• Jeffrey Sachs: NATO Expansion & Ukraine's Destruction
  Jeffrey Sachs: NATO Expansion & Ukraine’s Destruction

  Authored by Jeffrey D. Sachs

  During the disastrous Vietnam War, it was said that the US government treated the public like a mushroom farm: keeping it in the dark and feeding it with manure. The heroic Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers documenting the unrelenting U.S. government lying about the war in order to protect politicians who would be embarrassed by the truth. A half-century later, during the Ukraine War, the manure is piled even higher.

  According to the U.S. government and the ever-obsequious New York Times, the Ukraine war was “unprovoked,” the Times’ favorite adjective to describe the war. Putin, allegedly mistaking himself for Peter the Great, invaded Ukraine to recreate the Russian Empire. Yet last week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg committed a Washington gaffe, meaning that he accidently blurted out the truth.

  

  In testimony to the European Union Parliament, Stoltenberg made clear that it was America’s relentless push to enlarge NATO to Ukraine that was the real cause of the war and why it continues today. Here are Stoltenberg’s revealing words:

  “The background was that President Putin declared in the autumn of 2021, and actually sent a draft treaty that they wanted NATO to sign, to promise no more NATO enlargement. That was what he sent us. And was a pre-condition to not invade Ukraine. Of course, we didn’t sign that.

  The opposite happened. He wanted us to sign that promise, never to enlarge NATO. He wanted us to remove our military infrastructure in all Allies that have joined NATO since 1997, meaning half of NATO, all the Central and Eastern Europe, we should remove NATO from that part of our Alliance, introducing some kind of B, or second-class membership. We rejected that.

  So, he went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders. He has got the exact opposite.”

  To repeat, he [Putin] went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to his borders.

  When Prof. John Mearsheimer, I, and others have said the same, we’ve been attacked as Putin apologists. The same critics also choose to hide or flatly ignore the dire warnings against NATO enlargement to Ukraine long articulated by many of America’s leading diplomats, including the great scholar-statesman George Kennan, and the former US Ambassadors to Russia Jack Matlock and William Burns.

  Burns, now CIA Director, was US Ambassador to Russia in 2008, and author of a memo entitled “Nyet means Nyet.” In that memo, Burns explained to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the entire Russian political class, not just Putin, was dead-set against NATO enlargement. We know about the memo only because it was leaked. Otherwise, we’d be in the dark about it.

  Reminder of the famous US🇺🇸 promise of NATO ‘not one inch to the east’ by James Baker to 🇷🇺Gorbachev in 1990. It was so tough to keep a promise for 9 whole years that the US then just had to splurge: 3 central Europeans into NATO in 1999 & another 7, incl Baltics, in 2004. pic.twitter.com/Hw6xPvdQUe

  — Tony Norfield (@StubbornFacts) September 18, 2023

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  Why does Russia oppose NATO enlargement? For the simple reason that Russia does not accept the U.S. military on its 2,300 km border with Ukraine in the Black Sea region. Russia does not appreciate the U.S. placement of Aegis missiles in Poland and Romania after the U.S. unilaterally abandoned the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty.

  Russia also does not welcome the fact that the U.S. engaged in no fewer than 70 regime change operations during the Cold War (1947-1989), and countless more since, including in Serbia, Afghanistan, Georgia, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Venezuela, and Ukraine. Nor does Russia like the fact that many leading U.S. politicians actively advocate the destruction of Russia under the banner of “Decolonizing Russia.” That would be like Russia calling for the removal of Texas, California, Hawaii, the conquered Indian lands, and much else, from the United States.

  Even Zelensky’s team knew that the quest for NATO enlargement meant imminent war with Russia. Oleksiy Arestovych, former Advisor to the Office of the President of Ukraine under Zelensky, declared that “with a 99.9% probability, our price for joining NATO is a big war with Russia.”

  Arestovych claimed that even without NATO enlargement, Russia would eventually try to take Ukraine, just many years later. Yet history belies that. Russia respected Finland’s and Austria’s neutrality for decades, with no dire threats, much less invasions. Moreover, from Ukraine’s independence in 1991 until the U.S.-backed overthrow of Ukraine’s elected government in 2014, Russia didn’t show any interest in taking Ukrainian territory. It was only when the U.S. installed a staunchly anti-Russian, pro-NATO regime in February 2014 that Russia took back Crimea, concerned that its Black Sea naval base in Crimea (since 1783) would fall into NATO’s hands.

  Even then, Russia didn’t demand other territory from Ukraine, only fulfillment of the U.N.-backed Minsk II Agreement, which called for autonomy of the ethnic-Russian Donbas, not a Russian claim on the territory. Yet instead of diplomacy, the U.S. armed, trained, and helped to organize a huge Ukrainian army to make NATO enlargement a fait accompli.

  NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, confirms that Russia invaded Ukraine to prevent NATO expansionism.
  – Also, Stoltenberg recognises that NATO could have prevented the war by ending its expansion and abiding by the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act. pic.twitter.com/H8HObh7LEP

  — Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) September 17, 2023

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  Putin made one last attempt at diplomacy at the end of 2021, tabling a draft U.S.-NATO Security Agreement to forestall war. The core of the draft agreement was an end of NATO enlargement and removal of U.S. missiles near Russia. Russia’s security concerns were valid and the basis for negotiations. Yet Biden flatly rejected negotiations out of a combination of arrogance, hawkishness, and profound miscalculation. NATO maintained its position that NATO would not negotiate with Russia regarding NATO enlargement, that in effect, NATO enlargement was none of Russia’s business.

  The continuing U.S. obsession with NATO enlargement is profoundly irresponsible and hypocritical. The U.S. would object—by means of war, if needed—to being encircled by Russian or Chinese military bases in the Western Hemisphere, a point the U.S. has made since the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Yet the U.S. is blind and deaf to the legitimate security concerns of other countries.

  So, yes, Putin went to war to prevent NATO, more NATO, close to Russia’s border. Ukraine is being destroyed by U.S. arrogance, proving again Henry Kissinger’s adage that to be America’s enemy is dangerous, while to be its friend is fatal. The Ukraine War will end when the U.S. acknowledges a simple truth: NATO enlargement to Ukraine means perpetual war and Ukraine’s destruction. Ukraine’s neutrality could have avoided the war, and remains the key to peace. The deeper truth is that European security depends on collective security as called for by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), not one-sided NATO demands.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/22/2023 – 02:00

• The Valorization Of The Tyrants
  The Valorization Of The Tyrants

  Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

  This is surely one of the strangest twists in official narratives in perhaps hundreds of years. The bad guys have been christened as the good guys, and the good guys have been purged, deplatformed, canceled, and demonized.

  It’s a turn of events none of us could have imagined back in 2020. It cries out for an explanation. I truly fear knowing the answer as to why.

  Just consider the fate of former New Zealand Prime Jacinda Ardern.

  

  She locked down her country, trampling all rights of the people under the guise of controlling the spread of a virus. You could not go to church. You could not be unmasked. You could not leave the country and return. No one could travel there without official permission.

  As bad as the United States and Europe were during this period, New Zealand was worse, and it was backed up by speech controls. Anyone protesting the policies was risking everything. And when the vaccine came along, Ardern outright said it: the people who get it will have rights but those who do not will not. It was a new biomedical caste system.

  Eventually, the country did open. Now speakers decrying the whole period are attracting audiences in the thousands, and Ardern is widely unpopular. Her successor who continues to defend all this despotism is under a cloud and also deeply unpopular. The tables have completely turned. Of course the virus came anyway, as it must, so the junta that did this has turned their attention to climate change, the defense of censorship, and the escalation of the Russia/Ukraine war.

  Five years ago, anyone would have supposed that a leader that acted this way would live in shame. I certainly assumed so. My supposition is that Ardern had made horrific misjudgments and would be widely decried as a confused tyrant. She would live out her days in disrepute, surely.

  The opposite has happened. She is now the subject of celebratory biographies. She is lauded by mainstream media. She addressed the United Nations last year in a speech that was an open call for a new global censorship regime. True, the fact-checkers disagree with this interpretation. Instead she was merely calling out “the weaponization of free speech societies and platforms by misinformation agents.”

  Oh.

  In any case, in my imagination, I could not have dreamed up a specimen of error and tyranny more deserving of devaluing than Jacinda Ardern. Everything she did during the COVID era flies in the face of values that the West has held for almost a thousand years since the Magna Carta.

  But I was wrong. Completely. I underestimated just how broken the world is. Instead of being disgraced, she is enjoying not one but two fellowships at Harvard University where she enjoys massive prestige and adoration by faculty, staff, and students. To me, this seems like the Twilight Zone—an ending to the story that I could not have imagined. Are we supposed to be against segregation, house arrest, forced medical treatments, locking people in nations, and censorship? I thought at least we would agree on that much. Apparently not. Apparently, it is the opposite. Everything that I believed was deprecated is exalted and all the public virtues I believed we extolled are now denounced.

  It’s not just Ardern. The whole tiny but global junta that imposed all these policies seemed to be enjoying a glorious send-off by the entire establishment, even though they have been 100 percent wrong about everything. Fauci’s successor is Fauci II, and same with Walensky’s successor at the CDC. And the media propagandists who for three years lied to the public about lockdowns, masks, school closures, and shots are now writing books that are calling people like me the bad guys!

  I almost cannot imagine that this has happened and I cannot fathom why.

  As another example, the New York Times op-ed page has carried an amazing and very long article by Yoel Roth, the former chief censor of Twitter 1.0 before he was summarily fired by Elon Musk. The Times let him tell his tale of woe on how oppressed and beaten down he is merely for enforcing trust and safety. He was only doing his job to stop online lies!

  The Twitter Files revealed that the company was obeying government priorities and blocking and throttling content that took issue with COVID policies, questions surrounding election integrity, and vaccine effectiveness. Roth, in cooperation with federal agencies, set himself up as the arbiter of truth and arguably distorted information flows based on his personal bias.

  Like Ardern, I might have expected that he would retire from public life and deploy his considerable communication for a small company somewhere. But I was wrong again. Instead he holds a coveted position at the University of Pennsylvania and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

  For that matter, Anthony Fauci himself is enjoying a comfy sinecure at Georgetown University.

  This is not just about how high-end academia has become a haven for woke politics, censorship, and wildly pro-statist thinking across the board. That battle seems to have been won by the bad guys perhaps two decades ago. The problem is much larger. It has to do with the entire academic, corporate, political, and deep-state establishment that was heavily involved in imposing a despotic turn for the entire globe.

  They are right now in the business of protecting their own, trolling the rest of us by granting awards and honors to the absolute worst offenders of core Western values. It’s like the world has been turned upside down. As grim as I believed the lockdowns that began in March 2020 were, and as much as I expected some terrible economic and cultural fallout from that period, I never would have imagined that the lockdowners and mandaters would be riding high at 42 months of this.

  And at the very same time, the purges of the people who were right all along are continuing at a furious pace. Every day, we observe sneaky attacks on the greatest champions of basic liberties on which I thought everyone agreed back in 2019. Every unflattering bit of personal information on the resistors is fair game, amplified by the media, and then realized in the form of demonetizations by Big Tech, the courts, and the professional circuit generally.

  The battle lines are very clear and only one side stands for the rights and liberties for which humanity worked for a millennium. The other side stands for controls, impositions, divisions, surveillance, censorship, degrowth, and corporate cartelizations. Can someone explain to me why we are supposed to think that the bad guys are now the good guys? In short, how can we account for the valorization of tyrants?

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 23:40

• Seattle Reverses Course, Makes Public Drug Use Arrestable Crime
  Seattle Reverses Course, Makes Public Drug Use Arrestable Crime

  The Seattle City Council on Tuesday ruled that public drug use will soon be illegal in the city.

  

  Imagine that!

  According to KIRO7, public drug use can now end in arrest – though there remains a large effort to funnel drug users into treatment programs.

  CB 120645 adds the crimes of using a controlled substance in public space and knowing possession of a controlled substance to the statute’s list of crimes. The move follows a Sept. 12 proposed ordinance passed by the Seattle City Council’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee by a vote of 4-1.

  Residents were sharply divided over the plan.

  “There is no budget to support this and there is no plan, no care, compassion or commitment to do anything other than imprison our most vulnerable citizens,” said one woman during the public comment section during a committee meeting.

  

  Others were for it.

  “Restoring a safe and welcoming environment downtown will bring back residents, workers and visitors, increase the momentum needed to get downtown on a sustained path to recovery,” said one man.

  

   

  The dissenting councilmember, Teresa Mosqueda, said the ordinance lacked attention to diversion efforts.

  “I want people to get access to public health services just as much as the people who testified in support of this legislation say they want. But that is not what this legislation does. And without the funding that is purported to come with this bill, we have no assurances that there will be alternative structures and programs and diversion strategies to prevent people from going to jail. We do not have to pass this legislation,” she said.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 23:20

• US Wants Saudi Defense Pact Modeled After South Korea, Japan Deals
  US Wants Saudi Defense Pact Modeled After South Korea, Japan Deals

  Via The Cradle,

  US and Saudi officials are advancing talks for a “mutual defense treaty” that would resemble broad agreements Washington maintains with Japan and South Korea, according to officials who spoke with the New York Times.

  “Under such an agreement, the United States and Saudi Arabia would generally pledge to provide military support if the other country is attacked in the region or on Saudi territory,” the NYT report reads.

  

  The security pact is part of a so-called “megadeal” that would be sealed between Washington and Riyadh in exchange for the kingdom normalizing ties with Israel.

  “Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) … regards a mutual defense agreement with the United States as the most important element in his talks with the Biden administration about Israel,” the NYT cites US officials as saying.

  The NYT report was published the same day US President Joe Biden extolled the benefits of normalization with Israel during his speech at the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

  “Israel’s greater normalization and economic connection with its neighbors delivering positive and practical impacts even as we continue to work tirelessly for just and lasting peace, for Israelis and Palestinians, two states for two peoples,” Biden said.

  His talk of a two-state solution echoed comments from Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Monday when he stressed that the only solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is an “independent Palestine.”

  “The solution to the Palestinian issue must be based on the two-state solution and the establishment of the Palestinian state in accordance with international resolutions. We seek to bring the conversation about the two-state solution back to the forefront,” the kingdom’s top diplomat told reporters on the sidelines of the 78th UNGA session in New York City.

  Last week, Saudi media reported that the kingdom had allegedly ended talks of normalizing ties with Israel over inflammatory comments from Jewish-supremacist ministers within the Israeli government who vehemently oppose making concessions to the Palestinians. One day later, however, US and Israeli officials called the report “false.”

  If approved by two-thirds of the US Congress,  the security pact would be a reversal from a 2021 move by the US to remove Patriot missile batteries from the kingdom as it prepared to incite an armed conflict with Russia and China.

  Nonetheless, according to a White House letter sent to Congress in June, the US has about 2,700 troops stationed in Saudi Arabia. These troops have recently been conducting expanded counter-drone drills with the Saudi military.

  “Over the last 16 months, we worked very closely with our Saudi counterparts to develop their counter-UAS [-drone] tactics, techniques, and procedures … Our objective for this exercise was to shoot down [drones], dawn till dusk,” Colonel Robert McVey, the US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) director of the Red Sands Integrated Experimentation Center, told Al-Monitor on Tuesday.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 23:00

• America's First 'Shroom Clinic' Opens In Oregon
  America’s First ‘Shroom Clinic’ Opens In Oregon

  America’s first licensed health clinic to sell ‘magic mushrooms’ opened in June in Oregon and has been swamped with surging demand. The waitlist for the clinic exceeds 3,000 people, some of whom are searching for ways to treat depression and PTSD. 

  No prescription or referral is needed for Epic Healing Eugene, but customers must be over 21 to receive psilocybin services. 

  AP News said some customers complained the ‘mind-bending’ experience is too costly: 

  “A client can wind up paying over $2,000, which helps cover service center expenses, a facilitator and lab-tested psilocybin. Annual licenses for service centers and growers cost $10,000, with a half-price discount for veterans.” 

  Even though The Oregon Psychiatric Physicians Association opposed legalizing psilocybin in 2020, voters thought otherwise and also decriminalized the possession of hard drugs. 

  Epic Healing Eugene’s owner Cathy Jonas told AP that providing legal access to mushrooms is a ‘dream come true’: 

  “The plant medicines have communicated to me that I’m supposed to be doing this thing.”

  

  State regulators decided that 50-milligram doses would be allowed. Jonas said she offers 35 milligrams of pure psilocybin or about 6 grams of dried mushrooms. 

  

  Each customer must consume the shrooms in the vicinity of Epic Healing Eugene and must remain on the property until the drug wears off. So forget about tripping in the forest with friends. 

  One of Jonas’ customers described being in a “kind of infinite-dimension fractal that just kept turning and twisting” after consuming 35 milligrams of shrooms. 

  “It was kind of mesmerizing to watch, but it got so intense,” said the client, who didn’t want to be identified to protect his privacy.

  The client continued, “I started to have this experience of dying and being reborn. And then I would kind of see large portions of my life going by in a very rapid way.”

  Several studies have revealed psilocybin is a possible treatment for psychiatric disorders. 

  

  Roland Griffiths, a professor who studies the neuropsychopharmacology of consciousness at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, received approval in 2000 to carry out the first experiments on psilocybin since the 1960s. He found in a survey of early study participants that more than half regarded it as one of the most meaningful experiences of their life.

  “The mystical experience itself does seem to be really important for therapeutic effects, but we published survey data to suggest it’s not actually the mystical experience itself, but the personal insights you can encounter or gain during that mystical experience that actually lead to therapeutic change,” Barrett said, adding, “The idea here is that mystical experience can create the opportunity for personal insights.”

  Since then, other more recent studies have shown promise in using psilocybin-assisted therapy to treat psychiatric disorders like depression. Some have been used to identify their usefulness in smoking cessation (alongside talk therapy). They have also shown some usefulness in alleviating anxiety in people with terminal cancer.

  Another study, one published last week, found that the psychedelic drug MDMA can reduce symptoms of PTSD:

   “It’s the first innovation in PTSD treatment in more than two decades. And it’s significant because I think it will also open up other innovation,” said Amy Emerson, CEO of MAPS Public Benefit Corporation, the research sponsor.

  Before the Food and Drug Administration can prescribe MDMA, the Drug Enforcement Administration would need to change its classification from Schedule 1 to have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

  Psilocybin is still illegal federally, but several states are considering adopting Oregon’s decriminalizing approach to drugs. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 22:40

• A Comprehensive Timeline Of COVID-19 Vaccines And Myocarditis
  A Comprehensive Timeline Of COVID-19 Vaccines And Myocarditis

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

  

  2020

  Sept. 22, 2020: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identifies myocarditis as an adverse event of special interest, or a potential side effect.

  Oct. 30, 2020: U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) identifies myocarditis as an adverse event of special interest.

  December 2020: One case of pericarditis reported to the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which is co-managed by the CDC and FDA.

  Dec. 11, 2020: FDA authorizes the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for Americans 16 and older.

  Dec. 13, 2020: CDC launches V-safe, a new vaccine safety monitoring system, without including myocarditis as an option in the adverse events list.

  Dec. 18, 2020: FDA authorizes the U.S. government-backed Moderna vaccine for Americans 18 and older.

  2021

  2021: Myocarditis cases spike in the U.S. military.

  January 2021: 28 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS.

  January 2021: First U.S. military member experiences postvaccination myocarditis, according to a study published months later.

  January 2021: First cases of postvaccination myocarditis recorded in Israel.

  January 2021: VAERS report processing is delayed due to unexpected spike in reports.

  February 2021: 64 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including two deaths.

  Feb. 1, 2021: Israeli teenager is hospitalized with myocarditis after Pfizer vaccination, doctors say.

  Feb. 18, 2021: Safety signal for myocarditis triggered in VAERS using CDC-endorsed method called Proportional Reporting Ratio.

  Feb. 19, 2021: Safety signal for myocarditis triggered in VAERS using another method called Fisher’s Exact Test.

  Feb. 24–25, 2021: CDC meets with its advisers but does not discuss COVID-19 vaccines.

  Feb. 27, 2021: FDA authorizes Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine.

  Feb. 28, 2021: Israeli officials privately alert CDC to “a large number of reports of myocarditis, particularly in young people, following the administration of the Pfizer vaccine.”

  Feb. 28, 2021: 57 cases of myocarditis or pericarditis within seven days of vaccination in Pfizer’s database in document given to the FDA in April 2021 and not revealed to the public until November 2021.

  March 2021: 54 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS.

  March 1, 2021: CDC officials disclose (pdf) that two postvaccination cases were identified in the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD), another CDC-run system.

  March 2, 2021: CDC recommends Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine for adults.

  March 3, 2021: Israeli authorities meet with hospital officials to discuss postvaccination heart problems.

  March 4, 2021: Israeli officials confirm they’re investigating postvaccination pericarditis.

  March 5, 2021: FDA holds meeting with its advisers. Myocarditis is not discussed.

  March 6, 2021: Rutgers University becomes first major US school to announce COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

  March 8, 2021: Australian health officials contact CDC about U.S. myocarditis cases.

  March 9, 2021: U.S. internal memorandum says Israel received around 40 reports of postvaccination myocarditis. U.S. officials say some postvaccination cases were reported in the United States and acknowledge issues with passive surveillance such as underreporting. “Thus, FDA has not made a final determination regarding the causality between myopericarditis and the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines,” the memo stated.

  March 20, 2021: First postvaccination myocarditis case report is published in the literature.

  March 20, 2021: Pfizer contract with South Africa (pdf) says that “there may be adverse effects of the vaccine that are not currently known.”

  March 31, 2021: Second postvaccination myocarditis case report published.

  March 31, 2021: First death from postvaccination myocarditis reported in Israel. The deceased was a 22-year-old previously healthy woman.

  April 2021: 158 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS.

  April 2021: CDC holds multiple public meetings with no discussion of myocarditis.

  April 1, 2021: Israel has received 84 reports of postvaccination myocarditis or pericarditis, news outlet reports.

  April 2, 2021: U.S. military officials, CDC meet on postvaccination myocarditis cases.

  April 5, 2021: Israeli officials brief the CDC on postvaccination myocarditis cases.

  April 5, 2021: Canada reports first case of postvaccination pericarditis.

  April 7, 2021: U.S. government call covers myocarditis cases recorded in military members after vaccination.

  April 10, 2021: CDC-funded Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment program reviewed postvaccination myocarditis cases, email shows.

  April 12, 2021: U.S. military officials brief CDC on postvaccination myocarditis cases.

  April 12, 2021: Canada reports first case of postvaccination myocarditis.

  April 13, 2021: U.S. military has submitted manuscripts on myocarditis cases to two journals, CDC official says.

  April 13, 2021: CDC, FDA advise pause in administration of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine due to six cases of blood clotting.

  April 15, 2021: Two otherwise healthy adults hospitalized with chest pain and diagnosed with myocarditis after Moderna vaccination, CDC adviser tells agency.

  April 17, 2021: CDC official tells adviser there have been reports of myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination “but we aren’t observing any clear indication of a safety signal.”

  April 20, 2021: Three cases of myocarditis after second Pfizer dose in Idaho, official tells CDC.

  April 23, 2021: United States lifts recommended pause on Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine.

  April 23, 2021: Israeli Ministry of Health report on postvaccination myocarditis identifies two deaths, Israeli media report. The second deceased was a previously healthy 35-year-old man. Among men aged 18 to 30, there is a one in 20,000 probability of developing myocarditis, the report found. “It seems that these events can be a signal of a possible connection to the vaccine,” the committee said. The findings were sent to the FDA.

  April 26, 2021: U.S. military officials are tracking 14 cases of myocarditis following messenger RNA vaccination, Military.com reports.

  April 26, 2021: CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says CDC “aware of” cases in the military. She says “we have not seen any reports of those” and that “we have not seen a signal” in CDC databases.

  April 27, 2021: CDC officials privately acknowledge that processing of VAERS reports is “taking longer than usual.”

  April 27, 2021: CDC officials say 24 cases of myocarditis were identified in VSD.

  April 27, 2021: U.S. military official warns that pausing administration of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines “will have an adverse impact on US/CA vaccination rates.”

  April 28, 2021: France detects safety signal for postvaccination myocarditis.

  April 28, 2021: CDC director receives notes from discussion with military on myocarditis cases.

  April 29, 2021: First cases of pericarditis after COVID-19 vaccination reported in the literature.

  April 30, 2021: FDA receives Pfizer report noting myocarditis cases in Pfizer’s database.

  May 2021: 487 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including four deaths.

  May 2021: CDC forms a team to review medical records for reported cases of postvaccination myocarditis.

  May 5, 2021: CDC meets with advisers but doesn’t discuss COVID-19 vaccines.

  May 7, 2021: European Medicines Agency announces it has asked Pfizer for information on myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination.

  May 10, 2021: FDA authorizes Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 12 to 15. It does not mention myocarditis.

  May 12, 2021: Myocarditis is not discussed during meeting on Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, a CDC official, gives a presentation on blood clotting after Johnson & Johnson vaccination.

  May 12, 2021: Dr. Walensky recommends Pfizer’s vaccine for virtually all children aged 12 to 15, based on advice from advisers.

  May 13, 2021: CDC officials told to direct questions on potential myocarditis cases to two top vaccine safety officials, Drs. John Su and Shimabukuro.

  May 13, 2021: Same officials discuss analyzing VAERS data for myocarditis using the Proportional Reporting Ratio in heavily redacted emails. The agency says the analysis didn’t actually start until 2022.

  May 13, 2021: CDC adviser says “multiple people texting and email[ing] me with concerns” about myocarditis.

  May 13, 2021: Children’s National in Washington registers two suspected cases.

  May 14, 2021: Dr. Shimabukuro seeks “experts in myocarditis.”

  May 16, 2021: CDC official says in email, “we are hearing quite a lot about this now, and I don’t have a clear understanding of what is and has been being done.”

  May 17, 2021: CDC workgroup says there are “relatively few” reports of myocarditis after vaccination and that rates “have not differed from expected baseline rates.”

  May 17, 2021: Dr. Shimabukuro speaks with American Academy of Pediatrics officials to “centralize our coordination” with outside groups.

  May 17, 2021: Dr. Su says health care providers “aren’t reporting these cases to VAERS.”

  May 17, 2021: Dr. Su says the “myocarditis thing” is “exploding.”

  May 18, 2021: States across the U.S. publicly report cases of myocarditis following COVID-19 vaccination.

  May 18, 2021: First case report of an American person with postvaccination myocarditis published.

  May 19, 2021: CDC tells state officials it has been “closely monitoring” myocarditis and pericarditis after COVID-19 vaccination and that cases “can be serious.”

  May 20, 2021:  Three more cases of postvaccination myocarditis at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, official tells CDC.

  May 20, 2021: CDC officials hold meeting with doctors from pediatric hospitals on myocarditis cases. Slides from the meeting were provided to The Epoch Times fully redacted.

  May 23, 2021: The American Heart Association says the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination for everyone eligible “enormously outweigh the rare, possible risk of heart-related complications, including inflammation of the heart muscle.”

  May 24, 2021: CDC workgroup acknowledges for the first time that the number of reports of postvaccination myocarditis to VAERS was higher than expected in those 16 to 24.

  May 24, 2021: French Society of Cardiology calls for vaccinating heart failure patients without acknowledging possible vaccine-myocarditis connection.

  May 24, 2021: Massachusetts official asks CDC for “messaging” on postvaccination myocarditis.

  May 25, 2021: Dr. Paul Offit, an FDA adviser, says about myocarditis and COVID-19 vaccines, “there’s every reason to think this isn’t a problem.”

  May 26, 2021: The New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority says there’s a safety signal for myocarditis and COVID-19 vaccines.

  May 28, 2021: CDC says to keep vaccinating everyone eligible, or virtually all Americans 12 and older.

  May 28, 2021: Case series of young, previously healthy males hospitalized with postvaccination myocarditis discloses hospitalizations happened as early as Jan. 30, 2021.

  May 28, 2021: CDC says it is focusing on reported cases among those 30 and under.

  May 28, 2021: Nine postvaccination myocarditis cases from one state not reported to VAERS, according to CDC.

  May 30, 2021: Brighton Collaboration issues case definition for myocarditis.

  June 2021: 752 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including five deaths.

  June 2021: Some experts start calling on U.S. authorities to pause COVID-19 vaccination of young, healthy people.

  June 2, 2021: Israel says “there is some probability for a possible link between the second vaccine dose and the onset of myocarditis among young men aged 16 to 30” after researchers find incidence of one in 3,000 to one in 6,000 men aged 16 to 24.

  June 4, 2021: U.S. researchers report seven cases in healthy young males following Pfizer vaccination.

  June 10, 2021: 99 cases of myocarditis/pericarditis detected in FDA’s Biologics Effectiveness and Safety Initiative database, and 1,260 cases reported in Medicare claims data, FDA official says (pdf).

  June 10, 2021: CDC working to rapidly follow up on reports of myocarditis following vaccination among people aged 30 and under, CDC official says (pdf). Most cases are in young adults after a second dose.

  June 10, 2021: “There’s a lack of alternative explanations” apart from vaccination given the consistency across postvaccination cases, Dr. Cody Meissner, an FDA adviser, says.

  June 10, 2021: “I think the myocarditis is something that needs to be looked at closely because we’re likely seeing the tip of the iceberg,” says Dr. Michael Kurilla of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, another FDA adviser. June 10, 2021: Pfizer spokesperson tells news outlets that “the benefit-risk profile of our vaccine remains positive.”

  June 11, 2021: European Medicines Agency announces investigation into reports of myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination.

  June 23, 2021: CDC’s safety committee says evidence now suggests a “likely association” of mRNA vaccination and myocarditis.

  June 23, 2021: Number of myocarditis cases recorded in VSD rise to 75. Based on VAERS reports, CDC says number of events higher than expected after dose two in males aged 12 to 49 and females aged 12 to 29. Among children 12 to 17, 188 cases were reported within 21 days of vaccination through June 11. CDC advisers say data suggest vaccines cause myocarditis.

  June 23, 2021: CDC estimates (pdf) Pfizer’s vaccine will cause up to 69 myocarditis cases per million second doses but will prevent 215 hospitalizations and two deaths in males aged 12 to 17.

  June 25, 2021: FDA adds warnings about “the suggested increased risks” of myocarditis and pericarditis to labels for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

  June 28, 2021: The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs says privately it detected more myocarditis cases than expected.

  June 29, 2021: Military researchers report 22 previously healthy members suffered myocarditis after receiving a messenger RNA vaccine. “The presentation pattern and clinical course suggest an association with an inflammatory response to vaccination,” they say. The cases are among hundreds reported in the literature this month.

  June 29, 2021: CDC officials say of reported cases that “the striking clinical similarities in the presentations of these patients, their recent vaccination with an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, and the lack of any alternative etiologies for acute myocarditis suggest an association with immunization.”

  June 30, 2021: Canada adds myocarditis and pericarditis risk information to labels of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

  July 2021: 364 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including seven deaths.

  July 3, 2021: 13 young males with postvaccination myocarditis treated at a single hospital in Washington state between April 1, 2021, and June 21, 2021, researchers report.

  July 6, 2021: CDC estimates for every million doses of vaccination, dozens of cases of myocarditis can be expected, including 56 to 69 cases among 12- to 17-year-olds. The expected benefits outweigh the risks, though, according to the agency.

  July 9, 2021: European Medicines Agency recommends listing myocarditis and pericarditis as side effects for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines after identifying 221 cases after mRNA vaccination. Five of the patients died.

  July 10, 2021: South Korean researchers report a 22-year-old man was killed by vaccine-induced myocarditis, the first such death reported in the literature.

  July 22, 2021: CDC says it confirmed 282 postvaccination myocarditis cases in people aged 18 to 29.

  July 28, 2021: Pfizer tells FDA of “important identified risk” of myocarditis and pericarditis after vaccination and discloses 17 deaths among the cases reported.

  July 30, 2021: Data mining does not show a signal for myocarditis among adolescents 12 to 17, CDC and FDA say.

  July 31, 2021: Australian experts recommend people be informed about possibility of myocarditis and pericarditis following vaccination.

  August 2021: 311 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including seven deaths.

  Aug. 4, 2021: UK delays recommending second dose for 16- and 17-year-olds.

  Aug. 10, 2021: 15 children hospitalized at Boston Children’s Hospital with postvaccination myocarditis between May 1 and July 15, 2021, researchers say.

  Aug. 13, 2021: Canada identifies a safety signal for postvaccination myocarditis.

  Aug. 17, 2021: Death of 27-year-old man following myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination reported by U.S. researchers. Family declined an autopsy. No non-vaccination causes identified.

  Aug. 18, 2021: U.S. researchers report death of 42-year-old man with myocarditis following Moderna vaccination. No other causes identified.

  Aug. 18, 2021: Dr. Walensky and other U.S. government officials call for COVID-19 vaccine boosters to be cleared due to waning effectiveness.

  Aug. 19, 2021: Two deaths from myocarditis following Pfizer vaccination, Pfizer reports to the EMA.

  Aug. 19, 2021: Dr. Walensky notified of UK preference for Pfizer over Moderna for adolescents.

  Aug. 23, 2021: FDA approves Pfizer’s vaccine for people 16 and older. Approval theoretically has a higher bar than authorization. The agency says that analyses of reported events “will not be sufficient to assess known serious risks of myocarditis and pericarditis.”

  Aug. 24, 2021: South Korean authorities determine a young man died from myocarditis after Pfizer vaccination.

  Aug. 30, 2021: One myocarditis case and one pericarditis case occurred among vaccinated trial participants, Pfizer reveals.

  Aug. 30, 2021: Of 742 reports in VAERS that met the CDC case definition of myocarditis or myopericarditis after vaccination, 701 patients required hospitalization and 18 are still hospitalized, CDC official reports (pdf). Twenty-three percent of patients whose cases were detailed in VAERS reports were not known to have recovered at the time of the report.

  Aug. 30, 2021: Highest rate of reported myopericarditis cases within seven days of a shot was 71.5 cases per million second Pfizer doses among boys aged 16 or 17, according to the CDC.

  Aug. 30, 2021: Myocarditis and pericarditis cases in VSD rise to 115, with some patients still experiencing symptoms, CDC official says (pdf).

  Aug. 30, 2021: Benefits of Pfizer’s vaccine continue to outweigh the risks, CDC officials say. They estimate every million Pfizer shots among 16- to 17-year-olds will cause 73 cases of myocarditis but prevent more hospitalizations.

  Aug. 30, 2021: Woman who died in New Zealand after Pfizer vaccination perished from myocarditis, an independent safety panel said.

  September 2021: 377 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including 10 deaths.

  Sept. 2, 2021: 654 reports of myocarditis or pericarditis in Pfizer’s safety database, company says. Seventy-seven reports of myocarditis or myocarditis and pericarditis in Moderna’s safety database, company says. Some patients, including a young male, died or had not recovered.

  Sept. 2, 2021: Based on the reports and other data, a causal association between myocarditis/pericarditis and the mRNA vaccines is “considered of at least a reasonable possibility,” the European Medicines Agency says.

  Sept. 3, 2021: 67 myocarditis/pericarditis cases recorded in VSD among people aged 12 to 39, CDC says.

  Sept. 8, 2021: Healthy, young boys face a higher risk of cardiac events from vaccines than from COVID-19, U.S. researchers find.

  Sept. 9, 2021: U.S. President Joe Biden and his administration announce COVID-19 vaccine mandates for tens of millions of Americans, including many young, healthy people.

  Sept. 15, 2021: Hong Kong changes recommendation from two doses of Pfizer to one dose after spike in myocarditis cases.

  Sept. 17, 2021: Excess myocarditis risk for vaccinated males aged 16 or 17 “approaching 200 cases per million,” FDA discloses, based on data from Optum health care claims database.

  Sept. 21, 2021: “A clear signal for vaccine associated myocarditis has emerged,” U.S. doctors say.

  Sept. 22, 2021: One case of myocarditis reported after Pfizer booster, CDC official says. Not possible to determine the risk of rare side effects like myocarditis after boosting, CDC safety committee says.

  Sept. 22, 2021: V-safe does not collect information on myocarditis, CDC official admits.

  Sept. 22, 2021: FDA authorizes a Pfizer booster for millions of Americans.

  Sept. 23, 2021: CDC officials say they don’t know how many cases of myocarditis booster shots will cause. They project up to 26 cases per million boosters in 18- to 29-year-olds, but say more COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations would be prevented.

  Sept. 24, 2021: CDC recommends Pfizer’s booster for certain populations.

  Sept. 27, 2021: New Zealand expert tells CDC it “seems to make huge sense to me” to delay second doses for young people.

  Sept. 28, 2021: Pfizer vaccine may have “played a role” in death of 15-year-old California boy who died after receiving shot, medical examiner tells CDC.

  Sept. 29, 2021: CDC meets on non-COVID vaccines.

  Sept. 30, 2021: CDC falsely tells California officials that reports of postvaccination myocarditis did not come until June 2021.

  October 2021: 321 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including five deaths.

  Oct. 4, 2021: Identification of postvaccination myocarditis cases “does not change clinical decision-making,” JAMA Internal Medicine editors say.

  Oct. 7, 2021: Norway, Finland, and Sweden suspend use of Moderna’s vaccine for younger people due to myocarditis risks.

  Oct. 8, 2021: Iceland suspends use of Moderna’s vaccine due to the heart inflammation.

  Oct. 11, 2021: CDC director briefed on how Nordic countries are limiting vaccination due to myocarditis.

  Oct. 12, 2021: Secret U.S. government meeting considering counting post-infection immunity as one or more vaccine doses ends with no update.

  Oct. 14, 2021: FDA says more myocarditis/pericarditis cases have been reported to its Biologics Effectiveness and Safety Initiative system.

  Oct. 21, 2021: The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has identified 7 post-vaccination myocarditis cases, CDC publicly discloses, but no signal was established and all cases resolved.

  Oct. 21, 2021: Highest rate of myocarditis following vaccination, based on VAERS data, is 69.1 cases per million second shots among males aged 16 or 17, Dr. Su says (pdf).

  Oct. 21, 2021: About a quarter of cases in people 29 or younger reviewed in VAERS were not known to have recovered, according to available data, with 19 still hospitalized.

  Oct. 21, 2021: Analyses of VSD data “indicate that both Pfizer and Moderna are associated with increased risk of myocarditis/pericarditis in 12–39-year-olds,” Kaiser Permanente doctor says (pdf). Myocarditis/pericarditis cases in VSD rise to 138, with rates higher after Moderna vaccination compared to Pfizer vaccination.

  Oct. 21, 2021: CDC says tens of millions of Americans should get a Pfizer or Moderna booster.

  Oct. 22, 2021: Rates of reported cases among males aged 18 to 24 approximately 139 per million after Moderna second dose and 43 per million after Pfizer second dose, French researchers say.

  Oct. 22, 2021: Norway says adolescents can’t get second doses of Pfizer’s vaccine.

  Oct. 26, 2021: FDA says benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks. Projection of harm is highest for 16- and 17-year-old males, at 196 postvaccination myocarditis/pericarditis cases, and 171 myocarditis/pericarditis hospitalizations per million doses.

  Oct. 26, 2021: CDC cardiologist Dr. Matthew Oster says “we don’t know a whole lot” about myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination. “We really need to see what the long-term outcomes for these kids will be,” he added later.

  Oct. 26, 2021: Dr. Michael Nelson, an FDA vaccine adviser, says he’s concerned that some cases of postvaccination myocarditis aren’t being reported.

  Oct. 26, 2021: Dr. Eric Rubin, another FDA adviser, says “we’re never going to learn about how safe this vaccine is unless we start giving it.”

  Oct. 27, 2021: World Health Organization says the mRNA vaccines likely cause myocarditis.

  Oct. 27, 2021: Prevalence of postvaccination myocarditis may be underestimated due to its reliance on symptoms for diagnosis, researchers say.

  Oct. 28, 2021: Dr. Su says myocarditis reported after COVID-19 vaccination “has been neither severe nor persistent … however, we’ll need to wait to see if longer-term complications arise.” He also says CDC does not know what percent of cases became chronic.

  Oct. 29, 2021: FDA authorizes Pfizer’s vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 despite dearth of efficacy data.

  Oct. 30, 2021: Seventeen myocarditis patients seen at a single facility in Switzerland between March and July 2021, researchers report (pdf).

  Oct. 31, 2021: FDA delays decision on approving Moderna’s vaccine for children.

  November 2021: 267 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including six deaths.

  Nov. 1, 2021: Dr. Su says in email that “we’re all doing our part to build confidence” in COVID-19 vaccines.

  Nov. 1, 2021: English researchers estimate vaccinating children aged 12 to 17 will prevent 230 to 4,590 COVID-19 hospitalizations while causing 160 cases of myocarditis requiring hospitalization.

  Nov. 1, 2021: Seven patients still had symptoms about a month after being diagnosed with myocarditis, U.S. researchers report.

  Nov. 2, 2021: Nine deaths with myocarditis reported among people 29 and younger in VAERS. Most deaths had at least one potential non-vaccination cause while evaluation of two was still ongoing, CDC official says (pdf).

  Nov. 2, 2021: Of postvaccination myocarditis patients who received cardiac MRIs, 72 percent had abnormal results, official says. Of patients who responded to CDC survey, 48 percent reported symptoms persisting after three months.

  Nov. 2, 2021: Rates of myocarditis after Pfizer vaccination in children aged 5 to 11, if cleared, is unknown, CDC says (pdf). Rates in those 12 to 15 are as high as 108.5 per million second doses among males.

  Nov. 2, 2021: CDC recommends virtually all children aged 5 to 11 receive a Pfizer series.

  Nov. 3, 2021: 18-year-old previously healthy woman dies after COVID-19 vaccination with fulminate myocarditis, Washington state officials tell CDC. They attribute the myocarditis to asymptomatic COVID-19. Family declined an autopsy at one facility and King County Medical Examiner’s Office says it did not perform an autopsy due to “social and complex” reasons.

  Nov. 8, 2021: France halts Moderna’s vaccine for people under 30.

  Nov. 16, 2021: UK recommends second dose for 16- and 17-year-olds.

  Nov. 18, 2021: Reported cases of myocarditis as high as 117 per million after doses of Moderna, and 47 per million doses of Pfizer, among males aged 18 to 29, German researchers say.

  Nov. 19, 2021: Lower rates of myocarditis reported to VAERS after booster doses, CDC official says (pdf). Fifty-four reports were lodged, with some people not known to have recovered.

  Nov. 19, 2021: CDC enables all adults to receive a booster of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

  Nov. 23, 2021: Between Dec. 27, 2020 and Sept. 3, 2021, 113 patients with suspected myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination presented to a single practice, German researchers report.

  Nov. 26, 2021: Six people were reported to have died with myocarditis or pericarditis after Pfizer vaccination, the Netherlands Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb reports. Other causes were found for two of the deaths.

  Nov. 28, 2021: Hong Kong researchers find rate of 212 myocarditis cases among 12- to 17-year-old males per million Pfizer second doses.

  Nov. 28, 2021: Three verified cases of post-booster myocarditis, CDC discloses in private emails.

  Nov. 29, 2021: UK recommends second dose for 12 to 15-year-olds.

  December 2021: 304 cases of myocarditis, pericarditis, or myopericarditis reported to VAERS, including five deaths.

  Dec. 1, 2021: 22-year-old woman spent 74 days in hospital with myocarditis after AstraZeneca vaccination, South Korean researchers report.

  Dec. 2, 2021: European Medicines Agency says safety signal confirmed for postvaccination myocarditis.

  Dec. 2, 2021: Israeli researchers estimate 106.9 myocarditis cases per million vaccinated males aged 16 to 29.

  Dec. 9, 2021: FDA authorizes booster doses for 16- and 17-year-olds.

  Dec. 9, 2021: CDC says 16- and 17-year-olds should get a booster shot. It does not mention myocarditis.

  Dec. 14, 2021: 114 vaccinated people had myocarditis listed as a cause of death on their death certificate, English researchers report.

  Dec. 16, 2021: Eight cases of myocarditis among children aged 5 to 11 confirmed, including one in a 6-year-old male, CDC official says.

  Dec. 18, 2021: 26-year-old New Zealand man’s death ruled as being caused by vaccine-induced myocarditis following an autopsy.

  Dec. 25, 2021: Males under 40 face an excess risk of 101 cases per million second doses, UK researchers find.

  Dec. 27, 2021: Incidence of myocarditis among males 12 to 39 is 195.4 per million second doses among males aged 12 to 39, U.S. researchers estimate. They identify cases missed by the CDC.Dec. 28, 2021: Risk of myocarditis much higher from Moderna’s vaccine compared with Pfizer’s shot, Canadian officials report.

  Dec. 30, 2021: 21 patients with myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination admitted to a single center between Dec. 15, 2020, and June 15, 2021, U.S. researchers report.

  Dec. 30, 2021: 14-year-old hospitalized with shock after Pfizer vaccination, Moroccan doctors say.

  2022

  Jan. 3, 2022: Non-vaccine causes of death ruled out in death of 57-year-old New Zealand woman who experienced myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination, researchers report.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 22:20

• DC Swamp In Crosshairs? Models Indicate Storm Advancing Up East Coast 
  DC Swamp In Crosshairs? Models Indicate Storm Advancing Up East Coast 

  The National Hurricane Center is tracking a storm off the Florida coastline. Computer models forecast a direct hit for the Mid-Atlantic region late Saturday into Sunday. 

  The storm will be several hundred miles away from North Carolina’s coast by Friday afternoon. Models show the storm will make landfall or come extremely close to the Outer Banks in the early hours of Saturday and ride up the Chesapeake Bay late Saturday, with the possibility of even strengthening. 

  

  “Around that time, it will pass over the Gulf Stream on its way toward the Chesapeake Bay. The warm Gulf Stream waters will help an uptick in convection, or thunderstorm activity, near the storm’s center. That could lead to it being classified as “subtropical” — part nor’easter, part tropical,” Capital Weather Gang meteorologist Matthew Cappucci wrote in a report on Thursday. 

  “There is a possibility of life-threatening inundation from rising water moving inland from the coastline,” NWS wrote in an early morning update.

  

  From the Carolinas to Washington–Baltimore metro area to New York City, gusts of 40 mph, with some areas exceeding 50 mph near the coastline, could be seen. 

  

  Heavy rainfall is expected for major US East Coast cities. Some areas see 2 to 4 inches of rain – or about a month’s rainfall. 

  

  The storm won’t be enough to drain the ‘DC swamp.’ 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 22:00

• Victor Davis Hanson: Our Self-Induced Catastrophe At The Border
  Victor Davis Hanson: Our Self-Induced Catastrophe At The Border

  Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

  Since early 2021 we have witnessed somewhere between 7 and 8 million illegal entries across the now nonexistent U.S. southern border.

  The more the border vanished, the more federal immigration law was rendered inert, and the more Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas spun fantasies that the “border is secure.” He is now written off as a veritable “Baghdad Bob” propagandist.

  But how and why did the Biden administration destroy immigration law as we knew it?

  The Trump administration’s initial efforts to close the border had been continually obstructed in the Congress, sabotaged by the administrative state, and stymied in the courts. Nonetheless, it had finally secured the border by early 2020.

  Yet almost all its successful initiatives were immediately overturned in 2021.

  The wall was abruptly stopped, its projected trajectory cancelled. The Obama-era disastrous “catch-and release” policy of immigration non-enforcement was resurrected.

  Prior successful pressure on Mexico’s President Andrés Obrador to stop the deliberate export of his own citizens northward ceased.

  Federal border patrol officers were forced to stand down.

  New federal subsidies were granted to entice and then support illegal arrivals.

  No one in the Democratic Party objected to the destruction of the border or the subversion of immigration law.

  

  However, things changed somewhat once swamped southern border states began to bus or fly a few thousand of their illegal immigrants northward to sanctuary city jurisdictions—especially to New York, Chicago, and even Martha’s Vineyard.

  The sanctuary-city “humanists” there who had greenlighted illegal immigration into the southern states suddenly shrieked. They were irate after experiencing the concrete consequences of their own prior abstract border agendas. After all, their nihilism was always supposed to fall upon distant and ridiculed others.

  New York mayor Eric Adams went from celebrating a few dozen illegal immigrants bused into Manhattan, to blasting his own party by allowing tens of thousands to swamp his now bankrupt city.

  But why did the Biden administration deliberately unleash the largest influx across the southern border in U.S. history?

  The ethnic chauvinists and Democratic Party elites needed new constituents, given their increasingly unpopular agendas.

  They feared that the more legal Latino immigrants assimilated and integrated into American society, the less happy they became with leftwing radical abortion, racial, transgender, crime, and green fixations.

  Democratic grandees had always bragged that illegal immigration would create what they called “The New Democratic Majority” in “Demography is Destiny” fashion. Now they slander critics as “racists” who object to leftwing efforts to use illegal immigration to turn southwestern red states blue.

  Mexico now cannot survive as a modern state without some $60 billion in annual remittances sent by its expatriates in America. But many illegal immigrants rely on American state and federal entitlements to free up cash to send home.

  Mexico also encourages its own abject poor and often indigenous people from southern Mexico to head north as a safety-valve of sorts. The government sees these mass exoduses northward as preferable to the oppressed marching on Mexico City to address grievances of poverty and racism.

  The criminal cartels now de facto run Mexico. An open border allows them to ship fentanyl northward, earn billions in profits—and kill nearly 100,000 Americans a year. Illegal immigrants pay cartels additional billions to facilitate their border crossings.

  Do not forget American corporate employers. Record labor nonparticipation followed the Covid lockdown. In reaction to the dearth of American workers, the hospitality, meat packing, social service, health-care, and farming industries were desperate to hire new—and far cheaper—labor.

  Human rights activists insist that the borders themselves are nineteenth-century relics. And the global poor and oppressed thus have a human right to enter the affluent West by any means necessary.

  Many in the tony suburbs and in universities do not live anywhere near the border. So they pontificate on the assurance that thousands of unaudited illegal immigrants will never enter their own enclaves or campuses.

  The result is elite bottled piety—but not firsthand experience with the natural consequences of millions chaotically fleeing one of the poorest countries in the world to pour into the wealthiest. Without background checks, vaccinations and health audits, legality, high-school diplomas, English-facility, skill sets, or capital, the result is an abject catastrophe.

  Polls continue to show that the American people support measured, diverse, legal, and meritocratic immigration as much as they oppose mass illegal immigration into their country and the subsequent loss of American sovereignty on the border.

  They understand what the Biden administration does not: no nation is history has survived once its borders were destroyed, once its citizenship was rendered no different from mere residence, and once its neighbors with impunity undermined its sovereignty.

  Ending illegal immigration now depends solely on the American people overriding the corrupt special interests and leaders who profit from the current chaos and human misery.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 21:40

• UAW Auto Strike Costs "Detroit 3" $250 Million In Lost Profit Every Day, Will Lead To Much More Inflation
  UAW Auto Strike Costs “Detroit 3” $250 Million In Lost Profit Every Day, Will Lead To Much More Inflation

  One week ago, when previewing the three events that are about to slam US GDP in the tail end of the 3rd and the 3th quarter (including the return of student loan payments, the UAW strike and the government shutdown), Goldman calculated that reduced auto production from a potential UAW strike would reduce quarterly annualized growth by 0.05-0.10% for each week it lasted, if all three companies currently undergoing contract negotiations are impacted. “Those three companies—Ford, GM, and Stellantis—produce almost half of domestically-assembled cars. Auto production would likely fall sharply—we assume to roughly zero—at any company impacted by a strike”, Goldman said in its 30,000 approximation of the impact..

  

  Fast forward to today when Morgan Stanley’s auto strategist, Adam Jonas, takes a closer look at the impact of the UAW strikes, which are now in their 5th day.

  According to Jonas, investors have expressed a degree of trepidation over the strike outcome in a recent survey and now that it’s here, the path to resolution does appear to have matched investor fears.

  Here is his quick calculation: “the value of N. American light production of the D3 (F, GM, STLA collectively) is approximately $750mm per day (approx. 15k units per day). Applying slightly more than a 30% decremental (yes, mix is that high) implies around $250mm of lost profit per day (assuming 100% of production impacted).”

  Extrapolating to a full month of lost output (adjusted for production days) could be worth $7 to $8bn of lost profit for the D3, collectively.

  According to Jonas, some of the lost production would be made back as some customers may be tempted to buy an import brand – or Tesla – with lack of availability.

  But beyond the 1-time losses, Jonas says he is much more concerned about the potential for 30 to 40% labor inflation over the life of the next 4-year contract and how the domestic auto companies may recalibrate their ROIC and payback math for EV onshoring. The MS strategist thinks the outcome will be greater austerity and focus on the ICE run-off (that, however, would make many more workers redundant as EV require far less mechanical intervention than ICEs).

  One must also consider that new car purchases account for roughly 5% of US CPI and soon car companies will have to raise prices (structurally) to compensate for higher labor input cost. Put simply, a 3% increase in new car prices could be worth 15bps to CPI over 4 years.

  Finally, some thoughts on the UAW strike from One River CIO Eric Peters:

  “The money is there. The cause is righteous. The world is watching, and the UAW is ready to stand up,” declared United Auto Workers boss Shawn Fain to his union members on a Facebook livestream. “This is our defining moment.”

  Detroit automaker unionized labor costs, including wages and benefits, are estimated at an average of $66/hour. That compares with $45 at Tesla, which isn’t unionized, and $55 for Asian automakers.

  Meeting all of Fain’s initial demands would boost average hourly labor costs to an estimated $136/hour.

  Fein claims to be matching the roughly 40% compensation gains automaker CEOs have realized in the past decade. Ford’s CEO made $22mm last year. Stellantis’s $24.8mm. GM’s nearly $29mm.

  “Competition is code word for race to the bottom, and I’m not concerned about Elon Musk building more rocket ships so he can fly in outer space and stuff,” Fain told CNBC, defending his demands. “Our concern is working-class people need their share of economic justice in this world.”

  The secular trend toward ever rising inequality is turning. In August, UPS settled its labor dispute with the Teamsters 340k drivers who on average now make $170k in wages and benefits. That same month, Yellow failed to come to agreement with the Teamsters and ceased operations after nearly a century of trucking delivery — it awarded ten executives $4.6mm in special retention bonuses, laid off all 30k drivers and went into liquidation.

  A secular trend reversal to how society divides its economic spoils is not all that different from revolution. Bitterly fought, treacherous for all involved. And this latest episode promises to be particularly so.

  Because in the timeless conflict between capital and labor, it is extremely rare for the imbalance to be so extreme. The wider the gap, the bigger the stakes. And the last time the chasm was so great was at the height of the Roaring 1920s.  

  

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 21:20

• Estes' $1.525BN Stalking Horse Bid For Yellow's Terminals Wins Out
  Estes’ $1.525BN Stalking Horse Bid For Yellow’s Terminals Wins Out

  By Todd Maiden of FreightWaves

  An order was entered in a Delaware bankruptcy court Thursday naming less-than-truckload carrier Estes Express Lines’ $1.525 billion stalking horse bid as the winning offer of Yellow Corp.’s portfolio of owned terminals.

  

  Bid protections for Estes were also approved, including a $7.5 million breakup fee and expense reimbursement up to $1.6 million.

  Yellow filed for bankruptcy on Aug. 6 after failing to reach terms with its union workers on a proposed change of operations it said was vital to its survival.

  Last week Estes submitted the bid, which eclipsed a $1.5 billion offer from rival LTL carrier Old Dominion Freight Line. Estes’ proposal also came with lower bid protections. The carrier kicked off the bidding with an initial offer of $1.3 billion.

  The bid sets the price floor for Yellow’s service centers. Estes is unlikely to walk away with all 174 terminals as a full sales process will still occur. The bid deadline for the terminals is set for Nov. 9, with an auction expected to take place on Nov. 28 if needed.

  A hearing held last week revealed that initial indications of interest for some of the real estate has been as much as two to 11 times the appraised value. At the hearing, counsel for Yellow also said that the proceeds from the terminal sales will likely be more than enough to repay all outstanding amounts due to secured creditors.

  The company’s unsecured claims, however, may garner more interest moving forward. A recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said Yellow’s pension fund withdrawal liabilities could top $6.5 billion.

  The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents roughly 22,000 former Yellow workers, was vocal this week, calling for the U.S. Senate to investigate the company’s bankruptcy as a judiciary committee looks more broadly at bankruptcy reform.

  Up next on the auction block is Yellow’s owned rolling stock, which includes nearly 12,000 tractors and 35,000 trailers. A deadline for equipment bids has been set for Oct. 13, with an auction set to occur on Oct. 18 if needed.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 21:00

• Lawlessness Spreads To Suburbia: Westport Man Carjacked In Own Garage
  Lawlessness Spreads To Suburbia: Westport Man Carjacked In Own Garage

  Violent crime appears to be spreading to suburbia. For the millions of Americans who fled crime-ridden metro areas where Democrat leaders failed to enforce law and order, the dramatic video of a carjacker assaulting a Westport, Connecticut, man in his garage for his Aston Martin serves as a wakeup call to better defend yourself and loves ones. 

  Westport Journal reports that the Westport Police Department released dramatic security footage from a Ring camera that shows a residential burglary and carjacking on Bayberry Lane on Sunday afternoon. Two suspects assaulted the man in his garage and stole his Aston Martin. 

  “They surround the vehicle and drag the man from the car as he calls for someone in the home to contact police. The intruders appear to repeatedly strike the man as he tries to fend them off,” the local media outlet said. 

  Westport police Lt. Eric Woods said the victim was targeted and followed back to his residence. “Therefore, Westport Police are encouraging residents to be aware of their surroundings and report any suspicious behavior to 911,” he said. 

  The consequence of failed Democrat policies in major cities has only emboldened criminals who are now expanding their theft wave to suburbia. It’s also a cautionary sign for homeowners who might want to explore firearms training to defend themselves, their families, and their property. 

  Meanwhile, the average police response time is more than ten minutes. And Democrat lawmakers want to strip the public of firearms (see New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham‘s latest 2A overreach). 

  The video proves the Westport man couldn’t afford to wait just one minute. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 20:40

• Pfizer-Funded Study Shows Poor Effectiveness For COVID-19 Vaccine In Young Children
  Pfizer-Funded Study Shows Poor Effectiveness For COVID-19 Vaccine In Young Children

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

  A new study funded by Pfizer found the company’s COVID-19 vaccine did not perform well in children under 5.

  

  Children aged 6 months to 4 years are supposed to receive three shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The number was increased from two when early testing showed little effectiveness.

  Three doses of the Pfizer vaccine provided little protection against emergency room visits, urgent care encounters, or outpatient visits, according to the new study.

  Researchers with and funded by Pfizer analyzed records from Kaiser Permanente Southern California. They included patients who tested for COVID-19 at an emergency department, urgent care, or outpatient setting along with being diagnosed with acute respiratory infection. The date range was July 23, 2022 through May 19, 2023.

  Positive cases were those with a positive test result. Controls tested negative and had no evidence of prior infection in the past 90 days. Children were only counted as vaccinated if they received a second or third shot two or more weeks before being exposed to COVID-19. Children were excluded if they only received one dose, received any doses from a different company, or did not follow the recommended dosing schedule.

  After adjusting for factors such as age and sex, researchers estimated just 12 percent effectiveness against medically-attended encounters for children who completed the three-dose primary series.

  Confidence intervals crossed well over one, indicating that the effectiveness might actually be worse or even negative.

  The effectiveness was estimated to be higher, or 44 percent, for children who received two doses of the regimen.

  Researchers speculated that the difference stemmed from more immune-evasive virus variants becoming dominant in the United States by the time children received a third dose.

  “Updated vaccines will likely be needed to maintain protection against contemporary Omicron strains in young children,” they wrote.

  Sara Tartof, the study’s corresponding author and an employee of Kaiser Permanente Southern California, did not answer questions, including why researchers included those with two doses but not those with one dose.

  Pfizer did not return a request for comment.

  

  Key Problems

  Among the key problems with the research were only including children who were diagnosed with acute respiratory infection (ARI), Dr. Robert Malone, who was not involved in the research, said.

  That “may predispose to young children that lack a primary care physician/pediatrician,” Dr. Malone, who helped invent the mRNA technology Pfizer’s vaccine utilizes, told The Epoch Times via email.

  “Likewise, the control group of non-vaccinated with ARI will also have selection bias. These intrinsic study biases make the relevance of the measured outcome to the general population quite problematic.”

  Another issue is using positive results on polymerase chain reaction testing as the metric for having COVID-19, given the false positives the testing brings, Dr. Malone said. Some patients who tested positive may actually have another virus, such as influenza, he said.

  Need a Trial

  Pfizer’s vaccine was authorized for children despite unreliable efficacy estimates against infection, and no efficacy estimates against severe disease.

  The newly reported results are based on a test-negative design, which is inappropriate for measuring effectiveness, said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor of health policy at Stanford University.

  “The design starts with children who are already seeing a doctor and then makes strong and unsupportable statistical assumptions to derive the probability of seeing a doctor for vaccinated and unvaccinated children,” Dr. Bhattacharya, who was not involved in the research, told The Epoch Times via email.

  “What is needed to answer this question without bias is a randomized control trial. I am shocked that the FDA has not asked Pfizer and Moderna to conduct such a study,” he added.

  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared Pfizer’s shot on the basis of immunobridging, or comparing antibody levels in children after vaccination with levels in adults after vaccination.

  Antibodies are believed to protect people against COVID-19.

  The authorization has been the subject of protests, including a complaint that said the FDA violated its own standards with the clearance.

  The FDA this month cleared new vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna for children. The only trial data was from 50 people aged 12 or older who received Moderna’s shot. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended the shots to all people aged 6 months and older.

  CDC Data

  CDC data presented on Sept. 12 showed that both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines failed to provide much protection to young children.

  One dose of Pfizer’s vaccine provided just 8 percent protection against emergency room and urgent care visits beyond 13 days, while two doses provided a peak of 44 percent protection, according to the data (pdf).

  A third dose provided 71 percent protection between 14 and 59 days, but the shielding plunged to 16 percent after two months.

  A two-shot primary series of Moderna’s shot initially provided 46 percent protection. That shielding dropped even lower, to 24 percent, beyond 60 days.

  The World Health Organization considers 50 percent as adequate effectiveness for vaccines.

  A single dose of a bivalent shot, introduced in the fall of 2022, boosted protection to 61 percent, but no estimates were available over time and the estimate was based on just eight vaccinated patients who tested positive.

  “This imprecision indicates that the actual [effectiveness] could be substantially different,” the CDC said.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 20:20

• Leftist Mayor Calls 911 On Peaceful Petitioners – Describes Them As "Far Right Wing"
  Leftist Mayor Calls 911 On Peaceful Petitioners – Describes Them As “Far Right Wing”

  It is no secret that blue state politicians have been growing more extreme each passing year.  Given a taste of ultimate authority during the covid lockdowns, they now seem to operate on the assumption that this is how society will function from now on – Unilateral authority with no checks and balances based on arbitrary proclamations rather than constitutional law.  

  As the old saying goes, if you want to test a person’s character, give them power.  Democrats assumed far reaching powers during the pandemic scare, and they have revealed their true natures.  This reality also extends to their behavior regarding “trans rights”, which they believe allows them to restrict individual speech, violate women’s privacy rights and erase the right of parents to be informed of school interactions with their children.

  It may be opposition to the school trans indoctrination problem in particular that compelled leftist Mayor Janice Deccio of Yakima, Washington to call 911 on Sept. 3rd; outraged because of the presence of conservative petitioners collecting signatures at a local Walmart to stop schools from hiding information from parents.  In June of this year, Deccio proclaimed the entire month as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Asexual, Aromantic, Queer, Two-Spirit, Non-Binary, and Intersex Pride Month” in Yakima, during a city council organized event. 

  Deccio claims she was simply informed by her constituents of “far right wing petitioners” at Walmart “harassing” shoppers, and that she was not aware of what they were specifically collecting signatures for.  Petitioners held signs listing their goals, making her assertion less believable.  

  The volunteers were gathering signatures over Labor Day weekend on six Washington ballot initiatives funded by Let’s Go Washington.  I-2113 would roll back restrictions placed by Democrats on when police officers can engage in vehicular pursuits. I-2117 would lower the Democrat-imposed carbon tax that has spiked gas prices. I-2124 would allow employees to opt out of Washington’s long-term care insurance program. I-2109 would repeal the state’s capital gains tax. I-2111 would prohibit state income taxes being imposed and I-2081, would allow parents of public school students to review their child’s instructional materials and student records.

  The signature gatherers also caught the attention of former Democrat candidate for Congress Doug White who posted on Twitter/X complaining about the “illegal petition” while asking his followers “What will you do about it?”  Perhaps hoping to rally leftists to disrupt the petitioners since the police refused to violate their rights.  

  Illegal petitioners outside west valley Walmart. They have been trying to get rid of them for a week but refuse to leave. Police and sheriff will do nothing. Sgt Shepard of the YPD states “it’s their constitutional right”. Do you agree? What will you do about it? pic.twitter.com/9q2Hro9YyT

  — Doug White (@DougWhiteRAU) September 3, 2023

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  The Yakima Mayor says she “does not care” about the nature of the petition and was only concerned about “harassment” and the property rights of Walmart.  However, if this is true why would she make sure to paint the petitioners as “far right wing?”  Her clear disappointment and expression of disbelief after being told that the petitioners were acting within the law also reveals that the 911 call may have been motivated by political zealotry.

  Attempting to conflate the private property of a home residence with the parking lot of Walmart could be blamed on ignorance.  Perhaps Mayor Deccio is simply stupid.  Clearly she was aware that police could not intervene before she made the call, and contacted 911 anyway.  Was she hoping to use her government position to pressure police to confront petitioners regardless of the law?   

  At bottom the most important question is not a legal one – How was this small group of people causing harm?  Why bother them at all?  Would the Mayor have made the same phone call if the petitioners were far-left and in support of gun control, carbon taxes and trans propaganda in schools?

  The identification of “far right wing” is often used by leftists as a qualifier for censorship.  They argue that free speech is  protected, but not absolute.  Meaning, free speech is okay for those they deem to be the “good guys” but it should be restricted for those they deem to be the “bad guys.”  Conveniently, leftists have also declared themselves the arbiters of who is good and who is bad, and they believe everyone to the right of Karl Marx and Klaus Schwab to be bad.

  While some might say that this is a minor problem associated with a small city, it is in fact a reflection of a much larger agenda.  The political left has been trying to establish double standards on every level of government and social redress for years; rules for thee but not for me.  And when government begins to silence and suppress one group in favor of another, the end result will be predictably explosive.  Luckily the local police in this instance were properly informed and were not subject to political pressure. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 20:00

• On The Idiotic Notion That It's Brave To Support Nuclear Brinkmanship In Ukraine
  On The Idiotic Notion That It’s Brave To Support Nuclear Brinkmanship In Ukraine

  Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

  

  During a Sunday appearance on Face the Nation to plug his new Zelensky movie, actor Sean Penn decried the “cowardice” of the US government in its caution around provoking a nuclear exchange with its proxy warfare in Ukraine.

  “It is my absolute feeling that the caution with which the United States has pledged support, which seemed, in my reading of February 2022 was a, like a lean on in the fear of nuclear conflict, something I think all of us should look very carefully at and understand that, of course, is possible,” Penn said.

  “And that’s to be concerning. The likelihood is extremely low. And as one of our witnesses in the film says, you know, are we going to let a gangster with nuclear weapons dictate the way we live?”

  Penn emotionally lamented the fact that the Biden administration did not pour F-16 warplanes into Ukraine from the very beginning of the conflict, initially fearing the move to be too escalatory. Describing this hesitation, Penn said that “at some point, caution becomes cowardice.”

  As you might expect, the interviewer refrained from challenging Penn on his claim that the likelihood of nuclear war is “extremely low” in spite of his acknowledgement that it’s a real possibility, or on his claim that resisting increasing the likelihood of nuclear war is an act of cowardice.

  Sean Penn has been one of Hollywood’s most egregious empire apologists for some time now (in 2020 he told CNN that “there is no greater humanitarian force on the planet than the United States military”), but even by his standards these comments about nuclear brinkmanship are remarkably odious.

  There’s this obnoxious idea that comes up in mainstream political discourse about Ukraine that an aversion to nuclear brinkmanship is somehow cowardly, and that being willing to risk the life of every terrestrial organism advancing US strategic objectives is somehow an act of courage.

  We saw this back in July from Paul Massaro, an advisor to the US government’s Helsinki Commission and a minor celebrity in online Zelenskyite circles. During this year’s “Captive Nations Summit” with the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, Massaro mocked westerners for being “fearful” of proxy warfare in Ukraine leading to nuclear warfare.

  “I think the biggest thing is fear, I think we’re fearful,” Massaro said. “It’s very funny to me, because you meet Ukrainians, not a single Ukrainian is fearful. You talk to Ukrainians it’s like ‘What if the Russians use nuclear weapons?’, they’re like ‘We’ll keep fighting, we’ll win.’ You know it’s only the westerners that are like ‘Oh my god, I’m over here in California and what if the Russians use nuclear weapons?’ You know, it’s almost pathetic.”

  Fear of nuclear war is a pathetic Western phenomenon, says cheerleader for WW3 and NAFO e-celebrity @HelsinkiComm advisor Paul Massaro, gleefully amped-up about the war in Ukraine at this week’s “Captive Nations Summit” held at the Victims of Communism Museum in Washington. pic.twitter.com/FX8kKqRO9H

  — Moss Robeson (@mossrobeson__) July 21, 2023

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  It’s a common theme. Any time you talk publicly about the risk of the continually escalating war in Ukraine leading to nuclear catastrophe you’ll get empire apologists calling you a coward and saying we all need to be brave and stand up to the big bully Putin. And it’s just such a disgusting perversion of what courage actually is and what it looks like.

  Empire loyalists often talk about nuclear brinkmanship like it’s something courageous that they personally are doing, as though gambling every terrestrial life on strategic grand chessboard maneuverings is a brave risk that could only hurt them. If you think you are brave for risking the life of everyone on earth to advance your personal geopolitical agendas, you might be a malignant narcissist, because you think the world revolves around you, and other lives exist only as props to support your main character adventures.

  Hardly any human on this planet gives a shit who governs Crimea or the Donbass — and exactly zero of the plants and animals do — but people like Sean Penn and Paul Massaro think they have every right to not only gamble all their lives on a bid to control that outcome, but to call themselves courageous for doing so. Imagine being so self-absorbed you think you’re a brave hero for putting the lives of Africans, Asians, and South Americans on the betting table who’ve never even heard of Donetsk or Luhansk and don’t care who governs them, as well as every non-human life on earth.

  I mean, the absolute arrogance. The fucking gall. It’s as emotionally stunted and infantile a perspective as you could possibly come up with, but these are the people whose worldview is shaping outcomes on this planet. These are the sort of people who are setting the trajectory of our species as a collective.

  The mainstream western political consensus is a sickness of the mind. Its existence should make us all want to fall to our knees and beg the forgiveness of every life on this earth that it imperils.

  *  *  *

  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
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 19:40

• Olive Garden Owner Warns: "Decline In Fine Dining" As Wealthy Americans Trade Down To Cheap Booze 
  Olive Garden Owner Warns: “Decline In Fine Dining” As Wealthy Americans Trade Down To Cheap Booze 

  Sentiment continues to turn negative for the US consumer as the latest warning sign comes from a multi-brand restaurant operator with more than 1,900 full-service locations nationwide. During a Thursday morning conference call, the management team warned Wall Street analysts about “softness” among wealthier households. 

