Oct 13

Today’s News 13th October 2024

  • Election Interference? Dems Won't Certify Election If Trump Wins
    Election Interference? Dems Won’t Certify Election If Trump Wins

    Authored by Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov via Headline USA,

    Despite their constant whining about the Jan. 6, 2021, “insurrection,” the Democrats recently admitted that they won’t certify the 2024 election results if Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is elected.

    Axios reported that the Democrats would certify the election results only if Trump used “free, fair and honest means to secure a victory,” which, according to Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., is not what Trump would do. This statement implies that he would be declared a winner only if he cheats.

    “[Trump] is doing whatever he can to try to interfere with the process, whether we’re talking about manipulating electoral college counts in Nebraska or manipulating the vote count in Georgia or imposing other kinds of impediments,” the politician told the news source.

    Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., also questioned whether Trump would win the election fair and square, telling Axios that she doesn’t know “what kind of shenanigans he is planning.”

    Conservatives on Twitter pointed out the hypocrisy after the article was published.

    “I’ve been told this type of rhetoric is “dangerous to our democracy” or something,” @Patriot_Vibes wrote.

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    Co-owner of Trending Politics, Colin Rugg, also mocked the Democrats who have been talking non-stop about Republicans and Trump’s alleged attempt to overthrow the government at the beginning of 2021.

    “The ‘democracy defenders’ won’t commit to certifying an election?” he wrote.

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    Others wrote that the recent news is a warning from Democrats about their own insurrection, this time it being real and violent.

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    Some conservatives noted that hearing about the recent news was not surprising after the Democrats replaced Joe Biden, who was elected by leftists during the primaries, with the current Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, who nobody cared about before the disastrous debate between Trump and Biden.

    “No surprise there. They threw democracy out the window when they put Kamala in w/o a single vote. Why wouldn’t they pull some more shenanigans? We’ll get SCOTUS involved if we have to, but they need to do their job or GTFO,” an anonymous person wrote.

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    The Democrats’ recent comments are also unsurprising because Raskin said he would never allow Trump to be in the White House again.

    “I’ve been warning of this for months. Here is Rep Jamie Raskin confirming what I’ve been predicting. Even if President Trump wins the 2024 election, Democrats will not accept the results and refuse to leave the White House, creating a civil war scenario,” investigative reporter and commentator Drew Hernandez said.

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 23:20

  • What You Do Now Can Affect Your Brain For 2 Weeks
    What You Do Now Can Affect Your Brain For 2 Weeks

    Authored by Huey Freeman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    New research shows that our daily exercise and sleep habits can affect brain function for up to two weeks.

    Our brains do not react to things in quick, isolated surges; instead, brain activity evolves over more extended periods.

    Rennyks/Shutterstock

    “This suggests that even a workout or a restless night from last week could still affect your brain—and therefore your attention, cognition and memory—well into next week,” according to the study’s press release.

    Physical activity, sleep patterns, heart rate changes, and even subtle mood shifts can imprint on our neural networks for up to two weeks. This revelation challenges conventional wisdom about brain function and opens new avenues for understanding cognition, memory, and mental health treatment.

    Researcher Becomes the Study Subject

    Ana Triana, a doctoral candidate at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland, performed double duty as the study subject, tracking her own activities while serving as the research team leader. Brain scans, smartphones, and wearable devices recorded her daily life and brain activities.

    This experiment was designed to challenge the conventional wisdom that “just a few trials are sufficient for correctly sampling an individual’s brain activity and behavior,” the researchers wrote in their study, published Tuesday in the Public Library of Science (P

    Triana emphasized the importance of continuous monitoring through wearable technology, noting that traditional brain scans, conducted while a person rests for 30 minutes twice weekly, offer limited insights.

    “We wanted to go beyond isolated events,” Triana said in the press release.

    “Our behaviour and mental states are constantly shaped by our environment and experiences. Yet, we know little about the response of brain … on different timescales, from days to months.”

    The researchers hope their unique study will help improve mental health treatment, focusing on individual information on the brain and a person’s daily life.

    “Our approach gives context to neuroscience and delivers very fine detail to our understanding of the brain,” Dr. Nick Hayward, a physician, a neuroscientist, and study co-author, said in the press release. He added that information from daily life should be examined in a lab “to see the full picture of how our habits shape the brain.”

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 22:45

  • China Overproducing Lithium To Eliminate Rivals: US Official
    China Overproducing Lithium To Eliminate Rivals: US Official

    Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Jose Fernandez, U.S. undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy, and the environment, told reporters in Portugal on Oct. 8 that the Chinese regime is using its oversupply of lithium to price out global rivals.

    This photo taken on March 12, 2021 shows workers at a factory for Xinwangda Electric Vehicle Battery Co. Ltd, which makes lithium batteries for electric cars and other uses, in Nanjing in China’s eastern Jiangsu province. – China OUT (Photo by AFP) / China OUT Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images

    “They engage in predatory pricing,” Fernandez said. “[They] lower the price until competition disappears. That is what is happening.”

    Fernandez said China was producing much more lithium “than the world needs today, by far” and dumping it on the market, resulting in a steep price drop of 80 percent over the past year. China is now responsible for two-thirds of the world’s refined, battery-grade lithium production.

    Portugal has 270,000 metric tons of lithium reserves, according to the 2022 U.S. Geological Survey, and its government has set goals to increase mining to advance energy goals. Local communities have opposed some of these new projects, saying they damage livelihoods and the environment.

    Western countries have, in recent months, put up barriers against the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) trade practices. Although China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, China is not a free-market economy, as its industries produce based on the state goals set by the authoritarian CCP.

    For example, the European Union raised tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles only after determining via investigation that the regime had subsidized the industry to overproduce, subsequently dumping low-priced vehicles on the international market. This is a practice that can put global competitors out of business.

    During a recent trip to Washington, Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said China had “killed“ India’s manufacturing sector decades ago with the same tactic.

    Asian countries have similarly hiked tariffs on Chinese imports. Japan this year increased duties on Chinese electrolytic manganese dioxide, another battery material, and Korea, whose electric vehicle market is already dominated by Chinese products, is cutting subsidies for vehicles using Chinese batteries.

    Trade officials have recognized that tariffs alone may not be enough. Chinese manufacturers may partner with international manufacturers or trade partners to bypass tariffs. For instance, China manufacturers supply a large number of parts to Mexican manufacturers, and Mexico is the largest auto-parts supplier to the United States.

    The about-face of China’s global trade partners in key industries also comes at a time when the Chinese communist regime is struggling to prop up a faltering economy. Chinese industries facing overcapacity may soon see firms shutter, with a ripple effect of job loss, lost revenue for already-indebted local governments, and social unrest due to unemployment.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 22:10

  • Where Can You Order A Robotaxi?
    Where Can You Order A Robotaxi?

    Self-driving cars – in real-world applications as of now limited to robotaxis – are simultaneously existing and scary as technological and ethnical implications around the subject are plentiful and recent accidents – for example of a Cruise robotaxi in San Francisco – have caused some hesitation among lawmakers and the public.

    As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, while aformentioned Cruise by GM has suspended operations in six U.S. cities after the October incident, competitor Waymo by Alphabet is still operating limited public operations of driverless taxis in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and new-addition Austin, Texas. 

    A Las Vegas service by Motional was suspended in May.

    In Chinese cities, it is already somewhat more normal to be able to board a robotaxi (or robobus) as several operators are vying for dominance and have expanded fleets.

    Apollo Go by Chinese tech company Baidu, one of the larger operators, currently has as many as 400 robotaxis on the road in the city of Wuhan.

    Infographic: Where Can You Order a Robotaxi? | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Several companies are operating public trials and services in the cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing.

    Smaller cities are also being included by some companies and they are also often where companies launched their first trial services. While initial trials were often free and even on an application basis, new low fare structures for robotaxis in China have already ruffled feathers with taxi drivers.

    While reassessing Cruise was supposed to service Dubai, Chinese provider WeRide has run a public trial in Abu Dhabi. Singapore has a robobus service by the same company.

    Many current robotaxis are limited to specific areas, times of day or distances and might have a remote safety operator, who under Chinese law can look after as many as three taxis.

    Some operations in China also include on-board safety drivers, which are present but are not needed for any specific maneuvers of the vehicle.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 21:35

  • '2nd Moon' Orbits Earth After Getting Stuck In Planet's Gravity – Here's Where It Came From
    ‘2nd Moon’ Orbits Earth After Getting Stuck In Planet’s Gravity – Here’s Where It Came From

    Authored by Michael Wang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    It appears that planet Earth has assumed babysitting duties for a minor space object that came too close to our world and chose to stay for a few weeks. The traveling object fell into Earth’s orbit in September and will remain there until late November. Rocky in disposition and roughly the size of a school bus, the object is an asteroid, yet scientists are calling it a “second moon.”

    An illustration by The Epoch Times shows an asteroid orbiting the Earth. Shutterstock/ buradaki/ Rawhi302/ Mikael Damkier

    How the Earth Came to Have Two Moons

    Traveling along a horseshoe-shaped path through the solar system, this asteroid is classified as a near-Earth object, or NEO. There are many NEOs in outer space. While making a flyby close to Earth, this particular object’s gravitational energy temporarily fell to negative levels, according to a study published by the American Astronomical Society. This implied that it was in Earth’s orbit.

    On Sept. 29, it became official. The NEO got caught in Earth’s orbit, technically making it a second moon. It was named 2024 PT5. However, it won’t last long; the rock won’t even revolve once around the Earth before hurtling off in a few weeks.

    An illustration shows an asteroid orbiting the Earth. Shutterstock/ Mikael Damkier

    Although technically a “moon,” the object measures only 33 feet long, roughly 345,000 times smaller than our permanent lunar satellite. Most people won’t see it, as it will be far too small for human eyes or amateur equipment to spot. Astronomers will be able to observe it using high-powered telescopes, Live Science writes.

    “The object is too small and dim for typical amateur telescopes and binoculars,” study author Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, a professor at Universidad Complutense de Madrid, told Space.com. “However, the object is well within the brightness range of typical telescopes used by professional astronomers.”

    So, for now, planet Earth is babysitting an asteroid, though it won’t overstay its welcome. On Nov. 25, it will depart from orbiting Earth and start its journey back into deep space, not to be seen again for decades.

    Where Did It Come From?

    Over the years, countless other space objects like 2024 PT5 have grazed by Earth. This NEO is said to originate from the Arjunas, a secondary asteroid belt in the solar system that aligns closely with Earth. Hoards of NEOs can be found within this cluster, and some have even visited Earth before. The latest flyby closely resembles a prior one called 2022 NX1, which orbited Earth in 1981 and 2022 before bidding farewell.

    When 2024 PT5 says sayonara in November, it won’t return to greet us again until 2055.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 20:25

  • Former Harvard Pres Claudine Gay Receives 'Leadership And Courage' Award Despite Controversy-Plagued Tenure
    Former Harvard Pres Claudine Gay Receives ‘Leadership And Courage’ Award Despite Controversy-Plagued Tenure

    Authored by Patrick McDonald via Campus Reform,

    Claudine Gay, the former president of Harvard University, was recently given a “Leadership and Courage” award despite her controversial response to anti-Semitism and the plagiarism allegations that surrounded her time in Harvard’s leadership.

    The Harvard Black Alumni Society granted the award to the former Harvard president on Sept. 28 at a gathering of the school’s black alumni. 

    Harvard Black Alumni Society President Monica M. Clark praised Gay and said: “This reunion — all these people who were expressing all this support for her — they were all there. Celebrating her, and clapping for her, and cheering her on.”

    One alumnus, Thomas G. Stewart, said: “She’s humble, she’s smart, she’s — fortunately — someone that still is affiliated with the University, and has pledged her support to it to her dying day.”

    “She’s in good spirits, and folks should know that,” Stewart added.

    Claudine Gay resigned on Jan. 2 following her controversial congressional testimony, during which she failed to unequivocally state that she would condemn rhetoric “calling for the genocide of Jews.”

    Gay was asked at the hearing: “At Harvard, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment?” Gay responded: “It can be, depending on the context.”

    “I got caught up in what had become at that point, an extended, combative exchange about policies and procedures,” Gay told The Harvard Crimson at the time. “What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community — threats to our Jewish students — have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged.”

    Gay was plagued by a controversy regarding her allegedly repeated plagiarism as well. 

    The former president was accused of committing plagiarism almost 50 times, and later acknowledged that she had “made mistakes,” but still tried to justify herself by claiming she was only guilty of “citation errors.” 

    “I have never misrepresented my research findings, nor have I ever claimed credit for the research of others. Moreover, the citation errors should not obscure a fundamental truth: I proudly stand by my work and its impact on the field,” she wrote in a New York Times op-ed. 

    “My critics found instances in my academic writings where some material duplicated other scholars’ language, without proper attribution,” she continued. “When I learned of these errors, I promptly requested corrections from the journals in which the flagged articles were published, consistent with how I have seen similar faculty cases handled at Harvard.”

    Gay also accused her critics of racism, saying they “recycled tired racial stereotypes about Black talent and temperament.”

    Campus Reform has contacted Harvard University and Claudine Gay for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 19:50

  • Feds Find Million In Cash While Investigating Staffing Firm Supplying Haitians To Charleroi, PA Food Factory
    Feds Find Million In Cash While Investigating Staffing Firm Supplying Haitians To Charleroi, PA Food Factory

    A mysterious staffing firm operating a complex van transportation network supplying low-cost Haitian labor to a Charleroi, PA-based company that operates multiple food packing plants in the area has been at the center of a federal investigation. 

    On Friday, local media outlet Action News revealed that federal investigators had been investigating staffing firm Prosperity Services, which supplies cheap migrant labor to Fourth Street Foods in Charleroi. 

    According to Action News, Fourth Street “employs 700 immigrants from 41 countries, many of them Haitians.” The migrants work on conveyor lines in massive ice boxes to slap breakfast bowls and sandwiches together under various private-label brands for big box retailers. 

    Here’s the bombshell from the media outlet published Friday evening:

    Many of Fourth Street’s workers are actually employed by a contractor, Prosperity Services. Prosperity also transports workers in vans, which can be seen throughout Charleroi.

    In court records, federal investigators said Prosperity “knowingly paid undocumented non-citizen employees with cash” and “transported and housed undocumented non-citizens for employment purposes.”

    Earlier this year, the feds seized nearly $1 million in cash from Prosperity and two men affiliated with the company, including Andy Ha, the company president.

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    In a separate report, journalist Christopher Rufo found out…

    At the center of this system in Charleroi is Fourth Street Foods, a frozen-food supplier with approximately 1,000 employees, most of whom work on the assembly line. In an exclusive interview, Chris Scott, the CEO and COO of Fourth Street Barbeque (the legal name of the firm that does business as Fourth Street Foods) explained that his company, like many factory businesses, has long relied on immigrant labor, which, he estimates, makes up about 70 percent of its workforce. The firm employs many temporary workers, and, with the arrival of the Haitians, has found a new group of laborers willing to work long days in an industrial freezer, starting at about $12 an hour.

    Many of these workers are not directly employed by Fourth Street Foods. Instead, according to Scott, they are hired through staffing agencies, which pay workers about $12 an hour for entry-level food-processing roles and bill Fourth Street Foods over $16 per hour to cover their costs, including transportation and overhead. (The average wage for an entry-level food processor in Washington County was $16.42 per hour in 2023.)

    Rufo uncovered other staffing companies …

    According to a Haitian migrant who worked at Fourth Street and a review of video footage, three staffing agencies—Wellington Staffing Agency, Celebes Staffing Services, and Advantage Staffing Agency—are key conduits for labor in the city. None have websites, advertise their services, or appear in job listings. According to Scott, Fourth Street Foods relies on agencies to staff its contract workforce, but he declined to specify which agencies, citing nondisclosure agreements.

    He continued:

    A property search for David Barbe and his other business, DB Rentals LLC, shows records of more than 50 properties, many of which are concentrated on the same streets.

    And continued some more:

    No doubt, the situation is advantageous to David Barbe of Fourth Street Foods, who can pay $16 an hour to the agencies that employ his contract labor force, then recapture some of those wages in rent…

    Fourth Street Foods owner David Barbe told the media outlet: “I don’t know anything about it.” 

    Considering the town has been swamped by Haitians … solely for the purpose of supplying Fourth Street Foods with cheap labor, the owner’s statement to the media outlet seems a little suspicious. 

    The travesty in Charleroi begins with the failure of the federal government’s open borders, flooding the nation with ten-plus million migrants. This has led to a ‘great job replacement’ of native-born factory workers. 

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    Rufo noted:

    The basic pattern in Charleroi has been replicated in thousands of cities and towns across America: the federal government has opened the borders to all comers; a web of publicly funded NGOs has facilitated the flow of migrants within the country; local industries have welcomed the arrival of cheap, pliant labor.

    This is spreading…

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    This is nationwide. 

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    This is not America First – this is globalist open border corporate profits first, at the expense of the native-born blue-collar worker. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 19:15

  • The Scent Of A Harris Panic In The Air
    The Scent Of A Harris Panic In The Air

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,

    The 2024 race is still close.

    But then so was the 1980 Carter-Reagan race at this same juncture.

    Indeed, incumbent president Carter was then comfortably up in the last two October Gallup polls – before utterly and suddenly evaporating on Election Day.

    But in the last seven days, there seems a sense of panic in the Harris campaign.

    How do we know that?

    Why are Democratic pundits – from Axelrod to Carville – blasting the Harris campaign and otherwise warning of bad things to come?

    Why are some of the once Democrat sure-thing senate races—e.g., in Ohio, Wisconsin, and even Michigan—tightening up?

    Pundit poll-watchers are suggesting that Trump is close, even, or slightly ahead in the swing-state polls, suggesting that he is nearing a margin that could cancel out anticipated “ballot irregularities”.

    The expected October Harris-Biden surprises – the opportune Fed interest rate cut, the transparently desperate Jack Smith beefed-up re-indictment, the current new Hollywood Trump-hit movie, the desperate Zelensky fly-in to Pennsylvania, the election-cycle customary Bob Woodward unsourced gossip book – seemed so far to have had no effect.

    Why would any campaign send out the bumbling Tim Walz to a Fox Sunday interview after his disastrous debate?

    Why is a suddenly smiling Biden so eager to claim candidate and VP Harris as a co-conspirator to his disastrous four years?

    Why would Harris pivot and now agree to (admittedly mostly softball) interviews, thus confirming to the voting public why she wisely had previously avoided all press conferences, interviews, and town halls?

    Why – after the last two moderator-rigged ABC and CBS debates – would Harris desperately want another and possibly believe that Trump would ever agree to any such warped forum?

    The last 4-5 Harris scripted interviews, but especially on CBS’s 60 Minutes, have been train wrecks.

    Everyone expected (and was not disappointed) the on-spec word salads, predictable sappy retreats to her misleading bio, the now accustomed deer-in-the-headlights confusion about her prior three years with Biden, and the general mush in lieu of any policy prescriptions.

    Why would CBS think it worth ruining its already debased reputation by doctoring the transcript of the Harris disastrous interview in a vain attempt at Orwellian repair?

    Why is a rusty but still narcissistic Barack Obama at last hitting the campaign trail?

    And is he still effective—or reduced to becoming an Oprah-like caricature?

    After all, is it wise for the elite Obama (in his now accustomed snarky “clingers” style) to venture out of his mansions (Kalorama? the Hawaii beachfront? or the Martha Vineyard estate?) to talk down to black males struggling under years of a hyperinflationary economy, a flood of illegal immigrants from an open border, and a four-year-spiking crime rate?

    Does the Netflix grandee berating black men as victims of false consciousness, misled, and brainwashed into voting for the Trump agenda really win them over to Harris?

    Does the hundred-million-dollar-plus man Obama persuade anyone by reverting for a few moments to his old community-organizing, fake black patois and his pseudo-racial intimacy of “brothers”?

    And does it work for Obama (remember “when they go low, we go high”) to blast Trump as racist and crude, when Obama jokes that Trump wears diapers – this after previously suggesting at the Democratic convention that Trump suffered from small genitalia?

    If this should continue, soon the July 21st coup that removed Biden, along with the Harris pick of Tim Walz, will go down as days of Democrat infamy.

    Anything can happen in the next three weeks. But so far, the cures for the Harris slide are far worse than the malady itself.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 18:40

  • Shills For Harris: Kamala Townhall For "Undecided Latino Voters" Curated With Avowed Supporters
    Shills For Harris: Kamala Townhall For “Undecided Latino Voters” Curated With Avowed Supporters

    Indepedent journalist Michael Tracey, working with Glenn Greenwald, has uncovered a remarkable scandal at a recent Kamala Harris townhall hosted by Univision, one of the largest hispanic news organizations in the world. The event was ostensibly for “undecided latino voters” but Tracey quickly revealed that to be fradulent… The following is from his Substack (subcribe here):

    Authored by Michael Tracey,

    Hapless media side-area for the Kamala Harris/Univision “town hall” at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas — October 10, 2024

    Last night’s Univision “town hall” with Kamala Harris was billed as an exciting opportunity for “undecided Latino voters” to question and evaluate the potential next President of the United States. The corporate press release from Univision advertises it explicitly as such:

    But viewers at home would have been wholly unaware that this billing was false. As I discovered, having been granted the sacred opportunity to view the event from an adjacent room on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus, the carefully curated “town hall” audience was actually comprised of avowed Harris supporters.

    “I already knew I was going to go for Kamala,” one town hall participant told me. “Part of the reason why I wanted to go was just, like, to also fully support her.”

    “So you were already decided, before you came?” I asked another. “Yes,” she replied, declaring her support for Kamala.

    The audience members I spoke to were selected with the help of a company called FansOnQ, according to the company’s founder, Conny Quintanilla, whose title for yesterday’s event was “Audience Manager.” The company puts out “casting calls” for events like the Latin Grammy Awards, which have been previously held in Las Vegas. It’s a type of company that you might not be consciously aware exists, but once you’re told of its existence, it makes perfect intuitive sense: people who want to dance at award shows are “vetted” by this particular company, perhaps for good looks and rhythmic skills. That’s the same company which filled the seats at Kamala’s town hall.

    Another person told me he was able to attend because he “knows people” at an unnamed “progressive organization,” which somehow granted him the ability to get in the town hall audience. The person said he works as an intern for Rep. Steven Horsford, Democrat of Nevada. I’m not naming the person because he was wary of attribution. Others quoted here also didn’t want to be identified.

    These aforementioned attendees were essentially just “seat fillers” — they were not the audience members who were called on to ask pre-selected questions. Those audience members were flown in from around the country at Univision’s expense. Which is a bit odd, because there would certainly have been plenty of genuine “undecided Latino voters” in Clark County, Nevada who I’m sure would’ve been more than happy to ask Kamala Harris a question.

    The “seat-fillers” in action

    NOTE: The non-question-asking attendees were still integral to the televisual production of the event, hence their recruitment. Uninformed viewers at home were under the false impression that the people they were watching react to Kamala’s answers were “undecided voters,” when numerous of them were in fact pre-committed Harris voters who sought to attend for the specific purpose of demonstrating their support for Kamala.

    Naturally, I wanted to interview the actual question-asking attendees. However, a corporate dictate apparently came down prohibiting this. “We won’t be making them available,” Anna Negron, Director of Corporate Communications at TelevisaUnivision, told me when I asked if there would be an opportunity to interview said audience members. She would not elaborate on the reason for this strange secrecy. Reporter Mark Kellner of the New York Post asked Negron the same question, and was similarly dismissed.

    So the sum total of the authorized journalistic acts that we were permitted to carry out at this event was to sit in a side room and politely view a generously provided video feed of the “town hall,” which was taped several hours before it aired yesterday. For the record, I don’t think she actually used a teleprompter, despite social media allegations to that effect. I can verify that the event was already contrived enough as it is — no need to embellish any phony stories.

    Of course, most journalists covering the event simply repeated the conceit that Kamala was empathetically taking questions from “undecided Latino voters.” In other words, they simply regurgitated the corporate press release:

    Her actual remarks were bereft of any real substance. The only amusing part was when she name-dropped Alberto Gonzales, the former Attorney General under George W. Bush, as one of her cherished Republican endorsements — adding him to the esteemed roster of Dick and Liz Cheney and myriad “national security officials” affiliated with Mitt Romney and John McCain. Perhaps Kamala calculated that the surname “Gonzales” would be extraordinarily appealing to these allegedly “undecided Latino voters.”

    It’s worth briefly reminiscing about what the purpose of a “town hall” has traditionally been: for ‘townspeople’ to gather and air their concerns about issues that most affect them. (“Town halls” are actually how some small New England towns are governed — the town halls effectively become temporary citizen-led legislatures to decide questions around zoning and so forth.) Now, though, they’re just glitzy TV productions that accomplish the polar opposite of the free-flowing dialogue and debate with which the term was once associated. Indeed, these events now more resemble the production values of the Latin Grammy Awards — literally — than a forum to scrutinize candidates for public office.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 18:12

  • Sabotage Suspected In Huge Deadly Blast In Russian Muslim-Majority Republic
    Sabotage Suspected In Huge Deadly Blast In Russian Muslim-Majority Republic

    A massive explosion which appears the result of sabotage or even a possible bombing rocked the Chechen capital of Grozny on Saturday. 

    Local authorities say a fuel tank exploded at a fuel station, resulting in a large blast and fire which left four bystanders dead, including two children, the Russian region’s emergency authority confirmed. The fuel station is reportedly located near a college.

    Stillframe of video from Saturday blast.

    Statements suggest that authorities believe it was either an attack or else severe neglect: “Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya, said on Telegram that he had taken the situation under his personal control. He said that those responsible for the blast would be brought to justice, but did not give further details.”

    There have been other recent ‘mystery’ blasts in the region, as Reuters details: “Explosions at fuel stations in the neighboring region of Dagestan in September 2024 and August 2023 killed 13 people and 35 people, respectively.”

    Though very far away from fighting in Ukraine – as Chechnya is all the way over in the Caucuses next to Georgia – Chechen troops have been very active among Russian forces along the Ukraine front lines.

    Given the context of war, suspicion for the blast is likely to fall on the possibility of some kind of Ukraine-connected sabotage op, as has been happening throughout Russia proper since the war began. But there have long been immense tensions between Chechen leaders and neighboring republics, and the incident could have something to do with this internal feud.

    Footage from the scene of the fuel station explosion show a massive fireball which sent debris flying in all directions:

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    Newsweek has provided the following recent context:

    Chechnya is largely ruled by Ramzan Kadyrov, a pro-Russian strongman installed by the Kremlin after two devastating wars involving Chechen separatists and Islamic fundamentalists in the 1990s and 2000s. In recent months, Russian infrastructure and military facilities have been hit repeatedly by Ukrainian drones, though the cause of Saturday’s explosion is unclear.

    …Tensions have surged in Russia’s restive Caucasus region, which includes Muslim dominated Chechnya, with Kadyrov this week threatening to declare a “blood feud” against Russian lawmakers from the neighboring regions of Dagestan and Ingushetia who he said were involved in a plot to assassinate him.

    Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov 

    No official explanation for what caused the deadly blast has yet to be given. Certainly it’s high unlikely that a drone could have made it all the way to Grozny from the Black Sea region, suggesting this was connected to regional politics.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 18:05

  • The US Government Is Dramatically Expanding The Use Of Facial Recognition Technology
    The US Government Is Dramatically Expanding The Use Of Facial Recognition Technology

    Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

    Do you want to live in a society where you are required to have your face scanned wherever you go?  If not, you may want to speak up now while you still can.  As you will see below, the U.S. government is aggressively expanding the use of facial recognition technology for identification verification purposes.  For now, the use of facial recognition technology will be optional.  But as we have seen before, once a voluntary option is adopted by enough people our leaders have a way of making it mandatory.  Of course it isn’t just our government that is pushing facial recognition technology.  It is popping up throughout our society, and given enough time it would literally be everywhere.

    Login.gov is billed as “a single sign-on solution for US government websites”, and now users of Login.gov will be given the option to use facial recognition technology to verify their identities…

    An online hub for Americans to access benefits and services across the federal government is giving its users a new option to sign on.

    The General Services Administration will begin offering facial recognition technology as an option for users of Login.gov, a one-stop for government-provided public services, to verify their identities.

    GSA’s Technology Transformation Services announced Wednesday it will allow Login.gov users to verify their identity online through facial technology that meets standards set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s 800-63-3 Identity Assurance Level 2 (IAL2) guidelines.

    We are being told that this will help reduce identity theft and fraud, and I don’t know anyone that likes identity theft and fraud.

    But do we really want to live in a dystopian world where our faces are constantly being scanned all the time?

    I certainly don’t.

    We are being told that this new facial recognition system will rely on “best-in-class facial matching algorithms”…

    After months of testing and a delay in 2023, users will now be able to verify their identity using a ‘proven facial matching technology’ approved by the General Services Administration, which will follow the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and will rely on ‘best-in-class facial matching algorithms’

    All of this sounds really creepy to me.

    And this is certainly a way for the government to start getting all of our faces into a giant database.

    Login.gov already has more than 100 million users, and lots of them will inevitably choose the “convenience” and “security” of facial recognition…

    Federal agencies use Login.gov for people to verify their identities when logging in to access government benefits and services. The offering has over 100 million users already across over 50 federal and state agencies, and this news could affect how future users have to verify their identity to access information and benefits.

    “Proving your identity is a critical step in receiving many government benefits and services, and we want to ensure we are making that as easy and secure as possible for members of the public, while protecting against identity theft and fraud,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan in a statement.

    For now, you will still be able to use other identification verification options.

    But once most people start using facial recognition, those other options could easily be taken away.

    Sadly, it isn’t just the government that we need to be concerned about.

    AI programs such as ChatGPT have turned out to be quite adept at identifying faces…

    Using “a crafted prompt designed to bypass the safeguard mechanisms of ChatGPT,” the researchers were able to test the program’s biometric capabilities – which they found to be significant.

    “Our study reveals that ChatGPT recognizes facial identities and differentiates between two facial images with considerable accuracy,” says their summary. “Additionally, experimental results demonstrate remarkable performance in gender detection and reasonable accuracy for the age estimation tasks.”

    Even more alarming is what a couple of Harvard students have been able to accomplish.

    They integrated PimEyes facial recognition software into a pair of Meta’s smart glasses, and they were able to instantly pull up the personal information of strangers by scanning their faces…

    Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses offer an iconic wearable packed with some smart features that allow users to engage in a hands-free experience. Two Harvard students have integrated smart glasses with a facial recognition system that helps automatically dox strangers and access their information in public.

    According to 404media, the facial recognition system called I-XRAY can be used to retrieve information such as phone numbers, addresses, or even social security numbers of strangers. All the user needs to do is look at the person. While software capabilities have been making the rounds, it is the hardware running the software that has been the talk of the town, which is Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses.

    Nguyen and Ardayfio created I-XRAY using Meta’s smart glasses along with PimEyes facial recognition software, which is currently the largest search engine. The entire system of fetching information on the individual is automatic, and the smart glasses start digging the data as soon as the face is in the frame.

    If we stay on the current trajectory that we are on, it would likely only be a matter of time before this sort of technology is everywhere.

    Can you imagine what criminals could do with this?

    A predator would not even need to follow you home.  He could just scan your face without you even realizing it, and by scanning your face he could get your address, your phone number, and a whole host of other private details about your life.

    A lot of people out there just don’t get it.

    In a society without any privacy, the bad guys can always find you.

    Of course in a society without any privacy, there would be no hiding from tyranny either.

    When facial recognition technology is literally everywhere, there will be nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

    Every time your face is scanned, your location will be known.

    Needless to say, most people already carry around phones that constantly monitor where they are anyway.

    But as the Big Brother surveillance grid that is being constructed all around us becomes even more pervasive, it won’t be too long before there is literally no opting out.

    I have been a very vocal advocate for privacy for over a decade, but during that time our privacy rights have been greatly eroded.

    Now is the time to take a stand, because once our privacy rights are completely gone it will be nearly impossible to get them back.

    *  *  *

    Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 17:30

  • "The Policy Sounds Quite Weak": China's MOF Stimulus Announcement Disappoints
    “The Policy Sounds Quite Weak”: China’s MOF Stimulus Announcement Disappoints

    As expected, Saturday’s much-anticipated press conference by China’s Ministry of Finance, where many China watchers were expecting another major stimulus announcement with some hoping for a number as large as 10 trillion rmb, was a dud.

    To be sure, China did announce intentions to further ramp up support for the economy, promising more aid for the slumping property sector and indebted local governments. But, as Bloomberg reported, officials again failed to convince economists that they’re doing enough to defeat deflation.

    At today’s highly anticipated briefing, Finance Minister Lan Fo’an refrained from putting a price tag on China’s fiscal stimulus as many investors expected, signaling instead that – as Goldman warned on Friday – details would come when China’s legislature meets in the coming weeks. More importantly, Lan did not announce any new stimulus on consumption/household subsidies, and instead he said he will introduce further incremental measures in the near future without providing more details. Lan also suggested some of the proposed measures would require approval by the NPC Standing Committee, which is expected to meet tin the coming weeks. Expectations on fiscal stimulus size heading into today’s event was wide at 1t to 1-t yuan, with no clear consensus on the outcome.

    The supportive measures he did announce, however, gave little indication Chinese authorities felt any urgency to ramp up consumption, which many economists see as essential to reflating the economy and putting it on a more positive growth trajectory yet which the market was convinced would happen which is why Chinese stocks erupted in a 30% frenzy in recent weeks. The problem is that the post-meltup hangover comes next, and stocks will plunge, draining what little “wealth effect” had been created.

    Here is a snapshot of the package announced by the MOF, courtesy of Goldman who writes that major fiscal stimulus measures include:

    • Raising the government debt limit “by a relatively large amount in a one-off effort” to accelerate local government debt resolution, with the magnitude of debt resolution to be the largest in recent years;
    • Increasing local government funding by RMB400bn through the unspent bond issuance quota accumulated from previous years;
    • Issuing additional central government special bonds (CGSB) to help large state-owned banks replenish their equity capital;
    • Allowing local government special bonds (LGSB) to be used for land acquisition and redevelopment, as well as the purchase of housing inventory;
    • Increasing the transfer payment to students.
    • On forward guidance, MOF Head Mr. Lan Fo’an emphasized that the central government has relatively large space for debt expansion and deficit increases, and flagged that policymakers are studying other incremental policy tools.
    • Goldman views today’s MOF meeting as largely in line with the market’s wide-ranging expectations, with the upside from clear forward guidance on multi-year fiscal expansion, a larger-scale local government debt resolution, and more central government debt financing, but downside from a lack of specifics on the size of stimulus, and little detail on the RMB1tn CGSB to support consumption speculated by markets previously.
    • Given falling tax and land sales revenue, we estimate the gap between government revenue (including on-budget fiscal revenue and off-budget government-managed fund revenue) out-turns and MOF projections made in the 2024 budget could be RMB2.3tn this year,
    • Goldman expects policymakers to approve an additional RMB1-2tn in ultra-long-term (ULT) CGSB quota in the next NPC standing committee meeting (around late Oct – early Nov), scale up the local government debt swap plan potentially to the magnitude of around RMB5tn for multiple years, and plan notably higher government bond issuance quotas in 2025 and beyond vs. the 2024 budget (by setting a higher official deficit target and larger ULT CGSB quota).

    “The policy to support consumption sounds quite weak,” said Jacqueline Rong, chief China economist at BNP Paribas SA. “It is still too early to call an imminent significant turnaround in deflationary pressure or a bottoming-out of the property market, which are the two key issues faced by the Chinese economy.”

    As noted yesterday, investors and analysts expected China to deploy about 2 trillion yuan ($283 billion) in fresh fiscal stimulus (and as much as 11 trillion yuan on the high end), including potential subsidies, consumption vouchers and financial support for families with children. That still might come in a few weeks: Last year, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, used a late-October meeting to announce a budget revision and additional bonds. But every delay shows that – once again – Beijing is making the cardinal error of failing to stimulate forcefully, and instead hopes that the market meltup, meant to spark a virtuous wealth effect circle, will reinforce itself. Spoiler alert: it won’t, and instead both stocks and the economy will crater, forcing Beijing to stimulate that much more later (as described in “China Must Do QE Now, “Or It Will End Up In A Bigger Hole In 12 Months“).

    Worse, Lan’s remarks on Saturday signaled that China is comfortable with the overall direction of the economy, where recent measures should be sufficient to push GDP just above the 5% target, but not more.

    He vowed to allow local governments to use special bonds to buy unsold homes and promised the biggest effort in recent years to relieve the debt burden of local authorities, neither of which is likely to provide a short-term boost to growth.

    “My sense is that the fiscal policy moves will take a little too long to roll out for us to hit 5% this year, unless the ultimate scale of fiscal stimulus ends up being much larger than forecast,” said Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING Bank N.V., referring to China’s economic growth target for 2024.

    Others were more hopeful. In his comments this morning, Goldman economist Philip Sun wrote that “the most important sentences in Minister Lan’s speech was the following:

    我再补充一点，逆周期调节绝不仅仅是以上的四点，这四点是目前已经进入决策程序的政策，我们还有其他政策工具也正在研究中。比如中央财政还有较大的举债空间和赤字提升空间。

    Translation: 

    “Let me add a comment. Couter-cyclical adjustments are ABSOLUTELY constrained just within the 4 points I mentioned above. These 4 points are the policies that already entered the formal decision-making process. We are studying other policy tools, too. For example: Central Government still has relatively big room for increasing the debts and there is room for increasing the fiscal deficit.” 

    The 4 points that Lan referred to:

    • Raising the government debt limit “by a relatively large amount in a one-off effort” to accelerate local government debt resolution, with the magnitude of debt resolution to be the largest in recent years; Increasing local government funding by RMB400bn through the unspent bond issuance quota accumulated from previous years;
    • Issuing additional central government special bonds (CGSB) to help large state-owned banks replenish their equity capital;
    • Allowing local government special bonds (LGSB) to be used for land acquisition and redevelopment, as well as the purchase of housing inventory;
    • Increasing the transfer payment to students.

    In this context, Sun said that most of the clients he talks to said they feel: (1) The forward guidance is strong enough. (2) There were a lot of concrete RMB numbers mentioned in the speech associated with specific initiatives; (3) The manner with Minister Lan delivered the messages clearly showed: “We have much more to come.”

    When answering the “X trillion RMB” stimulus, Minister of Finance Mr. Lan’s mentioned it as the end of a long paragraph of speech: 关于你提到的具体资金数量安排问题，经过法定程序后，会及时向社会公开。Translation: regarding the specific RMB amount you asked, we will disclose promptly to the general society after the proper legal procedures have been passed.

    We’ll see if this cheerful take is correct come Monday’s open (as a reminder, Goldman top-ticked the Chinese stock market meltup by going overweight China just as Chinese stocks resumed their plunge, as we warned they would).

    Data on Sunday are expected to show consumer prices in September were stuck below 1% for a 19th straight month as factory-price deflation deepened, highlighting sluggish demand before the recent stimulus bonanza. Officials spoke little about deflation at the hourlong briefing on Saturday, which confirms that China is stuck in a debt-deflationary vortex.

    Lan also hinted at room for issuing more sovereign bonds and greater government spending, steps that could be announced when legislators meet later this month or early November. However, neither involves the massive bazooka that markets assumed was coming at the end of September when even Xi effectively announced China’s “whatever it takes” moment.

    Allowing local governments to swap their debt with cheaper loans will free up money for public services and encourage the authorities to spend more. And enabling them to use special bonds to buy unsold apartments and turn them into social housing may help stabilize a downturn in real estate prices, giving homeowners a greater sense of security.

    The Finance Ministry didn’t provide an exact value for either measure. But these are among steps that lead economists to think “this time can be different” after previous stimulus efforts faltered, according to Societe Generale SA.

    “The prospects for a sustained recovery and reflation are improving, with better chances of housing stabilization and less pressure from local government deleveraging,” Wei Yao and Michelle Lam, both economists at the bank, said in a note.

    As far as direct subsides are concerned, Lan said Saturday that China would hand out twice the number of scholarships and step up financial aid to students, a move that comes after youth unemployment soared to a record high this year. He also vowed to continue to provide support to groups in need, citing a one-off handout to the poor last month as an example.

    The lack of large-scale handouts is unsurprising, as Beijing – unlike the Democrat administration in the US –  has long looked down on what it calls “welfarism.”

    “No free food for lazy people is the fundamental thinking of policymakers as to why large-scale subsidy for the whole nation is unlikely,” said Bruce Pang, chief economist for Greater China at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc, referring to a similar comment made by the country’s top economic planning agency.

    Economists have long urged a shift in priorities for fiscal policy to focus more on domestic consumption. Such a move toward a more balanced and sustainable growth model would reduce the country’s reliance on exports to power the economy amid rising trade tensions. The old playbook of using debt-fueled investment into public projects — from roads to bridges — has become less effective after decades of urbanization left the country saturated with infrastructure. Because of a lack of high-quality projects, authorities have more money at their disposal than projects to spend it on.

    The Finance Ministry also said the government will expand the sectors eligible to receive funding support from the issuance of special local bonds. This could infuse the economy with as much as 1 trillion yuan now sitting idle, according to Ding Shuang, chief economist for Greater China and North Asia at Standard Chartered Plc.

    The finance woes of local governments are closely linked with the property downturn. Land sales, a major driver of revenue, are dwindling just as a broader slowdown reduces taxes and other income sources. After going on a borrowing binge following the 2008 financial crisis to prop up growth, and then dealing with a costly pandemic, many localities are now struggling to meet daily spending needs, like paying civil servants.

    As Bloomberg notes, some regions have opted to delay payments to contractors, impose hefty fines and slap companies with tax bills dating back decades. The moves have dealt a further blow to already fragile confidence in the private sector, prompting Beijing to warn local officials against excessive penalties.

    By allowing local governments to swap more “hidden debt,” Beijing is also trying to rein in credit risks at companies that borrowed aggressively on behalf of local governments in past years to help fund infrastructure. However, bonds spent for debt swaps generate no new growth in the economy even though they help maintain financial and social stability.

    Efforts to tackle local government debt risks “largely involve shifting debt from one arm of the state to another” and will have limited impact on near-term demand, said Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of China economics at Capital Economics. He maintained his 2024 growth forecast at 4.8% and revised up the forecast for next year to 4.5% from 4.3%, citing the fiscal boost.

    Larry Hu, head of China economics at Macquarie Group, said that China’s two-speed growth model in which it relies on manufacturing and exports to offset the property sector is “increasingly unsustainable.” He said authorities will need to pivot once exports weaken or domestic demand deteriorates further, leading to social unrest.

    “The strong sense of urgency from the September Politburo meeting suggests that it’s the pivot moment,” Hu wrote in a note on Saturday. “But to confirm this, we need more evidence.”

    Unfortunately for China’s markets and the country’s “wealth effect”, investors who bought into the frenzy, will not demonstrate the patience demanded of them and will proceed to dump Chinese stocks at first opportunity. The good news is that anyone who listened to Cramer, knew exactly when to sell.

    Finally, for those who, like Goldman, believe that somehow Saturday’s announcement will meet market demand and want to implement a bullish view (besides just buying single stocks, or CSI or Hang Seng index calls), Goldman’s Delta One desk has the following recommendation (full notes available to pro subs here and here).

    Implied vol remains high and call wing skew now extremely inverted – those looking to take advantage that can consider HSCEI Jan call spreads, 110/120% gets you 5x max payoff where you collect 1.5v diff on the further strike. My US colleague also like collaring China longs (buy put / sell call) – for example, 3m 80% / 120% collars line up for a credit. For those looking to cheapen initial premium outlay but keeping a max loss = prem paid risk profile, Dec24 HSCEI up / USDCNH up dual digis can get you ~13x payoff. Do reach out to the desk for more details – all pricing above indicative only.

    For everyone else: sell.

    Much more for professional subs here, here, here and here.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 17:11

  • US Troops To Operate THAAD Anti-Ballistic Missile System In Israel: Army Radio
    US Troops To Operate THAAD Anti-Ballistic Missile System In Israel: Army Radio

    The Israeli government is now saying that the United States is preparing to deploy THAAD anti-ballistic missile systems in Israel, a major development which will possibly put troops in the directly in harm’s way amid the tense showdown with Iran. 

    Times of Israel writes that “according to reports by Channel 12 news and Army Radio that describe the move as part of preparations for the expected Israeli response to Iran’s recent missile attack.” Importantly, “Channel 12 news says the advanced missile defense system will be operated by American troops on Israeli soil,” TOI continues. However, there have been some initial contradictory reports.

    Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system. U.S. Missile Defense Agency)

    The THAAD is an anti-ballistic missile defense system capable of shooting down short, medium, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in their terminal phase. There has been no formal US vote or Congressional authorization for this, but it marks yet another escalation in the Biden White House’s ongoing multi-billion dollar military aid program for Israel – a high risk one at that.

    Any potential new exchange of ballistic missiles with the Islamic Republic is likely to involve direct attempts to target anti-air batteries positioned in Israel.

    Other Israeli media reports say the same:

    The U.S. is set to deploy THAAD air defense batteries in Israel, according to a report on the Ynet website on Saturday. The move, set to reinforce the Jewish state’s defenses against Iranian ballistic missiles, and is another sign that Washington believes Israeli action in Iran likely to be very forceful and trigger a response.

    Even though US special forces and commanders have previously been in Tel Aviv and probably near Gaza in an “advisory” role, if the THAAD is indeed deployed in Israel utilizing US Army operators, this without doubt constitutes American boots on the ground.

    Axios’ Barak Ravid observes the following based on the latest reports:

    Deployment of US missile defense systems in Israel with operators (“boots on the ground”) would be a departure from Netanyuahu’s principle that “Israel defends itself by itself”.

    It will demonstrate the strength of the alliance, but also the depth of the dependence on the US.

    As for whether the decision has been ‘finalized’ – there appears to be contradictory reports as of Saturday afternoon.

    Propaganda or fact? Iranian state media has claimed that Iran took out anti-air systems in Israel during the Oct.1 strike…

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

    A separate Times of Israel story and headlines reads: “The US has yet to make a final decision on whether to deploy the THAAD anti-missile defense system in Israel, according to reporters for the Walla news site and Kan public broadcaster, who cite American officials.”

    So clearly the US has been mulling it, but whether the administration has pulled the trigger on the plan is likely to become more clear in the coming days. We are likely witnessing a premature leak from the Israeli side, sending US officials scrambling to manage the narrative. Israel is still vowing to hit Iran hard in retaliation for the Oct.1st attack on Israel, which involved some 200 Iranian ballistic missiles fired, and resulted in damage to Israeli airbases.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 16:55

  • How The Biden/Harris Admin Helped Iran Get To The Brink Of A Nuclear Bomb
    How The Biden/Harris Admin Helped Iran Get To The Brink Of A Nuclear Bomb

    Authored by Fred Fleitz via American Greatness,

    Iran has made enormous progress in its nuclear weapons program during the Biden/Harris administration and reportedly can now enrich enough weapons-grade uranium to fuel nine nuclear bombs in one month. Although Iran may be nine months to a year away from having an operational nuclear weapon, recent attacks by Iran and Israel against each other’s territory have raised concerns that Iran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program could lead to a nuclear war in the Middle East.

    Biden/Harris administration officials have tried to blame President Trump for the advances in Iran’s nuclear program because he withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, the JCPOA. Democratic Governor Tim Walz made this claim during the October 1 vice presidential debate when he said, “There had been a coalition of nations that had boxed Iran’s nuclear program in . . . Donald Trump pulled that program and put nothing else in its place.”

    This is absolutely false. The huge advances in Iran’s nuclear weapons program are the result of major flaws in the JCPOA and a series of terrible national security policy decisions, including repeated attempts to appease Iran, by the Obama and Biden administrations.

    The first of these bad policy decisions was when the Obama administration conceded to Iran the “right” to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, such as nuclear medicine and nuclear reactor fuel.

    This decision reversed the positions of prior Republican and Democratic administrations who believed Iran could not be trusted to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes because of covert Iranian efforts to establish a nuclear weapons program and because it is easy to reconfigure uranium centrifuges supposedly constructed for peaceful purposes to produce weapons-grade nuclear fuel.

    Allowing Iran to enrich its own uranium for peaceful purposes has never made economic sense due to a glut of reactor fuel and nuclear medicine on the world market. Iran also does not need nuclear power due to its vast oil and natural gas reserves.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained this to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell in an October 2014 interview when he said Iran’s centrifuges “are only good for one thing: to make bomb-grade material.”

    The JCPOA Was a Dangerous Fraud

    The Obama administration’s dangerous uranium enrichment concession to Iran was enshrined in the flawed 2015 JCPOA agreement which, allowed Iran to enrich uranium to reactor-grade and develop advanced centrifuges. In effect, this gave Iran the world’s blessing to continue to develop a uranium enrichment program whose only practical purpose was to make nuclear weapons fuel.

    But it gets worse. The JCPOA lifted sanctions on Iran and provided it with $150 billion in sanctions relief. This included $1.7 billion in “pallets of cash” that the U.S. secretly flew to Iran in small planes as ransom to release five innocent Americans being held in Iranian prisons. A related UN resolution imposed limited, short-lived sanctions against Iranian conventional arms transfers, which expired in 2020, and missile transfers, which expired in 2023.

    The JCPOA has a weak inspection regime that Iran did not cooperate with. This inspection regime was further weakened by secret side deals, discovered by then-Rep. Mike Pompeo and Senator Tom Cotton, that allowed Iran to evade inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Obama officials reportedly wrote the secret side deals and refused to share them with Congress.

    And to top off this all off, there was substantial cheating on the JCPOA by Iran.  This included clandestine efforts to acquire illicit nuclear technology and equipment, violating JCPOA restrictions on advanced centrifuge development, and excess production of heavy water.

    In 2018, a huge cache of documents on Iran’s nuclear weapons program stolen by Israel provided evidence of massive Iranian cheating on the JCPOA, including several undeclared sites where nuclear weapons work had been conducted since 2015. IAEA inspection of two of these sites found evidence of enriched uranium particles, which proved covert nuclear weapons work had occurred at these locations.

    In addition, Iran quietly worked to develop advanced centrifuge designs and parts in violation of the JCPOA between 2015 and 2020. This allowed Iran to start deploying advanced centrifuges in 2021. This included completing a factory in July 2018 to make carbon fiber rotors for advanced centrifuge machines.

    These and other extremely serious weaknesses of the JCPOA are why Donald Trump justifiably called it “the worst deal ever” and why he withdrew the United States from this agreement in 2018.

    Iran said it would no longer honor its JCPOA commitments after Trump withdrew from the agreement and began to slowly back out of JCPOA limits in 2019 and 2020. However, Iran did little to ramp up its uranium enrichment program until January 2021—weeks before Joe Biden’s inauguration.

    The reason why there was not a surge in Iran’s nuclear weapons program during President Trump’s term after he withdrew from the JCPOA was because Iranian leaders were afraid of how Trump would respond. The global American deterrence Trump established helped keep Iran and other U.S. adversaries in check during his presidency.

    Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program Takes Off Under Biden/Harris Administration

    It is clear that Iran’s leaders were not afraid of Joe Biden. They saw a new American president desperate to revive the JCPOA and who would resume the Obama administration’s appeasement policies. The results have been a catastrophe for global security, with huge advances in Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Iran also gained at least $100 billion in additional revenue during the Biden administration because it refused to enforce U.S. oil sanctions. Most of this oil has been sold to China. Iran spent this windfall on its military, nuclear, and missile programs as well as to fund its terrorist proxy groups: Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq.

    The Biden administration took office in January 2021 determined to renegotiate the JCPOA to make it “longer and stronger.” Iranian officials repeatedly said they would not agree to changes to the JCPOA, but they participated in fruitless talks in Vienna to restore the JCPOA until March 2022. Not only did Iran refuse to negotiate in good faith in these talks, a Russian ambassador, with the assistance of a Chinese ambassador, ran the Vienna talks because Iranian diplomats refused to meet in the same room with their U.S. counterparts.

    Iran significantly stepped up its nuclear weapons program while multilateral talks to revive the JCPOA were underway between April 2021 and March 2022.  This included deploying advanced centrifuges in February and April 2021 and producing uranium metal in February 2021.

    The most serious development was when Iran announced in November 2021 that it had enriched uranium to the 60% U-235 level for the first time. 60%-enriched uranium can be further enriched to 90% (weapons-grade) in about a week.

    Biden officials worked hard to convince Iran to agree to a new nuclear deal by offering a series of dangerous concessions. This included proposing to take Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps off the U.S. list of terrorist organizations. Several members of the U.S. negotiating team resigned in late 2021 because they believed the concessions being offered to Iran were excessive and would lead to a bad nuclear agreement.

    Multilateral talks with Iran to revive the JCPOA broke down in March 2022 after Russia threatened to block a new nuclear deal unless its trade with Iran was exempted from U.S. and European sanctions imposed on Russia due to its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

    After the multilateral talks broke down, the Biden/Harris administration used Oman as an intermediary to negotiate a secret, oral, and unwritten agreement with Iran. Biden Administration critics claimed this was done to evade Congress’s oversight of this agreement.

    The secret deal was described as an interim agreement with major U.S. concessions. These reportedly included freezing Iran’s enrichment of uranium to 60%. This concession meant the Biden/Harris administration agreed to accept Iran enriching to the dangerous 60% level. Iran was also allowed to keep its nuclear infrastructure, including advanced uranium centrifuges, and permitted to continue to develop this technology.

    Iran reportedly agreed under the deal to stop its proxy groups from attacking U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq and to cooperate with IAEA investigations of its nuclear program. Iran never abided by either of these provisions.

    In exchange for agreeing to the above requirements, Iran was to receive over $20 billion in sanctions relief. The U.S. also reportedly agreed not to impose new sanctions on Iran.

    In addition, this agreement included a U.S.-Iran prisoner exchange and a U.S. ransom payment to Iran of $5 billion. This payment was frozen in October 2023 after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel.

    Meanwhile, Iran engaged in other malign activities during the Biden/Harris administration, such as selling attack drones and missiles to Russia for its use in the Ukraine War and working with Russia, China, and North Korea to form a new anti-West “axis.”

    There also were significant advances in Iran’s missile program, including a possible hypersonic missile launch, advanced cruise missiles, space launches (which were believed to be ICBM test launches), and new missiles designed to evade missile defenses.  It is unclear whether Iran fired its newest missiles during two missile attacks on Israel this year.

    The Biden/Harris Administration’s Appeasement of Iran Caused the Middle East to Explode

    The breakdown in security and stability in the Middle East since the October 7, 2023, massacre of Israelis by Hamas is a consequence of the Biden/Harris administration’s incompetent Iran policies. Their appeasement of Iran emboldened Iran and its terrorist proxies to attack Israel and U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria. Iran also attacked Israel twice in 2024 with missiles and drones.

    There have been conflicting press reports of Iran’s involvement in the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack. The Wall Street Journal reported on October 8, 2023, that Iran helped develop and fund the Hamas attack and gave Hamas the green light to launch it. A Hamas spokesman told the BBC on October 8 that Hamas had direct support from Iran. However, although Iranian leaders praised the attack, they claimed that Iran was uninvolved in it. A senior Hamas official backed up this claim on October 9 by saying that Iran and Hezbollah were not involved in the Hamas terrorist attack.

    Although Iran’s exact role in the horrendous October 7 Hamas terrorist attack is unclear, I also believe it will at least be proved that Hamas could not have conducted the attack without arms and funding from Iran.

    Iran is Much Closer to Becoming a Nuclear Weapons State Because of the Biden/Harris Administration’s Incompetent Iran Policies

    This article provides a summary of the profoundly incompetent and naïve Iran policies by the Biden/Harris administration that did enormous damage to Middle East and global security. Because of these deeply flawed policies, Iran today is enriching uranium at the 60% level, just below weapons-grade.  It can enrich enough uranium to fuel nine nuclear weapons a month. Iran has installed advanced centrifuges that will significantly increase the amount and speed of the production of weapons-grade uranium if Iran’s leaders decide to do so.

    Iran is at least $100 billion richer today than it was when President Trump left office because of unwise concessions by the Biden administration, especially its failure to enforce U.S. oil sanctions. Iran used this additional revenue to fund its military, nuclear, and missile programs, terrorist proxies, and meddle in regional conflicts.

    There is no question that the Biden/Harris administration’s Iran policies have been a spectacular failure.

    Obviously, attempts by Biden/Harris officials and their allies to blame the surge in Iran’s nuclear program and its belligerent behavior on President Trump are absurd.  The greatly increased threat from Iran occurred during the Biden/Harris administration due to their weakness and incompetence. The JCPOA has also been proven to be a deeply flawed agreement that actually facilitated Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. President Trump made the right decision to withdraw from this terrible deal and kept Iran in check with enhanced American deterrence and his maximum pressure policy, which almost bankrupted Iran.

    America and the world desperately need a strong and decisive U.S. president to undo the enormous damage done to American and global security by the Biden/Harris administration’s disastrous Iran policies. Although there is a lot of damage to repair, I am confident that if Donald Trump wins the 2024 U.S.  presidential election, he will quickly do this with a capable and experienced national security team that will halt Iran’s belligerence by restoring American deterrence and peace through strength.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 16:20

  • Watch: Mob Loots Freight Train Of Flat Screen TVs In Lawless Chicago 
    Watch: Mob Loots Freight Train Of Flat Screen TVs In Lawless Chicago 

    As it turns out, when you have a far-left mayor in a city that has been under Democratic control since 1931, within a state dominated by radical progressives for decades, criminals become emboldened and live out their lives as if every day was a scene from the ‘Grand Theft Auto’ video game. 

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    The defund the police movement, ushered in by Marxist Democrats, continues to wreak havoc on the streets of Chicago. Lawlessness and crime are unbearable for many residents in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s chaotic metro area as the latest ‘holy shit’ moment that all law-abiding Americans need to see and understand this could be coming to a town near you …

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    … was a giant mob of people on Friday involved in an apparent train heist at a rail yard on the city’s West Side. 

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    Local media NBC Chicago sheds more color on the shocking incident that shows folks looting the freight train full of flat-screen TVs and kitchen appliances. 

    Video from NBC’s Sky 5 chopper showed what appeared to be nearly a dozen people taking boxes off freight trains in the area of Lake Street and Lockwood Avenue in the Austin neighborhood. Groups were seen carrying boxes from the trains, loading the items into vans and cars and driving away from the scene. Debris was seen strewn across the tracks as the incident unfolded. What was inside the trains wasn’t immediately clear.

    According to Chicago police, at around 2:40 p.m., officers responded to the 4700 block of West Kinzie regarding a theft in progress at a railroad. One person attempted to flee after taking property from a train car, police said. That person and a second individual were taken into custody, authorities said.

    Here’s more footage:  

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    A spokesperson with Union Pacific told the media outlet:

    “The train was stopped, awaiting an interchange with a partner railroad, when thieves began opening containers. Rail burglaries are not victimless crimes, and they pose a safety threat to the public, our employees and local law enforcement officers.”

    What’s the excuse this time AoC? These folks just needed ‘some bread’? 

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    Or new TVs? 

    A recent viral X post from actor Kevin Sorbo noted the many reasons he is voting for Trump, including:

    • “I’m voting for the First Amendment and freedom of speech.”

    • “I’m voting for the Second Amendment and my right to defend my life and my family.”

    • “I’m voting for the next Supreme Court Justice(s) to protect the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.”

    And this…

    • “I’m voting for the Police to be respected once again and to ensure Law & Order. I am tired of all the criminals having a revolving door and being put back in the street.” 

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    It’s time to restore America to a ‘First World’ status with law and order. Democrats have deprived the America people of this – and many believe this is intentional.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 15:45

  • Is There Hope For The US?
    Is There Hope For The US?

    Authored by Jeff Thomas via InternationalMan.com,

    For the entire lives of anyone under the age of seventy-five, the US has been at the top of the heap in almost every way. For decades, it had greater freedom, greater prosperity and higher production than any other country in the world.

    America was a cornucopia – the centre for innovation and trends in technology, the arts and social development. And today, many Americans, even if they complain about changes for the worse in their country, come back quickly to say, “This is still the greatest country in the world.” Or, “Everybody is still trying to come here.”

    Well, truth be told, neither of these knee-jerk comments is accurate any longer. But even those who have come to that realisation tend to resort to the inevitable fall-back comment: “Well, whattaya gonna do? It’s just as bad everyplace else.”

    And yet, this is also inaccurate. Throughout the history of the world, whenever a country had entered its decline stage, others were in the process of rising up.

    And this is just as true today. There are countries where prosperity and production are far greater than in the US and, increasingly, countries where the key ingredient that made America great – Liberty – is present to a far greater degree.

    In fact, this is the one characteristic of America that’s most rapidly in decline. This was especially true in 2020, when a virus was used as a justification to dramatically increase governmental dominance of the populace.

    It matters little whether the US had a hand in creating the virus, or whether it was merely co-opted as an opportunity to expand control.

    The result has been heavy-handed governmental meddling in medicine, business and personal freedoms.

    As regards the latter concern, the odd halfway measure of personal movement control is not great enough to keep a virus from spreading, but it has been sufficient to collapse businesses, create record unemployment and make it impossible for some people to feed themselves.

    In the bargain, it has served as an ideal cover story for an economic collapse that had been inevitable. The government can say, “Don’t blame us for the collapse; it was those naughty Chinese and their pesky virus that did it.”

    The decline is not an accident. It’s a planned demolition. And it’s going well. For those who actually pull the strings, profit will be made from the crisis. Not for everyone, of course, but most certainly for those few who are creating it.

    But many say that the US is waking up, that its citizenry are coming to the conclusion that the Deep State – that corporatist ruling class that are made up of governmental and big-business leaders – has increasingly destroyed the prosperity, production and liberty that once existed and replaced them with massive debt, an exit of production to other countries and a vanishing middle class.

    And they’d be entirely correct. The endgame for the once-great US Empire is now underway, and over the next few years, we shall bear witness as it tumbles downhill.

    So, what are Americans to do?

    Well, my belief is that – as is always the case when a country declines – the populace will divide into several groups.

    The first group, which will be by far the largest, will increasingly grumble, but ultimately do little or nothing to save themselves.

    They will go down with the ship.

    The second group will say, “We don’t have to accept this.”

    They’re the preppers, the ones who have a store of food and have been stashing away guns and ammunition. They’re the folks who are seen at the corner bar, saying, “If they come for me, I’m locked and loaded.”

    Their friends nod in agreement, but in fact, if a trained and outfitted SWAT team were to arrive on their porch, there would be very few who would succeed in getting off a single shot, and for those who did, their remaining life would be brief.

    On the more thoughtful side of this group would be the third group. They would also say, “We don’t have to accept this,” but their choice of a solution will be to “work within the system.”

    This is a much larger group – the ones who wait for each election as though it holds a solution. Each time, they’re disappointed. If the party they supported is elected, the winners somehow fail to return the country to the free society it had once been. If the other party is elected, the decline only accelerates.

    Incredibly, the lightbulb never seems to go on for this group. They never get to the point of realisation that, “Oh, I get it: neither party has any intention of returning the country to a state of liberty. The only question is which group of pretenders gets to be in charge of the decline this time around. Either way, I lose.”

    It could be said that this is the most tragic group. They’re sincere and dedicated. They endlessly hope that a solution is just around the corner, without there being any actual substance for their hope.

    The commonality in all three of these groups is that they all end up as casualties. They may differ in their approach to the decline, but they’ll share in the loss of their wealth (however large or small) and their liberty.

    But there’s also a fourth group – those who leave. Their numbers are small and they tend not to make a large impact on the consciousness of the other three. In fact, they’re never even mentioned by the media. It’s as though they don’t exist.

    So, let’s step back a few centuries. America was founded by a hardworking assortment of settlers who came from several countries in Europe. In their home countries they witnessed oppression – limitations to both their liberty and their ability to create a good life for themselves and their families.

    They were independent-minded and self-reliant. They carved out lives in the wilderness and later built towns, then cities. But all the while, they hung on to their core belief of independence and liberty.

    Today, they’re still revered as being the backbone of what made America great. And this view is accurate. Yet, today’s Americans are nothing like them. None of the three groups above thinks like them, although the middle group would like to believe they do, merely by owning guns. They’re not independent-minded. They’re not self-reliant.

    The key here is that the founders of America recognised that there was no chance that they could change the corrupt and controlling systems they were born into in Europe.

    So they left Europe and started over elsewhere.

    The fourth group are following a similar path: Seek out a destination where the government does not yet have the power to rob you of your wealth and freedoms.

    The choice is a simple one. If you value your liberty – the ability to make your own decisions and to keep more of what you’ve earned – pack your bags and go.

    *  *  *

    Unfortunately most people have no idea what really happens when a government goes out of control, let alone how to prepare… The coming economic and political crisis is going to be much worse, much longer, and very different than what we’ve seen in the past. That’s exactly why New York Times best-selling author Doug Casey and his team just released an urgent video. Click here to watch it now.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 15:43

  • Cooler Heads Must Prevail Between U.S. & Iran
    Cooler Heads Must Prevail Between U.S. & Iran

    Authored by James Durso via RealClearWorld,

    The Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently declared, “Israel is trapping Iran and America.”

    If that is true, perhaps the U.S. and Iran should cooperate to extricate themselves from that trap.

    In the wake of the most recent exchange of fire between Israel and Iran, the region is on the cusp of more violence and instability, but who benefits from the chaos?

    Previously, the Arab Gulf states may have been happy to see Iran distracted from fighting an American ally, but that’s not likely anymore. First came the  China-brokered deal in 2023 that restarted diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Then last week the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members declared their neutrality in the new round Iran-Israel fighting, and at the Doha meeting between the Saudi foreign minister and Iran’s president the minister stated, “We aim to permanently close the chapter on our differences and focus on resolving issues, developing relations as two friendly and brotherly countries.”

    Who’s left? The U.S., Israel, and the defense contractors.

    The defense contractors will do as they’re told, and Israel appears locked on a path of escalation, partly to restore deterrence vis-à-vis Iran but also to keep Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu out of jail.

    That leaves the Americans to reassert stability as only Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu benefits from the fragmentation of the region. Regional chaos encourages Jerusalem to appeal to Washington for even more subventions of cash and transfers of weapons, the latter of which may be reducing the U.S. inventories to a dangerously low level. Unrest will also motivate Israel’s American confederates to press Washington for policies that are good for Israel (so they think) but that erode U.S. influence abroad.

    Netanyahu recently spoke to the Iranian people, “Iran will be free soon…” and regime-changey talk like that should be all Washington needs to back away from any association with a coup in Tehran as it made that mistake once before and is still living with the result.

    In 1953, the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Britain’s MI-6 sponsored a coup to depose Iran’s Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, an idiosyncratic politician with authoritarian tendencies, the concern being the possibility of Communist influence on his government. The concern about the influence of the communist Tudeh Party was exaggerated, but the Americans also probably wanted to help Britain retain control of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and reverse the 1951 nationalization of Iran’s oil industry.

    The Americans installed another idiosyncratic authoritarian, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, as the Shah and he showed his gratitude in 1973 when he convinced the other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to double the price of a barrel of oil from $5.11 to $11.65.

    The foreign imposition of an absolutist monarch stirred popular discontent that contributed to the successful 1979 Iranian Revolution (and 444-day hostage crisis) and arrival of an even more absolutist theocracy that promptly used Iran’s oil and natural gas resources to fund its aggressive designs at home and abroad.

    So, Washington tried to stop communist influence in an oil-producing state on the Soviet Union’s border and help its British ally that was seeing its empire dissolve, and ended up losing two times: the West lost control of Iran’s energy resources and set the stage for the overthrow of the Shah.

    Fool me once…

    Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared the Islamic Republic considers nuclear weapons un-Islamic but we are only a revised fatwa away from a new policy if Israel pursues escalation and regime change. Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman declared, “…without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we would follow suit as soon as possible.”

    Saudi Arabia is a non-nuclear-weapon state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and a move to develop nuclear weapons would incur sanctions, though it will be a grand opportunity for the world to ask Washington why it lets Jews (Israel) and Hindus (India) slide, but sanctions Muslims (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia.)

    Iran’s vice president, and former foreign minister, Javad Zarif, agrees with Haaretz and says Iran will not fall into the Israeli trap, and that “[Israel] thrives on tension, on conflict, and we will not provide it to them.” Zarif also says that Hamas will not be defeated which aligns with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert who declared the destruction of Hamas “will not be achieved.”

    Netanyahu is bringing people together but not the way he hoped.

    And Israel’s indifference to civilian casualties in Gaza and Lebanon may rebound to America’s disadvantage. The Pentagon’s lawyers and spokesmen have spent two decades since 9/11 hand-waving away criticism of excess civilian deaths by piously declaring that bombing that wedding party was a real shame but it was “collateral damage” and is “in accordance with the Law of Armed Conflict.”

    In the future it may be harder to dismiss tragic follies like the U.S. trying five times to kill Qari Hussain, a deputy commander of the Pakistani Taliban, before getting lucky the sixth time, but in the process killing 128 unlucky people, 13 of them children. The West’s power has allowed it to take advantage of the “double standard of terrorism and state violence” where terrorism is what you call the other guy’s weapon of choice. But the reaction to Israel’s careless targeting and its American patron’s likewise unenviable track record in Iraq and Afghanistan (and its indulgence of Saudi Arabia’s attacks on Yemeni civilians), may erode the “distinction between state violence and terrorism,” and expose civilian officials and military commander to legal jeopardy.  

    If the U.S. decides to work with Iran to lessen tensions it will then be pressured to restart the nuclear deal with Tehran. In that case, it will have to craft an entirely new arrangement as Iran has steamed ahead with nuclear research and development after Washington scrapped its commitments to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018, and Europe maintained the restrictive measures that were to have expired in 2023 (though Iran didn’t help its case by expelling inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency.)

    There is a lot of bad faith to go around.

    If the U.S. can start talking to Iran and avert Israeli escalation that will kick off a region-wide war, it will have to get used to a greater role for Russia and China have declared their interest in supporting peace in the region, and conveniently undercutting the U.S. in the process. Iran will continue to follow a multi-vector foreign policy and privilege relations with Russia, China, and the BRICS countries, and eschew the diplomatic monogamy demanded by Washington which views diplomatic relations as a reward for complaint behavior instead of a way to pursue the national interest.

    And would U.S. forces be ready and able to attack Iran? No. Ammunition transfers to Ukraine and Israel and the attacks on Houthi forces in Yemen have depleted U.S. inventories; the only ship that can replenish aviation fuel for aircraft carriers ran aground and is out of service, and the U.S. Navy recently sidelined 17 supply ships over a crew shortage.; the GCC declaration of neutrality may mean its airspace is  closed to U.S. forces poised to attack Iran (Tehran has called “unacceptable” the use of GCC airspace or military bases against Iran); and local suppliers of military-grade aviation fuel may not provision U.S. forces.

    Another year to remember is 1980, when Iraq invaded Iran (Iraq received extensive  U.S. support after 1982.) The invasion was seen as a direct threat to Iran’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and fostered a sense of national unity and solidarity among Iranians. The war, which lasted until 1988, became a rallying point for the Iranian population, who mobilized in defense of their country and the Islamic Revolution. The conflict also helped consolidate the power of the clerical leadership in Iran, as they framed the war as a defense of Islam and the revolution. 

    A U.S. attack on Iran, especially if it is seen in the service of Israel, will be a godsend for Ayatollah Khamenei who will be spoiled for choice: America will be not just the “Great Satan” but also the “New Saddam.”

    William Burns, the director of the CIA reported this week, “…we do not see evidence today that the supreme leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] has reversed the decision that he took at the end of 2003 to suspend the weaponization program.” If that is the case, Israel is not in extremis and there is no need for the U.S. to spearhead an attack on Iran. 

    And on top of all that, a recent poll by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs found, “Whether attacked by its neighbors or Tehran, majorities of Americans oppose using US troops to come to Israel’s defense.” In the wake of two decades of war, a ruinous bout of inflation, and the destruction of Hurricane Helene, Americans may be in the mood for what former president Barack Obama called “nation-building here at home.”   

    They say, “Cash rules everything around me,” and Israel’s intentions for Iran are no exception. Iran has proven skills in nuclear technology, and rockets and missiles (as Israel understands after 1 October.) Iran and Israel are the two key native sources of technology in the Middle East and it is important to the recovery of Israel’s post-war economy that Iran remain isolated and unable to be an economic competitor. And Iran has over 90 million potential consumers and employees to Israel’s nine million, and may be a more attractive target for investors.

    The Jerusalem Post reports, “The US has reportedly offered Israel a “compensation package” if it refrains from attacking certain targets in Iran,” which is an admission of Washington’s inability to halt escalation. If true, Jerusalem will continue to demand more compensation to prevent its next move, and then the move after that… Extortionists do not stop after the first payment.

    Without a moment’s delay, Washington and Tehran should put aside their differences and work today to avert what Ehud Olmert calls “a war for his [Netanyahu’s] personal gains.”

    James Durso (@james_durso) is a regular commentator on foreign policy and national security matters. Mr. Durso served in the U.S. Navy for 20 years and has worked in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 15:10

  • Ukraine's Kursk Incursion Enters Third Month, Has Become 'Normalized'
    Ukraine’s Kursk Incursion Enters Third Month, Has Become ‘Normalized’

    Ukraine’s cross-border Kursk incursion, which has resulted in dozens of towns and settlements being occupied in the Russian southern border region, has entered a third month.

    It started on August 6th and appeared a shock to both Kremlin leadership and even many Western leaders. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a hawkish think tank in Washington, DC, says that based on its mapping analysis the Ukrainian army has managed to hold on to about 300 square miles of territory at this point.

    Russian Defense Ministry

    The border region was by all accounts very poorly defended, and it took a significant amount of time for Moscow to send reinforcements to begin pushing the Ukrainians back.

    A commander of a Ukrainian battalion inside Kursk told CNN of the latest battlefield situation, “Russian advances are mostly happening on the flanks of our foothold.”

    “They keep trying to advance but the gains are incremental, somewhere they manage to take a street in the village,” he continued. “But it goes both ways – we also counterattack and push them back.”

    While it’s unclear how many troops Ukraine has committed to holding the region, international reports have estimated Russia has sent some 40,000 of its own forces to take it back. Russia has used both conscripts and reservists, but has not appeared to divert large numbers from front line Ukraine positions in Donetsk.

    Ukraine’s main base of operations from within Russia is the town of Sudzha, and a location called Veseloe village is said to be its next takeover goal.

    One of Kiev’s main goals for the operation was to force Russia to divert large numbers of its forces from Eastern Ukraine to defend its territory in southern Russia.

    Politico reported last month that some of Ukraine’s top military commanders actually strongly opposed President Volodymyr Zelensky’s risky gambit to invade Kursk.

    Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, the former commander-in-chief and current ambassador to the UK, opposed the ambitious scheme when Zelensky first broached the idea earlier this year. Zaluzhny opposed the offensive because there was no clear second step once the border was breached. “He never got a clear answer from Zelensky,” one of the Ukrainian officials said. “He felt it was a gamble.”

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    Still, the fact that Ukrainian troops have been able to hold Russian territory for a full two months, and now entering a third, has proven somewhat of a public humiliation for President Putin and the Russian military. Western officials have said Putin is trying to downplay the Kursk saga, however.

    “Over time, there is a degree to which the Kursk operation has become normalized,” analyst Mark Galeotti, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), has described.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 14:35

  • Elon Musk Hints At Sunday Starship Rocket Launch Amid Suspicious FAA Delays
    Elon Musk Hints At Sunday Starship Rocket Launch Amid Suspicious FAA Delays

    Elon Musk may be riding high after Thursday night’s long-awaited robotaxi unveil event (though TSLA shares dumped 9% on Friday) and this momentum may continue through the weekend with the possibility that SpaceX could launch its Starship mega-rocket as soon as Sunday—despite suspicious regulatory delays from the Biden-Harris’ Federal Aviation Administration. 

    “Starship stacked ahead of its fifth flight test. We expect regulatory approval in time to fly on October 13,” SpaceX wrote on X on Friday afternoon. 

    Musk quoted SpaceX’s Xpost, noting, “Looks like Starship might fly on Sunday!” 

    He continued, “This the largest & most powerful flying object ever made at more than double the thrust of the Saturn V Moon rocket. We will try to catch it upon return to launch site using the Mechazilla arms like giant chopsticks (like Karate Kid)!” 

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    Like this…

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    SpaceX provided more details about the upcoming Starship test flight:

    Starship’s fifth flight test could launch as soon as October 13, pending regulatory approval.

    A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app. The launch window will open as early as 7:00 a.m. CT. As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to stay tuned to our X account for updates.

    Flight 4 was a tremendous success. A fully successful ascent was followed by the first ever booster soft-landing in the Gulf of Mexico and Starship making it through a brilliant reentry, before its own landing burn and splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

    The fifth flight test of Starship will aim to take another step towards full and rapid reusability. The primary objectives will be attempting the first ever return to launch site and catch of the Super Heavy booster and another Starship reentry and landing burn, aiming for an on-target splashdown of Starship in the Indian Ocean.

    Extensive upgrades ahead of this flight test have been made to hardware and software across Super Heavy, Starship, and the launch and catch tower infrastructure at Starbase. SpaceX engineers have spent years preparing and months testing for the booster catch attempt, with technicians pouring tens of thousands of hours into building the infrastructure to maximize our chances for success. We accept no compromises when it comes to ensuring the safety of the public and our team, and the return will only be attempted if conditions are right.

    Thousands of distinct vehicle and pad criteria must be met prior to a return and catch attempt of the Super Heavy booster, which will require healthy systems on the booster and tower and a manual command from the mission’s Flight Director. If this command is not sent prior to the completion of the boostback burn, or if automated health checks show unacceptable conditions with Super Heavy or the tower, the booster will default to a trajectory that takes it to a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

    The returning booster will slow down from supersonic speeds, resulting in audible sonic booms in the area around the landing zone. Generally, the only impact to those in the surrounding area of a sonic boom is the brief thunder-like noise with variables like weather and distance from the return site determining the magnitude experienced by observers.

    Starship will fly a similar trajectory as the previous flight test with splashdown targeted in the Indian Ocean. This flight path does not require a deorbit burn for reentry, maximizing public safety while still providing the opportunity to meet our primary objective of a controlled reentry and soft water landing of Starship.

    One of the key upgrades on Starship ahead of flight was a complete rework of its heatshield, with SpaceX technicians spending more than 12,000 hours replacing the entire thermal protection system with newer-generation tiles, a backup ablative layer, and additional protections between the flap structures. This massive effort, along with updates to the ship’s operations and software for reentry and landing burn, will look to improve upon the previous flight and bring Starship to a soft splashdown at the target area in the Indian Ocean.

    With each flight building on the learnings from the last, testing improvements in hardware and operations across every facet of Starship, we’re on the verge of demonstrating techniques fundamental to Starship’s fully and rapidly reusable design. By continuing to push our hardware in a flight environment, and doing so as safely and frequently as possible, we’ll rapidly bring Starship online and revolutionize humanity’s ability to access space.

    Musk has been particularly vocal about the Biden-Harris team weaponizing federal agencies against his companies, such as SpaceX, slowing rocket launches.

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    Biden-Harris’ lawfare against SpaceX’s Starlink before the hurricane that decimated parts of western North Carolina likely cost lives. 

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    Musk called out the fed’s “lawfare” on Tucker Carlson. 

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    All of this gov’t lawfare against Musk and his companies is because Democrats hate X’s free speech. Hillary Clinton and John Kerry said the quiet part out loud in recent days and weeks. 

    Some folks are still trying to get over Robotaxi Day… Now a giant Starship could be launched within the next day. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/12/2024 – 13:25

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Oct 12

Today’s News 12th October 2024

  • America In The Age Of Nero
    America In The Age Of Nero

    Authored by J. Peder Zane via RealClearPolitics,

    Americans are like members of a quarrelsome family, so intent on arguing their petty grievances around the kitchen table that they don’t smell the rising smoke from the oven. As our nation fumes and the world burns, neither major party presidential candidate is addressing the lapping flames around us.

    Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are not simply ignoring our frightening national debt – both vow to ramp it up. Neither candidate has a serious plan to respond to the threats posed by China, Russia, or Iran.

    The strangling costs of health care, the sharp decline in mental health, the disintegration of our public schools – which is sharply tied to the breakdown in the family – are all ignored in a race marked by gauzy references to policy and sharp personal attacks.

    It’s not just Harris and Trump – our leadership in Washington has long refused to face up to the growing threats to our republic. Their empty promise is that everything is the other side’s fault. Help us annihilate the other guy and everything will be peaches and cream.

    A third-grader wouldn’t fall for this nonsense. Neither side can vanquish the other. A Harris victory will not be the death knell of Trump’s populist message; Trump’s win will not defang progressivism’s leftward lurch. Whatever the outcome, we will continue to be a divided, angry nation. And yet, seemingly thoughtful Americans have bought this line hook, line, and sinker.

    More importantly, even if one side did seize absolute power, they have no legitimate plan to right the ship of state. Sixty years of Great Society programs have shown us we can’t spend our way out of problems. The 44 years since the Reagan Revolution show us that tax cuts can only set the stage for reforms that have never come – a task that nears the impossible as ever more Americans become dependent on government aid.

    America is in a second Age of Nero – our leaders fiddle as the country burns.

    In past crises, the strength, resilience, and ingenuity of the American people have saved us from the depths of want and war. It is not clear we retain that grit.

    Instead of demanding leadership, we seem content with the bread and circuses of mindless politics more akin to the gladiatorial battle of Rome than the edifying debates of ancient Greece. The broad embrace of victimhood and grievance on both sides has replaced any question of sacrifice for the common good with the desire to demonize our imagined tormentors. If anything, we savor the fight. It makes us feel important, alive – it gives our lives meaning.

    Although we have serious problems, we are no longer a serious people. Hence our choice between Donald J. Trump and Kamala Harris.

    They are not the disease, however, but a symptom. The first step toward a treatment, if not cure, is obvious: we must reject our empty politics of diversion in order to identify and address our urgent crisis. Honesty really would make a difference. It might also make us happier as we re-channel our energies from angry partisanship into thoughtful partnership.

    Still, that would only get us so far. Life teaches that identifying one’s problems is the relatively easy part of change – we all know what’s wrong with the other guy and, sometimes, ourselves. Finding the will and discipline to do something about it is far harder. 

    We are sinking before that challenge because it still seems possible to ignore the building fire. Many of us have it pretty good; our fears are mitigated by our confidence in escape. It won’t get me.

    Ironically, the fact that much of the rest of the world is crumbling imparts a false sense of security. Instead of seeing those problems as canaries in the coal mine, we think, Hey, we’re still doing okay.

    It’s true that history confutes the doomsayers. The world does get better in the long run. But that is little consolation to those whose one short life is spent during the ebbing flow.

    History also teaches that judgment for past failure often comes with sudden swiftness, like a thief in the night. As we think about the immense problems we are allowing to smolder, recall Ernest Hemingway’s pithy warning from “The Sun Also Rises.”

    “How did you go bankrupt?” one character asks a friend.

    “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

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

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 23:25

  • These Are The 10 Fastest-Developing Cities On Earth
    These Are The 10 Fastest-Developing Cities On Earth

    Out of the world’s top 15 growth hubs, 14 are forecast to be located in Asia, according to the Growth Hub Index 2024 by British real estate service Savills.

    These cities have been identified as set to develop particularly quickly by 2033, based on indicators measuring rising wealth, expanding economies and the potential for new development and business expansion.

    As the following chart, via Statista;’s Anna Fleck, shows, four Indian cities feature in the top 10, with Bengaluru in the top position. It is followed by Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and India’s Delhi.

    Infographic: The 10 Fastest-Developing Cities on Earth | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Several reasons are cited for the anticipated rise in Asia, including how many parts of the region have embraced tech-driven growth, while at the same time continuing to benefit from a strong traditional manufacturing sector. Many Asian cities are also forecast to see a growing middle class as personal wealth rises across the region, while at the same time they have strategies to improve connectivity and to invest in infrastructure.

    Savills analysts note that innovation hubs can attract new businesses, which in turn increases demand for office space, manufacturing spaces and housing and that if rapid urbanization is managed well, then it can lead to better health outcomes of populations and improved employment prospects and education.

    If poorly managed, however, rapid urban growth can exacerbate poverty, crime and health issues.

    The Growth Hub Index is based on economic, population and wealth indicators across 230 cities, each with a GDP of at least $50 billion in 2023, to identify the fastest-growing cities. The economic indicators included the city GDP in 2033 and future credit rating as well as the percentage increase in city GDP growth between 2023–2033. The personal wealth indicators measured the percentage increase in city GDP per capita and the percentage increase in the number of households earning more than $70,000 over the 10 years analyzed. Meanwhile, the population indicators focused on the percentage increase in city population and migration between 2023–2033 and the future ratio of dependents to the working-age population in 2033. Only cities with a GDP of $50 billion and up in 2023 were included in the index.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 23:00

  • Drug Trials Funded By Manufacturers Find 50 Percent Greater Drug Effectiveness
    Drug Trials Funded By Manufacturers Find 50 Percent Greater Drug Effectiveness

    Authored by Huey Freeman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Drug studies sponsored by drug manufacturers tend to report higher drug efficacy than studies not sponsored by the drug company, a new report published in the Journal of Political Economy on Oct. 7 finds.

    oasisamuel/Shutterstock

    The report found a “sponsorship effect” that tends to bias sponsored studies toward reporting higher drug efficacies. The author could not find differences in study design between those funded by drug companies and those not.

    “Removing the sponsorship effect would reduce the difference in efficacy … by about 50%,” Tamar Oostrom, an assistant professor of economics at Ohio State University, said in her paper.

    “This effect was larger than I expected,” Oostrom told The Epoch Times over email. “My results suggest that sponsored arms of trials should be discounted substantially.”

    She said that the difference in results between sponsored and unsponsored trials may be that “manufacturers are running multiple trials and selectively publishing those that are more favorable towards their drug.”

    Even a small effect of bias by funding could affect the use of a drug, she noted.

    “If some of the results from a clinical trial are biased, patients may be taking a less effective drug for them, or they may be taking a drug when alternate treatment might be more beneficial,” Oostrom said.

    Her research analyzed the published papers of 509 trials and 1,215 treatment arms (groups of participants). Most of the trials were published after the drug gained approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). About three-quarters of them examined were for antidepressants, with the remaining quarter for antipsychotic medications.

    “My paper is the first to examine the effect of financial sponsorship on outcomes by directly comparing a large set of trials in which the exact same arms are tested with differing financial interests,” Oostrom said.

    Trials Comparing Drugs Vary by Funding

    Oostrom examined two main types of drug trials: drugs that are compared to placebos and drugs that are compared to other drugs.

    She found that the effect of drug company sponsorship was more pronounced in placebo trials.

    There are multiple payoffs for results that favor a drug’s efficiency.

    “Trials in which the manufacturer’s drug appears more effective are more likely to be published,” Oostrom said.

    These published trials can be used in marketing to physicians. Prescriptions also tend to increase in response to favorable clinical trials.

    Oostrom cited a 2023 study that found that when a clinical trial significantly favors a drug, “there is a large and immediate increase in demand.”

    The trials Oostrom reviewed included an average of 100 participants, with a mean age of 42. Sex distribution was nearly equal, with 51 percent of participants being female.

    Case Study: Effexor Versus Prozac

    As an example of bias, Oostrom presented the case of Effexor, an antidepressant introduced by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in 1993. Over the following 15 years, Wyeth funded 14 randomized controlled trials comparing Effexor’s effectiveness to its rival, Prozac. In 12 of these trials, funded solely by Wyeth, Effexor was found to be more effective.

    However, when Effexor and Prozac were compared with alternative funding, only one out of three trials found Effexor to be more effective.

    “Each of these trials is a double-blind RCT comparing the exact same two molecules and examining the same standard outcomes,” Oostrom wrote in her paper.

    Expert Opinions on Research Bias

    The study confirms that the funding of studies greatly influences their design and results, Dr. Chad Savage, an internal medicine specialist and founder of YourChoice Direct Care, told The Epoch Times.

    “Multiple attempts have been made over the years to counter this effect, such as requiring financial disclosures from authors, but none have succeeded in fully eradicating the bias that can exist,” Savage said.

    This bias often stems from the “self-preservation instincts of researchers, who are in a constant quest for funding” or possibly facing unemployment, he added.

    “Solving this problem is challenging,” he said. “One potential solution is to return to the principle of reproducibility, a cornerstone of science. If a finding is valid, it should be replicable through multiple studies conducted by different researchers, with diverse funding sources, and published in different journals.”

    According to Dr. Peter C. Gøtzsche, professor of clinical research design and analysis at the University of Copenhagen, the bias in industry-sponsored trials is massive.

    “In head-to-head trials where Prozac was the drug of interest, significantly more patients improved on Prozac than in trials where Prozac was the comparator drug,” Gøtzsche told The Epoch Times.

    He cited a 2004 study that found systematic bias in rating the effectiveness of Prozac, one of the first antidepressants on the market. Prozac is the brand name for fluoxetine.

    The Epoch Times reached out to Eli Lilly, Prozac’s manufacturer, and Pfizer, which now owns Effexor, for comments.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 22:35

  • Ex-State Department Official Who Blew Up ISIS's Bank Reveals Roadmap For "Striking Iran" 
    Ex-State Department Official Who Blew Up ISIS’s Bank Reveals Roadmap For “Striking Iran” 

    Top Israeli officials, including senior ministers and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, met on Thursday to outline a war strategy for Israel’s retaliation against Iran, according to the New York Times, citing two officials who requested anonymity due to the private nature of the discussions. The move comes in response to Iran’s bombardment of Israel early last week, which involved up to 200 ballistic and hypersonic missiles. This tit-for-tat escalation could spiral into a much larger and broadening conflict across the Middle East.

    NYT cited Israeli officials, who have warned that coming retaliation for last week’s missile barrage “will be more severe.” President Biden this week spoke with Netanyahu, the first conversation in months, about Israel’s pending retaliation strike against Iran. 

    Last Thursday, Biden was asked by MSM reporters outside the White House if he would support Israel striking Iran’s critical oil export facilities. The president said, “We’re discussing that.”

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    Remember, on Sept. 27, Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly, “The curse of Oct. 7 began when Hamas invaded Israel from Gaza, but it didn’t end there. Israel was soon forced to defend itself on six more war fronts organized by Iran.”

    We have detailed in multiple notes how the most likely high-value assets that IDF jets (F-35s) could hit first would be Iran’s ability to export crude and crude energy products: 

    Providing more color on what a potential IDF strike on Iran would look like is David Asher, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former US State Department official who has worked on counter-terrorism operations in the Middle East. 

    Asher penned an op-ed in the WSJ on Thursday titled “A Strategy for Striking Back at Iran“… 

    Asher noted:

    The strategy Israel has successfully implemented against Hezbollah must now be applied against Tehran directly. The regime is the puppeteer behind Oct. 7 and the multifront attacks against Israel.

    He explained:

    Israel’s most effective course of action would be to target key leadership, military support and financial infrastructure of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Intelligence and Security Ministry. That would weaken the regime’s pillars while avoiding direct harm to civilians, which could otherwise foster sympathy for the regime. Combined with attacks on Iran’s external oil-export capacity to deprive the regime of its financial lifeblood, a top-down leadership-focused approach would pressure the regime without disrupting essential domestic services.

    Israel should first neutralize the immediate missile threat posed by the regime. Striking Iran’s leadership and nuclear facilities without simultaneously addressing Iran’s offensive missile capabilities would allow the regime to retaliate aggressively. Iran knows this, which explains why its rulers are posting web images of their subterranean “missile cities.” Next, Israel must attack the regime’s headquarters, command facilities and military. No key Iranian leaders should be spared. The precision killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a Tehran apartment demonstrates that Israel can strike anyone, anytime and anywhere.

    Then Iran’s military training camps on the Iraq border should be smoked. For decades, these camps have been used to train Iranian, Hezbollah, Hamas and Iraqi special-group operatives for campaigns against Israel, U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, and global antiterrorist operations. After that Iran’s central bank and oil export facilities should be destroyed.

    Asher pointed out he was critical in counter-terrorism operations against ISIS’s central bank and cash distribution centers across Mosul, Iraq, in 2015-16.

    He said the combination of kinetic warfare and economic warfare could be a winning strategy for Israel to dismantle Tehran’s financial apparatus, adding that only after “disrupting command, control, and financial and logistical infrastructure should Israel consider direct action against key Iranian nuclear facilities.”  

     …

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    Asher said Americans should not forget… 

    The U.S. should provide direct and public support to Israel’s counterstrikes, not just sit on the sidelines. America should never forget the large number of Americans who have been murdered by Iran and its terrorist action network since Hezbollah attacked the U.S. Embassy in Beirut multiple times in the 1980s and obliterated U.S. barracks there in 1983, killing 241 Marines and sailors. These attacks were followed by the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996 and numerous Iran-directed attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq between 2003 and 2012 that killed and wounded thousands.

    The U.S. military has a blood grievance against Tehran’s regime. Yet there has been little retaliation beyond taking down Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020. Now is the time to join Israel in retribution at scale and scope.

    A 2018 book by Col. Richard Kemp and Maj. (ret.) Chris Driver-Williams, titled “Killing Americans and Their Allies: Iran’s Continuing War against the U.S. and the West,” detailed how over 1,100 US deaths in Iraq are estimated as attributable to Iran. 

    Segwaying into energy markets… Brent crude prices would surge if IDF fighter jets neutralized Iran’s oil-export capacity. 

    According to S&P Global…

    Iran’s crude export loadings remained well below normal levels Oct. 10 as oil markets continued to brace for an expected retaliatory strike by Israel on Iran that could target the country’s oil infrastructure and disrupt Middle Eastern oil supplies.

    Register Now Crude loadings from Iran averaged 816,244 b/d in the week to Oct. 9, according to preliminary observed and estimated tanker movements in S&P Global Commodities at Sea. A 2 million-barrel cargo of Iranian crude was seen leaving Iranian waters Oct. 9, the second VLCC crude cargo in four days after an apparent hiatus of VLCC liftings since Sept. 28, when the geopolitical conflict between Iran and Israel escalated.

    Here’s a detailed map of oil assets across the Middle East:

    Late last month, Goldman analyst Lindsay Matcham told clients a war risk premium in Brent crude prices was absent. If IDF forces target Iranian energy assets, especially knocking out Tehran’s ability to export crude to buyers in Singapore and China, then Brent prices would instantly reprice much, much higher. 

    Asher penned a note in March about a “Global oil shock could trigger a crisis ala 2007-2008″ if the Middle East spirals out of control.

