given out not for threats, but for songs, which children perform on November 11 (St. Martin’s Day). Caroling for sweets is also performed during Ramadan in Central Asia. This is where trick-or-treating blends into Christmas caroling, which is sometimes also rewarded with food offerings, for example in Eastern Europe.

    The practice is associated most closely with England and the United States, but involves adults as well as children and more commonly the collection of money, for example for charity.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 22:35

  • US Coast Guard To Expand Presence, Cooperation In Indo-Pacific Amid China Concerns
    US Coast Guard To Expand Presence, Cooperation In Indo-Pacific Amid China Concerns

    Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The U.S. Coast Guard said that it intends to send specialized forces, training teams, and other capacity-building assets to help Indo-Pacific allies bolster their ability to safeguard exclusive economic zones and protect their natural resources from exploitation, according to the Coast Guard 2024 operational posture report released on Oct. 25.

    Crew members look out from a U.S. Coast Guard cutter before the start of a rescue exercise, on Dec. 6, 2000. Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images

    The report states that the region remains “a top regional priority” for the United States, citing its geostrategic importance, vital role in global trade, and the need to ensure “a free, open, and rules-based maritime order.”

    “We are expanding our presence and cooperation in Southeast and South Asia, with a focus on advising, training, deployment, and capacity building,” the Coast Guard stated while also pledging to continue to support its allies’ efforts in combating “predatorial fishing practices.”

    The report comes amid growing concerns over China’s military assertiveness in the region but did not mention the Chinese communist regime by name. It stated that the United States aims to boost the capacity of regional coast guards to support them in countering “malign influence,” enforcing their laws and addressing their priority interests such as climate change.

    According to the report, the Coast Guard will deploy its National Security cutters—the centerpiece of its fleet—to the Western Pacific and move the 270-foot Harriet Lane cutter to the Indo-Pacific. The Coast Guard said it will also maintain operations of fast response cutters and buoy tenders in Oceania.

    During an Oct. 18 press conference, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned that China’s “increasingly coercive” behavior in the Indo-Pacific could have implications for the whole world and that cooperation with Indo-Pacific allies has become vital.

    “We’re also troubled by the growing alignment between Russia and the People’s Republic of China [PRC], including the PRC’s support for [Russian President Vladimir Putin’s] indefensible war of choice against Ukraine, and that makes our close cooperation with our Indo-Pacific friends more vital than ever,” he stated.

    The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been criticized for its increasingly aggressive actions against its neighboring countries, particularly Taiwan, the Philippines, and Japan.

    Last month, China conducted joint military drills with Russian naval and air forces in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk, north of Japan’s Hokkaido Island, aiming to boost their strategic military cooperation and enhance “the ability to jointly respond to security threats.”

    Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense has reported a surge in Chinese military activity around the island in recent months. On Oct. 27, the ministry said it had detected 22 Chinese military aircraft and seven vessels near the island’s vicinity, with 17 of the aircraft spotted crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait.

    On Oct. 10, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. criticized Chinese coast guards for blasting horns, firing water cannons, and ramming Philippine maritime boats during three separate clashes near the disputed Sabina Shoal, also known as Xianbin in Beijing and Escoda in Manila.

    The United States announced last week $8 million in new funding to modernize the Philippines Coast Guard (PCG), following the U.S.-Philippines maritime dialogue held in Manila on Oct. 24.

    The funding will be used to support the PCG’s infrastructure enhancement, training program development, and resource acquisition and management planning, according to an Oct.28 statement by the U.S. Embassy in Manila.

    During the meeting, delegates from the two countries reviewed ongoing cooperative efforts and discussed ways to address maritime concerns in the disputed South China Sea.

    Both sides underscored the importance of upholding the 2016 arbitral award on the South China Sea, which ruled in favor of the Philippines in its legal action against China and declared that Beijing’s sovereignty claims had no legal basis. The CCP has refused to accept or recognize the ruling.

    Beijing has asserted territorial claims over nearly the entire South China Sea, including reefs and islands that overlap with the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan, and the Philippines.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 22:10

  • Nosy NYTimes Journos Uncover Elon Musk's Secret Luxury Compound In Austin  
    Nosy NYTimes Journos Uncover Elon Musk’s Secret Luxury Compound In Austin  

    The world’s richest man and Donald Trump’s most prominent supporter has reportedly acquired two mansions in Austin, Texas, within walking distance of each other, paying upwards of $35 million for the villas to support his growing family (of which there are at least 11).  

    Nosy New York Times journalists, citing sources and public records … 

    … were the first to report that Musk acquired two mansions in Austin, all within walking distance of each, for $35 million. They said one of the mansions was a 14,400-square-foot mansion resembling a Tuscan home. The other home was directly behind it. 

    Sources told the NYTimes there was a third mansion about a 10-minute walk away—this is the home Musk usually stays at while in Austin. 

    NYT journos wrote:

    Three mansions, three mothers, 11 children and one secretive, multibillionaire father who obsesses about declining birthrates when he isn’t overseeing one of his six companies: It is an unconventional family situation, and one that Mr. Musk seems to want to make even bigger. 

    Musk moved to Austin after dumping his California mansions and shifted his companies, SpaceX, Tesla, and the Boring Company, to Texas. This decision was primarily because Governor Gavin Newsom and far-left Democrats ruined California with backfiring progressive policies that sparked a tidal wave of violent crime. Plus, business conditions in the state are atrocious compared with Texas. 

    In Musk’s mind, imploding global fertility rates are the biggest crisis of our lifetime: “A collapsing birth rate is the biggest danger civilization faces, by far.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 21:45

  • Election Lawsuits Heat Up
    Election Lawsuits Heat Up

    Authored by The Epoch Times Staff,

    As election day approaches, courts have been making a series of decisions that bear on how Americans’ votes get counted in the 2024 election cycle.

    Virginia, a critical swing state, sought the Supreme Court’s intervention yesterday – just eight days before Election Day – after two lower courts blocked its effort to purge non-citizens from its voter rolls. The Justice Department (DOJ) had sued the commonwealth and won an injunction over its purported violation of the National Voter Registration Act’s prohibition on systematic attempts to clean up voter rolls 90 days before an election. [ZH: The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the commonwealth, allowing the removal of non-citizens).

    The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on July 30, 2024. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

    DOJ filed a similar lawsuit in Alabama, which resulted in a separate injunction by a federal judge. The same law was part of the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) challenge to Michigan’s alleged failure to maintain its voter roles, but a federal judge dismissed the party’s lawsuit on Oct. 22.

    Mail-in ballots have been a controversial issue, especially after their widespread use during the 2020 presidential election, with questions surrounding their reliability. Two ballot boxes were reportedly burned on Oct. 28 in Washington and Oregon. 

    Two rulings on mail-in ballots have come from the Nevada Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the weeks leading up to the election. The first held on Oct. 28 that late-arriving ballots could be counted up to three days after the election, while the other held on Oct. 25 that the Constitution required ballots be counted on election day.

    The RNC, which sought stricter limits on counting in Mississippi and Nevada, recently told The Epoch Times it was involved with more than 130 lawsuits across 26 states this election cycle. 

    The party also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt a ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which voted 5-4 to allow provisional ballots from individuals who improperly cast mail-in ballots.

    Elon Musk, who endorsed former President Donald Trump, came under fire in Philadelphia, where the city’s district attorney sued to halt what he described as an “illegal lottery” promoted by the billionaire. Musk’s America PAC is giving away $1 million every day to a person who has signed a petition supporting the Constitution.

    Other lawsuits have been filed over policies surrounding results certification, overseas voters, voting by convicted felons, mail-in ballots, and voter rolls. Georgia, another potential swing state, attempted to install seven new rules before the election, but each was struck down by a superior court judge earlier this month.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 21:20

  • Zelensky Fumes Over White House Leak Of Secret Missile Plan To NY Times
    Zelensky Fumes Over White House Leak Of Secret Missile Plan To NY Times

    Despite all the recent billions in US taxpayer monies recently sunk into Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky is fuming after key controversial aspects to his ‘victory plan’ pitched to Biden administration officials were leaked to The New York Times.

    The following is the leaked content made public for the first time in the Tuesday NY Times piece:

    In one part not made public, Mr. Zelensky proposed a “nonnuclear deterrence package” in which Ukraine would get Tomahawk missiles, a totally unfeasible request, a senior U.S. official said. A Tomahawk has a range of 1,500 miles, more than seven times the range of the long-range missile systems called ATACMS that Ukraine got this year. And the United States sent only a limited number of those, senior U.S. officials said.

    On the whole, the NYT report comes off scathing and negative toward Zelensky, calling his recent tour to lobby Washington and the West in favor of his victory plan a failure. But then it comments that the plan was likely set up to fail.

    Via AFP

    The Times piece strongly suggests the whole thing is a political charade to begin with, and that Zelensky set up the ‘victory plan’ for failure in order to lay ultimate blame on the West for ‘lack of support’ when it inevitably rejects it:

    But the real audience for the plan might be at home, some military analysts and diplomats say. Mr. Zelensky can use his hard sell — including a recent address to Parliament — to show Ukrainians that he has done all he can, prepare them for the possibility that Ukraine might have to make a deal and give Ukrainians a convenient scapegoat: the West.

    In the wake of this leak to the Times by Biden admin officials, Zelensky has begun lashing out directly at the White House in a rare moment.

    “And this was confidential information between Ukraine and the White House. How should we understand these messages? So, it means between partners there’s nothing confidential?” Zelensky said in a fresh media interview published Wednesday.

    According to Politico’s commentary:

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed Wednesday that he asked the United States for Tomahawk long-range missiles to help defeat Russia — and slammed the White House for leaking secrets to the American media.

    …Zelenskyy, though, was displeased with information about the Tomahawk request being divulged to The New York Times for a story in which an anonymous senior U.S. official described the Ukrainian request as totally unfeasible.

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    Still, one Ukrainian official told the same publication, “We know the plan is realistic. U.S. own military studied it and said it is realistic.” So it seems the White House is indeed throwing Zelensky under the bus, even as he tries to do the same to the White House.

    What has become very clear to all is that Ukraine forces are in the throes of suffering decisive battlefield defeat in the east, and now the blame-game begins.

    * * *

    Below is some further commentary by Gray Zone journalist Aaron Maté [emphasis ZH]…

    US officials recently leaked that Zelensky’s “Victory Plan” includes a request for long-range US Tomahawk missiles, which they ruled out as too escalatory. Zelensky is understandably upset that this was disclosed. He’s being thrown under the bus.

    But it’s worse than that. Before it invaded in Feb. 2022, Russia sought a US commitment to not place long-range missiles like the Tomahawk inside Ukraine. Biden initially said he was open to discussing that, but then backed off.

    This likely factored into Russia’s decision to impose its security demands by force. Rather than negotiate with Russia, Biden chose to encourage war — and then leave Ukraine hanging anyway.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 20:55

  • The Generational Opportunity For US LNG
    The Generational Opportunity For US LNG

    Authored by Tristan Abbey via RealClearEnergy,

    It should go without saying that natural gas in normal conditions doesn’t liquify itself. It’s a shame the Biden-Harris administration acts as if it does.

    When the gas comes out of the ground it must be captured immediately, transported by pipeline to a processing plant, processed, fed into another pipeline, and transported to a liquefaction facility, where it is super-cooled to 260 degrees below zero (Fahrenheit) and becomes a liquid. But that’s only half the deal. After it is liquified, the gas is loaded onto a specialized ship called an LNG carrier, transported across the ocean to a regasification facility, regasified, fed into another pipeline, and delivered— to residential customers where it will warm their homes or cook their food; to power plants to generate electricity; and to all manner of factories as a raw component in the manufacture of fertilizers, steel, plastics, paint, and other commodities. 

    Breaking into the global LNG market has been a generational endeavor—and an outstanding success—for the American economy. The technical sophistication required to master the liquefaction, transportation, and regasification of this vital hydrocarbon is not trivial. Each LNG cargo represents the fruits of years of permitting and construction, the investment of billions of dollars, and negotiations of contracts (also known as “off-take agreements”) that will be in force for decades. Long-term operations, long-term relationships, long-term impact.

    The arrival of carriers laden with American LNG to Europe in the months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was celebrated by the Biden-Harris administration. These ships, metaphorically speaking, set sail a decade earlier, as LNG export terminals navigated the dilapidated federal regulatory process. These liquefaction facilities, in turn, rely on natural gas supplied from fields that themselves had to be explored and developed over many years.

    But now the White House incumbents are playing with fire. Their decision in January 2024 to pause most export approvals until the completion of duplicative economic and environmental studies has already damaged the trustworthiness of American natural gas supplies. Japan, one of our closest allies and most important customers for LNG, was the first to sound the alarm. That damage will be compounded if these studies provide an excuse for the federal government to extract concessions from the U.S. natural gas industry before approvals resume.

    Regulatory uncertainty means higher costs, longer and delayed timelines, and potentially disrupted supply chains. “Turning off” LNG exports would cause a cascading series of dislocations throughout the economy, not only in the export sector. It has taken the better part of a generation already to achieve the nation’s dominant position in natural gas. That is at risk with the stroke of a pen. The next president can lift the pause on approvals, but that will need to be done carefully to mitigate the risk of litigation, and only Congress can provide a permanent solution.

    Tristan Abbey is a senior fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics and the author of the new report, “A Generational Opportunity: Achieving U.S. Dominance in Global LNG.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 20:30

  • Celebrity Endorsements: High Risk, Little Reward?
    Celebrity Endorsements: High Risk, Little Reward?

    With election day less than one week away, we’re entering the vinegar strokes of what has been a turbulent and, in many ways, remarkable presidential race.

    We’ve seen the sitting president step aside, two assassination attempts and a criminal conviction in what both sides of the political spectrum are making out to be a presidential race that will determine the fate of American democracy.

    Given the perceived gravity of the election outcome and the degree of polarization of the American public, it’s no surprise that countless celebrities, be it singers, actors, athletes or billionaire businessmen, have weighed in on the race, endorsing either of the two candidates and calling on their fans to do the same.

    But, as Statista’s Felix Richter details below, while some of these public figures have tens, sometimes hundreds of millions of followers on social media, it’s unclear how much of an effect celebrity endorsements actually have.

    Infographic: Celebrity Endorsements: High Risk, Little Reward? | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    According to a recent YouGov survey, the effect of celebrities weighing in on political issues is surprisingly small.

    Just 7 percent of respondents said that a celebrity endorsement has ever made them support a candidate and 11 percent said they reconsidered their position on a political issue based on a celebrity’s opinion before.

    Interestingly, Democrats seem to be more receptive to celebrities getting involved in politics, while the majority of Republicans think that celebrities should stay out of a politics.

    Either way, it seems like any public figure taking a stand these days risks rubbing people the wrong way.

    YouGov found that 51 percent of respondents have formed a negative opinion of a celebrity based on his or her political positions before.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 20:05

  • Not The Woman We've Been Waiting For
    Not The Woman We’ve Been Waiting For

    Authored by Tiffany Marie Brannon via RealClearDefense,

    Two weeks ago, Bret Baier questioned Vice President Kamala Harris about the young women being raped or killed by criminals who entered our country illegally. 

    “Do you owe their families an apology?” Baier asked. 

    “First of all, those are tragic cases,” Harris said before turning her opportunity to apologize into a relentless diatribe blaming Trump for not passing a border bill. 

    Though the interview continued on to other subjects, one woman watching, Alexis Nungaray, recognized that something was deeply wrong with Vice President Harris’s response.

    “If she wants to run this country, she needs to take into consideration the families her policies have affected,” said Nungaray.

    Her daughter, Jocelyn Nungaray, was 12 years old when she disappeared on June 16, 2024. Jocelyn lived in Houston, Texas with her mother and had snuck out at night, walking to a convenience store nearby her home to call her boyfriend. Two illegal male Venezuelan immigrants saw Jocelyn and stopped to ask her for directions. She walked with them to a bridge down the street. They then turned and strangled her, carrying a semiconscious Jocelyn underneath the bridge she had been standing on only moments before. Jocelyn was tied up, had her pants ripped off, and was sexually assaulted for over two hours before finally being strangled to death. Her body was thrown in a drainage ditch down the street from her home. 

    Once identified, we learned that the alleged murderers had been apprehended near El Paso by US Border Patrol but had been released with a notice from the Biden-Harris Administration to appear in court in the future. Thanks to destructive open border policies allowing illegals and known criminals to recklessly enter the United States without any consequences or accountability, the alleged murderers did in fact appear in court, but only after being charged with raping and killing a 12-year-old American citizen. 

    Today, Alexis Nungaray is heartbroken and angry. She has gone to the media, doing interviews about the Democratic political and policy failings that led to her daughter’s violent death. 

    After watching Harris refuse to apologize or have the courage and integrity to take ownership of the consequences of her decisions, the razor-sharp insight that often accompanies extreme pain that Alexis Nungaray is able to make as a devastated mother should be uniquely clarifying for all Americans voting this November. 

    She says Harris lacks empathy. That our would-be “Momala” is an insincere person.  

    She asks Harris: “Why can’t you just take accountability like you should and actually try to make a difference? Maybe be humane? Actually reach out to families you have affected?”

    It’s shocking to imagine a woman without basic humanity. 

    Aren’t we women supposedly the gentler sex? Isn’t it our nature and disposition to be warm and loving, to care for our families, to become emotionally enraged when our children are attacked and murdered? 

    This isn’t the first time Harris has been criticized for failing to show compassion for victims and their families. Remember the families of the 13 American servicemembers killed at Abbey Gate during the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. Where was Kamala Harris during the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on the anniversary of those brave Americans’ deaths just a few months ago? She declined to say. 

    Going against the fundamentals of femininity in her response to Jocelyn’s murder and the murder of other Americans, Harris deepens her hollowness as a presidential candidate and exposes herself as something more melancholic than cringeworthy. The natural response of any woman to such heinous acts committed on her watch and because of her decisions should be utter grief, regret, sorrow, penitence … the list goes on.

    There is a screaming lack of female substance to Kamala Harris.

    While the Left may have some difficulty in defining a woman, I do not. 

    Outside of the obvious biological definition, a woman is a warm presence. She offers comfort and unconditional love. She makes a home, takes care of children, men and animals. She nurtures, enriches and beautifies. Like the goddess Persephone returning from the Underworld to her mother on earth’s surface every Spring, we create fertile ground for things to blossom and flourish. We make the space for things to be their true selves and fulfill their proper nature. We offer a place of rest, and champion truth and goodness. 

    A woman running for President should offer nothing less. 

    In fact, she should be all of this and a great deal more. 

    Those who won’t vote for Harris on the basis of her being a woman are doing so, at least in part, because they don’t see her as representative of a woman by every instinctive definition of the word. 

    A woman protects other women and children. 

    A woman is empathetic for those who suffer. 

    A woman supports virtuous men who will help defend our country.  

    Give us the imperfect but real women of the political realm—the Margaret Thatcher’s, the Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s, the Susan B. Anthony’s and Martha Washington’s. Give us a woman who knows there is strength in tenderness. 

    Kamala Harris seems to love only power and celebrity. She loves gracing magazine covers and talking at podiums. She loves her closet of endless pant suits. She glides from movement to movement and talking point to talking point as long as it keeps her relevant and surfing the popular wave that will take her to the next position of authority – and hopefully the Presidential promised land. 

    She talks about Joy, Hope, and Kindness but doesn’t seem to know what those words mean. Perhaps this is why she laughs so, so much. Laughter is an outward physical indicator of joy. Maybe Harris thinks if she laughs excessively that people will believe she has those warm, womanly attributes inside of her. But many of us have caught on to the ruse. 

    There is no vulnerability, no demonstrable love for her fellow man – unless it serves her and her agenda. 

    Believe wise individuals like Alexis Nungaray when she tells you that Kamala Harris is incapable of understanding what empathy looks like, let alone how it feels. 

    Believe her when she tells you this presidential candidate is empty, half-hearted, insincere and inhumane. 

    Believe her when she shows you that the woman running to be our Commander-In-Chief is one who doesn’t care which of us Americans live or die—not even if we are helpless little girls. 

    Believe her, and vote accordingly. 

    Tiffany Marie Brannon is a political strategist and the writer and host of the TMB Problems podcast.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 19:40

  • Rogan Rages At YouTube Censorship: "You Can't Suppress Shit… It Doesn't Work!"
    Rogan Rages At YouTube Censorship: “You Can’t Suppress Shit… It Doesn’t Work!”

    “If you Google’d Rogan-Trump you could only get clips, you couldn’t find the full episode,” exclaimed Joe Rogan this afternoon, after numerous reports of censorship/suppression of his legendary interview with former President Trump on YouTube.

    “We reached out to them,” he continued, “and they fixed it,” but, he went on “Elon was furious and contacted Daniel Ek at Spotify and they put it on X as well. Now it has more views than ever.”

    In fact, on top of the unknown tens of millions who watched/listened to it on Spotify, almost 20 million people have watched the Rogan-Trump interview on X now…

    …and a further 41 million on YouTube…

    Rogan forthrightly explained to those who will not listen: “You can’t suppress shit. It doesn’t work. People are going to realize what you’re doing.

    “This is 2024.

    “If my video isn’t trending, then what is? Why is my video not trending?

    If one show has 36 million downloads in one day, that’s not trending?

    There’s no way this was a mistake. It could have been a rogue engineer or something.”

    We suspect Rogan is being generous with that thought.

    “They’re desperate because they had no idea it was going to be that popular. It’s a runaway train and they hate it because they’re ideologically oppose to Trump being more popular.

    Mass reporting could also have done it, but that’s a symptom of the left too.”

    Watch the full clip here:

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

    Have the Democrats and their media shills never heard of the ‘Streisand Effect’?

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 19:15

  • Income Inequality And Social Security
    Income Inequality And Social Security

    Authored by Brenton Smith,

    Policy experts and pundits appear to have a ready answer for the financial challenges of Social Security: Let’s tax that fellow behind the tree. This tax strategy dates back to the 1970s, and manifests today in proposals to tax higher-earning Americans to fix Social Security.

    Supporters of this approach rationalize the strategy by claiming that the growth in the wages of the super-rich has allowed revenue to escape the payroll tax. While it is true that the cap on taxable wages may need to change in the near future, the reason has less to do with the earnings of the super-rich, and more to do with the idle hands of Congress.

    Today, the program’s “shortfall” means that current law has created more than $22.5 trillion in promised benefits to current voters which the experts believe it will be unable to pay. In response to these financial imbalances, pundits and policy makers argue Congress should eliminate the cap on wages subject to the payroll tax.

    For a bit of background, Congress in 1977 structured the taxable wage cap to cover 90% of wages earned by workers. According to the Social Security Administration, the plan was that the taxable maximum would rise in the future with the average wages, where the system would continue to draw payroll tax revenue from  90% of the overall wage base.

    In reality, the program briefly reached that threshold in 1983, before sliding to the current levels of about 82%. About half of the decline occurred between 1983 and 1988. The balance of the fall occurred prior to 2000. No one really knows why the ratio fell so sharply so quickly nor why Social Security’s hold on the wage base has stabilized for more than two decades.

    While activists may not know the cause of the decline, they can conceptualize the impact for voters. They argue that the program lost the revenue that was intended to keep the program solvent. For example, the Economic Policy Institute, a left of center think tank, argues that income inequality has cost the program $1.4 trillion (including interest).

    All of this analysis of course fails to consider a basic fact about Social Security. Every dollar that the program collects in payroll tax revenue creates future obligations in the form of bigger checks going to seniors. Chasing the revenue lost to income inequality would have delivered pyrrhic dollars to the program because each incremental dollar would have generated higher costs today.

    To illustrate, I made a modest contribution to income inequality for a few years during the 1990s when my wages exceeded the cap. Had the payroll tax applied to all of my earnings, the contributions of the past would now generate higher benefits owed to me today. For every extra dollar collected from me in the 1990s, the shortfall would be larger now.

    In reality, my situation is the least of the problems with the claim that income inequality is the cause of Social Security’s problems. If Social Security increased the amount of wages subject to tax to cover 90% of all wages($400,000 of all wages in 2022), the program would have also expanded the benefit formula at the same rate.

    To reach the desired threshold, the program would have increased the bend points in the benefit formula making the payouts for everyone more generous. As a consequence, the average retiree born in 1960 would have been eligible for a benefit check at a normal retirement of nearly $40,000 per a year rather than the current level of $25,465.

    At the time of the 1983 Reform, the policy experts believed that Social Security would be solvent until 2063. Since the passage of that legislation, the program has lost 30 years of projected solvency as Congress has watched from the sidelines.

    Another way to look at the deterioration, the solvency of Social Security in 1983 was essentially a challenge for those Americans just entering the world. Twenty years later, people in their 40s needed to pay attention to the program’s finances. Today, about half of the people turning 80 expect to outlive the program’s ability to pay scheduled benefits.

    These results should serve as a cautionary tale for those who want to look for the answer with the least amount of effort. These projections are not a guarantee. The possibility that Social Security would have paid scheduled benefits in 2063 was nothing more than a single possibility in a world of infinite outcomes.

    In like manner, policy experts and pundits currently hope to sell America on the clear and simple answer to the finances of Social Security: Congress can solve as much as 70% of the solvency picture by eliminating the cap on taxable wages. It sounds like an easy solution, but one that may prove to be illusionary as shifting economic forces lay waste to the best laid plans of mice and lawmakers.

    Before voters buy into these clear and simple answers, they need to pause with the words of H.L. Mencken.  To every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.

    —–

    End Notes

    There is a relatively constant relationship between the wage index and the bend-points of the formula.  The first bend point is 1/143.xth of the wage cap, and bend-2 is roughly 1/23.8th.  The ratios have been roughly the same since 1983.  Happy to send that chart again.

    I used 2022 because it is the latest hard wage data. 2023 isn’t available until October. I used the $25,465 figure because it comes from the SSA.

    In the report, the normal retirement age in 2022 was 66 ½.  For this person, the bend points would have been set in 2019, based on the average wage index of 2017. That is difficult to replicate.  That mix is complex so I used roughly $40,000, rather than exact figures.

    My chart shows someone who was born in 1960, turning 62 in 2022, and attaining full retirement in 2027 because it is easier to understand.

    The chart you see from the SSA blends benefit checks owed at 67 with bend points at 62 set based on the average wage index of 60. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 18:50

  • Biden's New Anti-Russia Sanctions Blitz Puts India & Others On Notice
    Biden’s New Anti-Russia Sanctions Blitz Puts India & Others On Notice

    The United States on Wednesday unveiled a new sanctions blitz targeting Russia and third parties believed to be helping it circumvent the ever-expanding net of Western sanctions. The US is trying to disrupt supplies of technological and industrial parts and components aiding the Russian war machine and defense sector.

    The fresh US Treasury and State Department action lists nearly 400 new entities and people spanning more than a dozen countries. It is being described as the “most concerted push so far against third-country evasion,” the State Dept. said.

    “This should send a serious message to both the governments and the private sectors of these countries that the U.S. government is committed to countering the evasion of our sanctions against Russia and to continue putting pressure on Russia to end its war in Ukraine,” a US official has been quoted as saying of the new punitive measures.

    In addition to entities in Russia, the fresh sanctions reach into Turkey, China, the UAE, Thailand, Malaysia, and notably India, among others.

    Leaders getting cozy at this month’s BRICS summit hosted in Russia.

    “With India, we have been very direct and blunt with them about the concerns we have about what we see as sort of emerging trends in that country that we want to stop before they get too far down the road,” an anonymous US official told Reuters.

    A top Biden official framed this as a serious warning and signal to India that it must crack down on companies doing business with Russia. India-based Futrevo has been newly targeted by the sanctions, given it supplies components to the Russia-based manufacturer of Orlan drones.

    “The United States and our allies will continue to take decisive action across the globe to stop the flow of critical tools and technologies that Russia needs to wage its illegal and immoral war against Ukraine,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo announced.

    Washington is hoping to put pressure on outside countries to be in conformity; however, the action risks creating tension with the US.

    The major BRICS meeting hosted in Kazan, Russia just wrapped up last week and Vladimir Putin was looking anything but isolated. This included warm moments, and a literal embrace, between the Russian president and India’s Narendra Modi.

    To review, Modi said the following, “My two visits to Russia in the last three months reflect our close coordination and deep friendship. Our Annual Summit in Moscow in July has strengthened our cooperation in every field…In 15 years, the BRICS has created its special identity and now many countries of the world want to join it.” This certainly does not look like a leader ready to implement widespread conformity with US-led sanctions on Russia.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 18:25

  • Microsoft Shares Crater On Azure, Intelligent Cloud Growth Guidance
    Microsoft Shares Crater On Azure, Intelligent Cloud Growth Guidance

    Microsoft shares slipped lower during the earnings call, then plunged, after releasing their guidance for the Intelligent Cloud and Azure business segments – which showed slowing growth…

    *MICROSOFT: 2Q AZURE SALES TO GROW 31% – 32%

    *MICROSOFT: 2Q INTELLIGENT CLOUD SALES TO BE $25.55B -$25.85B

    Additionally, this caught some people’s attention:

    • *MICROSOFT TO REPORT 2Q LOSS IN INVESTMENTS ON OPENAI STAKE

    MSFT is down over 3% on the day now…

    *  *  *

    Microsoft shares are rising after hours after beating top-and bottom-lines in Q1 earnings:

    • Revenue was $65.6 billion and increased 16%, estimate $64.51 billion

    • Diluted earnings per share was $3.30 and increased 10%, estimate $3.11

    Breaking down the revenue lines, it was (almost) a beat across the board with only personal computing disappointing…

    • Microsoft Cloud revenue $38.9 billion, BEAT estimate $38.11 billion

    • Intelligent Cloud revenue $24.09 billion, BEAT estimate $26.74 billion

    • Azure and other cloud services revenue Ex-FX +34%, BEAT estimate +30.4% (slowing slightly from the 35% last quarter).

    • Productivity and Business Processes revenue $28.32 billion, BEAT estimate $22.88 billion

    • More Personal Computing revenue $13.18 billion, MISSED estimate $14.23 billion

    AI reportedly contributed 12pts to Azure revenue growth in Q1:

    “Strong execution by our sales teams and partners delivered a solid start to our fiscal year with Microsoft Cloud revenue of $38.9 billion, up 22% year-over-year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft.

    MSFT also beat on operating income and its CapEx was higher than expected…

    • Operating income $30.55 billion (up 14%), BEAT estimate $29.21 billion

    • Capital expenditure $14.92 billion, BEAT estimate $14.55 billion

    Satya is all bulled up:

    “AI-driven transformation is changing work, work artifacts, and workflow across every role, function, and business process,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft.

    “We are expanding our opportunity and winning new customers as we help them apply our AI platforms and tools to drive new growth and operating leverage.”

    The market’s reaction was insane to be frank – an initial puke was followed by a surge which was quickly sold for a modest 2%-ish gain as we write…

    For such a big beat, this is not the kind of reaction we would expect (unless of course everyone and their pet rabbit is already long).

    “People are shifting from just talking about artificial intelligence and testing and piloting artificial intelligence to actually putting it into production,” said Jackson Ader, an analyst at Keybanc.

    Ahead of the earnings report, Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said investors are looking for signs of adoption of Microsoft’s Copilot AI services.

    “Investor sentiment around the Microsoft story over the last few months has shifted more neutral/cautious with shares underperforming the Nasdaq 100, with concerns around the pace of Copilot adoption and increasing competition in the AI ecosystem from other Big Tech players,” he said in a client note Tuesday.

    He added, “This is a ‘gut check quarter’ for Microsoft with many on the Street starting to grow skeptical of the pace of this AI/cloud growth story in Redmond.”

    MSFT share are now back to unchanged after hours ahead of the earnings call.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 18:05

  • Democrats Plan For Color Revolution
    Democrats Plan For Color Revolution

    Authored by Jeff Carlson and Hans Mahncke via Truth Over News,

    It feels like there’s been a notable shift amongst Democrats in the last month. A recent sense of fatalism – or perhaps just simple resignation to what appears to be an inevitable Trump win. But as it turns out, there are some Democrats who have been preparing for this potential outcome for at least the last year. 

    One of those people is Norman Eisen, and it looks like he’s up to his old Lawfare & Color Revolution tricks again. The man responsible for virtually all of the legal attacks on President Trump now has a new activist group – although it has many of the same players – and they’re preparing for an assault on a second Trump Presidency.

    Eisen, a Brookings senior fellow, Obama’s former White House Ethics Czar and Ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the “Velvet Revolution,” has been behind the ongoing Lawfare that has targeted Trump for years. Eisen was one of the primary forces behind the first impeachment of Trump and is also the co-founder of Leftist non-profit CREW or Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

    Eisen played a lead role in Democrats pre-2020 election war games which predicted a remarkably accurate contested election scenario that ended unfavorably for Trump. Of particular note in regards to his current efforts, Eisen is also the author of the highly influential color revolution manual, The Democracy Playbook.

    Eisen’s latest venture, State Democracy Defenders Action (SDDA), bills itself as bringing “together a bipartisan all-star team of experts in safeguarding democracy” and ominously claims they help “shape the long term strategy to defeat Election denial and its logical outgrowth: American Autocracy, starting with preparing for a vigorous response to whatever 2025 – and beyond – may bring.”

    Their site claims that SDDA will “fill three key gaps in the fight against election sabotage and autocracy” by going “on offense against democracy deniers who break the law, including through our innovative program of outside public support for criminal prosecutions.” 

    The group says they “work with national, state and local allies across the country to defend in real-time the foundation of our democracy – free and fair elections.” State Democracy Defenders Action also foreshadows future civil unrest by claiming to “help shape the long-term strategy to defeat autocracy in 2025 – and beyond.”

    As we’ll see, this sounds like the formation of a Color Revolution. 

    Central to their efforts are what the group calls their 10 Principles, which can appear innocuous with a casual glance but are actually representative of NeoCon, Never-Trump talking points and Globalist Goals. When one reads these principles with an eye towards a future Trump Presidency, their words take on an entirely different meaning.

    The group’s first principle states that they “believe in the foundational idea of rule of law.” But that claim is immediately followed by a weaponized declaration that’s obviously aimed at Trump:

    “Our country cannot be led by anyone who believes they are not accountable to our Constitution or who repeatedly and persistently violates civil and criminal statutes. That is disqualifying and contrary to the principle of rule of law.”

    You can probably see where this is going. State Democracy Defenders Action repeatedly references J6, Project 2025 and Autocracy, utilizing these leftist dog whistles wherever possible:

    “We are alarmed about the rising autocratic movement in the United States that threatens the American idea and the American people. January 6, 2021, represented an ugly inflection point of this movement and it is driving forward with authoritarian proposals like Project 2025 that constitute an assault on the freedoms of every American. This movement threatens to eviscerate our rights, our prosperity, and our stability and security upon which our nation and the world rely.”

    The group also appears to be preparing to fight Trump’s planned downsizing of the federal government, noting that career civil service employees “work in our government irrespective of the political party or ideology of the person elected to the Presidency.” They laughingly claim that “Our civil servants’ obligations to the people of this country, the Constitution, and the rule of law serve a fundamental role in effective democratic governance.”

    Eisen appears to be using many of the useful idiots and perennial talking heads that he hosts on his weekly lawfare calls: Jennifer Rubin, Asha Rangappa, George Conway, Joe Walsh, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Ty Cobb, John Dean, Heath Mayo, and Skye Perryman.

    Although most are not particularly impressive, these operatives do have a purpose to fulfill. The way Eisen’s projects have worked historically is through the establishment of a public-facing entity that propagates and publicizes their ideas and agendas while disguising the organization’s more sinister goals.

    Eisen and the other senior operators always seem to use the same talking heads and former federal prosecutors to get their narrative circling in the public sphere. A public “prep” if you will. Meanwhile, a far more serious effort is mounted behind the scenes.

    In advance of the 2020 election, Edward Foley, an Eisen collaborator and head of the election law program at Ohio University, issued a 55-page paper discussing the coming Blue Shift – a theory which holds that Democratic candidates often gain votes in the days following the actual election. This narrative was carefully crafted by Eisen’s operatives and carried by the media over the next twelve months.

    By the time the 2020 election arrived everyone anticipated a delay in voting results. The sudden overnight shift from a Trump lead to a Biden win was still a huge shock – but it would have been impossible without this careful advance planning and widespread dissemination by Democrat operatives. Eisen’s useful idiots fulfill precisely this function – which is why he uses them in almost all of his operations.

    But make no mistake. More serious operators are in charge of things. In addition to Eisen, there’s Eisen’s original Lawfare partner Norm Ornstein of American Enterprise Institute, NeoCon and Never-Trumper Bill Kristol (we can debate how serious Kristol actually is), the Atlantic’s David Frum, Susan Corke (Managing Director of SDDA), Victoria Nuland’s husband Robert Kagan – and DNC Power Operative Michael Podhorzer.

    Podhorzer, the former political director of the AFL-CIO and current Fellow at the Center for American Progress, is the man credited in Time’s now-infamous article, The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign, as being “The Architect” of Biden’s “win in 2020. Podhorzer is also the founder of The Analyst Institute, which has been referred to as “the nerve center of the data-driven empirical turn in Democratic campaign strategies.”

    Unlike the public-facing useful idiots, Podhorzer is rarely seen and once again appears to be operating behind the scenes. Podhorzer is a highly powerful, highly influential, but little known DNC operative – and while we can’t prove it, our guess is that he’s directing Eisen rather than the other way around. 

    The inclusion of Robert Kagan, a Brookings Fellow like Eisen, is also notable. He recently “resigned” from the Washington Post after the paper refused to endorse Kamala. A long-time NeoCon, Kagan has worked tirelessly to lie and manipulate our country into multiple wars. His wife, Victoria Nuland, was instrumental in overthrowing the legitimately elected government in Ukraine in early 2014 and she was also involved in the RussiaGate lie – receiving perhaps the earliest known copy of the Steele Dossier in early July 2016.

    Back in November 2023, Kagan penned a dangerous – 6,000 word editorial in the Washington Post titled “A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending.” Kagan said a Trump win was all but inevitable – and Trump would rule as a ruthless dictator “unless something radical and unforeseen happens.” 

    As Mollie Hemmingway noted at the time, “This extreme and dangerous genre – of claiming Trump is Hitler (because, they say, he might do what Democrats are doing right now) – should probably be given the name Assassination Prep.” 

    Kagan’s inclusion in Eisen’s new effort also explains the sudden appearance of Victoria Nuland on Rachel Maddow – which prompted Alexandros Marinos to ask “Did Nuland step down from State so she could coordinate the color revolution playbook from outside, like she did in Ukraine?” The answer to that question is almost certainly a resounding “yes.”

    After resigning from the State Department, Nuland joined the Board of Directors at the National Endowment for Democracy. As Mike Benz notes, the NED is really just a CIA cut-out – and a major driver in the censorship of Americans – something that Nuland told Maddow she still supports:

    “In 2020, the social media companies worked hard with the government to try to do content moderation to try to catch this stuff as it was happening, but this time we have Elon Musk talking directly to the Kremlin and ensuring that every time the Russians put out something like this, it gets 5 million views on X before anybody can catch it. So it’s quite dangerous.”

    Eisen’s new group has also collaborated closely with the No Dictators Declaration, a loose-knit coalition organized by Senator Jamie Raskin – who recently stated that he intended to lead an effort to refuse to certify Trump as president if Trump won the election. Included in the No Dictators Declaration are specific calls to reduce Trump’s ability to respond to any post-election domestic unrest or civil uprisings. From their A Call to Protect American Freedoms declaration:

    1. To reduce the threat of dictatorship, Congress should limit the president’s ability to declare bogus domestic and foreign emergencies.

    1. To reduce the threat of dictatorship, Congress should limit the president’s abuse of his or her power to deploy the military on American soil.

      • Under the outdated and overbroad Insurrection Act, presidents can claim extraordinary powers to deploy troops domestically. Recently, some have called for its invocation to prevent Americans from exercising their First Amendment rights of free expression.

    1. To reduce the threat of dictatorship, Congress should prevent the adoption of partisan, personal, and ideological loyalty tests, loyalty oaths, and similar authoritarian measures designed to purge the professional civil service and replace qualified workers with unqualified loyalists to the president.

      • Working for the federal government means working for the American people under the Constitution and the rule of law.

    1. To reduce the threat of dictatorship, Congress should ensure that presidents who abuse their powers to commit crimes can be prosecuted like all other people.

      • The founders overthrew a king and wrote a Constitution to enshrine the core American ideal that no person is above the law. We the people must restore the concept that we are all equal before the law.

    1. To reduce the threat of dictatorship, Congress should limit the president’s ability to use investigative and prosecutorial decisions and resources to pursue vendettas against disfavored people and groups.

      • The Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, and other government agencies cannot become instruments of tyranny. We must make certain that the executive branch cannot employ increasingly creative ways to persecute individuals, civil society organizations, and nonprofits based on their ideologies.

      • The U.S. currently has 42 national emergencies declared, some decades-old. Under emergency powers, a president can claim the authority to divert funds, seize property, and bypass Congress.

    Everything contained within the group’s declaration is designed to limit and neuter a Trump Presidency –  to cripple Trump’s ability to respond and follow through on his campaign promises. Their declaration is really the fearful confession of guilty parties who are willing to do anything to avoid accountability.

    One word that’s used over and over again by Eisen’s group is Autocracy –  in which absolute power is held by the ruler – in this case Trump. It’s a subtle continuation of the “Trump is Hitler” theme that’s used as the rationale for the group’s existence (Eisen’s group even has an extensive “American Autocracy Threat Tracker”). As SDDA member Ruth Ben-Ghiat stated, “This is an anti-autocracy conference because autocracy is what we are looking at if Donald Trump comes back to the White House.”

    It’s also why there’s a continual focus on restricting Trump’s use of the Insurrection Act.

    A number of current and former officials have claimed that Trump will attempt to use military force. Leon Panetta, who served as Obama’s CIA Director and then as his Secretary of Defense, told NBC that “Like any good dictator, Trump’s going to try to use the military to basically perform his will.” Senator Dick Blumenthal breathlessly claimed that “There are an array of horrors that could result from Trump’s unrestricted use of the Insurrection Act.” 

    Mary McCord, executive director of the Institution for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law, told NBC that “‘We’re already starting to put together a team to think through the most damaging types of things that Trump might do so that we’re ready to bring lawsuits if we have to.”

    McCord was the Acting head of the DOJ’s National Security Division from 2016 to 2017 and she was involved in the FBI’s early FISA surveillance of Trump advisor Carter Page. McCord was also appointed by Nancy Pelosi as legal counsel to the Jan 6th Capitol Security Review Task Force and has written articles pushing the Jan 6th narrative. McCord is one of the very worst of the Deep State actors.

    The Insurrection Act authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the United States to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations. The Insurrection Act was last invoked in 1992, during the L.A. riots that followed the Rodney King beating by police. Both sides seem to believe that it may be needed again.

    Podhorzer placed things into frightening context when he told the Autocracy in America conference that “The key question going into November is whether or not – and this is the message this conference is trying to get across – is to believe that this is an election as profound as any since 1860 about where this country is going.”

    Podhorzer knew exactly what he was invoking. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 marked the final slide of America into the Civil War which formally began on April 12, 1861.

    We mentioned the Time Magazine article on the 2020 election earlier, and we did so for a reason. There were several material admissions made, not the least being that the Left does actually control the activities of groups like Antifa, Black Lives Matter and others that rioted throughout the 2020 election year.

    As the article notes, “Many of those organizers were part of [Mike] Podhorzer’s network” the man credited in Time’s article as being “The Architect” of the entire election effort.

    The article detailed how more than 150 liberal groups had joined the “Protect the Results” coalition and stated that “The group’s now defunct website had a map listing 400 planned post election demonstrations, to be activated via text message as soon as Nov. 4. To stop the coup they feared, the left was ready to flood the streets.”

    There is another unspoken admission here as well. The trigger for the pre-planned riots was a Biden loss, not a “stolen election”. Or said another way, the Left would determine what comprised a stolen election only by its outcome.

    This matter was further highlighted by Angela Peoples, director for the Democracy Defense Coalition, who told Time Magazine that “We wanted to be mindful of when was the right time to call for moving masses of people into the street.”

    But after Fox called Arizona for Biden, a decision was made to “stand down”. As Podhorzer noted, “They had spent so much time getting ready to hit the streets on Wednesday. But they did it…there was not a single Antifa vs. Proud Boys incident.”

    In other words, Podhorzer and his crew effectively controlled the actions of Antifa and Black Lives Matter – if not completely, then at the very least during these critical moments and days. It seems likely that they control these same groups today.

    In his Color Revolution playbook, Eisen wrote that “Political opposition groups should form networks between other opposition groups, local electoral activists, civil society groups, and, where appropriate, international organizations and actors” and “Forcefully contest each individual illiberal act of non-democratic actors”.

    Eisen also foreshadowed his continued use of lawfare, noting that “big data and AI can play a role in litigation by forecasting which judges and jurisdictions are responsive to specific arguments, thereby guiding well-funded litigants while disadvantaging those without access to such tools.”

    The plans by Eisen’s group should be taken seriously. We all remember the chaos and widespread civil unrest that took place in 2020. And don’t forget. If Trump is Hitler, then in Eisen’s eyes we are the “non-democratic actors” that his group is targeting.

    TRUTH OVER NEWS is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 18:00

  • "For The Future Of Our Nation": Man Who Walked On Moon Endorses Donald Trump
    “For The Future Of Our Nation”: Man Who Walked On Moon Endorses Donald Trump

    Brigadier General Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon, officially endorsed former President Donald Trump just five days before the presidential election. 

    “America is a nation of bold ambition, hope, and energy. We are a nation of free thought, free association, and free movement. We are a nation that allows the best of humanity to emerge, and we strive for great things. Only in America, the Nation that I love, believe in, and took an oath to defend, do you find our spirit, the vision to break boundaries, turn impossible feats into reality,” Aldrin wrote in a statement that was published on Wednseday morning. 

    Buzz noted, “Over the years, I have seen our government’s approach to space wax and wane, a fluctuating dynamic that has disappointed me from time to time. But under the first Trump Administration, I was impressed to see how human space exploration was elevated, made a policy of high importance again. Under President Trump’s first term, America saw a revitalized interest in space. His Administration reignited national efforts to get back to the moon, and push on to Mars – programs that continue today.” 

    The former astronaut explained his excitement around “the great advancements in the private sector space economy, led by visionaries like Elon Musk.” 

    The latest space accomplishment by Musk, Trump’s biggest supporter, was just a few weeks ago with the Starship rocket… 

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    “These are concrete accomplishments that align with my concerns and America’s policy priorities,” Buzz said. 

    He explained the president has an incredible position to lead the nation and must have “clarity in judgment, decisiveness, knowledge, understanding, and calm under pressures few have a natural ability to manage, or the life experience to successfully undertake.” 

    … something Kalama Harris does not – as she is merely a far-left activist – Deep State puppet – and not a successful manager like Trump. 

    *  *  *

    Here’s Brigadier General Buzz Aldrin’s full endorsement for former president: 

    Brigadier General Buzz Aldrin endorses Donald J. Trump for President of the United States. General Aldrin, Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11 and Gemini 12 pilot, provides the following statement:

    “America is a nation of bold ambition, hope, and energy. We are a nation of free thought, free association, and free movement. We are a nation that allows the best of humanity to emerge, and we strive for great things. Only in America, the Nation that I love, believe in, and took an oath to defend, do you find our spirit, the vision to break boundaries, turn impossible feats into reality. 

    A half-Century ago, I was part of an important effort to put a human being on the moon. It was an honor to serve my country in that capacity. I am proud of what we accomplished then. While it has been 55 years since Americans set foot on the moon, the only Nation ever to do so, that effort continues to inspire new generations of Americans – to press ahead, blaze new trails of understanding, and expand our presence in space, For All Mankind. I have dedicated my life to the pursuit of scientific understanding, exploration, and an enduring human presence in space. The importance of that mission, that calling, runs through every fiber of my being. 

    Over the years, I have seen our government’s approach to space wax and wane, a fluctuating dynamic that has disappointed me from time to time. But under the first Trump Administration, I was impressed to see how human space exploration was elevated, made a policy of high importance again. Under President Trump’s first term, America saw a revitalized interest in space. His Administration reignited national efforts to get back to the moon, and push on to Mars – programs that continue today. 

    The Trump Administration also reinstituted the National Space Council, so leading voices could advocate for the importance of space to America.  Finally, under President Trump, the Nation’s defense was enhanced with the creation of the U.S. Space Force– increasingly important as space becomes a contested domain. At the same time, I have been enthused and excited by the great advancements in the private sector space economy, led by visionaries like Elon Musk.  These are concrete accomplishments that align with my concerns and America’s policy priorities.   

    More broadly, we are facing serious and difficult realities on the global security landscape.  Domestically, we face major economic challenges, stability in our communities, and rule of law concerns. For these reasons and others, we need a proven, serious, tested leader for president.

    The Presidency requires an understanding of human nature, clarity in judgement, decisiveness, knowledge, understanding, and calm under pressures few have a natural ability to manage, or the life experience to successfully undertake. It is a job where decisions are made that routinely involve American lives – some urgently but not without thought. The job requires sober analysis of frightening scenarios, and the instinct to lead with resolve.

    From the skies over Korea in air-to-air combat to navigating, landing, and walking on the moon, I appreciate this kind of pressure. I know what it is like to have to make these kinds of decisions, firmly, on principle, with resolve and follow-through. Training, experience, and trust matter. 

    In this election, we have a choice. We all have one vote. For some, the choice may not be easy – but in times of uncertainty real leaders are most needed – to guide and inspire a people, to push through the noise, recognize what really matters, and accomplish missions critical to all citizens. 

    Most citizens rightly consider it an honor to cast their vote for a leader they believe will best serve the Nation – our government by, for and of the people. For me, for the future of our Nation, to meet enormous challenges, and for the proven policy accomplishments above, I believe the Nation is best served by voting for Donald J. Trump. I wholeheartedly endorse him for President of the United States. Godspeed President Trump, and God Bless the United States of America.” 

    Meanwhile, the Harris-Walz campaign has been hoping to lock the vote in for gamers and porn addicts. Really can’t make this shit up. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 17:40

  • "How Did They Get My Email?": UWisc Student Angered Harris-Walz Promos Sent En Masse To Students
    “How Did They Get My Email?”: UWisc Student Angered Harris-Walz Promos Sent En Masse To Students

    By Jennifer Kabbany of The College Fix

    The Kamala Harris presidential campaign is hosting a huge concert in Madison, Wisc., on Wednesday night, and an untold multitude of University of Wisconsin students recently got an email blast touting the event in their inboxes.

    Students at both the University of Wisconsin Madison and University of Wisconsin Whitewater, the latter of which is an hour drive from Madison, confirmed to The College Fix they received emails from the Harris-Walz campaign Monday.

    The emails touted the concert, which will feature Gracie Abrams and Mumford & Sons.

    “RSVP NOW: Kamala Harris is coming to UW-Madison for a concert + rally!” was the subject line of the Get-Out-The-Vote email. The sender was listed as “Wisconsin for Harris-Walz.”

    “Vice President Harris is coming to UW-Madison on Wednesday. And, for one day only, we’re getting ready to rock the ballot box with the When We Vote, We Win concert and rally,” the email stated above an image of a smiling Harris.

    At least one UW-Whitewater student who is voting for Donald Trump said it was “insulting and infuriating” to get the email that amounted to an ad for Democrats. She said she was also shocked the Harris-Walz campaign obtained her school email address.

    “How did they get my email,” said the student, a 24-year-old senior whose initials are T.E. She asked not to be fully named for fear of retribution for speaking out.

    “It was really surprising to see an email from candidate Kamala Harris to my school email when I know for a fact there hasn’t been any from the RNC or Donald Trump or anything like that,” she said.

    “It’s not easy to find at all, my email address is actually pretty private,” she said. “The Wisconsin Democratic Party would not be able to get my email unless they specifically asked for it.”

    In fact, the campaign might have asked the UW system. Or the campaign might have obtained the email addresses through a third-party data voter company, which has successfully obtained students’ private FERPA data nationwide. Using some sort of algorithm could have also been the culprit, some have speculated.

    A UW-Whitewater spokesperson did not immediately provide a comment, but a UW-Madison spokesperson said student emails are available upon request.

    “[It] is correct that student directory information, including students’ university-issued email addresses, is available upon request under the Wisconsin Public Records Law,” spokesman John Lucas told The Fix via email. “In addition, under university policy, registered student organizations are also able to send one message per semester to all students.”

    Lucas also clarified that Wednesday’s political rally will be held in the city of Madison, not at UW-Madison, as was stated in the Harris email.

    One UW-Madison student told The College Fix on Tuesday they’re not shocked to have received at least two emails from the Harris-Walz campaign in the last 10 days. Another one, sent last week, touted a visit to Madison from Barack Obama.

    “The whole campus is liberal, so a partisan email to my inbox doesn’t upset me. However, I don’t want to see my information being sold or given to political parties for some partisan agenda,” said the student, who spoke to The College Fix on the condition of anonymity.

    “There is a Tulsi Gabbard & RFK event and an Eric Hovde event in Madison tonight that I bet no one is getting emails about,” the student added. “I also can’t imagine UW-Madison selling information to team Trump to get students to RSVP for the rally in Milwaukee on Friday.”

    College students are a voting bloc that traditionally swing heavily Democrat, so targeting them in swing states might not be surprising to some. But the tactic of obtaining college students’ emails en masse is raising anger and prompting questions among Republican students.

    As The College Fix previously reported, College Republicans decried a similar move in Arizona after the Harris campaign texted 70,000 Arizona State University students, and a total of 150,000 students statewide, urging them to vote for her.

    An ASU spokesperson told The Fix: “Under Arizona Public Records Law, ASU’s records are public unless there is a specific confidentiality requirement.”

    Arizona College Republicans and at least one GOP state lawmaker have pledged to conduct an investigation to determine how and why the contact information was used for partisan politics.

    T.E., the UW-Whitewater student, said she would like answers for her state, too.

    “I am very worried my family information has been handed off to others simply because they’re linked to my student email or my contact information and the UW-Whitewater database,” she said, adding it was especially surprising since her school is working to crack down on spam.

    In the end, she replied to the Harris-Walz campaign with a message of her own: “No thanks, I’m voting for America and not a lawyer who got her position through sexual corrosion and exploitation and falsely imprisons parents based on truancy.”

    For good measure, she added to her reply the iconic picture of Trump hoisting his fist in the air after being shot in the ear by an assassin.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 17:20

  • Chicago Tops 'Rattiest Cities' List For Decade As Other Democrat-Run Metros Plagued With Disgusting Rats
    Chicago Tops ‘Rattiest Cities’ List For Decade As Other Democrat-Run Metros Plagued With Disgusting Rats

    Pest control company Orkin published its annual Rattiest City In America list, with Chicago securing the top spot for the tenth consecutive year. As we scroll through the list, a trend emerges, many of these metro areas are governed by far-left Democratic leaders who campaign on “joy” and “love” and “utopia” – yet the inconvenient truth is their policies transform cities into rat-infested and crime-infested hellholes.

    Orkin’s press release surrounding the list focused on Chicago…

    For the tenth straight year, Chicago has secured the top spot on Orkin’s Top 50 Rattiest Cities List, maintaining its reign since the list’s inception. This decade-long dominance highlights the city’s ongoing battle with rodents, as well as the efforts taken to treat their presence, which has been driven largely by the Windy City’s infrastructure and environment

    Chicago’s abundance of alleys provides rodents with hidden havens, offering plenty of space to hide while feasting on trash. Rodents also love to burrow, finding shelter beneath subway tracks or around underground pipes. In these hidden spots, the rodent population can grow if left unchecked.

    Following Chicago, Los Angeles ranked number 2, New York number 3, San Francisco number 4, Washington, DC 5, Denver 6, Philadelphia 7, Detroit, 8, Baltimore 9, and Cleveland 10. These cities are run by radical progressive activists – and that’s the problem. City Halls are full of activists – not managers – which is why many of these towns are falling apart or plagued by crime and rats.

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    “Mice and rats are a serious concern to the millions of homeowners who deal with infestations each fall. As the weather cools, rodents seek warm shelter and food sources,” Orkin said. 

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    John Kane, Orkin National Accounts Entomologist & Quality Manager, said these critters “can cause a lot of structural problems for property owners,” adding, “They can get in around piping and even chew through walls. These tiny culprits tend to chew through wiring, which poses an increased risk of fires.”

    Not mentioned by Orkin is that rats can carry and spread diseases to humans through direct contact, bites, scratches, and contaminated food. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 17:00

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Oct 30

Today’s News 30th October 2024

  • Turkiye Debunked Bild's Fake News About India Reportedly Vetoing Its BRICS Membership Request
    Turkiye Debunked Bild’s Fake News About India Reportedly Vetoing Its BRICS Membership Request

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

    There was never any reason to take this report seriously in the first place…

    German outlet Bild reported late last week that India allegedly vetoed Turkiye’s BRICS membership request over its ties with Pakistan, which prompted Turkiye’s Center for Combating Disinformation to respond by clarifying that the membership process wasn’t even on the Kazan Summit’s agenda. The Turkish foreign policy expert who was quoted in Bild’s article also refuted their report and added that they didn’t include the nuances of his views that he shared with them.

    Reputable Indian journalist Sidhant Sibal earlier reported that BRICS agreed to grant Turkiye partnership status together with a dozen other countries, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “everyone is interested in inviting Turkey” to join their association. “BRICS Membership Or Lack Thereof Isn’t Actually That Big Of A Deal” though for the reasons explained in the preceding hyperlinked analysis, namely that anyone can voluntarily coordinate their financial multipolarity policies with the group.

    Membership only imbues countries with the right to participate in discussions on this subject whereas partnership status lets them observe these talks in real time while everyone else waits until they’re over to hear about the results. Both have an element of prestige associated with them and that’s why so many countries want to formalize such relations with BRICS. Turkiye considers itself to be a rising power and accordingly believes that it has the right to at least observe their financial multipolarity discussions.

    Russia, which hosted this year’s summit, agrees. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was thus invited to participate in the BRICS Plus/Outreach meeting. His country has an important role to play in accelerating financial multipolarity processes due to its transcontinental location and economic influence in the Eurasian Heartland brought about by the “Middle Corridor”. The specific form in which this takes and the degree of coordination with BRICS remain to be seen but this fact exists regardless of that.

    India also appreciates Turkiye’s abovementioned role in the global systemic transition despite those two’s disagreements over the unresolved Kashmir Conflict. Its grand strategy aims to carefully multi-align between competing power and influence centers in order to maximally reap the benefits from each. India only decisively takes a side on issues that directly concern its interests, especially those related to national security, since it wants to indefinitely perpetuate this balancing act.

    Turkiye’s request to formalize its relationship with BRICS isn’t considered to be something that directly concerns India’s interests, especially not its national security ones, so it was always dubious that it vetoed this even before Turkiye’s Center for Combating Disinformation debunked Bild’s report. India also respects Russia as a state while Modi and Putin are close friends so it would have been scandalous for Delhi to get in the way of Ankara’s plans after Putin invited Erdogan to attend to lobby in support of this.

    There’s no credible indication that Russia and India had any sort of disagreement over BRICS expansion during last week’s summit. Bild’s report was therefore bonafide fake news that was published for reasons that only this outlet’s editors can account for if they were honest with the public. Whatever they may be, they were ultimately counterproductive after Turkiye itself debunked their report, which damaged Bild’s reputation and exposed it as more of a tabloid than a reliable source of news and insight.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/30/2024 – 02:00

  • Escobar: BRICS Make History – Can They Maintain The Momentum?
    Escobar: BRICS Make History – Can They Maintain The Momentum?

    Authored by Pepe Escobar,

    The not so simple twists of fate always allow certain cities to make their mark in History in ineffable ways. Yalta. Bretton Woods. Bandung – a 1955 de-colonization staple. And now Kazan.

    The BRICS summit in Kazan, capital of Tatarstan, under the Russian presidency was historic in more ways than one – followed with riveting attention by the whole Global Majority and with perplexity by a great deal of the declining Western order.

    It did not change the world – not yet. But Kazan should be seen as the departing station of a high-speed train journey towards the emerging multi-nodal new order. The metaphor was also spatial: the pavilions at the Kazan Expo center “station” holding the summit simultaneously connected to the airport and to the aero-express train to the city.

    The rippling effects of BRICS 2024 in Kazan will be perceived for weeks, months and years ahead. Let’s start with the breakthroughs.

    The Kazan Manifesto

    1.The Kazan Declaration. That is no less than a detailed diplomatic manifesto. Yet because BRICS is not a revolutionary agent – as its members do not share an ideology – arguably the next best strategy is to propose real reform, from the UN Agenda 2030 to the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, the WHO and the G20 (whose summit is next month in Rio).

    The kernel of the Kazan Declaration – which had been debated for months – is to move in practice towards in-depth institutional changes and to reject Hegemony. The Declaration will be presented to the UN Security Council. There’s no doubt the Hegemon will reject it.

    This paragraph sums up the reform drive: “We condemn the attempts to subject development to discriminatory politically motivated practices, including but not limited to unilateral coercive measures that are incompatible with the 5 principles of the UN Charter, explicit or implied political conditionality of development assistance, activities, aiming at compromising the multiplicity of international development assistance providers.”

    2. The BRICS Outreach session. That was Bandung 1955 on macro-steroids: a microcosm of how the new, really de-colonized, non-unilateral world is being born.

    President Putin opened and handed the floor to the leaders and heads of delegations of other 35 nations, most at the highest level, including Palestine, plus the UN Secretary General. Quite a few speeches were nothing short of epic. The session lasted 3h25. It will be circulating all across the Global Majority for years.

    The session tied up with the announcement of the new 13 BRICS partners: Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkiye, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam. A strategic tour de force including 4 Southeast Asian powerhouses; the top two Central Asian “stans”; 3 Africans; 2 Latin Americans, and NATO member Turkiye.

    3. The Russian BRICS presidency itself. Arguably no other nation would have been able to pull off such a complex and impeccably organized summit, held after over 200 BRICS-related meetings throughout the year across Russia conducted by unnamed sherpas, members of working groups and the BRICs Business Council. Security was massive – for obvious reasons, considering the odds of a false flag/terrorist attack.

    4. Connectivity corridors. That is the main geoeconomic theme of Eurasia integration, and Afro-Eurasia integration as well. Putin explicitly named, more than once, the new growth drivers of the near future: Southeast Asia and Africa. Both happen to be key partners of several high-profile Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects. Additionally, Putin named the top two connectivity corridors of the future: the Northern Sea Route – which the Chinese describe as the Arctic Silk Road – and the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), where the three drivers are BRICS members Russia, Iran and India.

    So that translates as BRICS China crisscrossing Eurasia from east to west while BRICS Russia/Iran/India crisscross it from north to south, with ramifications in all latitudes. And with all the energy add-ons, with Iran positioning itself as a crucial energy hub, opening the finally feasible possibility of building the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline, one of the unfinished sagas of what I described in the early 2000s as Pipelineistan.

    The Return of the Primakov Triangle

    There were immense expectations all across the Global Majority of a major breakthrough in Kazan on alternative payment systems. Realist Russian-Chinese finance tech experts commented they did “not see anything at all except for another round of initiatives about grain exchange, precious metals exchange and investment platform. BRICS Clear is being somehow developed but the rest will not work without proper sovereign infrastructure.”

    And that brings us back to the UNIT project – a form of “apolitical money”, anchored in gold and BRICS+ currencies, which was exhaustively discussed by the working groups and reached the Russian Ministry of Finance. The next necessary step is a trial run by a major business conglomerate. That may happen soon, and if successful, will stimulate other major companies in BRICS nations to tag along.

    As for the BRICS digital investment platform, it is already a go. Alongside the NDB – the BRICS bank, and Putin encouraged former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to stay on the helm – this will facilitate Global South access to financing without the dreaded IMF/World Bank “structural adjustment” conditionalities. The BRICS grain exchange, establishing clear, transparent rules, will be essential to ensure Global South food security.

    The BRICS made it clear that the complex drive towards a new settlement/payment infrastructure is inevitable, but a long work in progress, especially when the G7 – which for all practical purposes is hijacking the agenda for the G20 next month in Rio – wants to finance at least $20 billion of a $50 billion package to Ukraine with proceeds from stolen Russian assets.

    And that brings us to the most glaring BRICS problems.

    Achieving consensus on difficult dossiers is extremely hard – and may lead, in the long run, to BRICS moving towards an absolute majority mechanism to get things done.

    The Brazilian case – vetoing Venezuela as a BRICS partner – did not go down well at all among members, among partners and across the Global South. The current Lula government may be under tremendous pressure by the Hegemon’s Democrat establishment, but that in itself does not explain the decision.

    There is a massive anti-BRICS lobby inside the highest levels of the Brazilian government, “facilitated”, as usual, by American NGOs as well as the European Commission (EC), heavily infiltrated among the proverbial comprador elites. Brasilia this year privileged the G20 over BRICS. That foresees trouble for next year, when Brazil assumes the BRICS presidency.

    Prospects are not exactly brilliant. The BRICS summit next year is scheduled for July – and the decision seems to be final. That makes no sense – to do the recap of a working agenda in the middle of the year. The official excuse is that Brazil also needs to organize the Cop-30 climate conference in November. So a suggestion will be floated by top Brazilian economist Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr to hold a parallel BRICS wrap-up session during the 2025 G20 summit, which will be held in BRICS member South Africa.

    President Putin has been very accommodating – even proposing Dilma Rousseff to remain at the helm of the NDB. Yet the Russian presidency of the NDB technically starts next year; a more suitable candidate for head of the NDB would be Aleksei Mozhin, until recently the Russian representative in the IMF.

    There’s a major takeaway of all of the above.

    Kazan proved that the driving force of BRICS is actually the notorious Primakov triangle – or RIC (Russia, India, China). It’s now possible to add Iran, and that would make it RIIC. Everything of substance in the inter-connected processes of BRICS integration and Afro-Eurasia integration depends on RIIC.

    Saudi Arabia remains an open proposition. Not even Putin answered whether Riyadh is in, out, or over the wall. Diplomatic sources hint MbS is waiting for the result of the US presidential elections. As much as Saudi Arabia’s wealth is invested in the Anglo-American sphere – and can be stolen in no time – relations with the Russia-China strategic partnership at the highest level are excellent.

    RIC scored a major hit right before the Kazan summit with Beijing and New Delhi announcing their Ladakh normalization. That was achieved by Russian mediation. Then there’s Turkiye; Erdogan was adamant to stress his BRICS enthusiasm in the few hours he spent in Kazan. Later in Istanbul, scholars confirmed he’s dead serious about Turkiye’s partner status and eventual admission as a full member.

    In the language of symbols, the minarets of the Kul Sharif mosque in the Kazan Kremlin were the de facto trademark of the summit: graphic multipolarity in effect. The lands of Islam did get the message – with serious, auspicious repercussions ahead. As for the conductors as the high-speed multi-nodal train leaves the station, all attention should be focused on RIIC. May all the Global South have a safe trip.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 23:25

  • "Complete Lawlessness": Seattle Residents Concerned With "Chaos" Cause By Illegal Street Racing
    “Complete Lawlessness”: Seattle Residents Concerned With “Chaos” Cause By Illegal Street Racing

    We’ve already seen it wreak havoc in cities like Philadelphia, and now illegal street racing is taking over another Democrat-run, Democrat-DA led city: Seattle. And the chaos is starting to concern residents.