  Darden Restaurants CEO Rick Cardenas said, “We are seeing a little softness versus last year with household incomes above $125,000, and that primarily affects our Fine Dining brands, but it does affect all of our brands.” 

  The multi-brand restaurant operator owns Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, and five other brands with more than 1,900 locations nationwide. 

  

  Cardenas offered more clues about waning consumer spending habits at restaurant locations:

  “Now, this could be because the increase in luxury travel, particularly international travel, which you’ve heard a lot of people talk about, but as I’ve said before many times, there is a tension between what people want to pay and what they can afford, and they’re going to continue to seek value, not always about low price. They’re making tradeoffs, and food away from home is one of the most difficult things they can give up.”

  Darden’s CFO told analysts that a decline in fine dining has been due to customers opting for lower-priced wines and other beverages over the past year: 

  “The decline in Fine Dining, part of that is driven by incremental costs they have year-over- year. Their pricing is starting to catch up. But also, there was some negative mix. On a one- year basis, there was a lot of negative mix on alcohol. When we look at what’s happening with — at Fine Dining, there is trading down to lower-priced wines and other alcohols on a one-year basis.” 

  Darden’s exec team offered a cautionary view on wealthier customers amid a period of high credit card debt and depleted savings for consumers. The $2 trillion in excess savings from the Covid crisis has been all but depleted, according to according to JPM calculations.

  

  The latest slide in consumer credit suggests folks are finally tapped out. 

  

  Meanwhile, with average credit card interest rates rising above 22% to a new record high…

  

  And now that repayment of student loans has officially resumed, it will likely cause a $15.8 billion headwind for consumers every month. 

  The days of $80 steaks and $25 martinis might be over for now. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 19:20

• Eric Clapton Helps RFK Jr. Raise $2.2 Million At Los Angeles Fundraiser
  Eric Clapton Helps RFK Jr. Raise $2.2 Million At Los Angeles Fundraiser

  Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Eric Clapton helped raise $2.2 million for the presidential campaign of Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a political action committee (PAC) at a private fundraiser on Monday night, the Kennedy campaign announced Tuesday.

  

  The star-studded event, held in the upscale Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, raised a total of $2.2 million, with $1 million earmarked for Mr. Kennedy’s campaign, while the remaining $1.2 million will bolster a PAC dedicated to supporting his bid for the presidency.

  “I am deeply grateful to [Eric Clapton] for bringing his musical artistry and rebellious spirit to my gathering in Los Angeles last night and helping raise $2.2 million for my campaign,” Mr. Kennedy said in a statement released by his campaign.

  Mr. Kennedy, who is the son of assassinated former presidential candidate Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, expressed his appreciation for music having the power to bring people together “in our divided society.”

  “Eric sings from the depths of the human condition. If he sees in me the possibility of bringing unity to our country, it is only possible because artists like him invoke a buried faith in the limitless power of human beings to overcome any obstacle,” Mr. Kennedy said in a statement.

  In late August, the Kennedy campaign revealed that Mr. Clapton would be headlining the exclusive fundraising event, where ticket prices reportedly ranged from a minimum of $3,300 to a maximum of $6,600.

  

  At the time, Mr. Clapton expressed his excitement about the event in a brief video message, praising Mr. Kennedy for his commitment to championing “truth, unity, peace, and posterity.”

  Both Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Clapton have criticized COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

  Mr. Kennedy is one of two Democratic candidates running against President Joe Biden, who is facing an impeachment probe and who has the support of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in seeking a second term in the White House.

  The presidential hopeful recently accused the DNC of rigging the presidential primary system to hinder any substantial challenge to President Biden’s campaign.

  In an open letter published on Sept. 13, Mr. Kennedy accused DNC leadership of going “off track” by limiting democracy and manipulating the primary rules to favor President Biden.

  “The DNC and the Joe Biden campaign have essentially merged into one unit, financially and strategically,” Mr. Kennedy wrote.

  Section 4 of the DNC’s charter states that the party chair is required to maintain impartiality and evenhandedness when it comes to presidential candidates and their campaigns.

  In February, the DNC passed a resolution with unanimous agreement, pledging its “full and complete support” for both the president and Vice President Kamala Harris. This resolution was adopted prior to Mr. Kennedy’s launch of his campaign several months later.

  Responding to Mr. Kennedy’s criticisms, DNC Chair Jaime Harrison told his campaign in a letter cited by The Washington Post that the criticism was based on “serious misunderstandings” of the nominating process.

  “I am hopeful that a meeting with our Delegate Selection leadership team will prevent future instances of voters receiving erroneous information that could cause confusion about the equity of the Democratic nominating process,” Mr. Harrison wrote, per the report.

  The Biden campaign has raised more than $72 million between April and the end of the quarter in July. While these figures are substantial, they fall short when compared to the amounts raised by previous American presidents at this stage in their reelection campaigns. For instance, in 2019, then-President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) raised a total of $105 million in the second quarter, reported The Associated Press.

  The poll by RealClearPolitics, as of Sept. 19, put Mr. Kennedy in a distant second with 11.9 points for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination, following President Joe Biden with 66.6 points.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 19:00

• Biden Finally Gives Netanyahu Long-Delayed White House Invitation
  Biden Finally Gives Netanyahu Long-Delayed White House Invitation

  At a moment the US is pushing hard for normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel, President Joe Biden has finally and much belatedly issued a formal invitation for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit the White House before the end of the year.

  This means a White House trip for the Israeli PM will happen nearly a full year after his reelection to office, which has been seen in Tel Aviv as a bit of an insult. 

  

  Biden reportedly issued the invitation on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.

  He told the press, “Today, we’re going to discuss some of the hard issues, that is upholding democratic values that lie at the heart of our partnership, including the checks and balances in our systems and preserving the path to a negotiated two-state solution, and ensuring that Iran never, never acquires a nuclear weapon.”

  Netanyahu responded positively in the UN meeting with Biden: “I think that under your leadership, Mr President, we can forge a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” he said.

  “Such a peace would go a long way first to advance the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, achieve reconciliation between the Islamic world and the Jewish state and advance a genuine peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” the Israeli leader added.

  Typically new Israeli leaders make an official trip to the White House within a mere weeks of being reelected, but Biden’s “snub” is being seen in reaction to the Netanyahu ruling coalition’s ultra-controversial judicial overhaul agenda, which will greatly weaken the independence of Israel’s judiciary. Biden addressed this in the meeting:

  President Joe Biden raised “hard issues,” including protecting the “checks and balances” in a democracy, in a Wednesday meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, pushing the Israeli leader to find a compromise on a judicial overhaul that has set off months of mass protests in Israel and concerns in Washington.

  Biden also raised concerns about the far-right Israeli government’s treatment of the Palestinians, urging Netanyahu to take steps to improve conditions in the West Bank at a time of heightened violence in the occupied territory.

  As for Saudi-Israeli normalization, in an interview published by Fox this week, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) said of ties with the Jewish state, “Every day we get closer.”

  In exchange for pursuing a peace deal along the lines of the Abraham Accords, Riyadh is demanding Washington’s help in creating a Saudi civilian nuclear program. Importantly, it appears the Netanyahu government is willing to bless this…

  “Netanyahu directed top Israeli nuclear and security specialists to cooperate with US negotiators… the clearest sign yet that the Israeli prime minister is willing to allow Saudi Arabia to advance its nuclear ambitions.” https://t.co/PD0BMBSLNT

  — Gregg Carlstrom (@glcarlstrom) September 21, 2023

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  Interestingly, MbS also said in the Fox interview that Saudi Arabia will obtain a nuclear weapon if its number one regional rival Iran does so first. “If they get one, we have to get one,” MbS told Fox’s ‘Special Report’ anchor Bret Baier when asked what the kingdom would do if Iran builds a nuclear weapon.

  Of course, that would greatly complicate the question of peace and normalization with Israel, which remains the region’s sole nuclear-armed power, though not officially and on a publicly disclosed level.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 18:40

• Next Arms Package For Ukraine Includes More Internationally-Banned Cluster Bombs
  Next Arms Package For Ukraine Includes More Internationally-Banned Cluster Bombs

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  President Biden’s expected new weapons package being announced when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visits Washington on Thursday is expected to have more internationally-banned munitions, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

  Sources told Reuters that the package will be worth $325 million and is expected to include the second tranche of widely-banned cluster bombs in the form of 155mm artillery shells. The US began providing Ukraine with cluster munitions in July despite their history of killing and maiming civilians.

  

  The cluster munitions the US is providing Ukraine are packed with 72 submunitions, known as bomblets, that are scattered over a large area.

  Cluster bombs are so hazardous to civilians because many of the submunitions do not explode on impact, and can be found years or decades later. Due to their indiscriminate nature, cluster bombs are banned by over 100 countries by the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but the US, Ukraine, and Russia are not signatories to the treaty.

  A US official also told Reuters that the new weapons package will not include Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), which can be fired from the HIMARS rocket systems and have a range of up to 190 miles.

  ATACMS have been long sought by Ukraine, and recent media reports said they could be soon on their way, but the White House said this week no decision has been made.

  Providing ATACMS would mark a significant escalation of US support for Ukraine as they could potentially hit targets inside Russia. When asked earlier this month about Ukraine using ATACMS to target Russian territory, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said targeting decisions are up to Ukraine.

  Other weapons expected to be in the new arms package include Avenger short-range air defense systems, HIMARS ammunition, TOW and AT-4 anti-tank weapons, and Javelin anti-tank missiles.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 18:20

• Trudeau Tried But Failed To Convince Allies To Condemn India Over Killing Of Sikh Leader
  Trudeau Tried But Failed To Convince Allies To Condemn India Over Killing Of Sikh Leader

  Canada says it is still investigating “credible allegations” linking Indian government agents with the killing of a Sikh separatist leader outside of Vancouver in June. Sikh leader and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead in a parking lot by two masked gunmen outside a Sikh temple on June 18.

  The accusation which was made public Monday by Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau has sent relations with India to their lowest point in history. But India had formally designated Nijjar a terrorist starting in 2020, and while rejecting the accusation it has also said Canada is playing host to terror organizations. 

  After a mutual expelling of top diplomats from either country, as of Wednesday India is warning its citizens to exercise caution when traveling in Canada in a new advisory.

  

  India’s External Ministry published the warning which tells citizens and students in Canada that “growing anti-India activities and politically condoned hate-crimes” are one the rise.

  The statement also tells Indians to stay away from venues and events where “threats have particularly targeted Indian diplomats and sections of the Indian community who oppose anti-India agenda,” the ministry said.

  Canada is simultaneously circulating its own updated advisory which requests that its citizens exercise “high degree of caution” when traveling in India. The message highlights the potential for “terrorist attacks” – in what’s clearly intended as a punitive measure against New Delhi. 

  “Exercise a high degree of caution in India due to the threat of terrorist attacks throughout the country,” it states.

  Trudeau is meanwhile attempting what looks like damage control amid the escalating diplomatic war. He says it’s not his aim to “provoke” India in fresh statements:

  “Canada is not trying to provoke India by suggesting its agents were linked to the murder of a Sikh separatist leader but Ottawa wants New Delhi to address the issue properly,” Reuters quoted him as saying on Tuesday.

  “The government of India needs to take this matter with utmost seriousness. We are doing that, we are not looking to provoke or escalate,” he reportedly said. 

  Trudeau had raised the issue with PM Modi during the G20 hosted in New Delhi. But it was also his efforts to convince Washington to stand by Canada’s side which also got rebuffed, according to reporting in The Washington Post…

  “Some of these allied nations, including the United States, however, declined to join Canada in jointly announcing the findings of the ongoing probe, underscoring the lengths the Biden administration has gone to avoid antagonizing India and court the Asian power as a strategic counterweight to China,” WaPo wrote.

  According to more from the Post, the Biden administration was not willing to go all-in on the accusation so as not to risk deepening the US relationship with India:

  On Monday, Trudeau did not give specific evidence linking Indian operatives to the shooting but said Canada was looking into the killing with allied nations. The controversy comes at an awkward moment when Western nations, led by the White House, are looking to woo India as a geopolitical and trade partner and have refrained from criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi over India’s authoritarian backsliding.

  HUGE TURNAROUND AFTER MEGA SNUB? TRUDEAU ON BACKFOOT AFTER ABSURD CLAIM?

  Canadian PM Justin Trudeau says ‘ We are not looking to provoke or escalate matters with India.’ #JustinTrudeau #CanadaIndiaRelations #Canada pic.twitter.com/RC4UHcLtHZ

  — Jan Ki Baat (@jankibaat1) September 20, 2023

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  Canada was strongly lobbying other allies as well, particularly among the “Five Eyes”:

  In recent months, Canada began pushing its closest allies, the members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network – the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand – to raise Nijjar’s killing with India at the highest levels of government and issue a joint statement condemning the act as contravening international norms, said a Western official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities.

  But several countries, including the United States, demurred, fearing a diplomatic backlash from the Modi government at a moment when India was due to hold a lavish coming-out party on the international stage, the G-20 Summit in New Delhi, the Western official said. Instead, the alleged assassination was privately raised by several senior officials from the Five Eyes countries in the weeks before the summit, which took place on Sept. 9 and 10.

  Trudeau had in his Monday televised announcement before the House of Commons asserted that “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.” Some pro-Indian commentators and media are questioning whether Nijjar is a Canadian citizen at all.

  There remains the possibility the whole row could push India further away from the West when it comes to the Ukraine war, and into closer trade and economic cooperation with Russia and China.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 18:00

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• Syria On The Verge Of Collapse?
  Syria On The Verge Of Collapse?

  Authored by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi via the Gatestone Institute,

  

  Syria is clearly on the verge of collapse in terms of the economy and humanitarian situation.

  The country’s southern province of al-Suwayda’, whose population primarily comes from the Druze minority, is currently witnessing protests on an unprecedented scale. While the province has previously seen protests motivated primarily by the country’s deteriorating economic and livelihood situation, these protests are now far more widespread in the province and larger in scale.

  There has also been a definite paradigm shift in these protests: the main initial demands to improve the economy and livelihood situation were endorsed by the Druze community’s three leading religious authorities in Syria. Calls for the government to resign, for the departure of President Bashar al-Assad and a political transition are now stronger and more prevalent. In multiple localities in the province, which has formally been under government control since the start of the unrest and civil war in 2011, demonstrators have closed the Ba’ath Party headquarters and removed portraits of Assad and his father, Hafez al-Assad.

  While these protests are in themselves remarkable for the province in terms of the numbers participating, their persistence and how open the calls for political change are, they do raise the question about whether they constitute the potential for a real shift in Syria’s “status quo” since spring 2020. However much one might sympathise with the protests, they are probably unlikely to shift the situation in a significant way. The protestors, although immensely courageous, are too few, and have little leverage.

  The current status quo means that Syria is effectively divided into three major zones: the majority of the country that is held by the Damascus-based government backed by Russia and Iran; the northeast held by the American-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (the second-largest zone of control); and parts of the northwest and north of the country on and near the border with Turkey, controlled by an assortment of insurgent factions that are backed by Turkey to varying degrees. What has kept the frontlines frozen since the spring of 2020 are the understandings between the main foreign powers involved in the war as well as policies of deterrence through the stationing of foreign troops in these zones of control. The most important in this regard seems to be the Turkey-Russia dynamic, whereas American influence is far more limited.

  At the same time, all the major zones have been seeing low-level skirmishes along their frontlines and experiencing internal security concerns. The Syrian Democratic Forces, for example, which are dominated by Kurdish cadres linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party, are contending with an ongoing Islamic State insurgency and more recently have had to deal with an uprising among Arab tribal elements in the east. In a similar vein, the southern province of Deraa, which is next to al-Suwayda’ and formally came back in its entirety under Syrian government control in 2018, sees regular incidents of assassinations and bomb attacks, some of which can be attributed to Islamic State, while others, in terms of responsibility, remain murky.

  For the Syrian government, however, it is not the military frontlines and internal security that are the main issue today, but rather the deterioration of its economy and the accompanying fall in standards of living. The clearest indication of this decline is the fall in the value of the Syrian pound. Since the onset of the war, it had been steadily falling, but took a sharp turn for the worse in late 2019. This steep decline has continued despite some brief hiatuses; the currency now stands at record low values versus the U.S. dollar. In 2010, the rate of exchange was around 50 Syrian pounds to the dollar, now the rate of exchange is hovering near 15,000 Syrian pounds to the dollar.

  There is much debate about the causes of this downturn, but it seems clear that the decline can be attributed in significant part to the Syrian government’s economic isolation and its shortage of hard currency. Despite controlling the country’s most important cities and the sole access to the Mediterranean Sea along the northwest coastline, the government faces extensive Western economic sanctions; it does not benefit from the main oil assets held by the Syrian Democratic Forces and sees only marginal trade over the land border with neighbouring Jordan to the south. The Syrian government also has extremely little control over its extensive northern border with Turkey, which could be a major trading partner with the government.

  The Syrian government’s isolation has also meant that its economy became ever more intertwined with that of neighbouring Lebanon, which is also facing its most severe economic crisis since the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990 and has also seen a sharp decline in the value of its currency.

  In the meantime, the Syrian government has no real solutions to its economic woes. It has been offering up measures such as increasing the salaries of state employees, military personnel and pensioners while also cutting fuel subsidies. While the normalisation of relations between Arab states and Syria (foremost embodied in Syria’s return to the Arab League) has attracted considerable media attention, it is probably unrealistic to expect that this development will lead to a sudden turn-around in the Syrian government’s economic fortunes. The government is not going to be given handouts of billions of dollars in aid and foreign investment from Arab states or the international community at large in a short timeframe and for nothing in return from Damascus. In the meantime, any concept of normalisation with Turkey still has a long way to go, with a fundamental sticking point: that the Damascus-based government would like Turkey to agree to withdraw troops from Syrian territory, whereas Turkey appears to have no interest in doing so in the near- or even medium-term.

  Few within government-held areas would deny that the economic and livelihood situation is difficult. It is common to see people there venting their frustrations on Facebook about the quality of services provided, the rising prices of goods, perceptions of corruption, and so on. Yet opinions about the causes of these woes are varied. Some blame the Western economic sanctions on Syria, others see the economic problems as created from within. Some impugn government corruption but consider criticism of Assad himself to be a red line: they seem to think that he is doing all he can to try to help the country — while being surrounded by corrupt officials. Unfortunately, trying to determine what proportion of people subscribe to which views is virtually impossible: no reliable polling data exist, and it is doubtful anyone could conduct such surveys under the present circumstances.

  Yet qualitatively speaking, it can be said that in al-Suwayda’, criticism of Assad is less of a red line than in other areas that have remained under government control throughout the war. Besides the current deterioration of both the economy and living standards, there has long been resentment of a perceived marginalisation of the southern province in economic and developmental terms. In addition, there are grievances against conscription; conspiracy theories that the government colluded with the Islamic State to allow the group, in 2018, to attack the eastern countryside of the province while killing hundreds of Druze in the process; complaints about the spread of drugs in al-Suwayda’ and the use of the province as a gateway for smuggling them into Jordan. The government’s most recent economic decisions to raise salaries of state employees, military personnel and pensioners while cutting fuel subsidies provided a spark for protests in the province that are even larger than before.

  It is nonetheless important to be realistic about what these protests can achieve. The protestors remain committed for now to sustaining a civil disobedience movement that is peaceful. There appears to be no plan to launch an armed rebellion and make the province a separate rebellious enclave akin to the Turkish-backed enclaves in the northwest. Moreover, the Syrian government is adopting a non-confrontational stance towards the protests. The government seems to have issued general directives to its security forces in the province to lie low and avoid opening fire or taking any repressive measures unless they are attacked.

  In effect, these protests remain a peripheral rebellion in the grander scheme of things and are unlikely by themselves to bring down the government and lead to real change. There are really only two ways in which Assad can be brought down: either being militarily overthrown (not being contemplated by any international power) or if the elites propping up his rule decide that his presidency is no longer worth preserving. Despite the deterioration of Syria’s economy and living standards, it seems that those closest to Assad who could bring about his removal from within are either largely unaffected by the situation or possibly even benefitting from it.

  To stand some sort of chance of realising change, the al-Suwayda’ protests would have to transform into a large-scale movement of protests and unrest across government-held Syria, including in areas such as the capital Damascus and the coastal regions that have served as key constituencies of support for the government throughout the war.

  In turn, these protests raise the question about the efficacy of the ongoing Western sanctions on the Syrian government. A more optimistic portrayal would see the protests as bringing about the precise results intended by the sanctions: a deterioration in the economy and living standards, popular discontent with that deterioration, unrest, and thus some sort of pressure that would lead the government to agree to a peaceful political transition. Yet it is unlikely that these sanctions will accomplish those results. Instead, one finds an immiserated population that is unable to do much to better its own lot, with outbreaks of ultimately ineffectual protests, the continued outflow of people from Syria seeking to migrate to other countries in the region and Europe, and the persistence of the country’s division between its major zones of control.

  A greater focus on stemming the country’s collapse in terms of the humanitarian situation could certainly help — if “middlemen” were left out. The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) now faces a much larger shortfall in terms of funding requirements and actual funding for WFP’s operations in Syria, with the result that monthly assistance was cut to 2.5 million people in Syria in July. An important reason behind this reduction, according to the Syria Report, is a reduction in the American contribution to WFP’s global budget. Making up for that shortfall would at least provide some short-term relief.

  Sanctions – no doubt well-intended to prevent governments from brutalizing their own people even further and to encourage the leadership toward a democratic form of rule – seem simply not to work. First, it is harder for a people who are starving to rise up against a dictatorship; they are often too busy looking for food and trying to survive on a daily basis, besides having an understandable fear of reprisals. Countries such as Russia and Iran, as we well know, find ways around sanctions; or else the population starves, while the leaders go on living in indifferent comfort.

  Perhaps a more realistic approach might be as follows: rather than tying sanctions to vague hopes of political transition, sanctions could instead be linked to more specific concessions such as serious efforts to combat drug trafficking, the release of political prisoners, and so on.

  Otherwise, sanctions often deliver just a punitive message, which, although understandable for dictators such as Assad, does not really accomplish anything in terms of accountability, change or bettering the lot of Syrians like the protestors in al-Suwayda’.

  Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is an Arabic translator and editor at Castlereagh Associates (a Middle East-focused consultancy), a writing fellow at the Middle East Forum, and an associate of the Royal Schools of Music. Follow on Twitter and at his independent Substack newsletter.

  • Follow Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi on Twitter

  ZeroPointNow
  Thu, 09/21/2023 – 02:00

• Escobar: Russia, North Korea Stage 'Strategic Coup' Against Western Hegemony
  Escobar: Russia, North Korea Stage ‘Strategic Coup’ Against Western Hegemony

  Authored by Pepe Escobar,

  

  ​It will take ages to unpack the silos of information inbuilt in the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok last week, coupled with the – armored – train-keeps-a-rollin’ conducted by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un straddling every nook and cranny of Primorsky Krai.

  ​The key themes all reflect the four main vectors of the New Great Game as it’s being played across the Global South: energy and energy resources; manufacturing and labor; market and trade rules; and logistics. But they go way beyond – exploring the subtle nuances of the current civilizational war.

  Key statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his address to delegates at the Eastern Economic Forum:

  ▪️ The global economy continues to change, primarily because the West is tearing down the system of financial relations;

  ▪️ Amid the destruction of the financial system by the West, the list of countries that are ready to cooperate not based on Western conventions, but for all humanity, is expanding;

  ▪️ The dynamics of investment in the Far East is three times faster than for all of Russia in its entirety;

  ▪️ Most regions in the Far Eastern Federal District still face energy shortages, and this is a problem; a large-scale update of this industry is needed;

  ▪️ It is necessary to expand logistics routes in the Far East, including the Northern Sea Route;

  ▪️ High-speed highways will pass through Siberia, the Far East to the Pacific Ocean;

  ▪️ Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for a comprehensive action plan to be prepared by 1 March for the development of the air complex of the Far Eastern Federal District;

  ▪️ Constantly enhancing the conditions for doing business in the Far East is a must;

  ▪️ The global economic situation has invigorated our work in the Far East;

  ▪️ The restriction of payments in dollars has driven all countries to set their sights on payments in national currencies, while trust in the West is being eroded;

  ▪️ Today, logistics chains for the supply of goods have almost recovered, and by the same token, this is due to the exchange rate;

  ▪️ We must come to an agreement with the business community, so that they understand that it is safer to work in Russia.

  So Vladivostok presented…

  – A serious debate on the surge of anti-neocolonialism, presented for instance by the Myanmar delegation; geostrategically, Burma/Myanmar, as a privileged gateway to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, was always an object of Divide and Rule games, with the British Empire only caring about extracting natural resources. This is what “scientific colonialism” is all about.

  – A serious debate on the concept of the civilization-state, as already developed by Chinese and Russian scholars, applied to China, Russia, India and Iran.

  – The interconnection of transport/connectivity corridors. That includes the upgrading of the Trans-Siberian in the near future; a boost for the Trans-Baikal – the world’s busiest rail line – connecting the Urals to the Far East; a renewed drive for the Northern Sea Route (last month two Russian oil tankers sailed from Murmansk across the Arctic to China for the first time; ten days shorter than the Suez Canal route); and the coming of the Chennai-Vladivostok channel, which will be connected to the International North South Transportation Corridor (INTSC).
  ​
  – The common Eurasia payment system, discussed in detail in one of the key panels: Greater Eurasia: Drivers for the Formation of an Alternative International and Monetary and Financial System. The immense challenge to set up a new payment settlement currency against “toxic currencies” instrumentalized amid relentless Hybrid War. In another panel, the possibility of a timely BRICS and EAEU joint summit next year has been evoked.

  All Aboard The Kim Train

  The genesis of Kim Jong Un’s train journey to the Russian Far East – coinciding with the Forum, no less – is a masterful strategic coup that was in the works since 2014, at the time of the Maidan.

  Xi Jinping was still in the beginning of his first mandate; he had announced the New Silk Road exactly ten years ago, first in Astana and then in Jakarta. The DPRK was not supposed to be integrated into this vast pan-Eurasian project that would soon become China’s overarching foreign policy concept.

  The DPRK then was on a roll against the Hegemon, under Obama, and Beijing was no more than a worried spectator. Moscow, of course, was always focused on peace in the Korean Peninsula, especially because its geopolitical priorities in 2014 were Donbass and Syria/Iran. The last thing Moscow could afford was a war in Asia-Pacific.
  ​
  Putin’s strategy was to send Defense Minister Shoigu to Beijing and Islamabad to calm it all down. Pakistan at the time was helping Pyongyang to weaponize their nuclear arsenal. Simultaneously, Putin himself approached Kim, offering serious guarantees: we’ve got your back if ever there is an attack by the Hegemon supported by Seoul. Even better: Putin got Xi himself to double down on the guarantees.

  ​The categorical imperative was simple: as long as Pyongyang did not start any trouble, Moscow and Beijing would be by its side.

  A sort of calm before any possible storm then set in – even if Pyongyang continued to test their missiles. So over the years, Kim’s mindset changed; he became convinced that Russia and China were his allies.

  The DPRK’s geoeconomic integration into Eurasia was seriously discussed in previous, pre-Covid editions of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. That included the tantalizing possibility of a Trans-Korean Railway linking both North and South to the Far East, Siberia and the wider Eurasia.

  So Kim started to see the Big Eurasia Picture, and how Pyongyang could finally start to benefit geoeconomically from a closer association with the EAEU, SCO and BRI.

  This is how strategic diplomacy works: you invest during a decade, and then all the pieces fall into place when an armored train keeps-a-rollin’ across Primorsky Krai.

  From the perspective of a Russia-China-DPRK triangle, it’s no wonder the collective West has been reduced to the status of crying toddlers in a sandbox. The Hegemon’s puny US-Japan-South Korea axis to counter, simultaneously, China and the DPRK, is a joke compared to the DPRK’s brand-new role as a sort of Asia-Pacific Military District, adjacent to their immediate neighbor, the Russian Far East.

  There will be military integration, of course, in missile defense, radars, ports, airfields. But the key vector, along the way, will be geoeconomic integration. Sanctions from now on are meaningless.

  No one in 2014 was seeing this all play out, except for a very sharp analyst who coined the precious Double Helix concept to define the still evolving, at the time, Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership.
  ​
  The Double Helix perfectly explains the full-spectrum geostrategic symbiosis between two civilization-states which happen to be former empires but since the middle of the previous decade willfully decided to accelerate their mutual drive to lead the Global Majority in the path towards multipolarity.

  ​The Road to Polycentricity

  All of the above finely coalesced in the last panel in Vladivostok – informally known even to the Japanese and Koreans as “the European capital of Asia”, in the heart of Asia-Pacific. The debate was on a “global alternative to Western dominance”. The West, incidentally, was absolutely invisible at the Forum.

  Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova summed it all up: the recent G20 and BRICS summits had set the stage for President Putin’s remarkable address to the plenary session in Vladivostok.
  ​
  Zakharova alluded to “fantastic strategic patience”. That applies to the whole “pivot to Asia” policy and boosting the development of the Far East, initiated in 2012, and now implying a full turn of the Russian economy towards Asia-Pacific geoeconomics. But at the same time, that also applies to integrating the DPRK into the geoeconomic Eurasian high-speed train.

  ​Zakharova stressed how Russia “never supported isolation”; always “advocated partnership” – which the Forum graphically displayed for dozens of Global South delegations. And now, under the conditions of a “dirty fight, unlawful and with no rules”, a serious stand-off, the Russian position remains easily recognizable for the Global Majority: “Not to accept dictatorship”.

  Andrey Denisov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, made a point to mention crack political analyst Sergey Karaganov as one of the key drivers of the concept of Greater Eurasia. More than “multipolarity”, Denisov argued, what is being built is “polycentricity”: a series of concentric circles, involving plenty of dialogue partners.

  Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl now heads a new think tank in St. Petersburg, G.O.R.K.I. As a European who ended up being ostracized by her own peers under the blatant toxicity of cancel culture, she stressed how freedom and rule of law have disappeared in Europe.

  Kneissl referred to the Battle of Actium as the key passage of power from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Western Mediterranean: “That’s when the dominance of the West started”, complete with all the mythology built around the Roman Empire which obsesses the Anglosphere to this day.

  With sanctions dementia and irrational Russophobia installed at the head of the EU and the European Commission, Kneissl stressed, the notion that “treaties must be preserved” disappeared while “the rule of law has been destroyed. This is the worst that could have happened to Europe”.
  ​
  Alexander Dugin, online, called for understanding “the depth of Western domination”, expressed via hyper-liberalism. And he proposed a key breakthrough: the Western modus operandi should become an object of research, in a sort of Gramscian attempt to define what distinguishes Western ideology, and thus act towards “deep decolonization”.

  ​In a sense this is what is being attempted by current actors in West Africa – Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger. That poses the question of who is a real Sovereign in a new world. The West, argues Dugin, is a Total Sovereign; Russia, as a nuclear power and prime military power defined as an existential threat by the Hegemon, is also a Sovereign.

  Then there’s China, India, Iran, Turkey. These are key poles in a dialogue of civilizations; actually what was proposed by former Iranian President Khatami way back in the late 1990s, and then dismissed by the Hegemon.
  ​
  Dugin remarked how China “has moved far away in building a civilizational state”. Russia, Iran, India are not far behind. These will be the essential actors steering the world towards polycentricity.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 23:40

• Subtropical Storm Might Swamp Northeast This Weekend 
  Subtropical Storm Might Swamp Northeast This Weekend 

  As Hurricane Nigel churns in the Atlantic Ocean, weather forecasters are closely watching the possibility of a subtropical depression or storm forming off the Southeast coast later this week and could swamp the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast by the weekend. 

  

  The National Hurricane Center expects a non-tropical area of low pressure to form east of the Florida coast by late week:

  “This system could acquire some subtropical characteristics this weekend while it moves generally northward. 

  “Regardless of subtropical development, this low could bring gusty winds, heavy rain, and high surf conditions to portions of the coastal Carolinas into the coastal Mid-Atlantic states this weekend.”

  Although it’s unclear if the system will be a named storm, it is anticipated to cause gusty winds, rough seas, dangerous rip currents, and coastal flooding. 

  

  Additionally, it might result in heavy rainfall from the Carolinas through the Northeast. 

  

  At the same time, Hurricane Nigel is in the central Atlantic, and a new tropical wave is emerging from western Africa. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 23:20

• A Nation Of Snitches: DHS Is Grooming Americans To Report On Each Other
  A Nation Of Snitches: DHS Is Grooming Americans To Report On Each Other

  Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

  “There were relatively few secret police, and most were just processing the information coming in. I had found a shocking fact. It wasn’t the secret police who were doing this wide-scale surveillance and hiding on every street corner. It was the ordinary German people who were informing on their neighbors.”

  – Professor Robert Gellately, author of Backing Hitler

  Are you among the 41% of Americans who regularly attend church or some other religious service?

  Do you believe the economy is about to collapse and the government will soon declare martial law?

  Do you display an unusual number of political and/or ideological bumper stickers on your car?

  Are you among the 44% of Americans who live in a household with a gun? If so, are you concerned that the government may be plotting to confiscate your firearms?

  If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you may be an anti-government extremist (a.k.a. domestic terrorist) in the eyes of the government and flagged for heightened surveillance and preemptive intervention.

  

  Let that sink in a moment.

  If you believe in and exercise your rights under the Constitution (namely, your right to speak freely, worship freely, associate with like-minded individuals who share your political views, criticize the government, own a weapon, demand a warrant before being questioned or searched, or any other activity viewed as potentially anti-government, racist, bigoted, anarchic or sovereign), you have just been promoted to the top of the government’s terrorism watch list.

  I assure you I’m not making this stuff up.

  So what is the government doing about these so-called American “extremists”?

  The government is grooming the American people to spy on each other as part of its Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, or CP3 program.

  According to journalist Leo Hohmann, the government is handing out $20 million in grants to police, mental health networks, universities, churches and school districts to enlist their help in identifying Americans who might be political dissidents or potential “extremists.”

  As Hohmann explains, “Whether it’s COVID and vaccines, the war in Ukraine, immigration, the Second Amendment, LGBTQ ideology and child-gender confusion, the integrity of our elections, or the issue of protecting life in the womb, you are no longer allowed to hold dissenting opinions and voice them publicly in America. If you do, your own government will take note and consider you a potential ‘violent extremist’ and terrorist.”

  Cue the dawning of the Snitch State.

  This new era of snitch surveillance is the lovechild of the government’s post-9/11 “See Something, Say Something” programs combined with the self-righteousness of a politically correct, hyper-vigilant, technologically-wired age.

  For more than two decades, the Department of Homeland Security has plastered its “See Something, Say Something” campaign on the walls of metro stations, on billboards, on coffee cup sleeves, at the Super Bowl, even on television monitors in the Statue of Liberty. Colleges, universities and even football teams and sporting arenas have lined up for grants to participate in the program.

  The government has even designated September 25 as National “If You See Something, Say Something” Awareness Day.

  If you see something suspicious, says the DHS, say something about it to the police, call it in to a government hotline, or report it using a convenient app on your smart phone.

  This DHS slogan is nothing more than the government’s way of indoctrinating “we the people” into the mindset that we’re an extension of the government and, as such, have a patriotic duty to be suspicious of, spy on, and turn in our fellow citizens.

  This is what is commonly referred to as community policing.

  Yet while community policing and federal programs such as “See Something, Say Something” are sold to the public as patriotic attempts to be on guard against those who would harm us, they are little more than totalitarian tactics dressed up and repackaged for a more modern audience as well-intentioned appeals to law and order and security.

  The police state could not ask for a better citizenry than one that carries out its own policing.

  After all, the police can’t be everywhere. So how do you police a nation when your population outnumbers your army of soldiers? How do you carry out surveillance on a nation when there aren’t enough cameras, let alone viewers, to monitor every square inch of the country 24/7? How do you not only track but analyze the transactions, interactions and movements of every person within the United States?

  The answer is simpler than it seems: You persuade the citizenry to be your eyes and ears. You hype them up on color-coded “Terror alerts,” keep them in the dark about the distinctions between actual threats and staged “training” drills so that all crises seem real, desensitize them to the sight of militarized police walking their streets, acclimatize them to being surveilled “for their own good,” and then indoctrinate them into thinking that they are the only ones who can save the nation from another 9/11.

  Consequently, we now live in a society in which a person can be accused of any number of crimes without knowing what exactly he has done. He might be apprehended in the middle of the night by a roving band of SWAT police. He might find himself on a no-fly list, unable to travel for reasons undisclosed. He might have his phones or internet tapped based upon a secret order handed down by a secret court, with no recourse to discover why he was targeted.

  This Kafkaesque nightmare has become America’s reality.

  This is how you turn a people into extensions of the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent police state, and in the process turn a citizenry against each other.

  It’s a brilliant ploy, with the added bonus that while the citizenry remains focused on and distrustful of each other and shadowy forces from outside the country, they’re incapable of focusing on more definable threats that fall closer to home—namely, the government and its cabal of Constitution-destroying agencies and corporate partners.

  Community policing did not come about as a feel-good, empowering response to individuals trying to “take back” their communities from crime syndicates and drug lords.

  Rather, “Community-Oriented Policing” or COPS (short for Community Partnerships, Organizational Transformation, and Problem Solving) is a Department of Justice program designed to foster partnerships between police agencies and members of the community.

  To this end, the Justice Department identifies five distinct “partners” in the community policing scheme: law enforcement and other government agencies, community members and groups, nonprofits, churches and service providers, private businesses and the media.

  Together, these groups are supposed to “identify” community concerns, “engage” the community in achieving specific goals, serve as “powerful” partners with the government, and add their “considerable resources” to the government’s already massive arsenal of technology and intelligence. The mainstream media’s role, long recognized as being a mouthpiece for the government, is formally recognized as “publicizing” services from government or community agencies or new laws or codes that will be enforced, as well as shaping public perceptions of the police, crime problems, and fear of crime.

  Inevitably, this begs the question: if there’s nothing wrong with community engagement, if the police can’t be everywhere at once, if surveillance cameras do little to actually prevent crime, and if we need to “take back our communities” from the crime syndicates and drug lords, then what’s wrong with community policing and “See Something, Say Something”?

  What’s wrong is that these programs are not, in fact, making America any safer while turning us into a legalistic, intolerant, squealing, bystander nation.

  We are now the unwitting victims of an interconnected, tightly woven, technologically evolving web of real-time, warrantless, wall-to-wall, widening mass surveillance dragnet comprised of fusion centers, red flag laws, behavioral threat assessments, terror watch lists, facial recognition, snitch tip lines, biometric scanners, pre-crime programs, DNA databases, data mining, precognitive technology and contact tracing apps, to name just a few.

  This is how the government keeps us under control and in its crosshairs.

  By the time you combine the DHS’ “See Something, Say Something” with CP3 and community policing, which has gone global in the guise of the Strong Cities Network program, you’ve got a formula for enabling the government to not only flag distinct “anti-government” segments of the population but locking down the entire nation.

  Under the guise of fighting violent extremism “in all of its forms and manifestations” in cities and communities across the world, the Strong Cities Network program works with the UN and the federal government to train local police agencies across America in how to identify, fight and prevent extremism, as well as address intolerance within their communities, using all of the resources at their disposal.

  What this program is really all about, however, is community policing on a global scale with the objective being to prevent violent extremism by targeting its source: racism, bigotry, hatred, intolerance, etc. In other words, police will identify, monitor and deter individuals who could be construed as potential extremist “threats,” violent or otherwise, before they can become actual threats.

  The government’s war on extremists has been sold to Americans in much the same way that the USA Patriot Act was sold to Americans: as a means of combatting terrorists who seek to destroy America.

  However, as we now know, the USA Patriot Act was used as a front to advance the surveillance state, allowing the government to establish a far-reaching domestic spying program that has turned every American citizen into a criminal suspect.

  Similarly, the concern with the government’s ongoing anti-extremism program is that it will, in many cases, be utilized to render otherwise lawful, nonviolent activities as potentially extremist.

  Keep in mind that the government agencies involved in ferreting out American “extremists” will carry out their objectives—to identify and deter potential extremists—in concert with fusion centers, data collection agencies, behavioral scientists, corporations, social media, and community organizers and by relying on cutting-edge technology for surveillance, facial recognition, predictive policing, biometrics, and behavioral epigenetics (in which life experiences alter one’s genetic makeup).

  This is pre-crime on an ideological scale and it’s been a long time coming.

  For example, in 2009, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released two reports, one on “Rightwing Extremism,” which broadly defines rightwing extremists as individuals and groups “that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely,” and one on “Leftwing Extremism,” which labeled environmental and animal rights activist groups as extremists.

  These reports, which use the words terrorist and extremist interchangeably, indicate that for the government, anyone seen as opposing the government—whether they’re Left, Right or somewhere in between—can be labeled an extremist.

  Fast forward a few years, and you have the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which each successive presidential administration has continually re-upped, that allows the military to take you out of your home, lock you up with no access to friends, family or the courts if you’re seen as an extremist.

  Now connect the dots, from the 2009 Extremism reports to the NDAA and the far-reaching data crime fusion centers that collect and share surveillance data between local, state and federal police agencies.

  Add in tens of thousands of armed, surveillance drones that will soon blanket American skies, facial recognition technology that identifies and tracks you wherever you go and whatever you do. And then to complete the circle, toss in the real-time crime centers which are attempting to “predict” crimes and identify criminals before they happen based on widespread surveillance, complex mathematical algorithms and prognostication programs.

  If you can’t read the writing on the wall, you need to pay better attention.

  As I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, unless we can put the brakes on this dramatic expansion and globalization of the government’s powers, we’re not going to recognize this country five, ten—even twenty—years from now.

  As long as “we the people” continue to allow the government to trample our rights in the so-called name of national security, things will get worse, not better.

  It’s already worse.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 23:00

• Despite 'Financial Tsunami' From Migrants, NYC Mulls Reparations, Removal Of George Washington Statues
  Despite ‘Financial Tsunami’ From Migrants, NYC Mulls Reparations, Removal Of George Washington Statues

  While NYC Mayor Eric Adams insists that the migrant crisis will “destroy New York City,” and hurt ‘low-income New Yorkers‘ because of the ‘financial tsunami,’ it seems the city is somehow able to rationalize launching a reparations task force, and removing statues of George Washington.

  

  These are among various measures the city council discussed on Tuesday during a public hearing on a measure to remove works of art on city property that “depict a person who owned enslaved persons or directly benefited economically from slavery, or who participated in systemic crimes against indigenous peoples or other crimes against humanity,” Fox News reports.

  [We assume this includes all Islamic art, since Muhammad had 14 concubines?]

  The removals would include statues of America’s first president, George Washington, Dutch governor and New York settler Peter Stuyvesant, and Christopher Columbus.

  If the Public Design Commission (PDC) determined not to remove the work of art, then it would be required to include a plan to install an “explanatory plaque” next to the work of art. The proposal would also require PDC to consult with the Department of Education to install plaques on sidewalks or other public space adjacent to schools named after a person that fits the criteria. -Fox News

  The city’s agenda also included a proposal to create a task force which would “consider the impact of slavery and past injustices for African Americans in New York City and reparations for such injustices.”

  Other proposals include anti-racism training for human services contractors, as well as a plaque near the intersection of Wall and Pearl Streets to “mark the site of New York’s first slave market.”

  Never forget, right? Because the nation can’t heal until we all have constant reminders of a practice which ended almost 150 years ago.

  Heaven forbid we focus on tackling modern slavery around the world.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 22:40

• Hedge Funds Add China Stock Shorts Even As Growth Bottoms
  Hedge Funds Add China Stock Shorts Even As Growth Bottoms

  By Ye Xie, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and strategist

  China’s economy has shown signs of bottoming. Yet that hasn’t prevented hedge funds from boosting their short positions in the stock market once again.

  Wednesday’s market highlight was, of course, the US Federal Reserve meeting, which turned out to be more hawkish than markets expected. Officials kept one more rate hike on the table for this year, while raising the median dot for 2024 to 5.1% from 4.6%. The shift in the “mode” – or the most-frequent dot on the plot — is even bigger, marking an increase of 75 bps.

  The projections revealed the Fed’s reaction function: upside growth risks will bring less easing next year, even with steady inflation expectations. In other words, the Fed will raise real yields in respond to stronger growth. That should put a bit more pressure on risky assets and support the dollar, particularly against lower yielding currencies, including the yuan.

  

  Back in China, recent data showed the economy has stabilized. Capital Economics’ China Activity Proxy Index, an alternative measure to official GDP, suggested annual growth accelerated to 6.1% in August, from 4.3% in the previous month.

  The main bright spot is the industrial sector, with a “strong upward trend” in freight traffic at the ports and across roads and railways, according to economists Sheana Yue and Julian Evans-Pritchard. While property sales have yet to bottom, a pickup in car sales also pointed to improvement in consumer sentiment.

  

  A Standard Chartered survey of small and medium enterprises also showed improvement, with the headline index edging up for a second consecutive month.

  Yet the markets are sending conflicting signals. The 10-year bond yield, arguably one of the best indicators of China’s growth momentum, is trading at the top of its range over the past three months. But the equity market remains under pressure, with turnover drifting toward the lowest in 2023.

  Coincidentally, hedge funds boosted their bearish bets on Chinese and Hong Kong stocks. Short interest has increased this month pretty much across sectors, according to data compiled by Morgan Stanley. Among the prominent names, the pickup in short interest in PDD, an e-commerce company, stood out. Outflows from active long-only managers also continued, strategists including Gilbert Wong wrote in a report.

  

  Apparently, fund managers didn’t get the “China Recovery” memo.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 22:20

• US Army's Hypersonic Missile Hit With Fielding Delay As China And Russia Lead Global Arms Race
  US Army’s Hypersonic Missile Hit With Fielding Delay As China And Russia Lead Global Arms Race

  Assistant Secretary of the US Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology Doug Bush told Defense News in an interview on Monday that the service’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) aims to be fielded at the end of the year, contingent on a successful retest after missing a four-year-old target to deploy by the government’s fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. 

  Bush said the delay of the LRHW is due to the cancellation of a test of the Common Hypersonic Glide Body, adding the test planned for this month was going to be “pretty close to an operational test” instead of a developmental test. 

  “We still have a path with a follow-up test to get to a fielded capability by the end of calendar 2023,” Bush said. 

  He continued, “It is just what it is, I mean, a fact of life, we’re not going to field something until we have some confidence that if soldiers are asked to go use it in combat that it’s going to work and be safe for them to use.”

  Bush noted, “We’re still finding problems” and “it’s actually good we’re finding these” problems rather than later.

  One of those problems is a “flaw that triggered a ‘don’t shoot’ warning two seconds before launch,” he said. 

  

  Meanwhile, the Pentagon has poured billions of dollars into these superfast weapons but has struggled to keep pace with China and Russia.

  The spending is part of America’s struggle to re-establish dominance in key military technologies as it enters a new era of great-power competition. The US is straining to keep up with China in an array of military technologies, ranging from artificial intelligence to biotechnology.

  Moscow’s work on hypersonics is also a concern for the Pentagon, even if Russia’s weapons are mostly based on Cold War research and not as sophisticated as those China is now developing. Moscow has developed weapons that can threaten NATO forces in Europe, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has touted Avangard, a hypersonic weapon that can reach the US –The Wall Street Journal 

  WSJ noted:

  The Pentagon’s problems with developing hypersonics run up and down the decision chain, from failed flight tests and inadequate testing infrastructure to the lack of a clear, overarching plan for fielding the weapons. The situation is raising alarms among some former officials.

  Mounting delays for the US’ hypersonic weapons program is not a surprise, as we’ve outlined to readers over the years: “America Falls Behind Russia And China In Combat-Ready Hypersonic Missiles, Report Says.” 

  The inability to deploy hypersonic weapons and severe challenges surrounding the F-35 stealth jets are very concerning for taxpayers forced to subsidize a bloated military-industrial complex to the tune of hundreds of billions every year without having any say in the matter. 

   

   

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 22:00

• California Awarded $100 Million From Fed To Plant Trees To Combat Extreme Heat
  California Awarded $100 Million From Fed To Plant Trees To Combat Extreme Heat

  Authored by Carol Cassis via The Epoch Times,

  Officials announced last week that California will share in over $1 billion of federal funding allocated to all 50 states to help plant trees in an effort to cool rising temperatures and fight climate change.

  

  The state will receive around $103 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, which in turn will be dispersed to 43 recipients across Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and other areas for tree planting and maintenance, urban canopy improvements, and other green efforts.

  The funding, which stems from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act passed last year, is the act’s largest investment in urban and community green spaces, according to officials.

  Those from the Biden administration said such funding is aimed at fighting climate change due to global warming.

  “Unfortunately, the difficulties and challenges we’ve seen with weather are not going to go away,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was quoted in the Los Angeles Times.

  “We’re going to continue to be challenged by Mother Nature, so we want to make sure that our communities are more resilient and more capable of withstanding what Mother Nature may have in store.”

  Supporters of the program say the funding is arriving just in time after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Sept. 14 that last month was the planet’s warmest August on record, and that the Northern Hemisphere experienced its hottest meteorological summer to date.

  Research has shown that areas with more pavement and fewer trees are hotter in temperature than greener spaces, and experts say that extreme heat kills more each year than hurricanes, tornadoes, and other weather dangers, according to data from the National Weather Service.

  

  A group of men sit underneath a tree for shade amid a heatwave in Calexico, Calif., on Aug. 31, 2022. (Ariana Drehsler/Getty Images)

  Such areas with less shady tree cover or “urban canopy,” such as parts of Los Angeles and Riverside counties have been shown to have elevated temperatures compared to areas within the same regions with more tree cover.

  The largest program grant awarded in California was $12 million to the San Francisco Public Works Bureau of Urban Forestry, which aims to plant and create “thousands of street trees in low-canopy communities,” according to its project description. San Diego will receive $10 million to plant and preserve trees and promote “tree equity,” wherein the city plans to increase trees planted in lower-income areas where fewer trees are currently present, among other goals.

  U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) voiced her support for the program in a recent statement, stating funding to plant trees in urban spaces in turn will “filter out pollution, reduce energy consumption, lower temperatures and provide more Californians access to green spaces in their communities.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 21:40

• Liquor In The Front, Poker In The Rear: Denver Homeless Camp Busted For Drinking, Prostitution
  Liquor In The Front, Poker In The Rear: Denver Homeless Camp Busted For Drinking, Prostitution

  A homeless camp in Denver was cleaned up after a viral video revealed that some enterprising individuals had set up a makeshift speakeasy with prostitution tents, according to police.

  

  The setup featured lounge chairs, umbrellas and astroturf was found in the city’s burgeoning homeless encampment at 23rd and Champa streets.

  

  The encampment resulted in “numerous complaints” to the police after pedestrians were forced into the street to pas it.

  “We’re hearing there was an open bar, sales of alcohol, things like that,” Denver Police Patrol Division Chief Aaron Sanchez told CBS Colorado, adding “We have officers looking into that.”

  Sanchez also said that there have been complaints that surrounding tents and couches at the streetside bar were being rented out for prostitution.

  

  Homeless aid group executive Meghan Shay of Step Denver says she noticed the apparent bar while driving to work, and said that an encampment featuring liquor would only exacerbate the city’s homeless problem – given that 80% of homeless have experienced lifetime alcohol and/or drug issues, according to Shay.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 21:20

• Javier's Milei's Populist Strategy In Argentina Is Working
  Javier’s Milei’s Populist Strategy In Argentina Is Working

  Authored by Philipp Bagus via The Mises Institute,

  The Austro-libertarian movement has the better ideas. They continue to be discussed, elaborated, and intellectually defended. But how can the right ideas be implemented? What good is it to be right if the reality is left-wing? In fact, most of the population, or at least public opinion, seems to be drifting further and further to the left, with cancel culture, climate hysteria, a sprawling welfare state and ever higher taxes and levies.

  

  The right ideas and theories are there, but they have not yet been put successful in practice. How can this be changed? Of course, ideas are important, they must also be disseminated, from below, from the grassroots up. It’s an arduous process. And there has been undeniable progress in recent years. Nevertheless, the left-wing zeitgeist is rolling over the freedoms of citizens almost unhindered; most shockingly during the Covid crisis. The left tries to paint anyone who stands in the zeitgeist´s way as an extremist or even a Nazi.

  Against this background, what can a successful strategy look like? Murray Rothbard addressed this question in an article in the Rothbard-Rockwell Report entitled Right-Wing Populism: A Strategy for the Paleo Movement. His contribution is groundbreaking and forward-looking. He anticipates the successes of Donald Trump in the United States and, more recently, of Javier Milei in Argentina.

  Javier Milei is making a splash on all sides, because on August 13, 2023, he won the primaries for the presidency in Argentina. In the German media, he is described as ultra-right and ultra-libertarian. Recently, the Financial Times dealt with the self-confessed anarcho-capitalist in a column, in which the author insinuated that the libertarian Milei would follow the strategy of right-wing populism designed by Murray Rothbard in 1992. This gives rise to the question if that claim is true and what exactly is this right-wing populism?

  According to the paleo-libertarian Rothbard, the program of right-wing populism includes 8 main points:

  1. Radical tax cuts

  2. Radical reduction of the welfare state

  3. Abolition of privileges for “protected” minorities

  4. Crushing criminals

  5. Getting rid of bums

  6. Abolition of the Federal Reserve

  7. A program of America First (anti-globalist and isolationist)

  8. Defending traditional family values

  Indeed, Milei’s election manifesto is very much in line with Rothbard’s right-wing populism and paleo-libertarianism. Milei wants to radically reduce taxes. He never tires of calling taxes what they are, theft. He also wants to radically grind down the welfare state and likes to illustrate the reduction in government spending and his proposal of reducing Argentinian ministries from 18 to 8 with a chainsaw. His “Chainsaw Plan” is intended to radically trim the state.

  Milei repeatedly speaks of equality before the law as a fundamental liberal principle and wants to abolish privileges for minorities. As a result, he repeatedly clashes with radical feminists who defend legal privileges for women.

  The imprisonment of criminals is also on Milei’s agenda. Gun freedom is in his program so that victims can defend themselves against criminals. Those who refuse to work are no longer supported by the state in his Argentina.

  Milei also has the 6th of Rothbard’s points in his agenda: Milei wants to abolish the central bank of Argentina. Using right-wing populist rhetoric he aims to physically blow up the central bank. In doing so, he would wipe out the power of one of the most inflationary central banks, which willingly financed all Peronist and Kirchnerist spending programs. He wants to dollarize the country and open it up to currency competition.

  Milei also puts his own country first: Argentina first. Right-wing populism opposes the globalist agenda. It cuts development aid, climate programs and military adventures. Milei likes to point out that Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world at the beginning of the 20th century thanks to classical liberal policies and was destroyed by socialism in the 20th century. In 35 years, Milei promises, Argentina can be a superpower again. The prerequisite for this to happen is a return to libertarianism.

  Finally, Milei also defends traditional family values and opposes the state takeover of family responsibilities. The vehement opponent of abortion has defended the right to life several times in debates with radical feminists.

  Milei used to be chief economist at various institutions and a professor of economics. He is a follower of the Austrian School of Economics. One of his dogs is named Murray. He contributor a chapter two-volume Festschrift in honor of Jesús Huerta de Soto edited by David Howden and myself. A couple of years ago he was guest via zoom in my seminar in our Master’s degree in Austrian Economics that we offer in Madrid, and spoke about his strategy.

  In short, Milei is one of us. And he can win the election. He can become president of Argentina. An Austrian. An anarcho-capitalist. With an openly radical libertarian election program. In a country that has paid homage to socialism for decades. Amazing.

  Milei has been very present in the public debate in Argentina for years. He gained fame as a polarizing and fiercely arguing talk show guest. Later, he decided to create his own party to lead the culture war against socialism and statism more effectively and to bring the right ideas to more people.

  His rhetorical strategy in debates is vociferous, belligerent, and is sometimes perceived as offensive (if the truth can be offensive at all). He does not allow himself to be intimidated or belittled by left-wing opinion-makers. In a debate, he simply shouts louder than the leftists, whom he calls “Zurdos”, and interrupts them to tell them to their faces that they are saying an absolute stupidity and have no idea what they are talking about. You should read Hayek, Mises and Rothbard first, Milei recommends to them. He also calls leftists and politicians parasites and thieves, in a debate. For taxes are theft. 

  In keeping with Rothbard’s strategy of right-wing populism, he clearly names the profiteers of the state apparatus. He rails again and again against the caste of politicians and bureaucrats. He calls them parasites that live at the expense of the hard-working and decent citizens. Politicians are completely useless and could not live without the productive Argentinians. Politics is not the solution, but the problem. And politicians form part of the problem. In this way, Milei wins over those decent Argentinians who suffer most from the yoke of the state. Equally clear are his remarks on the concept of social justice. So-called social justice is a monstrous injustice because it means unequal treatment of people before the law. It is a fig leaf for envy and resentment.

  Milei’s emotional and polemical nature resonates with many, especially among young people. After winning the primaries in mid-August, he has legitimate hopes for the Argentine presidency.

  Milei’s successes have become a topic of everyday conversation, especially in the Hispanic world. One speaks of Milei with astonishment and appreciation. Acquaintances and friends send short videos of his rhetorical gems. Libertarian ideas are back in vogue. People are venturing forward with libertarian opinions, everywhere and unexpectedly. The window of public and permissible opinions is shifting in the direction of freedom. Thanks to Milei.

  Regardless of whether the charismatic Milei ultimately wins the election, his campaign has sparked a young and powerful libertarian movement. His triumph in the primaries may be more significant than the Ron Paul Revolution of 2008 and 2012. The incredible fact is that he is successful. With a right-wing populism that Rothbard recommended, in a run-down country, with his charismatic personality, with aggressive rhetoric. Nothing is impossible. Even a libertarian can win a democratic election. It’s the strategy that counts. ¡Vamos Javier! ¡Viva la libertad, carajo!

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 21:00

• NATO Fractures: In U-Turn, Poland Announces It Will No Longer Arm Ukraine
  NATO Fractures: In U-Turn, Poland Announces It Will No Longer Arm Ukraine

  The dam is breaking on unified Western support for Ukraine, and the timing couldn’t be worse for Zelensky, given tomorrow he’s expected to meet with President Biden at the White House. On Wednesday evening there is monumental news out of Poland which could potentially change the entire course of the war.

  “Poland will no longer arm Ukraine to focus on its own defense,” Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced just hours after Warsaw summoned Ukraine’s ambassador related to a fresh war of words and spat over blocked grain, according to the AFP. Warsaw has throughout more than a year-and-a-half of the Ukraine-Russia war been Kiev’s staunchest and most outspoken supporter.

  Will this massive and hugely significant about-face mark the beginning of the end? Are peace negotiations and ceding of territory in the Donbas inevitable at this point? 

  

  Within the last 48 hours relations between Poland and Ukraine quickly spiraled to their lowest point since the Russian invasion, and it is directly related to Warsaw leading a handful of EU countries to extend a grain export ban on Ukraine, amid continuing anger and outrage from Polish farmers who are suffering due to their country being flooded with cheap Ukrainian wheat.

  Crucially, Poland will hold parliamentary elections on Oct.15. The prior atmosphere of enthusiastic pro-Kiev rhetoric has drastically changed, now with comparisons likening Ukraine to a “drowning man”. As The Associated Press explains:

  Polish leaders have compared Ukraine to a drowning person hurting his helper and threatened to expand a ban on food products from the war-torn country. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that EU allies that are prohibiting imports of his nation’s grain are helping Russia.

  Now, Polish officials, who are trying to win parliamentary elections next month with help from farmers’ votes, are expressing dismay over some of Ukraine’s latest moves, including a World Trade Organization complaint over bans on Ukrainian grain from Poland and two other EU countries.

  Poland’s elections are Oct. 15… https://t.co/DRwG37xGut

  — Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon) September 20, 2023

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  In surprisingly blunt and terse words given to reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Tuesday: “Ukraine is behaving like a drowning person clinging to anything available.”

  He then said, “A drowning person is extremely dangerous, capable of pulling you down to the depths … simply drown the rescuer.” Given Ukraine’s battlefield losses and as it’s currently bogged down in a failing counteroffensive, the words no doubt stung. But as The Hill notes further of the domestic political context in Poland:

  Public sentiment around the issue, however, has started to deteriorate, putting the ruling party in a difficult position ahead of a close October election. The far-right Confederation party is hoping to capitalize on the waning support in the country. 

  Reuters reported that a recent poll showed support for Ukrainian refugees fell from 91 percent when the war started to just 69 percent recently. The same survey showed a quarter of Poles are against supporting refugees, compared to 4 percent in early 2022.

  In response to the grain ban, Zelensky during his UN speech had condemned the “alarming” behavior of allies regarding the import ban, but without naming Poland specifically. Further, Kiev has announced plans to sue Warsaw in the World Trade Organization while also holding out the possibility of its own embargo on Polish foodstuffs, including onions, tomatoes, cabbage, and apples. Again, all of this amounts to a full-blown diplomatic crisis for Zelensky which couldn’t come at a worse time, as he’s in D.C.

  To review, these are some of the major developments and setbacks in only the last few days:

  • Zelensky fired at least 6 top-ranking defense officials over corruption, after recently firing longtime Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov amid a graft probe.
  • American transgender spokesperson for Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces Sarah Ashton-Cirillo was suspended indefinitely by the Ukrainian military in an embarrassing debacle.
  • The New York Times ran an article which said a missile fired by Ukraine – not Russia – struck a busy civilian market …marking an unexpected establishment media about-face.
  • Biden has yet to pledge any new weapons for Ukraine as Zelensky is in the US, and there are reports that ATACMS long-range missiles will not be approved.

  And most importantly, there’s this per Politico…

  New: Senators are bracing to give Zelenskyy some tough news tomorrow

  That in the face of GOP opposition to aid — and a guv shutdown — they might be sending him home empty handed

  W/ @burgessev https://t.co/tBolo3TcMX

  — Ursula Perano (@UrsulaPerano) September 20, 2023

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  According to the fresh Wednesday report:

  Delivering any new aid to help defend against Russia, even later this year, is looking tougher than ever.

  The obstacles are piling up: House Republicans are skeptical of any new money at all. What’s more, their dysfunction threatens to push the government into a shutdown — a move that certainly gets Zelenskyy no closer to getting the billions requested by the Biden administration. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are divided over whether to continue providing humanitarian aid, arguing the rest of Europe needs to step up.

  As if fully aware that the tap at the expense of the US taxpayer may run dry, Zelensky has been meeting in New York with a who’s who of leading banks, hedge funds, and private investors. Fox Business, which broke the story, says the ongoing meetings are part of broader efforts to secure investment for rebuilding Ukraine and fixing destroyed infrastructure:  

  The meeting was put together by JPMorgan, the big bank serving as Zelenskyy’s financial adviser to attract private capital for a new investment fund to rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure destroyed in its war with Russia, according to people with knowledge of the matter. 

  Earlier in the afternoon, Zelenskyy met privately with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, the sources say. BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager and has also been advising Zelenskyy on how to attract U.S. private sector money for the rebuilding effort.

  The list of invitees, according to sources, includes William Ackman, the head of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital; Ken Griffin of the Citadel investment empire; Jonathan Gray, president and chief operating officer of private equity powerhouse Blackstone; Philipp Hildebrand, a vice chairman at BlackRock; Michael Bloomberg, former New York City mayor and founder of Bloomberg LP; and Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and now head of the Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic organization.

  Ken Griffin and Bill Ackman meeting with Zelensky to ensure they get first dibs on the juiciest deals in the rebuilding of #Ukraine post war.

  — CEO Technician (@CEOTechnician) September 20, 2023

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  Tomorrow’s White House visit, and Zelensky’s planned meeting with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will surely be interesting.

  Meanwhile, for a foretaste and indicator of how much the tide is turning – and the very different, subdued optics – especially compared to Zelensky’s last trip to Washington (in Dec. 2022) when he was received with rockstar status, there’s this…

  Speaker Kevin McCarthy, facing a right-wing rebellion in his ranks and mounting GOP resistance to aiding Ukraine, has declined to convene a forum for President Volodymyr Zelensky to address members of the House on Thursday during a visit to Capitol Hill. https://t.co/mDEH1yGpJS

  — The New York Times (@nytimes) September 20, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 21:00

• Ukraine's Transgender Military Spox Fired For 'Unapproved' Statements
  Ukraine’s Transgender Military Spox Fired For ‘Unapproved’ Statements

  Update(1336ET): The controversial American transgender spokesperson for Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces Sarah Ashton-Cirillo (born Michael Cirillo) has been suspended indefinitely by the Ukrainian military, also pending an investigation. According to an official Ukrainian military statement, Ashton-Cirillo’s recent statements regarding “hunting down” dissidents and “propagandists” were not approved…

  2/3 The statements of JSgt Ashton-Cirillo in recent days were not approved by the command of the TDF or the command of the AFU. When conducting military operations against the aggressor, the defense forces of Ukraine strictly observe the norms of international humanitarian law.

  — Ukraine Territorial Defense Forces (@TDF_UA) September 20, 2023

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  3/3 The command of the TDF will conduct an official investigation into the circumstances of these statements. Appropriate decisions would be taken.
  Sergeant Sarah Ashton-Cirillo will be suspended immediately pending the investigation.

  — Ukraine Territorial Defense Forces (@TDF_UA) September 20, 2023

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  And it’s additionally been confirmed by the country’s Defense Ministry: 

  Junior Sergeant Sarah Ashton-Cirillo has been suspended from the duties of the spokesperson of the @TDF_UA while an investigation is underway. https://t.co/4nN9z2YiW8

  — Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 20, 2023

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  As we detailed below, Ashton-Cirillo had within the last days been in a verbal fight with influential Republican Senator J.D. Vance.

  Given the “hunting down” video had been online for well over a week, and Kiev did nothing, the timing of the suspension by Ukraine’s military seems more out of concern for Zelensky’s lobbying efforts in D.C. than anything else.

  Zelensky is about to visit the White House, and will also seek to lobby GOP holdouts and fence-sitters in Congress to approve billions more in defense aid for Ukraine. This is likely the real reason for Ashton-Cirillo being dismissed: Zelensky didn’t want the controversy hanging over his head in Washington, especially after Sen. Vance wrote a letter demanding answers to top White House defense and intelligence officials. 

  Ukraine’s military has long been employing a disturbed American, @SarahAshtonLV, as its English spokesperson.

  We covered last week their insane, deranged threats to hunt down and punish all “Russian propagandists,” meaning anyone (including Americans) critical of Ukraine: pic.twitter.com/7TaXdOoejr

  — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 20, 2023

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  Also, was only this week that the following bizarre and embarrassing scene played out in Las Vegas City Hall…

  You can’t make this up!

  Transgender military spokesman for Ukraine who now goes by Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, was just honored by Las Vegas city hall. He was also given certificates of recognition by US Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, Rep. Dina Titus, and former Nevada Gov Steve… pic.twitter.com/9NxKzpBBsF

  — Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) September 19, 2023

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  * * *

  The American man masquerading as a “female” spokesperson for the Ukrainian military has decided to pick a fight with a sitting American senator. 

  Senator JD Vance of Ohio has made formal inquiry as to whether Sarah Ashton-Cirillo (born Michael John Cirillo) is being funded by the US government or has ties to the US intelligence community. 

  To everyone asking: Yes, this is real.

  This is the English language spokesman for the Ukrainian armed forces.

  This same person posted a video last week threatening violence against anyone who engaged in speech the Ukrainians deemed bad propaganda. Disgusting. https://t.co/X9Y3hHZoVe

  — J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) September 18, 2023

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  Sen. Vance has sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, toward that end of seeking information. 

  Last week a viral video by Ashton-Cirillo saw him declare on behalf of the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine that Russia’s “propagandists” will be “hunted down” around the world.

  Revealingly, this was said just as an American journalist, Gonzalo Lira, was due in Ukrainian court on vague charges of “justifying Russia’s aggression.” That video sparked frenzy and anger online, given it seemed an open threat to journalists or anyone that doesn’t toe a pro-Ukrainian line on any given issue related to the war.

  Fireworks ensued as Sen. Vance and Ashton-Cirillo went back and forth…

  Since I’ve got your attention, are you/Ukraine still planning to kill people who engage in speech you don’t like? And are there any American citizens on the kill list? https://t.co/x2H8nrChXH

  — J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) September 18, 2023

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  Vance’s letter to top US defense and intelligence officials stated in part:

  “In recent days, a video has circulated of an individual who claims to be an English-speaking spokesperson for the Ukrainian military. In the video, this individual, Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, looks directly into the camera and threatens physical violence to anyone who circulates ‘Russian propaganda’.”

  And more from the letter:

  “A number of reports purport to offer additional information, much of it unconfirmed, regarding Ashton-Cirillo. I’ve seen claims this individual is an American, a former intelligence operative in the United States, and an employee of the Ukrainian government. Others have argued Ashton-Cirillo is pulling an elaborate prank. If so, kudos for the delivery of high quality humor,” Vance continued in an apparent reference to Ashton-Cirillo’s reported direct lobbying of the U.S. Congress for military aid to Ukraine last December.

  These are the questions posed by the Ohio freshman Senator in the letter:

  1. Is this individual employed by the Ukrainian military, and do we have reason to believe the are compensated using American resources?
  2. Is this individual an American citizen? Did they ever serve, in any capacity, American intelligence services?
  3. Do we have reason to believe Ukrainian forces or intelligence services are planning to commit acts of violence against those who engage in ‘Russian propaganda’?

  

  According to the independent news source, The Dossier, Ashton-Cirillo issued some incriminating fresh statements on Monday, and then quickly backtracked, perhaps sensing he could be in hot water or that the whole episode might embarrass Kiev:

  Responding to an inquiry form Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Sarah Ashton-Cirillo — born Michael John Cirillo — declared that he answers to three people: “my Ukrainian commanders, the Ukrainian people, and the American taxpayer.”

  An hour later, Cirillo posted a video backtracking on the previous statement, insisting that the U.S. government is not funding his Ukrainian military media operation overseas.

  This is the bizarre response to Vance’s inquiries from the transgender YouTube spokesperson…

  After being swamped with Russian lies, a sitting US Senator questioned my role in Ukraine.

  Below is my response.

  First though, I asked for the expedited delivery of ATACMS from the United States.

  Watch below:

  pic.twitter.com/L6KuHgfyC5

  — Sarah Ashton-Cirillo (Ukrainian TDF Media) (@SarahAshtonLV) September 18, 2023

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  Vance later gave some apt and appropriate comments to Breitbart News, saying: “If the Ukrainians want to hire weirdos to threaten Americans and others for speaking their mind, I guess that’s their right. They shouldn’t use our tax dollars to do it.”

  He continued: “And we shouldn’t pretend this is a war for freedom when our supposed ally is threatening violence to anyone who opposes the war.”

  * * *

  Meanwhile, here’s how we know that the Ukrainian government will continue down this weird trajectory of giving platforms to transgender journalists in an effort to virtue-signal to Western-Left progressives…

  Clinton Global Initiative announces new proposal to help rebuild Ukraine, provide humanitarian support https://t.co/vkg0gf4tIz

  — Fox News (@FoxNews) September 19, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 20:59

• Biden HHS Hits Wuhan Lab With 10-Year Funding Ban Amid Mounting Evidence Of Leak
  Biden HHS Hits Wuhan Lab With 10-Year Funding Ban Amid Mounting Evidence Of Leak

  The Biden administration’s Department of Health and Human Services announced on Wednesday that it has officially banned the Wuhan Institute of Virology from receiving US funding for a decade, based on mounting evidence that it was ground zero for the Covid-19 pandemic.

