• India's Diesel Exports To Europe Soar To Record High
  India’s Diesel Exports To Europe Soar To Record High

  Authored by Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com,

  India’s diesel exports loading for Europe hit a record high in September amid open arbitrage for westbound shipments, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing tanker-tracking data and analysts.

  

  Last month, diesel cargoes loading from India and bound for Europe averaged between 280,000 barrels per day (bpd) and 303,000 bpd – or roughly half of all Indian diesel shipments in September, according to vessel-tracking data by LSEG, Vortexa, and Kpler cited by Reuters.

  At the same time, Indian diesel shipments eastwards to Singapore slumped in September.

  The east-west arbitrage on diesel futures in Europe and in Asia jumped last month, which incentivized traders to ship more of the India-produced fuel to Europe, analysts told Reuters.

  But the differentials have narrowed in the past week, which means that India’s diesel shipments to Europe are unlikely to repeat in October the highs from September, they added.

  The high Indian exports of diesel to Europe last month could help Europe stock on fuel supplies ahead of the winter, on one hand, and potentially ease the downward pressure on refining margins in Asia, on the other hand, according to the traders and analysts who have spoken to Reuters.

  The higher shipments in September may have also been the result of the temporary Russian ban on diesel exports to most markets, including Turkey, Serena Huang, Vortexa’s head of APAC analysis, told Reuters.

  At the end of last week, Russia lifted the ban on most of its diesel exports, two weeks after announcing export restrictions on diesel and gasoline to curb soaring domestic prices.

  The ban on diesel and gasoline exports, enforced on September 21, affected Russia’s diesel exports which have been diverted away from the EU after the embargo kicked in in February. Russia is now shipping diesel to Turkey, the Middle East, North and West Africa, and Brazil in South America.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/12/2023 – 02:00

• Inside China’s Long Game To Infiltrate US Politics
  Inside China’s Long Game To Infiltrate US Politics

  Authored by Eva Fu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  As Chinese authorities escorted the senior Federal Reserve official from his Shanghai hotel room, they demanded he “say good things about China” when back in the United States.

  

  The atmosphere was “frightening,” the official, who remained unnamed, recalled to the Fed.

  That was the first of four times the official was detained and interrogated during a 2019 trip to Shanghai. Chinese authorities threatened his family, tapped his phones and computers, and copied contact information of other Federal Reserve officials from his account on Chinese social media app WeChat, according to Senate Homeland Security Committee Republicans who made public the details in a report last July.

  The U.S. official recounted Chinese authorities trying to pry “sensitive, non-public economic data” out of him and insisting that he “advise senior government officials” on sensitive economic issues such as trade tariffs while the United States and China were embroiled in a trade war. They forced him to drink liquor and attempted to make him commit to future meetings to allow them to gather economic intelligence.

  Unsettling as it is, the incident was but part of a “long-running and brazen” malicious campaign from China over the course of more than a decade to undermine U.S. economic policy and advance Beijing’s ambition to supplant the United States as the global superpower.

  Coercion and threats represent only a sliver of the regime’s toolbox used to target the Western political sphere. A Chinese think tank based in Beijing, in partnering with the state-affiliated Tsinghua University, in 2019 rated White House advisors and U.S. governors by their friendliness to Beijing. The group labeled officials as “friendly,” “ambiguous,” or “hardline” after combing through metrics such as age, work history, public statements, trade activities with China, and length of term.

  Time, patience, and thoroughness—these are attributes that Michel Juneau-Katsuya, former Asia Pacific chief at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in the 1990s, sees in the Chinese regime’s craft of infiltration.

  “They’ve been capable to work in a very holistic way,” he told The Epoch Times.

  China, he noted, doesn’t have a democratic election process that could displace the leadership from power. “So they know that they can plant today something that will be capable to be harvested in five, 10 or 15 years.”

  Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), who has advocated for a tougher stance on China, agreed.

  “They’re playing the long game,” he told The Epoch Times.

  Biding Their Time

  Few if any U.S. leaders, from the federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial levels, are immune to the risk of the Chinese regime manipulating them to bolster its hidden agenda, warned the National Counterintelligence and Security Center in July last year.

  By leveraging relationships with U.S. officials—called “using the local to surround the central” in communist slogan terms—Beijing can pressure Washington to back policy outcomes favorable to the regime, such as deepening bilateral economic ties and tamping down criticism of the regime’s abysmal human rights record.

  A Chinese spy reportedly drove for the recently deceased Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for 20 years.

  

  Christine Fang, an alleged Chinese spy working for China’s top intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security, reportedly used campaign fundraising, networking, and romantic relationships with at least two Midwestern city mayors to gain a footing in their spheres of influence.

  Ms. Fang also approached Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) when he was a member of the Dublin City Council, raised money for his 2014 reelection campaign, and facilitated an intern’s placement in Mr. Swalwell’s office, according to Axios.

  The connection prompted a two-year investigation from the bipartisan House Ethics Committee, which in May ultimately decided not to take any action against the California lawmaker, but cautioned Mr. Swalwell to remain aware of “the possibility that foreign governments may attempt to secure improper influence through gifts and other interactions.”

  The United Front network, which helps the Party control the Chinese diaspora, also plays a role in co-opting well-placed individuals for Beijing’s interests.

  Lu Jianwang, one of the two alleged operators of a secret Chinese police station in New York, together with his brother, has given tens of thousands of dollars to New York politicians in recent years, including vice chair of the Democratic National Committee Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), New York Mayor Eric Adams, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, campaign finance records show.

  

  “Local level officials, state officials are just not going to be as aware of or as attuned to some of these influence efforts—they’re just trying to create jobs,” Sarah Cook, a senior China analyst at the Freedom House, told The Epoch Times.

  “The CCP is very good at taking advantage of that, to get people to side with them, to get people in the United States to have a stake in what the CCP also wants. Then later, that can be activated to create situations that are more problematic.”

  “I think people at the earliest part of that relationship, don’t realize that,” she added.

  As with Ms. Fang’s case, the Chinese influence operations begin early in the local leaders’ careers.

  “They’re very, very patient, they have time on their side. Their determination and their focus is remarkable,” Mr. Juneau-Katsuya said of the regime.

  He said that Chinese intelligence officers-turned-defectors had detailed to him how they were instructed to be model citizens in the Western world for five to 10 years, working their way up the ladder in society before being “activated.”

  “When the security service or the police tried to do a background check, they find absolutely nothing,” he said. “So they are extremely, extremely deep undercover agents in that perspective,” Mr. Juneau-Katsuya said.

  ‘Lie in Plain Sight’

  Taiwan, Uyghur, Falun Gong, Tiananmen Square. The list of the Chinese Communist Party’s trigger words goes on. And the regime has made it clear that no one—in China or anywhere else—should go against its will.

  Late at night on March 28, a day after the House overwhelmingly passed Rep. Chris Smith’s (R-N.J.) Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act of 2023, a furious email from the Chinese embassy’s minister counselor Zhou Zheng arrived at the inbox of an aide to the congressman.

  

  The email, written from a Gmail account registered under Mr. Zhou, declared the bill “absurd” and claimed the “so-called ‘forced organ harvesting’ in China is a farce.”

  The bill was the first ever such legislative piece to curb the state-sanctioned killing of prisoners of conscience for their organs, an atrocity that an independent London tribunal in 2019 concluded has taken place in China for years “on a significant scale.”

  A number of whistleblowers, including eyewitnesses, have come forward to The Epoch Times to share testimony of the grisly act.

  Mr. Zhou, in true Beijing fashion, demanded that the United States stop “baseless hype and anti-China moves and stops preceding [sic] this legislation.”

  Mr. Smith said the claims in the email were “a big lie in plain sight.”

  “The Falun Gong practitioners and the Uyghurs are being killed for their organs, and it’s tens of thousands every single year, as we know,” he told The Epoch Times.

  “Perfectly healthy people being put down in a gurney drugged in order to effectuate two to three of their organs being taken out involuntarily—and they kill them—that is murder. That’s crimes against humanity.”

  The New Jersey Republican on April 14 wrote to the Chinese embassy requesting a visa to visit Xinjiang, the northwestern Chinese region where an estimated 1 million Uyghurs are being held in detention camps. He hasn’t heard back.

  A few weeks before the email to Mr. Smith, counselor Li Xiang with the Chinese embassy wrote to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), insisting he retract his bill ordering the declassification of information surrounding COVID-19 origins, which had been signed into law on March 20.

  Mr. Hawley shrugged it off. “The Chinese government wrote to me and demanded I withdraw my Covid origins bill,” he wrote in a social media post on March 9. “Hahaha. Not a chance.”

  

  Mr. Li also hit a wall when he tried to block a scheduled congressional hearing on the origins of COVID-19. Nor was he successful with his warning to House lawmakers not to meet with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen during her visit to Los Angeles.

  The audacity of the regime in making demands of an elected member of Congress “incensed” Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), one of the recipients of the threatening letter.

  “Basically, I just said, ‘No, you can’t tell me who I can and can’t meet with and I’m going to go ahead and meet with her,’” Ms. Hinson told The Epoch Times. “And that’s what we did.”

  “The fact that somebody was bold enough to assume that they could send me an email like that, and threaten and bully me—incredulous.”

  “I will not be bullied, my mind is not going to be changed on an email like that, where you are deliberately trying to undermine my ability to do my job.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 23:25

• From Culinary Arts To Cognitive Science: The Median Student Debt For Every US Bachelor's Degree
  From Culinary Arts To Cognitive Science: The Median Student Debt For Every US Bachelor’s Degree

  According to the Federal Reserve, student loans added up to $1.6 trillion in Q2 2023, making them the third largest category of U.S. household debt behind auto loans ($1.8 trillion) and mortgages ($12 trillion).

  The current student debt figure represents a 40% increase from a decade ago, resulting in greater pressure for the federal government to do more to help debtors. For example, on Oct 4. 2023, the Biden administration announced an additional $9 billion in student debt cancellations, bringing the total relief amount to $127 billion.

  With student debt becoming a broader social issue, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu has visualized data from the Education Data Initiative to show you the median debt per major for a bachelor’s degree in the country.

  

  Dataset and Highlights

  The following table includes all of the data we used to create this graphic. Note that we’re showing median student debt, which differs from the mean average.

  To understand how this works, imagine a list of every student’s debt for a given major. The median represents the middle value, meaning half of students owe less than that amount, while the other half owes more.

  Major	Field of Study	2022 Median Debt (USD thousands)
  Behavioral Sciences	Social Sciences	$42.8
  Religious Education	Arts and Humanities	$32.0
  Culinary Arts and Related Services	Arts and Humanities	$28.6
  Human Services	Social Sciences	$28.6
  Education	Other	$28.0
  Clinical, Counseling, and Applied Psychology	Health and Medicine	$27.4
  Literature	Arts and Humanities	$27.0
  Natural Sciences	Sciences	$26.9
  Physical Sciences	Sciences	$26.6
  Music	Arts and Humanities	$26.6
  Architecture	Arts and Humanities	$26.5
  Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management	Arts and Humanities	$26.5
  Visual and Performing Arts	Arts and Humanities	$26.5
  Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences	Health and Medicine	$26.0
  Communication, Journalism, and Related Programs	Other	$25.9
  Drama/ Theater Arts and Stagecraft	Arts and Humanities	$25.8
  Astronomy and Astrophysics	Sciences	$25.6
  Engineering, General	Engineering	$25.5
  Multi-/Interdisciplinary Studies	Other	$25.4
  Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical Engineering	Engineering	$25.2
  Biological and Physical Sciences	Sciences	$25.2
  Foods, Nutrition, and Related Services	Health and Medicine	$25.2
  Biochemical Engineering	Engineering	$25.1
  Information Science/Studies	Sciences	$25.1
  Film/Video and Photographic Arts	Arts and Humanities	$25.0
  Social Work	Health and Medicine	$24.9
  Zoology/Animal Biology	Sciences	$24.7
  Civil Engineering	Engineering	$24.6
  City/Urban, Community, and Regional Planning	Social Sciences	$24.5
  Criminal Justice and Corrections	Social Sciences	$24.5
  Mechanical Engineering	Engineering	$24.5
  Radio, Television, and Digital Communication	Other	$24.4
  Business Administration, Management, and Operations	Other	$24.4
  Health and Physical Education/ Fitness	Health and Medicine	$24.2
  Accounting	Other	$24.1
  Computer & Information Sciences	Sciences	$24.0
  Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication	Other	$23.9
  Chemical Engineering	Engineering	$23.8
  Biology	Sciences	$23.7
  Journalism	Other	$23.4
  Criminology	Social Sciences	$23.4
  Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities	Social Sciences	$23.3
  Botany/Plant Biology	Sciences	$23.3
  Psychology	Social Sciences	$23.3
  Public Health	Health and Medicine	$23.1
  Archeology	Social Sciences	$23.0
  Communication and Media Studies	Other	$22.8
  Social Sciences	Social Sciences	$22.8
  Chemistry	Sciences	$22.8
  Hospitality Administration/Management	Health and Medicine	$22.8
  Physics	Sciences	$22.8
  History	Social Sciences	$22.8
  Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research, and Clinical Nursing	Health and Medicine	$22.6
  English Language and Literature	Arts and Humanities	$22.5
  Sociology	Social Sciences	$22.3
  Computer Science	Sciences	$22.3
  Marine Sciences	Sciences	$22.2
  Political Science and Government	Social Sciences	$22.0
  Science, Technology, and Society	Sciences	$21.8
  Mathematics	Sciences	$21.8
  Geography and Cartography	Social Sciences	$21.7
  Anthropology	Social Sciences	$21.7
  Animal Sciences	Sciences	$21.6
  Environmental Design	Social Sciences	$21.2
  Agricultural	Sciences	$20.8
  Economics	Other	$20.7
  Statistics	Other	$20.6
  Public Administration	Social Sciences	$20.6
  Philosophy	Social Sciences	$20.6
  International/Global Studies	Other	$19.9
  Business Operations Support and Assistant Services	Other	$19.1
  Cognitive Science	Sciences	$18.1
  International and Comparative Education	Other	$13.0

  From this dataset we can see that median debt for most Bachelor’s degrees is in the mid $20,000s range. Two outliers at the upper end are Behavioral Sciences ($42,800) and Religious Education ($32,000), while at the lower end we can see Comparative Education ($13,000) and Cognitive Science ($18,100).

  Comparative education is a social science that involves the study of education systems, processes, and outcomes across different countries or cultures.

  Looking at this data from a broader perspective, we can also see some trends emerge based on field of study. For starters, most Arts and Humanities degrees fall in the upper half of the ranking, while the bottom quarter of the ranking appears to be largely made up of Social Sciences, Sciences, and various business studies.

  What About a Master’s Degree?

  Education Data Initiative also includes median debt data for master’s degrees.

  Major	Field of Study	2022 Median Debt (USD thousands)
  Advanced/Graduate Dentistry and Oral Sciences	Health and Medicine	$158,155
  Visual and Performing Arts	Arts and Humanities	$63,830
  Radio, Television, and Digital Communication	Other	$55,554
  Social Sciences	Social Sciences	$54,554
  Philosophy	Social Sciences	$54,260
  Journalism	Other	$53,213
  Statistics	Other	$53,174
  Clinical, Counseling, and Applied Psychology	Health and Medicine	$51,888
  Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research, and Clinical Nursing	Health and Medicine	$51,420
  Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	Other	$48,693
  Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication	Other	$48,366
  Sociology	Social Sciences	$46,871
  Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences	Health and Medicine	$44,598
  English Language and Literature	Arts and Humanities	$44,301
  Political Science and Government	Social Sciences	$43,853
  Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities	Social Sciences	$43,408
  Finance and Financial Management Services	Other	$43,408
  Psychology	Social Sciences	$43,408
  Business Administration, Management, and Operations	Other	$43,251
  Economics	Other	$43,053
  Literature	Arts and Humanities	$42,826
  Computer Engineering	Engineering	$42,647
  Public Administration	Social Sciences	$42,154
  Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management	Arts and Humanities	$41,238
  History	Social Sciences	$40,948
  Computer & Information Sciences	Sciences	$40,579
  Anthropology	Social Sciences	$40,428
  Biology	Sciences	$40,265
  Architecture	Arts and Humanities	$39,788
  Communication and Media Studies	Other	$39,270
  International/Global Studies	Other	$37,180
  Zoology/Animal Biology	Sciences	$37,056
  Hospitality Administration/Management	Other	$36,203
  Marketing	Other	$35,738
  Criminology	Social Sciences	$35,318
  Computer Science	Sciences	$35,301
  Engineering	Engineering	$33,235
  Health and Physical Education/Fitness	Health and Medicine	$32,372
  Agriculture	Sciences	$30,676
  Geography and Cartography	Social Sciences	$30,657
  Education	Other	$29,434
  Chemistry	Sciences	$28,912
  Accounting	Other	$28,212
  Mechanical Engineering	Engineering	$26,775
  Civil Engineering	Engineering	$26,180
  International Agriculture	Sciences	$23,275

  While obtaining a master’s typically results in a greater amount of student debt, it can actually depend on your major. For instance, the median debt for a master’s in Computer Science is $35,300, which is $7,500 lower than a bachelor’s in Behavioral Science.

  The biggest outlier from this list is Graduate Dentistry and Oral Sciences, with a median debt of $158,155. While this may sound like a lot, it should be compared to the average salary of a U.S. dentist, which according to Indeed is $225,400 per year.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 23:05

• Guns For Hire: America’s Crisis State Goes Global
  Guns For Hire: America’s Crisis State Goes Global

  Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

  

  “Political parties exist to secure responsible government and to execute the will of the people. From these great staffs, both of the old parties have ganged aside. Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare they have become the tools of corrupt interests which use them in martialling [sic] to serve their selfish purposes. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.”—Theodore Roosevelt

  From being a nation in a permanent state of emergency, America’s crisis state has gone global.

  The military industrial complex, which has established itself as the “solution” to all of our worldly problems (at taxpayer expense, of course), has mired the nation in endless wars abroad waged by U.S. military servicepeople who have been reduced to little more than guns for hire.

  Every successive president starting with Franklin D. Roosevelt has been bought—lock, stock and barrel—and made to dance to the tune of the police state, a.k.a. the Deep State, a.k.a. the military industrial complex, a.k.a. the surveillance state complex.

  Even Dwight D. Eisenhower, the retired five-star Army general-turned-president who warned against the disastrous rise of misplaced power by the military industrial complex was complicit in contributing to the build-up of the military’s role in dictating national and international policy.

  The Biden Administration’s response to the latest carnage in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war merely plays into the hands of a salivating military industrial complex for whom war is merely a means to a larger profit margin.

  War has become a huge money-making venture, and America, with its vast military empire and its incestuous relationship with a host of international defense contractors, is one of its best buyers and sellers.

  Under President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. military dropped a bomb every 12 minutes.

  President Obama, the antiwar candidate and Nobel Peace Prize winner, waged war longer than any American president. His administration’s targeted-drone killings resulted in at least 1.3 million lives lost to the U.S.-led war on terror.

  America has long had a penchant for endless wars that empty our national coffers while fattening those of the military industrial complex.

  The United States has been at war for all but 15 years in its 247-year history.

  Since 9/11, we’ve spent more than $8 trillion to wage wars abroad, including the lifetime price of health care for disabled veterans and interest on the national debt.

  The average American pays over $2300 a year in taxes to support the military, half of which goes to military contractors.

  Even with America’s military might spread thin, the war drums continue to sound as the Pentagon polices the rest of the world with counterterror activities in 85 countries.

  The American Empire—with its endless wars waged by U.S. military servicepeople who have been reduced to little more than guns for hire: outsourced, stretched too thin, and deployed to far-flung places to police the globe—is approaching a breaking point.

  Aided and abetted by the U.S government, the American military-industrial complex has erected an empire unsurpassed in history in its breadth and scope, one dedicated to conducting perpetual warfare throughout the earth.

  Although the U.S. constitutes barely 5% of the world’s population, America boasts almost 40% of the world’s total military expenditure, spending more on the military than the next 10 biggest spending nations combined.

  Unfortunately, this level of war-mongering doesn’t come cheap to the taxpayers who are forced to foot the bill.

  Having been co-opted by greedy defense contractors, corrupt politicians and incompetent government officials, America’s expanding military empire is bleeding the country dry. In fact, the U.S. government is spending money it doesn’t have on a military empire it can’t afford.

  As investigative journalist Uri Friedman puts it, for more than 15 years now, the United States has been fighting terrorism with a credit card, “essentially bankrolling the wars with debt, in the form of purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds by U.S.-based entities like pension funds and state and local governments, and by countries like China and Japan.”

  War is not cheap, but it becomes outrageously costly when you factor in government incompetence, fraud, and greedy contractors.

  For example, a leading accounting firm concluded that one of the Pentagon’s largest agencies “can’t account for hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of spending.”

  Unfortunately, the outlook isn’t much better for the spending that can be tracked.

  Consider that the government lost more than $160 billion to waste and fraud by military and defense contractors. With paid contractors often outnumbering enlisted combat troops, the American war effort dubbed as the “coalition of the willing” has quickly evolved into the “coalition of the billing,” with American taxpayers forced to cough up billions of dollars for cash bribes, luxury bases, a highway to nowhere, faulty equipment, salaries for so-called “ghost soldiers,” and overpriced anything and everything associated with the war effort, including a $640 toilet seat and a $7600 coffee pot.

  A government audit found that defense contractor Boeing had been massively overcharging taxpayers for mundane parts, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in overspending. As the report noted, the American taxpayer paid:

  $71 for a metal pin that should cost just 4 cents; $644.75 for a small gear smaller than a dime that sells for $12.51: more than a 5,100 percent increase in price. $1,678.61 for another tiny part, also smaller than a dime, that could have been bought within DoD for $7.71: a 21,000 percent increase. $71.01 for a straight, thin metal pin that DoD had on hand, unused by the tens of thousands, for 4 cents: an increase of over 177,000 percent.

  That price gouging has become an accepted form of corruption within the American military empire is a sad statement on how little control “we the people” have over our runaway government.

  It’s not just the American economy that is being gouged, unfortunately.

  There’s a good reason why “bloated,” “corrupt” and “inefficient” are among the words most commonly applied to the government, especially the Department of Defense and its contractors.

  Driven by a greedy defense sector, the American homeland has been transformed into a battlefield with militarized police and weapons better suited to a war zone. Biden, no different from his predecessors, has continued to expand America’s military empire abroad and domestically, calling on Congress to approve billions that pander to the powerful money interests (military, corporate and security) that run the Deep State and hold the government in its clutches.

  Mind you, this isn’t just corrupt behavior. It’s deadly, downright immoral behavior.

  Essentially, in order to fund this burgeoning military empire that polices the globe, the U.S. government is prepared to bankrupt the nation, jeopardize our servicemen and women, increase the chances of terrorism and blowback domestically, and push the nation that much closer to eventual collapse.

  Clearly, our national priorities are in desperate need of an overhauling.

  The illicit merger of the global armaments industry and the Pentagon that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us against more than 60 years ago has come to represent perhaps the greatest threat to the nation’s fragile infrastructure today.

  The government is destabilizing the economy, destroying the national infrastructure through neglect and a lack of resources, and turning taxpayer dollars into blood money with its endless wars, drone strikes and mounting death tolls.

  This is exactly the scenario Eisenhower warned against when he cautioned the citizenry not to let the profit-driven war machine endanger our liberties or democratic processes:

  “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

  We failed to heed Eisenhower’s warning.

  As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, the growth of and reliance on militarism as the solution for our problems both domestically and abroad bodes ill for the constitutional principles which form the basis of the American experiment in freedom.

  As James Madison warned, “Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes… known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”

  At the height of its power, even the mighty Roman Empire could not stare down a collapsing economy and a burgeoning military. Prolonged periods of war and false economic prosperity largely led to its demise. As historian Chalmers Johnson predicts:

  The fate of previous democratic empires suggests that such a conflict is unsustainable and will be resolved in one of two ways. Rome attempted to keep its empire and lost its democracy. Britain chose to remain democratic and in the process let go its empire. Intentionally or not, the people of the United States already are well embarked upon the course of non-democratic empire.

  WC: 1659

  ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD

  Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 22:45

• California's 9th Circuit Strikes Again: Liberal Majority Upholds California's Ban On High-Capacity Magazines
  California’s 9th Circuit Strikes Again: Liberal Majority Upholds California’s Ban On High-Capacity Magazines

  California’s extremely liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday ruled in favor of California, allowing the state’s ban on high-capacity gun magazines to remain in effect while the state appeals a federal judge’s ruling which found the ban unconstitutional.

  

  In a 7-4 vote, the 9th Circuit stayed a Sept. 22 ruling by US District Judge Robert Benitez in San Diego, who found that the state’s ban violated gun owners’ rights to keep and bear arms under the 2nd Amendment. Benitez cited a 2022 decision by the US Supreme Court in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which requires that firearms restrictions be “consistent with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

  Following Benitez’s decision, California AG Bob Bonta (D) moved to stay the decision, which the 9th Circuit’s liberal majority quickly did. The Monday ruling applies to a long-running lawsuit brought by the California Rifle & Pistol Association as well as gun owners challenging the ban.

  “If a stay is denied, California will indisputably face an influx of large-capacity magazines like those used in mass shootings in California and elsewhere,” wrote the 9th Circuit Democrat majority.

  The four Republican-appointed judges on the 9th Circuit dissented, including US Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay, who said the majority’s attitude towards the 2nd Amendment was “laughably absurd.”

  In response to Monday’s decision, Bonta’s office said it was “relieved that the court considered the public safety of Californians in its decision.”

  One can join the raging discussion over the decision over at Calguns.net.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 22:25

• Struggle For The World-Island
  Struggle For The World-Island

  Authored by Francis P. Sempa via RealClear Defense,

  In 2017, Robert D. Kaplan wrote an essay describing the geopolitical eclipse of Europe by Asia in the 21^st century, and what this meant for U.S. foreign policy. Though Kaplan used the provocative title, “The Return of Marco Polo’s World and the U.S. Military Response,” his analysis was grounded in geography and history. What Kaplan and others have called the Long European War of the 20^th century (World Wars I and II, and the Cold War) gave rise to the beginnings of what could be a Long Asian War in which China and the United States struggle for control of the World-Island.

  

  Kaplan described a “new strategic geography” where “Europe disappears, Eurasia coheres,” and the “interactions of globalization, technology, and geopolitics” fulfill Sir Halford Mackinder’s vision of a Eurasian-African supercontinent that he called the “World-Island” in his 1919 book Democratic Ideals and Reality. Mackinder warned that control of the World-Island meant command of the world.

  Kaplan was among the first observers to see a link between China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and potential command of the World-Island. In his essay, he noted China’s attempts “to build a land bridge across Central and West Asia to Europe, and a maritime network across the Indian Ocean from East Asia to the Middle East.” Although China called the BRI “infrastructure projects” reminiscent of the medieval Silk Road, the political and geopolitical implications should have been evident from the outset of the program, which President Xi Jinping announced in September 2013.

  Mackinder had written about the migrations of Asian hordes into the settled regions of the Old World, laying special emphasis on the Mongol Empire, which at its height stretched from East Asia to eastern Europe and parts of the Middle East, and from Russia to India, China, and parts of Southeast Asia. The Mongols, Mackinder noted, came the closest of all the Asian invaders to achieving effective political control of the World-Island. The two most important factors limiting the Mongol reach were insufficient manpower and technological constraints. China in the 21^st century suffers from neither geopolitical weakness.

  The remarkable thing about China’s BRI is how it replicates the World-Island on the map. In a fascinating article in The Diplomat entitled “How China’s Belt and Road Took Over the World,” Shannon Tiezzi shows the geographical evolution of the BRI. In 10 years, the BRI has extended its reach to 154 countries. On the Eurasian-African World-Island, only India, North Korea, Jordan, and a few nations of Western Europe have escaped China’s financial and infrastructure grasp. Indeed, the BRI extends beyond the World-Island to nations in the western and southern Pacific, Central and South America, and some islands in the Caribbean (including Cuba). Tiezzi notes that China has spent $564 billion on BRI-related projects in its 10-year history.

  China is not sending armies to the nations of its BRI empire, but it is sending bankers, financiers, technocrats, engineers, and spies. Empire-building in the 21st century comes in many shapes and sizes. What beganas an economic and infrastructure initiative has gradually shifted to politics. The BRI, writes China-expert Felix Chang, “has become a key feature of Xi’s foreign policy.” The leaders in Beijing, Chang explains, have “always regarded the initiative as a way to garner political support and create new spheres of influence.” For China, Chang concludes, political aims of the BRI outweigh economic ones. The BRI was a geopolitical program from the very beginning.

  Some observers of the BRI focus their analyses on the land road through Central Asia to Europe, but the maritime aspect of the BRI may be even more important. Robert Kaplan understands that more than most geopolitical thinkers. In his Marco Polo essay, Kaplan noted that “the United States is a maritime power, operating from the greatest of the island satellites of the Eurasian supercontinent.” And in the 21^st century, as during the mid and late 20^th century, maritime power has both naval and air components. China’s maritime Silk Road is a direct challenge to America’s maritime supremacy. It is reminiscent of Imperial Germany’s challenge to Great Britain in the years leading up to the First World War, and of Japan’s challenge to both British and American naval and air power in the western and south Pacific in the years leading up to the Second World War.

  Our response, according to Kaplan, should be “to extend the concept of the Asia pivot to encompass the entire navigable rimland of Eurasia, including not only the Western Pacific but the Indian Ocean as well.” U.S. sea power, Kaplan writes, “is the compensatory answer for shaping geopolitics . . . Here is where the ideas of Alfred Thayer Mahan meet those of Halford Mackinder.” Mackinder, it should be noted, recognized the value of predominant sea power to island nations such as Great Britain and the United States. His great fear was that a hostile Eurasian land power (or alliance of land powers) could use the immense resources of continental Eurasia to attain maritime supremacy over the island democracies. If that happened, he wrote in 1904, “the empire of the world would then be in sight.” He even suggested that China, with its long oceanic frontage, allied to Russia could achieve dominance on land and at sea.

  The immense growth of Chinese naval power and its proclaimed desire to exert control over the entire South China Sea (including reunifying with Taiwan) should be viewed in the context of the maritime component of the BRI. For it is the maritime route from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean that links Eurasia to the Middle East and Africa, just as the land component of the Silk Road links East Asia to Central Asia and to Europe. It is roads, rails, and shipping lanes that can cohere the Eurasian-African World-Island.

  The first battle of the Long Asian War may be fought in the South China Sea. China’s pressure on Taiwan has increased exponentially. In a recent 24-hour period, the PLA launched 103 warplanes toward Taiwan, causing Taiwanese spokespersons to warn of escalation should the provocative and dangerous sorties continue. This comes on the heels of China’s recent expansion of its nine-dash line to ten dashes, including one located east of Taiwan. It also comes in the wake of President Biden’s remark while visiting Vietnam that the United States does not want to contain China. The struggle for the World-Island has begun.      

  Francis P. Sempa writes on foreign policy and geopolitics. His Best Defense columns appear at the beginning of each month.  

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 22:05

• Putin Says OPEC+ Output Cuts "Likely" To Continue Into 2024
  Putin Says OPEC+ Output Cuts “Likely” To Continue Into 2024

  By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

  Russian President Vladimir Putin told an energy conference in Moscow on Wednesday that Russia and Saudi Arabia would “most likely” extend output cuts into 2024 and warned that clashes in the Middle East could impact oil exports with higher shipping and insurance costs. 

  “I am sure that the coordination of the OPEC+ partners’ actions will continue,” Putin told the conference. 

  “This is important for the predictability of the oil market, and ultimately for the well-being of all mankind,” Putin added, noting that while Russia and Saudi Arabia would likely “continue [their] cooperation”, “we need to consult with colleagues – our decisions are made by consensus”. 

  In the last days of September, OPEC+ decided to keep current oil production cuts in effect until the end of the year, extending 1-million-barrel-per-day supply cuts that began in July through December 31, 2023. Russia also extended its 300,000 barrels per day export cut until the end of the year.

  After Brent crude’s brief flirtation with up to $97 per barrel in late September, oil prices have pared gains, again rallying briefly with the Hamas missile attack on Israel over the weekend, which has led to a declaration of war by Israel. 

  On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Benny Gantz formed an emergency unity government for conflict decision-making as Israel places the Gaza Strip under siege, stripping it and its 2 million people of all power and electricity. 

  That second rally on the potential for a Middle East conflict to threaten supplies was short-lived. On Wednesday at 12:34 p.m. ET, Brent crude was trading at $86.61, down 1.19% on the day. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was trading at $84.46, down 1.76% on the day. 

  At the Moscow conference, Putin was standing beside Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, who has asked the Russian leader to “mediate” in the Israel-Hamas conflict. 

  Putin is calling for the creation of a Palestinian state to resolve the conflict, and is using this as a platform to bring attention to what he calls the “failure” of Washington’s Middle East policy, The Moscow Times Reports. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 21:25

• California Introduces "Ebony Alert" To Find Missing Black Kids, Young Women
  California Introduces “Ebony Alert” To Find Missing Black Kids, Young Women

  A new California law which goes into effect Jan. 1 is the first of its kind in the nation to prioritize the search for missing black kids and young black women.

  

  On Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed Senate Bill 673 to create the “Ebony Alert” monitoring system, which will allow the Highway Patrol to activate the alert upon request from local law enforcement when black youth, or women, go missing in an area. The Ebony Alert system will utilize electronic highway signs, and encourages authorities to use social media, TV, radio and other systems to spread word when a black child (or woman!) goes missing, NBC News reports.

  The Ebony Alert will be used for missing black people between the ages of 12 and 25.

  What about Asian, Hispanic and white kids?

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 11, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js“Data shows that Black and brown, our indigenous brothers and sisters, when they go missing there’s very rarely the type of media attention, let alone AMBER alerts and police resources that we see with our white counterparts,” state Sen. Steven Bradford (D), who created the legislation, told NBC News earlier this year, adding “We feel it’s well beyond time that we dedicate something specifically to help bring these young women and girls back home because they’re missed and loved just as much as their counterparts are.”

  

  About 141,000 Black children under the age of 18 went missing in 2022, and Black women over 21 accounted for nearly 16,500 missing persons cases that year, according to the most recent data from the National Crime Information Center. More than 30,000 Black people in the U.S. remained missing at the end of 2022, according to the center. Although about 38% of the people who went missing i in 2022 were Black, according to the Black and Missing Foundation, missing Black people are less likely than white people to have their stories highlighted in the media. Also, missing persons cases for Black people remain open longer than those for white people. Derrica Wilson, co-founder of the foundation, told CNN that a majority of the 6,000 cases of missing Black people in her database remain unsolved. -NBC News

  The state’s Amber Alert system, meanwhile, requires that a victim be under the age of 17 or have a proven disability, and authorities must have a reason to believe they’re in danger. Alerts can’t be used for custody battles or runaways.

  The problem, according to the report, is that missing black kids are usually classified as runaways – and therefore don’t qualify for Amber Alerts.

  “Something’s better than nothing,” said Bradford. “Whether the Amber alert or an Ebony Alert is going to be 100% effective, we don’t go with that false illusion or belief. But it’s better than not doing anything at all.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 21:05

• RFK Jr.'s Strong Stance Against COVID Vaccines Appeals To Some Trump Voters
  RFK Jr.’s Strong Stance Against COVID Vaccines Appeals To Some Trump Voters

  Authored by Matt McGregor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Former President Donald Trump’s defense of Operation Warp Speed remains a sticking point for some of his supporters drawn to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s message and his direct rebuke of the COVID policies.

  

  Attendees of an event at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum where Mr. Kennedy spoke on Oct. 2 discussed with The Epoch Times their concerns and what they appreciated about his message, but noted significant differences between the two.

  “As Kennedy has been calling out the truth no matter how much criticism he’s faced for it, Trump has really been silent on the whole COVID sham,” Scott Stringer said.

  “In my mind, Trump was tricked.”

  Mr. Kennedy has frequently railed against the ties between Big Pharma, the medical profession, and the government that has been toxic for the country, Mr. Stringer said.

  “The medical community cannot be trusted,”he said.

  In a recent visit to the doctor’s office with his son, he said staff pushed the vaccine, which was unrelated to why they were there.

  “I can’t believe they did that with all the medical data that’s come in,” he said.

  Charlotte Stringer, Mr. Stringer’s wife, agreed that President Trump needs to admit that he was wrong. This admission, she said, would bring him more support.

  The problem is, given his personality, it’s unlikely he will confess to such an enormous mistake, she said.

  “I don’t think that’s going to happen,” she said. “With that said, I think he’s the best choice to run this country.”

  On Mr. Kennedy’s speech, she appreciated his open-mindedness given his history as a person who for years listened to and advocated for mothers of the vaccine-injured while they were being dismissed by the pharmaceutical industry.

  Having witnessed churches close and continue to take in tithes while simultaneously getting loans from the Paycheck Protection Program, she said Mr. Kennedy’s stance against the lockdowns, specifically regarding the closure of the churches, resonated intensely with her.

  “That really made me have huge respect for him,” she said.

  ‘We’ve Got to Stop the Shots’

  MaryJo Perry, president of Mississippi Parents for Vaccine Rights (MPVR), said she’s troubled by President Trump’s unwillingness to admit what she describes as Operation Warp Speed having been a failure.

  “I don’t know if his motive is pride, or if there’s something else going on,” she said.

  Mr. Trump planned to set up a commission to investigate childhood vaccines back in 2017 after he got elected and was about to take the White House, Mr. Kennedy broke the news and said he would chair the commission after he met Mr. Trump on Jan. 10, 2017.

  However, the idea was never implemented and the Trump Campaign didn’t confirm the proposal.

  Ms. Perry pointed to a video of Bill Gates stating that he had advised President Trump against the investigation.

  “That would be a bad thing, don’t do that,” Mr. Gates said in the interview.

  Though she doesn’t know if this was why President Trump abandoned the idea of starting a commission with Mr. Kennedy.

  “And then, on the heels of that, we had this Operation Warp Speed that didn’t work, and yet he’s still protecting it,” she said. “That bothers me greatly.”

  

  Also present was Dr. John Witcher, founder of MS Against Mandates, who was fired for treating COVID patients with ivermectin.

  “Though he never mandated them, he pushed the shots and has said multiple times that he saved 100 million people by rolling out the vaccines,” Dr. Witcher said. “He knows that a lot of his constituents are 100 percent against the vaccine, but he doesn’t want to admit that he was duped by Dr. Fauci.”

  “Of course, that’s what Kennedy has been out there saying from Day One,” Dr. Witcher said. “He continues to be against the shot. And we’ve got to stop these shots.”

  ‘A Man of Integrity’

  Overall, Mr. Stringer said that it came off “very clearly” that Mr. Kennedy was “a man of integrity.”

  “He believes in his positions, and he’s not afraid to change his views,” he said.

  On whether a Trump/Kennedy ticket would work, Mr. Stringer said there’s no question that both love the country, unlike the current administration.

  The alliance could have the potential to unify the nation, he said.

  But there would need to be an alignment on issues like energy and the COVID vaccines, he said.

  “I agree more with Trump on energy, and we’ve got to have a better energy policy, but how does that stand with where Kennedy stands on energy?” Mr. Stringer asked. “Kennedy doesn’t like nuclear energy or coal, and he worked to remove fracking from New York State, though he and Trump seem to agree on wind energy and the fact that it’s gotten out of control.”

  On vaccines, they would need to come to an understanding, he said.

  “Trump would need to reconcile with the great work Mr. Kennedy has done to expose the truth on vaccines so that Trump can leverage that and say, ‘You know what, I was duped,’” he said.

  Both have taken a stance against the Ukraine war, which Mr. Stringer also opposes.

  “We do not need to send them another dime,” he said. “I think there’s some suppression of real information on what’s going on over there. I think it’s one of the most corrupt governments and countries in the world, honestly.”

  Mr. Stringer said he believes Mr. Kennedy would make a great vice president and a great president.

  “He believes in what his uncle and his dad stood for, and I think he could keep us solid in a lot of ways,” he said, referring to the late President John F. Kennedy and the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, respectively.

  

  Declaring Independence

  Before Mr. Kennedy announced a week later on Monday, Oct. 9, that he would not be running as a Democrat but as an independent, those in last week’s audience were already speculating that he would be leaving his former party.

  Mr. Stringer said he wasn’t concerned over whether this decision could end up drawing votes from either side.

  “I’m not afraid that anyone speaking the truth is going to split the vote,” he said. “The big question is who’s he going to take the votes from? Biden or Trump?”

  Predicting that Mr. Kennedy would leave the Democratic Party, Ms. Stringer wants to see President Trump leave the Republican Party and become independent as well.

  “I would love to see them meet in the middle and run together,” she said.

  Given the rate of the country’s decline, Ms. Stringer said she’s not overly concerned with hot-button social issues that seem to never be resolved and just wants to see President Trump back in office.

  If Mr. Kennedy were to join him, even better, she said.

  On concerns over spitting the vote, she believes Mr. Kennedy would take votes away from President Biden.

  “There are a lot of people on the left who are seeing what Biden—or whoever is leading him—is doing and wishing they had voted for Trump,” she said. “It’s clear that a man who doesn’t know how to walk across a stage, who falls down, who can’t remember people’s names or state he’s in, is being controlled. He’s not running the show, and many on the left are realizing that their children won’t have a pot to pee in because he is turning this country into a laughingstock to the rest of the world.”

  ‘Trump Needs to Follow Kennedy’s Lead’

  Dr. Witcher said he’s not alone in wanting to see Mr. Kennedy as vice president to President Trump.

  “Like many people, I think they could be a great team together,” Dr. Witcher said. “We’ve got to expose the corruption at all levels of government.”

  President Trump, he said, has the capacity and gumption to charge forward, while Mr. Kennedy has the experience of fighting against the pharmaceutical industry.

  “The COVID vaccine mandates that were enacted are really the biggest issue, and we can’t forget that,” Dr. Witcher said. “There are a lot of people in his camp that voted for him who did not and will not take the vaccine. They saw COVID as a plandemic from day one. Trump needs to follow Kennedy’s lead on that because it’s the reason he’s so popular.”

  When asked if he thought Mr. Kennedy would make a good leader, Ron Matis, the political director for the Mississippi District of the United Pentecostal Church, the organization that cosponsored the event with MPVR, said he thought that the most powerful statement he made was that he’s willing to examine all sides of the argument and, if wrong, adjust his worldview accordingly.

  “That’s something you don’t hear people who are running for office say,” Mr. Matis said. “They seem to have everything baked in and are not willing to listen, so the fact that he said as a leader he would be open to changing his position based on evidence, I think a lot of people found that refreshing.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 20:45

• Zelensky Asks To Visit Israel In 'Solidarity' As Spotlight Shifts
  Zelensky Asks To Visit Israel In ‘Solidarity’ As Spotlight Shifts

  Most people at some point in their daily lives have experienced that annoying moment when a “friend” invites themselves over, typically at an inconvenient time, maybe for dinner or an intrusive lengthy conversation.

  Perhaps that’s what the Israelis may be feeling after suffering one of the worst disasters in their history, as on Wednesday Axios is out with the following exclusive story: Zelensky asks to visit Israel in show of solidarity.

  Two Ukrainian officials have told Axios that Zelensky, who is Jewish, wants to travel to Israel as a “show of solidarity” amid the Gaza war and as Israel is reeling from the weekend terror attacks by Hamas. Israeli officials have also confirmed the request to the publication. 

  

  “Zelensky’s office sent an official request to the Israeli Prime Minister’s office asking to coordinate a visit, the Ukrainian and Israeli officials said,” the report says.

  As soon as the Saturday Hamas assault on the Nova Trance music festival and area Jewish settlements began, the entire world and all major international media outlets became transfixed on developments in Israel and Gaza.

  Pro-Israel as well as pro-Palestinian protests and counterprotests immediately sprang up in the US and Europe. Facebook profile flags were also switched in the blink of an eye – from Ukrainian to Israeli flags… it’s almost as if the public masses in the West “forgot” about Ukraine, as the Israel-Gaza war enters day five.

  It seems the pro-Ukraine cause in general, including efforts in Congress and by the Biden administration to keep the billions in aid flowing, has been sapped of its prior enthusiasm and momentum. Zelensky, having been suddenly removed from the spotlight, now appears to be seeking to link his cause with Israel’s, the cynic might say.

  Axios noted, “A visit by Zelensky would boost international support for Israel’s counteroffensive against Hamas in Gaza”—or perhaps it will in Zelensky’s own mind at least.

  Zelensky made a surprise visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday to issue a solidary statement in support of Israel…

  Zelensky: I urge all leaders to visit Israel and show their support for the people pic.twitter.com/knbqF1TQwp

  — Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) October 11, 2023

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

  “In the face of such a terrorist strike, everyone who values life must stand in solidarity … Israel has the full right to defend itself against terror,” Zelensky had said in a statement that came shortly after the Saturday Hamas attack.

  Time will tell if this visit of the Ukrainian president will materialize. There’s as yet no date, and the Israelis are, well… very busy at the moment. Likely much too busy to have to roll out the red carpet for Zelensky to do a Tel Aviv photo op.

  Some pundits have said that underlying this is a scramble for valuable US foreign aid, which could be diverted to Israel…

  🇺🇦🇮🇱 Zelensky is furious he’s losing attention and US foreign aid to Israel. pic.twitter.com/I5FlV5KnzS

  — Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) October 11, 2023

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

  But the Pentagon has sought to calm Kiev’s fears, promising in a new statement there’s enough aid to go around:

  The secretary of defense said Wednesday that the Pentagon is able to continue providing aid to Ukraine in its war against Russian invasion and also support Israel after a Hamas attack Saturday sparked a new and bloody war there.

  “Absolutely, we can do both, and we will do both,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters at a press conference Wednesday in Germany, where he appeared with newly confirmed Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Charles “C.Q.” Brown to announce the 48th aid package to Ukraine.

  But already public support for ‘endless’ support or ‘blank check’ funds to Ukraine was waning, and now as all eyes are on the Middle East, it is likely to further fade. After all, the major news networks have suddenly dropped their coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war, airing instead 24/7 updates on Israel, Gaza bombardments, and the plight of the over 100 hostages taken by Hamas.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 20:25

• Offshore Wind Is An Economic And Environmental Catastrophe
  Offshore Wind Is An Economic And Environmental Catastrophe

  Authored by Edward Ring via American Greatness,

  When it comes to “renewables” wreaking havoc on the environment, wind turbines have stiff competition. For example, over 500,000 square miles of biofuel plantations have already replaced farms and forests to replace a mere 4 percent of transportation fuel. To source raw materials to build “sustainable” batteries, mining operations are scaling up, with no end in sight, in nations with appalling labor conditions and nonexistent environmental regulations. But the worst offender is the wind industry.

  

  America’s wind power industry somehow manages to attract almost no negative coverage in the press, or litigation from environmentalists, despite causing some of the most obvious and tragic environmental catastrophes so far this century. Last August I wrote about the ongoing slaughter of whales off America’s northeast coast thanks to construction of offshore wind turbines:

  “When you detonate massive explosives, repeatedly drive steel piles into the ocean floor with a hydraulic hammer, and blast high decibel sonar mapping signals underwater, you’re going to harm animals that rely on sound to orient themselves in the ocean. To say it is mere coincidence that hundreds of these creatures have washed ashore, dead, all of a sudden, during precisely the same months when the blasting and pounding began, is brazen deception.”

  Nonetheless, when the story can’t be buried, deception is the strategy. Not one major environmental organization, government watchdog agency, or media outlet has called for a slowdown in industrial offshore wind projects. Instead, they repeatedly claim these allegations are misinformation. And from that paragon of truth, FactCheck.org, we get this: “No Evidence Offshore Wind Development Killing Whales.”

  Let’s set aside the obvious negative impact on whale populations of tens of thousands of marine surveying and construction sorties into offshore areas where shipping traffic has never before been concentrated, or the impact of noise and explosions on not one site, such as would be the case with a lone oil rig, but on thousands of sites, each one being prepared for an offshore wind turbine. The destruction wrought by wind turbines extends well beyond what it’s doing to whales.

  A report just released by a New England fishermen association summarizes research they completed on offshore wind projects. Their findings are stunning. Just the geographic extent of these proposed offshore wind projects is unprecedented. According to the report, “Federal regulators at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) have designated almost 10 million acres for wind farm surveys and development.” That is over 15,000 square miles.

  Not included in that allocation are the corridors where high voltage lines will have to cross the ocean floor to transfer electricity from the turbines to land-based power grids. The report found that “electromagnetic fields (EMFs) emanating from subsea cables appear to produce birth deformities in juvenile lobster.” That’s just the beginning.

  The report also found that wind farms “increase sea surface temperatures and alter upper-ocean hydrodynamics in ways scientists do not yet understand,” and “whip up sea sediment and generate highly turbid wakes that are 30-150 meters wide and several kilometers in length, having a major impact on primary production by phytoplankton which are the base of marine food chains.” And there’s more.

  Wind turbines “generate operational noise in a low frequency range (less than 700 Hz) with most energy concentrated between 2 and 200 Hz. This frequency range overlaps with that used by fish for communication, mating, spawning, and spatial movement,” and “high voltage direct current undersea cables produce magnetic fields that negatively affect the drifting trajectory of haddock larvae by interfering with their magnetic orientation abilities.” Haddock are “a significant portion of U.S. commercial fish landings and are an important component of the marine food chain.”

  Nothing to see here, right?

  What’s going on off the coast of New England is being allowed to happen because of disgraceful negligence on the part of America’s environmentalist community. What’s about to happen in California is just as bad, and is proceeding without any organized opposition or serious criticism.

  Earlier this year, the federal government leased 583 square miles of deep ocean waters off the coast of California for offshore wind farms. When the first phase of these offshore wind developments are completed, these wind farms will deliver 4.5 gigawatts of “clean” electricity to the California grid. That may sound like a lot of electricity. It’s not.

  To begin with, even offshore wind only blows intermittently. The most optimistic projections for the actual yield of these turbines are never more than 50 percent. This means that in terms of baseload power, only 2.25 gigawatts will come from these new offshore wind farms. California’s average electricity consumption is 32 gigawatts (of which only 22 gigawatts are produced in-state), which means if these offshore wind farms are ever completed, they’ll supply a mere 6 percent of California’s current electricity demand – the same amount currently coming from Diablo Canyon, California’s last operating nuclear power plant. But how many turbines will this take, and what will they look like?

   The biggest wind turbines in the world can now produce 10 megawatts at full output. To generate this much electricity, these machines are 1,000 feet tall, which is more than three times higher than the Statue of Liberty from the water line to the tip of the torch. To achieve a collective capacity at full output of 4.5 gigawatts, 450 of these would have to be built, floated 20 miles offshore, anchored to the seabed with cables nearly a mile long, then from each one a high voltage line would also have to descend 4,000 feet to reach the ocean floor, where it would then lie on the sea bed – some proposals actually call for them to be buried – to transmit electricity to the onshore power grid. Four hundred and fifty floating wind turbines, each one of them with vertical dimensions that are longer than a modern aircraft supercarrier. There are huge and unresolved engineering hurdles involved in developing large floating wind turbines.

  Bear in mind, if California’s state legislature gets its way, and the state goes fully electric – think all space heaters, water heaters, dryers, along with all trucks, buses and cars going fully electric – electricity demand will more than triple. While it’s hypothetical, the math is simple and revealing: to get 100 gigawatts of baseload power from offshore wind, you would need 20,000 turbines. And imagine all the high voltage distribution lines, and all the batteries to buffer the massive surges of intermittent power.

  To somewhat return to reality, we must acknowledge that none of California’s enlightened planners intend to use offshore wind to generate 100 percent of California’s renewable electricity. But in one of the most reputable mainstream studies produced to date, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, Mark Jacobson, completed a series of simulations, culminating in a report released in December 2021 that called for 20 percent of California’s electricity to derive from offshore wind. Making more conservative assumptions regarding the size of each offshore turbine and the yield, he predicted more than 12,000 offshore wind turbines would be required.

  Imagine the logistics.

  How many ships will this take? How many submarines and divers? How many port facilities? How many new homes for the construction workers? What about the undersea power cables? What about the storage batteries needed to buffer nearly 20 gigawatts of on again, off again electricity? What about the ongoing maintenance? What about the raw materials needed to build all these leviathans? What about the billions and billions of dollars that will flow into the pockets of the special interests behind this disaster of a project, paid by taxpayers and ratepayers?

  Overall, Jacobson’s study projected about one-third of California’s electricity to come from a combination of onshore and offshore wind turbines. Shall we reiterate what else we already know about wind turbines? Their slaughter of raptors, bats, and insects? Their incessant, low frequency sound that is audible for miles and, despite “debunking” articles that defy basic common sense, drives people and animals nuts? The visual blight? The staggering quantity of materials required for their manufacture, and the difficult if not impossible task of recycling the materials after they’ve reached the end of their service life?

  Where are the environmentalists?

  Where, for that matter, are the economists? Is the mantra “climate crisis” so powerful that literally anything goes, including a scheme that delivers not only environmental but economic catastrophe? In 2020, an in-depth financial analysis by the Manhattan Institute documented how “offshore wind’s costs will far exceed its benefits.” And that was before the supply chain problems, inflation, and interest rate hikes that have forced offshore wind developers from New England to California to greatly increase required rates, or pull out of projects altogether.

  Imagine if this was an oil rig, a desalination plant, or a nuclear power plant. The opposition would be apoplectic, and that is not hypothetical conjecture. California had a chance to build another major desalination plant which would have supplied 55,000 acre feet per year of drought proof fresh water to the residents of Orange County, population 3 million. Along with other projects in the works, this desalination plant could have made that relatively arid coastal county completely independent of imported water. But environmentalists fought the project at every turn, and in May 2022, in a unanimous vote, the California Coastal Commission denied the construction permit.

  As for oil and gas, California’s state legislators are doing everything they can to destroy production in the state. Despite having massive reserves of oil and gas, Californians have to import more than 75 percent of their oil and more than 90 percent of their natural gas. And when it comes to nuclear power, the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, California’s last one, narrowly escapes regulatory shutdown every few years, despite being designed to operate well past the middle of this century.

  The scandalous double standard at work here can only be attributed to a combination of powerful special interests representing the wind power industry, interacting with a state legislature and environmentalist movement that is either bought off or alarmingly stupid. As it is, hundreds of billions of taxpayer subsidies are on track to pay for offshore wind. If it is not stopped, it will be one of the most egregious cases of economic waste and environmental destruction in human history.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 20:05

• IMF Expects Subdued Growth As "Tightening Starts To Bite"
  IMF Expects Subdued Growth As “Tightening Starts To Bite”

  The International Monetary Fund (IMF) published its latest update on the state of the world economy on Tuesday, predicting sluggish growth for 2023 and 2024, as many challenges persist and policy tightening is taking effect.

  As Statista’s Felix Richter reports, according to its World Economic Outlook, the organization now expects global GDP to grow by 3.0 percent this year, down from 3.5 percent in 2022.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  For next year, the IMF predicts 2.9 percent growth, a slight downward correction from its April 2023 forecast of 3.0 percent.

  “Economic activity still falls short of its pre-pandemic path, especially in emerging market and developing economies and there are widening divergences among regions,” the report finds.

  “Several forces are holding back the recovery. Some reflect the long-term consequences of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and increasing geoeconomic fragmentation. Others are more cyclical in nature, including the effects of monetary policy tightening necessary to reduce inflation, withdrawal of fiscal support amid high debt and extreme weather events.”

  Aside from inflation, which is expected to remain elevated across advanced economies until 2025, many of the problems that weighed on the global economy in 2022 – high debt levels, the war in Ukraine and rising geopolitical tensions – have carried over into 2023, resulting in continued uncertainty and muted growth prospects. And while China’s reopening boosted global growth prospects earlier this year, the country’s property crisis now poses yet another downside risk, not only to domestic growth as a deepening of the crisis could have global spillover effects.

  All things considered, the IMF finds that risks to its latest outlook are slightly more balanced compared to six months ago, when the U.S. and Swiss banking crises as well as the specter of a potentially disastrous U.S. debt default cast large shadows over the global economy.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 19:45

• CBDCs: The Ultimate Tool Of Oppression
  CBDCs: The Ultimate Tool Of Oppression

  Authored by Laura Dodsworth via The Brownstone Institute,

  ‘If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – for ever,’ said O’Brien, the grand inquisitor of the totalitarian regime in Orwell’s futuristic novel 1984.

  

  Alternatively, you could imagine a sandal.

  Last month I visited Sutton Hoo, the famous Anglo-Saxon burial site of a king and his ship in Suffolk. A gold coin pendant in the museum caught my eye. It depicted a triumphant Roman standing over a conquered barbarian, his sandalled foot placed firmly on the supine opponent’s chest.

  

  The ship burial probably dates from 625 AD, long after the Romans had left. The gold could have been melted down by the Anglo-Saxons but instead it was fashioned into a pendant. Maybe it conferred the prestige of the Roman world onto the wearer, or was totemic of victory. Perhaps it was an ironic reminder that the Romans were gone and every empire has its day.

  The Roman on this coin was the Emperor Honorius, who ruled between 395 and 423. Miserably for Honorius, he was emperor when the Visigoths captured and plundered Rome and when the British Isles slipped from Roman control. In fact, when Romano-British cities asked him for help against barbarian attacks he told them to look to their own defences. You would never know all this from the coin, which is a fine piece of reputational management.

  Coins have always been more than lumps of precious metals; they are also a means of propaganda and control.

  Early bronze coins depicted cattle, as the state property of Rome was originally comprised of herds of cattle. Then coins featured Roman deities such as Mars, the god of war, or symbols of the state such as the she-wolf with twins. Later in the Republic, images of politicians featured on coins. The first living man to be embossed on a coin was the powerful Julius Caesar. One silver denarius minted around 29 BC shows a Nile crocodile (the symbol of Egypt) with the inscription ‘Egypt conquered.’ And other coins also showed emperors defeating barbarians, gleaming with undistilled power.

  Imagine handling a coin which depicts your own subjugation. If you were privileged, hard-working or lucky enough to obtain some of this lucre for yourself, it was nonetheless a reminder of the sandal on your chest. Every time you bought a luxury good, your fingers would slide over the embossed symbol of your defeat. Coins reminded you of your place in the world.

  Coins in circulation in the UK are at a record low. In fact, not a single one or two penny coin was issued in 2022. Yet there has never been greater potential to use money for propaganda and control.

  Digital money and particularly Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) offer the potential for the government, through the central bank, to see every purchase and transfer you make, in real time. And not just see, but control.

  Of course, our governments in the West will say that central bank money in digital form is convenient, safe, and stable. They will promise never to use it as an instrument of control, as an authoritarian government would. Here in the UK, our cosily-named proposed ‘Britcoin’ would supposedly exist alongside cash.

  China, the country that took the lead with lockdowns, has taken the lead with CBDCs. It started researching CBDCs in 2014 and has been running live trials of DCNY (Digital Chinese Yuan) for years, with the size and scale increasing each time. The Chinese government has tested expiration dates to encourage users to spend their DCNY quickly, for times when the economy needs stimulus. That’s right, an expiry date for people’s money has already been trialled.

  The Chinese ‘Social Credit System’ is a broad regulatory framework that is designed to score and incentivise the trustworthiness of individuals and companies. In other words, the government will either reward or punish various forms of behaviour using real-time monitoring, data gathering and sharing, curate blacklists and redlists, and use punishments, sanctions and rewards.

  A report in 2019 found that 23 million people had been blacklisted from travelling by plane or train due to their low social credit score. In 2018 a student was denied access to university because her father was in debt. There isn’t a centralised and transparent set of rules, instead it’s been operated locally so far, but it has been reported that behaviour such as poor driving, spending too long playing video games, or posting fake news can result in low ratings, as well as more serious matters such as not fulfilling court orders.

  

  You won’t find many Chinese critics of the Social Credit System – there is probably a sanction for criticism of government policy. You’d think this system would unite Western commentators in horrified criticism, but it is quite neutrally and even warmly described by some left-leaning writers and think tanks.

  We don’t need to look as far as China to understand the implications here in the West. In 2019, Mastercard and Doconomy launched a credit card with a carbon footprint calculator that can switch off your spending when you reach your carbon max. This functionality is voluntary, but it could be an automatic aspect of a CBDC.

  Tom Mutton, a director at the Bank of England, said that the Government would be required to make the final decision on whether a UK CBDC should be programmable. Sir Jon Cunliffe, a deputy Governor at the Bank, said:

  ‘You could think of giving your children pocket money, but programming the money so that it couldn’t be used for sweets. There is a whole range of things that money could do, programmable money, which we cannot do with the current technology.’

  As this quote reveals, CBDCs won’t just alter our relationship with money but with government. Governments around the world have shown increasingly authoritarian tendencies during the management of the Covid pandemic, and more recently to discourage driving in cities. Behavioural science has been leveraged to manipulate, incentivise and coerce us into behaving as model citizens. Do we want to negotiate with Daddy State to be allowed to spend our ‘pocket money’ as we wish?

  An account-based CBDC would give the government enormous power over your money as your identity is connected to the money. A 2020 Bank of England discussion paper gave examples of programmability, for example that smart cars could automatically pay for fuel directly at the dispensing pump, with automated taxation and charitable donations at point of sale.

  That all sounds very convenient. But politicians pushing Net Zero goals on an unwilling population could choose to go a step further. If you insist on keeping your private car, despite the inconvenient 20 MPH speed limits, the ULEZ and congestion charges, and the Low Traffic Neighbourhood barriers, they could simply dictate a maximum fuel spend in a given time period. Just ten of your Britcoins on petrol this month, Sir, no more driving for you.

  Money grants freedom and so it is also weaponised to deny freedom. Domestic abusers restrict access to money, and therefore essentials such as food, clothing, and travel. Economic abuse is insidious, effective and subtle, and it leaves no bruises. As with the domestic abuser, the potential is there for the government to weaponise money to exert the ultimate financial control.

  The jackboot and the sandal were graphic symbols of authority subjugating conquered peoples. If programmable CBDCs are introduced, your own digital financial footprint will be used to control you. The means of control change over time but the insatiable desire for total control remains constant.

  Republished from the author’s Substack

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 19:25

• Biden Classified Doc Scandal Deepens
  Biden Classified Doc Scandal Deepens

  More than a year before White House lawyers claim to have ‘discovered’ classified documents at the Penn Biden Center in November of 2022, evidence has emerged that White House employees ‘inspected’ or ‘took inventory’ of them, while another official removed “a few” boxes containing Biden materials that October, according to the House Oversight Committee.

  

  According to a letter to White House counsel Edward Siskel from Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), the official timeline of events provided by the Biden team “omitted months of communications, planning, and coordinating.”

  Comer says that a Penn Biden Center employee told the committee that on March 18, 2021, senior White House aide Annie Tomasini “[took] inventory of President Biden’s documents and materials” stored at the center, where he established a private office after his vice presidency.

  The same witness also said that on Oct. 13, 2022, Oval Office deputy director of operations, Ashley Williams, removed “a few” of Biden’s boxes.

  The White House has previously claimed that all relevant documents were either moved to the National Archives or the DOJ, while Biden’s personal attorney, Bob Bauer, said that the documents were discovered on November 2, 2022 – a total lie.

  The committee, which has conducted three witness interviews, says on five occasions, White House employees, including former White House Counsel Dana Remus, and the president’s former assistant Kathy Chung, a current Department of Defense employee, went to the Penn Biden Center to take inventory, pack up or remove materials. These visits occurred between March 2021 and mid-October 2022. –CBS News

  “There is no reasonable explanation as to why this many White House employees and lawyers were so concerned with retrieving boxes they believed only contained personal documents and materials,” said Comer in his letter.

  🚨 BREAKING 🚨

  We have discovered new information about the number of White House employees involved in President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents.

  President Biden’s attorney stated that the discovery of classified documents at Penn Biden Center occurred on November… pic.twitter.com/rLN1VJyRKC

  — Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) October 11, 2023

  The letter requests transcribed interviews with Remus, Williams, Tomasini, Anthony Bernal, a top adviser to the first lady, and Katie Reilly, a West Wing aide, according to CBS News.

  It is also asking for documentation and communication related to the documents. The committee has already interviewed Chung, who was then-Vice President Biden’s assistant. 