    The looming question is whether Israel will strike Iran before or after the US presidential election. 

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

  • Nearly 3 Million Americans Have Voted So Far. Here's What We Know.
    Nearly 3 Million Americans Have Voted So Far. Here’s What We Know.

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

    Nearly 3 million Americans have cast early ballots either in person or by mail with under four weeks to go until Election Day, an election tracking site shows.

    As of 6:43 p.m. on Oct. 9, 2,877,590 people had cast ballots in states that report early voting data, according to an update from the University of Florida’s Election Lab website.

    An election worker opens envelopes containing vote-by-mail ballots for the Aug. 4 Washington state primary at King County Elections in Renton, Wash., on Aug. 3, 2020. Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images

    Early Voters By Party

    Of that figure, nearly 504,000 people had voted early in person, and more than 2.37 million had voted by mail, the tracking site found.

    About 47.5 million mail-in ballots have been requested so far. In comparison, more than 92 million mail-in ballots were requested through the 2020 election, according to the university.

    In the states reporting how people voted by party, 56.3 percent of people who had returned early ballots were Democrats, representing about 732,378 people. Another 27.4 percent were Republican, representing 356,797 voters, and 16.2 percent, or 210,980, were independent or members of a third party, according to the website.

    By Age, Gender, Ethnicity

    When broken down by age, nearly 60 percent of early voters were over 65, the tracking site found. Another 28 percent were age 41 to 65, while 9 percent were age 26 to 40, and only 3.2 percent were aged 18 to 25.

    Slightly more than 54.4 percent of people who returned early ballots were female, and roughly 44.6 percent were male, the site found. The remaining 1.1 percent were marked “unknown,” according to the site.

    Among early voters, about 72 percent were white, 8.6 percent were black, 2.2 percent were Hispanic, 2.4 percent were Asian, and 14.3 percent were marked “unknown,” the site stated.

    Early Voting Starts in Arizona

    Early in-person voting started on Oct. 9 in Arizona, making it the earliest of this year’s presidential battleground states to enable residents to cast a ballot at a traditional polling place ahead of Election Day.

    The start of in-person voting in the closely contested state is also drawing the presidential tickets, with both campaigns scheduling visits in the state this week.

    The Oct. 9 start date for early voting overlaps with campaign stops by both vice presidential nominees, Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who are each holding events in Tucson, Arizona, on that day.

    Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, is scheduled to host a rally in Phoenix on Oct. 10, while former President Donald Trump will hold an event on Oct. 13 in Prescott Valley, north of Phoenix.

    Early voting, particularly by mail, has long been popular in Arizona, where nearly 80 percent voted before Election Day in 2020, according to the secretary of state’s office. Each of Arizona’s 15 counties is required to open at least one site for in-person early voting, which runs until the Friday before the Nov. 5 general election. In Maricopa County, a dozen voting centers are scattered around the metro Phoenix area.

    Early in-person voting has been underway in some states for several weeks now. It begins next week in four more swing states: Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, and Nevada.

    Changes in North Carolina’s Election

    Following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, the state’s election board this week approved an emergency measure that changes voting rules.

    The rule changes apply to 13 counties that saw infrastructure, voting sites, and mail delivery impacted by Helene, which made landfall in late September.

    One change approved by the board includes enhancing in-person early voting by allowing county boards to modify early voting sites, dates, and hours. It will also allow a county election board for one county to open a polling site in another county, depending on the circumstances, the state election board stated.

    Voters in affected counties can now request an absentee ballot in person up until Nov. 4, the day before the general election, according to the election board. Completed ballots can be dropped off by Nov. 5 at 7:30 p.m. at a polling location.

    Voters who were displaced are also allowed to turn in ballots to another county’s elections board by the same deadline, the state said. Previously, voters could turn in absentee ballots to early voting sites only in their county or to their county elections board by Election Day.

    Other Activities

    South Carolina took action earlier this month to extend its voter registration deadline to Oct. 14, while Georgia elections officials have said they do not expect major disruptions from Helene.

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order allowing election supervisors in 13 counties impacted by Helene to make voting-related changes. The state is bracing for a major hurricane, Milton, which is expected to hit Florida’s Gulf Coast on the night of Oct. 9.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 21:45

  • Body Of Top IRGC General Finally Recovered In Beirut After 2 Weeks
    Body Of Top IRGC General Finally Recovered In Beirut After 2 Weeks

    A high-ranking Iranian military officer who was considered a “key figure” that oversaw Tehran’s support to the ‘resistance axis’ abroad was slain in the Israeli airstrike which killed Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on September 27 in south Beirut. 

    Iran had soon after the Israeli attack confirmed the death the IRGC’s #2, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan. But his body had not been found even long after Nasrallah’s remains were recovered. Iran’s government had vowed that his killing “will not go unanswered.”

    Senior Quds Force officer Abbas Nilforoushan

    The IRGC deputy commander’s body was finally recovered on Friday by Lebanese search and rescue workers, regional media has announced, a full two weeks after the strike:

    The Public Relations Department of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has announced that the body of IRGC Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan has been found.

    On September 27, Nilforoushan was killed by Israeli strikes in Beirut. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was also killed in the attack.

    The assassinations, along with the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, triggered Iran’s retaliatory attack on Israel, in which it fired almost 200 ballistic missiles on October 1.

    The fact that there was enough rubble to bury his remains to the point that the body took two weeks to recover speaks to the enormity of the bombs’ impact and destruction.

    The strikes have been described as happening as a high-level meeting between Nasrallah and top Iranian officials was taking place. It’s believed that the meeting was being held in a bunker underneath office or apartment buildings.

    Israel likely used heavy US-supplied ‘bunker busters’ to penetrate that far down. Hezbollah and Iranian officials attending the meeting were essentially buried under the massive layers of rubble.

    According to a backgrounder on the slain Gen. Nilforoushan:

    Born in Isfahan in 1966, Nilforoushan began his military activities in the 1980s joining the Basij and later the IRGC, holding various positions including Deputy Commander of the IRGC Ground Forces for Operations.

    Iranian media outlet Student News Network (SNN) described Nilforoushan as a “key figure” with extensive battlefield experience who played a crucial role in supporting the “Resistance Axis, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Palestinian resistance groups,” helping to strengthen their capabilities against Israel.

    Following the assassination of IRGC General Mohammad Reza Zahedi in an Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus in April, Nilforoushan “assumed command of the Lebanon front,” according to the Tehran-based Fararu website.

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    Hezbollah has since claimed to have reconstituted its command and communications structure, but it’s anything but clear who exactly leads the paramilitary organization at this point. Likely no specific name will be publicized anytime soon, given the person would immediately become a top target of Israel.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 21:20

  • Niacin: The Energizer Powering Your Cells And Fighting Cancer
    Niacin: The Energizer Powering Your Cells And Fighting Cancer

    Authored by Sina McCullough, Mercura Wang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Whether it is turning food into fuel, building cells, repairing DNA, detoxifying, recycling nutrients, or defending against oxidative stress, niacin provides the energy to keep it all running smoothly. Without it, your cells would be like a phone stuck with a 1 percent battery: desperately low on power and struggling to keep up!

    Niacin keeps your battery charged by converting food into energy the body can use. Illustration by Fei Meng

    But niacin does more than energize your body. It also plays a vital role in specific functions, like supporting skin health—a finding that dates back to the discovery of this remarkable vitamin.

    In the 1910s, Dr. Joseph Goldberger, a U.S. Public Health Service medical officer, was investigating the mystery of pellagra. This debilitating disease was sweeping South Carolina and other parts of the world, leaving a trail of severe symptoms: rough, scaly skin, digestive issues, and mental disturbances, with a fatality rate of 40 percent. Tens of thousands were affected, and the cause was a mystery. Most thought it was an infectious disease.

    Goldberger suspected pellagra wasn’t caused by a germ but by something missing from people’s diets. By restricting corn and adding foods like fresh milk, buttermilk, eggs, beans, and peas to the diets of pellagra patients, Goldberger showed the symptoms could be reversed. But what was the magic ingredient in these foods?

    Years later, a biochemist identified niacin as the specific factor behind this dietary solution. It turns out that niacin was the key to preventing pellagra and restoring health.

    Special Talents

    Niacin has many talents and roles, but a few main ones are highlighted below.

    1. Energizer

    Niacin is the star player in your body’s grand energy production team. Fats, carbohydrates, and specific proteins are broken down into energy when you eat. Turning these foods into usable energy is where niacin truly shines. In the presence of oxygen, these nutrients travel through a series of pathways to transform the food you eat into energy, known as adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which powers nearly everything you do, from thinking to moving.

    ATP is in constant demand but exists in only small, rapidly depleted amounts. To keep us alive, our cells must regenerate ATP continuously—and that’s where niacin steps in as a genuine “energizer.” Niacin, in the form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), acts as the critical energy carrier in the pathways that convert nutrients into ATP, ensuring that despite our limited ATP stores, we always have a fresh supply ready to fuel every heartbeat, every breath, and every thought.

    Without niacin, the body’s energy production would cease, making this nutrient essential for sustaining life itself.

    2. Nerve Protector

    Niacin has shown exciting potential in protecting the nervous system and combating neurological diseases. Pre-clinical trials suggest it could be beneficial for conditions like multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and glioblastoma.

    Niacin helps repair the myelin that protects your nerves and reduces inflammation in the brain. A 2004 prospective study found an association between higher niacin intake and a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline. Niacin also speeds up the transformation of stem cells into nerve cells and helps those cells survive, even under oxidative stress.

    3. Cancer Fighter

    Niacin enhances DNA repair by maintaining cellular energy levels, preventing ATP depletion, and increasing excision repair, which is essential for reducing cancer risk. In clinical trials, niacin reduced the incidence of skin cancer. In patients with cancer, higher niacin intake increased the odds of survival. Niacin may also help prevent certain cancers, as niacin deficiency can impair DNA repair, thus leading to genomic instability and increased tumor development in rat models, including a higher risk of chemically induced leukemia.

    Also, niacin has been shown to effectively reduce the incidence of premalignant actinic keratosis by 11 percent, squamous cell carcinoma by 30 percent, and basal cell carcinoma by 20 percent among cancer patients, compared to a placebo after a 12-month trial. Furthermore, if you have certain cancers, such as carcinoids, you may also need more niacin.

    Niacin has many roles, but some of the most important are turning food into energy, protecting the nervous system, and fighting cancer. Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

    Other Talents

    Niacin also helps in the production of reproductive and stress-related hormones, improves circulation, regulates the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, and suppresses inflammation.

    Fun Facts

    • Niacin is not technically an essential vitamin because your liver and certain microbes in your intestine can make it from tryptophan, the amino acid famous for making you sleepy after Thanksgiving turkey.
    • While some organizations discourage its use as a first-line therapy, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved niacin to treat high cholesterol and high triglycerides. Niacin was the first cholesterol-lowering drug before the discovery of statins.
    • Unlike some of the other B vitamins, niacin is stable when exposed to heat and light. It survives most cooking methods, so the niacin in your food is unlikely to be destroyed during preparation.
    • More than 400 enzymes depend on niacin, making it critical for proper body function.
    • There’s growing interest in niacin’s role in the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood, sleep, and appetite.

    Favorite Hangouts

    Niacin hangs out in liver and meat, including chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, salmon, tuna, shrimp, and sardines. Vegetarians can find niacin in unfortified nutritional yeast, mushrooms, asparagus, sweet potato, bell pepper, almonds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, nuts, lentils, peas, and legumes. Niacin bioavailability is higher in meat compared to plants because it is mainly in the form of the coenzyme NAD.

    Some of the foods rich in niacin are listed below. Their daily consumption quantities are calculated based on the Food and Nutrition Board’s Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for niacin, which is 16 milligrams per day for adult males and 14 milligrams per day for adult females.

    Food portions and the percentage of the daily value they meet include the following:

    • Pan-fried beef liver (3 ounces): 93 percent
    • Grilled chicken breast (3 ounces): 64 percent
    • Marinara sauce (1 cup): 64 percent
    • Roasted turkey breast (3 ounces): 63 percent
    • Cooked sockeye salmon (3 ounces): 54 percent
    • Light canned tuna (3 ounces): 54 percent
    • Roasted pork tenderloin (3 ounces): 39 percent
    • Pan-browned ground beef (3 ounces): 36 percent
    • Cooked brown rice (1 cup): 33 percent
    • Dry-roasted peanuts (1 ounce): 26 percent

    Recipe: Energizing Chicken Salad

    Short on time? No worries! Grab an organic rotisserie chicken, and this meal will come together in under five minutes. It’s a quick and easy way to load up on niacin and its supporting cast, vitamin B6, riboflavin, vitamin B1, iron, and tryptophan (covered later).

    Ingredients:

    • 1 cup cooked chicken breast
    • 2 cups spinach
    • ½ avocado
    • 1 tablespoon olive oil
    • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
    • Handful of sunflower seeds and sliced almonds

    Directions:

    1. Shred the cooked chicken breast and place it in a large bowl.
    2. Add spinach and diced avocado.
    3. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.
    4. Sprinkle almonds on top.
    5. Toss well and serve chilled for a refreshing, niacin-packed meal.

    How to Optimize Absorption

    Some of the niacin in foods like coffee, grains, and seeds is bound, so for it to be released, it requires special processing, like roasting, germinating, fermentation, or alkali treatment.

    For coffee lovers, roasting is key; the more robust the roast, the more niacin available, while decaf contains less.

    Grains are often marketed as a good source of niacin, but here’s the twist: This is only true if they’re germinated, fermented, alkali-treated, or fortified. About 70 percent of the niacin in whole grains in their natural state is bound up in a form our bodies can’t easily absorb.

    Diets that relied heavily on grains like corn and sorghum were the culprit behind widespread pellagra outbreaks in South Africa, India, and Southern Europe in the 18th century and later in the United States after the Civil War. In the postwar South, diets were largely grain-based, relying on cereals like corn, wheat, and grits, which left them dangerously low in niacin. It wasn’t long before physicians, including Goldberger, connected the dots: Niacin deficiency was at the heart of these health crises, and eating niacin-rich foods could save countless lives.

    Long before modern science understood the importance of niacin, many ancient cultures had already developed ways to make it more available in their diets. The Aztecs, for instance, boiled and soaked corn in an alkaline solution, such as water with lime or calcium hydroxide—a method known as nixtamalization. Other cultures added alkalizing substances like juniper ash or lye made from hardwood ash.

    This alkalizing process freed the bound niacin, making it more bioavailable and likely protecting against pellagra in regions like South and Central America, where these techniques were practiced. Unfortunately, it is thought that when these traditional methods of processing corn were abandoned, niacin deficiency may have become more widespread, potentially contributing to pellagra outbreaks.

    Today, to help prevent such deficiencies, the FDA requires niacin to be added to flour and bread and labeled as “enriched.” That’s why added niacin is listed on many bread labels in the grocery store.

    If you’re cooking at home and want to unlock more niacin from whole grains, try these tricks:

    • Germinate (or sprout) raw grains.
    • If whole-food forms of corn are a staple in your diet, consider preparing them in lime water.
    • When making bread, use yeast or baking soda to help it rise.
    • Combine three days of sprouting with an eight-hour sourdough fermentation.

    Supporting Cast of Nutrients

    The amino acid tryptophan is a dietary source of niacin because it can be converted into niacin by the liver and certain microbes in your intestine. Including tryptophan-rich foods like turkey, eggs, and cheese in your diet can help boost niacin levels.

    However, the conversion process is inefficient, requiring about 60 parts tryptophan to make just one part niacin. This ratio is why niacin intakes are expressed as niacin equivalents (NE), with 1 milligram of NE equal to 1 milligram of niacin or 60 milligrams of tryptophan.

    Therefore, niacin should be consumed with foods containing vitamin B6, riboflavin, vitamin B1, and iron. These nutrients help convert tryptophan into niacin.

    Pairing niacin with foods containing unsaturated fatty acids is also a good idea. Adding unsaturated fatty acids to your diet can help increase niacin synthesis from tryptophan. Avocados, olives, nuts, fatty fish, and dark chocolate are a few examples of these types of foods.

    Deficiency

    Niacin deficiencies are rare in industrialized nations, primarily because of adequate dietary intake and the addition of niacin to numerous foods and multivitamin supplements.

    Recommended Dietary Allowance

    The current RDA (16 milligrams daily for men, 14 milligrams daily for women) is based on preventing deficiency. Still, some experts suggest higher amounts may benefit those dealing with high levels of oxidative stress, such as athletes or people with chronic conditions.

    Symptoms and Signs

    Common niacin deficiency symptoms include the following:

    • Depression
    • Headache
    • Fatigue
    • Memory loss
    • Hallucinations
    • Indigestion
    • Canker sores
    • Vomiting
    • Poor circulation
    • Pellagra-related symptoms

    Pellagra is often recognized by the “3 D’s”: dermatitis (inflammatory patches on the skin), dementia (cognitive decline), and diarrhea. In its most severe form, there is a fourth D: death. These symptoms typically appear in the late stages of niacin deficiency.

    Pre-pellagra symptoms include:

    • Weakness and fatigue (often the earliest symptom)
    • Exercise intolerance
    • Hair loss
    • Tongue inflammation and mouth sores (vitamins B2 and B6 and iron deficiencies can all lead to this)
    • Anxiety, depression, mood swings
    • Gas, bloating, indigestion (these precede diarrhea)
    • Neuropathy, or numbness and tingling in hands and feet (vitamins B1, B2, B6, and B12 and folate deficiencies can all cause neuropathy)
    • Migraine-like headaches and light sensitivity

    Who Is at Risk?

    The risk factors that raise a person’s likelihood of niacin deficiency in the United States include the following:

    • Alcoholism (chronic alcohol consumption interferes with niacin absorption)
    • Limited diets (e.g., eating disorders or food insecurity)
    • Carcinoid syndrome
    • Liver cirrhosis
    • Inflammatory bowel disease
    • Hartnup disease
    • Inadequate riboflavin, pyridoxine, or iron intake
    • Certain medications

    People with Parkinson’s disease who are taking medications like levodopa might face a higher risk of developing or worsening a niacin deficiency. Levodopa is commonly prescribed to Parkinson’s patients to help increase dopamine levels in the brain, easing motor symptoms. It’s often paired with carbidopa to prevent levodopa from breaking down in the bloodstream before it reaches the brain. However, carbidopa can interfere with the body’s ability to make niacin naturally.

    Parkinson’s patients often experience systemic inflammation, which can compromise niacin levels. Adding dopaminergic medications like carbidopa/levodopa may further reduce the body’s natural niacin production, worsening a potential deficiency. For this reason, Parkinson’s patients on these medications may need to monitor their niacin levels to avoid deficiency.

    Toxicity

    Niacin was commonly prescribed for high blood lipid levels until statins were discovered. At high doses (generally 1 to 6 grams per day), niacin can increase high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and triglycerides. However, high doses can also lead to liver damage and failure, with a higher risk associated with the sustained-release form.

    Niacin at 50 or more milligrams per dose can cause a “flush,” which increases blood flow to the skin. It typically starts at the top of your head, turning your face bright red before spreading down your body, and is often accompanied by a warm, tingling sensation. If you want to avoid the flush, niacinamide is an alternative form of niacin. While it is not as effective, it does not cause the flushing effect.

    Timing also matters. To reduce the chance of niacin flushing, take supplements with food and start with a lower dose before working your way up.

    Even higher doses of niacin (3,000 milligrams a day) may lead to jaundice, abdominal discomfort, blurred vision, worsening of hyperglycemia (high blood sugar), and triggering of preexisting gout. Other risks are the formation of stomach ulcers and increased uric acid levels, which may increase the risk of gout.

    Also, if you’re allergic to aspirin, you may be sensitive to tartrazine, which is found in some forms of niacin. Avoid taking niacin without consulting your health care provider if you have liver problems or an active peptic ulcer. If you are pregnant, avoid taking niacin supplements altogether.

    Interactions

    Niacin may reduce the effectiveness of certain medications, including those that lower cholesterol (bile-acid sequestrants) and treat gout, as well as the antibiotic tetracycline. Certain anti-seizure medications (e.g., phenytoin and valproic acid) and the tuberculosis medication isoniazid may cause niacin deficiency in some people.

    Niacin supplements may increase the levels of carbamazepine and mysoline in the body. Niacin can also strengthen the effects of blood thinners and alpha-blockers (one type of blood pressure drug), thus increasing the risk of bleeding and low blood pressure, respectively.

    Combining niacin with statins may slow down heart disease progression while increasing the risk of muscle inflammation or liver damage. Therefore, if you are taking any of the medications mentioned above or regularly consuming alcohol, it’s essential to consult your health care provider before starting niacin supplements. Additionally, using nicotine patches alongside niacin may increase the risk or severity of niacin flush.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 20:55

  • Saudi Arabia Smashes Own Record For Most Executions In A Year
    Saudi Arabia Smashes Own Record For Most Executions In A Year

    Via Middle East Eye

    Saudi Arabia has executed 213 people so far in 2024, more than it has in any other calendar year on record, as the kingdom competes for a seat at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC).

    According to the London-based rights group Reprieve, which documents the death penalty worldwide, the largest recorded figure prior to this year was 196 in 2022, followed by 184 in 2019. “As the world’s attention fixates on horror elsewhere in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is clearing death row with a bloodbath,” Reprieve’s deputy director, Harriet McCulloch, told MEE.

    Via Reuters/SPA

    “The Kingdom smashed its own grim record for most people executed in a year in the first nine months of 2024,” she added. “With 213 executions and counting, death row prisoners are at greater risk than ever before, their families desperately awaiting news of their fate in the news.”

    The executions are taking place under the government of Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, the kingdom’s prime minister and de facto leader, who pledged in a 2018 interview to minimize capital punishment.

    Yet, Saudi Arabia remains one of the world’s most prolific executioners. At least 1,115 executions have been carried out under Mohammed bin Salman’s rule between 21 June 2017 and 9 October 2024, a spokesperson for Reprieve told Middle East Eye. 

    In 2023, a joint report by the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) and Reprieve revealed that Riyadh’s execution rate has almost doubled since King Salman and his son, Mohammed bin Salman, came to power in 2015. Between 2015 and 2022, executions surged by 82 percent.

    ‘Poor record’

    On Wednesday, the HRC is due to hold elections for its 2025-2027 term, and Saudi Arabia is amongst the 19 candidates. “Today, UN member states should vote no – no to Saudi Arabia securing a seat on the council, and no to rising executions carried out with impunity,” McCulloch said.

    The HRC is the main intergovernmental body within the UN with the mandate to strengthen the protection and promotion of human rights around the world. Human rights activists have denounced Riyadh’s candidacy as contradicting the council’s raison d’etre.

    The criteria for electing its member countries include a requirement for members to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights” and to “fully cooperate with the Council.”

    UN Watch, an organization that monitors the UN’s performance against its own charter, has spearheaded calls for the reform of the HRC’s election system, which allows for states with a poor human rights record to become members. Two-thirds of the council’s members are non-democracies. On Tuesday, UN Watch said Saudi Arabia was “unqualified” for membership of the council.

    Additionally, according to Reprieve, Saudi Arabia has repeatedly lied to the UN about its use of the death penalty. On Wednesday, it told the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women that it only uses the death penalty for the most serious crimes, and that its juvenile law seeks to negate the death penalty for minors. 

    This contradicts the kingdom’s track record of issuing death penalties for those facing allegations of crimes committed under the age of 18.

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

    Three clients of Reprieve and the ESOHR, Abdullah al-Derazi, Youssef al-Manasif and Abdullah al-Howaiti, were convicted based on confessions made under torture over alleged crimes committed under the age of 18.

    The official human rights authority in the kingdom, the Saudi Human Rights Commission, also falsely claimed that child defendant Mustafa al-Darwish, who was sentenced to death for protest-related offences, was over 19 at the time of the crimes. But Reprieve and ESOHR provided evidence that proved he was in fact under 18. Darwish was executed on 15 June 2021 despite the evidence.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 20:30

  • Watch: CNN's Anderson Cooper Struck In The Head By Debris During Hurricane Milton Coverage
    Watch: CNN’s Anderson Cooper Struck In The Head By Debris During Hurricane Milton Coverage

    Authored by Haika Mrema via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    CNN anchor Anderson Cooper was covering Hurricane Milton as it landed in Florida on Wednesday when he was struck by debris during his broadcast.

    Anderson Cooper attends the Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront in New York City on May 15, 2024. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery

    The 57-year-old, reporting live from Bradenton, Florida, was on a walkway explaining how the rapid hurricane winds were thrusting water from the Manatee River onto land when a large white object flew into the frame, hitting him.

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

    “[The wind] is now just whipping off the Manatee River. It is coming in from the north, I guess, northeast, and the water now is really starting to pour over,” Cooper told his viewers while soaked in water from the storm. “If you look at the ground–whoa!” he said as he was hit by the object.

    The news veteran stumbled slightly before pressing on. “That wasn’t good. We’ll probably go inside shortly,” he noted before drawing attention to the water spilling onto the ground.

    Later in the broadcast, Cooper picks up the object that struck him. “This came from the river, thankfully it’s just styrofoam,” he says before putting it back down behind a tree. “That’s just one of the things. We’re starting to see stuff that’s in the river itself ripping up and then getting airborne.”

    Responding to the circumstance, fellow CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins assured the audience that Cooper was in good condition.

    “I do want to note for everyone watching who is very concerned obviously about all of our correspondents and anchors on the ground, Anderson is OK,” Collins reported.

    “Just obviously understandably difficult to establish a connection when you’re seeing what’s happening with the wind and the rain. And obviously the deteriorating conditions by the minute.”

    Hurricane Milton, once classified as a Category 5, made landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm before weakening to a Category 1, with 90 mph winds, as it traveled across the Sunshine State. As of Thursday evening, more than 100 homes were destroyed by the surge, and 2.7 million homes and businesses were left without power.

    “Extremely dangerous category 3 Hurricane Milton makes landfall near Siesta Key Florida,” the National Hurricane Center wrote on Wednesday. “Life-threatening storm surge, extreme winds, and flash flooding occurring over the central Florida Peninsula.”

    Over the weekend, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for most of Florida’s counties as Hurricane Milton headed toward the state.

    “The storm was significant, but thankfully, this was not the worst-case scenario,” the governor said at a briefing on Thursday, noting the storm’s weakened state before landfall and that the surge “as initially reported has not been as significant overall as what was observed for Hurricane Helene.”

    Later in the briefing, DeSantis warned Florida residents to “be cautious of hazards” as people begin to clean up following the storm.

    “We have post-storm fatalities, almost every storm, and a lot of these fatalities are avoidable,” he said. “Please be cautious of down power lines, don’t touch them. Don’t remove tree debris that may be entangled with down power lines.

    “Standing water can conceal down power lines, and other hazards, so please be mindful. And never walk through storm waters.”

    DeSantis said that storm waters can carry infectious bacteria.

    “I think everyone responded very quickly. I’m proud of everybody’s hard work. We got more work to do, but we will absolutely get through this,” he said.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 20:05

  • Where Obesity Is Most Prevalent In The US
    Where Obesity Is Most Prevalent In The US

    Obesity is a major public health issue in the United States, affecting millions of Americans and placing a significant strain on the healthcare system.

    Nationally, as Statista’s Felix Richter reports, the U.S. has one of the highest obesity rates in the world, with over 40 percent of adults classified as obese.

    This far exceeds the global average, making the U.S. a leader in obesity prevalence among developed nations. Obesity is linked to numerous health complications, including heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers, leading to higher mortality rates and increased healthcare costs.

    However, obesity rates within the U.S. vary considerably between states.

    Infographic: Where Obesity Is Most Prevalent in the U.S. | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    According to CDC data, southern and midwestern states, such as Mississippi, West Virginia and Alabama, consistently rank among the highest in obesity prevalence, often exceeding 40 percent.

    In contrast, states like Colorado and Hawaii have significantly lower obesity rates, with Colorado and DC the only states/districts with obesity rates below 25 percent.

    These disparities may be influenced by factors such as income, education, access to healthcare, cultural attitudes toward diet and exercise and even geographical factors that affect lifestyle habits.

    Economic inequality plays a major role, as people in lower-income areas often have limited access to healthy foods and safe spaces for physical activity.

    Additionally, educational disparities can affect awareness of healthy lifestyles, with lower obesity rates typically seen in states with higher levels of educational attainment.

    Climate and geography also contribute, with states that offer more opportunities for outdoor recreation, such as Colorado, generally reporting lower obesity rates than regions with harsher climates or fewer recreational options.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 19:40

  • Trump's Toughest Foe Could Be Harris Lawyer Marc Elias
    Trump’s Toughest Foe Could Be Harris Lawyer Marc Elias

    Authored by Paul Sperry via RealClearInvestigations,

    If Donald Trump gets past Kamala Harris on Nov. 5, he’ll likely face a fiercer opponent in court – her campaign attorney, Marc Elias, who has vowed to fight the election outcome in every close state she loses.

    The longtime Democratic Party lawyer has already filed more than 60 preelection lawsuits to stop Trump from becoming president again by combatting what he calls Republican “voter suppression” efforts such as requiring voters to provide identification at the polls. Echoing a standard Democratic talking point, Elias maintains that such requirements are “racist” strategies designed to make it harder for minorities to vote.

    At the same time, Elias has been sending letters to election officials in Georgia and other key swing states threatening legal action if they uphold challenges to voter rolls to remove noncitizens and other ineligible registrants. Some Georgia officials complain that his intimidation tactics are interfering with county registrars’ ability to check the qualifications of voters.

    If Trump is declared the winner, the hard-charging attorney threatens to overturn his election by deploying an army of more than 75 lawyers to sue for ballot recounts in several swing states. Trump, in turn, has threatened to lock Elias up for election interference, as ABC News moderator David Muir pointed out in last month’s presidential debate between Trump and Kamala Harris.

    Elias symbolizes the growing impact of lawfare on U.S. elections as both parties are turning increasingly to the courts to gain an edge. According to a newly disclosed Republican National Committee memo, the Trump campaign has filed or joined 123 election lawsuits in 26 states, 82 of which are in battleground states, to combat what it describes as voter fraud. It has also hired thousands of lawyers to fend off what a Trump lawyer expects will be “an onslaught of litigation” from the Harris campaign contesting the results of the election. Of course, that army of lawyers will also be used to push recounts should Trump lose.

    Election experts say that these GOP efforts – fueled, in part, by Trump’s claim that Democrats stole the 2020 election – are playing catch-up. Democrats have long been at the forefront of strategies to use the court to impact elections, and no one has been more important to that cause than Elias, who keeps a sign behind his desk that warns: “BEWARE OF ATTACK DEMOCRAT.” 

    To many Democrats, he is a hero. The headline of a 2022 profile of Elias in the New Yorker called Elias, “The First Defense Against Trump’s Assault on Democracy.”

    Conservatives tend to see Elias in a much different light. “Mr. Elias is part of a massive and well-funded partisan leftist operation notorious for using lawfare to undermine election integrity,” says Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. “Making it easier to steal elections is the antithesis of ‘democracy.’”

    Nevertheless, in the expanding world of lawfare, Elias, a 55-year-old graduate of Duke University’s law school, continues to stand apart. While scoring many victories in the courthouse, he has also worked closely with campaigns on partisan efforts that have little to do with jurisprudence.

    More Than a Courtroom Partisan

    As general counsel to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, he helped lead the effort to manufacture and leak spurious “opposition research” claiming to reveal illicit ties between Trump and Russia.

    Elias later testified that he was worried – then as now – that Trump was a threat to democracy: “I received information that was troubling as someone who cares about democracy.” That “information” turned out to be a fictitious “dossier” linking Trump to the Kremlin crafted by former British spook and FBI informant Christopher Steele, who huddled with Elias in his Washington office. 

    “Some of the information that was in it I think has actually proved true. It was accurate and important,” Elias testified in a closed-door hearing on Capitol Hill in December 2017, according to a declassified transcript. Actually, Steele’s allegations proved to be a collection of improbable rumors and fabricated allegations invented by Steele’s top researcher and a Clinton campaign adviser.

    Nonetheless, the disinformation was fed to the FBI and media, igniting criminal investigations (including illegal electronic surveillance), congressional probes, and a media frenzy that crippled Trump’s presidency with bad press for years.

    In a parallel operation against Trump, Elias worked with his then-law partner Michael Sussmann and Clinton campaign officials – including Jake Sullivan, who is now President Biden’s national security adviser – to develop misleading evidence of a “secret hotline” between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that allegedly used a “back channel” connection between email servers at Trump Tower and Russian-owned Alfa Bank. These false allegations were posted on social media and brought to the attention of the FBI, triggering a separate criminal investigation targeting Trump and his campaign. Like other Russiagate probes, it was eventually discredited.

    But the damage was done. By spreading fake Russian dirt on Trump, Elias was able to create scandals that dogged Trump for years, tarnishing his electability. The Democratic lawyer’s machinations, however, drew scrutiny from other investigators and hurt his own reputation – albeit temporarily.

    During his probe of Russiagate, Special Counsel John Durham found Elias intentionally sought to conceal Clinton’s role in the dossier. According to court records, Elias acted as a cutout for more than $1 million in campaign payments for the dossier. By laundering its payments through a law firm, the Clinton campaign and Elias were able to claim attorney-client confidentiality when Durham sought their internal emails (the assertion of that privilege also blocked investigators from accessing communications between Elias and Steele’s immediate employer, the Washington-based opposition research firm, FusionGPS). But their shell game got the Clinton campaign in trouble with the Federal Election Commission, which later fined it and the Democratic National Committee $113,000 for misreporting the purpose of the payments as “legal expenses,” rather than opposition research, in violation of FEC laws.

    The Durham probe, which Elias insists was “politically motivated,” nonetheless raised ethical issues with the D.C. Bar and Elias’ former law firm, Perkins Coie, reportedly leading to their breakup in August 2021, when Elias suddenly left the powerhouse after almost 30 years. The firm, which Elias had joined fresh out of law school in 1993, grew “increasingly uncomfortable” with the unwanted scrutiny the Durham probe invited on it, according to published reports. The veteran prosecutor exposed questionable billing practices by the firm. Durham also revealed the Democratic firm had set up an FBI workspace within its Washington offices, further calling into question the FBI’s impartiality in investigating Trump. 

    In late 2021, Elias opened his own firm, the Elias Law Group, but soon lost major clients who reportedly grew weary of his aggressive tactics and go-it-alone style. Last year, the DNC severed its 15-year relationship with Elias; then more recently, the Biden campaign parted company with him. In 2020, Elias had quarterbacked Biden’s legal team that fought Trump’s claims in court that the election had been stolen. He also beat back GOP measures to ensure election integrity after Democrats took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to dramatically loosen rules for voting – including allowing ballot harvesting, drop boxes, and ballots arriving up to four days after Election Day to still be counted.

    Top Democratic Party officials were said to sour on Elias after he filed election-related lawsuits without consulting with them, some of which backfired with unfavorable – and lasting – rulings. Biden’s team reportedly also became frustrated with his fees. Elias billed the DNC and Biden campaign more than $20 million during the 2020 election cycle.

    But Elias has since taken on other clients – including Kamala Harris – who have more than made up for the loss in revenue. So far in this election cycle, the latest FEC filings show the Elias Law Group has received a total of more than $22 million in disbursements from a host of major Democratic and anti-Trump clients. In addition to the Harris For President campaign, where he’s in charge of recounts and post-election litigation (it’s not known if he also has a hand in opposition research, as he did in 2016), Elias has signed retainer agreements with the:

    • Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
    • Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
    • [Democratic] Senate Majority PAC
    • Stop Trump PAC
    • The Lincoln Project

    Elias has also been retained by Mind The Gap, a political action committee set up to help Democrats take back the House. Mind The Gap was founded by Barbara Fried, the mother of convicted crypto kingpin Sam Bankman-Fried. In a lawsuit filed last year, Fried, a Stanford law professor, is accused of orchestrating a potentially illegal scheme to funnel political contributions from her son to her PAC.

    Among Elias’ other clients are Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, a leader of House efforts to impeach Trump who, records show, is shelling out a six-figure retainer for Elias as he runs for an open U.S. Senate seat in California, and Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman, who previously served as Schiff’s chief counsel during the first Trump impeachment. 

    Elias also represents Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who polls show is narrowly leading GOP challenger Bernie Moreno in his race for reelection, according to the RealClearPolitics Average. That race could determine control of the Senate.

    The business of political lawfare – or “protecting democracy,” as Elias calls his job – has made the super lawyer super-rich. The most recent property records show Elias lives in a $2.6 million mansion in Great Falls, Va., and FEC records show he has the wherewithal to donate generous sums to his party, including a combined total of at least $65,000 in gifts to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

    “Aggressive Bully”

    Elias first earned his reputation as a fierce and effective advocate in 2009, when he won an eight-month recount battle to get his client, Al Franken, elected to the Senate. He also scored a series of victories against the Trump campaign in 2020.

    “My team and I beat [Trump] in court 60-plus times,” Elias boasted on X last month, in his trademark brashness. “Here is my message to the GOP: If you try to subvert the election in 2024, you will be sued and you will lose.” 

    Representing Biden electors in Arizona, for example, Elias in late 2020 defeated a post-election Trump lawsuit alleging voter fraud in Maricopa County by arguing at trial the plaintiff showed the court only “garden variety errors” but provided “no evidence about misconduct, no evidence about fraud, no evidence about illegal votes.”

    But Elias’ aggressive posture has also backfired.

    In 2016, he sued Arizona to strike down two laws that, he argued, made it harder for blacks and Hispanics to vote. One banned the practice of partisans going door-to-door and collecting mail-in ballots and bringing them to a polling place, and the other canceled ballots that were cast at the wrong precinct. Elias argued the measures violated a key part of the Voting Rights Act – Section 2 – prohibiting states from passing voting laws that discriminate based on race. After a lower court in Arizona refused to block the measures prior to the election, Elias appealed and won a favorable ruling from the liberal U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. But in the case, Brnovich v. DNC,  the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Arizona, ruling that the state’s ballot-integrity measures lacked discriminatory intent. 

    UCLA law professor Rick Hasen speculates that the conservative Supreme Court used the Brnovich case as “an opportunity to weaken” Section 2, which Democratic voting-rights lawyers have relied on as a tool for civil rights enforcement. Regardless of the justices’ motives, the Brnovich decision does establish a precedent whereby voting rules resulting in only small disparities for voters of color can no longer be challenged. Some Democrats complain that Elias’ loss in Arizona opened the door for all red states to impose “restrictions” on voting.

    “Marc didn’t listen to such criticism and he brought an extremely weak Voting Rights Act case in Arizona to disastrous results,” Hasen wrote in a recent blog. “It is fine to be zealous in one’s advocacy,” he added, “but one need not be an aggressive bully.”

    Elias has also aggravated judges. He’s been disciplined for filing frivolous lawsuits and motions. In 2021, for instance, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sanctioned Elias for refiling a motion that was previously rejected by a lower court “without disclosing the previous denial.” The appellate court ordered him to pay attorneys’ fees and court costs incurred by opponents in the Texas election case over his “duplicative” motion.

    “Using lawfare as Elias does is legal – unless the litigation is frivolous,” said Paul Kamenar, general counsel for the National Legal and Policy Center in Washington.

    Elias and an attorney representing him did not reply to requests for comment. But in a previous interview, he dismissed the criticism that he is unnecessarily belligerent, arguing that the “existential threat Trump poses to democracy” demands tough action. He acknowledged that he can be brusque but explained he discarded lawyerly circumspection and restraint after Trump’s 2016 election “radicalized” him. 

    “And so I became a much more polarized person and a more polarizing lawyer,” Elias told The New Yorker.

    In a recent column for his Democracy Docket website, Elias attacked Trump as another “Hitler” who is “plotting to overthrow American democracy.” He even warned that a reelected Trump “is almost certain to convert the military into his personal domestic police force” and “seize voting machines [and] control ballot counting,” even though state laws govern elections.

    Still, he denies filing groundless grievances over voting rules. He insists many of the tighter rules imposed by Republicans serve no legitimate purpose. And he doesn’t buy their argument that they’re needed to stop fraudulent voting because, as he claims, voter fraud is rare (or, more precisely, rarely prosecuted).

    Anti-Trump War Room

    “Republicans are working every day to make it harder to vote,” Elias recently posted on X. “They are also planning to subvert the elections when they lose.”

    Noting the GOP’s flurry of preelection lawsuits, including in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, and North Carolina, Elias recently told MSNBC that Republicans will do anything to push Trump over the top because he cannot win on his own. “He is set to lose to Kamala Harris,” Elias claimed, “and Republicans know that their only way of winning this election is by intimidating voters, making it hard for voters to participate in the process, and by setting up a structure after the election for them to be able to engage in the kind of frivolous and harassing litigation and ultimately the kind of tactics we saw in 2020 – but on a much wider scale.”

    To combat this, “My law firm is litigating 66 voting and election lawsuits in 23 states,” he said on X, with most of them concentrated in Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin. “And we are winning!” By comparison, Elias filed 20 voting-related lawsuits in 14 states at this point in the 2020 election cycle, making him more than three times as litigious this time.

    His anti-Trump legal war room includes a for-profit operation he founded in 2020 called Democracy Docket LLC, which employs 16 and is housed in the same office as his law firm, records show. The digital platform tracks several hundred voting-related cases and publishes a weekly organ distributed to more than 225,000 paid subscribers (at $120 a year), who include lawyers, politicians, and journalists.

    A sister operation, Democracy Docket Legal Fund, supports election litigation to protect the voting rights of primarily minority voters. Another spinoff, the Democracy Docket Action Fund, raises money for voting rights lawsuits. According to the Capital Research Center, the two organizations are bankrolled by millions of dollars in so-called dark money, including from leftwing billionaire George Soros – whom Elias has called “a hero.” Through these vehicles, Elias has virtually “unlimited funding” to challenge any voting law in any state if he thinks it will help his party and his Democratic clients win elections, according to Americans for Public Trust, a government watchdog group based in Alexandria, Va.

    While Elias publicly claims he’s “defending free and fair elections,” it’s clear from his actions behind the scenes that his motives are purely partisan, critics say. Last month, he sent a letter to Virginia state election officials threatening to sue them if they don’t remove Cornel West, the presidential nominee of the leftwing Justice for All Party, from the state ballot. Elias is also trying to keep West, a progressive black college professor, off the ballot in 15 other states, including key battlegrounds. These efforts clearly have nothing to do with voting rights. Elias is simply worried West will bleed off enough votes from his Democratic client Kamala Harris to cost her victories in states where she is leading by razor-thin margins against Trump.

    In a column he wrote last year for Democracy Docket, Elias admitted: “A vote for No Labels, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West or any other third-party candidate is effectively a vote for Trump.” 

    In addition, Elias is quietly working with immigrant advocacy groups that want to make it possible for noncitizens to vote. In August, for example, Elias stepped in to represent El Pueblo in its quest to stop North Carolina’s State Board of Elections from removing noncitizens from voter registration rolls as required by a 2023 law. An estimated 325,000 “unauthorized” immigrants reside in the state.

    RealClearInvestigations has learned that Elias supports another group that provides “compassionate” pro-bono legal services to immigrants who have entered the United States, many illegally.

    Elias and his wife Brenley, also a lawyer, are listed as “donors” on a mailing list kept by Just Neighbors, which partners with Justice for Our Neighbors, operating in the D.C.-Maryland area. The group’s website says it provides free lawyers to help illegal immigrants get out of detention, obtain asylum status, and avoid deportation. “Populations served: Individuals who are not in legal immigration status,” the website states, and “individuals with criminal histories.”

    It’s not known if the Eliases have actually provided pro-bono legal services to illegal aliens. Elias and an attorney representing him did not respond to requests for comment.

    Nevertheless, as more than a dozen jurisdictions run by Democrats now allow noncitizens to vote in some local elections, the push to redefine who is eligible for the franchise promises to become an ever more potent and divisive issue in American politics. Much of this debate will almost certainly be hashed out in the courtroom battles and behind-the-scenes political maneuvering that are Marc Elias’ special practice. 

    Paul Sperry is an investigative reporter for RealClearInvestigations. He is also a longtime media fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. Sperry was previously the Washington bureau chief for Investor’s Business Daily, and his work has appeared in the New York Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Houston Chronicle, among other major publications.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 19:15

  • Stockman On Whether Trump Can Bring The US Empire Home
    Stockman On Whether Trump Can Bring The US Empire Home

    Authored by David Stockman via InternationalMan.com,

    As should be evident by now, Donald Trump is about 90% bombast and 10% substance when it comes to policy matters. But every now and then one of his word bombs finds its mark, as this one did when he dissed the presumptuous little pissant who shuttled-in from Kiev last week to embark upon still another American treasure hunt. Referring to Zelensky, the Donald averred,

    “…(he’s) the greatest salesman in history. Every time he comes into the country, he walks away with 60 billion dollars.”

    My god, times are indeed desperate when the once and former Peace Party of America is represented by the likes of Kamala “lethal force” Harris and Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who saw fit to conduct a photo op ghoulishly signing artillery shells that are designed to blow to smithereens anyone in their glide path—man, woman, child or combatant. That is to say, we’ve reached the point, apparently, where the only hope to stop Washington’s vile War Machine is Donald J. Trump.

    Still, we dare not be naive. Trump did not spend a lifetime delving deep into world history or thinking about how to promote a peaceful Taftian approach to an America First foreign policy in the world of 2024. The Donald’s sole preoccupation and expertise all along has been the promotion of The Donald.

    Indeed, he actually had so little regard for the cause of world peace that he saw fit to populate his last administration with its sworn enemies—John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, Mad Dog Mattis, Gina Haspel, Nikki Haley and Victoria Nuland, among a legion of other neocons and hawks. And when these warmongers brought him the transparently false flag “gas attack” on Douma in 2018 he didn’t hesitate to order “bombs away”.

    Then again, what did the tiny god-forsaken hell-hole in Syria, with a GDP equal to 7.3 hours of annual US output and no blue water Navy or long range Air Force, have to do with the security of the US Homeland? Or with Making America Great Again?

    Absolutely nothing, of course. The Douma bombing that Trump sanctioned was actually just another spasmodic strike of the War Machine attempting to enforce a US Imperium that is bankrupting America and making the world a far more dangerous place then it would otherwise be.

    But this week’s contretemps at the Scranton munitions factory may be just what the doctor ordered to transform the Donald into the statesman who finally brought the Empire Home, and thereby at least slowed the nation’s headlong rush to fiscal Armageddon. That’s because for the Donald, policy positions are mainly a club to attack opponents and enemies.

    So by coming to the ultra-swing state of Pennsylvania 40 days before what is likely to be the closest election in US history, Zelensky and his Deep State and military-industrial complex patrons have become the Donald’s mortal enemies. And about that we should know one thing by now without doubt.

    To wit, the Donald is an angry, egomaniacal hot mess who gives the idea of holding a grudge a wholly new definition. So if elected, he will surely do all in his power to defenestrate Zelensky and cause the Deep State War Machine to suffer a humiliating defeat in Ukraine by flying to, say Budapest, and cutting a deal with Putin that does end the Ukraine proxy war very quickly indeed.

    And he can do just that because the election interference of the once and current clown of Ukraine was so blatant that even the neocon hawks who dominate GOP national security policy on Capitol Hill have had their water shut-off by the revulsion of their own rank and file. For instance, Senator Ted Cruz, who ordinarily sports a very blackish plume of hawkish feathers, had this to say:

    “Who the hell is Zelensky to be trying to interfere in our election? the arrogance of this guy,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Wednesday in his “Verdict” podcast. “And the guy, I’ve got to say, is an absolute moron for coming to the U.S. six weeks before the election and attacking Trump and Vance. 

    “This is just dumb on his part, because if Trump wins, he’s got a huge problem that just got bigger,” Cruz added.

    The underlined phrase tells you all you need to know. The vast GOP majority is bolting from the authorized neocon position, leaving perhaps the likes of Lindsay Graham all by his lonesome out on the bleeding edge of the war paint parade.

    Still, it just keeps getting better. The Dems have slid so far into the TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) tank that they are positioning themselves as bellicose, latter day McCarthyites. Yet these kinds of attacks by their presidential candidate are only sure to fire-up the GOP’s partisan juices, meaning there will be precious little Republican resistance to the Donald’s likely Inauguration Day actions to end the proxy war on Russia.

    Harris in her remarks took a veiled swipe at Trump and Vance, saying “some in my country” would “force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory.”

    “These proposals are the same of those of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” she said. “And let us be clear: They are not proposals for peace. Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable.”

    Puleeese. There is nothing very “sovereign” about a tyrannical administrative unit put together by Lenin, Stalin and Khrushchev that had no prior organic national history of its own among the Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, Swedish, Austrian, Mongol and Turkish Empires that contested the Ukrainian steepes over the centuries before 1920. Nor would its partition today amount to anything remotely akin to “surrender”. In fact, quieting the guns, drones, tanks, artillery shells and warplanes along the line of contact in Ukraine would bring peace to the region, even as it spared what remains of the Ukrainian military age population and economic infrastructure from the senseless carnage now rampant all across the land.

    Better still, the morning after the impending Trump-Putin territorial partition, which will likely carve away the Donbas and the Black Sea rim from a demilitarized, NATO-free rump of Ukraine, the dog that doesn’t bark will literally change the course of history. That is to say, the Baltics will not be invaded; Poland will not be occupied; the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin will not be entered by Russian troops; and the Benelux, France and England will slouch merrily onward toward socialist economic and moral decay without any assist from Vlad Putin, at all.

    Stated differently, yet again no dominoes are destined to fall when the Washington War Party is forced once more to pack up the Empire and go home from the hideously misbegotten adventure in Ukraine. And by now it is deeply familiar with retreat, as in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and various lesser sites of previous imperial failure and humiliation.

    Yet, hopefully, this time will be different. Perhaps this time a one-off defeat can be transformed into a history-making pivot away from Empire and the Warfare State to a renewal of America’s pre-1914 commitment to “no entangling alliances” and peaceful commerce with the rest of the world.

    In that context, Donald Trump may become history’s paladin of salvation from the boot heels of the American Empire, but it will be up to the “Rescue the Republic” team led by Bobby Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard to ensure that the entire hegemonic framework of national security policy which spawned this calamity will be discredited, repudiated and abandoned in favor of a non-interventionist foreign policy consistent with America’s Republican tradition and future economic health and survival.

    Needless to say, the one and only place to start is by “starving the beast” on the Pentagon and Langley side of the Potomac. That is to say, only be exploring what it would take to cut the defense budget by 50% can the outlines of a 21st century Fortress America national security policy be appreciated.

    Such a deep cut in the Pentagon’s current hideously bloated budget would still leave $450 billion per year to insure the security and liberty of the American homeland. Not only is that more than enough, but the number itself has an uncanny level of historical verisimilitude.

    As it happens, that was the level of the defense budget in today’s dollars of purchasing power when Bobby Kennedy’s uncle gave his powerful American University speech in June 1963. This soaring oration was delivered at the height of the cold war when the Soviet Union was still at the peak of its industrial and military vigor and just months after the Cuban Missile Crisis when the world had looked into the abyss of nuclear Armageddon.

    Needless to say, the conventional politicians of the time were in a mode of full-throated anti-Soviet belligerence, yet JFK saw fit to make the greatest peace speech ever delivered by an American president. He well understood that at the then current level of defense spending, America had more than enough military capacity and deterrence power to discourage any would be aggressor, but that an adequate defense capability was but a pre-condition for the true security of a peaceful de-militarized world:

    I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children–not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women–not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.

    Since then there have been two huge changes in global geopolitics that have made the world far, far less threatening than the one JFK had faced months earlier during October 1962. To wit:

    • The massively militarized, economically autarkic Soviet Empire has disappeared into the dustbin of history.

    • The incipient militarized state in Red China under Mao failed five decades ago and was turned outward and transformed into a commercial export powerhouse by Deng Xiaoping after the early 1990s.

    These epochal changes have profound significance for America’s homeland security. In the absence of a massively militarized autarkic state foe capable of global military power projection, the way is once again clear for a far more modest Fortress America national security posture.

    To the point, today’s Russia is but a shadow of the Soviet Union with a GDP of just $2 trillion versus the $50 trillion of Europe and North America. And rather than absorbing upwards of one-third of GDP as in Soviet times, Russia’s paltry $60 billion defense budget prior to its special operation in Ukraine amounted to just 3.5% of GDP.

    Even more importantly, Soviet Russia was a closed system with virtually no economic commerce with the world outside the communist bloc. Therefore it had nothing to lose economically in the event of an aggressive military assault on the west and the global conflagration which would have ensued.

    To the contrary, China’s very economic modus operandi depends upon $3.5 trillion per year of exports to the outside world. The material prosperity in China that has given the ruling communist party an extended lease on life would collapse in a few months if Beijing even attempted a military assault on Western Europe or the United States. So PLA bombing of 4,000 Walmart stores in America will never happen. Nor will Chinese marines ever be landing on the California shores.

    Accordingly, the United States today does not need a globalized, two-and-one-half war fighting capability that even JFK thought necessary in the early 1960s. Yet Washington continues to stand-up twice JFK’s military budget in real terms and maintain a global network of bases, power projection capabilities, alliances, commitments, interventions and occupations that were not even necessary in 1963.

    As a practical matter, America’s ostensible “enemies” today have no offensive or invasionary capacity at all. Russia has only one aircraft carrier—a 1980s era vessel which has been in dry-dock for repairs since 2017 and is equipped with neither a phalanx of escort ships nor a suite of attack and fighter aircraft—and at the moment not even an active crew.

    Likewise, China has just three aircraft carriers—two of which are refurbished rust buckets purchased from the remnants of the old Soviet Union, and which carriers do not even have modern catapults for launching their strike aircraft.

    Indeed, invasion of the American homeland would require a massive conventional armada of land, air and sea-based forces many, many times larger than the military behemoth that is now funded by Washington’s $900 billion defense budget. The logistical infrastructure that would be needed to control the vast Atlantic and Pacific Ocean moats surrounding North America and to sustain an invasion and occupation force of the US mainland is so mind-mindbogglingly vast as to be scarcely imaginable.

    For want of doubt, the graphic below compares Washington’s 11 carrier battle groups, which cost about $25 billion each including their escort ships, suites of aircraft and electronic and missile capabilities, with those of the other major powers. Self-evidently, none of the non-NATO countries shown in the red area of the graphic—China, India, Japan, Russia or Thailand—will be steaming their tiny 3, 2 and 1 carrier battle groups toward the shores of either California or New New Jersey any time soon. An invasionary force that had any chance at all of surviving a US fortress defense of cruise missiles, drones, jet fighters, attack submarines and electronics warfare would need to be 100X larger.

    Yet there is no GDP in the world—$2 trillion for Russia, $3.5 trillion for India or $18 trillion for China—that is even remotely close in size to the $50 to $100 trillion GDP that would be needed to support such an invasionary force without capsizing the home economy.

    At the same time, the 11 US carrier battle groups, which will cost upwards of $1.2 trillion over the next decade, would have no role in a continental Fortress America defense at all. They would be sitting ducks in the blue waters, and far less effective than aircraft and missile defenses based in the North American interior.

    In short, these massively expensive forces have no purpose other than global power projection and the conduct of wars of invasion and occupation abroad. That is, they are white elephant military accoutrements of a day gone by, not even remotely relevant to a proper Fortress America defense in 2024.

    In today’s world, in fact, the only theoretical military threat to America’s homeland security is the possibility of nuclear blackmail. That is to say, a First Strike capacity so overwhelming, lethal and effective that an enemy could simply call out checkmate and demand Washington’s surrender.

    An absolutely invulnerable triad (air, sea and land-based) nuclear deterrent can be funded for just $75 billion per year, or barely 6% of the current national defense budget. Much of the rest has nothing to do with securing the American Homeland behind the great Atlantic and Pacific Ocean moats from conventional attack and, in fact, is useful mainly for power projection abroad and operating the now obsolete global network of cold war alliances and bases stretching across the globe.

    *  *  *

    The amount of money the US government spends on foreign aid, wars, the so-called intelligence community, and other aspects of foreign policy is enormous and ever-growing. It’s an established trend in motion that is accelerating, and now approaching a breaking point. It could cause the most significant disaster since the 1930s. Most people won’t be prepared for what’s coming. That’s precisely why bestselling author Doug Casey and his team just released an urgent video with all the details. Click here to watch it now.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 18:25

  • Coast Guard Rescues Man Floating On Cooler 30 Miles Off Florida Coast
    Coast Guard Rescues Man Floating On Cooler 30 Miles Off Florida Coast

    30 Miles!!!!

    A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew on Thursday rescued a man spotted floating on a cooler in the sea, dozens of miles off Florida’s Gulf Coast after Hurricane Milton struck.

    The Coast Guard said an Air Station Miami helicopter crew rescued the captain of a fishing vessel called “Capt. Dave” 30 miles off Longboat Key.

    He was transferred to Tampa General Hospital to undergo further treatment, officials said in an Oct. 10 statement.

    As The Epoch Times’ Katabella Roberts reports below, the Coast Guard said the man survived because he was wearing a life jacket and had an emergency position locator beacon and a cooler.

    “This man survived in a nightmare scenario for even the most experienced mariner,” Dana Grady, the St. Petersburg command center chief of the U.S. Coast Guard, said.

    The captain of the fishing vessel and a crew member first reported needing assistance about 20 miles off John’s Pass in Florida on Monday. A Coast Guard Station Sand Key rescue boat crew and an Air Station Clearwater rescue helicopter crew were deployed to the scene, according to the Coast Guard.

    The captain and the crew members were rescued and brought back to Air Station Clearwater in “good condition.”

    The boat was left adrift and “salvage arrangements were to be made,” the Coast Guard said.

    On Wednesday, the owner of the fishing vessel informed the Coast Guard that the captain had returned to the boat at about 3 a.m. to make some repairs but had failed to check in.

    “Watchstanders were able to make radio contact with the captain who reported the rudder was fouled with a line and became disabled during his transit back to port,” the Coast Guard said.

    At the time of the rescue operation, the weather was “quickly deteriorating” as Hurricane Milton approached, with waves reaching six to eight feet and winds of around 30 mph, according to the Coast Guard.

    Air Station Miami airplane crews fly over Florida’s west coast looking for people in distress and assessing damage, on Oct. 10, 2024. Courtesy of Mike O’Keefe/U.S. Coast Guard

    The captain was instructed by the Coast Guard to put on a life jacket and “stay with the boat’s emergency position indicating a radio beacon.”

    The Coast Guard lost communication with the captain at about 6:45 p.m. on Wednesday.

    Search and rescue teams eventually spotted him adrift with the cooler at about 1:30 p.m. on Thursday.

    The Coast Guard shared video footage of the rescue on social media platform X.

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

    It shows the captain kneeling on the cooler as a Coast Guard helicopter from Air Station Miami approaches. A crew member is then lowered into the water before swimming toward the captain. The video ends before he is hoisted out of the sea.

    The rescue came after Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida, on Wednesday evening as a powerful Category 3 storm, bringing with it powerful winds, deadly storm surges, and flooding.

    At least 10 people are believed to have died in the storm. Search and rescue operations are continuing.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 18:00

  • P. Diddy And US Attorney Damian Williams: Let The Games Begin
    P. Diddy And US Attorney Damian Williams: Let The Games Begin

    Authored by Nick Braynt via nickbryantnyc.com,

    Andre Damian Williams Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, once again has the distinction of covering up child sex trafficking. He received that distinction for overseeing a federal grand jury that didn’t indict Sean “Diddy” Combs on a single count of child sex trafficking and/or molestation. 

    Before I address Williams’ new offenses against children, I should offer a reminder about his prior offenses. Williams was appointed the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in December of 2018, and he became the point-man for the Epstein cover-up. He was slated to oversee the trial of Jeffrey Epstein, but Epstein became preoccupied with his death. Williams, however, oversaw the Ghislaine Maxwell trial, which was a travesty of justice even before it commenced: Federal prosecutors only indicted Maxwell on one-count of child trafficking, even though her and Epstein had trafficked children for approximately 25 years. Moreover, the federal prosecutors were aware of over 30 child Epstein trafficking victims, but they only called four victims as witnesses, and those victims had been exclusively molested by Epstein and Maxwell. The federal prosecutors were aware of various Epstein procurers (pimps) and numerous perpetrators. But the prosecutors’ flagrant objective was a cover up of the procurers (pimps) and perpetrators in the Epstein network. One-count of child trafficking carries a 15-year to life sentence, and Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years. 

    In the wake of Maxwell’s trial, Williams said the following with a straight face: “Today’s sentence holds Ghislaine Maxwell accountable for perpetrating heinous crimes against children. This sentence sends a strong message that no one is above the law and it is never too late for justice. We again express our gratitude to Epstein and Maxwell’s victims for their courage in coming forward, in testifying at trial, and in sharing their stories as part of today’s sentencing.” His statements were rather ironic, because he just facilitated the cover-up of the largest child trafficking network ever acknowledged by US law enforcement. The cover-up of a crime is aiding and abetting that crime, so Williams is guilty of aiding and abetting child trafficking.

    Williams’ offenses against children were again on display as he oversaw the Combs’ grand jury that returned the following indictments against Combs.

    • One count of racketeering conspiracy 
    • One count of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion
    • One count of transportation for purposes of prostitution

    Two of the sexual assault lawsuits that are pending against Combs were filed by minors. One of those lawsuits was filed by Liza Gardner who alleges that Combs raped her when she was 16 years old. A second lawsuit, filed by “Jane Doe,” alleges that minions of Combs flew her from Detroit to New York City when she was 17 years old, where Combs plied her with alcohol and took turns raping her with two other men. The latter is a blatant case of the interstate sex trafficking of a minor, but it seems to have been overlooked by Williams and his cadre in the Southern District. Either Williams thought she was lying or he’s covering up Combs’ child trafficking. 

    Combs is charged with one count of “racketeering conspiracy” but, thus far, his co-conspirators haven’t been indicted. Ghislaine Maxwell, too, was indicted on multiple conspiracies:

    • One count conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts
    • One count of conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts 
    • One count of sex trafficking conspiracy

    Though Maxwell was indicted on multiple conspiracies, Williams’ office didn’t indict one of her co-conspirators. Combs has also been indicted on conspiracy, but his co-conspirators have not been indicted. Is the Combs’ case history repeating itself?

    According to a BBC article, “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs faces more than 100 new assault allegations,” a Texas-based attorney, Tony Buzbee, is representing “more than 100” alleged victims of Combs. And he maintains that 25 of the alleged victims he is representing were minors when they were molested by Combs et al, including an alleged victim who was nine years old at the time. Like Epstein, Buzbee believes that Combs had connections to Mount Olympus. “The names will shock you,” he said at a press conference. Combs engaged in the trafficking of adults and minors for years. Also like Epstein, how could Combs pull off such heinous crimes for years without a little help from his friends in state and/or federal law enforcement?

    Combs is now on suicide watch. The federal corrections officers at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center excelled at ensuring Epstein’s death either by gross negligence or outright malfeasance. Combs is incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. So perhaps Combs jailers in Brooklyn will prove to be more competent than Epstein’s jailers in Manhattan?

    Epstein and Maxwell had a penchant for hidden cameras and blackmail, and they molested children for 25 years. Combs also had a penchant for hidden cameras and a penchant for blackmail. Lil Rod’s sexual assault lawsuit filed against Combs was our first inkling of P. Diddy’s hidden cameras and blackmail.

    But, since then, numerous sources have stated that Combs homes had clandestine cameras. The New York Post reported the following: “One of the Department of Homeland Security agents who helped raid Diddy’s Florida abode claimed that the music mogul had rooms that were clearly ‘dedicated to sex’ with cameras all around. ‘So if you were in those sex parties, you were being recorded from every possible angle, including angles you wouldn’t have known about,’ the source said, referring to the sometimes days-long orgies he called “freak offs” where drugged-up victims were allegedly forced to have sex with male prostitutes.”

    A former bodyguard for Combs, Gene Deal, divulged that he had an affinity for blackmailing the high and mighty. He said: “I don’t think it’s only celebrities gonna be shook. He had politicians in there; he had princes in there. He also had a couple of preachers in there.”

    Suge Knight, the incarcerated, former CEO Death Row Records, has stated that Combs is an FBI informant, and that’s the reason he’s been given a Get Out of Jail Free card for his heinous crimes over the years. Granted, Knight and Combs are antagonistic towards each other, and Knight certainly isn’t a cherub, but sometimes the truth has a way of percolating on the streets. Knight also believes that Combs might be an endangered species, because of the secrets he harbors.

    U.S. Attorney Damian Williams isn’t a cherub either, nor is he your average U.S. Attorney. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York is a position whose occupants have included future judges, senators, cabinet members, and a New York City mayor. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York is considered to be the most powerful federal law enforcement official in Manhattan. 

    According to 28 U.S. Code § 544, a U.S. attorney takes an “oath to execute faithfully his duties.” But Williams disregarded his oath when he facilitated the cover-up of the Epstein/Maxwell trafficking network. So, what would motivate the most powerful federal law enforcement official in Manhattan to disregard his or her oath, especially for such egregious crimes? Williams cherishes his power and doesn’t want to lose it and/or Williams himself is compromised and/or Williams and his family has/have been threatened.

    Williams has spent a lot of time among political shakers and movers. He worked for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. Williams was then a “body man” for the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Terry McAuliffe. In politics, a body man is a ubiquitous personal aide or assistant. 

    Former Virginia Governor Terry McAullife has certainly been tainted by allegations of corruption. Quoting the New York Times: “Mr. McAuliffe is a walking symbol of the wretched excess of the Clinton years. He raised millions in special-interest money for President Clinton’s campaign.” McAuliffe founded a company, GreenTech Automotive, which the Virginia Economic Development Partnership concluded was a visa-for-sale scheme. McAulliffe resigned from the company. The FBI scrutinized $120,000 donation made to McAulliffe’s Virginia gubernatorial campaign by Chinese national Wang Wenliang. McAulliffe initially denied knowing Wang until a preponderance of evidence linked him to Wenliang, who also donated $2 million to the Clinton Foundation.

    In addition to aiding purportedly corrupt, political heavyweights, Williams received substantial funding from the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. Williams parents immigrated from Jamaica to the United States, which made him eligible for the fellowship. Thirty Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships are awarded every year with a selection rate of 1.2%. Each fellow receives up to $90,000 in funding toward their graduate education. Williams attended Yale Law School on a Soros fellowship. (Prior to attending law school, Williams graduated with a BA in economics from Harvard.)

    Peter Soros is the son of Paul & Daisy, and nephew of George Soros. Peter is on the Board of the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, and he also has the distinction of being circled twice in Epstein’s “Black Book.” Epstein’s house manager Alfredo Rodriquez purloined the Black Book, and he circled those who he perceived as being in cahoots with Epstein with regards to pedophilic pandering. Peter Soros reportedly being in cahoots with Epstein and also on the Board of an organization that gave William’s a substantial fellowship could be a very bizarre coincidence or it could be something more ominous.

    If, or until, Williams indicts Combs on multiple counts of child trafficking, he will play the same role that he played for Epstein regarding the coverup of child trafficking and abuse.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 17:40

  • Boeing Slashes 10% Of Workforce, CEO Warns "Hard To Overstate The Challenges We Face"
    Boeing Slashes 10% Of Workforce, CEO Warns “Hard To Overstate The Challenges We Face”

    In what some have called a panic/desperation negotiating tactic, Boeing has announced (late on a Friday afternoon) that it will slash its workforce by 10% as the pummeled planemaker struggles with a cash-crunch amid a drawn-out strike and ongoing quality control (to put it nicely) issues.

    In a memo to employees, CEO Kelly Ortberg noted that the reductions will include executives, managers and employees, warning that:

    “Our business is in a difficult position, and it is hard to overstate the challenges we face together.”

    Boeing ended 2023 with 171,000 employees.

    The company said it expects to report third quarter revenue of $17.8 billion, and a loss per share of $9.97, according to preliminary figures.

    The company unveiled the measures and the earnings figures as it seeks to get its negotiations with labor unions back on track.

    Boeing has made two offers for higher wages, both of which were turned down by workers.

    About 33,000 employees at its main Seattle-area facilities have been on strike for a month now, devastating production and draining Boeing’s reserves.

    The latest talks collapsed earlier this week, with no clear path when and how they might resume.

    Boeing shares tumbled after hours, erasing the day’s gains…

    Ortberg also said the company has notified customers that the first deliveries of the 777X are now expected in 2026, citing the ongoing work stoppage and flight test pause.

    Read the full press release below:

    “While our business is facing near-term challenges, we are making important strategic decisions for our future and have a clear view on the work we must do to restore our company,” said Kelly Ortberg, Boeing president and chief executive officer.

    “These decisive actions, along with key structural changes to our business, are necessary to remain competitive over the long term. We are also focusing on areas that are critical to our future and will ensure we have the balance sheet necessary to invest, support our people and deliver for our customers.”

    Commercial Airplanes expects to recognize pre-tax earnings charges of $3.0 billion on the 777X and 767 programs. The company now anticipates first delivery of the 777-9 in 2026 and the 777-8 freighter in 2028, resulting in a pre-tax earnings charge of $2.6 billion. This schedule and resulting financial impact are based on an updated assessment of the certification timelines to address the delays in flight testing of the 777-9, as well as anticipated delays associated with the IAM work stoppage. Commercial Airplanes also plans to conclude production of the 767 freighter and recognize a $0.4 billion pre-tax charge on the program, which also reflects impacts from the IAM work stoppage. Beginning in 2027, the company will solely produce 767-2C aircraft in support of the KC-46A Tanker program. Commercial Airplanes expects to report third quarter revenue of $7.4 billion and operating margin of (54.0) percent.

    Defense, Space & Security expects to recognize pre-tax earnings charges of $2.0 billion on the T-7A, KC-46A, Commercial Crew, and MQ-25 programs. The T-7A program pre-tax charge of $0.9 billion was driven by higher estimated costs on production contracts in 2026 and beyond. The KC-46A program pre-tax charge of $0.7 billion reflects the decision to conclude production on the 767 freighter and impacts of the IAM work stoppage. Results also include unfavorable performance on other programs. Defense, Space & Security expects to report third quarter revenue $5.5 billion and operating margin of (43.1) percent.

    Finally, a quick thought for all the other corporations out there…

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

    Live by the capitalist sword, DEI by the socialist sword…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 17:20

  • Kamala Unwinding…
    Kamala Unwinding…

    Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

    “…we are facing a catastrophic collapse of governance. With democracy reduced to a tragedy or a farce (probably both things)…”

    –  Ugh Bardi

    “As the US increasingly resembles ancient Rome, being president is more and more dangerous. Something around 35 emperors met violent deaths, most from people in and around their courts. In other words, members of the Roman Deep State. An ugly situation is brewing in and around Washington DC.” 

    – Doug Casey

    Don’t kid yourself: Kamala Harris does not want to be President of the United States. She doesn’t even want the ceremonial stuff, the incessant shuffling from one photo op to the next, the tedious Easter egg rolls, the prayer meetings, the turkey pardonings, the tiresome state banquets for men in strange headgear who are unfamiliar with using the fork and knife, and forbidden to sip chardonnay…

    It’s obvious she has been played for a chump, that she was sandbagged into play-acting “the candidate” by an odd coalition of the distraught and the desperate — that is, the many agency blobsters who fear prison and the perfidious politicians such as Pelosi, Schumer, Mitch the Turtle, the Clintons, and Obama, paid to cover for the blob, often doing it badly, who fear the judgment of history, as well as the loss of their fortunes. Distraught and desperate characters make foolish decisions.

    About thirty seconds after “Joe Biden” vowed to stay in the 2024 race, a delegation of these panicked pols paid him a call and passed him the black spot, knowing he could not credibly front for the massive election cheat underway. He was barely able to front for the previous one in 2020, when every lever of power got pulled to-the-max to conceal the truth about the steal, and to severely punish those who dared to murmur doubts about the election’s freeness and fairness.

    How did they decide that Kamala would do any better? I assure you we will find out when the party explodes in recriminations sometime after November 5. It will probably turn out to look like the 2017 movie, The Death of Stalin, a frantic vaudeville of scheming buffoons oblivious to mundane doings of the suffering nation they pretend to serve. Unlike Nikita Khrushchev in 1953, Kamala did not prevail among this gang of squabbling clowns by force of personality or guile. She was merely a default setting as veep, arrived at to present the illusion of continuity and solidarity where none existed. She was not even involved in the backstage action. I doubt that anyone even asked her if she wanted the assignment — she was only notified after-the-fact. Thus, all the drinking.

    The outstanding question: will the Democratic Party actually go ahead and attempt to execute an election steal despite growing evidence of a developing Trump landslide that might obviate it? The works are already in motion. The mail-in ballots went out long ago and early votes are getting cast by the day. The overseas ballots that require no US address or voter verification are flooding in by the millions and four years of open borders has 10-million illegal aliens (at a minimum) dispersed around the nation, great gobs of them planted in swing states, processed through the DMVs and social services — with the requisite automatic voter registration — their ballots already pre-bundled for harvest.

    It could go a few ways.

    One is, just let’er rip, harvest all those fake votes, stuff the drop-boxes, flood the zone, and do it all right in America’s face as if to say: we can do whatever we want. . .  to get whatever we want. . . and you can’t stop us.

    That is probably the point where blue America finds out exactly what the Second Amendment was designed for.

    You might also expect a whole lot of state-organized resistance, especially in the populous red ones, Texas, Florida, real court cases over fraud this time, contested certification.

    Or, the election could come out a hopeless unresolvable muddle. There’s no precedent for this and no provision in the Constitution, but you can imagine the Supreme Court having to decide a necessary do-over minus all recent gimmicks, paper ballots only, voters with proof of citizenship only, all voting on one re-scheduled election day before January 1.

    This novelty would be something apart from the clunky Congressional machinery established for settling electoral college disputes, since it is predicated on various states’ inability to determine their electoral college vote in the first place, based on patent irregularity and fraud.

    You could also imagine a period of disorder so deep and grave that the regime behind “Joe Biden” declares martial law. . . or, alternately the military — the martial institution — has to take matters into its own hands, shoving aside even “Joe Biden” and his filthy retinue.

    Appalling to consider, I’m sure, but these things happen in history, and the Party of Chaos has set enough mischief in motion to wreck the election and wreck the country. Call it catastrophizing, if you will. There it is.

    But to step back from that abyss, it appears that Mr. Trump’s momentum accelerates by the day, that he is becoming, at last, an implacable, irresistible juggernaut who will, perforce, overcome all the gimmicks, traps, and frauds arrayed against him. Kamala seems to think so. Have you ever seen such resignation, such loserdom-in-action as her recent performance on CBS’s 60-Minutes, or her pitiful admission on ABC’s The View that she couldn’t think of anything she would do differently beyond the excellent management of national affairs under “Joe Biden” (and herself as veep). Surely that said it all. She has nothing, brings nothing.

    Long ago, she was a pretty girl with a law degree and an infectious laugh on the fringes of local politics in San Francisco.

    The winds of fortune blew her this way and that way until she ended up way over her head, used by the reprobates around her as a mere device to stay out of jail.

    She ends as an historical prank on her own country.

    It must be deeply demoralizing to be used like that in front of the whole world.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 17:00

  • Money-Market Fund Assets & Small Bank Deposits Surge To Record Highs… As Stocks Soar
    Money-Market Fund Assets & Small Bank Deposits Surge To Record Highs… As Stocks Soar

    For the third week in a row (and 9th week in the last 10), money-market funds saw inflows (+$11.3BN), pushing total AUM to a new record high ($6.474TN), even as stocks surged to new record highs…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …and also for the third week in a row, US banks saw total bank deposits (seasonally adjusted) rise (by $53.2BN), well above pre-SVB levels…

    Source: Bloomberg

    On a non-seasonally-adjusted basis, deposits soared by a huge $123.9BN to the highest since Jan 2023 (before the SVB crisis)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Perhaps even more stunning, excluding foreign deposits, domestic US banks saw a massive $99.2BN deposit inflow (SA) in the week-ending Oct 2nd – the biggest weekly deposits inflow since May 2021. On an NSA basis, domestic deposits rose $178BN…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Large banks saw $55.5BN of inflows (SA) and/or $123.3BN inflows (NSA). Small banks saw $43.7BN of deposits inflows and/or $54.7BN inflows (NSA). This is a new record high for Small Bank deposits…

    Source: Bloomberg

    On the other side of the ledger, large banks saw loan volumes shrink by $1.9BN while small banks saw loan volumes rise by $4.3BN…

    Source: Bloomberg

    At the same time, banks are unwinding (can’t roll because the facility is closed) their loans from The Fed’s bank bailout facility…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Bank reserves at The Fed ticked up modestly last week but remain drastically decoupled from their historically tight relationship with US equity market capitalization…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Finally, as we detailed here, below the surface of soaring bank stocks, something serious is going on in the financial system plumbing.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 16:40

  • Bitcoin, Bullion, & 'Biggest Shorts' Blast Higher To End 'Bad Data' Week
    Bitcoin, Bullion, & ‘Biggest Shorts’ Blast Higher To End ‘Bad Data’ Week

    Goldilocks it wasn’t… as inflation macro data surprised to the upside and growth macro data to the downside (we love the smell of stagflation in the morning)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    … but that didn’t stop stocks soaring for the fifth straight week, with Small Caps exploding higher today (back into the green for the week)…

    …as “most shorted” stocks saw a massive squeeze higher today…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Of course, a market wrap would not be complete without discussing the shitshow in Shanghai as Chinese stocks witnessed the greatest volatility since their meltdown in 2015, capping almost $500 billion of combined losses in mainland and Hong Kong markets, as investors demanded even more stimulus than authorities in Beijing have already pledged.

    The CSI 300 Index’s weekly trading range – the gap between high and low prices – surged above 600 index points this week for the first time since July 2015.

    Source: Bloomberg

    Back then, Chinese markets witnessed an exodus of foreigners driven by mounting economic concerns and a government crackdown on traders which only exacerbated the panic.

    Source: Bloomberg

    This time, the turbulence is driven by sluggish consumer demand that threatens even the scaled-down growth ambitions of the country. The index’s 10-day and 20-day realized volatility also rose to a nine-year high.

    Notably, the rise in macro surprise data has come as financial conditions have loosened to their ‘easiest’ since Nov 2021…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Today saw the 45th all-time-high of the year, but none of the prior 44 have occurred alongside this elevated a level of volatility; this will be the first week of the year where the VIX has closed above 20 every day, and so ongoing elevated risk is expected as we progress through October…

    Source: Bloomberg

    The vol term structure is notably upward-sloping into the election now (and the coincidental FOMC meeting)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Treasury yields were very mixed today and on the week the short-end dramatically outperforming (practically unch on the week as the long-end blew out)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    After a huge flattening last week, the yield curve steepened by the most since the start of August this week with 2s10s dropping to inversion to start the week and steepening to erase the post-payrolls plunge by the end…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Rate-cut expectations rose modestly this week (with all the focus on 2025 as 2024 remains priced for less than 2 full rate cuts now)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    The dollar rallied for the second straight week, testing up to August’s highs before stalling a little today…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Despite the dollar strength, Gold extended yesterday’s rebound to end the week higher, finding support at $2600 once again…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Oil was flat today holding on to gains on the week (with WTI back above $75)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Bitcoin exploded back higher today (from $59,000 to $63,000), to end the week solidly in the green (after testing near one-month lows)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Is this the start of Bitcoin’s rip on the back of surging liquidity…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Finally, this weekend represents the two year anniversary from the bear market lows. The S&P is up 66% from the lows in October 2021, helped by and endless supply of liquidity from global central planners…]

    Source: Bloomberg

    BUT… the last week or two has seen liquidity start to contract a little (even as stocks soared to record-er highs)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Will the money-printers get back to work… or will stocks sink into the election (which Trump is now leading in all the prediction markets – but not the polls)?

    Source: Bloomberg

    There’s no bears left…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …well maybe some…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 16:00

  • San Francisco To Shutter 9% Of Public Schools As Budget Crisis Explodes
    San Francisco To Shutter 9% Of Public Schools As Budget Crisis Explodes

    San Francisco is gearing up to shut down 9% of its public schools in a desperate move to fix a massive budget deficit. With student enrollment plummeting and pandemic relief funds drying up, the city is set to close or merge 11 out of its 121 schools, leaving the future of thousands of students and teachers hanging in the balance.

    Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle 2019

    The proposal, which was announced late Tuesday, comes as the school district faces a whopping $113 million in cuts by 2026, or risk a dreaded state takeover. “Without a balanced budget and a plan to consolidate our resources, we risk a state takeover,” warned Superintendent Matt Wayne, adding that such a takeover would “further deplete resources directed to our schools, erode our collective decision-making power, and likely compound educational disparities for our most vulnerable students.”

    The schools on the chopping block serve about 2,000 kids, while another two will merge with other locations, according to local reports. And it’s not just the school closures – San Francisco’s school district has already been slashing jobs and cutting back on school supplies. Things could get worse when the final list of schools is voted on next month by the school board, Bloomberg reports.

    This is the latest blow to a city grappling with skyrocketing homelessness and a fentanyl crisis. San Francisco’s public school enrollment has plunged by over 4,000 students in the last seven years – costing the district $80 million. By 2032, they’re expecting to lose another 4,600 students thanks to falling birth rates and demographic shifts.

    Feeding the ‘Doom Loop’

    The planned school closures are more than just a budgetary issue – they are a reflection of the larger economic “doom loop” San Francisco finds itself trapped in. As described by the San Francisco Chronicle, the city’s economic ecosystem is spiraling as the decline of core public services like schools accelerates a broader exodus of residents and businesses.

    Sophie D’Amato/The Chronicle

    Thanks to crime, filth, and the pandemic – downtown SF has seen a sharp reduction in foot traffic as remote work has left office buildings and businesses empty. This shift has eroded the city’s tax base, leading to budget shortfalls across vital services. Now, with the closure of schools, families may be even more likely to leave the city, taking their children and spending power with them.

    The doom loop is driven by a vicious cycle: diminished public services push people and businesses away, shrinking the tax revenue the city relies on to fund those very services. The closure of schools, much like the rise in homelessness and the overdose epidemic, threatens to further compound the fact that San Francisco is a city in decline, locked in a downward spiral.

    As San Francisco’s public institutions falter, the question looms – how much longer can the city sustain these losses before it hits a tipping point?

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/11/2024 – 15:45

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Oct 11

Today’s News 11th October 2024

  • Globalists Are Taking The Mask Off And That's A Bad Sign…
    Globalists Are Taking The Mask Off And That’s A Bad Sign…

    Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

    Remember the last time the globalists took the mask off?  It wasn’t that long ago, but some people might have already forgotten how the western world almost lost all individual freedom under the guise of an over-hyped health emergency.  When globalists are honest about what they truly want, it usually coincides with an engineered calamity.

    In the two years since the failure of the covid pandemic narrative I have argued that globalist organizations are trying to regroup under a new plan. The evidence suggests that these people suffered a shocking revelation after their attempt to implement perpetual medical tyranny. They’ve realized they don’t have as much control over the flow of information and public discourse as they originally assumed.

    Even with full-spectrum censorship using algorithms to bury contrary data, even with the full force of the government partnering with social media to silence dissent, even with the threat of economic exile for anyone refusing to take a steady series of mRNA jabs, they still failed. The truth about covid’s minimal Infection Fatality Rate (IFR) still spread, along with data proving the uselessness of the mandates and lockdowns.  There was nothing they could do about it.

    Their golden ticket to total control was pushing the vaccine passport concept; the alternative media crushed that agenda like a pestilent cockroach. If the passport had been successful we would not be having this conversation now. Everyone would be in fear of having their passport rescinded. Everyone would be afraid to lose their economic access for saying the wrong thing. Everyone would be afraid of being forced into covid camps (which were indeed a real agenda). Or, we would be in the middle of a bloody civil war.

    The events of 2020 were meant to initiate the ultimate coup against humanity. The globalists admitted to their plans over and over again. Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum proudly declared covid the catalyst for the “Great Reset” and the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” They asserted that the lockdowns were just the beginning and that the sweeping restriction on our freedoms would be extended to climate change as well.

    They thought they had won without firing a shot, but it’s not that easy. Far more people are awake and aware of their motives than they realized, and, at least in America, over 50 million of those people are armed.  The lockdowns are now gone, almost no one took the vax boosters, far fewer people took the vaccine than the CDC claims, and the vax passports were defeated. This victory was made possible due to the efforts of alternative media platforms circumventing Big Tech censorship. It’s that simple.

    This is why the next event will probably be far worse in scale and consequence, and the globalists are already attempting to rectify their previous mistake of underestimating citizen journalism. They will try to silence us if they can and they are openly admitting to it in recent conferences and mainstream articles.  The mask is coming off once more and this suggests to me that something very bad is about to happen.

    As I noted in 2023 in my article ‘From Covid To Climate Change: Vehicles For Global Authoritarianism’, the globalists seem to have shifted their more tyrannical efforts away from the pandemic and into the climate discourse. If you really want to know what they are up to these days, you have to watch the climate conferences.

    At the end of September there was a host of climate change summits including one held by the WEF in New York called the Sustainable Development Impact Meeting.  It was held by the WEF in tandem with the United Nations General Assembly. Not surprisingly, discussion often veered away from climate into “threats to democracy” as well as bitter complaints about the “spread of disinformation.”

    John Kerry, former Democratic presidential candidate, former Climate Czar under Joe Biden and a longtime participant in the WEF, said the quiet part out loud at the summit. He argued that the 1st Amendment was a “roadblock” to proper governance and was preventing the elites from controlling public consensus.

    His statements are quite blatant.

    First of all, consensus is highly overrated and often poisonous. The very basis of science is that it is always up for debate according to the evidence. Once you have forced a “consensus” you have abandoned all due diligence under the scientific method.

    This was made obvious during covid, where the “consensus” was exposed as utterly fabricated and most of the claims made by governments and puppet “medical experts” have been proven false. Keep in mind, these were the same people that tried to ban YOU from going to parks and waterboarding at the beach in the name of “flattening the curve.”

    I mean, how retarded do you have to be to believe that outdoor activities will lead to viral transmission? That’s not science, that’s hysteria promoted by people claiming to represent science. The same thing goes for the mask mandates, social distancing, the lockdowns, etc. Not one measure they enforced was legitimate.

    If we are talking about the concept of man-made climate change, the claim of consensus in science is a lie. The data suggests there is simply no such thing as man-made climate change. There is no evidence of causation between carbon emissions and global warming. No evidence that global warming causes extreme whether. No evidence that our current warming cycle is significant or unique compared to any other warming cycle in history.

    In fact, the Washington Post recently and accidentally proved the alternative media’s point on climate change when they tried to map the temperature history of the Earth over 450 million years, only to discover what I have been saying for the longest time – Today’s temps are far lower than they have been through most of the Earth’s history.

    But the more important issue here is John Kerry’s assertion that governance requires public information control. Kerry’s fundamental disconnect is his notion that it’s the job of the elites and the government to moderate information for the greater good. No one gave them permission to do this. The government does not exist to create consensus.

    The people are in charge, John. As a politician you are just a public servant, nothing more. Your opinions on free speech don’t matter.

    Some of the most egregious disinformation is often released to the public by the government and their approved media sources in the name of “saving democracy.” They lie constantly. John Kerry is just angry because now the public has the means to expose him and his cohorts. If a “democracy” requires censorship in order to survive, then it’s not worth saving.

    Finally and hypocritically, Kerry suggests that democracy is “too slow” in implementing the changes to society that he views as necessary to create consensus and “unity.” If the 1st Amendment is a “roadblack” to more effective information control and governance, then he and his slimy brethren must intend to remove it. In other words, he believes tyranny would work better because it’s much faster that trying to manipulate the public with propaganda.

    He doesn’t explicitly say this, but that’s exactly what he’s inferring.

    Besides some of the speeches made by Klaus Schwab at the height of the pandemic, Kerry’s statements might be the most open declaration of globalist authoritarian intent I have ever heard. He’s pulling the mask off and this has me concerned.

    His arguments fall in line with a number of articles published in the past couple months from establishment media platforms. The New Yorker just posted an article asking ‘Is It Time To Torch The Constitution?’ The New York Times published a treatise titled ‘The Constitution Is Sacred. Is It Also Dangerous?’ They also wrote an article highlighting the potential positives of despotic governments in countries like Brazil threatening to shut down public access to Elon Musk’s X (Twitter) in order to force the site to censor citizen accounts. These people are on a war path to convince the public that free speech is a threat.

    When political elitists and their lackey’s start attacking free speech it’s usually in preparation for a major crisis that they hope to use as a vehicle to eliminate public freedoms. Free speech is the most important liberty because it enables the populace to discern through debate what the truth is and what to do about it.

    The globalists thought they had a lock on information during covid and they were wrong. They won’t make the same mistake again. Whatever the next crisis ends up being, they will definitely seek to silence the the alternative media and any rebellious social media platforms before they move forward.

    *  *  *

    If you would like to support the work that Alt-Market does while also receiving content on advanced tactics for defeating the globalist agenda, subscribe to our exclusive newsletter The Wild Bunch Dispatch.  Learn more about it HERE.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 23:25

  • Club Car Warns Golf Courses: Geomagnetic Storm Will Impact Smart Cart Operations 
    Club Car Warns Golf Courses: Geomagnetic Storm Will Impact Smart Cart Operations 

    A severe geomagnetic storm disrupted golf cart operations relying on GPS technology at courses across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. On Thursday, Club Car sent an email to courses, warning that a powerful solar storm “will impact all GPS devices” on these high-tech carts.

    Courses that use ‘Club Car Connect,’ a heads-up display in the golf cart that utilizes GPS and acts as rangefinders for golfers while simultaneously allowing course management to geofence locations on each hole, experienced widespread disruptions during today’s solar storm, which brought many carts at various courses to a standstill.

    “Geomagnetic storms will impact all GPS devices, and the Visage Units may be affected by this solar event. You may experience cars falsely triggering action zones during this event, our recommendation is to reduce the restriction of action zones or turn off the zones. We will continue to monitor conditions today,” Club Car Connected Account Manager David Nichols, PGA, wrote in an email to US courses.

    In other words, the solar storm interfered with the GPS satellite signals used by the carts, causing inaccurate location data and triggering course restrictions. This sent many golf carts into snail mode, which only infuriated golfers. According to the email, the solution was to turn off the geo-fencing limits.

    Into the evening, a severe solar storm is underway.

    Colorful auroras could be visible in areas across the nation.

    Intense solar storms can wreak havoc on the modern economy.

    The chaos on courses today was a first-world problem.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 23:00

  • UN Accuses Israel Of Firing On Its Peacekeeping Force In Lebanon, Wounding Two 
    UN Accuses Israel Of Firing On Its Peacekeeping Force In Lebanon, Wounding Two 

    Amid ongoing heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah in south Lebanon, the only external troops which have long been present on the ground are a group of UN peacekeeping troops. They are a mainly Irish contingency, called the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), and have remained near the Israel-Lebanon border since the 2006 war.

    The UN peacekeepers have been increasingly alarmed over the Israeli army setting up forward bases in areas near their operations, and this week the Israeli government alerted the UN troops they must move positions or risk coming under fire. 

    That appears to have happened this week. On Thursday the UNIFIL force said its headquarters came under fire by the Israeli army and that two of its troops were wounded. The UN team had refused Israeli army (IDF) demands to evacuate its position further north, setting up for a bloody standoff as tanks moved in.

    Source: AFP

    “The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital,” said UNIFIL in its statement. UNIFIL is further calling the fresh incident “very serious” given the IDF “deliberately fired” on its positions.

    The UN HQ is located in the village of Labbouneh, and its team said IDF fire hit “the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering, and damaging vehicles and a communications system.”

    The statement warned that “targeting peacekeepers is a very serious violation, not only of Resolution 1701 but also of international humanitarian law.” Monitoring cameras have also been destroyed. The Israeli action reportedly involved several tanks.

    “If the situation becomes impossible for the mission to operate in the south of Lebanon … it will be up to the Security Council to decide how to move forward,” the UN said. Israel’s military did not issue immediate comment.

    Days prior, UNIFIL said it is “deeply concerned by recent activities by the IDF immediately adjacent to the Mission’s position 6-52, southeast of Maroun al-Ras… inside Lebanese territory.”

    Italy is among countries contributing to the UN mission who are outraged, and its government summoned the Israeli ambassador in Rome. “The shooting at the UNIFIL headquarters” which involved “small arms fire” is “intolerable, they must be carefully and decisively avoided,” Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto Crosetto said in a statement.

    Source Al Jazeera

     Ireland too has issued formal protest and is livid:

    Two United Nations (UN) peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have been wounded after an Israeli tank directly hit a UN observation tower, prompting outrage from troop-contributing nations.

    Italy, which leads the 10,000-strong peacekeeping force along the Lebanon-Israel border, said firing on UN bases broke international law, and summoned the Israeli ambassador. 

    Ireland, which contributes several hundred soldiers to the force, said targeting peacekeepers was “reprehensible and unacceptable”.

    Typically in any UN Security Council vote which seeks to censure Israel for military actions, the United States is among the lone vetoes. Washington has rarely spoken up in defense or support of the UN peacekeeping mission in south Lebanon. The UNIFIL force was establish all the way back in 1978, in connection with Israeli incursions into Lebanon, and related to the events of the Lebanese civil war of the latter part of the 20th century.

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

  • Watch Live: Elon Musk Unveils Tesla's Robotaxi
    Watch Live: Elon Musk Unveils Tesla’s Robotaxi

    “The Most Important Tesla Event Ever”

    Tesla’s much awaited Robotaxi event, “We, Robot,” is set for tonight, live from Warner Bros. Discovery Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The event starts at 7 p.m. and will be livestreamed on Tesla’s social media platforms, including X and YouTube.

    It’s widely rumored that the event will feature prototypes of Tesla’s upcoming autonomous vehicle, which has been spotted around the studio grounds and key locations in San Francisco and LA.

    Tesla has been actively collecting Full Self-Driving (FSD) data in these areas ahead of the event, fueling speculation about new advancements like Robotaxi sanitization and wireless EV charging. As we noted weeks ago, invites were sent to winners of a shareholder raffle, with tickets arriving just days before the event.

    “Join us for We, Robot — our official unveiling of the future of autonomy,” the invitation read. 

    Wedbush’s Dan Ives has said of the event: “We believe this is a pivotal time for Tesla as the company prepares to release its years of Robotaxi R&D shadowed behind the curtains, while Musk & Co. lay out the company’s vision for the future.”

    Some enthusiasts are calling it “the most important Tesla event ever.”