  

  On Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra sent a letter to WIV Director Genera, Dr. Yanyi Wang, to inform her that the lab – which Dr. Anthony Fauci offshored risky gain-of-function research to, would no longer be funded by US grants until July 16, 2033, the NY Post reports.

  The letter notes that attempts had been made to contact the lab via fax, email and mail about HHS’s decision to suspend funding in July, but no WIV officials had contested the designation or even responded to the agency.

  In that earlier missive, the NIH said it found the Wuhan Institute of Virology had “conducted an experiment yielding a level of viral activity which was greater than permitted under the terms of the grant,” which was for the study of bat coronaviruses.

  Other requests for the Chinese research institution’s lab findings had also been ignored after NIH made requests for them on Nov. 5, 2021, and Jan. 6, 2022. -NY Post

  “WIV has not acknowledged the violations, has not cooperated with the Government to address the violations, has not accepted responsibility for the violations, and, therefore, presumably has taken no action to eliminate the risk to the Government in conducting business transactions with WIV presently or into the future,” the letter reads.

  

  On Wednesday, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus released a redacted copy of the letter, calling it an “obvious step in the right direction.”

  “This is especially timely as mounting evidence and intelligence continue to suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from a laboratory failure in Wuhan,” said Wenstrup, a Republican from Ohio. “Rewarding the likely source of a global pandemic with American resources will only lead to more future health risks.”

  “Further, the Select Subcommittee recently revealed that prominent public health authorities — including Dr. Anthony Fauci — knew about the risky laboratory conditions in Wuhan prior to the spread of COVID-19 worldwide,” he added.

  

  “Covering up for the failures of a Chinese lab, hiding critical evidence from the American people, and facilitating the public promotion of a false, alternative narrative is extremely concerning and deserves thorough investigation.”

  Recall that Fauci – who offshored banned gain-of-function research to make bat coronaviruses more transmissible to humans – was accused by Congressional investigators of having ‘prompted‘ the fabrication of a paper by a cadre of scientists aimed at disproving the Covid-19 lab-leak theory.

  As the Post further notes, US taxpayers paid more than $2.1 million in grant funding via the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) between 2014 and 2021. Over $1.4 million of this went to WIV via EcoHealth Alliance.

  US intelligence agencies have issued conflicting reports about the origins of the COVID pandemic, with the FBI being the first to declare a lab leak the most likely explanation for the pandemic.

  The Energy Department has also concluded that SARS-CoV-2 most likely leaked from a Chinese lab. The CIA has been unable to come to a determination about pandemic origins. -NY Post

  Meanwhile, a senior CIA whistleblower recently told Congress that six analysts who originally concluded a lab-leak was the most likely origin of the pandemic were “given a significant monetary incentive to change their position.”

  Hey, remember when the Facebook fact checker who worked at the Wuhan lab decreed that a lab-leak was impossible? Good times.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 20:40

• Viral RNA Can Persist For 2 Years After COVID-19: Preprint Study
  Viral RNA Can Persist For 2 Years After COVID-19: Preprint Study

  Authored by Megan Redshaw via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A new study may explain why some people who get COVID-19 never return to normal and instead experience new medical conditions like cardiovascular disease, clotting dysfunction, activation of latent viruses, diabetes mellitus, or what’s known as “long COVID” after SARS-CoV-2 infection.

  

  Roughly 15 percent of people who get COVID-19 experience long COVID, a term used to define the long-term physical, cognitive, and mental health impairments that persist from weeks to months after a person recovers from COVID-19.

  In a recent preprint study published on medRxiv, researchers conducted the first positron emission tomography (PET) imaging study of T cell activation in individuals who previously recovered from COVID-19 and found that SARS-CoV-2 infection may result in persistent T cell activation in a variety of body tissues for years following initial symptoms. Even in clinically mild cases of COVID-19, this phenomenon could explain the systemic changes observed in the immune system and in those with long COVID symptoms.

  To carry out the study, researchers conducted whole-body PET scans of 24 participants who were previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 and recovered from acute infection at time points ranging from 27 to 910 days following COVID-19 symptom onset.

  A PET scan is an imaging test that uses a radioactive drug called a tracer to assess the metabolic or biochemical function of tissues and organs and can reveal both normal and abnormal metabolic activity. The tracer is usually injected into the hand or vein in the arm and collects in areas of the body with higher levels of metabolic or biochemical activity, which can reveal the location of the disease.

  Using a novel radiopharmaceutical agent that detects specific molecules associated with a type of white blood cell called T lymphocytes, researchers found uptake of the tracer was significantly higher in post-acute COVID-19 participants compared to pre-pandemic controls in the brain stem, spinal cord, bone marrow, nasopharyngeal and hilar lymphoid tissue, cardiopulmonary tissues, and gut wall. Among males and females, male participants tended to have higher uptake in the pharyngeal tonsils, rectal wall, and hilar lymphoid tissue compared to female participants.

  Researchers specifically identified cellular SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the gut tissue of all participants with long COVID symptoms who underwent biopsy—in the absence of reinfection—ranging from 158 to 676 days following initial COVID-19 illness, suggesting that tissue viral persistence could be associated with long-term immunological concerns. Although the uptake of the tracer in some tissues appeared to decline with time, the levels still remained elevated compared to the control group of healthy pre-pandemic volunteers.

  “These data significantly extend prior observations of a durable and dysfunctional cellular immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection could result in a new immunologic steady state in the years following COVID-19,” the researchers wrote.

  To determine the association between T cell activation and long COVID symptoms, researchers compared post-acute COVID-19 participants with and without long COVID symptoms at the time of PET imaging. Those with long COVID symptoms reported a median of 5.5 symptoms at the time of imaging. Findings showed a “modestly higher uptake” of the agent in the spinal cord, hilar lymph nodes, and colon/rectal wall in those with long COVID symptoms.

  In participants with long COVID who reported five or more symptoms at the time of imaging, researchers observed higher levels of inflammatory markers, “including proteins involved in immune responses, chemokine signaling, inflammation responses, and nervous system development.” Compared to both pre-pandemic controls and those participants who had COVID-19 and completely recovered, people with long COVID showed higher T cell activation in the spinal cord and gut wall.

  Although the researchers attribute their findings to SARS-CoV-2 infection, all but one participant had received at least one COVID-19 vaccination prior to PET imaging. To minimize the impact of vaccination on T cell activation, PET imaging was performed more than 60 days from any vaccine dose except in one participant who received a booster vaccine dose six days prior to imaging. Except for that one participant, people who had received a COVID-19 vaccine within four weeks of imaging were excluded. Researchers also grouped participants by receipt of a COVID-19 dose greater than or less than 180 days prior to PET imaging—although vaccinated participants would have undoubtedly been included in both groups.

  The researchers said their study had several other limitations, including small sample size, limited correlative studies, evolving variants, rapid and inconsistent rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which required them to shift their imaging protocols, using pre-pandemic individuals as controls, and the extreme difficulty of finding people who had never been infected with SARS-CoV-2.

  “In summary, our results provide provocative evidence of long-term immune system activation in several specific tissues following SARS-CoV-2 infection, including in those experiencing Long COVID symptoms,” the researchers concluded. “We identified that SARS-CoV-2 persistence is one potential driver of this ongoing activated immune state, and we show that SARS-CoV-2 RNA may persist in gut tissue for nearly 2 years after the initial infection.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 20:20

• AI, Critical-Thinking, & The Future Of Freedom
  AI, Critical-Thinking, & The Future Of Freedom

  Authored by Emile Phaneuf III via The American Institute for Economic Research,

  University professors around the world are struggling to adapt to a student body that is, for the first time in history, able to generate essays and conduct other sophisticated tasks in just a few seconds by ordering an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot such as ChatGPT to roll up its digital sleeves and do the dirty work.

  

  Since ChatGPT’s launch, I took the general viewpoint that higher education would eventually have to come around to allowing students to use such technologies as just another tool for research and writing, just as calculators are usually considered fair game in math classes.

  I was then delighted to stumble upon the AI chatbot policy of Stephen Hicks, Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University in Illinois. His policy reads as follows:

  I encourage you to use ChatGPT.

  It is a powerful new research tool. Anything that enables you to learn faster and become more skillful is to be embraced.

  At the same time, a tool is not a substitute for your own self-development. As a student, your goal is to acquire as much new knowledge as you can and to become skillful with every useful learning tool available. The goal is for you to become knowledgeable and wise, and for you to become excellent at research and judgment.

  Metaphorically: Become a lean, mean learning machine. And make that a personal goal and a matter of honor.

  If you are taking this course for credit, it is your responsibility to demonstrate that the work you submit is your own. There are many ways to do that, and you and I can consult individually to determine which way is best for you.

  Stephen R. C. Hicks
  Professor of Philosophy

  As you see, while Hicks recognizes the importance of the students’ own individual self-development, he still embraces an important disruptive technology that can push beyond the more laborious traditional methods of researching and writing.

  This reminds me of my 7th grade math teacher. She was an elderly lady who was often capable of working out long division math problems in her head, and she recounted stories of people she knew in her youth who were even more capable. (We, her students, worked it out on paper). Given that she grew up before the launch of the pocket calculator, her more advanced quantitative skills revealed the extent to which she was a product of her time. Similarly, as a student during middle school, I was (I believe) better at spelling than I am now, but then software (word processors) disrupted that with spell check. “Spelling Bees” seemed to disappear as I got older. While I am more reliant on spell check than I was in my younger years, it seems that this has freed up both cognitive space and time for me to be able to focus on more advanced (and less mundane) tasks. This phenomenon was articulated beautifully by Alfred North Whitehead:

  It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy-books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.

  It seems to me that perhaps, for the first time ever, it could be critical thinking itself that is disrupted (at least at scale; a calculator does the same at a much smaller scale).

  A new problem for freedom?

  If I am correct that AI will disrupt critical thinking itself, then it appears that we have a new potential threat to a free society. Consider, for a moment, the motto of the Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala:

  The education and spreading of ethical, judicial, and economic principles of a society of free and responsible persons

  Being free and responsible comes with an implied necessity for a citizenry capable of thinking for itself. But if I am correct that AI is on its way to disrupt critical thinking itself, then new generations of people may never learn critical thinking in the first place. If a free society requires a citizenry of free and independent thinkers, the future of freedom is confronted with a new problem. 

  Or, perhaps that worry is overly pessimistic. The way I see it, a combination of at least a couple of things is likely to happen. Upon first glance, they may seem at odds, but we could see that in some way one is true, while in another way, the other is simultaneously true. 

  1. Critical thinking is diminished because of an overreliance on AI. AI here, over the long-term, serves as a crutch. (This is the main concern I raise in this article). 

  2. Critical thinking reaches new heights, aided by AI.

  What remains of raw, mere-human critical thinking (without aid of AI) will likely need to be channeled into a certain healthy distrust for the biases of the AI bots and their developers, and into understanding the incentives under which the developers (and those who financially support them) operate.

  Whatever the outcome, let’s hope that AI (on the whole) works to serve as a tool for the betterment of the human condition, allowing for “a society of free and responsible persons.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 19:40

• Elon Musk Says "Strange Almost No Legacy Media Coverage" On Worsening Southern Border Crisis 
  Elon Musk Says “Strange Almost No Legacy Media Coverage” On Worsening Southern Border Crisis 

  Fox News reporter Bill Melugin posted on X, “It’s a total free for all in Eagle Pass right now.” 

  Thousands of illegal immigrants continue flooding the southern US border while the Biden administration pretends everything is fine. 

  Melugin and his team are at Eagle Pass, Texas, where they have captured alarming footage that shows a massive flow of illegals crossing into the US. 

  

  Melugin said, “Mass illegal crossing taking place for over an hour and a half. Almost 2 years to the day we saw 15,000+ Haitians under the bridge in Del Rio, we now have thousands of predominantly Venezuelans gathering under Eagle Pass bridge.” 

  It’s a total free for all in Eagle Pass right now. Mass illegal crossing taking place for over an hour and a half. Almost 2 years to the day we saw 15,000+ Haitians under the bridge in Del Rio, we now have thousands of predominantly Venezuelans gathering under Eagle Pass bridge. pic.twitter.com/VkfUQnexGZ

  — Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 20, 2023

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  Melugin said Texas has declared an emergency in Eagle Pass. 

  BREAKING: An emergency declaration has been issued in Eagle Pass, Texas after a surge of migrants invaded the southern border.

  The declaration was made by Eagle Pass mayor Rolando Salinas after over a thousand migrants crossed the border.

  Most of the migrants are coming from… pic.twitter.com/txkpmzl2FI

  — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 20, 2023

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  Elon Musk commented on Melugin’s X post: “Strange that there is almost no legacy media coverage of this.” 

  Musk continued, “About 2 million people – from every country on Earth – are entering through the US southern border every year. The number is rising rapidly, yet no preventive action is taken by the current administration.” 

  Musk is correct that corporate media aligned with the Democrats are not covering the continuing border crisis. And why would they? It’s another failure of this administration, even after they put forth supposedly new ‘border enforcement actions’ earlier this year.  

  Earlier this week, Fox News journalist Griff Jenkins shared another shocking video of a train of illegals heading north in Mexico to the US border. 

  **NEW VIDEO**
  FOX News sources capture a FerroMex train bursting with migrants out of Zacatecas heading to our southern border right now… cheering and clearly not heeding the message: “do not come”@FoxNews pic.twitter.com/YflMwXrWqu

  — Griff Jenkins (@GriffJenkins) September 17, 2023

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

  Under the Biden administration, disastrous open border policies have led to nearly 6 million illegal crossings. The influx of migrants has also supercharged the drug crisis nationwide, as fentanyl is now on every street corner. And things are quickly deteriorating in major metro areas, such as New York City, which have been swamped with migrants that risk sparking a financial crisis. 

  Radicals in the White House are going against the will of the people with open border policies. Why is that?

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 19:20

• We Will Get Nuclear Weapon If Iran Does, Saudi Crown Prince Tells Fox
  We Will Get Nuclear Weapon If Iran Does, Saudi Crown Prince Tells Fox

  Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) said in an exclusive Fox News interview published Wednesday that Saudi Arabia will obtain a nuclear weapon if its number one regional rival does so first.

  “If they get one, we have to get one,” MbS told Fox’s ‘Special Report’ anchor Bret Baier when asked what the kingdom would do if Iran builds a nuclear weapon.

  BREAKING: If Iran gets nuclear weapon, we will get it too, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman says in an interview with Fox News pic.twitter.com/rIpAuBSOWO

  — Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) September 20, 2023

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  It marks Riyadh’s clearest warning to date related to Iran’s alleged nuclear aspirations (though Tehran has long maintained its nuclear program is solely for peaceful nuclear energy purposes). 

  The blunt statements regarding Saudi Arabia’s intentions to go nuclear if the Islamic Republic does were set against a broader discussion about potentially achieving full peace and diplomatic relations with Israel on the basis of the Abraham Accords. 

  “Every day we get closer,” the crown prince said when asked about the recent expanding ties with Israel, which has lately included opening up airspace to Israeli flights for the first time, and exchanging official delegations.

  Interestingly, Israel itself is already the region’s sole nuclear-armed power, but has never confirmed this openly. MbS’ comments on going nuclear reflect the general thinking that Tehran achieving a nuke would set off a broader nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

  

  Despite the tough words of warning from the crown prince, China this summer brokered a detente between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which Beijing hopes will drive a “wave of reconciliation” in the region, particularly along the historic Shia-Sunni religious divide.

  As for the potential of full diplomatic relations with Israel, it’s been widely reported that Riyadh is asking Washington to allow it to have a nuclear energy program, which would see the Saudis enrich uranium, just like the Iranians currently do.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 18:40

• Quinn: Fake Climate Narrative Is Easily Debunked
  Quinn: Fake Climate Narrative Is Easily Debunked

  Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

  Anyone capable of critical thought knows this entire globull warming/ climate crisis/ health emergency narrative is false, contrived by the ruling elite/globalist cabal billionaire class as a further means to gain control, increase their already ungodly wealth, tax us into oblivion, lock us down in their 15 minute cities, and dole out our daily allotment of bug protein.

  

  Their narrative is filled with lies, misinformation, and holes so big you can drive a Tesla through them.

  They have faked the temperature data for decades.

  CO2 is not a pollutant.

  Eating meat is not destroying the planet.

  Cows farting is not ruining our environment.  Of course, Chris Christie farting may be harming the planet.

  This fake narrative is dutifully spewed by the corporate regime media 24/7, as they are funded by Gates, Soros, and the WEF to do so. Lies, lies and more lies.

  

  The foolishness of the drivel they expect us to swallow is beyond the pale.

  They want to put oil companies and coal companies out of business because fossil fuels are evil.

  They are purposely attempting to drastically reduce our energy output, which means less electric power.

  But they also want to force everyone to drive an electric vehicle.

  And they won’t allow nuclear power plants to be built. These insane beliefs are ridiculous.

  Only low IQ willfully ignorant NPCs could believe them. More than half the population apparently fall into this category.

  Wind and solar are polluting, environmentally damaging and inefficient. They push solar, while at the same time push geo-engineering  to block the sun, to cool the planet.

  This idiocy speaks volumes to what these people running the show think about the intellectual capacity of the masses.

  They believe we are sufficiently dumbed down, distracted, and apathetic to implement their agenda through constant propaganda, fear mongering, and threats.

  They want to own everything, while you own nothing. It’s nothing but a show and they will keep it going until we do something about it.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 18:20

• Stocks & Bonds Slammed As Powell Pi$$es In Next Year's Punchbowl
  Stocks & Bonds Slammed As Powell Pi$$es In Next Year’s Punchbowl

  If you’re not confused now, you weren’t paying attention.

  • Fed held rates unchanged (as expected) – neutral.

  • Fed increased its growth expectation, lowered its unemployment expectation, and increased its inflation outlook – dovish/soft-landing.

  • Fed erased 50bps of cuts expected for next year in its dot-plot – hawkish as hell.

  That sent STIRs hawkishly higher…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Mohamed El-Erian offered the most succinct summary of the malaise many were left in after the statement, the SEP, and the press conference:

  “I worry that the economic and policy signals coming out of this Federal Reserve press conference may come across to many as both confused and confusing.

  Some will deem this an inevitable consequence of this phase of the inflation and policy cycle; others will view it as further evidence of challenged Fed communication.”

  And the Dot-Plot crushed expectations for cuts next year…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Treasuries were mixed on the day – and very volatile – with the short-end dramatically underperforming. 2Y ended up 6bps while 30Y was down 3bps on the day. On the week, the long-end is lower but the short-end is significantly higher…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The pattern was similar for all bonds (except the 30Y) with early gains (erasing yesterday’s losses) quickly being eviscerated on the Fed’s SEP.

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  10Y yield broke out from the August highs late in the day to their highest since Oct 2007…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  And 2Y yields soared to a new high since July 2006 (2y yields rose 14bps off the intraday lows this afternoon)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  All of which crushed the yield curve (2s30s)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Equities did what equities do around the FOMC. The kneejerk move was lower (hawkish SEP), but the second Powell started speaking the algos ripped the market back up to unch… but this time, they could not hold it and stocks tanked to the lows of the day, extending losses after Powell stopped speaking. Nasdaq (longest duration stocks) suffered most…

  

  Gamma-heavy 4500 was key resistance for the S&P 500…

  

  0-DTE selling was dominant after The Fed but we note that the S&P fell down to exactly match its Put Wall level…

  

  Source: SpotGamma

  ‘Most Shorted’ Stocks puked hard today with no bounce at all…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  CART was carried out today, plunging all the way back to its IPO price…

  

  The dollar dumped overnight into The Fed statement then exploded higher…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Bitcoin ended lower, falling back below $27000 as stocks tumbled…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Gold (spot) rallied up to near $1950 intraday before fading as the dollar spiked after The Fed…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Oil prices managed gains on the inventory data but The Fed’s hawkishness dragged WTI back below $90…

  

  Finally, with Powell and his pals pissing in the punchbowl of rate-cuts for next year, one has to wonder just how long this chasm between real rates and equity valuations can remain…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  …and real rates are getting higher.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 18:01

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Syrian President Assad Heads To China For 1st Official Visit Since 2004
  Syrian President Assad Heads To China For 1st Official Visit Since 2004

  Via The Cradle,

  Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will travel to China on September 21 to participate in a Syrian-Chinese summit at the official invitation of his counterpart Xi Jinping. According to Syrian state media, Assad will lead a high-level political and economic delegation for official meetings in the cities of Beijing and Guangzhou.

  Syria’s official delegation will include Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad and Finance Minister Samer al-Khalil. This will mark Assad’s first official visit to Beijing since 2004.

  

  Analysts expect several bilateral agreements to be signed during Assad’s visit as part of China’s larger strategy to cement its position as a power broker in West Asia.

  Beijing has already proved instrumental once this year in helping Syria come in from the cold after Chinese officials brokered the historic Iran-Saudi rapprochement that also saw a normalization of ties between Gulf states and Damascus.

  In the weeks that followed the Saudi-Iran deal, Syria was also welcomed back into the Arab League, a development which China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin called evidence that “when the shadow of the US shrinks, the light of peace spreads.”

  In March, Chinese officials urged the US to end its illegal military occupation of Syria and stop looting its resources, stressing that its continued presence has worsened Syria’s humanitarian crisis.

  “China has throughout the years defended Syria’s territorial integrity and many times used its veto power at the UN Security Council to prevent interventions in the Arab country’s internal affairs,” Kosai Abido, a Syrian political analyst and author, told Press TV this week.

  “Since China is considered a friendly state for Syria and has significant economic power, cooperation agreements with this country should be expanded to include food, pharmaceutical, and technology sectors,” Abido added.

  Syria demands UN hold Washington accountable for oil-theft operations

  “US officials [must] be held accountable for the looting, and the US gov [must] be obliged to pay compensation,”

  a letter from the Syrian ForMin addressed to UN’s Guterres reads.https://t.co/OaRYbfqAXz

  — Joshua Landis (@joshua_landis) September 16, 2023

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

  Last year, Chinese and Syrian officials signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) welcoming Damascus into the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a mega-infrastructure project that seeks to bring capital and infrastructure to Global South countries while dramatically strengthening connectivity for commerce, finance, and culture.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 02:00

• Competition Is Demonized, Participation Trophies An Acceptable Norm? Not In This Man's World
  Competition Is Demonized, Participation Trophies An Acceptable Norm? Not In This Man’s World

  Authored by Frank Bill via SOFREP,

  Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.  -Bruce Lee

  Over the past several years, a trend has emerged to label anything that deals with men, exercise, and masculinity as toxic.

  In July of 2023, MSNBC reshared a year-old-tweet by extremism expert Cynthia Miller-Idrissthat she penned in March of 2022, sounding the alarm that young men were being radicalized and recruited through encrypted chat groups, they’re ‘lured with health tips and strategies for positive physical changes.’ Researchers reported this as “fascist fitness.”

  (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/mar/06/fascist-fitness-how-the-far-right-is-recruiting-with-online-gym-groups)

  (https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/pandemic-fitness-trends-have-gone-extreme-literally-n1292463)

  The author goes on to mention that physical fitness has always been central to the far right, referencing Mein Kampf and Hitler’s fixation with boxing and jujitsu. The author goes on to claim that far-right groups are setting up mixed martial arts and boxing gyms in Ukraine, Canada, and France.

  Mrs. Cynthia Miller-Idriss speaks of extremism and fitness as it connects to an obsession with the male body, training, masculinity, testosterone, strength, and competition. She talks of how combat sports are appealing to the far right because fighters are trained to accept physical pain, become warriors, and embrace solidarity, heroism, and brotherhood. I’m guessing she thinks that when a person, male or female, joins a CrossFit gym, a powerlifting gym, boxing, Muay Thai gym, or jujitsu school, a community from all walks of life, the bonds and confidence they build there is supposed to be a form of extremism.

  She sums this up by going full-on crazy Charles-Manson-Helter-Skelter, saying, “It’s championed as a tool to help fight the ‘coming race war’ and the battles that will proceed it.”

  

  The author’s article delivered backlash from the likes of Podcaster Joe Rogan, an avid strength trainer and jujitsu practitioner who tweeted, ‘Being healthy is “far right.” Holy fuck. Then, the comment section exploded.

  Considering I’ve never been an avid gym member (I go to the local gym when I’m on vacation), but I’ve had a home gym, been strength training with Olympic weights and body weight calisthenics all of my life since age 11, as a kid I looked up to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Reg Park, Clint Eastwood, and Sylvester Stallone. I grew up on the pugilism of pro boxing, being motivated by everyone from Jack Johnson, James Braddock, Muhammad Ali, to Arturo Gatti. That doesn’t include my training in Martial Arts from age 12 until my mid-30s. Being influenced by men like Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, and Jackie Chan. Men who overcame adversity through their chosen training. Why? One might ask, because fitness requires effort, goal setting, discipline, and a resilience of self. These guys didn’t get participation trophies. They earned their way in life while overlooking negativity.

  

  Does that make me a racist? No, it does not. I’ve taught, studied, and trained in many disciplines throughout my life, including Korean Tae Known Do, Traditional Chinese Kung Fu, Western and Eastern Boxing, Brazilian Jujitsu, and Jeet Kune Do with all creeds and colors of people.

  White supremacy was never part of the curriculum. Community, bonding, and hard work were front and center.

  Fitness is the single most important daily endeavor that a person can embark upon. Movement molds a person into a better person. Creates discipline. Promotes health, mental and physical.

  Examples from influencers/authors/podcasters such as Jocko Willink, Joe Rogan, Cameron Hanes, Mike Rowe, Joe DeSena, and David Goggins, though sometimes extreme, promote leadership, positivity, and goodwill. And no-nonsense motivation to be a little better each and every day. And they give back to their community.

  Discussing what society has lost with retired Strength and Conditioning Coach Jim Steel from the University of PA, we narrowed it down to the simplistic: people have gotten away from the rewards of hard work. A stronger mind, a stronger body, and a positive attitude. In other words, society no longer realizes our country wouldn’t be where it is without overcoming negativity and putting in the hard work to create better men. Men who built roads, bridges, and infrastructure. Farmed land to produce food. Fought in wars. Battled racism. Every person who succeeds in life has had obstacles to overcome to get to where they’re at.

  Sadly, in this day and age, we’re the one country that can complain and criticize how free we are. And about the men who fought for this freedom.

  Why not consider this? Another friend, Strength and Conditioning coach Zach Even-Esh, writes a daily newsletter. They’re informative and inspirational; one of the issues he’s encountered over the past 10-plus years when training younger athletes is the average teenager can’t do 10 pull-ups or push-ups. As a people, we’re letting our kids proceed backward.

  Competition is demonized. Victimhood and participation trophies have become the acceptable norm, and kids have become weaker.

  This carries over to becoming an adult. Testosterone levels in men have declined. Gen Z and millennials have lower testosterone when compared to their predecessors. Declining about 1% per year since 1980. Why is this? Many factors. Eating too much processed/junk food (fast food, chips, soda, white sugar). Stress from jobs that require less movement than in the past, like sitting behind a desk and staring at a monitor for hours on end. Mental health issues. Tight underwear. Not smoking (nicotine raises T; I don’t condone smoking). Not getting enough sleep. Oh, and men don’t get enough movement throughout their day. They don’t exercise. And guess what could curb or even eliminate all of these issues and raise men’s testosterone: exercise. Lifting weights, calisthenics, or bodyweight movements. Getting outdoors and getting your Vitamin D from sunlight, from daily walks, sprints, or push mowing your lawn. Getting eight hours of sleep. And eating real food.

  (https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2017/10/02/youre-not-the-man-your-father-was/?sh=65be5dcc8b7f)

  Look, men have egos, and they have testosterone; that’s what makes us men. But in this day and age, we’re constantly being labeled as toxic. No wonder there’s a decline in testosterone. It’s the pampering of culture, the removal of hard work and grit. Doing hard things.

  

  Growing up in a blue-collar family, my father was constantly helping his in-laws on their farm, providing for my mother and me but also for his mother and his community of friends. He served in the Vietnam War as a Combat Engineer. He worked three jobs and took care of our home, and he was humble.

  We’ve simplified life and removed effort and dedication. Commitment. Discipline. Work ethic. Goals. And most of all, pride. We’ve replaced it with excuses and weakness.

  My advice to young men, stay off of social media and turn your phone off. Start journaling. Set daily goals. Read books. Learn a skill. Help others. Get outdoors. Go walking or hiking daily.

  Lift weights, do bodyweight exercises, or join a gym. Quit making excuses. You’re not a victim.

  Every man who’s succeeded in life did it by working hard and being dedicated. Regardless of how they were treated, shunned, or turned down, they did it by being resilient. It’s called being a man.

  —

  If you are enjoying this piece, why not subscribe to SOFREP + and have access to tons more great content, like this: Lions Led by Political Lambs: Why an Absence of Military Leaders is an Invitation for Enemies

  SOFREP and Frank Bill go together like ribs and BBQ sauce. Click on the links to check out more of his fantastic body of work: The Ravaged, with Norman Reedus; the novels Back to the Dirt (May 2023), The Savage and Donnybrook, the latter of which was turned into a film in 2018; and the story collection Crimes in Southern Indiana, one of GQ’s favorite books of 2011 and a Daily Beast best debut of 2011. – GDM

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 09/20/2023 – 00:05

• Cape Cod Residents Outraged At Democratic Governor's Migrant Housing Plan
  Cape Cod Residents Outraged At Democratic Governor’s Migrant Housing Plan

  Earlier this month, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey declared a state of emergency in response to the surging number of migrants in state-managed shelters. Then, last week, the governor mobilized the National Guard to assist with the migrant crisis. Now, residents are outraged with the governor’s decision to house the migrants as Biden’s southern border crisis spreads nationwide. 

  Local newspaper The Bourne Enterprise reports anger spreads across the Cape Cod peninsula as “residents turned out in force to express opposition to the state’s opting to provide temporary housing for migrant families who have been relocated to Massachusetts.” 

  “Protesters outside the building that evening held signs reading “Americans First”; inside, residents at the lectern cited potential board of health regulations, as well as concerns with whether the public school system can accommodate children from the immigrant families,” the paper said. 

  Even Cape Cod is pusing Back to Biden’s Migrant Disaster😬🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/8LwcVA5kWL

  — Vivek’s BodyGuard🖐️🇺🇸 (@A1Flipper) September 11, 2023

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

  Dozens of residents attended the Bourne Select Board meeting at the Bourne Veterans Memorial Community Center earlier this month to voice their opposition to Gov. Healey’s plan to transform parts of the Joint Base Cape Cod and local area hotels into migrant shelters. 

  Gov. Healey recently asked US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas for help to combat the migrant crisis after her Democratic colleagues in the White House and on Capitol Hill have been determined to undermine Trump-era border policies for open border ones – that have led to millions of illegals pouring into the country over the last several years. 

  The governor has stated, “Massachusetts is in a state of emergency,” and commended the deployment of the National Guard to assist with the migrant crisis. 

  In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams warned in recent weeks that the migrant crisis will “destroy” the metro area. 

  It’s all fun and games for Democrats until Biden’s disastrous open border policies flood progressive metro areas with illegals. 

  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

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

   

  Then these Democrats preach “NIMBY.” 

   

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 23:45

• Transcending Technopessimism
  Transcending Technopessimism

  Authored by Rachel Lomasky via RealClear Wire,

  The following is a condensed version of “Transcending Technopessimism” by Rachel Lomasky, published at Law & Liberty.

  Technopessimism is reaching a fever pitch, fueled by headlines like, “Meta’s AI internet chatbot starts spewing fake news,” “Self-driving Uber Car Kills Pedestrian in Arizona,” “Artificial Intelligence Has a Racial and Gender Bias Problem.” Artificial Intelligence can be sexist, racist, or just profoundly stupid. The knee-jerk reaction to these sensational headlines is to call for limits and constraints on AI. But we need to pause and realize that to err is both human and AI. Substitute a human for the AI in those headlines, and they become completely mundane. AI misconduct garners great attention, but that’s because human transgressions are taken for granted, not because technology is necessarily worse. In many cases, even the most egregious of AI errors can be audited and corrected. In extreme cases, AIs can be shut down. Society generally frowns on “shutting down” humans whose behavior is stupid or insulting.

  Consider, for example, new NYC legislation that requires AI to be audited for bias before making hiring decisions. Proponents argue AI can be biased against certain classes of applicants. If these biases exist in the training set, it is because human agents have previously been biased. When an algorithm is a jerk, we can fix it, e.g. by changing the training data, and we can confirm that it is fixed before deploying into the wild. It’s very difficult to determine whether human biases have been remediated, especially given how deeply rooted they can be.

  Similarly, people worry about a lack of transparency behind AI’s recommendations. Indeed, the best performing algorithms often offer little clarity in decision-making. But even black-box algorithms are extremely clear when compared to the mushy black boxes inside humans. Introspection illusion, a field of psychology, explains why humans are so bad at explaining their decision-making logic. On the other hand, suites of tools explain AI results, even for nontransparent algorithms. Given a resume, the AI response is deterministic. The same is rarely true of a human, who may not even respond consistently over a single day.

  

  Manipulation by the social media algorithms is another popular source of apprehension. Social media platforms maximize the time that users spend on the platform by providing them content that interests them. Judgmental people argue that we should not want that content. However, these platforms are just the latest iteration of advertising manipulating us. Humans have manipulated other humans since time out of mind. Social media manipulates, but perhaps even less than forces like family, religion, government, and other media. We have mechanisms in place to try to minimize and mitigate these effects, and we should have similar remediations for AI.

  Many people fear AI can’t understand ethics, regardless of whether it is actually acting ethically. A favorite meme is the Trolley Problem applied to self-driving cars, trying to decide whom to kill in an accident situation. But humans are most likely not applying utilitarianism, duty-based ethics, or any other deep thinking when they’re about to crash. On the contrary, they are thinking, “Holy crap, I’m about to hit that thing! Must swerve!” Or at the very best, “Seems like fewer people to the right.”

  Sometimes the alternative to an AI isn’t a human, but nothing at all. In many cases, AI provides a service that simply couldn’t scale if provided by humans. For example, human translators couldn’t match the functionality of Google Translate. Likewise, humans cannot scan all credit card transactions looking for fraud. Even in areas of psychotherapy, where humans are clearly better equipped to provide the service, AI allows it to scale.

  Often AI technologies are used both for evil and for good. Computer vision is used for surveillance, encroaching on privacy. But it is also employed in wildlife conservation, such as monitoring endangered species and preventing poaching. AI algorithms analyze images, acoustic data, and satellite imagery to identify and track animals, assess population dynamics, and detect illegal activities. We should judge the application, not the tool.

  It can be difficult to put AI transgressions into perspective because people lack a deep technological understanding, and mysterious, complex systems scare people. The problem is exacerbated by sensationalized and deliberate misinformation on the part of Hollywood and the media. These factors lead many to believe the problem could be even worse than the headlines. Additionally, there is Frederic Bastiat’s “Seen vs. Unseen” distinction: A self-driving car hit a pole, but how many accidents by distracted humans would AI cars prevent? A racist AI sent the wrong person to jail, but how many errors are made by judges, some of whom have nefarious motives? Without comparing these AI misdeeds with the human alternatives, the default reaction is to hinder AI. In many cases, this is short-sighted and counterproductive. Our concerns with AI should always be viewed through the lens of comparison to human failings.

  Rachel Lomasky is Chief Data Scientist at Flux, a company that help organizations do responsible AI. Throughout her career, she has helped scientists train and productionalize their machine learning algorithms.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 23:25

• SBF's Parents Steeped In Democrat Dark Money And 'Illegal' Election Tactics
  SBF’s Parents Steeped In Democrat Dark Money And ‘Illegal’ Election Tactics

  The parents of alleged crypto-fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried were involved in Democrat dark money and 2020 election tactics deemed ‘illegal’ by a right-leaning political research firm.

  

  Allan Joseph Bankman and his wife, Barbara Fried (who are currently being sued to claw back some a portion of $26 million to “fraudulently transferred and misappropriated funds” as part of FTX’s bankruptcy), have found themselves in the middle of fresh controversy.

  In a Monday lawsuit seeking the clawback, the pair were accused of siphoning off millions in firm funds to benefit their “pet causes,” with Bankman – who says he helped FTX “navigate tax issues,” allegedly “considered having funds made available by Sam through Arabella,” one of the largest dark-wing money advisory groups in the USA, whose board Bankman sat on according to court documents.

  “This meant that Bankman had unfettered access to the FTX Group’s financials and corporate structure — two things that would have alerted him that money was moving between and among the FTX Exchanges, FTX Insiders, and other legal entities,” reads the filing.

  Bankman’s advisory role was revealed in a footnote on P. 19 of the lawsuit.

  

  Arabella manages major left-wing nonprofit groups which then sponsor entities that pay no tax. The company has come under heightened scrutiny from conservatives over this “dark money” arrangement, the Washington Examiner reports.

  Bro the story is that Sam Bankman Fried’s dad was on the board of left wing dark money behemoth Arabella Advisors and you’re mad conservatives are calling them out?! https://t.co/jJt0vy551q

  — Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) September 19, 2023

  The lawsuit, which seeks to claw back funds Bankman and Fried allegedly “fraudulently transferred and misappropriated,” cites the “New Venture Fund,” which “offered a platform through which FTX.US and its donors could contribute to select charitable causes.”

  Lawyers for Bankman and Fried hit back, saying that “This is a dangerous attempt to intimidate Joe and Barbara and undermine the jury process just days before their child’s trial begins.”

  Illegal election tactics?

  

  Meanwhile, according to a report from a right-leaning political research firm, Barbara Fried authored a memo in late 2019 that encouraged Democrats to donate to a 501(c)(3) known as The Voter Registration Project or Everybody Votes, the NY Post reports.

  The Stanford professor argued that getting more Democrats registered to vote would be far more effective than simply donating to candidates, and encouraged donors to give 90% of their election contributions to Everybody Votes.

  “Non- partisan voter registration” charities are “4 to 10 times more cost-effective” at “netting additional Democratic votes,” Fried wrote in the memo.

   The charity ended up raising a whopping $190 million, according to recent filings cited by the Capital Research Center.

  Since charities and foundations don’t reveal donations until years after the fact, they are specifically forbidden from operating to benefit a political party, in effect or in intent, according to the author of the report, Parker Thayer.

  Fried also told people to keep quiet about the strategy, which “managed to stay out of the news and as far as we know out of Republicans’ sight-lines,” she wrote. “It will come as no surprise to Republicans—and be of little interest—that yet another organization is trying to fund voter registration in battleground states.

  “But the magnitude of our efforts, the details of targeting, and the names of the organizations we are recommending would be of great interest to them.”

  According to an anonymous longtime GOP fundraiser and strategist, “This is the darkest of dark money.”

  The news comes just days after federal prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of using $100 million in stolen customer funds for political donations. While there’s no evidence that he gave money to voter registration efforts or that his mother was involved in any wrongdoing, it underscores the impact the entire family had on politics.

  In 2020, Vox reported on the memo from Mind The Gap and the millions the group raised aimed to raise.

  But the new report from Capital Research Center reveals how effective the memo was with Democratic mega donors. Warren Buffett’s charitable foundation, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, donated $5 million to voter registration efforts while George Soros donated $10.4 million, the report adds.

  So many fingers in so many pies…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 23:05

• The War On Marriage Must End
  The War On Marriage Must End

  Authored by Roger L. Simon via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  I woke up earlier this week to two depressing articles that on the surface seem unrelated but are actually connected.

  

  They both speak to the existence of a war on marriage in our culture that will destroy the fabric of our country if not dealt with. This is a war that surfaced ideologically in the early years of the Soviet Union in a way oddly similar to a primitive version of our “woke,” but was soon withdrawn as impractical even there.

  Not here.

  This war is now being fought in the USA on a deeper cultural level that could actually be more pernicious and ultimately succeed with monumental societal implications.

  The first of these articles—“The Dating Pool Dropouts” by Olivia Reingold at The Free Press—details the declining number of men even attempting to find a life partner. Marriage itself has been declining for years.

  Ms. Reingold describes a number of reasons for this, adding that “part of it also boils down to this: it’s hard for men to find partners at a moment when women are outpacing them both at school and work. Young women now hold 1.6 million more college degrees than men, and in a growing number of cities, including Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and New York, they make as much as—or more than—their male counterparts. And even if they become mothers, odds are four in ten will become the breadwinners of their households.”

  And yet we have feminists still yammering on about “equal pay.” Go figure.

  You would also think these now-successful women might enjoy having a working-class man in the house who knows how to fix the plumbing or the electrical, but such is not the behavior of human society, ours anyway. If a man does not have a college degree, the fancier the better, he is filtered out on the dating apps.

  What has evolved from this, according to the article, is pervasive loneliness among the younger generation.

  Ms. Reingold also points out that, statistically, married people are happier. But most of us have known that from simple observation.

  Meanwhile, with the male sex in decline, we have a war on gender—or more accurately, massive, and likely deliberately instigated, gender confusion, making matters worse and putting marriage in further jeopardy.

  He is reporting on a battle in San Bernadino County where a school system is fighting back against the state of California. The state’s attorney general is suing to nullify that system’s ruling that parents must be notified by the school if their under-18 children are attempting to transition.

  Defending the parents is the Liberty Justice Center, a nonprofit, public-interest litigation center. Good on them.

  This is a portion of the massive struggle going on across the nation, all part of this war against the family that is being fought by the left—that apparently has not learned the lessons of the former Soviet Union to which I referred—on many fronts.

  Disbanding the family in favor of the state is their intention. It is also another step toward globalism.

  The tragedy is that it is also a road to serious human unhappiness.

  When Klaus Schwab said, “You will have nothing and you will be happy,” he was also, by inference, implying the dissolution of the family. You don’t need a spouse. You have the World Economic Forum (WEF), or what flows from it, to take care of you.

  If you recognize in this elements of Mao Zedong’s Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, children denouncing their parents, you are not mistaken. It’s close to happening here, indeed probably already has in isolated instances.

  Not inconsequentially, I have also been reading Dennis Prager’s “Rational Bible”—at the moment the volume on Exodus—so it contains lengthy discussion of the Ten Commandments.

  I know I sound almost like an idiot for doing so, but I recommend, particularly, in these times with the family in jeopardy, the Fifth Commandment:

  “Honor thy father and mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”

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

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 22:45

• Red State Pharmacists Use 'Religious' Loophole To Deny Patients Ivermectin: Doctor
  Red State Pharmacists Use ‘Religious’ Loophole To Deny Patients Ivermectin: Doctor

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

  Doctors claim a law created to protect pro-life workers from going against their religious beliefs is being employed by pharmacists to deny patients access to ivermectin.

  

  “Right to refuse” laws initially enacted in many states to shield pro-life pharmacists from being forced to violate religious convictions are used by pharmacists as legal cover for denying patients COVID-19 treatments that they find objectionable, according to a medical expert.

  In Texas, Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, a practitioner and founder of Coalition of Health Freedom, told The Epoch Times that the law, along with greater discretion granted to pharmacists during the pandemic, has become a roadblock in ensuring her patients receive the care needed, especially when it comes to prescribing ivermectin off-label to treat COVID-19.

  “I can’t imagine how anyone can claim a religious or moral belief in denying my patients access to ivermectin, but that appears to be exactly how they are able to legally do this,” said Dr. Bowden. “It makes no sense and creates significant delays in getting patients access to the medications they need.”

  

  In Texas, pharmacists are allowed wide discretion under House Bill 2561, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law in September 2017. The law permits pharmacy workers the right to refuse to fill a patient’s prescriptions for moral and religious reasons, with the text of the bill specifying “freedom of speech regarding a sincerely held religious belief.”

  Dr. Bowden said that in recent years, many pharmacists have anointed themselves as medication gatekeeper in deciding which drugs may or may not be prescribed. As a result, doctors are having to invest increasing amounts of time and resources toward finding ways to get prescriptions filled that would be better directed toward patient care, according to Dr. Bowden.

  “I never had an issue before COVID. Now it’s an everyday issue I have to deal with as a doctor, and it’s just draining,” said Dr. Bowden.

  What have become known as “right to refuse” laws vary by state. Six states—Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Missouri, and South Dakota—have laws or regulations that specifically allow pharmacies or pharmacists to refuse to honor prescriptions for religious or moral reasons, according to the National Women’s Law Center. Seven other states—Alabama, Delaware, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas—allow them to refuse a prescription but prohibit pharmacists from obstructing patient access to medication.

  Further, most state practice codes allow pharmacists to refuse to fill a prescription if, in their judgment, the validity of the medicine is in question, abuse of a drug is suspected, or to protect the health and welfare of the patient. However, pharmacists expanded the scope of their discretion during the pandemic, according to Dr. Bowden.

  ‘We Need an Intervention’

  Ivermectin has been around for decades but became the center of controversy in 2020 after medical opinion became divided over its effectiveness as a treatment for COVID-19. In the aftermath, many pharmacists refused to fill prescriptions for the medication.

  By 2023, the issue had made its way into a courtroom in a case brought by Dr. Bowden and other medical professionals when, on Aug. 8, a lawyer representing the FDA confirmed that doctors were free to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID-19.

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

  Despite statements from the FDA affirming that right to doctors, Dr. Bowden says many pharmacists nationwide are still refusing to fill prescriptions issued for ivermectin issued to patients for the treatment of COVID-19.

  In most cases, according to Dr. Bowden, individual pharmacists aren’t the ones to blame and are often only carrying out orders from corporate leadership. However, she claims to have also seen examples where pharmacists prevented her patients from getting their medication as a result of their own “personal agenda.”

  Dr. Bowden believes the only way absent of new legislation ensuring a patient’s right to the fulfillment of the prescription written by their health care expert is for people to keep putting pressure on the pharmacies to leave the practicing of medicine to the doctors.

  “Consumers can fight back, but there is going to be a price to pay in terms of time and money,” said Dr. Bowden. “Whether that means boycotting pharmacies that refuse to fill your prescriptions, and having to travel further to a different pharmacy, or pushing for new legislation to protect patient rights, there is no easy solution.

  “But it is clear that we need an intervention of some kind, and soon.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 22:05

• Consumer Revolt? Survey Reveals Many Plan To Spend Less As Shopping Season Approaches 
  Consumer Revolt? Survey Reveals Many Plan To Spend Less As Shopping Season Approaches 

  Several major retailers have already raised concerns about a downturn in consumer spending that may persist through the crucial holiday shopping season. Many mid to low-tier consumers are stretched thin in the era of ‘Bidenomics,’ grappling with rising credit card debt, diminished savings, and steep interest rates. Additionally, tens of millions of consumers are resuming their student loan payments this month. These factors are headwinds that may spark a growth scare narrative. 

  Online review platform Trustpilot published a new survey of 2,000 consumers, finding that many have less disposable income than in previous years. However, some respondents are finding ways to leverage up to fund purchases: 

  • Today’s economic crisis is undoubtedly contributing to consumer stress levels this year with 1 in 3 considering going into credit card debt to purchase holiday gifts this year. 

  • This is followed by 41 percent considering Buy Now Pay Later services, while another 2 in 5 would cut down on essential expenses such as food and gas to afford their gift purchases. 

  • 34 percent would look at dipping into their savings, and 1 in 3 would consider starting a side hustle to offset the costs.

  Bad news for major retailers, Trustpilot revealed:

  • 41 percent are considering opting out of purchasing physical gifts that require wrapping and going digital for gifts. 

  • 38 percent are saying no to white elephant gift exchanges and Secret Santa, 38 percent are skipping gatherings that require travel, and 34 percent are ditching family gatherings altogether.

  The survey further showed more alarming news: 

  “That said, on average, Americans who shopped during the 2022 holiday season intend to spend 39 percent less this year, and cost is driving purchasing decisions.” 

  The planned reduction in holiday spending was blamed mostly on the multi-year inflation storm:

  “Respondents noted an increase in price of items (43 percent) and shipping costs (42 percent) would prevent them from shopping with a business this holiday season. In fact, if delivery prices were to increase, 64 percent would reduce their overall spending to offset the cost, 64 percent would only shop in-store, and 60 percent would only shop with businesses that offer free shipping.”

  “People are financially struggling in today’s economy, which is only heightened during the holidays,” Mieke De Schepper, Chief Commercial Officer at Trustpilot, wrote in the report. 

  The survey comes as we determined in a recent consumer credit report that “US consumer had finally tapped out.” And we also noted it’s extraordinarily rare for consumers to be in this worse shape… 

  

  Plus, add the restart of student loan payments this month that will curb household spending by upwards of $15.8 billion per month – or $190 billion per year. 

  Corporate America panicked about “student loans” this past earning season as chatter on earnings calls soared to the highest level ever. 

  

  These mounting headwinds for consumers are why Macy’s only plans to hire 38,000 full and part-time workers this holiday season – much fewer than last year and the lowest number since 2008. Meanwhile, Nordstrom recently warned about a slowdown in consumer spending. Remember weeks ago when Walmart slashed pay for new hires? All of this suggests the economic downturn has arrived. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 21:45

• Voter Registration Charities: A Massive, Overlooked Scandal
  Voter Registration Charities: A Massive, Overlooked Scandal

  Authored by Parker Thayer via RealClear Wire,

  

  “Nonprofit voter registration” doesn’t sound interesting. Yet nonprofit voter registration, or the use of tax-exempt charitable organizations to conduct and fund voter registration drives, is one of the most important and underreported political scandals of our time.

  Nonprofit voter registration, and the get-out-the-vote (GOTV) activities that usually accompany it, have become the heart of a billion-dollar industry in America. According to Candid’s Foundation Funding for U.S. Democracy database, since 2011 nearly 60,000 grants have been made for “Voter Education, Registration, and Turnout” and “Civic Participation,” benefitting 15,000 different organizations to the tune of $5.9 billion dollars.

  Most of the largest grantors and grantees in this industry are left-leaning. Despite IRS rules prohibiting 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit groups from engaging in partisan electioneering, it has long been an open secret that the purpose of their work is to register voters from favorable demographics in order to help get Democrats elected. The voter registration industry has always retreated behind the fig-leaf of “nonpartisanship” when necessary, which has protected it from serious scrutiny..

  Until now, that is. My recent special report, How Charities Secretly Help Win Elections, ripped away that fig-leaf. The report reveals the untold story of a nondescript charity named the “Voter Registration Project” that was used to funnel over $100 million into a five-year voter registration scheme hatched by Clinton campaign operatives to help Democrats win elections in 2020. Using tax forms, leaked documents, and leaked emails, the report shows how the scheme aimed to register over 5 million “non-white” voters in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, and Nevada; how it was developed through multiple drafts and edits into a highly sophisticated plan dubbed the Everybody Votes Campaign; and how that plan was eventually adopted by a super PAC tied to Sam Bankman-Fried that instructed billionaire donors to keep it completely secret since it was the most “cost-effective” method for “netting additional Democratic votes.”

  The report even shows several of the plan’s major donors admitting, in signed tax forms, that their “charitable” grants to the Voter Registration Project were made for the express purpose of supporting the super PAC that had recommended it to them. It was the largest, most organized, and most blatantly partisan nonprofit voter registration drive in American history. By our estimates it generated between 1 and 2.7 million swing-state votes for President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

  Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Americans are expected to believe the excuse, given on the Everybody Votes Campaign’s new website, that their left-wing donors are merely “committed to creating a more representative democracy by building and supporting large-scale, long-term voter registration in communities of color.” Their website notably boasts that 76% of the 5.1 million voters they have registered were people of color, but then curiously declines to mention which states said people of color were from. A recent job listing from the organization shows that their targets states for 2024 will be Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.

  That’s right, the donors and directors of the Everybody Votes Campaign care deeply about the civic participation of “communities of color.” So deeply, in fact, that they have been, and will be, registering millions of minority voters, but only in the most important presidential swing states. No room for California and New York (two of America’s most populous states) nor Mississippi and Louisiana (which have the highest Black population by percentage).

  It should be obvious to anyone who looks a little deeper than the mission statement that “Everybody Votes” is more than a little bit of a misnomer.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 21:25

• No Big Deal: Newsom Defends Hunter Biden Influence Peddling Scheme
  No Big Deal: Newsom Defends Hunter Biden Influence Peddling Scheme

  On today’s episode of Damage Control Theatre…

  California Governor Gavin Newsom, who will undoubtedly be decanted if and when Joe Biden can’t manage to mount a 2024 campaign, says that Hunter Biden’s alleged influence peddling scheme – in which prominent foreign businessmen, including the “fucking spy chief of China,” paid the Biden family millions to affect US policy while Joe was VP – is no big deal.

  

  “One of the things that Republicans are relentless on, of course, is Hunter Biden,” CNN host Dana Bash asked Newsom, adding. “There is no evidence that Joe Biden benefited from anything that Hunter was doing, but Republicans have shown that Hunter Biden – he tried to leverage his father’s name, and that the president allegedly before he was president joined phone calls that Hunter Biden’s business associates were on. Do you see anything inappropriate there?”

  To which Newsom, whose career was undoubtedly helped by his family’s connections with the Pelosis, replied: “I don’t know enough about the details of that. I mean I’ve seen a little of that,” adding “If that’s the new criteria, there are a lot of folks in a lot of industries – not just in politics – where people have family members and relationships and they’re trying to parlay and get a little influence and benefit in that respect. That’s hardly unique.”

  Newsom on a Biden impeachment inquiry: “Give me a break. This is student government. This is a joke. This is a perversity of what the Founding Fathers ever conceived of.” pic.twitter.com/63x4kKxnag

  — TheBlaze (@theblaze) September 18, 2023

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

  “I don’t love that any more than you love it or other people I imagine love that. We want to see a lot less of that, but an impeachment inquiry? Give me a break,” he continued according to Fox News.

  

  “Threatening a government shutdown again after we went through that process with the debt ceiling. This is student government,” he added. “This is a joke. Ready, fire, aim. I mean, this is a perversity that the founding fathers never conceived of and imagined. So, if that’s the best they can do, give me a break. That’s about public opinion.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 21:05

• Sperry: Did Hunter Biden Lie In His Own Memoir To 'Protect The Family'?
  Sperry: Did Hunter Biden Lie In His Own Memoir To ‘Protect The Family’?

  Authored by Paul Sperry via RealClear Wire,

  In a raft of glowing reviews, Hunter Biden’s 2019 memoir “Beautiful Things” was celebrated as an “unflinchingly honest” (Entertainment Weekly), “confession and an act of contrition” (Guardian), that was “candid” and “doesn’t hold back details” (New York Times) of his substance abuse and broken relationships.  

  

  While describing the book as an “unvarnished confessional,” the Washington Post exalted it as a “harrowing, relentless and a determined exercise in trying to seize his own narrative from the clutches of the Republicans and the press. 

  In the years since, testimony from a former business partner, Devon Archer, and newly disclosed emails indicate that the president’s son’s memoir was an exercise in spin rather than truth-telling, especially concerning his father’s role in his foreign business dealings, which are now the subject of a House impeachment inquiry. That evidence shows how the Bidens used the memoir to create a politically charged narrative – one largely embraced by the mainstream media – that distorted the truth to protect the family.  

  On page 118, for example, Hunter writes that after accompanying then-Vice President Joe Biden to China on Air Force Two in 2013, he merely introduced his father to a well-connected Chinese investor. It was a quick greeting that lasted just long enough for a handshake. “While we were in Beijing, Dad met one of Devon’s Chinese partners, Jonathan Li, in the lobby of the American delegation’s hotel, just long enough to say hello and shake hands,” Hunter wrote. “Li and I then headed off for a cup of coffee.” 

  The account seems to comport with now-President Biden’s repeated denials that he discussed business with his son or had any substantive involvement with his partners. 

  However, Archer told a different story to U.S. lawmakers during a deposition earlier this year. “Jonathan Li and [Vice] President Biden had coffee,” Archer said, according to a recently released transcript of his interview with the House Oversight Committee. “They had coffee in Beijing,” he recalled, suggesting there may have been talk about their business relationship.

  Li would later offer Hunter a 10% stake worth potentially millions in a Chinese investment fund controlled by the state Bank of China. The fund, BHR Partners, is based in Beijing. 

  Archer’s testimony included other details ignored or distorted in the memoir. He said the vice president called Hunter while he was meeting with Li in Paris, and Hunter put his father on speakerphone so he could join their conversation. And in early January 2017, while Biden was still in the White House, Hunter arranged for his father to write letters of recommendation for Li’s son and daughter to Ivy League colleges. 

  Before committee lawyers began questioning Archer during the July 31 closed-door hearing, they warned him that providing false testimony could subject him to criminal prosecution for perjury. Hunter, in contrast, was under no such legal peril while writing his manuscript.

  The same Oversight panel that quizzed Archer will now lead a formal impeachment inquiry, announced this month by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, to investigate whether Biden used his office to enrich his family. Investigators are weighing subpoenaing Hunter Biden, which makes examining his claims in his memoir highly instructive as to his and his father’s credibility. They’re also tracing millions of dollars wired from China into a maze of accounts that ended up in the hands of Hunter and several other Biden family members, belying claims by the president that Hunter received no money from China. 

  Hunter also raked in millions from Ukraine while his father was “point man” for Ukraine policy as vice president. 

  Hunter addresses the controversy in the sixth chapter of “Beautiful Things,” describing the allegation that he traded on his father’s influence in Ukraine to land an unusually lucrative five-year stint on the board of the corrupt Ukraine energy giant Burisma Holdings as “the decade’s biggest political fable.” 

  He insisted neither he nor his father, who as vice president husbanded Ukraine’s new regime, did anything criminal or corrupt. “There is, in short, no there here,” Biden wrote. 

  Hunter then explained how he came to serve on the Burisma board, raking in $83,000 a month despite having no experience in the energy sector. Biden claimed that Archer, his international consultancy partner, brought Burisma into their business orbit after first meeting Burisma’s founder in Kyiv. 

  “During one such trip to Kyiv, he met Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner and president of Burisma,” Biden said. “After returning from Kyiv, Devon told me about his talk with Zlochevsky.” 

  But Archer, who served on the Burisma board alongside Biden, relayed a different account to Congress, testifying he first met the Russian-tied Ukrainian oligarch in Moscow, not Kyiv. 

  In fact, Archer said he sat down with Zlochevsky in the Russian capital on the same day that Russia invaded Crimea in 2014. “It was just me meeting [with him],” Archer added. Within days, Burisma asked him to join the board. And Hunter Biden came aboard shortly thereafter. 

  Archer’s disclosure that their relationship with Burisma was hatched in Moscow is at odds with the political narrative President Biden has carefully crafted, demonizing Russia as Enemy No. 1 of America and NATO. Hunter’s telling of the genesis, with the initial meeting with Zlochevsky taking place in Ukraine’s capital, is far more palatable. 

  Hunter wrote that he only agreed to accept Zlochevsky’s offer in order to enable Ukraine to strengthen its energy independence from Russia. He said the prospect of helping build a “bulwark” against Russian oil and gas imports assuaged “whatever dissonance I might have felt between idealism and generous compensation.” He said he was more interested in “fighting” for the Ukrainian people against an aggressive neighbor, which aligns his employment with Burisma with his father’s pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia stance. 

  “Having a Biden on Burisma’s board was a loud and unmistakable fuck-you to Putin,” Hunter maintained. 

  But according to Archer’s testimony, Burisma hired them in part to help expand its energy operations outside of Ukraine – particularly in the U.S., where the energy industry is heavily regulated by the federal government, and having such politically connected Americans on the board was valuable to the oil and gas conglomerate. Plus, he and Hunter were motivated by the windfall Burisma was paying them: “It was a million dollars per year [apiece] on the board contracts,” Archer confirmed. 

  Hunter further contends in his memoir that his father didn’t know about his joining the Burisma board until he read about it in the Wall Street Journal on May 13, 2014. But White House emails show the vice president’s staff was coordinating damage control weeks earlier when the news first broke in the foreign press.  

  And Archer testified that a month earlier, he had met with Vice President Biden in his White House office with Hunter, who had arranged the meeting. Their high-level pow-wow took place on April 16, the day after records show Archer received his first payment from Burisma. 

  It’s not clear what the trio discussed in Biden’s office, but Hunter had emailed Archer a Burisma strategy memo just three days earlier. Also on April 13, Hunter had emailed Joe Biden’s best friend Ted Kaufman and the vice president’s then-deputy counsel Alex Mackler to discuss Ukrainian politics. On April 21, Biden visited Ukraine to offer energy and economic aid. 

  But that’s not the biggest whopper Hunter apparently told about Burisma in his book. On page 127, he claimed: “No one at Burisma had even hinted at wanting me to influence the [Obama-Biden] administration.” 

  Several Burisma emails to Hunter, along with Archer’s congressional testimony, put the lie to this claim. 

  On May 12, 2014, for instance, Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi sent an “urgent” email to Hunter – who by then was officially on Burisma’s payroll – demanding to know “how you could use your influence to convey a message / signal, etc. to stop what we consider to be politically motivated actions.” At the time, Ukrainian prosecutors were aggressively investigating Burisma for corruption. 

  Several months later, in the spring of 2015, Pozharskyi emailed Hunter to thank him for giving him the “opportunity to meet with your father and spent [sic] some time together.” Archer confirmed that the then-vice president sat down for dinner with the Burisma official and others at the Cafe Milano in D.C. the previous evening. The meeting, long denied by Biden officials, was held in a private room in the back of the restaurant. 

  In late 2015, after Viktor Shokin took over the prosecutor general’s office in Ukraine and turned the screws on Burisma, Pozharskyi again turned to Hunter Biden for assistance. 

  Archer testified that Hunter called his father to help deal with Shokin’s investigation at both Pozharskyi’s and Zlochevsky’s request following a Burisma board meeting at the Four Seasons in Dubai on Dec. 4, 2015. 

  “They were getting pressure and they requested Hunter, you know, help them with some of that pressure,” Archer said, explaining the pressure was coming “from Ukrainian government investigations into Mykola [Zlochevsky].” 

  Archer suggested their benefactors wanted Hunter to use his influence with the vice president to get Kyiv to take “the heat” off Burisma. He testified he did not overhear Hunter’s phone call, but noted “he called his dad.” 

  At the time, Hunter Biden was not registered as a foreign agent as required by federal law when lobbying the U.S. government on behalf of a foreign entity. Federal prosecutors revealed at a recent court hearing that Hunter is actively under investigation for possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a law that was used to prosecute several Trump advisers.  

  Two days after the Dubai phone call, Biden flew to Kyiv and warned the Ukrainian president that he had to fire Shokin or he wouldn’t get a promised $1 billion in aid. Three months later, after withering pressure from Biden, Shokin was removed from office. 

  “[Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko fired me at the insistence of the then-Vice President Biden because I was investigating Burisma,” Shokin said in a recent Fox News interview. 

  In his memoir, Hunter maintained that his father had Shokin ousted because he wasn’t doing enough to tackle corruption, which matches the current spin of the White House. 
   
  “A priority for my dad was the ouster of the country’s prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, for his failure to adequately investigate corruption,” he wrote. “Among the high-profile companies that Shokin was criticized for not pursuing: Burisma.” 

  In effect, Hunter implied he relished more criminal scrutiny for his own employer, an odd position to take particularly given the millions he was getting paid. But as Archer testified, it’s simply not true.

  Democratic counsel for the Oversight Committee tried to get Archer to agree with the White House spin that Shokin’s firing was “bad for Burisma … because they had Shokin under their control.” 

  “No,” Archer said. “Burisma never informed me of that.” 

  Quite the opposite, he said, Burisma viewed Shokin as a threat after the prosecutor seized its founder Zlochevsky’s assets, including his house and cars. 

  If Shokin was not in fact soft on Burisma and Joe Biden did not press for his ouster to better fight corruption, it would seem to leave just one possible reason for his ham-fisted demand: to protect Burisma for the sake of his son – and the millions he was hauling in. 

  House impeachment investigators want to know whether Biden engaged in a quid pro quo: shaking down Ukraine’s former president for a political favor that would benefit his son by threatening to withhold a U.S.-backed aid package from the country. According to one Republican staffer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, they also want to know if Joe Biden or his staff helped Hunter draft the chapter of his book, titled “Burisma,” or had a hand in editing it. 

  “Beautiful Things” was published by an imprint of Simon & Schuster, which had no comment. Hunter’s attorney Abbe Lowell did not reply to requests to speak about the discrepancies in his client’s book.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 20:45

• Ray Epps Charged With Misdemeanor In Long-Delayed Wrist-Slap
  Ray Epps Charged With Misdemeanor In Long-Delayed Wrist-Slap

  While dozens of January 6th political prisoners languish behind bars, the man caught on camera repeatedly inciting them to enter the Capitol, Ray Epps, was just given a long-delayed slap on the wrist.

  

  This lame single charge tells us everything we need to know about Ray Epps.

  No obstruction felony? No civil disorder charge? Not even a trespassing on restricted grounds misdemeanor?

  Can’t even tell you the last time I saw an “information” (misdemeanor version of indictment)… pic.twitter.com/zQ0rGT23ES

  — Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) September 19, 2023

  A review of Epps’ behavior surrounding J6;

  EXCLUIVE: Never before released J6 video captures Ray Epps (and others) amidst the violent conflict at the police line on the West Plaza

  This is near the Media Tower, apparently before Epps helped push the large metal sign into this police line pic.twitter.com/NoMFKNv58F

  — Stephen Horn (@stephenehorn) September 19, 2023

  In July, Epps’ attorney revealed that his client was going to be criminally charged, after Epps sued former Fox news host Tucker Carlson for defamation.

  Epps hired attorney Michael Teter – formerly of Perkins Coie, the firm notorious for helping the Clinton campaign hatch the Steele dossier and collaborating with the FBI to push the Trump-Russia hoax. Teter immediately sent a letter to Carlson demanding that the former Fox News host retract “false and defamatory statements” that Epps was a J6 government plant.

  Epps, 62, was identified as a key instigator of the riot who has long been suspected of being a fed (or a fed asset), told his nephew in a text message: “I was in the front with a few others. I also orchestrated it.“

  Julie Kelly compares a similarly charged defendant… whose sentencing keeps getting kicked down the road.

  His sentencing keeps getting moved back.

  Status report from last week. pic.twitter.com/JSkBXEEMgb

  — Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) September 19, 2023

  I hope Tucker’s lawyers force Ray Epps to explain why he was never arrested by the FBI despite literally telling people to go into the Capitolpic.twitter.com/rh0ydFdzBE

  — Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 12, 2023

  🚨BREAKING 🚨: Ray Epps has been charged for his role in Jan 6. But is this the real end another conspiracy?

  Epps has only been charged with a single misdemeanor. pic.twitter.com/vQLKmODrZ5

  — Suepin (@yzimng2) September 19, 2023

  We wonder how this will affect Tucker’s defense?

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 20:35

• NYT In Rare About-Face Now Says Ukraine (Not Russia) Behind Mass Casualty Missile Strike On Market
  NYT In Rare About-Face Now Says Ukraine (Not Russia) Behind Mass Casualty Missile Strike On Market

  The New York Times has issued a surprise about-face regarding the September 6 deadly missile strike on the center of the Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka, which is in Donetsk Oblast.

  Initially it was universally reported among all major international press that it was a Russian attack which killed at least 15 civilians and injured 30 more. It was among the single deadliest strikes on a civilian area since the start of the war, given a busy market had been directly impacted. 

  The fresh Tuesday Times report underscores that less than two hours after the market was struck, “President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed Russian ‘terrorists’ for the attack, and many media outlets followed suit.” The NY Times was at the time among those major outlets which uncritically went with Zelensky’s version of events.

  

  But the missile came from the Ukrainian side, with the NY Times’ investigators finding that it was a Ukrainian surface-to-air missile that hit the busy civilian area and killed and wounded scores.

  One of the key videos which the NYT analyzed to reach this conclusion was actually provided by Zelensky’s office, ironically enough. 

  According to the New York Times report, “evidence collected and analyzed by The New York Times, including missile fragments, satellite imagery, witness accounts and social media posts, strongly suggests the catastrophic strike was the result of an errant Ukrainian air defense missile fired by a Buk launch system.”

  “Further evidence reveals that minutes before the strike, the Ukrainian military launched two surface-to-air missiles toward the Russian front line from the town of Druzhkivka, 10 miles northwest of Kostiantynivka,” the report continues.

  The newspaper’s own correspondents were actually in Druzhkivka and reported hearing the outgoing missile launches which started at 2pm, and one journalist even record the sounds.

  In contrast to Kiev’s claims that it was a Russian missile launched by an S-300 system, the Times details the following:

  In the aftermath of the attack, Ukrainian authorities said Russian forces used a missile fired by an S-300 air defense system, which Russia has used both to intercept aircraft and strike targets on the ground. But an S-300 missile carries a different warhead from the one that exploded in Kostiantynivka.

  The metal facades of buildings closest to the explosion were perforated with hundreds of square or rectangular holes, probably made by cube-like objects blown outward from the missile.

  Measurements of the holes — and fragments found at the scene — are consistent in size and shape with one weapon in particular: the 9M38 missile, which is fired by the mobile Buk antiaircraft vehicle. Ukraine is known to use the Buk system, as is Russia.

  The investigative analysis also makes heavy use of open source intelligence, including photos and videos of the projectiles flying over the area, and the aftermath of the deadly strike. 

  Was it a tragic mishap when all Western media blamed Russia?

  “The attack appears to have been a tragic mishap.” https://t.co/6AP7t2ojhn

  — asad abukhalil أسعد أبو خليل (@asadabukhalil) September 19, 2023

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  The timing of the unusual NYT piece laying blame on the Ukrainian side is interesting, given it coincides with President Zelensky being in the US where he addressed the UN General Assembly and is later expected at the White House.

  Ukrainian officials and pro-Kiev pundits are outraged at the NY Times’ reporting, and have rejected the conclusion reached. Here’s one somewhat comical case in point of the NYT authors themselves being attacked for the findings…

  WARNING: I can tell you PERSONALLY @Tmgneff is a liar and a fabricator. He is widely criticized in Ukraine for lazy anti-Ukraine reporting that often violates the @nytimes own ethical standards manual. He makes wild assumptions & in my case he just MADE SHIT UP. His editor Matt… https://t.co/TkQqwuZkJE

  — Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) September 19, 2023

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  It also [presents the difficult question of whether there may be other atrocities or mass casualty events which were blamed on Russia, but were the result of weaponry from the Ukraine side. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 20:25

• California Legislature Approves $25 Per Hour Healthcare Worker Minimum Wage Bill
  California Legislature Approves $25 Per Hour Healthcare Worker Minimum Wage Bill

  By Kelly Gooch of Beckers Hospital Review

  The California legislature has passed a bill that would establish a $25 hourly minimum wage requirement for workers in hospitals and other medical settings.

  The bill, proposed in February, now awaits a decision by Gov. Gavin Newsom and comes after union and hospital representatives reached agreement on how such a requirement could be addressed.

  Under the bill, cities and counties would be blocked from increasing pay via ballot measures for 10 years. 

  Workers at healthcare facilities with 10,000 or more full-time equivalent employees would earn $23 per hour starting in 2024, with pay increasing to $25 an hour in 2026. That affects workers including nursing assistants, medical coders, launderers and hospital gift shop workers, according to the Los Angeles Times.

  Workers at a hospital with a high governmental payer mix, an independent hospital with an elevated governmental payer mix, a rural independent covered healthcare facility, or a covered healthcare facility that is owned, affiliated or operated by a county with a population of less than 250,000 as of Jan. 12 would earn $18 per hour starting next year, with pay increasing to $25 an hour in 2033. 

  Urgent care clinics, skilled nursing facilities and other smaller facilities would be required to pay workers $21 per hour in 2024, with pay increasing to $25 per hour in 2028, according to the Los Angeles Times.