  Democrats, of course, have resorted to whataboutism…

  “Former President Trump’s willful retention of hundreds of highly classified documents, his defiance of court-ordered subpoenas, his reported disclosure of our country’s most sensitive national security information, and false statements to law enforcement should worry the Chair of a congressional committee with jurisdiction over government records,” said a spokesman for Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. “Instead Chairman Comer is using the Committee to focus on President Biden whose complete cooperation with the Special Counsel’s investigation stands in stark contrast, including voluntarily participating in a two-day interview with the Special Counsel, and opening the doors to his Penn Biden Center office and private residence to investigators.”

  As Jonathan Turley noted earlier, the ‘ultimate punchline’ here could be that Special Counsel Robert Hur may be in a sticky situation if he actually finds evidence of a crime.

  On its face, the President claims that he had no knowledge of these documents appears dubious at best.

  Some classified material reportedly goes back to Biden’s time as a senator — material that he would have had to remove from a sensitive compartmented information facility or secure room on Capitol Hill.

  More importantly, the documents from the Obama Administration were removed when Biden left as vice president.

  They were then divided and repeatedly moved to different locations. That suggests not just knowledge but a purpose.

  Why were they divided and some documents were found in his garage and possibly his library?

  If Hur found fingerprints that contradict Biden’s statements, he could face not just some of the same charges brought against Trump but also possible false statement or obstruction charges.

  Notably, Biden used counsel to conduct searches and (as in the Trump case) additional classified materials were found after the Biden team said that they had finished their searches.

  There are serious questions over whether, in allowing uncleared counsel to search through these documents, evidence may have been lost in how they were stored or appeared in locations like the garage.

  Hur can bring charges against third parties, who would not be barred from indictment under the DOJ policy.

  But what does Hur then do if he has evidence against the President himself?

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  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 19:05

• Out-Of-Hospital Cardiac Arrests Spiked In 2021, Study Finds
  Out-Of-Hospital Cardiac Arrests Spiked In 2021, Study Finds

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

  Cardiac arrests that happened outside of hospitals spiked in 2021, according to a new U.S. study.

  

  Out-of-hospital cardiac arrests were higher after the COVID-19 pandemic than before the pandemic, U.S. researchers found.

  They analyzed data from Seattle and King County in Washington state from the years 2018 to 2021. The dataset consisted of 13,081 patients, including 7,102 who were dead when emergency responders arrived and another 4,952 who were treated but died ahead of hospitalization or in the hospital.

  Compared to the prepandemic years, or 2018 and 2019, there were 19 percent more people who suffered out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the pandemic period, or 2020 and 2021, researchers said. That included a 10.8 percent increase in those who survived until responders arrived and a 27.2 percent increase in patients declared dead when responders reached the patients.

  The increase in those who survived was among 18- to 64-year-olds, with the rate among those 65 and older holding steady.

  The numbers were the highest during 2021, after the COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out.

  The researchers did not factor in vaccination status, instead aiming to examine the impact of COVID-19 on out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.

  Of the people who suffered out-of-hospital cardiac arrests during the pandemic and survived until emergency responders arrived, 6.2 percent tested positive for COVID-19 in the two weeks before the cardiac arrests or the week following the cardiac arrest, or were diagnosed with COVID-19. Just 3.7 percent of a random sample of those who were declared dead on arrival had COVID-19, which was lower than the percentage in a recent Maryland study.

  During the pandemic, the Washington state researchers said, survival was less likely among people who suffered out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA), consistent with previous research. While 42.6 percent of people survived to hospital admission before the pandemic, just 35.7 percent did in 2020 and 2021. And compared to 2018 and 2019, when 19.2 percent of the patients survived to hospital discharge, just 15.4 percent of patients were discharged alive during the pandemic.

  COVID-19 contributed to the downturn in survival, but only a little, the researchers said. They pegged it as responsible for 18.5 percent of the downturn.

  The major factors, they said, included social isolation that led to fewer observed events, a delay in health care workers treating patients due to updated equipment and resuscitation protocols, and hampered emergency response times. The factors were described as Utstein characteristics.

  “OHCA survival was poorer during the pandemic years, largely owing to changes in systemwide Utstein characteristics, as opposed to patient-specific acute SARS-CoV-2 infection,” Jennifer Liu, an epidemiologist at the Seattle and King County Department of Public Health, and her coauthors wrote. SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19.

  Other groups have also said that indirect reasons for the lowered survival rate and increased occurrence rate could stem from reasons such as delayed response times.

  Ms. Liu and the other authors declared no conflicts of interest or funding.

  Limitations of the paper, which was published by JAMA Network Open, include the data being from one county.

  Vaccination Impact?

  Ms. Liu did not respond to a request for comment, including why the group did not analyze the possible impact of vaccination on the increase in out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. The COVID-19 vaccines can cause myocarditis, or heart inflammation, as well as other cardiac events.

  “What most striking is the lack of analysis of a possible correlation of OHCA case rates with the COVID-19 vaccination campaigns that started at the end of 2020 and continued throughout 2021,” Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told The Epoch Times via email.

  “Such correlation has been observed in other studies and since the authors seem to have access to comprehensive case-level data (e.g., medical records), it looked like they could have potentially done that,” Mr. Levi, who was not involved in the research, added. “At the very least the authors should have analyzed the temporal correlation between community vaccination rates and the OHCA case rates.”

  Mr. Levi noted that the number of events was primarily grouped in the pandemic and pre-pandemic periods, apart from one graph in the supplementary content, which showed the year with the most events was 2021.

  “It is not even clear if there is an increase in 2020 compared to the baseline, or the entire increase is observed in 2021,” Mr. Levi said.

  The researchers did find a statistically significant correlation between weekly COVID-19 rates in the community and the weekly rate of OHCA, but only in 2020, not in 2021. Mr. Levi contributed to research that found the worse outcomes among people who suffered heart cardiac arrests during the pandemic in Boston stemmed from a reluctance to seek health care. He and other researchers also found that in Israel, increases in emergency calls for young people for cardiovascular events were significantly associated with COVID-19 vaccination.

  Some other papers have found that prior to the vaccine rollout, people who tested positive for COVID-19 and suffered a cardiac arrest were more likely to die when compared to people who did not test positive.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 18:45

• What Do US Teens Want To Be When They Grow Up?
  What Do US Teens Want To Be When They Grow Up?

  What do you want to be when you grow up?

  This supposedly innocent question has been lobbed at children and teenagers for decades, although the answers might differ now due to the rise of social media and the possibility of achieving worldwide fame not being confined to appearing on the big screen or arena stages anymore.

  As Statista’s Florian Zandt reports, according to a 2021 survey by YouGov weighted by age and gender, teenage boys and girls in the United States share some similarities when it comes to their dream job – even though the top spots couldn’t be further away from each other.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  12 percent of male teens listed professional athlete as their preferred future job, followed by 11 percent who wanted to become an online content creator.

  Classic dream jobs like musician (six percent) and doctor or nurse (five percent) still made the top 5, albeit barely.

  For females, the latter seems to be the most coveted future job, with 13 percent of teenage girls wanting to become a medical professional, while 11 percent put actress as their dream occupation.

  The fact that becoming a YouTuber, streamer or vlogger made the top five for participants of both genders shows the rapid development of financial and societal clout attributed to online personalities, for better or worse.

  According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the market size for influencer marketing has doubled since 2019 and was valued at $16.4 billion worldwide in 2022.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 18:25

• Netanyahu Vows "Every Hamas Operative Will Die" As Israeli Citizenry Mobilizes For War
  Netanyahu Vows “Every Hamas Operative Will Die” As Israeli Citizenry Mobilizes For War

  Update(1820ET): PM Netanyahu, just after forming an emergency war-time government with Benny Gantz…

  Benjamin Netanyahu:

  “Every Hamas operative will die. Hamas is ISIS.” pic.twitter.com/7HBwdwS10f

  — Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) October 11, 2023

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  And Gantz too spoke of total societal mobilization in Wednesday night words:

  Benny Gantz, who joined an emergency government with Netanyahu, stated on Wednesday that his cooperation with the government is “a clear message to our adversaries and to all Israeli citizens: all of us together are mobilizing.” Gantz said after the Security Cabinet meeting in which he participated, “Just as people from left and right, from the city and the village, go out to fight, decisions of the government will also be made by people from different camps. Now, we are all one camp – the camp of the people of Israel.”

  These Israeli leaders don’t seem too concerned (an understatement) about the immense and rapidly mounting civilian casualties among Palestinians caught under the air war with nowhere to go, as a long, bloody ground campaign in the Gaza Strip looks inevitable.

  Below is an interesting clip from 2009 of Pat Buchanan offering his thoughts on what’s been a decades-long crisis:

  Pat Buchanan warns in 2009 that the brothers of the little girls killed by Israel during the bombing of Gaza that year would grow up to join Hamas and fight Israel. Well, it’s 14 years later and they’re grown up now pic.twitter.com/ZMNjcTv7Pp

  — Michael Tracey (@mtracey) October 11, 2023

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  IDF reservists have been returning to Israel from abroad in droves…

  A welcome party receiving returnee IDF reservists at the airport.#OperationIronSwords pic.twitter.com/Rjsp5JddRo

  — Edward (@DonKlericuzio) October 11, 2023

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  * * *

  Update(1425ET): US National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby confirmed that the United States will be sending the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier to the Eastern Mediterranean, after it was already announced that the USS Gerald R. Ford would be deployed as part of “support” operations related to the Israel-Gaza conflict.

  However, Kirby said that the Eisenhower will not be directly joining or escorting. Instead, the carrier will be in the region for availability if called upon. While in a press briefing Kirby tried to downplay the dual carrier deployment as somewhat routine or expected, they will certainly be on standby to potentially intervene if all hell continues breaking loose in the Middle East.

  UPDATE: NSC Spokesperson John Kirby confirms the USS Dwight D Eisenhower carrier strike group will be headed to the Mediterranean but says it will not join the USS Gerald R. Ford strike group as a second strike group, but will be available in the area if needed. pic.twitter.com/kpaAxbgXfc

  — Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) October 11, 2023

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  Kirby also confirmed that the US administration is in talks with Qatar as part of mediation efforts to free the hostages being held by Hamas. It’s believed there are Americans among the captives in Gaza, which at this moment is being pounded by Israeli airstrikes. Kirby said the following:

  “Obviously, we’re in discussions not only with the Israelis, about what hostage recovery could look like, but with other allies and partners in the region. And there are some countries like Qatar that have open lines of communication with Hamas, so of course, we’re casting the net wide as you would expect, we want to get these all the hostages back with their families, particularly the American hostages, no question about that.”

  Meanwhile…

  MCCAUL: US SPECIAL FORCES, FBI SHOULD BE USED TO FREE HOSTAGES

  * * *

  Update(1304ET): The IDF has revised its earlier alert as follows, downplaying the severity of the northern infiltration alert:

  IDF spokesperson: Further to the reports of intrusion from the Lebanese border into Israel’s airspace, as of now fear of intrusion has been ruled out.

  An updated headline from Times of Israel: IDF says no drone infiltration in north after scares send millions into shelters

  An emergency war-time government has been formally announced in Israel:

  Israel’s Netanyahu forms unity government with ex-Defense Minister Gantzhttps://t.co/SyuTAWnDTM

  — Ayman Abdel Nour (@aabnour) October 11, 2023

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  * * *

  Update(1250ET): Israeli emergency authorities, specifically the Israeli Homefront Command, has ordered residents in the far northern town of Ma’alot-Tarshiha to stay in their homes and lock their doors, warning of possible infiltration of militants from Lebanon. The alert stayed active for a brief period Wednesday. There are current official reports of an airspace breach from Lebanon, possibly drones sent by Hezbollah:

  🚨A report was recieved regarding a suspected infiltration from Lebanon into Israeli airspace.

  — Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 11, 2023

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  The current top headline at The Times of Israel reads:

  Residents across north told to shelter as several aircraft appear to infiltrate Israel

  On the other side of the border, Lebanese residents are scrambling for exit as fighting grows, and as evidence of damaged and burning homes and buildings begins to circulate:

  Cross-border violence between Lebanon and Israel has escalated into a fourth day, pushing many Lebanese in southern towns to leave as Hezbollah and the Israeli military continue to trade fire.

  Hezbollah said it fired precision missiles on an Israeli position across from the Lebanese town of Dharya on Wednesday, drawing retaliatory Israeli shelling that has left a number of houses damaged.

  Tensions have been boiling along the Israeli-Lebanese border since Palestinian fighters launched a surprise multi-front assault on Saturday morning. The Israeli military has been heavily bombarding the Gaza Strip since, while Palestinian groups have continued to fire thousands of rockets towards Israel. At least 1,055 Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis have been killed.

  Sirens are reportedly going off across northern Israel, amid unverified reports of major drone action:

  Early reports indicate dozens of drones launched from Lebanon at Israel pic.twitter.com/sBSMox7bpK

  — Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) October 11, 2023

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  Amid the escalating and highly dangerous (for the prospect of major, broader war) tit-for-tat Israel-Hezbollah escalation, both sides are vowing “decisive” response to deadly attacks.

  News wires are now reporting that 22 Americans have been confirmed killed after the weekend Hamas terror rampage in southern Israel. 

  The US Embassy in Beirut is meanwhile refuting reports that it is evacuating, but is it a sign of things to come as the south Lebanon situation slides?

  The U.S. Embassy in Beirut has not evacuated and is open and operating normally. Reports saying otherwise are false. For more information and travel advisories, visit our embassy website: https://t.co/QDEaP8dkZR

  — U.S. Embassy Beirut (@usembassybeirut) October 11, 2023

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  A below review of the last hours via journalist Joyce Karam. UPDATE:

  • Lebanon front, Israel- Hamas war 
  • Drones, infiltration from Lebanon 
  • Israel fired flares 
  • Residents in N Israel to enter shelter 
  • Gaza hospitals full capacity 
  • Israel gets war cabinet 
  • Evacuations from Israel
  • 200,000 Gazans displaced

  * * *

  A worst-case scenario for Israel is emerging: the dreaded multi-front war involving Hezbollah, which is a much more formidable and better equipped paramilitary force than Hamas. 

  Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus has confirmed Wednesday Israel fired rockets into southern Lebanon for at least a second straight day, striking Hezbollah positions after the Iran-backed group struck Israeli soldiers with anti-tank missiles fired from across the border.

  

  Bloomberg has also confirmed in a note, “Israel said an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanon hit one of its military posts near the border, news that saw investors seek haven assets like US Treasuries.” This as an Israeli ground invasion into the Gaza Strip, which is sure to be a bloody campaign, appears imminent after PM Netanyahu told Biden in a Tuesday phone call, “We have to go in. We can’t negotiate now.”

  Netanyahu also previously vowed in public statements that “what we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.”

  Citing IDF spokesman Conricus further, Fox News underscores that Israeli is now “actively fighting a secondary front” in the north and is surging troops toward that end: 

  …the Israeli army shelled the Lebanese border town of Duhaira and the surrounding area where the missile attack came from. He also said Israel was actively fighting a secondary front along Israel’s northern border with Hezbollah in Lebanon, in addition to the counteroffensive the IDF is launching in the Gaza Strip.

  “We have deployed tens of thousands of additional units along the northern border,” Conricus said, including infantry, special forces, armored forces, artillery, air forces, and “additional assets including intelligence and logistics.”

  Cross-border shelling has occurred since Sunday, leading to multiple casualties among Hezbollah members and possibly other Islamic factions. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has also had a presence there and has taken casualties. The IDF said, “The message to Hezbollah is very clear: ‘If they try to attack, we are ready and we are vigilant on our border.’”

  

  At least one “Israeli senior officer” has been killed at the northern border since the exchange of fire has increased. Another two Israeli troops have also been confirmed killed. Hezbollah has claimed to have wounded and killed a “large number” of Israeli troops.

  Al Jazeera wrote Tuesday that “At least three Hezbollah members, an Israeli senior officer and two Palestinian fighters have been killed so far in the cross-border fighting.” 

  And the IDF has confirmed: “In Southern Lebanon, Hezbollah have already fired anti-tank missiles and rockets at our positions and soldiers, fortunately without any significant casualties,” Conricus said. “There has already been an attempt of Islamic jihad terrorists infiltrating into Israel. That attempt was successfully thwarted by the IDF, sadly at the cost of a senior [IDF] officer and two other soldiers.”

  Hezbollah has meanwhile issued a fresh statement saying it sees the United States as a direct accomplice in Israel’s killing of Gazans, as the Israeli air war continues, with Palestinian deaths on Wednesday approaching 1,000 after four straight nights of unprecedented bombardment.

  Hezbollah issues a statement saying the United States is a ‘full partner’ of Israeli ‘aggression’ on the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah also says that it holds the United States fully responsible for the airstrikes that are killing civilians in Gaza.

  — Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) October 11, 2023

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  “At least 950 people, including at least 140 children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes, according to the Gaza Health Ministry,” CBS reports. ‘The ministry said in a social media post that at least 5,000 more people in the blockaded Palestinian territory were wounded, most of them women and children.”

  Dangerously, and amid fears of a broader regional conflagration, Syria launched missiles on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which didn’t appear to do significant damage. However, Israel has reportedly released an emergency statement for settlements in the area: “Instructions have been given to residents of the Golan to stay near shelters.” Israel says it is forming an emergency war-time government.

  ISRAEL PLANS TO ANNOUNCE EMERGENCY GOVT TONIGHT: ISRAEL RADIO

  Iran’s Supreme Leaders has issued fresh threats, even while asserting it didn’t have a direct hand in the Saturday Hamas terror rampage into Southern Israel:

  The Zionist regime wants to justify the mass murder of the people in #Gaza by attempting to show itself as the victim.
  Heads of the usurper regime should know that the response to these atrocities will be a heavier slap to their hideous faces.

  — Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) October 10, 2023

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  Complicating matters and sending regional tensions soaring further at a moment of fresh Iran threats, a US carrier group will soon cross the Atlantic to park in waters off Israel as part of “support” operations. A second carrier could also be on its way:

  The US might deploy a second aircraft carrier to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea to support Israel’s attack on Gaza, two Pentagon officials told POLITICO on Tuesday.

  In the wake of the Hamas attack on southern Israel, the US announced that it was deploying the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and its strike group, which arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean on Tuesday.

  The Pentagon officials said that the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its strike group, which includes several other warships, were already scheduled to leave Norfolk, Virginia, this week and that it might be ordered to also deploy near Israel. The Pentagon said that the Eisenhower could leave on Friday and arrive in the Eastern Mediterranean at the end of October.

  A double aircraft carrier deployment would be a massive show of force in the region and could risk escalating the situation. Some Shia factions in Iraq have threatened attacks on US bases in the country if the US “intervenes” to support Israel against Hamas. 

  Hezbollah has issued a statement directly responding to this possibility, saying, “Sending aircraft carriers to the region with the aim of raising enemy morale reveals the weakness of the Zionist military machine.”

  More images have begun to emerge of the ratcheting conflict along the Israel-Lebanese border…

  ⚡️Consequences of the Israeli bombing on homes in the Lebanese town of Al-Dhahira this morning pic.twitter.com/Q6LbSIoIWS

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) October 11, 2023

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  In Israel, the death toll from the weekend attack has risen to 1,200 – according to new official statements. The Biden administration has also confirmed that at least 14 of these were US citizens.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 18:20

• Christian Baker Who Refused To Make LGBT Cake Scores Legal Victory
  Christian Baker Who Refused To Make LGBT Cake Scores Legal Victory

  Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips has scored a victory of sorts in his ongoing lawsuit for refusing to bake a gender transition cake, with the Colorado Supreme Court agreeing to hear his appeal.

  

  Last week, in a win for Mr. Phillips’ years-long legal fight, the Colorado Supreme Court finally agreed to hear his case after a lower court held that Colorado authorities can force the baker to put messages on cakes that violate his personal beliefs, according to a case announcements posting.

  Mr. Phillips, who in 2018 won a case before the U.S. Supreme Court in a lawsuit for declining to bake a custom cake for a same-sex wedding, was sued once again in 2019 for refusing to create a cake for a transgender lawyer celebrating a gender transition.

  The attorney, Autumn Scardina, also demanded that Mr. Phillips create a custom cake depicting Satan smoking marijuana, according to court filings.

  But Mr. Phillips declined, saying he would not create cakes expressing those messages for anyone.

  Then, a lower appeals court held that Colorado authorities could compel Mr. Phillips to put messages on his cakes that go against his religious convictions, prompting Mr. Phillips’ attorneys to file an appeal in April with the Colorado Supreme Court.

  Subsequently, in July 2023, following a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of a Christian website designer who argued that Colorado’s law requiring her to create websites celebrating same-sex weddings infringed on her constitutional rights, Mr. Phillips’ attorneys filed a supplemental notice with the state Supreme Court, asking for a hearing.

  More Details

  In the supplemental filing, Mr. Phillips’ attorneys asked the Colorado Supreme Court to apply the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 303 Creative v. Elenis and similarly affirm Mr. Phillips’ constitutional right to free speech.

  And so on Oct. 3, in a victory for Mr. Phillips’ legal battle, the Colorado Supreme Court finally agreed to hear his case.

  “Free speech is for everyone. As the U.S. Supreme Court held in 303 Creative, the government can’t force artists to express messages they don’t believe,” Jake Warner, senior counsel for the Alliance for Defending Freedom (ADF), said in a statement.

  “Because the attorney asked Jack to create a custom cake that would celebrate and symbolize a transition from male to female, the requested cake is speech under the First Amendment,” he added.

  “You don’t need to agree with Jack’s views to agree that Americans shouldn’t be compelled to express what they don’t believe,” he added.

  Mr. Phillips told Fox News in an interview that he hopes the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case gives him hope for an end to his years-long legal fight.

  “I hope it is the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m pretty excited about it,” Mr. Phillips told Fox News in an interview.

  “The state court turned us down in our first case, but I think they realize now that I serve everybody,” he added.

  The Colorado Supreme Court has yet to schedule oral arguments in the case.

  Mr. Phillips said the case is about his right to express his religious freedom and to “do so without fear of punishment in the marketplace.”

  Supreme Court Decision In Web Designer Case

  In June 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of Christian web designer Lorie Smith, who said she would design a website for anyone—including if they identify as LGBT—so long as the requested content doesn’t run afoul of her religious beliefs.

  Ms. Smith said that, when clients asked her to include messages that are pro-abortion or same-sex marriage—both views that conflict with her personal convictions—she would refer them to other designers.

  Concerned that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission would use the state’s anti-discrimination statute to force her to create websites that convey messages that she disagrees with, she challenged the law to protect free speech.

  Like Mr. Phillips, Ms. Smith was represented by ADF.

  

  In July 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled against Ms. Smith, holding that the state has the right to force her to create websites with messages that violate her religious beliefs.

  Her attorneys appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court—and won.

  “Like many states, Colorado has a law forbidding businesses from engaging in discrimination when they sell goods and services to the public. Laws along these lines have done much to secure the civil rights of all Americans,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the 26-page majority opinion (pdf), with the court’s three liberal justices dissenting.

  “But in this particular case, Colorado does not just seek to ensure the sale of goods or services on equal terms. It seeks to use its law to compel an individual to create speech she does not believe. The question we face is whether that course violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.”

  “In this case, Colorado seeks to force an individual to speak in ways that align with its views but defy her conscience about a matter of major significance,” Mr. Gorsuch wrote.

  “The First Amendment envisions the United States as a rich and complex place where all persons are free to think and speak as they wish, not as the government demands,” he added.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 18:05

• Microsoft Must Pay $28.9 Billion In Back-Taxes
  Microsoft Must Pay $28.9 Billion In Back-Taxes

  “That’s a nice little business you got there, it would be a pity if the IRS confiscated it…”

  In an 8K filed by Microsoft after the close, the company said it received notices from IRS seeking additional payment of $28.9b plus penalties and interest for the tax years 2004-2013; the payments stem from disagreements over the tax treatment of intercompany transfer pricing, a well-known corporate tax black hole.

  It was not immediately clear if these notices suggested the company had underpaid taxes on purpose or if there was a TurboTax-style glitch, but whatever the reason, $29 billion is a lot of money, even for Epstein island regulars such as Bill Gates.

  Naturally, Microsoft said that it disagrees with the notices and will vigorously contest them, and “does not expect” a final resolution on these issues in the next 12 months.

  On October 11, 2023, Microsoft Corporation announced the receipt of Notices of Proposed Adjustment (“NOPAs”) from the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) for the tax years 2004 to 2013. The NOPAs were received on September 26, 2023. The primary issues in the NOPAs relate to intercompany transfer pricing. In the NOPAs, the IRS is seeking an additional tax payment of $28.9 billion plus penalties and interest.

  As of September 30, 2023, we believe our allowances for income tax contingencies are adequate. We disagree with the proposed adjustments and will vigorously contest the NOPAs through the IRS’s administrative appeals office and, if necessary, judicial proceedings. We do not expect a final resolution of these issues in the next 12 months. Based on the information currently available, we do not anticipate a significant increase or decrease to our tax contingencies for these issues within the next 12 months.

  If the US tax service, now staffed with tens of thousands of newly weaponized (literally ) tax collectors is starting to go after the the Magnificent 7’s massive cash hoards to plug the staggering, war-like debt-funded US deficit, Microsoft may be the first but it certainly won’t be the last to get such a ransom demand from the IRS.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 17:45

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• How Widespread Are Depression, Stress, & Anxiety?
  How Widespread Are Depression, Stress, & Anxiety?

  Yesterday, October 10th, was World Mental Health Day and this year its theme was Mental Health is a Universal Human Right.

  As Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia, explains, this means:

  “Every individual, regardless of their location, occupation, or identity, is entitled to achieve the highest attainable level of mental well-being. This encompasses the entitlement to safeguard oneself from mental health risks, access to mental health care that is readily available, easily accessed, and of high quality, as well as the entitlement to freedom and involvement within their community.”

  While awareness around the topic of mental health has improved significantly in recent years, Statista’s Anna Fleck reports that the WHO states that there is still some way to go in terms of societal attitudes and governmental policies.

  This includes recognizing that mental health overlaps with multiple aspects of life, including education, employment, housing, and social participation and that more work needs to be done to continue to destigmatize mental health issues as well as to further improve access to mental health services and facilities for all.

  The following chart looks at how widespread mental health issues are around the world.

  According to a survey by Statista Consumer Insights, nearly half of the respondents interviewed in Sweden reported having experienced mental health problems such as depression, stress or anxiety in the twelve months prior to the poll.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  The share was comparatively lower in countries such as Mexico, India, France and China.

  However, with this data alone it is hard to tell to what extent these figures are reflective of the mental health prevalence in various countries or the degree to which there is social acceptance and discourse around the topic. 

  According to the UN, millions of people worldwide are suffering due to mental health issues and it is estimated that one in four will experience a mental health problem in their lifetime.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 02:45

• Either Shore-Up Reserve Forces Or Bring Back Conscription, Romanian General Says
  Either Shore-Up Reserve Forces Or Bring Back Conscription, Romanian General Says

  Via Remix News,

  Romania must either rebuild its reserve forces or reintroduce conscription, retired Romanian and NATO General Virgil Bălăceanu has said.

  

  Bălăceanu, former head of the Multinational Brigade South-East, said on Monday that a law that is absolutely necessary for the replenishment of the Romanian Army reserve has been circulating in the inter-institutional procedure for more than three years.

  The retired army general told Prima News that there is no peacetime army that does not have a reserve and gave the example of Ukraine, which, he said, “would not have survived if it did not have a reserve, which means replenishing the units.”

  According to him, the successful direction is to replenish the reserves, initially through recruitment on a voluntary basis.

  “There is also a need to train the operational reserves, those who completed their military service until 2007. All these issues are included as amendments to the law on preparing the population for defense,” said Bălăceanu.

  “If we do not rebuild the Romanian Army’s reserve on the principles of voluntary service, then we will have to reintroduce compulsory military service, and such a decision cannot be postponed for the next five years,” he warned.

  “Do you think that we will have any political party that in its electoral program will raise the issue of reintroducing compulsory military service? I rule out such a possibility because it would be a disaster in the elections,” Virgil Bălăceanu pointed out.

  He noted, however, that “the parties that win the elections will be obliged, if the Romanian Army does not have its reserves replenished, to decide to reintroduce compulsory military service,” pointing out that Romania currently only has 2,000 voluntary reservists compared to Poland’s 38,000.

  “At present, they are trying to recruit all the young people who have been selected as voluntary reservists,” he said of Warsaw.

  Romania abolished conscription in 2007, but only eight years later, parliament began debating to bring it back. That was tabled due to insufficient political support, but in May the government decided to revisit the issue.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/11/2023 – 02:00

• Neural Reality – The Ultimate VR – Could Answer The Fermi Paradox
  Neural Reality – The Ultimate VR – Could Answer The Fermi Paradox

  Authored by Ross Pomeroy via RealClear Wire,

  Scientific skepticism is Dr. Steven Novella’s bread and butter. As president of the New England Skeptics’ Society, his mission is to promote science and critical thinking. Novella casts the light of evidence on a range of complicated topics on his blog and his podcast, The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe.

  

  In his latest book, The Skeptics’ Guide to the Future, Novella, also a Yale neurologist, looks ahead with a critical eye, attempting to realistically forecast the future rather than falling for the hype that commonly accompanies futurism. Among the panoply of topics he touches upon is the notion of neural reality, which would be the ultimate expression of virtual reality.

  “With neural reality, you don’t have to strap on glasses or deal with issues of safety or a disconnect between the physical and virtual worlds,” he wrote. “Neural reality [uses] a brain-machine interface to directly feed the virtual world into your mind.”

  There would be no clunky headset nor handheld controllers.

  It “completely replaces your sensory input and motor output with a virtual world, while you, for example, lie safely in bed,” he described.

  Neural reality sounds too futuristic to be possible. But Novella, an expert neurologist, says it’s certainly coming.

  “There is no reason to think that this technology is not possible; it is only a question of how long it will take and how good the technology will be.”

  One could imagine this tech being used compassionately at first. People suffering “locked in” syndrome might be the first to use it, followed by quadriplegics. Then it might be the old and infirm who live out their final days in fantastical worlds inside their minds. Eventually, however, neural reality could turn dystopian, or utopian, depending upon how you want to look at it.

  “There’s no question it will be seductive to live in a virtual world where you can have literal godlike power,” Novella commented.

  Eventually, almost everyone might decide to “take the blue pill” and choose to live in neural reality.

  As Novella notes, this may be the answer to the Fermi paradox, which calls attention to the lack of evidence for intelligent alien life despite how common it should be in our Universe. Maybe aliens are safely ensconced underground, being cared for by robots, whilst contentedly dwelling within their own minds.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/10/2023 – 23:40

• Commonly-Prescribed Antibiotic May Help With Explosion Of Sexually Transmitted Infections: CDC
  Commonly-Prescribed Antibiotic May Help With Explosion Of Sexually Transmitted Infections: CDC

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

  Health care providers should consider prescribing the antibiotic doxycycline as a way to prevent some sexually transmitted infections (STIs), according to a draft recommendation that was posted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last week.

  “The purpose of the proposed guidelines is to provide updated clinical guidance for healthcare providers to inform the use of doxycycline PEP for preventing bacterial STI infections,” the health agency’s document reads, referring primarily to bacterial infections such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis.

  

  The antibiotic “should be implemented in the context of a comprehensive sexual health approach including risk reduction counseling, STI screening and treatment, recommended vaccination, and linkage to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), HIV care, or other services, as appropriate,” according to the draft.

  “Current data suggest overall benefit of the use of doxycycline PEP, but potential risks related to the development of resistance and impacts on the microbiome will need to be closely monitored after implementation of these guidelines,” the CDC stated.

  Doxycycline, which was first developed by Pfizer decades ago and is within the tetracycline spectrum of antibiotics, has been used as a prophylactic against several infectious diseases, including Lyme disease and malaria. It can be used as a first-line treatment for chlamydia and is sometimes used to treat syphilis.

  The public has about 45 days to comment on the proposed rule via the Federal Register’s website.

  Dr. Jonathan Mermin, a CDC official who heads the agency’s division on STIs, told CNN that the health agency would seek public comment because it allows researchers and policymakers “to gather important input before finalizing guidance and gives clinical providers, people affected by STIs, and partner organizations the opportunity to weigh in before … guidance is finalized.”

  “It’s going to take game-changing innovations for us to turn the STI epidemic around. And Doxy-PEP is the first major new prevention intervention we have for STIs in decades,” Dr. Mermin told CBS News last week, noting that his agency will have to also monitor for

  There are gaps in the “long-term monitoring, evaluation, and additional studies” regarding the use of doxycycline, according to the CDC official.

  “There are important questions that remain regarding potential risks,” he said.

  Although health officials say the drug is generally tolerated well, doxycycline can have a range of side effects, including diarrhea or vomiting, rash or itching, changes to the appearance of nails, irritation of the esophagus, loss of taste, and tinnitus. Notably, it can darken the color of one’s skin, teeth, gums, or scars, according to health officials.

  Some have reported that lying down after taking the antibiotic can cause the medication to reflux back into the esophagus, causing irritation or even ulcers.

  STIs Skyrocketing

  STIs have been on the rise across the United States in recent years, according to the CDC. More than 2.5 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis were reported in all of 2021, the CDC stated, noting that syphilis rates increased by 32 percent, chlamydia by 4 percent, and gonorrhea by more than 4 percent from 2020 to 2021.

  The CDC’s report states that communities such as “gay and bisexual men and younger people” have been “hit especially hard” by STIs in recent years.

  Months ago, San Francisco’s health department started promoting doxycycline as a prevention measure, according to a report from the Associated Press.

  “We didn’t feel like we could wait,” said Dr. Stephanie Cohen, who oversees the local agency’s STI prevention work.

  Some other city, county, and state health departments, mostly on the West Coast, have since followed suit.

  Earlier this year, local health authorities in Houston issued a warning that syphilis infections are on the rise. The recent increase was attributed to pregnant women, who can pass the bacteria to their unborn babies, the Houston Health Department said in a June statement.

  “It is crucial for pregnant women to seek prenatal care and syphilis testing to protect themselves from an infection that could result in the deaths of their babies,” Marlene McNeese Ward, an assistant director with the Houston health agency, said in the statement at the time. “A pregnant woman needs to get tested for syphilis three times during her pregnancy.”

  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/10/2023 – 23:20

• Mexico Threatens Diplomatic Action As Texas Border Security Delays 19,000 Trucks
  Mexico Threatens Diplomatic Action As Texas Border Security Delays 19,000 Trucks

  Authored by Rashi Varshney via The Epoch Times,

  Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has announced that he will send a diplomatic note to the U.S. regarding Texas’s border cargo inspections that are causing significant delays to U.S.-bound traffic.

  

  Mr. Obrador said that 19,000 trucks carrying goods worth $1.9 billion have been impacted by the increased security.

  He criticized Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s decision, denouncing it as both irresponsible and “politically motivated,” accusing Mr. Abbott of exploiting the illegal immigration crisis for political gain.

  The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) initiated “enhanced commercial vehicle safety inspections” on Sept. 19 in the vicinity of El Paso and Del Rio to combat illegal activities including drug and human smuggling, and to identify unsafe vehicles.

  In September, Mr. Abbott declared an “invasion” at the southern U.S. border, attributing the surge in illegal immigration to President Joe Biden’s policies. He had announced the deployment of the National Guard, DPS, and local law enforcement to address the crisis.

  Mr. Abbott shared his declaration on X, formerly Twitter, on Sept. 20, emphasising the state’s efforts to secure the border and the safety of Texan residents, by completing the border wall, and installing razor wire and marine barriers.

  Mexico’s Freight Transport Chamber Protests

  Mexico’s national freight transport chamber, the National Chamber of Cargo Transportation (CANACAR), said on Sunday that it joins the concerns of different sectors in Mexico’s north regarding the crisis that continues on the border between Mexico and Texas due to the unilateral decision of Texas to impose inspections on Mexican trucks seeking to cross into the state.

  “It has been 21 days since Governor Greg Abbott’s administration made the decision to stop the flow of units traveling over the three bridges that divide the Ciudad Juárez region with El Paso, Texas,” the group said in a statement.

  It added that in this period, CANACAR has a record backlog of at least 19,000 trucks that have not been able to cross the border, with $1.9 billion in merchandise being stranded at the border. This has already generated a serious impact on trade between Mexico and the United States, the complaint said.

  

  Trucks wait in a long queue to cross into the United States after the Texas Department of Public Safety announced increased security checks at the international ports of entry into Texas, at the Zaragoza-Ysleta border crossing bridge in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on April 9, 2022. (REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez)

  The CANACAR in its statement urged the Texas government to revoke its measure, which it said hampers the region’s development and jeopardizes tens of thousands of jobs in both Mexico and the United States.

  The Mexico’s freight transport chamber also dubbed the measure by Texas as “absurd” and said that the presence of elements of the Texas Department of Security at border crossings and the implementation of review operations has caused lane closures, and increased crossing times by up to 24 hours.

  According to figures from the Ministry of Economy, Mexico is the largest buyer of Texas exports. In 2021, the value of trade in goods with Mexico amounted to $231 billion, with 400,000 jobs relying on these exchanges.

  Border Crisis

  There has been an ongoing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border related to unvetted immigration, which has surged to 2,860,127 unvetted immigrated entering the United States in FY2023, as per the latest data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). These figures significantly surpass the 2020 figure of 646,822 and even the previous high of 2,766,582 seen in 2022.

  The Biden administration has faced criticism from Mr. Abbott for failing to secure Texas’s border.

  “President Biden’s reckless open border policies have created an ongoing crisis at our southern border as record levels of illegal immigrants, deadly drugs, and weapons pour into Texas,” his office has said.

  In response to the unsustainable crisis, for which Texas has long born the brunt, in 2021, Mr. Abbott launched Operation Lone Star, deploying the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to the southern border.

  “Operation Lone Star personnel work around-the-clock to detect and repel illegal crossings, arrest human smugglers and cartel gang members, and stop the flow of deadly drugs and weapons into our nation. While the federal government ignores this crisis, Texas is holding the line,” its website says.

  However, most recently, in a notable policy shift, the Biden administration declared on Oct. 5 the urgent need to expedite the construction of the U.S.–Mexico border wall in Starr County, Texas, citing to the significant rise in illegal immigration.

  Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the waiving of 26 federal regulations to fast-track the construction of roads and barriers along the southern border in Texas.

  These new barriers will be erected within the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector, specifically in areas marked as “high illegal entry” zones. Construction will take place near Falcon Dam, the Arroyo Morteros Tract, Las Ruinas Tract, Arroyo Ramirez Tract, key intersections like Perez Road and U.S. Highway 83, and multiple tracts within the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

  Mr. Abbott had criticized the Biden administration’s failure to adopt such border policies sooner, but instead having rolled back Trump-era policies and measures like the border wall construction, which the governor said has led to unprecedented illegal immigration numbers.

  In the beginning of 2021, the Biden administration ceased the ongoing border wall construction initiated by former President Donald Trump.

  On Oct. 4, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said from a Mexico visit that the United States and Mexico share a “mutual responsibility” regarding the current crises of fentanyl trafficking and illegal immigration that must be tackled through cooperation between the two countries.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/10/2023 – 23:00

• Lindsey Graham Says "Only Way" To Keep Hamas-Israel From Escalating Is To Attack Iran's Oil
  Lindsey Graham Says “Only Way” To Keep Hamas-Israel From Escalating Is To Attack Iran’s Oil

  Republican Senator Lindsey Graham apparently isn’t worried about the price of oil.

  The hawkish Senator took to Fox News earlier this week, amidst the Hamas attacks on Israel, and immediately called for the U.S. to strike Iran and, specifically, the country’s oil refineries. Graham said on the air that Iran “planned” the attack on Israel. 

  “Well, for every Israeli or American hostage executed by Hamas, we should take down an Iranian oil refinery. The only way you’re going to keep this war from escalating is to hold Iran accountable,” Graham said on Fox News. 

  Lindsey Graham is now beating the drums of war on Fox News and saying that Iran is going to attack Israel any minute now, and when that happens, the US and Israel should respond in unison to attack Iran and “put them out of the oil business by destroying their refineries”.

  The… pic.twitter.com/RXXNGGiK4t

  — Inversionism (@Inversionism) October 8, 2023

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

  He continued: “How much more death and destruction do we have to take from the Iranian regime? I am confident this was planned and funded by the Iranians. Hamas is a bunch of animals who deserve to be treated like animals. So if I was Israel, I would go in on the ground. There is no truce to be had here. I would dismantle Hamas. This is the best opportunity Israel has to destroy Hamas. Take it to the Iranians.”

  He concluded: “If you harm one American in Syria by using your Iranian militia against us in Syria, if you escalate the war by urging Hezbollah to attack Israel in the north, if Hamas kills one American Israeli hostage, we’re going to blow up your oil refineries and put you out of business. It is now time to take the war to the Ayatollah’s backyard.”

  Graham also later said that the U.S. could “reset the world” by saying to Iran “if you escalate any more attacks coming from Iran, we’re coming after you,” according to Newsweek. 

  

  “If there is an escalation in this conflict, if hostages start getting killed, if Hezbollah in the north attacks Israel in strength, we should tell the Ayatollah we will destroy your oil refineries and your oil infrastructure,” he reiterated in a subsequent interview on Monday, according to The Hill. “We will put you out of business. Without money coming from Iran and weapons coming from the Iranians, Hamas will be nothing. Hezbollah will be nothing.”

  On The Hill’s NewsNation on Monday, he added: “This is an Israeli ‘9/11,’ it couldn’t have happened without a lot of money and technology and weapons. So it’s time to hold them accountable. The escalation of the conflict should result in a joint attack on the Iranian oil infrastructure to put them out of business.”

  “They [Iran] are religious Nazis. Listen to the language coming from the Ayatollah and his henchmen. They want to purify Islam in their own image. Saudi Arabia is at risk here. They want to destroy the Jewish state. They want to kill all of the Jews and come after us.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/10/2023 – 22:40

• 2023 Is US' Lowest Wildfire Year Since 2000
  2023 Is US’ Lowest Wildfire Year Since 2000

  Via Cliff Mass Weather blog,

  Being well into October and with a train of very wet weather systems approaching, we can be confident that most wildfire activity is over this year over the Northwest U.S.   There are no active fires over Washington State today.

  The good news is that this was a very benign wildfire year for the entire U.S..

  In fact, the lowest wildfire acreage since 2000 (see below).  You will note little evidence of a long-term trend.

  

  Here in Washington State, the Department of Natural Resources is responsible for a large proportion of the burnable area of the State.  2023 is running way below the average for acreage burned (red line is average).  Again, no obvious upward trend.

  

  What about the biggest fire state of the western U.S.: California?  This year was the second lowest in ten years!  And last year was equally low.

  

  And what about monthly particulate/smoke levels for the past five years?  According to Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, things are getting better!  Note the outlier during September 2020.

  

  Do these numbers surprise you?   They are reality.  But if you follow the media and some activist groups, the wildfire threat is getting worse very quickly, with global warming being the major cause! 

  Of course, there is no group that exaggerates wildfire threats more than the Seattle Times and their cartoonist, David Horsey (see below).   I do wonder why his wildfire monster wears sunglasses.

  

  You should not be surprised that the wildfire threat has stayed tame over the last few years and probably won’t accelerate during the years ahead.

  Let me give you several reasons:

  1.  Global warming for all the hype and exaggeration is quite modest at this point….the western U.S. has warmed up by roughly 2F over the past half century with very little change in precipitation.  Not enough to profoundly alter the fire situation.

  2.  The areas that have burned during the past decades will enjoy suppressed fire potential for a while.

  3.  Many of the wildfires in the western U.S.  during the past decade were caused by failing electrical infrastructure.  After severe impacts on their bottom lines, many power companies (like PG&E) are hardening their powerlines and turning off power when strong winds are predicted.

  

  4.  After much delay or insufficient efforts,  states are getting more serious about restoring forests, using approaches such as thinning and prescribed burning.  This reduces the potential for catastrophic fire.

  5.  Fire management policy changes allowed more fires to burn in previous decades and contributed to more fires and smoke.

  The bottom line is that all the scary talk about rapidly rising wildfire threats in our future is really not based on solid facts, and reality is going a different way. 

  How many other scary and unfounded predictions have gone viral in the public space?  That communists were taking over the universities and government in the 1950s?  That Vietnam was a domino requiring intervention?  That weapons of mass destruction were hidden in Iraq?    We seem to love believing in apocalyptic predictions, whether or not factual information supports them?

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/10/2023 – 22:20

• Stop Feeding The Polarization Beast
  Stop Feeding The Polarization Beast

  Authored by Alison Dagnes via RealClear Wire,

  A new academic year has begun, as is evident from the smell of Xeroxed paper in the hallways and the excitement of college freshmen who are new to our classrooms. These first weeks are glorious: students are cheerful and optimistic, believing that this will be the year of straight A’s and good times. The professors are generally happy, too, having spent at least part of the summer away from campus, believing that this is the year where there will be no plagiarism, only enthusiastic class participation and completed reading assignments.

  

  These first few weeks are always so hopeful and expectant. Then the first exams hit, and spirits are murdered en masse, like a “Law and Order” marathon but with fewer attorneys.

  That’s the way it normally is, anyway – but as we’re often told, these are unprecedented times. This fall of 2023, the spirit-killing happened way too quickly in my American Politics classrooms, something I noted when a first-year student took my proffered syllabus, met my smile with a grimace, and asked: “Do we, like, have to talk about politics in this class?”

  My student is not alone in her political distaste, as evidenced by recent polling data from Pew that reports a majority of Americans are “exhausted” when thinking about politics. Even worse, the Pew data show that the percentage of Americans who are excited by politics is a microscopic 4%. That’s lower than the percentage of Americans who hate ice cream (7%)! On the plus side, it’s higher than the percentage of people who don’t like dogs (2%). In any case, the number is depressing to consider for those of us who are unrelenting cheerleaders for democracy.

  The bottom lines are these: Elections are important. Elections have consequences. The American experiment of a democratic republic is teetering now, and it’s an all-hands-on-deck situation where everyone needs to chip in, or the whole thing is going to fall apart. Unfortunately, these bottom lines are increasingly difficult to sell to the general public, which can avoid bad information with a thumb swipe.

  The theory known as “news avoidance” describes a segment of the public who, after being deluged with so much content and information, unplugs from the news. Reuters conducts an annual survey of global news trends and has found that the percentage of American news avoiders is growing. Its 2023 report stated that the percentage of Americans who are “passive consumers,” or avoiders of the news, has grown to 51%.

  Let’s unpack that number, because being a “passive consumer” is about the same as total abstention.

  Thanks to technology, even those who want to dodge the news will still get bits of information from story fragments that seep into their feeds. These servings can come from reliably sourced journalism, or spicy stories that may or may not be true, or scary misinformation from well-meaning friends, or shady disinformation that originates from truly bad-intentioned actors. Regardless of the information quality, everyone who receives these news bits is getting them without context or perspective.

  This is where our hyper-polarized, deeply personal, and furious political system becomes repugnant for my students and, apparently, for the majority of Americans who used the words “divisive” and “corrupt” to describe U.S. politics. The political stories most people hear are actually slivers of information that pierce their news avoidance because they are the loudest and most sensational bits.

  Our current political media system feeds this beast. When politics moves from policy debates to a fight about individuals, the discourse becomes a cheapened binary. Nuance takes time, but sledgehammer invectives are much easier – and much more effective as clickbait.

  This is not just about Biden and Trump; seemingly every election in 2024 will be a negative referendum on a single person. Will you vote against Doug Mastriano if he runs? Will you vote George Santos out of office? Will you send Joe Biden and his “crime family” packing? Our elections have become one-dimensional unpopularity contests.

  No wonder only 4% of those polled are excited about the elections. Only the most engrossed and outraged citizens dig into these fights, and politicians cater to this subset of seething voters instead of the broader public. This is where, as The Bulwark’s Tim Miller writes, politics becomes fan service, where politicians just play the hits. Our political climate right now is toxic, so the greatest hits are chock full of emotion. In an effort to break through the noise, these politicians continue to amplify their well-worn messages of negative partisanship, panic, and ire. And that’s what’s seen and heard by all those Americans who are already trying to avoid the news because it’s so angry and contentious.  

  So, that’s not good.

  The answer, however, is fairly straightforward. We all have to refuse the (click) bait that’s offered to us and read news to become informed, rather than enraged. Instead of letting bits and bites of politics and news seep into our brains when we’re not looking, maybe a sober news review will help us assess the real problems we face.

  In short, we must resist the temptation for fire and fury and opt instead for equilibrium. We need to change the words we use to describe politics – and the only way to do that is to dismiss the pull of negative emotions.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/10/2023 – 22:00

• These Are America's Richest Men & Women In 2023
  These Are America’s Richest Men & Women In 2023

  Elon Musk has topped the Forbes 400 2023 list of the richest people in America, which was published on Tuesday.

  As Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, the 52-year-old Tesla and SpaceX cofounder was reported to have a net worth amounting to $251 billion, as of September 8.

  Musk has some $90 billion more than the second richest person in the United States, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (59), who owns $161 billion. Rounding off the top five are software giant Oracle founder Larry Ellison (79) with $158 billion, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett (93) with $121 billion and Google’s Larry Page (50) with $114 billion.

  While a gender divide still exists among the U.S.’ wealthiest, with the first of the country’s richest women coming in 14th place on the list, females are still making extremely high figures.

  Walmart’s Alice Walton (73) tops the women’s roundup, with a net worth of $66.5 billion in 2023. She is followed by Julia Koch (61) of Koch Industries with $59.8 billion, who alongside her three children inherited a 42 percent stake from her late husband, David. Jacqueline Mars (83), who owns an estimated one-third of the candy, food and pet care firm Mars, then ranks third place for richest women and 19th place for richest Americans with $38.9 billion.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  According to Forbes, the top 400 wealthiest people in the U.S. are worth a combined $4.5 trillion.

  Of these, the top 20 are worth roughly $1.9 trillion altogether. Analysts highlight that these 20 are 30 percent richer than they were one year ago.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/10/2023 – 21:40

• Brutal: RFK Jr's Own Siblings "Denounce" Him And Endorse Biden
  Brutal: RFK Jr’s Own Siblings “Denounce” Him And Endorse Biden

  Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

  As he announced that he will be running for President as an independent candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s own siblings have thrown him under the bus and endorsed Joe Biden, labelling their brother as “dangerous” to America.

  

  Within view of where the first and only independent candidate to win the American presidency helped establish the new country’s government, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stood in front of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Oct. 9 and told supporters he believes he will take a similar path to the White House.

   “Today, we are turning a new page in American politics,” Mr. Kennedy said after making the expected announcement that he will run for president as an independent in the 2024 election and depart the Democratic Party’s primary.

  “There have been independent candidates before. But this time is different. This time, the independent is going to win,” Mr. Kennedy said.

  “Three-fourths of Americans believe President Biden is too old to govern effectively. President Trump faces multiple civil and criminal trials. Both have favorability ratings deep in negative territory,” he said.

  “That is what two-party politics has given us, and that is why we need to pry loose the hammerlock of corrupt power over Washington D.C. and make this nation ours again.”

  But his siblings were furious, as he suspected they would be:

  “It is painful for me to let go of the party of my uncles, my father, of my grandfather, and of both of my great-grandfathers—John ‘Honey Fitz’ Fitzgerald, Boston’s first Irish Catholic mayor, and Patrick Kennedy, a Boston ward boss—who, together, launched my family’s political dynasty more than a century ago,” Mr. Kennedy explained.

  “But my sacrifice is nothing compared to the risk our founding fathers took when they signed the Declaration of Independence 247 years ago right over there,” Mr. Kennedy continued, pointing to Independence Hall.

  “What really terrifies the elites, though, is not me. It is what I represent—a populist movement that defies the left-right division,” Mr. Kennedy continued, and his siblings were quick to respond.

  In a statement posted on Twitter/X, Kerry Kennedy, Rory Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy II, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend claims that while their brother has the Kennedy name, he does not share the Kennedy “values, vision, or judgement.”

  They further announced that RFK Jr’s announcement is “deeply saddening” for them and that they all “denounce his candidacy.”

  Bobby might share the same name as our father, but he does not share the same values, vision or judgment. Today’s announcement is deeply saddening for us. We denounce his candidacy and believe it to be perilous for our country. @roryekennedy @joekennedy @KKT_Kennedy pic.twitter.com/WJfGwSxN1z

  — Kerry Kennedy (@KerryKennedyRFK) October 9, 2023

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

  Brutal.

  There is somewhat expansive irony in the Kennedy siblings waxing about ‘values and judgement’ while endorsing Joe Biden, as social media made clear…

  You appear to have been bought and paid for.

  — 0x146.gfy (@wasrichnowbroke) October 10, 2023

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

  Having more choices in a “democracy” is “perilous”?

  — The LFB (@The_LFB) October 10, 2023

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

  And read what you’re actually writing. You’re saying it’s “dangerous” for people to run in an election in a democracy? That sounds awfully authoritarian.

  — Samson Mow (@Excellion) October 10, 2023

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

  Please. Your uncle would be called a far right nationalist by your party today.
  You have no values today.

  — StewMama✈ Cari- Radically Moderate (@StewMama71) October 9, 2023

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

  Family rarely agrees on all things. But denouncing your brother seems more self serving than anything else.

  — Therese (@usernom99) October 9, 2023

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

  Family rarely agrees on all things. But denouncing your brother seems more self serving than anything else.

  — Therese (@usernom99) October 9, 2023

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

  He seems like he might take more votes from the Republican candidate, no?

  — Ooojin 🇺🇦 (@Ooojin482) October 10, 2023

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

  Related:

  *  *  *

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  In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support my sponsor – Summit Vitamins – super charge your health and well being.

  Also, we urgently need your financial support here.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/10/2023 – 21:20

• Long COVID Might Be Diagnosed With Nearly 100 Percent Accuracy: Study
  Long COVID Might Be Diagnosed With Nearly 100 Percent Accuracy: Study

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

  A simple blood test may finally provide answers for the millions struggling with long-COVID symptoms.

  

  New research published in Nature reveals distinct biomarkers in patients with the complex condition, allowing a machine learning algorithm to diagnose it correctly nearly every time.

  “This is the first paper of many findings where we’re seeing clear abnormalities between a healthy control population and folks with long COVID,” the study’s principal investigator, David Putrino, who holds a doctorate in neuroscience and is a professor of rehabilitation and human performance at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, told The Epoch Times.

  How Does AI Spot Long COVID in Blood Samples?

  The findings offer hope of objective confirmation to long-COVID sufferers, who represent about 6 percent of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Many have faced doubts that their persistent fatigue, brain fog, and pain after COVID-19 infection are real.

  Mr. Putrino and his team analyzed around 270 patients from three locations—The Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Union Square, and Yale School of Medicine—between January 2021 and June 2022.

  They divided participants into three groups: those with no prior COVID infection, those who fully recovered, and those with long-COVID symptoms for at least four months after infection.

  Researchers had all patients complete questionnaires about symptoms, medical history, and health-related quality of life and give blood samples to identify biomarker differences.

  A machine learning algorithm was applied to determine which biomarkers best identified long COVID. The questionnaire data were then fed to the program.

  The algorithm differentiated between those with and without long COVID with 96 percent accuracy, detecting unique features in long-COVID patients’ blood. The biggest differences involved abnormal immune cell activity, reactivated dormant herpes viruses like Epstein-Barr, and reduced cortisol levels.

  The findings show promise for objectively identifying the “constellation of immune cells” diagnostic for long COVID, Dr. Thomas Gut, director of the Post-COVID Recovery Center at Northwell Staten Island University Hospital in New York, told The Epoch Times. “Serological markers could be a huge step toward confirming long COVID versus other complications,” he added.

  The data also raise questions about COVID’s role in awakening other viruses, Dr. Gut noted. “This data does suggest that there be a link between these viruses.”

  Is It Long COVID or Something Else?

  A recent analysis in the British Medical Journal by researchers from the UK, Denmark, and the United States found significant flaws in long-COVID scientific literature. Previous studies may have overestimated prevalence due to broad definitions and lack of control groups, potentially feeding public anxiety and misdiagnosis.

  “There is a need for better case definitions and more stringent [long-COVID] criteria,” the authors wrote.

  Mr. Putrino’s findings offer clinicians guidance for confirming long COVID.

  Rather than a general battery with normal results, doctors will be able to target specific symptoms, according to Mr. Putrino. “We can look at hormonal health. We can run a detailed hormone battery. We can run a detailed immune battery. And we can look for evidence of co-infection,” he said, noting that the study also enables doctors to find the exact problem and treat it with medications.

  It’s Not in Your Head: Long COVID Is a Real Disease

  This new research could offer a way to distinguish long COVID from psychological distress caused by COVID-19 itself. Mr. Putrino emphasized the key takeaway is that long COVID is not a functional disorder without physical signs.

  “We’re not looking at a psychosomatic condition,” he said. “We’re seeing very, very clear evidence that this is an infection-associated complex chronic illness, and this study proves it.”

  A study published in February in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research finds “substantial” evidence suggesting a role for psychological mechanisms in long COVID. The researchers pointed out that it’s well-established that psychological distress isn’t only a symptom but also a risk factor of long COVID, noting that higher levels of personal resilience were associated with lower severity of the condition.

  What Comes Next?

  The eventual design of a blood test for diagnosing long COVID will most likely necessitate the use of machine learning software and further research, Mr. Putrino said.

  The test wouldn’t offer a straightforward yes or no answer due to the diverse symptoms experienced by different patients, he noted. Instead, the test would involve analyzing various factors and symptoms, creating a nuanced approach to accurately identify long-COVID cases based on the amalgamation of these findings.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/10/2023 – 20:40

• "Your Position Is Clear" – Musk Slams Terrorist-Supporting BLM Posts
  “Your Position Is Clear” – Musk Slams Terrorist-Supporting BLM Posts

  This is going to get awkward for a lot of virtue-signalers…

  Black Lives Matter formally siding with Hamas is going to complicate the scheduled race riots in 2024. Regime is going to have to cook something else up. Or maybe Jake Tapper etc will pretend none of this happened and do propaganda for BLM again. We’ll see!

  — Cernovich (@Cernovich) October 10, 2023

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

  At least two Black Lives Matters (BLM) groups have made statements on X, formerly known as Twitter, supporting Hamas – the terrorist group responsible for the deaths of over 1,200 Israelis (including women and babies).

  The first BLM group (@blmgrassroots) issued a lengthy statement proclaiming, among other things, that “when a people has been subject to decades of apartheid and unimaginable violence, their resistance must not be condemned but understood as a desperate act of self-defense.” The statement did not include any criticism of Hamas or its tactics.

  

  We used a screenshot of the tweet since we suspect this will be deleted very quickly.

  This should not be a surprise since Melina Abdullah, the co-director of the group, has been accused of antisemitism, according to InfluenceWatch. But, if you thought that was a little distasteful, here is what BLM’s Chicago affiliate tweeted.

  

  Again, we used a screenshot of the tweet since we suspect this will be deleted very quickly.

  It doesn’t get much clearer than that – BLM ‘standing with’ paragliding terrorists who killed hundreds of innocent Israeli concertgoers (as the community note makes it clear) .

  Ultimately, Elon Musk – who has repeatedly been accused of anti-semitism by the Anti-Defamation League, which in turn has frequently supported BLM in the past – made it very clear how he feels about their comment…

  Your position is clear

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 10, 2023

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  Still don’t see it – maybe this tweet will help clarify things…

  This is the equivalent of displaying airplanes in front of buildings post 9/11 with the caption

  “We support Al-Qaeda.”

  — ᴡᴏʟᴠᴇʀ (@WolverCrypto) October 10, 2023

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

  Presumably the following companies will be demanding their money back, all $99 billion of it, and will promptly cease any and all donations to BLM-affliliated groups and issue a statement of regret for their prior support…

  • Bank of America: $18.5 million
  • BlackRock: $810 million.
  • Adidas: $120 million.
  • Amazon: $169.5 million.
  • American Express: $50 million.
  • Apple: $100 million.
  • IBM: $252 million.
  • Kellogg: $91 million.
  • Microsoft: $244.6 million.
  • PGA Tour: $100 million.
  • Warner Bros. Discovery: $115 million.
  • etc…

  Source

  Corporations who donated to BLM right now https://t.co/aDd8e4ny0y pic.twitter.com/BYXwD9GoKV

  — Mostly Peaceful Memes (@MostlyPeacefull) October 10, 2023

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

  Also, Jonathan Greenblatt and the Anti-Defamation League have been awkwardly quiet in their rebuke of BLM…

  However, that may leave Mr.Greenblatt with a problem, given that Israel Hayom reported last year that a Fox News investigation found that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)’s educational and “anti-bias” programs, which influence millions of American children, educators and officials, promote far-left and critical race theory (CRT) concepts including “white privilege” and “systemic racism,” and promote groups such as the Women’s March and BLM – despite those organizations or their leaders’ virulent Jew-hating, Israel-hating and pro-Farrakhan positions. 

  This problem a longstanding. 

  Six years ago, ZOA documented that multiple ADL educational lesson plans: encouraged students to join BLM protests in Ferguson (the same protests that demanded ending Israel’s existence, calling Israel an apartheid genocidal state); promoted BLM while ignoring the BLM/M4BL organizations’ antisemitism and antisemitic platform; and repeated numerous BLM false claims.

  The list of critiques of ADL includes:

  • ADL sought to defund and remove the tax exemptions from three pro-Israel organizations (including prominent Christian Zionist group PTNJ).

  • ADL hired an outreach director who justified anti-Israel terrorism; said Jews need to “repent for Gaza’s dead”; and, after Black extremists murdered innocent Jews in Jersey City, blamed Black antisemitism on “Jewish landlords, and pawnbrokers and small merchants” and on “systemic racism” against Blacks.

  • ADL’s Black History Month celebration featured an Israel-hating BDS activist.

  • After Ilhan Omar tweeted, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”, and gave an insulting “non-apology,” claiming she reacted to Israeli “oppression,” Greenblatt praised Ilhan Omar, saying: “Hats off to Rep Omar for her honest apology & commitment to a more just world.”

  • ADL opposed Israel’s anti-BDS law banning BDS activists from entering Israel, which was upheld by Israel’s courts.  Furthermore, in 2018, ADL said that Israel should allow antisemitic boycott activist, SJP-BDS hate group president and terrorism supporter Lara Alqasem to enter Israel.

  • In September 2020, ADL co-signed a full-page New York Times advertisement promoting the antisemitic Israel-bashing BLM.  ADL signed just four months after BLM burned, defaced and looted Los Angeles Jewish synagogues, schools and businesses; and despite BLM/M4BL falsely accusing Israel of genocide, ethnic cleansing, training US police to murder Blacks, etc.

  We look forward to Greenblatt’s appearance on CNBC to clear up any confusion.

  Maybe Matt Walsh was on to something…

  I said from the very beginning that BLM is a terrorist organization. Now they finally admit it. https://t.co/nJ1FYGCYmS

  — Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) October 10, 2023

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  Yes, BLM is a domestic terrorist organization.

  But we already knew this.

  — Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 10, 2023

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  Remember when people would get fired from their jobs for calling BLM a terrorist organization? https://t.co/mtBAt12OGL

  — Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) October 10, 2023

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  I take no great joy in pointing out that most of us knew that BLM was a corrupt, grifter, toxic organization long before they showed the world their true colors today…well..i take some joy…just not “great joy”…lets call it modest joy…

  — jim iuorio (@jimiuorio) October 10, 2023

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  *  *  *

  Bonus BLM Tweet (from the UK)…

  

  *  *  *

  And while we are at it, anyone remember this?

  

  Presumably, Google and its ad-services will have already contacted all BLM-affiliated groups and banned them for ‘policy violations’ (which we assume includes, supporting baby-killing terrorists?)

  Does this mean google will un-blacklist ZH now? pic.twitter.com/jg2HfeSeq4

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 11, 2023

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  And now we wait for this epic SNAFU by the deep state’s favorite on-demand riot organization (whose activity tends to peak 3-6 months prior to presidential elections) to force the FBI to conclude that BLM is yet another white-supremacist terrorist organization…

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

• Americans Searching "Will I Get Drafted To War" Hits Highest Level Since Iraq 2007 Surge Amid WW3 Threat
  Americans Searching “Will I Get Drafted To War” Hits Highest Level Since Iraq 2007 Surge Amid WW3 Threat

  Geopolitical and financial cycle expert Charles Nenner has warned that the world is teetering on the edge of a war cycle that could last many years. Nenner may be correct: The Ukraine war has been ongoing for 1.7 years, and just days ago, Hamas invaded Israel, sparking yet another dangerous geopolitical powder keg exploding right before our very eyes. 