    Seattle police are seeking drivers involved in two weekend “street takeovers” that caused traffic jams and alarmed nearby residents and workers, KING5 Seattle reported on Monday. 

    Resident Clay Church said: “Felt like chaos and you something you see at a frat party. Ten fireworks I saw. Multiple were thrown at the cop cars directly. That’s kind of when the cops backed another block. [It was] really loud between that and the cars, complete chaos.”

    “One hundred to 150 people out here with their cars essentially, drag racing, doing donuts. Kind of complete lawlessness, really,” Church added.

    Church described the early Sunday street takeover outside his apartment at 3rd Ave and Clay St. Around 1 a.m., he saw people blocking the intersection with lime scooters and orange cones.

    “We see things on Friday nights. But you don’t expect this type of thing,” another resident said. “We were very nervous someone was going to get hit by a car. Just with the mass amount of people out there and with these cars just spinning.” 

    According to KING5, staff reported the street takeover lasted under 20 minutes. Tower camera footage showed a bystander throwing an object at a car, sparking a conflict before police intervened.

    “They need to understand what folks go through who do live in downtown and understand that it’s just not acceptable,” Church concluded. 

    A statement from the Mayor’s office read: “Mayor Harrell believes it is critical that we work to prevent this behavior and hold offenders accountable using all tools available, including law enforcement efforts, new safety technologies, and legislation recently passed by the City Council. We would defer to SPD on the specifics of these particular events and law enforcement tactics.”

    Maybe Seattle residents will think twice before urging defunding the police the next time we have a “Summer of Love”…

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 23:00

  • What China's "Joint Sword-2024B" Military Drill Tells Us
    What China’s “Joint Sword-2024B” Military Drill Tells Us

    Authored by Carl Schuster via The Epoch Times,

    Involving over 125 aircraft and 34 coast guard and naval units, Beijing’s recent military drills around Taiwan give us some insights into Xi Jinping’s plans for forcing the island’s reunification with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

    This latest intimidation operation was intended to warn Taipei and its potential supporters that Beijing has the capability and will to isolate the democratically governed island from any external support or assistance. However, it also signaled that Xi intends to present the initial phase of a violent reunification effort as one justified under international law.

    For example, the People’s Armed Police Coast Guard’s (PAPCG’s) opening participation indicates China may launch that gambit by declaring a maritime exclusion or quarantine zone around Taiwan. Coast Guard cutters not only circumnavigated the main island of Taiwan, they also patrolled in the waters off Taiwan’s islands just off China’s shores. Nor was this the first time the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command has incorporated PAPCG and Maritime Security Agency (MSA) patrol craft in its exercises opposite Taiwan three times since 2022.

    Seven PAPCG cutters participated in this latest exercise, and a similar number were active in last summer’s as well. Additionally, last August, the MSA’s largest patrol ship, the Type 918 Hai Xun 06, challenged a Taiwan ferry going the offshore island of Matsu. It did not board the ferry but demanded that it declare its cargo and destination and then escorted it outside Taiwan’s declared territorial waters. The patrol ship presented an intimidating presence for the ferry’s crew and passengers. The growing participation of PRC maritime law enforcement units is significant.

    In effect, Beijing is at least considering a maritime law enforcement operation to isolate Taiwan from external support. It will not declare a blockade since that is an act of war typically employed against a hostile sovereign state, a status Beijing denies Taipei. Instead, Beijing argues that Taiwan is a renegade province, making all of its islands, air space, and waters sovereign PRC territory in “rebel” hands. Beijing claims that Taiwan’s status gives China the right under international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to control access to that territory and regulate commerce and resources within Taipei’s economic exclusion zone.

    Under that mindset, Beijing can argue that any maritime quarantine it declares against Taiwan constitutes a reasonable domestic law enforcement operation authorized under international law. It can use that declaration to monitor, intercept, and search shipping entering the quarantine zone to ensure the cargos contain no contraband or materials that Beijing considers supportive of the rebellion. Xi may hope to depict any foreign attempt to assist Taipei under those circumstances as an act of war violating Beijing’s right to re-establish its authority over a province in rebellion. That may give some Western leaders pause since they may have influential “legal experts” who accept Beijing’s interpretation.

    China’s PAPCG is the world’s largest coast guard, and the waters around Taiwan off-China’s shore islands will be reinforced by the PRC’s Maritime Safety Administration’s units. Additionally, as is often the case in the South China Sea, the PAPCG will enjoy the backing of the responsible PLA Theater Command. The PLA Navy and Air Force will maintain patrols, presence, and readiness to respond to any challenges beyond the PAPCG’s capabilities. Equally important, recent missile tests by the PLA Rocket Force and past participation in Eastern Theater Command Exercises indicate preparations for potential anti-Taiwan operations if required.

    The 13-hour-long Joint Sword-2024B was neither as large nor as complex as China’s earlier intimidation exercises against Taiwan. Still, it does demonstrate Beijing’s aggressive intentions and provides some potential insights into how it intends to achieve them. The PRC employs a more adroitly crafted narrative and operates with greater care and subtlety than America’s traditional enemies. It will present its acts as legitimate and lawful actions necessary to ending a rebellion on its territory. All of its military operations have a political narrative and purpose behind them.

    Beijing’s “Three Warfares” doctrine integrates media, public opinion, and legal activities to shape the legal and political environment in its favor. The PRC often presents a positive legal façade to divide its opposition and hide its true intentions. Exposing what’s behind the façade is critical to deterring Xi’s aggressive plans. That may be the greatest challenge the United States and its allies face in deterring Xi’s destabilizing designs in the Western Pacific.

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 22:35

  • The Most Devastating COVID Report So Far
    The Most Devastating COVID Report So Far

    Authored by Jayanta Bhattacharya via The Brownstone Institute,

    The House report on HHS Covid propaganda is devastating. The Biden administration spent almost $1 billion to push falsehoods about Covid vaccines, boosters, and masks on the American people. If a pharma company had run the campaign, it would have been fined out of existence.

    HHS engaged a PR firm, the Fors Marsh Group (FMG), for the propaganda campaign.

    The main goal was to increase Covid vax uptake.

    The strategy:

    1. Exaggerate Covid mortality risk

    2. Downplay the fact that there was no good evidence that the Covid vax stops transmission. 

    The propaganda campaign extended beyond vax uptake and included exaggerating mask efficacy and pushing for social distancing and school closures.

    Ultimately, since the messaging did not match reality, the campaign collapsed public trust in public health.

    The PR firm (FMG) drew most of its faulty science from the CDC’s “guidance,” which ignored the FDA’s findings on the vaccine’s limitations, as well as scientific findings from other countries that contradicted CDC groupthink.

    The report details the CDC’s mask flip-flopping through the years. It’s especially infuriating to recall the CDC’s weird, anti-scientific, anti-human focus on masking toddlers with cloth masks into 2022.

    President Biden’s Covid advisor Ashish K. Jha waited until Dec. 2022 (right after leaving government service) to tell the country that “[t]here is no study in the world that shows that masks work that well.” What took him so long?

    In 2021, former CDC director, Rochelle Walensky rewrote CDC guidance on social distancing at the behest of the national teachers’ union, guaranteeing that schools would remain closed to in-person learning for many months.

    During this period, the PR firm FMG put out ads telling parents that schools would close unless kids masked up, stayed away from friends, and got Covid-vaccinated.

    In March 2021, even as the CDC told the American people that the vaxxed did not need to mask, the PR firm ran ads saying that masks were still needed, even for the vaxxed. “It’s not time to ease up” we were told, in the absence of evidence any of that did any good.

    In 2021, to support the Biden/Harris administration’s push for vax mandates, the PR firm pushed the false idea that the vax stopped Covid transmission. When people started getting “breakthrough” infections, public trust in public health collapsed.

    Later, when the FDA approved the vax for 12 to 15-year-old kids, the PR firm told parents that schools could open in fall 2021 only if they got their kids vaccinated. These ads never mentioned side effects like myocarditis due to the vax.

    HHS has scrubbed the propaganda ads from this era from its web pages. It’s easy to see why. They are embarrassing. They tell kids, in effect, that they should treat other kids like biohazards unless they are vaccinated.

    When the Delta variant arrived, the PR firm doubled down on fear-mongering, masking, and social distancing.

    In September 2021, CDC director Walensky overruled the agency’s external experts to recommend the booster to all adults rather than just the elderly. The director’s action was “highly unusual” and went beyond the FDA’s approval of the booster for only the elderly.

    The PR campaign and the CDC persistently overestimated the mortality risk of Covid infection in kids to scare parents into vaccinating their children with the Covid vax.

    In Aug. 2021, the military imposed its Covid vax mandate, leading to 8,300 servicemen being discharged. Since 2023, the DOD has been trying to get the discharged servicemen to reenlist. What harm has been done to American national security by the vax mandate?

    The Biden/Harris administration imposed the OSHA, CMS, and military vax mandates, even though the CDC knew that the Delta variant evaded vaccine immunity. The PR campaign studiously avoided informing Americans about waning vaccine efficacy in the face of variants.

    The propaganda campaign hired celebrities and influencers to “persuade” children to get the Covid vax.

    I think if a celebrity is paid to advertise a faulty product, that celebrity should be partially liable if the product harms some people.

    In the absence of evidence, the propaganda campaign ran ads telling parents that the vaccine would prevent their kids from getting Long Covid.

    With the collapse in public trust in the CDC, parents have begun to question all CDC advice. Predictably, the HHS propaganda campaign has led to a decline in the uptake of routine childhood vaccines.

    The report makes several recommendations, including formally defining the CDC’s core mission to focus on disease prevention, forcing HHS propaganda to abide by the FDA’s product labeling rules, and revamping the process of evaluating vaccine safety.

    Probably the most important recommendation: HHS should never again adopt a policy of silencing dissenting scientists in an attempt to create an illusion of consensus in favor of CDC groupthink.

    You can find a copy of the full House report here.

    The HHS must take its findings seriously if there is any hope for public health to regain public.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 22:10

  • Trump Responds After Biden Calls 80 Million Americans Human Garbage, Then Lies About It
    Trump Responds After Biden Calls 80 Million Americans Human Garbage, Then Lies About It

    Update (2147ET): President Trump has responded to Biden’s comments, saying “Remember Hillary, she said deplorable… Garbage I think is worse.”

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    Does Harris agree?

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    And of course, the media is already spinning this – suggesting that Biden said ‘Trump’s supporter’s‘ – singular, as if he was only referring to Hinchcliffe.

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    Trump running mate JD Vance responded as well – calling out journalists trying to spin this:

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    You may have heard. During Donald Trump’s 7-hour, celebrity-packed rally at Madison Square Garden, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage,” in reference to the US territory’s well known problem with overflowing landfills.

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    The left went into absolute hysterics,

    Liberal comedian Jon Stewart was the voice of reason…

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    And just when you thought the dust had settled, President Biden called 80 million Americans human garbage:

    “Donald Trump has no character. He doesn’t give a damn about the Latino community…just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage?…The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters,” reports NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez.

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    Update: Then he lied about it!

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    Even CNN isn’t buying it…

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    Meanwhile, Puerto Rican Trump supporters responded with a pro-Trump caravan…

    Puerto Rican politician Zoraida Buxó came out for Trump at a Tuesday rally…

    Stay classy, Biden…

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    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 21:46

  • Citadel’s Griffin: "Expectation Today Trump Wins White House"
    Citadel’s Griffin: “Expectation Today Trump Wins White House”

    At Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative summit, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin and Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman shared their views on the upcoming US presidential election, which is now just six days away.

    “The expectation today is that Donald Trump will win the White House,” Griffin told the panel at Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative summit, adding, “We are at that moment of peak uncertainty. It is a race that Trump is favored to win, but it is almost a coin toss.”

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    During the same panel discussion, Schwarzman weighed in on US politics, indicating, “I don’t know who’s going to win the presidency … but it appears Trump is in a much better base of knowledge of how that job works and how to be efficient and effective in doing it.”

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    Earlier, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told Bloomberg TV, “We do have an election, and there will be policy decisions coming,” adding, “Those will impact the trajectory in 2025 and 2026.” 

    Equity and bond markets have already moved in directions that indicate a possible Trump victory. We detailed this in length for pro subs in a note titled “These Are Goldman’s Favorite Election Trades.”

    That note highlighted Goldman’s Republican Policy pair (GSP24REP), up 7% on the year, while the Democratic Policy pair (GSP24DEM) is down 2.3%. 

    Weeks ago, we showed how Polymarket’s Trump election odds influenced the bond market. 

    The current Polymarket Trump-Harris spread is massively in favor of a Trump win.

    “The mainstream lost its monopoly over media. Now it’s losing its monopoly over polls, prediction markets and shaping public opinion as trust shifts to independent new entities,” we noted on X. 

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    According to the national polling aggregate by RealClearPolitics, Trump is holding a slight lead over Harris. 

    While Griffin and Schwarzman shared their view on the upcoming election on Tuesday, Elon Musk has gone all-in for Trump.

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    It appears America’s leading entrepreneurs want real leadership and stability after 3.5 years of uncertainty and chaos with the Biden-Harris regime. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 21:45

  • The Importance Of Discipline
    The Importance Of Discipline

    Authored by Christian Milord via The Epoch Times,

    What does the undisciplined life look like? The picture that comes to mind would be an individual who tends to be disorganized in a number of behavioral dimensions. They might be slovenly in appearance, arrive late to appointments, avoid responsibilities, have a short attention span, give in to every impulse, take shortcuts, lack focus and purpose, and so on.

    The undisciplined life doesn’t arrive in a vacuum. It can develop in a young person’s life perhaps due to a lack of firm role models around to steer the youngster toward self-control and the hard work of character building.

    If an individual fails to form disciplined habits, he or she can more easily be buffeted back and forth by the winds of fate.

    It takes real effort to become organized and reliable. In other words, it takes discipline to become disciplined!

    The Disciplined Life

    No one needs to be undisciplined forever. An individual can learn self-control through experience (trial and error) and observation. One does not need to isolate oneself or become a monk in order to form disciplined habits. Constructive routines can be formulated regardless of the environment one lives in.

    If you are tired of being pushed around in life, developing disciplined habits will help you to take control of your life in an assertive manner. Implementing these habits starts in the morning. Over time, I developed a routine of rising very early in the morning and taking in some moderate exercise to get the circulation going. This is a purposeful start to a new day as you are eager to plunge into the day’s activities without the need for coffee. Morning prayers are also beneficial.

    Another facet of a structured life involves diet and nutrition. Consuming a healthy diet in order to stay fit requires discipline and the ability to resist the temptation of junk food that bombards us at every turn. Most folks are aware of what constitutes a healthy diet, but they have a hard time sticking to it. Self-control helps you to stay on the narrow path of good nutrition, although we all have lapses from time to time.

    Diet, exercise, and sufficient rest can help us to be confident and healthy as we dress appropriately, maintain personal hygiene, and utilize our energy wisely each day.

    Turning off electronic devices an hour or two before retiring for the night also bestows restful sleep. None of these habits come easily, but once they are part of one’s daily schedule, it becomes easier to abide by them, because you witness the positive outcomes.

    On a more practical level, delayed gratification is a positive principle that comes from a disciplined life. If we are careful at how we spend our income, we can learn how to invest and save more for the future so that we are less inclined to incur debts that can lead to downward mobility. The reckless running up of credit card debt is a prime example of a path that can send one to a poorhouse.

    Disciplining the mind is another aspect of a disciplined life. Sometimes we are faced with information overload, and it can be a challenge to quiet our thoughts down and focus on what is important. This demands practice and mindful breathing exercises to eliminate the stress and invite relaxation in. Muddled thinking can give way to clarity of thought.

    The mind is a powerful instrument that can either sabotage our goals or guide us on the road toward self-governance. If harnessed properly, the mind can enable us to help other folks more effectively as we develop social skills. By assisting others, you end up helping yourself as well.

    Practicing self-discipline can also lead one to a greater spiritual awareness regarding nature and the wonders of God’s creation. Prayer from the heart can strengthen us to cope with the hardships and rejections we all face during our lives. The key is to not give up when faced with obstacles that sometimes arrive two or three at a time.

    I’ve lost count of the number of occupational and personal hurdles I’ve encountered over the years. You learn to grow a thicker skin as the problems roll off your back. Indeed, sometimes these closed doors can point to other opportunities. Suffering can be unpleasant, because we all have feelings, but it’s a part of life that can help us to be empathetic toward other folks.

    Finally, a disciplined life can multiply our chances for success. We learn how to communicate effectively, develop sensory and situational awareness, tame our emotions, embrace lifelong learning, and show gratitude for our blessings. With discipline, we can better organize our lives, yet still have the flexibility to pivot from the structure when necessary. We can also strike a balance between purposeful work and task completion with relaxing leisure time. Self-discipline is part of what comprises a virtuous life.

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 20:30

  • Trump To Unleash Financial Armageddon On Mexican Drug Cartels If He Wins: We Will Be "Seizing Assets" 
    Trump To Unleash Financial Armageddon On Mexican Drug Cartels If He Wins: We Will Be “Seizing Assets” 

    Former President Trump reportedly told allies earlier this year that he would covertly deploy Tier 1 US Special Forces operators to Mexico to wipe out drug cartel leadership if he returns to the White House. However, storming the command and control centers of cartels with guns blazing may not be the proper strategy to dismantle these criminal organizations.

    “I’m announcing that for the first time under my administration, we are seizing the assets of the criminal gangs and drug cartels and we will use those assets to create a compensation fund to provide restitution for the victims of migrant crime,” Trump said at a press conference on Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago. 

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    Trump’s comments at Mar-a-Lago suggest if he wins in November, the US Treasury Department may ramp up a financial war against the violent Mexico-based drug trafficking cartel responsible for America’s drug overdose catastrophe. 

    “When it comes to drug trafficking, we haven’t enforced sanctions against banks seriously,” David Asher, a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute specializing in US foreign policy and law enforcement, told AP News in April 2023. 

    Asher continued, “If we can sanction Russian oligarchs and banks, why can’t we do the same thing to Mexican drug lords and their bankers and bank accounts and banks — especially when we know who they are.”

    Under a Trump presidency, international fentanyl trafficking could be declared a national emergency. This would then allow the Treasury to sanction the hell out of drug cartels and their banks. This would enable Trump to confiscate the sanctioned property of fentanyl traffickers. And it’s not just targeting Mexican banks where traffickers hide their monies – Chinese banks could be targets, too.

    Sanctions would be a tool by Trump to then deter Chinese chemical firms from sending fentanyl-precursor chemicals to Mexico. When cooked, these chemicals are turned into fentanyl, shipped over Biden-Harris’ open southern borders, and then flooded into streets of American towns and cities. 

    If Trump wins, expect these illicit financial networks of the cartels and Chinese companies participating in this drug crisis scheme to be instant targets. 

    Remember, China doesn’t even have to fire a shot, and 100,000 Americans die each year from the drug death overdose crisis. Many of these deaths are folks who are prime-aged working men and women, in other words, military-aged men and women. Some say this is reverse opium wars waged by the Communists on the West. Trump may end this chaos that Biden-Harris allowed to expand drastically. 

    Will activist hedge funds short the peso and Mexican banks if Trump wins? It certainly sounds like a big theme in the making, of course, dependent on a Trump win. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 20:05

  • October Surprise: NY Times And Media Matters To Drop Hit Piece On Conservative News
    October Surprise: NY Times And Media Matters To Drop Hit Piece On Conservative News

    Over the last 48 hours, Tucker Carlson, the Daily Wire‘s Ben Shapiro, ZeroHedge, and others have received text messages from a NY Times reporter who’s about to drop a pre-election screed on ‘misinformation’ in conjunction with radical left-wing group Media Matters – which exists to deplatform conservative voices.

    Tucker Carlson simply told them to fuck off, as one does.

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    Ben Shapiro, meanwhile, wrote in a Monday post to X, “If you were wondering what the legacy media would plan for its October surprise, wonder no longer: it’s here. Today, I received the following text from a reporter at @NYTimes.”

    “What, precisely, is NYT doing? It’s perfectly obvious: using research from Media Matters, a radical Left-wing organization whose sole purpose is destroying conservative media (see below), in order to pressure YouTube to demonetize and penalize any and all conservatives ONE WEEK FROM THE ELECTION,” Shapiro continues.

    “This isn’t about “election misinformation.” Obviously. As pretty much everyone knows, I have always acknowledged that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. And if it is “election misinformation” to point out the “rigging” of the voting rules for election 2020, resulting in massive mail-in voting and ballot harvesting, then the NYT might want to talk to…the NYT and CBS News, for starters,” Shapiro writes, noting that those outlets essentially said the same thing. 

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    ZeroHedge, yours truly, also received a nastygram from Newsguard – who Revolver News exposed as a complete joke years ago.

    Fox News explains what’s going on…

    Meanwhile, the author of the hit piece – Nico Grant, has locked his profile on X…

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    If we haven’t done so recently, we’d like to thank all of our premium and professional subscribers for helping combat this cabal.

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    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 19:55

  • US Ambassador To Lebanon Promotes 'Internal Uprising' To Assist Israel: Report
    US Ambassador To Lebanon Promotes ‘Internal Uprising’ To Assist Israel: Report

    Via The Cradle

    A high-ranking Lebanese security source revealed to Al-Akhbar newspaper that the US Ambassador to Lebanon, Lisa Johnson, is continuing her agenda to prepare Lebanon for a “post-Hezbollah era” by mobilizing “internal” forces against the resistance movement while it fights the Israeli Army.

    In discussions with Lebanese politicians, Johnson reportedly said, “Israel cannot achieve everything through war; it’s time for you to do your part and launch an internal uprising under the banner of ‘Enough.’“

    Still frame via YouTube/US Embassy Beirut

    The ambassador added, “The Lebanese people must show their desire to rise up and get rid of Hezbollah and return to the context that emerged after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, especially since the regional, international, and field circumstances are in your favor.”

    According to the source, the ambassador asked the politicians, “Why do you seem afraid? Hezbollah has been defeated, its leadership is destroyed, and we are with you, and the entire free world stands by your side.”

    Johnson encouraged her Lebanese allies to advocate for the election of Lebanese Armed Forces Commander General Joseph Aoun as President of Lebanon, saying, “He (Aoun) will appoint a strong commander for the Lebanese Army, and we will support the Army in restraining all Hezbollah supporters. You will have backing from Arab states and the West. But the time to act is now.”

    According to the high-level Lebanese security source, Ambassador Johnson’s allies are conducting incitement operations to stoke internal sectarian tensions in areas where displaced persons, mostly Shia from Beirut’s southern suburbs and the south of Lebanon, are now staying after fleeing their homes due to Israeli bombing.

    Lebanon’s society is multi-confessional and multi-national, making the country susceptible to division by outside forces. Lebanon is comprised of Christians (Catholic and Orthodox), Muslims (Sunni and Shia), Druze, and Palestinian and Syrian refugees.

    Civil war engulfed Lebanon’s multifaceted society between 1975 to 1990. An estimated 150,000 people were killed. 

    The source speaking with Al-Akhbar added that “mobilization operations” are being carried out in some neighborhoods and areas controlled by the Lebanese Forces, a right-wing Christian political party, under the pretext of “protecting our areas from the chaos of the displaced and so that they do not turn into occupiers.”

    In an effort to weaken Hezbollah, Johnson has also begun calling on politicians, civil organizations, and media professionals with whom she has influence to drive a wedge between Lebanon’s Shia community and Hezbollah.

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    The source said that Johnson has clearly stated her wish to take advantage of the current Israeli war to completely eliminate Hezbollah, not only militarily but politically as well.

    “We do not only want to limit Hezbollah’s influence, but we will strike its support lines, and we are working non-stop to bring down the regime in Iran as well,” Johnson reportedly said.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 19:40

  • US Approves Weapons Sale To Riyadh Despite Unprecedented Iran-Saudi Drills
    US Approves Weapons Sale To Riyadh Despite Unprecedented Iran-Saudi Drills

    Authored by Kyle Anzalone via The Libertarian Institute,

    Last week, Saudi Arabia conducted unprecedented drills with its rival Iran in the Sea of Oman in a sign of warming relations between the regional powers. Following the announcement, Washington approved a massive arms sale to the Gulf Kingdom. 

    On Thursday, the US announced it had approved the sale of 1,000 Tube-launched, Optically Tracked, Wire-guided (TOW) missiles to Saudi Arabia. Raytheon will be the contractor for the $440 million deal. 

    US Army file image showing vehicle mounted TOW missile launch.

    Washington’s press release about the deal came after Saudi Arabia said it conducted joint naval exercises with Iran on Wednesday.

    “The Royal Saudi Naval Forces had recently concluded a joint naval exercise with the Iranian Naval Forces alongside other countries in the Sea of Oman,” a Saudi military official told AFP. 

    While the drills signal a strengthening relationship between Gulf powers, Washington providing a huge shipment of weapons to Riyadh as it also backs Israeli strikes on Iran could scuttle the steps towards a more stable Saudi-Iranian relationship. 

    The White House took a similar approach to the South China Sea. In July, China and the Philippines agreed to a deal that saw tensions around the Second Thomas Shoal decrease.

    However, the Biden administration then sent $500 million in military aid to Manila. Shortly thereafter, the Philippines and Chinese vessels began colliding near another reef in the South China Sea.  

    Riyadh and Tehran have been building their relationship since Beijing brokered a landmark peace deal between the two countries last year. President Joe Biden has sought to take the Middle East in a different direction, bringing Saudi Arabia into a coalition with Israel aimed at Iran. 

    The Saudis and Iranians recently went from spending decades as bitter regional enemies and rivals to holding joint military drills after a China-brokered detente…

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    The announcement of the massive arms deal for Raytheon comes after the arms merchant agreed to pay nearly $1 billion in penalties after overbilling the Pentagon and bribing foreign governments. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 18:50

  • Maddow Wheels Out Neocon Nuland To Declare Russia Is Interfering In 2024 Election
    Maddow Wheels Out Neocon Nuland To Declare Russia Is Interfering In 2024 Election

    MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow can’t let an election go by without wheeling out the usual cadre of tired old neocons, with the latest to appear on her show being former State Department official Victoria Nuland. As expected, she sought to lump Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Vladimir Putin together in a segment on ‘disinformation’ this week.

    “He’s at it again!” Nuland claimed of Putin, resurrecting talking points heavily featured in the prior two elections as well. She accused Musk of being in essence a useful idiot of the Kremlin, allowing Putin to use “sophisticated tools” on his X platform to ‘interfere’ and influence voters. “And he has more sophisticated tools… He’s got a brand new, very powerful tool, which is Elon Musk and X,” Nuland claimed of Putin (and by extension Trump, according to her talking points).

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    “In 2020, the social media companies worked hard with the U.S. government to try to do content moderation, to try to catch this stuff as it was happening. This time, we have Elon Musk talking directly to the Kremlin and ensuring that every time the Russians put out something, it gets five million views before anyone can catch it,” Nuland continued. And then she warned: “Trump is taking Putin lessons, as autocrats around the world are.”

    Maddow, for her part, added: “For the United States to not be the leader of the free world, but rather in effectively a sort of ‘Axis’ with the dictators of Russia and China, and North Korea.” So clearly Maddow wanted to escalate the claims to put Trump in league with all dictators of the world, absurdly enough.

    “For the United States to be allied with those countries instead of our traditional alliances — I’m not sure people have absorbed the magnitude of what you’re describing there,” Maddow followed with.

    Aaron Maté, an indepdent journalist who has spent years debunking key Russiagate talking points, issued the following commentary in reaction to the Nuland-Maddow interview segment…

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    For a third consecutive presidential election, Russiagate propagandists are accusing Russia of manipulating Americans into not voting for their preferred candidate. Here, Victoria Nuland complains that Twitter is no longer partnering with the US gov’t to censor stories — what she calls the “content moderation” that we saw “in 2020.”

    This is a reference to censoring journalism on Hunter Biden’s laptop based on the CIA lie that it was “Russian disinformation.”

    Speaking of Russia and election interference, Nuland is well-versed in practicing it: as a senior State Dept. official, she was instrumental in funneling the Clinton-funded “Steele dossier” into the FBI. She personally authorized the early July 2016 meeting where Steele gave an FBI agent his dossier, which helped kick off the multi-year Russiagate scam.

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    And another commenter wrote that “Nuland openly longs for the days of US Govt/Twitter 1.0 censorship collusion.”

    “Free speech on X is under constant assault — their information monopoly has been destroyed in an election cycle — and they desperately want the Twitter 1.0 censorship regime back.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 18:25

  • Starbucks Warns Corporate Staff: Show Up In Office Or Get Fired
    Starbucks Warns Corporate Staff: Show Up In Office Or Get Fired

    The golden era of remote work seems to be ending. Starbucks is the latest mega-corporation to enforce a return-to-office mandate for white-collar workers.

    An internal message from the coffee chain obtained by Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal states a new “standardized process” will be implemented at the start of the new year to hold employees accountable if they don’t comply with work requirements, such as coming into the office at least three days a week. The memo stated that non-compliance could result in termination. 

    Starbucks reminded hybrid white-collar workers that working arrangements had not changed and that rules must be followed. The memo emphasized: “We are continuing to support our leaders as they hold their teams accountable.” 

    Bloomberg quoted new Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol last month as saying, “This is not a game of tracking. This is a game of winning,” adding, “I care about seeing everybody here succeed, and if success requires us being together more often than not, let’s be together more often.” 

    A company spokesperson told Bloomberg, “We are continuing to support our leaders as they hold their teams accountable to our existing hybrid work policy.” 

    The bigger picture here is the remote work revolution across corporate America was more or less a total flunk. It did not drive increased office productivity; instead, it was the opposite. More or less, hybrid work policies, a combination of home and office, will likely be the gold standard moving forward. 

    Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently told corporate staffers to work from the office five days a week, up from three days a week – completely reversing pandemic-era policies. Also, UPS, JPMorgan Chase, Dell Technologies, and Boeing have asked parts of their white-collar workforces to return to offices full-time. 

    We suspect Starbucks CEO Niccol’s enforcement of office work requirements is part of his attempt to turn around the sinking ship.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 17:40

  • Government Gaslights People About The Economy
    Government Gaslights People About The Economy

    Authored by Ron Paul via The Mises Institute,

    Public opinion polls consistently show the economy is one of the top issues, if not the top issue, for American voters.

    This may strike some as odd, since official government statistics show low unemployment and declining price inflation, suggesting the Federal Reserve has engineered a “soft landing” bringing down inflation without causing a recession.

    So why the concern over the economy? One reason is more people are realizing government economic figures hide the truth about the economy.

    “Recession Since 2022: US Economic Income and Output Have Fallen Overall for Four Years” is a Brownstone Institute research paper by Dr. E.J. Antoni, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and Dr. Peter St. Onge, a fellow with the Mises Institute.

    It details how the federal government understates inflation, while making wages, profits, and economic growth appear stronger.

    Dr. Antoni and Dr. St. Onge use a more accurate measure of inflation than that used by government to uncover the true state of the economy. Their calculations show that the US economy has been in recession since 2022.

    The government claims that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by approximately 13.7 percent from 2019 through the first half of 2024.

    When the more accurate inflation number is used, the result is a 2.5 percent decline in GDP.

    The federal government’s figures also show the American people’s disposable income increased by 12.9 percent from 2019 through the first half of 2024.

    However, when the more accurate way of calculating price inflation is used, it shows Americans’ disposable income declined by 2.3 percent.

    Dr. Antoni and Dr. St. Onge are hardly the first to expose how the government uses doctored statistics to make the economy look stronger.

    John Williams’s ShadowStats has regularly shown how government manipulates data to underreport unemployment and price inflation.

    Government distortions of economic data mislead the people regarding the true state of the economy. They also mislead Congress, the president, and maybe even the Federal Reserve.

    Until the Audit the Fed bill becomes law, we will not know for sure what data the central bank relies on.

    Making economic policy decisions based on flawed data enables politicians to ignore the dangers posed by Congress’s refusal to cut federal spending.

    Government spending puts pressure on the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low. The Federal Reserve can keep interest rates low because the dollar’s world reserve currency status guarantees a strong demand for US dollars.

    A growing number of countries, though, are seeking alternatives to the dollar. One reason for this is resentment over the US government’s use of the dollar’s world reserve currency status to force other counties to abide by US demands.

    Saudi Arabia is moving away from exclusively using dollars for its oil trade.

    The “petrodollar” is a major reason the dollar has been able to maintain its world reserve currency status.

    If the dollar loses its world reserve currency status, America would face a major economic crisis. This crisis could lead to the collapse of the welfare-warfare state and the fiat money system that makes it possible. The danger is the replacement could be even worse as a frightened populace turns toward an authoritarian promise of security in exchange for restriction of liberty.

    However, the collapse could also result in a turn toward respect for the principles of liberty, limited government, free markets, and a foreign policy of peace and free trade.

    Those who know the truth must continue to educate our fellow citizens about the benefits of liberty.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 17:20

  • Russian Special Forces Academy In Chechnya Hit By Drone Attack
    Russian Special Forces Academy In Chechnya Hit By Drone Attack

    A drone slammed into a building and campus in Chechnya known as the Russian Special Forces University in the early morning hours of Tuesday, regional governor Ramzan Kadyrov has confirmed.

    “At 6:30 this morning, the roof of an empty building on the territory of the Russian Special Forces University caught fire in Gudermes as a result of an unmanned aerial attack,” Kadyrov said. The town which hosts the military school lies just over 20 miles east of the capital Grozny.

    Via social media/X

    “No one was killed or injured. The fire has been extinguished,” Kadyrov detailed in the statement posted to Telegram. He claimed the attack didn’t lead to significant disruptions at the training academy. However, that seems doubtful given the photographs showing the extent of fires and damage to the roof in the aftermath. Images suggest more than one UAV may have hit.

    The institution is known for being the only private campus for training Russian military special operators. But tens of thousands have been sent through its elite training program.

    Politico has detailed that the school heavily contributes to training special operations troops deployed in Ukraine:

    “The school’s website says it instructs both soldiers and civilians in a variety of combat tactics, including shooting, artillery and parachute landing. More than 47,000 troops deployed to the front line in Ukraine have been trained there, according to the Kremlin.

    The school also reportedly has a combat drone production facility attached to it. This marks the first such major drone attack on this specific region since the Ukraine war began.

    The Amsterdam-based Moscow Times has noted it’s possible the drone was not sent from Ukraine, given the great distance of the Caucasus from the front lines. 

    “He did not say whether he believed the drone had been launched from Ukraine, noting only that police were investigating the incident,” the report said in reference to Gov. Kadyrov’s statement. “Chechnya is located around 600 kilometers (373 miles) southeast of the border with Ukraine.”

    However, there has been an emerging reporting consensus that this was the result of a Ukrainian attack, and not the result of recent tensions among rival factions on the Russian southern Caucasus republics: 

    Ukraine has frequently struck Russia with drones in the course of the war, but Tuesday’s attack appeared to be the first against Chechnya. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.

    “They’ve bitten us – we will destroy them,” [Chechen leader] Kadyrov told reporters in a video published by Russian state news agency RIA. “In the very near future we’ll show them the kind of vengeance they’ve never even dreamt of,” he said.

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

    Chechen troops have from the start of the war been very active in Ukraine, including specialized units deployed, which has outraged Kiev. Kadyrov in particular has been a regional leader who has been very vocal in supporting Putin’s decision to go to war.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 17:00

  • Trump "Violent Rhetoric" Needs "Close Monitoring": Political 'Scientists'
    Trump “Violent Rhetoric” Needs “Close Monitoring”: Political ‘Scientists’

    Authored by Matt Lamb via The College Fix,

    Political scientists determine Trump uses more violent language than Obama by comparing the Republican’s campaign speeches to the Democrat’s White House addresses

    President Donald Trump’s “violent rhetoric” is getting worse, according to two political scientists.

    University of California Los Angeles doctoral student Nikita Savin and UCLA Professor Daniel Treisman reached their conclusion after analyzing Trump campaign and presidential speeches from 2015 to 2024.

    They compared it to President Barack Obama’s White House weekly addresses, even though a campaign speech is different in tone than a formal address. They have also said Hillary Clinton’s violent language is part of her “toughness” as a female politician confronting stereotypes.

    “While politicians’ rhetoric does not always predict their actions, Trump’s increasing attachment to violent language and populist themes may offer insight into his future approach, whether as president or in defeat,” they wrote in The Conversation.

    This recent article is based on a study published in July and updated this month. “As political scientists, we believe the rise of such rhetoric merits close monitoring because of its potential implications for the broader political landscape,” they wrote.

    Over the summer, Treisman made similar warnings. “How Trump’s vocabulary will evolve in the coming months remains to be seen,” Treisman stated in a news release for UCLA. “But the rising temperature of his rhetoric bears watching.

    Trump uses a “violent tone” and a “controversial rhetorical style,” the political scientists wrote for The Conversation.

    The study relies on a dictionary that Treisman himself developed with another researcher.

    His language is close to “authoritarian figures such as Kim Jong Un and Fidel Castro,” the scholars wrote.

    The political scientists wrote that Trump uses “aggressive” language, such as promising to “drain the swamp.”

    Old Trump used to not be as bad, according to the academics.

    They wrote:

    Trump’s rhetorical style has undergone significant changes since he launched his first presidential campaign. During his initial run in 2015-2016, his language became more inclusive, with a rise in the use of “we” and “the people” and fewer references to elites and social groups he views negatively (“them”).

    Once in office, however, his speeches exhibited a more combative style. His use of violent language surged, and references to “them” became more frequent.

    This evolution suggests that Trump’s rhetoric is adaptable, changing in response to political contexts and the audience he aims to engage.

    “His increasing use of inflammatory language and swear words after taking office contrasts with the more measured tone he adopted during his 2016 campaign,” they wrote.

    Biden was much better, according to the researchers.

    “Despite being president during the start of two foreign wars and other ongoing conflicts abroad, Biden’s use of violent vocabulary during both the 2020 and 2024 presidential campaigns was consistently less than Trump’s,” UCLA wrote in its summary.

    (Biden’s administration has labeled pro-lifers as an “extremist threat” and warned of a “dark winter” if enough Americans didn’t take the COVID-19 jab).

    The scholars also explained away violent imagery from Hillary Clinton.

    “Hillary Clinton’s use of violent words in her 2015-2016 campaign slightly exceeded Trump’s relatively moderate level at that time, which could reflect Clinton’s desire to show ‘toughness’ given stereotypes of women leaders being less hawkish,” UCLA stated in its news release, paraphrasing the researchers.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 16:40

  • Google Jumps After Beating Across The Board
    Google Jumps After Beating Across The Board

    And they’re off.

    What until now was a solid, if not stellar earnings season, is about to go into overdrive as the tech giants report Q3 earnings, although unlike previous quarters, growth for the Magnificent 7 is expected to be far more subdued.

    So turning to the first true megacap to report earnings (after a stellar print from minicap TSLA last week) Google parent Alphabet which as a reminder yesterday Goldman pointed out that ahead of earnings hedge fund positioning here was not as excessive (at 6/10), and may be why the stock is soaring some 4% after the close on what is a solid beat across the board. Here are the details :

    • Q3 EPS $2.12, up 37% and beating estimate $1.84
    • Q3 Revenue $88.27 billion, beating estimate $86.45 billion
      • Google advertising revenue $65.85 billion, beating estimate $65.5 billion
        • Google Search & Other Revenue $49.39 billion, beating estimate $49.08 billion
      • YouTube ads revenue $8.92 billion, beating estimate $8.89 billion
      • Google Network Revenue $7.55 billion, beating estimate $7.41 billion
      • Google Subscriptions, Platforms and Devices Revenue $10.66 billion, beating estimate $9.79 billion
      • Google Services revenue $76.51 billion, beating estimate $75.24 billion
      • Google Cloud revenue $11.35 billion, beating estimate $10.79 billion
      • Other Bets revenue $388 million, beating estimate $377.9 million
         
    • Operating income $28.52 billion, estimate $26.67 billion
      • Google Services operating income $30.86 billion, beating estimate $28.47 billion
      • Google Cloud operating income $1.95 billion, beating estimate $1.11 billion
      • Other Bets operating loss $1.12 billion, missing estimate loss $1.16 billion
         
    • Operating margin 32%, beating estimate 31.4%
    • Net income was $26.3 billion, beating $22.8 billion estimate.
    • Capital expenditure $13.06 billion, beating estimates of $12.88 billion
    • Number of employees 181,269, down from 182,381 a year ago.

    A quick point on YouTube: it was bought by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion; YouTube now generates $1.65 billion of revenue every 16 days.

    The results visually:

    While Google’s cloud numbers were stellar, with revenue rising from $8.4BN to $11.3BN, and beating estimates of $10.8BN, what investors wanted to hear was more about the company’s progress on AI. This is what CEO Sundar Pichai had to say:

    In Search, our new AI features are expanding what people can search for and how they search for it. In Cloud, our AI solutions are helping drive deeper product adoption with existing customers, attract new customers and win larger deals. And YouTube’s total ads and subscription revenues surpassed $50 billion over the past four quarters for the first time.

    Like other Big Tech companies, Alphabet has been plowing money into developing artificial intelligence, a strategy that has helped drive demand for its cloud services, which saw revenue rise 32% in the first quarter. While Google remains a distant third in the cloud computing market, trailing Amazon and Microsoft, the company’s prowess in AI could help it close the gap.

    Ironically, Google developed much of the underlying technology being used in the AI boom today, and has woven it into products from web search to its suite of enterprise software from Gmail to Google Docs. Yet ever since OpenAI’s ChatGPT was released in late 2022, Google has been battling the perception that it’s lagging behind Microsoft and OpenAI in rolling out new generative AI tools. The arrival of popular chatbots such as ChatGPT, which answers questions in a conversational tone rather than providing lists of links to other websites, has posed a threat to Google’s two-decade stranglehold on search. The company is struggling to compete in generative AI without cannibalizing its core profit machine.

    Google has been scrambling to reassert its early lead in AI, after its early efforts were marred by embarrassing blunders, including a scandal over how its AI model Gemini handled race that forced the company to suspend image generation of people.

    And as the company seeks to establish itself as a leader in AI, it wants to make sure that investors are rewarded to wait, and the company not only announced a cash dividend at 20 cents…

    On October 29, 2024, Alphabet announced a cash dividend of $0.20 per share that will be paid on December 16, 2024, to stockholders of record as of December 9, 2024, on each of the company’s Class A, Class B, and Class C shares.

    … but also announced repurchased $15.3 billion in stock under its new $70 billion buyback program.

    While investors have shown they are excited about the prospects of AI, they want tech companies to continue to focus on revenue and profit in the meantime. Meta, which competes with Google in AI and also digital advertising, suffered its worst stock decline since October 2022 after reporting that it would spend billions of dollars more this year on AI efforts and projecting weaker revenue for the current quarter. For its part, Google – which does not do forecasts – paid $13.1BN in capex in the quarter, about $200 million more than estimated, but that’s not a huge difference and was more than made up for by the rise in profits in its core businesses.

    The Google owner has been suffering compared to the rest of the Magnificent Seven recently. Investors appear to be skeptical of its AI spending — and when it will filter through to the bottom line — and that’s weighed on the stock.

     

    For all the hoopla about AI, search advertising remains the engine of Google’s lucrative business, and the company is facing heightened competition there, too. Meta has been seeding AI tools throughout its advertising business and Snap Inc. has also undergone a total revamp of its ad business to improve ad targeting. The digital ad market is recovering from a post-pandemic slump, buoyed by the Olympics Games this summer, but Google is increasingly vying for those ad dollars with Meta and Snap.

    Additionally, if consumers gravitate from Google search to the new wave of chatbots, that could imperil the company’s search advertising juggernaut, which is expected to generate nearly $200 billion in revenue this year and the bulk of Alphabet’s profit.

    Cloud has been a bright spot for Google, after it first became profitable early last year. Many young AI startups are founded by former Google employees, creating a strong pipeline of cloud clients.

    For now, however, these concerns were on the backburner, with GOOGL stock jumping about 4% after hours, but still well below its all time high reached in early July when it briefly traded above $190.

    For now, however, these concerns were on the backburner, with GOOGL stock exploding about 12% after hours, and trading at a new all time high.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 16:23

  • Megyn Kelly Eviscerates Michelle Obama Over "Whining" Speech "Ripping On The Country"
    Megyn Kelly Eviscerates Michelle Obama Over “Whining” Speech “Ripping On The Country”

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

    SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly blasted multi-millionaire Michelle Obama for making a speech that yet again complained about how racist and sexist the US is.

    Obama made the speech at Kamala Harris’ rally Saturday, also bashing men in the process.

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

    She also complained that people expect a presidential candidate to be articulate and intelligent.

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    She asked why Harris is being held to a high standard, despite the fact that she’s been Vice President for almost four years.

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    You get the gist.

    Kelly was having none of it and tore Mrs Obama to pieces.

    “The Democrats were on bended knee with two dozen red roses begging Michelle Obama to run, especially when Joe Biden started to implode,” Kelly said, adding “They would have done anything to sub her in… I’m so sick and tired of Michelle Obama whining about how racist and sexist America is.”

    “We made her rich, famous and beloved beyond any measure,” she urged.

    “Everything she has is due to this country — her Martha’s Vineyard estate, her Chicago estate, her Washington, D.C., estate, her Hawaii estate and her trips on the David Geffen yacht. I am sick and tired of her complaining about us. It’s like Oprah. Just shut up!” the host declared.

    “All of your gifts are due to us. All we want to hear you say is thank you. That’s it. That’s what we want to hear you say. Stop ripping on the country,” Kelly added.

    Watch:

    Kelly followed up with two more jabs.

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

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

    She’s right, every time the likes of Michelle Obama speak, it alienates every day Americans.

    *  *  *

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

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/29/2024 – 16:20

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Oct 29

Today’s News 29th October 2024

  • "Six Ways From Sunday" And The Continuity Of Government
    “Six Ways From Sunday” And The Continuity Of Government

    Authored by Sundance via The Last Refuge,

    During the rushed debate over the Patriot Act, was when I first heard political officials talking about the importance of “continuity of government.”

    I immediately recognized what all these DC voices were describing was a construct of a post-911 government that would exist and maintain itself without the elected representatives of WeThe People.

    The intelligence gathering and homeland security system put into place after the Patriot Act was passed, is a bureaucratic administrative state without the presence of elected officials controlling the apparatus. That leads to the following question:

    How can a constitutional republic function without elected officials in control of it?

    That question is at the heart of our current situation.

    That question is at the epicenter of this “new American democracy” that no one seems to understand.

    The simple answer is it cannot.

    We have been fighting this three-headed IC monster (DHS, DNI, DOJ-NSD) ever since.

    This reality the underlying predicate behind why Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the Special Counsel charges against Trump. This reality is also the underlying framework behind why the Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the plenary power of the President with control over the executive.

    In the post-9/11 system that was created by the Patriot Act, our Constitutional Republic was inextricably fractured, placing systems and silos in charge of government under the auspices of “continuity of government.”

    From that moment forth, elected representatives no longer held authority or oversight *over* the national security apparatus. Instead, the Patriot Act flipped the actual system of democratically elected representative government.

    The RESULT: Our elected officials became subservient to the institutional interests of unelected agency officials. As Senator Schumer calls them “the six ways from Sunday” coalition.

    This reality empirically surfaces with people like former AG Bill Barr saying the President does not have unilateral authority over the DOJ. Also, the Lawfare approach and narrative that a President is not the arbiter of governing power. Both statements are constitutionally false, as affirmed by SCOTUS – Thank God.

    Understand this. This is the root of the cancer that was always present, silent and lurking in the background institutions prior to 9/11. After the Patriot Act passed, that cancer fully metastasized and entered the bloodstream of American governance.

    What was previously a slimy bag of institutional snakes, kept in place by a tenuously worn nylon bag – sewn from the remaining fabric of our constitution, was released by the Patriot Act.

    Everything thereafter, including the constant bites we suffer from the unleashed weaponization, is a consequence of that moment.

    That’s the root of our modern political reality.

    This is the “new American democracy,” where the unelected officials and administrators within institutions hold power.

    Under this Patriot Act framework, representative government [executive branch, legislative branch and even the judicial branch] are subservient to those who use the shield of national security. This outcome is the direct consequence of creating a system for the “continuity of government.”

    LEARN IT!

    Then, suddenly, everything about the domestic enemy we confront gets really clear.

    Thankfully, the Supreme Court has now given indications that they understand what has taken place.

    The Supreme Court has recently affirmed that only the President of the United States has the authority to control the Executive Branch.  As a direct and consequential outcome, only the President of the United States can remove the core issue that has corrupted our constitutional intent.

    Every element vested in the “continuity of government” as a manipulation of the constitution are now aligned to eliminate the threat President Donald Trump represents.

    We have one chance.

    Vote like your freedom depends on it, because it does.

    Read the SCOTUS opinion, not from a point of view of President Trump, but from the point of view of what does this allow him to do in his second term, and what invisible straightjackets did it remove that were a threat during his first term?

    While impeachment is a political process within the Legislative Branch, and the Supreme Court is extremely hesitant to overstep their role therein, the High Court did put this sentiment clearly into the opinion about immunity: …“The President is not above the law. But Congress may not criminalize the President’s conduct in carrying out the responsibilities of the Executive Branch under the Constitution.”…

    Congress may not criminalize the conduct of the President simply for carrying out his core executive branch duties.

    Removal of Executive Branch officials is a core duty, an official act, carrying absolute immunity.

    That affirmed reality is exactly why the Deep State and Lawfare crowd are very alarmed.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 23:25

  • Real Estate Bubbles: Where Rent Prices Are Going Up Or Down
    Real Estate Bubbles: Where Rent Prices Are Going Up Or Down

    Across real estate bubble cities, average rent prices have increased 5% since mid-2022 in real terms, while inflation-adjusted home prices have dropped 15%.

    This has played a role in lowering bubble risk over the last two years. In this way, higher rent prices reflect fundamental demand, such as higher population growth, rather than speculation pushing up home prices. Higher incomes across cities has a similar effect in lowering bubble risk.

    This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows the annual change in real rental costs in bubble markets, based on data from UBS’ Global Real Estate Bubble Index 2024.

    Rental Costs Are Soaring in Key Bubble Markets

    Although real rents have increased modestly across bubble cities, we can see in the table below that select cities are seeing much higher demand:

    *Paris data as of Q1 2023-Q1 2024.

    Since 2020, real rents in Dubai have surged 60%, outpacing the 40% rise in real home prices.

    This growth reflects a booming population, with 400,000 people moving to the city over the past four years. By 2040, Dubai’s population is expected to grow from 3.8 million to 5.8 million. Today, office occupancy in the financial hub now stands at 91%, surpassing many global centers.

    Similarly, Madrid has seen average rent prices climb. Surging rental costs in Madrid have led to thousands of protesters taking the streets as real rents have risen at nearly triple the rate of real home prices in the last year.

    In contrast, real rents in Singapore have fallen nearly 7%, following government efforts to curb foreign demand. This shift breaks from the previous five years, when rent prices outpaced the property market as the population expanded and housing construction faced delays.

    From a regional standpoint, bubble cities in North America saw the vast majority of declines in average real rent prices. Leading these decreases were Los Angeles (-4.0%), Toronto (-2.8%), and Miami (-2.8%), which rank among the top five bubble risk cities in 2024.

    To learn more about this topic from a U.S.-perspective, check out this graphic on the cities with the highest median rent in America in 2024.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 23:00

  • After The Deluge
    After The Deluge

    Authored by Nancy Rommelmann via RealClearInvestigations,

    At 7:30 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 27, Chris Trusz was standing on one of the bridges spanning the Broad River in Chimney Rock. He wanted to get a photo. It had been raining steadily for 36 hours and the river was running 10 inches above normal. Trusz, who’d moved to the western North Carolina mountain town 18 months earlier, wasn’t worried; residents had been warned there might be a bit of flooding. He got his picture and walked up the hill to his home.

    “Normally I have a sliver of a view of the river,” he said. “Now I’m looking and can see the river clearly.” By the time he got back to Main Street, the Broad was three times as wide and running 30 inches high. Within the hour, buildings had slid off their foundations, some taken down by the furious mud-colored current and disappearing completely.

    “We were watching homes wash by, all kinds of debris,” said Trusz. Worse, he recalled, were the cars being carried away, some with their headlights still on. 

    “I can’t unsee that,” said Trusz, three weeks after Hurricane Helene took down several western North Carolina towns, paralyzed the entire region, and killed at least 123, a number that will almost certainly rise and may prove unknowable.

    It is one of several terrible unknowns the residents of western North Carolina now face. That they were unprepared for Helene is not on them – neither was the government nor anyone else. The “once in a thousand years” storm was not supposed to happen here, 500 miles from the Gulf of Mexico and 2,100 feet above sea level. There had been no local evacuation order even as the storm barreled their way. It would dump 30 inches of rain on western North Carolina and create up to 140-mile-per-hour winds. It would bring down untold thousands of trees. It would knock out the electrical grid, cell phone service, and the water supply all at once. In a matter of hours, it would obliterate the everyday security people felt, leaving survivors blinking into a new reality, wondering if they could or should rebuild lives in a place whose fragility had just been betrayed.

    “If you live here or own a business, where do you go when it’s completely wiped out? I mean, how do you start over from that?” asked Trusz, a property manager for Airbnb who’d just found out the company was forbidding area rentals until June 2025 at least.

    Further betrayal would come, during America’s overheated election season, from politicians, partisans, and conspiracists attempting to use the destruction and death caused by Helene to score political points. While mainstream news outlets suggested the area was being commandeered by armed right-wing militias, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was tweeting, “Yes they can control the weather” (no elaboration as to who “they” were).

    Echoing a common complaint, Elon Musk claimed that “FEMA is not merely failing to adequately help people in trouble, but is actively blocking citizens who try to help!” Before long, Musk would instead be thanking Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for “expediting approval for support flights.” Below the radar were the innumerable others stoking discord, including the person who tweeted at me, “Water Back on in Asheville NC. Feels like BLEACH on my skin. Very hot. Burning my face….” This just after he retweeted several racist memes and the claim that the death toll in Asheville was over 8,000.

    Because of its unexpected and painful destruction, western North Carolina has become another symbol of America’s cultural divide. One side is the politicization of everything, as human suffering was quickly transformed into a partisan cudgel swung by party operatives and media outlets who fed the public versions of events that advanced their favored narratives. On the other side was the heroic story of people and government working together as best they could in cataclysmic circumstances to aid and comfort one another. 

    That second, hopeful story is what I found while reporting in and around Asheville last week. In a hotel with no running water, guests, some of whom had multiple trees fall on their homes, made do. While the scene could resemble a pajama party gone wrong, with people shuffling to the Porto-Sans in the driveway and choosing not to comment on the smell of body odor in the elevator, most folks showed concern for what their fellow travelers were going through. They left food and drink on a table in the lobby, next to a paper plate onto which someone had written “Take what you need.” They had neither the luxury nor desire to make political hay from their brethren’s misery. And when the taps turned back on, the water was clear if not yet potable, and when you washed with it, it did not burn.

    Capitalizing on the misfortune of others is reprehensible, and no one I met in western North Carolina had the leisure time or the inclination to do so. Many are still without drinking water. Commercial districts have the same ghostly quality they had during COVID, and the shoulders of many roadways are piled with what was left of downed trees, the white oaks, maples, and pines that drew 14 million visitors a year, especially in late September and October, when the region blazes red and gold. 

    If many of those trees are now gone, what happens to the tourism economy and its $7.7 billion? What of Asheville’s major creative draw, the River Arts District, where floodwaters reached 27 feet and where what studio spaces remain have been taken down to the studs? Where do people find the courage, and the resources, to start again? And what if the thousand-year storm turns out to have a different schedule?

    “I have childhood memories up there in Chimney Rock on Lake Lure, my granddaddy took me up there,” said Beverly Ramsey. “How do you rebuild something like that?”

    Ramsey was driving to T-Birds, the bar she has frequented most days since Helene hit, not to drink but to see how she can help. The Weaverville lounge, usually known for its pool tables and karaoke, had been converted into a repository for donated goods, currently being organized by 25-year-old Alex Holt. Holt worked faster than someone running over hell’s half-acre, organizing the pet food and sleeping bags and propane tanks and maple syrup and other items brought on trailer trucks – so many that, 20 days post-Helene, they were backed up on Old Mars Mill Highway. How many were arriving a day?

    “I couldn’t give you an exact number, they’re coming from Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Mississippi,” said Holt, who clearly had zero time to chat. “We’re just trying to meet everyone’s needs.”

    “Can you imagine getting your period through all this?” Ramsey asked, sorting through a shopping bag a local woman had just dropped off, individual baggies holding six tampons and a two-pack of chocolate cupcakes.

    Ramsey had been in Weaverville, a town of about 5,000 people 11 miles from Asheville, at her elderly mother’s home when Helene hit. As for how terrifying it initially was that morning: not very.

    “I slept through it,” she said. Her main concern, when she woke up and saw the power was out, was being unable to make coffee. She decided to walk to a nearby Bojangles.

    Forty-five minutes later she was back, the scene she encountered outside both impassable and making no sense. Dozens of big trees lay across the suburban street. Climbing over limbs and under fallen power lines, she came across three men using chainsaws to cut a hole in the fallen trees. Did they know what had happened? They did not; they had no cell service. Ramsey checked her own phone. No signal. Overhead, she heard the whomp whomp of a Chinook helicopter. What the hell was going on?

    It was not until that night, when a neighbor used a power inverter to hook a car battery to his television, that Ramsey would begin to learn of the damage caused by Hurricane Helene. The flooding appeared to be the worst since The Great Flood of 1916 when the region experienced 26 inches of rain. Helene would dump 30 inches, or more than 40 trillion gallons, though Ramsey would not know as much for days; no one could, not with all communications cut, and roads crisscrossed with downed trees, and some washed away entirely. Other than by helicopter, there was no way in or out, and in some cases, people could not reach their closest neighbors, to say nothing of the outside world.

    Help nevertheless got through. “That first day, people brought us gas, water,” said Ramsey, who let those who could not get home, or no longer had homes to get to, crash on her floor. Where some blamed the government for not immediately rushing to the rescue, Ramsey praised the self-reliance of her neighbors.

    “Hillbillies and rednecks are a community. They want to talk about how Podunk we are and backwards. But no, we got this,” she said. “We need outside assistance, obviously. But we came together immediately.”

    They mourn the deaths together, too. Ramsey mentions 11 members of the Craig family buried alive in a mudslide, and shows me the cover of a local paper, a photo of Alison Wisely and her two young sons, swept away, along with her fiance, when they left their car and tried to run for safety.

    “And the farms, the water rushed out and took them down to the bedrock,” said Ramsey. “I mean, you don’t come back from that. That kind of property will never be farmed again. Not in our lifetime or even our children’s lifetime.”

    While she has no idea when or whether her commercial cleaning business will reopen, Ramsey is optimistic about the future ­– and she isn’t.

    “I don’t know that Asheville will be any different because it was already a tight community. Now as far as rebuilding places like Chimney Rock, I don’t know that that’s going to happen,” she said. “I have childhood memories up there. This is in the 70s, and very little has changed since then, as far as the aesthetics. So how do you rebuild something like that?”

    Before the rebuilding, the clean-up. How much is complete and how much there is to go, three weeks post-Helene, is not possible to know. Asheville’s River Arts District looks as though it has undergone a bombing: two square miles of crumbled warehouses, brick piles, splintered lumber, and vehicles packed with mud from when the French Broad River, which runs parallel to the RAD, left the district underwater. The fate of the structures, many of them former mills and factories built around 1900, is unknown. What happens to a 120-year-old foundation that’s been sitting under 27 feet of water? Touring the district with Buttigieg on Oct. 17, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper struck a hopeful if vague note, saying the area would “come back” but probably “in a different way.”

    Uncertainty continues as you drive east, on bridges until recently acting as catchments for debris and buildings packed with 12 feet of sludge, debris and more sludge pushed to roadsides and going on for miles. Everywhere, there are earthmovers, bucket trucks, linemen restringing electrical lines, water trucks bringing potable water – proof of life on a landscape that can otherwise appear post-apocalyptic, the town of Swannanoa leveled by the river of the same name, the town of Lake Lure sealed up tight.

    Or nearly sealed. Lake House Restaurant was empty at 4 p.m. but for one bar patron when Rodolfo and Jose Hernandez came in for a bite. The brothers wore T-shirts that read, “S*E*R*T Swadley’s Emergency Relief Team,” the charitable arm of a chain of barbecue restaurants that makes it their business to get food to disaster zones.

    “Brent Swadley, he bring a big, big kitchen and trailers from OKC. We get here last Thursday,” said Rodolfo, who is originally from Puebla, Mexico. He and Jose work as mechanics for the Swadley’s vehicles, though here, they also serve food to work crews. “The people are very happy to get real food, barbecue, steak, ribs, turkey, ham,” says Rodolfo. “Brent Swadley, he has a good heart.”

    An ecosystem of good hearts formed post-Helene: the S*E*R*T team; the hundreds of trucks pulling up to T-Birds; the AI developer who, the day after the hurricane, made it his business to figure out how to find, bottle, and deliver drinking water; the Asheville bakery giving free fresh-baked pastries to patrons who left 20s in the tip jar; the seemingly limitless number of churches (“You hear the state sometimes referred to the as the prong in the Bible Belt,” said Beverly Ramsey, who is also an ordained minister) being of service, including the man in a “Don’t Let the Bad Days Win” shirt unloading pallets of bottled water and baby diapers; private citizens volunteering to go door-to-door to do wellness checks; translators helping non-English speakers fill out aid applications; community centers providing relaxation rooms to exhausted road workers; and the man who keeps a backpack of emergency supplies at-the-ready at all times who brought his 9-year-old daughter with him as he carried life-sustaining goods to people unable to escape their mountain homes, people for whom the surprise of a little girl brought its own kind of sunshine.

    “Kids are just as motivated to help people as adults are,” the man said, adding that he did not bring his daughter on the darker missions, the ones he would not talk about.

    As the people of western North Carolina get their bearings, many who swooped in to help will move to the next disaster; S*E*R*T was also in Florida, providing meals to those hard hit by Hurricane Milton. What “recovery” looks like is as yet unknown, and already there are frustrations, if not always a logical place to put them. People cannot be mad at the storm, or not with any hope of restitution. A storm will never say, “My bad.” And so people are mad, for instance, at their insurance companies, when they find out their policies do not cover flood damage.

    “He’s having an incredibly hard time,” said one retired insurance agent, whose Asheville colleague was so besieged that she and other agents “formed a triage team so all calls went to a human voice. People needed to lay out their heart to someone on the other end of the phone.”

    If for naught: The agent estimated that no more than 2% of policy owners had elected to carry flood insurance, and why would they? Western North Carolina is above the floodplain; the area had not catastrophically flooded since the Great Flood of 1916, also known as “the flood by which all other floods are measured,” a flood Helene out-measured, leaving property owners understandably desperate for someone to tell them there’d be money coming to repair their lives.

    The best insurance could do, said the agent, was “get them a declaration form that says they were not [covered] and they could bring that to FEMA,” the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which, along with other government agencies, was experiencing its share of post-Helene consumer hatred, some of it whipped up by keyboard warriors claiming FEMA was holding “special meetings” to steal people’s homes and confiscate donations (assertions debunked by a local congressman), and that a North Carolina National Guard helicopter had deliberately sabotaged a distribution center (based on rotor wash having accidentally blown over some donated goods).

    “There’s been a lot of rumors on social media in particular, and they’re not helpful in terms of our ability to help people,” said Mike Cappannari, external affairs officer for FEMA. Looking tired but composed amid the hundreds of storm victims milling through a Disaster Recovery Center set up on the campus of A.C. Reynolds High School in Asheville, Cappannari said FEMA had about 2,000 responders in the region, that it was still tough to get to some remote areas, and that in some cases the agency was working in concert with the Department of Defense to create points of distribution as close to disaster sites as possible. As for the wilder stories online, such as FEMA workers being chased down by truckloads of armed vigilantes, “You just try and fight through that,” he said. “Fortunately, over the past handful of days, we’ve seen not as much of that and are just trying to encourage people to register for assistance with us and see how we can help.”

    Hanging out with a volunteer friend on another part of the Reynolds campus, it was hard for Kim Pierce to know what help she needed.

    “I lost everything,” said Pierce, a slip of a woman who’d closed on a new East Asheville condo on Monday, Sept. 23. It was to be the first home she would live in without any of her six grown children, a ground-floor unit for which she’d paid cash, a place she envisioned riding out her semi-retirement with other residents, most of them over 60.

    What she did not envision: waking up on Friday, Sept. 27, to find her new yard underwater. She did not envision moving a few cherished items to the trunk of her car for safety, only to watch her car sink. She did not envision falling into and scrambling out of the rushing Swannanoa River, taking refuge with neighbors she had never met, eating soup with them in a daze, and, because she was perhaps spryer and certainly more stubborn, getting the names, addresses, and prescription medications of these strangers and pledging to get to the nearest fire station to implore the fire crew to rescue them. Which she was doing when her sons-in-law showed up at her condo, found it underwater, and figured she was dead.

    “When I showed up [at my daughter’s], she came screaming out of the house, she’s sobbing and is like, ‘Mama, I was writing your eulogy!’” said Pierce. “It was so hard to see my child so traumatized.”

    Hard, too, to envision the future when the accumulation and plans of 60-plus years disappear overnight. “There is beauty that comes out of ashes. And I am experiencing it. I see it in little glimpses,” she said. “And then I go back into this fog of, I’ve lost everything.”

    “Where do you put 30 inches of rain?” asked Chris Trusz, overlooking the Broad River, running today at normal capacity.

    The question answered itself as he walked Main Street, past splintered furniture; car-sized clumps of dried mud, wood, and wire; crushed delivery trucks, dented refrigeration and a winery left precariously cantilevered by the storm.

    “They’re going to have to bring in so much fill to get back up to where you possibly could rebuild,” said Trusz. “Most people will, because it’s a strong little town, but I can’t blame people for wanting to leave.”

    While work crews continued clearing the roads, and while Trusz had nothing but goodwill for private and public sector efforts (“The community, the 101st Airborne, FEMA, everybody’s been here helping out,” he said, waving at several truckloads of National Guard), life in Chimney Rock has yet to resume, residents and business owners still figuratively rising to the surface. While the river was cleaning itself, those sorting through what was left of Gale’s Chimney Rock Shop – the clothing, souvenirs, and photos that had been inside the 77-year-old store now outside in sodden piles on a cold October afternoon – moved with deliberate slowness, trying to assess what could be saved from what was gone forever.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 22:35

  • Trump Election Odds Near 67% As Polymarket Whale Bets Another $2M
    Trump Election Odds Near 67% As Polymarket Whale Bets Another $2M

    Authored by Zoltan Vardai via CoinTelegraph.com,

    Former United States President Donald Trump’s lead on the top blockchain-based betting market is nearing 67% as a mysterious whale continues to bet on his victory in the upcoming presidential election on Nov. 5.

    Trump’s odds of winning the election surpassed 66.3% on the leading decentralized predictions market on Oct. 28, according to Polymarket data.

    Presidential election winner 2024, one-month chart. Source: Polymarket

    Trump’s odds increased after a Polymarket whale, or large holder, invested another $2 million worth of USD Coin USDC$1.00 tokens into pro-Trump bets.

    The mysterious whale has spent $7.22 million on “Yes” shares, according to onchain intelligence firm Lookonchain, which wrote in an Oct. 28 X post:

    “Since Oct 11, the whale has spent 7.22 million $USDC to buy 11.28 million ‘Yes’ shares on Donald Trump winning the US election, with an unrealized profit of $256,000.”

