• Polish Trucks Threaten To Block Border-Crossings With Ukraine
  Polish Trucks Threaten To Block Border-Crossings With Ukraine

  Via Remix News,

  Polish truckers believe that relaxed regulations towards non-EU registered HGVs have given Ukrainian companies the edge over Poles…

  

  Polish truckers are threatening to block all border crossings with Ukraine starting in November due to excessive competition after the liberalization of international transport between Ukraine and the European Union.

  From November, Polish truckers will initiate protests and blockades at the Ukrainian border crossings in a move that threatens to disrupt border traffic potentially until the end of the year.

  The announcement was made on social media by “Ukravtoprom,” the Association of Motor Vehicle Producers of Ukraine, citing the International Transport Association of Ukraine.

  “The protest action is planned for a period of two months. The reason for the protests is the excessive competition after the liberalization of international transport between Ukraine and EU countries,” the message read.

  Polish truckers argue that relaxed regulations towards non-EU registered HGVs have given Ukrainian companies the edge over Poles, experts from the International Transport Association of Ukraine revealed.

  …

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 11/01/2023 – 02:00

• The Writing’s On The Great Wall For A China Crash
  The Writing’s On The Great Wall For A China Crash

  Authored by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  As the saying goes, if you want to know what’s really going on, follow the money. That catchphrase doesn’t just apply to foreign companies and investors backing out of China. It also applies to the Chinese economy.

  

  A No-Confidence Vote

  In the midst of widespread economic duress and growing social disruption, following the money trail shows how Chinese investors are voting with their wallets.

  Consumer spending is down, and the savings rate is up.

  Capital is flowing out of China any way it can, and it all amounts to a definite no-confidence vote for Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

  The CCP Tries to Hide the Facts

  In true CCP fashion, the state puts the blame for its failed policies on those who point them out. Anyone who mentions the crumbling economy, for example, is guilty of creating “financial stability.” Even though the CCP would consider prosecuting journalists and economists who report accurately about the falling employment numbers and the high debt levels that plague local governments, China’s worsening economic conditions are too dramatic and widespread to hide.

  Of course, financial stability isn’t threatened by people talking about it. It’s the CCP that’s destroying the economy. Even recent history shows that the less involved the Party is in the economy, the better it performs.

  The property market and the development sector are perfect examples, though not the only ones. Both continue to be heavily manipulated by the CCP, and both are hemorrhaging value, as financial ruin in flagship companies such as Evergrande and Country Garden contribute to deteriorating conditions in the wider economy. Completed projects that remain unsold are being demolished, work on existing projects is being halted, and other development plans are being canceled, even as the development companies owe billions to creditors.

  More Than a Cyclical Downturn

  The reality of what’s happening is starting to dawn on the Chinese. Many understand that the current trend is much more than a cyclical downturn, which is typical of capitalist economies. Growth in the second quarter of 2023 was reported to be only 0.8 percent. Still, that statistic is hardly trustworthy in a country that runs on graft and political favors and routinely fudges the numbers. The reported third-quarter gain of 4.9 percent is touted but not believable, given the real estate collapse, falling consumer spending, and lower exports.

  Going forward, as the CCP takes more control, a stagnant economy may be the best-case scenario. Jobs in property development, related industries, and manufacturing sectors are all struggling as foreign companies leave China’s shores.

  

  A Stagnating Middle Class

  Meanwhile, individual investors, mostly from the middle class—who put their life savings into properties that aren’t even built and likely won’t ever be built—are seeing their wealth evaporate before their eyes as valuations crater.

  This stagnation is primarily due to two factors: internal policies and external ones. Internally, an economy based on graft and corruption rather than one based on market signals—such as the price mechanism that allocates resources and assets where they’re most needed in the economy—can’t sustain itself. Thus, turning profitable private enterprises into debt-ridden state-owned enterprises, which is a euphemism for confiscation by the CCP, has destroyed entrepreneurship—the economic engine of China.

  Add to that the CCP’s fundamental shift from economic growth to internal security and stability. It’s a vicious cycle wherein more Party control results in less economic activity, financial duress, and civil discontent. The Party then doubles down on more state control and more oppression.

  In short, the Party is more concerned with maintaining its grip on power than it is with growing the economy or supporting the middle class.

  Companies Are Fleeing ‘Uninvestible’ China

  But there are external factors, or consequences, as well.

  Over the past year, the flight of Western manufacturers out of China has accelerated. American and European firms are seeing the writing on the wall. They see the world’s growing disenchantment with Beijing’s trade and foreign policies, with many anticipating a decline in economic stability and a greater degree of decoupling from China in the foreseeable future. As a result, they’re relocating their operations out of China to friendlier nations.

  ‘Friendshoring’ Making Things Worse

  This trend is known as “friendshoring.” In essence, countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and Mexico are capturing companies exiting China. They offer less political risk, friendlier trade policies, lower labor costs, and are closer to markets. Barring any major shifts in Chinese leadership, companies leaving China are unlikely to return, which is a growing economic and financial gap for the CCP to fill.

  Youth Unemployment Rate at Record High

  

  Other symptoms of the collapse are evident, such as the soaring unemployment rate for young people. It is now a reported 20 percent, but counting those who live with their parents for financial reasons, it’s likely approaching 50 percent. Underemployment makes that picture even worse, which is leading to an angry younger generation. Disaffected youth who see no good options for a better future can be a volatile force to reckon with.

  The Race to Exit Chinese Real Estate

  All of these reasons and others are why some wealthy Chinese have been selling their China properties as quickly as they can. They’re desperately trying to move their money out of China and invest abroad before the value of their Chinese real estate holdings loses even more value. They know the trajectory of the Chinese economy and want out.

  Many are buying real estate in Japan.

  It’s not just proximity attracting Chinese investors to Japanese real estate, although that is a significant factor. Another enticement is that owning real estate (or a profitable business) in Japan can lead to long-term or even permanent residency visas. That gives Chinese investors an easy way out of the country to avoid the coming meltdown, as well as avoiding the iron hand of the CCP.

  The “China miracle” is no more.

  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, 10/31/2023 – 23:45

• Gazans Face 'Daunting' Task Of Finding Water As Bombs Fall, Disease Spreading
  Gazans Face ‘Daunting’ Task Of Finding Water As Bombs Fall, Disease Spreading

  Via Middle East Eye,

  Weeks after Israel followed through with its threat to cut water supplies to Gaza, Palestinians living in the besieged territory are struggling to survive without the basic necessities. Residents of the area currently being bombarded by Israeli warplanes told Middle East Eye that obtaining water has become a “daily ordeal”, and they fear the spread of disease with a number of residents already dealing with stomach ailments and other illnesses.

  Israel cut off water supply to Gaza shortly after the October 7 attack by Hamas-led Palestinian fighters on southern Israel. During the attack, around 1,400 Israelis died and more than 220 were taken captive. At least 8,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliation for the assault. Israeli authorities conditioned the resumption of water supplies on the return of the hostages, but has also attacked other means of water delivery and sewage treatment in the territory, such as desalination plants.

  

  “Our access to water, be it for drinking or cleaning, has diminished significantly. The quest for even a modest amount of fresh water has become a daily ordeal,” said Osama al-Baz, a displaced Palestinian in Gaza. Baz’s family were forced to leave their home in northern Gaza on October 13 after Israel warned civilians living there that they were not safe.

  They now live with friends in the south of the region, where they are part of a group of 20, including several elderly people and six young children. Calling Israel’s policies a form of “collective punishment”, Baz said getting “basic necessities such as water and food has become a daunting task”.

  “On the few occasions when water is available, we rush with buckets and containers, hoping to salvage what we can. Every chance to obtain water feels like it could be the last. “On the rare occasions when we do obtain water, we prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable among us: the elderly, the infirm, and the children,” he said.

  “There have been times when, out of sheer desperation, we consumed water that was clearly unfit for drinking for several days.” Baz explained that taking such risks with water exposed those in his group to illnesses, such as dehydration, stomach ailments and diarrhoea.

  Showers have become a “luxury” for Baz’s group and there is barely enough water to clean bathrooms.

  ‘Disease outbreak’

  Baz’s descriptions correspond with those of other Palestinians in the area. Tens of thousands from the northern areas of Gaza have moved south to comply with the Israeli army’s orders. The south of the territory remains an active warzone with frequent Israeli attacks on the area.

  Continued bombardment and consequent damage to infrastructure, coupled with the resource strain that has emerged from the mass displacement of Palestinians from northern Gaza, means there are already huge shortages that make it near impossible to carry out the basic functions of life.

  Wisam, a Gaza resident, told Middle East Eye that he had initially moved from Gaza City to the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the south to seek refuge with relatives.

  “There was no water available, to the extent that going to the bathroom became a strenuous task. We had to bring water in a bucket to the bathroom, if we found any, and use the least amount possible. We force ourselves to avoid going to the bathroom as much as we can,” he said. “We bathe the children only, using the most meagre amounts of water,” Wisam added.

  

  His family then returned to Gaza City and specifically to Al-Quds Hospital, which Israel has repeatedly demanded the evacuation of. “The scene there was nothing short of harrowing,” Wisam said.

  “Clean water was a rarity, and basic sanitation seemed a distant memory. Hundreds of people were crammed into tight spaces, using communal bathrooms without adequate sanitation facilities. 

  “I fear that the hospital is turning into a hotspot for disease outbreaks, given the cramped conditions and dwindling supplies,” he added.

  ‘Scratching incessantly’

  Of course, journalists working on the ground in Gaza know first-hand the difficulties of getting water. Middle East Eye contributor Mohammed al-Hajjar described how Israeli attacks on water pumps had ensured the only water coming through was that which was tainted by sea water and pollution.

  Gaza’s residents had previously installed filters at these pumps so that a majority of impurities were removed for use besides drinking. “This water was okay for bathing or washing dishes, and you could use it for ablutions (wudhu), but it wasn’t really drinkable,” Hajjar said.

  “Now, with the filters non-operational and the pumps barely working, that dirty water is back in our homes.” The effects, Hajjar said, were immediate. 

  “My skin started showing inflammations, especially where I washed or performed ablutions. My children have the same reaction. It looks like mosquito bites but it isn’t. Washing our hair with this water results in intense itching, especially on the scalp and hands.

  “I’ve resorted to a moisturizing cream with an anasthetic for my children to stop them from scratching incessantly. My wife has the same issues. In fact, almost all of my family, 14 of us in total, suffer from this.”

  Hajjar said his wife was showing signs of illness including “fever and a yellowish tint to her skin”. Seeking medical help though was out of the question, as hospitals and clinics are stretched to their limits trying to save victims of Israel’s bombing campaign. “We’re trying to self-treat, we’re doing our best.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 23:25

• False Claims Haunt Family Of Woman Who Died On Jan. 6
  False Claims Haunt Family Of Woman Who Died On Jan. 6

  Authored by Joseph M. Hanneman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

  Thirty-three months after their daughter Rosanne Boyland’s tragic death at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Bret and Cheryl Boyland feel new pain every time a media outlet publishes the false claim that their daughter died of a drug overdose.

  

  On Oct. 12, a prominent national newspaper wrote that Ms. Boyland “died of what was determined to be a methamphetamine overdose.”

  Within a day, that claim spread all over the internet, even appearing as a snippet on the website of the Merriam-Webster dictionary under the word “die.” A week later, the newspaper corrected the error, but the family said the damage was done—again.

  The article brought to the surface new pain for the Boylands, whose daughter died in Washington at age 34 after collapsing in the Lower West Terrace tunnel.

  News outlets have routinely claimed that Ms. Boyland died of a drug overdose.

  In April 2021, a popular news website’s headline blared “Capitol Rioter Rosanne Boyland Died of Drug Overdose, Not Trampling.” The same day, a prominent news magazine stated that Ms. Boyland “died as a result of a drug overdose.” A British tabloid used the same wording in its coverage.

  The official cause of death was listed as amphetamine toxicity from her prescription medication Adderall. The manner of death was an accident.

  The Boylands challenged the amphetamine finding, eventually hiring an independent forensic pathologist who said Ms. Boyland most likely died of compressional asphyxia, not from Adderall or illegal drugs.

  Getting anyone to listen has been a never-ending battle.

  “We knew from the early morning of January 7 that somehow the cause of death would be listed as drug-related,” Cheryl Boyland told The Epoch Times. “Both the medical examiner’s office and the detective said to expect a fentanyl overdose. We told them that was impossible, but they continued to insist on it.”

  The fentanyl theory was due to the presence of fluid in Ms. Boyland’s lungs, according to a Jan. 7, 2021, Metropolitan Police Department report. The theory was wrong, as toxicology tests would prove a few months later.

  Ms. Boyland didn’t use fentanyl or street drugs. She had battled addiction earlier in her life but had been clean and sober for five years when the Jan. 6, 2021, overdose accusations began.

  “For anyone like Rosanne or their family members who helped fight through addiction battles for years, to be falsely reported as dying of an overdose is about the worst slap in the face anyone could get,” Mr. Boyland told The Epoch Times. “To take it a step further and to see a lot of journalists say she died of a meth overdose is an even worse slap in the face.”

  Ms. Boyland had taken the prescription medication Adderall, a stimulant that’s used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, for 10 years without complication, her parents said.

  Adderall is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; Ms. Boyland had taken the medication for 10 years without complications, her parents said. The stimulant is made up of four amphetamine salts.

  Methamphetamine—a highly addictive and potent stimulant—isn’t the same drug as Adderall.

  Meth is one of the most widely abused controlled substances in the United States. Its illegal use has driven a steep increase in overdose deaths over the past decade. Much of the illegal supply of meth comes from criminal gangs in Mexico, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

  When the District of Columbia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled that Ms. Boyland died of “acute amphetamine intoxication,” the Boylands challenged the conclusion, but their concerns were ignored by the medical examiner’s office, they said.

  The Boylands said that Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Francisco Diaz told them that the “results of the autopsy were not clear-cut” and that the only thing that they could “all agree upon” as a cause of death was Ms. Boyland’s prescription of Adderall.

  “We asked him to include the term ‘prescription’ because others would believe she died from a meth overdose,” Mrs. Boyland said.

  “He responded that everyone knows the difference between amphetamine and methamphetamine. Our family knew better.”

  

  Victory Over Addiction

  There was a time in Ms. Boyland’s life when she used heroin and crystal meth. Her parents said she worked very hard to get clean.

  “Rosanne spent a long time in treatment, trying to overcome her addictions,” Mrs. Boyland said. “She dedicated herself to helping others. Her friends have countless stories about her support during their trying times. Many of them relied on her to be strong.

  “During her memorial service, we emphasized that she did not relapse, not only for Rosanne’s reputation, but so that her friends wouldn’t give up and relapse.”

  The Boylands said their daughter would have taken her morning dose of Adderall at about 7 a.m. on Jan. 6, 2021.

  There’s no evidence that Ms. Boyland was ailing or impaired when she and her friend Justin Winchell attended President Donald Trump’s speech at the Ellipse or when they walked to the U.S. Capitol after 1 p.m. that day.

  A video clip of Ms. Boyland ascending the stairs from the Capitol’s West Plaza to the Lower West Terrace that afternoon showed her smiling from behind her American flag sunglasses. She didn’t appear ill.

  “It’s impossible for her to have taken her medication about 7 a.m., walk around fine all day long, then overdose in the late afternoon without taking any more medication,” Mrs. Boyland said. “The medical examiner’s office refused to answer us about that. The blood sample used for toxicology tests was taken from an area [of the body] known to give inaccurate results—probably deliberately.”

  The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) declined to comment on the issues that were raised by the Boylands.

  The department “does not release information or discuss cases with the media beyond the release of an official statement as to cause and manner of death, which was previously done in this case,” Rodney K. Adams, OCME chief counsel, wrote in a statement to The Epoch Times. “This is based on the District’s privacy statute and out of respect for the privacy of the survivors.”

  New Cause of Death

  In April 2022, the Boylands hired forensics consultant group Park Dietz & Associates to do a comprehensive review of the autopsy and its conclusions. A new autopsy wasn’t possible because Ms. Boyland’s body was cremated.

  A board-certified forensic pathologist from Park Dietz ruled out amphetamine intoxication as the proximate cause of death but said it might have been a secondary contributing factor.

  “There was no evidence of illicit drug use,” the forensic pathologist wrote. “The finding of amphetamine in her postmortem blood and gastric contents is consistent with her prescribed use of Adderall, which is a combination drug containing four amphetamine salts.”

  The concentration of amphetamine in Ms. Boyland’s blood was elevated, the doctor wrote, but other factors could explain this finding.

  “Ms. Boyland’s obesity may have potentiated the storage of the drug in her body tissues,” the pathologist wrote, “and blood from the inferior vena cava is not the optimal specimen for testing for amphetamines, which may be subject to postmortem redistribution.”

  The pathologist said Ms. Boyland’s cause of death was compressional asphyxia, “a situation in which pressure exerted on the chest or back of an individual impedes normal breathing and often leaves no diagnostic physical findings.”

  The pathologist said Ms. Boyland’s surroundings at the time of her collapse can’t be ignored.

  Police had deployed an unknown gas into the tunnel at about 4:20 p.m., two minutes after Ms. Boyland walked into the structure, security footage shows. Witnesses described a sensation of the oxygen being sucked out of the atmosphere. The crowd panicked and ran to escape the tunnel.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 23:05

• Judge Blocks Biden Administration From Damaging Razor Wire Along US–Mexico Border
  Judge Blocks Biden Administration From Damaging Razor Wire Along US–Mexico Border

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

  The Biden administration must stop cutting and otherwise damaging razor wire that Texas has placed along the U.S.–Mexico border, a federal judge ruled on Oct. 30.

  

  U.S. officials mustn’t remove the wire or tamper with it, U.S. District Judge Alia Moses said as she entered a temporary restraining order.

  The exception is in cases of medical emergencies that would “most likely” result in serious bodily injury or death to a person, provided no “live-saving apparatus” is available, Judge Moses, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, wrote in her ruling.

  The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which includes border agents, told news outlets it doesn’t comment on pending litigation but would comply with the order.

  “Generally speaking, Border Patrol agents have a responsibility under federal law to take those who have crossed onto U.S. soil without authorization into custody for processing,” the agency said.

  Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, called the ruling “another win for Texas and our historic border mission.”

  The wire was put into place as the governor’s effort, called Operation Lone Star, to strengthen border security.

  “Biden created this crisis and has tried to block us at every turn. Attorney General Paxton and I are pushing back,” Mr. Abbott wrote on X.

  Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, another Republican, sued the Biden administration earlier in October for tampering with the barriers.

  The temporary order is in place until Nov. 13, unless the court extends it.

  The government is prohibited from removing the wire, concealing it, offering it to another person, selling it, and tampering with it.

  A hearing on the bid from Texas for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for Nov. 7.

  

  Damaging the Wire

  Mr. Paxton said in his complaint that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents were damaging the wire to allow thousands of illegal immigrants to enter Texas.

  “Federal agents not only cut Texas’s concertina wire, but also attach ropes or cables from the back of pickup trucks to ease aliens’ ability to illegally climb up the riverbank into Texas. And they regularly cut new openings in the wire fence, sometimes immediately after Texas officers have placed new wire to plug up gaps in fencing barriers,” Mr. Paxton said.

  Several days later, Texas officials asked for the temporary restraining order, pointing to how federal agents had used a forklift on Oct. 26 to hold up some of the wire so that a group of hundreds of immigrants could cross the border.

  “This brazen escalation by defendants is an affront not only to Texas, but also to this court, which already had pending before it a motion for a preliminary injunction,” the officials said. “This court should immediately grant a temporary restraining order to enjoin defendants from continuing to damage, destroy, or otherwise meddle with Texas’s concertina wire fence until the court can rule on the state’s preliminary-injunction motion. Alternatively, this court could simply grant a preliminary injunction in light of defendants’ willful misconduct.”

  In a notice to the court on Oct. 28, the officials said federal agents damaged another portion of the fence. Texas Military Department officer Roberto Ortiz Diaz attested to witnessing federal agents using a forklift to flatten the fence, letting dozens of illegal immigrants into Texas.

  “While the operator was flattening the concertina wire, I observed no medical emergencies among the migrant[s] crossing the river, and I am not aware of any reason for [CBP] agents to flatten the concertina wire other than to allow an easier entry path for migrants arriving in the United States,” Mr. Diaz said.

  Federal officials hadn’t yet responded to the various filings as of press time.

  

  Likely to Succeed

  Judge Moses said Texas was likely to succeed in its claim that federal officials violated a law that prevents people from trespassing to interfere with a person’s property.

  Texas has established that it owns the wires, she said. And multiple officials have said that they witnessed federal officials tamper with the barriers.

  “Third and finally, the plaintiff established that the defendants lacked permission to interfere with the wires,” she said.

  Judge Moses said that because she determined that Texas was likely to succeed in one of its claims, she need not analyze its other claims.

  The other claims include illegally exercising dominion over another’s private property and acting in excess of statutory jurisdiction.

  The case is Texas v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security et al. It’s being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 22:25

• 'Mystery' Blast Rocks One Of Russia's Largest Ammo Manufacturing Plants
  ‘Mystery’ Blast Rocks One Of Russia’s Largest Ammo Manufacturing Plants

  An explosion of unknown cause has rocked one of Russia’s largest ammunition manufacturing plants, according to officials in central Russia’s Perm region, which lies about 1,000km east of Moscow.

  “Windows and doors were broken [but] there are no victims, there is no threat to the populace,” a statement said. “The incident did not affect the plant’s production process.”

  ⚡️An explosion occurred at a military factory in Russia’s #Perm Krai.

  The incident took place at the building of the Solikamsk plant “Ural,” one of the largest military-industrial factories in Russia. They produce various military ammunition and explosives there. pic.twitter.com/q18ASsVWzw

  — KyivPost (@KyivPost) October 31, 2023

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

  Throughout more than a year-and-a-half of war, there have been dozens of similar incidents at various Russian facilities ranging from military warehouses to oil facilities to electrical grid stations and energy pipelines.

  Both Ukrainian and US media have at times admitted some of these instances are part of a covert Ukrainian sabotage campaign with the assistance of Western intelligence. So naturally, when a new explosion happens, there’s an immediate question of whether it is connected to sabotage, or an industrial accident. 

  The new incident, resulting in apparent damage to the Solikamsk Plant Ural, is raising eyebrows also given it’s a facility under Russian defense giant Rostec: 

  Images shared on social media appeared to show a plume of smoke rising from the plant following the blast, but The Moscow Times could not independently verify the photos. 

  An unnamed local emergency official told the news website Podyom that the explosion did not cause a fire or impact work at the plant.

  “All in all, the situation is calm,” the official said. Solikamsk Plant Ural, part of the defense conglomerate Rostec, is one of Russia’s largest manufacturers of gunpowder and explosives.

  Earlier this month, at a time the globe’s attention has by and large been completely focused on events in Gaza, The Washington Post published a bombshell report openly admitting that the CIA is actively running covert ops inside Russia, which has included the killing of journalist and geopolitical commentator Darya Dugina.

  Russia is ramping up production capacity and building military plants across the country

  This is reported by journalists of the project “Schemes”. They produce and repair tactical and strategic airplanes, attack helicopters, as well as assemble drones and ammunition. pic.twitter.com/rNOSppljtB

  — NEXTA (@nexta_tv) October 26, 2023

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

  The report stunningly laid out that as part of this shadow war, “The missions have involved elite teams of Ukrainian operatives drawn from directorates that were formed, trained, and equipped in close partnership with the CIA, according to current and former Ukrainian and US officials. Since 2015, the CIA has spent tens of millions of dollars to transform Ukraine’s Soviet-formed services into potent allies against Moscow, officials said.”

  Whether this latest blast is part of this covert ops program or not (perhaps just a ‘normal’ accident?), it will certainly be a plausible question in the minds of the Russians.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 22:05

• Stroke Could Be Transmissible, Study Finds
  Stroke Could Be Transmissible, Study Finds

  Authored by George Citroner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  For decades, stress shouldered the blame for painful stomach ulcers. But in 1982, doctors made a groundbreaking discovery: A specific type of bacteria was the real culprit.

  Now, scientists are peering through microscopes again, but this time, they are searching for evidence that suggests blood transfusions may contribute to strokes, a leading cause of death and long-term disability.

  

  Common Cause for Stroke May Be Transmissible via Blood

  A new study found that blood transfusions from donors who later developed multiple spontaneous brain bleeds were associated with a slightly higher risk of hemorrhagic stroke in recipients. This suggests a potential link between blood-borne factors and a type of stroke-causing blood vessel damage in the brain.

  Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is the second leading cause of spontaneous hemorrhagic stroke and is associated with deposits of defective beta-amyloid proteins in the walls of blood vessels in the brain, making them fragile and subject to rupture, leading to strokes and cognitive decline.

  Research recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found evidence that CAA exhibits “prion-like” transmissivity. Prion disease was previously associated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly called mad cow disease, a brain disorder in cattle that can potentially be transmitted to humans through contaminated meat. There has been evidence that the condition can transmitted to people by pituitary hormones gathered from cadavers contaminated with amyloid-beta and tau proteins.

  Scientists theorized that blood transfusions may carry the same risk as exposure to contaminated meat.

  To test this theory, researchers conducted a cohort study using nationwide blood bank and health data from over 1 million patients in Sweden and Denmark aged 5 to 80. All had received a red blood cell transfusion between Jan. 1, 1970 (Sweden) or Jan. 1, 1980 (Denmark) and Dec. 31, 2017.

  The study found that patients transfused with blood from donors who later developed multiple spontaneous brain bleeds had a significantly higher risk of hemorrhagic stroke than those receiving blood from donors without bleeds.

  However, no increased stroke risk was seen in recipients of blood from donors who had just a single bleed after transfusion.

  The authors suggest these findings indicate a potential “transfusion-transmissible agent” may be associated with certain spontaneous strokes. They described the increased stroke risk of 2.3 percent in recipients of blood from multi-bleed donors as a “novel finding.”

  A Similar Association Found With Alzheimer’s

  Though not directly analyzed, the study found a similar increased dementia risk in blood recipients from donors who had a single stroke after donation.

  In an editorial accompanying the study, Dr. Steven Greenberg, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, wrote the study’s methodology rigorously supports the findings.

  “Even a modest increase in hazard of future brain hemorrhages or dementia conferred by an uncommon—but as of now undetectable—donor trait would represent a substantial public health concern,” Dr. Greenberg wrote.

  This underscores the seriousness of undetected traits that could be transmitted through donors, highlighting the importance of identifying these factors to protect tens of millions of people. After all, someone in the United States needs blood every two seconds.

  How Bleeding in the Brain Is Treated

  Treatment depends on the type of injury to the brain, Dr. Theodore Strange, chair of medicine at Staten Island University Hospital, part of Northwell Health in New York, told The Epoch Times.

  If bleeding is from a fall causing a subdural hematoma, it can often be managed nonsurgically or with a simple burr hole procedure, he added. This is a procedure where tiny holes are drilled into the skull, and a rubber tube is inserted to drain the hematoma.

  However, bleeds from stroke or ruptured aneurysms are harder to control. “Although we can, as long as we can get to them early enough and do whatever it is that we can do to minimize the damage done by the bleed to the part of the brain,” Dr. Strange said.

  For cerebellar bleeds, where the bleeding is in the very back of the brain, surgical evacuation of the blood clot is typically needed before finding the cause, he noted. As with strokes, this is simpler for bleeds outside rather than inside the brain.

  Managing Risk Factors Only Hope for CAA: Expert

  Currently, no treatments stop CAA-related amyloid buildup in brain blood vessels. So prevention of bleeding events is crucial, Dr. Strange said.

  Reducing a patient’s risk of trauma, such as falls, which cause concussion and can start a bleed, is imperative.

  “Patients, as they get older, have a tendency to fall more,” Dr. Strange said, noting that medications that increase bleeding risk, including anticoagulants, aspirin, and ibuprofen, should be minimized “when appropriate.”

  Doctors must weigh the risks against the benefits of anticoagulants in patients with other conditions, he added.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 21:45

• FBI Director Warns Threat Of Attacks By Hamas On American Soil Raised "To A Whole Other Level"
  FBI Director Warns Threat Of Attacks By Hamas On American Soil Raised “To A Whole Other Level”

  “The reality is that the terrorism threat has been elevated throughout 2023 but the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the United States to a whole ‘nother level.”

  That is the scenario FBI Director Chris Wray led with during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing today.

  Specifically, Wray warns Hamas terrorists may soon exploit tensions in the US to “conduct attacks here on our own soil” while also inspiring potential domestic extremists to do the same.

  “Here in the United States our most immediate concern is that violent extremists individuals or small groups will draw inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks against Americans going about their daily lives.”

  “…cannot and do not discount the possibility that Hamas or another foreign terrorist organization May exploit the current conflict to conduct attacks here on our own soil.”

  Does this mean the feds are no longer focusing their Orwellian ire on conservative Christians as the “greatest threat” to America? Not quite. Wray noted very clearly that this threat from overseas is

  “…on top of the homegrown violent extremists and domestic violent extremist threat…”

  Watch Wray’s remarks in full below:

  Any attacks, whether perpetrated by actual Islamic terrorists, leftist activists or covert agencies serving “special interests” will likely be used as an excuse for more aggressive pressure on constitutional rights in the US. 

  Anyone who opposes such controls may also be labeled terrorists. 

  The sociopolitical dynamics of America are about to shift once again to an ugly place with uncertain outcomes.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 21:25

• 29 Cities In Los Angeles Sue County Over Zero Bail Policy
  29 Cities In Los Angeles Sue County Over Zero Bail Policy

  Authored by Eric Lundrum via American Greatness,

  A lawsuit has been filed against Los Angeles County by 29 cities located within the county, challenging the county’s recently-implemented zero bail policy making it easier for criminals to be released back onto the streets.

  

  According to Just The News, the lawsuit states that the zero bail policy, which took effect on October 1st, does not “take into consideration the protection of the public, the safety of the victim, the seriousness of the offense charged, the previous criminal record of the defendant, and the probability of his or her appearing at the trial or hearing of the case.”

  The new policy declares that cash bail will still be required for those charged with assault, domestic battery, stalking, and violation of a protective order. Judicial review will be utilized for anyone charged with the crimes of human trafficking, sex with a minor, and battery on a peace officer.

  Meanwhile, all other crimes will see suspects cited and released immediately upon their arrest, and instead given court orders to appear for arraignment at a later date.

  Following the announcement of the lawsuit, Claire Simonich, a spokeswoman for Vera California, the state branch of left-wing criminal justice reform group Vera Institute of Justice, defended the zero bail policy by claiming, with no evidence, that it is a safe policy.

  “The opponents are not only drowning out the factual data on the policy, but the years of research on not just Los Angeles County but in areas across the country that show ending money bail and ensuring public safety go hand in hand,” Simonich claimed.

  “A similar version of the policy has been in effect on and off for the last three years in Los Angeles County. Violent crime and property crime effectively dropped or remained unchanged compared to the two years before the policy was in place.”

  Los Angeles County had previously implemented a similar zero bail policy during the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic, in an effort to reduce the prison populations and slow the spread of the virus throughout prison facilities.

  However, after briefly ending the COVID-era policy, Los Angeles County opted to re-implement a more permanent version due to what some activists called “dismal” conditions in pre-trial jails.

  

  Among those supporting the lawsuit against zero bail are Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna and Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami, the latter of whom is challenging District Attorney George Gascon (D-Calif.) in the 2024 election.

  “Our communities have not been shy about telling us how nervous they are about this change,” said Sheriff Luna.

  “Crime victims who see offenders immediately released from custody are left with little confidence in the criminal justice system.”

  “The total number of cities now suing over LA County’s $0 bail policy has reached 29. All of us want a bail policy that is fair and just for every resident of LA County,” said Deputy DA Hatami.

  “That, however, should be done in collaboration with the 88 cities and their residents, victim groups and law enforcement agencies that are going to be directly affected by immediately releasing individuals who are arrested for crimes.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 21:05

• "Pharmageddon" Strikes US Drugstores As 5,000 Workers Walk Off Job
  “Pharmageddon” Strikes US Drugstores As 5,000 Workers Walk Off Job

  Mostly non-unionized employees at CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance drugstores have walked off the job in protest about harsh working conditions.

  Reuters said the three-day walkout of thousands of pharmacy workers began on Monday and has been dubbed “Pharmageddon” on various social media platforms, like X and Facebook. 

  The protest garnered support from the American Pharmacists Association, the largest advocacy group for pharmacy workers, which expressed: 

  APhA stands with every pharmacist who participated in the walkout today. The bottom line is that we support every pharmacist’s right to work in an environment with staffing that supports your ability to provide patient care. We know that these are steps you deem necessary in order to be heard by your employer.

  Reuters spoke with Shane Jerominski, an ex-Walgreens pharmacist and one of the organizers of the protest, who said it’s unclear how many stores are affected nationwide by the walkout. He noted at least 5,000 pharmacy workers are participating in the non-unionized labor action. 

  Workers at Walgreens and CVS have staged walkouts before. Several pharmacies in the US were closed in Arizona, Washington, Massachusetts, and Oregon in September and early October over labor action disputes. Walgreens told CNN the current labor action is only impacting operations “minimally.” 

  The Facebook page “The Accidental Pharmacist,” with its 122,000 followers – many of whom are pharmacists and technicians – has been actively sharing updates regarding the ongoing walkout.

  

  

  Drugstore disruptions? 

  

  

  This latest labor action comes as workers are getting record-breaking pay hikes thanks to strategic strikes, according to Bloomberg. 

  

  “We are seeing an incredible moment of worker power,” Acting US Labor Secretary Julie Su said in an interview. 

  Su said, “We said that essential workers matter, and now workers are saying, ‘Let’s really figure out what that looks like.'”

  The drugstore walkout shows a new labor movement emerges.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 20:45

• Time Magazine's Stunning Reversal: Zelensky 'Deludes' Himself Into Thinking Ukraine Can Win
  Time Magazine’s Stunning Reversal: Zelensky ‘Deludes’ Himself Into Thinking Ukraine Can Win

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  One of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s closest aides has told Time Magazine that the Ukrainian leader has deluded himself into thinking Ukraine can win an ultimate victory against Russia after the failed counteroffensive and amid waning support for the conflict in the West.

  The report said that despite the setbacks, Zelensky “does not intend to give up fighting or to sue for any kind of peace. On the contrary, his belief in Ukraine’s ultimate victory over Russia has hardened into a form that worries some of his advisers. It is immovable, verging on the messianic.”

  Stunning reversal. After naming him person of the year last year, Time magazine now calls Zelensky “deluded” (in the article), lonely, supportless, essentially framing him as a loser.

  I.e. The West is starting to understand they’ve lost in Ukraine and they’ll blame it on him. https://t.co/HGvfMryLwT

  — Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) October 31, 2023

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

  The aide said Zelensky “deludes himself,” adding, “We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that.” The report said that the idea of negotiating peace or a temporary truce with Russia remains taboo to Zelensky.

  “For us it would mean leaving this wound open for future generations,” Zelensky told Time. “Maybe it will calm some people down inside our country, and outside, at least those who want to wrap things up at any price. But for me, that’s a problem, because we are left with this explosive force. We only delay its detonation.”

  A senior Ukrainian military officer told the magazine that the armed forces has had to second guess orders that came from Kyiv’s political leadership, including an order to capture the Donetsk city of Horlivka.

  “They don’t have the men or the weapons,” the officer said. “Where are the weapons? Where is the artillery? Where are the new recruits?”

  Ukraine is not just running low on weapons to fight the war but also manpower. One of Zelensky’s aides said even if Ukraine’s Western backers supplied all the arms they need, “we don’t have the men to use them.”

  The report also detailed the corruption in the Ukrainian government that led to Zelensky’s recent move to sack former Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov. The author of the Time story, Simon Shuster, said he naively thought a Ukrainian official would think twice before taking a bribe, but an adviser to Zelensky told him otherwise. “Simon, you’re mistaken,” the adviser said. “People are stealing like there’s no tomorrow.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 20:25

• RFK Jr. Renews Plea For Secret Service Protection After Second Stalker Arrest
  RFK Jr. Renews Plea For Secret Service Protection After Second Stalker Arrest

  Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose father and uncle were assassinated over politics, has renewed his call for the Biden administration to provide him with Secret Service protection after a man was arrested twice in the same day for scaling the fence of Kennedy’s Los Angeles home on Oct. 25.

  

  Kennedy has been twice refused by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

  “It’s not right for the President to provide protection to his family and political favorites while denying it to political rivals. During his first week as Attorney General, my father assembled all the DOJ’s senior prosecutors to tell them that he would not tolerate any politicization of law enforcement,” Kennedy wrote on X last week.

  President Biden displays a bust of my father in the oval office, but he seems to have forgotten this critical tenet of American democracy. During his administration, we’ve seen the wholesale corruption of federal law-enforcement agencies to censor criticism of White House…

  — Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) October 27, 2023

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

  The incident comes roughly a month after an armed man posing as a US Marshall was arrested at a Los Angeles event.

  

  Kennedy made a third request for protection in an Oct. 25 letter to Mayorkas, detailing the September 15 incident, as well as the Oct. 25 incident involving a man named Jonathan Macht.

  Mr. Macht, 28, was arrested on the morning of Oct. 25 at Mr. Kennedy’s Los Angeles property after being detained by the candidate’s security detail. He climbed a fence and asked to see Mr. Kennedy, according to the LAPD.

  Authorities said the man was taken into custody at a nearby police station where he was cited for trespassing and then released. Police said he returned to Mr. Kennedy’s home and was arrested at 5:45 p.m. for violating a protective order. He is being held on $30,000 bail.

  Mr. Macht is known to the U.S. Secret Service and Mr. Kennedy’s security Gavin de Becker and Associates (GDBA), Mr. Kennedy’s campaign said.

  “GDBA had notified the Secret Service about this specific obsessed individual several times in recent months, and shared alarming communications he has sent to the candidate,” according to the press release. –Epoch Times

  “After being released from police custody, the man immediately returned to Kennedy’s residence and was arrested again. The candidate was home at the time of both arrests,” Kennedy’s campaign said in a statement.

  Not the norm…

  While the law dictates that all major presidential candidates and their spouses must be protected within 120 days of an election, history reveals that several have received Secret Service detail much further out than that – with Obama receiving it 551 days before an election, Trump and Ben Carson receiving it a year before the 2016 election (when Trump was a ‘joke’ candidate), and Ted Kennedy receiving it 410 days before the 1979 election.

  The 2024 election is currently 370 days away.

  5) Barack Obama was provided Secret Service protection 551 days before Election Day in 2007https://t.co/O1q4KEazOl

  — Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) July 29, 2023

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

  7) Ted Kennedy was provided Secret Service protection 410 days before Election Day in 1979https://t.co/1QXvEqLG5D

  — Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) July 29, 2023

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

  It doesn’t take too much tinfoil to conclude that Kennedy is being denied because it would legitimize his candidacy, splitting the Democrat vote, and handing the 2024 election to Donald Trump.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 20:05

• "I Pray To God This Isn't World War III"
  “I Pray To God This Isn’t World War III”

  Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

  If there’s one takeaway I have from witnessing the discourse over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it’s that nuance is an absolute necessity when discussing it, yet nobody seems able to exercise even a modicum of nuance while doing so.

  Because the issue is complex, polarizing, and demands reasoned thought, I’d like to start off my piece today by offering a sentiment that hopefully everyone can agree on: I pray to God that this isn’t the start of World War III.

  However, as the days over the last several weeks have gone by, I find there’s less and less to be optimistic about — and I’m not talking about as it relates to the stock market, I’m talking about as it relates to humanity.

  Like all problems stemming from deep threaded conflict and a necessity for complex, intellectual reasoning and compromise, I fear this one will only worsen until it reaches some type of point of no return.

  The scenes on Sunday of a mob at an airport in Dagestan, surrounding an airplane and reportedly searching for Jewish people arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv, were a new type of horrifying. It appears as simply a modern day pogrom.

  Putting aside the fact that many on social media just wrote off Dagestan as a fourth- or fifth-world country, thereby backhandedly justifying the behavior, the backdrop of a modern-looking airport stocked with state of the art commercial jets is enough to elicit comparisons to many airports we’ve all traveled through.

  And to me, the mob mentality taking place among those storming the airport, and eventually accosting passengers accused of being Jewish, seems like only a small step from the mob mentality we saw in U.S. cities during the protests and riots of 2020: there was no reason, there was no civility, and there were no dissenting voices.

  How many people have brushed off this occurrence, or other similar occurrences, thinking it could never happen in the United States or Europe? To me, it feels like we are on a hairpin trigger for exactly this type of senseless mob rule.

  

  There are millions of supporters of Palestine who only seek out peace, have only ever sought out peace, and want an end to all war. These are things I am always going to get behind. Absolutely nobody wants to see innocent civilians killed, and hopefully everybody knows that war is hell.

  But sadly, there is also a constituency of uneducated, virtue-signaling reactionaries, coupled with actual extremists, that have commingled with protesters seeking out peace and sullied much of the noble cause for many of those who support peace.

  Of course, as these fools will argue, Hamas “had their reasons” for carrying out the atrocious act of killing more than 1,000 Israelis, including innocent people at a music festival. The question isn’t whether or not they thought they were justified; the question is whether it is a morally sound undertaking to, before Israel even gets a chance to respond, tacitly bless Hamas’s actions by overlooking them and immediately protesting in support of Palestine.

  Other than the logical fallacy that people were protesting retaliation that hadn’t even happened yet, it’s also just tasteless. While the Middle East is one of the most polarizing conflicts in the world, think about why anybody would cheer on the death of innocents, anywhere. Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I don’t even wish death upon my worst enemies.

  Next, think about the mindset of somebody living in the United States and tearing down photographs of kidnapped Israelis that have been plastered in public.

  

  Sure, one could make the argument that these posters, located 5,000 miles away from Israel, do little. Put that aside. How askew does one’s moral compass need to be to walk by and tear these photographs down? If, like many suggest, they do nothing, then leave them be. I already hear some 20 year old dorky white “activist” kid from the Villanova suburbs argue: “The mindset of those tearing down the flyers is that of people who feel as though they have a legitimate grudge!”

  Uh, yeah. And hey, Hamas also thinks they have a legitimate grudge. And so does Israel. But when are we going to realize that at some point this endless jihad joyride is going to have to end and we’re going to have to choose peace? And when are we going to realize that it’s easier to choose peace after years of no major conflict and not the day after over 1,000 innocent people are murdered?

  When are we going to realize that no matter how big of a grudge you think you have, the systematic targeting and killing of members of any ethnic group simply isn’t the answer?

  ---

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  What worries me most is that there is a massive absence of nuance when discussing the situation. On Sunday, I commented on Twitter that the footage of the Dagestan airport mob was “horrifying.”

  Someone promptly responded by saying:

  “Interesting you haven’t said the same of the 4,000+ kids in Gaza who were murdered by F-35 fighter jets. Unsubscribed from your shitty podcast.”

  

  This is a perfect example of the thoughtless, reactionary, borderline-esque reasoning that causes conflicts like these to perpetuate. That Tweet is the reason I decided to write this piece: I knew such a complex issue couldn’t be discussed in 280 character quips.

  And of course I am not blessing the death of 4,000 kids in Gaza by calling the situation in Dagestan horrifying. Most people with basic reasoning skills would understand that. But that isn’t how the dialogue regarding this conflict is taking place, as this response shows. You are either for one side or the other, and there’s no in-between. This type of thoughtless polarization is only going to lead to more chaos, not resolution.

  For many “intellectuals” who have lived silver spoon lives in the very same Western world that Hamas hates (without ever experiencing the slightest inclination of discomfort or loss of security, let alone rocket attacks or a massacre of family members), the horrors of Hamas’s actions are completely justified.

  The self appointed “scholars who are committed to robust inquiry about the most challenging matters of our time” (vom) at Columbia University said over the weekend:

  “In our view, the student statement aims to recontextualize the events of October 7, 2023, pointing out that military operations and state violence did not begin that day, but rather it represented a military response by a people who had endured crushing and unrelenting state violence from an occupying power over many years.”

  A statement that was then beautifully summed up by my friend Nathan Anderson:

  “Columbia faculty saying Hamas’ October 7th rape and massacre of families and festival-goers represented a ‘military response’ to an occupation of Gaza that hasn’t existed since 2005.

  Has the value of an Ivy League education ever plummeted so quickly as it has this past month?”

  Elsewhere in the “Ivy League”, on a Cornell online forum late Sunday, there were calls to slit the throats of Jewish people, resulting in a lockdown on campus.

  To me, it’s simple: at some point, when both states go to their respective corners and there are years of peace, blame can be assigned regardless of history to the state that restarts the conflict in the meaningful way that Hamas just did. If Hamas hadn’t engaged in terrorism this month, we wouldn’t be talking about this conflict right now. End of story.

  Even more worrisome is that Russia has failed to condemn Hamas’s actions in any meaningful way.

  And to me, I can’t help but get the feeling that the entire world is once again dividing the way it did during World War II. On one side, you have the United States, Ukraine, Israel, and Europe – the West, and on the other, you have Russia, China, India, and most of the rest of the Middle East. The entire world feels more divided than it has in recent memory.

  Several years ago, this was a trend that I only noticed taking place economically. Now, the rubber has met the road, and it feels as though it is starting to take place militarily. With two major conflicts now taking place on the global stage, I feel as though we are one catalyst—perhaps China trying to take Taiwan—away from a Third World War. Let’s hope to God that I’m wrong, and that I’m simply paranoid.

  Amidst this global volatility and confusion, the United States feels as though it is still struggling to maintain its economic and financial gravitas on a global stage. We continue to run what can only be described as abusive fiscal and monetary policy. The nations opposite us are openly challenging the U.S. dollar — and U.S. policy — while hoarding gold.

  Our own country seems more divided and confused than ever. Ivy League universities have been turning out students who have openly and actively made attempts to justify Hamas’s recent actions. The institutions that were supposed to ensure that students had a bedrock of reason and morality have instead been instilling an entire generation with entitlement and what can only be described as a warped sense of reality.

  As Bret Weinstein said in 2019, universities and students have lost their way because ideas that would have never cut the mustard 20 or 30 years ago at U.S. colleges and institutions have been given an affirmative action of sorts, all because people in the United States are afraid to, for lack of better words, call out bullshit when they see it, as we don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. Weinstein makes the point perfectly here:

  And so not only do we have an increasingly bifurcated world, with multiple conflicts that all require critical thinking and nuance that we are no longer capable of deploying, we have an entire generation of people in the United States that are so entitled, confused, and narcissistic that they are literally exercising zero reason in choosing the causes they support.

  For example, there’s a large constituency of the LGBTQ community (or whatever it’s called today) that is coming out and throwing their support behind Palestine and Hamas. You’ll notice, however, that none of these supporters are buying plane tickets and making their way to the Middle East to show support, because, of course, their interest is strictly in feigning support for causes that would result in their death, but not actually succumbing to risking their lives. Odd how that works.

  We have angry far left 20-something-year-old college students in the United States, in between unknowingly serving their corporate overlords on trips to their local Starbucks and making TikTok videos on their iPhones assembled with slave labor, publicly calling for the killing of Jewish people. Ironically, they are partaking in these protests because the United States allows for free speech and the freedom to live their life however they choose. I think everybody that wants to wave a Hamas flag in the United States (yes, they waving Hamas flags at some protests, and not Palestine ones) should be required to go and live in the Middle East for a couple of weeks and see exactly how their lifestyle compares to the lifestyle that they are “fighting” for.

  

  There’s definitely a moral equivalency when it comes to senseless killing. I stand with all the people who do not want to see innocent civilians killed, no matter where they are around the globe. I don’t subscribe to the notion that an eye for an eye makes sense. Rather, as the old adage goes, I believe that the whole world will wind up blind. But after years of relative peace, when one group murders over 1,000 innocent civilians of another group, jumping up in arms about the victim retaliating before it ever even takes place is an ugly look.

  Sadly, it appears to me that many people in the United States protesting in support of Palestine, in the days after Hamas committed these atrocities, are part and parcel with a larger group of people who simply deem themselves activists and don’t realize there is not a moral equivalency in how both sides see the world. These “activists” pride themselves on fighting for any cause, regardless of how much sense it actually makes.

  It is the same lack of logic and flawed thinking that has me worried that the Middle Eastern conflict will continue to spread, not just among the governments of other countries, but among the citizens in other countries as well. Watching the Dagestan airport video, I understand that it is unlikely something like that would happen in the United States. But bearing that in mind, I think there has never been a time in recent history where the conditions have been ripe enough for it to actually take place.

  While it’s no secret that the right side of the aisle in the United States has had their fair share of disagreement and confusion over the last month, I simply have no idea how any Democrats believe that they’re going to be able to retain the support of the Jewish community heading into the next election. Even The Nation has had enough.

  

  The breeding ground for the horrifically flawed and extremely troubling “woke” ideology, which is actively justifying the actions of Hamas while condemning any response from Israel, all sprang from the fertile ground of the far left. This is not a political rant, but I simply can’t imagine any Jewish person voting for the party that chose to stand with Palestine after the massacre of 1,200+ innocent people and well before Israel ever even had a chance to retaliate.

  I’m not the biggest Sam Harris fan, but he nails the nuance here in this 13 minute video (and here is another version that’s similar, but not as up to date):

  It is, of course, true that we in the West have been on the wrong side of these dichotomies in the past. Most Western armies, including Israel’s, have at one time or another been guilty of war crimes. And if you go back far enough, all of human conflict was just a litany of war crimes. You don’t have to go back all that far, in fact, to find large pockets of Western culture that were morally indistinguishable from what we now see in much of the Muslim world.

  If you have any doubt about this, study the photos of white mobs celebrating the lynchings that occurred in the American South in the first half of the 20th century. Here, seemingly whole towns—thousands of men, women, and children—turned out as though for a carnival to watch some young man or woman be tortured to death and then strung up on a tree or lamppost for all to see…

  …The point, of course, is that if we recognize the monstrosities of the past, we should recognize the monstrosities of the present and acknowledge that at this moment in human history, not every group has the same ethical norms governing its use of violence, for whatever reason.

  When I step outside and walk the streets of Philadelphia, I see many of these confused people protesting for both sides. To me, I don’t see people fighting for causes; I see broken individuals incapable of being at peace with their sense of self, which, to me, is where true calm, respect for others, and peace comes from.

  I also look around and see tons of level-headed, rational-minded individuals who I know are, in fact, capable of critical thinking about the issue and genuinely do seek peace. But it’s not these people I’m worried about. It is the radicalization of a small group of people that can set off a chain of events like we are seeing now: one reactionary decision after another, which spirals endlessly until one large, decisive end.

  Domestically, ask yourself: which group is more likely to do that, Jews or Jihadists?

  Regardless, in this case, the only thing I hope and pray for is that the terminus this conflict is eventually heading for doesn’t wind up being World War III.

  Can we at least all agree on that?

  

  If you enjoyed this post you can become a subscriber here or share it using these links. 

  QTR’s Disclaimer: I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. These positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 19:45

• US Crude Production Breaks Records As Shale Drives All Growth In Global Oil Supply Over Past Decade
  US Crude Production Breaks Records As Shale Drives All Growth In Global Oil Supply Over Past Decade

  With core OPEC+ cartel members Russia and Saudi Arabia doing everything in their power to throttle oil output and push the price of oil higher, the US is again emerging as not only a thorn in OPEC’s side but as the marginal producer of world oil. According to EIA data, US crude oil production hit an all-time high in August, as production surpassed pre-covid levels.

  US field production of crude oil reached 404.6 million barrels during the month of August, new EIA data showed, for an average of 13.05 million barrels per day, breaking the previous record US drillers set in July of 401.73 million barrels. Compared to this time last year, U.S. production is up by a total of 33 million barrels for the month. Remarkably production hit all time highs even as the number of rotary US oil rigs has slumped in the past year. How is this possible? We answer that question below.

  

  Increases in production were seen in PADDs 1, 2, 3, and 4, with the largest percentage increase in production seen in PADD 4, which comprises Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. The largest actual increase was seen in PADD 2, which includes North Dakota, Illinois, and Kentucky, among other states.

  Crude production in Texas in August – home to a large portion of the Permian Basin and where Exxon will soon be undisputed energy king after its merger with Pioneer closes –  rose from 173.775 million barrels to 174.562 million barrels.

  Despite the record-breaking production levels seen in August, inventories of crude oil in the United States are estimated to be within 3 million barrels of where it began the year.

  The new record in crude production in the United States comes shortly after U.S. supermajor ExxonMobil spent $60B on purchasing another Permian player, Pioneer Natural Resources, although most oil companies in the United States have chosen fiscal restraint resulting in a slow and steady increase in output versus the no holds barred investment strategies during previous boom cycles.

  What is perhaps more remarkable is that in a recent report (available to pro subscribers) from Goldman commodity analyst Daan Dtruyven, the bank found that “the US has driven all the growth in global oil supply over the past decade and the past year, and the Permian basin has driven all growth in US crude supply since early 2020.”

  

  US supply has also grown faster than expected. According to Goldman, US liquids supply is on track to exceed IEA expectations for the 13th consecutive year, except for 2016 and 2020. That said, the 2022 and 2023 forecast errors will likely be smaller than before the pandemic, and US total liquids supply has been roughly flat since June.

  

  Furthermore, the US remains the key short-term marginal oil producer, where flexible short-cycle private producers sit high on the global cost curve.

  

  So is the US falling in the overproduction trap that marked much of the 2010s and which led to the defaulting of dozens of junk debt-funded US energy producers, and sharply oil prices?

  According to Goldman, the answer is no as crude output growth in the Permian has slowed from 1mb/d in 2019 to 0.5mb/d year-over-year in September given the drop in the rig count, and the stabilizing well productivity trend.

  

  However, Permian output is still edging up because of rises in the number of drilled wells per rig and well length. In other words, the Permian new well output per rig is still trending higher because of:

  1. A rise in the number of drilled wells per rig given progress in multi-well pad technology
  2. A structural rise in the average lateral well length to 10,000 feet(Exhibit 9)
  3. A boost to output per rig through a composition effect arising from the larger drop in less productive private rigs (“high grading”). The output per rig in 2022 was nearly 2.5 times greater for public rigs than for private rigs since public firms account for over 60% of production, but under 40% of rigs (Exhibit 10).

  

  This is important because the lack of well productivity growth (which reflects an offset between deteriorating rock quality and improving technology) suggest that Permian output growth will slow further. In fact, the emergence of the Permian as the world’s key oil market variable may explain why Exxon recently purchased Pioneer: the new supergiant will have every opportunity to turn oil output in the US on (or off) as only it sees fit.

  Finally, a question that Wall Street would love answered: are US producers still capital disciplined?

  Goldman’s answer, “yes, three pieces of evidence show that the US upstream sector remains capital disciplined.”

  • First, US public independent firms are sticking to the moderate single digit growth targets they announced in 2020-2021. As Exhibit 11 shows, we expect crude production growth by the independent US E&Ps under GS coverage to slow from around 235kb/d (or 7%) in 2023 to 135kb/d (4%) in 2024, and just around 90kb/d (2.5%) in 2025. That companies continue to guide to slower growth despite the 2022H1 and the summer 2023 upswing in prices is the essence of capital discipline, and the main driver of the reduction in supply elasticity. These lower growth targets reflect investors’ scarring 2014-2020 experience when excessive growth depressed returns, and growing concerns about inventory quality.

  

  • Second, reinvestment rates—capex as a share of operating cash flow—of public producers remain in a 40-60% range, well below the historical average (Exhibit 12, left panel). The 2022-2023 pickup in capex reflects that the 2020-2021 levels were likely unsustainably low, and the boost to nominal capex measures from rapid cost inflation (Exhibit 12, right panel).
  • Third, broader capital allocation strategies of public E&Ps remain focused on limiting leverage and returning cash to shareholders (see Appendix Exhibit 18). To illustrate further, equity (rather than debt) is now typically used to fund acquisitions (as for ExxonMobil-Pioneer).

  

  Much more in the full Goldman report available to pro subscribers.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 19:25

• CA Funding LGBTQ+ Group Fighting Parental Notification
  CA Funding LGBTQ+ Group Fighting Parental Notification

  Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClear Wire,

  Over the summer, when a Southern California school board opposed a new state-determined social studies curriculum that included a bio of slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a threatening tweet calling out the school board president by name.

  “This isn’t Texas or Florida. In the Golden State, our kids have the freedom to learn,” Newsom tweeted. “Congrats Mr. Komrosky you have our attention. Stay tuned.”

  

  Newsom followed up the vague warning with a far more tangible one. In a subsequent statement, the governor labeled the board’s reluctance to accept the curricula an act of “hate” and announced a $1.5 million fine for what he described as a “willful violation of the law.” He also threatened a lawsuit and a state Justice Department civil rights investigation. 

  “Demagogues who whitewash history, censor books, and perpetuate prejudice must never succeed,” Newsom added. “Hate doesn’t belong in our classrooms, and because of the board’s majority’s antics, Temecula has a civil rights investigation to answer for.”

  Komrosky and other members of the school board for the Temecula Valley Unified School District were concerned about Milk’s well-documented relationship with a 16-year-old boy when he was in his 30s. He and other board members labeled Milk a “pedophile” and didn’t want his bio included in a supplemental curriculum for certain grade levels. 

  After Newsom’s threat of legal action, the school board began to waver. Komrosky called an emergency Friday meeting that stretched late into the night and partially backed down, agreeing to accept the textbooks but putting off a decision on the 4th-grade lessons on civil rights, including the gay rights movement, until the board and parents could review it further.

  The confrontation spurred weeks of headlines, with members of the LGBTQ+ community praising the governor’s actions while parents’ rights groups bemoaned the top-down threats from the highest level of state government. 

  The Democrat-controlled state legislature last month passed a bill that would legalize hefty state fines for school boards that reject state-determined curricula and other state policies. The state attorney general also sued a different school district in Chino for requiring parents to be notified when their children begin identifying as a different gender in California public schools.

  In mid-October, a judge sided, at least temporarily, with the state, and granted a preliminary injunction against the parent notification policy until he makes a final decision.

  Over the last several months, the school board clashes have fueled a series of protests and rallies at the state Capitol in which parents, students, pastors, and school board members have accused the Newsom administration and the state legislature of keeping secrets from parents and undermining their ability to care for and oversee their children.

  On the other side of the debate are Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, and members of the LGBTQ+ community who argue that the school boards are trying to ban textbooks teaching diversity. They also assert that students in the state public elementary schools who are changing their gender have a right to privacy from their parents who could try to stop them from transitioning – or worse – use physical force as punishment for doing so.

  Amid the furor on both sides of the school board controversies, in late August, Newsom announced the latest round of grants to support an effort to combat hate crimes against transgender, Muslim, and black people after the attorney general’s office found a 20% increase in such crimes across the state in 2022.

  Among the taxpayer-funded grants is $630,000 to Equality California, an LGBTQ+ group fighting alongside Thurmond against school boards’ parental notification policies and their ability to object to diversity-oriented curricula.

  Over the last four years, the state has provided $400 million in federal grants to fund security measures for faith-based organizations and other nonprofits, and $196 million in grants to local organizations focused on preventing hate crimes and supporting survivors. The funding is taking place as the state is running a $31.5 billion budget deficit, up from $22.5 billion projected in January.

  The state recently awarded this year’s nearly $91.5 million in “Stop the Hate” grants to more than 170 community groups after at least two disturbing incidents that police say were motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ views and racism.

  In August, a San Bernardino store owner was murdered after an argument over a rainbow “pride” flag hanging outside her store, and an Oakland elementary school was evacuated after receiving a bomb threat that police said was racially motivated.