  On Saturday, former President Trump told the crowd in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that the US is “closer to World War III than we’ve ever been.” 

  “I’m telling you, we are closer to World War III,” Trump said, warning that another conflict could use “weaponry the likes of which this world has never seen before.”

  “We Are In Grave Danger”: Trump Says Attack On Israel A Sign World War III Is Coming https://t.co/JfNmELjZMf

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 10, 2023

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

  On Tuesday, Israeli officials said the country’s death toll exceeded 1,000 from the ‘surprise attacks’ by Hamas that began on Saturday. In Gaza and the West Bank, authorities report 850 people have been killed in fighting there. 

  “It’s not a war, it’s not a battlefield, it’s a massacre,” IDF Major General Itai Veruv was quoted as saying. “You see the babies, their mothers and their fathers, in their bedrooms, and in their protected rooms, and how the terrorists killed them — it’s not a war.”

  “It’s something that I never saw in my life,” Veruv said. “We used to imagine our grandmothers and grandfathers during the pogroms in Europe. It’s not something that we have seen in recent history.”

  While the horrific scenes of the Hamas attack have gone viral on X for the world to see, some Americans are panic-searching if they will be drafted as the conflict in the Middle East and Eastern Europe could spiral out of control. 

  Google search data shows that “Will I get drafted to war?” has jumped above the Feb. 2022 high when Russia invaded Ukraine and hit the highest level since former President George Bush announced the troop surge in Iraq in early 2007. 

  

  “How old do you have to be to get drafted to war?” is another search phrase on the rise. 

  

  Let’s hope America’s military is combat-ready. 

  Honestly, I don’t know what Russia or China are waiting for.

  We would lose a war in twenty minutes at this point.

  Look at this. pic.twitter.com/7mJYfxKKjQ

  — Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) October 5, 2023

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  The armies of Sodom and Gomorrah.#IsraelPalestineConflict #USMilitary #Israel_under_attack #Israel #IsraelAtWar #MilitaryIndustrialComplex #LGBTQAgenda #wokemilitary pic.twitter.com/Mz5FwvkOMw

  — Remnant Man (@remnantman1) October 10, 2023

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  The Woke U.S. Military is Ready for China, 🤦‍♂️ Sad. https://t.co/GelVJkYJeO pic.twitter.com/bspT9yQoVT

  — MAGA Caveman7766 (@MAGACaveman7766) October 10, 2023

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  Maybe Charles Nenner is correct: “This war cycle is going to be bad, and I’ll tell you why.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/10/2023 – 20:00

• Waste Of The Day: Nevada Sitting On $91 Million Meant To Help Homeowners
  Waste Of The Day: Nevada Sitting On $91 Million Meant To Help Homeowners

  Authored by Adam Andrzejewski via RealClear Wire,

  While homeowners in Nevada receive foreclosure notices and risk losing their homes, the state has only used a small portion of the $120 million the U.S. Treasury Department allocated to help people avoid foreclosure.

  

  Nevada Affordable Housing Assistance Corporation, a small nonprofit, gets the federal funds and is supposed to pay banks directly to bring mortgages current, ProPublica reported.

  But its slow pace at enrolling people in need and paying those delinquent mortgages ranks Nevada 43rd among the states for getting money to homeowners.

  At the end of the first quarter, Treasury reported that the nonprofit had distributed $17 million — less than 14% of the funds — and as of Aug. 15, according to NAHAC’s data, Nevada had distributed an additional $12 million.

  A federal audit found that previous leadership at Nevada Affordable Housing Assistance Corporation “had squandered federal aid to homeowners caught up in the 2008 foreclosure crisis,” ProPublica reported. It’s unclear, other than new leadership, why the same organization would be entrusted to run a $120 million program.

  The program continues to have issues, including making timely payments to banks, while homeowners continue to receive foreclosure notices on loans they thought were being paid.

  One woman who got a few partial mortgage payments from the program, Shirley Geraci, said when she told the nonprofit that she was getting foreclosure notices, the organization was unable to tell her how much it had paid her bank and why the payment hadn’t been applied to her account, and it wouldn’t provide anything in writing.

  Geraci and her daughter were unsure whether they’d even try to continue getting more aid.

  The states are “flying by the seat of their pants” to run the program and “people are suffering,” she said.

   The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/10/2023 – 19:40

• Mental Health Is The Top Health Concern Among Americans
  Mental Health Is The Top Health Concern Among Americans

  A 2023 Ipsos survey has found that mental health is now the chief health concern among U.S. adults, surpassing the coronavirus, obesity and cancer.

  As Statista’a Anna Fleck shows in the following chart, 53 percent of U.S. respondents said that they thought mental health was the biggest health problem facing people in their country as of August this year, up from 51 percent in 2022.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Where the coronavirus had been considered the biggest health problem by roughly two thirds of U.S. respondents through the pandemic, perceptions of the danger of the virus have now curtailed to just 15 percent of respondents considering it the most serious health issue – lower than the rates for obesity (30 percent), cancer (29 percent) and even stress (18 percent).

  According to the survey data, this trend is not unique to the U.S.

  Across the 31 countries polled by Ipsos as part of the Global Health Service Monitor, an average of 44 percent of people said that mental health was the top health concern facing their country. This was followed by cancer (40 percent), stress (30 percent), obesity (25 percent) and drug abuse (22 percent).

  Sweden and Chile stood out for reporting particularly high levels of concern around mental health in 2023 (at 67 percent and 66 percent, respectively).

  Meanwhile, cancer was the most cited health concern in India (59 percent), obesity in Mexico (62 percent) and stress in South Korea (44 percent).

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/10/2023 – 19:20

• The Navy And Diversity
  The Navy And Diversity

  Authored by Brent Ramsey via RealClear Wire,

  In recent years, the Navy has put a lot of emphasis on “Diversity”.   If you visit the Navy’s recruiting website, www.navy.com, on the first page it has an entry, “Who we are”.  When you access that page, it contains three entries:

     Women in the Navy:  With a picture of five women sailors at sea.

     Diversity and Equity:  With a picture of a black female sailor in the foreground.

     Reserve:  With a picture of a black male sailor looking out over the sea.

  Under “THE NAVY’S COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY & EQUITY” it says, “Why are diversity and equity important to the Navy?”, followed by this statement: “We believe that leveraging our diversity is the key to reaching the Navy’s peak potential, both as a workplace and as a defense force. We also believe that when leaders tap into the energy and capability of an actively inclusive team, we achieve top performance. We know that different perspectives shine light into our blind spots, illuminating what we wouldn’t otherwise see.”  No evidence is provided proving diversity has any connection with warfighting success.  The statement is one of wishful thinking.  The fact is there is a dearth of evidence that diversity has anything to do with warfighting effectiveness and lethality.  If readers know of such evidence, I would love to hear about it.

  

  The Navy has a diversity policy statement.   It says: “The Department of the Navy (DON) is fully committed to creating and maintaining an environment which supports Diversity and Inclusion (D&I). The DON understands that its strength is dependent upon its people and the different perspectives, talents, and abilities they bring to the workplace. Prevailing today and adapting to the emerging security environment of tomorrow necessitates the continued attraction of our nation’s increasingly inclusive and diverse workforce. The DON is committed to the inclusion of our diverse collection of Sailors, Marines, and Civilians into all aspects of the organization’s operations. Successfully including all personnel creates an environment that motivates innovation and provides fresh perspectives, which allows the DON to reach its maximum warfighting potential. Practicing D&I principles allows the DON to fully leverage the wealth of knowledge, experience, and perspectives from all of our people. The DON’s core values-Honor, Courage, and Commitment-reinforce our promise to respect others and provide equal opportunity for all people. Our commitment to each other is second to none, and we must match our dedication to an inclusive environment that assures the success of our core mission. Therefore, I ask every Sailor, Marine, and Civilian to join me in ensuring our workforce actively includes all perspectives in order to harness the powerful benefits of D&I.”  Again, no evidence is presented that a diverse force is more effective, more lethal to our enemies.  This is an example of pandering to the political left with no substance about how to achieve the goal of more diversity nor proof that attaining that diversity makes the Navy more dangerous to our enemies.

  The Navy stood up an organization, Task Force One Navy (TF1N), In July 2020 with great fanfare to examine diversity and how to achieve it.  At its creation, the Navy had 8% black officers.[i]  The 2022 DOD Military Demographics Report shows the Navy now at 7.9% black officers.   The TF1N report had dozens of recommendations about how the Navy would improve the number of minority officers.  The only conclusion that can be reached by this outcome after more than 2 years is that the Navy is clueless about what it takes to attract more minorities to the Navy.  Maybe enticing more minorities to the Navy is more than cliques about diversity and inclusion. 

  At the United States Naval Academy (USNA), the premier educational institution for training career naval officers, there is an Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion headed by a CAPT with a staff of 5, all black.  What possible purpose could this office serve?  Those selected for USNA are already there, selected by the admissions staff based on the criteria established by the Navy for attendance.  The Navy’s thumb is already on the admissions scale in favor of two elite groups coveted by the Academy for two entirely different reasons.  The first group are the elite athletes who get in for their athletic prowess not their test scores or GPA.  This group already has a high percentage of minorities, a necessity to attempt to be successful in the elite sports like football and basketball.  This phenomenon of the USNA competing in Division I sports is entirely superfluous to training naval officers and only serves to pander to the alumni who desire such prestige sports to be provided by their alma mater.   The second group are certain minorities who get in because the standards for black and Hispanic minorities are lower than the standards for whites and Asians.  We know for a fact that standards for certain minorities are lower from the statements made by the U.S. Solicitor General’s statement to the Supreme Court arguing in favor of racial preferences for the military in the SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. UNC cases.  Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar told the justices on Oct. 31. “So, it is a critical national security imperative to attain diversity within the officer corps. And, at present, it’s not possible to achieve that diversity without race-conscious admissions, including at the nation’s service academies.”  She offered this statement without proof that diversity adds to the lethality or effectiveness of our nation’s fighting forces.

  The impression left of these glimpses of the Navy described above is one of pandering, of painting a false image of the Navy to attempt to appeal to women and minorities to join, to convince the public and potential recruits that the Navy is politically correct. 

  Part 2

  The dictionary defines diversity as, “the state or fact of being diverse:  difference: unlikeness.  Another definition and the one the Navy is presumably alluding to is: “the inclusion of individuals representing more than one national origin, color, religion, socioeconomic stratum, sexual orientation, etc.”

  By policy and recruiting emphasis, the Navy tells you exactly what diversity they want.  First and foremost, they want skin color diversity.  How do we know this aside from the pictures at the recruiting website?  Because Task Force One Navy (TF1N) was all about attracting more blacks, Hispanics, and native Americans to Navy officer ranks only.  The report documents clearly that the Navy is already overrepresented in enlisted minorities.[ii]  Thus, its laser focus is promotion of the idea that the Navy needs more black and Hispanic officers although the preeminent emphasis seems to be for more black officers.  Why this conclusion?  On Admiral Gilday’s CNO watch he urged all hands to read How to be an Anti-racist by Ibram X. Kendi.  Kendi, is an avowed racist based on his own words.  He openly advocates for racism against whites and for the supremacy of blacks.  Kendi is an advocate for race-based discrimination, arguing “the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.”[iii]   Increasing the number of black officers apparently became the priority under ADM Gilday.  After the George Floyd tragedy, the Navy openly embraced support for Black Lives Matter.[iv]

  In the latest DOD Military Demographics Report 2021, the Navy officer corps is still only 7.9% black versus the goal of 13% established by the TF1N report. Since the TF1N report, the Navy’s numbers still have not gone up.  The Army reports 12% of its officer corps is black in that same report so the Navy’s result seems unusual.  Overall, the 2021 report shows 13,361 minority officers in the Navy.  One would have to conclude that there are no meaningful barriers to qualified minorities to join the officer corps of the services since over 54,000 minority officers are currently serving.[v]  According to reports of the Department of Education, there were over 200,000 graduates with either bachelors or Masters degrees in school year 2020-2021.[vi]  With qualifications easily met by thousands of minorities each year, why is it that fewer blacks and Hispanics choose to serve?  There is zero credible evidence of barriers to service. Quite the opposite is the case with the services bending over backwards to try to recruit minorities especially with programs that reach out to the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) to try to attract minorities to the services.  The TF1N report contains 63 references to HBCUs and MSIs.[vii]  It is plain that the Navy claiming to want diversity is not convincing to most of those eligible to serve and that the Navy lags the Army substantially in providing a convincing argument on why serving the nation is a good idea.

  The other diversities being sought are in sexual practice and gender diversity.  This comes through loud and clear at the website, in recruiting media and images and through such phenomenon of the military’s celebration of pride month and lately even promotion of drag queen shows on board ships and a drag queen being used for recruiting (which the Navy has now retreated from due to negative reaction from the public).  Added to that is the nonsensical promotion of popular progressive practice of what pronouns to use and the farcical and unserious nature of our current leadership becomes clear.  Just days ago, DOD had to retreat when it was pointed out its new pronoun policy for awards was both ungrammatical and unpopular with the public.  Even our outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff objected.

  If diversity is such a priority, why only pick out blacks, gays, and transgenders to emphasize?  The definition above includes the categories of national origin, religion, and socioeconomic stratum.  Why no commercials to get Christians or Muslims to join?  Why no ads to attract immigrants?  Why are there no recruiters in the inner cities among high concentrations of young socio-disadvantaged minorities?   The answer is plain that the diversity push is motivated by the popular canard promoted by the left that the US is still a racist nation and must provide racial preferences to minorities.  The recent Supreme Court cases Harvard v. Students for Fair Admissions and UNC v. Students for Fair Admissions emphatically ruled against using race in college admissions as violations of equal protection law.

  Part 3

  The truth is that the racial and sexual identity politics advocates have gained control over our nation’s culture, and this has seeped into our military where it does not belong.

  Although we hear a lot about systemic racism and white supremacy there is no evidence that such is present in the today’s military.  DOD’s own internal review shows that fewer than 2% of serving DOD personnel identify racism as a problem in DOD.[viii]  DOD’s extremism standdown and subsequent reporting revealed fewer than 100 incidents of extremism in the last reporting year out of a DOD force of over 2.1 million, an astonishingly tiny number.[ix] 

  So, why all the fuss over diversity, diversity, diversity when the services are already substantially diverse, have few internal complaints of racism or extremist activity?  Could it be purely a conformity reflex and a reflection of the hold the left has over our military leadership that is supposed to be apolitical?

  Nowhere at the Navy site is proof offered that Diversity is essential for combat effectiveness?  We do have a lot of counter evidence that diversity advocacy is flawed or counter to fielding a lethal military such as:

  • Col (Ret) Bill Prince, U. S. Army Special Forces with 11 combat deployments, attended the recent USMA Diversity conference.  In his recent article he quotes the USMA’s Chief Data Officer, Col. Paul F. Evangelista ‘96, in commenting on attempts to measure the effectiveness of DEI who said, “We don’t have the data.”[x]  West Point’s Chief Data Officer answered the DEI question candidly, “We don’t have the data.”
  • BG (Ret) Ernie Audino, US Army nails the issue precisely in his article saying[xi], “Because, if Prelogar and those generals are right, i.e. that racial diversity in our officer corps is a “national security imperative,” then the services would at least track racial percentages in their mandatory assessments of unit combat readiness, but they don’t.  Racial diversity is not included, and never has been.” 
  • CDR (Ret) Phil Keuhlen, USN, is a former Commanding Officer of a nuclear-powered attack submarine.  He conducted detailed analysis of the TF1N project, and its two sources cited to prove better performance due to diversity.  His conclusion…neither source used by TF1N passes muster. His detailed analysis can be found at this link.[xii] 
  • COL (Ret) Bing West, USMC is one of the most decorated combat veterans in our nation’s history.  COL West also served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs under President Reagan. Bing’s article, “The Military’s Perilous Experiment” ought to give our military’s leaders pause in their headlong pursuit of diversity.  He writes, “Inside the military, however, another criterion has taken central booking: diversity. The focus has shifted toward emphasizing gender and racial equality, particularly in leadership positions. Diversity has replaced lethality as the lodestone for the military. “It’s all about war-fighting readiness,” Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Admiral John Nowell Jr. said. “We know that diverse teams that are led inclusively will perform better.”  On one level, that sentence is a tautology; every individual is unique and therefore every team is diverse. On another level, the admiral is speaking in code. He is implying that the services have been under-performing because they have not properly rewarded diversity.  As a Marine veteran, I find this disconcerting. From boot training on, Marines are taught to put aside diversity, not to emphasize it.”  The entire article can be found at this link.

  If the Navy was truly interested in the merits of diversity, there is ample study on the subject by eminent scholars, many of them black.  The lack of intellectual curiosity on the topic of diversity by Navy leadership is astounding and an apparent manifestation of the politicization of senior officer corps to the detriment of our core mission of preparing to fight and win our nation’s wars.

  A bibliography of book reviews for recommended reading for Navy leaders who really want to learn about diversity follows this article.

  ---

  CAPT Brent Ramsey, (USN, ret.) is a writer on Defense matters. He has been featured in Washington Examiner, Real Clear Defense, Armed Forces Press, CD Media, American Thinker, and Patriot Post. He is a leader with the Calvert Group, a Board of Advisors member for the Center for Military Readiness and STARRS and is a contributor to Armed Forces Press.

  ---

  Notes:

  [i] Task Force One Navy Final Report, https://media.defense.gov/2021/Jan/26/2002570959/-1-/-1/1/TASL%FORCE%20…

  [ii] Ibid

  [iii] Christopher Rufo, Ibram X. Kendi is the False Prophet of a Dangerous and Lucrative Faith, New York Post, July 23, 2021.

  [iv] Houston Keene, Navy’s Extremism Training Says it is OK to advocate for BLM at work but not ‘politically partisan’ issues, Fox News, March 29,2021.

  [v] DOD Military Demographics Report 2021, https://download.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2021-demograph….

  [vi] National Center for Education Statistics, Table 322.20 and Postsecondary Degree Fields Report, accessed September 23, 2023.

  [vii] Task Force One Navy Final Report.

  [viii] Email from senior DOD official indicates 2% of DOD workforce have concerns about racism.

  [ix] Michael Lee, Pentagon Report Finds about 100 Troops involved in Extremist Activity, Fox News, December 20, 2021.

  [x] Col (Ret) William F. Prince, When a Diversity Conference Could Benefit from an Increase in Diversity, www.STARRS.us, September 19, 2023.

  [xi] BG (Ret) Ernie Audino, ‘Diversity’ is Not a National Security Imperative, www.STARRS.us, September 22, 2023.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/10/2023 – 19:00

• Are Wind Turbines Killing These 100,000 Pound Mammals?
  Are Wind Turbines Killing These 100,000 Pound Mammals?

  Authored by Matt McGregor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Former President Donald Trump said recently that “windmills are causing whales to die in numbers never seen before.”

  

  His comments, made at a campaign rally in South Carolina, were quickly ground through the fact-checking mills of legacy media outlets such as The Guardian and the BBC.

  “They’re washing up ashore. I saw it this weekend, three of them came up. You wouldn’t see it once a year. Now they’re coming up on a weekly basis,” President Trump said.

  The Guardian called his allegation a “lengthy and largely baseless attack on wind turbines for causing large numbers of whales to die, claiming that ‘windmills’ are making the cetaceans ‘crazy’ and ‘a little batty.'”

  The BBC lamented that clips of the former president’s speech had exceeded 9 million views but that his “claims are not backed up by evidence.”

  President Trump also said only one whale had been killed off the coast of South Carolina in the past 50 years, but now the numbers are increasing.

  

  The BBC quoted Rob Deaville with the Zoological Society of London’s Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme, who said whale deaths are caused by the fishing industry and ship strikes.

  “To talk about wind farms being a problem takes away discussion around the very real threats that are a problem for those species,” Mr. Deaville told the BBC.

  He said that there’s been no conclusive link between whale deaths and wind farms in the UK.

  Andrew Read, commissioner of the U.S.-based Marine Mammal Commission, told The Guardian that “there’s no scientific evidence whatsoever that wind turbines, or surveying for wind turbines, is causing any whale deaths at all.”

  Although there are broader concerns over industrializing the ocean, he said whale deaths are caused by vessel strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, and warming of the ocean caused by climate change.

  “The population of humpback whales, in particular, is recovering from being hunted and they are coming closer to the coast to feed on prey, which means they are being hit as they come into shipping lanes, or being caught up in nets,” Mr. Read said.

  He said people protesting ocean-based wind turbines are being manipulated by “fossil fuel interests,” who are threatened by so-called clean energy.

  Whales and Turbines

  In August, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported to The Epoch Times that there had been 65 large whale deaths along the East Coast since December 2022. Three dead whales washed ashore in one week in Fire Island, New York; Long Branch, New Jersey; and Long Beach, New York.

  In September, the Biden administration released “An Action Plan for Offshore Wind Transmission Development in the U.S. Atlantic Region.”

  President Joe Biden’s $3.5 billion goal is to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030.

  The plan is based on the “Atlantic Offshore Wind Transmission Study” to coordinate “timely transmission access for offshore wind” and to “evaluate multiple pathways to offshore wind goals.”

  

  

  Lisa Linowes, founder of WindAction, said in the recent documentary “Thrown to the Wind” that in its rush to meet these goals, the renewable energy industry has cast aside the “precautionary principle,” in which the burden is on the developer to avoid or minimize harm.

  Ms. Linowes said the move is costing lives.

  “Roughly 350 whales have died along the East Coast since 2016,” she said.

  The uptick began in 2016, she said, with a slight dip in 2022.

  “And in the first six months of 2023—so just half a year—roughly 40-plus whales have died,” Ms. Linowes said.

  Currently, a total of 3,500 wind turbines are proposed for construction across 2.2 million acres of ocean along the East Coast.

  High-resolution geophysical technology is used to survey the ocean floor for the future construction of these turbines. This seismic equipment is sending out frequencies that some believe are blasting the whales and dolphins with loud sounds that have resulted in their disorientation and inability to traverse the waters as safely as they had before.

  Robert Rand, an environmental scientist, said the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and NOAA haven’t accounted for the avoidance and aversion that takes place when the whales hear the pile driving and other dissonant sounds reverberating from the construction of the turbines.

  

  “They don’t make the connection between a loud noise in the water and species moving away from that noise, and that’s a problem because they don’t have the fat stores to run around forever trying to get away from that noise,” Mr. Rand said in the film.

  “If a calf is separated from the mother, what I understand is both of them start stressing a lot, and it doesn’t take long for them to die. It’s a very deadly situation. The calf needs the mother for food, and the mother is trying to find the calf.”

  After the mother and calf expend their energy, they are stranded and they die, he said.

  Mr. Rand published an independent technical study in September that examined “geophysical sonar vessel operational noise” for the purpose of improving “noise control protections” for marine life.

  “What I’m seeing is troubling,” Mr. Rand said. “What I’m seeing are levels that are above the limit which NOAA itself set to be protected at distances which are much higher than were granted in the incidental harassment authorization. So, to me, it looks like an absolute breakdown of regulatory protection for the right whale.”

  Environmental Groups Silent

  When it comes to oil and gas development, environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club will advocate for wildlife, Ms. Linowes said, but in the case of so-called renewable energy, they blame other factors such as ship strikes and climate change, or they keep silent.

  

  In 2021, the National Marine Fisheries Service concluded that the Rice’s whale in the Gulf of Mexico was its own separate species, of which there remained only 50.

  In July, NOAA proposed to designate 18 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico from Texas to Florida as critical habitat for the Rice’s whale, a proposal that would significantly limit the oil and gas industry from offshore drilling.

  Republican lawmakers along the Gulf Coast filed lawsuits fighting the designation, arguing that the proposal wasn’t well thought out and would harm the economy, according to a report by The Washington Post.

  U.S. District Judge James Cain, appointed by President Trump, agreed and ordered NOAA to withdraw its proposal.

  Environmental groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity advocated for the protection of the area, and the group has initiated several lawsuits arguing that offshore drilling is harming ocean wildlife; however, the organization has made no efforts to challenge the offshore wind development impact on whales.

  On Sept. 28, the center filed an emergency petition asking that NOAA mandate speed limits for vessels.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/10/2023 – 18:40

• Hamas' Terrorist War Against Israel: There Is No "On The Other Hand"
  Hamas’ Terrorist War Against Israel: There Is No “On The Other Hand”

  Authored by Lanny Davis via RealClearPolitics.com,

  I spent the weekend and most of Monday engaging in back-and-forth with fellow progressive Democrats who were trying to change the subject on the clear black-and-white facts about Hamas’ terrorist war against Israel.

  

  I kept reminding them of four indisputable facts.

  Fact one: Hamas openly declares it hates Jews.

  It is an openly bigoted, anti-Semitic organization. Its public charter, which it calls its “Covenant,” states: “Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious.” The Covenant actually endorses the notorious fraudulent anti-Semitic rant, used in part by Hitler to justify the Holocaust, the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

  Fact two: Hamas’ invasion is not about supporting an independent Palestinian state.

  Hamas denies Israel’s right to exist. It rejects a two-state solution. The head of its political bureau, Khaled Meshal, stated this plainly at a 2012 rally in Gaza: “Palestine is ours from the river to the sea and from the south to the north. There will be no concession on any inch of land.”

  Some commentators, attempting to explain the Hamas invasion over the weekend, blamed the establishment of the state of Israel as the reason why there is still no independent Palestinian state. That is false and contradicted by undeniable historical facts. For example:

  • For 19 years, between 1948-1967, Arab countries controlled East Jerusalem and all the land of the West Bank all the way to the Jordan River. They could have established a Palestinian nation, with Israel left with a fraction of territory compared to today’s Israel. So why didn’t they?

  • In 2000, at Camp David, Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to create a Palestinian state in all of Gaza and 97% of the West Bank. The answer was no.

  • In 2008, Prime Minister Ehud Ohmert offered to withdraw from almost the entire West Bank and to partition Jerusalem on a demographic basis – in addition to all of Gaza still being without Israeli soldiers or civilians. Still the answer was no.

  Fact three: Hamas doesn’t care about an independent, democratic Gaza for the well-being or social justice of Gazans.

  To the contrary. Since Gaza threw out the official government of the Palestinian Authority, it has not invested in food, education, or jobs. Instead, it has used millions of dollars from Iran to build bombs and rockets to be aimed at Israeli civilians, and has lined its own pockets with 15% of substantial funds from Qatar aimed at the poor. It is simply beyond dispute that Hamas has established a corrupt terrorist dictatorship, with some leaders living in luxury abroad. In the summer of 2023, Gazans defied their overlords and held rallies throughout the area. Some chanted: “Where is the electricity and where is the gas?” – and burned Hamas flags.

  Nor is Hamas reacting to Israeli occupation of Gaza.

  In 2005, Israel withdrew its citizens (about 8,000) and soliders from Gaza and from four settlements in the West Bank. In 2007, Hamas ousted the Palestinian Authority and took over dictatorial control of Gaza. But it opposed the Authority’s negotiations to establish an independent Palestinian state and does so to this day.

  Fact four: Hamas is and continues to be a terrorist organization – which meets the universal definition as dedicated to intentionally murdering civilians for political purposes.

  Hamas does not deny that. It brags about it. Just this last weekend, Hamas terrorists intentionally killed 260 young civilians attending a music festival in the desert near Gaza during the first moments of its murderous invasion.

  No, it is not the same thing when Israel is forced to respond to defend itself from rockets aimed at civilians and, tragically and unintentionally, innocent Gazans civilians are killed – often because Hamas chooses to launch its rockets intentionally aimed at civilians from schools and hospitals (a double war crime). Those who make the false equivalence between intentional murder and self-defense with tragic and unintentional deaths of innocents ignore the facts.

  I have always been a supporter of a two-state solution. Since I was very young, I believed in justice for the Palestinians and argued with my father that they deserved their own nation. But I also now remember the famous line of Tevye from “Fiddler on the Roof” when he argued with himself by saying, “On the one hand,” and then countered with, “but on the other hand.” However, on one issue on which he could never compromise, Tevye said: “There is no other hand.”

  So regarding the Hamas terroristic attack on Israel in the last several days, I can only say – based on indisputable facts – “There is no other hand.”

  *  *  *

  Lanny Davis is the founder of the Washington, D.C., law firm, Lanny J. Davis & Associates. He is one of the first to use the concept of legal crisis management to solve client problems – operating at the intersection of law, media, and politics. He is a former special counsel to President Bill Clinton in 1996-98 and served on a privacy and civil liberties panel appointed by President George W. Bush. He has been writing his “Purple Nation” column for more than 13 years.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/10/2023 – 18:20

• Biden Interviewed By Special Counsel In Classified Documents Probe
  Biden Interviewed By Special Counsel In Classified Documents Probe

  President Joe Biden was coached through given a surely thorough interview by Special Counsel Robert Hur’s team investigating his handling of classified documents spanning several years, the White House acknowledged in a statement.

  

  “The president has been interviewed as part of the investigation being led by Special Counsel Robert Hur,” reads the statement from the White House Counsel’s Office spokesperson Ian Sams (the guy who lied and had a meltdown over Hunter Biden’s $260K in Chinese wires). “The voluntary interview was conducted at the White House over two days, Sunday and Monday, and concluded Monday.”

  “As we have said from the beginning, the president and the White House are cooperating with this investigation, and as it has been appropriate, we have provided relevant updates publicly, being as transparent as we can, consistent with protecting and preserving the integrity of the investigation,” Sams continued.

  Of note, Hunter Biden listed Joe’s Wilmington, Delaware home – where a bunch of classified documents were found, as his address when he received above mentioned Chinese wires, due to the Biden family’s dealings with CCP-linked businessmen.

  Hur was appointed in January by AG Merrick Garland to lead the classified documents probe. Prior that, he was a Trump-appointed federal prosecutor who has litigation experience involving classified materials.

  More via the Epoch Times;

  President Biden’s interview suggests the probe may be nearing its conclusion. As recently as late August, the president said that he had not been asked by the special counsel’s office to sit for an interview.

  “There’s no such request and no such interest,” President Biden told reporters while on vacation in Lake Tahoe on Aug. 25.

  The investigation was launched after classified documents were found in President Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Delaware, and his former workspace at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.

  In January, when tapped to lead the probe, Mr. Hur had said that he would “follow the facts swiftly and thoroughly, without fear or favor, and will honor the trust placed in me to perform this service.”

  “I will conduct the assigned investigation with fair, impartial, and dispassionate judgment,” he said in a Jan. 12 statement released by the Justice Department.

  In June, former President Donald Trump faced indictment on charges by Special Counsel Jack Smith related to mishandling classified documents. The former president entered a plea of not guilty in a Miami courtroom on June 13.

  Former Vice President Mike Pence disclosed in January that classified documents were found at his Indiana home during a search prompted by the Biden document discoveries. The Justice Department later concluded its investigation, finding no wrongdoing.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/10/2023 – 18:00

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• Where Vacation Days Are Over & Underused
  Where Vacation Days Are Over & Underused

  While nations in Asia have in the past seen reports about their workaholic ways and failure to take off days from work, a 2023 release by Expedia paints a different picture of how employees in Japan and Hong Kong handle their vacation time.

  As Statista’s Katharina Bucholz reports, according to the survey carried out in early 2023, Japanese and Hongkongese have actually requested four extra days off work on average beyond the time allotted to them in 2022. This gave them a longer average real vacation time last year than workers in Germany and France. People in these countries had more days available to them, but failed to take them all.

  Some countries such as the United States rank towards the bottom of the list when it comes to the average number of vacation days allotted (and at its very bottom when looking at statutory leave with 0 days guaranteed). Despite this, the average American worker still leaves vacation days on the table, albeit just few at an average of 1.5. A more workaholic nation in Asia is Singapore, with 17 days allotted on average and an average of 2.5 unused days. Germany and French people have more unused days on average at four and 5.5, respectively. In these two countries, average vacation days allotted per year are also more numerous, however, at 28.5 each. Guaranteed by law are 20 days in Germany and 25 in France. In the U.S., Germany and France, between 10 and 14 public holidays are added to the vacation day tally as well. In Japan, this number is even higher at 16 days.

  

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

• 6 Takeaways From AfD's Massive Gains In Bavaria And Hesse Regional Elections
  6 Takeaways From AfD’s Massive Gains In Bavaria And Hesse Regional Elections

  Authored by John Cody via Remix News,

  While the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Christian Socialists (CSU) received the most votes in the regional elections of Hesse and Bavaria, the headline news story across Germany is the Alternative for Germany’s (AFD) overperformance in both states. The outcome of the election is reverberating throughout Germany, with implications for the federal level as well. On the issues of immigration, the economy, and green energy, the AfD is pulling ahead, while the ruling left-liberals will be left searching for answers after an election shellacking.

  

  Here are six takeaways from the election results and what they could mean for the future political landscape of the country.

  AfD may be stronger than the polls say

  With both Bavaria and Hesse combined, the AfD party will now have 70 seats, a 50 percent increase compared to its previous 2018 elections. The party actually did better than the polls said it would, which had already painted a rosy picture for the anti-sanctions, anti-immigration party.

  For example, AfD was polling at around 16 percent in Hesse, but actually ended up in second at 18.4 percent, while in Bavaria the AfD is on par with the Greens and Free Voters, where it earned 15.8 percent, making it the third-largest party.

  The party has for years had a stable level of support at around 10 to 12 percent, but in the last year, it has soared in the polls up to 23 percent and continues to hover at 21 percent.

  Many new potential AfD voters may be “shy” voters who are afraid to express their support to pollsters, meaning that pollsters may not be capturing the full picture. The party is, after all, facing a potential ban, openly mocked and attacked by the political and journalistic establishment, and supporters of the party along with politicians have been physically assaulted in the past.

  Furthermore, with the AfD’s success in local elections, it may begin to “normalize” the party in the eyes of voters, which could contribute to more open support for the party — and even a jump in the polls — going into the future.

  Germans are fed up with mass migration

  In the run-up to the elections, Remix News reported a new groundbreaking poll showing a huge majority of Germans wanted fewer migrants and also saw migrants bringing fewer advantages than disadvantages.

  If we look at the polling surrounding these specific elections, it only cements the reality that Germans are remarkably shifting against mass immigration.

  For example, in Bavaria, immigration was rated as the second most important factor by voters, behind the economy, with 48 percent of all respondents telling Infratest dimap that they “welcomed” that the AfD wanted to limit the number of foreigners and refugees more strongly. In Hesse, 42 percent backed the AfD’s anti-immigration policies. In Hesse, the issue of immigration was decisive for 18 percent of voters in terms of their vote, meaning that this was their number one issue.

  This polling data shows the massive disconnect between the left-liberal mainstream that promotes mass immigration in the media and culture and the actual sentiment of the German people.

  The AfD’s Robert Lambrou, who was second on his party’s election list in Hesse, leaned heavily into the issue of migration during the campaign. Notably, he not only called for faster deportations but stated that skilled legal immigrants should only be accepted in exceptional circumstances and then only from “neighboring countries that are culturally close to Germany.”

  AfD rises in the west

  The AfD has been historically strong in the east of the country, but with a result of over 18 percent in Hesse, it marks the first major breakthrough in the west of the country. The results come as the AfD recently broke the 20 percent mark in wealthy Baden-Württemberg, the first time it has achieved such a result in a western state.

  Notably, the German mainstream is now noting that the AfD’s rise in two Western states is not a fluke or a mere protest vote, with Taggeschau writing:

  To interpret the strong results in both states as just a protest election would be too short-sighted. More and more people are voting for the AfD out of conviction. The current situation benefits the party: Asylum and refugee policy concerns many people, and support for a more restrictive migration policy is growing, as data from Infratest dimap shows. At the same time, fewer and fewer voters in both states have a problem with voting for a party that is partly right-wing extremist. And it is not just in migration policy that it is increasingly being given authority: more people are also placing their hope in the far-right party when it comes to the issues of internal security, the economy and social justice.

  Such an acknowledgment from the state-run Tagesschau regarding the AfD is big news all in itself.

  Massive blow to the traffic-light government

  Besides the AfD, the other big outcome was how incredibly poorly Germany’s left-liberal government performed in the election. Now, the political fallout could be felt for months and even years.

  For starters, the business liberals of the Free Democrats (FDP) were completely wiped out and failed to obtain the 5 percent needed to enter parliament in both states. It follows a long string of election losses for the party, which has been accused of abandoning many of its principles in its coalition alliance at the federal level. The party is now suffering the consequences, with the results likely sending party leadership scrambling to avert all-out disaster. The FDP, which has already criticized its coalition partners at the federal level, will undoubtedly be seeking out a more independent path in the future, which could lead to a serious governing crisis for Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

  However, the SPD and Greens also fared poorly, particularly the SPD, which earned an abysmal 8 percent in Bavaria and only 15.1 percent in Hesse, both historic lows. The Greens earned 14 percent in both Bavaria and Hesse, a substantial drop in both instances from their previous election results.

  There is in all likelihood trouble ahead for this coalition, and the far-left Interior Minister Nancy Faeser could still lose her job over her party’s election debacle in Hesse, although there are currently denials from top party brass that this is a possibility post-election.

  The CDU could shift further right

  Of course, the CDU is also taking note of the AfD’s rise. The CSU, the sister party of the CDU, saw 100,000 of its voters shift to the AfD in Bavaria. In short, the AfD could quickly cut into the CDU’s base, especially over the issue of immigration.

  According to German state-run media outlet Tagesschau, it also sees the CDU potentially shifting its stance over the issue, writing: “These results may well lead to a shift in the policies of the mainstream conservative CDU towards a stricter stance on migration. The votes — and the preceding campaign largely focused on national rather than regional issues — may also force the government to revisit its policy of phasing out fossil fuels.”

  Will anything change?

  Despite the AfD’s surge and a mass rejection of the left, the two elections are notable for another key reason. In both Bavaria and Hesse, both governing coalitions survived. In Bavaria, the CSU can continue governing with the Free Voters, and in Hesse, the CDU could form a theoretical coalition with the Greens once again. In other words, the status quo was maintained.

  The AfD may have seen a serious boost in both states, but for now, all parties have vowed to never work with the party. In the short term, the AfD is working to create the conditions that make it increasingly difficult for ruling parties to form status quo coalitions. In the long term, it sees the only viable path to power through a coalition with the CDU. The big question mark is if and when that will ever happen.

  Many voters may agree with the AfD’s positions on a range of issues, but many are mentally conditioned to never consider voting for the party. The CDU and other parties are aware of this and will continue to hone their message to keep their voters from straying too far away, even if they plan to maintain the status quo once they achieve power.

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

• Israel Shows Why Americans Have Right To "Weapons of War" For Self-Defense
  Israel Shows Why Americans Have Right To “Weapons of War” For Self-Defense

  Submitted by Gun Owners of America,

  As videos emerge from Israel about the recent invasion by Hamas, it should become clear that the Second Amendment here in the US is “Necessary to the security of a free state.”

  While gun control continues to be pushed by the Biden administration, Israel, a state lauded by gun control advocates for its strict regulations, has axed some of its gun control measures in an attempt to fight the recent terrorist invasion.

  BREAKING: Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir just axed a ton of #guncontrol for the security of their free state.

  TRANSLATION BELOW ⤵️

  Today I directed the Firearms Licensing Division to go on an emergency operation, in order to allow as many citizens as… https://t.co/HT0LmR3H1Q

  — Aidan Johnston (@RealGunLobbyist) October 8, 2023

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

  It’s no wonder that Israel has realized that their gun control measures are getting their citizens hurt or worse. Horrifying video from border towns near Gaza shows Hamas fighters going house to house looking for Israelis.

  Without access to firearms, Israeli citizens are helpless to defend themselves against these heavily armed fighters, resulting in kidnappings and killings.

  You can thank our Founding Fathers we have the Second Amendment to protect ourselves now. https://t.co/EibtZ7wDnM

  — Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) October 9, 2023

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

  While Israel removing some of its firearms regulations is undoubtedly a step in the right direction, gun ownership still comes with heavy restrictions and unnecessary bureaucratic red tape.

  Israel JUST loosened firearm licensing, but many Israelis still don’t live in an eligible region.

  Others simply cannot afford to wait a week for a telephone interview or need more than the allotted 100 rounds of ammo.

  A good first step, but Israel needs a Second Amendment ASAP! https://t.co/uPi6HaXy9N

  — Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) October 9, 2023

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  During the hours of the initial invasion, US Senators continued to tweet support for gun control while similar policies were resulting in deaths across the ocean.

  Imagine all the shootings we could prevent and lives we could save if we reinstated a nationwide assault weapons ban.

  — Tammy Duckworth (@SenDuckworth) October 6, 2023

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  Additionally, to those that say “that could never happen here” regarding the United States, be aware that the ATF recently notified FFLs in border states warning firearms dealers about straw purchases of 50 caliber and belt-fed firearms.

  A follower sent this alarming email to me

  ATF is apparently warning firearms dealers about intelligence showing criminal networks plan to buy .50 cal and/or belt fed rifles in the next 2 months via straw purchasers

  This is clearly due to our open border

  Terrorism event soon? pic.twitter.com/6rGqFhreMI

  — DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) October 3, 2023

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  These threats are precisely why Americans have the right to own “weapons of war” for self-defense. Politicians who push gun control should realize that their actions will only empower criminals and terrorists.

  This really should be the end of the gun control debate in the United States.

  — Randy Barnett (@RandyEBarnett) October 8, 2023

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  *   *   * 

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

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 23:30

• Online Child Pornography Skyrockets
  Online Child Pornography Skyrockets

  The amount of online child sexual abuse has skyrocketed in the past few years, according to the latest annual report of the UK-based NGO and watchdog, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). As many as 255,588 URLs were confirmed to contain images or videos of the abuse last year, up from 132,676 URLs in 2019.

  As Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, this rise is partly being linked to the pandemic, when lockdowns meant more people – including younger children – were staying at home and turning online for longer periods of time than before. According to child safety experts, this increased exposure could have left them more vulnerable to communities of criminals looking to find and manipulate children into recording their own sexual abuse on camera.

  According to the report, “self-generated” content has become particularly prevalent in this time, with the number of confirmed URLs containing images or videos of “self-generated” material rising from 38,424 confirmed cases in 2019 to 199,363 in 2022.

  This is where children have been groomed and coerced into taking the images without the abuser present in the room, which have then been put online.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  These images are most often taken at home, in a child’s bedroom or a bathroom.

  The IWF notes that the term “self-generated” child sexual abuse is limited in that it does not fully encompass the full range of factors often present within this imagery, and which appears to place the blame with the victim themselves. They note:

  “Children are not responsible for their own sexual abuse. Until a better term is found, however, we will continue to use the term ‘self-generated’ as, within the online safety and law enforcement sectors, this is well recognised.”

  Of the 255,571 web pages actioned during 2022, over three quarters (199,363 or 78 percent) were assessed as containing “self-generated” imagery.

  This is a six percentage point increase on 2021 when 72 percent of actioned reports (or 182,281) were captured in this way. Girls aged 11-13 were the group that appeared most frequently in this content.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 23:00

• China Makes Advances In Space Lasers, Microwave Weapons
  China Makes Advances In Space Lasers, Microwave Weapons

  Authored by Joshua Philipp via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The People’s Liberation Army, the army of the Chinese Communist Party, recently announced a breakthrough on a key weapons programs that may change the nature of war.

  

  Chinese scientists claim they’ve had unexpected success in developing a high-powered microwave (HPM) weapon, according to The Diplomat. The magazine notes that in January, Huang Wenhua, deputy director of China’s Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, was awarded for his research on directed energy, which HPM weapons use.

  HPM systems are able to destroy electronic equipment, and in an age when most combat systems—from tanks to planes, radios to satellites—rely on electronics, the weapons could change the way wars are fought. Warships will be fitted with HPM weapons to intercept incoming missiles.

  The HPM project, alongside other projects involving lasers and electromagnetic pulses, is part of the Chinese regime’s “Assassin’s Mace” (or “Trump Card”) program designed to defeat a technologically superior opponent by disabling or destroying the technology that makes the opponent superior.

  Michael Pillsbury, a Pentagon consultant, wrote in his 2016 book “The Hundred-Year Marathon” that the first time the United States lost a simulated war game was when his team was asked to employ China’s Assassin’s Mace weapons as the opposition.

  He wrote that in the exercises, “whenever the China team used conventional tactics and strategies, America won—decisively. However, in every case where China employed Assassin’s Mace methods, China was the victor.”

  According to Richard Fisher, senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center, the Chinese regime’s new developments go even beyond the Assassin’s Mace program and represent an overall pivot toward “fifth-generation warfare concepts.”

  It is a shift toward the areas of cyberwarfare, electronic warfare, and space warfare, using autonomous weapons.

  The key to this shift, he said, is the Chinese military’s new Strategic Support Force branch, introduced in December 2015. Fisher said the new branch brings the military’s new weapons under one roof and demonstrates “the weaponization of broad information capabilities, plus the weaponization of outer space.”

  The idea of space warfare, in particular, was center stage during the Cold War. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union signed the Outer Space Treaty in 1967, which is now ratified by 105 countries. It set laws on the use of outer space and banned any nation from stationing nuclear warheads in space.

  What the program did not forbid, however, was the use of conventional weapons in space, and China, in particular, has been developing weapons designed to destroy or disable satellites—which are the Achilles’ heel of the U.S. military.

  The National Interest, an international affairs magazine, reported on March 10 that “China’s military is developing powerful lasers, electromagnetic railguns, and high-power microwave weapons for use in a future ‘light war’ involving space-based attacks on satellites.”

  It cites a Chinese military journal from 2013, in which researchers disclosed the idea of placing a five-ton chemical laser in low-earth orbit. They wrote that “in future wars, the development of ASAT [anti-satellite] weapons is very important” and that “the space-based laser weapon system will be one of the major ASAT development projects.”

  The Diplomat article reported on March 11 that China’s developments on high-powered microwave weapons “would undermine the efficacy of even the most advanced U.S. missiles,” and “applications could also include its use as an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon or incorporation with missiles in order to overcome enemy air defenses.”

  Fisher said that by using the space-based laser platform, China would “realize the dream of Ronald Reagan’s strategic defense initiative,” as it grants them a large-scale defense system that could intercept warheads.

  Fisher said that overall, the threat of fifth-generation weapons systems is growing, and that Chinese military doctrine and developments are making a significant push in this direction.

  With its proposed laser system, in particular, he said that in a war scenario with China, they could “take down all of our satellites that we’re using to target China, to communicate with our forces, to conduct optical or electronic surveillance. We could very quickly become blind and vulnerable to Chinese strikes; and if we did launch our own strikes, these lasers could shoot down incoming warheads.”

  Fisher said this system would go far beyond the anti-ballistic missile system known as THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, that the United States is currently deploying in South Korea.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 22:30

• One Of China's Biggest Commodity Traders Goes Missing 
  One Of China’s Biggest Commodity Traders Goes Missing 

  He Jinbi, the founder and chairman of Maike Metals International, one of China’s top commodities traders, has reportedly gone missing in recent days and is suspected to be in police custody, as reported by Bloomberg, citing sources close to the situation. 

  Colleagues have not heard from Jinbi for several days. The people indicated that Jinbi “was escorted by police for questioning in his home province of Shaanxi.” The reasons for Jinbi’s detention were not immediately known to the people. 

  

  Over the past year, Maike, based in Xi’an in Shaanxi province, and Jinbi have faced legal scrutiny by creditors, especially after the firm experienced severe challenges paying for imported copper. The company, responsible for a quarter of China’s copper imports, was crushed by repeated Coivd lockdowns last year and, a deepening property market collapse and ongoing economic slump. 

  Maike’s troubles outline how one of China’s biggest commodity trading houses has stumbled into a crisis as the multi-decade commodity supercycle for raw materials falters in the world’s second-largest economy. Also, banks have increasingly grown cautious toward the commodity sector, adding further pressure on Maike’s ability to raise additional capital. 

  In an interview last fall, Jinbi told the Financial Times, “We’re actively selling assets and equities to replenish our liquidity and reduce debt.” He said Maike was “breaking arms to survive,” an expression that means sacrificing parts of the business to save it from bankruptcy.

  “The entire private sector has encountered a lot of liquidity difficulties, and we are no exception,” he said. “Now it’s all about the survival of the fittest.”

  In February, Maike filed a request to a court for “preliminary restructuring” as it aimed to restart copper trading operations. Bloomberg noted Maike’s “continued absence from the market has weighed on liquidity in China’s copper trade.” 

  

  We noted in April, “And when Maike Metals International ran into trouble later last year, JPMorgan was left with around 30,000 tons of copper it had been financing for the trading company in Shanghai. In the end, the bank was able to sell the metal without major losses, the people said, but the episode highlighted the risks of trading in China’s base metals industry. Maike has since filed a request for a court-led restructuring.” 

  By July, ING Groep NV in Hong Kong sued Jinbi for $147 million in unpaid debt. The combination of Maike’s short-term obligations and illiquid property portfolio makes it very hard for the trading firm to raise additional capital. 

  Mystery still revolves around why Jinbi was taken into custody by police. 

   

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 22:00

• COVID Reinfections Clear Faster, Including In Unvaccinated People: Study
  COVID Reinfections Clear Faster, Including In Unvaccinated People: Study

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

  Reinfections cleared faster than initial COVID-19 infections, including among people who never received a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new study.

  

  People infected with COVID-19 for a second time cleared the illness a mean of 6.6 days, compared with a mean of 9.3 days for the initial infection, U.S. and British researchers reported in the paper.

  Researchers drew the findings from 1,796 first infections and 193 second infections.

  The difference held for a subset of 71 people who had two well-documented infections.

  Among that subset, the mean clearance time was 6.3 days, down from 9.2 days.

  “Immunity from a first SARS-CoV-2 infection affects the viral kinetics of a second SARS-CoV-2 infection principally by speeding up viral clearance and thus shortening the overall time of acute infection,” the researchers, including Dr. Yonatan Grad of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, wrote.

  SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.

  The researchers also found that people who cleared infections quickly the first time also cleared them quickly the second time.

  “While prior infection and vaccination can modulate a person’s viral kinetics in absolute terms, there may also exist some further immunological mechanism, conserved across sequential infections, that determines one’s strength of immune response against SARS-CoV-2 relative to others in the population,” the researchers posited.

  The analysis was based on COVID-19 tests taken from players, staff members, and affiliates of the National Basketball Association between March 11, 2020, and July 28, 2022.

  Limitations include the population being primarily young, male, and healthy, though adjustments were made for age. Researchers also said that people who were infected multiple times “may differ in important immunological and behavioral ways from those who only underwent one infection during the study period.”

  Earlier studies have estimated strong protection from natural immunity, or prior infection, against severe illness, but that the shielding against infection waned over time.

  “This research supports the textbook expectation and other papers in that our immune systems clear SARS-CoV-2 faster 2nd time,” Kasper Planeta Kepp, a computational biologist who was not involved in the research, wrote on X.

  Vaccine Impact

  Like many U.S. businesses, the basketball association imposed harsher restrictions on unvaccinated players, leading to most receiving a vaccine. The association also imposed a vaccine mandate on workers.

  Most of the people with documented infections had received a vaccine. Of the 1,796 first infections, 1,095 were among the vaccinated. Some had received a booster. Another 574 had an unknown vaccination status. Just 127 were unvaccinated.

  Of the 193 people who experienced documented reinfections, 160 were vaccinated. Another 25 had an unknown vaccination status. Just eight were unvaccinated.

  A person was not counted as vaccinated until 14 days had passed following their second Moderna or Pfizer shot, or 14 days after a single Johnson & Johnson shot. That counting method has been used widely because vaccine proponents argue that it takes two weeks for the vaccines to have a full impact. Critics have noted the method obscures some infections, because infections do happen in the initial days following vaccination.

  The total number of people who tested, regardless of whether they tested positive, was not listed by vaccination status.

  Researchers said they did not detect “significant differences in viral kinetics” when comparing the vaccinated to the unvaccinated. Kinetics include the clearance time and the peak viral concentration.

  They also found that the kinetics of reinfection did not differ significantly based on the virus variant with which the person was infected. The study period covered the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants.

  The researchers were funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Yale University, the National Basketball Players Association, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Disclosures included one researcher with a consulting agreement with the National Basketball Association and Moderna, which makes a COVID-19 vaccine, and another with a consulting agreement with the league.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 21:30

• Bumble & Tinder Top Dating Apps In US
  Bumble & Tinder Top Dating Apps In US

  Bumble and Tinder are the most popular dating apps in the US.

  As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, Bumble, which makes women initiate the conversation, has been making strides and has caught up to older service Tinder in the U.S., according to Statista Consumer Insights.

  The female-led company behind the Bumble app went public on March 10, 2021, raising $2.15 billion.

  In the Statista survey, 38 percent of U.S. dating app users said they had used Bumble in the past 12 months – the same number as Tinder.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  In the following ranks were Plenty of Fish, Badoo and LGBTQ+ service Grindr.

  Casual platform Ashley Madison was the most popular paid service, reaching 40 percent of paying customers, an identical result with the premium subscription of Tinder, which appealed to just as many.

  9 percent of Americans said most recently that they were users of online dating services, while around 6 percent were using dating and matchmaking services offline.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 21:00

• In US, Concern Over An Increasing Number Of Boy Victims Of Human Trafficking
  In US, Concern Over An Increasing Number Of Boy Victims Of Human Trafficking

  Authored by Katie Spence via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  When Elijah Muhammad was 12, his parents, members of an unnamed cult headquartered in Kansas City, Kansas, received a call from one of the executive representatives of the group, saying that it was “the will of God” that Mr. Muhammad and his brother begin their “pilgrimage into manhood.”

  

  His parents agreed and allowed Mr. Muhammad and his brother to travel 600 miles to Kansas City in the back of an 18-wheeler semi-truck.

  Once there, Mr. Muhammad began his “pilgrimage” by working a daily shift from 8 a.m. to 3 a.m. as a dishwasher in a restaurant owned by the cult. During his limited downtime, Mr. Muhammad lived in a small apartment with “dozens of boys and men.”

  “One time, I showed up late for work,” Mr. Muhammad said during a TEDx talk. “Almost immediately upon walking through the doorway of the small diner, I found myself on the floor bleeding after being hit in the mouth with a Yellow Page[s] phonebook.

  “Attempting to stand to my feet, the man began to beat me on the back until I passed out. Acts of violence were not of rare occasion at all.”

  Mr. Muhammad was the victim of labor trafficking, which the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 defines as “The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery.”

  It’s also a significantly underreported problem in the United States and is much more prevalent than sex trafficking.

  Trafficking, which is exploitation-based, is different from human smuggling, which is transport-based.

  Human smuggling is the act of bringing people into the United States involving “deliberate evasion of immigration laws, as well as the unlawful transportation and harboring of noncitizens already in the United States,” according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

  But, smuggling can lead to trafficking, and often does.

  Sue Aboul-hosn, the regional human trafficking prevention coordinator for the Florida Department of Children and Families, cited data from a Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) report that looked at data from 2012 to 2018.

  She said that 71 percent of trafficked victims are forced into labor, 20 percent are exploited for commercial sex, and nine percent experience both sex and labor trafficking.

  But 91 percent of trafficking investigations concern sex trafficking, according to the State Department’s Office for Victims of Crime.  Five percent of investigations were labor-related, and four percent were both sex and labor, Ms. Aboul-hosn said during a human trafficking summit in Florida on Oct. 3.

  And while sex trafficking of women and girls has received considerable attention, human trafficking of boys is growing significantly. It’s now almost identical to the percentage of girls trafficked—girls account for 18 percent of trafficking victims. Boys now account for 17 percent, the DOD’s 2023 Trafficking in Person’s (TIP) report found.

  Labor Trafficking

  According to the National Institute of Justice, determining exact numbers for human trafficking is impossible due to the “covert and criminal nature” of the practice.

  However, the Global Slavery Index, published by the International Labor Organization (ILO), is considered the most accurate.

  In its latest report, the ILO estimated that 49.6 million people are being trafficked globally—with 27.6 million in forced labor and 22 million in forced marriages. Women and girls make up a majority of those in forced marriages.

  Within the forced labor category, the ILO reported 17.3 million victims in the private sector, while 6.4 million are being exploited for commercial sex, and 3.9 million are in forced labor imposed by the state.

  Of the forced labor victims in the private sector, 11.3 million are men and boys and 6 million are women and girls. In the sexual exploitation industry, 4.9 million victims are women and girls and 1.5 million are men and boys. More than 3.3 million victims of forced labor are children.

  

  The United States doesn’t aggregate human trafficking numbers at the national level, “making the true number of cases reported difficult to ascertain,” however, the Global Slavery Index estimates suggest that on any given day, 1.1 million people are being trafficked in the United States.

  The estimate is based on National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH) data, which separates labor and sex trafficking.

  The primary venues for labor trafficking in the United States are domestic work, agriculture and farm work, construction, restaurant and food service, and illicit activity (for example, forcing someone to smuggle drugs or commit other criminal activity), according to the Human Trafficking Hotline.

  The organization also found that while a fair amount of reported trafficking cases include U.S. citizens, such as Mr. Muhammad, more than half of reported trafficking cases (1,086 out of 1,741) involve foreign nationals.

  California, Texas, and Florida have the highest percent of reported cases at 12.8 percent, 8.8 percent, and 7.5 percent, respectively.

  New York came in at a distant fourth with 3.9 percent of reported cases.

  The State Department’s 2023 trafficking report found that while women and girls still account for approximately 60 percent of identified victims of human trafficking, “the percentage of boys … more than quintupled between 2004 and 2020.”

  Overlooking Boys

  Nearly twice the number of men than women are in forced labor situations, and illegal immigrant men and boys are especially at risk, according to ILO.

  “Imagine you woke up in a place where you don’t know the culture, you don’t know the laws, and you don’t know what resources are available and how to access them,” said Harold Henry D’ Souza, co-founder of Eyes Open International, in the State Department’s trafficking report.

  “Imagine that you thought you were going to achieve a better life for yourself and your family but find yourself on a floor with no bed. You’re working 16 hours a day. Imagine you have no food and no money because someone you trusted took the small amount of money you had ‘to keep it safe’ and provided you a one-bedroom apartment, then threatened you with arrest and deportation if you didn’t continue working without pay,” Mr. D’Souza said in the report.

  “Perpetrators in America use a variation of four words to silence foreign national victims. Traffickers shout to the victims, ‘I will get you 1) arrested, 2) handcuffed, 3) jailed, 4) deported.'”

  

  Ms. Aboul-hosn said a factor leading to the increased number of trafficked boys in the United States is that once an unaccompanied minor is apprehended at the border, they’re placed into the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which is part of Health and Human Services (HHS).

  “Usually, they are intercepted at the border, and they go through ORR, and ORR tries to find them a sponsor who they can go live with while they’re going through the process of applying for asylum or refugee status through the court,” Ms. Aboul-hosn said.

  “And through this process, there’s a lot of inadequate screening and supervision of the placement. … There are a lot of good sponsors out there who are doing it for the right reasons, but there’s some out there that are really just wanting to exploit the child.”

  The vast majority of sponsors are family members of the child who are also in the country illegally, according to ORR.

  Ms. Aboul-hosn said that in 2022, ORR released 55,960 children to sponsors throughout the United States and only conducted 8,618 home studies.

  “So only 15 percent of these kids, when they’re placed with a sponsor, had any type of home study or background being done,” she said.

  Once a trafficker has a child under their control, Ms. Aboul-hosn said they’ll keep that kid’s money and charge them for things like rent, food, and other “debts.”

  She said most of the boys being trafficked are traveling to the United States from the Northern Triangle countries of  Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. The boys are usually 15 years or older, have no legal documentation, and little education. Most don’t speak English and distrust authorities, making them perfect victims for traffickers.

  HHS Failures

  In 2014, a teenager from Guatemala called his uncle in Florida, begging for help. He said he was being kept against his will and forced to work at an egg farm called Trillium Farms in Ohio. His traffickers told the boy that if he didn’t “pay back his debt,” they’d “shoot your dad two or three times.” His uncle agreed to help and contacted the sheriff in Collier City, Florida.

  The resulting investigation by federal prosecutors into Trillium Farms revealed that traffickers had detained approximately 45 people, and at least 10 were victims of trafficking, including eight minors. Four people pleaded guilty to participating in a human trafficking scheme, and one, Pablo Duran Ramirez, admitted that he knew some of the workers were unaccompanied minors, who’d been threatened or coerced. On June 19, 2020, Mr. Ramirez was sentenced to 37 months in prison, and ordered to pay a $67,232 fine. Trillium Farms was not charged in the case.

  

  In a press release after the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman, said, “Ramirez exploited the desperation of migrant workers and, in some instances, their children for his own personal financial gain.”

  The other defendants, Ana Angelica Pedro-Juan, of Guatemala, Aroldo Castillo-Serrano, of Guatemala, and Conrado Salgado-Soto, of Mexico, also pled guilty to participating in a labor trafficking scheme. Mr. Castillo-Serrano, the leader of the scheme, was sentenced to 188 months in prison, while Ms. Pedro-Juan, who oversaw the victims in Ohio, was sentenced to 120 months, and Mr. Salgado-Soto, a subcontractor, was sentenced to 51 months.

  A separate investigation led by then-Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) found that HHS was responsible for releasing the boys to the traffickers in Ohio.

  “We’ve got these kids. They’re here. They’re living on our soil, and for us to just, you know, assume someone else is going to take care of them and throw them to the wolves, which is what HHS was doing, is flat out wrong,” Mr. Portman said. “I don’t care what you think about immigration policy. It’s wrong.”

  During Mr. Portman’s committee investigation, HHS told the committee that it had strengthened its procedures regarding children. However, the committee found more than 12 other cases of trafficking related to the Trillion Farms case and reported, “It’s impossible to know just how many more victims there are.”

  Unaccompanied children are transferred to HHS’s ORR by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

  In fiscal year 2022, DHS referred 128,904 unaccompanied children to ORR.

  “Approximately 72 percent of all children referred were over 14 years of age, and 64 percent were boys,” HHS reported.

  The children were mostly from Guatemala (47 percent), followed by Honduras (29 percent), El Salvador (13 percent), and other countries (11 percent) in fiscal 2022, HHS said.

  On Oct. 4, HHS reported that it currently has 10,818 unaccompanied children in its care. The agency noted that the average length of time an unaccompanied child remains in ORR’s care is 24 days, but “is working to further reduce length of care in ways that do not jeopardize the safety or welfare of the children.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 20:35

• "A Real Trend": Trump Now Ahead Of Biden In Key Battleground States According To Polls
  “A Real Trend”: Trump Now Ahead Of Biden In Key Battleground States According To Polls

  After a summer replete with martyr-making indictments and other legal controversies, former President Donald Trump’s political vigor remains unassailable. Recent polls from battleground states and on the national stage delineate a narrative that leans in favor of Trump, showcasing his astonishing and perhaps unforeseen political resilience.

  

  “Trump can absolutely win a general election, that has always been true, and his odds get better every day Joe Biden is president,” pollster Nathan Klein of OnMessage told the Daily Caller. Trump has continued to make strides in recent polls, albeit with leads in many swing states situated within the margin of error, presenting a cautious optimism within his camp.

  Among states with the narrowest margins of victory in 2020, such as Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin—Trump is firmly ahead of Biden at 41% vs. 35%, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll from mid-September. Indeed, the shift in political currents has been noteworthy, all while President Biden’s approval rating languishes around 40%.

  States that were pivotal in 2020, such as Pennsylvania, where Trump currently leads Biden by 2 points, and Georgia, where he is ahead by 9 points, signal not just a tepid approval for the Biden administration but a potential recalibration of political allegiances and sentiments among American voters.

  “Remember, Trump lost Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin by a collective 40,000 votes. The hypothesis that Biden would have a breezy route to re-election if Trump becomes the nominee was, from inception, deeply flawed,” Klein noted.

  “As Biden’s likeability has waned, we’re seeing a real trend of voters being drawn back in by Trump’s policies,” he continued. “As Trump now sits on a small put persistent lead in national polls, if he continues to win back a few thousand of the voters he lost in 2020 the path to victory certainly exists.”