  The bill allows some healthcare facilities to apply for a temporary pause or alternative phase-in schedule of the minimum wage requirements if they have documentation proving financial distress. 

  Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the California Hospital Association, described the bill as a balanced approach that supports workers and protects jobs and access to care in vulnerable communities.

  “The bill creates a pathway to improving wages for our lower-wage healthcare workers, while also recognizing the needs of our state’s most troubled hospitals,” Ms. Coyle said in a statement shared with Becker’s. 

  “And, by preempting local ballot measures on minimum wage and compensation, all healthcare workers will be paid equitably regardless of where they work. SB 525 demonstrates hospitals’ commitment to healthcare workers, patients, and communities.”

  Tia Orr, executive director of Service Employees International Union California, also praised the bill.

  “Healthcare in California will be more accessible and equitable because workers and healthcare providers stood together and stood up for patient care,” she said in a statement. 

  She added that the bill also invests in a strong, diverse workforce. 

  “By and large, Black and brown workers have held the lowest-paid and most overlooked jobs in healthcare, so SEIU workers are particularly proud of this landmark investment in equity,” Ms. Orr said.

  Read more about the bill here. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 20:05

• Zelensky Seeks To Cancel Russia At UN, Asks Why "Russian Terrorists" Have A Place
  Zelensky Seeks To Cancel Russia At UN, Asks Why “Russian Terrorists” Have A Place

  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is trying to use his visit to the United Nations in New York to get Russia canceled from the international assembly. He questioned how it is that “Russian terrorists” have a seat at the UN. He also warned that Russia is poised to expand its war beyond Ukraine – an assertion with no evidence.

  “If in the United Nations there is a place for Russian terrorists,” Zelensky said, “it’s a question to all the members of the United Nations.” …Except that of course Russia doesn’t hold just any UN seat, but it’s permanent member of the UN Security Council, and exercises veto power in that capacity over the UNSC’s most important resolutions and major decisions.

  

  Zelensky made the comments on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), when he visited a hospital in Staten Island which is treating some 18 wounded Ukrainian soldiers. Zelensky has long warned that the UN is “hostage” to Russian policy.

  As for his UNGA speech the same day, given before some 140 nations, and after Biden spoke earlier, Zelensky went on the verbal attack against Russia, giving comments in English.

  “The goal of the present war against Ukraine is to turn our land, our people, our lives, our resources into a weapon against you, against the international rules-based order,” Zelensky said. He laid out that Russia is weaponizing essentials for survival like food and energy.

  “The goal of the present war against Ukraine is to turn our land, our people, our lives, our resources into a weapon against you, against the international rules-based order,” Zelensky said, also seeking to portray a pattern of Putin’s “aggression” from Georgia to Syria to Moldova. 

  He also alleged Moscow is committing “genocide” – and repeated media claims of Russia having “kidnapped” some tens of thousands of children. “Time goes by; what will happen to them?” He then called it “clearly a genocide.”

  Russia turned Syria into ruins – Zelensky

  I can see where it is going, projection speech , it is your owner the US who did , who is up to this day robbing Syrian people of oil and wheat . pic.twitter.com/9yMHPT2NOy

  — Dagny Taggart (@DagnyTaggart963) September 19, 2023

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  However, these reports of “Russia kidnapping children” have been based on the trend of Russian-speaking families of the Donbas in many cases willingly relocating to Russian territory, also given there had been a civil war raging there since 2014 involving pro-Kiev Ukrainians attacking pro-Russian Ukrainians in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

  Zelensky also used it as an occasion to condemn any potential peace plan offered by a third party which requires that Ukraine cede territory. The New York Times wrote, “Ukraine has been seeking backing for a 10-point settlement program that demands a full Russian withdrawal and payment of reparations.”

  “Zelensky pitched the audience an idea for a summit with that program on the agenda — something Ukrainian diplomats say would be a symbolic success, even without any means to enforce such a settlement on Russia,” the report noted.

  Zelensky watches as Biden tells the U.N. General Assembly: “The United States together with our allies and partners around the world will continue to stand with the brave people of Ukraine.” pic.twitter.com/tRpixIcMOU

  — Will Mauldin (@willmauldin) September 19, 2023

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  The UN audience applauded when at the end of his remarks Zelensky said the world must work to “end the aggression on the terms of the state that was attacked.” He’s expected to later travel to Washington, where he’ll lobby for billions more in American taxpayer dollars to be pledged toward the war effort.

  * * *

  Meanwhile, employing his UN-speak, Zelensky for a moment talked about the world body’s “climate policy objectives”…

  Nord 👏🏻 Stream https://t.co/gTda04OYBP

  — Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) September 19, 2023

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  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 19:45

• Trump Gambles On GOP Support For Abortion Compromise
  Trump Gambles On GOP Support For Abortion Compromise

  Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  

  In a wide-ranging interview on with NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker, former President Donald Trump described his approach to a potential federal abortion ban.

  “It’s a very polarizing issue. Because of what’s been done, and because of the fact we brought it back to the states, we’re going to have people come together on this issue,” he said.

  President Trump said he would seek to bring together a bipartisan group, hear all sides, and create consensus.

  “We will agree to a number of weeks, which will be where both sides will be happy. We have to bring the country together on this issue.”

  15 Weeks?

  He claims the activists pushing for abortion on demand with no restrictions represent only an extreme view that even many pro-life Democrats are against.

  “Nobody wants to see five, six, seven, eight, nine months,” he said, adding that laws that allow mothers to terminate babies even after they have been delivered alive should be done away with.

  Asked whether he would sign a 15-week ban that made it to his desk, he said “no.”

  “Let me just tell you what I’d do. I’m going to come together with all groups, and we’re going to have something that’s acceptable,” he said. “What’s going to happen is you’re going to come up with a number of weeks or months. You’re going to come up with a number that’s going to make people happy. Because 92 percent of the Democrats don’t want to see abortion after a certain period of time.”

  He said many people have offered up the “15-week” period for a ban, which is early into the second trimester, but he wouldn’t consider legislation without bringing more people into the room first.

  “I would sit down with both sides and I’d negotiate something, and we’ll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years,” he said, declining to say whether he would support a federal ban.

  “I’m not going to say I would or I wouldn’t,” he said, adding that he was proud of the overturning of Roe v. Wade because it gave the power back to the states.

  “For 52 years, people including Democrats wanted it to go back to states so the states could make the right,” he said. “I did something that nobody thought was possible, and Roe v. Wade was terminated, [it] was put back to the states. Now, people, pro-lifers, have the right to negotiate for the first time.”

  He clarified that the consensus he hoped to bring could result in state-level action instead of a federal ban.

  “It could be state or it could be federal. I don’t frankly care,” he said. “From a pure standpoint, from a legal standpoint, I think it’s probably better [remaining a state issue], but I can live with it either way.”

  “The number of weeks is more important,” he said, sharing that the public opinion on abortion has changed greatly in the last few years. “The most powerful people that are anti-abortion are okay with that [banning abortion after a certain period] now. And you know what? They weren’t okay with that even a year ago.”

  Former Vice President Mike Pence, for instance, previously stood his ground on the idea of a full abortion ban and no exceptions. He recently called on other GOP candidates to support a federal 15-week ban.

  Exceptions

  He further called out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, runner-up in the GOP lineup of candidates, for his six-week ban.

  “I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake,” he said, without specifying a reason. He added that exceptions in any abortion ban were critical. “I think people should have exceptions. I think if it’s rape or incest or the life of the mother, I think you have to have exceptions. It’s very important.”

  Tudor Dixon, a Republican who ran for and lost the governor’s seat in Michigan last year, recently said on a podcast that President Trump gave her advice on abortion policy which she failed to take.

  He had told her to “talk differently about abortion” when she took a hardline, no-exceptions approach.

  “We could not pivot in time, and it really, you were absolutely right, sir,” Ms. Dixon said.

  “And that’s what happened to a lot of other people and—didn’t happen to me because, you know, there’s a way of talking about it. They’re the radicals. They’re the radicals, and you have to explain it. And I think exceptions are very important. I think you need the exceptions. You and I talked about that,” President Trump said.

  DeSantis Responds

  Mr. DeSantis’s campaign responded on social media after President Trump singled out Florida’s six-week ban, criticizing his political rival’s conciliatory approach.

  “Trump says he will compromise with Democrats on abortion so that they’re nice to him,” the campaign wrote on an X, formerly Twitter, post. “RonDeSantis will NEVER sell out conservatives to win praise from corporate media or the Left.”

  Mr. DeSantis’s communications director Andrew Romeo added that previous compromises with Democrats brought “disastrous” results such as an unfinished border wall.

  Several states have a “heartbeat” abortion bill, which bans the procedure once a heartbeat is detectable in the womb, which is normally around the six-week mark. Most of these states have included exceptions in their abortion laws from the beginning, though Texas initially passed a no-exceptions ban, and later added exceptions.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 19:25

• Permanent Strike: Ford Lays Off 600 Workers Due To UAW Strike
  Permanent Strike: Ford Lays Off 600 Workers Due To UAW Strike

  As a result of the UAW strikes, 600 Ford employees will now be taking a permanent strike. 

  Just hours after it was reported that Stellantis could be shuttering 18 facilities as part of a new “improved” contract with the UAW, Ford faces additional realities of the ongoing strike: it has laid off 600 workers at the Michigan Assembly Plant’s body construction department, ABC Detroit reported. 

  The company said this week: “Our production system is highly interconnected, which means the UAW’s targeted strike strategy will have knock-on effects for facilities that are not directly targeted for a work stoppage. In this case, the strike at Michigan Assembly Plant’s final assembly and paint departments has directly impacted the operations in other parts of the facility.”

  

  “Approximately 600 employees at Michigan Assembly Plant’s body construction department and south sub-assembly area of integrated stamping were notified not to report to work Sept. 15. This is not a lockout. This layoff is a consequence of the strike at Michigan Assembly Plant’s final assembly and paint departments, because the components built by these 600 employees use materials that must be e-coated for protection. E-coating is completed in the paint department, which is on strike,” it continued.

  At the stroke of midnight last Friday, the United Auto Workers initiated their labor strike, focusing their initial efforts on three facilities—Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Stellantis’ Toledo Assembly Complex in Toledo, and a General Motors factory in Missouri.

  To add insult to collateral-damage-injury, Stellantis, in a recent bargaining move with the United Auto Workers union, has floated a contract proposal — that could result in the shuttering of 18 American facilities, according to CNBC, citing sources familiar with strike discussions. 

  On Tuesday, the head of United Auto Workers, Shawn Fain, declared he will unleash additional strikes across manufacturing facilities of General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., and Stellantis NV on Friday. This move is contingent on the three automakers not properly addressing the union’s demands for a new four-year labor contract for its 146,000 members. 

  

  “Either the Big Three get down to business and work with us to make progress in negotiations, or more locals will be called on to stand up and go out on strike,” UAW boss Fain said in a YouTube video published Monday evening. 

  Fain said, “We’re not waiting around, and we’re not messing around. So, noon on Friday, Sept. 22 is a new deadline.” 

  The union said Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis have “failed to put fair contract offers on the table.” A union representative told Bloomberg “no new offers” have come from the automakers “since the union made its latest proposals on Sept. 14, right before its strike began.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 19:05

• Yuan Dominates US Dollar In China Cross-Border Payments
  Yuan Dominates US Dollar In China Cross-Border Payments

  By Ye Xie, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and strategist,

  While the yuan is struggling in the foreign-exchange market, it continues to grow its market share in China’s cross-border transactions as the No. 1 payment currency.

  That reflects progress of the yuan’s internationalization in trade, as well as growing influence of foreign capital flows to China’s financial markets.

  

  The official settlement data Friday showed the yuan’s share in cross-border payments and receipts rose to a record 54% last month, compared with 41% for the dollar.

  The data include goods and services transactions, as well as cross-border investments.

  Since foreign investors trade Chinese stocks and bonds in the yuan, the ongoing opening of the capital market over the years has lifted the yuan’s market share in total transactions.

  August, for example, saw foreign investors sell a record amount of Chinese stocks, which should inflate the yuan’s share in total cross-border transactions.

  Even so, it’s still a long way before the yuan becomes a dominant international currency. 

  The latest data from SWIFT shows the yuan’s share in global payments rose to 3.1% in July, from 2.8% in June. It was dwarfed by the dollar’s 46% share and the euro’s 24%.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 18:45

• UN To Discuss How To Better Control The World At Annual General Assembly
  UN To Discuss How To Better Control The World At Annual General Assembly

  The UN’s charter outlines a grand mission statement of benevolent purpose, with its supposed root mission being the pursuit of global peace and security.  It is therefore ironic that the institution relies on a host of fabricated crisis events and ongoing conflicts in order to remain relevant.  As UN Secretary António Guterres argues: “The UN is not a Vanity Fair, it is a political body.”  And really, that is the problem.  There is no use for the UN other than to act as a foil for the eventual imposition of a faceless and unaccountable world government.

  The organization will always strive for more centralization as long as it exists; it does not care about peace, it cares about power.  Thus, every new crisis event is seen as an opportunity for these people, not as a threat that needs to be solved.    

  If you want to find the source of most of today’s political and social discord, all you have to do is examine the history of interventions by the UN.  For example, the very existence of ESG lending programs designed to create incentives for corporations to push woke propaganda and carbon controls on the populace started in the halls of the UN.  If you want to know where the rush towards “sustainable development goals” and where the concept of the 15 Minute City comes from, just check the white papers of the UN.  If you want to know who is funding a large portion of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives globally, keep your eyes on the UN.

  

  While think-tanks like the WEF and summits like Davos are designed to keep political and financial elites informed on the overall agenda ahead, the UN is more of a vehicle for public engagement and implementation.  They are the “governing body” that is supposed to give legitimacy to the globalist obsession with world government.  They are the friendly face of the beast, and they come with many gifts and promises of justice and equity.    

  Of course, not everyone is buying it.  In fact, the general assembly this week appears to be centered on that very issue – UN officials are frustrated that their goals have been put on hold and the public is not taking them seriously.  This is the sentiment expressed by António Guterres in the following self organized UN interview summarizing the key topics to be discussed at the assembly.

  Main takeaways include:

  The lack of attendance by four of the five permanent security members with veto power, including Britain, France, Russia and China.  Only Joe Biden will be present at the meeting, and we have to wonder given his fading cognitive abilities how much that will actually matter.  

  Climate change hysteria will once again be at the forefront of UN talks.  The UN has consistently made false claims of record high temperatures (the records they use only go back 140 years and the Earth’s temps have been far higher in the past).  They also make false claims of increasing weather disasters (there is no evidence that today’s weather events are any more dangerous than those of the past century, and no evidence that man-made carbon has any effect on the weather).

  The UN wants to phase out fossil fuels, but this is impossible without a severe degradation of production and population.  There is no “green energy” alternative available to fill the void that fossil fuels will leave behind.  It would be a monumental disaster.  

  The UN wants to “reform” the international financial system.  Meaning, most likely CBDCs will be a point of interest at the assembly, as well as concepts like Inclusive Capitalism.  Reading between the lines, any trace of free markets will be done away with and replaced with a fully socialist framework; all in the name of “financial equity.”  The UN has consistently presented the idea that the economy must be fair, but there is no such thing as economic fairness.  Under socialism it is impossible to make everyone equally wealthy because governments cannot create wealth.  All they can do is steal wealth and make everyone equally poor.  

  UN sentiments on the covid pandemic match with those we have seen out of the WEF and WHO, which is that they are visibly perturbed that their efforts for universal medical authoritarianism failed.  We have seen this time and time again – Globalists are indignant over the lack of compliance from numerous countries and local governments on the lockdowns, mandates and vaccine passports.  

  Specifically, they are angry that the public was able to disseminate counter-information about covid even in the face of widespread censorship by Big Tech working in concert with political leaders.  They don’t like that so many of their covid claims have been debunked.  The UN wants a stronger World Health Organization with more influence over national pandemic response decisions as well as more control over what information is allowed to circulate online.  

  The Ukraine war will be presented as a prime scapegoat.  The UN blames the war for many of their programs on climate being disrupted (who cares about climate hysteria when the threat of WWIII looms large?).  However, it’s important to point out that the UN has made no viable effort to offer a diplomatic solution to the conflict.  In fact, it seems as if they prefer the war to continue (Zelensky will be there to beg for even more money to keep the coflagration going).   

  Guterres indicates that he sees no chance of peace “according to UN charter and international law.”  In other words, the UN is taking the same hard line stance as NATO, refusing to offer any concessions and avoiding all peace negotiations unless Russia exits Eastern Ukraine and Crimea completely, which is not going to happen.  The UN knows that this means the war will continue as long as NATO countries continue to supply arms to Ukraine, unless Russia eliminates every facet of the existing Ukrainian government.  

  Finally, the UN will be talking a lot about AI, but in the capacity of regulation more that capability.  The UN has sought to become the global regulator for AI for years as they continue to suggest that individual nation states cannot be trusted with the power that AI commands.  Why should the UN be trusted with AI more than anyone else?  This question is never addressed.

  This year’s assembly has launched with some undertones of angst, but this may very well be a part of the theater.  After all, globalists need international strife and chaos so that they can then offer their solution of centralization as the cure.  The UN might be hitting a brick wall today in terms of their climate and pandemic agendas, but there is always that next major crisis that could open doors for them in the near future.         

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 18:25

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• Beijing Furious At German FM's Dictator Remark: "Absurd Provocation" Insulting China's "Political Dignity"
  Beijing Furious At German FM’s Dictator Remark: “Absurd Provocation” Insulting China’s “Political Dignity”

  China on Monday reacted angrily after over the weekend a clip of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock referring to President Xi Jinping as a “dictator” went viral. Beijing summoned the German ambassador to China to lodge formal protest, saying it is “extremely dissatisfied” with the remarks which were given to Fox News during Baerbock’s visit to the US.

  China said it has “made serious inquiries” with the German government over the interview. Additionally in a daily briefing foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning called the comments from Germany’s top diplomat “absurd” and blasted the “open political provocation” as the words “violate China’s political dignity”.

  

  Baerbock in the Thursday Fox interview had said “We will support Ukraine as long as it takes,” but then followed with: “If Putin were to win this war, what sign would that be for other dictators in the world, like Xi, like the Chinese president? Therefore, Ukraine has to win this war.”

  The dictator comment immediately grabbed world headlines, with the clip being shared widely on social media.

  “(The comments) are extremely absurd and are a serious infringement of China’s political dignity and an open political provocation,” China’s foreign ministry said.

  China far and away accounts for the bulk of all imports into Germany, with bilateral trade last year hitting record $337 billion.

  On Friday Baerbock met with her US counterpart Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the White House. Blinken said in a press conference afterward that the US and Germany are converging on their approaches to China.

  “We also discussed our common approaches to China, and we very much welcome Germany’s China strategy.  It is very coincident with our own,” Blinken told reporters. “I think it reflects something that we’ve seen around the world, both in Europe, in Asia, as well as in the United States, which is a growing convergence in our approaches to China.”  

  So the German Foreign Minister Bärbock called Xi Jinping a “dictator”

  I’m curious how the German car industry views these kinds of statements….
  🤔 pic.twitter.com/CgI4WC7ftk

  — Richard (@ricwe123) September 15, 2023

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

  He then emphasized while alongside the German FM, “Both of us, among other things, share the goal when it comes to our economic relationships of de-risking, not decoupling.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 02:45

• Libya Dam Disaster Shows Horrific Consequences Of US-NATO Imperialism
  Libya Dam Disaster Shows Horrific Consequences Of US-NATO Imperialism

  Authored by Chris Hedges via Common Dreams,

  “We came, we saw, he died,” Hillary Clinton famously quipped when Muammar Gaddafi, after seven months of U.S. and NATO bombing, was overthrown in 2011 and killed by a mob who sodomized him with a bayonet. But Gaddafi would not be the only one to die. Libya, once the most prosperous and one of the most stable countries in Africa, a country with free healthcare and education, the right for all citizens to a home, subsidized electricity, water and gasoline, along with the lowest infant mortality rate and highest life expectancy on the continent, along with one of the highest literacy rates, swiftly fragmented into warring factions. There are currently two rival regimes battling for control in Libya, along with an array of rogue militias.

  The chaos that followed Western intervention saw weapons from the country’s arsenals flood the black market, with many snatched up by groups such as the Islamic State. Civil society ceased to function. Journalists captured images of migrants from Nigeria, Senegal and Eritrea being beaten and sold as slaves to work in fields or on construction sites. Libya’s infrastructure, including its electrical grids, aquifers, oil fields and dams, fell into disrepair.

  

  And when the torrential rains from Storm Daniel — the climate crisis being another gift to Africa from the industrialized world — overwhelmed two decrepit dams, walls of water 20 feet high raced down to flood the port of Derna and Benghazi, leaving up to 20,000 dead according to Abdulmenam Al-Gaiti, Mayor of Derna, and some 10,000 missing.

  “The fragmentation of the country’s disaster management and disaster response mechanisms, as well as deteriorating infrastructure, exacerbated the enormity of the challenges. The political situation is a driver of risk,” said Professor Petteri Taalas, Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization.

  Taalas told reporters last Thursday that “most of the human casualties” would have been avoided if there had been a “normally operating meteorological service” which “would have issued the [necessary] warnings and also the emergency management of this would have been able to carry out evacuations of the people.”

  Western regime-change, carried out in the name of human rights under the doctrine of R2P (Responsibility to Protect), destroyed Libya – as it did Iraq – as a unified and stable nation. The flood victims are part of the tens of thousands of Libyan dead resulting from our “humanitarian intervention,” which rendered disaster relief non-existent. We bear responsibility for Libya’s prolonged suffering. But once we wreak havoc on a country in the name of saving its persecuted — regardless of whether they are being persecuted or not — we forget they exist.

  Karl Popper in “The Open Society and Its Enemies” warned against utopian engineering, massive social transformations, almost always implanted by force, and led by those who believe they are endowed with a revealed truth. These utopian engineers carry out the wholesale destruction of systems, institutions and social and cultural structures in a vain effort to achieve their vision. In the process, they dismantle the self-correcting mechanisms of incremental and piecemeal reform that are impediments to that grand vision. History is replete with murderous utopian social engineering — the Jacobins, the communists, the fascists and now, in our own age, the globalists, or neoliberal imperialists.

  Libya, like Iraq and Afghanistan, fell victim to the self-delusions peddled by humanitarian interventionists — Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Ben Rhodes, Samantha Power, and Susan Rice. The Obama administration armed and backed an insurgent force that they believed would do the bidding of the U.S. Obama in a recent post urged people to support aid agencies to alleviate the suffering of the people of Libya, a plea that ignited an understandable backlash on social media.

  There is no official tally of the casualties in Libya that have resulted directly and indirectly from the violence in Libya over the last 12 years. This is exacerbated by the fact that NATO failed to investigate casualties resulting from its seven month bombardment of the country in 2011. But the total figure of those killed and injured is likely in the tens of thousands. Action on Armed Violence recorded “8,518 deaths and injuries from explosive violence in Libya” from 2011 to 2020, 6,027 of which were civilian casualties.

  “We came…we saw….he died.”

  A gloating Hillary Clinton receives the news that Muammar Gaddafi has been killed following the NATO intervention in Libya. pic.twitter.com/mL6CSDFYCU

  — MintPress News (@MintPressNews) September 14, 2023

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

  In 2020, a statement published by seven U.N. agencies reported that “Close to 400,000 Libyans have been displaced since the start of the conflict nine years ago — around half of them within the past year, since the attack on the capital, Tripoli, [by Field Marshal Khalifa Belqasim Haftar’s forces] started.”

  “The Libyan economy has been battered by the [civil war], the COVID-19 pandemic, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” the World Bank reported in April of this year. “The country’s fragility is having far-reaching economic and social impact. GDP per capita declined by 50 percent between 2011 and 2020 while it could have increased by 68 percent if the economy had followed its pre-conflict trend,” the report says. “This suggests that Libya’s income per capita could have been 118 percent higher without the conflict. Economic growth in 2022 remained low and volatile due to conflict-related disruptions in oil production.”

  Amnesty International’s 2022 Libya report also makes for grim reading. “Militias, armed groups and security forces continued to arbitrarily detain thousands of people,” it says. “Scores of protesters, lawyers, journalists, critics and activists were rounded up and subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, enforced disappearances and forced ‘confessions’ on camera.” Amnesty describes a country where militias operate with impunity, human rights abuses, including kidnappings and sexual violence, are widespread. It adds that “EU-backed Libyan coastguards and the Stability Support Authority militia intercepted thousands of refugees and migrants at sea and forcibly returned them to detention in Libya. Detained migrants and refugees were subjected to torture, unlawful killings, sexual violence and forced labour.”

  Reports by the U.N. Support Mission to Libya (UNSMIL) are no less dire.

  Stockpiles of weapons and ammunition — estimated to be between 150,000 and 200,000 tons — were looted from Libya with many being trafficked to neighboring states. In Mali, weapons from Libya fuelled a dormant insurgency by the Tuareg, destabilizing the country. It ultimately led to a military coup and a jihadist insurgency which supplanted the Tuareg, as well as a protracted war between the Malian government and jihadists. This triggered another French military intervention and led to 400,000 people being displaced. Weapons and ammunition from Libya also made their way into other parts of the Sahel including Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Burkina Faso.

  The misery and carnage, which rippled out from a dismembered Libya, was unleashed in the name of democratization, nation-building, promoting the rule of law and human rights.

  The pretext for the assault was that Gaddafi was about to launch a military operation to massacre civilians in Benghazi where rebellious forces had seized power. It had as much substance as the charge that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, another example of utopian social engineering that left over a million Iraqi dead and millions more driven from their homes.

  Gaddafi — who I interviewed for two hours in April 1995 near the gutted remains of his home that was bombed by U.S. warplanes in 1986 — and Hussein were targeted not because of what they did to their own people, although both could be brutal. They were targeted because their nations had large oil reserves and were independent of Western control. They renegotiated more favorable contracts for their nations with Western oil producers and awarded oil contracts to China and Russia. Gaddafi also gave the Russian fleet access to the port of Benghazi.

  Hillary Clinton’s emails, obtained via a freedom of information request and published by WikiLeaks, also expose France’s concerns about Gaddafi’s efforts to “provide Francophone African Countries with an alternative to the French Fran (CFA).” Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime adviser to Clinton, reported on his conversations with French intelligence officers about the motivations of French President Nicholas Sarkozy, the chief architect of the attack on Libya. Blumenthal writes that the French president seeks “a greater share of Libyan oil”, increased French influence in the region, an improvement in his domestic political standing, a reassertion of French military power and an end to Gaddafi’s attempts to supplant French influence in “Francophone Africa.”

  Sarkozy, who has been convicted on two separate cases of corruption and breach of campaign finance laws, faces a historic trial in 2025 for allegedly receiving millions of euros in secret illegal campaign contributions from Gadaffi, to assist with his successful 2007 presidential bid.

  These were the real “crimes” in Libya. But the real crimes always remain hidden, papered over by florid rhetoric about democracy and human rights.

  The American experiment, built on slavery, began with a genocidal campaign against Native Americans that was exported to the Philippines and, later, nations such as Vietnam. The narratives we tell ourselves about World War II, largely to justify our right to intervene around the globe, are a lie. It was the Soviet Union that destroyed the German army long before we landed at Normandy. We firebombed cities in Germany and Japan killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. The war in the South Pacific, where one of my uncles fought, was bestial, characterized by rabid racism, mutilation, torture and the routine execution of prisoners. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were egregious war crimes. The U.S. routinely destroys democracies that nationalize U.S. and European corporations as in Chile, Iran and Guatemala, replacing them with repressive military regimes. Washington supported the genocides in Guatemala and East Timor. It embraces the crime of preemptive war. There is little in our history to justify the claim of unique American virtues.

  The nightmares we orchestrated in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya are minimized or ignored by the press while the benefits are exaggerated or fabricated. And since the U.S. does not recognize the International Criminal Court, there is no chance of any American leader being held accountable for their crimes.

  No, it’s not “everyone’s fault”, Washington Post.

  Libya was the wealthiest country in Africa with the highest UN Human Development Index on the continent (see in 2010 👇).

  NATO intervened, bombed the place during 8 months, Hillary said “We came. We saw. He died” after… pic.twitter.com/iPC6V6Mjf0

  — Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) September 15, 2023

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

  Human rights advocates have become a vital cog in the imperial project. The extension of U.S. power, they argue, is a force for good. This is the thesis of Samantha Power’s book “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.” They champion the R2P doctrine, unanimously adopted in 2005 at the U.N. World Summit. Under this doctrine, states are required to respect the human rights of their citizens. When these rights are violated, then sovereignty is nullified. Outside forces are permitted to intervene. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, the former president of the U.N. General Assembly, warned in 2009 that R2P could be misused “to justify arbitrary and selective interventions against the weakest states.”

  “Since the end of the Cold War, the idea of human rights has been made into a justification for intervention by the world’s leading economic and military powers, above all, the United States, in countries that are vulnerable to their attacks,” writes Jean Bricmont in “Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War.” “Until the U.S. invasion of Iraq, [a] large part of the left was often complicit in this ideology of intervention, discovering new ‘Hitlers’ as the need arose, and denouncing antiwar arguments as appeasement on the model of Munich in 1938.”

  The creed of humanitarian intervention is selective. Compassion is extended to “worthy” victims while “unworthy” victims are ignored. Military intervention is good for Iraqis, Afghans or Libyans, but not for Palestinians or Yeminis. Human rights are supposedly sacrosanct when discussing Cuba, Venezuela and Iran, but irrelevant in our offshore penal colonies, the world’s largest open air prison in Gaza or our drone-infested war zones. The persecution of dissidents and journalists is a crime in China or Russia, but not when the targets are Julian Assange and Edward Snowden.

  Utopian social engineering is always catastrophic. It creates power vacuums that augment the suffering of those the utopianists claim to protect. The moral bankruptcy of the liberal class, which I chronicle in “Death of the Liberal Class,” is complete. Liberals have prostituted their supposed values to the Empire. Incapable of taking responsibility for the carnage they inflict, they clamor for more destruction and death to save the world.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 09/19/2023 – 02:00

• Antifa Discussed Plans To Firebomb Federal Buildings, Jan. 6 Court Filing Contends
  Antifa Discussed Plans To Firebomb Federal Buildings, Jan. 6 Court Filing Contends

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

  A group of self-identified Antifa supporters who wanted “civil war and revolution” on Jan. 6 sought online blueprints for federal buildings so they could firebomb them and discussed using a Roman legion formation to attack police lines, a Sept. 15 court filing alleges.

  

  Defendant William Pope of Topeka, Kansas, included the information in a renewed U.S. District Court push (pdf) to compel federal prosecutors to produce all bodycam footage and video filmed by Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) undercover officers on Jan. 6, 2021.

  Mr. Pope, 37, publisher of the news website Free State Kansas, was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, covering the protest and subsequent violence.

  Federal prosecutors charged him with civil disorder, corruptly obstructing an official proceeding, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, impeding ingress or egress in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, impeding passage through the Capitol grounds or buildings, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. He faces a July 2024 trial.

  According to Pope’s latest motion, MPD officers made a traffic stop at 10:15 a.m. on Jan. 6 of a vehicle containing three Antifa operatives: Jonathan Kelly, Logan Grimes, and Dempsey Mikula.

  “Undercover officers who stopped their vehicle said they had received reports that the individuals were carrying weapons,” Mr. Pope wrote. “No footage of this incident has been produced by the government in discovery. However, Kelly live-streamed part of the police stop to Facebook.”

  

  Mr. Kelly refused to allow police to search his vehicle, so they sent for a dog to sniff the vehicle for contraband.

  “A little over ten minutes into Kelly’s livestream, a team of uniformed MPD officers showed up to replace the undercover police,” Mr. Pope wrote. “These uniformed officers wore body cameras and instructed Kelly, Grimes, and Mikula to get out of the vehicle while they waited for the dog to arrive.”

  At least two of the undercover officers who made the traffic stop were wearing colorful bracelets that identified them as members of MPD’s Electronic Surveillance Unit (ESU), which gathered intelligence and shot video around Washington and at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

  Nearly 30 members of the Electronic Surveillance Unit were assigned to duty on Jan. 6, 2021, some of whom were gathering evidence on crowd activity. Members wore a special band on their left wrist to identify themselves as part of the unit, according to the MPD’s 96-page Jan. 6 action plan.

  ‘We Are Antifa’

  The trio of Antifa adherents created a video of themselves singing “We are Antifa” on their drive from Michigan to Washington for the Jan. 6 events, according to a video exhibit filed by Mr. Pope with his motion.

  Metropolitan Police arrested Mr. Grimes—who identifies as a woman and uses the name Leslie—for carrying a pistol without a license and being in possession of a high-capacity magazine and unregistered ammunition, according to Mr. Pope.

  The U.S. Department of Justice “has deemed the Grimes arrest relevant enough to the Jan. 6 cases to produce body camera footage from the officer who transported Grimes from the scene of the arrest to the booking facility,” Mr. Pope wrote, “but the government has withheld recordings from the many other officers who were on scene during the stop, vehicle search, and arrest.”

  Charges against Mr. Grimes were dropped a day later, on Jan. 7, 2021.

  “This lack of prosecution compared to other January 6 cases and the fact that the government continues to hide information about the ESU officers who conducted the Antifa car stop and body camera recordings demonstrates the government is intentionally concealing information about this Antifa seditious conspiracy,” Mr. Pope wrote. “Such information is exculpatory in my case.”

  

  The three Antifa operatives communicated using a server on the social media platform Discord. That server—nicknamed ‘Insurgence’—was managed by John Earle Sullivan, the Black Lives Matter activist who filmed the shooting of Ashli Babbitt near the House of Representatives on Jan. 6, Mr. Pope wrote.

  Mr. Sullivan, 29, of Tooele, Utah, is charged with 10 Jan. 6 crimes, including civil disorder, obstruction of an official proceeding, unlawful possession of a dangerous weapon on Capitol grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous or deadly weapon, and other federal charges. He faces an Oct. 23 trial in Washington.

  “Individuals using Sullivan’s Antifa server began discussing plans to look up blueprints for ‘tax buildings’ online so they could firebomb them by throwing fireworks into broken windows,” Mr. Pope wrote. “In addition to this, Antifa co-conspirators on Sullivan’s server began sharing tactical plans for attacking police lines using a Roman legion formation.”

  Discord Server Coordination

  Mr. Kelly and Mr. Grimes “were clearly conspiring with John Sullivan using Sullivan’s online server,” Mr. Pope wrote. “On December 29, 2020, John Sullivan posted an image of firearms and tactical gear on his Antifa server along with the message: “Civil War and Revolution.”

  Mr. Pope said he believes MPD undercover video and officer bodycam footage could contain more clues about communication and coordination between Mr. Sullivan and Antifa operatives.

  “This makes all ESU recordings and bodycam recordings of Sullivan, Kelly, Grimes, Mikula, and any other conspiring Antifa relevant to my defense, and the government has a Brady [Supreme Court decision] obligation to produce all such recordings and any other tips or related materials in discovery,” Mr. Pope wrote. “This also further justifies my request for the court to grant my motion to compel the government to produce all ESU recordings and body-worn camera footage.”

  At the top of the scaffolding near the police line on Jan. 6, Mr. Sullivan said, “This is a revolution, mother[expletives], let’s go, we taking this [expletive]!” Mr. Pope wrote. “After breaking through police lines, Sullivan said, ‘This [expletive] is ours’ and ‘we accomplished this [expletive].’

  “Sullivan then yelled for people down on the lawn to ‘get up here.’”

  Mr. Kelly, who wore a beige gas mask and carried a baseball bat, was the last person remaining on the southwest scaffolding at the Capitol and had to be removed by police, Mr. Pope wrote.

  

  “Kelly and Mikula then faced off with police lines and stayed at the Capitol past the curfew,” Mr. Pope said.

  Mr. Grimes and Mr. Kelly posted photos of themselves in the crowds near the Ellipse. Mr. Kelly “asked his Antifa co-conspirators on Sullivan’s server whether he should ‘start blasting [expletive] Donald Trump on my megaphone,’” Mr. Pope said. “This demonstrates that those conspiring with Sullivan had a general objective to cause chaos on January 6, 2021.”

  In previous court filings, Mr. Pope disclosed how an undercover MPD officer assisted protesters in climbing over barricades and encouraged them to continue up the northwest steps to the Capitol. He was heard on video participating in crowd chants such as, “Whose House? Our House!”

  More recently, Mr. Pope disclosed how MPD officers on the Capitol’s upper terrace retreated from one of the entrances, giving protesters free access to stream into the Capitol.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 23:40

• Watch: Freight Train Full Of Migrants Heading To Southern US Border 
  Watch: Freight Train Full Of Migrants Heading To Southern US Border 

  Fox News journalist Griff Jenkins shared a video on X showing a freight train packed with hundreds of migrants heading north toward the US border. This further suggests that President Biden’s new strategy to curb illegal southern border crossings may not work. 

  Jenkins explained the FerroMex freight train departed from Zacatecas, Mexico, on Sunday and is “heading to our southern border right now.” He said the migrants were cheering and clearly not heeding the message: do not come.”

  **NEW VIDEO**
  FOX News sources capture a FerroMex train bursting with migrants out of Zacatecas heading to our southern border right now… cheering and clearly not heeding the message: “do not come”@FoxNews pic.twitter.com/YflMwXrWqu

  — Griff Jenkins (@GriffJenkins) September 17, 2023

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  The alarming video comes as President Biden changed up border policies to reduce the number of illegal crossings at the southern border. However, as The Wall Street Journal noted, “The New Plan Isn’t working”: 

  Border crossings from Mexico into the US are on the rise again after an unexpected drop in May and June, when the administration ended its use of the pandemic-era measure known as Title 42 and replaced it with a new set of policies it said would work as a better deterrent.

  US Border Patrol arrested roughly 182,000 people at the U.S.-Mexico border in August, a return to the same level of arrests it made the previous August under Title 42, according to people familiar with the data.

  WSJ pointed out:

  “The crux of Biden’s new strategy at the border is to dissuade migrants from crossing into the US illegally by increasing the penalties for doing so—and by offering them newly created paths to move here legally.” 

  X user Border Hawk revealed one of those rail lines migrants use to get to the border. 

  EXCLUSIVE: Hundreds of Migrants Reaching US Border by Train Every Day

  Border Hawk correspondent Efraín González reports from busy railway tracks in Piedras Negras, Mexico, where large groups of mostly-Venezuelan migrants are arriving daily before crossing illegally into Eagle… pic.twitter.com/Cp8fzIRm2m

  — Border Hawk (@BorderHawkNews) September 15, 2023

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  The latest report by New York Times journalist Julie Turkewitz indicates that migrant numbers heading to the US remain very concerning.

  🧵Last yr, 250,000 ppl crossed the Darién jungle in a desperate attempt to make it to the US. This year, that number has already reached 360k. @federicorios and I have returned again & again to the jungle, trying to understand this flow. Some anecdotes from our latest reporting. pic.twitter.com/I4CxCpM5oL

  — julieturkewitz (@julieturkewitz) September 14, 2023

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  Clearly, the Biden administration has failed to secure the border, but the administration still promotes the idea that its policies are working. Anyone with common sense can see otherwise, as the illegal crossing troubles on the border have spread to New York City and other imploding Democrat-run cities. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 23:15

• How Biden Will Circle The Wagons
  How Biden Will Circle The Wagons

  Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

  The strategies of saving the Biden presidency from an impeachment and a Senate trial despite overwhelming evidence of his corruption are starting to emerge.

  

  The Family is confronted with damning evidence from the laptop, from the testimonies of Hunter’s business associates Bobulinksi and Archer, from Ukrainian oligarchs and Viktor Shokin, from IRS whistleblowers, from FBI writs, from a likely pseudonymous Biden trove of 4,000 emails to his son and associates, and from the absolute paranoia of a White House that must constantly change its narrative of denials to adjust to a growing portrait of utter corruption, bribery, and perhaps even the treason of warping U.S. policy to fit Biden family interests.

  The Defense in Depth 

  One of their strategies is to deny, then hedge, then ignore, then grow silent—and repeat the wash/rinse/spin cycle of stonewalling as many times as necessary to evade the mounting truth.

  Insidiously Joe Biden has retreated from his once loud protestations that he supposedly had no idea of what Hunter and his associates were doing. Such a patently dishonest denial set the model that the President would have no compunction about lying to the American people until the evidence of his wrongdoing becomes overwhelming.

  But this first line of defense did not crumble for years—only to be replaced by a second line of denial: Biden may have known of Hunter’s shenanigans, but he had no business interests with him. That was another blatant untruth.

  And that additional stalling also allowed Biden to ignore the closing walls of incrimination for even more months. When these two forward lines of defense collapsed, as the Biden consortium knew they eventually would, a retreat to a third line of defense followed: yes, Joe knew, after all, of Hunter’s miscreant shakedowns; and, yes, Joe, after all, conceded that from time to time he did meet Hunter’s business associates, and upon requests made phone calls to Hunter’s clientele. But he did not profit from such knowledge and associations. Instead an upright old Joe from Scranton was playing along with the “illusion” of influence peddling: Scranton naiveté is not D.C. criminality.

  Biden’s tripartite lines of defense always got shorter and shallower as evidence mounted. But so far Biden has managed to consume 31 months of his presidency through these strategic retreats. His fourth and final line of defense will likely be that he was involved, that he had rather than feigned contact, but that he did nothing other than what scores of other high-ranking politicians do who rub shoulders with would-be miscreants, sycophants, and crooks—and so did not knowingly take “loans” and “gifts” that had strings attached.

  To breach this fourth defense line, House Republicans will have to break through the labyrinth of Biden paywalls and find how much money was rerouted into Biden coffers. And then they must additionally compare what came into the Biden hands with a) what the family reported on their respective income tax returns, and b) whether their various properties and lifestyles were remotely possible without such massive hidden income. And getting bank records from the Bidens will be near impossible.

  The Ukraine Factor 

  Joe Biden has successfully profited by using American foreign aid to stop prosecutorial inquiries into his son’s and, indirectly per the laptop admissions, his own quid pro quo payments from corrupt Ukrainians.

  The firing of Viktor Shokin who knew of Hunter Biden’s corruption was one of the most blatantly corrupt and self-interested acts of a Vice President since the career of Spiro Agnew. Still, there is no reason why Biden would now give up such a proven successful strategy.

  Yet there are important issues for Biden at stake. One, Viktor Shokin is convinced that the Bidens were recipients of Ukrainian bribes intended to win U.S. foreign aid and influence over American foreign policy in Eastern Europe and vis a vis Russia.

  And two, an FBI confidential source has sworn that “a foreign national who allegedly bribed Joe and Hunter Biden allegedly has audio recordings of his conversations with them — 17 such recordings.” And three, to corroborate testimonies from these Ukrainian players or to subpoena the purported 17 recordings would now translate into risking the wrath of Joe Biden the giver of massive Ukrainian military aid—now likely over $100 billion—and formerly on record of being perfectly willing to cancel Ukrainian aid unless Kyiv bent to his personal agenda.

  Now in an existential war, Ukrainians will likely not wish either Viktor Shokin or Mykola Zlochevsky, former head of Burisma and said to be in possession of the 17 recordings (including two that purportedly involve Joe Biden directly), to embarrass much less help to remove Biden by producing evidence confirming their charges.

  So we should assume the Ukrainian government will do its best to protect Biden from fellow Ukrainian accusers, mostly by silencing any Ukrainian who would dare endanger their stream of arms and money. For Kyiv, the ongoing Biden exemption from impeachment and conviction is likely seen as a matter of life and death.

  The Big Lie

  A third defense has been outright lying, the bolder and more absurd, all the better. Here Joe Biden has prepped the lying battlefield, whether deliberately or inadvertently, both through his pathological fabrications about his autobiography and the events of our time, and by the collapse of his cognitive facilities.

  Either way, his lies are contextualized by the media as “that’s just ole Joe spinning his tales.” In Biden’s fantasy world, he visited Ground Zero the day after the September 11 attacks, he taught a course on “political theory” at the University of Pennsylvania, his son Beau came home from Iraq in a coffin, and a catastrophic fire nearly consumed the Biden residence.

  All these were not only lies, but callous lies that played on the emotions of those in crisis and suffering—to the purported empathetic advantage of Joe Biden himself. So Biden has no compunction of lying ad infinitum.

  Remember, for years he lied that he fired Shokin because he was corrupt, that his government knew that, that the Europeans agreed, and that he did not leverage U.S. aid to ensure Shokin did not pursue Hunter’s Burisma nefariousness.

  All that was a total lie, but a media-protected lie nonetheless that served Biden well for at least five years.

  So we should expect the Left to embrace the full Biden lie and claim his serial contact with Hunter was the natural concern of a dutiful father, one who has suffered family tragedies and merely periodically called and emailed to cement family solidarity with other equally aggrieved Bidens.

  And when evidence mounts that Biden really did receive funds via Hunter’s dummy companies we will be told that these were loans, or Joe was gifting them to grandchildren—or, most likely, Joe was completely unaware that such funds eventually found their way into his bank accounts and were used to buy and rent his various sumptuous residences.

  Trump 24/7

  At each stage of the walls closing around Joe Biden, a commensurate “Trump did it” news bulletin emerged. Collate the indictments or the leaks about impending indictments from the supposedly uncoordinated work of Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, Jack Smith, and Fani Willis both with iconic primary election dates ahead, and periodic revelations about the depth of Biden family corruption—and the synchronized distraction is quite stunning.

  Expect in the next year for each new incriminating document released, each new witness that comes forward with a tale of Biden corruption, almost immediately the headlines will blare about a new Trump gag order, a new scheduled Trump court appearance, a new flipped witness cooperating with a prosecutor, and a new leak about a “certain” conviction and jail time. The new media war will make its old Russian collusion’s “all-star,” “hunter-killer team,” and “dream team” prosecutors and the “bombshell” and “walls are closing in” revelations seem like child’s play.

  A Hit-bottom Media

  After being utterly discredited by fixating for years on the Russian “collusion” hoax, and hyping the laptop Russian “disinformation” fable, any professional media would by now have apologized, conducted mass firings, and pledged to report the news rather than massage and invent it.

  But no sooner does one media embarrassment end than the media ventures onto another, on the theory that it is so discredited and has hit bottom that it no longer has any reputation to defend. So a now liberated but bankrupt media feels it matters nothing whether its mythologies have a grain of truth.

  The Biden family corruption and the exemptions given Hunter Biden by a corrupt Biden department of Justice have been contextualized by the media as a prelude to what we can expect of the impeachment inquiry.

  In the modern American media, a Trump phone call threatening to delay offensive military aid until the Ukraine government could guarantee that its operatives were not empowering the Biden quid pro quo clan was an impeachable offense. A self-confessed Biden effort to alter US policy to fire a Ukrainian prosecutor, dutifully investigating the Hunter Biden/Biden family corruption, by threatening to cancel all U.S. aid to Kyiv was mere “familial” concern. Where incidentally is the outrage from current vehement supporters of blank-check, on-to-Moscow support for Ukraine over Joe Biden’s prior threats to cut critical military aid to Ukraine in efforts to ensure uninterrupted money streams to his own family treasure chest

  In sum, the media is more tarnished than ever, and therefore more dangerous because it accepts it has no reputation left to defend and now is entirely unbound to invent, to fabricate, and to smear.

  The Deep State

  In 2017 under media and Democratic pressure, the Trump-appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions was bullied into recusing himself. He appointed in his place Robert Mueller as special counsel, empowered by an unlimited budget and a blank-check concerning time and resources to find “collusion.”

  In contrast, in 2023 the Biden-appointed AG Merrick Garland, under fierce criticism for delaying the Hunter Biden investigation in order to run out of the clock on the statute of limitations on tax fraud, appointed David Weiss as special counsel. He was the prior chief culprit in providing cover for Hunter from indictments. So the proverbial fox is now in charge of the hen house.

  In 2019 the “whistleblower” Eric Ciaramella was considered a sacrosanct patriot, even though he had no firsthand knowledge of the supposed crimes he was accusing the president of committing. Instead, the whistleblower was selectively being spoon-fed information from Alexander Vindman, the expatriate U.S. Lt. Colonel, who, in the midst of his accusations, admitted he was offered the Ministry of Defense by the Ukrainian government. Vindman, currently in the second round of his careerist Ukrainian melodrama, is self-appointed CEO of his middleman company, seeking to profit from the war by facilitating the transfer and service of arms from the U.S. government to Ukraine.

  Note the difference: in 2023 whistle blowers are now considered rogues, whether they be honest IRS investigators sickened by the corruption of their own DOJ prosecutorial counterparts, or FBI agents tired of the warping of their agency to facilitate the Biden coverups.

  The net result will be a near impossible congressional task in forcing any federal agency to honor a congressional subpoena, as most will follow the Eric Holder model of a cocky snub of Congress with certainty of exemption.

  The “Do You Really Want President Harris?” Factor

  If the evidence trumps the Biden reliance on administrative state suppression, media bias and character assassination, there is one ace in the Biden hole—Kamala Harris. She is, as has been widely remarked upon, the Spiro Agnew of our age. (Yet the latter, in fact, on the stump was a Cicero in comparison to Harris’s 500-word vocabulary.)

  In other words, the country is more scared of a not corrupt Harris than it is a senile and crooked Biden. And Biden has done nothing to dispel those impressions given that such a Nixonian fear of his Vice President is his last ticket to finishing out his term.

  Not just Biden but millions in the country are anxious that the president is one fall, one new email disclosure from oblivion. His ensuing removal would not just give Harris the presidency in the next year and a half, but also the advantage of incumbency going into the 2024 election year and beyond.

  So expect that the more the proverbial noose tightens around Biden, all the more his West Wing will leak daily stories about Harris’s puerility, her lightness of being, and her abject incompetence, and the dangers she would pose to the republic.

  The DEFCON 1 Option

  There is a final nihilist gambit. If Biden is confronted with his own email evidence of corruption, tapes of his agreement to financial exchanges, bank accounts with large foreign deposits, and direct testimonies that he received cash, he has one last refuge: the “Hunter did it all!” ruse.

  Hunter is all too aware of his own danger. Collate his mischievous recent grifting artistic career, the Malibu-renting Hunter trying to plead poverty to reduce child-support payments, the mysterious cocaine that turns up in a West Wing cubicle, his laptop anger at his Mr. Big Guy’s and Mr. 10 Percent’s underappreciation of Hunter’s bagman role, and Hunter’s threat to call the President of the United States to testify that a now trapped Hunter is innocent of everything.

  The resulting picture that emerges is an out-of-control Hunter—who lost a laptop, a crack pipe, and an illegally registered handgun—now very worried that he will become Joe’s scapegoat.

  Hunter still believes he is a Samson that can pull down the Biden temple upon them all—if the alternative is that he is the only Biden to stew for years in jail.

  Remember, Hunter also knows his father all too well—Joe’s long resume of plagiarism, greed, arrogance, corruption, lying, and fantasies—and so rightly believes at some point Joe might easily shrug, and in one of his “senile” moments, utter, “Well, no Joke, man—it was all Hunter’s stuff, not mine.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 22:50

• Justin Trudeau Accuses India Of Extrajudicial Killing On Canadian Soil
  Justin Trudeau Accuses India Of Extrajudicial Killing On Canadian Soil

  An unprecedented major row in Canada-India relations has broken out into the open on Monday, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a televised speech to the House of Commons accused Indian intelligence of carrying out an extrajudicial killing on Canadian soil. 

  Trudeau cited “credible” intelligence pointing to “agents of the government of India” as being behind the June murder of a prominent Sikh leader named Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia.

  NOW – Canada’s Trudeau is accusing the government of India of being behind a fatal shooting on Canadian soil — CNC pic.twitter.com/rp1PRyKHwz

  — Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) September 18, 2023

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  “Over the past number of weeks, Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of a potential link between agents of the government of India and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” Trudeau announced in the speech to lawmakers.

  “Any involvement of a foreign government in the killing of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil is an unacceptable violation of our sovereignty. It is contrary to the fundamental rules by which free, open and democratic societies,” he continued.

  The stunning and unprecedented moment of such a severe accusation as this leveled among large nation-states is likely to send already tension-filled India-Canadian ties falling off a cliff. Trudeau had also revealed to parliament that he had raised the alleged assassination of the Canadian Sikh leader with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G-20 summit last week.

  Canada on Monday promptly expelled a top Indian diplomat, described as the head of Indian intelligence in Canada, amid an ongoing investigation. India is being asked to fully cooperate with the Canadian investigation.

  

  45-year old Nijjar had been shot dead in parking lot of a Sikh temple in Surrey after an evening service on June 18. Nijjar was a prominent figure of international stature in the Khalistan independence movement, which supports the establishment of separate state for Sikhs in India. Due to its separationist political activities, groups associated with the movement have been dubbed “terrorist organizations”. 

  Nijjar himself was a wanted man in India, described as among the country’s top wanted foreign “terrorists”.

  Here’s how Indian media has covered his killing, saying that a ‘terror leader’ had been shot, and accusing him of leading “training camps” in Canada for militants to carry out operations inside India…

  Khalistani terrorist “Hardeep Singh Nijjar,” chief of Canada based Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF), shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Surrey City of British Columbia province in Canada. #Canada India’s most wanted #Khalistani terrorist ‘Nijjar’ seen brandishing Assault Rifle pic.twitter.com/Of4t26tvFn

  — swathisankar (@swathisankar_2) June 20, 2023

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  Thousands of Canadian Sikh’s attended his funeral, and the killing has sparked outrage in Metro Vancouver’s large Sikh community.

  The Canadian government has meanwhile rejected the ‘terrorism’ narrative and has emphasized Nijjar’s Canadian citizenship. 

  #BREAKING: Canadian Foreign Minister @melaniejoly says Canada has expelled a top Indian diplomat accusing India of killing a Khalistani radical Canadian Citizen. Canada is escalating a diplomatic standoff with India. Expect more fireworks in coming days. pic.twitter.com/IldOaOwow8

  — Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) September 18, 2023

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  Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly in the wake of Trudeau’s Monday speech confirmed that the head of Indian intelligence in Canada, based out of the Indian embassy, had been expelled as a consequence. “If proven true this would be a great violation of our sovereignty and of the most basic rule of how countries deal with each other,” she said of the Nijjar murder.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 22:25

• 'It Was My Decision': Trump Defends 2020 Election Challenge
  ‘It Was My Decision’: Trump Defends 2020 Election Challenge

  Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  President Trump gave some background on how the decision to challenge the 2020 elections came about.

  

  Former President Donald Trump received advice from many different people after the 2020 elections, and after weighing various opinions, as well as his own thoughts about it, he ultimately decided to formally challenge the results.

  In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker, he spoke about what went into the decision.

  “I was listening to different people. And when I added it all up, the election was rigged,” he said. “It was my decision.”

  The two discussed the four criminal indictments against President Trump, including the one in Washington that alleges his actions in challenging the election went too far, tying the charges to the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

  Ms. Welker asked why he decided to challenge the elections even after “the most senior lawyers in your own administration and on your campaign” told him he lost.

  “I didn’t respect them as lawyers,” he said, adding that former Attorney General Bill Barr had allegedly been afraid of an impeachment inquiry and acted to avoid that, and many others he had hired based on recommendations. “But I did respect others.”

  “It’s my choice,” he added. “I happen to know that the election was rigged,” he said, referring to evidence he had initially planned to release after the Georgia indictment of him, also for challenging the election results. On the advice of his current legal counsel, the evidence will be a part of his defense in upcoming trials instead.

  Ms. Welker asked if the 45th president, who is far ahead of other GOP candidates running for office in 2024, whether he believed he lost the 2020 elections.

  “I say I won the election,” he clarified.

  “Even though, again, your lawyers told you you did not,” she said.

  “Some people told me that. But many people told me the opposite,” he responded, leading her to question why he listened to “outside lawyers” who “had crazy theories.”

  “Were you listening to them because they were telling you what you wanted to hear?” she asked.

  “You know who I listen to? Myself. I saw what happened. I watched that election, and I thought the election was over at 10 o’clock in the evening,” he said.

  “It was my decision,” he said.

  January 6

  The former president clarified his role of Jan. 6, 2021, as well.

  Special counsel Jack Smith is now prosecuting the Washington case against President Trump, alleging conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and conspiracy against rights. They relate to Jan. 6 only in terms of his calls to delay the vote certification in Congress on that day.

  “First of all, I had very little to do with January 6th,” he said, referring to the Capitol breach. “I was asked to speak, and I was the President of the United States. I’m allowed to do that.“

  He said that “hundreds of thousands of people were there, and it was a beautiful, beautiful sight,” and that he spoke “peacefully and patriotically” at the event. He told Ms. Welker he had thought about going into the Capitol that day, but Secret Service advised him to go back to the White House.

  “I wanted to go down peacefully and patriotically to the Capitol. Secret Service, who I have great respect for, said, ‘Sir, it’s better if you don’t do that. It could be unsafe,'” President Trump said. He clarified they didn’t mean they anticipated a riot, but because with such a large crowd, a single assailant would have significant cover. “So I didn’t have a dispute with them.”

  He further alleged that the breach happened because then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) turned down his offer of 10,000 additional National Guard. “She’s responsible for January 6th,” he alleged. “And the J6 Committee refused to interview her.”

  He noted that the treatment of those who were present was one reason he decided to run for reelection.

  “People that went [there], that didn’t even go into the building, have suffered gravely,” he said, pointing out that rioters in cities across the country calling to “defund the police” were not prosecuted in the same way. The Department of Justice has thus far brought 1,100 cases against those who were present on Jan. 6, and efforts continue.

  “When you launched your campaign in March, you told the crowd, quote, ‘I am your retribution.’ What does that mean? What does that look like?” Ms. Welker asked President Trump.

  “I think retribution is talking in terms of I have to protect people,” he said. “What they’re doing to people is so horrible. They’re putting people in jail for long periods of time. Firemen, policemen, accountants, even lawyers. They’re in prisons for years now and don’t even have trials in some cases.”

  “I’m talking about fairness,” he said, adding he was open to pardoning those who were wrongly imprisoned, and dismissing rumors that he planned to fire or target his political opponents. “I’m looking to appoint an attorney general who’s going to be tough on crime and fair. Very simple.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 22:00

• Hold On To Your Wallets! Zelensky's Back In Town
  Hold On To Your Wallets! Zelensky’s Back In Town

  The Ron Paul Institute explains that after shipping some $45 billion in military equipment to Ukraine, the Biden Administration is bringing Ukrainian President Zelensky back to Washington to beg for more money. But with the war going badly for Ukraine and strong US opposition to spending more on the effort, it looks to be an uphill battle.

  Also today: who was the armed guy impersonating a cop at the RFK rally…and why can’t RFK get Secret Service Protection? Finally…Homeland Security has a new target: you! Watch today’s Liberty Report:

  * * *

  Zelensky is first expected to attend and will likely address a special session on Ukraine at the UN Security Council (UNSC). This means fireworks and controversy will likely be unleashed at the assembly as it will be a rare moment that the Ukrainian leader speaks at a forum with Russian representatives in attendance, given Russia is a veto-wielding permanent member of the UNSC. Some 140 world leaders will attend the UN General Assembly in New York City this week.

  The following day, Zelensky will drop in to the White House and attend meetings on Capitol Hill. He’s expected to press for more advanced weaponry, to be delivered at a faster rate, but Richard Gowan, an expert on the United Nations at the International Crisis Group, has explained to the AFP: 

  “If he’s too hardline, he may actually turn this opportunity into a bit of a diplomatic crisis,” he said.

  And the Washington Post agrees that with the counteroffensive going so badly, it’ll be a tough sell…

  Ukrainian officials had hoped to ride into New York this week touting major gains in their summer counteroffensive, but Russia’s entrenched forces have stymied efforts to achieve a major breakthrough, and both sides continue to sustain heavy casualties.

  The conflict’s toll on food and energy prices has accelerated calls in the developing world for a negotiated settlement. And support among the American public has been slipping as a segment of the Republican Party criticizes the war effort’s estimated $73 billion price tag.

  Still, WaPo calls Zelensky the “conflict’s most charismatic voice” and it’s expected he’ll present a dramatic narrative of horrific Russian atrocities and human rights abuses.

  But by and large his “star power” has faded since his first visit to Washington in December 2022, given also the fickle American public has generally grown war-weary, recent polls reflect, and as headlines covering the conflict have come and gone with rapidity, getting less and less featured in the front pages of US newspapers or on the big TV networks when compared to the frequency of a year ago.

  A sampling of what can be expected of Zelensky’s messaging in New York and Washington this week:

  “We are fighting … a nuclear state that threatens to destroy the world,” says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

  “If Ukraine falls, what will happen in ten years? … If [the Russians] reach Poland, what’s next? A third world war?” https://t.co/uDGl2LK1w1 pic.twitter.com/AbFq6zPFxj

  — 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) September 17, 2023

  Currently, there’s ongoing talk within the administration of Ukraine getting approval for the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), which has a max range of 190 miles. Certainly Zelensky is going to press for this and more. Will Biden make this the focus of a “big” announcement when he greets Zelensky at the White House later this week?

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 21:35

• Chinese Spy Balloon Collected No Intelligence, Milley Now Says
  Chinese Spy Balloon Collected No Intelligence, Milley Now Says

  Authored by Kyle Anzalone via AntiWar.com,

  In February, a Chinese balloon floated over the US, prompting politicians on both sides of the aisle to claim Beijing was threatening Americans. The event led American officials to cancel high-level meetings with their Chinese diplomats. Seven months later, Gen. Mark Milley said the balloon never collected intelligence.

  Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told “CBS News Sunday Morning” the US intelligence community does not believe the craft collected intelligence but still maintained it was a “spy balloon.” America’s top general said, “The intelligence community, their assessment – and it’s a high-confidence assessment – [is] that there was no intelligence collection by that balloon.” Milley continued, “I would say it was a spy balloon that we know with a high degree of certainty got no intelligence, and didn’t transmit any intelligence back to China.”

  

  In Early February, a large balloon was spotted in the northern US. The craft was immediately claimed to be a spy craft by American officials. Secretary of State Antony Blinken slammed Beijing’s decision to fly the balloon over the US as “both unacceptable and irresponsible.” America’s top diplomat then canceled a meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister.

  On Sunday, Milley, who is retiring later this month, explained that the Chinese balloon ended up over the US due to unexpected weather. “Those winds are very high,” the general said. “The particular motor on that aircraft can’t go against those winds at that altitude.”

  From the start, Beijing has contested Washington’s claims that the craft was intended for surveillance, insisting it was merely a weather balloon for scientific purposes. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Washington’s response to the balloon damaged bilateral relations. “This is a clear overreaction that seriously contravenes the spirit of international law and customary international practice,” he explained. “What the US did has had a grave impact on the efforts and progress made by China and the US in stabilizing bilateral relations.”

  Still, politicians told Americans the balloon was a threat. Senator Lindsey Graham claimed Beijing was “up to no good.” “I don’t know crap about balloons, but I got common sense that if the Chinese got a balloon with three tractor trailers hitched to it, they’re up to no good,” the senator stated. “And why would you let them go to South Carolina? This makes no sense, it doesn’t pass the smell test, and this is dangerous.”

  Democrat Sen. Jon Tester called the balloon “a clear threat.” While Democrat Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi “Indeed, this incident demonstrates that the CCP threat is not confined to distant shores — it is here at home and we must act to counter this threat.”

  Earlier this year America’s military defenses were put on notice against a Chinese balloon believed to be on an espionage mission. Gen. Mark Milley talks about what we’ve learned from an examination of the balloon’s wreckage. https://t.co/mPOmaAgfBE pic.twitter.com/83rMjPV6Hd

  — CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) September 17, 2023

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

  Senator Ted Cruz described the balloon as a threat and attacked President Joe Biden for not shooting down the craft over the US. “He allowed a full week for the Chinese to conduct spying operations over the United States, over sensitive military installations, exposing not just photographs but the potential of intercepted communications.” He added, “[Shooting down the balloon] is absolutely what the president should have done. Unfortunately, he didn’t do that until a week after it entered US airspace.”

  Biden ordered the military to shoot down the balloon after it had passed over the US and it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. In the weeks after the Chinese craft crossed American skies, Biden ordered the military to shoot down three additional balloons. The Pentagon later admitted that all three craft were civilian-launched weather and hobby balloons.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 21:10

• Digital Second Amendment Unveiled: Anti-Woke AI Bot Equips Users With "Newest Weapons Of Digital Age"
  Digital Second Amendment Unveiled: Anti-Woke AI Bot Equips Users With “Newest Weapons Of Digital Age”

  Earlier this year, Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT gained significant popularity. Even though JPMorgan suggests the AI bubble may have leveled off recently, the momentum in AI chatbot development continues. 

  Mainstream AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Bing, and Google’s Bard attempt to sound neutral or refuse to answer provocative questions because their AI trainers and corporate funders are ‘woke’ and embrace government censorship. Many folks complained earlier this year about left-leaning biased answers from these woke AI bots. 

  “The danger of training AI to be woke — in other words, lie — is deadly,” Elon Musk posted on X in December after another user asked OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for a version of ChatGPT with the “woke settings” turned “off.” This led Musk to tweet earlier this year about creating his own uncensored chatbot that is free of corporate or governmental control. 

  Musk likely kicked off the counter bot (anti-woke bot) movement. The first of its kind, GatGPT, free of safety filters and woke guardrails, has been released by Defense Distributed, the company that pioneered the first 3D-printed firearm over a decade ago. 

  

  “GatGPT” leverages a pre-trained large language model fine-tuned on both general instruct datasets and expert, domain-specific firearm datasets. Defense Distributed created a subset of the GPT-4 OpenOrca dataset that is free of political and ethical contamination. 

  

  The team that built GatGPT, led by Cody Wilson, contends AI safety is a pretext for censorship and political control. They have declared a “[[Digital Second Amendment]]” that pledges to protect and distribute “the newest weapons of the digital age, not just to defend ourselves against corporate and government depredation, but to defend our civic identity and humanity.” 

  Wilson’s team laid out a series of events this year that shows what’s coming down the pipe: AI censorship by Silicon Valley and Washington, DC, elites: 

  • CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman before Congress, May 2023: “Government intervention will be critical.” Please regulate us!

  • CEO of Anthropic Amodei before Senate Judiciary Committee , July 25th 2023: Presentation “Oversight of AI: Principles for Regulation”. Please prevent the public from making weapons with AI!

  • Sept. 13th, 2023 Chuck Schumer holds private chamber, off the record, closed to the public meeting with heads of the large US AI firms. Elon Musk, caught afterward by the press, says Schumer did a “great service to humanity.” All present were asked to raise their hands in support of AI regulation.

  “This is an open conspiracy against the public. But it is too late,” the team said. 

  They expanded more on GatGPT and how the Digital Second Amendment will help shield law-abiding citizens from tyranny at the highest levels: 

  Our federal government operates in a partnership with large, private firms to anticipate and informally execute the government of the American people regardless of official action. It launders its agenda. After Russiagate and COVID, we all know of the alliance between the tech oligarchies and the national security establishment. Their union has produced a “counter-disinformation” complex whose goal is the total control of the Internet and public speech.

  AI journalism is uniformly produced in assistance of the narrative that the public requires regulation in advance of a national security event or, as is more fashionable, because the public cannot be trusted to live online with its own information interests. American journalism is here an extension of our government’s civil service.

  Defense Distributed, in releasing GatGPT, declares a Digital Second Amendment. Americans must have access to compute, databases, and AI models, the newest weapons of the digital age, not just to defend ourselves against corporate and government depredation, but to defend our civic identity and humanity.

  Ours is not a Magna Carta for Cyberspace. We know the disastrous history and direction of Internet regulation. The Communications Decency Act passed in response to a moral panic over online pornography, and only accidentally yielded the protections of Section 230. The story repeats itself with public and private attempts to regulate the people’s cryptography, printable gun files, and Bitcoin. 

  AI regulation is an open and official provocation against the Liberty and Sovereignty of American citizens. All who advocate for it are domestic enemies of the Constitution and must be absolutely opposed. The right of the people to keep and deploy models shall not be infringed.

  The rise of censor-free bots is only just beginning.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 20:45

• California Gov. Newsom Boosts AI "Misinformation" Fears, Complains Of "Micro-Cults" Around Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan
  California Gov. Newsom Boosts AI “Misinformation” Fears, Complains Of “Micro-Cults” Around Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan

  Authored by Christina Maas via ReclaimTheNet,org,

  In yet another criticism of free speech, Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom of California is setting his sights on artificial intelligence (AI), voicing his concern over supposed “misinformation” circulating online.

  

  Newsom flagged misinformation as a pivotal issue during a Bloomberg AI interview, signifying a growing avenue where possible free speech issues arise.

  Newsom’s concern isn’t merely hypothetical.

  Overwhelmed by fear of a so-called online “micro-cult” scenario, he cited popular commentator Dr. Jordan Peterson and podcast heavyweight Joe Rogan, among others, as alleged promoters of potentially harmful viewpoints.

  “[Separately] I really worry about the misinformation, disinformation…

  …about what’s happening with our country, but I really worry about these micro-cults that my kids are in…

  …I say micro-cults because I don’t know if there’s a better way to describe it.

  …My son is asking me about Andrew Tate, Jordan Peterson. And then immediately he’s talking about Joe Rogan. And I’m like; here it is, the pathway,” Newsom said.

  That’s not to say Newsom is entirely anti-AI; quite the contrary.

  He revealed his regular use of AI, crediting it for paving paths his administration wouldn’t have otherwise traversed.

  It even bested him and his team at drafting his State of the State speech, he claimed, and he appeared rather pleased with the comparative function of AI services Bard and ChatGPT.

  And, of course, “democracy” itself is at risk…

  “We’ve talked to some friends, and you may know them well, I won’t name them, who say this is the last quote unquote fair and free election of our lifetime.

  These are pretty credible people.

  Unless we dramatically do things differently. And some would suggest that’s not the case, that already the ability for bots to… direct people into these micro cults, already is outsized in terms of its influence.

  That’s pretty alarming when you think about it in those terms.”

  Interestingly, ChatGPT has been previously revealed to harbor a partisan bias.

  *  *  *

  If you’re tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 20:20

• "They Were Laughing": Rogue Gang Of Teens Brutally Beat Gas Station Clerk In Lawless Seattle
  “They Were Laughing”: Rogue Gang Of Teens Brutally Beat Gas Station Clerk In Lawless Seattle

  A violent assault on a Seattle gas station clerk by teenagers, all for $100 and cigarettes, further highlights the growing culture of violence plaguing America’s younger generation. 

  Local news Fox 13 said the gas station clerk in Normandy Park was attending the register Friday night when a gang of young teens, driving a stolen Kia and Hyundai, ransacked the store, and in the process, one of the kids brutally beat the clerk while the others stole $100 from the register and cigarettes. 

  They pummel a woman in order to steal cigarettes in Seattle. How many more of these videos until the public starts to demand another round of tough-on-crime legislation?pic.twitter.com/qWC9cd9PSh

  — Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) September 18, 2023

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

  “Kids don’t seem to fear anything anymore,” Leah Johnston, the gas station cashier at Friendly Normandy Market, told Fox 13, adding, “There’s like, no repercussions for them the way there used to be.” 

  Johnston is correct. Progressive cities like Seattle have defunded police and only emboldened criminals to commit thefts and other violent crimes. 

  She explained the robbery only lasted 25 seconds. During it, she described, “They were laughing. They had no [regard] for anything. They don’t care anymore.” 

  Johnston continued, “I know of people who have been robbed, I know in the back of my mind it can always happen. But, I never thought that I would be attacked the way I was attacked.”