  Newsom last week also approved $10 million in funds to boost the presence of police at synagogues, mosques, and other places of worship as tensions have flared over the possibility of local violence stemming from the Israel-Hamas war.

  Allowing all places of worship to receive the funds to boost security appears even-handed and proactive at a time of rising tensions and threat levels.

  But the “Stop the Hate” grant to Equality California has sparked criticism from opponents that Newsom is inappropriately using state taxpayer funds to assist the top LBGTQ+ organization fighting parents over school board policies.

  According to the California Department of Social Services, which issued the grants, the grants “may” fund various services and programs, including those providing mental health and legal services for victims and their families. The website also says funds could go to prevention services, including “arts and cultural work, youth development, senior safety and escort programs, safety planning, training and cross-racial alliance work.”

  Equality California has been at the center of the fight for protecting children’s right to change genders without their parents’ knowledge in public schools across the state. The group has fiercely opposed the parental rights movement, labeling it homophobic and transphobic, and argues that notifying parents amounts to “forcibly outing” gender-transitioning children, which could lead to physical or emotional harm for these young people who already experience higher rates of depression, mental health, self-harm, and suicide than their peers.

  Equality California staff have attended school board meetings and appeared alongside Thurmond as he answers questions from the press. The group’s staffers were among pro-LGBTQ+ advocates whom a Chino school board removed from a meeting along with Thurmond after he spoke against a proposed district policy that would require schools to inform parents if their students were changing their pronouns or asking to use different gendered facilities.

  Because money is fungible, and the grant can help offset costs for the organization’s other work, parental rights advocates have argued that the grant is inappropriately boosting the group’s lobbying efforts opposing parental rights policies at local school boards.

  According to its 2021 tax filings with the IRS, the most recent available, Equality California Institute spent more than $400,000 on lobbying the state legislature and received nearly $6 million in revenue for that year alone.

  Carl DeMaio, a conservative radio talk show host in California who is gay, was the first to take issue with the Equality California grant in a post on his website, arguing that it was one of several designed to give a financial edge to left-leaning groups, such as Equality California, that actively engage in politics by endorsing candidates and other political activities.

  For instance, the group endorsed Thurmond’s reelection last year, lauding him for “personally intervening” in a school board fight in Chino and working “diligently alongside Equality California to counter the attacks against our trans and gender-nonconforming youth, in particular, and we could not ask for a better ally and champion for all California students.” It’s unclear if that endorsement came directly from the Institute or another part of Equality California’s nonprofit organization.

  “There’s nothing wrong with these far-left groups engaging in political advocacy. It’s their First Amendment right, but not with my tax dollars,” DeMaio told RealClearPolitics. “This is the oldest scam going on in California politics right now. It’s the utilization of taxpayer money to subsidize Democrat and left-wing political organizations.”

  “If the National Rifle Association or the Cato Institute or the Heritage Foundation were receiving taxpayer money, the left and the media would be lighting their hair on fire, but here in California, you have political groups getting money from the government, and no one bats an eye,” he added.  

  Equality California spokesman Jorge Reyes Salinas says the Institute does not engage in political work, as DeMaio alleges, and stressed that the entire grant is devoted to supporting the state’s “Stop the Hate” program.

  “Equality California Institute’s Stop the Hate program is a tool to ensure that LGBTQ+ Californians know about and have access to culturally responsive resources on hate crimes and bystander intervention,” he said in a statement to RCP. “Through outreach and partnerships, this program aims to advance education on how to curb the sharp increase in anti-LGBTQ hate crimes in California.”

  Newsom’s office did not respond to RCP’s inquiries about the grant.

  Lance Christensen, a former state legislative staffer who ran for California superintendent of schools as a Republican last year, now serves as the vice president of education policy and government at the conservative California Policy Center. The Center is one of the main groups backing the parental rights policies in school boards across the state. 

  Christensen argues that the deck is heavily stacked against his side because parents are already fighting the deep-pocketed teacher unions who back many of the policies parents’ rights groups have tried to fight, including extended COVID school shutdowns that kept students in virtual learning longer than many other states.

  On top of that, the leaders of Equality California, which is more ideologically aligned with the Democrats who run the state, “feel like it’s their right and duty to extract money from taxpayers to help amplify their views,” he argued.

  “The fact of the matter is, most parents are well aware of the positions these groups have,” he said. “They just aren’t aware that their tax dollars are going to subsidize these activities.” 

  Equality California has backed a raft of pro-LGBTQ+ bills that Newsom signed into law in late September, including several measures the governor’s office has said are designed to “better support vulnerable youth.” Among the new laws is one that would require courts to keep all petitions for a change of gender identity in public documents, including those filed by minors, confidential. 

  The group also strongly backed the Transgender, Gender-Diverse and Intersex Youth Empowerment Act, which would have required judges to consider whether parents have affirmed the gender identity of their children in custody disputes.

  While Newsom said he shares the commitment to advance transgender rights, he vetoed that bill in mid-September, arguing that it would inappropriately change legal standards for another branch of government.

  Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics’ White House/national political correspondent.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 19:05

• Real Estate Brokerages Zillow, RedFin Tumble After Jury Finds Realtors Conspired To Keep Commissions High
  Real Estate Brokerages Zillow, RedFin Tumble After Jury Finds Realtors Conspired To Keep Commissions High

  Real estate brokerages such as Zillow, RedFin, ReMex and others tumbled after a federal jury found the National Association of Realtors and large residential brokerages such as HomeServices of America and Keller Williams, liable for about $1.8 billion in damages after determining they conspired to keep commissions for home sales artificially high.

  Under antitrust rules, the presiding judge could triple the damages verdict, which would total more than $5 billion. The plaintiffs also have asked the judge to order changes to how the industry operates.

  The verdict came in the first of two major antitrust lawsuits that target decades-old industry practices and argue that unlawful industry practices have left consumers unable to lower their costs even though internet-era innovations have allowed many buyers to find homes themselves online. The two-week trial involved claims by home sellers in several Midwestern states; they sought to drive down commissions and change the way agents are compensated.

  Two brokerages, HomeServices of America and Keller Williams Realty, were also defendants in the case. Two others, Anywhere Real Estate and Re/Max Holdings, settled before trial and agreed to pay almost $140 million combined.

  Announced in a packed Kansas City courtroom, the verdict came after just a few hours of jury deliberations. The case was brought by home sellers in several Midwestern states. Their lawyers hugged and shook hands as the verdict was announced.

  According to the WSJ, the verdict “could lead to industrywide upheaval by changing decades-old rules that have helped lock in commission rates even as home prices have skyrocketed—which has allowed real-estate agents to collect ever-larger sums.”

  It comes in the first of two antitrust lawsuits arguing that unlawful industry practices have left consumers unable to lower their costs even though internet-era innovations have allowed many buyers to find homes themselves online.

  For several years NAR has been fending off accusations by US antitrust officials and private litigants that it has conspired to keep home-sale costs high in the face of major technological upheavals. This verdict is by far the group’s biggest setback yet. An NAR spokesman said, “This matter is not close to being final as we will appeal the jury’s verdict.”

  HomeServices of America, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, said it intends to appeal. “Today’s decision means that buyers will face even more obstacles in an already challenging real estate market and sellers will have a harder time realizing the value of their homes,” a company spokeswoman said. Keller Williams said it is considering an appeal.

  Under the current system, sellers pay their own agent a commission — typically 5% to 6% of a home’s selling price — which is in turn shared with the buyer’s agent. Over the course of the trial, plaintiffs’ attorneys argued this model has suppressed competition by making it difficult for buyers and sellers to negotiate for lower rates.

  “NAR and corporate real-estate companies have had a stranglehold on real-estate commissions for too long,” plaintiffs’ lawyer Michael Ketchmark said outside of the courtroom.

  The news sent real-estate brokerage stocks tumbling: Redfin and Zillow both plunged as much as 10% before recovering some losses. Traditiona broker Re/Max was down 3%.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 18:45

• Bachelors Of Advocacy: The Rise Of Activism Over Academics In US Higher Education
  Bachelors Of Advocacy: The Rise Of Activism Over Academics In US Higher Education

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  Below is my column in The Hill on the rise of advocacy courses and degrees in higher education. Activism has always been a valued part of our colleges and universities. Indeed, many departments have long incorporated advocacy subjects in their course of study, including in law schools. My concern is the degree to which advocacy is now overwhelming academics in some of these programs.

  It is often hard to tell the difference between advocacy groups and advocacy programs in these universities.

  For some schools, a new B.A. model – a Bachelors of Advocacy – is emerging in higher education.

  

  Here is the column:

  “Field trip for an extra 5 points.” The offer to students at the University of California-Berkeley sounded like a typical offer for students to go to a special exhibit at a museum or lecture at an institute. The “field trip” referenced by graduate assistant Victoria Huynh was joining a protest “against settler-colonial occupation of Gaza.”

  This extra credit offer is all too typical of higher education today, where advocacy is now being taught as if it were a course of study. After an outcry, the school solved the problem by ordering “a number of options for extra credit, not just one.”

  Many advocacy-based classes have course descriptions that sound analytical and clinical. The UC Davis course “Asian American Communities and Race Relations,” for instance, states that it covers “race relations and the commonalities and differences between Asian Americans and other race and ethnic groups.” However, the assignments and lectures often reflect a political viewpoint that students are expected to mimic if they want to excel in the class.

  In this course, a screen shot showed that the class would discuss “Palestinian history in relation to class concepts like colonialism, imperialism, and Third World solidarity.” It is clear enough that “the solidarity” cannot extend to Israel.

  Advocacy has increasingly displaced academics in higher education. Activism now permeates higher education as social justice becomes the touchstone for many departments. Today protests rather than Plato are more likely to be the concentration of many students.

  Even journalism students are now sometimes told to drop “objectivity” and “leave neutrality behind.” Former executive editor for The Washington Post Leonard Downie Jr. explained that “pursuing objectivity can lead to false balance or misleading ‘bothsidesism’ in covering stories about race, the treatment of women, LGBTQ+ rights, income inequality, climate change and many other subjects.”

  Advocacy has long been part of graduate programs like law and social work, where students are trained to represent the interests of clients or other individuals. But now, advocacy and activism itself is being offered as a general course for students in place of education. Where protests were once defiant demonstrations held in the university yard, they are now a course of study in classrooms led by academic activists.

  For example, Arizona State University offers a BA program entirely on “community advocacy and social policy” that focuses on “historically under-served individuals, families and communities.” Students “complete courses in two core areas: diversity and oppressed populations and social issues and interventions.”

  Many schools offer “advocacy and social justice studies.” At the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, students are offered the opportunity to “study social justice with distinguished instructors from a wide range of academic departments, from Afro-American Studies to Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies.”

  Camden County College offers a diversity and social justice degree based on the advocacy work of the Black Lives Matter movement and the COVID-19 pandemic, which “revealed the depth of social inequality and its life-or-death consequences.” Others offer “a certificate of proficiency in social justice and an A.S. degree in Human Services, Social Justice Advocacy.”

  These courses offer far left-faculty platforms to proselytize and politicize. It is often confined to one side of the political spectrum and occurs now on every level of our educational system. In academic departments, future primary and secondary teachers are taught that “teaching is a political act” that allows them to instill political and social values in their young pupils. Those students can then attend college and get degrees in activism and advocacy.

  In New York,  1.1 million students were excused by the Department of Education to leave their classes to march against climate change. It seems doubtful that the same accommodation would be allowed for countervailing conservative causes like pro-life marches or demonstrations in favor of gun rights.

  These courses dovetail with faculties that have moved radically to the left, with many faculty using their courses to espouse political viewpoints more than educate. The clear message to students is that they are expected to express the same views in their own analysis.

  One professor erased any pretense and directly required students to contribute to her advocacy group as part of their training. In the meantime, conservative faculty find themselves censored or suspended for engaging in unpopular speech or attending controversial rallies.

  Universities as a whole have largely purged their ranks of Republicans and conservatives over the last few decades. A new survey conducted by the Harvard Crimson shows that more than three-quarters of Harvard Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences faculty respondents identify as “liberal” or “very liberal.” Only 2.5 percent identified as “conservative,” and only 0.4 percent as “very conservative.”

  Another study by Georgetown University’s Kevin Tobia and MIT’s Eric Martinez found that only 9 percent of law school professors identify as conservative at the top 50 law schools.

  In these departments with advocacy and social justice components, diversity of thought runs from the left to the far left.

  Some of these faculty advocates can teach by example. At the University of California, Santa Barbara, feminist studies associate professor Mireille Miller-Young physically assaulted pro-life advocates and tore down their display. She later pleaded guilty to criminal assault, but the university refused to fire or discipline her.

  Other professors continue to engage in violence or destruction in front of students in order to block pro-life or other views from being expressed on campuses.

  The same blind rage was shown after the massacre of Israelis by Hamas this month as faculty rallied students to denounce Israel. UC Davis Professor (and undergraduate adviser) Jemma Decristo posted social media threats against the faculty and the families of those supporting Israel as possible targets. Decristo wrote: “one group of ppl we have easy access to in the U.S. is all these zionist journalists who spread propaganda and misinformation…they have houses w addresses, kids in school, they can fear their bosses, but they should fear us more.” This threatening language was accompanied by pictures of a knife and an axe, followed by three drops of blood.

  The university eventually denounced Decristo’s violent, threatening comments, but it had no prior qualms about the professor teaching American studies to UC Davis students. She is part of the radical chic — the far left professors who have populated departments for years.

  The emphasis on advocacy at the expense of education has also contributed to the increasing hostility toward opposing views on campus. These professors and students often show little tolerance for others’ views and “advocate” by canceling or silencing other views as “harmful.”

  Many of us encourage political activism and engagement of our students. They need to bring their passion and voices to the debates today over issues ranging from abortion to the environment to wars.

  We have long benefited from intellectual activists in our country, but they were intellectuals first and activists second. They were thought-leaders who used classic education to advance societal change.

  As jobs and markets become more competitive, we are not doing these students any favors as we crank out thousands with few skills beyond staging demonstrations.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 18:25

• Reports Say China Scrubbed Israel From Online Maps
  Reports Say China Scrubbed Israel From Online Maps

  China’s scathing criticisms of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, where the death toll has surpassed 8,500 mostly civilians, have grown of late – but this week escalated to a new precedent. 

  The Wall Street Journal has confirmed internet users’ deepening suspicions that the country of Israel has disappeared from several online maps after the ‘mistake’ began to gain increased attention. “Internet users in China are expressing bewilderment that the name Israel doesn’t appear on leading online digital maps from Baidu and Alibaba, an ambiguity that matches Beijing’s vague diplomacy in the region and contrasts with its attentiveness to maps generally,” WSJ writes Tuesday. But some pundits have said the claim is misleading, stressing that many Chinese maps don’t label “disputed areas” by default.  

  

  The internationally recognized borders of the Israeli state are also missing. The report says that Israel may have gone ‘missing’ on the popular maps since the start of the Oct.7 conflict and Israel’s subsequent bombing campaign on Gaza. 

  But as WSJ also points out, neither major Chinese company has publicly acknowledged the missing country information:

  The same is true with online maps produced by Alibaba’s Amap, where even small nations like Luxembourg are clearly marked. Neither company responded to questions on Monday. It is unclear whether the development is new, though it has been discussed by Chinese internet users since war broke out.

  China’s government has over the years cried foul and levied fines over maps published elsewhere online, such as on hotel websites, for failing to strictly adhere to Beijing’s territorial claims, like leaving off a nine-dotted line stretching around the South China Sea that isn’t internationally recognized.

  Indeed this could be a subtle game of ‘retaliation’ for when Western sources publish maps which Beijing vehemently disagrees with, such as depicting Taiwan as independent from the Chinese mainland.

  Israel has disappeared from China’s online maps – The Wall Street Journal

  Users have noticed that the country’s name does not appear on online digital maps provided by companies such as Baidu and Alibaba. They show Israel’s recognized borders, Palestinian territories, and key… pic.twitter.com/HgCqkkW9Uh

  — NEXTA (@nexta_tv) October 31, 2023

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

  Additionally, China has increasingly aligned its foreign policy with the Global South in recent months, and the Gaza crisis is a further demonstration of this trend.

  In statements from the foreign ministry, Chinese officials have consistently highlighted Israel’s bombing of Gazan civilians, instead of focusing on denunciations of the Oct.7 terror attack by Hamas (as the US and much of the West has done). “Every country has the right to self-defense, but every country should abide by international humanitarian law and protect the safety of civilians,” FM Wang Yi told his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen a week ago.

  And then there’s this provocative tweet from the Chinese embassy in France, rejecting Western claims of “genocide” against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, while highlighting that Gaza lies in ruins…

  Sans titre. pic.twitter.com/JolIpmyZbA

  — Ambassade de Chine en France (@AmbassadeChine) October 30, 2023

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

  “As long as [any resolution] is conducive to peace, China will firmly support it; as long as [any resolution] is conducive to Palestinian-Israeli reconciliation, China will do its best,” Wang had said. It will be interesting to see what becomes of the clearly deteriorating Israel-China relations by the end of this current crisis. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 18:05

• Sen. Josh Hawley To Introduce Bill Reversing Citizens United
  Sen. Josh Hawley To Introduce Bill Reversing Citizens United

  Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClearPolitics.com,

  More than a decade ago, President Obama scolded the Supreme Court for reversing “a century of law” and opening “the floodgates for special interest” to “spend without limit in our elections.”

  

  It was during the State of the Union, and while the former president qualified his criticism by offering “all due deference to the separation of powers,” Justice Samuel Alito was caught on camera muttering an objection.

  Seated in the front of the House of Representatives, Alito seemed to say, “Not true.”

  Meanwhile, Chief Justice John Roberts, who had employed a young lawyer from Missouri just two years prior, didn’t move a muscle.

  Sen. Josh Hawley told RealClearPolitics that the episode “predates me,” but on the substance of the question, the senior Republican senator from Missouri, the same young lawyer who once clerked for Roberts on the high court, sides with Obama, not the conservative justices.

  Albeit for very different reasons.

  “I am an originalist,” he said in a Monday interview, “and I don’t think you can make an originalist case for business corporations being treated like individuals when it comes to the right to political speech.”

  Thirteen years removed from that exchange between Obama and the justices, Hawley plans to introduce legislation that would gut Citizens United v. FEC, RCP is first to report.

  “My goal is to get corporate money out of our politics,” he said.

  His aim is to stop “corporate influence” from “controlling our elections.”

  This kind of rhetoric is not unusual. But it usually comes from Democrats.

  President Biden pledged to overturn Citizens United and bring to heal the Super PACs that shower politicians with the kind of unlimited anonymous donations known colloquially as “dark money.” His closest ally in this effort: Progressive Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, who blames the decision for turning America into “an oligarchy” where billionaires “buy elections.”

  And now this coalition includes at least one Republican. Hawley blames Citizens United for giving corporations free rein to “sink their teeth” into the American political process.

  The Hawley legislation would ban publicly traded corporations from making independent expenditures and giving to Super PACs while prohibiting them from cutting political ads or engaging in “other electioneering communications.” Ironically, however, it would not stop the conservative group that upended modern election law. Citizens United is itself a non-profit and, therefore, wouldn’t be affected.

  The bill likely has little chance of making it to the president’s desk. Similar proposals have died in committee. All the same, the legislation represents the latest fissure between the Grand Old Party and the corporations. As the Republican realignment continues, on this issue, Hawley hammers the wedge.

  “Let’s get one thing straight,” Hawley bellowed this summer, “Corporations are not people.”

  The crowd, this one gathered in Washington for the social conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition summit, barely stirred.

  But then they erupted when the populist senator continued, “I’ve got news for these woke corporations: We are not going to surrender this nation to the cultural Marxists in the C-suite.”

  Would Hawley still seek to muzzle corporations if the content of their speech was different, though? “Well, actions do have consequences,” the senator replied.

  Bad trade deals, monopolies over everyday pharmaceuticals, and offshore industries – Hawley blames all of this on Wall Street getting involved in politics, saying that politically connected corporations “have been in favor of almost everything that has been devastating for us.” Beyond economics, he added, “what’s new in the last two or three years” is those same corporations “now want to dictate voting laws in the states” and “now want to dictate rules on biological men playing women’s sports.”

  For example, Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines, two of the biggest employers in Georgia, publicly oppose that state’s efforts to tighten voter registration requirements in the wake of the 2020 election. Another example is the dark money donors who provided $145 million to pro-Biden groups that year, helping pave his way to the White House and dwarfing the $28.4 million spent on behalf of Donald Trump.

  “That is not a reason in-and-of-itself to get the Constitution right,” Hawley cautions, however. While the senator insists that Democrats benefit disproportionately from dark money, he argued that “this isn’t a game that is good for anybody” and “most importantly, the voters don’t benefit from it.”

  This is consistent with the general disposition of the senator who once wrote an adoring biography of Teddy Roosevelt. It is also an evolution from a politician who welcomed the endorsement and cashed the checks of Citizens United during his first campaign. Hawley does not dispute the development.

  A closer examination of the history, he said, “looking back at how the Founders thought of corporations” reveals that the earliest Americans “were deeply skeptical of the corporate form.” On the jurisprudence question, he added, “I just don’t think that history supports the outcome that the Court ultimately got to there.”

  More recent history can be found in the conservative opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal. Reflecting the view of that editorial board, Bradley Smith, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, celebrated the anniversary of Citizens United in 2020, writing that “the ruling has empowered small-dollar donors and political outsiders, not corporations.” The donor who writes a check from the kitchen table, the former FEC chair argued, is now king in American politics, not the Super PAC.

  Hawley suggests that those who doubt the power of corporate dollars in politics visit Capitol Hill. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” he said before pointing to TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media company.

  “A year ago, we were talking about a nationwide ban on TikTok. I was able to get one passed at the federal level last December,” he said.

  “Today, it is difficult to get even my most ardent anti-tech partners to talk about this because TikTok has gone out and spent incredible sums of money to get influence on both sides of the aisle.”

  According to federal disclosures, TikTok and its parent company spent more than $13 million on lobbying the federal government in the last four years. A spokesman for the company declined to address this when RCP requested comment.

  Increasingly, Hawley is more likely to echo T.R. than Ronald Reagan. He notes how Roosevelt warned against “the malefactors of great wealth” and speaks admirably of his wars with the railroads. The senator also points to scandals of the past, like the Teapot Dome Scandal, as a prologue for modern malfeasance.

  “Not a lot has changed in the last century. They would do that today, if they could get away with it,” Hawley said of disparate corporate actors from Silicon Valley to Wall Street without naming anyone in particular.

  “And who knows,” he added, “maybe they are.”

  Republicans who once felt at ease among corporate power are increasingly skeptical. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy publicly divorced the Chamber of Commerce this year. Ohio Sen. JD Vance is currently at war with the railroads over safety regulations. Businessman-turned-presidential-candidate Vivek Ramaswamy seemed to rebuke the ghost of Reagan during the August primary debate.

  And last month, Hawley landed well to the left of the White House, but only slightly to the right of the likes of Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, when he proposed capping the annual percentage rate of credit cards at 18%.

  The Hawley project then can perhaps be best described as an effort to export traditional conservative skepticism of big government to the realm of big corporations. “What we find, and what lawsuits like the Missouri v. Biden case exposed, is that big corporations and big government work hand in hand,” he said referencing the federal case that found the White House lobbied social media companies to remove content critical of the administration.

  “I would just say to my conservative friends, listen, there is no reason we should want to empower these mega-corporations, who are already in bed and colluding with the government, and give them control over our elections and over our speech,” Hawley said.

  It remains to be seen whether Republicans will listen, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. He celebrated the initial action by the Supreme Court.

  “For too long, some in this country have been deprived of full participation in the political process,” McConnell said in a statement when the conservative court handed down Citizens United, celebrating the decision as “an important step” in “restoring the First Amendment rights of these groups.”

  A decade later, McConnell added, “My warning to corporate America is to stay out of politics.”

  As the Washington Post reported at the time, the Republican leader included a qualification during a local news conference.

  “I’m not talking about political contributions,” he said.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 17:45

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• Freak Accident? Hockey Player Sidekicks Opponent In The Throat And Kills Him During Game
  Freak Accident? Hockey Player Sidekicks Opponent In The Throat And Kills Him During Game

  Controversy has erupted over the death of American hockey player Adam Johnson, who was struck in the neck and killed by another player’s ice skate in the second period of a Challenge Cup match against the Sheffield Steelers on Saturday in Sheffield, England.  Fans and players alike are divided over whether or not Canadian player Matt Petgrave deliberately used a sidekick maneuver, stabbing Johnson in the throat with his ice skate.  

  South Yorkshire Police are now investigating the gruesome incident, which left Matt Johnson’s blood all over the Utilita Arena.  Below is the game footage at normal speed:

  Warning – Graphic

  I’ve never played hockey but I’m confused as to why this guys leg kicked up in the air like this?

  Was this a dirty play?

  The skate to the throat hit his artery which ended up taking his life.

  RIP Adam Johnson!

  pic.twitter.com/PjXM8XvAt0

  — Derrick Evans (@Evans4WV) October 30, 2023

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

  The following footage shows Matt Petgrave’s kick in slow motion:

  JUST IN: Police are investigating the death of hockey player Adam Johnson after he got slashed in the neck by opposing team member Matt Petgrave’s skate.

  Online social media users are split on whether the kick was intentional or an accident.

  It is currently not completely clear… pic.twitter.com/7kJRFzPilr

  — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 30, 2023

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

  Below is the now deceased Adam Johnson:

  

  And Matt Petgrave…

  

  The mainstream media is already resoundingly describing the incident as a “freak accident.”  In fact, many news outlets are refusing to use Matt Petgrave’s name or show his face in their coverage.  However, NHL rules (along with leagues around the world) do not allow for players to kick a hockey puck in the air, and they are strict about kicking other players.  Kicking results in an immediate match penalty of the player along with ejection from the game pending a review of their player status.  Hockey players consistently train to avoid major penalties, which is why these kinds of “accidents” are incredibly rare. 

  There are only 23 reported incidents of hockey players dying on the ice worldwide since 1905.  Most of these deaths occurred before safety rules and equipment became standard.  The NHL only has one reported on ice death in its history.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 02:45

• Escobar: Iran-Russia Set A Western Trap In Palestine
  Escobar: Iran-Russia Set A Western Trap In Palestine

  Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,

  The only country that could possibly distract the west from Ukraine is Israel. But the US and its allies are walking into an existential trap if they think a West Asian victory will be more easily won than a European one…

  

  The Russia-Iran strategic partnership – with China in the wings – is laying an elaborate, Sun Tzu-tinged trap for the Hegemon in West Asia. 

  Apart from Israel, there is no entity on the planet capable of switching the focus, in a flash, away from the west’s spectacular debacle in Ukraine. 

  The warmongers in charge of US foreign policy, not exactly Bismarckian stalwarts, believe that if Project Ukraine is unattainable, Project Final Solution in Palestine could instead be a – ethnic cleansing – cakewalk. 

  A more plausible scenario, though is that Iran-Russia – and the new “axis of evil” Russia-China-Iran – have all it takes to drag the Hegemon into a second quagmire. It’s all about using the enemy’s own, discombobulated flip-flapping to unbalance him and disorient him to oblivion.

  The White House’s wishful thinking that the Forever Wars in Ukraine and Israel are inscribed in the same lofty “democracy” drive and essential to US national interests, has already backfired – even among American public opinion. 

  That does not prevent cries and whispers along the Beltway revealing Israel-allied US neocons increasing the tempo to provoke Iran – via a proverbial false flag that would lead to an American attack. That Armageddon scenario neatly fits Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s biblical psychopathy. 

  Vassals would be forced to meekly comply. NATO heads of state have made a beeline to visit Israel to demonstrate their unconditional support for Tel Aviv – including Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Britain’s Rishi Sunak, Germany’s Olaf Scholz, the senile lodger at the White House, and France’s Emmanuel Macron. 

  Avenging the Arab “century of humiliation” 

  So far, Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has shown extraordinary restraint by not taking any bait. Hezbollah supports the Palestinian resistance as a whole – and until a few years back, had serious issues with Hamas, with which it clashed in Syria. Hamas, incidentally, while partially funded by Iran, is not run by Iran. As much as Tehran supports the Palestinian cause, Palestinian resistance groups make their own decisions. 

  The big news is that all these issues are now dissolving. Both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) went to Lebanon to visit Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in person this week. That spells out unity of purpose – or what the region’s Axis of Resistance calls the “Unity of Fronts.”   

  Even more eye-opening was Hamas’ visit to Moscow this week, which was met with impotent Israeli fury. The Hamas delegation was headed by a member of its Politburo, Abu Marzouk. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri came especially from Tehran and met two of Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov’s key deputies, Sergei Ryabkov and Mikhail Galuzin.  

  That spells out Hamas, Iran, and Russia negotiating at the same table. 

  Hamas has called on the millions of Palestinians in the diaspora, as well as the whole Arab world and all lands of Islam, to unite. Slowly but surely, a pattern may be discerned: could the Arab world – and great swathes of Islam – be on the verge of significantly uniting to avenge their own “century of humiliation” – much as the Chinese did after WWII with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping? 

  Beijing, via its sophisticated diplomacy, is certainly hinting at it to key players, even before the ground-breaking, Russia-China brokered Iran-Saudi rapprochement was struck earlier this year. 

  That by itself won’t thwart the perpetual US neocon obsession to bomb critical infrastructure in Iran. Worth less than zero when it comes to military science, these neocons ignore how Iranian retaliation would – accurately – target each and every US base in Iraq and Syria, with the Persian Gulf an open case. 

  Peerless Russian military analyst Andrei Martyanov has shown what could happen to those expensive American iron bathtubs in the Eastern Mediterranean in case of an Israeli-threatened attack on Iran.   

  Moreover, there are at least 1,000 US troops in northern Syria stealing the country’s oil – which would also become an instant target. 

  Ali Fadavi, IRGC’s deputy commander-in-chief, cut to the chase: “We have technologies in the military field that no one knows about, and the Americans will know about them when we use them.”

  Cue to Iranian hypersonic Fattah missiles – cousins to the Khinzal and the DF-27 – traveling at Mach 15, and able to reach any target in Israel in 400 seconds.  

  And add to it sophisticated Russian electronic warfare (EW). As confirmed in Moscow six months ago, when it comes to military interconnection, the Iranians told the Russians at the same table, “whatever you need, just ask.” The same applies vice-versa, because the mutual enemy is one and the same.

  It’s all about the Strait of Hormuz 

  The heart of the matter in any Russian-Iran strategy is the Strait of Hormuz, through which transits at least 20 percent of the world’s oil (nearly 17 million barrels a day) plus 18 percent of liquified natural gas (LNG), which amounts to at least 3.5 billion cubic feet a day.  

  Iran is able to block the Strait of Hormuz in a flash. For starters, that would be some sort of poetic justice retribution for Israel aiming to gobble up, illegally, all the multibillion-dollar natural gas discovered offshore Gaza: this is, incidentally, one of the absolutely key reasons for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. 

  Yet the real deal will be to bring down the Wall Street-engineered $618 trillion derivative structure, as confirmed for years by analysts at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, as well as independent Persian Gulf energy traders. 

  So when push comes to shove – and way beyond the defense of Palestine and in a scenario of Total War – not only Russia-Iran but key players of the Arab world about to become members of BRICS 11 – such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE – do have what it takes to bring down the US financial system anytime they choose.  

  As an old school Deep State higher up, now in business in Central Europe, stresses:

  “The Islamic nations have the economic advantage. They can blow up the international financial system by cutting off the oil. They do not have to fire a single shot. Iran and Saudi Arabia are allying together. The 2008 crisis took 29 trillion dollars to solve but this one, should it happen, could not be solved even with 100 trillion dollars of fiat instruments.”

  As Persian Gulf traders told me, one possible scenario is OPEC starting to sanction Europe, first from Kuwait and then spreading from one OPEC country to another and to all countries that are treating the Muslim world as enemies and war fodder. 

  Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has already warned that oil to western markets could be put off because of what Israel is perpetrating in Gaza. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has already called, on the record, for a total oil and gas embargo by Islamic countries against nations – essentially NATO vassals – that support Israel.

  So Christian Zionists in the US allied with neocon asset Netanyahu threatening to attack Iran have the potential to pull down the entire world financial system.

  Forever War on Syria, remixed  

  Under the current volcano, the Russia-China strategic partnership has been extremely cautious. To the outside world, their mutual official position is to refuse to side with either Palestine or Israel; call for a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds; call for a two-state solution; and respect international law. All their initiatives at the UN have been duly sabotaged by the Hegemon. 

  As it stands, Washington has refused the green light for the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza. The main reason is the immediate US priority: buy some time to expand the war to Syria, “accused” of being the key transit point for Iranian weapons to Hezbollah. That also doubles as re-opening the same old war front against Russia. 

  There are no illusions in Moscow. The intel apparatus knows well that Israeli Mossad agents have been advising Kiev while Tel Aviv was supplying weapons to Ukraine under serious US pressure.  That infuriated the siloviki, and may have constituted a fatal Israeli mistake.

  The neocons, for their part, never stop. They are advancing a parallel threat: if Hezbollah attacks Israel with something else than a few sparse rockets – and that simply won’t happen – the Hmeimim Russian Air Base in Latakia will be “eliminated” as a “warning” to Iran.

  This does not even qualify as children playing in the sandbox. After the serial Israeli attacks on the civilian Damascus and Aleppo airports, Moscow did not even blink before offering its Hmeimim facilities to Syria – complete with clearance for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) cargo flights, according to some Russian intel sources. Netanyahu will not exactly harbor a death wish by bombing a fully A2/AD (anti-access/area denial) Russian Air Base.  

  Moscow also clearly sees what those expensive American iron bathtubs in the Eastern Mediterranean might be up to. The response has been swift: Mig-31Ks are patrolling neutral air space over the Black Sea 24/7, equipped with hypersonic Khinzals, which would take only six minutes to visit the Mediterranean.   

  Amidst all this neocon-drenched madness, with the Pentagon deploying a formidable array of weaponry plus “undisclosed” assets to the Eastern Mediterranean, whether the target is Hezbollah, Syria, Iran, Russia, or all of the above, both China and North Korea – part of the new American-concocted “axis of evil” – have indicated they will not be mere bystanders. 

  The Chinese Navy is for all practical purposes shielding Iran from a distance. Yet even more forceful has been a statement by Premier Li Qiang – something unusually blunt and rare in Chinese diplomacy: 

  “China will continue to firmly support Iran in safeguarding its national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national dignity, and will strongly oppose any external forces interfering in Iran’s internal affairs.”

  Never forget that China and Iran are linked by a comprehensive strategic partnership. Meanwhile, Russian Premier Mikhail Mishustin has reinforced the Russia-Iran strategic partnership in a meeting with Iran’s First Vice-President Mohammad Mokhber.

  Remember those rice eaters from Korea 

  Pro-Iran militias across the Axis of Resistance, are keeping a carefully tempered degree of confrontation against Israel, close to guerrilla hit-and-run. They won’t be engaged in massive attacks yet. But all bets are off if Israel invades Gaza. It’s clear the Arab world, for all its massive internal contradictions, will simply not tolerate the civilian massacre. 

  Bluntly, at the current incendiary juncture, the Hegemon has found the offramp from its Project Ukraine humiliation. They erroneously believe that the same old Forever War rekindled in West Asia can be “modulated” at will. And if two wars turn into an immense political albatross, as they will, what else is new? They will simply start a new war in the “Indo-Pacific.” 

  None of that fools Russia-Iran and their ice-cold monitoring of the flipping and flapping Hegemon every step of the way. It’s enlightening to remember what Malcolm X was already predicting in 1964:

  “Some rice eaters ran him out of Korea. Yes, they ran him out of Korea. Rice eaters with nothing but gym shoes, and a rifle, and a bowl of rice took him and his tanks and his napalm, and all that other action he’s supposed to have and ran him across the Yalu. Why? Cause the day that he can win on the ground has passed.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/31/2023 – 02:00

• Decoding The Taxil Hoax: Part 2
  Decoding The Taxil Hoax: Part 2

  Authored by ‘Mr. E’ via bombthrower.com,

  Follow Mr. E on Substack and Twitter!

  In the previous post we discovered that the true identity of Lucifer is Aphrodite, and what’s considered ‘Satanism’ or ‘Luciferian’ are the more extreme forms of worship of this goddess. Now it’s time to explore just what that is, how long it’s been going on, and what it means for us in the present.

  

  For decades now, the world has been confronted with horrifying stories of ritual child sexual abuse, murder, cannibalism, elite pedophilia, and more. In the last decade we’ve had transgenderism shoved in our faces from every direction and made into a protected and privileged class. In some cases, disobeying the ludicrous demands of trans activists is now being met with arrest and police harassment. Groups are even lobbying to pass bills making the misgendering of trans people a crime punishable by massive fines and even jailtime.

  What does ritual abuse and the exaltation of transgenderism have in common, and what do either of these things have to do with the goddess of lust and fertility? In this report you’re going to find out the ugly, depraved truth behind the Canaanites, a group of people who have worked for millennia to keep humanity in chains and have been far more successful than most will ever admit.

  Let’s examine the practices of goddess worship, region by region, and see for ourselves what went on in ancient times, and what apparently continues today.

  Mediterranean

  In Greece, several more themes emerged in the worship of Aphrodite and Adonis. For instance, it appears Adonis was bi-sexual, loving not only Aphrodite and Persephone, but also Apollo. He played the typical male role when with females and would adopt female behaviors when with males.

  This crossing of gender roles gets even more extreme with Aphrodite. In Cyprus, an island with both Greeks and Phoenicians living on it, a version of Aphrodite emerged called Aphroditus. This was Aprhodite in every sense except that ‘it’ had a penis and sometimes a beard! Later this god (dess?) became Hermaphroditus, a child she produced with Hermes, another of her lovers. Hermaphroditus was born a male but was fused with Salmacis, a nymph who lusted after him and wanted to be united forever. Another child Aphrodite produced with Hermes was Priapus, a male with an oversized and permanent erection. In the story of Tiresias, we find Aphrodite exhibiting the power to change mortals into the opposite sex.

  

  While in Greece, the worship of Aphrodite never got more extreme than orgies and some doves being sacrificed in her name, things get a little more interesting in ancient Egypt. Their analog for the goddess was Hathor, and it appears her worship included the occasional orgy on drugs. The Turin Erotic Papyrus illustrates one of these events; people engaged in all sorts of sex acts while under the influence of the blue water lily. This lily contains an alkaloid that metabolizes in to apomorphine, a drug used today to treat erectile dysfunction and can cause persistent erections (priapism) in men. It also induces a euphoric state, with heightened sociability.

  The papyrus dates to the 20^th dynasty of Egypt, but use of the blue water lily appears to have been popularized in the 18^th dynasty. King Tut was buried with a great many of these, and it just so happens that this is the dynasty that took over Egypt right after the Hyksos expulsion. The Hyksos were a tribe of Canaanites that conquered Lower Egypt and possibly introduced these drugged out orgies during their rule from the 15^th to 17^th dynasties. The Egyptians described them as “bloodthirsty”, and we will soon see why. After being introduced to the lily and its psychoactive powers, its use spread throughout Canaan and even into Mesopotamia.

  

  Speaking of Canaan, it’s appropriate now to look at these people and just what they got up to in their worship of the goddess, because it’s quite relevant to what we see in elite society today. As already mentioned, their name for the goddess of lust and sexuality was Astarte, in Northern Syria it was Atargatis, and in Carthage it was Tanit. It’s in the Canaanite culture that we find ritual child sacrifice, a practice that extended to their colonies in Carthage and throughout the Mediterranean. This was done on an almost industrial scale, with special cemeteries called tophets being discovered with tens of thousands of urns filled with the burned remains of murdered infants and sometimes the animals that were sacrificed alongside them.

  They practiced ritual rape as well. When girls reached a certain age, they were taken to the temple of Astarte to be raped by a man who paid the temple handsomely for that privilege. After this rite of passage, the girl was told she had been blessed, and was sent back home.

  Also of importance was their celebration of transgenderism. The priesthoods of these goddesses, in order to reach the highest levels of their order, would ritually castrate themselves, dress as women, and take on women’s tasks.

  These depraved practices were not the exclusive domain of the Canaanites, either. The worship of this goddess is found further eastwards.

  Mesopotamia

  Arriving in the Fertile Crescent, we find that this goddess was worshipped under the names Inanna by the Sumerians, and Ishtar by the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. We find yet more evidence of the sexual depravity practiced by the Canaanites.

  In Sumer, Inanna’s consort was Dumuzid, whom the Hebrews called Tammuz. Every year, the Sumerian King would perform the Hieros gamos, a sex ritual commemorating the marriage of Inanna and Dumuzid, in view of the public with one of the priestesses of Inanna. The ritual is described in a sexually explicit hymn preserved on a cylinder seal at the National Museum of Iraq. She would “bathe her loins” in preparation for the King and declare “O my holy thighs!” as they proceeded in the act together. The priests of Inanna, known as the Gala, underwent a transformation into females, taking on their traditional roles, and engaging in sodomy.

  

  Herodotus also tells us of a Babylonian custom that required every woman to deliver herself to the temple of Ishtar where she will be placed among the other women, while a line of men walk by to inspect them. The first man to offer her any sum of money must be accepted, and she must go with him to be raped. Herodotus goes on to say that this ordeal is over quickly for beautiful women, but the comely ones sometimes remain for years waiting for their turn to be defiled. A similar custom also took place in Cyprus.

  Pontic-Caspian Steppe

  Heading north into the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, where today we find Ukraine, Western Russia, and Kazakhstan, we find the ancient nomadic equestrians, the Thracians. They had many religious practices involving their divine lovers, including ritual orgies, human sacrifice, and transgenderism.

  Many of these customs were replicated by the Scythians who co-existed with the Thracians during the first millennium BC. The Scythians even practiced ritual cannibalism, and their highest and most powerful aristocracy was known as the Enaree. This was an orgiastic cult devoted to their snake-legged goddess of sex, Artimpasa. Like Aphroditus, this goddess was often pictured with a beard.

  These priests were effeminate and androgynous. They performed women’s work, spoke, and dressed like women, and potentially even castrated themselves as part of their “transformation” into women. They may even have been sodomized by other men in sex rituals while pretending to be women.

  Early in their history the Scythians invaded Canaan and sacked the temple of Astarte in Ascalon. The transgenderism of the Enaree was assumed to be a curse from the goddess who, as mentioned in the case of Tiresias, has the power to change men into women.

  A similar transgender priesthood, known as the Galli, existed in Phrygia and were devotees of their own version of the goddess, Cybele and her castrated partner Attis.

  

  A less ancient people of this area were the Khazars and by all accounts they continued many of the same practices as the Thracians and Scythians. Their religion was called Tengrism, which included shamanistic practices while dressed up like an animal.

  

  The Khazarians are rumored to have converted to Judaism in the 10^th century CE, and some evidence does exist in support of that. This is, however, a contentious matter and camps on both sides continue to dispute whether this actually took place.

  

  Nevertheless, the 1972 Surrealist Party, held by Baroness Marie-Hélène de Rothschild and her husband Guy at the Chateau de Ferrières, appears to have echoed many Khazarian cultural practices.

  Abrahamic Era

  Is it any wonder why, in the Bible, God warns the Israelites to never deal with or mix with Canaanites. Here’s but one of many quotes:

  And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them [Canaanites] before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. – Deuteronomy 7:2-4

  Furthermore, the Bible warns of infiltrators not only into Christianity, but also into Judaism:

  For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ … Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities … Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core … These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever … And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. – The Book of Jude

  

  Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. – Revelation 3:9

  Just who are these infiltrators that Enoch prophesied about? We must consult the Book of Enoch for that answer:

  And Uriel said to me: ‘Here shall stand the angels who have connected themselves with women, and their spirits assuming many different forms are defiling mankind and shall lead them astray into sacrificing to demons as gods, here shall they stand, till the day of the great judgement in which they shall be judged till they are made an end of. – Enoch 19:1-2

  A complete reading of the Book of the Watchers, in Enoch, reveals he’s talking about the Nephilim, children of the Fallen Watchers, angels who rebelled against God along with Satan; a thieving, murderous group of cannibals that also drank blood. In other sections of the Bible, it makes the connection between the Nephilim and Canaanites.

  Aside from Jude, we have further evidence of the Canaanite infiltration into Christianity and the practice of their depraved rituals. Consider this passage about the sect of Borborites, who allegedly engaged in ritual orgies:

  But even though one of them should accidentally implant the seed of his natural emission prematurely and the woman becomes pregnant, listen to a more dreadful thing that such people venture to do. They extract the fetus at the stage which is appropriate for their enterprise, take this aborted infant, and cut it up in a trough with a pestle. And they mix honey, pepper, and certain other perfumes and spices with it to keep from getting sick, and then all the revellers in this herd of swine and dogs assemble, and each eats a piece of the child with his fingers. And now, after this cannibalism, they pray to God and say, “We were not mocked by the archon of lust, but have gathered the brother’s blunder up!” And this, if you please, is their idea of the “perfect Passover.” – Epiphanius, Panarion, Chapter 26.5.4

  This is not even the full extent of Canaanite influence over the ancient world, a whole book would be needed for that, but there is one last thing worth mentioning. DNA studies performed on the nearly 3,000 year-old Paracas skulls of Peru reveal they came from Syria – making these Canaanites the earliest transatlantic voyagers known, nearly two millennia before the Vikings. Should it be a surprise, then, that we also find human sacrifice, cannibalism, and ritual sex in Mesoamerica?

  This discussion wouldn’t be complete without addressing the Catholic eucharist, either. For what more perfect evidence of the corruption of Christianity is there but the practice of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of a man-God? This is a very serious matter, as the doctrine of transubstantiation mandates that Catholics truly believe this is an act of cannibalism. Furthermore, spitting it out is known as ‘host desecration’, a sin so egregious that only the Pope himself can forgive the offender, or excommunicate them.

  

  I would also be remiss to not mention the recent case of a “Gay Orgy” being organized by Catholic Priests in Poland that went horribly wrong. The event involved a male prostitute and “potency pills,” just like the drugged up Canaanite orgies of old, and ended with emergency services being called to tend to a man that had collapsed unconscious on the floor.

  Present Day

  These cult activities manifest today in many ways. Aside from the global phenomenon of ritual child abuse already mentioned, take the example set by Harry Hay. He was an LGBT activist, staunch defender of pedophilia, and acolyte of Aleister Crowley and his sex magick. Hay glorified promiscuous sex and sodomy as a path to spiritual enlightenment. The drugged orgies of old are now taking place as ‘chemsex’, a meth-fueled anal sex marathon. Satanic gay men and transgender women are found everywhere in the US government now. Rape, torture, murder, and cannibalism are being celebrated in art, most notably by Marina Abramovic who also hosts ‘Spirit Cooking’ sessions and parties with cakes shaped as people, that are chopped up and eaten.

  

  Can all this help explain recent events in the middle east? Consider the fact that Gaza was originally part of the Philistine States, separate from the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. If the Zionists of today were truly seeking a restoration of the original Hebrew Kingdoms, they would have no interest in Gaza, or Ashkelon for that matter. The Philistines, today’s Palestinians, were not one of the nations the Israelites were told to displace in the Bible. In fact, Genesis 21 and 26 recount two separate treaties Abraham and Isaac made with them.

  

  The only thing that could explain the Zionists lust for the Gaza strip is that they are not, in fact, being led by Jewish sentiment, but Canaanite. The Philistine States are a part of Canaan, and the Philistines seem to have immigrated there from the Aegean Sea shortly after the Late Bronze Age Collapse, when the Canaanite societies would have been economically weakened.

  

  Canaan is the lands extending across the entire eastern Mediterranean coast, from just south of Gaza, all the way to northern Syria. If the government of Israel were being run by Canaanites, their incessant conflicts with Lebanon and Syria now make perfect sense. They’re trying to re-establish Canaan, not the Hebrew Kingdoms described in the Bible.

  

  This was not even being done in secret not too long ago. In 1939 a movement was founded by Palestinian Jews with the express purpose of re-creating Canaan. A group of Lebanese Nationalists also got involved in their own efforts to bring back this ancient national identity. In fact, it was recently discovered that the Lebanese people share 90% of their DNA with the ancient Canaanites. Culturally or not, Canaanites continue to exist to this very day.

  Conclusion

  Returning full circle to my article about the Taxil hoax, we can see that his fabrication includes many elements of truth. Practitioners of this depraved form of goddess worship do indeed engage in the very same activities he leveled at the Masons. Thus, this hoax served as a wonderful device to project this cult’s misdeeds onto other parties.

  It should be remembered that Pope Leo XIII’s only complaint about Freemasons was that they were successfully advancing the idea of separation between Church and State, something enshrined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution. This Pope was, in a very real way, anti-American. He narcissistically saw anything that could diminish his control of nations around the world as ‘Satanic’ and wanted to rouse a reactionary movement against the principles of the Enlightenment that were spreading rapidly through Western society.

  By a long and persevering labor, they endeavor to bring about this result – namely, that the teaching office and authority of the Church may become of no account in the civil State; and for this same reason they declare to the people and contend that Church and State ought to be altogether disunited. By this means they reject from the laws and from the commonwealth the wholesome influence of the Catholic religion; and they consequently imagine that States ought to be constituted without any regard for the laws and precepts of the Church. – Pope Leo XIII, Humanum Genus, Section 13.

  I highly recommend reading The Apocalypse of Yajnavalkya for more information about this cult. Nothing else I’ve ever read more completely explores their history and activities. It tells you in detail exactly where these people originated and why they have such a seething hatred for the rest of humanity. This has been going on for far longer than most can presently imagine.

  

  Nothing worthy of God is to be found in the acts of this demented group. They take their most base, animal desires and make rituals out of satisfying these urges. Rituals that can irreparably harm their non-consenting victims, leading them into lives of substance abuse, prostitution, depression, dissociative identity disorder, and other mental health issues.

  We aren’t living in a world besieged by “the Joos” or “duh Freemasons”, it’s a nameless gang of marauding Canaanites and those they’ve tricked into adopting their ways by promises of wealth, power, and influence. It’s been a few thousand years and now is the time to unmask these traitors to humanity and pull the rug out from underneath them, permanently.

  Related Posts

  The Greatest Hoax of All Time

  Decoding the Taxil Hoax: Part 1

  Subscribe to the Bombthrower mailing list to get these posts as they come out, and follow Mr. E via his Substack and Twitter.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 23:55

• Yen & UST Yields Tumble After BoJ's Mixed Messages, But…
  Yen & UST Yields Tumble After BoJ’s Mixed Messages, But…

  The market was well prepared for action from the Bank of Japan (BoJ) tonight after Nikkei reported the central bank’s intent to consider another tweak to its yield curve control (YCC) policy.

  Having moved from 0.25% to 0.5%, then to 1%, the Nikkei report prompted speculation that the central bank would raise the limit again, rather than abandoning YCC altogether, as JGB yields have traded up close to the 1% limit in recent days.

  The report noted that “the second framework tweak in three months appears to have been deemed necessary as 10-year yields are approaching 1% amid a backdrop of rising U.S. rates” and added that the “BOJ is also likely to more flexibly conduct its JGB purchase operations… This, along with a more flexible cap on 10-year yields, is aimed at deterring speculators from targeting the upper limit and sparing the BOJ the need to buy droves of JGBs to keep rates under 1%.”

  

  However, consensus is that BoJ will stand pat as historically the BoJ has paid less attention to market expectations than, say, the Fed.

  If USDJPY was anything to go by, it was starting to remove the odds of a BoJ YCC adjustment, as JPY weakened back from earlier gains on the Nikkei report…

  

  As we detailed earlier, no matter what the BOJ does today, the decision is sure to move markets.

  A policy hold could spur yen selling.

  There’s a good chance, though, that a sharp move beyond 150 against the dollar would invite intervention by Japan’s authorities to defend the currency.

  A tweak to the YCC parameters, such as lifting the 10-yield yield ceiling to 1.5%, could support the yen.

  But any strengthening would probably be limited to at most about 145 against the greenback, given the upward tug on the dollar from relatively high US yields.

  Additionally, The BoJ is expected to raise its inflation forecasts for both this fiscal year and next. This would likely bring Japan’s key inflation above 2% for three straight years, which of course leads to the question of why the BOJ still needs to continue with the current stimulus policy given its side-effects.

  So what will they do…

  Meanwhile at the BOJ… pic.twitter.com/rwyJGCG8qD

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 27, 2023

  Well, earlier today, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was asked in parliament ahead of the decision whether the BOJ’s ultra-easy policy was weakening the yen and causing price rises. Kishida, whose approval rating just hit a record low dur to soaring inflation, said central bank policy aims to achieve and maintain stable prices. He added that the government should coordinate with the BOJ on macroeconomic policies.

  And while the BoJ has released a policy statement at 12:06pm Tokyo time on the average since the introduction of yield curve control in 2016, today the BoJ released its statement at 12: 27pm Tokyo time (exactly one standard deviation late to its norm) and kept rates unchanged:

  BoJ maintains NIRP at -0.10% and 10yr JGB yield target at 0% but makes what was formerly a hard cap of 1% on yields into a reference range of 100bps up or down, vs the previous target of 50bps, thus making YCC even more flexible. The BoJ also says:

  • Will regard upper bound of 1% for 10yr JGB yield as reference in market ops.

  • Decision on YCC was made by 8-1 vote with Nakamura the dissenter.

  • Decides to make YCC more flexible.

  • Japan’s inflation outlook is overshooting but due largely to prolonged rises in import costs.

  • Will guide market operations nimbly.

  The most important changes of these is the BOJ’s description of the 1% rate as “a reference”, which sounds similar to the July 28 BoJ meeting, when Governor Kazuo Ueda made his first surprise move by maintaining the 10y yield target at 0% but said its 0.5% ceiling was a reference point and not a rigid limit. Back then, the BoJ offered to buy bonds at 1% and the JGB 10y yield was up 0.15% over the following week.

  Likely, the BoJ would allow 10y bond yields to creep higher with potential rinban operations risk if the 10y bond yields advance higher much too quickly.

  Additionally, the BOJ has also decided to abandon its daily fixed-rate bond-buying operations, its major tool for impacting rates, citing the “large side effects” it might entail. The BoJ also raised its economic growth but more importantly, its inflation forecasts…

  

  … which means that all else equal, Kishida’s approval rating is about to become even worse!

  

  This is mainly due to the prolonged effects of a pass-through to consumer prices of cost increases led by the past rise in import prices and the recent rise in crude oil prices. Toward the end of the projection period, the Bank expects that underlying CPI inflation will increase gradually toward achieving the price stability target of 2 percent, while this increase needs to be accompanied by an intensified virtuous cycle between wages and prices.

  Still confused? here is the BOJ’s trademark “explainer” for what today’s decision means. The bottom line is that the 1.00% cap is officially gone and instead the BOJ will allow 10Y rates to rise above the former hard limit at which point it may or may not engage in “nimble market operations.”

  

  The initial reaction to the BoJ’s moves implied a less hawkish than expected statement, prompting JPY weakness, breaking back above 150/USD…

  

  JGB yields tumbled back…

  

  And so did 10Y UST yields…

  

  However, as UBS trading desk explains:

  My interpretation of the changes are that the previous YCC target of 0% +/-50bp was the loose target, allowing 10y JGB yields up to 1%, where it would conduct daily fixed-rate purchases if needed.

  Now the operations will not necessarily be at 1.00%: “The bank will determine the offer rate for fixed rate purchase operations each time, taking account of market rates and other factors.”

  Effectively the BoJ has raised the yield cap without saying where it is – still trying to let the markets find the natural balance of supply and demand whilst keeping a lid on bond vol

  So nothing would surprise us more than to wake up in the morning and see all this reversed.

  Finally, Bloomberg’s Gearoid Reidy asked a fascinating question: does the BOJ actually want to control the yield curve?

  The statement says:

  “It is appropriate for the Bank to increase the flexibility in the conduct of yield-curve control, so that long-term interest rates will be formed smoothly in financial markets in response to future developments.”

  That’s just… the market, surely? Where is the control? Does YCC even effectively exist anymore?

  How long  until the market realizes that Japan’s legendary YCC no longer actually exists?

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 23:40

• Georgia Couple Helps Police Scam The Gold-Scammers
  Georgia Couple Helps Police Scam The Gold-Scammers

  Via SchiffGold.com,

  A Georgia couple nearly lost more than $186,000 in a gold scam. But they ended up turning the tables and scamming the scammers.

  

  It all started with a pop-up on the Perry, Georgia, couple’s computer warning the machine was infected with a virus.

  The couple called the help number provided.

  That was their first mistake.

  The scammer on the other end warned that the virus may have compromised their bank account and helpfully connected them with their bank’s fraud department.

  This was the couple’s second mistake.

  They should have hung up and called the bank’s fraud department directly.

  The person the scammer connected them with was, of course, just another scammer. This individual confirmed that their account had been compromised, saying there were pending suspicious transactions.

  The couple was then passed along to a third scammer pretending to be from the Federal Trade Commission.

  This individual even emailed phony documents to “confirm” his identity.

  The fake federal agent told the couple the best way to protect their money was to take the $185,916 from the compromised account and buy bars of gold.

  The scammer told the couple an undercover FTC agent would come to their home, pick up the gold, and take it to Washington D.C. Once verified, the couple would receive a check for the full amount.

  As implausible as this may sound to you and me, the couple bought the story and went as far as to purchase 1 kilogram Royal Canadian Mint gold bars from a dealer in Texas.

  But at some point, the couple grew suspicious and called the police.

  The case ended up on the desk of Perry Police Department Detective Sgt. J.I. “Ike” Wilcox,’ and he hatched a plan to scam the scammers. He dubbed it “Operation Goldfinger.”

  It just so happened that Wilcox is an expert on fraud and teaches courses on how to avoid it.

  “A lot of times that demographic is more vulnerable because technology has evolved so much during their lifetime,” Wilcox told the Macon Telegraph.

  The police had the gold shipment rerouted back to the dealer.

  The couple received a full refund. But with the help of police, the husband and wife strung the scammers along, telling them the gold was on the way. Sure enough, the scammers arranged to have a courier come to the couple’s home to pick up the gold.

  When the SUV showed up, police arrested the driver, Gurdev Singh, 31, of Stockton, California. He faces numerous charges, including criminal attempt to commit theft by deception and exploitation of elder persons.

  “I could safely describe his reaction as genuine surprise,” Wilcox said.

  According to the Telegraph, the investigation remains open and detectives are trying to track down others involved in the scam.

  According to the US Department of Justice, in 2021, cyber-related crimes stole more than $140 million from victims in Georgia alone.

  The lesson is to always be on guard. If something feels fishy, it probably is.

  There are thousands of unscrupulous people out there trying to rip you off. And some of them aren’t criminals.

  There are a lot of shady businesses out there looking for ways to take advantage of you.

  You can learn more about gold scams and how to avoid getting ripped off in our free report, Classic Gold Scams. Click the link below to download the free report!

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 23:00

• Bidenomics: Typical US Family Would Pay $9,100 To Comply With 'Dream House' Climate Wish List
  Bidenomics: Typical US Family Would Pay $9,100 To Comply With ‘Dream House’ Climate Wish List

  The Biden administration’s war on fossil fuels would cost the average American household more than $9,100 per year, according to a consumer watchdog.

  The Alliance for Consumers took an infographic from the Biden White House titled “Biden’s Dream Home,” which proposes new energy standards for various appliances, including air conditioners, stoves, washing machines, while the Department of Energy’s so-called Unified List of appliances includes microwave ovens, dehumidifiers and pool pumps.

  “Welcome to Biden’s Dream House, where the American dream just got significantly more expensive,” the group wrote on X.