  Biden’s support has been on a downward trajectory across diverse demographic and political spectra. Crucial issues such as crime and immigration have been described by critics as “rampant mismanagement,” causing many Americans to sour on the administration. “Around 60% of Americans now disapprove of Biden’s handling of immigration, an all-time high,” Klein added.

  In late September, a McLaughlin & Associates survey suggested that Trump would emerge victorious over Biden by 43% to 38% in a national head-to-head matchup.

  

  “We are positioned to win the presidency, and we must defeat Joe Biden,” emphasized John McLaughlin, CEO and partner of McLaughlin & Associates, echoing a robust confidence within the Trump team. McLaughlin ascribes Trump’s advantageous position to the American people’s “buyers’ remorse” and a comparative review of the records of both candidates, particularly relating to the economy, crime, and border issues.

  An aggregate of polls also has Trump wiping the floor with Biden. Via RealClear Politics:

  

  Kyle Kondik, a nonpartisan polling analyst, cautions about the predictive validity of these early head-to-head matchups but does acknowledge the current data’s indication of a “close and competitive” race.

  But can Trump solidify his lead and convert it into a tangible victory? According to GOP polling analyst Jon McHenry, even though other Republican nominees might stand a better chance against Biden, Trump could theoretically clinch victory on an economic basis. However, he recognizes that the situation is too tight to definitively forecast.

  “We have such a unique situation right now with both party’s leading candidates in negative territory on their favorable to unfavorable ratings — and the current and previous officeholder. Reelection campaigns are typically a two-step process as a referendum on the incumbent: first, does he or she deserve reelection, and second, would the other candidate do better? I think right now President Biden is losing the referendum, with voters disapproving of his job overall, and especially on the economy and immigration,” said McHenry. “But if the choice is between two candidates with 35 to 40 percent favorables, voters are likely to choose the one who had the better economy.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 20:10

• US Gives More Than $4.1 Billion In Grants For LGBT Initiatives Worldwide
  US Gives More Than $4.1 Billion In Grants For LGBT Initiatives Worldwide

  Authored by Jackson Elliott via The Epoch Times,

  During the past three fiscal years, $4.1 billion in federal money from taxpayers has been flowing to LGBT initiatives in the United States and around the world, an Epoch Times investigation has revealed.

  From Oct. 1, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2023, the U.S. government issued more than 1,100 grants to fund LGBT-promoting projects around the world, according to the Epoch Times review of a federal spending website.

  

  The scope of projects varies widely.

  Plans to create a “safe space for LGBTQ youth and adults to seek support and resources” earned a $1.8 million grant from the U.S. government in 2022 for the LGBT Life Center in Norfolk, Virginia.

  A proposal for encouraging “diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities by promoting economic empowerment of and opportunity for LGBTQI+ people in Serbia” also was a winning plan. To fund it, the U.S. government awarded Serbian activist group Grupa Izadji a grant of $500,000.

  An Armenian activist group, the Pink Human Rights Defender, received $1 million from the United States “to empower the LGBTI community” in Armenia, a tiny country next to Turkey.

  The federal spending website can be filtered to show entries that include specific keywords. A list of payouts filtered by using the keyword “LGBT” included 1,181 grants, 31 loans, and nine direct payments during the past three fiscal years.

  Overall, during the past fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the government issued 454,821 grants.

  Government grants provide free money for specific purposes. Federal loans can be repaid over long periods of time at low interest rates. Direct payments from the government give money to groups—they may be unrestricted, or for a specific use.

  Of grants connected to the keyword “LGBT,” individual payouts of at least $1 million totaled more than $3.7 billion combined. Many additional smaller grants also were awarded for LGBT initiatives but were not reviewed.

  When the list was filtered for grants including the word “transgender,” 574 were listed. In that category, grants that paid out at least $1 million totaled nearly $478 million. Seven direct payments and nine loans with the keyword “transgender” also were issued by the U.S. government.

  An independent researcher who asked to remain anonymous has been tracking how the federal government spends money on grants related to gender ideology.

  He started the work when he was laid off from his oil field job in the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. After doing some digging, he was shocked to learn that, while he and his friends got little relief from the federal government, taxpayer dollars poured into LGBT activist causes, he said.

  “I just couldn’t believe it,” he said. “We’re all getting laid off, getting exempted from all this COVID money that’s getting handed out to everybody, and nobody seemed to give a [expletive].”

  He now works at a politically left-wing oil company, he said. And his superiors likely would object to how he now presents his findings on social media, he told The Epoch Times.

  “I could write for 20 years about just the money that’s already been spent over the past three or four years,” he said.

  The oil worker-turned-investigator shares his findings on X under the handle Randoland.us. The account has more than 12,000 followers, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

  “If you search for grants from the [U.S.] Department of Education with the word ‘equity’ in them, it’ll blow your mind how much money is being spent just on equity-aligned initiatives,” he said. He figures he’s uncovered about $240 million in “grants going toward equity initiatives.”

  Rainbow Revolution

  One discovery revealed an ongoing grant paid to Emory University so researchers can study “the rectal mucosal effects of cross-sex hormone therapy among U.S. and Thai transgender women,” The Epoch Times confirmed.

  

  Activists rallying to support people who identify as transgender gather on the steps of City Hall, in New York, New York, on Oct. 24, 2018. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

  The project started in 2019 with a projected end date of July 2024. According to the government website, researchers will receive almost $3.5 million from the U.S. government to do the work.

  The project is categorized under “allergy and infectious diseases research,” with the stated purpose to “assist public and private nonprofit institutions and individuals to establish, expand, and improve biomedical research and research training in infectious diseases and related areas,” according to the federal spending website.

  Some small grants focus on studies that examine equally tiny portions of the population.

  One grant recipient examines the impact of alcohol on intimate partner violence in transgender and non-gender-conforming adults, The Epoch Times confirmed.

  A 2023 project received nearly $350,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to translate the Homosaurus—a thesaurus of LGBT terms—into Spanish.

  The Homosaurus website includes definitions for sexual terms such as: “anonymous sex,” “aromantic porn films,” “pederasts,” “children’s sexuality,” and “gay children.”

  The Homosaurus has reclassified as “fetishes” the words “gerontophilia,” “ephebophilia,” and “hebephilia,” Greek words that mean sexual attraction to the elderly, people 15-19, and children 11-14, respectively.

  The Epoch Times contacted the NEH about the grant but received no response.

  

  A rainbow flag hangs below the American flag near the entrance to the U.S. embassy in Moscow, on June 25, 2021. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images)

  LGBT cultural projects in America that received funding include more than $333,000 for an LGBT radio and television “digitization and access project.”

  Another provided $324,000 to map “historical LGBTQ spaces through gay travel guides.”

  One grant offers $1 million “to advance the human rights and social inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) people” worldwide. The money went to Outright Action, an American activist group dedicated to global LGBT advocacy operating in many countries, including Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Ukraine, the Philippines, Iran, and China.

  Another grant pays for a “social biography of same-sex desire in postcolonial Ireland.”

  One provides funding to chronicle contributions to “gender identity development” among Belarusian teenage girls in vulnerable families.

  LGBT Initiatives in Schools

  The government directed LGBT grants at American educational institutions, as well.

  And Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice isn’t happy about it.

  “The federal government is using the grant process to change the culture and climate in America’s public schools,” Ms. Justice told The Epoch Times.

  In her experience as a local school board member, she saw government-funded activist groups lead the ideological capture of schools, she said.

  “The grants go to ‘community partners,’ and ‘community partners’ then go in, and they work to change the procedure in the schools” to favor and teach LGBT activist worldviews, she said.

  

  Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty. (Tiffany Justice/Moms for Liberty)

  The federal government pursues this policy of “cultural revolution” against the will of more than 70 percent of Americans, according to polls by Moms for Liberty, Ms. Justice said.

  A recent poll by the group found that more than 70 percent of Americans want schools to teach basic educational skills and do not want gender ideology or sexual orientation instruction in classrooms, Ms. Justice said.

  Yet money flows to these projects.

  The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) gave $1.2 million to “LGBTQIA+ pride centers” in the San Diego Community College District.

  Another DOE grant of almost $1.6 million was awarded for North Dakota’s “indigenous, LGBTQIA+, rural and underserved school-based mental health needs.”

  A DOE grant gave $1.4 million to Boston College to study “mechanisms of health promotion in diverse youth through gay-straight alliances.”  In plain speak, the grant funded the promotion of gay-straight alliance clubs in Massachusetts middle and high schools.

  The Epoch Times contacted the DOE but received no response.

  “The federal government thumbs their nose at the American people and continues to push this ideology into our schools,” Ms. Justice said.

  “They’re doing it all over the world.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 19:45

• McCarthy Would Entertain Return As Speaker In GOP Deadlock
  McCarthy Would Entertain Return As Speaker In GOP Deadlock

  Ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) isn’t ruling out a return to his old post if the House Republican Conference is deadlocked on a replacement.

  

  In a Monday interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, McCarthy – who lost his job as Speaker last week after eight House Republicans joined with Democrats, teased a return to the job.

  “Look, the conference has to make that decision. I’m still a member. I’m going to continue to fight and act,” said McCarthy.

  When Hewitt asked again what McCarthy would do if the eight GOP members who opposed him retreated, the former Speaker kept the door open.

  “Look, whatever the conference wants, I will do,” he said, adding “I think we need to be strong. I think we need to be united. The eight, in my view, don’t look to be — it was a personal thing.”

  He expressed frustration with the Republicans who voted against a GOP-only stopgap proposal. The party’s repeated failure to pass a temporary funding bill that included spending cuts and policy provisions prompted McCarthy to pass a “clean” stopgap to avoid a government shutdown, infuriating the hard-line GOP members who then voted to oust him. –The Hill

  “They’re the ones who wanted a government shutdown,” McCarthy said of the GOP holdouts. “We wouldn’t be paying our troops while we’re putting out a carrier strike fighter there – 30,000 American men and women in our armed services in the Middle East wouldn’t be being paid right now? I mean, what weakness would we be at?”

  It’s very clear from this news conference that McCarthy wants to be speaker again. He says he’ll let the conference decide who unites them. He isn’t directly addressing what he would do if nominating, saying it’s a decision for the conference.

  Many of McCarthy’s allies have…

  — Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 9, 2023

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  On Friday, McCarthy refuted a Politico report that he planned to resign before the end of his term.

  “No, I’m not resigning. I’m staying, so don’t worry,” McCarthy told reporters on Friday, adding “We’re going to keep the majority, I’m going to help the people I got here and we’re going to expand it.”

  

  House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) are the current frontrunners to replace McCarthy as Speaker.

  The House GOP will hold a candidate forum Tuesday, and an internal conference election Wednesday.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 19:20

• Over 100 Bodies Found In Israeli Kibbutz; Biden Confirms 11 Americans Killed & "Likely" More In Captivity
  Over 100 Bodies Found In Israeli Kibbutz; Biden Confirms 11 Americans Killed & “Likely” More In Captivity

  Update(1905ET): The numbers of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas has been revised upward to an estimated 150. By Monday’s end at least 900 Israelis have been reported killed and nearly 2,400 wounded since the Saturday surprise assault from Gaza. Palestinian emergency sources report 560 dead and over 2,700 wounded in Gaza has heavy Israeli bombardment of the strip has continued.

  In one single kibbutz near the border, at least 108 bodies have been discovered amid the ongoing Israeli search, rescue and recovery efforts: 

  Israeli volunteer rescue organization ZAKA said Monday night that it had discovered more than 100 bodies in Kibbutz Be’eri near the Gaza border.

  “Large teams cleared bodies all day from kibbutz Be’eri,” the organization said. “There were weapons everywhere, grenades, and RPGs. We cleared 108 bodies and we are not done yet.”

  Front gate of the Kibbutz after the attack. pic.twitter.com/bNmGee4MnT

  — OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) October 9, 2023

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  The New York Times has also begun to piece together eyewitness accounts of the Saturday invasion into southern Israel, as more identifies of the kidnapped have come to light:

  The hostages were seized from homes in towns along Israel’s border with Gaza — including the Kalderons’ small village of Kibbutz Nahal Oz — as well as from military bases and an enormous outdoor dance party.

  They include civilians, soldiers, people with disabilities, children, grandparents and even a 9-month-old baby. The hostages are also believed to include at least one Palestinian resident of Israel, a bus driver who spent the night near the outdoor party after driving Israelis there, his family said.

  The capture of so many Israelis by Palestinian militants has taken the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into uncharted territory — not only in the sheer number of hostages, but also in the dire threats Hamas is making against them.

  And The Washington Post has verified some of the horrifying footage to have emerged, including summary executions of Israeli hostages in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas/PIJ incursion: 

  At least four Israelis taken hostage by Hamas during their unprecedented incursion into Israel on Saturday were killed soon after being taken captive, according to videos reviewed by The Washington Post. Graphic video shared on Telegram on Oct. 8, and verified by The Post, shows multiple bodies in the street in Be’eri, a kibbutz in southern Israel, just yards from where Hamas militants were filmed walking with several civilians who appear to be those same hostages.

  Huge swathes of Gaza are under rubble…

  JUST IN: Drone footage of Gaza city has been released by Bloomberg.

  Citizens along the Gaza Strip are being caught in the crossfire as the war between Hamas and Israel escalates.

  Hundreds of apartments and homes have been demolished displacing more than 123,000 people.

  The IDF… pic.twitter.com/1CTbUZDugL

  — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 9, 2023

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  Netanyahu in a Monday speech vowed, “What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.”

  Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s involvement from the north appears to be growing.

  The US has issued a stern warning for the Lebanese Shia paramilitary group not to enter the conflict. President Biden on Monday said that at least 11 Americans were confirmed killed. He said there are “likely” more being held hostage. Many of these may be dual citizens. Here’s part of Biden’s statement:

  “It’s heart wrenching,” Biden said in a statement. “These families have been torn apart by inexcusable hatred and violence.”

  Biden said his administration is aware other U.S. citizens are missing and that they are working with Israeli officials to learn more about their whereabouts, though he didn’t elaborate on how many Americans are unaccounted for as the conflict rages.

  “The safety of American citizens — whether at home or abroad — is my top priority as President,” Biden said.

  “While we are still working to confirm, we believe it is likely that American citizens may be among those being held by Hamas,” he continued. “I have directed my team to work with their Israeli counterparts on every aspect of the hostage crisis, including sharing intelligence and deploying experts from across the United States government to consult with and advise Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts.”

  Hezbollah targeted the command centre of #Israel’s Galilee Division based at Branit military barracks with 5 guided missiles in response for the martyrdom of 3 Hezbollah fighters in Israeli shelling in southern #Lebanon.

  Slow and unmistakable escalation on the northern front. pic.twitter.com/Rx5nvaDpXl

  — H. Sumeri (@IraqiSecurity) October 9, 2023

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  Below is a brief review of other developments of the last 24-48 hours, via Academy Securities:

  • Israel has seized control of the communities around Gaza that were at the center of the horrific attacks by Hamas over the past 48 hours.
  • Israel’s Ministry of Defense has ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza cutting off electricity, food, fuel, and water to the region and has called up 300,000 reservists.
  • Israel flew in munitions from the U.S. over the weekend, including GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs and the expectation is that Israel will ask for small arms, ammunition, tank rounds, and Tamir interceptors for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
  • The U.S. is also sending the USS Ford Carrier Strike Group to the Eastern Mediterranean to show solidarity with Israel and to discourage other parties from getting involved/supporting Hamas in this conflict, i.e., Iran and Hezbollah.
  • Hezbollah exchanged artillery and rocket fire on Sunday with Israeli forces raising concern of an escalation of the violence, but Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah BouHabib said that his government has been assured by Hezbollah that it will not join the fighting unless Israel “harasses” Lebanon.
  • While unconfirmed by U.S. intelligence (and denied by Iran), Iranian security officials reportedly helped plan Hamas’s attack and gave the “green light” for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday, according to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah.
  • Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that creating a Palestinian state was the “most reliable” solution for peace in Israel and could see Russia as a peacemaker (it has a relationship with all the parties involved).

  And thoughts on market-related impact via The Academy T-Report:

  How far does Israel go, given that this has shaken the nation to its core. The veil of safety has been pierced. Maybe the better question is how far can they go without turning a part of the world against them? While the most vicious and deadly battles will be fought in the streets (and underground) there will be information and misinformation campaigns trying to shift global opinion. Can you “win” the battle but risk “losing” the war? This will be tricky, and the relative small size of the Gaza Strip and a high population density will make it extremely difficult to be effective and not harm civilians. This will be a tough balancing act.

  Do others get involved? While many find it difficult to believe that Hamas acted alone, that remains the official line. This has not escalated into a battle for Israel on multiple fronts. Iran has not been brought into the war, which would up the ante significantly.

  While not directly part of this discussion, our increasing concern that our global adversaries understand that inflation has become an “Achilles Heel” and this will only make adversaries more aware of that.

  Over the next 48 hours, we should get answers to these questions, which will help from how the markets and global economy and companies will respond (many companies with operations in Israel have faced an incredibly difficult and scary weekend, that is continuing into this week).

  On markets fronts:

  Oil should be higher. There is risk to shipping. There is risk to whatever Iranian oil has been making its way to the market (especially if they are implicated in any way). The Saudis could increase production to help, but how this is being viewed on social media in the region could shape their behavior significantly (the information war will be important). Our inability, unwillingness, or lack of urgency in replenishing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is not helpful as our “insurance policy” was used and hasn’t been re-upped.

  Treasury yields lower. It doesn’t matter what oil does, yields will be lower. The price of oil is not in the Fed’s control right now, but the risk of economic slowdown is. The risk of escalation and spreading the violence is real and should keep investors focused on safety. Many (including us) thought treasury yields were too high before this, so look for a push to lower yields, regardless of what oil does. Oil is a secondary factor in the rates market right now.

  Stocks are a wildcard. I’ve been in the “bad news is good news” for stocks and that seemed to play out again today. I don’t know how much “bad news” stocks can take before the lower yields/higher stocks algos fail and we get a more traditional “flight to safety” like we had overnight. If things don’t escalate, stocks can continue to squeeze higher as so much negativity was priced in (while at the same time pricing in a hawkish Fed). I’d be reducing equity exposure here, still long, but this “bad news” has the risk of being really bad.

  * * *

  Update(1350ET): Casualties in the Gaza Strip are soaring (at over 560 dead) after a full day of very heavy, frequent airstrikes by the Israeli Air Force. For the first time Monday, Israel says it has pacified the border, with a military spokesperson announcing, “There are no terrorists crossing the fence from Gaza into Israel.” The confirmed death toll among Israelis is now over 900.

  “Since this morning, there have been a few encounters with terrorists. There have been none at all in the last few hours,” the military spokesman said. Israel earlier announced a full “siege” of Gaza, and there are signs a ground invasion could be imminent. Hamas and Gaza militants have announced holding at least 100 hostages, but now Hamas is threatening to execute them. Netanyahu on Sunday had warned Palestinian civilians to begin clearing out, but as some observers have noted, where will they go? 

  According to the latest from the Times of Israel on Hamas’ new threat to kill more Israelis:

  The Hamas terror group is threatening to begin executing hostages in response to Israeli strikes in Gaza carried out without warnings, the spokesperson for Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades says, according to Gaza’s Shehab news outlet.

  “From this hour, any targeting of our people in the safety of their homes, without warning, will be met with the execution of civilian hostages, which will be broadcast with video and audio,” says the spokesperson, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Obeida.

  A defense official reportedly told Knesset members in a briefing earlier in the day that Israel was not dropping dummy bombs on roofs of buildings set to be targeted, meant to warn civilians to flee.

  

  Many of these hostages, foreigners among them, are believed to have been kidnapped from the Saturday music festival which had been taking place in the southern desert, near the border with Gaza.

  Meanwhile more shocking footage has emerged as Hamas invaded the event and began shooting civilians at random: 

  New footage from the music festival in Israel

  pic.twitter.com/lgPr7FiBaJ

  — The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 9, 2023

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  * * *

  Update (1100ET): Israel has confirmed its forces are now striking targets in southern Lebanon, as the conflict slides into the much-feared scenario of a two-front war… Hamas in the south, Hezbollah in the north. Interestingly, it seems that Gaza-based militants are trying to provoke Hezbollah’s entry into the war, given they need the firepower and for the IDF to be bogged down in the north:

  ALERT Palestinian Islamic Jihad claims Israel infiltration from Lebanon: official

  ISRAELI WARPLANES ARE BOMBING SOUTHERN LEBANON.

  This is a severe escalation. This came after clashes between Israeli occupation forces and unknown gunmen.

  Hezbollah won’t sit and watch. Expect a retaliation. pic.twitter.com/55oD5HLeBj

  — Hadi Nasrallah (@HadiNasrallah) October 9, 2023

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  According to CNN:

  Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a brief statement on Monday that its helicopters are currently striking in Lebanese territory. No further details were provided. 

  Earlier, the IDF said a “number of armed suspects” who “infiltrated” into Israel from Lebanon were killed, and that IDF soldiers were searching the area.

  The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) peacekeepers said in a statement on Monday that it has reported explosions near Al-Boustan in southwest Lebanon.

  There are also reports IDF heavy armor has been seen headed to northern border with Lebanon:

  Cross-border attacks are intensifying in the growing tit-for-tat:

  BREAKING: Israeli army targets three Hezbollah watch towers in southern Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/TAlBAzCm92

  — The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) October 9, 2023

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  * * *

  The total death toll among both sides as all-out war between Israel and Gaza militants enters its third day has topped 1,100 – with most of these deaths being Israeli, at an estimated 800.

  Israel’s defense minister has as of Monday ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza which alarmingly includes cutting off all supply of electricity, fuel, and food, but even water for a densely packed population of 3+ million people in the strip.

  

  Yoav Gallant said, “I have given an order – Gaza will be under complete siege.” He added: “We are fighting barbarians and will respond accordingly.”

  At the same time a statement from energy minister Israel Katz confirmed, “I instructed that the water supply from Israel to Gaza be cut off immediately.”

  GAZA pic.twitter.com/W9S8m1zd36

  — The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) October 9, 2023

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  Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have reportedly retaken all the southern towns and settlements which were hit hardest by Saturday’s shock invasion of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) militants from Gaza.

  A fuller picture of the devastation is still emerging. Israeli authorities have confirmed recovery of 260 bodies from the site of the desert music festival which was among the first to be invaded by Hamas gunmen…

  Mapping and timing the atrocities at the Nova Festival near Rei’m on Saturday morning (long thread).

  Working with new drone footage, multiple sets of satellite imagery, and videos, it was possible to assemble a small idea of what happened in a small area.

  Note- content warning pic.twitter.com/Y6QoOxo2Bg

  — OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) October 9, 2023

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  Meanwhile, the IDF continues to pound the Gaza Strip on an unprecedented scale, with top Israeli officials increasingly voicing their approval for a ground invasion, which some say is imminent: 

  Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed at least 493, including dozens of children, and left 2,651 injured, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

  An incursion by Gaza militants of this scale has not been seen in Israel since the nation’s founding in 1948.

  But if an Israeli ground assault does ensue, it will be deeply controversial inside Israel given the likely high casualties the IDF will take on (as has been the case in prior high-risk ground incursions).

  There are emerging reports that Gaza-based terrorists have beheaded IDF soldiers:

  Can confirm that images showing Hamas beheadings of IDF soldiers exist. Do not go searching for them.

  Haven’t seen images of that magnitude since ISIS was prevalent.

  — OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) October 8, 2023

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  At the same time, Hamas and PIJ terrorists are now holding some 100 Israeli hostages taken in Saturday’s cross border raids.

  According to Reuters, Qatar is currently seeking to mediate hostage negotiations. The Palestinian side has demanded the release of some 5,000 of their own who have been held in Israeli jails, sometimes for years.

  There are believed to be Americans (or dual US-Israeli citizens) currently in captivity in Gaza:

  A spokesperson for the NSC said the agency can confirm the deaths of “several” U.S. citizens, but did not provide a specific number.

  “We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and to the families of all those affected, and wish those injured a speedy recovery,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement shared with The Hill.

  Additional US media sources reported that so far four Americans have been confirmed killed. And later in the morning on Monday the State Department announced nine Americans have been killed.

  U.S. STATE DEPT SPOKESPERSON CONFIRMS THE DEATH OF NINE AMERICANS IN ISRAEL

  NEW: American citizens have been taken as hostages by Hamas according to Israel Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer.

  In response to these reports, Secretary of State Blinken says the US is “working overtime.”

  One person who doesn’t seem to be working overtime is Biden who… pic.twitter.com/kXU8cyDbUy

  — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 9, 2023

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  BBC is also reporting that at least 10 British citizens are feared dead or missing. According to Israeli officials, the numbers of Americans confirmed to be in captivity could grow as more details emerge:

  Ron Dermer, Israel’s minister for strategic affairs, confirmed American citizens were among those taken captive but gave no details about them or those who had been killed.

  “Unfortunately, I can’t,” he told CNN. “We have a lot of dual citizens in Israel. I suspect there are several, but we’re still trying to sort through all of all this information after this horrific surprise attack and we’ll make sure to put that information out so that the loved ones of these people who were killed and who are held hostage, they know as quickly as possible.”

  On Sunday the Pentagon announced it is sending an aircraft carrier and warships near Israel in a “show of support” – also as Americans as well as dual passport holders and tourists scramble to get out.

  Ben Gurion international airport has come under a barrage of rockets fired from the strip, disrupting all flights in and out.

  BREAKING: Direct hit on Ben Gurion airport, Tel Aviv by the Palestinian resistance’s missiles pic.twitter.com/doj3dIKcXt

  — The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) October 9, 2023

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  developing…

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 19:05

• What If UFOs Have Been A Cover For High-Tech Human Defense Research Programs?
  What If UFOs Have Been A Cover For High-Tech Human Defense Research Programs?

  Authored by John Ruehl via AsiaTimes.com,

  Could the decades-long pursuit of unraveling the UFO mystery potentially function as a cover for advanced government research and testing programs for innovative forms of propulsion and craft design? Moreover, might the recent rollout of official government hearings signal a gradual disclosure of some of those capabilities?

  

  This scenario is worth considering, as the process of investigating UFOs comes into sharper public focus.

  This year, fascination with unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) has spiked. David Grusch, a former intelligence official who led the analysis of UAPs within the US military, told a congressional hearing in July that the United States had been collecting non-human craft “for decades.”

  At the first Republican presidential debate on August 23, candidates were asked about the US president’s responsibility to provide information to the public about UFOs. And on August 31, the Pentagon launched a new website providing the public with declassified information about sightings.

  Mainstream intrigue surrounding UFOs was born after the 1947 Roswell incident, the crash of what was initially described by the US military as a “flying disc” in Roswell, New Mexico, but later attributed to a weather balloon.

  To quell public fear and speculation, official government studies to investigate UFO/UAP reports, including Project Blue Book, Project Sign, and Project Grudge, were launched. While the US government feared air warning systems could be overwhelmed by reports, it was also wary of Soviet attempts to boost false sightings and promote conspiracy theories that could instigate panic and allegations of a coverup.

  During the Cold War, UFO reports became common, often coinciding with missile and rocket tests (a habit that continues today). Several Soviet and US military personnel also testified that UFOs were able temporarily to take control over missile and nuclear facilities.

  Official disinformation

  However, in 1997, the US Central Intelligence Agency revealed that the military had lied to the public throughout the Cold War about many UFO sightings to obscure its black projects and keep Moscow in the dark about technological advancements. Blaming sightings on natural phenomena like ice crystals and temperature inversions fueled public distrust toward the government and its claims about UFOs/UAPs.

  Many secret military aircraft were frequently mistaken for UFOs, such as the U-2 reconnaissance plane, introduced in the 1950s, which featured a gray frame that often reflected the sun. The SR-71 “Blackbird” meanwhile started service in 1966 and wasn’t declassified until the 1990s. Its distinctive shape, speed, and altitude capabilities were often mistaken for a UFO.

  The B-2 Spirit, introduced in the late 1980s, also had a unique aerodynamic design and its ability to control lift, thrust, and drag at low speeds often gave the appearance that it was hovering.

  Since the Cold War, secretive experimental military aircraft have continued to generate UFO reports. But unexplained phenomena have also fueled conspiracy theories.

  In November 2004 off the coast of San Diego, US Navy pilots filmed UFOs demonstrating rapid acceleration, physics-defying sudden changes in direction, and other feats in videos eventually released to the public in 2017. And despite formalizing a UFO/UAP reporting process in 2019, navy pilots and other US military personnel who have witnessed them have been hesitant to come forward because of fear of ridicule or professional repercussions.

  The US military’s reluctance to disclose UFO/UAP information is often linked to the need to protect classified technology. Military agencies can choose neither to confirm nor deny such information exists.

  But when the government transparency website, the Black Vault, submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the navy for more UFO/UAP videos, it was denied because it would harm national security and “may provide adversaries valuable information regarding Department of Defense/navy operations, vulnerabilities, and/or capabilities.”

  Releasing these videos without additional information may also be an effective way for the US military to hint at its own new technological capacities for various strategic, political, and scientific reasons. Suddenly revealing these technologies could result in rising geopolitical tensions and trigger a reaction, while merely hinting at it may also serve as a deterrence to adversaries.

  Gradually preparing the public for emerging technologies is equally as important, while encouraging speculation about UFO/UAPs could divert attention away from classified projects.

  By clandestinely testing experimental new technologies on their own defenses without resorting to lethal forces, military agencies can also gain valuable insights into their capabilities and vulnerabilities in real-world scenarios.

  A 2021 report by the DoD’s intelligence agencies also noted that many UFOs/UAPs were “technologies deployed by China, Russia, another nation, or a non-governmental entity.” The New York Times broke the story days before an updated version was provided to Congress in 2022.

  An ongoing investigation by The Warzone meanwhile suggests there are a large number of hostile drones mistaken for UFOs/UAPs that the US government has until recently failed to confront.

  Being unable to properly identify another country’s experimental aircraft, by labeling it a UFO/UAP, would also demonstrate shortcomings in US air defense systems. Similarly, releasing documentation of US surveillance of other countries’ stealth aircraft and other technology would give them a better idea of US military capabilities and would alert these countries that they were being surveilled.

  Corporate involvement

  In addition to other countries, companies are also responsible for a significant number of UFO/UAP reports.

  The first drones were manufactured more than a century ago in the UK and US, and the capabilities of the private sector have grown considerably since then.

  Camouflage technology has made commercial drones increasingly difficult to clearly identify, and hundreds of drones by China’s largest drone maker, DJI, were noted to have entered restricted airspace in Washington in 2022 alone. And, of course, commercial drones can be purchased and used by other governments.

  Nonetheless, many of the technological developments concerning advanced aircraft stem from the US military and other agencies.

  Since the 1970s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has expanded on ideas developed by scientist and engineer Arthur Kantrowitz to use lasers to launch satellites without fuel or an engine, with successful tests carried out in the late 1990s.

  The US Air Force and NASA have both continued developing this technology in the 21st century, while NASA has also explored plasma propulsion technology that may have caused numerous UFO/UAP reports.

  The US Navy has pushed the boundaries of technology further with the development of laser-induced plasma technology, patented in 2018. This innovation can generate extremely high temperatures in the air, creating plasma that can be harnessed to form intricate shapes and lifelike optical illusions, even simulating aircraft performing seemingly impossible maneuvers.

  Additionally, the US military has developed the ability to produce sound out of lasers, which would add an additional layer of realism to UFO/UAP sightings.

  Over the last few years, increasing attention has also been brought to projects by Salvatore Cezar Pais, an aerospace engineer and scientist who has worked for the US Navy and the US Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD).

  Despite lacking empirical evidence and rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific scrutiny, his alleged breakthroughs in propulsion and energy generation would serve as some of the most groundbreaking technological breakthroughs in history.

  Pais’ patents with the US Navy relate to the development of advanced propulsion systems that could potentially lead to rapid thrust technology and an abundance of clean energy generation. This includes a “craft using an inertial mass reduction device,” which was patented in 2018, while a patent for a “plasma compression fusion device” was also filed but later appeared to be abandoned.

  Nonetheless, documents retrieved by The Warzone through the US Freedom of Information Act reveal that his inventions are being considered for the Air Force, NASA, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

  Of course, like the late US president Ronald Reagan’s proposed “Star Wars” missile defense system in the 1980s, Pais’ patents could be designed to bait adversaries into a costly arms race. That is not to say that these countries are not already developing their own fascinating projects.

  China has been drastically increasing its development of plasma technology in recent years, and alongside the UK, Germany and Japan, is developing Active Flow Control (AFC) technology to improve aerodynamic performance in aircraft. European entities have also recently made breakthroughs in plasma propulsion technology, which may boost UFO/UAP reports across the continent.

  Amid these developments, it remains crucial for the public to stay engaged and informed about UFOs/UAP – the more publicly observed the evidence is, the harder it becomes to manipulate. Considering the history of government audacity in crafting political and war propaganda, we should remain skeptical of the entities shaping narratives about extraplanetary intelligent life.

  A shift toward de-stigmatizing and embracing a public approach to UFOs/UAP, both domestic and foreign, is essential.

  Alongside the Black Vault, initiatives like the open-data Galileo Project, spearheaded by Avi Loeb of Harvard University’s Astronomy Department, are actively seeking evidence of extraterrestrial life and pushing our understanding of outer space.

  By involving the public in the search for answers, we can bridge gaps in understanding and move closer to demystifying these phenomena.

  This article was produced by Globetrotter, which provided it to Asia Times.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 18:55

• Rabies Vaccines Airdropped From Planes Throughout The Southeastern States In October
  Rabies Vaccines Airdropped From Planes Throughout The Southeastern States In October

  The US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is now airdropping millions of doses of oral rabies vaccines (ORV) throughout several Southeastern states, as wild raccoons and other wildlife are reportedly spreading the disease.

  

  The program to scatter the vaccines in the mountainous forests of the Western North Carolina region is being coordinated between the USDA and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS). Affected counties include Buncombe, Haywood, and Transylvania counties.

  “Avoiding contact with wild animals and vaccinating our domestic animals and pets is the best way to prevent rabies, which can often be fatal,” said Erica Berl, NCDHHS Deputy State Public Health Veterinarian, in a press release. “The wildlife rabies vaccination program prevents the spread of rabies among animals in the wild, which in turn prevents humans, pets, and other animals from becoming infected.”

  The vaccine, RABORAL V-RG, comes in a matchbook-sized plastic packet which is coated in fishmeal, or encased inside a fishmeal polymer coating.

  “Humans and pets cannot get rabies from contact with the baits, but if they encounter them, they should leave them undisturbed,” said the USDA. “Dogs that consume large numbers of baits may experience an upset stomach, but there are no long-term health risks. If adults or children come in contact with baits, immediately rinse the contact area with warm water and soap.”

  More via the Epoch Times‘ Matt McGregor;

  The program began in August distributing throughout the Northeast to mid-Atlantic regions such as Maine, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

  It continued into mid-September from mid-September to mid-October in Massachusetts.

  Advertisement – Story continues below

  Throughout October, the program will be dispersing vaccines by airplane, helicopter, and vehicle in the Southern states such as Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

  ‘A Serious Public Health Concern’

  According to the USDA, ORV distribution has taken place in the United States since 1990.

  In Canada, it’s been used since 1985, and in Europe, it began in 1980.

  There are 16 states in the U.S. distributing vaccines for raccoons.

  Texas uses them for gray foxes and coyotes.

  “Rabies is a serious public health concern,” the USDA said in an August press release. “While rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms appear, it also is 100% preventable. Human exposures can be successfully remedied if medical attention is sought immediately following exposure.”

  Ninety percent of rabies cases in the United States are found in wildlife, the USDA said.

  “Costs associated with rabies detection, prevention, and control may exceed $500 million annually in the United States,” the USDA said.

  The goal of the program, according to the USDA, is to keep raccoons from spreading the virus to states where it hasn’t been found or isn’t widespread.

  

  How it Spreads, Symptoms

  The virus is carried in the infected animal’s saliva and transmitted usually through bites and scratches; however, the saliva can also spread through the eyes, nose, and mouth, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

  Rabies affects the central nervous system, the WHO said.

  “In up to 99% of cases, domestic dogs are responsible for rabies virus transmission to humans,” the WHO stated in a 2023 Fact Sheet.  “Yet, rabies can affect both domestic and wild animals.”

  Children between the ages of 5 and 14 are often victims of rabies, the WHO said.

  “The incubation period for rabies is typically 2–3 months but may vary from 1 week to 1 year, depending on factors such as the location of virus entry and the viral load,” the WHO said. “Initial symptoms of rabies include generic signs like fever, pain, and unusual or unexplained tingling, pricking, or burning sensations at the wound site. As the virus moves to the central nervous system, progressive and fatal inflammation of the brain and spinal cord develops. Clinical rabies in people can be managed but very rarely cured, and not without severe neurological deficits.”

  The two main types of rabies are furious rabies and paralytic rabies.

  Furious rabies causes hyperactivity, hallucinations, a fear of water and fresh air, excitable behavior, and ultimately, after a few days, death caused by cardiorespiratory arrest.

  Paralytic rabies is what is found in 20 percent of human cases, and is a kind that is more subtle than the former.

  “Muscles gradually become paralyzed, starting from the wound site,” the WHO said. “A coma slowly develops, and eventually, death occurs. The paralytic form of rabies is often misdiagnosed, contributing to the under-reporting of the disease.”

  Diagnosis for detecting a rabies infection is limited.

  “Unless the rabies-specific signs of hydrophobia or aerophobia are present, or a reliable history of contact with a suspected or confirmed rabid animal is available, clinical diagnosis is difficult,” the WHO said. “Human rabies can be confirmed intravitam and post mortem by various diagnostic techniques that detect whole viruses, viral antigens, or nucleic acids in infected tissues (brain, skin or saliva).”

  Rabies is present on all continents except Antarctica, the WHO said, with over 95 percent of deaths occurring in Asia and Africa, though cases aren’t frequently reported.

  In the U.S., hematophagous bats have become the primary source of human rabies deaths, the WHO said, because rabies in dogs has been contained.

  “Bat-mediated rabies is also an emerging public health threat in Australia and Western Europe,” the WHO said.

  “Human deaths following exposure to foxes, raccoons, skunks, jackals, mongooses, and other wild carnivore host species are very rare, and bites from rodents are not known to transmit rabies,” the WHO said.

  

  Post-Exposure Prevention

  The emergency response to rabies exposure, the WHO said, is called post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), which involves extensive washing with soap and water for 15 minutes, including direct treatment of the wound; the injection of a “potent and effective rabies vaccine that meets the WHO standards,” and the “administration of rabies immunoglobulin or monoclonal antibodies into the wound.”

  “This prevents the virus from entering the central nervous system, which would invariably result in death,” the WHO said.

  *  *  *

  Remember… if you are bitten by a rabid animal and you become afraid of water, it’s over.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 18:30

• Thoughts On Proclamation 7463, Or "Digital McCarthyism" On The Move
  Thoughts On Proclamation 7463, Or “Digital McCarthyism” On The Move

  Authored by Roger Kimball via American Greatness,

  On September 14, 2001, George W. Bush, exercising “the power vested in [him] as President of the Untied States,” issued Proclamation 7463, a “Declaration of National Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks.” That got the ball rolling on the construction of the surveillance state.

  

  At the time, the extreme measure seemed justified. Three days earlier, the United States had suffered its most devastating terrorist attack in history.

  But how about this: On September 8, 2023, Joe Biden quietly renewed the Bush era emergency measures for another year. I was told there would be no math, but that makes 22 years and counting that a vast array of surveillance assets have been mobilized against—against whom?

  When George W. Bush was president, they were focused on al Qaeda and kindred groups.

  Today?

  Today, that fearsome governmental power is still assembled. Increasingly, however, it seems to be focused against those the administration fears or dislikes.

  Traditional Catholics, for example, or parents upset with their local school boards.

  At the head of the list of potential “domestic extremists” are the tens of millions of people who support Donald Trump (not to mention, of course, Trump himself). A couple of days ago, Hillary Clinton took to CNN (it would be CNN) to say that something needed to be done to silence those misguided people who supported Trump. “Maybe,” she said, “there needs to be a formal deprogramming” of MAGA “cult members.”

  Apparently the FBI agrees. According to a much-cited article in Newsweek, the agency has created a “new category of extremists that it seeks to track and counter: Donald Trump’s army of MAGA followers.” That article suggests that the FBI is struggling to combat genuine threats without attacking people who simply support Trump and other populist candidates. I wonder, though, how scrupulous they are being in protecting people’s Constitutional rights to free speech and political dissent.

  Actually, I do not wonder. It is quite clear, as The New York Post observed, that the agency is deploying “some of the same counterterrorism methods honed to fight al Qaeda” in its scrutiny of Trump supporters and “AGAAVE,” i.e., “anti-government, anti-authority violent extremism” (an acronym that, as the Post suggested, “looks like a typo for a sugar substitute”).

  Let me reprise here something I wrote back in April of this year: As a working principle, the conviction that things are always worse than they seem is hard to beat.

  Along with the observation from William Dean Howells that the problem for a critic isn’t making enemies but keeping them, that mournful conviction that things are worse than they seem has the twin clarifying advantage of being psychologically helpful and empirically true.

  Both have stood me in good stead.

  That is to say, if Johnny Mercer was right that one should “accentuate the positive,” one should also avoid the attitude of Dr. Pangloss who, Leibnizian that he was, taught that this is “the best of all possible worlds.”

  As readers of “Candide” will recall, that rose-colored sentiment didn’t do much to protect Cunégonde.

  I was reminded of this constellation of mottos while reading Jacob Siegel’s long and meticulously researched “Guide to Understanding the Hoax of the Century.”

  Siegel’s brilliant if melancholy overview shows in exhaustive detail how the U.S. government, abetted by the mainstream media and what has come to be called “elite” or “ruling class” opinion generally, has repurposed surveillance tools developed to combat terrorism and turned them against the American people.

  I know that sounds dramatic. In fact, it’s actually an understatement.

  We have been vouchsafed glimpses of life behind the curtain for a while now. Hillary’s Clinton’s recent CNN rant and FBI’s new, extra-wide category of what counts as “extremism” or incipient terrorism show that the threat is metastasizing.

  Siegel focuses mostly on developments in the United States. But it’s worth noting that the story he unravels is an international concession, proceeding, for example, with initiatives such as the Davos-inspired “Great Reset.”

  I have written about various aspects of the phenomena that Siegel aggregates in his sinewy and alarming essay. For example, I wrote about Matt Taibbi’s exposé of “Hamilton 68,” a shadowy group of anti-Trump activists who succeeded in publicly branding anyone or anything they didn’t like as emanating from “Russian disinformation.”

  “Instead of tracking how ‘Russia’ influenced American attitudes,” Taibbi notes, “Hamilton 68 simply collected a handful of mostly real, mostly American accounts, and described their organic conversations as Russian scheming.”

  Simply in terms of volume, Taibbi estimates that Hamilton 68 “may go down as the single greatest case of media fabulism in American history.” Virtually every major news organization in America was involved: NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

  Even fact-checking sites such as Politifact and Snopes, Taibbi notes, “cited Hamilton 68 as a source. The people at Hamilton 68 simply targeted individuals they didn’t like, individuals such as Devin Nunes, Mike Flynn, Tulsi Gabbard, or Donald Trump—and then smeared them as witting or unwitting stooges of Vladimir Putin.

  The whole scheme, Taibbi shows, was a splendid example of “digital McCarthyism, taking people with dissident or unconventional opinions and mass-accusing them of ‘Un-American activities.’”

  But Siegel shows this was the but the tip of the censorship iceberg. His essay shows that kindred developments stood behind the state narrative about COVID-19, the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the Capitol, “domestic terrorists,” as well as anything having to do with Trump.

  A critical moment was Jan. 6, 2017. It was then, in the waning days of the Obama administration, that Jeh Johnson, head of the Department of Homeland Security, placed the property of all 8,000 election jurisdictions under the control of the DHS.

  “It was a coup,” Siegel notes, that Johnson had been aiming at since 2016.

  At first, he was blocked by local authorities who explained that, as the Constitution stipulates, running elections was the sole responsibility of state legislatures. Johnson justified his action by invoking the emergency of (totally spurious) “Russian interference.”

  His success meant that in the final weeks of the Obama administration, “the new counter-disinformation apparatus scored one of its most significant victories: the power to directly oversee federal elections that would have profound consequences for the 2020 contest between Trump and Joe Biden.”

  But Siegel shows that the rot began much earlier. Remember the “Global War on Terror” mounted by the Bush administration following the terrorist attacks of 9/11?

  It was then that the Patriot Act and kindred initiatives (like  Proclamation 7463) licensed the construction of a sprawling surveillance network, ostensibly focused on foreign bad guys but soon repurposed in a way that “suspended constitutional rights and placed millions of Americans under a shadow of mass surveillance.”

  “The seamless transition from the war on terror to the war on disinformation,” Siegel writes, “was thus, in large measure, simply a matter of professional self-preservation. But it was not enough to sustain the previous system; to survive, it needed to continually raise the threat level.”

  And raise the threat level “it”—the deep state—has consistently done, such that anyone who challenges its diktats is regarded as an enemy. How did this happen? Americans didn’t choose to give up their liberties and constitutional rights. The choice was made for them.

  As Siegel writes: “Americans are no longer presumed to have the right to choose their own leaders or to question decisions made in the name of national security. Anyone who says otherwise can be labeled a domestic extremist.”

  Siegel’s essay is a tour de force whose richness and detail I can only hint at here. If I had to summarize his findings, I would emphasize three points.

  • First, that “after the pretense of fighting a foreign threat fell away, what was left was the core mission to enforce a narrative monopoly over truth.” We see that everywhere, whether the subject is Trump, Jan. 6, COVID, Russia, the joys of transsexuality, or the brittleness of the Constitution in the face of the perpetual emergency foisted upon us by the permanent state.

  • The second point follows that brittleness: “The pattern in these cases is that the ruling class justifies taking liberties with the law to save the planet but ends up violating the Constitution to hide the truth and protect itself.”

  • And that brings me to the third and most fundamental principle that Siegel has uncovered in this harrowing piece of work: That the ruling class, the elite that officiates over the ceremonies, perquisites, and directives of the deep state, are bound by one overriding conviction. “As a class,” Siegel concludes, “their highest principle is that they alone can wield power.” No one who reads this essay can doubt that this is true.

  As I say, things are always worse than they seem.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 18:05

• Smith & Wesson Celebrates New Tennessee Headquarters After Ditching Massachusetts
  Smith & Wesson Celebrates New Tennessee Headquarters After Ditching Massachusetts

  Gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson celebrated the grand opening of its new headquarters in Tennessee on Saturday after leaving its longtime home in Massachusetts for the more gun-friendly state.

  

  The company’s new digs in Maryville, TN are approximately 650,000 square feet, as part of the company’s $125 million relocation plan announced in 2021.

  The ribbon cutting event showcased renowned competitive shooter Jerry Miculek, who set an NRA record for hitting six steel plates with a 9mm revolver in 1.88 seconds.

  Congratulations, NRA World Champion @Jerry_Miculek! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 @Smith_WessonInc pic.twitter.com/AUrB7l2GFp

  — NRA (@NRA) October 8, 2023

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

  “From where I stand, the next 170 years of Smith & Wesson are looking pretty good,” Smith & Wesson President and CEO Mark Smith said on Saturday during the grand opening. “It is something special here in Tennessee.”

  He cited a welcoming regulatory environment and close collaboration with the Tennessee state government as a crucial piece of the plan to relocate. The company has said the new facility would create hundreds of jobs.

  Tennessee has moved to loosen gun restrictions in recent years under Republican leadership. In 2021, the state passed a law to allow most adults 21 and older to carry handguns without a permit that requires first clearing a state-level background check and training. –AP

  Smith & Wesson was established in 1852 in Connecticut, before soon moving its headquarters to Springfield, MA.

  

  “Congratulations to Smith & Wesson on their grand opening in Tennessee. This move is a testament to their enduring legacy, their commitment to firearm excellence, and to the importance of preserving America’s gun industry and Second Amendment rights in a fair environment,” NRA Executive Director of Advancement, Tyler Schropp, told Fox News.

  “Representing millions of NRA members and gun owners, the NRA was proud to be the tip of the spear for the passage and enactment of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act that saved America’s firearm industry,” he continued, citing the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act that prohibits firearms manufacturers from being held liable if their products are used to commit a crime.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 17:40

• The Welfare-Warfare State's War On Income And Savings
  The Welfare-Warfare State’s War On Income And Savings

  Authored by Jacob Hornberger via The Future of Freedom Foundation,

  According to an article at CNBC.com, 60% of adults said they are living paycheck to paycheck. According to an article at Forbes.com, about a third of Americans were unable to save any money in the past year. According to an article at Yahoo! Finance, while financial advisors recommend savings of $1 million to $2 million for retirees, the average 70-year-old has only around $426,000 in savings. On top of that, consider how much the value of people’s money is debased each decade through the inflationary policies of the Federal Reserve.

  

  Welcome to the welfare-warfare state way of life, which plunders and loots people’s income to fund the ever-increasing expenditures of welfare-state programs and the warfare-state programs of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA.

  If we think back to America’s founding principles with respect to income, wealth, welfare, and warfare, we find that our American ancestors chose a totally different way of life than today’s Americans have chosen.

  Consider, for example, 1890 Americans. They lived without an income tax and an IRS to enforce it. Just think about that: People were free to keep 100 percent of their income, and there was nothing the government could do about it. Imagine if you were free to keep everything you earned. Imagine if that had been case during your entire work life. 

  When Americans were free to accumulate unlimited amounts of wealth, they obviously were able to save a larger percentage of their income. Wouldn’t you be saving more money if suddenly you no longer had to pay any income taxes whatsoever?

  

  Internal Revenue Service. Licensed under Creative Commons.

  Interestingly, as our American ancestors found themselves saving lots of money, that actually led to a higher standard of living for everyone in society. That’s because those savings were put into banks, which then lent them out to businesses, which used the money to invest in tools and equipment that made their workers more productive. That increased productivity brought lower prices for consumer goods, increased profits for businesses, and higher wages for workers. Thus, there was a harmony of interests in the unlimited accumulation of wealth and higher standards of living for people.

  Twentieth-century Americans chose to go in an opposite direction. They traded the right to keep everything they earned for a welfare state and then, later a national-security state. The idea of the welfare state was to have the government take a large share of people’s income and then use the money to take care of people. The idea behind the national-security state was to have the government take a large share of people’s income to protect them from the communists and, later, the terrorists, Muslims, drug dealers, illegal immigrants, Russians, Chinese, and many others.

  Our American ancestors, of course, refused to make that trade. They didn’t want the government to take care of them. They wanted to take care of themselves, with their own money and on a purely voluntary, charitable basis. They also knew that a national-security state (or what they termed “standing armies”) would inevitably embroil them in endless wars and crises that would mean even higher taxes (and lower savings).

  At the same time, our American ancestors rejected the plunder and looting that comes with a system of paper money and the Federal Reserve. That’s why the Constitution required that gold coins and silver coins be the official money of the United States. The result was the soundest monetary system in history, one in which people felt secure in saving large percentages of their income in longterm bonds.

  The question is: Which system do we go with moving forward — America’s founding system, which led to a massive increase in income, profits, savings, and charity? Or today’s system, which has led to poverty, suffering, and a vast welfare-warfare racket that has led to impoverishment of finances and spirit?

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 17:15

• Desperate Disneyland Slashes Children's Ticket Prices By More Than 50%
  Desperate Disneyland Slashes Children’s Ticket Prices By More Than 50%

  Disneyland is slashing ticket prices for children ages 3-9 by more than 50% for park entry early next year.

  

  The deal, which will go on sale Oct. 24, offers tickets for as little as $50 per child per day, and can be used between Jan. 8 through March 10 at Disneyland or Disney California Adventure. Current prices for children are $104 and up.

  The new deal is for 1, 2, or 3 day ticket packages.

  “These limited-time child tickets are a great value,” said spokesperson Kelsey Lynch on the Disney Parks blog.

  The deal provides significant savings compared to current children’s ticket prices, which are $270 for a 2-day pass and $340 for 3 days. Under the promotion, a 3-day child pass is $150.

  One-day kids’ tickets can sell for up to $179, which is the park’s “highest demand” date ticket, usually falling around Halloween or Christmas.

  The new deal has no blackout dates and will expire 13 days after the first day of use, if multiple days are purchased. That means customers will have to use their multi-day tickets within a two-week window after the first visit. -Epoch Times

  Adults will need to reserve their full priced tickets separately.

  That said, even lower prices aren’t going to convince many conservative parents to patronize the woke entertainment company.

  “I just don’t think we’ll be taking our kids back any time soon, especially after their new movie basically makes God into the bad guy,” one recent Disneyland visitor told the Epoch Times, referring to Disney Pixar’s latest movie reveal for “Wish,” which turns the movie’s God-like figure into an antagonist.

  In August, Disney came under fire for their upcoming Snow White remake, after the son of the man who animated and directed the original version called it a “disgrace” and labeled the “woke things” they’ve made up as “insulting.”

  David Hand—son of the animator and director of the original version who was known by the same name—issued a harsh rebuke of the remake, telling the Telegraph on Aug. 18 that Disney’s “woke” version is an insult to his father’s work.

  “It’s a whole different concept, and I just totally disagree with it, and I know my dad and Walt would also very much disagree with it,” Mr. Hand said.

  He said he disagrees with the entire concept, calling it a “disgrace,” suggesting that Disney is “trying to do something new with something that was such a great success earlier.”

  The aforementioned ticket discount also comes a week after the park lost a class action lawsuit alleging that Disney used deceptive practices over how they allocate reservations to annual passholders.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 16:50

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Korybko: Top 10 Takeaways From Hamas' Sneak Attack On Israel
  Korybko: Top 10 Takeaways From Hamas’ Sneak Attack On Israel

  Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

  Everything that’s happened thus far has been eye-opening for everyone.

  

  Hamas launched an unprecedented sneak attack on Israel over the weekend that completely caught the self-professed Jewish State by surprise after all its security systems unexpectedly failed at the same time. The border wall was breached, some military bases were captured, and dozens of hostages were taken back to Gaza.

  Israel responded by launching airstrikes inside the strip and preparing a ground operation.

  Here are the top ten takeaways from everything that’s happened thus far in the latest Israeli-Hamas war:

  1. Israel’s Alleged Invincibility Was Dispelled As An Illusion

  For starters, nobody is under the illusion any longer that Israel is invincible. Up until this weekend’s sneak attack, some had continued to cling to the claim that its conventional military-technical capabilities and massive aid from America made it the regional hegemon, but that perception was just shattered.

  2. It Was Totally Unprepared For Hamas’ Hybrid War Tactics

  Upon the breaching of its border wall, which was the result of a colossal intelligence failure and subsequent collapse of all security systems, Israel proved that it was totally unprepared to counter Hamas’ Hybrid War tactics of lightning-fast squad assaults and rudimentary drone attacks.

  3. Political Infighting Likely Contributed To This Intelligence Failure

  Had Israel’s military and intelligence services not gotten involved in the political dispute over Netanyahu’s planned judicial reforms, which was exacerbated by the Biden Administration’s meddling as explained here, then they might have detected Hamas’ plans in advance and thus been able to foil them.

  4. It Also Didn’t Help That US Spies Are Distracted With Ukraine

  Israel must take full responsibility for its intelligence failures, but it also didn’t help any that its American ally’s spies have been distracted with Ukraine. If they weren’t so focused on that conflict, then they might have kept at least one satellite over Gaza that could have discovered Hamas’ military buildup.

  5. America Is Now In A Dilemma Over Who Gets Finite Military Aid

  Business Insider drew attention to America’s newfound dilemma over whether to give finite military aid, particularly artillery shells, to Ukraine as planned or redirect these resources to Israel instead. Its decision could have major implications for both conflicts since the choice between them is zero-sum.

  6. Saudi Arabia Will Probably Freeze Its Peace Talks With Israel

  Saudi Arabia is under immense pressure from the international Muslim community to freeze its reported peace talks with Israel after the latter’s strikes against civilian targets in Gaza. It’ll probably comply with these demands, which would then ruin the Biden Administration’s plans for a deal before the elections.

  7. The IMEC Megaproject Will Likely Be Put On Ice For Some Time Too

  The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) can’t be completed if Saudi Arabia and/or especially Jordan freeze their role in its construction to protest Israel’s involvement in the latest conflict, though this won’t harm India’s trade with any relevant party since it’s entirely conducted by sea.

  8. Russia & China’s Balanced Statements Surprised Some Observers

  Many in the Alt-Media Community wrongly thought that Russia and China favored Palestine, hence why those two’s balanced statements here and here surprised them. Even fewer knew that President Putin fully supports the IDF as proven by his official statements over the years that were documented here.

  9. The Debate Over Whether The Ends Justify The Means Has Re-Opened

  Hamas’ killing of IDF-trained settlers-civilians and kidnapping of children, women, and the elderly to swap for prisoners was justified by some Palestinian supporters as a legitimate means for pursuing national liberation while other supporters criticized these tactics for undermining their cause’s morality.   

  10. Hezbollah Is The Wild Card In The Latest Israeli-Hamas War

  Hamas’ sneak attack against Israel brought to life one of the latter’s worst nightmares, which might become even worse if Hezbollah decides to commence large-scale hostilities. In that event, Lebanon and possibly also Syria could be dragged into the fray, which could easily become existential for all parties.

  Everything that’s happened thus far has been eye-opening for everyone.

  The reputation of Israel’s security services has been shattered, Hamas’ has never been better in the eyes of most non-Western observers, and many among the latter finally learned that neither Russia nor China favor Palestine.

  Should the latest conflict become protracted, let alone expand into a regional one, then there’s a real possibility that the US will freeze the Ukrainian Conflict in order to redirect finite military aid to Israel.  

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 10/09/2023 – 00:10

• "Can You Be Extradited For Treason?": Former Army Soldier Arrested Over Attempted China Espionage Involving Classified Materials
  “Can You Be Extradited For Treason?”: Former Army Soldier Arrested Over Attempted China Espionage Involving Classified Materials

  A former US Army soldier has been arrested and charged with two felonies over alleged attempts to deliver national defense information to the Chinese Communist Party, as well as illegal retention of national defense information following his exit from the service.

  

  Joseph Schmidt, a former Sergeant, was arrested at San Francisco International Airport on Friday after a grand jury indicted him on Wednesday.

  Schmidt, who served as a team leader of an Army human intelligence squad supporting US espionage in the Indo-Pacific, is accused of attempting to spy for China following his departure from the service in February 2020.

  The “shocking” plot includes allegations that Schmidt’s search history includes “can you be extradited for treason?”

  During a trip to Istanbul the same month he left the military, Schmidt made nearly 30 Google searches related to defection and spilling military secrets, ranging from “countries with most negative relations with US” to “what is China’s intelligence agency?” and “soldier defect,” according to an FBI investigative report.

  Other search terms included “subreddit spying” and “looking for a subreddit about spy stuff.”

  Schmidt also queried Google Maps for driving directions from Beijing’s airport to the headquarters of China’s Ministry of State Security, which has a similar role to the CIA.

  On Feb. 24, 2020, Schmidt sent a message to the Chinese Consulate in Istanbul requesting a meeting, calling himself a United States citizen looking to move to China.”

  “I also am trying to share information I learned during my career as an interrogator with the Chinese government,” he wrote. –NY Post

  “I have a current top-secret clearance, and would like to talk to someone from the Government to share this information with you if that is possible,” Schmidt wrote.

  “Individuals entrusted with national defense information have a continuing duty to protect that information beyond their government service and certainly beyond our borders,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen in a prepared statement.

  “The National Security Division is committed to identifying and holding accountable those who violate that duty.”

  More via The Epoch Times;

  Mr. Schmidt served in the Army for five years, ending his service in 2020.

  His primary active-duty assignment was at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, where he served in the 109th Military Intelligence Battalion. He was given access to Secret and Top Secret information in his role there.

  After separating from the military, Mr. Schmidt is alleged to have illegally held onto classified intelligence about national defense matters that he had obtained as part of his duties. Mr. Schmidt then allegedly reached out to the Chinese consulate in Turkey and then through email to Chinese security services and offered the information to the regime.

  “As alleged by the government, Schmidt betrayed his promise and potentially placed our nation at risk in his attempts to pass national defense information to Chinese security services,” said FBI Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Suzanne Turner.

  “The FBI and our partners remain steadfast in our commitment to protecting the American people and U.S. national security.”

  Two months after Mr. Schmidt’s separation from the Army, he traveled to Hong Kong where he allegedly told Chinese security services that he had access to a device that could access the United States’ secure military computer networks. It is alleged Mr. Schmidt offered to provide this device to the regime.

  Mr. Schmidt has resided in Hong Kong since 2020, but was arrested upon flying into San Francisco this week.

  “Members of our military take a sworn oath to defend our country and the Constitution,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman.

  “In that context the alleged actions of this former military member are shocking, not only attempting to provide national defense information, but also information that would assist a foreign adversary to gain access to Department of Defense secure computer networks.”

  Both of the alleged crimes are punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 23:40

• Judge Denies Sidney Powell's Motion To Dismiss Charges In Georgia Election Case
  Judge Denies Sidney Powell’s Motion To Dismiss Charges In Georgia Election Case

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

  A Georgia judge on Thursday rejected lawyer Sidney Powell’s attempt to dismiss her charges in a racketeering case that also ensnared former President Donald Trump and multiple others.

  

  Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee denied her motion to dismiss the charges, coming after she alleged that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis engaged in prosecutorial misconduct in her case.

  “I don’t see that as clearing just a procedural bar of being something that’s under the court’s authority,” the judge said as he denied Ms. Powell’s motion, the Washington Examiner reported. He added that it is the “jury’s job to decide contested issues” regarding her case.

  Ms. Powell is scheduled to go on trial later this month along with election lawyer Kenneth Chesebro. Several weeks ago, the two tried to sever their cases from each another, which Judge McAfee also denied, while the other 17 defendants—including President Trump—will go on trial at a later undetermined date.

  Both Ms. Powell and Mr. Chesebro have pleaded not guilty.

  “I can sympathize with the idea that someone who vigorously contests and believes in their innocence doesn’t want to sit through a long trial, but that is the state’s right to do,” Judge McAfee said in his remarks. “That’s simply the process as it stands.”

  Election Claims

  In August, Ms. Powell, a former federal prosecutor who drew headlines in 2020 for her “Kraken”-related claims about the 2020 election, was charged with racketeering and conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit computer theft, conspiracy to commit computer trespass, and more after prosecutors alleged that she was involved in an unlawful breach of voting equipment in Coffee County, Georgia.

  Her motion to dismiss accused Ms. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, of misconduct because her “indictment represents troubling and unethical conduct by the prosecutors.”

  Ms. Powell’s lawyers also said Ms. Willis and her team of prosecutors likely violated Napue, referring to a 1959 Supreme Court decision about the knowing use of false testimony by a prosecutor, and therefore violated the due process clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

  The prosecutors “must have presented a misleading and false case to the grand jury, or the grand jury simply rubber-stamped the Indictment,” her filing in late September stated. “The State was in possession of substantial exculpatory evidence which it must not have presented, and this Court should carefully review the grand jury proceedings for Napue and ethical violations by the prosecution.”

  But the Fulton District Attorney’s Office vigorously opposed Ms. Powell’s motion to dismiss, saying Thursday that her claims about her innocence should be up to the jury.

  While reports have said that Ms. Powell was an attorney for President Trump after the 2020 election, she wrote in a filing that she didn’t serve on the former president’s legal team at the time. There was some confusion after she appeared alongside then-Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis in a news conference about election irregularities.

  After Judge McAfee’s ruling, Ms. Powell has not made any public comments.

  Powell’s Co-Defendants

  The ruling comes weeks after Ms. Willis’ team confirmed that attorney Lin Wood, who also made a number of claims around the 2020 election, would serve as a “state witness” in Ms. Powell’s trial. In a comment to The Epoch Times, Mr. Wood said last month that he did not flip on President Trump or others, saying: “I have no idea why I am being called as a witness in the [Sidney] Powell trial.”

  In the Georgia case so far, all the defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges except for one. Last week, bail bondsman Scott Hall pleaded guilty to multiple charges as part of a plea agreement that requires him to testify against the other co-defendants.

  His case relates to the incident in Coffee County, according to prosecutors. It’s not clear if Mr. Hall will be called to testify against Ms. Powell or the others.