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

    Cybercab Expectations

    The folks at NotTeslaApp expect: “Tesla to deliver a small, two-door sedan with two seats. The car is expected to have four wheels, although there was some speculation of three wheels at one point”. They write  that it’ll “likely include a good amount of trunk space for luggage as well”

    They write that Tesla’s Robotaxi is expected to be smaller than current models, resembling a compact version of the Model 3 with a simplified interior focused on autonomy and low-cost production. It will likely feature a single central screen like the Model 3, but with a stripped-down UI displaying key information such as ETA and fare price.

    While Tesla may not reveal much about FSD hardware, the Robotaxi will probably include the upcoming Hardware 5 FSD suite or new hardware designed for redundancy and safety, essential for autonomous fleet operations.

    According to Electrek, the robotaxi is rumored to be “Cybertruck-like” in design, without a steering wheel or pedals, and potentially smaller in size. A prototype was spotted testing at the Warner Bros. lot. Tesla may also showcase its latest Optimus humanoid robots with a focus on autonomous features.

    Inside EVs Prototype Rendering

    Gene Munster with Deepwater Asset Management tells MarketWatch he expects “at least a robotaxi prototype, and talk of a ‘Model 2’ cheaper EV”.

    “What will most likely be on display is a demonstration of the latest iteration of FSD [full self-driving] software and a demonstration of a fully autonomous ‘cybercab’ in a closed or semi-closed course,” Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas wrote last month, per Yahoo Finance. 

    He believes the robotaxi will come from the preexisting fleet of Tesla vehicles already on the road:

    While the cybercab — a vehicle envisioned as one without a steering wheel or pedals — may be the natural fit for a robotaxi, Jonas believes it is the preexisting fleet of Teslas out on the road that, when combined with FSD and Tesla’s upcoming rideshare mobility app, will allow owners of those Tesla EVs to put those vehicles on Tesla’s rideshare service. The true game changer would be unlocking the potential of those vehicles, he said.

    “It is our expectation that Tesla will offer a ‘dual’ approach with respect to autonomous ridesharing: (1) the fully autonomous app-based cybercab and (2) a ‘supervised’ autonomous/FSD rideshare service. We think the latter of these may get the most attention or have the greatest room to surprise investors, at least near term,” he said.

    Deutsche Bank’s Edison Yu added his expectations: “For Robotaxi Day on Oct 10th, we expect an unveiling of the ‘CyberCab’ at the venue, [and] some type of robotaxi demo … Moreover, Tesla should unveil the new lower cost vehicle slated for SOP [start of production] next year (“Model 2” or cheaper/smaller Model 3 variant).”

    Expectations For Release Timeline And Final Product

    Expectations for a final or near-final working product seem low. “Few observers, if any, expect a fully functioning product,” Reuters wrote. 

    “We believe the robotaxi event will be long on vision, and short on immediate deliverables or incremental revenue drivers,” Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said. 

    Tesla executives will need to “reinforce to consumers and investors that they continue to be innovators,” Gene Munster with Deepwater Asset Management told MarketWatch. “The bar on the robotaxi is is pretty high, but the rest of the stuff is pretty easy, they don’t need to roll a vehicle out there. They can just talk about it,” he added.

    Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions LLC, added: “Tesla’s history is overpromise and underdeliver, so whatever timing is put on this vehicle, it’s going to be pushed back. We are still considering what promises will make it to production and what won’t”.

    Longtime Tesla bull and Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas says to “keep expectations well managed” for the event. 

    “We think this [robotaxi fleet] is still several years away and numerous technological hurdles, safety tests, and regulatory approvals are still standing in the way,” Garrett Nelson of CFRA told Yahoo Finance.

    Impact On Tesla Stock Price

    As far as impact on the stock price, Elliot Johnson, chief investment officer at Evolve ETFs, which manages investments in Tesla, told Reuters: “They need to get going because this has been sort of discussed, rumored, talked about and announced in various forms for a while.”

    He says nothing announced this week will have a financial impact for one to two years, the report says. Barron’s has also speculated that the event could be a “sell the news” event. Columnist Al Root wrote that “Robotaxi Day may be Elon Musk’s last chance to convince investors that Tesla still has it”. 

    Edison Yu has been telling his clients to be “tactically cautious” with the stock. 

    Reaction By Other Autonomous Driving Companies

    Elsewhere in autonomous driving, Investing.com did a good job laying out what competitors and the rest of the industry may be watching.

    The U.S. rideshare market, currently just 1% of total miles driven, could expand significantly with the introduction of autonomous vehicles (AVs), according to Morgan Stanley. While Tesla’s technological advancements may drive faster AV adoption, the transition faces challenges in scaling and regulation.

    Tesla’s potential to launch a Level 4 (L4) autonomous service could yield a 41% cost advantage over Uber and Lyft, and 21% over Waymo, thanks to its camera-based approach versus Waymo’s sensor-heavy system. Market trends in cities like Austin and Phoenix will indicate whether AVs can integrate effectively with rideshare platforms, a key concern for Uber’s hybrid model strategy.

    We’ll know more in just hours…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 21:50

  • Visualizing The Severity And Prevalence Of Addictive Substances
    Visualizing The Severity And Prevalence Of Addictive Substances

    Addiction is a complex subject, much of our understanding of which is incomplete, as many common and rewarding substances have the potential to be “addictive.” Still, the relative harm associated with that addiction is not linear, nor are the consequences of the addiction.

    For this graphic, Visual Capitalist partnered with the Global Kratom Coalition to explore the landscape of addictive substances and investigate why some substances have more risk than others.


    How Common Are Substance Use Disorders?

    The 2023 United States National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reported that nearly 50 million Americans believed they had some form of substance use disorder (SUD).  

    SUDs are characterized using 11 criteria, including how dependent a person becomes on a substance and whether the person continues to use it despite adverse effects.

    However, a person does not need to meet all 11 criteria to be considered to have an SUD. Instead, the more criteria a person meets, the more severe the SUD is. 

    It’s worth noting that not everyone reacts to a substance in the same way. People may develop use disorders depending on their genetic predisposition, family history, socioeconomic status, mental disorders, trauma, and, importantly, the substance involved.

     

    How Severe are Addictive Substances?

     

    A substance can impact a person in various ways. However, the impact is determined by how many of the 11 criteria a person endorses.

    So, a person is considered to have ‘mild symptoms’ if they endorse 2-3 criteria, moderate 4-5, and severe would be the endorsement of 6 or more criteria.

    When analyzing the symptoms people describe after using certain substances, the severity of these symptoms is heavily dependent on the substance in question. For example, Kratom and caffeine users are more likely to experience mild symptoms, while severe symptoms are more common with substances such as heroin.

     

    How Many Adverse Events are Caused by Substances?

     

    While substances do impact people in different ways, it’s important to note when this impact becomes an adverse event—a harmful or undesirable outcome resulting from exposure to a toxic substance. 

    But, the volume of adverse events is also often tied to how many people use the substance in question, with the most common substances like alcohol and cannabis generating the most adverse events—despite their relatively mild symptom profiles.

     

    Kratom: A Misunderstood Leaf

     

    Millions of people battle against substance abuse every year. However, the severity of symptoms and the impact those symptoms can have on a person vary. But, substance use disorders are common, underscoring the urgent need for a deeper understanding of the complex nature of addiction and substances in general.

    Are you interested in continuing the vital conversation around addiction?

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 21:20

  • Harris Proposes Medicare Coverage For Senior Home Care
    Harris Proposes Medicare Coverage For Senior Home Care

    Authored by Emel Akan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Vice President Kamala Harris proposed a new plan on Oct. 8 that would require Medicare to cover the cost of long-term home care.

    With the election only 27 days away, the Democratic nominee made the announcement first on ABC’s “The View.”

    US Vice President Kamla Harris delivers remarks on the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel at the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, on October 7, 2024. (Photo by Ting Shen / AFP) Photo by TING SHEN/AFP via Getty Images

    Harris said that caregivers are facing challenges in balancing their lives, particularly when they are working while also needing to care for their aging parent and their children.

    “We’re finding so many are them having to leave their jobs, which means losing a source of income, not to mention the emotional stress,” she said during the show.

    Almost one in five Americans over the age of 65 require assistance with basic daily tasks such as bathing, dressing, eating, and toileting, according to a 2023 study published in medical journal Epidemiologia.

    Medicare generally does not cover home health care services. Medicaid offers a long-term care safety net but to qualify for coverage, people “must meet state-specific eligibility requirements regarding their levels of income, wealth, and functional limitations,” a Brookings report said.

    A worker assists an elderly woman during an activity session in a Day Care center in California on Feb. 10, 2011. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

    An estimated 105 million people provide unpaid care across the country, according to studies.

    Harris said her plan would require Medicare to provide better wages to care workers and improve the quality of care for seniors and those with disabilities.

    Any plan would need Congressional approval to take effect.

    It is uncertain how much her home care proposal will add to the national debt.

    In response to Harris’s announcement, the Trump campaign drew attention to his plan to remove tax on seniors’ social security and other measures for seniors receiving at-home care.

    “Trump will prioritize home care benefits by shifting resources back to at-home senior care, overturning disincentives that lead to care worker shortages, and supporting unpaid family caregivers through tax credits and reduced red tape,” the campaign said in a statement.

    During an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Oct. 7, Harris faced several questions regarding the funding of her economic plan, which included the expansion of the child tax credit.

    In September, Harris announced new economic proposals, including permanent restoration of the COVID-19-era increase in the Child Tax Credit to as high as $3,600 per child up from $2,000 currently, and a $6,000 one-time tax cut for families with newborns.

    The national debt clock at a bus station in Washington on Aug. 6, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

    According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the vice president’s previous proposals were projected to raise the debt by $3.5 trillion over the next decade.

    Harris maintained her position that she would increase taxes on the wealthy.

    When questioned about Congress’s lack of willingness to raise taxes and how she would achieve consensus on the matter, Harris disagreed and said there are “a lot of folks in Congress” who agreed with her plans to raise taxes.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 20:55

  • "Wow, Absolutely Speechless!": Northern Lights Visible Across DC, NYC, Boston  
    “Wow, Absolutely Speechless!”: Northern Lights Visible Across DC, NYC, Boston  

    A solar storm classified as “severe” (ranked 4 out of 5 in severity) hit Earth on Thursday and brought stunning displays of the northern lights. 

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    Look up! 

    Whoa. 

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    Here’s what X users are seeing:

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    *Developing…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 20:06

  • First Springfield, Then Charleroi, Now Migrant Crisis Swamps This Small Indiana Town
    First Springfield, Then Charleroi, Now Migrant Crisis Swamps This Small Indiana Town

    First, Springfield, Ohio, then Charleroi, Pennsylvania, and now Logansport, Indiana—these small towns share one thing in common: Each has seen a massive influx of Haitian migrants that the Secretary of Homeland Security granted Temporary Protected Status. These migrants are dumped into towns with factories, replacing blue-collar native-born workers by the thousands in what we’ve dubbed the ‘Great Job Replacement.’ 

    Local news outlet Mercer County Outlook said the small community of Logansport, located about 78 miles north of Indianapolis, had experienced a 30% population jump since 2021, or about around the time VP Kalama Harris began her new position as ‘Border Czar.’ 

    Population in Logansport as of the last census is just over 18,000…according to statements made the population has increased by 30% since 2021…roughly 5,400.

    The influx of migrants in the small town has strained local resources, including the school system. 

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    FOX59/CBS4’s Angela Ganote spoke with one Haitian migrant who said he came to Logansport because of the Tyson meatpacking plant. 

    The Haitian migrant noted that immigrants make “good money” at the Tyson plant. However, it’s just not good enough for native-born workers.

    Globalists at Tyson have worked with NGOs to replace their US labor workforce with migrants. This was detailed in a note earlier this year titled “How Shadowy Network Of NGOs Supplies Mega-Corporations With Migrants To Exploit Cheap Labor.” Bloomberg also covered this story in a piece titled “Tyson Is Hiring New York Immigrants for Jobs No One Else Wants.”

    Back to Logansport, US Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) commented on the migrant crisis in the small town:

    In just 2 years an est. 5,000 Haitian migrants have been moved to Logansport, Indiana, a town of 18,000 people. No small community can survive that pace of change. Biden and Kamala’s CHNV program + parole abuses are wreaking havoc in heartland towns like Logansport. Congress must END it.

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    Pivoting to Charleroi, journalist Christopher Rufo found out just exactly how the 2,000 Haitian migrants suddenly arrived in the small PA town. He said the answer was “an open conspiracy between the federal government, publicly funded NGOs, and private corporations.” 

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    This is also happening in Springfield. 

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    And Colorado. 

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    And we believe nationwide. 

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    Great job replacement is already well underway.

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    This is not America First – this is globalist open border corporate profits first. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 19:40

  • Is Gavin Newsom Hoping That Kamala Harris Loses The Election?
    Is Gavin Newsom Hoping That Kamala Harris Loses The Election?

    Authored by Richard Truesdell and Keith Lehmann via American Greatness,

    Two minutes of airtime during the Democrat National Convention in Chicago gave California Governor Gavin Newsom his latest opportunity to build his national stature. As part of the announcement of Kamala Harris’s clinching of the Democrat presidential nomination during a symbolic roll call of state delegates, Newsom portrayed Harris as a “star” who “has always done the right thing” for civil rights, LGBTQ rights, social justice, racial justice, and on just about every pet cause on the left.

    It says something unspoken that this was Newsom’s only official speaking role at the four-day DNC. It put his high-energy delivery on display, lionizing Harris as the future of the Democrat Party but it seemed to us that he was choking on those words as he spoke them. The contrast between his support for Harris and his thinly veiled presidential ambitions was hard to ignore.

    Newsom repeatedly denied that he was ever in the running for the 2024 nomination, yet his high-profile nationwide travels and meetings with government officials in Israel and China demonstrated otherwise. He bought ads in Florida alongside a debate with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, further adding to the speculation of Newsom’s real intentions.

    His passionately vocal support for Joe Biden after Biden’s June 27 debate disaster seemed tailor-made for Biden to hand his post-campaign withdrawal endorsement to Newsom, and perhaps that was Newsom’s intention all along. All he had to do was stay as close as possible to Biden, keep shouting his praises, and the endorsement would surely be Newsom’s.

    It wasn’t meant to be. Biden, upon announcing his re-election withdrawal, endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democrat nominee for president within hours, forestalling any attempt at an open convention to nominate Biden’s successor. As we have previously suggested, Biden’s move was intentional as a form of revenge for being shoved out of his re-election efforts by Democrat Party bosses (Obama, Pelosi, and Schumer especially, but there were many Democrats who greased the skids for Biden’s exit after his disastrous debate performance).

    Would Newsom have been a better Democrat presidential candidate than Harris? Absolutely.

    Now that Harris is the nominee, does Newsom hope that she wins? Absolutely not.

    Newsom had everything to gain by supporting Biden at his bleakest moment. Even with missing out on Biden’s endorsement, which we believe caught Governor Hair Gel off guard, Newsom has positioned himself well among Democrats as a dynamic campaigner, a capable fundraiser, and having a strong appeal among Democrat base voters. His purported loyalty to Biden only gave him more visibility and differentiation from other leading Democrats who publicly called for Biden to stand down from his re-election effort. But in the larger scheme of things, was this a political miscalculation on Newsom’s part or a calculated move to best position himself for a 2028 run should Harris lose in four weeks? Time will tell.

    With Kamala Harris as the presidential nominee, Gavin Newsom has only to keep his Harris support superficial and work to repair his record at home, letting Harris and others take a majority of the blame for California’s problems. This will be much easier for Newsom if Trump defeats Harris while Newsom makes a token effort to support her.

    This also provides Newsom with four convenient years of runway toward a potential presidential run in 2028. His term as California governor expires in 2026, providing an opportunity to shed much of his poor reputation of contributing to California’s demise and to create a new persona. We’re not sure if it will work, but we are sure it will be tried.

    And it will require Kamala Harris to lose to Donald Trump. Newsom could pull off this trick in 2028 after a Trump presidency while facing a new Republican candidate, likely JD Vance, who had a great night last week in crushing Tiananmen Tim Walz. But he can’t pull this off in 2028 against an incumbent Harris presidency or in 2032 after two Harris terms in office. That window of opportunity will have closed by then.

    A lot of planets will align in 2028 for a Gavin Newsom presidential run, including the entire world’s attention on California for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. His state will be glamorized, his failures will be sanitized, and his presidential run will be romanticized in a way only Hollywood can produce. But not if Kamala Harris is the incumbent president, no matter how much she screws things up. That’s what’s called Democrat Political Inertia.

    With so many of the serial failures of the Biden-Harris administration piling up and having no capability to convince voters that their misery is simply not happening, Democrats are probably thinking the same thing as Newsom: Take the loss to Trump, unleash more chaos, and hang their lousy economy and the world on fire around Trump’s neck. Then it’s Gavin Newsom to the rescue in 2026! Most Democrats are too stupid and misguided to believe otherwise. We know; we both live here in California and have seen the damage that Newsom has wrought during his two terms as governor.

    That is why it is utterly critical to Newsom that Harris loses to Trump this year. Gavin Newsom’s presidential ambitions—and they are significant—rest solely on a Harris defeat. Given his naked ambition and historical disdain for Harris, don’t be surprised to see Newsom torpedo his California rival in some below-the-radar manner to save his political future. We don’t call him Governor Hair Gel without reason. He gives new meaning to the definition of the word “slimy.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 19:15

  • Wars Abroad, Natural Disasters At Home… And Biden Said What?
    Wars Abroad, Natural Disasters At Home… And Biden Said What?

    On Thursday Joe Biden mumbled his way through a White House update on Hurricane Milton and the ongoing emergency response, and federal help in Florida. But at one point through the awkward, meandering presser the president was asked the following:

    “What did Prime Minister Netanyahu tell you about his plans related to retaliation?” a reporter posed.

    “He’s coming over to help with the storm,” Biden said.

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    Some media outlets are trying to pass off this disturbing exchange as Biden making a “joke”… but really?

    After all, Biden has already had a litany of “senior moments” and even the Democrats have long quietly questioned behind closed doors his current fitness to lead as Commander-in-Chief at a moment several flashpoints unfold across the seas (and one of those involves NATO showdown with nuclear-armed Russia).

    Only the day prior he held a “direct” 30-minute phone call with the Israeli leader as the Mideast region is on the brink of witnessing a possibly major war between Iran and Israel.

    Little has been said in the aftermath of the phone call, only that the two sides are closing the gap and coming to an understanding of how Israel will respond militarily. But what remains is that the region is certainly on the brink, and thousands are dying in Lebanon, Gaza, and Israel as missiles fly across borders – and ground fighting expands.

    There was another strange moment, at a time Americans are dying in natural disasters at home and at a moment US troops are in harm’s way in the Middle East…

     “Mr. President Trump, former President Trump – get a life man, help these people.”

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    As one conservative X account pointed out… Reminder: Trump is a private citizen who is helping people affected by Hurricane Helene and Milton.

    What is clear from from Thursday’s strange public hurricane response update is that somebody is running things over at the White House and it ain’t Joe Biden.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 18:50

  • Disinformation Isn't The Problem… Government Coverups And Censorship Are The Problem
    Disinformation Isn’t The Problem… Government Coverups And Censorship Are The Problem

    Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rurtherford Institute,

    “What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer… And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.”

    – Hannah Arendt

    In a perfect example of the Nanny State mindset at work, Hillary Clinton insists that the powers-that-be need “total control” in order to make the internet a safer place for users and protect us harm.

    Clinton is not alone in her distaste for unregulated, free speech online.

    A bipartisan chorus that includes both presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump has long clamored to weaken or do away with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which essentially acts as a bulwark against online censorship.

    It’s a complicated legal issue that involves debates over immunity, liability, net neutrality and whether or not internet sites are publishers with editorial responsibility for the content posted to their sites, but really, it comes down to the tug-of-war over where censorship (corporate and government) begins and free speech ends.

    As Elizabeth Nolan Brown writes for Reason, “What both the right and left attacks on the provision share is a willingness to use whatever excuses resonate – saving children, stopping bias, preventing terrorism, misogyny, and religious intolerance – to ensure more centralized control of online speech. They may couch these in partisan terms that play well with their respective bases, but their aim is essentially the same.”

    In other words, the government will use any excuse to suppress dissent and control the narrative.

    The internet may well be the final frontier where free speech still flourishes, especially for politically incorrect speech and disinformation, which test the limits of our so-called egalitarian commitment to the First Amendment’s broad-minded principles.

    On the internet, falsehoods and lies abound, misdirection and misinformation dominate, and conspiracy theories go viral.

    This is to be expected, and the response should be more speech, not less.

    As Justice Brandeis wrote nearly a century ago: “If there be time to expose through discussion, the falsehoods and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”

    Yet to the government, these forms of “disinformation” rank right up there with terrorism, drugs, violence, and disease: societal evils so threatening that “we the people” should be willing to relinquish a little of our freedoms for the sake of national security.

    Of course, it never works out that way.

    The war on terror, the war on drugs, the war on illegal immigration, the war on COVID-19: all of these programs started out as legitimate responses to pressing concerns only to become weapons of compliance and control in the government’s hands.

    Indeed, in the face of the government’s own authoritarian power-grabs, coverups, and conspiracies, a relatively unfettered internet may be our sole hope of speaking truth to power.

    The right to criticize the government and speak out against government wrongdoing is the quintessential freedom.

    You see, disinformation isn’t the problem. Government coverups and censorship are the problem.

    Unfortunately, the government has become increasingly intolerant of speech that challenges its power, reveals its corruption, exposes its lies, and encourages the citizenry to push back against the government’s many injustices. Every day in this country, those who dare to speak their truth to the powers-that-be find themselves censored, silenced or fired.

    While there are all kinds of labels being put on so-called “unacceptable” speech today, the real message being conveyed by those in power is that Americans don’t have a right to express themselves if what they are saying is unpopular, controversial or at odds with what the government determines to be acceptable.

    Where the problem arises is when you put the power to determine who is a potential danger in the hands of government agencies, the courts and the police.

    Remember, this is the same government that uses the words “anti-government,” “extremist” and “terrorist” interchangeably.

    This is the same government whose agents are spinning a sticky spider-web of threat assessments, behavioral sensing warnings, flagged “words,” and “suspicious” activity reports using automated eyes and ears, social media, behavior sensing software, and citizen spies to identify potential threats.

    This is the same government that keeps re-upping the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which allows the military to detain American citizens with no access to friends, family or the courts if the government believes them to be a threat.

    This is the same government that has a growing list—shared with fusion centers and law enforcement agencies—of ideologies, behaviors, affiliations and other characteristics that could flag someone as suspicious and result in their being labeled potential enemies of the state.

    For instance, 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 could be at the top of the government’s terrorism watch list.

    Thus, no matter how well-meaning the politicians make these encroachments on our rights appear, in the right (or wrong) hands, benevolent plans can easily be put to malevolent purposes.

    Even the most well-intentioned government law or program can be—and has been—perverted, corrupted and used to advance illegitimate purposes once profit and power are added to the equation. For instance, the very same mass surveillance technologies that were supposedly so necessary to fight the spread of COVID-19 are now being used to stifle dissent, persecute activists, harass marginalized communities, and link people’s health information to other surveillance and law enforcement tools.

    We are moving fast down that slippery slope to an authoritarian society in which the only opinions, ideas and speech expressed are the ones permitted by the government and its corporate cohorts.

    The next phase of the government’s war on anti-government speech and so-called thought crimes could well be mental health round-ups and involuntary detentions.

    Under the guise of public health and safety, the government could use mental health care as a pretext for targeting and locking up dissidents, activists and anyone unfortunate enough to be placed on a government watch list.

    This is how it begins.

    In communities across the nation, police are already being empowered to forcibly detain individuals they believe might be mentally ill, based solely on their own judgment, even if those individuals pose no danger to others.

    In New York City, for example, you could find yourself forcibly hospitalized for suspected mental illness if you carry “firmly held beliefs not congruent with cultural ideas,” exhibit a “willingness to engage in meaningful discussion,” have “excessive fears of specific stimuli,” or refuse “voluntary treatment recommendations.”

    While these programs are ostensibly aimed at getting the homeless off the streets, when combined with advances in mass surveillance technologies, artificial intelligence-powered programs that can track people by their biometrics and behavior, mental health sensor data (tracked by wearable data and monitored by government agencies such as HARPA), threat assessments, behavioral sensing warnings, precrime initiatives, red flag gun laws, and mental health first-aid programs aimed at training gatekeepers to identify who might pose a threat to public safety, they could well signal a tipping point in the government’s efforts to penalize those engaging in so-called “thought crimes.”

    As the Associated Press reports, federal officials are already looking into how to add “‘identifiable patient data,’ such as mental health, substance use and behavioral health information from group homes, shelters, jails, detox facilities and schools,” to its surveillance toolkit.

    Make no mistake: these are the building blocks for an American gulag no less sinister than that of the gulags of the Cold War-era Soviet Union.

    The word “gulag” refers to a labor or concentration camp where prisoners (oftentimes political prisoners or so-called “enemies of the state,” real or imagined) were imprisoned as punishment for their crimes against the state.

    The gulag, according to historian Anne Applebaum, used as a form of “administrative exile—which required no trial and no sentencing procedure—was an ideal punishment not only for troublemakers as such, but also for political opponents of the regime.”

    This age-old practice by which despotic regimes eliminate their critics or potential adversaries by making them disappear—or forcing them to flee—or exiling them literally or figuratively or virtually from their fellow citizens—is happening with increasing frequency in America.

    Now, through the use of red flag laws, behavioral threat assessments, and pre-crime policing prevention programs, the groundwork is being laid that would allow the government to weaponize the label of mental illness as a means of exiling those whistleblowers, dissidents and freedom fighters who refuse to march in lockstep with its dictates.

    Each state has its own set of civil, or involuntary, commitment laws. These laws are extensions of two legal principles: parens patriae Parens patriae (Latin for “parent of the country”), which allows the government to intervene on behalf of citizens who cannot act in their own best interest, and police power, which requires a state to protect the interests of its citizens.

    The fusion of these two principles, coupled with a shift towards a dangerousness standard, has resulted in a Nanny State mindset carried out with the militant force of the Police State.

    The problem, of course, is that the diagnosis of mental illness, while a legitimate concern for some Americans, has over time become a convenient means by which the government and its corporate partners can penalize certain “unacceptable” social behaviors.

    In fact, in recent years, we have witnessed the pathologizing of individuals who resist authority as suffering from oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), defined as “a pattern of disobedient, hostile, and defiant behavior toward authority figures.”

    Under such a definition, every activist of note throughout our history—from Mahatma Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr. to John Lennon—could be classified as suffering from an ODD mental disorder.

    Of course, this is all part of a larger trend in American governance whereby dissent is criminalized and pathologized, and dissenters are censored, silenced, declared unfit for society, labelled dangerous or extremist, or turned into outcasts and exiled.

    As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, this is how you subdue a populace.

    The ensuing silence in the face of government-sponsored tyranny, terror, brutality and injustice is deafening.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 18:25

  • Israel Arrests US Journalist Who Documented Damage From Iran Missile Strike
    Israel Arrests US Journalist Who Documented Damage From Iran Missile Strike

    Update (9:00pm ET): According to a Thursday evening social media post from The Grayzone, Israeli police continue to hold journalist Jeremy Loffredo “on suspicion of serious security offenses for publicly publishing… the locations of missile drops near or inside sensitive security facilities, with the aim of bringing this to the notice of the enemy and thereby assisting them in their future attacks.”

    A judge had ordered him released on the grounds that Israeli censors had approved the reporting of Loffredo’s arrest and the information that Loffredo reported, and thus authorities “could “no longer justify his continued detention.” However, the police have appealed, and Loffredo remains jailed.  

    “The claim that Loffredo and The Grayzone represent Israel’s enemy in wartime merely suggests that the Israeli government views the American people and free press as a legitimate target,” The Grayzone wrote, and encouraged concerned Americans to “contact the State Department and urge them to act in defense of their citizen detained in Israel.” In a separate post, editor-in-chief Max Blumenthal directed followers to email the embassy at JerusalemACS@state.gov.  

    * * *

    According to alternative media outlet The Grayzone, the State of Israel has arrested US citizen and Grayzone investigative reporter Jeremy Loffredo just days after he defied censors by posting a report on Iran’s ballistic missile strike, to include documenting the precise location of an apparent impact close to the headquarters of the country’s principal intelligence agency, the Mossad. 

    Grayzone journalist Jeremy Loffredo, seen in his last report before being arrested by Israeli authorities 

    “I’ve just learned that @loffredojeremy was among the journalists arrested by the Israeli military and is still in jail,” said Grayzone founder and editor-in-chief Max Blumenthal via social media. “His phone has been confiscated. That is all I’m able to say for now.” On Wednesday at midday, Grayzone journalist Aaron Maté wrote that Loffredo had already been held for more than 24 hours.

    Russian independent journalist Andrey X said he and Loffredo were among five journalists grabbed by Israeli security forces, with all but Loffredo having been released. No details have yet surfaced about where or why they were arrested.   

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    On Oct. 1, Iran unleashed multiple waves of ballistic missiles on Israel in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of the Lebanese political and military organization Hezbollah, and Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Abbas Nilforoushan, among others. Despite compelling video evidence that many of those missiles found their targets, Israel downplayed the effect of the Iranian strike while simultaneously declaring it illegal to report on where missiles hit. 

    Undaunted, Loffredo set out to find missile impact sites, and filed a 6-minute video report to The Grayzone‘s YouTube channel, which has nearly 400,000 followers, and to its Rumble channel. In addition to showing the remains of an Iranian missile near Israel’s Nevatim Airbase in the Negev desert, Loffredo was able to find what is almost certainly a huge missile blast site less than a thousand feet from Mossad headquarters.

    “This information is missing from all Israeli media reports, due to the fact it’s been officially censored,” said Loffredo in his report, before showing the precise longitude and latitude of the impact site.  

    Loffredo found heavily damaged vehicles, caked with concrete, near a 30-foot wide crater less than a thousand feet from Mossad headquarters (Screenshot from Grayzone’s report)

    When it comes to challenging Israeli government narratives, The Grayzone has been among the most intrepid outlets in journalism. It was among the first to report on evidence that many Israeli deaths during the Oct 7, 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel were inflicted by the Israeli Defense Forces. The Grayzone was also quick to credibly challenge near-universally-accepted claims that Hamas militants beheaded babies, burned babies in ovens, cut a fetus from its mother, and engaged in mass rape. On the anniversary of Oct. 7, the outlet released a 44-minute documentary: “Atrocity Inc: How Israel Sells the Destruction of Gaza.”

    Loffredo’s previous reporting from Israel included a set of candid and, to some, disturbing interviews with nationalist Israelis who were blocking humanitarian aid for war-ravaged Gaza. While it’s not clear why, it’s currently not possible to link directly to Loffredo’s posts on X/Twitter or to embed them.

    President Biden claims to stand for press freedom around the world. Let’s see if his administration takes a stand against Israel on behalf of this American journalist…or instead shrugs and redistributes a few more billion dollars of American wealth to the perpetrators. In the meantime, watch Loffredo’s last report before he was seized and locked up: 

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 18:00

  • The Gold Bull Cycle Has Just Begun
    The Gold Bull Cycle Has Just Begun

    Authored by Adam Sharp via DailyReckoning.com,

    Cycles surround us. In markets, astronomy, and our lives.

    Every day is a circadian cycle for us all. Our bodies move through phases based on our exposure to light or darkness.

    Markets are also remarkably cyclical, responding to the environment around them. Interest rates, regulation, monetary policy and investor psychology all play important roles.

    Precious metals are no different. The sector’s performance ebbs and flows over time.

    From 2000 to 2011, gold crushed the S&P 500:

    Source: Charlie Bilello

    An even better example is from 1972 to 1980 when gold returned 1,256% to the S&P 500’s 97%.

    Of course, stocks take their turn in the spotlight too.

    From 2012 to 2021, stocks returned 336% vs gold’s 16%. And from 1980 to 1999, stocks were absolutely dominant as gold went dormant for nearly two decades.

    Over the past few years, both have done well.

    The point here is that it’s a cycle.

    Just take a look at the chart below. It shows the ratio of S&P 500 performance vs gold through 2021.

    Source: Charlie Bilello

    I believe we switched back to precious metals mode at the beginning of this year. And if this is the beginning of a fresh cycle, we may be in for another 7-plus years of precious metals outperforming stocks.

    Given the magnitude of what we’re facing, it could go on longer than that.

    Catalysts and Causes

    Periods where gold outperforms tend to be chaotic.

    Past catalysts have included a crash at the end of a major bull market (1971 and 2000), and an inflationary shift in monetary policy (1971 and 2000).

    Wars often play a part as well, as they did in the 1970s (Vietnam and others), and the early 2000s (War on Terror). Wars spike deficits and increase the monetary supply. They also drive safe-haven demand from both central banks and investors.

    I believe our situation today fits the bill.

    Stocks are still doing well, for now, but markets look expensive. The chart below, from Longview Economics, shows that 90% of U.S. stock sectors are in their top quartile (25%) of historical valuations.

    Source: Longview Economics on X

    Stocks are richly valued across almost the entire board. This tends to happen near market peaks. And I don’t see any positive catalysts hiding around the corner to drive sustainable real growth.

    Of course, the broad bubble in U.S. stocks could go on for longer than we expect, but at this point, I’m more focused on precious metals and even certain foreign markets.

    To be clear, I do own U.S. stocks and will continue to.

    But during times like these, I lower that exposure and boost my allocation to alternatives, particularly gold and silver.

    Macro Looks Bullish for Gold

    The U.S. and many other countries are reaching a tipping point with debt. Total global debt just reached $315 trillion, which is 333% of global GDP.

    The Federal Reserve just switched into easy-money mode and is likely to fire up formal QE in the near future. China’s central bank just injected massive liquidity to boost its sluggish economy. More countries will follow suit, and global liquidity is poised to surge.

    In addition, we have multiple wars and conflicts raging in Yemen, Ukraine, Israel, Iran and beyond. Nascent proxy wars between the US and Russia are quietly breaking out in multiple African countries.

    Military spending is booming, with Russia increasing its annual defense spending to 40% of its total budget. And China’s defense spending now rivals the U.S. in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). Naturally, the U.S. is no slouch in this area and is also ramping up spending and production.

    Durable Catalysts

    The stage is set for a powerful precious metals bull market cycle. The problems facing the world are not going away anytime soon. Even if all the conflicts end tomorrow, and they won’t, we’re still facing a structural debt problem of unprecedented magnitude.

    Further conflict and spending will just add gas to the fire.

    For now, markets seem complacent that all is well with the economy. It won’t last forever.  If we get a nice pullback in gold and silver here, and we may well, it’ll be an amazing opportunity to stack up. I will continue to buy on pullbacks.

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

  • Some Mass Shooting Survivors Want More Good Guys With Guns
    Some Mass Shooting Survivors Want More Good Guys With Guns

    Authored by Michael Clements via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Editor’s note: The following story contains graphic descriptions of violence.

    On Jan. 17, 1989, Rob Young happily walked to school sporting a brand-new pair of LA Gear tennis shoes he had received for Christmas. He still remembers how good those shoes felt on his 6-year-old feet.

    Shaelyn Gisler, 4, leaves flowers on crosses named for victims, outside the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Nov. 9, 2017. The church was the scene of a shooting that killed 26 people. Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images

    Later that day, he sat under his desk and wondered if he was going to be in trouble over the blood soaking into his shoes. His best friend and fellow first-grader, Scotty, sat next to him, contemplating the gaping wound in his own leg.

    “And that’s when he told me, ‘You know, Robbie, I think we’ve been shot,’” Young said.

    The Stockton Schoolyard Shooting

    On that foggy morning 35 years ago, as Young and his friends played kickball, a disaffected loner sprayed the Cleveland Elementary School playground in Stockton, California, with bullets from an AK-style semiautomatic rifle.

    As children began running and screaming, Young felt something sweep his feet up over his head and then slam him to the ground as something impacted his chest. One of the bullets passed through his foot, narrowly missing the bones. A second bullet lodged in his chest, where it remains today.

    Young said investigators believe the second bullet ricocheted off the ground before hitting him: a bullet of that caliber could have easily passed through his body if it hadn’t been slowed. Doctors determined that removing the bullet was too risky.

    Five children were killed, and 30 other people, including a teacher, were injured.

    The shooting was the impetus for California officials to write the state’s—and the nation’s—first ban on certain semiautomatic rifles, sometimes called “assault weapons.” But that was not the end of the response, the ripples of which are still being felt today.

    Last September, President Joe Biden opened the first White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. He recently signed executive orders regulating homemade guns and promoting active shooter drills in schools. Vice President Kamala Harris has promised to do more if she is elected to replace her boss.

    “We know how to stop these tragedies, and it is a false choice to suggest you are either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away. I am in favor of the Second Amendment,” Harris said on Sept. 26 ahead of Biden’s signing the order.

    “I believe we need to reinstate the assault weapons ban, and pass universal background checks, safe storage laws, and red flag laws.”

    Many of the survivors of what has come to be known as the Stockton schoolyard shooting became champions of gun control.

    However, Young took a different path, going on to a career in law enforcement. The best thing to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, he said.

    He points out that the Stockton shooter ended his rampage by shooting himself, but did so only after he realized armed police had arrived.

    “I always realized that the gun was just a tool that a crazy man used,” Young said. “Would you ever blame a vehicle for a drunk driver who plows into a bunch of kids on a park bench? It didn’t make sense to me to blame an inanimate object.”

    Sutherland Springs

    Zachary Poston said he knows precisely what Young means. On Nov. 5, 2017, he, too, saw the power of a good guy with a gun.

    That day, 17-year-old Poston went to church with his grandmother at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, as he had every Sunday for most of his life.

    As a senior at La Vernia High School, he enjoyed computer games and flying the drone that recorded his school’s football games. He looked forward to enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps after graduation.

    Poston is tentative when asked to recall the events of that day, referring interviewers to court records.

    “It’s been a minute,” he told The Epoch Times.

    According to Poston and another witness, the congregation had finished singing a hymn and were waiting for the sermon to begin when bullets began punching through the church’s front door.

    A convicted felon with a history of mental health issues and a hatred for religion was shooting through the church’s front door. He then moved down one side of the church, shooting through the wall and windows, forcing the people inside to take cover.

    The murderer then moved inside the building, still shooting. Poston saw that a little girl in front of him was in the open, so he pushed her under the pew in front of him with his foot. The act drew the killer’s attention, and he raked Poston’s body with gunfire.

    Poston’s grandmother threw herself over him.

    “My grandmother took the bullets that would have killed me,” Poston said.

    Across the street, Stephen Willeford had been resting in anticipation of being called to his plumbing job at a local medical facility later in the day.

    He thought he heard someone tapping on his window. Then his daughter came into the room and told him something was happening at the church across the street.

    An aerial photo showing the site of a mass shooting at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Nov. 6, 2017. Reuters/Jonathan Bachman

    Stephen Willeford stands in front of the location of the former First Baptist Church, in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sept. 19, 2024. Michael Clements/The Epoch Times

    As Willeford walked to his living room, he recognized the sound of gunfire. He told his family to call 911, grabbed his AR-15 and a handful of cartridges, and began loading a magazine.

    He hadn’t had time to put his shoes on.

    As he got to the front of the church, he saw the killer preparing to shoot a man in the head. He yelled to get his attention. The killer dropped his rifle and pointed a pistol at Willeford.

    Willeford shot the gunman six times. The killer, who was wearing body armor, got into his car and fled.

    Willeford flagged down a stranger named Johnnie Langendorff, who was in a pickup truck across the street. The two men chased the gunman, who ran off the road and shot himself several miles outside of town.

    Poston’s grandmother, Peggy Lynn Warden, was one of 26 people killed in the massacre.

    Both Willeford and Poston say that access to guns did not cause what happened in their rural Texas town. Poston points out that the rampage ended when Willeford returned fire. He said if he finds himself in a similar situation again, he wants to be able to stop the killing.

    “I won’t go without [a gun] because I don’t want it to happen to me again or to whoever I’m around. I just don’t want it to happen to someone else,” Poston said.

    Groups promoting gun control and gun safety disagree. They say the solution to the problem of mass shootings is a resurrection of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban implemented by the Clinton administration. In a recent email to its membership, Brady: United Against Gun Violence leadership stated that weapons like the one used in Stockton ensure high body counts in mass shootings.

    “We know that a federal ban on assault weapons will save lives, and the majority of Americans support this measure. It is past time Congress listens to the American people and protects our communities by passing the Assault Weapons Ban of 2023,” the email reads.

    Victims and Survivors

    Other survivors of mass shootings who spoke with The Epoch Times said they are glad that their assailants met with armed resistance.

    Massad Ayoob is a firearms instructor who has taught police techniques and civilian self-defense for decades. He has written extensively on firearms, combat techniques, self-defense, and legal issues. Ayoob spoke at the Gun Rights Policy Conference on Sept. 28 in San Diego.

    He said that gun control activists capitalize on the emotional impact of the victims’ stories, while ignoring those who survive because someone was there with a gun to take down the shooter.

    Retired police officer Rob Young (L), and Nashville policeman Michael Collazo (R) speak to a Gun Owners of America group in Knoxville, Tenn., on Aug. 17, 2024. Michael Clements/The Epoch Times

    Michael Collazo agrees. He is one of the metro police officers who engaged a mass shooter at Covenant Christian School in Nashville on March 27, 2023.

    Police bodycam video caught the moment Collazo and another officer shot the killer who had murdered three children and three adults at the school.

    Collazo spoke during the Gun Owner Advocacy and Leadership Summit, sponsored by Gun Owners of America, in Knoxville, Tennessee, in August. He said school staff, including the principal, who was killed that day, had received active shooter training. The principal tried to stop the shooter even though she was unarmed, Collazo said.

    Their stories are examples of heroism and courage, he said.

    “They didn’t have to do that. They’re teachers; they signed up to teach kids, not to go into a gunfight,” Collazo told the gathering. “They had gotten some training prior to the incident occurring, and they did everything phenomenally.”

    Gun Was Locked Up

    The only gun on campus that day was locked in a car and inaccessible, Collazo said.

    Meanwhile, Young said the Stockton shooting and his law enforcement experience have given him a unique perspective.

    Several of his friends and former teachers are active in the gun control movement. He loves and respects them, he said.

    Nonetheless, Young said that violent crime doesn’t come from a weapon; it comes from violent criminals. The most effective means of stopping violent crime is to stop violent criminals, he said.

    A 2014 FBI analysis found that the average police response time after an active shooter report is approximately three minutes.

    The Stockton schoolyard shooting was over in about 3 1/2 minutes. “Twenty-nine kids at my school, including myself, were shot before the law enforcement officers got on scene,” Young said.

    “There are a lot of good people that work in our school systems that cannot carry their firearms. It’s their God-given right. It’s afforded by the Constitution.

    “It’s a tool that can stop a madman.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 17:40

  • Desperation: Harris-Walz Use Livestream World Of Warcraft Game To Drive Online Views For Rally
    Desperation: Harris-Walz Use Livestream World Of Warcraft Game To Drive Online Views For Rally

    Democrat strategists are increasingly worried about the Harris-Walz ticket’s appeal among working-class voters, especially younger ones in crucial swing states. Internal polling data for the Harris-Walz team must be bleak, as evidenced by their more overt and desperate effort on Twitch. 

    Harris’s campaign live-streamed Walz’s rally in Arizona on Twitch on Wednseday night. The stream featured a split-screen setup with a gamer, who has 50,000 followers, playing World of Warcraft on the other side. 

    The split-screen setup showed Walz’s rally in Tucson on the left – and Twitch streamer Preheat on the right side. 

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    Notice how Democrats gave the gamer more screen space than Walz. LoL. 

    Using a gamer influencer to attract online viewership for a campaign rally is all the hallmarks of desperation by Democrats. This is not the first time the party of ‘joy’ and ‘love’ censorship and socialism has been used to attract an audience. They routinely featured rap and Hollywood stars, putting on mini concerts before Harris would speak to attract larger audience sizes for optically pleasing photo ops for corporate media. 

    Back to last night’s stream, gamer Preheat chimed in at one point with the typical leftist talking point: “Project 2025? Not good, very weird.” 

    At one point, the gamer spoke over Walz, confused about why his character was dying: “Wait, am I dying?”

    About 15 hours later (as of 1130 ET on Thursday), the stream garnered only 81,000 views. 

    Desperation by Democrats comes as polling data from Emerson College/The Hill poll show Trump and Harris are deadlocked in top swing states with less than a month until Election Day. Trump is also leading Harris by two points in Arizona and one point in Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. Harris has the upper hand in Nevada.

    Spencer Kimball, executive director at Emerson College Polling, told The Hill: “With the race still deadlocked and just under four weeks to go, it remains too close to call in key swing states, all within the margin of error.” 

    In Michigan, WSJ reported that Democrats have “privately grown worried about Kamala Harris’s standing among working-class voters.” 

    Earlier this week, Veteran Democrat political strategist James Carville was featured on MSBC, noting that “The only thing I feel is the election is coming November 5, and I’m scared to death.” 

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    In election betting markets, including Polymarket and PredictIT, the Trump-Harris spread flipped positive for Trump with hot momentum coming off the weekend from the Trump-Musk rally in Butler, PA, and Harris stumbling in interviews. 

    Zoom out… 

    Folks are finally getting it.

    The big takeaway is that Democrats are becoming overtly desperate. This will undoubtedly continue.  

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 17:20

  • When The Electricity Dies
    When The Electricity Dies

    Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

    Once a huge champion of all things digital, I’ve come to develop serious doubts about the pace at which humanity made the switch from analogue to the cloud. The hackings, outages, data breaches, and extended breakages all make the point. Then it dawned on me that the danger is even greater.

    Most of the things we use today have not been stress tested. They are centralized and have a single point of failure. And they are very vulnerable. It could all stop in an instant with no sure guarantee of when it will come back.

    A turning point came for me visiting a small basement laundry in Manhattan. The proprietor was still using a sewing machine from 1948. She would have nothing to do with newer models. After that, I took greater notice of the machinery of other merchants in my area. Many sewing machines were 75 years old and still working well. My cobbler uses equipment more than a century old. This is not uncommon.

    They can all still do business with a generator and a good supply of fuel. They are prepared. This is also why people are holding on to their older gas-powered cars without all the snazzy stuff. They are more trustworthy and you can fix what breaks. It’s better to maintain the old thing in good repair than move to the new thing that is not going to last long.

    These days, few things are built for the long term. We buy smartphones and computers with full anticipation that we will buy new ones in a few years. Repairing things is ever less possible. Home appliances are the same: kaput in 5 to 10 years. And so many are dependent on digital applications to work. The operations of locks on homes, cars, ignitions, lights, and so much more are wholly dependent on a web of hooks that require that everything is in perfect working order.

    What if it’s all a house of cards?

    Imagine a time when it all goes down, not for an hour or day but for weeks. Or months. This is precisely what people in areas most affected by Hurricane Helene experience. As is well known, FEMA has been underperforming, but more importantly, it has attempted to stop private efforts in multiple documented instances. Elon Musk had to take to social media to beg the government to let him offer free internet to people because all other options died.

    The money died. Credit cards stopped working. ATMs were dead. All communications came to a halt. The only way to transact was through cash, silver, gold, or barter. Electric cars could not be charged. The locks on doors seized up. You could not access your bank. The internet was gone in a flash. In short, the whole of the 21st century vanished in an instant.

    The only path out of this mess was with old technology. Gasoline. Generators. Matches and candles. Internal combustion. Radios with hand cranks. Cash. Books on physical paper. Paper maps. Thermometers. Blankets. Firewood. In the end, survival depended on analogue things and analogue skills. For all the methods in which we’ve tried to reinvent the world in ways that are not dependent on “fossil fuels,” know-how, and elbow grease, it just keeps reverting.

    Remember during the COVID crisis when everyone became suddenly obsessed with “touchless” everything? None of it made any sense because the virus did not spread on surfaces, and we discovered that pretty early on. But touchless went ahead anyway, and when restaurants reopened, people had to scan a code to access a list of things to order.

    Customers hated it and now most places have gone back to physical menus. We go to restaurants to get away from digital everything, not find ourselves newly immersed in it.

    There is something deeply wrong with the attitude that touching things is icky and beneath us. It suggests an unwillingness to use the hands God gave us to better the world. On a theological level, it suggests disgust with the incarnation: why would God ever become man if God wanted to be “touchless?” It suggests even a cult-like disgust with the physical world itself.

    Fortunately, the word touchless seems to have lost its cache. Even so, the word itself reveals a dangerously millenarian eschatology, the belief that history is somehow headed toward a full escape from the physical world and all its limits, including the need for work and the inevitability of mortality. It’s pure delusion. A disaster event proves that.

    Government has been running table-top exercises for decades with the idea of preparing for large-scale grid outages in the event of a huge weather event or a cyberattack. I can predict with 100 percent certainty that whatever plans they have in place, none will work. As our experience with Helene suggests, in the event of an emergency, the government may not be your friend but rather an obstacle, even a dangerous one.

    My friend Mark Hendrickson experienced some of the worst of the hurricane. He writes: “I had never been without electric power for such an extended period of time before, and the experience vividly underscored something that I had known intellectually, like an abstract theory, but now felt at a deep, visceral level: how utterly dependent our society is on electric power.”

    It meant for him a fundamental rethinking of everything.

    “Sitting at home during most of the power outage, time seemed to slow down. It seemed like every few minutes I had an impulse to turn on the TV to see how storm cleanup was proceeding, but—oops—no TV. Or I wanted to go online and see which teams had won sports contests, what was going on in the world, or even something as trivial as checking my current bank balance with the addition of the month-end interest payment. Oops—no internet.”

    “My thoughts turned to my dear Amish friends and neighbors when I lived in Pennsylvania. Our quiet candle-lit evenings at home during the outage now mirrored their evenings. Without the myriad distractions that electronic devices offer, there is more time for quiet reading or direct human interaction. In a society that has been becoming increasingly atomized, more personal connection seems appealing. Hmmm … maybe now, with the power back on, I should choose one evening a week to forsake the electronic world.”

    The scenarios above all depend on disaster happening. It might not happen. The actual reason we might fall into crisis are simple matters of inflation. It could just become too expensive to use, and cost too much to charge the cars or keep the lights on. Already I have friends whose utility bills are higher than their mortgages from 10 years ago. Somehow people don’t think about this when they buy maximum square footage. Do you have an additional $15,000 to heat and cool it?

    Most houses today, and certainly most office complexes, are designed to require electric-powered indoor air cooling and heating. We don’t use gas furnaces or rely on cross breezes anymore. Fireplaces are nothing but nostalgic vanities.

    When all this building was going on for many decades, hardly anyone even considered the contingencies. We built as if there were no eventualities for which to prepare.

    There is another factor: forced government rationing of power. Dependency on the grid, electric cars connected to the internet, and app-controlled things are all very easily controlled by a third party. But you say: these companies are all private and surely will ignore government edicts. We know now that this is not the case. Private companies become arms of the state under the right conditions. They will gladly comply to keep the paychecks rolling in and out.

    People who have dealt with the worst of the hurricane came face-to-face with the state of nature without all the comforts we’ve learned to take for granted. For my own part, it has caused me to rethink some matters. Keeping a stash of cash around is a good idea. Some bags of silver dimes are also essential. Having plenty of blankets is advisable.

    The most important way to prepare is to have a strong network of friends. In the end, human bonds will prove more enduring than the power grid.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 17:00

  • Gulf States Lobby Hard For US To Stop Israel From Attacking Iran Oil Sites
    Gulf States Lobby Hard For US To Stop Israel From Attacking Iran Oil Sites

    Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are deeply alarmed by Israel’s current threats of launching a major counter-attack on Iran, which would likely involve ballistic missiles and fighter jet strikes on key infrastructure, both energy and military. The Biden White House has this week sought to talk the Israelis down from hitting oil and gas sites.

    Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates are now also lobbying the US and Israel to avoid hitting Iran’s oil sites, on fears that with such an escalation Tehran would in turn target oil facilities in the Gulf. This was already a reality that played out in the last half-decade of regional proxy conflict between the Iran axis and the West-Gulf country alliance.

    The Saudis and GGC states wish to avoid the kind of attacks which could impact its oil production and exports, such as the 2019 Abqaiq–Khurais Saudi Aramco drones strikes. The US blamed Iran for those historic attacks, but Tehran leaders never owned up to it. It may have been done by Iranian proxies out of Iraq, but the West ultimately views that it was Tehran’s finger on the trigger.

    Saudi Press Agency/Handout via Reuters

    We detailed last week that the Saudis are attempting convince the Iranians of their neutrality, amid a series of high-level meetings, which recently included President Masoud Pezeshkian visiting Doha to meet with GCC officials. These talks have continued with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Iranian meeting Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Wednesday amid the latter’s Gulf tour.

    Reuters has in a new Thursday report revealed more details of dire warnings conveyed from the Iranian side. “The moves by the Gulf states come after a diplomatic push by non-Arab Shi’ite Iran to persuade its Sunni Gulf neighbors to use their influence with Washington amid rising concerns Israel could target Iran’s oil production facilities,” Reuters writes.

    Tehran is basically telling the Saudis to talk the Israelis down, or else…

    “During meetings this week, Iran warned Saudi Arabia it could not guarantee the safety of the Gulf kingdom’s oil facilities if Israel were given any assistance in carrying out an attack, a senior Iranian official and an Iranian diplomat told Reuters.”

    A key complication, and one which puts the Saudis in a precarious and delicate position vis-a-vis their allies, is that the United States has bases and a troop presence in the kingdom, including significant US Air Force assets. Washington has already pledged to help the Israelis repel any future Iranian ballistic missile counterattacks, as it did in the last two rounds of drones and ballistic missiles fired on Israel.

    A broader Iran-Israel war would certainly see the US pressure the Saudis and GCC to allow American fighter jets based out of the Gulf to engage Iran. According to Reuters, Iran has expressly threatened war should Riyadh cooperate: 

    Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst close to the Saudi royal court, said: “The Iranians have stated: ‘If the Gulf states open up their airspace to Israel, that would be an act of war’.”

    The diplomat said Tehran had sent a clear message to Riyadh that its allies in countries such as Iraq or Yemen might respond if there was any regional support for Israel against Iran.

    Both the Shia Houthi out of Yemen and Iraqi paramilitaries have over the years proven themselves capable of hitting Saudi oil facilities with either drones or missiles.

    The Saudis appear to be taking steps to appease Iran: “As part of their attempts to avoid being caught in the crossfire, Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are also refusing to let Israel fly over their airspace for any attack on Iran and have conveyed this to Washington, the three sources close to government circles said,” Reuters details further.

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    The Saudis and Iranians have over the past couple years made huge strides toward full diplomatic rapprochement, while at the same time Riyadh has drifted away from normalization with Israel in light of the Gaza war.

    In terms of oil risk, it must be recalled that the aforementioned 2019 attack on Saudi Aramco’s oilfield had shut down over 5% of global oil supply. If Israel targets Iran’s supply, OPEC has enough spare oil capacity to make up for it, but not if oil sites in Saudi Arabia and the UAE are hit by any potential attacks from Iranian proxies.

    But again, Riyadh is seeking to assure the Islamic Republic: “The Gulf states aren’t letting Israel use their airspace. They won’t allow Israeli missiles to pass through, and there’s also a hope that they won’t strike the oil facilities,” a Gulf source told Reuters.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 16:40

  • 'Anti-Hate' Art Exhibit In LA Featured Participants Kicking Around Donald Trump's Head
    ‘Anti-Hate’ Art Exhibit In LA Featured Participants Kicking Around Donald Trump’s Head

    Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Modernity.news,

    An “art exhibit” in Los Angeles designed to protest against Donald Trump “spreading hate” featured participants kicking around a soccer ball shaped like the former president’s head.

    Yes, really.

    A a rubber or latex object made to look like Trump’s dome was booted around by players during an indoor game at Superchief Gallery in Los Angeles last weekend.

    The art installation was created by a group called INDECLINE and was first debuted the Trump soccer ball four years ago when they invited people at the Mexican border to kick it around.

    Laughably, the art collective claimed the point of the display was to demonstrate against Trump “spreading hate.”

    “Political civility on full display I guess,” commented Mario Nawfal.

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    Because there’s nothing kinder and more appropriate in opposing ‘hate’ than to make a facsimile of someone’s decapitated head and treat it with total disrespect.

    “Freedom Kick is an appeal to the American sense of justice as a match between two opposing teams,” said the group.

    “The rules are meant to protect us from cheaters. We believe it is time to reset the game, before we have to spend another four years watching a cheeseburger-scarfing, bloviating mess hobble up and down the pitch spreading hate.”

    Meanwhile, at another art exhibit in Los Angeles, a statue of a naked Trump with his genitals mutilated is on display at Subliminal Projects Gallery.

    All this after two deranged leftists tried to assassination Trump in the last three months alone.

    They really just want to stop hate!

    *  *  *

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

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 16:20

  • Stagflation Signal Stalls Stocks; Sparks Gold Gains
    Stagflation Signal Stalls Stocks; Sparks Gold Gains

    Hotter than expected CPI (as food costs reignite) and ugly jobless claims data (somewhat affected by Hurricane Helene) signal stagflationary pressures may be returning…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …sparked some initial chaos across asset classes, pushing rate-cut expectations lower (hawkish) for 2024 but higher (dovish) for 2025…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Stocks ended lower (with Small Caps the biggest loser) despite a late-day panic-bid into the close…

    NVDA is holding it all together…

    As VIX increased (now dramatically decoupled from stocks) ahead of tonight’s TSLA robotaxi event, and tomorrow’s PPI and the beginning of earnings season…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Treasuries were very mixed today with the short-end outperforming (2Y -3.5bps, 30Y +4bps)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …which steepened the yield curve significantly, erasing all the post-payrolls flattening…

    Source: Bloomberg

    The dollar rallied for the 8th day in a row – the last time this happened, The Fed had just started hiking rates in April 2022…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Despite the dollar’s gains, gold also rallied today…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Bitcoin barfed late on today, back below the $60,000 Maginot Line once again (after an SEC lawsuit against digital asset market maker Cumberland DRW sparked more regulatory FUD)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Oil prices also managed solid gains today after two ugly days with WTI back above $76…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Finally, the fundamental contradiction at the heart of today’s price moves is most easily seen in market measures of longer inflation expectations, which are rising even as two-year yields plumb session lows.

    Source: Bloomberg

    As Bloomberg’s Sebastian Boyd noted, the mixed nature of today’s data means that traders are trying to express the view that inflation is still a problem, but that the labor market is maybe weakening too, which will mean The Fed goes ahead with rate cuts anyway.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 16:00

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Oct 10

Today’s News 10th October 2024

  • Austria Faces Political Deadlock As Federal President Resists Giving Victorious FPÖ A Mandate To Form A Government
    Austria Faces Political Deadlock As Federal President Resists Giving Victorious FPÖ A Mandate To Form A Government

    By Thomas Brooke of RMX.News

    Austria remains in political limbo following last month’s national elections, as Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen announced that no party has been given a mandate to form a government yet.

    After hosting talks with the leaders of the FPÖ, ÖVP, SPÖ, NEOS, and the Greens at the Hofburg Palace on Wednesday, Van der Bellen made it clear that he expects more clarity from the top three parties by the end of next week before any mandate is issued.

    The right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), led by Herbert Kickl, emerged as the clear election winner with a record 28.8 percent of the vote, but it faces challenges in forming a government.

    President Van der Bellen emphasized the unusual nature of the current political landscape, stating, “On the one hand, the FPÖ is the election winner and Kickl is claiming the chancellorship. On the other hand, no one trusts him enough to form a coalition. Who should he negotiate with?”

    As is often the case across Europe, liberal parties have refused to cooperate with victorious conservative factions — a move that could see a “coalition of losers” that risks creating a serious democratic deficit.

    “So far, it has been common practice to entrust the election winner with leading substantive discussions. But as you can see, the situation is anything but usual,” Van der Bellen said.

    “Respect for you, the voters of all parties, dictates that we have to be safe here. Does everyone involved mean what they said? I want clarity for Austria. I ask Kickl, Nehammer, and Babler to have discussions with each other,” he added, referencing the leaders of the FPÖ, the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), and the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ).

    Reports suggest current Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) may pursue a three-party coalition with the liberal NEOS and the Socialists, though it remains unclear how the SPÖ will proceed.

    Continue reading at RMX.news

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/10/2024 – 02:00

  • What's Really Outrageous About Woodward's New Book
    What’s Really Outrageous About Woodward’s New Book

    Authored by Alan Tonelson via RealityChek,

    So much outrage (including from Vice President and Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris) about the claim in Bob Woodward’s upcoming book that Donald Trump during his presidency sent some test kits to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin at the height of the Covid pandemic when they were scarce in the United States. And about the famed journalist’s report that the former president called Putin seven times since the former left the Oval Office in January, 2021. (See, e.g., here.)

    And so little about by far the biggest outrage described in War (if true, of course – as with the above revelations): that President Biden may have pushed the United States, and the world, to within a coin flip of nuclear war in Ukraine.

    Getty Images

    Think I’m kidding? Here’s the description by CNN – which broke the news about Woodward’s book – his account of a crucial moment in U.S. policy toward Russia’s invasion. It’s worth quoting in full:

    By September 2022, US intelligence reports deemed “exquisite” revealed a “deeply unnerving assessment” of Putin — that he was so desperate about battlefield losses that he might use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

    “Based on the alarming new intelligence reports, the White House believed there was a 50% chance Russia would use a tactical nuclear weapon — a striking assessment that had skyrocketed up from 5% and then 10%, Woodward reports.

    “’On all channels, get on the line with the Russians,’ Biden instructed his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. ‘Tell them what we will do in response,’ he said, according to Woodward.”

    That’s the key phrase: “Tell them what we will do in response.”

    It doesn’t necessarily mean that Mr. Biden had decided to use a nuclear weapon against Russia itself, or even against Russian forces inside Ukraine, or was considering such actions. Nor does it necessarily mean that the president had decided to deploy U.S. military forces in Ukraine in response.

    But it’s difficult to imagine what else President Biden might have been thinking of that would deter the Russians from a step like tactical nuclear weapons use, or that would have convinced them to abandon this policy after firing one nuclear shot.

    Simon & Schuster plans to publish the book on Oct. 15

    And the real outrage here – again, if Woodward has the story right – is that Mr. Biden actually was prepared to run such a catastrophic risk on behalf of a country whose fate Washington had never officially considered to be a remotely vital American security interest even at the height of the Cold War — and still hasn’t.

    It’s one thing to threaten nuclear weapons use to protect a country or region that has been deemed a vital interest by U.S. leaders – like Western Europe or Japan. Or to do so when adversaries try to place nuclear weapons close to the American homeland (as was the case with the Soviet Union during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962).

    But even to contemplate Armageddon in a situation meeting absolutely none of these characteristics? How can that be viewed as anything but needlessly reckless and even suicidal?

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    Keep that in mind the next time you hear that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is too dangerously off his rocker to be fit for the presidency (in particular that his warnings about the current administration bringing World War III closer are nothing more than fear-mongering). And that the aforementioned Kamala Harris, when asked what she would have done differently from Mr. Biden, responded, “Not a thing that comes to mind.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 23:25

  • America's Homeless Population Reaches Record High Under Biden-Harris Admin
    America’s Homeless Population Reaches Record High Under Biden-Harris Admin

    According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s latest report on homelessness in the United States, 653,104 Americans were homeless in 2023.

    Last year, levels of homelessness climbed for the sixth year.

    While in 2017 and 2018, growth was slow, Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports that homelessness increased more in 2019 and 2020 and finally skyrocketed in 2023 by growing 12 percent compared to the year prior and even climbing 10 percent above the 2007-2022 average.

    Infographic: America's Homeless Population on the Rise | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    As Covid-era protection programs expired and the cost-of-living crisis hit the country, homelessness numbers rose.

    At the same time, Covid restrictions on shelter capacity ended, leading to more homeless individuals living in shelters once again.

    During Covid-19, most of the increase in homeless populations had come from unhoused individuals.

    In 2023, sheltered populations rose by almost 14 percent, while unhoused populations rose by less than 10 percent.

    However, the share of the sheltered homeless population held steady at around 60-61 percent since the pandemic started.

    Despite previous increases, the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January when the count is carried out had always stayed below Great Recession levels, which had been highest in 2007 when the data was first reported.

    The 2023 number now retired that record, surpassing it by 1 percent.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 23:00

  • Canada, AUKUS, And The Strategic Imperative Of Restraint
    Canada, AUKUS, And The Strategic Imperative Of Restraint

    Authored by Andrew Latham via RealClearDefense,

    When AUKUS—an unprecedented defense pact between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia—was announced in 2021, many Canadian defense commentators expressed concern that Canada’s exclusion from the agreement marked a significant setback.

    To some, it signaled a diminution of Canada’s standing as a so-called middle power, a nation accustomed to “punching above its weight” in the international peace and security field. This perception led to calls for Canada to seek formal inclusion in the pact, particularly in Pillar 2, which focuses on advanced military technology development, from cyber warfare to artificial intelligence. However, while there are valid reasons for Canada to consider joining AUKUS, this decision must be made with strategic restraint and in line with Canada’s long-term security interests. In particular, Canada’s involvement in AUKUS should not draw it into an Indo-Pacific security alliance that could distract from its more pressing obligations in the North Pacific, Arctic, and North Atlantic.

    The Strategic Logic of Pillar 2 Participation

    AUKUS was conceived primarily as a response to rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific region, especially concerning China’s growing influence and assertiveness. While the agreement’s first pillar involves Australia acquiring nuclear-powered submarines—a development less relevant to Canada’s immediate military needs—Pillar 2 offers a more attractive opportunity. This component focuses on advancing cooperation in high-tech fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cyber capabilities, and advanced undersea technologies.

    Canada’s participation in Pillar 2 would offer several advantages. First, it would allow Canada to access and contribute to innovative military technologies that are vital to modern warfare and national security. Canada’s defense capabilities in areas such as cyber defense and artificial intelligence are limited compared to larger military powers, and AUKUS Pillar 2 could provide a critical opportunity for enhancing these capabilities. Additionally, collaboration with close allies such as the United States and the United Kingdom could strengthen Canada’s ability to defend its national infrastructure from cyberattacks and to maintain a competitive edge in military technology development.

    Yet, while the opportunity to join AUKUS Pillar 2 offers clear technological and defense benefits, it is essential that Canada approaches this decision with caution. The logic of participating in AUKUS should not be driven by a desire to uphold Canada’s traditional middle-power status or to be seen as an essential player in global security forums. Instead, it should be guided by a sober assessment of Canada’s own defense needs and its core regional interests.

    Avoiding Indo-Pacific Overextension

    Canada’s involvement in AUKUS must be carefully calibrated to avoid being drawn into the larger strategic focus of the pact: the Indo-Pacific. AUKUS was designed in large part to counter China’s growing influence in that region, and while the Indo-Pacific is of significant importance to Canadian trade and foreign policy, it does not represent Canada’s most pressing security concern. For Canada, the key security challenges lie in the North Pacific, the Arctic, and the North Atlantic. The country’s vast and vulnerable Arctic region, in particular, presents growing concerns amid climate change and increasing interest from Russia and China. Meanwhile, the North Atlantic remains a critical theater for Canada’s NATO commitments and defense of the North American continent alongside the United States.

    Joining AUKUS should not be seen as an opportunity to expand Canada’s military presence in the Indo-Pacific at the expense of these more critical regions. It is imperative that Canada’s defense strategy remain focused on securing its northern flank and fulfilling its NATO obligations in the Atlantic. While a presence in the Indo-Pacific may be warranted in specific circumstances, such as freedom of navigation operations or peacekeeping missions, Canada must resist the temptation to overextend its limited military resources in a region where its core security interests are not at stake.

    By focusing on Pillar 2, Canada could enhance its technological capabilities without being drawn into the full scope of AUKUS’s Indo-Pacific focus. This would allow Canada to reap the benefits of the agreement—improved cyber defense, advanced technologies, and closer military cooperation with key allies—while avoiding a deeper commitment to Indo-Pacific military operations that do not align with its security priorities.

    The Limits of the Middle Power Mentality

    Canada’s foreign policy has long been shaped by the idea that it is a middle power with a responsibility to participate in global security efforts, even in regions far from its own borders. This mentality has often led Canada to participate in international coalitions and interventions, from peacekeeping missions in Africa to military engagements in Afghanistan. However, in the current era of great-power competition and rising regional tensions, Canada must reassess its role in the international system.

    The belief that Canada must join every significant defense initiative to maintain its middle-power status is misguided. Canada should prioritize its own security needs over any perceived obligation to project influence globally. In the context of AUKUS, this means recognizing that Canada’s inclusion in the pact should not be driven by a desire to uphold its middle-power identity, but rather by the practical benefits it can derive from participation—specifically, in the realm of advanced military technologies.

    Furthermore, the notion of Canada as a global middle power no longer aligns with the realities of the international security landscape. The geopolitical environment has shifted, with regions such as the Arctic and the North Pacific becoming increasingly important for Canadian security. Canada must embrace its identity as a North Pacific, Arctic, and North Atlantic power, focusing its defense strategy on these regions rather than spreading its resources thin by participating in global military alliances that do not directly serve its interests.

    Balancing Opportunities with National Interests

    In considering formal participation in AUKUS, Canada must carefully weigh the potential benefits against the risks. While participation in Pillar 2 offers significant opportunities for technological advancement and military cooperation, it should not lead to a shift in Canada’s strategic focus away from the regions where its core security interests lie.

    Canada’s defense establishment is already facing significant challenges, from underfunded procurement processes to recruitment shortfalls and aging military infrastructure. Committing to AUKUS’s broader Indo-Pacific objectives could further strain Canada’s limited defense resources and distract from the more urgent task of securing its northern and Atlantic approaches.

    At the same time, Canada must not shy away from opportunities for technological collaboration with its closest allies. By participating in Pillar 2 of AUKUS, Canada can enhance its military capabilities and ensure that it remains competitive in the rapidly evolving field of military technology. This is not only essential for national defense but also for maintaining Canada’s credibility as a reliable ally within NATO and the broader Western alliance.

    Conclusion

    Canada’s decision to potentially join AUKUS must be grounded in a clear-eyed assessment of its national interests. While the technological benefits of participation in Pillar 2 are significant, Canada must avoid being drawn into the broader Indo-Pacific security focus of the pact. Nor should Canada’s involvement in AUKUS be driven by an outdated sense of middle-power identity. Instead, Canada should embrace its role as a North Pacific, Arctic, and North Atlantic power, focusing its defense efforts on securing these critical regions while selectively engaging in global security initiatives that directly serve its national interests.

    By participating in AUKUS on its own terms—focused on advanced military technology development rather than broader geopolitical ambitions—Canada can enhance its defense capabilities without sacrificing its strategic priorities. This is the path of restraint and pragmatism that should guide Canada’s approach to AUKUS and future international security partnerships.

    Andrew Latham is a professor of international relations at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minn., a senior Washington fellow at the Institute for Peace and Diplomacy, and a non-resident fellow at Defense Priorities in Washington, D.C. He regularly teaches courses on international security, Chinese foreign policy, war and peace in the Middle East, Regional Security in the Indo-Pacific Region, and the World Wars. Professor Latham has been published in outlets such as The Hill, The Diplomat, Canadian Defence Quarterly, The Conversation, Wavell Room/British Military Thought, Defense One, and Responsible Statecraft.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 22:35

  • Largest California Cannabis Delivery Company Shutting Down
    Largest California Cannabis Delivery Company Shutting Down

    Authored by Cynthia Cai via The Epoch Times,

    The largest cannabis delivery company in California will shut down by the end of the year, according to a letter from the chief executive officer Sunday, joining a growing number of marijuana businesses in the state that are going belly up.

    In the note published on LinkedIn, Eaze CEO Cory Azzalino said that “ongoing challenges” in the state’s cannabis industry led to the foreclosure of company assets on Aug. 6.

    He added that the San Francisco-based company is “winding down” current operations and is expected to fully close around Dec. 31.

    Eaze’s management team is working with a group to transfer the assets under new ownership and to determine whether operations will reopen next year.

    Around 500 workers could face layoffs as a result, according to United Food and Commercial Workers, the union representing those employees.

    Founded in 2014, the company says on its website that it provides on-demand delivery to adults across California and Michigan. After California legalized recreational marijuana in 2018, the business rapidly grew to become one of the largest cannabis delivery companies in the state.

    It was once valued at $700 million, but top executives have faced financial issues over the years. Former Eaze CEO James Patterson pleaded guilty in 2021 to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. His case was related to that of Hamid Akhavan, a consultant for the company, who was convicted of deceiving credit card companies into processing marijuana transactions, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

    In that same year, tech investor and co-founder of Netscape James Henry Clark invested in the company but was embroiled in lawsuits with other investors in the following years. In 2022, he loaned Eaze $36.9 million but foreclosed on the company at the start of this year, according to federal court documents first reported by WeedWeek.

    Then in August, Clark took ownership of Eaze after purchasing the company for $54 million at auction, but his plans for the company are currently unclear.

    The Epoch Times reached out to Eaze and United Food and Commercial Workers for comment but did not hear back by deadline.

    The delivery company joins a growing number of cannabis-related businesses in California that are closing. Five companies have downsized or closed since 2023. This includes MedMen, which faced financial difficulties earlier this year, leading the company to close all but two of its stores. Similarly, Herbl, a cannabis distribution business, closed at the end of 2023 due to a financial collapse. Flow Kana closed early last year. High Times sold some assets after failing to repay roughly $29 million in loans. GrassDoor also closed late last year after liquidating its assets.

    A report by GreenWave Advisors found that marijuana companies owe California around $732 million in unpaid sales, excise, and cultivation taxes which include penalties and interest. However, 72 percent of those taxes are owed by businesses that are no longer in operation.

    This comes as California Gov. Gavin Newsom last month proposed emergency regulations to ban THC from foods and drinks accessible by people under 21 years old. Meanwhile, he signed Assembly Bill 1775 last week to allow cannabis consumption lounges to operate statewide.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 21:45

  • Ghost Gun Seizures Nearly Triple In Two Years
    Ghost Gun Seizures Nearly Triple In Two Years

    The number of ghost guns recovered by U.S. law enforcement rose swiftly between 2016 and 2022, the same year the Biden Administration introduced background checks and outlawed accessible built-at-home kits without serial numbers for these types of firearms which had previously evaded tracing due to their DIY nature.

    Infographic: Ghost Gun Seizures Nearly Triple in Two Years | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Now, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, the Supreme Court is hearing a case that pro-gun groups, manufacturers and citizens have brought against the U.S. government trying to overturn these rules that they say are based on an unjust expansion of the term firearm and therefore are beyond the power of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to enforce.

    A lower court sided with the plaintiffs and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case back in April.

    Since the introduction of the new rules and states also passing their own bans and regulations on the subject, there are indications that the proliferation of ghost guns has slowed.

    There are no 2023 numbers available from ATF.

    However, an analysis of police department data from 34 cities by Everytown Research showed a well-known manufacturer of ghost gun kits, Polymer80, was still the seventh most common source of guns used in crimes in 2023 across these municipalities at 1.5 percent.

    The number of 670 recovered Polymer80 guns that year was a step down from 933 in 2022 (across continuously reporting municipalities).

    The most used manufacturer was Glock at 18.4 percent.

    Polymer80, whose name alludes to the 80 percent-ready firearm kits if produces, has ceased operation in July.

    It was headquartered in Nevada, a state that decided to ban and regulate ghost guns in 2021.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 21:20

  • Fasting Activates Cell Repair Mechanism, Reverses Disease
    Fasting Activates Cell Repair Mechanism, Reverses Disease

    Authored by Jingduan Yang, M.D. via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Fasting helps with weight loss and activates the body’s autophagy, allowing deep-seated cell repair and improving cell health. As a result, fasting has been found to help prevent various diseases, slow aging, and effectively treat some illnesses.

    Research has found that fasting and calorie restriction can stimulate autophagy in diabetic mice, thereby improving vascular health. Julia Mikhaylova/Shutterstock

    What Is Autophagy?

    Autophagy is an important function that every cell possesses. As the name suggests, it means self-engulfing and is an essential cellular self-cleaning process.

    Each cell contains multiple parts that keep it functioning continuously. Over time, these parts may become defective or stop performing and become waste inside an otherwise healthy cell. For example, when damaged proteins, discarded organelles, or other wastes appear inside our cells, the efficiency of normal cell operation is reduced.

    Autophagy is equivalent to the body’s cellular recycling system that decomposes and recycles cell parts and waste. At the same time, it repurposes the salvageable bits and pieces into new, usable cell parts to generate energy and repair the cells, keeping the latter healthy and helping to prevent the incidence of diseases.

    A 2013 study published in Ageing Research Reviews has found that with normal autophagy in place, the body is able to resist disease effectively and can even delay aging. When autophagy slows, the waste removal process from the cells becomes less reliable, which may lead to various health issues, culminating in neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic disorders, and even cancer.

    Fasting and Autophagy

    How are fasting and autophagy related? When we fast, our cells sense a decrease in energy supply, signaling that they need to start cleaning up their internal “inventory,” initiating autophagy to recycle and utilize the resources already present in the cell.

    Studies have shown that autophagy is a dynamic catabolic process that is strictly regulated. Adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), known as the “cell energy regulator,” acts like a switch to energy-saving mode in the cell organelle. It is activated whenever it senses a low energy condition, and the cell will then reduce the synthesis of new proteins and start autophagy.

    Fasting triggers the autophagy process, and cells will automatically enter self-repair mode. This helps to remove waste from our bodies and improves the health of cells.

    Research has found that regular fasting can reduce weight and improve aging-related health problems, including cardiometabolic, cancer, and neurocognitive outcomes. Another study found that metabolic profiles related to lung and colorectal cancer risk were reduced after fasting during Ramadan.

    Case Sharing From My Medical Practice

    1. An older man with Alzheimer’s disease: After trying various treatment options, the man’s family decided he should try an intermittent fasting program of fasting for 14 to 16 hours a day, eating only between an 8 to 10-hour time span. After four months, his cognitive function improved significantly. Scans of his brain showed a decrease in the buildup of proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease. This improvement may be closely related to the autophagy process activated during fasting, which helps clear harmful proteins from the brain.

    2. A breast cancer cancer patient: This patient fasted for 48 hours before chemotherapy. The side effects from chemotherapy were significantly reduced while producing a much better effect from chemotherapy treatment. This is because, during fasting, the autophagy process helps clear damaged cell structures and promotes the regeneration of the immune system, thus enhancing the effectiveness of the treatment. However, some cancer patients suffer from cachexia or are unable to eat at all. In these cases, fasting is not appropriate.

    3. A middle-aged woman with lupus erythematosus (achronic autoimmune disease): This patient found that her symptoms improved significantly after intermittent fasting, and her dependence on hormonal drugs was significantly reduced. This is because autophagy effectively cleans up waste in the body and reduces the inflammatory response.

    These cases demonstrate that fasting can profoundly affect the health of our cells and even help treat diseases.

    However, fasting is not for everyone. People with chronic illnesses or special health needs are advised to consult a physician or nutritionist specialized in this area before beginning any fasting program.

    Two Popular Fasting Routines

    Healthy adults who want to try fasting can start with short-term or intermittent fasting.

    16:8 Fasting: One of the most popular intermittent fasting methods. Fast for 16 hours a day and eat within the remaining eight hours. For example, restrict yourself to eating only between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

    5:20 Fasting: Eat normally for five days of the week and limit your daily caloric intake to 500 to 600 calories on the remaining two days. This approach is also effective at kick-starting autophagy while making it easier for you to stick with it.

    Fasting is not about starving yourself, but rather managing your diet more intelligently so that your body has time to repair itself. During the fasting period, drink enough water and keep up with nutritional balance by choosing the right foods in your meals to ensure adequate nutritional intake.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 20:55

  • Landfall Imminent For Powerful Hurricane Milton
    Landfall Imminent For Powerful Hurricane Milton

    Update (2045ET):

    Official.

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    Ominous sign. 

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    Update (2030ET) 

    Milton is about to make landfall as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday evening on Florida’s central west coast. 

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    “The northern eyewall of Hurricane Milton is beginning to move onshore of the Florida Gulf Coast near Tampa and St. Petersburg, where an Extreme Wind Warning is now in effect. Please shelter in place as these extremely dangerous hurricane-force winds overspread the region,” NHC warned.

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    The storm’s landfall location is between Bradenton and Sarasota. 

    Tornado mania across South Florida. 

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    Half a million customers are without power. 

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    A dire warning from NWS about “catastrophic flash floods”… 

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     Scenes from Sarasota:

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    Live weather cameras: 

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    Milton strengthened overnight into a devastating Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds in excess of 160 mph. The National Hurricane Center reported early Wednseday that Milton was located about 300 miles southwest of Tampa, traversing the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico towards the northeast at 14 mph.

    “On the forecast track, the center of Milton will move across the eastern Gulf of Mexico today, make landfall along the west-central coast of Florida late tonight or early Thursday morning, and move off the east coast of Florida over the western Atlantic Ocean Thursday afternoon,” NHC wrote in an advisory note.

    The latest forecast states Milton will make landfall near Sarasota between 0200 ET and 0600 ET Thursday morning as a Category 4 storm.

    One of the main concerns across the Tampa to Sarasota region will be the storm’s dangerous eye and eyewall unleashing record storm surges. Warnings have already been posted for much of Florida’s western coast. 

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    Not good. 

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    “Tampa is on a knife’s edge, but Sarasota, Siesta Key, Venice, Englewood, Port Charlotte, and Punta Gorda continue to look to experience the worst of the storm surge under this scenario,” Ben Noll, a meteorologist with New Zealand’s National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, wrote on X. 

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    Noll continued. 

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    Since Sunday, evacuations in the state have been the largest since 2017. 

    According to the Florida Division of Emergency Management, here are the areas under mandatory evacuation orders:

    Charlotte County; Citrus County; Collier County; Hillsborough County; Hernando County; Lee County; Levy County; Manatee County; Pasco County; Pinellas County; Sarasota County; St. John’s County and Volusia County;

    And voluntary evacuation orders:

    Glades County; Okeechobee County; Dixie County; Hardee County; Miami-Dade County and Union County.

    Evacuation order map: 

    GTFO.

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    Meanwhile, Tampa-area Sheriff Chad Chronister of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office told residents anyone who has not evacuated is “on their own.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 20:30

  • These Are America's Most Popular Cars (By Generation)
    These Are America’s Most Popular Cars (By Generation)

    This chart, via Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao, ranks America’s most popular cars amongst different generations. Data was sourced from Insurify, as of August 2024.

    To create this ranking Insurify analyzed car ownership rates by brand and model across different generations, based on 4.5 million customer applications between 2023 and 2024.

    They followed the Pew Research Center’s definition to categorize the generations:

    • Baby Boomers: 1946–1964

    • Generation X: 1965–1980

    • Millennials: 1981–1996

    • Generation Z: 1997–2012

    Rankings are based on a car model having the highest rate of ownership in a generation versus the national average for that model. Please visit the source (linked above) for full details on their methodology.

    America’s Favorite Cars by Age Groups

    The Ford F-series pickup truck is the most popular vehicle for Baby Boomers and Gen X.

    However, for Millennials, the Ford pickup ranks sixth by ownership, and it doesn’t appear in Gen Z’s top choices at all.

    Trucks in general do better with older generations, as evidenced also by the Chevrolet Silverado’s presence. It’s ranked fifth for Baby Boomers and Gen X, 10th for Millennials, and once again not in the top choices for Gen Z.

    Older generations also seem to like—and can probably afford—bigger cars. Baby Boomers and Gen X both have SUVs in their top 10 (Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Nissan Rogue, and the Chevrolet Equinox) while Millennials and Gen Z have none.

    Across all generations, the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord consistently rank in the top five. Interestingly both car brands rank in the top five for reliability.

    These are about car models, how do generations feel about brands? Check out America’s Top Car Brands, by Generation. Spoiler: Hyundai ranks 6th across all four.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 20:30

  • 3.3% Of High Schoolers Identify As Transgender; CDC Survey Claims
    3.3% Of High Schoolers Identify As Transgender; CDC Survey Claims

    Authored by Ken Silva via HeadlineUSA.com,

    The Center for Disease Control and Prevention released the results of a 2023 survey on Tuesday, finding that 3.3% of U.S. high school students identified as transgender as of last year.

    The CDC survey also found that 2.2% of students “identified as questioning.” The study, from the 2023 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey, was touted as the first of its kind.

    “Until recently, population-based data describing the experiences of transgender students and students questioning whether they are transgender (questioning) have been limited,” the agency said Tuesday.

    Of the trans-identifying students, about 47.5% of them identified as female.

    There were also apparently fewer black transgender students.

    “A lower proportion of transgender students identified as Black and higher proportion identified as White compared with cisgender or questioning students. In addition, for questioning students, differences in grade distribution were observed,” the CDC said.

    The CDC survey found that trans students perform more poorly than their “cisgender” counterparts in just about every metric.

    “Transgender and questioning students experienced a higher prevalence of violence, poor mental health, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and unstable housing, and a lower prevalence of school connectedness than their cisgender peers,” the CDC said, defining “cisgender” students as “those whose gender identity aligns with their sex assigned at birth.”

    According to the CDC, some 40% of transgender and questioning students were bullied at school, and 69% of questioning students and 72% of transgender students experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness—a marker for experiencing depressive symptoms.

    “Approximately 26% of transgender and questioning students attempted suicide in the past year compared with 5% of cisgender male and 11% of cisgender female students,” the CDC said.

    Trans students are also gayer than cisgender ones, the survey found.

    “Most cisgender students reported their sexual identity as heterosexual (79.4%), whereas only 8.7% of transgender students and 7.5% of questioning students identified as heterosexual. Transgender questioning students had a higher prevalence of questioning their sexual identity (20.4%) than both cisgender and transgender students (4.1% and 7.0%, respectively),” the CDC said.

    “The prevalence of students who described their sexual identity in some other way was greatest among transgender students (32.8%), followed by transgender questioning students (23.2%), with only 2.9% of cisgender students identifying as such.”

    X user Robert Sterling summed up the farce perfectly:

    The idea that one out of every 33 high school kids is trans is patently absurd.

    The DSM-IV, which psychologists used from 1994 until 2013, estimated the prevalence of transsexualism to be 1 out of every 30,000 males and 100,000 females.

    You really mean to tell us all that researchers just 30 years ago were off by a factor of 1000x?

    I’m sorry but it’s not bigotry to call this a social contagion, and we’re doing our kids a disservice by pretending otherwise.

    As another X user noted, “This is failed parenting on a grand display. America is screwed.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 20:05

  • IDF Troops Raise Israeli Flag Over Southern Lebanon Town
    IDF Troops Raise Israeli Flag Over Southern Lebanon Town

    The Israeli Broadcasting Authority featured footage from Lebanon this week which showed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops raising the Israeli flag on Lebanese territory, after pushing Hezbollah out of the area.

    The ongoing ground invasion to degrade and dismantle Hezbollah had been previewed as ‘limited’ and as expected to last for a few weeks, according to government officials, but the highly controversial planting of the flag could suggest an indefinite occupation of some parts of southern Lebanon.

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    The incident happened Tuesday, and involved several IDF troops planting the flag in the village of Maroun el-Ras in Bint Jbeil district in Nabatieh. This location is about a kilometer away from the border.

    The soldiers can be heard saying in Hebrew in the video: “Pay attention to the Iranian promenade/boardwalk, in front of Avivim” – in reference to the closest Israeli settlement on the other side of the UN-demarcated border.

    Iranian officials over the years were known to have visited the now destroyed spot, which is called “Iran Garden” – and is a vantage point from which Iranian leaders could peer into Israel from a high point, and which had memorials to past Hezbollah and Iranian officials.

    Lebanese tourism guide companies have described it as “a place that commemorates Hezbollah’s resilience against the Israeli invasion in 2006.”

    Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had reportedly visited the spot over a decade ago. It now appears to be rubble after this week’s fighting. Israel’s YNet has described of the location:

    The garden was well-maintained with tables for hosting visitors, a green plaza with seating areas, a cafeteria and an amphitheater overlooking Avivim. It also featured a playground for children, guard towers facing Israel, stone arches, a parking lot and a water well.

    Its centerpiece was a model of the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, and a cutout of the former Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, pointing toward Israel was also present at the site.

    Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen in follow-up has confirmed the Israeli army has effectively “occupied” the village and “destroyed the houses from which Hezbollah launched anti-tank missiles at Israeli civilians.”

    And Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the same day strongly signaled expanded operations are coming, also as an Israeli Navy warship is parked off the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre. He called for the Lebanese population to “free” the country from Hezbollah or they will face “destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 19:40

  • Schizophrenia Drug Linked To Pneumonia, Gut Disorders In 25-Year Follow-Up Study
    Schizophrenia Drug Linked To Pneumonia, Gut Disorders In 25-Year Follow-Up Study

    Authored by Huey Freeman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Recent research has linked clozapine, a powerful medication for schizophrenia, to an increased risk of mortality associated with pneumonia and severe gastrointestinal complications.

    Clozapine is the only drug in the United States approved to treat “treatment-resistant schizophrenia,” which affects one in five schizophrenic patients. It was removed from global markets in the 1970s due to its association with dangerously low white blood cell counts in 2 percent of users.

    Billion Photos/Shutterstock

    Following its approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1989, it has been clinically available in the United States since 1990.

    A comprehensive analysis of 25 years of patient data revealed that within 20 years of initiating treatment, 30 percent of schizophrenic patients on clozapine developed pneumonia, while 5 percent experienced intestinal blockages.

    These complications are reportedly more severe than previously documented and are linked to an increased risk of death, the researchers wrote.

    “Clozapine-induced pneumonia and intestinal blockage should be taken as seriously as the white blood cell drop once was,” Dr. Jukka Koskela, leader of the study conducted at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) at the University of Helsinki, said in a press release.

    The study was recently published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. It was based on data from 2,659 participants with a schizophrenia diagnosis in FinnGen, which tracks electronic health records in Finland.

    Participants had an average duration of clozapine use of more than eight years.

    Clozapine’s Role in Treating Schizophrenia

    The authors of the study tracked the electronic health records of over 30,000 patients over 25 years, with a particular focus on schizophrenic patients and clozapine users.

    They identified several serious adverse effects associated with clozapine use, including ileus—a condition in which the gastrointestinal tract malfunctions—seizures, pneumonia, and other respiratory infections.

    Clozapine was also linked to low white blood cell counts, Type 2 diabetes, and rapid heart rates. The reasons for these adverse events remain unclear.

    The loss of white blood cells may be linked to immune suppression, Dr. Peter Breggin, a psychiatrist, told The Epoch Times. He argues that while clozapine may outperform other medications in suppressing symptoms, it does not address the underlying issues faced by schizophrenic patients, ultimately making them more manageable rather than fundamentally treated.

    The medication works by affecting the release of dopamine and serotonin in the brain. Psychiatrists prescribe clozapine because it may improve suicidality, cognition, and mood in patients.

    “The use of clozapine is, however, hampered by adverse drug events (ADEs), some of which are life-threatening and have relegated clozapine to a third-line treatment option,” the Finnish researchers wrote.

    Clozapine is metabolized in the liver, and some people with genetic variations affecting its breakdown may experience adverse effects.

    High concentrations and clozapine metabolites have been linked to seizures, sedation, and excess salivation, the authors wrote. The study revealed that overall, 70 percent of clozapine users experienced at least one adverse event during treatment.

    The authors particularly highlighted the link between pneumonia and ileus, which can occur years after initiating clozapine use. Both conditions are also significantly linked with increased mortality.

    Having ileus more than quadrupled the risk of death among clozapine users, while pneumonia tripled the odds of mortality.

    The prolonged follow-up period of the study allowed for a more accurate assessment of clozapine’s side effects, Dr. Juulia Partanen, a research physician at FIMM and study co-author, said in the press release.

    “Previous studies have mainly identified side effects that occur shortly after starting the medication,” she said.

    The research was funded by several institutions, including the Doctoral Program in Population Health at the University of Helsinki, the Finnish Medical Foundation, the Swedish Society for Medical Research, the Academy of Finland, and the Academy of Finland Center of Excellence in Complex Disease Genetics.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 19:15

  • Severe Geomagnetic Storm To Hit Earth As Hurricane Batters Florida
    Severe Geomagnetic Storm To Hit Earth As Hurricane Batters Florida

    NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) warned Wednseday that a super fast Earth-facing coronal mass ejection (CME) erupted from the sun at a speed of 1200 to 1300 km/s and would spark a severe (G4) geomagnetic storm on Thursday, potentially disrupting critical assets on the grid that are crucial for powering modern society.

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    According to SWPC’s website, the space weather event will “likely arrive at Earth on 10 October,” adding, “We won’t know the characteristics of the CME until it arrives 1 million miles from Earth and its speed and magnetic intensity are measured by the DSCOVR and ACE satellites.” 

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    The NOAA Geomagnetic Storm Scale indicates a G4 storm can disrupt “key assets” on the grid… 

    Visualize it.

    The solar storm is set to arrive just hours after Hurricane Milton pounds Central Florida early Thursday morning.

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    SWPC’s Aurora forecast for tomorrow shows that northern lights will be visible as low as the Pacific Northwest, Midwest, Mid-Alantic, and Northeast. 

    It appears as if the NYC is in play. 

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    Last week, the sun fired off a massive X9.05 solar flare… 

    “Today’s incredible X9.0-class solar flare, the most intense flare since 2017. An Earth-directed solar storm is highly likely, given the spot region is faced directly at Earth,” Space Weather Watch wrote on X. 

    All this solar activity comes as Solar Cycle 25 has reached a maximum period. 

    Last year, we pointed out that Cycle 25 is expected to peak sometime in 2025. 

    It was noted that the ‘first traces’ of Solar Cycle 26 had been detected. 

    In early May, one of the most powerful solar storms in years blasted Earth. Fortunately, the digital economy held up, and Starlink’s massive satellite constellation also survived. 

    Remember, we’ve outlined for years how fragile modern society has become in a solar maximum period of heightened Earth-facing space weather. 

    Hurricanes, solar storms, and the looming threats of World War III in the Middle East and Eastern Europe—what a time to be alive.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 18:50

  • Waste Of The Day: San Antonio To Spend $500K On Trees For Apes
    Waste Of The Day: San Antonio To Spend $500K On Trees For Apes

    Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations,

    Topline: The City of San Antonio will spend $500,000 on planting trees to provide shade for gorillas, according to the city budget approved this month.