  

  According to the consumer watchdog, gas furnace efficiency standards which will “significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions” for residences (according to the DOE), will cost consumers an estimated $494 additional on average, while dishwasher efficiency standards will cost somewhere between $50 and $400 to comply with, because the proposed rules will lead to drainage problems and clogging.

  

  The rules targeting air conditioning units will cost around $1,100 to comply with.

  This year, the Department of Energy (DOE), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of Transportation (DOT) have announced a range of proposed rules that will make household appliances more expensive and, as some experts contend, are designed to force Americans to give up their current appliances.

  For example, under the DOE’s proposed natural gas stove rule, an estimated 90 percent of gas stoves would have to be redesigned, with reduced performance and raise the upfront cost of stove products by around $32 million per year. –Epoch Times

  New rules for water heaters will cost consumers an average of $2,800 more, while everything from ceiling fans, washing machines and light bulbs will also add to that $9,100 total.

  But wait, there’s more — you must see the less effective laundry room and garage!

  After you’ve spent $4,500+ to “upgrade” your living room and kitchen, hopefully you’ve got another $4,500 laying around to replace your washing machine, water heater and car! pic.twitter.com/0sS6Mg3pDK

  — Alliance For Consumers (@for_consumers) October 26, 2023

  “It’s just spreading to more and more appliances. It seems that almost everything that plugs in or fires up around the house is either subject to a pending regulation or soon will be,”  Ben Lieberman, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Fox News.

  “Consumers aren’t going to like any of it. These rules are almost always bad for consumers for the simple reason that they restrict consumer choice.”

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  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 22:40

• Leaked Document Shows Israeli Govt 'Option' To Ethnically Cleanse Gaza
  Leaked Document Shows Israeli Govt ‘Option’ To Ethnically Cleanse Gaza

  Via The Cradle,

  Israeli culture magazine Mekovit on Saturday published a leaked document issued by Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence recommending the occupation of Gaza and total transfer of its 2.3 million inhabitants to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

  The document, issued on October 13, identifies a plan to transfer all residents of the Gaza Strip to North Sinai as the preferred option among three alternatives regarding the future of the Palestinians in Gaza at the end of the current war between Israel and the Hamas-led Palestinian resistance.

  

  The document recommends that Israel evacuate the Gazan population to Sinai during the war, establish tent cities and new cities in northern Sinai to accommodate the deported population, and then create a closed security zone stretching several kilometers inside Egypt. The deported Palestinians would not be allowed to return to any areas near the Israeli border.

  The existence of the document does not necessarily indicate that its recommendations are being implemented by Israel’s security establishment. The Ministry of Intelligence, headed by Gila Gamliel of the Likud party, does not control any of Israel’s intelligence agencies, but independently prepares studies and policy papers, which are distributed for consideration by the government and its security bodies.

  However, recent statements by Israeli government officials and actions by the Israeli army in Gaza suggest the plan is indeed being implemented. Since October 7, Israeli officials have repeatedly issued warnings to Palestinians to move to southern Gaza in advance of a looming ground invasion. 

  Israel has imposed a total siege on Gaza, cutting off food, water, fuel, and electricity. The siege, combined with intense Israeli bombing that has killed over 8,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children, threatens to make Gaza uninhabitable. 

  An official at the Ministry of Intelligence confirmed that the ten-page document is authentic but “was not supposed to reach the media,” Mekovit noted. According to a right-wing activist, the document from the Ministry of Intelligence was leaked by a member of Likud.

  Leaking the document was an attempt to find out whether “the public in Israel is ready to accept ideas of a transfer from Gaza.” The document unequivocally and explicitly recommends carrying out a transfer of civilians from Gaza as the desired outcome of the war.

  Hebrew-language media outlet @mekomit has published Israeli Ministry of Intelligence documents recommending mass expulsion of the entire Gaza population into the Sinai Desert

  It’s consistent with how Israel’s operation has been conducted so far

  Here’s an English translation pic.twitter.com/VGvz2uh3Lv

  — Michael Tracey (@mtracey) October 30, 2023

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  The transfer plan is divided into several phases: in the first phase, the population in Gaza must be forced to move to southern Gaza, while Israeli air strikes will focus on targets in northern Gaza. In the second phase, the Israeli army’s ground entry into Gaza will begin, which will lead to the occupation of the entire strip, from north to south, and the “cleansing of the underground bunkers from Hamas fighters.”

  At the same time as the Gaza Strip is occupied, the citizens of Gaza will move to Egyptian territory and will be prevented from returning permanently. “It is important to leave the traffic lanes towards the south usable, to allow the evacuation of the civilian population towards Rafah,” the document states.

  The document recommends beginning a dedicated campaign that will “motivate” Gazans “to agree to the plan,” and make them give up their land. Gazan should be convinced that “Allah made sure that you lost this land because of the leadership of Hamas – there is no choice but to move to another place with the help of Your Muslim brothers,” the document reads.

  Further, the plan states the government must launch a public relations campaign that will promote the transfer program to western states in a way that does not promote hostility to Israel or damage its reputation. The deportation of the population from Gaza must be presented as a necessary humanitarian measure to receive international support. Such a deportation could be justified if it will lead to “fewer casualties among the civilian population compared to the expected number of casualties if they remain,” the document says.

  The document also states that the US should be leveraged to pressure Egypt to take in the residents of Gaza, and to encourage other European countries, and in particular Greece, Spain and Canada, to help take in and settle the refugees who will be evacuated from Gaza. 

  Finally, the document claims that if the population of Gaza remains, there will be “many Arab deaths” during the expected occupation of Gaza by the Israeli army, and this will damage Israel’s international image even more than the deportation of the population. For all these reasons, the recommendation of the Ministry of Intelligence is to promote the transfer of all Palestinians in Gaza to Sinai permanently.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 22:20

• Krispy Kreme Downgraded On Prospect Of Waning Doughnut Demand As 'GLP-1 Fever' Sweeps America
  Krispy Kreme Downgraded On Prospect Of Waning Doughnut Demand As ‘GLP-1 Fever’ Sweeps America

  America’s anti-obesity craze, courtesy of GLP-1-based weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro made by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, continues to gain momentum as yet another Wall Street bank loses faith in obese consumers. 

  Wall Street is losing faith in Fat Americans.

  Truist Securities downgraded Krispy Kreme saying it has a difficult time recommending the stock until the impact of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs becomes more apparent.

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 30, 2023

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  On Monday, Truist Securities downgraded doughnut chain Krispy Kreme Inc. from “buy” to “hold” and slashed the price target from $20 to $13, citing GLP-1 trends. 

  Analysts led by Bill Chappell told investors:

  “We believe the stocks will be stuck in a holding pattern at best with strong potential for additional multiple contraction as the initial impact of GLP-1 use becomes more apparent. To be clear, we have NO IDEA what the impact of GLP-1s will be on overall food consumption, but we believe it is way too early in the cycle for anyone to have an accurate estimate.”

  Chappell said he needs more evidence to gauge the overall GLP-1 impacts on overall food consumption. He noted if GLP-1 impacts worked through Krispy Kreme and its peers in the third quarter – there would be enough data to forecast 2024-25 trends. 

  Chappell warned that GLP-1 overhang will weigh shares down for the next six to 12 months, “if not longer.” 

  He added: 

  “We believe the stocks will be stuck in a holding pattern at best with strong potential for additional multiple contraction as the initial impact of GLP-1 use becomes more apparent.” 

  Shares of Krispy Kreme fell as much as 3.6% in early New York trade, but most losses were recovered by early afternoon. Shares are up 24% on the year but remain around record lows. 

  

  Another problem for the doughnut chain is that top-line growth resulted from increased pricing during Covid. According to Chappell, this trend will “only feed into the GLP-1 narrative as pricing benefits recede and overall sales growth decelerates in the next few quarters.”

  We told readers 2.5 months ago about the emerging “food revolution” as the food industrial-complex has been too lazy to adapt to the shifting winds of an increasing number of Americans using GLP-1 drugs. 

  In late July, a shift occurred as investors started to offload companies with potential downstream risks related to obesity drugs, as indicated by the Goldman Sachs Global HLC GLP Risk index. Concurrently, investors piled into Goldman’s GLP-1 Obesity drug basket to capitalize on slimming down Americans. 

  

  A recent Morgan Stanley presentation (available to pro subs) found the most bull case for the GLP-1 drugs could result in a 1.7% reduction (vs baseline) in calories consumed by Americans. 

  

  Not surprisingly, MS found a more pronounced impact on certain food categories among those on the weight-loss drugs.

  

  Also, the biggest losers appear to be fast food and pizza restaurants…

  

  … confections, cookies, and salty snacks…

  

  Expanding on MS’ report is Bank of America analyst Geoff Meacham (available to pro subs), who reveals the downstream effects of the obesity drug will impact the apparel industry as “eventual weight loss in the broader population could spur a wardrobe replacement cycle.” 

  Meacham said that an adoption rate of 38 million individuals using weight-loss drugs (midpoint of BofA’s estimated 2030 TAM) combined with the assumption of buying new clothing could result in $50 billion of new apparel spending. 

  

  Walmart has already voiced concern about seeing an impact on shopping demand from people taking the diabetes drug Ozempic, Wegovy, and other appetite-suppressing medications. 

  Banks are still evaluating the downstream effects of GLP-1 impacts that could be more clear in the next several quarters. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 22:00

• Texas Reclaims Island From Mexican Cartels In Fight To Secure Border
  Texas Reclaims Island From Mexican Cartels In Fight To Secure Border

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

  

  In the fight against Mexican cartels, Texas law enforcement recently took control of a dangerous island used by human traffickers.

  The Epoch Times spoke to Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, who identified Fronton Island as possibly “the most violent part” of the Texas–Mexico border. Belonging to Texas, Fronton Island is an island in the Rio Grande River. According to the General Land Office, “Fronton Island has been a hot spot for drug and human trafficking and dangerous cartel activity in the past couple of months.”

  Ms. Buckingham further described the island as “a law enforcement-free refuge, one where cartels went for refuge when they needed it.” On Sept. 7, she issued a letter to the Texas Department of Public Safety, authorizing law enforcement access to the state-owned 170-acre island.

  On an island where fully automatic weapons were once being fired regularly at night, as two violent cartels fought over its control, she said, “Law enforcement set foot on the island for the first time on Monday [Oct. 2].”

  Ms. Buckingham cannot speak to the details of the operation, but said the island has been reclaimed by an elite force of Texas Rangers. “Clearing the island and taking away [the cartel’s] shelter, they are finding caches of weapons and more than I can’t speak fully about,” she added.

  With a Texas flag planted on the island, Ms. Buckingham considers the operation a win against illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and human trafficking—but the scope of the problem exceeds this single region.

  “Texas is still getting flooded with illegal immigrants,” she said. “We’re seeing millions and millions of folks coming across the border.”

  To put this in perspective, she said, “The New York mayor is complaining about thousands of people coming [into his city], while Eagle Pass [in Texas] expects far more than that.” The numbers of migrants Eagle Pass has to brace for is “the equivalent of 2.7 million people illegally coming to New York every week.” In addition, she said, “these are not just family units, but a whole lot of young, military-aged males.”

  “Recent surges of illegal immigrants are setting new records for crossing the border,” she said. “There are numerous videos circulating online showing thousands of people literally storming across the border,” she added. “This is literally an invasion.”

  For those actually being processed by Border Patrol to enter the country, she said, their earliest court date to begin a legal process for their entry into the country would be the year 2027. “With a court date years in the future like this, many will just disappear,” she said.

  Streaming Across the Border

  According to Ms. Buckingham, “nearly everybody who comes who comes across the border has a wristband that indicates which cartel they belong to.”

  “Everyone who comes across is owned by somebody, so you’re basically seeing the largest increase in slavery that this world has ever seen,” she said. “Many are now obligated to the drug trade or the human trafficking trade because the cartels are controlling who crosses the border.”

  “With enough fentanyl across our border to kill every man, woman, and child in the United States, this has to stop,” she said, adding that “Texas is doing everything we possibly can to get this stopped.”

  One of the things Texas is doing is “creating a criminal record for the people who come across and break our laws so that they’re easily identifiable,” she said. “Because of [President Joe] Biden’s policies, what we’re seeing right now is a lot of criminals who simply get turned back around to their country to turn around again and walk back across the border.”

  “While Texas is fighting on every front and will continue to fight,” she said, “people need to seriously think about who they’re voting for in Congress and for president, because we need people who will enforce policies that stop illegal immigration, and the trafficking of drugs and people into our great country.”

  In September alone, Border Patrol encountered a record 269,735 migrants at the border; 218,763 of whom were attempting to illegally enter the country. In fiscal year 2023, a record 169 people on the terror watch list were apprehended, and more than 25,500 pounds of fentanyl was seized at the border.

  The White House and Department of Homeland Security did not return requests for comment.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 21:40

• Salesforce CEO Demands Return Of 'Law And Order' Across Crime-Ridden San Fran
  Salesforce CEO Demands Return Of ‘Law And Order’ Across Crime-Ridden San Fran

  Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce, San Francisco’s largest employer and anchor tenant in the city’s tallest skyscraper, urged progressive leaders in City Hall on Sunday night to reverse course on defunding the police. He advocates to “refund” the police force after defunding policies sparked a metro area-wide surge in violent crime. This call from Benioff, alongside others, suggests a growing separation from previously ‘woke’ policies. However, these calls to reverse disastrous progressive policies could be too late. 

  On Sunday evening, Benioff posted on X, “San Francisco must REFUND the Police not continue to DEFUND the Police. Our SFPD and Sheriffs are the key to a safe and clean San Francisco every day. SFPD must be returned to >2000 officers within 18 months from <1400 where it has been allowed to fall, and the police force must be fully empowered to enforce ALL laws." 

  He continued, “Compensate ALL city employees to recruit the best officers in the country. Reward and recognize them for hiring the absolute best now. San Francisco Police Academy must be expanded for hiring surge. All laws must be fully enforced. Police must be fully funded. The DA’s office must prosecute to the fullest level of the law. Return Safety to retail business and residential properties NOW. DISTRICT BY DISTRICT – Police officers need to be enabled to protect assigned districts and rewarded & measured for their effectiveness. Metrics for effectiveness need to be clearly defined and transparent. Let’s institute a Neighborhood Policing model in San Francisco, safety District by District. We can and must do more now with our police force.”

  San Francisco must REFUND the Police not continue to DEFUND the Police. Our SFPD and Sheriffs are the key to a safe and clean San Francisco every day. SFPD must be returned to >2000 officers within 18 months from <1400 where it has been allowed to fall, and the police force…

  — Marc Benioff (@Benioff) October 29, 2023

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  And, of course, Elon Musk, whose X headquarters is based in the crime-ridden metro area, responded to Benioff’s post: “We must also grant law enforcement officers the respect and honor that they deserve. Every profession has flawed individuals, but it was deeply wrong to condemn all police officers, after they risked their lives to keep us safe, for the sins of the few.”

  We must also grant law enforcement officers the respect and honor that they deserve.

  Every profession has flawed individuals, but it was deeply wrong to condemn all police officers, after they risked their lives to keep us safe, for the sins of the few.

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 30, 2023

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  Musk has warned San Francisco’s downtown feels “post-apocalyptic” … 

  San Francisco is on track to set a record for fatal drug overdoses this year, and the intersection of Seventh and Market Streets at U.N. Plaza has become an epicenter of the drug crisis—and a physical representation of the political battles playing out at City Hall. (1/12) pic.twitter.com/YV6DiPuj9x

  — The San Francisco Standard (@sfstandard) October 27, 2023

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  The homeless man who had been advertising free fentanyl across from a San Francisco public school has been charged with battery and creating a public nuisance, according to District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. https://t.co/fPlsMk7oUd

  — San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) October 27, 2023

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  A woman bathing herself by using a fire hydrant in San Francisco. Her private parts exposed. San Francisco is so disgusting, we need new mayor and police chief. Incompetent leadership led to this. pic.twitter.com/JFU7tg3DJw

  — Asian Crime Report (@activeasian) October 29, 2023

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  While the #USA government spends billions on wars, #SanFrancisco poor have organised themselves into crime rings to survive. pic.twitter.com/5HH5h8Dr58

  — Kamal Perera (@KamalPe69257601) October 28, 2023

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  Microsoft to vacate 50,000 square feet of office space in San Francisco as tech-xodus continues amid drug and crime ‘doom loop’https://t.co/WVtpgj0Wxs

  — Stalingrad & Poorski (@Stalingrad_Poor) October 24, 2023

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  I am a self taught citizen journalist who has been documenting the chaos happening in San Francisco for years. My X account is literally a database of information. A living testimony of survival. pic.twitter.com/0srJhMB52j

  — World Peace Movement (@darren_stallcup) October 25, 2023

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  The backfiring of policies recently forced Democrat Mayor London Breed to reverse course on her defunding the police initiatives. She has requested more funding for police, a move to attract businesses back to the downtown area.

  Benioff has previously warned about the metro area’s collapsing commercial real estate market, warning that the downtown area is “never going back to the way it was” in pre-Covid times.

  No more kneeling for the mayor?

  

  … and across the nation, who could’ve seen this coming? 

  Blue cities face severe police shortages as violent crime explodes. 

  X users responded to Benioff’s post: 

  Where were you 2 years ago on this? How obvious.

  — Tbarton (@SLMHTEXA) October 30, 2023

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  Seeing major CEOs like @Benioff do a complete 180° on their prior support of Black Lives Matter criminal justice reforms is very encouraging. It was never racist to punish repeat violent offenders, sometimes officers have to use force as many offenders are extremely violent.

  — Adam Lowisz (@AdamLowisz) October 30, 2023

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  The woke are awaking. How much money did SalesForce donate to BLM?

  — Joel Wolh (@joelwolh) October 30, 2023

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  Give @Benioff credit. He backed mistakes, & now he is fixing things.
  –
  Good

  — Mark Simon (@MarkSimonHK) October 30, 2023

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  … 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 21:20

• Biden Throws $45 Billion In Federal Funds To Convert Offices Into Homes
  Biden Throws $45 Billion In Federal Funds To Convert Offices Into Homes

  Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

  Questions abound. Assume you can convert offices into homes, who wants to live in them? Is a tear-down cheaper?

  

  To ease the housing crisis, White House Opens $45 Billion in Federal Funds to Convert Offices Into Homes

  Taking aim at the nation’s housing crisis, the White House kicked off a multiagency push on Friday to help real-estate developers convert more office buildings emptied by the pandemic into affordable housing.

  The initiative aims to harness $35 billion in low-cost loans already available through the Transportation Department to fund housing developments near transit hubs, folding the initiative into the Biden administration’s clean-energy push.

  It also opens up additional funding sources and tax incentives and offers a new guide to 20 federal programs that developers can tap and that offers technical assistance in what can be tricky and expensive conversions.

  A third part of the program will see the federal government draw up a public list of buildings it owns that could be made available for sale to help bolster development.

  The federal government owns about 1,500 office buildings nationally and had leases on almost 200 million square feet of additional space as of April, according to Barclays analysts, who said in a recent report that much of that office space was underused.

  Questions Abound

  Also consider San Francisco’s push to turn office buildings into homes hinges on this simple idea

  “Hope is not a strategy,” said Nick Romito, co-founder and CEO of VTS, a leasing and asset-management data company. “The hope that if you convert it, they will come —well, a lot depends on where that building is.”

  While New York City’s downtown financial district is home to a number of successful office-to-residential conversions, it also takes a vibrant neighborhood, with bustling cafés, grocery stores and more.

  “That is not the same for San Francisco,” Romito said. “The infrastructure and the cost of converting a building — that’s part of it,” he said. “But I’d be more concerned about, even if you can convert it, who wants to live there?”

  “What’s cheaper?” Romito said. “Is it cheaper to add amenities in maybe a zombie building, add a floor or two, to create a better experience? Or is it cheaper to knock the entire building down, rebuild something else, and pray to God you lease it?”

  Warren Wachsberger, CEO of Aecom Capital, a subsidiary of Aecom ACM, said revamping old office buildings isn’t that simple. “Less than 1% of all apartment units underway, being built nationally, are office-to-residential conversions, despite everybody’s love affair with them,” Wachsberger said, speaking from Los Angeles.

  “Many buildings probably won’t work,” Wachsberger said, observing that thick, concrete office floorplates often need to be drilled through and plumbing and heating systems overhauled, with local building codes adding to the headache.

  “It’s a lot easier and cheaper to demolish it and start over from scratch,” he said. “That means buying buildings essentially at the cost of land.”

  Wachsberger said hopes for an expansion of an office-to-residential conversion effort in Los Angeles in the 2000s likely hinge on incentives for developers and the buildings being in places where people wanted to work, eat, live and shop. “Until that’s able to come back, it’s difficult to create the vibrancy that was there prepandemic,” he said.

  Simple Idea

  I had to read that article twice to find the simple idea mentioned in the headline. The article never really explained. But I believe It’s in that last paragraph above: Incentives and free money from governments.

  With enough subsidies, developers will try nearly anything. Then when the projects fail, the developers ask for more money.

  Clean Energy Question

  What the heck does this have to do with clean energy?

  The answer is clearly nothing. Nonetheless, $45 billion is siphoned from the Biden administration’s clean-energy push.

  The government has 1,500 office buildings nationally and leases on almost 200 million square feet of additional space that it does not need. Instead of canceling leases and selling the real estate, it’s going to convert them into clean energy spaces.

  Biden’s Green Energy Inflation Reduction Act Needs a Big Bailout Already

  Please note Biden’s Green Energy Inflation Reduction Act Needs a Big Bailout Already

  Surprise, surprise. Subsidies were not enough to make Biden’s energy projects profitable.

  The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for green energy, yet now renewable developers want utility rate-payers in New York and other states to bail them out.

  According to a report late last month by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (Nyserda), large offshore wind developers are asking for an average 48% price adjustment in their contracts to cover rising costs. The Alliance for Clean Energy NY is also requesting an average 64% price increase on 86 solar and wind projects.

  What Will This Office to Apartment Conversion Ultimately Cost?

  Supposedly, this office conversion idea will only cost $45 billion.

  I assume it will eventually cost $450 billion minimum by the time Biden finishes. He is guaranteed to add subsidized low income, clean energy, free electric heat, and free child care into the mix.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 21:00

• Watch: COVID Authoritarians Want Forgiveness – Here's Why They Don't Deserve It
  Watch: COVID Authoritarians Want Forgiveness – Here’s Why They Don’t Deserve It

  Do authoritarians deserve a chance to be treated with grace and forgiveness?  The question is circulating regularly these days in the wake of the complete failure of covid pandemic response and the victory of the anti-mandate movement.  The answer relies on a series of counter-questions based on logic and predictable outcomes.  It’s the kind of discussion that covid cultists don’t want to have; they just want everyone to forget because they now have something to lose politically  

  Scott Galloway, Professor at the NYU Stern School of Business and member of the World Economic Forum’s “Global Leaders Of Tomorrow” list, is one of the cultists that now wants to be given a free pass as he debates the issue on Real Time with Bill Maher.

  “I was on the board of my kids’ school during COVID. I wanted a harsher lockdown policy. In retrospect: I was wrong. The damage to kids of keeping them out of school longer was greater than the risk. But here’s the bottom line: We were doing our best. But let’s give a little… pic.twitter.com/8Vt2NujNKl

  — Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) October 28, 2023

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  The question that we need to ask Galloway is:  How forgiving was he when confronted with people who opposed his authoritarianism?  Galloway was rabidly pro-mandate.  He consistently called for harsher punishments for people refusing to comply and he demanded that the unvaccinated be treated as second tier citizens banned from places of business.  As he argued in his blog titled ‘Half Of America Has Its Head Up Its Ass. It’s Time For A Vaccine Mandate’:

  “Enough already. Federal law should require any citizen who wants to cash a government check, use public transport, or enter a place of business to show proof of vaccination…”

  Galloway cited the ever present inflated CDC data on covid deaths in America as the justification for his authoritarian position.  Of course, data was available not long after the spread of covid indicating that the Infection Fatality Rate of the virus was a tiny 0.23% and that 99.8% of the population (including the unvaccinated) had nothing to fear.  Not only that, but the CDC has recently and quietly published information showing that around 95% of people who died with covid also had one or more comorbidities and 75% had at least four – Meaning, if you did not have multiple comorbidities your chances of dying from covid were incredibly small.   

  Do Galloway and those like him deserve a clean slate?  No, they don’t, and here’s why…

  No Apologies

  We hear many covid authoritarians talk about forgiveness but very few of them actually apologize for their behavior.  Galloway calls for “grace”, perhaps trying to appeal to the Christian notion of “turning the other cheek.”  He admits he was wrong on the mandates (because the data forces him to), but he doesn’t actually apologize for his behavior.  In fact, he excuses his behavior and the behavior of leftist politicians as them doing the best they could do given the imperfect information they had at the time.  This is a common tactic of misdirection.

  

  As noted above, within months of covid becoming active in the US, the data was already available showing that the virus was not a legitimate threat.  So the claim that their information was “the best they had at the time” does not hold water.  There was more than enough evidence to warrant opposition to unconstitutional policies (frankly, even if covid had been more deadly it doesn’t justify violations of the Bill of Rights).  Millions of Americans tried to explain the truth to those panicking over covid, and they chose not to listen, calling us “selfish conspiracy theorists.” 

  But the greatest trespasses were among those analysts and “influencers” who used covid as an opportunity for political gain, knowing that there was information that debunked government and media spin.  The worst people are those that have no intention of making amends because they plan to try again.  People who do wrong and refuse to give a legitimate apology are the kinds of people that are likely to commit similar offenses in the future.   

  Mad With Power

  The covidians were primarily from the left side of the political spectrum and wherever leftists were most concentrated is where the most egregious violations of liberty took place.  The political left went absolutely mad with power, with a large number of Democrats supporting Orwellian controls to punish people refusing to submit to the mandates. 

  

  There were calls to fine the unvaccinated, imprison people who question the vaccine, put the vaccinated on home lockdown and even take away their children.  In some states, like New York, there was active legislation put forward to create detention facilities for people that did not comply (covid camps).  That is some serious Stalinist behavior and we are still waiting for it to be addressed and for certain political leaders to be punished.  

  As the old saying goes: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”  We have now seen the character of the political left.  We have seen the character of people like Galloway, and they have been found untrustworthy.

  It Can And Will Happen Again

  The covid event was really a litmus test for authoritarian tendencies in the US.  At least half the public failed that test miserably.  We may not see another pandemic agenda in our lifetimes, but that doesn’t really matter.  There will be many other opportunities in the future for ignorant people and sociopathic people to act out on their darker impulses.  It is important to make a note of how the individuals around us behave when they think it’s safe to be evil, and we must remember who they are.  These are not people that should be given “grace” or trust down the road when the next crisis strikes; they have shown themselves to be unworthy of that.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 20:40

• "The Pessimistic Tone On Conference Calls Is Striking": US Stocks Are Facing Falling Profit Forecasts
  “The Pessimistic Tone On Conference Calls Is Striking”: US Stocks Are Facing Falling Profit Forecasts

  By Sagarika Jaisanghani, Bloomberg markets live reporter and analyst

  A deteriorating outlook for corporate earnings offers little support for the S&P 500 reeling from its worst October since 2018.

  While data from Bloomberg Intelligence show US firms are on pace to report a surprise increase in third-quarter earnings, forecasts for future quarters have been marked down as companies warned of tepid demand and an uncertain macroeconomic outlook. Deutsche Bank Group AG said analysts’ estimates for the fourth quarter have been cut by a “more than typical” 1.9% since the start of the reporting season.

  Profit estimates for the next 12 months for the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index — which weights companies equally rather than by market value, a move that pares the influence of the technology behemoths — have come down 1.8% since the start of October, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

  

  “The pessimistic tone” on post-earnings conference calls “is striking,” said Lori Calvasina, head of US equity strategy at RBC Capital Markets LLC. The magnitude of downward revisions in 2023 and 2024 forecasts means the season so far hasn’t been “enough to get the US equity market out of its recent malaise,” she wrote in a note.

  US stocks have slumped this month in their worst October performance in six years, hurt by a surge in bond yields and renewed geopolitical concerns. A disappointing showing from technology giants including Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. has also weighed on sentiment. The S&P 500 confirmed a technical correction on Friday after slumping 10% from its July peak.

  Morgan Stanley strategist Michael Wilson — among the most bearish voices on Wall Street — said profit expectations are still “too high for the fourth quarter and 2024, even in an economy that’s performing well.” The strategist said the odds of a rally in the fourth quarter were much lower given “narrowing breadth, cautious factor leadership, falling earnings revisions and fading consumer and business confidence.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 20:20

• 60 Million Americans Under Freeze Alerts As Powerful Arctic Blast Crashes Temps Nationwide
  60 Million Americans Under Freeze Alerts As Powerful Arctic Blast Crashes Temps Nationwide

  As highlighted in last week’s article (view here), temperatures across the Lower 48 are diving as a cold blast pours in from Canada. These bone-chilling temperatures come just in time for Halloween. About 250 million Americans are feeling below-average temperatures, while 60 million will be under frost or freeze alerts.

  According to private weather forecaster BAMWX, the cold air invasion has already begun:

  A lot of record cold lows on the table to start out November. 20s all the way down to Central Texas with temperatures 15 – 20F below normal.

  

  We first called for a major Halloween cold front 2 weeks ago and it is here. 

  

  Fox Weather said the cold blast will affect more than “250 million Americans from coast to coast,” while 60 million Americans, from Big Bend of Texas to the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, will be under cold weather alerts. 

  

  Meteorologist Beau Dodson said the worst cold weather will be on Wednesday morning. He showed on a map where “new record low temperatures will be possible.” 

  

   “Temperatures plunged across Texas now more than 30°F below normal for Oct 30th. Overall the Lower 48 is an astounding 13°F below normal,” meteorologist Ryan Maue said. 

  

  This is wild! 

  

  … and this. 

  You won’t hear it from our political leaders or the mainstream media, but 2023 has been a year where record cold weather temperatures have fallen on every continent, says David Craig. https://t.co/jsmVqLJTN3

  — Toby Young (@toadmeister) October 29, 2023

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  Bloomberg data shows the cold shot will be short-lived. However, Lower 48 temps are expected to drop again by mid-month. 

  

  Recall it feels like just yesterday when corporate media was pushing climate misinformation by attempting to persuade the public that Earth was recklessly spiraling into a boiling crisis. 

  

  Also, remember, NOAA had to run far away from lying corporate media about the “hottest day ever.” At the same time, 1,600 scientists around the world signed a declaration declaring there was no climate emergency. 

  We penned several notes that an El Nino winter could leave some parts of the Lower 48 with a cold and snowy winter: 

  • The ‘Brrr’ Is Coming Back
  • What Does Strong El Niño Mean For Winter Activity Across US?
  • US Meteorologist Warns: “Winter This Year Going To Be Very Different” As El Nino Ramps Up

  New snow forecasts for the Mid-Alantic show a snowy winter from DC to NYC. 

  

  But-but-but corporate media said the Earth is boiling… 

  Time to buy a snowmobile?

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 20:00

• Is Bitcoin Deflationary? And What To Expect Next?
  Is Bitcoin Deflationary? And What To Expect Next?

  Submitted by Seth Chalnick (@seth_oshi),

  Inspired by this ZeroHedge article about the Cantillon Effect, a friend asked me today if I follow how Bitcoin is perceived as “deflationary”?

  This came within the context of a broader discussion about “fiscal dominance” as it relates to market-breaking events imploding in real-time.

  

  My response follows…

  Excellent article explaining the Cantillon effect… i.e. how those closest to the printing presses benefit not just disproportionately, but at the expense of everyone else.

  And who can blame them? Centralization leads to more centralization, as oligopolies across different verticals align incentives to play ball. It is, in fact, probable that most of us complaining today would also quietly accept a multibillion dollar payout, if it “just meant that” innocent citizens halfway around the world would die as a result. Especially if plausible deniability couldn’t directly link it back. Especially if we could justify it as a “greater good”. Not saying we would, but its pretty fucking clear as day that others would… and that this is also how the world has always worked, since arguably before man first harnessed the power to create a surplus.

  But life has a funny way of balancing out. See guillotines, viruses, and schoolyard bully resolution for reference.

  In my opinion, Bitcoin gets misclassified as “deflationary” because people conflate theorical (cyclical?) price declines with an eventual fixed supply of money. Basically they take fiscal (Keynesian) and/or Monetary (Friedman) and/or MMT (idiotic) square peg world views, based on their own malincentives or fears, and rationalize them into round holes screaming FUD (fear/uncertainty/doubt) to justify the status quo and cognitive dissonance.

  Bitcoin will actually continue to be “inflationary” until the year 2140, when the last bitcoin will have been mined.

  That’s 117 years away.

  What Bitcoin actually is… is disinflationary… because people are incentivized to save it rather than spend it, and to make sound investments with it, rather than foolishly levered ones, and to build generational low-time-preference projects, like bridges, universities, infrastructure, cathedrals, artwork, etc… versus spending FIAT now on high-time-preference items, because it will be worth less (worthless?) in the future, such that gambling, fast food, leverage, and immediate gratification get drawn like moths to the lights of extreme celebrity, cancel culture, debauchery, depravity, etc.

  Look at all the historical great civilizations. Most of everything meaningful was built during gold standard periods. Bitcoin is popularly viewed as having an erratic valuation, something that moves quickly and beyond our control. In periods where gold was not messed with it became stable. That is, until its derivatives became corrupted. Which is perhaps a tendency of human nature itself, but not inevitable.

  Bitcoin is currently undergoing an adoption phase, quite similar but opposite to the Cantillon effect. Those in early, who can withstand the wild swings, will benefit disproportionately, outperforming every other asset class. But it will inevitably settle down. And it will subsume or at least check and balance FIAT/CBDC. And it may very well lead to a gold 2.0 standard. Because it is better than gold in every way (except industrial use). And it is notably more defensible than gold from derivative dilution… because gold has no open source distributed ledger.

  Bitcoin is in fact slightly deflationary, in that people can lose their private keys to their bitcoin holdings, and lose it forever, thereby making the rest of the pool more valuable. But this is a small fraction, and will decrease over time, as bitcoin education increases, and custody solutions simplify. This happened a lot in the beginning, because people didn’t know what they were sitting on. Now that its valuable, people either safeguard it or get scared away from it altogether.

  Circling back to why it gets a bad rep as deflationary… the primary reason is because the masters of the universe cannot inflate it. They can’t print it. They can’t finance wars with it. They can’t steal its citizens’ life force with it. They can’t hide behind the justification of “saving the world from depression” during the next financial crises. Case in point… compare 2008 banking crisis with the SBF blowout. 2008 was “fixed” by inflating the bubble of the next generation to grotesque proportions. SBF got exposed for the ponzi he was, and what, 5 months later, we’re within $5k price pre-crisis?

  Everyone talks about the Great Depression and how we “learned our lessons” to avoid it. Compare the Great Depression with the lesser known depression of 1920-1921. 1920 was the single most deflationary year we ever had. It was extremely painful. Shit burned. And then the economy roared back. What we “learned” was how to more efficiently transfer wealth to the rich. That, and to use war as a vehicle for stealing other people’s lives, possessions, and future life force.

  In the end, Bitcoin offers a way to vote with your feet, a parallel system that doesn’t care about your feelings, that will reward those who see its inevitability, that has rules with no rulers, that is incorruptible and beyond the scope of governmental control.

  Personally, as geopolitics implode, markets dislocate, and the financial world starts to break… I have never been more bullish or higher conviction on Bitcoin:

  • The ponzis washed out

  • ETF approval will not only infuse billions in capital, but more importantly, blast a positive feedback loop of credibility onto the world stage

  • The next “Halving” starts in about 6 months, which mathematically cuts the new supply creation by 50% every four years, which if past is prologue, will start the next bull run

  • The next bull run will ramp up in tandem with the next presidential election shit show, and at least two 2nd-tier candidates potentially representing the tying vote are very much pro-bitcoin

  • The FACT that I introduced three years ago… namely that the US Dollar has LOST its world reserve currency status… will slowly, painfully, begrudgingly… make its way into the American zeitgeist… and Bitcoin will be taken seriously as a vehicle for flight to quality. Smart money (i.e. Larry Fink, Blackrock) is already calling it that.

  Now ask yourself… is it more likely:

  • That spending on social services, military, and debt service repayment will increase or decrease?

  • That rates remain high enough for longer (if not higher) or decrease all the way back to 1%, which is what it would take to keep the ponzi alive?

  • That investors will demand more interest, or accept less interest, on the money they loan the US, now that our currency is debasing at an ever faster pace?

  • That other countries will sell or buy US treasuries to insulate themselves from potential sanctions, and while we head into dollar weakness?

  • That investors will buy Bitcoin, a .5t market cap with no sustainable derivative market, or Gold, a 10t market cap with artificial price cap, opaque ledger, and difficulty safeguarding?

  • That a material number of the world’s 50 million millionaires will want at least 1 bitcoin?

    • Which is problematic… because there are only ~19 million bitcoins minted. Guess what happens to the price when they do start competing… in a market where 85% of supply has not changed hands… EVEN DURING THE SBF DEBACLE.

  When the world was down on TikTok and the mob tried to lynch it. Why didn’t they? Because they couldn’t. Try messing around with bitcoin and finding out. When only five people have cell phones, they have cute walky-talkies. When third-world villagers have them, the network changes the world. Get ready for Bitcoin’s network.

  Bitcoin is a vote against Davos. Against the Uniparty. Against the Fed. Against censorship, high-timepreference, depravity, cancel culture, vaccines, the war machine, pronouns, gun control, and everyone who doesn’t surf.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 19:40

• Soros-Backed Activist District Attorney Gets Robbed – Becomes Victim Of Her Own System
  Soros-Backed Activist District Attorney Gets Robbed – Becomes Victim Of Her Own System

  Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price is no stranger to controversy.  She raised eyebrows after she received at least $130,000 from George Soros during her failed 2018 election bid, then won in 2022 on a campaign of radical criminal reforms for the Oakland area.  Her primary position?  That minorities are disproportionately targeted by law enforcement and the criminal court system and that “equity” policies would stop the rising crime rate.

  Price has made headlines in the past for various suspect behaviors and decisions.  Not long after taking office she hired her boyfriend, Antwon Cloird, to her office as a “senior program specialist” with a six-figure income.  She then tried to interfere in a triple-murder-for-hire case, creating a plea deal for the defendant and reducing his sentence down to a maximum of 15 years even though he was eligible for 75 years.  The presiding judge blocked Price’s plea deal, but dropped two charges.  Price accused the judge of bias and said he should no longer be allowed to preside over criminal cases.     

  Pamela Price’s methods have so far been a disaster for the Bay Area.  Skyrocketing crime (41% increase in burglaries and 20% increase in robberies) has led to Alameda residents demanding a recall of the far-left activist DA.  Alameda and the surrounding metro area does not report full violent crime data and will not provide such information to the FBI until 2024-2025.  Violent crime rates are estimated to have risen at least 20%.  Residents say Price’s soft-on-crime antics are making things far worse for the community and costing innocent lives.  

  Ironically, Price has become a victim of her own policies.  The DA had her car broken into and was robbed this week, items including a laptop were taken; the break-in happened in broad daylight at 3pm at 27th Street and Telegraph Avenue, near the Alameda County Family Justice facility.  When Price attempted to call police to investigate the crime, she waited an hour for a response, then was forced to file a report online.  Lack of adequate law enforcement presence and the refusal to prosecute, often based on race, have been cited as the biggest catalysts for the Bay Area’s swift social and economic decline.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 19:20

• The Counterculture Everyone Forgot
  The Counterculture Everyone Forgot

  Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

  Rather than mocking the Counterculture, we would benefit from re-acquiring its values that favored frugality and the ownership of skills, work, enterprise and land.

  Mention the Counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, and the memory stored in popular culture is of drug-dazed, half-naked hippies dancing to rock music. There was a slice of that, to be sure, but there was much more that’s largely been forgotten:

  The Counterculture was primarily a response to the meaningless debt-dependent consumerism that had already taken hold of our society and economy. The core values of the Counterculture Everyone Forgot were:

  1. Learning how to make and repair things oneself

  2. Frugality

  3. Rejection of debt

  I submit that the value of these life precepts will become increasingly visible and necessary. As I’ve explained before, reliance on debt incentivizes the most destructive and unsustainable traits of human nature: choosing the painless, sacrifice-free option of pushing costs into the future, the removal of any incentive to become more productive and efficient, and the optimization of the illusion that the future will painlessly be able to not just service the current mountain of debt but an entire mountain range of debt that will pile up as our borrowing increases.

  The emptiness and meaningless of consumerism has reached levels which are now actively destroying our health, as I laid out in gory detail in The Profitable Destruction of Americans’ Health. The optimization of maximizing profit via monopoly/cartel profiteering, planned obsolescence and shrinflation (getting less while paying more) has stripped products and services of durability, so everything we buy is on a conveyor belt to the Landfill–the perfection of our Waste Is Growth Landfill Economy.

  This conveyor belt of squandered wealth looks sustainable as long as debt can skyrocket at near-zero rates of interest. But those days are gone, never to return. Borrowing more money now costs money, and so long after the unrepairable, low-quality gew-gaw is rotting away in the landfill, the debt used to purchase it lives on, eating the borrower alive.

  The secular bible of the Counterculture was the Whole Earth Catalog, a collection of quality American-manufactured tools and products designed for durability and productive use. In other words, things that aren’t consumed, they’re used to generate value. This concept has largely been lost: human beings are not productive beings, we’re consumers, whose very identity anf existence flows from buying more of everything: I shop, therefore I am.

  The depravity of borrowing money to squander on things of questionable or temporary value was visible 60 years ago, and the depravity will soon consume all those who believe this system is sustainable. What’s the opposite of a depraved dependence on debt to buy stuff of questionable or temporary value? Buying tools with cash and learning how to use them to create value for oneself, one’s household and one’s community, and consume / share / sell what one produces.

  The Counterculture questioned the value of debt and consumerism, and sought to return to the bedrock skills and values of the pre-debt/consumerism era. These included frugality–waste not, want not–in service of saving up and paying cash for everything rather than borrowing money, and in reducing dependence on the exploitive system of labor, where one sells their time (i.e. their life) for the dubious benefits of a wage.

  The favored Counterculture alternative was to own your own work, own your own tools and own your own land. And by “own” we mean “own free and clear,” i.e. zero debt.

  One of the more popular books of the Counterculture era was How to Live on Nothing (1/1/71), an exaggeration of course, but nonetheless it offered a practical guide to spending as little as possible, for it was understood that frugality equals freedom and debt equals servitude.

  In my own work, I’ve strived to offer alternatives to piling up debt / servitude. My book Get a Job, Build a Real Career describes an alternative to accepting a lifetime of debt /servitude for a university degree of questionable value–learn how to accredit yourself.

  My book Self-Reliance in the 21st Century lays out a framework for increasing self-reliance by reducing exposure to systemic fragilities and vulnerabilities, and assembling real-world skills and assets rather than pile up more debt or depending on a government funded by debt.

  Our first house was a micro-house constructed with hand tools as there was no electrical service onsite. Those who know how can do quite a bit with a sharp handsaw and other basic tools. A few years later, when we were 26 years of age, we built a “real house” ourselves, subcontracting the electrical and plumbing asd required by local building codes. We took out a local bank loan for $5,000 to finish the house and paid it off in less than two years. (In today’s money, that’s $17,500.) Then the house was ours, free and clear.

  Frugality in service of saving and paying cash for durable value really is freedom. So is knowing how to do things so you don’t have to pay others to do what you could have done yourself.

  Rather than mocking the Counterculture, we would benefit from re-acquiring its values that favored frugality and self-reliance, the ownership of skills, work, enterprise and land, sharing knowledge with others and a rejection of debt as needless servitude.

  These values don’t disappear with financial success, for they are the bedrock of financial success. Here are my work slippers and my dress slippers, for going out into the world looking my best:

  

  *  *  *

  My new book is now available at a 10% discount ($8.95 ebook, $18 print): Self-Reliance in the 21st Century. Read the first chapter for free (PDF)

  Become a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

  Subscribe to my Substack for free

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 19:00

• Tucker And Farage: Why Aren't Muslim Countries Taking Muslim Refugees?
  Tucker And Farage: Why Aren’t Muslim Countries Taking Muslim Refugees?

  Tucker Carlson sat down with former UK politician Nigel Farage to discuss where refugees from current conflicts in the Middle East should go, considering that there will be “hundreds of thousands, possibly millions” of them in the coming weeks, months and years.

  

  Carlson posited a scenario in which Israel is asked to take in refugees who hate them.

  “So if you were to suggest ‘well why isn’t Israel take them in, it’s their War’, the response you would get would be… ‘that’s insane these people are dangerous.'”

  Likewise, a country with Christian roots such as the United States – which feels it should try to help people, should remember that “the duty of any government its primary duty is the Integrity of its own country and its citizens,” Carlson continued.

  Carlson then observes that there’s a distinct lack of voices calling for countries with booming economies, such as China, to bear the refugee load. Why instead are Christian countries, historically bastions of refuge, the only ones saddled with this “obligation”?

  “It’s interesting that no one ever says well China’s got the fastest-growing economy in the world they have an obligation to take in millions of refugees,” he said.

  Farage noted the UK’s “great history in the UK of taking refugees,” noting that “they did very, very well in Commerce, Finance, the military in our country,” in terms of persecuted groups that the country has taken in throughout history.

  But juxtapose this with the recent waves of refugees, and a disturbing pattern emerges. A significant number of these refugees, especially from regions like Gaza, are potential sympathizers of extremist groups like Hamas. Given the spate of extremist-driven incidents in the West, particularly in the UK, one can’t help but wonder: are Western countries knowingly or unknowingly sowing the seeds of their own societal unrest?

  “So if you take any significant number from Gaza into our country, you will have a significant percentage of Hamas sympathizers and supporters among them,” said Carlson.

  To which Farage replied: “And if anyone should take them Tucker, shouldn’t it be the Egyptians? Shouldn’t it be the Saudis? Shouldn’t it be their co-religionists in that part of the world? And how interesting that Saudi Arabia didn’t take a single person from Syria because they were worried of the impact it would have on Saudi Society. Right. And the same goes for Egypt.”

  Marxism and ‘conservative cowardice.’

  According to Farage, “We have allowed the virus of Marxism to take hold in our countries,” noting how Britain and the United States are being indoctrinated with a toxic blend of guilt over their colonial pasts, allegations of institutional racism, and a host of other divisive narratives. All the while, conservative voices, which could counter this downward spiral, remain silenced by a spineless media establishment.

  “Conservative cowardice through politics and media has led to so very much of this,” he continued.

  Watch:

  Ep. 35 Start another war, send millions more anti-Western refugees to the West. Starting to notice a pattern? pic.twitter.com/93dQaVfbNF

  — Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 30, 2023

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

   

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 18:38

• Biden Policies Delivered $50-$60 Billion To Iran
  Biden Policies Delivered $50-$60 Billion To Iran

  By Adam Andrzejewski of Open the Books Substack

  By making concessions to the Mullahs who operate the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, the Biden Administration has directly or indirectly pumped more than $50 billion into their coffers enabling untold violence and international destabilization, threatening our our allies and implicating our energy supply chain – just as the Administration also instituted unprecedented handcuffs on U.S. energy independence.

  It allowed the sale of Iranian oil worth approximately $40 billion.

  It allowed the sale of electricity to Iraq, bringing in an estimated $10 billion to the regime.

  Most recently, it released another $6 billion to Iran in Iranian cash. Fortunately for all, the current custodian of that cash, Qatar, has agreed to hold onto those payouts for now.

  Despite universal opprobrium and hard sanctions on Iran, Yale University and The Johns Hopkins University have partnered with Iranian entities for research in country since 2013 on the U.S. taxpayer’s dime. Both universities hold massive endowments and don’t need the taxpayer’s help. Furthermore, both were recently criticized for not rebuking the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel.

  KEY BACKGROUND

  Iranian Oil: The Mullahs increased oil exports by about 1.5 million barrels a day during Biden’s presidency according to The Committee to Unleash Prosperity founded by the economists Stephen Moore, Lawrence Kudlow, Arthur Laffer, and Steve Forbes:

  “This has put roughly $40 billion more into the coffers of the Iranian government,” according to the committee’s investigation.

  Loosening Iranian oil sanctions accompanied decline in domestic U.S. oil production by some 700 million barrels a year, thanks to the administrations resolute anti-fossil fuel polices.

  The Wall Street Journal wrote, “there’s no question the U.S. decision to ease enforcement of oil sanctions against Iran has aided Israel’s enemies.”

  By not enforcing oil sanctions, cash flowed to Tehran, which then had billions more to fund Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups.

  The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, reports Iran’s oil production jumped more than ten-percent from 2.6 million barrels a day in April, to 3 million in August.

  Richard Goldberg of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies points out that not enforcing Iranian oil sanctions also helps China: Iran’s oil increased production can’t be accomplished by sanction evasion alone.

  “That number likely reflects a policy of non-enforcement of sanctions,” Goldberg said. “With the administration pursuing so-called ‘de-escalation’ policies with both Iran and China simultaneously, tacitly approving increased Iranian oil exports to China is one way the White House can offer concessions to both regimes.”

  Reuters reported on the increased OPEC output: “Iran, which has been boosting supply despite U.S. sanctions, also pumped more, with output hitting the highest level since 2018.” That’s the year Washington re-imposed sanctions.

  Iranian electricity: Earlier this year, Iraq made another $10 billion in frozen assets available to pay for natural gas that Iraq buys from Iran.

  U.S. sanctions prevent Iraq from paying Iran directly for the gas, and Tehran had cut supplies, plunging already electricity-starved Iraq into blackouts. That lead to an Iraqi plan to barter with Iran, sending its oil as payment for Tehran’s natural gas.

  $6 billion in unfrozen Iranian assets: The Wall Street Journal news side published an exclusive on October 8th, that since August, Iran helped plot the Hamas attack on Israel.

  It’s impossible to miss that this took places as the Biden Administration unfroze $6 billion in disputed Iranian funds.

  In the communique announcing the accord, the U.S. agreed to release five Iranians held in the U.S. and the $6 billion, in exchange for freeing five U.S. citizens illegally held in Tehran. For the Mullahcracy, crime pays — they got their guys and the money.

  The funds at issue had been in South Korea. The money was transferred to Doha, Qatar, along with a fig leaf suggesting they will be expended only for “humanitarian” spending, such as food and medicine. Obviously, $6 billion for food and medicine frees up another $6 billion for terror and violence.

  As The Hill said, “Iran has access to $6 billion that it did not have access to three months ago.”

  Secretary of State Antony Blinken insists the money wasn’t used to attack Israel.

  “Not a single dollar from that account has actually been spent to date,” Blinken said. “It’s very carefully and closely regulated by the Treasury Department to make sure that it’s only used for food, for medicine, for medical equipment.”

  Somehow, the Biden Administration, which is expert in spending other people’s money, simply cannot understand the $6 billion boost it gave to terrorists.

  U.S. federal grants spent in Iran: Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com searched the federal checkbook for direct payments to entities in Iran and found that U.S. agencies have funded American universities doing work in Iran with Iranian institutions.

  It’s unclear how this partnership happens when U.S. sanctions are in place.

  From 2016 to 2021, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gave Johns Hopkins University $538,000 in the form of a mental health research grant for a project the university did in conjunction with Tehran Medical Science University – a subdivision of the Iranian government.

  The description states a contract

  “will cover effort for Dr. Larry Wissow [Johns Hopkins] to have the role of co-pi of the grant. Activities will include weekly meetings with Dr. Mojtaba the other co-pi and with Dr. Sharifi, the leader of the Iranian research team, to oversee the ongoing conduct of the project. Dr. Wissow will have primary responsibility for drafting analysis plans and for creating the de-identified data set that will be deposited with NIMH. He will also participate in drafting and submitting manuscripts developed from the study data.”

  For perspective on its spending, Johns Hopkins’ spokeswoman Jill Rosen pointed to the university’s position of leading the nation in research spending for the 43rd consecutive year, with $3.2 billion spent in FY 2021.

  The National Science Foundation also funded $17,000 for Yale University to do doctoral dissertation research in Iran.

  Both universities have large endowments — $40.7 billion for Yale, and about $8 billion for Johns Hopkins — and Yale, among other Ivy League schools, is being criticized for not rebuking the Hamas invasion of Israel. 

  TROUBLING INTEL

  U.S. officials won’t say that Iran “gave the green light” to Hamas to attack Israel, as reported in The Wall Street Journal, or otherwise was directly involved in the planning or funding of the Oct. 7 attack.

  But U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in an October 10th White House press briefing:

  “Iran is complicit in this attack in a broad sense because they have provided the lion’s share of the funding for the military wing of Hamas, they have provided training, they have provided capabilities, they have provided support, and they have had engagement and contact with Hamas over years and years. And all of that has played a role in contributing to what we have seen.”

  Sullivan continued, “Now, as to the question of whether Iran knew about this attack in advance or helped plan or direct this attack, we do not — as of the moment I’m standing here at the podium — have confirmation of that.”

  According to unclassified U.S. documents,

  ‘‘Iran has historically provided up to $100 million annually in combined support to Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command.’’

  The U.S. knows Iran funds Hamas. Therefore: Freeing up $6 billion in a cash-for-hostages deal, trading $10 billion from Iraq for natural gas, or increasing Iranian oil output and revenues by $40 billion means America gave Iran billions in leeway it could use to empower Hamas, and indeed Iran’s entire terror network, to the detriment of our allies.

  CRUCIAL QUOTE

  ​​ “We know that there were meetings in Syria and in Lebanon with other leaders of the terror armies that surround Israel, so obviously it’s easy to understand that they tried to coordinate,” said Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations. “The proxies of Iran in our region, they tried to be coordinated as much as possible with Iran.”

  ADDITIONAL READING:

  • Biden Pays, Rockets Fly: Administration Sent $1 Billion In Palestinian Aid After Trump’s Freeze | OpenTheBooks.Substack.com | October 17, 2023

  • Biden Reversed Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze To Expand Palestinian Funding—$6.3 Billion Since 1953 | Forbes | Adam Andrzejewski | May 2021

  • U.S. Resumption of Foreign Aid To The Palestinians | Congressional Research Service | April 2021

  • Mortar And Rocket Attacks Against Israel By Date | The Jewish Virtual Library, A Project of AICE | 2001 to the Present

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 18:20

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• The Veil Of Silence Over Excess Deaths
  The Veil Of Silence Over Excess Deaths

  Authored by Sonia Elijah via the Brownstone Institute,

  Around the world, there has been a deafening silence over excess deaths from governments and the mainstream media, who not so long ago were quite fixated on the daily death toll for Covid. 

  

  On October 20th, a 30-minute adjourned debate (20 rejections later) on excess deaths in the UK House of Commons was finally secured by Andrew Bridgen, MP for North West Leicestershire and member of the Reclaim Party. 

  Bridgen began his speech to the sound of erupting cheers from the full, upper public gallery, in stark contrast to the almost empty chamber below. 

  Where were the hundreds of MPs who would normally sit shoulder to shoulder in the chamber? It appears, an increase in deaths of their constituents was not a pressing issue for them on that Friday afternoon. 

  We’ve experienced more excess deaths since July 2021 than in the whole of 2020, unlike the pandemic, however, these deaths are not disproportionately of the old, in other words, the excess deaths are striking down people in the prime of life but no-one seems to care. I fear history will not judge this house kindly. 

  Strikingly, excess deaths have been seen across all age groups, which Bridgen pointed out during his speech.

  The graph below shows the pooled weekly total number of deaths for all ages, from 27 participating countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Germany (Berlin), Germany (Hesse), Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK (England), UK (Northern Ireland), UK (Scotland), and UK (Wales).

  

  According to the British Medical Journal, ‘Excess deaths are calculated as the difference between current numbers of deaths and those in a baseline year, and the excess can differ depending on the baseline and methodology used.’ 

  This important point on how excess can differ depending on the baseline used, was raised by Bridgen.

  ONS Manipulating the Data, Again

  Bridgen explained:

  ‘To understand if there is an ‘excess’ by definition, you need to estimate how many deaths would have been expected. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) used 2015-2019 as a baseline…Unforgivably, the UK ONS (Office for National Statistics) have included deaths in 2021, as part of their baseline calculation for expected deaths- as if there was anything normal about the deaths in 2021- by exaggerating the number of deaths expected, the number of excess deaths can be minimized. 

  Why would the ONS want do that?’

  My early 2022 interview with Norman Fenton, professor of Risk Information Management at Queen Mary, University of London, revealed how the ONS had also been manipulating the data on deaths involving Covid-19 by vaccination status. 

  Fenton coauthored a paper analysing the ONS report: ‘Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England: deaths occurring between 2 January and 24 September 2021.’ 

  The paper concluded that the ONS was guilty of ‘systematic miscategorisation of vaccine status’ and that the COVID-19 vaccines did not reduce all-cause mortality, but rather produced genuine spikes in all-cause mortality shortly after vaccination.

  The Backlog of Unregistered Deaths

  Bridgen went on to highlight a critical failure in how data on deaths are being collected.

  ‘There is a total failure to collect (never mind publish) data on deaths that are referred for investigation to the coroner. Why does this matter? A referral means that it can be many months and given the backlog, many years, before a death is formally registered. Needing to investigate a cause of death is fair enough. Failing to record when the death happened, is not. Because of this problem, we actually have no idea how many people died in 2021, even now. The problem is greatest for the younger age groups, where a higher proportion of deaths are investigated. This data failure is unacceptable.’

  Excess Deaths in the Younger Age Groups

  My investigative report into child deaths following Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine revealed there was an increase in deaths in the 0-14 age group, around the time the mRNA vaccine was authorised in children, 12-15 years of age.

  

  

  

  Bridgen drew attention to the fact that in a judicial review on a decision to vaccinate younger children, the ONS shockingly refused in court to give anonymised details (which they admitted was statistically significant) on the increase in excess deaths observed in the second half of 2021, for young adolescent males. Bridgen made the point that potentially even more excess deaths would have been observed, if those referred to the coroner had been included.

  Excess Deaths Observed in Heavily Vaccinated Countries

  In August 2023, fifteen EU Member States that recorded excess deaths, the highest rates were observed in Ireland (21.1 percent), Malta (16.9 percent), Portugal (12.7 percent) and the Netherlands (9.4 percent), according to Eurostat. It should be noted that, as of January 2023, Portugal had the highest COVID-19 vaccination rate in Europe having administered 272.78 doses per 100 people in the country, while Malta had administered 258.49 doses per 100. 

  Increase in Cardiac Arrests

  Bridgen, brought attention to the fact that Dr Clare Craig, diagnostic pathologist and co-chair of HART, was the first to highlight the increase in cardiac arrest calls after the vaccine rollout in May 2021.

  Bridgen stated:

  ‘Ambulance data for England provides another clue. Ambulance calls for life-threatening emergencies were running at a steady 2,000 calls per day until the vaccine rollout. From then they rose to 2,500 daily, and  calls have stayed at that level since.’

  

  Category 1: An immediate response to a life-threatening condition, such as cardiac or respiratory arrest. 

  The Anomalies of the Pfizer Clinical Trial

  Bridgen shared the fact that:

  Four participants in the vaccine group of the Pfizer trial died from cardiac arrest compared to only one in the placebo group. Overall there were 21 deaths in the vaccine group up to March 2021, compared to 17 in the placebo group. There were serious anomalies about the reporting of deaths in this trial, with the deaths in the vaccine group taking much longer to report than those in the placebo group. That is highly suggestive of a significant bias in what was supposed to be a blinded trial.

  An Israeli study clearly showed an increase in cardiac hospital attendances among 18-39 year olds that correlated with vaccination not covid. 