  As for President Trump, he also faces state charges in New York City after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted him for allegedly falsifying business records in connection to the 2016 election. Federal prosecutors earlier this summer charged President Trump over his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House and for his actions following the 2020 election.

  Attorneys for President Trump last week made a court filing saying he won’t seek to move the Georgia case to a federal court, coming after he previously wrote in a court filing that he might do so.

  “This decision is based on his well-founded confidence that this Honorable Court intends to fully and completely protect his constitutional right to a fair trial and guarantee him due process of law throughout the prosecution of his case in the Superior Court of

  Fulton County, Georgia,” Trump attorney Steven Sadow wrote.

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

• What Was Behind Last Week's Stunning Drop In Oil, And Where Does Crude Go Next
  What Was Behind Last Week’s Stunning Drop In Oil, And Where Does Crude Go Next

  Oil prices have been a veritable rollercoaster in just the past 10 days.

  After soaring more than 36% from its June lows to a 1-year high just above $97 at the end of September, Brent tumbled $14 in just six sessions, including last Wednesday’s brutal plunge, which was the biggest one-day drop since the UK’s Mini-Budget fiasco of Sept 2022 when funds were literally blowing up and liquidating commodities to avoid collapse, and which ended up with another BOE bailout.

  

  What was behind the furious plunge? While there wasn’t one single catalyst, Goldman’s commodities strategist Callum Bruce views the tumble in oil as driven by three reasons:

  1. Overvaluation: Goldman’s inventory-based modelling suggests oil timespreads and flat price was already elevated versus the bank’s forecasted inventory draws. Discretionary positioning was the longest since the Russia-Ukraine war, and the market was very much overbought.
  2. Recession fears: Renewed fears in a rates-led recession saw significant sell-offs in the more deferred timespreads, implying concerns regarding next year’s demand; this was exacerbated by the strategically timed very weak US EIA weekly gasoline demand print, that as many have observed (and speculated about the EIA’s political mandates) were implausibly low. In response, Goldman maintains its relatively serene macro-economic outlook, with FCIs not overtightening and real incomes still rising. Retail prices similarly are not yet at demand destructive levels and demand is still tracking robustly.
  3. CTA unwinds: Mechanical selling of oil as prices hit sell-stop triggers for short term momentum flows. Admittedly much length likely remains here.

  

  Goldman commodity products trader Madhav Janakiraman chimes in and writes that while “not a lot has actually changed fundamentally…. the market created a bit of downside momentum because of government shutdown risk/chatter about Kurdish crude coming back to market/Russian diesel returning etc. Once that little push occurred, the positioning did the rest particularly because a decent chunk of the length was CTA style momentum following strategies and they were quite close on some of their signals turning. At the same time index, commodity ETFs saw decent outflows into month-end and earlier this week. So retail, pension fund type long term investors were also exiting the space. Discretionary playxers simply didn’t have the ability to stem the tide…”

  So while it is tempting to think this is silly CTA led washout and a huge buying opportunity, Janakiraman says that the path risks are still significant. China being out this week for Golden week hasn’t helped either in terms of liquidity. They also tend to be pretty aggressive buyers of physical molecules when they see flat price get to cheap levels. One could also argue at current price set Saudi Arabia is unlikely to bring back crude they have held out from the market “and so it is cheap.”

  Whatever the reason for the drop, Goldman has stuck to its view of steep deficits into next year driven by (1) robust demand, and (2) significant OPEC+ discipline and pricing power, allowing inventories to draw down to critically low levels once again. The bank also expects prices to reach $100/bbl by mid-24 – driven by deferred timespreads – while the back-end of the curve is kept anchored by plentiful spare capacity and cost deflation in US shale. Meanwhile, the sudden break out of the Hamas-Israeli war in the middle east will likely push oil prices higher and faster (for more see “Oil Could Spike Well North Of $150″: Here Are The Main Implications For Oil From The Israeli War“.)

  In retrospect, last week’s oil tumble now seems like ancient history, and after Saturday’s unprecedented events in Israel, oil has moved sharply higher after the weekend attack by Hamas against Israel, with Brent topping $88 a barrel to repair some of last week’s heavy losses, and according to some, set to continue rising until it tops $150.

  

  Here, courtesy of Bloomberg’s Jake Lloyd-Smith are five early highlights from the market’s reaction that will help to shape trading in the coming days.

  • First, the immediate fallout has been seen right along the curve, with timespreads widening. Among them, Brent’s prompt spread — the difference between its two nearest contracts — gapped out to $1.64 a barrel in backwardation, a bullish pricing pattern. Still, banks aren’t yet rushing to upgrade their price forecasts.
  • While the latest events in Israel don’t pose an immediate threat to supply, the risk of escalation across the region remains acute, especially the potential for Hamas-backer Iran to be drawn in. That could pose a risk to supplies from Tehran, particularly if the US enforces sanctions with greater rigor.
  • Market watchers are also putting the spotlight on the fallout for Riyadh, which has been both curbing output to bolster prices, while at the same time seeking to normalize ties with Israel. If the latter now proves to be a far tougher ask, the former voluntary supply restrictions could last for longer.
  • OPEC+ members are signaling that there’ll be no immediate change to their collective stance. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates’ energy ministers all stressed their support for OPEC+ policy, saying continued cooperation was needed.
  • While benchmark prices did take a tumble last week before the weekend assault, the global oil market remains very tight following OPEC+ supply cuts. Further draws in inventories this week, especially at the Cushing hub, could trigger a meaningful surge in prices.

  Finally, going back to Goldman, the bank’s preferred oil trade is one that is bullish yet net sells volatility. The bank is currently recommending buying a 90-95 Jun-24 Brent Call spread and selling a 80-100 Jun-24 Brent Straddle to benefit from convex and backwardated forward curves, contangoed vol structure, and rangebound price action. Such a strategy raises almost $8/bbl up front, for a max profit of $13/bbl, and currently make profits in the $72-$113/bbl range.”

  

  More on Goldman’s current positioning and proposed trades as discussed earlier in “

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 22:40

• Alabama Deploys National Guard In Response To Illegal Immigration Crisis
  Alabama Deploys National Guard In Response To Illegal Immigration Crisis

  Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, has pledged to send 275 National Guard troops to the southern border while blaming President Joe Biden’s policies for fanning the flames of the illegal immigration crisis.

  

  With the move, Ms. Ivey joins other Republican governors in dispatching their military forces to help stem the tidal wave of people seeking to cross the border without authorization.

  “Every state has become a border state under the current policies,” Ms. Ivey said in a statement.

  “Alabama remains committed to being an integral part of the mission to protect our Southern Border,” she added.

  Earlier, Ms. Ivey joined 24 other governors in writing a letter to President Biden on Sept. 19, blaming his policies for incentivizing illegal immigration, which they said had risen exponentially under his watch, “in some areas by nearly 850%.”

  “States are on the front lines, working around-the clock responding to the effects of this crisis: shelters are full, food pantries empty, law enforcement strained, and aid workers exhausted,” Ms. Ivey and the others wrote, citing estimates that the annual cost of illegal immigration at federal, state, and local levels is at least $150.7 billion.

  Citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, the governors pointed out that there have been over 5.8 million illegal crossings since President Biden took office—and another 1.6 million gotaways who evaded capture.

  In September, CBP recorded over 260,000 illegal crossings at the southern border, marking an all-time high in a single month.

  

  Biden’s Policies In Focus

  Republicans have blamed President Biden for gutting the policies of his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, whose pledge to build a wall was a rallying cry for a series of actions that they credit for yielding comparatively low numbers of illegal border crossings.

  During his first 100 days in office, President Biden took dozens of executive actions on immigration, including ordering a halt to the construction of the border wall—which his administration is now rushing to resume in an embarrassing yet welcome about-face.

  In early 2021, when the Biden administration stopped the ongoing construction of the border wall, President Biden claimed that his predecessor’s focus on constructing the wall was misguided and an example of his supposed inability to manage immigration and secure the border.

  White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has denied that President Biden’s policies are to blame for the influx of illegal immigrants while accusing Republicans of turning the border issue into a “political stunt.”

  

  ‘Invasion’ at Border

  One of the most outspoken critics of the Biden administration’s border policies is Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who on Sept. 20 declared an “invasion” at the southern border due to the surge in illegal immigration while ordering the National Guard and law enforcement to assist with the crisis.

  “I officially declared an invasion at our border because of Biden’s policies,” Mr. Abbott, a Republican, wrote in a post on X.

  “We deployed the Texas National Guard, DPS, and local law enforcement. We are building a border wall, razor wire, and marine barriers. We are also repelling migrants,” he added.

  The governor’s office has also deployed more buses to ship illegal migrants to sanctuary cities, such as New York and Chicago, saying the state is “at capacity.”

  

  While Republicans have long been tough on the problem of illegal immigration, Democrat governors are also getting fed up.

  ‘They’re Coming From All Over’

  New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, recently expressed frustration with the illegal immigration crisis gripping the Big Apple, telling would-be asylum-seekers to “go somewhere else.”

  “They’re coming from all over,” she told CNN in an interview. “But we have to let the word out that when you come to New York, we’re not going to have more hotel rooms. We don’t have capacity.”

  

  Saying that New York City has run out of space and is at a breaking point, Ms. Hochul also threw her weight behind an initiative by New York Mayor Eric Adams’ office to suspend a decades-old “right to shelter” law that basically says officials must give shelter to anyone who asks for it.

  According to New York City officials, over 110,000 illegal immigrants have come to the city over the past year, with around 60,000 living in the city’s shelter system, costing billions of dollars per year.

  Ms. Hochul, too, has called in the National Guard, but in New York’s case, the troops are being deployed locally to help with case management operations meant to get asylum seekers work permits and clear out some of the tens of thousands crowding the city’s shelters.

  New York City officials are pressing ahead with an effort to suspend the right to shelter law, asking the state Supreme Court to modify the mandate, which they have described as “onerous” and “demonstrably ill-suited to present circumstances.”

  So far, New York City has spent more than $2 billion dealing with the influx, and Mr. Adams’ office has said it expects that to climb to $5 billion by the end of the fiscal year.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 22:10

• Oakland Police Tell Residents Not To Confront Auto Burglars
  Oakland Police Tell Residents Not To Confront Auto Burglars

  Police in Oakland, California are telling residents not to confront people breaking into their cars after seven suspects were arrested in three incidents late last month.

  

  “The individuals involved in locked auto burglaries have become extremely brazen. Something that’s typically a non-violent crime has become much more dangerous for police and for the community,” said Oakland interim assistant police chief, Tony Jones. “We want to caution the public. Don’t try to engage with these individuals who are breaking into your car.”

  During one of the incidents, officers caught thieves cutting a catalytic converter out of a vehicle in an underground garage. When officers approached, the suspects fled and rammed a police vehicle blocking the exit.

  “A lot of these individuals have guns, and they’re armed, and they’re dangerous,” said Jones. “[Our officers] got rammed, it could have gotten deadly, and so we don’t want people to risk their personal safety over personal belongings that they can acquire some other day. It’s just not worth it.”

  Jones says that officers have trained for such encounters, which allows them to respond without the use of lethal force.

  “This operation got a little dangerous, and our officers showed tremendous restraint,” he continued. “We have experienced an uptick in individuals ramming our police cars attempting to escape.”

  Following a chase which include a foot pursuit, police apprehended the catalytic converter thieves, discovering burglary tools and catalytic converters in their vehicle.

  In another case, criminals who switched license plates fled when officers attempted a traffic stop. Upon apprehending them they found several firearms in their car.

  According to Jones, stolen vehicles with swapped license plates are common.

  “We have to be just as vigilant in how we adapt to the different techniques they do,” he said, adding “We’re aware of the plates being switched, but you can’t switch the color of the car. You can’t turn a Honda into a Lexus.”

  There have been approximately 11,000 auto burglaries and 11,000 auto thefts in Oakland this year, a 40% increase over last year, according to OPD.

  “That’s a significant increase, and that’s why you’re seeing the police department take more of an initiative to focus on auto burglaries in the city,” said Jones. “We’re going to be out there a lot more, focusing on this, trying to prevent these crimes from occurring, trying to investigate these things and find people’s property that’s been taken.”

  Oakland residents have recently taken to complaints regarding calls for emergencies, with some saying they are put on hold for extended periods of time and often wait hours or days for officers to respond.

  The interim assistant chief acknowledged the predicament and said the department is working on solutions.

  “We are aware of the challenges with the 911 system, and we’re doing everything that we can to get the staffing up in the communications division so that those problems are rectified,” Mr. Jones said. “What’s more important is the personal safety of the people of Oakland.”

  With budgetary constraints facing the department, and the city failing to secure millions of dollars in public safety grants because they missed a state deadline earlier this year, the department is working to reallocate its budget to further investigate auto burglaries, he said.

  “We do have limited resources, but we can manage them in a way that allows us to do these operations regularly,” Mr. Jones said. -Epoch Times

  “We must and we will do more to hold accountable those individuals behind these crimes,” said Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao during a recent press conference. “This is harming our community at large. We take this very seriously.”

  In August, a recall effort was launched against Oakland’s Alameda County ‘Soros’ DA, Pamela Price, after several groups called out the rampant violence and lack of response.

  

  Members of a “Save Alameda for Everyone” (SAFE) filed a Notice of Intent with Alameda County officials to begin the recall process, following years of inaction by Price.

  “As crime spirals out of control on Alameda County streets, DA Price reduces sentencing for criminals and even refuses to charge violent felons with crimes,” reads a statement from the group which cites Oakland PD statistics stating that homicides are up 80% vs. pre-pandemic figures, and violent crime and burglaries are up 15% and 40% respectively over the same period.

  “African Americans are disproportionately hit the hardest by crime in East Oakland,” the group states, per KRON. “Women have been beaten and robbed by youths; hate crimes against Asian Americans are surging; street vendors have been assaulted, and basic services are under attack.”

  Earlier that month, the Oakland branch of the NAACP said that the city’s “failed” leadership had placed ‘everyone in danger.’

  “Oakland residents are sick and tired of our intolerable public safety crisis that overwhelmingly impacts minority communities. Murders, shootings, violent armed robberies, home invasions, car break-ins, sideshows, and highway shootouts have become a pervasive fixture of life in Oakland. We call on all elected leaders to unite and declare a state of emergency and bring together massive resources to address our public safety crisis,” reads the letter.

  The @NAACPOAKLAND just release a statement regarding Oakland’s escalating violence.
  Please read and share far and wide. pic.twitter.com/sxaIEpl13c

  — Seneca Scott (@SenecaSpeaks21) July 28, 2023

  “Failed leadership, including the movement to defund the police, our District Attorney’s unwillingness to charge and prosecute people who murder and commit life threatening serious crimes, and the proliferation of anti-police rhetoric have created a heyday for Oakland criminals,” reads the op-ed by Cynthia Adams, President of the Oakland Branch of the NAACP, and Bishop Bob Jackson of the Acts Full Gospel Church.  

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  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 21:40

• China Markets Face Choppy Return From Holidays
  China Markets Face Choppy Return From Holidays

  By John Cheng, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and strategist

  Chinese markets are set to reopen after the Golden Week holidays against an uncertain global market backdrop, which may temper optimism from the spending boom at home.

  A lot has happened overseas while mainland markets were shut. Risk assets were hammered as renewed concern about higher-for-longer US interest rates spurred a Treasuries selloff that rippled through world markets, while the surprise attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas added a fresh layer of uncertainty. On the domestic front, however, tourism revenue from the holidays surged year-on-year, adding to bets that China’s economy has likely bottomed.

  The conflicting signals set the stage for a choppy start for mainland equities on Monday. A gauge of Chinese shares listed in Hong Kong rose on Friday, helping trim its losses since Sept. 28 — when onshore markets last traded — to 0.3%. Meanwhile, an index of the nation’s US-listed stocks has gained 0.3% in the period. The offshore yuan has weakened about 0.2% against the dollar.

  

  “The Golden Week consumption data should give more confidence to markets that demand is stabilizing, which may help boost sentiment for consumer and service sectors,” said Marvin Chen, a strategist with Bloomberg Intelligence. “But easing domestic worries come with rising external headwinds from markets adjusting to higher-for-longer Fed rates.”

  Traders had been pinning their hopes on a holiday consumption boost to provide a new catalyst for the sluggish market. Travel and spending surged compared with lockdown-hit 2022, with 826 million travelers representing a 71% increase from last year. Spending jumping nearly 130%. Other key sets of data released during the break also showed the broader economy is on the mend, though far from roaring back.

  Investors will weigh these modest improvements against concerns about tighter Federal Reserve policy following a hotter-than-expected US jobs report. China is seen at particular risk as a wider interest-rate gap with the US can increase pressure on the yuan and accelerate a capital flight.

  

  The CSI 300 Index, a benchmark of onshore Chinese stocks, was down 4.7% for the year before heading into the break. A further 4.9% decline will see it erase all its gains from the reopening rally that took off in October 2022. Reaching that grim milestone may embolden China skeptics, who continue to shun the market due to deepening property-sector woes and geopolitical concerns.

  The housing market slump remains a major overhang, with the crisis embroiling debt-ridden developer China Evergrande Group and other key builders showing little signs of abating. Home sales continued to post double-digit declines from a year earlier in September, a traditionally busy season for builders, underscoring weak buyer confidence despite a recent slew of property easing measures.

   

  Some investors, however, say this year’s relentless selloff has created some buying opportunities. There are also hopes that the upcoming third plenum of the 20th Party Congress, a gathering of top leaders to discuss major economic and reform issues, will offer hints of further stimulus. The meeting, to be held toward the end of October and early November, could act as a positive catalyst, said Chen of Bloomberg Intelligence.

  “We can expect a recovery toward the end of the year or early next year with the economy coming toward the end of the de-stocking cycle, and as we see more coordinated policy efforts to tackle the weak economy,” said Elizabeth Kwik, investment director of Asian equities at abrdn Plc.

  For now, winning back foreign investors is proving to be hard. Global funds sold Chinese shares on a net basis for a second consecutive month in September, trimming their exposure to the lowest level since 2020. Pessimism is such that “short China equities” emerged as one of the biggest convictions among money managers in the latest Bank of America Corp. monthly survey.

  “We have economic data showing improvement so that’s a good start, but markets are skeptical given how confidence was badly damaged,” said Christopher Wong, FX strategist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. in Singapore. It will take time for Chinese markets to recover, he added, as “sentiment needs to recover and confidence needs to be repaired.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 20:50

• "There's Just Way Too Much Debt": This Is Now The Greatest Bond Bear Market In History
  “There’s Just Way Too Much Debt”: This Is Now The Greatest Bond Bear Market In History

  There was a remarkable chart in the latest Flow Show note from BofA resident bear Michael Hartnett: after peaking in July 2020 and in the subsequent 28 months drawing down by a record 25%, this is now the single greatest bond bear market of all time!

  

  Considering that BofA’s historical data goes back 236 years all the way to the founding of the republic, this is a jarring statistic, and a poignant reminder of the magnitude of the pain rippling through the financial world in the aftermath of an inflation shock and interest-rate surge that few saw coming… a shock which Deutsche Bank last week quantified as a $70 trillion Mark to Market hit to duration portfolios (while some may claim it’s not a loss unless you actually sell the bond, the truth is that any bond which is pledged as collateral in the repo markets or elsewhere is valued daily, and the cumulative haircut assuming all eligible duration was pledged is, drumroll, $70 trillion).

  Worse, the historical bond bear market also underscores the growing angst in some corners of Wall Street about the increasingly shaky state of US government finances. As a reference, it took the US government just 18 days to add more than $500 billion dollars in debt after rising above $33 trillion for the first time: a run-rate of $1 trillion in new debt in under 2 months. Also, it took the US until March 1975 to accumulate its first $500 billion. It just did the same in 18 days.

  And just 18 days later we are at $33.513 trillion. That’s $28.5 billion in new debt per day, and on pace to add another trillion in 1.5 months. https://t.co/tOrhqmldNj

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 6, 2023

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  As Bloomberg Markets Live reporter Ye Xie writes, massive deficits as far as the eye can see seemed fine when the Federal Reserve had interest rates pinned at zero and was monetizing tens of billions of dollars’ worth of Treasuries every week. Free money can mask a lot of problems.

  But at today’s 5% rate, though, the math gets tricky. The government’s tab, and, as a result, the supply of bonds it needs to sell, adds up so fast that it can overwhelm what was long considered to be insatiable demand for the world’s safest investment.

  “There’s just way too much debt,” says Ed Yardeni, founder of Yardeni Research. And so, Xie goes on, the price on the 10-year Treasury bond is tumbling, driving its yield up to the highest level in 16 years. Investors, in other words, are demanding a discount to buy the debt, a dynamic that’s magnified by the Fed’s sudden exit from the market. Quantitative easing, as the Fed’s bond-purchase program was known, became untenable once policymakers deemed inflation was Enemy No. 1; it just pumped too much cash into an already overheated economy. Central banks in Brazil, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere have also halted their US bond purchases. In some cases, they’ve taken to outright selling.

  The vacuum created by the central banks’ departure is once again empowering the traditional forces in finance: banks, hedge funds, insurers. Yardeni refers to this group as the bond vigilantes, a term he coined first back in the 1980s. Right now, he says, they’re back to doing their thing, pushing bond prices down and yields up, and sending a warning to Washington to rein in the deficit and inflation.

  This isn’t about the US defaulting on its debts. The periodic histrionics surrounding the debt ceiling and government funding deadlines are, for now at least, just that. The real concern is that by pursuing a fiscal policy that drives up yields so much, Washington is putting the squeeze on companies and consumers across America. Push yields too high, too fast and something in the economy will break, something both JPMorgan and Goldman agree on (see “Goldman, JPMorgan Pull The Alarm: As Yields Soar “Risks Are Growing Of A Sharp, Impulsive, Negative Feedback Loop… There Will Be A Financial Accident“.)

  Last March, it happened with SVB, and while nothing was fixed the problem of massive mark to markets bond losses was masked courtesy of the Fed’s BTFP facility which has hit new record highs every weeks since its inception (the facility is supposed to terminate next March; instead it will be greatly expanded). Yardeni frets it will happen again now, and potentially drag the economy into a painful recession in the process.

  “We’re getting pretty close to the level where something could break,” he says. A key level for him: 5% on the 10-year bond. Surpass that, he says, and the odds of a recession really pick up. The yield got as high as 4.89% last week. Just two months earlier, it was hovering around 4%. During the pandemic, it was as low as 0.3%.

  Meanwhile, Xie points to the latest Hartnett notes and reminds readers that the superlatives quantifying the bond rout are endless. One comparison being made is to the wipeout in stocks during the dot-com bust (in both cases, the losses reached 50%).

  

  Another startling reference is that at one point last quarter the spike in yields was the biggest since the increase that proceeded the 1987 stock market crash. The pain has started to spill into stocks this time, too, albeit to a far lesser extent. Corporate bonds have also slid while the dollar has rallied against most other currencies. Even oil, which had largely been impervious to broader economic forces throughout the summer, got sucked into the bond market vortex last week, posting losses that broke a months-long rally.

  What makes this moment all the more shocking to Wall Street veterans is that it disrupted years of Fed-orchestrated stability in the bond market. That comatose state, in which benchmark yields hovered around 2% day after day, year after year, had become known as the new normal. The US—and much of the rest of the world—had entered an era of low growth and low inflation in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, so rock-bottom rates made sense.

  Few on Wall Street saw much that might change that, not even when the pandemic unleashed a torrent of government spending. Now that change is here at such a radical pace, many of finance’s best and brightest are suddenly citing all sorts of economic forces that could keep yields high for years: global warming, the transition to green energy, deglobalization, demographic shifts and, of course, the ever-growing supply of government bonds. “We are in a world with a permanently higher cost of capital, and that does have consequences,” says Torsten Slok, chief economist at Apollo Global Management.

  The years from 2008 to 2020 were abnormal, even if at some point they came to feel normal, Slok says. The Bank of America strategists dug up another historical nugget to underscore the point: Global interest rates during this period were the lowest in 5,000 years. “The new world that we live in,” Slok says, “is really the normal world that we were in.”

  It’s a world in which Yardeni’s vigilantes, the bond traders, have a much bigger voice, the Fed has a smaller one, and consumers, corporate executives and Washington lawmakers have to confront a harsh reality: America’s free-money experiment is over.

  And while it is certainly admirable that central banks are, at least superficially, seeking a return to the old normal, the problem is that if the Fed truly hopes to put the QE years behind it, it better be prepared to also wipe away about 80% of the stock market gains since 2009.

  Of course, this will never happen, as the alternative would be the biggest depression in global history, one which promptly mutates into social unrest and civil and global war. Which is why it is amusing to watch the Fed play chicken on two front: inflation on one, and the threat of unprecedented capital markets collapse on the other.

  Amusing, because in the end everyone knows which alternative the Fed – an unaccountable, private entity owned by America’s private banks and financial interests…

  Classification of central banks by ownership

  

  … will choose, and it’s also why we are fully certain that within a few years the new inflation target in the US will be 3%, if not much higher.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 20:34

• Rubin And Tribe Under Fire For Using The Massacre In Israel For Bizarre Attacks On Political Figures
  Rubin And Tribe Under Fire For Using The Massacre In Israel For Bizarre Attacks On Political Figures

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  In academia, one of the most common criticisms in research and discussions is that correlation does not mean causation.

  It refers to the logical fallacy for some who draw a cause-and-effect relationship between two events. The logical fallacy is captured in the Latin phrase cum hoc ergo propter hoc (‘with this, therefore because of this’). With the horrific attacks on Israel this week, some well-known commentators have been criticized for using the killing of hundreds by Hamas as a criticism of conservative figures or Republicans in general.

  

  That includes the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin who appeared to blame the GOP for inviting the attack and Professor Laurence Tribe who suggested (and later retracted) that the war was actually a “wag-the-dog” operation by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to distract from corruption allegations.

  Rubin (who goes by the moniker “Jennifer Truthful, Not Neutral Rubin”) immediately attempted to use the attack as another attack on Republicans: “How about this: With US House in chaos and US military promotions on hold, Hamas struck. Republicans’ weakness invites terror.”

  How about this: With US House in chaos and US military promotions on hold, Hamas struck. Republicans’ weakness invites terror.

  — Jennifer Truthful, Not Neutral Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) October 7, 2023

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  Putting aside the effort to use this tragedy as a political cudgel domestically, Rubin ignores the fact that the motion to vacate the chair succeeded due to a unanimous Democratic vote and just eight dissenting Republicans. The Democrats wanted to vacate the chair even though McCarthy was being criticized by the dissenters for working with them and they will now likely receive a far more strident speaker.

  Rubin has also called for expelling Republican members, who voted against certifying the 2020 election. She further declared that “we have to collectively, in essence, burn down the Republican Party. We have to level them because if there are survivors, if there are people who weather this storm, they will do it again.”

  The Washington Post has repeatedly failed to take down or correct columns containing false claims by Rubin. Instead, it has run her calls to end impartiality and neutrality in journalism.

  Now Rubin is suggesting that Hamas decided to launch this massive attack because there is an acting Speaker in the House until next week. It appears that Hamas was just waiting for the motion to vacate to pass.

  Laurence Tribe immediately used the massacre to attack Netanyahu.

  

  Citing the Washington Post, Tribe wrote “Is Netanyahu wagging the dog of war to take attention away from his own war on the independent judiciary? Can anyone put that past him?”

  The response was fast and furious.

  It was even too much for figures like Keith Olbermann who condemned Tribe stating, “Well this is a moronic and indefensible POV.”

  What was striking is that the media finally called out Tribe, who has regularly posted bizarre legal theories and personal attacks against conservative figures, including attacking Bill Barr (erroneously) over his faith. On MSNBC and other outlets, Tribe regularly makes profane or personal attacks against those who hold opposing views of constitutional interpretation, including myself. These attacks include false assertions that had to be later corrected.

  These controversies highlight the need to restore an element of maturity and civility to commentary. The “everything-goes” mentality has now taken hold of major media outlets, which regularly feature trash talking and sensational claims. If the target of these attacks is a conservative or Republican, there is a sense of license to remove the safeties in public engagements.

  Once again, it is possible to restore a modicum of civility and accuracy in our public discourse. All it takes is for people of good faith to turn away from the rage and return reason in our commentary.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 19:50

• "This Is Unacceptable": Blue States Blast Biden Over Border Blunders As Backlash Intensifies
  “This Is Unacceptable”: Blue States Blast Biden Over Border Blunders As Backlash Intensifies

  Blue states buckling under the strain of hundreds of thousands of migrants bussed into their Democratic strongholds are blaming President Joe Biden for not doing enough to curb the influx of illegals.

  

  The latest politician to blast Biden is Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who told Biden in a Monday letter that his state is in an “untenable situation,” and that the feds need to take “swift action.”

  In August, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) joined with business leaders to implore the administration to do something about the “humanitarian crisis” that’s overwhelmed New York City with more than 100,000 migrants.

  The next month, NYC Mayor Eric Adams predicted that the migrant crisis “will destroy New York City.“

  Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D), meanwhile, issued a state of emergency in August in response to the illegal migrant crisis, telling DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a letter that her state has taken action “to address what sadly has been a federal crisis of inaction.”

   White House officials are scrambling to respond – and have already fumbled the ball on the border wall. Earlier last week, reports emerged that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, in an official document, that there is “an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers” along the US border- while the Biden administration waived 26 federal laws to build more border wall.

  Two days later, he backpedaled furiously, claiming “There is no new administration policy with respect to the border wall,” adding “From day one, this Administration has made clear that a border wall is not the answer. That remains our position and our position has never wavered. The language in the Federal Register notice is being taken out of context and it does not signify any change in policy whatsoever,” the statement continues.

  NEW: After quite literally saying there is an “immediate need to construct physical barriers” at the southern border, DHS Secretary Mayorkas says we are all taking him out of context.

  The utter incompetence by this administration is astounding.

  In an attempt to gaslight the… pic.twitter.com/9X3Xy73DfD

  — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 6, 2023

  White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tried to downplay the move, arguing that the government is following Trump-era laws but still does not believe in the wall’s effectiveness.

  “We believe that we need border technology that is modernized and land ports of entry. And that’s what we want to see,” she told reporters on Thursday, adding that Biden “does not believe it is effective. He has been very clear about that.”

  Jean-Pierre added that the wall funds were from a Trump-era border appropriations bill.

  “We asked Congress to reappropriate the funds,” she said, “But they’ve refused, and so now we’re moving forward.”

  More via The Epoch Times;

  Biden Trying to Appease Democratic Leaders: Border Experts

  The White House is acting in accordance with the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which forbids the President or other government officials from bypassing Congress in making funding decisions. This is not, however, the primary reason why the administration is restarting the construction of the wall, according to Andrew Arthur, resident fellow in law and policy for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based think tank.

  The decision is clearly “driven by a need to respond to concerns voiced by Democratic-elected officials in northern U.S. cities,” Mr. Arthur told The Epoch Times.

  “Barriers will help agents in the apprehension and processing of illegal entrants, but they will do nothing to discourage those migrants improper entries absent a concomitant policy shift—but at least the administration can claim that it is ‘doing something.’”

  ‘We’re Here Abandoned’

  Last month, Mayor Rolando Salinas of Eagle Pass, Texas, a Democrat, criticized President Biden for the border crisis. In an interview with CNN, he complained that the White House had not communicated with him while thousands of illegal immigrants poured into his small city.

  “We’re here abandoned. We’re on the border, we’re asking for help. This is unacceptable,” he said.

  In a recent letter to the White House, Gov. Pritzker also raised a similar concern, urging that “there be one person in the federal government” who works directly for the president and is in charge of overseeing efforts at the border.

  When asked about this request, Ms. Jean-Pierre said, “There are multiple folks” at the White House who have been in contact with governors across the country.

  “Look, let’s not forget, we provided a billion dollars to those counties, states, cities who are dealing with this issue,” she said. “It is an issue that’s incredibly important to this president.”

  Charlotte Cuthbertson contributed to this report.

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  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 19:15

• Strike To Start At 4 Prime Healthcare California Hospitals
  Strike To Start At 4 Prime Healthcare California Hospitals

  By Kelly Gooch at Becker’s Hospital Review

  Members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals and Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West are set to launch a strike Oct. 9 at four Prime Healthcare facilities in Southern California.

  The unions represent about 2,400 workers at four Prime hospitals: St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center, and Encino Hospital Medical Center, according to union statements shared with Becker’s. Ontario, Calif.-based Prime Healthcare operates 45 hospitals and more than 300 outpatient locations in 14 states.

  Members of both unions, which include registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses, certified nursing assistants, medical assistants, emergency room technicians, respiratory therapists and others, have been in negotiations with Prime for new contracts at the four facilities. Union members contend that during negotiations, management has not adequately addressed workers’ concerns about issues related to alleged unsafe staffing and high turnover.

  “We are calling on Prime Healthcare to stop their unfair labor practices, bargain in good faith, and listen to the front-line healthcare workers that this community depends on,” Bernie Espinoza, an ultrasound tech at Prime Garden Grove Hospital, said in a statement. “Staffing has been so critically low that many caregivers have left. The remaining workers are stretched thin and rushed. We’re forced to take on more patients with less staff, which leaves much less time for quality one-on-one patient care.”

  In its statement, UNAC/UHCP claimed that Prime cut nurse salaries when it bought St. Francis in 2020 and that registered nurse turnover has doubled to more than 50% since then, leaving the hospital “dangerously understaffed.”

  Prime emphasized its commitment to bargain in good faith.

  “Proposals have been delivered to the unions that would increase wages and provide comprehensive benefit programs, including healthcare, that is among the best in the nation at little to no cost to employees,” the health system said in a statement shared with Becker’s. “We believe the current proposal benefits all our employees and hope to reach an agreement so we can continue our mission of providing compassionate, quality care to patients.”

  Prime also noted recognition its hospitals have received for care and service; efforts it has made to hire, recruit and retain staff; support and growth opportunities it offers through continuing education, tuition reimbursement, career development and other programs; and investments it has made in improvements to hospitals.

  Regarding St. Francis specifically, Prime said the hospital “has a special story having been rescued from bankruptcy during the pandemic. After millions in investments to improve technology, systems and infrastructure, the hospital has achieved nationally recognized patient safety and quality awards while providing vital care for its community, earning commendation from local and state leaders. None of this would have been possible without our dedicated staff.  We are committed to ensuring a workplace that honors their work and continues to provide lifesaving care for the most vulnerable.”

  At St. Francis, registered nurses represented by UNAC/UHCP will join other healthcare workers for a five-day strike beginning Oct. 9. SEIU-UHW healthcare workers plan to strike at the three other Prime hospitals at the same time.

  A strike could be averted if a deal is reached before Oct. 9.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 18:40

• As "Most Important Election Of Our Lives" Looms, Trump Blasts "Weak & Ineffective" Biden For Hamas Attack On Israel
  As “Most Important Election Of Our Lives” Looms, Trump Blasts “Weak & Ineffective” Biden For Hamas Attack On Israel

  During a campaign rally on Oct. 7 in Waterloo, Iowa, former President Trump responded to the surprise attack on Israeli towns by the terrorist group Hamas earlier in the day, criticizing President Biden for being a “weak leader”.

  

  “We’re here today for a very important reason: to commit to caucus, we know what that means right, commit to caucus, exactly 100 days from now each and every one of you is going to cast the most important vote of your lives.

  I believe that too. I believe that this will be the most important election of our lives because this country is headed in a horrible horrible direction and you so what took place today in Israel.

  This country is just headed so badly [sic].”

  Trump made it clear who was to blame for the attacks in Israel:

  “The Israeli attack was made because we are perceived as being weak and ineffective and with a really weak leader and and uh the brutal murder of citizens is an act of savagery that must and will be crushed, has to be… It has to be dealt with very powerfully.

  This is a time where the United States needs leadership –  we don’t have leadership – but Israel is at War and the United States obviously is going to stick with Israel and strongly…”

  Trump concluded with a pitch for his caucus:

  “if we don’t take back our country, we’re not going to have a country. If we do take back our country, our country will be greater than ever before, I promise you that…”

  Watch the clip below:

  The Ron Paul Institute’s Adam Dick made an interesting point as Republican Party presidential candidates rushed out statements setting forth their related views, the statement of Donald Trump stood out as relatively noninterventionist.

  While placing blame on Hamas, Trump refrained from promising support for the government of Israel in the conflict. This set him apart from the other prominent Republican candidates who made comments pledging support for Israel.

  Here is Trump’s Saturday statement on the matter:

  These Hamas attacks are a disgrace and Israel has every right to defend itself with overwhelming force. Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden Administration. We brought so much peace to the Middle East through the Abraham Accords, only to see Biden whittle it away at a far more rapid pace than anyone thought possible. Here we go again.

  So far so good. Trump is not endorsing in his statement the United States government supporting the Israel government in this conflict. But, there certainly is much pressure on him to make such an endorsement soon.

  Other Republican presidential candidates, in contrast, jumped immediately at the opportunity to declare their support for aiding Israel in this new rising conflict. Tara Suter reported Saturday at The Hill on other prominent Republican candidates’ early statements on the matter. Every one of them took a step beyond Trump, pledging their support to the Israel government in the rising conflict.

  Below are excerpts from those candidates’ statements presented in Suter’s article.

  Doug Burgum: “Iran and its terror sponsors in Gaza are showing the world their true face: pure evil. Israel is at war with brutal terrorists and the United States must provide maximum support to our democratic ally.”

  Chris Christie: “We must do whatever it takes to support the State of Israel in its time of grave danger, and we must end the scourge of Iran-backed terrorism.”

  Ron DeSantis: “Israel not only has the right to defend itself against these attacks, it has a duty to respond with overwhelming force. I stand with Israel. America must stand with Israel.”

  Nikki Haley: “Israel has every right to defend its citizens from terror. We must always stand with Israel and against this Iranian regime.”

  Mike Pence: “Our prayers are with the families and soldiers of our most cherished ally. @netanyahu [Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu)] says Israel is ‘at war’ America Stands With Israel[.]”

  Vivek Ramaswamy: “Israel’s right to exist & defend itself should never be doubted and Iran-backed Hamas & Hezbollah cannot be allowed to prevail. I stand with Israel and the U.S. should too.”

  Tim Scott: “Israel has a right to defend itself and the United States must stand in support of its steadfast ally.”

  Can Trump continue to resist the pressure being put on him to declare that he does, and the US government should, “stand with Israel” in regard to this rising conflict?

  We’ll see.

  Taking a solitary course concerning this matter would be consistent with Trump’s apparent effort to run as the peace candidate among the contenders in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 18:05

• Dollarization Puts Foreign Economies At The Mercy Of The US Regime
  Dollarization Puts Foreign Economies At The Mercy Of The US Regime

  Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

  Argentinian presidential candidate Javier Milei – who could actually win in the general election later this month – has become famous for his fiery speeches and his libertarian views from central banking to government spending.

  Milei’s proposed policies – if he’s able to actually implement them – would do much to help the Argentinian economy recover from decades of malaise caused by runaway government spending and monetary inflation.

  Among Milei’s positions, however, is his call for the dollarization of the Argentinian economy. It is unclear if Milei seeks currency competition within Argentina or if he seeks “full-blown” dollarization. In the case of the former, the dollar would merely be permitted to openly compete with other currencies. Full-blown dollarization, on the other hand, would mean the complete abandonment of the Argentinian peso and the adoption of the US dollar as the state’s preferred currency.

  

  Here at mises.org, authors Simon Wilson and Kristoffer Hansen have already addressed some of the economic problems presented by dollarization. There are geopolitical problems that come with full dollarization, as well. Dollarized countries open themselves up to more ready control by the US regime should Washington decide it wishes to impose economic sanctions on a dollarized country. The impact of sanctions within a dollarized economy can have especially devastating effects on ordinary people who must use dollars in everyday transactions.

  At least, this is what happened in Panama in 1988 and 1989. The Panamanian economy had been fully dollarized for decades when the US government imposed economic sanctions on the country as part of the US government’s efforts to capture the Manuel Noriega. Full dollarization led in part to a severe economic contraction which did little to unseat Noriega but which impoverished ordinary dollar users in the country.

  While Argentinians may think it’s unlikely that the US will seek to impose sanctions on the country—and thus such geopolitical concerns are irrelevant—the US in recent years has been increasingly enthusiastic about using economic sanctions against regimes Washington doesn’t like. Any regime considering dollarization would do well to at least consider how dollarization can increase the US’s potential for direct political control over dollarized economies.

  Panama: A Case of Full Dollarization

  The nominal Panamanian currency is the balboa, but it only circulates as coins and is pegged to the dollar in a 1:1 ratio. The US dollar is used in most transactions, Panama has never had its own central bank, and the dollar has functioned as legal tender for more than a century in Panama. This means the Panama economy is now—and has been since economic liberalization in the 1970s—fully integrated into the US financial system. 

  This comes with some undeniable benefits. As Juan Luis Moreno-Villalaz has noted,

  The unified currency system eliminates foreign exchange risk, currency mismatches, and speculative attacks so common in other countries with central banks and “sovereign” money. The absence of “policy decisions” regarding monetary or exchange rate affairs reduces risk because less information is needed by outside investors.

  Because of this relative stability and economic integration, however, the role of dollar-denominated US banks in Panama is unusually large, and ordinary consumers and business owners use US banks and dollars to carry out everyday transactions. Because the US government can directly regulate these US banks and their payment systems, this makes Panama’s economy more directly affected by US domestic policy, including executive orders from US presidents.

  Not that non-dollarized economies are immune from this. In the modern world, even non-dollarized economies use dollars heavily. Dollars are key to the eurodollar economy—including petrodollars—and dollars are used extensively for international trade. Cutting off access to dollars can be used as a chokepoint against many countries should the US wish to impose economic sanctions against those countries. We have seen this phenomenon at work in recent years in the form of new US sanctions against Russia and Iran. Thus, one could reasonably conclude that the dollar can be weaponized against countries whether or not those countries have dollarized. This is true to an extent, but the Panama experience suggests that full dollarization magnifies and extends a foreign economy’s susceptibility to US policy. 

  Dollarization and US Sanctions Against Panama 

  The problem of dollarization for Panama became acute in 1988 and 1989 when the United States engaged in efforts to arrest General Manuel Noriega and try him for a variety of drug-related crimes in the United States. From the late 1970s to the mid 1980s, Noriega had been a valued unofficial agent of the CIA and the US regime. He funneled resources to the Contras in Nicaragua at the behest of the US government and allowed the CIA to carry out spy operations from bases in Panama. As the de facto ruler of Panama throughout much of the 1980s, he was, in short, one of the US regime’s many “strongman” allies in Latin America. When Noriega began to assert more independence from Washington, however, the US regime turned against him and sought his extradition.

  Economic sanctions were subsequently imposed in 1988. According to a 1989 report from the General Accounting Office, the State Department advised US banks “to not disburse funds to the Noriega regime.” The report continues:  “On March 11, 1988, the President [Reagan] …announced a program to reduce the flow of U.S. dollars to Panama. This included requiring that all payments due to Panama from the operation of the Panama Canal Commission be deposited into an escrow account established at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.”  The US also assisted Noriega’s adversaries in Panama in an effort to “freez[e] Panamanian assets in the United States which ultimately led to the closure of domestic Panamanian banks in March 1988.” 

  The sanctions did not succeed in convincing Noriega to surrender, but they did damage the Panamanian economy considerably.  As political scientist Benjamin J. Cohen describes it,

  Panamanian assets in U.S. banks were frozen, and all payments and dollar transfers to Panama were prohibited, effectively demonetizing the economy. … The effect on the economy was devastating despite rushed efforts by the Panamanian authorities to create a substitute currency, mainly by issuing checks in standardized denominations that they hoped recipients would then treat as cash.

  The sanctions may have reduced Panama’s economic output by as much as 20 percent, yet it is notable that the US did not even employ its full arsenal of economic sanctions. Given the extensive dollarization of the Panama economy, the US could have easily further destroyed the Panama economy by “curtailing … inter-bank transfers of US dollars.” 

  Some historians and economists have investigated to what extent Panama’s dollarization put it at the mercy of US sanctions. Cohen concludes “In political terms … Panama has been especially vulnerable in its relations with Washington.” In a study titled “Full Dollarization: The Case of Panama,” the authors conclude 

  the suspension of payments (resulting from the freezing of Panamanian accounts in New York) could be a risk associated mainly with a dollarized economy, given that the dollarization regime leads to a large presence of overseas bank accounts. … It is true that the United States cut off the supply of new paper currency and froze Panamanian bank accounts in New York. The first action had little real adverse economic impact, however, while the efficacy of the second derived not from dollarization per se but from the large role of New York banks in the economy. But the latter was in part the consequence of the former” [emphasis added.]

  In other words, dollarization likely led to greater reliance on US banks which, in turn, increased the ability of the US to more effectively impose sanctions on Panama’s economy. 

  Perhaps one of the most notable effects of the sanctions in Panama’s dollarized economy was the fact the sanctions had such a large effect on ordinary Panamanians. In a non-dollarized economy, sanctions limiting access to dollars can take more time to be felt by the bulk of the population, especially those parts of the population not directly involved in international trade and finance. With dollars as the ordinary everyday currency, however, efforts to cut off the flow of dollars had a greater direct impact on the economy. In a 1990 study for the Army War College, Kay. B. Witt concludes “the average Panamanian bore the brunt of the sanctions,” and it might also be noted that the sanctions were most felt by law-abiding citizens who were not involved in the “informal” economy where dollars still flowed via illegal conduits. The Noriega regime had access to both the normal economy and the informal economy, however, and thus could continue to access dollars even as ordinary people greatly suffered at the hands of US policymakers.  Witt concedes, “the sanctions had no significant effect on General Noriega and his loyal followers.” 

  Noriega, of course, was eventually captured in early 1990 in the wake of a US invasion, and the sanctions were lifted. It is instructive, however, to note the speed and ease with which the US was able to devastate the Panama economy by cutting off dollars.

  Dollarization does indeed bring economic benefits, but Latin American policymakers might be well-advised to consider the geopolitical effects of dollarization as well.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 17:30

• Iran Helped Hamas "Plot Israel Attack Over Several Weeks", Gave Green Light, WSJ Reports
  Iran Helped Hamas “Plot Israel Attack Over Several Weeks”, Gave Green Light, WSJ Reports

  Readers may recall that we ended our first post-mortem to the war between Israel and Hamas by speculation if Iran would get dragged in:

  Finally, there is some speculation that Iran may get dragged into what is rapidly emerging as the worst Middle-Eastern crisis in years, with various pro-Israeli hawks claiming that the Hamas attack would have only occurred with explicit Iranian backing. If Israel does indeed attack Iran, as it has hinted it would do for years, may we suggest you fill up your gas tank.

  That speculation has been all but validated moments ago when the WSJ reported that “Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas’s Saturday surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday“, according to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed militant group.

  Officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had worked with Hamas since August to devise the air, land and sea incursions, the WSJ reported citing its Hamas and Hezbollah sources.

  

  Details of the operation were refined during several meetings in Beirut attended by IRGC officers and representatives of four Iran-backed militant groups, including Hamas, which holds power in Gaza, and Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group and political faction in Lebanon, they said.

  At the same time, officials from the deep state blob – who have been desperate to appease both Iran and Venezuela in recent months in hopes of getting sanctions against the Tehran regime lifted so that it can officially supply extra oil to the US ahead of the 2024 elections (instead of just unofficially shipping oil to China), with Biden terrified what high gas prices may do to his reelection chances – say they haven’t seen evidence of Tehran’s involvement. In an interview with CNN that aired Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “We have not yet seen evidence that Iran directed or was behind this particular attack, but there is certainly a long relationship.”  This was echoed by an U.S. official of the meetings who said that “We don’t have any information at this time to corroborate this account.”

  A European official and an adviser to the Syrian government, however, both of whom are not bound by the price of oil in Nov 2024, gave the same account of Iran’s involvement in the lead-up to the attack as the senior Hamas and Hezbollah members.

  Some more details from the WSJ:

  A direct Iranian role would take Tehran’s long-running conflict with Israel out of the shadows, raising the risk of broader conflict in the Middle East. Senior Israeli security officials have pledged to strike at Iran’s leadership if Tehran is found responsible for killing Israelis.

  The IRGC’s broader plan is to create a multi-front threat that can strangle Israel from all sides—Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the north and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank, according to the senior Hamas and Hezbollah members and an Iranian official.

  Whether or not Iran actually did help Hamas plan and execute the attack, and whether Mossad – the world’s best intelligence agency – was really completely unaware of what was going on, is – for the time being – irrelevant. What matters is that the narrative is now being shaped so that the mainstream media will cast blame on Iran alongside Hamas, just as a US aircraft carrier arrives in the Gulf to provide support to Israel.

  The geopolitical implications are staggering, but once again we repeat our advice from Saturday morning: fill up your gas tank now.

  * * *

  Update(1345ET): For the first time since the Yom Kippur War of 1973, the government of Israel has issued a formal and legal “declaration of war” after Saturday’s devastating assault from Islamic militants out of Gaza, which according to the country’s health ministry has left over 700 Israelis dead and thousands injured. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer told CNN in a morning interview, “There will probably be more hundreds, several hundred more.”

  At least 350 have been killed on the Palestinian side, as a large-scale Israeli bombing campaign over Gaza ensues. Israeli officials are expected to embark on some kind of hostage rescue operation. According to Israeli media there are foreigners, likely including Americans, among the kidnapped hostages being held by Hamas and Islamic Jihad:

  The Government Press Office, a body that operates under the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, said Sunday in a Facebook post that the number of hostages in Gaza was over 100.

  Among the kidnapped were small children, the elderly, and foreign nationals including 11 Thais working on farms near the border. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the State Department was attempting to confirm reports that Americans had been killed or kidnapped.

  Nonstop troop movements near the Gaza border. pic.twitter.com/CoQcDYxOq4

  — Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) October 8, 2023

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  Currently, there are reports that internecine gunfire has erupted in different parts of Israel and the West Bank. Overnight there were also reports of sporadic shelling and exchanges of fire in the north, between Hezbollah and Israel’s military.

  Will a northern front open up? This would likely put Israel in an even greater state of panic as things spiral…

  Video of Hezbollah attack on #Israel military position in Shebaa Farms.

  “Where did it come from?
  “From the school grounds down there” pic.twitter.com/XsAD3OenpM

  — Firas Maksad (@FirasMaksad) October 8, 2023

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  Below is a brief review of major events over the last several hours, courtesy of Academy SITREP:

  • Early this morning, Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel firing thousands of rockets in a coordinated air and land assault.
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country was now “at war” and has retaliated with massive airstrikes on Hamas targets.
  • Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia organization that fought a war with Israel in 2006, said that it was monitoring the situation but has not yet pledged its support to join forces with Hamas in this attack on Israel.
  • An adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that Iran supported the cross-border operation by Hamas, which is not surprising and could partially be in response to the ongoing Saudi Arabia /Israel diplomatic talks.
  • Netanyahu has spoken with President Biden and Secretary of Defense Austin said that “The Department of Defense will work to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself and protect civilians from indiscriminate violence and terrorism.”
  • While still early, initial reports are coming in indicting over 40 Israelis have been killed along with hundreds more injured.

  Fighting along Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip is ongoing Sunday:

  Police publish footage of forces battling Hamas terrorists in southern Israel. At least 30 officers have been killed in the fighting. pic.twitter.com/6mE0nH2HB7

  — Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) October 8, 2023

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  Meanwhile, US Neocons clamoring for war and escalation by saying an attack on Israel is an attack on America…

  NO, STOP IT. This was a barbaric, savage attack on ISRAEL, not America.

  Glad you support Israel doing what it needs to do to defend itself—they’ll do it. That’s nice.

  But stop universalizing every damn conflict and shoe-horning it into your basic ideological agenda. It’s… https://t.co/dnuwndYMLz

  — David Reaboi, Late Republic Nonsense (@davereaboi) October 8, 2023

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  * * *

  Among the most shocking images to come out of Saturday’s surprise deadly assault by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) out of Gaza was the scene of dozens of militants flying over the southern Israeli desert using motor-powered hang gliders.

  Some of the first footage to go viral soon after the broader cross-border assault was of militants parachuting down into a crowd of thousands of unsuspecting young Israeli partiers who were enjoying a rave concert in the southern desert. Foreigners, including Europeans and possibly Americans were also in attendance. The surreal scene looks like something out of the 1980s movie “Red Dawn”…

  NEW: Video shows Hamas terrorists paragliding into Israel during a festival.

  The terrorist reportedly entered the festival and began shooting those in attendance.

  In response to the attacks by Hamas, Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing to “fight them to the bitter end.”… pic.twitter.com/w6doS5tA72

  — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 8, 2023

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  The above is being widely described as the moment it all started. The event was described as a “Music Festival for Peace” – ironically enough, but was very close to the Gaza border.

  Possibly dozens of festival goers were abducted and others were killed. There were seen huddled in the back of large trucks and driven into Gaza by armed militants. 

  Others, more fortunate, later fled across the desert by foot – and made it to their vehicles, as the below additional footage shows…

  Hamas militants paradropped with buggies right into southern Israel as an outdoor rave was going. pic.twitter.com/cL7ILigLv6

  — Russian Market (@runews) October 8, 2023

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  The whole paraglider aspect to the Hamas operation shows a high level of planning, coordination, and sophistication by the Gaza-based militant group. Many Western observers are questioning how Israel’s celebrated Mossad intelligence organization could have missed it, given clearly the operation was at least months or longer in planning.

  Hamas subsequently published high quality footage of its ‘special ops’ units launching the motorized paragliders…

  Later in the day, some of the captives – including apparently foreigners – were paraded by the Islamic terrorists in front of cameras. One particularly gruesome image included what looked like a young woman’s mangled, lifeless body face-down in the bed of a pick-up truck with a militant sitting on top of her (it’s as yet unknown whether she’s dead or alive).

  There are reports that she may be a German national and her family is said to be seeking information on her whereabouts. She remains missing and is possibly deceased:

  BREAKING:

  The woman whose body was seen on video in the back of a pick-up truck driven by Palestinian terrorists to Gaza has been identified.

  30-year-old Shani Louk was a German citizen visiting Israel to attend the music festival for peace held near the Gaza border fence. pic.twitter.com/sPIc8FRs8K

  — Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 7, 2023

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  Americans were also likely among the captives. On Sunday Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “We have reports that several Americans were killed. We are working overtime to verify that,” he told reporters. Here’s what the US top diplomat said:

  “Does the administration know at this point if U.S. citizens were among the dead or those taken hostage?” NBC News’ Kristen Welker asked Blinken.

  Blinken said: “So we have reports that several Americans may be among the dead. We are very actively working to verify those reports. Similarly, we’ve seen reports about hostages and they’re, again, we’re very actively trying to verify them, and nail that down.”

  Pressed again on whether some U.S. citizens could have been taken hostage as well, Blinken replied: “That’s correct.”

  Additionally Fox News correspondent Will Cain followed with, “Was just told by Israel’s Ambassador to the UN that there are dozens of American citizens among the hostages in Gaza.” He explained that many of these would be dual nationals. 

  BREAKING It is now being reported that DOZENS of Americans are being held hostage by the Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/OEbduXVIvK

  — 1776 (@TheWakeninq) October 8, 2023

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  As more details emerge from the scene, there are unverified reports that multiple dozens of the festival attendees may have been killed or kidnapped – again among them international tourists and visitors.

  The Irish Times on Sunday reported that 22-year-old dual citizen Kim Damti was among the many unaccounted for.

  Ms Damti was attending an all-night outdoor rave with hundreds of others close to the Gaza border when the first rocket barrage hit close to 7am on Saturday, taking everyone by surprise.

  In the last phone call made by Ms Damti, at 7am on Saturday, she was running with a friend towards a car in an attempt to flee the rocket barrage. That was the last contact with her.

  

  More and more disturbing footage like the below has been trickling out.

  This appears to be a video of scores of women who were captured at the outdoor rave by Hamas. pic.twitter.com/xkFVhtwecw

  — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 8, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 17:30

• Most Americans Oppose Corporate Political And Social Campaigns; New Poll Finds
  Most Americans Oppose Corporate Political And Social Campaigns; New Poll Finds

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  We have been discussing shareholder and consumer opposition to companies like Disney and BudLight tying their brands to social agendas and political questions. Now a Gallup survey shows that public support for these companies is continuing to fall, even among Democrats who still overall favor corporate messaging on social and political issues. Only 41 percent now approve of such corporate campaigns. However, neither public support nor sales were the driving forces behind these campaigns.

  

  The support for these corporate campaigns has dropped another seven percentage points since the last survey. Given the political alignment of companies like Disney, it is not surprising that they receive their greatest support among Democrats who would likely change their views if companies began to adopt opposing views. Currently 62% of Democrats believe businesses should take a public stance on current events. That is down from 75% just a year ago. Only 17% of Republicans and 36% of independents favor these corporate campaigns.

  Yet, even with the drop, these companies knew beforehand that roughly half of their consumer base opposed their entry into social and political messaging. Indeed, after BudLight imploded over its promotion featuring transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, other companies boldly moved forward with their own controversial commercials including shaving company Braun, clothing company North Face, shoe company Nike, and jeans company Levi’s.

  Disney, however, shows how resistant executives can be to consumer backlash. For years, Disney’s controversial movies and policies have driven away many families — and reduced profits. Now, CEO Robert Iger is saying that he wants to “quiet the noise” with the company’s fight with Florida and take a less controversial public position.

  Yet, earlier this year, I wrote that Disney would ultimately have to back down in a fight that it could not win in the long run. Instead, Iger moved aggressively against the state and threatened to pull out of major projects. At the same time, the company moved ahead with controversial retakes on classic movies. Revenues at the company have continued to fall and layoffs increased. Now, Iger apparently has had enough — at least in the fight with Florida.

  Indeed, some executives appear to dislike their base.  Alissa Heinerscheid, vice president of marketing for Bud Light,  appears to have cost the company billions after pledging to drop Bud Light’s “fratty reputation and embrace inclusivity.”

  She certainly succeeded in changing the entire view of the brand in less than a year on the job. Heinerscheid knew that the brand image sells the beer. That image is now unpalatable for many consumers. The social value of these campaigns is lost if consumers reject beer with the branding message.

  The Gallup poll again raises the question of who these companies are selling to. Like many media outlets that have written off half of the country, these campaigns are slashing the market for products in order for companies to sell political or social positions. Even many Democrats now want companies to get back to just selling their products and stay out of politics.

  The legal question, again, is whether shareholders have a claim to demand an accounting from the management over such campaigns.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 16:20

• "Go Back To Jersey, You Migrant-Hating Creep": NYC Mayor Heckled In Unusual Trip To Colombia
  “Go Back To Jersey, You Migrant-Hating Creep”: NYC Mayor Heckled In Unusual Trip To Colombia

  New York City Mayor Eric Adams made an unusual trip to Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia this weekend, attempting to dissuade migrants from coming to supposedly ‘sanctuary cities’ in the US. Democrat mayors, like Adams, who months ago welcomed migrants with open arms, have made drastic U-turns on their immigration politics amid a flood of migrants. Now, the progressive mayor wants the migrants out, as well as other Democrats.

  During Adams’ visit to Central and South America, seemingly an effort by the Democrat party to address criticisms over their failed southern border policy – which many blame for the influx of undocumented immigrants and transforming some cities like NYC into a -world-like country, the mayor could not catch a break in Colombia and was heckled by protesters.

  “Shame on you Eric Adams!” a man shouted in English at Adams in the port town of Necoclí, Colombia, according to New York Post. 

  The man continued shouting: “It will increase the amount of violence against migrants across the United States!” The man referenced Adams’ recent comments telling migrants they were not welcomed in the Big Apple. 

  A esta hora arriba Eric Adams, alcalde de Nueva York, al muelle principal de Necoclí donde entregará un balance de su visita al Urabá antioqueño en relación con crisis migratoria que afronta la región #VocesySonidos pic.twitter.com/esaRPAJw4K

  — Blu Antioquia (@BLUAntioquia) October 7, 2023

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  NYPost said a number of other protesters gathered at the port town with one person holding up a sign that read, “Go back to New Jersey, you migrant-hating creep.”

  

  Adams told local media the migrant tour, led by Colombian officials and law enforcement, has given him a “true analysis” of the Darién Gap, a dangerous trail used by human smugglers to transport people from South America to the US.

  

  A recent NBC News poll now finds voters favor Republicans over Democrats for dealing with immigrants. 

  

  You know things are bad for the Democrats when Bill Clinton has to get on the radio and denounce NYC as a sanctuary city. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 15:45

• Schumer Meets Shanghai Party Chief In Bipartisan Senate Trip To China
  Schumer Meets Shanghai Party Chief In Bipartisan Senate Trip To China

  Authored by Frank Fang and Eva Fu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) met with Shanghai’s communist party boss in his first stop leading a bipartisan delegation to China, telling the latter he wants to see a level playing field as the two countries engage in economic competition.

  

  The meeting took place shortly after the senators’ arrival in Shanghai on an overcast and windy Saturday afternoon, which marks the first day of a three-country tour that will also take them to South Korea and Japan.

  “Many of our constituents feel that in instances China does not treat American companies fairly,” Mr. Schumer told Shanghai communist party secretary Chen Jining, adding that such feelings affect “America’s view of China.”

  “We believe we need reciprocity allowing American companies to compete as freely in China as Chinese companies are able to compete here,” he said. “We are prepared to compete but we do not seek to conflict.”

  The delegation is co-led by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idado). The four other senators on the trip are Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.).

  The Shanghai official in his public remarks avoided going into specific issues, stressing instead the importance of a stable China–U.S. relationship. Noting the over 5,600 U.S. companies in the Chinese city, he also offered windows to promote trade at the local level.

  Mr. Schumer also raised the issue of fentanyl, noting the supply of fentanyl precursors enabling the opioid’s production in Mexico.

  “They are fueling the fentanyl crisis that is poisoning communities across the United States,” he said. “Every one of us knows families who have lost young men and women to fentanyl.”

  

  Last month, the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai found in its annual poll that U.S. firms’s China outlook was the worst in decades. Regulatory challenges facing U.S. firms included a lack of intellectual property protection, data localization, and other cybersecurity requirements.

  The senators’ trip comes after Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit to China in August. During her trip, she said American companies had complained to her that China has become “uninvestable,” citing changes to counterespionage laws, exorbitant fines without any explanation, and Chinese authorities’ raids on foreign firms.

  In September, Ms. Raimondo told NBC in an interview that the United States was trying to “choke” China’s military capacity. “Certainly, on my watch, we are not going to sell the most sophisticated American chip to China that they want for their military capacity,” she said.

  Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and John Kerry, President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, have all visited China this year.

  White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Oct. 5 that the Biden administration has been in touch with the senate delegation and “certainly support[s]” their visit to the region.

  The China trip also took place amid bilateral tensions in the backdrop. On Saturday, China’s commerce ministry complained about the new U.S. restrictions on 42 Chinese companies that allegedly supplied parts to the Russian military, claiming it was “a typical act of economic coercion and unilateral bullying.”

  ‘Xi Is an Adversary’

  Before the delegation arrived in China, several Republican senators took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to express doubts about engaging with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials.

  “Nothing [Schumer] says will stop the CCP’s human rights abuses, shipping of deadly fentanyl to our border or theft of American resources,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) wrote on Oct. 6.

  Mexico cartels have been buying precursor chemicals from China to make fentanyl and ship finished products to the United States. On Oct. 3, the Treasury Department sanctioned more than 20 entities and individuals in China involved in a network for manufacturing and distributing fentanyl and other drugs.

  On the same day, the Justice Department charged eight Chinese corporations and 12 Chinese nationals for allegedly illegally important fentanyl and related chemicals into the United States.

  In a separate X post on Oct. 6, Mr. Scott urged Mr. Schumer to ask CCP officials why they had recently placed a floating barrier at the entrance to the lagoon at Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground for Philippine fishermen.

  “He could ask them why they’re putting up illegal barriers to impede navigation and harm the fishers,” Mr. Scott wrote. “It’s acts of aggression like this that tell us precisely who Xi is, an adversary.”

  

  Also ahead of the delegation’s arrival in China, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) released a short clip, explaining that he couldn’t be on the delegation because he had been sanctioned by China.

  The CCP imposed sanctions on Mr. Rubio and several other lawmakers in 2020, in retaliation against U.S. sanctions against Chinese and Hong Kong officials for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms.