    Key facts: A San Antonio Zoo spokesperson told the San Antonio Report that the money will be used on “trees for animal wellbeing and guest comfort, providing more shade and greenery within the zoo grounds.”

    The cash will be taken out of the city’s Tree Canopy Preservation and Mitigation Fund, which charges urban developers for cutting down trees during construction. 

    The fees, worth up to $600 per inch of tree trunk diameter, are supposed to be used to replant greenery in the same streets and neighborhoods they were removed from — not to acquiesce to napping apes.

    The fund collected $9 million last year and used it to plant 12,600 trees, according to the San Antonio Report. The nonprofit San Antonio Trees, which advocated for the fund’s creation in 1996, told the news site that the zoo is violating the ordinance’s intent. 

    The zoo’s two-acre gorilla exhibit is expected to open in late 2025. It includes a 60-foot viewing tower for an “immersive experience” that FOX says will “blur the lines” between “gorillas and visitors.”

    Background: The gorilla exhibit is part of a planned $65 million renovation of the zoo, funded by both private and public money. The nonprofit San Antonio Zoological Society has already secured a $10 million bond from the city, and another $10 million in property taxes will be redirected to the zoo. 

    The project began with a new $13 million entrance unveiled in December, complete with a gigantic gorilla topiary and a canopy of model butterflies stretched over visitors’ heads.

    Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com. 

    Summary: While caring for gorillas is noble, that’s not why these funds were collected in the first place. And with millions in public funds already going to the zoo, the gorillas should be fine without a $500,000 government handout.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 18:25

  • America's Biggest Adversary? Kamala Harris Is Absorbing Absurd Cheney Talking Points
    America’s Biggest Adversary? Kamala Harris Is Absorbing Absurd Cheney Talking Points

    The Biden administration has long talked about Russia as America’s greatest adversary, particularly in the context of the long-raging Ukraine war. The CIA and US national intelligence community, as well as the Pentagon, have more broadly named China as America’s #1 ‘pacing threat’ globally and in the long term.

    This is why it’s somewhat curious and unexpected for Vice President Kamala Harris to name Iran as the United States’ top “adversary” when asked in her 60 Minutes interview. It seems she’s just jumping on the bandwagon, going with the geopolitical hot spot of the moment which happens to be grabbing the headlines, just as Israel is poised to retaliate against Iran.

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    Asked by the show host about which country is America’s “greatest adversary,” she responded, “I think there’s an obvious one in mind which is Iran. Iran has American blood on their hands.”

    “And what we saw in terms of just this attack on Israel, 200 ballistic missiles, what we need to do to ensure that Iran never achieves the ability to be a nuclear power, that is one of my highest priorities,” she continued.

    In follow-up Harris was asked whether she would approve military action against Iran if it became evident country had nuclear weapons. She responded, “I’m not gonna talk about hypotheticals at this moment.”

    An independent journalist and analyst of the region, Zaid Jilani, pointed out the following:

    Kamala Harris says Iran is America’s greatest adversary. How is a country with 60 times smaller GDP than ours our biggest adversary? It does suggest that her lack of policy knowledge just has her absorbing silly Cheney talking points.

    Perhaps she’s also doing the pre-election let me demonstrate my full commitment to Israel ritual which pretty much every candidate of the past decades on both sides of the aisle has done.

    Harris has of late repeatedly touted 

    As for current Washington consensus on who’s the ‘big threat’, the 2022 National Defense Strategy labels China the “most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security strategy.”

    And it identifies Russia as a close second. Iran finds mention as merely in the category of “persistent threats” – which also includes small non-state actors like al-Qaeda.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 18:00

  • Advisory Committee On Immunization Practices Could Change Attitudes On Vaccines
    Advisory Committee On Immunization Practices Could Change Attitudes On Vaccines

    Authored by Charles Sauer via RealClearHealth,

    There are sundry problems with our healthcare system, and, unfortunately, many of our most significant challenges originate with government policies and public health recommendations – well-meaning intentions seldom have the outcome that was designed.

    Too frequently, critics argue, government policies pick winners and losers vis-à-vis health care. Such policy decisions are often settled deep within government bureaucracies at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

    Health care advocates need to stay focused on the health policy decisions impacting the relationship between physicians and patients; on vaccine protocols; and myriad other rulings which have direct consequence on access to care. Patient organizations and the health policy community can help government agencies call ‘balls and strikes’ in a fair, pro-science approach.

    Later this month the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is likely to vote on new recommendations relating to pneumococcal vaccinations. Specifically, ACIP is expected to endorse a recommendation to lower the age for routine pneumococcal vaccination from age 65 to 50. Such a policy change will save lives by expanding access to immunizations. Greater access to life-affirming care is a policy move that must be lauded from all quarters of the health care debate.

    Greater access, though, is only half of what patients need when it comes to their medicine – greater access must be linked with more choice. Who should decide what medicine is best for a patient? The answer is simple and grounded in good science: patients with their doctors. So, with its decision to back the new recommendation to lower the age for pneumococcal vaccination to 50 and older, ACIP must not pick a ‘winner’ or a ‘loser’ regarding FDA approved vaccines in this health space.

    There are two primary FDA-approved vaccines for pneumococcal disease. Health advocates and policy experts are not pushing one over the other, and neither should ACIP. Both vaccines should be included in ACIP’s recommendation to physicians.

    It makes no good health-sense for these decisions – the right medicine for the right patient at the right time – to happen anywhere outside of the exam room. ACIP is comprised of the very best minds on vaccine practices, which is why they are serving in Atlanta at the CDC. However, gifted physicians and professionals in Atlanta should not be making intimate health decisions for patients in rural North Carolina or the Southside of Chicago. Modern medicine demands greater access (lowering the recommended age) and more choice (recommending both FDA-approved vaccines).

    Given the post-COVID distrust many patients hold toward public health experts, ACIP (an agency unaccountable to the public) must not exclude innovations that could save lives. We know vaccines save lives; why limit recommendations on what vaccine a doctor should prescribe? Decisions made at the CDC impact Medicare and private insurance coverage so limiting patients to only one vaccine could impact compliance. ACIP’s recommendation will affect patients – positively or negatively –  from coast to coast.

    Recommending one vaccine raises several concerns:

    • The patient-physician relationship is breached
    • Lack of insurance coverage, higher out-of-pocket costs, and non-compliance
    • Sufficient supply
    • Lack of competition (we know drug costs come down as competition increases)

    Greater access and more choice make for good vaccine policy. Patients deserve a healthcare system that encourages competition, allows for innovation, and promotes the doctor-patient relationship. What’s more, ACIP’s decision on pneumococcal vaccinations could help reset the public’s attitude toward the public health community.

    Charles Sauer (@CharlesSauer) is president of the Market Institute and author of “Profit Motive: What Drives the Things We Do.” He has previously worked on Capitol Hill, for a governor, and for an academic think tank. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 17:40

  • Seoul Alleges North Korean Troops Are Fighting & Dying In Ukraine
    Seoul Alleges North Korean Troops Are Fighting & Dying In Ukraine

    The South Korean government this week has made a big and bold accusation – it says North Korean troops are currently fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. 

    The charge was specifically made by Seoul’s defense minister Kim Yong-hyun on Tuesday. He described that he has reason to believe that six North Korean officers were killed in Donetsk when a Ukrainian missile hit their location on October 3rd. He called reports which first surfaced in Ukrainian media “highly likely”.

    The defense minister in a briefing with South Korean political leaders said, “We assess that the occurrence of casualties among North Korean officers and soldiers in Ukraine is highly likely, considering various circumstances.”

    “The issue of deploying regular troops is highly likely due to the mutual agreements that resemble a military alliance between Russia and North Korea,” he noted further.

    Seoul expects that more North Korean troops will be sent to the conflict. The accusation, which lacks hard evidence, comes after months of official US allegations saying the north has sent arms and ammo into Russia by the trainload.

    What is clear is that Moscow and Pyongyang have made no secret that they are deepening their ties, including on the military front, but both sides have denied North Korean involvement in Ukraine.

    There have been several exchanges of defense delegations, and Kim has visited Russia, and Putin even made a very rare visit to Pyongyang in June. The two leaders signed a mutual defense agreement this past summer.

    Below is how the initial claims of North Korean officer deaths were reported in Ukrainian and US media:

    Six North Korean military officers were among about 20 military personnel killed in a Ukrainian missile strike on Russian-occupied territory near the city of Donetsk, a Ukrainian news agency reported. 

    Citing sources in Ukraine’s military intelligence, Interfax-Ukraine said three North Korean servicemen were also wounded. Ukraine’s Kyiv Post reported that the attack happened on Thursday, citing intelligence sources.

    Interfax-Ukraine, in its report on Friday, cited Russian bloggers as saying that North Korean military officers were visiting the front as part of an “exchange of experience” program. 

    The North Korean military was shown how the Russians were “preparing for assault actions, for defense,” when “a missile strike was launched on the training ground,” the Ukrainian news agency added.

    If true this would mark a major escalation of N.Korea’s involvement. “More North Korean troops could be deployed in the war,” Seoul has warned.

    The West wouldn’t be able to do much, having already put fairly maximum sanctions on both Russia and North Korea. It could be another dangerous sign that the Ukraine war is getting more and more internationalized.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 17:20

  • Global Crackdown: How Foreign Censorship Threatens American Free Speech
    Global Crackdown: How Foreign Censorship Threatens American Free Speech

    Authored by Ben Weingarten via RealClearInvestigations,

    On the eve of a highly-anticipated live X “Spaces” conversation between Elon Musk and former president Donald Trump, the powerful (former) European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton warned in August that authorities would be “monitoring” the conversation for “content that may incite violence, hate, and racism.” 

    While reminding Musk that the EU was already investigating X for alleged failures “to combat disinformation,” Breton said he and his colleagues “will not hesitate to make full use of our toolbox … to protect EU citizens from serious harm.”

    The European Commission distanced itself from Breton, who would eventually resign his post while facing scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers for threatening Musk and Americans’ free speech and interfering in domestic politics. But the EU probe of X, which could result in crippling fines, persists.

    Although litigation, congressional oversight efforts, and reportage led by the Twitter Files have helped expose the U.S. government’s efforts to pressure social media companies to censor protected political speech, the recent rumblings from Europe underscore the escalating challenges American-based social media platforms are facing from foreign authorities – not just from repressive regimes such as China and Iran, but also from the EU, the U.K., Brazil, and other democracies. 

    Free speech advocates warn that foreign demands that tech companies comply with their censorious legal and regulatory standards that violate the First Amendment’s protections will hamper the ability of Americans to communicate freely in the digital public square. Facebook’s Community Standards, for example, “apply to everyone, all around the world.” Academics have termed the tendency of companies to apply the strictest local guidelines globally as the “Brussels Effect.”

    Mike Benz, a former State Department cyber official and executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, argues that foreign efforts to cast populist narratives on matters such as election integrity, immigration, and public health as mis- and dis-information constitute a surreptitious “transatlantic flank attack” on American speech. 

    However, evidence suggests that U.S. authorities and U.S.-supported NGOs that have sought greater restrictions on speech have, at minimum, indirectly supported these foreign efforts, creating a backdoor method to suppress protected speech at home.

    For instance, the White House pressured platforms to censor content pertaining to COVID-19 and election integrity. Agencies from the Justice Department to the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Communications Commission have probed Musk’s enterprises during the Biden years.

    Defining Illegal Content

    The U.S. government has used the FBI and the State Department, among other agencies, to coordinate counter-disinformation efforts globally with other nations. The goal is said to build “a more resilient global information system, where objective facts are elevated and deceptive messages gain less traction,” in the words of  Secretary of State Antony Blinken. 

    As a State Department spokesman told RealClearInvestigations, “The United States is committed to advancing a rights-respecting approach to technology that mitigates potential harms while maintaining the free and open use of digital platforms.”

    “We are concerned by actions to limit access to information anywhere in the world,” the spokesman added.

    The European Union’s Digital Services Act is seen by champions of stringent content moderation standards and critics alike as the strongest global effort to regulate speech. 

    Adopted in 2022 and praised by former President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the measure imposes a slew of regulatory requirements on the more than a dozen social media platforms and search engines that have at least 45 million users in the EU.

    It requires these platforms to take measures to counter “illegal content online,” not only responding to user-flagged posts but those fingered by “specialised ‘trusted flaggers’” for removal, according to a European Commission Q&A.

    “Illegal content,” the Commission writes, includes “illegal hate speech” and other prohibited rhetoric, pursuant to EU law or those within any of its 27 member states. Platforms also must take “risk-based action,” including undergoing independent audits to combat “disinformation or election manipulation” – with the expectation those measures should be taken in consultation with “independent experts and civil society organisations.” The Commission says these measures are aimed at mitigating “systemic issues such as … hoaxes and manipulation during pandemics, harms to vulnerable groups and other emerging societal harms” driven by “harmful” but not illegal content.

    The DSA also references a Code of Practice on Disinformation, under which Big Tech companies such as Google, Meta, and Microsoft have agreed to demonetize purported disinformation pursuant to European Commission guidance.

    Notable signatories and contributors to the “self-regulatory” code include the U.S.-based NewsGuard (which took issue, to a degree, with the final product) and the U.K.-based Global Disinformation Index – both of which have received U.S. government funding – and the Brussels-based World Federation of Advertisers.

    These organizations have each allegedly targeted the advertising revenue of independent media outlets – with NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index disparaging RealClearPolitics – by working with major brands and advertising agencies to blacklist outlets that publish work that challenges official narratives.

    The DSA suggests that compliance with the Code of Practice on Disinformation may satisfy its “risk mitigation” standards. European regulators have called for formally incorporating the “voluntary” code into the DSA’s “co-regulatory framework.”

    X and Meta in the Crosshairs

    X and Meta have both faced “formal proceedings” under the Digital Service Act over the last year concerning potentially non-compliant practices touching on political speech. (Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently expressed regret for caving in to pressure from the FBI and Biden-Harris administration to censor political content the government didn’t want Americans to see). 

    Those ongoing investigations can impose fines of up to 6% of annual global revenue and even suspension, should platforms fail to remedy violations. Neither X nor Meta responded to RCI’s requests for comment. Punitive threats, along with the broader business imperative to access the EU’s 450-million-person marketplace, have led many to speculate that a Brussels Effect will take hold.

    Adam Candeub, a former Trump administration Commerce Department official who teaches at Michigan State University, worries that platforms “may very well decide to run the[mselves] consistent with the wishes of the EU – rather than deal with the cost and administrative burdens of running one DSA-compliant version in Europe and another, First Amendment-consistent version in the United States.”

    He likens the model created by the Digital Services Act in Europe to the “whole-of-society” model to stifle disfavored information – a system of censorship pioneered by the U.S. government in the run-up to the 2020 election and codified in the Biden administration’s National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism. The Digital Services Act, Candeub notes, mandates this architecture by creating “a surveillance structure in which there is intimate government involvement at multiple layers.”

    George Washington University Law School Professor Dawn Carla Nunziato concurs that “the DSA’s substantive content moderation and notice and take down provisions will likely incentivize the platforms to remove large swaths of content – including political speech, criticism of political figures, parody, and pro-LGBTQ+ speech – that may be flagged by private entities as illegal under EU countries’ laws.”

    Some American players who favor greater content restriction welcome the Brussels Effect. “If it weren’t for the European Union and the Digital Services Act, I don’t know that we’d have much hope of rectifying” the spread of mis- and dis-information, George Washington University Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics Director Rebekah Tromble said during a panel discussion on the Center for Democracy & Technology’s Report.

    “Hopefully,” she added, “as the DSA begins to come into force and the platforms feel the real pressure of actual enforcement action,” it would spur them to re-staff relevant positions and re-focus on content moderation.

    Tromble did not respond to RCI’s request for comment.

    When asked whether it would defend American companies targeted under the regulatory regime, a State Department spokesman told RCI, “We are engaging with our European colleagues on some specific concerns on the DSA … which we believe would make it easier to achieve transatlantic cooperation and alignment on these critical issues.” 

    Brazil Leads Crackdown

    Brazil’s government recently took the extraordinary step of banning X over the platform’s refusal to comply with orders from its Supreme Court that it take down the accounts of former President Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters in a sweeping effort to curtail the speech of the country’s populist-nationalist right. 

    This marked the climax of a fight in which X’s legal representative faced the threat of arrest, Musk found himself under criminal investigation, and Brazil seized funds from his Starlink satellite Internet service companies’ accounts to satisfy fines. 

    Musk noted the risks of challenging Brazil’s authorities back in April, claiming, “We will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our office there.” He vowed to defy Brasília. 

    But in September, X agreed to comply with orders from Brazil’s Supreme Court. With roughly five times as many X users in the EU as in Brazil, free speech advocates worry that the social media giant might bow to European Commission pressure just as quickly.

    Under the same pressure to remove disfavored content creators, YouTube alternative Rumble announced it would be leaving Brazil last December. 

    French authorities arrested Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov in August for allegedly permitting criminal activity on the messaging application and refusing to turn over information or documents with investigators pursuant to law, drawing outcries from Musk and other free speech proponents.

    Telegram, too, eventually agreed to comply with government requests for user data concerning alleged crimes.

    That same month, amid anti-immigration fervor sparked by a stabbing attack resulting in the murder of three British children – wrongly attributed in viral social media posts to an asylum seeker – Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley threatened extradition and jail time for Americans should they violate British speech laws concerning “incitement,” “stirring up racial hatred,” or other “terrorist offenses regarding the publishing of material.”

    “[W]hether you’re in this country committing crimes on the streets or committing crimes from further afield online, we will come after you,” Rowley warned.

    Stiff Fines for Offending Speech

    The United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act serves as a likely legal basis for Rowley’s remarks. Starting in 2025, the U.K.’s regulator, Ofcom, will be able to charge firms up to 10% of their global annual revenues should they fail to “take robust action” against content that includes “racially or religiously aggravated public order offences,” “inciting violence” – or apparently even raising concerns about “illegal immigration.” 

    In September, U.K. officials held talks with X regarding “the spread of misinformation and other harmful content,” according to a CNBC report, as it had other platforms, following calls by one lawmaker to summon Musk for questions before parliament.

    Australia, too, recently indicated it will fine platforms up to 5% of their global revenue should they fail to prevent the spread of “misinformation” online, specifically around elections and public health.

    The Biden-Harris administration’s general silence on these matters has drawn the ire of Republican lawmakers, who see quiet in the face of foreign authorities’ targeting of American entities as acquiescing to, if not tacitly endorsing, the practice of interfering with Americans’ First Amendment rights.

    The House Judiciary Committee reportedly subpoenaed the State Department for information regarding its communications with the EU following Breton’s threats regarding the Musk-Trump discussion. The committee sent the European Commission a letter on Sept. 10 calling on it to provide information on any communications it has had with the White House “to use EU law as a way to bypass the First Amendment.”

    Foggy Bottom did not respond to RCI’s inquiries concerning potential coordination with foreign authorities targeting Americans’ speech, particularly in the EU or Brazil.

    Journalist Michael Shellenberger reported in August 2023 on an apparent quid pro quo during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which the White House protected social media platforms from European data privacy regulations after platforms bowed to the administration’s own censorship demands.

    Benz has called the Digital Services Act an “EU-to-U.S. censorship pipeline” that he sees as a successor to Germany’s NetzDG law, passed in the wake of the 2016 elections, that saw populist victories across the West under pressure from former State Department officials. 

    That law, Benz said, “forced YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter to begin adopting AI censorship techniques across the board for continuity with global markets, boomeranging back on Americans.” The Digital Services Act, he contends, is “designed to force platforms to hire more censors, who in turn will focus on U.S. affairs.”

    House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, told RCI that “The Biden-Harris administration’s failure to stand up to Brazil’s institutional harassment of X, Musk, and Starlink is yet another display of their weakness on the world stage. Their timidity signals, once again, that American leadership is in retreat, and allows enemies of free speech everywhere to grow bolder and flourish.”

    White House Supports Foreign Censors

    Senior Biden administration officials reportedly told former President Jair Bolsonaro prior to the 2022 general election that he ought not to cast doubt on the integrity of Brazil’s election system in connection with that race.

    After leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won the election by a small margin, Presidents Biden and Lula delivered a joint statement “reaffirm[ing] their intention to build societal resilience to disinformation, and agree[ing] to work together on these issues.” The State Department did not respond to RCI about what that work has entailed.

    In May, Paulo Figueiredo, a popular Brazilian journalist and television show host targeted by Brazil’s Supreme Court, marshaled evidence in testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee that “the U.S. government and NGOs acted directly in strengthening Brazil’s censorship apparatus.” 

    The Biden administration has previously consulted with foreign governments and NGOs regarding disfavored speech, according to evidence obtained by America First Legal, a conservative organization that fights “lawless executive actions.” As part of the National Security Council’s 2021 interagency meetings on COVID-related speech, the White House hosted the United Kingdom’s Counter Disinformation Unit. 

    The administration appears to have adopted some of the unit’s recommendations, including establishing a National Election Command Post within the FBI that flagged Americans’ accounts to Twitter for potential censorship over allegedly spreading “misinformation” regarding the 2022 midterm election.

    America First Legal also notes that the White House “solicited policy recommendations from the British-based Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) – the group behind the U.K. Online Safety Act – and adopted commitments to hold companies accountable through DOJ prosecutions and FTC enforcement actions for allowing ‘online harassment’ on their platforms.”

    The Center for Countering Digital Hate, a group led by multiple individuals tied to Britain’s Labour Party, “works to stop the spread of online hate and disinformation through innovative research, public campaigns and policy advocacy.” It published a report on “The Disinformation Dozen” calling for social media platforms to suppress prominent skeptics of public health orthodoxy regarding COVID-19, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., that Biden administration officials and Democratic Party state attorneys general used to press the companies accordingly.

    A State Department spokesperson told RCI that the U.S. is a “champion of and leader in the protection of freedom of expression.” But both the House Foreign Affairs and Small Business Committees have presented evidence indicating that the U.S. government has used foreign-facing offices purportedly aimed at targeting foreign propaganda – including the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, which has granted taxpayer dollars to counter-disinformation entities – to suppress the protected speech of Americans.

    The Small Business Committee reported that the Global Engagement Center “sourced, developed, then platformed and promoted” private-sector tools for targeting purported “mis-, dis-, and mal-information” to tech platforms “with the ability to moderate domestic speech and impact domestic business operations,” including working with foreign governments to test said products.

    In a March 2024 speech on “Building a More Resilient Information Environment” during the third “Summit for Democracy,” Secretary Blinken argued that “disinformation transcends borders. It crosses platforms. No single country, no single entity can meet this challenge alone.”

    To create “a healthier information environment,” he added, the administration is using “diplomacy, advancing a shared understanding of the problem as well as creative solutions to address it.”

    These diplomatic efforts include “aligning partners and allies around a framework to counter information manipulation by foreign adversaries,” “training partners to analyze disinformation,” sharing best practices, and “co-chairing the OECD’s new Misinformation and Disinformation Hub, helping governments shift from ad hoc tactics to more holistic policies that enable reliable information to thrive.”

    With the Biden-Harris administration silent in the face of the targeting of American platforms, Republicans are bringing forth legislation to combat foreign threats to domestic speech.

    Last month, House Republicans introduced two bills – the No Censors on our Shores Act and the No Funding or Enforcement of Censorship Abroad Act – to punish foreign individuals and entities that promote or engage in the censorship of American speech.

    A sponsor of the No Censors Act, Rep. Darrell Issa of California, told RCI, “The First Amendment rights of the American people are threatened not only by malign actors in the FBI or State Department – or even the EU, UK, or Brazil – but by the entirety of the Censorship Industrial Complex at home and abroad. Our response must be no less comprehensive, and that’s why Congress can’t look away from a continuing scandal that grows worse with every revelation. We need to be committed and creative if we’re going to win the fight for free speech.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 17:00

  • Watch: Reporter Goes Nuclear On State Dept Spox On Ukraine, Gaza, Iran Conflicts
    Watch: Reporter Goes Nuclear On State Dept Spox On Ukraine, Gaza, Iran Conflicts

    In a very rare moment, a journalist who was invited to the State Department’s daily briefing had enough of the US government’s constant foreign policy double-speak, contradictory statements, and war-mongering abroad. The Biden administration has for months been playing a game of nuclear chicken with Russia as it gives Ukraine more and more leeway in striking targets deep in Russian territory. 

    This is happening as several wars are already unfolding at once from Ukraine to Gaza to Lebanon, and now a broader war could at any moment erupt between Iran and Israel – yet Washington has persisted in passing out billions in weaponry in these war zones. Escalatory policies persist as Kiev and Tel Aviv are armed to the teeth, and thousands die weekly, and all the while concepts like “negotiations” or “ceasefire” are bad words. There simply seems no ‘climb down’ option on the horizon, and Congress is missing in action, leaving all of this far outside of the American people’s control.

    The Grayzone’s Liam Cosgrove, who may soon see his State Dept press credentials revoked, went off on spokesman Matthew Miller, in a one-and-a-half minute segment that’s a thing of beauty. “People are sick of the bullshit here,” Cosgrove exclaims at one point, while a shocked government spokesman tried to shut him down. Watch the exchange unfold below…

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 16:40

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Oct 09

Today’s News 9th October 2024

  • Corrupt Ukrainian Official's Son Found Lying In Bed With Huge Sum Of Money; $6 Million Seized From Medical Fraud Op
    Corrupt Ukrainian Official’s Son Found Lying In Bed With Huge Sum Of Money; $6 Million Seized From Medical Fraud Op

    Via Remix News,

    A huge corruption case was uncovered in Khmelnytskyi, western Ukraine, with authorities detaining the head of the Hmelnytskyi County Medical Center over allegations he accepted huge sums of money to offer medical exemptions to Ukrainian men to avoid being conscripted.

    The official, Tetyana Krupá, was responsible for medical examinations in the area, according to Trancarpathian news outlet Kárpáti Igaz Szó, which produces news in the Hungarian language. The paper reveals that the suspect is also the Khmelnytskyi county representative of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s party, the Servant of the People.

    During a search of the official’s home, the man was found with various currencies worth a total of $6 million, which is an extraordinary sum for Ukraine.

    Officers found $5.24 million, €300,000, and 5 million hryvnias, which is Ukraine’s currency. In addition, jewelry and other valuables were seized.

    During the arrest, authorities claim Krupá tried tossing bags of money out the window containing half a million dollars. A photo of his son arrested among stacks of money strewn across his bed has also been published, although it is unclear if the son was found like this by police or the photo was staged, possibly to shame the arrested family members. A video was also published with the son lying on the bed with the money.

    Investigators also determined Krupá owns 30 properties in Khmelnytskyi, Lviv and Kyiv; has nine luxury cars; owns a hotel and restaurant complex; has properties in Austria, Spain and Turkey; and holds another $2.3 million in foreign accounts.

    The official in Zelensky’s party is accused of accumulating huge sums of money by illegally extorting men who were seeking a disability designation to avoid military service.

    Forged medical documents were found in Krupa’s office, including lists of those avoiding mobilization with fictitious diagnoses. There are also pending charges of high-value fraud, money laundering, misrepresentation and illicit enrichment.

    Notably, in Krupá’s own family, all the male members were also listed as “disabled,” at least according to the official exemptions issued by Krupá, which meant none of them had to partake in military service.

    A Ukrainian anti-corruption website known as Anticor notes that the entire Krupa family were employed as public servants.

    The case is surely to spark further public outrage within Ukraine over the fact that men are being rounded up off the streets to fight on the frontlines while corrupt officials and oligarchs avoid the brunt of the fighting that has claimed hundreds of thousands of casualties, destroyed the Ukrainian economy, and led to the country’s worst demographic crisis in its entire history.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/09/2024 – 02:00

  • Russia Tacitly Recognizes China's Self-Proclaimed Status As A "Near-Arctic State"
    Russia Tacitly Recognizes China’s Self-Proclaimed Status As A “Near-Arctic State”

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

    CNN reported last week that “China’s Coast Guard claims to have entered the Arctic Ocean for the first time as it ramps up security ties with Russia”, though at the time of writing, neither the Russian nor American Coast Guards confirmed their presence in the Arctic. CNN also noted that TASS’ report on this only cited the China Coast Guard’s (CCG) statement on its WeChat page. It’s therefore dubious whether the CCG actually entered the Arctic or just remained in the Bering Sea.

    This distinction is important since the perception that Sino-Russo Coast Guard drills were just carried out in the Arctic, no matter how possibly inaccurate as clarified by CNN to its credit, could fuel the West’s efforts to contain Russia along that front. It also adds false credence to the artificially manufactured speculation that Russia is willing to cede sovereignty rights there to China after becoming disproportionately dependent on it over the past two years since the special operation began.

    About that, readers should be aware of several relevant pieces of Russian legislation for governing its Arctic maritime territory. A 2017 law banned shipping oil, natural gas, and coal along the Northern Sea Route (NSR) under a foreign flag, while a 2018 one mandates that these ships will also have to be built in Russia. These were complemented by a 2022 law stipulating that all foreign warships must require prior permission to transit the NSR, and only one can do so at a time. These three laws remain on the books.

    Their purpose is to ensure that Russia profits as much as is realistically possible from the NSR and can properly protect its sovereignty there. China poses no threat to Russian sovereignty, but allowing its warships to operate unrestricted within Russia’s territorial waters could raise the chances of an incident at sea with its Western Arctic rivals, especially the US. There’s also no reason for them to be there anyhow since Russia is more than capable of ensuring security along this route on its own.

    The same can be said for the CCG seeing as how the Arctic is obviously far away from the Chinese coast, but it’s possible in theory that those of its icebreakers that already entered these waters for the first time over the summer could be escorted by the CCG as they lead the way for commercial vessels. If that happens, then this would likely be coordinated with Russia as part of a signal to the West as intuited by what head of the new Maritime Board Nikolai Patrushev hinted at in an interview over the summer.

    This could possibly be preceded by formal naval drills in the Arctic Ocean, once again for the same purpose of sending a signal to the West, albeit a misleading one since China isn’t an Arctic naval power and it also has no mutual defense commitments to Russia like such a stunt might make some think. Those aforementioned false perceptions would be deliberately fanned in these scenarios for sending a signal to the West despite the likelihood that it would be exploited to fuel containment along this front.

    Russia might conclude that there’s nothing that it can do to stop these developments anyhow so it’s therefore better to play along with these perceptions in order to boost its soft power across the Global South by making these countries think that it and China are jointly countering the West in the Arctic. Even in that case, however, Russia will remain the senior partner in this aspect of its relationship since it’s an actual Arctic state while China claims to only be a so-called “near-Arctic” one.

    China’s policy is meant to ensure it a seat at the table in multilateral discussions about that body of water through which it plans to expand trade with Europe via the NSR. This is the natural evolution of its desire to play a greater role in global governance in general and specifically in all emerging frontiers like the Arctic, AI, climate change, etc. The CCG’s drills with their Russian counterparts there, even if they were only in the Bering Sea, reinforces its claim as a “near-Arctic state” due to its adjacency to the Arctic.

    Russia tacitly supports this claim as proven by the above, but it remains unclear whether it’s comfortable with China playing a role in Arctic governance, which Russia is reluctant to internationalize since it fears that this could lead to more pressure to curtail the sovereignty rights that it enshrined into law there. All countries want to cut costs on trade so there’s no reason why China wouldn’t want its own natural gas, oil, and coal ships to sail along the NSR instead of having to contract Russia’s for this task.

    To avoid any misunderstanding, nothing is being implied about an impending problem in their strategic partnership over this issue since all that’s being put forth is that they have natural differences over this issue, though they’ve thus far been responsibly managed and there’s no reason to expect this to change.  Sino-Russo cooperation in the Arctic is indisputably on pace to continue, including in the security dimension, though energy and logistical cooperation are expected to remain the drivers of this trend.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 23:25

  • America Is Falling Apart: Our National Priorities Are In Dire Need Of Restructuring
    America Is Falling Apart: Our National Priorities Are In Dire Need Of Restructuring

    Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

    – Bob Dylan

    A water main breaks every two minutes somewhere in the U.S., resulting in contaminated drinking supplies and boil water notices.

    One out of three bridges in the U.S. needs repair, endangering hundreds of millions of commuters. More than 42,000 bridges across the country, carrying about 167 million vehicles each day, are in disrepair.

    It is estimated that 300 million people could face power outages across the United States between 2024 and 2028, due in large part to widespread power grid failures.

    No wonder U.S. infrastructure received a C- on the Infrastructure Report Card.

    America is falling apart.

    Collapsing bridges, buckling roads, overheated railways, deteriorating power lines, contaminated water lines, outdated public transportation, overtaxed power grids, aging ports and waterways, unsafe tunnels and highways, and spotty or insufficient telecommunications assets are all becoming frequent hallmarks of the American way of life.

    If the nation is woefully unprepared to deal with climate disasters such as floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and droughts, despite the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars that have been pledged to shore up the nation’s infrastructure problems, it is because politicians across the political spectrum have failed us.

    The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene makes this failure by the government to put the needs of the American people first painfully evident. Entire towns are under water. Roadways have collapsed or are otherwise impassable. Potable water is scarce. More than 1.5 million households are still without power.

    Clearly, our national priorities need to be re-examined.

    While the politicians play partisan games with our tax dollars, the nation’s critical infrastructure—both the physical foundations of the nation and the figurative foundations of our freedoms—continues to be neglected and deprioritized in favor of grandstanding, bloated military budgets on endless wars abroad, foreign aid to shore up the infrastructure and military defenses of international allies, and all manner of graft and pork barrel spending.

    When all is said and done, the bread-and-circus distractions and sleight-of-hand political theater being trotted out in order to keep Americans distracted, deluded, amused, and insulated from the government’s steady encroachments on our freedoms adds nothing of real value to the lives of the average American.

    It’s time to fix what’s broken in this country.

    For starters, we need an overhaul of the nation’s infrastructure.

    According to Time magazine, “Throughout the country, millions of Americans don’t have access to or can’t afford broadband internet service. In excess of 2 million people live without running water or basic plumbing. For too long, the American public has had to carry on while these deficiencies have gone unattended. The political will has been weak or inattentive, the rewards too far removed from electoral advantage.”

    In other words, the politicians who dance to the tune of the oligarchic elite aren’t motivated to do anything about our failing infrastructure because they get nothing out of it: no votes, no money, no power.

    This isn’t about whether the Republicans or Democrats have better policies.

    Indeed, both parties’ priorities are disconcertingly alike: both parties support endless war, engage in out-of-control spending, ignore the citizenry’s basic rights, have no respect for the rule of law, are bought and paid for by Big Business, care most about their own power, and have a long record of expanding government and shrinking liberty.

    This is about the plight of the American people who continue to be treated like a permanent underclass.

    Anyone who believes that this presidential election will bring about any real change in how the American government does business is either incredibly naive, woefully out-of-touch, or oblivious to the fact that as an in-depth Princeton University study shows, we now live in an oligarchy that is “of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.”

    When a country spends close to $10 billion to select what is, for all intents and purposes, a glorified homecoming king or queen to occupy the White House, while 38 million of its people live in poverty, and nearly 7 million Americans are out of work, and more than 600,000 Americans are homeless, that’s a country whose priorities are out of step with the needs of its people.

    Overhauling the nation’s infrastructure will take a significant amount of money, which won’t happen as long as the U.S. government continues to fund the military industry complex and its voracious appetite for endless wars.

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

    We are seeing this play out before our eyes.

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

    The American Empire is approaching a breaking point.

    This is exactly the scenario President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against when he cautioned the citizenry not to let the profit-driven war machine endanger our liberties or democratic processes. Eisenhower, who served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, was alarmed by the rise of the profit-driven war machine that, in order to perpetuate itself, would have to keep waging war.

    Yet as Eisenhower recognized, the consequences of allowing the military-industrial complex to wage war, exhaust our resources and dictate our national priorities are beyond grave:

    Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

    We failed to heed Eisenhower’s warning.

    The illicit merger of the armaments industry and the government that Eisenhower warned against has come to represent perhaps the greatest threat to the nation today.

    As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, this is how tyranny rises and freedom falls.

    If we are to have any hope of restoring both the structural and freedom foundations of this nation, we’ll need to start by getting our priorities in order, and that means focusing on what really matters: shoring up our battered Bill of Rights and investing in the American homeland.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 22:35

  • Google Turns To Nuclear To Power Its Data Centers
    Google Turns To Nuclear To Power Its Data Centers

    Two weeks ago, Microsoft set the utility space ablaze – metaphorically speaking – when we learned that the tech giant had made a deal with Constellation Energy to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, site of the worst nuclear accident in US history. Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez said: “Policymakers and the market have received a huge wake-up call. There’s no version of the future of this country that doesn’t rely on these nuclear assets.” Indeed, back in April we forecast that the “Next AI trade“, i.e., going long the infrastructure that would make the AI revolution possible, would be far more lucrative than betting on the Nvidias, Dells and data centers of the world (which would also be a great trade, just not that great)…

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    … and so far we have been proven right: as shown below, the “Next AI Trade” as defined by us back in April, is not only up 25% in the past six months (congrats to those who put the trade on) but is the best performing AI basket YTD!

    Of course: Microsoft was not the first to show that the way ahead is nuclear: back in March, Amazon Web Services acquired Talen Energy’s data center campus connected to the Susquehanna nuclear station in northeast Pennsylvania. Talen said it had sold the 960 MW Cumulus data center campus to Amazon for $650 million, setting the stage for countless similar transactions meant to provide power the insatiable AI sector, which gobbles up megawatts for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

    Microsoft won’t be the last either: according to Bloomberg, the last of the Big 3 megacaps, Google, is working with utilities in the US and other countries to assess nuclear power as a possible energy source for its data centers, underscoring surging interest in using atomic energy to feed the artificial intelligence boom.

    “In the US, in highly regulated markets where we don’t have the opportunity to directly purchase power, we are working with our utility partners and the generators to come together to figure out how we can bring these new technologies — nuclear may be one of them — to the grid,” said Amanda Peterson Corio, global head of data center energy at Alphabet Inc.’s Google.

    She also didn’t rule out the possibility of using nuclear energy in countries like Japan.

    For Google, having round-the-clock energy that isn’t intermittent is “critically important as we think about long-term growth,” Corio said.

    As if that wasn’t enough to guarantee a new golden age for builders of modern electrical infrastructure in the US, last week energy Texas’ top electricity regulator had a message for Big Tech: If you want to build AI data centers next to power plants, you may have to build the power plant, too.

    While it is no secret that AI developers are eager to build their data centers next to power plants to maximize efficiency and location, Thomas Gleeson, chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, said allowing construction near existing plants threatens resource adequacy on the grid if the data centers buy all the plants’ power. Texas has at times struggled to keep the lights on as its growing economy and population strain supplies.

    “We can’t afford to lose any of our resources off the system at this point, especially given those load-growth projections,” Gleeson said in an interview at the Gulf Coast Power Association conference in Austin, where AI dominated the discussion.

    Gleeson said his agency is telling data center developers they will need to supply some of their own power if they want to connect to the Texas grid within 12 to 15 months. Many of the corporations involved, he said, have among the biggest balance sheets in the world and can afford to fund construction of new power plants.

    “We have to look at really the co-location issue as being a new facility coming with its own new generation,” Gleeson said.

    Developers, he said, could even opt to “over build” — creating power plants that generate more electricity than their data centers need and selling the rest to the grid. “We’re happy to take it,” Gleeson said.

    In short, the stellar returns of the “Next AI trade” in 2024 are just the start: as more capital is allocated to “those who provide the electricity to those who sell the picks and shovels for the next gold rush”, the basket will blow away every other segment of the market, and the biggest winners will be not those who bet on the revolutionary technology that is AI, but those who backed something much more promitive: the electricity needed to power it.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 22:10

  • After Ending Presidential Bid, RFK Jr. Focused On America's Chronic Disease Problem
    After Ending Presidential Bid, RFK Jr. Focused On America’s Chronic Disease Problem

    Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    As the dust settles on his White House bid, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is focusing on his initiative, Make America Healthy Again, with the goal to turn around what he calls a chronic disease epidemic in the United States.

    Kennedy suspended his independent presidential campaign on Aug. 23 and threw his support behind former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee. Trump has promised to appoint Kennedy to a health-related role in a potential second term.

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks behind a bullet proof glass during the Rescue the Republic rally in Washington on Sept. 29, 2024.Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

    Kennedy told The Epoch Times in September that ending his presidential campaign was a difficult decision, but it was a “necessary step” to achieving his mission.

    “I prayed to God every day for the past 19 years that America’s health crisis would be solved for the next generation,“ he said. ”That is a major reason why I ran for president.”

    Kennedy’s campaign platform focused on fighting “corporate capture of government agencies” and ending the chronic disease epidemic. An environmental lawyer and founder of Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy believes one issue impacts the other.

    U.S. corporations, Kennedy said, have made America the sickest country in the world.

    “We enriched these corporations and their captive agencies. And now they want to go and commoditize all of the things we value in our lives,” he said on a soggy afternoon on Sept. 30. Kennedy was among the keynote speakers at Rescue the Republic, a day-long rally that brought 6,500 supporters of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement to the National Mall in Washington.

    Little will change until the corporate capture of government agencies is removed, he said.

    “The FDA, USDA, and CDC are all controlled by giant or private corporations. Their function is no longer to improve and protect the health of Americans. Their function is to advance the mercantile and commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry that has transformed them and the food industry that has transformed them into sock puppets,” he said at the event.

    At an earlier address in Washington, Kennedy said the state of health care should be measured by patient outcomes, including chronic illness, childhood obesity, and life expectancy. He pointed out that the United States is significantly behind other countries with smaller economies, such as Italy, which has a higher life expectancy and spends less on health care.

    “Today, we are an average of six years behind our European neighbors. Are we lazier and more suicidal than Italians or is there a problem with our system? Are there problems with our incentives? Are there problems with our food?” Kennedy said.

    He said the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, has contributed to the nation’s health care crisis by driving up insurance premiums and “making health care the largest driver of inflation while American life expectancy plummets.”

    Since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kennedy has been an outspoken critic of how elected officials and public health leaders managed the crisis.

    The United States had one of the worst COVID outcomes in the world with deaths, he said.

    “Our health leaders said that COVID was a pharmaceutical deficiency. This was a lie. We have the highest chronic disease rate on earth.”

    Two-thirds of U.S. adults suffer from chronic health issues, Kennedy noted, and 74 percent are overweight or obese.

    “When my uncle was president [1961-63], about 1 percent of the children in this country had a chronic disease. That number may be as high as 60 percent in America today,” he said.

    He sees the chronic disease epidemic among American children as a form of abuse.

    “Children are the most precious assets that we have in this country. How can we let this happen to them? How can we call ourselves a moral nation, the most exemplary democracy in the world, if we are treating our children like this?”

    He said diseases that once mostly impacted the elderly are now increasingly common among children.

    “About 18 percent of American teens now have fatty liver disease,” Kennedy stated. “When I was a boy, this only affected late-stage alcoholics who were elderly. Cancer rates are skyrocketing in the young and old. Young adult cancers are up 79 percent, and 1 in 4 American women is on antidepressant medication. Forty percent of teens have a mental health diagnosis; 15 percent of high schoolers are on Adderall. No other country has anything like this.”

    Ultra-processed foods are a primary culprit in the medical crisis impacting the young, he said.

    “Seventy percent of American children’s diet is now ultra-processed, which means industrial, manufactured in a factory.”

    He said these ultra-processed foods have chemicals that didn’t exist a century ago and are partly responsible for the rise in diseases in all ages.

    “Many of these chemicals are banned from human consumption in Europe,” while “they are ubiquitous in American processed foods. We are literally poisoning our children systematically for profit,” he said.

    “Pesticides, food additives, pharmaceutical drugs, and toxic waste permeate every cell in our bodies”

    At a rally in Glendale, Arizona, on Aug. 23, with Kennedy onstage, Trump announced that should he be reelected, he’d appoint Kennedy to a panel investigating the rise in chronic disease in children.

    Trump said he would “establish a panel of top experts working with Bobby to investigate what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic health problems and childhood diseases, including autoimmune disorders, autism, obesity, infertility, and many more.”

    Kennedy stated: “If I’m given the chance to fix the chronic disease crisis and reform our food production, I promise that within two years, we will watch the chronic disease burden lift dramatically.”

    As part of the MAHA campaign, Kennedy is traveling around the country, delivering addresses, and appearing in podcasts and online forums.

    On Oct. 8, he will join Trump, former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and multiple physicians for a Make America Healthy Again town hall.

    Speculation has mounted that, if Trump wins, Kennedy might be named Secretary of Health and Human Services or the head of one of its sub-agencies.

    The HHS oversees 13 agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health.

    If given the chance, Kennedy vowed to dismiss officials who lead those agencies and appoint replacements who will “turn them back into healing and public health agencies.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 21:45

  • "Lawless Narco-State": Mexican Mayor Decapitated Just Six Days Into Office
    “Lawless Narco-State”: Mexican Mayor Decapitated Just Six Days Into Office

    The severed head of a newly elected mayor in southern Mexico was found on top of his vehicle just six days into his tenure. Footage of the gruesome scene was shared on X, highlighting Mexico as a lawless narco-state run by ultra-violent cartels. 

    On Sept. 30, Alejandro Arcos was sworn in as the mayor of Chilpancingo, the capital and second-largest city of the Mexican state of Guerrero. The newly elected mayor didn’t even last a week because, on Sunday, he was assassinated, with his head severed and placed on the top of the vehicle as a reminder to local government officials that cartels run the show. 

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

    Arcos represented an opposition coalition that included the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). His party took to social media, calling the assassination of the mayor a “cowardly crime.” PRI called for justice early this week.   

    “Enough of violence and impunity! The people of Guerrero do not deserve to live in fear,” PRI wrote on X. 

    Just three days before Arcos’ killing, another city official, Francisco Tapia, was killed, according to PRI president Alejandro Moreno. 

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

    “They had been in office less than a week,” Moreno wrote on social media, adding, “They were young and honest public servants who were seeking progress for their community.”

    Guerrero is a cartel hellhole and one of the deadliest states in Mexico. Cartels fight each other for control of drug production and human trafficking. This is one of the deadliest areas for elected public officials and journalists.

    Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration’s open southern borders have not just sparked the worst border crisis in American history but also empowered and enriched cartels that control massive human trafficking networks. 

    Great job, Democrats. Open borders have sparked chaos on both sides of the border, along with importing the third world into America. 
     

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 21:20

  • 'Self-Rescue' – Yes, You Need To Be Able To Do This…
    ‘Self-Rescue’ – Yes, You Need To Be Able To Do This…

    Authored by Karl Denninger via Market-Ticker.org,

    Self-rescue.

    How many times do you need to see it before you believe it?

    People don’t take these threats seriously and then they get either seriously harmed or die.  The good news is that technology and warning have both seriously improved in the last 100 years; those who are killed by a natural disaster are down huge, 90% or more, over the last 100 years.

    Hurricanes, for example, were many times detected only on approach and thus by the time you knew there was serious trouble coming it was too late to do much in advance.  There were a huge number of them that nobody knows about at all because other than a hapless ship that wandered too close nobody ever saw the “fish spinners.”  Today we have satellites and thus anything incipient is known when it starts; this is an enormously good thing.

    But there are many disasters that give little or no warning.  That it was going to rain a lot in the path of Helene was known; that a cold front was going to drop the sort of moisture it did in front of it into many of the mountain areas was not accurately forecast nor could it be.  But — that it was raining heavily in the two days previous was certainly something you could take note of.  The “set up” for what happened is very similar to what occurred in 1916 — and so was the outcome.  Similarly we can tell when there’s a risk of tornadoes in a given area today but not exactly where one will form or strike.  Earthquakes are, with few exceptions, 100% no-warning events.  You can determine you live in a seismic zone (e.g. New Madrid, San Andreas, etc.) but there is no way to know when the event will occur.

    Many people believe that a “100 year flood” only happens every 100 years.  False, but even if it was true how long ago was 1916?  Uh, yeah.  No, a “100 year flood” means that there is a one percent chance each year and each trial, that is, each year, is independent just as is a coin toss and thus that one year did or did not have a flood has no bearing on whether the next year will.  To be more-accurate (I fat-fingered this originally, so this is corrected) you have a 99% chance per-year it won’t flood.  So if you live in a place that has a “100 year flood” risk over a 30 year mortgage there is a 73.97% chance you will not get flooded — and a 26% chance you will.  If you do get flooded in year 10 the risk of it happening again over the next 20 is about 18%.

    That’s right — you have a one in four risk of getting hosed over 30 years of living somewhere under that threat and if you do  get hit in year ten you have an approximately one in five-and-a-half risk of getting nailed again over the next 20 years if you stay!

    By the way if you’re in a place considered a five hundred year flood area the odds aren’t much better; its 99.8% likely per year you will not flood but cumulatively, over 30 years you still have about a six percent risk of getting screwed.  You probably think you are almost-certainly safe because 1 in 500 would put such events at least five human lives apart and thus “it ain’t gonna happen.”  You’re wrong.

    These are mathematical facts.

    Second, when and if it happens the help, whatever it, will go to the highest-density places first.  It has to because all resources are finite and thus the correct move is always to help the most people fastest and first.  This is the way triage is and its not cruel or anything of the sort; it is simply doing the best for the most you can with what you have available.  But do not mistake the fact that those resources will go there means you want to be there; if there are one million people in an area you’re one in a million and if only 100,000 can be helped you have a 1 in 10 chance of getting that assistance.  90% of the time you still go without and while the more-isolated place might not get any help for two weeks if you’re in the 90% it doesn’t matter, does it?

    Concentrate your efforts on the basics of human need because in a disaster that’s what matters most and expect even in a population area to be able to self-provide for at least a week.  

    The first and most-basic human need is air; if you can’t breathe it you’re dead. 

    Fires and toxins are real risks, but they’re also ones that when it comes to breathable air your best option is to run at the first hint of trouble no matter where you are.

    Second is drinkable water. 

    Assuming you are not inordinately stressed you might make three days.  You’re probably worthless in two days and children are more susceptible to serious dehydration because their skin area is larger on a percentage basis, so they typically cannot make it past two days and are effectively useless in one day.  Do not expect help to reach you under any circumstance until roughly that amount of time and perhaps more.  Even with “local” relief that ignores exhortations to not go help personally (like here after Helene) it still will take that long because until people can get in there that’s just how it is.

    Any allegedly “fresh” water source after a disaster has to be presumed contaminated and unsafe unless you have the means to treat it, and there are chemical contamination risks that cannot be reasonably mitigated in a disaster situation at all with water at ground level.  If you have a traditional hot water heater and your home or other residence is physically intact you have somewhere around 50 gallons of usable water in it.  It should still be filtered with a Sawyer and/or treated with Aquamira drops (yes, buy both well in advance!) before consumption, particularly after a few days, but it will not be full of contaminants because it was full of clean water when the system went down.  Keep a short hose around for this purpose and make sure you turn off the electrical or gas feed so once you start using it when water is restored it does not “dry fire.”  If you do not have any source of stored water (e.g. you have a tankless system and didn’t fill anything in advance) then bottled water is your next and last resort.  Everyone needs to be prepared to deal with this all the time; even if you’re on a private well if there’s no power the pump won’t work (more on that in a minute.)

    Third is personal shelter from elements, which includes clothing and similar.  Enough to be out of the wind and elements (e.g. rain, etc.) is frequently enough but not always.  Being wet, particularly in wind, can nail you with hypothermia even in moderately cool temperatures and in colder temperatures it is rapidly deadly.  Some of this is beyond your control and if your housing is destroyed in adverse circumstances securing from that problem is, after immediate threats (e.g. incoming flash flooding) your first priority.  Tools of some description, all the way down to a pocket knife, make a difference — perhaps a really big difference.  Having some preparation against this (e.g. a shell rain jacket, disposable space blankets, etc.) is inexpensive and everyone should have at least some elements of that available at any time.

    The last utter essential is personal protection.  It would be nice if people didn’t try to take advantage but some will.  Remember that the option to accept a “lesser injury” does not exist when there is no prompt medical care available, and there won’t be in this situation.  Exactly what you choose to do in this regard is a personal choice and I won’t go into it on this side of the blog but it is critical to remember that any significant injury can trivially wind up being fatal if you can’t get medical attention for a day or two.

    The rest is very situational but these first points are not.

    Expect communications by “ordinary means” to be unavailable.  This time around Starlink worked when nothing else did — if you had power available.  No power?  You’re still screwed.  And don’t kid yourself as to the requirements either; those units require quite a bit of juice, about 100 watts which is non-trivial.

    Note that in an actual emergency where ordinary communications (e.g. your cellphone) are unavailable any means of transmission, on any frequency, is legal to summon aid to prevent the imminent loss of either life or property.  One of the cheapest means of doing this is any of the HAM-capable Beofeng radios — the model 5RM is one of the better options, but hardly the only one, they are entirely portable and can charge over USB.  They are not, however, waterproof — there are major-manufacturer ones (e.g. ICOM) that are up to and including being submersible but they’re a lot more expensive.  

    Note that while listening is always legal without any sort of license at all it is illegal (and the FCC means it) to transmit on Ham bands without at least (for these) a Technicians license — however in an actual emergency where serious and imminent threat to life or property exists and regular communications are unavailable it is lawful to use anything you can manage to talk to anyone on any frequency.  

    § 97.403 Safety of life and protection of property.

    No provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station of any means of radiocommunication at its disposal to provide essential communication needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available.
    § 97.405 Station in distress.

    (a) No provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station in distress of any means at its disposal to attract attention, make known its condition and location, and obtain assistance.

    (b) No provision of these rules prevents the use by a station, in the exceptional circumstances described in paragraph (a) of this section, of any means of radiocommunications at its disposal to assist a station in distress.

    In advance look up the local repeaters in your area and program them in.  Repeaters are typically located up high, have decent power and someone who is competent operating and maintaining them.  You can listen lawfully any time you want; if you can hear a repeater you can probably get to it, and the Hams that operate them will put a lot of effort into getting those back on the air expeditiously because they are one of the key means of communications in emergencies.  Also program in 146.520Mhz as a last-ditch; that is the universal North American (US and Canada) simplex (non-repeater) calling frequency and if there are Hams in the area with a radio on standby in an emergency if you’re in range they will likely be able to hear and talk with you.  The best strategy with one of these in an actual emergency, after one attempt to reach the local repeaters, is to check once an hour on the hour listening for others; remember that once the battery is depleted the radio is worthless without a charge and it takes a lot more power to transmit than receive.  Don’t waste the power you have in the unit if there is no charging source.

    This is a literal $30 piece of equipment that can save your life; if you have an EPIRB/PLB that works in extreme emergencies as well but they’re expensive and these are not plus once you set off an EPIRB/PLB it is “used” as the battery will be depleted and since it sends coordinates you have to stay put once you set it off or they go where you no longer are.  Just be aware of the limitations of whatever backups you have but do have one or more.

    Another thing to know: Starlink is working on direct to phone links.  How far away that is for general use (they’re testing with T-Mobile now) I do not know, but for low-bandwidth (e.g. text message) applications in the next few years this probably will be available and again is a life-saving thing if and when it enters operation.  The hardware is not cheap for “regular” and “mini” “full” Starlink kits (~$600 or so) and the bad news with them is that at present they cannot self-provision, so in an emergency you can’t turn it on if you have one stored at your location.  Starlink may eventually fix this (and should, as it makes “terminal sitting in box” a VERY useful emergency communications device) but as of right now with no way to get to the Internet separately on a non-active unit you can’t activate it.

    Carbon-based fuels and all that run on them are your friend in such a circumstance.  Generators, chainsaws, heavy equipment and similar all run on carbon fuels.  Note that gasoline should be rotated at least once a year if stabilized and non-ethanol and yes, you do not want ethanol in the fuel if at all possible for this use.  If you’re even modestly away from civilization or could be cut off from power for any extended period of time two 5 gallon cans you rotate at least once a year (put them in your car and go get new fills) is an excellent emergency investment, assuming your residence survives.  Those of us who have lived in Florida know darn well that those gas cans can be life-savers when a hurricane destroys the power feed to your area.  That little generator will keep your refer and a few lights going.  Consider the inverter models if you don’t have one already and are only after real emergency use (e.g. the refer and a few lights, or your fuel-driven furnace controls and blower) — they sip fuel compared to the older “straight” models under light loads; a refrigerator cycles on and off and modern LED lights consume almost nothing power-wise.  Instead of close to a gallon an hour these will often run anywhere from three to eight hours on a gallon of fuel.  Any generator needs to be exercised, with a load on it, every couple of months for 20 minutes or so because you must know it will start if you need it.

    If you’re on a well without prior planning your pump will not work on a backup generator; the starting current requirements are too high.  You can put a soft starter in and if you have a 240V capable generator you should as with one a modest generator will run your well pump.  Without a soft starter look at the label on the pump motor for “LRA” (locked-rotor amps) as that’s what the generator has to be able to deliver without tripping on a “surge” basis or it will not start it.  Microair makes a suitable unit (they have both 120V and 240V units available; there are other brands for RV use that will work for 120V pumps but most well pumps are 240V.)

    In colder climates pay attention to your heat source(s) and a backup for whatever you use for heat is not a suggestion.  Heat pumps are worthless without utility power; they simply draw too much power to run reasonably on a backup generator, except perhaps on a natural-gas fueled whole-house unit.  A gas or propane furnace will run on a small generator if you have a transfer switch for it which is quite inexpensive and you should put one of those in for that specific reason even if you don’t have a larger generator and transfer switch (which are expensive) setup.

    Note that just now the media is full of stories about “full time” and “in major area” response on the ground.  Its been over a week since the storm hit and had cleared off and just now we’re seeing reports of government helicopters, larger aircraft and similar supplies for relief — up until now it has all been private parties doing it because they want to help those in the area and government relief, with few exceptions, has been, like in so many other cases, absent.

    In short expect that even in a heavily-populated area you are on your own for a week and had better be able to deal with that.  In a less-populated (or rural) area it will likely be two weeks or more before you have anything approaching reasonable access to relief efforts, and thus you need to be prepared for two week to a month of being cut off.  If you live somewhere that access can be seriously damaged (e.g. there is only a single mountainside secondary road that reaches your location) you need to be contemplating how you’ll deal with that if the road is seriously compromised or destroyed and either have a plan to deal with it or be prepared to bug out if there’s any possibility of it happening — even if the odds are very low.

    Take this seriously folks and realize that you cannot outrun either a mudslide/flash flood or storm surge.  Surge is something you have some warning with as hurricanes are well-forecast but flash floods are in many cases akin to tornadoes and while the conditions that can lead to them are usually forecast the event itself often occurs with very little warning.  Both move at speeds that are wildly faster (double or more!) than you can run and in any vehicle if you encounter even one obstruction trying to flee it will overtake and kill you.  The only sane option is to not be there, but if you’re trapped where there’s no good way out then you have to be able to deal with whatever happened until you can either cut your way out or relief can get to you and in the first days to a week or so the most-likely people to be able to and who will help you are private individuals who live in the area — not the government in any form whether federal, state or local.

    Now after you’ve read all this above and let it soak in for a bit go into your bathroom or kitchen and do an assessment of your medicine cabinet.

    What happens if everything in that cabinet is gone and you can’t get more?  If you can do something about that and don’t all the above may well mean exactly nothing.

    Next take off all your clothes and find a mirror in your house.  Have a good look and don’t lie to yourself.

    If you have to hike 5 miles over rough terrain to get water and haul enough back for a couple of days for the people in your household can you do it?  Incidentally that requirement is roughly a gallon per person, per day and each gallon masses 8lbs so you’re talking about “rucking” 35-40lbs (with the pack) on the five-mile return if there are four people in your household.  If you have to do it, and can’t, you will die.  Or if you need to do the same thing with 3-4 gallons of gas for a generator (you do have one, right?) to run your well pump for a few days and keep the refer operating — can you?

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 20:55

  • David Stockman On Why Biden-Harris Could Not Print, Borrow, Or Spend Their Way To A Strong Economy
    David Stockman On Why Biden-Harris Could Not Print, Borrow, Or Spend Their Way To A Strong Economy

    Authored by David Stockman via InternationalMan.com,

    A goodly part of the “strong” economy illusion derives from cherry-picking the hideously misleading numbers contained in the BLS establishment survey’s monthly “jobs” count. As we noted in my previous piece, for instance, the index of hours worked in the high-pay, high-productivity goods-producing sector has actually contracted by 18% since peaking way back in 1978, but that has purportedly been more than off-set by a 128% rise in the hours index for the Leisure & Hospitality (L&H) sector, of which 75% is attributable to bars, restaurants and other food service operations.

    Alas, however, what might be termed the “great jobs replacement” caper was not remotely a case of apples-to-apples. The typical part-time, near minimum wage “job” in the L&H sector pays the equivalent $24,400 per year or just 37% of the $66,000 annual equivalent for goods-producing jobs. So in terms of economic throw-weight, or the implied market value of output and income, we have been replacing prime labor force players with what amounts to third-stringers on waivers.

    But in some cases, it may actually be even worse than that. To wit, neither the BLS employment data nor the GDP accounts are without systematic bias owing to the fact that they were designed and institutionalized mainly by Keynesian economists on the government payroll.  The latter naturally equated economic output and jobs with that which their data framework measured—even as such macro-data was mainly of importance to Keynesian policy makers fiddling with the Washington-based fiscal and monetary dials in an attempt to enhance the greater economic good.

    Accordingly, the Keynesian fathers of our contemporary economic data dumps didn’t care much about vast sections of the non-monetized economy including household labor, self-service activities (i.e. doing your own driving, shopping and lawn mowing) and the so-called underground economy conducted in cash and away from the tax collectors, regulators and law-enforcers.

    The problem, of course, is that when economic activity migrates from the informal and underground economy to the monetized economy it gets recorded as additional output, jobs and income in our Keynesian labor and GDP accounts. In many such cases, however, no new output or income is actually being generated; it’s just being newly recorded.

    For instance, between 2014 and 2023 the number of US taxi and limo drivers more than doubled from 131,800 to 264,600. But we do not believe that activity and employment in this sector actually grew at the implied 8.1% per annum rate. What happened is that the explosion of Uber and Lyft services caused many traditional self-drivers to leave their cars in the garage, and to utilize for-hire drivers instead—even, perhaps, as they played video games on their iPhones in the back seat.

    Nor is this illustration a trivial matter. The chart below, in fact, tracks a huge movement of un-measured household activity that has migrated into the monetized and BLS-counted economy since the peak of goods-producing employment back in 1978.

    To wit, the employment rate (purple line) for the prime working age female population (25-54 years) rose from 56.5% in Q1 1978 to 75.4% in Q2 2024. Accordingly, the work of nearly one-fifth of the prime age female population moved from the uncounted household economy into the monetized economy during that 46-year span. Self-evidently, however that did not represent new output or jobs but merely the monetization of what was already there.

    Moreover, in round job count numbers this migration from the household to the monetized economy was not inconsiderable. During that span the number of prime age women employees in the US rose from 23.5 million in Q1 1978 to 48.9 million in Q2 2024. But nearly half of that 25.3 million gain was due to the rise in the female employment ratio and therefore the counting of jobs that had previously not been recorded.

    In the overall scale of the US economy, therefore, these 12.2 million female worker migrations accounted for nearly 20% of the total gain in US employment from 94.8 million in Q1 1978 to 161.2 million at present.

    Needless to say, the tracking of this migration of output and jobs to the monetized economy was not simple and linear, such as homemakers becoming cooks in restaurants. In some cases, women historically employed in the household (or men for that matter, too) became doctors who, in turn, employed day care workers to care for their own children and housekeepers to handle the cleaning and laundry.

    Still, when you look at the three broad BLS employment categories which are closely related to household work that has become monetized, the migration of female workers from the household economy to the monetized economy is plainly apparent.

    Thus, during the 46 years between 1978 and Q2 2024 total US employment grew by 1.16% per annum, which we use as a proxy for the rate of labor input growth in the overall economy. However, women employed in the three leading sectors that absorbed household work, the growth rates were far higher.

    46 Year Gains:

    • Women Employees in Health and Private Education (red line): +15.37 million workers and 3.13% per annum growth.

    • Women Employees in Leisure & Hospitality: +6.08 million workers and 2.58% per annum growth.

    • Women Employees in Other Services: +2.17 million workers and 2.54% per annum growth.

    In short, the gain of women employees in these three labor market segments alone totaled 23.62 million over 1978 to 2024, thereby accounting for nearly 36% of the total gain in BLS reported employment during the last 46 years. Yet a very substantial portion of the former gain represented neither new economic growth nor new jobs.

    Instead, it reflected the sweeping change in social mores during that period and in the role of women in economic life, as they moved into all segments of the paid labor force. At the same time, the household sector, in turn, became a major new employer of paid labor at restaurants, laundries, childcare centers, cleaning services, home health agencies, nursing homes etc. of what had previously been unmonetized household output and employment.

    Employment Ratio of Women Aged 25 to 54 Years And Employees in Leisure & Hospitality, Health Care And Private Education and Other Services 

    The implication is straight forward. The ballyhooed “incoming data” is not all it’s cracked-up to be. Indeed, bringing the analysis exactly to the current state of the US economy, one simple data set needs be noted. To wit, the contrast between the growth of Federal debt since Q4 2019 and nominal GDP tells you all you need to know.

    Change Between Q4 2019 and Q2 2024:

    • Public Debt: +11.63 trillion.

    • GDP: + $6.75 trillion.

    • Debt Growth As % Of GDP Growth: 172%.

    Of course, the Biden-Harris apologists imply there is nothing to see here—just some big numbers tooling around the page. Or merely a case of Washington at work, helping the macroeconomy to move along at a goodly place.

    Not exactly. During the heyday of American prosperity between 1954 and 1970, the public debt grew by a scant 2.2% per annum at a time when nominal GDP was expanding by 6.5% per year. Accordingly, the public debt rose by only 16% of the gain in nominal GDP, the exact opposite of the past four years.

    Change Between 1954 and 1970:

    • Public Debt: +$110.1 billion.

    • GDP: + 689.0 billion.

    • Debt Growth as a % of GDP Growth: 16%

    Nor did such tepid fiscal stimulus mean that real growth and living standards faltered. During the 1954-1970 period, real final sales grew by 3.75% per annum or by nearly double the 1.93% per annum gain since the pre-pandemic peak in Q2 2020.

    Even more impressively, during the 1954-1970 heyday, real median family income growth far outpaced the last four years as shown below. During the former period, real median family income rose from $38,730 to $65,050 in 2023 dollars or by 3.29% per annum. By contrast, the $101,700 real median family income posted for 2019 clocked in lower at $100,800 in 2023.

    Real Median Family Income, 1954 to 2024

    The same story holds with respect to total public and private debt. Total debt rose from $558 billion in 1954 to $1.648 trillion in 1970. The resulting gain of $1.098 trillion was just slightly more than the $700 billion rise of GDP during the period.

    By contrast, during the 4.5 years between Q4 2019 and Q2 2024 total public and private debt rose from $74.9 trillion to $99.8 trillion. The staggering gain of nearly $25 trillion far-outpaced the $6.8 trillion growth of nominal GDP during the period.

    In short, there is nothing organic, natural, sustainable or strong about the GDP numbers currently being posted—notwithstanding all the Biden-Harris boasting to the contrary.

    Actually, the US economic is being artificially bloated and levitated by cheap debt compliments of the Fed and other central banks around the world.

    As we said at the onset, it has never been true that you can spend, borrow and print your way to prosperity. And the tottering Biden-Harris Economy proves that truism in spades.

    *  *  *

    The truth is, we’re on the cusp of an economic crisis that could eclipse anything we’ve seen before. And most people won’t be prepared for what’s coming. That’s exactly why bestselling author Doug Casey and his team just released a free report with all the details on how to survive an economic collapse. Click here to download the PDF now.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 20:30

  • Ron Paul: American Neocons Get Their Iran War As Congress Sleeps
    Ron Paul: American Neocons Get Their Iran War As Congress Sleeps

    Authored by Ron Paul

    Over the weekend, the Commander of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), General Michael Kurilla, arrived in Israel to “coordinate” with the Israeli military and plan a military strike against Iran. Think about that for a moment: one of the highest-ranking officers in the US military is planning a war in a foreign country against another foreign country which will be fueled by American weapons, American intelligence, and American tax dollars.

    Did that foreign country – Iran – attack the United States or threaten Americans? No, it did not. What did Iran do to warrant a CENTCOM commander bringing the weight of the US military into play to plan a war – possibly WWIII? It retaliated against Israeli airstrikes including the assignation of a Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran.

    Via Reuters

    It was the Israeli missile attack on Tehran – an unprecedented event – that set off this chain of escalation, but few would know if from media coverage. This war fever between Israel and Iran not only has nothing to do with us, but our increasing involvement actually hurts our national interests in the region.

    After a deadly and futile three-year proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, the last thing we need is another war in the Middle East, especially against Iran. But make no mistake, war is what we are getting. This Administration has even offered to “compensate” Israel with even more weapons and diplomatic support if they hit targets of the US choosing and avoid others in Iran.

    Imagine if China sent military officials to Iran to pay Tehran to make sure some US targets were struck and others avoided. Would we consider it Iran’s war against us, or China’s war against us? Both?

    Has Congress declared war on Iran or even authorized the war? No.

    Has this Administration explained to us why Americans suffering after the catastrophic Hurricane Helene are on their own because we need to spend billions on a war that is none of our business? No. The neocons have wanted this war for decades and for them it’s always America last.

    This war will make us less free, less safe, and much poorer. There will be no benefits at all, only downside.

    Will the Biden/Harris Administration greenlight Israel taking out Iran’s oil production and other energy facilities? That would mean the average American already suffering under high inflation and an economic downturn would be paying orders of magnitude higher for not just gasoline, but everything. Consider the cost of shipping and trucking and every aspect of our lives that depends on world energy prices. It would be an economic calamity for Americans for the benefit of a foreign country. This is what they call patriotism?

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    We are sleepwalking into a catastrophic war, lulled into compliance by non-stop media propaganda. More billions will be drained from our economy and many more innocent lives will be lost in this madness. Almost a quarter of a century later we still have not learned the lessons of 9/11.

    When we go abroad wreaking havoc and destruction on foreign populations who have not harmed us we create enemies who will seek revenge. We harm ourselves. And we risk blowback. The time to oppose this impending war is NOW!

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 20:05

  • US Set Record-Highs In Natural Gas Power Generation This Summer
    US Set Record-Highs In Natural Gas Power Generation This Summer

    By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com

    Low natural gas prices, hotter summer weather, and new generation capacity sent U.S. natural gas-fired power generation to a new all-time high this summer, on some days of which gas-fired electricity made up nearly half of total power output.  

    This summer’s record-high was hit on August 2, when America’s natural gas-fired power plants generated more than 7 million megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Tuesday.

    The record on that day beat by 6.8% the previous summer’s record set on July 28, 2023, the EIA said.

    Nine out of the ten days with the most U.S. natural gas-fired electricity generation on record occurred in the summer of 2024. Of those, six occurred in August 2024.

    Overall electricity generation for the summer of 2024, June through August, rose by 3% compared to the summer of 2023. The daily average for natural gas-fired electricity generation for the summer this year also increased by 3% year-over-year, to 5.9 million MWh, according to the EIA’s Hourly Electric Grid Monitor.

    “Over the past few years, the balance of sources of electricity generation in the United States—especially in the summer—has shifted to more renewables and natural gas and less coal,” the EIA said.

    “As electric generation capacity from renewable sources grows, natural gas is used increasingly to balance the intermittent nature of electricity produced from wind and solar.”

    So far this year, natural gas-fired power generation in the United States has soared to a record high.

    U.S. power producers generated a total of 55.6 million MWh from gas-fired power plants between January and September, up by 5% compared to the same period of last year, according to data from LSEG quoted by Reuters’s columnist Gavin Maguire. This is also the highest power generation from natural gas since at least 2021.

    In recent years, power demand in the United States, the single largest portion of which is delivered by gas-fired power plants, has soared and is expected to continue to surge with rising electrification and more electricity necessary to power and cool data centers.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 19:40

  • Costco Gold Bars Are Selling Out Even As Prices Surge, Survey Finds
    Costco Gold Bars Are Selling Out Even As Prices Surge, Survey Finds

    Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

    Costco shoppers are purchasing the store’s 1-ounce gold bars at a high rate despite the precious metal’s record-high prices in recent months, according to a recent survey.

    Around 77 percent of Costco outlets that sell bullion bars were sold out in the first week of October, a Bloomberg survey found.

    The news outlet and financial services company said it surveyed 101 stores in 46 states that sell gold and recently restocked the precious metal.

    The apparently high number of sales comes even as gold prices have surged in the past year or so. In the past 12 months, gold is up about 41 percent, going from around $1,864 per ounce to $2,640 per ounce.

    According to data provided by the American Precious Metals Exchange (APMEX), the spot price for gold hit a record $2,686 per ounce on Sept. 26.

    Costco started selling the 1-ounce gold bars in late 2023 in its stores and via its website, available only to members.

    Since then, the company has started selling silver coins and now platinum bars and coins.

    Wells Fargo in April estimated that the big-box retailer is selling up to $200 million in gold per month.

    “Our work suggests there has been significant interest given Costco’s aggressive pricing and high level of customer trust,” Edward Kelly, an analyst with Wells Fargo, wrote in a note to clients at the time.

    “The accelerating frequency of Reddit posts, quick online sell-outs of product, and [Costco’s] robust monthly [ecommerce] sales suggests a sharp uptick in momentum since the launch,” he added.

    Meanwhile, Costco Chief Financial Officer Gary Millerchip told Bloomberg that gold and silver are a “meaningful part” of the company’s growth, adding that Costco is happy to have the capacity to offer those products.

    “It’s a great example of our merchants constantly finding new ways to deliver uniqueness and value,” he said.

    The Epoch Times contacted Costco for comment but received no response by Tuesday morning.

    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has warned that gold isn’t a “safe” investment because “gold and other precious metals are highly volatile and past performance is not a good predictor of future returns.”

    “Like other commodities, precious metal prices rise as demand goes up, so when economic anxiety or instability is high, the people who typically profit from precious metals are the sellers,” the CFTC said.

    After the success of its selling of gold and silvers, Costco recently started selling platinum bars and coins. Last week, the retail giant listed Canadian Platinum Maple Leaf coins for $1,089.99 and Swiss-made one-ounce platinum bars for $1,089.99, according to an Epoch Times review of its website.

    But like its gold and silver offerings, Costco places limitations on how many bars one can purchase at a given time.

    In July, Costco said it will hike its annual membership fee by $5 to $65 for the “gold star” members, and to $130 from $120 for executive members, effective Sept. 1. Company executives also recently noted that consumers are spending less during the most recent quarter.

    “There’s definitely some signs that the consumer is being very choiceful in how they’re spending their dollars,” Millerchip, the CFO of Costo, said on a post-earnings call on Sept. 26.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 19:15

  • "Pending Regulatory Approval": Biden-Harris' FAA May Finally Greenlight Musk's Starship Launch After Suspicious Delays
    “Pending Regulatory Approval”: Biden-Harris’ FAA May Finally Greenlight Musk’s Starship Launch After Suspicious Delays

    Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the Federal Aviation Administration have been locked in disputes on when the Starship mega-rocket will blast off from SpaceX Starbase in Texas. 

    After a month of delays, SpaceX revealed on X that Starship’s fifth launch could begin as early as Sunday. The initial launch date was slated for mid-September. 

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    Since the FAA fined SpaceX $633,000 for safety violations in Florida and $633,000 for environmental violations at Starbase – while slowing down rocket launches, the private space company has moved to speed up timelines. Company execs have warned that FAA regulatory hurdles are nothing more than ‘lawfare’ by Biden-Harris admin officials.  

    San Antonio Express-News noted, “Chatter of a mid-October launch began last week when a Coast Guard Notice to Mariners about the launch appeared online.” However, the FAA dismissed that, saying, “We are not issuing launch authorization for a launch to occur in the next two weeks—it’s not happening.”

    SpaceX provided more details about the upcoming Starship test flight:

    Starship’s fifth flight test could launch as soon as October 13, pending regulatory approval.

    A live webcast of the flight test will begin about 30 minutes before liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app. The launch window will open as early as 7:00 a.m. CT. As is the case with all developmental testing, the schedule is dynamic and likely to change, so be sure to stay tuned to our X account for updates.

    Flight 4 was a tremendous success. A fully successful ascent was followed by the first ever booster soft-landing in the Gulf of Mexico and Starship making it through a brilliant reentry, before its own landing burn and splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

    The fifth flight test of Starship will aim to take another step towards full and rapid reusability. The primary objectives will be attempting the first ever return to launch site and catch of the Super Heavy booster and another Starship reentry and landing burn, aiming for an on-target splashdown of Starship in the Indian Ocean.

    Extensive upgrades ahead of this flight test have been made to hardware and software across Super Heavy, Starship, and the launch and catch tower infrastructure at Starbase. SpaceX engineers have spent years preparing and months testing for the booster catch attempt, with technicians pouring tens of thousands of hours into building the infrastructure to maximize our chances for success. We accept no compromises when it comes to ensuring the safety of the public and our team, and the return will only be attempted if conditions are right.

    Thousands of distinct vehicle and pad criteria must be met prior to a return and catch attempt of the Super Heavy booster, which will require healthy systems on the booster and tower and a manual command from the mission’s Flight Director. If this command is not sent prior to the completion of the boostback burn, or if automated health checks show unacceptable conditions with Super Heavy or the tower, the booster will default to a trajectory that takes it to a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

    The returning booster will slow down from supersonic speeds, resulting in audible sonic booms in the area around the landing zone. Generally, the only impact to those in the surrounding area of a sonic boom is the brief thunder-like noise with variables like weather and distance from the return site determining the magnitude experienced by observers.

    Starship will fly a similar trajectory as the previous flight test with splashdown targeted in the Indian Ocean. This flight path does not require a deorbit burn for reentry, maximizing public safety while still providing the opportunity to meet our primary objective of a controlled reentry and soft water landing of Starship.

    One of the key upgrades on Starship ahead of flight was a complete rework of its heatshield, with SpaceX technicians spending more than 12,000 hours replacing the entire thermal protection system with newer-generation tiles, a backup ablative layer, and additional protections between the flap structures. This massive effort, along with updates to the ship’s operations and software for reentry and landing burn, will look to improve upon the previous flight and bring Starship to a soft splashdown at the target area in the Indian Ocean.

    With each flight building on the learnings from the last, testing improvements in hardware and operations across every facet of Starship, we’re on the verge of demonstrating techniques fundamental to Starship’s fully and rapidly reusable design. By continuing to push our hardware in a flight environment, and doing so as safely and frequently as possible, we’ll rapidly bring Starship online and revolutionize humanity’s ability to access space.

    Last month, Musk explained at the All-In Summit about troubling lawfare by the feds to slowdown Starship’s progress.

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    “Lawfare costs lives,” Musk noted last week on X. 

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    Musk called out the fed’s “lawfare” on Tucker Carlson. 

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    All of this lawfare against Musk and his companies is because Democrats hate X’s free speech. Hillary Clinton and John Kerry said the quiet part out loud in recent days and weeks. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 18:50

  • New York's Prop One: A Trojan Horse Of Epic Proportions
    New York’s Prop One: A Trojan Horse Of Epic Proportions

    Authored by Bobbie Anne Flower Cox via The Brownstone Institute,

    was interviewed last week by the New York Post about an extremely important issue…a proposed amendment to our Constitution here in New York which is called “Proposal Number One” (aka “Prop One”). Though it is a statewide, New York ballot initiative (meaning it will be on the ballot for every New Yorker to vote on across the State), its consequences (if it passes) will undoubtedly ricochet across the nation. In other words, if we don’t stop it here, now, then it’s going to pass, and then it will come to your state sooner or later.

    How am I sure of that? Well, firstly because historically speaking, radical policies that begin in New York tend to have a ripple effect once they take hold here. And secondly, because this proposed amendment is a Trojan Horse of epic proportions, meaning it’s not at all what the left is saying it is. As they so often do, they dress it up in word salad style so that you don’t know what it actually means. The Archdiocese in New York has come out against this proposed amendment, and the Catholic Conference including Cardinal Dolan, calls it a wolf in sheep’s clothing. 

    https://nypost.com/2024/09/30/us-news/ny-ballot-measure-could-allow-ill…

    The radical politicians who thought this up are the same who gave us radical, failed policies such as No-Cash-Bail, Clean Slate, Raise the Age, and Congestion Pricing. They are selling Prop One as an “Equal Rights Amendment” that will protect abortion in New York, though none of those words actually appear on the ballot. Nonetheless, when you read it, it sounds “fair” – I mean who doesn’t want equal treatment for all? But in reality, if it passes, it will not give anyone any new “equal rights” since all the categories in there are already protected under our NYS laws. However, what it will do is weaken your rights, and further empower the radical politicians who run our government. Here’s how…

    Let’s start with what language you’ll actually see on your ballot (either at the bottom or on the back of the ballot). This is the introductory language:

    Amendment to Protect Against Unequal Treatment

    This proposal would protect against unequal treatment based on ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity and pregnancy. It also protects against unequal treatment based on reproductive healthcare and autonomy.

    A “YES” vote puts these protections in the New York State Constitution.

    A “NO” vote leaves these protections out of the State Constitution.

    Then after that, you will see the actual proposed change to our Constitution which will read as follows:

    Concurrent Resolution of the Senate and Assembly proposing an amendment to section 11 of article 1 of the constitution, in relation to equal protection

    Section 1. Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That section 11 of article 1 of the constitution be amended to read as follows:

    § 11. a. No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws of this state or any subdivision thereof. No person shall, because of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed [or], religion, or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy, be subjected to any discrimination in [his or her] their civil rights by any other person or by any firm, corporation, or institution, or by the state or any agency or subdivision of the state, pursuant to law.

    b. Nothing in this section shall invalidate or prevent the adoption of any law, regulation, program, or practice that is designed to prevent or dismantle discrimination on the basis of a characteristic listed in this section, nor shall any characteristic listed in this section be interpreted to interfere with, limit, or deny the civil rights of any person based upon any other characteristic identified in this section.

       §  2. Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That the foregoing amendment be submitted to the people for approval at the general election to be held in the year 2024 in accordance with the provisions of the election law.

    Explanation – Matter in underscored is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted.

    Sounds warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it? 

    It’s not!

    If Prop One passes, it will unleash a massive tidal wave of chaos upon our citizenry, our norms, and what we hold dear in our society.

    In other words, life as you know it will no longer be the norm. If Prop One passes it can lead to:

    • the weakening of your parental rights and giving the government control of your children (which is already happening in schools across the State thanks to this outrageous and unconstitutional “guidance” the Department of Education issued last year); 

    • making New York a permanent sanctuary state where illegal immigrants (including criminals) can’t be deported; 

    • opening the door for non-citizens, including illegal immigrants, to claim a constitutional right to receive the same taxpayer-funded benefits that citizens receive (like government assistance, medicare, social security, disability compensation, subsidized health care, etc.) and could eventually include the right to vote (see my X post on that HERE);

    • abolition of girls’ sports and female spaces like women’s locker rooms, bathrooms, showers, dormitories, prisons, etc. (see my X post on that HERE);

    • abolition of single-sex spaces such as high schools, colleges, clubs, organizations, etc.; 

    • the chilling of free speech (see my X post on that HERE); 

    • the legalization of reverse discrimination (see paragraph b of Prop One noted above).

    Defeating Prop One:

    A terrific cartoonist, Anne Gibbons, has been creating insightful drawings about Prop One. Here’s one of her latest cartoons which captures the Trojan Horse element of this anti-American proposed amendment:

    Republished from the author’s Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 18:25

  • Brazil Reinstates X After Musk Meets Demands
    Brazil Reinstates X After Musk Meets Demands

    Five weeks after Brazil’s full Supreme Court upheld a nationwide ban on social media platform X, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Tuesday authorized the restoration of service.

    The move comes after X ultimately complied with all of de Moraes’ demands – including blocking certain accounts from the platform, paying outstanding fines, and naming a new legal representative, AP reports.

    Elon Musk’s X was blocked on Aug. 30 after refusing to block certain accounts implicated in investigations of alleged spreading of distorted news and what court officials said is hate speech.

    An estimated 20-40 million people use X in Brazil, a country of 213 million people.

    Last month Musk fired off multiple X posts that criticized de Moraes, with one saying that “he should be impeached for violating his oath of office” and that his “actions are against the will of the Brazilian people he is supposed to represent.”

    The unbanning came hours after Brazil’s top prosecutor’s office issued a legal opinion that it no longer sees any reason to prevent X from being reinstated.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 18:00

  • IV Fluid Shortage: Hospital Group Asks Federal Government To Declare National Emergency
    IV Fluid Shortage: Hospital Group Asks Federal Government To Declare National Emergency

    Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

    The American Hospital Association (AHA) is urging the federal government to declare a national emergency, warning that patient safety is at risk due to a shortage of IV solutions after Hurricane Helene disrupted supplies.

    Baxter International, the largest manufacturer of certain intravenous (IV) solutions in the United States, shut down its North Cove manufacturing plant in North Carolina recently after being impacted by Hurricane Helene. This has disrupted the supply of IV fluids to hospitals.

    “As a result, our members are already reporting substantial shortages of these lifesaving and life-supporting products,” the AHA said in an Oct. 7 letter to President Joe Biden.

    The group represents almost 5,000 member hospitals, 43,000 individual members, and other health care organizations.

    “Patients across America are already feeling this impact, which will only deepen in the coming days and weeks unless much more is done to alleviate the situation and minimize the impact on patient care,” the letter reads.

    The association asked the federal government to declare a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act.

    The AHA said that the North Cove plant produces roughly 1.5 million bags of IV solutions per day, accounting for about 60 percent of America’s supply. With manufacturing disrupted, Baxter and other suppliers of IV solutions have instituted buying limits and are not accepting new customers, the group stated.

    “AHA strongly urges the Administration to take immediate actions to increase the supply of IV solutions for the nation’s hospitals, health systems and other health care providers that are already struggling to provide care,” it said.

    The organization asked the president to direct the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to allow hospitals and health systems to prepare sterile IV solutions in their pharmacies.

    The FDA should identify international manufacturers capable of producing IV fluids, it stated. The agency should also extend the shelf-life of all IV solutions that are “beyond or nearing their expiration date,” it said.

    The AHA asked the federal government to invoke the Defense Production Act to ensure that manufacturers are encouraged to accept contracts for materials required to produce IV solutions.

    Such manufacturers should be incentivized to expand the production and supply of critical materials, it stated.

    The Epoch Times reached out to the White House for comment but didn’t receive a reply by publication time.

    Due to the ongoing IV fluid supply disruptions, some surgeries are being suspended.

    Michelle Rathman, the founder of Impact Communications, a company specializing in health care strategy and communications, said the company was working with its “Critical Access Hospital clients to help them inform their communities about suspending elective procedures until further notice,” according to an Oct. 8 social media post.

    Tackling Supply Disruption

    Last week, Baxter said that Hurricane Helene destroyed the bridges to the firm’s site and that remediation measures were being implemented to resolve the matter. The company said it didn’t yet have a timeline for when operations would be back up and running.

    In an Oct. 7 update, Baxter said it had made “steady progress” in its remediation measures. A temporary bridge has been installed to support transport to and from the site. No structural damage to the facility has been identified. The site now has access to electrical power.

    “We expect to begin communicating anticipated production plans within the next two weeks,” Baxter stated.

    “We have resumed shipments to hospitals and dialysis patients after the temporary hold last week, based on allocations as previously communicated. We have moved finished goods from our North Cove site that were not impacted by the storm and are inspecting other finished goods onsite. This inventory will be used to support current allocations in the short term.”

    Several of Baxter’s international plants are ramping up production in an attempt to meet the demand in the United States. The firm expects to receive supplies from these facilities throughout October.

    Within the next two weeks, Baxter plans to adjust the buying limits for customers based on inbound shipments.

    Health care performance improvement company Vizient, which serves more than 65 percent of America’s acute care providers, published a conservation guide to deal with IV fluid disruptions. The recommendations are aimed at helping preserve existing inventories while ensuring safe patient care.

    “IV fluids are a foundational component of basic medication preparation and compounding for hundreds of drugs. Immediately implementing conservation strategies will be important to help minimize supply disruptions as the supply chain works to recover,” said Mittal Sutaria, Vizient’s senior vice president of pharmacy contract and program services.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 17:40

  • North Korea Becoming A Nuclear 'Military Superpower', Kim Jong Un Declares
    North Korea Becoming A Nuclear ‘Military Superpower’, Kim Jong Un Declares

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said his country is becoming a “military superpower” capable of deploying nuclear weapons, an option which would not be ruled out in the case of an enemy attack.

    “Our steps toward becoming a military superpower and a nuclear power will accelerate,” Kim declared in a Monday speech at the University of National Defense. He specifically cited the US concentration of its forces, including nuclear assets, on the Korean peninsula in support of Seoul as a reason for pursuing nuclear superpower status.

    “The military alliance of the United States and the Republic of Korea, has flouted by the puppets themselves, has become completely nuclear-based, and we need to keep our military preparedness at an endlessly high level,” Kim said.

    KCNA/WaPo

    In the speech later transcribed by state-run KCNA, he emphasized that while Pyongyang has no intention of attacking South Korea, it remains that “if the enemy attempts to use force against our country” North Korea’s military will use its full force without hesitation, and this scenario “does not preclude the use of nuclear weapons.”

    Ultimately, the north has found itself in a situation of being confronted by “the world’s largest nuclear power” – he said in another reference to the United States, and his country will “not tolerate” any disruption to the military balance of power on the Korean Peninsula.

    Interestingly, during the same speech urging the strengthening of military readiness, he also sent a birthday congratulatory message Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    Kim called Putin his “closest Comrade” and hailed that “strategic and cooperative relations” with Russia are soon to be raised to a new level to work on “defending regional and global peace and international justice.”

    Meanwhile, Yonhap News Agency has issued a Tuesday report alleging that North Korea has likely begun building a new nuclear-powered submarine. This is seen as part of Kim’s broader push to put his ‘superpower’ plan into action.

    “In January, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un inspected a project to build a nuclear-powered submarine after vowing to develop such a submarine among other sophisticated weapons systems during a ruling party congress in 2021,” Yonhap notes. Theoretically such a future advanced nuclear sub could come near North American shores.

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    “Partial signs that appear to be the start of the submarine’s construction have been detected,” the South Korea’s military intelligence indicated in a report to Rep. Kang Dae-sik of the ruling People Power Party.

    “As construction is still in its early stages, further confirmation is needed on whether it is nuclear powered,” the report added by way of caveat.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 17:20

  • California Faces Wave Of Lawsuits Over Gender Identity Notification In Schools
    California Faces Wave Of Lawsuits Over Gender Identity Notification In Schools

    Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A mother’s tears of worry and frustration over her 17-year-old daughter’s secret social gender transition at school tell the story of what many parents are facing in California schools.

    “I cry every day, not only for my daughter but for the parents that are now contacting me about their kids,” one Los Angeles County mom told The Epoch Times on the condition of anonymity to protect her daughter’s identity.

    Illustration by The Epoch Times, Courtesy Thomas More Society, John Fredricks/The Epoch Times, Google Maps/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

    Under the pseudonym, Lena, she said her daughter, Hannah—also a pseudonym—suffered from gender dysphoria and was secretly socially transitioned at school.

    Lena is one of several parents representing nine families that joined a lawsuit filed by the City of Huntington Beach against state officials over a new law that bans parental notification policies, effectively prohibiting school staff from revealing social gender transitions of students to their parents without the child’s consent.

    California is the only state to enact such a law.

    Unbeknown to her parents, Hannah began secretly identifying as “trans” in 2020, when she was 13, after spending a lot of time on social media platforms.

    She was homeschooled until the ninth grade when she attended public high school and is now in her senior year.

    In 2021, as Lena was cleaning her daughter’s bedroom, she was shocked to find a sketchbook that contained Hannah’s drawings depicting self-mutilation, suicide ideation, and the bloody aftermath of gender transition surgeries.

    “I’m going through her books, and I see very disturbing pictures of her bloody body cut up, saying, ‘I need to come out. I need to pick a name, and I need to tell my parents I’m trans. I want to be on testosterone. I want top surgery,’” Lena said.

    She knew something was seriously wrong, and wanted to talk with Hannah but said it took a few weeks to find the right words and broach the sensitive subject.

    “I told her what I found and that we love her, and we don’t care what sexual orientation she is as she grows into herself, but she’s not trans,” Lena said.

    Lena told her daughter she is female down to her DNA chromosomes and that she and her husband will only call her by her birth name, she said.

    After the talk, Hannah agreed to not use the male name—only her birth name—at school, but at the end of the school year when students’ work was showcased online for parents to see, Lena noticed a male name on a biology assignment.

    A girl who socially transitioned to a male identity at school without her family’s knowledge stands in Chico, Calif., on March 12, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

    At the start of the academic year, school staff had asked Hannah for her preferred name and pronouns and began socially transitioning her to a male name and identity, Lena said.

    According to the complaint, the principal allegedly pulled Hannah aside for a meeting to tell her that school staff were not allowed to tell her parents about the social transition.

    As she entered tenth grade in 2022, teachers and administrators continued referring to Hannah by a male name, and Lena was repeatedly denied meetings with the school principal to discuss the situation, so Lena began speaking out at school board meetings. By the end of the school year, the school district agreed to inform Lena if her daughter ever resumed using a male name.

    The next year, Hannah again used a masculine name, prompting the principal to arrange a meeting with Lena. Then, after repeated communications from Lena’s attorney and a written statement signed by Hannah agreeing to use her legal name and female pronouns, the school agreed to stop calling Hannah by a male name and pronouns, Lena said.

    But Lena said she fears that once California’s Assembly Bill 1955 goes into effect in January, “it will undermine her hard-won contractual rights, her parental rights, and her ability to protect her daughter,” according to the complaint.

    “If I had known that they socially transition kids at school behind parents back, I would have never put her in public school,” Lena said. “I will never give up on her or any child. … She is my child—not the school’s, the state’s, or this country’s.”

    Hannah no longer identifies as “trans,” Lena said.

    Public Pushback

    Assembly Bill (AB) 1955, also known as the Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth (SAFETY) Act, which is set to take effect Jan. 1, 2025, bans “parental notification policies,” which have been enacted by more than a dozen California school districts.