  Australia, the Perfect Control Group

  Bridgen explained that Australia had almost no covid when vaccines were introduced making it the perfect control group. 

  The state of South Australia had only had 1,000 cases of covid in total across the whole population by December 2021, before omicron arrived. What was the impact of vaccination there? For 15-44 year olds, there were historically around 1,300 emergency cardiac presentations a month. With the vaccine roll-out to the under 50s, this rocketed reaching 2,172 cases in November 2021 in this age group alone, which was 67% more than usual.

  Overall there were 17,900 South Australians who had a cardiac emergency in 2021 compared to 13,250 in 2018, a 35% increase. The vaccine must clearly be the No.1 suspect in this, and it cannot be dismissed as a coincidence. Australian mortality has increased from early 2021 and that increase is due to cardiac deaths.

  How the Regulators Have Failed

  The regulators also missed the fact that in the Pfizer trial the vaccine was made for the trial participants in a highly controlled environment, in stark contrast to the manufacturing process used for the public – which was based on completely different technology. Just over 200 participants were given the same product that was given to the public, but not only was the data from these people never compared to those in the trial for efficacy and safety, but the MHRA has admitted that it dropped the requirement to provide this data. That means there was never a trial on the Pfizer product actually rolled out to the public, and that product has never even been compared to the product that was actually trialled.

  The vaccine mass production processes use vats of Escherichia Coli and presents a risk of contamination with DNA from the bacteria, as well as bacterial cell walls, which can cause dangerous reactions. This is not theoretical; there is now sound evidence that has been replicated by several labs across the world that the mRNA vaccines were contaminated by significant amounts of DNA which far exceeded the usual permissible levels. Given that this DNA is enclosed in a lipid nanoparticle delivery system, it is arguable that even the permissible levels would have been too high. These lipid nanoparticles are known to enter every organ of the body. As well as this potentially causing some of the acute adverse reactions that have been seen, there is a serious risk of this foreign bacterial DNA inserting itself into human DNA. Will anyone investigate? No they won’t.

  The BBC’s Role

  How ironic that the BBC has chosen to remain utterly silent on the issue of excess deaths, despite its ardent daily coverage of the Covid death toll. 

  In regards to vaccine injuries, the BBC took a far more proactive role. The public broadcaster took it upon itself to collaborate with Facebook to take down the online pages of Covid-19 vaccine injury groups, by drawing attention to the fact that these groups used carrot emojis to circumvent Big Tech censors. 

  

  Many viewers of Bridgen’s speech took to social media to draw attention to the fact that the BBC also took it upon itself to plaster the debate with its own captions, in an attempt to contradict what the MP was saying. 

  One caption read: The NHS says COVID-19 vaccines used in the UK are safe and the best protection from getting seriously ill with the disease.

  What is interesting is that Bridgen did not mention vaccines and autism during his debate but this did not stop the BBC from inserting the caption below.

  ‘NHS guidance states vaccines do not cause autism, there is no evidence of a link between MMR vaccine and autism.’

  

  It must be noted that the BBC helms the Trusted News Initiative (an alliance of Big Tech and the mainstream media) set up in 2019 to combat ‘anti-vax misinformation’ in real-time. Therefore, its collaboration with Facebook to censor stories on vaccine harms; the lack of any coverage on excess deaths and the more recent captioning of Bridgen’s speech – shows just how effectively it has executed that role. 

  In Conclusion

  Bridgen closed the debate by stating the following:

  The experimental covid-19 vaccines are not safe and are not effective. Despite there being only limited interest in the Chamber from colleagues—I am very grateful to those who have attended—we can see from the Public Gallery that there is considerable public interest. I implore all Members of the House, those who are present and those who are not, to support calls for a three-hour debate on this important issue. Mr Deputy Speaker, this might be the first debate on excess deaths in our Parliament—indeed, it might be the first debate on excess deaths in the world—but, very sadly, I promise you it will not be the last.

  Republshed from the author’s Substack

  Sonia Elijah has a background in Economics. She’s a former BBC researcher and now works as an investigative journalist.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/30/2023 – 02:00

• Malone: The White House Is Controlled By The Medical-Industrial Complex
  Malone: The White House Is Controlled By The Medical-Industrial Complex

  Authored by Robert Malone via Substack,

  A bit of knowledge about “public health” can be a dangerous thing when financially conflicted partisans control the executive branch…

  

  Last February, the serving White House (WH) Chief of Staff (COS) quietly resigned, and a new one was ushered in. But a comparison of the outgoing and incoming WH Chief of Staff demonstrates striking similarities. A careful reading of the bios of Biden’s two chief of staff picks reveals a disturbing trend. Both choices appear consistent with – first and foremost – the capture of both the “health”-related administrative state and the levers of the Biden administration itself by the pharmaceutical-medical industrial complex.

  Why is this important? Because the WH Chief of Staff is the most critical political appointee of the President, and functionally serves as the head of the Executive Office of the President of the United States in addition to being a cabinet position. The position is widely considered the most important and powerful job in the Executive branch of the US Government, next to the sitting POTUS.

  In the case of a feeble or incapacitated president, the WH Chief of Staff essentially acts in place of the President. Given the ascendency of the power of the Executive Branch and its permanent Administrative State bureaucracy over the judicial and legislative branches, this appointed position functionally runs the country.

  The job entails:

  • “Selecting senior White House staffers and supervising their offices’ activities;

  • Managing and designing the overall structure of the White House staff system;

  • Control the flow of people into the Oval Office;

  • Manage the flow of information to and decisions from the Resolute Desk (with the White House staff secretary);

  • Directing, managing and overseeing all policy development;

  • Protecting the political interests of the president;

  • Negotiating legislation and appropriating funds with United States Congress leaders, Cabinet secretaries, and extra-governmental political groups to implement the president’s agenda; and

  • Advise on any and usually various issues set by the president.

  • The firing of senior staff members.” (wiki)

  The Chief of Staff is essentially given the keys to the White House. This position clearly has much more power than the Vice-president, and yet the job is not only an unelected one, but it is also not confirmed by the Senate.

  Why do I assert that Biden’s choices for WH COS demonstrate the functional capture of the White House by the pharmaceutical-medical industrial complex?

  Biden’s first Chief of Staff was Ron Klain. He was Biden’s Chief of Staff when he was vice-president under Biden. During that time, he initially transitioned from managing the allocation of stimulus funds to becoming the Ebola response coordination under Obama. The Ebola response was an “all-hands” government effort, due to a case of Ebola actually occurring on American soil, and the risk that this particular variant might become able to infect via the respiratory tract (thanks to fearporn primarily promoted by Dr. Osterholm).

  Prior to and after Obama’s presidency, Mr. Klain was the executive vice president for Revolution, an investment firm that invested in several healthcare companies, such as BrainScope, Everyday Health and Extend Health. “Extend Health” is now renamed “One Exchange” and is a leading provider of health care solutions for Medicare-eligible individuals.

  After his time in the Obama White House, Klain also became an external advisor for the Skoll Foundation, whose website lists as a main strategic priority the strengthening of global health systems and presenting pandemics. He held this position until his selection to serve as WH Chief of Staff under Biden.

  Ron Klain has worked at high levels in the Clinton, Obama and now Biden’s White House administration. His time in the White House has been punctuated by stints in the corporate world. Hence, he has see-sawed between government and industry, at the highest levels – leveraging both for power, influence and money. By serving in various White House administrations in unelected positions which do not need confirmation by the Senate, he has avoided having to publicly disclose conflicts of interest.

  During his tenure in Biden’s White House, Klain pursued a vaccine-only strategy and directed White House messaging relating to this policy including that horrible White House statement saying the vaccinated have ‘done the right thing’ and the unvaccinated are ‘looking at a winter of severe illness and death for you and your families’. Adding insult to injury, Klain is the one that asserted that ‘The truth is the truth’ – remember that as Chief of Staff, Klain was directly responsible for “Directing, managing and overseeing all policy development”.

  

  The real “truth” of this whole situation is that the leadership of the Obama Ebola response team from 2014 was brought in to form the core of Biden’s White House operational management team, as documented in a November 2020 Politico article, just a week or two of Biden having “won” the election:

  Klain is one of a number of people Biden has tapped for his administration whose views on battling a health crisis were shaped by what happened in 2014. At an event in Wilmington, Del. last week, Biden highlighted how his just-announced pick for Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, helped combat Ebola and Zika as part of the Obama administration. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, his pick for UN ambassador, “was our top State Department official in charge of Africa policy during the Ebola crisis,” Biden noted. And the former vice president praised Jake Sullivan, who served as his national security adviser during much of the Ebola outbreak, for “helping me develop our Covid-19 strategy”…

  .But many of the public health, communication and government mobilization lessons Klain and his team learned then are not only applicable now; they’re also at the core of Biden’s plan for tackling the pandemic when he takes office in January.

  Homeland Security Director Alejandro Mayorkas worked with Klain from 2001 to 2009 at the O’Melveny law firm. Which is interesting because this where Klain has now returned to the firm as a partner.

  This is how one arm of the government has become completely captured by the pharmaceutical-medical industrial complex via prior “public health emergency” response teams. The clear fact is that the Biden White House was only interested in a vaccine solution, despite the established fact that public health research long ago determined that a vaccine for a rapidly evolving respiratory virus would never succeed. People in the White House must have known this but disregarded that knowledge because either 1) they were corrupted, 2) they were deep in the mass formation psychosis and group think, or 3) they functioned as incompetent useful tools for others.

  I know that I personally spoke with Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s Chief of Staff in 2021 about these issues and had assurances that they would discuss the issues with a vaccine approach with the White House. That was the last I heard from them. This all leads me to believe that the resulting amazingly dysfunctional “public health” response was more about their own interests in making money and expanding political power than in developing an actual response that made sense.

  My experience working in the Ebola response on 2014 re-enforced a very different lesson than that of the Biden White House COVID policies. That is that vaccines would never be the answer to an ongoing outbreak. That medical counter measures must include a response that listens to hands-on physicians tinkering to find medical counter measures. That the generic, FDA approved medicines that have worked in the past for early treatments will work in the future. They are the first line of defense. Furthermore, non-respiratory infectious diseases versus respiratory infectious diseases will be very different from each other, in terms of public health responses. And finally, that the US intelligence community is deeply embedded in the bureaucracy that sets “public health” policies, particularly during infectious disease outbreaks, and works hand-in-glove with Bill Gates, WHO leadership, US State Department, and the giants of the BioPharmaceutical industry. Ron Klain’s White House called for an all-of-government response focused on vaccines and that is what they got (all of government meaning DHS, HHS, DoD, Department of State and CIA/IC). This response was developed and operationalized for Klain by Jeff Zients, who was President Biden’s COVID czar. Which brings us to Klain’s replacement.

  Let’s now focus our attention on the professional biography of the new Chief of Staff, Jeff Zients. Although Zients is purported to not have any “public health experience,” the truth is that he has spent his entire career milking the government out of money for his own medical-industrial complex investment funds. He has worked to continuously spin the revolving door between his businesses in the medical-industrial complex and the government- all to the benefit of public health, of course .

  Zients comes from an extremely wealthy family, who played a pivotal role in “health care services” since the 1990s. His father is known to have “helped” outsource veteran’s healthcare services to private industry way back when.

  Jeff Zients joined The Advisory Board Corp in 1992, where he helped “build a research company focused on “providing best practices research and host[ing] seminars for 2,500 health care industry members, including hospitals, insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and biotech firms.”  The Advisory Board achieved astounding financial success and became one of the “pillars of Washington society”.

  During the presidency of Barack Obama, Zients served as director of the National Economic Council from 2014 to 2017. He was also acting director of the Office of Management and Budget in 2010. He then led the emergency effort to fix Obama care after the troubled launch.

  During his tenure as director of the National Economic Council, Zients’ investment firm, Portfolio Logic – founded in 2003, settled a a multimillion-dollar suit with the Justice Department over allegations that its subsidiary health care firm committed Medicare and Medicaid fraud.  Portfolio Logic LLC was and is an investment firm initially focused on health care and business services. Portfolio Logic’s current valuation is around $182 million and it appears that Portfolio Logic is still privately held by Zients and his family, although information about Portfolio Logic has mostly been scrubbed from the Internet.

  

  While leading the Obamacare (ACA) roll-out, Zients also had an ownership position in PSA Healthcare. Which the Obama White house determined was not a conflict of interest.

  The “American Prospect” writes of Zients:

  Zients was a leader in implementing many of the Obama administration’s most pro-corporate policies. Zients owes his entire public-policy career to his corporate worldview and connections, which have remained strikingly consistent for over a decade—exactly in keeping with his pre-government history.

  In fact, a Fox News article documents that the Wikipedia page for Biden’s chief of staff was scrubbed to hide many of his corporate past dealings. This includes deleting the details in 2020 relating to Zients’ positions at Bain & Company, Portfolio Logic and Facebook. Although his Wiki page now mentions that Zients was CEO of Cranemere up until his leave in 2020, it does not mention that Cranemere Healthcare Services works in the healthcare ecosystem. As he is apparently still on leave from Cranemere, one can assume that he will resume his 1.6 million US Dollar compensation package per year from Cranemere upon leaving the White House.

  Jeffrey Zients’ is considered one of the wealthiest members of the Biden administration, and most of this money was inherited or made while working in the medical-industrial complex, which includes vast profits from the privatization of health-care and billing.

  Zients was part of Biden’s transition team and then started working for the Biden WH as his COVID czar. During this period, he was considered a “special government employee,” and so could continue with his private sector employment and was exempted from filing the public financial disclosures that normal staff must complete. Again, Zients formulated the vaccine only public health policy, including the mandate policies. He alone spoke to major Airline CEOs to insist on vaccine mandates.

  In January 2023, Zients became Biden’s Chief of Staff. Remember, that the position of Chief of Staff is the most important position next to the President. In this capacity, it appears that he has maintained the operational capture by the pharmaceutical-medical industrial complex of the executive branch of government initiated under Obama in the context of enacting and implementing the “Affordable Care Act”, ergo – the White House and President Biden.

  As Biden has proven to be a fragile and weak president, many believe that this has allowed Zients to seize the reins of executive power. Zients past history predicts that he will use this to further his own financial interests, which clearly represent a significant financial conflict of interest.

  The revolving door just doesn’t stop spinning, and it all seems to revolve most efficiently around Zients, the pharmaceutical-medical industrial complex and now future pandemic responses. Talk about the foxes in the hen house!

  

  Do not get distracted, 2024 looms large.

  *  *  *

  Who is Robert Malone is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 23:30

• CVS Stores In DC Resort To Framed Photos Of Toilet Paper
  CVS Stores In DC Resort To Framed Photos Of Toilet Paper

  While Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser tries to restore ‘law and order‘ to the nation’s Capitol, local CVS stores aren’t waiting around – and have resorted to displaying photos of products on their shelves instead of the actual items themselves.

  

  Several tweets have been circulating, showing empty shelves aside from the framed photographs of toilet paper and other items, the National Pulse reports.

  This is from the CVS on H Street in Washington DC.

  Due to the out-of-control theft, they have now put away almost all their items and just have photographs of what is in stock.

  You press the button and the sales associate gets you what you need.

  I was in Barcelona, Spain a few… pic.twitter.com/jOif99w77d

  — Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) October 27, 2023

  Another DC CVS, in Columbia Heights, has placed items in locked cages.

  Another CVS location in D.C.’s Columbia Heights has placed many items behind locked cages, the aisles of empty shelves decorated with profane graffiti. Crime in the American capital has reached crisis levels. Violent crime is up 41 percent over last year – the city has seen a 33 percent increase in homicides and a 70 percent increase in robberies. According to D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department theft is up 21 percent, with 10,673 incidents reported so far in 2023. Motor vehicle theft has seen a 101 percent increase compared to 2022. -National Pulse

  I checked out the Columbia Heights CVS for myself the other weekend. pic.twitter.com/1fMIlIrjV5

  — John Fubka (@JohnFubka) October 26, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttps://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsOver the last month, DC’s homicide rate hit its highest level in 20 years, while auto thefts have more than doubled over the past year.

  “At a time when we’re dealing with historically low staffing levels, these amendments seek to make some common-sense changes recognizing the operational concerns our officers see every day, while also supporting police accountability and public safety,” said Mayor Muriel Bowser, who introduced legislation last week aimed at addressing crime trends, including organized retail thefts.

  During a Congressional hearing on violence two weeks ago, House Republicans criticized a “soft” on crime approach.

  “The crime we are seeing just a few blocks from this building is unprecedented,” said Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who chairs the Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance. 

  “The man who is in charge of prosecuting the criminals has abandoned his responsibilities, that’s Matthew Graves,” Biggs continued, referring to the US Attorney for DC.

  For comparison, here is how other countries are able to live. https://t.co/5ANVszYlC2

  — Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) October 27, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 23:00

• Beijing Gets Going With Nine Weeks Left For 2023
  Beijing Gets Going With Nine Weeks Left For 2023

  By Charlie Zhu and Helen Sun, Bloomberg markets live reporters and strategists

  Three things we learned last week:

  1. China’s top leadership is finally making a concerted effort to get the economy and external relations back on track. A rare move to raise the budget deficit mid-year, along with President Xi Jinping’s unprecedented visit to the central bank, underscored a sense of urgency among policymakers to support growth.

  For starters, a plan to sell 1 trillion yuan ($137 billion) of sovereign debt over the last nine weeks of the year may finally be the bazooka many investors have been asking for earlier.

  Beijing’s diplomatic moves also provided cause for some optimism. Xi sat down with California’s Gavin Newsom, the first time he met a US state governor in more than six years. Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s US trip has also paved the way for a leaders’ meeting next month.

  The world’s two largest economies rebuilt communication lines on the economic and financial front. Two working groups which involve officials from the central banks, treasury departments, securities regulators held their first meetings last week respectively.

  China also invited US officials to a defense forum to be held this week. While thorny issues remain for the two, these developments help Beijing create a more stable geopolitical environment that serves as a precondition to woo back foreign investors.

  The benchmark CSI 300 Index posted the biggest weekly gain in two months. Foreign investors showed up via the northbound stock connect, buying for two consecutive days, the first time since early August.

  

  2. Those are of course not silver bullets for China’s challenges. Among them, an ongoing property crisis comes on top of the list. With former top developer Country Garden Holdings Co. deemed to be in default on a dollar bond, recent weakness in China Vanke Co. and Gemdale Corp.’s notes spurs concerns that the sector is still deep in the doldrums.

  Economic growth may drop below 3% in 2024 if the real-estate slowdown deepens, according to S&P Global Rating. Its base-case scenario is for growth rate to slow to 4.4%, down from Beijing’s targeted 5% this year.

  A series of arrests across industries, an investigation into Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group — the biggest private employer — along with the removal of Li Shangfu as defense minister without explanation, again shook the confidence of foreign companies.

  The recent reaction from market participants to earlier stimulus measures bear resemblance to the Tacitus Trap, Ken Cheung, Mizuho Bank Ltd.’s chief Asia FX strategist, wrote in a note, referring to a political theory where a government fails to win approval even for the right policies.

  While building confidence in the economy will require time, adopting more timely and targeted policies to address socio-economic issues can help mitigate the risk of falling into the trap, and enhance the effectiveness of the economic stimulus, Cheung said.

  3. China’s slowdown and financial risks are rippling through other markets and global businesses. Falling Chinese stocks are placing as much as $71 billion of structured products in South Korea at risk when they mature next year.

  Meanwhile, Standard Chartered Plc’s profit missed estimates in the third quarter, as the lender took a $186 million charge on Chinese real estate and an impairment of $700 million on China Bohai Bank. Nomura Holdings Inc. is overhauling its local business after losses there snowballed.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 22:30

• Hiking 401k Contributions Can Now Boost College Aid, Thanks To FAFSA Change
  Hiking 401k Contributions Can Now Boost College Aid, Thanks To FAFSA Change

  Thanks to new federal rules, boosting your pre-tax contributions to 401(k) and similar retirement plans may now increase your child’s access to federal financial aid. Another change makes grandparent-owned 529 plans more beneficial. 

  Pre-tax contributions are ones that aren’t exposed to current-year federal income taxation, but instead are taxed when withdrawn. They differ from Roth contributions, which are taxed in the current year but can be withdrawn tax-free in your retirement. 

  Until now, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) asked parents to input their pre-tax retirement-plan contributions. The calculations then added that money back to arrive at the parents’ total income, which in turn increased the amount those parents were assumed to have available to pay for college, and thus reduced the child’s eligibility for aid.  

  

  The revised FAFSA form, which is geared toward simpler calculations driven by data on income tax returns, won’t ask you about those retirement contributions, which means the more pre-tax money you add to your 401(k) or similar account, the higher your child’s chance of qualifying for federal handouts. 

  For 2023, the 401(k) maximum is annual contribution $22,500, or $30,000 if you’re 50 or older at the end of the calendar year. Note the FAFSA uses data from two years before the academic year you’re seeking aid for. Thus, 401(k) contributions you make in 2023 will effect the FAFSA math for the 2025-26 school year. 

  Debuting in December the new form will no longer use the term Expected Family Contribution, which caused confusion about its meaning. Instead, the key number will be a formula-driven Student Aid Index. 

  Because there are other numbers at play in the aid calculation, jacking up your contributions doesn’t guarantee you’ll get a FAFSA benefit. “This change will have the biggest impact on middle-income households that make around $100,000 a year,” reports the Wall Street Journal’s Oyin Adedoyin, citing financial advisors. 

  In another wrinkle, 529 plans owned by someone other than a student or the student’s parent won’t be included in the asset calculations, even if the student is the beneficiary. That puts generous grandparents and other relatives in a better position to help out.

  You can even add your own money to that 529 — but you better have high confidence in the account owner’s intentions. You should also ponder a scenario where that third-party 529 owner predeceases your college student. If no successor owner is named, the account might go through probate and end up in the hands of someone who’d prefer using the money to buy a new car.  

  Not all the FAFSA changes will make receiving aid easier:

  • The “sibling discount” — which previously cut applicants a break in situations where two kids are in college simultaneously — is vanishing. 
  • Parents will have to start reporting the value of small businesses they own. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 21:35

• David Hogg Now Blames "White Woman In Suburbs" For Gun Violence
  David Hogg Now Blames “White Woman In Suburbs” For Gun Violence

  Anti-gunner and now ‘Harvard-educated’ David Hogg believes just because he went to an elite university (a university that is sympathetic to Hamas), he is the voice of reason when it comes to the Second Amendment. 

  The confused Gen-Zer’s latest post on X now shifts the blame of gun violence from ‘it’s the gun’ to ‘it’s white women in the suburbs’: 

   “We will never end gun violence until white woman in the suburbs stop voting for the republicans who are endangering our schools and communities by flooding them with guns.” 

  We will never end gun violence until white woman in the suburbs stop voting for the republicans who are endangering our schools and communities by flooding them with guns.

  — David Hogg 🟧 (@davidhogg111) October 27, 2023

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  Hogg is not ready for this conversation, as his bigotry against white women in the suburbs is uncalled for as a recent poll from NYPost, citing Wallet Hub data, shows murder rates in Democratic areas, including Memphis, Tennesse; New Orleans, Louisana; Richmond, Virginia; Washington, DC; and Detroit, Michigan, with soft-on-crime policies, are surging. 

  

  Instead of being sexist, Hogg might want to step foot in an imploding Democrat metro area, and there are many to choose from, such as Detroit and or Baltimore, where failed progressive policies, such as ‘defunding the police’ have descended these metro areas into a collapsing-state. 

  As for those white women in suburbia (in fact, any woman of any race) – they have a God-given right to use reasonable force, including deadly force, to protect their families and themselves against an intruder in their home – especially since the average police response time in suburbia can be ten minutes or more. 

  Just remember, Harvard-elite Hogg, as well as anti-gun groups Giffords and Everytown, some of which are funded by billionaires, want to disarm law-abiding citizens – at a time their Democrat friends across major metro areas are implementing disastrous policies that have sparked crime waves nationwide. 

  

  Hogg’s idiotic comments aren’t fooling average folks:

  let’s look at where the violence is being committed

  — Garand Thumb (@GarandThumb1) October 27, 2023

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  Wow, we just went from “It’s the guns” to “It’s the white women in suburbs”…that escalated quickly.

  — 🎵The Roaming Bandit(s)🎵 (@roamingbandits) October 27, 2023

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  Stupid white women wanting to be allowed to protect themselves. Bigots.

  — The Dank Knight 🦇 (@capeandcowell) October 27, 2023

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  My Mom is a white woman “living in the suburbs” who called the police last year because she saw someone messing around behind her home at night.

  It took 14 minutes for the police to arrive, but she wasn’t scared.

  She sat in her rocking chair with a AR-15 in her lap, ready to…

  — Snoop Bailey (@realsnoopbailey) October 27, 2023

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  Yeah, yeah.

  Everything is women’s fault.

  Find a new tune to play, fella, cos this one is fucking DONE.

  — Billy Bragg (@Serena_Partrick) October 28, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 20:25

• Breakthrough Study 'Infects' Animals With Human Alzheimer’s Through Microbiome
  Breakthrough Study ‘Infects’ Animals With Human Alzheimer’s Through Microbiome

  Authored by Amy Denney via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Researchers recently discovered that they could give young, healthy animals Alzheimer’s disease by transferring the gut microbiome of human subjects with Alzheimer’s into germ-free rats.

  

  Published on Oct. 18 in Brain, the findings solidify that the microbiome—the collection of bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live mostly in the colon—has a role in the development of Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, affecting 6.7 million Americans.

  “This study represents an important step forward in our understanding of the disease, confirming that the makeup of our gut microbiota has a causal role in the development of the disease,” King’s College London neuroscience professor Sandrine Thuret, one of the study’s senior authors, said in a statement.

  Our intestines are home to trillions of these microscopic bugs, which mostly live in symbiosis with the human body. Many factors, including antibiotics, glyphosate, medications, and stress, have been proven to kill beneficial microorganisms and cause an imbalance often referred to as dysbiosis.

  Exactly what causes the microbial shift in people with Alzheimer’s disease is unclear.

  “Bigger picture, it is likely that no one factor, food or lifestyle change will, on its own, reduce the risk of developing cognitive decline as we age,” Percy Griffin, Alzheimer’s Association director of scientific engagement, said in a statement to The Epoch Times.

  “Although this work is intriguing, it is still very preliminary. Larger studies in animal models, and then in humans, are required to make generalizations on what can be done in this area to reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.”

  Transferring Impairments

  There were 69 healthy control subjects and 64 Alzheimer’s patients in the study. Patients with Alzheimer’s had a higher abundance of inflammation-promoting bacteria in fecal samples, and these changes were associated with their cognitive status. Those traits were then found through a battery of behavior tests in only the rats that were given transplants from Alzheimer’s patients.

  “The memory tests we investigated rely on the growth of new nerve cells in the hippocampus region of the brain. We saw that animals with gut bacteria from people with Alzheimer’s produced fewer new nerve cells and had impaired memory,” lead author professor Yvonne Nolan said.

  Alzheimer’s disease’s link to the microbiome has already been explored in recent studies, although it’s been largely unclear whether the disease caused the dysbiosis or if—as this research indicates—alterations in the intestinal community cause symptoms of dementia.

  Mr. Griffin, who holds a doctorate in molecular cell biology from Washington University in St. Louis, noted that studies in rats don’t always indicate that similar findings will occur in the human body. To build credibility, the research needs to be replicated, he said.

  “This is an interesting study that adds to our growing understanding of how the bacteria in the gut may contribute to risk for Alzheimer’s disease. But this study is in rats, and rats are not people,” he said. “That said, these findings demonstrate a possible role for gut bacteria in affecting the areas of the brain that are (a) associated with memory and (b) involved in Alzheimer’s disease.”

  Presymptomatic Identification of Disease

  However, dysregulation of the microbiome could give early insights into disease, which has long been associated with systemic inflammation.

  “Understanding the role of gut microbes during prodromal–or early stage—dementia, before the potential onset of symptoms may open avenues for new therapy development, or even individualized intervention,” Ms. Nolan said. “People with Alzheimer’s are typically diagnosed at or after the onset of cognitive symptoms, which may be too late, at least for current therapeutic approaches.”

  A study in Cell Death and Differentiation in 2019 found that impaired neurogenesis is a biomarker for Alzheimer’s. Neurogenesis is the continued development of neurons that occurs in two parts of the adult brain, including the hippocampus, which is responsible for learning and memory.

  “Remarkably, it has been recently described that neurogenesis persists in cognitively healthy people until the end of life, but drops off dramatically as AD [Alzheimer’s disease] pathology takes hold,” the study reads.

  New research is showing that neurogenesis impairment begins before amyloid-plaque formation, the clumping of protein pieces found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Taken together, neurogenesis and the microbiome offer evidence that suggests that the disease can be identified in stages in which its development could be halted before symptoms set in.

  Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia, which is marked by memory loss and other cognitive disabilities that interfere with daily life. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 1 in 3 people are likely to develop Alzheimer’s.

  “Alzheimer’s is an insidious condition that there is yet no effective treatment for,” Ms. Thuret said. “This collaborative research has laid the groundwork for future research into this area, and my hope is that it will lead to potential advances in therapeutic interventions.”

  What’s Influencing the Microbiome?

  The microbiome is a key area of Alzheimer’s research worldwide due to its vulnerability to lifestyle and environmental factors.

  The Alzheimer’s Association is leading the U.S. POINTER study, which finished recruitment in March and is expected to begin reporting results in 2025. The two-year clinical trial is evaluating whether lifestyle interventions that simultaneously target many risk factors can protect cognitive function in older adults who are at increased risk for cognitive decline.

  “All of our body systems are interconnected, and it is important to understand how they work together to impact the risk and resilience against Alzheimer’s,” Mr. Griffin said. “For ongoing and overall good health, people should speak to their doctors about their digestive health and ways to keep it operating healthfully, such as drinking enough water and eating enough dietary fiber.”

  He’s hopeful that the POINTER study will help determine a sustainable, community-based lifestyle intervention recipe to reduce the risk of developing cognitive decline as we age.

  It’s the kind of work that some organizations have already been doing, even without studies that fill in the blanks of causation with Alzheimer’s disease.

  Dr. Dale Bredesen has been reversing symptoms with a research-based protocol. Sharp Again Naturally offers programs that address nutrition and create a healthy gut microbiome to help participants preserve and improve their brain health.

  The new study is hopeful, according to the board chair of Sharp Again Naturally, Steve Ledvina, who’s also a certified health and wellness coach and the founder of Knowing Alz.

  “This exciting study extends the evidence for the strong connection between the gut microbiome and the brain and suggests poor gut health has a causal role in Alzheimer’s symptoms,” Mr. Ledvina wrote in an email to The Epoch Times. “For individuals, it emphasizes that intentionally maintaining or healing our guts and promoting a healthier gut microbiome is essential to keeping our brains healthy.”

  He said potential causes of poor gut health include excessive sugar or alcohol consumption, antibiotics or other gut-disrupting medicines, and stress.

  “We can promote our gut health by eating prebiotic fiber in vegetables like asparagus and artichoke hearts and probiotics like sauerkraut, kimchi, and low-sugar kombucha,” Mr. Ledvina said.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 19:50

• Gold's About To Have Its Day: Jim Grant Warns No One's Prepared For "Higher Yields For Much, Much, Much Longer"
  Gold’s About To Have Its Day: Jim Grant Warns No One’s Prepared For “Higher Yields For Much, Much, Much Longer”

  Authored by Christoph Gisiger via TheMarket.ch,

  The world is experiencing a historic surge in interest rates. Jim Grant, editor of «Grant’s Interest Rate Observer», believes the turmoil could be the beginning of a multi-decade bear market in bonds.

  In this in-depth interview, he explains what the risks are – and where opportunities arise.

  

  The spike was unexpected: In the US, the yield on 10-year treasuries is rising rapidly toward 5%, the highest level since 2007. From Europe to Japan to Australia, long-term interest rates are also trending upward almost everywhere in the world. There is much speculation about the causes. What is clear, however, is that this shock will not be without consequences.

  «It raises the interesting possibility that we are embarked on a new bond bear market,» says Jim Grant, editor of the iconic investment bulletin «Grant’s Interest Rate Observer». «Bonds are unusual in the world of financial assets as their prices historically tend to trend in generation-length intervals; something we don’t see so much in stocks or commodities», he adds.

  In this in-depth interview with The Market NZZ, which has been lightly edited for length and clarity, the seasoned expert on financial history explains what persistently higher interest rates could mean for investors, what risks are associated with this new environment and where long-term opportunities arise.

  «I think gold ought not to trade as an inflation hedge, but as an investment in monetary disorder of which we surely have enough in the world»: Jim Grant.

  Mr. Grant, «Grant’s Interest Rate Observer» is celebrating its 40th anniversary. What are you currently observing in connection with the massive surge in interest rates that the financial markets are experiencing?

  Well, we certainly have something to observe. It’s been a long time, so I would say a couple of things. One is that the movement from interest rates bordering on nothing to interest rates knocking on the door of normal – that speed of rise – is something we have rarely, if ever, seen before. It’s like a car going from 0 to 60 mph in four seconds. So this is a very rapid and, one might conjecture, a very disruptive rise because it has been so fast.

  How can this turmoil in the bond market be put into historical perspective?

  It raises the interesting possibility that we are embarked on a new bond bear market. Bonds are unusual in the world of financial assets as their prices historically tend to trend in generation-length intervals; something we don’t see so much in stocks or commodities.

  How did such generational cycles play out in the past?

  In the United States, bond yields fell from around the end of the Civil War for 35 years to the end of the 19th century. Then, they rose very gradually for 20 years, whereupon they fell again from around 1921 to 1946. Next, the great post-war bond bear market began, taking yields all the way up to 15% in 1981. After that, the great bond bull market started that took yields down to 1% in 2021. Of course, in Europe and Japan yields on shorter-dated securities fell even well below zero, to the tune of $16 trillion of securities were priced to yield less than nothing.

  What can be derived from this for today’s environment?

  Going back about 150 years, there has been a succession of bond bull and bear markets, each one at least 20 years in length. So perhaps since 2021 we have begun a lengthy excursion to the upside in yields – and if that’s the case, the catch phrase ought to be not «yields for longer», but «yields for much, much, much longer». Then again, nothing says this exercise in pattern recognition necessarily guarantees any future outcome. But for what it is worth, this is one way to frame this most violent and dramatic rise in bond yields.

  Why do you think a new cycle may have begun in the bond market?

  Here’s one way to think about it: In 1981, President Reagan saw that the air traffic controllers’ union was threatening to strike. So he warned them not to strike, arguing it’s against the public and it’s illegal. The air traffic controllers struck anyway, so Reagan fired them all and brought in new ones. That was about the time when interest rates peaked. It was a marker of the times. Back then, we didn’t know that this was the end of a 45-year bond bear market. It was a symbolic end: President Reagan broke this important union. It was a change; it was like commodity prices breaking in 1980.

  And what does this have to do with the current situation?

  Fast forward to today, another President, Joe Biden, goes out to Detroit. He walks the picket line in solidarity with the strikers of the auto union, encouraging them: «Hang in there, you got it!» To me, that is another sign of the times, another kind of omen. So it might just be that we are embarked on rates much, much, much higher for much, much, much longer. And, it might just be that we are embarked on not just a cycle of inflation but an age of inflation.

  So should we expect further tremors in the bond market?

  We’ve just talked about how fast this bond bear market we’re hypothesizing about has been to date. But we haven’t talked about the tempo. For instance, at the beginning of the previous bond bear market in 1964, it took ten years for the yield on long-dated treasuries to go from 2¼% to 3¼%. So nothing says that the current rate of speed is going to continue. As a matter of fact, it can’t continue because otherwise rates would need three digits to write them down. So based on form, on the historical precedent, the tempo is going to be very measured at times. In other words, it might just be that for a certain time, the bond market won’t be very dramatic at all. Yet, it won’t go back to 2%, which will be good for some people, not good for others, but in any case, very different from what we’ve seen over the last four decades.

  What are the consequences of this fundamental change for investments?

  During the course of not one investment career, but rather one and a half investment careers, the whole world has become accustomed to interest rates basically only going in one direction. Of course, there was plenty of volatility along the way, but persistent, if not continuous declines in rates have been the norm for the careers and investment minds of most living human beings. Consequently, expectations are deeply embedded in our collective psyche that rates do one thing, which is to decline. Yet here we are, observing them go up. So it’s no wonder that many people don’t exactly want to believe it. It’s highly irregular, and not at all in the way of our collective experience going back many, many years.

  So how will this change the environment for investment?

  During the great protracted bond bull market beginning in 1981, bonds and stocks could reliably be expected to move inversely from one another: Stocks would go up, bonds down, and vice versa. As a result, bonds provided a nice hedge or cushion to one’s equity exposure. That was the case for a long time, and it was especially attractive when bonds were yielding something. Indeed, long-dated treasuries yielded 14% as recently as 1984, and as much as 10% as recently as 1987. So for many of the past forty years, bonds not only provided a portfolio balance, but also delivered a substantial measure of interest income along the way.

  And today?

  This advantageous arrangement ended, or at least became much less advantageous, during the long period of zero percent rates and QE: Bonds yielded very little and might have provided some cushion, if stocks decline. But there was no great interest income for a long time from one’s bond position. Today however, there is a possibility that bonds and stocks could decline at the same time, as was the case for many years in the last bond bear market, beginning in the late Sixties and continuing into the early Eighties. So correlations could change. The popular 60/40 portfolio could deliver disappointing returns, rather than persistently attractive ones – and that too would be a big change in the investment weather.

  That’s not exactly an uplifting outlook.

  This is not to say that in a time of persistently rising yields, there aren’t some distinct advantages from the saver’s, the long-term investor’s point of view. One of the classics of fixed income investing is a book called «Inside the Yield Book» by Martin Leibowitz and Sidney Homer. It came out at a time when yields were printed and bound in books, before the digital era, the Bloomberg era. Chapter one of the 1972 edition of «Inside the Yield Book» is entitled «Interest on Interest». It describes the arithmetic of a bond investor investing semi-annual coupons at rising rates of interest, pointing out that interest on interest for long periods can contribute as much as one half of the total return. It points out further that in times of rising yields, the yield to maturity is going to be higher than the yield at which you purchased the bond because you will be investing not at the coupon rate, but at ever increasing rates.

  How exactly does this compounding effect work?

  Let’s say, you buy a 6% bond maturing in thirty years. In a bond bull market with continually declining interest rates, you reinvested that 6% coupon in ever lower rates and thereby ever lower returns. So the yield to maturity was not 6%, but something less than that. Now, imagine you purchase that same security today in an environment with persistently, if not continuously rising rates over the next thirty or forty years. The rate you earn on that coupon won’t be 6%. It’s likely to be something higher, and therefore your yield to maturity is going to be better than 6%.

  So a bear market in bonds also brings benefits?

  Indeed. For investors, it opens up another new vista to come: opportunities for interest on interest. Of course, this does not apply to people who need coupon income to pay their rent and buy their groceries. But for savers, for pension funds, for sovereign wealth funds, for people who are in the business of reinvesting their interest income this is a not-disadvantageous thing, this bond bear market. But again, to re-emphasize: This is all hypothetical, I don’t want to sound like some cocksure dogmatic prophet, which I assure you I am not.

  But let’s assume you are correct in your thesis on the future development of interest rates. In principle, do bonds therefore offer an attractive alternative to equities in the portfolio?

  Yes, what is old will be new again. Bonds really earn something besides nothing or less than nothing which was the case for a long time. But as mentioned earlier, it’s going to take some time getting used to it. So far, the stock market pretends not to notice. This seems surprising. As we point out in a recent issue of «Grant’s», the volatility of the bond market is very elevated, whereas the volatility of the stock market is very subdued. So you have to ask yourself: How can complacency reign in junior securities, when anxiety is the mood in the market of senior securities? This doesn’t make intuitive sense.

  Where could the pressure of rising rates cause major problems?

  I suspect that this most sudden and even violent lurch higher in interest rates is going to test financial structures that came into being during the period of very low nominal interest rates. Think of what all came into being, when money was proverbially free from 2010 to 2021: Cryptocurrencies flourished, dito venture capital and private equity. There were no constraints on sovereign debt issuance, so public credit was expanded dramatically. Interest expense seemed to be forever minimal and not worrisome because, after all, rates would never rise. To some degree, the entire world was capitalized on the expectation of extremely low interest rates.

  And how do things look now?

  All that has changed, but not in the expectations yet. I think people are still trying to deal with the shock of the perception of the possibility of much higher rates for a long time. Not every company has had to refinance so far, not every private equity company has met a hostile reception in the credit markets, and not every country has had to face the consequences of a potentially ruinously high national invoice for interest expense. All this is still in the making. So I’m not so quick to believe that this rise in rates, as dramatic as it has been, is going to be solitary or helpful just to savers. No, I think it’s a much, much deeper phenomenon and we’ll learn more about it in the coming fiscal quarters and years. That’s for sure.

  With the crisis facing British pension funds and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, we have already seen two situations with major turmoil. Do you expect further stress in the system?

  Who knows, but the protracted selloff in US treasuries is properly raising concerns that the March regional banking crisis never ended but only took the summer off. All-time low interest rates beguiled, seduced and even coerced people into doing things they would not have done perhaps except for interest rates that were not the product of the marketplace but rather the product of the models of the central bankers of the world. The problem with 4%, 5% and 6% interest rates today is not 4%, 5% and 6% on their face. The real problem is the preceding regime of zero percent rates, and the debt accumulation that those rates fostered and brought into being.

  Then again, interest rates could also fall again. Or to put it another way: What are the specific forces that could foster a long bear market in bonds?

  One cause might be an embedded, what they call, structural inflation. If inflation is part of the times, the spirit of the age, that could be one driver. Another cause could be a deterioration of public credit. For a long time, the United States has been in the privileged position of being the one and only superpower and the issuer of the one and only reserve currency of the world. But in its humanity, America is not so very different from other countries.

  What do you mean by that?

  Essentially, the privilege of consuming much more than you produce is sort of the poisoned chalice gift of a reserve currency. It’s like saying: All right, you can pay your bills in your currency you alone can produce and the world will accept it because of your evident strength and enterprise and power. If Uganda, Britain, Singapore or even Switzerland was given this privilege, I imagine any other country would have done the same. But what we have done in America is that we brought up immense net international debts and very large domestic sovereign debts. So altogether a lot of debts, financed with the dollar which – as we convinced ourselves – is kind of the Coca-Cola or Microsoft of monetary world brands. That’s a very seductive thing to have come to believe.

  So the dollar as the world’s reserve currency is proving to be a curse?

  When we speak about the troubles in public credit, that’s another way of saying there are more bonds on offer than are demanded at prevailing rates of interest. The United States has been downgraded by Standard & Poors’ and by Fitch, and Moody’s maybe would prefer to do the same. America is a Triple-A country in many respects. The Statue of Liberty, the Declaration of Independence, you can’t downgrade those. It’s part of the whole business model of this country, and it’s a pretty good business model. But financially speaking, we have taken advantage of these things; the things that make America truly what it is – not the financial gimmicks that make us more encumbered than we ought to be.

  Nevertheless, the US economy is doing remarkably well by international comparisons. This is despite the fact that virtually everyone had feared that the economy would cool down significantly as a result of rising interest rates.

  I thought that combination of an inverted yield curve and the contraction of monetary growth together were pretty strong signals of a pending recession. So again, it turns out there are no surefire indicators. But obviously, a recession will come at some time, and I think it will have its origins in the unhealthy capital structures caused by the suppression of interest rates and the distortion that suppression has brought about over the course of more than a decade. To me, that’s going to be the proximate cause of the next financial difficulties, being part and parcel of the next recession.

  What is the best way to navigate this environment as a European investor based in Zurich, for example?

  I would think that you would continue to look at companies in a company-by-company way. However, you would not be ignorant of the fact that the spread between the American equity market cap and the market cap of the rest of the world is at a record high. So everyone owns America already, and has been well paid for that. But it’s a big world, and there might be opportunities elsewhere as well as in America.

  Where else do you spot attractive opportunities for investments?

  Here’s a question: When you’re looking around for a currency, if you want to hold money in some form, are you really sure you want to hold it in dollars, or in competing fiat currencies? In this regard, I might have mentioned gold once or twice before in our previous conversations. So I would say to the gnomes of Zurich: Don’t forget what got you here! Don’t turn your little backs on gold. But seriously, I think that gold is going to have its day. It really has not had its day yet, as I see it.

  Gold has experienced a strong surge in recent weeks. What speaks for further gains?

  I think gold ought not to trade as an inflation hedge, but as an investment in monetary disorder of which we surely have enough in the world. So it’s a question of getting people interested in the problem, and then in the solution. If you want to go back and look at the long cycles, it might just be that the fifty odd years since the end of Bretton Woods and the end of the dollar’s convertibility to gold, that that cycle is ending. It might be that paper money in the historians’ retro perspective views will seem to have been a failure and that the world is going to charge back on unconstrained central bank credit creation and unconstrained sovereign borrowing. Maybe, that’s one way to look at it. It’s the way I tend to look at these things: longer-term, historical trends – and fifty years in the history of money is about the blink of an eye.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 18:40

• The Influence Of Influencers Is Rising… Except In China
  The Influence Of Influencers Is Rising… Except In China

  Most people trust the opinion of their social circle when making purchasing decisions.

  But, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, data from Statista Consumer Insights shows many also trust the friendly people who freely share their lives with us on social media and at least feel like our acquaintances: influencers.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Influencers currently yield the biggest power over people’s purchasing decisions in Brazil, China and India, according to the survey which is representative of the countries’ online populations.

  While influencers’ sway has only become larger in Brazil and India, it has recently decreased in China, but stayed on a high level nonetheless.

  In most other countries, the trend to follow influencers’ lead when deciding on a purchase gained traction.

  Denmark and Japan were among the countries paying influencers little mind, even though their following was growing in these nations also.

  Among Europeans, Italians were most “under the influence”, at 24 percent saying in 2023 that they had made a purchase because a celebrity or influencer advertised the product.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 18:05

• Jack Smith's War On Free Speech: AG Garland Should Rein In His Special Counsel
  Jack Smith’s War On Free Speech: AG Garland Should Rein In His Special Counsel

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  Below is my column in The Messenger on the renewed effort of Special Counsel Jack Smith to gag former President Donald Trump.

  At the same time, Judge Arthur Engoron has repeatedly fined Trump for his public statements about the New York fraud case. Engoron declared this week “Anybody can run for president. I am going to protect my staff.”

  There is widespread support for barring attacks on court staff and Trump did attack the Court’s clerk in a prior posting. However, most of his comments have been directed at Engoron and his alleged hostility toward Trump. Where to draw this line is the subject of this column. In my view, criticism of the case, the court, and the prosecutor should be treated as protected speech.

  

  Here is the column:

  In 2016, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion overturning a conviction that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had seemed willing to secure at whatever cost to the rule of law. The case involved the prosecution of former governor Bob McDonnell (R-Va.), and the lead DOJ prosecutor was now-special counsel Jack Smith. The court dismissed the “tawdry tales” offered by the DOJ and declared that it was far more concerned with the damage that Smith was causing to the legal system with his virtually limitless interpretation of criminality.

  The rebuke came to mind this week as Smith continued his unrelenting effort to gag former president Donald Trump before the 2024 election. Some of us have previously denounced the gag order issued by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan as unconstitutional, but even that order was more limited than what Smith had demanded.

  Even the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a leading critic of Trump, has come out against Smith’s efforts as an attack on the First Amendment.

  Undeterred, Smith now wants to reinstate and expand the gag on Trump, citing Trump’s comments about his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who reportedly has been given an immunity deal by Smith. (Meadows’ lawyer disputes those reports.)

  Smith wants to bar Trump from criticizing any witnesses as well as the prosecution and the court. That would include criticisms of former Vice President Mike Pence, currently one of his opponents for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, on his allegations linked to the earlier election.[Update: after this column ran, Pence withdrew from the presidential campaign]

  Of course, gagging Trump will not materially affect the jury pool in the case. The Smith prosecutions are one of the biggest issues in this election. Moreover, it will not protect potential witnesses from withering criticism in the middle of an election that could turn on the public view of these cases.

  Indeed, Smith has insisted on trying Trump before the election but now also wants to prevent him from speaking fully about the case before the election. Trump alone would be gagged, even as other politicians and pundits debate the merits of the cases and the countervailing allegations of the weaponization of the criminal justice system.

  The prior order issued by Judge Chutkan is shockingly vague and overbroad. It bars Trump from “targeting” Smith or his staff or potential witnesses or the “substance of their testimony.” It leaves an undefined and uncertain line as Trump campaigns on what he (and millions of citizens) view as the abuse of the criminal justice system to target President Biden’s main political opponent.

  Smith would add to the scope and ambiguity of the order in his latest motion. He is arguing that the court should “modify the defendant’s conditions of release … by clarifying that the existing condition barring communication with witnesses about the facts of the case includes indirect messages to witnesses made publicly on social media or in speeches.”

  Consider that for a moment: Smith would treat comments about witnesses, such as Meadows or Pence, as an effort to communicate with a witness.

  Thus, Smith continues to litigate with a sense of utter abandon, showing his signature lack of concern for the implications of his legal arguments. It is the type of blind purpose that leads — as it did in the McDonnell case — to a unanimous ruling against you on an otherwise divided Supreme Court.

  Ironically, it calls for a level of self-restraint that the trial court itself failed to show in the past. In sentencing a rioter in 2022, Judge Chutkan said that January 6 defendants “were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man — not to the Constitution.” She added that it was “a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.”

  Despite clearly indicating with her comment that she believed Trump should be jailed (long before he was indicted), Chutkan has refused to recuse herself in this trial.

  The lack of restraint shown by Smith only magnifies the lack of leadership from Attorney General Merrick Garland. The attorney general has repeatedly said that he would give the special counsel full authority and independence. However, that would not ordinarily mean that the attorney general would reduce himself to a mere pedestrian in this process.

  This is an example of the ever-shrinking profile of Garland at the Justice Department. He has often told Congress that his knowledge of controversies is limited to what he has read in press accounts. Even beyond the special counsel’s investigations, he seems as proactive as a ficus plant.

  Yet, this new gag motion presents a far more serious cost to Garland’s passive role at the department. Smith is taking a hatchet to the First Amendment in these motions. In doing so, he is fueling anger over the perception of a weaponized criminal justice system.

  Smith’s deafening attacks on free speech are matched equally by Garland’s utter silence. The attorney general seems to believe that removing himself entirely from these investigations is more important than guaranteeing that his department does not become the enemy of core constitutional rights.

  As Smith seems intent on inviting another unanimous Supreme Court opinion against his department, Garland may want to consider voicing a modicum of concern over the cost to free speech in Smith’s efforts to gag Donald Trump.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 17:30

• Attacks On US Bases In Syria Continue Unhindered After Pentagon's Friday Airstrikes
  Attacks On US Bases In Syria Continue Unhindered After Pentagon’s Friday Airstrikes

  Attacks on US military outposts in Iraq and Syria have continued over the weekend. Al-Mayadeen news and other regional outlets have reported that there have been several attacks by Iran-backed militias on Saturday and Sunday. Russian media has also reported on the fresh attacks, calling recent Pentagon airstrikes on Syria an “unsuccessful bid to deter the militias.”

  A statement by a coalition of Shia paramilitary groups said, “The Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq targeted the American occupation base in Al-Tanf, Syria, with two drones, which directly hit their targets.” They carried out the attack from just across the Iraq border into Syria.

  

  Reports say separately that the al-Shaddadi base in eastern Syria was also hit with two drones, and al-Omar base and oil field was struck. The latter was reportedly attacked a mere hours after the US airstrikes.

  Al-Mayadeen had says ago cited a statement from the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades which said the group is willing to fight “a war of attrition against the enemy that will extend for years.”

  In the early hours of Friday, the US had sent fighter jets to attack multiple locations of Iran-linked paramilitaries in Syria. The Associated Press summarized the action based on US official statements as follows:

  Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Friday that the strikes near Boukamal by F-16 and F-15 fighter aircraft targeted a weapons storage facility and ammunition storage facility used by the IRGC and affiliated groups. “Both facilities were destroyed,” he said. “We currently assess there were no casualties in the strikes.”

  “These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against US personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in the aftermath. 

  “Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them. If attacks by Iran’s proxies against US forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people,” he added. 

  Iraqi Shia militias have released a video of them launching a suicide drone toward a U.S. military base.

  A Palestinian flag is showed on the drone before it is launched.

  More than 20 U.S. soldiers have been wounded in recent attacks on military bases in Syria and Iraq. pic.twitter.com/OB7VHDGsyb

  — Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 28, 2023

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

  But given the rocket and drone attacks have continued into the weekend, it’s become clear that these US strikes didn’t have the desired deterrent effect. 

  US spy plane fights along the eastern Mediterranean, including stepped up drone activity, have increased in relation to Israel’s ongoing ground assault on Gaza.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 16:55

• Cocky Runner Sprints From 172nd To 5th Place After Competing As A Girl
  Cocky Runner Sprints From 172nd To 5th Place After Competing As A Girl

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

  Former cross country runner Teagan Ewings feels a bit bewildered watching her sister, Teanne, run at high school meets.

  

  That’s because Teanne Ewings has to run against a boy who identifies as a girl.

  “When I was in high school, even the thought of a transgender athlete being in my race was not even on my radar,” 21-year-old Teagan Ewings told The Epoch Times.

  But much has changed in school sports.

  Even just a year ago, a 16-year-old cross-country runner from Maine Coast Waldorf School (MCWS), ran as a boy.

  He placed 172nd in the state men’s cross country during his freshman year.

  But then he grew his short hair out and transitioned to women’s cross country. Now, his running times allow him to be considered one of the state’s top girl runners.

  In a meet on Oct. 5, he won the 5K (3.1 mile) race with a time of 18:09, beating the second-place girl, Emma Young, by 66 seconds.

  As of Sept. 26, he ranked fifth in the state among all women and third among the state’s small-school athletes, according to online rankings by Maine track and cross country time website MileSplit.

  Teanne Ewings ranks second overall and second in the state’s division for small-school athletes.

  

  The Epoch Times attempted to contact the male runner, but his Instagram is private. His profile picture shows a crying child, along with the Pride flag and transgender pride flag.

  The Epoch Times contacted MCWS but received no comment by publication time.

  The Maine Principals Association (MPA) emailed The Epoch Times a statement that state law requires them to include him in women’s sports.

  “The Maine Principals’ Association is committed to working with schools across the entire state to ensure that Maine State Law is followed,” the MPA’s statement reads.

  “The state of Maine recently enacted laws that explicitly prohibit ‘Unlawful educational discrimination in schools based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, a physical or mental disability, ancestry, national origin, race, color, or religion.'”

  Teagan Ewings said her sister’s peers are divided about whether a boy who identifies as a girl should participate in women’s cross country.

  Some girls told her sister to “run faster” and said sports are all about having fun, she  said.

  “They just want everyone to have fun, and everybody can do what they want.”

  End of Women’s Sports?

  Other women see the inclusion of boys as the end of women’s sports.

  “There’s just not going to be female sports anymore,” Teagan Ewings said. “It’ll just be male sports and then males pretending to be females.”

  Local parent Cathy Ross has concerns about this, too.

  High school boys have far better running times than women, she said.

  “There’s a handful of us moms who have seen our daughters work like crazy,” she said. “These are kids who run over 40 miles a week. Sometimes, at the height of their season, they give up their Saturdays, so that they can travel two-and-a-half hours to a meet far away.”

  After all of the effort and sacrifice, losing to a man is “crushing” for the girls, Ms. Ross said.

  

  Currently, the young male beats the girls he runs against by two minutes. He’s several inches taller than the girls he competes with.

  Scientific studies show male hips give men a more efficient running stride than women. Testosterone also allows men to build more muscle than women.

  Basically, biology means that he has a larger heart, more leg muscle, larger lungs, and stronger bones than the girls he competes with, Ms. Ross said.

  Allowing him into women’s sports amounts to Maine giving a special privilege to a man over every girl in the state, she said.

  “I don’t understand why the gender identity of one individual, and trying to validate that, is seen as far more important than the hard work and the efforts and the need to compete fairly and honestly and to achieve success for girls,” Ms. Ross said.

  More Male Physical Advantages

  Katherine Collins has a son and daughter in cross country, she said.

  The female-identifying runner “is going to get faster because he’s getting older,” she said. “All he did was grow his hair out and put braids in his hair. I mean, that’s all he did. He didn’t have to prove anything” to be allowed to compete as a girl.

  No matter how much training they endure and dedication girls bring, it’s not enough to beat the testosterone advantage, Ms. Collins said.

  “The fastest boys’ 5K time in Maine is more than two minutes faster than the fastest girls,” she said. “There’s just no comparison.”

  Friends have confessed to her that their daughters don’t want to compete anymore because they know they’ll lose, she said.

  And she’s frustrated hearing “people say, ‘Oh, well, they should just work harder,'” she said. “It’s impossible. It’s physiologically impossible.”

  

  Letting men enter women’s sports likely will cost a generation of children their shot at competitive athletics, said Marshi Smith, a former NCAA women’s swimming champion,

  “How many girls are going to be sacrificed in the meantime?” she asked rhetorically during an interview with The Epoch Times.

  “My daughter is 7 right now. In 10 years, that will be her entire childhood athletic career.”

  For some female students in Maine, the male runner’s victories will rob them of accolades that could affect their college applications, Ms. Collins said.

  “If you’re applying to college and you say that you’re nationally ranked or a state champion, that is a big deal,” said Ms. Collins.

  So his inclusion is a “slap in the face” to female athletes, Ms. Collins said.

  “The MPA doesn’t care about girls,” she said. “They don’t care about women.”

  Rules Allowing Men Versus Women

  Parents in Maine opposed to allowing a boy to compete as a girl have few options to change the situation, Maine parental rights advocate Shawn McBreairty told The Epoch Times.

  But parents can file complaints with their local school district citing Title IX, the landmark U.S. law meant to bring equity between men and women in most facets of education, Mr. McBreairty suggested.

  If that doesn’t change things, they can consider filing lawsuits, he said.

  Although the boy didn’t crack the top 100 of Maine’s male runners, he’s one of the best “female” runners in the state, Mr. McBreairty said.

  The MPA’s handbook includes the word “gender” 39 times and the word “transgender” nine times.

  “The MPA supports student-athletes regardless of their gender identity or expression,” the handbook reads. “The MPA also recognizes that high school sports teams have traditionally been binary [single sex] and believes that it is important to continue to offer single-sex interscholastic athletic teams in order to ensure equal athletic opportunities for girls.”

  The handbook also states that “most high school-aged boys have a distinct athletic advantage” over girls.

  The MPA’s Gender Identity Equity Committee (GIE) can decline a request for cross-sex competition—when a boy who identifies as a girl asks to compete with girls—if members are convinced the student is only pretending to be transgender, the handbook reads.

  The GIE committee makes this decision under a long list of criteria.

  Some criteria involve physical traits like height, weight, previous athletic performance, and whether a student has passed puberty.

  Other criteria include whether the student has consistently identified as transgender, whether a student has already changed their gender identity in school records, and what sports the student plans to do.

  However, no test can determine if someone is transgender because “gender identity is an internal identification and experience,” according to guidelines from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).

  The MPA handbook also states that the committee can decline a student’s request to play on opposite-sex teams if the student would gain an “unfair athletic advantage or pose an unacceptable risk of physical injury to other student-athletes.”

  Parents wonder how the current case, in which one participant jumped more than 100 places up in ranking when switching to compete as a girl, can be within the bounds of fairness by the MPA’s standards.

  “They’re acknowledging that boys have an athletic advantage,” Ms. Ross said.