  Also in his clip, Mr. Rubio warned that the United States cannot accommodate the CCP.

  “In the end, [China’s] viewpoint is, no matter how much these politicians talk tough, they’re so addicted to what we can provide them, and in the end, they’re really limited to what they can do. And they will perceive these leadership trips as an indicator of us looking for an exit strategy and an accommodation on that front,” Mr. Rubio says in the video.

  Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) said Mr. Schumer should not have traveled to China; instead, the Senate Majority leader should have canceled the Senate’s October recess and have the senators debate all 12 appropriations bills, to avert another government shutdown on Nov. 17.

  “The last thing Chuck Schumer should be doing is going to China to try to secure a meeting with Xi Jinping with the appropriations process unfinished,” Mr. Hagerty wrote on Oct. 6. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 15:10

• Israelis Question "Catastrophic" Intelligence Failure
  Israelis Question “Catastrophic” Intelligence Failure

  Never in history has Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad been able to kill and kidnap hundreds of Israelis in a single day. Saturday’s assault was clearly well-planned, highly coordinated, and well-armed, and very likely was in preparation for months or even years. The Times of Israel is reporting an Israeli death toll of over 600, with the military confirming over 100 now in Palestinian captivity. 

  Israeli officials and media pundits now want answers: how could Israel’s most celebrated and storied intelligence organization Mossad have missed it? How did the military not have any foreknowledge that it was coming? How did the Gaza jihadists overrun several IDF outposts so swiftly and easily? 

  

  Current and former Israeli officials are now decrying the “catastrophic” intelligence failure, and warn it may have serious lasting political ramifications. This whole war could even serve to destabilize the Netanyahu coalition government. 

  Chuck Freilich, Israel’s former deputy national security adviser, has told Politico: “This is a catastrophic failure in regards to Gaza.”

  “It’s a failure in terms of intelligence, operationally,” Freilich said. “It’s clear we were caught totally unprepared by this. The divisional headquarters responsible for Gaza was occupied, they’re in disarray, and so the whole response has been delayed.”

  He predicts far-reaching “political ramifications”…

  “There’s always a short-term rallying around the flag. But once the dust settles we’ll have major political ramifications,” Freilich said. “After the Yom Kippur war, it took three and a half years for [then Israeli Prime Minister] Golda Meir’s government to be toppled — I don’t think it will take that long this time.”

  Former IDF intelligence chief Amos Yadlin compared Saturday’s raids to the “intelligence failure” of the Yom Kippur War – which famously saw the Egyptian and Syrian armies mount a surprise attack on Tel Aviv forces.

  The common Israeli public has been voicing outrage as well…

  ex-IDF soldier explains that the events that took place today are impossible.

  She was a boarder observer with the highest tech available.

  “If a bird came close we knew”

  “Even even a cockroach came to our fenced border we knew”

  “How did 400 hamas pass through today”? https://t.co/K5pfaU1e4C

  — 𝐆𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐯 🎧 (@Dr_logicaI) October 7, 2023

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

  Military men are asking similar questions, with Eli Marom – the former head of the Israeli navy, stating in a national broadcast, “All of Israel is asking itself: Where is the IDF, where is the police, where is the security?… It’s a colossal failure; the hierarchies have simply failed, with vast consequences.”

  And among Western pundits, an op-ed in The Guardian says it was “unthinkable” and an “intelligence failure for the ages.” Peter Beaumont writes:

  Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel, on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war, will be remembered as an intelligence failure for the ages.

  In the space of several hours, dozens of Gaza militants broke through the border fence into southern Israel, surprising local military positions.

  Gunmen kidnapped and murdered Israelis in the southern border communities, filming their assault as they advanced in numerous locations. In one instance, a Gaza television journalist delivered a standup report about one attack from inside Israel, an almost unthinkable moment.

  👀 pic.twitter.com/hkHupRGlO9

  — The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) October 8, 2023

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  Some have gone so far as to speculate that the Netanyahu government may have had awareness that something was coming, but planned to exploit any assault as a justification to wipe out Gaza and to launch a major ground war against Hamas. As of Sunday, PM Netanyahu formally declared war.

  “The war declaration was taken in accordance with Article 40 of Israel’s Basic Law, the Israeli government press office said,” according to CNN.

  Will a fight at Israeli’s northern border be next?

  🚨THREAD: DAY 2 of Gaza Uprising Against Israel❗️❗️

  Yesterday’s surprise attack by Palestinian resistance fighters was a catastrophic intelligence and military failure on Israel’s part

  This morning Hezbollah supported Hamas and PIJ by firing mortars from South Lebanon pic.twitter.com/jXMrl10tqs

  — Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) October 8, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 14:35

• WEF: Somebody Has To Be In Charge Of Rationing Freedom
  WEF: Somebody Has To Be In Charge Of Rationing Freedom

  Authored by Mark Jeftovic via BombThrower.com,

  That’s why only Central Banks can create digital currencies

  The Fed recently put out a white paper, Data Privacy for Digital Asset Systems, which contends that the expectation of privacy in digital currencies (read: CBDCs) stems from misunderstanding how digital systems work.

  “Concepts such as the desire for ‘cash-like anonymity’ are based on false underlying assumptions.”, is the crux of it (quick, somebody tell the Monero team, and everybody else already deploying anonymizing protocols and applications for digital assets).

  The subtext is that there can be some privacy and confidentiality safeguards built into CBDCs, but at the end of the day those would still be subject to being overridden or dispensed with. The paper doesn’t come out and say that, but it does make oblique references:

  “confidentiality implies that collected and stored data is protected from view in some manner, such as obfuscation or access restriction, and available only to authorized actors.”

  Which of course makes you wonder who exactly will be authorized and what will their capabilities be? It truly is the trillion dollar question.

  

  WEF: “Hold my beer”

  If we keep this paper in mind while we consider the World Economic Forum’s recent article on digital currencies, privacy and freedom, which put a finer point on it, while paying lip service to the desire for privacy in those characteristic WEF-speak euphemisms:

  “A digital cash replacement should not enable criminality, but there should be some freedom to transact with complete privacy.”

  “Some freedom” implies that any freedom will be subject to approval, because either you have complete freedom, or you don’t.

  “Some freedom” coming from the WEF especially, sounds a lot like their “Life in 2030” vision, which is mostly known for point #1: “You’ll own nothing and be happy”.

  Point #4 is “You’ll eat much less meat. An occasional treat, not a staple. For the environment, and for your health”.

  

  In other words, according to the WEF, digital currencies will afford some privacy and some freedom. Just like how in 2030 you’ll be able to eat some meat. (As long as you behave.)

  Throughout the piece the impetus toward digital currencies is ascribed to consumer preferences for convenience – that nation states and NGOs (including the WEF) are relentlessly pushing us there, along with digital IDs and health passports, is never mentioned.

  Through their preference for the convenience of electronic payments, we will inadvertently lose the historic freedom that only cash provides: to spend our money on what we want, with whom we choose.

  It’s always amusing to watch the Davos-darlings pretend to grapple with thorny ethical issues:

  As governments and central banks consider introducing retail central bank digital currencies (CBDC), they must therefore answer the following: Once the last cash payment is made, does this mean our historic right to make payments that are not observable or censorable by the state will end on the same day? Is that what we want?

  The answer, of course, is a resounding “yes” if we’re to remember some of the more breathless pronouncements from their conclaves:

  Alibaba Group president J. Michael Evans boasts at the World Economic Forum about the development of an “individual carbon footprint tracker” to monitor what you buy, what you eat, and where/how you travel. pic.twitter.com/sisSrUngDI

  — Andrew Lawton (@AndrewLawton) May 24, 2022

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

  “We are developing, through technology, an ability for consumers to measure their own carbon footprint. What does that mean? That’s where are they travelling, how are they traveling? What are they eating? What are they consuming on the platform? So, individual – carbon – footprint – tracker. Stay tuned, we don’t have it operational yet, but it’s something we’re working on”.

  The WEF article tackles the conundrum:

  any system that allows people to make payments that cannot be traced or blocked is bound to attract criminals as well as facilitate personal liberty… A digital currency system should not mimic the “wild west”, but there should be some freedom to transact with complete privacy.

  And while the article acknowledges that,

  “if a CBDC doesn’t have some element of this capability, my prediction is it will fail in some major developed economies.”,

  the entire framing is that Central Banks are the only game in town, and they need to get it right:

  If the private sector could deliver a truly cash-like product itself, then we wouldn’t need this debate, but even a limited degree of cash-like behaviour would be incompatible with electronic payments laws. The reality is that only a central bank could deliver this type of product, thanks to the precedent set by their monopoly on the issuance of cash.

  This paragraph would be the so-called “money-shot”. There is no mention of Bitcoin, or that crypto-currencies and stablecoins are already becoming ceded territory within the regulatory frameworks of nation states. There is no acknowledgement that many holders of wealth and capital will simply end-run CBDCs for the very reasons they articulate.

  One of the WEF’s core tenets is that nation states are losing their position as the sole arbiters of power in this Fourth Industrial Revolution. That means they will have to coexist within a rubric of “Stakeholder Capitalism”, but what the WEF sending mixed messages:

  On the one hand, governments are losing their primacy (and thus, monopoly on money issuance and supra-national initiatives like digital id’s and health passports), while on the other, only they have the authority to bless ascendent monetary systems. Which is it?

  And how could you possibly publish an article like this without observing the elephant in the room: Bitcoin (and crypto-currencies, including stablecoins) have already entered the monetary landscape and have changed it in irreversible ways.

  As expected when it comes to the World Economic Forum, it’s a display of truly breathtaking hubris and nescience.

  *  *  *

  My forthcoming ebook The CBDC Survival Guide will give you the tools and the knowledge to navigate coming era of Monetary Apartheid. Bombthrower subscribers will get free when it drops, sign up today.

  Today’s post was an excerpt from the CBDC coverage section of the latest The Bitcoin Capitalist. TBC provides actionable intelligence on the macro forces shaping Late Stage Globalism and a tactical toolkit for preserving and growing your wealth as it plays out. Try it today here.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 10/08/2023 – 14:00

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• Escobar: Putin And The Magic Multipolar Mountain
  Escobar: Putin And The Magic Multipolar Mountain

  Authored by Pepe Escobar,

  There was a whiff of Thomas Mann’s ‘The Magic Mountain’ at the 20th Valdai annual meeting this week at a hotel over the gorgeous heights of the Krasnaya Polyana. north-west of the picturesque resort Sochi.

  

  But instead of a deep dive into the lure and degeneracy of ideas in an introverted community in the Swiss Alps on the eve of the First World War, we immersed ourselves in powerful new ideas expressed by a community of Global Majority intellectuals on the possible eve of a psycho neocon-intended WWIII.

  And then, of course, President Putin intervened, striking the plenary session like lightning.

  This is an unofficial Top Ten of his address, before the Q&A which was characteristically engaging:

  “I even suggested joining NATO for Russia. But no, NATO does not need such a country (…) Apparently, the problem is geopolitical interests and an arrogant attitude towards others.”

  “We never started the so-called war in Ukraine. We are trying to end it.”

  “In the international system, lawlessness reigns supreme.”

  “This is not a territorial war. The issue is much broader and more fundamental: it is about the principles on which a new world order will be built.”

  “The history of the West is a chronicle of endless expansion, and a huge financial pyramid.”

  “A certain part of the West always needs an enemy. To preserve the internal control of their system.”

  “Perhaps [the West] should check its hubris.”

  “That era [of Western domination] is long gone. It’s never coming back.”

  “Russia is a distinct civilization-state”.

  “Our understanding of civilization is quite different. First, there are many civilizations. And none of them is better or worse than the other. They are equal, as expressions of the aspirations of their cultures, their traditions, their peoples. For each of us it is different.”

  On The Road to “Asynchronous Multipolarity”

  The theme of Valdai 2023 was, most appropriately, ‘Fair Multipolarity’. The key axes of discussion were presented in this provocative, detailed report. It’s as if the report had prepared the stage for Putin’s address and his carefully crafted answers to the questions from the plenary.

  The concept of multipolarity in the Russian space was first articulated by the late, great Yevgeny Primakov in the mid-Nineties. Now, the road to multipolarity is based on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s concept of “strategic patience”.

  In a crisscrossed cornucopia of nation-states, larger blocs, security blocs and ideological historic blocs, we’re now deep into mega-alignments – even as the political West cultivates its universalist ambitions. The Eurasian “non-bloc” is in fact a mega-alignment, as much as the revitalized Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which finds its expression in the G77 (actually formed by 134 nations).

  The ideal path to follow might be horizontalism – in a Deleuze-Guattari sense – where we would have 200 equal nation-states. Of course the collective West won’t allow it. Andrey Shushentov, Dean of the School of International Relations at MGIMO University, proposes the notion of “asynchronous multipolarity”. Radhika Desai of Manitoba University proposes “pluripolarity” – borrowing from Hugo Chavez.

  The risk, as expressed by Turkish political scientist Ilter Turan, is that by trying to build a replica of the present system via, for instance, BRICS 11, we may be racing towards a parallel system that simply cannot organize itself as the leader of a new order. So, a clearly possible outcome is a bipolar system – considering the impossible convergence of common values.

  At the same time, a South-east Asian perspective, expressed by the President of the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, Pham Lan Dung, points to what is really relevant for middle and small countries: everything should proceed on the basis of South-South friendships.

  The BRICS Bank: It’s Complicated

  In one of the key panels on BRICS as a prototype of a new international architecture, the star of the show was Brazilian economist Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr, who drew on his vast former experience at the IMF and as Vice-President of the NDB – the BRICS bank – for a realist presentation.

  The key problem of the NDB is how to maintain unity while navigating power politics and reaching the upcoming stages of de-dollarization.

  Batista outlined how a new international financial architecture may imply a future common currency. He stressed the success of implementing two practical experiments: a BRICS monetary fund (called the Contingent Reserve Agreement, CRA) and a multilateral development bank, the NDB.

  Progress though “has been slow”. The monetary fund “has been frozen by the five Central Banks”, and must be expanded. Links with the IMF “must be severed”, but that incurs “fierce resistance” by the five Central Banks of BRICS members (and soon there will be 11).

  Turning the NDB around will be a Sisyphean task. Disbursement of loans as well as project implementation have been “slow”. The US dollar “is the unit of account for the bank” – which in itself is counter-productive. The NDB is far from being a global bank: only three countries so far have joined. Current NDB President Dilma Rousseff has only two years to turn it around.

  Batista remarked how the common currency idea first came from Russia, and was instantly embraced by Lula when he was Brazil’s President in the 2000s. The R5 concept – the currencies of all current five BRICS members start with a “R” – may endure; but now that will have to expand to R11.

  The first substantial step ahead, after revamping the NDB, should be a currency from an issuing bank backed by bonds guaranteed by member countries, freely convertible, with currency swaps denominated in R5.

  A healthy prospect is that Russia will appoint the next bank President starting in 2025. So the way forward substantially depends on Russia and Brazil, Batista emphasized. At the BRICS 11 summit in Kazan in south-west Russia next year, “a key decision should be made”. And during the Brazilian BRICS presidency in 2025, “the first practical steps should be announced”.

  Looking For a New Universality

  Almost all panels at Valdai focused on how to develop an alternative system, but the two main themes were inevitably the lack of democracy in current international institutions and the weaponization of the US dollar. Batista correctly observed how the US itself is the main enemy of the US dollar when using it as a weapon.

  At the Q&A, Putin addressed the key issue of economic corridors. He noted how BRI and the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) might have different interests: “Not true. They are harmonious and complement each other”. This is reflected in how they are geared to “ensure new logistic routes and industrial chains”, and all that “complemented by the real productive sector”.

  Going forward, there’s a pressing need to coin a new terminology for this emerging new “universality” – even as nations continue to behave most often by following national interests.

  What’s clear is that the collective West’s “universality” is not valid anymore. A remarkable panel on ‘Russian Civilization Through the Centuries’ showed how the notion of “universality” actually entered Western civilization through St Paul – after his Damascus moment – whereas the Indian notion of equilibrium inbuilt in the Upanishads would be way more appropriate.

  Still, we are now in hot debate over the notion of the “civilization-state”, as configured mostly by India and China, Russia and Iran.

  Pierre de Gaulle, grandson of the iconic General, expanded on the French notion of universality, embodied in the much-quoted slogan “liberté, egalité, fraternité” – not exactly upheld by Macronism. He made a point to stress he was the “sole representative of France” at Valdai (only a handful of European academics came to Sochi, and no diplomats).

  De Gaulle reminded everyone how Saint Simon was a Russophile and how Voltaire corresponded with Catherine the Great. He alluded to the deep Franco-Russian cultural ties; a “shared community of interests”; and “the bond of Christianity”.

  In contrast, crucially, “the US never accepted that Russia could develop under a different model”. And now that is illustrated by “how little today’s intellectual elites in the West know about Eurasia.”

  De Gaulle emphasized the “tragic mistake is to see Russia through Western eyes”. He invoked Dostoevsky as he lamented the current “destruction of family values” and “existential void” inbuilt in the process of manufacturing consent. He pledged to “fight for independence”, just like his grandfather, under the seal of “faith, family and honor”, and stressed “we must rethink Europe”, inviting “war profiteers to come to Russia”.

  Top of The Hill: a Cathedral or a Fortress?

  Beyond Valdai, and especially throughout the crucial year of 2024 – while Russia holds the presidency of BRICS – there will be much further discussion about “poles” of ancient civilizations. A broad coalition of states that support multipolarity actually do not support the “civilization” concept; instead, they support the notion of people sovereignty.

  It was up to Dayan Jayatilleka, former Sri Lankan plenipotentiary ambassador to Russia, to come up with a brilliant formulation.

  He showed how Vietnam faced a proxy war against the hegemon successfully – “using 5,000 years of Vietnamese civilization”. That was “an internationalist phenomenon”. Ho Chi Minh took his ideas from Lenin – while enjoying full support from students in the US and Europe.

  Russia might therefore learn from the Vietnamese experience how to conquer young hearts and minds across the West for its quest towards multipolarity.

  It was clear to the overwhelming majority of analysts at Valdai that the concept of Russian civilization is an “existential challenge” to the collective West. Especially because it includes, historically, the radical universality of the Soviet Union. Now is time for Russian thinkers to work hard on refining the internationalist aspect.

  Alexander Prokhanov came up with another startling formulation. He compared the Russian dream with a cathedral on the top of a hill, whereas the Anglo-Saxon dream is a fortress on the top of the hill, engaged in constant surveillance. And if you misbehave, you “will receive some Tomahawks”.

  The conclusion: “We will always be in conflict with the West”. So what? The future, as I discussed off the record with Grandmaster Sergey Karaganov, one of the founders of Valdai, is in the East.

  And it was Karaganov who arguably posed the most challenging question to Putin. He stressed how nuclear deterrence does not work anymore. So should we lower the nuclear threshold?”

  Putin replied, “I am well aware of your position. Let me remind you the Russian military doctrine has two reasons for the possible use of nuclear weapons. The first is if nuclear weapons are used against us – as retaliation. The response is absolutely unacceptable for any potential aggressor. Because from the moment a missile launch is detected, no matter where it comes from – anywhere in the world’s oceans or from any territory – in a retaliatory strike, so many, so many hundreds of our missiles appear in the air that no enemy will have a chance of survival, and in several directions at once.”

  The second reason is “a threat to the existence of the Russian state even if only conventional weapons are used.”

  And then came the clincher – actually a veiled message to the characters whose dream is “victory” via a first strike: “Do we need to change that? Why? I see no point. There’s no situation when something can threaten the existence of the Russian state. No sane person would consider the use of nuclear weapons against Russia.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 23:40

• Biden Admin Returns To Supreme Court In Ongoing 'Ghost Gun' Battle
  Biden Admin Returns To Supreme Court In Ongoing ‘Ghost Gun’ Battle

  Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

  The ongoing legal battle over “ghost guns” has returned to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the Biden administration aims to regain authority over these “untraceable firearms,” following a recent victory for Second Amendment advocates.

  

  On Thursday, roughly two months after it last brought this case to the Supreme Court, the Biden administration once again asked the justices to reinstate Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) regulations on “ghost guns.”

  Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the justices that on Sept. 14 a lower court, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, effectively undermined an Aug. 28 order by the nation’s highest court.

  “This is the rare application where this Court has already applied the relevant legal standard in the very same case and determined the government should obtain emergency relief,” wrote Mr. Prelogar in her petition.

  “The Court’s answer should be the same as it was two months ago,” she added, having argued that without the Supreme Court’s relief, “untraceable ghost guns will remain widely available.”

  The prior Aug. 28 high court order in question was an administrative stay issued by Justice Samuel Alito that allowed the enforcement of an ATF rule designed to regulate “ghost guns” by defining them as firearms.

  “Ghost guns” is a pejorative term for partially completed frames and kits that can be purchased and assembled into functional firearms. The Biden administration wants to impose a rule that makers of these “ghost guns” must obtain licenses, mark their products with serial numbers, maintain transaction records, and conduct background checks.

  This rule was first blocked nationwide by Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, on July 5. This ruling was then challenged in the Supreme Court, where Justice Alito intervened, issuing a temporary administrative stay.

  

  ‘Biden Admin Is Now in the Worst Place They Could Be’

  Following the high court’s stay, two of the plaintiffs, a pair of firearm frame and receiver makers, returned to the Texas district court, asking it to enjoin the ATF from enforcing the rule specifically against them pending appeal.

  Judge O’Connor granted this extraordinary relief on Sept. 14. Furthermore, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently partially upheld the district court’s ruling.

  “[C]ourts should be able to review ATF’s 98-page rule, and the decades of precedent it attempts to change, without the Government putting people in jail or shutting down businesses,” the Firth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling stated.

  This ruling effectively allowed the two plaintiff companies, Defense Distributed and 80 Percent Arms, to hold a monopoly as the only businesses allowed to sell firearm frames and kits to make “ghost guns” while appeals proceedings play out—a fact they touted in gloating statements following the ruling.

  “The Biden admin is now in the worst place they could be: The true believer fanatics in this industry have achieved [a] commercial monopoly. Oops,” Defense Distributed stated in a blog post on Sept. 14.

  

  In an Oct. 2 statement, 80 Percent Arms said they remain unwaveringly dedicated to “champion[ing] the right of every law-abiding citizen to privately craft firearms.”

  In appealing the district court’s decision, Ms. Prelogar told the justices in her filing that Judge O’Connor relied on the same facts that had been considered by the Supreme Court, “yet reached diametrically opposing conclusions.”

  “The district court insisted that the government is unlikely to succeed in reversing the court’s vacatur, that barring the government from enforcing the Rule would impose no irreparable harm, and that the balance of the equities favors respondents,” she wrote in her filing.

  “The Fifth Circuit then relied on substantially similar reasoning to deny the government’s motion to vacate the injunction, dismissing the argument that the injunction violates principles of vertical stare decisis,” Ms. Prelogar continued.

  The solicitor general acknowledged that the district court’s injunction “is narrower” than the prior July 5 ruling. However, she argued that it should be vacated because it “imposes essentially the same harms on the government and public” because the two companies continue to sell their products online “without background checks.”

  

  The ATF’s updated rules, which went into effect in August 2022, redefined terms like “firearm,” “frame,” and “receiver” under the Gun Control Act of 1968 to address the proliferation of “ghost guns” assembled from kits.

  The government argues that having no requirements for background checks, serial numbers, and other factors makes them attractive to criminals. On April 11, 2022, President Joe Biden vowed to crack down on “ghost guns.”

  “These guns are weapons of choice for many criminals,” he said in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 11, 2022. “We’re going to do everything we can to deprive them of that choice and, when we find them, put them in jail for a long, long time.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 23:05

• FBI Denies Targeting 'MAGA Extremists' Ahead Of 2024 Election
  FBI Denies Targeting ‘MAGA Extremists’ Ahead Of 2024 Election

  The FBI has denied a Newsweek report from veteran journalist William Arkin claiming that the agency has created a special category of extremists to target Trump supporters ahead of the 2024 election.

  

  According to Newsweek, the FBI created a category to evaluate threats for anti-government and/or anti-authority violent extremism for those who don’t fall under an anarchist, militia or sovereign citizen groups. The report cited more than a dozen current and former officials who say that the program targets Trump supporters.

  In a statement to the Epoch Times, however, the FBI denied the allegations.

  “Any allegation that the FBI targets individuals solely for their political beliefs is categorically false,” said the agency.

  ‘Solely,’ eh?

  “The FBI investigates those who commit acts of violence or threaten violence, and we do not take action based on political belief or any First Amendment protected activity,” the statement continues.

  According to the spokesperson, the “threat posed by domestic violent extremists is persistent, evolving, and deadly,” adding that “The FBI’s goal is to detect and stop terrorist attacks, and our focus is on potential criminal violations, violence, and threats of violence.”

  “Anti-government or anti-authority violent extremism [AGAAVE] is one category of domestic terrorism, as well as one of the FBI’s top threat priorities,” the statement continues. “This threat includes anarchist violent extremists, militia violent extremists, sovereign citizen violent extremists, and other violent extremists—some of whom are motivated by a desire to harm those with a real or perceived association with a political party or faction.”

  Those so-called extremists “have targeted both Republican and Democratic members of Congress,” the spokesperson said, without elaborating. “We are committed to protecting the safety and constitutional rights of all Americans and will never open an investigation based solely on First Amendment protected activity, including a person’s political beliefs or affiliations,” the statement said.

  In the Newsweek report, neither President Trump nor his Make America Great Again (MAGA) slogan were assigned to the aforementioned threat category. The article, however, claimed that unnamed “insiders” said that it applies to alleged “political violence ascribed to the former president’s supporters.” -Epoch Times

  That said, one anonymous FBI official told Arkin that Trump supporters are the “greatest threat of violence domestically …politically … that’s the reality and the problem set.”

  “But whether Trump and his supporters are a threat to national security, to the country, whether they represent a threat of civil war? That’s a trickier question. And that’s for the country to deal with, not the FBI,” the official continued.

  According to the FBI’s data leaked to Arkin, the number of domestic extremism cases has dropped since Jan 6, but that “Sociopolitical developments—such as narratives of fraud in the recent general election, the emboldening impact of the violent breach of the U.S. Capitol, conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and conspiracy theories promoting violence—will almost certainly spur some domestic terrorists to try to engage in violence.”

  So – while the threat that the FBI has encouraged agents to inflate may have fallen, they’re on the lookout!

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 22:30

• Support For A New Third Party Gains Ground
  Support For A New Third Party Gains Ground

  Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

  The 2024 election cycle is likely to be the most chaotic election cycle that we have ever seen. 

  So will this create an opportunity for a new third party to try to pull off a historic upset? 

  Unless something really dramatic happens, Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee and Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee in 2024.  But I don’t think that they will be the only two choices. 

  

  There are rumors that one or two prominent third party candidates could soon enter the race, and it appears that large numbers of Americans may be willing to embrace such a candidate.  In fact, a Gallup survey that was just released discovered that a whopping 63 percent of U.S. adults believe that “a third major party is needed”…

  Sixty-three percent of U.S. adults currently agree with the statement that the Republican and Democratic parties do “such a poor job” of representing the American people that “a third major party is needed.” This represents a seven-percentage-point increase from a year ago and is the highest since Gallup first asked the question in 2003.

  This certainly does not mean that 63 percent of U.S. adults would actually vote for a third party candidate.

  But what this does mean is that conditions have never been more favorable for such a candidate to emerge.

  If you go back 20 years ago, only 40 percent of U.S. adults felt that a third party was needed…

  In 2003, a record-low 40% called for a third party when 56% thought the parties were doing “an adequate job of representing the American people.”

  Times have clearly changed.

  And it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that independents are more interested in a “third major party” than anyone else…

  Typically, political independents are most likely to favor a third party, and that is the case this year, with 75% expressing this view. No less than 70% of independents have said a third U.S. party is needed since 2013.

  But who could run as a third party candidate and actually win?

  In recent days, there have been rumors that RFK Jr. is considering launching an independent bid as a third party candidate.

  And if he did go that direction, polls show that he would have quite a bit of support…

  An American Values Poll conducted Zogby Strategies of likely general election voters shows that in a three-way race between Kennedy, Trump, and Biden, RFK Jr. enters the contest at 19% with Biden and Trump at 38% each. Kennedy would be the highest-polling independent or 3rd party candidate to enter a presidential election in the modern era, starting off where Ross Perot finished—after spending an enormous amount of money.

  “If this Poll shows anything,” said Tony Lyons, Co-Chairman of American Values 2024, “it’s that Kennedy can win as an independent candidate in 2024.”

  In a three-way race, RFK Jr. would probably take more votes away from Trump than he would from Biden.

  There are also rumors that No Labels is preparing to “mount a third party bid for the White House”…

  Political organization No Labels, which has been pushing for a bipartisan ticket to mount a third party bid for the White House, is urging state Democratic Party officials not to interfere with its efforts after President Biden said its leaders had a “democratic right” to do what they’re doing.

  Following Biden’s remarks, former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman (I), former Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) and former head of the NAACP Benjamin Chavis Jr. called for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to end what they characterized as an “anti-democracy” campaign against the group.

  I think that No Labels does intend to make such a move, and it is likely that Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia will be their candidate.

  If that is the case, Manchin would definitely take more votes away from Biden than he would from Trump.

  We shall see what happens.

  In my opinion, I think that this will be the first election cycle in ages when there is at least one viable third party alternative.

  And that will almost certainly greatly impact the outcome of the election.

  Of course we don’t have to wait until next year for high stakes political drama.

  Kevin McCarthy just lost his spot as Speaker of the House in a stunning turn of events, and some Republicans are suggesting that Donald Trump should replace him.

  When asked about this, Trump didn’t completely dismiss the idea…

  “Lot of people have been calling me about speaker, all I can say is we’ll do whatever is best for the country and for the Republican Party,” Trump said Wednesday while at a Manhattan courthouse for the third day of his civil fraud trial. Trump, his adult sons and his businesses are being sued for up to $250 million in penalties stemming from what New York authorities describe as persistent business fraud.

  Despite the trial, Trump took a minute to answer reporters’ questions about the possibility of a speakership bid.

  “My focus is totally on [the presidency]. If I can help them during the process, I’ll do it. But we have some great people in the Republican Party that could do a great job as speaker,” Trump said.

  But it is not likely to happen.

  Instead, either Steve Scalise or Jim Jordan will almost certainly get the job.

  For the moment, Patrick McHenry temporarily has the gavel, and one of his first acts was to order Nancy Pelosi “to vacate her Capitol hideaway office”…

  Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) ordered Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to vacate her Capitol hideaway office so he could take it over, just hours after becoming acting Speaker, Pelosi’s office said Tuesday.

  McHenry became acting Speaker after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted from the role Tuesday, the first time a Speaker has been voted out of the job.

  McHenry’s office requested that Pelosi vacate her Capitol hideaway office by Wednesday because it was being reallocated “for speaker office use,” the message, first reported by Politico, reads. A small number of senior representatives have “hideaway offices” inside the Capitol Building.

  Needless to say, Nancy Pelosi did not like this at all.

  I expect animosity between the two major parties to continue to rise throughout the next year.

  And adding a prominent third party candidate or two to the mix will certainly make things more interesting.

  Our nation is more divided today than ever before, and the coming election will only deepen those divisions.

  If you are concerned about where all of this is ultimately heading, you are definitely not alone.

  *  *  *

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

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 21:55

• Hunter Biden Raided Daughter's College Fund For $20,000 To Buy Hookers And Drugs: Report
  Hunter Biden Raided Daughter’s College Fund For $20,000 To Buy Hookers And Drugs: Report

  Hunter Biden raided his daughter’s college fund to the tune of $20,000 after his bankers said he had just 44 cents left in his account amid a months-long drug and hooker binge.

  

  On Dec. 17, 2018, Hunter’s money managers warned of his extremely low balance, according to records obtained by the Daily Mail. That’s exactly when, according to Hunter’s Memoir, he was in his “penultimate odyssey through full blown addiction,” when he was dropping thousands of dollars on prostitutes and crack cocaine.

  

  In response to the warning, Hunter ordered the bankers to transfer $20,000 from his daughter Maisy’s educational savings account, early withdrawal  consequences be damned.

  “liquidate what you can’ and ‘Live [love] you both,” Hunter wrote.

  At the time, Maisy, now 22, was in her final year of high school. She and her two older sisters, along with Joe Biden and First Lady Jill, had tried to stage an intervention just weeks earlier at the President’s Delaware home to get Hunter to go back to rehab.

  He promised to go, but instead ended up smoking crack in a hotel, he confessed in his 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things.

  Emails and messages from his laptop show money he took from Maisy’s educational savings account went in part to paying various suspected prostitutes who visited him at hotels in the following days, his Porsche 911 car loan, sex webcam subscription fees, and other personal expenses. 

  Hunter’s assistant Katie Dodge plaintively emailed him on December 28 that year that he had University of Pennsylvania tuition bills of $27,945 due (likely for his eldest daughter, Naomi), a $1,700 payment for his Porsche, $4,244.70 for Maisy’s high school Sidwell Friends, her $3,000 paycheck and $1,000 for another employee.

  Hunter tersely told Dodge to pay for the Porsche and his health insurance, but that she would only be getting half her paycheck – and that he would ‘deal with tuitions when time comes.’ -Daily Mail

  “If you haven’t noticed Katie my business partner is now a prisoner on death row in China,” Hunter barked at Dodge, referring to CEFC chairman Ye Jinanmang, his Chinese partner who had been arrested on corruption charges in Beijing that year.

  

  

  

  According to IRS Criminal Investigation agent Joseph Ziegler, an investigation into Hunter’s financial dealings was stonewalled before he blew the whistle to Congress – where he revealed that Hunter ended up looting Maisy’s entire college savings account – and never paid taxes on it.

  Ziegler testified that Hunter “failed to report the income related to a distribution he had taken from one his children’s 529 [educational savings] Plan in 2019, additional income of approximately $39,820,” adding “He also had personal distributions he had claimed as business deductions totaling approximately $12,791.

  

  “As of today’s date, this alleged additional income of approximately $52,611 has not been reported to the IRS and the alleged additional taxes of approximately $22,860 has not been paid to the IRS,” Ziegler said in an August 2, 2023 affidavit.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 21:20

• San Francisco's Newly Approved Homeless Plan 'Most Expensive' Ever: Legislative Analysts
  San Francisco’s Newly Approved Homeless Plan ‘Most Expensive’ Ever: Legislative Analysts

  Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The San Francisco City Council voted Oct. 3 to approve a plan extending the lease on a safe parking site at Candlestick Point, south of downtown, for 35 vehicles and those living in them at a cost of nearly $13 million over two years, with residents receiving access to meals, wi-fi, and laundry services.

  

  Legislative analysts, in a report, recommended the extension, but suggested the council explore cheaper options next year.

  “We have a responsibility to keep communities clean and safe,” and this provides us an opportunity to do both,” Shamann Walton, San Francisco supervisor said Sept. 29 in the Homelessness and Behavioral Health Select Committee meeting, which voted unanimously to approve the proposal. “This is an expensive endeavor, but we cannot afford the alternative.”

  At issue is the Bayview Vehicle Triage Center, established in January 2022 to provide a safe parking space with amenities for some homeless individuals living in their vehicles.

  Officials say they hope, in time, up to 69 vehicles and their owners can use the space, once fire suppression methods and power—only diesel generators, thus far, have been available for limited use—are installed.

  Space at the triage center is assigned by invitation only, with the city’s Healthy Streets Operation Center and the San Francisco Homeless Outreach Team managing the process.

  Statistics from the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing—the city agency overseeing the site—indicate that 96 individuals from 73 households stayed at the site in the fiscal year 2022–23, with an average stay of 218 days.

  The department contracts services with two San Francisco-based nonprofits, the Bayview Hunters Point Foundation—focused on homelessness, substance abuse, and mental health services—and Urban Alchemy, founded to address homeless and transform distressed communities, and is the recipient of several multi-million dollar city contracts for a variety of projects. The groups operate the facility, coordinate referrals, and support groups and activities to facilitate exit strategies for those living there.

  

  The former provides two daily meals—prepared fresh and delivered to the site because the lack of power prevents people from cooking—and offers case management, engagement, and exit planning.

  Also noted in the analyst’s report were several findings last year that brought into question the role of the foundation. It is one of two contracted nonprofits in the city listed as a cause for “elevated concern” by the city controller, though the report concluded that steps are being taken to address issues raised—including high turnover, lack of compliance with grant agreements, and invoicing for costs not yet incurred.

  Urban Alchemy receives the bulk of the funding, with nearly $8 million slated between January 2024 and January 2026. The group is responsible for site maintenance, laundry services, storage, and entry and exit processes.

  A representative of the nonprofit spoke at the committee hearing of the need to keep the facility operating, for the benefit of those living and working there.

  “This program really, really works. They need this. We need this. Because we all bond together,” Otis Hughes said. “I could be homeless in a situation just like them, but fortunately, I’m not. They help me be a better human being.”

  The agreement with the San Francisco-based organization, which was founded in 2018, includes $312,000 in annual rent and approximately $12.2 million in operating costs. Another $900,000 is anticipated for law and parking enforcement costs.

  Funding is provided by Proposition C, a gross receipts tax on businesses with revenues of more than $50 million in annual revenue passed by San Francisco voters in 2018.

  $400 per Car per Night

  Calling the proposal “by far the most expensive homeless response intervention,” the analysts’ report described the cost per vehicle as approximately $140,000 per year, or $400 per night.

  Analysts noted the city paid $105 a night in 2021 for a similar site in a different location on San Jose Avenue. However, they said the site—which is now closed—did not have on-site case management, which they estimate at an additional $117 per night.

  Critics point out the disparity between paying nearly $12,000 per space as compared to market rent prices in San Francisco—with a median cost of less than $3,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, according to online real estate listing company Zillow.

  While the report recommended supervisors explore options to lower costs next year, analysts ultimately decided to recommend the proposed resolution because it supported established city guidelines.

  The triage center in question was developed from a 2019 ordinance passed by supervisors directing the homelessness department to establish what they called a Safe Overnight Parking Pilot Program.

  Following through, the city identified the parking lot at Candlestick Point State Recreation Area. Approximately $4.6 million in grant funds were spent to prepare the site, including installing perimeter fencing, solar lighting, potable water, portable toilets, and a guard shack, among other things.

  “There’s a lot that goes into making it a safe, dignified location,” said Emily Cohen, deputy director for the homelessness department, at the committee meeting.

  

  More than a dozen individuals spoke in support of extending the lease, in person and on the phone, with several telling supervisors that the site has been life-changing for them.

  “It makes me feel safe,” one man said. “For me, it works, and we need more of these.”

  Several supporters talked of reducing costs when capacity is expanded to allow more vehicles, though one caller questioned the logic of such an assumption.

  “It’s not working, folks. When has that ever happened in San Francisco?” Bay Area native Russel Marine said. “It costs more per site than my mortgage in San Francisco. The cost is going to go up.”

  He also said the spot the city chose is detrimental to public safety, as it is near a park where children play.

  Of concern to some opposing the extension of the safe site is the lack of an environmental review for it. The California Environmental Quality Act requires that all projects that could impact the environment undertake a rigorous review process, and none was ever conducted for the site before it was developed—though no comment was made during the committee meeting about such.

  One Bayview resident said that things are no better now than before the triage center opened, with inhabited vehicles still parked, though no longer in the same locations.

  “All of the things we experienced before are still there,” she said. “They’re just spread across the Bayview.”

  Point-in-time count statistics from 2022 revealed 4,400 unsheltered homeless in the city, with 24 percent sleeping in vehicles. A July 2023 count found 1,058 inhabited vehicles.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 20:45

• Airlines Cancel Flights To Tel Aviv As War Erupts 
  Airlines Cancel Flights To Tel Aviv As War Erupts 

  It’s very puzzling that the Central Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, also known as Mossad, one of the world’s most advanced intelligence agencies, had no advance warning about the biggest Hamas assault on Israel in decades.

  Hamas’ attack unleashed thousands of rockets on Israel. Then, Palestinian terrorists demolished parts of the Gaza-Israel border fence and flooded the country. Terrorists were seen seizing military outposts, tanks, and settlements while killing anyone in their path. 

  “We are at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared earlier on Saturday. He said, “The enemy will pay an unprecedented price,” adding Israel would “return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known.”

  Typically, in the event of a conflict, airlines reroute or entirely halt flights to the affected region to prevent the potential downing of a passenger aircraft. This is currently the situation, as reported by CNN:

  US airlines are diverting and canceling flights bound for Israel’s main international airport as fighting rages between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants.

  United Airlines Flight 954 left San Francisco International Airport Friday night and diverted over Greenland about seven hours into the more than 13-hour-long journey, according to data from flight tracking site FlightAware. The flight is due to land back in San Francisco around 2 p.m. ET.

  FlightAware shows that United has canceled a flight on the same original schedule for Saturday.

  Delta Air Lines and American Airlines have canceled Saturday and Sunday Israel-bound flights scheduled to depart from New York’s JFK, according to FlightAware. -CNN 

  According to FlightAware data, about 14% of flights inbound for Tel Aviv have been canceled Saturday. X users are reporting airlines worldwide are beginning to cancel Tel Aviv flights: 

  U.S. carriers issuing advisories for travel to/from Tel Aviv due to the current situation in #Israel.

  Most flights have been cancelled over the next few days. UA954 from SFO turned back just over seven hours into the flight. pic.twitter.com/ai96n7121M

  — Ryan Ewing (@FlyingHighRyan) October 7, 2023

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

  Hamas terrorists’ attack on Israel | An Air India Flight from Delhi to Tel Aviv on 07 October 2023 and the return flight AI140 from Tel Aviv to Delhi has been cancelled in the interests and safety of our guests and crew. Passengers are being extended all support, as per their… pic.twitter.com/VdynXz0M6F

  — ANI (@ANI) October 7, 2023

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

  Lufthansa cuts flights to Israel pic.twitter.com/eqPmvmrKnE

  — Russian Market (@runews) October 7, 2023

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

  A 14.5 hour flight to nowhere. On the way to #Israel, turned back near Greenland // cc @garyleff @OneMileataTime pic.twitter.com/ak2BIx6YMZ

  — Ivan (@istrakhov) October 7, 2023

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

  Due to the current situation in Israel , this @united airlines flight #UA954 from San Francisco has turned around while over Greenland and is returning to California pic.twitter.com/45S3eQH3N7

  — Michael Kelly (@Michaelkelly707) October 7, 2023

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

  Flights delayed in TLV following the recent rocket attack at 20:00 local (1700Z) #Israel 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/tdTQAmCU7n

  — Aleph א (@no_itsmyturn) October 7, 2023

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

  “Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza: We continue to closely monitor the security situation. Ben Gurion Airport remains open, but the security situation and staff availability could affect flights. Check with the airlines on the availability of flights and flight status,” the US State Department wrote in a post on X. 

  Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza: We continue to closely monitor the security situation. Ben Gurion Airport remains open, but the security situation and staff availability could affect flights. Check with the airlines on the availability of flights and flight status. U.S. citizens… pic.twitter.com/niMhyezuRg

  — Travel – State Dept (@TravelGov) October 7, 2023

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

  Current scenes at Tel Aviv Airport:

  Thirty seconds after landing at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv this evening. pic.twitter.com/g9QRcduiIB

  — Natalie Wright (@Nflwright) October 7, 2023

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

  People taking shelter in Tel-aviv airport..

  Meanwhile, crocodile tears from the girl at 00:37 and taking pic/selfies.

  Right.. pic.twitter.com/JXPIeuMhfV

  — CatEmporor (@CatEmporor) October 7, 2023

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

  *Developing… 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 20:10

• Appeals Court Rules For Trump Amid NY Fraud Trial
  Appeals Court Rules For Trump Amid NY Fraud Trial

  Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

  After a hearing on Friday, an appeals court granted a stay, or pause, on a judge’s order that former President Donald Trump’s businesses be dissolved.

  

  This was only a partial victory for President Trump, as the appeals court said the trial that began this week could continue.

  The prosecutors had opposed the request for a delay, accusing the defense attorneys of attempting “to sow chaos” and disruption.

  The Trump Organization issued a statement after the pause, calling the judge’s order to cancel the Trumps’ business certificates “overzealous.”

  “Judge Engoron’s order erroneously sought to adjudicate the rights of non-party business entities that employ nearly 1,000 hard-working New Yorkers, have never been accused of any wrongdoing and, were never given their day in court – in clear violation of their fundamental Constitutional rights and Due Process.  We will continue to vigorously defend our company and our incredible employees from this politically-motivated persecution,” the statement reads.

  Appeal

  President Trump’s attorneys appealed the civil fraud case against him on Oct. 4 and Oct. 5, filing a 1,154-page document in a bid to pause the currently ongoing trial.

  “[New York] Supreme Court’s Sept. 26 and Oct. 5, 2023 decision impose unauthorized, undemanded, overbroad relief without proper factual or legal predicate, which will result in significant, irreparable harm,” states the reason for requesting a stay on the case.

  President Trump had already previously sought to delay the trial, and the appeal had been denied just days before the trial began.

  New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s Sept. 26 decision not only found President Trump liable for fraud, but ordered the dissolution of the Trump Organization and related LLCs, which means the 45th president will lose his entire real estate empire in a matter of days unless the appeal is granted. Furthermore, attorneys argue, hundreds of employees will be affected.

  “Supreme Court clearly does not comprehend the scope of the chaos its decision has wrought,” the filing reads, describing the summary judgment as a “miscarriage of justice.”

  

  Case and Penalties

  President Trump’s business certificates have already been canceled, and the judge’s Oct. 5 order requires him to notify the court before applying for a new one, even outside New York. His sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., executive vice presidents in the Trump Organization, face similar penalties.

  The buildings they stand to lose include Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, the Seven Springs family estate upstate, and private residences belonging to Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

  The case began when President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen made claims that his boss inflated his net worth. New York Attorney General Letitia James, who declared that she would sue the former president for fraud when she was campaigning for her position, brought forth a civil lawsuit in September 2022 accusing him of defrauding the state by artificially inflating his net worth to get more favorable terms from insurers and banks.

  The lawsuit included seven claims, one of which Justice Engoron ruled on about a week before trial, finding President Trump liable for fraud.

  The trial began on Oct. 2, during which President Trump made a surprise appearance and spoke with the press at length. He attended again the second day, and stayed part way through the third. The trial will deal with the amount in penalties President Trump owes, as well as proving out the remaining six claims of fraud in the prosecutor’s lawsuit.

  The appeal itself runs over 30 pages, the remaining 1,000-plus pages being case precedents cited.

  Hundreds of Employees Face Job Loss

  The latest appeal argues that the court exceeded its jurisdiction and “abused its discretion” in the penalties ordered, pointing out that the prosecutors never sought the dissolution of Trump Organization in its petition.

  Ms. James had instead asked for $250 million in penalties, and to bar President Trump and his sons from holding executive business posts in the state for five years. She also did not cite the law that would have enabled the judge to order dissolution as relief, the attorneys argue.

  “The consequences of enforcing the MSJ Decision [summary judgment on Sept. 26] are dire, and once done, cannot be undone,” the attorneys wrote.

  They pointed out that “innocent nonparties and employees who depend on the affected entities for their livelihoods” are being swept up in the “overbroad” ruling. The decision was without process, statutory authority, or trial, and “renders impossible the lawful operation of multiple businesses and threatens termination of hundreds of New York employees without any jurisdiction or due process.”

  “These non-parties are impacted without finding of any wrongdoing on the part of businesses,” they wrote. “Perhaps worst of all, it seeks to impose the corporate death penalty with no statutory authority for such remedy.”

  When Justice Engoron made the decision, he admitted he did not know what the scope of repercussions would be when attorneys asked what it meant for certain properties like Trump Tower, or Eric Trump’s home.

  But the Sept. 26 order will take place imminently, the attorneys argue, and the judge’s Oct. 5 order did not address any of the questions attorneys had raised. The attorneys also argue they had no opportunity to present their case before the Sept. 26 order.

  Statute of Limitations

  The attorneys also made additional arguments about the judge extending the statute of limitations during the trial.

  A June appeals court decision had defined the statute of limitations to allegations from 2014 onwards. The prosecutors’ original lawsuit covered the decade from 2011 to 2021.

  During the trial, the judge acknowledged the statute of limitations, but said he would allow evidence from before 2014 if the prosecutors could connect it to later crimes. The prosecutors had argued for bringing in this evidence under the “continuing wrongs doctrine.”

  In the appeal, President Trump’s attorneys argue that the doctrine does not delay or extend the period allowed, citing other court rulings. Furthermore, the court is now treating the individual financial statements as “separately actionable claims,” rather than “continuing wrongs,” they argued.

  If the statute of limitations is applied correctly, the majority of the prosecutor’s claims are “subject to dismissal as untimely,” the

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 19:35

• CME Head Duffy Says Chicago Needs To Get Its Act Together
  CME Head Duffy Says Chicago Needs To Get Its Act Together

  Last month Cboe Global Markets CEO Ed Tilly warned that if Chicago slaps the financial industry with transaction taxes, amid a crime wave that has employees afraid to come in to work.

  

  “We don’t want to leave… But we cannot be disadvantaged in the world’s most competitive markets,” Tilly said in light of an $800 million tax proposal from Mayor Brandon Johnson aimed at plugging a $538 million budget deficit projected for next year, and increasing costs driven by a cocktail of inflation and rising numbers of destitute asylum seekers.

  Now, CME Group, Inc. – which has over a century of history rooted in Chicago, is warning much the same. According to CEO Terry Duffy, they’ll cut bait and drop Chicago like a hot stone – and in fact, have begun the process of uncoupling from the dysfunctional city.

  

  “I liquidated every piece of real estate in the state,” Duffy said in an interview last week, according to Bloomberg. “I have leases where I am in an advantageous position, because now I can renegotiate. They’re all coming due. We like Chicago. There’s no reason for us to want to leave. But at the same time, if the atmosphere gets to the point where it’s intolerable, we have no choice.“

  His commitment to Chicago is being tested as stubbornly high crime rates and a slew of taxes — including a financial-transaction levy proposed by Mayor Brandon Johnson — have him considering his options. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has already said he opposes the tax proposal, but he won’t be at the helm forever, Duffy said.

  As for the mayor, Duffy said he’s met with Johnson once since he was elected in April and is willing to throw his arms around him to help him succeed. But “we don’t agree on anything,” Duffy said.

  

  Below is a summary of an interview Duffy gave on the subject:

  Challenges in Chicago:

  • Duffy underscores the difficulties in Chicago, highlighting the absence of commerce and the potential financial pitfalls of vacant buildings.
  • He emphasizes the crucial need to strategize bringing people back into cities and reviving societal norms and operations.

  “You can’t walk outside and not have commerce in one of the largest cities in the world. Who’s going to pay the taxes on these large buildings that are now vacant? You need to figure out ways to get people back into the cities.“

  Tax Perspective:

  • Duffy expresses his inclination to alter tax approaches, proposing the elimination of sales tax in physical stores to better compete with online platforms.

  “Let people not pay a sales tax and compete with online. If you want to sell it online then you pay a tax, and in the store where you’re employing people, you don’t pay a tax.”

  Potential Move to Texas?

  • Despite Texas Governor Greg Abbott extolling the benefits of firms moving to Texas, Duffy remains non-committal, acknowledging the pros without indicating any solid intent to relocate.

  “I have a lot of clients in Texas. I like working with my clients that come out of Texas. That was the end of my conversation. He didn’t offer me anything. I didn’t ask for anything either.”

  Acquisition Strategies:

  • Duffy sheds light on CME’s sound financial standing and its strategic approach to acquisitions, emphasizing safeguarding shareholders’ interests.

  “I am a triple A-rated institution with very little debt. I get shopped a lot of deals. We have the capacity if we thought it was right to do it. We run the firm for the benefit of the long-term. So when it comes to acquisitions, I would never do anything that I didn’t think was in the best interest of my shareholders.“

  Dismay over FTX’s Collapse:

  • Contrary to feeling vindicated by FTX’s collapse, Duffy expresses disappointment, acknowledging the potential of cryptocurrencies to eliminate or reduce friction in the financial system.

  “I feel depressed by it. We’ve got to evolve and change, and crypto could be a vehicle to help eliminate friction. Whether it will or not, I don’t know. I don’t want to see anything be eliminated from the possibilities of making the world a better place tomorrow.”

  FTX’s Proposals and Regulatory Vision:

  • He maintains that FTX’s proposals held merit and insists on the establishment of comprehensive regulatory frameworks around such innovative concepts.

  “I never said any of the proposals did not have merit. I just said let’s write some rules around it. And I believe that today.

  “I still see potential that it could be another way to eliminate friction. Right now, I think the best system is the Futures Commission Merchants, but I don’t know if that’s going to be there forever.”

  Cautious Technological Deployment:

  • Adopting a cautious perspective on technological implementations, Duffy is particularly reserved about deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) in market operations.

  “You don’t want to be last and you don’t want to be first. You’ve got to be really careful how you roll this stuff out.”

  Duffy’s Future at CME:

  • With a contract that expires in a year and a half, Duffy’s future at CME is yet to be decided, with deliberations with the board planned for the upcoming year.

  “I have another year and a half left in my contract. I will discuss with my board what they want to do sometime early next year and go from there.”

  Let’s see where CME is a year from now…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 19:00

• Netanyahu Tells Gaza Residents To Clear Out, Says IDF "Will Use All Its Strength" To "Destroy" Hamas
  Netanyahu Tells Gaza Residents To Clear Out, Says IDF “Will Use All Its Strength” To “Destroy” Hamas

  Update (1835ET): Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned residents of Gaza to “leave now, because we will operate forcefully everywhere.”

  We will be victorious in this war despite an unbearable price. This is a very difficult day for all of us.

  — Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) October 7, 2023

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

  Continued…

  Hamas wants to murder us all. This is an enemy that murders children and mothers in their homes, in their beds, an enemy that abducts the elderly, children and young women, that slaughters and massacres our citizens, including children, who simply went out to enjoy the holiday.

  What happened today is unprecedented in Israel – and I will see to it that it does not happen again. The entire government is behind this decision.

  The IDF will immediately use all its strength to destroy Hamas’s capabilities. We will destroy them and will forcefully avenge this dark day that they have forced on Israel and its citizens. As Bialik wrote: ‘Revenge for the blood of a little child has yet been devised by Satan’.

  All of the places which Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating in, that wicked city, we will turn them into rubble.

  I say to the residents of Gaza: Leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere.

  At this hour, the IDF is clearing the terrorists out of the last communities. They are going community by community, house by house, and are restoring our control.

  I embrace and send heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families whose loved ones were murdered today in cold blood and endless brutality.

  We are all praying for the well-being of the wounded and all those who are being held hostage. I say to Hamas: You are responsible for their well-being. Israel will settle accounts with anyone who harms one hair on their heads.

  I appeal to the residents of the south: We all stand alongside you. We are all proud of your heroism and your fighting.

  To our beloved IDF soldiers, police officers and security forces personnel, remember that you are the continuation of the heroes of the Jewish people, of Joshua, Judah Maccabee and the heroes of 1948 and of all of Israel’s wars.

  You are now fighting for the home and future of us all. We are all with you. We all love you. We all salute you.

  To the medical and rescue teams, and the many volunteers in a long list of places, the people of Israel salute you. With your spirit, we will overcome our enemies.

  *  *  *

  Update(1430ET): Former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) international spokesperson Jonathan Conricus has summed up what this day means for Israel, calling in the country’s “Pearl Harbor” moment.

  “The entire system failed. It’s not just one component. It’s the entire defense architecture that evidently failed to provide the necessary defense for Israeli civilians,” he told CNN of the surprise invasion from Gaza militants. “This is a Pearl Harbor type of moment for Israel, where there was reality up until today, and then there will be reality after today.”

  

  Town-by-town and farm-by-farm fighting is still underway given Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) reportedly control swathes of southern territory and even military outposts in Israel.

  Netanyahu and his cabinet now must be contemplating what will surely be a high-risk rescue operation and potential ground incursion.

  ⚡️More hostages being taken into Gaza pic.twitter.com/G612nStiQt

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) October 7, 2023

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

  Every hour results in even more incredible, shocking footage being released of dead Israeli soldiers and civilians. The Times of Israel is reporting that over 200 Israelis have been killed, and at least 1,000 injured. The death toll is also mounting into the hundreds on the Gaza side as Israel retaliates.

  In some instances, there are what look like Israeli soccer moms and their families being escorted barefoot across the border.

  Video footage suggests at least dozens of Israelis have been taken captive, possibly even hundreds.

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

  Grandmothers, men, women, children – the young and old – are being paraded in front of Hamas and PIJ cameras…

  One of the POW’s captured by the PIJ in Gaza pic.twitter.com/vzLOWF4gT9

  — Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) October 7, 2023

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  At the same time, the expected Israeli aerial assault has begun. In some instances entire apartment housing blocks have been leveled. 

  Breaking: Many hundreds of Israeli civilians are being captured by #Hamas terrorists and are seen being taken back to #Gaza and attacked by #Palastinians#IsraelUnderAttack #Israel #IsraelPalestinewar pic.twitter.com/gx9YlyrBE4

  — Jim Ferguson (@JimFergusonUK) October 7, 2023

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  There are reports saying that the IDF has taken back some of the bases seized by small teams of Palestinian militants earlier in the day.

  …all of this after what was clearly a well-coordinated attack long in planning:

  🔴🙏Alors que ce soir le sud de la #TerreSainte s’endort à feu et à sang, le ministère de la Santé israélien fait état d’au moins 100 morts et 1 000 blessés évacués vers les hôpitaux israéliens. De son côté, le ministère de la Santé du Hamas dénombre au moins 198 morts et 1600… pic.twitter.com/8pAtfTqgNV

  — SOS Chrétiens d’Orient (@SOSCdOrient) October 7, 2023

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  Israeli woman in the hands of Hamas bleeding and beaten.
  This is the Israeli woman from my previous video.
  This is horrifying!#Israel #Hamas #Palestine #Palestinian #IronDome #Gaza #TelAviv

  pic.twitter.com/jhDzDvGXDu

  — Ashlea Simon (@AshleaSimonBF) October 7, 2023

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  But what the world woke up to at the start of Saturday were unprecedented scenes of Israelis in retreat…

  Israeli Defence forces are now evacuating Air Bases near Gaza as thousands of terrorists flood into Israel.
  This situation is just escalating.#Israel #Hamas #Palestine #Palestinian #IronDome #Gaza #TelAviv

  pic.twitter.com/mcI9WyWSt8

  — Ashlea Simon (@AshleaSimonBF) October 7, 2023

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  Rockets have continued to reach Tel Aviv from Gaza, and air raid sirens are active across many parts of the country.

  ⚡️View from Tel Aviv now pic.twitter.com/gf23ZTyrgJ

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) October 7, 2023

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  The first minutes of Operation Al-Aqsa Storm on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The militants can be seen blowing up the wire fences and getting inside on motorcycles. Afterwards, they pull out the still living crew from the tank that was shot down by the drone.… pic.twitter.com/nqDyij5P3T

  — — GEROMAN — time will tell – 👀 — (@GeromanAT) October 7, 2023

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  Gaza apartments flattened by Israeli strikes…

  Residential building in Gaza City flattened by Israeli airstrike. pic.twitter.com/BgdLcS4Mgf

  — Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) October 7, 2023

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

  * * * 

  Palestinian militants on Saturday morning launched an “unprecedented” infultration attack on Israel, the biggest in years, sending fighters over the border from Gaza, firing thousands of rockets and killing dozens of Israelis. In response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a call-up of reservists and said “we are at war.” 

  “We are in a war and we will win it.”

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Israel “at war” after Gaza Strip militants fired over 2,000 missiles and infiltrated southern parts of the country in a surprise attack on Saturday https://t.co/SWTOsHjySu pic.twitter.com/PQRSfL20jY

  — Bloomberg (@business) October 7, 2023

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

  Here are the latest highlights from the rapidly changing situation:

  • Militant group Hamas launched a sustained barrage of more than 5,000 rockets in a coordinated attack by land, sea and air. According to the NYT, the Hamas assault from Gaza on southern Israel has had few precedents in its complexity and scale, invading several Israeli towns and firing thousands of rockets toward cities as far away as Jerusalem.
  • The Israeli military said that at least 2,200 rockets had been fired into Israel by 11 a.m. on Saturday and that armed gunmen had crossed the border fence in several locations along Israel’s perimeter with Gaza, a poor coastal enclave that has been under blockade by Israel and neighboring Egypt for 16 years.
  • In addition to land, the militants also crossed into Israel by sea and air, according to the Israeli military. By late morning, at least 22 Israelis had been killed in the surprise attacks from Gaza and hundred more injured according to Israel’s main ambulance service, and Israel had retaliated with massive strikes on Gazan cities, killing at least one Palestinian, according to local reports.
  • Palestinian militants infiltrated at least seven Israeli communities and army bases this morning, according to the Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Richard Hecht. He said militants had reached the city of Sderot; the small towns of Kfar Azza, Nahal Oz, Magen, Beeri; the military bases of Reim and Zikim, which are close to towns of the same name; and the militarized border checkpoint at Erez. Fighting was ongoing at or near the at least three of those places, he said.
  • Israel’s emergency services said 22 people have been killed in the surprise attacks from Gaza and hundred more injured.
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was now “at war” and that he had convened the heads of the security forces and instructed them to first clear all Israeli villages of Palestinian militants who had entered from Gaza.
  • Al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said that there was a military operation “in defense of the Aqsa mosque,” the hotly contested holy site in Jerusalem that thousands of Jews have visited in recent weeks, and against the Israeli blockade.
  • Israeli hospitals said they had received hundreds of wounded. Soroka Medical Center in the southern city of Beersheba had admitted more than 80 people, with some “in very difficult condition,” a hospital spokeswoman said. The ambulance service, Magen David Adom, issued an urgent call for blood.
  • Israel Defense Forces said they were carrying out strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza in response to the attacks on Israel.
  • Air-raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem, while explosions were heard in Tel Aviv

  Hamas releases a (Hezbollah-style) video showing how they penetrated the border. pic.twitter.com/tTGVIed7IM

  — Dalia Hatuqa🪬🤌 (@DaliaHatuqa) October 7, 2023

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

  More details:

  The ruling Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel at daybreak Saturday, firing thousands of rockets as dozens of fighters infiltrated the heavily fortified border in several locations by air, land and sea, catching the country off guard on a major holiday.

  Several hours after the invasion began, Hamas militants were still fighting gunbattles inside several Israeli communities in a surprising show of strength that shook the country. Israel’s national rescue service said at least 22 people have been killed, dozens of Israelis taken hostage, and hundreds wounded, making it the deadliest attack in Israel in years. 

  ⚡️Palestinians seizing tanks and other vehicles at an IDF military site east of Gaza pic.twitter.com/0ylRKiReP3

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) October 7, 2023

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

  At least 561 wounded people were being treated in Israeli hospitals, including at least 77 who were in critical condition, according to an Associated Press count based on public statements and calls to hospitals.

  There was no official comment on casualties in Gaza, but Associated Press reporters said they witnessed the funerals of 15 people who were killed and saw another eight bodies arrive at a local hospital. It was not immediately clear if they were fighters or civilians.

  As the AP also reports, social media was replete with videos of Hamas fighters parading what appeared to be stolen Israeli military vehicles through the streets and at least one dead Israeli soldier within Gaza being dragged and trampled by an angry crowd of Palestinians shouting “Allahu Akbar.”

  Hamas has invaded towns in southern Israel and is shooting people (warning: disturbing)…

  Hamas terrorists continue to engage any Israeli resident in their vicinity.

  It seems most that infiltrated are part of their specialized commando unit. pic.twitter.com/AqGcXuQRA6

  — Global: Military-Info (@Global_Mil_Info) October 7, 2023

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  Videos released by Hamas appeared to show at least three Israelis captured alive. The military declined to give details about casualties or kidnappings as it continued to battle the infiltrators.

  “We are at war,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised address, declaring a mass army mobilization. “Not an ‘operation,’ not a ‘round,’ but at war.” “The enemy will pay an unprecedented price,” he added, promising that Israel would “return fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known.”

  Apocalyptic scenes right now in southern Israel. pic.twitter.com/uuseUdcytV

  — Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) October 7, 2023

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

  At a meeting of top security officials later on Saturday, Netanyahu said the first priority was to “cleanse the area” of enemy infiltrators, then to “exact a huge price from the enemy,” and to fortify other areas so that no other militant groups join the war.