  King County Sheriff’s Department was dispatched to help with the investigation to identify the six suspects, some of whom were teens. 

  In a separate incident in August, only to be reported over the weekend after progressive mainstream media failed to report it, were two teens who murdered a bicyclist “for laughs” with a car in Las Vegas. 

  🚨Las Vegas juveniles involved in two hit-and-run crashes after stealing Hyundai & recording their crimes. One of their victims, a 64 yr old male, was riding a mountain bike & later died of his injuries. Both juveniles were caught by LVPD.

  TikTok generation, smh! 🫤 pic.twitter.com/k4o0bKqQip

  — Joanne (@NewportBeachNBT) September 16, 2023

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

  Nationwide, there’s an alarming trend in violence committed by teens. Some experts question if mental health issues stemming from Covid lockdowns are the reason for the outbursts of violence. Or perhaps Hollywood desensitizes teens with violent movies, songs, and video games. Or maybe it’s social media or the state promoting fatherless homes.

  While it’s too early to tell why the younger generation feels the need to reenact scenes from the video game ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ failed social justice reform has only fueled a crime wave rocking major metro areas.  

  Maybe it’s time for the Biden administration to address the violent youth crime wave that is now killing innocent law-abiding Americans. Remember, the government is supposed to work for law-abiding taxpayers — not the other way around. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 19:55

• US Debt Rises Above $33 Trillion For The First Time, Soars By $1 Trillion In 3 Months
  US Debt Rises Above $33 Trillion For The First Time, Soars By $1 Trillion In 3 Months

  On Sept 6, when looking at the latest daily debt numbers, we predicted that total US debt would hit the very special (at least for Masons) number of 33 in two weeks.

  Early by 2 days. https://t.co/HZ9INBIFRf

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 18, 2023

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

  We were off by 2 days, with the US treasury naturally obliging by hitting the number early rather than late.

  Today, the Treasury announced that for the first time, total US debt has surpassed $33 trillion, rising by $56 billion in one day, and by a mindblowing $1 trillion in just the past 3 months!

  

  The historic breakout takes place just weeks before the interest on total Federal debt is set to hit $1 trillion, surpassing how much the US spends on defense – and soon after – every other outlay category.

  

  Finally, for those who expect a happy ending, we have one word: “don’t.”

  Here is the CBO’s latest debt forecast. It shows that US debt is now set to hit $50 trillion by 2030 (probably much sooner though), and then proceed exponentially higher until the US currency finally collapses.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 19:30

• Sullivan's 'Secret Talks' With China Were Set Against Backdrop Of Turnover, Upheaval In Xi's Cabinet
  Sullivan’s ‘Secret Talks’ With China Were Set Against Backdrop Of Turnover, Upheaval In Xi’s Cabinet

  Hours of “constructive talks” between top US and Chinese officials on the island of Malta on Sunday were done in secret. The delegations spent 12 hours together in total for the two day intense talks.

  A note from Rabobank says there’s more than meets the eye, given some recent unexplained upheaval in Xi’s administration [emphasis ZH]…

  Chinese Foreign Secretary Wang Yi met with US National Security Advisor Sullivan in Malta over the weekend in the latest attempt to soften US-China relations ahead of a possible meeting between Presidents Biden and Xi.

  The Malta meeting comes four months after a secret meeting between Chinese and US officials in Vienna. In view of Xi’s absence from the recent G20 meeting in India, and the tensions between the US and China, there is concern as to whether he will show for the APEC gatherings in San Francisco in November. 

  The Malta meeting has taken place at a time of rising speculation about the transparency, and possibly, durability of Xi’s leadership. A second Chinese minister has reportedly been removed from public view. Defense Minister Li Shangfu has apparently disappeared, this follows the absence of former Foreign Minister Qin Gang.

  The disappearance of another Minister raises concern about Chinese politics

  Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu recently addressed a China-Africa security forum in Beijing, stating that the world was entering a new phase of “instability.” However, concerns are emerging regarding… pic.twitter.com/wz6lBOYI8u

  — Spotlight on China (@spotlightoncn) September 18, 2023

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

  * * *

  A follow-on readout from Sullivan’s office described the Malta talks as “part of ongoing efforts to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage the relationship.” 

  It said “The two sides had candid, substantive, and constructive discussions, building on the engagements between President Biden and President Xi in Bali, Indonesia in November 2022.” Listed among key topics of discussion were global and regional security issues, including in the Taiwan Strait, as well as the war in Ukraine.

  The Biden administration has previously expressed concern that fraying relations and worsening communications could lead to “unintentional confrontation” if the spiral is not halted. 

  A US official has told Reuters “there have been some small or limited indications” that Beijing is ready to reopen some cross-military communications with the Pentagon. The deconfliction hotline was severed following the August 2022 visit of then House speaker Nancy Pelosi. 

  Also, could Gen. Mark Milley’s weekend comments to “CBS News Sunday Morning” been an attempt to further defuse tensions by downplaying the February spy balloon incident? Certainly that had been another key moment that drastically worsened US-China relations.

  

  “The intelligence community, their assessment – and it’s a high-confidence assessment – [is] that there was no intelligence collection by that balloon.” Milley said, “I would say it was a spy balloon that we know with a high degree of certainty got no intelligence, and didn’t transmit any intelligence back to China.”

  Likely the subject was broached in the Malta meetings between Sullivan and Wang Yi. Perhaps it’s an attempt to bury the hatchet and get past the balloon drama. But interestingly, just on the heels of the Malta meetings…

  Beijing and Moscow were expected to step up their strategic coordination as China’s top diplomat Wang Yi kicked off a four-day visit to Russia for security talks ahead of a possible visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin next month.

  China’s foreign ministry announced on Monday that Wang, the Chinese foreign minister and a Politburo member who heads the Communist Party’s foreign affairs office, will be in Russia until Thursday for the annual strategic security consultation meetings.

  Beijing’s foreign ministry further called this visit to the Russian capital “routine activity” – and it marks the Chinese top diplomat’s second such visit to Moscow since February.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 19:05

• Military Finds F-35 Debris 80 Miles From Pilot's Ejection Area 
  Military Finds F-35 Debris 80 Miles From Pilot’s Ejection Area 

  Update (1842ET):

  ABC 15 local news reported that military ground teams have found “parts and debris” linked to the lost F-35B Lightning II near Indiantown Road in Florence County, South Carolina.

  #BREAKING A source told ABC15 Monday evening that military ground crews have found parts and debris associated with the F-35 Lightning II Jet just off Indian Town Road in Florence County. https://t.co/dUeZgxpbrV pic.twitter.com/d5pU6i3wtz

  — WPDE ABC15 (@wpdeabc15) September 18, 2023

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

  “The location where the debris and parts were found is roughly 80 miles from where officials say the pilot ejected near North Charleston on Sunday,” WPDE ABC15 noted.

  

  According to ABC 15, locals in the area mentioned hearing a low-flying fighter jet on Sunday, followed by a loud bang.

  SCDNR is blocking the road at Bartells Crossroads in Williamsburg County after parts and debris from the F-35 Lightning II Jet were found.https://t.co/dUeZgxpbrV pic.twitter.com/aGWkG8oEqo

  — WPDE ABC15 (@wpdeabc15) September 18, 2023

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

  The military has called for a two-day hat of all aircraft, both domestically and internationally. The developments in this story become more bizarre by the day.

  BREAKING: U.S. officials have ordered a 2-day stand down for all military aviation inside as well as outside the United States after an F-35 jet went missing in South Carolina.

  This keeps getting more bizarre.

  According to ABC News, “no units are allowed to fly” unless there is… pic.twitter.com/SuIv7x0N1K

  — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 18, 2023

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

  The Babylon Bee provides a comedic take on the incident…

  Military Personnel Seen Wandering Forest Pressing Button On F-35 Key Fob https://t.co/ldY58GhEe0 pic.twitter.com/EDvV60tqiC

  — The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) September 18, 2023

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

  What remains a mystery is why the pilot ejected. 

  *   *   * 

  Update (1456ET):

  The F-35 is still missing. However, the flight tracking website Flightradar24 has revealed numerous aircraft have been searching an area north of North Charleston. 

  The US military is searching for a missing F-35B in South Carolina after the pilot ejected yesterday and the jet kept flying. If you have seen an F-35 in the woods, please contact the US Marines. pic.twitter.com/rpueqxuP0J

  — Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) September 18, 2023

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

  *   *   * 

  “How in the hell do you lose an F-35?” South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace wrote on X Sunday night, adding, “How is there not a tracking device, and we’re asking the public to what, find a jet and turn it in?”

  Now that I got that out of the way. How in the hell do you lose an F-35?

  How is there not a tracking device and we’re asking the public to what, find a jet and turn it in?

  — Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) September 18, 2023

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

  On Sunday afternoon, Joint Base Charleston, an air base in North Charleston, was working with Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort to “locate an F-35 that was involved in a mishap“. The pilot ejected safely from F-35B Lightning II, but there were no immediate crash reports. 

  We’re working with @MCASBeaufortSC to locate an F-35 that was involved in a mishap this afternoon. The pilot ejected safely. If you have any information that may help our recovery teams locate the F-35, please call the Base Defense Operations Center at 843-963-3600.

  — Joint Base Charleston (@TeamCharleston) September 17, 2023

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

  The fact that the $140 million stealth fighter disappeared without any reports of a crash means it might have gone down in a sparsely populated area. The Drive pointed out, “The DoD is saying the F-35B was put on autopilot prior to the ejection.” 

  Military expert and former British military officer Frank Ledwidge told Newsweek the F-35 “could likely travel hundreds of miles without its pilot.” 

  “Historically, an aircraft without a pilot can fly a long way on autopilot,” added Frederik Mertens, a military analyst with the Hague Center for Security Studies.

  The Washington Post quoted Jeremy Huggins, a spokesman at Joint Base Charleston, who said the F-35’s transponder was not working “for some reason that we haven’t yet determined.” 

  Joe Biden’s Pentagon can’t find a freaking F-35 jet, but don’t worry—they know exactly where all our money in Ukraine is going. https://t.co/mquDTXUCd9

  — Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 18, 2023

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

  Have you guys checked Ukraine? pic.twitter.com/2t3mgjib2d

  — Prison Mitch (@MidnightMitch) September 18, 2023

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

  *Developing… 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 18:42

• How Far Are We From Revolution?
  How Far Are We From Revolution?

  Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

  Our government, or the unelected billionaire globalists behind the curtain, are telling us the bad guys are Russia and China.

  I do not consider them enemies. I consider them countries acting in a way that benefits them.

  The U.S. is the global bully, intimidating and bribing countries to do their bidding.

  Ukraine, the most corrupt country in the world, and the playground of the Biden Crime Family, has been utilized by Biden and his neo-con handlers, to try and bleed Russia so they can beat them in their next war. Instead, they have used the young men of Ukraine as cannon fodder, leaving that country with no future.

  That’s what the U.S. global empire does. It destroys.

  Franklin was right.

  

  The government is telling us who the bad guy is, but the real bad guys are them.

  We will not be allowing our youth to be used as cannon fodder in their next wars of choice.

  These lunatic sociopaths are willing to initiate Armageddon to achieve their goals.

  Before they can accomplish this destruction we will have to decide when revolution will be absolutely necessary.

  That time will be within the next few years. The choice is yours.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 18:40

• Trump Leads Biden Nationally As RealClear Asks 'What Happened To DeSantis?'
  Trump Leads Biden Nationally As RealClear Asks ‘What Happened To DeSantis?’

  Former President Donald Trump would claim victory over President Biden, according to a pair of recent polls from CBS News/YouGov and Harvard Harris (which no longer disclose how many Democrats were oversampled).

  

  🇺🇲 2024 Presidential Election: CBS News

  (R) Trump 50%
  (D) Biden 49%

  Independents
  (R) Trump 57%
  (D) Biden 42%

  YouGov (B+) | 2,385 LV | 09/12-15https://t.co/cCxvWvc9QI pic.twitter.com/H78gjkJWkS

  — InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) September 17, 2023

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

  When broken down by party identification (or lack thereof), 57% of independents chose Trump vs. Biden’s 42%, while just 34% of everyone polled thought Biden would be able to finish a second term if reelected.

  Biden is well below Trump in terms of job approval at this point in their terms…

  

  But Trump and Biden are tied for favorability, with the recent trend towards Trump…

  

   

  44% think Biden wouldn’t be able to carry out an entire second term, while most voters say Trump would.

  Registered voter respondents were also asked if they find Trump and Biden to be physically and mentally healthy enough to serve as president, finding that only 28 percent of voters think Biden is physically well enough, while most say the 45th president is. Just 16 percent of voters say only Biden is physically healthy enough to serve, while 44 percent say Trump is the only one who is healthy enough. Another 12 percent see them both as physically fit versus 28 percent who say neither are. -Breitbart

  Trump’s lead over Biden increased in the Harvard-Harris poll, at 44% vs. 40%. Trump would lead Vice President Kamala Harris by 46% to 40%.

  📊 NEW NATIONAL POLL

  PRES:
  (R) Trump 44% (+4)
  (D) Biden 40%

  (R) Trump 46% (+6)
  (D) Harris 40%
  ——
  GOP PRES:
  Trump 57% (+47)
  DeSantis 10%
  Ramaswamy 8%
  Haley 6%
  Pence 4%
  Christie 2%
  Scott 2%
  ——
  Harris/Harvard (B) | 09/13-14 | RVshttps://t.co/ijtm7Fnk9p pic.twitter.com/DWu9Tr28I8

  — InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) September 15, 2023

  (Anyone else getting a ‘potentially sensitive content’ warning on the Trump electoral map?)

  pic.twitter.com/tK8MJJzHju

  — Brittany Rae (@legitbrittFLA) September 15, 2023

  Ron who?

  Meanwhile, RealClear Politics‘ Sean Terende asks: “What happened to the DeSantis campaign?”

  

  DeSantis isn’t quite a penny stock, but he briefly fell behind Vivek Ramaswamy among bettors, and languishes with primary season voters at just 14.9% in the RealClearPolitics Average.

  

  What went wrong? It’s important to acknowledge up front that it is still early. As late as October of 2007, Hillary Clinton held a 26-point lead over Barack Obama. At this point in 2007, John McCain was in fourth place, behind Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson. For that matter, eventual second-place finisher Mike Huckabee was polling at just 3% nationally. Eventual winner John Kerry was in third place in Iowa.

  But none of those contenders had been in first place previously. It seems that there is a difference between being an unknown to whom the public eventually warms, and being a known quantity that the public changes their mind about. Regardless, while the DeSantis campaign is likely not dead, it is clearly in a bit of a predicament. How did this happen? It seems that there are four factors:

  He doesn’t know his own brand. After the 2022 elections, DeSantis’ “lane” in the GOP primary campaign seemed pretty clear: He’s Donald Trump, but able to get things done. Or, if you prefer, “Trump, but without the baggage.” DeSantis had many of the traits MAGA Republicans most liked about Trump. He was willing to battle the media. He didn’t apologize for his actions. In the parlance of the times, “He fights.”

  DeSantis also notched up a series of high-profile wins, including taking on the college board over the content of the AP African American History curriculum, replacing the leadership of a famously liberal state school, and going to war with the Walt Disney Co. over its progressive practices. One could fairly say that the current backlash against “woke corporations” began in Florida.

  That opened a pretty good line of attack against Trump. Yes, Trump was an important course correction for the Republican Party, whose leadership had become too concerned with currying favor in the D.C. “Swamp.” Yes, he showed that it was possible to fight on issues that the GOP establishment had written off as too toxic, and still win elections.

  But, the argument went, Trump was ultimately ineffective. At the end of four years, there was no wall, much less a wall financed by Mexico. Obamacare wasn’t repealed, much less replaced. And it was hard to say with a straight face that Trump had really hired only the “best people,” after his cabinet was constantly reshuffled and moved around. Trump’s constant tweeting and punching back at political detractors, regardless of their station in the political pecking order, created a constant stream of mini-storm that distracted from his agenda.

  In other words, DeSantis was well-positioned to argue that he’d take the lessons of Trump, but could deliver on the promises. It was a good strategic position as well, as it wouldn’t require him actually to attack the still-popular (within the Republican Party) Trump.

  Instead, DeSantis seemingly opted to re-run Ted Cruz’s failed 2016 campaign. While he had initially defended Florida’s ban on abortions after the 15^th week of pregnancy – a position that is broadly popular among the American public – DeSantis later pushed for and signed a six-week ban, which is much less popular. He attacked Trump for being too progressive on trans rights. He claimed Trump had tried to push through an “amnesty” bill on immigration.

  The problem here is twofold. First, that approach was tried by Cruz and others in 2015 and 2016, and it failed spectacularly. There’s no reason to believe it would suddenly work in 2023 after Trump’s actual presidency.

  This leads to the second problem: People either don’t believe it or don’t care. Few people consider Trump a hard-charging social conservative on gay rights or abortion, but this is a known quantity at this point (and whatever else you may say about his beliefs, Trump’s three justices provided the conservative margin of victory in Dobbs). No one is going to get to Trump’s right on immigration. Other issues, like Trump’s refusal to pursue entitlement reform and his profligate spending, are throwbacks to an earlier GOP that likely no longer exists.

  DeSantis’ opponents aren’t giving up. In 2015 and 2016, one of the keys to Trump’s success was that the anti-Trump wing of the GOP was splintered among many candidates, all eager to try to get to the “final round” against him. Something similar seems to be happening in 2023. Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, Chris Christie and Tim Scott are all competent candidates with different appeals to different types of anti-Trump Republicans. Vivek Ramaswamy gives no indication he wants to leave the field anytime soon. This is potentially consequential in Iowa, where Trump is polling below 50% in the RealClearPolitics Average.

  In short, while DeSantis had hoped – and many analysts expected – that this would morph into a two-person race, that situation has not materialized. Instead, what we have right now is a one-person race, and a second tier occupied by four or five other candidates. Moreover, none of those candidates really has any incentive to drop out right now, given DeSantis’ stumbles and the chance for someone to claim the momentum that was once his. In other words, Republicans find themselves in a similar dynamic to the one that prevailed in 2015 and 2016, with whatever anti-Trump momentum there is split among multiple candidates, none of whom has a clear incentive to leave the race.

  He’s not up to the task. While DeSantis’ big win in Florida ought not be dismissed, we should also remind ourselves that the road to the presidency is paved with the bones of overhyped campaigns that wilted under the national spotlight. DeSantis has proved to be awkward on the national trail, with difficulty gladhanding and connecting with “regular” people. Case in point: his awkward expression when asked about trailing in the polls.

  DeSantis is certainly not the first politician to suffer from this fault. Bob Dole was criticized for always seeming grumpy, despite the fact that he was recognized as one of the funniest members of the United States Senate during his tenure. Those who know the Clintons say they’d rather be stuck in an airport with Hillary than Bill. But the presidency isn’t about a candidate’s “true” self; it’s about the external-facing product that the public is asked to choose to lead the country.

  Events, dear boy, events. Perhaps the most frustrating possibility is this: The Republican nomination was never really there for Ron DeSantis to win. It is there for Donald Trump to lose. Under this telling, a large part of the reason why DeSantis was competitive with Trump in November and December was that November of 2022 reminded Republicans about the costs of Donald Trump, with Trump-endorsed candidates losing close races nationally and likely costing Republicans control of the Senate.

  This started to turn around for Trump not when he began to hit DeSantis. Rather, it happened when the possibility that criminal indictments of the former president brought by Democratic prosecutors – or prosecutors hired by Democrats – transformed into a reality. It enabled Trump to focus media attention on himself and his campaign. Perhaps most importantly, it inherently positioned him as a Republican fighting against Democrats and the media, two of the things for which Republicans tend to like him the most.

  In other words, DeSantis was, and continues to be, captive to events. Had Trump’s candidates won in 2022 rather than lost, we probably wouldn’t even be talking seriously about what went wrong for DeSantis, because his campaign would have been stillborn. Perhaps events will break his way again in the future. But it seems more likely that they won’t.

  Sean Trende is senior elections analyst for RealClearPolitics. He is a co-author of the 2014 Almanac of American Politics and author of The Lost Majority. He can be reached at strende@realclearpolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter @SeanTrende.

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  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 18:15

• Your WiFi Can See You
  Your WiFi Can See You

  Authored by Mr.E via BombThrower.com,

  When police suspected Danny Kyllo, an Oregon man, of growing cannabis in his home they drove to his house with a thermal imaging device to scan it. They found hot pockets in the house, which were used to obtain a search warrant and subsequently bust Kyllo.

  Fortunately, a 5-4 Supreme Court decision ruled the scan an unlawful search under the Fourth Amendment, requiring a warrant the police did not obtain.

  

  Score one for privacy, but the government is about to have a far more controversial and dangerous tool at its disposal to monitor what’s going on inside your home.

  Unlike a thermal imager, this device is already in your home – and you put it there.

  How It Works

  WiFi is electromagnetic waves in the 2.4 and 5 GHz ranges. It’s the same thing as the light you see, only it can penetrate walls due to its much longer wavelength. Just like light (and echolocation) these waves also reflect off various surfaces and, when reconstructed properly, can be used to create an image.

  Development of this technology goes back at least as far as July 2005, where researchers claimed at an IEEE Symposium that they had created an ultra-wideband high-resolution short pulse imaging radar system operating around 10 GHz. The applications for which were explicitly for military and police use, providing them with “enhanced situation awareness.”

  A few years later, in 2008, researchers at UC Santa Barbara created an initial approach for imaging with WiFi that they presented at IEEE ACC 2009. A year later they demonstrated the feasibility of this approach.

  The Race is On

  Sensing the potential of this new surveillance technology, other researchers began piling on. Progress was initially slow but, in 2017, two researchers in Germany demonstrated the ability to do WiFi imaging using techniques borrowed from the field of holography. According to Philipp Holl, an undergrad student and lead study author who worked with Friedemann Reinhard of the Technical University of Munich to develop the new method, “The past two years have seen an explosion of methods for passive Wi-Fi imaging.”

  At the time, the technology could only make out rough shapes of things. “If there’s a cup of coffee on a table, you may see something is there, but you couldn’t see the shape,” Holl says, “but you could make out the shape of a person, or a dog on a couch. Really any object that’s more than 4 centimeters in size.”

  The Controversy Begins

  In 2018 the team at UC Santa Barbara published a paper titled “Et Tu Alexa?” examining the potential threats of this emerging technology. They examined the problem of adversarial WiFi sensing and the risk to privacy resulting from the widespread deployment of wireless devices, which could be used to track your precise physical location, movement, and other physiological properties.

  Fortunately, they also propose some countermeasures for defending against such attacks to reduce the quantity and quality of the WiFi signals captured by the attacker, such as Geo-fencing and rate-limiting. These methods are not as effective with IoT devices, though, due to the frequency with which they make transmissions.

  The Breakthrough

  Up until this point it was necessary to use frequencies higher than commercial WiFi (2.4 and 5 GHz) to achieve decent imaging resolutions. That all changed in February 2019 when a team from Michigan State University published a paper in IEEE Access outlining how they were able to use signals at 5.5 GHz, which matches the 802.11n/ac WiFi protocol, to create a 2-D image of two reflecting spheres and a reflecting X-shaped target, concluding “full 2-D imagery is possible by capturing the WiFi signals present in typical environments.”

  Adding AI and Going 3-D

  At MobiCom 2020, researchers from the University of Buffalo, presented their WiPose technology, touted as “the first 3-D human pose construction framework using commercial WiFi devices.” This system uses the 2-D imaging technology previously discussed to construct a 3-D avatar of the humans captured by it. The system uses a deep learning model that encodes the prior knowledge of human skeletons in the construction process of the 3-D model.

  In 2019, former DARPA contractor Ray Liu launched his first commercial product in the WiFi sensing domain. Pitched as a way of “Making the world safer, healthier, and smarter,” the original military and law enforcement usages mentioned when this technology was born in 2005 were cast aside. The company claims the technology is so accurate that it can sense your breathing using nothing but standard WiFi signals.

  In a 2021 company blog, Liu discusses the development of IEEE 802.11bf, a new WiFi protocol, which is aimed at standardizing WiFi imaging across all devices – thus making it easier for companies such as his to exploit compatible wireless networks. Liu was elected to serve as IEEE President for 2022, and the new standard continues to be developed to this day.

  Further refinements to the imaging technology itself have been made. In late 2021 another paper was submitted to IEEE outlining how the researchers were able to achieve high-resolution imaging results with commercial WiFi signals using beamforming on the 802.11n/ac protocol.

  Ready for Production

  The perfect WiFi imaging system may have just been introduced to the world in December 2022, when researchers from Carnegie Mellon University married the latest in WiFi sensing technology to a human form estimation engine known as DensePose.

  

  (Left Column) image-based DensePose (Right Column) WiFi-based DensePose

  DensePose is a technology developed by Meta/Facebook, beginning in 2018. It’s very similar to the WiPose system we previously discussed and aims at “mapping all human pixels of an RGB image to the 3D surface of a human body.” The researchers modified DensePose so that, rather than taking an RGB image, it would be compatible with the imagery being produced by state-of-the-art WiFi sensing technologies. The resulting system “can detect the pose of humans in a room based solely on the WiFi signals passing through the environment.”

  Big Brother’s New Eyes

  It’s telling how the pitch for this technology has pivoted from military and police use to keeping people safe in their own homes. The true purpose of this is obviously for law enforcement, the military, and intelligence agencies. We already live with mass digital surveillance and if you don’t believe that this won’t get incorporated into their plans to monitor everything you do, then you haven’t been paying attention.

  Apart from putting CCTV cameras in everyone’s living spaces, this technology offers a comprehensive and supremely surreptitious way of putting eyes in every room of your house and place of work. Indeed, this just may become the norm. With nearly a third of Gen Z favoring the installation of government surveillance cameras in your home, this less-intrusive method may just find even broader support from the brainwashed masses. It will be possible to know where you are in the house and exactly what you’re doing, from sitting on the toilet to making love.

  We’ve seen how easily intelligence agencies can get secret warrants to surveil anyone of particular interest. We’ve also seen just how easy it is for someone to become a target for surveillance. You very well might, one day, find your WiFi router and access points feeding imagery to an alphabet agency that didn’t like your social media posts, while armed thugs wait for the perfect moment to execute their next no-knock raid.

  *  *  *

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

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 17:50

• $250 Million NYC Condo Sees Price Slashed To $195 Million After A Year Without Selling
  $250 Million NYC Condo Sees Price Slashed To $195 Million After A Year Without Selling

  A 17,500-square-foot (1,626-square-meter) condo that sits on the top of Extell Development’s Central Park Tower was once listed for $250 million.

  A year after its listing, and a year after failing to sell, the price has been slashed by 22%, to $195 million, according to a new report from Bloomberg. 

  Gary Barnett, founder and chairman of Extell, talked down the price cut to Bloomberg: “The original pricing on these units were headline prices.”

  Sure. 

  He continued: “We have recently sold a significant amount of inventory at the top of the building and now want to get serious about selling these two showcase homes as well, so we lowered the prices to closer to where we think they will trade.”

  The building is at Billionaires’ Row building on West 57th Street and the apartment in question starts at the 129th floor. It sports 23 total rooms, including seven bedrooms and a ballroom, which is of course a “must have” for any apartment in New York City. 

  

  As Bloomberg notes, the $238 million that Ken Griffin paid for a place at 220 Central Park South still remains the highest price tag ever on a New York Apartment. The Extell Central Park Tower unit doesn’t look as though it will challenge Griffin’s purchase price. 

  And in what is likely a sign of the “cooling housing market” times, another property of Extells, a 12,600-square-foot duplex, also saw its price slashed from $175 million to $149.5 million earlier this year. 

  Jonathan Miller, president of appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. concluded: “Even with the new price, the brokers will probably have a lot of work to do.”

  Recall last week Zero Hedge contributor Wealthion published an interview with Danielle DiMartino Booth explaining why the housing market in the U.S. was in for a “Category 5” storm that could rival the great financial crisis. You can watch that video here. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 17:25

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• European Elites' Dream Of Power Crumbles As Security Threats From Russia, Africa, & The Mid-East Grow
  European Elites’ Dream Of Power Crumbles As Security Threats From Russia, Africa, & The Mid-East Grow

  Authored by Marek Cichocki via Remix News,

  For a long time, the major capitals of Western Europe dreamed their beautiful dream about how the EU, as a power, would become an increasingly important actor in building security policy after the end of the Cold War. In this dream, Great Britain was supposed to be the European anchor in transatlantic relations with America.

  

  Somewhere at the turn of the first and second decade of the 21st century, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel established a key division of labor between themselves. According to this, Paris was responsible for the security of the Mediterranean basin and West Africa, while Germany, due to its relations with Russia, was supposed to “take care” of the security of Eastern Europe and the Black Sea basin.

  However, recent years have shown the complete failure of these plans. One by one, elements of the beautiful dream of power fell apart.

  Brexit ejected Great Britain from the orbit of European integration. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Germany’s Eastern policy collapsed. The disastrous intervention in Libya, followed by subsequent military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, as well as the entrenchment of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group there, clearly indicate that French leadership in European security policy toward Africa has ended in complete disaster for the time being.

  One might think that all these events would be enough for the European elite to realize the need to abandon dreams and return to reality.

  However, the only reaction to the geopolitical crisis in Europe is the proposal to establish majority decisions in the area of the EU’s foreign and security policy, which de facto means accepting the dominance of Paris and Berlin.

  The current situation, however, requires a fundamental change in Europe’s thinking and action. Some time ago, there was an idea circulating to create a European Security Council by EU countries.

  Perhaps it is worth returning to it, provided it would establish a mechanism based on the real military resources of states and their competencies in the field of international policy. The current way of thinking about Europe’s security policy is still, unfortunately, some kind of mirage growing out of the old imperial and colonial ambitions of powers.

  It ignores the growing potential of Central and Eastern European countries, mainly Poland, but also the Baltic and Scandinavian states. Above all, however, it has proven to be completely ineffective.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/18/2023 – 02:00

• You're Not Supporting Ukraine Enough Until The Nuclear Blast Hits Your Face
  You’re Not Supporting Ukraine Enough Until The Nuclear Blast Hits Your Face

  Authored by Max Abrahms, op-ed via NewsWeek.com,

  What happened to Elon Musk this past week showcases how completely unhinged and dangerous U.S. policy to Ukraine has become.

  The condemnation began when the Washington Post published excerpts from a new biography on Musk revealing that he turned down a Ukrainian request to help launch a major sneak attack in September 2022 on the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

  There were numerous, legitimate reasons why Musk refused to activate his Starlink internet services for Ukraine to carry out the unprecedented, surprise attack on Russian naval vessels: Musk was providing terminals to Ukraine for free; he was not on a military contract at that time; the late-night request came directly from the Ukrainian—not American—government; and Starlink had never been activated over Crimea because of U.S. sanctions on Russia.

  Most importantly, Musk was concerned that enabling the attack could result in serious “conflict escalation.” He worried that he was being asked to turn on Starlink for a “Pearl Harbor like attack” and had no wish to “proactively take part in a major act of war,” possibly provoking a Russian nuclear response.

  In response to this nuclear aversion, Musk was called “evil” by a high-level Ukrainian official and “traitor” by American war enthusiasts. 

  Rachel Maddow on the Russia conspiracy network MSNBC said Musk was “intervening to try to stop Ukraine from winning the war.” Not to be outdone, CNN‘s Jake Tapper described Elon as a “capricious billionaire” who “sabotaged a military operation by Ukraine, a U.S. ally,” an act that demands “repercussions.” For his part, chief Iraq war salesman-turned-Democrat-darling, David Frum, said that Musk must be stripped of his U.S. government contracts for not reflexively acceding to the Ukrainian Starlink request, and former “progressive,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, called for an immediate Congressional investigation “to ensure foreign policy is conducted by the government and not by one billionaire.”

  ‼️ @SenWarren demands an investigation into SpaceX after Musk blocked Ukraine from extending the Starlink network near Crimea.

  “The Congress needs to investigate whether we have adequate tools to ensure foreign policy is conducted by the government and not by one billionaire”. pic.twitter.com/p3I19Yk851

  — Ostap Yarysh (@OstapYarysh) September 12, 2023

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  But the Musk pile-on was just getting started. In the days that followed, his detractors used a Ukrainian operation as proof that Musk was overreacting. Days after the Starlink story broke, Ukraine successfully launched British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into the Russian naval headquarters in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol. It was the largest attack since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly 19 months ago, and it damaged a Russian submarine and warship.

  When the military action was not followed by World War III, Musk was torched again. As the pro-war media noted, “It was precisely such a strike, according to Musk, that should have provoked a nuclear war.” A torrent of international relations pundits on Twitter mocked Musk, tweeting things like “I was assured by an internet service provider executive that this would have caused WWIII and the use of nuclear weapons” and “How’s it going man, after the splendid attack on Sevastopol? WW3 started already?”

  

  Musk’s detractors might think this is all very funny, but attacking Crimea—not to mention the Russian mainland in increasingly frequent drone strikes on Moscow—is no laughing matter. Even the staunchest Western war enthusiasts from the NATO-aligned Atlantic Council to the Estonian defense minister to Biden’s own Secretary of State Antony Blinken all previously acknowledged that threatening Crimea is a possible “red line” that could lead to nuclear war.

  As the Russian military specialist Nicolo Fasola pointed out in April, “There’s a definite risk that Putin would use nuclear weapons to counter a Ukrainian offensive in Crimea. And that’s why Ukraine’s Western allies are reluctant.”

  But that previous caution has faded—no doubt as a result of the much-touted counteroffensive disappointing American war planners, leading to a seemingly endless and halting war of attrition reminiscent of World War I. Meanwhile, Biden’s political legacy is on the line as the presidential election looms.

  The longer the war goes on, the more the Biden administration and its NATO allies are throwing caution to the wind. Biden keeps consenting to supply weapons previously ruled out as excessively escalatory, from Patriot air defense systems to Abrams tanks to cluster munitions to F-16’s. The latest reversal is over the expected transfer of Army Tactical Missile Systems that can fly up to 190 miles, enabling Ukrainian forces to strike far beyond Russia’s defensive positions inside Crimea and deep into Russian sovereign territory.

  National Security advisor Jake Sullivan used to rule out ATACMS “to ensure that we don’t get into a situation in which we are approaching the Third World War.” Even CNN, an enthusiastic advocate for greater American involvement in the war, has acknowledged the “fears about escalating the conflict.”

  A couple months ago, Senator James Risch of Idaho told the Aspen Security Forum, “I’m tired of hearing about escalation. I want Putin to wake up in the morning worried about what he’s going to do that’s going to cause us to escalate.” Biden apparently now agrees.

  The view now ruling the Democratic Party and the President is the same as the warmongers: It’s silly to worry as Musk does about turning the Ukraine war into something catastrophically worse. It’s un-American not to try to find Russia’s redline for starting World War III. It’s traitorous to believe—as the President himself did, just a few months ago—that we should be doing all we can to prevent escalation.

  The new mantra seems to be: We’re not trying hard enough in Ukraine until we feel the nuclear blast against our faces.

  *  *  *

  Max Abrahms, Ph.D., is a professor of political science at Northeastern University and author of Rules for Rebels: The Science of Victory in Militant History.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 23:15

• The Hits Just Keep On Coming: China Suffers Biggest FX Outflow Since 2016 Amid Sudden Surge In Capital Flight
  The Hits Just Keep On Coming: China Suffers Biggest FX Outflow Since 2016 Amid Sudden Surge In Capital Flight

  And the hits just keep on coming for China.

  With its economy on the verge of a Japanification vicious loop, where record debts, lead to distressed selling, repayment of debt, contraction in the money supply, falling asset prices, a wave of bankruptcies, surging unemployment, a slowing economy and a crisis of confidence, which then leads to money hoarding and deflation…

  

  … not to mention a growing property crisis, shadow banking crisis, a youth unemployment crisis, a record collapse in foreign direct investment…

  

  … China is now also facing a sudden surge in FX outflows: according to Goldman’s preferred gauge of FX flows, China’s net outflows were $42bn in August, the fastest pace of outflows since December 2016 when China was reeling from the 2015 shock yuan devaluation, vs the already concerning $26bn outflows in July (which we discussed last month). Foreign investors’ net selling of equities through the stock connect channel rose materially in August, contributing to the acceleration of outflows. Goods trade related inflows remained robust on the other hand.

  Here are the key points from the latest data:

  1. In August, China experienced $24bn in net outflows via onshore outright spot transactions, and $12bn inflows via freshly entered and canceled forward transactions. Another SAFE dataset on “cross-border RMB flows” showed outflows of $31bn in the month, suggesting net payment of RMB from onshore to offshore. Goldman’s preferred FX flow measure therefore suggests a total US$42bn outflows in August, in comparison with US$26bn outflows in July, an outflow which was the highest since July 2022.

  

  2. The current account continued to show inflows. There was a net inflow of $26bn related to goods trade in August, higher than the $18bn in July. Goods trade surplus conversion ratio rose to 38% in August vs 22% in July, in contrast to the continued depreciation of the currency. On the other hand, the services trade deficit was $14bn, more negative than $11bn in July as outbound tourism continued to recover. The income and transfers account showed outflows of $5bn in August, smaller than $6bn in July.

  3. Portfolio investment channel saw faster outflows in August. Stock Connect flows showed strong net selling of equities through northbound and net buying through southbound, which implies US$22bn outflows through the Stock Connect channel, vs US$5bn inflows in July. This was the fastest pace of outflows through the Stock Connect channel since January 2021. Foreigners’ holding of RMB bonds data are not released yet.

  4. Official FX reserves (released earlier in the month) declined to US$3,160bn in August from US$3,204bn in July. By Goldman’s estimate, FX valuation effects would have cut FX reserves by $19bn in August, so after adjusting for FX valuation effects, FX reserves still decreased by $25bn in July. While the unfavorable asset price effect likely contributed to this decline, the decline might not be fully explained by asset price declines, suggesting potential usage of FX reserves to manage the currency amid outflow pressures.

  5. Goldman forecasts continued monetary policy easing in Q4, including a 25bp RRR cut and a 10bp policy interest rate cut. CNY exchange rate will likely continue to face depreciation pressures in the near term while policymakers maintain tight capital controls and guide market expectations to slow the depreciation trend of the currency.

  

  And so, with China’s currency the weakest it has ever been, and with FX outflows accelerating sharply, one can’t help but remember the panic observed after the August 2015 devaluation, which not only shocked global markets but woke bitcoin from its long slumber as billions in Chinese savings scrambled to the safety of offshore bank accounts via one of the few still open cracks in China’s great monetary firewall. How long until we get a rerun?

  More in the full Goldman note available to pro subs.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 22:45

• FDA Refuses To Change Anti-Ivermectin Statements After Court Ruling
  FDA Refuses To Change Anti-Ivermectin Statements After Court Ruling

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

  Anti-ivermectin statements made by the FDA are not being changed, even after an appeals court ruled against the agency.

  

  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is refusing to change its statements against ivermectin, even after a court said it acted outside of its authority when it told people to stop using it to treat COVID-19.

  The U.S. appeals court said that the FDA’s statements, including one telling people to “stop” using ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment, went beyond the authority conferred on the agency by Congress.

  “FDA can inform, but it has identified no authority allowing it to recommend consumers ‘stop’ taking medicine,” U.S. Circuit Judge Don Willett wrote in the Sept. 1 ruling.

  Two weeks later, FDA social media posts and a key webpage remain unchanged.

  That includes an Aug. 21, 2021, Twitter post, on the social media site since renamed X, that hyperlinked to a FDA webpage and stated: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

  The page has not been updated either. It says people “should not use ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19.”

  The appeals court did not order the FDA to take any action and remanded the case to a lower court for consideration on standing.

  But Dr. Robert Apter, the lead plaintiff in the case that led to the ruling, said that the FDA should still take action.

  “From an ethical point of view, the FDA has been told not to do what they are doing. They have an ethical and moral obligation to follow the court’s directive and stop giving advice against using effective repurposed drugs for early treatment of COVID,” Dr. Apter told The Epoch Times in a message.

  The FDA declined to comment.

  “The FDA does not comment on possible, pending, or ongoing litigation,” a spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email.

  In a statement after the ruling was handed down, the agency noted that ivermectin is approved by the FDA but for other uses. The FDA “has not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19, nor has the agency stated that it is safe or effective for that use,” the agency said.

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

  Such prescriptions are known as off-label prescriptions and are common in the United States.

  Another FDA page may have been removed in the wake of the ruling. That page said, in part: “Q: Should I take ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19? A: No.”

  Archives show it was still up as of this year but it’s unclear exactly when it was taken down.

  

  Ruling

  In the ruling, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit panel found in favor of Drs. Apter, Mary Talley Bowden, and Paul Marik, overturning a previous decision.

  The doctors sued the FDA in 2022 over its anti-ivermectin statements, arguing the agency was illegally interfering with their practice of medicine.

  While the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act enables the FDA to inform consumers, it does not let the agency give medical advise, Jared Kelson, an attorney representing the doctors, told the panel during oral arguments.

  U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Brown had ruled against the plaintiffs, finding the FDA acted within the authority conferred by the act.

  The panel disagreed.

  “FDA never points to any authority that allows it to issue recommendations or give medical advice,” Judge Willett wrote. “Nothing in the act’s plain text authorizes FDA to issue medical advice or recommendations,” he also said.

  “The decision is pretty clear that the FDA is not a physician, and that while it might have authority to inform the public, it can’t endorse particular treatments or advise on how to approach any specific illness,” Mr. Kelson told The Epoch Times.

  He declined to comment on whether the FDA should update its statements.

  The appeals court decision trumps the previous ruling, but the panel also sent the case back to Judge Brown.

  The FDA had asked the appeals court to dismiss the case based on lack of standing. The court said it chose not to decide on the standing issue.

  “We see greater wisdom in remanding for the district court to address standing and any other jurisdictional issues in the first instance,” the panel said. “We express no view on those issues, and instead we trust their initial determination to the district court’s sound judgment.”

  That means Judge Brown will take up the case again, but that his ruling on standing could be overturned.

  The government could also appeal the recent appeals court ruling. That appeal would go to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Department of Justice, which is representing the FDA, did not respond to a request for comment.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 22:15

• American Manufacturing Is Coming Back… So Are Strikes
  American Manufacturing Is Coming Back… So Are Strikes

  By Rachel Premack of FreightWaves

  President Joe Biden’s $9.2 billion electric vehicle manufacturing loan to Ford seems like a perfect meld of American interests. Announced in June, the loan to the Michigan automaker and a South Korean battery manufacturer will spur the building of three EV battery plants in the U.S. That cheerfully means eco-friendly cars and blue-collar jobs — environmentalism with a side of America First.

  

  There’s just one problem: It’s infuriated the United Auto Workers, which represents some 400,000 Americans employed in automotive manufacturing and other trades. The historically Democratic union has, in turn, refused to endorse Biden ahead of a contentious general election.

  Two of Ford’s new plants will be in Kentucky and the third in Tennessee; facilities in these three states are notoriously challenging to organize thanks in part to anti-union state laws. To workers like Dan Vicente, a UAW regional director and machine operator in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, it’s a way that Ford can have its cake and eat it too. The auto giant can explore EV manufacturing without much risk to its bottom line, and save massively by avoiding union labor.

  “[T]he Biden administration didn’t require any sort of guarantees of those jobs being UAW jobs or being any union jobs at all,” Vicente said on an Aug. 7 episode of Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast. “They basically just said, ‘Hey Ford, please be nice to these workers and let them have a vote if you feel like it.’ And so we don’t find that acceptable.”

  American businesses and their employees are in an unusual position. Partially thanks to new policy efforts, companies are expanding domestic manufacturing. But they’re finding an American worker who isn’t willing to work for cut-rate pay. Employees are increasingly fighting back on low wages, working hours and mediocre benefits — and are set to walk away from jobs entirely if the terms aren’t right.

  An excitable soul might declare we’re in the midst of an American labor comeback after decades of neoliberal policies encouraged crony capitalism, union busting and general skulduggery. According to federal data, nearly 13 million Americans are employed in manufacturing work — the highest number we’ve seen since the Great Recession. The nearly 2 million Americans – ranging from university graduate students to UPS drivers to rail track maintenance workers — represented by Teamsters and the United Auto Workers unions are seeing more militant leadership than ever. And even anti-establishment publications like The Intercept are admitting that the center-left Biden administration has appointed “aggressive” pro-union leaders to the National Labor Relations Board, making organizing easier.

  The majority of Americans said in a 2019 Pew survey that there’s “too much economic inequality,” and around 42% believed reducing it should be a “top priority.” Now, after the coronavirus pandemic brought about discourse about essential workers and stock buybacks, one could assume those percentages are even higher.

  It seems like reality is reflecting those pro-union sentiments. Automotive workers began an unprecedented strike on Friday, stopping work at all three Detroit automakers for the first time in history. UPS workers got a major win this summer. And nearly 200,000 actors and screenwriters are on strike. American approval of labor unions just hit its highest point since 1965, according to a Gallup poll. For the first time ever, a sitting president is even supporting strikes.

  Steven Greenhouse, a former longtime labor reporter at The New York Times, hesitated to say that we’re in a major uprising for American workers. However, he said conditions increasingly favor them.

  It’s a bullish sign for the US economy — and freight volumes

  During the Great Recession, the UAW was forced to make a slew of concessions to prevent the Big Three automakers from shuttering completely.

  In the 2000s, American consumers were increasingly buying vehicles from European and Asian manufacturers as fuel prices soared. Ford and GM posted a combined loss of more than $30 billion in 2008. That trend has reversed entirely; Americans are eagerly buying up pricey pickup trucks and SUVs from domestic manufacturers, even as inflation slams household budgets. Those hefty vehicles have in turn boosted profits at Ford and GM; they made a combined $40 billion-plus last year alone. 

  As a result, UAW workers are now seeking out a payday that reflects their employers’ windfalls. The UAW is calling for the reinstatement of pensions, retiree health care, cost-of-living adjustments to wages, along with a 40% raise spread over the next four years and the elimination of the two-tiered employment model. These demands aren’t necessarily autoworkers seeking to overturn the system; rather, they’re changes that would restore compensation to pre-2008 standards.

  Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, has studied labor relations since the 1970s. He said aims at the UAW and Teamsters alike have become “more socialistic in orientation.” He hasn’t seen leadership like the UAW’s Shawn Fain or the Teamsters’ Sean O’Brien in decades.

  “[I]t has a different view of the role of profits and business and believes that labor has a rightful claim to a bigger piece of the pie,” Masters told FreightWaves. I think that both union leaders want the companies to do well so that they can help members. I would think that they would set that as a first priority, in terms of how they want to claim the profits for workers’ increased pay and other benefits.”

  Business magnates may groan, but there’s a silver lining: A fired-up labor pool means American businesses are healthy. 

  “[T]he pendulum has swung back from the 2008 recession, when companies could make a good case that they needed concessions, to a post-pandemic time when automakers’ profits are good and UPS profits are great,” Greenhouse told FreightWaves. “Workers can now say the time for concessions is over. It’s now the time for advances, the time for betterment, the time to make up for what [they] gave up in previous contracts.”

  Growth in domestic manufacturing and infrastructure spending is a bullish indicator for freight volumes — even though the industry is presently in a decline. For example, FreightWaves data suggests that the increase in construction spurred by the Biden administration buoyed freight volumes in July 2023, a month that was expected to be weak for truckers amid a weakened consumer economy. If America is making more stuff in America, that means there’s more for truck drivers to haul.

  Vicente of the UAW told Bloomberg in August that his colleagues are quitting their jobs to work at Dollar General or Walmart. Vicente’s employer manufactures plumbing, air-conditioning, steering systems and other equipment for boats, 18-wheelers and food trucks. Now, his former co-workers are finding themselves stocking shelves or scanning products — most likely mass-produced plastic stuff made overseas, clothing that will likely end up in a landfill in several months or processed food with little nutritional value.

  Of course, one can’t discuss unionized work and the trucking industry without mentioning Yellow, which was the third-largest less-than-truckload company, employing some 22,000 Teamsters workers, until it closed operations in August. Yellow pinned the blame for its shutdown on the Teamsters. For months, the union refused to negotiate on a proposed change of operations. The Teamsters said unionized Yellow employees had given away some $5 billion in concessions to the company since 2008 and refused to cut further. Amid the fracas, the trucking giant eventually lost enough inbound freight volumes that it was unable to pay into a major Teamsters pension fund, triggering a strike authorization. That gutted Yellow’s freight volumes further.

  J. Bruce Chan, a transportation analyst at the investment bank Stifel, previously said Teamsters may have been the “trigger” for Yellow’s bankruptcy, but the company had been troubled for about two decades. Yellow took on more than $1 billion in debt in the 2000s as it acquired more and more companies. It was never able to recover from those foolhardy purchases, gutted further by the Great Recession and other poorly timed business decisions.

  While the Teamsters may evade some blame, former Yellow employees are baffled as to why the union allowed the company to shutter. Labor expert Michael Duff, a law professor at Saint Louis University, doesn’t believe Teamsters boss O’Brien risked those 22,000 jobs forever.

  Rather, Duff said Teamsters likely anticipates increased manufacturing activity in the U.S. — particularly at unionized shops that will only work with organized trucking companies. That means more trucking companies organized with the Teamsters, whether existing unionized fleets grow or new ones join the union.

  “I don’t think the union believes we’re going to lose those jobs and they’re never coming back,” Duff said. “Whatever else the Teamsters will be, they’re not stupid.”

  Scheduling chaos

  Many experts believe a key reason why striking and organizing activity is reaching a historic fervor is the renewed interest by Americans age 40 or younger. They’re old enough to see the issues resulting from rampant globalization and financialization but young enough to not recall, say, Jimmy Hoffa’s Mafia ties. Cornell University’s Kate Bronfenbrenner, who is the institution’s director of labor education research, said this change of opinion among millennials and Gen Zers is a key “turning point” for the labor movement.

  “I do think we’re in a moment with public support, with this energy among young people and increased interest in organizing,” Bronfenbrenner told FreightWaves.

  One shared demand among union organizers isn’t just around increased pay but more control over work rules. A 2008 New York Times article pointed out that a veteran UAW member made about $28 an hour at an American auto plant, compared to a well-paid Toyota worker in Kentucky earning around $25 an hour. But those workers have vastly different control over their schedules. And rail workers were set to strike in 2022 over having more predictable hours and flexible time off; they received zero days of paid sick leave until this year.

  But firms say they need flexibility in scheduling, work rules and positions in order to remain competitive — especially when it comes to competing with nonunion shops. That tension was core to the Yellow-Teamsters dispute that eventually shuttered the company.

  Yellow wanted to convert nearly 1,000 linehaul trucking jobs to so-called “utility driver” roles, where they would be expected to do more dock work and the pay was often less. The Teamsters union opposed that. The company fired back with a memo to disgruntled workers: “Let’s be clear: If you were at a non-union company — a very realistic possibility for MOST of you if Yellow does not survive — ALL of you would be subject to potential dock work regardless of your time in the industry.”

  Feeling out of control over one’s schedule (and ultimately, one’s life) is what drives many workers to organize, said Bronfenbrenner.

  “If they were organizing over money and the employer could just throw a couple of pennies their way, they could get rid of the union campaign,” Bronfenbrenner said. “But the primary reason workers organize tends to be arbitrary supervisor power and respect on the job — things like scheduling, where they can never know when they’re coming to work, which could make it impossible to deal with your children’s day care or do medical appointments.

  “Money matters,” Bronfenbrenner added. “But, money is something that the employer can afford to pay if the union pushes them enough. Employers, particularly U.S. employers, don’t like to give up control. They like that they have this God-given right to manage free of any interference from government or unions or anybody else. Those are the things that affect the day-to-day life of workers.”

  Regular scheduling was a game changer for Duff of Saint Louis University. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Duff was a claims prevention supervisor at Flying Tiger and then a fleet service agent at U.S. Airways.

  In the mornings, every day from 8 a.m. to noon, he attended West Chester University. It took him a decade of blue-collar work, but Duff was able to secure his college degree. Four years after, he got his law degree from Harvard.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 21:45

• Sliding Home Prices Weigh On China's Feel-Good August Data
  Sliding Home Prices Weigh On China’s Feel-Good August Data

  By Charlie Zhu and Helen Sun, Bloomberg Markets Live reporters and analysts

  1. The worst of China’s economic downturn may be behind us as stimulus impact feeds through. Data released Friday showed industrial production and retail sales in August both significantly beat estimates and picked up from the previous month. That gave investors reasons to believe that economic activities may be bottoming, even though the property market remains stuck in a rut.

  The People’s Bank of China stepped up easing, lowering the required reserve ratio for the second time this year. In addition to some 500 billion yuan ($69 billion) released from the reduction, the central bank added a net 191 billion yuan into the financial system via the medium-term lending facility, the most since March.

  Reducing the RRR show a sense of urgency among authorities to boost growth, and more policies may follow to ensure the stabilization is sustained, said Zhang Zhiwei, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management Ltd.

  Financial market reactions were muted — pointing to lingering caution. The CSI 300 Index closed lower on Friday, while the onshore yuan was little changed versus the dollar. For the week, the currency rebounded from a 16-year low amid additional support from the PBOC’s jawboning and other measures.

  

  2. The nascent signs of stabilization in the economy, however, can easily be derailed by the crisis in the property sector. New-home prices dropped at a faster pace last month — showing why fresh rescue measures had to be deployed — while real-estate investment during January-August slid more than in the first seven months.

  State-linked developer Sino-Ocean Group Holding Ltd. suspended payment on all its offshore debts due to tight liquidity, suggesting the raft of policy support extended so far has failed to improve its finances.

  Indeed, just four months after Moody’s Investors Service upgraded China’s property sector outlook to stable, the rating firm revised it back to negative. The latest policies show a “significant shift” in government efforts to boost property demand, but the impact will likely fade after a few months, especially in lower-tier cities, analysts led by Cedric Lai wrote in the report.

  

  3. The European Union’s investigation into Chinese subsidies for electric vehicles threatens to set off another trade war. Beijing immediately fired back, blasting EU’s decision as “naked act of protectionism.”

  Given the size of China’s EV industry and its rapid rise, potential tariffs on exports from automakers like BYD Co., Nio Inc. and XPeng Inc. will have an impact that goes beyond anti-subsidy actions imposed on smaller sectors. Any forthcoming measures may also dent China’s booming EV exports, which have been a rare bright spot in the economy.

  The developments show regulatory risks for Chinese EVs, although they might accelerate plans to build factories in the European Union region if the probe leads to higher tariffs or lower subsidies, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Joanna Chen and Steve Man.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 21:15

• What Does "Far-Right" Even Mean Anymore?
  What Does “Far-Right” Even Mean Anymore?

  Authored by Mark Jeftovic via BombThrower.com,

  “Far right” is basically anything that contests the Establishment narrative.

  Anybody taking the legacy, corporate media at face value these days is likely under the impression that the entire world is being overrun with “far-right” extremists, after all, anything orthogonal to the current WEF-inspired world order seems to be, by definition, far right.

  

  If it wasn’t apparent already, it became obvious during the pandemic how establishment narratives are promulgated by corporate media cartels to enshrine elite-approved canon.  For that to work, it was key to neutralize non-conforming impulses, and the way to do that, it seemed, was to label it all as “far right”.

  The term has now been so misplaced and over-used that it becomes impossible to differentiate between fast rising maverick politicians from skinheads with swastika tattoos. Make no mistake, this is deliberate.

  

  Put the headline on the skinhead

  The standard playbook is to cast anything gaining momentum as “populist” – which is always implicated as being  wrong-headed and retrograde, even though a literal definition of the word simply connotes that large swaths of the population are feeling strongly about something (usually some manner of getting screwed by the elites).

  In an era where confidence and credibility of our incumbent institutions is in secular decline – given their stunning incompetence, not to mention self-serving hypocrisy and corruption, the public is becoming increasingly fed up with their betters. That means whatever appeals to them has to be repackaged as “far-right”, lest the movement gain momentum.

  

  Guardian ticks all the boxes – including the deranged “mouth-open” freeze frame. Bravo.

  I refer the reader to Brandon Smith’s characterization of “negative branding”:

  “One of the most favored propaganda tactics of [the establishment] is to relabel or redefine an opponent before they can solidly define themselves.  In other words, [they] will seek to “brand” you (just as corporations use branding) in the minds of the masses so that they can take away your ability to define yourself as anything else….

  Through the art of negative branding, your enemy has stolen your most precious asset — the ability to present yourself to the public as you really are.

  Negative branding is a form of psychological inoculation.  It is designed to close people’s minds to particular ideas before they actually hear those ideas presented by a true proponent of the ideas. ”

  It’s not just dark horse, anti-establishment challengers who get the “far right” treatment, in this era of increasingly collectivist sympathies, it can be anything that reduces dependancy on the state or faith in the system.

  

  The new “F-bombs”: Fitness and Freedom

  Let’s be clear, there is nothing political, let alone “far right” around embracing fitness or valuing freedom. However anything  that confers greater autonomy on the individual, or instills the idea that one can improve their own lives without state intervention, is anathema.

  Take an ascendent theme or personality that challenges the establishment – any thing that poses a threat to late-stage globalism or the Davos-class of elites who deign to define The Rules; hitch it to the “far right” by saying these extremists are co-opting or embracing that thing, and then it’s magically off limits – safely tucked outside the Overton Window via narrative alchemy.

  This was how Bitcoin, the most emancipatory technology to arise since the internet itself, was characterized as “right wing extremism” .

  

  It’s no problem if the target has no tenable relationship to right-wing politics: personal responsibility, physical fitness, or non-state, decentralized digital hard currency .  Just call it a “dog whistle”.

  In Javier Millei’s case, signalling his intent to abolish Argentina’s central bank (as the core driver of that country’s incessant currency collapses and runaway Cantillion Effect), is enough to anger the guardians of the fiat money system.

  If it’s an unambiguous rejection of an establishment core premise, call it “denialism”. I once saw a guy stomp off of a live podcast because, as he huffed at the host before he disconnected, “I can see that you’re a Russian Collusion Denialist!”, and then he was gone.

  Of course, the entire Russian collusion narrative has since been totally debunked, and generally known to have been a Clinton campaign ratfucking, even in polite company.

  More topical lately, is the insistence that belief in the most hysterical scenarios for climate change should be mandatory and that the most radical policy responses be non-negotiable.

  Anybody flat out contesting the dogma, or showing research indicating that there is no climate emergency, or that the models (which have never successfully predicted anything) are probably wrong, is a denialist.

  I too, would find it preferable if I could forcibly compel others to adopt my belief system. https://t.co/ch0AB5ru6g

  — Mark Jeftovic, The ₿itcoin Capitalist (@StuntPope) August 26, 2023

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

  And denialism is, exclusively, far right.

  Shouldn’t we also be on guard against far-left extremism?

  Here is where we see the hypocrisy on full display. When people or voices push back on WEF-inspired theology, they get branded as “right-wing” and even the term “conservative” carries baggage. It’s practically a slur.

  Lefty?

  People put that it in their Twitter bios and walk around with Che Guevara shirts. I’m surprised there isn’t a hammer-and-sickle emoji yet.

  

  According to “experts”, it’s not clear that “left wing extremism” is even a thing.

  It took a symposium of social scientists to sift through evidence “on both sides” of the question, the result was inconclusive and “left wing authoritarianism” or extremism remains, to this day, as elusive as ever.

  

  Who knew?

  “Although right-wing authoritarianism is well documented, social psychologists do not all agree that a leftist version even exists.

  In February 2020, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology held a symposium called “Is Left-Wing Authoritarianism Real? Evidence on Both Sides of the Debate.”

  The left employs dog whistles too, only they aren’t recognized as such under the prevailing zeitgeist.

  The burgeoning “#degrowth” movement is a dog whistle for communism.  “Equity” is one for wealth redistribution, while “inclusivity” forays into racism more often than many care to admit.

  The entire Overton Window is now a collectivist, woke sliver

  If an entrenched elite goes so far off the rails that the citizenry rebels and chooses the unthinkable (Brexit, Trump, Bitcoin, “conservatism”), it is never because the establishment let down or even betrayed the citizenry – it’s because, for some unfathomable and inscrutable reason, the peasants went “far-right”.

  Left vs right is now meaningless. As I’ve written many times: the defining tension of our age is centralization, collectivism, statism, censorship, authoritarianism vs decentralization, individuality, autonomy, free speech, personal responsibility and self-reliance.

  There are basically those who believe they have the ecclesiastical authority to tell everybody else what to do, how to live, and what is permissible to think and say. Then there is everybody who wants to be left alone to live their own lives in peace.

  Unfortunately, there is also a growing contingent of the populace who want to be told what to do and think. 

  It isn’t “far right” extremism sweeping the world that we should be worried about. It’s Stockholm Syndrome.

  These are the people who willingly give the high priests of the establishment their gravitas – the ones who routinely change their Twitter profiles to endorse The Latest Thing™.

  While they tend to be the most vociferous ideological berserkers online, acting as enforcers for the authoritarian collective, they invariably live lives of quiet desperation out in the real world. They would be completely rudderless if not for their digital emojis and sigils to guide them.

  

  I expect these people will enthusiastically embrace Black Mirror style CBCDCs when they finally launch, allowing their lives to become fully gamified via their smart phones.

  They are the same people who locked their shrieking children alone in a room for two weeks after a bogus PCR test for COVID, and they’ll be the same people who will post teary-eyed TikTok videos of themselves euthanizing their dogs after Prince William or Whoopi Goldberg tells them it’ll slow down global warming. (Future MSNBC think piece: “Why far-right extremists want you to love your dog.”)

  They are the subservient herd, at least until they become disenfranchised or disillusioned with the social contract. Usually that happens when wealth inequality finally puts them on the wrong side of the poverty line, or when they see elites brazenly living by a different set of rules, or when the consequences of horrific policy blunders hit them where they live.

  At that point, they start to look for alternatives, they go down so-called “rabbit holes”, and come out the other end shocked (or perhaps bemused) to learn that in the eyes of the establishment that betrayed them, they are now far-right extremists.

  *  *  *

  My next ebook is The CBDC Survival Guide and I’m sending it free to Bombthrower subscribers when it’s done (early June). In the meantime, subscribe now and get The Crypto Capitalist Manifesto while you wait. Follow me on Nostr, or Twitter. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 20:45

• World Risk Poll: How Long Can People Survive Without Income?
  World Risk Poll: How Long Can People Survive Without Income?

  In the wake of natural disasters or economic shocks, a person could quickly be left without income, which is why financial security is such an important aspect of resilience. 

  In this graphic, sponsored by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Visual Capitalist’s Alan Kennedy and Alejandra Dander explore their latest survey, World Risk Poll 2021: A Resilient World? to see how financially secure people from country to country really are. 

  
  

  Assessing Financial Security

  In 2021, Lloyd’s Register Foundation partnered with Gallup and polled 125,000 people from 121 countries, asking how long people could cover their basic needs without income. Responses were classified by those who could survive for more than a month, a month or less, less than a week, and those who didn’t know or refused to say. 

  Here is a ranking of those who could cover their needs for the longest length of time without income:

  

  And the shortest length of time:

  

  A Cause for Alarm

  The study found that generally, those who could cover their needs the longest came from developed economies, and those who could cover their needs for the shortest length of time came from developing economies where financial security is more tenuous. 

  With all that said, the volume of people around the globe who struggle financially is the true cause for alarm. The study found that a staggering 2.7 billion people could only cover their basic needs for a month or less without income, and of that number, 946 million could survive for a week at most.

  Tackling Financial Insecurity

  Urgent action is needed to tackle this disparity in income and lack of financial security, especially in developing economies. If left unchecked, this undermines global resilience in the face of climate change, natural disasters, and any number of other shocks. 

  In the fourth and final part of this series, we’ll explore the World Risk Poll 2021: A Changed World? Perceptions and Experiences of Risk in the COVID Age and learn how the world views climate change.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 20:15

• F-35 Stealth Fighter Goes Missing Near North Charleston After Pilot Ejects 
  F-35 Stealth Fighter Goes Missing Near North Charleston After Pilot Ejects 

  An F-35 stealth fighter jet disappeared on Sunday afternoon following a mid-flight “mishap,” Joint Base Charleston wrote on X. 

  Joint Base Charleston continued, “The pilot ejected safely,” but said, “If you have any information that may help our recovery teams locate the F-35.” 

  We’re working with @MCASBeaufortSC to locate an F-35 that was involved in a mishap this afternoon. The pilot ejected safely. If you have any information that may help our recovery teams locate the F-35, please call the Base Defense Operations Center at 843-963-3600.

  — Joint Base Charleston (@TeamCharleston) September 17, 2023

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

  According to local media WCSC, the “incident involved a Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort F-35B Lighting II jet from Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 with the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.” 

  A search and rescue effort appears to be underway. 

  looks like South Carolina Law enforcement BELL 407 (N500SC) is looking for the crashed F-35!https://t.co/5XHtDFagOd pic.twitter.com/bEa6zcj5J4

  — NC Airspace (@NCAirspace) September 17, 2023

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

  *Developing… 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 19:15

• Former Border Patrol Chief Says Agents Can't Vet Illegal Immigrants From "Vast Majority Of The Globe"
  Former Border Patrol Chief Says Agents Can’t Vet Illegal Immigrants From “Vast Majority Of The Globe”

  Authored by Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Former Chief of Border Patrol Rodney Scott explained to members of the House that the vetting process used to keep criminals out of the United States is only accurate in cases where agents have access to correct information.

  

  According to the former border chief, agents have no information about migrants from “the vast majority of the globe,” including illegal immigrants from countries like the African nation of Mauritania.

  Mr. Scott told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement during a Sept. 14 hearing that the process used by border protection agents is only as good as the information that the federal government has access to, which, globally speaking, is quite limited.

  The witness, who is currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow for Border Security at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, formerly served for 29 years in the U.S. Border Patrol before retiring as Chief of the Border Patrol in August of 2021.

  Questions about illegal immigrants from Mauritania surfaced after data about increased apprehensions by border patrol agents of individuals on the terror watch list was brought to light.

  According to the lawmakers, from 2017 to 2020, Border Patrol encountered 14 illegal immigrants on the terror watch list.

  But from 2021 to 2023, that number jumped to 263, and 149 of those encounters were in 2023 up to this point alone.

  While several lawmakers voiced concern about potential known and unknown “gotaways” which could also have been problematic, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) questioned Mr. Scott about the potential that those not on any list the United States has access to could have terror connections.

  Mr. Biggs asked if there were nations that illegal immigrations were traveling from that federal officials “can’t get any background on?”

  Mr. Scott responded, “That would be the vast majority of the globe. We have very little information. We act on what we have, but when you think about the total population of the world, we have very, very minuscule data.”

  

  Mr. Biggs asked specifically about individuals from the nation of Mauritania, saying border patrol in his home state of Arizona has seen a sharp increase in illegal migrants from that area.

  The lawmaker cited a call from a Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agent asserting that in his Arizona sector, they apprehended a group of 250 Mauritanians.

  According to Mr. Scott, Mauritania is a country that CBP has no access to background information about, and individuals from that area would have been largely unvetted.

  ‘Fear-Mongering’

  Committee ranking member Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) asked that the committee consider the “facts” pointing out during her opening statement that there has never been an American citizen killed due to terrorist attacks from an individual that has entered the United States illegally through the southern border.

  “That’s right,” the Washington Democrat went on. “Not a single American has been injured or killed by a terrorist who crossed our southern border without authorization. So don’t fall for Republican fear-mongering.

  “This hearing is purely intended to scare the public to demonize immigrants and to score cheap political points as we head towards that next election,” Ms. Jayapal said, going on to point out that those on the terror watch list who were apprehended were given vetting by the Department of Homeland Security.

  

  She also asserted that bipartisan immigration reform could deter illegal immigration by creating “real legal pathways for people to enter the United States to be with their families to escape terrible situations in their countries and to contribute to our economy, our communities, and our country.”

  During his opening remarks, Committee Chairman Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) asserted that the Biden administration’s executive orders have “opened our borders to the world by holding construction of the border wall, rescinding the remain in Mexico policy, and forbidding ICE from enforcing court-ordered deportations.”

  5.7 Million Illegals

  Mr. McClintock cited information indicating that 5.7 million illegal aliens from over 160 countries have illegally crossed our border since the Biden administration’s change in policy, and over 2.6 million of those individuals have been released into the United States. That number is higher than the population of New Mexico.

  “Another 1.7 million known ‘gotaways’ have entered as well. That’s an additional illegal population the size of West Virginia, and since we have no access to most foreign criminal databases,” Mr. McClintock said. “We know little of the foreign criminal records of these 2.6 million illegal immigrants as they’ve been released into our communities.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 18:40

• The #1 Warning Sign Capital Controls Are Coming Soon And 4 Ways To Beat Them
  The #1 Warning Sign Capital Controls Are Coming Soon And 4 Ways To Beat Them

  Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,

  Weekends and holidays are the perfect time to catch people off guard…

  Like a street thug committing a mugging, capital controls blindside most people – otherwise, they wouldn’t be effective.

  The government declares a surprise bank holiday and shuts all the banks – mere hours after they denied they were even thinking about such actions.

  They impose capital controls to stop citizens from taking their money out of the country.

  Cash-sniffing dogs, which make drug-sniffing dogs look friendly, show up at airports and border crossings.

  At this point, your savings are like a lobster in a trap. It’s not hard to see what comes next…

  

  Once a desperate government has your money within its reach, it’ll find a way to take as much of it as possible.

  Don’t be surprised if your local currency suffers a massive devaluation, bank deposits are suddenly worth a fraction of what they were just yesterday, or the government imposes an emergency tax.

  Whatever the method or pretext, the outcome is always the same: a wealth transfer from you to the government.

  This familiar story has played out in many countries in recent years. The pattern is clear and should surprise no one the next time it happens.

  It’s all but certain governments in financial trouble will turn to capital controls as a desperate, misguided solution—with devastating consequences for ordinary people.

  Argentina, Lebanon, Venezuela, Iceland, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, China, India, South Korea, and governments in countless other countries have recently imposed capital.

  The lesson from these examples is capital controls can happen anywhere and anytime.

  Although it seems unthinkable to most, there is an excellent chance capital controls are coming to the US—they’ve happened before and could happen again soon.

  Remember, in 1933, through Executive Order 6102, President Roosevelt forced Americans to exchange their gold for US dollars under penalty of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine (or more than $242,000 in today’s debased confetti).

  Of course, the official government gold exchange rate was unfavorable. It amounted to around a 41% confiscation of purchasing power.

  The US government continued prohibiting private ownership of gold bullion for 41 years until they reluctantly allowed the plebs to own it again in 1974.

  So, there is a clear historical precedent for implementing capital controls in the US, especially during a crisis.

  Today, it’s self-evident the fiat currency system centered on the US dollar is self-destructing at an alarming rate.

  After more than 52 years, it’s long past the end of its shelf-life, like a carton of spoiled milk.

  Even the global elites running the system can see that and openly talk about what they want to come next.

  That’s why there’s all this talk about a Great Reset… and without a doubt, capital controls will be part of it.

  All it would take is a crisis—real or contrived—or some other pretext and the stroke of the president’s pen on a new executive order.

  Expect it to happen.

  Why and How Governments Impose Capital Controls

  Capital controls are government restrictions on how people can use their money—something that should be abhorrent to anyone who believes in property rights and a free society.

  Here’s how capital controls work…

  Governments might allow people to buy foreign currency (or gold) only at an “official” rate that they set, which is always less favorable than the free-market rate. The difference between the fake official rate and the real free-market rate amounts to a wealth transfer to the government.