  “Basically, they don’t intend to do anything about it.“

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 16:20

• Wider War Will Bring Inevitable Attempts At Martial Law In America
  Wider War Will Bring Inevitable Attempts At Martial Law In America

  Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

  Not long ago at the height of fear over the global pandemic the US underwent a change that many people argued would never happen. For years I have heard people say that authoritarian controls in America are “tinfoil hat conspiracy theory” and doom mongering – All the prepping, all the talk of community organizing, all the guns and the gear and the training were for nothing.

  Then…the covid agenda hit like a freight train.

  

  Our constitutional rights were no longer set in stone, but mere guidelines that government officials could bend or break in the name of “public health safety.” Laws no longer had to be passed through a series of checks and balances; mandates could be implemented as if they were laws without public oversight and enforced unilaterally.

  There was talk (primarily among Democrats) of severe punishments for people who refused the pointless covid vaccines. They wanted vaccine passports, they wanted prison time for those that spoke publicly against the vax, they wanted people’s jobs taken away, they wanted their children taken away, and there were even plans to build covid detention centers to segregate and lock up “vax deniers.”

  It boggles the mind, but this was serious debate within the US and it was all triggered in the span of a year. Nearly half the country was willing to abandon the Bill of Rights over a virus with a survival rate of 99.8%. The conspiracy theorists were right all along; our freedoms rest on a razor’s edge and preparing to survive and fight for those freedoms is perfectly rational.

  Luckily, the covid agenda failed. The mandates were ultimately blocked by red states and in many rural areas they were barely enforced at all. Biden’s vaccine passport attempt was stopped cold by the Supreme Court, but I have long believed that the Supreme Court made this decision exactly because of the level of public resistance.  They knew if they pressed the issue, civil war was on the table.

  Medical authoritarianism collapsed because conservatives and independents were not onboard and they could not be shamed into compliance.

  But what happens when there is a crisis that DOES scare conservatives? What happens when the political right perceives a true threat? Does freedom then become untenable?

  Viruses frighten progressives (most things frighten progressives), but what frightens conservatives?

  Well, it’s not a hard fast rule, but generally speaking conservatives are most disturbed by the threat of invasion. Ask any conservative if they were worried about covid or worried about the crisis on the southern border during the pandemic and the vast majority of them would say the border without hesitation. Conservatives fear cultural infiltration and co-option, they fear the steady and deliberate whittling away of their American heritage and by extension their freedoms by alien impostors. And, they fear the certain blitzkrieg of the US by organized terrorism should the borders remain open.

  The question is, are they willing to assuage their fears by sacrificing the very freedoms they want to protect?

  In 2001 after 9/11, the conservative movement was a much different animal than it is today. This was pre-Ron Paul and pre-Libertarian influence. The Neo-cons ruled the roost and had far reaching power over public perception, making the push for the dismissal of constitutional rights unprecedented. The Patriot Act mentality was widespread and the thirst for war was palpable. I have seen conservatives stray from the Bill of Rights in the past in the name of fighting against a possible invasion.  I remember this vividly.

  Today, the elements in play are not the same as 2001. Anyone who argues otherwise was likely a child during the 9/11 era or has a skewed understanding of the changes that have taken place among conservatives since those days. The Ron Paul movement changed a lot for the better, but primarily within the conservative constituency. Regular people changed their thinking on what it means to trade liberty for security. The GOP? It’s a pipe dream to think we could ever completely change the GOP.  At least covid proved we have allies at the state and local level

  The real problem is in the old guard of Neo-cons still influencing the path of the Republican Party. These are people who happily ally with Democrats behind the scenes, they have close ties to establishment elites and their loyalty rests in the hands of globalists. If the globalists want war, then the Neo-cons want war and they will do anything to get it, including create it. That’s how it works.

  And this time around I think they’re going to get what they want. The Ukraine event failed to lure Americans into supporting direct intervention (a majority of Americans don’t even support funding for Ukraine), but Israel is another matter. There are very old and tribal implications than pull on the souls of conservatives when it comes to the conflicts in the Middle East. There are religious factors, yes, but I suspect this is overblown by critics who think evangelicals are running the show. This is not reality.

  The Christian mandate has nowhere near the same influence it did back in 2001. In fact, churches have become so weak that they are now being overtaken by LGBT infiltration and trans activism. This never would have been tolerated 20 years ago – They would have tarred and feathered such activists back then. If this sort of thing is being allowed to happen right in our backyards today then you can be damn sure that religion is not the driving force for war overseas.

  No, when it comes to Israel and the implications of war the concern is once again rooted in cultural erasure. To be fair, it’s not a paranoid delusion.  Western culture is in fact being systematically dismantled and mass immigration is a part of that agenda. It’s also true that Islamic ideology is completely incompatible with western beliefs including the concept of individualism. Muslim systems are authoritarian in nature, that is what Sharia Law is.

  So, when conservatives see the potential for the fall of Israel they associate this with the fall of the west, and they will seek to stop it if they can. Beyond Israel is the concern that an invasion of Muslim extremists is already well underway in the US with open border policies becoming the norm under Joe Biden. And here is where the trap is set…

  Martial law in the US would only ever work if a majority of conservatives support it. This is a fact. Without our backing martial law will fail, just as the covid mandates failed. Keep in mind, Biden and his globalist friends have used every possible tactic to make martial law an inevitability. Economic instability and stagflation have created a spike in violent crime and looting. Mass illegal migration is dragging down state welfare systems and is creating a trend of cultural dilution. Open borders have allowed any number of possible foreign hostiles into the US.

  In the midst of war the government desire to control information and public discourse will be at its apex.  However, as we have seen during covid and the Ukraine war, they have not proven effective at accomplishing this.  As long as the internet is in place it does not matter what kind of algorithms Big Tech applies to stifle the truth, the truth still finds a way.  This means that the establishment will have to pursue extreme measures that could only be achieved within a martial law environment.  I see this situation going one of two ways if the current geopolitical trend continues…

  Option A:

  A multi-front war breaks out in the Middle East including nations like Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen. Israel faces serious failure. The US is dragged into the war, or, Israel uses its nuclear arsenal to destroy the resources (including populations) of enemy nations, leading to the possible involvement of China and Russia, and thus, the US is still dragged in.

  Riots and terror attacks become a regular occurrence in the US, not just initiated by Muslim extremist infiltrators but also leftists who have attached themselves to the cause.

  A draft is initiated which conservatives support in the hopes that it will help dissolve the riots. The draft will sink millions of weak, soft zennials (including women) into a bloody quagmire that they have no capacity to adapt to.  Draft protests and riots become the norm, pushing conservatives to support even stricter enforcement.

  Finally, martial law is announced, but the soldiers used on American soil to “protect us” from riots and terrorists will be primarily foreign nationals – Illegal migrants given an easy shot at citizenry if they join the military and put the boot down on dissenters, which they will gladly do because they have no cultural attachment to America or Americans. At this stage the constitution will essentially die.

  Option B:

  The war expands and Israel faces imminent destruction. Biden commits US naval forces to the fight along with ground troops, primarily Special Forces. He then calls for full deployment of US ground forces to the region, but in this scenario the majority of conservatives do not support the action, just as they did not support deployment to Ukraine.

  Biden tries to implement a draft in order to force the momentum. Conservatives refuse to comply or allow their children to be sent to die in a foreign conflict. On this one issue, conservatives and leftists actually agree, even if it is for completely different reasons. The country is then hit with an endless series of terror attacks, each one presented as a reason why the public must back the war. Each attack is cheered by the leftist activists as an act of “decolonization.”

  Conservatives see this ploy for what it is and still refuse to support the war, taking an “America First” position. Why fight overseas when it’s America that’s under duress?

  Biden still attempts martial law. He offers automatic citizenship to illegal immigrants if they serve in the military and uses some of these troops as an occupation presence at home. Leftists don’t want to fight in the Middle East, but they do like to see migrants given easy citizenship and power. They defend the measure – They figure if the migrants fill the ranks of the military maybe they won’t be drafted.

  Conservatives rebel, America enters either balkanization or civil war, or both. Patriots are accused of helping the enemies of the United States and are also labeled terrorists. From this point on, anything could happen.

  I believe the Israeli trigger may be bigger than covid in terms of the potential global disaster and global tyranny that could unfold. If it continues to escalate and turns into a multi-regional conflict the chances of the fight coming back to America are high. Not just in terms of terrorism, but also in terms of civil unrest and war on our doorstep. If we support the war, martial law is a certainty. If we don’t support the war, martial law will be attempted but at least there are scenarios where it could fail.

  I would argue that the only thing that will save America at this stage is the growth of the America First movement.

  When we talk about America First, this includes not just American security but also American freedoms.

  There is NO REASON why we can’t have both. If conservatives (and independents) get lured into WWIII, it will be the end.

  *  *  *

  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
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 16:01

• Watch: Muslim Rioters Storm Airport, Surround Rumored Flight From Israel, In Southern Russia
  Watch: Muslim Rioters Storm Airport, Surround Rumored Flight From Israel, In Southern Russia

  There are shocking and surreal scenes coming out of the southern Russian Republic of Dagestan, after word spread that a flight from Tel Aviv was set to land at its international airport.

  Rumors that a flight full of Israeli Jews was set to land triggered Muslim mobs to raid the airport, where they broke past barriers and even at one point stormed the airstrip in search of Jews.

  In #Dagestan, a crowd stormed the building of Makhachkala airport in search of Jews from a flight from Tel Aviv. pic.twitter.com/TaBvakBKIE

  — NEXTA (@nexta_tv) October 29, 2023

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  “A flight from Israel to the Russian Republic of Dagestan earlier today was forced to divert from its intended destination in the capital of Makhachkala after pro-Palestinians protesters stormed the airport, seeking to attack the Israeli arrivals, according to multiple reports,” Times of Israel (TOI) described of the chaotic scene.

  Several videos have emerged showing angry rioters yelling “Allahu Akbar” while seeking to intercept offboarding passengers from the Israeli flight. 

  A Russian Pilot telling Passengers on a Plane at Makhachkala International Airport in Dagestan to not attempt to Open any of the Doors due to the Rioters on the Tarmac which are trying to enter the Aircraft. pic.twitter.com/lwTW0Zg3V6

  — OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 29, 2023

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  It appears police or security personnel were nowhere in sight as the mob, reportedly mainly made up of Palestinians who live in Dagestan, rampaged through the terminal.

  “Dagestan’s population is overwhelmingly Muslim,” TOI noted. “According to Channel 12, the crowd was apparently largely made up of Palestinian expats.”

  The flight from Tel Aviv either diverted or took off after briefly landing. There are reports that the mob tried to break into a plane on the tarmac. Some reports say that the aircraft which was surrounded was full of Russian citizens.

  Some of them tried to storm the plane, per Izvestia https://t.co/js5uaaYkSg pic.twitter.com/bwJuMGH57g

  — max seddon (@maxseddon) October 29, 2023

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  Regional media said the group went so far as to begin checking the IDs of travelers exiting the airport by car: 

  Some of the signs held by demonstrators read “Child killers have no place in Dagestan” and “We are against Jewish refugees.”

  The independent Medizona news website reported that the demonstration was prompted by calls spread on the Telegram messaging app earlier on Sunday to block a plane scheduled to arrive directly from the Israeli city of Tel Aviv.  

  According to local media, some of the demonstrators were stopping cars outside Makhachkala’s airport to check the personal identification documents of drivers and passengers as they searched for Israeli citizens among the motorists. 

  The flight from Tel Aviv landed at 7:17 p.m. local time, according to the airport’s website, after which the protesters stormed into the airport, breaking past security and running onto the tarmac.

  One group of people who ran onto the airport’s tarmac surrounded a plane and jumped onto one of its wings, the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia reported.

  A plane from Israel lands in Dagestan:

  The voice of the flight-attendant: Return into the plane immediately! https://t.co/ADzRxxwqMu pic.twitter.com/6g3IEAAiJf

  — Russian Market (@runews) October 29, 2023

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  The FT’s Moscow correspondent Max Seddon wrote of one video, “Remarkable to see security forces in Russia standing by for so long. By now, according to Baza, police in Makhachkala have chased them off the runway and outside the airport, where they are now protesting.”

  The Dagestan airport was forced to temporarily close as the military and police belatedly tried to gain control of the situation and restore order. Per regional N12 News:

  “Security official: the event in [Dagestan] is not over yet. A relatively small number of Israelis and Jews are isolated and secured at the airport. We are working for them to take off from there for an onward flight to Moscow as soon as the conditions allow.”

  When word spread that a plane from Tel Aviv was landing in Dagestan, Russia, a mob stormed the airport in what can only be described as a modern-day pogrom. pic.twitter.com/1G6phfdraz

  — Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) October 29, 2023

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  Some observers are speculating that security forces essentially turned a blind eye and allowed the disturbing scene to happen.

  It is indeed remarkable that given the typical high security nature of international airports, the mob so easily breached all security checkpoints and overwhelmed both the terminal and tarmac.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 15:55

• The Specter Of Hyperinflation Looms Over The Economy
  The Specter Of Hyperinflation Looms Over The Economy

  Authored by Michael Matulef via The Mises Institute,

  The threat of hyperinflation has haunted fiat money economies throughout history. Although past empires crumbled under the weight of unrestrained money printing, modern bankers at the Federal Reserve assure us that today’s financial system is immune to such a fate. Austrian business cycle theory, however, reveals that current economic stimulation may be propelling us toward a crisis of catastrophic proportions: a crack-up boom that marks the dramatic end of this boom-and-bust cycle. When a central bank expands the money supply to reinflate bubbles, it destroys the currency’s purchasing power. This endgame, in which the monetary system crumbles beneath a weak economy, represents the ultimate failure of interventionism.

  Once the public expects prices to keep rising, hyperinflation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

  

  The Expanding Boom-and-Bust Cycle Ends in a Crack-Up Boom

  To comprehend the precarious state of America’s monetary system, we must first review the boom-and-bust cycle as formulated by Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian school. The Austrians observed that the artificial suppression of interest rates by a central bank initiates an unsustainable economic boom by promoting malinvestment. Pushing rates below natural market levels sends a distorted signal to businesses that long-term capital investment is more profitable than the economy can actually support. In the euphoric boom phase, jobs multiply and GDP grows with investment. But the investments lack economic merit, so the house of cards eventually collapses.

  With the liquidation of malinvestments, the bust phase emerges: unemployment soars, output contracts, and a recession begins. Since the investments were built on quicksand, they must unwind. Each failed business further curtails consumer spending, rippling the bust through the economy. But rather than letting liquidation and market corrections occur, policymakers add stimulus, setting up a larger bubble and more painful bust down the line.

  At this point, people panic and exchange currency for real assets before rapid devaluation consumes their savings. As the crack-up boom picks up steam, the demand for money plummets while prices of real goods skyrocket, leading to hyperinflation. This psychological shift marks the event horizon where monetary policy is rendered impotent. Mises describes the nature of this crisis:

  This phenomenon was, in the great European inflations of the ’20s, called flight into real goods (Flucht in die Sachwerte) or crack-up boom (Katastrophenhausse). The mathematical economists are at a loss to comprehend the causal relation between the increase in the quantity of money and what they call “velocity of circulation.”

  The characteristic mark of the phenomenon is that the increase in the quantity of money causes a fall in the demand for money. The tendency toward a fall in purchasing power as generated by the increased supply of money is intensified by the general propensity to restrict cash holdings which it brings about. Eventually a point is reached where the prices at which people would be prepared to part with “real” goods discount to such an extent the expected progress in the fall of purchasing power that nobody has a sufficient amount of cash at hand to pay them.

  The monetary system breaks down; all transactions in the money concerned cease; a panic makes its purchasing power vanish altogether. People return either to barter or to the use of another kind of money.

  The crack-up brings the unsustainable, debt-fueled boom to a catastrophic end. Personal savings are wiped out along with the monetary system’s credibility. Society becomes less stable as the populace loses faith in institutions and scrambles for resources. The economy finds its ultimate bottom not in recession but in the total decay of the currency itself.

  The Facade of Stability

  Today, deficits balloon out of control as a result of efforts to sustain demand. Rather than allowing healthy corrections, the Fed piles on monetary stimulus at the first signs of financial crisis. Like an addict, the economy needs increasingly larger doses to maintain the status quo. But this trajectory of interventionism cannot persist forever without severe consequences: the Faustian bargain of trading long-term stability for short-term gain will backfire catastrophically.

  With each intervention, the Fed suppresses market corrections, inflates asset bubbles, and encourages high-risk debt. This constant flood of stimulus promotes moral hazard as it optimizes the economy for speculation while curtailing organic productivity. How much longer can this monetary dance along the precipice of hyperinflation continue before the dollar plunges into the abyss?

  Despite the veneer of stability, individuals sense that the economy rests on a precarious foundation of debt and deceit. They intuitively grasp that capitalism has metamorphosed into a cronyism that disproportionately rewards those with political connections in an amalgamation of concentrated power, unrestrained money creation, and escalating inequality.

  The Mirage of Reform

  Hoping for a return to monetary and fiscal restraint may prove naively optimistic. Exercising prudence would require immense political courage and social responsibility, qualities rarely exhibited in politics. Politicians face overwhelming incentives to maintain short-term stability through stimulus, spending, and low rates. And restructuring programs with enormous and unfunded liabilities like Medicare and Social Security would spur public backlash, even if it was fiscally prudent.

  After decades of excess, the economy is addicted to perpetual stimulus and deficit spending. The prevailing social mindset assumes that unending, debt-fueled growth is the natural state of affairs. With little political will for discipline, reform may depend on a crisis to force change. In the meantime, politicians, paralyzed by the status quo, are unlikely to make the difficult choices that could preempt such a crisis.

  It is all but inevitable that central banks will continue expanding the money supply to delay the day of reckoning and preserve the facade until the inevitable hyperinflationary crack-up boom, although the sheer weight of debt alone may produce this outcome. Promises of reform have been made, only to go unfulfilled. In order to prevent disaster, we must fundamentally rethink our monetary and fiscal policies against the temptations of short-term political gain. To quote Ayn Rand:

  Just as a man can evade reality and act on the blind whim of any given moment, but can achieve nothing save progressive self-destruction—so a society can evade reality and establish a system ruled by the blind whims of its members or its leader, by the majority gang of any given moment, by the current demagogue or by a permanent dictator. But such a society can achieve nothing save the rule of brute force and a state of progressive self-destruction.

  The Erosion of Centralized Control

  A crack-up boom would erode the power of the federal government: with a dramatic fall in the currency’s purchasing power, the administration’s ability to fund programs and institutions would deteriorate, the Treasury would go bankrupt, and the government would have to either massively downsize or attempt to fund operations by printing even more money. Along with the value of the promissory notes, trust in centralized authority would evaporate.

  With the federal government weakened and desperate, power would naturally shift back to individuals and their local communities. When faced with harsh economic realities, communities depend on themselves rather than flailing national policy. Individuals and communities should strengthen their local networks to weather the coming storm, increasing local involvement and forging bonds of cooperation. Joining area organizations and neighborhood groups can foster mutually beneficial relationships and support systems, invaluable resources for when the currency buckles. With shared purpose, communities enhance their capacity to withstand the crisis.

  Equally vital are the practical skills and knowledge that can provide real value to others when centralized systems fray. Pursuing expertise in food production, energy generation, medicine, engineering, and other technical fields equips people to meet local needs. In these ways, proactive societies can cultivate the true source of lasting wealth: strong social webs and skilled human capital. Global forces are beyond local influence, but strong communities retain some control over their destiny, even in hyperinflation’s wake.

  Praxeological reflection, the methodology of Austrian economics, can expose the unsound foundations that stretch currencies to their breaking point. It cannot foresee when hyperinflation will arrive, but it can point to the causes and guide human action toward stability and prosperity.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 15:30

• Desperate Gazans Raid UN Food Warehouses As Norway, France Condemn 'Disproportionate' Israeli Attacks
  Desperate Gazans Raid UN Food Warehouses As Norway, France Condemn ‘Disproportionate’ Israeli Attacks

  After three week under Israeli siege and a bombing campaign which has been unprecedented in its intensity, Gazans are getting increasingly desperate. The Strip is almost completely enveloped in darkness, also with communications cut, which happened Friday, and the United Nations is now warning of a total breakdown in civic order.

  UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza has said that thousands of Palestinians have broken into several of its warehouses in the Strip, raiding wheat, flour, and hygiene stores – among other basic necessities stored there.

  

  “This is a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege,” UNRWA director Thomas White told press agencies. 

  UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also in fresh Sunday statements called the crisis a “nightmare” and again urged a ceasefire. “The situation in Gaza is growing more desperate by the hour. I regret that instead of a critically needed humanitarian pause, supported by the international community, Israel has intensified its military operations.”

  Over the weekend the Gazan death toll surpassed 8,000 – with Gaza’s Health Ministry saying that most of these are women and young people. The Biden administration, which has repeatedly affirmed that it “stands with Israel”, has also said that it doesn’t trust casualty figures being issued by Hamas or Palestinian sources.

  There are reports that communications were restored to much of the Gaza Strip as of Sunday, possibly the result of growing international pressure on the Israelis. Ten more aid trucks have also reportedly crossed from Egypt on Sunday.

  According to Al Jazeera, “The Israeli military said on Sunday it had struck more than 450 targets over the past 24 hours, including Hamas command centres, observation posts and antitank missile launching positions. It said more ground forces were sent into Gaza overnight.” The Israeli ground offensive has continued expanding, with The Guardian observing, “Under the cover of strikes and artillery, Israeli ground troops have begun moving into the north of the strip in Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in what the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described as the “second stage” of the war triggered by Hamas.”

  As we continue to expand our ground operations in northern Gaza:

  🔴IAF aircraft, guided by IDF troops, struck Hamas structures.
  🔴Anti-tank missile launch posts & observation posts were struck.
  🔴Multiple terrorists were eliminated. pic.twitter.com/XMwKPKGZ1R

  — Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 29, 2023

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  IDF troops have been seen reaching a point some two miles into Gaza:

  Israeli troops appear to have advanced over two miles into Gaza, according to a CNN analysis of video published by an Israeli media outlet. 

  The troops in the video, taken on Saturday, are seen putting an Israeli flag on a Gaza resort hotel’s roof. CNN geolocated the video to an area just over two miles from the Gaza-Israeli border.

  “Soldiers of the 52 Battalion of the 401 Brigade are waving the Israeli flag in the heart of Gaza, by the beach,” a soldier is heard saying in the video, taken several miles north of central Gaza City. “We will not forgive nor forget, and we’ll not stop until the victory.”

  Palestinian sources are also saying another major hospital, which is treating hundreds of patients and giving shelter to over 10,000, has come under attack:

  Israeli airstrikes have “caused extensive damage to hospital departments and exposed residents and patients to suffocation” at the Al-Quds Hospital, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Sunday.

  The aid organization accused Israel of “deliberately” launching the airstrikes “directly next to Al-Quds Hospital, with the aim of forcing the medical staff, displaced people, and patients to evacuate the hospital.”

  Major bulldozing and tank operations have been observed on the beach in Gaza…

  Israeli Defence Forces over the last few hours continued to strike and kill terrorists in the Gaza Strip. IDF soldiers operating adjacent to the Erez Crossing identified a number of terrorists exiting the shaft of a tunnel in the Gaza Strip. Following the identification, the… pic.twitter.com/EKGA69Vvdo

  — Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) October 29, 2023

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  A statement cited in The Times of Israel described:

  The IDF says troops killed a number of Hamas gunmen who opened fire at the ground forces in the Strip, and other terrorists identified on the beach in Gaza, near the southern Israel community of Zikim.

  Hamas and the IDF have continued to exchange gunfire, but the status of forces on either said remains unknown and for the moment lost in the fog of war. At this point, if either suffers significant casualties, they are unlikely to make it publicly known.

  

  Meanwhile, the intensifying crisis for Palestinian civilians has not only led to massive street protests in various nations, particularly in Europe, but has resulted in rare criticism aimed at Israel from leading Western nations. The French government has issued scathing criticism of “unacceptable” Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank:

  More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip earlier this month, mostly during raids by Israeli forces or attacks by settlers, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.

  “France strongly condemns the settler attacks that have led to the deaths of several Palestinian civilians over the past few days in Qusra and Sawiya, as well as the forced departure of several communities,” said a foreign ministry statement.

  And Norway too has condemned what it says is a massive and “disproportionate” response and death toll among Palestinians in the wake of the Oct.7 Hamas terror attack which killed 1,400 people. “International law stipulates that [the reaction] must be proportionate. Civilians must be taken into account, and humanitarian law is very clear on this. I think this limit has been largely exceeded,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store aid in a public broadcast radio interview.

  “Almost half of the thousands of people killed are children,” he stressed. “Israel has the right to defend itself, and I recognize that it is very difficult to defend against attacks from an area as densely populated as Gaza,” Store said. “Rockets are still being fired from Gaza into Israel, and we condemn this.”

  Israeli flag flies inside Gaza for first time since 2005pic.twitter.com/uc0sJrNyXW

  — Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) October 29, 2023

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  Even the White House has begun to urge caution, with national security advisor Jake Sullivan telling the Sunday shows that even though Hamas used civilians as “human shields” – it’s still ultimately Israel’s responsibility to avoid hitting them.

  “They’re putting rockets and other terrorist infrastructure in civilian areas. That creates an added burden for the Israeli Defense Forces,” he said. “But it does not lessen their responsibility to distinguish between terrorists and innocent civilians and to protect the lives of innocent civilians as they conduct this military operation.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 15:05

• Kendi's Critical Race Theory Is A Failed Marxist Doctrine
  Kendi’s Critical Race Theory Is A Failed Marxist Doctrine

  Authored by David Brady Jr via The Mises Institute,

  Ibram X. Kendi, the controversial author of How to Be an Antiracist, has been revealed as not only a hustler of horrid ideas but also a poor businessman. Kendi was appointed the head and founder of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research in 2020 following the aptly named “summer of love,” which saw riots in most major cities over calls for “racial justice.”

  

  Now, Boston University is committing mass layoffs of employees, as the Center has lost the $43 million that was donated to it at its opening. There have also been several complaints about management practices. The Center is laying off much of its staff as it switches to a new model that it hopes will keep it alive. It is another profound case of fiat academia being inefficient and unproductive, as well as peddling half-baked half-dead ideas.

  Kendi is not an original thinker so much as a wannabe-philosopher who repaints bunk ideas to drum up societal conflict.

  Kendi’s general philosophical thesis could be summed up simply as “Everyone is racist, and that extends to all of society. History can be understood as a white supremacist culture getting better at hiding its underlying racism.”

  Kendi and other critical race theorists theorize that, throughout history, so-called advancements in the welfare of racial minorities are merely a white supremacist culture’s success at better hiding its racism. One can summarize it best with a quote from the thriller The Usual Suspects: “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

  The devil, for Kendi, would be “white supremacy” in culture. Every so-called advancement—from the outlawing of slavery to the end of Jim Crow laws—is simply this devil getting better at hiding itself.

  This is not an original idea on Kendi’s part in any respect. One can trace these ideas back to the philosophical ancestor to critical race theory: Karl Marx. When one analyzes critical race theory, it becomes abundantly clear that it is a portrayal of Marxist conflict and power theory but with the dimensions of race applied rather than class. Rather than the bourgeoise class oppressing the proletariat, it is the white class oppressing the nonwhite classes of society.

  A fundamental aspect of Marxist theory is that of the substructure, or base, and the superstructures of society. Marx posited that the fundamental relations in society are economic ones, between the working class and the exploitive capitalist class. The base creates the superstructure, which includes art, politics, religion, and other social relations that supposedly exist to reinforce the base. This is where Marx’s famed line “Religion is the opiate of the masses” comes from. Religion, as an aspect of the superstructure, exists to draw eyes away from the social relations that matter in the minds of Marxists.

  The critical race theory about the “white supremacy inherent in culture” is much the same. The base for the theorists is race relations. These theorists believe that the oppressive white class has constructed society to necessarily maintain a power dynamic over the nonwhite classes. Political achievements, no matter how much they may benefit racial minorities, belong as part of the superstructure, and thus they must be some protective shell over the true social dynamics.

  The Emancipation Proclamation, for example, would be seen as a means of preserving the base of society. Any and all political results short of revolution against the base are simply adaptations of the superstructure to protect the base. Kendi’s ideology ultimately becomes a revolutionary one. There cannot be a true advancement against “white supremacist culture” unless there is a true revolution, according to the critical race theorists.

  Kendi posits that the solution to racism is “antiracism,” or active discrimination against the “oppressor class.” This reeks of Joseph Stalin’s extermination of the kulaks or of Maoist reeducation. Mao Zedong’s goals may be the most aligned to the goals of Kendi. “Diversity, equity, and inclusion” seminars, taught for much the same reasons as Kendi’s “antiracism,” reek of Maoist struggle sessions.

  The modern kulaks of Kendi’s Marxist revolution are the “white supremacists.” According to Kendi, discrimination is needed to overthrow the base structure. The ideas of Kendi and the critical race theorists boil down to Marxist power dynamics, with a mixture of gnosticism and postmodernism. It is violent egalitarian ideology that attempts to paint history under one dynamic. It turns out that history is far more complex than that.

  So, one should not be surprised at the squandering of millions of dollars by Kendi and his “antiracist” center. Marx has been repudiated by economists, philosophers, and history itself. All the critical race theorists seek to do is repaint Marxist power dynamics under a new lens. There is no sound backing to their ideas so it is no wonder they continue to fail, even in academia.

  Kendi laments in a March 23 article: “The traditional construct of the intellectual has produced and reinforced bigoted ideas of group hierarchy—the most anti-intellectual constructs existing. But this framing is crumbling, leading to the crisis of the intellectual.”

  Marxism can be best understood as the unproductive of society demanding a place at the top of a new hierarchy.

  They prey upon the productive members of society and redistribute the success of others to themselves through violent revolution. It is an ideology of envy and failure. Kendi is one such unproductive citizen, one who would have no reinforcement in any sane “marketplace of ideas.” It is no wonder at all that he has failed even in fiat academia.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 14:00

• Visualizing The Key Investment Theme Of Each Decade (1950-Today)
  Visualizing The Key Investment Theme Of Each Decade (1950-Today)

  Over modern history, a key investment theme has broadly characterized each decade.

  In each case, a particular asset class, sector, or region captivated investors for an extended period, driving returns and outperforming the rest of the market.

  In the graphic below, Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld shows 70 years of key investment themes, based on analysis from Ruchir Sharma of Morgan Stanley Investment Management via NS Capital.

  

  Investment Themes by Decade

  These decade-defining themes are often the product of a confluence of factors, including the macroeconomic environment, geopolitics, monetary policy, or other structural shifts like technological disruption.

  Here are the central investment themes since the 1950s, each with at least 400% cumulative returns over each period:

  

  *Price change for gold and oil, represented as an average. **Equity market performance of Brazil, Russia, India, China and oil prices, represented as an average.

  The 1950s saw a boom in European stocks during the post-war recovery. This was fueled by significant investment from corporations and governments as Europe became more integrated.

  Then in the 1960s, investors poured into blue chip stocks in the “Nifty Fifty” including Johnson & Johnson, Disney, and Coca-Cola. The main premise was that these strong franchises would deliver high returns over the long run. During the 1973-1974 bear market, shares cratered.

  As oil skyrocketed from $3.35 to $32.50 through the 1970s amid production and output cuts, commodities dominated, along with emerging economy exporters of oil and gold.

  Later, through the 1980s, Japanese stocks dramatically increased. In 1989, the Tokyo Stock Exchange made up 41% of all global equities. It had eclipsed the value of the U.S. equity market just two years earlier.

  In part owing to strong U.S. economic growth, American tech stocks flourished through the 1990s. While many high-flying tech stocks were wiped out during the crash in 2000, some still remain today. Qualcomm, which jumped 2,620% in 1999, is a multi-billion dollar semiconductor company. Amazon and Cisco were other survivors of this era.

  Pivoting from growth assets, investors returned to commodities and emerging markets over the 2000s, this time with BRIC economies—Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The 2010s saw the rise of FAANG stocks as tech proliferated across countless industries.

  The Next Decade Ahead

  Given how each decade seems to be defined by a key investment theme, Sharma suggests that it won’t be another driven defined by American stocks.

  The disconnect between the size of U.S. equity markets, at 43% of the global share, and its economic output, which is 26% of the world’s total, is one reason driving a new shift.

  Another factor is stark differences in valuations. Today, the U.S. stock market compared to the rest of the world is at its highest relative level in 100 years, suggesting it is overvalued and primed for a shift.

  Whether global stocks gain a greater global equity market share—to become a key investment cycle of this decade—remains an open question.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 13:25

• DOJ Corroborated Information From FBI Source Who Provided Biden Bribery Allegations: Official
  DOJ Corroborated Information From FBI Source Who Provided Biden Bribery Allegations: Official

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

  U.S. Department of Justice officials corroborated some of the information an FBI source provided to the bureau on allegations that then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, were bribed, a former official who worked on the case said in newly reviewed testimony.

  “We did corroborate certain things” from the source, Scott Brady, the former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, told a U.S. House of Representatives panel on Oct. 23.

  

  Members of Congress obtained and released over the summer a copy of the summary from FBI agents who spoke with the source, with the source conveying comments from Burisma executives concerning the Bidens.

  Among them was the claim that it cost $5 million to pay one Biden and $5 million to pay another Biden.

  Mr. Biden worked for Burisma, a Ukrainian firm, for years while President Biden was vice president, including in 2016. That’s the year the discussion involving bribery took place, the source told the FBI in 2020.

  Mr. Brady, appointed under President Donald Trump in 2017, told members this week he was tasked by superiors to accept and vet Ukraine-related information sent to or gathered by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), which includes the FBI.

  “We were to assess the credibility of information and anything that we felt was credible or had indicia of credibility, we were then to provide to the offices that had predicated grand jury investigations that were ongoing,” Mr. Brady, who was asked to resign by President Biden after he took office, told the House panel.

  Lack of Communication

  After working to corroborate some of the information from the interview summary, Mr. Brady said his team passed the summary and the work they’d done to multiple offices, including the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Delaware.

  That office is headed by U.S. Attorney David Weiss, another Trump appointee. Mr. Weiss has for years been investigating Mr. Biden for intentional tax avoidance and other crimes.

  Mr. Brady’s team briefed Mr. Weiss’ team in October 2020 on the summary, known as an FD-1023.

  “What we were doing was, as a part of the briefing, giving them the investigative steps that we had taken within our limited ability to corroborate the information that the [source] had provided us, and we informed them that we felt that the 1023 had indicia of credibility sufficient to merit further investigation,” Mr. Brady said. “And so that’s what we communicated to them.”

  Neither Mr. Weiss’ office nor any of the other U.S. attorney’s offices who received the 1023 from Mr. Brady’s team reached back out about the document, according to Mr. Brady.

  He said there was “both a skepticism of the information that we were developing, that we had received, and skepticism and then weariness of that information” from Mr. Weiss and Mr. Weiss’ team.

  “I don’t want to speculate as to why, but I know that there was no information sharing back to us about what they were—or very limited. And, at one point, the communication between our offices was so constricted that we had to provide written questions to the investigative team in Delaware, almost in the form of interrogatories, and receive written answers back,” Mr. Brady said.

  That was not normal, he added.

  Mr. Weiss’ office declined to comment.

  Ukraine Funding

  The FBI source was reinterviewed in 2020 by the FBI at the request of Mr. Brady, who wanted more details about the allegations regarding the Bidens. The summary that resulted was ultimately obtained and released by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.).

  The document showed the source traveled to Ukraine and spoke with top Burisma executives, including owner Mykola Zlochevsky. The source said executives said Burisma hired Mr. Biden “to protect [the company], through his dad, from all kinds of problems” and that Mr. Biden would take care of problems “through his dad.”

  Ukraine’s president ultimately ousted Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor who was investigating Burisma, at the behest of President Biden.

  “I said, ‘We’re leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor’s not fired, you’re not getting the money,'” President Biden said at a public event in 2018, relaying the interaction about a $1 billion loan guarantee he threatened to withhold. “Well, son of a [expletive]. He got fired.”

  The FBI has largely declined to comment on the substance of the document but said previously the summary was part of a “sensitive investigation” and should not have been released to the public.

  The transcripts of the recent congressional interviews with Mr. Brady and U.S. Attorney E. Martin Estrada, appointed by President Biden, were obtained and reviewed by The Epoch Times.

  In his interview, Mr. Estrada confirmed IRS whistleblower accounts and said he rejected Mr. Weiss’ request to partner to prosecute Mr. Biden in California.

  Mr. Estrada also said that he believed several attorneys with Mr. Weiss’ office were able to bring charges in his district, the Central District of California, and that he offered office space and administrative support if they did.

  Mr. Biden was ultimately charged with tax and firearm crimes in Delaware. He has not been charged in California or Washington, another district where the Biden-appointed U.S. attorney turned down a request from Mr. Weiss to partner.

  Mr. Weiss earlier this year was made special counsel as he continues investigating Mr. Biden. Both Mr. Weiss and Attorney General Merrick Garland, appointed under President Biden, have been unable to explain why he needed to be made special counsel if he already had what they described as the “ultimate authority” to bring charges against the target.

  Mark Tapscott contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/29/2023 – 12:50

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• Hamas’s October 7 Attack: Discourse In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence
  Hamas’s October 7 Attack: Discourse In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence

  Authored by Ofira Seliktar via RealClear Defense,

  Hamas’s massacre of Israeli civilians, known as ‘Black Sabbath,’ caught virtually everyone by surprise, even though the group had a long history of violence. One reason for this situation is the lack of information on several aspects of Hamas’s modus operandi. The resulting lacuna has biased the algorithms underpinning search engines that drive artificial intelligence (AI) on the subject.

  

  The AI Challenge

  The prominence of AI has profoundly and irrevocably changed the human discourse. From its inception on Google and other search engines to the most recent iteration of chatbots such as ChatGPT or Bard, complex algorithms have increasingly driven this process.

  A large literature, mostly highly specialized, has analyzed numerous possible biases of the AI discursive products. Bias is created when one idea/topic/concept is disproportionally weighted against another. Faulty algorithms can introduce bias and need to be adjusted. But other issues are also at play.

  • Choosing representative data to correct for bias is also recommended, but in cases where voluminous data is generated on a daily basis over extended periods of time, such remedies are not practical. Experts point out biases which occur when there is imbalance in available data, in the sense that certain topics are overrepresented, whereas information on others hardly exists.
  • Quality of data in the discourse varies from rigorous research appearing in respectable academic publications to conspiracy theories found in niche outlets and social media. The sheer magnitude of ideas/topics/concepts in the discursive universe makes it hard to evaluate their quality. As a rule, discerning players in the discourse shy away from outlandish conspiracy theories, but evaluation of the in-between narratives is exceedingly hard.
  • Relations and causations between variables, two distinctive concepts, are regularly confused in discursive practices, creating a host of fallacies and biases in the narrative. When correlation is mistaken for or misrepresented as causation, it generates a “reality” that does not exist.

  These three sources of bias helped to mask Hamas’s true character as a savage terror group, with many adopting the narrative of a national resistance group fighting to liberate Palestinians from “Israel’s oppression.”

  Hamas’s ‘Black Sabbath’ Attack: The Current Problem

  Israel’s standing in the discursive universe has deteriorated dramatically in the past three decades. As a result of delegitimization and vilification, the view of Israel as a colonial -apartheid state which suppresses and physically eliminates Palestinians is quite common. Much of this view is a byproduct of the neo-Marxist, critical theory paradigm which has dominated social science. The paucity of contradictory ideas has aggravated the bias. Past remedies to correct the imbalance such as creating Israel studies programs have fail to address the problem.

  Constructing Israel as an illegitimate colonial-apartheid enterprise had legitimized terrorist violence under the category of “national resistance.”  Although Hamas and its junior partner Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have been considered terror groups in many Western jurisdictions, their true goal of eliminating Israel was hidden because of the AI-driven distortions of the narratives.

  Correcting the Imbalance

  Four issues need to be addressed to correct the imbalance.

  Hamas as ISIS: Comparisons between the two groups surfaced soon after the attack but were of rhetorical-declarative nature. Only a handful of reports provided some background facts, often confusing or incorrect. In reality, the military wings of Hamas and the PIJ followed the modus operandi of Abu Musab al Zarqawi, a Palestinian terrorist who split from al Qaeda and was sheltered by Iran before moving to Iraq. IRGC-QF helped al Zarqawi to found the Islamic State (later ISIS) where he implemented the techniques of two books known as the “the jihadist bibles:” Jurisprudence of Blood (Masail fi Figh al-Dima) and Management of Savagery. The writings provided an Islamic justification for inflicting extreme violence on enemies such as beheadings and burning alive. These savage spectacles were said to attract maximum international attention.

  Hamas’s strategy of embedding: the turning of civilians into human shields. Although several commentators have pointed out that the population of Gaza is used to defend the military wing of Hamas and PIJ, the discourse is not systematic and confined mostly to the description of the suffering of the civilians. The IRGC-QF doctrine of using human shields was based on Brigadier General S. K. Malik’s The Koranic Principle of War. Adopted to asymmetrical conflicts, it stipulated that embedding among non-combatants could level the playing field when engaging Western armies obligated to follow the humanitarian laws of war. The doctrine was successfully tested during the 2006 Lebanon War where Hezbollah used public and private spaces to house military assets and launch attacks. Critically, medical authorities, on order of Hezbollah and Hamas, refused to provide separate numbers of civilian and terrorist deaths.

  Because of International Humanitarian Law that strives to protect non-combatants, embedding caused Israel reputational damage, made worse by Hezbollah’s and Hamas’s staging of alleged catastrophes.

  Hamas as a parasitic organization feeding on the civilian population. It has been widely known that Hamas has diverted billions of dollars of international support to build a one-of-a-kind military complex in the Gaza Strip. In addition, equipment like water pipes were repurposed to make rockets. However, the true scope of the parasitic enterprise and the depth of its corruption has not been systematically studied. In a telling example, a journalist commenting on Israeli bombing of the Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City, lamented the destruction of the “beating heart” of Gaza. In actuality, Rimal, known as the Beverly Hills of Gaza, houses the Hamas and PIJ elite and their families in extreme luxury.

  The study of the highly corrupt governance and financial system presided over by Hamas is urgently needed. Judging by the case of Hezbollah, Iran- created prototype of a parasitic organization, finding information would be challenging but absolutely essential.  

  Performative and Elimination Antisemitism: Iran is the largest producers of antisemitic content in the world. The material, translated into thirty-six languages, ranges from classic antisemitic treatises popular in Nazi Germany, the writings of Muslim Brothers Hassan al Bana and Sayyed Qutb, to assorted modern conspiracy theories. Despite considerable variety, the messaging is the same: Jews and their collective embodiment, Israel, are dangerous to the human race and must be exterminated. Calls to destroy Israel, also known as the Little Satan, occur daily; the prophetically minded Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei used verses from the Koran to calculate the exact day of Israel’s demise. A digital clock was erected in Tehran counting down the time. Iran’s proxies have propagated the same themes.

  Although scholars and lay observers have debated the meaning of this extreme manifestation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, most argue that the phenomenon is performative, in essence, a rhetorical strategy to increase domestic legitimacy or compete with the Sunnis in the Middle East. Only a small minority holds that the Islamist theocracy (and its proxies) is eliminationist, that is, given the opportunity would annihilate the Jews and Israel. Hamas atrocities on the Gaza border communities should be reexamined within the context of eliminationist antisemitic ideology produced and disseminated by Iran.

  Summary

  Historically, the discourse on Hamas and Israel has been replete with bias. Prominent ideas, topics, and concepts have been promoted to vilify Israel, Jews, and the Zionist cause while glorifying the “legitimate” struggle and acts of savagery committed by Hamas. This discourse is reinforced by AI algorithms which, as noted, deepen the bias. What has been ignored in the past should be crucial in the construction of the current narrative, specifically, the origins of Hamas’ savage tactics, its use of human shields, its parasitic relationship to the inhabitants of Gaza, and the antisemitic attacks launched by Iran. In each instance, corrective measures are suggested to redress the imbalances to better inform the participants in the discursive community.

  ---

  Ofira Seliktar is Professor Emerita of Political Science at Gratz College, Melrose Park, PA. Previously, she was Scholar in Residence at the Middle East Research Institute, University of Pennsylvania.

  This essay is based on the author’s work:  “Slaying the Little Satan: Iran’s War against Israel,” in progress: “Iran, Revolution and Proxy Wars,” Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, co-authored with Farhad Rezaei; and “Is Iran’s Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism Eliminationist or Performative: A Question for the Nuclear Age,” Israel Affairs, 2022.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 23:20

• White House Freezes Gun Exports In New Attack On US Gun Manufacturers
  White House Freezes Gun Exports In New Attack On US Gun Manufacturers

  In an announcement seemingly timed to minimize publicity, the US Commerce Department late Friday declared a 90-day freeze in the approval of exports for most American-made firearms, along with a review of the department’s support of the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade — or “SHOT” — Show. 

  “The review will be conducted with urgency and will enable the Department to more effectively assess and mitigate risk of firearms being diverted to entities or activities that promote regional instability, violate human rights or fuel criminal activities,” the department said. 

  Before continuing, let’s pause to marvel at the soaring hypocrisy of the US government — which has armed murderous autocrats, Islamic extremists and Mexican drug cartels — expressing concern about American weapons being used to “promote regional instability, violate human rights or fuel criminal activities.”

  This latest federal assault on gun rights will apply to requests to export semiautomatic and non-automatic firearms sold to non-government recipients, Bloomberg reports. Naturally, it won’t apply to Ukraine or Israel, or some 40 other foreign governments that are partners to the United States in an export-control pact.  However, it will apply to some of the most important markets for the domestic firearms industry, including Brazil, Thailand and Guatemala. 

  

  For those who think a strong gun industry is essential to safeguarding the right of armed self-defense, the pause isn’t nearly as worrisome as what new policies may be installed after the review is complete.

  Bloomberg, which is owned by a gun control enthusiast and which appeared to be first to be told of the development, is taking a victory lap over the announcement, linking it to a series of articles scrutinizing the federal government’s oversight and encouragement of exports. A key milestone came in 2020, when the Trump administration moved responsibility for approving gun exports from the State Department to Commerce. 

  One of those recent articles focused on the SHOT Show, the enormous Las Vegas gun-trade show that attracts more than 50,000 gun company reps, dealers and individuals from all over the world. Specifically, Bloomberg questioned the propriety of the Commerce Department’s participation in the SHOT Show, via an “International Trade Center” space to host foreign buyers and promote US exports, a practice that began in 2013. 

  

  “In the first year of the partnership, Commerce’s Foreign Commercial Service, which operates out of US embassies and consulates, steered 370 buyers to SHOT Show,” reports Bloomberg. “By January 2023, that number had jumped to more than 3,200.” Commerce employees have also organized group trips to the show from a variety of countries. 

  Bloomberg lamented that “American-style gun culture is starting to blossom across Latin America,” and that American companies, with Commerce assistance, are pouring guns into violent and volatile Guatemala. 

  In September, Senator Elizabeth Warren and three other congressional Democrats sent a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo expressing alarm about Commerce serving as a “booster and concierge” to the firearms industry, with particular concern about the export of so-called “assault weapons.” The letter included 10 detailed questions about the Commerce Department’s handling of its oversight. 

  The export-approval freeze comes the same week that gun control czar Kamala Harris praised Australia for its approach to gun control, which includes mass confiscation and requiring citizens to prove to the government why they need to own a gun. 

  .@VP Harris praises Australia’s massive gun confiscation: “Let us be clear, it does not have to be this way, as our friends in Australia have demonstrated.” pic.twitter.com/3oKrlqq619

  — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 26, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 22:45

• COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines Reduce A Major Beneficial Bacteria, Gut Biodiversity: Research
  COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines Reduce A Major Beneficial Bacteria, Gut Biodiversity: Research

  Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Research has shown that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines reduce bacteria belonging to the Bifidobacteria genus, a common and beneficial gut bacteria. COVID vaccination is also linked to reduced gut biodiversity.

  

  Works by gastroenterologist Dr. Sabine Hazan, the CEO of ProgenaBiome, a microbiome genomic research laboratory, found that after COVID-19 vaccination, people’s Bifidobacteria levels can fall by as much as 90 percent. Some of her unpublished data found that Bifidobacteria levels are negligible in vaccinated people.

  Bifidobacteria are among the first microbes to colonize a baby’s gastrointestinal tract as he or she passes through the mother’s birth canal. They are believed to exert positive health effects on their host.

  Bifidobacteria interact with the immune system, and their presence is linked with improved immunity against pathogens and cancer.

  Dr. Hazan’s prior works on hospitalized COVID-19 patients showed that patients who had severe COVID-19 tended to have no or low Bifidobacteria levels, whereas those with higher stores of Bifidobacteria tended to develop asymptomatic infection.

  In her research, she came across a pair of siblings enrolled in the COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials.

  “One sibling got placebo, and one got the vaccine. The one sibling that got the vaccine got harmed … and she has no Bifidobacteria bacteria. Her brother, who got the placebo and was not harmed, has this Bifidobacteria,” she told The Epoch Times.

  The Importance of Bifidobacteria

  The loss of Bifidobacteria was discovered by comparing microbiome diversity both before and after vaccination. Generally, the loss is transient, while it can persist for over nine months in more extreme cases.

  There are also rare cases where patients’ Bifidobacteria population increases. Dr. Hazan spoke about a patient’s Bifidobacteria population more than doubling a month after vaccination. However, at six to nine months postvaccination, the patient’s number of Bifidobacteria had fallen to zero.

  Dr. Hazan said it is unknown why some people’s Bifidobacteria levels rise after vaccination.

  Bifidobacteria are a common probiotic, and it is well-established that humans can consume them to improve gut health. In fact, products containing Bifidobacteria make up trillions of dollars in the market share of the probiotic market.

  The absence of Bifidobacteria microbes is linked to chronic diseases, including diabetes, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. Some studies have shown that the administration of probiotic Bifidobacteria can help improve diabetic conditions and help fight cancer.

  Loss of Other Microbes After Vaccination

  Some patients may have other microbiomes missing after vaccination, and trying to track down what microbes the patient might have had before vaccination involves difficult forensics work, according to Dr. Hazan.

  One study by researchers from Hong Kong found that mRNA COVID-19 vaccine administration was directly linked to reduced gut biodiversity, resulting in a loss of at least 10 different microbes.

  While some vaccinated people saw an increase in certain bacteria, vaccination reduced overall microbiome diversity.

  The authors also noted that the risks of common adverse reactions like fever, headaches, pain at injection sites, and so on may also be linked to the bacteria in the gut. For example, patients with high Bifidobacteria tended to be less inclined to develop vaccine adverse reactions.

  A gut microbiome with low biodiversity is associated with poor health and aging. After birth, babies develop a highly diverse gut microbiome. As they age, they lose this diversity as they develop diseases, take antibiotics and drugs, eat unhealthily, sleep less, etc.

  Bifidobacteria can comprise up to 95 percent of the baby’s gut microbiome during infancy. This then declines and stabilizes at under 10 percent in adulthood.

  Yet Dr. Hazan has seen cases of babies breastfed by vaccinated mothers possessing no Bifidobacteria. The long-term consequences of this are unknown, especially since Bifidobacteria are involved in building a person’s immune system.

  The increasing awareness of the importance of the gut microbiome in health has led some parents to freeze their baby’s first stool for fecal transplant in the future, internal physician Dr. Yusuf Saleeby told The Epoch Times. As the baby grows and his or her microbiome depletes, the fecal sample may be transplanted to correct the gut microbiome composition.

  “If the child gets sick and there’s dysbiosis, the parents can go back to the company ... and reinoculate those microbes back into the baby, to try to bring back what the baby should have had,” he explained.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 22:10

• FBI Raids Baltimore City Taxpayer-Funded 'Safe Streets' Program For Possible Gang Infiltration
  FBI Raids Baltimore City Taxpayer-Funded ‘Safe Streets’ Program For Possible Gang Infiltration

  Democratic leadership in imploding Baltimore City has funneled city and state dollars into a super-progressive anti-violence program called “Safe Streets,” which pushes ‘non-policing’ techniques to deter violent crime. Mayor Brandon Scott has championed Safe Streets, yet many residents have complained the program is a sham. 

  In some terrible optics for the Democratic mayor, the FBI raided a Safe Streets location in northeast Baltimore on Thursday. Local media WBALTV said what the FBI was looking for during the raid remains unclear. 

  

  A spokeswoman for the FBI Baltimore Field Office told WBALTV that agents conducted “court-authorized law enforcement activity” at the Safe Streets office in Belair-Edison in northeast Baltimore. 

  Non-profit healthcare corporation LifeBridge Health, who manages the site, told the media outlet: 

  “The FBI this morning enacted a search warrant at the Belair Safe Streets site managed by LifeBridge Health. Two of our staff have indicated that federal agents showed up at their residences. We have no other information at this time. We are treating this incident seriously and complying with requests from authorities.”

  The Belair-Edison location is one of ten Safe Streets locations across the metro area where so-called “violence interrupters” are stationed and are deployed into neighborhoods (instead of police) to prevent violence from exploding. 

  “They are supposed to stop people in the community from fighting and with the drug situation in the community. I don’t know. This is definitely amazing today. I heard it all,” said A.J. Gary, a Belair-Edison resident.

  Resident Gay continued, “It doesn’t make any sense to me. What’s the use of having the program if y’all doing the same thing people in the streets are doing, but y’all supposed to be helping us?”

  Perhaps a report from Fox Baltimore sheds more light on what precisely the FBI was looking for at the Belair-Edison location:

  “The FBI is not releasing details, but sources tell FOX45 News that federal agents are looking into possible gang affiliation.” 

  

  “This is concerning to see, and I am seeking additional information. We should always expect public safety agencies and those that receive city funds to carry out important public safety initiatives to follow the law,” Mark Conway, Chair of the council’s Public Safety and Government Operations Committee, wrote in a statement. 

  Conway said, “None of this surprises us. The people who oversee (Safe Streets), MONSE [Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement], has a lot more questions now to answer,” said Schleifer.

  Republican State Del. Nino Mangione from Baltimore County stated, “I again call for a full and complete and full audit of all Safe Streets accounts.  Further, I believe the full results of these audits should be released in their entirety to any local, state or federal entity suppling funds to the Safe Streets program.” 

  MONSE responded to the raid on X: 

  Any malfeasance of anyone involved in this activity does not and should not diminish the work that Safe Streets Baltimore staff do on a daily basis — putting themselves in harm’s way to mediate conflicts before they escalate into incidents of gun violence.

  Any malfeasance of anyone involved in this activity does not & should not diminish the work that Safe Streets Baltimore staff do on a daily basis – putting themselves in harm’s way to mediate conflicts before they escalate into incidents of gun violence.

  — Baltimore MONSE – Neighborhood Safety & Engagement (@BaltimoreMONSE) October 26, 2023

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  One X user responded to MONSE’s post: “Safe streets = bunch of felons and drug dealers.” 

  Safe streets = bunch of felons and drug dealers

  — Salty Baltimore Cop (@saltybmorecop) October 27, 2023

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  Judging by the out-of-control crime in the corrupt hellhole of a city, the FBI raid suggests maybe, just maybe, the tax-payer-funded progressive experiment was doing something super illegal. 

  This is terrible optics for the young mayor pushing disastrous progressive policies as people and businesses are fleeing the collapsing metro area for safer areas.  

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 21:40

• Advice For Men From TV's 'Hercules': Bring Back Masculinity
  Advice For Men From TV’s ‘Hercules’: Bring Back Masculinity

  Authored by Randy Tatano via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  In mythology, Hercules is a hero famous for his strength and bravery. A protector. A classic man’s man who, back in the day, every little boy would admire and want to emulate. In real life, Hercules was played on television by actor Kevin Sorbo, who says it’s time for guys to start acting like real men again. So he’s producing movies and books to get that message across.

  

  Sorbo, who left woke Tinseltown behind for Florida saying, “Truth is kryptonite in Hollywood” talks about how the portrayal of men on television doesn’t exactly inspire guys to be masculine. The liberal narrative is very evident in many current television shows. “Every sitcom seems to have a fat, lazy husband.” And over the years, the media’s promotion of the sensitive “beta male” has seeped into our culture.

  But he feels that the decline of masculinity has a root cause that can be traced to the way children are raised. His own upbringing included exposure to old-fashioned hard work by his family. “I had great examples from my grandfather and father. My father was an only child on a farm in Iowa. And I didn’t have teachers telling me how to vote or how to think. Everything starts with parents. It’s important to have a dad and a mom raising children. Kids watching TV think dads are not important in a family,” he said.

  His wife, Sam, echoed that sentiment as she talked about raising their own children. “We need to empower children to be courageous. We raise them in truth, we raise them to defend the truth. When your children are grounded in truth they are strong.”

  So the Sorbos (Sam is also a veteran actress) are using media to remind people about the traditional roles of men and women, producing both movies and a children’s book. Their latest film, “Miracle in East Texas,” is a true story about a couple of flim-flam men during the Great Depression who make a living conning widows into buying shares of bogus oil drilling ventures. The men act like normal men and the women are portrayed as traditional women.

  Written by award-winning writer Dan Gordon (“Rambo: Last Blood,” “The Hurricane,” “Wyatt Earp”), this very enjoyable movie takes a twist you might not expect. When asked what he hoped people would get out of the movie, Kevin simply said he wants moviegoers to be entertained without a political or social message buried in the plot: “I hope they have fun. I like to do movies the way Hollywood used to, where the good guys win and the bad guys lose. We’ve been doing movies that have more of a positive nature.”

  Sam took things a bit farther: “We like doing movies about real people doing miraculous things … it gives people hope.” In addition, “Miracle in East Texas” is being released as a book.

  

  Kevin Sorbo is also taking a literary approach to teach boys about masculine roles. He has written a children’s book which includes traditional male values. “The Test of Lionhood” is a Christian children’s book that teaches kids about masculinity, with lessons about bravery and perseverance. “It’s pro-child. It’s a story about a little lion cub who saves his sister,” he said.

  And while Kevin Sorbo may be physically built like a mythological hero, being masculine doesn’t require a guy to look like Hercules. He said masculinity is not about physical appearance, but traditional values.

  “Being a guy who is a provider and a protector for the family, with strong moral guidelines, being a loving husband, a loving father, a good neighbor,” he said.

  Sam added that women are not immune from the liberal portrayal of men: “We tend to fool ourselves into making poor choices, thinking that we’re not giving up anything by settling for second best. It’s become very difficult for women to admit they want a manly man.”

  She said that people must be selective about media. “Support good quality films, but I caution people about allowing poor stuff into your brain, because that’s the degradation of our culture. You are what you consume with your eyes, your ears, and your heart.”

  And as far as the transgender “trend” to eliminate masculinity, Kevin Sorbo has no patience for parents who allow or encourage young children to identify as a different sex. Just because a little boy might try on his mother’s shoes doesn’t mean he wants to be a girl or should transition into one with hormones or drastic surgery.

  “What they’re doing to kids is wrong. Let kids be kids … these children can’t make up their minds at that age,” he said.

  And Sam said it’s crucial that parents monitor what their children see and hear. “Be careful of who you allow access to your child.”

  Like many conservatives who are baffled by this war on masculinity, Kevin summed things up with a simple wish: “Make being normal, normal again.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 21:10

• Warnings About Alarming Pre-Oct 7 Hamas Activity Ignored, Say Israeli Surveillance Soldiers
  Warnings About Alarming Pre-Oct 7 Hamas Activity Ignored, Say Israeli Surveillance Soldiers

  The Oct 7 Hamas military and terrorist attacks on Israel came as shock to many — but not to surveillance soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who say their warnings about their alarming observations along the Gaza border were ignored by higher-ups. 