  The serious invasion on Simchat Torah, a normally joyous day when Jews complete the annual cycle of reading the Torah scroll, revived painful memories of the 1973 Mideast war practically 50 years to the day, in which Israel’s enemies launched a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

  Comparisons to one of the most traumatic moments in Israeli history sharpened criticism of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who had campaigned on more aggressive action against threats from Gaza. Political commentators lambasted the government over its failure to anticipate what appeared to be a Hamas attack unseen in its level of planning and coordination.

  The Israeli military struck targets in Gaza in response for some 2,500 rockets that sent air raid sirens wailing constantly as far north as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) away. It said its forces were engaged in gunfights with Hamas militants who had infiltrated Israel in at least seven locations. The fighters had sneaked across the separation fence and even invaded Israel through the air with paragliders, the army said.

  Israeli TV broadcast footage of explosions tearing through the Gaza-Israel border fence, followed by what appeared to be Palestinian gunmen riding into Israel on motorcycles. Gunmen also reportedly entered on pickup trucks.

  It was not immediately clear what prompted Hamas to launch the attacks, which would have likely required months of planning. But over the past year Israel’s far-right government has ramped up settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settler violence has displaced hundreds of Palestinians there, and tensions have flared around a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.

  The shadowy leader of Hamas’ military wing, Mohammed Deif, announced the start of what he called “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.” The Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem is the third holiest site in Islam, and is located on the holiest site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount.

  

  “Enough is enough,” Deif, who does not appear in public, said in the recorded message, as he called on Palestinians from east Jerusalem to northern Israel to join the fight. “Today the people are regaining their revolution.”

  In a televised address, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that Hamas had made “a grave mistake” and promised that “the state of Israel will win this war.”

  The infiltration of fighters into southern Israel marked a major escalation by Hamas that forced millions of Israelis to hunker down in safe rooms. Cities and towns emptied as the military closed roads near Gaza. Israel’s rescue service and the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza appealed to the public to donate blood.

  “We understand that this is something big,” Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli army spokesman, told reporters. He said the Israeli military had called up the army reserves.

  Hecht declined to comment on how Hamas had managed to catch the army off guard. “That’s a good question,” he said.

  Ismail Haniyeh, the exiled leader of Hamas, said that Palestinian fighters were “engaged in these historic moments in a heroic operation” to defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

  Israel has built a massive fence along the Gaza border meant to prevent infiltrations. It goes deep underground and is equipped with cameras, high-tech sensors and sensitive listening technology. Israel has maintained a blockade over Gaza since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. The bitter enemies have fought four wars since then. There have also been numerous rounds of smaller fighting between Israel and Hamas and other smaller militant groups based in Gaza.

  The blockade, which restricts the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, has devastated the territory’s economy. Israel says the blockade is needed to keep militant groups from building up their arsenals. The Palestinians say the closure amounts to collective punishment.

  The escalation comes after weeks of heightened tensions along Israel’s volatile border with Gaza, and heavy fighting in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

  Saturday’s wide-ranging assault threatened to undermine Netanyahu’s reputation as a security expert who would do anything to protect Israel. It also raised questions about the cohesion of a security apparatus crucial to the stability of a country locked in low-intensity conflicts on multiple fronts and facing threats from Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group.

  Meanwhile, Hezbollah congratulated Hamas on Friday, praising the attack as a response to “Israeli crimes” and saying the militants had “divine backing.” The group said its command in Lebanon was in contact with Hamas about the operation.

   

  ⚡️Damage in Netivot after an arrival of a rocket from Gaza pic.twitter.com/hxvNv2SYO1

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) October 7, 2023

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

  * * *

  The timing of the assault was striking, hitting Israel at one of the lowest moments in its history. It followed months of profound anxiety about the cohesion of Israeli society and the readiness of its military, a crisis set off by the government’s efforts to reduce the power of the judiciary. And the violence came 50 years and a day after the Yom Kippur War of 1973, when Israel was also surprised by a complex Arab attack, leading to huge Israeli losses and soul-searching about the state of the country.

  Muhammad Deif, the leader of the military wing of Hamas, the Islamic militant organization that controls Gaza, said in a recorded message that the group had decided to launch an “operation” so that “the enemy will understand that the time of their rampaging without accountability has ended.”

  In response to the Hamas attack, the Israeli military said it launched strikes against 17 military compounds and locations connected to Hamas’s leadership in Gaza. The army released videos of strikes on cars, Palestinian militants and other targets. Dozens of air force jet fighters launched the attacks, the Israeli military said.

  The Israel Defense Force has 169,000 active-duty troops and 465,000 reservists and remains the Middle East’s most formidable force, supplied with some of the most advanced drones and other weapons from Israel’s technology sector and from the U.S., which provides Israel with $3.8 billion in annual military assistance.

  The Israeli military has conducted frequent raids in Palestinian cities and refugee camps, with bloody confrontations ensuing with well-armed militants. The army also flooded southern Israel with ground troops to manage the incursion, it said.

  The IDF said it had named the counter offensive against Hamas operation swords of iron.

  Footage of a hamas infiltrator using a motorized hang glider to get into Israel.

  This is insane. pic.twitter.com/pUbmSEseUZ

  — Global: Military-Info (@Global_Mil_Info) October 7, 2023

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

  Meanwhile, as the WSJ details, the declaration of war by Israel against Hamas comes at a time of turmoil in Israeli politics.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced a backlash against legislation introduced to limit the power of the Supreme Court. His coalition passed the first part of the law in July, prompting mass protests and raising fears about Israel’s national security.

  Thousands of military reservists said at the time they would quit as a result of the change to the law, and union leaders and medical professionals threatened mass work stoppages. Military officials have warned that the legislation was undermining unity within the military.

  The law takes away the Supreme Court’s ability to nullify government decisions it finds “unreasonable in the extreme”—a concept that lawmakers in Netanyahu’s coalition said was nebulous and allowed liberal judges to overturn the will of an increasingly right-wing electorate.

  The effort to overhaul the judiciary has been the governing coalition’s priority since Netanyahu was re-elected last year. Coalition members have said the government plans to move ahead with the next part of the overhaul, which would aim to change the way judges are appointed, after the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, reconvenes in mid-October. The law is being challenged in Israel’s Supreme Court.

  * * *

  Western nations condemned the incursion and reiterated their support for Israel, while others called for restraint on both sides.

  “The U.S. unequivocally condemns the unprovoked attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians,” said Adrienne Watson, spokeswoman for the U.S. National Security Council. “We stand firmly with the government and people of Israel and extend our condolences for the Israeli lives lost in these attacks.”

  Watson said Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, has spoken with his Israeli counterpart, Tzachi Hanegbi.

  Saudi Arabia, which has been in talks with the U.S. about normalizing relations with Israel, released a statement calling on both sides to exercise restraint. The kingdom said it had repeatedly warned about “ the dangers of the situation exploding as a result of the continued occupation (and) the Palestinian people being deprived of their legitimate rights.”

  * * *

  Finally, there is some speculation that Iran may get dragged into what is rapidly emerging as the worst Middle-Eastern crisis in years, with various pro-Israeli hawks claiming that the Hamas attack would have only occurred with explicit Iranian backing. If Israel does indeed attack Iran, as it has hinted it would do for years, may we suggest you fill up your gas tank.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 18:35

• Johnstone: The Top Ten Dumbest Things Empire Propagandists Ask Us To Believe
  Johnstone: The Top Ten Dumbest Things Empire Propagandists Ask Us To Believe

  Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

  When you live under an empire that’s held together by lies, you’ll be asked to believe a lot of intensely stupid bullshit.

  

  Here are the top ten dumbest things the propagandists of the US-centralized empire try to get us to swallow.

  1. That the US war machine has been surrounding its top two rivals China and Russia with war machinery as an act of defense, rather than an extremely provocative act of aggression.

  2. That the war in Ukraine simultaneously (A) was completely unprovoked, and (B) just coincidentally happens to massively advance US strategic interests and therefore should be funded as much as possible.

  3. That, okay, all those other wars were based on lies and resulted in disaster, but that couldn’t possibly be the case for this current war.

  4. That your country’s foreign policy is determined by your official elected government, even though the foreign policy remains the same regardless of who is in office.

  5. That it is only by pure coincidence that your nation’s population remains in a perpetual 50–50 deadlock which prevents anyone’s votes from changing the status quo, and the status quo just happens to be perpetually frozen along lines that hugely advantage the rich and powerful.

  6. That the only reason anyone could possibly be critical of the most dangerous impulses of the world’s most powerful and destructive government is if they are a secret agent working for the enemies of that government.

  7. That the western empire which spent the last two decades murdering Muslims in the Middle East suddenly cares very deeply about the Muslims in China.

  8. That Putin invaded Ukraine solely because he is evil and hates freedom, and that the empire is pouring weapons into Ukraine because it loves Ukrainians and wants to protect their freedom and democracy.

  9. That foreign propaganda and influence operations are significantly manipulating the way westerners think and vote, but the plutocrats who fully control all the most influential platforms in the western world are not.

  10. That we need to be worrying about tyrannical enemies in Beijing and Moscow, instead of tyrannical enemies a lot closer to home.

  *  *  *

  My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece here are some options where you can toss some money into my tip jar if you want to. Go here to buy paperback editions of my writings from month to month. All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.

  Bitcoin donations: 1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 18:25

• Another Problem? iPhone 15 Users Report "Rattle Or Crackle" In Audio
  Another Problem? iPhone 15 Users Report “Rattle Or Crackle” In Audio

  Apple rolled out a software update on Wednesday to fix the overheating issue in the new iPhone 15. Yet, even as one problem is addressed, another emerges: Some iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max users report that their built-in speakers emit crackly and rattly sounds.

  “My iPhone 15 Pro Max arrived launch day, and from out of the box, full volume speaker calls rattle the speaker and sound like liquid inside, and same for music above like 80%, below 80% you can notice the rattle with the phone up to your ear. Software bug maybe? I think I should get the phone swapped out…… It literally sounds like a liquid-damaged blown speaker at high volumes,” one Redditor said. 

  After a replacement phone from the Apple Store, the Redditor said, “Replaced phone through Apple, and the replacement has the same issue, this time worse!”

  Another Apple user, TikToker Milesabovetech, said his iPhone 15 Pro Max had been replaced three times because of speaker issues. He said: “The iPhone 15 launch has me feeling like we were beta testers.” 

  @milesabovetech The iPhone 15 launch has me feeling like were beta testers #iphone #android #iphone15promax #techtok #tech #techgagets #apple #milesabovetech ♬ Spooky, quiet, scary atmosphere piano songs – Skittlegirl Sound

  https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js

  He shared a video of the second iPhone replacement on X, indicating, “So I got my 2nd replacement for my iPhone 15 Pro Max from Apple and it still has the same top speaker issue?!?! When the volume is above 80% with some songs and videos the speaker rattles and cracks like it has water in it. I tried this at BestBuy too and they had the same issue.” 

  So I got my 2nd replacement for my iPhone 15 Pro Max from Apple and it still has the same top speaker issue?!?! When the volume is above 80% with some songs and videos the speaker rattles and cracks like it has water in it. I tried this at BestBuy too and they had the same issue pic.twitter.com/EppdilT1q9

  — MilesAboveTech (@milesabovetech) October 1, 2023

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

  It’s unclear how widespread the problem is. Others have reported similar issues:

  

  

  “If it’s a hardware issue and speaker components are to blame, Apple will likely fix the problem at the manufacturing level,” said tech blog BGR, adding, “Considering that Apple has already confirmed the overheating issues for the iPhone 15 Pro models, I’d expect the company to also address the sound problems in the near future. That’s if the speaker issue is as widespread.” 

  Seems like iPhone 15 users are beta testers…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 17:50

• Victor Davis Hanson: A 50th Anniversary War?
  Victor Davis Hanson: A 50th Anniversary War?

  Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,

  A 50th Anniversary War?

  Why did Hamas stage a long-planned, carefully executed and multifaceted attack on Israeli towns, soldiers, and civilians – one designed to instill terror by executing noncombatants, taking hostages, and desecrating the bodies of the dead?

  And how were the killers able to enter Israeli proper in enough numbers to kill what could be hundreds and perhaps eventually wound what could be thousands?

  a) Ostensibly, radical Palestinians wanted to stop any rumored rapprochement between the Gulf monarchies – the traditional source of much of their cash—and Israel, by forcing the issue of Arab solidarity in times of “war”, especially through waging a gruesome attack aimed at civilians and encompassing executions and hostage taking. Iran likely was the driving force to prompt the war—given its greatest fear is a Sunni Arab-Israeli rapprochement.

  b)  Arab forces have had only success against Israel through surprise attacks during Israeli holidays, as in the Yom Kippur War (i.e., was it any accident that the present attack began 50-years almost to the day after the October 6, 1973 beginning of the Yom Kippur War?). And so they struck again this Saturday during Simchat Torah, coming at the end of a weeklong Jewish celebration of Sukkot—in hopes that others will join in as happened in 1973. (So much for the Arab warnings not for Westerners to conduct war during Ramadan).

  

  c) Hamas may have reckoned that recent Israeli turmoil and mass leftist street protests over proposed reforms of the Israeli Supreme Court had led to permanent internal divisions and thus a climate of domestic distraction if not an erosion of deterrence.

  But, more importantly, in a larger sense the Biden administration has contributed both to the notion that Hamas was a legitimate Middle East player, and to the perception that the U.S. was backing away from its traditional support for Israel – to the delight of Hamas – based on the following inexplicable policies:

  1) In February Secretary of State Blinken had bragged that not only had the Biden administration resumed massive aid to the PLA cancelled by Trump, but cumulatively had transferred $1 billion – even as Palestinian authorities bragged that they would continue to pay bounties to the families of “martyrs” (i.e., those killed while conducting terrorists attacks against Israel).

  And millions of American dollars also went into Gaza, run by Hamas – despite the Biden administration’s efforts to keep mostly quiet the resumption of such inexplicable support. In this regard, note the current shameful State-Department (“U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs”) website news release that was posted after today’s attack. It ended with this quite embarrassing, morally equivalent admonition:

  “We urged all sides to refrain from violence and retaliatory attacks. Terror and violence solve nothing.”

  “All sides?” “Refrain from retaliatory attacks?”

  So Israel is the moral equivalent of terrorists executing civilians and brutalizing their corpses? And the IDF then is not supposed to retaliate against these killers?

  This Biden State Department insanity cannot stand. So expect some apparatchik to take down this Munich-like posting as soon as possible.

  2) The Biden administration had recently released some $6 billion to Iran through a prison swap deal that saw South Korea hand over embargoed Iranian money to Qatar – despite Tehran’s  increased anti-Israeli rhetoric and its loud brag about the escalation. We should assume money for rockets (Hamas claims they have launched 5,000, and have received 100,000 of them via the Damascus airport) and weapons in general for Hamas were supplied by Iran, which again is likely the chief catalyst for this surprise attack.

  3) Almost immediately, after his inauguration Biden mobilized to resume the bankrupt Iran deal. And in unhinged fashion he appointed the anti-Israeli bigot, pro-Iranian journalist Robert Malley as America’s chief negotiator. Note that Malley is now under FBI investigation for security breaches, involving disclosing classified U.S. documents and also for allegedly helping pro-Iranian activists and propagandists land influential billets inside the U.S. government.

  In short, there was a general Hamas and Iranian perception that the Biden administration had resumed the discredited Obama madness of empowering Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. This discredited agenda was to “balance” the power of Israel and the moderate Arab Gulf governments to achieve “creative tension”, exacerbated by Biden’s loathing of the government of Benjamín Netanyahu (who has been snubbed by Biden and never invited for an official visit).

  Note as well that the Biden administration has siphoned off key weapons and munitions from stockpiles inside Israel to transfer them to Ukraine. The so-called “War Reserve Ammunition—Israel” is all but depleted of just the sorts of weapons needed in the present crisis.

  In this regard is there not a pattern here?

  Upon the ascension of Biden and his woke military agendas, we saw the following:

  • the complete humiliation of the U.S. in Kabul in its most shameful flight in 50 years and greatest abandonment of equipment in its history;

  • followed by Vladimir Putin’s opportunistic invasion of Ukraine;

  • followed by China’s new belligerence and escalating threats to Taiwan;

  • followed by Turkey’s new de facto alliance with Russia and recent drone encounter with the U.S. air force in Syria;

  • followed by the Hamas/Iranian inspired attack on Israel – with more to come unfortunately.

  And will Biden finally get the message from the attacks on the Ukraine and Israeli borders, that borders matter and we too are being invaded, with the encouragement of the Mexican government and to the advantage of the cartels whose fentanyl exports kills 100,000 Americans a year?

  What to expect in Israel?

  Expect the following:

  • the usual Hamas/terrorist selling and/or execution of Israeli hostages,

  • the use of Israeli hostages as “human shields” in Gaza, 

  • the bargaining/sale of the remains of Israeli dead,

  • occasional killings of Jews inside Israel by Arabs who falsely believe there will be a winning Middle East-wide existential war against Israel.

  • And finally, a devastating Israeli counter-response that will eventually earn a U.S. rebuke.

  What should the U.S. instead do?

  It should quit talking to Iran and restore full sanctions against it.

  It should cut off all aid immediately to all the Palestinians.

  It should undertake a 1973-like massive arms lift of key munitions to Israel and warn Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and others in the Middle East not to intervene or else, given that Israel will need several weeks to deal with Hamas and Gaza.

  And if it shows any hesitation or weakness, other terrorist groups will opportunistically jump in.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 17:15

• Will The Electric Car Mandates Battle Decide The 2024 Election?
  Will The Electric Car Mandates Battle Decide The 2024 Election?

  Authored by Duggan Flanakin via RealClear Wire,

  Let’s see just how long this auto workers’ strike lasts. It’s not really about the 46% pay raise, but the 2009 Obama deal that took away cost-of-living adjustments. It’s not really about the short run, either.

  

  But let’s see what the auto workers get in the face of President Biden’s unrealistic demand that would force us to buy Chinese-battery-powered vehicles.

  The sheep will remain loyal – just as they are to every other radical idea – because to resist is to be uncool or, worse, deplatformed from woke society.

  But the “irredeemable deplorables” (who buck the system) are getting restless about an all-out plunge into the uncharted waters of EV world – a world dominated by China and its forced laborers in Xinjiang and Congolese child laborers.

  Funny how bedfellows make strange politics. The UAW bosses are all in with the EV mandate, but the rank and file just cheered an Orange man in a red elephant jacket. But if you think this is merely an American phenomenon, you’d be wrong.

  This – this is the battle of the century, between those seeking to control all thought and action and those who only seek to control some (controversial) thought and action – a real-world game of thrones. Power, not progress, or even prosperity, is the goal. And, of course, big money.

  Every day the dangers of total reliance on electricity generation and transmission at a level twice that of today are exposed. And every day these warnings are ignored by the media and lampooned by the Karines of the world.

  In Pakistan, lightning hits a warehouse full of electric vehicles and batteries causing a fire and explosions that killed a 15-year-old boy and injured 163 others. Five electric vehicles were destroyed at Sydney’s airport when a detached EV battery from a luxury vehicle burst into flames.

  Taxpayer-subsidized Proterra’s bankruptcy has left the entire eight-vehicle Jackson (Wyoming) bus fleet grounded for months. Parts are not available. Naturally, Jackson’s bureaucrats plan to buy more electric buses. Greenie points!

  British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a five-year delay on banning new gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles (till 2035), citing “unacceptable costs” on ordinary people. All across Europe the battle is raging over the “transition.” Unless “net zero” is modified, predictions are that “the base car market will either vanish or will not be done by European manufacturers.”

  Those “ordinary people” are speaking with their pocketbooks. Prices for used EVs have been slashed by nearly 25% “as drivers lose confidence.” Over half of British drivers deem EVs too expensive, and nearly half fear shortages of charging stations.

  No wonder American auto workers are striking!

  But that’s not the worst!

  British auto insurer John Lewis Financial Services has “temporarily” paused issuing polices on battery-powered vehicles until its underwriter analyses risks and costs (and raises rates). Another insurer, Aviva, reportedly is refusing to insure Teslas, while other EV owners saw premiums go up 1,000% in just one year (up to £4,000 more).

  Costs for EV repairs have risen sharply, and there is a shortage of technicians with the skills to carry out repairs – meaning EV owners may wait weeks with their toy in the shop. No wonder a J.D. Power survey reports 76% of new EV sales come from the luxury market – mainstream buyers cannot afford them.

  Nonetheless, the Association of British Insurers reassured the elites and deplatformers that, “Our members fully support the roll-out of electric vehicles and efforts to transition to Net Zero.” With the caveat that, “Whether to offer insurance, and at what price, is a commercial decision for insurers based on their risk appetite.”

  The “rosy scenario” (if tomorrow’s EV sales match today’s non-EV sales) predicts a loss of 117,000 automotive jobs to “the transition.” Thousands of jobs are already lost as automakers gear up to meet political demands – despite public resistance.

  These numbers, however, do not factor in the 75% reduction in private vehicle ownership demanded by Klaus Schwab and his fellow gazillionaire would-be gods.

  Nor do they factor in massive losses in petrochemical industry and other manufacturing jobs – at least 6,000 products use byproducts of gasoline and diesel production. Those industries, too, will be devastated by an end to fossil fuel production – and nobody in the power structure cares.

  Yes, horse-related jobs disappeared as automobiles replaced saddled animals on American roads. But such comparisons are political spin. American auto workers – like former American appliance and electronics workers — watch production move to Mexico and China as our auto industry is crippled by regulations and mandates that make no economic or geopolitical sense.

  Despite the acquiescence by automakers to Biden’s diktat (do any mainstream reporters still drive ICE vehicles?), there are signs of a burgeoning revolt, and not just from Trump-loving auto workers.

  The House just sent to the Senate the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act, crafted by Rep. John Joyce (R, PA) to prevent governments from bans on ICE vehicle sales. Says Joyce, “The last thing my constituents want is another oppressive Biden administration mandate that puts a radical environmental agenda and far-left special interests above their individual freedoms.”

  (Meanwhile, in France, 41% (and 59% from ages 18 to 24) approved the idea of limiting people to four airplane flights over their entire lifetime.)

  Analyzing the British marketplace, Telegraph city editor Ben Marlow suggests that “the time has come to accept that the economics of net zero are more fantasy than reality.”

  Despite London mayor Sadiq Khan’s infamous Ultra-Low Emissions Zone scheme that forced ICE vehicle drivers to pay £12.50 per day just to enter downtown London, an initial spike in EV sales petered out quickly, leading to layoffs at EV assembly plants, carlots full of unsold EVs, and a price war by frustrated dealerships.

  In the U.S., Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley addressed the United Auto Workers’ demands, acknowledging that, “we want everyone to participate in our success, but if it prevents us from investing in this transition to EVs … then everyone’s job is at risk if we don’t invest.”

  Really? Ford is losing $4.5 billion in its EV division this year despite President Biden’s welfare-for-the-rich scheme of massive subsidies for EV purchases, $12 billion for retrofitting auto plants for EV production, and $7.5 billion for charging stations. If Schwab has his way, Ford may soon find itself out of business or relegated to manufacturing nameplates for Chinese “Fords.”

  Will Americans understand that the auto workers (who just want a big paycheck before their forced retirement) are the canary in this nation’s coal mine – that if their industry dies, the nation’s economy dies with it?

  It will take great courage to stand up to teacher unions, indoctrinated children, the deplatforming media, the Justice Department, and hate speech from on high to demand an end to the climate hysteria that elitists use to scare people into accepting a massive decline in their prosperity.

  But that is the battle – more than immigration, funding foreign wars, or even “structural racism” – that ought to be the dividing line in 2024. Like 2020’s vaccine mandates, EV mandates force tremendous losses of personal freedom. And our children are being taught that freedom – speaking out against government and the ruling class – is a bad thing.

  But so is darkness.

  Duggan Flanakin is a senior policy analyst for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow and a frequent writer on public policy issues.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 16:05

• Watch: Netanyahu Delivers Remarks After Hamas Attack
  Watch: Netanyahu Delivers Remarks After Hamas Attack

  Update (1525ET): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers remarks following the Hamas attack:

  Watch live:

  *  *  *

  President Biden delivered a boilerplate series of remarks on the attack in Israel, including that the US commitment to them is “rock solid,” and leaving before answering any questions (the first one of which was whether there was an intelligence failure leading up to it).

  Watch:

  The US says it ‘stands firmly’ by its partner Israel after it came under large-scale attack by Palestinian fighters from Gaza, happening nearly 50 years to the day of the historic 1973 Yom Kippur war.

  “The U.S. unequivocally condemns the unprovoked attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians,” spokeswoman for the U.S. National Security Council, Adrienne Watson, said in a statement. “We stand firmly with the government and people of Israel and extend our condolences for the Israeli lives lost in these attacks.”

  President Biden held a phone call with Netanyahu Saturday:

  “This morning, I spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu about the horrific and ongoing attacks in Israel,” Biden said in a statement. “The United States unequivocally condemns this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, and I made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the Government and people of Israel.” 

  “Terrorism is never justified. Israel has a right to defend itself and its people. The United States warns against any other party hostile to Israel seeking advantage in this situation,” he continued. “My Administration’s support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering.”

  Additionally, the Pentagon says it will support Israel after Netanyahu earlier declared war.

  “Our commitment to Israel’s right to defend itself remains unwavering,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said. “Over the coming days the Department of Defense will work to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself and protect civilians from indiscriminate violence and terrorism.”

  Gaza militants have not only taken control of multiple Israeli military outposts near the southern border, but have launched more than 2,000 missiles in an attack by “air, land, and sea”. Gaza media is meanwhile warning “hell’ is coming to Tel Aviv. 

  Israel’s national rescue service has confirmed at least 40 Israeli deaths due to the attack. Regional reports are saying this death toll could be over 100. A large-scale Israeli air campaign has ensued over Gaza City, with entire apartment blocks and buildings being leveled. 

  ⚡️Battles are still ongoing around the settlements of the Gaza strip pic.twitter.com/YtIBoCfZrS

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) October 7, 2023

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  Meanwhile, the US Embassy in Jerusalem has issued a “shelter in place” order for all US diplomatic personnel and their families. 

  “The U.S. Embassy is closely monitoring the security situation as a result of rockets fired from Gaza across southern and central Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and the infiltration of Hamas militants,” the statement reads.

  Something seems off to me that one of the most advanced intelligence agencies in the world apparently had no idea a large scale terrorist attack was about to be mobilized against their country.

  — Jordan Sather (@Jordan_Sather_) October 7, 2023

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  The embassy says it’s “aware that there have been casualties as a result of these incidents” and cautions US citizens to “remain vigilant and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness.”

  Israeli leaders look rattled as they attended an emergency security cabinet meeting today:

  ⚡️Video from the expanded cabinet meeting pic.twitter.com/VaPYQmpyeX

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) October 7, 2023

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  Some observers are asking how such a clearly well-coordinated attack could have happened. At the very least, this is a monumential failure on the part of Israeli intelligence…

  This is the largest intelligence failure in the history of Israel’s security agencies. https://t.co/f9PSqn9j4o pic.twitter.com/MPw74SSFZh

  — Russian Market (@runews) October 7, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 15:29

• Hezbollah Next To Attack? War Could Spiral Into Biggest In Decades
  Hezbollah Next To Attack? War Could Spiral Into Biggest In Decades

  By Saturday afternoon (local time), some 200 Palestinians have been killed, with over 1600 wounded as the Israeli military begins its response to the ‘invasion’ of southern Israel launched by Hamas.

  After about ten hours of fighting, over 40 Israelis have been reported killed, and over 800 wounded. Hamas also has captured possibly scores of Israeli soldiers and civilians, including what it says are IDF military commanders.

  What’s becoming clear given the shocking scenes currently coming out of southern Israel, is that this is set to be the biggest, most devastating Israeli-Palestinian in decades.

  It appears at the very least, we are in the midst of a third intifada. But one big question will linger in the coming days and weeks as Israel is sure to escalate its response into a ground invasion Gaza: will the war escalate beyond Gaza and southern Israel?

  

  Already both Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic of Iran have sent “congratulations” messages to Hamas and the Palestinians. Hezbollah’s statement in particular condemned Arab states who have normalized relations with the Jewish state. 

  The Wall Street Journal reports on Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s statement as follows:

  Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which like Palestinian militant groups also vows Israel’s destruction, praised the operation by Hamas inside Israel, according to Arab media.

  Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah said it served as a warning against recognizing Israel.

  “It sends a message to the Arab and Islamic world, and the international community as a whole, especially those seeking normalization with this enemy, that the Palestinian cause is an everlasting one, alive until victory and liberation,” Nasrallah said in a statement.

  At the moment Israel’s northern border with Hezbollah remains quiet, but if a shooting war starts out of southern Lebanon, Israel will find itself in a war on two fronts.

  Already there are allegations from Western pundits that Iran is financing this expanded Hamas operation…

  A lot happening right now, but Hamas couldn’t have conducted this complex an operation without serious planning and intelligence assistance from Iran. The response from Israel won’t be—and can’t be—the limited, restrained operations people are used to seeing.

  — James Hasson (@JamesHasson20) October 7, 2023

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  Below: while we couldn’t make out any Farsi in the audio of the below disturbing footage, allegations like IRGC operatives being involved will only grow…

  You could hear Farsi being spoken in the background, which is proof of #IRGCterrorists being present. In order to bring peace to the region, The Islamic Republic must go!#IsraelUnderAttack
  pic.twitter.com/bPUqOH3UWj

  — 𝐵𝑜𝒷𝒷𝓎 𝒜𝒻𝓇𝑜𝑜𝓏 (@DDSBobby) October 7, 2023

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  A potential broader war could also draw in Syria, given already Israeli jets have struck the country almost on a weekly basis. Israel has long said it is attacking Iranian targets and assets inside Syria. 

  If Hezbollah and Israel enter a war, this would increase the likelihood of it expanding into already war-torn Syria.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 14:35

• Moms Shine Spotlight On Harms Caused By Youth Transgender Movement
  Moms Shine Spotlight On Harms Caused By Youth Transgender Movement

  Authored by Emel Akan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The transgender movement has recently gained significant national attention for a number of reasons, including the controversy surrounding big corporations like Budweiser and Target’s support for the movement as well as widespread public opposition to transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

  

  To raise awareness about the harms caused by the movement, Moms For America, an advocacy group for family rights, hosted a virtual screening and panel discussion of the Epoch Original docudrama “Gender Transformation: The Untold Realities” on Oct. 5 at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

  The event explored the complex issues surrounding gender confusion, transgenderism, and their effect on young people. It also informed parents about growing extremist behavior in schools across the country.

  After watching the movie for the first time, Moms For America founder and president Kimberly Fletcher felt moved and decided to host a screening.

  “I think when people see this, they will realize that this is really a billion-dollar business that’s set up to mutilate our children,” she said in an interview with NTD TV, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times.

  By following the journeys of several former transgender youths, The Epoch Times film unpacks the complexities behind the rise of the transgender movement and the role played by institutions, from schools to medical and pharmaceutical companies.

  As the documentary highlights, parents are often confronted with a challenging dilemma during their children’s gender identity crises: “Would you rather have a dead daughter or a living son?”

  Parents, however, recognize that the answer to this heartbreaking question is far from simple.

  Jan Jekielek, senior editor with The Epoch Times and host of the EpochTV show “American Thought Leaders,” stated that the film and the panel discussion “serve as a valuable resource, even offering possible solutions for parents and their children when they are faced with gender confusion.”

  

  The live panel discussion following the film screening featured Ms. Fletcher, Mercedes Schlapp, senior fellow at the American Conservative Union Foundation, January Littlejohn, licensed mental health councilor, Mark Trammell, executive director and general counsel of the Center for American Liberty, Katherine Welch, physician and collaborating clinician for the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine, and Laura Perry Smalts, author of “Transgendered to Transformed.”

  The live panel discussion focused on some of the stories of what families have experienced and what they can do to protect their children.

  “This issue of gender ideology, I think, has been so toxic for American culture. And it’s spreading,” Ms. Schlapp told NTD TV during the event.

  “If we lose our children, if we become a genderless society, if we continue to create confusion here in America, it will be the fall of this great country,” she added.

  

  Moms for America provides various resources for parents to tackle this issue, including a book called “Gender Confusion.” The book explains what parents need to know to protect their children from the transgender movement.

  “We want everyone to know this is not normal,” Ms. Fletcher said of the transgender movement during the panel.

  “What’s happening is that they’re creating the problem, because then they get paid for the solution. So, it’s really important that we help everyone understand where this is coming from.”

  Emotional Trauma

  Former transgender Laura Perry Smalts was one of the panelists at the event. Ms. Smalts decided to transition at the age of 25 and endured years of cross-sex hormone therapy as well as two significant “gender-affirming” surgeries. However, she regrets going through it and wishes to warn others.

  “Nobody ever told me that this wasn’t real, that this was all just an aesthetic appearance. I had no idea the profound effect it would have on my body,” she said.

  “I was so depressed and became suicidal. And I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to be a woman, but I knew I’d never be a man. I was caught somewhere in between.”

  She eventually realized that an emotional trauma she experienced as a child was the driving force behind her decision to transition to a male.

  “But thankfully, by the grace of God, the Lord began to rescue me. I had so many people praying for me. I know it’s only by God’s grace that I’m here.”

  January Littlejohn was one of the panelists at the event. Ms. Littlejohn drew national attention after suing a Florida school for secretly assisting her daughter in changing her gender.

  Ms. Littlejohn’s fight against the school prompted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to approve legislation prohibiting schools from making decisions regarding a student’s health and well-being without consulting parents.

  “The one thing I tell parents is that you are the expert on your child, not the school, not the therapist,” she said during the panel discussion.

  “It is critically important to maintain an attached and healthy relationship with your child through the teen years.”

  The Center for American Liberty is an organization that represents parents who oppose school secrecy policies.

  “We never charge our clients a penny,” Mark Trammell, executive director and general counsel for the Center for American Liberty, said during the panel.

  “We’re able to exist because we have donors across the country who support our organization and make it possible to file these public interest lawsuits.”

  About the Docudrama

  The Epoch Times film examines the complex issues surrounding transgenderism and explains the roles played by the education system, the medical and pharmaceutical industries, the financial interests behind the transgender movement, and the societal and political mechanisms at work.

  The docudrama tells the real-life stories of several former transgender youth who started the gender transitioning process and their experiences at various stages of the journey through interviews and re-enactments.

  Experts interviewed in the film reveal the life-altering medical and psychological impacts of the experimental medication used, including the irreversible side effects of puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and surgeries that are often ignored by the media.

  In the docudrama, award-winning director Tobias Elvhage brings to light the untold realities and implications of the transgender movement on American children and youth. His most recent awards include Best Short Film at the 2023 LA Documentary Film Festival and Winner of the 2023 European Cinematography Awards.

  “This is a big night and a very important movie about gender confusion,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said in a video message during the panel discussion. “I’m so thankful to the people that created this movie to spread awareness of this unbelievable evil that has come all across America, and it’s targeting our children.”

  The congresswoman introduced a bill that makes gender-affirming care for any child under the age of 18 a felony.

  “This is not a battle against any adult’s rights to self-identify or change their sexuality. This is not an us against them situation,” Vanessa Faura, executive director of Moms For America, said during a press briefing ahead of the event.

  “My message today is simple: all children are sacred. And there should be no room for any agenda that harms them in any way, shape, or form. They will not be indoctrinated. They will not be groomed.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 14:00

• Bill Maher: "Democrats Look Like Sanctuary City Hypocrites" 
  Bill Maher: “Democrats Look Like Sanctuary City Hypocrites” 

  “Real Time” host Bill Maher blasted President Biden and ultra-radical progressives for their massive policy U-turn on the southern border this week. He said border state Republicans who bused migrants to sanctuary metro areas (mainly in the Northeast) “called the Democrats’ bluff about sanctuary cities,” and the Democrats “look like sanctuary city hypocrites.” 

  “Here’s how serious the situation is: You know, they’ve been busing the migrants to the cities now. They kind of called the Democrats’ bluff about sanctuary cities, and they said oh, you love them so much? Here you go. And the cities don’t like it so much. NYC Mayor Eric Adams said this is going to destroy our city … Eric Adams … went to Mexico today. He’s going to Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia, I think door-to-door, no, really, just to tell people personally, we don’t have room, I’m not kidding, don’t come. That’s pretty amazing. No, he’s telling these people, we don’t have room. This is New York City. Don’t you know our catchphrase? We’re the Little Apple. And our theme song, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, so go anywhere, don’t come here,” Maher said in his opening opening monologue on Friday evening. 

  Eric Adams Begs Mexican Government To Halt Migrant Flow To NYC During International Triphttps://t.co/iSXCOxEZ9s

  — Election Wizard (@ElectionWiz) October 6, 2023

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  Maher continued, “The border crisis has become a national crisis. It was always something like oh, it’s down there, and yes, it’s bad. But it’s – and now it’s all over the country because they’ve been busing the migrants and so forth.”

  He said this all “feels like a disaster for the Democrats.” 

  Bill Maher …

  “Democrats look like Sanctuary City Hypocrites” ..pic.twitter.com/YksPxODjVa

  — Lawyerforlaws (@lawyer4laws) October 7, 2023

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  The Biden administration’s reversal to now support former President Trump’s southern border wall comes as radical progressives, for years, called anyone who praised Trump’s wall ‘racist’ and other terrible names. The policy U-turn by the president and radical leftists comes as it appears polling data is not moving in their favor ahead of the election cycle, as disastrous open border policies have transformed many metro areas into chaotic areas that resemble third-word-like conditions. 

  El paso texas
  a group of migrants storm the borderpic.twitter.com/T2KTcxHNPW

  — Viral News NYC (@ViralNewsNYC) October 4, 2023

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  … and you know it’s bad for Democrats when Bill Clinton has to come out and oppose NYC’s sanctuary city. 

  JUST IN: Former president Bill Clinton now opposes New York City being a “Sanctuary City” as the migrant crisis continues to spiral out of control.

  Being a virtue signaler was easy when you didn’t actually have to deal with the consequences.

  During an interview, Clinton argued… pic.twitter.com/dZrCKHk2Ym

  — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 1, 2023

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  or this… 

  JUST IN: The ‘loving and tolerant’ co-hosts of The View say migrants need to be kicked out of New York City before blaming the migrant crisis on “global warming and climate change.”

  You can’t write comedy better than this.

  “They need to be resettled elsewhere. They need to… pic.twitter.com/AxV5O8w0Ia

  — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 8, 2023

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  Maher said, “Trump today said he wants Biden to apologize because it looks like Biden was adopting his policy. This does not look good for the Democrats.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 13:25

• EU Says It Can't Support Ukraine Without The United States
  EU Says It Can’t Support Ukraine Without The United States

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  The EU’s top diplomat on Thursday said the European bloc could not provide Ukraine with enough support without the US amid uncertainty about when Congress might authorize the next tranche of spending on the proxy war.

  “Europe cannot fill the gap of the US,” Josep Borrell said after arriving in Spain for a gathering of European leaders, according to POLITICO.

  

  The EU is close to approving a new economic aid package for Ukraine worth 50 billion euros that would cover 2024-2027, although Hungary could further delay the package. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the massive aid package should be approved within the next few months but said US support still remains crucial.

  Von der Leyen also said she was “confident” that the US would continue supporting Ukraine but acknowledged she wasn’t sure when new spending would be authorized.

  According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, the US has another tranche of economic aid worth over $1 billion to fund the Ukrainian government through the month of October. If a new aid package isn’t authorized by Congress in the next month, the funds will dry up.

  The Pentagon has said it still has $5.4 billion in funds to send weapons to Ukraine but has warned it’s running out of money to replace weapons sent to Ukraine. Because of the uncertainty, the Pentagon has said it’s restricted the flow of some arms to the US’s own forces.

  The majority of Congress still supports the proxy war, but it’s not clear when they will pass a new Ukraine aid bill after the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as House speaker.

  President Biden is looking for an additional $24 billion in spending and has acknowledged he’s worried about the situation, although he also hinted there are other ways to get the money.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 12:50

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Some Embalmers Say White, Fibrous Clots Showing Up; Others Say It's A Conspiracy Theory
  Some Embalmers Say White, Fibrous Clots Showing Up; Others Say It’s A Conspiracy Theory

  Authored by Allan Stein via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Embalming a body involves replacing the blood with chemical solutions to preserve it and slow decomposition.

  

  Some embalmers say that starting in 2021, they suddenly began seeing an “anomaly” during that process—a phenomenon of long, rubbery, white masses inside the blood vessels.

  Others say they have seen nothing new.

  The Epoch Times contacted embalmers and funeral directors from around the world to understand the disparity.

  An Oklahoma mortician responded, saying, “Yes, the embalmers at this funeral location have all encountered this phenomenon, each multiple times during embalming in the last two years.” A funeral director in Pennsylvania told The Epoch Times: “We’ve seen this stuff—absolutely. We’ve seen it enough to discuss it within the company.”

  The mortician said his company thought the white, fibrous clots were just an anomaly.

  “What do I attribute it to? I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it previously,” he said.

  “As far as numbers, it’s hard to say. When we first started noticing it in 2021, it was like, ‘Oh, wow, I wonder if their cholesterol was off the charts.’

  On the other hand, many of the respondents to The Epoch Times’ survey said that not only had they not seen the fibrous masses in the bodies they embalmed, but they considered the reports from other embalmers and funeral directors to be “nonsense.”

  

  “It’s all nonsense, COVID vaccine conspiracy-theory [expletive],” a Canadian embalmer told The Epoch Times in an email. “We embalm over 400 bodies yearly and have never seen [this].“

  Several respondents from Canada, Australia, and the UK said they haven’t seen any of the white, fibrous clots, with one calling it “ridiculous claptrap.”

  However, responses from 11 embalmers in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand tell a similar story of white fibrin masses clogging the circulatory systems of the newly deceased since 2021.

  Some speculate that the obstructions have something to do with COVID-19 or the COVID-19 vaccines, although no research exists to substantiate such a connection.

  Dr. Ryan Cole, an Idaho pathologist who said he’s conducted “a lot” of autopsies in his career, said normal post-mortem blood clots are red and jelly-like.

  “They’re not white and rubbery,” he said in a 2022 interview on “American Thought Leaders.”

  Dr. Cole attributes the absence of public dialogue within the medical community regarding the clots to “institutional fear.”

  Grassroots Survey

  When retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Thomas Haviland began hearing about the strange phenomenon in various media, he conducted his own international email survey this year of funeral homes.

  Mr. Haviland sent questionnaires via Survey Monkey to funeral homes in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. Of the 179 active embalmers who responded to the survey, 119 confirmed having seen the clots.

  Mr. Haviland said that he designed the survey to be as unbiased as possible. Nowhere in the survey instructions nor in the survey questions are the words “Covid” or “Covid vaccines” ever mentioned.

  Mr. Haviland said he only asked the embalmers if they saw the white fibrous clots, when they saw them, where on the body, and in what percentage of the bodies they embalmed.

  Despite the fact that the survey never mentions the COVID vaccines, many of the 42 U.S. embalmers and 12 Canadian embalmers who responded to an optional “Comments” box at the end of the survey either implicated the COVID vaccines as the cause of the white fibrous clots, or they defended the vaccines while denying the existence of these unusual clots.

  “The main consensus of embalmers is that these white, fibrous clots first appeared in the year 2021 and continue still to date. Embalmers see these clots in a significant percentage of corpses—up to 50 percent or more in some cases,” Mr. Haviland said.

  The Epoch Times independently contacted the 1,700 embalmers and funeral directors surveyed by Mr. Haviland to corroborate the findings. Nine responded, saying they’ve encountered the white, fibrous masses, and five responded saying they haven’t.

  Embalmers Responses

  Canadian embalmer Laura Jeffrey thought it bizarre to be pulling long, rubbery, white masses from the veins and arteries of the deceased at the beginning of 2021.

  “I knew from the get-go something was wrong,” Mrs. Jeffrey said.

  In one case, she found a white, stringy mass literally “hanging out” of a deceased woman’s artery—”like eight inches long—all branched,” she told The Epoch Times.

  “You could see the pathologist’s cut in it. So you can’t tell me it wasn’t there when they did the autopsy. I had to pull it out as the embalmer.”

  Mrs. Jeffrey said her job became increasingly tricky trying to work around the obstructions. She decided to consult with her colleagues, but came up against an inexplicable “code of silence.”

  

  More than 8,000 miles away from Mrs. Jeffrey’s home in Ontario, a New Zealand embalmer confirmed similar findings.

  “For obvious reasons, I am most reluctant for my colleagues to know I am responding,” the embalmer said, on condition of anonymity, in an email to The Epoch Times.

  “My workplace feels this is a conspiracy theory and is unwilling to engage in conversation. To say I was shut down when I tried to bring it up is an understatement.“

  A funeral director in Colorado told The Epoch Times: “We are finding these white, fibrous blood clots in decedents of all ages.

  “For example, one case was autopsied in their late 20s. The death was not related to clots (no family history), and this person was healthy and took care of themselves. I found two large white clumps in their lower arteries. These should not have been there, especially with the manner of death.”

  The funeral director said before the embalming process, they’ve begun asking if the person had been vaccinated and boosted.

  

  “Depending on the case, we are not finding these clots in non-vaccinated decedents, just normal blood clots and good drainage,” the director said.

  “For the vaccinated ones, we are finding larger clots that are changing the consistency of the blood itself. We have never seen so much stringy blood before that really disrupts the drainage.”

  The embalmer at New Zealand funeral home who was among the survey recipients and who reached out to The Epoch Times described how six months into his training, he saw his first “fibrin clot.”

  The supervisor he had at the time said she “didn’t know what it was.”

  “She has been an embalmer for about 20 years. I then asked my manager, who is also an embalmer, and he said he had seen them prior to COVID, and there was no link,” the embalmer said. Since the first discovery, he says he still sees the strange white masses “fairly regularly—in various sizes, with and without the fatty clots, and normal red blood clots.”

  

  “I am not privy to the vaccination status of the deceased or their recent health issues beyond [the] cause of death, so I cannot say if there is a link between a recent COVID infection or vaccination,” the embalmer said.

  He said he tried to discuss his findings with other colleagues—not to “stir up trouble,” but to learn what they were looking at.

  However, “just like with any other unusual presentation on my table … there is a definable ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ feeling around the topic,” he said.

  A funeral director at a high-volume mortuary in Texas said she has seen the clots in several embalming cases but needs to know more about them before commenting further.

  Reads more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 10/07/2023 – 00:00

• "They Took My Sushi": Lawmakers Sleeping In US Capitol Due To 'Very Dangerous' Crime Wave
  “They Took My Sushi”: Lawmakers Sleeping In US Capitol Due To ‘Very Dangerous’ Crime Wave

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

  A Republican House lawmaker on Wednesday said that some lawmakers have been sleeping inside the U.S. Capitol due to fears of crime in the District of Columbia.

  

  Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) said that he and other unnamed lawmakers have slept in their offices at the Capitol because Washington, D.C., is “very dangerous” at night. He did not elaborate.

  “I don’t want to walk back and forth from an apartment in D.C. at night or in the morning—early morning—to get to work,” Mr. Burlison told Todd Starnes on his radio program. “It’s not a safe environment.”

  He made reference to Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) having recently been carjacked in the district just blocks from the U.S. Capitol. The Democratic lawmaker was unharmed but his car was stolen by three armed assailants, police said.

  “It’s insane to even own a car in D.C. because wherever you park, it is going to cost you a fortune and it’s likely to get broken into and you’re likely to get carjacked,” Mr. Burlison said.

  As for Mr. Cuellar, he was back at work in the Capitol on Tuesday morning. Recalling the incident on Sunday night, he said that the assailants appeared from “out of nowhere” and “pointed guns at me.”

  “I looked at one with a gun, another with a gun, and I felt one behind me,” Mr. Cuellar said. “They said they wanted my car, and I said, ‘Sure.’ You got to keep calm under those situations, and they took off.”

  The congressman was approached by three young black males in black clothing and black masks, according to a statement Mr. Cuellar gave to Capitol officials.

  “According to the victim’s statements, the suspects ‘swarmed [the victim’s] vehicle, pointed firearms in his face and demanded the keys to the car.’ Thankfully there were not any injuries,” the U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement. “A witness told investigators three males in knit caps and ski masks were involved. The witness reported that the suspects were 5’10” black males who may have been around the age of 16 due to their build.”

  

  Mr. Cuellar’s chief of staff Jacob Hochberg released a statement Monday night saying: “As Congressman Cuellar was parking his car this evening, 3 armed assailants approached the Congressman and stole his vehicle. Luckily, he was not harmed and is working with local law enforcement.”

  Monday’s carjacking was the second assault on a member of Congress in the District of Columbia this year. In February, Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) was assaulted in her apartment building, suffering bruises while escaping serious injury. Her chief of staff said the attack did not appear to be politically motivated.

  Mr. Cuellar thanked the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department for their work, saying the “message is very simple: You’ve got to support law enforcement.”

  He said the attackers were masked, but he could still see that they were young. “They recovered the car, they recovered everything, but what really got me upset is they took my sushi,” he joked.

  White House press secretary Karine-Jean Pierre called the carjacking “unacceptable” and said President Joe Biden spoke to the congressman today.

  “We will always continue to speak out against any sort of violence. We’ve been consistent here in this administration,” she said. “We are certainly grateful and relieved that the congressman is unharmed, and we are thankful to law enforcement for having reacted so quickly.”

  The 68-year-old Texas Democrat’s car was recovered about two miles away in the Anacostia neighborhood, according to a report from a local NBC affiliate station.

  

  Crime on the Rise

  Homicides in Washington, D.C., are likely going to reach highs not seen in decades, with officials reporting 215 murders so far this year. In comparison, there were 157 homicides in all of 2022, police data show.

  In late September, the capital city hit the 200 murder mark, according to officials, which drew a response from the D.C. Police Union on social media.

  “We are still short 100s of cops and the responsible policing that used to address this has been prohibited by misguided legislation,” the union wrote on X, formerly Twitter, more than a week ago.

  Earlier this year, Republicans criticized the leaders of Washington, D.C., during a House hearing, portraying the capital as a Democrat-run city that has long been mismanaged and fallen into a state of disarray due to left-wing bail reform rules. In May, they passed a measure that would overturn a so-called police reform package that was passed by the D.C. Council amid the nationwide riots and protests in 2020.

  The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 23:30

• US Cellphone Radiation Tests Are 'Rigged,' Ignoring Long-Term Health Effects: Expert
  US Cellphone Radiation Tests Are ‘Rigged,’ Ignoring Long-Term Health Effects: Expert

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

  France’s recent ban on sales of the iPhone 12 due to radiation concerns has sparked apprehension throughout Europe about the health risks of cellphone radiation exposure. While U.S. tests focus narrowly on whether phones heat tissue, some experts argue they fail to show the whole picture.

  “The way they’re tested is to see whether or not they heat you up, and not for the chronic long-term effects that have been demonstrated,” Devra Davis, a cancer epidemiologist who holds a doctorate in science studies and a master’s in public health in epidemiology, told The Epoch Times. “Particularly the effects on sperm and lower testosterone, among others.”

  

  Cellphone Radiation Tests Are ‘Rigged’: Expert

  According to Ms. Davis, the biggest problem with U.S. testing is that it’s not conducted with the phone against the body. She compared it to the “Dieselgate” scandal involving Volkswagen, where the company rigged its tests to show lower exhaust emissions than the vehicle actually produced.

  “The same thing is happening here,” she added, noting that the tests were initially set up with spacers, as if phones were in holsters or holders.

  When the French government tests cellphones as they are actually used, “like in your hand [or] next to your body,” Ms. Davis said, the phones exceed European Union (EU) radiation limits. France has pulled or required software updates for 42 other cellphone models that emit excessive radiation since 2017, The Telegraph reported.

  The United States lacks this oversight, according to Ms. Davis.

  The telecommunications industry has almost complete control of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), according to a report published by Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics (pdf). A telecom lobbying group executive boasted its lobbyists meet FCC officials 500 times annually, the report stated.

  “We don’t have any programs to test phones after they’ve been approved,” Ms. Davis said. “And the approval process is self-regulated because of this revolving door that takes place between the FCC and the telecom industry.”

  Ms. Davis said if phones underwent drug testing, they’d be illegal. She warned of the danger cellphones pose, similar to certain drugs found to cause cancer and other health problems, in her 2010 book, “Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family,” and still stands by it today.

  The Epoch Times reached out to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to comment on this story, but they have not yet replied.

  17 Minutes of Daily Cellphone Use Increased Cancer Risk

  Heavy cellphone use has a “possible” association with increased brain cancer incidence, especially in research not funded by telecoms, according to a review of 23 case-control studies in 2009 published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

  “Our government, however, stopped funding research on the health effects of radiofrequency radiation in the 1990s,” study author Joel Moskowitz, the director of the Center for Family and Community Health and Community Health at the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley, said in a press statement in July 2021. “Our main takeaway from the current review is that approximately 1,000 hours of lifetime cellphone use, or about 17 minutes per day over a 10-year period, is associated with a statistically significant 60% increase in brain cancer,” Mr. Moskowitz wrote.

  The 2009 review was updated in 2020 to include 46 studies with similar findings.

  Cancer Linked to Living Near Cell Towers

  The International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields warned in 2022 (pdf) that radiofrequency radiation (RFR) exposure limits established in the 1990s don’t adequately protect the public, especially from novel 5G technology lacking health studies.

  Several bills pending in Congress give the telecom industry “free range” to put their towers wherever they want them, including “right by your bedroom window” if you’re living in an apartment building, according to Ms. Davis.

  A review of scientific studies published in 2022 found that most of the research found increased rates of cancer and radiofrequency sickness in people living within close proximity to mobile phone base stations. A recent study from Brazil found cancer mortality rose with population exposure to radio base station frequencies.

  “I think 5G belongs in the medical and military places, wired in [Ethernet], but not in homes,” Ms. Davis said. “The real problem is that in order for 5G to work, we need one million new antennas.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 23:00

• Syria, Russia Pound Idlib After Terror Attack Killed 80 People At Homs Military College
  Syria, Russia Pound Idlib After Terror Attack Killed 80 People At Homs Military College

  Overnight and into Friday the Syrian Army pummeled Idlib province with artillery and missiles, in retaliation for a Thursday drone attack conducted by the region’s al-Qaeda groups which scored a direct hit on a crowded military graduation ceremony at Homs military college.

  Syria’s health ministry in the immediate aftermath said the drone attack killed 80 people and wounded 240 more. Al Jazeera and other regional sources have cited over 100 dead, which included military officers and their family members. At least six children were among the deceased, in what may be the single deadliest terror attack inside Syria in years.

  

  Multiple videos later circulated of major counterattacks by Syrian forces on al-Qaeda occupied Idlib, in a rare large assault.

  Various hardline jihadist groups have held Idlib since 2015, at which time they were helped in the takeover by the United States and its allies, in an operation directed out of southern Turkey.

  A Syrian military statement alluded to insurgents having received help from “international forces” in the past:

  Syria’s military said in an earlier statement that drones laden with explosives targeted the ceremony packed with young officers and their families as it was wrapping up. Without naming any particular group, the military accused insurgents “backed by known international forces” of the attack and said “it will respond with full force and decisiveness to these terrorist organizations, wherever they exist.”

  NATO member Turkey continues to be a main backer of the jihadist insurgents who hold Idlib province. 

  More than 100 people were killed in a drone attack on the Syrian government military college in the western city of Homs on Thursday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor pic.twitter.com/W1Lbqr63xz

  — Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) October 6, 2023

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

  Regional sources have said Syrian had help from Russia allied forces in pounding Idlib, which is ongoing into Friday. “Airstrikes pounded the positions of the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) and the Emigrants Brigade, foreign extremist militias consisting of Chinese Uyghur and Chechen militants,” wrote The Cradle.

  “Syrian fighter jets, in coordination with the Russian air force, targeted the Al-Ghab plain and the town of Areeha in the Idlib governorate, as well as the city of Jisr al-Shughour – which fell to US-backed extremist groups in 2015,” the publication added.

  BREAKING 🚨

  The Syrian Army retaliated strongly on the positions of the Al-Qaeda terrorists in southern Idlib, from which the UAV attack that murdered over 60 cadets and civilians came. pic.twitter.com/RnTWJk5nP6

  — Kevork Almassian🇸🇾🇦🇲 (@KevorkAlmassian) October 5, 2023

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

  It is believed that the TIP and Emigrants Brigade “are the two armed groups that have the technological capabilities to conduct drone attacks”; however, Damascus didn’t name a specific group as being behind the devastating drone attack. In prior years whenever Syrian and Russian forces prepared to retake Idlib province from the armed insurgents, the the United States and its allies have threatened military intervention.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 22:30

• DC's Revolving Door Is Swinging Briskly For The Eco-Green Eyeshade People
  DC’s Revolving Door Is Swinging Briskly For The Eco-Green Eyeshade People

  Authored by Kevin Mooney via RealClear Wire,

  Washington’s revolving door is getting a fresh green paint job: Federal architects of a controversial new rule requiring businesses to measure their carbon footprints throughout their supply chains have joined a start-up company poised to reap millions by performing those calculations.

  

  At least three ranking Securities and Exchange Commission officials have joined Persefoni, a company formed in 2020 for the purpose of measuring such footprints of large business enterprises. 

  Documents show that the SEC relied on input from the for-profit company to draft the proposed rule. Some critics argue that the estimates from Persefoni low-balled the price tags unrealistically for such accounting to make them more politically palatable.

  Persefoni, billing itself as “The Platform for Carbon Accounting – Built For Climate Disclosure,” and similar outfits are emerging as their own service industry as they stand to profit from the new rule, since most companies do not have the staff or expertise to calculate their carbon footprints.

  While environmentalists have hailed the rule as an important step in forcing companies to grapple with their impact on the climate by exposing it to the public, critics argue that it goes far beyond the SEC’s core mission of protecting investors. In voting against a draft of the proposal, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, a Trump appointee, said it “forces investors to view companies through the eyes of a vocal set of stakeholders” – as opposed to traditional shareholders – “for whom a company’s climate reputation is of equal or greater importance than a company’s financial performance.”

  The SEC and Persefoni each declined to comment for this article.

  Persefoni appears to have had great influence over the proposed rule. Public records from the SEC show the commission held six meetings with representatives from Persefoni and Ceres – a prominent investor advocacy group that supports such climate disclosure – from September 2021 to June 2022. These include:

  • Meetings on Sept. 14, Nov. 23, and Nov. 30 between Persefoni and the SEC office of the chair, Gary Gensler;
  • Meetings on March 28 and April 5 between Ceres and the Office of Commissioner Allison Herren Lee;
  • And one joint meeting involving Persefoni, Ceres, and ERM with the SEC’s Division of Economic and Risk Analysis, the Division of Corporation Finance, and the Office of the Chief Accountant.

  Lee, a Democrat who joined the SEC as a staff attorney in 2005, was appointed by President Trump as one of the SEC’s five commissioners in 2019 – filling a Democratic vacancy on the commission, which was structured to be nonpartisan. President Biden named her as acting chair in 2021, and she took charge of the public comment period for the proposed rule.

  Lee stepped down on March 15, 2022, just six days before the commission unveiled its proposed climate rule. In May 2023, she joined Persefoni as a member of the firm’s “sustainability advisory board.”

  At Persefoni, she reunited with Kristina Wyatt, who joined the company’s board in March 2022. Previously, Wyatt had served the SEC as senior counsel for climate and environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG). In this capacity, she worked directly on developing the proposed rule. Wyatt was also listed as the direct contact when the commission circulated a request for information from the public regarding climate-change disclosures.

  In December 2022, Persefoni hired another SEC alum, Emily Pierce, to serve as associate general counsel and vice president of global regulatory climate disclosure.

  By all accounts, the SEC leaned heavily on Persefoni’s cost-benefit analysis of the pending rule, which essentially establishes a parallel disclosure regime for the SEC – all in the name of mitigating climate change.

  The SEC proposal has many parts, but the most controversial and cumbersome involves the requirement that larger companies must provide soup-to-nuts calculations of their carbon emissions, including those from thousands of their suppliers operating across hundreds of countries.

  As RealClearInvestigations has previously reported, to come up with numbers for Cocoa Puffs cereal, General Mills might have to calculate the emissions from “cocoa farms in Africa, corn fields in the U.S., or sugar plantations in Latin America. Then thousands of processors, transporters, packagers, distributors, office workers, and retailers join the supply chain before a kid in Minnesota, where General Mills is based, pours the cereal into a bowl.”

  Since most of the emissions that must be measured are not directly generated by the companies, the calculations amount to a herculean task. This is where an outfit like Persefoni comes in.

  When the commission first published its proposal in March 2022, it provided corporate compliance cost estimates that ranged from $460,000 to $640,000 during the first year. Accurate estimates are crucial for companies to determine if they are equipped to comply. But there is considerable doubt on that front.

  Persefoni stands out as the only source that provides any estimate anywhere close to the SEC’s $640,000 figure, for which the commission does not provide any citations or methodologies to show how it arrived at its estimates. Persefoni is cited within the proposal nine times, but the firm is not cited in connection with the SEC’s stated ranges for compliance costs on page 373. In fact, no source is cited or linked as a resource for the SEC’s figures.

  Rupert Darwall, an author and energy policy analyst affiliated with the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute and a senior fellow at the RealClearFoundation, has been critical of what he views as a lack of transparency and accountability on the part of the SEC, which gives cover to outside partners that stand to gain once the rule takes effect.

  “Persefoni has a glaring conflict of interest in low-balling cost of compliance estimates to the SEC, which the SEC should have disclosed and been mindful of. Instead, the SEC put undue weight on these implausibly low estimates,” Darwall said. Estimates of indirect emissions across supply chains “are especially risky for filers as there’s no limiting principle and, contrary to longstanding accounting principles, multiple companies account for the same emission.” Darwall also makes the point that Persefoni’s low-cost estimates are “at odds of what it’s been telling investors about the revenues it projects from the rule.”

  In early 2022, the carbon accounting firm partnered with the environmental activist group Ceres to commission from consulting firm ERM a compliance cost study, which was published in May 2022. This is where Persefoni produced estimates in line with the SEC’s $640,000 figure. That same month, Persefoni submitted a comment letter in response to the SEC proposal, which included its joint study with Ceres.

  Although the letter is dated May 20, 2022, the SEC did not publish it until the final week of the comment period ending June 17, 2022, curtailing the period for public scrutiny of the Persefoni estimates.

  With Persefoni’s letter intermixed with roughly 1,140 other comments, some saw this as an effort to bury the firm’s relationship with the SEC.

  One critic is Bonner Cohen, a senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research in Washington, D.C.

  “The collusion between the SEC and a select group of outside parties gives new meaning to the term climate cartel,” Cohen said in an interview. “Not only is there a hand-in-glove relationship between the SEC and outfits like Persefoni, Ceres, and ERM that stand to benefit financially from the climate disclosure rule the agency is set to release. They also appear to have had a hand in drafting that rule. The SEC and its cronies are so closely entangled that they are effectively acting as one.”

  Knowing Which Way the Windfall Blows

  While the SEC and Persefoni would not comment for this article, Steven Rothstein, managing director of the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets, told RCI that there is not any conflict of interest at work. He pointed out that Ceres has been advocating for a climate disclosure rule with the SEC for the past two decades.

  “The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission received 15,000 public comments around this rule,” Rothstein said in an email. “Among the most comments than any in the SEC’s 90-year history. Everyone has a vested interest in the future of their investments and retirement savings. The comments will make the final rule stronger and more robust. The investment community is overwhelmingly supportive of more climate information as a way to reduce material financial risk.”

  Persefoni executives have not been reticent to discuss the windfall they expect to experience if the rule is finalized. Speaking to CNBC in March 2022, Kentaro Kawamori, the firm’s CEO, discussed the advantages that would likely accrue from having a software platform that enables companies to analyze, manage, and account for their carbon footprint. Kawamori draws a comparison with Salesforce, the cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco.

  “You’re going to have a Salesforce-type of success,” he said. “Just like Salesforce created the system of record for the customer record, companies like us – you will have one or two big winners – will create a system of record for the carbon accounting piece.”