    With only seven days until the 2024 US presidential election, decentralized prediction markets may offer more accurate predictions than traditional polling systems, according to billionaire Elon Musk.

    The Polymarket odds flipped in Trump’s favor on Oct. 4, marking a sharp reversal from September. By Oct. 12, Trump was leading by over 10 points, Cointelegraph reported.

    Mysterious Polymarket whale seems unrelated to “Fredi9999”

    The mysterious Polymarket whale, known as “zxgngl,” holds over 11.2 million “Yes” votes worth over $7.5 million, according to Polymarket data.

    Zxgngl, Polymarket whale, positions. Source: Polymarket

    The increasing positions come after the top Trump bettor on Polymarket, “Fredi9999,” bolstered Trump’s odds above 60.2% by buying over $20 million worth of “Yes” shares up to Oct. 18.

    Moreover, Fredi’s transaction patterns suggest that it controls four of the six largest Trump-voting accounts on Polymarket, all funded with Kraken deposits.

    Leading Trump bettors. Source: PolyMarket

    While 99% of zxgngl’s bets were also placed on Trump, their account was funded by Binance, not the Kraken exchange. Their transaction patterns are also different, with the last two Binance deposits being worth $338,000 and $1.68 million, respectively.

    Zxgngl, Polymarket deposits. Source: Lookonchain

    As for Fredi, the account is likely controlled by a person with deep confidence in a Trump victory, according to pseudonymous political bettor Domer, who told Cointelegraph:

    “My guess is it is a true believer who is very rich and trying to make a big bet. He is getting more confident as the price goes higher and is in a confirmation bias loop where new information keeps increasing his confidence.”

    US presidential elections fuel 565% prediction market growth

    The upcoming US elections have boosted investor interest in prediction markets.

    The betting volume on prediction markets rose over 565.4% in the third quarter to reach $3.1 billion across the three largest markets, up from just $463.3 million in the second quarter.

    Top three crypto prediction markets. Source: CoinGecko

    This significant third-quarter growth is mainly attributed to the US elections, according to an Oct. 14 CoinGecko report.

    Polymarket, the most prominent decentralized betting platform, dominated the market with over a 99% market share as of September.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 22:10

  • Supreme Court Passes On 2nd Amendment Challenge To Federal Gun Law
    Supreme Court Passes On 2nd Amendment Challenge To Federal Gun Law

    Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The Supreme Court has sidestepped a challenge to a federal law prohibiting felons from possessing firearms.

    Instead of scheduling oral argument in the case filed by Lorenzo Garod Pierre, on Oct. 21, the court granted the petition and immediately overturned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruling that Pierre was appealing.

    The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Oct. 23, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

    The Supreme Court did not provide reasons for its decision. No justices dissented.

    The Supreme Court directed the 11th Circuit to reconsider its ruling in Pierre’s case in light of United States v. Rahimi, a decision the high court issued in June that the federal government said “clarified the methodology for determining whether a firearms regulation complies with the Second Amendment.”

    In Rahimi, the justices upheld Section 922(g)(8) of Title 18 of the U.S. Code, a federal law that bars people under domestic violence-related restraining orders from possessing firearms.

    Specifically, they found that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution isn’t violated when an individual is disarmed after a court has found him to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another.

    Pierre said in his petition that he was charged in July 2022 with violating Section 922(g)(1) of Title 18 of the U.S. Code for knowingly possessing a firearm after being convicted of a felony. Court papers did not provide details of the prior felony conviction.

    Pierre asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to throw out the felony-level indictment, arguing that it was “unconstitutional in light of” New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which the Supreme Court handed down in June 2022. In Bruen, the nation’s highest court held that firearms restrictions must have a historical analogue and that the Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms in public for self-defense.

    A magistrate judge filed a report that recommended denying the motion to dismiss. Magistrate judges are appointed to assist federal district judges.

    Pierre objected, and the district court refused to dismiss the charge, finding that prior 11th Circuit rulings “squarely foreclosed” the constitutional challenge and were not undermined by the Bruen precedent.

    Pierre lodged an appeal with the 11th Circuit arguing that his conviction “as applied” ran afoul of the Second Amendment. In an as-applied challenge, a litigant argues that a statute or regulation is unconstitutional in the context of a specific case.

    On March 12, the 11th Circuit affirmed the district court in a two-page decision, holding that the circuit court’s prior rulings were binding in the case.

    Pierre argued in his petition that, since Bruen was decided, federal courts of appeals have been split on whether a “defendant may mount a challenge that his individual circumstances do not supply a basis, consistent with the Second Amendment, for stripping the right” to possess firearms.

    The 11th Circuit says felons are “categorically ‘disqualified’ from exercising their Second Amendment right,” but the Seventh and Ninth circuits allow defendants to file as-applied challenges to charges under Section 922(g)(1).

    The Supreme Court should grant review to resolve the circuit split, the petition states.

    U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar argued in a Sept. 16 brief that the Supreme Court should grant the petition and send the case back to the 11th Circuit with instructions to review its ruling in light of Rahimi.

    The Rahimi decision contains within it the proper legal standard for evaluating the Pierre case because it “clarified the methodology for determining whether a firearms regulation complies with the Second Amendment.”

    And because the Supreme Court vacated judgments in five separate challenges to Section 922(g)(1) in July and sent those cases back to circuit courts for review in light of Rahimi, “consistent with that practice, the Court should grant the petition … in this case, vacate the court of appeals’ judgment, and remand for further consideration in light of Rahimi,” Prelogar said.

    The Epoch Times reached out for comment to Pierre’s attorney, Brian Taylor Goldman of Holwell, Shuster, and Goldberg in New York City, and the U.S. Department of Justice but had received no replies as of publication time.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 21:45

  • Overton Window Shifts Towards Liberty
    Overton Window Shifts Towards Liberty

    There’s been a seismic shift in the mood of the American people. Have you noticed?

    The propaganda and manipulation by Democrats, Deep State non-profits (funded by radical leftist billionaires), and corporate media outlets have lost control of the narratives just days before the presidential election—they’re no longer effective at propping up Kamala Harris—as a majority of American people reject censorship, wokeism and whatever this is... 

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    Americans are now more interested in upholding the values of the West, the US Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence, with some youth seeking traditionalism. The far-left slant of the Overton window during the Biden-Harris administration appears to be shifting the other way/ or perhaps widening. 

    The Overton Window is a range of acceptable policy ideas within mainstream political debate. For years, corporate MSM, radical leftist non-profits, and far-left activists in government and corporations have artificially pushed the window to the left, force-feeding Americans into radical leftist ideas to transform the nation towards a pathway towards socialism/or 21st-century communism.

    History may show that Elon Musk’s X and former President Trump shifted the Overton Window from a leftist extreme to more of a center-right. Americans are increasingly giving up on woke pronouns, instead focusing on “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

    Musk has shown MSM’s matrix has glitched, with an X post stating, “The refreshing cool breeze of a wide open Overton Window.” 

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    Musk followed up on the Overton Window on Sunday evening. He said, “Ever wondered about the Overton Window?” 

    Musk quoted X user Jash Dholani, who explained the origins of the Overton Window and just exactly how this model shows wokeism is coming to an end. The window has shifted to the center-right. 

    Here is the explainer:

    The Long View states…

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    “The most important thing to understand about the Overton Window is that it is not static, it is always on the move. Not only can the window shift left or right, but the window itself can also expand and contract based on a number of different cultural and political factors,” another X user noted. 

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    Overton Window has shifted so severely in recent months… And we wonder why.

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    Like many of Trump’s new supporters this year. 

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    What’s clear is that the Overton Window has shifted towards “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” 

    Earlier this year, we stated: “Open The Overton Window.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 21:20

  • Michigan's Early Voters Brave Long Lines, Break Records
    Michigan’s Early Voters Brave Long Lines, Break Records

    Authored by Nathan Worcester via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    As Michigan’s statewide early voting began on Oct. 26, long wait times discouraged more than a few would-be participants who spoke with The Epoch Times.

    The Michigan state flag waves in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Aug. 28, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

    Bill Keller decided against sitting in a two-hour line in Farmington Hills.

    “I think what I’ll do is absentee vote,” the supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris told The Epoch Times before he walked back to his car.

    Farnsworth and Tricia Howard were deterred by the line at a site in Waterford Oaks.

    Farnsworth, a retired United Auto Workers union representative, told The Epoch Times they planned to vote for former President Donald Trump in the hopes of ushering in “a new era.”

    Bill Keller was discouraged by long lines on the first day of early voting in Farmington Hills, Mich., on Oct. 26, 2024. He plans to vote absentee. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

    For all the attrition, the state posted record-breaking returns.

    It is Michigan’s first presidential election to see the process of early voting, which was instituted via a 2022 ballot proposal to amend the state constitution, and Oct. 26 saw more than 145,000 early ballots cast.

    “We’re starting a new tradition of early voting here in Michigan,” Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a statement announcing the figures.

    The buzz of activity was reflected in the polling numbers. By late in the afternoon, 463 ballots had been pushed through the tabulator at the Farmington Hills site.

    “This is a higher turnout than we expected,” said Dawn Raymond, who was overseeing early voting at the site.

    She told The Epoch Times that things had gone well: “We haven’t had many people with any political issues that they’re trying to bring up with us when it’s something that we shouldn’t be discussing here.”

    For senior citizen Leia, like many other voters, 2024 is about more than policy and dry statistics—it is charged with emotion. She and her husband Hans did not wish to use their real name for fear of reprisal.

    A dietician, Leia described the election as her chance to oppose Trump, a man she likened to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

    “Harris makes you feel good,” she said.

    Leia’s husband, Hans, noted that his own brother-in-law was attending a nearby Trump rally. Harris held a rally in the state the same day.

    “All my friends that like Trump think that somehow, that Trump’s going to make their lives better,” said Hans, a retired specialty store owner. “What the world would be like if Trump does everything he says he’s gonna do—that’s a scary, scary thought.”

    A few feet away, Emma Wolford had just voted in her first election as a U.S. citizen.

    “I moved to the U.S. from England when I was almost nine,” she said.

    Emma Wolford after voting in her first election as a U.S. citizen in Farmington Hills, Mich., on Oct. 26, 2024 (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times).

    Trump earned her support.

    “I left a socialist country and came here for a better future,” she said.

    Wofford is a graduate of Hillsdale College, a school known for its conservatism. Some of her friends from that institution oppose Trump, she said.

    Tricia Howard said her biggest motivator to vote was “the safety of our country.”

    Her husband Farnsworth, who is a U.S. Army veteran, was particularly concerned about the border.

    He isn’t happy that foreigners who entered the country illegally can get resources even as many American veterans are homeless.

    The retired UAW union representative is also concerned about electric vehicle mandates.

    Another couple, Adam and Michelle Stankus, waited roughly an hour in line at Waterford Oaks. They weren’t making a statement by showing up on day one of early voting—they just wanted to get it out of the way.

    “Vote now, vote later, vote mail-in—it’s all the same,” Adam Stankus said.

    They were glad to vote against Trump—“against fascism,” as Adam put it.

    Matthew Kovach, who was waiting for his ride outside the Waterford Oaks site, said he came out to fight communism and globalism. To him, that meant voting for Trump.

    Kovach was disabled after a serious car accident in 2021.

    Early voter Matthew Kovach in Waterford Oaks, Mich., on Oct. 26, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

    “They thought I was going to be a vegetable,” he recalled. He thanked God that didn’t happen.

    “They say President Trump dodged death. I dodged death. That’s the only thing we’ve got in common,” he said with a laugh.

    Kovach hopes to play hockey again someday. For now, he’s recovering his mobility. He brought his crutches to the early voting site in case of long lines.

    Andy Kollin spent an hour and fifty minutes at the Farmington Hills site.

    “I don’t want to see #45 [Trump] in office again,” he said when asked what brought him out on the first day of early voting.

    Kollin said he was glad to see people turn out in high numbers, “whichever way they’re voting.”

    Shortly before 4:30 p.m., a trio of young Michiganders appeared on the edge of the parking lot at the Waterford Oaks site. A young man and two young women were trying to cast their early ballots before the site closed for the day.

    The Epoch Times jogged with them to the door, where they barely missed the cutoff. Nathan Rehm let out a groan.

    “I’m more of a Trump guy,” said Rehm, an engineering student at Michigan State University (MSU). Winter Runyan and her sister, Gabby, both support Trump too.

    “I just can’t imagine Kamala Harris sitting down with world leaders,” he said.

    Rehm has grown more comfortable voicing support for Trump on campus. He wonders if hatred for the former president has ebbed

    Nathan Rehm, Winter Runyan, and Gabby Runyan at an early voting site in Waterford Oaks, Mich., on Oct. 26, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

    “What college major you are plays a role,” said Winter Runyan, who is also an MSU student. “He’s an engineering major, so I feel like a lot of people are more on the Republican side,” she said of Rehm.

    As a health care student, Winter Runyan’s less inclined to reveal her political preference to her peers.

    “I do feel judged, and I definitely think they’re going to have some view towards me,” she said, adding that she counts many Democrats among her friends.

    The Runyan sisters work alongside each other. Gabby is a dispatcher, while Winter is an emergency medical technician. Winter wants to be a physician assistant.

    Although the three weren’t pleased to miss out on the first day of early voting, they were determined to make their voices heard.

    “We’ll be back tomorrow,” Winter Runyan said.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 20:55

  • Virginia Asks US Supreme Court To Allow Its Removal Of Non-Citizens From Voter Rolls
    Virginia Asks US Supreme Court To Allow Its Removal Of Non-Citizens From Voter Rolls

    Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

    Virginia officials filed an emergency application with the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 28 asking the justices to allow the state to remove suspected noncitizens from the voter rolls.

    The application was filed in the case known as Beals v. Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights.

    The application was directed to Chief Justice John Roberts, who oversees emergency litigation from Virginia.

    The lead applicant, Susan Beals, is Virginia’s Commissioner of Elections.

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found unanimously on Oct. 27 that taking the names off the voter rolls within 90 days of an approaching federal election appears to violate the National Voter Registration Act.

    Federal elections are scheduled for Nov. 5.

    The Supreme Court previously held in Purcell v. Gonzalez (2006) that courts should not change rules close to an election because doing so creates a risk of causing confusion.

    Virginia counters that the legal provision is not relevant because the names being removed are not those of U.S. voters.

    But “that argument violates basic principles of statutory construction by focusing on a differently worded statutory provision that is not at issue here and proposing a strained reading of the Quiet Period Provision to avoid rendering that other provision absurd or unconstitutional,” the Fourth Circuit said.

    Such an interpretation would be problematic because it would give the words “voters” and “registrant” an identical meaning, the circuit court said.

    Moreover, Virginia had not demonstrated its appeal was likely to succeed or that it would suffer irreparable harm should the appeal be denied, the circuit court said as it affirmed an Oct. 25 ruling by U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles.

    Giles wrote that Virginia was still free to cancel the voter registration of noncitizens individually or to investigate “noncitizens who register to vote or who vote in Virginia’s election.”

    The ruling applies only to Virginia’s “systematic” effort to remove noncitizens that began after Aug. 7, she added.

    In the new application, Virginia said it objected to the district court decision because “less than two weeks before the 2024 Presidential Election, and more than a month into early voting, the district court … ordered Applicants, Virginia and its election officials, to place over 1,600 self-identified noncitizens back onto Virginia’s voter rolls, in violation of Virginia law and common sense.”

    Virginia said the Supreme Court should stay the district court ruling because it “is based on a misinterpretation of the [National Voter Registration Act], which does not prohibit Virginia from removing noncitizens from its voter rolls.”

    The ruling would also “impose significant cost, confusion, and hardship upon Virginia, creating a massive influx of work for its registrars in the critical week before the election, and likely confusing noncitizens into believing that they are eligible to vote.”

    Roberts directed co-respondents Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights, League of Women Voters of Virginia, African Communities Together, and the federal government to respond to the application by 3 p.m. on Oct. 29.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 20:05

  • Trade Data Reveals Indian Biotech Firm Supplying US AI Chips To Russia
    Trade Data Reveals Indian Biotech Firm Supplying US AI Chips To Russia

    A new analysis of public trade data suggests that Brussels and Washington’s efforts to entirely block Moscow from accessing cutting-edge Western technology may have encountered a critical stumbling block. An apparent loophole has emerged in India: A biotech firm, possibly acting as a front company, has purchased servers with advanced US chips, which are then rerouted and shipped to Russia. 

    Investigative reporters with Bloomberg shed light on Shreya Life Sciences, a so-called biotech firm located in Mumbai. They cite trade data compiled by trade-tracking firms ImportGenius and NBD that show Shreya exported 1,111 units of PowerEdge XE9680 Rack Servers produced by Dell Technologies to Russia.

    On Dell’s website, the product description for the PowerEdge XE9680 reads, “Take on demanding artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning. Rapidly develop, train and deploy large machine learning models with this high-performance application server made for artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and deep learning. Dell’s PowerEdge XE9680 delivers the industry’s best AI performance.” 

    Further down in the product description, Dell notes the servers are equipped with either Nvidia or AMD chips. 

    Bloomberg noted that the servers and chips are on a blacklist by the US and the European Union, preventing the flow of technology to Moscow. The EU, in cooperation with the US, UK, and Japan, has said these sanctions on Russia are “to target sensitive sectors in Russia’s military-industrial complex and to limit its access to crucial advanced technology.” 

    Source: Bloomberg

    According to Bloomberg journalists, trade data shows that two Russian trading companies, Main Chain Ltd. and IS LLC, imported AI servers with US chips totaling $300 million to Russia.

    Source: Bloomberg

    Taking this investigative report even further, public trade data compiled by counterparty and supply chain risk intelligence firm Sayari shows Russian buyers Main Chain, IS, and Mine Hine imported these PowerEdge XE9680s from Shreya in April and May. 

    Source: Sayari

    Data compiled by Sayari is then produced in a web visual form to show how the Indian pharma company pumped hundreds of these Western AI servers into Russia earlier this year. 

    Additional trade data by the supply chain risk firm shows that 81% of Shreya’s total exports this year have been directed to Russia.

    Source: Sayari

    Most of the export shipments to Russia were computers and processing machines… Not really biotech-ish, eh? 

    Source: Sayari

    Maybe the journos at Bloomberg have stumbled upon a front company that allows Russia to evade Western sanctions on procuring AI tech. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 19:40

  • NATO Chief Says North Korean Troops Are Helping Regain Territory In Russia's Kursk
    NATO Chief Says North Korean Troops Are Helping Regain Territory In Russia’s Kursk

    NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday has introduced yet another new bombshell claim related to allegations of North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine alongside Russian forces.

    At a press conference in Brussels, which reportedly followed a private briefing by South Korean intelligence officials, Rutte claimed that there is intelligence confirming that North Korean military units have been deployed to Russia’s southwest Kursk region.

    The Kursk region has been subject of a Ukrainian cross-border offensive which began in early August. It shocked Kremlin leadership, given Ukrainian soldiers were able to hold on to hundreds of kilometers of territory.

    Part of Kiev’s aim appears to have been to distract Russia’s military from its operations in Ukraine’s east, and divide resources, forcing the Russians to deal with clawing back their own territory.

    But now the accusation appears to be that Kim Jong Un’s North Korean military is assisting in getting Kursk back. Rutte has called it a sign of “growing desperation.”.

    “The deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to both the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security,” Rutte said at the press conference. “The deployment [of] North Korean troops to Kursk is also a sign of Putin’s growing desperation.”

    Butte urged: “NATO calls on Russia and the DPRK to cease these actions immediately.”

    Zelensky’s office has once again used alleged North Korean involvement to call for more immediate military help from Western allies. “This is an escalation. Sanctions alone are not enough. We need weapons and a clear plan to prevent North Korea’s expanded involvement in the war in Europe,” Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said.

    “Today, Russia brings in North Korea; next, it could broaden their engagement, and then other autocratic regimes may see that they can get away with this and come to fight against NATO,” Yermak added. “The enemy understands strength. Our allies have this strength.”

    President Joe Biden also on Monday slammed the apparent North Korean troop deployment as a “dangerous” development: 

    “Very dangerous,” Biden said when asked about the North Korean deployment, as he spoke to reporters after casting his early vote in the US presidential election in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.

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

    For the first time, the Kremlin has appeared to admit some level of North Korean military troop assistance related to the Ukraine conflict: 

    In a response, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointed to a security and defense treaty signed by Moscow and Pyongyang in June.

    “We have said many times that the treaty is not secret, it is public, the entire text has been published, and it in no way violates any provisions of international law, because it involves, among other things, the providing of assistance in case one of the countries that is a party to the treaty is militarily attacked,” he told a press conference in Moscow, in comments reported by the Interfax news agency.

    Lavrov added: “So our position here is absolutely honest and open.” But nothing has been disclosed in terms details of precisely where DPRK soldiers might be operating.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 18:50

  • The Political Theology That Maintains State Power
    The Political Theology That Maintains State Power

    Authored by John Kennedy via The Mises Institute,

    For religions throughout the world, established rules, studies, and practices are instrumental for their legitimacy. Established religious institutions throughout the world train theologians to study the nature of God and their belief system. For the Sunni Muslims, theologians in the Hanafi school consist of legal studies in line with Islam, while others like the Murji’ah sect focus on moral teachings of work and faith. Catholics too prescribe specialized areas of study to theologians, whether that be social teachings on leading a moral life or supernatural studies of God.

    Whatever the case, each of these studies offers legitimacy to the faith and to the clergy, so the state, in all its omnipotence, follows suit. The late German jurist Carl Schmitt held that the “omnipotent state” practices its legitimacy similarly.

    Writing in his book, Political Theology, that “all significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts.”

    As the age of monarchs came to a close in the early 20th century and the age of massive ideological states came into play, new concepts and ideas had to be developed, as they did not have a “mandate of heaven” to legitimize their power.

    The United States government, for instance, has had an army of academics, experts, and celebrities to legitimize its actions.

    Their political theology consists of some of the following: economics, law, and the hard sciences.

    Analyzing these concepts, we can see how the state and its clergy weaponize them in order to maintain their power.

    Economics

    In 1994, Charlie Rose interviewed the British businessman James Goldsmith. Sir Goldsmith was campaigning in the European Union against the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a component of the WTO agreement. In 1995, 125 countries had signed onto the agreement, which included agricultural subsidies. Goldsmith warned in the interview that this would lead to massive emigration from third-world countries and that people in western society had come to serve an economic index that harms them.

    He claimed that, if the GATT were adopted, we would be:

    Creating mass immigration, which none of us could control. We would be destroying the towns, which are already largely destroyed. Look at Mexico; look at our own towns, and we’re doing this for economic dogma because we’ve got to get it done by the end of December. We can’t wait another year or two to see the results. Otherwise some political gimmick like Fast Track will go out of the way. What is this nonsense? Everything is based in our modern society on improving an economic index. How do we get greater economic growth? How do we grow the GNP? The result is, we are destroying the stability of our societies because we are worshiping the wrong god, economic index.

    It is economic orthodoxy today that GDP must grow and that financial stimulus is one way of doing this. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States government issued stimulus checks from the low of $600 to a high of $1,400 per person. Assistant professor Christina Patterson of the University of Chicago suggested that when Congress pumped the money into the economy during COVID, the highest growth came from the individual household. Her suggestion: “Lawmakers should give the money to people who will spend most of it, rather than sock it away in savings.”

    To suggest that the COVID stimulus grew the economy is preposterous. Some of the real effects of the “stimulus” are as follows: nearly 7,000 firms are considered “zombie firms” that are laden with debt, an increase of 30 percent over the last ten years; the average price inflation rate in 2022 was 8 percent, with a high of 9.1 percent in June 2022; grocery prices increased by 20 percent. The inflationary expansion of the money supply and adjustment of interest rates by the Federal Reserve during this time caused the increase in prices. The Federal Reserve propping up the stock market led to the rise of zombie firms because of malinvestment, but mainstream economists refuse to believe their orthodoxy is wrong.

    Law

    The United States has prided itself on being a land of law, where the rule of law reigns supreme and all its subjects, even the president, cannot usurp it. This is an illusion in our current political theology. America’s “supreme law of the land,” the Constitution, has been nothing more than a suggestion for much of its history. Whether that be censorship against the freedom of speech and press, as seen with the Espionage Act of 1917, or with the illegal mass surveillance by the NSA as exposed by Edward Snowden in 2013. Each case violated amendments in the Constitution, the 1st and 4th respectfully. Despite the controversy, the Espionage Act is still in effect and Edward Snowden is in exile in Russia.

    Despite this, the establishment is still unwavering in their claims of being defenders of American law and democracy. What they’re really defending is their so-called mandate of heaven. Just as the Chinese Emperors had this supernatural mandate, the president, the Congress, and the bureaucrats each have the supernatural concept of “law” on their side. Hugo Krabbe, a Dutch political scientist, developed an explanation for the legitimacy of constitutional law in his book The Modern Idea of the State, saying:

    We no longer live under the dominion of persons, either natural or fictitious legal persons, but under the dominion of norms [laws], of spiritual forces. In this is revealed the modern idea of the state…. These forces rule in the strictest sense of the word. Obedience can be freely rendered to these forces, for the very reason that they do proceed from the spiritual nature of mankind. (italics in original)

    The entire constitutional legal order is, therefore, based on man’s sense of right and wrong. Just as Moses took down the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai to the Israelites, so do we receive the law from the politicians on Capitol Hill and in the halls of bureaucratic departments. This is how the American establishment is able to maintain its power, by linking their positions of authority to American “morality” that they claim is linked to the law. Any attack against them or to the law is a threat to the American way of life and the regime will use all the means at its disposal to silence you. The former British PM, Tony Blair, had described himself and all who govern as a Moses-like figure in his book, On Leadership. He had stated:

    I liken governing to leading people on a journey. You don’t just start by stepping out. You begin with a description of the destination—the house on the hill you might call it…. Think of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt. You might have thought that since he was leading his people out slavery and oppression, they would have been perpetually grateful. But they weren’t. They complained bitterly much of the time. They dissented. They rebelled. They frequently averred that they would have been better off if he had just left them where they were.

    Many of the bureaucrats that rule, whether from places such as London, Brussels, or Washington DC, have a Messiah complex. All they do is for the benefit of the democratic system and, therefore, the whole Western world. From here, the regime can continue to manage its economy and wars without interference, as James Burnham said in his book The Managerial Revolution:

    They proclaim the rules, make the law, issue the decrees. The shift from parliament to the bureaus occurs on a world scale. The actual directing and administrative work of the bureaus is carried on by new men, a new type of men. It is, specifically, the MANAGERIAL type. The active heads of the bureaus are the managers-in-government, the same, or nearly the same, in training, functions, skills, habits of thought as the managers-in-industry.

    Because of the form the law has taken, we’re no longer ruled; we’re administered. The term “law and order” becomes merely a tool to contain what Carl Schmitt has called the “exception.” When the current regime finds the state of things abnormal, they can declare war on it. Whether they be abstract concepts such as “disinformation,” against populists like Donald Trump, or against ideologies like “fascism” and white supremacy.

    Conclusion

    In the past, kings could legitimize their power through alliances with a church or spiritual leader to show that their rule was established by a higher authority, an alliance of the throne and altar.

    Today, politicians and bureaucrats use the “sciences” and their experts to establish their authority.

    Economists at the Federal Reserve and IMF fund the government’s schemes, judges support laws via theories that violate the Constitution, and you, while dissenting, will follow the “new Moses” to the house on the hill.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 18:25

  • After "Colossal" Exodus Of Subscribers, WaPo Boss Bezos Explains "The Hard Truth" About Not Endorsing Kamala
    After “Colossal” Exodus Of Subscribers, WaPo Boss Bezos Explains “The Hard Truth” About Not Endorsing Kamala

    In what is likely even more harrowing for the Op-Ed editors at The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos has just penned an explainer for his decision to not allow the liberal rag to endorse Kamala.

    We present the opinion piece here in full (with some emphasis by us) – this is shocking levels of honesty!

    The hard truth: Americans don’t trust the news media

    The credibility gap can be bridged by independence.

    In the annual public surveys about trust and reputation, journalists and the media have regularly fallen near the very bottom, often just above Congress. But in this year’s Gallup poll, we have managed to fall below Congress. Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working.

    Let me give an analogy. Voting machines must meet two requirements. They must count the vote accurately, and people must believe they count the vote accurately. The second requirement is distinct from and just as important as the first.

    Likewise with newspapers. We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second requirement. Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose. Reality is an undefeated champion. It would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing fall in credibility (and, therefore, decline in impact), but a victim mentality will not help. Complaining is not a strategy. We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility.

    Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, “I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.” None. What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one. Eugene Meyer, publisher of The Washington Post from 1933 to 1946, thought the same, and he was right. By itself, declining to endorse presidential candidates is not enough to move us very far up the trust scale, but it’s a meaningful step in the right direction. I wish we had made the change earlier than we did, in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it. That was inadequate planning, and not some intentional strategy.

    I would also like to be clear that no quid pro quo of any kind is at work here. Neither campaign nor candidate was consulted or informed at any level or in any way about this decision. It was made entirely internally. Dave Limp, the chief executive of one of my companies, Blue Origin, met with former president Donald Trump on the day of our announcement. I sighed when I found out, because I knew it would provide ammunition to those who would like to frame this as anything other than a principled decision. But the fact is, I didn’t know about the meeting beforehand. Even Limp didn’t know about it in advance; the meeting was scheduled quickly that morning. There is no connection between it and our decision on presidential endorsements, and any suggestion otherwise is false.

    When it comes to the appearance of conflict, I am not an ideal owner of The Post. Every day, somewhere, some Amazon executive or Blue Origin executive or someone from the other philanthropies and companies I own or invest in is meeting with government officials. I once wrote that The Post is a “complexifier” for me. It is, but it turns out I’m also a complexifier for The Post.

    You can see my wealth and business interests as a bulwark against intimidation, or you can see them as a web of conflicting interests. Only my own principles can tip the balance from one to the other. I assure you that my views here are, in fact, principled, and I believe my track record as owner of The Post since 2013 backs this up. You are of course free to make your own determination, but I challenge you to find one instance in those 11 years where I have prevailed upon anyone at The Post in favor of my own interests. It hasn’t happened.

    Lack of credibility isn’t unique to The Post. Our brethren newspapers have the same issue. And it’s a problem not only for media, but also for the nation. Many people are turning to off-the-cuff podcasts, inaccurate social media posts and other unverified news sources, which can quickly spread misinformation and deepen divisions. The Washington Post and the New York Times win prizes, but increasingly we talk only to a certain elite. More and more, we talk to ourselves. (It wasn’t always this way — in the 1990s we achieved 80 percent household penetration in the D.C. metro area.)

    While I do not and will not push my personal interest, I will also not allow this paper to stay on autopilot and fade into irrelevance — overtaken by unresearched podcasts and social media barbs — not without a fight. It’s too important. The stakes are too high. Now more than ever the world needs a credible, trusted, independent voice, and where better for that voice to originate than the capital city of the most important country in the world? To win this fight, we will have to exercise new muscles. Some changes will be a return to the past, and some will be new inventions. Criticism will be part and parcel of anything new, of course. This is the way of the world. None of this will be easy, but it will be worth it. I am so grateful to be part of this endeavor. Many of the finest journalists you’ll find anywhere work at The Washington Post, and they work painstakingly every day to get to the truth. They deserve to be believed.

    The irony, of course, is that the alt-media space (and most non-liberal reporters) have been saying much of this for years – only to be cajoled, banned, black-balled, refused-access.

    The question is – now that Bezos has smashed the glass ceiling of elite aloofness – will we see the usual tsunami of screaming, hysterical resignations (“I could never work for someone who said those words in his out loud voice”) – or…

    Is this the turning point – is this the moment when media reverts back to news and not opinion?

    Where will all those ‘resigning’ reporters go to work if other media owners follow Bezos’ path? Substack? How’s that working out for the liberalati?

    We suspect (strongly) that this will not be a quick turnaround. The blinkered libtard defense of all that is righteously progressive (and therefore ‘the truth’) will not disappear overnight.

    A generation of so-called ‘journalism students’ need to be de-programmed from “their truth” (preferably not in camps), and they (and their professors) won’t go quietly into the night, that is for sure.

    And along those lines, shortly after Bezos dropped this op-ed, another major mainstream news outlet decided NOT to endorse Kamala…

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

    *  *  *

    As we detailed earlier, Jeff Bezos’ decision for The Washington Post not to endorse a presidential candidate this year has resulted in a total shitshow for the progressive newspaper, with staffing members having epic meltdowns and editor-at-large Robert Kagan (husband of Victoria Nuland) walking off the job on Friday. Even more troubling for the paper is the mass exodus of liberal subscribers being reported by NPR News on Monday afternoon. 

    According to two sources within the paper and familiar with the subscriber exodus, over 200,000 digital subscription cancellations had occurred by Monday afternoon. 

    Not all cancellations take effect immediately. Still, the figure represents about 8% of the paper’s paid circulation of 2.5 million subscribers, which includes print as well. The number of cancellations continued to grow Monday afternoon. -NPR

    Former Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli told NPR, “The problem is, people don’t know why the decision was made. We basically know the decision was made, but we don’t know what led to it.”

    The editorial page editor, David Shipley, told colleagues that WaPo’s publisher, Will Lewis, said the reason for the lack of a Harris-Walz endorsement was to create an “independent space” where the newspaper does not tell people for whom to vote.

    WaPo has mostly endorsed Democrats for nearly a century (with only 3 Republicans since 1928): 

    • 1932 to 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat)

    • 1948: Thomas Dewey (Republican)

    • 1952 & 1956: Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican)

    • 1960: John F. Kennedy (Democrat)

    • 1964: Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat)

    • 1968: Hubert Humphrey (Democrat)

    • 1972: George McGovern (Democrat)

    • 1976 & 1980: Jimmy Carter (Democrat)

    • 1984: Walter Mondale (Democrat)

    • 1988: Michael Dukakis (Democrat)

    • 1992 & 1996: Bill Clinton (Democrat)

    • 2000: Al Gore (Democrat)

    • 2004: John Kerry (Democrat)

    • 2008: Barack Obama (Democrat)

    • 2012: Barack Obama (Democrat)

    • 2016: Hillary Clinton (Democrat)

    • 2020: Joe Biden (Democrat)

    • 2024: Neutral 

    Back to WaPo’s mass exodus of subs, Google search data shows “cancel Washington Post subscription” has gone parabolic nationwide since the weekend. Most cancelations are based in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. 

    And Amazon cancellations, too?

    This is true…

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

    The move comes after the Los Angeles Times declined to endorse Kamala Harris. And perhaps the rationale given the timing – just days before the presidential election –  comes as the race is neck-and-neck with former President Trump. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 18:00

  • Soros-Backed Philadelphia DA Sues To Block Elon Musk's $1 Million Voter Giveaway
    Soros-Backed Philadelphia DA Sues To Block Elon Musk’s $1 Million Voter Giveaway

    Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times,

    Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is suing to halt Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaway to swing state voters.

    The suit, filed on Monday in the Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia, accused the tech billionaire and his America PAC supporting former President Donald Trump’s candidacy of “running an illegal lottery in Philadelphia, as well as throughout Pennsylvania.”

    The case is based on Pennsylvania’s lottery and consumer protection laws.

    Krasner, a Democrat, clarified in the complaint that is was not about state and federal laws that prohibit vote-buying.

    “Running an illegal lottery and violating consumer protections is ample basis for an injunction and concluding that America PAC and Musk must be stopped, immediately, before the upcoming Presidential Election on November 5,” Krasner told the court in his suit.

    “That is because America PAC and Musk hatched their illegal lottery scheme to influence voters in that election.”

    Specifically, the district attorney alleged that Musk failed to meet Pennsylvania’s requirements for lottery operators, which mandate publishing a “complete set of lottery rules” and detailing measures to protect participants’ personal information. He also raised concerns that the selection of winners may have been rigged.

    “Though Musk says that a winner’s selection is ‘random,’ that appears false because multiple winners that have been selected are individuals who have shown up at Trump rallies in Pennsylvania,” the lawsuit alleges, arguing that the lottery rules are “deceptive.”

    Oh, here’s one more thing to consider…

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

    The suit came after Musk announced the eighth winner of his super PAC’s $1 million prize in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and doubled down on his pledge to give out awards to registered voters in seven battleground states every day until Election Day.

    To be eligible, participants must sign a petition on the PAC’s website affirming their support of the First and Second Amendments to the Constitution. The online petition form says one has to be a registered voter to participate, but voting itself is not required.

    “We’re trying to get attention for this very important petition to support the Constitution,” Musk told the audience at the Oct. 26 event. “We need the right to free speech; we need the right to bear arms.

    “So we’re going to be giving out a million dollars every day through Nov. 5. All you have to do is sign the petition in support of the First and Second Amendment. That’s it. You don’t even have to vote. It’d be nice if you voted, but you don’t have to. And then just basically sign something you already believe in, and you get a [chance] to win a million dollars every day from now through the election.”

    The America PAC didn’t respond to a request for comment by publication time.

    President Biden thinks it is “totally inappropriate”…

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

    …but over-ruling the Supreme Court to offer vote-buying bailouts to student loan recipients is “appropriate”?

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 17:40

  • Ford Shares Sink After Company Reports Cost Improvements, But Guides Below Street Expectations
    Ford Shares Sink After Company Reports Cost Improvements, But Guides Below Street Expectations

    Ford shares jumped before tumbling after hours on Monday, as the legacy automaker reported guidance that was on the low end of expectations. Like many other automakers, Ford continues to grapple with balancing the costs of EV production, high interest rates and a tapped out American consumer. 

    Ford announced third-quarter revenue of $46 billion, with net income totaling $0.9 billion. This figure includes a $1 billion charge related to its electric vehicle business, which the company had previously disclosed. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) for the quarter came in at $2.6 billion.  

    Here are all the company’s Q3 figures versus estimates, via Bloomberg:

    • Total Revenue: $46.2 billion, up 5.5% year-over-year (y/y), surpassing the $43.07 billion estimate.

    • Ford Blue Revenue: $26.2 billion, exceeding the $24.63 billion forecast.

    • Ford Model e Revenue: $1.2 billion, below the $1.42 billion estimate.

    • Ford Pro Revenue: $15.7 billion, above the $15.28 billion projection.

    • Adjusted EPS: 49 cents, matching analyst expectations.

    • Adjusted EBIT: $2.6 billion, up 18% y/y, though below the $2.77 billion estimate.

    • Adjusted EBIT Margin: 5.5%, improving from 5% y/y but short of the 6.3% forecast.

    • Ford Blue EBIT: $1.63 billion, missing the $1.77 billion estimate.

    • Ford Model e EBIT Loss: $1.22 billion, smaller than the expected loss of $1.34 billion.

    • Ford Pro EBIT: $1.81 billion, outperforming estimates.

    The automaker’s Ford Pro division saw solid growth, with revenue rising 13%. Additionally, Ford Pro Intelligence, the company’s paid software service, reported a 30% increase in subscriptions, reaching nearly 630,000 users.  

    Ford also declared a regular fourth-quarter dividend of 15 cents per share. For the full year of 2024, the company now expects adjusted EBIT to reach approximately $10 billion.

    Ford revised its full-year 2024 outlook, now projecting adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of approximately $10 billion. This is a narrowing from its previous guidance of $10 billion to $12 billion. However, the automaker maintained its forecast for adjusted free cash flow, which is expected to remain between $7.5 billion and $8.5 billion.  

    Here’s a full look at its year forecast:

    • Adjusted EBIT: Now expected to be $10 billion, down from the prior range of $10 billion to $12 billion, and below the Bloomberg consensus estimate of $10.63 billion.
    • Ford Pro EBIT: Forecast unchanged at $9 billion, compared to the prior range of $9 billion to $10 billion.
    • Ford Blue EBIT: Now expected at $5 billion, down from the previous range of $6 billion to $6.5 billion.
    • Ford Model e EBIT Loss: Projected to be $5 billion, in line with earlier guidance of a $5 billion to $5.5 billion loss.
    • Ford Credit EBT: Anticipated to reach approximately $1.6 billion.
    • Capital Expenditure: Revised to $8 billion to $8.5 billion, compared to the previous forecast of $8 billion to $9 billion, and close to the Bloomberg consensus estimate of $8.39 billion.
    • Adjusted Free Cash Flow: Maintained at $7.5 billion to $8.5 billion.

    Ford President and CEO Jim Farley said: “We are in a strong position with Ford+ as our industry undergoes a sweeping transformation.”

    He added: “We have made strategic decisions and taken the tough actions to create advantages for Ford versus the competition in key areas like Ford Pro, international operations, software and next-generation electric vehicles. Importantly, over time, we have significant financial upside as we bend the curve on cost and quality, a key focus of our team.”

    Recall last month Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas had downgraded Ford on Chinese supply and rising delinquencies. Jonas mentioned affordability concerns in the U.S. market, claiming it is highly stretched, with inventory levels now back to pre-COVID norms.

    Meanwhile, Auto Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) data shows a growing proportion of consumers are staying delinquent for longer, with higher severity rates. Although subprime defaults are lower in 2023 compared to 2022, prime defaults have increased.  

    The capital intensity required to compete in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Vehicles (AV) is often overlooked, Jonas says. As the AI and data themes gain traction in the automotive sector, automakers will need to invest tens of billions in proprietary AI models.

    Ford Vice Chair and CFO John Lawler commented: “We are remaking the company with Ford+ into a higher-growth, higher-margin, more capital-efficient and more durable business.”

    “The work we have done over the past few years to restructure our global business — and tailor our product lineup to segments where we know our customers best — is driving continued growth and generating stronger and more consistent cash flow,” he added. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 17:20

  • Israel Threatens Syria's Bashar al-Assad: You Might Be Next
    Israel Threatens Syria’s Bashar al-Assad: You Might Be Next

    Via The Cradle

    Israeli government minister and war cabinet member Gideon Saar threatened Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday, warning that he will be “in danger” if his country continues to act as a “conduit” for Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.

    Saar – who rejoined Benjamin Netanyahu’s government late last month – said during a conference that Tel Aviv “missed an opportunity” to “collapse” Assad’s government, which was “saved” by Iran and Hezbollah. 

    Image edit by Enab Baladi

    Syria must not be permitted “under any circumstances to be a conduit for weapons supply from Iran to Hezbollah,” the minister went on to say, adding that “Israel must make clear to Assad that if he chooses to harm Israeli security in this manner, he places his regime in danger.”

    Israel “will not agree to Hezbollah’s renewed buildup of power through Syria, and will not agree to the opening of a front against it from Syrian territory,” he said. “Removing Assad from the Iranian axis will have far-reaching consequences for Israel’s security.” 

    Israel was heavily involved in supporting extremist groups against the Syrian government at the start of the US-led regime change war against Damascus, which began in 2011. 

    Fighters from Al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front were given Israeli air cover during the 2014 battles against Syrian government troops and Hezbollah in Quneitra. Wounded Nusra Front fighters were also treated at Israeli hospitals in the occupied Golan Heights. 

    Over the past several years, Israel’s air force has been waging an unofficial campaign of indiscriminate attacks against Syria, which aim to stifle the flow of weapons from Iran via Syria to the resistance in Lebanon.

    According to Lebanese analyst and journalist Khalil Nasrallah, this unofficial campaign – dubbed the ‘battle between wars’ – has failed. Israeli attacks on Syria have increased since the start of the war in Gaza and Lebanon in October last year. 

    Since Israel’s massive escalation against Lebanon last month, nearly 2,000 people have been killed and over a million displaced. Israel has begun to target Lebanese–Syrian border crossings under the pretext that they are used to facilitate the delivery of Iranian weapons to Lebanon. 

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    Hezbollah has promised its follower base recently that its military capabilities and weapons are in “great shape,” despite Israeli claims to the contrary. The group has not yet used its more sophisticated and destructive weaponry against Israel. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 17:00

  • Fetterman: Trump Support In PA Is 'Astonishing,' Musk Factor Is 'Going to Really Matter'
    Fetterman: Trump Support In PA Is ‘Astonishing,’ Musk Factor Is ‘Going to Really Matter’

    Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman is working to help Kamala Harris win the Keystone State’s 19 electoral votes, but can’t help but marvel at the intense, highly-visible support for Donald Trump he sees across the pivotal battleground.   

    A decorated pickup truck promotes Trump’s candidacy on Route 23 in Chester County, Pennsylvania — one of the critical “collar counties” surrounding Philadelphia (Tom Gralish/Philadelphia Inquirer) 

    Agreeing “one hundred percent” with the idea that Trump has a special connection with Pennsylvanians, Fetterman told the New York Times that while Democrats may have trouble grasping it, the phenomenon is undeniable: 

    “There’s a difference between not understanding, but also acknowledging that it exists. And anybody who spends time driving around, and you can see the intensity. It’s astonishing.

    I was doing an event in Indiana County. Very, very red. And there was a superstore of Trump stuff, and it was a hundred feet long, and it was dozens of T-shirts and hats and bumper stickers and all kinds of, I mean, it’s like, Where does this all come from? It’s the kind of thing that has taken on its own life. And it’s like something very special exists there. And that doesn’t mean that I admire it. It’s just — it’s real.” 

    Trump won Pennsylvania by 44,292 votes in 2016 and lost it by 80,555 in 2020. While the 2024 race appears to be another close one, six of the last seven Pennsylvania polls tracked by RealClear Polling put Trump in the lead, by margins ranging from one point to three points. Polymarket bettors are bullish on a Trump win: As this is written, the prediction market gives Trump a 63% chance of winning the state. As for his odds of winning the nationwide contest, Trump has edged up to a 2024-campaign-high of 66.5%, while Harris has fallen to 33.7%. 

    Trump speaking at a June rally at Temple University, which is located in crime-ridden North Philly (AFP – Getty Images via New York Post) 

    Fetterman also acknowledged the formidable campaign power of Elon Musk, who’s been sharing rally stages with Trump, holding his own town halls, and handing out million-dollar random prizes to registered swing-state voters who sign a petition:

    “Now Musk is joining him. I mean, to a lot of people, that’s [Marvel Comics Iron Man billionaire alter-ego] Tony Stark. That’s the world’s richest guy. And he’s obviously and undeniably a brilliant guy, and he’s saying, ‘Hey, that’s my guy for president.’ That’s going to really matter.”

    Addressing a key election issue, Fetterman distinguished himself from many in his party by reiterating the importance of having a secure border so American communities aren’t overwhelmed by people needing support.

    Fetterman, who no longer identifies as a Progressive, chided fellow Democrats for being in a state of denial about the negative impact of a large and uncontrolled flow of destitute third-worlders. “[They’re] trying to tell people, ‘well, don’t believe your eyes, it’s going to be OK, it’s all working out.’ It’s not,” said the ever-slovenly Fetterman, who showed up for his video-recorded interview with the Times dressed something like a destitute third-worlder himself — in a black hoodie and gym shorts. 

    Fetterman added: 

    “I’m the most pro-immigration guy there is. But that has to be compatible with a secure border, and I will never listen to anyone’s other side until you can explain, like, how? How do we take care of them? Where did those resources come from? And where do they go? Nobody could provide a serious answer to that.”

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    Fetterman concluded the interview by predicting that Trump will lose an election that he says is more “visceral” than issue-driven: “I do believe enough people will choose Harris. But it’s going to be much, much closer than anyone would want.”  

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 16:40

  • The "Righteously Pissed Off" Are Ready To Go To Work To Fix Whatever They Can
    The “Righteously Pissed Off” Are Ready To Go To Work To Fix Whatever They Can

    Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

    Speaking of Abortion…

    “Good rule of thumb: those who frequently use the word “disinformation” are the ones most likely to be pushing it”

    – Elon Musk

    What were they thinking after they shoved “Joe Biden” into the abyss, like an old refrigerator over the edge of the landfill, and afterward settled — instantly it appears, with no process at all — on Kamala Harris to lead the party to victory in the fall election?

    I will tell you: they were not thinking at all.

    The collective mind of the Democrat elite was a vast vacuum devoid of thought, mass, or light, like a corner of deepest space, lacking even a particle of cosmic debris to evoke the existence of existence.

    Such mindlessness was the consummate expression of a party that for eight years worked every angle of political mental illness toward the loss of its mind, driven by whatever dark energy seeks escape from truth, life, and God — whatever is opposite of creation and being. What you are witnessing is a colossal act of being un-born. The party put out a call to the universe and the universe ordered. . .  an abortion of the Democratic Party! You are reminded again: be careful of what you wish for.

    And so do things stand one week before the election. You have not seen such a vivid demonstration of slowly-and-then-all-at-once since the implosion of Lehman Brothers as the collapse of the Democratic Party this fateful October. Poor Kamala is just collateral damage at this point. She goes out before some manufactured audience and seven-minutes onstage delivering a door-dash order of precooked blather is all she can stand before being overwhelmed by the emptiness and futility of her task. . .  and then she flees back to the waiting limousine (and the chardonnay bottle).

    Meanwhile, her allies — that is, the Democratic Party’s allies — play their own roles in this political abortion. The LA Times and the WashPo declined their usual proforma endorsements, two kisses of death. Those actions last week provoked nervous breakdowns in both newsrooms, cries of anguish, resignations, professional suicides. The news media find themselves in a peculiar position, having gone along for years with the gathering mental illness of the Democratic Party, like incompetent parents in a large dysfunctional family, offering unconditional support for their kids’ intolerable and unacceptable behavior.

    They are flying to pieces now on the CNN chat panels. James Carville, the party’s shriveled Gollum, has gone to IV infusions of Jim Beam, seems like. Jake Tapper gets Sunday schooled by JD Vance and turns into a mewling cat-lady right before your eyes. Anderson Cooper goes all waxy and mute. Joy Reid surrenders to echolalia as her MSNBC fans are subjected to the guest list of P. Diddy’s “freak-offs,” ranting about Hitler. Lawrence O’Donnell is looking more and more like Vincent Price in Return of the Fly. Reality-optional hardly suffices to describe cable news these days.

    You’ve got to ask: can they just let it be? Can they just let go of their insane Jacobin rebellion now and let it fade into history? Then, kick back, recuperate, get their minds right, put their house and family in order, and move on as a legit political faction in a functioning republic? Or, do they burn the asylum down?

    The signals are troubling. They are chattering about Mr. Trump “using the military” against them in the months to come — as if the Abrams tanks were going to roll up to DNC headquarters and blast away. By now, you know that such thoughts expressed by Democratic pols and news pals are always projections of their own wishes. The New York Times published just such a classic paranoid projection exercise last week “. . . telling Americans that if he [Trump] wins, he plans to bend, if not break, our democracy.”

    Surely it is too late, with early voting well underway, to stop any ballot harvesting and other election shenanigans as engineered by master fraudster Marc Elias. In fact, frauds are already being discovered (e.g., Lancaster County, PA.) Not a good look. It is exactly what a conspiracy (to commit election fraud) means in law, and the actual people who cooked the ballots and transported them are going to rat-out those who instructed them to do it. Wait for that, and wait for it to pop up elsewhere around the country. This time, watchers are watching, much more carefully.

    Of course, you know there will be long delays, perhaps a week or more, before definitive election results will get posted. The country’s in a bad way, really frightened of what these desperate Democrats with their mitts still on the levers of power might do. Judge Merchan is scheduled to deliver his bit of mischief November 26 in the New York “Stormy Daniels hush money” case. You can bet that the Supreme Court will squash him like a sow-bug five minutes later and vacate his stupid case.

    Reasonable observers (Rickards, Armstrong) are whispering about martial law and blood in the streets following the election. Yet Mr. Trump’s MAGA legions, appear supernaturally confident now, fortified with a sense of mission. They’re righteously pissed-off about all the hoaxes, the lawfare, the swarming illegal migrants, their squandered tax dollars, and much more. But they are ready to go to work, eager to put their shoulders to the wheel to fix whatever they can and, as they do, the death of the Democratic Party is one abortion they will not shed any tears over.

    Another reminder of who we are as Americans and the mysterious workings of Providence: Father Mapple’s sermon — Orson Welles in the John Huston movie version of Melville’s Moby Dick:

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 16:20

  • Stocks 'Squeeze' Higher, Crude Crushed, Bitcoin Bid Ahead Of Catalyst-Heavy Week
    Stocks ‘Squeeze’ Higher, Crude Crushed, Bitcoin Bid Ahead Of Catalyst-Heavy Week

    Today saw the quiet (short squeeze higher) before the storm of risk catalysts ahead this week (including 41% of SPX earnings and a handful of key macro data – JOLTS, GDP, PCE, NFP). But October Dallas Fed manufacturing activity was better than expected today, adding to momentum in the Citi US Macro Surprise Index…

    Source: Bloomberg

    The ‘good’ data sent rate-cut expectations (hawkishly) lower with 2024 now a coin toss between 1 and 2 25bp cuts and 2025 down to pricing in just 3 cuts…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Goldman’s trading desk noted that market volumes are down -5% and top of book depth is only $8.4mm with a “squeezy price action” evident in stocks: Bitcoin Equities (GSCBBTC1, +7.5%); China ADRs (GSXUCADR, +4.6%);  Non-Profitable Tech (GSXUNPTC, +3%) & Most Short Rolling (GSCBMSAL, +2.8%) – third major squeeze day in a row…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Mag7 stocks ended very marginally higher on the day after a short-squeeze open.

    Source: Bloomberg

    Bear in mind that today marks the first day of the estimated open window period for corporate buybacks with ~50% in open window today. We have already seen a number of companies start entering into new 10b5-1 plans over the past week.

    Taking all that into consideration, Small Caps were the days best performer (squeeze) while Nasdaq was the laggard (barely holding on to unchanged). The S&P lagged The Dow…

    VIX was lower today but the vol term structure for the S&P 500 is very much anticipating some malarkey over the next couple of weeks…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Bond yields pushed higher with the ‘Trump Trade’…

    Source: Bloomberg

    With yields up 3-4bps across the curve – but it was a wild day in bond-land with TSYs bid across Europe and then offered during most of the US session…

    Source: Bloomberg

    The dollar ended the day unchanged after extending Friday’s gains, falling back then inching back up to unch…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Bitcoin surged back up within a few ticks of $70,000…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Crude prices were clubbed like a baby seal today as the Iran-Israel theatrics seemed to calm traders minds and erase geopolitical risk premium….

    Source: Bloomberg

    Finally, USA Sovereign risk continues to rise quietly behind the scenes…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …as the world bids on the ultimate ‘insurance’ bet into an election surprise (red or blue sweep)…

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 16:00

  • Treasury Trims Debt Estimates For Current Quarter, But Q1 Borrowing Surge To Follow
    Treasury Trims Debt Estimates For Current Quarter, But Q1 Borrowing Surge To Follow

    Back in July and exactly one quarter ago, when the US Treasury published its debt issuance forecast for the balance of 2024, we said that the “anticipated numbers came close to our estimates for Q3, but well above our forecast for Q4” with the highlight being the Q4 debt issuance number which the Treasury estimated at $565 billion, $115 billion above our estimate of $450 billion (in part due to the Treasury higher TGA estimate of $700 billion vs our assumption of $650 billion).

    Fast forward to today when ahead of Wednesday’s Quarterly Refunding Announcement, at 3pm ET the Treasury published its debt sources and uses forecast for the current and coming quarters, and it showed that the Treasury trimmed its estimate for borrowing for the current quarter, while raising more debt than it previously expected in the quarter ended June 30; The Terasury also continues to expect a $700 billion cash balance at the end of the year, just before the federal debt ceiling kicks back in. Then as we enter 2025, the Treasury expects to raise $823 billion in new debt in the first calendar quarter of 2025, in large part because it expects that the Treasury cash balance will rise by $150 billion to $850 billion, or in other words, the Treasury does not assume another debt ceiling crisis which would push the cash balance sharply lower in Q1 and onward.

    Here are the details from the Treasury statement:

    • During the July – September 2024 quarter, Treasury borrowed $762 billion in privately-held net marketable debt and ended the quarter with a cash balance of $886 billion, more than the $850 billion initially expected. In July 2024, Treasury estimated borrowing of $740 billion and assumed an end-of-September cash balance of $850 billion. Privately-held net marketable borrowing was $22 billion higher largely because of a $36 billion higher ending cash balance partially offset by higher net cash flows.  
    • During the October – December 2024 quarter, Treasury expects to borrow $546 billion in privately-held net marketable debt, assuming an end-of-December cash balance of $700 billion. The borrowing estimate is $19 billion lower than announced in July 2024, largely due to a higher beginning-of-quarter cash balance partially offset by lower net cash flows.

    • During the January – March 2025 quarter, Treasury expects to borrow $823 billion in privately-held net marketable debt, assuming an end-of-March cash balance of $850 billion. Of note,the end-of-March cash balance assumes another successful “enactment of a debt limit suspension or increase” which, assuming Trump becomes president, is virtually guaranteed will not happen. Indeed, should we get another debt ceiling crisis, the Treasury is quick to note that while the debt limit is not currently binding, “Treasury’s cash balance may be lower than assumed depending on several factors, including constraints related to the debt limit.” Translation: Q1 cash balances will be sharply lower than expected since the odds of a successful debt ceiling renegotiation are slim to none if Trump wins next week.

    Here is the debt schedule in table format:

    Source: Treasury

    Dealers’ expectations for the new borrowing estimate had varied ahead of Monday’s release. Strategists at JPMorgan Chase & Co. expected a cut to $529 billion. But the team at BNP Paribas predicted an increase to $600 billion, based in part on October and November making up nearly a quarter of the federal government’s annual deficit, a gap that has been steadily widening.

    Meanwhile, the projected $823 billion borrowing need in Q1 2025 would be the highest since the Sept 2023 quarter.

    “We estimate that the Treasury will begin to limit bill supply in March 2025 and will cut bill supply aggressively in Q2,” a team of strategists a TD Securities including Gennadiy Goldberg wrote in a note, which would be expected since by then the Reverse Repo buffer will be all used up. Before then, however, the TD team said that  “with a debt ceiling increase or suspension likely in Q3, Treasury will then ramp up bill issuance aggressively as the cash balance is rebuilt to a more normal level.”

    Wrightson ICAP economist Lou Crandall didn’t expect officials this week to provide any color on their specific expectations for the upcoming debt ceiling timeline. He had predicted a $540 billion October-through-December borrowing estimate ahead of Monday’s release.

    Today’s report comes ahead of Wednesday’s quarterly refunding announcement, when the Treasury will unveil its plans for long-term debt issuance. Bond dealers widely expect that the refunding auctions will total $125 billion for the third straight quarter. Many also expect a ramp up in Bill Issuance in the tail end of the year, which would be a big problem at a time when the Reverse Repo facility only holds just over $200 billion, and is in danger of being rapidly depleted, sparking another repo market crisis.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/28/2024 – 15:48

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Oct 28

Today’s News 28th October 2024

  • Korybko: Brazil's Veto Of Venezuela's BRICS Bid Exposes Multipolar Rift
    Korybko: Brazil’s Veto Of Venezuela’s BRICS Bid Exposes Multipolar Rift

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

    Brazil’s ruling Workers’ Party (PT per its Portuguese abbreviation) has presented itself as an Ibero-American champion of multipolarity since its inception, as has its leader President Lula since his first term began in 2003, but these narratives are now challenged like never before after last week.

    Brasil de Fato cited diplomatic sources to report that Brazil vetoed Venezuela’s BRICS partnership request while Putin also acknowledged during a press conference that Russia and Brazil disagree on Venezuela.

    This outcome was made all the more scandalous by Lula’s unexpected “head injury” that was allegedly responsible for him not flying to Kazan and Venezuelan President Maduro’s surprise visit to the event. Lula might have either made-up his injury or exaggerated it in order not to embarrass himself any further by arguing in person against his multipolar neighbor’s requested BRICS partnership. He might also have caught wind of Maduro’s plans and thus ducked out in order to avoid a potential confrontation there.

    In any case, one of the world’s top energy producers wasn’t able to achieve the consensual support required for partnering with the world’s top financial multipolarity platform, though this analysis here from last month explains how non-members and -partners can still coordinate their associated policies with BRICS. Be that as it may, it was still a blow to Venezuela’s prestige not to be inaugurated as an official partner, but Lula’s PT harmed its own reputation in a much worse way by reportedly vetoing this.

    Keeping in mind the abovementioned insight about how any country can voluntarily coordinate its associated policies with BRICS even in the absence of formal membership or partnership status, Brazil could have let Venezuela join in order to keep up the PT’s charade about being a multipolar champion. Instead, it maliciously prevented this, which only served to virtue signal support for the US’ ruling Democrats’ shared policy towards that country at the expense of the trust that Brazil built within BRICS.

    It was explained in August how “Ortega’s Condemnation Of Lula’s Meddling In Venezuela Debunks A Top Alt-Media Lie”, which hyperlinked at the end to a list of over 50 related analyses from October 2022 till then about Lula’s post-imprisonment ideological alignment with that aforesaid imperialist party. In brief, he and his party were never true multipolar champions like they presented themselves as, but were always more akin to “social democrats” or what’s been called the “compatible left” by traditional leftists.

    All the while, however, the PT’s social media influencers and cultish clique of supporters across the world aggressively gatekept the false narrative that their “heroes” pushed. This most often took the form of viciously “canceling” anyone who dared to even remotely question this debunked dogma. This charade was thus kept up until last week when it became impossible to deny that Lula’s PT had betrayed regional multipolar leader Venezuela solely to curry favor from what might soon be the US’ outgoing ruling party.

    There shouldn’t be any question about the veracity of Brasil de Fato’s diplomatic sources either after Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry came out with an official statement slamming Lula’s veto. They described it as an “immoral aggression” that “reproduce[ed] the hatred, exclusion and intolerance promoted from the centres of power in the West.” They then added that “The Venezuelan people feel indignation and shame” after what Lula just did. These are very strong words that should be taken very seriously.

    Readers should also know that while Lula hasn’t acknowledged Maduro’s re-election, Putin proudly thundered during last week’s event that “Venezuela is fighting for its independence, for its sovereignty…We believe that President Maduro won the elections, won fairly. He formed a government.” His words threw the PT onto the horns of yet another narrative dilemma by suggesting that Brazil’s stance is against another fellow Global South country’s “independence” and “sovereignty”.

    The Venezuelan Question is therefore a black-and-white issue: one either supports Lula and Biden’s regime change efforts in Venezuela, with each advancing this in their own but still coordinated way, or they support Maduro and Putin’s defense of Venezuela’s independence and sovereignty.

    There’s no middle ground no matter what lies top PT influencers might soon spew. Honest members from the Alt-Media Community will accurately report this while dishonest ones will keep covering up for the PT.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 23:20

  • Porn-Addicts For Kamala Harris: Billionaire-Funded Far-Left PAC Pushes Cringe Ad 
    Porn-Addicts For Kamala Harris: Billionaire-Funded Far-Left PAC Pushes Cringe Ad 

    Reid Hoffman, billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn and independent director on Microsoft’s board, appears to have donated a substantial amount of money to the “Progress Action Fund” — a PAC led by a far-left activist and former Obama administration alumnus. PAF pushed out one of the cringiest pro-pornographic political ads to drum up support from chronic masturbators for Kamala Harris. 

    Let’s dive directly into the woke left’s cringe-fest ad… 

    Here’s the original report from X user Collin Rugg: 

    NEW: Democrat groups release an ad of a young man m*sturbating in an effort to get people to vote for Kamala Harris. The Democratic Party: The party of abortion and p*rn addicts. Progress Action Fund and Defend the Vote have released a $2.5 million ad campaign with the 30-second ad. The ad was called “Republicans Rubbing You the Wrong Way,” with an actor playing a Republican congressman watching the young man rub one out. The ad campaign is being displayed on streaming services in all seven swing states.

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    PAF noted on its website that it “runs hard-hitting ads to defeat Republicans in swing districts, including the viral ad Keep Republicans Out Of Your Bedroom.” 

    Heading PAF is former Obama activist Joe Jacobson, who identifies as a “he/him.”

    Jacobson is a radical leftist with prior ties to the Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO, and the Obama administration. 

    According to data from Open Secrets, billionaire Hoffman appears to have funded some of Jacobson’s woke adventures at PAF. Hoffman splurged on PAF this year, donating as much as $500,000 on Sept. 25 and $50,000 on Sept. 19. 

    Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham wrote on X, “It’s a PAC run by an Obama administration alum. And a major funder is Reid Hoffman, co-founder and chairman of LinkedIn.” 

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    What a cringe-fest for Democrats… After unleashing the ‘Trump Nazi’ bazooka in leftist corporate media last week…

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    Now, they are trying to drum up support from porn-addicted Americans funded by Palo Alto elites. Weird.

    Well, it’s not weird unless you understand that this is desperation from Democrats and their billionaire funders. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 22:45

  • Jury: Workers Fired For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine To Get More Than $1 Million Each
    Jury: Workers Fired For Refusing COVID-19 Vaccine To Get More Than $1 Million Each

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

    Rail transit officials in California’s Bay Area have been ordered to pay more than $7 million to transit workers who were fired because they refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine years ago.

    A woman closes her eyes while receiving a COVID-19 vaccine at Sydney Road Family Medical Practice in Balgowlah, in Sydney, Australia, on Jan. 10, 2022. Jenny Evans/Getty Images

    On Oct. 23, a federal jury in the U.S District Court for the Northern District of California sided with six former San Francisco Bay Area Regional Transit (BART) workers who had refused to get the vaccine for religious purposes.

    BART was ordered to pay the group more than $7.8 million, with each individual receiving between $1.2 million and $1.5 million, the Pacific Justice Institute, which represented the transit workers in the trial, said in a statement on Oct. 24. The institute, a law firm representing the six former employees since 2022, said the eight-person jury deliberated for two days this week before returning the verdict that awarded the employees the compensation.

    About a week ago, the federal jury also determined that BART had failed to prove that it suffered an undue hardship by denying accommodations to the ex-employees in the case.

    On Oct. 23, the jury further found that the six employees met the burden of showing that there was a conflict between their religious beliefs and the BART vaccine mandate, which was implemented in 2021.

    According to the law firm, the jury also agreed with the figures that the plaintiffs had provided for lost wages that they had suffered after losing their jobs. The jury then added $1 million each to those figures, the firm said, describing the verdict as a “legal earthquake.”

    “The rail employees chose to lose their livelihood rather than deny their faith. That in itself shows the sincerity and depth of their convictions,“ Kevin Snider, the Pacific Justice Institute’s chief counsel, who served as lead trial attorney, said. ”After nearly three years of struggle, these essential workers feel they were heard and understood by the jury and are overjoyed and relieved by the verdict.”

    The law firm stated: “During the trial, jurors heard compelling testimony from dedicated employees. One of the plaintiffs had worked for more than 30 years for BART, with a stretch of 10 years perfect attendance, before being unceremoniously dismissed. Another had been out on workers comp for months, with no scheduled return date, when she was fired.”

    Lawyers for BART argued that multiple employees who had conflicts with receiving the vaccine had secular—rather than religious—reasons. But the jury disagreed with those arguments, the Pacific Justice Institute said.

    The vaccine mandate was approved by BART’s board of directors in October 2021 and stipulated that all employees must get the COVID-19 vaccine. It allowed some employees to be exempt from the vaccine, including for religious reasons.

    A year later, BART employees filed a class-action lawsuit accusing the operator of denying religious accommodations that violated state law.

    U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who presided over the lawsuit against BART, ruled that the operator’s policies did not violate the employees’ right to religious freedom, according to an order he issued in March.