  In interviews with Israeli media, soldiers of the IDF’s Combat Intelligence Corps say that, for at least three months before the attacks, they observed Hamas members conducting paramilitary training along the fenceline, digging holes, studying the area with maps, examining the ground surface and even placing and detonating explosives. 

  Speaking to Kan News on Wedneday, Yael Rotenberg and Maya Desiatnik expressed their anger over the IDF’s failure to heed their repeated reports of the ominous activity. Compounding their rage, the two were the only Combat Intelligence Corps soldiers who survived the Hamas attack on their base near the Nahal Oz kibbutz, less than a half-mile southeast of the Gaza border.  

  

  “It’s infuriating. We saw what was happening, we told them about it, and we were the ones who were murdered,” said Desiatnik.

  The types of activity they observed at the border was concerning enough, but, even more strikingly, the pace had steadily intensified as Oct 7 approached. Desiatnik said it proceeded from weekly, to daily, to almost nonstop. In addition to her general visual observations, she said she was able to obtain information about the substance of the training, which encompassed driving tanks to bypassing the fence via tunnels.

  She told Kan News that she’d concluded “it was just a matter of time” until Hamas unleashed an attack on Israel. 

  Two other IDF intelligence soldiers shared similar experiences with Israel’s Channel 12.

  “We sat on shifts and saw the convoy of vans. We saw the training, people shooting and rolling, practicing taking over a tank. The training went from once a week to twice a week, from every day to several times a day,” said Amit Yerushalmi. “We saw patrols along the border, people with cameras and binoculars. It happened 300 meters from the fence. There were a lot of disturbances, people went down to the fence and detonated an outrageous amount of explosives, the amount of explosives was crazy.” 

  Yerushalmi said she dutifully recorded all her observations, with no apparent impact on the command whatsoever. 

  These four IDF soldiers aren’t the only ones who say their warnings were ignored. Egyptian intelligence officials say they also attempted to alert Tel Aviv. “We have warned them an explosion of the situation is coming, and very soon, and it would be big. But they underestimated such warnings,” an anonymous Egyptian official told the Associated Press. 

  Video footage released by Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, on Sunday shows the moment its fighters breached Gaza’s security fence and stormed the Erez Crossing pic.twitter.com/Ob2OekZRfh

  — Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) October 8, 2023

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

  According to report by Israel’s Ynet, Egypt’s intelligence minister personally phoned Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu just 10 days before the attack, warning that Hamas was poised to do “something unusual, a terrible operation.” 

  Ever since the political, militant and terror group’s founding in the late 1970s, right-wing Israeli officials have fostered the rise of Hamas to ensure there is no viable “partner for peace” on the Palestinian side — allowing Israel to forever postpone making territorial concessions while further settling the West Bank and paying diplomatic lip service to a two-state solution.  

  To an extent unprecedented in Israel’s history, the current Netanyahu government is dominated by ultra-nationalists and religious extremists representing parties such as “Religious Zionism” and “Jewish Power.” In the wake of the Oct 7 atrocities, they won’t have to worry about a negotiated peace with the Palestinians anytime soon. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 20:40

• Senator Demands Answers From FDA On Safety Signal For COVID Vaccines And Children
  Senator Demands Answers From FDA On Safety Signal For COVID Vaccines And Children

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

  The U.S. agencies that clear and recommend vaccines should disclose when they learned that COVID-19 vaccines may cause seizures and convulsions in children, a U.S. senator says.

  

  Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to disclose the information after both agencies refused to do so to The Epoch Times.

  In a preprint paper published on Oct. 15, FDA researchers said they detected a safety signal for seizures/convulsions in children aged 2 to 5 following COVID-19 vaccination.

  The paper covered data from no later than April.

  About a month before the paper was released, the FDA authorized new shots from Moderna and Pfizer for children as young as 6 months of age. The CDC then announced it was recommending the shots for virtually all Americans, despite little data supporting such a recommendation. Neither agency mentioned the signal of seizures and convulsions.

  “When was FDA and CDC first made aware of the findings of the FDA-funded study eventually published as a preprint on October 15, 2023? Provide the names and titles of the individuals who were initially made aware of the study’s findings,” Mr. Johnson asked the heads of the FDA and CDC on Oct. 25.

  In their paper, the FDA researchers said that the signal should be investigated further “in a robust epidemiological study.”

  Mr. Johnson asked whether the FDA is pursuing such a study, and for any other steps the FDA and CDC have taken in response to the signal being found.

  

  Mr. Johnson said the new information could change the promoted view that the benefits of the vaccines outweigh the risks. The CDC and FDA said that was the case for nearly all Americans, but many other countries, such as Denmark, have limited COVID-19 vaccination to select groups in light of waning vaccine effectiveness and the high levels of prior infection in the population.

  The FDA has refused so far to say when its officials first learned of the signal.

  “The FDA is confident in the safety, effectiveness and quality of the COVID-19 vaccines. The available data continue to demonstrate that the benefits of these vaccines outweigh their risks,” a spokeswoman told The Epoch Times in an email, ignoring a question about when the signal was first detected.

  The CDC did not respond to a request on when it was first informed of the signal.

  Pfizer and Moderna have also not responded to queries.

  Transparency advocates said the lack of transparency undermines public trust in the health agencies.

  “Trust is lost in public health policy recommendations when health officials either refuse or are slow to make information available that can help people weigh the risks for themselves when considering their own current health and medical history,” Barbara Loe Fisher, founder and co-president of the National Vaccine Information Center, told The Epoch Times via email.

  Other Concerns

  Mr. Johnson, the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has perhaps been the member of Congress most focused on COVID-19 vaccine safety, repeatedly asking federal officials for information that has been withheld or reported in the media.

  Mr. Johnson, for instance, asked the FDA for results of data mining done on adverse event reports after The Epoch Times obtained the results from similar mining that showed federal officials detected hundreds of signals for the Pfizer and Moderna shots.

  The FDA in September refused to provide Mr. Johnson with the requested data, claiming it could not do so because of ongoing litigation over the information.

  

  Mr. Johnson has sent 60 letters to federal agencies to try to get answers, but has received little in return.

  “Federal health agencies must be transparent and provide all the information they have so that patients can benefit from informed consent. To date, they have failed to do so,” Mr. Johnson told The Epoch Times in an email. “It is well past time for them to divulge what they know.”

  Mr. Johnson told the leaders of the FDA, the CDC, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that they “have a duty to provide the American people with complete and transparent data regarding the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 ‘vaccines'” and that it is “completely unacceptable” that they’ve refused to be transparent.

  “The fact that the vast majority of my questions and information requests remain unanswered or outstanding,” he wrote, “only heightens my level of suspicion.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 20:10

• Joy Behar Reminds America She's A Moron With AR-15 Misinformation
  Joy Behar Reminds America She’s A Moron With AR-15 Misinformation

  It’s hard to say which of the covenous crones on The View is the dumbest, but co-host Joy Behar certainly took the cake this week when she told millions of wine moms that AR-15 rifles will obliterate deer, making them inedible.

  

  While discussing last week’s mass shooting, in which 40-year-old Army reservist and firearms instructor Robert Card killed 18 people before he was found dead Friday evening of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Behar and crew floated the idea of an assault weapons ban.

  “I would love to see an assault weapons ban. Like President Reagan, I don’t believe they’re a sport or hunting instrument. It’s like shooting fish in a bucket, but that’s my tea,” said co-host Sara Haines.

  To which Behar responded: “But also, if you shoot with an AR-15, let’s say you shoot a deer, you can’t eat it because you basically demolish the animal.“

  Watch:

  Joy Behar: “If you shoot with an AR-15, let’s say you shoot a deer, you can’t eat it because you basically demolish the animal.” pic.twitter.com/NflGVQtHLk

  — TheBlaze (@theblaze) October 27, 2023

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

  While 10 states restrict hunting with a .223 or 5.56 round used in an AR-15, mostly because they aren’t powerful enough and could wound vs. kill larger game, a 2022 survey from the National Shooting Sports Foundation found that 40% of hunters use Modern Sporting Rifles (mostly consisting of the AR platform).

  It should also be noted that the .223 was introduced as an alternative to the .308 (7.62 NATO) due to its ability to be manufactured quickly and inexpensively, and in part because it’s less lethal, rendering an enemy incapacitated in battle vs. killing him – thus, placing a further strain on resources.

  As a reminder, Behar’s ignorance knows no bounds:

  • Joy Behar Faces Ridicule For Saying “Once Black People Get Guns In This Country, The Gun Laws Will Change”
  • The View Co-Host Joy Behar Claims Crime Is “Going Down” Under Biden
  • Peak Delusion: Joy Behar Says She’ll Break From CDC Guidance, Wear A Mask Inside “Indefinitely”

  

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 19:40

• House Speaker Johnson: Russia, China, & Iran Are The New Axis Of Evil
  House Speaker Johnson: Russia, China, & Iran Are The New Axis Of Evil

  Authored by Kyle Anzalone via AntiWar.com,

  Representative Mike Johnson vowed to support the wars in Ukraine and Israel in an interview after becoming House Speaker. The Congressman told Sean Hannity that China, Russia, and Iran make up an “axis of evil” that poses a huge threat to the US.

  The Speaker presented Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran as a trilateral threat to Washington. “Big priorities in this moment right now. We have Israel being attacked, we have unrest, we have the Ukraine situation we’ve got to deal with, we have China being aggressive, we have Iran with all the meddling, and China, Russia, and Iran working together. This is a dangerous time.” he said.

  

  “Hamas and Hezbollah are proxies of Iran, and they’re tied in now with Russia and China. I mean, it is a new axis of evil. That’s how we see it, “Johnson continued, the states posed a “huge [threat to the US.] It’s it’s the biggest threat since World War II.”

  On Ukraine, Johnson stated that the support for Ukraine must continue. “Now we can’t allow Vladimir Putin to Prevail in Ukraine because I don’t believe it would stop there,” he said.

  “And it would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan. We have these concerns. We’re not going to abandon them.”

  The Speaker noted he would like to see more oversight over additional aid but did not say it was a requirement to pass a multi-billion assistance bill for Ukraine.

  Johnson explained that he does support the White House’s proposed $105 billion bill that would fund the War in Ukraine, Israel’s war on Gaza, fund Washington’s military buildup in the Pacific, and provide funds to increase security at the southern border. The Speaker said the consensus among House Republicans is to split the funding into different bills.

  Mike Johnson, the new GOP Speaker of the House, tells Sean Hannity:

  – “We can’t allow Putin to prevail in Ukraine”
  – US “boots on the ground” may be required to “stand with Israel”
  – Supports Israel directly attacking Iran
  – Russia, China, and Iran are “the new Axis of Evil” pic.twitter.com/1dQAZqpMKn

  — Michael Tracey (@mtracey) October 27, 2023

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

  As well as supporting future aid for Ukraine, the Speaker is willing to send American soldiers to the Middle East in defense of Israel. “Watching it very closely, one thing that House Republicans are resolved on is that we must stand with our most important Ally in the Middle East, and that’s Israel.” He added, “I hope that it doesn’t come to boots on the ground.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 19:10

• Hamas Vows To Release 8 Russian-Israeli Hostages After Talks In Moscow
  Hamas Vows To Release 8 Russian-Israeli Hostages After Talks In Moscow

  We reported earlier that Hamas on Thursday sent a delegation to Moscow, a rarity, in order to engage with Russian diplomats on the Gaza-Israel crisis. The controversial meetings appear to have born fruit for the Kremlin side, particularly related to dual Russian citizens who are being held by Hamas, among the more than 220 Israeli captives who haven’t been heard from since Oct.7.

  According to The Moscow Times, “Hamas is trying to locate eight Russian-Israeli dual citizens among nearly 230 taken hostage during the Palestinian militants’ attack on Israel after Moscow’s request to free them, Russian news agencies reported Saturday.”

  

  So far a total of four hostages have been released after international behind-the-scenes talks involving Qatar. Two of these were Americans from Chicago, which has led to some sectors within Israel voicing criticism that the government could be too focused only on freeing dual nationals, to satisfy international partners. 

  Concerning Russia’s request to see its nationals go free, Hamas said, “From the Russian side, via the Foreign Ministry, we received a list of citizens that have dual citizenship,” according to senior Hamas representative Moussa Abu Marzook.

  “We are looking for those people… It is hard but we are looking. And when we find them, we will let them go,” he vowed. “We are very attentive to this list and will process it carefully because we consider Russia to be a closest friend.”

  “About the peaceful citizens that were taken and that are now in Gaza, we treat them as guests,” Abu Marzook claimed further. He said of the Russian-Israelis, “We will free them as soon as there will be the conditions.”

  These statements are likely genuine, given the past several years Hamas has done much to repair and grow its relations with Moscow. Importantly for Hamas, Russia is is among very few superpowers which has not designated the group a terrorist organization. Hamas wants to keep Moscow happy, given Russia’s ability to also influence Gulf countries when it comes to a potential future “solution” to the Gaza crisis. 

  The Russia-Hamas talks have angered Western officials and pundits…

  Russia has no real leverage and no serious diplomatic role to play in the Middle East right now, so it’s remarkable and telling to see Russia take a flamethrower to its relationship with Israel over what is basically a photo op with Hamas leaders https://t.co/VpDuYDAgpb

  — Gregg Carlstrom (@glcarlstrom) October 27, 2023

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

  Interestingly, Hamas has also lately tried to claim that Israeli civilians were taken as “a result of chaos”. Well over 1,000 Israelis were massacred in the Oct.7 raids, however. Estimates put the death toll at over 1,400 – including women and children. But Hamas’ Abu Marzook has acknowledged that “dozens of Western and regional officials came to us to demand the liberation of the detainees.”

  But again, the question of foreign nationals remains a sensitive subject within Israel, where PM Netanyahu and his top officials can’t being seen as favoring the foreign captives over Israelis.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 18:05

• EV Skeptic Toyota Chairman Says People Are 'Finally' Waking Up To Reality Of Electric Vehicles
  EV Skeptic Toyota Chairman Says People Are ‘Finally’ Waking Up To Reality Of Electric Vehicles

  Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Toyota’s chairman and former CEO, Akio Toyoda, told reporters at an auto show in Japan this week that waning demand for electric vehicles (EV) is a sign that people are waking up to the reality that EVs aren’t the silver bullet against the supposed ills of carbon emissions they’re often made out to be.

  “People are finally seeing reality” about EV technology, Mr. Toyoda told reporters ahead of the Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo this week, speaking in his capacity as the head of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, the organizer of the event.

  

  Mr. Toyoda, a long-time skeptic of a full-steam-ahead adoption of EVs, stepped down from his role as CEO of Toyota this year amid criticism that he wasn’t serious enough about pushing the company into a quick adoption of battery-powered cars.

  Asked by reporters at the auto show on his thoughts about falling EV demand, Mr. Toyoda’s response implied that he feels vindicated in his reluctance.

  “There are many ways to climb the mountain that is achieving carbon neutrality,” he said while suggesting that consumers are finally waking up from a dreamscape pushed by climate change alarmists that puts EVs on a pedestal and overhypes their benefits while downplaying their drawbacks.

  His remarks came as demand growth for EVs in various markets has slowed, leading some companies to dial back their electrification plans.

  

  Waning Demand

  Market research firm Canalys estimates that global sales of EVs rose 49 percent in the first half of this year, down from last year’s 63 percent pace of growth.

  Honda and General Motors announced on Wednesday that they were scrapping a $5 billion plan to develop EVs together, while GM said on Tuesday that it was slowing its electrification strategy.

  GM is “moderating the acceleration of EV production to protect our pricing, adjust to slower near-term growth in demand and implement engineering changes that will bolster profits,” GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said in an Oct. 24 earnings call with reporters in which he revealed that the weeks-long strike by unionized auto workers had already cost the company $800 million and counting.

  

  Ford said earlier this month that it would temporarily cut one of three shifts at a plant that builds its electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck after slowing its EV ramp-up in July. remove

  “EV demand next year could be lower than expectations,” Lee Chang-sil, chief financial officer at South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution said on Wednesday, per Reuters.

  Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has been helping the Biden administration push EVs onto reluctant drivers, recently acknowledged some their drawbacks, saying he’s had trouble finding reliable EV charging stations. His admission came as the federal agency he helms announced $100 million in funding for EV charging stations.

  ‘Automotive Seasoning’

  Mr. Toyoda’s remarks at the auto show that people are becoming more clear-eyed about the drawbacks of EVs stood in some contrast to an EV-boosting speech given by the current Toyota CEO and President, Koji Sato.

  Mr. Sato spoke at an Oct. 25 press briefing at the Japan Mobility Show, kicking off his presentation by hyping up EVs.

  “The first story is our future life with battery EVs,” he said, according to a transcript of his remarks. “They are not only eco-friendly. Electric cars also offer their own flavor of driving fun and automotive seasoning.”

  However, in order to execute on “our vision for battery EVs,” Mr. Sato said that Toyota would be “revisiting the fundamental principles of car making” in order to overcome the known drawbacks of EVs like limited driving range.

  He talked up an apparent benefit of EVs, namely lower center of gravity and a more spacious interior, calling it “value that only battery EVs can offer.”

  “In these cars, the scenery looks completely different,” he said.

  But while lower center of gravity and more roomy interiors will likely be welcome by some drivers, unless automakers can figure out how to overcome “range anxiety,” they may find EV adoption will wane further.

  Range Anxiety

  A major worry among Americans considering the wisdom of switching to an EV is range anxiety, which is the fear of driving an EV and running out of power without being able to find a charging port—and ending up stranded on the side of the road.

  A recent study by the American Automobile Association (AAA) found that EV range can fall by up to a quarter when the vehicle is carrying heavy loads.

  “Range anxiety remains a top reason consumers are hesitant to switch from gasoline-powered vehicles to EVs,” Adrienne Woodland, spokesperson for AAA, said in a statement.

  Another recent study by consultancy Ernst & Young—in collaboration with European energy industry body Eurelectric—found that range anxiety is the second-most cited concern about switching to an EV, with a lack of public charging stations in the top spot.

  The study points to an estimated need for 68.9 million chargers across the United States and Canada by 2035 to support the pace of the EV transformation.

  President Joe Biden has set a goal of 50 percent of all new vehicles by 2030 being either EVs or plug-in hybrids.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 17:30

• Musk Prepares To Save Gaza's Internet With Starlink Deployment
  Musk Prepares To Save Gaza’s Internet With Starlink Deployment

  Over the past 24 hours, Israeli ground forces have escalated their attacks in Gaza, preparing for a potential large-scale ground operation aimed at the militant group Hamas.

  According to NetBlocks, a network analysis website, all internet and phone services in the region have been severed. Meanwhile, on the ‘free speech’ platform X, some users are urging Elon Musk to assist Gaza by providing Starlink terminals, mirroring his support in Ukraine. 

  Gaza is under bombardment and the Internet is cut off. We demand that Starlink be activated in the Gaza Strip#starlinkforgaz pic.twitter.com/SRRTik5rwo

  — دعسُوقة (@ladybug__9) October 27, 2023

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

  @elonmusk activate @Starlink for #Gaza.

  We demand to see what’s happening pic.twitter.com/ceqCfKEy3X

  — Awaited Hope (@Awaited_Hope) October 27, 2023

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

  #starlinkforgaza
  We demand starlink service to Gaza. The way you did for Ukraine.

  ⁦@elonmusk⁩ pic.twitter.com/HqblDrxF8o

  — Begum Hamza (@BegumHamza) October 28, 2023

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

  On Friday, NetBlocks posted on X, “Live network data show a collapse in connectivity in the Gaza Strip with high impact to Paltel, amid reports of heavy bombardment; the company is the last remaining major operator to supply service as connectivity declines amid ongoing fighting with Israel.” 

  

  In response to the internet outage, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, a party that has had many members chant antisemitic slogans and displaying pro-Hamas signs in protests, criticized Israel’s bombardments in Gaza. 

  Musk responded to AOC’s X post: 

  “Starlink will support connectivity to internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza.” 

  Starlink will support connectivity to internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza.

  [ComStar]

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2023

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

  Musk, the owner of X, Tesla, and SpaceX, has provided a digital lifeline for soldiers and civilians in Ukraine amid the war with Russia.

  Of course, there was pushback by pro-Israel twitterati, but Musk rapidly responded to clarify…

  We are not so naive. 

  Per my post, no Starlink terminal has attempted to connect from Gaza. 

  If one does, we will take extraordinary measures to confirm that it is used *only* for purely humanitarian reasons.

  Moreover, we will do a security check with both the US and Israeli governments before turning on even a single terminal.

  Interestingly, despite some of AOC’s colleagues previously criticizing the billionaire based on a misleading report from his biographer regarding internet service disruptions in Ukraine, they now find themselves seeking his assistance. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 16:55

• Our Neofeudal, Neocolonial World
  Our Neofeudal, Neocolonial World

  Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

  Once the chasm widens a bit more, the “efficient market” cover story bridge collapses into the abyss.

  In the conventional view, Neofeudalism and Neocolonialism are mad fantasies: the world is an efficient market of buyers and sellers guided by the invisible hand of self-interest, overseen by a fair referee, the State.

  This is of course exactly what those benefiting from Neofeudalism and Neocolonialism would say: since I’m doing great, everyone’s doing great.

  The view from inside Neofeudal, Neocolonial monopolies is more realistic. Inside the Big Tech monopolies, the leaders quite rightly compare their digital empire to that of the East India Company, which ruled most of India as a private corporation so powerful that it was in many way its own State, even as the duties on its massive commerce funded the British state and expanded the British Empire by other means.

  

  Two books offer insight into corporate colonialism and by extension, into corporate neocolonialism:

  The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company by William Dalrymple

  Empire, Incorporated: The Corporations That Built British Colonialism by Philip J. Stern

  In other words, private empires extend national empires which in turn empower private empires. The Big Tech corporations operate as Network States, a new iteration of the corporation-as-empire model. The Big Tech monopolies don’t need private armies like the East India Company maintained, or a merchant fleet; they operate in the digital world as global fiefdoms.

  Those beholden to these digital empires also have a more realistic view. For example, Anupam Mittal, founder and CEO of People Group, in reference to Google’s new billing system, called the company the “Digital East India Company” and its policies “neocolonialism at its worst.”

  The mad fantasy isn’t Neofeudalism / Neocolonialism, it’s the absurdly self-serving mirage of an efficient market of buyers and sellers blah-blah-blah, the cover story used by every apologist for monopoly since the late 1700s to cloak the harsh reality that markets are opportunities for monopolies and cartels and the profits and wealth generated are asymmetrically distributed not by some invisible hand but by the very visible hands on the levers of Neofeudalism / Neocolonialism.

  These hands don’t really care what currency you use to pay them; gold is fine, bitcoin is fine, gold-backed currencies are fine, it doesn’t matter what you use to pay, but pay you will.

  I’ve engaged in several illuminating discussions with well-read readers about the nature of feudalism. They’ve questioned my use of neofeudalism in ways that have helped clarify the meaning of the phrase in today’s world-structure.

  One key difference between feudalism proper and today’s corporate-state neofeudalism is the bond between the nobility and their serfs, and the role of the Church in mediating the bond. The long transition from the relationships of citizens and slaves to the centralized power of Rome in the imperial era to the feudal ties of serf to noble is explored in The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000 by Chris Wickham.

  In effect, the system of centralized benefits, coercion and redress of the Western Roman Empire slowly devolved to a decentralized structure of weak monarchies and powerful localized nobles whose serfs were bound to them by legal and practical bonds.

  The Catholic Church acted as a centralized power that enforced laborers’ days off for religious services and festivities, and rewarded nobles’ gifts of land and wealth to the Church. The nobility had the power and the rights, but there were obligations to the serfs as well, the source of the term noblesse oblige, the obligations, both inferred and in practice, of the nobility to their serfs.

  In today’s neofeudalism, the corporate fiefdoms have offloaded all the obligations to States, while maintaining the mutually beneficial ties of State and Corporate Empire of the colonial model. The only obligation the corporate fiefdoms have is to their owners (shareholders) and secondarily, the obligation to grease the palms of their lackeys within the State: the elected and appointed officials who oversee the smooth functioning of the corporate-state bond that is the foundation of both Neofeudalism and Neocolonialism.

  The problem is the State cannot afford both the bread and circuses obligations to modern-day serfs and its obligations to corporate fiefdoms to keep the profits and wealth flowing to the owners. These asymmetries have reached such extremes that now both the social and economic orders are unraveling.

  

  As the unraveling accelerates, the apologists claims that it’s all an efficient market of buyers and seller ruled by self-interest is going to look increasingly detached from reality. This cover story can be understood as a bridge over a widening chasm. Once the chasm widens a bit more, the “efficient market” cover story bridge collapses into the abyss.

  *  *  *

  New podcast: Leafbox Interview: Charles Hugh Smith (73 minutes, full transcript)

  My new book is now available at a 10% discount ($8.95 ebook, $18 print): Self-Reliance in the 21st Century. Read the first chapter for free (PDF)

  Become a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

  Subscribe to my Substack for free

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 16:30

• House Weaponization Panel Gets IRS To End 'Abusive' Surprise Visits; Taibbi Thanks Jim Jordan
  House Weaponization Panel Gets IRS To End ‘Abusive’ Surprise Visits; Taibbi Thanks Jim Jordan

  House Republicans on the GOP’s “weaponization” subcommittee said in a Friday report that the IRS has agreed to end its “abusive” policy of surprise visits to taxpayers’ homes following pressure from the panel.

  

  “The Committee’s and Select Subcommittee’s oversight revealed, and led to the swift end of, the IRS’s weaponization of unannounced field visits to harass, intimidate, and target taxpayers,” reads the report. “Taxpayers can now rest assured the IRS will not come knocking without providing prior notice—something that should have been the IRS’s practice all along.”

  The IRS announced in July that it would end most unannounced agent visits to the homes of Americans, citing security concerns.

  But it also came after the agency engaged in what appeared to be witness intimidation, after visiting the New Jersey home of journalist Matt Taibbi on the same day he appeared before Congress to testify on government abuse.

  Following the incident, Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) demanded answers from the IRS, writing “In light of the hostile reaction to Mr. Taibbi’s reporting among left-wing activists, and the IRS’s history as a tool of government abuse, the IRS’s action could be interpreted as an attempt to intimidate a witness before Congress.“

  Taibbi thanked Jordan on Saturday, writing in response to the report:

  One of the cases outlined is my own. My home was visited by the IRS while I was testifying before Jordan’s Committee about the Twitter Files on March 9^th. Sincere thanks are due to Chairman Jordan, whose staff not only demanded and got answers in my case, but achieved a concrete policy change, as IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel announced in July new procedures that would “end most” home visits.

  Anticipating criticism for expressing public thanks to a Republican congressman, I’d like to ask Democratic Party partisans: to which elected Democrat should I have appealed for help in this matter? The one who called me a “so-called journalist” on the House floor? The one who told me to take off my “tinfoil hat” and put greater trust in intelligence services? The ones in leadership who threatened me with jail time? I gave votes to the party for thirty years. Which elected Democrat would have performed basic constituent services in my case? Feel free to raise a hand.

  If silence is the answer, why should I ever vote for a Democrat again? –Racket News

  Taibbi had opined earlier in the day on the disturbing IRS home visits, writing in Racket that: perhaps the most ‘unsettling revelations’ happened after his case – when on April 25, 2023 a woman was visited by an IRS agent using a fake name.

  

  On that date, a woman was visited at her home by a man identifying himself as “Bill Haus” from the IRS’s Criminal Division. He then “informed the taxpayer he was at her home to discuss issues concerning an estate for which the taxpayer was the fiduciary,” and after sharing “details about the estate that only the IRS would know,” the taxpayer “let him into her home.”

  The woman informed “Haus” that the estate issues had been resolved, and furnished documents to prove it. At this point, he informed her of his real purpose, claiming she was delinquent on several tax filings and provided “several documents to the taxpayer for her to complete.”

  Hesitating, the woman offered to put him on the phone with her accountant, but when he didn’t answer the phone, she contacted an attorney, who “repeatedly told Agent ‘Haus’ to leave the taxpayer’s home since the taxpayer had not received any prior notice from the IRS of any issue.” The agent reportedly replied that he was with the IRS and could go into anyone’s house at any time, and before leaving told the taxpayer she had “exactly one week to satisfy the remaining balance or he would freeze all her assets and put a lien on her house,” as the Committee report put it.

  Once “Haus” left, the taxpayer feared a scam and had the good sense to immediately contact the Marion, Ohio Police Department (MPD), upon whose reports this story ends up being based. (Emails published below.) The MPD ran the plate of “Bill Haus” and found it came back to a car owned by someone with a different name. The police contacted the car owner, who “attested that he was an IRS agent but admitted Bill Haus was not his real name; he was using an alias.”

  *  *  *

  Taibbi also notes that “Agent Haus” was pissed after his identity was discovered, and then filed a complaint with the Treasury Department’s Inspector General against the MPD for outing him. It was only after a senior MPD offer called the Inspector General (TIGTA) that they were able to confirm that Haus was an actual IRS agent.

  

  As Taibbi further considers:

  Pause here to consider the numerous problems already confirmed, to police, by the IRS:

  1. IRS agents make field visits using aliases;

  2. IRS agents make “pretext” visits, i.e. they announce they’re asking about one thing, when really by their own admission, they might be investigating something else;

  3. The IRS makes local, covert home visits without informing local authorities.

  Think of the problems that could arise from the last issue alone. According to the exchanges, the IRS isn’t required to inform local officials of investigative activity, but as noted by the TIGTA official in communications with the MPD, this is something they should do, to avoid mixups. Here for instance, even after a lengthy inquiry, local police were unsure “Agent Haus” really worked for the Treasury. Imagine if the taxpayer called police to come over during her visit, and think of the things could go wrong. It’s insanity that the Treasury would have investigators using aliases making Clockwork Orange-style “surprise visits” without informing local officials.

  Amazing.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 16:00

• Time To Think 'Quadrillions', As There's 'Zero Fiscal Restraint' In D.C.
  Time To Think ‘Quadrillions’, As There’s ‘Zero Fiscal Restraint’ In D.C.

  Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

  This past week I had the pleasure of interviewing one of my favorite hedge fund managers, Lawrence Lepard.

  Last week I also released more than 30 pages from Larry outlining his take on the macroeconomy, gold, bitcoin and the state of the U.S. dollar. You can read Part 1 of his letter, which talks about the U.S. fiscal doom loop, here and Part 2 of his letter, which describes 7 reasons why the Fed must print trillions again, here.

  In our hour and a half discussion last week, we covered topics like the war in the Middle East, geopolitics, the treasury market, gold, bitcoin, a potential regional banking collapse, reasons the stock market could go up or down, and both fiscal and monetary policy.

  “Just as was with the Covid thing, [the wars in Ukraine and Israel] has been a convenient way for them to print a shitload of money,” Larry said about the conflict in the Middle East.

  “While you were speaking, I Googled the Reagan budget deficits. I remember starting out in business in ’83 and ’84, relatively early in my career,” he recalls:

  “People went crazy over how Reagan initiated deficit spending. In 1983, the federal budget deficit was $55 billion for the entire calendar year. This past year, as you’re aware, it was $2 trillion.”

  

  Larry says about our worsening financial picture in the U.S.:

  “By the way, you know, we’re gonna have to start thinking about what comes after, you know, a trillion. I mean, I think it’s a quadrillion. And, uh, because, you know, at the stage, at the rate that we’re going, it is becoming exponential. And that’s, of course, why I believe that this monetary system is doomed. It’s just— there’s— it’s absolutely doomed. I’m— I hate to say that, and I’m not trying to be a doomsayer or fearmonger. I just think it’s basic math.”

  “There appears to be zero fiscal restraint in Washington D.C. They are behaving as if there’s no consequences but the 10 year is saying ‘oh, there will be consequences, alright,’” he adds.

  Larry also talks about the bond market and treasuries. Talking about Bill Ackman covering his bond short, Larry said:

  “I think he, um, I think he sees that the bond is very overextended, and he’s playing for a bounce, assuming the economy is going to slow down. And I don’t disagree that that could happen. I mean, some of the very good technical analysts that I follow suggest that, you know, the bond— the long bond, which, you know, the interest rate almost got to 5%— in fact, it did briefly get over 5% on the ten-year, you know, that could drop back into the low fours for a little while before turning and then going much higher.”

  And ultimately Larry thinks treasury yields are going higher:

  “I think, over the longer term, interest rates are going much, much higher. And the reason I think that is, I think inflation is not subdued, and I think that people are going to lose confidence in these bonds and they’re not going to want to hold them. So, um, how long do you think that takes to play out? Uh, probably within the next six months to a year, I mean, I would expect that.”

  ---

  For those who are not yet subscribers, you can take 50% off for life by using the coupon: Get 50% off forever

  ---

  Larry believes that gold and bitcoin will be the safe havens for years to come:

  “As Luke Groman says, I mean, we’re starting to look like a third-world country, and that’s really the biggest development that’s taking place. And that’s where, and you can see it in sound money. I mean, you know, real interest rates have gone up 500 basis points in the last year, 18 months, and yet gold is still very close to its all-time high. And Bitcoin has done quite a nice job of recovering out of the hole that it dug after FTX blew up. So, um, I think people are starting to figure out that this issue.”

  “But the point is, as more and more people come to realize that they can never stop printing money, they can never stop debasing a currency,” he concludes.

  “The two obvious areas that are going to reflect this are the price of gold and the price of Bitcoin, because they’re the two sound money alternatives. So as those assets appreciate, more and more people are going to think, ‘Jesus, I’m the sucker here, right? I’m getting paid in money, and I know that it’s not going to hold its value.’ If they have any savings, they feel compelled to invest them into one of these two assets. As those assets go up, nobody is willing to save in Treasury bonds, and the cycle continues: rinse, wash, repeat.”

  Finally, Larry concludes, talking about distortions in markets from central planning:

  “We all know, and I think we all believe—even Keynesians would admit—that free markets provide the highest and best way of allocating goods and services and providing prosperity. You don’t do it with communism; you do it with free markets. By setting the rate, by having 12 policymakers and 400 PhDs at the Fed who set the interest rate, that’s not a free market. That’s the Politburo saying grain should be this price. And when they did that back in the ’60s and ’70s, they either had way too much grain or way too little grain. Right? Because the farmers figured out, well, it works or it doesn’t work. So letting a bunch of elected or appointed officials set the price of the most important good—the base-level good, which is money—in the economy is just a recipe for disaster.”

  Here is the full discussion:

  You can also find:

  • All of my podcasts on Apple Podcasts

  • All of my podcasts on Spotify

  • Additional podcast appearances from the past available at this YouTube link.

   

  

  QTR’s Disclaimer: I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. These positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 15:35

• Pence Pulls Out Of Presidential Race As Trump's Lead Widens
  Pence Pulls Out Of Presidential Race As Trump’s Lead Widens

  Who could have seen that coming?

  

  Former Vice President Mike Pence announced today that he is suspending his 2024 campaign for the White House.

  “It’s become clear to me it’s not my time,” Pence said during a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition Conference.

  “I’ve decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today.”

  “To the American people, I say: this is not my time, but it is still your time,” he added.

  He wasn’t exactly ‘killin it’.

  The Hill reports that filings show Pence raised $3.3 million during the third fundraising quarter, coupled with around $620,000 in debt. He ended September with just around $1.2 million in cash on hand.

  His poll numbers trended consistently lower from just 9.5% in July 2022 to 3.8% right before actually launched his bid in June 2023 (which saw a small pick-up in his poll numbers). But since the debates began it has been a return to the downtrend, leaving the race today at his personal low of just 3.5%…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Meanwhile, having decided to skip both debates, former President Trump continues to extend his lead in the polls with Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy – his closest rivals – trending lower since the debates.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 15:08

• Abercrombie & Epstein? Ex-CEO Sued Over Gay Sex Trafficking, Abuse Allegations
  Abercrombie & Epstein? Ex-CEO Sued Over Gay Sex Trafficking, Abuse Allegations

  Abercrombie & Fitch is being sued along with its former CEO Mike Jeffries, who has been accused of running a giant sex-trafficking ring that exploited young men who wanted to become models for the brand.

  

  Court documents depict a horror story wherein Jeffries, the once-celebrated architect of the brand’s provocative image, is accused of masterminding the despicable sex trafficking operation. Under this scheme, young men, dazzled by the glamour of modeling stardom, were allegedly subjected to sexual abuse under the guise that it would land them coveted modeling contracts, CNBC reports.

  Earlier this month, a BBC investigation revealed systematic abuse, involving Jeffries’ partner Matthew Smith and associate James Jacobson, under the pretense of offering modeling gigs.

  

  The BBC’s two-year investigation involving 12 witnesses reveals a systematic operation spanning from the 1990s through 2015, where Jeffries, aided by Smith and a conspicuous associate identified as James Jacobson, allegedly lured young men into an abusive quagmire. The promise of lucrative modeling contracts with A&F baited the trap, often leading to coercive sexual encounters at various luxury locations worldwide, from New York to Marrakesh.

  The narratives shared by these men, including David Bradberry, sketch a sinister picture. The operation, disguised behind the glamour of A&F’s brand allure, often began with meetings involving Jacobson. With his striking appearance marked by a snakeskin patch over a missing nose, Jacobson is accused of acting as the gatekeeper to A&F’s inner sanctum, demanding sexual favors as the price for entry.

  

  Systematic abuse

  Several told the BBC the middleman or other recruiters raised the possibility of modelling opportunities with A&F. All except one said they felt harmed by the experience.

  David Bradberry, then 23, said he was introduced in 2010 to Mr Jacobson by an agent who described him as the gatekeeper to “the owners” of A&F, but said there was no mention of sex. At their meeting, he said Mr Jacobson suggested Bruce Weber – then A&F’s official photographer – should take his picture.

  Then, Mr Bradberry said, “Jim made it clear to me that unless I let him perform oral sex on me, that I would not be meeting with Abercrombie & Fitch or Mike Jeffries.” -BBC

  Bradberry’s account, echoed by others, paints a scene of manipulation, where he was cornered into sexual acts under the pretense of career advancement. The exploitation extended to orchestrated events, where Jeffries and Smith would engage or direct participants in sexual acts. These gatherings, often swathed in the legitimacy offered by A&F branding and the presence of staff in company uniforms, created an environment where dissent seemed impossible.

  The largest event described to the BBC was hosted in a private villa at a five-star hotel in 2011, for which dozens of men were flown to Marrakesh. The BBC understands Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith had also invited friends. Alex – who asked for his name to be changed to protect his identity – said he was a struggling model supporting his family back home when he was recruited as a dancer for the event, where he expected he would have to strip.

  Mr Jeffries “took advantage of people in a very vulnerable point in their life, especially when they’re around these big cities, coming from small America,” Alex said. The former CEO was the “kingpin”, he said. “If it wasn’t for him none of this would have existed.”

  Alex, a straight man then in his 20s, said he was auditioned by Mr Jacobson, who praised his dancing but demanded he “finish the job” by performing oral sex on him. “I had debt, I wanted to support my family,” said Alex. “I performed the job and I was, like, disgusted.”

  Thinking “the hardest part was out of the way”, Alex flew to Marrakesh for the event a few weeks later. But moments into his dance, he said, Mr Jeffries tried to kiss him. “I was trying to be in it without offending him. I was extremely uncomfortable,” Alex said. -BBC

  It wasn’t just the attendees recounting tales of abuse. Former household staff disclosed regular weekend events at Jeffries’ properties, including his Hamptons home, which they were instructed to vacate, hinting at concealed ‘playtime’ activities. The entire setup, described as a “well-oiled machine,” included referrals, auditions, grooming rituals, non-disclosure agreements, and enveloped payments, pointing to an established, systematic exploitation process.

  

  While Jeffries’ legal team remains silent in the media, A&F has publicly distanced itself from its former executive, expressing disgust at the allegations. The company underscores its commitment to an abuse-free, discrimination-intolerant ethos under its current leadership. Despite this, questions linger about the brand’s accountability, given the alleged abuses were masked by its corporate veil.

  The inquiry by the BBC, backed by corroborating accounts and documents, not only unmasks the purported sexual exploitation ring but also challenges the fashion industry’s systemic issues, where power can distort into a tool for abuse. With calls for a full legal investigation, this unfolding scandal reaffirms the need for transparency, accountability, and robust mechanisms to protect vulnerable individuals in all sectors, signaling a period of reckoning for corporate America and global industries alike.

  “The company’s current executive leadership team and board of directors were not aware of the allegations of sexual misconduct by Mr. Jeffries,” the company told the BBC. “For close to a decade, a new executive leadership team and refreshed board of directors have successfully transformed our brands and culture into the values-driven organization we are today. We have zero tolerance for abuse, harassment or discrimination of any kind.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 14:35

• Biden Chose Venezuela Over Canada For Oil
  Biden Chose Venezuela Over Canada For Oil

  Authored by Brian Lee Crowley via RealClear Wire,

  The United States needs more heavy oil for a whole series of reasons. President Joe Biden could have chosen to have that oil come from a close friend and ally, environmentally-conscious Canada, or from one of the world’s nastiest regimes, Nicolas Maduro’s Venezuela, which doesn’t give a toss about the environment. Which did he choose?

  Venezuela, of course.

  

  In exchange for modest concessions on electoral reform, the Biden administration just lifted sanctions on Venezuela, allowing them to export hundreds of thousands of barrels a day of vital heavy oil to the United States. The shale oil revolution has not and cannot change the fact that the US produces virtually no heavy oil, yet many of this country’s refineries, especially on the Gulf Coast, were set up to refine that kind of oil. Most of their heavy oil is from Canada, which is why that country is far and away the largest exporter of oil to America— more than twice as much as Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Russia, and Colombia combined. If America is now a net exporter of oil, it can thank Canada.

  The war in Ukraine caused unpopular price hikes at the gas pump. In response, the Biden administration has drawn down the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). That drawdown focused on medium and heavy crudes. OPEC responded with supply cuts aimed at throttling the supply of these strategically important crudes.

  The drawdown of the SPR is reaching its limits but the risk of higher gas prices in an election year is rising. To OPEC and Ukraine, we must now add the heightened risk of conflict spreading in the Middle East.

  In this context, recall that one of the very first acts President Biden took on reaching office was to cancel the permit for the Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline, a permit issued by his predecessor. Keystone XL was intended to provide 830,000 barrels a day of Canadian heavy crude to those Gulf Coast refineries. Pipe was already being laid.

  Had President Biden allowed KXL to proceed, the supply of heavy oil to the US industry would have been secure, risky drawdowns of the SPR unnecessary and America would have been much less vulnerable to global supply disruptions and OPEC’s manipulations. 

  Instead, the President colluded with a campaign to vilify oil from Alberta’s oilsands as “dirty oil.” Yes, producing Canada’s heavy oil emits greenhouse gases. But then all heavy oil is GHG intensive, and Venezuela is the highest emitting in the world. 

  The Canadian oil & gas sector has invested heavily and successfully in emissions reductions. The industry has a $75 billion plan to decarbonize and achieve net zero by 2050, focused on carbon capture and storage and small modular nuclear reactors.

  Venezuela has done nada in terms of real improvement in the environmental footprint of its heavy oil production. What it does have is a regime that is world-leading in terms of its human rights abuses and the damage it has inflicted on a once-prosperous economy. Every dollar America spends on Venezuelan oil will prop up one of the most violent and repressive regimes in the Americas, where Amnesty International says in 2022:

  The security forces responded with excessive force and other repressive measures to protests…to demand economic and social rights, including the right to water. Impunity for ongoing extrajudicial executions by the security forces persisted. Intelligence services and other security forces, with the acquiescence of the judicial system, continued to arbitrarily detain, torture, and otherwise ill-treat those perceived to be opponents of the government of Nicolás Maduro.

  A recent UN Fact Finding Mission to Venezuela talked about the “unremitting human rights crisis” and patterns of crimes against humanity in that country. Nearly 8 million Venezuelans are estimated to have fled the economic and humanitarian crisis there.

  Meanwhile, Canada, while not perfect, has robust human rights protections and high environmental standards. It is also a magnet for immigrants (including tens of thousands of Venezuelans), having one of the highest shares of its population born elsewhere in any country in the world.

  In 2021 President Biden was happy to offend one of America’s closest allies by blocking KXL because it was inconsistent “with my administration’s economic and climate imperatives.”  Three short years later, behind the fig leaf of Venezuelan electoral reform, he is welcoming much more environmentally damaging oil from one of Latin America’s most odious regimes, all to try and keep the price down at the pump. That’s a big win for Nicolás Maduro, but a bad deal for America and Canada.

  Brian Lee Crowley is the Managing Director of the Center for North American Prosperity and Security (www.cnaps.org).

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 14:00

• Erdogan Vows To Get Israel Branded As "War Criminal" State, Also Blames West For Gaza "Massacre"
  Erdogan Vows To Get Israel Branded As “War Criminal” State, Also Blames West For Gaza “Massacre”

  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raged against Israel in a speech given before a pro-Palestinian rally on Saturday in Istanbul. He said he is preparing to introduce Israel as a “war criminal” on a world stage, at a moment the debate over Gaza continues heating up at the United Nations. 

  Erdogan said: “Israel, we will also declare you as a war criminal to the world, we are preparing for it, and we will introduce Israel to the world as a war criminal,” according to a state broadcaster. Footage of the event shows that the turnout was huge, in the hundreds of thousands or possibly over 100,000 people gathered in the capital.

  

  He stressed that the West is busy justifying the massacre of innocent people in Gaza, as the civilian death toll soars, saying “Israel is committing war crimes” as an “occupier.” He added: the “West owes you, but Türkiye does not owe you.”

  “Those shedding crocodile tears for civilians killed in the Ukraine-Russia war are silently watching the deaths of thousands of innocent children in Gaza,” he critiqued further, highlighting the double standard.

  “I am asking West, do you want to create another Crusader War atmosphere?” Erdogan questioned, before saying provocatively: “The main culprit behind the massacre unfolding in Gaza is the West.”

  “Of course, every country has the right to defend itself, but where is justice? There is no defense but an open, and vicious massacre going on in Gaza.” He went after Western elites and their ability to dress up everything they say in human rights rhetoric but which proves shallow: 

  Everyone knows that Israel is a pawn in the region that will be sacrificed when the time comes, he added.

  “I said in Davos, you know how to kill. They know well how to kill.”

  Erdogan continues, “We are saddened for every civilian in any way, but Israel does not care.”

  This week the Palestinian Ministry of Housing issued a grim figure, saying that 20,000 buildings and homes in Gaza have been destroyed over several days of intensified Israeli airstrikes. Turkish media has tallied that in total since Oct. 7, over 200,000 homes and buildings have been leveled. 

  Istanbul, Turkey.
  Thousands rally in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/4LBJ2IJKHf

  — TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) October 28, 2023

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

  Erdogan has earlier confirmed he canceled a planned trip to Israel where he was expected to meet with his Israeli counterpart PM Netanyahu. This was part of a normalization and restoration of ties effort, but are now definitely off. 

  From Tel Aviv’s perspective too, Erdogan’s ratcheting rhetoric in denouncing Israeli war crimes will likely been seen as unforgiveable, even after this current crisis is over. Turkey and Israel have long clashed over the Palestinian issue, and these tensions have now exploded back into full force. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/28/2023 – 13:25

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• Pay No Attention To The Country Behind The Curtain
  Pay No Attention To The Country Behind The Curtain

  Authored by Julie Hartman via The Epoch Times,

  Last week saw a subtle but portentous development. China hosted a global gathering of over 140 countries—70 percent of the world’s nations—in Beijing to commemorate the 10th anniversary of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Not on the guest list: the United States, most NATO member nations, and other American allies such as Israel, Japan, South Korea, and, of course, Taiwan.

  

  The world continues to focus on, and reel from, events in Israel and Gaza. Thus, many people will ignore or shrug at the news of this convocation. They see no connection between the Beijing meeting and the burgeoning Middle East disaster.

  They should reconsider. With the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), few things happen merely by coincidence. Beijing’s hosting of more than 140 invitees may be related, in timing and perhaps more, to the recent surprise assault on Israel. Many lament Israel’s “intelligence failure” but do not contemplate the more sinister explanation: an intelligence penetration. Are Mossad and Shin Bet somehow immune from harboring a Kim Philby, an Aldrich Ames, or a Robert Hanssen? The New York Times reported on Oct. 13 that Hamas had “extraordinary awareness of Israel’s secrets and weaknesses.” From whom?

  Many point the finger at Iran, which is using Hamas as its catspaw to bait its mortal enemy into warfare. But an event this momentous—one of the world’s most advanced and alert countries caught off-guard, suffering 1,400 fatalities, some multiple of that injured, approximately 155 hostages, and the prospect of an imminent bloodbath in Gaza—is unlikely to be a solo opus by a single Jew-hating country. Especially when we know who this Jew-hating country’s criminal associates are.

  It is possible that Iran, though fully culpable, is a willing participant in a wider, deeper scheme, perhaps conceived, but almost certainly known and approved elsewhere.

  As the Romans asked to identify responsibility for some unexplained event: Cui bono? Translation: Who benefits?

  The answer: China.

  Of course, manufacturing another disaster that the West must manage and respond to is optimal for China, and its agent Russia, especially as the CCP’s irredentist lust for Taiwan and Vladimir Putin’s stalemated war of attrition in Ukraine requires distracting their opponents. But the CCP’s ultimate objective in their likely hand in the Oct. 7 pogrom is to sow division and chaos between Western and non-Western countries, and within those individual national populations, to steer geopolitics toward hegemony by China. Since the 1990s, China, recruiting Russia and Iran as its accomplices, has undertaken a multi-pronged, multi-layered, multi-decade strategy to accomplish this, a central feature of which is to conceal that it is happening at all.

  First, China seeks to co-opt nations by “investing” in their infrastructure and institutions, from building railway lines in Bogota and Tehran to a university in Budapest (or, in the case of the United States, spreading around lucrative “business opportunities” to performing troupes of well-placed politicians). How ironic that almost all these countries had representatives in Beijing to celebrate their neo-colonization by the CCP under the BRI. Uhuru! Not so much.

  Like a lustful bachelor assaying and cultivating prospects, China also grooms a roster of mostly third-world, “non-aligned” countries that are Western-alternative-curious, countries possibly seeking an “arrangement” (with China as the benefactor) in addition to, or instead of, the one they have now with the United States and its allies. Beijing can be very persuasive in these flirtations. “America doesn’t appreciate you. You deserve better. The United States can’t give you what you want anymore,” the CCP softly whispers, promising danger and adventure, not stodgy, unsatisfying predictability.

  Last year, Xi Jinping launched the Global Security Initiative to apply “Chinese solutions and wisdom” to world politics and combat Western “unilateralism, bloc confrontation, and hegemonism.” In a visit with Mr. Putin last March, the Russian president said that China and Russia are driving “changes that haven’t happened in 100 years.” In July, Iran joined Russia and gained full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Chinese-founded political alliance group of non-Western countries. Also in July, President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran vowed to combat “Western hegemonic powers” by reshaping the international system to “remove” the dominance of the dollar. In August, Iran also joined BRICS—an economic, China-led and Russia-membered alliance of non-Western countries with the goal of combating Western spheres of power. BRICS members, which also now include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, comprise over a third of the global GDP.

  China is also stepping into the role, occupied since 1945 by the United States, of broker and mediator of international conflicts and disputes. Earlier this year, China helped negotiate a rapprochement between sworn enemies Saudi Arabia and Iran, which China’s top diplomat Wang Yi lauded as China’s successful “casting off external influences” in the Middle East. So one wonders how the CCP may have reacted when, two weeks before Hamas’s attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on a visit to Saudi Arabia, said that it was likely that Israel and Saudi Arabia would enter their own diplomatic agreement in the coming weeks, a development building on the Abraham Accords that Mr. Netanyahu predicted would “change the Middle East forever.” China does not want to see Saudi-Israeli relations become normalized and work together outside of its sphere.

  And now, with China’s economy sputtering as its population ages and declines, the next phase of the strategy of the CCP on its shrinking timetable of global hegemony may be diminishing and dividing its opponents—in particular, NATO, the bedrock institution to secure international order since 1945. China is keenly aware that a potent accelerant to fracture these nations’ populations would be graphic footage of a streamed-online-in-real-time war in Gaza, featuring house-to-house urban warfare on a scale not occurring since Stalingrad, as well as the resultant refugee catastrophe that will likely accompany and follow the war.

  Just 10 days after Israel was attacked, China has now convened more than 140 countries, pointedly not inviting the United States and its closest allies. Those in attendance were feted, flattered, bribed, seduced, and dazzled by a program showcasing China’s ascension and vitality and the West’s decline, division, and irrelevance—a dystopian 2023 World’s Fair portending a grim future of supine servitude, or worse, for those who do not fall into line, especially those not on the guest list.

  Cui bono, indeed.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 23:40

• New Image Reveals B-21 Raider Taxiing Ahead Of Maiden Flight
  New Image Reveals B-21 Raider Taxiing Ahead Of Maiden Flight

  A new image of the pre-production B-21 Raider stealth bomber taxiing at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, was posted on Reddit on Wednesday. This is the first public image showing the next-generation stealth bomber’s rear as it continues moving closer to its maiden flight. 

  

  Defense blog The War Zone confirmed with a USAF spokesperson the photo on Reddit was the B-21 conducting taxi tests at Plant 42.

  “I can confirm the B-21 is conducting ground taxi activities. Rigorous testing is a critical step in the B-21 flight test program,” the spokesperson said, adding, “Extensive testing evaluates systems, components, and functionalities. This testing allows us to mitigate risks, optimize design, and enhance operational effectiveness.”

  Confirmation of the B-21′s taxi tests comes after the USAF revealed new images of the stealth bomber in Sept. 

  

  It was only the second time the service showed off the new bomber after an unveiling event in December 2022 (read: here) and early March (read: here). 

  

  The military blog said, “The Air Force’s goal now is for the Raider to take to the skies before the end of this year.” The service’s plan is to have B-21s operational by the mid-2020s—perfect timing since the risks of World War III are surging. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 23:20

• Fungal Infection In The Brain Produces Effects Similar To Alzheimer's
  Fungal Infection In The Brain Produces Effects Similar To Alzheimer’s

  Authored by Emma Suttie via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A team of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine has discovered that when the brain is infected with a common fungus, it changes in ways similar to those seen in Alzheimer’s disease. The new research delves deeper into some of the molecular mechanisms behind that process.

  

  The Study Findings

  Using animal models, the research team discovered how the fungus, called Candida albicans (C. albicans), enters the brain, activates mechanisms for its clearance, and generates amyloid beta (Aβ)-like peptides—toxic protein fragments thought to be central to the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

  Previous research has implicated fungi in the development of chronic neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, but their mechanisms are not entirely understood.

  A Microbial Cause of Alzheimer’s?

  A separate review published in the journal NeuroSci in 2022 explored the question of whether dementia has a microbial cause. The report concluded that the reviewed data suggests infectious agents, like fungi, can play a role in the process through which Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia develop.

  “Our lab has years of experience studying fungi, so we embarked on the study of the connection between C. albicans and Alzheimer’s disease in animal models,” said Dr. David Corry, one of the study’s authors and a professor of pathology and immunology and medicine at Baylor College in a news release on Oct. 17. “In 2019, we reported that C. albicans does get into the brain, where it produces changes that are very similar to what is seen in Alzheimer’s disease. The current study extends that work to understand the molecular mechanisms.”

  “Our first question was, how does C. albicans enter the brain? We found that C. albicans produces enzymes called secreted aspartic proteases (Saps) that breakdown the blood-brain barrier, giving the fungus access to the brain where it causes damage,” Yifan Wu, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral scientist in pediatrics said in a press release.

  The researchers’ next goal was to determine how the brain was able to clear the fungal infection. Dr. Corry and his colleagues had done previous research that showed an infection in the brain by C. albicans can be completely healed in ten days in healthy mice. Those findings, published in Nature Communications in January 2019 found that the fungal infection was cleared due to two mechanisms that were triggered by the fungus in specific brain cells called microglia.

  Microglia are a type of glial cell located throughout the brain and spinal cord and represent approximately 10–15 percent of the cells found in the brain. Microglia act as a primary line of immune system defense and scavenge the central nervous system for pathogenic organisms, damaged neurons, and other foreign material so they can be destroyed through a process called phagocytosis.

  In the present study, the researchers demonstrated that Aβ-like peptides can be created by C. albicans. Candida albicans is a common fungus and has been found in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease as well as in those with other chronic neurodegenerative disorders.

  What is Candida Albicans

  Candida albicans is a common fungus (in the form of yeast) and is present in the gastrointestinal tract, the mouth, the skin, and the reproductive tract of most humans.

  Humans and C. albicans have a complicated relationship, as most of the time, C. albicans is harmless and is simply a member of a healthy microbiota. However, it is one of the few fungal species that cause disease in humans and is responsible for infections that range from superficial infections of the mucosa and skin, like thrush, diaper rash, and vaginal yeast infections, to more serious infections like invasive candidiasis that can affect the blood, heart, brain, and bones.

  Infections by C. albicans are particularly dangerous for those with compromised immune systems, like those with AIDS, or people undergoing immunosuppressive therapies for cancer and other conditions. This suppression of the body’s defenses is part of the reason why some people acquire C. albicans infections after taking antibiotics, as they decrease the beneficial bacteria in the gut, causing an imbalance and allowing C. albicans to thrive. C. Albicans can survive outside the body and have the ability to colonize every human organ and tissue. According to the Encyclopedia of Microbiology, it is the most common cause of systemic fungal infections.

  More Evidence Linking Fungi to Neurodegenerative Diseases

  In a January review published in Frontiers in Immunology, researchers examined the role of fungus in central nervous system autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders. The review states that recently, increasing evidence has pointed to the role of peripheral fungus in triggering inflammation, immune response, and worsening of a range of non-infectious disorders of the central nervous system (CNS), including multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s disease.

  The review concluded that fungus can trigger inflammation via different mechanisms in the progression of CNS non-infectious diseases, suggesting that it is crucial for developing future therapeutic agents and strategies.

  A 2015 study published in Scientific Reports states that several researchers have proposed the possibility that Alzheimer’s disease may have a microbial cause. The researchers found evidence that tissue from the central nervous system (which includes the brain and spinal cord) of patients with Alzheimer’s disease contains fungal cells. These fungal cells were found in different regions of the brain, including the external frontal cortex, cerebellar hemisphere, entorhinal cortex/hippocampus, and choroid plexus. These fungal materials were not present in the control individuals who did not have Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers identified several different species of fungus in their samples.

  Interestingly, the study authors noted that fungal infection was also found in the blood vessels, which could explain the vascular pathology that is often found in Alzheimer’s patients.

  The findings provide intriguing evidence that these fungal infections are present in the central nervous systems of those with Alzheimer’s disease and not in healthy individuals who served as the controls.

  Another Piece of the Puzzle

  Dr. Corry and his colleagues have provided another piece to further understand the role fungus may play in the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

  “This work potentially contributes an important new piece of the puzzle regarding the development of Alzheimer’s disease,” Corry said in a press release. “The current explanation for this condition is that it is mostly the result of the accumulation of toxic Aβ-like peptides in the brain that leads to neurodegeneration. The dominant thinking is that these peptides are produced endogenously [internally], our own brain proteases break down the amyloid precursor proteins generating the toxic Ab peptides.”

  However, in their study, the researchers show that these Aβ-like peptides can also be created from another source–candida albicans.