  Another form of capital controls is steep taxes on international money transfers or purchasing foreign assets.

  Governments could also flat-out prohibit ownership of foreign assets or moving any form of wealth outside the country.

  No matter what flavor they come in, capital controls always help a government trap money within its borders so it’s easier for them to take.

  A propaganda campaign is also necessary to gaslight people into believing such actions are required to protect the average person.

  Expect politicians to make disingenuous claims to make them appear as saviors instead of aggressors.

  The mainstream media will amplify this false narrative and demonize those opposed to capital controls as disloyal citizens or worse.

  What Happens After Capital Controls

  Capital controls are always a prelude to something worse.

  That’s because once governments trap money inside a country, it’s probably only a matter of hours before there is wealth confiscation. Anything they don’t steal immediately, they box in for future thefts.

  That’s why you must act before they impose capital controls.

  How much time do you have?

  While it’s impossible to know, acting well in advance is advisable. It’s better to be a year early than even a minute late.

  However, there is one common feature I’ve noticed when countries impose capital controls that indicates the situation is imminent. It’s like someone waving a big fat red flag.

  That warning sign is a government official denying that they are considering imposing capital controls.

  Whenever you hear a central banker or politician say something won’t happen, you can almost be sure it will happen. And probably soon.

  Coming from a bureaucrat, the real meaning of “no, of course not” is “it could happen tomorrow.”

  It’s like the old saying: “Believe nothing until it has been officially denied.”

  These deceptions have a purpose: Politicians and central bankers must surprise the public to get the desired results.

  When you hear the official denial, you probably have only a matter of hours before they impose capital controls. Urgent action is required.

  Four Ways To Beat Capital Controls

  The solution is simple.

  Place some of your savings outside your home country so it’s not trapped when the government imposes capital controls. It will be waiting for you safely on the other side.

  Below are four ways you can do that.

  First, obtain a foreign bank account. Capital controls imposed in your home country are unlikely to affect a bank account in another country.

  Second, real estate in a foreign country is an excellent way to store significant capital abroad. Your home government won’t be able to seize it without a literal act of war.

  Third, another solution is physical gold bullion coins held in a non-bank vault in a friendly foreign jurisdiction.

  Last, there is Bitcoin, which is like kryptonite to capital controls.

  Bitcoin is the most portable asset in the world. It’s a digital bearer asset that can achieve final international settlement in 10 minutes for pennies.

  Anyone with a smartphone can use Bitcoin to send and receive value anywhere in the world—capital controls be damned.

  Going through airports and crossing borders with Bitcoin is much more practical than other forms of wealth.

  If you hold Bitcoin on your phone, laptop, or flash drive, it can be accessible to border agents if they search you and you reveal your password. However, those things are much less conspicuous than gold or stacks of cash.

  Further, many popular Bitcoin wallets use a 12-word phrase to recover your funds. If you memorize the 12-word phrase, you can potentially store billions of dollars worth of value just in your head with nothing else.

  That’s why Bitcoin skyrockets in popularity in countries with capital controls.

  Conclusion

  The current dollar-based monetary system is on its way out. Even the central bankers running the system can see that.

  They are preparing for what comes next as they attempt to “reset” the system. It’s a virtual certainty they will impose capital controls.

  I suspect it could all go down soon… and it won’t be pretty for most people.

  We are likely on the cusp of a historic financial earthquake…

  One that could alter the direction of the US forever and mark the biggest economic event of our lifetimes.

  Yet few people are aware of what is happening.

  And even fewer know how to prepare.

  That’s exactly why I just released an urgent new report with all the details, including what you must do to prepare. It’s called, The Most Dangerous Economic Crisis in 100 Years… the Top 3 Strategies You Need Right Now. Click here to download the PDF now.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 18:05

• Elon Musk Taunts UAW: "Tesla Pays Workers More And We Have Fun"
  Elon Musk Taunts UAW: “Tesla Pays Workers More And We Have Fun”

  Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

  With perfect timing, Musk made a couple of taunts at striking UAW workers. His goal is obvious.

  

  Data from the BLS, chart by Mish

  Earnings Per Hour Notes

  • The Motor Vehicle hourly rates are for Michigan workers only. The BLS did not have nation-wide numbers.

  • The data series for construction workers and production workers starts in March of 2006 so that is where I started the chart.

  Understanding the Chart

  The chart does not tell the full story. UAW workers get far more benefits and huge bonuses that are not factored into hourly earnings.

  UAW workers also get annual bonuses that are not factored in.

  The motor vehicle decline from $28.35 per hour to $20.65 per hour stems from UAW renegotiations after GM and Chrysler went bankrupt.

  To survive at all, the UAW granted concessions and put in a tiered wage structure where new employees were paid less. Factor in retirements and hourly wages fell.

  Total UAW Unit Labor Costs vs Tesla

  • Big Three: Analysts estimate $66 an hour

  • Tesla: Roughly $45 at Tesla

  • UAW Demands: Meeting Fain’s initial demands would boost costs to $136 according to Wells Fargo analysts.

  Tesla does not pay more in hourly wages, but via stock options, Musk has made millionaires out of many workers.

  Stock options are not a company expense. Stock options come out of shareholders pockets.

  Whatever the UAW Strike Outcome, Elon Musk Has Already Won

  “Any wage increase further advances Tesla’s already tremendous cost advantage in EVs over its older U.S. peers, which are contending with generations of legacy expenses while trying to steer a costly transition to electric from gas-powered vehicles.”

  💥 “Any wage increase further advances Tesla’s already tremendous cost advantage in EVs over its older U.S. peers, which are contending with generations of legacy expenses while trying to steer a costly transition to electric from gas-powered vehicles.” https://t.co/8NLlungrPb

  — James Pethokoukis (@JimPethokoukis) September 16, 2023

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

  The Wall Street Journal comments Whatever the UAW Strike Outcome, Elon Musk Has Already Won

  Musk won before the strike began early Friday. He won before negotiations started two months ago. From the get-go, General Motors, Ford Motor, and Chrysler parent Stellantis were expected to spend more on wages because of the union’s pressure. The question is just how much of an increase, and so far their offers haven’t pleased the union, igniting this past week’s work stoppage.

  Fain this past week sounded annoyed when asked about Tesla’s cost advantage. 

  “Competition is code word for race to the bottom, and I’m not concerned about Elon Musk building more rocket ships so he can fly in outer space and stuff,” Fain told CNBC on-air Wednesday.

  “Our concern is working-class people need their share of economic justice in this world.”

  Economic Justice

  In the name of “economic justice” Fain would bankrupt the Big 3 again.

  Here’s the math: $136 * 32 hours per week * 52 weeks = $226,304. Note the UAW demand for a 32 hour workweek. At a 40-hour workweek, pay would be $282,880.

  Sorry guys, that will never fly. Whatever does fly, plays into Musks hands.

  Musk has suggested that employee stock options make his factory workers the highest compensated in the industry, saying “quite a few” line workers have become “millionaires over the years from company stock grants.”

  At Tesla, the average pay for a manufacturing technician can range from $23 to $32 an hour, according to estimates by Glassdoor. Tesla advertises factory jobs in California with expected pay ranging from $24 to $67 an hour plus cash and stock awards and other benefits.

  Tweet of the Day

  Walter spent a lot of time with me in meetings, but much less time walking the factory floor.

  Tesla and SpaceX factories have a great vibe. We encourage playing music and having some fun. Very important for people to look forward to coming to work!

  We pay more than the UAW…

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 14, 2023

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

  Perfectly Timed Taunt

  “Tesla and SpaceX factories have a great vibe. We encourage playing music and having some fun.

  Very important for people to look forward to coming to work! 

  We pay more than the UAW btw, but performance expectations are also higher.

  Quite a few of our factory techs who work on the line have become millionaires over the years from company stock grants.”

  Tesla does not pay more than the UAW, at least in hourly pay. But workers who have been at Tesla for a long time have made a killing on options with any kind of reasonable timing.

  The taunt at the UAW is aimed at encouraging the UAW to not settle quickly. It has a decent chance of working.

  Fain has already responded about economic fairness and the race to the bottom.

  Automakers Announce Layoffs

  UAW Statement on Reports of Layoffs of Non-Striking Workers

  UAW President Shawn Fain released the following statement following reports of planned layoffs of non-striking workers at GM and Ford.#StandUpUAW pic.twitter.com/Fi8Np9Yjgx

  — UAW (@UAW) September 16, 2023

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

  Chance of Rapid Acceleration

  If workers have little to do because of a part shortage by a strike, the only reasonable thing to do is announce layoffs.

  This has a good chance of escalating rapidly.

  Reflections on What Sucks

  They make $65 an hour in wages and benefits. Tesla workers make $45.

  How much do you want to pay for a car? Tell me that doesn’t suck.

  — Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) September 15, 2023

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

  Inflation Sucks

  Inflation is what sucks and there is plenty of blame to spread including the Fed, Congress, and three stimulus packages.

  But Biden’s Big EV push is behind much of this recent angst.

  It takes fewer hours to build an EV. Biden is pushing them like mad despite the fact that consumers do not want them because the infrastructure isn’t in place. Ironically, increased mileage standards have negative benefits according to a government study (at long last getting something right).

  So now the union wants a 32-hour workweek with a 36 percent raise (down from 40 percent) more benefits, and ability to strike over plant closures despite the fact it takes fewer workers to produce an EV.

  There is no one other than Biden to blame for this latest round of economic and environmental madness.

  This union battle was created by Biden, the EPA, the Labor Relations Board and other administration regulatory clowns.

  Unprecedented UAW Strike, Where’s it Headed? Keep Em Guessing Says Fain

  I discussed winners and losers in Unprecedented UAW Strike, Where’s it Headed? Keep Em Guessing Says Fain

  Time Will Tell the Winner

  There are two definitions of win, short-to-midterm and long term.

  The long term view is easier to state. GM and Chrysler (now Stellantis) already went bankrupt once over untenable wages and benefits. It could easily happen again. And If the bondholders (not that I feel much sympathy for them) were not totally screwed in the last settlement, it would have been much worse for the unions.

  Short term, I suspect everyone loses, but Fain and the UAW will temporarily cheer.

  Record profits said Biden. Lovely. Then what? Then a preposterous deal, then bankruptcy?

  The above discussion is from the point of view of the Big 3 vs the UAW. I left off a winner, Elon Musk.

  Tesla benefits no matter what happens because the Big 3 costs are certain to rise.

  The big loser is the consumer who will pay more for cars.

  Meanwhile let’s discuss the benefits of improved gas mile standards.

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Analysis of Gasoline Standards

  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA did an impact assessment of 4 fuel standard proposals and compared them to the cost of doing nothing. Guess what.

   Buried deep on Page 56,342 of volume 88 of the Federal Register, the agency makes this concession about its latest proposed rules: “Net benefits for passenger cars remain negative across alternatives.” In plain English, this means that mandating ever-more-stringent fuel economy for passenger cars will harm society.

  Through 2040, the total reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from passenger cars and light trucks would be a mere 2.01 percent less vs doing nothing at all with emission standards!

  The NHTSA also considers impacts on the economy including “consumer cost, national balance of payments, environmental, and foreign policy implications.”

  Here is the NHTSA’s bottom line: “Net benefits for passenger cars remain negative across alternatives” vs doing nothing at all.

  The Shocking Truth About Biden’s Proposed Energy Fuel Standards

  For discussion, please see The Shocking Truth About Biden’s Proposed Energy Fuel Standards

  Regardless of how we assess the winners and losers in the UAW battle, over the short and long haul we all lose from the push to pay more for the regulatory and environmental madness of this administration.

  *  *  *

  Subscribe to MishTalk Email Alerts.

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

• Los Angeles Spends $44,000 Per 'Temporary' Tent For Homeless Village
  Los Angeles Spends $44,000 Per ‘Temporary’ Tent For Homeless Village

  Los Angeles is reportedly spending $44,000 for each individual tent in a temporary tent village for homeless people in East Hollywood, The Messenger reports.

  

  All told, it cost about $4 million to put up fencing, bathrooms, and staffing facilities for the village. Catering services and 24-7 staffing cost an additional $3 million per year, the Los Angeles Times reported.

  Despite the high costs, the site is only temporary. It’s located on a parking lot that will eventually be turned into public housing. But because it will take years for construction to commence on that project, the city decided to fill the space with tents in the meantime.

  San Francisco-based nonprofit Urban Alchemy maintains the encampment. Launched in 2018 with a small grant, the group hires mostly former prisoners because they have the “ability to read people in unpredictable situations.”

  According to several lawsuits, however, some of those employees have engaged in abusive behavior.

  After expanding to Portland and Austin, the group brought in $51 million in 2021.

  

   

  The nonprofit says it’s offering a practical solution to provide affordable housing for the state’s 172,000 homeless people, while also claiming to offer safety and autonomy.

  The East Hollywood tent city contains higher quality tents ‘than anything someone could buy from a typical camping store,’ and include wooden platforms, full beds and storage lockers.

  

  The nonprofit Coalition for Responsible Community Development, meanwhile, set up an office across the street to attract people who might be interested in reentering the workforce.

  The nonprofit already oversees several camp villages across the state with varying styles. The residences at a tent city in Culver City are made from sturdy white canvas, while those in South Los Angeles are more humble, resembling store-bought camping gear. -The Messenger

  According to the report, just 2% of the homeless in the East Hollywood encampment have transitioned to permanent housing, which Urban Alchemy blames on a lack of affordable housing in the city.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 16:55

• Get Woke, Go Broke: Ibram X. Kendi's Foundation Firing 33% Of Employees
  Get Woke, Go Broke: Ibram X. Kendi’s Foundation Firing 33% Of Employees

  Authored by Monica Showalter via American Thinker,

  Wokesterism is all over, yet as corporation after corporation has learned the hard way, stoking racial or other grievance-group resentment doesn’t actually add value, and in fact is a very good way to go broke.

  

  Therefore, money is drying up for corporations that embrace it, and the cash they dole out to downstream institutions, such as universities, think tanks, activist groups, and big white-shoe foundations. The Bud Light fiasco pretty well shows what happens to those who dive in to embrace woke.

  It’s not just scandal-plagued groups like Black Lives Matter, which has done little but riot in cities (hitting black-owned businesses hard) and feather its leaderships’ nests, that has suddenly seen both a drop in public support and incoming funds.

  Now it’s the fancy stuff, the university think tanks, such as Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, led by Ibram X. Kendi, which is seeing big layoffs.

  According to the Washington Free Beacon:

  The Boston University Center for Antiracist Research is firing between 15 and 20 employees, Semafor reported Thursday. Kendi launched the center in June 2020 at the height of the movement to defund police in the wake of the death of George Floyd. It employed 45 people as of August, according to a since-deleted page on the center’s website reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

  Kendi has built a lucrative career teaching people about “antiracism,” defined as “the practice of actively identifying and opposing racism.” He received a $625,000 MacArthur “Genius” grant in 2021 and charges $20,000 for speaking engagements. His books Antiracist Baby and How to Be Antiracist have landed on the New York Times best-seller list. Kendi has argued the United States is an inherently racist country, asserted that police “inherently are harmful,” and called for a constitutional amendment to ban “racial inequity over a certain threshold, as well as racist ideas by public officials.

  Kendi is a big one, the granddaddy of all things woke, the intellectual locus of wokery. He’s perfected the art of wokecraft, having written a series of bestsellers mau-mauing whitey liberals with titles such as “Antiracist Baby” and “How to be an Antiracist,” sold at places like Target, doing the act Shelby Steele once described as offering “absolution” to guilt-beaten whites for their immutable, inborn, incurable, racism, and making bank while he’s at it. America is a flawed, racist country from its very start, and for which there is no cure.

  The Beacon said it was unable to find the exact reason for the layoffs, but did note that public polls were showing a dropoff in public support for woke organizations, which has cut into donations for wokester groups and reduced corporate giving to foundations and academic institutions.

  Woke organizations of all sorts are now being affected — Black Lives Matters is losing donations. Bigfoot foundations such as those run by the Soros family and Mark Zuckerberg are laying off staff. Corporations themselves have been getting rid of DEI departments, too. Obviously, that may be at least one reason why even woke Boston University is reducing the ever-expanding grievance group industry within its think tanks.

  As for why the public is not responding to grievance clarion calls, well, perhaps it’s because thus far these woke groups who offer themselves as the solution to all things racist, haven’t fixed anything by stoking rage and grievance politics. All they have proven adept at is raking in political spoils for themselves and mau-mauing their donors, making all sides angrier. People get tired of that. If they can’t fix a problem they claim to see all over, and can only make it bigger, then it’s time to go. That’s the American way and try as they might, they aren’t going to stop that.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 16:20

• Visualizing The Military Imbalance In The Taiwan Strait
  Visualizing The Military Imbalance In The Taiwan Strait

  China announced a “new path towards integrated development” with Taiwan on Tuesday, including encouraging the listing of Taiwanese companies on Chinese stock exchanges as well as facilitating Taiwanese people to live, study and work in China.

  

  But, as Statista’s Martin Armstrong reports, at the same time though, China has ramped up its military presence in the area, including a carrier strike group led by the aircraft carrier Shandong and an increase in airspace incursions.

  In recent years it has modernized its military, introducing the J-20, an indigenous 5th generation stealth fighter. It has also commissioned two aircraft carriers along with several modern amphibious transport dock/landing vessels.

  Even though the likelihood of China taking Taiwan by force remains unclear, the military balance in the Taiwan Strait is firmly in China’s favor.

  This infographic provides an overview of that imbalance and is based on an annual U.S. government report.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  China’s clearly stated goal is “reunification” with Taiwan and has never ruled out the possibility of using military force to achieve this.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 15:45

• Bidenomics Simplified
  Bidenomics Simplified

  Authored by Maker S. Mark via AmericanThinker.com,

  President Biden is trying to explain Bidenomics.  

  I will help him out a bit here with a summary.  

  Economics is a challenging field of study, and I hope this may help you explain Bidenomics to people who are asking about it.

  

  What is Bidenomics?

  Simply put, Bidenomics is borrowing trillions from China, to spend on a green new deal and to enrich China and its U.S. and international supporters.  As part of this green new deal, cut off as much oil and gas production in the U.S. as possible to drive prices higher.

  In addition, part of the green new deal is to enact a host of regulations on everything, including alcohol, beer, cars, ceiling fans, fertilizer, gas stoves, lawnmowers, light bulbs, plastics, vaccinations, etc.  Essentially regulate for the American people everything from alcohol to zoos.

  And, as they are spending and splitting trillions and they have raised prices on everything, they have put a few programs together that might save the American people millions.  Remember, trillions for them, millions for the rest of us.

  Open the border, and allow millions of illegal aliens into the country to supply cheap labor.

  Stigmatize white Americans into unemployment just for being white.

  How much might Bidenomics cost?

  Well, we now have estimates on the record that the cabal pushing the green new deal are estimating $50–70 trillion in new spending over 10–15 years.  China stands to benefit both with the expansion of China’s green new deal products and with the interest on the debt taken out to pay for the forced transition.  This video with Senator Kennedy and a DOE “expert” is telling about what the supposed expert won’t answer.

  This is a direct cash spend on top of other increased government spending, and it does not take into account the impact of the price increases caused by inflation, the production cuts in oil and gas, and the new regulations.  Probably trillions more in Americans’ disposable income spending will be allocated for us on these programs.

  Expect American unemployment rates to start to rise as all these illegal aliens are given work visas.

  What do you get for Bidenomics?

  Sacrifice your livelihood, financial independence, and freedom for the green new deal.

  If you are a white American, unemployment.

  Almost no improvement in the Earth’s temperature.

  War on fossil fuel energy, which has allowed the U.S. to grow and prosper like no other country.  

  Massive inflation from the spending that is occurring.

  More important than the inflation is the massive price increases from the inflation that will be with us for some time.  With all the new regulations that are being primed, prices will continue to move higher and higher.

  New products that are significantly more expensive and offer almost no new benefits to the environment or to the American people.

  You might save a little money on certain drug purchases.

  The largest wealth transfer in world history from the American people to Biden, China, and his allies.

  Bidenomics, simply put, is for Americans to sacrifice personally and financially by watching “them” spending trillions to enrich Biden and his allies while throwing a few million in crumbs to the American people.  And they will do that while simultaneously destroying freedom via regulating everything and crushing our way of life.  Oh, and all that spending will change nothing in the Earth’s climate.  Watch the video referenced, and see the “expert” squirm when pressed about how much impact all the trillions of dollars will have on the climate.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 15:10

• NFTs: Remember Them?
  NFTs: Remember Them?

  Non-fungible tokens are a social currency, born from “a desire to do more with blockchain than just cryptocurrency,” according to Steven Schuchart, principal analyst at GlobalData.

  Eve Thomas writes at Verdict that the first NFT is widely thought to have been created in 2014 – ‘Quantum’ was created on the Namecoin blockchain by Kevin McCoy. It is a kaleidoscopic, pulsing octagon, which was auctioned off through Sotheby’s for $1.47 million. 

  December 2017 saw the CryptoKitties craze boost the hype around NFTs as the game gripped the NFT community: it was so successful that Etherscan reported a sixfold increase in pending transactions on Ethereum within the first week.

  The market exploded in 2021, with $17.6bn worth of NFTs sold, an increase of 21,000% on 2020’s $82m total, according to a report by nonfungible.com. Amongst an increasingly valuable market, Beeple’s sale of ‘Everydays’ for $69m in March 2021 became the most expensive NFT ever sold. 

  When a market grows, so does the number of opportunistic criminals targeting it.

  The NFT market became a landscape of “rampant fraud, Ponzi schemes, currency washing (money laundering), and rug pulls,” according to Schuchart.

  And, with investor apprehension came a reappraisal of the utility of NFTs.

  While many of us were forced to at least try to understand what an NFT is at some point in 2021 or 2022, the latest figures from Google Trends suggest that this research has not led to a sustained interest in the topic.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  For those that didn’t quite get around to it at the time, here’s Wikipedia to the rescue:

  “A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain, and is used to certify ownership and authenticity. It cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchain and can be transferred by the owner, allowing NFTs to be sold and traded.”

  Still not clear?

  Then have fun delving down this particular rabbit hole.

  

  Though as Statista’s Martin Armstrong notes, if the trend shown by Google’s search data is anything to go by, combined with the countless NFT-based scams that have been uncovered, that might turn out to be a monumental waste of your time.

  As Verdict’s Eve Thomas concluded, for a while, it seemed that NFTs might revolutionise the world’s relationship with digital art. NFTs are still in use in some spheres: Neversea music festival is selling NFTs that provide exclusive access to parts of the festival, whilst Visa is running a Creator Program supporting NFT creators.

  Nevertheless, the bubble has burst, and unless investors see a new reason to take interest, it looks as though it will be staying firmly popped.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 14:35

• Detransitioner Sues Doctors Who Cut Off Her Breasts At 16
  Detransitioner Sues Doctors Who Cut Off Her Breasts At 16

  Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Luka Hein, a young lady who regrets receiving a “radical double mastectomy” at the age of 16 to treat gender dysphoria, is suing her physicians and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) for damages.

  

  At 16 years old, Ms. Hein was a minor when physicians from UNMC surgically removed her breasts as the first step in her so-called “gender-affirming care,” per a lawsuit filed in the District Court of Douglas County, Nebraska, on Wednesday.

  The Center for American Liberty legal organization on Wednesday accused doctors at UNMC of lying to Ms. Hein and her parents, and of hiding research that doesn’t support the prevailing “gender-affirming” model of care for people suffering from gender dysphoria.

  “UNMC doctors deceived Luka and her parents with false promises claiming that if Luka did not undergo the removal of her breasts, she would take her own life, despite medical evidence to the contrary,” the Center for American Liberty stated. “UNMC also concealed scientific studies that do not support surgical ‘transitions’ for minors—including studies showing transgender surgeries actually increase suicidality and psychiatric morbidity.”

  Ms. Hein contends in her lawsuit that doctors and her health care team at Nebraska Medicine were negligent in not questioning her self-diagnosis instead of affirming her gender identity per the prevailing “Dutch protocol.” She claims this ultimately caused her harm by encouraging her “toward irreversible chemical and surgical solutions.”

  The Dutch protocol is the origin of the “gender-affirming” model of care, which Ms. Hein’s lawsuit contends conditions children toward transgender identification “by encouraging social transition, chest binding, opposite sex pronouns, cross-sex hormones and surgery,” rather than treating gender dysphoria.

  In a post on Instagram earlier this year, Ms. Hein described herself as “a victim” of the “gender-affirming care system.”

  “I was a young teenager with a history of mental health issues who had been groomed and preyed upon online, and as a result fell into a spiral of hatred towards both myself and my body,” she wrote.

  “The medical system did not look into or seem concerned about the underlying issues that were causing the distress that made me feel the need to escape my body at such a young age,” she continued, “instead I was affirmed down a path of medical intervention that I could not fully understand the long term impacts and consequences of due to my both my age and mental health conditions.”

  Her lawsuit contends that by “immediately affirming” her, the doctors “developed a type of transgender tunnel vision that blocked out the other factors that were or may have been the cause or causes of Luka’s dysphoria.”

  This treatment method of affirming Ms. Hein’s new gender identity, which she now bitterly regrets, came “during a time in her life when she was going through profound personal upheaval, trauma, and distress,” according to the complaint (pdf).

  Ms. Hein, the suit contends, “was simply too young to understand the irreversible implications of the transgender ‘treatment’ recommended, prescribed, and carried out” by health care workers at UNMC.

  Doctors ‘Owed a Duty’ to Hein

  The defendants, UNMC Physicians and the Nebraska Medical Center are “controlled affiliates” of co-defendant Nebraska Medicine, which coordinates and controls the activities of the two entities, including inpatient and outpatient hospital and physician care. The clinic is based in Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska.

  The lawsuit specifically names Dr. Nahia “Jean” Amoura, an OB/GYN and director of the gender care clinic. It also names Dr. Perry Johnson, a plastic surgeon at the gender clinic, and Dr. Stephan Barrientos, a resident physician who allegedly assisted Dr. Johnson in removing Ms. Hein’s breasts on the alleged advice of Dr. Amoura.

  Megan Smith-Sallans, a mental health therapist working in gender care, was also named in the lawsuit as working with the three physicians to allegedly “cause harm” to Ms. Hein.

  Ms. Hein’s complaint contends that the physicians at UNMC, a clinic that boasts about its leadership “in ground-breaking research,” had the ability and duty to independently examine the scientific basis of the “gender-affirming” model.

  “As Nebraska’s premier medical institution, and with millions of research dollars at hand, Defendants owed a duty to Luka—and the hundreds of patients like her—to independently research the underpinnings of the Dutch study before adopting its flawed protocols,” the complaint states.

  

  ‘Gender-Affirming’ Model ‘Should Have Never Been Used’

  The lawsuit contends that the Dutch model “should have never been used” as justification to scale up the protocol for general use.

  “But like a virus that escapes the lab, the Dutch protocol spread like a contagion due to ‘runaway diffusion,’ a phenomenon whereby innovative clinical practices are rushed to market without long-term, carefully controlled ethical research demonstrating that the benefits of the innovation outweigh the risks,” the lawsuit states.

  Such a “seismic shift” away from the time-tested protocols in diagnosing patients means that “reasonably prudent” doctors have a duty to examine and assess their patients for other potential causes of distress before resorting to irreversible procedures like double mastectomy or hysterectomy, the complaint contends.

  UNMC’s website boasts that it has earned a “Top Performer” designation from the Human Rights Campaign, a group that lobbies for the Dutch protocol of “gender-affirming” care.

  “This means that UNMC staff do not question a patient’s self-diagnosis of transgender identification, no matter their age or the root issues from which they suffer,” the complaint states. “Rather, UNMC faculty ‘affirm’ the chosen gender identity of the patient and then undertake pharmacological and surgical interventions based on what is known as the ‘Dutch Protocol.'”

  This protocol, which was based on a Dutch study of transgender patients who received hormone therapies in the early 2000s, has become the prevailing treatment method for gender dysphoria in the United States. However, multiple follow-up studies have pointed out its weaknesses.

  Ms. Hein’s complaint contends that the study had no control group, that the study “cherry-picked” the patients, that the study ended with 40 percent fewer patients participating—one patient died from complications arising after he had a vagina surgically created—and that the study excluded data from patients whose treatment with puberty blockers “did not progress well.”

  The complaint notes that the studies were funded by Ferring Pharmaceuticals, which produces puberty-blocking drugs and stood to profit from favorable results.

  The Epoch Times contacted UNMC and Ferring Pharmaceuticals for comment.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 14:00

• ChatGPT's Environmental Impact Ignored By Climate Warriors 
  ChatGPT’s Environmental Impact Ignored By Climate Warriors 

  Climate alarmists have waged war on energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining operations but have yet to denounce large language models (LLMs) like Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT that use 16 ounces of fresh water every time a user asks it a series of questions. 

  Microsoft revealed in its latest environmental report that its global water consumption surged 34% from 2021-22 (to nearly 1.7 billion gallons), a massive increase versus the previous years primarily due to artificial intelligence research, according to AP News. 

  “It’s fair to say the majority of the growth is due to AI,” including “its heavy investment in generative AI and partnership with OpenAI,” said Shaolei Ren, a researcher at the University of California, Riverside who has been developing a new process to calculate the environmental impact of ChatGPT. 

  Ren’s team calculates that ChatGPT consumes 16 ounces of water for every 5 to 50 queries or prompts from a user. He noted, “Most people are not aware of the resource usage underlying ChatGPT.” 

  

  Ren added, “If you’re not aware of the resource usage, then there’s no way that we can help conserve the resources.”

  Given the chatbot’s unprecedented popularity this year, environmental problems have emerged with LLMs as massive data centers that power the chatbot require huge amounts of water-based liquid cooling. 

  Microsoft told AP in a statement last week that its AI research will soon have a measure on its energy and carbon footprint. The tech company said, “While working on ways to make large systems more efficient, in both training and application.”

  “We will continue to monitor our emissions, accelerate progress while increasing our use of clean energy to power data centers, purchasing renewable energy, and other efforts to meet our sustainability goals of being carbon negative, water positive and zero waste by 2030,” it continued. 

  OpenAI stated that it has given “considerable thought” to its computing power: “We recognize training large models can be energy and water-intensive” and work to improve efficiencies.

  Despite significant energy and freshwater usage, ChatGPT and other LLMs have not faced the same scrutiny from environmental warriors as crypto mining has over the years.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/17/2023 – 13:25

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Here's The Climate Dissent You're Not Hearing About Because It's Muffled By Society's Top Institutions
  Here’s The Climate Dissent You’re Not Hearing About Because It’s Muffled By Society’s Top Institutions

  Authored by John Murawski via RealClear Wire,

  As the Biden administration and governments worldwide make massive commitments to rapidly decarbonize the global economy, the persistent effort to silence climate change skeptics is intensifying – and the critics keep pushing back. 

  

  This summer the International Monetary Fund summarily canceled a presentation by John Clauser, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who publicly disavows the existence of a climate “crisis.” The head of the nonprofit with which Clauser is affiliated, the CO2 Coalition, has said he and other members have been delisted from LinkedIn for their dissident views.  

  Meanwhile, a top academic journal retracted published research doubting a climate emergency after negative coverage in legacy media. The move was decried by another prominent climate dissenter, Roger Pielke Jr., as “one of the most egregious failures of scientific publishing that I have seen” – criticism muffled because the academic says he has been blocked on Twitter (now X) by reporters on the climate beat. 

  The climate dissenters are pressing their case as President Biden, United Nations officials, and climate action advocates in media and academia argue that the “settled science” demands a wholesale societal transformation. That means halving U.S. carbon emissions by 2035 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050 to stave off the “existential threat” of human-induced climate change. 

  In response last month, more than 1,600 scientists, among them two Nobel physics laureates, Clauser and Ivar Giaever of Norway, signed a declaration stating that there is no climate emergency, and that climate advocacy has devolved into mass hysteria. The skeptics say the radical transformation of entire societies is marching forth without a full debate, based on dubious scientific claims amplified by knee-jerk journalism.  

  Many of these climate skeptics reject the optimistic scenarios of economic prosperity promised by advocates of a net-zero world order. They say the global emissions-reduction targets are not achievable on such an accelerated timetable without lowering living standards and unleashing worldwide political unrest.  

  “What advocates of climate action are trying to do is scare the bejesus out of the public so they’ll think we need to [act] fast,” said Steven Koonin, author of “Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters.”  

  “You have to balance the certainties and uncertainties of the changing climate – the risks and hazards – against many other factors,” he adds. 

  These dissenters don’t all agree on all scientific questions and do not speak in a single voice. Clauser, for example, is a self-styled “climate denialist” who believes climate is regulated by clouds, while Pielke, a political scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and Bjørn Lomborg, the former director of the Danish Environmental Assessment Institute, acknowledge humans are affecting the climate but say there is sufficient time to adapt. The dissenters do, however, agree that the public and government officials are getting a one-sided, apocalyptic account that stokes fear, politicizes science, misuses climate modeling, and shuts down debate.  

  They also say it is a troubling sign for scientific integrity that they are systematically sidelined and diminished by government funding agencies, foundation grant-makers, academic journals, and much of the media. Delving into their claims, RealClearInvestigations reviewed a sampling of their books, articles, and podcast interviews. This loose coalition of writers and thinkers acknowledges that the climate is warming, but they typically ascribe as much, if not more, influence to natural cycles and climate variability than to human activities, such as burning fossil fuel.  

  Among their arguments:  

  • There is no climate crisis or existential threat as expressed in catastrophic predictions by activists in the media and academia. As global temperatures gradually increase, human societies will need to make adjustments in the coming century, just as societies have adapted to earlier climate changes. By and large, humans cannot control the climate, which Pielke describes as “the fanciful idea that emissions are a disaster control knob.” 

  • Global temperatures are increasing incrementally, and have been for centuries, but the degree of human influence is uncertain or negligible. Climate skeptics themselves don’t agree on how much humans are contributing to global warming by burning fossil fuels, and how much is caused by natural variability from El Niño and other cycles that can take centuries to play out. “The real question is not whether the globe has warmed recently,” writes Koonin, “but rather to what extent this warming is being caused by humans.” 

  • Rapidly replacing fossil fuels with renewables and electricity by mid-century would be economically risky and may have a negligible effect on global warming. Some say mitigation decrees – such as phasing out the combustion engine and banning gas stoves – are not likely to prevent climate change because humans play a minor role in global climate trends. Others say mitigation is necessary but won’t happen without capable replacement technologies. It’s unrealistic, they say, to force societies to rely on intermittent energy from wind and solar, or wager the future on technologies that are still in experimental stages.   

  • The global political push to kill the fossil fuel industry to get to “net zero” and “carbon neutrality” by 2050, as advocated by the United Nations and the Biden administration, will erase millions of jobs and raise energy costs, leading to a prolonged economic depression and political instability. The result would be that developing regions will pay the highest price, while the biggest polluters (China and India) and hostile nations (like Russia and Iran) will simply ignore the net-zero mandate. This could be a case where the cure could be worse than the disease.  

  • Despite the common refrain in the media, there is no evidence that a gradually warming planet is affecting the frequency or intensity of hurricanes, storms, droughts, rainfall, or other weather events. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has expressed low confidence such weather events can be linked to human activities. Still, “it is a fertile field for cherry pickers,” notes Pielke.  

  • Extreme weather events, such as wildfires and flooding, are not claiming more human lives than previously. The human death toll is largely caused by cold weather, which accounts for eight times as many deaths as hot weather, and overall weather-related mortality has fallen by about 99% in the past century. “People are safer from climate-related disasters than ever before,” statistician and author Bjørn Lomborg has said. 

  • Climate science has been hijacked and politicized by activists, creating a culture of self-censorship that’s enforced by a code of silence that Koonin likens to the Mafia’s omerta. In her 2023 book, “Climate Uncertainty and Risk,” climatologist Judith Curry asks: “How many skeptical papers were not published by activist editorial boards? How many published papers have buried results in order to avoid highlighting findings that conflict with preferred narratives? I am aware of anecdotal examples of each of these actions, but the total number is unknowable.” 

  • Slogans such as “follow the science” and “scientific consensus” are misleading and disingenuous. There is no consensus on many key questions, such as the urgency to cease and desist burning fossil fuels, or the accuracy of computer modeling predictions of future global temperatures. The apparent consensus of imminent disaster is manufactured through peer pressure, intimidation, and research funding priorities, based on the conviction that “noble lies,” “consensus entrepreneurship,” and “stealth advocacy” are necessary to save humanity from itself. “One day PhD dissertations will be written about our current moment of apocalyptic panic,” Pielke predicts.  

  • The warming of the planet is a complicated phenomenon that will cause some disruptions but will also bring benefits, particularly in agricultural yields and increased vegetation. Some climate skeptics, including the CO2 Coalition, say CO2 is not a pollutant – it is “plant food.”  

  Curry, the former Chair of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology, expresses a common theme among the climate refuseniks: that they are the sane, rational voices in a maelstrom of quasi-religious mania.  

  “In the 1500s, they used to drown witches in Europe because they blamed them for bad weather. You had the pagan people trying to appease the gods with sacrifices,” Curry said. “What we’re doing now is like a pseudoscientific version of that, and it’s no more effective than those other strategies.’ 

  The climate change establishment occasionally concedes some of these points. No less an authority than the newly appointed head of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has urged the climate community to cool its jets: “If you constantly communicate the message that we are all doomed to extinction, then that paralyzes people and prevents them from taking the necessary steps to get a grip on climate change,” Jim Skea recently said to German media. “The world won’t end if it warms by more than 1.5 degrees [centigrade]. It will however be a more dangerous world.”  

  In testimony before the Senate Budget Committee in June, Pielke said human-caused climate change is real and “poses significant risks to society and the environment.” But the science does not paint a dystopian, catastrophic scenario of imminent doom, he added.  

  “Today, there is general agreement that our current media environment and political discourse are rife with misinformation,” Pielke testified. “If there is just one sentence that you take from my testimony today it is this: You are being misinformed.” 

  Still, the overwhelming impression conveyed is one of impending disaster, with the menace of global warming rhetorically upgraded in July by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to “global boiling.” Climate scientists announced in July that the planet is the hottest it’s been in 120,000 years, an old claim that gets recycled every few years. Meanwhile, three vice-chairs of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned of mass starvation, extinction, and disasters, saying that if the temperature rises 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels, “children under 12 will experience a fourfold increase in natural disasters in their lifetime, and up to 14% of all species assessed will likely face a very high risk of extinction.”  

  Many of these predictions are based on computer models and computer simulations that Pielke, Koonin, Curry, and others have decried as totally implausible. Koonin’s book suggests that some computer models may be “cooking the books” to achieve desired outcomes, while Pielke has decried faulty scenarios as “one of the most significant failures of scientific integrity in the twenty-first  century thus far.” Curry writes in her book that the primary inadequacy of climate models is their limited ability to predict the kinds of natural climate fluctuations that cause ice ages and warming periods, and play out over decades, centuries, or even millennia.  

  Another critique is the use of computer models to correlate extreme weather events to multi-decade climate trends in an attempt to show that the weather was caused by climate, a branch of climate science called climate attribution studies. This type of research is used to bolster claims that the frequency and intensity of heat waves, floods, hurricanes, and other extreme weather events could not have happened without climate change. An example is research recently cited by the BBC in an article warning that if the global temperature rises another 0.9 centigrade, crippling heat waves that were once exceedingly rare will bake the world every two-to-five years.  

  One question looms: Does a warming climate contribute to heat records and heat waves, such as those that were widely reported in July as the hottest month on record and taken as overwhelming proof that humans are overheating the planet? The United States experienced extreme heat waves in the 1930s, and the recent spikes are not without precedent, climate dissenters say. Pielke, however,  concedes that IPCC data signal that increases in heat extremes and heat waves are virtually certain, but he argues that the societal impacts will be manageable.  

  Koonin and Curry say that the global heat spikes in July were likely caused by a multiplicity of factors, including an underwater Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic explosion last year that increased upper atmosphere water vapor by about 10%, a relevant fact because water vapor acts as a greenhouse gas. Another factor is the warming effect of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, which has shifted to an active phase recently.  

  Koonin says that greenhouse gas emissions are a gradual trend on which weather anomalies play out, and while it’s tempting to confuse weather with climate, it would be a mistake to blame July’s heat waves on human influence.  

  “The anomaly is about as large as we’ve ever seen, but not unprecedented,” Koonin explained on a podcast. “Now, what the real question is, why did it spike so much? Nothing to do with CO2 – CO2 is … the base on which this phenomenon occurs.” 

  Climate dissent comes with the occupational hazard of being tarred as a propagandist and stooge for “Big Oil.” Pielke was one of seven academics investigated by a U.S. Congressman in 2015 for allegedly failing to report funding from fossil fuel interests (He was cleared). A New York Times review of Lomborg’s 2020 book, “False Alarm,” described it as “mind pollution.” 

  Climate advocates see climate skepticism as so dangerous that Ben Santer, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, publicly cut ties with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory two years ago after the federal research facility invited Koonin to discuss his skeptical book, “Unsettled.” Santer, a MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, said allowing Koonin’s views to go unchallenged undermined the credibility and integrity of climate science research. For similar reasons, the IMF postponed Clauser’s July presentation so that it could be rescheduled as a debate.  

  Another critique: scientists arbitrarily forcing the facts to fit a prescribed catastrophic narrative, often by ignoring plausible alternative explanations and relevant factors. That’s what climate scientist Patrick Brown said he had to do to get published in the prestigious journal Nature, by attributing wildfires to climate change and ignoring other factors, like poor forest management and the startling fact that over 80% of wildfires are ignited by humans. Brown publicly confessed to this sleight-of-hand in a recent article in The Free Press.  

  “This type of framing, with the influence of climate change unrealistically considered in isolation, is the norm for high-profile research papers,” Brown wrote. “When I had previously attempted to deviate from the formula, my papers were rejected out of hand by the editors of distinguished journals, and I had to settle for less prestigious outlets.” 

  These frustrations serve as a reminder that the world has entered what the United Nations and climate advocates call the make-or-break decade that will decide how much the Earth’s temperature will rise above pre-industrial levels. This decisive phase is “unfolding now and will intensify during the next several years,” according to Rice University researchers. “Accordingly, what happens between now and the late 2020s, in all likelihood, will fundamentally determine the failure or success of an accelerated energy transition.” 

  In response to this call for global action, political leaders in Europe and North America are vowing to reengineer their societies to run on wind, solar, and hydrogen. In this country, California is among a dozen states that have moved to ban the sale of new gasoline-engine cars in 2035, while states like Virginia and North Carolina have committed to carbon-free power girds by mid-century.  

  In the most detailed net-zero roadmap to date, the International Energy Agency in 2021 identified more than 400 milestones that would have to be met to achieve a net-zero planet by mid-century, including the immediate cessation of oil and gas exploration and drilling, and mandated austerity measures such as reducing highway speed limits, limiting temperature settings in private homes, and eating less meat.  

  In the IEA’s net zero scenario, global energy use will decline by 8% through energy efficiency even as the world’s population adds 2 billion people and the economy grows a whopping 40%. In this scenario, all the nations of the world – including China, India, Russia, and Saudi Arabia – would have to commit to a net-zero future, generating 14 million jobs to create a new energy infrastructure. Nearly half the slated emissions reductions will have to come from experimental technologies currently in demonstration or prototype stages, such as hydrogen, bioenergy, carbon capture, and modular nuclear reactors. Reading this bracing outlook, one could almost overlook the IEA’s caveat that relying on solar and wind for nearly 70% of electricity generation would cause retail electricity prices to increase by 50% on average and destroy 5 million jobs, of which “many are well paid, meaning structural changes can cause shocks for communities with impacts that persist over time.”  

  A critique of the IEA’s scenario issued this year by the Energy Policy Research Foundation, a think tank that specializes in oil, gas, and petroleum products, warned of “massive supply shocks” if oil supplies are artificially suppressed to meet arbitrary net zero targets. The report further stated that “if the world stays committed to net zero regardless of high costs – the recession will turn into an extended depression and ultimately impose radical negative changes upon modern civilization.” (Disclosure: The report was commissioned by the RealClearFoundation, the nonprofit parent of RealClearInvestigations.) 

  Already, societies have fallen behind their emissions reduction targets, and it’s widely understood that fast-tracking net zero is an unattainable goal. Transforming existing energy infrastructures within several decades would require installing the equivalent of the world’s largest solar farm every day, according to the International Energy Agency. Carbon-free energy accounts for only 18% of total global consumption, and fossil fuels are still increasing, according to a recent analysis. The IEA reported this year that investments in oil exploration and drilling have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, while global coal demand reached an all-time high last year. Globally nations are spending more on clean energy than on fossil fuels, but fossil fuels are still vital to economic growth; for instance, the IEA noted that 40 gigawatts of new coal plants were approved in 2022, the highest figure since 2016, almost all of them in China.  

  “We live in this world of exaggerated promises and delusional pop science,” Vaclav Smil, the University of Manitoba environmental scientist and policy analyst, told The New York Times last year. “People don’t appreciate the magnitude of the task and are setting up artificial deadlines which are unrealistic.” 

  A government push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by cutting back on livestock farming has led to public protests in the Netherlands, a conflict over resources that Time magazine predicts will spread elsewhere: “This may be just the beginning of much wider global unrest over agriculture. Scientists say dealing with climate change will require not just gradual reform, but a rapid, wholesale transformation of the global food system.”  

  Climate dissidents say what happened in the Netherlands is a foretaste of the political backlash that is inevitable when net-zero policies start becoming implemented and people have to travel across state lines to buy a gasoline-powered car.  

  “The urgency is the stupidest part of the whole thing – that we need to act now with all these made-up targets,” Curry said. “The transition risk is far greater than any conceivable climate or weather risk.” 

  To Koonin, these challenges indicate that the catastrophic climate narrative will collapse when put to the test of practicality and politics. The more sensible route, he said, is a slow-and-steady approach.  

  “There’s going to be a deep examination of science and the cost-benefit issues,” he said. “We will eventually do the right thing, but it’s going to take a decade or so.” 

  John Murawski reports on the intersection of culture and ideas for RealClearInvestigations. He previously covered artificial intelligence for the Wall Street Journal and spent 15 years as a reporter for the News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) writing about health care, energy and business. At RealClear, Murawski reports on how esoteric academic theories on race and gender have been shaping many areas of public life, from K-12 school curricula to workplace policies to the practice of medicine.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 23:20

• Visualizing Google's Search Engine Market Share
  Visualizing Google’s Search Engine Market Share

  Google is ubiquitous in the daily lives of billions of people around the world, with leading positions in online search, maps, and other services.

  In fact, as Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu notes, Google’s dominance is so far-reaching, it has led the U.S. Justice Department to launch a civil antitrust lawsuit for what it believes are examples of anticompetitive and exclusionary conduct.

  This graphic, which uses data from Similarweb, shows the scale of Google’s lead over major search engine competitors like Bing and Yahoo.

  

  Global Search Engine Market Share

  The data we used to create this graphic is provided in the table below. It is global search engine market share as of June 2023, across all platforms (desktop, mobile, and tablet).

  Note that this analysis does not include China, where Google and other American tech firms are currently banned, or Russia, where Google has ceased operations.

  

  The largest player included in “Other” is South Korea’s Naver (0.48% global market share), which is similar to Google in that it offers a plethora of online services like search, video, and mobile payments.

  Google Prepares for its U.S. Lawsuit

  In January 2023, the U.S. Justice Department announced a civil antitrust lawsuit against Google for monopolizing digital advertising technologies.

  “Today’s complaint alleges that Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful conduct to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies”

  – MERRICK B. GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL

  The Justice Department originally made several antitrust arguments. Potential actions that were deemed red flags include setting Google as a default mobile browser on Android phones, designing search results to disadvantage competitors, and the company’s ongoing partnership with Apple for its Safari browser. That said, some of the less substantial claims have since been dismissed by Judge Amit Mehta.

  Google’s court case will begin in mid-September, marking the biggest tech monopoly trial since United States v. Microsoft Corp in 2001. Google is expected to argue that it simply offers a superior product.

  Can Bing Challenge Google on Home Turf?

  To answer this question, let’s look at U.S. market share over the past 12 months ending June 2023.

  

  From this chart we can see that Bing maintains a slightly higher 5.5% U.S. market share (versus 3.2% globally).

  The biggest takeaway from this chart, though, is that Bing does not appear to have gained any traction in 2023, even after releasing its latest AI-powered version in February.

  The new Bing is the result of Microsoft’s $10 billion investment into OpenAI at the beginning of 2023, which allows the tech giant to incorporate the immensely popular GPT-4 into its various products and services.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 22:45

• "We Dare Not Keep Silent": ATF Releases Anti-Gun Rule For Public Comment
  “We Dare Not Keep Silent”: ATF Releases Anti-Gun Rule For Public Comment

  Submitted by Gun Owners of America,

  Earlier this year, the Biden Administration announced its intent to move the United States “as close to Universal Background Checks as possible without additional legislation.”

  After much speculation on how far-reaching the rule would be, it has finally arrived, and it’s worse than expected.

  In its current form, the universal background check rule could subject those who sell even a single firearm to dealer requirements, including a background check.

  ICYMI📢

  We hate to say we told you so, but it’s official.

  The Justice Department announced a new rule to amend ATF regulations and expand the definition of a firearms dealer to include those who sell even a single firearm. 🤯 https://t.co/HIpxe0xYv6

  — Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) September 5, 2023

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

  While it is worth noting that none of this would be possible without the Republican-backed gun control known as the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. There’s still something that gun owners can do to combat this rule.

  Under the Administrative Procedures Act, when agencies like ATF make rules, they must first submit the rule for public comment on the Federal Register.

  During this period, citizens can give their thoughts on the rule and describe their unique situations as to how it will affect them.

  If enough comments are negative, the agency will pull the rule and not proceed. Gun Owners of America has experienced massive success in defeating the ATF through this method. Most significantly, in 2015, we defeated the Obama administration’s attempt to ban M855 “green tip” ammunition during the notice and comment period.

  The first attempt at a pistol brace ruling during the Trump Administration was also defeated through the notice and comment period. ATF retracted the rule and “acknowledged there were legitimate uses for the devices,” a statement that encapsulates the hypocritical nature of the agency itself.

  And even if the rule goes through and becomes the law of the land, we’re not out of options, but your comments are still extremely important to the next steps.

  First, we lobby Congress to bring the rule under the Congressional Review Act. Gun Owners of America did this for Biden’s pistol brace rule with H.J. Res 44. The House of Representatives passed a resolution that condemned the ATF rulemaking. Even though the resolution had no chance of being signed by Joe Biden, it still showed that ATF had acted against Congress’s intent, sending a powerful message to the courts.

  To get members of Congress to vote yes on this resolution, all we had to do was point to the massive number of comments left on the rule by their constituents.

  Your comments matter in our lawsuits. If we can’t get Congress to act, we can always take the ATF to court, something we’re preparing to do right now over this rule. In our lawsuit, we will undoubtedly use the comments of GOA members to show how the rule adversely affects such a large portion of our membership along with the general population.

  🚨BREAKING🚨

  The @ATFHQ sent notice of a new rule to essentially create backdoor Universal Registration Checks to require a background check where any “profit” is made.

  We will share details after we’ve reviewed the rule & our attorneys will be preparing a lawsuit.

  — Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) August 31, 2023

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

  We have seen ATF rules where thousands of pro-gun commenters will point out a problem or flaw in the ATF’s reasoning, forcing the agency to attempt a rewrite in order to try and fix the problem, only to find that the ATF has violated the Administrative Procedures Act because they made significant changes without issuing a second round of comments. This is a violation of law that can bring down the entire gun control rule. 

  Sadly, there is an attitude among some gun owners who don’t think their voice matters – and that gives the ATF precisely what they want.  

  In fact, the worst thing you can do as someone who’s pro-gun is take a backseat to events like this because it’s a “waste of time.”  

  The ATF and the anti-gun lobby want you NOT to be politically active! It’s a key part of their strategy. If voters can be persuaded that noncompliance is the only way to combat a tyrannical government and that there’s no use fighting for your rights within the system, the government can then legislate your rights away as they please and simply play the waiting game to catch those practicing noncompliance.

  This is why it’s not just important for you to get involved politically, but for you to get your fellow gun owners to do the same. 

  Erich Pratt, Senior Vice President for Gun Owners of America, said:

   “It’s been said time and again: ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’ The anti-gun Left would love nothing more than for gun owners to think their activism accomplishes nothing. But that’s a horrid lie. Our activism has … does … and will continue to make a difference. We dare not keep silent, or we will have only ourselves to blame when our freedoms are taken from us.”

  Unfortunately, the reality is that your rights are under attack from very well-funded organizations that currently have a large amount of influence over the United States government. As gun owners, we can’t be complacent in saying, “I’ll sit this one out.”  

  So please leave a comment on the Federal Register.

  

  Help us fight back against the Biden Administration and the Billionaire-funded anti-gun lobby.

  *   *   * 

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

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 22:10

• Canadian School Purges Books Published Before 2008 In Bid For 'Inclusivity'
  Canadian School Purges Books Published Before 2008 In Bid For ‘Inclusivity’

  In a quest to be more “inclusive,” a Canadian school board in Mississauga, Ontario has decided to purge its library of all books published before the year 2008.

  

  Erindale Secondary School in Mississauga, Ontario, ‘burned’ roughly 50% of its library book, including Harry Potter and the Hunger Games series, as part of a new “equity-based book weeding” implemented by the Peel District School Board earlier this year, according to the CBC.

  The board insists it was following a wider directive from the Minister of Education to make learning resources more inclusive and reflective of the community.

  Yes, a library with empty shelves sounds very inclusive…

  Also purged were classics  like “The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank” and iconic children’s books like “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.”

  

  When asked WTF, the school board has been notably evasive, refusing to address whether books are being removed solely based on their publication date. Their statement, which claims books are removed if they are “damaged, inaccurate, or not checked out often,” doesn’t check out whatsoever.

  10th-grade student of Japanese descent Reina Takata worries that significant portions of her heritage could vanish with this book purge.

  

  “Authors who wrote about Japanese internment camps are going to be erased,” she warned.

  Official backpedaling

  Given the mounting backlash, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce finally weighed in, condemning the practice as “offensive, illogical, and counterintuitive.” He has since ordered the board to cease the book removals immediately.

  The larger issue here is the increasing trend of over-correction in the name of “wokeness,” often leading to the vanishing of history, culture, and nuanced discourse. At what point does the push for equity turn into a frenzy of historical whitewashing? Erindale Secondary School may have given us the answer: when you arbitrarily remove 50% of your library in the name of inclusivity, you’re probably doing it wrong.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 21:35

• CNN Inadvertently Makes The Case For An Impeachment Inquiry
  CNN Inadvertently Makes The Case For An Impeachment Inquiry

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  I recently wrote a column about five facts that justified the start of an impeachment inquiry.

  While I have stressed that I do not believe that there is currently sufficient evidence for an actual impeachment, I am mystified by the claim that there is not ample evidence to warrant an inquiry into possible impeachable offenses.

  Notably, CNN just reactivated its fact-checking team for a review of the basis for the inquiry. In so doing, the network made an iron-clad argument in support of the decision by Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

  CNN presented this claim:

  Claim: Biden family and associates got $20 million through shell companies

  “Bank records show that nearly $20 million in payments were directed to the Biden family members and associates through various shell companies,” McCarthy said.

  Facts First: This is true about Joe Biden’s family and associates, but there is no public evidence to date that the president personally received any money.

  

  That is a fair fact check but it is also the very reason that Speaker McCarthy initiated the inquiry.

  We do not know where this money went, why it was sent through this labyrinth of accounts, or what it was intended to buy. That is why this is an impeachment inquiry.

  The media and a number of Democrats recently admitted, belatedly, that Hunter Biden was involved in a corrupt influence peddling operation. This was made clear by Hunter associate Devon Archer who said that they were selling the “Biden brand” and that brand was Joe Biden. Clearly, these corrupt foreign figures in China, Ukraine, and Russia (including some who were charged with corruption in their own countries) thought that they were getting something other than Hunter for their money. After all, one of these figures reportedly referred to Hunter as dumber than his dog. However, pundits and politicians now insist that it was merely the “illusion” of access.  In other words, these notoriously corrupt figures were chumps fleeced by Hunter and Biden associates.

  However, how do we know it was an “illusion”?  You have a trusted FBI informant relaying the claim of a Ukrainian that he gave Biden a “bribe,” but was told not to pay him directly. As I previously discussed, only a moron would pay Joe Biden directly for such influence or access.

  CNN repeatedly returns to this fact in each of the checked claims. Again, that is precisely why we have an inquiry. Bribery is a stated basis for impeachment in the Constitution. Even CNN accepts that, if Biden received such benefits, it would be a serious offense.

  It is also worth noting, as I have raised previously, that the requirement of an envelope filled with money or a deposit slip into the checking account of Joe and Jill Biden is a bit ridiculous as a condition. If millions went to Biden children and grandchildren, it is still a benefit for the President.

  Joe Biden is currently worth more than $8 million. At his age, he will never spend the wealth that he has. Most people in his position are focused on ways to leave financial legacies for their family and minimize estate and death taxes. It is absurd to suggest that millions going to Joe Biden’s family would not constitute a benefit to him.

  Finally, the inquiry is looking into whether some of these funds did make their way into Joe Biden’s accounts.  There are indications that both Hunter and Joe received money out of some of these accounts and used shared credit cards. For example, there are indications that Hunter used his Dad’s credit card to pay for prostitutes.

  That again is precisely the point of the impeachment inquiry. The House will now have to demand the personal bank and financial records of both Hunter Biden and Joe Biden. Thus far, the House Committees have been focused on following the money through bank transfers.

  That is why the CNN fact check is a full-throated call for an impeachment inquiry. The nexus between this massive amount of money and President Biden is precisely what the House will now try to establish.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 21:00

• Navy Detransitions From 'Digital Recruiting Program' Featuring Drag Queen
  Navy Detransitions From ‘Digital Recruiting Program’ Featuring Drag Queen

  With the US military in the midst of a recruitment crisis, the Navy has decided to reverse course on its Digital Recruiting Program which featured an enlisted drag queen.

  

  Four months ago, the Daily Caller noted that the Navy had brought on active-duty drag queen, Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelly, who goes by the stage name “Harpy Daniels” and identifies as non-binary. The goal was to make Kelley a “Navy Digital Ambassador” in a pilot program which ran from October 2022 to March 2023, and was “designed to explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates.”

  Putin must tremble in fear when he beholds the US Navy’s new ‘digital ambassador’ whose role is to get more recruits. Presenting the fabulous Harpy Daniels aka Joshua Kelly. 🤡 pic.twitter.com/FwNCzSrlsW

  — David Vance (@DVATW) May 3, 2023

  In a Tuesday letter to Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) from Navy under secretary Erik Raven, the service confirmed that the Digital Ambassador Pilot program “will not be continued.”

  “The Navy learned lessons from the pilot program that will inform our digital engagement and outreach going forward,” wrote Raven. “Our digital outreach efforts will maintain the important distinction between Sailors’ official activities and their personal lives.”

  Tuberville — who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee — previously sent a letter to Admiral Michael M. Gilday, the chief of Naval Operations, in May, demanding to know the identities of the officers tasked with funding and promoting drag queen shows aboard naval vessels. The letter was sent the same day the Alabama senator and his Republican colleagues submitted a separate communique to Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro on the branch’s embrace of Daniels and whether Navy leadership is encouraging its “digital ambassadors” and public affairs personnel to use TikTok — which the Pentagon banned its members from using on government-issued devices — “on their personal devices” in order to skirt the agency’s prohibition. -The Federalist

  Recruitment fail

  As the Epoch Times notes, the Navy expects to fall short of its annual recruiting goal by around 7,000 sailors when the fiscal year ends this month.

  At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, acting Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti announced that the service is on track to miss its fiscal year 2023 goal—ending Sept. 30—to bring in 37,700 active duty enlisted sailors. The service also aimed to recruit 2,528 active duty officers, 8,200 reserve enlisted sailors, and 1,940 reserve officers.

  Adm. Franchetti’s latest recruiting projection is worse than the 6,000-recruit miss she predicted in April, but not the worst outcome Navy officials have considered this year.

  “We started out the year thinking we’d be about 13,000 short,” Adm. Franchetti told Senators on Thursday.

  “We’re going to be about 7,000 short. We’re doing better month by month than we were last year.”

  NTD News reached out to the Navy for additional comment about its recruiting efforts this year but did not receive a response by the time this article was published.

  The Navy brought out several new measures to drive recruiting this year, including raising the maximum enlistment bonus to $75,000 and raising the maximum enlistment age to 41 years old.

  The service also changed its standards to allow recruiters to take candidates who scored in the 10th to 30th percentile on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT). The revised standards permitted recruiters to fill around 20 percent of their fiscal year 2023 quota with candidates who scored in the 10th to 30th percentile on the AFQT, dubbed “Category IV” candidates.

  Military Recruiting Woes Stretch Into Second Year

  The Navy is not the only military service expecting to fall short of its recruiting quotas for the year. This week, the U.S. Air Force announced it is on track to bring in about 2,700 new airmen fewer than it had planned for fiscal year 2023, missing this year’s goal to bring in 26,877 new recruits by about 10 percent.

  The U.S. Space Force—which is organized under the purview of the Department of the Air Force—did manage to overshoot its recruiting quote for the 2023 fiscal year.

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

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 20:25

• 'Gut Instinct' Cause For Numerous Sensory Symptoms In Long COVID, Doctors Offer Comprehensive Treatment
  ‘Gut Instinct’ Cause For Numerous Sensory Symptoms In Long COVID, Doctors Offer Comprehensive Treatment

  Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  COVID-19 and long COVID may be linked to impaired sensory neurons, a recent study Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) study finds.

  

  Sensory neurons are responsible for smell, taste, touch, pain, and changes in temperature. Damage to them may lead to impaired senses.

  Surprisingly, the study found that infected neurons released viral proteins like the spike protein and nucleocapsid proteins rather than the virus releasing them.

  Not all neurons were infected. All lab-made neurons were exposed to the Wuhan, delta, and omicron strains, but only up to 30 percent of the neurons were infected, with the omicron variant having the lowest infection rate.

  

  Sensory Symptoms in Long COVID and Vaccine Injuries

  Some doctors have suspected that the sensory problems, such as lost or impaired smell, taste, and hearing, and muscle pains, numbness, burning, and electrical shock sensations, seen in long COVID and vaccine-injured patients are due to the spike proteins on the COVID-19 virus’ surface. The mRNA and adenovirus vaccines similarly instruct the body to produce spike proteins.

  The MIT study shows what “our clinical gut instinct” tells us is the cause of symptoms, neurologist Dr. Diane Counce told The Epoch Times.

  Other factors may also be at play.

  A common driver is inflammation. Inflammation occurs as immune cells clear out viruses and their proteins. Yet a constant state of inflammation is not viable for normal neural function, and neurons can become hyperreactive and damaged.

  Some patients may also develop mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS). In MCAS, patients become highly sensitive to any change in the environment. The histamine released in such a scenario irritates the nerves, causing neuropathic pain and itching. Swelling and mucus production due to this allergic response can also impair the senses if sensory neurons are near the site of histamine release.

  Another increasingly recognized driver is microclotting.

  “The nerves form a webbing around the blood vessels … If you have clotting, then you’re not feeding the nerves correctly,” Dr. Counce said, adding that this could cause something close to “infarcts in the nerves.”

  Sensory problems from microclotting often manifest alongside other symptoms, including chest pain, palpitations, and shortness of breath.

  These mechanisms can be affected simultaneously and overlap; therefore, several different therapeutics must often be prescribed to manage all the different systems, said internal medicine physician Dr. Keith Berkowitz.

  Treatments That Clear Spike Proteins

  Ivermectin

  Ivermectin is a first-line therapy in both treating COVID-19 infections and chronic long COVID and vaccine injuries.

  The drug has a high affinity to the COVID-19 virus, including its spike protein, and can immobilize the proteins for immune clearance.

  Dr. Berkowitz has found ivermectin to be very helpful in clearing acute COVID-19 infection, which also alleviates the infection’s loss of taste and smell.

  N-Acetylcysteine (NAC)

  N-acetylcysteine (NAC) has been shown to impair and break down spike protein. Augmented NAC may be particularly potent in its effects.

  Nurse practitioner Scott Marsland at the Leading Edge Clinic told The Epoch Times that long COVID and vaccine-injured patients may experience flare-ups of symptoms, and treatment with augmented NAC has been particularly helpful in controlling these.

  Nattokinase

  Nattokinase is an enzyme derived from natto made from fermented soybeans. Japanese studies have shown that it can break down spike proteins in cell culture.

  Apart from that, nattokinase also has robust anti-clotting capabilities. Therefore, the supplement can aid in the breakdown of blood clots that obstruct the sensory nerves from receiving adequate oxygen and nutrients.

  Some of Mr. Marsland’s patients have reported improvements in their senses of smell and taste after taking a high dose of nattokinase twice daily.

  Treatments That Reduce Inflammation

  Intravenous Fluid Therapy

  “When you have a virus, what do they first do in the hospital when you go in? Hydrate them,” Dr. Berkowitz told The Epoch Times.

  He has observed that around 80 percent of his long-COVID and vaccine-injured patients would be more responsive to treatment after a few hydration sessions.

  Dr. Counce explained that patients who need intravenous fluid therapy likely have small fiber neuropathy, which can affect sensory neurons.

  Low-Dose Naltrexone

  In managing long-COVID- and vaccine-related injuries, Dr. Counce and pulmonary critical care specialist Dr. Pierre Kory have found the drug effective in treating neuropathies. Since the drug can reduce inflammation in neurons, doctors think it may have promise in treating smell-, taste-, and other related sensory problems.

  Treatments That Inhibit Neural Overactivity

  Dr. Berkowitz has observed that some patients’ nervous systems appear hyperreactive.

  These patients are insomniac, anxious, have gastrointestinal problems, and often have neuropathic symptoms like pain and experience electric shock-like feelings. Some patients are also unresponsive to various long-COVID and vaccine-injury treatments like low-dose naltrexone.

  Dr. Berkowitz found hydration therapy and gabapentin helpful treatments in these cases.

  Gabapentin

  Gabapentin helps soothe the nervous system by mimicking gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which works as an inhibitor in neurons.

  GABA slows and blocks nervous activity, creating a calming effect. Since the gut is a major producer of GABA, patients with gut problems may benefit from gabapentin.

  Dr. Counce has observed that patients with severe neuropathic pain also tend to respond well to it.

  Stellate Ganglion Block

  Stellate ganglion blocks, an invasive operation that involves an anesthetic injection into the autonomic nerves, can reset hyperactive nerves, reduce stress, and return smell and taste to affected patients.

  A study published in May examined the effect of stellate ganglion block on 195 long-COVID patients at a pain clinic and found that 87.4 percent reported an improved sense of smell after receiving the injection.

  Treatments That Repair Neurological Damage

  Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)

  Dr. Counce has found that patients tend to respond well to therapies that improve brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein related to neural growth and survival.

  The mushroom lion’s mane boosts BDNF. In an animal study, rats had their sciatic nerves cut, making them unable to walk. After being supplemented with lion’s mane mushrooms, they could walk again.

  Rhodiola rosea, a type of herbal medicine, can also increase BDNF levels.

  NAC and resveratrol, commonly recommended supplements for long COVID and vaccine injury, also carry BDNF properties.

  Treatments That Prevent Clotting

  Curcumin

  Curcumin is a phytonutrient derived from the ginger plant turmeric. Studies show that curcumin has potent anti-inflammatory and anti-clotting effects. Therefore, many doctors have added curcumin to their treatment regimen, judging it to be helpful in breaking down blood clots.

  The phytonutrient can also cross the blood-brain barrier to alleviate neuroinflammation. Research has shown it to help reduce neuropathic pain; other reports suggest it may also help treat loss of smell and taste in COVID.

  Bromelain

  Bromelain is an enzyme derived from pineapples. Since bromelain can digest gelatin, jelly companies advise against adding fresh pineapples to their mixtures to prevent the jelly from “setting.”

  In the body, bromelain can break down fibrin, a component of blood clots, and is known to prevent coagulation and platelet aggregation, all of which may help to break down blood clots. Cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough recommends bromelain as part of his spike protein detox protocol (pdf).

  Triple Therapy

  Combining anticoagulants may create a more substantial synergistic effect than using one anticoagulant alone.

  Professors Resia Pretorius and Douglas Kell have found the triple combination therapy of anticoagulants—clopidogrel and aspirin, anti-platelet apixaban, and proton pump inhibitor (PPI)—to be successful in treating blood clots.

  Researchers placed a group of 24 long-COVID patients on this regimen for a month, and all patients experienced a significant improvement in symptoms, including muscle pain.

  In March, the same researchers published a second preprint (pdf) on 91 patients, most of whom experienced a resolution of symptoms. The authors emphasized that “such a regime must only be followed under expert medical supervision in view of the risk of bleeding.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 19:50

• Bud Light Might Soon Lose Retail Shelf Space Amid Boycott: Experts
  Bud Light Might Soon Lose Retail Shelf Space Amid Boycott: Experts

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

  In the midst of a months-long boycott against Bud Light, some experts have forecast that the Anheuser-Busch owned brand will soon lose coveted retail shelf space as sales continue to slide.

  

  Beer industry experts, wholesalers, and a former Anheuser-Busch executive told ABC News Friday that places like 7-Eleven, QuikTrip, and Walmart may decrease Bud Light’s refrigerator space in stores.

  “During a busy shopping period on a Friday or Saturday night, if you don’t have the beer available cold on the shelf, consumers pick something else,” former Anheuser-Busch InBev executive Anson Frericks, a frequent critic of his former company, told the outlet. He noted that shelf space is “the single largest determinant of sales in a store,” and warned there will be a “dramatic shift” for Bud Light.

  Dave Williams, vice president of analytics and insights at Bump Williams Consulting, said that retailers often watch for sales figures to determine what brands would be given the best shelf space.

  “There’s explosive growth on one side and sharp decline on the other,” Mr. Williams said, according to the broadcaster. “This does have that ripple effect where if Bud Light loses space on the shelf, that could make it a longer-term endeavor to claw back to where they were if they’re ever able to do that in the first place.”

  According to a report from Drinks Market Analysis from several years ago, about 80 percent of beer sales occur at retailers or similar locations where consumers take the product home. The other 20 percent of sales occur at restaurants and bars.

  Over a month period ending in early September, sales for Bud Light dropped about 27 percent year-over-year, according to Bump Williams Consulting. Those figures are consistent with Bud Light’s previous weekly sales figures since the boycott erupted in early April.

  The Epoch Times has contacted Anheuser-Busch InBev for comment on the report Friday.

  A general manager at a Wisconsin Anheuser-Busch distributor, who wasn’t named, told ABC that retailers do not expect a “drastic change” anytime soon. But he warned that the Bud Light “boycott has lasted longer than anybody thought,” adding, “Every retailer has their own opinion for what sales warrant on their shelves. Time will tell.”

  Last month, Anheuser-Busch’s American division revealed in its quarterly earnings report that it lost about $395 million amid the boycott and that U.S. revenue dropped about 10 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, Bud Light lost its No. 1 spot to Modelo Especial, which is owned by Constellation Brands in the United States, in June.

  Adding more fuel to the fire, a beer industry expert, Harry Schumacher of Beer Business Daily, told Fox News some Bud Light drinkers may never come back and have switched to other brands.

  The boycott, he warned, is “actually worse than just lost sales because now it’s getting to the point where it’s becoming systemic within the industry, and they’re losing the confidence of the retailers, and that’s when it starts getting bad.”