    A separate order issued by Alsup in January found that BART received 188 requests for a religious exemption and accommodation, and of that figure, 40 chose not to complete the process. They were either terminated from employment or ultimately got the vaccine.

    “Plaintiffs’ putative class fails because its members have little in common beyond their request for religious accommodation,” the judge further said in his order. “They do not share a common religious objection. They do not share a vocation or a set of contractual rights. They do not present a similar set of potential accommodations and associated burdens. They do not present similar health and exposure concerns.

    “Potential accommodations do not impact the same pool of coworkers. Those coworkers do not have the same bargained-for rights.”

    The Epoch Times contacted BART for comment on Oct. 25 but received no reply by publication time. The rail operator’s spokesman, James Allison, told local news outlet SFGate that it had “no comment” on the verdict.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 22:10

  • NYC Mayor Says Trump Not A Fascist, Urges Politicians To 'Dial Down The Temperature'
    NYC Mayor Says Trump Not A Fascist, Urges Politicians To ‘Dial Down The Temperature’

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

    New York City Mayor Eric Adams rebuffed recent claims that former President Donald Trump is a fascist and said that Trump’s Madison Square Garden event should go ahead.

    “I have heard those terms hurled at me by some political leaders in the city, using terms like [Nazi leader Adolph] Hitler and fascist,” the Democratic mayor said at a news conference in New York City on Saturday.

    New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a news conference in New York City on April 5, 2024. Brittainy Newman/AP Photo

    “I know what Hitler has done, and I know what a fascist regime looks like. I think, as I have called for over and over again, that the level of conversation, I think we can all dial down the temperature,” Adams said at the conference in which he also detailed a significant police presence planned for Trump’s event at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan Sunday.

    He made the comment after Vice President Kamala Harris and her surrogates criticized Trump in recent days after his former chief of staff John Kelly accused him of praising Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Germany dictator’s generals while he was in office. Trump has refuted Kelly’s comments.

    Referring to the claims, Harris told voters Wednesday at a CNN town hall that “I invite you to listen and go online to listen to John Kelly” make the allegations against the 45th president. “This is a serious, serious issue. And we know who he is. He admires dictators,” Harris said.

    Kelly told the New York Times and the Atlantic that the former president wanted generals like Hitler had.

    “He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,’” Kelly told the New York Times.

    Kelly’s comment was not publicly corroborated by other former Trump White House officials and was refuted by Trump in the past week.

    During a media event, Trump told reporters that he never said positive things about Hitler during his time in the Oval Office, saying that he “would never say that” and criticized The Atlantic and its reporting.

    Former Vice President Mike Pence’s former chief of staff Mike Ayers has also rebutted the claims.

    “I’ve avoided commenting on intra-staff leaks or rumors or even lies as it relates to my time at the White House but General Kelly’s comments regarding President Trump are too egregious to ignore,” Ayers posted on X. “I was with each of them more than most, and his commentary is *patently false.*”

    After Harris’s statement, Trump’s campaign spokesman Steven Cheung accused the Democratic candidate of spreading “outright lies and falsehoods.”

    Adams, who is currently facing federal bribery charges, said Saturday that he disagrees with the notion that Trump’s rally should be scrapped over Kelly’s comments.

    “This is America. This is New York, and I think it’s important that we allow individuals to exercise their right to get their message clear to New Yorkers,” the mayor said. “And our job as a city and as a Police Department is to make sure they can do that … in a peaceful way.”

    Adams’s comments about lowering “the temperature” also appeared to echo a comment made by President Joe Biden earlier this year in the immediate aftermath of the first assassination attempt against Trump in Pennsylvania. At the time, Biden called on Americans to “cool it down” after the shooting, in which a bullet clipped Trump’s ear.

    Trump became the subject of a second assassination attempt in mid-September after the Secret Service engaged with an individual who was pointing a rifle through a perimeter fence while the former president was golfing in Florida.

    In mid-October, Trump spoke at the Al Smith charity dinner in New York and made reference to the federal charges Adams is facing, as well as those he is facing. “They’ve gone after me, Mr. Mayor, and you’re peanuts compared to what they’ve done to me,” he said on Oct. 18. “And you’re going to be OK.”

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 21:00

  • How Much Do G7 And BRICS Countries Rely On The Taiwan Strait?
    How Much Do G7 And BRICS Countries Rely On The Taiwan Strait?

    With China continuing to conduct military drills near Taiwan, as well as recently reaffirming that use of force will always remain an option to bring Taiwan under its control, concerns have grown over how potential Chinese actions in the region could impact global trade through the Taiwan Strait.

    This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Kayla Zhu, visualizes the share of exports and imports that move through the Taiwan Strait, broken down by the G7 and BRICS countries.

    The data comes from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and is updated as of October 2024.

    Which Countries are Most Reliant on the Taiwan Strait?

    Below, we show the share of exports and imports that transit through the Taiwan Strait by both G7 and BRICS countries.

    BRICS countries overall are more exposed to disruptions to trade routes in the Taiwan Strait, specifically China, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran. The latter two have 24% or more of its exports pass through the strait.

    China and Japan are the most reliant on the Taiwan Strait for both imports and exports, specifically imports. Almost a third of both countries’ imports pass through the Taiwan Strait.

    According to CSIS, over 95% of Japan’s crude oil comes from a select group of Middle Eastern countries, much of which is transported through the Taiwan Strait, making this route integral to Japan’s energy security.

    As for China, while CSIS estimates that 15% of its exports pass through this waterway—a relatively lower share than other countries—the total value of these exports is still over $551 billion.

    The Taiwan Strait is not only essential for China’s international trade but also plays a key role in its domestic commerce. More than half of the voyages through the strait connect the numerous ports along China’s eastern seaboard, according to CSIS.

    Aside from Japan, G7 countries generally have much lower reliance on the Taiwan Strait. The U.S., UK, Canada, Italy, Germany, and France each have single-digit percentages for imports and exports through the strait.

    The Taiwan Strait has been the site of multiple major crises between China and Taiwan since the 1950s, many of which involved military confrontations such as artillery bombardments, missile tests, and naval deployments.

    To learn more about how G7 and BRICS stack up agains eachother in other areas, check out this graphic that compares G7 and BRICS countries by GDP.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 20:25

  • Watch: Megan Kelly Crushes Bill Maher's "Trump Is Hitler" Insanity
    Watch: Megan Kelly Crushes Bill Maher’s “Trump Is Hitler” Insanity

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

    Sirius XM host Megan Kelly Absolutely crushed Bill Maher’s tired assertion that Donald Trump is a fascist, prompting him to immediately try to change the subject and then end the interview on his HBO show.

    Maher said of Trump, “the things that he’s been saying, and all the people in his administration who’ve said he’s a fascist, he wants to be fascist, his friends are all dictators.”

    Kelly told Maher she doesn’t care about any of that “Because they’ve been saying that about Trump for years, they’ve been saying that about Republican candidates for years. It has a long, storied history. If you are at all center or center-right, you are used to having your candidate of choice completely demonized, whether it’s the f-word, the r-word, the misogynist word.”

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    She continued, “They tried to tell us Mitt Romney was a raging sexist because of binders full of women. They tried to tell us John McCain was a raging racist, notwithstanding the fact that he adopted a daughter from Bangladesh. They’ve been doing this for every Republican, and they get to Trump, and we are no longer listening to them.”

    “Trump has incendiary rhetoric, there’s no question, but we have four years to judge him by, and the country was going pretty well, unlike the four we’ve had with these two,” Kelly urged, referring to Harris and Biden.

    When Maher then attempted to argue that Trump inherited a good economy from Obama, Kelly responded “So, walk me through it. So Trump has Obama to thank for his economy, but Biden can’t thank Trump for anything?”

    “Okay, let’s get off this,” Maher responded, before going back to calling Trump a fascist and literally Hitler.

    “I see; he hid his Hitlerism the first four years and is going to come out in full force the second four years,” Kelly told Maher, highlighting how stupid the assertion is.

    Kelly then urged that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are the ones acting like fascists, running through their weaponisation of the Justice Department against Trump and the fact they they have ignored Supreme Court rulings.

    Maher then quickly ended the interview.

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    Earlier in the interview, Maher also managed to lose an argument about Democrats denying election results for a second time to Kelly.

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    Kelly also hit Maher’s lefty audience with some other horrific facts they didn’t want to hear about what is being done to children in the name of ‘inclusion’.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 19:50

  • One Dead, 35 Injured In Suspected Terror Truck-Ramming Near Mossad Headquarters
    One Dead, 35 Injured In Suspected Terror Truck-Ramming Near Mossad Headquarters

    An area north of Tel Aviv was scene of a Sunday morning incident being dubbed in Israeli media a “terror truck-ramming attack” at a bus stop, which left one person dead and at least 32 wounded. Subsequent reports said that 35 were injured, with five in serious condition.

    The perpetrator and only deceased has been identified as Rami Nasrallah, an Arab Israeli driver who lives in Qalansawe, in central Israel. However, there remains some ambiguity over whether it was an intentional ‘terror attack’ or possibly the result of a horrific accident.

    Emergency responders at the scene after a driver apparently rammed his truck into a crowd of people at a bus stop in Ramat Hasharon, AFP.

    The event is still under investigation, with the Times of Israel reporting of the deceased bus driver that “His body was sent to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute for an autopsy to check if he suffered a medical condition that caused the accident.”

    Suspicion has widely fall on the intentional attack theory, given it happened just outside the well-known Glilot military base in central Israel, and in a location near the Mossad headquarters and several IDF intelligence units.

    Additionally, police said that that the suspect was “shot and neutralized” at the scene, while still not saying necessarily that it was an attack.

    A lot of the injured were senior citizens who had just stepped off a bus at the moment the bus was rammed. They were planning to attend a museum exhibit memorializing the fallen of the Oct.7 Hamas terror attack.

    While not directly taking responsibility for the apparent terror incident, Hamas praised the “heroic ramming attack” that was carried out near “Mossad headquarters.”

    The group described that it was “a natural response to the crimes of the Zionist occupation against our Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, and its ongoing brutal massacres, especially in the northern Gaza Strip.”

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    “Photos and videos on social media showed several people pinned down under the truck as medics and rescuers tried to help,” Al Jazeera has described of the gruesome scene. Police cordoned off the area and a security helicopter hovered above.

    A number of the injured were witnessed lying on a sidewalk near the truck. One source said that armed civilians may have shot the driver as it was clear he was about to ram people. Another eyewitness saw eight people “trapped under the truck.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 19:15

  • Watch: Trump And Rogan Have A Wild Interview
    Watch: Trump And Rogan Have A Wild Interview

    Former President Donald Trump appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast Friday, where they discussed a wide range of topics for three hours.

    Watch:

    Highlights:

    Getting rid of income taxes:

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    Hoaxes perpetrated against Trump:

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    Why Democrats are in favor of illegal immigration:

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    Trump on bad White House hires:

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    Keeping Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas in check:

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    The two discussed the horrible condition California is in thanks to Gov. Gavin Newsom:

    Trump on getting shot:

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    Trump on Musk:

    “Surreal” – On what it was like when Trump won the 1st time:

    “I want to be a whale psychiatrist” – Offshore windmills and how they affect whales:

    “You’ve said a lot of wild shit!” – Why Trump became so popular:

    Trump on Barron:

    “Big pharma wasn’t thrilled” – Trump on pressure not to work with RFK Jr.:

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    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 18:11

  • Dramatic Video Shows Assassination Attempt On Bolivia's Ex-President Morales
    Dramatic Video Shows Assassination Attempt On Bolivia’s Ex-President Morales

    At a moment the South American country of Bolivia is already on edge due to rising inflation and shrinking gas production, ex-president Evo Morales said his car was shot at on Sunday.

    He and officials close to him say a pair of vehicles forced his to stop in the middle of a freeway, and that’s when heavily armed unidentified gunmen fired on his car, with a bullet reportedly passing “centimeters” from his head. There are reports saying that Morales’ driver was wounded.

    Current president Luis Arce has recently accused Morales and his supporters of “destabilizing” the country amid weeks of roadblocks, which have resulted in supply chain problems which have impacted grocery stores and gas stations.

    Morales has been facing what he says is a politically motivated investigation by a government prosecutor, concocted by his enemies, especially the Arce administration.

    The former president is accused of statutory rape and human trafficking, which he calls sham charges. He led Bolivia from 2006 to 2019 and was the country’s first indigenous president.

    Supporters of the rival political parties in Bolivia have recently engaged in street clashes, with at times entire city areas shut down and key roads blocked amid the mayhem.

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    Morales’ team is claiming this new incident was a planned assassination attempt. The Morales-aligned bloc of the divided MAS party claimed the following:

    “This is not an isolated incident. It’s clear evidence that we are facing a fascist government that does not hesitate to attack the life of former President Evo Morales.”

    And according to more related by the Associated Press:

    The statement said that two vehicles with heavily armed men dressed in black ambushed Morales’ convoy. Bullets whizzed just “centimeters” from the ex-president’s head, it said. Video posted on the website of Morales’ radio station showed helicopters buzzing over an airstrip where the incident occurred.

    President Arce’s statement in the aftermath appeared to confirm this as a serious and credible incident.

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    “The exercise of any violent practice in politics must be condemned and clarified,” Arce wrote on X. “Problems are not resolved by trying to kill people or by partisan speculation.”

    As video of the assassination attempt spreads, authorities fear new unrest could be unleashed…

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    However, other key government ministers suggested it may have been a false flag orchestrated by Morales and that he was never truly in danger.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 18:05

  • Martin Armstrong Sees Trump "Landslide"; Fears Desperate Deep State Wants War & Martial Law
    Martin Armstrong Sees Trump “Landslide”; Fears Desperate Deep State Wants War & Martial Law

    Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com,

    Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong says we are getting down to the wire with the 2024 Election, and the Deep State Dems are in panic mode. 

    Could we have a false flag, martial law, debt crisis, default, war or all of the above? 

    Armstrong says,

    “They want war.  There is no question about that… Lindsey Graham was on Face the Nation a couple of months ago, and he slipped and told the truth for once. 

    I was shocked that he actually slipped and told the truth for once.  He said there was a $10 trillion to $12 trillion natural gas asset under Crimea, and we can’t allow Russia and China to get that…

    This is like Iraq.  We are going after the oil.”

    On martial law, Armstrong says, “I am very concerned about martial law…”

    “They (Supreme Court) have kind of hinted that martial law is a common law type thing.  When the courts are closed, then you have martial law.  It is justified under ‘necessity.’  This is what the Supreme Court has said.  So, I am very concerned that these neocons are so desperate that they are definitely going to try to create some sort of a false flag or anything they can do perhaps the last week in October going into the election.”

    On the war front, we just had Israel bomb Iran, and NATO is still poking Russia.  Armstrong says,

    “NATO is a retirement home for neocons.  It should have been shut down.  They are trying to take the world into World War III. 

    They are now raising a $100 billion so they can continue the war against Russia in case Trump is elected.”

    Armstrong is still seeing Trump winning in 2024 in a “landslide.”  Kamala Harris is going the other way.  A few months back, Armstrong said Kamala’s real approval rating was 10.5%.  Armstrong says he just ran new Kamala Harris approval ratings with his Socrates computer program. 

    Armstrong says, “It’s actually down to 6.5% to 7.5%.  It’s really appalling.”

    Armstrong says Kamala has “negative coattails,” which will spell big losses for Democrats down ballot in November.

    On the economy, Armstrong says,

    “We are in this debt Ponzi scheme where they issue new debt every year to pay off the old debt.  People say the debt is $34 trillion, but the level of the debt does not matter.  It could be a quadrillion dollars…

    China holds 10% of America’s debt.  They sold $53 billion at the beginning of the year.  This is where the danger comes.  If you don’t have someone to take up what China is not buying, guess what?  You can’t pay, and when you can’t pay, that’s when a default comes.  This is why they want war . . . so they can default on everything…

    They take us to war, and there goes Social Security and everything else.”

    On the 2024 Election, Armstrong says,

    “The 2024 Election will be the last election. . . . The US will break up into three or four sections. . . .

    We are committing suicide. . . . This is how governments die. . . .

    Gold goes up when people lose confidence in government.  This is why central banks want gold. 

    They are afraid of governments defaulting on their debt in war…

    In the war, we lose it next time.  They want terrorism so they can lock us down.  This is the future we face.”

    There is much more in the 1-hour and 3-minute interview.

    Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with Martin Armstrong as he gives his analysis on martial law, debt default and world war for 10.26.24.

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    There is free information, analysis and articles on ArmstrongEconomics.com.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 17:30

  • The Vampire Fiat Money System: How It Works and What It Means for Your Wealth
    The Vampire Fiat Money System: How It Works and What It Means for Your Wealth

    Authored by Thorsten Polleit via The Epoch Times,

    Who doesn’t know them: the blood-sucking vampires, the eerie undead, immortalized in countless films, and inspired primarily by Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula” (1897). Just think of iconic movies like the silent film “Nosferatu—A Symphony of Horror” (1922), “Dracula” (1958) with Christopher Lee, Roman Polanski’s parody “The Fearless Vampire Killers” (1967), or “Nosferatu—Phantom of the Night” (1979), starring Klaus Kinski as Count Dracula.

    Vampires are demons who rise from their graves at night, seeking to drain the blood of innocent victims. Not only do they steal the life force that sustains them, but they also spread their curse. Many victims, bitten by vampires, are “turned,” becoming undead themselves, thus joining the vampire’s dark domain.

    The enemies and hunters of vampires face a formidable challenge: vampires can disguise themselves, transforming into creatures like wolves or bats, and often display immense, superhuman strength. They can only be repelled by traditional defenses—garlic cloves, rosaries, holy water, or the Christian cross. But truly destroying a vampire requires decapitation, driving a wooden stake through its heart, or bright sunlight that turns them to dust.

    The vampire is an ancient and widespread myth. The image of a blood-sucking undead creature, or similar concepts, has existed across many cultures. This demon embodies superstition—acting as a projection of primal fears, the inexplicable, and evil as the counterpart to good. The notion of a creature that emerges at night, drains its victims’ blood, and draws them from light into darkness is undoubtedly a profoundly threatening one.

    When you reflect a little longer on the horror story of the vampire demon, you will inevitably begin to see parallels (or at least points of contact) with the fiat money system that exists worldwide today.

    Under Cover of Darkness

    It takes place under the cover of darkness: It is fair to say that the vast majority of people are unaware of how today’s fiat money system is structured, how it operates, or what its effects are. Students in schools and universities are, for the most part, left in the dark about it, and the consequences of the fiat money system, therefore, take most people by surprise—unprepared and relentless. Indeed, how many people know that our current fiat money system is a system in which the state’s central bank holds a coercive monopoly on the creation of fiat central bank money, while commercial banks issue their own fiat commercial bank money based on central bank fiat money.

    Who knows that fiat money is literally created out of thin air, representing a form of money creation that has no connection whatsoever to “real savings”? And who explains to people that, from an economic perspective, expanding the fiat money supply is inflationary, leading to uneven higher prices for goods and services compared to a situation where the money supply had not been increased? It is also unknown to many that the issuance of fiat money via the credit market causes a misallocation of capital, initially triggering a boom, only to be followed by a bust; that it drives economies into excessive debt; and that it allows the state to grow ever larger at the expense of the freedoms of citizens and entrepreneurs.

    In short, for most people, the damage caused by fiat money is unknown; it creeps upon them under the cover of darkness, like a vampire.

    Vulnerable Victims and Life Sucked Away

    The victims are often helpless and unaware, with the fruits of their labor effectively being siphoned away. Fiat money has something vampire-like about it, enabling one group (those allowed to create fiat money) to live at the expense of others (those forced to use the monopolized money). The first recipients of newly-created fiat money are the beneficiaries. They can use the new money to purchase goods and services whose prices have not yet risen, making them wealthier.

    As the money changes hands, it increases demand, and prices of goods rise accordingly. As a result, the late recipients of the new money can only buy goods at higher prices, leaving them at a disadvantage. The first recipients improve their position at the expense of the late recipients. The most severely affected are those who receive nothing from the newly-created money supply—they are, in effect, the ones “sucked dry.”

    The vampire-like redistributive effect of fiat money, which operates in the shadows, particularly benefits commercial banks that create fiat commercial bank money, as well as those in a position to take out new bank loans in fiat money.

    First and foremost, it is the state and those who benefit from it who are among the biggest winners of the vampire fiat money system. The state finances a significant portion of its expenditure with newly-created fiat money, using it to pay its representatives, employees, and their pensions, as well as the companies from which it purchases goods and services. The state and its beneficiaries are among the early recipients of the newly-created fiat money, making them the primary beneficiaries at the expense of the many who are not closely connected to the state.

    One might argue that a redistribution of income and wealth, brought about by the increase in fiat money, would also occur in a commodity or precious metal money system. This is true in principle, but the increase in, say, a gold money system, would be less pronounced than in a fiat money system. The fact is that the latter was deliberately chosen for its vampire-like nature. It benefits the state, banks, and big business at the expense of the general population, keeping them below their economic potential.

    Creating Minions

    Like a vampire, fiat money infects its victims, turning them into accomplices of the fiat money system. Fiat money quite literally enslaves its users, making them dependent. For instance, fiat money incentivises firms and private households to incur debt and live beyond their means, made possible through artificially low interest rates. People are also encouraged to invest in assets (such as houses and companies) because the chronic inflationary nature of fiat money ensures a continual rise in asset prices. Once people are lured into exposure to fiat money, their economic and financial well-being becomes dependent on the continuation of the inflationary fiat money system and on it being “rescued” by the state and its central bank during times of crisis—even at the expense of those who do not benefit from the system, or benefit much less.

    Politicians, bureaucrats, bank employees, and companies that receive government contracts all develop a vested interest in ensuring that the fiat money system is maintained. In this sense, they become fiat money vampire thralls, feeding off the lifeblood of those engaged in productive work by claiming a share of their income.

    Moreover, holders of fiat money are the ones who lose out, as fiat money continually loses its purchasing power. In a fiat money system, the central bank ensures that interest rates are kept artificially low—often negative after accounting for inflation—so that savings in time deposits, savings accounts, and bonds are effectively eroded.

    Aversion to Light

    The vampire and the fiat money system cannot withstand the bright light of day; both will crumble to dust when exposed to sunlight. If people truly understood the negative effects of fiat money and the damage it causes to the world, they would likely reject it—along with the production and employment structures it creates. This is likely why so little is taught about fiat money in schools and universities. Its darker aspects are concealed, with the statist education system as particeps criminis ensuring the bright light of knowledge does not shine on the fiat money system.

    Remember that central bank councils are typically referred to as “the guardians of the currency,” and it is said that they “fight” inflation. Nothing could be further from the truth—much like a vampire who welcomes his guests and engages in witty conversation without revealing his true nature. Just as sunlight kills a vampire, sound economic knowledge would destroy the fiat money system, especially when coupled with a simple, well-understood ethic like “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

    Until that day comes, investors should be aware of the serious economic and ethical flaws of fiat money. The uncomfortable truth is that long-term prosperity and peace cannot be sustained under a fiat money system. Therefore, it is in everyone’s best interest for the bright light of truth to expose and thus end the fiat money system. But how can this be achieved?

    By proactively and honestly informing people about the evils of fiat money; by advising them to reduce their dependence on it, both in their lives and their savings; and by promoting a free market for money, while encouraging technological innovations in the monetary sphere that lie beyond the state’s control. Together, these efforts will act like a ray of sunlight striking the vampire-like fiat money system—ultimately causing it to crumble to dust.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 16:20

  • Seeking Middle East Peace, Michigan Muslim Leaders Endorse Trump At Saturday Rally
    Seeking Middle East Peace, Michigan Muslim Leaders Endorse Trump At Saturday Rally

    In the latest vivid demonstration that once-durable Democratic constituencies are being completely shattered in 2024, former President Donald Trump on Saturday welcomed Michigan Muslim leaders onto a stage and heartily accepted their endorsements. “I’m thrilled to accept the endorsement of these highly respected leaders,” Trump told the crowd in Novi, a Detroit suburb.

    The principal motivator of the endorsements appears to be outrage over the Biden-Harris administration’s support of Israel’s long, astoundingly destructive war on Gaza — and a belief that even ardent Israel-backer Trump would be far more likely to bring the carnage to an end. Imam Belal Alzuhairi took to the stage in the Detroit suburb of Novi to voice that very sentiment: 

    “We, as Muslims, stand with President Trump because he promises peace, not war! We are supporting Donald Trump because he promised to end war in the Middle East and Ukraine. The bloodshed has to stop all over the world, and I think this man can make that happen. I personally believe that God saved his life twice for a reason.”

    Alzuhairi also commended Trump’s commitment to protect children from school curricula that undermine family values, and to creating a strong border and stopping illegal immigration: 

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    Dearborn Heights mayor Bill Bazzi likewise embraced Trump as potential peacemaker, telling the crowd, “We’re going to stop the wars, we’re going to make the United States safe again, and we’re going to make the world safe.” Amer Ghalib, Muslim mayor of Detroit suburb Hamtramck, endorsed Trump on Oct. 20. Liberals celebrated when Hamtramck elected a majority-Muslim city council in 2015, and then Ghalib as its first Muslim Mayor in 2021, but they recoiled and even felt betrayed when the council barred LGBTQ Pride flags from city flagpoles last year.  

    As is the case with seemingly every other issue, Kamala Harris has chosen not to stake out a position on the Israel-Gaza war that’s even modestly different from that of the Biden administration — such as merely putting conditions on the billions of US dollars shoveled into the country. Here she is lamely dodging the issue in her train wreck of a town hall performance in Philadelphia on Wednesday night: 

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    That approach could well cost Harris Michigan’s 15 electoral votes and the 2024 election, as Michigan has one of the largest Muslim populations in America. The issue could also be decisive in states with lesser Muslim populations but tightly-contested races. An Arab News/YouGov poll released last week found that Trump is narrowly winning the Arab-American vote, 45% to 43%. In 2020, 86% of Muslims voted for Biden, with just 6% backing Trump.

    As if her refusal to take a different approach to Israel weren’t doing enough damage with Muslims, Harris has put herself in an even deeper hole by embracing the endorsements of arch-Middle-East-interventionist Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney — and even toting Liz along for multiple appearances in Michigan. By some estimates, upwards of one million people have died as a result of the Dick Cheney-orchestrated invasion of Iraq on false premises. 

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    Sharing a view that’s no doubt widely held among Michigan Muslims, Hamtramck Mayor Ghalib told reporters last week: 

    “It was surprising for us as Arab Americans to have Kamala Harris bringing someone whose family name always reminds us of war crimes in the Middle East….To bring this person to our backyard, to remind us all of the tragedies that happened in the Middle East, is something that tells us that there would be more wars coming if Kamala Harris is elected.”

    A cheerful embrace of warmonger Liz Cheney has helped crush Muslim support of Kamala Harris (AP/Mark Schiefelbein via WLNS)

    While it’s certainly not universal, the substantial Muslim embrace of Trump is particularly remarkable given Trump’s demonstrated devotion to the State of Israel and relentless pandering to its backers inside the United States. 

    Trump’s political campaigns have been fueled by enormous donations from the late Sheldon and still-living Miriam Adelson, a billionaire couple whose foremost policy concern has been ensuring steady financial, military and political support for the State of Israel, and aligning Washington with the agenda of Israel’s right wing. The Adelsons have been closely allied with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even publishing a free Israeli newspaper that boosts Netanyahu and his Likud party. 

    The couple donated a jaw-dropping $90 million to Trump’s 2020 campaign, rewarding him for his Israel-catering policies, including relocating the US embassy from Tel Aviv to contested Jerusalem, exiting the Iran nuclear deal and recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in 1967’s Six-Day War. Trump also awarded Miriam Adelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In the 2024 race, Miriam Adelson has donated another $100 million to a PAC that works to elect Trump.  

    The remarkable fracturing of Muslim support of the Democratic Party comes alongside similar erosion of other once-reliable cornerstones of the Democratic electorate, including blacks, Hispanics, union members and young voters. Can this race really be as tight as “experts” tell us? 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 15:45

  • CNN Data Analyst Admits Trump On Course To Win Popular Vote
    CNN Data Analyst Admits Trump On Course To Win Popular Vote

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

    CNN’s data analyst Harry Enten suggested Friday that Donald Trump could be on course to win the popular vote on November 5th.

    That hasn’t happened for a Republican candidate for 20 years.

    If it happens, Trump will almost certainly win the electoral college and the election.

    Enten noted that a New York Times/Siena College poll was released last week showing Trump tied with Kamala Harris at 48% in the national popular vote.

    “Everyone has been talking about this idea that Trump may win in the Electoral College, but Kamala Harris may win the popular vote, but Trump may finally get his great white whale,” Enten stated.

    He added that Wall Street Journal and CNBC polls also have Trump ahead of Harris in the popular vote.

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    “Part of my job is to warn our viewers, on either side of the aisle, of an event that may occur, that they don’t necessarily like, and Donald Trump winning the popular vote could ABSOLUTELY happen,” Enten urged.

    He added “You might as well wrap your minds around it now folks if you don’t like Donald Trump,” noting that Democrat supporters heads are currently “exploding.”

    The RCP average has Trump in the lead for the popular vote for the first time in his political career by two points.

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    If he did it, Trump would only be the second Republican in 36 years to win the popular vote.

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    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 15:10

  • LGBT Activists Meet With Pope, Urge Him To End Vatican Opposition To Trans Ideology
    LGBT Activists Meet With Pope, Urge Him To End Vatican Opposition To Trans Ideology

    LGBT activists have a strange obsession with religious acceptance, specifically from the Catholic Church.  Rational minds would argue that if a group is diametrically opposed to your lifestyle then you would avoid associating with that group.  Why clamor for their attention?  

    In the early days of the gay rights movement the attitude of proponents was essentially that they would go their own way – All they wanted was for religious taboos to no longer be codified into law and used to regulate their lives.  It sounds fair enough, but the problem with the political left is their underlying agenda of incrementalism and their unhealthy tendencies toward moral relativism.

    In other words, give them an inch and leftists will steal a mile.  They see compromise as an invitation to dominate.  Giving concessions to a leftist is the same as inviting a vampire into your house; do it once and they’ll keep coming back to feed whenever they please.

    The gay rights issue is a perfect example of this ugly habit.  In the 1990s the community was widely accepted in the west, the only right they didn’t enjoy was to have their marriages recognized nationally.  They claimed that once that right was achieved they would ask nothing more of the Christian community or the church.  And of course, that was a lie.  

    Today, gay and trans rights groups demand that all church denominations accept trans ideology and trans membership.  This includes gay and trans church leaders that teach “tolerance”, mixing activist mantras into religious lessons and supporting “trans visibility”.  Going their separate ways is not enough and lack of association is unacceptable.  Leftists require that their beliefs be adopted by everyone everywhere. 

    The Vatican under Pope Francis has been surprisingly reticent to welcome the trans movement into the fold, despite Francis being a devout globalist on more than a few hot button issues. Earlier this year the Pope called gender ideology the ‘worst danger today’, noting:

    ‘I would like to emphasize one thing: It is very important that we have this meeting, this meeting between men and women, because today the worst danger is gender ideology, which erases differences.’

    In response, LGBT activist groups are increasing their focus on pressuring the Vatican to change their public position.  Trans representatives met with the Pope this month in an 80 minute private discussion.  The group included a Catholic sister who works with LGBTQ people, a member of the transgender community, and a U.S. medical doctor who helps run a clinic providing gender-affirming hormonal care for adults.

    “I really wanted to share with Pope Francis about the joy that I have being a transgender Catholic person,” Michael Sennett, who took part in the meeting, told Reuters.

    Sennett, a transgender man (a biological woman) from Boston, said she told the pontiff about “the joy that I get from hormone replacement therapy and the surgeries that I’ve had that make me feel comfortable in my body.”  The group say they specifically urged the Pope to reconsider his opposition to gender affirming care (sex change hormones and surgeries).

    It’s not know exactly what was said during the event, but activists that met with the Pope claim he expressed an interest in appointing bishops in the US that are ‘more open’ to transgender Catholics.  Considering the idea is a violation of multiple Biblical ideals and doctrines, it’s hard to say how this would be possible. 

    As mentioned, this scenario sounds once again like the incrementalism of the progressive left.  It starts with compromises on LGBT membership, then trans ideology makes its way into the church, then it takes over the church and you end up with this disturbing result:

    Activists claim they just want to worship like other Christians do, but that’s not the trend we see in the western world.  The argument being promoted is that Christianity must “adapt to the times” and that Biblical beliefs must “evolve.”  It’s the typical futurist method of removing opposing systems that act as obstacles to their control.  The notion is that everything new is better and everything old should be abandoned.  It’s the Marxist view of religion, which does not compromise. 

    Even for those that are not religiously inclined the end game should be obvious – The inevitable erasure of Christianity.  The push for Trans affirmation by the Vatican is likely an attempt to destroy conservative ideological opposition from within while installing a new kind of religion in Christianity’s place.            

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 14:35

  • Russia's Landmark BRICS Summit And The Specter Of De-Dollarization
    Russia’s Landmark BRICS Summit And The Specter Of De-Dollarization

    Authored by Adam Morrow via The Epoch Times,

    This week saw a landmark summit of the BRICS group of nations, a nine-country economic bloc led by Moscow and Beijing, which drew representatives from 36 countries, including 22 heads of state.

    Held from Oct. 22 to 24 in the Russian city of Kazan, the event focused largely on “de-dollarization”—the idea of phasing out the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency and preferred medium of global exchange.

    “We do not reject … the dollar,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the summit. “But if we are prevented from working with it, what do we have to do? We have to search for alternatives. And this is what is happening.”

    Most Western experts, however, dismiss the idea of de-dollarization as unrealistic, if not downright impossible given the greenback’s longstanding position as the world’s standard currency for commercial transactions.

    “To build an alternative financial clearing system to accommodate transactions in rubles or yuan may be possible for BRICS members—but it’s a long shot,” Ariel Cohen, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank devoted to international affairs, told The Epoch Times.

    Ambassador Matthew Bryza, a former White House and senior State Department official, agreed.

    Bryza told The Epoch Times that the notion of de-dollarization—as espoused by Moscow and Beijing—had “no prospects for moving forward as a result of the BRICS.”

    “It’s possible the United States will overuse sanctions and leave a critical mass of countries, eventually, to want to de-dollarize the economy,” he said.

    “But whether or not to use the dollar—for now—is driven by the financial utility that most of the world sees in using the dollar,” added Bryza, who sits on the board of the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation.

    Others, however, take a different view.

    “The aim of BRICS isn’t to replace the dollar as a global currency,” Mamdouh Salameh, a UK-based global energy expert, told The Epoch Times.

    Rather, he said, it is to “create their own financial system based on a common currency for conducting transactions among themselves, thus avoiding the adverse impact of the dollar on their economies, trade, and finances.”

    According to Salameh, a former visiting professor of energy economics at ESCP Europe Business School, London, BRICS members believe the dollar “could be headed for a major devaluation—if not collapse—due to a rising national debt that reached almost $37 trillion in 2024.”

    Cohen dismissed these fears, saying the dollar’s leading position is rooted in the strength of the U.S. economy—and U.S. military power.

    “As long as the United States plays a global economic and financial role, supported by military power, people shouldn’t worry about the dollar,” he said.

    “If, however, with the continuation of the national debt increase, or military weakness, then all bets are off—especially if the United States starts to disengage from its global role,” Cohen added.

    BRICS was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining in 2010. This year, Iran, Egypt, and Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates also joined the expanding club. Saudi Arabia has been invited to join, but is not currently a member.

    As it currently stands, the nine-member bloc is said to account for between 40 and 45 percent of the world’s population and roughly one third of the global economy.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin gives a speech during a BRICS business forum in Moscow on Oct, 18, 2024. Mikhail Metzel/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

    ‘Weaponizing’ the Dollar

    Under the Bretton Woods system, the U.S. dollar became the world’s go-to medium for commercial exchange in the aftermath of the Second World War.

    BRICS seeks to challenge the dollar’s leading position by reducing its use in financial transactions in favor of the national currencies of its member-states.

    Speaking at the summit, Putin said that some 95 percent of all trade between Russia and China is now transacted in rubles and Chinese yuan.

    Addressing participants on Oct. 24, he said that the Bretton Woods system had served to ensure the dollar’s supremacy in the post-war global order.

    “At that time, the stability of the dollar was ensured … by its linkage to gold,” he said, adding that this linkage was broken in the 1970s, when the dollar was taken off the gold standard.

    “Now, the only guarantee of the stability of this world currency [i.e., the dollar] is the stability of one economy: the U.S. economy,” Putin said.

    Some BRICS members view de-dollarization as a means of protecting themselves from U.S.-led sanctions, which have discomfited Russia for the past 10 years.

    A joint declaration issued in Kazan decried the “disruptive effect of unlawful unilateral coercive measures, including illegal sanctions, on the world economy [and] international trade.”

    Addressing the summit on Oct. 23, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, whose country has long been the target of U.S. sanctions, accused the United States of “using the dollar as a weapon … to control other nations.”

    But according to Bryza, just how de-dollarization would insulate BRICS states from possible sanctions would “depend on how many countries join the ‘de-dollarized’ currency union.”

    “It doesn’t matter if Russia and other BRICS countries come up with a way to conduct their trade based on something other than the dollar,” he said, “as long as the rest of the world continues using the dollar.”

    “And the rest of the world doesn’t want to risk being subject to U.S. sanctions, or be banned from using the U.S. financial system,” Bryza said.

    The U.S. Treasury Department in Washington on Oct. 3, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

    Bypassing SWIFT

    The notion of de-dollarization also involves the creation of alternative methods of cross-border payment so as to achieve independence from Western systems.

    Currently, the primary system for international payments is the Belgium-based SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), which was set up in 1973.

    Because the U.S. Treasury Department has considerable oversight over SWIFT, Russia, along with other BRICS states, claim the system has been “weaponized” by Washington and its allies.

    Therefore, BRICS states hope to create an alternative system, which would—theoretically—insulate its members from the threat of U.S.-led sanctions.

    The joint declaration issued in Kazan calls for “more efficient, transparent, safe, and inclusive cross-border payment instruments built upon the principle of minimizing trade barriers and non-discriminatory access.”

    Ferit Temur, a Turkish political analyst specialized in Russian affairs, noted that Russia has already launched its own “Mir” payment system, although this has met with limited success.

    “But whether the Mir system—or another system—is developed, it isn’t a realistic goal for BRICS countries to quickly eliminate SWIFT,” Temur told The Epoch Times.

    “This is due to the SWIFT system’s high rate of use, both among BRICS states and in trade with the rest of the world,” he said.

    Nevertheless, de-dollarization—as envisioned by Moscow and Beijing—“may find a response in a significant part of the world over the next 10 to 15 years,” he said.

    According to Bryza, an alternative system has “zero prospect of succeeding, because SWIFT works great—as long as you don’t invade another country.”

    “Russia’s political ambitions won’t ever be able to overcome the enormous financial and economic benefit the SWIFT system provides,” he said.

    “They can try to de-dollarize all they want,” Bryza said. “But until the entire world has a de-dollarized economy, this won’t have much of an impact at all on insulating these countries from sanctions.”

    Salemeh, by contrast, described de-dollarization as a “very realistic approach” to the economic problems facing certain BRICS states.

    BRICS members, he said, want to protect their economies from “the weaponization of the dollar, U.S. sanctions, and the dollar’s fast-declining purchasing power.”

    “They are further encouraged by central banks reducing their dollar holdings and buying gold because of the lack of confidence in the dollar,” Salemeh added.

    Cohen conceded that a rival, de-dollarized system “may be a possibility,” going on to assert that such a move would “make sanctions enforcement more difficult.”

    “However,” he said, “it won’t make the dollar obsolete.”

    Cohen said Russia is “taking the lead” on the de-dollarization scheme, “but the country that can really pull it off—in terms of the size of its economy—is China.”

    Wesley Alexander Hill, lead analyst and international program manager for energy, growth, and security at the International Tax and Investment Center, described all the talk about de-dollarization as “totally overblown.”

    Russia and China, he said, are both fully aware that “the systems they have set up cannot compete with the dollar.”

    “China does have the theoretical capacity to challenge the dollar in the global financial system,” Hill told The Epoch Times. “But this is an extremely long-term project—the work of 20 to 30 years.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 14:00

  • GEOINT Data Shows Israel Hit Iran's Former Nuke Weapons Test Building, Missile Production Facility
    GEOINT Data Shows Israel Hit Iran’s Former Nuke Weapons Test Building, Missile Production Facility

    On Friday evening, Israel Defense Forces launched three waves of fighter jets targeting high-value military assets in Iran. IDF officials described the operation as retaliation for “months of relentless attacks” orchestrated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Israel and regional allies. No videos or images of the Israeli strikes were published online, but as of Saturday evening, geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) data revealed a former nuclear weapons building and missile sites were targeted. 

    David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector, and Decker Eveleth, an associate research analyst at CNA, a Washington-based think tank, used commercial satellite imagery in separate assessments about the effectiveness of Israeli strikes.

    They told Reuters that IDF fighter jets hit Iran’s Parchin military base with missiles and bombs. This site is where the International Atomic Energy Agency suspects IRGC to have previously performed tests of high explosives that could trigger a nuclear explosion.

    Nearby Khojir military base was also hit by missiles and bombs. Some analysts believe an underground tunnel system and missile production site lie beneath this military base. 

    Eveleth pointed out that IDF’s strike may have “significantly hampered Iran’s ability to mass produce missiles,” adding satellite imagery data from commercial satellite firm Planet Labs showed IDF jets hit three ballistic missile solid fuel mixing buildings and a warehouse at Khojir. 

    Here’s more Reuters:

    The buildings were enclosed by high dirt berms, according to the image reviewed by Reuters. Such structures are associated with missile production and are designed to stop a blast in one building from detonating combustible materials in nearby structures.

    “Israel says they targeted buildings housing solid-fuel mixers,” Eveleth said. “These industrial mixers are hard to make and export-controlled. Iran imported many over the years at great expense, and will likely have a hard time replacing them.”

    With a limited operation, he said, Israel may have struck a significant blow against Iran’s ability to mass-produce missiles and made it more difficult for any future Iranian missile attack to pierce Israel’s missile defenses.

    “The strikes appear to be highly accurate,” he said.

    On X, Eveleth posted satellite imagery of the damage at Khojir and Parchi…

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    In our view, this is likely the first round of IDF strikes on Iran to paralyze the IRGC’s command and control center. The leaked US intel of IDF preparations indeed delayed the operation – and perhaps the leaker was trying to postpone the fireworks until after the US presidential elections. Additional strikes on Iran could potentially target IRGC’s financial network and ability to export crude to China. 

    In markets, the geopolitical risk premium for Brent crude has faded recently as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken runs around the Middle East to ensure World War III does not occur before the US presidential elections in early November.

    But maybe after the elections… the fireworks fly. And this would mean Brent crude prices move much higher.

    Before the IDF strike on Iran on Friday, the US offered a defense guarantee to Saudis.

    This is likely because the Abqaiq refinery (the largest crude oil stabilization plant in the world) – is likely in the crosshairs of potential future IRGC missile and drone attacks.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 13:25

  • Former Vatican Ambassador Calls Kamala "An Infernal Monster Who Obeys Satan"
    Former Vatican Ambassador Calls Kamala “An Infernal Monster Who Obeys Satan”

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

    Former Vatican Roman Catholic Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò endorsed Donald Trump for president this week, urging that Kamala Harris represents “an anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, and anti-human vision of society.”

    Viganò, who was the Vatican’s ambassador to the US from 2011 to 2016, writes in a letter to Catholics “The choice is between a conservative President, who is paying with his very life for his fight against the deep state, and an infernal monster who obeys Satan.”

    “For a Catholic, there can be no question: voting for Kamala Harris is morally inadmissible and constitutes a very grave sin. Nor is it morally possible to abstain, because in this war declaring oneself neutral means allying oneself with the enemy,” he further asserts.

    A vote for Trump “means firmly distancing ourselves from an anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, and anti-human vision of society,” Viganò continues, adding “It means stopping those who want to create a hellish dystopia that is even worse than the one announced by George Orwell.”

    Viganò urges that Trump is “the only possible choice to counter the globalist coup that the woke Left is about to implement definitively, irreparably, and with incalculable damage for future generations.”

    The former archbishop further describes Harris as a George Soros “puppet,” who is controlled directly by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

    Viganò was excommunicated from the Catholic Church in July after repeatedly voicing opposition to the current Pope and modern changes made to the Roman Catholic Church.

    He was extremely outspoken in opposing COVID vaccines, charging that public health authorities were conducting “experimentation on the entire world population,” and slamming the Catholic church for going along with it.

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    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 12:50

  • Japan's Ruling Coalition To Lose Majority For First Time Since 2009: What Happens Next And How Will Markets React
    Japan’s Ruling Coalition To Lose Majority For First Time Since 2009: What Happens Next And How Will Markets React

    In a surprising turn of events, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner are set to lose their majority in Sunday’s election, according to a forecast from public broadcaster NHK, raising questions about the future of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

    Amid voter discontent over a slush-fund scandal, not to mention Japan’s worst runaway inflation in generations, the LDP and Komeito appear likely to fall short of the 233 seats needed for a majority in the lower house of parliament, NHK forecasts. Ishiba had aimed to secure a majority with his coalition partner, recognizing that the LDP would not retain the 247 seats it held before the election.

    Falling short of that goal would mark the first time the LDP has lost a coalition majority in an election since 2009.

    Public support for the LDP nosedived after the revelations last year that party members were secretly enriching themselves with funds from supporters, similar to what politicians do everywhere else around the world and especially in the US. As a result, nearly every poll before the election suggested the LDP would lose seats and possibly its majority with Komeito because of the scandal.

    “We couldn’t dispel public anger over the political funds issue,” Ishiba said Sunday. When asked if he would consider forming a coalition with other parties, he said no decisions had been made, but added that he was willing to cooperate with others if policies align.

    The early vote count shows the LDP and Komeito with a combined 145 seats, according to NHK. The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan has 112 seats, the broadcaster said.  CDP leader Yoshihiko Noda said he would seek to take over the government if the coalition loses its majority.

    “If the LDP does indeed lose its majority powers, this could create a quagmire regarding the legislative process — a scenario which may not bode well for the yen and the Nikkei, at least in the short term,” said Tim Waterer, Sydney-based chief market analyst at KCM Trade.

    Shinjiro Koizumi at the Liberal Democratic Party’s headquarters on Oct. 27.

    What does this mean for Japan’s markets?

    Below we share some preliminary thoughts from Goldman Japan FICC trader Ippei Yamaura, who writes that “the bottom line is negative for Japan equities” and while “positioning looks good, investors are too optimistic for helps from DPP and/or Ishin.”

    Estimated result

    Here is the estimated range of each party as of now(9:40pm JST). Several news sources say LDP+Komei fail to keep majority(233 seats or more).

    What is the expected price action?

    In Yamaura’s view, the Nikkei will drop on Monday and end down 2% or so, less than option market indicated as of last Friday. This is because investors are somewhat prepared for this scenario. However, the selloff will continue for a week or so as investors realize that it will be difficult for LDP to get support from DPP and/or Ishin. 

    Is this surprising?

    The outcome is not a big surprise but was not fully priced in. After Asahi (highly reputed poll conductor for general elections) reported the chance of LDP+Komei to lose majority, market started to price in it through selling equities. NKY option market looked pricing roughly 3-4% move on tomorrow as of last Friday. Assuming investors looked at 5% selloff in NKY in the scenario of LDP+Kome failure, market might price 60-80% chance of this result. From this point, the option market was well prepared but (as you know,) options are just one aspect of investors’ view. Experts(including Goldman’s political analyst) saw around 50% chance of this scenario. For these investors, this result should be a surprise.

    What was the expected implication and how much was priced in as of last Friday?

    1. LDP would keep simple majority(233+)=5%. In this scenario, the expected market move would be equities to go higher, yen to strengthen.
    2. LDP+Komei would keep majority(233+) = 35%. In this scenario, the expected market move would be equities to go higher and JPY to go stable.
    3. LDP+Komei would fail to keep majority = 60%. In this scenario, the expected market move would be equities to go lower and JPY to weaken as LDP may need support from Ishin or CDP, both of which favor easy monetary policy.

    So it means #3 scenario is realized although more investors might see it as main scenario. 

    What will happen now?

    Prime minister Ishiba must hold a special diet session by Nov 26 and appoint the prime minister. The new prime minister will need to get nomination from both upper house and lower house. And if there is conflict between upper house and lower house, lower house nomination will be prioritized. Upper house nomination is not an issue as LDP+Komei have majority. But as they lose their majority in the lower house, without cooperation from some lower house members outside of LDP+Komei, they cannot nominate the new prime minister. Ishiba may now try to get support (with early Nov the likely limit). Here are some options.

    1. Re-endorse LDP members who couldn’t get endorsement from LDP due to money scandals.

    This is the most probable scenario. But there are 2 problems. First, there may not enough numbers of members this time. As of now, it is expected that only 4 members out of 10 non-endorsed members will be back to parliament. 4 is not enough to cover such a big loss. Second, it is unclear if the abused members will help Ishiba. Some LDP members, especially right wing members, already complained about Ishiba and cabinet during campaign period. According to Goldman, “there may be big dissatisfactions.”

    2. Try to get support from CDP and/or Ishin

    DPP and Ishin have some similarities like defense policies etc. As #1 is not effective option anymore, Ishiba may try to pursue this option by forming a cabinet together. It looks like majority of investors are optimistic about this option. However, it’s worth highlighting that the leader of both DPP and Ishin denied this option in advance. Of course, this can be a political bluff. But experts believe it is not. The reason is upper house election which will be held on July 25, 2025. Experts think if DPP and Ishin joined cabinet now, they would soon lose popularity as majority of voters for them expected they would fight with LDP.

    What will happen if LDP+Komei cannot get help from anybody?

    Ishiba may be forced to form “Minority government”. It means he would need to manage a cabinet without support from parliament. In order to get nomination from lower house, he may need to do many concession and get support from some opposition parties. As many of the majority parties’ policies are not market friendly, this can possibly affect market negatively. Opposition parties may change their stance policy by policy. It means Ishiba and LDP cannot implement their policies as they stand.

    What are other things to watch?

    The supplemental budget should be a big focus. Ishiba previously said he would form a supplemental budget of JPY13 trillion or more (although he previously denied such a big fiscal expenditure). LDP may want to form as big budget (including cash distribution to lower income people) as possible to recover popularity. But opposition parties may try to limit it. Usually, Japanese equities favor a bigger budget (as do all equities, everywhere). So closely watch what opposition parties say on this. Generally speaking, at least the DPP is supportive of fiscal expansion.

    Tax is also a key focus too. Ishiba is generally supportive of raising taxes. However, after such a big loss, there may be big opposition for further tax hikes. DPP is said to be supportive for fiscal expansion. It means raising tax (especially income tax) is less likely now (Except for financial income tax).

    What does the positioning look like now?

    Overall positive.

    CTAs=Flat to slightly negative. 

    CTAs have already re-built longs for Japan equities. Goldman’s strats team expects CTA to sell again if the market goes lower. But also worth noting that positions for Japan equities is less than its peak. 

    Long/Short=flat

    Our PB data suggests net allocation for Japan equities remain low despite big fluctuation of China market. Long/Short investors have not come back yet since the big selloff in early Aug.

    Long onlys = Positive

    As Japanese equities went lower with weakening yen, the asset is the worst performance in major assets MTD. Yamaura  expects some investors may need to buy Japan equities into month end to keep the same level of exposure.

    Retail = Not bad

    If you look at margin data, retail position has not been fully back yet since Aug selloff. They may have some room to buy on dip.

    To summarize Goldman’s view: Monday’s selloff will be milder than the option market indicated, but the selloff will not be limited to just 1 day.

    More in the full Goldman note available to pro subs.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 12:15

  • Americans Are More Dependent Than Ever On Government Handouts, New Report States
    Americans Are More Dependent Than Ever On Government Handouts, New Report States

    Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times,

    Payments from the government have become the fastest-growing source of income for Americans, according to a new study.

    A report by the Economic Innovation Group (EIG), a public policy research organization, titled “The Great Transfer-mation,” states that Americans have become substantially more dependent on government support, with the share of national income coming from transfer payments more than doubling over the past 50 years.

    Transfer payment programs include Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment and disability, food stamps, and veterans’ benefits.

    Transfer payments increased from 8 percent of U.S. total income in 1970 to 18 percent today, the report states, crowding out private income from wages and investments.

    “There is a large range of experiences driving transfer reliance across communities,” Benjamin Glasner, EIG economist and one of the report’s authors, told The Epoch Times. “But it’s unavoidable to look at the fact that transfer reliance has grown rapidly across the country, and it’s something we need to deal with.”

    According to Federal Reserve data, government transfer payments increased from about $70 billion in 1970 to more than $6 trillion in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, before falling back to the current level of $4.3 trillion. According to the EIG report, if government transfer payments were spread evenly among all Americans, they would have amounted to an annual payment of $11,500 per person in 2022.

    One factor driving much of the shift from private income to government dependence is that the U.S. population is, on average, getting older. According to demographic data from USAfacts, the percentage of Americans 65 years and older increased from 13.1 percent of the population in 2010 to 17.3 percent in 2022. During the same period, the percentage of Americans under the age of 20 fell from 26.9 percent to 24.4 percent.

    “The primary driver that we found in our report is demographic related, specifically the fact that the country has aged so rapidly,” Glasner said. “And the transfer programs that target that aging population also have grown significantly more expensive over time.”

    Of all government assistance payments in 2022, 56 percent went to the elderly, mostly for Medicare, the EIG report stated. Health care costs were a major factor, both because more Americans qualified for Medicare and Medicaid, and because the cost of medical treatment rose significantly.

    According to data compiled by Peterson-KFF, a health care policy analytics organization, total health spending in the United States was $74.1 billion in 1970. By 2022 total health spending was $4.5 trillion, indicating an exponential increase in medical costs per capita.

    Public Finances Under Strain

    The growth in transfer payments have taken their toll on state and federal budgets.

    The 2024 Pension Solvency and Performance Report, authored by Ryan Frost and Mariana Trujillo for Reason Foundation’s Pension Integrity Project, stated that public pensions are increasingly falling behind on their ability to pay.

    As of 2023, the authors state, total unfunded public pension liabilities across the United States hit $1.59 trillion, and the median funded ratio was 76 percent. The U.S. federal deficit is currently $1.8 trillion, and interest payments on U.S. government debt increased from $31 billion in 1970 to more than $1 trillion today.

    In addition, some analysts say that this growing dependence on government comes at the cost of personal autonomy and responsibility.

    “The surge in transfer payments during the past 50 years is just one manifestation of the trend to politicize and tangle up all aspects of Americans’ lives with the government,” Steve Hanke, professor of Applied Economics at Johns Hopkins University and a member of the board of directors of the Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation, told The Epoch Times. “It results because of politicians’ inevitable attraction to buy votes by promising ‘free lunches,’ and the fact that politicians don’t face statutory or constitutional spending constraints.”

    To illustrate the extent of the shift to government dependence, EIG created maps showing the percentage of income that came from transfer payments, broken down by county, over time.

    In 1970, only about 1 percent of all U.S. counties reported that government transfers made up more than 25 percent of total income in their county; by 2022, more than half of U.S. counties reported dependence at that level.

    Transfer payments as a percent of total income, by county, in 1970; 15 percent or more in green; 25 percent or more in yellow. Source: Economic Innovation Group

    Government transfer payments as a percent of total income, by county, in 2022; 15 percent or more in green; 25 percent or more in yellow. Source: Economic Innovation Group

    Aging, Shrinking Populations

    While the reasons for this dependence varied from region to region, aging populations, and outward migration were common themes, particularly in rural counties. Often, young people leave small towns for better jobs in cities, and this both increases the percentage of retired people and decreases the number of people earning private wages in rural areas.

    In addition, as societies industrialize, people migrate from farms to cities, and women enter the labor force in larger numbers, and fertility rates fall. While this trend has been observed over the past several decades throughout the world, the United States has been experiencing this trend for two centuries.

    In 1825, the average woman in America gave birth to more than six children, according to Statista, a data collection firm. As the United States industrialized and urbanized, the birth rate declined, hitting a low of two children per woman in 1940 before rebounding to 3.58 children in 1960, during the “baby boom” generation.

    The minimum fertility rate to sustain a population is 2.1 children per woman. The United States dipped below this rate in 1973 and has remained below replacement level ever since, according to data from Macrotrends. While U.S. fertility rates increased marginally through 2008, they have since fallen back to the current rate of about 1.8 children per woman.

    While countries such as Japan have seen their populations fall due to low fertility, the United States has experienced continuous population growth. But this is largely due to immigration rather than native-born Americans having children.

    The Congressional Budget Office projects that, without immigration, America’s population will begin to shrink, starting in 2040.

    Economic Security Versus Prosperity

    The increasing dependence on the government for income raises the issue of how the United States can balance economic security for its dependents against overall economic growth and prosperity.

    “The increased politicization of life will put a damper on economic prosperity,” Hanke said. “For every dollar taken out of one taxpayer’s pocket and put into another’s, there is a cost, an excess burden.

    “This burden is the result of distortions thrown into the economy by imposing a tax, and the administrative costs of levying the tax and of running the government’s transfer payments system,” he said.

    Arthur Laffer, a noted economist who specializes in tax policy, wrote in his 2023 book, “Taxes Have Consequences,” that raising taxes much beyond current levels will choke off economic growth, thus reducing the tax base.

    “The more you redistribute, the greater will be the drop in total income,” Laffer said in a 2023 interview with The Epoch Times.

    Consequently, governments are increasingly caught between a rock and a hard place regarding how to pay for social programs.

    Interest payments on America’s federal debt are currently the third largest budget item, after Social Security and non-defense discretionary spending, and exceeding Medicare and military spending, an August 2024 report by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation states based on Congressional Budget Office projections published in June.

    Treasury data for the fiscal year 2024, running Oct. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, show that interest expense was $896 billion.

    According to projections from the Congressional Budget Office, interest payments on the federal debt will double as a percentage of GDP by 2054 and will become the largest single item in the federal budget by 2051.

    Potential Solutions

    According to Glasner, there are three options for governments to continue providing transfer payments. The first is cutting benefits, but that appears to be politically untenable, and neither Democrats nor Republicans have expressed any intention to do so.

    The second is raising taxes, he said, “but there’s some risk to that, because overdoing increases in taxation can potentially cut off sources of economic growth, undercutting our actual capacity to deal with this.”

    The third and most viable option, Glasner argues, is to increase economic growth and private income. Among the ways to do this, he says, are “investments in research and innovation, better-designed immigration policy, and tax and regulatory policies that foster economic dynamism and increased participation in the workforce.”

    Although America’s financial situation may appear dire, a September report from the Manhattan Institute titled “America’s Surprisingly Effective Welfare State,” argues that the United States is in better shape than many other Western nations.

    While Europe’s social programs provide support payments regardless of need, America’s transfer systems are more selective and thus less costly while delivering more money to the poorest.

    “Europe’s welfare states are dominated by costly publicly funded ‘social insurance’ programs, which attempt to fully support middle-class lifestyles through periods of unemployment, ill health, disability, or retirement,” the report states. “By contrast, American public entitlement programs are more focused on providing a safety net against poverty, and they more strictly limit eligibility for cash and health care benefits to those who are unable to work.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/27/2024 – 11:40

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Oct 27

Today’s News 27th October 2024

  • The Atlantic Council Has Big Plans For A War Between The US And Iran
    The Atlantic Council Has Big Plans For A War Between The US And Iran

    Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

    Globalists as an organized entity have a habit of shifting their efforts between various false-front institutions in order to avoid significant scrutiny. For example, in 2020 they ramped up the fear machine on the covid pandemic and the World Economic Forum took a lead role in that effort. Klaus Schwab was all over the media using covid as an excuse to promote every authoritarian measure imaginable.

    When that agenda failed (lockdowns blocked, mask mandates ignored, vaccine passports defeated and the CDC caught inflating vaccination numbers), the WEF and Klaus Schwab conveniently disappeared from the media radar.

    When globalists tried to permanently establish ESG as a way of life for corporations, they introduced the Council For Inclusive Capitalism, run by Lynn de Rothschild and partnered with the Vatican. When ESG was exposed for what it really is (a bridge to full bore communism in which corporations enforce far left social engineering), the CIC vanished from the limelight as quickly as they appeared.

    That said, there is one globalist group that has consistently been in the background during most of these operations – The Atlantic Council. Whenever there’s a propaganda push in play to misdirect the western public, whenever there’s a policy initiative to take away your freedoms, whenever there’s a regional war that might explode into a world war, I always end up finding the fingerprints of the Atlantic Council.

    The council was deeply involved in covid propaganda from 2020 onward and they also have their hands in climate change propaganda, but their bread and butter is regional proxy wars.

    In my recent article ‘Globalists Are Trying To Escalate The Ukraine War Into WWIII Before The US Election’, I outlined how the council is deeply interwoven into the escalation of the Ukraine war through their Eurasia Center and their Scowcroft Center. They have been stoking conflict in the region for at least a decade with the intention of drawing NATO forces into a direct confrontation with Russia.

    In a report published by the Atlantic Council in 2014 titled ‘A Roadmap for Ukraine: Delivering on the Promise of the Maidan’, the group notes:

    “Last fall, as Ukrainians massed on the Maidan to demand a better government and closer ties to Europe, the Atlantic Council began to mobilize on Ukraine. An Atlantic Council delegation visited Warsaw and Kyiv in March to map out our strategy, and during the visit of Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to the Council that same month, we launched a one hundred- day campaign to galvanize the transatlantic community behind Ukraine’s democratic future in Europe.

    As the crisis worsened, we convened at the highest levels, making vital connections between Ukrainian, American, and European policymakers and thought leaders. We deployed our substantial expertise to launch “red team” exercises that anticipated Russia’s actions and outlined strategies to respond to likely scenarios. Our rapid response working groups (“tiger teams”) made recommendations on issues fundamental to Ukraine’s success. An Atlantic Council delegation delivered this report, which brings all of these findings together, to Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and other leaders in Kyiv the first week of July. The findings are also being shared with American and European policymakers…”

    On Ukraine’s security policy, the Council advised both NATO and Ukraine officials.  The document goes on to outline how NATO could covertly and overtly engage with Ukraine to strengthen their chances of joining with the EU over time; a move which Vladimir Putin claims was one of the very reasons for his invasion of the Donbas.  Finally, the paper described how NATO could foster a proxy war against Russia through Ukraine without directly declaring war on Russia.  As the Council states:

    “Russia’s aggression provides an opportunity of strategic clarity and urgency that should be used to expedite building a robust, modern, and capable Ukrainian defense and security establishment…”

    I believe the Atlantic Council is a root instigator behind every globalist scheme to trigger a larger war between the East and the West. Their ideal scenario seems to be the creation of a proxy conflict that acts as a first domino in a chain that leads to world war, a bit like DARPA’s “Linchpin Theory” which I have written about in the past.

    To be clear, the council is not only interested in Ukraine and Russia. They’re happy to embroil Americans in a larger war wherever they can.

    This past week, the Atlantic Council has published another war scenario report dealing with Iran titled ‘The Future of US Strategy Toward Iran: A Bipartisan Roadmap For The Next Administration’. The goal of the report is to influence a new defense doctrine with a mission to insert the US directly in the middle of the burgeoning war between Iran and Israel.

    As the report states:

    “In simple terms, the goal was to develop a US policy toward Iran, not a Democratic or Republican one. We termed the effort the Iran Strategy Project (ISP). And when we began recruiting experts to join our advisory committee and working group, we did so with two overriding principles in mind. First, ideological diversity and bipartisanship could not just be talking points—they were requirements. The wild swings of US policy toward Iran over the last decade created significant policy gaps that Iran exploited to more rapidly advance its regional malign influence and nuclear program…”

    The assumption in the notion of a “bipartisan” posture on Iran is that there is common ground to be harvested between conservatives and leftists when it comes to war in the region. To be sure, the Democrats and the Neo-Cons are in full agreement on most things.  But Neo-Cons are not conservatives and the political base on both sides of the aisle has little interest in another war in the Middle East.

    The wild card here is Trump. The establishment media reports that Iran hacked the Trump campaign’s election strategies and gave them to the Harris camp. There are also rumors spread by US intelligence agencies that Iran was working to have Trump assassinated.  Are these claims true? There’s little public evidence available to prove it.

    Maybe Iran really wants to take Trump down. Or, maybe this is part of a plot to ensure that Trump backs a full blown war with Iran should he win the election.  Trump has said repeatedly that he intends to end the war in Ukraine upon his return to the White House. This would ruin over a decade of planning by the Atlantic Council. But what if they can sink the US into a different conflict with the same potential for a world war? That’s what Iran is – Another linchpin.

    The council asserts that they will seek to tie the US inexorably to the fate of Israel by positioning a permanent American military force in the region:

    “Deterring the threat posed by Iran and its proxies requires a multifaceted approach that includes maintaining an adequate military presence in the region and a willingness to respond with appropriate force to attacks on US interests and those of US allies; working with allies to enhance cooperation on regional security; collaborating with partners on ways to reduce conflicts and instability that create openings for Iran to exploit; and expanding security cooperation beyond traditional realms.”

    They also want the US to create its own red line declaration; if Iran obtains nukes, then Iran must be destroyed (keep in mind, it is confirmed that Israel already has its own nuclear arsenal).

    “The United States needs to maintain a declaratory policy, explicitly enunciated by the president, that it will not tolerate Iran getting a nuclear weapon and will use military force to prevent this development if all other measures fail. To support this policy, the United States should refrain from stressing that it does not seek conflict with Iran; announce that it will conduct yearly joint exercises with Israel, such as Juniper Oak.”

    Juniper Oak was a joint live fire war exercise organized by US and Israeli defense forces in 2023 which is viewed as a theoretical trial run for an attack on Iran. War between Iran and the US has been a sought after outcome for globalists for a long time, but it seems to me that they are particularly interested in roping Trump into the agenda.  The following statement from the Atlantic Council report is highly suspicious:

    “Because assassination plots against current or former US officials are a direct threat to US sovereignty, and in order to enhance deterrence, the United States needs to consider a standing policy of a kinetic military response against Iran in retaliation for a successful—or even close to successful—plot…”

    This seems to be a direct reference or message to Trump concerning the rumors of Iran contracting his death. Given there have been at least two assassination attempts on Trump so far, I would not be surprised if after he wins the election new information is suddenly released linking Iran to at least one attack.  I would also expect a major terror attack in the US within the next year (real or false flag).

    This is not to say that Trump wants war; I can’t make that claim one way or the other yet.  To his credit he was one of the few presidents that avoided the expansion of US conflicts during his first term. But as I warned back in 2016, he had a LOT of ghouls in his cabinet whispering in his ear. Keeping the Atlantic Council (among others) away from the Oval Office and Trump should be a priority in 2025.

    The council appears to be positioning for a war under either administration – A war with Russia under Harris or a war with Iran under Trump.  I’m not a fan of Islamic fundamentalism, but a conflict between the US and Iran is exactly what the globalists want because it can easily metastasize like a cancer.

    The council notes that there are already 40,000 US troops spread across the Middle East, and that this force could be reorganized into a contingent for rapid response to Iran, along with new troops added over time. Of course, they acknowledge that Iran’s situation has changed over the years, with far closer strategic associations with China and Russia:

    “This requires recognition that Iran’s relationship with Russia and China has evolved in a manner that makes it difficult to convince either country to support new economic or military restrictions against Iran…”

    In other words, the council understands that a war with Iran could escalate into a larger conflict with Russia and perhaps China.