  “These findings in animal models support conducting further studies to evaluate the role of C. albicans in the development of Alzheimer’s disease in people, which can potentially lead to innovative therapeutic strategies.” Dr. Corry said.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 23:00

• Watch: Zennials Are Terrified Of Military Draft As War Looms
  Watch: Zennials Are Terrified Of Military Draft As War Looms

  The irony and hypocrisy is dripping across social media as zennials slowly begin to realize that the consequences of their support for establishment elitism might come back to bite them in the ass.  Keep in mind that this is the generation most inclined to vote for Joe Biden and his ilk, and the generation most inclined to rabidly support war against Russia in Ukraine.  These were the same people clamoring for hundreds of billions of dollars in American weapons and funding to be sent to Ukraine to prolong a losing war leading to the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian draftees. 

  These were the exact same people that applauded the argument that sacrificing drafted Ukrainian troops in an ideological proxy conflict with Russia was “cheaper” and more efficient than sending American troops to fight.  Now, when they are faced with the possibility of being drafted into a different foreign quagmire, their blood thirst has suddenly abated.

  As we have seen in the past year in the Donbass, wars are won with soldiers, not technology and money.  Without a steady supply of troops any defensive or offensive posture will steadily degrade.  

  This month, Google searches for “Will I get drafted into war…” hit the highest number since the 2007 Iraq war surge; people are getting worried.  If the US is dragged into a multi-front conflict in the Middle East, then a new draft is almost assured.  Military recruitment numbers for the past several years have been dismal, with up to 77% of Gen Z not even meeting preliminary physical and mental qualifications as well as not being able to pass criminal background checks.  In some cases, the DoD has been forced to build pre-boot facilities called “fat camps” just to get recruits physically ready enough to survive normal boot camp. 

  This is setting aside the fact that the majority of modern youth are completely devoid of the mental toughness and discipline required for basic training.  As of 2022 it is estimated that over 42% of Gen Z has been diagnosed with at least one mental illness, but prospects are even dimmer that that.  It is also estimated that another 20% have not sought help for their mental health problems, with 62% of Gen Z taking medications to help with conditions such as “anxiety.”

  Zennials have taken to TikTok and other media sites to proclaim that they are not capable of fighting in a war and will avoid a draft at all costs.  Remember when zennials demanded more gay and trans representation in the military?  Well, now they’ve changed their minds – They are far too gay and weak to go into combat and want 2nd Amendment conservatives to fight instead…

  Gen Z is looking forward to the food and shelter of jail for dodging the WW3 draft, if you can catch him. Also he’s gay.#WW3 #WWIII pic.twitter.com/92g0eJVlMI

  — 🌈 Tess T. Eccles-Brown, PhD (@TTEcclesBrown) October 24, 2023

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  Fantasies of running off to the hills aside (these people would not last one week in the woods or one month in prison), there is an extreme disconnect between the demands Zennials made a couple years ago and the price they are willing to pay for those demands now.

  Remember when these same people threatened conservatives with severe punishment if they refused to comply with covid mandates?  Remember when they said the military could be used to crush conservatives should they fight back and that “AR-15s are useless against F16s?”  Apparently, the military is now incapable of functioning without conservatives and can’t engage in a war unless conservatives lead the way.  It has been said for years that woke people can’t fight, they get others to fight for them.  Now they admit it.  

  Interestingly, this is one area of political discourse where leftists and conservatives, Gen Z and “Boomers,” might actually agree:  Almost no one supports a new draft.  However, there are plenty of people that wouldn’t mind seeing zennials thrown into boot camp for a while just so they can learn a much needed lesson in humility, and perhaps rethink their political positions more clearly.

  Zennials say that the economy is “worse now than it has ever been” and paint themselves as the most suffering generation of all time (whatever happened to the miracle of Bidenomics?).  US education standards have dropped off the map, which is probably why they’ve never heard of the Great Depression or the stagflation crisis of the 1970s.  Conditions during these events were far worse than what we are experiencing today, though, things are likely to decline rapidly in the wake of WWIII.  Maybe one day soon their delusions of martyrdom will become a self fulfilling prophecy.

  Millennials are also opting out of the WW3 draft and they’re not paying back their student loans#ww3 pic.twitter.com/ycJEjgwmD4

  — 🌈 Tess T. Eccles-Brown, PhD (@TTEcclesBrown) October 24, 2023

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  And of course, as the manure hits the fan they will continue to blame “capitalism” instead of the socialist/globalist ideals they have been supporting for years.  The reason America as a country is no longer worth fighting for is exactly because of the anti-American policies many zennials argue in favor of.  Perhaps with the advent of a renewed draft the younger generations will come to realize the wisdom in treating the government with suspicion and vigilance instead of always blindly defending state authority in the assumption that it will only ever hurt their ideological enemies.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 22:40

• How Mike Johnson Became Speaker 'Through Prayer, Not Politics'
  How Mike Johnson Became Speaker ‘Through Prayer, Not Politics’

  Authored by Mark Tapscott via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Eyebrows were raised when newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) in his first address from the chair reminded the assembled Democratic and Republican members of the House of Representatives that the God of the Bible raised up each one of them for a purpose.

  

  “I want to tell all my colleagues here what I told the Republicans in that room last night: I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a matter like this. I believe that scripture, the Bible, is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority. He raised up each of you. All of us. And I believe that God has allowed and ordained each and every one of us to be here at this specific moment,” the Louisiana Republican said.

  “This is my belief. I believe that each one of us has a huge responsibility today to use the gifts God has given us to serve the extraordinary people of this great nation, and they deserve it.”

  

  Those who know Mr. Johnson, a devout conservative Southern Baptist, however, weren’t surprised by his allusion to verses in the Bible such as Daniel 2:21 that say the Creator raises up and deposes of political leaders: “He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.”

  A former Louisiana state representative who is now serving in his fourth term in Congress, Mr. Johnson, 51, and his wife, Kelly, have four children. Before his remarkable rise to the speakership, Mr. Johnson had served as chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC), which describes itself as “the intellectual arsenal of conservatism in the House.” In addition, he was elected in January 2021 to a second term as vice-chairman of the House Republican Conference and he was a deputy whip under then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

  Prior to his political career, Mr. Johnson was the first member of his family to graduate from college, with a bachelor’s in business administration from Louisiana State University (LSU) in 1995 and a law degree from LSU’s Paul M. Herbert Law Center in 1998. He was elected president of the Christian Legal Society at LSU and subsequently became a successful constitutional law litigator.

  Following the speakership decision, Kelly Shackelford, president, CEO, and chief counsel for the Plano, Texas-based First Liberty Institute (FLI), said of his former FLI litigator, “Mike is a fantastic constitutional attorney and passionate advocate for religious liberty.” Mr. Johnson also spent time as senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which—like FLI—is a public interest law firm devoted to defending First Amendment religious freedoms.

  

  The Man Is ‘Not Bashful’

  Asked by The Epoch Times if he was surprised by Mr. Johnson’s reference to God’s role in raising up political leaders, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins chuckled, saying: “Not at all, that’s Mike. He’s not bashful.”

  The Louisiana Republican’s campaign for the speakership was “through prayer, not politics,” Mr. Perkins said. He has known Mr. Johnson for 25 years as a student, a state legislative colleague, and pro-family, pro-life advocate.

  Something certainly seemed miraculous about Johnson’s sudden and unexpected emergence from the chaos and disruption that gripped the House Republican Conference in the wake of successive failures by Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to secure enough Republican votes to become Speaker.

  Mr. Johnson opposed the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), then lined up as a loyal supporter of Mr. Scalise, Mr. Jordan, and Mr. Emmer. He was mentioned in some news reports as a dark horse contender leading up to the Oct. 23 GOP Conference meeting that featured nine aspirants. Yet it was Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), going into that gathering, who seemed poised to move into a commanding position.

  However, it was Mr. Johnson’s sincerity, as well as his substantive and reasonable responses to the tough questions aimed at all of the contenders by House Republicans, that won them over, according to a knowledgeable congressional source who was present throughout the meeting.

  “He consistently, and comparatively, when a lot of members were asking just an onslaught of questions—wonky, policy questions—gave substantive answers versus the other candidates, who essentially gave answers about their personality or their personal background outside of being legislators,” the source told The Epoch Times.

  “Johnson consistently came back to ‘This is my track record as a legislator; let me point you to my seven-point plan; let me point you to my proposed schedule if I become speaker,’ so that was really strong. And at the end of the day, Johnson really doesn’t have any enemies, and that’s in part due to his character and in part to his shorter time in Congress,” the source continued.

  The source further noted that “probably a third of his answers to the questions involved scripture references.”

  

  But Mr. Johnson is anything but the stereotypical Bible-thumping fundamentalist. When asked what was the key to Mr. Johnson’s win, another senior congressional source who asked not to be named described it in two words: “No enemies.”

  Mr. Perkins agreed: “He’s a brilliant guy, very smart, passionate. You saw classic Mike Johnson on the floor today. It’s principled, but he has relationships on both sides of the aisle that are not policy or politically driven. He cares about people. People have conversations with him, he prays with his colleagues.”

  In addition to his faith, Mr. Johnson is a classic Reagan conservative with a distinctly populist accent. On his official website is listed the congressman’s “Seven Core Principles of Conservatism,” which include individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets, and human dignity.

  

  Of that latter principle, Mr. Johnson explains: “Because all men are created equal and in the image of God, every human life has inestimable dignity and value, and every person should be measured only by the content of their character. A just government protects life, honors marriage and family as the primary institutions of a healthy society, and embraces the vital cultural influences of religion and morality.

  “Public policy should always encourage education and emphasize the virtue of hard work as a pathway out of-poverty, while public assistance programs should be reserved only for those who are truly in need. In America, everyone who plays by the rules should get a fair shot. By preserving these ideals, we will maintain the goodness of America that has been the secret to our greatness.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 22:20

• These Are The Most Popular Halloween Costumes In 2023
  These Are The Most Popular Halloween Costumes In 2023

  Wearing costumes on Halloween goes far beyond trick or treating. Adults, teachers, and even pets get dressed up for the season, showing off at work, parties, charity drives, and of course to join in with candy-collecting kids.

  But with different movies, television shows, albums, and other cultural touchstones changing year-to-year, the most popular Halloween costumes also get switched up regularly.

  With the help of Google Trends data through their Frightgeist series, Visual Capitalist’s Omri Wallach visualized the top 27 most searched Halloween costumes in the United States.

  

  What Are the Most Popular Halloween Costumes This Year?

  As with last year, the impact of popular movies, shows, and games is clearly visible in the top 27 most popular Halloween costumes in the U.S. in 2023:

  Rank (2023)	Costume Name
  1	Barbie
  2	Princess
  3	Spider-Man
  4	Witch
  5	Fairy
  6	Wednesday Addams
  7	Dinosaur
  8	Cowboy
  9	Ninja
  10	Bunny
  11	Rabbit
  12	Pirate
  13	Princess Peach
  14	Clown
  15	Pumpkin
  16	Batman
  17	Mermaid
  18	Cheerleader
  19	Ghost
  20	Bear
  21	Vampire
  22	Taylor Swift
  23	Harley Quinn
  24	Doll
  25	1980s
  26	Cowgirl
  27	Toy Story

  Reigning supreme is toy-turned-movie icon Barbie, after the eponymous movie released this year. The summer blockbuster has so far topped the 2023 box office at $1.44 billion earned globally, and also was responsible for the most popular couple’s costume: Barbie and Ken.

  #3 Spider-Man and #13 Princess Peach also reflect on the cultural power of the box office and video games. Both were in popular movies this year—with the The Super Mario Bros. Movie earning $1.36 billion and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse earning $690 million at the global box office—and both had major game releases in October for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5.

  Netflix also saw cultural “success” in this year’s most popular Halloween costumes, with #6 Wednesday Addams coming from their Addams Family series Wednesday. Though the show released in November of 2022, it quickly became the most watched English-language show on the platform and a perfect fit for Halloween costume ideas.

  This year also had one celebrity make the top 25, Taylor Swift at #22. The singer-songwriter released two re-recorded albums following an ownership dispute with her former record label, and is currently in the midst of a record-breaking concert tour.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 22:00

• Just The Facts On 'Geofencing'
  Just The Facts On ‘Geofencing’

  Authored by Maggie MacFarland Phillips via RealClear Wire,

  As worshippers gathered at the Calvary Chapel in 2020, they were being watched from above.  

  

  Satellites were locking in on cell phones owned by members of the nondenominational Protestant church in San Jose, Calif. Their location eventually worked its way to a private company, which then sold the information to the government of Santa Clara County. This data, along with observations from enforcement officers on the ground, was used to levy heavy fines against the church for violating COVID-19 restrictions regarding public gatherings.     

  “Every Sunday,” Calvary’s assistant pastor, Carson Atherly, would later testify, the officers “would serve me a notice of violation during or after church service.”

  Calvary is suing the county for its use of location data, a controversial tool increasingly deployed by governments at all levels – notably in relation to the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. While enabling law enforcement to more easily identify potential offenders, the practice, called “geofencing,” has also emerged as a cutting-edge privacy issue, raising constitutional issues involving warrantless searches and, with Calvary Chapel, religious liberty.

  “We are in the space between the emergence of this technological practice and courts having ruled on its constitutionality,” said Alex Marthews, national chair for Restore the 4th, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans’ rights against “unreasonable search and seizure.” 

  “Geofencing” often begins with an innocent click. Smartphone apps ask if they can access location to improve service. When users say they yes, they often don’t realize that the apps that help them drive, cook, or pray are likely reselling their information to far-flung for-profit entities. This and other information detailing people’s behaviors and preferences is valuable for businesses trying to target customers. The global location intelligence market was estimated at $16 billion last year, according to Grand View Research.

  While it is legal for private companies to broker this information, constitutional questions arise when government accesses data from a third party that it would be prohibited from collecting on its own. The lawsuit filed by Calvary Chapel argues that Santa Clara County carried out a warrantless surveillance of the church when it acquired information in 2020 on the church’s foot-traffic patterns for analysis by a research team from Stanford University. Court documents show the researchers acquired the information, which originated with Google Maps, from the location data company SafeGraph, which Calvary is also suing. 

  Geofencing allows users to build a fence around certain areas or points-of-interest such as Calvary Chapel or the area near the Capitol on Jan. 6 and see when people entered that space.

  It is becoming routine for law enforcement agencies to use warrants to require companies like Google to hand over location data that may be connected to criminal activity. Rep. Jim Jordan recently wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland saying, “The use of geofence warrants raises serious Constitutional concerns.” Privacy advocates and a bipartisan group of legislators say that acquisition of such information without a warrant presents a troubling and relatively new constitutional dilemma.

  Data brokers, including SafeGraph, insist that their information is anonymized. But it is precisely the lack of specificity that worries critics. “There’s no particular individual who the government is suspicious of,” Adam Schwartz of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told RealClearInvestigations. “It’s a dragnet.”

  Moreover, there is no guarantee that the data collected through geofencing stays anonymous. “It is often very easy to take supposedly de-identified data and re-identify a person,” said Schwartz, “And it’s very, very easy to do that with location data.”

  At Calvary Chapel, for example, in-person surveillance conducted by the county, as well as numerous in-person depositions of Chapel members and employees during the previous legal contretemps between the county and the church that began in 2020, would have provided local officials with detailed knowledge of who was on the premises, and when.

  In any event, critics say, law enforcement’s use of geofencing – even when it is backed by a warrant – violates the Fourth Amendment.

  Geofencing proponents argue that it falls under the “administrative search” exception to the Fourth Amendment, which lets regulatory enforcement personnel conduct warrantless searches when the greater good is at issue (i.e., police sobriety checkpoints, airport TSA scans).

  In their complaint, Calvary Chapel attorneys assert that the county is arguing in effect “that, as long as they call it research, any level of government can target and spy on any individual or group at any time for any duration and, if they so choose, they can wield the collected data against said individuals or groups who oppose their orders.”

  Pushback is mounting against the sharing of location data. In a 2022 letter to Congress, numerous privacy and civil liberties groups petitioned for committee hearings on a bill called the Fourth Amendment is Not For Sale Act. The bill, which has a companion in the Senate introduced in 2021, would prohibit warrantless government purchases of cell phone location data from third party brokers. It passed unanimously through the House Judiciary Committee, 30-0, this past July, and awaits full review by the House.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 21:40

• US Food Insecurity Crisis Erupts: 17 Million Households Starving, Highest In 11 Years
  US Food Insecurity Crisis Erupts: 17 Million Households Starving, Highest In 11 Years

  President Biden called the latest jobs numbers as “Bidenomics in action.” The elderly president, who sometimes appears to exhibit strong signs of ‘cognitive fog,’ said he “continues to fight to build an economy from the middle out and bottom up.” But working-class Americans know better than to trust the statical magicians at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and, in a recent poll, do not trust the government’s rosy economic news.

  The distrust is warranted because not even the United States Department of Agriculture can pretend Bidenomics is working anymore. A new report from the agency shows household food insecurity in 2022 soared to levels not seen since Biden was vice president during the Obama administration. 

  

  USDA found that 87.2% of households were food secure last year. The remaining 12.8% (about 17 million households) were food insecure. This is the highest level of food insecurity in America since 2014. 

  

  “Food-insecure households (those with low and very low food security) had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members because of a lack of resources,” USDA said. About 5.1% of households (or about 6.8 million) had the most severe level of food security last year. 

  USDA said household food insecurity is due to “a lack of money and other resources limits their ability to acquire adequate food.” 

  We suspect even though the USDA report is a survey from last year. The figures are likely higher in 2023 as persistent inflation crushes low to mid-tier households. Many folks have drained personal savings and racked up insurmountable credit card debt just to make ends meet, such as putting food on the table, paying for gasoline at the pump, and covering shelter costs, whether rent or mortgage expenses. 

  Numerous top Wall Street banks (Mike Wilson: The Consumer Is Falling Off A Cliff) have begun to warn about the consumer falling apart in the era of Bidenomics. The latest sign of trouble came last weekend, when we pointed out that subprime auto loan delinquencies erupted to the highest in decades. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 21:20

• Victor Davis Hanson: Premodern Diversity Vs. Civilizational Unity
  Victor Davis Hanson: Premodern Diversity Vs. Civilizational Unity

  Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

  Few Romans in the late decades of their 5th-century AD empire celebrated their newfound “diversity” of marauding Goths, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Huns, and Vandals.

  These tribes en masse had crossed the unsecured Rhine and Danube borders to harvest Roman bounty without a care about what had created it.

  Their agendas were focused on destroying the civilization they overran rather than peacefully integrating into and perpetuating the Empire.

  Ironically, Rome’s prior greatness had been due to the extension of citizenship to diverse people throughout Europe, North Africa, and Asia.

  Millions had been assimilated, integrated, and intermarried and often superseded the original Italians of the early Roman Republic. Such fractious diversity had led to unity around the idea of Rome.

  New citizens learned to enjoy the advantages of habeas corpus, sophisticated roads, aqueducts, and public architecture, and the security offered by the legions.

  The unity of these diverse peoples fused into a single culture that empowered Rome. In contrast, the later disunity of hundreds of thousands of tribal people flooding into and dividing Rome doomed it.

  To meet the challenge of a multiracial society, the only viable pathway to a stable civilization of racially and ethnically different people is a single, shared culture.

  Some nations can find collective success as a single homogenous people like Japan or Switzerland.

  Or equally, but with more difficulty, nations can prosper with heterodox peoples—but only if united by a single, inclusive culture as the American melting-pot once attested.

  But a baleful third option—a multicultural society of diverse, unassimilated, and often rival tribes—historically is a prescription for collective suicide.

  

  We are beginning to see just that in America, as it sheds the melting pot, and adopts the salad bowl of unassimilated and warring tribes.

  The U.S. is now seeing a rise in violent racially and religiously motivated hate crimes.

  The border is nonexistent.

  Millions of unlawful immigrants mock their hosts by their brazen illegal entrance.

  They will receive little civic education to become Americans. But they will learn that unassimilated tribalism wins them influence and advantages.

  In contrast, America was once a rare historical example of a multiracial, but single-culture democracy that actually worked.

  Multigenerational Americans were often energized by keeping up with new hard-working immigrants determined to have a shot at success in a free society long denied them at home.

  Other large nations have tried such a democratic multiracial experiment—most notably Brazil and India. But both are still plagued by tribal feuding and serial violence.

  What once worked for America, but now is forgotten were a few precepts essential for a multiracial constitutional state wedded to generous immigration.

  One, America is enriched at its cultural periphery by the food, fashion, art, music, and literature of immigrants.

  But it would be destroyed if such diversity extended to its core. No one wants Middle-East norms regarding gays or emancipated women.

  No one prefers Mexican jurisprudence to our courts.

  No one here wants the dictatorship of Venezuela or the totalitarianism of communist China.

  Two, people vote with their feet to emigrate to America. They flee their native culture and government to enjoy their antitheses in America.

  But remember—no sane immigrant would flee Mexico, Gaza, or Zimbabwe only to wish to implant in their new homes the very culture and norms that drove them out from their old.

  If they did that to their new home, it would then become as unattractive to them as what they fled.

  Three, tribalism wrecks nations.

  Just compare what happened in Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, or Iraq.

  Anytime one ethnic, racial, or religious group refuses to surrender its prime identity in exchange for a shared sense of self, other tribes for their own survival will do the same.

  All then rebrand their superficial appearance as essential not incidental to whom they are.

  And like nuclear proliferation that sees other nations go nuclear once a neighboring power gains the bomb, so too the tribalism of one group inevitably leads only to more tribalism of others. The result is endless Hobbesian strife.

  Four, immigration must be measured, so that newcomers can be manageably assimilated and integrated rather than left to form rival tribal cliques.

  Five, it must be legal.

  Otherwise, the idea of citizenship is reduced to mere residency, while the legal applicant is rendered a fool for his adherence to the law.

  Six, it must be meritocratic, so immigrants come with English and skills and do not burden their hosts.

  And last, it must be diverse. Only that way, can all groups abroad have equal access to the American dream.

  A diversity of immigrants also ensures that no one particular ethnic or political tribe seeks to use immigration to further divide the nation.

  In sum, the old immigration once enriched America, but our new version is destroying it.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 21:00

• The Graphite Grip: How China's Crackdown On Exports Threatens Global EV Battery Supply Chain
  The Graphite Grip: How China’s Crackdown On Exports Threatens Global EV Battery Supply Chain

  China’s retaliatory restriction on graphite exports will have a disproportionate impact on foreign makers of electric vehicle battery components which haven’t shifted to using as much synthetic material as Chinese manufacturers, according to Reuters, citing industry insiders.

  

  As we noted last week, the move by China – the world’s largest producer and supplier of graphite – was clear retaliation against the west for ratcheting up sanctions on chip exports.

  As of December 1, exporters of high-purity, high-hardness, and high-intensity synthetic graphite material, as well as exporters of natural flake graphite and its products, will have to apply for permits to ship those products out of China.

  Some Chinese manufacturers say they expect the rules to have a minimal impact, as most EV batteries they make use a grade of synthetic material which are unaffected by the curbs.

  China dominates the global EV battery supply chain including production of graphite – the single largest component. Graphite companies in the country process both the natural material mined domestically and overseas, as well as synthetic forms.

  Japan, South Korea and the United States are top buyers of both natural and synthetic Chinese graphite, and analysts warned the new measures could slow or reduce graphite supplies needed by companies there to produce anodes – the negative electrodes of EV batteries. -Reuters

  Companies like Qingdao Haida, a significant player in the graphite arena, are already foreseeing logistical challenges, awaiting directives from China’s Ministry of Commerce.

  China’s strategy isn’t unprecedented. The country has previously throttled international shipments by imposing export permits on critical elements like gallium and germanium, impacting global chip manufacturing. Sources insinuate a defense angle to the graphite restriction, given the material’s utility in military applications.

  

  And while Chinese companies with international footprints are displaying minimal concern, foreign manufacturers have lagged in adopting synthetic graphite, largely due to its environmental footprint and cost considerations. This delay makes them susceptible to the recent Chinese constraints, threatening their operational stability.

  An employee at Qingdao Haida, a major Chinese graphite processor, who declined to be named as they was not authorised to speak on behalf of the company, told Reuters that the company’s products include spherical graphite, which is used in lithium ion battery anodes and is covered by the new rules and is exported to South Korea and Japan.

  “We haven’t got any instructions from MOFCOM (China’s Ministry of Commerce) on how to apply for export permits but it will definitely make the exporting process more inconvenient,” the person said.

  Even as foreign firms like Volkswagen-backed battery maker Gotion High Tech and Ningbo Shanshan downplay the impact of the restrictions, given their product specifications and overseas manufacturing plans, the situation for global companies relying on natural graphite is in stark contrast. Companies like Hitachi Chemical and POSCO are potentially in the crosshairs, with key industry players scrambling to assess the full spectrum of implications.

  Interestingly, the unfolding scenario is prompting entities like Tesla supplier Syrah Resources and India’s Epsilon Advanced Materials to recalibrate their strategies, focusing on diversifying supply chains and emphasizing local production of synthetic graphite.

  

  According to EAM CEO Sunit Kapur, “We believe that limiting the amount of graphite exported from China – and likely the price increase for graphite that it will create – exacerbates the challenges (and) exemplifies the need to develop synthetic graphite for the U.S. locally.“

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 20:40

• FDA Should Recall 'Adulterated' Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine: Robert Malone
  FDA Should Recall ‘Adulterated’ Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine: Robert Malone

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

  Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is adulterated due to the undisclosed presence of a DNA sequence, experts say.

  

  That should prompt a recall by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to Dr. Robert Malone, a vaccine expert whose work has been cited by Pfizer.

  “It absolutely should be recalled,” Dr. Malone told The Epoch Times.

  “Will the FDA do its job?” he added later.

  Pfizer’s vaccine contains a Simian Virus 40 (SV40) DNA sequence, authorities in Canada confirmed to The Epoch Times. Authorities found the sequence after outside researchers, including Kevin McKernan, discovered the sequence in the shot.

  The whole SV40 virus can cause cancer, prompting its removal from polio vaccines in the past. While the primary genetic sequence of the virus associated with cancer is not in Pfizer’s vaccine, there is a portion of the sequence called a promoter-enhancer, which “can get things into the nucleus, so that is a concern,” David Wiseman, a former Johnson & Johnson scientist, told The Epoch Times.

  Due to the presence of the sequence, some experts say, the FDA should find the product adulterated, which is defined under federal law as having a “strength, quality, or purity differing from the official compendium.”

  Congress directed the FDA that if tests are run on a drug suspected of being adulterated and the drug fails to meet the standards in the compendium, and there is a health hazard, to direct the manufacturer to issue a recall, Dr. Malone noted in an essay.

  If the manufacturer then fails to issue a recall, “seizure should be considered,” the law states.

  “The general policy is that if there’s adulteration and reasonable risk of toxicity, there must be immediate action,” Dr. Malone told The Epoch Times. “This is a core mandate to the FDA from Congress to prevent adulteration of drugs, medical devices, and food. And then the next question is, is that adulteration? Is it associated with a reasonable risk of toxicity in humans? And my opinion is, absolutely.”

  Other experts, such as Dr. Janci Lindsay, also say the sequence presence means the vaccine is adulterated.

  The FDA declined to comment.

  Pfizer has not responded to inquiries.

  Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said that regulators must provide answers.

  “I have been researching and consulting experts on the issue of DNA contamination in COVID-19 vaccines since it was exposed,” Mr. Johnson told The Epoch Times via email. “The FDA must provide answers to the legitimate questions being raised.”

  If the FDA does not take action, state attorneys general could move to seize the vaccine due to the adulteration, Dr. Malone said.

  The Epoch Times asked several attorneys general if they are considering or would consider such a move, but they did not respond.

  ‘We Do Not Know What Was Disclosed’

  Health Canada said sponsors such as Pfizer are expected to identify biologically functional DNA sequences within a plasmid, such as the SV40 sequence, when submitting applications for clearance.

  Pfizer did provide the full DNA sequence of the plasmid but “did not specifically identify the SV40 sequence,” the health agency said.

  After Mr. McKernan and other scientists uncovered the sequence, Health Canada did “confirm the presence of the enhancer,” it added.

  It’s not clear whether the sequence was also not identified for the FDA by Pfizer.

  “We don’t know what was disclosed to the FDA prior to authorization. If it was disclosed, then its presence is not unexpected. If it was not disclosed, I think there is a case that this is adulteration,” Mr. Wiseman said.

  The rules under which the vaccine was initially given emergency use authorization (EUA) may provide a defense for the agency, though.

  “Could FDA argue that because of the EUA, or because they knew about it, or some other reason, no action is required on their part, and there is nothing to see here? They may try to argue that. But the totality is that this is completely wrong,” Mr. Wiseman said.

  Mr. McKernan in June, during an FDA meeting’s public comment, presented his findings and showed that Pfizer did not disclose the sequence to the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The FDA does not typically respond during the public comment portion of its meetings, or afterwards to what was presented.

  “The really crushing thing here is Pfizer never disclosed the SV40 information to the EMA. They gave them a plasmid map of what the plasmid consisted of, with all of the features labeled, with the exception of the SV40 site,” Mr. McKernan told EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders.” “They did that because they know the SV40 region is a very controversial base in its history in the vaccine field.”

  New Paper

  In a preprint paper published this month, Mr. Wiseman, Mr. McKernan, and other researchers tested 27 vials of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines and found the presence of the SV40 sequence in the Pfizer vials, not the Moderna ones.

  The testing, along with Health Canada’s statement, helps confirm the results of Mr. McKernan’s earlier testing, which identified the presence of the sequence.

  Dr. Phillip Buckhaults, a cancer genomics expert and a professor at the University of South Carolina, also found pieces of plasmid DNA in the vaccine. He told The Epoch Times that “no one knows if this DNA does anything clinically significant, but it is prudent to check vaccinated people for any evidence of genome modification.”

  Dr. Wafik El-Deiry, another cancer expert who serves as director of the Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University, has said that the findings should spur more research into the impact of the vaccines on different parts of the body, including in the heart and brain.

  Matthew Horwood contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 20:20

• Migrant Hot-Potato: NYC Offers Illegals Plane Tickets To Anywhere But The Big Apple
  Migrant Hot-Potato: NYC Offers Illegals Plane Tickets To Anywhere But The Big Apple

  New York City Mayor Eric Adams has finally realized it: If you’re not actively playing the game of Illegal Immigrant Hot Potato, you’re on the losing end of it.

  For months, New York has been on the receiving end of the game, as the Republican governors of Texas and Florida aggressively bus migrants to New York and other big, blue cities. Now, with his city busting at the seams with hordes of varied Third Worlders, Adams has decided he’s all-in, and New York City is now aggressively offering migrants one-way plane tickets to anywhere else in the world but there.

  

  Given the leftist uproar and accusations of racism leveled at Governors Abbott and DeSantis, it’s amusing to watch the mayor’s office try to couch its aggressive migrant-export scheme in delicate terms. “With no sign of a decompression strategy in the near future, we have established a reticketing center for migrants,” said spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak. “Here, the city will redouble efforts to purchase tickets for migrants to help them take the next steps in their journeys.”

  On Thursday, Adams reiterated his previous plea for the federal government to scatter migrants all across the United States — not just in Democrat-run “sanctuary cities” like his, but in small towns too: “When people come across the border, we have 108,000 cities and villages — we should spread them out across the entire country, and not just New York, Chicago, Chicago, Los Angeles and Houston.”

  “Get them out! Get them out!”

  A sea of New Yorkers waving USA flags chant in unison at a protest against Eric Adams plan to resettle migrants in Staten Island.pic.twitter.com/W9tm4JYB37

  — Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) September 15, 2023

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

  While he continues to beg for financial and other help from the Biden administration, Adams has recognized that, against a daily cost of $394 per migrant, a one-way plane ticket to anywhere has a huge return on investment. And we don’t use “anywhere” lightly — Politico reports some have been given tickets to places like Morocco and Colombia. 

  If you were planning to see New York City at Christmastime, note that Adams and his team are now thinking of “distributing tents to newly arriving migrants and creating encampments in parks and other outdoor spaces,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. That could include tourist destination Central Park, and Prospect Park too. “When you are out of room, that means you’re out of room,” Adams said Thursday. Some 130,000 migrants have arrived in the city this year, with another 4,000 now arriving weekly.

  Adams’ approach to the immigration crisis isn’t winning fans among the progressive left. “What we’ve witnessed from this administration — even if they’re not directly saying ‘you’ve got to get out of here’ — is that they’ve consistently created hysteria and chaos and confusion and have not used a tone of inclusivity and welcome,” New York city council member Shahana Hanif told Politico. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 20:00

• Qatar Sentences Eight Indians To Death Over Israel Spy Charges
  Qatar Sentences Eight Indians To Death Over Israel Spy Charges

  Via Middle East Eye,

  Qatar sentenced eight former Indian naval officers to death after finding them guilty of spying on the Gulf state’s submarine program for Israel, according to a report by the Financial Times. India condemned the death sentences on Friday and said it will explore all legal avenues to reverse the verdict. 

  Last year, Doha detained the eight men who worked for a private company providing training to Qatar’s armed forces on espionage charges. Neither Qatar nor India have revealed what the men were found guilty of, but a person briefed on the case told the Financial Times the men had been charged with spying for Israel. 

  

  The Hindu newspaper also reported that Doha accused the men of “breaching sensitive secrets” after speaking to their families. Middle East Eye could not independently verify the claims. 

  A spokesperson for the Qatari government said it would not comment on claims the Indian men were handed a death sentence for espionage charges. 

  Death sentences in Qatar are rare, with the last execution in 2020 and the one before that in 2003, according to the source who spoke to the Financial Times. India confirmed that Qatari police had detained the eight men in August last year. 

  In a statement, India’s external affairs ministry said the men worked for a private company called Al-Dahra Global Technologies & Consultancy Services, and that it placed “high importance to this case and has been following it closely”.

  “The ministry will continue to extend all consular and legal assistance and will also take up the verdict with Qatari authorities,” the Indian statement said. Al-Dahra, a private firm, provides training and related services to Qatar’s armed forces. Sources told NDTV in India that the men were working on a high-sensitivity project that involved Italian midget submarines with stealth characteristics. 

  Last year, India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the men were “ex-servicemen”, with families of the men also confirming to local media that they had also served in the Indian navy. 

  Qatar has no formal relations with Israel but has played a central role in international efforts to free hostages held by Hamas and to de-escalate the current situation in Gaza. 

  Wild timing: “Qatar sentenced eight Indian former naval officers to death on Thursday after finding them guilty of spying on the Gulf state’s submarine programme for Israel.” They had been arrested in August 2022. https://t.co/cmPykEX8z5

  — Gregg Carlstrom (@glcarlstrom) October 27, 2023

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  Earlier this week, Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, praised Qatar’s efforts to secure the release of hostages and said they were “crucial at this time” in a social media post. “I’m pleased to say that Qatar is becoming an essential party and stakeholder in the facilitation of humanitarian solutions. Qatar’s diplomatic efforts are crucial at this time,” Hanegbi posted on X.

  Qatar is home to hundreds of thousands of Indian workers who comprise much of the Gulf state’s migrant workforce. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 19:40

• Gun Czar Kamala Harris Praises Australian Gun Confiscation
  Gun Czar Kamala Harris Praises Australian Gun Confiscation

  Newly appointed Gun Czar, Vice President Kamala Harris, made a statement at the State Department on Thursday during an event with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, addressing the mass shooting in Maine.

  Her comments were not unexpected, as she praised Australia’s gun confiscation program.

  “As we gather details, we must continue to speak the truth about the moment we are in,” Gun Czar Harris said.

  “In our country today, the leading cause of death of American children is gun violence. Gun violence has terrorized and traumatized so many of our communities in the United States.”

  She continued: “And let us be clear, it does not have to be this way — as our friends in Australia have demonstrated.” 

  .@VP Harris praises Australia’s massive gun confiscation: “Let us be clear, it does not have to be this way, as our friends in Australia have demonstrated.” pic.twitter.com/3oKrlqq619

  — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 26, 2023

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  Gun Czar Harris referred to Australia’s largest mandatory gun buyback program in the late 1990s. 

  A summary on the official website of the Australian Parliament states that, unlike in the US, there is no legal entitlement to gun ownership in Australia. And Australian law requires citizens to prove why they need a gun.  

  What’s clear is the US is not Australia.

  Attacking the Second Amendment while praising a foreign country’s gun confiscation program is an ominous sign. 

  Earlier this year, President Biden said he would ban so-called ‘assault weapons’ and high-capacity magazines “come hell or high water” (thus ensuring that criminals are the only ones who have them).

  The problem with the rogue Biden officials attacking the 2A is that it leaves law-abiding, tax-paying citizens defenseless. At the same time, Democrats at all levels of government push disastrous defunding police policies. 

  In Sept., Democrats in New Mexico tried to enforce an emergency order by the governor to temporarily suspend the right to carry firearms in public in and around Albuquerque while also calling for a special legislative session to address the matter. 

  The objective of the Democrats is to disarm law-abiding citizens. However, it’s widely understood that criminals are unlikely to surrender their firearms.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 19:20

• "There Is No Cure": Long-Forgotten Virus Could Return, US Is Not Prepared
  “There Is No Cure”: Long-Forgotten Virus Could Return, US Is Not Prepared

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

  The mosquito-transmitted illness yellow fever, which caused havoc in the South during the 1800s, may see a resurgence in the United States, according to a new study.

  “Currently, the U.S. population is nearly entirely unvaccinated against yellow fever, and there are no vaccine doses in the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile,” wrote the authors of a recent paper in the New England Journal of Medicine.

  

  They continued to say: “During a sizable epidemic, yellow fever could tear quickly through unimmunized populations across the American South, and it is unlikely that the U.S. government would be prepared to acquire and distribute vaccines in a timely manner, even if there were public demand.”

  The authors said that large populations in southeastern U.S. cities like Galveston, Texas; Houston, Texas; New Orleans, Louisiana; Mobile, Alabama; Tampa, Florida; and Corpus Christi, Texas, could lead to an epidemic of the virus, which is spread via the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

  “During the 1800s, yellow fever caused highly lethal and economically devastating urban epidemics in southern U.S. coastal cities and those on the Mississippi River,” the authors stated. “It was sometimes known as ‘yellow jack,’ from the name of a nautical flag hoisted from ships arriving from the Caribbean that were quarantined because of suspected cases of the disease.”

  According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), yellow fever has no cure and those who develop severe disease have a high chance of death. But the CDC stressed that it is a “very rare cause of illness” in the United States and is spread via Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which officials say are found in parts of South America and Africa.

  The virus cannot be spread from person to person. One cannot transmit yellow fever through coughing, and it can only be spread via infected mosquitoes, according to officials.

  The Cleveland Clinic’s website says that a yellow fever-infected person can transmit the virus to a mosquito that bites them, and the mosquito can then transmit it to another person after it bites them. “If you’ve been diagnosed with yellow fever, continue to cover up. You don’t want a mosquito to bite you and then bite someone else,” the website says.

  However, there is no cure. Officials advise that anyone going to tropical areas should receive the yellow fever vaccine.

  “Occasionally, infected travelers have exported cases to countries that are free of yellow fever,” says the World Health Organization on its website. “However, the disease can only spread easily to a new country if there are mosquito species able to transmit it, specific climatic conditions, and the animal reservoir needed to maintain it.”

  Symptoms of the virus include fever, headache, muscle pain, body aches, vomiting, and nausea. Severe forms of the disease can lead to organ failure, hemorrhaging, and jaundice (the yellowing of the eyes and skin).

  Advertisement – Story continues below

  However, many people don’t experience symptoms at all, the WHO says, and most people who do develop symptoms see them disappear in three to four days. But it notes that a “small percentage” of yellow fever cases can enter a “more toxic phase” after 24 hours of recovering from the initial symptoms, with a high fever and multiple organs being impacted.

  “In this phase, people are likely to develop jaundice (yellowing of the skin and eyes, hence the name yellow fever), dark urine, and abdominal pain with vomiting. Bleeding can occur from the mouth, nose, eyes, or stomach. Half of these patients die within 7 [to] 10 days,” the WHO says

  The virus is also difficult to diagnose in its early stages, the U.N. organization says, because it appears similar to other illnesses.

  “More severe cases can be confused with severe malaria, leptospirosis, viral hepatitis (especially fulminant forms), other hemorrhagic fevers, infection with other flaviviruses (such as dengue hemorrhagic fever) and poisoning,” the WHO website says. “Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing in blood and urine can sometimes detect the virus in early stages of the disease. In later stages, testing to identify antibodies is needed.”

  Each year, yellow fever is blamed for the deaths of about 30,000 people around the world, says the Cleveland Clinic’s website. Around 200,000 people annually are infected with the virus, it says. Most of the cases and deaths occur within Africa.

  Yellow fever outbreaks killed thousands of people per year in a number of U.S. cities between 1793 and 1905 AD, according to researchers. Thousands of people died in various outbreaks in northern cities such as Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston, it found. However, those outbreaks appeared to occur mainly in the southeastern U.S.

  Experts say that people can protect themselves against mosquitoes in the warmer months by wearing protective clothing and using insect repellent.

  “We believe yellow fever should be prioritized as part of our national pandemic-preparedness efforts, given that the conditions are now in place for yellow jack to return and sicken many people in southern U.S. cities,” the report authors recently wrote.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 19:00

• Broke Millennials Wait For Boomer Parents To Die For Next 'Great Wealth Transfer'
  Broke Millennials Wait For Boomer Parents To Die For Next ‘Great Wealth Transfer’

  Since 1980, US government debt has exploded, soaring from a modest 31% to a staggering 120% of GDP. Meanwhile, 10-year Treasury yields have plummeted from 15% to 4.8%. This resulted in a massive wealth transfer from the public to the private sector, enriching Baby Boomers in the process. 

  

  According to Bank of America Research strategists led by Ohsung Kwon, boomers were in their prime time during this wealth expansion over the last several decades and emerged as the primary beneficiaries. This generation, born between 1946-64, along with “Traditionalists” (or silent generation), hold a whopping two-thirds of total net worth, mostly in financial assets. Kwon said boomers have secured low-rate mortgages while millennials have been left out. 

  

  In contrast, millennials have been the largest generation to incur the most mortgage debt in the housing mania after 2021. These young folks sparked bidding wars nationwide while taking on new mortgage debt with homes at record-high prices. 

  

  Younger generations have ‘gotten the short end of the stick’ regarding homeownership. These kids will have to get used to a life of renting. 

  

  Soaring interest rates and elevated home prices have sparked the worst housing affordability in generations. With that, so goes the ‘American Dream’. 

  

  Interestingly, the analyst noted, “Boomers have yet, if ever, to feel the impact of higher rates, and many wealthy Boomers are actually benefiting,” adding, “Everyone locked in 3% mortgage rates, except Millennials.” 

  

  Internal spending data from the bank shows Boomers and Traditionalists continue to spend while younger generations (who are interest rate sensitive) dial back spending – perhaps due to a depletion of savings. 

  

  Spending data also shows millennials are the only group with exploding credit card delinquencies that have rocketed above pre-Covid levels. Seriously, guys, come on – you know the risks of a recession are mounting… 

  

  When it comes to big-ticket items, millennials are the biggest spenders, but boomers outpace other generations on health care and entertainment spending. 

  

  The financial health of the younger generation is very concerning. These folks need a bailout – but might not receive one from the government – instead, the ‘bank of mom & dad’ in the next great wealth transfer from old to young. 

  The analyst offers good news: the wealth transfer has already begun, “There also appears to be an increase in generational wealth transfer with parents helping their kids buy homes.”

  More in the full note available to pro subs.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 18:40

• The Inflation Reduction Act: A Bidenomics Loser In 2024
  The Inflation Reduction Act: A Bidenomics Loser In 2024

  Authored by Mark Merritt and Jon McHenry via American Greatness,

  If history’s any indicator, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) could haunt Democrats in 2024 like the Affordable Care Act did in the 2010 and 2014 elections.

  The most devastating line of those campaigns was: “My opponent voted for Obamacare, which cut $716 billion from Medicare.”

  A new economic analysis reveals that the IRA has the same problem.

  It too was funded at Medicare’s expense.

  Until now this has been obscured by budget gimmicky. Former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakins’ organization, the American Action Forum, uncovers what happened.

  

  In short, the IRA’s Medicare prescription drug reforms save the federal government $266 billion, but the savings are used to fund new climate spending, not reduce seniors’ pharmacy costs.

  The analysis concludes that, “the Medicare savings are simply another means of financing the IRA’s $670 billion in clean energy tax credits and other spending on energy and the environment.”

  While the law features some inexpensive new benefits, like a $2,000 cap on pharmacy out-of-pocket costs, these consume just a fraction of the savings from the prescription drug policies.

  If all the savings had been used to improve Medicare, it would mean $40,000 more for each of the program’s 65 million enrollees.  Instead, fewer than 10% of them will see any savings, usually less than $300. Just enough so the law’s backers can say it “reduces drug costs for seniors.”

  The big winners from IRA policies like letting Medicare “negotiate” drug prices will be millions of younger, white-collar professionals who’ll get $7,500 credits for electric vehicles (EVs). For each senior who saves a few dollars at the pharmacy counter, six EV buyers will save thousands at the dealership.

  This creates several problems next year for candidates who backed the law.

  First, cutting Medicare is ballot box poison.

   Eight-in-ten Americans – especially the voter-rich age group of 50-64 – fear for the program’s financial future.

  Democrats got hammered in 2010 and 2014 for voting to use Medicare funds to pay for Obamacare. In 2012, progressives returned the favor with the infamous “throw granny off a cliff” ad campaign attacking GOP Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s Medicare proposals.

  Second, candidates who backed the IRA have nowhere to hide in 2024.

  Senators who voted for it will be on the ballot with President Biden in key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Ohio and Arizona. When the issue is raised in one state, candidates in all the others will have to respond, too.

  Third, the law torpedoes the middle-class, “Bidenomics” message.

  It’s tough to talk about growing the economy “from the middle out and the bottom up” when transferring wealth from Medicare seniors to EV buyers, who typically earn $150,000 a year.  That’s twice the nation’s median household income.

  Finally, taking savings from Medicare to fight climate change will make no sense outside the bubbles of climate activism and academia.

  Most voters think rising sea levels pose far less of an “existential threat” than policies that put their health care at risk. Even those who are concerned about the environment see health care as a much higher priority. Furthermore, voters are notoriously stingy when asked to make real trade-offs for the cause.

  This summer, voters in Sonoma, California – one of our wealthiest, bluest counties — rejected a quarter-cent tax hike to reduce local reliance on fossil fuels.

  Imagine how a quarter-trillion-dollar Medicare cut will play next year in Erie and Kenosha.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 18:20

• Watch: Chinese Jet Comes Dangerously Within 10 Feet Of US B-52 Bomber
  Watch: Chinese Jet Comes Dangerously Within 10 Feet Of US B-52 Bomber

  There’s been another military close-call between US and Chinese aerial patrols in skies off China, with the Pentagon blasting the unsafe maneuvering of a Chinese fighter jet. 

  “The Chinese Shenyang J-11 rapidly approached the US B-52 bomber on Tuesday over the South China Sea and came within 10 feet of contact,” a Pentagon official said Thursday of the fresh incident. The Department of Defense subsequently released footage of the extremely close intercept. 

  

  The US statement said the Chinese J-11 harassed the B-52, flying at “uncontrolled excessive speed, flying below, in front of, and within 10 feet of the B-52, putting both aircraft in danger of a collision.”

  The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command went on to say “We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision,” in a press release.

  It’s certainly not the first time this kind of close shadowing maneuver was used by Chinese PLA pilots as part of efforts to thwart what are typically US reconnaissance patrols. But it’s more rare that this would involve a B-52 bomber. No doubt its presence over regional waters made Chinese military leaders nervous.

  And a little over a week ago a very similar hostile encounter occurred involving a Canadian spy plane which was coordinating with US and Western efforts to monitor North Korea’s weapons program. That prior incident also saw a PLA fighter come within mere meters of the Canadian aircraft. 

  Watch footage of the very close intercept released by the Pentagon:

  #USINDOPACOM Statement on #PRC Unprofessional Intercept: “A People’s Republic of China J-11 pilot executed an unsafe intercept of a U.S. Air Force B-52 aircraft which was lawfully conducting routine operations over the South China Sea…”

  Read more⬇️https://t.co/UnCmnneAr7 pic.twitter.com/6k79Koah3V

  — U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (@INDOPACOM) October 26, 2023

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

  But like with the other episodes, Beijing has a different reading, charging that this is but the result of Western aggression and hegemony which seeks to provoke incidents by sending military assets thousands of miles away near China’s waters.

  “The U.S. military planes traveled thousands of miles to China’s doorstep to flex muscle,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning has said in response. She emphasized, “That is the source of maritime and air security risks, and is not conducive to regional peace and stability.”

  The US issued its usual counter, saying, “The U.S. will continue to fly, sail and operate — safely and responsibly — wherever international laws allow.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 18:00

• Health Care Worker Crisis Looms As Burnout And Mental Health Issues Surge, CDC Warns
  Health Care Worker Crisis Looms As Burnout And Mental Health Issues Surge, CDC Warns

  Authored by George Citroner via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Health care workers are experiencing burnout, harassment, suicidal thoughts, and other mental health symptoms at alarming levels, a Vital Signs report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found.

  

  Experts warn this could lead to critical health care staffing shortages, threatening patient care at a time when an aging population needs it most.

  “It’s a looming crisis,” Dr. Timothy Sullivan, chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Staten Island University Hospital in New York, told The Epoch Times, urging swift action before the problem becomes a full-blown emergency.

  “Everybody’s saying this is alarming, but what are we doing?” he said.

  Health Care Worker Injuries Surge Over 250 Percent

  The CDC analyzed data from the National Opinion Research Center’s General Social Survey, comparing mental health symptoms reported by 1,443 adult workers in 2018 and 1,952 in 2022. The respondents were grouped into three categories: health care workers, other essential workers, and all other workers.

  Health workers experienced a nearly 250 percent increase in work-related injury and illness rates between 2019 and 2020, according to the CDC team led by Dr. L. Casey Chosewood, director of the Office for Total Worker Health at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

  “Many of our nation’s health care systems are at their breaking point,” Dr. Chosewood said at a press conference. “Staffing crises, lack of supportive leadership, long hours of work, excessive demands, and inflexibilities in our nation’s health systems all must be addressed.”

  COVID-19 intensified many health workers’ longstanding challenges, but it also “contributed to new and worsening concerns,” said Dr. Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer. These include compassion fatigue, depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, and suicidal thoughts.

  Harassment Fuels Health Care Worker Burnout

  The CDC survey found nearly 46 percent of health care workers reported frequent burnout in 2022, up from 32 percent in 2018.

  Harassment in the form of threats, bullying, verbal abuse, and hostile actions from patients or coworkers was a significant contributor, more than doubling since 2018, from 6.4 percent to 13.4 percent in 2022. Those reporting harassment were more likely to have anxiety, depression, and burnout, according to the report.

  About Half of Health Care Workers Look to Quit

  Intentions by health workers to change jobs also increased, with 44 percent in 2022 reporting they were likely or very likely to look for a new job in the next year. The turnover intention in 2018 for health workers was 33 percent.

  The share of workers in the other two survey groups who planned to seek a different job decreased.

  Who’s to Blame?

  Fundamental health care system issues, such as the way the system is organized, both at an institutional level and as a business, are at play, according to Dr. Sullivan. “It has become a very big business,” he noted.

  Reordering priorities is needed to invest in resources that make health care work “more livable” and expand access to care that lessens long-term burdens, he added.

  Rehaul Health Care to Cut Worker Burnout: Expert

  Seeing many die during the pandemic took a toll, but health care workers mainly needed “financial resources to help care for their families,” Dr. Sullivan said. This was particularly true for nurses and other frontline health care workers, he noted. They “needed time off from work and help paying bills, and so on.”

  Dr. Sullivan said that he had been directly involved in efforts to provide “psychological first aid” to assist providers with the traumatic aspects of health care work.

  But real solutions require rethinking how we’ve organized health care, he added. It’s not just raising salaries. More people doing the work to improve access and quality and lower worker stress are needed, according to Dr. Sullivan.

  “Unfortunately, our health care system is heavily, heavily slanted towards richly reimbursing procedures that are high-cost, [and] highly profitable, even for nonprofit hospitals,” he said.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/27/2023 – 17:40

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Antiviral Drug May Shorten COVID-19-Induced Loss Of Taste And Smell
  Antiviral Drug May Shorten COVID-19-Induced Loss Of Taste And Smell

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

  New data suggest scientists have discovered a medication first designed to treat COVID-19 may also lessen the time it takes for two common symptoms of the disease: loss of taste and smell—to disappear.

  

  The oral antiviral drug ensitrelvir (brand name Xocova) was granted a Fast Track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be investigated as a potential treatment for COVID-19 in April. Soon after, results from randomized clinical trials published in Clinical Infectious Diseases showed ensitrelvir was safe, effective, and successful in suppressing viral replication in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19.

  Ensitrelvir is now gaining traction as a potential solution to address COVID-19’s symptoms of loss of taste and smell—two sensory problems that can linger for up to years after the acute infection has subsided. The drug’s multipurpose use is based on the results of a study by researchers from the drug’s co-developer, pharmaceutical giant Shionogi Inc., a United States subsidiary of Shionogi & Co. Ltd. based in Osaka, Japan.

  Ensitrelvir Improves Taste and Smell Symptoms

  In a poster presentation, Shionogi presented data demonstrating that patients given ensitrelvir within three days of the onset of symptoms may have benefited from the medication by preventing or reducing the loss of taste and smell. Researchers also presented their analysis of the phase 2/3 clinical study results, showing a “significantly smaller proportion of patients had taste disorder or smell disorder on Day 7 when treated with 125 [milligrams] of ensitrelvir versus a placebo,” according to a news release.

  “As an investigator who has evaluated both clinical data and real-world experience with ensitrelvir, I am optimistic about its potential to become an important tool in managing the unpredictability of COVID-19,” said Dr. Yohei Doi, a professor of medicine at Fujita Health University in Japan, said in the news release. “The new data … offer another reason to have confidence in this investigational agent and its potential to be a meaningful treatment option for patients.”

  The findings were presented in Boston at the October 2023 IDWeek meeting, an annual conference that brings together infectious disease specialists and epidemiologists from around the globe.

  Ensitrelvir remains an investigational drug, having received emergency approval in Japan in November 2022 to treat COVID-19. It has not been approved for use outside of Japan. However, Takeki Uehara, senior vice president of drug development and regulatory science at Shionogi, hopes this will change.

  “The data we are seeing in Japan are promising as we work to meet unmet medical needs of COVID-19 and make ensitrelvir available worldwide, pending regulatory approvals,” he said in the same news release.

  Loss of Taste and Smell in US Adults

  A 2023 paper published in Laryngoscope showed 35.8 million U.S. adults—or 14 percent of the population—were diagnosed with COVID-19 in 2021. Among those, an estimated 60.5 percent reported losing their sense of smell, while 58.2 percent reported loss of taste.

  Most patients (over 72 percent) completely recovered their sense of smell post-infection. However, about 1 in 4 people affected recovered only partially. Approximately 4 percent said their sense of smell had not yet returned.

  Taste function recovery was similar, with most (about 77 percent) regaining their sense of taste, while 1 in 5 reported partial recovery. Under 3 percent reported no recovery.

  “The majority of adults infected with COVID-19 in 2021 experienced olfactory or gustatory dysfunction with a non-negligible population reporting incomplete or no near-term sensory recovery,” the authors wrote in the 2023 paper. “Our results are useful for providers counseling patients and suggest that interventions lessening overall COVID-19 symptom burden may prevent prolonged sensory dysfunction.”

  Other Treatments

  COVID-related loss of smell can negatively affect people in several ways, including significantly altering a person’s overall quality of life and leading to poor nutrition. Mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem have also been linked to loss of taste and smell.

  Fortunately, smell recovery is possible through smell retraining therapy (SRT). The treatment involves repeated exposure to smells to elicit memories of familiar scents like flowers, fruits, spices, and essential oils.

  Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) Health, an organization powered by the American Academy of  Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, recommends patients sniff individual scents for at least 10 to 20 seconds once or twice a day. The four best scents are rose, lemon, cloves, and eucalyptus. Being entirely focused on the task is critical to stimulating memories of each smell. This should be followed by a few deep breaths before moving on to the next scent. Perform this exercise for at least three months.

  Regaining taste is also possible. Experts at the University of Texas MD Anderson Center recommend the following:

  • Introduce lemon into your diet because the tart flavor stimulates saliva and taste buds.
  • Integrate sweet, salty, spicy, and sour foods like pickles, olives, hot sauces, and a variety of salad dressings.
  • Play around with foods that provide texture, like apples, celery, or sticky peanut butter.
  • Alternate between hot and cold foods.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 23:50

• Doomsday Prepping Is Trendy All Of A Sudden
  Doomsday Prepping Is Trendy All Of A Sudden

  In the days before Covid, doomsday preppers were ridiculed and shunned as part of the fringe minority. Now, they’re being celebrated with their own spread in the The Wall Street Journal entitled: “Who Counts as a Disaster Prepper These Days? Lots of Us”.

  In the article, the Journal points out that there is a “renewed interest in self-reliance” in stocking for emergencies. The article asks whether it has to do with supply chain shortages and empty grocery shelves. 

  We can’t help but ask if it could be people want to front load items before additional 10% annual price hikes? Or if it could possibly have anything to do with the fact that we appear to be on the brink of World War 3? They don’t mention in so many words and we…well, we digress.

  What the article does note is that increasing sales of ready-made emergency kits and recent surveys suggest that Americans are now more inclined to maintain emergency provisions than they were in the past.

  The Journal writes that approximately 33% of the 2,179 U.S. adults polled by financial-services firm Finder in April reported spending an average of $149 over the last year on essentials like non-perishable food, medical supplies, and bottled water. This marks an increase from the roughly 20% who indicated doing so in 2020.

  

  One 39 year man told the Journal: “I’m a PlayStation 5, love-my-comfort guy” and swore he wasn’t a prepper. Yet he has 4 bags packed with “snacks, flashlights, water and coloring books for his two young sons” in case of emergency now hanging in his closet. 

  “It’s taking rational steps to ensure we have the ability to act quickly in those moments,” he added. He cited natural disasters mostly, but also the war in Ukraine as reasons for his prepping: “It’s less that we’re trying to survive the end of the world, and more that we have no idea when an earthquake or tornado is going to happen.” 

  “People are becoming more and more aware of the problems in the world and how fallible things are,” added John Ramey, founder of self-reliance training site The Prepared. “It’s a totally new market,” added Marlon Smith, who runs a $300 Urban and Outdoor Survival class.

  In New York City, Alexjandria Edwards, said she keeps a tent, sleeping bag and water-filtration system in her apartment. She admits it “feels silly” sometimes but wound up purchasing disaster packs off Amazon for about $100 each. 

  “It’s actually for a family of four, but I was like, ‘You know what? Better to be safe,’” she concluded. She has also been watching videos online about “homeopathic healing and learning to grow her own windowsill vegetable garden” because she worries about food availability.

  Good luck with that. You can read the Journal’s full report here. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 23:30

• SBF Trial Should Spur Dark Money Legislation
  SBF Trial Should Spur Dark Money Legislation

  Authored by Greg Orman via RealClear Wire,

  Last week, in the trial of former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried, details emerged about how the now–disgraced entrepreneur attempted to co-opt U.S. senators from both the Republican and Democratic parties.

  

  With $50 million in donations to secretive dark money vehicles linked to both party’s respective Senate leaders, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, Bankman-Fried presumably sought to influence future crypto regulations.

  Had the 31-year-old former “crypto king” not run afoul of the law, we might never have learned of the donations. The only reason the American people are aware of this influence-buying is because Bankman-Fried allegedly made the donations with stolen investor money. Had Bankman-Fried not been the head of a company engaging in criminal acts, the dark-money contributions to Schumer, McConnell, and other members of Congress would presumably have been legal and likely never come to light.