    Assembly Bill (AB) 1955, that California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law, is set to take effect Jan. 1, 2025, effectively baning “parental notification policies.” Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

    Controversy over AB 1955 made national headlines when Elon Musk, whose son identifies as a transgender woman, called the new law “the final straw” when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law in mid-July.

    Musk vowed to move the headquarters of his companies SpaceX and social media platform X out of state to Texas.

    In the Huntington Beach and parents’ case against Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and State Superintendent of Public Schools Tony Thurmond, Lena is referred to as “1A” and Hannah is called “1C.”

    Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark told The Epoch Times the city—which declared itself a “Parents’ Right to Know” city in September—decided to sue the state to assist parents who want to overturn the state law.

    “We have no jurisdiction over schools, but we represent everyone in the City of Huntington Beach, including the parents,” Van Der Mark said. “It’s about our parental rights and the state chipping away at [them] and trying to raise our children for us.”

    Van Der Mark, elected to the city council in 2022, said defending parental rights is what led her into politics. She said parents have told her their children were exposed to material in schools that forced them to have discussions about sex and gender ideology before they were ready.

    Schools are now having these conversations with children at younger and younger ages, she said.

    “Whether it’s gender or whether it’s depression, anxiety, it is our right as parents to handle these issues, and that’s been taken from us,” Van Der Mark said.

    The state doesn’t have to like the way parents raise their children, but it’s bound by law to respect parental authority, she said.

    “To us, it’s about … protecting our children before it’s too late—before they go out and mutilate their bodies,” she said.

    Burdening teachers who don’t have counseling or psychiatric credentials with the “huge responsibility” of dealing with issues as serious as gender dysphoria also isn’t fair and puts them in a “bad situation,” Van Der Mark said.

    Huntington Beach Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark listens to residents speak during a city council meeting in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Jan. 17, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

    Proponents of AB 1955 said that notifying parents without a child’s consent is a “forced outing,” and puts children who identify as transgender at risk of abuse and suicide.

    Van Der Mark questioned the argument.

    “Who exactly do you think you’re outing them to?” she asked.

    If a boy wants to identify as a girl, changes his name and wears a dress to school, and other children tell their parents who then tell the neighbors, the only ones kept in the dark are the boy’s parents, she said.

    “You’re not really outing them to anyone, because everyone is going to know except the parents,” she said.

    The legal complaint states that according to the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, gender dysphoria is a mental health disorder, and as such, parents should be notified.

    The new state law sets no age limit on banning parental notification, so “schools cannot notify parents even if preschoolers socially transition,” the complaint states.

    The law also prevents schools from disciplining staff who initiate or facilitate social gender transitioning, “which courts have recognized is a type of medical intervention or treatment,” the lawsuit argues.

    The new state law sets no age limit, so “schools cannot notify parents even if preschoolers socially transition,” the lawsuit filed by City of Huntington Beach states. John Moore/Getty Images

    “A child with gender dysphoria often has other mental health issues. To help their child, parents need to know what is going on,” the complaint states.

    “Imagine the outrage if parents were kept in the dark about a child’s epileptic seizures at school and the treatment being provided that child by school employees for that condition.”

    State Response

    Newsom, Bonta, and Thurmond did not respond to specific requests for comment about the Huntington Beach lawsuit and other related court cases.

    “While we are unable to comment on ongoing litigation, Attorney General Bonta is committed to providing his unwavering support to ensure every student has the right to learn and thrive in a school environment that promotes safety, privacy, and inclusivity,” the attorney general’s office stated in an email to the Epoch Times.

    Bonta’s office highlighted a January legal alert issued by his office notifying education officials and institutions that “forced outing policies” violate the California Constitution and state laws prohibiting discrimination and safeguarding students’ right to privacy.

    “The SAFETY Act,” Bonta said in an emailed statement in July, “reaffirms that forced outing policies and any form of retaliation against teachers, parents, and allies who protect students against such constitutional and statutory harms are a clear violation of state law.”

    The attorney general commended the LGBTQ Caucus for prioritizing the bill “to ensure no student is ever forcibly outed against their will, especially when such disclosure could result in serious harm.”

    In July, Thurmond also celebrated the signing of AB 1955.

    “I am proud to work alongside our legislators who have courageously championed the privacy rights of our most vulnerable students, and whose partnership has helped ensure that this bill made it to the Governor’s desk for signing,” he said in a statement.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 17:00

  • Goldman Finds Inconvenient Truth About Bidenomics Just Weeks Before Presidential Election
    Goldman Finds Inconvenient Truth About Bidenomics Just Weeks Before Presidential Election

    US Vice President Kamala Harris has crisscrossed the nation, giving speeches at campaign rallies in key swing states and adjusting her accent to match each town and region. 

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    She recently proclaimed herself a “capitalist” in Pennsylvania while pushing her vision for an “opportunity economy.” However, Harris has also floated communist-style price controls to solve elevated inflation that has financially crushed low-mid-tier households sparked by her and President Biden pushing disastrous ‘Bidenomics‘ policies over the past 3.5 years.

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    On Monday night, CBS “60 Minutes” aired an interview with Harris that drilled into her economic plan to strengthen the economy. The shocking part was that she couldn’t even answer how her plan would be paid for…  The entire interview, along with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, was not optically pleasing for Democrats with the presidential election just weeks away. Watch the interview here.

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    Harris’ effort to distance herself from the failures of Bidenomics is nothing short of astonishing. 

    As Americans are plagued with backfiring Bidenomics that has sparked elevated inflation and high interest rates, she has zigzagged across the country to convince the public that doubling down on Democrats will lead them to the promised land. 

    An inconvenient truth for Harris and Democrats is a new consumer survey from Goldman, which reveals in a note to clients titled “Americas Retail: Supermarkets 3Q Consumer Survey Reveals Incremental Focus on Value,” that value-seeking behaviors dominate consumers.

    The survey included a series of questions for 2,000 consumers of various ages, incomes, education, and employment backgrounds. Most questions were tailored to preference metrics relevant to shopping at supermarkets or big-box retailers.

    One of the first key takeaways of the survey is that failed Bidenomics pushed consumers into value-seeking mode.

    Consumers were asked, ” What is the main reason for switching where you shop for groceries?” Well, they answered, “Prices.” About 52% of the respondents said price was the main reason, up from 38% in 1Q20. The four-year average stands around 43%. Notice the trend for respondents answering prices soared under Biden-Harris’ first term. 

    The survey reveals an inconvenient truth: Most respondents shop at Walmart. This wasn’t the case pre-GFC when the standard of living was much higher. Walmart used to be for bottom-of-the-barrel consumers, but not anymore. Rich and poor shop at the big box retailer. 

    Here are the top subscription-based memberships that respondents hold:

    Respondents are in hibernation mode. Bad news for restaurant stocks! 

    Elevated inflation and high interest rates keep respondents at home for their meals. 

    The main takeaway here is that struggling consumers will never forget who was in the White House that stoked the worst inflation storm in a generation. Many will be voting with their empty wallets in the coming weeks. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 16:40

  • The Opposite Of Truth Is Not Just Lies, It Is Chaos…
    The Opposite Of Truth Is Not Just Lies, It Is Chaos…

    Authored by Patricia McCarthy via AmericanThinker.com,

    “A society becomes totalitarian when its structure becomes flagrantly artificial:  that is when its ruling class has lost its function but succeeds in clinging to power by force or fraud.” 

    – George Orwell

    The Democrats have always relied on lies, especially when it comes to their campaigns for political office.  

    When Hillary Clinton was running for what she deemed her rightful place in the White House, she paid for the many, many lies that kicked off the Russia hoax and led to the endless persecution via lawfare of practically everyone in Trump’s inner circle.  

    None of them were guilty of any crimes. 

    All that Democrat malice cost taxpayers millions of dollars – the Mueller Report was the tip of their persecution iceberg.  All of their accusations were lies.   

    When Donald Trump won, the left made sure that chaos ensued.  It was a miracle that Trump accomplished all the good he did – energy independence,  tax cuts for all (not just the rich as Harris claims), the Abraham Accords, low inflation, a post-COVID recovering economy and low unemployment despite the ravages of lockdowns. 

    The Democrats regularly lie about Trump’s many achievements in an attempt to make themselves relevant.  But they are all  anti-American now, especially Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

    When Joe Biden was faux-running for the presidency from his basement, he knew the fix was in, because it was.

    The thoroughly corrupt mainstream media was delighted to use their vast reach to repeat all the lies the Democrats came up with to destroy Trump.  The 2020 election was rigged and everyone knows it, even all those media tools of the left who pretend to this day that that election was legitimate.  They love to claim that “every judge who looked at the evidence refused to take the numerous legal cases the Trump campaign filed.”  But no judge ever looked at the volumes of evidence; they all denied the cases had standing.  They were all too cowardly to actually look at the evidence available, to expose the truth. 

    The Democrats’ guilt on this score probably explains their obsession with trying to make any and all Republicans admit that Biden won fairly even though they know he did not.  

    They know the truth. Molly Ball bragged about it. They all know that Democrat lawyer Mark Elias went across the country surreptitiously changing election laws.  They know that social media magnate Mark Zuckerberg funneled $400 million into those drop boxes that were stuffed by mules with thousands of fraudulent ballots.

    They all know that on election night, Trump was so far ahead the counting of ballots was stopped for hours.

    They needed time to come up with the ballots needed to produce a Biden win. They all know this is what happened. They all lied and continue to lie.

    They lie as well about whose rhetoric has generated two assassination attempts.

    Curiously, we do not yet know nearly as much as we should about the two shooters, but every sentient person on the planet knows that the left’s language over the last nine years has been purposefully murderous; still is. 

    Still, just as they insist the 2020 election was not rigged, the wholly disingenuous George Stephanopoulos still tries to make Trump supporters responsible for the attempts on his life.  You cannot call the man “Hitler,” call for his “elimination,” his “extermination,” etc. and not expect a few mentally ill persons to react as if ordered to kill. 

    These people are shameless.

    So now, after nearly four years of the worst, most disastrous administration in our nation’s  history by every metric, Kamala Harris is trying to become president based on the lie that she has a record worth touting.  She does not.  She was appointed Biden’s “border czar” about which she did exactly nothing; other than a stopover in El Paso, she only visited the actual border for the first time a week or so ago for twenty minutes, wearing her $62,000 Tiffany necklace!  

    She was tasked with spending $42 billion to bring broadband to rural regions. She didn’t. Where is that money? Adding insult to injury, FEMA has been turned into a DEI experiment with predictable results.   Mayorkas has stated that millions of dollars of FEMA funds and resources have been spent on migrants, and the agency is essentially broke! 

    The hurricane victims are simply out of luck despite the lies that White House spokesperson, Karine Jean Pierre, tells to the contrary.  Most people will believe the hundreds of clips of victims telling the truth.  FEMA is AWOL.  It seems that this administration has been using FEMA money, $1b of it, to care for the millions of illegal migrants the Biden/Harris administration has ushered into the country.  Their horrific, seemingly purposeful but surely negligent response to the devastation throughout the southeast wrought by Hurricane Helene is more proof of their utter failure to do right by Americans. 

    While the empty-headed newsreaders on the Sunday news shows claim that any tales of FEMA not being present and providing needed help are untrue, the folks on the ground tell of FEMA confiscating donations, of threatening to arrest citizens offering help, etc., their stories are clearly and sadly true. 

    These victims who have lost everything are being helped by civilian volunteers for water, food and escape, not FEMA. The Biden/Harris administration is slow-walking badly needed help to those victims who have lost everything.  Kamala offered them a measly $750 while sending $157 million to Lebanon for food, water, and shelter.  She is on record saying that disaster relief should be based on equity.  KJP failed miserably to explain this away. 

    What’s wrong with this picture?  Everything.  Absolutely everything.  We have a government that cares nothing for its own citizens but reveres illegal migrants and the citizens of other nations.  We have an administration that lies constantly to make itself look good and at the same time do as much damage to the Trump campaign as possible. 

    In her 60 Minutes interview, for which she almost certainly had the questions ahead of time, Kamala Harris lied over and over and over again, especially about her border policy.  The day Biden/Harris took office, they opened the border to all comers without vetting.  Hundreds of thousands of them have been unaccompanied children, over 300,000 of whom have gone missing, sold off to traffickers and/or NGOs who place them who-knows-where. 

    Now Harris says the border has been “tightened.”  Maybe, because they are now flying them directly from foreign countries to the cities throughout the nation. They are skipping over the border but still accommodating them in huge numbers.  The same goes for the fentanyl that has poured into the country on their watch.  They’ve not only let it happen, they’ve allowed it, encouraged it.  Any protestations to the contrary are … lies.  So, again, massive chaos reigns.

    Meanwhile, rumor has it Kamala travels the country for rallies but has to bring busses full of thousands of paid “supporters” with her.  She cannot bring out the crowds Trump does, so it’s not even close. 

    She can’t speak without every word being scripted for her to read. Her answers in any of the few interviews she has granted to friendly hosts are word salads, unintelligible gibberish without an answer to the question posed. Her VP pick is a disaster of untold proportions, a pathological liar who idolizes communist China.  Not sure there is a name for what ails him, but it is serious.  In his short appearance on Sunday with Fox News’s Shannon Bream, he continued to lie about Trump’s abortion stance and about Minnesota abortion law. 

    Bottom line? The Democrats rely on lies. The Harris/Walz campaign relies on lies. And what do we have? Total, disastrous, murderous chaos. Chaos is what the left thrives on – it’s the basis of the Cloward-Piven strategy.  They’ve been trying to implement it for decades.  

    Thanks to this administration, our nation is fast becoming totalitarian, controlled by the censorship the Democrats hope to further implement. 

    Here is Hillary the other day: 

    “But we now know that … if the platforms, whether it’s Facebook or Twitter/X or Instagram or TikTok, whatever they are, if they don’t moderate and monitor the content, we (Democrats)  lose total control,”  but “Free speech is my right to say what you don’t want to hear.”  

    Orwell. 

    The Harris/Walz ticket must be defeated if America is to prevail.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 16:20

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Oct 08

Today’s News 8th October 2024

  • Slovak PM Robert Fico Opposes Ukraine's NATO Membership, Warns Against 'Russophobia'
    Slovak PM Robert Fico Opposes Ukraine’s NATO Membership, Warns Against ‘Russophobia’

    Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

    Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has reaffirmed his opposition to Ukraine’s potential NATO membership, warning that such a move could lead to broader conflict.

    In an interview with STVR on Sunday, Fico claimed that the ongoing war in Ukraine is being prolonged by Western support with the goal of “bringing the Russians to their knees,” a position he believes is futile.

    “There is a military conflict going on in a country that is Slovakia’s neighbor, where Slavs are really being killed and where Europe is significantly supporting this killing,” Fico said, as cited by the Pravda news outlet.

    He emphasized that the conflict cannot be resolved militarily and warned against further Western involvement in Ukraine.

    While he expressed support for Ukraine’s eventual membership in the European Union, the Slovak leader clarified that NATO membership is a step too far.

    “As long as I am the prime minister of the Slovak Republic, as long as I lead the deputies, whom I, as the party chairman, have under political control, I will never agree to Ukraine’s membership in NATO,” he declared.

    Fico further cautioned that Ukraine joining NATO could pave the way for a “third world war.”

    Fico also used the interview to criticize what he described as “Russophobia” in Western discourse, reminding listeners that “Freedom came to Slovakia from the east,” in reference to the Soviet Union’s contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany.

    He announced his intention to visit Moscow next year on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II to honor Russia’s role in liberating Slovakia despite the current geopolitical landscape.

    “Let’s not automatically assume that when we speak positively about the Red Army or the former Soviet Union, we are agents of Putin,” Fico stressed, urging for more balanced views on Russia and its historical role.

    Fico reaffirmed Slovakia’s commitment to meeting its NATO obligations by spending 2 percent of GDP on defense. However, he voiced opposition to further increases in defense spending, proposing instead that part of these funds be allocated to civilian projects, such as building a hospital in Prešov and reconstructing infrastructure.

    “The Ministry of Defense is ready to provide an additional €300 million for objectives that are on the one hand military, but at the same time can serve civilian purposes well,” Fico said, outlining his vision for a balanced approach to national defense and public investment.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/08/2024 – 02:00

  • Hong Kong Crashes As China's Stimulus Frenzy Ends With A Bang
    Hong Kong Crashes As China’s Stimulus Frenzy Ends With A Bang

    There is some good news and some bad news for China bulls this morning (local time).

    First the good news: since mainland China (aka A-shares) were closed for the past week, mainland Indexes such as the Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 are up – just barely – because after opening up almost 11% to catch up with the frenzied rally in offshore markets and ETFs, the index has erased almost all gains since it closed for trading on Sept 30.

    For the real action, one has to go to neighboring Hong Kong, which was open while China was closed, and which proceeded to soar as much as 30% since the China stimulus bazooka was fired on Sept 23 (just two days after we said it would be). It’s also were the bad news is because one look at what the local Hang Seng China Enterprises Index is doing, and HK longs will want to throw up: as shown below, not only are HK stocks down as much as 11% after the open, but they have somehow managed to wipe out almost half the gains since the bazooka was launched in less than two hours!

    What sparked this liquidation? Well, yesterday China unveiled yet another “emergency” stimulus meeting, this time held by the National Development and Reform Commission (i.e., China’s central planning bureau). Expectations were high that just like the emergency Sept 26 Politburo meeting which was led by president Xi himself, today China would unveil even more sweet, sweet stimmies.

    Alas it was not meant to be, and the press conference led by Zheng Shanjie, chairman of China’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission was an epic dud: in it, Shanjie said that while external risks and downward economic pressures were increasing, they remained confident of achieving the full-year GDP growth target. He said new policy measures will focus on expanding domestic demand, increasing support and the property and capital markets.

    In short, nothing new, and certainly nothing even remotely close to the Rmb 10 trillion in fiscal stimmies that many were expecting. As UBS writes, “the NDRC press conference has released no details on fiscal stimulus so far, with the Q&A session ongoing. Zheng Shanjie along with deputy heads Liu Sushe, Zhao Chenxin, Li Chunlin and Zheng Bei, were widely expected to announce an action plan at the press conference. As a result, USDCNH is coming up, while iron ore and copper are declining. Shenzhen’s ChiNext has narrowed gains to 13% from more than 18% earlier as China returned from the Golden Week holiday.“

    What is the take home message here? First, that Jim Cramer was – as usual – a fade.

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    The second, and far more important message, is that the half life of Beijing’s latest attempt to goose markets, at just around 10 days is the shortest of all…

    … and it means that with the market having called Beijing’s bluff, Xi has two options:

    • Do another half-assed attempt to stimulate the economy with the very limited measures already unveiled, which he knows – and more importantly the market knows – will achieve nothing, and spark another market crash and economic meltdown, or
    • Do what Goldman trader Borislav Vladimirov laid out yesterday, when he said that China Must Do QE Now, “Or It Will End Up In A Bigger Hole In 12 Months.”

    And since for Xi the time for half-measures is now over, especially if he wants to avoid a deflationary spiral, social insurrection and political mutiny, this only leaves one option open: the truly nuclear one. The only question is when, because while the market may have peaked at +30% the first time China tried to goose markets, the next time we are talking triple digits, not to mention $3K gold and $100K+ bitcoin.

     

     

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 23:28

  • Where Is America's Co-President, Dr. Jill?
    Where Is America’s Co-President, Dr. Jill?

    Authored by Richard Truesdell and Keith Lehmann via American Greatness,

    By inserting herself on the world stage in the political arena, Jill Biden is fair game for criticism about her unelected influence over U.S. policy and her role in the cover-up of the century.

    Public officials, both elected and unelected, curiously are rarely held accountable for their actions, as are the rest of us. Harvey Weinstein goes to prison, while Bill Clinton goes on his merry way. That’s just one example of many, yet the lack of accountability has gotten to the point of absurdity. And now we have deceit that has massive consequences for everyone.

    Since January 2021, when he took office until his forced departure from the 2024 race on July 21 after his disastrous debate performance on June 27, the aggressively stage-managed presidency of Joe Biden has been exposed as a fraud. This elderly man with failing physical and mental facilities has been foisted upon America as the purported “leader of the free world” who is “fit to serve,” is “sharp as a tack,” and “runs circles around those half his age.”

    As we now know, Biden was nowhere near the “unrivaled statesman” who was in “command of the facts” and “performed masterfully” at important cabinet meetings and international summits. This is what was being hidden from the public for nearly three years by the U.S. government, its enablers in the legacy media, Biden’s inner circle of advisors, and most vigorously of all by the nation’s First Lady Jill Biden.

    Long claiming to be her husband’s fiercest advocate, Jill Biden had the opportunity and influence to assume the role of a caring wife and confidant to Joe, making sure his health would not worsen given the extreme demands of the American presidency. Jill could have also shown the world what a dedicated spouse looks like, how a devoted wife and mother shows strength and resilience in troubling times as her husband’s age-related condition becomes visible to the world, and how we should treat our elderly loved ones with respect and dignity.

    This awful and truly evil person, however, has put on a disgraceful display of naked conceit and unchecked personal entitlement throughout Joe Biden’s entire presidential term. As Joe’s condition worsened, Jill’s shameless quest to be in charge of the Biden White House exposed her as an opportunistic parasite who routinely lied to the country about the real state of Joe’s infirmity while she lived the high life on the taxpayer’s dime.

    Insisting that she be referred to as “Dr. Biden,” an honorific issued from her 2007 Ed.D doctorate in education she received from the University of Delaware, a school conveniently located in the state where Joe Biden was currently a five-time-elected Senator, Jill has displayed a notable eagerness to supplant Joe as the public face of his administration. One of the most notorious examples is the picture she posted on social media in 2021, showing her pouring over paperwork on Air Force One with the caption “Prepping for the G7.” Supposedly she thought the public would be delighted to know that an unelected community college teacher would be discussing international affairs with elected world leaders.

    Jill Biden repeatedly made speeches and appearances at numerous functions in place of her husband, the president of the United States, inserting herself as a proxy president and speaking on behalf of America’s commander-in-chief. This was not only inappropriate and deceptive, but it was also an important element of the massive cover-up of Joe’s rapidly deteriorating mental and physical health, a conspiracy that included his vice president, the anointed replacement for Joe once it was apparent he couldn’t win in November. This is in addition to other members of his cabinet who should have invoked the 25th Amendment to move him out the door years ago. This is in addition to other Democrat power brokers like Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and so many others who perpetuated this hoax on all Americans, Democrats, Independents, and Republicans alike.

    At an event celebrating Pride Month, Jill Biden was featured in an official White House video saying, “Looking out at all of you, I see America. I hope that all of you feel that freedom and love on the South Lawn today because your home is here.” Not seen on that video or the South Lawn that day? The elected president of the United States.

    It has been noted that Jill Biden pushed for the appointment of Kimberly Cheatle as director of the Secret Service, who resigned in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. How many other appointees in Biden’s administration carry Jill Biden’s fingerprints?

    It is telling of the ruthless nature of Dr. Jill Biden and her stubborn pursuit to hold onto the perks and privileges of power while maintaining the illusion that her husband had the facilities to serve as president. The term “elder abuse” does not define what we have seen here; this is a person who has an iron grip on a privileged lifestyle and will do anything, including the humiliating parading of her failing husband in front of the world, to keep living the taxpayer-funded luxury life of which she always dreamed.

    Nobody is fooled here. Jill has succumbed to a sort of main-character syndrome, similar to that of former First Lady Hillary Clinton, assuming that the public wants “two for the price of one.” Jill will learn the hard way that a presidential spouse’s aggrandizing power is not something the country finds appropriate. She is held in contempt by most Americans who haven’t drunk the Orange Man Bad flavor of Kool-Aid sold by the Democrat Party since 2015.

    Jill participated in the elaborate lie that Joe was fit to serve as president. In fact, she was arguably the most guilty of committing fraud against the public. As Axios reported, Jill Biden “created a cocoon” around the president “that initially seemed earnestly protective but now appears potentially deceptive.” This inner praetorian guard helped to “make up for mental lapses, including prompting him to remember people he has known for a long time.”

    Joe Biden was never a good man, a good husband, a good father, or a good leader. His public and private life is rife with failure, mediocrity, and abject disaster, and he will likely go down in history as our nation’s worst president. But even Joe deserves to be treated with human dignity in his final days. As a man facing irreversible debilitation, he should be in a comfortable, loving, safe environment and not paraded in front of the world—stumbling, slurring, shouting, staring, forgetting, whispering, and uncontrollably soiling himself—all so that his narcissistic, opportunistic, greaseball wife can pretend to be important while flying around the world on Air Force One.

    As the Biden presidency was in its dying days last month, we witnessed the spectacle of Dr. Jill presiding over the president’s first full cabinet meeting in nearly a year. If his cabinet cared about the country and their constitutional responsibilities, one or all of these sycophants should have stood up, invoked the 25th Amendment for the purpose it was intended, and removed Joe and Jill Biden from their sham presidency.

    Dr. Jill Biden is a power-craving status addict. Her role in the purposeful cover-up of Joe Biden’s failing health has consequences for the nation and should never be forgiven nor forgotten.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 23:25

  • Largest Crude Transhipment Hub In Crimea On Fire After Ukraine Drone Attack
    Largest Crude Transhipment Hub In Crimea On Fire After Ukraine Drone Attack

    Ukraine says it successfully hit a major oil terminal in Crimea in an overnight drone and missile operation. The impacted oil terminal is in Feodosia, on the south coast of the Crimean peninsula, and is believed to be a key Russian military supply hub. It is also the biggest petroleum transhipment hub in the region.

    “At night, a successful strike was carried out on the enemy’s offshore oil terminal in temporarily occupied Feodosia, Crimea,” the Ukrainian military announced Monday.

    Fire at an oil depot in Feodosia, Crimea. Via Reuters

    It further described the strike on the key facility as part of an ongoing effort to “undermine the military and economic potential of the Russian Federation.”

    On the Crimean side, the following was confirmed:

    Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said a fire had broken out at an oil facility in the Black Sea port town of some 70,000 people and that there were no casualties.

    The defense ministry said that 12 Ukrainian attack drones had been downed over the peninsula overnight, out of a total of 21 deployed by Kyiv against Russian targets.

    RT News also confirmed the major oil hub is on fire. Such attacks on vital energy infrastructure have proven hard for Russia to defend against, as they’ve come at a fast pace, but this still hasn’t changed the state of the front lines in Eastern Ukraine, where Kiev forces are being steadily pushed back.

    Via Telegram

    A Ukrainian media report has described of videos from the scene, “More night videos from Feodosia. It is clearly visible that at least three tanks are on fire.” And related to more footage: “Later, a morning video was posted on the Telegram channel, where plumes of smoke can be seen over Feodosia.”

    Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in a new interview with Newsweek took the opportunity to warn the West yet again that it is playing with fire in mulling giving Kiev the greenlight for long-range strikes on Russian territory.

    Purported overnight video within hours after the attack on Feodosia on the Crimean coast:

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    “They are discussing authorizing the AFU [Armed Forces of Ukraine] to use Western long-range missiles to strike deep into Russian territory. ‘Playing with fire’ in this way may lead to dangerous consequences,” the top diplomat said.

    “As stated by [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin, we will take adequate decisions based on our understanding of the threats posed by the West. It is up to you to make conclusions,” Lavrov emphasized.

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    President Zelensky had pitched this long-range capability as part of his ‘victory plan’ in Washington recently, but it has become clear even to the US administration that Ukraine is not going to win Eastern Ukraine back.

    By many accounts Zelensky was subject to an icier reception on Capitol Hill compared to past visits. But Biden has still been more than willing to shovel billions in taxpayer funds out the door into Kiev’s coffers. Vice President Harris is vowing to continue doing the same if she’s elected.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 23:00

  • California Reports 3rd Possible Case Of Human Bird Flu
    California Reports 3rd Possible Case Of Human Bird Flu

    Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

    California officials are investigating a potential third case of bird flu in humans, with the individual likely getting infected from cows, according to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).

    CDPH confirmed the first two human cases of bird flu in California on Oct. 3. while the third possible case was revealed in an Oct. 5 update.

    “The case was identified in a Central Valley individual who had contact with infected dairy cattle,” CDPH said in the update. “Specimens are being sent to the CDC to undergo confirmatory testing.”

    There is “no known link or contact” between the third case and the first two reported cases, it noted. This suggests “only animal-to-human spread of the virus in California,” it said.

    The two confirmed cases were also in Central Valley, with all three individuals having had contact with dairy cattle at three different farms.

    “Like the first two cases, this individual also experienced mild symptoms, including eye redness or discharge (conjunctivitis). None of the individuals have been hospitalized,” the department said.

    CDPH assessed that the risk of bird flu infecting the general public was low. People who interact with affected animals, such as workers at poultry or dairy farms, are at a higher risk of contracting bird flu, it said.

    The agency advised such individuals to use personal protective equipment such as respirators, gloves, and eye protection when working with animals that are infected or have potentially contracted the virus.

    Although milk from sick cows is not permitted in the public supply according to state and federal regulations, milk and dairy products that are pasteurized are safe to consume, as the process inactivates the virus, the CDPH said.

    According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, bird flu in cows was detected for the first time in the United States this year.

    The virus is widespread among wild birds and has been responsible for outbreaks among poultry in the country since 2022.

    In total, 17 human cases have been reported so far this year, as of Oct. 3, in five states—Texas, Michigan, Colorado, Missouri, and California.

    Six of these cases were linked to exposure to infected or sick dairy cows, while nine were due to exposure to infected poultry. Colorado registered the highest number of cases, at 10.

    Bird Flu in the United States

    The first multistate outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows was reported in late March. A few days later, the CDC confirmed a bird flu infection in an individual from Texas who was exposed to these animals.

    By Oct. 1, more than 10,000 wild birds with bird flu were identified. More than 100 million poultry birds across 48 states have been affected. As of Oct. 4, outbreaks in dairy cows have been reported across 14 states, with 255 herds impacted.

    The CDPH advises people exposed to infected animals to monitor themselves for the following symptoms for 10 days after last exposure—eye redness (conjunctivitis), cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, diarrhea, vomiting, muscle or body aches, headaches, fatigue, ​​trouble breathing, and fever.

    “If they start to feel sick, they should immediately isolate, notify their local public health department, and work with public health and health care providers to get timely testing and treatment,” the CDPH said.

    A person holds a test tube labeled ‘Bird Flu,’ on Jan. 14, 2023. Dado Ruvic/Reuters

    On Friday, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response’s Center for Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority announced it was providing roughly $72 million to three companies to boost the manufacture of bird flu vaccines as part of national preparedness.

    The funds are being provided to CSL Seqirus, Sanofi, and GSK. These firms will “fill and finish additional doses of their influenza A(H5) vaccines from bulk storage into ready-to-use vials or pre-filled syringes so that vaccine[s] will be ready to distribute if needed.”

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has scheduled an Oct. 10 meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee to discuss preparedness for countering threats posed by the bird flu virus.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 22:35

  • Georgia Supreme Court Reinstates State's Abortion Law
    Georgia Supreme Court Reinstates State’s Abortion Law

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

    A judge’s ruling striking down Georgia’s abortion ban was stayed on Oct. 7 by the Georgia Supreme Court.

    The stay means the ban on abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected will go back into effect as the case proceeds.

    The Nathan Deal Judicial Center, home of Georgia’s Supreme Court and Court of Appeals in Atlanta on May, 1, 2024. Kate Brumback/AP Photo

    Six justices granted a request by Georgia officials to reinstate the law after a county judge on Sept. 30 concluded that the law violates the right of women in the state to have an abortion.

    Georgia’s Constitution gives residents liberty, and that liberty includes the right of women to “control what happens to and within her body,” Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said in his ruling.

    In a one-page order from the Georgia Supreme Court, a majority of justices said they were staying McBurney’s ruling as of 5 p.m. on Oct. 7. The majority did not explain their reasoning.

    The law states that abortion is not authorized if the heartbeat of an unborn child has been detected. Exceptions include cases where doctors determine a medical emergency exists and, in some instances, incest or rape.

    The Georgia Supreme Court order does not impact the block of a provision that would provide abortion-related health records to district attorneys.

    According to the high court, Justice Nels S.D. Peterson was disqualified from considering the state’s emergency request to intervene, and Justice Andrew A. Pinson did not participate.

    In an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, Justice John J. Ellington said the state had not provided sufficient arguments to prompt a stay, particularly in light of how groups suing over the law met the burden of establishing that the law violates Georgia’s Constitution.

    “Fundamentally, the state should not be in the business of enforcing laws that have been determined to violate fundamental rights guaranteed to millions of individuals under the Georgia Constitution,” he wrote. “The ’status quo’ that should be maintained is the state of the law before the challenged laws took effect. Accordingly, I dissent.”

    Ellington concurred only with the choice not to reinstate the provision concerning health records.

    Justices Michael P. Boggs, Sarah Hawkins Warren, Charles J. Bethel, Carla Wong McMillian, Shawn Lagrua, and Verda M. Colvin formed the majority.

    The stay is in place as the state lodges an appeal, which will be heard in due course. The stay could become permanent or ultimately be withdrawn.

    The abortion bill was approved by the Georgia Legislature in 2019 and the law took effect in 2020.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 22:10

  • Iran Earthquake Sparks Speculation, Rumors Of Covert Nuclear Weapons Test
    Iran Earthquake Sparks Speculation, Rumors Of Covert Nuclear Weapons Test

    Via The Cradle

    On Saturday a 4.5-magnitude seismic event occurred in Iran’s Semnan province, sparking speculation that Iran has tested a nuclear weapon for the first time. Such a seismic event is typically the result of an earthquake, but speculation has arisen on social media suggesting the event was instead an underground nuclear test carried out by the Islamic Republic in response to Israeli threats to bomb Tehran’s nuclear energy and oil facilities.  

    According to Iranian sources speaking with The Cradle, the possibility that a nuclear test was indeed conducted is being discussed at high levels in Iran. Syrian sources speaking with The Cradle in September predicted that Iran would seek to develop breakout nuclear weapons capability in response to Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

    Iran launched at least 180 ballistic missiles at Israel, causing damage to three airbases on October 1, following Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforushan on September 27. Iran is now awaiting a possible Israeli response.

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    The speculation that Iran carried out a nuclear test comes just days after the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank in the US, published a report stating that “Iran can produce nuclear weapons far more rapidly than expected.”

    Published on October 1st, the report noted that in late April 2024, a senior Iranian lawmaker stated that there is only a “one-week gap from the issuance of the order to the first test” of a nuclear bomb.

    In May, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Iran may be forced to change its nuclear doctrine, which until now has called only for using nuclear technology for civilian purposes. “We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb, but should Iran’s existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine,” Kamal Kharrazi stated.

    The Heritage Foundation report added that in July, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken seemed to corroborate this claim when he stated that “instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, [Iran] is now probably one or two weeks away.”

    The statements accompanied a significant increase in Iran’s stockpile of Uranium enriched to the 60 percent level between May and August 2024, according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

    Notably, Uranium that is enriched up to 60 percent purity is just a short, technical step away from the 90 percent required for nuclear weapons, the report added.

    The Foundation for Defense of Democracy (FDD), an Israeli-linked think tank based in Washington, DC, issued a report in 2019 claiming that Iran had begun a program to build underground nuclear test sites starting in the 2000s known as “Project Midan.”

    The FDD stated, “Using openly available, corroborating geospatial information, we have identified the likely location (in an area southeast of Semnan) where underground non-nuclear explosives tests were conducted in 2003 as part of developing seismic methods of measuring the yield of an underground nuclear explosive.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 21:45

  • South Georgia City "Consistently Altered" Its Speeding Tickets To Skirt State Revenue Laws
    South Georgia City “Consistently Altered” Its Speeding Tickets To Skirt State Revenue Laws

    As if the implementation of traffic cameras, EZ Pass scanners and ‘smart’ cars which can pinpoint your exact location at any given time wasn’t enough for big brother to have the edge, one town in South Georgia decided to go ‘old school’ and simply lie about tickets it handed out.

    The Georgia Department of Public Safety suspended the city of Lenox’s speed detection permits for 180 days in July. Located on I-75, about three hours south of Atlanta, Lenox altered speeding citations to “unsafe driving,” skirting a state law capping revenue from speeding fines at 35% of a police budget.

    An audit revealed nearly 40% of Lenox’s budget came from these fines last year.

    An investigation found that the city “consistently altered” tickets that “had the effect of excluding the fines and forfeitures for citations issued for speeding”, according to a report from Atlanta News First.

    DPS Commissioner Col. William Hitchens stated that while Lenox has been altering tickets for years, it only surpassed the 35% revenue cap in 2023. An audit revealed the city initially reported $477,685 from speeding fines, but after adjusting for altered citations, the total rose to $514,456—a $36,771 difference.

    The Atlanta News First report says that Lenox relied on police-generated revenue more than any other city in Georgia, collecting $1.3 million—73% of its budget—from fines and forfeitures in 2022.

    Neither Mayor Henry Baker nor Police Chief Shane Daughtrey responded to requests for comment. During a DPS hearing, Daughtrey apologized, calling the issue an “honest mistake.” Investigators disputed this, noting 85% of the police budget came from fines and that nearly all speeding tickets were issued on I-75, not city streets.

    The DPS investigator said: “That tells me there’s not a whole lot of enforcement going on other than the interstate.”

    Charlie Johnson, who was ticketed by Lenox Police, commented: “It’s an abuse of power. I felt very abused, taken advantage of.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 21:20

  • Vance Made The Case For Erudition
    Vance Made The Case For Erudition

    Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The day before the Vance/Walz vice presidential debate, I was having lunch with a gentleman with an old-world education, certainly of the highest levels, but just Brooklyn public schools in the old days. He is not a credentialed intellectual in any official sense but it was fascinating to hear him speak about almost anything, even when we disagreed.

    Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) participates in a debate at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City on Oct. 1, 2024. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    He mentioned in passing that he can hardly have a conversation with anyone under 40 these days. This is not because they are stupid or inexperienced. It is because they do not speak properly. They cannot seem to form sentences coherently. They are not adept at normal communication. The language they speak is not anything like standard English and neither is it some charming slang.

    The new language is something else, born of purely oral transmission and heavily informed by influencer culture and podcasting. Buzzwords are thrown around everywhere as a replacement for actual language. The vocabulary is small, including the incessant use of “literally,” “so,” “annoying,” and “actually.”

    There are repeated words that grate on one’s nerves: “go” instead of said or did, “you know” and “know what I’m saying?” as a random filler, ending most sentences with “right?” plus the worst offender: the incessant deployment of the word “like,” often every 4 or 5 words.

    This prattle is embedded in a lyrical formulation that includes three crucial elements: nasal sonorities, raising intonation, followed by an ending vocal fry. Every bit of combination conveys an attitude of “nothing matters,” “I don’t care,” and “to make sure you don’t criticize me, I’m making sure that my words mean as little as possible.”

    Yes, I’ve noticed all this, and it is getting worse. English is being replaced by something else entirely. Sitting on a train a few weeks ago, I had people in front, behind, and to the side who were all deploying this strange language. They spoke incessantly the entire trip, and said nothing at all of any meaning.

    I simply cannot understand why this is happening. It strikes me as highly dangerous for a culture to lose its language and have it replaced by a series of pidgin utterances that are vague, strange, and largely without content.

    What proved so striking about JD Vance’s performance in the debate was the full rejection of this entire way of speaking. Even apart from his content, logic, and command of facts was the erudition itself. That’s what commanded the evening. It caused his points to soar above his opponent and also the hectoring moderators who were reading from scripts.

    I hope millions of young people listened in but they should recognize something here. He won the evening not only because of the points he had to make. He won because of the clear way that he made them. Even now, and probably especially now, erudition inspires trust and credibility.

    Even as the debate opened, Vance’s opponent punctuated his stream of filler with various sounds of uhhh, which already prepared the listener to disregard the rest.

    As Vance took his turn, we got clear English with no filler words or verbal tics at all. His elocution and vocabulary were such a relief! It served as a reminder of they way Americans used to speak before the digital age.

    Most times, it is not obvious what distinguishes a compelling answer from one that is not. We tend to think it is about facts or charm or some attitude of joy. It is not. All those evaporate when countered with a clean and meaningful presentation of ideas, with sentences that start and stop with an intuitive cadence and no superfluous extras thrown in to distract.

    Here is a secret you will never learn in school and no one will tell you: this kind of erudition is vital and essential to success in absolutely everything. It does not matter your profession or area of specialization. Those who can speak clearly and without fluff will be more successful than those who cannot.

    It’s not obvious that the under 40 set that speaks the language we might call “influencer” understands that the habitual gibberish that has replaced English is professionally disastrous for them. Absolutely no one really wants to hear it. It’s awful and once you really take note of the mechanics of this language, the words themselves become sources of grave irritation.

    Maybe this is why noise-canceling earbuds have become so popular!

    Even now, nothing replaces coherent and cohesive language and vibrant and confident elocution.

    At some point in the past, I had somehow picked up the “like” virus. When I realized it was happening, I simply worked on deleting it from my conversations. When I said it, I would give myself a mental pinch. It worked. By day’s end, it was gone. Even now, I do have to concentrate a bit to keep it out of conversation. When you are speaking with someone who deploys it constantly, it can creep into your own language when you do not realize it.

    The same strategy can be used for the other problematic tics that festoon contemporary language. Carving them away is like making a sculpture: leave only what matters and then you are in a better position to evaluate the quality of what you are saying. I personally still have a problem with saying “you know” too often, a habit I picked up from a British friend many years ago. It’s a constant struggle to purge it, and when I fail to be conscious of the problem it comes back.

    Beyond culling the gibberish, what else can you do?

    First, before you speak in answer to any question, simply take a second or two to think about your first word. Make it matter. If you do this, you can stop with the habit of always saying “well” and “so” in front of every sentence (in fact, Vance himself could work on this). Pausing briefly also leaves a bit of space in the audible environment that directs more attention to what you are about to say.

    Second, read more. And here I do not mean captions on TikTok videos. I mean actual books. Some of my favorite stylists in American English are H.L. Mencken, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Garet Garrett, and Albert Jay Nock. You don’t need to be super fussy about this, the Harry Potter books are fantastic for young people and adults too. And try to read them out loud so that you hear new words and expand your vocabulary.

    Third, try some exercises. Go to the park or the store or just take a walk, come home, and stand in front of the mirror and describe what you did, what you found, and offer an opinion. Consider videotaping yourself while you are speaking with a conscious effort toward erudition. Watch it back and critique it again.

    If you do these three things, you will discover that you can upgrade your language skills in a matter of days. Constant practice will give you a huge advantage over all your peers. Clear speaking is compelling in all times but especially now because it is so rare.

    Laura Ingraham said of Vance’s performance that it was the finest she had seen of any political candidate in the 18 years she had covered politics. There are many reasons but the least understood and the most important one is that he speaks plainly, cleanly, coherently, and cohesively. As should we all.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 20:55

  • Supreme Court Rejects Musk's Case Against Jack Smith Over Trump's Twitter Records
    Supreme Court Rejects Musk’s Case Against Jack Smith Over Trump’s Twitter Records

    Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a challenge filed by Elon Musk’s X platform to rulings that forced it to turn over data on former President Donald Trump’s X account to special counsel Jack Smith.

    In 2023, Smith obtained a warrant for Trump’s Twitter account as part of federal prosecutors’ 2020 election case against the former president. Trump had frequently used the account during the 2016 presidential campaign and during his first administration.

    The high court on Monday rendered its decision without any comment. There were no noted dissents.

    The Musk-owned platform had initially refused to comply with a nondisclosure order and was fined $350,000 by a judge in August 2023, records show. At the time, the court had rejected X’s claim that it should not have been held in contempt or sanctioned.

    Smith’s team repeatedly mentioned Trump’s posts on Twitter in the first indictment, which was unsealed last year. A revised indictment was brought against Trump by Smith in September after the Supreme Court separately ruled in July that presidents should be declared broadly immune from prosecution for their official acts and duties. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all the charges in the case.

    Prosecutors obtained the search warrant on Jan. 17, 2023, directing Twitter to produce information on Trump’s account after a court “found probable cause to search the account for evidence of criminal offenses,” according to last year’s court ruling. The government also obtained a nondisclosure agreement that had prohibited Twitter from disclosing the search warrant, the filing says.

    In its appeal to the Supreme Court in May, X argued that Smith’s team carried out an “unprecedented end-run around executive privilege” by obtaining a “nondisclosure order preventing Twitter from notifying former President Trump of a warrant for private communications that he sent and received during his presidency.”

    “Although Twitter had provided these communications to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the government informed Twitter and the district court that it ‘did not want to obtain data from NARA, as it would require notification [to the former President] pursuant to the Presidential Records Act,’” the petition said.

    In trying to bolster its case before the Supreme Court, X had said its petition was designed to allow the court to uphold the First Amendment.

    “The potential consequences are far-reaching,” the company said.

    “Twitter alone annually receives thousands of nondisclosure orders attached to demands for user information. Indeed, the D.C. Circuit agreed that this issue is likely to recur for Twitter. Other platforms, too, receive thousands of requests for user information—many with nondisclosure orders.”

    Lawyers for Smith’s team dismissed X’s arguments, telling the Supreme Court that the social media platform cannot assert any privilege over the records in question.

    “The First Amendment did not justify petitioner’s refusal to comply” with the special counsel’s warrant “before litigating its separate challenge to the nondisclosure order,” the government wrote, adding that X is trying to assert a “right to immediate resolution of its First Amendment claim to interests.”

    Arguing that the Fourth Amendment allows the government to get a warrant to “search property belonging to an innocent third party,” Smith’s office suggested that the warrant for X “is supported by probable cause that ‘evidence of a crime will be found.’”

    Meanwhile, Smith last week filed a 165-page brief that included what prosecutors say is evidence that proves Trump committed crimes and tried to illegally overturn the 2020 election. Trump’s lawyers had argued that the Smith filing at this time would be tantamount to election interference due to its close proximity to the 2024 election, which a federal judge ultimately rejected.

    Monday is the Supreme Court’s first day back from its summer break. The nine justices are now scheduled to hear major cases from now until around June 2025.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 20:05

  • Putin Halts Visits To His Sochi Residence, Fearing Drone Attacks: Report
    Putin Halts Visits To His Sochi Residence, Fearing Drone Attacks: Report

    The anti-Kremlin Russian-language investigative news website Proekt has issued a fresh report which found that President Vladimir Putin has stopped visiting his residence in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi over fears for his safety, given the uptick in drone attacks from Ukraine which have targeted the region.

    The Bocharov Ruchey state dacha is one of four main residences believed assigned to Putin. Constructed in 1934, and heavily remodeled in 1955, it was long a preferred vacation spot of Soviet leaders.

    Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin during a meeting in Sochi, Russia, in 2023.

    It was last renovated for the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and Putin has sometimes received foreign heads of state there, akin to how the US president uses Camp David. For example, President George W. Bush met with Putin at the Bocharov Ruchey in 2008.

    Proekt’s investigators say that Putin’s use of the residence is at a record low for this year, after he “felt a threat to his physical safety” – especially in the wake of several drone attacks on Sochi from Ukraine in the fall of 2023.

    The Amsterdam-based Moscow Times has written based on the Russian report, “Putin has been spending at least 30 days per year at the Bocharov Ruchey residence since it was renovated for the 2014 Sochi Olympics and likely stayed there throughout the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

    But there’s also the possibility that he’s been avoiding the Sochi location due to new major construction at the complext: “Proekt’s investigation also revealed that the main building of the Bocharov Ruchey residence was completely demolished at the beginning of the year, giving way to a new construction project,” Moscow Times continues.

    Throughout the Ukraine war, Kiev forces have become capable of sending drones deeper and deeper into Russian territory, sometimes many hundreds of kilometers away. The Kremlin believes this is being done with satellite and targeting help from the US and NATO.

    A report issued this summer in Ukrainian media, and based on open source data, said that a Pantsir missile system has been positioned not far from Putin’s Sochi residence, offering special anti-air protection for the Russian leader and his guests.

    The self-propelled surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery system has frequently been used to protect sensitive infrastructure from airborne threats, also in and around Moscow.

    The battery which protects Bocharov Ruchey is estimated to be about 15km from the compound itself. Currently, there’s a likelihood that Putin primarily stays and works from a location which is completely unknown to the outside world. This also after Ukrainian drones have targeted the Kremlin complex in Moscow.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 19:40

  • Watch: Black Hawk Helo Wreaks Havoc On Civilian Hurricane Outpost, Raising Questions
    Watch: Black Hawk Helo Wreaks Havoc On Civilian Hurricane Outpost, Raising Questions

    The pilots of what appears to be an unmarked Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter generated a massive downwash, also known as rotor wash, that sent tents and aid flying in all directions at a volunteer supply zone operated by private citizens in western North Carolina.

    This action by the helicopter pilots is up for debate, with many on X believing this was an intentional act of sabotage by the federal government. 

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    There are no official statements by local, state, or federal governments about the incident. Flight tracking data shows that the Black Hawk is military-owned. 

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    The big discussion here is whether the incident was intentional or unintentional.

    Commentary on the video may suggest intentional… 

    That the Black Hawk approached and hovered directly over the volunteer supply zone certainly raises questions about the mission of this chopper; especially in light of the fact that many residents, officials, and private citizens point out the government’s apparent efforts to block or intercede in rescue efforts outside of FEMA’s control.

    Elon Musk’s SpaceX found out this stark reality just days ago. 

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    “Believe your eyes, people! Believe what you see is happening!” one X user wrote in response to the video.

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    Others said…

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    As we’ve previously noted, the poor residents of western NC should consider identifying as “Ukraine,” “Lebanon,” or non-US citizens to receive federal aid more quickly. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 18:50

  • 'If He Loses I'm F**ked': Musk And Tucker Carlson Sit Down For Must-Watch Interview
    ‘If He Loses I’m F**ked’: Musk And Tucker Carlson Sit Down For Must-Watch Interview

    Tucker Carlson sat down with Elon Musk for an extensive interview this week, where they covered a broad spectrum of topics that ranged from political endorsements and disaster relief efforts to social issues and technological advancements.

    Musk offered his perspective on current events – including his enthusiastic support for Donald Trump, his concerns about democracy, and his criticisms of government decisions affecting his businesses like Starlink. Musk also shared his views on broader societal trends, such as the declining birthrate in Europe and the influence of religion in modern society.

    Musk also shared his thoughts on the impact of technology in everyday life, including artificial intelligence and the intersection of big tech and global politics.

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    All In On Trump

    “If Trump loses, I really fear for what’s going to be left of democracy in America,” said Musk, suggesting that immigration policies have been manipulated to bolster Democratic voter bases, potentially undermining the fairness of elections.

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    Musk also suggested that if Trump loses, “I’m fucked.”

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    Starlink to Hurricane Victims

    Musk discusses the use of Starlink to aid victims of Hurricane Helene, criticizing the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to cancel a contract that Starlink had won previously. According to Musk, “The FCC pulled the rug under us after a political decision,” suggesting that the decision was influenced by partisan politics rather than practical considerations.

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    The Last Election

    Musk warns that if Trump doesn’t win in November, it will be the end for genuine democratic elections in the United States. He argues that certain policies favor a demographic shift intended to secure a permanent Democratic majority. “If Trump doesn’t win this election, it’s the last election we’re going to have.“

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    Epstein and Diddy

    The pair then discussed the Epstein client list, with Musk slamming the lack of accountability for high-profile individuals implicated in Epstein’s scandals – and predicting that if Trump wins, the Epstein client list “is going to become public.”

    “It’s strange that there has been no significant action against those on the list,” Musk remarked.

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    Vaccines

    Musk then touched on vaccines, slamming the push for repeated COVID-19 jabs and the morality of forcing people to take them. He questions the efficacy and safety of continually administering boosters, especially without substantial data to support long-term health impacts.

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    The Movement to Decriminalize Crime

    Musk criticizes policies that he perceives as effectively decriminalizing certain behaviors, linking them to rising crime rates in cities like San Francisco. He specifically slams laws that reduce penalties for theft under $1,000, arguing that they hurt small businesses and encourage lawlessness. He also slammed California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose policies he says are ineffective and detrimental to the state’s economic and social health. Musk predicts that these policies, if not revised, might lead to significant long-term problems for California.

    Europe’s Declining Birthrate (53:11) The conversation turns to Europe’s declining birthrate, with Musk expressing concerns about demographic trends and their implications for Europe’s future. He emphasizes the need for policies that encourage family formation and higher birth rates to sustain economic and cultural vitality.

    We Need Religion

    Musk emphasized the importance of religion in society, arguing that it provides a necessary moral framework and sense of community. He warns against the loss of religious adherence, suggesting it could lead to a breakdown in societal cohesion.

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    Watch the entire interview above, and subscribe to the Tucker Carlson Network here.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 18:25

  • Watch: Hezbollah Unleashes Massive Missile Strikes On Israel's Haifa
    Watch: Hezbollah Unleashes Massive Missile Strikes On Israel’s Haifa

    The last 24 hours have seen Hezbollah launch massive missile strikes on Israel’s major northern port city of Haifa. The rockets have rained down on Haifa since Sunday, and launches have continued into Monday.

    Widely circulating social media videos have confirmed a series of direct ground strikes. BBC has said in a Monday update that at least five rockets have been recently launched, inuring eight people and causing damage in Haifa. Dozens more have been sent.

    Haifa attacks, via X

    Israel’s military has admitted that its much-touted air defenses have been failing in the north, and says it is investigating as a result. 

    Hezbollah has since said it is targeting military bases near Haifa, but local reports say a restaurant was among the places to be directly struck, resulting in significant damage.

    Jerusalem Post writes that “a restaurant in Haifa had reportedly suffered a direct hit as approximately 20 rockets were identified crossing from Lebanese territory.”

    “Among those evacuated for medical treatment, a 13-year-old was reportedly lightly wounded, while two others were moderately wounded from broken glass,” the report details. “Three people sustained light injuries from broken glass, two were lightly injured while heading to a protected area, and one person was treated for anxiety.”

    And separately another local media report cites damage in the middle of the city: “Footage captured in Haifa, however, appeared to show heavy damage at a traffic circle struck by a rocket, while other videos showed smoke rising above apartments during the barrage.”

    Watch: most significant strikes on Haifa since war’s start…

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    On Sunday alone a total of some 120 rockets were fired by Hezbollah into northern Israel. By all accounts these projectiles have been reaching further and further into Israel, since the start of the IDF bombing campaign over southern Beirut.

    Injuries have also been reported from the town of Tiberias. It has become clear that thus far Israel’s ground offensive in south Lebanon and bombing of Beirut has not stopped Hezbollah rockets from reaching deep into the north.

    Among Israel’s chief goals for the Lebanon offensive is to push Hezbollah back dozens of kilometers, to create a buffer zone which will allow Israeli residents of the north to return to their homes.

    Al Arabiya confirmed footage which captured the Hezbollah hit on a Haifa restaurant…

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    Israel’s aerial bombardment of Beirut has remained steady, with jets on Sunday night targeting buildings said to belong to Hezbollah’s intelligence division in Beirut, or places deemed command centers, according to Israeli statements.

    Apparent weapons depot in the middle of the Lebanese capital blown up:

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    Images showed an a strike on an apparent Hezbollah weapons depot, releasing huge and sustained fireballs and secondary explosions. The IDF on Monday warned that the Israeli Navy will soon begin to operate against Hezbollah from the sea.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 18:00

  • VDH: We Are In Need Of Renaissance People
    VDH: We Are In Need Of Renaissance People

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

    The songwriter, actor, country/western singer, musician, U.S. Army veteran, helicopter pilot, accomplished rugby player and boxer, Rhodes scholar, Pomona College and University of Oxford degreed, and summa cum laude literature graduate, Kris Kristofferson, recently died at 88.

    Americans may have known him best for writing smash hits like “Me and Bobby McGee” and “For the Good Times,” his wide-ranging, star-acting roles in A Star is Born and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, his numerous solo albums, especially with then-spouse and singer Rita Coolidge, and the country group super-quartet he formed with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson.

    In other words, Kristofferson was a rare Renaissance man who could do it all in an age of increasingly narrow specialization and expertise.

    At certain times throughout history at particular locales, we have seen such singular people from all walks of life.

    Classical Athens produced polymaths like Aristotle—tutor to Alexander the Great, logician, student of music, art, and literature, educator, think-tank founder, biologist, philosopher, and scientist. Later Greeks like Archimedes and Ptolemy, as men of action, mastered six or seven disciplines and applied their abstract knowledge in ways that made life easier for those around them.

    The late Roman Republic was another cauldron of multitalented geniuses. It produced the brilliant stylist, historian, politician, and consummate general Julius Caesar, as well as his republican archrival Cicero—politician, philosopher, orator, master stylist, lawyer, and provincial governor.

    Turn-of-the-century Victorian Great Britain produced giants like Winston Churchill—prime minister, statesman, essayist, historian, orator, strategist, and wartime veteran. As Britain’s war leader, between May 10, 1940, and June 22, 1941, he, almost alone, resisted the Axis powers and prevented Adolf Hitler from winning the war.

    But we associate the idea of a “Renaissance man” mostly with Florence, Italy, between the 15th and 16th centuries. In that brief 100 years, the Florentine Republic hosted multi-talented geniuses like Leonardo De Vinci—master painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, engineer, and inventor—best known for the Mona Lisa and Last Supper.

    The multifaceted talents of his younger contemporary Michelangelo were as astounding, whether defined by his iconic sculptures David and Pietà, his stunning painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, or as the master architect of the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Basilica.

    The American Revolution was a similar embryo of Renaissance men.

    Thomas Jefferson was perhaps the most famous example of unchecked abstract and pragmatic genius displayed in almost every facet of late 18th– and early 19th-century life—main author of the Declaration of Independence, third U.S. President, founder of the University of Virginia, inventor, agronomist, architect, and diplomat.

    But Benjamin Franklin may best approximate the model of the Florentine Renaissance holistic brilliance—journalist, publisher, printer, author, politician, diplomat, inventor, scientist, and philosopher.

    Franklin’s life was one of perpetual motion and achievement. In one lifetime, he helped to draft the Constitution, invented everything from the lightning rod to bifocals, founded the American postal service, and successfully won over European countries to the nascent American cause. Theodore Roosevelt—president, historian, essayist, conservationist, naturalist combat veteran, battle leader, explorer, and cowboy—exemplified the idea of an American president as the master at almost everything else.

    The history of our own contemporary Renaissance people often suggests that they are not fully appreciated until after their deaths—especially in the post-World War II era.

    Why?

    We have created a sophisticated modern society that is so compartmentalized by “professionals” and the credentialed that those who excel simultaneously in several disciplines are often castigated for “amateurism,” “spreading themselves too thinly,” “not staying in their lanes,” or not being degreed with the proper prerequisite letters—BA, BS, MA, PhD, MD, JD, or MBA—in the various fields that they master.

    But specialization is the enemy of genius, as is the tyranny of credentialism.

    Because the Renaissance figure is not perfect in every discipline he masters, we damn him for too much breadth and not enough depth—a dabbler rather than an expert—failing to realize that his successes in most genres he masters and redefines is precisely because he brings a vast corpus of unique insights and experience to his work that narrower specialists lack. The Greek poet Archilochus first delineated the contrast between the fox who “knows many things” and the hedgehog who “knows one—one big thing.” We have become a nation of elite hedgehogs, whose narrow expertise is not enriched by awareness of or interest in the wider human experience.

    Renaissance people often live controversial lives and receive 360-degree incoming criticism, not surprising given the many fields in which they upstage specialists and question experts—and the sometimes overweening nature of their personalities that feel no reason to place boundaries and lanes on their geniuses and behavior or to temper their exuberances.

    The best American example of the current age is the controversial Elon Musk, a truly Renaissance figure who has revolutionized at least half a dozen entire fields.

    No one prior had broken the Big Three auto monopoly of GM, Ford, and Chrysler.

    Musk did just that. He exploded all three companies’ dominance with his successful creation of the first viable electric vehicle, Tesla, whose comfort, drivability, reliability, safety, and power rivaled or exceeded the models of all his competitors.

    His spin-off battery storage and solar panel companies allowed thousands of families to go off the grid and stay self-sufficient in power usage.

    Musk’s revolutionary Starlink internet system—a mere five years old—provides global online service to over 100 countries. Through its some 7,000 satellites, Starlink brings internet service to remote residents far more effectively and cheaply than do their own governments. When natural disasters overwhelm utilities or war disrupts the normality of peace, all look to Musk to restore online reconnections to the outside world.

    Musk, almost singlehandedly, transformed the U.S. space program from a NASA 60-year-old government monopoly to an arena of fervent private-public competition. His Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) created a rocket and spacecraft program that has kept the U.S. preeminent in space exploration and reliable satellite launches. When NASA and old aerospace companies falter, the government looks to Musk to bail them out.

    Musk, at great personal cost, radically transformed the old Twitter—poorly managed, censorious of ideas and expressions not deemed progressive, and mired in scandal for partnering with the FBI to silence news deemed possibly injurious to Democratic candidates and left-wing campaigns.

    His new X replacement is an unfettered platform for free expression. And the more the left abhors their loss of the monopolistic old Twitter’s ideological clearing house, and vows to flee X and start their own new left-wing, censorious Twitters, the more they stay on X.

    Musk’s newest companies have now entered the convoluted, little-understood, radically competitive, and dangerous field of artificial intelligence (OpenAI) and the emerging discipline of bonding the natural brain to the electronic online world (Neuralink). To the degree Musk is successful, America will lead these areas of intense international rivalry that involve the gravest issues of national security and survival.

    Overspecialization has helped make vulnerable and sometimes doomed complex top-down societies from the Mycenaeans to the Aztecs to the Soviets.

    A tiny credentialed and often incestuous elite manages the lives of a vast underclass whose daily lives are scripted by top-down master planners—as an autonomous and skeptical middle class disappears.

    America is increasingly becoming a bifurcated, two-tiered society of a specialized government-corporate-media-political-credentialed class of degreed overseers and managers who attempt to micromanage an increasingly less well-educated, dependent underclass.

    The overclass cult lacks sufficient common sense and pragmatic expertise outside their narrow areas of specialization to direct society, and the masses are often without the education, money, and power to challenge them or the esoteric complexity of their modern society. And the result is often disastrous, as we see everywhere, from the trivial to the existential—from our currently paralyzed state space station program and inability to build a floating pier in Gaza, to ineffectual and insensitive state responses to natural disasters like Hurricane Helene and an increasingly dangerously incompetent Secret Service.

    Renaissance people provide a link to the proverbial people, as they master almost anything they attempt while keeping themselves attuned to the practical effect of their achievement among the people.

    The Renaissance physicist Richard Feynman once explained to the entire nation why the Space Shuttle 1986 Challenger catastrophically imploded shortly after launch. A polymath Albert Einstein explained to America why it had to begin the Manhattan Project and beat Nazi Germany to the acquisition of an atomic bomb. Theodore Roosevelt used his expertise as a politician, conservationist, outdoorsman, explorer, and writer to help establish and preserve 230 million acres of public lands.

    So, we should occasionally pause and reflect on the Kristoffersons and Musks in our midst. They play a vital role in enriching culture and civilization for the many without becoming part of the narrow few. And we owe these people, who belong to a rare and hallowed caste of the ages, for making our lives richer, more enjoyable, easier, and safer.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 17:40

  • Cybersecurity Incident Hits America's Largest Regulated Water & Wastewater Utility Firm
    Cybersecurity Incident Hits America’s Largest Regulated Water & Wastewater Utility Firm

    The largest regulated water and wastewater utility company in the United States revealed in a filing published on the SEC’s website that it has discovered a cybersecurity breach on its computer networks and systems. 

    New Jersey-based American Water Works wrote in the filing that last Thursday, it “learned of unauthorized activity within its computer networks and systems, which the Company determined to be the result of a cybersecurity incident.” 

    “Upon learning of this activity, the Company immediately activated its incident response protocols and third-party cybersecurity experts to assist with containment and mitigation activities and to investigate the nature and scope of the incident,” American Water said.

    It noted, “The Company has taken and will continue to take steps to protect its systems and data, including disconnecting or deactivating certain of its systems.” 

    So far, the company “currently believes that none of its water or wastewater facilities or operations have been negatively impacted by this incident.” However, it pointed out, “The company is currently unable to predict the full impact of this incident” but “does not expect the incident will have a material effect on the Company, or its financial condition or results of operations.”

    American Water stated on its website that it provides drinking water and wastewater services to more than 14 million people with regulated operations in 14 states and on 18 military installations.

    This year, there has been an increase in foreign hackers targeting critical US infrastructure, from transportation to food supply to health care to communications. 

    On Sunday, NBC News quoted the director of the National Security Agency, who said an investigation had been underway following a recent cyber incident involving Chinese hackers who gained access to at least three telecommunication companies: AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen Technologies. 

    America’s critical infrastructure is owned by much of the private sector and remains ripe for ransomware attacks. The risks of a cyber event bringing down part of the grid remain an elevated concern.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 17:20

  • Adapt Or Die, Or…?
    Adapt Or Die, Or…?

    Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

    Those few who grasp the crisis in its entirety have been marginalized, and those who are left are drifting downstream, unable to move the mass of self-interested inertia even if they wanted to.

    In eras of stability when little changes, the capacity to adapt takes a back seat. As noted in Why Political “Solutions” Don’t Fix Crises, They Make Them Worse, absent any pressure from tumultuous change, nature is hard-wired to keep the genetic instructions unchanged, as there is little selective benefit in modifying what’s working well and potential risks in messing with it.

    In other words, nature is conservative in eras of stability and low volatility. Since its genetic instructions are working pretty well, the shark genome is relatively stable over millions of years, with a few tweaks here and there to adapt to changes in its environment.

    But adaptative churn takes the driver’s seat when the ecosystem changes rapidly and the existing instructions are failing. This is the adapt or die moment, when species must experiment by churning out modifications (semi-random mutations in the instructions) and test them in trial-and-error: the ones that add selective advantages live, the ones that don’t die.

    If this period of intense adaptive experimentation is ultimately successful, the species’ rate of change spikes and then drifts down to the baseline of low activity. This is known as punctuated equilibrium: the instructions drift along when nothing much is changing, suddenly spike when selective pressures shoot up, threatening extinction, and then diminish as the new adaptations relieve the selective pressure.

    All this is automatic and beyond the individual’s and the species’ conscious control. We can’t order our genome to speed up mutations and get cracking on the adaptive modifications.

    Human civilization operates on the same principles of adapt or die: when circumstance change, selective pressures mount and the society must adapt or perish.

    What’s different is humans can stifle or encourage adaptive churn. As social beings hard-wired to organize ourselves in hierarchies, those at the top of the power pyramid will naturally deploy all their power to conserve the status quo, as any modifications might threaten their outsized share of all the good things such as wealth and status.

    The view from the top of the pyramid is rather grand. Those at the top see the vastness of the imperial reach, the army’s strength, the peasantry toiling away and the obsequious Mandarin bureaucrats bowing and scraping, and the idea that all this immense structure could decay and blow away is incomprehensible.

    There is little sense in the top circle that the extinction of the entire social order is a threat. The threat is more personal: is my private fiefdom at risk of being diminished? Are rivals gaining influence? Are the reforms being proposed positive for my fortunes or could they pose a threat?

    This narrow view of the overlapping crises (a.k.a. polycrisis) favors short-term expediency over more radical long-term modifications, as the Powers That Be have a grip on expedient “stave off the immediate crisis” measures such as imposing curfews, lowering interest rates and increasing the pay of soldiers, but these measures are slapdash rather than part of a recognition that radical changes in the structure of the society must be organized now, not later, for later will be too late.

    In other words, there is no urgency for the kind of reforms needed to avoid extinction, there is only urgency for expedient “kick the can down the road” measures because these measures 1) are within easy reach and 2) they don’t threaten the pyramid of power the “deciders” dominate.

    Put another way, faced with skyrocketing risks of a heart attack, the leadership concludes that cutting out the HoHos but keeping the DingDongs and Twinkies will be enough to maintain the status quo. That the crises demand a complete overhaul of diet and fitness, now, not later, is both 1) too painful to contemplate, and 2) beyond the reach or the leadership’s atrophied adaptive skillset: the leadership only has experience with managing stability, not tumultuous crises.

    There is an irony in this atrophy of competence: the longer the good times roll, the less experience anyone has of polycrisis. In the competitive churn at the top of the pyramid, the skills that are most valuable in periods of stability are those of bureaucratic in-fighting and maintaining the status quo. Since there is no selective pressure demanding radical changes to survive, the skills needed to manage such a radical transition are nor longer present.

    Those with the necessary character and skills to manage radical transformations have all been sent to Siberia for threatening the status quo with all their crazy proposals. Those in power have been selected to believe the organization they rule is perfectly capable of adjusting as needed, without actually changing anything.

    This is the exact opposite of what’s needed to survive the challenges ahead. And so expedient can-kicking continues (cough, the Fed), grand pronouncements yield nothing but hot air, and everyone reckons cutting out the HoHos and reducing the DingDongs will be enough to ride out the rough patch.

    This is of course hubristic delusion. But since events are accelerating and interacting in ways far beyond the grasp of the under-competent leaders, the focus is not on managing a desperately needed radical transformation but on managing the narrative so it looks as if the crises are under control, and the status quo is functioning as intended: we have top people on it, top people. Indeed.

    Adapt or die or… decay. Complex systems that have survived for a long time seek to restore equilibrium. These are the expediency feedback loops, where interest rates and taxes are trimmed, money is thrown around, narratives that question the competence of the status quo are suppressed, insiders who reveal the self-serving predation of the leadership are hustled off to Siberia, and all is well, as the decay can be covered up for quite some time.

    So quality decays first, then quantity decays, too. Each crisis reveals another layer of under-competence and dry-rotted foundations, and each one is dutifully papered over.

    Those few who grasp the crisis in its entirety have been marginalized, and those who are left are drifting downstream, unable to move the mass of self-interested inertia even if they wanted to–and they don’t really want to because why should we risk upsetting such a splendid arrangement that’s capable of handling anything that arises with ease?

    Decay is a perfectly adequate strategy if there’s sufficient resources to keep everything glued together as it slowly unravels. Magical thinking (AI!) helps smooth the decline, and soon everyone habituates to decay.

    Polycrisis has a way of disrupting decay. If conditions remain stable, decay can be managed. But if volatility soars and multiple crises arise and reinforce each other, decay accelerates into collapse.

    The ability to discern an existential challenge before it’s too late is rare and unrewarded. “When you’re thirsty, it’s too late to dig a well.”

    *  *  *

    Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

    Subscribe to my Substack for free

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 17:00

  • After Mass Resignations, Chicago Mayor Appoints New School Board
    After Mass Resignations, Chicago Mayor Appoints New School Board

    After all seven members of the Chicago public school board resigned last week, Mayor Brandon Johnson announced a complete overhaul of the board amid rising tensions due to budget shortfalls.

    Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

    Speaking at a press conference in a South Side church, Johnson, a first-term mayor and former Chicago Teachers Union organizer, declared, “I was elected to fight and fight I am.” His decision to replace all seven board members has sparked concerns across various sectors of the city, from the city council to business leaders and educational watchdogs, Bloomberg reports.

    The mayor’s plan to replace all seven board members sparked concern on the part of most of the city council, members of the Chicago business community and watchdogs. The district serves more than 320,000 students, making it one of the nation’s largest.

    Johnson announced only six nominees to the board on Monday until a new 21-member hybrid board is installed in January, of which 10 will be elected.

    The tension at the heart of this upheaval is rooted in longstanding disputes between the teachers’ union and the district, compounded by dwindling enrollments and the looming threat of school closures. Johnson’s election in early 2023 had already raised eyebrows given his background with the teachers’ union, and his swift move to overhaul the board signals a significant shift in how the city’s schools might be governed moving forward.

    This sweeping change comes as the teachers’ union and the district haggle over terms for a new five-year contract, with negotiations hitting a dead end after the previous contract expired in June. Adding to the controversy, reports have emerged that Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez, a holdover from former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration, has openly rejected Johnson’s proposal for a short-term loan to cover escalating salary and pension costs.

    Martinez, who penned an opinion piece in the Chicago Tribune defending his stance, has also resisted calls from Johnson for his resignation. According to Joe Ferguson, president of watchdog group The Civic Federation, this resistance underscores a deepening rift he says “raises fundamental questions of governance.“

    Johnson’s remarkable power struggle with Martinez and his own appointed school board erupted after contentious budget talks this summer, ultimately leading to all board members opting to resign rather than side with him. The disagreement stemmed from Martinez and the board’s refusal to take out a high-interest loan to cover a pension payment and part of the upcoming contract for the Chicago Teachers Union, a close political ally of the mayor’s.

    Martinez said in September the mayor asked him to step down, which he refused. The schools’ chief can only be forced out by the board. Now that the first iteration of Johnson’s Board of Education has been purged, the path to fire Martinez — and take out the $300 million loan — looks clearer than ever. –Chicago Tribune

    Over the weekend, more than 40 city aldermen agreed with Martinez – posting an open letter which blasted Johnson’s handling of the situation and warned against taking on a loan. They also demanded that Johnson convene a hearing before the end of the month, and before any new appointments to the CPS board are made.

    “This inserts a level of uncertainty and instability into our schools that is extremely concerning,” state Rep. Ann Williams (D) wrote on Sunday. “The level of state oversight necessary for the district will be informed by the decisions made by this Mayor and his administration in the coming weeks and months.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 16:40

  • "They're Plum Out Of Tricks… And They Know It…"
    “They’re Plum Out Of Tricks… And They Know It…”

    Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

    Like A Prayer

    “Whether it’s Facebook or Twitter or X or Instagram or TikTok, whatever they are, if they don’t moderate and monitor the content we lose total control…”

    Hillary Clinton

    “We lose total control. . .” she said.

    Perhaps when you heard that you thought, “What do you mean ‘we,’ Kemosabe?”

    You have also known for some time now, that Hillary is exactly the something wicked that has been coming this way for many years, to the siren song of the cable news harpies shrieking Trump Trump Trump. . . Putin Putin Putin at all hours, day and night, month after dreary month, and all the other avatars of ruin pretending to run the life of our nation. But this utterance begs enough questions to keep Chat GDP vexed and perplexed for the rest of its unnatural life: We lose total control. . . ?

    Yes, as matter of fact, you do. This might be a book tour too far for Mrs. Clinton and her claque, now that her basket of deplorables shivers in the cold and dark out in Appalachia amid the stink of their kinfolks’ uncollected corpses. The Party of Chaos has managed to piss-off the most ferocious demographic in the land, the wild and cross-grained Scotch-Irish who populate those devastated hills and hollows of Western Carolina and East Tennessee, the people who, for generations, were first to volunteer to fight in America’s wars, the Sargent Yorks, the moonshiners and the stock car heroes, the Johnson Boys, Boones and Crocketts, Hatfields and McCoys, the very warp and woof of our folklore, half horse and half alligator, born fighting. And now you and your gang of wine-club harpies, Beltway mezzofinukes, Hollywood Satan-conjurors, Hamptons charity-hags, globe-trotting errand boys, color revolution maestros, race hustlers, drag queens, lawfare shysters, spooks, cut-outs, beach friends, and grifters has gone and pissed these folks off royally.

    My guess would be that you have not begun to see the repercussions of the Hurricane Helene fiasco, which will resound far from the gates of Dollywood for years to come. I hope Alejandro Mayorkas enjoys the waffle-weave sweater he picked up in a Georgetown boutique on Saturday while the dazed people of Buncombe County, NC, stumbled dazed through a shattered landscape of creek-bed and forest scraped down to little more than what their ancestors first came upon in the 1760s. It may have to last him through the term he serves in federal prison when this is all over. And by this, I mean mainly the reign of this wicked regime he’s a major player in, with its claws slipping off the levers of power. Do you really suppose that America will elect the empty pant-suit Kamala Harris to front for this depraved cabal?

    Remember what the Romanians did to Madame Ceaușescu on Christmas day in 1989, when she and her husband Nicolae, erstwhile president of that sore-beset country, just liberated from decades of communist captivity, were summarily tried by a provisional court after attempting to flee. I’ll tell you: they trussed the two of them up like a couple of Carpathian wild hogs (Sus scrofa), and hauled them before a firing squad. Which is not exactly to say that the United States is like Romania, but that such things happen surprisingly in formerly quiescent places. The people hated her as much, perhaps even more, than her despot husband. Just sayin’.

    Why exactly Hillary Clinton would be dumb enough to come out on every news channel and Internet site on Gawd’s green earth to declare the end of free speech throughout Western Civ might remain one of those abiding mysteries of history. Bad timing doesn’t begin to explain it. What does explain it is the psychotic desperation of her party now that the days to election dwindle down and the pathetic figure they “nominated” stumbles from one campaign blunder to the next, and the whole sick crew behind her entertains dark visions of courtrooms and prison cells — including, by the way, her cohort in nation-wrecking Barack Obama, who could be liable to charges such as conspiracy to commit sedition, or even a higher crime, if the election goes the wrong way for him. You might suppose they are fighting for their very lives without being accused of exaggeration.

    In the event of Hurricane Helena and other churning contingencies of the season, Mr. Trump is not only looking more presidential, he is apparently being regarded as something close to an actual acting president in the eerie absence of “Joe Biden,” who looks more and more like one of those three-hundred-dollar Home Depot animatronic ghouls Americans are planting in the front yard this season of the walking dead, along with the giant inflated jack-o-lanterns , beckoning skeletons, and plastic tombstones. In other words, it looks like the people are going to vote Mr. Trump back into office, since he is the only thing the least bit presidential on offer in 2024. Even the Covid-addled, the many new demoralized Woke drop-outs, and the beaten-down male youth of America are leaning his way now and it scares the Democrats down to their livers and lights.

    Accordingly, I received notice late Sunday from an informant in commercial aviation, with connections to military aviation, that a massive deployment of aircraft is preparing logistics for a major operation set to go down in about a week, probably in the Middle East. I can’t guarantee you that it is for real, but it was a real warning message, at least, from a serious person, and you know that something could be up. . . some humdinger of an October Surprise, like a big fat world war. What else have they got now? Jack Smith’s lame-ass attempt to beef-up an “insurrection” charge against Mr. Trump in Judge Chutkan’s abject facsimile of a federal court? Everything else has been fail, fail, fail all year long . . . the head-cases with rifles. . . all the other court cases contrived by Merrick Garland, Andrew Weissmann, Norm Eisen, and Mary McCord. . . the ineffectual bleatings of The New York Times’s editorial board? They’re plum out of tricks and they know it. So, yes, Hillary. You lose total control. Totally. For now and forever, amen.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 16:20

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Oct 07

Today’s News 7th October 2024

  • The Mullahs Don't Want Trump II… Bibi Sure Does, MBS Too!
    The Mullahs Don’t Want Trump II… Bibi Sure Does, MBS Too!

    By Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management

    “Whether he is trying to influence the election, I don’t know but I am not counting on that,” said President Biden, referring to Netanyahu. “No administration has done more to help Israel than I have,” continued America’s Commander-in-Chief, defensively, politically vulnerable on this issue, on his way out.

    Speculation swirled. Would Bibi respond to Iran’s missile attack by taking out the Ayatollah’s oil fields or nuclear facilities? Perhaps both?

    And with the bear market collapse in Mullah pager usage, how would the Mossad neuter Iran’s leadership? Only Netanyahu knew.

    This of course is the world we now live in. Long gone are the days when polite central bank governing boards determined the arc of world history. The age of the politician has returned.

    “The Israelis have not concluded what they are going to do in terms of a strike. That’s under discussion,” said Biden. “If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oilfields,” added the president, having not spoken directly with Israel’s leader since August.

    An oilfield strike would lift oil prices, gasoline, inflation. And who knows, the Ayatollah might then strike Saudi oilfields, which would take crude well above $125/barrel. This would surely cost Harris the election.

    But the Mullahs don’t want Trump II. Bibi sure does. MBS too.

    And his Saudi forces could surely be doing more to take out the Houthis, who attacked two more ships this week. But the Ayatollah’s proxies continue to operate in the vacuum. Disrupting world trade, providing a glimpse of what our future will look like without overwhelmingly strong, fully engaged, principled US leadership.

    And in this new political age, no one outside a few leaders with their fingers on the triggers can accurately predict what will happen next.

    The only thing that seems probable is that most of what will unfold will occur between now and when America elects its next president. November 5th.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 10/07/2024 – 02:00

  • New Mexico's Nuclear Town Has Big Housing Problem
    New Mexico’s Nuclear Town Has Big Housing Problem

    Authored by Allan Stein via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Weekends bring a brief respite and slower pace to the Los Alamos townsite in New Mexico, the birthplace of the atomic bomb nearly 80 years ago.

    Illustration by The Epoch Times, Allan Stein/The Epoch Times, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Public Domain

    Silent mountains thick with Ponderosa pine surround the town where some of the nation’s best-kept military secrets reside.

    The urban sidewalks are empty, except for the occasional tourist or dog walker, and many of the shops, restaurants, and office buildings are closed.

    There’s no traffic on the road from Trinity Drive to Oppenheimer Drive.

    But, it’s just a matter of time before Los Alamos townsite jumps back into action.

    “You will see it on Monday,” said one resident, who lives in White Rock, 10 miles from the greenscaped Los Alamos urban center.

    Sure enough, on Monday morning, Los Alamos townsite roars back to life as commuters arrive by the thousands. The population nearly doubles in this “census-designated place” of 13,460.

    Cars line up at security checkpoints to enter the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), the county’s biggest employer and the reason for the sudden increase in population.

    Employees clear the first barriers, then move through more checkpoints to get to their jobs four days a week.

    Many drove from residential areas across Los Alamos County (population 19,187) and as far away as Albuquerque, 96 miles south, and the state capital of Sante Fe, about 35 miles north.

    There has always been a housing shortage in the county, local officials say, but the pressures are growing as LANL reaches peak employment at around 19,000. The lab hopes to begin offering round-the-clock shifts in 2025.

    The Los Alamos Affordable Housing Plan approved in August said the “acute” housing shortage hurts the local economy and limits housing to those who can afford it.

    The study also found that in 2021, nearly 55 percent of the LANL workforce lived outside the county.

    “Over 9,300 people commuted in for work, and only 21.8 percent, or 2,200 people, commuted out of the county while living here,” the study said.

    ‘One Horse Town’

    “We’re a one horse town. Everything the lab does affects everybody,” said local realtor Chris Ortega, owner/broker of ReMax Los Alamos.

    “The hiring has increased demand. There are fewer houses on the market than there were five or six years ago,” Ortega told The Epoch Times.

    “People are coming and going all the time. Half of the lab lives here in Los Alamos. The other half lives off the hill somewhere—Santa Fe, Espanola, Albuquerque.”

    In 2022, there were 8,149 households, 5,229 with families, in Los Alamos County. They were usually made up of two or three people per household and had an average income of $135,801.

    A U.S. Postal Service official distributes letters to residents in a shelter near the fire affected area in Los Alamos on May 13, 2000. (Bottom Left) Facilities used to store low-level radioactive waste at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on May 13, 2000.

    “Based on employment rates and high wages, a family household making more than median income is likely to have a member of the family employed at Los Alamos National Laboratory,” according to the study.

    A plurality of LANL employees agreed in a previous study that it would be beneficial to live in Los Alamos, provided they can find suitable housing near the lab.

    Housing is hard to find and has been for a long time. Now, it’s worse because of LANL’s latest hiring surge that started around 2022 with the government’s plan to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

    “It’s difficult [to find housing]. We hear it anecdotally from people we’re hiring—people from the lab,” said Linda Matteson, assistant county manager for Los Alamos County.

    Only 14 percent of the land around Los Alamos is county-owned or privately owned, she said. The U.S. Forest Service, Park Service, and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) own the rest.

    “We’re very constrained,” Matteson told The Epoch Times. “Of that 14 percent, think about private houses, private land. Think of our geography with mesas and canyons. It’s limited. We, the county, own less than 10 parcels that we could develop. Some are open spaces that you wouldn’t want to develop.”

    (Top) A map illustration shows the location of Los Alamos, New Mexico. (Bottom) An aerial view of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos. Illustration by The Epoch Times, The Albuquerque Journal via AP

    The plan found that because there isn’t enough housing, many people who do essential work in the community can’t live in the community.

    The median sold price of homes in Los Alamos was $599,583 in September, representing a 6.3 percent increase from last year, according to a Rocket Homes report. In the same month, there were 61 homes listed for sale.

    According to the housing plan, rental costs have more than tripled. Real estate website Zillow lists 33 current rentals available and a 3 bed, 1 bath house is listed for about $3,000 per month.

    The lab employed 11,743 workers in 2018 and 15,707 workers in 2022, and it is hiring hundreds more this year and next before slowing down.

    Meanwhile, in the same four-year timeframe, the county population only grew by 400 people because of housing constraints.

    “This reflects the high percentage of commuters into the county, a limited supply of available housing, and the potential displacement of families with less financial resources by those with more,” the plan noted.

    The plan projects that the county will require 1,300 new homes between 2024 and 2029 to preserve the status quo, and 2,400 new homes to meet future housing demand.

    Tax Revenue

    The fiscal year 2022 budget for LANL included nearly $2 billion in salaries for employees and $155 million in tax revenues for the county.

    The lab was responsible for creating 24,169 jobs and contributing $3.12 billion to businesses in New Mexico.

    Matteson said that LANL accounts for about 85 percent of the Los Alamos County’s gross property tax revenues.

    “People come here because of the quality of life and amenities and things like that. The county feels it’s our job is to maintain those, increase where we can, and provide those services so people still want to live here,” Matteson said.

    In September 2022, LANL announced its master development plan for the next 30 years.

    The plan includes an upgraded facility powered by 100 percent renewable energy from solar and wind. The goal is to have zero carbon emissions by 2040.

    A woman examines the timeline of the nuclear age beginning with the Manhattan Project and Trinity Test Site in New Mexico in 1945, at the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos on Sept. 22, 2024. Allan Stein/The Epoch Times

    Atomic Legacy

    LANL has come a long way since the top-secret Manhattan Project at Los Alamos that made the first atomic bombs used at the end of World War II.

    On Aug. 6, 1945, the United States dropped a uranium bomb called “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan. Around 140,000 people died in the explosion, which had the force of 15 kilotons of TNT.

    On Aug. 9, 1945, the second 21-kiloton atomic bomb, dubbed “Fat Man,” was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. It killed 74,000 people.

    Los Alamos National Laboratory, built in 1943, played a leading role in the development and production of the U.S. nuclear arsenal during the Cold War.

    The $39 billion facility is located about 35 miles from Santa Fe. It covers nearly 40 square miles of DOE property, nearly 900 buildings, and 13 nuclear facilities.

    From 1952 to 1989, plutonium production for U.S. nuclear weapons took place at the Rocky Flats plant near Denver.

    When Rocky Flats closed, PF-4 at Los Alamos became the only plutonium facility in the country. The National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) monitors and oversees the recycling of plutonium from old pits to make new ones by LANL.

    (Top) A group of physicists at the 1946 Los Alamos colloquium on the Super. In the front row are Norris Bradbury, John Manley, Enrico Fermi, and J.M.B. Kellogg. Behind Manley is J. Robert Oppenheimer (wearing a suit jacket and tie), and to his left is Richard Feynman. (Bottom Left) On Aug. 9, 1945, the atomic bomb, dubbed “Fat Man,” was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, killing 74,000 people, in this file photo. (Bottom Right) The first stages of the explosion of the Trinity nuclear test, 0.016 second after explosion, at the Trinity Test Site on July 16, 1945. The hemisphere’s highest point in this photo is about 200 meters (656 feet). Attributed to Los Alamos National Laboratory, -/Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory/AFP via Getty Images, Public Domain

    “Today, the Laboratory is laying the groundwork for manufacturing new pits that are bound for a weapon already in the stockpile, the W87-1 nuclear warhead,” according to LANL.

    “Los Alamos National Laboratory remains the only place in the country where pits can be made. This critical mission endures as the driving force for national security through deterrence.”

    LANL declined a tour request by The Epoch Times.

    Building a Better Bomb

    The 2022 Nuclear Posture Review of the U.S. Department of Defense identified improving America’s nuclear deterrent as a top priority in the face of emerging global threats and challenges.

    “That modernization effort, which is being carried out over the next two decades, includes initiatives to modernize all three legs of the nuclear triad,” according to a Defense Department statement.

    The new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system, Sentinel, will replace the old Minuteman III, which entered service in 1970 and will continue to operate until the mid-2030s.

    The Columbia class ICBM submarine will replace the Ohio class submarines, and the B-21 Raider will replace the B-2A Spirit bomber.

    The program also calls for upgrading nuclear warheads at LANL, which the DOE controls. The research and production capabilities of the lab are central to that modernization effort.

    A law passed in 2018 authorized the lab’s plutonium production facility to make 30 plutonium warhead cores, or “pits,” each year by 2026. They will be used to replace the cores in the aging nuclear stockpile.

    The nuclear weapons to receive the plutonium pits made at LANL include the W87-1 warhead for the next-generation Sentinel ICBM, the submarine-fired W93 bomb, and the W76, W78, and W88 warheads.

    As reported by the Federation of American Scientists, there are 12,121 known nuclear warheads in the world in 2024.

    There were 5,580 in the Russian Federation, 5,044 in the United States, 500 in China, 290 in France, 225 in the United Kingdom, 172 in India, 170 in Pakistan, 90 in Israel, and 50 in North Korea.

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 23:20

  • A Historic Short Squeeze In Oil Has Only Begun
    A Historic Short Squeeze In Oil Has Only Begun

    Last weekend, we warned readers that according to the latest data from Goldman Sachs,  a massive short squeeze in energy stocks was on deck.

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    Specifically we noted that at a time when funds were the most short oil on record, the broader energy space “was the most net sold sector” on the Goldman US Prime book, “driven entirely by short sales, which outpaced long buys (6.4 to 1).”

    And here, we said, was “the hint to the next mega squeeze” as the recent short selling in energy was the largest in over 5 years.

    What happened next was for the history books, as Brent crude soared the most in almost two years on the back of what was a historic market imbalance with record shorts suddenly starting to run for cover…

    … with the Kamala lackeys at Bloomberg going so far as to mock those who actually did the right thing and trade ahead of the inevitable squeeze as “tourists”, when in reality the only tourists here are those who expected the ridiculous plunge in oil prices to persist despite Cushing approaching tank bottoms (Bloomberg’s message is loud and clear: keep shorting oil unless you want to be branded a “tourist”, especially since a spike in oil – and gas – prices may adversely impact its favorite presidential candidate).

    Unfortunately for Bloomberg, the squeeze in energy is just getting started, and not just due to fundamentals.

    Crude oil soared last week as a result of the rapidly deteriorating situation in the middle east. On Tuesday, spot month WTI and Brent rallied >5% from the lows on the initial headlines from the White House that an Iranian attack was imminent. Goldman’s research desk noted on Tuesday that the jump in oil prices reflected a moderate risk premium as actual production disruptions have been limited and spare capacity remains elevated. The energy complex jumped again Thursday on news that the US was considering whether or not to support Israel’s potential retaliatory attacks against Iranian energy infrastructure.

    Then, over the weekend, the bank’s commodity analysts published a new report (available to pro subs) in which they tried to calculate the impact on the price of oil should Iran oil output be “limited” by Israel, to wit:

    • Assuming a 2mb/d 6-month disruption to Iran supply, we estimate that Brent could temporarily rise to a peak of $90 if OPEC rapidly offsets the shortfall, and a 2025 peak in the mid $90s without an OPEC offset.
    • Assuming a 1mb/d persistent disruption to Iran supply, reflecting for instance a tightening in sanctions enforcement, we estimate that Brent could reach a peak in the mid $80s if OPEC gradually offsets the shortfall, and a 2025 peak in the mid $90s without an OPEC offset.

    But it’s not just fundamentals: Goldman’s Prime Brokerage wrote in its latest weekly must-read note (also available to pro subs) that “after heightened geopolitical tensions and rising crude oil price, HFs reversed course and net bought US Energy stocks for the first time in 7 weeks, driven almost entirely by short covers.”

    As a result, the US Energy long/short ratio increased +5% – the largest weekly increase in nearly 5 months – to 1.36, which is in the 69th percentile vs. the past year and 14th percentile vs. the past five years.”

    That said, the short overhang in energy remains staggering, and hints at a far more brutal unwind once the upward momentum persists for another week, and not only in energy stocks where the short flow on Goldman’s Prime Broekrage is just shy of record highs…

    … but also in the oil patch, because after oil short interest hit a record two weeks ago as traders turned the most bearish on oil they have ever been, the amount of short covering was virtually non existent, and net managed-money (i.e., hedge fund) exposure across the 4 main oil contracts (Nymex and ICE WTI, Nymex and ICE Brent), is barely above its record lows!

    Putting it all together, Goldman Energy specialist Ryan Novak writes that “energy led to the upside on the week after we exited the prior week with aggressive PB selling/short selling that flipped this week, managed money positioning remains short – at all-time lows and tensions across the Middle East escalating with Israel beginning its ground invasion. E&Ps led on the week +7%. All eyes on any incremental news regarding any attack on Iranian energy infrastructure which would pose further upside risk to the commodity and equities.”

    Bottom line: with record shorts now painfully squeezed as upward momentum has been ignited across the energy sector, and the risk of a flashing red headline that Israel has leveled Kharg Island looming, unwind of what until a week ago was a record short position in oil and energy stocks is just getting started. And that’s without Israel even doing anything. Should Israel however take the plunge and either take out Iran’s oil infrastructure or, worse, target its nuclear industry, then the coming explosion in oil will make the Volkswagen short squeeze of 2008 seem like quaint amateur hour.

    More in the full notes available to pro subscribers here and here.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 22:45

  • Misinformation Doesn't Kill People – People Kill People
    Misinformation Doesn’t Kill People – People Kill People

    Authored by Todd Hayen via off-guardian.org,

    This title is intentionally a play on the pro-gun faction’s slogan “Guns Don’t Kill People, People Kill People.” At a certain time before my social awakening, I was appalled by all of the gun violence in the US and elsewhere and therefore believed restricting gun sales and use (through more stringent registration regulations) might be a good idea.

    However, I never thought that particular NRA slogan was nonsense as so many of my liberal friends did. It actually rings quite true. Yes, you can still argue (as the leftists do) that if there were not as many guns lying about, people wouldn’t use them to kill other people. To me, that is a rather weak argument.

    I have known many gun owners, and I must say as a group they are the most responsible people amongst my friends. The people who use guns to kill others indiscriminately are typically mentally deranged and in need of psychological intervention. So, we either reach out and come up with ways to help these people, or we remove access to guns—for everyone. Which way do you think the agenda believes we should go?