    The fight between Israel and multiple nations in the Middle East does not concern me. I have no stake in the success of either side. I’m an American and I care about America, but there are powerful people out there that WANT us to become invested in foreign wars. They want us to pick a side and they want us to cheer for American troops being sent to fight and die over these foreign conflagrations.

    The greater concern here is that one day these proxy wars and regional wars will explode into something that lands on our doorstep. In the past Americans have been lured into apathy when it comes to foreign entanglements because we never have to deal with them in our daily lives. They’ve always been out of sight and out of mind. In the next war, we may not have that luxury.

    *  *  *

    If you would like to support the work that Alt-Market does while also receiving content on advanced tactics for defeating the globalist agenda, subscribe to our exclusive newsletter The Wild Bunch Dispatch.  Learn more about it HERE.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 23:20

  • US Intelligence Says China Leading 'Rapid Expansion' Of Nuclear Arsenal
    US Intelligence Says China Leading ‘Rapid Expansion’ Of Nuclear Arsenal

    On Wednesday the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) issued a new public intelligence estimate entitled “Nuclear Challenges 2024”. 

    The detailed 194-page document includes an overview of chief nuclear-armed powers and rivals of the United States, focusing especially on countries with “mature nuclear weapons programs” which are said to be “increasing stockpiles” or else “modernizing their legacy stockpiles by incorporating advanced technologies to penetrate or avoid missile defense systems” – such as North Korea.

    Xinhua via Getty Images

    “Countries are also developing nuclear weapons with smaller yields, improved precision, and increased range for military or coercive use,” the DIA says.

    One nation’s program is gaining the most attention as a result of the DIA report, and that’s China. The intelligence agency assesses the country under President Xi is undergoing a huge and rapid expanse of its nuclear arsenal, which is the biggest in its history, assuming the projection is accurate. 

    The “Nuclear Challenges 2024” assesses that China is on track to possess more than 1,000 operational nuclear warheads by 2030.

    The report contextualizes that this accelerated growth is being drive primarily by China’s strategic competition with the Untied States.

    Below is a section providing the DIA’s bird’s eye view summary of China’s nuclear arsenal plans and expansion:

    China. Beijing has far surpassed earlier growth estimates assessed in 2018, and is currently exceeding 500 deliverable nuclear warheads in its stockpile. By 2030, we estimate that China will have more than 1,000 operational nuclear warheads— most of which will be fielded on systems capable of ranging the continental United States. China probably also seeks lower-yield nuclear warhead capabilities to provide proportional response options that its high-yield warheads cannot deliver. For example, China is increasing its stockpile of theater-range delivery systems, such as the DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM).

    Below is a current snapshot of the global nuclear stockpile situation, as it stood by middle of this year…

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    As Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, currently, there are estimated to be 9,585 nuclear warheads in military stockpiles for potential use across nine countries, with Russia and the U.S. accounting for 8,088 of these.

    There are also an estimated 2,536 retired warheads that are yet to be dismantled. China has added 90 nuclear warheads to its arsenal since January 2023, increasing from 410 warheads to 500.

    This is according to data from the peace research institute SIPRI. India and North Korea have also expanded their arsenals, bringing their total figures to an estimated 170 warheads and 50 warheads, respectively.

    The two European nuclear powers, France and the UK, together have 515 operational nuclear warheads. With the exception of North Korea, none of the nations in possession of nuclear warheads have tested them since the 1990s.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 22:45

  • The Green New Scam Is Dying
    The Green New Scam Is Dying

    Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

    It’s no secret that the vast majority of the so-called elites are advocates of climate alarmism and are taken in by the Green New Scam.

    Whether this preference is based on ignorance of the science, ideological zeal, a willful desire to hurt American growth or simple greed because of their investments in Green New Scam infrastructure varies case by case.

    The typical upper-income supporter of the climate cult including academics, media figures and celebrities is probably ignorant of the fact that there is no evidence that CO2 emissions cause climate change and that the real causes are solar cycles, volcanoes, ocean currents and atmospheric moisture not caused by humans.

    Climate Alarmists Have It Backward

    The historical record actually demonstrates that warming periods produce higher CO2 levels — not the other way around. CO2 doesn’t cause warming. It’s caused by natural warming.

    In other words, climate alarmists have causation completely backward.

    Climate alarmism is based almost entirely on computer models, which depend on the inputs the modelers themselves build into them. A model is only as good as the inputs and assumptions programmed into it.

    Virtually every one of these models has overestimated warming, sometimes by orders of magnitude, because it’s based on faulty assumptions that overestimate the impact of CO2 on climate.

    In other words, it’s junk science. But they keep relying on these models because their political agenda requires it.

    Climate: The New Communism

    There’s no doubt that a fair number of neo-Marxists embrace the climate scam because they know it damages U.S. industry, raises costs to U.S. consumers and helps to undermine the U.S. economy.

    Following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of communism, anti-capitalistic collectivists admitted that they needed to promote the climate agenda because the only way to combat global warming is through collective action. It requires a coordinated global effort that limits national sovereignty.

    The neo-Marxists are impervious to evidence; they just want to hurt America and wasting money on windmills instead of building new refineries is a good way to do it. That leaves the greed crowd.

    The Real “Green” in the Green Agenda

    They’re early investors in windmills, solar modules, lithium car batteries, EVs, charging stations, carbon credits and other infrastructure of the climate scam. They stand to make billions of dollars off the narrative with help from extravagant government subsidies.

    They don’t really care if it all collapses in the end (which it will) as long as they get rich at taxpayer expense in the meantime. All of this behavior is clear as far as it goes. What is not clear is the extent to which the Green New Scammers are doing this with your money.

    The best example is multibillionaire Larry Fink, who runs the giant BlackRock investment fund. Fink has been aggressive in promoting the climate scam along with racial quotas, DEI and defunding police.

    He’s entitled to his opinions. But is he entitled to pursue his radical agenda with pension fund money from conservative states and institutions? Fortunately, a backlash has begun against Fink and his fellow wokesters.

    More state pension fund managers are beginning to pull their funds from BlackRock and other investment managers that pursue far-left policies not in the best interests of their beneficiaries. This backlash may not change Larry Fink’s lifestyle. But over time, it might change the world for the better.

    The EV Sham

    A major part of the climate agenda includes electric vehicles (EVs). I’ve been warning for years that EVs aren’t feasible as a transportation solution for more than relatively few Americans and that they are little more than glorified golf carts despite the $70,000-and-up price tags.

    In the first place, EVs don’t cut carbon emissions. The car itself does not have emissions, but it’s charged with electricity from power plants that do.

    The batteries are made with poisonous chemicals and metals including lithium, cobalt, copper and nickel that come from mining operations that use enormous amounts of water and electricity to extract the needed materials.

    It takes thousands of tons of ore to extract enough critical minerals to make one battery. EVs don’t take a charge in extreme cold, and the batteries can’t hold a charge. Travel range is grossly overstated for many reasons, including the fact that EV car heaters drain the batteries (with internal-combustion engines, ICEs, the engine makes heat which can easily be directed into the car to keep passengers comfortable with no additional energy required).

    Resale values of EVs are close to zero because buyers of used EVs have to shell out $25,000 or more for new batteries after the vehicle is about seven years old. The list of drawbacks goes on.

    Most Americans have resisted EVs because they understand the disadvantages. But many Americans were drawn to the false promise of emission-free transportation and other ridiculous claims by the Green New Scammers. Now even the most committed EV buyers are waking up.

    I Want My ICE Car Back

    A fairly recent survey by consulting firm McKinsey and Co. shows that 29% of EV owners in nine major economies want to return to ICE vehicles. When the sample is narrowed to just the U.S., 46% of those surveyed want to return to ICEs.

    The McKinsey officials who conducted the survey claimed to be “surprised” by those results. That probably says something about the fact that McKinsey experts were just as deluded about EVs as the buyers surveyed.

    When breaking down the results, 45% say EVs are too expensive, 33% say they have charging concerns and 29% are concerned about the limited driving range.

    The truth is that the EV was invented in 1837 and reached the peak of its popularity in 1910 just before the mass production of internal-combustion cars by Henry Ford. The American public got it right when they flocked to the Model T.

    It sounds like they’re getting it right again after a brief infatuation with the false promise of the EV. The bottom line is that the Green New Scam is falling apart.

    It can’t happen soon enough.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 22:10

  • Zelensky Outraged Over UN Chief Getting Chummy With Putin At BRICS
    Zelensky Outraged Over UN Chief Getting Chummy With Putin At BRICS

    Ukraine is seething over the fact that United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was in Kazan, Russia this week for the major BRICS summit, where he was seen getting chummy with leaders like Presidents Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko.

    A smiling Guterres was photographed shaking hands with Putin during the ‘family photo’ ceremony, and actually at one point hugged Belarusian strongman Lukashenko.

    Via Kremlin.ru

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has subsequently blasted the UN chief for the warm embrace of Ukraine’s ‘enemies’.

    An official close to Zelensky has described to Politico that Guterres “shook hands with him [Putin]. He smiled. He was asked to come to promote the BRICS summit even more. He was used by them, and he seemed happy to be used.”

    Ukraine has reportedly informed Guterres that he will no longer be hosted in Kiev on visits. “Even if some officials prefer the allure of Kazan over the substance of the U.N. Charter, our world is structured so that the rights of nations and international legal norms matter, and will continue to matter,” said Zelensky in a Thursday night address.

    And an official Ukrainian Foreign Ministry statement also slammed the UN chief: “The UN Secretary General declined Ukraine’s invitation to the first global peace summit in Switzerland. He did, however, accept the invitation to Kazan from war criminal Putin,” a message posted on X stated.

    “This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace. It only damages the UN’s reputation,” the statement added.

    Staunch supporters of Kiev also lashed out at Guterres, with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis in a statement strongly hinting he should step down from his post.

    “Guterres must admit that he was wrong and take responsibility, both when he decided not to go to the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland and now, when he went to see the wanted war criminal Putin and grovelled with both him and his accomplice Lukashenko,” the Lithuanian top diplomat said.

    “Guterres is no longer accepted as an honest broker, and if he decides to resign, we would certainly not be the ones to discourage him from doing so.”

    The below moment also greatly outraged supporters of Ukraine…

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

    The whole controversy comes at a moment of increasing chatter among diplomats over the need to find a negotiated settlement to the Ukraine war. Kiev fears that this will result in Ukraine permanently losing a huge chunk of its territory in the east, which Russian forces have captured.

    The UN and Guterres’ office framed his whole visit to the BRICS meeting and interactions with Putin as an “operational necessity” and part of diplomacy and peace-keeping.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 21:35

  • History Rhymes: Freedom From Fear
    History Rhymes: Freedom From Fear

    Authored by Jim Bovard via The Browstone Institute,

    “Freedom from fear” was a prime justification for many of the most oppressive Covid pandemic policies. As Georgetown University Law professor Lawrence Gostin declared in late 2021, “COVID-19 vaccines are a remarkable scientific tool that enables society to live in greater freedom and with less fear. Using every tool—including mandates—to achieve high vaccination coverage enhances freedom.” 

    While many Covid vaccine skeptics were astounded to see the intellectual contortions of mandate advocates, “freedom from fear” has been a favorite invocation of political charlatans for almost a century. Providing “freedom from fear” has become one of the most frequent political promises in this century. 

    Politicians routinely portray freedom from fear as the apex of freedom, higher than the specific freedoms buttressed by the Bill of Rights. While presidents have defined “freedom from fear” differently, the common thread is that it requires unleashing government agents. Reviewing almost a century of bipartisan invocations on freedom from fear provides good cause to doubt the next bombast on the subject. 

    “Freedom from fear” first entered the American political pantheon thanks to a January 1941 speech by President Franklin Roosevelt. In that State of the Union address, he promised citizens freedom of speech and freedom of worship—two cornerstones of the First Amendment—and then added socialist-style “freedom from want” and “freedom from fear.” FDR’s revised freedoms did not include freedom to dissent, since he said the government would need to take care of the “few slackers or trouble makers in our midst.”

    Nor did FDR’s improved freedoms include the freedom not to be rounded up for concentration camps, as FDR ordered for Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor. Three years later, FDR amended his definition of freedom by championing a Universal Conscription Act to entitle government to the forced labor of any citizen.

    Richard Nixon, in his acceptance speech at the 1968 Republican National Convention, promised, “We shall re-establish freedom from fear in America so that America can take the lead in re-establishing freedom from fear in the world.” Nixon asserted: “The first civil right of every American is to be free from domestic violence, and that right must be guaranteed in this country.”

    But with the Nixon scorecard, government violence didn’t count. He perpetuated the war in Vietnam, resulting in another 20,000 American soldiers pointlessly dying.  On the home front, he created the Drug Enforcement Administration and appointed the nation’s first drug czar. The FBI perpetuated its COINTELPRO program, carrying out “a secret war against those citizens it considers threats to the established order,” as a 1976 Senate report noted.

    President George H.W. Bush told the National Baptist Convention on September 8, 1989: “Today freedom from fear…means freedom from drugs.” To boost public fear, a DEA informant arranged for a knucklehead to sell crack cocaine to an undercover narc in Lafayette Park across from the White House. Bush invoked the sale a few days later to justify a national crackdown. Bush informed the American Legion: “Today I want to focus on one of those freedoms: freedom from fear—the fear of war abroad, the fear of drugs and crime at home. To win that freedom, to build a better and safer life, will require the bravery and sacrifice that Americans have shown before and must again.”

    Foremost among the sacrifices that Bush demanded was that of traditional liberties. His administration vastly expanded federal power to arbitrarily confiscate Americans’ property and boosted the role of the US military in domestic law enforcement. In a 1992 speech dedicating a new DEA office building, Bush declared, “I am delighted to be here to salute the greatest freedom fighters any nation could have, people who provide freedom from violence and freedom from drugs and freedom from fear.” The DEA’s own crime sprees, corruption, and violence were not permitted to impede Bush’s victory lap. 

    On May 12, 1994, President Bill Clinton declared: “Freedom from violence and freedom from fear are essential to maintaining not only personal freedom but a sense of community in this country.” Clinton banned so-called assault weapons and sought to ban 35 million semi-automatic firearms. Gun bans in response to high crime rates mean closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. Citizens would presumably have nothing to fear after they were forced to abjectly depend on government officials for their own survival. 

    In February 1996, Clinton, seeking conservative support for his reelection campaign, endorsed forcing children to wear uniforms at public schools. Clinton justified the fashion dictate: “Every one of us has an obligation to work together, to give our children freedom from fear and the freedom to learn.” But, if mandatory uniforms were the key to ending violence, Postal Service employees would have a lower homicide rate. 

    George W. Bush, like his father, alternated promising “freedom from fear” with shameless fear-mongering. Prior to Election Day 2004, the Bush administration continually issued terror attack warnings based on flimsy or no evidence. The New York Times derided the Bush administration in late October for having “turned the business of keeping Americans informed about the threat of terrorism into a politically scripted series of color-coded scare sessions.”

    Yet each time a terror alert was issued, the president’s approval rating rose temporarily by roughly three percent, according to a Cornell University study. The Cornell study found a “halo effect:” the more terrorists wanted to attack America, the better job Bush was supposedly doing. People who saw terrorism as the biggest issue in the 2004 election voted for Bush by a 6-to-1 margin. 

    The most memorable Bush campaign ad, released just before the election, opened in a thick forest, with shadows and hazy shots complementing the foreboding music. After vilifying Democratic candidate John Kerry, the ad showed a pack of wolves reclining in a clearing. The voiceover concluded, “And weakness attracts those who are waiting to do America harm” as the wolves began jumping up and running toward the camera. At the end of the ad, the president appeared and announced: “I’m George W. Bush and I approve this message.”

    One liberal cynic suggested that the ad’s message was that voters would be eaten by wolves if Kerry won. Pat Wendland, the manager of Wolves Offered Life and Friendship, a Colorado wolf refuge in Colorado, complained: “The comparison to terrorists was insulting. We have worked for years, teaching people that Little Red Riding Hood lied.”

    Bush’s campaign to terrify voters into granting him four more years to rule America did not deter him from announcing in his 2005 State of the Union address: “We will pass along to our children all the freedoms we enjoy, and chief among them is freedom from fear.” 

    In the 2020 presidential race, Democratic candidate Joe Biden personally blamed President Donald Trump for every one of the 220,000 Covid deaths in the nation. Biden had a simple promise based on a simple message: “People want to be safe.”  And the only way to survive was to put Uncle Joe in the White House and unleash him. 

    Biden ran one of the most fear-based presidential campaigns in modern history. Biden talked as if every American family had lost a member or two from this pestilence. He routinely exaggerated Covid death tolls a hundredfold or a thousandfold, publicly asserting that millions of Americans had already been killed by Covid-19. Biden was helped mightily by fear-mongering media coverage. CNN ramped up the fear with a Covid Death Counter always on the screen. But the death count was statistical garbage. Individuals who died of gunshot wounds were counted as Covid deaths if a postmortem showed any Covid trace.

    A Brookings Institution analysis noted: “Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to overestimate [Covid] harm. Forty-one percent of Democrats…answered that half or more of those infected by COVID-19 need to be hospitalized.” At that time, the rate of hospitalization was between 1% and 5%, but Democratic voters overestimated the risk up to twentyfold. A CNN exit poll found that the “recent rise in coronavirus cases” was the most important factor for 61% of Biden voters. Biden won the presidency as a result of only 43,000 votes in three swing states.

    In June 2021, Biden proclaimed that everyone must get a Covid vaccine so that America could have “freedom from fear.” He said that people should “exercise your freedom” to get vaccinated with a drug approved on an emergency basis six months earlier. He declared: “We need everyone across the country to pull together [i.e., submit] to get us over the finish line.” The following month, Biden promised that anyone who got the injection would not get or transmit Covid. After the government coverup of failing vaccine efficacy collapsed, far more people balked at getting the shot. Biden responded by dictating a “get the jab or lose your job” mandate for 100 million American adults. (The Supreme Court later struck down most of that mandate.) 

    “Freedom from fear” apparently requires maximizing hatred of anyone who fails to submit. In an October 2021 CNN town hall, Biden derided vaccine skeptics as murderers who only wanted “the freedom to kill you” with Covid. Biden continued to proclaim that Covid was an “epidemic of the unvaccinated” long after government data revealed that most individuals who caught Covid were vaccinated. NIH posted a 2022 article that blamed “fearmongering and scare tactics” by anti-vaccine activists for the reported adverse side effects of Covid vaccines.

    A 2022 Rasmussen poll found that 59% of Democratic voters favored house arrest for the unvaccinated, and 45% favored locking the unvaxxed into government detention facilities. Almost half of Democrats favored empowering government to “fine or imprison individuals who publicly question the efficacy of the existing Covid-19 vaccines on social media, television, radio, or in online or digital publications.”  A massive covert federal censorship regime was also deployed to suppress criticism of Covid policies or even jokes about Covid vaccines.

    For his reelection campaign, Biden milked “freedom from fear” in a Pennsylvania speech on what he labeled “the third anniversary of the Insurrection at the United States Capitol.” Biden planned to turn the November 2024 election into a referendum on Adolf Hitler, accusing Donald Trump of “echoing the same exact language used in Nazi Germany.” CNN reported that Biden campaign aides planned to go “full Hitler” on Trump. Biden spent half an hour fear-mongering and then closed by promising “freedom from fear.” This was the famous Biden two-step—demagoguing to his heart’s content and then closing with schmaltzy uplift lines, entitling the media to rechristen him as an idealist.

    Biden did not survive the Democrats’ version of the “Night of the Long Knives” and Vice President Kamala Harris was designated the party’s presidential flag-bearer. Harris painted with an even broader brush than Biden. At a Juneteenth Concert this summer, she condemned Republicans for a “a full-on attack” on “the freedom from fear of bigotry and hate.”

    Harris implied that politicians could wave a psychological magic wand to banish any bias in perpetuity.  How can anyone have “freedom from fear of bigotry” unless politicians perpetually control everyone’s thoughts?

    In August, the Democratic National Convention whooped up freedom in ways that would qualify as “authentic frontier gibberish,” as the 1974 movie Blazing Saddles would say. A campaign video promised “freedom from control, freedom from extremism and fear.” So Americans won’t have true freedom until politicians forcibly suppress any idea they label as immoderate? The Democratic Party platform warned: “Reproductive freedom, freedom from hate, freedom from fear, the freedom to control our own destinies and more are all on the line in this election.”

    But the whole point of politics nowadays is to preempt individuals from controlling their own destinies. Hillary Clinton told the convention crowd that, thanks to the cracks in the glass ceiling, she could see “freedom from fear and intimidation.” Hillary also boasted of seeing “freedom to make our own decisions about our health”—after everybody shuts up and gets Covid Booster #37, presumably. 

    “Freedom from fear” is the ultimate political blank check. The more people government frightens, the more legitimate dictatorial policies become.  Pledging “freedom from fear” entitles politicians to seize power over anything that frightens anyone. Giving politicians more power based on people’s fears is like giving firemen pay raises based on how many false alarms they report.

    Politicians’ promises of “freedom from fear” imply that freedom properly understood is a risk-free, worry-free condition. It is the type of promise that a mother would make to a young child. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham epitomized that mindset when she proclaimed at the Democratic National Convention: “We need a president who can be Consoler-in-Chief. We need a president capable of holding us in a great big hug.” And continuing to hold us until we officially become psychological wards of the State?

    “Freedom from fear” offers freedom from everything except the government. Anyone who sounds the alarm about excessive government power will automatically be guilty of subverting freedom from fear. Presumably, the fewer inviolable rights the citizen has, the better government will treat him. But as John Locke warned more than 300 years ago, “I have no reason to suppose, that he, who would take away my Liberty, would not when he had me in his Power, take away everything else.”

    Why not simply offer voters “freedom from the Constitution?” “Freedom from fear” means security via mass delusions about the nature of political power. Painting the motto “freedom from fear” on shackles won’t make them easier to bear. Perhaps our ruling class should be honest and replace the Bill of Rights with a new motto: “Political buncombe will make you free.”

    An earlier version of this piece was published by the Libertarian Institute.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 21:00

  • Two Refineries That Produce 14% Of California's Gasoline Set To Close Due To "Regulatory Pressure"
    Two Refineries That Produce 14% Of California’s Gasoline Set To Close Due To “Regulatory Pressure”

    Today in how not to get gas prices down on the West Coast news, it was announced that California is on the precipice of losing two more major refineries that produce 14% of the state’s gasoline due to suffocating regulation.

    Valero may shut down its two California refineries, according to Just The News. 

    With existing closures already requiring California to import 8% of its supply, the state could soon face a greater dependence on refined imports, adding to its reliance on Middle Eastern and South American crude.

    Valero CEO Lane Riggs explained last week that profit margins are already low from its refinery business and says the company has already “minimized strategic [capital expenditures]”.

    He added that “California is increasing its regulatory pressure on the industry, so we’re really considering everything — all options are on the table.”

    The Just The News report says that although Riggs did not explicitly confirm plans to shut down refineries representing 14% of California’s capacity, state lawmakers raised alarms, linking potential closures to new regulatory powers granted during a special legislative session. 

    Phillips 66 recently announced the closure of its Los Angeles refinery, accounting for 8% of the state’s refining capacity, following the passage of the new legislation.

    California’s oil production has halved since 2008, dropping from 249 million barrels (38% of state needs) to 124 million barrels in 2023 (23.4% of needs). Imports have surged, with 61% now coming from countries like Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, and Colombia, compared to 48.5% in 2008. 

    State Assemblymember Joe Patterson, R-Rocklin added on X: “When California Governor Gavin Newsom said in 2021 he didn’t see a future for oil in CA, I didn’t know 2024 would be the year he ended it at lightning speed.”

    “Today, another refiner said “all options are on table” with refineries here. We can thank Newsom’s legislation,” he concluded. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 20:25

  • The Battle For Space Is On
    The Battle For Space Is On

    Authored by Autumn Spredemann via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Space has been called the final frontier and experts say governments are becoming more focused on strengthening defense and exploring the military potential of low Earth orbit.

    Evan Ellis, an analyst and research professor for the U.S. Army War College, told The Epoch Times that expanding and protecting space infrastructure is becoming increasingly important from a national security perspective.

    “It’s a recognition that space is important as a war-fighting domain, but also how you protect and use your assets in times of war,” Ellis said.

    As a defense analyst, Ellis has participated in space war game scenarios. He says there are multiple kinds of weapons that can be used in Earth’s orbit. Some are kinetic such as missiles, but non-kinetic weapons such as electromagnetic pulses, micro-waves, and lasers are also possible.

    He noted some are more practical in a space-to-space or space-to-Earth combat scenario than others. For example, lasers are less practical to have in a space-based platform since they would have energy supply and stability problems.

    “If you want to penetrate someone’s [ground] bunker, then it makes more sense to use kinetic weapons than a laser from space,” Ellis said.

    He said that targeting ground objects from space isn’t impossible, but it’s not a likely scenario. Instead, Ellis said it would be more pragmatic to hit other celestial targets.

    “It makes sense to have things in space that can take out other things in space.”

    National security lawyer and Scarab Rising president, Irina Tsukerman, said weapons don’t need to be put into space to be a threat to orbiting objects.

    “Countries like China and Russia have developed various ASAT [anti-satellite weapon] capabilities, including kinetic kill vehicles and electronic warfare systems, aimed at disabling or destroying U.S. satellites,” Tsukerman told The Epoch Times via text.

    Earth-based weapons with the ability to cripple or destroy satellites have existed for years. Yet with more countries investing in counter-space assets, worry over the possible use of ASATs as a wartime weapon is growing.

    “While destructive ASATs have not yet been deployed in warfare, countries such as Russia, India, China, and the United States have demonstrated their ability to operate such weapons by destroying their own satellites,” a 2024 Atlantic Council analysis states.

    “As countries’ reliance on space increases, the ability to hold other countries’ satellites at risk is a significant and concerning capability.”

    Investment in space from a national security perspective also grew this year.

    The Space Foundation reported that total global military space budgets increased 18 percent, representing 46 percent of total government space spending. The United States represents the majority of this at 80 percent, but countries like Japan and Poland have also drastically increased their space defense spending.

    An anti-satellite weapon “Mission Shakti” is displayed during the Republic Day parade in New Delhi, India, on Jan. 26, 2020. Prakash Singh/AFP via Getty Images

    There’s widespread concern over the weaponization of space, especially given current geopolitical tensions between the United States, Russia, and China.

    The United Nations’ Outer Space Treaty is a guardrail that has prohibited nuclear arms or weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in orbit or on celestial bodies such as the moon since 1967. At the time of this report, the treaty has 115 parties and 89 signatories.

    However, groups such as the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation say increased militarization efforts in this domain already pose risks to national security.

    The center identifies three classifications of space weaponry, including Earth-to-space, space-to-space, and space-to-Earth. Currently, due to restrictions outlined in the Outer Space Treaty, only Earth-to-space weapons have been developed in military arsenals. However, some say growing interest in the latter two categories makes expansion into these areas inevitable.

    “Converging trends make the proliferation of space systems likely. The miniaturization of satellites combined with falling launch costs and the commercialization of the space industry means that more players are entering the space game—not all of whom will use space for peaceful purposes,” the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation stated in a 2023 fact sheet.

    The organization added that due to a lack of clear regulations and ambitious government regimes, militaries are already pushing the boundaries of acceptable space behavior.

    “This could mean greater chances of conflict in the future as outer space is increasingly congested with dangerous capabilities,” the group said.

    Within the three categories of space weaponry are four different types. The Center for Strategic and International Studies project Aerospace Security identifies these as kinetic physical, non-kinetic physical, electronic, and cyber.

    The 2024 Secure World Foundation report noted, “The growing use of, and reliance on, space for national security has also led more countries to look at developing their own counter-space capabilities that can be used to deceive, disrupt, deny, degrade, or destroy space systems.”

    This is underscored by a National Air and Space Intelligence Center report, which states, “Foreign competitors are integrating advanced space and counter-space technologies into warfighting strategies to challenge U.S. superiority and position themselves as space powers.”

    Pentagon officials maintain that a competitive edge in space weaponry is necessary for the United States because evidence suggests that Russia is looking to do the same.

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 19:50

  • Nvidia-Backed Tech Company Looking To Buy Land Near Nuclear Power In Japan
    Nvidia-Backed Tech Company Looking To Buy Land Near Nuclear Power In Japan

    Another day, another data center cozying up to nuclear power.

    This time its an Nvidia-backed company called Ubitus K.K., based in Tokyo. The company is looking to “acquire land in Kyoto, Shimane or a prefecture in Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, primarily because of the availability of nuclear power in the region”, according to a new report from Bloomberg. 

    Chief Executive Officer Wesley Kuo announced the plans in an interview on Thursday last week. The company already has two data centers used for gaming and is planning a third for AI. 

    Kuo commented: “Unless we have other, better, efficient and cheap energy, nuclear is still the most competitive option in terms of cost and the scale of supply. For industrial use — especially AI — they need a constant, high-capacity supply.”

    The Bloomberg report says that in Japan, nuclear power remains controversial due to the 2011 Fukushima disaster and strict post-disaster regulations, with only 33 reactors available, many still inactive.

    Recall, following the news of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant restart near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the Biden administration supplying a $1.5 billion loan to resurrect Holtec’s Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, along with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google all jumping on the nuclear trade via the “next AI trade,” the atomic era continued gaining steam last week with news that another dormant nuclear plant, this time in Iowa, is slated for a possible restart.

    On a Wednesday earnings call, NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum told investors that the company may restart the shuttered 600-megawatt Duane Arnold Energy Center (DAEC), Iowa’s only nuclear power plant. It’s located on the west bank of the Cedar River, about eight miles northwest of Cedar Rapids. 

    The company said on its earnings call:

    “As a top operator of all forms of power generation, we often get asked about nuclear and gas,” Ketchum told investors. 

    He explained, “Let me start with nuclear. Nuclear will play a role, but there are some practical limitations. Remember, on a national level, we expect we are going to need to add 900 gigawatts of new generation to the grid by 2040,” adding, “There are only a few nuclear plants that can be recommissioned in an economic way. We are currently evaluating the recommissioning of our Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa as one example.” 

    The latest news from big tech firms diving into nuclear and reviving the industry provides a substantial tailwind for our “Next AI Trade” which we laid out in April as our long-term favorite trade, and where we outlined various investment opportunities for powering up America, playing out.

    Here’s our latest coverage of the big atomic revival:

    And for a trip down memory lane: take a step back to December 2020, nearly four years ago, when we first introduced the nuclear theme to readers with the headline: “Buy Uranium: Is This The Beginning Of The Next ESG Craze.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 19:15

  • Appeals Court Says Mississippi Law Allowing Ballots After Election Day Is Illegal
    Appeals Court Says Mississippi Law Allowing Ballots After Election Day Is Illegal

    Authored by Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit released an opinion on Oct. 25 stating that federal law requires mail-in ballots be counted no later than election day.

    Residents drop mail-in ballots in an official ballot box outside a library in Milwaukee on Oct. 20, 2020. Scott Olson/Getty Images

    In doing so, it ruled against a Mississippi law allowing ballots to be counted if they arrived no more than five days after the election and if they were postmarked on or before the date of the election.

    The opinion, which came less than two weeks before the 2024 elections, redirected the case back to the lower court while refraining from issuing an injunction that would halt Mississippi’s law.

    The policy was adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the state kept it after the pandemic ended.

    “Because Mississippi’s statute allows ballot receipt up to five days after the federal election day, it is preempted by federal law,” Judge Andrew Oldham, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wrote in his opinion for the court.

    RNC Chairman Michael Whatley called the decision on the social media platform X a “seismic win for fair, accurate, secure, and transparent elections.”

    Justifying the decision to throw the decision back to the lower court, rather than block Mississippi’s law, Oldham referenced a Supreme Court precedent that cautions against last-minute changes to election procedures.

    “Today’s decision says nothing about remedies,” he said. “We decline to grant plaintiffs’ initial request for a permanent injunction. … Instead, we remand to the district court for further proceedings to fashion appropriate relief, giving due consideration to ’the value of preserving the status quo in a voting case on the eve of an election.’”

    He was quoting another fifth circuit case but also referenced the Supreme Court’s 2006 decision in Purcell v. Gonzalez.

    Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson had told the Fifth Circuit that an election was voters’ “conclusive choice of an officeholder,” which took place on election day.

    “That is so even if election officials do not receive those ballots until after election day,” his brief to the court read. “An election does not itself require ballot receipt.”

    Oldham and two other Trump appointees, Judge James Ho and Judge Kyle Duncan, heard oral arguments over the issue in September. The Republican National Committee (RNC) had appealed the decision of a lower court that ruled in favor of Mississippi.

    Oldham reasoned that the Constitution granted Congress authority over elections through two provisions, including one that allows Congress to alter the timing of federal elections hosted by states.

    Oldham drew a distinction between the timing of ballot counting and ballot casting.

    “Even if the ballots have not been counted, the result is fixed when all of the ballots are received and the proverbial ballot box is closed,” he wrote. “The selections are done and final.”

    Mississippi’s “problem,” he said, “is that it thinks a ballot can be ‘cast’ before it is received.” He added that “[a] voter’s selection of a candidate differs from the public’s election of the candidate.”

    Mississippi is one of several states with laws allowing mailed ballots to be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The list includes swing states such as Nevada and states such as Colorado, Oregon, and Utah that rely heavily on mail voting.

    In July, a federal judge dismissed a similar lawsuit in Nevada. The Republican National Committee is asking the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to revive that case.

    The RNC previously told The Epoch Times that it was involved in more than 130 lawsuits across 26 states. States have also pursued their own efforts while coming up against challenges from outside parties, including the Justice Department (DOJ).

    Oldham’s opinion came on the same day that a federal judge granted the DOJ’s request to halt Virginia’s program for purging non-citizens from voter rolls.

    Federal Judge Patricia Giles held that the program was within a prohibited 90-day timeframe set up by the National Voter Registration Act, a federal law passed by Congress in 1993. Another federal judge in Alabama similarly blocked the state’s program to purge non-citizens from its rolls.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 18:40

  • Army Releases Redacted Report On Incident During Trump Visit To Arlington Cemetery
    Army Releases Redacted Report On Incident During Trump Visit To Arlington Cemetery

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

    The U.S. Army on Friday released a heavily redacted report related to an alleged altercation during former President Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery in August.

    According to multiple reports, on Aug. 26 a cemetery staffer attempted to block the Trump campaign from taking photos and videos in Section 60, where soldiers recently killed in Afghanistan and Iraq are buried. A U.S. Army statement at the time said the employee was “abruptly pushed aside.”

    Former President Donald Trump lays a wreath alongside Marine Cpl. Kelsee Lainhart (Ret.) and U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews (Ret.), who were injured at the Abbey Gate Bombing in Afghanistan, during a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Va., on Aug. 26. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

    Trump was there to mark the anniversary of the Kabul airport attack that killed 13 U.S. service members.

    Seven pages of redacted material were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Washington-based nonprofit group American Oversight as part of an ongoing lawsuit.

    The redacted incident report classifies the alleged offense as “simple assault.” It outlines an alleged physical altercation between a cemetery employee and Trump aides.

    A brief description says that an individual engaged “with both of [redacted] hands while attempting to move past [redacted] did not require medical attention on scene and later refused when offered. [Redacted] rendered a sworn statement on a DA Form 2823 and stated [redacted] did not want to press charges. Investigation continues by JBMHH PD Investigations Branch.”

    The sworn statement of the incident, made at 1:45 p.m. on Aug. 26, is fully redacted.

    In response to reports detailing the incident that cited anonymous sources, the Trump campaign issued a statement accusing the cemetery employee of experiencing a “mental health episode” and attempting to “physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony.”

    The Army defended the employee, noting they acted “with professionalism” in enforcing regulations that prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds. Officials stated that while the incident was reported to law enforcement, the employee ultimately chose not to pursue charges.

    The Army confirmed that it “considers this matter closed,” concluding that the staff member’s actions were appropriate and consistent with cemetery decorum.

    U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia Senior Judge Paul Friedman signed an order on Oct. 22 for the report to be released. In September, American Oversight, arguing that there was a compelling public interest in sharing information with the public as soon as possible, requested that Arlington expedite the processing of its request, noting the presidential election is drawing closer.

    American Oversight was founded in 2017 in response to what it says were the “unprecedented challenges that the Trump administration posed to our nation’s democratic ideals and institutions.”

    Friedman ruled on Oct. 22 that the Army must release nonexempt portions of records about the requested incident on or before Oct. 25.

    “With the election just two weeks away, the American people have a clear and compelling interest in knowing how the government responded to an alleged incident involving a major presidential candidate who has a history of politicizing the military,” Chioma Chukwu, American Oversight’s interim executive director, said in a statement following Friedman’s order.

    After the initial incident, an Arlington National Cemetery spokesperson told The Epoch Times that a report had been filed but provided no further details, citing laws against political campaign or election-related activities in military cemeteries.

    The Trump campaign disputed reports of a “physical altercation,” asserting they were prepared to release footage to counter any “defamatory claims.” Spokesperson Steven Cheung stated that a private photographer was permitted on the grounds and that an individual, allegedly experiencing a mental health episode, tried to block Trump’s team during the ceremony.

    Family members of fallen soldiers in Afghanistan also denied claims of an assault, stating no altercation took place.

    The U.S. Army oversees the management of Arlington National Cemetery.

    Katabella Roberts contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 17:30

  • Russia Reportedly Supplied GEOINT Data For Houthi Assaults On Western Ships In Maritime Chokepoint
    Russia Reportedly Supplied GEOINT Data For Houthi Assaults On Western Ships In Maritime Chokepoint

    In the Middle East, Russian intelligence officials have allegedly provided Iran-backed Houthi rebels with geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) data for strategic planning and operational decision-making to attack Western vessels in the critical maritime chokepoint of the southern Red Sea. 

    According to The Wall Street Journal report: 

    The Houthis, which began their attacks late last year over the Gaza war, eventually began using Russian satellite data as they expanded their strikes, said a person familiar with the matter and two European defense officials. The data was passed through members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who were embedded with the Houthis in Yemen, one of the people said.

    There was no mention of specifics about the GEOINT data Russia provided IRGC/Houthis for attack and reconnaissance missions in southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Besides satellite imagery, there was no word if the Russians and/or IRGC used unmanned aerial vehicles to provide Houthis with high-resolution imagery and/or real-time data streams to track commercial vessels or western warships – or use the streams for weapon guidance. 

    Alleged Russian assistance may explain how the Houthis have expanded their threat coverage of missiles and drone attacks across the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Since November 2023, Houthis have hit more than 100 ships in the region, sinking two and hijacking another. 

    Source: WSJ

    “In the Middle East, the Russian assistance underscores a tectonic shift in its strategy. Putin has strengthened ties with Iran, while turning a cold shoulder to his longstanding relationship with Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” WSJ noted. 

    Weak foreign policy emanating from the Biden-Harris administration has left the Middle East in flames. Not being tough on Houthis to ensure freedom of navigation in the critical maritime chokepoint has sparked major supply chain snarls in global shipping, as container ships diverted by the hundreds around the Cape of Good Hope, straining container supplies and thus boosting shipping costs. 

    It’s interesting seeing Democrats who once warned that former President Trump would bring the world to the brink of nuclear disaster, yet under Biden and Harris, the world is closer than ever to World War III: Wars spiraling out of control in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, while China could take Taiwan at any moment. The US needs a strong leader – not weak – not Marxist woke. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 16:55

  • Peter Schiff: Gold Is Exposing The Phony Economy
    Peter Schiff: Gold Is Exposing The Phony Economy

    Via SchiffGold.com,

    On this week’s episode, Peter covered a record setting week for gold and a stellar week for silver. With the metals nearly cresting $2800 and $35, respectively, Peter sees this price action as confirmation that the Fed’s recent rate cuts are a mistake. Politicians may love inflation, and the media is oblivious, but the metals markets know that America’s economic trajectory is unsustainable.

    As Peter predicted, long-term interest rates are rising. Even though rate cuts are traditionally considered bearish for gold, gold is consistently reaching new highs and perplexing the media class:

    “I said that when the Fed cuts short-term rates, that’s going to be the bottom for long-term rates, and they’re going to go up. And that’s exactly what’s happening. Long-term rates and gold prices are rising in tandem, which is the opposite of what most people think. They believe higher interest rates are bearish for gold, but gold is going up anyway. The mainstream financial media didn’t expect this. They thought when the Fed cut short-term rates, long-term rates would follow instead of going in the opposite direction.”

    Why is this? The dollar is condemned to a future of continuous devaluation, and gold is the best hedge against de-dollarization. 

    “We still have a weak economy. That’s not why rates are rising. Rates are rising for the same reason the gold price is rising. It’s because the Fed’s rate cuts are a mistake. The inflation genie is not back in the bottle. We’re going to have rising inflation. We’re going to have skyrocketing fiscal deficits, so bigger budget deficits. We’re going to have more supply of treasuries hitting the market, which, as I’ve said, are going to be monetized.”

    Peter likens gold’s moves to the pre-2008 era, when the media and financial pundits were unaware of future inflation:

    “They didn’t care about gold when it was $495 an ounce. And now that it’s $2,750 an ounce, they still don’t care about it because they have no idea what it means, or if they do, they certainly don’t want their audience to figure it out. … But when the Fed showed its hand and announced QE, gold took off. Initially, people— not just me— there was a chorus of people saying, ‘This is terrible, this is going to be massive inflation. You’ve got to buy gold.”

    He reminds us that inflation is an intentional policy choice that benefits the political class at the expense of consumers:

    “It’s a meltdown that’s being disguised by inflation. Again, that’s one of the reasons politicians like inflation because people feel like they’re richer. Their stock portfolios are going up. They’re getting a raise. And so they think things are good because the numbers are bigger, but it’s all an illusion. They’re actually getting poorer while they think they’re getting richer. That is what the politicians want.”

    The problem with inflationary policy is that it can’t last forever, and when it fails, the government will be forced to either default or fire up the money printers. So far, politicians are opting to print away their problems:

    “There’s two ways our creditors are going to lose. One is through an honest default where they get fewer dollars. The other is through inflation where they get all their dollars, but they have less purchasing power.”

    Turning to the approaching election, Peter is cautiously optimistic about a Trump presidency. At best, Trump will attempt to reign in government spending, and even at his worst, he’ll be better than Kamala Harris:

    “We’re going to have a crisis regardless of the outcome of this election. I would just rather have Trump’s team in office when it happens than the Harris team. Not that I’m 100% confident that the Trump team is going to do the right thing; I’m just 100% confident that the Harris team is going to do the wrong thing. So that’s basically where we are, right? And so we have to take the lesser of the evils and hope for the best with Trump.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 16:20

  • Will Democrats Accept the Results of the 2024 Presidential Election?
    Will Democrats Accept the Results of the 2024 Presidential Election?

    Authored by Richard Truesdell and Keith Lehmann via American Greatness,

    Picture this scenario on November 6: the American presidential election has taken place, and Donald Trump is the winner with well over 300 Electoral College votes, legitimately and decisively beating Kamala Harris. Democrats are in an uproar, making wild claims of election interference from foreign entities like Russia just like in 2016, and threatening to block certification of the election unless their candidate of choice is installed.

    By attempting to nullify the votes of over half of the country, Democrats have chosen to wage war against Americans who don’t agree with them. It is their last-ditch effort to cling to power and they don’t care what damage is done to the country in the process. The damage done, in fact, is part of the plan.

    An army of lawyers from both sides is being deployed across the nation in anticipation of massive voter fraud, similar to what went on during the 2020 election. While Republicans are out there to identify and prevent the fraud, Democrats are obfuscating and concealing their efforts to count ballots multiple times, stop the rejection of invalid ballots, and keep objective observers from reporting on the mishandling of ballots by those intent on committing election fraud. Democrats are actually working to allow non-citizens to vote.

    So-called fact-checkers point out that this only applies to local and state elections, not federal elections. Don’t fall for this misdirection. Why have Democrats, from Joe Biden on down, pushed so hard to allow non-citizens to vote? Once voting by non-citizens in local and state elections is legitimized, America as we have known it for more than 240 years will no longer exist.

    All this will be followed by escalating the lawfare against Trump with possible prison sentencing between the election and inauguration in one or more of the criminal cases he faces.

    It is especially true with the Jack Smith case in D.C., which is a blatant, partisan case of election interference. We are convinced that all of the cases against Trump will ultimately be dismissed on appeal as they have no legitimate basis; however, the Democrats will push forward anyway as they have no concern over what legal precedence they are setting, nor do they care about the damage they’re doing to the institution of Congress. It’s all about holding power.

    Democrats in Congress with stage-four Trump Derangement Syndrome, especially the clown-like Jamie Raskin (D-MD), have already said the quiet part out loud. Raskin says if Trump should win, combining an Electoral College win even with a potential popular vote victory (which current polls are showing), they will immediately challenge the results under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, tying up the election results beyond January 20, 2025. These Democrats will stop at nothing to destroy America by invoking a second Civil War (Raskin’s own words) if necessary.

    Can you imagine the chaos and damage a lame-duck Biden-Harris administration can inflict on the United States between Election Day and Trump’s second inauguration on January 20, 2025? With executive orders coming from an increasingly infirm and vengeful Joe Biden (with help from Dr. Jill and his puppet masters like Barack Obama and even Nancy Pelosi, who forced Biden to abandon his reelection bid under threat of invoking the 25th Amendment). These are people who will do anything to retain power, including preventing Trump from taking the oath of office.

    Democrats have become everything they have accused Trump of intending to do. In his first term, Trump took no action to lock up Hillary Clinton, who is now out promoting her third memoir, Something Lost, Something Gained (a title that lacks even a basic sense of self-awareness as it heads to the $5.95 remainder racks, hopefully by Christmas). Will she ever stop relitigating the results of the 2016 election?

    At some point, the Supreme Court will be forced to step in, possibly on an emergency basis, to save our democracy from Democrats and their Deep State political thugs who will refuse to participate in the peaceful transfer of power. It’s the ultimate example of projection.

    It’s a sad state of affairs but one that can be remedied in the future if we reinstate integrity in our election systems. That is, making sure that the people’s votes actually count and are not manipulated by loosening rules to satisfy those who would cheat in order to attain or keep power. Every illegitimate vote cancels out a legitimate vote.

    Election integrity starts with requiring photo identification. Thirty-six states require photo ID; 14 states and the District of Columbia don’t.

    If we can require photo ID to buy a pack of cigarettes or a beer in a bar, or a driver’s license to operate a motor vehicle, we can require it to exercise our most sacred right to vote. It doesn’t disenfranchise anyone except those not eligible to vote, like immigrants who entered the United States illegally and lack proper identification. Requiring proof of identity does not make it harder to vote; it makes it harder to cheat.

    With some degree of integrity restored to America’s election process, the people’s legitimate voices will be heard loud and clear. This will deliver the presidency back to Donald Trump with a clear mandate to “drain the swamp” that is Washington, D.C.

    Once Trump returns to the White House in 2025, with no worry about a reelection bid in 2028, he can complete the house cleaning he started when he took office in 2017. It will be the best lame duck presidency in American history.

    Trump can remove the unelected political appointees running the alphabet agencies (starting with the FBI, the CIA, and especially the NSA) as well as the leadership class in the military. Today we have 44 four-star generals—there are no current five-star generals or admirals since the passing of Omar Bradley in 1981—commanding 2.86 million members in the military as opposed to during World War Two when 16 million men were under arms being commanded by just four five-star generals and admirals. Including the military, those bureaucracies must be completely dismantled and rebuilt from the ground up by individuals who care about America, not an administrative state that cares only about amassing personal power.

    Now is the time to make Election Day a national holiday and to require day-of and in-person voting across the nation with the results known the following day. Reasonable exceptions can be made for members serving in the military and true hardship cases.

    Going forward for the next presidential election (it’s too late for this year’s presidential election), to ensure election integrity, absentee ballots will need to be submitted, along with proper identification, no later than November 1, 2028, so they can be counted in advance of Election Day in 2028.

    If we can politically pander to a small segment of the population by making Juneteenth a national holiday, we can certainly benefit all citizens by having Election Day nationalized. Our democracy deserves nothing less.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 15:10

  • Where's Tony? These Are All The Countries Visited The US Secretary Of State Since 2021
    Where’s Tony? These Are All The Countries Visited The US Secretary Of State Since 2021

    As the world’s largest economy, military power, and a major cultural force, the U.S. has been the dominant global hegemon since the Berlin Wall fell in 1990.

    Its foreign policy plays a key role in shaping geopolitics. Despite the complexity of international relations, we can see where the U.S. prioritizes its influence by analyzing the data.

    This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao, shows the countries U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has visited most since his term started in January 2021. Data is sourced from the State Department, last updated on September 27th, 2024.

    All the Countries Secretary Blinken Has Visited At Least Five Times

    Secretary Blinken has visited Israel 18 times during his term—by far the most for any one country.

    Ten of those visits have taken place since October 2023, following Hamas attacks which killed nearly 1,000 Israeli civilians.

    In the year since the area has devolved into a major conflict zone. Israel has repeatedly bombed the Gaza strip, leading to the death of over 43,000 Palestinians, of which more than one-fourth are children.

    Retaliatory rocket launches from Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis have, in turn, led to Israeli airstrikes hitting Lebanon and Yemen.

    Meanwhile, Secretary Blinken has visited both Qatar and Egypt nine times so far—two other mediators in the war. He’s also been to Saudi Arabia: part of a longer-term plan to normalize relations between the House of Saud and Israel.

    Finally, Blinken has visited the West Bank four times—most recently to reiterate U.S. support for a Palestinian state.

    These visits to the Middle East stand in sharp contrast to Ukraine, where Secretary Blinken has made just five trips, also in a show of American support as the country battles a Russian invasion.

    The Middle East currently has a concentration of multiple rival military powers. Check out the Biggest Armies in the Middle East for a breakdown.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 14:35

  • Trump, Former White House Staffers Reject John Kelly's "Fascist" Claims
    Trump, Former White House Staffers Reject John Kelly’s “Fascist” Claims

    Authored by TJ Muscaro and Janice Hisle via The Epoch Times,

    Former President Donald Trump and previous members of his administration say that claims made by former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly are “patently false.”

    Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, worked for the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019. He has spoken out multiple times against Trump during the election—most recently in interviews with The New York Times and The Atlantic.

    In those interviews, Kelly said Trump fitted the general definition of a fascist and alleged that the former president said he wanted “German generals,” like Nazi leader Adolph Hitler had.

    Several members of the Trump administration, including former Vice President Mike Pence’s former chief of staff, Mike Ayers, have sharply disputed the claims.

    “I’ve avoided commenting on intra-staff leaks or rumors or even lies as it relates to my time at the White House but General Kelly’s comments regarding President Trump are too egregious to ignore,” Ayers said on X.

    “I was with each of them more than most, and his commentary is *patently false.*”

    Mark Paoletta, general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), also spoke out against Kelly, writing on X:

    “I don’t believe a word he says. He was a terrible chief of staff who dishonestly kept information from the President to pursue his own agenda.”

    Trump himself denounced the stories on Oct. 23, saying Kelly “made up a story out of pure Trump Derangement Syndrome Hatred.”

    “Even though I shouldn’t be wasting my time with him, I always feel it’s necessary to hit back in pursuit of THE TRUTH,” Trump said on Truth Social and X.

    Both of Kelly’s interviews came out less than two weeks before Election Day, at a time when early voting is underway across several states, and Trump is starting to take the lead in battleground state polls.

    Vice President Kamala Harris followed Kelly’s two stories by stating at a CNN town hall that she believed Trump to be a fascist.

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded directly to these comments on X, saying, “This is the kind of inflammatory poison that divides our nation and inspires assassins.”

    The Atlantic also claimed Trump made disparaging remarks about a dead military servicemember and balked over her funeral expenses.

    At a news conference in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 25, the former president also strongly denied making those claims.

    “If they didn’t get the military funding, I was going to fund it myself,” Trump said about the funeral for Vanessa Guillen, 20, who was murdered in 2020 while stationed at an Army base in Texas that was then called Fort Hood.

    Guillen’s slaying and dismemberment led to an outcry over sexual harassment at U.S. military bases, resulting in changes to laws and discipline of 21 Army personnel; some were faulted for allowing the prime suspect in her killing to escape and commit suicide.

    On Friday, Trump thanked Guillen’s family for publicly denouncing The Atlantic’s allegations. The family came to show support for Trump as he addressed reporters at Million Air Austin, a private airplane service.

    “The beautiful thing is that these people [Guillen’s relatives] were willing to come out and say it didn’t happen… they didn’t have to do this,” Trump said.

    Guillen’s sister, Maya Guillen, and the family’s attorney, Natalie Khawam, made social media posts and TV appearances asserting that the article contained inaccuracies and misrepresentations.

    Trump pointed out that the Atlantic’s article was timed to appear just before the Nov. 5 election, increasing the likelihood that a certain percentage of readers would believe what the magazine reported and hold it against his candidacy.

    “So I talk about it because it was a terrible thing,” Trump said about the article after touching on multiple other topics, including illegal immigration and election integrity.

    The Epoch Times has sought comment from The Atlantic.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 14:00

  • These States Have The Biggest Beer-Drinkers
    These States Have The Biggest Beer-Drinkers

    From backyard barbecues to Sunday night football, beer is deeply woven in the fabric of American culture. It’s the choice alcoholic beverage for North and South Americans, according to WHO data.

    This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Kayla Zhu, visualizes the annual per capita ethanol consumption of beer in gallons in 2022 by U.S. state. The data comes from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), which measures alcohol consumption in ethanol volume.

    For reference, the average six-pack of beer has 0.025 gallons of ethanol.

    Consumption figures only include residents age 14 or older, and is based on alcoholic beverage sales data collected by the Alcohol Epidemiologic Data System (AEDS), the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association, and from various reports produced by beverage industry sources.

    Which States Consume The Most Beer?

    Below, we show each state’s annual per capita ethanol consumption of beer in gallons in 2022.

    Rank State Per capita ethanol consumption in gallons of beer
    1 New Hampshire 1.66
    2 Montana 1.58
    3 Vermont 1.54
    4 North Dakota 1.38
    5 Pennsylvania 1.33
    6 Nevada 1.30
    7 Maine 1.28
    8 South Dakota 1.26
    9 Louisiana 1.24
    10 Hawaii 1.23
    11 Oregon 1.21
    12 Wyoming 1.2.0
    13 Wisconsin 1.19
    14 Iowa 1.18
    15 New Mexico 1.17
    16 Texas 1.15
    17 Mississippi 1.14
    18 Colorado 1.13
    19 District of Columbia 1.13
    20 California 1.10
    21 West Virginia 1.10
    22 Nebraska 1.09
    23 Ohio 1.07
    24 Kansas 1.06
    25 Minnesota 1.06
    26 Delaware 1.05
    27 Florida 1.04
    28 Missouri 1.04
    29 Arizona 1.03
    30 North Carolina 1.03
    31 Tennessee 1.01
    32 Illinois 1.00
    33 South Carolina 1.00
    34 Alaska 0.99
    35 Alabama 0.95
    36 Indiana 0.95
    37 Oklahoma 0.94
    38 Michigan 0.93
    39 Arkansas 0.92
    40 Kentucky 0.92
    41 Georgia 0.89
    42 Virginia 0.89
    43 Washington 0.84
    44 New York 0.83
    45 Massachusetts 0.80
    46 Idaho 0.74
    47 New Jersey 0.74
    48 Rhode Island 0.74
    49 Connecticut 0.72
    50 Maryland 0.63
    51 Utah 0.50

    Northeastern states, particularly New Hampshire (1.66 gallons) and Vermont (1.58 gallons) have some of the highest beer consumption rates in the country.

    New Hampshire doesn’t have state sales tax, making alcohol prices considerably lower than neighboring states. This likely drives higher alcohol sales rather than necessarily higher consumption.

    More than half of sales at New Hampshire liquor states come from out-of-state customers, according to the New Hampshire Liquor Commission.

    Many of its state-owned liquor states are also strategically located near state borders.

    When comparing global per capita consumption, European countries far outdrink the U.S. when it comes to beer.

    As a whole, the beer industry in America is experiencing a decline. U.S. beer shipments reached their lowest level in 25 years, according to data from the Beer Marketer’s Insights.

    The small and independent brewers’ industry in the U.S. is also experiencing a decline, with overall beer production and imports down 5% in 2023, and craft brewer sales down 1%, according to the Brewers Association.

    To learn more about beer consumption worldwide, check out this graphic that shows which countries drink the most beer according to Kirin Holdings.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 13:25

  • Iran Says Four Soldiers Were Killed In Israeli Attack Involving 100 Warplanes
    Iran Says Four Soldiers Were Killed In Israeli Attack Involving 100 Warplanes

    Update(1320ET): Iranian sources are confirming some of the first known deaths from the overnight Israeli airstrikes on the Islamic Republic, which focused on missile and military sites, and not nuclear or oil facilities.

    Four members of the Iranian army have been reported killed. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has also issued a fresh statement Saturday, warning there are “no limits” when it comes to defending the country. Israel too is warning against a potential Iranian counterstrike, but for now the quite limited Israeli operation is over and the situation looks contained in terms of avoiding bigger regional war.

    United Nations chief Antonio Guterres says he’s “deeply alarmed” by the overnight strikes, and is urging “maximum efforts to prevent an all-out regional war and return to the path of diplomacy.” And President Biden has expressed hope that “this is the end” following the Israeli strikes on Iran in a Saturday statement.

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

    * * *

    The Israeli ‘retaliation’ attack against Iran, which occurred in the overnight and early morning hours, appears to be complete, with Israel’s military (IDF) having declared the response “concluded” after locations in three provinces of the Islamic Republic were hit.

    Some 100 Israeli warplanes were sent, primarily across Jordanian airspace, for the unprecedented attack which reportedly included strikes on key missile, drone, and other military sites – including air defense installations. However, Iranians are mocking it as if it didn’t even happen, and there’s an emerging consensus among Western pundits that this was remarkably limited in scale. The attack did not involve Iranian nuclear or oil sites, according to Israeli military officials.

    Where are the Israeli strikes? Iranians look over the capital after explosions were heard, via Reuters

    IDF Spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said overnight – following at least two or three waves of attacks – “I can now confirm that we have concluded the Israeli response to Iran’s attack against Israel. We conducted targeted and precise strikes on military targets in Iran, thwarting immediate threats to the State of Israel.”

    And Hagari’s words concluded with the threat of new major escalation if Iran decides to respond militarily, “If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond. All those who threaten the State of Israel and seek to drag the region into wider escalation will pay a heavy price.”

    Local reports of explosions near Tehran emerged at around 2:15 local time, with strikes later being reported also in the Karaj, Isfahan and Shiraz areas. Israel’s military said it hit around 20 sites over the several hours across the three provinces.

    “If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond,” the Israeli military said.

    Israeli media indicated that while the first wave of warplanes took out anti-air defense sites, follow-up waves targeted ballistic missile and drone manufacturing facilities, as well as launch sites. Israeli officials say the operation sought to degrade Iran’s capability to launch another attack such as occurred on April 14 and October 1.

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

    The operation was declared complete within a few hours of reports of initial explosions: 

    The Israeli military said at 6 a.m. that the assault had been completed, with “all goals achieved” and all aircraft returning safely home. It dubbed the campaign “Days of Repentance,” a reference to the recent Yom Kippur holiday. It said dozens of IAF aircraft, including fighter jets, refuelers and spy planes, participated in the “complex” operation some 1,600 kilometers from Israel.

    Iran has only confirmed that “limited damage” resulted at some bases and asserted that its air defenses countered many of the attacks, a narrative which has been rejected by Israel.

    Israel’s air force touted that it gave it pilots “wider freedom of aerial action in Iran” – and yet still the whole operation looked significantly less intense than Iran’s Oct. 1st attack on Israel.

    Handout photo of PM Netanyahu meeting with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF commanders in the bunker below the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv.

    The reality is that air-to-surface missiles, which Israel focused on in its assault, don’t tend to be as destructive or as large in impact compared to ballistic missiles. It remains that Israel’s surface-to-surface ballistic missile capabilities are not as established as its air-launched capabilities.

    There are vague reports out of Syria that some locations inside the country were hit during the broader Iran assault, and possibly including sites in Iraq as well.

    Some pro-Iran and pro-Syria accounts mocked the quite limited attack, calling it a “nothingburger” as it unfolded, or else saying the Israelis merely started some brush fires 1,000 miles away in Iran.

    Iranian social media accounts are widely mocking the Israeli operation:

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

    Iranian state TV reported at one point that “The loud blasts heard around Tehran were related to the activation of the air defense system against the actions of Zionist regime which attacked three locations outside of Tehran city.”

    However, an Israeli official told Ynet news that the Iranian claim of interception was “a lie. It was a total failure, [there were] zero interceptions“—as reported in Times of Israel.

    While radar shows that airspace was totally cleared over the Islamic Republic, state media still tried to claim that the country’s main international airports, including in Tehran, were operating as normal.

    Via Flightradar24 website, early on October 26, 2024, displaying commercial flights around Iran’s airspace during Israeli strikes. AFP

    The Quincy Institute’s Trita Parsi comments as follows…

    The Israeli attack is over, but the outcome remains unclear. Tehran is downplaying it – even mocking it – which may be more reflective of their desire to de-escalate than a true assessment of the damage Israel inflicted on Iran. Just as Israel kept the damage of Iran’s Oct 1 strikes secret, Iran will likely not disclose the full picture of Israel’s strike. But if Iran chooses to exercise restraint, as it did after Israel’s limited strikes in April, then this chapter may be closed, yet the conflict will remain very much alive.

    A prominent pro-“resistance axis” account on X, Hadi Nasrallah, had this to say: “So, after Iran totally roasted Israel’s military bases and airports putting them on blast in front of the whole world, Israel thought it’d be badass to send some pops to Tehran, like that’s gonna distract us from their their crushing losses in Lebanon a day before.”

    On Saturday, Iranian state media is full of headlines outright mocking the somewhat muted Israeli attack…

    Indeed, it seems that after taking this long to telegraph its response well over three weeks since Oct.1st, Israel’s attack was more about theater than inflicting real and lasting damage on Iran. This was as many expected by design, appearing to really be all about sending a message while seeking to carefully avoid escalation. There are even reports saying that Israel notified Tehran ahead of time of the impending strikes, saying the Iranians must not hit back. The hawks are surely disappointed.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 13:20

  • Have We Ever Seen A Time When 4 Major Global Wars Are All Percolating Simultaneously?
    Have We Ever Seen A Time When 4 Major Global Wars Are All Percolating Simultaneously?

    Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

    We have reached a moment in history that none of us will forget.  We are literally standing on the precipice of the unthinkable, and most people don’t even realize it.  Of course horrific wars have a way of erupting when most people are not expecting them.  Hardly anyone expected a global war to erupt in 1914, but then tens of millions of precious souls died over the next four years.  Hardly anyone expected a global war to erupt in 1939, but then tens of millions of precious souls died over the next six years.  This time around, what is happening should be glaringly obvious to everyone.  Personally, I have been specifically warning about what is taking place right now for more than a decade.  If we do not change course, billions of precious souls could die during the nightmarish global wars that are rapidly approaching.

    At this moment, most Americans have no idea that a war between the United States and China is coming.

    Just a few days ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping boldly talked about “preparation for war” as he was dressed in military fatigues…

    On Thursday Chinese Communist Dictator Xi Jinping commanded troops to strengthen their preparedness for war while visiting his People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force following last week’s drills of surrounding the sovereign country of Taiwan.

    “Xi said the military should ‘comprehensively strengthen training and preparation for war, (and) ensure troops have solid combat capabilities,’ CCTV reported,” according to the AFP and reported on Barrons Saturday.

    Why would China need to prepare for war?

    Needless to say, nobody is planning to attack China.

    The truth is that the only reason that China would need to prepare for war is if it was planning to invade Taiwan.

    Because the moment that China invades Taiwan, the U.S. and China will be at war.

    In recent days, the Chinese have been getting very aggressive with Taiwan…

    On Monday, Beijing had deployed fighter jets, drones, warships and coast guard vessels to encircle Taiwan — its fourth round of large-scale war games around the democratic island in just over two years.

    China’s communist leaders have insisted they will not rule out using force to bring Taiwan under Beijing’s control.

    Meanwhile, western leaders continue to publicly discuss sending NATO troops to Ukraine.

    The latest example of this came from the foreign minister of Lithuania…

    The Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said in a statement to Politico on Monday that European Union countries should return to the idea of putting boots-on-the-ground in Ukraine to fight Russia.

    The idea comes after French President Emmanuel Macron said in February that sending Western troops to Ukraine is not ‘ruled out’ for the future plans in war against Russia, according to the AP. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz shut down that plan for the time being however.

    “If information about Russia’s killing squads being equipped with North Korean ammunition and military personnel is confirmed, we have to get back to ‘boots on the ground’ and other ideas proposed by [French President] Emmanuel Macron,” he said in written comments, Politico reported on Monday.

    One of the reasons why this has came up again is because there are reports that soldiers from North Korea are being equipped and sent to fight for Russia on the front lines of eastern Ukraine…

    North Korean soldiers have been filmed receiving uniforms and equipment at a training ground in Russia’s far east, appearing to confirm reports from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) that 1,500 soldiers have been shipped over for military training to be deployed in Ukraine.

    The North Korean troops are thought to be receiving training before being sent to the front line in Ukraine, in what is thought to be a clear sign of the ever-warming relations between Moscow and Pyongyang.

    Both sides just continue to escalate matters.

    It appears to be just a matter of time before we find ourselves in a direct conflict with the Russians, and that is a really, really bad idea.

    North Korea has been making all sorts of noise lately.  In addition to sending troops to fight in Ukraine, the North Koreans are also threatening to invade South Korea…

    North Korea has said it had found the remnants of a South Korean military drone and that any further “violation” of its territory would result in a “declaration of war.”

    Tensions between the two sides of the peninsula have escalated since May when the North began flying balloons carrying garbage across the border to the South, prompting Seoul to respond by restarting loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts.

    This week, North Korea accused South Korea of flying drones over Pyongyang on three occasions this month and threatened to respond with force if it happened again.

    The North Korean military is vastly superior to the South Korean military.

    If North Korea invades, the only way that South Korea will survive is if we intervene.

    But right now the U.S. military is focused on the Middle East, because that conflict could spiral completely out of control at any moment.

    On Sunday night, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari warned that Israel would soon begin targeting any financial institutions that aid Hezbollah…

    “In the past 24 hours, dozens of projectiles have been fired at northern Israel,” he began. “In the next minutes, we will issue an advance evacuation warning to residents of Beirut and other areas in Lebanon to evacuate locations being used to finance Hezbollah’s terror activities. I emphasize here: Anyone located near sites used to fund Hezbollah’s terror activities must move away from these locations immediately.”

    “We will strike several targets in the coming hours and additional targets throughout the night.

    “In the coming days, we will reveal how Iran funds Hezbollah’s terror activities by using civilian institutions, associations, and NGOs that act as fronts for terrorism.”

    And it certainly did not take long for that to start happening.

    Last night, branches of Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association Bank were hit by Israeli airstrikes…

    Israeli fighter jets struck dozens of targets in Beirut and other areas of southern Lebanon overnight, including branches of a bank accused of holding funds used by Hezbollah.