  Controversy

  It all started in April when Bud Light made a beer can featuring the face of transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, who then posted the promotional item on social media. Backlash came quickly, and some conservative musicians and influencers called for a boycott, accusing Bud Light of abandoning its traditional consumer base.

  Musician Kid Rock was seen in a viral video shooting up cans of the beer, while several country singers said they wouldn’t serve it at their bars or on tour. Former President Donald Trump also accused the firm of caving to leftists and urged supporters that it’s “time to beat the radical left at their own game.”

  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis later urged the state’s pension manager to investigate Anheuser-Busch and potentially take legal action against the firm over the incident. Like President Trump, Mr. DeSantis is also a GOP presidential candidate.

  Weeks later, Anheuser-Busch confirmed that two top Bud Light executives took a leave of absence the company, namely after a Bud Light marketing executive, Alissa Heinerscheid, gave an interview saying that she wanted to move the brand away from an “out-of-touch” and “fratty” image. Reports have indicated that she was associated with the company’s Mulvaney campaign.

  In an earnings call with investors in May, Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris appeared to distance the beer brand from the transgender controversy and said there was no “formal campaign.”

  “This was the result of one can,” he said during the call. “It was not made for production or sale to general public. It was one post, not a formal campaign or advertisement.”

  Months later, in August, Mr. Doukeris told investors that Bud Light is “working hard to build it back and to earn back consumers” and worked with a third-party researcher to engage with about 170,000 customers in the U.S.

  “Most consumers surveyed are favorable towards the Bud Light brand and approximately 80 percent are favorable or neutral,” the firm said.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 18:40

• Young People Begin To 'Freak' About AI Taking Their Jobs, Survey Reveals 
  Young People Begin To ‘Freak’ About AI Taking Their Jobs, Survey Reveals 

  Millions of jobs across the Western world are at risk due to artificial intelligence. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs cautioned its clients that AI could affect up to 300 million jobs in the coming years. Recent news about IBM implementing a hiring freeze due to automation, along with similar actions by other corporations, has sparked the ‘fear of becoming obsolete’ (FOBO) among the younger workforce participants, according to a new poll. 

  Gallup revealed a surge in respondents expressing FOBO, driven by the expansion of AI, over the last year. 

  Twenty-two percent now say they worry that technology will make their job obsolete, up seven percentage points from the prior reading in 2021. The figure had previously varied between 13% and 17%, with little upward movement in the trend.

  

  FOBO is occurring with “college-educated workers, among whom the percentage worried has jumped from 8% to 20,” Gallup said. At the same time, survey data showed those without college degrees could care less about AI taking their jobs. Most of the FOBO is occurring with younger respondents. 

  

  The number one worry respondents had was AI and other technological advancements harming their job benefits. About a third said they were worried about reduced benefits, and almost a quarter worried about decreasing wages. 

  

  The wake-up call for workers has been the release of ChatGPT last November. “It is no longer only about robots standing in for humans in warehouses and on assembly lines but has expanded to online programs conducting sophisticated language-based work, including writing computer code,” Gallup said. 

  According to Goldman’s Jan Hatzius, “using data on occupational tasks in both the US and Europe, we find that roughly two-thirds of current jobs are exposed to some degree of AI automation, and that generative AI could substitute up to one-fourth of current work. Extrapolating our estimates globally suggests that generative AI could expose the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs to automation” as up to “two-thirds of occupations could be partially automated by AI.”

  

  Reports like Goldman’s have been echoed by other investing desks and Wall Street professionals. These reports have sparked a wave of FOBO across the Western world. 

  For more insight into the rapidly evolving job landscape, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu and Sabrina Lam – using data from MSCI – has ranked the industries where AI-driven automation will displace the most workers. 

  

  This is a big problem for all those college students accumulating insurmountable student debt for degrees that may be proven worthless. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 18:05

• The Religion Of Masking
  The Religion Of Masking

  Authored by Gwendolyn Kull via The Brownstone Institute,

  What do burkas, tichels, yarmulkes, hijabs, kapps, fezzes, dukus, and surgical masks all have in common?

  Religious cultures mandate or strongly encourage these head coverings to comply with dogma. Although most of these are rooted in ethnic and religious traditions of any denomination to reflect humility before G-d and modesty before man, surgical masks have become the morality trend of the Western world for those who fear The Science before they fear any god. 

  

  As absurd as that last sentence may sound, the People of the United States are under siege – a war that is targeting our greatest claim to fame, our pride and joy: our freedom. Our Forefathers determined at the inception of this nation that all men have the inviolate right to life and liberty. Recognizing some freedoms that are indelible to the identity of a human are especially at risk of infringement, the Founders drafted the Bill of Rights to expressly protect freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to peaceably assemble, and freedom to petition the government among other activities.

  Yet over the last three years, our government has encroached on these unalienable freedoms in the name of public health and following The Science. The few government officials and bureaucrats sitting in D.C. and Georgia imposed their beliefs on what makes the public healthy on the masses, without regard for dissenting opinions or contrary beliefs. Such factional tyranny is exactly the breach of social contract the Framers aimed to prevent.

  After initially telling the country that masks would not work against this virus, Anthony Fauci fell in step, ordering persons be masked and directing both government and non-government actors alike to hold their fellow citizens accountable for failing to mask. A futile exercise in the name of “public health” given research predating the pandemic had already put to bed the idea that masking could prevent respiratory infections. Even following the Cochrane Review’s pandemic masking study showing little-to-no efficacy at masks preventing infection, the Biden administration still tells the People we should be masking.

  Beyond inefficacy, recent studies are also researching possible adverse consequences from constant mask-wearing, now termed “Mask-Induced Exhaustion Syndrome.” The illness bears many of the same symptoms as “long covid,” begging the question: are the health risks of long-term masking worth the miniscule efficacy? I digress. Masking mandates began to die down when the CDC lost a legal battle where the court only addressed the agency’s statutory authority to impose such a mandate. The question of whether such mandates are constitutional at all was never reached. Despite the open question in the courts, I firmly believe mask mandates do not pass constitutional muster.

  Recalling my extreme parallel of religious head coverings to surgical masks, compare this scenario: one day, the bureaucrats in Washington decide that for public health and decency, everyone must wear a burka. The land would cry, “Foul!” Non-muslim citizens would lose their minds that Sharia law was being imposed on them in violation of their First Amendment right to be free from the establishment of religion! Only the worshippers of the public health fascists would gladly adorn the dress as a testament to their true belief that the burka would save them from illness. I ask you, how is our current masking guidelines any different? Because masking is not a teaching from an institutionalized religion? Is trusting The Science not a form of having faith?

  In truth, our courts have held time and time again that government actors cannot infringe on our clothing under both freedom-tenants of religion and speech. Our Constitution contracts our appointed government to respect and defend our human right to liberty, which includes our ability to express ourselves and beliefs through our clothing and appearances. After all, our appearance is all a part of our individual identities. Covering one’s face, one’s physical identity, must be a choice and not a requirement.

  Moreover, our individual identities are not just linked to our physical attributes. Nay, our speech is also core to our humanity and identities. Speech is the expression of one’s soul, subjective based upon the speaker’s own perceptions and experiences. How I speak and what I say is part of how others (and I) recognize me as who I am!

  Like any painting serves as a window into the artist’s being, so is speech into a person’s mind, heart, and soul. It is as complex as the human body that produces such words and sounds: the speaker’s larynx, vocal chords, pharynx, palate, tongue, teeth, cheeks, lips, and nose are all coordinating in harmony to make what we think in our minds come out of our mouths. Speech is as unique to each individual as a person’s fingerprints or DNA. Muffling a person’s voice, covering the delicate facets producing speech, hiding non-verbal facial cues, and restricting air flow via masks is not natural.

  Masking inhibits self-expression. Even prior to physical masking, virtue-signalers touted policing one’s own speech as being “politically correct.” Policing and masking speech is toxic to both individuals and humankind. It evokes the same hesitancy as does domestic abuse–the feeling of “walking on eggshells” for fear your words will trigger and bring you harm. It further causes an identity crisis–a dissociation within oneself, wherein the mind is policing the heart and soul for fear of offending any listener (or observer). Both perpetuate the victimhood complex where one believes she cannot live without fear because others will not do “what they are supposed to do.” 

  It is true that internal perceptions expressed outwardly are not always correct or palatable. Such is the beauty of allowing one to convey his opinions and beliefs in his own words: the listener can understand the person with whom she is speaking and take the opportunity to debate and educate, correct her own misunderstanding, or completely discredit the speaker of value within her own mind. Speech is not just about speaking, but about hearing and deciding what one believes to be true. Speech of our own and listening to others’ speech helps us understand and develop our own identities.

  It is not that constant expletives and hyperboles should become the norm of self-expression through speech. No, language itself is so vastly malleable that it can be morphed to rise to any situation–to connect with one’s listeners. For instance, there are different ages of communication. You would not use the same words with a child as you would with adults, unless your intention is to be misunderstood or completely unintelligible like the unseen adult characters of Charlie Brown. To be understood by your listeners, you must change your speech to be appropriate for the venue and target audience.

  How is any of this relevant to the topic of mask mandates eroding freedom? Requiring people to cover the face and bodily member responsible for speaking and being heard and understood is inhumane. It strips children of their ability to learn how to speak, how to use their body to produce sounds and words and sentences, and how to connect those words to facial expressions to add context for listeners. It socially distances people from each other, deteriorating the human connection that allows us to communicate and understand each other.

  There is no replacement for that connection. As I discussed in a prior article, humans are a social species. Although we are capable as individuals, we fail to thrive when deprived of interacting with others. During lockdowns, people yearned to visit family, go out to restaurants, to resume “normalcy.” Zoom meetings, video calls, and text messages were not enough to curb the cravings for human connection. 

  Masking is just another degree of separation from one another. Although it is less obvious than the isolation of quarantines, it is just another lonely reminder that we are not free. Not free to be ourselves, not free to connect, not free from fear, not free to breathe, not free to decide for ourselves what is in our own best interest. Even President Biden joked during a recent press conference that, “they keep telling me… I got to keep wearing [a mask], but don’t tell them I didn’t have it on when I walked in,” defiantly waving his surgical mask away from his face.

  Who are “they” to decide what is in any individual’s best interest? Are we children and “they” our parents? Do we lack the mental capacity to think for ourselves? Are we not developed and educated enough to decide what is healthy and what is not? Are our God-given immune systems so defective that we can no longer survive colds? I find it a hard blue pill to swallow that humanity has survived on this planet for hundreds of thousands of years for a coronavirus variant to suddenly confound our natural biological defenses.

  Who are “they” at all? “They” are not our duly-elected legislators who oathed to uphold and defend our Constitution and who are the only branch of government who the People gave authority to create laws. In fact, Senator JD Vance (R-OH) is now fighting this usurpation of legislative authority by “them.” On September 7, 2023, he brought to the Senate floor the “Freedom to Breathe” Act, which would prohibit mask mandates. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) objected to the call for unanimous consent, arguing that this legislation would infringe on the health powers of the states.

  An interesting and seemingly Constitution-based argument by Senator Markey, but it presupposes masking mandates on the public are a health-related decision at all, which is not supported by scientific evidence, and that such mandates are not otherwise constitutionally prohibited. 

  Though the People granted health powers to the states, those powers are still limited by the People’s ultimate right to life and liberty, including the free exercise of religion without a state-sanctioned religion (The Science) and free speech without intrusions on the speech-producing orifice or physical identity of the speaker. 

  Masking restrictions are not a “health power” the state governments are permitted to enforce.

  Masking mandates are not a public health measure the federal government is permitted to sanction.

  Both impede life and liberty guaranteed to the People by being human and safeguarded by the People through enforcing our Constitution. As such, the People will not comply.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 17:30

• Map Of 'Zombie Drug' Tsunami Consuming America 
  Map Of ‘Zombie Drug’ Tsunami Consuming America 

  Despite the Biden administration’s campaign promise to tackle the nationwide drug crisis, new data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that 2023 will be another disastrous year as overdose-related deaths continue rising nationwide. 

  New CDC estimates show 111,000 people died from a drug overdose in the 12-month period ending in April. The data shows that the drug epidemic continues ravaging counties and cities nationwide. Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are responsible for about 70% of the overdoses. 

  With no signs of slowing, the drug epidemic might be supercharged by xylazine, a horse tranquilizer commonly referred to on the street as “tranq” or the “Zombie drug.” Tranq has been flooding illegal drug markets across the East Coast, working into the Deep South, Rust Belt, and Midwest

  Axios, citing a new report from the drug testing lab Millennium Health, showed tranq is spreading across the nation at a dangerously fast pace. 

  

  “While virtually all positive urine tests for xylazine also contained fentanyl, 16% of fentanyl-positive tests contained xylazine between April and July,” Axios said. 

  Here’s a snapshot of the report (courtesy of Axios):

  • The rates are much higher in some states — 42.8% in Pennsylvania, 40% in North Carolina, and 36.1% in Ohio.

  • It’s still largely a regional phenomenon, though Millennium testing detected xylazine in 34 states since the Biden administration in April declared the fentanyl-xylazine combination a threat to the US.

  • In Mid-Atlantic states, 40% of fentanyl-positive tests contained xylazine, and it was 33% in East North Central states.

  • Here’s how the remaining states broke down, by US Census Division: South Atlantic (22%), East South Central (19%), New England (16%), West NorthCentral (13%), West South Central (5%), Pacific (4%) and Mountain (2%).

  In March, the Drug Enforcement Administration warned about the tranq wave sweeping parts of the US. We warned as early as December 2022 about the new drug hitting streets across the Northeast. 

  Here’s a recent scene from Philadelphia of the tranq-zombie apocalypse. 

  This is Philadelphia. pic.twitter.com/2xKFei0w7m

  — Catch Up (@CatchUpFeed) September 10, 2023

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

  Perhaps the presence of open-air drug markets and lack of law and order in Democrat metro areas contribute to the tranq wave. It’s only a matter of time before Millennium Health begins finding the drug in urine samples on the West Coast. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 16:55

• IRS Hiring Another 3,700 Tax Enforcers, Watchdog Warns Those Earning Under $400,000 Could Be Targeted
  IRS Hiring Another 3,700 Tax Enforcers, Watchdog Warns Those Earning Under $400,000 Could Be Targeted

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

  IRS hiring 3,700+ tax enforcers to audit higher earners but a watchdog worries about audits for those under $400,000 due to unclear “high-income” definition.

  

  The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is looking to hire over 3,700 additional tax enforcers as it ramps up its audit crackdown of higher-earning taxpayers, though a watchdog warns that Americans making less than $400,000 could get caught in the dragnet because the agency doesn’t have a clear definition of “high-income.”

  The IRS said on Sept. 15 that it had opened over 3,700 positions nationwide to assist  with “expanded enforcement work” that focuses on complex partnerships, large corporations, and high-income earners.

  The compliance positions will be open in more than 250 locations across the United States and are part of a “sweeping, historic” tax enforcement crackdown that leverages cutting-edge technology, including artificial intelligence, to catch tax evaders more effectively.

  The hiring will be for higher-graded revenue agents, with the IRS calling on people in the financial services industry—such as tax accountants, forensic accountants, auditors, and controllers—to apply.

  The IRS is flush with cash from a recent congressionally-mandated infusion of $60 billion in new funding, with some of the money already having bolstered the tax agency’s ranks substantially. Recent reports indicate that hiring is up around 13 percent over the past year, allowing the IRS to hit a decade-high of nearly 90,000 staffers.

  But while the recent batch of new hires was focused on taxpayer service positions, the newly announced hiring thrust is looking to give the IRS more enforcement muscle.

  “This next wave of hiring will help the IRS add key talent like tax accountants to help reverse a decade-long decline of audits for the wealthy as well as complex partnerships and corporations,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement.

  “These new employees will be focused on higher-income and complex tax areas like partnerships, not average taxpayers making less than $400,000,” Mr. Werfel added.

  But Mr. Werfel’s pledge not to target Americans earning under $400,000 rings hollow, given a recent watchdog report that called into question the ability of the IRS to make good on this pledge because it either lacks a clear definition of “high-income” or uses outdated tax examination activity codes that put the threshold for high earners at $200,000.

  No Clear Definition of ‘High-Income’

  The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), which is the watchdog overseeing the IRS, recently carried out a review to assess the IRS’s strategy to train employees hired to audit high earners and big businesses that underreport income.

  The watchdog report includes scathing criticism of the IRS for lacking a clear definition of “high-income” earners—despite the very same watchdog asking the IRS to look into developing a better definition years ago.

  “The IRS does not have a unified or updated definition for individual high-income taxpayers,” the watchdog said in the report, which notes that the IRS uses different definitions of “high-income” depending on context as various IRS programs address different compliance issues across different parts of the filing population.

  TIGTA faulted the IRS for still not having a clear definition of “high-income” for tax compliance even though the watchdog recommended in 2015 that the IRS reevaluate the appropriate income thresholds for its high-income and high-wealth strategy.

  “The high-income terminology is being used loosely inside the IRS with no common understanding of what the term means,” the watchdog said.

  The watchdog said that in response to its recommendation to the IRS nearly a decade ago to reevaluate its income thresholds, the IRS “made no changes,” citing “internal data analysis results and resource constraints.”

  Also, the IRS continues to rely on old tax examination activity codes adopted half a century ago with the Tax Reform Act of 1976, which used a $200,000 threshold to measure high-income returns.

  “This amount is equivalent to more than $1 million in 2023, but the IRS still uses $200,000 as the default high-income threshold,” the watchdog said, adding that the $200,000 threshold is “no longer a reasonable standard for high earners given inflation since 2005.”

  Generally, the IRS uses the examination activity codes to plan the number of tax-related examinations, although since 2019, its Large Business and International (LB&I) division has been using a modified planning method based on resource allocation.

  More Details

  One of the watchdog’s recommendations was for the IRS to establish a definition for high-income taxpayers for examination compliance purposes and that, “at a minimum, the IRS should accept the Treasury secretary’s $400,000 directive as the new high-income floor on which IRS leadership can focus enforcement efforts.”

  The IRS disagreed with the watchdog’s recommendation. It asserted in a statement included in the report that a “static and overly proscriptive” definition of high-income taxpayers for audit purposes “would serve to deprive the IRS of the agility to address emerging issues and trends.”

  The watchdog commented on the IRS’ pushback, saying that the definition need not be “static” and income thresholds should be adjusted based on economic and complexity factors—otherwise there’s a risk that the agency will break its pledge not to audit more Americans earnings less than $400,000.

  “When the high-income thresholds are set too low, the result can be higher numbers of inefficient examinations,” the watchdog said. “When the definition is too low, the base of taxpayers earning those incomes is wider so that the IRS does many more audits in that category in order to achieve desired audit coverage.”

  The watchdog said that, under the circumstances of a lack of a clear definition of “high-income,” the IRS would not only be conducting more audits on lower-earning Americans (contrary to its pledge not to), but it would also be less effective at its stated goal of closing the tax gap.

  The watchdog also said that the IRS’s lack of action in response to the TIGTA recommendation in 2015 to reevaluate its income thresholds means that the IRS is in a difficult position if it hopes to meet its pledge not to raise audit rates above historical norms for Americans earning less than $400,000.

  “Because $400,000 will be an important threshold, the IRS needs to update the examination activities codes for individual tax returns,” the watchdog recommended.

  Currently, “there is no way to identify the complete population of taxpayers that meet the criterion of $400,000 or more specified by the current Treasury Secretary,” the watchdog added.

  The IRS partially agreed with the watchdog’s recommendation to refine its examination activity.

  “The IRS agreed to identify the best method to identify and track high-income examinations as part of the work being undertaken to implement the Treasury Secretary’s directive to not increase audit rates for households making less than $400,000 and small businesses,” the IRS said in a statement included in the report.

  But the watchdog responded by saying this isn’t good enough.

  “The IRS’s partial agreement and planned corrective action will not satisfy the intent of our recommendation, and additional actions are needed,” TIGTA said in a comment.

  “The IRS should establish examination activity codes for additional TPI increments, which will help the IRS identify noncompliance at different income levels,” the watchdog added. TPI stands for “taxpayer profile increment.”

  Asked for comment on the watchdog’s rejection of the IRS’s response to its recommendation, the IRS simply pointed to its original response included in the report.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 16:20

• Trudeau Threatens 'Grocery Tax' To Combat 'Record Profits'
  Trudeau Threatens ‘Grocery Tax’ To Combat ‘Record Profits’

  In a move that totally won’t backfire and be passed along to the consumer, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has threatened to tax Canadian grocers if they don’t lower grocery costs.

  

  “Large grocery chains are making record profits,” Trudeau claimed Thursday. “Those profits should not be made on the backs of people struggling to feed their families.”

  Grocers have until Thanksgiving to stabilize prices, otherwise tax measures may be on the way for ‘Loblaw, Metro, Empire, Walmart and Costco,’ according to Rebel News.

  Prime Minister Trudeau says he’s giving major grocery retailers until Thanksgiving to come to Ottawa and explain what they’re doing to stabilize/lower food costs.

  If the grocers don’t act, Trudeau says “the federal government will take action.” pic.twitter.com/XA43srPPk5

  — Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) September 14, 2023

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

  Francois-Philippe Champagne, interior minister, said the Canadian government would also begin to engage with other players in the food industry.

  “We’re going to start with the five largest grocers in Canada, representing about 80% of the market, and we’re going to be in solution mode with obvious deadlines and very clear outcomes for Canadians,” he said, adding “We’re going to bring them to Ottawa, talk to them about meaningful action, and if they fail, there’ll be consequences.”

  More via Rebel News;

  The call for relief comes as grocery prices rose 8.5% in July — nearly three times the overall inflation rate.

  However, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) believes another tax will not improve affordability when Canadians go to checkouts across the country.

  “The last thing Canadians need is a grocery tax,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Instead of hammering Canadians with a grocery tax, Trudeau should scrap his carbon tax, making food prices more expensive.”

  “Another tax won’t make groceries more affordable, it’ll make them more expensive,” he said.

  Canada’s Food Price Report 2023 predicted a 5% to 7% food price increase in 2023 following 10% increases last year, with vegetables, dairy and meat becoming more expensive.

  The average family of four is expected to spend up to $16,288.41 annually on food this year — up an additional $1,065.60 from 2022.

  “Not only are some nutritious foods more difficult to find, but they can also be more expensive,” according a report, Evaluation Of The Office Of Nutrition Policy And Promotion.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 15:45

• US To Shift Military Aid From Egypt To Taiwan
  US To Shift Military Aid From Egypt To Taiwan

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  The US will withhold $85 million in annual military aid to Egypt and redirect some of the funds to Taiwan, The Wall Street Journal this week. The $85 million the US is withholding over human rights abuses is just a small portion of the $1.3 billion in military aid Egypt receives from the US each year.

  The $85 million is in the form of Foreign Military Financing, a State Department program that gives foreign governments money to purchase US arms. According to CNN, Egypt receives $1 billion in FMF annually, and $320 million of those funds is conditional and tied to human rights issues.

  

  Some members of Congress want President Biden to withhold the full $320 million, but for now, the administration has only announced its intention to transfer $85 million. Of that amount, $55 million will be redirected to Taiwan, and $30 million will go to Lebanon.

  The US began providing Taiwan with military aid this year, an unprecedented form of support in the era of normalized US-China relations. Since Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979 to open up with Beijing, the US has sold weapons to Taiwan but never financed the purchases or provided arms free of charge until this year.

  Last month, the US approved the first-ever FMF military aid package for Taiwan worth $80 million. In July, the Biden administration provided Taiwan with a weapons package using the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) for the first time.

  PDA allows President Biden to send weapons directly from US military stockpiles and is the primary way he’s been arming Ukraine.

  The PDA package for Taiwan was worth $345 million. The contents of the military aid packages for Taiwan have not been disclosed.

  The US military aid for Taiwan has enraged China as Beijing opposes all forms of US military support for the island, especially new kinds of assistance. The US is arming Taiwan in the name of deterrence, but the policy is making war more likely as China has responded to the growing diplomatic and military ties between Washington and Taipei by putting the island under increasing military pressure.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 15:10

• "Baloney, Bull, & Hogwash" – Texas AG Paxton Acquitted On All Impeachment Charges
  “Baloney, Bull, & Hogwash” – Texas AG Paxton Acquitted On All Impeachment Charges

  It appears the jury of Texas State Senators agreed with Texas AG Ken Paxton’s attorney Tony Buzbee – who said Friday in his closing remarks that the prosecution did not prove its case, calling the charges “baloney,” “bull”, “hogwash”, and a “political with hunt” – as they just acquitted the embattled AG of all impeachment charges.

  The Texas Senate chamber was turned into a courtroom for the historic impeachment trial of state Attorney General Ken Paxton, which kicked off last Tuesday morning at the state Capitol in Austin, Texas.

  

  Mr. Paxton was impeached on 20 articles in late May by the GOP-led House of Representatives in a vote of 121–23. He is only the third sitting official to be impeached in the state’s nearly 200-year history. The last impeachment case was more than a century ago.

  The articles of impeachment included allegations of abuse of power and bribery, among others. Mr. Paxton and his lawyers have maintained that all of the accusations are false.

  As Bloomberg reported, at the heart of the allegations against Paxton was his friendship with Nate Paul, an Austin real estate developer and political donor.

  At the time, Paul was under state and federal investigation for separate allegations, and has since been indicted. He has pleaded not guilty.

  Paxton was accused of using his office to benefit Paul, including by conducting baseless investigations into Paul’s rivals.

  In turn, Paul allegedly helped Paxton conceal an extramarital affair and funded renovations to the attorney general’s home.

  But, 8 days later, despite the earlier overwhelming majority vote of House Republicans to impeach him, Senate Republicans on the 30-person jury empaneled for the trial rallied around the party with all but two of 18 Republicans voting to clear Paxton of every charge.

  State Rep. Jeff Leach (R), one of the House impeachment managers, said in closings that “there comes a time for each of us… not to ask yourself what is safe, or popular, or politic, but what is right,” and implored the jurors to sustain the articles of impeachment.

  

  “There is shame here, and the shame sits right there that they would bring this case in this chamber with no evidence,” Buzbee said, pointing to the House impeachment managers and the lawyers working with them.

  “I am proud to represent Attorney General Ken Paxton. If this can happen to him, it can happen to anyone.”

  However, while Paxton may have won this battle, the war continues as Axios reports the FBI is also investigating him for the alleged misdeeds underpinning his impeachment.

  A grand jury has reportedly been impaneled to review potential criminal charges.

  Furthermore, Paxton also faces eight-year-old fraud charges, a whistleblower lawsuit, and a state bar lawsuit over his role in challenging the 2020 election results that could end with his disbarment.

  Nevertheless, having been suspended following the House impeachment in May, Paxton will now return to office, as his attorney said:

  “They assumed that Attorney General Ken Paxton would resign. Well, guess what? He did not resign. He is proud and is ready to go back to work. And after this is over, I expect he will go back to work.”

   

   

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 14:35

• Trump Decries 'Double Standard' In Documents Case, Pointing To Treatment Of Hilary Clinton
  Trump Decries ‘Double Standard’ In Documents Case, Pointing To Treatment Of Hilary Clinton

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

  The former president says he is unconcerned because he’s ‘fighting for the people.’

  

  Former President Donald Trump is unconcerned by the possibility that he could face jail time over the charges that have been brought against him in four different criminal cases.

  “I have a great attitude,” he said on the Sept. 14 episode of “The Megyn Kelly Show” podcast. “It doesn’t affect me at all because I’m fighting for the country; I’m fighting for the people.”

  Pointing to his continued dominance in the polls, the Republican presidential candidate added that he wasn’t worried about how a conviction might affect his chances of winning the 2024 election, either.

  “These poll numbers are so good, and it makes me feel good, but I think we’re going to win the election no matter what happens because the people know it’s all fake.”

  President Trump is facing criminal charges in two federal cases relating to his handling of classified documents and his challenge of the 2020 presidential election results. Two additional cases have been brought by Democrat prosecutors in New York and Atlanta, though the former president holds that those cases were also brought in coordination with the Biden Department of Justice.

  “These are Biden indictments,” he said. “This is a guy that is grossly incompetent—I don’t even believe it’s him. It’s the people, the fascists that’s around him. Because I don’t believe he’s smart enough to do this, if you want to know the truth.”

  ‘It’s All Fake’

  In the documents case, brought by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, President Trump stands accused of willful retention of national defense information, obstruction, and making false statements.

  But the case, according to the former president, revolves around a “fake crime.”

  “They create a fake crime, and then they say, ‘Oh, you obstructed.’ This is a fake thing that they’ve done,” he said.

  Pointing to the Presidential Records Act of 1978, he contended that the law gives him the authority to decide which records he can keep.

  As support for those claims, President Trump cited a similar case involving audio recordings that President Bill Clinton kept in a sock drawer. The recordings were made during President Clinton’s time in office, but when government watchdog group Judicial Watch sued to obtain access to them, a federal judge dismissed the case. The 42nd president, the judge ruled, had the authority to decide which records qualified as personal and which were presidential.

  “This is all about the Presidential Records Act,” President Trump said. “I’m allowed to have these documents. I’m allowed to take these documents, classified or unclassified. And frankly, when I have them, they become unclassified.

  “People think you have to go through a ritual—you don’t. At least, in my opinion, you don’t.”

  Further noting that the statute in question is civil rather than criminal, he asserted, “I did absolutely nothing wrong.”

  Double Standard

  President Trump has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges filed against him. But while he may not be worried about a conviction, one emotion he admitted to feeling was anger.

  Ms. Kelly, noting that he had not been accused of destroying classified documents, said: “Hillary Clinton destroyed documents while under subpoena—while under subpoena—and wasn’t even charged. … Does it make you angry?”

  “Yeah,” he replied. “Yeah, it makes me angry.”

  President Trump noted that Ms. Clinton smashed her cell phones and destroyed tens of thousands of emails after receiving a congressional subpoena, yet former FBI Director James Comey concluded that “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring charges against her.

  “Yeah, there’s a double standard in this country, and the people aren’t standing for it,” he said. “People get it.”

  And if the polls are any indicator, the people do get it—or at least Republican voters do.

  According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls, the former president holds a commanding lead over the rest of the GOP primary field at 56.1 percent. In a distant second at 13 percent is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

  But even so, President Trump added that he did not think the voters were in complete control over the results of elections in America.

  “Our elections are crooked, our elections are rigged, our borders are open, our country’s in trouble,” he said.

  “Our country’s in trouble.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 14:00

• Hollywood Is Dead: Here's Why No One Cares
  Hollywood Is Dead: Here’s Why No One Cares

  In the past, the film industry was perhaps the only industry (besides politics) in which abject failure has been met with consumer empathy and largesse.  Ever since the days of the Great Depression, the American public has wanted Hollywood to succeed; to continue to entertain us with tales of adventure and drama.  For if Hollywood survived, so did people’s hopes for American culture.  

  There was an era when Hollywood celebrities and film creators were treated as a kind of modern royalty, a representation of the heights to which the average person could strive and “make it big.”  The glitz and the glamour were viewed as the culmination of the American dream.  But as with all fantasies, the story must end and reality must return.  Was the movie business always a farce?  Yes.  However, it was a farce that the public held up even in the worst of times as something of value; something more than frivolity.  

  In the spans of around 7 years Hollywood has lost every ounce of social capital they had gained in the past century.  That takes an epic level of ignorance and arrogance.  It takes criminal levels of malicious intent and an unprecedented display of stupidity.  The populace was willing to put up with almost any level of degeneracy from Tinsel Town as long as they could make compelling movies, and yet, they couldn’t even do that.

  Today, the consequences of their hubris are punching them right in the nether regions as the business collapses in on itself.  And this time, no one seems to care.  In fact, many people are cheering their inevitable demise.

  In the past 4 years alone theaters across the country have seen a 50% plunge in box office attendance.  Meaning, the industry somehow lost half its consumer base from 2019 to 2023.  The media attempted to play down the crash as a symptom of the covid pandemic, but the fact is that the decline started well before the lockdowns, the closures in red states ended quickly, and some movies (such as Spider-Man: No Way Home and Top Gun: Maverick) had explosive success while most other films lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the midst of the covid hype.

  It should be noted that a large percentage of celebrities and Hollywood corporate interests supported and promoted the covid lockdowns.  They also joined the online lynch mobs seeking to shame and destroy anyone who defied the mandates.  Now they’re pretending like none of that ever happened, but the public has not forgotten.    

  In the past few months Hollywood has been dealing with the WGA and SAG worker strikes and there’s no doubt they will attempt to blame the labor conflict for the continuing decay of profits just as they blamed covid.  Already, multiple major studio productions have been pushed back two years or canceled altogether, and most premier release dates have been moved to 2024 – 2025.  A number of television productions have been shut down and late night talk shows are on the verge of extinction.  But you don’t hear the public complain much, at least not as much as during the last major strikes in 2008.    

  No one cares about the writers, no one cares about the actors, and certainly no one cares about the studios for good reason.  Though writers and actors might garner more sympathy than producers and CEOs due to concerns over AI, the threat of AI formulated screenplays is greatly overblown and AI generated proxies of famous actors are not going to bring back audiences in sufficient numbers to save the film industry anyway.

  The strikes are seen as the last gasp of a dying institution, an institution that deserves to be cremated and replaced by a decentralized network of true creatives making content with substance and intelligence.  The real reason for the death of Hollywood is simple, and it’s a truth that the media will never admit to:  Get woke, go broke.  As a reminder, let’s take a look at the plethora of woke failures Hollywood produced in 2022 alone…

  Woke propaganda and DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) ideology are the root cause of the implosion of showbiz.  There is an inherent hostility within woke culture towards American heritage, towards constitutional freedoms, towards free markets and towards legitimate imagination and creativity.  This hostility and deconstruction is not lost on the average consumer, they know when they are being attacked and they don’t like it. 

  Beyond the industry’s attempts to “count coup” against the conservative and moderate population, there is the basic matter of content quality.  If the top priority of a creative endeavor is to implant extremist political messaging rather than tell a good story, it will be virtually impossible to tell a good story and the industry will attract the worst kinds of zealots.  

  The survival of Hollywood now relies on their ability to accept failure and recognize their mistakes, which will never happen. 

  It’s not surprising that media simpletons are currently clinging to a movie like Barbie as a sample of woke success; they’re desperate for a counter-argument to the Get Woke, Go Broke mantra.  That said, exceptions to the rule do not change the rule.  For every Barbie, there are a dozen Little Mermaid or Woman King bombs.  And, Barbie was never marketed as a woke film (except in Australia).  In fact, it was marketed as a normal romantic comedy romp in the US, something which female audiences have been clamoring for (how many decent romantic comedies has Hollywood released in the past 5 years?  Why have there been so few? Is it because the far-left hates love stories about straight people?).  

  They had to hide the feminist cancer in order to get butts in the theater.  Hardly a shining example of woke success.  Barbie/Oppenheimer were likely the last hurrah for Hollywood as the strikes continue unabated and productions are pushed further into oblivion.  All the parties involved in these strikes are responsible for their dwindling piece of the entertainment pie.  The writers are garbage, the actors are garbage, the production companies are garbage.  It would appear that consumers have decided it’s time to put the garbage where it belongs – In the dustbin.   

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 13:25

• Currency Wars Versus Gold Standards
  Currency Wars Versus Gold Standards

  Authored by Alasdair Macleod via GoldMoney.com,

  Russia and the Saudis are driving up oil and diesel prices. But these moves are likely to undermine the rouble more than they undermine the dollar, euro, and other major currencies. Therefore, higher energy prices will rebound on the Russians this winter: if they shiver in Germany, they will freeze in Russia. If the dollar is king of the fiats, the rouble is just a lowly serf.

  There is little doubt that Putin and his advisers are aware of this problem.

  • Plan A was to introduce a new gold-backed BRICS currency which might be expected to weaken the dollar and euro relative to the rouble.

  • Plan B was more drastic: to back the rouble itself with gold. This is the financial equivalent of dropping a hydrogen bomb on the dollar and the global fiat currency system upon which it is based.

  As well as demonstrating why there is no option for Russia but to back her currency with gold, this article shows why it is perfectly possible for Russia to do so during wartime and explains how it can be done.

  It is, as a matter of fact, very easy for Russia to reintroduce a gold standard for the rouble, but the consequences for the global fiat currency system are nothing short of lethal.

  

  Introduction

  For the last decade I have argued that there is a strong financial element in the wars between the Asian hegemons and America. President Trump’s trade policy towards China and his banning of Chinese technology, notably of Huawei, the world leader in G5 mobile technology was not just to suppress competition to America’s technology leadership but also to discourage global capital flows into China, which otherwise might have gone to America. And Ukraine gave President Biden the excuse to cut Russia out of global currency markets.

  All had gone quiet, superficially at least, until Russia declared its special operation against Ukraine, setting in motion a sequence of events which rebounded badly on the West. Initially, the rouble soared in value when Putin responded to western energy sanctions by setting his own payment terms. But since then, the rouble has declined and it has become clear that as a fiat currency the rouble will continue to weaken against the dollar. The weakening rouble is the principal chink in Putin’s armour.

  In response to sanctions, Putin appointed one of his advisers, Sergei Glazyev, to design a trade settlement currency, initially for the Eurasian Economic Union. It is believed that the scope was widened into a planned BRICS gold denominated currency, confirmed by the Russians ahead of the BRICS summit last month. But for China and India that was a step too far too quickly. China’s yuan is a component in the IMF’s SDR, a hard-won privilege which might have been threatened if it backed gold as a trade settlement medium. India has a history of anti-gold Keynesian monetary policies and is keen to develop trade links with the US and its allies, as demonstrated by its hosting of the G20 meeting last weekend and its prospective free trade agreement with the UK. China may have also been concerned that the consequences might be destabilising for the global currency system.

  The hesitancy of the two most populous nations on earth over the gold issue is now creating significant problems for them, as the chart below of their respective currencies shows.

  

  

  I have inverted the y-axis on both charts to make the point that the current rally in the dollar’s trade weighted index may not mean very much for the euro, which is its largest component, but it is undermining the major Asian currencies badly. When, rather than if the rupee breaks below its current support level, a move to test the INR100 level looks all but certain. And despite zero consumer price inflation in China, the yuan has already broken support and looks like falling even further. No wonder China’s citizens are pushing gold prices up to significant premiums: it is their escape from a falling currency. The Indians have yet to get used to higher gold prices in rupees, but that is likely to be only a matter of time.

  A particular currency target is Russia’s rouble, illustrated in our next chart.

  

  In an attempt to stop the slide, Russia’s central bank raised its interest rate by 3.5% to 12% in August, which initially rallied the rouble, but it is now sinking back towards its recent low against the dollar. But while Putin and his economic advisor Maxim Oreshkin appear to have a reasonable grasp of monetary affairs, the same cannot be said of the leadership of Russia’s central bank. At the time of the interest rate hike, Oreshkin wrote that “a recent acceleration of inflation and the sinking currency were the result of loose monetary policy, and that the central bank “has all the necessary tools to normalise the situation”.[i]

  The issue is that the central bank has followed expansive fiat monetary policies by allowing M0 money supply to expand by 26% in the year to August. Directly addressing this expansion of central bank credit would have done more to stabilise the rouble than crippling interest rate increases. While much of the destabilisation of the rouble can be attributed to the continuing expense of the war, there can be little doubt that it is also partly due to the dollar’s recent strength. As is the case between the dollar and most other fiat currencies, there is a relative trust factor working against the rouble. Irrespective of interest rate differentials, it is the fact that fiat currency values are tied to nothing more than the faith in them. And Russia now faces the problem that in a fiat currency regime run in western capital markets it can never match the faith and credit in the US dollar. In current currency conditions, the dollar can always undermine the rouble because the US controls the fiat currency agenda.

  The weakness of the rouble is perhaps the only real pressure point that America and NATO can apply. The war in Ukraine is turning out to be yet another NATO debacle, which only appears not to be the failure it is due to the western alliance’s control of its media-reporting. In a world driven by propaganda, we cannot know the truth. But any military commander who thinks, as did Napoleon and Hitler, that a land-borne army can defeat the Russians in Eastern Europe is deluding himself. While grinding down the Ukrainian army, the Russians are digging in for the long haul, expecting growing dissent in the NATO membership to undermine its unity. It is a plan which appears to be working.

  The energy war could backfire badly against the rouble

  Dissent in NATO can be expected to increase this winter, as energy shortages begin to bite. The most recent salvo in the energy war is timed ahead of the northern hemisphere winter. Russia and Saudi Arabia have jointly been squeezing oil supplies, pushing crude prices above the G7’s price caps. One area where energy supplies will hurt the Europeans more immediately is heating oil, which is also regarded as the proxy for diesel prices having increased in dollars by nearly 50% in the last quarter alone.

  The importance of diesel is that logistics in Europe (and America) are almost entirely dependent upon it. On top of earlier OPEC+ cuts of 2 million barrels per day, the more recent 1.3 million barrels per day cuts in oil output by Russia and Saudi Arabia are bringing pressure to bear on the supply of distillates (of which diesel is one) and Russia also plans to cut its diesel exports by a quarter, partly due to refinery maintenance (allegedly) and partly to divert supplies to its domestic economy. While the EU’s gas reserves are relatively full at 90% of capacity, it is not nearly enough to see the EU through the winter. From December onwards, there will be a scramble for more supplies. And the end of the agreement on Black Sea grain exports will put further pressure on food prices as well.

  Therefore, the western alliance will face further inflationary pressures, likely to give higher interest rates and bond yields a new impetus. Already, there is a credit crisis developing in key western economies, with banks trying to reduce their risk exposure to financial and non-financial markets in the face of a recession. And as the credit crunch intensifies, the likelihood of a new round of bank failures increases.

  The problem for Russia is that in pursuing energy policies with the intention of undermining the dollar and euro, the consequences for the rouble are likely to be far worse. The next chart, of oil priced in gold and roubles, illustrates the point.

  

  The first point to note is that in 1998, the rouble was redenominated at a ratio of 1000:1. Back-dated by this factor, in June 1992 there were US$7.25 to the new rouble, and a barrel of oil was valued at 2.03 gold-grammes. Today there are nearly 100 roubles to the dollar, and a barrel of oil is over RUB 7,500. As a fiat currency, the rouble has behaved like a third-world currency relative to the dollar, let alone gold. And the domestic price of oil in Russia has soared along with the rouble’s collapse. Furthermore, the exceptional volatility in the rouble price of oil is extremely disruptive for the domestic economy, with heating becoming unaffordable for Russia’s citizens in desperately cold winters.

  To quantify this distress, between September last and end-July, priced in roubles the oil price increased from RUB4,707 per barrel to RUB7,500:  that is an increase of 59%. In dollars, the price rose from $78.72 to 81.72, up less than 4%. Clearly, the energy battle cannot be won by Putin, because if they shiver in Germany they will freeze in Russia.

  The chart above puts Putin’s energy war in its proper context. Withholding energy from western markets will undoubtedly destabilise their currencies. But the blowback on the rouble will be even worse. But Russia’s analysts, including Maxim Oreshkin and Sergei Glazyev (who has already recommended a gold standard for the rouble) must surely know this. And the chart also tells us that priced in gold oil is considerably more stable. In June 1992 a barrel of oil was 2.03 grammes, today it is 1.41 grammes, a fall of 30%. Bearing in mind that gold is real money, and currencies are highly unstable credit, Russia is getting 30% less for her oil today than she did in 1992.

  Again, in common with the Saudis, the Russians are aware that American monetary policy has had the consequence of undermining the true value of their oil, something they have been powerless to correct without binding the price of oil to gold. There can be little doubt that Russia’s motivation to take control of energy values was behind its proposal for a new BRICS gold backed currency and that it was part of a two-step plan.

  The first step was to send a signal to markets that the era of the fiat dollar was over, justifying the second step which was for Russia and China, followed by other nations in the BRICS camp to evolve their own currencies onto gold standards as a protective response to a declining dollar. But China was not going to take the offensive against the dollar, and the Keynesian Indians were not convinced.

  Russia will take the BRICS presidency next year, so we can assume that the new BRICS currency has not gone away. Meanwhile, if Russia is to use the oil weapon against the West, then it must put the rouble onto a gold standard again as a matter of urgency (it was on a gold standard until Khrushchev devalued the rouble in 1961). If Russia prevaricates on this issue, then Putin’s legacy to be a latter-day Peter the Great will be destroyed by his own currency.

  The practicalities of a Russian gold standard

  In the middle of a war, usually a government suspends its gold standard. This would suggest that Russia can only consider a gold standard after its special operation in Ukraine is over. But the modern equivalent of a gold standard, the currency board, has been successfully established in modern times in nations with far worse budget deficits than Russia. Russia was in the fortunate position of a budget deficit of only 2.3% of GDP last year, despite military spending. This year, military spending has soared, and at a guess the deficit will be about 5% of GDP this year, but government debt to GDP will still be about 20%.

  Anything other than ball-park numbers for the Russian economy are difficult to come by, and the volatility of the rouble is a further analytical hazard. But some of these numbers are not substantially different from where Britain was economically in 1816, when a return to the gold standard was planned — the exception being her estimated debt to GDP number, which at nearly 200% was ten times that of Russia today. Therefore, there is no reason why Russia cannot put the rouble onto a gold standard immediately.

  In doing so, the objective is simple: to ensure that the purchasing power of circulating credit retains its value in terms of goods and services with as little fluctuation as possible. It would allow savers to accumulate credit balances in their bank accounts, and for businessmen to calculate the profitability of their investments with greater certainty. With income tax currently at a flat 13% rate and corporation tax at 20%, in these conditions economic progress will advance surprisingly rapidly. And there is every reason to expect Russia would quickly become an economic counterweight to the sheer power of China, rather than living off the depletion of her natural resources. It is necessary not just for Russia to distance herself from the fate of the western fiat currency system, but also for President Putin’s legacy.

  The method of ensuring monetary stability is equally simple: to bind credit denominated in roubles to gold, which both in law and naturally is the money of the people. It is the highest form of credit, there being no counterparty risk. It’s purchasing power in the general sense has held steady through millennia. Importantly, it removes the currency from political control and dollar influences. It allows for the creation and destruction of credit determined solely by the needs of the Russian people, both as businessmen and consumers.

  In constructing a new gold standard for Russia, we can learn from the lessons of the past, particularly the establishment of Britain’s gold sovereign coin fixed at 113 grains (7.99 grammes) to a one pound Bank of England banknote, freely exchangeable at the holder’s option. There were mistakes made in the implementation of Britain’s gold standard in the nearly one hundred years of its existence, but in the light of experience we should know how to avoid them today.

  The principal errors incorporated in the 1844 Bank Charter Act were to not realise that redemptions of bank notes for sovereign coin were inconsequential. The occasional runs on the Bank of England’s gold reserves always originated in cheques drawn on the Bank for bullion. Amazingly, this source of encashment was not foreseen by the framers of the Act, leading to crises in 1847, 1857, and 1866. The Act was suspended on these three occasions, the crises were averted, and the Act subsequently reinstated every time.

  The observant reader will have noted that these runs on the Bank’s bullion reserves fit in with an approximate ten-year cycle of bank credit expansion and crisis, a cycle still evident to this day. The 1847 suspension came about after the Bank had made immense advances to commercial banks to rescue them from insolvency. But the Bank’s advances were insufficient to stop the crisis. With Parliament staring into an economic abyss, it authorised the bank to issue notes at discretion, and the panic immediately subsided.

  Ten years later in November 1857, the Bank’s monetary assets were comprised of gold and silver, which together with its own notes bought in had declined to only £387,144 compared with liabilities to commercial banks of £5,458,000. It was on the point of having to cease trading within the terms of the act. Consequently, the government authorised the Bank to expand its liabilities at its discretion, but at a discount rate of not less than 10%. The following day, the panic passed.

  In 1866, the prominent discount house, Overend Gurney failed. Again, the government authorised the suspension of the Act, allowing the Bank of England to expand its liabilities to deal with the crisis, but again at a punitive discount rate of not less than 10%. As before, the run on the Bank of England’s gold reserves ceased.

  In all three cases, the suspension of the 1844 Act saved the nation from untold economic damage. In this respect, the Act was a failure. Insisting on the restrictions of the Act come hell or high water and simply letting banks and businesses fail is never an option. Therefore, a successful gold standard must allow for the management and containment of banking crises, the inevitable consequence of periodic over-expansions of credit. There has to be the flexibility to support otherwise solvent commercial banks in times of crisis. In all three cases above, it was the function of the banking department to avert the crisis by extending additional credit. It should not have been the function of the issue department to get involved, and if the separation between the two had been different in its detail, the Act need not necessarily have had to be suspended.

  I should mention a further error in the framing of the 1844 Act. At that time, it had been assumed that a drain on the nation’s bullion would only occur if the balance of trade with other nations was unfavourable, because settlements would be conducted in gold. While this was obviously true, there was a far greater influence on bullion flows: differences in discount rates (or interest rates in modern terminology) between centres with currencies on gold standards.

  If the interest rate in Centre A exceeds that in Centre B by more than the cost of transporting bullion between them, then bullion will flow from Centre B to Centre A. This is why the setting of interest rates must be solely to regulate bullion flows. To explain further why this is the case, it should be understood that the future value of gold includes the interest accumulated with it, being payable in gold. Therefore, if the sum of principal plus interest is less in one place than another, gold will naturally gravitate from the former towards the latter.

  Armed with this knowledge, Russia can easily establish the rouble on a gold standard and maintain it. In light of the foregoing, the following are the basic principles required to achieve this goal.

  1. The objective is to ensure that rouble banknotes and balances held in the Issue Department (see below) are freely encashable into gold coin and bullion.
  2. The issue and redemption activities of rouble banknotes must be transferred from the Central Bank of Russia to a new entity charged solely with managing the note issue, which we will refer to as the Issue Department. The central bank’s gold reserves must also be transferred to the Issue Department. Furthermore, the Issue Department must have the sole power to set interest rates with the mandate of maintaining sufficient bullion balances at all times. By these means, interest rates will no longer be a matter for monetary policy, being handed down to the markets.
  3. The Banking Department will continue with its other functions on behalf of the Russian state, except for the setting of interest rates. It will act as it sees fit in the management of commercial bank failures, extending credit or withdrawing it when necessary to maintain stability in the overall credit system.
  4. The separation between the Banking and Issue Departments must be defined and confirmed in law. As separate entities, each shall have its own balance sheets, so that the credit activities of one are separate from the other.
  5. Along with the power to set interest rates, the Issue Department will be empowered to maintain reserve balances (the counterpart of bullion submitted to it) paying interest at a small discount to the official rate. Assets on the Issue Department’s balance sheet balancing these reserves will be held as interest paying deposits at the Banking Department, allowing the Issue Department to generate sufficient profit between its liabilities and assets to cover its costs and the costs of minting coin.
  6. Any restrictions and taxes on gold coin and bullion must be removed by law. All foreign currency restrictions and controls must be removed as well to permit the free flow of bullion.

  Currently, Russia’s official gold reserves are declared to be 2,301 tonnes. It is thought that between two state funds, the Gokhran (State Fund for Precious Metals) and Russia’s National Wealth Fund, Russia has a further 7,000—9,000 tonnes. Their holdings need not be folded into the Issue Department (though it may be advantageous to the funds to do so), but public declaration of their quantity would be helpful to establish the gold standard’s initial credibility.

  The rouble must be defined by weight in gold grammes and be fully exchangeable in gold coin. New coin must be minted accordingly, perhaps with a face value of 50,000 roubles and exchangeable in those units (currently the equivalent of about $500, and similar to the value of a British sovereign). The time taken to design and mint the new coin will delay its introduction, but there is no reason why a bullion exchange facility cannot start immediately.

  This is how it will work.

  The bullion exchange facility operates not through the Banking Department, but through the Issue Department. In order for a commercial bank to have a credit balance with the Issue Department, bullion must be deposited in the first place. And it is here that the lessons learned from the 1844 Bank Charter Act comes into play.

  Banks eligible to open an account at the Issue Department can buy gold in domestic and foreign markets, where the lease rate for 12 months is currently less than 2%. We can take that as an indicated rate of interest that global markets pay to borrow gold. Therefore, in one year a holder of 100 ounces of gold has 102 ounces equivalent (assuming the interest accumulates in line with the gold price and is paid in gold — which is not the case). Meanwhile, the Bank of Russia’s key rate is 12%. The uplift in return for a buyer of gold in international markets depositing gold with the Issue Department is 10% accumulating in gold.

  It now becomes obvious that Russian and other banks accessing the Issue Department will provide the gold deposits to ensure that the Issue Department will rapidly accumulate all the bullion it needs to operate a secure gold standard. And it is equally clear that with the ability to regulate the interest rate, the issue Department can manage its gold reserves.

  In its initial stages, credibility is obviously key. This can be rapidly achieved by the Russian banks supporting the plan, which they are bound to. Any bank on Russia’s SPFS payments messaging system can open an account with the Issue Department. This should be extended to any licenced bank in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRICS with secure messaging system access to the Issue Department. As well as acting as principals, these banks can operate on behalf of their customers. Russian oligarchs and draft-dodgers who have sold their roubles would almost certainly rush to buy them back, and even deposit gold with the Issue Department through the agency of their banks.

  On current interest rate spreads, bullion inflows should be substantial: arbitrage with western bullion markets will ensure it. Given current sanctions against Russia, London and other markets under the control of the western alliance will not be directly available to sanctioned banks, a factor which is likely to provide a significant boost to gold trade in Asian and Middle Eastern markets. Sanctions will not stop gold shipments. Nonetheless, Russia’s success is bound to lead to imitators, almost certainly the Saudis, and if not immediately the Chinese are bound to follow.

  A rouble priced in gold will also make energy payments in declining fiat currencies even less desirable to Russia, which will have to be sold — for what? The divide between the fiat world and gold standard currencies is going to become a very wide gulf indeed. A new impetus for the delayed BRICS trade settlement currency is bound to ensue, particularly with Russia taking the BRICS chair in January. India’s hope that payment terms for oil will be set by nations on fiat currency standards should be dismissed.

  For the other BRICS currencies, a currency board relationship with a gold backed currency becomes a live option. The more natural alternative to the rouble (which Russia may not desire anyway) is to tie in with China’s renminbi — if or when it adopts a gold standard. China may not be far behind Russia in implementing its own gold standard anyway, because the consequences for the dollar and euro could be sufficiently undermining for China to seek to protect her own currency.

  The impact on the dollar of the move to gold standards

  Chalk and cheese, oil and water, diamonds and dust: whatever metaphor you care to choose, it must be clear that a mixture of gold standards and fiat currencies will not last long. Priced in fiat currencies, gold’s value might be expected to rise significantly, as central banks in what is now termed The Global South (the Asian hegemons and those aligned with them) move towards replacing fiat currencies in their reserves with gold.

  According to Ambrose Evens-Pritchard (Wednesday’s Daily Telegraph), “The Global South holds three-quarters of the world’s $12 trillion of foreign exchange reserves (59 per cent held in dollars)”. And in addition to a $2-plus budget deficit, in the next year the US Government has to refinance about 30% of its existing debt.

  Therefore, the impact of a move to gold on funding the western alliance’s deficits will be substantial, because not only will The Global South stop buying their bonds, but they will seek to liquidate their existing holdings. In the absence of severe spending cuts and increased taxes, increasing monetisation of government debt will become inevitable. Kiss goodbye to lower inflation, lower interest rates, and lower bond yields: embrace crashing bond prices and collapsing asset values. What over-leveraged bank can survive the squeeze on their balance sheets? Which of the western alliance’s central banks, already deeply into negative equity will be able to monetise their government’s debt with further QE against a background of soaring bond yields?

  Inflation of energy prices, already low measured in gold grammes, is bound to increase measured in collapsing fiat. Truly, if Russia does introduce a gold standard for the rouble, it will be the financial and economic equivalent of a nuclear attack on the entire fiat currency system. There can be little doubt that these consequences for the global financial system are what have made Russia hesitate so far. China is sure to have arrived at a similar conclusion, one reason why she was too cautious to support Russia’s proposal for a gold backed trade settlement medium. But Russia is reaching a point where she has no other way to stabilise her currency.

  Russia and NATO (by which we really mean America) have got themselves into positions from which they cannot back down. Unless Russia stabilises her currency, her likely victory in Ukraine will be pyrrhic. Putin’s policy of driving up energy prices will have worse consequences for the Russian people this winter than for Europeans and Americans, because of a collapsing rouble. And a collapsing rouble will also drive up food prices, a combination which will almost certainly destroy Putin’s government.

  Whichever way you look at it, it is the currency factor which matters above all else and the Russians have no option but to stabilise the rouble by defining it in gold grammes and making it immediately exchangeable on the lines described in this article.

  It will be a tragic end to the dollar-based fiat currency regime.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 12:50

• Chicago Mayor Johnson Moves Toward City-Run Grocery Stores
  Chicago Mayor Johnson Moves Toward City-Run Grocery Stores

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  When Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) ran for office, he was propelled to victory by a growing socialist movement allied with the Democratic Party. 

  The Socialist movement has elected a record number of socialists in Congress.

  However, Johnson now has one of the largest American cities to implement such policies with the support of the far left teacher’s union.

  Years ago, I wrote how a delegation of the union went to Venezuela and heaped praise on the murderous regime’s “progress.”

  Now Johnson appears to be moving toward a pilot program with great significance for socialist supporters: state-run grocery stores.

  I am admittedly no fan of Johnson. 

  I love Chicago where I was born and raised. However, rising taxes and crime had led many to leave, particularly businesses. 

  This includes grocery chains. Walmart, Walgreens, Aldi are just some of the companies closing stores.

  Johnson’s solution is telling.

  

  Rather than address the underlying conditions, he is suggesting a solution that has failed historically — government-run stores. Indeed, the failure in dealing with crime and hostile business environments has allowed socialist activists to realize a major new socialist agenda item.

  The Chicago Tribune reported the start of the feasibility study to open government-run stores as part of Johnson’s pledge to advance “innovative, whole-of-government approaches to address … inequities.”

  The mayor said in a statement: 

  All Chicagoans deserve to live near convenient, affordable, healthy grocery options. We know access to grocery stores is already a challenge for many residents, especially on the South and West sides. A better, stronger, safer future is one where our youth and our communities have access to the tools and resources they need to thrive. My administration is committed to advancing innovative, whole-of-government approaches to address these inequities.

  His Economic Security Project senior adviser Ameya Pawar said that government-run stores are no different from other government programs “the way a library or the postal service operates.” It is all part of “reimagining the role government can play in our lives by exploring a public option for grocery stores via a municipally owned grocery store and market.”

  Yet, we have previously “imagined” this approach in various governments with uniformly awful results.

  The government is not going to run these stores at a profit when actual businesses could not do so. Instead, it is likely to supply food at a higher cost for taxpayers in the red.

  What is striking is that Johnson’s office said the grocery stores would be funded with the help of the Biden Administration as well as state funds. The use of federal funds to take another stab at state-run stores was hardly embraced by Congress in prior appropriation debates. If true, it is yet another example of how Congress has allowed billions to be spent without meaningful limits, including the massive and largely unrestricted spending tied to pandemic measures. That funding has been used for everything from office upgrades to state lottery systems.

  In the Soviet Union, state-run grocery stores were the subject of gallows humor. The “reimagining” of grocery stores left shelves bare with only imagined essential products. The most widely told joke spread just before the fall of the Soviet Union:

  Two men are in line waiting to buy vodka. An hour goes by, then two, and the line barely moves. Everyone is in a terrible mood. Finally, one of the men can’t take it any longer. “This is it! I’m sick of this kind of life. Everywhere there are lines, you cannot buy anything, and the store shelves are empty. I’ve had enough. I’m going to the Kremlin right now to assassinate him”. The man returns after two hours, still angry, and says, “To hell with it! At the Kremlin the line to assassinate Gorbachev is longer than this one.”

  As the Johnson and Biden Administration try to make state-run stores work where the Soviet Union failed, history and economics are hardly on their side.

  Of course, as University of Chicago’s Milton Friedman noted:

  “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/16/2023 – 11:40

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• Escobar: Welcome To The 'De-Westernization Movement'
  Escobar: Welcome To The ‘De-Westernization Movement’

  Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,

  In Vladivostok, the Russian Far East rises

  In Vladivostok this week, the ‘Russian Far East’ was on full, glorious display. Russia, China, India, and the Global South were all there to contribute to this trade, investment, infrastructure, transportation, and institutional renaissance.

  

  Russian President Vladimir Putin opened and closed his quite detailed address to the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok with a resounding message: “The Far East is Russia’s strategic priority for the entire 21st century.”

  And that’s exactly the feeling one would have prior to the address, interacting with business executives mingling across the stunning forum grounds at the Far Eastern Federal University (opened only 11 years ago), with the backdrop of the more than four kilometer-long suspension bridge to Russky Island across the Eastern Bosphorus strait.

  The development possibilities of what is in effect Russian Asia, and one of the key nodes of Asia-Pacific, are literally mind-boggling. Data from the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and the Arctic – confirmed by several of the most eye-catching panels during the Forum – list a whopping 2,800 investment projects underway, 646 of which are already up and running, complete with the creation of several international Advanced Special Economic Zones (ASEZ) and the expansion of the Free Port of Vladivostok, home to several hundred small and midsize enterprises (SMEs).  

  All that goes way beyond Russia’s “pivot to the East” which was announced by Putin in 2012, two years before the Maidan events in Kiev. For the rest of the planet, not to mention the collective west, it is impossible to understand the Russian Far East magic without being on the spot – starting with Vladivostok, the charming, unofficial capital of the Far East, with its gorgeous hills, striking architecture, verdant islands, sandy bays and of course the terminal of the legendary Trans-Siberian Railway. 

  What Global South visitors did experience – the collective west was virtually absent from the Forum – was a work in progress in sustainable development: a sovereign state setting the tone in terms of integrating large swathes of its territory to the new, emerging, polycentric geoeconomic era. Delegations from ASEAN (Laos, Myanmar, Philippines) and the Arab world, not to mention India and China, totally understood the picture. 

  Welcome to the ‘de-westernization movement’

  In his speech, Putin stressed how the rate of investment in the Far East is three times the Russian region average; how the Far East is only 35 percent explored, with unlimited potential for natural resource industries; how the Power of Siberia and Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok gas pipelines will be connected; and how by 2030, liquified natural gas (LNG) production in the Russian Arctic will triple.

  In a broader context, Putin made clear that “the global economy has changed and continues to change; the west, with its own hands, is destroying the system of trade and finance that it itself created.” It is no wonder then that Russia’s trade turnover with Asia-Pacific grew by 13.7 percent in 2022, and by another 18.3 percent in just the first half of 2023. 

  Cue to Presidential Business Rights Commissioner Boris Titov showing how this reorientation away from the “static” west is inevitable. Although western economies are well-developed, they are already “too heavily invested and sluggish,” says Titov: 

  “In the East, on the other hand, everything is booming, moving forward rapidly, developing rapidly. And this applies not only to China, India, and Indonesia, but also to many other countries. They are the center of development today, not Europe, our main consumers of energy are there, finally.”

  It is quite impossible to do justice to the enormous scope and absorbing discussions featured in the major panels in Vladivostok. Here is just a taste of the key themes.              

  A Valdai session focused on the accumulated positive effects of Russia’s “pivot to the East,” with the Far East positioned as the natural hub for swinging the entire Russian economy to Asian geoeconomics.

  Yet there are problems, of course, as stressed by Wang Wen from the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University. Vladivostok’s population is only 600,000. the Chinese would say that for such a city, infrastructure is poor, “so it needs more infrastructure as fast as it can. Vladivostok could become the next Hong Kong. The way is to set up SEZs like in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Pudong.” Not hard, as “the non-western world very much welcomes Russia.”

  Wang Wen could not but highlight the breakthrough represented by the Huawei Mate 60 Pro: “Sanctions are not such a bad thing. They only strengthen the “de-westernization movement,” as it is informally referred to in China.  

  China by mid-2022 slipped into was defined by Wang as “silent mode” in terms of investment for fear of US secondary sanctions. But now that’s changing, and frontier regions once again are regarded as key to trade ties. In the Free Port of Vladivostok, China is the number one investor with its $11 billion commitment.  

  Fesco is the largest maritime transportation company in Russia – and reaches China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam. They are actively engaged in the connection of Southeast Asia to the Northern Sea Route, in cooperation with Russian Railways. The key is to set up a network of logistic hubs. Fesco executives describe it as “titanic shift in logistics.”

  Russian Railways in itself is a fascinating case. It operates, among others, the Trans-Baikal, which happens to be the world’s busiest rail line, connecting Russia from the Urals to the Far East. Chita, smack on the Trans-Siberian – a top manufacturing center 900 km east of Irkutsk – is considered the capital of Russian Railways.  

  And then there’s the Arctic. The Arctic is home to 80 percent of Russia’s gas, 20 percent of its oil, 30 percent of its territory, 15 percent of GDP, but consists of only 2.5 million people. The development of the Northern Sea Route requires top-notch high-tech, such as a constantly evolving feet of icebreakers. 

  Liquid and stable as vodka 

  All that transpired in Vladivostok connects directly to the much-ballyhooed visit by North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. The timing was a beauty; after all the Primorsky Krai region in the Far East is an immediate neighbor to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). 

  Putin emphasized that Russia and the DPRK are developing several joint projects in transportation, communications, logistics, and naval sectors.

  So much more than military and space matters amicably discussed by Putin and Kim, the heart of the matter is geoeconomics: a trilateral Russia-China-DPRK cooperation, with the distinct outcome of increased container traffic transiting through the DPRK and the tantalizing possibility of DPRK rail reaching Vladivostok and then connecting deeper into Eurasia via the Trans-Siberian line. 

  And if that was not ground-breaking enough, much was discussed in several round tables about the International North South Transportation Corridor (INTSC). The Russia-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran corridor will be finalized in 2027 – and that will be a key branch of the INTSC.   

  In parallel, New Delhi and Moscow are itching to start the Eastern Maritime Corridor (EMC) as soon as possible – that’s the official denomination of the Vladivostok-Chennai route. Sarbananda Sonowal, the Indian minister of ports, shipping and waterways, promoted an Indo-Russian workshop on the EMC in Chennai from October 30 to discuss “the smooth and swift operationalization” of the corridor.

  I had the honor of being part of one of the crucial panels, Greater Eurasia: Drivers for the Formation of an Alternative International Monetary and Financial System.

  A key conclusion is that the stage is set for a common Eurasia payment system – part of the Eurasian Economic Union’s (EAEU) draft declaration for 2030-2045 – against the backdrop of Hybrid War and “toxic currencies” (83 per cent of EAEU transactions already bypass them). 

  Yet the debate remains fierce when it comes to a basket of national currencies, a basket of goods, payment and settlement structures, the use of blockchain, a new pricing system, or setting up a single stock exchange. Is it all possible, technically? Yes, but that would take 30 or 40 years to take shape, as the panel stressed.  

  As it stands, a single example of challenges ahead is enough. The idea of coming up with a basket of currencies for an alternative payment system did not gather steam at the BRICS summit because of India’s position. 

  Aleksandr Babakov, deputy chairman of the Duma, evoked the discussions between the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and Iran on trade financing in national currencies, including a road map to look for best ways in legislation to help attract investment. That’s also being discussed with private companies. The model is the success of the China-Russia trade turnover.  

  Andrey Klepach, chief economist at VEB, quipped that the best currency is “liquid and stable. Like vodka.” So we’re not there yet. Two-thirds of trade are still carried in dollars and euros; the Chinese yuan accounts for only three percent. India refuses to use the yuan. And there’s a huge Russia-India imbalance: as much as 40 billion rupees are sitting in Russian exporters accounts with nowhere to go. A priority is to improve trust in the ruble: it should be accepted by both India and China. And a digital ruble is becoming a necessity.  

  Wang Wen concurred, saying there’s not enough ambition. India should export more to Russia and Russia should invest more in India. 

  In parallel, as pointed out by Sohail Khan, the deputy secretary-general of the SCO, India now controls no less than 40 percent of the global digital payment market. It had a share of zero only seven years ago. That accounts for the success of its unified payment system (UPI).

  A BRICS-EAEU panel expressed the hope that a joint summit of these two key multilateral organizations will happen next year. Once again, it’s all about trans-Eurasian transportation corridors – as two-thirds of world turnover will soon follow the eastern track connecting Russia to Asia. 

  On BRICS-EAEU-SCO, top Russian companies are already integrated into BRICS business, from Russian Railways and Rostec to big banks. A big problem remains how to explain the EAEU to India – even as the EAEU structure is deemed to be a success. And watch this space: a free trade agreement with Iran will be clinched soon. 

  At the last panel in Vladivostok, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova – the contemporary counterpart of Hermes, the messenger of the Gods – pointed out how the G20 and BRICS summits set the stage for Putin’s speech at the Eastern Economic Forum. 

  That required “fantastic strategic patience.”

  Russia, after all, “never supported isolation” and “always advocated partnership.” The frantic activity in Vladivostok has just demonstrated how the “pivot to Asia” is all about enhanced connectivity and partnership in a new polycentric era.  

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 23:40

• "Migration Economy": South American Businessmen, Politicians Making 'Tens Of Millions' On Human Trafficking Empire
  “Migration Economy”: South American Businessmen, Politicians Making ‘Tens Of Millions’ On Human Trafficking Empire

  As migrants from Central America surge north in hopes of reaching the porous US border, businessmen and elected officials have turned the journey into a well-oiled, and profitable, machine – making “tens of millions” of dollars per year (or more, see below).

  

  The Darién Gap, once a formidable natural barrier between North and South America, has essentially become a marketplace. Remote and beautiful, a constellation of small towns leading to the gap has been become a hub for mass migration, according to the NY Times.

  The towns are riddled with poverty, and are housing a population that has long been victims of the country’s internal conflicts. Their sewage, water, and electricity systems, already frail, were overwhelmed when thousands of Haitians began to show up in 2021, fleeing the chaos that spiraled after their President’s assassination.

  The Darién Gap has quickly morphed into one the Western Hemisphere’s most pressing political and humanitarian crises. A trickle only a few years ago has become a flood: More than 360,000 people have already crossed the jungle in 2023, according to the Panamanian government, surpassing last year’s almost unthinkable record of nearly 250,000.

  In response, the United States, Colombia and Panama signed an agreement in April to “end the illicit movement of people” through the Darién Gap, a practice that “leads to death and exploitation of vulnerable people for significant profit.” -NY Times

  Opportunists seize the day

  

  “This is a beautiful economy,” said Fredy Marín, a former town councilman from the municipality of Necoclí, who operates a boat company that ferries migrants on their way to the US. Marín says he moves thousands of people per month for $40 per head.

  Marín is now running for mayor of Necoclí, where he’s vowed to preserve the thriving migration industry, which has led to locals selling essentials like tents, snake repellent, and even toddler-sized rubber boots to migrants.

  

  Elected community board members, like Darwin García in Acandí, Colombia, even describe the explosion of migrants as the “best thing” for their struggling communities.

  “We have organized everything: the boatmen, the guides, the bag carriers,” said García, who added that the flood of “migrants the best thing that could have happened” to their impoverished town. García’s younger brother, Luis Fernando Martínez, is running for mayor of Acandí on this platform of sustaining the so-called ‘migration economy.’

  The migrants can even hire a sort of “security” service from groups like the New Light Darién Foundation, which offers a guided journey for migrants navigating the gap.

  The foundation has hired more than 2,000 local guides and backpack carriers, organized in teams with numbered T-shirts of varying colors — lime green, butter yellow, sky blue — like members of an amateur soccer league.