    That seems to me equivalent to removing all cars so drunk people don’t have access to them to kill other people with. I know, I know…those who would wish to argue with me would say “Cars have a useful value, guns do not.” It isn’t so much taking away the guns as material objects, it is taking away the right to have them.

    Until we remove all government corruption, all crime on the streets, all violent mental pathologies, and have created a utopian, all-safe, society—guns, and owning them, and respectfully learning how to use them safely, have a purpose. When that utopian idyllic society happens, we’ll talk. But I won’t hold my breath.

    I digress, sorry.

    So, along the same logic lines, how will censoring all speech to weed out the “misinformation” stop crimes like what happened in the UK in early August? The authoritarian position seems to be that “misinformation” is causing much of the “insane” criminal activity in the world today.

    First of all, that is quite a stretch. How could anyone establish that as fact? And even if it was a fact (that “misinformation” causes violence) how would one go about removing all of it without removing all free speech? And who would be burdened with the task of differentiating “misinformation” from “real information?”

    Aha. Easy to see it now, eh? (Of course, anyone reading this knows this already.)

    All this misinformation crap is a ruse to give the agenda the power to shut us all up. Any time they link misinformation with a violent crime they are telling us, erroneously, that if they could just have permission to censor the hate speech, then it would take care of the problem.

    I have personally never understood all the hoopla around hate speech being so damaging to society. Sure, it is rude, and sure, it can hurt people’s feelings deeply. And yes, there is a possibility it could incite some lunatic to do horrible things. But do we give up one of our fundamental freedoms due to the few whackos who will get a rise out of “hate speech” and uncontrollably wreak havoc as a result?

    I say a resounding “no!” And even if that was the initial intent of censorship—to avoid a lunatic from being inspired—it simply would not work. Best to deal with the lunatic first and not trash free speech just because they think he or she (lunatic) will hear it.

    But that isn’t the initial intent. We are told it is, but clearly it isn’t. In fact, I would not be surprised if most of these incidents where misinformation is blamed were intentionally set up so the agenda has something to point at (I have to be careful with this statement, I don’t want to be sued as someone else we know was for saying something similar).

    Information is information. Whether it is looney or not (or hateful or not) is up to us individually to determine. We are supposed to have the faculty to do such a discernment, and not require mommy or daddy to come to our rescue and tell the big bad bully to stop hurting our feelings. And again, I am all for living in a society that does not condone hate speech, sexually or racially degrading speech, or speech inappropriate for children (within reason of course, and not by censorship!). But, in my humble opinion, we must do this in such a way that we preserve the First Amendment right to free speech. Plain and simple. There is simply no other way.

    What we see going on, however, is not in our best interests. Far from it. The fight against misinformation is not a fight against hate speech, sexually degrading speech, or inappropriate speech for children as they want us to believe it is. The fight by the agenda to remove what that agenda decides is offensive, or dangerous, information is pure and simply a fight against our rights in a free society to freely exchange information.

    We have been hoodwinked into thinking this fight is a noble pursuit to silence deranged and mentally ill people, who will take this information to support their heinous attack on innocent others. That is not at all what they are doing. And what they are doing is one of the oldest tricks of manipulation in the books—disguise an action as something else, and then create a false flag to justify it. “See what happened? If only that killer did not have access to that misinformation, this would have never happened.”

    So, if we don’t do whatever we can to limit hate speech and the like, then what are we to do? Raise our children with character, teach them how to think, and how to discern good from bad.

    Teach them to question what they read, see and hear. Raise them with good and loving hearts so hate has no place to grow within them, nor have influence on them. And what about all of us who are already raised? Teach each other.

    Make an example for others to follow. Walk the talk. And make love the most important tenet of your life.

    Todd Hayen PhD is a registered psychotherapist practicing in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He holds a PhD in depth psychotherapy and an MA in Consciousness Studies. He specializes in Jungian, archetypal, psychology. Todd also writes for his own substack, which you can read here

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 22:10

  • 'Black & Indigenous Folx' Only: Taxpayer-Funded Minneapolis Food Pantry Comes Under Fire For Discrimination
    ‘Black & Indigenous Folx’ Only: Taxpayer-Funded Minneapolis Food Pantry Comes Under Fire For Discrimination

    A food pantry in Minneapolis has come under fire for explicitly barring white people from accessing its services.

    According to the Daily Mail, Mykela “Keiko” Jackson, the director of the Food Trap Project Bodega, which was set up with a Minnesota State grant and located near the Sanctuary Covenant Church in North Minneapolis, quickly became the subject of intense scrutiny and criticism when it posted a sign stating that the food was intended exclusively for “Black and Indigenous Folx.”

    Jackson’s racist policy led to a civil rights complaint after it denied service to several white individuals, including local chaplain Howard Dotson, who filed the complaint with the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission. He described his experience as deeply divisive, telling Alpha News, “This is not building community, it’s destroying it,” adding “I went over there and confronted her. I told her that I saw the sign and I asked if she really thought she could take grant money from the state and discriminate against poor white people.” Dotson’s frustration was echoed by many in the community who saw the pantry’s policy as a step backward in race relations and community cohesion.

    Dotson, seen here with the Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz, filed a complaint with the Minneapolis Civil Rights Commission

    Jackson defended the policy, stating that the pantry was established to serve black and indigenous communities affected by systemic inequalities and that white individuals could find resources elsewhere. Her stance sparked further debate about the role of racial criteria in public service and whether such measures heal or deepen societal divisions.

    The backlash grew so intense that the pantry was forced to relocate after the church stated the project’s approach had strayed from the inclusive vision initially proposed.

    Jackson, however, claims that the pantry hasn’t turned anyone away.

    “There was no one there directly turning them away. They felt entitled to the resources that were not for their demographic – white privilege is real,” she said, accusing Dotson of ‘political violence.’

    Jackson said on Instagram that the pantry was forced to move because of a “karen.”

    “It has been recently brought to our attention that our partnership with Sanctuary Church may not be fully aligned with our mission due to a recent incident with a “Karen” last week,” she wrote. “Although the church likes our concept they feel our commitment towards directing these resources towards Black & Indigenous families ONLY is exclusionary to other POC & White members of the community that use their establishment.”

    According to Jackson’s website, “The Black community consistently faces hunger at higher rates than whites due to racism within social, economic and environmental aspects.”

    Sanctuary Covenant Church, meanwhile, said Jackson misled them.

    “When Mykela Jackson approached us to set up her Food Trap Project we were excited to support her. This would be a place accessible to anyone 24./7. No demographic [information] necessary. Anyone in need would be welcome. 

    “Nowhere in her original proposal did she indicate that she would be restricting usage to specific communities. This does not align with the vision and mission of the Sanctuary.

    “When we discovered her signage and social media posts, we asked her to abide by her original proposal. Ms. Jackson was unable to do so and decided to move her Food Trap elsewhere. The deadline for moving her trap is 9/30. We’ve already cut power to it.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 21:35

  • War, Inflation And The Neutral Rate
    War, Inflation And The Neutral Rate

    By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

    War, Inflation and the Neutral Rate

    The probability that we see oil production targeted as part of the escalating fighting in the Middle East has increased. Academy’s General (ret.) Robeson, Rachel Washburn and Peter Tchir discuss this in a highly viewed webinar – Risk of Further Escalation in the Middle East. The webinar was very much driven by audience Q&A, which reflect the uncertainty managers are facing when dealing with the conflict. We highlight oil as disruptions in oil supply or production would have the largest impact on the global economy.

    Academy also published a number of SITREPs which can be found here. (you may need t contact your Academy representative for access to all the reports). The most recent SITREP covers the Iranian Missile Attack. We also examine that incident and our outlook from a T-Report perspective in Fool Me Once, Shame on You, Fool me Twice, Shame on Me.

    At its most simple level, there are two main reasons to expect further escalation, which could include targets connected to energy production and distribution.

    • From a military standpoint, Israel has had a series of successes. The attacks using pagers and walkie talkies seemed to do three things.
      • The actual injuries and death attributed to those devices exploding.
      • Forcing more “in person” meetings, which have in turn been attacked.
      • While not only killing and injuring many with exploding pagers and walkie talkies, the attacks had a massive psychological effect.  Enemies of Israel must wonder about how much information Israel has on them. Whether their whereabouts are known at any given time. What other ways has Israel potentially infiltrated their organizations? Are they at risk of some non-conventional attacks? This fear is relatively new and is likely an important part of the calculus for Israel’s next steps.
    • From a military standpoint, Iran did not seem to accomplish much with their ballistic missile attack. Yes, some got through and hit military targets, but the vast majority were intercepted or landed in areas causing minimal damage to either people or infrastructure.
      • If the attack was meant to signal to Israel that they were unsafe and subject to retaliation and retribution, it is difficult to see that having been very successful.
      • If the attack was meant to reassure the proxies that the proxy leader was all-powerful and could easily protect them, that likely failed too.

    The combination of those two factors is why escalation is likely, even in the face of pressure from many countries to de-escalate.

    Add Inflation Back to the Fed’s Calculations

    Friday’s job report was so strong, that the Fed can no longer just look at jobs data (which has been their modus operandi for the past few meetings). As discussed in NFP – WOW!! It was very important that we got the upward revisions we were expecting. Yet another “beat” on the headline data, but with downward revisions would be easy to ignore. If you, like us, believe that the BLS has corrected some of their model errors (primarily in the birth/death model), we should have more balanced revisions going forward. Speaking of that model, it actually came in at -100k jobs, which I think is encouraging. For too many months last year, the birth/death model was too great of a percentage of the entire number for my tastes (I have a natural aversion to data where the “plugged numbers” dominate the overall number). I also didn’t highlight, but we saw a big increase in fulltime jobs in the household part of the survey.

    So, with the employment data so much stronger, with chatter about the Sahm “rule” dying down the Fed is likely to be more cautious in terms of their next steps.

    While I am not particularly worried about inflation, there are some things that we should be watching for:

    • The risk of higher energy prices from any major disruption in the Middle East (with Russia and Ukraine also a potential risk on that front).
    • Rising commodity prices across virtually every commodity. If you pull up GLCO on Bloomberg terminal, and set the time frame to 1 month, all the commodities under energy, metals, and agriculture (which surprised me a bit) are up. The NYMEX Henry Hub natural gas futures contract is up a whopping 33% in one month. Copper (aka “Dr. Copper”) is up 11% along with aluminum and nickel. While rising commodity costs can take time to filter into prices paid by consumers, it is worth watching.
    • China stimulus. Who knows what impact Chinese stimulus will have on domestic consumption, but if it does, that could put upward pressure on commodities and even finished goods. It is clear that some of the rise we’ve already seen in commodity prices is in anticipation of that stimulus, so the stimulus will really need to work well to continue to put upward pressure on prices, but my base case is that it will work.
      • It will be very interesting to see how the Chinese stock market behaves when it reopens this week. It has been closed since September 30th to celebrate “Golden Week”. Since then, KWEB and FXI (two ETF proxies I track) are up 12.9% and 12.4% respectively. So we should see the Chinese market open very strongly, but expect some volatility as investors get a better “peek under the hood”. I find myself feeling the need to repeat one of my overriding premises on the current market. A reminder that we live in a world where true depth of liquidity is low and markets moves are amplified in BOTH directions.

    My view is that the Fed had tilted to being 90% fixated on jobs and now they have to increase the weighting on inflation risks, of which there are several.

    Let’s not forget the expectations for CPI on the 10th are 2.3% for overall, and 3.2% ex food and energy. While comforting (from an ivory tower standpoint) and moving in the right direction, they are still above 2% and are impacting consumers (voters) at levels higher than those consumers are comfortable with.

    While the market has tempered Fed cut expectations, down to 4 cuts in next 4 meetings from 6 cuts in next 5 meetings, I think they will come down further.

    Right now, and this is all data dependent, I think we need to be thinking 25 in November. No chance right now of another 50 (unless inflation is really low or jobs drop again) and 0 is probably off the table, because optically it makes 50 seem like it wasn’t a mistake (which I don’t think it was) and sets the stage nicely for a pause. Then maybe one more in December, but I would think they start moving at alternative meetings, so the very front end, as much as it has sold off, probably has more room to move to higher yields.

    The Neutral Rate

    My simple view is that the “neutral rate” should be just that, a level of rates that allows the economy to function “normally”. We cannot measure what this normal rate is, so we rely on all sorts of estimates. What rates are considered “tight” or “loose” from a monetary policy standpoint? It really is difficult to determine what it is, but we will try to do that in any case.

    Since the Fed’s goal should be to have “neutral” monetary policy as their desired outcome, the terminal rate (or longer term projections) in the dot plot should reflect what the Fed thinks about the neutral rate. Using that, we will run our little “thought experiment” on why we think the Fed will start talking about leaving longer term rates higher than the market is currently pricing in.

    At the last meeting the terminal rate dots were:

    • A median of 2.875% but with a weighted average of 2.99% (my view is that while markets focus on the median, which might be correct for the next meeting or two, the weighted average provides more information on where the Fed is headed).
    • There were 4 dots at 3.5% and higher for longer term rates and 7 for 3.25% or higher.

    At the meeting back in March, we saw a different picture:

    • The median was 2.56% and the average was 2.81% (which I think supports my view that weighted average helps understand direction).
    • There were 3 dots at 3.25% or higher!

    There are two reasons I think this shift in neutral rates/terminal rate is occurring:

    • As the Fed pivots to a new cycle, they can actually think more about the terminal rate. When stuck deciding between more hikes, or when to cut, the terminal rate probably doesn’t come up much in discussions, but as they now think about when it comes time to end, it does, so it is becoming a more thought about and discussed number.
    • Does the economy feel like 2.875% is “neutral”?

      The Atlanta GDPNow GDP forecast has averaged 2.9% during this 2 year period, which is what actual GDP has averaged. From an intuition or “gut feel” standpoint, this economy is not acting like the Fed has been as restrictive as a 2.875% neutral rate would imply. You get me to 3.5% or higher (where some Fed dots are moving to) and you have a believer.

    One of the biggest messes of all of this, is every smart corporation and individual who could, locked in long term debt during the era of ZIRP.

    So, while those stuck borrowing short term have felt the increase in debt cost, for most companies and probably even more individuals the rates haven’t done much. There is even an argument, which I subscribe to, that the move to higher yields was beneficial to many as it added to their income, particularly through record holdings in money market funds. Also, the full impact of rate cuts didn’t bleed into the longer term yields as 2s vs 10s for example, were at -50 bps on average for the past two years.

    Lots of difficulty measuring the neutral rate. Historical analysis is only marginally useful as the starting conditions change (one of the important ones here is average duration of borrowing).

    So we might not get a big change in this, but I’m betting that they next hiccup for the bond market is less about how quickly we get rate cuts (market still a touch too aggressive there) but on where the Fed finally gets too (and I think the market needs to be looking to 3.5% or higher).

    Bottom Line

    Moderately higher yields across the curve.

    • The two year at 3.92% is probably getting close to reality, but I think closer to 4.1% is more realistic, given the pace I’m expecting based, at how I see data playing out in the coming few months.
    • With 2s vs 10s back to positive and a target of 25 bps, I think we see 10s push towards 4.25%. We should see yields rise this week as investors set up for the auction, then get a post auction rebound, then we will see where the trend is reall headed.

    Equities.

    • I do think the re-opening of China’s markets this week will impact U.S. markets (especially if it doesn’t hold on to big gains already priced in). I’m 100% convinced that the benefits of stimulus will accrue disproportionately to Chinese companies selling products domestically and commodity producers. Given the “need” for the CCP to ensure stability, expect them to add more and more stimulus until they achieve the desired effect. We will do a larger update on Threat of Made By China later this week. Given that we view the market as “tradable, not investible” I like the idea of taking some profits ahead of the opening, given the parabolic move so far.
    • I was surprised by how well stocks responded to the 10-year nearing 4% on Friday. Stocks threatened to fade several times, but decided to ignore the move in yields (good news was good) and to downplay risk of escalation in the Middle East – which has not occurred as of Sunday morning). This week will be interesting, but I expect the risk is skewed to bigger downside moves, as many of the issues discussed here (war, inflation and the neutral rate) get coverage and traction.

    Credit. Boring!

    • I continue to believe that at the top of the rating range, already tight spreads can go tighter as investors overweight credit versus government debt (more kick the can on debt ceiling doesn’t do much to shift the narrative that corporate governance is better than government governance).
    • At the smaller, lower rated end of credit, private credit, is still helping drive credit spreads lower via competition amongst each other, but also with many big banks looking to expand their lending.
    • Don’t forget to register here if you are in New York for Thursday’s Geopolitical and Credit Roundtable led by General (ret.) Spider Marks at Bobby Van’s GCT location. A brief overview by Spider, but with the primary goal of being to mingle and meet with Academy’s team of credit professionals. Attendees from sales and trading, capital markets and syndicate will be there. Heavy appetizers will be served at this informal event (not table seating).

    The Election.

    • With just over a month to go, we are starting to focus in on possible outcomes. So far, “gridlock” and an “uncontested” election are the base case. That seems right and the market is reasonably priced in for that (though I still think deficits will grow more than expected even under gridlock). So the “shock” or “risk to the  market” would be some side “sweeping” and being able to enact much more aggressive policy agendas, or real fears about the aftermath of the election growing. As we near the election expect volatility to increase moderately, just because nothing can be completely discounted at this stage, and the illiquid nature of our markets seem susceptible to noise on the election front, as the date draws near.

    Good luck and looking forward to seeing many of you in person at Academy’s events or some of the conferences where we are speaking this month!

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 21:00

  • Mortgage Rates Undergo One Of The Biggest Single-Day Jumps: Report
    Mortgage Rates Undergo One Of The Biggest Single-Day Jumps: Report

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

    Mortgage rates jumped by more than 0.25 percent on Friday after a government report showed that the labor market continued to remain strong.

    The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate jumped 27 points from 6.26 percent to 6.53 percent on Friday, according to data from the Mortgage News Daily (MND) mortgage rate index that is updated on a daily basis. This is one of the biggest single-day rate increases MND has ever tracked.

    A home is listed “For Sale” in New York City on March 31, 2021. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    A strong employment situation indicates a more robust customer demand for mortgages, thus potentially keeping rates higher and lowering any chances of a rate decline.

    The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its employment situation summary report for September on Oct. 4. The report showed that 254,000 new jobs were added last month, far exceeding the 140,000 jobs estimated by experts. This was also up from the 159,000 jobs added in August. In addition, the unemployment rate fell for the second consecutive month, from 4.2 percent to 4.1 percent. With the jobs report showing persistent strength in the labor market, mortgage rates surged.

    Mike Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) pointed out that the stronger-than-expected September employment report suggests a “successful slow landing” of the American economy.

    However, the report also stokes worries that inflation “may not move in a straight line to the Fed’s 2 percent target,” he said. As such, the report “could certainly slow the expected pace of rate cuts.”

    The Federal Reserve had reduced its benchmark interest rates by 50 basis points last month, the first such rate cut since it started pushing up rates in 2022. The agency had also signaled an additional 50-point cut for this year.

    Fratantoni noted that the MBA is forecasting longer-term rates, including mortgage rates, to “remain within a relatively narrow range over the next year.”

    The positive employment report “will push mortgage rates to the top of that range, but we do expect that mortgage rates will stay close to 6 percent over the next 12 months,” he stated.

    Mortgage Rates and Housing Market

    If mortgages were to start rising again, it could dampen an already cold housing market. In the first eight months of 2024, only 25 out of every 1,000 homes in the country changed hands, which is the lowest rate in at least three decades, according to a Sept. 30 press release by Redfin.

    The real estate brokerage cited high mortgage rates as one of the key reasons for the low home turnover rate. “More than three-quarters of mortgaged U.S. homeowners have secured a rate under 5 percent, well below the rates on offer this year,” it said.

    “This has prompted many homeowners to hold off on selling and buying another home using a higher rate, a phenomenon known as the ‘lock-in effect’. Rates fell to the low 6 percent range in August, but the drop has not yet resulted in a significant uptick in sales.”

    Almost half of all U.S. homes for sale in August were on the market for at least 60 days, the highest share since August 2019, according to Redfin. Nearly seven out of ten homes sat on the market for at least 30 days.

    Redfin senior economist Sheharyar Bokhari pointed out that even though home sales usually tend to pick up when mortgage rates fall, the recent dip in rates has not triggered such a trend.

    Instead, “we are seeing the opposite—sales are dropping and homes are sitting longer on the market,” he stated. While the Fed’s rate cut in September will give buyers a confidence boost, “it remains to be seen whether sales will speed up in any meaningful way as we move into the slower Fall season.”

    In a July interview with The Epoch Times, Dutch Mendenhall, founder of RAD Diversified, a real estate investment trust, suggested that buyers with the means to purchase a home go ahead with the decision rather than adopt a wait-and-see approach.

    “If you wait, the home may be gone or the interest rates could go up again,” he stated. “I believe eventually that loans will become more affordable, and at that point, homeowners can refinance to get the lower rates.”

    Mary Prenon contributed to the report.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 19:50

  • Biden Urges Congress To Act Quickly As Disaster Relief Funding Runs Low
    Biden Urges Congress To Act Quickly As Disaster Relief Funding Runs Low

    Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    President Joe Biden urged Congress on Friday to expedite funding for the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) disaster loan program, warning that it will run out of money within weeks amid ongoing recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

    President Joe Biden speaks during a briefing on Hurricane Helene response and recovery efforts, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, on Oct. 1, 2024. Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images

    In a letter to Congress on Oct. 4, Biden warned that the SBA’s disaster loan program will run out of funding “in a matter of weeks and well before the Congress is planning to reconvene.”

    “I warned the Congress of this potential shortfall even before Hurricane Helene landed on America’s shores,” the president stated, adding that he had requested more funding for SBA “multiple times” in the past months.

    “Small businesses and individuals in affected areas depend on disaster loans as a critical lifeline during difficult times,” he said. “The Congress must act to restore this funding.”

    The president did not specify the amount needed to replenish the disaster loan program.

    The SBA offers low-interest loans to businesses, homeowners, and renters affected by declared disasters. Its loan program provides affected homeowners with up to $500,000 to repair their primary residence, and up to $2 million for businesses to cover disaster-related losses.

    In his letter, Biden stated that while the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) disaster relief fund has sufficient resources to meet its immediate needs for Hurricane Helene response efforts, it could face a shortfall by the end of the year.

    FEMA and the Department of Defense have been carrying out “critical life-saving and life-sustaining missions” due to impacts from Hurricane Helene, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Sept. 26.

    Biden said that FEMA will continue to perform its missions “within present funding levels” but urged Congress to provide additional resources.

    “Without additional funding, FEMA would be required to forego longer-term recovery activities in favor of meeting urgent needs,” the president stated.

    Biden traveled to North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia this week to tour areas severely impacted by the storm, which caused heavy flooding and widespread power outages.

    Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Oct. 2 that FEMA does not have enough money to make it through the hurricane season.

    “We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have,” Mayorkas told reporters aboard Air Force One on Oct. 2.

    Hurricane Helene barreled through the Southeast last week, making landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region. The storm hammered Florida’s Gulf Coast with record storm surges and brutal winds before pommeling the rest of the region with historic flooding, wiping out entire towns.

    More than 150,000 households have registered for FEMA assistance, according to Frank Matranga, an agency representative. That number is expected to climb as rescue and recovery efforts continue.

    Samantha Flom and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 18:40

  • Home Depot Hastily Exiting Warehouse Space, Scaling Back More Than 3 Million Sq. Feet In A Month
    Home Depot Hastily Exiting Warehouse Space, Scaling Back More Than 3 Million Sq. Feet In A Month

    File this under news that isn’t going to help the commercial real estate bubble collapse any slower…

    Home Depot is hastily exiting warehouse space, to the tune of 3.2 million square feet in a month, according to Bisnow.

    Since late August, Home Depot has put up nearly 4 million square feet of warehouse space for sublease, including a 1.3M SF Phoenix warehouse and a 1.1M SF distribution center in the Inland Empire, according to CoStar Analytics.

    While this move is part of the retailer’s strategy to cut costs by $500M by early 2024, it comes in the midst of a continued bubble in commercial real estate.

    The company, which leases 97% of its 111.5M SF warehouse space, has been scaling back its logistics network as part of its cost-cutting efforts, listing additional properties in Metro Atlanta and Chicago earlier this year.

    Home Depot Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail said last year: “We fixed our supply chain holding capacity up to absorb unplanned growth in 2020 and 2021, and we are now gradually reducing that holding capacity as transactions normalize.”

    CEO Ted Decker added: “That’s $15B-odd a year that’s out of our space, so that’s been a bit of a headwind. Everyone is expecting interest rates to come down at some point, and hopefully housing turnover would return to more historic levels.”

    The Bisnow report says that high interest rates have slowed consumer spending on big projects, with U.S. home sales down by 1.5 million units compared to historical averages.

    The Federal Reserve has since cut rates by 50 basis points and signaled more cuts could follow. Decker also hinted at plans to acquire more warehouse space in certain markets this year.

    He concluded: “While we’re largely built out on supply chain, there are still some markets that we haven’t built that building material distribution capability. These are big sites on rail lines, and there’s still some major metros that we haven’t secured that real estate.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 18:05

  • On The Jobs Report And Recession
    On The Jobs Report And Recession

    Submitted by Eric Hickman of Lantern Capital

    The strong jobs report today (+254k) caused the dam to break on what I’ve been writing about for weeks with Treasury yields. The 2-year yield is higher by 22 basis points today. With the 2-year now at 3.93%, the bond market is priced for the Fed to cut rates to 3.25% by March of 2026. This would be a 25-basis point cut at 7.5 of the 12 meetings in between now and then. This seems like fair pricing for the conditions given the Fed’s desire to slowly get rates back to neutral.

    But I’ve never seen a big pop like this be limited to just one day. I expect yields to continue rising for a while (particularly at the front-end of the yield curve) until negative economic data reasserts itself. The narrative from Austan Goolsbee, president of the Chicago Fed, and Jerome Powell is that the Fed is going to cut rates back to neutral (somewhere around 3%) with or without economic weakness. But Fed hawks are going to quickly worry about inflation after today and try to un-do the favorable financial conditions (low Treasury yields). For instance, Larry Summers said today that cutting 50 basis-points was a mistake. It wasn’t given the regularity of the business cycle, but he is a good barometer for the hawkish side of the Fed. I expect for some member of the FOMC to say a version of “don’t count on us cutting back to neutral.” If this is said, the 2-year will become un-moored. The jobs number today represents a narrative change, and it is a process to work through before rates fall again in this Treasury bull market.

    But today’s economic data doesn’t change my expectation of a recession one bit; it just suggests it is further away until more negative economic data comes along. The preconditions are set and make economic sense. The inverted yield curve, the unemployment rate rising, and Leading Economic Index have all signaled a recession is coming. Historically, if two of these signal, a recession occurs. In this cycle, all three have signaled. See this image for further detail. Soft-landings have one or none of these conditions and are pretty evident in the charts below.

    The arguments against this are that a recession hasn’t come yet, the Fed is going to lower rates before one comes, and that there are no economic imbalances to correct. Responding to the first, a recession has likely been delayed because of large fiscal deficits. The U.S. deficit to GDP in 2023 was 6.3%. The European Union, that began to cut rates the earliest of the G-7 in June, had a much-lower deficit to GDP of 3.6% in 2023. The UK, that began to cut rates in August, had a deficit of 4.4% of GDP in 2023. This correlation is too simplistic, but the point is that deficit spending buys temporary GDP growth and the U.S. has spent the most among the G-7, likely delaying the business cycle.

    Second, the Fed is not going to be able to cut blindly down to neutral (around 3%). Inflation is a concern every step of the way and the reason why the Fed can never get ahead of the business cycle. Today is a good example with Larry Summers’ comments. The Fed needs to see escalating economic weakness as they cut to make them feel comfortable about inflation. I wrote more about this here.

    In response to the third, risk-markets (i.e., the stock market) are the imbalance. The S&P 500 has returned 16.9% annualized (total return, dividends re-invested) since the Great Financial Crisis low on March 6th, 2009. It isn’t unusual for the stock market to go through 9-18 year periods with high returns like this, but it has been 15.5 years so far and with the labor market deteriorating, I think a recession is going to start a long period of mean reversion. See chart here.

    Today’s jobs number fits into the volatility of a slowly deteriorating labor market and there are plenty of examples of big jobs numbers before recessions. Looking at initially reported data (not revised), non-farm payrolls were +372k in February 1990, six-months before that recession began. Payrolls were +268k in January 2001, two months before that recession began. And payrolls were +166k in October of 2007, two months before the Great Recession began. See chart below.

    It is hard to find someone that doesn’t think this cycle will result in a soft-landing, but the time-tested signals are very clear about the opposite and the incentives to be optimistic among nearly everyone build-up the soft-landing theme into a bigger thing than it is. In a telling part of Jerome Powell’s interview with the President of the NABE (National Association of Business Economics), Ellen Zentner on Monday, Jerome Powell wouldn’t acknowledge a soft-landing,

    ZENTNER: Do you think that the 50 basis points you delivered in September. That cut, you described as a strong start. Did that cut give you more confidence in a soft landing?

    POWELL: [4-second pause] I would put it this way. It is a reflection of our confidence that inflation is moving sustainably down. Or, our growing confidence that it is moving sustainably down to 2%. You know, as I mentioned, our design overall is to achieve disinflation down to 2% without the kind of painful increase in unemployment that is often associated with disinflation processes. That’s been our goal all along. We’ve made progress towards it. We haven’t completed that task. I think you’ll see us using our tools in a way that shows our commitment to achieving that. I don’t want to make a judgement about its likelihood, I just want you to know that we are committed to using our tools to do everything we can to achieve that outcome.

    ZENTNER : Well you know economists everyday are asked for a probability of a soft-landing. I try very artfully to avoid it, but I just have high hopes.

    Think of how easy it would’ve been for him to say “yes” if he felt that way. Ellen Zentner’s response is a perfect encapsulation of how business economists feel, they try to be optimistic despite what they may see. Not only do I see a recession coming, but I’ve yet to see a credible reason why it wouldn’t. Today’s jobs number has nothing to do with it.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 17:30

  • "Hunger Games $hit": DHS Head Mayorkas Shops In Georgetown While Katrina-Like Disaster Unfolds In North Carolina 
    “Hunger Games $hit”: DHS Head Mayorkas Shops In Georgetown While Katrina-Like Disaster Unfolds In North Carolina 

    A massive shitstorm has erupted for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas after he told reporters last week that FEMA “does not have the funds” for the remainder of the Atlantic hurricane season. Meanwhile, reports suggest the agency’s resources were depleted to address Biden-Harris’ open southern border policies that facilitated the greatest migrant invasion this nation has ever seen. 

    On Sunday morning, the latest power data for the US Southeast region showed that across North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georiga, more than 400,000 customers are without power.

    Rescue operations in western North Carolina are continuing amid reports that FEMA hindered private citizens from flying aircraft and other ground-based operations to bring in supplies or conduct rescue operations. It’s just been an epic mess by the federal government. 

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    There are at least 227 deaths across six states after Hurricane Helene wiped entire towns off the face of the map in western North Carolina…

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    … DHS Mayorkas, impeached once for sparking the southern border crisis, … 

    … was spotted at a luxury clothing shop in Georgetown on Saturday afternoon by one journo from Washington Free Beacon. 

    “… the Washington Free Beacon strolling through the mens section of Sid Mashburn, a high-end menswear store, surrounded by security. He appeared to purchase some items at the store, where suit jackets go for as much as three thousand dollars.” 

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    It appears Mayorkas wasn’t in the emergency control room on Saturday, directing staff to address the twin crises unfolding across the nation. If that’s weather-related disasters (and a looming one for next week) or migrant crisis blowing up for the Biden-Harris team, Mayorkas was out shopping for luxury clothes.

    Read more about the incoming storm… 

    “He’s shopping for fancy clothes while people are suffering from hurricane damage. This is some Hunger Games shit,” Elon Musk wrote on X while commenting on Washington Free Beacon’s Joe Gabriel Simonson’s X post, who first published the image of the DHS head walking around the luxury shop with a bag of high-end designer shirts. 

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    The Katrina-like disaster unfolding for Democrats exposed a stark reality, just 29 days before the presidential elections, how Biden-Harris prioritized non-citizens over citizens.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 16:55

  • Katrina-Like Disaster Unfolds For Biden-Harris As New Round Of Tropical Trouble Takes Aim At Florida
    Katrina-Like Disaster Unfolds For Biden-Harris As New Round Of Tropical Trouble Takes Aim At Florida

    Update (Sunday):

    Milton was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane on Sunday as it churns in the Gulf of Mexico and poses a major threat to the western coast of Florida. 

    Latest forecast models.

    Massive evacuations are underway across Florida. 

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    *    *    * 

    Hurricane Helene has passed, leaving a trail of destruction across the US Southeast, and the Biden-Harris administration’s relief response with FEMA has been nothing short of a massive failure. Meanwhile, another storm is brewing in the Gulf of Mexico, which could potentially usher in another round of tropical trouble for the US East Coast next week. 

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    “Development of this system is expected, and a tropical depression or storm is likely to form later today or on Sunday while it moves slowly eastward over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico,” the National Hurricane Center wrote in a Saturday morning update, adding, “By early next week, the system is forecast to move faster eastward or northeastward across the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico where additional strengthening is likely.”

    NHC continued, “Interests on the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, the Florida Peninsula, the Florida Keys, and the northwestern Bahamas should monitor the progress of this system.” 

    Formation chances are extremely high over the next 48 hours… 

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    Weather models show a consensus view of the storm’s potential track over central Florida. 

    Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters last week that FEMA “does not have the funds” to see Americans through the rest of this Atlantic hurricane season. The federal agency drained the funds on supporting millions of illegal aliens the Biden-Harris rolled out the red carpet to via open southern borders. 

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    Also, FEMA’s botched response is another shitstorm playing out for the Biden-Harris administration.

    Just yesterday…

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    “Joe Biden was at the beach when the hurricane came ashore. VP Harris was raising money w/ celebrities before staging a plane photo op. I promise you if a Republican were in the WH there would be no political restraint, just as there was none after Katrina,” CNN pundit Scott Jennings wrote on X. 

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    The Biden-Harris team of far-left radicals is overwhelmed by the growing list of disasters. Another hurricane to hit the US Southeast, or if WW3 erupted in the Middle East, would prove devastating because the people in charge are not actually leaders but, instead, Marxist propagandists. That’s why the world is on fire. That’s why FEMA drained funds for illegals and prioritized globalist policies over America First. 

    Americans are waking up in droves just weeks before the election about the Biden-Harris admin (Rich Men North Of Richmond) inability to lead a nation. 

    A Katrina-like disaster has unfolded for the Biden-Harris admin, and things could worsen if another storm strikes the US Southeast.

    Remember Obama in 2008…

    Well, the tables have flipped. Democrats are now in the hot seat. 

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    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 16:48

  • 6 Things to Watch In The Upcoming Supreme Court Term
    6 Things to Watch In The Upcoming Supreme Court Term

    Authored by Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The Supreme Court is expected to start its 2024–2025 term after a blockbuster year of considering contentious cases and challenges to longstanding precedent.

    Already, the court has accepted petitions related to hot-button topics including gender, ghost guns, immigration, pornography, and e-cigarettes. The term starts on Oct. 7.

    (L–R) U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Elena Kagan pose for their official portrait at the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court in Washington on Oct. 7, 2022. Alex Wong/Getty Images

    As the session begins, here are some potential developments to look out for. Besides new legal questions, legal issues from the prior term could resurface and help shape decisions on new cases in the 2024–2025 term.

    Trump Back at Supreme Court?

    Last term, the Supreme Court heard several cases related to former President Donald Trump, resulting in landmark rulings on immunity and the disqualification clause under the 14th Amendment.

    The immunity ruling in Trump v. United States held that presidents enjoy different levels of immunity from criminal prosecution. That ruling stemmed from an appeal Trump filed in his election interference case brought by special counsel Jack Smith in the D.C. Circuit.

    Both the immunity decision and another related to Jan. 6 defendants could return to the Supreme Court as Trump’s legal team raises their arguments in Washington.

    In Fischer v. United States, the Supreme Court restricted the use of an Enron-era obstruction charge in Jan. 6 cases. This obstruction charge was leveled against Trump in the federal election case. On Oct. 3, Trump submitted a brief asking District Judge Tanya Chutkan to remove that portion of the indictment based on Fischer.

    So far, Chutkan has set a timeline through the beginning of November with opportunities for Trump’s legal team to make arguments on immunity and the special counsel.

    A status conference on Sept. 5 indicated that Trump and Chutkan would disagree about how she should apply the Supreme Court’s decision to Smith’s superseding indictment—making an appeal likely. If the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agrees with Chutkan’s eventual decision, Trump will likely appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.

    Trump is also expected to file a motion in D.C. court arguing that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was illegal. District Judge Aileen Cannon found Smith’s appointment was unauthorized and dismissed the classified documents case in Florida, but her ruling is not binding in the D.C. Circuit, where there is a previous ruling to the contrary.

    Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks in the library at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on March 4, 2024. Alon Skuy/Getty Images

    Smith has also filed a large immunity brief, indicating the appeals on that issue could be complex. Trump’s team is set to reply with a very large brief of their own.

    Smith has appealed Cannon’s decision. With the appointment question being challenged in two circuits, this could create a circuit split, or differing legal rulings on the same issue in different circuits, which often prompts the Supreme Court to take up the matter to resolve the conflict.

    If Trump wins reelection, each of the federal criminal cases will likely be withdrawn.

    It’s unclear how the New York case, which involves state charges, will conclude, but Trump has already vowed to appeal. The state-level prosecution in Georgia could also reach the Supreme Court as it’s expected to face immunity-related objections from Trump.

    Calls for Reform

    Regardless of who wins the presidency, Democrats will likely continue pressing for reform to the nation’s highest court—attracting further scrutiny to the justices and amplifying the tension surrounding hot-button issues like gender.

    Recent polling from the University of Pennsylvania indicated that Democrats may be able to gain traction with proposals for term limits and ethics reform. Court-packing, or adding more justices to the court, polled relatively low with just 3 in 10 Americans supporting such a proposal.

    Democrats didn’t make much headway on their proposals in recent terms, but that could change depending on who wins Congress and the presidency in the 2024 elections.

    Besides court-packing and term limits, a binding ethics code has been floated by Democrats. Whatever passes could come before the Supreme Court itself. The court already implemented its own code of ethics in 2023 but faced criticism for not including an effective enforcement mechanism.

    Since then, justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan have backed some kind of ethics enforcement. It’s unclear, however, how court as a whole might rule on something like this. Justice Samuel Alito, who has been a target of Democrats’ ethical concerns, previously told The Wall Street Journal: “No provision in the Constitution gives [Congress] the authority to regulate the Supreme Court—period.”

    U.S. Supreme Court associate justices Samuel Alito (L) and Elana Kagan testify about the court’s budget during a hearing of the House Appropriations Committee’s Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee in Washington on March 7, 2019. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    Reforming the Supreme Court could prove more difficult than other reforms advanced by Congress. Article III of the Constitution, which allows judges to hold office “during good Behaviour,” has long been interpreted to offer life tenure.

    Imposing term limits would likely require an amendment to the Constitution. Besides proposing term limits, both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have advanced the idea of a constitutional amendment that bars presidents from enjoying immunity from criminal prosecution.

    Guns

    So far, the court has said it will take at least one major firearm-related case called Garland v. VanDerStok, which surrounds the government’s attempt to regulate so-called “ghost guns.” The term refers to firearms that are untraceable, because they lack serial numbers and are made outside of the normal process involving a licensed manufacturer.

    Oral argument for that case is set for Oct. 8, months after the Supreme Court issued its decision on bump stocks, which are accessories added to guns to increase the rate of fire.

    Both that case (Garland v. Cargill) and the VanDerStok case involve the DOJ, through the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) attempting to interpret decades-old laws to prohibit certain products.

    In the bump stocks case, a 6–3 majority held that ATF exceeded its authority in outlawing bump stocks based on statutory phrasing in federal law.

    The VanDerStok case focuses on the Gun Control Act of 1968, which contains language about firearms, frames, and receivers that ATF interpreted to cover weapons kits and incomplete frames and receivers. Unlike the court’s decision in prior gun cases, such as a case last term surrounding gun rights for domestic abusers, this case focuses on statutory interpretation rather than judging how a government’s action aligns with the Second Amendment.

    The solicitor general’s brief expressed particular concern about how guns constructed from these parts were able to evade law enforcement protection because they didn’t follow the Act’s requirements, including providing serial numbers.

    It also expressed concerns over the impact on minors. “Minors in particular ‘have discovered the ease with which they can acquire the parts for a ghost gun’ and ‘have been buying, building[,] and shooting the homemade guns with alarming frequency,’” the brief read, quoting a Washington Post article on the subject.

    Two Texas residents—Jennifer VanDerStok and Michael Andren—along with Tactical Machining, a producer and retailer, and the advocacy group Firearms Policy Coalition, sued ATF.

    A person holds a 3D-printed ghost gun during a statewide gun buyback event held by the office of the New York State Attorney General in the Brooklyn borough of New York on April 29, 2023. Yuki Iwamura/AFP via Getty Images

    VanDerStok and her co-respondents told the Supreme Court that ATF’s definition isn’t logical and that the agency is attempting to regulate items that aren’t frames or receivers.

    The court has just started to announce the cases it’s taking, meaning that there are plenty more—including gun cases—it could decide to hear. It could also take up a challenge to Maryland’s “assault weapons ban,” which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld as not violating the Second Amendment.

    On Oct. 4, the Supreme Court also agreed to take up the Mexican government’s claims that U.S. gun companies have engaged in business practices, such as failing to impose sales restrictions, that benefitted cartels in Mexico. A district court ruled against Mexico but that decision was later reversed in the First Circuit, prompting the gun companies to appeal to the Supreme Court.

    Pornography and E-Cigarettes

    Youth public health is coming up in two other major cases—one involving the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) refusal to approve flavored e-cigarette products and another challenging Texas’ law requiring age verification on pornographic sites.

    Industry groups have brought legal challenges to those decisions with both of their cases reaching the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The Supreme Court said it would take up both cases, although the dates for oral arguments haven’t been announced.

    The pornography case is Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, as in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has accused the industry of trying “to keep minors in their audience.” The Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for adult entertainment companies, described Texas’ law as “ invasive and burdensome, with significant privacy risks for adult consumers.”

    It’s unclear how the two cases will be resolved. Nearly 20 states have passed laws requiring age verification for pornographic platforms. The Supreme Court’s decision could change how lower courts evaluate First Amendment challenges to porn restrictions.

    The Coalition is arguing that the Fifth Circuit erred in applying a lower standard of review, or requiring less from the government in showing its restriction on speech was justified.

    Erin Hawley, who serves as senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, said the Supreme Court will likely focus on that question.

    A worker organizes boxes of e-cigarettes and vape devices in a local store in Jersey City, N.J., on Jan. 2, 2020. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images

    “Oral argument in this case will be very interesting,” she said during an event at the Heritage Foundation on Oct. 2. “I think it’s really just the tip of the iceberg as well. As we know from the Supreme Court’s decisions in Netchoice and the other cases—how states grapple with social media companies while also protecting First Amendment freedoms is something that … will be on the Supreme Court’s plate in the next few years.”

    In the e-cigarette case (FDA v. Wages and White Lion), the Fifth Circuit ruled in favor of the industry. The appeals court reasoned that the Food and Drug Administration’s rule violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) by, among other things, not considering the manufacturers’ marketing plans or giving them fair notice before allegedly changing its approach to approval.

    On Oct. 4, the court said it would take another e-cigarette case from the Fifth Circuit—this time questioning whether a manufacturer erred in how it filed its lawsuit against the FDA.

    Administrative Law

    The APA, passed in 1946 after the New Deal era, was critical to one of the court’s most controversial decisions in its prior term that overturned the decades-old Chevron precedent.

    Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo that courts had been judging agency decisions based on a misinterpretation of the APA. The Chevron doctrine required courts to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of law when there were ambiguities.

    Kagan’s dissent said the majority “disdains restraint, and grasps for power” by overturning the decades-old Chevron precedent.

    Dan Greenberg, general counsel at Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank, disagreed.

    “Loper Bright really indicates a stronger and stronger desire by the Supreme Court to instruct every other part of government to stay in its lane,” Greenberg told The Epoch Times.

    Greenberg said he thought it was “highly likely” the court would grant certiorari, or agree to take on, Consumers’ Research v. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). That case questions whether Congress unconstitutionally delegated its power to raise revenue to the FCC.

    Hawley suggested that Loper Bright could also impact a case being heard in October involving the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Water Act.

    In City and County of San Francisco v. EPA, city officials said the federal agency’s regulations for wastewater discharge permit holders are too vague to follow.

    “I would imagine that post-Loper Bright that San Francisco will win this one,” Hawley said.

    The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on July 29, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

    Gender

    In the 2023–2024 term, the court took on many hot-button issues but seemed intent on leaving one, in particular, gender, for another term. This summer, the justices took the long-awaited step of taking up a case on gender, which touches on various aspects of federal law.

    In that case, U.S. v. Skrmetti, the Biden administration is challenging Tennessee’s ban on gender transition procedures for minors. The administration contends that Tennessee’s ban is a form of discrimination that violates the equal protection clause.

    The case is likely to set a major constitutional precedent and be one of the most watched for in the upcoming term.

    It will also present an opportunity for the court and its various justices to clarify the stances they took in a similar case, Bostock v. Clayton County, from 2020. In that case, Justice Neil Gorsuch joined a majority of the court in holding that employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity violated Title VII’s prohibition on sex-based discrimination.

    Its decision was rooted in the idea that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity was ultimately based on sex.

    That decision has played a role in lower court decisions on gender-related medical procedures, as well as litigation over Title IX, or the civil rights statute prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education.

    Activists rally to call on President Joe Biden to finalize a new Title IX rule to help protect victims of sexual assault and LGBTQ students on college campuses, in Lafayette Park near the White House on Dec. 5, 2023. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

    Earlier this year, the Biden administration prompted a flood of lawsuits when it passed an Education Department rule interpreting Title IX to apply to sexual orientation and preferred gender identity. Conservatives have argued that doing so wrongly forces women to compete with men in athletics and share spaces like locker rooms with them.

    The court ultimately declined to take up the issue in August when the justices refused to grant the Biden administration emergency relief from blocks that the Fifth and Sixth circuits placed on the rule. Conservatives have also asked for the court to take up two other Title IX cases originating in Idaho and West Virginia.

    Whatever the court decides, it could impact how the American legal system views gender and its implications in a wide range of contexts.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 16:20

  • Want To Win An Election? Run On Cheap Energy
    Want To Win An Election? Run On Cheap Energy

    Authored by Michael O’Sullivan via RealClearEnergy,

    Ah, election season. That festive time when politicians suddenly have new ideas about how to make our lives better. This year the limelight shines brightly on our revered American economy, which is presently either good or bad, depending on whom you ask. But it’s election season, so voters rule and the experts can take a powder. And that’s why today we have both presidential candidates proposing economic policies that make economists wince and voters cheer.

    The remarkable gap between experts and ordinary people is nicely illustrated in a recent Wall Street Journal poll targeting economic policy ideas from both campaigns. The Journal asked 750 registered voters what they think. Then they commissioned the University of Chicago’s Clark Center to get a reading from 39 “top academic experts.” The policies in question include things like tax-free tips and Social Security income, tariffs on imported goods, penalties for price gouging, free money for first-time homebuyers or parents of newborns, and caps on various drug prices.

    The experts hate much of this because it runs counter to their preferred economic theories. But regular folks, whose frame of reference comes mainly from the realities of daily living, gave an average 63% thumbs-up. The starkest contrast comes with tax elimination, where voters are nearly 80% for and economists are about 90% against. Makes you wonder if we’re not living in parallel universes.

    At this point much could be said about economic philosophy and lessons from history. But instead let’s think about this: roughly half of this country votes conservative, which means they typically don’t like big government. But according to this survey, around three quarters of all voters favor economic policies that involve more government spending. That means something like one half of conservative voters are willing to suspend their principles in the interest of helping people get through tough times.

    I realize I’m playing fast and loose with the numbers, but it does indeed look like a society in economic distress — where relatively small numbers become meaningful to many households. Perhaps that’s why nearly 8 of 10 American adults live paycheck to paycheck and more than 20 million households are behind on their utility bills. This is where even the staunchest Jeffersonian is tempted to look to Uncle Sam for help.

    And yet we have that pesky free lunch myth. Milton Friedman described it as “the belief that somehow or other government can spend money at no one’s expense.” It doesn’t require higher math to know that more government spending brings relief only at the expense of more problems. The piper always gets paid.

    But what if there were a way to help people without more government spending? What if we could give something to some people without first taking money from other people? Surely that would bring tears of joy to both the ill-informed voters and the enlightened experts.

    If 20 million households are in arrears on their utility bills, and so many are living paycheck to paycheck, then there must be many more who are not behind but still struggling to pay. And we know the average cost of electricity in the U.S. has been rising steadily, up nearly 30% since just 2019. In a society where a few dollars mean a lot, many people each month must decide between the light bill, the rent, and food.

    So, here’s an idea: what if we simply bring down the cost of electricity? It helps everyone and it doesn’t require more government (i.e., taxpayer) money. It only requires the government stop forcing a premature “transition” that has only served to make energy more expensive and less reliable.

    If we want to get crazy, then Uncle Sam could take some of the big money he throws at wind and solar (which come up short) and invest in something with a better pay-off, like responsibly sourced natural gas, which is cheap, reliable, and reasonably clean. Or maybe put a few chips on nuclear, which is safer and cleaner than you might think. If Uncle Sam were really concerned about return on investment, he’d realign his portfolio. At least that wouldn’t be new spending — and it would bring down energy costs more quickly.

    Imagine if a presidential candidate stood up and said, “Listen folks — here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to put a couple hundred bucks in everyone’s pocket. Every month. Forever.”

    Point me to the nearest voting booth.

    Michael O’Sullivan is Program Director and COO for Blue Energy Nation, a non-profit committed to educating young people on energy realities. He is also a popular podcast host and an advocate for smart energy choices.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 15:10

  • Did Biden-Harris Divert FEMA Funds For Luxury Migrant Apartments With Flat-Screen TVs?
    Did Biden-Harris Divert FEMA Funds For Luxury Migrant Apartments With Flat-Screen TVs?

    FEMA’s entanglement with the Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous open southern border policies by diverting storm relief funds ($1.4 billion, according to NYPost) for illegal and legal aliens may have undermined the federal agency’s ability to effectively manage emergencies, such as the Katrina-like disaster unfolding in the US Southeast. 

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    Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas dropped the bombshell last week: FEMA “does not have the funds” to see Americans through the rest of this Atlantic hurricane season. The federal agency drained the funds by prioritizing taxpayer funds for illegal and legal aliens versus US citizens as the Biden-Harris globalist team rolled out the red carpet to anyone, even terrorists, via the open southern borders.

    “Connect the dots, if you can,” Tim Murtaugh, an adviser to former President Trump’s campaign, wrote on X, adding, “DHS says FEMA might not have enough cash to help people through hurricane season. But in 2 years of a new Biden-Harris program, they’ve spent $1 BILLION on housing and other services for migrants.”

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    Shedding a whole heck of a lot of color on the situation, Savanah Hernandez, a reporter for Turning Point USA, wrote on X that she has uncovered some of the “first looks” inside fully furnished luxury apartments for migrants that received free rent and utilities for two years. 

    Hernandez wrote in a note on The Post Millennial: 

    The Brunswick Landing apartments in Maine sparked controversy earlier this year when it was discovered that homeless migrants in the area were getting the opportunity to live in the units rent-free for up to two years. Migrants living in the apartments shared that not only is the rent-free, the utilities are paid and we got an inside look at the furnished apartments that would run the average American about $2,300 dollars. –

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    “This apartment is in the same county which received $6.1 mill in funding from the FEMA program that spent $1 billion on housing migrants,” Hernandez pointed out on X. 

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    She continued:

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    And this.

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    Biden-Harris administration has prioritized illegal and legal aliens over citizens. The botched relief response in the US Southeast exemplifies this great failure unfolding in a Katrina-like event.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 14:35

  • The Debate Around Fluoride Is Changing: What It Means For Your Drinking Water
    The Debate Around Fluoride Is Changing: What It Means For Your Drinking Water

    Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    More regulations on fluoride in drinking water may be coming due to the new court order last week, experts say.

    Fluoride, commonly added to drinking water to prevent cavities, has come under scrutiny.

    osonmez2/Shutterstock

    Several cities have now stopped adding fluoride to their drinking water. But whether the whole landscape will change depends on what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will do next.

    How Much Fluoride in Water Might Be Safe?

    On Sept. 24, U.S. Federal Judge Edward Chen ordered the EPA to strengthen its rules around fluoride in drinking water.

    The decision was made in light of The National Toxicology Program’s (NTP) report in August, which found that 1.5 milligrams of fluoride in drinking water is sufficient to pose neurodevelopmental risks in children.

    The EPA calculates a margin of exposure to determine a safety buffer between the exposure and hazard levels. For fluoride, the exposure rate should be one-tenth of the hazard level, lawyer Michael Connett said.

    Since the NTP’s report found 1.5 milligrams per liter to be potentially risky, exposure risks could start from 0.15 milligrams per liter, Connett added.

    Americans’ current exposure level of 0.7 milligram per liter—”the level presently considered “optimal” in the United States – poses an unreasonable risk of reduced IQ in children,” Chen wrote in his ruling.

    Currently, the EPA sets the maximum level for fluoride at 4 milligrams per liter, significantly higher than the risk level cited in the recent study.

    What Might the EPA Do?

    The EPA can either appeal the judge’s decision or take action to regulate fluoride, Connett, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs, told The Epoch Times. The EPA has 60 days to appeal the judge’s decision.

    The agency is in the process of reviewing the judge’s decision, Jeffrey Landis, a media representative for the EPA, told The Epoch Times. He referenced the court’s opinion, which did not conclude “with certainty that fluoridated water is injurious to public health.”

    Should the EPA accept the judge’s orders, the agency would need to start a rulemaking process, John Strait Applegate, a law professor at Indiana University, told The Epoch Times.

    “[This would] mean that it necessarily will issue a rule,” Applegate said. “It could go through a thorough analysis and decide that the federal judge was wrong and there is not enough reasonable risk.”

    The lawsuit focused on a fairly narrow risk of fluoride exposure and developmental problems; however, the EPA would need to consider all risks and benefits such as the dental benefits of adding fluoride, he noted.

    The agency may also find other risks related to fluoride and decide to issue warnings on fluoridated water consumption.

    Connett hopes that the EPA may issue a rule to ban the addition of fluoride to water.

    Towns Going Off Fluoride

    Some towns may choose to stop adding fluoride. This is legal since states and cities just need to make sure that they do not exceed the EPA’s fluoride limits.

    In the wake of the ruling, at least three towns have stopped adding fluoride to their drinking water.

    Somers and Yorktown in New York, and the City of Abilene in Texas, are among the first U.S. towns to halt fluoridation after the judge’s ruling.

    “I would not be surprised if cities on their own made that decision,” Amy Hardberger, director at the Center for Water Law and Policy at the Texas Tech University, told The Epoch Times. “Cities that make that decision, maybe were already leaning in that direction,” she added.

    Yorktown in recent years stopped fluoridating due to needing to upgrade its water system. The town resumed fluoridating in August 2024.

    Resuming fluoridation prompted the town’s supervisor to closely follow the EPA court case. “I said about two weeks ago, there is this case. We have been following it,” Ed Lachterman, Yorktown’s supervisor, told The Epoch Times.

    “So when the ruling came out, someone had sent it to me. I sent it to our town attorney to look at. We both read it through. We both [were] kind of shocked, because when you look at the judge’s ruling it’s quite decisive.”

    “I was pretty ambivalent to all this before, but when I’m hearing it’s an unreasonable risk to our children, that really gives me a pause,” Lachterman said.

    Somers gets water downstream from Yorktown so stopping fluoridation in Yorktown would also do the same to Somers.

    “I spoke with their supervisor when I was contemplating the decision, and he felt wholeheartedly that that we should be doing this for his residents as well, meaning, stop it for their safety. So we were on the same page there,” he added.

    State-Level Considerations

    These considerations may be less applicable to other cities that heavily rely on fluoride to help control dental problems in their population.

    For example, the city of San Antonio did not add fluoride to their drinking system until 2002. Since most in the city were of low socioeconomic background, fluoride was added to the drinking water to ensure a dental safety net, Hardberger said.

    Some states like California and Illinois have state mandates to add fluoride to their drinking water. For these states, cities would not be able to stop adding fluoride without overturning prior regulations.

    States can set their own limits on fluoride, provided it is lower than the requirements of the EPA.

    More Research to Come

    This new order will likely prompt more public attention and research on the topic, Hardberger said.

    Looking at the NTP report, which only found an association between fluoride exposure and neurological risks, the exact level at which fluoride becomes risky is still unclear, she said.

    “The challenge with anything like this is all about quantity. Almost anything is toxic in too high quantities,” Hardberger said.

    An Oct. 4 Cochrane review, considered the gold standard in evidence-based health care, found that the addition of fluoride to drinking water may have fewer health benefits as compared to before.

    Their review of recent studies suggests that fluoride in water was linked to a slight reduction in tooth decay in children’s baby teeth and a marginal increase in children without tooth decay.

    The review also found that the dental health benefits of adding fluoride to drinking water may be smaller now than before fluoride toothpaste was widely available.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 14:00

  • "We Spread Misinformation": Photojournalist Lights Himself On Fire Near White House 
    “We Spread Misinformation”: Photojournalist Lights Himself On Fire Near White House 

    Updated: CBS News has reached out and informed us that Mena Jr. is not associated with any CBS owned station or CBS News.

    A photojournalist from Phoenix, Arizona, lost his marbles in Washington, DC Saturday evening near the White House at the Black Lives Matter Plaza, setting himself on fire while screaming, “I am a journalist. We spread the misinformation.”

    Sam Mena Jr., who claims in his resume to be a photojournalist for KPHO CBS 5 News and PBS – which CBS News has denied – set his left arm on fire while attempting self-immolation during a pro-Palestinian rally near the White House. He shouted, “Free Palestine!”, and “I’m a journalist and I’m ashamed! We spread the misinformation!” 

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    Mena’s X account flies two flags.

    Just before the incident, the MSM photojournalist posted a lengthy blog post to his website, telling anyone who read the post exactly what he was going to do:

    “To the 10 thousand children in Gaza that have lost a limb in this conflict, I give my left arm to you. I pray my voice was able to raise up yours, and that your smiles never disappear.” 

    What’s very concerning is that the MSM photojournalist, who possibly had a few screws loose, was just feet from former President Trump during a press conference in Arizona late last month. 

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    So Mena shouted “We spread the misinformation”… yet not a fan of X’s ‘free spech’….? Confusing. 

    Mena’s website overall shows he has become disenchanted by news coverage of MSM’s Israel-Gaza war. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 13:25

  • Uncertainty Clouds North Carolina's 2024 Election After Helene: Here's What We Know
    Uncertainty Clouds North Carolina’s 2024 Election After Helene: Here’s What We Know

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

    Officials in North Carolina warned that voting in some parts of the battleground state might be impacted due to Hurricane Helene’s impacts.

    During Helene, critical infrastructure in large swaths of western North Carolina and especially parts of the Appalachian Mountain areas were damaged or totally destroyed.

    A man casts a vote during a special election in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District on in Charlotte, North Carolina, Sept. 10, 2019. Sean Rayford/Getty Images

    “There may be polling places impacted by mudslides, there may be polling places inaccessible because of damaged roads, and there may be polling places with trees that have fallen on them,” Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, told NPR on Tuesday.

    How Many Voters Impacted?

    According to the North Carolina elections board website, five county boards of elections were closed as of Thursday morning. That includes Avery, Buncombe, Mitchell, Watauga, and Yancey counties, it shows.

    In Avery, Buncombe, and Watauga counties, elections staff are working or taking calls. The status of Mitchell and Yancey counties is not clear as the elections website lists them as “closed” with no other details.

    The website also includes a breakdown by party among registered voters in the 25 counties designated as disaster zones. Some 480,000 voters are registered as Republican and 292,000 as Democratic.

    Another 490,000 are unaffiliated with either major party, the elections website shows. Around 10,000 people are registered with third parties in the affected areas.

    Key Dates

    North Carolina’s voter registration deadline for the coming election is Oct. 11, or 25 days before the Nov. 4 election, although some voters can register in person at early voting sites during the early voting interval, lasting Oct. 17 to Nov. 2, according to the elections board website.

    For mail-in voters, a county board of elections has to receive a completed voter registration application no later than 20 days before the general or primary election, the election board says. Meanwhile, the deadline to request an absentee ballot in the state is 5 p.m. ET on the Tuesday before Election Day, which falls on Oct. 29. The deadline to return a mail-in ballot is 7:30 p.m. ET on Election Day itself.

    A tracking website provided by the University of Florida’s Election Lab shows that about 16,000 people have already cast early votes in the state. All of them are mail-in ballots.

    Expected to Be Close

    North Carolina is expected to be a key swing state in the 2024 election, coming four years after then-President Donald Trump, a Republican, narrowly defeated then-Democratic candidate Joe Biden by more than 70,000 votes, or 1.3 percent.

    The Cook Political Report moved North Carolina to “toss-up” for the 2024 election between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris in August. Recent polls in the state have shown the two candidates are neck-in-neck with one another, it noted.

    Both Harris and Trump have made numerous stops to the Tar Heel State this year.

    ‘Daunting’ Level of Uncertainty

    On Tuesday, Brinson Bell, the state election director, described the storm as causing a “daunting” level of uncertainty, with early in-person voting scheduled to start in just over two weeks on Oct. 17. Still, she said the state is prepared to help voters navigate the emergency.

    “We’ve battled through hurricanes and tropical storms and still held safe and secure elections, and we will do everything in our power to do so again,” Brinson Bell told reporters. “Mountain people are strong, and the election people who serve them are resilient and tough, too.”

    Federal Officials, National Guard Deployed

    More than 6,700 Army and Air National Guard members have been deployed to areas that were hard-hit by Hurricane Helene last month, while a federal official confirmed that more than 5,000 federal employees are responding.

    Some 6,700 guardsmen from 16 states were activated, with more than 1,100 members being sent to North Carolina, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) said in a statement.

    Frank Matranga, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told reporters earlier this week that federal agencies have sent 5,000 personnel to help with the response in the southern United States, including more than 1,500 FEMA staff members.

    “I cannot thank enough all of the people across this country, across the federal family, across private and nonprofit sectors that are dedicating their time and energy to help the people in impacted areas and especially help the people of Western North Carolina,” Matranga said in a news conference. “We know it’s a big job and we know there’s still work to do, but we are making steady progress.”

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 12:50

  • "The 40-Year Bull Market In Bonds Ended": Exclusive ZH Debate With Fleckenstein, Rosenberg, Bianco
    “The 40-Year Bull Market In Bonds Ended”: Exclusive ZH Debate With Fleckenstein, Rosenberg, Bianco

    Even for dollar bears, U.S. Treasury Bonds – now yielding over 4% on the 1-year – are beginning to look appealing. But are they a safe long-term play? Legendary short-seller Bill Fleckenstein hosted ZeroHedge’s first remote debate with notorious bond bull David Rosenberg and macro researcher Jim Bianco.

    Enjoy the full debate here, and read below for the highlights.

    Bianco’s opening argument:

    “I have been of the opinion that the long-term economic cycle turned in 2020. That the 40-year bull market in bonds ended in August of 2020 when the 10-year yield hit 51 basis points on closing.”

    “That cycle corresponded with a financial crisis and a recession around the shutdown-restart of the economy with Covid in 2020. I believe that every time you see a financial crisis and a recession – and we had both – the economy changes.“

    “Coming out of that we are now in a period of higher nominal growth, stickier inflation at around 3%. First move in interest rates was from 0 to 5%. That was extraordinarily painful for any bond investor because you had no coupon to cushion you. The total return losses were among the worst ever records. But now we’re on the backside of that. We’re at a 5% yield.”

    Bianco predicts that interest rates along the yield curve will settle in the 4 to 5% range. They currently sit around 3.5%.

    “We’re going to overstimulate and we’re going to see an inflation problem in the back half of ‘25, and the bond market will start sniffing that out well before that.”

    Rosie’s opener:

    “If you look at the chart, there’s nothing sticky about inflation. It’s come down almost as fast as it went up.”

    “I don’t know so much about Jim’s comment that we’ve seen some big secular shift,” he continued. “We had a severe depletion in the supply of labor [due to the pandemic] at the same time when we had no productivity growth. So we had a very inelastic supply curve for a period of about 18-24 months and it bumped against all the rampant fiscal stimulus and monetary stimulus.”

    “In fairly short order, inflation goes from 0 to 9%.”

    Rosenberg sees the COVID stimulus as having largely worn off. He’s now noticing a rapidly increasing labor supply along with rising productivity while demand has not kept up… “an absolute inflation killer.”

    Where is inflation headed?

    According to Rosenberg, pressure from the lockdowns forced businesses to “digitize and automate and become Amazon or you’re going to go under.” This trend is responsible for the productivity boost as firms cut labor costs and became more efficient.

    Meanwhile, Rosenberg suggests that a “One-Party Rule” – wherein either the republicans or democrats sweep both the Presidency and Congress – is a black swan event that could bring inflation back, as both parties are addicted to spending. He also predicted increasing oil prices and shipping disruptions “if the war really turns ugly” between Israel and Iran.

    Of note, Iran is the 9th largest oil producer in the world, pumping 4 million barrels daily, and 3rd largest natural gas producer.

    Bianco countered that inflation is here to stay due to housing prices — on a per square footage basis still increasing despite lower sales volume – driven by increased immigration as well as fiscal spending, which he sees no sign of slowing down regardless of party.

    “At 23 or 24% of GDP, we are currently spending more now than did in previous recessions expect for COVID and the financial crisis [of 2008]. You look at any recession other than those, the current level of government spending is higher now than at the peak of any of those recessions.”

    “That alone should probably keep the inflation rate sticky because of the massive demand push that you’ll get from the government.”

    “Animal Spirits” in the Bond Market

    While Rosenberg stated strongly that the bond market is “just math,” Bianco and Fleckenstein questioned whether bond traders are susceptible to the same emotional swings as equity traders.

    “Please explain to me negative interest rates,” Bianco asked. “And why bond managers were willing to buy negative interest rates?”

    Rosie: “Negative interest rates were perpetuated by Central Banks.”

    Bianco: “Nobody forced my managers to buy negative interest rates.”

    Fed Cutting Cycle

    Fleckenstein highlighted the unusual sell-off in the 10-year after the Fed cut the FFR by 50 basis points (unusual because lower Fed rates typically beget lower outer yield curve rates).

    “Happens almost all the time,” said Rosenberg, citing several examples in recent history. “There’s always an initial knee-jerk risk-on trade after the first cut. This is actually not abnormal at all.”

    But is Fed policy so thoroughly telegraphed in advance that its effect on markets is largely inert? “Everybody expects interest rates to go down because they’ve been told over and over that the Fed is going to cut rates hundreds of basis points over the next year,” Bianco said, pointing to the 2-year/FFR spread at records lows (meaning the 2-year is pre-emptively leading the FFR in the downward direction at one of its largest margins in history – ie… more cuts).

    “It’s all priced in…“

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 10/06/2024 – 12:23

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Oct 06

Today’s News 6th October 2024

  • As Unrest In Communist China Grows, So Does Its Aggression On The World Stage
    As Unrest In Communist China Grows, So Does Its Aggression On The World Stage

    Authored by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times,

    At this point, China’s declining economic situation is well documented. The damage is too large to cover up with propaganda, and the Chinese people know it. Even the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) 75th anniversary was austere. Negative economic factors have been building for years.

    China was already having problems in 2018 and 2019 with the Trump administration’s imposition of steep tariffs on Chinese goods. But the COVID-19 pandemic and the CCP’s extreme “zero-COVID” three-year lockdown period made China’s economic downturn much worse.

    China Is Being Tested

    As we approach the last quarter of 2024, the CCP is being tested by unprecedented domestic economic conditions. As a result, civil unrest is 18 percent higher than last year. The slowdown has many facets, of course. We’ll name just a few in this space.

    One big factor is the real estate sector, which is about 30 percent of GDP. It continues to crater, and at the time of this writing, there is no recovery in sight. Home prices and sales continue to decline. What’s more, Chinese consumers are buying less, with consumer spending making up just 38 percent of GDP. By contrast, that figure is 60–70 percent in developed countries.

    Sloth and Disillusion

    Not unexpectedly, unemployment among China’s youth (ages 16–24) had been at least 21 percent and likely higher when the CCP stopped publishing unemployment figures in June 2023. Then, in December of that year, the CCP released new statistics from a new method of measuring youth unemployment, which did not include students. That new approach dropped that figure down to 14.9 percent, but that’s still almost three times higher than China’s national rate of 5.1 percent.

    High jobless rates for young people hinder future growth potential and have added to the “lie flat” trend amongst many in China’s new generation, who have little hope of or ambition to obtain the lifestyle that their parents enjoyed.

    Sloth and disillusion are hardly the stuff that strong economies are made of. The risks and dangers of disaffected youth movements are not unknown in China. The ghost of Tianuare still haunts Chinese authorities, even though the surveillance and control that the CCP has over its people is light ahead of the Tiananmen Square era of 1989.

    Embedded Political and Industrial Policies

    Still, there are embedded economic realities that can’t easily be changed. Party doctrine dictates that China’s top economic advantage is found in its low levels of domestic consumption and high savings rate. These two factors mean domestic capital flows directly into the state-controlled banking system, which it can then allocate to specific industries. This gives the Party tremendous control over industrial policy and private capital.

    For instance, China’s economic and development structures are geared toward high levels of industrial output. That may seem fine, but because China’s political organization and industrial arrangements within the Party are focused on large production capacity and not innovation or differentiation, the outcomes are massive overproduction that is often well beyond global demand and unprofitable factories.

    Constant oversupplies, from electric vehicle batteries to electronics, result in Chinese manufacturers dumping massive amounts of cheap products into foreign markets, triggering trade friction such as tariffs and other retaliation, which also make conditions worse in China.

    In short, China’s distorted industrial policies tied to a graft-loyalty political system have made it incapable of changing without disrupting the CCP structure and the loyalties that come with it.

    No Stopping the Downward Spiral

    For these reasons and others, over the past several years, China has found itself in a downward spiral of deflation, falling domestic consumption, and declining confidence in the CCP. What’s more, there are few real options that won’t threaten the CCP’s grip over the country. It must be made clear, however, that with its surveillance capabilities, the Party can handle a loss of confidence in the eyes of the people, but it can’t survive a loss of power. The two are not the same.

    What the CCP will do is continue to support some critical areas of the economy, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and military enhancements, while letting other sectors flail without little or no bailouts. Some sectors will eventually return, but not in the near future. This is clear to many within and outside of China, as billions of dollars in investment and capital continue to exit China.

    Wolf Warrior Diplomacy Is Alive and Well

    This brings us to China’s so-called wolf warrior diplomacy approach toward other nations, which it adopted in 2019 on the cusp of the COVID-19 outbreak and global criticism of Beijing’s disastrous handling of the pandemic. China was already under economic duress due to the rising trade war with the United States. Some observers attribute this approach to personal ambition among China’s diplomatic personnel and/or an attempt to improve the perceived investment environment in China.

    Neither makes any sense when it’s understood that Xi Jinping is not allowing diplomats to make their own rules and policies, and pre-wolf warrior investment levels were high. Why would the CCP authorities imagine that increasing aggression on the global stage would make more countries want to invest there? They don’t.

    A more realistic rationale for China’s rising aggression on the world stage is that Beijing feels the need to control the narrative at home and intimidate the rest of the world. The spillover between a declining economy and rising unrest is clear. At home, the CCP needs to blame the West and other foreigners for its blatant economic failures not only for exculpatory purposes but also to whip up nationalism and justify further aggressions as economic conditions continue to deteriorate.

    Some observers have concluded that Beijing’s days of wolf warrior diplomacy are now over. Current events, however, defy such a conclusion. These include the Chinese regime’s provocative incursions with military planes and boats into or near territorial waters or air space of the United States, Taiwan, and the Philippines, border battles with India, as well as a desire to expand control of the South China Sea. On the global stage, as the return to bullets over diplomacy rises, Beijing sees an opportunity to influence and/or intimidate other nations.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 23:20

  • Concerns Raised About Toxic Exposure In Aftermath Of Helene Floodwaters
    Concerns Raised About Toxic Exposure In Aftermath Of Helene Floodwaters

    Authored by Edward Carver via Common Dreams,

    Local officials, academic researchers, and volunteer responders have raised concerns about chemical and biological contamination brought by the floodwaters of Hurricane Helene in the southeastern U.S. last week, which potentially threaten the safety not only of drinking water but also the quality of soil—leading experts to call for tighter regulations on stored pollutants.

    Helene struck Florida as a Category 4 hurricane on September 26 and swept through a number of states in the days that followed. Most of the damage came from extreme rainfall that triggered flooding. The storm killed at least 232 people. The biological and chemical threats posed by floodwaters are typically manifold, often containing, for example, e. coli from overflowing sewage systems.

    A man jumps into an overflowing North Carolina creek in 2018, following Hurricane Florence. Getty Images

    While it’s not yet clear what bacteria or chemicals Helene’s floodwaters may have contained, the storm passed through hundreds of industrial sites with toxic pollutants, including paper mills, fertilizer factories, oil and gas storage facilities, and even a retired nuclear plant, according to three researchers at Rice University, writing in The Conversation this week.

    The researchers called for tighter regulations on the storage and release of chemical pollutants. “Hazardous releases remain largely invisible due to limited disclosure requirements and scant public information,” they wrote. “Even emergency responders often don’t know exactly which hazardous chemicals they are facing in emergency situations.”

    “We believe this limited public information on rising chemical threats from our changing climate should be front-page news every hurricane season,” they added. “Communities should be aware of the risks of hosting vulnerable industrial infrastructure, particularly as rising global temperatures increase the risk of extreme downpours and powerful hurricanes.”

    The devastation of infrastructure and the lack of drinking water in cities such Asheville, North Carolina, has rightly received national media attention following the storm. In North Carolina alone, more than 700,000 households lost power, and 170,000 still didn’t have it as of Thursday.

    Yet the National Weather Service warns that while floodwaters can create clear-cut devastation, “what you can’t see can be just as dangerous.” Helene also brought with it public health concerns that are less obvious, including to other, non-public sources of drinking water.

    Helene’s floodwaters overran many wells, rendering them unsafe to drink, at least until treatment and testing can be done. North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services advised residents not to use contaminated well water earlier this week.

    One problem following Helene is that most studies of flooding’s impact on drinking water have been done in coastal areas, and it’s not clear how they apply to the mountainous areas of North Carolina that took the worst hit from the storm.

    “We don’t have a lot of knowledge about mountain flooding, from a hydrology standpoint,” Kelsey Pieper, a professor in environmental engineering at Northeastern University, toldInside Climate News.

    “Water velocities tend to be higher in mountain floodings because it’s getting funneled into the valley, where the water is accumulating. In a coastal area, you’re going to see more water spreading out,” she said. “The flooding mechanisms are different, and we know very little.”

    Wells tested in eastern North Carolina after Hurricane Florence in 2018 showed some detections of e. coli or total fecal coliform, which were partly attributed to industrialized hog farms in the area, Inside Climate News reported.

    Crops are often rendered unsafe after flooding due to biological or chemical contamination, according to Food Safety Alliance. Natural bodies of water are also often unsafe to swim in following floods. Virginia Department of Health and other agencies warned people to avoid them after Helene.

    The period after a tropical storm brings increased risk of both biological contaminants, such as bacteria and viruses, and chemical contaminants, such as heavy metals and pesticides, according to the Duke University Superfund Research Center.

    Following Helene, a grassroots volunteer cleanup effort has sprung up in western North Carolina, but it brings risks for the volunteers because of the potential contamination.

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

    “We were supposed to get a big shipment of gloves, coveralls, masks, respirators, but we aren’t,” Rachel Bennett, a coordinating volunteer in the town of Marshall, which sits along the banks of the French Broad River, told the Citizen Times, an Asheville newspaper. “So, we’re hoping to get more. Those are the big things because we’re in cleanup right now. We need thick things.”

    “Right now, it’s boots, and it’s hard to get people to put on gloves, because when you’re in this, you’re like, ‘I’m already exposed,'” she added.

    A Marshall resident conducted a soil test this week but the results haven’t come back yet, the newspaper reported. “All of these rivers should be treated as hazmat sites,” Buncombe County spokesperson Stacey Wood said at a briefing Friday, according to a local journalist. Buncombe County encompasses Asheville and Marshall is just outside it.

    The Rice University researchers called for better preparation for future storms in the form of stronger regulation. They’ve developed a map showing the U.S. areas that are most vulnerable to chemical pollution brought on by floodwaters. One hotspot is the area of Texas and Louisiana full of petrochemical industry sites.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 22:10

  • A Comprehensive Guide To Choosing The Right Protein Powder
    A Comprehensive Guide To Choosing The Right Protein Powder

    Authored by Jennifer Sweenie via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    From hemp to pea to whey—protein powders are a staple for many people seeking to boost their overall protein intake and health. With the wide range of options available, each boasting unique benefits and potential drawbacks, navigating the spectrum of protein powders can be daunting. Understanding the various types is essential for making an informed choice that best aligns with your dietary and fitness goals.

    Nick Starichenko/Shutterstock

    Potential Benefits of Protein Powders

    Protein powder is a concentrated dietary supplement derived from animal or plant sources. It offers a convenient way to boost protein intake and comes in various flavors.

    Weight Management

    A protein-rich diet can help you feel full for longer, potentially aiding in weight management. A systematic review published in Nutrition Reviews in 2018 found that protein supplementation may be effective for reducing fat mass and promoting weight control without sacrificing lean muscle mass when taken with meals—as opposed to between—and in conjunction with resistance training.

    Muscle Growth and Repair

    Protein powders support muscle recovery and growth, particularly following exercise sessions. A review of 49 studies encompassing nearly 2,000 people published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2018 concluded that dietary protein supplementation “significantly enhanced” muscle strength and size during prolonged resistance exercise training in healthy adults.

    Convenience With a Nutrition Boost

    Protein powders offer a convenient and quick way to get more protein without extensive meal preparation. They’re particularly beneficial for those with higher protein needs or dietary restrictions, such as vegetarians and vegans.

    Do You Need Protein Powder?

    Consider your personal lifestyle and nutritional needs when deciding whether to incorporate a protein powder supplement into your routine.

    The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) published a review in 2017 on protein and exercise. Their position was that “while it is possible for physically active individuals to obtain their daily protein requirements through the consumption of whole foods, supplementation is a practical way of ensuring intake of adequate protein quality and quantity while minimizing caloric intake, particularly for athletes who typically complete high volumes of training.”

    Dr. Robert McLaughlin, a board-certified orthopedic surgeon, told The Epoch Times, “For most people, protein powder should be used to supplement, not replace whole foods.”

    Protein supplementation is “unnecessary and potentially harmful for sedentary individuals or those with medical issues like kidney disease,” said McLaughlin, who also completed a fellowship in sports medicine. “Athletes and very active people can benefit from additional protein for muscle gain and repair.”

    “The ideal type of protein powder depends on a person’s needs and diet. The amount of powder needed varies based on activity level, health, and goals,” McLaughlin said.

    Animal vs. Plant-Based Protein Powder

    Plant-based protein contains fewer essential amino acids and has a lower digestibility than animal-based protein, making animal-based sources generally easier for the body to absorb. However, when it comes to muscle gain, the differences appear to be negligible.

    A study published in the Journal of Nutrition in 2022 comparing animal- and plant-based protein found no difference in postprandial muscle protein synthesis—the process of muscle protein being created after a meal—from the ingestion of 30 grams of milk protein compared to the equivalent amount of a blend of wheat, corn, and pea protein.

    A systematic review and meta-analysis published in Nutrients in 2021 came to a similar conclusion—the source of protein did not affect absolute lean mass or muscle strength. However, animal protein gave a more significant boost to the percentage of lean mass, particularly in people younger than 50.

    Animal-Based Protein Powder Sources

    Protein powders are available from several sources and have unique characteristics and benefits. When choosing the best protein powder for you, consider factors such as your dietary preferences, fitness goals, and any allergies or sensitivities you may have.

    Whey Protein Powder

    Derived from cheese and other dairy products, whey protein is a popular supplement containing all essential amino acids. It’s quickly absorbed and has high levels of leucine, which is shown to stimulate muscle protein synthesis.

    Casein Protein Powder

    Casein, another milk-derived protein, digests slowly, steadily releasing amino acids into the bloodstream. For this reason, some people prefer to take it before bed to support muscle growth during sleep.

    Bone Broth Protein Powder

    Bone broth protein powder is derived from liquid bone broth from chicken, beef, or fish. Bones and connective tissue are simmered to extract nutrients. The resulting broth is dehydrated into a concentrated powder. It is rich in collagen, gelatin, calcium, and various minerals.

    Collagen Powder

    Collagen protein powder is made from collagen, a protein found in the connective tissues of animals. It is the most abundant protein in the body and makes up your skin, bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Collagen is protein-rich and a high-quality source but not a complete protein. This means it does not contain all the amino acids that makeup protein.

    A study published in Nutrients in 2019 found that collagen may not be effective at altering body composition in overweight women. Collagen powder has several benefits, including supporting gut lining, skin and hair health, and liver function.

    Plant-Based Protein Powder Sources

    Plant-based protein powders offer diverse options for people seeking alternatives to animal-derived proteins, catering to various dietary preferences and nutritional needs.

    Pea Protein Powder

    Extracted from yellow peas, this plant-based protein is popular among vegans and vegetarians. A 2015 study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition found that pea protein is as effective as whey for increasing muscle when combined with resistance training. Research also suggests that pea protein may increase satiety by slowing digestion. Peas are also high in dietary fiber, potassium, and B-group vitamins.

    Soy Protein Powder

    Soy protein powder is made from defatted soybean flakes. Soy protein isolate generally has a higher protein content than food sources, such as soy milk. It is a good source of fiber, as well as vitamins and minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, and zinc. The amino acid profile of soy protein is close to animal protein. However, the content of amino acids may vary among soy products due to different processing.

    A 2020 randomized trial published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found no difference between soy and whey protein in building lean mass and strength during strength training. The researchers noted that “slightly more” soy protein supplementation was needed to achieve the same effect as whey.

    Hemp Protein Powder

    Hemp protein is a plant-based protein powder option made from grinding hemp seeds into a fine powder and removing the oil. It contains all nine essential amino acids, making it a complete protein. Hemp contains omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and is a good source of fiber.

    Brown Rice Protein Powder

    Extracted from brown rice, this powder contains vitamins and minerals, including iron, vitamin C, calcium, and fiber. Studies show it can be as effective as whey in improving exercise performance and body composition.

    Due to the varying benefits of plant-based proteins, there are mixed protein powder products made from a blend of plant sources that may offer a more comprehensive nutrient profile.

    Concentrates, Isolates, and Hydrolysates Explained

    The main differences between concentrates, isolates, and hydrolysates lie in their protein content and powder processing methods. Each type has its benefits, and the choice between them depends on individual dietary and fitness goals.

    “Concentrates and isolates differ in purity, while hydrolysates are pre-digested for faster absorption,” McLaughlin said.

    Concentrates

    Concentrates are up to 80 percent protein by weight. The remaining 20 percent is usually comprised of fat, lactose, minerals, and moisture. Concentrates tend to have a higher amount of lactose and, subsequently, higher sugar and carbohydrate content.

    Isolates

    Isolates are more concentrated than concentrates, with more than 90 percent protein by weight. They undergo further processing to reduce lactose and fat content, making them leaner and potentially more suitable for those with lactose sensitivity.

    Hydrolysates

    Hydrolysates also undergo additional processing, making them more readily digestible and absorbable by the body. Hydrolyzed protein powders are often more expensive than the former types.

    A meta-analysis of eight studies published in Nutrients in 2019 compared the effects of whey protein powder in concentrated, hydrolyzed, and isolated forms against a placebo. The review found no positive effect on muscle gain regardless of the type of whey protein used, its protein concentration, or the level of physical activity. However, there was a “statistically significant” reduction in fat mass for whey protein concentrate and individuals who engaged in regular physical activity. However, other research, including that done in older adults, found whey could help build muscle mass.

    A study published in 2018 in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research compared hydrolyzed chicken protein, beef protein isolate, and whey protein concentrate to a control group over eight weeks combined with resistance training. While all groups experienced increased strength, the protein-supplemented groups saw significant increases in lean mass and decreases in fat mass.

    Which Is Best for You?

    The existing data on the effects of concentrates, isolates, and hydrolysates surrounding muscle gain and fat loss is inconclusive, and more research is needed.  All three provide a quality source of protein. For most, it is a personal preference. Those sensitive to lactose (for whey varieties) or following a low-carb or low-fat diet may opt for an isolate over a concentrate. Some may choose a hydrolysate if they have any digestive issues or are concerned about nutrition timing, as it will be absorbed faster. Those with no sensitivities or dietary restrictions seeking to add protein to their diet at a lower price point may opt for a concentrate.

    Potential Downsides of Protein Powders

    There are some potential drawbacks to protein powders to be mindful of before adding one to your diet.

    Overconsumption Risks

    Protein powders could be too much of a good thing. Excessive protein intake can strain the kidneys and cause dehydration or digestive issues. A systematic review of 11 papers published in 2021 in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism found that prolonged, excessive whey protein supplementation, especially when combined with a sedentary lifestyle, may adversely affect kidney and liver function. Excess protein can also be converted into glucose, which is counterintuitive if the goal is weight loss.

    Quality Concerns

    Certain protein powders may contain undesirable additives, such as sugars or artificial flavors. Research also uncovered the presence of heavy metals in protein powders.

    An analysis of data reported from a U.S. Consumer Reports study and an evaluation by the Clean Label Project, published in Toxicology Reports in 2020, found that protein powder supplements may contain detectable levels of heavy metals and that plant-based protein powders tended to have a higher heavy metal burden than animal-based powders. However, the analysis ultimately concluded that using the typical serving size of protein powders as directed would not cause any adverse side effects from heavy metal exposure.

    To be sure you’re selecting a high-quality protein powder:

    • Look for powders with minimal ingredients and no artificial additives.
    • Consider organic options to minimize potential contaminants.
    • Check for NSF (National Sanitation Foundation) Certified for Sport or Informed Choice certifications.
    • Consult with a health care professional or registered dietitian for personalized recommendations.

    Nutrient Gaps

    Over-reliance on protein powders may lead to missing out on essential nutrients found in whole-food protein sources.

    Digestive Disturbances 

    Varieties of protein powders containing lactose, such as whey, can be challenging for individuals with lactose intolerance. Whey protein isolate usually contains minimal lactose, while concentrates tend to contain more. If you are sensitive to lactose, look for a label that specifies the powder is lactose-free.

    How to Use Protein Powders

    For building muscle, ISSN recommends consuming protein within two hours of a workout. For weight loss, research suggests incorporating protein throughout the day to curb appetite and increase satiety.

    “I have found whey protein isolate to be a high-quality option for many of my active patients looking to build muscle and recover from exercise,” McLaughlin said. “For those sensitive to dairy, a plant-based powder like pea protein can also work well and provide a complete amino acid profile,” he added. “Either way, I recommend choosing a powder with minimal added sugar.”

    Any type of protein powder is simple to mix into a glass of water or milk or blend into a smoothie. However, protein powders have uses beyond just the glass.

    “There are so many ways to add protein to your recipes and your plate,” Meredith Mann, founder of The Peachie Spoon, a certified holistic nutrition coach and recipe developer, told The Epoch Times in an email. “Baked goods like cookies, muffins, brownies, and baked oatmeal or n’oatmeal [grain-free porridge-like alternative] are favorites of mine,” she added.

    “A plant-based protein powder, usually from rice and pea protein, can be a great option too, especially if your dietary preference is to not eat animal products,” said Mann. However, plant-based varieties tend to have a chalky taste, rendering them not the best option for adding to baked goods, she noted, suggesting mixing a serving of the powder into plain yogurt or cottage cheese and enjoying it with a spoon or using it as a dip for fruit.

    Whatever source and form of protein you choose, quality is key when it comes to protein powders. Look for varieties with minimal ingredients.

    Mann said, “Some protein supplements can contain additives, artificial sweeteners, and added sugars, which some people may want to avoid.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 21:00

  • Mexico Is Still Blaming Americans For Mexico's Gang Violence
    Mexico Is Still Blaming Americans For Mexico’s Gang Violence

    Authored by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

    This week, the US Supreme court announced that it will consider throwing out the Mexican government’s suit in the case of Smith & Wesson Brands v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos. The Mexican government alleges that Smith & Wesson and wholesaler Witmer Public Safety Group Inc. are intentionally conspiring with middle-men to supply Mexican cartels with guns. 

    The Mexican plaintiffs have never actually proven any of this, of course, and this is all part of a larger effort by the Mexican regime and its apologists who have looked for a scapegoat to blame for Mexico’s runaway homicide rates over the past twenty years. In truth, the Mexican government would do well to look a bit closer to home. Mexico’s crime problems are a result of Mexico’s corrupt state, its centralized government—which is a federal government in name only—and the fact Mexico essentially outlaws gun ownership for peaceful, law-abiding citizens. 

    In the past I’ve covered in detail the ways that Mexican crime is a result of Mexican law and illegal gun running of Mexican guns in Mexico. At the core of Mexico’s failed claims is the fact that guns are far more common in the United States than in Mexico, yet crime is far, far worse in Mexico. Even along the border, American border towns have far less crime than the Mexican towns mere yards away on the other side of the border. On the American side of the border, legal guns are plentiful. On the Mexican side, the Mexican government ensures that guns are mostly in the hands of the cartels. Or, as I put it in 2018: 

    Like much of Latin America, Mexico is a country with strict gun laws, but high homicide rates.

    So how to explain the problem?

    Well, in the case of Mexico, the answer for gun control activists is to blame the United States: “one way for Mexicans to get around their country’s strict gun laws is to simply walk across the border.”

    The logic proceeds accordingly: The presence of more guns means more homicide. And, although Mexico has strict gun laws, Mexico is unfortunately located close to the United States where guns can be easily purchased. Guns are then introduced into Mexico where they drive a higher homicide rate.

    There are some problems with this logic. Even if we account for all the black-market guns in Mexico, gun totals are still much higher in the US. That is, according to the 2007 Small Arms Survey, it is estimated that there are around 15 million privately-held guns in Mexico, on the high end. Even accounting for an additional increase since 2007, we’re looking at a rate of fewer than 20 guns per 100 people in Mexico. In the United States, on the other hand, that total is around 100 guns per 100 people.

    So, if one is going to pin Mexico’s violence problem on “more guns,” they have to account for why there are more than five times as many guns in the US, with only a small fraction of the homicides.

    Moreover, the often-quoted statistic allegedly showing that as much as 70 percent, or even 90 percent, of guns seized in Mexico come from the US is not true. That statistic is based only on seized guns that are also traced by the ATF. How many of all guns seized in Mexico come from the US? According to Stratfor, “almost 90 percent of the guns seized in Mexico in 2008 were not traced back to the United States.” Nor does the Mexican government ask the ATF to trace all guns seized in Mexico.

    This is because many of those arms can be traced back to the Mexican government itself. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 19:50

  • Should Social Security Payments Be Taxed?
    Should Social Security Payments Be Taxed?

    Submitted by Brenton Smith,

    Back in August, former President Donald Trump issued a proclamation to voters on Truth Social, “seniors should not pay tax on social security!” 

    In layman terms, the statement from Trump implies that current retirees should get to keep more money at the expense of future retirees who would receive more painful reductions to benefits in eight years rather than nine.

    While that trade-off may or may not appeal to voters in November, the taxation of Social Security benefits needs to be discussed before voters reach the polls in the coming election.

    These rules date back 30 years, and Congress hasn’t monitored the rules as closely as it should.

    On one hand, the taxation of benefits is a vital source of revenue for Social Security. It will generate nearly $60 billion in revenue this year for Social Security, which approximates the contribution of nearly nine million workers who will never collect benefits. Moreover, that revenue is projected to double over the next 10 years.

    At the same time, we can’t justify a tax simply because the revenue is important.

    For a bit of background, the taxation of benefits was added in 1983 as a compromise to generate income that would be needed to pay benefits far in the future. The policy option accounted for about 33 percent of the total effectiveness of the legislative package, which stabilized the program’s projected finances from 2030 through 2057.

    Four decades later, the tax reaches an ever-increasing number of people for two reasons.

    • First, the threshold that triggers the levy is not adjusted for inflation, so the definition of “substantial outside income” falls in real terms every year.

    • Separately, the components of “outside income” are rising faster than inflation, particularly wages paid to people who are working during retirement.

    As a consequence of these factors, more than 50 percent of beneficiaries who file taxes pay a levy on some portion of their benefits. An average worker in the United States working 30 hours per week, would generally expose his or her benefits to a marginal tax rate of more than 40 percent.

    People wonder why the government taxes 85 percent of the check. In 1983, Congress required seniors to pay a tax on 50 percent of their benefits, but the portion was increased to 85 percent in 1993. Supporters of the change justified the increase based on research from the Social Security Administration actuarial team, which found that, even in a worst case scenario, someone collecting benefits today would make $0.85 cents of profit on every dollar received in the form of benefits.

    Unfortunately for current retirees, no one knows whether the math done in the late 1980s has worked out for them as individuals.

    At this point, the government collects an income tax from people who have to work in retirement to make ends meet at a marginal tax rate that is normally reserved for someone like Warren Buffett, when no one really knows whether the money is income or not. No one has bothered to check.

    The one thing that we do know is that the trustees of the program expect seniors to pay an extra 8 to 9 billion dollars annually in taxes based on the expiration of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act in 2026.

    So, there is a good chance that this unpopular tax will become even more unpopular.

    This tax is vital to Social Security, but no one is watching it. The levy has drifted year to year; decade to decade; generation to generation without a lot of thought about who it affects or why it is applied. The rationale in Washington is retirees should pay the tax this year because they paid it last year.