  Persefoni’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Tim Mohin, went even further, telling Politico that larger companies will almost certainly need outside help to comply. “Really they have a very short runway to get their act together,” he said. “We’ve gotten lots of calls from these large companies saying, ‘Tell us about what you do and how we can work with you.’”

  Mohin went on to describe Persefoni as the “TurboTax of greenhouse gas reporting.”

  As it stands, Persefoni is already doing pretty well. On Oct. 28, 2021, Persefoni announced a $101 million raise in its Series B financing round with its long-time investor, NGP Energy Technology Partners, returning to participate. But the oversized influence Persefoni apparently has been exerting within the SEC is beginning to attract congressional interest.

  In June, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-K.Y.) and Senate Banking Committee ranking member Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) sent a joint letter to the SEC requesting documents and information, including “all nonpublic records referring or relating to the climate consultancy, climate accounting, or sustainability-related organizations Persefoni, Ceres, ERM, or South Pole since January 20, 2021.”

  As for the rule itself, Cohen, the policy analyst with the National Center, sees “an effort by the SEC and its climate-cartel cronies to fashion a climate accounting standard to fit the inherently amorphous notion of a carbon footprint.”

  He continued: “Companies will have to disclose their ‘climate impacts’ in accordance with the SEC’s purely arbitrary requirements. The arrangement will put more power into the hands of the SEC, enrich the likes of Persefoni, and condemn regulated businesses to climate serfdom.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 22:00

• Alan Dershowitz & Elon Musk On Free Speech & Anti-Semitism
  Alan Dershowitz & Elon Musk On Free Speech & Anti-Semitism

  Via The Gatestone Institute,

  • No country in history has ever really tested free speech: has seen whether the marketplace of ideas works or whether we can really have a society without censorship; where every idea is tested only on its merits, rather than for political benefit. This cannot be a right-left issue. — Alan Dershowitz.

  • You [Elon] are trying, for the first time, a great experiment to see whether we can survive with a marketplace of ideas, without censorship, where all thoughts and all ideas are treated equally. — Dershowitz

  • What we need is to create a circle in which things that are illegal, such as abusing children, are outside the circle, but anything else has to be inside the circle. So if something is permitted for one idea or “-ism,” it has to be permitted for the others. This is exactly what universities are failing to do. They are creating a line on which favored groups fall on one side and disfavored groups fall on the other side. — Dershowitz.

  • People will always want to censor but not be censored. — Dershowitz.

  • I am in favor of no prior censorship except things that are overtly illegal. Let the marketplace decide and make sure that there is an opportunity for everyone to answer. One cannot draw a line on hate speech. One person’s hate speech is another person’s love speech. It is important to open up the marketplace of ideas. — Dershowitz.

  • [Y]ou can post anything on the platform [“X”] even if it is hateful, provided that it is lawful. But then there is a separate question of what is promoted or not promoted…. Our current approach is to say, okay, you can say things that are hateful but legal on the platform, but we are not going to recommend them to others. — Elon Musk.

  • Advertisers, certainly, have a right to say what content they will appear next to because that’s their right too, but not to dictate what can be said on the platform. — Musk.

  • Today the greatest danger to free speech comes from the left…. At the moment, it is the left that is educating our future leaders, so the left poses a far greater danger of censoring free speech and of skewing the marketplace of ideas. “X” has to be perceived as equally open to both sides. — Dershowitz.

  • That is our aspiration, that is our goal. Now the reality of it for anyone who is paying attention — and I’m sure you saw this — was that prior to the acquisition, Twitter was very left and getting even more left. They had a massive thumb on the scale on elections. Frankly, worldwide on the side of left, and would suppress Republican voices at a rate, sometimes perhaps an order of magnitude greater than Democrats. There was a tremendous amount of bias. Now we are moving from a system where there was a massive electoring bias to a system that is now more inclusive, where at least, say, 80% of America — perhaps the world — could be on the platform and feel that it is finally a level playing field, fair to people with a wide range of views. That is our goal and that is what we are doing now. — Musk.

  • If you start on the left and you move to the center, you are necessarily moving right. Our goal is not to move to the right; it is that we are moving right in order to get to the center. — Musk.

  • [Y]our historic neutrality might be destroyed if “X” is not perceived as being from the center. So everything you do needs to be designed to create a neutral space… where the only answer to false speech is true speech, and where the marketplace determines how many people listen to it… We have to have more confidence in our ability to answer bad speech. I do not want to censor my enemies. — Dershowitz.

  • [W]e actually have massively broadened what can be said on the platform… but we have tried to guide our or algorithm to promote things that are positive more than things that are negative; frankly, to have a love bias, if you will. This is not in terms of what can be said, but in terms of what is promoted to others. If somebody wants to accuse me of saying it is wrong to have a slight bias towards love and positivity, then I am rightly accused of that. — Musk.

  • As I have said, I think the overarching goal is how do how do we make this platform serve as a positive force for humanity. I think the free exchange of ideas does result in a positive force for humanity — if somebody feels that even if their ideas are wrong, they are not being squashed or censored. I think being squashed and censored breeds hatred and resentment and simply sends people to “hate echo chambers” that are outside of the mainstream. I think where you get the sort of people who go kill and do mass shooting, is because they are in some sort of “hate echo chamber.” — Musk.

  • I believe one is always wrong to some degree; we simply aspire to be a little less wrong over time and eventually we can get to a really good place. The idea is how do we make “X” a positive force for humanity where we can increase the sum of human knowledge. It’s a place where I hope people would know that if their ideas are based on false premises, especially hateful ideas, that perhaps we can point out that the reason that they have this hatred is because of things that are not true. It is like actually you are hating this or that group for things that are not true, or perhaps, in some cases, things that happened a long time ago for which it was a great-great-grandfather or something, that that did the bad thing. — Musk.

  • I think there is a lot of wisdom in forgiveness and turning the other cheek… I think it is actually a sign of strength. By the same token if you turn the other cheek and you’re just getting slapped all day, at a certain point you stop turning the cheek, but the general notion of forgiveness is incredibly important. Do not hold some grudge for you know a long time, in some cases centuries. Let it go and, to take another take a quote from the New Testament, the truth shall set you free, as John said. — Musk.

  

  Elon Musk and Alan Dershowitz. (Photos by Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images and Mario Tama/Getty Images)

  Alan Dershowitz: Let me start with a statement that many will disagree with. No country in history has ever really tested free speech: has seen whether the marketplace of ideas works or whether we can really have a society without censorship; where every idea is tested only on its merits, rather than for political benefit. This cannot be a right-left issue. Elon, you may be the first person who has really tried. Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and Abraham Lincoln all compromised. You are trying, for the first time, a great experiment to see whether we can survive with a marketplace of ideas, without censorship, where all thoughts and all ideas are treated equally. For instance, where there are judgments on the basis of whether something is pro-right, pro-life, anti-Jewish, pro-Christian, anti-Christian. What we need is to create a circle in which things that are illegal, such as abusing children, are outside the circle, but anything else has to be inside the circle. So if something is permitted for one idea or “-ism,” it has to be permitted for the others. This is exactly what universities are failing to do. They are creating a line on which favored groups fall on one side and disfavored groups fall on the other side.

  Can one define the kind of speech that must be permitted — the legal kind — without focusing on the content of the speech itself? Can one do that without focusing on whether it is right or left or politically correct or anything of that kind? One has to create a framework that is absolutely neutral. Then maybe fewer people will want to censor because they will realize that they will not be able to have “free speech for me but not for thee.” People will always want to censor but not be censored.

  No idea should be censored. Oliver Wendell Holmes put it well. He said every idea is an incitement. There should be no lines between advocacy and incitement. We fail every time we have tried to do that — most recently, with former President Trump’s ill-advised, but in my view, but constitutionally protected “January 6 speech”. We also failed during McCarthyism as well as in trying to distinguish between lawful advocacy of revolution and unlawful incitement of violence.

  Do not listen to special pleaders on behalf of minorities. Do not listen to the people who are self-serving and want, say, to serve the Jewish community, or serve Israel or the Palestinians. I am in favor of no prior censorship except things that are overtly illegal. Let the marketplace decide and make sure that there is an opportunity for everyone to answer. One cannot draw a line on hate speech. One person’s hate speech is another person’s love speech. It is important to open up the marketplace of ideas. If everyone is allowed to express ideas openly, no one is going to censor the “enemy” when they know that next, he or she will be the one being censored.

  Elon Musk: We are experimenting with this idea of freedom of speech, but not reach. Meaning that you can post anything on the platform even if it is hateful, provided that it is lawful. But then there is a separate question of what is promoted or not promoted, what enters into our recommendation engine, and if so, with what promise? Our current approach is to say, okay, you can say things that are hateful but legal on the platform, but we are not going to recommend them to others. This is the current approach that we have.

  Alan Dershowitz: That can be abused and become a form of censorship too.

  Elon Musk: I agree. Advertisers, certainly, have a right to say what content they will appear next to because that’s their right too, but not to dictate what can be said on the platform.

  Alan Dershowitz: I would agree with that. There is one other danger: of “X” being perceived as a right-wing reaction to left-wing censorship. I am — and identify — more with the left than the right, but I oppose strongly efforts by both the left and the right to censor. It would be a very serious mistake if “X” or you were perceived as some way implicitly favoring the right over the left. Perhaps you might have a small group of advisors, who represent different perspectives. Today the greatest danger to free speech comes from the left.

  Elon Musk: Yes, agree.

  Alan Dershowitz: Violence comes from both sides. The right-wing attack abortion clinics and kill Jews in synagogues. The 2020 “summer of love” came from the left: they burned down parts of cities, tore down statues, vandalized buildings; according to reports, numerous Americans were killed, including retired police Captain Daniel Dorn; thousands of police officers were assaulted, many sustaining injuries.

  At the moment, it is the left that is educating our future leaders, so the left poses a far greater danger of censoring free speech and of skewing the marketplace of ideas. “X” has to be perceived as equally open to both sides.

  Elon Musk: That is our aspiration, that is our goal. Now the reality of it for anyone who is paying attention — and I’m sure you saw this — was that prior to the acquisition, Twitter was very left and getting even more left. They had a massive thumb on the scale on elections. Frankly, worldwide on the side of left, and would suppress Republican voices at a rate, sometimes perhaps an order of magnitude greater than Democrats. There was a tremendous amount of bias. Now we are moving from a system where there was a massive electoring bias to a system that is now more inclusive, where at least, say, 80% of America — perhaps the world — could be on the platform and feel that it is finally a level playing field, fair to people with a wide range of views. That is our goal and that is what we are doing now.

  Given that it started so far off the left, it is accurate to say that it is moving right because it is moving to the center. So technically it is true that it is moving right. Not that it is suddenly popped over and instantaneously became, you know, from a left-wing propaganda arm to a right-wing propaganda arm but necessarily if it was pretty damn far on the left, it is going to have to move to the right in order to get to the center, and that is that is our goal.

  As Einstein would say, all motion is relative. If you start on the left and you move to the center, you are necessarily moving right. Our goal is not to move to the right; it is that we are moving right in order to get to the center.

  Alan Dershowitz: But some people perceive this as a movement to right. You might want to make it absolutely clear that you are the only platform in the world that does not take a “left -right” position — that yours is the platform that is pro-free speech, and that you are the first person in history ever to try to create a true marketplace of ideas. John Stuart Mill advocated it, Jefferson advocated it. But nobody ever achieved it. You are in a position where you can achieve it. I am just concerned that your historic neutrality might be destroyed if “X” is not perceived as being from the center. So everything you do needs to be designed to create a neutral space — a marketplace of ideas where the only answer to false speech is true speech, and where the marketplace determines how many people listen to it.

  We have to have more confidence in our ability to answer bad speech. I do not want to censor my enemies.

  Elon Musk: Absolutely, and to be clear we actually have massively broadened what can be said on the platform. But we have — and perhaps you disagree with this — but we have tried to guide our or algorithm to promote things that are positive more than things that are negative; frankly, to have a love bias, if you will. This is not in terms of what can be said, but in terms of what is promoted to others. If somebody wants to accuse me of saying it is wrong to have a slight bias towards love and positivity, then I am rightly accused of that.

  I think our overlap in agreement is very high so I would certainly value your opinion in the future because this is something that we should debate frequently. As I have said, I think the overarching goal is how do how do we make this platform serve as a positive force for humanity. I think the free exchange of ideas does result in a positive force for humanity — if somebody feels that even if their ideas are wrong, they are not being squashed or censored. I think being squashed and censored breeds hatred and resentment and simply sends people to “hate echo chambers” that are outside of the mainstream. I think where you get the sort of people who go kill and do mass shooting, is because they are in some sort of “hate echo chamber.”

  Alan Dershowitz: I think we all should sacrifice our own parochial interests, even on issues like anti-Semitism, to a far greater humanitarian interest in promoting open and complete dialogue. Complete free speech in the marketplace of ideas: only you can do that.

  Elon Musk: Well, thank you. I’ll do my best here and your sort of advice would certainly be very much appreciated. I believe one is always wrong to some degree; we simply aspire to be a little less wrong over time and eventually we can get to a really good place. The idea is how do we make “X” a positive force for humanity where we can increase the sum of human knowledge. It’s a place where I hope people would know that if their ideas are based on false premises, especially hateful ideas, that perhaps we can point out that the reason that they have this hatred is because of things that are not true. It is like actually you are hating this or that group for things that are not true, or perhaps, in some cases, things that happened a long time ago for which it was a great-great-grandfather or something, that that did the bad thing.

  I think there is a lot of wisdom in forgiveness and turning the other cheek. When I was younger, I actually thought turning the other cheek was not a sign of weakness. Now, I think it is actually a sign of strength. By the same token if you turn the other cheek and you’re just getting slapped all day, at a certain point you stop turning the cheek, but the general notion of forgiveness is incredibly important. Do not hold some grudge for you know a long time, in some cases centuries. Let it go and, to take another take a quote from the New Testament, the truth shall set you free, as John said. I am a big believer in that the road to morality is truth and curiosity. And if you care about truth and you are curious, I think this is a natural outflowing from that.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 21:30

• The Problem Isn't Book "Banners", It's Public Schools…
  The Problem Isn’t Book “Banners”, It’s Public Schools…

  Authored by Neal McCluskey via RealClear Wire,

  This week is Banned Books Week. Supported by several groups, including the American Library Association and the National Book Foundation, the week is intended to alert the public to threats to what Americans read, especially in public schools. Long a rather quiet affair, over the last few years “banning” has become a major issue, with one group often portrayed as the culprit: conservatives.

  

  But it is not conservatives, or “banners” of any political stripe, that are the problem. It is public schooling itself.

  You are probably familiar with the typical battle: parents at school board meetings calling for the removal of books from libraries, recommended reading lists, or class assignments. Members of Moms for Liberty, founded by three mothers and former school board members, might be the best known activists fighting to restrict books such as Gender Queer: A Memoir, about author Maia Kobabe’s journey of sexual discovery.

  The many battles that have been fought over Gender Queer, which free expression watchdog PEN America reports was the fifth most challenged book in the last school year, are classic culture war: a clash of irreconcilable values.

  Supporters of stocking the book argue that kids of all genders need to see people like themselves in schools, and other students need to understand that people of all genders are full parts of society. Supporters are driven by values – tolerance and inclusivity.

  Opponents argue that the book, which includes illustrated depictions of sexual activity, is inappropriate for children too young to thoughtfully grapple with it, and pornographic. They too are driven by values – the desire to protect children’s innocence, and a belief that some sexual activity is inherently immoral.

  But why must groups such as Moms for Liberty attack such books in public schools?

  Because conservative families, just like liberal, must pay for public schools – government schools – which are inherently politically controlled. To get what they think is right – schools where children cannot peruse, or be taught from, books with immoral content – they must keep liberals from getting what they think right: inclusive collections.

  Liberals have also sought to sideline books, including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird which include the “N-word” and some say promote white saviorism. In 2020, the Burbank school district in heavily blue California told English teachers that they could not teach those books and several others. In 2022, the Mukilteo district in solidly Democratic Snohomish County, Washington, ended required reading of Mockingbird.

  Conflict over literature in public schools is not one-sided. It also is not new.

  Founding-generation luminaries Benjamin Rush and Noah Webster, in promoting the idea of public schooling, disagreed whether reading the Bible in schools should be encouraged because religion was essential, or discouraged because using scripture as a pedagogical tool cheapened it. A few decades later, as public schooling started to grow, Roman Catholics and Protestants got into heated, sometimes even bloody, conflicts over whose version of the Bible would be allowed..

  And books are just one of numerous public schooling culture war battlegrounds.

  Teaching the origins of life is arguably the quintessential conflict, immortalized in the play Inherit the Wind about the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. These fights—either an intelligent being created life or not—pit religious conservatives against many liberals., and while they have subsided somewhat, in the mid-2000s the town of Dover, Pennsylvania was wrenched apart by a dispute over whether students should be told that evolution is a “theory,” not a “fact.” In February of this year, a bill was introduced in West Virginia to let teachers discuss Intelligent Design.

  Today we see constant culture war in public schools. The Cato Institute’s Public Schooling Battle Map contains more than 3,700 fights, including recent throwdowns in Florida over Advanced Placement African American Studies and the state’s African American history standards, the latter of which includes an item saying that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” They are fights not just over facts, but whether the country is inherently good or bad.

  Of course, there’s sex education. New Jersey, for instance, created new standards in 2020, including on gender identity, and numerous districts have been embroiled in conflicts over adopting them. Then there are battles over prayer, pitting religious devotion against secularism, which we have seen in districts from North Carolina to California.

  Book “banning” in public schools does not spring from some conservative cabal. As battles fought all over the county attest, such actions are inevitable when people with opposing values – any values – must all pay for government schools.

  Neal McCluskey directs the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom and is the author of The Fractured Schoolhouse: Reexamining Education for a Free, Equal, and Harmonious Society

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 21:00

• Why Do People Start Businesses In Every US State?
  Why Do People Start Businesses In Every US State?

  People have various motivations for starting their businesses.

  Some seek higher income. Others are looking for a balance between family life and career. In some situations, entrepreneurship may be the only way to fight unemployment.

  In this infographic from Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, OnDeck uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 Annual Business Survey to highlight the most unique reasons for why people start businesses in each U.S. state.

  

  Editor’s note: The map tracks the most popular unique reasons to start a business. In this case, “unique” is defined by how much a particular reason stands out from the U.S. average across all states. For example, in Delaware, more respondents said they started businesses because they “couldn’t find jobs” (11.6%) than in any other state (U.S. average: 7.3%). So, even though it’s not numerically the most popular reason overall, it is the unique reason that stands out the most for that state.

  The Most Popular Unique Reasons to Start a Business

  According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, entrepreneurship rates in the U.S. have been trending upward over the past two decades.

  In fact, despite multi-billion dollar companies getting the spotlight, 99.9% of businesses across the U.S. are small businesses, employing over 60 million people.

  Wanting to make more income is the biggest unique factor in starting a business in 14 states, including some of the states with the highest unemployment rates, like New Hampshire, North Dakota, and Alabama.

  

  In Utah, a higher percentage (65.4%) of entrepreneurs start businesses to achieve a work-life balance than in any other state. Notably, Utah is known for having the largest average family size, as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau, and has a strong religious presence.

  On the other hand, in Florida, more business founders (69.2%) start their businesses to become their own bosses than anywhere else.

  New York and California are states where entrepreneurs mentioned that they couldn’t find a job as a key unique reason to start a business. In fact, both states lead as the worst for job seekers, as shown in another Visual Capitalist graphic.

  Small Businesses to Remain Vital

  Despite all the different reasons to start a business, the fact is that entrepreneurship is still crucial for the U.S. economy.

  Over the last 25 years, small businesses have added over 12.9 million jobs. For perspective, that’s about two-thirds of the jobs added to the economy.

  In 2021, a record-breaking 5.4 million new business applications were filed in the U.S.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 20:30

• Biden Defends Use Of Pre-Allocated Funds For Extending Texas Border Wall
  Biden Defends Use Of Pre-Allocated Funds For Extending Texas Border Wall

  Authored by Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  President Joe Biden defended his administration’s decision to waive federal statutes in South Texas to allow for the construction of 20 miles of U.S.-Mexico border wall, stating on Oct. 5 he had no choice but to use previously approved federal funds for the project.

  

  President Biden said that he had tried to “redirect” the money from the border wall project—allocation under the Trump administration.

  “The money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to reappropriate, to redirect that money,” President Biden said in his address. “They didn’t. They wouldn’t. In the meantime, there’s nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what it was appropriated for. I can’t stop that,” he said.

  When the president was asked a follow-up question about whether he thought the border wall was effective, he replied with a firm “no.”

  Similarly, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre offered a clear answer to reporters about the administration’s stance during an Oct. 5 press briefing, saying: “We believe there are better, effective ways to secure the border.

  “We asked Congress to reappropriate the fund, but they refused to do it. We need better technology, not a wall.”

  When asked repeatedly about the issue, the press secretary seemed frustrated, insisting that the president has been consistent in his approach to border security.

  White House Communications Director Ben LaBolt later said in a post on X, formerly Twitter: “The funds for 20 miles of border reinforcements were appropriated in 2019 before [Biden] took office.

  “He called on Congress to reappropriate the funds for smarter, more effective enforcement uses. Congress failed to do so,” LeBolt added.

  “Rule of law requires the project be completed in 2023.”

  Announced Changes

  The Biden administration announced on Oct. 5 that 26 federal laws were waved in South Texas to allow border wall construction, signaling the administration’s first use of broad executive power to pave the way for building more border barriers.

  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted the announcement on the U.S. Federal Registry with few specifics regarding the construction in Starr County, Texas, which is part of a Border Patrol sector with “high illegal entry.”

  DHS has waived a number of federal rules—including the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act—in order to begin construction using 2019 appropriations from Congress to build a wall along the southern border.

  Environmental law violations that could otherwise be reviewed and possibly litigated are waived.

  The announcement did not include any maps, but one that was made public during the comment period showed that the construction might extend the current border barrier system by as much as 20 miles.

  About 450 miles of barriers were constructed along the southwest border between 2017 and January 2021, all under the Trump administration.

  After the Biden administration temporarily halted them at the beginning of his presidency, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott revived them as part of his immigration crackdown at the state level.

  The DHS’s decision on Oct. 4 stands in stark contrast to the rhetoric of the administration, which declared a stop to construction on Jan. 20, 2021, arguing that “building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution.”

  Border Insecurity

  A recent report by El Paso’s Mayor Oscar Leeser indicates that the border city is “at a breaking point” amid a massive increase in illegal immigration.

  The dramatic increase has brought them to a point where more than 2,000 people a day are seeking asylum, exceeding shelter capacity and straining resources, according to Mr. Leeser’s comments at a news conference in late September.

  The influx of primarily Venezuelan asylum seekers is part of a larger influx of illegal immigrants who traveled perilous bus and freight railroad routes to Mexican border towns near San Diego, California, and the Texas cities of El Paso and Eagle Pass.

  Mr. Lesser stated that El Paso intends to open a new shelter and chartered five buses on Oct. 7 to transport illegal immigrants to New York, Chicago, and Denver.

  Similarly, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has declared an “invasion” at the southern border due to the surge in illegal immigration, pointing at President Biden’s policies and ordering the National Guard and law enforcement to assist with the crisis.

  “I officially declared an invasion at our border because of Biden’s policies,” Mr. Abbott wrote in a post on X, on Sept. 20.

  “We deployed the Texas National Guard, DPS, and local law enforcement. We are building a border wall, razor wire, and marine barriers. We are also repelling migrants.”

  The governor’s office has also deployed more buses to ship illegal migrants to sanctuary cities, such as New York and Chicago, saying the state is “at capacity.”

  The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 20:05

• First Peru, Now Ecuador: US Southern Command Escalates Its "War On Drugs" In South America
  First Peru, Now Ecuador: US Southern Command Escalates Its “War On Drugs” In South America

  Authored by Nick Corbishley via NakedCapitalism.com,

  In 2009, Ecuadorians voted in a referendum to remove all US military presence from the country. Now, thanks to an agreement signed in the dying days of Guillermo Lasso’s corruption-tainted government, US troops are coming back. 

  

  Just ten days ago, I reported in my post, “Back to Business As Usual: The US Is Once Again Vigorously Stirring the Pot in Its Own ‘Backyard‘”, that the US is seeking to escalate its war on drugs in Latin America, as a pretext for trying to regain strategic dominance of the region. It is doing so one country at a time, with the apparent ultimate endgame being direct, overt military  intervention against Mexico’s drug cartels — on Mexican soil.

  In mid-September, the head of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), Army Gen. Laura Richardson, visited Peru, a country that is in the grip of arguably its worst political crisis of this still-fledgling century. A few days later, the Peruvian government, which has virtually zero democratic legitimacy and is under investigation for human rights violations, signed an agreement with US Homeland Security Investigations to collaborate in transnational criminal investigations through the establishment of a Transnational Criminal Investigation Unit (TCIU).

  Now, less than a month later, Peru’s Andean neighbour, Ecuador, is on exactly the same path. Last Friday (Sept 29), the country’s outgoing President (and former senior banker) Guillermo Lasso held a closed-door meeting with senior officials of the US Coast Guard and Department of Defense in Washington. The outcome of that meeting was two status agreements, one that will allow the deployment of US naval forces along Ecuador’s coastline while the other will permit the disembarking of US land forces on Ecuador’ soil, albeit only at the request of Ecuador’s government.

  All with the ostensible aim of combatting drug trafficking organizations.

  Obviously, that is not what this is really about. If Washington were serious about tackling the violence generated by the drug cartels, the first thing it could do is pass legislation to stem the southward flow of US-produced guns and other weapons. But that would hurt the profits of arms manufacturers. And if it were remotely serious about tackling the major cause of the drug problem — the rampant consumption of narcotics within its own borders — it would never have let Big Pharma unleash the opium epidemic. And once it had, it would never have let the perps walk free with the daintiest of financial slaps on the wrists.

  The primary goal of this latest escalation in the US’ decades-old war on drugs, as with all previous escalations, is to achieve or maintain geostrategic dominance in key, normally resource-rich regions of the world while keeping the restive populace at home in line — or in prison, generating big bucks for the prison industrial complex.

  Radio Silence

  From what I can tell, this latest escalation has so far received little media coverage in Ecuador and almost zero coverage in the English-language press, apart from one solitary article in the Washington Examiner:

  The State Department has not publicized the agreements in any of the more than 30 press releases issued since Wednesday, but a State spokesperson confirmed to the Washington Examiner on Friday that it had signed status of forces agreements and maritime law enforcement agreements. Senior representatives from the Department of Homeland Security’s military branch, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Defense Department attended the signing.

  The maritime agreement allows U.S. military vessels to be present in the waters off the northwestern coast of South America, which Colombian drug cartels use to move cocaine. The ability to move military vessels into the area will “strengthen cooperative law enforcement activities and build mutual capacity to prevent and combat illicit transnational maritime activity,” according to State.

  The second agreement was a less common one, according to Adam Isacson, who heads defense oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America and has worked on Latin American issues since 1994.

  Status of forces agreements outline the terms by which members of a foreign military, in this case the Defense Department, can operate or are expected to conduct themselves while in another country.

  “That doesn’t mean we’re doing it, but it means we can and it means that they’re making a very clear signal to us that they want us more involved,” Crenshaw said.

  History Repeating

  Presumably, the reason why this story is getting such little attention, not even affording a press release by the State Department, has a lot to do with recent Ecuadorian history. You see, Ecuador is one of the few countries in the world to actually successfully close down all US military bases on its territory and force all US soldiers to withdraw. In 2009, when the US Air Force’s 10-year lease on the Manta base on Ecuador’s Pacific coast came up for renewal, Rafael Correa’s government held a referendum on the issue. The people overwhelmingly voted for the base to be closed.

  According to article in the Washington Examiner, the US withdrew all of its forces from Ecuador. In reality, they were evicted. From Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus:

  The last personnel left the base on 18 September, and the facilities used for a decade by the American military were all returned to Ecuador.

  At a ceremony marking the American withdrawal, Foreign Minister Fander Falconí made the following strong statement: “The withdrawal of the American military is a victory for sovereignty and peace. Never again foreign bases on Ecuadorian territory, never again a sale of the flag.”1

  Meanwhile, a relieved Defense Minister Javier Ponce commented: “I am glad that President Correa has fulfilled his election pledge and preserved the constitution.”

  On the same day in the capital Quito, the citizens’ group Anti-Bases Coalition Ecuador held a concert of celebration. In exuberant Latin style about 200 people celebrated the American military withdrawal with singing and salsa dancing at an amphitheater. Messages of congratulation were read out from anti-base movements across the globe, starting with Japan, and each was greeted by loud applause.

  At the closing ceremony, Martha Youth, a spokeswoman for the US Embassy in Quito, announced that together with other Forward Operating Locations in Central and South America, a total of 700 tons of drugs with a value of 35.1 billion USD had been seized. “We’ve done good work in cooperation with the Ecuadorian authorities”, she said.

  However, Pablo Lucio Paredes, head of CONADE (Comisión Nacional de Control Antidopaje del Ecuador) begged to differ.

  “Our country has received no benefits from American operations out of the Manta base these ten years. From the outset, the base’s real purpose was linked to the American geopolitical strategy to involve our country in the civil war in neighboring Colombia.”

  “Plan Ecuador”

  Ecuador’s prior eviction of US forces is now being quietly undone. President Lasso has been requesting US help in creating a “Plan Ecuador” to combat the rising lawlessness in the country for over a year. The plan, he said, would be modelled on Plan Colombia, the disastrous drug-eradication program that burnt through $15 billion of US “aid” funds during more than two decades, worsened the violence in Colombia, bathed more than a million hectares of farmland in a rich brew of toxic chemicals, including Monsanto’s “probably” carcinogenic weedkiller glyphosate, exacerbated illegal mining while overseeing a significant upsurge in coca production.

  From the first moment it was unveiled, at the 2022 Summit for the Americas in Los Angeles, the plan was hugely controversial, as I reported in May:

  Plan Colombia was such a costly debacle that it become effectively unexportable to other parts of Latin America and beyond, says Adam Isacson, lead investigator of the Washington Office on Latin America’s Defense Oversight program, which monitors U.S. cooperation with Latin America’s security forces: “The US looked at the Plan Colombia experience and hoped that it had found something it could apply in Afghanistan, or in Mexico, or Central America, and found out that it didn’t work there.”

  But nobody seems to have told this to Lassa, who said in LA last summer:

  The background is the same. We could probably call it something else, but in effect, Ecuador wants to present a Plan Ecuador to the United States.

  Even Voice of America reported that Lasso’s comments had stoked controversy at the Summit as well as among many lawmakers back home. Ecuador’s former Foreign Minister María Isabel Salvador said the proposal “betrayed a lack of understanding and comprehension of what Plan Colombia meant in practice for that country.”

  If the idea was controversial last year, it is far more so today given that Lasso is in the process of withdrawing from political life following a raft of corruption, tax evasion and money laundering allegations that almost led to his impeachment. To ward off that threat, he dissolved parliament in May and called new elections in which neither he nor his party would participate. Lasso’s popularity, like that of Peru’s current President Dina Boluarte, had already hit rock (16% in April) and he has effectively been ruling Peru by decree since May.

  One of the allegations Lasso faces is that his presidential campaign was partly financed by the Albanian mafia, which controls the cocaine routes between South America and Europe. As revealed in the “Gran Padrino” (Great Godfather) investigation by independent news outlet La Posta, Lasso’s brother-in-law, Danilo Carrera, a well-connected banker, was not only running key government departments but was also doing business with Ruben Cherres, a notorious businessman with ties to the Albanian mafia who had been caught on tape boasting about removing and replacing members of the government at will in exchange for money and favours.

  In March, Cherres was found dead alongside the bodies of his girlfriend, a friend and his security guard at a house on the Punta Blanca coast, just a few hundred yards from Lasso’s holiday home. Days later, a number of international intelligence agencies alerted journalists at La Posta that members of the Albanian mafia had entered Ecuador with the intention of taking revenge for the dismantling of the corruption network installed within the Lasso’s government. One of the organisation’s co-founders and a senior journalist left the country after receiving death threats.

  In other words, the US has just signed an agreement to wage war on the drug cartels with a government that appears to be in league with at least one of those cartels. Luis Eduardo Vivanco, another co-founder of La Posta, recently told El Economista: “the line dividing the mafia from the government has become increasingly blurred” during the Lasso government. Following La Posta’s revelations of rampant corruption in the Lasso government, five US congressmen wrote a letter urging the Biden administration to reconsider the US government’s relationship with Ecuador. A couple of paragraphs (though the letter itself is well worth a full read):

  Ecuador is now in the midst of a political and social crisis that is driven, in large part, by credible allegations of corruption at the highest levels of government. Investigative journalists have uncovered what appears to be a web of corruption that ties key associates of Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso to organized crime figures. Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that one of these individuals – Danilo Carrera – as well as President Lasso himself have been using U.S. jurisdictions to hide assets and avoid taxes, in violation of Ecuadorian law…

  Corruption and criminal activity appear to have deeply penetrated Ecuador’s security apparatus, prompting the U.S. ambassador in Quito to denounce the country’s “narco-generals.” The general security situation has plummeted since Lasso took office with the country’s homicide rate nearly doubling.

  Predictably, the Biden administration appears to have taken no notice of the letter. Rather than reconsidering relations with Ecuador, it is intensifying them.

  Lasso himself only has ten days left in government and is currently visiting New York for personal reasons. The second round of Ecuador’s presidential elections will take place on October 15 and most opinion polls are predicting a close race between Lisa González, the leader of former President Rafael Correa’s left-leaning Citizen Revolution Movement party, and Daniel Noboa, the Miami-born 35-year old son of Álvaro Fernando Noboa Pontón, Ecuador’s richest man, banana plantation owner and former presidential candidate.

  Unsurprisingly for a country that saw the number of violent crimes almost double last year and recently witnessed the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, the most important electoral issue is security. But whether Lasso’s “Plan Ecuador” plays any part in the next government’s national security agenda will depend on who wins the election, with González likely to rip it up in her first few days while Noboa will probably do the opposite. But that’s just an educated guess.

  With Ecuador’s national assembly currently dissolved by Lasso, his plan must also be submitted for approval to Ecuador’s Supreme Court. In the meantime, the US will be scoping Latin America for other governments with whom to strike up similar military partnerships, with Uruguay and oil-rich Guyana seemingly high up the list.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 19:40

• Let's Examine Some Real Crimes Committed By Presidents
  Let’s Examine Some Real Crimes Committed By Presidents

  Authored by Connor O’Keeffe via the Mises Institute,

  Former president Donald Trump is facing ninety-one criminal charges as he seeks to win back the White House in 2024. The indictments are the latest battle in a roughly six-year crusade against Trump that first sought to remove him from power through the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, then with espionage charges and impeachments, and that now aims to block him from becoming president again. The mantra we hear from those in politics and media who support these efforts is that nobody is above the law.

  

  But there’s an entire class of people above the law. Or who at least act like they’re above the law—the political class. The hypocrisies of their effort to convict Trump and block him from holding office again reveal that the motivations are purely political—not born of some commitment to a higher moral or legal principle.

  Two broad schools of thought make up Western legal philosophy. They are natural law theory and legal positivism. Natural law theory says that law exists regardless of the dictates of states. That justice is derived from nature and common to all humans. Simply put, natural law theorists argue that a crime is a crime regardless of what the state says. That makes killing another human with malice aforethought murder, for example, even when it’s done with the blessings of government officials.

  Many libertarians, such as Murray Rothbard, ground their moral opposition to state power in appeals to natural law. There is no special status that someone can attain that allows them to commit crimes.

  The idea that nobody, not even the president, is above the law is right in line with this view. But, taken to its logical Rothbardian conclusion, equality under the law is a denial of political authority. So, it’s bizarre to hear the political class use this slogan as a rallying cry when all their wealth, power, and status is built on political privilege. And they can’t rightfully go after Trump for how he used his political authority because that’s not unique to Trump.

  The political class prefers legal positivism, which separates law from morality. According to legal positivists, law is what the sovereign political authority says it is. There may be just laws and unjust laws. But they are all valid laws in this view. Legal positivism enshrines the political class’s privileged legal status above the rest of us.

  Therefore, the way to get Trump is not to show he did anything immoral or wrong but to prove he technically broke some rule made up by members of an earlier political class. That way he can be driven out of public life without threatening the regime’s authority. But the problem hasn’t been finding crimes committed by Trump but finding crimes unique to Trump. Because all recent presidents have broken the law.

  President George H. W. Bush launched a war on Iraq without congressional authorization. That is illegal according to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution, the set of rules Bush swore an oath to uphold. President Bill Clinton did the same, overseeing illegal military operations in Somalia, Serbia, and Iraq.

  President George W. Bush conducted warrantless surveillance on American citizens, which is illegal according to the Fourth Amendment, and committed torture, which is prohibited by Section 2340A of Title 18 of the United States Code. His administration also launched undeclared, and therefore illegal, wars in Afghanistan, Somalia, and Iraq.

  President Barack Obama conducted more illegal wars in Libya, Syria, Pakistan, Mali, and Yemen. In many of those wars, Obama expanded George W. Bush’s policy of giving support to al-Qaeda, which is treason according to Article 3, Section 3 of the Constitution. Obama also ordered the assassination of an American citizen in Yemen who had not been tried or even convicted of a crime. The Sixth Amendment makes that illegal.

  Combined, these illegal wars have killed millions of people. They are appalling crimes of which Trump is also guilty. His administration continued the wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Yemen despite his running on a more isolationist foreign policy. Yet he’s not being charged for any of that. The crimes he’s facing charges for are far less serious, but they are more unique to Trump.

  In New York, Trump is charged with mislabeling some business expenses during the 2016 election. In Georgia, he’s charged with conspiring to overturn an election prosecutors claim he knew he’d lost. Federally, he’s charged with claiming to have won an election he allegedly knew he’d lost, which prosecutors say incited the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. He’s also charged with keeping classified documents after leaving office and conducting a “scheme to conceal” them from the federal government.

  By refusing to bring charges against Trump that could also be brought against the presidents they like, the political class has shown that its aims are political. If they were committed to the rules that they swore an oath to uphold, they’d have to indict many of their own. And if they genuinely believed that nobody exists above the law, they’d have to give up a whole lot more.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 19:15

• Watch: Left-Wing College Kids Demand More War Funding Even As Polls Confirm 'Ukraine Fatigue'
  Watch: Left-Wing College Kids Demand More War Funding Even As Polls Confirm ‘Ukraine Fatigue’

  It’s been no secret that support among the American public for funding and arming Ukraine has been steadily slipping, particularly after over the summer it became clear that the counteroffensive was a failure.

  Reuters introduced the latest findings of a new poll this week by calling it a “warning sign for Kyiv”. The publication wrote: “Support is falling among Americans of both major political parties for supplying Ukraine with weapons, a warning sign for Kyiv, which relies heavily on U.S. arms to fight against a Russian invasion, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.”

  

  The new poll found only 41% believe the US government should continue sending arms to Ukraine, at a moment the Biden White House is trying to pass its $24 billion aid package to keep it flowing through next year. 

  Support is fading compared to prior polling from last spring, says Reuters:

  The two-day poll, which closed on Wednesday, showed only 41% of respondents agreed with a statement that Washington “should provide weapons to Ukraine,” compared to 35% who disagreed and the rest unsure.

  Support for U.S. weapon shipments is down from May, when a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed 46% of Americans backed sending arms, while 29% were opposed and the rest unsure.

  We previously cited a member of the Ukrainian Parliament as saying, “We are freaking out. For us it is a disaster.” This is because the shift in public sentiment in the West is clearly translating to more hesitancy for supporting Kiev from political leaders.

  Lately, hawkish Congressional leaders and pundits who want to ‘confront Russia’ in Ukraine have shifted their argument. Increasingly we hear that Washington must support Ukraine as a ‘message’ to China or other autocrats in the world. Another argument has been that it all benefits American companies, particularly the arms industry. Democrats as well as Republican hawks have been making these arguments, but which have nothing to do with America’s actual defense, security, and prosperity. 

  Watch: the antiwar left has all but disappeared, but instead we are left with pathetic scenes of college kids demanding more weapons to be sent to fuel yet another ‘forever war’ – such as in the below encounter with presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy…

  Wild to see left-wing college kids demanding more war pic.twitter.com/l9xgsIN5rM

  — Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) October 5, 2023

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

  One recent ad put out by the “Republicans for Ukraine” has even asserted the “war is good” because it ultimately hurts China and weakens Russia. 

  “The more Ukraine weakens Russia, the more it also weakens Russia’s closest ally China. America needs to stand strong against our enemies, that’s why Republicans in Congress must continue to support Ukraine,” the ad says.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 18:50

• Reaping What You Sow: The American Regime In Chaos
  Reaping What You Sow: The American Regime In Chaos

  Authored by Tho Bishop via The Mises Institute,

  The word “chaos” has been the buzzword this week in Washington, largely directed toward Rep. Matt Gaetz’s successful coup against former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and the resulting void in Republican leadership. In an era where most outcomes in Washington are predictable, best illustrated by yet another kick-the-can-down-the-road continuing resolution on spending passed the preceding weekend, the first successful use of a motion to vacate the speakership in American history greatly shocked the system.

  

  In hindsight, it should not have been. For more than a decade, there has been a constant tension between Republican voters and the priorities of its leadership. McCarthy similarly saw his previous two Republican predecessors resign from their positions after it was clear they lost the support of their conferences. Even Donald Trump, who maintains a strong hold on the Republican electorate, oversaw a government culpable for most of Red America’s frustrations with Washington: runaway spending, the devastation of covid tyranny, systemic corruption, and general impotency from the federal government in acting on conservative concerns from border security to the administrative state and the progressive capture of all levels of education.

  Ironically, it was The CARES Act signed by Trump that provided $400 million in funding to help “fortify” the 2020 election.

  In contrast, the Democratic Party has been the dominant federal force in achieving major policy wins. Obamacare was passed and then found to be unmovable. Enormous subsidies have been created to enrich loyal areas of support, including green energy sectors, Big Pharma companies, teachers’ unions, and a rainbow of various “minority empowerment” initiatives around the country. Even the military-industrial complex, once a reliable source of support for the GOP, has become a patron class of the American Left. A recent analysis of political donations from major sectors of the American economy illustrates the degree to which the most powerful interests in the United States view the Democratic Party as a better bet to forward their self-interests.

  For those familiar with Murray Rothbard’s analysis of the Progressive Era, this would not be a surprise. As he illustrates, the success of progressive ideology resulted in the rise of cartelized trusts that benefited from the protection and support of state privileges. Protections on trade emboldened attempts to monopolize industries like sugar. The push for central banking was driven by large financial interests. The progressive capture of both American political parties led Rothbard to suggest that late nineteenth and early twentieth-century politics could best be understood as a clash between rival oligarch factions led by the Morgans and Rockefellers.

  Yet, given the massive institutional advantages and relative unity enjoyed by the political left, the Democratic Party finds itself engulfed in chaos of its own, largely resulting from the consequences of its own political victories.

  Violent crime is on the rise in deep-blue cities, highlighted this past week by the brutal killing of two left-wing activists in Philadelphia and New York who advocated for “criminal justice” reform that resulted in more criminals with violent records being released on the streets. In response, progressive advocacy groups have sought to further undermine private reactions to this loss of public safety, attacking attempts at private security solutions under their familiar complaints of “racism.”

  Immigration, counted on as a powerful tool to ensure future political dominance for the Democratic Party, has also become a festering issue for Democrat politicians. As Republican state leaders responded to historic waves of border crossings with relocation programs to progressive “sanctuary cities,” areas like Chicago and New York are facing severe strains of public resources and growing hostility from residents. Meanwhile, left-wing cultural crusades have increasingly alienated nonwhite communities, resulting in situations like a Muslim-majority Michigan city council banning the transgender pride flag from government buildings.

  In a remarkable pivot this week, the Biden administration this week expedited the construction of border walls in Texas, but the greatest threat to the regime’s stability, of course, is the economic system that has enriched the progressive political class at the expense of the productive sectors of the economy. The failure of the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement to capture enough political will to alter the trajectory of Washington spending has made a fiscal crisis inevitable, and that moment is quickly approaching. America’s debt clock currently rests at north of $33 trillion dollars and is due to pass the $34 trillion mark by the end of the month without factoring in the additional future costs of unfunded liabilities.

  The greatest short-term threat to the regime’s stability is a threat few in Washington have yet to notice, the consequences of the Federal Reserve’s pivot away from its long role as a dutiful enabler of the Fed’s fiscal hedonism. As the recklessness of DC’s economic response to covid created an inflation shock even the carefully trained government statisticians couldn’t mask, the Fed has been forced to push interest rates well beyond its most aggressive projections. The true impacts of the hikes are just now starting to bear fruit. As the interest rates rise and rates for new debt insurances increase, the value of older bonds is being devastated.

  This week US bond markets are hitting historic losses of over 40 percent. Total losses on the value of bonds are estimated to stand at over $1.6 trillion and growing. Similar dynamics fueled the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank this March and threatened more banks in the future. Moody’s recently downgraded 10 regional banks in August, with more expected.

  The meltdown of US bonds threatens systemic insecurity in the financial system, threatening the balance sheets of insurance companies, pensions, and other nonbank institutions that sought security in the form of US bonds. The end of the era of low interest rates means that assumptions that guided the investment strategies of most of the world’s largest financial institutions were made with bad information. The size of the systemic risks to the system is currently unknowable, but the policy response to the great recession has sowed the seeds for the next financial crisis to be far larger.

  Despite these seismic shocks happening in financial markets, the political class seems characteristically clueless. A few weeks ago, a Republican presidential debate featured no mention of the growing credit crisis. The Federal Reserve was not mentioned until the last twenty minutes and only superficially touched on by Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis.

  It would, however, be a mistake for Americans to confuse the cracks in the stability of the regime as a catalyst for its retreat. Weak regimes are particularly dangerous.

  Just this week, it was released that the FBI had made explicit what was long implicit, now categorizing supporters of Donald Trump as a unique category for potential “extremism.”

  The modern regime successfully used the cover of the War on Terror to arm itself with powerful tools and weaponize nominally private client actors. As its own policy victories have planted the seeds of social unrest, it should be expected that it will unveil new tools of harsh power. Already, the governments of Canada, the United Kingdom, and Europe have escalated attacks on alternative media platforms that give average citizens the ability to out their crimes.

  The political class may be more concerned about delayed Ukraine funding than the financial crisis brewing at home, but the regime is prepared to do what it does best: violently preserve itself at the expense of everyone else.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 18:25

• The Dangers Of Investigating Big Pharma
  The Dangers Of Investigating Big Pharma

  Commentary by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  My family is from Texas (since 1830), so I have a focused interest in the well-being of that state. But I quickly got lost in the strange thicket of confusion when Attorney General Ken Paxton was impeached by the Texas House.

  

  In a series of wild allegations, they accused him of misconduct, including bribery, obstruction of justice, and misappropriation of public resources.

  In an instant and with no warning about what was coming, Paxton had to pack up his things, was blocked from doing his duties, and was forced to step aside from the office that the people had three times elected him to hold.

  Last week, he was exonerated of all charges and his name was fully cleared. Hardly anyone can even explain what the charges were. From a distance, it sure looked like a big political takedown attempt, but why?

  Paxton just sat for an extended interview with Tucker Carlson, who now runs the planet’s most-watched show, which appears on X, formerly Twitter, and has no advertisers at all. In one portion of the interview, Mr. Paxton explained that three weeks before the impeachment, he had initiated an investigation against the COVID-19 vaccine makers for engaging in deceptive trade practices under the laws of Texas.

  I recall being very excited about this at the time as a hugely important step. At the national level, the vaccine manufacturers are completely indemnified against liability from harms, which are plenty and also well-documented. Millions were forced to have this product injected into their bodies, and when something goes wrong, there’s no one to sue. It isn’t the way we are supposed to do business in America.

  Paxton was all over the case and ready to start a serious inquiry.

  “As soon as I did that,” he told Mr. Carlson, “that blew up my world. I became a target of Big Pharma, Big Tech, and obviously the Biden administration.”

  Mr. Carlson then asked him why that would be the case.

  “Big Pharma gives a lot of money. … I was doing it because the federal government has this immunity for them. This is wrong,” Paxton said. “They didn’t test this thing. They didn’t tell us about the side effects. They had an obligation to test it, even if they weren’t liable.

  “They had an obligation to tell my people there are some risks here. You should decide but here are the risks. Instead, they said everything is good, it prevents it, you won’t spread it. None of that was true. That’s a deceptive trade practice. If they did that …”

  Mr. Carlson interrupts and says, “It seems like they did that.”

  Then. Mr. Paxton says he will know more in the coming weeks and months, because he’s picking up the case again. He should watch his back.

  We need to be clear on what might be going on here. A state attorney general merely decided to apply existing law to the vaccine makers who provide most of the revenue to the drug approval side of the Food and Drug Administration. They fund 75 percent of television advertising and have moles embedded at all the commanding heights.

  They are so powerful that they manage to get Congress and the president to grant them full freedom from liability for any of the effects of a vaccine. That only incentivized the firms to call gene therapy a vaccine even though it didn’t work like any vaccine in history.

  How can it be possible that such tax-funded corporate agents, which own the patents to their drugs, and can even force their product on unwilling customers, can unseat a duly elected official in a state? It’s amazing … and terrifying.

  But that might be only the start of it. Mr. Carlson’s show on Fox was canceled just after he started asking hard questions about the vaccine, while Russell Brand was smeared the world over as he started to raise questions. It’s happened to many public figures.

  Look at the unseating of the founder of Project Veritas’s James O’Keefe, which occurred after he exposed a Pfizer employee bragging about how much money the company would make by creating new strains of viruses against which they can vaccinate. It was easily the most spectacular exposé of the institution’s history—and then, boom, he was fired.

  Now, Mr. O’Keefe runs his own outfit that continues to chase down pharma executives.

  As for Project Veritas, it just pulled the plug and fired all but a few employees. It has ceased operations, which isn’t surprising. When you get rid of the highest-performing person, the fumes you are left with don’t last long.

  Think about it: This awesome operation was wrecked because some powerful people got squeamish about exposing the vaccine makers.

  Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the biggest and most learned critic of Big Pharma on the planet, faced what might have been an assassination attempt last week. It didn’t even make the newspapers (The Epoch Times excepted). Meanwhile, he’s still being denied Secret Service protection even though he’s a serious candidate and faces non-stop threats on his life.

  As president of Brownstone Institute, I see examples several times a day of what happens to doctors, professors, statisticians, or anyone who asks questions about this industry, which somehow has emerged as among the most powerful in U.S. politics. The dirty dealings of the industry in canceling critics are legion. Any study that questions the effectiveness, safety, or necessity of their products is nearly always rejected by the mainstream journals. Even letters to the editor that expose statistical errors end up in the dustbin.

  As for Big Tech, they too are fully beholden. We have ironclad proof that Facebook and Twitter blocked any posts critical of vaccines. They went so far as to block “true information” about vaccine side effects that might contribute to an environment of “vaccine hesitancy.”

  We must ask again: How did Big Pharma buy control of so many governments?

  At this point, this problem has become a genuine threat to democracy and freedom. No industry has greater power to extract tax funding of its operations, retain intellectual property control over the results, enjoy indemnity from harms, and then even force its products on consumers. This is indefensible.

  Any warrior who dares stand up to this deserves the support of everyone who believes in what was the American system.

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

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 17:40

• McCarthy Denies Plan To Resign Before End Of Term
  McCarthy Denies Plan To Resign Before End Of Term

  Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has denied a report that he’ll resign before the end of his term, after Politico reported that he would do so after the next Speaker election.

  

  “No, I’m not resigning. I’m staying, so don’t worry,” McCarthy told reporters on Friday, adding “We’re going to keep the majority, I’m going to help the people I got here and we’re going to expand it.”

  Earlier, Politico reported that McCarthy told GOP members in a closed-door meeting: “I’m going to spend time with my family,” adding “I might have been given a bad break, but I’m still the luckiest man alive.”

  At the same time, some Republicans are reviving his name as a speaker candidate, even as it remains unclear whether he’d accept it.

  They argue no one else could get the 218 Republican votes needed to be speaker, they argue, as Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise enter next week’s race as frontrunners that still might not be able to get over the top.

  The “only workable outcome is to restore Kevin McCarthy as Speaker under party rules that respect and enforce the right of the majority party to elect him,” Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) said in a statement on Thursday. “This depends entirely on several of the dissidents to disenthrall themselves from their decision and to repair the damage before it is too late. I appeal to them to act while there is still time.” -Politico

  “I’ll do anything I can to help almost all of you. Don’t worry, I’ve raised a helluva lot of money in the last hour,” McCarthy told his members during a Tuesday closed-door conference meeting.

  Looks like Kevin’s sticking around.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 17:20

• Portland Residents Told Not To Call Police For Help
  Portland Residents Told Not To Call Police For Help

  Authored by Michael Letts via American Thinker,

  Portland officials were proud of themselves in 2020 when they defunded the Police Bureau by $15 million instead of increasing it by $3 million as planned. One commissioner was even upset that the council didn’t remove more from the budget.

  “Please take a moment to celebrate this victory, and let it fuel your fire, because we’re not done,” Commissioner Chloe Eudaly said at the time.

  

  Along with the $15 million, another $12 million was cut because of pandemic-caused economic shortfalls. “As a result, school resource officers, transit police and a gun violence reduction team — which was found to disproportionately target Black Portland residents during traffic stops, according to an audit in March 2018 — were disbanded,” PBS reported.

  A year later, the council was trying to add funding and retain the city’s police officers. “The added police spending is occurring amid a year of a record number of homicides, the city’s greatest police staffing shortage in decades and reform recommendations made by the U.S. Department of Justice,” PBS reported.

  It was too little, too late. The damage was done, and the city has yet to recover. In fact, the city government is telling residents not to call police unless their lives are at risk. Given how dangerous Portland has become, it might not affect the volume of calls to police because more residents’ lives are at risk from criminal activity than ever before.

  Commissioner Rene Gonzalez told residents that the city’s 911 system is overwhelmed with people calling about addicts on the streets suffering fentanyl overdoses. This is not a Portland-only problem. The state of Oregon decriminalized drug use three years ago. Gonzalez urged people on X (formerly Twitter), “Our 911 system is getting hammered this morning with a multiple person incident — multiple overdoses in northwest park blocks. Please do not call 911 except in event of life/death emergency or crime in progress (or change of apprehending suspect).”

  Over the past year, the city has experienced 104 homicides and 529 arrests were made for drug offenses, according to Portland Police. The city’s homeless population has also grown by 50 percent since 2019, topping more than 5,000 people.

  “Portland’s neighborhoods have been overrun with crime, homelessness, and drugs since the pandemic — and despite pouring funds into relief initiatives, little change is occurring on the streets of the city,” the Daily Mail reported.

  The people of Portland are understandably upset that crime is out of control, leaving their property and lives at risk. I really want to feel sorry for those residents being forced to live under those conditions. However, this is what those people voted for.

  They continue to elect the same types of progressive politicians who believe the same failed policies will somehow work if they try them enough. They are the same people who, even if they didn’t participate in the 2020 riots, supported them.

  If they truly want things to change for the better for the city, they need to vote for change and change their way of thinking. Change will bring change.

  Michael A. Letts is the CEO and Founder of In-VestUSA, a national grassroots non-profit organization helping hundreds of communities provide thousands of bulletproof vests for their police forces through educational, public relations, sponsorship, and fundraising programs. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 17:00

• Bank Loan Volumes Tumble Despite Surge In Deposits, Money-Markets Funds Hit New Record High
  Bank Loan Volumes Tumble Despite Surge In Deposits, Money-Markets Funds Hit New Record High

  After two weeks of relatively quiet flows, last week saw a massive $64BN inflow into money-market funds – the biggest inflows since the SVB crisis – to a new record high…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Both retail and institutional funds saw massive inflows last week…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The Fed’s balance sheet continued to contract, down $46BN last week to its lowest since June 2021…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  But banks’ usage of The Fed’s emergency funding facility remains at its record high around $108BN…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  So with banks balance sheets being plugged – and after last week’s crazy divergence between SA and NSA deposit flows – we wait with baited breath for what The Fed has in store for us this week…

  On a seasonally-adjusted basis, total deposits jumped $40BN last week (following the prior week’s $48BN SA inflow), back to its highest since the SVB crisis…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  For once, non-seasonally-adjusted deposits went in the same direction, with a $52BN inflow – after last week’s $85BN outflow…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  And removing foreign bank flows, domestic banks saw inflows on both an SA and NSA basis…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The gap between SA and NSA deposit outflows since SVB remain high (around $116BN)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  On the other side of the ledger, despite the big deposit inflows, both large and small banks saw loan volumes decline…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The key warning sign continues to trend lower (Small Banks’ reserve constraint), supported above the critical level by The Fed’s emergency funds (for now)…

  

  After an ugly week (for bonds), following an ugly month and even uglier quarter…

  

  …we sure hope these banks are making plans to fill the $108BN hole in their balance sheets they are filling with expensive Fed loans.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 16:40

• Kunstler: It'll Be Hard To Gaslight The Nation Anymore When This Happens
  Kunstler: It’ll Be Hard To Gaslight The Nation Anymore When This Happens

  Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

  Comes The Dancing Skeleton

  “We’ve conflated politics and bad mental health until they are indistinguishable.”

  – Scott Adams

  By some hidden working of unseen forces, legions of ghouls and demons are bursting out of the ground in every other front yard of small-town America. Supposedly hard-up working-class people go all-out constructing Halloween shrines to the totem figures of decay and death, as in some depraved cargo cult competition aimed at hastening our country’s descent into chaos. The end can’t come soon enough, seems to be the message. Something in the zeitgeist is prompting us to do this.

  Year to year, these morbid displays of slavering werewolves, hooded skeletons, grinning mummies, pirate corpses, horned devils, giant spiders, flapping crows, and glowing skulls far surpass in scale the once-exuberant displays of Christmas time — as if to say the celebration of horror and terror has way more meaning in America these days than the message of peace-on-earth, angels-on-high, the boundless generosity of Santa Claus, and the humble birth of a loving god. Kind of reminds you of what Mr. Dylan said more than a half-century ago: “…he not busy being born is busy dying.

  This Halloween month, America looks super-busy preparing for the death of something, maybe itself. Surely many now live in terror of the malevolent blob that the US government has become, led by a very paragon of ghouls, “Joe Biden.” This week, the blob declared in a “leak” to Newsweek magazine, that supporters of Donald Trump, the Golden Golem of Greatness, are now officially deemed to be enemies of the state. So, the blob that has lately subsumed the state, explicitly targets Trumpists (the MAGA crowd) for wholesale persecution, cancellation, de-personing, and incarceration. That is, opponents of the blob regime organizing for the coming election will be systematically neutralized and / or liquidated, taken off the game-board one way or another, by any means necessary.

  The blobistas would do well to take heed of those Halloween lawn displays. A stupendous, howling rage is building across this land in revolt against the blob’s monumental insults to a once proud and productive people. Soon, that plastic totem army of stock mythological monsters cavorting in the front yards will be superseded by real flesh-and-blood Americans aiming to shred the blob and scatter its quivering tatters to the four winds — as John F. Kennedy once remarked of the CIA in 1962, before it killed him in retaliation.

  Coincidentally, a scion of the JFK generation now running for president on an as-yet-to-be-specified independent party seeks to do exactly what his uncle promised to do. As you gaze on this developing battlefield, you will now see two sizable armies marshaling against the unholy hosts of blobbery — Mr. Trump’s MAGAs and Bobby Kennedy’s emerging division representing the old stoic virtues betrayed by vicious blob tyrants. The plausible outcomes on this battlefield are in flux thirteen months before the election. But it looks a little like the blob is outflanked; hence, its growing desperation.

  The psychodrama in the House of Representatives this week looked like a possible inflection point in the blob’s war against the American people. Mr. Gaetz evicted the quisling Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a rather brave gambit, opening up the possibility of unifying his party against the programmatic wickedness of the post-Covid-19 era — the suicidal spending, the insane and unnecessary Ukraine proxy war, traitorous refusal to control the southern border, the official DOJ lawfare waged against half the citizenry, the disgusting official censorship campaign, and the ongoing criminal conspiracy between the pharma companies, the US public health officialdom, and shadowy globalist forces embedded in the World Health Organization, the World Economic Forum, and scores of sinister multinational organizations ranging from George Soros’s Atlantic Council to the Sinaloa Cartel.

  In the background of all that — a true-life horror — lies the crumbling bond market, the foundation of the money-and-banking system that is supposed to support the on-the-ground economy that produces things of value like food and roofing shingles.

  The bond market is wobbling badly. As rates rise, banks’ collateral melts away and they go bust, liquidation moves to stock markets, derivatives implode, and the vast reservoirs of capital vanish. There’s your stealth true Halloween psychodrama sneaking up on the scene. Gradually, then all at once, the quarreling nation finds itself stone broke, and even the blob shrinks from the scene in horror.

  

  It will be hard to gaslight the country anymore when that happens. That will be the sobering moment when all the preposterous, mendacious, criminally insane propositions of recent years stand nakedly exposed. That’s when “Joe Biden” begins to be seen as a dancing skeleton.

  *  *  *

  Support his blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 16:20

• Big Squeeze Saves Stocks From Bond Bloodbath
  Big Squeeze Saves Stocks From Bond Bloodbath

  ‘Hard’ data collapsed further this week with ‘soft’ data staying near cycle highs as today’s jobs data offered something for everyone with stalling wage growth (yay, we beat inflation), a jump in job gains (yay, growth and a soft landing), but a scratch or two below the surface of the 6-signa headline beat and things are not so pretty after all…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Financial Conditions continued to tighten aggressively this week, having turned after the July FOMC and now near the tightest it has been during this cycle…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Today saw a hawkish shift in rate-change expectations but on the week, 2023’s curve moved higher (slightly higher chances of more hikes) and 2024’s curve was flat to slightly lower (modest chance of more cuts)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  US stocks were bolstered in morning trading by the largest buy imbalance since mid-July and short cover. Momentum can beget more upside momentum in stocks.

  Around 1140ET a massive buy program hit and smashed stocks higher…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  At the same time, the ‘most shorted’ stocks basket also went vertical…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  By the end of the week, thanks to today’s meltup, Nasdaq ended significantly higher on the week (along with the S&P). The Dow ended the week marginally lower while Small Caps lagged 2% in the red…

  

  Tech and Healthcare were the only sectors green on the week with Energy the ugliest horse in the glue factory…

  

  Healthcare was helped by the GLP-1 Analogs going bid…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  VIX didn’t even make it to 20 this morning as payrolls hit and stocks and bonds dumped. And then it just collapsed down to bear 17 the figure….

  

  One big options trader potentially had a bad day. Chatter was a large VIX Call buyer stepped in early this morning ahead of the payrolls print, betting on a blowout number…

  

  They got the blowout number, and for a split second things looked good, then everything reversed lower

  

  And the aggressive positioning and reversal can be seen in SpotGamma’s HIRO indicator as the trader was forced to unwind his calls at a loss…

  

  Still, at least he wasn’t long bonds this week!

  Bonds were clubbed like a baby seal this week, most notably the long-end, but today’s chaotic reversal put a little lipstick on the bond pig…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  It all had a very technical feel with yields spiking on the payrolls print and running stops from earlier in the week before collapsing back lower…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The yield curve (2s30s) bear steepened most of the week, surging back up to a key level… next stop ‘un-inverted’

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The dollar ended higher on the week, even with today’s pump-and-dump…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Bitcoin was its usual chaotic self this week, but ended higher (Friday to Friday), back above 28k…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Gold (spot) ended lower on the week, despite today’s bounce…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Ugly week for the energy complex with WTI puking down to a $81 handle intraday – 6-week lows…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Finally, Goldman notes that The 60bp increase in 10-year Treasury yields this year is starting to have an impact on stock valuations as the S&P 500 is now down about 7% from the 2023 high it hit back in late July. But higher rates don’t just impact how much you pay for a company. Higher rates can also weigh on the amount of money a company earns…

  

  …and as the chart above shows , this year, S&P 500 companies are staring down the biggest increase in borrowing costs since 2006.

  Making 5%-plus lending money to the US government certainly raises the bar for the level of corporate performance needed to attract investors…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  …TINA’s not back yet.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 10/06/2023 – 16:00