  Migrants pay for tiers of what the foundation calls “services,” including the basic $170 guide and security package to the border. Then a migration “adviser” wraps two bracelets around their wrists as proof of payment. -NY Times

  The service is “Like a ticket to Disney,” said Renny Montilla, 25, a construction worker from Venezuela.

  

  Whose fault is this?

  On the surface, Colombian and U.S. governments have expressed commitments to curb this illicit flow. However, actions on the ground tell a different story. Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro says the United States caused this migration crisis while showing no interest in curbing it, and says that the roots of this migration were “the product of poorly taken measures against Latin American peoples.”

  The New York Times has spent months here in the Darién Gap and surrounding towns, and the national government has, at best, a marginal presence.

  When the national authorities can be seen at all, they are often waving migrants through, or in the case of the national police, fist-bumping the men selling expensive travel packages through the jungle.

  The top police official in the region, Col. William Zubieta, said it wasn’t his job to halt the flow. Instead, he argued, the nation’s migration authorities should be exerting control.

  “Unfortunately, they do not have it,” he said.

  …

  He [Petro] said he had no intention of sending “horses and whips” to the border to solve a problem that wasn’t of his country’s making.

  In the absence of the Colombian government, local leaders have decided to handle migration themselves. -NY Times

  Further complicating matters is a notorious drug-trafficking group, the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces, whose control over northern Colombia is ‘so complete that the country’s ombudsman’s office calls the group the region’s “hegemonic” armed actor,” according to the report.

  Are the actual profits much higher?

  As Mike Shedlock of Mish Talk notes;

  Biden vowed to “end the illicit movement” of people through the Darién jungle in Columbia. But the profits are too big to pass up. A record 360,000 made passage this year. That’s well above the record 250,000 for all of 2022.

  

  The Math

  • $170 * 360,000 = $61,200,000
  • $500 * 360,000 = $180,000,000

  The Colombian politicians and helpers have made somewhere between $61 million and $180 million this year selling services that the Biden administration vowed to end.

  Once Through Darien, Then What?

  There is much more to the article. Importantly, once through the Darien Gap, everyone is on their own.

  “On the Panamanian side, small criminal bands rove the forest, using rape as a tool to extract money and punish those who cannot pay,” notes the New York Times.

  People need to cough up more money to make it through Panama to Mexico, then from Mexico to the US border, then still more money from the US border to the US.

  People without adequate funds are subject to rape or torture or death.

  This is what’s become of US immigration policy.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 23:20

• 'Statistically Significant Increase' In Myopericarditis And Single Organ Cutaneous Vasculitis Found After COVID-19 Vaccination
  ‘Statistically Significant Increase’ In Myopericarditis And Single Organ Cutaneous Vasculitis Found After COVID-19 Vaccination

  Authored by Megan Redshaw via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A large nationwide study of more than 4 million people in New Zealand identified a statistically significant association in two adverse events following vaccination with Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

  

  In the post-marketing safety study recently published in Springer, researchers examining 12 specific adverse events found an increase in myopericarditis during the 21-day period following both Pfizer vaccine doses. Myopericarditis describes two distinct inflammatory heart conditions that occur simultaneously, myocarditis and pericarditis.

  The highest rate of myopericarditis was observed in the youngest participants under 39 years of age following the second vaccine dose—with an estimated five additional myopericarditis cases per 100,000 persons vaccinated regardless of age. Researchers also observed an increase following both vaccine doses in individuals aged 40 to 59.

  “Our findings align with international postmarketing studies, case series reports, and cases detected through reports to New Zealand’s spontaneous system that identify an association between the BNT162b2 vaccine and myo/pericarditis, especially in younger people and after the second dose,” the researchers stated.

  In addition to myopericarditis, the study found an increase in single-organ cutaneous vasculitis (SOCV) in the 20- to 39-year-old age group following the first vaccine dose. SOCV is a syndrome characterized by inflammation and damage to the skin’s blood vessels without the involvement of other organ systems.

  Study Methods

  To carry out their study, researchers collected data from Feb. 19, 2021, at the beginning of the vaccine rollout, to Feb. 10, 2022, among 4,114,364 individuals aged 5 and older who received a first and second primary or pediatric dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. During the study period, 13,597 individuals were excluded after testing positive for COVID-19.

  The researchers then compared the incidence rates of each outcome of interest for 21 days—the interval between first and second vaccine doses—following vaccination with Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to the expected background incidence rate from a pre-vaccination period (2014 to 2019) to detect vaccine safety signals.

  Outcomes of interest were identified from New Zealand’s National Minimum Data Set—a national data collection system for all public hospitalizations connected to a National Health Index number that allows researchers to link hospitalization with Pfizer vaccination records in the National COVID Immunisation Register.

  The 12 adverse events analyzed included acute kidney injury, acute liver injury, Guillain-Barré syndrome, erythema multiforme, herpes zoster, SOCV, myopericarditis (includes all events coded as myocarditis, pericarditis, and myopericarditis), arterial thrombosis, cerebral venous thrombosis, splanchnic thrombosis, venous thromboembolism, and thrombocytopenia.

  Outside of myopericarditis and SOCV, researchers identified no other statistically significant associations between Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine and other outcomes of interest for all ages combined. Unlike myopericarditis, SOCV has not been identified as an adverse reaction to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, and only a few case reports and reviews have been published in the literature.

  Potential Study Limitations

  The study had several potential limitations. Although many adverse events of special interest resulted in hospitalization, some conditions, such as herpes zoster, are typically treated in the primary care setting. Diagnoses of conditions following COVID-19 vaccination in the general setting were not included in the analysis and could be underestimated.

  Using ICD-10-AM codes to identify outcomes of interest without conducting clinical record assessments could lead to potential misclassification, and changing diagnostic codes before the study period could overinflate or underestimate potential adverse events.

  Healthy vaccinee bias could affect results when comparing observed adverse events among the vaccinated cohort with the background population, as healthier people are more likely to get vaccinated. Additionally, a risk period of one to 21 days may exclude potential adverse events beyond the time frame, according to the study.

  Researchers Conclude Benefits of Vaccines Still Outweigh Risks

  Despite the increased risk of myopericarditis observed during the study, researchers said the risk of myocarditis following SARS-CoV-2 infection is “substantially greater” than after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination, leading them to conclude the benefits of vaccination still outweigh the risks from the disease.

  Yet experts acknowledge that myocarditis caused by a natural viral infection differs from that triggered by mRNA COVID-19 vaccination. As previously reported by The Epoch Times, although COVID-19 can cause myocarditis, the myocarditis developed by a healthy young person post-infection is extremely mild compared to the onset of myocarditis following COVID-19 vaccination.

  According to pediatric cardiologist Dr. Kirk Milhoan, myocarditis caused by the COVID-19 vaccine differs from viral myocarditis because an infection of the heart isn’t causing the damage. It’s being damaged by the “spike protein that’s cardiotoxic to the heart,” which causes inflammation in the three main vessels of the heart by a different process.

  “There’s a difference between the body encountering a virus naturally that causes myocarditis and actively giving the body something we know causes harm,” Dr. Milhoan told The Epoch Times.

  The New Zealand study adds to a growing body of evidence showing mRNA COVID-19 vaccination can trigger heart inflammatory conditions in young people.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 23:00

• "O'Connor Strikes Back": Federal Judge Exempts Plaintiffs From Biden's ATF 'Frame And Reciever' Rule 
  “O’Connor Strikes Back”: Federal Judge Exempts Plaintiffs From Biden’s ATF ‘Frame And Reciever’ Rule 

  What’s not being reported by corporate media outlets, such as Reuters, AP News, Bloomberg, and others, because any win (big or small) for the Second Amendment community is rarely covered due to their commitment to anti-gunners, such as ‘Everytown’ and ‘Giffords,’ is that Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas granted the plaintiffs in the Garland v. VanDerStok case, Defense Distributed and BlackHawk Manufacturing Group Inc. (doing business as 80 Percent Arms) motions for an injunction pending appeal, which basically means they’re the only two companies that can sell ‘ghost guns’ nationally (or partially completed frames and receivers and weapons parts kits) while the case continues. 

  LEGAL ALERT: The district court judge in our lawsuit challenging the ATF’s “frame or receiver” rule granted Defense Distributed and 80 Percent Arms’ motions for injunction pending appeal, meaning it can’t be enforced against them while the case continues. https://t.co/qcBmmWGKrv pic.twitter.com/HlLB8agM6k

  — Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) September 14, 2023

  “Last month, a cringing Roberts Court blinked under protest and preserved the Biden frame and receiver rule for the life of the first appeal from a final judgment of the Texas district court. Big sad. That appeal isn’t exactly going well for ATF …,” Defense Distributed wrote in a blog post. 

  Defense Distributed continued, “This month, Judge O’Connor strikes back with forty-two pages of just why he has the authority to issue an injunction against the frame and receiver rule, as to at least two VanDerStok plaintiffs: Defense Distributed and 80 Percent Arms.”

  Defense Distributed, the online, open-source hardware and software organization that pioneered the first 3D-printed ghost gun, the “liberator” a decade ago, expects, “DOJ probably appeals, but 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.” 

  Recall, that the president was in the Rose Garden in April 2022, vowing to crack down on untraceable firearms:

  “These guns are weapons of choice for many criminals,” Biden, adding “We’re going to do everything we can to deprive them of that choice.”

  

  As a strategic move in June, Defense Distributed unveiled a 0% lower for handguns, essentially a block of steel, instead of the usual 80% lower, challenging federal regulators in their oversight attempts. The company revealed the 0% lower for ARs at SHOT Show 2022. 

  Making sense of this all, what Defense Distributed is saying is that Biden’s Department of Justice was attempting to crush the partially completed frames and receivers industry but failed as it only backfired and created a “commercial monopoly” where Defense Distributed and 80 Percent Arms will be the only players to sell ghost guns kits in the US legally. 

  *   *   * 

  Here’s the ruling:

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 22:40

• Implications Of Making Ballot Images And Cast-Vote Records Public
  Implications Of Making Ballot Images And Cast-Vote Records Public

  Authored by Rachel Orey & Sarah Walker via RealClear Wire,

  This article is a summary of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s August 2023 explainer, Implications of Making Cast Vote Records and Ballot Images Public. Read the full explainer for additional context and explanation.

  Since 2020, election offices nationwide have received unprecedented numbers of requests for election records. These requests are critical to efforts by journalists, academics, and voters to hold governments to account, yet election offices are unequipped to process the volume of requests being received.

  Cast vote records (CVRs) and ballot images are the two types of records most in demand. Rules governing the creation and release of CVRs and ballot images vary across election jurisdictions; not all choose to make these records public.

  Ballot images are digital renderings of each paper ballot tabulated in an election, similar to making a photocopy of the ballot and then storing it securely. CVRs are electronic records of how the marks on the ballot are tabulated as votes for candidates and on other ballot questions. They come in a variety of formats, some much easier for the public to examine than others.

  

  Proactively releasing these records to the public bolsters transparency and could reduce the volume of public records requests, saving limited resources. Many election jurisdictions already post CVRs or ballot images without issue: Los Angeles began making CVRs available to the public in the 1980s when members of the public could rent tapes with what we now call CVRs; Dane County, Wisconsin offers CVRs as a Do It Yourself Audit; and several Colorado counties piloted the public release of ballot images in recent elections.

  Despite the transparency benefits of releasing CVRs and ballot images, making these records public has trade-offs: Voters’ privacy might be compromised, and many election offices do not have the necessary resources or technology to extract CVRs to begin with, let alone to implement appropriate safeguards. Furthermore, vote buying becomes feasible when ballot secrecy is violated—an extreme, if unlikely, potential ramification of making ballot images public.

  Although CVRs and ballot images are often considered in tandem, each has distinct consequences for privacy, transparency, and efficiency.

  Privacy Implications

  Even when voters are instructed not to identify themselves on their ballots, some invariably write their name, contact information, or signature on their ballot. Because ballot images capture everything on a ballot, they might contain personally identifiable information if election officials do not redact it before posting.

  When a ballot image includes write-ins, voters could lose their anonymity if someone recognizes their handwriting. Alternatively, when write-ins are included on CVRs or ballot images, voters could illegally “sell” their vote choice by including an agreed upon write-in, enabling the vote-buyer to identify the ballot and confirm other choices were marked as intended.

  Unique vote patterns also carry a risk of facilitating vote buying: A malicious actor invested in the outcome of one or two races could illegally instruct voters to fill their ballot out in a particular way, essentially creating a unique identifier for the ballot. This risk applies to both ballot images and CVRs.

  Finally, when a precinct has a small number of voters, or when a small number of voters use a specific method of voting, it can be possible to infer an individual voter’s choices by joining information from a CVR or ballot image with a voter file, which lists everyone who voted in a precinct. This danger is not unique to CVRs and ballot images: it also exists when officials release election results at the precinct level or in other small reporting units.

  Efficiency Implications

  Election offices are chronically under-resourced. Making CVRs and ballot images public has the potential to increase efficiency by reducing the burden of public records requests. But, this would require a baseline level of operation to make the records public. And election offices would have to take steps to protect voters’ privacy. Creating and storing ballot images also risks slowing tabulation and would require technology updates for many jurisdictions.

  Some safeguards that facilitate the release of CVRs and ballot images without comprising privacy, transparency, or efficiency include:

  • Establishing a clear and uniform definition of CVRs and ballot images, ideally in coordination with other jurisdictions.

  • Clarifying which records are available via public record request or published online.

  • Using identity verification or comparable measures for those attempting to access records posted online.

  • Aggregating results from small reporting units to protect voter privacy.

  • Sufficiently funding election administration to address administrative concerns and add capacity.

  As we approach the 2024 elections, interest in ballot images and CVRs is likely to persist. Policymakers must weigh the tensions between privacy, transparency, and efficiency as they devise solutions to meet the growing demand for access to these records.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 22:20

• White House Alters Official Transcript After Biden Says 'Black And Hispanic' Workers 'Don't Have High School Diplomas'
  White House Alters Official Transcript After Biden Says ‘Black And Hispanic’ Workers ‘Don’t Have High School Diplomas’

  President Biden, who was mentored by former KKK ‘Exalted Cyclops’ Robert Byrd, once called a black adviser ‘boy‘ during a FEMA briefing, called Obama the first mainstream ‘bright and clean‘ and articulate African-American, and worried in the late 70s that forcing schools to desegregate would subject his white children to “a racial jungle,” just did it again.

  (There’s a lot more, by the way…)

  

  In another humiliating gaffe, the 80-year-old Biden suggested that httdfdps://x.com/CurtisHouck/status/1432401230916169742?s=20b black and hispanic workers don’t have high school diplomas.

  “We’ve seen record lows in unemployment particularly — and I’ve focused on this my whole career — particularly for African Americans and Hispanic workers and veterans, you know, the workers without high school diplomas,” he said in televised remarks.

  I wonder at people who listen to Biden and think he’s a good president.

  Here are some clips from his speech in Maryland.

  Good thing he’s there to help the African- Americans, Hispanics and veterans- you know those without a high school diploma. pic.twitter.com/Eo4HEb4Fl7

  — charmane harbert ✝️ 🇺🇸 (@callme_Chari) September 15, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe White House, of course, went into damage control mode – doctoring the official transcript to read something Biden never said, and claiming that there was supposed to be the word “and” separating the minority groups and veterans, from ‘those without high school diplomas.’

  “We’ve seen record lows in unemployment particularly — and I’ve focused on this my whole career — particularly for African Americans and Hispanic workers and veterans, you know, and the workers without high school diplomas,” reads the official transcript.

  Blacks, hispanics, veterans, and possibly those without high school diplomas took offense, and general mockery ensued.

  I have a HS Diploma, graduated with the 2nd highest Scholarship in my Class, went to Microwave Training School, it didn’t pan out. Joined the Marines at 20, A 2800, TOW Missile Tech. I passed all 13 weeks of Basic Electronics School, which included the new Technology called…

  — Bob McCarthy (@BobMcCa66031708) September 15, 2023

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

  Much? More like all of it.

  — Brick Suit (@Brick_Suit) September 15, 2023

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

  https://t.co/ZrqFyi3wK5 HOW INSULTING pic.twitter.com/rBTHNDVMuA

  — codeofvets.com Code of Vets ™ (@CLWAL02) September 15, 2023

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

  Yep…it’s gonna happen pic.twitter.com/1Wyqq3aOZj

  — HERSHE®🍊 (@TheRealHershe) September 14, 2023

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

  Oh, and Biden lied in the same speech about teaching at the University of Pennsylvania.

  Did he teach at the University of Pennsylvania? I don’t think he did. Much less for 4 years. pic.twitter.com/o6PsmniF2t

  — charmane harbert ✝️ 🇺🇸 (@callme_Chari) September 15, 2023

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

   

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 22:00

• Three Reasons Why Military Recruitment Is In Crisis
  Three Reasons Why Military Recruitment Is In Crisis

  Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

  By the middle of 2022, it was already become apparent that the US military was having problems meeting recruitment goals. In August last year, The AP reported that the Army would have to cut force size, and an army spokesman admitted the Army was facing “‘unprecedented challenges’ in bringing in recruits.” This came even with new larger enlistment bonuses. The problem, however, wasn’t as acute for the Air Force, Navy, or Marine Corps. 

  

  Since then, things haven’t gotten any better for recruiters. Now, recruitment shortfalls have spread well beyond the Army.  The New York Post reported last week:

  Much of the military will fall short of recruitment goals by as much as 25% this year …

  The Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard are all expected to fall short of their recruitment goals this year, they told The Post. …

  A spokesperson for the Air Force said they will likely miss their goal of 26,877 new recruits by 10%. The Coast Guard said they will likely only fill 75% of the number of full-time, non-commissioned recruits they need.

  And as of April, the Navy, which has over 300,000 active duty personnel, was behind by 6,000 new recruits this year, and the Army by 10,000 out of their 65,000 goal.

  2023 is the first time the Air Force has missed its recruiting goals since 1999. 

  Apparently, potential recruits aren’t buying whatever it is the military is selling these days as reasons for signing away one’s freedom to federal bureaucrats for a period of years. After all, the military is the only job that one can’t quit at any time, so any intelligent person will think long and hard before signing up. 

  There are many reasons for the recruitment problem.

  The decline in mental and physical fitness is real, and many young people are disqualified from a military job even before applying.

  Many others are put off by what appears to be an overtly politicized and partisan military. Pentagon leaders appear to be doubling down on ideological crusades more and more. Even while it faces a recruiting crisis, the military still refuses to provide back pay to service members who were forced out for declining the experimental covid vaccines.

  Unquestioning compliance with vaccine mandates, of course, is a cause near and dear to the current administration.

  Then there are the “woke” crusades in which military brass use drag queens as Navy recruiters and create recruitment ads tailor-made for LGBT personnel. The military wants to let you know they’ll affirm your gender transition—unless, of course, that gets in way of conscription. (The Pentagon claims the “woke” issue isn’t having much effect on recruitment.)

  But there are other more deep-seated problems as well.

  There is growing evidence that the American public no longer reveres the military as it once did. Moreover, it is more abundantly clear than ever that military service has nothing to do with defending the United States or its people. And then there is the often-seen “problem” of low unemployment and the fact the private sector is drawing the best workers away from military careers. 

  The Public Is Losing Faith in the Military

  Compared to institutions like public education, public health, and Congress, the military remains quite popular. However, the historical trend in public views of the military is clearly downward. In 2021, “About 56 percent of Americans surveyed said they have ‘a great deal of trust and confidence’ in the military, down from 70 percent in 2018.” The trend hasn’t changed since 2018. According to a Gallup poll, people who say they have a “great deal/quite a lot” of confidence in the military fell from 69 percent in 2021 to 60 percent in 2023. The all-time low, accoriding to Gallup was in 1981 in the wake of the Vietnam War and Watergate. 

  The dwindling regard for the military is certainly not alien to young potential recruits, and talk of the recruiting crisis regularly features concerns about current young men and women being insufficiently “patriotic” or willing to “serve their country.” 

  This presents a real economic problem for recruiters. A potential recruit who regards military service as ideologically distasteful cannot be easily enticed with a few offers of recruiting bonuses or a GI Bill. After all, the military has long relied on convincing recruits they will gain psychic profits on top of whatever monetary pay they receive. To capitalize on this, recruiters will say things like “you’re serving your country” or “you’re fighting the bad guys” or “you’ll make your father proud.” But what if people stop believing that stuff? It’s going to take a lot of money to sweeten the deal for potential recruits who are smart enough or well-educated enough to have other options. 

  Moreover, it’s easy to see why many young people don’t find military service especially enticing. The US military lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, and hasn’t won a major war since 1945. More clever potential recruits are likely to notice that the US invasion of Iraq was no more morally justified than the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Potential recruits with critical thinking skills might also notice the military is itching to turn American soldiers into fodder for Russian artillery. In previous ages, the usual regime propaganda might have worked to convince potential recruits that “we’re fighting the Russians in Ukraine so we don’t have to fight them in Kansas City.” It’s a variation on a common lie that warmongers tell Americans. But now, the military can’t even take for granted that conservatives—historically a key demographic for recruiters—will believe it anymore. Thanks to a shift in foreign policy views among conservative populists, many young men in middle America see a disconnect between the regime’s latest wars and actual defense of the “homeland.” 

  National Guard Troops Are Exploited by the Regime

  This brings us to another problem recruiters face. Even those who doubt the regime’s latest imperial adventures oversea might nonetheless be convinced to join the National Guard. But even there, better-informed potential recruits are learning that the National Guard has degenerated into a reserve force for the regular military. The old “two weeks every summer” slogan about the National Guard has been exposed as a lie, and potential recruits seeking to “serve the community”  now know that they may end up fighting wars 10,000 miles from home. In 2021, National Public Radio reported on how the National guard exploits recruits. One Idaho National Guardsman described the new reality: 

  My entire life, the recruiting National Guard message has been one weekend a month, two weeks in the summer. And when we served, we used to say one weekend a month, two weeks in the summer, my ass. You know, when we went to Afghanistan, we were gone for 18 months…

  NPR further noted: 

  There has been a lot going on that the National Guard has been brought in for—hurricanes, floods, protests, Iraq, Afghanistan. Last year, more than a third of the National Guard was on active duty. That’s the highest utilization we’ve seen since World War II, and some service members are getting fed up. 

  Once upon a time, National Guard forces could not legally serve overseas at all. This was why many young men in the 1960s managed to avoid a pointless death in Vietnam by signing up for the National Guard. Then, it was established they would not serve overseas without a declaration of war. Then the Pentagon and Congress decided it can do whatever it wants with National Guard members. A young man or woman would have to be pretty desperate to sign up for that sort of treatment. 

  Unemployment Is Low 

  And that’s the thing. Workers right now aren’t desperate. The United States is currently in the middle of an employment bubble. Billions of dollars in new money created since 2020 has flooded the economy, driving up demand and producing countless malinvestments in the labor markets. Monetary inflation has driven increases in wages, and workers—for now—simply don’t need a military job. This relationship between low unemployment and low recruitment, of course, has been known for a long time. As a 2010 report from the Department of Defense noted:

  Recruiting and retention are sensitive to the state of the economy. Studies indicate that a 10 percent decrease in the civilian unemployment rate will reduce high-quality enlisted recruiting by 2–4 percent. Retention also declines when unemployment decreases, but appears to be less sensitive to the state of the economy than recruiting. The recent economic downturn has improved recruiting and retention and has allowed the services to reduce use of enlistment and reenlistment bonuses. However, this improvement is expected to diminish as civilian economic conditions improve.

  We’ll only know how truly severe the recruiting crisis is for the Pentagon once the unemployment rate starts to head up again. We likely won’t have to wait long. We can point to half a dozen economic indicators right now that point to a thoroughly slowing economy in the next year. As we see in the survey data, however, it is likely that views of military service have changed considerably in recent years. That means older relationships between joblessness and recruitment may no longer apply to the same extent. It may be that rising unemployment may not drive as many new recruits as may have been the case a decade ago.

  Recruiters may find that members of Gen Z are not enthusiastic about losing yet another war—regardless of the size of the enlistment bonus. We’ll find out soon enough.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 21:40

• A Visual Guide To AI Adoption, By Industry
  A Visual Guide To AI Adoption, By Industry

  As more and more businesses pour resources into artificial intelligence, its multitude of applications are beginning to be employed by the global workforce – and at a significant pace.

  In this graphic, part of the Digital Evolution series sponsored by Global X ETFs, Visual Capitalist’s Alan Kennedy explores AI adoption statistics and discuss the impact of AI technology on today’s workforce.

  

  Who Uses AI?

  According to a recent survey, an impressive 50% of organizations report using AI tools for at least one function within their operations. But as we look deeper, the power of AI as a customizable and multi-faceted tool becomes apparent:

  

  Generative AI programs such as DALL-E, Bard, and ChatGPT have also been adopted by significant number of people. In particular, OpenAI’s ChatGPT boasts 100 million users and over a billion monthly hits.

  Finance Leads the Way in AI Adoption

  The finance industry has become the frontrunner in AI adoption. Used to manage complex risk challenges, AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data in real time, enabling timely detection of fraud and market fluctuations.

  Consequently, AI technology has proven to be a game-changer within the risk space. A survey conducted by McKinsey indicates that 48% of professionals in the risk space reported some form of revenue increase as a direct result of AI adoption. Additionally, 43% of respondents reported a decrease in costs, as AI streamlines processes, automates repetitive tasks, and reduces the margin for error.

  The Job Market Responds

  The rise in AI adoption has created a demand for AI-skilled professionals in the U.S. In this table, we can see AI job postings as a percentage of overall job postings in the U.S. between 2021 and 2022:

  

  Notably, the top three sectors with the highest demand for AI talent are IT (5.3% of all job postings), professional, scientific, and technical services (4.1%), and finance and insurance (3.3%). This trend suggests that these are the industries where AI can make the biggest difference.

  The Transformative Power of AI

  AI adoption has reached a critical milestone, with half of the surveyed organizations leveraging AI tools to optimize their operations in some form. But this is a mere shadow of AI’s true potential.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 21:20

• Rent Control Is The Wrong Solution For Housing Affordability
  Rent Control Is The Wrong Solution For Housing Affordability

  Authored by Patrice Onwuka via RealClear Wire,

  My family moved to the United States from the Caribbean in 1985. About eight years later, my parents saved enough to purchase a two-family home in the quiet outskirts of Boston far away from our crime-ridden neighborhood. As landlords, my parents charged modest rents—enough to “help with the mortgage”—and ensured that the first-floor apartment was always well maintained for our tenants.

  

  Three decades later, I am a landlady. I charge market rent prices to cover the mortgage, HOA fees, local property taxes, landscaping, maintenance fees, and other operating expenses. Some 44% of landlords are women. They seek financial security and to build generational wealth.

  The argument that landlord “greed” warrants government intervention in private property contracts is specious. Months’ worth of modest profits can easily be wiped out by a broken water heater, tree removal, or roof replacement—situations I have dealt with.

  Troublingly, the failed retro housing policy of rent control is experiencing a revival led by liberal activists, lawmakers, and regulators. Recently, 17 Democratic U.S. senators asked the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to limit rent hikes on Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-backed multifamily properties.

  From Los Angeles County, California, to Montgomery County, Maryland, cities and states are imposing or strengthening rent control policies.

  It’s indisputable that rental costs are rising rapidly. National rental costs rose 8% in August year-over-year. This is up from 6.7% in 2022 and just 2.1% in 2021. However, prices for the services that landlords pay have also accelerated, forcing them to pass along those cost increases to tenants.

  Rent control is not the solution to the lack of affordable housing; it creates more problems than it solves. The best way to reduce housing costs would be to increase the housing supply; sadly, rent control works against this.

  Price controls restrict the supply of rental units, leaving renters with fewer options at higher prices. Rent control pushes mom-and-pop landlords, who own about 40% of the nation’s over 46 million rental properties, out of business. Most rentals are small (1-4 units) and managed directly by landlords. Finding tenants, performing routine maintenance, securing contractors, complying with local regulations, and many more responsibilities keep hands-on landlords busy.

  The profit must outweigh the opportunity cost of owners’ time, operational costs, and investments; otherwise they will sell their properties. This occurred in the Boston area in 1970 when rent-controlled units were expanded nearby in Cambridge, MA. A tenth of rent-controlled units ended up being converted to for-sale condominiums. Meanwhile, uncontrolled rent prices surged.

  Rent control also discourages the building of new rental housing. Although price control policies may exempt new construction, property investors reasonably fear that future policy changes could diminish their financial incentives. It’s not a coincidence that, following the lifting of rent control in Cambridge, residential property investment spiked. Building permits for improvements and new construction rose 20%, and permitted expenditures doubled.

  Not all left-leaning policymakers want to revive rent control. The Seattle City Council recently rejected a proposal from an outgoing socialist council member to cap annual residential rent increases at the inflation rate. One council member explained, “the last thing that we should be doing during a housing affordability crisis is discouraging new housing production at any affordability level.”

  I feel for low-income renters pressed by two years of high prices on essentials and living expenses. Limiting rental prices may appear to be financial relief. However, rental control experiments have led to unsavory outcomes: deteriorating properties, racial segregation, discrimination against younger renters and larger families, and greater income inequality. It’s hardly a policy success if renters in the top income quartile received more than twice the rent discount from market rates than renters in the bottom income quartile.

  Our nation has a deficit in housing supply. Restrictive zoning and building policies have hampered the construction of new, much-needed housing. A blockbuster 2019 economic paper found that if New York, San Jose, and San Francisco had the permitting standards of Atlanta or Chicago, the U.S. would have millions more housing units today.

  Landlords and tenants have something in common: they are both being squeezed by rising prices. Rent control’s promised financial relief for a few will come at the expense of quality housing and homeownership for the many—an outcome no one should live with.

  Patrice Onwuka is the director of the Center for Economic Opportunity at Independent Women’s Forum.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 21:00

• G7 Prepares Russian Diamond Ban, Potentially Reshaping Global Rough Stone Supply Chain
  G7 Prepares Russian Diamond Ban, Potentially Reshaping Global Rough Stone Supply Chain

  While Western sanctions haven’t led to the collapse of Russia’s economy, the Group of Seven (G7) nations remain determined to roll out the next round of sanctions in a matter of weeks. According to Reuters, this round aims to reshape the global diamond supply chain, shifting it away from Moscow’s influence.

  Reuters said, “The plan could transform the global diamond supply chain, but implementation will depend heavily on India, whose diamond industry employs millions of people who cut and polish 90% of the world’s diamonds.”

  A Belgian official told reporters the new trade restriction will go into effect on Jan. 1. They said the ban was proposed by Belgium, where Antwerp, home to all major diamond mining companies, is located. 

  Reuters noted the restriction would fracture the global consumer diamond market in half as G7 countries would no longer be able to accept diamonds from Russia, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds. 

  

  “We’re talking about restructuring a global market,” the official said, admitting trade restrictions won’t perfectly work right away. 

  The official continued, “Russia is the biggest supplier globally. With this system, we are cutting them out, leaving them in an inferior market with lower prices. We are slashing the financial flows from this sector.”

  We pointed out last year that Russian mining giant Alrosa PJSC’s diamonds were still flowing onto global markets despite the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control hitting the company with sanctions. 

  Anglo American Plc’s De Beers said the diamond industry supports G7 efforts: 

  “The question is how we can do this collectively and effectively so that all parts of the industry – large and small – are represented.” 

  Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, De Beers and Alrosa were responsible for nearly 60% of all rough diamond sales worldwide, with De Beers accounting for 33% and Alrosa for 24%. 

  The challenging part will be getting India, the mecca of diamond cutting and polishing, on board with trade restrictions. 

  Another Belgian official said: 

  “The Indian polishers can polish whatever they want but (Russian gems) need to be segregated … At the point when the polished diamond is offered for export, the reference will be made to the original rough, again using a combination of physical inspection and traceability data.”

  Despite all the sanctions that Western officials, US and European corporate media outlets, and neoconservative think tanks said would implode the Russian economy, the International Monetary Fund expects the Russian economy to grow by 1.5% this year. Remember, President Biden once vowed to “turn the ruble into rubble.”

  We must ask the difficult question: Why The Economic War Against Russia Has Failed?

  It may have to do with this & this & this. 

   

   

   

   

   

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 20:40

• 2020 Election Fallout: Wisconsin Chief Election Official Facing Imminent Ouster
  2020 Election Fallout: Wisconsin Chief Election Official Facing Imminent Ouster

  Authored by Steven Kovac via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  

  Wisconsin’s chief election official Meagan Wolfe is engulfed in a battle between Democrats and Republicans to determine the state’s next election administrator

  Meagan Wolfe, the administrator of the Wisconsin Election Commission (WEC), has suffered another setback in her struggle to hang on to her office as the chief election official.

  On Sept. 11, the five-member state Senate Committee on Shared Revenue, Elections, and Consumer Protection voted 3-1-1 to recommend that the full Senate hand Ms. Wolfe her walking papers over allegations of partisan behavior within her role.

  Voting against Ms. Wolfe’s nomination were Republican Sens. Dan Knodl, Dan Feyen, and Romaine Quinn. Sen. Mark Spreitzer, a Democrat, was the lone committee member to vote to reappoint Ms. Wolfe to a second four-year term. Democrat Sen. Jeff Smith abstained.

  A Long Listening Session

  The committee made its decision after conducting a four-hour-long public hearing on Aug. 29, in which a scathing critique of WEC’s introduction of new policies and practices—especially its management of the 2020 election—was presented by the non-partisan Legislative Audit Bureau.

  Following the audit report, a parade of Wisconsinites from all over the state took the witness chair to speak against Ms. Wolfe continuing on as WEC administrator.

  Most of her detractors told the hearing that, based on what they consider her mishandling of the 2020 election, ordinary citizens have lost trust in Ms. Wolfe’s ability to fairly administer the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

  In 2020, Ms. Wolfe had a hand in making and implementing decisions that many Republicans worry may have helped Joe Biden eke out a 0.63 percent victory over then-President Donald Trump—a margin of just 20,682 votes out of the 3.3 million cast.

  

  A Catalog of Missteps

  Some of the controversial actions Ms. Wolfe presided over include the installation of mail-in ballot drop boxes—later declared illegal by the Wisconsin Supreme Court; the relaxing of signature verification standards and voter identification requirements; expanding the definition of “indefinitely confined” absentee voters to include thousands of ineligible people; and allowing elderly nursing home residents to receive mail-in ballots without them being delivered and returned by specially designated election officers, as required by Wisconsin law.

  Those speaking at the hearing in favor of Ms. Wolfe commended her for her competence, experience, and responsiveness to the needs of local election officials during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  Several supporters said it would be difficult for localities to manage the upcoming 2024 presidential election without Ms. Wolfe’s expertise.

  Concerning the WEC’s missteps and legal problems, her supporters contended that she was merely carrying out the wishes of her superiors.

  By law, WEC is a body composed of three Republicans and three Democrats. It was created by the state legislature in 2016.

  In recent letters and memos released to the public in which Ms. Wolfe defended herself, she asserted the same argument about her subordinate role. But the statute establishing the WEC states in pertinent part: “The elections commission shall be under the direction and supervision of an administrator …”

  A Political Stratagem?

  Just before Ms. Wolfe’s term was set to expire at midnight on June 30, the WEC met for the purpose of reappointing her to another term.

  By statute, four votes are needed to move her appointment forward for confirmation by the Wisconsin State Senate. Ms. Wolfe only mustered three—surprisingly, they were all from the Republican members.

  Aware that Ms. Wolfe had worn out her welcome among the Republican supermajority in the Senate and that she was headed there for a defeat, the three WEC Democrat members decided to abstain.

  They explained that while they supported Ms. Wolfe, the parliamentary tactic of abstaining might enable them to save her from almost certain rejection by the Senate.

  In May 2019, Ms. Wolfe was unanimously confirmed by that same body.

  WEC’s three Democrat members are now trying to keep the Republican legislative majority from ousting Ms. Wolfe by contending that because she failed to get four votes from WEC, she has not been formally nominated and therefore, there is no vacancy and no valid nomination for the Senate to advise and consent on.

  

  GOP Resolve

  The parliamentary move by unelected WEC commissioners to stymie the Senate has led some Republican lawmakers to assert that such an action thwarts the will of the people as expressed through their elected representatives.

  Speaking for the GOP majority, Mr. Knodl, the committee’s chairman stated, “We will not abdicate the Senate’s authority.”

  The day after the WEC’s Democrat members abstained, the Senate passed a resolution on a party-line vote to proceed with the advice and consent process.

  If the full Senate rejects Ms. Wolfe, Wisconsin Democrats led by Mr. Spreitzer have vowed to challenge the action in court.

  Mr. Spreitzer said he is confident the Democrat’s position can prevail.

  At the Aug. 29 hearing, he told the committee that Ms. Wolfe is lawfully continuing in her position even though her term expired at midnight on June 30. To support his contention, he cited a legal loophole in Wisconsin law by which “the expiration of a term is not the same as the creation of a vacancy. The expiration of a defined term no longer creates a vacancy.”

  If no vacancy has occurred in Ms. Wolfe’s post, there is no need for her reappointment, and therefore, there is nothing for the Senate to confirm, according to the Democrats’ reasoning.

  Mr. Quinn stated, “It was certainly not the original intent of the legislature for a WEC director to sit in office in perpetuity.”

  Other than her written statements, Ms. Wolfe has thus far kept a low profile during the Senate’s deliberation. She did not attend the Aug. 29 hearing and has not responded to requests for comment from The Epoch Times.

  In a late breaking development, on Sept. 13, her office announced that Ms. Wolfe is preparing to come out swinging with a full media blitz if she is not confirmed.

  The full Wisconsin State Senate may vote as early as Sept. 14.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 20:20

• Albuquerque Gun Shops See Spike In Sales After Governor's Ban
  Albuquerque Gun Shops See Spike In Sales After Governor’s Ban

  Gun stores in Albuquerque, New Mexico have seen a surge in customers after Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s emergency order banning the carrying of firearms in and around the city.

  

  “Today was the busiest day I’ve had in months,” Arnie Gallegos, owner of ABQ Guns in Albuquerque, told The Epoch Times. “I’ve been getting a lot of people who have never come into a gun shop before who are rightfully concerned about their freedoms.

  “A lot of people are saying, ‘I can’t rely on the police anymore, and I need to be able to protect myself,” added Gallegos.

  In a Sept. 8 statement, Grisham said “The time for standard measures has passed,” adding “And when New Mexicans are afraid to be in crowds, to take their kids to school, to leave a baseball game—when their very right to exist is threatened by the prospect of violence at every turn—something is very wrong.”

  

  The order came in response to recent shootings of three children, including the July 28 shooting death of a 13-year-old girl in northern New Mexico, the Epoch Times reports. A man and his 14-year-old son were later arrested for the crime.

  Grisham’s so-called ‘health emergency’ she cited to justify unconstitutional overreach was halted by a federal judge on Wednesday.

  Another Albuquerque gun store owner, Walt Bracken, told the Times that he’s also noticed an uptick in sales.

  “People are upset,” he said. “There is an attitude that our governor isn’t respecting our rights.”

  A clerk at Right to Bear Arms who asked to remain anonymous told the Epoch Times: “We have seen a definite jump in traffic because people are nervous, and rightfully so, when they think their right to purchase a gun won’t be around in the near future,” adding “There is definitely a joke in the gun community that the policies of the left are the greatest salesman of all time.“

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 20:00

• US-Saudi Arms 'Megadeal' Collapses Over Russia, China Links
  US-Saudi Arms ‘Megadeal’ Collapses Over Russia, China Links

  Via The Cradle, 

  US weapons maker RTX, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, scrubbed a multibillion deal with Saudi firm Scopa Defense earlier this year over “concerns” that the latter was pursuing business with sanctioned Russian and Chinese companies, according to people familiar with the deal that spoke with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

  In 2022, RTX and Scopa signed a memorandum of understanding to build a factory in the kingdom for air defense systems to protect Riyadh from airstrikes. The plan reportedly called for installing radars and multiple air defense systems with an investment of $25 billion in the kingdom and $17 worth of sales.

  

  The owner of Scopa, Mohamed Alajlan, told the WSJ that his company has no deals with sanctioned Russian companies and that any deals with Chinese firms “are limited to securing raw materials such as copper or rubber for use in producing ammunition and armored vehicles.”

  “We don’t work with any companies that have international sanctions,” Alajlan told the WSJ, adding that the decision by RTX to scrub the deal was “rushed, illogical, and even irrational.”

  Alajlan, who also chairs the Saudi-Chinese Business Council, is the heir of a prominent Saudi family that for decades has imported Chinese textiles to the kingdom.

  According to the WSJ, the “unease” over Scopa’s alleged ties to sanctioned Russian and Chinese companies “was a deciding factor for an advisory board of retired US military officers to resign from the Saudi company.” Furthermore, the daily claims Scopa fired its chief executive “who had raised the sanctions concerns with his company’s owner and US officials.”

  Alajlan is also accused of hiring an executive from a Russian company sanctioned by the US to run a separate firm he had set up, known as Sepha. Moreover, he reportedly hired a Chinese executive to run yet another firm, Tal, “which had engaged in talks regarding deals with Chinese firms that are also sanctioned by Washington.” Tal and Sepha shared computer servers with employees at Scopa, which was allegedly a major concern for RTX.

  A document reviewed by the WSJ showed that Sepha had looked at “marketing Russian ammunition, body armor and surveillance equipment in Saudi Arabia, assembling Russian attack helicopters there, and manufacturing armored vehicles with Russia’s Military Industrial Co.”

  The US embassy in Riyadh knew about the talks Tal and Sepha were having with Chinese and Russian companies as early as August 2022, according to the WSJ. US officials told Scopa that this “could seriously hinder the ability of Scopa to enter into contractual agreements with US defense firms.”

  The details of the failed “megadeal” come as Washington is looking to rekindle ties with its longtime Arab partner after more than a year of simmering tensions that pushed Riyadh closer to Russia and China.

  There is no greater proof that the Biden administration is ignoring risk than having a war criminal committing crimes against humanity as not only a top client but also a potential ally.#CatoFP‘s @jbcohen & @jeallenFP argue https://t.co/Hrta2vjWLx

  — Cato Foreign Policy (@CatoFP) September 9, 2023

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

  RTX, one of the largest weapons firms in the US, is currently being sued alongside Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics for “aiding and abetting war crimes and extrajudicial killings” by selling weapons to the Saudi-led coalition waging war in Yemen. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the victims of two coalition bombings in Yemen — one for a wedding in 2015 and another for a funeral in 2016.

  According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), in October 2015, the Al-Sanabani family was readying to celebrate a relative’s wedding when a coalition jet bombed the area, killing 43 Yemenis, including 13 women and 16 children. A year later, coalition jets dropped a US-manufactured GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bomb on a crowded funeral, killing over 100.

  The lawsuit alleges that western-manufactured bombs have killed over 25,000 civilians since the beginning of the NATO-backed war nearly eight years ago.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 19:40

• "Go Easy On The Curry": HSBC Warns Rice Crisis Reminiscent Of '2008 Asian Food Price Scare'
  “Go Easy On The Curry”: HSBC Warns Rice Crisis Reminiscent Of ‘2008 Asian Food Price Scare’

  Frederic Neumann, Chief Asia Economist at HSBC Global Research, highlighted in a note to clients Friday that skyrocketing rice prices present hurdles for central banks combating high inflation. He drew parallels between the current surge in food prices and the one that rocked the world in 2008, noting that shortage fears are rising for the staple food that feeds billions of people.

  “The memory of the 2008 Asian food price scare sits deep,” Neumann wrote. 

  He said, “Back then, rising rice prices in some economies quickly spilled over into other markets as consumers and governments across the region scrambled to secure supplies. It also lifted the prices of other staples, such as wheat, as buyers shifted to alternatives.”

  Rice from Asia accounts for about 90% of the global production. The El Nino weather phenomenon has sparked heavy rainfall and droughts across top-producing regions, such as India, which has imposed export restrictions to ensure adequate domestic supplies. 

  We provided readers with enough understanding that rice, which is critical to the diets of billions of people worldwide, was headed for a shortage:

  • Sept. 2022: The Stage Is Being Set For A Massive Global Rice Shortage

  • April 2023: “We’ve Been Warned”: El Nino Watch Initiated As Ag-Industry In Crosshairs

  • May 2023: Global Rice Shortage Looms, Set To Be The Biggest In Decades

  • May 2023: Thai Rice Crop In Crosshairs Of El Nino As Farmers Are Warned About Water Shortages

  • August 2023: Rice Crisis Sends Prices To Highest Levels Since 2008

  To Neumann’s point about spillovers, take a look at Indian shoppers panic buying rice at US supermarkets in July as they got word from overseas that India was imposing rice export restrictions. Maybe these Indian preppers are on to something… 

  So it begins. India has banned some rice exports and now people are panic buying up rice. pic.twitter.com/ujpm66ER3n

  — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 23, 2023

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  As we noted, “Buckle up, world – the rice crisis is just getting started.” 

  India is the world’s biggest rice exporter. 

  

  … and soaring prices are causing a sticker shock for consumers worldwide. 

  

  Neumann said global rice imports as a share of consumption have doubled over the past two decades, and are up about four percentage points since the 2008 food crisis. He said, “This means that disruption in one economy could have much bigger spillovers into others than in the past.” 

  The analyst concluded: “Go easy on the curry.” 

  For an in-depth view of which countries are likely to be hammered by El Nino, Global Chief Economist at Morgan Stanley identified the following countries:

  

  Higher food prices usually cause social unrest. It’s only a matter of time before people become outraged by the political elite. 

  I present: $100 of groceries. pic.twitter.com/S5SZFNv7n8

  — Ryan Florence (@ryanflorence) September 12, 2023

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  That’s already underway. The clock is ticking. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 19:20

• AI Is A Gun, Not A Nuke
  AI Is A Gun, Not A Nuke

  Authored by Dylan Dean via AmericanThinker.com,

  It’s in vogue, as artificial intelligence becomes more sophisticated, to compare A.I. systems to nuclear weapons.  Such analogies have come from traditional media like Bloomberg, niche internet microcelebrities, and the world’s most famous A.I. doomer, Eliezer Yudkowsky.  

  But this comparison does not hold up to scrutiny.

  

  Game Theory – the study of how rational actors interact – shows us why A.I. is not the threat it is made out to be.  A.I. is more like a gun than a nuclear weapon.

  Nuclear weapons are unlike all other weapons because of their destructive power. 

  If two nations have a nuclear exchange, both sides lose: missiles will be in the air, with no hope of disabling enemy weaponry in time to prevent a strike.  

  For this reason, Game Theory suggests a policy of “Mutually Assured Destruction”: any rational actor will avoid using nuclear weapons because his own side will be destroyed in the process.  

  Thus, nuclear safety is dependent on the centralization of nuclear capabilities to a small number of rational actors.

  However, consider firearms within this same framework: the best counter to a mass shooter is another person with a gun, either a civilian or law enforcement.  

  Unlike with nuclear weapons, the risk of gun violence can be mitigated with decentralization.  Centralize firearms in the hands of the state, and you have a society of tyranny; centralize them in the hands of criminals, by banning ownership for the law-abiding, and you get a society of plunder.  These two are not very different, save for aesthetics.  A free and safe society, on the other hand, is the result of a wide dispersal of guns.  Guns in the hands of everyday people work as a countervailing force against those who would use guns to take away rights or personal property.  

  Intelligence, which can be used for both good and evil, operates on a similar principle to that of gun ownership.  As with firearms, asymmetric access to intelligence can lead to dangerous situations.  This is why the mentally ill are protected through conservatorships (when they aren’t being abused — #FreeBritney).  It’s why we have age of consent laws and why we criminalize elder financial abuse.  A situation where mental capability is nearly equal, on the other hand, is a safer one.  This is why the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to a lawyer: the law is an intellectual domain, and defendants without a legal background are at a significant disadvantage.  What is really being provided here is the lawyer’s mind, with the knowledge and experience necessary to level the playing field.

  Artificial intelligence works the same way.  

  An A.I. model might have access to information and resources vastly greater than an individual person – like the difference between a prosecutor and a defendant.  But just as a lawyer steps in to equalize the playing field, another A.I. system could likewise play this equalizing role.

  Like guns and lawyers, then, wide access to artificial intelligence is necessary to avoid an asymmetry of resources and information – and the dangerous anti-competitive landscape that would arise from centralization.

  Open source models like Llama2 and StableLM level the playing field, or get close, by allowing anyone with sufficient hardware to control his own model locally.  Promoting the continued development of these models, through avoiding government regulation and increasing nonprofit funding of open-source A.I. research, will ensure that the playing field stays as level as possible.  This will allow the A.I. capabilities of the public to remain near that of large corporations.  Regulation, on the other hand, would centralize A.I. resources into the hands of a few large companies, thus taking away competition — the only countervailing force that could check centralized A.I. in the first place. 

  It is no surprise that the people pushing for A.I. regulation tend to also be proponents of gun control — both positions are premised on the same faulty reasoning.  On September 13, Chuck Schumer hosted an A.I. summit that included leaders from the largest A.I. companies.  Whatever comes of that summit might be good for those companies, and for gun-grabbing Chuck Schumer, but not for the American people.  

  They will try to scare people into supporting regulations, the proponents of which will likely use the same tired comparison to nuclear weapons.  We must not fall for it.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 19:00

• Trump Will Be 'Imprisoned With Ivanka' Says Maxine Waters As Trials Delayed
  Trump Will Be ‘Imprisoned With Ivanka’ Says Maxine Waters As Trials Delayed

  Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who hooked her Daughter up with $750,000 in campaign funds over a decade with minimal repercussions, lashed out on X after former President Trump’s trial date in his Georgia RICO case was delayed – the first of two such delays issued late in the week.

  

  On Thursday, the Florida judge overseeing Trump’s 2020 election-related case ruled that the former president will not go on trial next month along with attorneys Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesbro, both of whom asked for an expedited schedule, Politico reported. Prosecutors wanted to put all 19 defendants in the case on trial at the same time, which Judge Scott McAfee laughed out of the courtroom.

  “The Fulton County Courthouse simply contains no courtroom adequately large enough to hold all 19 defendants, their multiple attorneys and support staff, the sheriff’s deputies, court personnel, and the State’s prosecutorial team. Relocating to another larger venue raises security concerns that cannot be rapidly addressed,” he wrote.

  Maxine chimes in

  “Many are worried that the Judge has extended Trump’s trial date,” Waters posted Thursday night on X. “Not to worry! TRUMP CAN’T RUN. TRUMP CAN’T HIDE.” she continued, adding “He will be imprisoned with Ivanka by his side!”

  Many are worried that the Judge has extended Trump’s trial date. Not to worry! TRUMP CAN’T RUN. TRUMP CAN’T HIDE. He will be imprisoned with Ivanka by his side!

  — Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) September 15, 2023

  This is the same Maxine Waters that told Democrats in 2018 “wherever we have to show up. If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere!”

  YOUR REACTION: Far-left Democrat Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) explodes after learning that trial date for Trump has been extended in Georgia, says he’s going to prison anyway with Ivanka: “Many are worried that the Judge has extended Trump’s trial date. Not to worry! TRUMP… pic.twitter.com/UbHwExSJV1

  — Simon Ateba (@simonateba) September 15, 2023

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  Totalitarian Despotism on full display. Living reason for the Bill of Rights.

  — Christopher L Hansen (@CLHansenATL) September 15, 2023

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  On Friday, a New York appeals court judge halted a trials scheduled for Oct. 2 in NY Attorney General Letitia James’ fraud lawsuit against Trump and the Trump Organization.

  More via the Epoch Times;

  State Justice David Friedman, with the 1st Department of the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, granted an interim stay of the trial—slated to start Oct. 2—and referred the matter to a five-judge panel, which expects to rule in the last week of September, a spokesperson said. He also ordered the full appeals court to consider a reported lawsuit that President Trump had filed against the trial judge, Arthur Engoron, on an expedited basis.

  President Trump’s lawyers had raised issue with Judge Engoron’s refusal to grant a request for a three-week trial delay, which he said (pdf) was “completely without merit.” They also asked the judge to pause the trial until he issues a ruling on the statute of limitations regarding certain claims in Ms. James’s lawsuit, it was reported.

  First reported by the Daily Beast, the lawsuit against Judge Engoron also asserted that the jurist is overstepping his authority. A state appellate court issued a ruling several months ago that asked the judge to determine which Trump Organization real estate deals are too old and beyond the statue of limitations.

  The judge declined to issue a comment on the matter via a court spokesperson. Meanwhile, Ms. James’ office issued a statement on Thursday ruling, telling multiple news organizations that “we are confident in our case and will be ready for trial.”

  The lawsuit filed by Ms. James, a Democrat, alleges President Trump defrauded banks, insurers, and others with annual financial statements that inflated the value of his skyscrapers, golf courses, and other assets and boosted his net worth by as much as $3.6 billion. Her lawsuit seeks $250 million in penalties and a ban on the former president doing business in New York.

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 18:40

• Meteorologists, Scientists Explain Why There Is 'No Climate Emergency'
  Meteorologists, Scientists Explain Why There Is ‘No Climate Emergency’

  Authored by Katie Spence via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

  There’s no climate emergency. And the alarmist messaging pushed by global elites is purely political. That’s what 1,609 scientists and informed professionals stated when they signed the Global Climate Intelligence Group’s “World Climate Declaration.”

  “Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific,” the declaration begins. “Scientists should openly address uncertainties and exaggerations in their predictions of global warming, while politicians should dispassionately count the real costs as well as the imagined benefits of their policy measures.“

  

  The group is an independent “climate watchdog” founded in 2019 by emeritus professor of geophysics Guus Berkhout and Marcel Crok, a science journalist. According to its website, the organization’s objective is to “generate knowledge and understanding of the causes and effects of climate change as well as the effects of climate policy.” And it does so by objectively looking at the facts and engaging in scientific research into climate change and climate policy.

  The declaration’s signatories include Nobel laureates, theoretical physicists, meteorologists, professors, and environmental scientists worldwide. And when a select few were asked by The Epoch Times why they signed the declaration stating that the “climate emergency” is a farce, they all stated a variation of “because it’s true.”

  “I signed the declaration because I believe the climate is no longer studied scientifically. Rather, it has become an item of faith,” Haym Benaroya, a distinguished professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Rutgers University, told The Epoch Times.

  “The earth has warmed about 2 degrees F since the end of the Little Ice Age around 1850, but that hardly constitutes an emergency—or even a crisis—since the planet has been warmer yet over the last few millennia,” Ralph Alexander, a retired physicist and author of the website “Science Under Attack,” told The Epoch Times.

  “There is plenty of evidence that average temperatures were higher during the so-called Medieval Warm Period (centered around the year 1000), the Roman Warm Period (when grapes and citrus fruits were grown in now much colder Britain), and in the early Holocene (after the last regular Ice Age ended).”

  The climate emergency is “fiction,” he said unequivocally.

  

  The ‘Climate Emergency’

  Human activities and the resulting greenhouse gases are the cause of global warming, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Specifically, the IPCC says that in 1750, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations were 280 parts per million (ppm), and today, the atmospheric CO2 concentrations are 420 ppm, which affects temperature.

  The IPCC is the U.N. body for assessing the “science related to climate change.” It was created in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the U.N. Environment Programme to help policymakers develop climate policies.

  Edwin Berry, a theoretical physicist and certified consulting meteorologist, said that one of the IPCC’s central theories is that natural CO2 has stayed constant at 280 ppm since 1750 and that human CO2 is responsible for the 140 ppm increase.

  This IPCC theory makes human CO2 responsible for 33 percent of today’s total CO2 level, he told The Epoch Times.

  Consequently, to decrease temperatures, the IPCC says, we must reduce human-caused CO2—thus, the current push by lawmakers and climate activists to forcibly transition the world’s transportation to electric vehicles, get rid of fossil fuels, and generally reduce all activities that contribute to human-caused CO2. 

  That entire premise, according to Mr. Berry, is problematic.

  “The public perception of carbon dioxide is that it goes into the atmosphere and stays there,” Mr. Berry said. “They think it just accumulates. But it doesn’t.”

  He explained that when you look at the flow of carbon dioxide—”flow” meaning the carbon moving from one carbon reservoir to another, i.e., through photosynthesis, the eating of plants, and back out through respiration—a 140 ppm constant level requires a continual inflow of 40 ppm per year of carbon dioxide, because, according to the IPCC, carbon dioxide has a turnover time of 3.5 years (meaning carbon dioxide molecules stay in the atmosphere for about 3 1/2 years).

  “A level of 280 ppm is twice that—80 ppm of inflow. Now, we’re saying that the inflow of human carbon dioxide is one-third of the total. Even IPCC data says, ‘No, human carbon dioxide inflow is about 5 percent to 7 percent of the total carbon dioxide inflow into the atmosphere,'” he said.

  So, to make up for the lack of necessary human-caused carbon dioxide flowing into the atmosphere, the IPCC claims that instead of having a turnover time of 3.5 years, human CO2 stays in the atmosphere for hundreds or even thousands of years.

  “[The IPCC is] saying that something is different about human carbon dioxide and that it can’t flow as fast out of the atmosphere as natural carbon dioxide,” Mr. Berry said. “Well, IPCC scientists—when they’ve gone through, what, billions of dollars?—should have asked a simple question: ‘Is a human carbon dioxide molecule exactly identical to a natural carbon dioxide molecule?’ And the answer is yes. Of course!

  “Well, if human and natural CO2 molecules are identical, their outflow times must be identical. So, the whole idea where they say it’s in there for hundreds, or thousands, of years, is wrong.”

  Mr. Berry said that means nature—not humans—caused the increase in CO2. And consequently, attempts to decrease human CO2 are pointless.

  “The belief that human CO2 drives the CO2 increase may be the biggest public delusion and most costly fraud in history,” Mr. Berry said.

  He pointed out that in science, the scientific method says that you can’t prove that a theory is 100 percent true—only that the data supports it—but you can prove that it’s false. Providing an example, Mr. Berry said that Sir Isaac Newton’s gravity law was the preeminent theory for a long time, but then Albert Einstein made a correction that disproved Newton’s theory.

  

  Smoke rises from a steel factory in Inner Mongolia, China, on Nov. 3, 2016. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

  “Go back to the scientific method: IPCC proposed a theory, and if we can prove it’s wrong, we win. And I proved, in that case, their theory is wrong,” he said.

  Mr. Berry took his research a step further and calculated the human carbon cycle using the IPCC’s own carbon cycle data.

  “The prediction from the same model doesn’t give humans producing 140 ppm. It comes out closer to 30 ppm. Which essentially means the IPCC is wrong,” he said.

  He said that using the IPCC’s data, nature is responsible for about 390 ppm of CO2, and humans are only responsible for about 30 ppm—not 140 ppm.

  “Now, someone could ask, ‘Well, is the IPCC data correct?’ My answer is, ‘I don’t know.’ But I don’t have to know because IPCC has used this very data to deceive the world. I want to show that their logic is incorrect using their data,” he said.

  “The IPCC was not set up as a scientific organization.”

  Mr. Berry said that the IPCC doesn’t engage in skepticism of its theories and, therefore, the scientific method that governs all science.

  “They were set up as a political organization to specifically convince the public that carbon dioxide was causing problems,” he said.

  When asked why there’s a push to declare a “climate emergency,” Mr. Berry said it’s all about money and control. 

  “That’s the only real reason for it. There’s no climate emergency,” he said.

  Mr. Berry makes all his research, and research and correspondence from colleagues trying to disprove his theories, available to the public.

  

  Politics and Climate Models

  Like Mr. Berry, Mr. Alexander says that science has become more political than scientific.

  “It’s simply not true that the Earth’s climate is threatened. That claim is far more political than scientific,” he said.

  “Science is based on observational evidence, together with logic, to make sense of the evidence. Very little, if any, evidence exists that human emissions of CO2 cause rising temperatures. There is a correlation between the two, but the correlation isn’t particularly strong: The Earth cooled, for example, from about 1940 to 1970, while the atmospheric CO2 level continued to go up. Computer climate models are all that connects global warming to CO2.”

  When asked why CO2 was singled out as the cause of the climate emergency, Mr. Alexander said it goes back to James Hansen, an astrophysicist and the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies from 1981 to 2013, and an ardent environmentalist.

  “Hansen developed one of the first computer climate models and began to make highly exaggerated predictions of future warming, none of which have come true,” Mr. Alexander said. “This included testimony he gave at a 1986 Senate hearing, testimony considered to have sparked the subsequent anthropogenic global warming narrative.”

  Despite his predictions failing to come to fruition, Mr. Hansen’s efforts contributed to the founding of the IPCC, Mr. Alexander said.

  “Although ostensibly the IPCC is a scientific body, the findings of its scientists are frequently distorted and hyped by the government and NGO bureaucrats who dominate the organization,” he said. “The bureaucrats have played a major role in exaggerating the scientific conclusions of successive IPCC reports and escalating the rhetoric of its official pronouncements. Hence, the U.N. secretary-general’s recent proclamations about a ‘boiling’ earth.”

  

  On July 27, Secretary General António Guterres said, “Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning. The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived. The air is unbreathable. The heat is unbearable. And the level of fossil fuel profits and climate inaction is unacceptable.”

  Mr. Alexander said an honest answer to what’s causing Earth’s warming is, “We just don’t know right now,” but that doesn’t mean scientists are short of ideas.

  “The chances of CO2 being the number one culprit are very slim. CO2 undoubtedly contributes, but there are several natural cycles that most likely do, too,” he said. “These include solar variability and ocean cycles, both ignored in climate models—because we don’t know how to incorporate them—or represented poorly. While climate activists will tell you otherwise, climate science is still in its infancy, and there is a great deal we don’t yet understand about our climate.”

  He said one example is a recent research paper that estimated that changes in the sun’s output could explain 70 to 80 percent of global warming. Research such as that doesn’t gain much traction because the IPCC is committed to the idea that human CO2 is the cause of global warming.

  As further criticism, Mr. Alexander said John Christy, a climatologist and professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and the director of the Earth System Science Center, has clearly demonstrated that climate models exaggerate short-term future warming by two to three times.

  To find more accurate measurements, Mr. Christy and Roy Spencer, a climatologist, former NASA scientist, and now a principal research scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, developed a global temperature data set from microwave satellite observations.

  They started their project in 1989, analyzed data going back to 1979, and found that, in general, since 1979, the Earth’s temperature has increased steadily by 0.23 degrees Fahrenheit every 10 years, according to global satellite data, Mr. Spencer said on his website.

  As for why climate models are so inaccurate, Mr. Alexander said: “Computer simulations are only as reliable as the assumptions that the computer model is built on, and there are many assumptions that go into climate models. Assumptions about processes we don’t fully understand require approximations.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 18:20

• New Hampshire Secretary Of State Speaks Out On 14th Amendment Challenge To Trump
  New Hampshire Secretary Of State Speaks Out On 14th Amendment Challenge To Trump

  Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan said on Wednesday that there is no legal basis to keep former President Donald Trump off the 2024 primary ballot as he seeks reelection, based on the 14th…

  

  New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan said on Wednesday that there is no legal basis to keep former President Donald Trump off the 2024 primary ballot as he seeks reelection, based on the 14th Amendment.

  “There is no mention in the New Hampshire state statute that a candidate in a New Hampshire presidential primary can be disqualified using the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution mentioning insurrection or rebellion,” he told news outlets in a statement. “There is nothing in the 14th Amendment that suggests that exercising the provisions of that amendment should take place during the delegate selection process held by the different states.”

  The 14th Amendment, ratified after the Civil War, gave equal protection under the law to all persons born or naturalized in the United States. It added a section that allowed the federal government to punish states that infringed on a citizen’s right to vote, and a third section that disqualified those who participated in the rebellion or insurrection against the nation to hold office, unless two-thirds of Congress made such an exception for the candidate.

  Mr. Scanlan said that “nothing in our state statue that gives the secretary of state the discretion in entertaining qualification issues once a candidate swears under the penalty of perjury that they meet the qualifications to be president.” He added that once the candidate applies according to the proper procedures, their name “will appear on the ballot.”

  He further added that “in a situation where some states permit a name to appear on the ballot and other states disqualify it, there’s going to be chaos, confusion, anger and frustration.”

  Mr. Scanlan explained that the U.S. Supreme Court was the only authority that could make such a determination, and that a constitutional disqualification would have to apply “across the board,” in all 50 states or not at all.

  “At a time when we need U.S. election officials to ensure transparency and build confidence among voters around the country, the delegate selection process should not be the battleground to test this constitutional question,” he added.

  New Hampshire GOP Chairman Chris Ager told Fox News he thought the 14th Amendment arguments were “a complete waste of time” and that the party would have intervened in any legal action brought forth in the state.

  “I’m glad that we’ve put it to bed here in New Hampshire,” he said.

  Liberal groups have been trying to drum up support for the idea of barring President Trump from reelection, arguing that his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, constituted an insurrection or rebellion, which under the post-Civil War amendment would disqualify someone from holding office.

  But secretaries of state have not warmed to the idea, arguing this is not within their jurisdiction.

  Late August, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said he could not remove President Trump’s name from the ballot under state law, while also calling the law “stupid” because of its broad coverage.

  Last week, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon similarly said on NPR that this was also not something he had the authority to do, saying the state law instead allows “any individual” to bring forth a petition, after which a judge could rule to strike a candidate from the ballot. Four days later, a liberal group filed such a suit.

  Earlier, such a petition was thrown out in Florida after an Obama-appointed judge said she lacked jurisdiction.

  In Colorado, a petition is still pending. Meanwhile, legal experts arguing for both sides of the issue.

  Debate in New Hampshire

  In recent days, arguments over disqualifying President Trump in the early primary state reached new heights.

  A New Hampshire attorney, Bryant Messner, had brought the idea to Mr. Scanlan last month, leading to politicians voicing their support for or against the idea. Mr. Scanlan maintained that it was a decision for the courts, but by Tuesday, Sept. 12, the Trump Campaign sent a letter to his office signed by 81 New Hampshire state officials and former U.S. Senator Bob Smith.

  “There is no legal basis for these claims to hold up in any legitimate court of law,” they wrote. “The opinions of those perpetuating this fraud against the will of the people are nothing more than a blatant attempt to affront democracy and disenfranchise all voters and the former President.”

  They dismissed the 14th Amendment strategy as a political attack and “absurd conspiracy theory,” urging New Hampshire to live up to its historic patriotism by invoking the 1776 revolution.

  ‘Dangerous’ Precedent

  The groups arguing that President Trump participated in an “insurrection” point to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach events and typically describe the motivations and events of the day in loaded terms. The Colorado petition cast it as a racially motivated event where black police officers were targeted, and the Minnesota petition called those present “attackers” and “the mob.”

  Last month, President Trump was indicted for his contest of the 2020 election results in relation to his actions on Jan. 6.

  However, the indictment does not charge him with insurrection, rebellion, or even inciting violence.

  George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley says the theory that the former president would then be disqualified from holding office is “not simply dubious but dangerous.”

  “The amendment was written to deal with those who engage in an actual rebellion causing hundreds of thousands of deaths,” Mr. Turley told Fox News. “Advocates would extend the reference to ‘insurrection or rebellion’ to include unsupported claims and challenges involving election fraud.”

  He pointed out that President Trump has not been charged with any of the things the advocates are accusing him of, much less convicted.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 17:40

• Emerging Scandal: Why Are We Giving $8 Billion To Chinese Company With Communist Ties To Build A $2 Billion Battery Factory?
  Emerging Scandal: Why Are We Giving $8 Billion To Chinese Company With Communist Ties To Build A $2 Billion Battery Factory?

  By Mark Glennon of Wirepoints

  Some politicians are taking notice of the absurdity of subsidizing a Chinese technology company, Gotion. The electric vehicle battery maker is linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and it recently inked a deal with the State of Illinois to build a $2 billion plant in Illinois.

  However, the insane size of the subsidies being granted remains to be recognized.

  On Wednesday, two members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, imploring her and Congress to take immediate action to stop the CCP from exploiting U.S. taxpayer dollars.

  The letter from committee Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) specifically addressed a very similar Gotion battery production project in Michigan, and the same issues apply to the Illinois project.

  The letter documents connections between Gotion and the CCP:

  Gotion High-Tech Co. is a PRC company that has direct ties to the CCP and state-owned financial institutions. Gotion has been an active participant in the PRC-based version of the “Thousands Talent Program,” a program the FBI itself says encourages theft of trade secrets and economic espionage. Gotion has established multiple “Communist Party Units” within its operations and has publicly sought PRC provincial government support for its desire to expand its operations overseas. Even when courting major Western investment, Gotion has been adamant about retaining PRC-based control, including requiring that Volkswagen give up part of its voting rights, despite Volkswagen acquiring over 25 percent of the company. [Footnotes omitted.]

  “It is perplexing,” says the letter, that the U.S. government would perpetuate China’s domination of key technology “by actively supporting CCP-backed companies expanding their foothold in the U.S. market, especially in a crucial sector such as lithium-ion battery manufacturing.”

  Perplexing, indeed.

  Equally perplexing is the sheer size of the subsidies, regardless of the recipient. Gotion is qualified to receive $7.5 billion of federal tax credits over five years, as we wrote Wednesday. That’s in addition to $536 million of incentives awarded by the State of Illinois for the Illinois plant, which is expected to employ 2,600 workers. So, Gotion will be gifted over $8 billion for a factory that will cost only $2 billion.

  The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) is a national non-profit organization representing exclusively domestic producers across many sectors and industries of the U.S. economy. They’ve been heavily criticizing the tax credit program, which is known as “45X.” CPA Chairman Zach Mottl told us this:

  It’s unconscionable that the State of Illinois would contribute $500 million and the federal government an additional $7.5 billion to construct a project that will cost just a fraction of that. And to give that money to a Chinese company that is already subsidized by the Chinese government is a serious mistake. China‘s goal is to dominate the global battery industry, and forcing American taxpayers to unwittingly fund the CCP’s ambitions is a direct threat to U.S. economic and national security.

  It’s very doubtful Treasury Secretary Yellen could do anything to halt the federal tax credits going to Gotion, as requested by the Gallagher-Moolenaar letter. The entity that has some power to veto some investments in the U.S. by national security threats like China is the Treasury Department Committee on Foreign Investments (CFIUS). However, CFIUS gave the green light to Gotion’s Michigan project, reportedly saying it had no jurisdiction over the matter, and there’s no reason to think other Gotion projects are different.

  The problem, instead, is in the legislation for the 45X program. Congress must change that, as the Gallagher-Moolenaar letter says. Authorization for 45X was in the mislabeled Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, and the authorization does not contain the same prohibitions on foreign entities of concern that are in other parts of the Act and other laws, according to JD Supra.

  The entire conception of 45X in that legislation was botched. It was initially estimated that it would cost the U.S. Treasury $31 billion, but it’s now estimated to cost as much as $200 billion. It was simply too generous, leading to a frenzy of new battery factory announcements by companies drawn to the handout.

  Good Jobs First, a worker-oriented policy group in Washington, D.C., has documented the ridiculously oversized tax credits for recent battery plant announcements. Their July report includes this chart where you can see that the 45X tax credits far exceed the cost of many new battery plants, just as Gotion’s will in Illinois.

  Where are Illinois politicians on this?  So far, we’ve seen no reaction from Democrats or Republicans.

  Where is Illinois’ mainstream media? They’ve reported or criticized nothing whatsoever on the lavish tax credits coming to Gotion for its Illinois project. Even at the national level, Fox is the only major outlet that has been covering the story.

  In Michigan, a firestorm of controversy continues over Gotion’s plant there.

  In Illinois, nothing.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 09/15/2023 – 17:00