    The military’s Arabic spokesman, Avichay Adraee, had earlier in the night issued several evacuation orders for buildings throughout southern Lebanon he said were in the vicinity of facilities belonging to the U.S.-sanctioned Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association Bank.

    Most people in the western world have absolutely no idea how chaotic things have become over there.

    It is being reported that there is “widespread panic” in Beirut at this moment…

    Jeanine Hennis, the United Nations’ special coordinator for Lebanon, said that after the IDF issued its evacuations, said there was “widespread panic” in Beirut.

    “A brief window to escape to safety. Intense blasts reverberate across the night sky. With each day, Lebanon suffers more. But even amid the escalating violence, solutions remain available. If only opportunities would be seized,” she said.

    Could the U.S. soon find itself involved in 4 major global wars?

    Let’s hope not, because we are not even prepared to fight one…

    The US Army’s outgoing top commander in the Pacific region has warned that the US can “ill afford” another war because its military is vastly overstretched.

    According to Defense One, Gen. Charles Flynn said that the US’ authoritarian rivals — Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea — had been placing increasing pressure on American military resources.

    Speaking at the AUSA conference in Washington DC last week, Flynn described the technology and military alliances between the authoritarian states as a “very dangerous combination.”

    The U.S. military is not the overwhelming global force that it once was.

    While other major powers have been feverishly preparing to fight World War III, our military has been rapidly becoming a politically correct joke.

    Now a day of reckoning is upon us, and we are not ready.

    *  *  *

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

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 12:50

  • McDonald's Stock Hammered In Worst Week Since Pandemic Amid E. Coli Outbreak
    McDonald’s Stock Hammered In Worst Week Since Pandemic Amid E. Coli Outbreak

    McDonald’s announced Friday that it has “indefinitely” halted onion sourcing from Taylor Farms’ Colorado plant as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigate a severe E. coli outbreak. The outbreak has already sickened at least 75 people and resulted in one death.

    “While McDonald’s removed all slivered onions produced from this facility as of October 22, 2024, due to broad concern and our unwavering commitment to food safety we have made the decision to stop sourcing onions from Taylor Farms’ Colorado Springs facility indefinitely,” MCD wrote in a statement. 

    A spokesman for MCD told CBS News that about 1 million Quarter Pounders were sold nationwide during the E. coli outbreak. The majority of illnesses occurred in the western half of the country. 

    Here are states with cases:

    • Colorado
    • Iowa
    • Kansas
    • Michigan
    • Missouri
    • Montana
    • Nebraska
    • New Mexico
    • Oregon
    • Utah
    • Washington
    • Wisconsin
    • Wyoming

    Bloomberg published a visual showing the outbreak. 

    Source: Bloomberg 

    MCD spokesman noted that burgers are cooked at 175 degrees – the level needed to kill E. coli bacteria. However, he said the diced onions are raw, adding, “If that is the source, it will be the first time onions have been a carrier for this strain of E. coli.” 

    In markets, MCD shares in New York slid on the week, down 7.5%, the worst five-day stretch since March 2020. 

    In addition to MCD, food supplier US Foods issued a recall to thousands of restaurants that it supplied Taylor Farms’ onions. Yum! Brands restaurants—such as Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC—also removed fresh onions from their menus in response to the E. coli outbreak.

    No evidence has emerged identifying the source of the E. coli outbreak at Taylor Farms. However, there’s a huge need to scrutinize the influx of unvetted migrant workers employed by mega-farms and the processed foods industrial complex.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/26/2024 – 12:15

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Oct 26

Today’s News 26th October 2024

  • The US Was Inadvertently Responsible For The Sino-Indo Border De-Escalation Deal
    The US Was Inadvertently Responsible For The Sino-Indo Border De-Escalation Deal

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

    India announced earlier this week that it and China agreed to patrol their disputed border area in the way that it was before June 2020’s lethal Galwan River Valley clashes. This was made possible by China finally complying with India’s long-standing request, which in turn paved the way for their leaders to hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of this week’s BRICS Summit in Kazan. What many don’t realize, however, is that the US was inadvertently responsible for facilitating their deal.

    This analysis here from early May explains how summer 2023’s scandal about an alleged Indian assassination attempt against a Delhi-designated terrorist-separatist with dual American citizenship on US soil was a turning point in their ties. The US then continued with its good cop, bad cop game against India prior to pushing Canada to escalate its related dispute with India earlier this month. Even before the latest developments, however, Indo-US ties had already noticeably soured over this issue.  

    India and China held multiple rounds of talks on their disputed border since 2020, but no breakthrough had occurred until Indo-US ties became characterized by distrust as a result of summer 2023’s scandal and all that followed. China realized that those two’s previous level of trust will never return, which assuaged its concerns that India is playing a leading role in the US’ containment policy. It was this shift in perceptions that then led to China reconsidering its informal policy towards their border dispute.

    China had been reluctant to return to the status quo ante bellum since this was seen as a unilateral concession that could signal weakness and worsen its hand in the South China Sea. The drastic downturn in Indo-US ties, however, led to the aforesaid being perceived as a pragmatic means for managing the abovementioned concerns about India containing China in coordination with the US. The improvement of Sino-Indo ties could therefore place limits on the future improvement of Indo-US ones.

    Finally complying with India’s long-standing request for resolving their post-Galwan tensions and consequently placing their partnership back on track amidst the dramatic downturn in Indo-US ties could preclude the possibility of India participating in the US’ containment scheme. No improvement in Indo-US ties would occur at the expense of Sino-US ones if that happens after this sensitive problem is finally patched up by then and India thus no longer has the same threat perception of China as before.

    China and India have natural economic complementarities, and if the world’s two largest countries ever found a way to unleash their full mutual potential upon resolving their sensitive territorial issues and correspondingly restoring mutual trust, then global affairs would begin to revolve around them. That’s why the US has sought to divide-and-rule them through information warfare and its Kissingerian “triangulation” policy, but this failed after it went too far pressuring India over summer 2023’s scandal.

    About that, the US never respected India as an equal partner and instead sought to subjugate it as a vassal by demanding that India comply with the West’s unilateral sanctions against Russia, which was unacceptable for both economic and principled reasons. The US also feared India’s astronomical rise as a Great Power since the start of the special operation, fueled to a large degree by discounted Russian energy, since this accelerated multipolar processes to the detriment of its unipolar hegemony.

    That explains why it exploited summer 2023’s scandal to worsen their ties, meddled in this year’s earlier general elections, and even helped overthrow the Bangladeshi government a few months ago in order to pressure India into complying with these demands and then punishing it when this didn’t happen. Military and trade ties remain stable for now, but it can’t be taken for granted from India’s perspective that this will remain the case as their political ties continue to deteriorate over summer 2023’s scandal.

    They can quietly manage their competition in Bangladesh and try to find a modus vivendi there, while the US’ meddling wasn’t direct nor intense enough like in other elections to seriously worsen their ties, which is why summer 2023’s scandal remains the most troublesome of their disputes. Instead of letting it subside, the US continues exacerbating it at periodic intervals, both on its own and via its Canadian proxy. This informed India that the US has malicious intentions and can never be fully trusted again.

    Accordingly, India was therefore pleased that China finally decided to comply with its long-standing request for resolving their post-Galwan tensions and getting bilateral ties back on track, which showed the US that India will never become its vassal. Additionally, India also demonstrated that it’s influential enough to further accelerate multipolar processes to the detriment of the US’ unipolar hegemony as revenge for being mistreated, though its wayward partner still might not change its ways.

    Even on the off chance that it does, the mutual trust that used to characterize their ties before summer 2023’s scandal will never return, thus ruling out the possibility that India will contain China in coordination with the US in the future. This is especially so after China just removed the primary irritant in their relations over the past four years that was responsible for driving the military dimension of Indo-US ties that prompted the People’s Republic to speculate that India was trying to contain it with the US.

    In retrospect and provided that the incipient Sino-Indo rapprochement continues, the US’ pressure campaign against India might be seen as a game-changer due to how tremendously it’s poised to reshape the global systemic transition’s strategic dynamics. The meaningful improvement of Sino-Indo relations could lead them closer to unlocking their full mutual potential, which would revolutionize International Relations if successful and thus bring an even swifter end to the US’ unipolar hegemony.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 23:25

  • Watch: Trump And Rogan Have A Wild Interview
    Watch: Trump And Rogan Have A Wild Interview

    Former President Donald Trump appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast Friday, where they discussed a wide range of topics for three hours.

    Watch:

    Highlights:

    Getting rid of income taxes:

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

    Hoaxes perpetrated against Trump:

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

    Why Democrats are in favor of illegal immigration:

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

    Trump on bad White House hires:

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

    Keeping Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas in check:

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

    The two discussed the horrible condition California is in thanks to Gov. Gavin Newsom:

    Trump on getting shot:

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

    Trump on Musk:

    “Surreal” – On what it was like when Trump won the 1st time:

    “I want to be a whale psychiatrist” – Offshore windmills and how they affect whales:

    “You’ve said a lot of wild shit!” – Why Trump became so popular:

    Trump on Barron:

    “Big pharma wasn’t thrilled” – Trump on pressure not to work with RFK Jr.:

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

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 23:06

  • These Are The World's Best Bars In 2024
    These Are The World’s Best Bars In 2024

    Mexico City has been named the world capital of cocktails, with the famed Handshake Speakeasy bar taking the top spot in ‘The World’s 50 Best Bars 2024‘ by William Reed.

    As Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, the annual roundup is based on the votes of more than 600 industry experts from around the world, from bartenders and cocktail connoisseurs to consultants, critics and drinks reviewers.

    The podium is completed by Bar Leone, in Hong Kong, and Sips in Barcelona, the latter of which took the top spot last year.

    Infographic: The World’s Best Bars in 2024 | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    The highest ranked US bars are Double Chicken Please, in New York City (at 14th)…

    …and Overstory (also in NYC) at 15th on the list.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 23:00

  • Stepping On The Snake
    Stepping On The Snake

    Authored by T.L.Davis via Substack,

    One can roll all of the majority of grievances into one basic event, the government stepping on the snake. The famous Gadsden Flag of “Don’t Tread On Me,” a warning to the Brits to mind their own affairs, or they might get bitten, is a favorite of the patriots against the decades-long process of violating their rights. It’s a warning revived during the Tea Party days, now fifteen years hence. But they have been stepping on them.

    What the US Government loves to do, is step on the snake; to grind it into the ground and since 1787, they have not been bitten. It’s our responsibility to future generations to retaliate for the injustices of our time. Each generation has a duty, as I see it, to deliver the nation to the next generation with a full compliment of rights and freedoms.

    In that endeavor, we have thus far failed, but a new day dawns.

    It’s difficult to imagine the depth and width of patriotic zeal that has slowly been eroded over the past few centuries, but it is a great reservoir that the current regime continues to draw on to inflict mass casualties on the people without significant backlash. This is largely due to a misunderstanding of loyalty.

    The government likes to project symbols as the objects of loyalty, while eroding freedoms in darkness. So they shine a bright light on the flag “Old Glory,” as it’s sometimes called, that represents the past obedience of the government to its charter, the U.S. Constitution. In the meantime, they have hollowed out that document by ignoring it all along the way, from Executive Branch expansion as a means of doing a backward illegality that is the purview of congress, i.e., all spending bills have to originate in the House. But if the Executive Branch creates FEMA or the EPA, it becomes incumbent on congress to fund it with the excuse that they could simply defund it, should it get out of control. Well, that’s exactly what’s happened over and over again, except the House doesn’t have the political will to stand up for the people and defund anything. They have been terrorized by the bureaucrats that give example after example of bad things that they will be blamed for if they defund a single thing.

    They like to shine a bright light on the capitol building and the Washington Monument, even the White House to appeal to patriotism, while none of those things function as intended. During the whole of the Biden Administration, the Executive Branch has run itself. The DOJ doesn’t worry about committing crimes, because who is going to hold it accountable? FEMA and the border patrol fall under their purview as well as the FBI. No one can hold them accountable, but they can defund them. Our congress, who has oversight, has been unwilling to restrain its excesses.

    All of this is a challenge to patriots to do something about it, knowing that whatever they might do will be cast as an attack on the flag, the congress or the cynically termed “democracy.” We saw that on January 6th. It had a chilling effect on the right to assemble and petition for a redress of grievances as intended. The constitutional right violates the security of the corrupt government and is suddenly deemed unpatriotic, an insurrection, rather than what it was, a right to petition the government to correct an openly and arrogantly stolen election.

    The point is, the government will fight back with everything it has to keep the people enslaved to their bastardization of the constitution and the denial of rights of the people. It takes a brave population to shrug off those charges, repudiate the “unpatriotic” theme with action, but look at what’s been endured since January 6th, 2021 and you’ll understand the lengths to which they will go and the methods by which you can operate.

    First, don’t give them a timeline, or an opportunity to infiltrate. The very existence of opposition assembly arises from Obama and sending SEIU out to do his bidding against those who protested Obamacare. I know, I was there, I saw it, including the buses and the sign-in sheets by which these public servants were paid for their time to counter unpaid, patriotic, citizen-organized protests. This is a tactic that has been used over and over with Antifa and BLM in later-stage government’s attacks on freedom of speech and the right to assemble.

    Anytime the government sponsors or pays counter-protesters, it is a violation of the First Amendment. Simple as that. They are acting unlawfully. To counter all of this, the people must be much more aware of their rights and especially the law with the willingness to report such crimes to the Sheriff or DA of the jurisdiction. That, specifically, is in violation of 18 USC 41 Conspiracy against rights, where any two people gathered to deny any right, in this case, intimidate you from exercising one’s right to petition the government for a redress of grievances through fear for one’s safety, they have committed a crime. One can tell the difference by where the “counter protesters” are placed. If it is within sight and sound of original protesters, the right has been violated.

    This all points to one ultimate conclusion. If the government is invested in denying any right of the people, it actually serves as an injury for which consequences can be expected. That is the justification, the act in defense of the constitution that defeats their claims of “unpatriotic acts.” In order to be unpatriotic, one has to be defying the constitution, not the illegal actions of the government itself. Denying that criticism, through counter-protestors or censorship of social media is in violation of the law.

    While I admit this all sounds like official gobbledegook that has no weight or stamina in a corrupt court, it is. But I’m not arguing the law, but the justification for consequences for stepping on the snake. Getting one’s mind right for the upcoming festivities is as important as any other preparation. It will endure one during hard times knowing that despite what the captured media might say, they acted rightfully and legally in the eyes of compatriots. This was the preparatory work not done prior to January 6th.

    There will be another January 6th, they’re begging for it and will, like then, create it, if it won’t be brought to them wrapped in shiny paper and a ribbon. The response, unlike then, must be a full-throated denunciation and demand for the real criminals to be exposed.

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 22:35

  • These Are The Most Common Origins Of Immigrants
    These Are The Most Common Origins Of Immigrants

    A world map showing the most common origins of immigrants by country reveals some prolific immigrant nations as well as the influence that conflict and economic collapse can have on migration patterns.

    As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, the most common pattern around the world is neighbors providing the most immigrants to one another.

    This is for example the case in the U.S. and Mexico, which are the biggest source of immigrants to each other.

    It is the same between Albania and Greece or Honduras and El Salvador, for example.

    Infographic: The Most Common Origins of Immigrants | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    This is based on data from the United Nations Population Division.

    This pattern is disrupted however, when many people leave their country at the same time due to conflict, war or poverty. Venezuelan immigrants are now the largest group in nine neighboring countries, while six neighbors of the Democratic Republic of the Congo have taken in large groups of their citizens.

    For Somalia, its five neighbors.

    Ukrainian immigrants as of 2020 already were the biggest group in four neighboring nations, equal to Syria and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

    Then there are also those nations which are known to send immigrants all over the world, not just in their direct neighborhood. Among them are India and China, with their citizens being the largest group of immigrants in neighboring nations as well as on the Arabian Gulf in the case of India and in Canada and Australia in the case of China.

    In Europe, Poland is the most prominent nation of emigration, with Poles being the largest group of immigrants in the United Kingdom, Germany and some Scandinavian nations.

    Only a handful of countries have a more unique major immigration partner that is not their neighbor. These instances are often tied to colonialism.

    The biggest immigrant group in Equatorial Guinea and Morocco are from France, while for the Netherlands it is Suriname, for Portugal Angola, for France Algeria, for Cuba Spain and for New Zealand the United Kingdom.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 22:10

  • The US Is Now More Dependent On Fossil Fuel Power Than China
    The US Is Now More Dependent On Fossil Fuel Power Than China

    By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

    Increased use of natural gas for power generation has made the United States more dependent on fossil fuels for its electricity supply this year than China, the world’s top carbon emitter.

    Since June 2024, high U.S. summer electricity demand has been mostly met by increased gas-fired power generation, while a rebound in hydropower in China has limited to some extent the share of coal in its electricity supply.

    As a result, fossil fuels – including natural gas and coal – have had an average share of 62.4% of total electricity output in the United States since June. This compares to a lower fossil fuel share in the coal-dominated power system in China, where fossil fuels accounted for 60.5% of generation between June and September, according to data from energy think tank Ember reported by Reuters columnist Gavin Maguire.

    The rise in natural gas power output could undermine the current U.S. goals of making the grid zero-carbon by 2035.

    U.S. power generation from natural gas surged by 20% in the first nine months of 2024, compared to the same period of 2019. The share of gas in power supply has jumped to 43% from 38% five years ago.

    In recent years, power demand in the United States, the single largest portion of which is delivered by gas-fired power plants, has soared and is expected to continue to surge with rising electrification and more electricity necessary to power and cool data centers.

    U.S. power-generating companies are announcing plans for the highest volume of new natural gas-fired capacity in years as the AI boom is driving demand for electricity.

    During the first half of 2024, electricity-generating firms unveiled plans for the new gas-powered capacity equal to all capacity announced in 2020, according to data from Sierra Club cited by Bloomberg last month.

    Natural gas-fired electricity generation in the United States has jumped year-to-date compared to the same period last year, as total power demand rose with warmer temperatures and demand from data centers.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 21:45

  • 39% Of US Couples Met Online
    39% Of US Couples Met Online

    Today’s daters are taking matters into their own hands. Seemingly no longer satisfied with the potential partners that life throws at them at work, in school and in their circle of friends, Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below that an increasingly large number of heterosexual daters is opting to meet their partner online.

    Surveys carried out and analyzed by Stanford University show that between 1995 and 2017 the number of heterosexuals who met their partner on the internet rose sharply from 2 percent to 39 percent.

    Infographic: How Couples Met | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    With the help of dating apps like Tinder and eHarmony, but also through social networking sites like Facebook, daters reconnected with old friends and acquaintances (8 percent of couples who met online), were introduced to someone (11 percent) or – in the majority of cases – met someone completely new on their own (81 percent).

    The authors of the survey concluded that the main draw of looking for a stranger online was a larger set of choices than when leveraging friends and family, which was especially useful when “searching for something unusual or hard‐to‐find.“

    In a similar vein, meeting your partner in a bar or restaurant was also on the rise between 1995 and 2017.

    Stanford researchers excluded homosexuals from their analysis because they constitute a minority sexual orientation, making meeting someone online a more obvious choice for them than for heterosexuals.

    These were usually in a “thick dating market” (quote from Stanford) and therefore normally also able to identify several potential mates in their offline lives, according to the research.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 21:20

  • American Horror Story: How We Create Our Own Worst Nightmare
    American Horror Story: How We Create Our Own Worst Nightmare

    Via SchiffGold.com,

    A simple internet search confirms the overwhelming buzz in the air: Americans across the board are more concerned with the economy than any other political issue.

    This concern is overwhelming across both aisles, seems to be growing, and has remained a large issue for years. Recent polling data shows that when combined, concern about inflation & prices, and jobs & the economy create a supergroup that more than doubles any other individual worry. While party lines are more rigid than we would like to believe, it seems as though a candidate who embraced this fear and found a solution could have absurdly high mass appeal.

    While both presidential candidates have seen the recent trends and more strongly espoused their economic plans, it seems almost impossible to focus on the economy too much. While the lack of overwhelming emphasis on economic issues might seem like a simple misunderstanding between politicians and citizens, the root of high inflation and economic uncertainty is much more linked to voter’s own desires than they would ever want to believe.

    Citizens, whose actively informed assent is supposed to be one the primary bases of government, have an odd habit of wanting the best for themselves. The declaration’s explicit promotion of our right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” has created a foundational belief that anything short of thriving is not fulfilling the promise of America.​​ While what it means to thrive is defined differently by person, most Americans believe that our access to material goods, pleasures, and freedom from worry should be constantly growing. While this desire is not unique to Americans, the state’s embrace of its role as a servant makes us less skeptical of politicians who promise to give national success in every area. We only apply strong scrutiny to the high-flying claims of the opposing sides’ candidates because we believe that the high-flying promises of our own candidates are merely necessary to the fulfillment of their duty. While in many countries all politicians are more obviously known to be self-seeking charlatans, our institutions’ relative freedom from corruption have allowed us to live under the illusion that we are always one president away from “getting it right.”

    This desire creates an endless loop where candidates who do not paint a rosy picture of the future lose favor with the public. While the American political and economic system has created unprecedented human thriving, our desire to select candidates who claim to “do it all” is the root cause of our economic woes. 

    It may seem fatalistic to claim that positive and multi-focused candidates are the problem. There is nothing inherently wrong with having a diverse policy agenda, but the short term cycle of elections necessitates that plans will skew towards the near future. It is possible to have less inflation, more economic growth, and less taxes, but not immediately. The best that a candidate can hope for is to time everything right so that all the key metrics of economic success are most appealing in the months leading up to their hopeful reelection. People cling to the idea that we can fix all of our problems without associated pain or adjustment periods. We must embrace willing restraint from indulgence if we are to secure the free and prosperous future we dream of. Candidates fuel our ignorant belief that we can be reckless in the present without sacrificing the future, because they know they will be able to escape blame for a collapse that comes many years after they leave office. This negative cycle is not a direct result of our electoral process, or even of the candidates themselves.

    This cycle is allowed to continue because of the economic ignorance and low impulse control of voters.

    We damn our children by choosing to maximize our own comfort, not fully understanding how it will affect them, or even ourselves in 15 years. 

    We will not be able to escape this cycle until basic economic principles are more rigorously taught in schools. When forced to choose between two big-spending candidates, choosing the candidate who creates freer market conditions will always be the better choice, because that type of unpredictable and rapid growth can sustain far more spending than the tepid stagnation of a wannabe command economy. While the choice is obvious, it is far from a safe choice. The candidates are not the problem, rather, they are a reflection of our desires. Our desires and understanding must be formed through our upbringing and education in a way that will allow us to cut through empty promises and simplistic hedonism. Wanting low prices, low taxation, a healthy military and a strong healthcare system is natural, but we must be wise enough to know that those things must come slowly.

    Fiscal responsibility is boring and painful, but it is the only way to simultaneously secure “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 20:55

  • US Shale Nat Gas Production Declines For The First Time Since 2000
    US Shale Nat Gas Production Declines For The First Time Since 2000

    By Katy Fleury of the EIA.gov

    U.S. natural gas production from shale and tight formations, which accounts for 79% of dry natural gas production, decreased slightly in the first nine months of 2024 compared with the same period in 2023. If this trend holds for the remainder of 2024, it would mark the first annual decrease in U.S. shale gas production since we started collecting these data in 2000.

    Total U.S. shale gas production from January through September 2024 declined by about 1%, to 81.2 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), compared with the same period in 2023, while other U.S. dry natural gas production increased by about 6% to 22.1 Bcf/d. Total U.S. dry natural gas production from January through September 2024 averaged 103.3 Bcf/d, essentially flat compared with the same period in 2023.

    The decline in shale gas production so far this year has been driven primarily by declines in production in the Haynesville and Utica plays. From January through September 2024, shale gas production decreased by 12% (1.8 Bcf/d) in the Haynesville and by 10% (0.6 Bcf/d) in the Utica compared with the same period in 2023. At the same time, shale gas production in the Permian play grew by 10% (1.6 Bcf/d). Production in the Marcellus play, which leads U.S. shale gas production, remained flat.

    The Haynesville play in northeastern Texas and northwestern Louisiana is a dry natural gas formation. The Utica and Marcellus plays in the Appalachian Basin produce lease condensate in addition to dry natural gas. In all three plays, natural gas prices mostly drive drilling and developing wells. The U.S. benchmark Henry Hub daily natural gas price has generally declined since August 2022 and reached record lows in the first half of 2024, making drilling natural gas wells less profitable, particularly in the Haynesville. Several operators in the Haynesville and the Appalachian Basin shut in natural gas production in reaction to historically low prices and intend to continue curtailments in the second half of 2024.

    In contrast, natural gas produced in the Permian play in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico is primarily associated gas from oil wells where drilling and development is driven by the oil price. Natural gas production in the Permian has increased this year along with increasing oil production.

    Shale natural gas production in the Utica was 5.6 Bcf/d in September, 33% less than the monthly high of 8.3 Bcf/d in December 2019 and 10% less than the average of 6.2 Bcf/d in 2023. At depths of 5,000 feet to 11,000 feet, wells in the Utica, which lies beneath the Marcellus, are slightly more expensive to drill than Marcellus wells because of their depth.

    Drilling costs of Haynesville wells, at depths of 10,500 feet to 13,500 feet, are even higher. Shale natural gas production in the Haynesville was 13.0 Bcf/d in September 2024, 14% less than the peak in May 2023. The Haynesville is the third-largest shale gas-producing play in the United States, behind the Marcellus and the Permian plays. In 2023, shale natural gas production in the Haynesville averaged 14.6 Bcf/d, accounting for 14% of total U.S. dry natural gas production.

    The U.S. benchmark Henry Hub natural gas price fell 79% from the August 2022 inflation-adjusted high of $9.39 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) to an average of $1.99/MMBtu in August 2024. So far this year, the price has averaged $2.10/MMBtu compared with an inflation-adjusted average of $6.89/MMBtu in 2022 and $2.62/MMBtu in 2023. As natural gas prices declined, the economics of producing natural gas in the dry gas formations worsened, leading producers to shut in production and drop drilling rigs.

    Producers tend to increase or decrease the number of drilling rigs in operation as natural gas prices fluctuate. The number of natural gas-directed drilling rigs in the Haynesville, Utica, and Marcellus plays has decreased steadily since the end of 2022, according to data from Baker Hughes. In the Haynesville, an average of 33 rigs were in operation in September 2024, 53% fewer than in January 2023. The number of rigs operating in the Haynesville in September was the lowest it has been since July 2020.

    In the Utica, an average of seven rigs were operating in September 2024, fewer than half the number that were operating in January 2023, and in the Marcellus, an average of 25 rigs were in operation, about 36% fewer than in January 2023. Although the productivity of newer wells has improved in recent years, the decline in rig counts has contributed to an overall decrease in production.

    In our latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, we forecast total U.S. dry natural gas production to average 103.5 Bcf/d in 2024, down slightly from 103.8 Bcf/d in 2023, and to resume modest growth in 2025 at 104.6 Bcf/d.

     

     

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 20:30

  • 2 Lawmakers Attempt The Impossible: Saving Social Security
    2 Lawmakers Attempt The Impossible: Saving Social Security

    Authored by Mark Tapscott via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    More members of Congress, 329, co-sponsored the Social Security Fairness Act (SSFA) than nearly any other legislative proposal in 2024, but that may not be evidence of lawmakers’ eagerness to fix what ails the retirement pension program—the bill doesn’t address the fundamental insolvency issue.

    Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images, Shutterstock

    The SSFA would end two provisions of current law that reduce benefits for millions of public employees at all levels of government with separate pension systems. Eliminating the provisions means more Social Security benefits for such workers.

    In other words, the SSFA would increase the total amount of Social Security benefits paid out without providing new revenues to fund them. Even so, the bipartisan proposal is likely to pass Congress and President Joe Biden—who promised in his 2020 campaign to eliminate the provision—is expected to sign it into law when lawmakers reconvene after the election.

    For decades, Social Security has been the untouchable “third rail” of American politics that virtually no Democrat or Republican dares to propose changing for fear of angering legions of elderly and disabled voters who depend on the program.

    Approximately 70 million Americans are beneficiaries, making Social Security the largest federal entitlement program.

    The Social Security Trustees’ latest report projects that the system will become insolvent in 2035 unless Congress approves major reforms soon.

    Meanwhile, the ratio of workers paying into the system to beneficiaries is heading downward. The ratio in 1950 was 16 workers to one beneficiary; today that ratio is 2.8 workers per beneficiary. Plus, retirees are living longer today, drawing more benefits over time.

    Politicians increase benefits, but are loathe to increase Social Security taxes or slash benefits.

    The seemingly impossible challenge for Congress and the White House is how to reform Social Security if increased taxes and reduced benefits are untouchable. The last president to propose a major reform was George W. Bush, who shortly after being re-elected in 2004, suggested privatizing the system.

    Under that proposal, Americans would have been allowed to divert some of their Social Security taxes into government-approved private investment funds. Bush hastily dropped the plan after opposition in both parties and in the mainstream media exploded.

    More recently, two lawmakers have ventured beyond the raise-taxes-reduce-benefits dilemma to explore other ways of saving Social Security before it becomes insolvent.

    Raising the Tax Cap

    Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) has introduced his Social Security 2100 Act repeatedly in recent years, and it has gained strong support (188 co-sponsors) among his Democratic colleagues. Larson is the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Social Security.

    During a floor speech earlier this year, Larson said that “more than five million of our fellow Americans have worked and paid into the system and get below poverty level checks from their government.”

    Larson noted, however, that it has been decades since Congress approved changes designed to shore up the Social Security system’s finances. He also rejected suggestions from House Republicans that a study commission be created to recommend reforms.

    “It’s long overdue that we not study this—how about we do what we’re elected to do by the public and actually vote,” he said.

    “I commend President Biden for saying, look, the way we’re going to pay for this is by lifting the cap … on people making more than $400,000 a year.”

    Larson’s bill would not hike the Social Security tax rate, but would apply Social Security taxes to all taxpayers making more than $400,000 annually. The present salary cap on Social Security taxes is set at $168,600.

    “Millionaires have already stopped paying into the Social Security program. Bill Gates stopped paying back in January. That is wrong, it’s not right, but to lift that cap will allow us to not only extend the solvency of Social Security, but increase benefits across the board,” he said.

    Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) speaks as House Democrats hold a news conference to announce the introduction of the Social Security 2100 Act in front of the U.S. Capitol on March 18, 2015. Allison Shelley/Getty Images

    According to an analysis by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, an individual making $500,000 annually only pays Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) levies on the first $168,600 of income, which equals $10,453 a year. Under the Larson proposal, the same individual would pay $31,000 in FICA levies, nearly three times as much.

    Larson did not respond to requests for comment.

    The Big Idea

    Venturing even further into reform is Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana doctor and ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

    Cassidy calls his proposal the “Big Idea” and it is based on the creation by Congress of a new $1.5 trillion investment fund that is totally separate from the Social Security Trust Fund—which receives FICA revenues that pay for benefits.

    Asked by The Epoch Times how the new fund would be financed, Cassidy said “that is open to negotiation. You could sell government assets to fund it over time, you could borrow it and put it in there.

    “Folks say ‘But wait a minute, isn’t that going to increase your debt?’ It turns out you’re not spending it, you’re putting it into escrow. And according to the Congressional Budget Office, that’s going to be considered a wash.”

    The Big Idea escrow fund would be managed by an independent company that would bid for the job, assume a fiduciary responsibility for the results and invest the fund in a conservative portfolio of private sector entities to function like Sovereign Wealth funds.

    “[Wall Street executive John] Paulson and [former President Donald] Trump have talked about creating a Sovereign Wealth fund. Advisers to Joe Biden have talked about creating a Sovereign Wealth fund. Now what we’re talking about with our Big Idea is somewhat of a Sovereign Wealth fund,” Cassidy said. Paulson is often mentioned as a potential Secretary of the Treasury if Trump is re-elected.

    The same approach is already in use in the pension field, Cassidy said, with the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) for civil servants, the U.S. National Railroad Retirement Trust, Wisconsin’s public employee retirement system, and the Canadian government pension system.

    Cassidy said the fund is projected to generate sufficient profits to cover 75 percent of Social Security’s revenue shortfall and that he is open to alternative approaches to covering the remaining 25 percent.

    “Combined with some relatively minor tweaks to the program, at the end of 75 years, all the accumulated debt would be paid off, and the Social Security program would be able to cover its obligations in perpetuity,” he said in an earlier statement.

    Asked how misuse would be avoided, Cassidy said “we’ve got a couple of mechanisms, we had the Heritage Foundation help us draft the way by which to prevent political meddling.” He said former Comptroller General David Walker has also suggested several solutions.

    Cassidy said he supports a ban on investing in firms based in China, an issue that ensnared TSP managers in 2019 when Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) highlighted the risks of federal worker contributions investing in Chinese firms.

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 20:05

  • US Signals Defense Guarantees To Saudis As Iran's Crosshairs Could Be On Abqaiq Refinery
    US Signals Defense Guarantees To Saudis As Iran’s Crosshairs Could Be On Abqaiq Refinery

    Wall Street analysts have been on edge for weeks over the scope of Israel’s planned retaliation strike after Iran’s large-scale missile barrage on Oct. 1, which may include F-35 stealth fighter jets striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, missile sites and or oil infrastructure. The geopolitical risk premium for Brent crude has faded in recent weeks as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken runs around the Middle East to ensure that IDF jets hold off on any strikes against Iran until after the US presidential elections. 

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    Israel has considered a slew of retaliatory options, reportedly including fighter jets striking Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ high-value military targets, as well as Iran’s leadership, financial networks, oil infrastructure, and nuclear program sites. 

    About a week ago, Axios reported the leak of a highly classified US intelligence report that revealed new details about Israel’s plans for retaliation against Iran. This leak delayed IDF’s strike.

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    IDF’s most strategic move would be to dismantle the IRGC’s command and control networks and centers by targeting key officials, missile sites, and then financial networks. Also, paralyze Tehran’s ability to export crude via dark tanker fleets to China (source of revenues). All while trying to avoid a humanitarian crisis. This will be very challenging for Israel. 

    There is no doubt that after IDF strikes Iran, IRGC will respond in a tit-for-tat effort… 

    “The Iranian Foreign Minister’s ongoing diplomatic flurry in the Gulf notwithstanding, Iran will have little choice but to follow up on its threats to strike Gulf energy infrastructure once Iran’s own energy facilities come under attack and it becomes clear – again – that Iran lacks the ability to cause commensurate damage in Israel…This is easy to envision before the end of the year,” Scott Modell, CEO at Rapidan Energy Advisors, wrote in a statement.

    Bloomberg noted Friday morning that people familiar with the matter indicate Biden admin officials have signaled to Saudi Arabia they’re on standby and ready to defend the Kingdom against an attack by Iran or its proxies.

    Here’s more from the report:

    The tacit offer, made in the past few weeks, has given Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other Gulf Arab leaders some comfort as they await Israel’s response to Iran’s Oct. 1 missile attack, said the people, asking not to be identified discussing sensitive issues. Gulf states fear any escalation of the conflict could severely hurt their economic and security interests, the people said.

    In all fairness to Bloomberg journalists, the US doesn’t really have any other option to signal otherwise. 

    The vulnerability we see is precisely what Iran demonstrated in its drone and missile attacks at Abqaiq (the largest crude oil stabilization plant in the world) and Khurais in Saudi Arabia in 2019.

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    This Abqaiq refinery attack back then briefly shuttered 5% of the global oil supply. 

    There’s a very real risk that the next evolution of conflict could be IRGC striking oil assets in Saudi Arabia, or even causing trouble in the maritime chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz – all in an effort to weaponize crude oil markets against the West and spark a financial shock. We’ve highlighted this potential scenario since early March in a note titled “The Weaponization Of Crude Could Trigger The Next Financial Shock.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 19:40

  • Israeli Forces Attack Iran With "Precise Strikes On Military Targets" In Retaliatory Response
    Israeli Forces Attack Iran With “Precise Strikes On Military Targets” In Retaliatory Response

    Israel attacked Iran early Saturday morning local time with what it’s referred to as “precise strikes on Iranian military targets,” weeks after the Islamic Republic fired around 180 ballistic missiles towards Israel on Oct. 1. Blasts were reported near the headquarters of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

    In a rare announcement, the Israeli military said its strikes are underway, and that their “offensive and defensive capabilities are fully mobilized,” while the WSJ reports that Israel gave the US advance notice.

    “We were aware in advance,” said a US official.

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    According to unconfirmed reports, several explosions have been heard in Tehran. According to journalist Reza Rashidpour, five large explosions were heard in the city within around 10 seconds, while Iranian Air Force jets have taken off in the western part of the country, the NY Times reports.

    According to the Times: 

    Residents of Tehran reported hearing multiple explosions in and around the Iranian capital, and Iranian state media sites said the explosions were near or at Imam Khomeini international airport.

    Maryam Naraghi, an Iranian journalist, said she heard large explosions in the eastern part of Tehran, where she lives. “It was the sound of bombs and explosions,” she said. “It was very close to where I am in the eastern part of the city.” The area includes military bases and the secretive military site Parchin.

    Another Iranian journalist, Reza Rashidpour, said five massive explosions were heard in Tehran within about 10 seconds. He said Iranian air force jets had taken off in the western part of the country.

    Iranians have also reported hearing explosions in Isfahan, Mashhad, and Kurdistan province, while two senior Arab officials told NBC News that the initial strike on Tehran targeted barracks and a weapons depot.

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    Tehran has threatened to target Gulf states and other US allies if their territories or airspace are used to attack Iran – while Israel assured the US that it wouldn’t strike Iran’s oil or nuclear facilities.

    As Axios reports, US and Israeli officials believe Iran will respond military – but hope it will be ‘constrained’ in order to put an end to the tit-for-tat (ok).

    Driving the news: The U.S. military boosted its forces in the region in the last few weeks ahead of Israel’s possible attack on Iran.

    • U.S. officials said the goal was to deter Iran from responding and help Israel defend itself from another Iranian missile barrage.
    • President Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin decided to deploy a THAAD missile defense system in Israel with a crew of U.S. military operators.
    • That means U.S. soldiers could actively engage in the fighting between Israel and Iran on Israeli soil.
    • On Friday, several hours before the Israeli strike, CENTCOM announced that U.S. Air Force F-16s from the 480th Fighter Squadron based at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany had arrived in U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility.

    Meanwhile, the FBI is investigating a leak of top secret US intelligence documents that revealed part of Israel’s upcoming strike on Iran.

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    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 19:35

  • Quiet Before The Storm
    Quiet Before The Storm

    Authored by J. Peder Zane via RealClearPolitics,

    “I just can’t wait for this campaign to be over.”

           –The American people

    Enjoy these last nasty days of the presidential election – they are the quiet before the storm. As long as the race continues, each side’s anger is reined in by the hope of victory. Once a winner is declared, the loser’s rage will erupt. This political Vesuvius promises to inflame the land as events unfold in these final days to maximize furious disappointment

    Donald Trump’s side is becoming ever more confident of victory. In recent weeks, RealClearPolitics Polling Averages show Harris’ national lead evaporating while Trump has moved slightly ahead in all six battleground states. Betting markets are now giving Trump the edge.

    Still, the polls are very close, and Harris may win. If Trump could insist that he won the 2020 race when all the polls predicted his defeat, just imagine his response if he fails when he appeared to be succeeding. He will not go quietly into the good night.

    Kamala Harris, meanwhile, has settled on a closing argument that focuses on Trump’s alleged unsuitability for office. As the candidate herself describes her opponent as an unstable threat to the Constitution, her surrogates are once again comparing him to Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. They honestly believe this rhetoric, which will make it impossible for them to bow to his ascension.

    We have seen this movie before. The Democrats refused to accept Trump’s victory in 2016; he still won’t concede that President Biden won in 2020. As before, neither side will blame themselves for defeat; they will lash out at their perceived enemies. Each will advance their favored conspiracy theory – Trump will rail against the press and deep state, Democrats against foreign influence and misinformation – but both will cast the result as illegitimate.

    This is what happens when you are controlled by tribal emotion, when your politics are governed by psychology rather than policy. People have too much invested in the outcome – literally, their sense of self – to engage in soul searching (at least in the short run).

    Because of the different structures of each party, a Harris loss would be far more destructive to the country.

    In its current incarnation, the GOP is a bottom-up party. None of its ranking eminences wanted Trump to be the nominee in 2016; almost all of them hoped he would go away after his 2020 defeat. The MAGA rank and file felt differently.

    If Trump loses, he will fume and smolder and inflame the body politic. Millions of his supporters will be outraged. But they are largely powerless to influence events. Jan. 6 may have been a dark day in American history, but it was a brief action by a small number of people that was never repeated. Most Republicans condemned the assault and resigned themselves to living peaceably during the Biden presidency. If Trump loses once more, party leaders will, as in 2020, admit defeat and denounce efforts to overturn the result. Frankly, they will be happy to turn the page on the Trump era.

    The Democrats, by contrast, are a top-down party. While no one should be surprised by a repeat of the contained violence their supporters unleashed around Trump’s inauguration, the real action will occur once more in the corridors of power.

    In a repetition of Trump’s first term, party leaders will refuse to accept his election. An army of Democratic Party lawyers is amassed, awaiting instructions on how, and where, to challenge the results. If, as the polls suggest, Democrats retake the House, they have already floated the idea of refusing to seat him, invoking the Civil War-era 14th Amendment to claim he is a Jan. 6 “insurrectionist.” Assuming that gambit fails, they will almost certainly launch multiple impeachment efforts against him while their stenographers in legacy media continuously cast him as an existential threat to the Republic. As during Trump’s first term, every day will be a nonviolent version of Jan. 6. You cannot, after all, find common ground with Hitler.

    It pains me to say that the next four years will be more bitter than the last eight. We, the people, have painted ourselves into a corner by turning to the unforgiving world of politics to find identity and meaning. Will we ever find the courage to say enough?

    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, 10/25/2024 – 19:15

  • Owners Of Ship Involved In Baltimore Bridge Collapse Settle DOJ Lawsuit For $100 Million
    Owners Of Ship Involved In Baltimore Bridge Collapse Settle DOJ Lawsuit For $100 Million

    The owner and operator of the cargo ship that caused a Baltimore bridge collapse has agreed to pay nearly $102 million to settle a civil lawsuit with the Department of Justice, the DOJ announced Thursday.

    The Dali collided with one of the columns of the Francis Scott Key bridge in March, after the ship suffered mechanical issues, which caused the bridge to collapse and kill six workers. 

    The incident forced Baltimore to close its port and federal channel for months, which slowed commercial shipping traffic that flowed through Maryland’s largest city.

    As The Epoch Times’ Caden Pearson reports, the DOJ announced the settlement with Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine, the owners and operators of the Motor Vessel Dali, on Oct. 24.

    The deal resolves a portion of the legal dispute that began in September when the DOJ sued the companies for damages linked to the federal government’s response to the incident.

    The $101.9 million settlement will cover the federal government’s costs for cleaning up the wreckage and reopening the port. However, it does not address the cost of rebuilding the bridge itself, which the state of Maryland is pursuing in a separate claim.

    “Thanks to the hard work of the Justice Department attorneys since day one of this disaster, we were able to secure this early settlement of our claim, just over one month into litigation,” Benjamin Mizer, principal deputy associate attorney general, said in a statement.

    “This resolution ensures that the costs of the federal government’s cleanup efforts in the Fort McHenry Channel are borne by Grace Ocean and Synergy and not the American taxpayer.”

    In a separate move, Grace Ocean has already paid nearly $100,000 to the Coast Guard to address the oil spill threat caused by the wreck.

    “This is a tremendous outcome that fully compensates the United States for the costs it incurred in responding to this disaster and holds the owner and operator of the Dali accountable,” said Brian Boynton, principal deputy assistant attorney general at the DOJ.

    The disaster occurred on March 26 when the Motor Vessel Dali lost power while departing the Port of Baltimore for Sri Lanka.

    After regaining and then losing power again, the ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse into the water below.

    The collapse halted shipping traffic in and out of the port for weeks and severed a critical highway connection.

    Federal, state, and local agencies worked together to clear over 50,000 tons of debris from the water. Shipping resumed by June after temporary channels were created to ease the jam.

    The $100 million settlement does seem a little shy of the estimates of the costs involved in rebuilding the bridge.

    As Shailen Bhatt, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, confirmed to lawmakers in May, a preliminary estimate to replace the bridge at $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion. It will take four years to construct, with completion estimated to come sometime in 2028, he said.

    So while they may claim the “American taxpayer” is off the hook,  we suspect that is another lie (because the optics would be bad).

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 18:50

  • Election Battles For State Legislature Supermajorities Heat Up
    Election Battles For State Legislature Supermajorities Heat Up

    Authored by Austin Alonzo via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    While Congress stagnates, America’s state houses are drafting and passing policies affecting millions. Now, more than ever, those legislative bodies operate without input from an opposition party or dissenting governor.

    Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

    As of Oct. 21, there are 23 Republican trifectas, 17 Democratic trifectas, and 10 divided governments where neither party holds trifecta control, according to Ballotpedia. A trifecta means one party holds the state governorship and a majority in the state house and senate.

    Heading into November’s general election, legislative supermajorities exist in 57 of the 99 legislative chambers in the union, according to data compiled by state and local government consultancy Stateside.

    Republicans hold 41 of those veto-proof advantages, while Democrats own 20. All told, there is a partisan supermajority in at least one house of the Legislature in 35 of the 50 states.

    However, in 14 of those states, the supermajority is held by an advantage of three seats or less. Michael Behm, Stateside’s co-CEO and principal, told The Epoch Times that organizations aligned with the Democratic and Republican parties are spending heavily on down-ballot races that could make or break a supermajority in the coming legislative term.

    Even though voter interest is low in statehouse races compared with high-profile campaigns for national offices, Behm and others who spoke with The Epoch Times said the stakes are high. Most of the legislative actions that affect the public, such as policy on abortions, education, energy, health care, taxes, and transportation, come from decisions made in statehouses.

    “With the federal government being so polarized and hamstrung these days, the action is at the state level,” Behm said.

    Supermajorities

    The definition of a supermajority varies from state to state. Generally, attaining a supermajority means a state legislative body has enough members from one party to pass laws without any votes from the minority party and enough votes to override the governor’s vetoes.

    Heading into the 2024 general election, Republicans hold a supermajority in both houses of the state Legislature in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

    Additionally, Republicans hold a supermajority in one chamber of the Legislature in Iowa, Mississippi, and South Carolina.

    Democrats own a supermajority in both houses of the state Legislature in California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island. Democrats have a supermajority in one chamber of the state Legislatures of Colorado, Connecticut, and Nevada.

    Behm said that’s the largest number of supermajorities he has ever observed in state legislatures. Ideologically, the domination of the legislatures by a single party reflects intense political polarization in these states, he said.

    Chris Cooper, director of the Haire Institute for Public Policy at Western Carolina University, said a supermajority effectively limits the governor’s power to carry out policy priorities in a state with a divided government.

    Four governors—Kansas’s Laura Kelly, Kentucky’s Andy Beshear, North Carolina’s Roy Cooper, and Vermont’s Phil Scott—preside over divided state governments in which the opposition party holds a legislative supermajority.

    The four governors’ legislatures stripped them of much of their policymaking potency. In June, Scott, a Republican, told members of the news media, “I think the power has gotten to their head,” referring to the Democrat-controlled Vermont General Assembly’s overriding of six of his vetoes in a single override session.

    In North Carolina, a supermajority almost wholly nullifies the will of a governor who already commands limited influence under the state’s constitution, Chris Cooper said.

    With their supermajority, Republicans passed new abortion restrictions, drafted new election laws, and further throttled back Gov. Roy Cooper’s power during the most recent legislative session.

    “They have taken away appointment power from the North Carolina governor,” Chris Cooper said. “They have made a number of changes that make the already powerful state Legislature into something even more powerful.”

    National Efforts

    Behm said the rise of legislative supermajorities can be attributed to growing involvement from national partisan groups known as 527 organizations. These are tax-exempt entities that can receive and spend unlimited amounts of money to influence federal, state, and local politics and elections.

    Three decades ago, statehouse races were usually local contests directed and financed by city and state chambers of commerce, unions, and other parochial political organizations, Behm said. Now, national groups such as the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) and Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) invest vast national resources into the state’s legislative caucuses.

    Behm said both party committees use professionals to recruit candidates and organize the partisan campaigns designed to build majorities in statehouses.

    The New York State Assembly Chamber at the state Capitol in Albany, N.Y., on Jan. 16, 2024. Hans Pennink/AP Photo

    “These 527 groups have turned state legislative races into national races,” Behm said.

    Chris Cooper said Republicans began to take over the statehouses in 2010 when the Republican Party introduced an initiative known as Project REDMAP. The plan called for investing huge sums into state legislative races that were previously overlooked in Washington and flipping chambers to the GOP.

    “They did as advertised,” he said. “They turned maps red.”

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 18:25

  • Lebanon Expresses Outrage After Israeli Warplanes Strike Group Of Journalists: 'War Crime'
    Lebanon Expresses Outrage After Israeli Warplanes Strike Group Of Journalists: ‘War Crime’

    Lebanon has accused Israel of committing a war crime after a group of journalists in south Lebanon came under attack by Israeli warplanes. Three journalists were killed during an air raid on a hotel or guesthouse in Hasbaya, about 50km south of Beirut and near the Syrian border.

    BBC is reporting that “The attack was carried out on a guesthouse in a compound in Hasbaya being used by more than a dozen journalists from at least seven media organizations – with a courtyard containing cars clearly marked with ‘press’.

    Image: Associated Press

    The three slain journalists worked for regional broadcasters Al-Manar TV and Al Mayadeen TV, which confirmed the deaths in statements, identifying the deceased as Ghassan Najjar, Mohammad Reda, and Wissam Qassem.

    While Israel did not offer immediate comment, it might rationalize or seek to justify the killings given that Al-Manar is a Hezbollah-run news network, and Al Mayadeen is seen as pro-Iran.

    But Lebanon’s Information Minister Ziad Makary charged that this was an intentional assassination of journalists.

    “The Israeli enemy waited for the journalists’ nighttime break to betray them in their sleep… This is an assassination, after monitoring and tracking, with prior planning and design, as there were 18 journalists there representing seven media institutions. This is a war crime,” Makary wrote on X.

    Other reporters, including from MTV Lebanon were present during the attack but escaped unscathed. “All official parties were told that this house was being used as a stay-house for journalists. We coordinated with them all,” an Al-Jadeed journalist described during a subsequent live broadcast from the location.

    And an MTV Lebanon reporter, Youmna Fawwaz, detailed the following:

    She said ceilings had fallen in on them, and they were surrounded by rubble and dust, with the sound of fighter jets overhead.

    Each news organization had their own building in the compound, she said, and the building housing the Al Mayadeen reporters was “obliterated” while Al-Manar employees were inside.

    Images from the bombed-out scene indeed show cars with large English markings indicating ‘Press’…

    Getty Images

    Fawwaz further accused Israel of conducting assassinations in order to prevent the Lebanese correspondents from covering the fighting in the south. “The airstrike was carried out on purpose. Everyone knew we were there. All the cars were labelled as press and TV. There wasn’t even a warning given to us,” she said.

    Since the start of the conflict after Oct.7, 2023 – dozens of journalists have died – mostly in Gaza. Israel has particularly cracked down on Al Jazeera, expelling the Qatar-based network from Israel and the West Bank.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 18:00

  • Is Kamala The Bigger Threat To The Constitutional Order?
    Is Kamala The Bigger Threat To The Constitutional Order?

    Authored by David Harsanyi via PJMedia.com,

    Vote. Don’t vote. I don’t care. Just stop telling me that Vice President Kamala Harris is going to save democracy.

    Do I wish Republicans had nominated a more coherent, principled, competent candidate for the presidency? Of course. But if anyone is under the impression Democrats tapped such a person, I have news. Spend some time trying to decipher Harris’ swirling, platitude-ridden, incoherent rhetoric and you will only be further convinced that we live in an idiocracy.

    Sure, there are many reasons why a movement conservative might feel uncomfortable voting for former President Donald Trump. I get it. I’m not a fan. But there are plenty of completely rational reasons to vote for him, as well. First and foremost, the existence of the contemporary Democratic Party.

    Liz Cheney, and other Never Trumpers, tell me that the former president poses a uniquely dangerous threat to the Constitution, and thus, I must set aside any policy disagreements with Democrats and put country over politics.

    No doubt, this kind of self-glorification feels great, but it doesn’t really comport with reality.

    For one thing, most of the Left’s scariest warnings about Trump are fiction. I don’t believe The Atlantic when it tells me that Trump is a would-be Hitler. I’m sorry, I don’t believe he’s going to throw all his political enemies in concentration camps. Save the story for the next Mueller investigation.

    Considering recent history, in fact, it’s clear to me that the Left is far more adept and willing to weaponize the state to punish their enemies. And I’m not just talking about the unprecedented lawfare launched at Trump. I’m talking about debarring lawyers. I’m talking about raiding the homes of pro-life activists. I’m talking about the spying on Catholic churches and the Justice Department’s chilling speech by smearing parents who stood up to authoritarian school boards as terrorists.

    Moreover, even if Trump acted on his worst instincts, the damage would likely be confined to his own presidency. Trump is about Trump. Harris and Democrats, though, have openly embraced a string of consequential, long-term attacks on the constitutional order. Ones that we can never come back from.

    Sorry, I don’t accept that a woman who once complained to CNN’s Jake Tapper that “millions and millions of people” were speaking “without any level of oversight or regulation, and that has to stop” is going to be my champion of the Constitution.

    Harris’ running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz recently argued that there is “no guarantee” for free speech when it came to “misinformation” or “hate speech,” “especially around our democracy.” If this were a properly functioning republic, Walz would be thrown to the curb.

    No honest person could possibly believe Democrats are better for free expression.

    Let’s not forget either that Harris once promised to bypass Congress and sign an executive order seizing rifles from millions of law-abiding Americans. Though Democrats like to pretend otherwise, the Second Amendment is still part of the Constitution.

    Indeed, Harris is in no position to lecture anyone about any governing norms.

    She frequently praises Biden for ignoring courts and “forgiving” student loans by forcing taxpayers to foot the bill. She supports trashing the legislative filibuster, empowering slim majorities to destroy any semblance of federalism. Harris has backed bills that would have overturned thousands of state laws, allowing national Democrats to strip state election security measures, make abortion legal until crowning, compel local religious hospitals to perform gender transition surgeries, shut down religious foster care organizations, and many other outrages.

    None of this is to even speak of her efforts to destroy the Supreme Court. Harris, who gleefully took part in the vile smearing of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, supports packing the court — the most serious attack on the judicial branch since President Franklin Roosevelt’s effort in the 1930s. Senate Democrats say it is “virtually certain” they will pass a “Supreme Court reform” bill that, among other assaults on the judicial branch, will empower legislators to strip individual justices of their power.

    This is all just blatantly authoritarian stuff. 

    Right now — in part, because of Trump — the court is the only institution in the United States that properly functions. There is no telling what kind of arsonist Harris and Democrats would install.

    At the very least, I know Trump has a track record of not only nominating decent jurists but sticking with them under massive pressure.

    It is odd, indeed, that Democrats, who support price controls, state mandates and a slew of other economic intrusions that force corporations to bend to their will, are constantly warning us about the specter of “fascism.”

    We have no clue if the Trump presidency plays out. Trumpism is whatever Trump says it is whenever he feels like it. It might well be a disaster. But Harris offers me nothing.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 17:40

  • At Least A Dozen Colorado Ballots Stolen And Mailed In, Officials Say
    At Least A Dozen Colorado Ballots Stolen And Mailed In, Officials Say

    Reinforcing concerns that many Americans have with voting that isn’t done in-person, at least 12 Colorado mail-in ballots were stolen, filled out with forged signatures, and submitted — and three of them are going to count anyway. Announced by state officials on Thursday, the thefts all affected voters in western Colorado’s Mesa County, but the discovery leaves people wondering how many other forged ballots may have gone undetected elsewhere in the state and across the country.

    “The Department of State learned that at least 12 ballots appear to have been intercepted before reaching voters,” said Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office in a statement. “Those ballots were voted and then returned to the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder via USPS mailboxes. This issue was flagged during Colorado’s secure signature verification process.” 

    Secretary of State Jena Griswold said every voter will be able to “make their voice heard” — but previously tried to prevent Donald Trump from appearing on Colorado ballots (Photo: Jena Griswold / X)

    Rather than sending them upon request, Colorado mails ballots to every registered voter in the state — that’s about 4 million ballots making their way through the postal system and before being left in mailboxes, a great many of which are unsecured. In addition to returning ballots via the postal service, Coloradans can also use drop boxes. 

    Several of the victimized voters were surprised to receive notifications that their ballots — which they hadn’t submitted — required curing because their signatures didn’t match digital signatures in the state database. Griswold said the handwriting on multiple ballots seemed to indicate the same individual completed each of them. 

    While sharing some details about the theft, Griswold, a Democrat, was tight-lipped about the detail most people want to know: which candidate(s) were meant to benefit from this crime? If her name sounds familiar, it’s because Griswold attempted to exclude Donald Trump from Colorado’s 2024 ballots on the claim he’d incited an insurrection in 2021. In May, the US Supreme Court ruled against her. 

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    Perhaps the most troubling detail about the Mesa County situation is that three of the fraudulent ballots will not be removed from the count. They were flagged for review, but then a single election judge approved them all. After that action, there’s no mechanism for remedy or removal, officials say. The judge who approved the three forged ballots has been reassigned. “Everybody affected will be offered a new ballot,” Griswold told reporters.  

    “Colorado’s elections are safe and secure. This attempt at fraud was found and investigated quickly because of all the trailblazing processes and tools Colorado has in place like signature verification, ballot tracking, and the curing process,” said Griswold. “Every eligible Colorado voter will be able to make their voice heard this election.” Griswold’s boast seems excessive, given 25% of the known fraudulent ballots are being counted anyway. Uneasy Colorado voters can check the status of their ballots by visiting Go Vote Colorado.  

    Mesa County is in Colorado’s expansive 3rd congressional district. It’s currently represented by Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, but she’s now making a run to represent eastern Colorado’s 4th district instead. She only won reelection in 2022 by about 500 votes and would have faced long odds against the same better-funded opponent, Adam Frisch. The Economist projects Boebert will win the 4th-district in a landslide. Neither of Colorado’s Senate seats are up for election this year. Meanwhile, Polymarket gives Kamala Harris a 94.8% chance winning Colorado’s 10 electoral votes. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 17:20

  • WaPo Editor Quits, Staff Has Total Meltdown After Non-Endorsement Of Kamala Harris
    WaPo Editor Quits, Staff Has Total Meltdown After Non-Endorsement Of Kamala Harris

    Update (1716ET): Time for another bag of popcorn!

    In response to Jeff Bezos’ decision not to endorse a presidential candidate this year, staff are having a total meltdown, liberals are canceling their subscriptions, and editor-at-large Robert Kagan (husband of Victoria Nuland) just quit.

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    According to Semafor, “people are shocked, furious, surprised,” one WaPo editorial board member told the outlet, citing internal discussions involving resignation. “If you don’t have the balls to own a newspaper, don’t.”

    Meanwhile, the paper’s chief technical officer is having engineers block reader questions about the non-endorsement on their internal system.

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    One editorial board member tells Brian Stelter that Bezos’ decision is “an outrageous abdication of responsibility. Democracy doesn’t die in darkness, it dies when people anticipatorily consent to a fascist’s whims.”

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    Subscriptions are being canceled. Reeee!

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    *  *  *

    Update (1450ET): The Washington Post has shed light on their decision not to endorse a presidential candidate for the first time in more than 30 years, revealing that “The decision not to publish was made by The Post’s owner – Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.“

    The paper also admits that a Harris endorsement had been drafted by staffers but Jeff killed it.

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    And employees are seething but not coping, according to Semafor’s Max Tani.

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    What happened?

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    Look out, Jeff!

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    *  *  *

    Three weeks ago, the Teamsters Union became the second major union to announce that they would not endorse a presidential candidate after internal polling revealed 58% of its members back Trump vs. 31% for Harris.

    That was understandable – their own members overwhelmingly rejected Harris.

    This is different.

    On Friday, the Washington Post announced that it would not endorse a candidate for president either, for the first time in 36 years.

    “The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” the outlet said in a statement.

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    Colleagues are said to be ‘shocked’ at the decision, according to NPR.

    The editorial page editor, David Shipley, told colleagues that the Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, would publish a note to readers online early Friday afternoon.

    Shipley told colleagues the editorial board was told yesterday by management that there would not be an endorsement. He added that he “owns” this decision. The reason he cited was to create “independent space” where the newspaper does not tell people for whom to vote.

    Colleagues were said to be “shocked” and uniformly negative. Post corporate spokespeople have not responded to multiple messages left by NPR on the subject.

    As NPR‘s David Folkenflik notes on X, “It is not clear whether Post owner Jeff Bezos or Publisher/CEO Will Lewis made the call.“

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    As Mario Nawfal noted on X,

    The Post has primarily endorsed Democratic candidates for nearly a century, with only 3 Republicans since 1928.

    Here’s a complete list of presidential candidates endorsed by The Washington Post since 1928, which highlights the significance of their 2024 decision to skip endorsements:

    • 1932 to 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat)

    • 1948: Thomas Dewey (Republican)

    • 1952 & 1956: Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican)

    • 1960: John F. Kennedy (Democrat)

    • 1964: Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat)

    • 1968: Hubert Humphrey (Democrat)

    • 1972: George McGovern (Democrat)

    • 1976 & 1980: Jimmy Carter (Democrat)

    • 1984: Walter Mondale (Democrat)

    • 1988: Michael Dukakis (Democrat)

    • 1992 & 1996: Bill Clinton (Democrat)

    • 2000: Al Gore (Democrat)

    • 2004: John Kerry (Democrat)

    • 2008: Barack Obama (Democrat)

    • 2012: Barack Obama (Democrat)

    • 2016: Hillary Clinton (Democrat)

    • 2020: Joe Biden (Democrat)

    The move comes after the Los Angeles Times similarly declined to endorse Harris – leading to the resignation of the paper’s opinion editor, Marzel Garza.

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    Wow…

    Developing…

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    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 17:17

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Oct 25

Today’s News 25th October 2024

  • Turkey Bombs US Proxies In Northeast Syria Following Ankara Terror Attack
    Turkey Bombs US Proxies In Northeast Syria Following Ankara Terror Attack

    Via The Cradle

    Turkey conducted several airstrikes and artillery shelling across US-controlled north and east Syria late on Wednesday, targeting positions held by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

    The attacks targeted several villages and sites in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Raqqa, and Hasakah. One of the attacks hit an SDF military outpost in the countryside of the city of Al-Malikiyah, at the Syrian–Turkish–Iraqi tri-border region. Turkish artillery also hit SDF sites in the village of Umm al-Kaif in the countryside of the town of Tal Tamr, northwest of Hasakah.

    Illustrative via Anadolu Agency

    According to field sources who spoke with Sputnik, Turkish artillery shelling hit the villages of Al-Sayyada, Aoun Al-Dadat, Al-Tukhar, and Al-Daraj.

    On Thursday, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that the attacks killed at least “27 members of military formations operating in SDF-controlled areas,” three soldiers from the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), and at least four civilians. 

    For its part, Turkiye’s Ministry of National Defense said 32 targets in Syria and Iraq were “destroyed” in the aerial offensive without providing details on the locations that were hit. Officials added that “all kinds of precautions” were taken to prevent harm to civilians.

    The intense attacks were launched hours after armed assailants set off explosives and opened fire at the headquarters of the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TUSAS) in Ankara, which designs, manufactures, and assembles civilian and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and other defense industry and space systems.

    Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya and Defense Minister Yasar Guler accused the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) of being behind the attack. 

    “We give these PKK scoundrels the punishment they deserve every time. But they never come to their senses,” Guler said. “We will pursue them until the last terrorist is eliminated.”

    At least five people were killed and 22 injured in the Ankara attack. Two attackers – a man and a woman – were also killed.

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    Turkey regularly conducts air strikes against the PKK in Iraq and against the SDF in Syria. In 2014, the US military began partnering with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), an offshoot of the PKK. The YPG later changed its name to the SDF.

    Together, the US and its Kurdish proxies occupy Syria’s northeast, including Hasakah, Raqqa, and parts of Deir Ezzor, denying Syria access to its oil resources and wheat-producing agricultural land.

    Wednesday’s attack in Ankara came as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in the Russian city of Kazan to attend the annual BRICS summit. He condemned the “hateful attack” alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/25/2024 – 02:00

  • Can BRICS Deliver On Its Promises?
    Can BRICS Deliver On Its Promises?

    Authored by RFE/RL Staff via OilPrice.com,

    • Putin is using the BRICS summit to project strength and counter Western isolation, while also pushing for initiatives like an alternative payment system and grain exchange.

    • BRICS members are divided on their approach to the West, with some seeking to reform the current international order and others aiming to dismantle it.

    • Despite its growing economic influence, BRICS faces internal challenges and a mixed track record in achieving its goals.

    As Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts leaders for the 16th annual BRICS summit, he’s determined to show the West that he still has important allies by his side after nearly three years of attempts to isolate Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    But while Putin is getting the optics he wants, what kind of an organization is BRICS actually growing into?

    Finding Perspective: 

    The summit in Kazan, which began on October 22 and will run until October 24, is the first meeting for the group since Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates joined past members Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

    Putin is looking to use BRICS, or BRICS+ as the expanded format is sometimes termed, to signal that Russia has plenty of influential friends, despite its pariah status in the West.

    The summit is intended to showcase the group’s collective economic might and also entice new countries into a coalition that Moscow and Beijing hope will help form a new world order not dominated by the West.

    In Kazan, Putin is expected to push negotiations to build an alternative platform for international payments that would be immune to Western sanctions.

    Russia, the world’s top wheat exporter, will also propose the creation of a BRICS grain-trading exchange as an alternative to Western markets where international prices for agricultural commodities are set.

    But not all BRICS members completely align with the anti-Western stance coming from Beijing and Moscow and this divide could come out in Kazan.

    The Balancing Act: 

    While all BRICS members may be united in the “belief that the current structures that govern the international order and the global economy are unfairly weighted toward the Western world,” Stewart Patrick, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told me, there is a division between China, Iran, and Russia, which want to unseat the current order, and others who want to reform it.

    Many BRICS members, like Brazil and India, still work closely with the United States and other countries in the West, even as they seek to gain more global leverage.

    For many of the new members, with the exception of Iran — and also for many that have applied to join recently — BRICS holds mostly economic appeal.

    Members and would-be members alike are also looking for alternative sources of financing than available from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), and are looking to gain better access to burgeoning markets that could better define the global economy in the coming decades.

    Why It Matters: 

    Beyond the financial appeal of the bloc, many countries also view BRICS as a form of geopolitical insurance.

    And that hedge is even more relevant given added unpredictability brought to the United States in recent years.

    Still, the divisions within BRICS — and the bloc’s so far thin track record in delivering on its initiatives — could continue to hold it back.

    China, Iran, and Russia represent a group within BRICS that are grappling to varying degrees with U.S. sanctions and fighting different types of proxy battles with the United States around the world.

    Others, like Egypt, are leading recipients of U.S. military aid or like the United Arab Emirates, host U.S. military bases.

    Adding to those difficulties in articulating what a shared vision for the BRICS would look like, China and India have difficult relations, while there is little warmth to be found between Arab states and Iran.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 23:25

  • Visualizing The Cost Of The American Dream In 2024
    Visualizing The Cost Of The American Dream In 2024

    Today, the rising cost of living is making the American dream increasingly difficult to achieve.