  While the crypto market is still just a fraction of the size of the global stock market, it has grown exponentially over the past decade. At current market prices, there’s roughly $2 trillion of crypto assets in circulation. That’s about the size of France’s annual GDP.

  The $50 million that Bankman-Fried spent to secretly buy influence was small in comparison to the size of the industry, but it likely would have given him outsized control over the writing of crypto regulations. Senators from both sides of the aisle would have been encouraged to take his calls and meet with his lobbyists. The Senate majority leader and ranking Republican might have made calls to various regulatory bodies to check up on proposed regulations or provide “feedback” to rules being considered.

  Drafts of potential legislation would have been shared with Bankman-Fried and his team before they were shared with the full Senate. Objectionable provisions would have been crossed out and replaced with more favorable terms. Rules that benefited Bankman-Fried’s company, FTX, at the expense of competitors, would have mysteriously made their way into the legislation.

  Journalists, unaware of Bankman-Fried’s philanthropy to Club McConnell and Club Schumer, would be producing feel-good stories about the way Congress came together to enact bipartisan legislation to protect the public from unscrupulous operators.

  Fortunately, none of that came to pass. But what does it say about our system that it could have happened and would have been considered perfectly legal? Without full disclosure of all campaign spending, reporters and, more importantly, the American people, would have no way of knowing the motivations of their elected leaders. And no politician could be held accountable for conflicts of interest.

  With all the talk over the past several months of the ethically challenged behavior of various Trump and Biden family members, the American people are clamoring for Congress to pass rules to fix our broken and corrupt political system.

  This isn’t a new issue. In a polling project first commissioned by Jimmy Carter’s pollster, the late Patrick Caddell, the problem of government ethics and corruption has been one of the top two voter concerns for more than a decade. The behavior of the first families of the Democratic and Republican parties has brought the issue into focus for even more Americans to see.

  In the polling done by Caddell, over 80% of Americans agreed with the statement, “Washington, DC is a rigged game that only benefits those people who can buy access to power.”

  Sam Bankman-Fried’s behavior only reinforces that belief. While the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission confers the right of billionaires to spend millions buying influence through election spending, it doesn’t guarantee them the right to anonymity.

  Bankman-Fried’s trial is expected to last into the middle of next month. No doubt, more details of his political spending will emerge. Congress should use this backdrop to enact legislation requiring full disclosure of all political spending and end the era of special interest and mega–donor dark money influence in America.

  Greg Orman is a Kansas entrepreneur, author of “A Declaration of Independents,” and a former independent candidate for governor and senator of his state. His website is www.greg-orman.com.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 23:10

• Gaetz Says Johnson Speakership Proves 'MAGA Is Ascendant' In GOP, 'Swamp Is On The Run'
  Gaetz Says Johnson Speakership Proves ‘MAGA Is Ascendant’ In GOP, ‘Swamp Is On The Run’

  Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on Wednesday declared the election of Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) as House speaker a sign of the strength of the “MAGA movement” in the GOP and the waning power of the “swamp.”

  

  After a three-week leadership void in the House, the GOP conference chose Mr. Johnson as their speaker nominee; he went on to win 220 votes in the first floor ballot on Wednesday.

  Mr. Gaetz, who led the motion to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the former speaker, touted Mr. Johnson’s victory as exemplary of the growing power of the “MAGA movement” on Capitol Hill.

  “The swamp is on the run. MAGA is ascendant. If you don’t think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to MAGA Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement and where the power in the Republican Party truly lies, then you’re not paying attention,” Mr. Gaetz declared during an interview on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast on Wednesday.

  The Floridian congressman shed light on the internal party deliberations that led to Mr. Johnon’s election following the short-lived race of Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who withdrew his name hours after receiving the GOP nomination on Tuesday.

  Mr. Johnson was runner-up to Mr. Emmer, who was the third speaker nominee after Reps. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) failed to garner the needed support.

  

  Mr. Gaetz said that following Mr. Emmer’s withdrawal, Mr. McCarthy was the sole GOP member to object to a request by Rep. Marcus Molinaro (R-N.Y.), a freshman congressman, for unanimous consent to waive the rules and take a non-binding poll on whether Mr. Johnson “could be our speaker nominee.”

  Mr. McCarthy’s objection, in Mr. Gaetz’s view, was evidence that the former speaker “was worried that there was going to be this great, unifying moment” of rallying behind Mr. Johnson that would hurt Mr. McCarthy’s chances of being reelected, so “he scuttled the unifying moment.”

  Mr. McCarthy had not put his name in the ring to run again for the speakership.

  The Epoch Times contacted Mr. McCarthy’s office for comment.

  Gaetz Says He ‘Wasn’t the Force for Chaos’

  Mr. Gaetz said that Mr. McCarthy sought write-in votes, nominating himself. However, he received only 33, according to Mr. Gaetz.

  “So, they flame out terribly,” Mr. Gaetz said. “Mike Johnson’s gaining momentum. Ultimately, McCarthy gets 43 to vote for him on a secret ballot. But Mike Johnson gets a majority.“

  Mr. Johnson then requested a roll-call vote, said Mr. Gaetz. “So that those 43 would have to announce themselves as being for a candidate who wasn’t even running, instead of a unifying force like Mike Johnson,” he added.

  “And when we called for the roll call, do you know how many people voted for Kevin McCarthy? Zero,” said Mr. Gaetz.

  Mr. Gaetz accused the former Californian speaker of attempting to sabotage the chances of the last four speaker nominees, including Mr. Scalise, Mr. Jordan, Mr. Emmer, and Mr. Johnson, while maneuvering in the shadows to be reelected himself.

  “Everyone in the room knew at that moment that I wasn’t the force for chaos; I wasn’t causing disunity; that for the last three weeks, the reason the House of Representatives has been paralyzed is because, for his own selfish gain, Kevin McCarthy was sabotaging the candidacy of anyone else because he was plotting a return,” Mr. Gaetz charged.

  

  Mr. Johnson received a prolonged standing ovation from fellow Republicans upon his nomination by Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.).

  Mr. Gaetz hailed Mr. Johnson’s election to the speakership as a victory over “the swamp,” the term made popular by former President Donald Trump, the creator of the MAGA movement, which stands for Make American Great Again, his 2016 campaign slogan.

  “They are crying, they are hand-wringing, they are bed-wetting over on K Street because we have an honorable, righteous man who is about to take this position. He’s going to do great things for the country,” Mr. Gaetz said, referring to “the swamp.”

  Mr. Gaetz, who has been “seat mates” with Mr. Johnson on the House Judiciary Committee for seven years, praised the newly-minted speaker.

  “He is sharp. He will be as respected in the homes of our most meaningful, righteous, and patriotic donors as he will [be] at the rallies with our most enthusiastic and meaningful activists,” Mr. Gaetz said.

  Mr. Johnson’s election was praised by the former speaker nominees, Mr. Emmer and Mr. Scalise.

  “I know Mike will keep our majority united as we continue to deliver on the commitments we’ve made to our constituents,” Mr. Emmer said.

  Mr. Scalise praised Mr. Johnson’s commitment “to things bigger than himself.”

  Mr. Johnson, 51, is an attorney and former radio host. He carried a Bible when he accepted the gavel on Wednesday.

  In his first speech as speaker, he said the House is “ready to get to work again” to solve the problems at home and abroad affecting Americans.

  “Our mission here is to serve you well, to restore the people’s faith in this House, in this great and essential institution,” he said.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 22:30

• US Warplanes Conduct Major Strikes On 'Iranian Proxies' In Syria
  US Warplanes Conduct Major Strikes On ‘Iranian Proxies’ In Syria

  Update(22:25ET): In the overnight and early morning hours in Syria (local time), US forces carried out airstrikes on what it said are Iran-linked militants and installations in eastern Syria. Multiple targets have been hit. 

  According to a statement by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, “Today, at President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces conducted self-defense strikes on two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups.” The attacks were reportedly done by US warplanes, likely operating out of either the Gulf or Mediterranean areas where new US naval assets have recently been positioned, keeping a watch on fast moving events in Gaza. Fox issued the following breaking detail: 

  F-16s and F-15s were used to strike targets in Syria earlier tonight in retaliation for the attacks on US troops in the region.

  Earlier in the day there were reports, though with few details, that US forces in the same northeast region of Syria came under attack, as has been happening in the last several days. The Pentagon had also earlier announced that over a dozen US troops in Iraq and Syria have suffered Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) in the aftermath of drone and rocket attacks on US bases in the region. 

  JUST IN — U.S. warplanes have conducted air strikes against Iranian proxies in multiple locations in Syria. pic.twitter.com/agKA4sc0Kx

  — Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) October 27, 2023

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

  Below is the full Pentagon statement, which seeks to emphasize that this new, high-risk military aggression is supposedly “separate” from the Israel-Gaza conflict…

  BREAKING: Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin released a statement regarding the US Airstrikes on sites used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian-proxies in Northeastern Syria pic.twitter.com/MdCvMPRNMz

  — Global Conflict Watch (@GloballyWatch) October 27, 2023

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  The United States is also seeking to reassure a region which is clearly at heightened risk for breaking out into major war that it “does not seek conflict”. But the long-running military occupation of Syria’s oil and gas region suggests otherwise. 

  * * *

  Update(1520ET): In the Pentagon’s latest move to bolster US defenses in the Middle East against the ‘Iran threat’ – given the increased instances of Tehran proxies attacking US troop installations in Iraq and Syria over the last week – some 900 more Americans soldiers will be dispatched to the region. 

  A CBS correspondent has cited Pentagon Press Secretary, Gen. Patrick Ryder, who says 900 US troops have deployed or in process of deploying to bolster missile defense in CENTCOM’s mideast region of operations. They are expected to man Patriot, THAAD and Avenger missile systems. Earlier this week US defense officials said these extra missile batteries are being deployed to the theatre ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive in Gaza. 

  The CBS reporter noted “This comes as Iranian-backed groups continue to attack US miliary in Iraq and Syria.” Fears are growing that a major IDF push into the Gaza Strip would unleash broader retaliation strikes on US bases in the region. This could include Hezbollah, which operates both in Lebanon and Syria. 

  Israel’s “preparation” strikes for the “next stage of war” – according to its officials – have continued to grow in intensity…

  🇮🇱🇵🇸 The power of those missiles, and the speed in which a building can be taken down, is hard to imagine.

  Over 8,000 of those missiles have been dropped on Gaza since Oct 7. pic.twitter.com/wkci28WxE0

  — Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 26, 2023

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  * * *

  Iran has become more vocal in its threats against Israel, in response to the soaring death toll in Gaza, which has surpassed 7,000 Gazans killed. Prime Minister Netanyahu has at the same time announced “thousands” of terrorists have been eliminated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Israel has further said it took out three top Hamas commanders in the last several hours.

  On Thursday, Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that if Israel sends ground forces into the Strip, the IDF will be “buried”. He stated: “If the Zionists launch a ground attack in Gaza, they will be buried. If the enemies think that the Muslims will watch these crimes from the sidelines, they are gravely mistaken,” according to a translation in regional media. He also aimed the comments at Washington, saying “the US will be buried by the fire they lit.”

  

  “If the evil people of the world want to carry out a foolish act such as invading the Palestinian territories, they will face a miserable failure and receive a decisive response from the resistance front,” the IRGC statement added.

  The US has already parked one carrier strike group in waters off Israel, with another en route, and has been repeatedly warning Tehran not to get involved. National security spokesman John Kirby this week said the US administration stands ready to mount a “decisive response” if Iran or its proxies attack US bases.

  However, this appears to already be happening. There has been well over a dozen drone and missile attacks on bases in Iraq and Syria over the past week, with the latest happening Thursday.

  There are fresh reports that Iraqi Shia militia groups have launched cross-border attacks on a US installation in northeast Syria. These sporadic attacks now threaten to become a daily event. And now this from Politico on Thursday…

  Nineteen American service members stationed in Iraq and Syria have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury after rocket and drone attacks from Iran-backed militants last week. https://t.co/dRkEbclN1U

  — Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) October 26, 2023

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  Adding further to tensions between Washington and Tehran, fresh Wall Street Journal reporting this week has found that Hamas operatives behind the Oct.7 terrorist attack were given specialized training in Iran. According to the report, this involved up to 500 militants:

  In the weeks leading up to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, hundreds of the Palestinian Islamist militant group’s fighters received specialized combat training in Iran, according to people familiar with intelligence related to the assault.

  Roughly 500 militants from Hamas and an allied group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, participated in the exercises in September, which were led by officers of the Quds Force, the foreign-operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the people said.

  Senior Palestinian officials and Iranian Brig. Gen. Esmail Qaani, the head of Quds Force, also attended, they said.

  But then strangely, the same report quotes US officials as saying they can’t verify whether the training on Iranian soil was directly in preparation for the Oct.7 attacks (or else possibly “routine”), which took the lives of at least 1,400 Israelis and foreigners. 

  “U.S. officials said Iran has regularly trained militants in Iran and elsewhere, but they have no indications of a mass training right before the attack,” WSJ writes. “U.S. officials and the people familiar with the intelligence said they had no information to suggest Iran conducted training specifically to prepare for the events of Oct. 7.”

  🚨BREAKING – IRANIAN ARMY:

  ‘The start of large-scale maneuvers for all ground forces formations starting tomorrow’

  These exercises are typically conducted to enhance readiness, test strategies, and improve the overall operational capabilities of the military, but could also be… pic.twitter.com/bA4PhZ3ww3

  — Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) October 26, 2023

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  Given the fact that the terror assault involved paragliders, militants on motorcycles, coordinated assault teams with explosives, and other capabilities not used this effectively in the past – many analysts believe the planning for the attack had to have taken many months or even years.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 22:25

• Show Me The Money: Comer Demands White House Prove $200K Biden-Brother Loan
  Show Me The Money: Comer Demands White House Prove $200K Biden-Brother Loan

  House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer on Thursday says his panel doesn’t have a money trail showing that President Biden ever loaned his brother James $200,000, after a suspicious payment took place the same day James received $600,000 in loans from rural hospital operator, Americore.

  

  The $200,000 check, written in 2018, was explained by the White House as the repayment of a loan – however Comer has his doubts, according to Just the News.

  pic.twitter.com/tJUMLMD5iu

  — Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) October 20, 2023

   “The White House has claimed Joe Biden loaned James Biden $200,000, and this check was repayment,” Comer wrote to White House counsel Edward Siskel. “Records obtained by the Committee do show numerous large incoming transactions into the personal account of James and Sara Biden from various entities. Some of these transaction records may have obscured the identity of the true payer, but no records in the Committee’s possession state that Joe Biden made a large loan payment to his brother.”

  “If Joe Biden did personally loan James Biden an amount that was later repaid by the $200,000 check, please provide the loan documents, including the loan payment, loan agreement, and any other supporting loan documentation,” Comer continued.

  James Biden allegedly received $600,000 in loans from Americore after convincing the firm he could use the family name to “open doors” and secure a large investment from the Middle East, the Kentucky Republican claimed last week. Comer has since suggested that, even if the president did give his brother the money in the form of a loan, the transaction was nonetheless evidence of personal benefit from his family’s business activities. -Just the News

  “Whether it was a loan or not, James Biden’s March 1, 2018, check to Joe Biden aptly demonstrates one way he personally benefited from his family’s shady influence peddling of his name and their access to him,” Comer wrote to Siskel. “Even if the transaction in question was part of a loan agreement, we are troubled that Joe Biden’s ability to recoup funds depended on his brother’s cashing-in on the Biden brand.”

  See Comer’s letter below:

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 22:10

• Intruder Arrested At RFK Jr.'s LA Home… Twice In Same Day
  Intruder Arrested At RFK Jr.’s LA Home… Twice In Same Day

  Authored by Rudy Blalock via The Epoch Times,

  An intruder was arrested on the morning of Oct. 25 at Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Los Angeles property, after being detained by Mr. Kennedy’s security detail, according to police.

  A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) told The Epoch Times officers responded to a burglary call around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, and when they arrived, a blonde, white male wearing a green t-shirt was detained by security at Mr. Kennedy’s home in the Brentwood neighborhood.

  Authorities said the man, Jonathan Macht, 28, was taken into custody at a nearby police station where he was cited for trespassing and then released.

  Police said he then returned to the Kennedy’s home and was arrested a second time at 5:45 p.m. for violating a protective order.

  

  He is currently being held on $30,000 bail.

  According to a Thursday press release by Mr. Kennedy’s campaign, the presidential candidate was at home at the time of both arrests.

  “After being released from police custody, the man immediately returned to Kennedy’s residence,” states the release.

  According to the press release, the intruder entered the property by climbing a fence and is known to the U.S. Secret Service and Mr. Kennedy’s security Gavin de Becker and Associates (GDBA).

  “GDBA had notified the Secret Service about this specific obsessed individual several times in recent months, and shared alarming communications he has sent to the candidate,” states the release.

  In September, an armed man accused of posing as a federal marshal at an event attended by Mr. Kennedy was arrested and charged with misdemeanors, according to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office.

  At the time of the arrest, Mr. Kennedy was scheduled to speak at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, at 4401 W. 8th St. in Los Angeles, to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month. The event ran from 4 to 8 p.m on Sept. 15.

  According to the LAPD, a call was received reporting a male in front of the event venue with “a badge on [his] lapel, a gun, and a shoulder holster,” who “claimed to be a U.S. Marshal,” a spokesperson told The Epoch Times. The suspect, Adrian Paul Aispuro, 44, was initially booked on a felony gun charge, before later being charged with carrying a loaded firearm, carrying a concealed firearm, and impersonating an officer, all misdemeanors.

  Police said the suspect claimed to be employed for the event but wasn’t recognized by Mr. Kennedy’s security team.

  Requests for Protection

  According to Mr. Kennedy’s campaign, two requests for Secret Service protection as a presidential candidate have been denied by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in recent months.

  “Every presidential administration for 55 years has afforded early protection to candidates who requested it. The Biden administration is the sole outlier,” the campaign stated.

  This is the Kennedy campaign’s third formal request, according to the release.

  “Since the assassination of my father in 1968, candidates for president are provided Secret Service protection,” Mr. Kennedy wrote on X. “But not me.”

  According to U.S. law under “18 USC 3056A,” the U.S. Secret Service is tasked to provide protection to “major presidential and vice presidential candidates and, within 120 days of the general Presidential election, the spouses of such candidates.”

  The secretary of the DHS, currently Alejandro Mayorkas, is tasked with identifying “major” candidates in a presidential race in consultation with the speaker of the House, the House minority leader, the majority and minority leaders of the Senate, and one additional member selected by the other members of the committee, which as a whole isn’t answerable to the incumbent president.

  DHS has yet to comment on its decision.

  Mr. Kennedy called for the Biden administration to provide protection in early August, after one of Ecuador’s presidential candidates, Fernando Villavicencio—who vowed to fight corruption in the country—was assassinated.

  After Mr. Kennedy’s father was assassinated, the U.S. Secret Service expanded its protection coverage to presidential and vice presidential candidates, according to its website.

  Following the Sept. 15 incident, Mr. Kennedy wrote on X, “I’m still entertaining a hope that President Biden will allow me Secret Service protection.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 21:50

• "These Kids Have Sh*t For Brains": Billionaire Leon Cooperman Slams Columbia Protesters, Halts Donations
  “These Kids Have Sh*t For Brains”: Billionaire Leon Cooperman Slams Columbia Protesters, Halts Donations

  Hedge fund Billionaire and Columbia alum Leon Cooperman says he’s pulling donations from his alma matter over its support of pro-Palestinian activists.

  In an interview with Fox Business, host Liz Claman said to Copperman:

  “You are a proud graduate of Columbia Business School, class of 67, son of Polish Jewish immigrants, first in your family to graduate from college,” asking “what do you make of what’s happening at Columbia and Harvard, Stanford, NYU as well?

  There was a student walkout at Columbia just a couple hours ago, driven by Columbia professor Joseph Massad, who called the Hamas attack ‘awesome.’ Where are we in the world when 1,300 Israeli civilians…”

  

  Cooperman interrupted her, exclaiming:

  “I think these kids at the colleges have shit for brains.“

  “We have one reliable ally in the Middle East,” Cooperman continued. “That’s Israel.”

  “We only have one democracy in the Middle East. That’s Israel, ok?”

  “And we have one economy tolerant of different people – gays, lesbians, etc. And that’s Israel. So, I have no idea what these young kids are doing.”

  Cooperman then said he’d pull donations.

  “Now, the real shame is I’ve given to Columbia, probably about $50 million over many years,” he continued.

  “And I’m going to suspend my giving. I’ll give my giving to other organizations.“

  Watch the full discussion below:

  Get woke…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 21:30

• Anthony Fauci To Receive Prestigious 'Ethics Prize' For 'Saving Millions Of Lives'
  Anthony Fauci To Receive Prestigious ‘Ethics Prize’ For ‘Saving Millions Of Lives’

  Authored by Jordan Schachtel via The Dossier

  The Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence at Case Western Reserve University will award Dr. Anthony Fauci with its Inamori Ethics Prize, an annual honor given to international leaders “whose actions and influence have greatly improved the condition of humankind.”

  No, this is not a Babylon Bee article. This is really happening. Anthony Fauci, who is unparalleled as the most destructive government bureaucrat in American history, is being awarded with an ethics prize.

  Fauci, who presided over two White House administrations of catastrophic, draconian policymaking, which resulted in unparalleled levels of unnecessary human suffering, has “saved millions of lives,” a press release from Case Western said Wednesday.

  

  Fauci will be on campus Sept. 19, 2024 to deliver a “free public lecture” commemorating the honor, which comes with a monetary reward.

  “Dr. Fauci has cared not only for the nation’s health, but also the health of the world,” Case Western Reserve President Eric W. Kaler said Wednesday. “As a scientist, research leader and public health advisor, his contributions to scientific discovery have truly improved lives. His leadership through one of the most challenging times in history—the COVID-19 pandemic—serves as a model for us all.”

  Case Western long required all students to take several doses of mRNA shots to be eligible to enroll in classes. The school also enforced a mask mandate for multiple years. They finally dropped the abusive mandates when the Fall semester began.

  Despite “retiring” at the end of last year, Fauci continues to receive millions of dollars worth of taxpayer funded benefits, such as a 24/7 chauffeur and a fully staffed U.S. Marshals security detail.

  He is now affiliated with Georgetown University, where he has been awarded multiple lucrative professorships, but does not teach any classes at the D.C. institution.

  *  *  *

  Meanwhile…

  The Anthony Fauci Grift Tour offers much more than $300 sponsor tickets. Other levels:

  Partner $2,500
  Wine/Espresso Bar Sponsor $5,000
  Corporate Tables $7,500
  VIP Reception $20,000
  Fireside Chat $25,000
  Presenting Sponsor $50,000 https://t.co/Old2XSUsIg pic.twitter.com/9k2DkPtsId

  — Paul D. Thacker (@thackerpd) October 22, 2023

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

   

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 21:10

• Stellantis Makes $1.6 Billion Investment In Chinese EV Startup Leapmotor
  Stellantis Makes $1.6 Billion Investment In Chinese EV Startup Leapmotor

  While almost all other auto manufacturers, especially those from Japan, are mulling exits from China (where domestic brands are starting to dominate the EV market), Stellantis is doing the opposite and investing in an EV startup. 

  The U.S. based auto manufacturer who makes Jeep and Dodge brands said it would be investing 1.5 billion euros ($1.58 billion) into Chinese EV startup Leapmotor, CNBC reported this week. 

  Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said on Thursday morning: “Through this strategic investment, we can address a white space in our business model and benefit from Leapmotor’s competitiveness both in China and abroad.”

  Analyst Abhik Mukherjee of Couterpoint Research told CNBC: “This deal presents clear synergies for both Stellantis and Leap Motor. Stellantis stands to benefit by strengthening its presence in the Chinese market, while Leap Motor gains an easier entry into the European market.”

  

  Stellantis is forming the Leapmotor International joint venture with a 51% majority stake to enhance the Chinese brand’s electric car sales globally.

  The investment also grants Stellantis about a 20% equity in Leapmotor and two board seats. Amid stiff competition from companies like BYD and Tesla in China’s leading EV market, traditional automakers like Stellantis, which holds a mere 0.3% market share in China, are accelerating their shift to electric vehicles.

  Recall we just wrote days ago about how Mitsubishi was exiting China and how other Japanese automakers were considering following suit. 

  According to research by MarkLines cited by Nikkei this week, Japanese car manufacturers such as Toyota, Honda, and Nissan are lagging in the Chinese market this year. In the first three quarters of 2023, the trio’s combined new vehicle sales were 1.29 million, a 26% year-on-year decrease. Both Toyota and Nissan experienced declines in the ballpark of 30%.

  

  The rise in China’s EV adoption and the dominance of local brands like BYD and Great Wall Motor are challenging Japanese automakers. Electric vehicle sales in China soared 80% to 5.36 million last year, capturing about 20% of the new car market.

  Japanese companies, traditionally strong in gas-fueled cars, are falling behind in the fast-paced EV sector led by Chinese firms.

  Facing challenges, Japanese automakers are reorganizing their Chinese operations. Mazda plans to cut its dealership network by about 10% from 2022 levels, while Toyota terminated contracts for roughly 1,000 workers at a joint venture. Honda and Nissan have reduced local production, with Nissan’s output reportedly at half its peak. Estimates suggest Toyota, Nissan, and Honda have a combined 40% excess capacity in China, based on current sales forecasts.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 20:50

• 65 Hospitals Closing Departments Or Ending Service
  65 Hospitals Closing Departments Or Ending Service

  By Andrew Cass of Becker’s Hospital Review

  A number of healthcare organizations have recently closed medical departments or ended services at facilities to shore up finances, focus on more in-demand services or address staffing shortages.

  Here are 65 department closures or services ending, announced, advanced or finalized that Becker’s has reported since Feb. 2:

  1. Albany, N.Y.-based St. Peter’s Health Partners delayed plans to shut down the maternity unit at Troy, N.Y.-based Samaritan Hospital by six months to address community members’ concerns about care access and transportation barriers. The system now aims to shutter the unit no later than June 30, 2024.

  2. Mayo Clinic on Dec. 12 will permanently close its clinic at Ridgeview (Minn.) Le Sueur Campus. Ridgeview had been leasing the space from Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic since 2018. After a non-renewable lease expired Aug. 31, both parties agreed to a Dec. 12 departure date. 

  3. Monroe County Hospital in Monroeville, Ala., will shutter its obstetrics unit due to a lack of staff. 

  4. Birmingham, Ala.-based Brookwood Baptist Health is closing obstetrics departments at hospitals in Birmingham and Shelby County. 

  5. Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica plans to close two home health locations and significantly scale back operations at a third as part of its strategy to exit the home healthcare business. ProMedica informed affected employees that it will close home health facilities in Clyde, Ohio, and Dundee, Mich. Operations will be pared back at its Sylvania, Ohio, facility, which will only serve pediatric patients in “greatest need of home healthcare.” The changes are expected to take effect by Nov. 1.

   6. Six clinics run by shuttered Williamston, N.C.-based Martin General Hospital closed Oct. 5. 

  7. Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare on Oct. 4 closed New Richey, Fla.-based HCA Florida Trinity West Hospital, which offered mental health services. The system consolidated those services to HCA Florida West Tampa Hospital and HCA Florida Largo West Hospital. The health system originally suspended services in August amid Hurricane Idalia. 

  8. West Reading, Pa.-based Tower Health closed five urgent care centers on Sept. 30 and sold eight others to Birmingham, Ala.-based American Family Care. 

  9. UMass Memorial Health closed the maternity unit at its Leominster, Mass., hospital at midnight Sept. 22 despite months of criticism and protests. UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital in May proposed a plan to close the unit. The unit has averaged 1.3 births per day through most of fiscal year 2023 and experienced staffing shortages, the hospital noted in its closure plan. 

  10. Dunn, N.C.-based Betsy Johnson Hospital, part of two-hospital system Harnett Health, ended labor and delivery services Oct. 15. 

  11. OhioHealth’s hospital in Van Wert, Ohio, ended inpatient maternity care on Sept. 30. 

  12. IU Health Blackford Hospital in Hartford City, Ind., ended inpatient and emergency department services Oct. 1. 

  13. Detroit-based DMC Sinai Grace Hospital closed its outpatient cancer clinic Oct. 1. 

  14. York (Maine) Hospital said it was closing its birthing center at the end of September. Hospital officials noted that the decision to do so is the result of a decline in births and a shortage of workers, Portland Press Herald reported Sept. 12.

  15. Inglewood, Calif.-based Centinela Hospital Medical Center is ending maternal child health services on Oct. 25 amid continued fallout over the death of a patient earlier this year. 

  16. UChicago Medicine AdventHealth GlenOaks hospital in Glendale Heights, Ill., plans to discontinue its obstetrics services because of low demand and community factors including the higher median age in Glendale Heights.

  17. Perry County Memorial Hospital in Tell City, Ind., will end labor and delivery services Jan. 1, 2024. Hospital officials cited low demand as the reason for the service line closure.

  18. Northfield (Minn.) Hospital will close its 40-bed, long-term care center in October due to staffing and financial challenges.

  19. Saranac Lake, N.Y.-based Adirondack Health closed its emergency department in Lake Placid, N.Y., Aug. 20 after receiving state approval. 

  20. The in-home care arm of Syracuse, N.Y.-based St. Joseph’s Health, part of Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health, is shut down October 23.

  21. The board of directors for Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside, Calif., voted July 27 to indefinitely suspend labor and delivery services.

  22. Charlotte, N.C.-based StarMed Healthcare announced it was closing two satellite locations July 19. In the announcement, CEO Michael Estramonte also said the system laid off 15 employees, or 10 percent of the workforce, as the centers shift from primary and urgent care to primary care.

  23. Vicksburg, Miss.-based Merit Health River Region closed its behavioral health unit on June 30. 

  24. Wilkes-Barre (Pa.) General Hospital moved up the date it planned to end childbirth services by about three weeks, with the care ending abruptly July 11. 

  25. Good Samaritan Hospital, operated by Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare, closed the inpatient psychiatric facility at its Mission Oaks Hospital in Los Gatos, Calif., on Aug. 20.

  26. Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine shut down one of its urgent care centers, Penn Urgent Care South Philadelphia, on June 30, as more patients are turning to telehealth for care.

  27. The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board on June 27 unanimously approved a request from HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital to shutter four of its units. The Decatur, Ill.-based hospital will wrap up its advanced inpatient rehabilitation, obstetrics and newborn nursery, pediatrics and inpatient behavioral health services. 

  28. Catholic Health shared plans to eliminate several services at Mount St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston, N.Y., including surgery, dialysis, imaging, maternity and gastrointestinal care and some inpatient beds, Buffalo Business First reported June 13. 

  29. Jackson, Miss.-based St. Dominic Health Services is ending its behavioral health services unit, citing financial difficulties. The unit stopped taking admissions after June 6. 

  30. Fort Wayne, Ind.-based Lutheran Hospital is closing its heart transplant and inpatient burn units due to low patient volumes. The inpatient burn unit stopped accepting new patients June 2. 

  31. Vancouver, Wash.-based PeaceHealth closed its pediatric cardiology clinic, sleep clinic, optometry clinic and optical shop July 21. It also ended its comprehensive outpatient palliative care May 26 and reduced staff to one nurse and one social worker for in-home care.

  32. Milwaukee-based Froedtert Health closed the behavioral health unit at Froedtert Menomonee Falls (Wis.) May 12. 

  33. Welch (W.Va.) Community Hospital announced plans to close its long-term care unit. The closure of the 59-bed unit is part of the hospital’s transition to the West Virginia University Health System.  

  34. Peoria, Ill.-based OSF HealthCare is closing its labor and delivery services at OSF Heart of Mary Medical Center in Urbana, Ill. 

  35. Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent closed its obstetrics unit May 26. The move comes as birth rates decline in the area along with staffing trouble. 

  36. Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health ended acute care, general surgery and emergency services at Einstein Medical Center Elkins Park (Pa.) and converted the facility solely into a physical rehabilitation provider. 

  37. CoxHealth closed the labor and delivery unit at Cox (Mo.) Monett Hospital, citing difficulties recruiting obstetricians and family practice physicians.

  38. Warsaw, N.Y.-based Wyoming County Community Health System ended its birthing services June 1 amid financial challenges and declining births in the area.

  39. Alta Vista Regional Hospital in Las Vegas, N.M., ended intensive care unit services June 3. The hospital said the change would allow it to focus on its highly utilized medical-surgical unit. 

  40. Springfield, Ore.-based McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center closed its maternity health practice July 7. The for-profit McKenzie-Willamette hospital said the 11-employee midwifery program was “unsustainable.”

  41. Renton, Wash.-based Providence ended labor and delivery at Petaluma (Calif.) Valley Hospital May 1 until further notice.

  42. Gardner, Mass.-based Heywood Hospital closed its pulmonary unit in mid-April due to financial reasons.

  43. Yale New Haven (Conn.) Hospital “ceased use” of its emergency use annex April 11 amid discussions to extend its certificate of occupancy. 

  44. Chelsea (Mich.) Hospital closed its inpatient behavioral health unit and moved 12 of its beds to Trinity Health Ann Arbor.

  45. Danbury, Conn.-based Nuvance Health closed Thompson House, a 100-bed rehabilitation facility in Rhinebeck, N.Y., and laid off its 102 employees, effective April 12.

  46. Holly Springs, Miss.-based Alliance HealthCare System began transitioning to rural emergency hospital status March 31, meaning it will end all inpatient care services. 

  47. MercyOne North Iowa closed its hospice facility in Mason City April 17 amid industry pressures of inflation and high labor costs. 

  48. Brewer, Maine-based Northern Light Health is no longer providing cataract, glaucoma and oculoplastic surgeries at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. 

  49. Plymouth, Ind.-based St. Joseph Health System closed its New Beginnings Birthplace center because it has been unable to attract an obstetrician. It also closed its OB-GYN office March 31.

  50. Springfield, Mass.-based Baystate Health and medical services provider Shields Health closed their urgent care clinic locations in Feeding Hills, Longmeadow and Westfield, Mass., on March 31. 

  51. Palomar Medical Center Poway (Calif.), part of Escondido, Calif.-based Palomar Health, closed its labor and delivery unit, at least temporarily, in June. 

  52. A combination of a loss of pediatricians, changing demographics and some of the strictest abortion laws in the country forced Sandpoint, Idaho-based Bonner General Hospital to end obstetrics services. 

  53. Cabell Huntington (W.Va.) Hospital, part of Mountain Health Network, closed its CHH Surgery Center April 28 and is phasing out its home health services to better align its resources and reduce costs amid financial headwinds.

  54. The only hospital in Manitowoc, Wis., a city of nearly 35,000 — Froedtert Holy Family Memorial Hospital — stopped all obstetrics care June 1.

  55. Citing a lack of provider coverage, Ocean Springs, Miss.-based Singing River Health System said it would end obstetric services, which include labor and delivery, at Singing River Gulfport (Miss.), at least temporarily. The move became effective April 1. 

  56. Astria Toppenish (Wash.) Hospital is one of many rural hospitals closing labor and delivery care due to costs, creating maternity deserts in areas that need care most, The New York Times reported.

  57. Cleveland-based University Hospitals ended labor and delivery services at UH Lake West in Willoughby, Ohio, April 15. The hospital said services would be consolidated at TriPoint in Concord Township, which is about 15 miles away.

  58. Jefferson, Mo.-based Capital Region Medical Center closed two clinics in Holts Summit and St. Elizabeth, Mo., April 15. 

  59. Trinity Health Muskegon (Mich.) announced plans to temporarily close a 30-bed surgical floor due to staffing shortages. 

  60. St. Mark’s Medical Center in La Grange, Texas, cut nearly half its staff and various services as it looks to survive amid significant financial challenges. Service cuts include inpatient and surgical services, post-acute skilled rehab care, its orthopedic clinic, speech therapy and ambulatory care.

  61. OhioHealth’s Shelby Hospital stopped providing maternity services Feb. 28. Maternity services are provided 13 miles away at OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital.

  62. Arcata, Calif.-based Mad River Community Hospital cut 27 jobs as it suspends its home health services program. The program will be suspended upon the completion of services to the hospital’s existing patients, which was expected to be in April.

  63. Oroville (Calif.) Hospital closed Golden Valley Home Health, the hospital’s home health business. 

  64. Ascension Providence Hospital-Southfield (Mich.) ended midwifery services in February. 

  65. Rumford (Maine) Hospital closed its maternity program March 31 after 97 years in service.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 20:30

• Topgolf Bubble? Baltimore And Philadelphia Locations For Sale After A Year Of Operation
  Topgolf Bubble? Baltimore And Philadelphia Locations For Sale After A Year Of Operation

  Almost a year after its opening, a Topgolf location in downtown Baltimore City is on the market. Situated adjacent to the M&T Bank Stadium and in the heart of the crime-ridden metro area, the three-tiered sports entertainment complex has been listed for nearly $60 million this week. 

  According to the Baltimore Business Journal, South Carolina-based Matthews Real Estate Investment Services listed Topgolf Baltimore for $59.3 million, which includes a 20-year “absolute net lease with Topgolf.” 

  The seller is MD Baltimore Warner LLC, an entity with a mailing address in Greenville, South Carolina. The property is featured in an investor deck on land owned by Caves Valley Partners and Caesars Entertainment and situated down the street from M&T Bank Stadium. 

  “It’s confirmed for sale. Can’t comment any further,” Josh Ein, First Vice President of Matthews Real Estate Investment Services, told CBS News. 

  The timing of the sale is what piques our interest. The facility is not even a year old and is already on the chopping block.

  

  It’s possible that after nearly a year of demonstrating its revenue and expenses, the decision was made to cash out and move on, allowing someone else to assume the risk of operating the venue for two decades. 

  Or maybe it’s more complex, such as the geniuses who built the facility placed it in an imploding progressive-run metro area where Democrats in City Hall have refused to enforce common sense law and order. The facility is also situated blocks away from where the HBO hit The Wire was filmed two decades ago. 

  Perhaps an interest rate shock spiraling parts of commercial real estate into a bust cycle is the reason. Topgolf, in general, also might be just a fad and or bubble, as Topgolf Philadelphia (opened in the summer of 2022) was just recently listed for sale. 

  

  Meanwhile, Callaway Golf Company, which purchased Topgolf in 2021, has seen shares tumble 63% since the acquisition. 

  

  It’s still unclear why the Baltimore Topgolf is up for sale. What raises eyebrows further is the listing of the Philadelphia location. 

  Could Topgolf be facing challenges? Or, more broadly, has the popularity of golf reached its peak?

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 20:10

• "The Face Of The Digital Censorship Movement": Matt Taibbi Calls Out Amy Klobuchar
  “The Face Of The Digital Censorship Movement”: Matt Taibbi Calls Out Amy Klobuchar

  Authored by Matt Taibbi via Racket News,

  If you read this morning’s Racket article about Senator Amy Klobuchar’s letter to Jeff Bezos asking for “proactive measures” to suppress sites like Substack or Rumble, you probably gathered I’m in a mood.

  I’ve had it.

  

  Whether it’s NewsGuard slapping “anti-US” labels on Joe Lauria and Consortium News, or Drs. Jay Bhattacharya, Aaron Kheriaty, and Martin Kulldorff censored on multiple platforms for being right on Covid, or podcaster Alison Morrow fired from a state job for interviewing Kheriaty, or friend CJ Hopkins in Germany criminally convicted for a book cover, or the FBI asking Twitter to remove Aaron Mate for the Ukrainian Secret Police, or ballooning budget requests of “counter-disinformation” enforcement agencies, or the new jailing even of Owen Shroyer for having “helped create January 6th” with speech, or of course the forever-detention of Julian Assange, and above all the total indifference of legacy media to all of it, it’s over. I’ve lost patience. Time for a more focused approach.

  A problem when grappling with the censorship hydra is that it has no public face, no Tipper Gore or Jerry Falwell to personify the topic. Klobuchar, for reasons listed this morning and beyond, is right for this role. She needs to be Red Pencil Amy, Blacklist Amy, Amy “Thought Police” Klobuchar. And longshot or not, removal of her from office in next year’s election or even from Senate leadership positions is a worthwhile goal. The rest of Washington needs to read public sentiment about this issue through a colleague’s public relations dilemma.

  I’ve already got a lot on my plate, but I’ll make Klobuchar a personal branding project, even if it takes time. I’ll write up any move she makes in this direction, or not in this direction. Her lesser-known partner in the bid to make Amazon a “verified sources only” zone, congressman Joseph Morelle of the Rochester, New York area, can be thrown in. Think of Morelle as the VP half of the censorship movement’s ticket. It’s nothing personal. At earlier times this person could have been anyone from Rick Stengel to Adam Schiff (especially him) or Mark Warner. Klobuchar and Morelle just picked the wrong time in my personal downward spiral to pull this stunt.

  T-shirting, postering, meming ideas very welcome.

  Incidentally, I’m still planning town halls on the speech subject, and in fact have one confirmed at my old college in the third week of November. (Details to come). Willing to do more if anyone can help on the venue side. Although perhaps these events would be best held in Minnesota now.

  For readers who might be concerned I’m losing my mind, you’re not wrong. What can I say? Even my dog flashes worried looks at me these days. But I was pushed. Pushed I say! And so were many, many others. A la bataille!

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 19:50

• Deep Partisan Divide Over Trust In Media
  Deep Partisan Divide Over Trust In Media

  According to polling company Gallup, only 32 percent of adults in the U.S. have a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly.

  As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, this marks a slight decline compared to 2022 and is identical to the historical low of 2016.

  Meanwhile, the share of those not trusting the media at all reached a new all-time high of 39 percent. The number had stood at 27 percent in 2016.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Gallup also reports that the level of trust in the media varies greatly depending on political preference.

  While Republicans have traditionally viewed the media more critically than Democrats, the divergence between both sides of the political spectrum in terms of how the press is regarded remains at an historical high – despite a drop in trust among Democrats this year.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  While 58 percent of Democrats expressed a fair amount of trust in the mass media this year, only 11 percent of Republicans did the same. This makes the gap between both parties a whopping 47 percentage points. It had been as large as 63 percentage points in 2020 and as low as 6 in the year 2000, the same result as 1972.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 19:30

• Oregon Schools Eliminate Proficiency Requirements In Math & English For Students
  Oregon Schools Eliminate Proficiency Requirements In Math & English For Students

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  Two years ago, we discussed how Oregon schools solved declining scores by eliminating their requirements that graduates actually attain levels of proficiency in basic subjects like math and English.

  In 2021, the changes were portrayed as just a temporary measure due to the pandemic.

  However, the state just extended it five more years.  It declared that such proficiency tests are unfair to students of color.

  So, rather than give these students the level of education needed to excel in the modern workplace, schools will now process them out with degrees and call it social progress. 

  

  Public schools across the country continue to fail inner city children and appear to be be giving up on reversing this trend. 

  In Baltimore, a survey found that forty percent of schools did not have a single student proficient in math. Rather than reverse that trend, the schools are just waiving the tests and graduating the students.

  What is so frustrating is reading about failing school systems waiving proficiency and claiming that it is better for minority students.

  American education faces the perfect storm.

  Despite record expenditures on public schools, we are still effectively abandoning students, particularly minority students, in teaching the basic subjects needed to succeed in life.

  We will then graduate the students by removing testing barriers for graduation. Then some may go to colleges and universities that have eliminated standardized testing for admission. At every stage in their education, they have been pushed through by educators without objective proof that they are minimally educated. That certainly guarantees high graduation rates or improved diversity admissions. However, these students are still left at a sub-proficient state as they enter an increasingly competitive job market and economy. Any failures will come down the road when they will be asked to write, read, or add by someone who is looking for actual work product. They will then be outside of the educational system and any failures will not be attributed to public educators.

  If we truly care for these students, we cannot rig the system to just kick them down the road toward failure. It is like declaring patients healthy by just looking at them and sending them on their way. We have the ability to measure proficiency and we have the moral obligation to face our own failures in helping these kids achieve it.

  Oregon board members said proficiency is now unnecessary and harmed minority students since higher rates of students of color failed to reach these levels, The Oregonian reported. The question is how the board is defining what is necessary. If any of these students hope to escape cycles of poverty, they have to be able to do better than the status quo. These boards are condemning them to the same endless cycle.

  These proficiency standards were developed by academics to establish what they viewed as the education needed to excel in our society. Now, the boards are simply downgraded to meet their own lack of academic performance. State Sen. Michael Dembrow told the Oregon Capital Chronicle insists “I think there’s an assumption here that teachers are just graduating students, who don’t have the necessary competencies and I don’t know what the justification is for that.”

  The point is that these students do not need to meet some low level of competence in order to be able to aspire to more than menial or low-level positions.

  The move in Oregon occurs at the same time as a national effort to eliminate standardized testing and scores on every level of our educational system. For example, the University of California system joined the “test-blind” movement and said it would end the use of the SAT and ACT in its admissions decisions. The move followed a decision of California voters not to lift the long ban on affirmative action in education under state law.  Many have decried standardized testing as vehicles for white supremacy.

  University of California President Janet Napolitano sought to eliminate standardized testing by assembling the Standardized Testing Task Force in 2019. Many people expected the task force to recommend the cessation of standardized testing. However, the Task Force surprised many (most notably Napolitano herself) by releasing a final report that concluded that standardized testing was not just reliable, but that “at UC, test scores are currently better predictors of first-year GPA than high school grade point average (HSGPA), and about as good at predicting first-year retention, [University] GPA, and graduation.” It even found that “test scores are predictive for all demographic groups and disciplines … In fact, test scores are better predictors of success for students who are Underrepresented Minority Students (URMs), who are first generation, or whose families are low-income.”

  Despite those conclusions, Napolitano simply announced a cessation of the use of such scores in admissions.

  I previously wrote how some teachers and administrators are rapidly killing public education.

  Many of us have advocated for public education for decades. I sent my children to public schools, and I still hope we can turn this around without wholesale voucher systems. Yet teachers and boards are killing the institution of public education by treating children and parents more like captives than consumers.

  As public schools continue to produce abysmal scores, particularly for minority students, board and union officials have called for lowering or suspending proficiency standards or declared meritocracy to be a form of “white supremacy.” Gifted and talented programs are being eliminated in the name of “equity.”

  Once parents have a choice, these teachers lose a virtual monopoly over many families, and these districts could lose billions in states like Florida.

  This is precisely why school systems like the Seattle public schools are facing budget shortfalls as families vote with their feet. These families want a return to the educational mission that once defined our schools.

  The lowering of these standards reflect a lack of proficiency in public education. Rather than meet the standard previously set for success in society, Oregon will now codify pandemic measures to allow students to graduate with lower levels of math, English, and science knowledge. The people of Oregon are clearly not going to stop this trend and they are entitled to set school policy. Just don’t claim it is good for these students.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 19:10

• Panera Sued For Wrongful Death After 21 Year Old Suffers Cardiac Arrest After Drinking "Charged Lemonade"
  Panera Sued For Wrongful Death After 21 Year Old Suffers Cardiac Arrest After Drinking “Charged Lemonade”

  Panera Bread is on the receiving end of a lawsuit after the parents of a University of Pennsylvania student claim that its “Charged Lemonade” drink led to the wrongful death of their daughter.

  Their 21 year old daughter already had a heart condition, a report from 6ABC noted, but may have been led to believe that the chain’s “heavily caffeinated energy drink” was just regularly lemonade. 

  Sara Katz experienced cardiac arrest while at the restaurant with friends in September 2022, the report says. She passed away after she was transported to the hospital, where she suffered a second arrest.

  Panera said in a statement: “We were very saddened to learn this morning about the tragic passing of Sarah Katz, and our hearts go out to her family. At Panera, we strongly believe in transparency around our ingredients. We will work quickly to thoroughly investigate this matter.”

  The autopsy report said her cause of death was “cardiac arrhythmia due to long QT syndrome”, which is a disorder that can cause fast and irregular heartbeats, which can be life-threatening. 

  

  Katz was diagnosed at age 5 and actively limited her caffeine intake. The Panera drink included” sugar, caffeine, coffee extract and guarana extract, which are both sources of caffeine,” 6ABC wrote. 

  The lawsuit claims that Katz was “reasonably confident it was a traditional lemonade and/or electrolyte sports drink containing a reasonable amount of caffeine safe for her to drink.” It charges that Panera misled consumers by not properly labeling the drink as an energy drink. 

  “Instead, Defendants market, advertise, and sell Panera Charged Lemonade as a product that is ‘Plant-based and Clean with as much caffeine as our Dark Roast Coffee,'” the suit continues. Despite the comparison, the suit claims that because Panera doesn’t say what size the coffee it’s like, the comparison is vague and unhelpful.

  The “Charged Lemonade” in a large 30-oz cup has nearly 390 mg of caffeine. The FDA considers 400 mg of caffeine daily as safe for adults. The lawsuit alleges that the drink’s caffeine level is unregulated and could vary dangerously.

  Elizabeth Crawford, the lawyer for Katz’s parents, says Katz drank from the large cup, but due to a Panera membership offering free refills, the exact amount consumed is unknown. Crawford added: “We want to make sure that the drink includes a warning, or is taken off the shelf. It’s a dangerous energy drink and it’s not advertised that way. We want to make sure this does not happen to someone else.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 18:50

• Massachusetts Lawmakers Pass Sweeping Gun Bill Months After 6–3 Supreme Court Decision
  Massachusetts Lawmakers Pass Sweeping Gun Bill Months After 6–3 Supreme Court Decision

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

  The Massachusetts state House of Representatives approved a sweeping gun law that aims at restricting more firearms and cracking down on AR-15-style rifles—after a unanimous coalition of police chiefs in the state publicly opposed it.

  

  The measure, which passed in a 120–38 vote on Oct. 18, prohibits people from carrying firearms into other people’s homes without their consent. It also would force major gun components to have serial numbers, which would be registered with the state of Massachusetts, while also expanding the state’s “red flag” law that allows a judge to suspend the firearms license of someone who is considered a risk to harming others.

  The legislation advanced in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in 2022 that Americans have the Second Amendment-enshrined right to carry firearms in public for self-defense, according to Democrats in Massachusetts, a state that has long had stringent gun laws.

  “The Supreme Court’s Bruen decision nullified existing components of our gun laws, threatening the safety of the Commonwealth’s residents. With the passage of this legislation, the House has once again displayed an unwavering commitment to ensuring that Massachusetts remains one of the safest states in the country,” state House Speaker Ronald Mariano, a Democrat, said in a recent statement about the measure and the landmark high court decision.

  The proposal would create new laws that bar firing guns at or near homes and outlaw carrying firearms while intoxicated. It would also prohibit carrying firearms in schools, polling places, and government buildings.

  The bill expands the state’s ban on certain types of rifles, prohibiting new purchases of AR-15-style firearms. It would also ban someone from turning a legal firearm into an automatic weapon.

  The proposal includes an enhanced system to track firearms used in crimes to help curb the flow of illegal guns into the state. It would also modernize the existing firearm registration system while increasing the availability of firearm data for academic and policy use, lawmakers said.

  The state Senate has yet to release its version of a gun bill. It will be up to both Democrat-led chambers to hammer out a single bill to ship to Democrat Gov. Maura Healey’s desk for her signature before it can become law.

  State Rep. Michael Day, the Democrat who authored the bill, claimed that “we are in the midst of a public health crisis and it is unrelenting” before blaming firearms.

  “It’s time for the House to once again act in this area and ask for your support on this bill,” he said.

  Republicans and gun rights groups say the law overreaches.

  State Rep. Peter Durant, a Republican, said on the floor that he sees only “one goal” in the bill, which is to target law-abiding citizens who own firearms.

  “When the listening tours were going on, when we were having the informational sessions, when this bill was being written, we were all told that the legal gun owner is not the not the target here. We’re not going after them,” Mr. Durant said, according to a local NBC affiliate station. “But it certainly seems to be that that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

  Another GOP state lawmaker, Rep. David Muradian, said that the “legislation is an egregious infringement on all lawful gun owners, and frankly, all residents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

  “I have had interactions with hundreds if not thousands of constituents within my district on this matter. The resounding question remains: What is the new proposal trying to solve?” he said.

  A coalition of all the Bay State’s police chiefs issued a statement saying the bill would affect only lawful gun owners.

  “Although disappointed in this very predictable vote—in a proceeding where the House failed to follow their own rules—we applaud those Legislators who recognized that this bill makes no one safer. As we’ve said, the answer lies in the vigorous prosecution of criminals, who have no regard for gun laws, whether old or new. We look forward to addressing this matter with our Senate,” Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association director Mark Leahy told the Boston Herald.

  Gun owners opposed to the bill have said that the measures outlined in the legislation do more to target gun owners than to reduce crime. “All of it goes against us, the lawful people. There’s nothing in there that goes after the criminals,” Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners’ Action League, said, adding that the bill is merely an overreaction to the Supreme Court’s decision last year.

  The Supreme Court, in a 6–3 decision last June, ruled that a state law in New York was unconstitutional because it unlawfully restricted an individual’s right to carry a firearm in public.

  The majority affirmed that such a right is guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, adding that the states can enforce “shall-issue” permitting, meaning that applicants for concealed-carry licenses have to satisfy criteria. But their ruling stipulated that “may-issue” mandates that use arbitrary evaluations that are made by local officials are unconstitutional.

  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 18:30

• Watch: Gen-Zers Melt Down Over 9-5 Jobs Amid Criticism About 'Bidenomics'
  Watch: Gen-Zers Melt Down Over 9-5 Jobs Amid Criticism About ‘Bidenomics’

  Some Gen-Zers are having an emotional meltdown on social media about the world of work and struggles of surviving in the era of ‘Bidenomics.’ America’s youth appears to be done with President Biden, who could be their ‘great-great-grandfather,’ as a recent New York Times-Siena poll conducted over the summer showed the president’s approval rating with the youth is in the dumps. 

  Let’s begin with one Gen-Zer who describes the horrors of working a 9-5 job. 

  “I don’t have time for anything, and I’m, like, so stressed out,” she said near the end of the video. 

  🤡 pic.twitter.com/JXqZuHLM7o

  — Clown World ™ 🤡 (@ClownWorld_) October 25, 2023

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  In a separate video, this Gen-Zer was fired up. She said, “Working a 9-5 is the biggest f*cking scam out there.” She said her numerous jobs “could not pay her f*cking bills.” 

  The struggle is real for the new generation, which is just now learning that working a 9-5 isn’t as easy as college. pic.twitter.com/FvAeYkTddt

  — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 25, 2023

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  Another Gen-Zer said, “I did the math – you can’t retire in this economy.” 

  A lot of people seem to think this mindset is unique to Gen Z. It’s not.

  Every generation goes through this. Watch Reality Bites, where a group of 20-somethings in the early 90s deal with the exact same struggles and emotions as described in this video.

  pic.twitter.com/7h1gAN3c7R

  — Matthew Kobach 🍕 (@mkobach) October 20, 2023

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  A New York Times-Siena poll conducted from July 23 to 27 revealed that only 4% of individuals aged 18-30 hold a very favorable view of the president, compared to 17% among the general population. This outcome, stemming from what is perceived as Biden’s failures in the economy, indicates a significant shift in support among the younger working-class demographic, posing a potential crisis for the Democratic Party in next year’s presidential election cycle. 

  Also, Gen-Zers are making it clear they will not fight any wars for the military-industrial complex. 

  Your #GenZ nugget for the night.
  Prepare accordingly. 😆 pic.twitter.com/MgoMlkMcYC

  — T (@Krommsan) October 23, 2023

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  Seems like gender studies is not preparing these young folks for the real world. 

  Serious note, I started the magazine when I was a journalist and worked six days a week 12 hours a day!

  built it to $12m in revenue off my credit cards when I was her age — but whose counting 😂😂

  — @jason (@Jason) October 26, 2023

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  … and these kids will one day be the leaders of the US. Empire in decline?

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 18:10

• Florida Hardened Its Electric Grid, California Should Follow
  Florida Hardened Its Electric Grid, California Should Follow

  Authored by Ron Brisé via RealClear Wire,

  The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the government regulator that oversees the state’s electric and gas utilities, is facing a critical decision on important investments PG&E has proposed to improve the resiliency of California’s electric grid. I have been in their position, and I know how it feels to balance badly needed upgrades to the grid that can help improve resiliency and safety versus increasing costs for customers as they are facing higher costs for everyday expenses. 

  

  As a former Public Service Commissioner in Florida, a state that is consistently besieged by severe weather and hurricanes, I want to share with Californians the actions we took in Florida, to make our electric grid more resilient. Indeed, these grid hardening efforts have meant a more reliable and cost-efficient electricity for every resident.  

  Consider when Hurricane Ian hit the southwest coast of Florida last year and moved across the state causing great destruction – most people in the path of the storm only lost power for a few days or less. For context, Ian stands as the costliest hurricane in Florida history. 

  Florida was able to rebound quickly because prior to Hurricane Ian, the Florida Public Service Commission made a tough decision to invest billions of dollars in hardening our electric infrastructure. Those investments helped the state be more resilient to storms and quicken the pace of restoration efforts. The good news is that Florida has continued to make these kinds of investments. Just last year, the Florida Public Service Commission approved four plans submitted by power companies to allow approximately $22 billion to be invested in hardening the state power grid. 

  What we’ve learned in Florida, is that performing emergency repairs on the power grid after every hurricane is a much greater financial burden than hardening the grid ahead of disasters. Or, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

  California was hit with a hurricane this year, but that was likely a unique event. By far, the greatest environmental threat to life, property and the power remaining on for customers is wildfires started by downed or damaged power lines. While there are ways to reduce that threat, like trimming vegetation around the power lines – by far the greatest preventative method is burying those lines known as undergrounding. 

  With this in mind, PG&E, the largest electric utility in the state, has proposed burying 10,000 miles of lines in the areas with the greatest fire risk. The company has made steady and significant progress toward this goal since announcing the target in 2021, and has pledged to increase the pace, while reducing the per-mile cost, as the years roll on.

  Recently, PG&E submitted plans to the CPUC to place roughly 2,000 additional miles underground in the next three years. This would result in customers paying about $3.40 per month in their electric bill in exchange for eliminating 98% of wildfire risk on these lines. However, the CPUC is currently considering limiting PG&E to just 200 miles of undergrounding, or as little as 50 miles per year.

  My hope is that the CPUC can learn from our experience in Florida. We had to balance the cost of hardening investments versus the cost of doing just the minimum or nothing at all. 

  As our climate continues to warm, it seems more likely than not that California will experience more wildfires, not fewer. And, if those fires occur, the loss of lives and property and damage to communities and the state’s economy will be a far greater price than the cost of undergrounding. 

  It’s also fair to say that PG&E’s undergrounding plan will help protect against wildfires and help reduce outages due to extreme weather conditions. 

  I understand firsthand how tough it is to ask customers to pay more. The district that I represented in the Florida House of Representatives held a significant number of low-income customers. What the CPUC must also acknowledge is that grid hardening is critical for the state and local economy and the most vulnerable residents. After all, those individuals are least likely to be able to evacuate until power is restored. These folks, including senior citizens, are the ones who suffer the most from a vulnerable power grid. Additionally, the commission must consider the long-term benefits of undergrounding that will help reduce the need for prolonged Public Safety Power Shutoffs, which can take a toll on the state’s most vulnerable communities.  

  Without the kind of infrastructure investments proposed by PG&E, California will still face risks from wildfires. It’s time for California to learn from our experience in Florida and make the critical decision to invest in undergrounding and grid hardening for the good of its citizens.

  Ronald Brisé is the former Chair of the Florida Public Service Commission, a former member of the Florida House of Representatives, and is an energy industry expert.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/26/2023 – 17:50