    Before anyone repeals the tax, Congress needs to figure out whether there is any profit in the money received by seniors, and then lawmakers can talk about to whom the tax might apply.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 19:15

  • The FOIA Lady Pleads The Fifth
    The FOIA Lady Pleads The Fifth

    Authored by Maryanne Demasi via The Brownstone Institute,

    A relatively unknown public records officer at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is now at the centre of a burgeoning scandal involving Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

    The saga unfolded after subpoenaed emails belonging to David Morens, a former top advisor to Anthony Fauci, revealed that someone had taught him to game the system and avoid emails being captured by FOIA requests.

    “i learned from our foia lady here how to make emails disappear after i am foia’d but before the search starts, so i think we are all safe,” Morens wrote in a Feb 24, 2021, email.

    “Plus i deleted most of those earlier emails after sending them to gmail.”

    Morens implicated Margaret (Marg) Moore, known colloquially as “The FOIA lady” in trying to hide information from the American people, particularly that related to the origins of Covid-19, which is a felony.

    It sparked an investigation by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic to expose what Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) called a “cover-up.”

    A letter to NIH director Monica Bertagnolli in May suggested “a conspiracy at the highest levels” of these once trusted public health institutions. 

    “If what appears in these documents is true, this is an apparent attack on public trust and must be met with swift enforcement and consequences for those involved,” Wenstrup wrote.

    Wenstrup said there was evidence that a former chief of staff of Fauci’s might have used intentional misspellings — such as “Ec~Health” instead of “EcoHealth” — to prevent emails from being captured in keyword searches by FOIA officials.

    Today, Wenstrup announced a subpoena to compel Moore (The FOIA lady) to appear for a deposition on October 4, 2024, saying that she’d repeatedly resisted these efforts and delayed the Select Subcommittee’s investigation. 

    “Her alleged scheme to help NIH officials delete COVID-19 records and use their personal emails to avoid FOIA is appalling and deserves a thorough investigation,” said Wenstrup.

    “Holding Ms. Moore accountable for any role she played in undermining American trust is a step towards improving the lack of accountability and absence of transparency rapidly spreading across many agencies within our federal government,” he added.

    Moore, however, has indicated through her lawyers that she would invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

    Her lawyers wrote to Wenstrup explaining that she’d cooperated with the Select Subcommittee to find “an alternative” to sitting for an interview, including expediting her own FOIA request for her own documents.

    They also explained that Morens’ emails suggesting Moore gave tips “about avoiding FOIA,” were misleading because Morens, under oath said, “That was a joke…She didn’t give me advice about how to avoid FOIA.”

    Nonetheless, Moore’s decision to plead the Fifth has only fuelled concern over the lack of transparency and accountability of one of the nation’s top health research institutions.

    It’s not over until the FOIA lady sings!

    Further reading: The great FOIA dodge

    Republished from the author’s Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 18:40

  • Visualizing US Net Immigration By President
    Visualizing US Net Immigration By President

    Ahead of the U.S. presidential election, immigration policies are top of mind for American voters. But how has immigration to the U.S. looked over the past two decades across both Republican and Democratic presidencies?

    This chart, via Visual Capitalist’s Kayla Zhu, shows net immigration figures in the U.S. from 2001 to 2024, broken down by immigrant status. Data for 2021 to 2024 are projections.

    The figures come from a report authored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) called Demographic Outlook: 2024 to 2054 with data and projections as of January 2024.

    Methodology: How U.S. Immigrants are Categorized

    The CBO categorizes immigrants to the United States of America into three groups:

    • LPR+: Lawful permanent residents (LPRs) plus people who are eligible to apply to become LPRs on the basis of their current status, such as asylees and refugees. LPRs include those who are granted that status while within the United States as well as people who have gained admission from abroad.

    • INA nonimmigrant: Comprises temporary workers, student exchange visitors, qualifying family members, and others admitted as nonimmigrants under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)—for example, officials of foreign governments—while they remain in that status.

    • Other foreign national: People in the U.S. who are not in the first two categories and who have not subsequently become U.S. citizens or received LPR, asylee, or nonimmigrant status—such as those who entered the U.S. illegally or those who entered legally in a temporary status and then remained after that legal status expired.

    Net Immigration to the U.S. from 2001 to 2024, by President

    Below, we show net immigration figures for the U.S. from 2001 to 2024, broken down by immigrant type, along with the current U.S. president at the time.

    President Year LPR+ INA nonimmigrant Other foreign national Total
    Bush 2001 794,000 50,000 529,000 1,373,000
    Bush 2002 728,000 302,000 278,000 1,308,000
    Bush 2003 575,000 182,000 398,000 1,155,000
    Bush 2004 749,000 321,000 259,000 1,329,000
    Bush 2005 869,000 463,000 552,000 1,884,000
    Bush 2006 910,000 449,000 329,000 1,688,000
    Bush 2007 800,000 -273,000 362,000 889,000
    Bush 2008 835,000 -411,000 -250,000 174,000
    Obama 2009 832,000 529,000 -462,000 899,000
    Obama 2010 786,000 117,000 -100,000 803,000
    Obama 2011 791,000 42,000 -104,000 729,000
    Obama 2012 766,000 -125,000 13,000 654,000
    Obama 2013 748,000 -63,000 132,000 817,000
    Obama 2014 769,000 824,000 46,000 1,639,000
    Obama 2015 813,000 376,000 289,000 1,478,000
    Obama 2016 877,000 -18,000 26,000 885,000
    Trump 2017 840,000 473,000 -213,000 1,100,000
    Trump 2018 810,000 -339,000 200,000 671,000
    Trump 2019 713,000 -64,000 -234,000 415,000
    Trump 2020 537,000 58,000 213,000 808,000
    Biden 2021 551,000 20,000 600,000 1,171,000
    Biden 2022 714,000 60,000 1,900,000 2,674,000
    Biden 2023 807,000 90,000 2,400,000 3,297,000
    Biden 2024 809,000 90,000 2,400,000 3,299,000

    Overall, net immigration had the biggest increase under current U.S. President Joe Biden’s term. The CBO estimates that for 2021 to 2024 that the U.S. added over 10 million immigrants across all three categories.

    During Biden’s term, there has been a significant increase in unauthorized immigration, with border authorities encountering record numbers of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

    This surge is attributed to factors such as post-pandemic migration, economic and political instability in countries of origin, and the perception of more lenient policies, leading to over 4.4 million repatriations.

    The CBO estimates that net immigration to the U.S. was 2.6 million in 2022 and 3.3 million in both 2023 and 2024, for an estimated 9.27 million net immigrants from 2022-2024—higher than net immigration from 2010 to 2019 which saw 9.19 million immigrants enter the country.

    U.S. Immigration Under Donald Trump

    Net immigration saw its lowest levels during Trump’s presidency (3 million net immigrants during his term) as the former president enacted 472 administrative changes that impacted U.S. immigration policies.

    These include the “Remain in Mexico” policy that required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their U.S. immigration hearings, travel bans, significant reductions in refugee admissions and resettlement programs, and the implementation of Title 42 which allowed U.S. officials to turn away migrants who came to the U.S.-Mexico border on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

    The COVID-19 pandemic also led to a dramatic decline in net immigration to the U.S., with immigration levels dropping to record lows in 2020 due to travel restrictions, consulate closures, and visa processing suspensions, before beginning to recover in 2022.

    To learn more about migration patterns, check out this graphic that visualizes annual net migration by region, from 1950 to 2023.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 18:05

  • What Would World War III Really Look Like? It's Already Starting…
    What Would World War III Really Look Like? It’s Already Starting…

    Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

    One of the most common assumptions I come across in the survival-sphere is the idea that the next world war would automatically necessitate global nuclear conflict and a Mad Max-like outcome. In other words, a lot of people assume we aren’t in a world war until the nukes start flying and the survivors are left fighting in soda can armor over an irradiated desert. This is a dangerous misunderstanding for a lot of reasons.

    What people are overlooking is the fact that we are ALREADY in the middle of WWIII. They don’t realize it because they’ve based their entire concept of world war on Hollywood fantasy.

    There are many ways in which wars are fought. In our current situation WWIII is being waged through proxies like Ukraine and Israel (and maybe Taiwan in the near future). The war is also being fought on the global economic stage using sanctions, inflation and the dumping of the US dollar as the world reserve. To be sure, these situations can easily escalate into something bigger and that is exactly what I suspect they will do. However, planetary nuclear war is the least likely scenario.

    Survival and preparedness communities have a tendency to hyper-focus on the obviously Apocalyptic. We talk a lot about EMP strikes and split-second grid down calamities. We talk about solar flares, overnight economic crashes and nuclear holocaust. I think survivalists do this because it acts as a mental exercise – A way to better clarify what the best preparedness solutions are in the majority of cases, including the worst cases.

    But as I’ve said for many years, collapse is a process, not an event.

    These things happen slowly, and then all at once. If you went back in time ten years ago and warned people that in 2024 the US would be in the middle of a stagflationary crisis with a 30%-50% average price increase on all necessities, they would probably dismiss you as a doom-monger. Well, guess what, that’s exactly what a handful of alternative economists (myself included) were doing well over a decade ago, and we were dismissed over and over again – Welcome to our world.

    The reason people refused to believe us is because the danger was not immediately obvious. The economic threat was not hitting them in their wallet yet. Stock markets seemed to be doing fine. The jobs market was still functioning somewhat normally. They could only view economic crisis through the lens of a total collapse. The idea that it would happen incrementally never crossed their minds.

    Even today there are still people who argue that everything is fine. The stock market is “fine.” The labor market is “healthy.” If you suggest all is not well, you’re a “chicken little.” This is the incredible danger of having a Hollywood fantasy idea of collapse. We may never get to 100% systemic implosion; but even a 50% collapse is still a survival situation.

    The same dynamic goes for WWIII. We must not overlook the dangers right in front of us simply because intercontinental ballistic nuclear missiles aren’t crisscrossing the sky.

    Consider the proxy battleground case for a moment.

    In October of 2023 I published an article titled ‘It’s A Trap! The Wave Of Repercussions As The Middle East Fights “The Last War.”’ In it I stated:

    “Israel is going to pound Gaza into gravel, there’s no doubt about that. A ground invasion will meet far more resistance than the Israelis seem to expect, but Israel controls the air and Gaza is a fixed target with limited territory. The problem for them is not the Palestinians, but the multiple war fronts that will open up if they do what I think they are about to do (attempted sanitization).

    Lebanon, Iran and Syria will all immediately engage and Israel will not be able to fight them all – Hell, the Israelis got their asses handed to them by Lebanon alone in 2006. This will result in inevitable demands for US/EU intervention.”

    I also warned on the potential motives behind escalation in the Middle East:

    “The timing of the conflict in Israel is incredibly beneficial to globalists, and this might explain Israel’s bizarre intel failure [October 7th]. Just as US and British leaders had prior knowledge of a potential Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 but warned no one because they WANTED to compel Americans to fight in WWII, the Palestinian incursion serves a similar purpose.”

    I my article ‘Iran vs Israel: What Happens Next Now That Shots Have Been Fired?’ published in April, I predicted:

    “A ground war between Iran and Israel is inevitable if the tit-for-tat continues, and much of it will be fought (at least in the beginning) in Lebanon and perhaps Syria. Iran has a mutual defense pact with both countries and Lebanon is generally a proxy for Iranian defense policy.

    Iran will have active troops or proxy forces in all of these regions, not to mention the Houthis in Yemen striking ships in the Red Sea. There are questions in terms of how Iraq will respond to this situation, but there’s not a lot of love between the current government and Israel or the US.”

    Not surprisingly there was a contingent of people that argued these things would “never happen” and talk of war between Iran and Israel was “doom mongering.” Those people were wrong (yet again), and I was right. Iran and Israel have now essentially declared war on each other and are exchanging missile barrages as I write this. The ground war will begin in Lebanon and expand from there.

    Just as in Ukraine, the looming danger is that war between Israel and Iran will draw in larger military powers like the US and Russia. 

    People dismiss this outcome because their modern conception of global war needs to change; this world war will not be fought exactly like those in the past.

    This time the weapons of mass destruction will be financial and resource driven instead of nuclear. If Iran moves to blockade the Strait of Hormuz (which I believe is imminent), Americans can be harmed financially through energy shortages and gas price spikes even without our soldiers deployed to fight.

    There’s also the question of our wide open borders and how many potential terrorists slipped into the US during the Biden Administration’s illegal immigration bonanza. How many attacks (or false flag attacks) are being organized right now?

    The regional conflicts could spread and go on for a decade or longer. It all adds up to a world war, but it may never be officially declared a world war. Perhaps there will be a limited nuclear event somewhere; maybe a false flag or a limited strike. But a nuclear war is not necessary to create the kind of chaos the globalists are looking for.

    People also need to understand that the powers-that-be also have a lot to risk should a war devolve into nuclear exchange. If it was really that easy for them to launch warheads, wipe out the majority of the human population and then establish a global dynasty, they would have done it a long time ago.

    Global war on such a scale is inherently unpredictable. The elites have spent trillions of dollars and the better part of the last century constructing the most complex surveillance and control grid in history. It would be foolish to turn it all to ash in the blink of an eye and I highly doubt that’s the plan. They would be putting themselves and their legacy at risk of being erased forever.

    Does this mean I will be ignoring the potential for a nuclear event? No. I will always keep it in mind and have preps ready just in case. A single nuke set off anywhere west of your home could result in radioactive fallout that would take around three to four weeks to dissipate. That said, the danger of these sceanrios might be overstated.

    Here’s an interesting fact to ponder: The US government has tested at least 1050 explosive nuclear devices over the decades. Around 216 of those were atmospheric tests that resulted in massive fallout across the country. Some people in close proximity got sick over many years from these tests, but they didn’t result in an overnight mass death event. Perhaps, at a moderate distance, these weapons are not as dangerous as we’re led to believe?

    The greater effect of nuclear weapons comes not just from the resulting damage to national infrastructure, but also mass psychological disruption. The economic system would take an immediate dive from even one strike, and it could be anywhere in the world. A single nuke in Ukraine would send shockwaves through already unstable markets.  The supply chain and food supply could be quickly disrupted.  

    If the globalists wanted to accelerate a worldwide collapse, they wouldn’t need a nuclear war, just one well placed device.

    The biggest danger from WWIII is not nuclear exchange, but the disturbing changes societies go through when conflict inspires mass fear. Totalitarianism is much easier to institute during such a war. Freedom of speech is often suppressed and criticism of the government is often criminalized. People who rebel against this are accused of “working with the enemy.” Military conscription is usually enforced and young people are sent off to die overseas over a conflagration that makes little sense.

    The economy nose dives and the supply chain tightens. Price controls and rationing are initiated. Black markets flourish but those who participate are aggressively targeted by the government. In the case of the US, armed revolution in many states is a certainty.

    Public planning should focus far more on these eventualities and less on Hollywood images of Apocalypse.

    *  *  *

    One survival food company, Prepper All-Naturals, has proactively dropped prices to allow Americans to stock up ahead of projected hikes in beef prices. Their 25-year shelf life steaks currently come at a 25% discount with promo code “invest25”.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 17:30

  • Watch: Trump Returns To Butler With Special Guest Elon Musk
    Watch: Trump Returns To Butler With Special Guest Elon Musk

    Donald Trump is returning to Butler, Pennsylvania – where he was nearly killed on July 13, holding a high-profile rally in what the former president described as unfinished business.

    “I said that day when I was shot, I said, ‘We’re coming back. We’re going to come back.’ And I’m fulfilling a promise,” Trump told NewsNation this week. “I’m fulfilling, really, an obligation.”

    In attendance will be his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, as well as Tesla and SpaceX founder, Elon Musk. Trump is scheduled to speak at 5PM ET.

    Watch:

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

    Secret Service Figures Out Sloped Roofs

    In an amazing display of agility, the US Secret Service has beefed up security – and even managed to set up shop on a sloped rooftop – which former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle assured us was the reason nobody was stationed on the roof used by shooter Thomas Crooks during the July attempt on Trump.

    According to reports, unlike July 13, the Secret Service and local law enforcement will operate as one unit through a unified command center in order to quickly communicate any threats.

    They’re also using a counter-drone system which wasn’t placed online until nearly an hour after Crooks flew one over the rally site. Law enforcement is also flying their own drones today.

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

    As the Epoch Times notes further;

    At the July 13 rally, an estimated 15,000 people waited in scorching heat for hours. Trump had only spoken for a few minutes before the shots rang out, bringing the rally to an abrupt end.

    The U.S. Secret Service has faced criticism for security lapses surrounding the shooting and another gunman’s foiled plan to kill Trump as he golfed in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15. Most concerns have centered on on-site planning failures; Trump and others have praised agents for acting swiftly after threats became obvious in both instances.

    Ahead of the Oct. 5 rally, local and federal officials expressed confidence that necessary adjustments have been made to protect Trump and the public.

    James Ott, sheriff in Pennsylvania’s Blair County, about 100 miles southeast of Butler, told The Epoch Times: “After seeing what took place the last time, I would certainly think that they’re going to have a lot of provisions in place … to alleviate any type of threat like that this time.”

    Ott is among about a dozen Pennsylvania sheriffs who are expected to attend Saturday’s rally at the Butler Farm Show. He pointed out that he and his fellow sheriffs have taken a public position that, “no matter where you stand in this election … nobody should resort to violence.”

    Anthony Guglielmi, Secret Service spokesman, said Trump “is receiving heightened levels of U.S. Secret Service protection.” In a statement provided to news outlets, Guglielmi said, “Our top priority is mitigating risks to ensure his continued safety at all times.”

    Stay tuned for updates…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 16:55

  • Netanyahu Rips France's Macron For Urging Arms Embargo On Israel: "A Disgrace"
    Netanyahu Rips France’s Macron For Urging Arms Embargo On Israel: “A Disgrace”

    On Saturday French President Emmanuel Macron called for a halt to arms shipments to Israel for use in Gaza. He told national broadcaster France Inter in an interview that finding a “political solution” to the Gaza and Lebanon conflicts must be a “priority” and that a full arms embargo would help create the conditions.

    He confirmed that France had already halted its arms deliveries to Israel. “I think we are not being heard,” Macron said, in reference to the ongoing Israeli military offensive in Gaza. “I think it is a mistake, including for the security of Israel.”

    Image source: EFE

    On the situation in Lebanon, where a ground war has started in the south and Israeli airstrikes have become frequent over Beirut, he said: “Our priority now is to avoid escalation. The Lebanese people must not, in turn, be sacrificed. Lebanon cannot become another Gaza.”

    Israel is furious at the French leader’s remarks. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called his comments urging an arms embargo a “disgrace”.

    “Today, Israel is defending itself on seven fronts against the enemies of civilization,” he responded soon on the heels of Macron’s Saturday remarks. He has previously described that these seven fronts include: Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Iran.

    “As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilized countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side,” Netanyahu continued. “Yet President Macron and other Western leaders are now calling for arms embargoes against Israel.”

    He followed this with the words “Shame on them” – going on to describe that France is not calling out Iran for weaponizing its own proxies throughout the region. He asked whether Iran is imposing an embargo on its proxies such as the Houthis or Hezbollah. “Of course not.”

    “But countries who supposedly oppose this terror axis call for an arms embargo on Israel,” he added. “What a disgrace!” Netanyahu then pledged that Israeli will “with or without their support,” and added, “But their shame will continue long after the war is won.”

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

    “Rest assured, Israel will fight until the battle is won — for our sake and for the sake of peace and security in the world,” Netanyahu concluded.

    Lebanon in particular has long held special concern for France, given it was for a time alongside Syria a colony under the French Mandate period of the early 20th century. Paris especially cultivated ties with Lebanon’s Maronite Catholic population, which was at one point almost the majority of the country.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 15:45

  • Dubai's Emirates Airlines Bans Pagers & Walkie-Talkies For All Flights
    Dubai’s Emirates Airlines Bans Pagers & Walkie-Talkies For All Flights

    Dubai’s Emirates Airlines is the first major carrier outside of Lebanon to ban all passengers from carrying pagers and walkie-talkies on its flights, citing the dangers of last month’s exploding pagers and electronic devices attacks in Beirut.

    “All passengers traveling to, from, or via Dubai are prohibited from transporting pagers and walkie-talkies in checked or cabin baggage,” the airline has announced in a statement on its website. It said this is part of enhanced security measures which will result in the confiscation of any prohibited items by Dubai Police.

    Source: Emirates.com

    The pager and walkie-talkie attacks, widely blamed on Israeli intelligence, were the result of the devices having been intercepted and manipulated during shipping. It’s believed small bomb materials were placed inside them, and then detonated when a signal was sent simultaneously to thousands of the electronics.

    The death toll from the September 17 and 18 attacks was at least 42 killed and over 3500 injured. At least 12 civilians were killed as a result of the operation meant to disrupt Hezbollah, including children.

    One big concern in the aftermath was the possibility of booby-trapped pager and device proliferation outside the country. What if someone with one of the thousands of manipulated pagers got on a plane?

    This appears to be the fear that Emirates is addressing. Other regional carriers could follow suit. Emirates is the largest airline in the Middle East.

    It is one among many global airlines which have suspended flights in and out of Beirut, and currently flights to Iraq and Iran remain halted until Tuesday. Services to Jordan will resume on Sunday.

    Israel has continued large-scale airstrikes on Beirut, not just focusing on the southern suburbs and Hezbollah strongholds, but in the past days hitting central Beirut as well.

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

    An airstrike has also this week destroyed the primary border crossing between Lebanon and Syria, at Masnaa. Displaced refugees have since been seen walking over the mountainous and rough terrain border crossing.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 15:10

  • Study Confirms The Truth About Masks And Children
    Study Confirms The Truth About Masks And Children

    Authored by Ian Miller via The Brownstone Institute,

    It’s late 2024, and masking has managed to remain a contentious issue. Years of misinformation from supposed “experts” like Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx and organizations like the CDC have convinced millions of Very Smart People to believe that masks are an effective tool to reduce the transmission of respiratory viruses. This applies also to the flu, despite those same experts and organizations somehow neglecting to recommend masks for the decades of flu seasons pre-2020.

    Forcing anyone to mask, given the substantial and robust evidence base showing conclusively that masks don’t work, was an indefensible policy decision. But specifically forcing children to mask was decidedly much, much worse.

    And not just because it was a pointless exercise in pandemic theater, with zero evidence of efficacy.

    But because it was actively causing harm too, as a new study shows.

    New Study Confirms Harms of Masking Children

    A new study co-authored by Tracy Beth Høeg delves into the side effects of masking, a subject completely ignored by experts and politicians desperate to exert control over individual behavior.

    And in their discussion, it’s immediately obvious why their research and conclusions will be completely ignored by the mainstream media.

    “There is a lack of robust evidence of benefit from masking children to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 or other respiratory viruses,” they explain.

    Couldn’t have said it better myself.

    The highest quality evidence available for masking children for COVID-19 or other viral respiratory infections has failed to find a beneficial impact against transmission. Mechanistic studies showing reduced viral transmission from use of face masks and respirators have not translated to real world effectiveness.

    Identified harms of masking include negative effects on communication and components of speech and language, ability to learn and comprehend, emotional and trust development, physical discomfort, and reduction in time and intensity of exercise.

    It’s a masterpiece. No notes.

    As the Cochrane Library review explained, as the data shows, as decades of accumulated evidence confirmed: Masks Don’t Work. For anyone, but especially for children, who could not wear or use masks properly, even if they were shown to have worked. Which they did not.

    Experts demanded and politicians mandated that they wear them anyway, based on speculation, hope, and mechanistic studies that were conclusively disproven. And the harms were remarkable.

    “Negative effects on communication and components of speech and language.”

    “Ability to learn and comprehend.”

    “Emotional and trust development, physical discomfort, and reduction in time and intensity of exercise.”

    Just, you know, the basic building blocks of human development that children need to grow as well-adjusted, physically and mentally healthy teenagers and adults.

    As Høeg and the other authors explain, this necessarily means that forcing children to mask fails any objective standard of harms and benefits.

    Effectiveness of child masking has not been demonstrated, while documented harms of masking in children are diverse and non-negligible and should prompt careful reflection. Recommendations for masking children fail basic harm-benefit analyses.

    Their next section is a complete dismantling of the CDC and the US public health bureaucracy, how they handled Covid, and how poor an example this sets for future pandemics.

    In many locations in North America, children as young as two years of age were required to wear face masks daily for multiple consecutive hours, both indoors and outdoors, in school and childcare settings [1], [2]. This stood in stark contrast to European countries where masking was never recommended for children under the age of six and, in many countries, never under age twelve [3]. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s child masking recommendations deviated substantially from international guidelines [3], [4], [5]. The CDC continues to recommend masks for children down to age two in certain settings [1], [6], and this is in the absence of strategies for exiting these restrictions. In the event of a future public health threat, clear and consistent communication from public health officials about the criteria that will be used to withdraw temporary public health recommendations while data are gathered could serve to ease public anxiety, lessen distrust, and facilitate a return to a more normal life wherein ineffective recommendations are promptly discarded.

    It’s a calm, thorough demolition of the incompetence and authoritarianism of the US public health establishment.

    They repeat that there is no evidence to support masking children and explain that there is no real-world evidence showing the effectiveness of child mask mandates, with zero randomized controlled trials conducted to determine whether masking kids would prevent the spread of Covid. It’s inexcusable to mandate a policy with no evidence, but even worse considering the demonstrable harms.

    “Speech, language, and learning: Humans rely on visual information provided by a speaker’s face to decode speech. Seeing mouth movements and facial gestures accelerates recognition of words and enhances speech comprehension [12], [19], [20], [21]. The integration of audio and facial information is crucial to speech perception and development. Visually impaired children often have delays in speech and language development [22], which may be due, at least in part, to reduced ability to perceive,” they write.

    Masks prevent children from learning, from seeing mouth movements to facial gestures. They fundamentally detract from a child’s ability to develop speech and language. Among many other problems covered in the full study.

    These harms were well-known before Covid. This isn’t new information, and it’s obvious common sense. So why did public health authorities ignore it, in favor of promoting evidence-free policies and mandates?

    There are few reasonable explanations: panic, fear, or incompetence. Likely some combination of all three.

    Forcing their absurd, fatalistic, hyper-safetyism on adults was and is one thing. Imposing it on children is another. And their refusal to admit they were wrong meant the growth and development of kids were most certainly harmed and stunted for years, while ensuring that there would be terrified, misinformed parents who would continue to force their kids to wear masks indefinitely.

    When you consider those consequences, rationality fades, and a disturbing likelihood of malicious intent becomes a lot more realistic.

    Republished from the author’s Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 14:35

  • Did Russia Shoot Down Its Own Top-Secret Stealth Drone?
    Did Russia Shoot Down Its Own Top-Secret Stealth Drone?

    Stunning footage has been posted on X this AM of what appears to be a Russian Sukhoi S-70 Okhotnik (‘Hunter’) attack drone shot down in a ‘friendly fire’ incident over the Donetsk region.

    All reports at the moment are unconfirmed, but there is a whole bunch of footage posted on X showing what appears to be a Russian fighter jet downing the friendly Okhotnik stealth drone.

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    Separate video footage shows the drone crash site. 

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    This is the first known Okhotnik stealth drone to be lost in a combat environment. There have been no official statements from Russia about the incident or who exactly shot down the drone. 

    However, one X user offered their take on the situation:

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    The aviation news website AeroTime noted earlier this year that series production of the stealth drone was slated for the second half of this year. The website also provided specs on the new drone that flies with Russia’s Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jet. 

    Powered by an AL-31 turbojet engine, the S-70 Okhotnik is expected to achieve speeds of up to 1,000 kilometers per hour, covering a range of 6,000 km. The Russian Defense Ministry has highlighted its advanced features, including electro-optical targeting, radio, and various reconnaissance equipment. The drone’s two internal bays can carry up to 2.8 tons of weaponry.

    It is anticipated that the S-70 Okhotnik will operate collaboratively with the Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jet, extending the latter’s radar field. The drone’s stealth capabilities will enable it to designate long-range targets for the leading aircraft without being easily detected.

    Considering the secrecy surrounding the stealth drone, Moscow is unlikely to ever disclose the full details of what transpired.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 14:00

  • FEMA Issues Warning On False Helene 'Rumors', Launches Response Page
    FEMA Issues Warning On False Helene ‘Rumors’, Launches Response Page

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

    The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released a “rumor response” page in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which caused significant damage across western North Carolina late last month.

    An emergency crew returns from checking the mud-covered side roads near the destroyed Asheville Tunnel Rd Bridge, in Asheville, N.C., on Oct. 3, 2024. Richard Moore/The Epoch Times

    In an update on Oct. 3, FEMA responded to statements issued online about the agency’s response to the disaster, including whether it is running out of funding due to payments and efforts made to fly illegal immigrants into parts of the United States.

    “FEMA has enough money right now for immediate response and recovery needs. If you were affected by Helene, do not hesitate to apply for disaster assistance as there is a variety of help available for different needs,” the agency wrote.

    It also said that “no money is being diverted” from federal Helene disaster response efforts and that claims that “funding for FEMA disaster response was diverted to support international efforts or border related issues” are “false.”

    The agency did not provide specific examples of the online claims about its funding that it described as false.

    Earlier this week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wrote that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the Department of Homeland Security, and FEMA should “immediately stop spending money on illegal immigration resettlement and redirect those funds to areas hit by the hurricane” and “put Americans first.”

    He was responding to Mayorkas’s comments to reporters that FEMA, overseen by his agency, “does not have the funds” to make it until the end of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which is Nov. 30.

    “We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have,” Mayorkas told a press gaggle on Air Force One. “We are expecting another hurricane hitting. We do not have the funds. FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season and … what is imminent.”

    The Epoch Times contacted DHS and FEMA for comment on Friday but received no reply by publication time.

    “The Biden–Harris administration took more than a billion tax dollars that had been allocated to FEMA for disaster relief and used it to house illegal aliens,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote on X. “Now, they’ve abandoned American hurricane victims in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee.”

    Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) echoed that claim, saying FEMA’s move to spend “over a billion dollars on illegals while they leave Americans stranded and without help is treasonous.”

    Another claim purportedly circulating online was that FEMA was asking for cash donations and is turning away volunteers in North Carolina. But FEMA’s website says it is false.

    “FEMA does not ask for or generally accept any cash donations or volunteers for disaster response,” the agency wrote. “We do encourage people who want to help to volunteer with or donate cash to reputable voluntary or charitable organizations. After a disaster, cash is often the best way to help as it provides the greatest flexibility for these reputable organizations working on the ground to purchase exactly what is needed.”

    The American Red Cross, meanwhile, wrote in a lengthy post on X that allegations the organization is throwing away or confiscating donated items is not true.

    “We are not confiscating, removing or discarding donated items. We focus on providing shelter, food, and relief after disasters,” the Red Cross wrote. “While we don’t accept physical donations, as managing them takes time and resources away from our mission, we work with community partners who are better equipped with these resources to handle and distribute these items. For information on where donated goods are available, please call 211.”

    It also addressed claims that the Red Cross is not available in North Carolina or is “taking over shelters.”

    “We do not forcefully take over shelters. However, we do provide management support at the request of partners,” the organization said, adding that the claims it isn’t there are “simply not true.”

    The death toll from Helene is at least 215, making it the deadliest storm to hit the United States since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 13:25

  • Watch: Russian Troops Start Training On Counter-FPV Kamikaze Drone Evasion Techniques
    Watch: Russian Troops Start Training On Counter-FPV Kamikaze Drone Evasion Techniques

    Long before the Russia-Ukraine war erupted in Eastern Europe, this video sent shockwaves through the intelligence world. It provided the most accurate forecast of first-person view (FPV) drones being weaponized and transformed into kamikaze swarms. 

    With that forecast becoming a stark reality for the soldiers of Ukraine and Russia, killing each other not just with bullets and missiles, war footage posted on X in recent times shows how war has quickly changed:

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    Traditional countermeasures such as drone radio signal jammers that disrupt the GPS or control signals of the drones, GPS spoofers, or high-energy lasers are too costly and not easily deployable on the modern battlefield. Perhaps the ole’ shotgun equipped with buckshot shells might do the trick, or even a shovel, as cheap counter-drone tech. 

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    On the other hand, X user Visegrád 24 posted what appears to be new footage of Russian troops conducting field training exercises to defend against FPV attacks.

    “War is changing quickly. Russian soldiers have started training on FPV drone evasion techniques,” said Visegrád 24. 

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    Here’s what X users are saying: 

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    Maybe skeet shooting is the best practice. 

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    Let’s return to the FPV drones that could be weaponized Stateside and attack soft targets. This is a massive threat given the Biden-Harris administration rolled out the red carpet to at least 1.7 million illegal aliens deemed ‘potential national security threats‘ into the country. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 12:50

  • Homeschooling Numbers Continue To Climb After COVID-19 Pandemic: Report
    Homeschooling Numbers Continue To Climb After COVID-19 Pandemic: Report

    Authored by Savannah Hulsey Pointer via The Epoch Times,

    New data from the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy’s homeschool research lab show that 90 percent of states reporting data saw an increase in homeschooling in the 2023–2024 school year.

    The report examined data from 21 out of 30 states that collect or report homeschool participation information. The other nine states are expected to report data in the coming months.

    The 19 states that experienced growth were Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

    Only Vermont and New Hampshire showed a decline from the previous school year in the total number of homeschooled students.

    The report identified two primary trends: sustained growth and rebounding growth. The three states with sustained growth, meaning they experienced no post-COVID-19 pandemic decline, were Louisiana, South Carolina, and South Dakota.

    The other 16 states exhibited a rebounding trend, meaning they saw a post-COVID-19 pandemic decline, followed by an increase in 2023–2024.

    “While homeschooling grew rapidly during the pandemic, most people thought that students would return to more traditional schools when the pandemic disruptions abated,” the report states.

    “Some states did show a decline, but few have returned to normal, even four years after the onset of the pandemic.”

    During the 2023–2024 school year, the number of homeschoolers in North Dakota reached an all-time high, reflecting a 24 percent increase from the previous year. Similarly, Rhode Island saw a 67 percent increase in the number of homeschoolers from the previous year. Wyoming also hit an all-time high with an 8 percent increase over the previous year.

    “The big takeaway is that this is new homeschool growth that we see in last year’s state reports,” report author Angela Watson said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.

    “The rebound effect is really interesting and we aren’t sure of the reason—but we know it’s not because of a global pandemic.”

    Tracking accurate data on homeschoolers is challenging due to varying legislation and reporting requirements. States have different policies regarding homeschoolers; some classify them as private school students, while others do not.

    “The fact that so many states are reporting highest-ever numbers seems like a big finding as well,” Watson said,

    “and that these counts are going up while overall school enrollment and population is declining.”

    Some states, such as Texas, do not report homeschool statistics. However, other data indicate an increase in homeschool participation in the Lone Star state.

    The Texas Homeschool Coalition examined data from the U.S. Census Bureau that showed that homeschooling in Texas nearly tripled between the spring and fall of 2020, rising from 4.5 percent to 12.3 percent.

    The coalition also cited information gathered from the Texas Education Agency and statewide school districts indicating that more than 50,000 students migrated from public schools to homeschooling in 2022 and 2023.

    “While there is a clear growth trend in homeschooling, the reason for that growth is unknown. What is clear is that this time, the growth is not driven by a global pandemic or sudden disruptions to traditional schooling. Something else is driving this growth,” the Johns Hopkins report states.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 12:15

  • Katrina-Like Disaster Unfolds For Biden-Harris As New Round Of Tropical Trouble Takes Aim At Florida
    Katrina-Like Disaster Unfolds For Biden-Harris As New Round Of Tropical Trouble Takes Aim At Florida

    Hurricane Helene has passed, leaving a trail of destruction across the US Southeast, and the Biden-Harris administration’s relief response with FEMA has been nothing short of a massive failure. Meanwhile, another storm is brewing in the Gulf of Mexico, which could potentially usher in another round of tropical trouble for the US East Coast next week. 

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    “Development of this system is expected, and a tropical depression or storm is likely to form later today or on Sunday while it moves slowly eastward over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico,” the National Hurricane Center wrote in a Saturday morning update, adding, “By early next week, the system is forecast to move faster eastward or northeastward across the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico where additional strengthening is likely.”

    NHC continued, “Interests on the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico, the Florida Peninsula, the Florida Keys, and the northwestern Bahamas should monitor the progress of this system.” 

    Formation chances are extremely high over the next 48 hours… 

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    Weather models show a consensus view of the storm’s potential track over central Florida. 

    Meanwhile, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters last week that FEMA “does not have the funds” to see Americans through the rest of this Atlantic hurricane season. The federal agency drained the funds on supporting millions of illegal aliens the Biden-Harris rolled out the red carpet to via open southern borders. 

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    Also, FEMA’s botched response is another shitstorm playing out for the Biden-Harris administration.

    Just yesterday…

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    “Joe Biden was at the beach when the hurricane came ashore. VP Harris was raising money w/ celebrities before staging a plane photo op. I promise you if a Republican were in the WH there would be no political restraint, just as there was none after Katrina,” CNN pundit Scott Jennings wrote on X. 

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    The Biden-Harris team of far-left radicals is overwhelmed by the growing list of disasters. Another hurricane to hit the US Southeast, or if WW3 erupted in the Middle East, would prove devastating because the people in charge are not actually leaders but, instead, Marxist propagandists. That’s why the world is on fire. That’s why FEMA drained funds for illegals and prioritized globalist policies over America First. 

    Americans are waking up in droves just weeks before the election about the Biden-Harris admin (Rich Men North Of Richmond) inability to lead a nation. 

    A Katrina-like disaster has unfolded for the Biden-Harris admin, and things could worsen if another storm strikes the US Southeast.

    Remember Obama in 2008…

    Well, the tables have flipped. Democrats are now in the hot seat. 

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 11:40

  • Israel Strikes Lebanon's Northernmost City For First Time Of War
    Israel Strikes Lebanon’s Northernmost City For First Time Of War

    An Israeli drone bombed a Palestinian refugee camp in the Lebanese city of Tripoli, killing a Hamas leader and three members of his family in the early hours of Saturday.

    Al-Jadeed TV channel reported that “an Israeli drone targeted a residential apartment in the vicinity of Khalil al-Rahman Mosque in the Beddawi camp in Tripoli,” killing four people and injuring others who were transported to the Hilal Hospital inside the camp.

    Tripoli, Lebanon. File image.

    Hamas issued a statement announcing the death of Qassam Brigades commander, Saeed Atallah Ali, his wife Shaima Khalil Azzam, and his two young daughters, Zainab and Fatima, who were killed as a result of the airstrike.

    The Hamas statement added that “the Qassam Brigades, in light of the ongoing and escalating massacres of the occupation in the steadfast Gaza Strip, our proud West Bank, and our camps, the fortresses of our return, pledge to our people to avenge the pure blood that was shed and is still being shed.”

    According to Al-Jadeed, the Israeli bombing was the first of its kind in northern Lebanon since the beginning of the war. Israel also struck targets in the southern suburbs of Beirut for the third night in a row.

    Lebanese News Agency reported that the Israeli warplanes launched 12 raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut at dawn on Saturday.

    Witnesses speaking with Reuters said a blast was heard and smoke seen early on Saturday in Beirut, amid evacuation warnings issued by the Israeli military for residents to evacuate several areas. The alerts warned residents to evacuate buildings in the Burj al-Barajneh neighborhood, the Choueifat district, and Haret Hreik.

    The Israeli army announced it bombed a mosque within the Martyr Salah Ghandour Hospital compound in the town of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon overnight. A statement from the hospital said that nine medical workers were injured in the strike, including many in serious condition.

    The army claimed Hezbollah had established a “command room” within the mosque “to plan and carry out acts of terror against IDF troops and the State of Israel.”

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    In Gaza, the Israeli military has regularly bombed hospitals, mosques, and schools, claiming without evidence they are being used by Hamas fighters.  Lebanon’s Health Ministry has announced that more than 2,000 people have now been killed in Israeli attacks on the country since 8 October last year, including 127 children and 261 women.

    Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 41,802 people, with the local health ministry saying the majority are women and children, and injured 96,844 since the war began on October 7 last year.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 11:05

  • IRS Vows Tax-Enforcement Crackdown After Audit Reveals $1.4 Billion In Unpaid Taxes From Gambling Winnings
    IRS Vows Tax-Enforcement Crackdown After Audit Reveals $1.4 Billion In Unpaid Taxes From Gambling Winnings

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

    The IRS said it is preparing a tax-enforcement crackdown after a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) audit revealed that more than $1.4 billion in taxes may have gone uncollected from individuals who won large sums in gambling.

    The IRS building in Washington, on June 28, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

    The report from TIGTA’s audit, released on Sept. 30, found that nearly 150,000 Americans with gambling winnings exceeding $15,000 between 2018 and 2020 failed to file tax returns, leaving potentially significant amounts of unpaid taxes.

    The watchdog’s report identified more than $13.2 billion in gambling winnings during the period in question, while estimating that the IRS “could potentially increase tax revenue by approximately $1.4 billion through addressing the 139,045 individual nonfilers with gambling winnings.”

    The audit revealed that tax enforcement on nonfilers with gambling winnings has been limited, with the TIGTA noting that 103,000 individuals from this population have not been issued notices or faced other enforcement actions to bring them into compliance. The watchdog recommended that the agency “begin appropriate enforcement actions” to collect the unpaid taxes.

    In a written response to the report, the IRS agreed with the recommendation, vowing to begin enforcement actions.

    “We agree. For tax years (TY) 2018 through 2020, the IRS will identify high-income non-filers with gambling winnings where no enforcement actions have been taken, including the top 100 non-filer cases identified by TIGTA,” wrote Lia Colbert, commissioner of the IRS’s Small Business Self-Employed Division, which oversees the agency’s collection activities and the examinations of most U.S. businesses.

    “We are committed to improving tax compliance.”

    Colbert said the IRS would begin enforcement by issuing the first return delinquency notices to select nonfilers with gambling winnings.

    However, the audit raised further concerns beyond income-tax compliance. Hundreds of W-2G forms, which are used to report gambling winnings, were filed without the required taxpayer identification numbers (TINs), making it difficult for the IRS to track the winnings and enforce tax compliance, the TIGTA found. The watchdog also pointed out that the IRS has few processes in place to identify noncompliance with excise taxes by gambling operators, particularly in the rapidly growing online sports-betting market.

    While the IRS agreed with most of the watchdog’s recommendations, it disputed the significance of the W-2G forms missing TINs, arguing that they represent a small fraction of overall reporting. In response, the TIGTA wrote that “while this population may not be large in absolute terms, we believe that the amount of backup withholding that should have been withheld is significant” and that the IRS should investigate payers who filed W-2G forms with missing TINs.

    In a separate report, also released on Sept. 30, the TIGTA found potential unpaid taxes and penalties stemming from early retirement withdrawals. The watchdog estimated that around 2.8 million taxpayers who took early retirement distributions between 2018 and 2022 might owe some $1.6 billion in additional taxes and failure-to-pay penalties.

    However, the IRS disputed these findings, stating in a written response that a “very high” percentage of these taxpayers qualify for exemptions and that the actual amount of unpaid taxes would likely be much less. The IRS also took issue with an additional $788 million in estimated unpaid taxes related to retirement withdrawals, arguing that the TIGTA’s analysis did not account for income reported on other tax forms or exemptions that applied to many of the early distributions. Still, the IRS partially agreed with the watchdog’s recommendations, including vowing to look into 54 taxpayers who did not report early retirement distributions as income on their tax returns.

    The TIGTA’s audits, which highlight gaps in compliance and enforcement, signal that more aggressive tax-collection efforts may be on the horizon, as the IRS faces pressure to reduce the “tax gap,” which is the difference between taxes owed and taxes paid.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 10/05/2024 – 10:30

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Oct 05

Today’s News 5th October 2024

  • Will The Supreme Court Decide That Religious Charter Schools Are Unconstitutional?
    Will The Supreme Court Decide That Religious Charter Schools Are Unconstitutional?

    Authored by William Jeynes via RealClearEducation,

    Recently, I was on a 3-person panel discussion and debate at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. We were asked to address the question of whether religious charter schools are constitutional. We also shared how we thought the U.S. Supreme Court would rule. This issue has risen to the forefront of educational debate largely because of the U.S. Supreme Court Carson v. Makin (2022) case and an effort in Oklahoma to found a religious charter school, St. Isadore of Seville Catholic Virtual School

    In 2023-2024. However, one should note that these developments did not launch the momentum to rule in favor of religious charter schools, but they built on earlier debates and statements from prior cases including Justice Stephen Breyer’s question in the Espinosa vs. Montana Department of Revenue (2020) case, asking about religious charter schools. Bill Clinton’s speech in 1995 in Vienna, Virginia stating that past U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding faith were misinterpreted has also played an important role in the debate on religious charter schools.

    The Carson v. Makin (2022) case, based in Maine, played a major role in increasing the momentum for religious charter schools. In that case, the state of Maine had provided vouchers for a good number of parents who desired to send their children to non-religious private schools. In contrast, however, Maine’s government did not provide these vouchers for parents who wished to send their children to religious private schools. In a decision penned by Chief Justice Roberts, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 that the Maine voucher program was unconstitutional because it discriminated against faith-based schools.

    As important as the Carson v. Makin (2022) case is, there remain three issues that the U.S. Supreme Court needs to address in any decision on the constitutionality of religious charter schools. First, are religious charter schools constitutional? Second, to what degree may state governments impose restrictions on religious private schools that may inhibit their religious freedoms or beliefs? For example, Adam Frey, the Attorney General of Maine, clarified the state of Maine’s policy following the Carson v. Makin (2022) decision. Frey declared that in order for any private school to participate in the voucher program, it had to agree to follow Maine’s Human Rights Act. The question that the U.S. Supreme Court needs to answer is to what extent states may initiate such actions. How far is it legally permissible for them to go? Where does one draw the line?

    The third issue that the U.S. Supreme Court must address is that it needs to determine whether those who run charter schools are state or private actors. This is because the vast majority of people who run charter schools are private groups. However, these charters are defined by law as public schools and are supported by tax-payer dollars. If the Court rules that those who operate the charter schools are state actors, then because they must be non-sectarian, religious charter schools will be ruled unconstitutional. However, if the Court rules that charter schools are private actors, then religious charter schools will be ruled constitutional.

    The problem is that determining whether those who run charter schools are state or private actors will not be easy. This is because the courts have often disagreed with each other in their conclusions. For example, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2010 (in Caviness v. Horizon Community Learning Center), determined that charter schools were private actors when it came to firing educators. That is, no state hearings were necessary. The case is likely particularly salient, because it cited a U.S. Supreme Court case, Rendell-Baker v. Kohn (1982). This case involved a private school that was very similar to a charter school. It was created to help kids really struggling in school and received about 90% of its funding from the government. The U.S. Supreme Court also found the school to be a private actor in the case of an employee being fired. The Court might view the Rendell-Baker v. Kohn (1982) case as the pivotal one in terms of helping establish precedent for its eventual decisions on religious charter schools, in part because it is a U.S. Supreme Court case. However, in a 2022 Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals case (Peltier v. Charter Day School), regarding school dress codes, the ruling was that those who ran charter schools were state actors.

    Whether the Court will utilize the St. Isadore of Seville Catholic Virtual School case to address these issues or wait for a future case remains to be seen. Nevertheless, given that Carson v. Makin (2022) and Justice Breyer’s 2020 statement have brought this issue to the forefront, one can foresee a scenario in which one may not have to wait long.

    During the panel discussion, I opined that the U.S. Supreme Court will likely eventually rule that religious charter schools are constitutional. I did not give a precise timeline regarding when such a ruling might take place. Nevertheless, the other two academics on the panel agreed with my prediction, one of whom was a well-seasoned Harvard law professor.

    Almost as salient as the issue of whether religious charter schools are constitutional is the context the U.S. Supreme Court establishes in their decision. The U.S. Supreme Court will either provide a narrow context for its decision or a broader one. An example of a narrow context would be declaring that religious charter schools are constitutional, but the Court will leave it up to the states to determine the degree of implementation. An example of a broader context would be if the U.S. Supreme Court decides that if a state has charter schools, it must at least offer the possibility of having religious charter schools.

    Whatever the Court decides, it will have a substantial long-term impact on schools and society. If the court decides that religious charter schools are constitutional, one result is that will like give families more options in terms of choosing schools for their children. According to David Tyack in his book, The One Best System, the American system of schooling is far too monolithic and the historical trend toward increased centralization is not consistent with the nation’s diversity. In the next several years the nation will discover whether the U.S. Supreme Court agrees.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 23:25

  • Main Lebanon-Syria Border Crossing Destroyed In Israeli Attack
    Main Lebanon-Syria Border Crossing Destroyed In Israeli Attack

    Via The Cradle

    The Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria was severely damaged by an Israeli airstrike early on Friday, forcing the road to close and leaving those fleeing to cross on foot. 

    Videos circulating on social media show the aftermath of the strike and the destruction it caused. Displaced Lebanese and Syrians can be seen trekking by foot across the border. 

    The Masnaa border crossing on Oct.4. via X

    Masnaa is the primary border crossing between Lebanon and Syria.

    The Israeli army claimed in a statement that it struck a 3.5-kilometer underground tunnel crossing from Lebanon into Syria. It says it is working to stifle the flow of weapons from Iran via Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

    Israel’s air force bombed “an underground tunnel that crosses the territory of Lebanon into the territory of Syria, about 3.5 kilometers long, and which is used by Hezbollah to transfer weapons and store them in an underground route,” the Israeli army said in a statement on 4 October. 

    The statement also announced the assassination of Mohammad Jaafar Qasir, who it said was the head of Hezbollah’s Unit 4400 that allegedly operated the targeted tunnel.

    It added that it “will continue to attack and destroy any infrastructure for smuggling weapons.”

    Since late last month, Israel has been waging a massive and deadly aerial campaign across Lebanon, including its capital, Beirut. At least one million have been displaced and around 2,000 killed since September 20, with the death toll on a continuously rapid rise.

    Dozens of loud explosions rocked Beirut’s southern suburb just past midnight on Thursday as Israel unleashed another round of massive and destructive airstrikes. Several neighborhoods were reported destroyed as a result of the attacks.

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    Hebrew and western media cited Israeli sources as saying that Hashem Safieddine was the target of the main attack on the suburb. 

    Safieddine is the cousin and likely successor to Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated on September 27 when Israel dropped over 80 bunker buster bombs and leveled around 10 buildings in Beirut’s southern suburb. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 23:00

  • Scientists Identify New Protein That Drives Age-Related Blindness, Uncover Potential Therapy
    Scientists Identify New Protein That Drives Age-Related Blindness, Uncover Potential Therapy

    Authored by Cara Michelle Miller via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Researchers have identified a protein that may prevent age-related macular degeneration (AMD), according to a new study published in the Developmental Cell on Oct. 2.

    AMD is the leading cause of vision loss among older adults, affecting nearly 20 million Americans. As the population ages, this number is expected to rise significantly. Currently, there are no treatments that can stop AMD’s progression.

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    “I think we identified something that can target early-stage disease. … That’s a big deal,” the study’s lead author Ruchira Singh, an associate professor of ophthalmology at the University of Rochester in New York, told The Epoch Times.

    The study used human stem cells rather than animal models, which may give a more accurate depiction of what is happening in AMD, according to the researchers.

    “Older research methods have been limited in their ability to capture important aspects of either healthy or diseased human cells,” Singh noted.

    Researchers Identify the Protein Driving AMD

    The researchers extracted human stem cells from healthy people and AMD patients and programmed them into cells lining the retina.

    Compared to healthy people, AMD patients’ retinal cells overproduced a type of protein called tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 3 (TIMP3), which leads to a buildup of fats and proteins called drusen. Drusen are a marker of early-stage AMD.

    In AMD, the macula, the part of the retina responsible for sharp vision, becomes damaged.

    In the early stages, yellow deposits of drusen begin to accumulate in the retina. Early AMD symptoms include blurred vision or seeing a black spot in the central field of vision, making everyday activities like reading, driving, and even recognizing faces increasingly difficult.

    Dry AMD, which accounts for 90 percent of diagnosed cases, is characterized by the gradual buildup of drusen and slow vision loss. Wet AMD, which is less common and more severe, is linked to the growth of abnormal blood vessels under the retina.

    In the study, researchers found that TIMP3 blocked another enzyme called matrix metallopeptidase 2 (MMP2), which acts as the eyes’ cleanup crew, removing harmful substances and keeping the eyes healthy. With less MMP2 activity, drusen accumulates, driving AMD disease.

    Boosting MMP2 Prevents AMD

    Singh’s team found that by blocking TIMP3, they could increase MMP2 levels, which help regulate inflammation and eye health. When MMP2 levels are low, inflammation increases, leading to more drusen buildup and vision loss.

    By boosting MMP2 levels, the researchers were able to reduce drusen accumulation.

    Singh’s team has filed provisional patents for enzyme inhibitors that could help treat the disease. Next steps include preclinical studies and determining the best method of delivery, such as oral medication or eye drops. Only after these stages conclude can the therapy be tested and, eventually, made available to patients.

    Although the exact cause of AMD is not fully understood, genetic and environmental factors are known to contribute. Having a family history of AMD may increase the risk.

    Specific genes, such as ABCA4, have been linked to the condition. However, research is ongoing to determine their role in treatment, according to a review published in Clinical Interventions in Aging.

    Older age, smoking, obesity, and cardiovascular disease increase a person’s risk of AMD. Some studies have also linked diets high in saturated fat with an increased likelihood of AMD.

    Lifestyle Preventative Tips

    AMD progresses at different rates in different people. Up to 3 percent of people with minor drusen accumulation experience vision problems within five years, while about 50 percent with larger drusen develop late-stage AMD and vision loss within the same time frame.

    Daily vitamins and nutritional supplements may help slow the progression of intermediate dry AMD.

    According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), certain nutrients benefit eye health, including vitamins C and E, zinc, lutein, zeaxanthin, and omega-3 fatty acids. These are linked to a lower risk of developing AMD later in life.

    Citrus fruits, dark-green leafy vegetables, whole grains, fatty fish, and nuts are good food choices for supporting eye health.

    Additionally, the AAO recommends a low-glycemic-index diet for those with AMD or who are at risk. Glycemic index indicates how quickly foods raise blood sugar, and low-glycemic-index diets tend to be high in nonstarchy vegetables and whole or minimally processed grains and low in processed foods.

    Physical activity is also associated with lower odds of early and late AMD. The AAO notes that consistent physical activity, such as walking, cycling, swimming, and even active gardening, can help keep eyes healthy.

    Without treatment, dry AMD can progress to wet AMD, which worsens quickly.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 22:35

  • Saudis Declare Neutrality On Iran-Israel Conflict, Not Wishing For A Repeat Of 2019 Aramco Attacks
    Saudis Declare Neutrality On Iran-Israel Conflict, Not Wishing For A Repeat Of 2019 Aramco Attacks

    The world’s largest oil exporter Saudi Arabia says that it is staying neutral and on the sidelines when it comes to the ratcheting wars in Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen – and the Iran vs. Israel showdown.

    Other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – which includes Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, and Kuwait – have also this week “sought to reassure Iran of their neutrality” in the Iran-Israel conflict, Reuters has reported.

    Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud (R) and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian (L) meet at Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) in Doha, Qatar on October 3, 2024. Iranian Presidency/Anadolu Agency

    Prior to the Gaza war, Saudi Arabia was widely seen as on the cusp of signing a full normalization and diplomatic relations deal with Israel, as part of the Abraham Accords – but that was derailed in the wake of Oct.7.

    At the same time, Riyadh and Tehran have recently made peace. The kingdom is now seeking to assure Iran it will not join Israel’s side. 

    The Saudis and other GGC states wish to avoid the kind of attacks which could impact its oil production and exports, such as the 2019 Abqaiq–Khurais Saudi Aramco drones strikes. The US blamed Iran for those historic attacks, but Tehran leaders never owned up to it.

    Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has been in Doha this week. He told Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan on Thursday, “We consider Islamic countries, including Saudi Arabia, as our brothers, and we emphasize the importance of setting aside differences to enhance cooperation.”

    Bin Farhan also expressed the desire to set aside all rifts. “We aim to permanently close the chapter on our differences and focus on resolving issues, developing relations as two friendly and brotherly countries,” he said, as cited in Iranian state media.

    Regional tensions are soaring, and global oil markets have been reacting with each big headline and statement related to reports that Israel could be preparing major strikes on Iran’s oil and gas fields. 

    As for the latest Friday afternoon, which sent oil sliding…

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    More broadly, things between the Gulf states and Iran began cooling in the wake of the decade-long proxy war in Syria to oust Assad. The GCC countries were active in funding jihadist rebels seeking to conquer Damascus (and to counter the Iranian/Shia axis), but once it became clear that the Syrian government emerged victorious, GCC diplomats began racing back to Damascus.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 22:10

  • 5 Chinese Nationals Face Charges Over Covering Up Visit To Michigan Military Site
    5 Chinese Nationals Face Charges Over Covering Up Visit To Michigan Military Site

    Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Federal prosecutors have charged five Chinese nationals with allegedly lying and trying to conceal their actions, more than a year after authorities spotted them near a remote Michigan military site where thousands of troops had gathered for summer drills.

    The Department of Justice in Washington on July 29, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

    The five defendants, who were undergraduate students at the University of Michigan at the time of the incident in August 2023, left the United States after graduating in May, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court on Oct. 1. Arrest warrants have been issued for the five individuals.

    “The defendants are not in custody. Should they come into contact with U.S. authorities, they will be arrested and face these charges,” Gina Balaya, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit, said on Oct. 2.

    The incident happened at Camp Grayling, the largest Army National Guard training facility in the United States, during last summer’s annual Northern Strike training event.

    According to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, more than 7,000 participants from 25 states, one territory, and four countries took part in the military exercises.

    The five defendants are not charged for what happened at Camp Grayling. Instead, they are accused of misleading investigators about their trip to the location and conspiring to delete photos from their cellphones.

    The case highlights concerns in Congress about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) espionage efforts, either through buying land near U.S. military sites or breaching military bases.

    In 2020, three Chinese nationals were sentenced to prison terms for trespassing and taking photos of the Naval Air Station Key West in Florida.

    In July, a Chinese student pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors under the Espionage Act for using a drone to take photos of naval shipyards in Virginia.

    Encounter

    The five defendants are Xu Zhekai, Guan Renxiang, Zhu Haoming, Tao Jingzhe, and Liang Yi, according to the complaint.

    On Aug. 13, 2023, the five were confronted after midnight at a boat launch on Bear Lake at Camp Grayling by a sergeant major with the Utah National Guard. According to the FBI, one of the defendants said, “We are media,” before they gathered their belongings and agreed to leave the area.

    The Utah National Guard had a tactical operations center near Bear Lake. The center had tents, antennae, satellite dishes, vehicles, and generators, all of which were “visible from the location” where the sergeant major encountered the five defendants, according to the complaint.

    The five had reserved a room at a nearby hotel a week before they were spotted.

    On Dec. 18, 2023, Guan arrived at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport to board a flight to South Korea en route to China. He told U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials that he and his classmates had taken a trip to northern Michigan four months earlier “to see shooting stars,” the FBI said.

    In Guan’s possession was an external hard drive containing two images of “military vehicles” taken on the same night as the encounter with the National Guard officer, according to the complaint.

    On March 3, FBI agents interviewed Xu, Tao, Zhu, and Liang separately at Chicago O’Hare International Airport after they arrived on a flight from Iceland. According to the FBI, the four said they were in Michigan in August 2023 to “see a meteor shower.”

    Investigators said the five defendants discussed deleting photos from their phones and cameras on the Chinese social media app WeChat.

    The five “appear to have coordinated their statements regarding the incident and discussed the deletion of photos from their electronic devices to prevent them being seen by law enforcement,” according to the complaint.

    Concerns About Espionage

    Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, said in a post on social media platform X on Oct. 2 that the case “shows once again that CCP espionage can happen anywhere in America and we must be vigilant.”

    “The CCP obviously has an interest in Camp Grayling and this is further evidence it would be a mistake for Michigan leaders to allow Gotion to build in our state,” he wrote, referring to Chinese battery maker Gotion’s plans to build a manufacturing plant in the state.

    “State funding for Gotion’s plan to bring Chinese nationals to Mecosta County is an open invitation for more spying. For national security reasons, Governor Whitmer and the legislature must revoke state funding for Gotion immediately.”

    Whitmer has said that Gotion’s plant, which is set to be built about 100 miles from Camp Grayling, would make Michigan the “global hub of mobility and electrification.”

    Moolenaar also referenced his recent report, saying that American universities “must shut down their joint institutes with Chinese universities, and enact stricter guardrails on emerging technology research.”

    “American universities must realize they are a target for espionage and protect the critical taxpayer-funded research they do,” he said.

    According to the report, China has gained “back-door access” to U.S. technologies through partnerships with academic research institutions over the past decade, with millions of dollars in U.S. funding indirectly going toward advancing Chinese military technology.

    The FBI said the five defendants studied at the University of Michigan as part of the school’s joint program with Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) in China. They began their studies for the two-year program in August 2022.

    The University of Michigan states on its website that more than 150 SJTU students attend the school through dual degree or joint graduate programs every year. The two universities have also established a joint institute in China.

    Canberra-based think tank Australian Strategic Policy Institute, in a 2019 report highlighting the risks of research partnerships with Chinese universities, said SJTU had several links to the Chinese military and was home to three of China’s major defense laboratories.

    In a speech in March 2020, Yang Zhenbin, SJTU’s party secretary, said that he would “fully support and resolutely obey the central government’s decisions” and “uphold the party’s overall leadership of the school,” according to the school’s website.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 21:45

  • Dramatic Footage Shows Tanker Blown Up In Critical Maritime Chokepoint As Disasters Mount For Biden-Harris
    Dramatic Footage Shows Tanker Blown Up In Critical Maritime Chokepoint As Disasters Mount For Biden-Harris

    The Biden-Harris administration is facing several disasters this week.

    From FEMA’s botched response in the hurricane-ravaged US Southeast to elevated WW3 risks in the Middle East, one major and ongoing crisis that went underreported this week was multiple attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on commercial ships in the critical maritime chokepoint of the southern Red Sea.

    On Wednseday we penned a note, citing intelligence firm SynMax, which specializes in maritime and energy intelligence, about two commercial vessels targeted by Houthis:

    “Two ships targeted by Houthis in the RedSea yesterday—Panama-flagged CORDELIA MOON and Liberian-flagged MINOAN COURAGE—the first such attacks since September,” SynMax wrote on X. 

    Fast forward to late week, the maritime news website gCaptain released footage showing one of the vessels, Panama-flagged tanker M/T Cordelia Moon, being hit by a Houthi unmanned surface vessel. 

    Here’s more from the gCaptain:

    The incident, which occurred on October 1, involved multiple missile strikes and a hit by an USV. The vessel was unladen and in ballast condition at the time of the attack.

    According to the Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC), the vessel was targeted while navigating the southern Red Sea, approximately 64 nautical miles from Al Hudaydah, Yemen. The attack unfolded in several stages, according to the ship’s Master:

    1. At 0150 UTC, three projectiles landed near the ship’s port bow.
    2. At 0253 UTC, a fourth projectile splashed 100 meters from the aft starboard quarter.
    3. At 0500 UTC, the ship was struck by a USV on its port side.

    The JMIC confirmed that the Cordelia Moon sustained damage but did not require assistance. All crew members are reported safe, and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call. It also assesses that vessel was likely targeted due to affiliations within the vessel’s operation structure.

    The current threat assessment indicates that vessels with Israeli, United States, or United Kingdom associations are at the highest risk, but ships within company structures that have been identified as making port calls to Israel are also potential targets.

    As tensions continue to rise in the Red Sea, this latest incident underscores the dangers to vessels and their crews in the region, particularly those with connections to countries perceived as adversaries by the Houthi rebels.

    Dramatic footage.

    For one year, Houthi rebels have launched over 80 attacks on commercial ships in the critical maritime chokepoint, sinking two ships and killing four sailors.

    Maritime expert Noam Raydan, and author of The Chokepoint, noted… 

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

    This chaos has sparked global supply chain snarls for the shipping industry as commercial vessels are rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope. 

    Even more concerning is the Biden-Harris administration’s failure of ‘Operation Prosperity Guardian’ to ensure freedom of navigation and maritime security in the critical chokepoint.  

    Meanwhile, the clogged chokepoint is causing major supply chain disruptions at top global ports.

    CNN Business’ Richard Quest pointed this out on X, “Extraordinary number of ships at Singapore.  All bunched up here because of Red Sea disruption to shipping and shifts in way things are being shipped. Fascinating. This is where commerce and geo politics come face to face.” 

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

    In August, former Navy Seal and Blackwater founder Erik Prince issued this dire warning about what the clogged Red Sea actually means for the West: America’s “credibility and deterrence” are quickly eroding.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 21:20

  • Dozens Of Meat Processing Plants Expected To Shut Down Under New EPA Rules
    Dozens Of Meat Processing Plants Expected To Shut Down Under New EPA Rules

    Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Food prices—especially meat and poultry—have skyrocketed in the past four years and could be exacerbated further next year when new EPA rules for meat processors go into effect.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Price Outlook for September reported that beef and veal prices had increased for six straight months, and predicted they will rise 5.2 percent overall in 2024. Poultry prices also rose, although by a smaller percentage, and are expected to rise more before year’s end.

    Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images, Public Domain

    The report traced the rise to factors including pandemic-related supply chain disruptions and the worst inflation since the 1980s.

    Next year could see still higher meat and poultry prices at the grocery store, analysts say. That’s because an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal is expected to put some meat processors out of business, resulting in potential job losses and supply chain disruptions.

    The EPA announced a proposed rule change governing effluent, or wastewater, limits for meat and poultry processors in January of this year, followed by public comment in the spring.

    The agency’s final rule will go into effect in August 2025.

    The proposal has met with opposition from dozens of  states, industry stakeholders, and policy experts, who fear it will harm the industry, the food supply, and consumers.

    The proposed changes are spurred by lawsuits filed by a coalition of 13 environmental organizations. In 2019, the groups challenged the Trump administration under the Clean Water Act for not updating aging water pollution control standards for slaughterhouses and meat processing plants.

    In response, the EPA pledged to strengthen its regulations, without implementing changes. In December 2022, a second lawsuit was filed, resulting in the current proposal.

    The proposed rule contains three possible options for reducing wastewater discharges from slaughterhouses and poultry processors through water filtration technology.

    Benefits and Drawbacks

    The EPA estimates that the new rules would reduce pollutants discharged through wastewater from processing facilities by about 100 million pounds per year.

    The proposed rules would establish tighter limitations for nitrogen released into the environment by large processors and, for the first time, would limit phosphorus.

    The rules would apply to processors directly discharging wastewater into bodies of water, and, for the first time, would also apply to those indirectly discharging wastewater via water treatment plants.

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington on Jan. 4, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

    In another first, the new rules would establish pretreatment standards for oil and grease, total suspended solids, and biochemical oxygen demand.

    The EPA solicited comments on its preferred option and on two other proposals, which would apply pollutant limitations to smaller processors and tighten restrictions on wastewater pollutants.

    About 850 of some 5,000 facilities would be impacted by the preferred rule changes, the agency said. Those include large facilities processing more than 50 million pounds of meat per year and more than 100 million pounds of poultry per year.

    The EPA estimates that under its preferred option, at least 16 facilities will be forced to close, impacting at least 17,000 jobs. At the top end, the EPA estimates up to 53 plants could close.

    Prices for beef, chicken, turkey, and pork products are expected to increase slightly while availability of meat and poultry is expected to decrease slightly, according to the agency.

    In an email to The Epoch Times, EPA scientist Michael Nye called the proposed regulations “economically achievable” and flexible enough to allow processors to find “even lower-cost compliance options.”

    The agency’s literature said cutting down on wastewater pollution from processors would reduce exposure to pathogens and toxins, improve aquatic habitats, and enhance recreational and tourism use of lakes and rivers.

    Less pollution would combat climate issues and work to address pollution in poor and minority communities, according to the EPA.

    The agency estimated the “total monetized benefits” of tightening the wastewater standards to be between about $90 million and $180 million annually.

    States Push Back

    A coalition of attorneys general from 27 states—led by Kansas and Arkansas—have argued that the rule change amounts to federal overreach.

    Part of the rule change would regulate processors that release wastewater into treatment plants, which is unnecessary, they stated in a March letter to the EPA.

    The states say that the EPA currently regulates only 171 of the meat and poultry product facilities in the United States. Those are facilities that directly discharge wastewater into bodies of water—not facilities that release it indirectly by discharging it to sewers or municipal sewage treatment plants.

    Workers process chickens at a poultry plant in Fremont, Neb., on Dec. 12, 2019. Nati Harnik/AP Photo

    By also including facilities that indirectly discharge wastewater, the regulation would expand to encompass some 3,879 facilities, according to the states. The EPA “has never before claimed such sweeping authority to regulate indirect discharges,” they stated, calling the proposed rule “not only costly but also unlawful.”

    Federal statistics show that inflation remains high, they said, and shutting down meat and poultry processors would only aggravate the problem.

    The attorneys general also questioned the data on which the EPA’s proposal is based.

    “It appears that EPA is relying primarily on data put together by the groups that were suing them to come up with this rule,” they said.

    The EPA cited plaintiff findings such as those from a 2018 Environmental Integrity Project report to support the proposed changes.

    “Tyson Fresh Meats of Dakota City, Nevada, releases as much as 3,084 pounds of nitrogen per day into the Missouri River, a level approximately equal to the waste load of 132,000 people,” the agency said in technical documents citing the 2018 report.

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 20:55

  • Full Societal Collapse: San Fran Now Overrun With "Invasive 20 Pound Rodent" Infestation
    Full Societal Collapse: San Fran Now Overrun With “Invasive 20 Pound Rodent” Infestation

    First comes the tech boom, then comes the liberal politicians increasingly radical policies. Then comes the theft, looting and massive homeless drug problem which the city is incapable of fixing, and that ultimately destroys then the city.

    Then comes the massive, invasive 20 pound rodents. 

    This is the stage San Francisco sees itself at now: dealing with a massive rodent problem. 

    Nearly a thousand nutria have been hunted in the Bay Area this year, but sightings show the invasive 2.5-foot-long rodents have now spread to Contra Costa County, threatening a key watershed, according to a new report from SF Gate. Wildlife officials are urging the public to report any sightings.

    Krysten Kellum, spokesperson for California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Matthew Slattengren, Contra Costa County agriculture commissioner, confirmed the discovery in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.

    The rodents pose a serious threat as they burrow through wetland habitats, damage crops, and can weaken levees, risking failure in a region that supplies water to cities and farms statewide.

    The SF Gate report says that nutria can produce up to 200 offspring annually and consume up to 25% of their body weight daily, but destroy up to 10 times more, threatening endangered species and native plants. They also carry diseases like tuberculosis, septicemia, and parasites that can infect humans, pets, and livestock.

    Since their first sighting in Merced County in 2017, over 5,000 nutria have been killed in California. Their spread into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta prompted officials to ramp up control efforts to protect the ecosystem.

    California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Peter Tira commented: “We cannot have nutria reproducing in the delta. The threat to California’s economy is too great.”

    The first nutria were spotted in Contra Costa County last year, and two were captured on Aug. 15 near Dutch Slough. Their origin and how far they’ve spread remain unclear.

    Krysten Kellum, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Bay Delta Region, added: “We have had additional detections of nutria on camera in that area over the last month, but with no additional captures.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 20:30

  • 'The Biden/Harris Doctrine' Has Brought The World Closer To World War III
    ‘The Biden/Harris Doctrine’ Has Brought The World Closer To World War III

    Authored by Fred Fleitz via American Greatness,

    By a strange turn of fate, on October 1, 2024, the day that Iran launched the largest ballistic missile attack ever against Israel, Foreign Affairs magazine published an article by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in which he claimed “the Biden administration’s strategy has put the United States in a much stronger geopolitical position today than it was four years ago” and that Iran is being held in check.

    A year earlier, Foreign Affairs published another tragically erroneous article by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, which said, “Although the Middle East remains beset with perennial challenges, the region is quieter than it has been for decades.” Six days after this article was posted, Hamas launched a sneak attack against Israel, massacring more than 1,200 people and maiming and injuring many more. In a stunning violation of journalistic ethics, Foreign Affairs allowed Sullivan to revise his article after the Hamas terrorist attack. Here is a link to the original version.

    In these articles, Biden officials are trying to rewrite history by manufacturing false narratives of a successful Biden national security doctrine that they claim has enhanced U.S. and global security.

    This is, of course, preposterous. Not only has there been a huge increase in global instability since Donald Trump left office in January 2021, the Biden-Harris administration has brought the world closer to World War III because of an increased chance Russia could use nuclear weapons against Ukraine, the real prospect of an Israel-Iran War, a new Russia-China-Iran-North Korea Axis, a growing chance that China will attack Taiwan, and other current and potential crises.

    Several Biden allies have tried to invent a so-called Biden Doctrine since 2021. Most made fatuous claims that Biden was reversing the damage done by President Trump to the country’s alliances, deterrence, and global leadership despite clear evidence that Trump strengthened alliances and had a successful foreign policy that brought global stability and kept U.S. troops out of new wars. Others asserted that Biden “restored trust abroad for the U.S.,” a claim that many U.S. allies would dispute. Several experts, including Blinken and Sullivan, wrote that President Biden enhanced American foreign policy by strengthening the American economy. The huge advantage that Donald Trump currently has in the polls over Kamala Harris on the economy proves this isn’t true either.

    In January 2024, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote an article titled, “A Biden Doctrine for the Middle East Is Forming. And It’s Big” on a supposed new Biden Middle East peace initiative to quickly end the Hamas/Israel war. Under this plan, the Biden administration would bring peace to the Middle East with a tough stand on Iran, push for recognition of a Palestinian state, and greatly scale up the U.S. security alliance with Saudi Arabia. None of these things happened. Instead, Middle East security has deteriorated in 2024 to the worst level in decades.

    If there is a Biden/Harris national security doctrine, it is a doctrine of abysmal failure. There are four reasons for this.

    Incompetence.

    The Biden/Harris approach to U.S. national security has been dominated by profound incompetence. It was clear to the world at the start of Biden’s presidency that Joe Biden was not mentally fit to be U.S. commander-in-chief. This was obvious at a Biden-Putin summit in Geneva in June 2021, when Biden’s incoherent and doddering performance made him look weak to a huge global audience while Putin came off as competent and confident.

    This was just part of many public displays of national security incoherence and confusion by this administration. This included Biden’s insults to the Saudi Crown Prince early in his administration, hostility toward the Egyptian government, mishandling of U.S. relations with China, and the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Biden undermined a key diplomatic mission to China by his secretary of state in 2023 by calling Chinese President Xi a dictator just after this trip. There has been little serious diplomacy between the U.S. and Russia and China. Biden has not spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin since February 2022 and has closed off the possibility of high-level talks with the Russian leader by calling him a war criminal and likening Putin to Hamas.

    Biden’s worst foreign policy faux pas probably was when he made the bizarre statement in January 2021 that the U.S. might tolerate a “minor incursion” of Ukraine by Russia. A month later, Russia launched a massive invasion of Ukraine.

    His extremely weak top national security advisers have exacerbated the effect of Biden’s mental decline on U.S. foreign policy: Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. This group does not include foreign policy geniuses like Henry Kissinger, James Baker, George Schultz, George Marshall, or Dean Acheson. It is a collection of third-string officials chosen to not outshine Biden.

    Biden’s national security incompetence and mental decline have not gone unnoticed by world leaders. Russian officials frequently ridicule Biden over his mental health. The Wall Street Journal reported in October 2022 that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman mocked Biden in private and “made fun of his mental acuity.”

    The perception of a mentally infirm American president with an incoherent foreign policy and surrounded by a weak foreign policy team has significantly damaged American and global security.  Not only has this eroded American leadership and deterrence, Biden officials are now routinely ignored in global affairs. When Joe Biden calls for cease-fires in Gaza and Lebanon or tells Israel not to attack Iran’s nuclear sites, no one takes him seriously.

    Knee-jerk rejection of Trump and his foreign policy successes. 

    Trump-hatred has been a significant theme of Biden’s foreign policy, especially at the start of this administration. This led to several irrational and dangerous policy decisions.

    Biden officials condemned and tried to reverse most of Trump’s foreign policies, even successful ones. These include Biden’s decision in May 2021 to reverse Trump’s sanctions that shut down the Nord Stream 2 pipeline built to transport Russian gas to Germany. In February 2021, Biden lifted Trump’s designation of Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a terrorist group. The Biden administration was forced to partially reverse this decision in January 2024 after the Houthis began firing Iran-supplied missiles at Israel and ships in the Red Sea.

    President Biden also ended President Trump’s diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and downgraded U.S. diplomacy with the country by naming a part-time special envoy.  This led to an increase in North Korean belligerence and the largest number of North Korean missile tests in a single year in 2022.

    Other knee-jerk reversals of Trump policies include resuming funding for and rejoining the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which Trump officials cut off because of this organization’s anti-Israel bias and collaboration with and funding of Hamas. The Biden administration also rejoined the UN Educational, Science, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which the Trump administration withdrew from due to anti-Israel bias.

    In addition, the Biden administration rejoined the World Health Organization that the last administration withdrew from due to its mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, its refusal to hold China accountable for the origin and spread of the COVID-19 virus, and China’s control of this international organization.

    Naïve globalist and far-left policies. 

    Related to the Biden administration’s reversal of successful Trump administration foreign policies has been the implementation of many naïve globalist and far-left policies that have hurt American global interests.

    The first and most significant of these policies was Biden’s decision to designate climate change as the top threat to U.S. national security and to concentrate American diplomacy on this issue.

    President Biden also decided to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord on his first day in office. I am sure that Chinese leaders have been very pleased that most Biden administration diplomatic missions to Beijing were sent to discuss climate goals that China never intends to meet instead of more serious issues such as growing military threats from China, Chinese threats to Taiwan, Chinese aggression in the South China Sea, China’s growing nuclear arsenal, intellectual property theft by China, origins of the COVID-19 virus, etc.

    President Biden and Vice President Harris have promoted the moribund two-state solution for Middle East peace and the creation of a Palestinian state over the objections of the Israeli government. They continued to press for a two-state solution even after the Hamas massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023.

    The Biden/Harris administration also resumed the Obama administration’s appeasement of Iran in an attempt to negotiate a new nuclear agreement. This included refusing to enforce oil sanctions against Iran, which made the country an estimated $100 billion richer than it was when President Trump left office. In September 2023, the Biden administration agreed to pay Iran $6 billion in ransom to free five innocent Americans imprisoned in Iran. Iran has used this windfall to expand its military missile and nuclear programs. These funds also were sent to support Iran’s terrorist proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthi rebels.

    The Biden administration has alienated many countries by using U.S. diplomats and diplomatic facilities to promote far-left positions on social issues. This includes flying Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ pride flags at U.S. embassies and U.S. ambassadors meddling in the politics of their host nations to promote liberal views on social issues. In June 2023, the U.S. diplomatic mission to the Vatican flew an LGBTQ pride flag outside its building in Rome. According to a Heritage Foundation report, the Biden administration has used U.S. Agency for International Development funds to promote far-left gender ideology and diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Third World.

    Biden officials have also tried to reform the United Nations to make it “fair” for the Third World by changing the membership of the U.S. Security Council and the use of the council’s Permanent Member veto.  These proposals would have weakened American power and influence in the U.N. Fortunately, they could not be implemented due to opposition from China and Russia.

    Arrogance and lack of situational awareness. 

    Another unfortunate characteristic of the so-called Biden/Harris national security doctrine has been instances of Biden officials ignoring the views and assumptions of other states and assuming that other states would automatically abide by or defer to the wishes of the Biden administration.

    This was demonstrated by the abysmal mishandling of Russian President Putin before he ordered Russian troops to invade Ukraine in February 2022. Although Putin gave plenty of indications that he would never agree to Ukraine joining NATO and objected to Ukraine working with NATO, Biden ignored him and dangled NATO membership before Ukrainian President Zelensky. As Russia made preparations to invade Ukraine, the Biden administration threatened to respond with tough sanctions and to begin sending lethal aid to Ukraine. Although Putin probably was also motivated to invade Ukraine by the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden and his national security team miscalculated in believing Putin would defer to empty warnings from Biden not to invade and threats of new U.S. sanctions.

    There have been many examples of arrogance and lack of situational awareness in the Biden administration’s Middle East policy. In addition to examples of this previously discussed, there are the weird warnings of “don’t” by Biden and Harris to Iran and its terrorist proxies not to engage in hostilities against Israel after the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack. This strange, incoherent one-word directive had no effect in lowering tensions in the Middle East and further undermined American deterrence in the region.

    There has been similar arrogance in the Biden administration’s claims about promoting alliances. Although Biden officials deserve some credit for forming and strengthening alliances (such as AUKUS, the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the U.K., and the U.S.), most of the improvements in alliances were the work of other states in response to the Biden administration’s policy failures.

    For example, NATO is stronger today in response to a war in Ukraine that the Biden administration helped cause and mostly due to the work of European NATO members.

    Similarly, although President Biden helped promote a closer trilateral security relationship between the U.S., Japan, and South Korea, this relationship was mainly the work of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in response to the Biden administration ignoring the Asia-Pacific region in 2021 and 2022. Kishida and Yoon devoted a lot of time to building this alliance and put their reputations on the line. Biden played a very minor role.

    President Trump was right when he said the Biden/Harris national security policies are so bad that they have brought us closer to nuclear war and World War III. The American people see this in the increasingly dangerous security situations in the Middle East and the Russia/Ukraine War. When most Americans cast their votes for president this fall, they will not be fooled by a fantasy Biden/Harris national security doctrine promoted by Biden officials and their allies to explain away one of the worst foreign policy records of any U.S. administration.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 20:05

  • Trump: "Liz Cheney Is A Stupid Warhawk" Who Wants To "Shoot Missiles At People"
    Trump: “Liz Cheney Is A Stupid Warhawk” Who Wants To “Shoot Missiles At People”

    Donald Trump mocked the Harris campaign for rolling out Liz Cheney and frequently boasting of its Dick Cheney endorsement during a rally in Michigan on Thursday.

    Liz this week appeared by Vice President Harris’ side at a Wisconsin event, where the two also praised Dick, who will go down in history as the nation’s most notorious neocon warmonger who was a chief architect of the disastrous 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq. This despite that in years prior he was absolutely reviled by the left.

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    “You may not have supported a Democrat for president before,” Harris told Ms. Cheney on Thursday, “but as you have also said, we both love our country, and we revere our democratic ideals.”

    Cheney agreed, “Our republic faces a threat unlike any we have faced before” while charging Trump with seeking to overthrow the 2020 election results.

    Former president Donald Trump’s response was characteristically hilarious. He said in an interview just before his own rally that Cheney is a “a stupid war hawk” who “wants to shoot missiles” at people—in a dig also at her dad’s blood stained legacy of constant militarism abroad.

    Watch Trump blast the Cheney’s in a brief interview…

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    Max Blumenthal of The Gray Zone has commented, “Imagine being one of the 2004-era progressive bloggers who blasted Cheney day after day as Darth Vader and is now propagandizing alongside the entire cast of Bush war criminals for a corporatist Kamala-led rainbow neocon regime.”

    Another independent pundit, Michael Tracey, has also summarized, “It’s a pro-Trump cult of personality versus an anti-Trump coalition based on very little other than opposition to Trump’s personality cult.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 19:40

  • Earthquake Insurance Rates Are Set To Increase In California
    Earthquake Insurance Rates Are Set To Increase In California

    Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times,

    Californians will pay more for earthquake coverage in 2025, as the California Earthquake Authority – a not-for-profit organization funded by insurance companies and managed by the state – is raising rates by an average of 6.8 percent in January.

    “[The earthquake authority] is committed to making earthquake insurance as available, reliable, and affordable as possible,” the organization said on its website.

    “While we work hard to keep rates affordable, state law requires our rates to be actuarially sound.”

    Policies are sold through 20 member companies affiliated with the earthquake authority, and those seeking earthquake insurance must have a homeowner or renter policy with the company that offers the additional coverage.

    Cited as reasons for the spike are inflation, higher construction costs, and the price of reinsurance—coverage that insurers purchase to help pay claims.

    Annual rates are expected to increase by less than $10 for renters and about $70 for homeowners, but some policyholders will see higher or lower adjustments.

    The changes also include a new $500 sub-limit for broken personal property—including glassware, pottery, and certain other items—at no additional cost.

    Standard homeowners, renters, and condominium insurance policies do not cover damage caused by earthquakes, though they will typically cover fire damage caused by temblors.

    Mortgage lenders generally do not require earthquake coverage, though most mandate homeowner policies to cover other damage.

    The Golden State accounts for about 90 percent of earthquakes nationwide, and about 10 percent of Californians carry insurance to cover damage, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

    Some homeowners and renters avoid earthquake insurance because of policy dynamics, as most homes would not experience damage that costs more than insurance deductibles. This leaves them paying for premiums without receiving aid in the event of a disaster, according to the agency.

    Approximately one million Californians have policies with the earthquake authority, representing a fraction of the state’s homeowners and renters.

    The organization advised policyholders that they could be offered rate reductions of up to 25 percent if they retrofit their homes with seismic safety upgrades.

    “These projects can sometimes be done in a day or two and are usually pretty inexpensive—especially when compared to the costs of rebuilding a home that has been severely damaged in an earthquake,” the authority said.

    According to the organization, homes most at risk of earthquake damage include those with raised foundations, post-and-piers, built on hillsides, with living spaces built over garages, and manufactured homes that are not built with seismic safety braces.

    “It’s rarely the earth that hurts people during an earthquake; it’s manmade structures,” said Charlotte Fadipe, chief communications officer.

    “The good news is we can do something about that. We’re here to help Californians prepare for and recover from damaging earthquakes.”

    The earthquake authority was founded after the Northridge earthquake shook the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles in January 1994. Approximately $20 billion in residential damages occurred as a result of the disaster, with about half of the total covered by insurance at the time.

    The event significantly impacted the insurance market, as the industry had underestimated the financial impact of moderate to large earthquakes.

    Insurance companies representing 93 percent of the state’s market restricted or stopped writing home insurance policies in response, according to the insurer, negatively affecting California’s housing market.

    To stabilize the housing and insurance markets, the Legislature created the Earthquake Authority in 1996 to sell insurance through a variety of partner companies.

    A spokesperson said the organization is focused on improving resiliency.

    “It’s not just about the homes themselves,” said Janiele Maffei, chief mitigation officer with the Earthquake Authority. “It’s also about creating resilient systems, involving the residents, contractors, engineers, building departments—the whole ecosystem—to get Californians earthquake ready.”

    In 2024, policies originated by the authority account for two-thirds of all residential earthquake coverage statewide, making it one of the largest earthquake insurers in the world.

    Price increase requests are considered and approved by the state’s Department of Insurance.

    The premium cost increase comes as insurance rates are on the rise across the board in California. The state is facing an insurance “availability crisis,” according to experts, with dozens of insurers having fled the market over the last two years as wildfire risks and rebuilding costs have skyrocketed since 2017.

    “Consumers are hurting, businesses continue to lose coverage, wildfires are ravaging our state—and we do not have the luxury of time,” Ricardo Lara, insurance department commissioner, said in an August press release. “I am ultimately responsible for fixing this crisis, and I am moving forward to meet my commitment to complete long-needed reforms this year.”

    Lara issued a bulletin calling for more complete rate review applications from insurers to expedite approval processes, and the insurance department is hiring more staff to facilitate review.

    “We’ve been working closely with the Insurance Commissioner and fully support these actions … to ensure Californians have adequate access to insurance and combat market exodus that hurts consumers,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in the same press release. “These are the actions necessary to address California’s insurance crisis.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 19:15

  • In Battleground North Carolina, Voters Say Border, Inflation Top Issues
    In Battleground North Carolina, Voters Say Border, Inflation Top Issues

    Authored by Arjun Singh via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Edwin Robasco was a truck driver and Teamsters union member from Boston. Less than a year ago he moved to Wilmington, North Carolina—one of many retirees flocking to the warm southern state.

    Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images, Nathan Worcester/The Epoch Times

    On a hot September day at the downtown farmers’ market, he explained why—after supporting “Kennedys, Kennedys, Kennedys” as a Democrat for years—he’s now voting for former President Donald Trump.

    “You let millions of people in here. You don’t even know who they are. You don’t have a clue,” Robasco said, referring to the influx of illegal immigrants over the U.S. border, which has become Trump’s chief focus this campaign.

    “I don’t know how they’re gonna pay for them. You can’t just let people in and not help take care [of them]. You got to do it,” Robasco said.

    Robasco is one of many North Carolinians who spoke with The Epoch Times about how they intend to vote in November’s presidential election, and what’s driving their decisions.

    With 15 electoral votes, North Carolina is crucial to win for both Trump and his Democratic opponent Vice President Kamala Harris.

    In 2020, Trump won the state by 1.34 percent, his narrowest margin of victory in any state that year. Both Trump and Harris have made the state a regular stop in the final stages of their campaigns.

    ‘The Economy and the Border’

    Across dozens of interviews, the state of the economy and the border crisis were top-of-mind issues for Democratic and Republican voters. Many were concerned about large numbers of illegal immigrants coming to their communities, even as they were supportive of immigration generally.

    “The big issues, right now, are the economy and the border. Those are the two major issues that people tell me about on a daily basis. They’re very concerned about our security in our country, and they are very concerned about the loss of jobs and the inflation rate,” North Carolina state Sen. W. Ted Alexander, a Republican, told The Epoch Times at a Trump rally in Mint Hill on Sept. 25.

    Al Smith is a 34-year-old who owns an auto body repair shop in Greensboro, North Carolina. He cited migration as one of the reasons he’s voting for Trump this year.

    “Hell yeah,” said Smith when asked if he is concerned about illegal immigrants in the area.

    “What happens to the average Joe? That job where he was getting paid $14 an hour, now it has been 7, 8 bucks … that’s when it gets a little sticky,” Smith said, suggesting that illegal immigration is bringing down wages for U.S. workers in the area.

    “Some of the border things [Trump says] can be a little extreme, but at the same time, just think about how many people are passing through the border,” he said.

    “When you have the influx … when you get into millions and millions and millions, you know, they’re getting more money than our veterans—that’s a problem,” said Logan Prince, a business owner and Trump supporter.

    Logan Prince, business owner and Trump supporter, poses for a photo in Greensboro, N.C., on Sept. 19, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

    Even Harris’s supporters lamented about illegal immigration, though they noted how local businesses relied upon them.

    “We have concerns about borders and stuff like that,” said Camila and Lyndon White, grandparents from Randolph County, North Carolina, who are supporting Harris.

    “But we … rely on our immigrant population. We have a friend who’s a brick mason, and all of his crews are immigrants. Without them, he couldn’t do what he does.”

    “People think about immigration [here]. I mean, all those issues,” said Palmer McIntyre, a Harris supporter and conservationist in Greensboro.

    On the economy, voters were worried about both inflation and fuel prices. Disappointment with the Biden administration’s economic performance is a big reason many are choosing to support Trump.

    “I’m a small-business owner, and I’ve never had a president hurt me as much as this administration has hurt me—from fuel, fertilizers, [to] products. Everything is crazy … [because of] interest rates. I can’t get money from anywhere. Nobody’s lending money and fuel,” Prince said.

    Rev. Rick Baker, pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Mint Hill, North Carolina, said: “Our finances are going downhill terribly. People can’t afford those small things. I mean, especially those with lower incomes, they’re struggling. … [As] a pastor of a church, I know my people, and they’re having it harder than they’ve ever been.” He said he’s backing Trump.

    Rev. Nick Baker, pastor of Faith Baptist Church, attends a Trump rally in Mint Hill, N.C., on Sept. 25, 2024. Arjun Singh/The Epoch Times

    Harris supporters shared these concerns. “I used to think we were upper middle class. I think we’re just middle class now,” said Camila White, who complained of high housing prices and the cost of living.

    “[Prices] will continue to [go up], especially with food,” said Cheryl Bridges, a Quaker chaplain in Greensboro, regarding the cost of living. She relies on monthly Social Security payments and is concerned she won’t be able to cover her expenses.

    Some of Harris’s supporters told The Epoch Times she is not being clear enough about her economic plans. So far, Harris has proposed a raft of tax credits for parents of minor children, homebuyers, and businesses as her economic proposals.

    “I feel like Democrats don’t do a great job at really [communicating],” said Russell, a Harris supporter who runs a mental health services provider in Greensboro.

    “You really gotta get very clear … and you gotta be really contemporary with your example

    Russell, a behavioral health services provider, poses for a photo in his cybertruck in Greensboro, N.C., on Sept. 19, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

    Pro-Abortion Republicans

    Abortion has become a flashpoint in the election following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, with several abortion bans in conservative states provoking backlashes. In North Carolina—where the state legislature enacted a ban on abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, with certain exceptions—most voters told The Epoch Times that abortion should be permissible.

    “I can’t believe the Roe v. Wade changed. I can’t believe that [Trump] has the right to do that to women,” said Jill Radzcwiz of Salisbury, North Carolina, who said she is voting for Harris “mainly because of women.”

    “We have two granddaughters, so I’m concerned about their reproductive rights,” said White. “I would like for [my daughter] to have the freedom to see her doctor and decide her health care needs. … A woman should decide for herself.”

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 18:50

  • Trump Says He Would Deport Haitian Immigrants In Springfield, Ohio
    Trump Says He Would Deport Haitian Immigrants In Springfield, Ohio

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

    Former President Donald Trump said in a new interview that he would revoke the legal status of Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio, and work to deport them back to their native country.

    Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at Dane Manufacturing in Waunakee, Wisconsin, on Oct. 1, 2024. Scott Olson/Getty Images

    “It has nothing to do with Haiti or anything else. It doesn’t work. You have to remove the people, and you have to bring them back to their own country,” Trump told NewsNation on Oct. 2.

    “Springfield is such a beautiful place. Have you seen what’s happened to it? It’s been overrun. You can’t do that to people. They have to be removed. Absolutely, I’d revoke [the status]. I’d bring them back to their country.”

    He also said he doesn’t view the protection the immigrants have as legal.

    Temporary protected status was granted to Haitian immigrants in 2010 after a major earthquake in the country. The designation was extended multiple times until, under Trump, the federal government announced that the designation would be ending. Legal challenges blocked that effort and the designation has since been extended through Feb. 3, 2026, by President Joe Biden’s administration.

    Temporary protected status gives immigrants from certain countries the ability to legally work and live in the United States, even if they entered illegally. Officials grant the status when they find the immigrants’ home countries have conditions that make returning there unsafe.

    Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in June that the extension was being granted because of ongoing violence and insecurity in Haiti.