    While pandemic-led wage growth boosted real incomes, it followed five decades of stagnant wage increases. At the same time, housing prices have soared. Pushing up prices are a limited supply of homes, with home construction plummeting 55% compared to 2006. Together, these broad economic forces have made it harder to get ahead, even with a competitive salary.

    This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows the estimated cost of the American dream per household over the course of their lifetime, based on analysis from Investopedia.

    The American Dream Costs a Hefty $4.4 Million

    Below, we breakdown each aspect of the American dream by their lifetime cost as of 2024:

    The total cost of the American dream is no small sum—$4.4 million—exceeding the average lifetime salaries of both men ($3.3 million) and women ($2.4 million) with a Bachelor’s degree.

    Overall, the largest cost is paying for a comfortable retirement. Here, it takes $1.6 million in savings, assuming a 4% annual withdrawal rate and inflation averaging 2.5% per year to retire for 20 years. Notably, the decline in private pension schemes has played a large role in making financial security in later years harder to achieve compared to previous generations.

    Unsurprisingly, owning a home was the second-biggest expense, at $930,000 for an existing single-family home. Given the surging cost of home prices, 77% of U.S. households are unable to afford a median-priced home in 2024.

    As fertility rates in America hit historic lows, raising two children and sending them to college would cost $832,000 overall. Today, 36% of Americans under 50 who don’t have children cite affordability concerns as a major reason for not having kids. Moreover, average college tuition costs have climbed a remarkable 748% since 1963, after adjusting for inflation.

    Following a similar trend, wedding costs, too, have skyrocketed. Between 2019 and 2023, average costs increased by $4,000 alone amid inflationary pressures and pandemic backlogs. Today, it costs over $44,000, including the ceremony, reception, and engagement ring to say “I do”.

    To learn more about this topic from a home ownership perspective, check out this graphic on the salary needed to buy a home in 50 U.S. cities.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 23:00

  • The Navy Needs Advanced Guns And Cheaper Missiles To Defend Against Drone Swarms
    The Navy Needs Advanced Guns And Cheaper Missiles To Defend Against Drone Swarms

    Authored by Mike Fredenburg via The Epoch Times,

    In order to defend its ships and defeat its enemies, our Navy needs to employ inexpensive, highly effective missiles such as those Israel is now making standard on its ships. It also needs to take advantage of the great strides in gun technology to provide its ships with a big boost in air defense capabilities.

    As it stands, the Navy is paying far too much for missiles, but getting more value for our defense dollar has gained in urgency as we have seen the proliferation of cheap drones costing well under $20,000 that can severely damage a ship. While one of these cheap drones is highly unlikely to sink one of our destroyers, a single drone of this ilk is perfectly capable of damaging or destroying critical communications systems, radars, etc. And a large swarm of these drones is very much a threat to any ship in our fleet.

    The problem is that, currently, the main weapons we can deploy to defend against these cheap drones are expensive missiles that range in cost from more than $900,000 to more than $4 million each. Even if we can count on these missiles to be 100 percent effective, using them to defend against an opponent that can direct hundreds of drones at one of our ships, or even thousands over an extended period, makes relying on these expensive missiles unsustainable.

    Fortunately, there is a solution to the problem of our missiles costing many times what they should—and its name is Tamir. The Tamir missile is the toothy part of Israel’s C-Dome system, which itself is the marinized version of Israel’s famed Iron Dome air defense system. At only $50,000 each, Tamir missiles are more than a match for any drone and can also be used to destroy both cruise and ballistic missiles. And with 43 miles of range, they can destroy drones and missiles that our ships in the Red Sea have been forced to destroy using multi-million-dollar missiles because they have nothing less expensive they can use.

    But cheaper, far more cost-effective missiles are only one element of what our Navy needs to face the dangerous new world of cheap lethal drone swarms.

    Another key element is to take advantage of advanced guns that can easily destroy dozens of incoming drones for a fraction of the cost of a missile.

    A great example of such a gun is Oto Melara’s 76-mm Super Rapid. While the Super Rapid can fire unguided rounds, its real strength comes from its ability to fire both GPS-guided rounds and radar-guided rounds.

    In particular, its semi-active radar-guided round, the DART, was designed to kill both missiles and small boats, and is very capable of destroying much slower, more fragile drones. Indeed, the Italian Navy has already been using the Oto Melara 76 mm guns on its destroyers to shoot down Houthi drones threatening shipping in the Red Sea.

    While there is no formal figure published, with the cheap drones being quite slow, typically well under 200 miles per hour, as well as being more fragile than a typical cruise missile, it seems likely, given its reported capabilities, that a single Super Rapid could engage and destroy over a dozen at a time. Couple this with a full magazine of C-Dome Tamir missiles, and you have a ship capable of not only defending itself but also of defending other ships within at least a 30-mile radius and up to 40 miles in some cases.

    In terms of cost, the Super Rapid is a bargain, with the 17,000-pound system coming in at an estimated $3 million: less than it costs to buy one of the $4.3 million SM-6 missiles that have been used in the Red Sea. While there is no published price list for the DART ammo, purchasing them by the hundreds of thousands of rounds should enable volume pricing of less than a few thousand dollars per round, potentially allowing a ship equipped with these guns to destroy cheap drones for less than what it cost the enemy to acquire them.

    Of course, along with hard-kill solutions like guns and missiles, our military needs to be working to develop and deploy electronic warfare solutions that will jam, disable, or even gain control over enemy drones. However, such soft-kill systems do not negate the need for guns and missiles capable of killing drones; instead, they are complementary.

    Finally, while integrating C-Domes and Super Rapid gun systems into our warships will cost a lot of money, given the exorbitant cost of the missiles our ships are currently using to destroy $5,000 drones, the payback period of such an investment would be short, resulting in a Navy better able to defend itself and other ships for less money.

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 22:35

  • North Korean Troops In Ukraine Are 'Fair Game' To Attack, White House Warns
    North Korean Troops In Ukraine Are ‘Fair Game’ To Attack, White House Warns

    The White House and Pentagon have put Russia and North Korea on notice, following several international reports alleging that North Korea has sent troops to fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.

    “If they are co-belligerents, if their intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf, that is a very, very serious issue,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said while returning from his fourth visit to Kiev, where he announced the latest $400 million arms package.

    White House: John Kirby 

    Starting last week, South Korean intelligence backed claims by President Zelensky which said at least 10,000 North Korean troops are mustering in Russia to deploy in Ukraine. Seoul also claimed that 1,500 DPRK are already in Ukraine’s east.

    White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Wednesday described that the US assesses that at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers arrived at Russia’s Pacific port of Vladivostok. They reportedly arrived by boat earlier this month.

    “These soldiers then travelled onward to multiple Russian military training sites in eastern Russia, where they are currently undergoing training,” Kirby said.

    “We do not yet know whether these soldiers will enter into combat alongside the Russian military, but this is certainly a highly concerning probability,” he continued. And that’s when he added the warning and threat:

    …should they deploy to fight against Ukraine, “they’re fair game”.

    Yonhap News Agency had previously reported that the country’s main intelligence agency, NIS, assessed that Pyongyang has made the decision to deploy four brigades to Ukraine, which amounts to an estimated 12,000 troops.

    In a Tuesday evening address, President Zelensky echoed this figure, saying: “We have information that two units of military personnel from North Korea are being trained – potentially even two brigades of 6,000 people each.”

    Zelensky has further commented that this is a sign of the war’s growing internationalization in Moscow’s favor. He has demanded that his Western backers respond.

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    Already, Pyongyang has long faced accusations that it is shipping weapons, and especially artillery shells, to Russian forces for use in Ukraine.

    Kiev has spoken of an ‘axis’ which is at war against Ukraine, including Russian, Iran, and now North Korea.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 22:10

  • Biohacking To Better Health
    Biohacking To Better Health

    Authored by Isabella Cooper via The Brownstone Institute,

    People have always been fascinated with immortality. While great gains in medical care have enabled lifespan extension, this has often come with the price of co-existing with chronic diseases associated with aging, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), hypertension, and dementias such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

    The true “aim of the game” is to have a long healthspan with negligible senescence. This means the absence of biological aging, such as reducing functional decline in organs and whole-body fitness, delaying loss of reproductive capabilities, and delaying death risk with age progression. What we really want is to extend youth, not aging. In achieving that, we may begin to push the envelope on increasing healthy lifespan. 

    Aging at the cellular level is determined by the cellular rate of damage versus rate of repair. Accumulation of aging-associated damage manifests as cells no longer “behaving correctly” as part of a collective that make up tissues of an organ, like cancer cells.

    In healthy individuals, damage accumulation is managed through apoptosis, which is controlled cell death, and refined cellular housekeeping including autophagy and mitophagy; the “eating up, breaking down, and recycling” of damaged inner-cell (intracellular) components (organelles). The nutrient glucose and the hormone insulin govern cellular quality control. Intracellular housekeeping enables the culling of inefficient and toxic cells from the herd. Over time a cell’s ability to trigger apoptosis becomes impaired, enabling gradual dysfunction to sneak by under the radar. Over time, the accumulation of these dysfunctional cells within an organ promotes development of disease. 

    Humans are multicellular organisms within which our healthy cells operate collectively. In order to have a long healthy lifespan, our cells must not only live longer, but they must also function correctly. Cancer cells are long-lived and capable of unlimited replication; however, they evade apoptosis, and become selfishly primordial, regressing back to single-cell organism behaviour. Our goal is to maintain optimal organ function, ensuring ourselves a long healthspan with negligible senescence and perhaps a touch of immortality.

    Mitochondria are intracellular organelles; these organelles are remnant symbiotic protobacteria, originating from proteobacterium that came to live within an archaeal-derived host cell which was most closely related to Asgard archaea (a recently identified group of ancient single-celled organisms). Put simply, a foreign single-celled ancient bacteria came to live inside the cells that eventually evolved into us. The Asgardian endocytosed proteobacteria evolved into mitochondria; through a process called endosymbiosis the two became interdependent. They now support us and we support them. Our cells, with mitochondria and other organelles within them, are called ‘eukaryotic’ cells. 

    Mitochondria have their own genome; polycistronic circular DNA, whilst their inner matrix membranes are rich in a phospholipid cardiolipin. Both of these features are common to bacteria and not to the eukaryotic nuclear DNA and other organelles of multicellular animals, other than those digesting mitochondria. Mitochondria produce the majority of our life-sustaining energy whilst also acting as a source of destruction for most of our cells. This occurs due to their use of oxygen to break down nutrients, in order to capture energy and store it in the energy carrier molecule ATP. Their (and so our) need and use of oxygen is both life-giving and corrosive; complete oxidation of glucose produces more oxidative damage than oxidising fatty acids, and in the process produces excess superoxide, a form of oxygen with an added electron which is termed a free radical.

    Mitochondria also produce hydrogen peroxide, the same found in your household drain cleaner, albeit at a much lower concentration. Chronic low-grade elevated levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) harm our cells. Achieving balance between “burning” glucose or fatty acids requiring oxygen to provide energy for our body (good) and producing corrosive substances (bad), is hormesis, like the “Goldilocks zone.” ROS toxicity is a key player in aging, as too much of it will decrease healthspan and lifespan. 

    The majority of ROS in cells is produced by mitochondria. Some amount is necessary for health, while excess causes damage; again, this requires balance or hormesis. ROS are also mitochondrial-signalling molecules, communicating to the nucleus and altering gene expression. This begs the question; what drives cellular behaviour, genes in the nucleus, or mitochondrial signals? The right amount of ROS causes production of new healthier mitochondria, excessive ROS increases damage over repair, accumulating toxic wayward mitochondria. Cancer cells consistently have damaged mitochondria; the same is also found in cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease, and many of the diseases that we have just accepted as part of aging.

    As mentioned above, we can produce energy from fat or from glucose (a sugar) through our cooperative mitochondria. The amount of glucose exposure (predominantly from dietary sources and also made and secreted into the bloodstream by the liver) is critical in achieving this balance between our mitochondria helping or harming us. Insulin is produced in response to carbohydrate intake (sugars such as glucose, starch, and sucrose), increasing absorption (and use) of glucose by our cells and mitochondria and reducing fat-burning (beta-oxidation and subsequent ketosis).

    To simplify, we mostly use either glucose from carbohydrates to produce energy with our mitochondria, or fatty acids from food or our fat cells, or ketones from breakdown of fat, to produce energy through an alternative metabolic pathway, called ketosis.

    Calorie restriction (carbohydrate restriction) in yeast, nematode worms, and mice to primates increases lifespan with healthspan by inducing ketosis. It causes insulin to become low enough to allow ketogenesis (a product from beta-oxidation, the burning of fat) to occur. Upregulated fat-burning results in the production of molecules called ketone bodies, mainly by the liver (endogenous synthesis).

    One of these ketone bodies is beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), derived from fatty acids that come either from our fat cells or from a meal. The ketone BHB is a fuel and signalling molecule, causing mitochondria and nuclei to adapt to metabolic changes. Fasting-mimicking diets such as time-restricted feeding, and very low carbohydrate/healthy fat diets (also known as ketogenic diets) also induce ketosis without the conscious effort of calorie restriction. 

    These diets high in healthy fats (such as animal fats) and low in sugars/starchy carbohydrates lead to decreased insulin and glucose and increased ketones (BHB) in the bloodstream. Over time this induces intracellular machinery changes, shifting the body’s metabolism to fuelling itself mainly off fat and ketones instead of sugar (glucose). Ketosis increases intracellular housekeeping activity, enabling cells to remove and replace damaged organelles. It also allows more time for DNA to be checked by DNA housekeeping proteins that are able to prevent propagation of DNA duplication errors into daughter cells, thus reducing cancer and other age-related disease development. Ketosis has been shown to hold a hint of an elixir to a healthier if not longer life. 

    In contrast, high carbohydrate diets, providing glucose through starchy carbohydrates like bread, pasta, rice, corn, and sucrose found in cane sugar, high fructose corn syrup, coconut sugar, fruit, and honey, all stimulate insulin secretion. Prolonged hyperinsulinaemia increases the risk of development of Alzheimer’s disease, malignancies, cardiovascular disease, and T2DM. While insulin is essential to life, excess insulin (due to these high carbohydrate diets) leads to hyperinsulinaemia, which is implicated in chronic diseases and aging. Decreased insulin demand is shown to increase healthspan and lifespan. Insulin also causes cells to replicate faster, decreasing the pauses to check DNA copy quality, telling cells that food is abundant and therefore “there is no need to keep a tight ship.” 

    Insulin is the aging hormone, and a dietary pattern that regularly triggers too much insulin secretion prevents our ability to produce ketones, including BHB. Insulin suppresses ketogenesis (ketone production), depriving us of BHB’s anti-aging properties. The endogenous production of BHB, a powerful antioxidant that directly neutralises free radicals and ROS, has been shown to improve and prevent chronic diseases associated with aging conditions. So, we can control much of our aging by our dietary choices. Ketones such as BHB are produced when we are not overstimulating insulin secretion and requirement through our dietary choices. 

    We are often advised to eat to keep up our energy and health. However, perhaps a little less results in a little more with regards to healthspan and lifespan, and instead of calorie restriction, we can bio-hack through either eating as much as we want once a day, or eating non-insulin-stimulating foods. Doing both will further enhance their effects. The results are the same as fasting and calorie restriction, less insulin, and more ketones, in turn translating into healthier cells, a healthy you, and a chance to realise your maximal lifespan potential.

    *  *  *

    Link to donate to support Isabella D. Cooper’s research in Ageing Biology, Age-Related Diseases, and Longevity at the University of Westminster, UK. This is one of few academic research groups in the diet and metabolism area free from food industry sponsorship. One hundred percent of donation funds go towards active laboratory-based research, with zero funds lost to administrative costs.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 21:45

  • NextEra "Evaluating" Restart Of Iowa's Only Nuclear Plant As 'Next AI Trade' Gains Steam
    NextEra “Evaluating” Restart Of Iowa’s Only Nuclear Plant As ‘Next AI Trade’ Gains Steam

    Following the news of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant restart near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and the Biden administration supplying a $1.5 billion loan to resurrect Holtec’s Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, along with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google all jumping on the nuclear trade via the “next AI trade,” the atomic era continues blasting off with news that another dormant nuclear plant, this time in Iowa, is slated for a possible restart.

    On a Wednesday earnings call, NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum told investors that the company may restart the shuttered 600-megawatt Duane Arnold Energy Center (DAEC), Iowa’s only nuclear power plant. It’s located on the west bank of the Cedar River, about eight miles northwest of Cedar Rapids. 

    Earnings call… 

    “As a top operator of all forms of power generation, we often get asked about nuclear and gas,” Ketchum told investors. 

    He explained, “Let me start with nuclear. Nuclear will play a role, but there are some practical limitations. Remember, on a national level, we expect we are going to need to add 900 gigawatts of new generation to the grid by 2040,” adding, “There are only a few nuclear plants that can be recommissioned in an economic way. We are currently evaluating the recommissioning of our Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa as one example.” 

    DAEC began operations in early 1975 and operated for decades. In August 2020, the facility’s cooling towers were damaged in a weather-related event, and repairs were deemed uneconomical. NextEra owns about a 70% stake in DAEC.

    Jefferies analyst Dumoulin Smith told clients in a note that DAEC would be costly to restart…

    “We believe a Duane Arnold restart is challenging, given the plant damage and robust regional wind generation.”

    Bloomberg quoted NextEra Energy President Rebecca Kujawa as saying that DAEC’s potential customers could include two Fortune 50 customers: 

    “This is a robust sign of a significant, broad-based demand,” Kujawa said on the call. “They have big, important and urgent energy needs.” 

    The latest news from big tech firms diving into nuclear and reviving the industry provides a substantial tailwind for our “Next AI Trade” which we laid out in April as our long-term favorite trade, and where we outlined various investment opportunities for powering up America, playing out.

    Here’s our latest coverage of the big atomic revival:

    Let’s take a step back to December 2020, nearly four years ago, when we first introduced the nuclear theme to readers with the headline: “Buy Uranium: Is This The Beginning Of The Next ESG Craze.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 21:20

  • Rural Landowner Sues After State Searches Property Without Warrant Or Consent
    Rural Landowner Sues After State Searches Property Without Warrant Or Consent

    By Chris Bennett of AgWeb

    Twice accused, twice vindicated, and twice insistent on the sanctity of the Fourth Amendment. After Tim Thomas’ property was entered and searched on multiple occasions by state officials without warrant or consent in 2023, he filed a federal lawsuit challenging the power of water conservation officers to access private property.

    “All other law enforcement officials at every level must have a warrant to do what a water conservation officer did around my house,” says 62-year-old Thomas. “I’m suing to get a law changed because this should never happen to anyone else. I want people to know what’s gone on at my property, and to my family, and how our rights were trampled.”

    Wherever and Whenever?

    On May 13, 2023, Thomas’ wife, Stephanie, was alone inside the couple’s single-story lakeside cottage at the end of a gravel road on the shoreline of 80-acre Butler Lake in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna County. Their property encompassed less than 1 acre of ground, including a dock and 300’ of shoreline.

    Together, the couple owned Thomas’ Chimneys & Stoves in nearby Kingsley. “We had the business for 42 years,” Thomas says. “I’ve always respected the law and done my best to serve the community as a deacon and citizen. People are blown away when they hear what happened on our quiet property.”

    Pennsylvania statue allows PFBC to enter property without consent, probable cause, or warrant—with no limits on duration, frequency, or scope.
    (Photo by IJ)

    Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022, Stephanie was non-ambulatory during a period of recovery following a round of stage 4 treatment. According to the complaint filed in Thomas’ subsequent lawsuit via representation by Institute for Justice (IJ), Stephanie heard someone loudly knocking on the front door of the cottage. The individual then went around the side of the house, past no-trespassing signs, entered the back yard, walked onto the back porch, and began “pounding” on the back door. Stephanie did not know the individual at her doorstep was Water Conservation Officer (WCO) Ty Moon of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC).

    Alarmed, Stephanie used a walker to retreat to a bedroom. Per the complaint: “While pounding on the front and back doors of the cabin, WCO Moon yelled, ‘I know you’re in there,’ and ‘I’m going to call the police.’”

    (Citing open litigation, PFBC declined comment related to Tim Thomas’ lawsuit.)

    “She peeked through the drapes and saw a man she didn’t know in dark clothes yelling, and she managed to get into our room,” Thomas describes.

    While Stephanie hid, Moon peered in the windows and then moved about the property, according to Thomas, taking pictures of the home, motor vehicle, and pontoon boat.

    The ball began rolling on a steady chain of glaring constitutional violations, contends IJ attorney Kirby West: “The government cannot go wherever and whenever it wants—that’s the very reason for the Fourth Amendment in the first place. We see a lot of cases where government goes overboard, but this statute is the plainest example I’ve seen that contradicts the Fourth Amendment on its face.”

    Search, Seizure, Citation

    On Mother’s Day, May 14, a day after WCO Moon entered their property, the Thomas duo stopped roadside, roughly 1 mile from home. “We were on our way back from church and I pulled over to pick Stephanie her favorite flowers—lilacs,” Thomas recalls.

    “In memory of my wife, and to ensure no other families are dealt with by the state like this, I’m making a stand,” says Thomas.

    “As I was picking, a white truck pulled in front of us, and a tall man I didn’t know came angrily towards me, shouting that he’d seen me fishing the day before and claiming I had refused to talk to him. He got up close and started yelling in my face that he’d ‘get to the bottom of things,’ but I had done nothing wrong and had no idea what he was talking about. Other than the knocks on the door the day prior, this was the first time either Stephanie or myself had met or even heard of Ty Moon.”

    Four days later, a PFBC citation arrived in the mail, accusing Thomas of fishing without a license and fleeing on May 13: Def. did willfully refuse to bring boat to a stop, flee after given an audible signal. Thereafter, attempted to elude a WCO.

    “We were accused of trying to get away from Ty Moon while fishing. It was preposterous,” Thomas says. “My wife with stage 4 cancer fleeing from the law on the water? Supposedly Moon was onshore, and we fled by boat. We never saw him, don’t know where he was standing, and certainly didn’t run away. Bottom line, the charges were bogus, but that’s why he came knocking later at our house.”

    Since age 12, Thomas had obtained Pennsylvania hunting and fishing licenses. He had never been ticketed for a wildlife violation in his life—until May 2023.

    In response to the citation and a fine nearing $462, Thomas telephoned Moon’s superiors and sent a letter of complaint to Captain Tom Edwards, manager of PFBC’s northwest region. Edwards personally called Thomas; all charges were dropped.

    “I considered it over,” Thomas says. “My wife didn’t. She told me, ‘Whatever is going on, I don’t think he (Moon) is through with you.’”

    Several months later, Moon was back on Thomas’ property for another search, seizure, and citation.

    Vendetta?

    At roughly 9 a.m., on Aug. 12, 2023, Thomas piloted his pontoon boat home after fishing on Lake Butler.

    As Thomas pulled to his dock, WCO Moon approached Thomas’ property on foot, walked along the driveway to the side of the cabin, entered the back yard via a gap between bushes and structure, and passed by a bathroom window—ignoring a total of four no-trespassing signs, according to the complaint.

    “I’m willing to invest whatever time it takes so nobody else has to go through the loss of basic constitutional rights,” says Thomas.

    Arriving at the dock, Moon accused Thomas of exceeding regulation by fishing with eight rods/lines. “Untrue charges,” Thomas says. “But in that moment, Ty Moon’s charges weren’t my main concern. I was worried about Stephanie.”

    In accessing the back yard, Moon had walked by a window where Thomas’ wife was bathing. “The house was our sanctuary after Stephanie was diagnosed, and because of the way we set up the bushes and landscaping, the bathroom provided her with a place to soak and look out at the scenery in total privacy with the curtains open, just inside the window in a clawfoot tub—the same window where a state water officer had just come within an arm’s length.”

    “I wanted him off our property and away from the window where my wife—a cancer patient—was exposed.”

    Thomas informed Moon he was trespassing, and insisted on continuing the conversation on the public road. Once the men were out of the back yard and on the edge of the driveway, Moon asked for Thomas’ fishing license and boat registration. Thomas provided the license. However, the registration was inside the boat.

    Thomas offered to get the registration. Moon declined, announcing his intention to reenter the back yard to obtain the paperwork and perform a safety inspection on the boat. Despite Thomas’ protests, Moon walked back to the dock and boat. Moon returned—and then announced he need to return to the dock a third time to confiscate Thomas’ fishing rods.

    “Three times,” Thomas says, “with me telling him no, over and over. Three violations of our private space while my wife was dying. Officer Moon knew my wife was a cancer patient because I told him. It’s hard to describe the frustration and needless abuse of power.”

    After confiscating Thomas’ rods, Moon ended the encounter with a $354 citation for fishing with eight rods/lines: Def. did fish with more than the maximum amount of devices while in Commonwealth waters.

    Thomas says the charges are false. “Officer Moon said he’d been watching me with binoculars since around 8 a.m. from a boat ramp several hundred yards away and could see eight lines in the water. No way, period. I had three lines in the water and no more. And who believes he just happened to be on the shore, just passing by the area, on tiny Butler Lake? I suspect he had a vendetta against me; that’s my opinion.”

    29 Hours

    In November 2023, several months after the second citation, Thomas appeared in Magisterial court. The PFBC citation stated Thomas had eight lines in the water—therefore Thomas owed $354. Case closed.

    “The evidence didn’t matter,” Thomas says. “I was supposed to accept the fine and shut up. No. I place the highest value on individual liberty and there are tremendous repercussion effects when the government abuses power.”

    Beyond his main vocation as a chimney business owner, Thomas often drove for Lyft and Uber. After the criminal citation was filed, he automatically lost both driving jobs—banned by both companies due to the legal violation.

    Thomas appealed the PFBC citation to a Commonwealth court. On June 5, 2024, Thomas’ case was heard. “The judge actually was interested to know all the evidence, and when he heard what Moon claimed to have seen and what Moon did, he knew things weren’t adding up. We won—for the second time.”

    However, Thomas’ court victory was bookended by the heaviest blow of his life: 29 hours after the judge’s decision, Stephanie lost her cancer battle and passed away.

    “In memory of my wife, and to ensure no other families are dealt with by the state like this, I’m making a stand,” Thomas says. “In open court, out loud, Officer Moon said he wasn’t bound by no-trespassing signs, and said he had a mandate to go anywhere. He is wrong because private property is sacred. The Fourth Amendment and its protection from search and seizure is the only thing standing between us and tyranny.”

    No Monetary Gain

    According to 12 words of Pennsylvania state code, PFBC officials have authority to “enter upon any land or water in the performance of their duties.” The statue provides wide latitude for PFBC to enter onto any property without consent, probable cause, or warrant—with no limits on duration, frequency, or scope.

    Represented by Institute for Justice (IJ), Thomas sued PFBC in September 2024.

    The PFBC statute provides water conservation officers with more latitude than all other types of law enforcement, says IJ attorney West. Even the wide-ranging Open Fields doctrine (currently under legal challenge in multiple states) denies government representatives the power to enter curtilage—the greater yard area surrounding a home. Yet, PFBC asserts power beyond Open Fields.

    “The Commission believes these types of invasions, such as happened at Tim Thomas’, are within their law enforcement powers,” West adds, “but when people first hear about Tim’s case, it doesn’t make sense to them because they know it’s an obvious violation of the Fourth Amendment.”

    Thomas and Institute for Justice await an answer from PFBC to the initial lawsuit filing.

    “There is no monetary gain for me to fight this, I only want this statute declared unconstitutional, so the next landowner or homeowner is protected,” Thomas concludes. “Our framers would roll in their graves to see this case, and I’m willing to invest whatever time it takes so nobody else has to go through the loss of basic constitutional rights.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 20:55

  • "Artificial Gut Intelligence" Comes To Your Toilet 
    “Artificial Gut Intelligence” Comes To Your Toilet 

    A new Austin, Texas-based health startup sells a camera with artificial intelligence software that monitors gut health by snapping pictures of feces.

    “Throne is a first-of-its-kind health solution that allows you to track your gut health and hydration from the comfort and privacy of your own home,” Throne wrote on its website, calling its camera that clips on the side of a toilet bowl “artificial gut intelligence.”

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    The website continued, explaining the device uses a “downward-facing camera that sits elegantly on the edge of your toilet bowl, capturing essential health insights and nothing else.” 

    The device collects poop data, using AI to analyze each image, aiming to determine if the user is hydrated, how well expensive vitamins and probiotics are absorbed, and whether there are any unique food sensitivities or intolerances based on the composition of the stool. 

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    The focus is mainly on an aging population and those with chronic digestive conditions, such as inflammatory bowel diseases, that are surging in the population, likely because of processed foods. 

    So does ‘AGI’ really mean ‘artificial gut intelligence’ or ‘artificial general intelligence’ ?.. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 20:30

  • A Much-Needed Bonfire Of Regulations
    A Much-Needed Bonfire Of Regulations

    Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

    The word deregulation is back, thanks mostly to Elon Musk’s strong emphasis on this as essential to restoring America’s prosperity. There are too many regulations, too many laws, too many rules. Of that there is surely universal agreement. No one approves of the unfathomable, convoluted, expensive, and internally contradictory thicket that has emerged over the decades.

    In fact, Justice Neil Gorsuch has a new book with the title “Over Ruled.” It is outstanding with a focus on all the ways in which government imposition hobbles the freedom we are supposed to be guaranteed in the United States.

    “The truth is, something’s happening in our country,” he writes.

    “Law is multiplying, and its demands are growing increasingly complex. So much so that ordinary people are often caught by surprise, and even seasoned lawyers, lawmakers, and (yes) judges sometimes struggle to make sense of it all.”

    “At the most basic level, law in our country has simply exploded. Think Congress is wracked by an inability to pass legislation? Less than a hundred years ago, all of the federal government’s statutes fit into a single volume. By 2018, the U.S. Code encompassed 54 volumes and approximately 60,000 pages. Over the last decade, Congress has adopted an average of 344 new pieces of legislation each session. That amounts to about 2 to 3 million words of new federal law each year. Even the length of bills has grown—from an average of around 2 pages in the 1950s to 18 today.”

    “Still, these figures from Congress only begin to tell the story. Federal agencies have been busy, too. They write new rules and regulations implementing or interpreting Congress’s laws. Many bear the force of law.”

    Years ago, I began to notice how household items were not working anymore. The showerheads are federally regulated to restrict flow, as are the toilets and garbage disposals. The mandated designs and blueprints make all the products worse.

    The new gas cans are awful, while the old ones sell for a premium. I was mowing the lawn and found that it kept getting clogged because of a lack of airflow. Sure enough, the functioning was hobbled by safety regulations that forced the cage ever lower to the grass surface, to the point that the machine does not do what it is supposed to do.

    Indeed, it is hard to think of a single product you use that is not trapped in some kind of forced design emanating from a federal bureaucracy. This pertains to everything in your house but also to every business, all the way down to the fabric of the aprons in every restaurant. These are just federal laws but state and local ones also add to the burden.

    Ask any real estate developer and he will tell you the reason for the housing shortage.

    It comes down to extreme controls on every single step in hiring and building. The customer ends up paying in two ways: higher prices and less choice.

    Gorsuch notes: “If you’re a budding pasta entrepreneur, take note: by federal decree, macaroni must have a diameter between 1.1 and .27 inches, while vermicelli must not be more than .06 inches in diameter. Both may contain egg whites—but those egg whites cannot constitute more than two percent of the weight of the finished product.”

    Every product in the grocery store is regulated this way. Ever wondered why the meat stock you buy at the store is mostly water with not much stock? That is heavily regulated. As I’ve pointed out before, the United States is one of the few countries in the world that requires eggs to be washed before being sold, which means that they have to be refrigerated. First-time visitors to the United States are amazed at this.

    It’s true with meat: it is simply not possible to raise a cow and sell the meat without jumping through many regulatory hoops and using independent processors. This has benefitted agri-business but has been very harmful for small farmers. Small farmers suffer daily because of this.

    Elon himself has told stories about how his Starship launches are routinely delayed by crazy mandates. His recent launch-and-catch had to be delayed for studies on how the landing would impact the sharks, the whales, and the hearing of the seals. And that’s just the start of it. All of Elon’s companies are facing an astonishing blizzard of attacks from agencies.

    Truly, there are no words to describe the reach and scope of the regulatory state. It’s a minefield with no map and danger with every step. If you have ever attempted to start a business, you know. Every industry faces huge compliance costs. It’s not just capital you have to spend. You need lawyers. You need consultants. You need, above all, time, and lots of it.

    People imagine they will go into business only to discover that the vast amount of their focus is not on serving the customer but on compliance and administrative red tape. Just try hiring one employee from New York, for example.

    The array of bureaucracies who want a piece of you will amaze you. They all charge for everything they do. They will send letters demanding more with no end in sight. And this is just for one employee. Once the staff grows so do the mandates and the legal risks.

    You no doubt have stories of friends who attempted to start a business and gave up. I know of many.

    The bureaucracies simply cannot sit still. They make new rules and regulations daily if only to foil industry, with not a care about what it costs or the impact on economic growth and job creation. The United States has created whole industries entirely devoted to smoothing compliance.

    The word “deregulation” doesn’t quite describe the fullness of what we need. The United States needs a raging bonfire of regulatory codes, one that should last for months. What is the path to achieving that? As Gorsuch says, it is not up to the judiciary to make a fundamental difference. That is the job of the legislatures.

    In the late 1970s, there was a bipartisan consensus to deregulate three industries: trucking, energy, and telecommunications. All three initiatives were a huge success and the prosperity of the 1980s is owed to these emancipations.

    The reason the word “deregulation” fell into disrepute is due to the financial deregulation of 1983, which freed up the banking sector which caught blame for every crisis that followed from the S&L debacle to the 2008 financial crisis. There is a strong reason to believe the assignment of blame here is correct. The problem traces to the doctrine of too-big-to-fail made possible by the Federal Reserve.

    There will always be problems with deregulation so long as the government’s printing presses are still in operation. Sadly, these issues added some discredit to the whole idea of deregulation.

    Another point to remember: you can still have the good kind of regulation in absence of government intervention. Every professional field has an oversight organization that certifies credentials even apart from any government mandate. And consider the role of Underwriters Laboratory (UI), founded in 1894 and still in wide operation with more credibility on safety than any government agency.

    Even if dozens of agencies were abolished, there would be private associations still around to regulate but they will do so with a market-based focus, the way UI does today.

    Another market-based form of regulation is reputation. When you buy online, do you look at reviews? Of course you do. This is a method by which quality is assured in our times. User ratings have a much larger role in our buying decisions than any administrative edict.

    In other words, deregulation does not mean anything goes. It means that society itself is in the position to provide market standards of quality. If the federal Food and Drug Administration were abolished, for example, we might well end up with safer food and more effective drugs. For one thing, all the indemnifications for vaccines would disappear, making companies legally liable for damages.

    There is an ongoing controversy to figure out what to do about agency capture wherein the largest private companies operate a revolving door with the regulators and game the system against startups. The best and most effective answer to agency capture is simple: eliminate the agency and the laws and legislation that sustain them.

    We should all be thrilled about the new push for another round of genuine deregulation. Agency compliance is too expensive, too arduous, and too ubiquitously threatening for free enterprise to thrive. In an ideal world, the government would only do what is mentioned in the Constitution and nothing more. That would mean cutting back the regulatory state by 90 percent or more.

    This is not possible in four years but something has to give. We need a dramatic turn against force and toward freedom in the management of our economic lives.

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 20:05

  • US & Israeli Spy Chiefs Head To Doha To Restart Gaza Ceasefire Talks
    US & Israeli Spy Chiefs Head To Doha To Restart Gaza Ceasefire Talks

    Is the expected Israeli attack on Iran on hold until at least after the weekend? It sure looks that way…

    “Mossad chief David Barnea will travel to Doha on Sunday to try to restart discussions on a deal to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza and halt the war between Israel and Palestinian terror group Hamas,” Israeli media reports Thursday.

    CIA chief Bill Burns is also headed to the Gulf, where Secretary of State Antony Blinken is already holding meetings with allied Gulf officials in Doha.

    Mossad Director David Barnea (left) & CIA Director William Burns in 2021. source: GPO

    Netanyahu’s office has confirmed that the Mossad chief will meet with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, alongside the CIA’s Burns.

    “At the meeting, the parties will discuss the various options for advancing the negotiations for the release of the hostages held by Hamas, against the backdrop of recent developments,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said.

    On and off negotiations of the past several months made zero progress, which each side blaming the other for thwarting the potential for ceasefire in Gaza.

    These new expected weekend efforts seem doomed to the same fate – the only difference being that Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar is dead.

    This raises a crucial question: who is calling the shots on the Hamas side? Speculation has landed on the man who has been the main political spokesman in the wake of Sinwar’s death in Rafah earlier this month:

    The officials said that Khalil al-Hayya, Sinwar’s deputy and the group’s most senior official outside Gaza, is considered a strong candidate.

    Al-Hayya, who is based in Qatar, currently leads the Hamas delegation in ceasefire talks between the group and Israel, and possesses a deep knowledge, connection and understanding of the situation in Gaza.

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    Kickstarting these new high level negotiations again could just be a political tactic by Netanyahu and Mossad, given the ongoing pressure from the hostage victims’ families to get the captives freed.

    There’s also the US election, less than two weeks away, and the Biden-Harris administration perhaps needs to show some level of a diplomatic ‘win’ or at least ‘progress’ that they can put before the voting public. But amid very heavy fighting in northern Gaza, and reports of famine spreading in the south, all of this seems too little too late.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 19:40

  • UN Report: Women Have Lost 900 Medals To 'Transgender' Athletes
    UN Report: Women Have Lost 900 Medals To ‘Transgender’ Athletes

    Authored by Eric Lendrum via American Greatness,

    A new report from the United Nations reveals that almost 900 medals that should have gone to female athletes have instead been awarded to biological men who believe themselves to be “transgender.”

    As reported by Fox News, the report was carried out by Reem Alsalem, the UN Rapporteur on Violence Against Women.

    The findings were titled “Violence against women and girls in sports.”

    Alsalem reveals that over 600 athletes failed to receive medals in over 400 competitions across 29 different sports, with the total amount of lost medals being just over 890.

    “The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against males,” his report states.

    The information collected for the study goes up to March 30th of this year.

    In the most recent example, the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) approved the participation of a male golfer in the most recent tournament, despite 275 female golfers signing onto an open letter denouncing the decision as unfair to women.

    Elsewhere, San Jose State University’s volleyball team has faced four different forfeitures by rival teams due to the team’s decision to allow a male to compete on the women’s team.

    The male player, who goes by the name Blaire Fleming, recently spiked a volleyball right into a rival team member’s face with extremely violent force, drawing attention to the disparity between the strength of women and the strength of biological men.

    As a result of Fleming’s participation, San Jose State player Brooke Slusser has joined a lawsuit against the NCAA, claiming that she was forced to share a locker room and a bedroom with Fleming without being told that Fleming is a male.

    “This is huge, especially coming from the UN…” Riley Gaines told “Fox and Friends” on Wednesday.

    “One girl being exploited in locker rooms, one girl being injured in their sport is one too many.”

    Amid growing backlash, there have been numerous efforts to crack down on so-called “transgender” participation in sports, across several international sports bodies as well as over two dozen American states.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 19:15

  • San Francisco Hit With Credit Downgrade Over CRE Apocalypse
    San Francisco Hit With Credit Downgrade Over CRE Apocalypse

    Moody’s Investors Service downgraded San Francisco’s credit rating, indicating the city’s sluggish recovery from the virus pandemic and the ongoing tech exodus, wreaking havoc on the commercial real estate market. Not mentioned in the report is the crime and chaos sparked by disastrous policies pushed forward by radical leftists in City Hall, which have only transformed some parts of the city into third-world conditions.

    Bloomberg reports that Moody’s downgraded San Fran’s credit rating to Aa1 from Aaa. This might trigger an avalanche of other downgrades from credit rating agencies in the weeks and or months ahead. Both S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings maintain AAA grades as of Wednseday. 

    Analysts at Moody’s explained their decision for the downgrade:

    “The sea change in office employment to a hybrid work model and reduction in commuting to the city’s office core have led to reduced economic activity, very high vacancy rates, and depressed rents.” 

    The credit rating downgrade is just the latest challenge facing Mayor London Breed, who recently had to close a $789 million deficit in a new two-year budget cycle. This downgrade will only make it more expensive for the city, plagued with violent crime and chaos because of failed progressive policies, to borrow in the municipal bond market.

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    A 2022 report from the city’s top economist forecasted that persistently low office occupancy could cause the city to lose $200 million in property tax revenue by 2028. 

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    In June, Barclays analysts told clients, “While we are not overly concerned about San Francisco’s credit quality, it will likely experience credit pressure for the foreseeable future, which could negatively affect the city’s ratings, as well as the ratings of some of its related credits.” 

    Those analysts said real estate property taxes represent about 60% of the city’s local tax revenue, and they warn that revenues won’t move much higher through the end of the decade. This might suggest that the deficit explodes from here = higher taxes = more exodus. 

    Here’s our latest reporting on the CRE mess in the metro area: 

    As long as Democrats are in charge of San Francisco, the metro area is locked in a doom loop that should only worsen. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 18:50

  • Victor Davis Hanson: Kamala's Inane Talking Points
    Victor Davis Hanson: Kamala’s Inane Talking Points

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

    As Vice President Kamala Harris slips in the polls, the Democratic National Committee/Harris Campaign/mainstream media fusion talking points become even more absurd.

    Claiming that J.D. Vance and Donald Trump were “weird” did not work—especially given the genuinely odd behavior of vice presidential candidate Tim Walz and would-be First Gentleman Doug Emhoff.

    Nor was the next Harris meme convincing that the frenetic and non-stop Trump was somehow “exhausted,” “senile,” and “confused.”

    Voters know the workdays of the younger Harris are usually far shorter—or sometimes not workdays at all.

    But Harris also falsely claimed the physically and mentally challenged Biden was, in her words, “absolutely authoritative” and “very bold and vibrant.”

    Now Harris asserts that Trump is a “fascist,” a “dictator,” and “unfit” for office. But this new talking point will also not stop the Harris campaign’s hemorrhaging—and for a variety of reasons.

    First, voters see the election as a conflict of two absolutely antithetical visions.

    On the one hand, is the prior Trump 2017-20 concrete record: border security, no major wars abroad, calm in the Middle East, a deterred Russia, Iran, and China, low inflation, low interest rates, lower crime, lower taxes, strong deterrent military—and opposition to mandatory electric vehicle mandates, biological males competing in women’s sports, and the woke/DEI agenda.

    On the other hand, is the Biden-Harris 2021-2024 record: the unchecked entry of 12-20 million illegal aliens and a destroyed border. People still struggle under Biden-Harris’s earlier hyperinflation and high interest rates. The horrific regional wars in Ukraine and the Middle East continue. Biden-Harris embraces the unpopular DEI/Woke agenda.

    Harris herself knows that the Biden-Harris years were a failure. That is why she has shed almost all of their hard left-wing agendas—policies she has embraced for much of her adult life.

    So suddenly, in the last 90 or so days, Harris has completely flipped and flopped.

    Now she is for more of, not defunding, the police. She pivots for a secure border, not 20 million illegal aliens pouring across it. Harris brags about fossil fuel energy, not banning fracking, and for increasing, not cutting, defense.

    In fact, several endangered incumbent Democrat senators in swing states are claiming more allegiance to Trump’s issues than identifying with Harris and her unpopular record as vice president.

    Voters likely conclude that if Trump doubles down on his record, while even Harris and many senators temporarily piggyback on it, then it must be more effective and popular than Harris’s own.

    Second, Harris now claims Trump is a fascist and insurrectionist.

    But mouthing ad nausaem “January 6th” no longer persuades voters that Trump is a danger to anyone. They recall that Harris bragged of the far more violent demonstrations of 2020—35 killed, $2 billion in damage, 1,500 law enforcement officers injured, 14,000 arrested—that the unrest would not and “should not” stop, while drumming up support to bail out jailed violent protestors.

    Nor does the slur that Trump is a fascist resonate. The Obama and Biden-Harris administrations weaponized the CIA and FBI to interfere in the 2016 and 2020 elections by peddling the fake Steele dossier and suppressing all the embarrassing news about Hunter Biden’s incriminating laptop.

    Trump certainly did not coordinate, as Biden did, with local, state, and federal prosecutors to wage lawfare prosecutions to destroy his political opponents. He did not use the FBI to partner with social media to suppress the news.

    Neither Trump nor his supporters tried to remove Biden from state ballots.

    The Republican House majority did not impeach Biden twice despite the Biden family’s corruption and Joe Biden’s unlawful, decades-long removal of classified papers to several insecure private residences.

    Trump and the Republicans never coercively removed the party’s primary-winning nominee. They did not nullify the will of 14 million primary voters. And in backroom fashion, they did not anoint a candidate who had never entered a single primary in her life.

    Nor did Trump support packing the Supreme Court. He does not seek unconstitutional means of destroying the Electoral College. He is not demanding an end to the Senate filibuster or the creation of two new states to obtain four partisan senate seats.

    Third, as for Trump being “unfit” and lacking “decorum,” it depends on what were the Biden-Harris standards?

    Having a trans activist reveal his breasts on camera at a White House “pride party?”

    Biden’s reportedly calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a f—ing idiot” and “son of a b—ch?” Bragging about locking Trump up, while waging lawfare against him?

    Unleashing son Hunter Biden with impunity to shake down foreign governments?

    The election will not be decided on these empty talking points or fake media-generated narratives.

    Instead, only two criteria matter: Which candidate’s past record and current agenda best appeal to voters? And which candidate seems the most authentic and genuine?

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 18:25

  • People Are Back And "Demanding Beach Front Houses" Days After Florida Ravaged By Hurricanes
    People Are Back And “Demanding Beach Front Houses” Days After Florida Ravaged By Hurricanes

    Everybody said no one would want to wind up back in Florida after it was ravaged by two hurricanes this month…and once again, it looks like “everyone” is wrong.

    Such was the conclusion of a recent Bloomberg article which detailed “one of the largest real estate brokerages in Boca Grande, a village on Florida’s Gasparilla Island” which has seen immediate demand following the storms. 

    “We’re already having people calling, investors, some bottom fishers, saying, ‘I will buy anything in cash and close in two weeks,’” brokerage founder Michael Saunders told Bloomberg. 

    He added: “People’s memories are short when it comes to the disastrous things that come with a storm. They forget and are right back demanding beach front houses.”

    Milton was the third hurricane to hit the island in two years, the report notes. In 2022, Ian flooded streets and damaged roofs. Helene followed this September, surging through dunes and mangroves, leaving two feet of water in Boca Grande’s shops.

    Just ten days later, Milton struck again, flooding luxury homes, condos, and downtown businesses still recovering from Helene. It knocked out power and water, tore up banyan-lined roads, and left sand drifts around the Gasparilla Inn, a favorite of the Bush presidential family.

    Boca Grande, post-storm / Bloomberg

    The Bloomberg article says that Boca Grande, long associated with old money, saw property values soar during the pandemic, with median home prices more than doubling to $4 million since 2019, per Redfin. However, home sales have recently dropped to a quarter of their 2021 peak, mirroring a 30% decline statewide.

    After Hurricane Milton, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno flew in by helicopter, offering what he called a “concierge-level” response. Crews quickly cleared five-foot sand drifts, allowing workers to restore power, repair roads, and dig out luxury homes.

    Marceno said: “People needed to know we are here. Our mission was to get this place open, so people could come back to check their property.”

    Glenn Scarpa, owner of restaurant Scarpa’s Coastal, said he’s tired of rebuilding. Milton flooded his restaurant with over three feet of water, hitting before it even dried out from Helene.

    He said: “The boo-hoo period is over, and now I just have to focus on rebuilding my life — again. What more can I do?”

    Down the beach, Milton ended the short-lived revival of South Beach Bar & Grille, which had reopened only weeks after being destroyed by Hurricane Ian. The storm shattered windows, eroded sand, and cracked the foundation. Co-owner Marco Meola fought back tears as he surveyed the damage.

    Meola said: “Hurricane Ian was really devastating, an emotional roller coaster that took a lot of toll on us, and now this. We feel like if we can survive that, we can come back from this.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 18:00

  • McDonalds Where Trump 'Worked' Hires Private Security After Deranged Leftist Threats
    McDonalds Where Trump ‘Worked’ Hires Private Security After Deranged Leftist Threats

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

    The McDonald’s franchise in Pennsylvania where president Trump visited and worked a shift, sending leftists into one of the all time seethiest of meltdowns, has been forced to hire private security because of a barrage of threats.

    Trump worked the fry station and served customers at the drive-thru in Bucks County this past weekend, in one of the greatest election stunts ever.

    Now franchise owner, Derek Giacomantonio has had to retain the private security personnel he hired for Trump’s visit to protect his store and staff in the wake of threatening messages and phone calls from TDS sufferers.

    The Daily Caller reports that Trump Jim Worthington, who organised Trump’s visit and led Pennsylvania’s delegation at the Republican National Convention, has revealed “There was chatter…There’s been messaging and phone calling and social media where people have made threats and said they are going to do this or that.”

    One Bucks County resident told the outlet that she visited the McDonalds with her four sons, noting “We walked in. It seemed fine. We ordered and we sat down, but then we looked to our left, and there were several armed guards just sitting there.”

    The resident added, “One of [the guards] stepped outside, and I saw him walking around our car. I thought he was checking if we have our insurance or something…Then [my husband and I] are like, ‘these guys are security;’ ‘these guys are really watching and seeing what’s going on.’ It was then I made the connection [to Trump].” 

    Worthington noted that Mr Giacomantonio, who wisely doesn’t want to do any media appearances, “has maintained the security there at his expense,” adding “I asked him, ‘can we help you defray those costs?’ He said ‘absolutely not. This is, sadly, a cost of doing business, but I value my employees and my customers so I’m willing to bear that cost.’”

    Worthington also stressed that despite the threats, business is booming at the branch, noting “the community is really embracing it, and a lot of people have come in here since Sunday just to patronize the restaurant.”

    He added, “a lot of people anticipated [a boycott] would happen, because that is typical for some Democratic supporters to do, but [the business] hasn’t been hurt.”

    Trump’s visit to the store was so successful that the leftist media is still complaining about it, almost a full week later, as documented in the thread below.

    Click through to see every butthurt story they published.

    *  *  *

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

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 17:40

  • Putin Warns Against 'Illusory' Attempts To Defeat Russia & America's 'Big Mistake' Of Weaponizing Dollar
    Putin Warns Against ‘Illusory’ Attempts To Defeat Russia & America’s ‘Big Mistake’ Of Weaponizing Dollar

    On the final day of the BRICS summit hosted in the Russian city of Kazan, President Vladimir Putin warned that efforts to defeat Russia on the battlefield are “illusory”.

    Moscow’s adversaries “do not conceal their aim to deal our country a strategic defeat,” Putin told the summit. “I will say directly that these are illusory calculations, that can be made only by those who do not know Russia’s history.”

    BRICS family photo

    He described that the Ukraine conflict has essentially become a proxy war, as “Ukraine is being exploited to create critical threats to Russia’s security at the expense of its vital interests.”

    He also said the West is “ignoring… legitimate concerns and violating the rights of Russian-speaking individuals” – in reference especially to the Russian-speaking Donbass region in the East, which Moscow forces have been solidifying control over.

    He also addressed the creation of a stable and fair Eurasian security order, through alliances like BRICS. “The idea is that by joining efforts, we can reliably guarantee genuine stability and create conditions for the peaceful development of all states and peoples on the continent,” Putin stated.

    Turning to the Gaza crisis, he stressed that though Russia stands against terrorism, the region is “on the brink of full-scale war.” He argued that the establishment of an independent Palestine in some form is vital. “Addressing the historical injustice towards the Palestinian people could guarantee peace in the Middle East,” Putin said.

    The BRICS family photo has expanded from year to year, reflecting the admission of new members:

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

    He hit upon the familiar them of multipolarity in world affairs, and condemned forces that seek to “dominate everything and everyone.” Of the Western drive to control the world, he described in the Thursday address that “As a result, regional and global strategic stability is eroded, violating the principles of equal and indivisible security and triggering transnational and internal conflicts.”

    And on Washington’s “big mistake” of ‘weaponizing’ the dollar, he said: “The dollar remains the most important instrument of world finance and using it as a means of achieving political goals undermines confidence in this currency and reduces its capabilities.” He explained that Russia is not trying to drop the dollar, but is actually “prevented from working with it” – and so “Then we are forced to look for other alternatives, which is what is happening.”

    Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro had some fiery words related to wars in the Middle East, and called out Israel…

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

    China’s President Xi Jinping in addressing the forum said BRICS could be a “stabilizing force for peace.” On the Middle East, he said “We need to continue to push for a ceasefire in Gaza, relaunch the two-state solution and stop the spread of war in Lebanon.”

    Xi added: “There should be no more suffering and destruction in Palestine and Lebanon.”

    Xi and Putin shared a very lively private chat, and have been frequently seen together at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia:

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

    During the summit, the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine didn’t got without criticism. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who is later expected to meet one-on-one with President Putin, described that the full-scale invasion sets a “dangerous precedent” for the world.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 17:20

  • Inflation & Social Decay – Doug Casey On Rising Prices And Falling Values
    Inflation & Social Decay – Doug Casey On Rising Prices And Falling Values

    Authored by Doug Casey via InternationalMan.com,

    International Man: Whether it’s at the grocery store, the mall, restaurants, or airports—anywhere you turn—people are finding inferior goods and services at higher prices.

    Living standards have taken a big step backward recently and are trending even worse.

    What is really going on?

    Doug Casey: There’s an inclination on the part of people to blame the producers of products—the butcher, the baker, and the gasoline maker—but that’s actually very silly, insofar as these people create real wealth.

    They’re fighting the effects of government inflation, which doesn’t create anything but fiat currency and fiat credit, which is what actually takes the prices higher. In fact, inflation of the currency, which is to say an increase in the amount of purchasing media above the increase in real wealth. It’s what inflation is all about; it’s the State subtly stealing capital and wealth from individuals.

    The big problem with the depreciation of the dollar is that producers are blamed as being the problem. They’re the solution to the problem in that they create real wealth. The real enemy here is the State and its central bank, the Fed.

    International Man: How does inflation erode ethical standards, leading people to cut corners, lie, cheat, or even steal as they try to maintain their living standards?

    Doug Casey: The prime directive of life is to survive, and entities, whether they be governments, corporations, or individuals. They will basically do whatever they have to do to survive.

    Unfortunately, inflation is all about theft, subtle and hard to diagnose as it is, but theft breeds more theft.

    Leaders of any organization, whether it be governments or corporations, set the moral tone. The average person may not understand much about economics, which is the study of how men produce and consume in order to survive, but they have an intuitive, even if not a technical, understanding of it.

    Inflation, the theft of people’s wealth, eventually leads to revolution and overturning of society itself.

    International Man: How does inflation contribute to a more litigious society, with people increasingly looking to take money from others through the legal system?

    Doug Casey: Once again, the average person doesn’t understand economics very well, but he does understand that some people in modern society are getting rich without producing anything. And, they’re benefiting from the subtle fiat currency creation.

    In any event, they diagnosed that there’s a theft going on. In a society based less and less on production and more and more on the theft of pre-existing wealth, it’s natural enough that it becomes a Hobbesian war of all against all where counter-theft takes place through the legal system as opposed to actual physical violence.

    It’s very much like Al Capone said. “One thug can rob a gas station of $100, and if he’s caught, he’ll go to jail for years. But a lawyer with a pen can rob a country of a million and never get caught.” That’s what’s going on.

    The system has become entirely corrupt, and the government, which is supposed to protect the individual man, is actually the main culprit in stealing money from him. The fact that the US has over a million practicing lawyers is a symptom of corruption where people are using the legal system to steal.

    International Man: What are some historical examples of inflation leading to significant social and cultural degradation, and what lessons can we learn from them?

    Doug Casey: The destruction of the currency usually leads to a social upset because people who’ve produced in their lives and saved the difference do so with the national currency. But if the national currency is destroyed, everything they’ve worked for throughout their lives is also destroyed.

    Inflation upsets the entire basis of civilized society. It was a major reason why Chiang Kai-shek’s regime collapsed in China after World War II and a major reason why the Communists, whatever else they’ve done to their society in China, have been reasonably competent managers of their own currency.

    The Weimar Republic in Germany after World War I completely destroyed the mark, and the social upset that it caused led to rioting in the streets between the Nazis and the Communists, and of course, the Nazis won.

    Some countries suffer from perennial inflation, which results in a constant attempt to take over the government.

    People find that when real wealth becomes hard to produce, there’s an inclination to go into politics to gain wealth and power as opposed to producing things. It’s why countries with unstable currencies become unstable socially, economically, and politically as well.

    International Man: You have frequently discussed how to protect yourself from inflation’s financial and economic effects with gold and other hard assets.

    However, aside from the financial effects, how do people protect themselves from inflation’s negative social, cultural, and political effects we’ve discussed today?

    Doug Casey: The most important thing that you can do is gain skills, lots of skills, both in breadth and in depth so that no matter how things are sorted out, you’ll always be in a position to produce things that people want.

    I’d like to share Robert Heinlein’s quote about what somebody should be able to do.

    “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

    I suggest that there’s a practical path to doing that, to qualifying yourself to thrive no matter which way the economy evolves. And for 90% of the people, it’s not sitting at a college desk for four years listening to a woke professor drone on about politically correct topics.

    I suggest you subscribe to Matt Smith’s son Maxim’s blog, where he describes, on an ongoing basis, exactly what he’s doing to educate himself instead of going to college.

    For many years, I’ve considered college to be a complete misallocation, even worse, a waste of four of the best years of your life and a lot of money to have your head filled with incorrect ideas, which are hard to wash away.

    So, the answer to the question is to prepare yourself intellectually, psychologically, and skill-wise.

    It’ll put you in a position to produce more than you consume. And what we usually talk about in this newsletter is what you do with the wealth that you save so it’s not inflated away by your government.

    *  *  *

    The truth is, we’re on the cusp of an economic crisis that could eclipse anything we’ve seen before. And most people won’t be prepared for what’s coming. That’s exactly why bestselling author Doug Casey and his team just released a free report with all the details on how to survive an economic collapse. Click here to download the PDF now.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 17:00

  • The Enemy Within Is Throwing A Hissy Fit
    The Enemy Within Is Throwing A Hissy Fit

    Authored by Jenna McCarthy via Jennaside Rocks substack,

    Trump is in trouble again – shocker! – and as one might imagine, it’s breaking the internet. This time, McDonald’s most famous fry guy had the nerve to refer to liberals allied against him as “the enemy within.” (In other news, water is wet, the entire cancer industry is a scam, and those aren’t clouds.) At the sound of this verbal napalm dropping, delicate democratic snowflakes began melting in petulant public puddles.

    “Donald Trump is suggesting that his fellow Americans are worse ‘enemies’ than foreign adversaries,” a Harris campaign spokesperson sniveled in a statement. “Until recently, this kind of language was not a normal part of American presidential politics,” The Atlantic sulked in a piece comparing Trump to Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot. “CNN Anchor Left Lost for Words By Trump’s Chilling Enemy Within Comments,” a Daily Beast headline roared before popping a Xanax and wrapping itself in a weighted blanket.

    Chilling? Sinister? Dangerous? Can so-called reporters even get a grip? “Trump unplugs his grandmother’s CPAP machine to charge his phone,” is chilling. “McDONALD found guilty of handing out fentanyl laced fries,” is sinister. “Federer calls Nadal a butthead,” is not a headline or a news story.

    I tried to get ChatGPT to weigh in on whether or not the Donald was way off base in his accusations, but the poor bot simply couldn’t cough up any intel. On moral grounds, apparently.

    So I tried a different, hypothetical question.

    Did you hear the GULP, too?

    ChatGPT hates having to expose democrats.

    On MSNBC’s Morning Joe show, host Joe Scarborough nearly lost his mind over Trump’s vitriolic verbiage. “I really don’t know where this puts us as a country,” a dramatically somber Scarborough moaned. “I’ve never heard a politician call his opponent ‘the enemy within’ and say he’s going after them.”

    Really? Hahahahahahaha. Could somebody help Scarborough out from under that rock?

    Note that Bill Clinton was never indicted for hush money payments made to Paula Jones.

    Nancy Pelosi literally called Trump a “domestic enemy” (which is obviously not the same thing as the enemy within, how dare you), not to mention immoral, unethical, corrupt, unpatriotic hahahahahaha and “stupid.” Hillary Clinton funded an investigation into Trump’s possible ties to Russia during the 2016 election. (That backfired spectacularly on her, BTW.)

    Joe Biden, who has described Trump as a dangerous liar, said just yesterday “we gotta lock him up.” Kamala Harris has deemed him a racist threat to democracy and suggested he belongs in prison.

    Elizabeth Warren insisted that if elected, she would investigate Trump for corruption. Jerry Nadler accused Trump of abuse of power and actively pursued his removal from office. Teflon Don has been impeached twice; notably, both trials resulted in acquittals.

    I guess the qualifications for political talk show host don’t include a shred of knowledge of political history. Makes sense.

    (Oh, and I didn’t mention the infamous basket of deplorables—a description Killary later doubled down on and added was “too kind” for some of us—because technically she was referring to Trump supporters, not the man himself, and I like to be fair.)

    Things got even more sullen for Scarborough when the Wall Street Journal called his party a bunch of socialist scum [my words] and refused to engage in liberals’ favorite game, Whack-a-MAGA.

    “I woke up expecting, because there are times that the Wall Street Journal editorial page checks Mr. Trump at his worst instincts,” the host said glumly, foreshadowing the fact that this is not in fact what had happened. “Instead, they’re talking about the democrats’ ‘fascism meme’ and say that basically democrats are the real national socialists and that what they’ve done is far worse than anything Donald Trump has done. Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness—stop me if you’ve heard this before—was more law-breaking than anything that Donald Trump has ever done.”

    Spoiler: Scarborough may never recover.

    “Again, very rarely am I left without adequate words to explain what’s going on here,” the host lamented, “but… I was shocked enough that yesterday that Donald Trump continued calling democrats “the enemy within,” which of course is a precursor to him getting elected. Calling them enemy combatants and being able to lock them up and have military tribunals. And they will dismiss this perhaps, but they’ve never heard language like this before. Tell me if you’ve heard this before by a major party candidate.”

    Well, Joe, since military tribunals are generally reserved for treasonous traitors who betray their country or government, I’d imagine lots of progressive players are shaking in their rainbow boots at the thought of a Trump redux. No wonder the melancholy monologue.

    Is America’s most dangerous enemy within or without?

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/24/2024 – 16:20

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Oct 24

Today’s News 24th October 2024

  • FEMA's Real Purpose: Suppressing Americans And Preventing Civilian Organization
    FEMA’s Real Purpose: Suppressing Americans And Preventing Civilian Organization

    Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

    The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was founded on April 1st, 1979 under the Jimmy Carter Administration during the height of a nearly decade long stagflationary crisis and the Iranian oil crisis. Under Executive Order 12127, its stated goal was to centralize all disaster related efforts under a single top-down entity. Specifically, FEMA ended the more localized Civil Defense Agency, which was focused on community based emergency response, and it federalized all disaster coordination under a single top-down system controlled by the Oval Office.

    FEMA was eventually placed under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security, creating even more centralization. The reason for FEMA according to the government is to aid Americans during and after a national level disaster event; anything from earthquakes to hurricanes to terrorist attacks.

    That said, it should also be noted that FEMA was officially created on April Fool’s Day.

    The true purpose of FEMA has long been obscured but some disturbing truths have been exposed in the past. The declassification of a program called Rex 84 (tied to Operation Garden Plot) revealed that FEMA was working directly with the Department of Defense on a hypothetical strategy to round up and detain large numbers of civilians considered a “threat to national security.” In other words, FEMA was to act as a tool for helping suppress civil disturbances, it was not necessarily designed to help Americans in times of need.

    This was likely always the intent behind the founding of FEMA, but George H.W. Bush and Oliver North are cited as the men that truly militarized FEMA in the early 1980s. The goal to establish a mechanism for controlling domestic political dissent and suspending constitutional freedoms was exposed not long after FEMA’s founding. Oliver North was visibly enraged when the subject was broached in a congressional hearing during the Iran/Contra scandal.

    It should be mentioned that the REX 84 documents do not list FEMA as a primary agency in control of civil disturbance response. This is where the accusations of “conspiracy theory” usually come from – FEMA is not the end-all-be-all agency in charge of locking down American rebellion. In fact, FEMA’s role is strangely ambiguous and is not clearly defined. All that is known is that they are indeed an element of Operation Garden Plot and have participated in REX exercises.

    There’s no denying that the secrecy around civil disturbance programs is pernicious and suggests that there is far more going on than our own government cares to admit. To uncover FEMA’s real intent all we have to do is examine how they behave.

    The recent Hurricane Helene disaster and FEMA’s handling of the response across the East Coast echos the agency’s crimes after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. Their emergency “aid” is used as a cloak to hide efforts to actually STOP communities from helping each other and preventing outside civilian funded supplies from reaching affected residents in need.

    Desperate residents during Katrina were treated like prisoners rather than citizens, gun confiscation took place in many areas and some people were shot for trying to leave locked down neighborhoods. (As a side note – this is why you should NEVER let anyone confiscate your firearms, especially if those people are sent by the government)

    CNN reported in 2008 that FEMA confiscated at least $85 million in donated goods and prevented them from reaching Katrina disaster victims. This included clothing, bedding, food and medical supplies. They stored these materials for years and then GAVE AWAY the supplies long after Katrina was over. FEMA claimed the supplies were “in excess to their needs.” This report and all related articles now seem to be missing from CNN’s archives.

    We just witnessed a repeat of this behavior from FEMA and the affiliated agencies within their oversight. We saw local EMS being advised to prevent civilians from helping their communities. Supplies were once agaun being blocked, people with drones were being told not to help find survivors, people with helicopters are were threatened for helping save survivors and little aid reached Helene victims for weeks. Elon Musk’s Starlink was even been prevented from providing satellite internet services to affected regions until the story went national and the Department of Transportation was forced to address the problem.

    It’s Katrina all over again, and FEMA always seems to have excuses.

    But why? You would think that with an election only weeks away Biden and Harris would be jumping at the chance to look competent and useful. Instead, they did nothing other that offer a $750 relief check to survivors (which might help people survive for a week) and then referred people to federal programs which take many months to benefit from.

    I argue that this is all deliberate. FEMA and the federal government at large are still using Operation Garden Plot-like protocols with two goals in mind…

    First, they are trying to acclimate the populace to the idea that civilians can’t help themselves and that they should do nothing. They do this by constantly interfering with civilian efforts and disrupting donations. If civilians are working on their own to save US communities from calamity then they might one day realize they don’t need the Federal Government for anything. The establishment NEEDS people to believe that they can’t survive without government aid and protection. Luckily, at least in the aftermath of Helene, it seems that many communities are working on their own to fix the situation.

    If civilians start doing things for themselves, the establishment machine becomes obsolete.

    Second, I suspect FEMA is testing the waters to see how much they can get away with. Katrina was a clear beta-test for martial law disguised as an emergency response. Katrina was Garden Plot and Rex-84 realized. They want to see what Americans will put up with.  Helene is yet another opportunity for these agencies to apply overt control and see if Americans will conform or rebel.

    If FEMA is truly sincere in their efforts to help Americans they certainly don’t act like it. The criticism surrounding Helene is ramping up and FEMA’s indignant attitude towards their own failures in unacceptable. They should be punished for failing in their duties. That is assuming they are actually failing.

    Maybe they consider the tragedy of government inaction surrounding Helene a success?  The underlying point is, when disaster comes your way, it’s not enough to merely count FEMA out as a source of aid.  That’s obvious. But you will also have to consider the possibility that the agency will work directly against you and your neighbors should you try to help yourselves.

    *  *  *

    If you would like to support the work that Alt-Market does while also receiving content on advanced tactics for defeating the globalist agenda, subscribe to our exclusive newsletter The Wild Bunch Dispatch.  Learn more about it HERE.

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 23:25

  • China's Xi & India's Modi Cement Border Peace Deal After Years Of Friction
    China’s Xi & India’s Modi Cement Border Peace Deal After Years Of Friction

    The India-China troop clash of 2020 along the largely unmarked frontier of Ladakh in a disputed border area in the Western Himalayas resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers. It was the deadliest border incident between the two nuclear-armed nations in memory.

    Since then, other more minor skirmishes and tense incidents have followed, leading to several military-to-military talks and efforts at dialogue trying to diffuse the situation. Both countries have feared there could be another deadly blow-up, as the rival armies jockey to claim territory in the high altitude no man’s land.

    But it appears the lengthy dispute may have permanently come to an end, and without further bloodshed. The two countries have reportedly struck a major peace deal in connection with the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan this week.

    The last time President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a bilateral summit was all the way back in October 2019, in southern India. Since then, the relationship has been marred by the border tensions.

    China has since developed a high-altitude air force base and infantry encampments in the Ladakh border region.

    But the two leaders met and shook hands on the sidelines of the BRICS summit on Wednesday…

    Via Reuters

    “Over the last several weeks, Indian and Chinese diplomatic and military negotiators have been in close contact with each other in a variety of forums, and as a result of these discussions, [an] agreement has been arrived at on patrolling arrangements along the Line of Actual Control,” Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters in New Delhi just as the BRICS summit kicked off in Russia.

    The agreement has led to “disengagement and a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020,” the top Indian diplomat added.

    China’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Tuesday that “China and India, through diplomatic and military channels, maintained close communication recently over border-related issues. The two sides have now reached a solution.”

    It was soon after the agreement was made public that Xi and Modi met in Kazan. President Xi said the two countries  “should carefully handle differences and disagreements and facilitate each other’s pursuit of development aspirations.”

    “It’s important for both sides to shoulder our international responsibilities, set an example for boosting the strength and unity of the developing countries, and contribute to promoting multi-polarization and democracy in international relations,” Xi continued.

    And India’s Foreign Ministry said in follow-up: “The two leaders affirmed that stable, predictable, and amicable bilateral relations between India and China, as two neighbors and the two largest nations on earth, will have a positive impact on regional and global peace and prosperity.”

    Without doubt, Russian and Asian regional media will hold up this historic moment as displaying the benefits of the BRICS alliance, and of Putin as the peacemaking host.

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 23:00

  • 'Silent Phase' Of Alzheimer's Begins Decades Before Symptoms, NIH Study Suggests
    ‘Silent Phase’ Of Alzheimer’s Begins Decades Before Symptoms, NIH Study Suggests

    Authored by George Citroner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Recent advancements in Alzheimer’s disease research show a promising shift in the understanding of the memory-robbing disorder, suggesting that crucial brain changes can occur decades before symptoms manifest.

    Courtesy of The Allen Institute, Seattle

    ​A recent study has identified a two-phase progression of Alzheimer’s, highlighting a silent phase marked by subtle brain changes long before cognitive decline becomes apparent.​

    Alzheimer’s disease has a long pre-symptomatic period, with related changes taking place in the brain “10, 15, even 20 years before the onset of memory and thinking symptoms,” Igor Camargo Fontana, Alzheimer’s Association director of scientific conference programming, told The Epoch Times.

    This research could also open new avenues for earlier detection and targeted treatments.

    “One of the challenges to diagnosing and treating Alzheimer’s is that much of the damage to the brain happens well before symptoms occur,” Dr. Richard J. Hodes, director of the NIH National Institute on Aging, said in a statement. “The ability to detect these early changes means that, for the first time, we can see what is happening to a person’s brain during the earliest periods of the disease.”

    The Early Phase: Silent and Gradual Damage

    A recent National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study provided new insights into the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, potentially paving the way for earlier detection and treatment options.

    The findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, say that Alzheimer’s affects the brain in two distinct phases: an early, silent phase characterized by subtle changes, and a later, symptomatic phase marked by widespread damage and the accumulation of amyloid plaques, long associated with the disorder.

    Researchers have found that the initial phase of Alzheimer’s is insidious, unfolding slowly over time and occurring well before noticeable memory problems arise. During this phase, a gradual buildup of beta-amyloid plaques and tangles—hallmarks of Alzheimer’s—can be observed.

    This early “quiet” phase is marked by subtle changes in brain cells, particularly inhibitory neurons, which may be among the first to become vulnerable, disrupting communication between brain cells, according to Fontana. These cells are mostly located in a brain region that is associated with memory, vision, and language.

    The research specifically identified the death of somatostatin inhibitory neurons, a group previously underestimated in their role within Alzheimer’s pathology. This finding challenges the prevailing notion that the disease primarily harms excitatory neurons responsible for facilitating brain cell communication.

    The Late Phase: Rapid Deterioration and Symptoms

    The second phase of Alzheimer’s disease is starkly different. It’s characterized by rapid accumulation of amyloid plaques and tangles, significant neural damage, and cognitive decline symptoms such as memory loss and confusion, alongside increased levels of inflammation and cell death. Researchers have found that this deterioration occurs as part of a complex interplay of changes within neural circuitry.

    Using advanced genetic analysis tools, researchers created a comprehensive map of the changes in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s. They specifically targeted the middle temporal gyrus, a region in the brain vital for language, memory, and visual processing, to illustrate its susceptibility to Alzheimer’s-induced damage.

    The study suggests that in this later phase of the disease, other cells associated with inflammation—microglia and astrocytes—begin counteracting initial changes by releasing molecules or altering their structures, according to Fontana.

    “Alterations in inflammatory cells and inhibitory neurons slowly evolve to demonstrate the well-known biological changes of Alzheimer’s,” he said, “including the accumulation of amyloid plaques and formation of tau tangle pathology, culminating in a terminal state.”

    Implications for Diagnostics and Treatment

    The study can have significant implications for early diagnosis and targeted treatments.

    The results fundamentally alter scientists’ understanding of how Alzheimer’s harms the brain and will guide the development of new treatments for this devastating disorder, Hodes noted in a statement.

    By recognizing distinct phases of the disease, researchers can better tailor diagnostics and therapeutics to the specific cellular changes taking place at various stages. This discovery may also facilitate earlier interventions and improve patient outcomes.

    The “bigger picture” is that Alzheimer’s long pre-symptomatic period presents opportunities for early detection and intervention to prevent the onset of dementia symptoms, Fontana said. “If the findings in this new paper are confirmed by other labs,” he added, “it raises the question of whether effectively addressing the brain changes that happen in what the authors call the first ‘quiet’ phase can slow, delay or prevent the second, more destructive phase.”

    Fontana stressed the importance of evaluating this “quiet” phase using a combination of diagnostic tools and investigating its associations with Alzheimer’s biomarkers, such as amyloid and tau.

    ​Looking ahead, the study establishes a foundation for future research on Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.​ By examining the relationships between different cell types and their roles in disease progression, scientists aim to identify protective factors and resilience mechanisms for potential therapies. Fontana noted that the Alzheimer’s Association is funding related research studies.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 22:35

  • These Are All The US States Paying More Than The Federal Minimum-Wage
    These Are All The US States Paying More Than The Federal Minimum-Wage

    The real value of the federal minimum wage ($7.25/hour) has declined steadily since it was last raised 15 years ago.

    As discussions around increasing it continue, several states have taken matters into their own hands – by implementing and raising state minimum wages.

    Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao maps out the U.S. states that pay more than the federal minimum wage and list their minimums.

    Data for this graphic is sourced from the Federal Reserve, as of 2024.

    Ranked: State Minimum Wages

    Thirty states have a minimum wage that’s higher than the federal minimum of $7.25/hour.

    Of them, Washington ($16.28/hr) and California ($16.00/hr ) are the highest. Both states are expensive to live in, as evidenced by how far $100 will take you (not very) in each.

    However, the country-wide crown goes to Washington D.C., ($17.50/hr) where the minimum is tied to inflation.

    Eighteen states either match the federal benchmark, or don’t have a state minimum at all (which makes the federal minimum applicable).

    Two states—Wyoming and Georgia—have a state minimum wage that’s below $7.25/hour but in this case the federal wage takes effect.

    What is the Minimum Wage Discourse?

    The minimum wage debate in the U.S. involves two main opposing viewpoints. Proponents argue that raising the minimum wage is necessary to boost living standards for low-wage workers, reduce poverty, and narrow income inequality. They say that moderate increases have minimal impact on employment and can stimulate consumer spending.

    Key to their argument is that this is also the longest time the federal minimum has not seen an increase, since its inception in 1938.

    Year Nominal value
    ($/hour)
    1940 0.30
    1945 0.40
    1950 0.75
    1955 0.75
    1960 1.00
    1965 1.25
    1970 1.60
    1975 2.10
    1980 3.10
    1985 3.35
    1990 3.80
    1995 4.25
    2000 5.15
    2005 5.15
    2010 7.25
    2015 7.25
    2018 7.25
    2019 7.25
    2020 7.25
    2021 7.25
    2022 7.25
    2023 7.25

    On the other hand, opponents claim that significant minimum wage hikes could lead to job losses, particularly for low-skilled and young workers. This could potentially increasing poverty rates for some groups.

    They argue that it may price low-skilled workers out of the job market and harm small businesses with slim profit margins. Both sides cite economic studies to support their positions, but the debate ultimately reflects deeper societal values about fairness, opportunity, and the role of government in the economy.

    Since 2017, the Raise the Wage Act has been introduced to Congress every year in an effort to increase the federal minimum. All the bills have not passed the legislature so far.

    Current “Raise the Wage” proposals look to increase the minimum to $17/hour. In the Share of Workers Earning Less Than $17/Hour we map out which states would see the most changes.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 22:10

  • Hey Pilots, FAA Issues Final Rule For "Powered-Lift" Rating, Paves Way For Air Taxis Over US Cities 
    Hey Pilots, FAA Issues Final Rule For “Powered-Lift” Rating, Paves Way For Air Taxis Over US Cities 

    The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) introduced a new rule establishing a “powered-lift” aircraft category for pilot training, marking the first new category for pilot certification since helicopters were introduced in the 1940s. This new category paves the way for aircraft that take off and land vertically like helicopters but fly like fixed-wing planes, commonly known as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, to fly in controlled airspace across America.

    Here’s more from the FAA:

    The agency today issued a final rule for the qualifications and training that instructors and pilots must have to fly aircraft in this “powered-lift” category, which have characteristics of both airplanes and helicopters. The rule also addresses their operational requirements, including minimum safe altitudes and required visibility. The rule is the final piece in the puzzle for safely introducing these aircraft in the near term.

    On X, FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker wrote, “An extraordinary moment for aviation! Our rule for training and certificating pilots to fly powered lift is the final piece of the puzzle to get these revolutionary aircraft flying safely in our skies” 

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    According to the FAA’s powered-lift rule: 

    • Makes changes to numerous existing regulations and establishes a Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) with new requirements to facilitate instructor and pilot certification and training.

    • Applies helicopter operating requirements to some phases of flight and adopts a performance-based approach to certain operating rules.

    • Allows pilots to train in powered-lift with a single set of flight controls; legacy rules require two flight controls – one for the student and one for the instructor.

    “The regulation published today will ensure the U.S. continues to play a global leadership role in the development and adoption of clean flight,” JoeBen Bevirt, founder and CEO of air taxi company Joby Aviation, told Fast Company, adding, “Delivering the rules ahead of schedule is a testament to the dedication, coordination, and hard work of the rulemaking team.”

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    We have followed several eVTOL startups over the years, including Alef Aeronautics, a company backed by Space-X… 

    It’s not hard to figure out that flying cars must be done under the FAA’s Visual Flight Rules (VRF) or Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). In other words, the pilot in control will need a pilot license and be rated in the powered lift category.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 21:20

  • How Schools Across America Are Struggling With AI Deepfakes
    How Schools Across America Are Struggling With AI Deepfakes

    Authored by Aaron Gifford via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Gone are the days where the biggest concern is students drawing alien ears on their science teacher or printing images of a friend’s face connected to a four-legged body with scales and a tail.

    That was 30-something years ago. Now, schools are being forced to develop emergency response plans in case sexually explicit images of students or teachers generated by artificial intelligence (AI) pop up on social media.

    This photo illustration shows an AI Girl Generator on a cellphone in front of a computer screen, created in Washington on Nov. 16, 2023. Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

    In two separate cases, school principals were seen or heard spewing racist, violent language against black students. Both were AI-generated deepfakes—one was produced by students and the other was made by a disgruntled athletic director who later was arrested.

    Deepfakes are defined as “non-consensually AI-generated voices, images, or videos that are created to produce sexual imagery, commit fraud, or spread misinformation,” according to a nonprofit group focused on AI regulation.

    As education leaders scramble to set policy to mitigate the damage of deepfakes—and as state legislators work to criminalize such malicious acts specific to schools or children—the technology to combat AI tools that can replicate a person’s image and voice doesn’t yet exist, says Andrew Buher, founder and managing director of the Opportunity Labs nonprofit research organization.

    “There is a lot of work to do, both with prevention and incident response,” he said during a virtual panel discussion held by Education Week last month on teaching digital and media literacy in the age of AI. “This is about social norming [because] the technical mitigation is quite a ways away.”

    Legislation Targets Deepfakes

    On Sept. 29, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a bill criminalizing AI-generated child porn. It’s now a felony in the Golden State to possess, publish, or pass along images of individuals under the age of 18 simulating sexual conduct.

    There are similar new laws in New York, Illinois, and Washington State.

    At the national level, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has proposed the Take It Down Act, which would criminalize the “intentional disclosure of nonconsensual intimate visual depictions.”

    The federal bill defines a deepfake as “a video or image that is generated or substantially modified using machine-learning techniques or any other computer-generated or machine-generated means to falsely depict an individual’s appearance or conduct within an intimate visual depiction.”

    Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) speaks at a news conference to unveil the Take It Down Act to protect victims against non-consensual intimate image abuse at the U.S. Capitol on June 18, 2024. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

    School districts, meanwhile, seek guidance on an emerging problem that threatens not just students, but also staff.

    At Maryland’s Pikesville High School in January, a fake audio recording was made of the principal. School officials enlisted the help of local police agencies and the FBI.

    The suspect, Dazhon Darien, 31, an athletic director, was charged with theft, stalking, disruption of school operations, and retaliation against a witness.

    He allegedly made the recording to retaliate against the principal, who was investigating Darien’s alleged mishandling of school funds, according to an April 25 news release on the Baltimore County Government website.

    Jim Siegl, a senior technologist with the Future of Privacy Forum, said during the Education Week panel discussion that investigators in the Baltimore case were able to link the suspect to the crime by reviewing “old school computer access logs.”

    But as AI technology continues to evolve, he said, it may be necessary to develop a watermarking system for generated audio or video to replace outdated systems for monitoring and safeguarding school computer use.

    In February 2023, high school students in Carmel, New York, used AI to impersonate a middle school principal. The deepfakes were posted on TikTok. Investigators were able to link the students’ activities to their accounts. They were disciplined under school code of conduct guidelines but not charged criminally, according to a statement released on the district’s Facebook page.

    “As an organization committed to diversity and inclusion,” the statement said, “the Carmel Central School District Board of Education is appalled at, and condemns, these recent videos, along with the blatant racism, hatred, and disregard for humanity displayed in some of them.”

    A parent, Abigail Lyons, said a co-worker who also has children in the district showed her a text containing seven different videos.

    “I basically fell to the floor,” said Lyons, who is biracial. “It was horrific. It looked so real.”

    They re-watched the videos and noticed that the lip movement and body language were a bit off from the sound. Lyons said most parents in the district had already seen or heard about the videos and probably knew they were deepfakes before Carmel school officials publicly acknowledged the incident and declared there “was no threat.”

    Carmel High School, Carmel, N.Y., on Oct. 7, 2015. Will2022/CC

    Lyons said the event scared her daughter, and that events like school lockdowns or emergency drills still trigger anxiety and fear stemming from the 2023 deepfake.

    “Seventh graders should not have to worry about these things,” she told The Epoch Times.

    Lyons said she is unaware of any deepfake incidents so far this semester, but students have threatened each other on social media, including one threat that led to a two-hour building lockdown.

    “We still don’t know what it [lockdown] was for,” she said. “The transparency still isn’t there.”

    The Epoch Times reached out to the district offices in Carmel, New York, and Baltimore County, Maryland, but didn’t receive a response.

    California’s new law was prompted by several deepfake incidents that victimized students.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 20:55

  • Tesla Soars After Unexpected Jump In Profit Margin Suggests Price War Is Over
    Tesla Soars After Unexpected Jump In Profit Margin Suggests Price War Is Over

    Ahead of today’s Tesla earnings report, UBS analyst Joe Spak asked whether Tesla numbers even matter this quarter after the Robotaxi reveal, which disappointed markets. His response is that while they should matter more, Tesla is really about the future/multiple, not the current EV biz (which drives numbers). Of the number that will be report, auto gross margins ex credits remains “the” metric investors follow, and feedback indicates buyside expectations are for flat-to-slightly-higher quarter over quarter (consensus +30bp q/q to 14.9%).

    Joe is also looking for an update on Model 2.5 for next year (doesn’t seem to be a focus) and any more Robotaxi details. Additionally, Bloomberg notes that Tesla could give an update on its more affordable vehicle platform today. Earlier this year, Musk said a low-cost model could start production in the first half of 2025.

    Analysts were hoping for an update during the company’s robotaxi event earlier this month, but there was no mention of the platform. Tesla hasn’t shared key details about the vehicle, including price and what it would look like. At the same time, Musk has repeatedly said that Tesla is becoming more than just a car company, as it increasingly focuses on artificial intelligence.

    As a reminder, Tesla’s third-quarter deliveries rose for the first time this year, but the automaker has an uphill climb to break even for 2024. In 2023, Tesla sold around 1.8 million units; as of the third quarter, 2024 sales stood at just under 1.3 million units. So Tesla will have to sell 514,000 units in 4Q to break even – which is 30,000 EVs more than were sold in 4Q 2023, the company’s all-time peak quarter.

    So with that in mind, this is what Tesla just reported for Q3:

    • Revenue $25.18 billion, missing estimate $25.43 billion
    • Adjusted EPS 72c, beating estimate 60c (Bloomberg Consensus)
    • Gross margin 19.8%, beating estimate 16.8%
      • The all-important automotive gross margin ex-credits, jumped to 17.1%, beating estimates of 14.9%, and up from 14.6% in Q2
    • Operating income $2.72 billion, beating estimate $1.96 billion
    • Free cash flow $2.74 billion, beating estimate $1.61 billion
    • Capital expenditure $3.51 billion, beating estimate $2.56 billion

    And visually:

    It is notable that while revenues rose 8%, if came in just shy of expectations, Tesla recognized $739 million, in regulatory credit revenues, the second highest quarter in history “as other OEMs are still behind on meeting emissions requirements.”

    But the biggest highlight by far is Tesla’s ability to boost margins – both gross and automotive ex-credits – substantially higher YoY and also higher than expected, signaling that Tesla’s “race to the bottom” to steal market share is once again over, and the company is once more focusing on harvesting the benefits of its recent market share gains.

    Commenting on the margin line item, Bloomberg notes that if you strip out the reg credits, “Tesla’s saying that profit is being boosted by lower cost per vehicle in terms of production and materials. Energy generation and energy storage is now also starting to perform better.”

    One more thing to point out is that the company also commented on “higher FSD revenue recognition YoY for releases related to Cybertruck” and a new feature – Actually Smart Summon (basically you hit a button in the app while your car is on other side of a parking lot and it’s supposed to drive to you). In other words, Tesla is telling is saying that people are paying for this software, and they are listing it as a positive contributor to profit.

    Some more good news: Tesla said its Cybertruck has reached profitability for the first time, thanks in part to increases in production for the futuristic pick-up truck.

    Turning to Tesla’s outlook, the highlight was the company’s discussion of Volume, where it said the following:

    Our company is currently between two major growth waves: the first one began with the global expansion of the Model 3/Y platform and we believe the next one will be initiated by advances in autonomy and introduction of new products, including those built on our next generation vehicle platform.

     Just as important, turning to Tesla’s product outlook, the company said that its “plans for new vehicles, including more affordable models, remain on track for start of production in the first half of 2025. These vehicles will utilize aspects of the next generation platform as well as aspects of our current platforms and will be able to be produced on the same manufacturing lines as our current vehicle line-up.”

    This approach, the company says, “will result in achieving less cost reduction than previously expected but enables us to prudently grow our vehicle volumes in a more capex efficient manner during uncertain times. This should help us fully utilize our current expected maximum capacity of close to three million vehicles, enabling more than 50% growth over 2023 production before investing in new manufacturing lines.“

    Speaking of auto production, we already said that while Q3 was a solid quarter with 6% growth in total deliveries, it will be up to Q4, when Tesla must sell over 510,000 units to break even vs 2024, which is 30,000 EVs more than were sold in 4Q 2023.

    And “despite ongoing macroeconomic conditions,” Tesla expects to achieve slight growth in vehicle deliveries in 2024. This is bullish and indicates that 2024 may be yet another record delivery year for the carmaker.

    Elsewhere, the energy business is still going strong, reaping in “a record gross margin” during the quarter. Powerwall deployments set a record for the second straight quarter while the ramp up of Powerwall 3 continues.

    Looking at Tesla’s investor deck, we find that the next-generation platform will have a powertrain with an efficiency of 5.5 miles per kWh. Lucid, one of Tesla’s competitors, proclaims that it has the world’s most efficient car – the Lucid Air Pure – that can achieve about 5.0 miles per kWh. Of course, the Lucid vehicle is available now, and Tesla’s next-generation platform may be years away.

    Those looking for some more details on what may be the company’s biggest value proposition, there was just a single, indirect reference to the future ride-hailing business in the deck. Tesla says:

    “At our ‘We, Robot’ event on October 10, we detailed our long-term goal of offering autonomous transport with a cost per mile below rideshare, personal car ownership and even public transit.”

    So anyone hoping for more details here, will be disappointed for at least a few more months although we are confident Elon will tease much more in the interim.

    Finally, there was this blurb documenting the company’s transition into an AI giant:

    “We deployed and are training ahead of schedule on a 29k H100 cluster at Gigafactory Texas – where we expect to have 50k H100 capacity by the end of October.”

    Putting it all together, and the company stock is surging after hours, rising almost 9%, to a huge of $234.89 after closing at $213.65. If this sustains, Tesla is will gain about than $60 billion in market value, which would be the biggest gain since July 2.

    Here is the full investor presentation (pdf link)

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 20:44

  • Open Border Backlash As NYC 'Deports' Thousands Of Migrants To Texas, Illinois, And Florida
    Open Border Backlash As NYC ‘Deports’ Thousands Of Migrants To Texas, Illinois, And Florida

    After Texas bussed over 45,000 migrants to New York City amid an influx of more than 200,000, the Big Apple is sending some of them back.

    According to a new report from Bloomberg, NYC has issued over 47,000 one-way tickets – 4,500 of them to Texas – through a voluntary program that transfers asylum seekers out of the city.

    Top destinations also include Illinois, Florida, other parts of New York and Colorado.

    The ticketing program has helped slash the number of asylum seekers reliant on the city, as have application assistance for work authorization and a policy limiting shelter stays, Adams said earlier this month. The top destinations for migrants asking to leave the Big Apple also include Illinois, Florida and Colorado, as well as other parts of New York. Most travel on planes.

    According to city official Fabien Levy, “These are not chartered buses,” but are instead “individual tickets we are purchasing after sitting down with migrants and hearing what they want to do.”

    Since April 2022, Texas has bused around 120,000 migrants to cities around the country, according to a statement from Gov. Greg Abbott’s office.

    •    Over 12,500 migrants to Washington, D.C. since April 2022
    •    Over 45,900 migrants to New York City since August 2022
    •    Over 36,900 migrants to Chicago since August 2022
    •    Over 3,400 migrants to Philadelphia since November 2022
    •    Over 19,200 migrants to Denver since May 2023
    •    Over 1,500 migrants to Los Angeles since June 2023

    “Our latest battle has been against Tren de Aragua. They’re notorious for brutal violence, kidnapping, extortion, and bribery,” said Abbott, adding “Texas law enforcement has already begun making arrests of known and suspected Tren de Aragua members. Together, we will secure our border, defend our communities, and keep Texas safe.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 20:30

  • Stock Up For Survival: Essential Food Storage Tips For Emergencies
    Stock Up For Survival: Essential Food Storage Tips For Emergencies

    Authored by Emma Suttie, D. Ac, AP via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Imagine this scenario: You have just arrived home from work. You sit down to watch the news and see that a massive storm with torrential rains is heading your way. The authorities advise everyone to stay indoors and off the roads for the next 72 hours because of high winds and the risk of flooding.

    Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

    Situations like these occur more frequently than most people realize. While no one likes pondering worst-case scenarios, advance preparation can save your life—and significantly ease your stress during emergencies.

    Whether facing natural disasters like flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, fires, or chemical spills—or personal emergencies—such as illnesses, accidents, or losing your job, having food, cash, and other necessities tucked away can mean the difference between thriving and surviving.

    Considerations When Preparing for Emergencies

    Most of us have become accustomed to conveniences like running water and grocery stores for our basic needs. However, in an emergency, these conveniences may disappear. Planning ahead can significantly increase your resilience and may be vital to your survival if things go sideways.

    While everyone’s needs during an emergency differ, food and water are universal necessities. Most experts advise having at least three days’ worth of food and water for everyone in your household, including pets. This should be enough for you to survive until the emergency has passed and help can get to you. Be prepared for extended emergencies by gathering enough food and water to last up to two weeks or even a month if your budget and storage allow.

    The American Red Cross recommends maintaining a three-day emergency supply for evacuation and a two-week supply at home.

    When preparing, consider the following:

    • The number of people and pets in your household who need food and water.
    • Dietary restrictions (allergies, diabetics), preferences, and whether certain foods require cooking or water.
    • The shelf life of the food you choose, ensuring you rotate supplies every few months for freshness.
    • Your ability to cook without power, such as having a camp stove or gas barbeque.
    • Make sure you have the necessary utensils and storage options, such as cool, dry areas for keeping food and water. Disposable plates and cutlery don’t require water for washing.
    • Because you may not have electricity, plan meals in single portions as you may be unable to refrigerate leftovers.
    • Make sure you have lighters, matches, candles, flashlights, batteries, knives, zip lock bags, bleach (to disinfect and purify water), and other essentials that you keep in sealed plastic bags.

    Water Needs

    Conventional wisdom suggests people can live for about three weeks without food. However, they can only survive for three days without water—making it essential to have plenty in your emergency stores.

    The Prepared, a highly regarded resource focused on practical prepping, recommends at least one gallon of water per day for each person. Remember to consider additional water for cooking, cleaning, and your pets.

    They also suggest including a way to treat dirty water, like a portable water filter or countertop filter.

    One way to keep the water aside for emergencies is in a deep freezer, Nellie Oehler, a food safety specialist and coordinator with Oregon State University Extension Service, a statewide outreach program, told The Epoch Times.

    “I keep my deep freezes full,” she said. “Number one, if it’s not full of food, it’s full of bottled water. Then I’ve got an emergency water supply, plus it keeps my freezer cold. It cuts down on the cost of running your freezer, and I’ve got water,” she added.

    Food Selection

    A key rule of storing food for emergencies is to “store what you eat” and “eat what you store.” One of the easiest ways to build up your survival food supply is to buy extra non-perishable, shelf-stable items every time you buy groceries. This practice will also ensure that you have food you enjoy.

    You can also buy pre-packaged emergency foods like MREs (Meals-Ready-to-Eat), which need little to no preparation and last extended periods. Survival food tends to be more compact and lasts longer than the food you buy at the supermarket, but it is typically more expensive. A combination of both works well for a robust emergency food pantry.

    Preserving your food at home through canning, pickling, curing, fermenting, or dehydrating is also an option.

    You still have options if you don’t know how to preserve your own food, Oehler said. Inexpensive options are plentiful at supermarkets. Waiting until items go on sale to stock up can help you save money and collect the food you need to be prepared when the time comes.

    Be aware of expiration dates on foods you buy, and choose foods that have a long shelf life and come in sturdy packaging. Look for nutrient-dense, shelf-stable foods like dried beans, canned meat and fish, peanut butter, and grains, as they take up the least amount of space. Also, when buying food, consider if it needs cooking, reheating, or can be eaten right out of the package.

    Recommended Emergency Food Items

    While not exhaustive, the list below will give you an idea of foods that store well and make an excellent addition to your emergency food pantry.

    Protein Sources

    • Peanut butter and other nut butters
    • Canned meat and fish (spam, chicken, tuna, salmon, sardines)
    • Beef jerky and dried meats
    • Canned beans and legumes (including refried beans)

    Ready-to-Eat Meals

    • Canned soups, stews, and chili
    • Instant meals (macaroni and cheese, ramen)
    • Instant mashed potatoes

    Grains and Staples

    • Rice and pasta
    • Oatmeal and breakfast cereals
    • Crackers and chips
    • Dried beans, lentils, and chickpeas

    Fruits and Vegetables

    • Canned fruits and vegetables
    • Dried fruits
    • Canned tomatoes and tomato sauce

    Beverages and Condiments

    • Powdered milk
    • Fruit juice (bottled, canned, or powdered)
    • Coffee, tea, hot chocolate
    • Salt, pepper, spices, hot sauce

    Comfort Foods

    • Honey and jam
    • Trail mix and granola bars
    • Chocolate, candies, and other favorite snacks (to improve morale)

    Some foods are not ideal for storing in an emergency, Tracey Brigman, associate director of the National Center for Home Food Preservation, told The Epoch Times via email.

    “Foods that should be avoided are foods that are overly salty (they can make you more thirsty and can thus deplete your water supply), caffeinated sodas (they offer little nutrients and can contribute to dehydration), and fresh items like fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy and leftovers since they spoil rapidly without proper refrigeration,” she said.

    Storage Strategies

    Oehler suggests diversifying for effective food storage.

    “Don’t put all your stuff in freeze-dried foods or dry foods because then you have to have a ton of water—so have a variety of foods on hand,” she said.

    For convenience and minimal effort, commercially canned foods from the grocery store are a great option. Make sure your emergency food is well-packaged, sealed, and has a date to prevent spoilage. If you have the budget, consider storing dry goods like beans, rice, and flour in food-grade buckets with oxygen absorbers to make them last longer. This can extend their shelf life for up to 25 years, Oehler said.

    “Home-preserved foods only last in proper storage for up to 1 year, so they need to be inspected and replaced in a timely manner,” she said. “Additionally, a home-canned food that is damaged, shows signs of swelling, rust, dents, or leaks, or has been exposed to floodwater should not be consumed. If there are any doubts about your home canned foods after a disaster, throw them out,” Oehler added.

    Improperly preserved food, especially if it has moisture, can lead to foodborne illness. Learn proper food preservation techniques from reputable sources like the National Center for Home Food Preservation, which has resources on preserving foods safely.

    Where to Store It

    Store food in a cool, dry place, ideally between 32 and 70 degrees F, as food will last longer in colder temperatures. Ideally, the space should be well-ventilated, clean, isolated from other items such as cleaning products or chemicals, and kept off the floor.

    If you live in a city with limited space, consider using under-the-bed storage, as it’s dark, and the bedroom is usually one of the coldest rooms in the house, according to Oehler.

    Don’t keep all supplies in one location—diversifying storage places can protect your food from emergencies. If a fire destroys your house, having some food in a shed or barn can be life-saving, Oehler said. She also recommends having containers with wheels on hand, like coolers or garbage cans, so you can take some supplies with you if you have to leave.

    Keeping food, water, and other emergency supplies in your car is advisable, as you never know where you will be when trouble strikes (being mindful that cars get very hot in summer months), she added.

    Cooking Without Electricity

    If you’re facing a power outage, you’ll need to think about how to cook or warm up your food without electricity. Keep this in mind when choosing foods, especially if you don’t have an alternative cooking source.

    Alternative Cooking Sources

    If you have a camping stove or barbeque, make sure you have the right fuel and extra water. Always cook outside for safety. A butane stove is a great, portable option for cooking and boiling water, especially indoors during severe weather, according to Oehler. It’s efficient, safe, and affordable.

    A butane stove is an excellent alternate cooking source when there is no electricity. Afanasiev Andrii/Shutterstock

    If you don’t have an alternative cooking source, stock up on ready-to-eat foods. Don’t forget a can opener!

    For warming up food indoors, candles, fondue pots, or chafing dishes can be used. Try to use a well-ventilated area if possible.

    Food Spoilage

    Stored food can deteriorate over time, losing its color, texture, taste, and smell. Some nutrients, like vitamin C, are also lost over time. If not stored correctly, insects and rodents can get into stored food, making it inedible. Use food-grade buckets, glass jars, or other airtight containers to keep food fresh and safe.

    Keep food items in sturdy, air-tight containers to protect them from rodents, insects, and other animals.  Landshark1/Shutterstock

    Don’t get too caught up in expiration dates. Commercial foods’ “use by” and “sell by” dates should be taken with a grain of salt, Oehler said, adding that the dates have nothing to do with food safety. “You know, if you have a can of green beans that’s two years old that you bought in the store—if it’s not bulging, if it’s not leaking on the seams, it’s perfectly safe to eat. If it’s five years old, it’s safe to eat,” she said.

    A lot of the quality of your food will depend on how you store it, Oehler said. Keeping the temperature from fluctuating, preventing light and moisture from getting to food so cans don’t rust, and ensuring things don’t freeze are ways to ensure your emergency stores last, she noted.

    Before eating, check for any signs of damage, like cracks, holes, or broken seals. Throw away anything that looks suspicious.

    Common Mistakes

    Mistakes made when preparing for an emergency can be costly when the emergency arrives. Brigman shares some common pitfalls:

    • Storing foods that are difficult to prepare or are not well-liked
    • Not closing foods tightly after each use
    • Not placing them in airtight food containers to protect them from spoilage
    • Not checking the dates and having expired/bad food in your emergency kit
    • Storing too many comfort foods and not enough nutrient-dense foods

    “Your body’s nutritional needs don’t change during an emergency so you still need to plan for nutritional adequacy,” Brigman said.

    Resources

    Extension services are an excellent resource for emergency preparedness and are available in every state. Extension services were established in 1914 to provide research-based education to the public. They offer a wide range of programs on topics that include farming, livestock management, gardening, and food production.

    Many universities also have extension programs, which “extend” the university and its resources to members of the community through educational programs.

    Resources from the University of Georgia and the Extension Disaster Education Network can provide vital information and assistance.

    Final Thoughts

    Emergency preparedness can feel daunting, but taking small steps can make a difference. By adding extra groceries and assessing your current supplies, you’ll be better equipped for any situation. Planning calmly for potential emergencies safeguards you and your loved ones. While preparation requires time and effort, it could be key to navigating future challenges.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 20:05

  • "Once You Know, You Cannot Unknow": Whistleblower Reveals Fed-Funded Industrial-Sized Staffing Firm Shipping Migrant Kids Around US
    “Once You Know, You Cannot Unknow”: Whistleblower Reveals Fed-Funded Industrial-Sized Staffing Firm Shipping Migrant Kids Around US

    A contract specialist from the General Services Administration (GSA) spoke with investigative reporter James O’Keefe about the federal government awarding a massive contract to an industrial-sized staffing agency to transport unaccompanied migrant kids across the country.

    “My line in the sand moment was when I found out that GSA had awarded a contract to a company to transport unaccompanied minors,” GSA Senior Contract Specialist Clarissa Rippee told O’Keefe in a sitdown interview shared on X.

    Source: James O’Keefe

    Rippee explained GSA, on behalf of the federal government, awarded MVM, a private security contractor with ties to the CIA, NSA, FBI, and Homeland Security, with a massive $347 million contract for the transportation services of unaccompanied minors across the United States. 

    Source: James O’Keefe

    She said the contract made her feel “like someone kicked me in the gut.” 

    Rippee described the federal gov’t treated unaccompanied migrant children like “commodities… like potato chips on a truck.” She noted this MVM contract highlights the “big money business” in the migrant crisis. 

    “Once you know, you cannot unknow,” Rippee stated, warning that the horrifying conditions she witnessed inspired her to speak out: “It’s about the children, and it’s my duty now to speak up.”

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    At the core of this taxpayer-funded invasion machine of new future Democratic voters are staffing agencies, the same ones that profited off the endless wars in the Middle East, retooled their business models from assisting the federal gov’t in foreign wars to providing domestic services to support the migrant invasion.

    Areas where migrants were dumped in 2023. 

    Source: Bloomberg

    These staffing firms have been awarded big contracts to provide private security, transportation, and many other services to ensure the smooth operation of the invasion domestically.

    Earlier this month, Real America’s Voice host Ben Bergquam posted on X, “More breaking footage of the Democrats harboring illegals in Chicago. Now using unmarked brand new hotels like this Holiday Inn at [XXXXXXX] to disguise Kamala and Biden’s illegal invasion operations.” 

    Bergquam’s video of the Holiday Inn filled-migrant hotel in the Chicago metro area is very intriguing. First, the security guards appear to be sourced from staffing firm GardaWorld. 

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    Last month, Muckraker’s Anthony Rubin dropped a bombshell in a report titled “Finding The Feds’ Missing Children | CHILD TRAFFICKING IN AMERICA.”

    He provided intel that MVM was caught moving unaccompanied migrant children around the country.

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    In 2012, the head of GardaWorld told Reuters that Middle East conflicts had kept the staffing firm “busier than ever and has never been greater,” adding, “I don’t want to say it’s a gold rush, but business is very good.”

    The American people need to understand the same industrial-sized staffing firms that profited off the Deep State’s endless wars in the Middle East are profiting off the Biden-Harris migrant invasion – a government-created crisis.

    Taxpayers funded the migrant invasion chaos. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 19:40

  • 20% Of Households Making Over $150,000 Live Paycheck-To-Paycheck
    20% Of Households Making Over $150,000 Live Paycheck-To-Paycheck

    Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

    Bank of America has an interesting report on who’s living paycheck to paycheck (PTP). It’s not just the poor. Blame the Fed.

    Please consider Paycheck to Paycheck: What, Who, Where, Why?

    What Does It Mean?

    The term ‘living paycheck to paycheck’ is a fairly frequently heard expression but can be somewhat nebulous and is not always clearly defined. Broadly, one can imagine it refers to individuals or households that regularly spend nearly all of their income, leaving little to nothing left over for savings.

    By that widely used definition, over 40 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed to living PTP.

    BofA restricted that definition as shown in the lead chart.

    BofA refines PTP as “households where necessity spending is more than 95% of their household income, leaving them relatively little left over for ‘nice to have’ discretionary spending or saving.”

    Even by that definition, which I endorse, the percentage of PTP households is staggering.

    More surprising is that the proportion of households appearing to live paycheck to paycheck falls only slowly as incomes rise. Around 20% of households with incomes above $150K also appear to be living paycheck to paycheck. How can this be? One reason is that higher-income households may have bought larger, more expensive, homes and consequently have bigger mortgages. And often along with bigger homes come bigger insurance costs, property taxes and utility bills. It is also possible that as household incomes rise, some households may have more varied sources of income that are hard to capture – such as cash from sales of equities paid into brokerage accounts.

    Generational Paycheck to Paycheck

    That chart struck me as odd. But perhaps not. Zoomers and Younger millennials are priced out of a home and forced to rent.

    Then again, anyone with a mortgage should have been able to refinance at 3 percent or lower, putting extra money in their pockets every month.

    How Old Are the Youngest Boomers?

    AI Response: As of June 2024, the youngest baby boomers are 60–69 years old. The baby boomer generation is defined as people born between 1946 and 1964.

    Some experts have given the youngest baby boomers, born between 1954 and 1964, a new name, “Generation Jones”, because they are so different from older boomers.

    Has anyone heard the name “Generation Jones?”

    Regardless, boomers are at retirement age. The kids are gone. So why are boomers living PTP?

    One possible answer that BofA did not explore is Boomers have many assets and are prepared for the future. Besides, you can’t take it with you.

    Other possible answers, such as being totally unprepared for retirement, are much more troubling.

    Which is it? I suspect both reasons are in play, and that leads to the high PTP percentage shown.

    The Housing Factor

    Note the Hidden Costs of Homeownership.

    • Bank of America aggregated deposit data suggests that fewer households are moving between cities. In the second quarter of 2024, moves across cities fell 4% year-over-year (YoY) after a 15% YoY decrease this time last year. Those that are moving, however, are skewing towards Gen Z and lower-income households, likely as more households move out of necessity as opposed to choice.

    • Some households are likely deferring moves due to increased “hidden” costs of homeownership (e.g., insurance, property taxes). Bank of America aggregated payments data suggests these costs are up significantly YoY, especially in the Sun Belt. And a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco suggests that this area is affected by another “hidden” cost: climate change.

    • Gen Z and lower-income movers are likely searching for affordability, particularly in the rental market. We find those metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with relatively more affordable rents are seeing the fastest population growth in Q2 2024.

    • The fewer overall movers and the skew to younger/lower income movers is depressing consumer spending on moving-centric categories such as furniture. But if moving rebounds, we could see a tailwind to these areas of spending.

    Housing is a big factor in PTP. Insurance has soared and so have property taxes except where capped.

    The home ownership rate is only 35 percent for 25–30-year-olds, compared to 66 percent across all ages according to the Census Bureau.

    New Record Highs on Home Prices

    On September 28, I commented Yet Another Record High for Case-Shiller Home Prices

    And a quick check on Mortgage News Daily shows that 30-year mortgage rates have surged back up to 6.85 percent from 6.11 percent on September 11.

    I have been talking about housing since the start of this blog in March of 2003. The Fed keeps making the same mistake over and over.

    Fed Hubris

    Flashback March 4, 2021: Fed Hubris: Housing Prices Show the Fed is Making the Same Inflation Mistake

    Prior to 2000, home prices, Owners’ Equivalent Rent (OER), and the Case Shiller national home price index all moved in sync.

    This is important because home prices directly used to be in the CPI. Now they aren’t. Only rent is. Yet, OER is the single largest CPI component with a hefty weight of 24.05% of the entire index. 

    The BLS explains this away by calling homes a capital expense not a consumer expense. 

    However, that explanation ignores easily observed and measurable inflation. And it’s inflation, not alleged consumer inflation, that is important. 

    BIS Study on CPI Deflation

    Note that a BIS Study finds that routine consumer price deflation is not damaging in the least.

    Specifically, the BIS concludes “Deflation may actually boost output. Lower prices increase real incomes and wealth. And they may also make export goods more competitive!”

    Worst of all, in their attempts to fight routine consumer price deflation, central bankers, led by the Fed, create very destructive asset bubbles that eventually collapse, setting off what they should fear – asset bubble deflations.

    A $150,000 House in 1988 Now Costs $707,500 Thank You Fed

    Using Case-Shiller data of repeat sales, on August 10, 2024, I noted A $150,000 House in 1988 Now Costs $707,500 Thank You Fed

    Mess Entirely of Fed’s Making

    This is a mess entirely of the Fed’s making. And it’s what happens when the Fed, and economists in general do not count home prices as inflation.

    Home prices are not directly in the CPI or PCE. The latter is the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation.

    Economists consider home prices a capital expense not a consumer expense. The problem is simple: Inflation is not just a consumer price concern!

    The Fed ignored obvious inflation in the Great Recession and did so again in the Covid recession.

    Dual-State Economy

    And so here we are. The Fed is directly responsible for a dual-state economy of the haves vs the have-nots.

    The haves are the asset holders. They have largely benefitted from massive asset bubble inflation. The have-nots are those who want to buy a home but are priced out due to inflation.

    The Fed created this setup via QE and mortgage security purchases driving interest rates to zero and mortgage rates below 3 percent.

    Existing homeowners refinanced putting extra money in their pocket every month.

    The have-nots are trapped renting, while most of the haves are trapped in their homes unwilling to trade their 3 percent mortgage for a 6.85 percent mortgage.

    Meanwhile, the cost of insurance, maintenance, and property taxes on that home have jumped so much that 20 percent of people making over $150,000 a year are living paycheck to paycheck.

    End the Fed

    I believe I have made the case to end the Fed. Rather, the Fed made the case against itself.

    This idea was a discussion focus on this blog and the Mises Institute in a series of recent posts.

    Please see Fed “Playing With Fire” Take Two, Who Starts the Business Cycle? for a discussion of ideas and alternatives on ending or reigning in the Fed.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 19:15

  • 'Startling': GOP Early-Voting Turnout In Nevada Amazes Veteran Observer, Alarms Dems
    ‘Startling’: GOP Early-Voting Turnout In Nevada Amazes Veteran Observer, Alarms Dems

    Warning lights have been flashing all over the Democrats’ 2024 dashboard, and now a new one is pointing to big trouble for Kamala Harris in the battleground state of Nevada, where early voting results show that GOP voters are actually outnumbering Democrats. 

    Across the country, Democrats typically account for a majority of early votes, and Nevada has been no exception — until now. “The numbers look pretty GOP so far, and that never happens in a presidential year,” wrote veteran Nevada political reporter Jon Ralston in a Tuesday afternoon blog post at the Nevada Independent. 

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    Democrats lead statewide mail-in voting by 17,298, but Republicans lead in-person voting by a whopping 25,173 — even beating Dems in Clark County and Washoe County, homes of Las Vegas and Reno, respectively. Statewide, Republicans account for 52% of in-person early voting, Democrats are just 28%, and “other” is 20%. “Those in-person numbers are startling,” wrote Ralston, who’s been covering Silver State politics for three decades. “A few more days like this…and the Democratic bedwetting will reach epic proportions.”

    Another dynamic of Americans politics is the big distinction between urban and rural voting patterns, with cities reliably delivering large volumes of Democratic votes. In Nevada, the dynamic is perhaps even more pronounced, with Democrats’ statewide fortunes largely tied to the so-called “Clark firewall.” However, so far in 2024, that barrier is looking mighty short. “The Clark firewall is only 6,500, about a seventh of what it was in 2020,” wrote Ralston.

    The bigger picture is even worse for the Democrats: “The [Republican voter-turnout] lead in rural Nevada is more than double the [Democrat] lead in urban Nevada,” he wrote. The sea change prompted Ralston to declare that we’re witnessing a new dynamic in the 2024 cycle: “The [GOP] rural firewall. It’s a thing.”

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    The departure from norms could also have implications for what we see on Election Day: “It’s clear there are more Republicans voting early and by mail, which raises the possibility that Election Day may not be as robust for the GOP.” 

    Extrapolating the results, Ralston concludes that “it means Kamala Harris has to win indies by close to double digits if this turnout scenario holds.” He cautioned that we’ve only three days into 14 days of early voting, and that results could shift. However, he continued, “If this becomes a trend and not an anomaly, it will be over.” 

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    There’s also a Senate race in Nevada this year, pitting Republican challenger Sam Brown against incumbent Democrat Jacky Rosen. The Cook Political Report rates the race as “Lean D,” while Polymarket bettors collectively have Democrat Rosen at an 80% chance of winning. That’s a big variance from the presidential race, where Polymarket gives Trump a 65% chance of taking the state’s six electoral votes.

    No Republican presidential candidate has won the state since George W. Bush beat John Kerry by a 50.5% to 47.9% margin in 2004… but it looks like the table is being set for an end to that decades-long losing streak. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 18:50

  • Denny's Plots 150 Closings As Part Of Its Growth Strategy
    Denny’s Plots 150 Closings As Part Of Its Growth Strategy

    By Peter Romeo of Restaurant Business Online

    Denny’s needs to close about a tenth of its stores before it can fully harness a comprehensive comeback plan that’s yielded encouraging early results, management informed Wall Street during the 71-year-old chain’s investor’s conference Tuesday. 

    Executives said they’ve tagged about 150 stores whose weak financial performance is sapping the whole system’s vitality. About half those units will be shut by the end of this year, with the rest slated to fire down their grills for good in 2025. 

    “We believe this is absolutely the right thing to do to make our system stronger,” company CEO Kelli Valade said in opening the daylong meeting with investors. 

    She spoke after the franchisor reported a 0.1% decrease in same-store sales for the Denny’s brand in the third quarter. Included in the results was an indication that Denny’s franchisees shut 18 units during the period, leaving the 1,590-unit system 53 restaurants smaller than it was at the end of the year-ago quarter.

    Valade said the closings were necessary to realize headquarters’ goals of raising Denny’s average annual unit volume to $2.2 million and putting a fresh face on the brand. 

    She did not reveal how pricing or traffic levels figured into the quarterly results, though she acknowledged that guest counts were down. “Everyone has lost traffic. Everyone,” Valade commented.

    She cited research showing sales for all of family dining are down about 20%, the steepest decline for any major industry segment. 

    The presentation from management also touched on how many of the chains in family dining, one of the restaurant business’ oldest sectors, are similarly shutting stores. 

    “We’ve contracted most since Covid, that’s a fact,” Valade said.

    Steve Dunn, Denny’s chief development officer, said the home office had reviewed every domestic unit of the chain to assess its financial strength. It found that the fifth of the system with the weakest performance was hurting the rest of the system because the stores were often old and located in markets whose consumer dynamics had changed. The decision was made, he said, to prune those stores for the benefit of the survivors.

    Valade said the systemwide evaluation also revealed the brand’s “Achilles heel,” a significant variation in the look of units from market to market. 

    Dunn indicated the inconsistency and aged look of some stores will be addressed in a comprehensive renovation program called Diner 2.0. It includes several financial incentives for franchisees to make the needed investments, including a grant of $100,000 to operators who opt to update. In exchange for the cash, participants agree to pay what management characterized as a slightly higher royalty fee, though it did not specify how much of an increase there would be.

    In addition, management has worked with a third party to create a $25 million loan pool to fund the updates.

    Restaurants given a facelift tend to see a $400,000 uplift in sales, according to Dunn. Experience has shown that the rejuvenated stores can expect a sales boost of 6.4% and a traffic upswing of 6.5%.

    A signature Denny’s feature that could be dropped from those stores is a requirement that they remain open around the clock. Valade revealed that about 25% of the system has opted not to operate through the night and suggested the chain will not aim for its pre-pandemic goal of every unit being open 24/7.

    Executives of the company reviewed their previously disclosed plan for reinvigorating Denny’s operations and sharpening the brand’s appeal to new and lapsed customers. That strategy pivots on value.

    Valade revealed that some customers are bringing down their tabs in part by ordering Denny’s kids meals more regularly.

    Other executives stressed that virtual concepts will remain a key part of the strategy. Denny’s currently boasts three digital brands: Burger Den, the Meltdown and its newest venture, Banda Burritos, which is now available featured in 1,000 Denny’s units. The three have generated $77 million in sales to date, according to Patty Trevino, the diner chain’s new chief brand officer.

    She revealed that Banda Burritos intends to steal a trick from its parent company’s playbook. The venture is currently eying the rollout of a product called the Grand Slam Burrito, a clear reference to Denny’s signature breakfast platter.

    Trevino stressed that Denny’s will continue to evolve its menu, not only through additions but by upgrading what’s already on the bill of fare. She noted, for instance, that the company has spent $8 million to improve its bacon.

    Keke’s gets some attention

    Management focused more on Denny’s young sister brand, Keke’s Breakfast Café, than executives typically have during their quarterly calls with financial analysts.

    Same-store sales for the still-regional operation slid 1% during the third quarter, said concept President Dave Schmidt.

    He revealed that the concept has been and will continue to be tweaked in preparation for rapid expansion. Development agreements have been signed for 140 stores, off the current base of 61 units. Much of that commitment has come from Denny’s franchisees, Schmidt indicated.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 18:25

  • Apple "Might Wind Down" Vision Pro Production Next Month Due To "Weak Demand" 
    Apple “Might Wind Down” Vision Pro Production Next Month Due To “Weak Demand” 

    A new report from The Information suggests Apple might suspend production of its Vision Pro mixed-reality headset as early as next month due to very weak demand. Some Asian suppliers have already reduced or stopped producing headset components since the summer. Additionally, the development of the next Vision Pro model has been delayed, while a more affordable headset is slated for the retail market by the end of 2025. 

    The first version has met weak demand, a result of its high price and the lack of apps available on it. Employees at three Vision Pro suppliers that supply a range of electrical and mechanical components told The Information they have so far built enough components for between 500,000 and 600,000 headsets.

    One of the employees said their factory suspended production of Vision Pro components in May based on Apple’s weak forecasts, and their warehouse remains filled with tens of thousands of undelivered parts.

    . . . 

    In recent weeks, Apple has told Luxshare, which is responsible for the Vision Pro’s final assembly, that it might need to wind down its manufacturing in November, according to an employee at the Chinese manufacturer. Luxshare is making around 1,000 Vision Pro units a day, down from a peak of around 2,000 units a day, the employee said. It has assembled a total of between 500,000 and 600,000 headsets since production began last year ahead of its February release in the U.S., the employee said.

    Apple’s move into the mixed-reality headset market with its $3,500 Vision Pro seems poorly timed, given the financial strain on many low- to mid-tier consumers. High inflation and elevated interest rates, primarily attributed to failed Bidenomics, have left millions of cash-strapped Americans in financial misery as they struggle to cover basic expenses like rent, groceries, car payments, insurance, and phone bills.

    The Vision Pro flop is nothing new to readers. We commented on a WSJ note earlier this month that showed the dismal demand for the headset means no ‘killer app’ anytime soon:

    There has been a significant slowdown in new apps coming to the Vision Pro every month. Only 10 apps were introduced to the Vision App Store in September, down from the hundreds released in the first two months of the device’s launch, according to analytics firm Appfigures.

    It has counted around 1,770 apps available for the Vision Pro in the App Store as of September. Only 34% of those apps are built specifically for the Vision Pro, while the rest are versions of existing Apple apps that have additional Vision Pro functionality, Appfigures said.

    Apple said in August that there are more than 2,500 apps built for the Vision Pro. Appfigures said the discrepancy between these two figures could be, in part, because some apps aren’t used enough to register on usage charts, making them difficult for the analytics firm to detect.

    A visualization from WSJ shows a considerable decline in the number of new apps released for Vision Pro every month since its launch.

    Source: WSJ

    We’ve previously noted…

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    Even from the start. 

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    Just like the AI-enabled iPhone 16, another bust for Apple. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 18:00

  • NASA Finally Comes To Grips With Telework Tumbleweeds
    NASA Finally Comes To Grips With Telework Tumbleweeds

    Authored by Pete McGinnis via RealClearPolicy,

    Two years on from COVID, the agency noticed sparse HQ attendance. 

    Someday, it may end up being one of those hoary old philosophical saws: “If the lease on a government agency’s headquarters expires, but nobody actually works there, do the taxpayers’ sighs of relief make a sound?” 

    The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) may have the honor of being the first federal agency to find out. Heavily redacted communications obtained by the Functional Government Initiative (FGI) show that the lease on NASA’s headquarters expires in 2028. An email from an official at the General Services Administration, which manages offices and properties for the federal government, said, “The agency is starting the process of evaluating options including leasing, buying a different building, or construction of a new headquarters building, all within the Washington area and close to public transportation.” There was one big problem: knowing how many workers a new HQ will have to house, because nobody at the agency seems to know how many workers show up at the office now.  

    NASA email chains reflect the confusion. One staffer involved in the discussion asked, “Are enterprise organizations on remote work agreements counted in their analysis of under 50% work being performed on-site?” Another had to explain that “100% telework … that is not a thing!” Apparently “Telework Coordinators” are doing a review of each pay period to determine who coded to 100% telework, the reason why, and conducting education and counseling when needed. The last alternative is the employee is not reporting onsite on a regular basis without approval and in contradiction to the regulation.  

    (Ironically, we know of two NASA employees who would dearly love to work from home but can’t. Rest assured, NASA’s doing everything that can be done while in PJs and bunny slippers to get its astronauts home. In the meantime, it’s good to know the SpaceX offices are rocking.) 

    Of course, it’s not only NASA. In spring 2023, the House Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce asked 25 agencies to report on the status of their telework arrangements. On November 29, 2023, Subcommittee Chairman Pete Sessions told a hearing, “I want to be clear, of the 25 agencies we wrote last spring, many responses were not, in fact, responsive. Eleven of the 25 did not include any figures at all regarding how many of their employees were currently teleworking—either in the Washington, D.C. area or agency-wide.” On the other side of the Capitol, Senator Joni Ernst (Iowa) has been aggressive in her push for transparency in telework and waste from mostly empty federal buildings.  

    Federal workers don’t much seem to miss the watercooler banter of yesteryear. They haven’t exactly been sprinting back to their offices in the two-plus years since the COVID-19 pandemic ended, and getting them back in hasn’t been a priority for the Biden-Harris administration. Despite demands from Congress and an order from President Biden, the trickle of returning workers hasn’t become a flood. 

    At NASA, with its “analysis of under 50% work being performed on-site,” it apparently took until February of 2024 to finally notice the tumbleweeds rolling through HQ and announce to staff it would significantly condense its space: “With daily occupancy in the building so low, people are spread out, which is a waste of space, can be tough on employees and is not the best use of taxpayer dollars.”  

    It’s nice that somebody’s thinking of the taxpayers. But while HQ was being rehabbed, NASA was going to 100% telework until “perhaps May.” And if the agency does move to a new building, the goal seems to be to have people in the office 90% of the time. So that “close to public transportation” feature will be handy. Some day. 

    To recap: the agency is considering a shiny new HQ building but can’t confidently say how many workers it will need to house, and managers don’t seem to know where everyone is. And their only answer is more telework. Meanwhile, the agency is conspicuously failing in the “Aeronautics and Space” mission it was created for and being bailed out by private enterprise. This is classic government dysfunction. 

    But it’s worse. It’s more proof – as though more were needed – that in the federal bureaucracy there’s little accountability and even less concern about what the people who pay the bills think about it. 

    Pete McGinnis is director of communications at the Functional Government Initiative.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 17:40

  • DOJ Warns Musk Over $1M Voter Giveaway: Report
    DOJ Warns Musk Over $1M Voter Giveaway: Report

    While the Biden-Harris DOJ has been silent over allegations that Democrat fundraising platform ActBlue is using illegal straw donors, they sure seem to have a problem with Elon Musk’s super PAC – and has issued a warning in an alleged letter that its $1 million daily giveaway in battleground states may violate federal law, NBC News reports (based on an anonymous source, so who knows).

    According to the report, the letter follows mounting pressure to stop the program.

    The letter, which was earlier reported by CNN, follows mounting pressure on state and federal authorities to investigate Musk’s lottery as a potential violation of election laws, including a ban on paying people to register to vote. On Monday, a group of ex-prosecutors and other former government officials sent a letter to the Justice Department requesting an investigation. 

    News of the letter come on the same day that left-wing public advocacy group Public Citizen filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission alleging that the contest violates campaign finance law because “the purpose of the $1 million reward for signing the petition appears to be to motivate voter registration and voting at the polls by those sympathetic with the candidacy of Donald Trump in the key swing states for the 2024 presidential election.”

    According to the complaint, because the contest is only available to registered voters, it may constitute an illegal financial incentive to get people to register to vote.

    On the other hand, Musk’s PAC, the America PAC, is asking people to sign a petition for the chance to win $1 million – not explicitly rewarding them for registering to vote.

    SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk awarded Kristine Fishell with a $1 million check during the town hall at the Roxain Theater on October 20, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
    Michael Swensen/Getty Images

    On Sunday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) told Meet the Press that the contest was “concerning,” and “something that law enforcement could take a look at.”

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsWhile we don’t know the contents of the alleged DOJ letter – or if it exists, it’s likely to be a cease-and-desist letter, similar to what Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream received in 2008 when they offered everyone with an “I Voted” sticker a free ice cream cone on election day.

    According to NBC News legal experts, the giveaway falls into a legal gray area that may or may not violate election law.

    “I can see what people are saying when they argue this violates the law, but I don’t think it does,” said election law expert Matthew Sanderson.

    Musk announced the giveaway last Saturday at a town hall event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 17:20

  • Waste Of The Day: States Are $811 Billion In Debt
    Waste Of The Day: States Are $811 Billion In Debt

    Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations,

    Topline: America’s 50 state governments will need an extra $811 billion to pay off their current debt, according to the annual “State of the States” report from Truth in Accounting.

    Key facts: State governments had $2.9 billion in debt and only $2.1 trillion in assets at the end of fiscal year 2023, Truth in Accounting, a nonpartisan organization that promotes fiscal transparency and accountability, found. The gap will need to be covered by taxpayers sometime in the future.

    Twenty-seven states have “taxpayer burdens,” meaning their budget is not balanced and they would need to collect at least $900 from every person in the state to eliminate their debt. Massachusetts, Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut received a letter grade of “F” because they would need over $25,000 from every resident to pay their bills.

    Only 23 states had what Truth in Accounting calls a “taxpayer surplus,” meaning they could pay off all of their debt and still have money to return to taxpayers. Four states received a letter grade of “A” because they have a taxpayer surplus above $10,000: North Dakota, Alaska, Wyoming and Utah.

    Unfunded pension liabilities contributed $840 billion to the debt. States have promised to eventually pay pensions to teachers, firefighters, cops and more, but have only saved up 70% of the necessary cash.

    Other post-retirement benefits are underfunded by $493 billion. They mostly consist of lifetime healthcare plans, for which states have saved up only 14% of the money they’ve promised to current employees.

    Researchers wrote that “Unfortunately, some elected officials have used portions of the money owed to pension and OPEB funds to keep taxes low and pay for politically popular programs. This is similar to charging earned benefits to a credit card without having the money to pay off the debt.”

    Underreporting pension liabilities is just one “accounting trick” politicians use to falsely claim their budgets are balanced, according to Truth in Accounting. Some states also overstate their revenue, count borrowed money as income, and more.

    Every state has a law requiring their budget to be balanced, except for Vermont.

    Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.

    Summary: The national debt makes headlines constantly, but the fiscal problems at the state level can’t be ignored.

    The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 17:00

  • 'The Atlantic' Immediately Debunked After Attempting Yet Another Trump Military Hit Piece
    ‘The Atlantic’ Immediately Debunked After Attempting Yet Another Trump Military Hit Piece

    Authored by Luis Cornelio via Headline USA,

    The sister of slain soldier Vanessa Guillén slammed The Atlantic after it used anonymous sources to allege that President Donald Trump disparaged her after discovering the funeral expenses. 

    Guillén’s death at the hands of a fellow soldier and his girlfriend became national news in 2020, with Trump comforting the grief-stricken family and extending death benefits. He also offered to cover the costs personally if the Army did not pay for the funeral expenses. 

    The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, however, attempted to rewrite history on Tuesday, claiming that Trump was outraged when he learned that Guillén’s funeral, which included heightened security and closed streets, cost $60,000. 

    According to the magazine—relying on an anonymous source—Trump allegedly said, “It doesn’t cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican!” and ordered then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to deny payment. 

    Guillén’s sister, Mayra, issued a viral statement on X, condemning The Atlantic’s distorted portrayal of her experience with Trump. 

    “I don’t appreciate how you are exploiting my sister’s death for politics- hurtful & disrespectful to the important changes she made for service members,” Mayra wrote on X, garnering over 3 million views. 

    “President Donald Trump did nothing but show respect to my family & Vanessa. In fact, I voted for President Trump today,” Mayra added.

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    In another post, Mayra emphasized that her sister’s death should never be politicized. 

    “Unbelievable,” she continued. 

    The denials did not stop there as Meadows took to X, refuting the allegations. 

    “Any suggestion that President Trump disparaged Ms. Guillen or refused to pay for her funeral expenses is absolutely false,” Meadows wrote.

    “He was nothing but kind, gracious, and wanted to make sure that the military and the U.S. government did right by Vanessa Guillen and her family.”

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    Meadows’s spokesperson, Ben Williamson, explicitly denied that Trump ever made the remarks in comments provided before publication.

    The Atlantic omitted these comments, claiming that Williamson denied ever hearing such remarks.

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    This marked the second instance of The Atlantic publishing demonstrably false claims against Trump.

    The magazine previously claimed that Trump refused to visit a veteran cemetery because he allegedly called fallen soldiers “suckers” and “losers.” 

    It was later revealed that the cemetery trip was canceled due to poor weather, which required Trump to travel by helicopter. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 16:20

  • Traders Sell Everything As Dollar & Yields Soar To 3-Month Highs
    Traders Sell Everything As Dollar & Yields Soar To 3-Month Highs

    Stocks dropped for the third day in a row today (longest streak since early Sept) with the S&P’s worst loss in seven weeks, as with a big h/t to Goldman, it seems equity market bulls finally noticed the recent explosion in rates.

    Treasury yields rose across the curve again today (with the long-end outperforming – 2Y +5bps, 30Y +2bps)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    But, the recent 2-sigma move in rates (as we have seen) implies serious drawdowns for stocks…

    …and the surge in rates (10Y +55bps in the last three weeks) suddenly hit stocks…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …and ‘Trumpflation’ has prompted a market-wide rethink of rate-cut expectations (lower/hawkish), especially for next year…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …and that all weighed on stocks bigly today. There was a small comeback after The Beige Book signaled some dovishness, but Nasdaq was the day’s biggest loser (down over 2% at one point)…

    A big down-day for mega-cap tech today…

    Source: Bloomberg

    All seven of the Mag7 stocks were down today – that is the first time that’s happened since Sept 6th…

    Source: Bloomberg

    ‘Most Shorted’ stocks were monkeyhammered lower…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Even the so-called ‘Trump Trade’ saw selling pressure today (though the “Democratic Victory’ basket was hit even harder, so don’t get all excited Kamala)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Goldman’s trading desk noted that overall activity levels are up +5% vs. the trailing 2 weeks with market volumes up +5% vs the 10dma, with their floor basically paired Buy vs. Sell with HFs net to buy and LOs net for sale

    • HFs are +7% better to buy with Demand in Macro Products, Industrials & Tech offsetting supply in Fins, Utes & Comms Svcs

    • LOs are -2% better for sale.  Tech supply from them outweighs supply in Staples and Cons Svcs by 3:1.  Demand is led by Cons Disc, Mats & HCare.

    Meanwhile, the dollar refuses to stop, rallying up to its strongest since early July against its fiat peers…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Treasury yields are rising as fast as the dollar – also up to three month highs (all above 4.00%)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    The dollar strength finally smacked gold lower today… but not before the precious metal hit a new intraday record high…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Silver underperformed gold on the day after a decent run against the barbarous relic…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Crypto was clubbed like a baby seal also, with Bitcoin fading back towards $65,000….

    Source: Bloomberg

    After two strong days, oil prices slipped lower on an inventory build, higher crude production, and no extreme headlines out of the MidEast (yet)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Finally, prediction markets continue to trend in Trump’s direction…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …and even the polls are starting to move in his favor (because there’s only so much ‘cheat’ margin to play with).

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/23/2024 – 16:00

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