    Hundreds of thousands of Haitian immigrants have come to the United States in recent years—the U.S. Census Bureau says some 852,000 are living in America as of February—with at least 15,000 going to Springfield.

    Some residents there have expressed frustration over the influx, saying local institutions have been slow to serve Americans because of assistance being given to immigrants. Others, such as Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, say the immigrants have helped fill jobs and contribute to the state in various ways.

    Trump has campaigned on cracking down on illegal immigration by increasing deportations, ending some programs that the Biden administration has implemented, and strengthening barriers and staffing at the border.

    The deportation effort would rely, in part, on local law enforcement who are familiar with the immigrants, he said. He said it would extend to other local communities in addition to Springfield.

    Vice President Kamala Harris has said that she was heartbroken over schools and other places in Springfield closing because of threats that came into the city after officials and former officials started drawing attention to the influx of immigrants.

    “The vast majority of us as Americans know we have so much more in common than what separates us. I know that. I know that regardless of someone’s background, their race, their gender, their geographic location—I know that people are deeply troubled by what is happening to that community in Springfield, Ohio,” she said in September during an event held by the National Association of Black Journalists. “And it’s got to stop.”

    Biden used similar language in speaking to reporters, rebuffing recent allegations that the Haitian immigrants were abducting and eating residents’ cats and dogs.

    Springfield’s strategic engagement manager, Karen Graves, told The Epoch Times in September that “there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured, or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”

    A police report obtained by government watchdog group Judicial Watch shows that at least one resident called to report her neighbors for allegedly stealing and chopping up her cat, and some residents have spoken in city meetings about dealing with animals going missing.

    Jeff Louderback contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 18:25

  • Shopping Malls Implementing Curfews And Teen "Waiting Zones" To Try And Curb Chaos, Theft And Fights
    Shopping Malls Implementing Curfews And Teen “Waiting Zones” To Try And Curb Chaos, Theft And Fights

    Tired of seeing unruly teens running amok and causing chaos inside of your local shopping mall? So are the residents, vendors and security at Moreno Valley Mall in California.

    It is one of many malls on a list that includes New Jersey’s oldest mall, Westfield Garden State Plaza, that is implementing new rules to try and cut back on unruly and sometimes illegal behavior from teenagers. 

    At Westfield Garden State Plaza, anyone under 18 must be accompanied by an adult after 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, according to KIRO Newsradio. The mall has also set up “waiting zones” for teens needing a ride after curfew, the report says.

    The KIRO Newsradio report also notes that a Pittsburgh mall has implemented similar policies, where both teens and their adult chaperones face bans if a violation occurs. In Atlanta, some retailers have seen a drop in sales after enforcing such rules.

    Fight at a mall, any given day in Anytown, USA

    The rules are obvious consequences stemming from a spree of looting that started taking place during the ‘summer of love’ in 2020, and never really stopped. Since then, police all over the country have dealt with higher rates of theft in inner cities while liberal DAs refuse to meaningfully prosecute those breaking the law.

    As a result, we have stores like CVS and Target locking up goods like toothpaste, preventing shoppers from accessing even the most basic items, and shopping malls being forced to “lock down”.

    Despite the ugly reality of the situation, KIRO’s Angela Poe Russell laments the changes taking place at malls, writing: “This is happening all over the country and, to be honest, I’m grieving. I’m grieving because our teens need a safe place to go just to hang out and have fun. Remember the COVID-19 pandemic? They were locked in on screens all day. We were wishing for the days they could just go hang out at a mall in person with people.”

    “When I think about some of my favorite childhood memories, they happened at the mall. It was where I had my first job. It was where I met my first real boyfriend. It was where I met the singers of my favorite band.”

    The key word that you use there, Angela, is “safe” – which malls simply no longer are. In the 1980s you could go to the mall without fear of looting or assault. Sadly, those days are long gone…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 18:00

  • "Guns And Butter" Is Back
    “Guns And Butter” Is Back

    Authored by Douglas French via The Mises Institute,

    Sabrina Carpenter has been a star since she was 12, staring on Disney’s Girl Meets World. Now she’s a singer and, I’ve heard, she has broken records set by the Beatles. She’s recorded a catchy cover of Nancy Sinatra‘s 1965 hit “These Boots Are Made For Walking.” 

     ”I want to feel as confident as humanly possible so I can be up there and not worry about what I’m doing,” Carpenter says.

    “It helps me perform better.”

    She ended up donning custom Swarovski-crystal minidresses by the Ukrainian brand Frolov, a favorite of Beyoncé for her own shows. She paired the dresses with her signature white go-go boots. “The go-go boots have been there for me in hard times,” she says. The 1960’s footwear fashion statement are suddenly popular again.

    To any economics student, go-go boots and the year 1965 mean Lyndon Banes Johnson’s “Guns and Butter” policy.

    LBJ’s blizzard of government programs increased government spending by 42 billion gold standard dollars, or 13%. Medicare, Medicaid, and Head Start only scratch the surface of LBJ’s Great Society programs that are still with us today. 

    Not known as a tax-cutter, Johnson reduced income taxes, lowering the top rate from an astronomical 91% to a still absurd 70%. He reduced the corporate tax rate from 52% to 48%. According to the Tax Foundation, the cuts spurred the economy enough to benefit government by an increase of 33%. The tax take increased from $94 billion in 1961 to $153 billion in 1968.

    The social programs were the butter, the Vietnam War was the guns.

    America watched on televison as U.S. troops and Vietnamese were maimed. The same year Ms. Sinatra hit the charts with “Boots,” LBJ sent 100,000 troops to Vietnam. By 1968, his defense budget soared to support 500,000 troops. American casualties grew as the North Vietnamese appeared to be winning. Johnson didn’t like to lose and so he did not seek re-election.

    Just as go-go boots have come back in style, and the President not running for re-election, so has guns and butter economic policy.

    Joe Biden is no LBJ but his administration has passed roughly $4.5 trillion in new programs, starting with $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, Infrastructure and Jobs Act, CHIPS and Science Act, Inflation Reduction Act, and so on.

    This spending on top of the trillions of dollars the Great Society programs cost.

    In addition to that butter, the U.S. is providing guns for two wars, in Ukraine, and Gaza. In April, Biden signed a military aid package worth $95 billion that will arm Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The bill had bipartisan support with 79 senators voting yes. 

    They taught us in school there is an opportunity cost to produce guns versus butter and vice versa.

    But a complicit Fed and Treasury make both not only possible, but the norm. These boots never go out of style.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 17:40

  • "Coming To Your Community": Biden-Harris' Open Borders Transforms America Into Terrorist Playground
    “Coming To Your Community”: Biden-Harris’ Open Borders Transforms America Into Terrorist Playground

    President Joe Biden and “border czar” Vice President Kamala Harris’ disastrous open-border policies have rolled out the red carpet to at least 1.7 million illegal aliens deemed ‘potential national security threats’ into the country. This comes as Venezuelan prison gangs wreak havoc across the nation. Just two weeks ago, a former senior Border Patrol official testified before Congress, exposing the Biden-Harris administration for covering up a surge in suspected terrorists crossing the southern border. 

    The report, “The Biden-Harris Border Crisis: At Least 1.7 Million Potential National Security Threats,” was published by the US House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary and Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement on Thursday. It highlights the national security risks posed by open borders. 

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    Here are the most critical points in the report:

    • Since January 2021, approximately 7.6 million illegal aliens have entered the US, including 1.9 million “gotaways.”

    • Under the Biden-Harris Administration, US Customs and Border Protection has encountered more than 1.7 million special interest aliens—meaning aliens from 26 countries that DHS has determined pose the greatest national security and counterintelligence threats to the United States. The special interest countries include Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Syria, and Turkey

    • At least 382 individuals encountered at the border are on the US terrorist watchlist, with 100 of these encounters happening in fiscal year 2024 alone. Among these individuals, at least 99 were released into US communities by DHS.

    • The report stresses the growing threat from “special interest aliens” (from countries considered national security risks) and the lack of adequate vetting.

    • The case of Mohammad Kharwin, an Afghan national on the terrorist watchlist, is presented as an example of the administration’s failure to secure the border. Despite being identified as a potential threat, Kharwin was released into the US multiple times.

    “In a similar effort to hide the dangerous consequences of its open-borders policies, for months the Biden-Harris Administration delayed briefing the Committee and Subcommittee about Mohammad Kharwin, an illegal alien from Afghanistan on the terrorist watchlist,” the report noted. 

    After all, why would the Biden-Harris administration even allow the public to know their open border policies transformed parts of the nation into ‘terrorist playgrounds’? That in itself would produce optically displeasing headlines for the globalists in the White House who push nation-killing open borders. 

    The report warned the Biden-Harris admin has been actively “attempting to cover up the national security nightmare created by the open southwest border.” 

    Two weeks ago, at a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing titled “A Country Without Borders: How Biden-Harris’ Open-Borders Policies Have Undermined Our Safety and Security,” former San Diego Sector Border Patrol Chief Aaron Heitke said the Biden-Harris administration muzzled him in an attempt to warn the nation about disastrous open borders. 

    “I was told I could not release any information on this increase in SIAs or mention any of the arrests,” Heitke testified, adding, “The administration was trying to convince the public there was no threat at the border.”

    The bombshell testimony from Heitke, and now the report about Border Czar Kamala Harris rolling out the red carpet to 1.7 million illegal aliens deemed national security threats…

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    … comes as the US Army warned in a leaked document that 5,000 members of the Venezuelan prision gang, Tren de Aragua, many of them armed, are running amok across the nation. 

    At the center of this border invasion are non-profit groups receiving federal grant money. This is the funding network; thank the US taxpayers.

    On Thursday, Fox News reported that Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. introduced a bill to kill federal monies for these non-profits. 

    “NGOs and non-profits serve as the foot soldiers for the Biden-Harris administration’s mass-migration policies by helping illegal aliens cross the border and stay here for years after illegally,” Gaetz wrote in a statement to Fox News, adding, “My legislation, the BARRIER Act, will strip these organizations of their federal funding, which can be used to assist those who break federal law.”

    Meanwhile, Elon Musk and America First Legal discussed on X that Biden-Harris facilitated the illegal alien invasion as a way to “flip all swing states, shifting the whole country to permanent one-party rule, just like what happened to California after the 1986 amnesty.” 

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    For everyone in the US Southeast who found out yesterday that the Biden-Harris administration drained FEMA funds to support illegal aliens, take note: Democrats are more than willing to risk national security and put illegal aliens ahead of American citizens to maintain the Deep State’s power in Washington. Hence why the Cheney family now supports Marxist Harris. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 17:20

  • Fewer Young Children Getting Vaccines: CDC
    Fewer Young Children Getting Vaccines: CDC

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

    Fewer young children are receiving common vaccinations, according to a new study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

    Of children born in 2020 or 2021, 1.2 percent have received no vaccinations at age 2, compared to 0.9 percent of children born in 2018 or 2019 at age 2, the CDC says in the paper.

    Coverage of each recommended vaccine has also dropped, said the researchers, all of whom are employed by the CDC.

    Just 91.9 percent of children born in 2020 or 2021 have received at least three doses of a polio vaccine, for instance, down 1.5 percent from those born in 2018 or 2019. Influenza vaccination was down from 63.4 percent to 55.6 percent, the largest reduction recorded.

    The coverage estimates were arrived at through the CDC’s National Immunization Survey, based on answers given by vaccine providers for 28,688 children. The providers sometimes provide answers for children younger than 2, prompting CDC staffers to use the Kaplan-Meier method to estimate coverage.

    The CDC recommends dozens of vaccine doses for children before age 1, and additional doses in a child’s early years.

    That includes an annual dose of an influenza shot.

    When breaking down the data by ethnicity, the study authors found that white children were most likely to have no vaccinations, with 1.4 percent having none compared to 0.9 percent of black children and 1 percent of Hispanic children. Coverage of certain vaccines, such as the full schedule of the rotavirus vaccine, was lower among minorities.

    The decline in child vaccinations could stem from parents’ beliefs, according to surveys, including a 2023 Pew Research survey that found a majority of respondents with children aged zero to four believe that not all childhood vaccines are necessary.

    Authorities have recorded decreased uptake for influenza vaccination among a number of populations after top U.S. health officials acknowledged they don’t work well.

    The influenza shots provided sub-50 percent effectiveness in 2023.

    Because insurance does not cover all vaccines, financial barriers may have also contributed to the decline in vaccination among young children, the researchers said. They recommended providers implement systems to remind parents of upcoming appointments and strongly recommend vaccination during appointments.

    Limitations of the new study, published by the CDC’s quasi-journal, include responses being available from only about half of providers of children whose parents first filled out the surveys, which means there may be selection bias, the researchers said.

    In a separate paper also published by the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Thursday, researchers studying coverage of the same vaccines in U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands found coverage of certain shots has dropped in some of the islands from 2017 to 2021, although it has increased for other shots.

    In the Marshall Islands, for instance, just 26 percent of children born in 2021 were recorded as having four shots of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, down from 32.7 percent of those born in 2017 and a peak of 35.6 percent of those born in 2018.

    On the other hand, coverage of the polio vaccine has increased from 74.5 percent among Marshall Islands kids born in 2017 to 84.2 percent among children born in 2021.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 17:00

  • US Banks See Further Deposit Outflows As Money-Market Fund Assets Hit Another New Record High
    US Banks See Further Deposit Outflows As Money-Market Fund Assets Hit Another New Record High

    For the eighth week in the last nine, money market funds saw inflows (+$38.7BN), pushing the total AUM up to a new record high of $6.463TN…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Non-seasonally-adjusted (NSA) bank deposits saw outflows for the third week in a row (-$18BN)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    But, as we have become accustomed to, total seasonally-adjusted (SA) deposits rose by $18BN (the sixth weekly increase in seven weeks)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    But, excluding foreign deposits, both SA and NSA domestic deposits fell in the week ending 9/25 (-$4.8BN and -$22.3BN respectively)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    On an SA basis, large banks saw $3.2BN outflows and small banks $1.6BN outflows. On an NSA basis, large banks saw $20.1BN in outflows and small banks just $2.2BN outflows, and while large bank saw outflows, their loan volumes increased by $7.3BN last week, while small banks saw loan volumes shrink by 3.5BN…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Finally, as US equities hit new record high market capitalization, bank reserves at The Fed lurched lower (lowest since March 2023)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    That’s quite a ‘gap’ to fill…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 16:40

  • October Surprise
    October Surprise

    Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

    “Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s brand-new VP pick, is a fanatical far-left lunatic wearing the friendly armor of hapless, bloated oaf from the sticks”

    – Peachy Keenan

    “Normally, Western politics gives us actors who are trying to play the role of politicians. Walz is like an actor who is trying to play the role of an actor trying to play the role of a politician. Almost everything about him is just a few degrees off-centre. He’s like what would happen if you endowed Chat GPT with a human body and sent it off to campaign for political office.”

    – Eugyppius on Substack

    Tuesday night’s veep palaver could be the last time you see the frightened animal known as Tim Walz for the duration of the campaign. He’s famous for his wild body language – jumping around on stage, flapping his arms – but this time the action was all concentrated in his face. You saw his eyes bug out, dart left and right, as if something fierce was coming at him (it was), and more than a few times, his head jerked around sideways so hard you wondered if it might do a whole three-sixty. His mouth, a pain-inflected frown in repose, turned down so deeply it looked like he had sashweights hanging from the corners. Altogether, his face said more than the embarrassing mishmash of mangled English that came out of it. I expect to see a few Tim Walz masks on the little goblins begging for Kit-kat bars the night of October 31.

    That same obvious void of conviction you see on Tim Walz’s labile face is on display with the feds’ response to mass tragedy in the Appalachian hurricane zone. It was a point in my book, The Long Emergency, that our national government would become increasingly impotent, ineffectual, and incompetent as conditions worsened — and now here it is. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), could not bestir itself to aid stricken citizens around the flood-ravaged region in North Carolina and Tennessee. Sec’y Mayorkas of Homeland Security said that FEMA was out of money which, in this season of political weirdness, is especially weird, seeing as how the nation’s fiscal year began Oct 1, and Congress’s continuing resolution for funding US agencies should assure that FEMA’s checkbook is full. What was up with that?

    Well, everybody and his uncle has heard by now that FEMA (and many other agencies under Mayorkas’s DHS) commits tons of money to pamper the millions of mutts from foreign lands sneaking over the US border, with lots of assistance from NGO cut-outs funded by your tax dollars, who marshal groups of aliens south-of-the-border for the crossing, and then fly or bus them around our country for the special purpose of distributing them in swing voting districts to then coordinate with other NGOs devoted to registering non-citizens to vote in order to “harvest” their ballots. Quite an operation. Completely lawless and corrupt. And official!

    So, no aid for you, baskets of deplorables, shivering in the dark in your hills and hollows of Appalachia, your houses splintered, scant chattels lost, and your beloved hound-dogs carried away in the roaring torrents. The money that might have helped you begin to recover from the complete devastation of your lives is paying for Guatemalans to bunk in the Roosevelt Hotel and order-in quesadillas and churros, and refill their government-issued debit cards so they can afford a few nice things as they wait for mysterious others to cast ballots in their names.

    This is the work of your Democratic Party, the party of chaos, party of the Woke mentally ill, party of wrecking the country, of America’s end times. And you’re going to vote for more of it? Of course not. And despite the attempts to knock him out of the arena with scores of utter bullshit lawfare cases, and efforts to shoot him dead, Mr. Trump keeps coming at them, an implacable, relentless force, the true Golden Golem conjured up by their catamite news media. Their inability to destroy him has wrecked their minds.

    One surprising October surprise is advanced by whistleblower Mike McCormick on Substack (Midnight in the Laptop of Good and Evil).  Mr. McCormick was White House stenographer under Presidents Bush II, Obama, and Trump. His job was to transcribe meetings, speeches, and interactions between major political figures. He was the proverbial fly-on-the-wall for years and years. He has seen and heard a lot and still hears a lot from people who know a lot. He says the Obama-Biden-Harris faction of the Deep State blob is anti-Israel and that Israel understands what this means. He says that Benjamin Netanyahu has told “Joe Biden” (or, let’s say, told errand-boys Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan) that if the blob engineers a phony victory for Kamala Harris, he will blow up the oil fields in Iran and the anti-Israel Democrats will have to pick up the pieces.

    There it is, raw power politics, like so much meat on the table. “Joe Biden” cannot control Bibi. “Joe Biden” is too far gone and two weak, and Israel does not aim to let itself get wiped off the map, as Iran’s leadership never tires of saying. The blob, McCormick says, has to ask itself: does it help rig the election for Harris or stand down on all its ballot harvesting and other trickery and actually allow a real election to roll out? Surprise! Now, take your Kit-kat bar and go home.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 16:20

Digest powered by RSS Digest

Oct 04

Today’s News 4th October 2024

  • Sweden Could Soon Have 1 Million Illiterates, Largely Due To Mass Immigration
    Sweden Could Soon Have 1 Million Illiterates, Largely Due To Mass Immigration

    Via Remix News,

    The number of people who are illiterate in Sweden is expected to exceed 800,000 in winter of this year, with researchers expecting the number to soon reach 1 million, in large part due to mass immigration.

    The most recent survey by Statistics Sweden shows there are currently around 780,000 people between the ages of 16 and 65 who are illiterate in Sweden, but this number is soaring.

    “Each month, eight to ten illiterate students arrive,” said Rita Sommarkrans, SFI teacher in Västerås, to SVT. She added that if someone can’t read or write, it’s hard for them to find a place, pay their bills, or even book a doctor’s appointment. 

    “If this trend continues, we risk having an entire generation of young people who are effectively functionally illiterate,” wrote Minister of Education Johan Pehrson and Minister of School Affairs Lotta Edholm in an introductory article.

    However, Swedish publication Fria Tider notes that the ministers are failing to explain what the main cause behind the massive illiteracy problem is in the country, which is mass immigration of illiterate adults from the Third World, which the allegedly conservative ruling government is failing to stop.

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    However, many of these foreigners are bringing children or giving birth to children who are entering the Swedish school system. In some cities, Swedish children are already the minority in the school system, such as Mälmo. In fact, the situation has gotten so extreme in that city that city officials are proposing to teach in Arabic instead of Swedish, as Remix News reported in the past. However, such a move will only accelerate the problem of illiteracy and result in even deeper divisions in society.

    Due to the falling literacy rates, Sweden is transforming its entire school system, making compulsory schooling 10 years instead of nine. In 2024, the number of students who were able to successfully complete the compulsory nine-year primary school continued to decrease.

    Out of the slightly more than 120,000 Swedish students in primary school, 20,000 finished compulsory school in 2024 without graduating to upper secondary school. This segment of students will have little chance of getting a job or career, and as Swedish news portal Samnytt writes, many of them will turn to crime or welfare to get by.

    “It is worrying that the results of 9th graders are decreasing. More students should complete primary school, not fewer. Failure to complete primary school is one of the main risk factors for unemployment and social exclusion,” said Anna Castberg, a department head at the Swedish Education Agency, in an official press release.

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    The Swedish National Education Office notes that the education level of the parents greatly influences the grades of the children. The lowest level of education is found among non-Western migrants, and consequently students of this group dominate among the worst performers. In addition, the education gap between Swedes and migrants is increasing instead of decreasing. 

    Most new citizens come from non-EU Muslim countries

    In fact, a new report from the Swedish Migration Agency now shows that Sweden has granted 660,362 migrants Swedish citizenship since 2015, with the vast majority coming from non-EU Muslim countries.

    One of the top recipients of Swedish citizenship is Somalia, which is a country with one of the lowest levels of education in the world and an official illiteracy rate of 62.2 percent. In many cases, the people arriving from this country do not even know how to read and write in their own language, let alone Swedish. Data shows that 53,543 Somalians received citizenship since 2015, the second most of any country.

    In first place was Syria, with 147,579 Syrians receiving citizenship since 2015, or 22 percent of the total.

    Sweden’s performance in the PISA test has also drastically fallen, which will have dramatic results for Sweden’s economy over the coming years, as the country relies on a highly trained and high-tech workforce delivering high-value goods to the world market. In fact, the government was embroiled in a scandal in 2020 when its high PISA scores turned out to be a fraud.

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    At the time, Sweden’s Expressen wrote, “The latest PISA results showed an increase for Swedish students. Expressen can now reveal how a large number of foreign-born students were wrongly removed from the PISA selection, and that Sweden thereby violated the OECD’s official regulations. The figures also suggest that Swedish-born students with weak language skills were also removed.”

    The paper further wrote that “If the rules had been followed, the Swedish results would have been significantly worse and Sweden would probably have gone backwards in all three subjects compared to the last exam.”

    Swedish schools are now dangerous for teachers and students

    Swedish schools are also becoming more dangerous. The Swedish Teachers’ Union (Sveriges Lärare) issued a warning about the increased threats and violence facing teachers in Stockholm.

    The number of serious incidents increased 36 percent to 159 cases in 2023 compared to 2022.

    “There are threats ranging from ‘I’ll kill you’ and ‘I’ll shoot you’ to direct acts of violence,” said Simon Sandström, the union’s security officer, in an interview with Swedish Radio.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/04/2024 – 02:00

  • UN 'Pact For The Future' Draws Concerns Over CCP Backing
    UN ‘Pact For The Future’ Draws Concerns Over CCP Backing

    Authored by Alex Newman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The United Nations and its member governments, with strong support from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), adopted a landmark agreement last week to bestow the U.N. with more power and influence in global affairs.

    The symbol of the United Nations at U.N. headquarters on Feb. 28, 2022. AP Photo/John Minchillo, File

    The controversial agreement, known as the Pact for the Future, outlines 56 actions for governments and international institutions to take over the coming years.

    Among the key provisions is “transforming global governance” and further empowering international institutions across a range of issues, including “sustainable development and financing for development,” as well as “science, technology and innovation, and digital cooperation.”

    The pact includes a Global Digital Compact to restrict “misinformation” and “disinformation” and a Declaration on Future Generations that encompasses the 2030 Agenda climate goals that include the phase-out of fossil fuels.

    It is also part of transforming the U.N. into what the organization is touting in promotional materials as “U.N. 2.0.”

    U.N. leaders and top officials from the CCP celebrated the pact as a historic effort to create a better future for humanity and increase global cooperation on international problems.

    “We can’t create a future fit for our grandchildren with systems built for our grandparents,” U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said.

    Despite opposition from various quarters, the 193-member body adopted the pact by consensus on Sept. 22 at the Summit of the Future during the U.N. General Assembly after about nine months of negotiations.

    In the days before the pact was adopted, a coalition of U.S. lawmakers and grassroots leaders held a press conference on Capitol Hill criticizing the agreement as an effort to undermine national sovereignty and freedom.

    “We can’t give up any more of our sovereignty, any more of our geopolitical integrity, or any more of our economic integrity to foreign actors who have no concerns for the United States of America other than to take our power and money away,” said Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), former leader of the House Freedom Caucus.

    House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas) told The Epoch Times that the pact ignores the “malign influence of the CCP” within the global organization.

    McCaul said that although the pact isn’t legally binding, “this 66-page pact is limitless in scope.”

    “It calls for dramatically increased public spending and vague action on countless left-wing priorities,” he said.

    “The pact also completely ignores the most urgent issues facing the U.N. today, like reforming UNRWA and combating malign CCP influence. It does nothing to advance U.S. interests.”

    Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) walks past reporters with Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) as they depart a House Republican Conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 24, 2024. Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

    The CCP, which plays an increasingly powerful role within the U.N., boasted about its significant role in developing the pact.

    Speaking at U.N. headquarters, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi described the pact as an effort to “galvanize” the U.N.’s “collective efforts for world peace and development and to map out the future of humanity.”

    Wang talked about advancing “global governance.”

    On the other side, the Argentine government officially distanced itself from the pact and the U.N. in general.

    “Argentina wants the freedom to develop itself, without being subjected to the undue weight of decisions that are alien to our goals,” said Argentine Foreign Minister Diana Mondino, noting that Argentinian authorities are pursuing a policy of freedom.

    President Javier Milei, in his address to the U.N. General Assembly, called the organization a “multi-tentacled Leviathan that seeks to decide what each nation state should do and how the citizens of the world should live.”

    Argentine President Javier Milei is surrounded by media after delivering a speech at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 17, 2024. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

    Milei also criticized the global organization’s central role in prescribing what he called “crimes against humanity” in responding to the China-originated coronavirus.

    He called the U.N. 2030 Agenda, which features prominently in the pact, a “supranational program of a socialist nature.”

    The new pact makes repeated commitments to expedite the implementation of the U.N. 2030 Agenda, also known as the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

    “We will urgently accelerate progress towards achieving the Goals, including through concrete political steps and mobilizing significant additional financing from all sources for sustainable development,” the pact reads.

    The Sustainable Development Goals, which U.N. leaders described as the “master plan for humanity” when they were adopted in 2015, encompass everything from education and agriculture to health care and the environment.

    After they were adopted, CCP-owned propaganda outlets around the world boasted that Beijing played a “crucial role” in creating the 2030 Agenda.

    The U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission has been sounding the alarm for years.

    “Since the U.S.–China Commission began tracking officials from the People’s Republic of China serving in leadership positions in international organizations, Beijing’s influence has only grown over key U.N. agencies responsible for funding and policymaking on a wide range of important issues,” the Commission told The Epoch Times.

    “Contrary to the International Civil Servant Standards of Conduct, they [Chinese officials] use those positions [in the U.N.] to pursue China’s foreign policy goals,” the Commission said.

    When asked about the concerns of U.S. policymakers and other critics, Guterres’s spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, defended the pact.

    “The Pact for the Future is not about world government,” he said at a press conference. “It is about making an organization of independent, sovereign member states work better.

    “It’s not as if anyone is granting the secretary-general authority over governments—clearly not.”

    Still, according to Dujarric, it is important to increase global cooperation because “not one country can deal with the rising seas, not one country can deal with global pandemics, not one country can deal with international terrorism.”

    “This is about bringing sovereign, independent countries, and working together,” he said, urging people to read original documents to become well informed and “make up their own minds.”

    The strengthening of the U.N. and, in particular, efforts to have the U.N. secretary-general lead the response to emergencies, received special attention from opponents.

    As The Epoch Times reported in April 2023, empowering the U.N. as the central force in dealing with international emergencies and “complex global shocks” was a key goal heading into the Summit of the Future.

    In his original policy brief on the issue, Guterres argued that all nations, businesses, governments, and other stakeholders must recognize the “primary role” of intergovernmental organs such as the U.N. and its agencies in “decision-making,” the document states.

    António Guterres, U.N. secretary-general, speaks during the 79th session of the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 10, 2024. AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura

    Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Kevin Moley, who oversaw U.S. relations with the U.N. during the previous administration, warned of the dangers.

    “Allowing the U.N. to deal with this is the equivalent of putting the CCP in charge of global emergencies,” Moley told The Epoch Times.

    He warned that the CCP takeover of international organizations represents a potentially mortal threat to the West.

    Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, told The Epoch Times that Americans must resist what he described as a “power grab” of historic proportions.

    “The U.N. secretary-general has arrogated to himself dictatorial powers … upon his mere proclamation of an ‘emergency,’ as defined by himself,” he said.

    Boyle, who wrote the implementing U.S. legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention and serves on the board of Amnesty International, said that because of the involvement of heads of state and government in the process, the new U.N. pact could constitute a “treaty” with “legal obligations” under both domestic and international law.

    “This totalitarian arrangement constitutes a grave and immediate threat to the sovereignty and independence of all United Nations member states,” he said.

    Free Speech, Free Press

    One of the major components of the U.N. deal, adopted as an annex to the pact, focuses on U.N. governance of artificial intelligence (AI). Wang said that the CCP “supports the U.N. in serving as the main channel in AI governance.”

    Another major concern for critics is the targeting of free speech in the Global Digital Compact, approved as an annex to the Pact for the Future.

    Stating that it is protecting “information integrity,” the U.N. deal calls for drastically scaling up efforts to combat “hate speech,” “discrimination,” “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and more.

    Global censorship about the COVID-19 pandemic, with YouTube removing content that went against the World Health Organization’s pronouncements, has been cited by opponents of the plan as an example of the threat.

    The U.N. has also become more aggressive on this front. In 2022, at a World Economic Forum sustainability event, U.N. Undersecretary-General for Communications Melissa Fleming announced a partnership with Google.

    “We started this partnership when we were shocked to see that when we Googled ‘climate change,’ we were getting incredibly distorted information right at the top,“ she said. ”We’re becoming much more proactive. We own the science, and we think that the world should know it, and the platforms themselves also do.”

    Fleming has also highlighted working with CCP-linked TikTok and recruiting “influencers” to promote U.N. messaging.

    Asked about the U.N. partnership with Google, Fleming declined to comment.

    The compact calls for “Internet governance” to be “global and multi-stakeholder in nature.”

    “We will strengthen international cooperation to address the challenge of misinformation and disinformation and hate speech online and mitigate the risks of information manipulation in a manner consistent with international law,” the Global Digital Compact reads.

    The mobile phone apps for Facebook (L), Instagram (C) and WhatsApp on a device in New York. Richard Drew/AP Photo

    The repeated emphasis on the alleged “risks” of misinformation is one of the most concerning elements of the agreement, said Reggie Littlejohn, president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers and co-chair of the Sovereignty Coalition.

    “We need only look back to the pandemic to see that these terms will be defined as anything that is counter-narrative to the U.N., the WHO, and their collaborators,” she told The Epoch Times, referring to the World Health Organization.

    “Controlling the narrative by suppressing dissenting voices is an unconstitutional violation of freedom of speech. It is, moreover, a hallmark of totalitarianism, which begins with and relies upon censorship.

    “Further, censorship deprives both individuals and nations of their sovereignty.”

    Littlejohn has been working with U.S. lawmakers to protect U.S. independence from international organizations.

    “Sovereign persons and nations make decisions concerning how they will govern themselves,” she said. “They are deprived of this decision-making process if they are denied access to the true facts upon which their decisions will be made.”

    Littlejohn also said the pact should be understood as a treaty under the traditional definition. As such, treaties are required to be ratified by the U.S. Senate—something she said would be unlikely to happen.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 23:25

  • The Demise Of US Political Debate?
    The Demise Of US Political Debate?

    The vice presidential debate hosted this week by CBS News and broadcast nationally on TV is the first and only scheduled of its kind between Democratic pick Tim Walz and Republican select JD Vance.

    Following a heated debate between presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump last month, Statista’s Anna Fleck notes that this round went remarkably smoothly, with the two nominees focusing largely on policy rather than personal attacks of one another.

    Topics covered included abortion, immigration and shootings.

    The fact this debate went relatively drama-free has become something of an outlier in U.S. politics. According to a Pew Research Center survey in 2023, around eight in ten respondents said that the tone and nature of political debate in the United States has become less respectful and fact-based in recent years.

    Infographic: The Demise of U.S. Political Debate? | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Only two percent of respondents said that it had become more respectful and eight percent said it had become more fact-based.

    This view was shared by a majority of respondents who self-identified as being Republican-leaning and Democratic-leaning.

    Respondents were also asked about how much confidence they have in the future of the political system. Where 37 percent said either a lot or some, 63 percent said not too much or none at all. It remains to be seen how these figures have changed as of 2024.

    When asked about how respondents feel when talking about politics with those they disagree with, Pew found that 61 percent said they found it generally “stressful and frustrating”, while 36 percent said they were generally “interesting and informative” conversations.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 23:00

  • Banks To Join SWIFT Digital Asset Trials In 2025
    Banks To Join SWIFT Digital Asset Trials In 2025

    By Helen Partz of CoinTelegraph

    Banks in North America, Europe and Asia are preparing to participate in trials involving digital assets by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).

    SWIFT announced on Oct. 3 that it will begin digital asset trials on its network in 2025. The trials will involve experiments with transactions that include multiple digital currencies and assets.

    Source: SWIFT

    The trials aim to explore how the banking network can provide financial institutions with unified access to “multiple digital asset classes and currencies.”

    “Initial use cases will focus on payments, foreign exchange, securities and trade to enable multi-ledger delivery-versus-payment and payment-versus-payment transactions,” the announcement said.

    SWIFT’s plan to unify the fragmented digital asset landscape

    In the announcement, SWIFT highlighted the rapid growth of unconnected platforms and technologies in the digital asset economy that has led to an “increasingly fragmented landscape.”

    According to SWIFT, such fragmentation poses significant impediments to global adoption because it creates a “complex web of ‘digital islands.’”

    SWIFT stated:

    “SWIFT’s trials will leverage its unique position […] to interlink these disparate networks with each other as well as with existing fiat currencies, enabling its global community to seamlessly transact using digital assets and currencies alongside traditional forms of value.”

    SWIFT wants its network to cover “all kinds of assets”

    SWIFT chief innovation officer Tom Zschach noted that the banking organization is focused on developing real-world mainstream applications to bridge emerging and “established forms of value.”

    SWIFT’s chief innovation officer Tom Zschach. Source: LinkedIn

    He also emphasized SWIFT’s intention to seamlessly make and track transactions of “all kinds of assets,” adding:

    “For digital assets and currencies to succeed on a global scale, it’s critical that they can seamlessly coexist with traditional forms of money.”

    SWIFT declined to comment to Cointelegraph on the digital assets likely to be part of its blockchain trials in 2025 and when it expects to launch those trials.

    SWIFT has been actively experimenting with blockchain, tokenization and CBDCs

    The upcoming digital currency trials on SWIFT are yet another blockchain-related development by the global banking network, founded in the 1970s.

    On Sept. 16, SWIFT joined the Bank for International Settlements and a group of central banks in the tokenization Project Agorá. This project aims to identify how tokenized commercial bank deposits can be integrated with tokenized wholesale central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on a single platform.

    In March 2024, SWIFT proposed creating a blockchain-based “state machine,” describing it as a “dynamic model that reflects the current state of transactions and balances across institutions.” The tool could be built on the already-used ISO-20022 messaging technology and could potentially work on a blockchain or a centralized platform like SWIFT’s Transaction Manager, the bank messaging network noted.

    Last year, SWIFT issued a report on potential methods of connecting diverse blockchains to solve the issue of cross-chain interoperability.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 22:35

  • Call Of Duty Comes to Life: Armed Robo-Dogs, Hypersonic Missiles, & Kamikaze Drones Deployed On Modern Battlefields
    Call Of Duty Comes to Life: Armed Robo-Dogs, Hypersonic Missiles, & Kamikaze Drones Deployed On Modern Battlefields

    The Middle East is on the brink of a regional war as the world awaits Israel’s retaliation strike against Iran. President Biden, on Thursday morning, told reporters he was in talks with Israel about possibly striking Iran’s oil facilities. He said, “We’re discussing that.” 

    It’s really not hard to imagine if conflict broadens into a regional shitstorm—the modern battlefield would be like the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare video game. Just this week, Iran launched waves of ballistic missiles, including hypersonic ones.

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    Iran-backed terror organizations around Israel have recently launched countless loitering munitions, or “kamikaze drones,” attacks on the country and commercial shipping in the maritime chokepoint of the Southern Red Sea.  

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    The newest tech entering the battlefield, already present in Eastern Europe but now being trialed in the Middle East, is armed robot dogs equipped with artificial intelligence, high-tech sensors, and rifles.

    An image posted on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service shows a Robotics Vision 60 Quadrupedal-Unmanned Ground Vehicle, or Q-UGV, armed with what appears to be a main battlefield utilizing an M4/M16 platform. 

    In mid-September, the Q-UGV was featured in a field training exercise at the Red Sands Integrated Experimentation Center in Saudi Arabia. 

    A US Army Central spokesman told Military.com that the armed Q-UGV was tested with several “non-counter-sUAS” systems alongside 15 counter-drone platforms at Red Sands. These ‘Skynet’- like weapons of war “engaged several static ground targets,” the military news website said. 

    Beyond Red Sands, the US Army has been trialing armed robo dogs elsewhere. 

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    These robo-dogs have been observed on the battlefields in Eastern Europe. 

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    The Communist Party of China has fallen in love with these ‘Skynet’ dogs. 

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    Even delivered by drone. 

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    The French. 

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    All the bat-shit-crazy military tech we’ve covered in the last fifteen years is being deployed on the modern battlefield as WW3 risks remain elevated. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 22:10

  • Can Consciousness Exist Without A Brain?
    Can Consciousness Exist Without A Brain?

    Authored by Yuhong Dong M.D., Ph.D., Makai Allbert via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    “As a neurosurgeon, I was taught that the brain creates consciousness,” said Dr. Eben Alexander, who wrote in detail about his experiences with consciousness while in a deep coma.

    Many doctors and biomedical students may have been taught the same about consciousness. However, scientists are still debating whether that theory holds true.

    Imagine a child observing an elephant for the first time. Light reflects off the animal and enters the child’s eyes. Retinal photoreceptors in the back of the eyes convert this light into electrical signals, which travel through the optic nerve to the brain’s cortex. This forms vision or visual consciousness.

    How do these electrical signals miraculously transform into a vivid mental image? How do they turn into the child’s thoughts, followed by an emotional reaction—“Wow, the elephant is so big!”

    The question of how the brain generates subjective perceptions, including images, feelings, and experiences, was coined by Australian cognitive scientist David Chalmers in 1995 as the “hard problem.”

    As it turns out, having a brain may not be a prerequisite for consciousness.

    ‘Brainless’ but Not Mindless

    The Lancet recorded a case of a French man diagnosed with postnatal hydrocephalus—excess cerebrospinal fluid on or around the brain—at the age of 6 months.

    Despite his condition, he grew up healthy, became a married father of two children, and worked as a civil servant.

    When he was 44 years old, he went to the doctor due to a mild weakness in his left leg. The doctors scanned his head thoroughly and discovered that his brain tissue was almost entirely gone. Most of the space in his skull was filled with fluid, with only a thin sheet of brain tissue.

    “The brain was virtually absent,” wrote the lead author of the case study, Dr. Lionel Feuillet, of the Department of Neurology, Hôpital de la Timone in Marseille, France.

    The man had been living a normal life and had no problem seeing, feeling, or perceiving things.

    The Lancet recorded a case of a French civil servant diagnosed with postnatal hydrocephalus at the age of 6 months. Later, an MRI revealed massive enlargement of the lateral, third, and fourth ventricles, a very thin cortical mantle, and a posterior fossa cyst. Illustrated by The Epoch Times

    The normal brain cortex is responsible for sense and movement, and the hippocampus is responsible for memory. Hydrocephalus patients lose or have significantly less volume of these brain regions, yet they can still perform related functions.

    Even without substantial brains, these people can have above-average cognitive function.

    Professor John Lorber (1915–1996), a neurologist from the University of Sheffield, analyzed more than 600 cases of children with hydrocephalus. Of those, he found that half of around 60 children with the most severe type of hydrocephalus and cerebral atrophy had an IQ higher than 100 and lived normal lives.

    Among them, one university student had excellent grades, a first-class honors degree in mathematics, an IQ of 126, and was socially normal. This math genius’s brain was only 1 millimeter thick, while an average person’s is usually 4.5 centimeters thick—44 times larger.

    An analysis of more than 600 cases of children with hydrocephalus found that of the 60 cases where fluid took up 95 percent of the skull, around 30 had above average IQs. The right side of the figure illustrates the brain image of one college student with a 1 mm thick brain who had a 126 IQ, placing him in the top 5 percent of the higher end of the population. The Epoch Times

    Lorber’s findings were published in the journal Science in 1980 with the headline “Is Your Brain Really Necessary?”

    The Invisible Brain

    “The important thing about Lorber is that he’s done a long series of systematic scanning rather than just dealing with anecdotes.” Patrick Wall (1925–2001), professor of anatomy at University College London, was quoted as saying in an article by Roger Lewin published in Science in 1981 discussing Lorber’s article.

    The cases of people without brains challenge the conventional teachings that brain structure is the basis for generating consciousness. Is our brain—weighing about three pounds, with roughly two billion neurons connected by around 500 trillion synapses—the real source of consciousness?

    Some scientists have proposed that deep and invisible structures in the brain explain normal cognitive function—even with severe hydrocephalus. These structures may not be easily visible on conventional brain scans or to the naked eye. However, the fact that they are not readily apparent doesn’t mean they don’t exist or aren’t important for brain function.

    “For hundreds of years neurologists have assumed that all that is dear to them is performed by the cortex, but it may well be that the deep structures in the brain carry out many of the functions assumed to be the sole province of the cortex,” Wall commented in the 1981 article.

    These unknown deep structures “are undoubtedly important for many functions,” said neurologist Norman Geschwind (1926–1984) from Beth Israel Hospital, affiliated with Harvard University, in the 1981 article.

    Furthermore, the deep structures “are almost certainly more important than is currently thought,” said David Bowsher, a professor of neurophysiology at the University of Liverpool in the UK, in the same article.

    The source of consciousness may exist in realms we’ve yet to explore. When medical theories can’t solve a mystery, physics might step in with a plot twist—in particular—quantum physics.

    Beyond Neurons

    “To understand consciousness, we can’t just look at the neurons,” Dr. Stuart Hameroff, director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, told The Epoch Times.

    Even single-celled organisms like paramecium demonstrate purposeful behaviors such as swimming, avoiding obstacles, mating, and, significantly—learning—without having a single synapse or being part of a neural network.

    Even single-celled organisms like paramecium demonstrate purposeful behaviors such as swimming, avoiding obstacles, mating, and learning without having a single synapse or being part of a neural network. Lebendkulturen.de/Shutterstock

    According to Hameroff, these intelligent, possibly conscious behaviors are mediated by microtubules inside the paramecium. The same microtubules are found in brain neurons and all animal and plant cells.

    Microtubules, as the name suggests, are tiny tubes inside cells. They play essential roles in cell division, movement, and intracellular transport and appear to be the information carriers in neurons.

    The proteins that make up microtubules (tubulin) are “the most prevalent or abundant protein in the whole brain,” Hameroff told The Epoch Times. He hypothesizes that microtubules are key players in human consciousness.

    “Because [when] you look inside neurons, you see all these microtubules, and they’re in a periodic lattice, which is perfect for information processing and vibrations,” Hameroff stated.

    Due to their properties, microtubules function like antennas. Hameroff says they serve as “quantum devices” to transduce consciousness from a quantum dimension.

    Quantum Devices

    British physicist, mathematician, and Nobel Laureate Sir Roger Penrose and Hameroff hypothesized a theory that quantum processes generate consciousness.

    Quantum refers to tiny units of energy or matter at a microscopic level. Its unique features can help us understand many things that current science cannot explain.

    In simple terms, microtubules act as a bridge between the quantum world and our consciousness. They take quantum signals, amplify them, organize them, and somehow, through processes we don’t fully understand, turn them into the feelings, perceptions, and thoughts that make up our conscious awareness.

    Microtubules can explain bewildering facts about the brain. Hameroff posits that the brains of individuals born with hydrocephalus can adapt as their microtubules control neuroplasticity and reorganize their brain tissue.

    “So over time, the microtubules in that brain adapt and rearrange themselves to sustain consciousness and cognition,” he said.

    Therefore, according to Hameroff, our brains serve like information processors, receiving signals from the universe and forming them into consciousness.

    The brain processes information across multiple scales, each vibrating at different frequencies. Brain waves oscillate slowly at 0.5–100 hertz (Hz). Individual neurons fire faster at 500–1000 Hz. Inside neurons, microtubules vibrate much quicker, in the megahertz range. At the tiniest quantum scale, frequencies reach incredibly high levels, theoretically up to 10^43 Hz.

    According to neuroscientist Hameroff and Nobel Laureate Sir Roger Penrose, our brains serve as information processors, receiving signals from the universe and forming them into consciousness. Microtubules, the most abundant proteins in neurons, may act as a bridge to collect the waves from the quantum world into our brains. Once processed in the brain, consciousness is generated.

    Other scientists are also using alternative quantum theories to explain mental activities. A study published in Physical Review E shows that vibrations in lipid molecules within the myelin sheath can create pairs of quantum-entangled photons. It suggests that this quantum entanglement may help synchronize brain activity, providing insights into consciousness.

    A Quantum Orchestra

    “Rather than a computer of simple neurons, the brain is a quantum orchestra,” Hameroff described, “Because you have resonances and harmony and solutions over different frequencies, much like you do in music. And [so] I think consciousness is more like music than it is a computation.”

    Science is always evolving. The study of consciousness is still an area of active research and debate in neuroscience and philosophy.

    However, each new discovery opens up new possibilities. As we continue to explore these mysteries, let’s remain curious and open-minded.

    Next, we will discuss reports published by physicians in highly-ranked journals, offering more insights into the nature and origin of consciousness.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 21:45

  • Kucinich: Mistaking Militarism For Statecraft, Empire For Democracy, & Debt For Prosperity
    Kucinich: Mistaking Militarism For Statecraft, Empire For Democracy, & Debt For Prosperity

    Authored by Dennis Kucinich via Scheerpost.com,

    “Turning and turning in the widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer. All things fall apart. The center cannot hold.”

    – W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming

    As of May 2024, the United States has committed over $175 (borrowed) billion to escalating the proxy war against Russia, and, as in the case of the Iraq and Afghan wars, with little regard for accountability pertaining to tracking military hardware,  equipment, funding, or  fraud prevention.

    One of the most grotesque moments in this bloody global Punch and Judy show preliminary to nuclear war, was the recent arrival of Vladimir Zelenskyy, former president of Ukraine, making a campaign stop at an ammunition factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where some of the three million 155mm artillery shells the US has given Ukraine are produced.   

    Alongside Zelenskyy, in an incitement-op photo promising further escalation of war, the Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania autographed one of the high-velocity artillery shells which will be aimed at Russia. Pennsylvania, which is home to the City of Brotherly Love, was unwitting re-Christened by its top official, with a cursive flair, as the state of brotherly hate.  

    The fervor of warmongering, fueled by machismo and high bravado illustrates the failure of leadership and a fatal ignorance of the diplomatic process. We should be exercising the science of human relations, not propelling a hubristic  and ego-driven brinkmanship which accelerates the dialectic of war. 

    For decades I have led opposition to war and advocated for the transformation of America’s prevailing policy of “Peace through Strength” to a forward-looking  policy of “Strength through Peace.” 

    I challenged the Bush II Administration’s foreign policies, and introduced Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush  and Vice President Dick Cheney over Iraq and the lies which led us into war. Illegal and unnecessary, the Iraq war (debt-funded and authorized by both Democrats and Republicans) has cost our nation over $3 trillion, and the loss of 5,000 of our brave men and women who serve and injuries to countless more troops.

    The war caused the deaths of over one million Iraqis.  Let that sink in. One million Iraqis perished in a war based on lies. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. The war further damaged America’s global reputation and set us upon a path where, since 9/11, America has borrowed $8 trillion to keep the war machine in tune as our own nation’s pressing domestic needs for housing, health care, education, child care, and retirement security have been set aside.

    When I heard Vice President Harris brag about former Vice President Dick Cheney endorsing her candidacy, that put the exclamation point on the fact that the leaders of the Democratic party are for war.  I am not.    

    Why else would Vice President Harris become the front person for such virulent bravado, invoking lethality abroad?

    A paradox of this campaign is that the much-villainized former President Trump, (representing a party that has also taken us into unnecessary wars) is the one who speaks to the need to negotiate and to talk directly with potential foes in order to avoid war, or to end it.   

    I ran for President twice, in 2004 and 2008, to bring a halt to endless wars,  to stop the hemorrhaging of our nation’s wealth and to redirect our attention to our needs at home. During the Obama Administration, I fought against his expansion of war, against attacks on Libya, and Syria. That Administration’s surveillance and state-sponsored black-ops reached new heights, drawing America  further into the depths of a murky military abyss. 

    All believers in the Judeo-Christian ethic are taught the equivalency of thought, word and deed. . A sin is a sin is a sin. Words create worlds and actions, and, well, they also create reactions. 

    Whether a missile arrives in Russia is separate from the fact that the news of the Pennsylvania governor signing a warhead reached the Kremlin instantaneously.  Congratulations Governor, you just made your state a target. 

    It is a faulty military strategy which is based upon baiting one’s targets to have an excuse to attack preemptively. This type of thinking isn’t about taking care of and protecting our allies. I would call it lunacy but it happens far more frequently than once every full moon!  We need level-headed leadership, not political actors mindlessly playing in the flash of WWIII, pandering for votes or for cash from the military industrial complex.

    The U.S. government’s endless quest to instigate, fulminate or otherwise set our nation on a path of either participating in or of funding endless war has become an inconscient force which is now sweeping up nations in its maw and, if left unchecked, with soon draw in American troops and inevitably a world war will come home in ways that no one in the continental United States has ever experienced, far exceeding the horrors of 9/11.

    W.B. Yeats’ poem, written over one hundred years ago, also pertains to the present moment, the breakdown of international law, the slaughter of innocents, open genocide, mocking humanity for its primal human instincts and instead preferring a descent into the maelstrom of kill or be killed, of “do unto others before they do unto you.”  Our nation’s leaders have lost their capacity for diplomacy.  And we have lost many chances for peace.

    Ronan Farrow, in his brilliant book “War on Peace, the End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence,”  traced the catastrophe of substituting militarism for statecraft.

    So we arrive at a point where we fully fund war in the Middle East, and, astonishingly stand helpless, vainly begging the recipients of our billions of dollars, our weapons, “intelligence,” and of our strategic advice – not to expand the war we are paying for, not to visit death upon innocents.  

    We call for cease fire, to come to terms, to end the conflict, while the bodies pile up, and tensions escalate with all nations. Our collective voice is muted.  We confess futility to effect events which we have set in motion, as a Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and when tidal forces break loose, no thought is given to an end game which could lead not only to the destruction of our closest allies but to the undoing of our own nation.

    Like pre-programmed robots from a 1950s B-movie, blind to our own extinction drive, immune to the signs of failing empire, and with notions of exceptionalism justifying colonization, Democratic bosses proudly  escalate war against Russia, the country with 5,580 nuclear warheads, about 1/3 of which are “launch ready.”  

    Two years ago, the US, with the back door machinations of Britain’s Boris Johnson, rejected a peace agreement which would have kept Ukraine neutral, restored the peace and spared the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians. 

    Instead, we now trot out muddle-headed EU politicians and our NATO sock puppets to support advancing the war deeper and deeper into Russia, sending missiles with more and more destructive power, hyping the fantasy of capsizing the government of a country which remembers losing nearly 30,000,000 people in World War II, during which Russia was on our side.  

    To create an enemy is to provoke fear everywhere.  To misjudge an “enemy” is to court disaster and destruction.  As we give freedom and fortune to the egocentric war mongers, the military industrial complex and those naive enough to think that war equals peace for Ukraine – – life and liberty are ebbing at home.

    We help our “friends” aggress, and cynically celebrate their victimhood, actively preventing diplomatic resolution, putting our avowed friends at great risk of destruction. 

    Do you remember how back in October 2022, thirty Members of the U.S. Congress’ Democratic Progressive Caucus signed a letter calling for President Biden to consider diplomacy, and then in a matter of hours were pressured to retract the letter? The Members were reprimanded by the Administration and the Democratic leadership for their advocacy of peace.

    In that withdrawn, forbidden letter, the Progressive Members stated,

     “The risk of nuclear weapons being used has been estimated to be higher now than at any time since the height of the Cold War. Given the catastrophic possibilities of nuclear escalation and miscalculation, which only increase the longer this war continues, we agree with your goal of avoiding direct military conflict as an overriding national-security priority. Given the destruction created by this war for Ukraine and the world, as well as the risk of catastrophic escalation, we also believe it is in the interests of Ukraine, the United States, and the world to avoid a prolonged conflict. For this reason, we urge you to pair the military and economic support the United States has provided to Ukraine with a proactive diplomatic push, redoubling efforts to seek a realistic framework for a ceasefire.”

    Later in April 2023, nineteen Conservative Republicans, including now VP candidate Senator J.D. Vance, similarly communicated to the Administration the perils of escalating the war without diplomatic strategy, stating in their letter: 

    “Our military assistance goes beyond tangible assets to include military training and intelligence support. The extent of our aid makes it increasingly difficult to deny Russian accusations of U.S. complicity in a proxy war. Vladimir Putin’s advisors are already framing the conflict as “a military confrontation between Russia and NATO, and above all the United States and Britain.” Russian tolerance for fighting a proxy war with NATO could run out at any point. The decision to invade Ukraine should be evidence enough of Putin’s willingness to use military force and should give us pause in continuing to push the limits at the risk of catastrophe.”

    Ukraine is a pawn, politicized for Democratic presidential electoral gain, blood for ballots. Ukraine should have been free to choose its own destiny, its own government, protect its own agriculture and precious resources, free to live without fear of an invasion and control from Russia or any other country. Instead, denied the promise of true sovereignty, it has been forced to sacrificed the flower of its youth to war.

    While the people of the US are being played by politicians who are giddy with the notion of stuffing the November ballot box with bombs rockets, missiles, artillery shells and national debt, our government is also being played by the equally unstable and craven leaders of foreign countries.

    And so, the U.S. forks over endless rivers of U.S. taxpayers’ cash for endless wars, without any thought of how this all ends, or how or who ultimately pays. Red or blue, there are no winners in a war devouring our lives, our blood and our national wealth.

    There is madness to all of this.  Our so-called leaders are whistling merry tunes through the graveyard of history, mocking the dead of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, because it happened to THEM, not us. Because something like that could never happen to us. Because we are smarter and stronger and have God on our side.

    It is time to wake up, America. It is time to stop this madness which presents as legitimate governance, and to think, to speak and to stand for peace, diplomacy and the continuation of life on our small planet.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 20:55

  • "Wolves In MAGA Hats": Assange Details CIA's War Against Him In First Remarks Since Gaining Freedom
    “Wolves In MAGA Hats”: Assange Details CIA’s War Against Him In First Remarks Since Gaining Freedom

    WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange this week traveled to Strasbourg, France for his first ever public remarks since gaining his freedom in June, after his many years-long ordeal in the Ecuadorian Embassy and then Belmarsh Prison in London. His speech was given Tuesday before the legal affairs and human rights committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The assembly subsequently issued a formal resolution recognizing Assange as a ‘political prisoner’ and highlighted the chilling effect on journalism worldwide that his case caused. The US government spent years pursuing his extradition, and at one point there were even alleged assassination plans hatched by US operatives.

    Among the more interesting and illuminating parts of his speech included a detailed retelling of how the CIA waged war against him personally, especially under the Trump administration, given that “Trump appointed two wolves in MAGA hats. Mike Pompeo, a Kansas Congressman and former arms executive as CIA director and William Barr, a former CIA officer as US attorney general.” Assange further talked about how the CIA has infiltrated European governments and institutions via sophisticated software later exposed by WikiLeaks, and how this unleashed further government retribution against him and whistleblowers. His full speech is below.

    Julian Assange’s address to the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), with transcript following:

    Ladies and gentlemen, the transition from years of confinement in a maximum security prison to being here before the representatives of 46 nations and 700 million people is a profound and a surreal shift. The experience of isolation for years in a small cell is difficult to convey. It strips away one sense of self, leaving only the raw essence of existence.

    I’m yet not fully equipped to speak about what I have endured. The relentless struggle to stay alive, both physically and mentally. Nor can I speak yet about the death by hanging, murder and medical neglect of my fellow prisoners.

    I apologize in advance if my words falter, or if my presentation lacks the polish you might expect from such a distinguished forum. Isolation has taken its toll. Which I am trying to unwind. And expressing myself in this setting is a challenge. However, the gravity of this occasion and the weight of the issues at hand compel me to set aside my reservations and speak to you directly.

    I have traveled a long way, literally and figuratively, to be before you today. Before our discussion or answering any questions you might have. I wish to thank PACE for its 2020 resolution, which stated that my imprisonment set a dangerous precedent for journalists. I noted that the U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture called for my release. I’m also grateful for Pace’s 2021 statement, expressing concern over credible reports that U.S. officials discussed my assassination again, calling for my prompt release, and I commend the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee for commissioning a renowned rapporteur.

    Sooner I will start to investigate the circumstance surrounding my detention and conviction, and the consequent implications for human rights. However, like so many of the efforts made in my case, whether they were from parliamentarians, presidents, prime ministers, the pope, U.N. officials and diplomats, unions, legal and medical professionals, academics, activists or citizens, none of them should have been necessary.

    None of the statements, resolutions, reports, films, articles, events, fundraisers, protests and letters over the last 14 years should have been necessary. But all of them were necessary because without them, I never would have seen the light of day. This unprecedented global effort was needed because the legal protections of the legal protections that did exist, many existed only on paper when not effective in any remotely reasonable time.

    On the Plea Deal

    I eventually chose freedom over and realizable justice. After being detained for years and facing 175 year sentence with no effective remedy. Justice for me is now precluded, as the U.S. government insisted in writing into its plea agreement that I cannot filed a case at the European Court of Human Rights or even the Freedom of Information Act request over what it did to me as a result of its extradition request.

    I want to be totally clear. I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today after years of incarceration because I pled guilty to journalism. I pled guilty to seeking information from a source. I pled guilty to obtaining information from a source. And I pled guilty to informing the public what that information was. I did not plead guilty to anything else.

    I hope my testimony today can serve to highlight the weakness, the weaknesses of the existing safeguards and to help those whose cases are less visible but who are equally vulnerable. As I emerge from the dungeon of Belmarsh, the truth now seems less discernible, and I regret how much ground has been lost during that time period. How expressing the truth has been undermined, attacked, weakened and diminished.

    I see more impunity, more secrecy, more retaliation for telling the truth and more self-censorship. It is hard not to draw a line from the U.S. government’s prosecution of me. It’s crossing. Crossing the Rubicon by internationally criminalizing journalism to the true climate for freedom of expression that exists now.

    On WikiLeaks’ Work

    Assange testifying in Strasbourg Tuesday. (Barnaby Nerberka)

    When I founded WikiLeaks, it was driven by a simple dream to educate people about how the world works, so that through understanding, we might bring about something better. Having a map of where we are lets us understand where we might go. Knowledge empowers us to hold power to account and to demand justice where there is none. We obtained and published truth about tens of thousands of hidden casualties of war and other unseen horrors about programs of assassination, rendition, torture and mass surveillance.

    We revealed not just when and where these things happened, but frequently the policies, the agreements and the structures behind them. When we published Collateral Murder, the infamous gotten camera footage of a U.S. Apache helicopter crew eagerly blowing to pieces Iraqi journalists and their rescuers. The visual reality of modern warfare shocked the world, so we also used interest in this video to direct people to the classified policies for when the U.S. military could deploy lethal force in Iraq.

    How many civilians could be and how many civilians could be killed before gaining higher approval? In fact, 40 years of my potential 175 year sentence was for obtaining and releasing those policies.

    The practical political vision I was left with after being immersed in the world’s dirty wars and secret operations, is simple. Let us stop gagging, torturing, and killing each other for a change. Get these fundamentals right and other political, economic and scientific processes that have space to educate. We’ll have space to take care of the rest.

    WikiLeaks work was deeply rooted in the principles that this Assembly stands for. Our journalism elevated freedom of information and the public’s right to know. It found its natural operational home in Europe. I lived in Paris and we had formal corporate registrations in France and in Iceland. A journalistic and technical staff was spread throughout Europe. We publish to the world from servers based in France, in Germany and in Norway.

    Manning’s Arrests

    But 14 years ago, the United States military arrested one of our lead whistleblowers, Private First Class Manning, a U.S. intelligence analyst based in Iraq. The U.S. government concurrently launched an investigation against me and my colleagues. The U.S. government illicitly sent planes of agents to Iceland, paid bribes to an informant to steal our legal and journalistic work product and without formal process, pressured banks and financial services to block our subscriptions and to freeze our accounts.

    The U.K. government took part in some of this retribution. It admitted at the European Court of Human Rights that it had unlawfully spied on my U.K. lawyers during this time.

    Ultimately, this harassment was legally groundless. President Obama’s Justice Department chose not to indict me. Recognizing that no crime had been committed, the United States had never before prosecuted a publisher for publishing or obtaining government information. To do so would require a radical and ominous reinterpretation of the U.S. Constitution. In January 2017, Obama also commuted the sentence of Manning, who had been convicted of being one of my sources.

    CIA’s Retribution

    However, in February 2017, the landscape changed dramatically. President Trump had been elected. He appointed two wolves in MAGA hats. Mike Pompeo, a Kansas congressman and former arms industry executive, as C.I.A. director, and William Barr, a former C.I.A. officer, as U.S. attorney general.

    By March 2017, WikiLeaks had exposed the C.I.A.’s infiltration of fringe political parties. Its spying on French and German leaders, its spying on the European Central Bank, European economic ministries, and its standing orders to spy on French on the street as a whole. We revealed the C.I.A.’s vast production of malware and viruses, its subversion of supply chains. Its subversion of antivirus software, cars, smart TVs and iPhones.

    C.I.A. Director Pompeo launched a campaign of retribution. It is now a matter of public record that under Pompeo’s explicit direction, the C.I.A. drew up plans to kidnap and to assassinate me within the Ecuadorean Embassy in London and authorize going after my European colleagues, subjecting us to theft, hacking attacks and the planting of false information. My wife and my infant son were also targeted.

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    A C.I.A. asset was permanently assigned to track my wife. And instructions were given to obtain DNA from my six month old son’s nappy. This is the testimony of more than 30 current and former U.S. intelligence officials speaking to the U.S. press, which has been additionally corroborated by records seized and the prosecution brought against some of the C.I.A. agents involved.

    The C.I.A. is targeting of myself, my family and my associates through aggressive, extrajudicial and extraterritorial means. Provides a rare insight into how powerful intelligence organizations engage in transnational repression. Such repressions are not unique. What is unique is that we know so much about this one. Due to numerous whistleblowers and to judicial investigations in Spain.

    This assembly is no stranger to extraterritorial abuses by the C.I.A.. Pace’s groundbreaking report on C.I.A. renditions in Europe exposed how the C.I.A. operated secret detention centers and conducted unlawful renditions on European soil, violating human rights and international law. In February this year, the alleged source of some of our C.I.A. revelations, former C.I.A. officer Joshua Schulte, was sentenced to 40 years in prison under conditions of extreme isolation.

    His windows are blacked out and a white noise machine plays 24 hours a day over his door so that he cannot even shout through it. These conditions are more severe than those found in Guantanamo Bay.

    But transnational repression is also conducted by abusing legal processes. The lack of effective safeguards against this means that Europe is vulnerable to having its mutual legal assistance and expedition treaties hijacked by foreign powers to go after dissenting voices in Europe. In Michael Pompeo’s memoirs, which I read in my prison cell, the former C.I.A. director bragged about how he pressured the U.S. attorney general to bring an extradition case against me in response to our publications about the C.I.A..

    Indeed, acceding to Pompeo’s requests, the U.S. attorney general reopened the investigation against me that Obama had closed and re-arrested Manning, this time as a witness, and he was held in a prison for over a year, fined $1,000 a day. In a formal attempt to coerce her into providing secret testimony against me, she ended up attempting to take her own life.

    We usually think of attempts to force journalists to testify against their sources. But Manning was now a source being forced to testify against the journalist.

    By December 2017, C.I.A. Director Pompeo had got his way and the U.S. government issued a warrant to the U.K. for my extradition. The U.K. government kept the warrant secret from the public for two more years, while it, the U.S. government and the new president of Ecuador moved to shape the political, legal and the diplomatic grounds for my arrest.

    When powerful nations feel entitled to target individuals beyond their borders, those individuals do not stand a chance unless there are strong safeguards in place and a state willing to enforce them without this. No individual has a hope of defending themselves against the vast resources that a state aggressor can deploy.

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    If the situation were not already bad enough, in my case, the U.S. government asserted a dangerous, dangerous new global legal position. Only U.S. citizens have free speech rights. Europeans and other nationalities do not have free speech rights, but the U.S. claims its Espionage Act still applies to them, regardless of where they are. So Europeans in Europe must obey the U.S. secrecy law with no defenses at all.

    As far as the U.S. government is concerned, an American in Paris can talk about what the U.S. government is up to. Perhaps, but for a Frenchman in Paris, to do so is a crime with no defense. And he may be extradited, just like me.

    Criminalizing News-Gathering

    Now that one foreign government has formally asserted that Europeans have no free speech rights, a dangerous precedent has been set. Other powerful states will inevitably follow suit. The war in Ukraine has already seen the criminalization of journalists in Russia. But based on the precedent set in my expedition, there is nothing to stop Russia or indeed any other state from targeting European journalists, publishers or even social media users by claiming that their domestic secrecy laws have been violated.

    The rights of journalists and publishers within the European space are seriously threatened.

    Transnational repression cannot become the norm here. As one of the world’s two great norms, setting institutions, PACE must act.

    The criminalization of news-gathering activities is a threat to investigative journalism everywhere. I was formally convicted by a foreign power for asking, for receiving and publishing truthful information about that power. While I was in Europe.

    The fundamental issue is simple journalists should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs. Journalism is not a crime. It is a pillar of a free and informed society.

    Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates. If Europe is to have a future where the freedom to speak and the freedom to publish the truth are not privileges enjoyed by a few, but rights guaranteed to all. Then it must act. So what has happened in my case never happens to anyone else.

    I wish to express my deepest gratitude to this assembly, to the conservatives, Social Democrats, liberals, leftists, Greens and independents who have supported me throughout this ordeal and to the countless individuals who have advocated tirelessly, tirelessly for my release. Is heartening to know that in a world often divided by ideology and interests, there remains a shared commitment to the protection of essential human liberties.

    Freedom of expression and all that flows from it is at a dark crossroad. I fear that unless institutions like PACE wake up to the gravity of the situation, it will be too late. Let us all commit to doing our part to ensure that the light of freedom never demands that the pursuit of truth will live on, and that the voices of the many are not silenced by the interests of the few.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 20:30

  • America Is Falling Apart: Our National Priorities Are In Dire Need Of Restructuring
    America Is Falling Apart: Our National Priorities Are In Dire Need Of Restructuring

    Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

    – Bob Dylan

    A water main breaks every two minutes somewhere in the U.S., resulting in contaminated drinking supplies and boil water notices.

    One out of three bridges in the U.S. needs repair, endangering hundreds of millions of commuters. More than 42,000 bridges across the country, carrying about 167 million vehicles each day, are in disrepair.

    It is estimated that 300 million people could face power outages across the United States between 2024 and 2028, due in large part to widespread power grid failures.

    No wonder U.S. infrastructure received a C- on the Infrastructure Report Card.

    America is falling apart.

    Collapsing bridges, buckling roads, overheated railways, deteriorating power lines, contaminated water lines, outdated public transportation, overtaxed power grids, aging ports and waterways, unsafe tunnels and highways, and spotty or insufficient telecommunications assets are all becoming frequent hallmarks of the American way of life.

    If the nation is woefully unprepared to deal with climate disasters such as floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and droughts, despite the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars that have been pledged to shore up the nation’s infrastructure problems, it is because politicians across the political spectrum have failed us.

    The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene makes this failure by the government to put the needs of the American people first painfully evident. Entire towns are under water. Roadways have collapsed or are otherwise impassable. Potable water is scarce. More than 1.5 million households are still without power.

    Clearly, our national priorities need to be re-examined.

    While the politicians play partisan games with our tax dollars, the nation’s critical infrastructure—both the physical foundations of the nation and the figurative foundations of our freedoms—continues to be neglected and deprioritized in favor of grandstanding, bloated military budgets on endless wars abroad, foreign aid to shore up the infrastructure and military defenses of international allies, and all manner of graft and pork barrel spending.

    When all is said and done, the bread-and-circus distractions and sleight-of-hand political theater being trotted out in order to keep Americans distracted, deluded, amused, and insulated from the government’s steady encroachments on our freedoms adds nothing of real value to the lives of the average American.

    It’s time to fix what’s broken in this country.

    For starters, we need an overhaul of the nation’s infrastructure.

    According to Time magazine, “Throughout the country, millions of Americans don’t have access to or can’t afford broadband internet service. In excess of 2 million people live without running water or basic plumbing. For too long, the American public has had to carry on while these deficiencies have gone unattended. The political will has been weak or inattentive, the rewards too far removed from electoral advantage.”

    In other words, the politicians who dance to the tune of the oligarchic elite aren’t motivated to do anything about our failing infrastructure because they get nothing out of it: no votes, no money, no power.

    This isn’t about whether the Republicans or Democrats have better policies.

    Indeed, both parties’ priorities are disconcertingly alike: both parties support endless war, engage in out-of-control spending, ignore the citizenry’s basic rights, have no respect for the rule of law, are bought and paid for by Big Business, care most about their own power, and have a long record of expanding government and shrinking liberty.

    This is about the plight of the American people who continue to be treated like a permanent underclass.

    Anyone who believes that this presidential election will bring about any real change in how the American government does business is either incredibly naive, woefully out-of-touch, or oblivious to the fact that as an in-depth Princeton University study shows, we now live in an oligarchy that is “of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.”

    When a country spends close to $10 billion to select what is, for all intents and purposes, a glorified homecoming king or queen to occupy the White House, while 38 million of its people live in poverty, and nearly 7 million Americans are out of work, and more than 600,000 Americans are homeless, that’s a country whose priorities are out of step with the needs of its people.

    Overhauling the nation’s infrastructure will take a significant amount of money, which won’t happen as long as the U.S. government continues to fund the military industry complex and its voracious appetite for endless wars.

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

    We are seeing this play out before our eyes.

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

    The American Empire is approaching a breaking point.

    This is exactly the scenario President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against when he cautioned the citizenry not to let the profit-driven war machine endanger our liberties or democratic processes. Eisenhower, who served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, was alarmed by the rise of the profit-driven war machine that, in order to perpetuate itself, would have to keep waging war.

    Yet as Eisenhower recognized, the consequences of allowing the military-industrial complex to wage war, exhaust our resources and dictate our national priorities are beyond grave:

    “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

    We failed to heed Eisenhower’s warning.

    The illicit merger of the armaments industry and the government that Eisenhower warned against has come to represent perhaps the greatest threat to the nation today.

    As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, this is how tyranny rises and freedom falls.

    If we are to have any hope of restoring both the structural and freedom foundations of this nation, we’ll need to start by getting our priorities in order, and that means focusing on what really matters: shoring up our battered Bill of Rights and investing in the American homeland.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 20:05

  • These Are The Companies Most Exposed To The US Port Strike
    These Are The Companies Most Exposed To The US Port Strike

    Nearly 50,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) have walked off the job, putting billions of dollars’ worth of goods at risk of severe delays.

    It was estimated that on the first day of the strike (October 1st, 2024), 147 vessels carrying $34.3 billion in goods arrived at 14 idle ports along the East and Gulf coasts of America. The strike comes during peak shipping season, impacting as much as 49% of all U.S. imports.

    This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, shows the companies most exposed to the strike – the ones with the most twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) imported at East and Gulf coast ports over the past year – based on data from ImportGenius and Arbor Data Science shared by Liz Ann Sonders.

    Retail Giants and Tech Firms at Highest Risk from Strike

    Below, we show the companies most exposed to the dockworker strike, based on twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) imported over the last year:

    As the most exposed company overall, Walmart announced that it prepared for the strike by having extra inventory in key product categories to mitigate supply chain disruptions.

    For context, Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, imported an average of 4,000 TEUs per month through these ports over the past year. The average value of one container can fall around $50,000.

    Other major retailers, including IKEA and Home Depot face significant exposure, while tech firms Samsung and LG ranked in the top five highest importers last year.

    The auto industry is also highly vulnerable. Hyundai, General Motors, and major tire manufacturers import thousands of containers through these ports annually. A prolonged strike could drive up production costs due to input shortages, however, recent recovery in automaker inventories provides some buffer against immediate supply chain disruptions.

    How the U.S. Port Strike is Unfolding

    For the first time in five decades, the ILA went on strike after failed negotiations to raise wages by 61.5% over the next six years amid increased automation and record profits for container line companies.

    The strike will halt the flow of goods for many companies until an agreement is reached. It also has the potential to impact U.S. exports.

    The stoppage could result in an estimated $3.8 to $4.5 billion in losses a day according to analysts, affecting major ports such as New York/New Jersey, Houston, and Baltimore. In particular, the impact on perishable goods will be immediate, with bananas being highly vulnerable. Today, three-quarters of U.S. banana imports pass through the ports affected by the strike.

    To learn more about this topic from a global perspective, check out this graphic on the busiest ports in the world.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 19:40

  • Israel Targets Likely Hezbollah Successor In New Beirut Attacks
    Israel Targets Likely Hezbollah Successor In New Beirut Attacks

    Update(1939ET): Israel is conducting more major airstrikes in Beirut Thursday evening. Israeli officials are now claiming that strikes last night targeted head of Hezbollah’s executive committee Hashim Safi al-Din. He’s been widely reported as the likely successor to take over the Shia paramilitary group after Nasrallah’s killing last week.

    “Safi al-Din is the leading figure to succeed Hassan Nasrallah as Hezbollah’s leader. An Israeli official said Safi al-Din was in a bunker deep underground and it isn’t yet clear whether he was killed in the strike,” Axios is reporting.

    The strikes that targeted the Safi al-Din have been described as even larger than the ones the killed Nasrallah. Casualty numbers are as yet unconfirmed. On Thursday night, Al Jazeera reports the following: 

    Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic report that the Israeli military has blown up residential buildings northwest of Nuseirat camp.

    Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported earlier that the military has been striking the western part of Nuseirat refugee camp on almost an hourly basis.

    * * *

    At least nine people have been killed in overnight Israeli attacks on Beirut, which involved a series of rare airstrikes directly on the city center, not far from parliament building and the prime minister’s office, as well as a United Nations headquarters. More strikes also rocked the southern suburb of Dayhiheh, which has been frequently hit.

    The central Beirut attack targeted a building in the district of Bashoura. The Associated Press and others noticed that residents and emergency aid workers panicked also due to a strange smell filled the air in the central city area in the immediate aftermath of the bombing.

    Al Jazeera reports that “Residents reported a sulfur-like smell following the attack, and Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency accused Israel of using phosphorus bombs, without providing evidence.” Israel’s military did not comment on the claims.

    Aftermath of overnight strikes on central Beirut, AFP.

    Among the dead were seven members of Hezbollah’s civil defense unit, the group confirmed. A prior Wednesday strike had also targeted a residence of Hezbollah member of parliament, Amin Shari. Local reports say he was not there at the time, and survived.

    In ongoing fierce fighting in the south, Hezbollah claims to have mounted more attacks against invading Israeli ground forces. This comes following a bad day for the IDF on Wednesday, given it confirmed eight Israeli troop deaths, most of these during a fierce multi-pronged ambush.

    Below are the latest claims of battlefield successes by Hezbollah on Thursday:

    • Hezbollah claimed to have detonated two explosive devices at dawn “when an enemy Israeli infantry force attempted to infiltrate towards the village of Maroun al-Ras” in southern Lebanon.
    • Fighters attacked Israeli soldiers with an Iranian-made Falaq missile east of the Sasa settlement in northern Israel, and a different group of soldiers with a rocket salvo west of the same settlement, it said.
    • Another attack came in the Shomera settlement of northern Israel against Israeli troops with a Falaq missile. Hezbollah also claimed two separate rocket salvos against Israeli forces – one in the Betzet settlement and another in the Avivim village in Upper Galilee.

    In what regional sources are reporting as a major on-ground development, Hezbollah said detonated a large bomb as IDF troops entered the village of Maroun al-Ras in southern Lebanon, resulting in deaths and casualties.

    Military rescue helicopters were later observed arriving in the area to recover and tend to the wounded, unverified reports say.

    Hezbollah rocket attacks on Galilee in northern Israel on Thursday:

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    In total Hezbollah has said it has launched six different attacks on Israeli ground forces in the south by mid-afternoon. The Israeli military has meanwhile said its forces have killed some 60 Hezbollah operatives over the past day, with aerial forces also having struck over 200 targets.

    At least two Lebanese national army soldiers have been reported killed at this point. News wires are also reporting that “For the first time since the war began, the Lebanese army responded to Israeli fire after a soldier was killed in an Israeli strike on an army center in Bint Jbeil, southern Lebanon.”

    As of Thursday afternoon, the IDF has ordered an additional 25 villages and towns in southern Lebanon to be evacuated, as the fighting expands. Israel is looking to push Hezbollah forces dozens of miles north into Lebanon, in order to create a permanent buffer zone.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 19:39

  • US Port Workers Agree To End Strike After Accepting 62% Wage Increase
    US Port Workers Agree To End Strike After Accepting 62% Wage Increase

    If you just bought 10 years worth of toilet paper, you may want to check if you still have the receipt.

    Late on Thursday, 45,000 striking dockworkers at US East and Gulf coast ports agreed to return to work after port operators sweetened their contract offer, ending a three-day strike that threatened to disrupt the American economy.

    The International Longshoremen’s Association and port operators, in a joint statement, said they had reached a tentative agreement on wages and union members would return to work. They said the agreement would extend the prior contract, which expired at the start of this week, through Jan. 15, 2025 while the two sides negotiate on other issues, including automation on the docks.

    The breakthrough came after port employers offered a 62% increase in wages over six years, the WSJ reported citing people familiar with the matter. The new offer, up from an earlier proposed raise of 50%, came after the White House privately and publicly pressed the large shipping lines and cargo terminal operators who employ the longshore workers to make a new offer to the union.

    The agreement ends a strike that had closed container ports from Maine to Texas and threatened to disrupt everything from the supply of bananas in supermarkets to the flow of cars through America’s factories, and cost the US economy billions each day in lost commerce.

    The latest offer would raise the base hourly rate for ILA port workers to $63 from $39 over six years. One of the people said the offer is being made on the condition that dockworkers go back to work and agree to efficiency gains.

    The offer is less than the union demand for an increase of 77% over the term of the contract but a far larger increase than most major labor contracts, including a contract reached last year covering the separate union representing West Coast longshore workers. Many U.S. dockworkers currently earn more than a $100,000 a year, with baseline hourly wages boosted by work rules and overtime requirements.

    The strike came about five weeks from a presidential election where both main candidates are wooing working-class union voters. Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have voiced support for the workers, stressing that the carriers are mostly foreign-owned.

    Top White House aides have been in frequent contact with the employers, reiterating that Biden doesn’t plan to use his federal power to break the strike. “This is the first strike in 50 years—these people know how to get to yes,” Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said Thursday, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One. “They just need to get to yes.”

    The walkout had shut down some of the country’s main gateways for imports of food, vehicles, heavy machinery, construction materials, chemicals, furniture, clothes and toys. Many manufacturers and big retailers, with their busy fall shopping season just starting to kick in, said they could withstand a short strike because they brought in products earlier than usual this year and diverted other cargoes to West Coast ports. But executives said a walkout lasting a week or longer would push up shipping costs and might trigger product shortages.

    The International Longshoremen’s Association said it had agreed to extend the contract until Jan. 15 and work will resume.
    Container ports from Houston to Miami and up to Boston have been closed since the labor contract between the ILA and the US Maritime Alliance, which represents terminal operators and shipping lines, expired on Tuesday.

    Dozens of ships carrying containers and autos have anchored off the coast of major trade hubs including New York, South Carolina and Virgina over the past few days.

    It remains to be seen if other US labor union will also go on strike hoping to repeat the staggering wage gains that were just handed to the Longshoremen. If so, watch as the color drains out of Powell’s face as wage inflation hits double digits in the coming months.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 19:22

  • Massachusetts Governor Uses Emergency Powers To Fast-Track Sweeping Gun-Control Law
    Massachusetts Governor Uses Emergency Powers To Fast-Track Sweeping Gun-Control Law

    Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

    Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has signed an emergency preamble to the state’s sweeping gun control bill, fast-tracking its implementation and halting an ongoing effort by gun rights activists to delay its effects.

    The law, H.4885, was originally scheduled to take effect on Oct. 23, or 90 days after Healey signed the bill in July, but her decision to proceed with signing the emergency preamble means it goes into effect immediately.

    Under Massachusetts law, governors have the authority to issue an emergency preamble to expedite legislation when “the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety, or convenience” is deemed necessary.

    The law’s expedited enactment was praised by gun control groups but sharply criticized by gun rights advocates, who had hoped to gather enough signatures to delay its implementation until a potential 2026 referendum.

    H.4885 expands Massachusetts’ already strict gun regulations, in part as a response to the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which affirmed an individual’s right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.

    The expedited law includes provisions banning untraceable “ghost guns,” expanding restrictions on “assault-style” firearms and large-capacity magazines, and tightening the state’s “red flag” rules. It also mandates that firearm license applicants pass a standardized safety exam and complete live-fire training, while also providing mental health information to local licensing authorities.

    “This gun safety law bans ghost guns, strengthens the Extreme Risk Protection Order statute to keep guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others, and invests in violence prevention programs. It is important that these measures go into effect without delay,” Healey said in an Oct. 2 statement to media outlets.

    The governor’s decision to fast-track the law has drawn swift condemnation from gun rights organizations. Tody Leary, owner of Cape Cod Gun Works and a leader of the grassroots Civil Rights Coalition, sharply criticized the move, accusing Healey of bypassing the democratic process.

    “With a single stroke of the pen, Healey risks putting as many as 400 stores out of business and turning tens of thousands of law-abiding citizens into felons, simply for owning guns they have lawfully possessed for years,” Leary said in a statement. “She’s acting more like a dictator than a governor.”

    Leary said that the Civil Rights Coalition was on track to collect the 49,716 signatures required to suspend the law and place it on the 2026 ballot, adding that Healey’s emergency order circumvented that effort.

    Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners Action League (GOAL), expressed similar frustrations, with the group issuing a statement denouncing the law as a “historic attack on our civil rights.” Wallace noted that Healey’s past actions had already strained relations with the state’s Second Amendment advocates.

    “At every turn, the Legislature and now the governor have avoided honest public input, especially from the [Second Amendment] community,“ Wallace said in a statement. ”We are the only stakeholders involved and there is a consistent effort to silence our voices and mislead the general public.”

    GOAL, along with the National Rifle Association, pledged to take swift legal action.

    “With the swipe of a pen, Governor Healey has shamelessly circumvented Massachusetts’ political process and expedited the effective date of her radical gun control law in the Commonwealth,”  Randy Kozuch, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement.

    “This extreme law will not go unchecked, and the NRA will be launching a challenge to restore the rights guaranteed to Bay Staters by the U.S. Constitution.”

    By contrast, Healey’s decision was praised by the Massachusetts chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, part of the Everytown for Gun Safety network.

    “Gov. Healey is once again putting our safety first by taking meaningful steps to protect our communities from gun violence,” Olivia Benevento, a leader of Northeastern University’s Students Demand Action chapter, said in a statement.

    “We’re thankful to the lawmakers and the governor for supporting this bill and helping us take a stand against the gun lobby’s dangerous agenda.”

    The law’s passage marks the culmination of nearly a year of efforts by gun control advocates to respond to Bruen and tighten the state’s already strict regulations. In addition to banning ghost guns and “assault”-style firearms, the law prohibits firearms at schools, polling places, and government buildings and increases penalties for shootings near residential areas.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 19:15

  • Lebanon Claims Nasrallah Agreed To Temporary Ceasefire Just Before Assassination
    Lebanon Claims Nasrallah Agreed To Temporary Ceasefire Just Before Assassination

    In hugely surprising remarks given on American television this week, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has stated that Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah issued his agreement to a US and French-proposed 21-day ceasefire with Israel just before Israel killed him by targeting a secretive meeting in south Beirut last Friday.

    Habib revealed the agreement in a PBS interview. He told PBS/CNN host Christiane Amanpour that “They told us that Mr. Netanyahu agreed on this, and so we also got the agreement of Hezbollah on that. And, you know what happened since then.” 

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

    An incredulous-looking Amanpour asked: “are you saying that Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a ceasefire just moments before he was assassinated?” 

    “He agreed, he agreed–yes, yes. We agreed completely.” 

    The top Lebanese diplomat then followed with:

    “The Lebanese House Speaker, Mr Nabih Berri, consulted with Hezbollah and we informed the Americans and the French about the agreement. They told us that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu also agreed to the statement issued by both presidents.”

    This is all in reference to a Sept.25th joint statement by the US, France, the European Union, Saudi Arabia and other nations urging an immediate 21-day ceasefire during which a more permanent diplomatic solution would be worked out. CNN writes of the interview:

    White House senior adviser Amos Hochstein was then set to go to Lebanon to negotiate the ceasefire, Habib continued.

    “They told us that Mr. Netanyahu agreed on this and so we also got the agreement of Hezbollah on that and you know what happened since then,” the foreign minister added.

    If the Lebanese government account is true, this would have huge implications. However, no specific further evidence that Nasrallah agreed to ceasefire has yet emerged. Reuters’ top foreign correspondent, Idrees Ali, has called the revelation “Pretty stunning.”

    Further reporting from CNN could point to the accuracy of FM Habib’s statements:

    A Western source familiar with the negotiations also said Hezbollah had agreed to the temporary truce shortly before the US released the proposal last week. The source didn’t say whether the decision had come directly from Nasrallah, but said that for the movement to agree, they would have needed his approval. A second source familiar with the talks agreed that the US was aware that Hezbollah was agreeing to the ceasefire.

    But on an official level, the White House is denying all of this. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller didn’t rule it out entirely, but said that the Hezbollah chief agreeing to a deal is “not something we have heard before. If true, [it] was never communicated to us.”

    “I can’t speak to whether he ever agreed to it and told somebody inside Lebanon. Obviously, that could be something that happened that we wouldn’t be aware of. I can tell you that, if that’s true, it was never communicated to us in any way shape or form,” Miller said in a Thursday press briefing.

    Critics of Israel have accused PM Netanyahu of deliberately sabotaging efforts at peace in his drive to decimate Hamas, Hezbollah, and ultimately to weaken archnemesis Iran – all while prolonging his power and rule at home.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 18:50

  • CBDCs And Financial Privacy
    CBDCs And Financial Privacy

    Authored by William Luther via The American Institute for Economic Research,

    When it comes to designing digital currencies that protect the identity and transactions data of their users, developers have made a lot of progress in a relatively short period of time. It is technically feasible to design a retail central bank digital currency — or, CBDC — that promotes financial privacy. But one must also consider what is politically feasible. Unfortunately, there is little prospect that the United States government would actually adopt a privacy-protecting CBDC.

    If adopted, a CBDC will eventually – if not initially – be used to surveil the transactions of Americans.

    The government is already using existing technologies to surveil its citizens. There’s no reason to think the government would give up its ability to monitor transactions with the introduction of a CBDC. Indeed, it seems much more likely that the government would seize the opportunity to expand its capabilities. Therefore, it is absolutely crucial to maintain a private banking system firewall between the government and our transactions data.

    Let’s start with the status quo.

    The government has essentially deputized the private banking system to monitor customer transactions. Banks keep records on customer transactions, which the government can access by subpoena. The government also requires banks to report suspicious activity and currency transactions in excess of $10,000.

    As Nick Anthony at Cato has shown, the real (inflation-adjusted) reporting thresholds have gradually declined over time. When the Bank Secrecy Act rules were rolled out in 1972, banks were required to report currency transactions worth $10,000 or more. If that reporting threshold had been indexed to inflation, it would be around $74,000 today. Since it wasn’t indexed to inflation, banks must file many more reports today on transactions worth much less than those that would have triggered a reporting requirement in the past.

    Other thresholds are even lower. For example, money-service businesses must obtain and record information for transactions worth just $3,000.

    The government vigorously defends its ability to monitor transactions. It prosecutes those making transactions just below reporting thresholds —a separate crime called structuring. It seizes cash and collectibles, which make it more difficult to monitor transactions, even in cases where there is no evidence of criminal activity. And it undermines new financial privacy-protecting technologies.

    Consider the government’s response to cryptocurrencies, some of which offer a high degree of financial privacy. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network requires cryptocurrency exchanges to register as money-service businesses and comply with Know Your Customer requirements. If transactions can ultimately be traced through the blockchain to these on- and off-ramps, then the financial privacy that cryptocurrencies offer is largely eroded.

    Consider the government’s response to cryptocurrency mixing services, which make it more difficult to trace one’s transactions back to an exchange where his or her identity may be discovered. The Office of Foreign Asset Control has added the wallet addresses of mixing services to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list, effectively making it illegal for Americans to employ those mixing services.

    Why would a government work so hard to ensure it can monitor transactions just to turn around and issue a financial privacy-protecting CBDC? Again: it seems much more likely that the government would issue a CBDC that bolsters its ability to monitor transactions.

    The ostensibly private messaging service ANOM serves as a useful comparison. ANOM was not private. Unbeknownst to its users, ANOM was actually the centerpiece of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Operation Trojan Shield. Messages sent using the ANOM app were not only delivered to recipients, but also to the FBI’s database.

    The FBI maintains that it did not technically violate the fourth amendment by using a backdoor in the messaging app to snoop on US citizens, because it transferred the data to Lithuania, where foreigners would snoop on US citizens and then tip off the FBI when illegal activity was suspected. Think about that. The FBI developed the ability to spy on US citizens, promoted the use of the enabling technology, and then handed the data collected by this technology over to foreign nationals in order to circumvent the Constitutional constraints designed to safeguard US citizens from such activities. These efforts not only undermined the due process afforded to criminals — though that would be bad enough. It also facilitated the snooping on perfectly lawful messages. Some of these messages involved intimate details shared between romantic partners. Others involved protected conversations between attorneys and their clients.

    If the government will build a backdoor into a messaging app — and has been caught trying to bribe engineers to install others — then one should expect it will build a backdoor into a payments app, as well.

    Americans do not have much financial privacy today. We would have even less financial privacy if not for the private banking system firewall between the government and our transactions data. This firewall isn’t perfect. But it is better than nothing. 

    To see how such a firewall promotes financial privacy, consider the Internal Revenue System’s efforts to access the customer data of Coinbase in 2016. At the time, Coinbase was boasting that it had 5.9 million customers — many more than had reported crypto holdings to the IRS. Citing this discrepancy, the IRS secured a John Doe summons.

    In 2017, I described the summons as follows:

    Basically, the IRS wants any and all information that Coinbase has so that it can sift through that information for the slightest hint of misreporting. It has requested account registration information for all Coinbase account holders, including confirmed devices and payment methods; any agreements or instructions that grant third party access or control for any account; records of all payments processed by Coinbase for merchants; and all correspondence between Coinbase and its users regarding accounts.

    Needless to say, the scope of the summons was very broad.

    Recognizing the duty — and, perhaps more importantly, the profit motive — it had to protect its customers, Coinbase appealed. Eventually, the courts decided that Coinbase would have to hand over some customer data on around 13,000 high-transacting users.

    Kraken has also resisted an overly broad summons to hand over customer data to the IRS, to similar effect.

    I hold the old-fashioned view that, in a liberal democracy, the government should have to demonstrate probable cause before acquiring the authority and ability to sift through one’s financial records. The degree of financial privacy afforded by the current system certainly falls short of that standard. Nonetheless, it affords much more financial privacy than one could reasonably hope for if the government held the data, as would likely be the case with a CBDC.

    Financial privacy is very important for a free society. What we do reveals much more about who we are than what we say. And what we do often requires making payments. In order to exercise our freedoms, we must be able to selectively share the details of our lives with others — and withhold such details from those who would otherwise use them to harm us.

    We should take steps to bolster financial privacy in the United States. The introduction of a retail CBDC would be a step in the wrong direction.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 18:25

  • Ukrainian Lines Collapsing In East With World's Attention On Middle East War
    Ukrainian Lines Collapsing In East With World’s Attention On Middle East War

    Moscow’s wide-reaching offensive in eastern Ukraine has continued making steady gains, as looming major war between Israel and Iran has largely taken over the news cycle and daily headlines.

    Currently Russian forces have advanced to merely within a few a few kilometers of Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian logistical hub in the region. As we’ve highlighted before, the collapse of Pokrovsk will likely portend a Russian takeover of the whole of Donetsk. 

    On Wednesday the Ukrainian army announced that it has fully withdrawn from the eastern town of Vuhledar, describing that it abandoned the area after being almost fully encircled, and coming under heavy Russian artillery bombardment.

    Image of Russian flag flying over city center of newly captured Vuhledar.

    “The High Command gave permission for a maneuver to withdraw units from Vuhledar in order to save personnel and military equipment and take up a position for further operations,” a Ukrainian unit deployed there said in a Telegram post.

    It cited specifically the “threat of encirclement” and heavy troop losses, and there are reports that Russian forces had already taken control of Vuhleda by the time the Ukrainian announcement was made.

    Vuhleda is a significant achievement, and suggests Russia forces will continue to plow through Ukrainian defenses, given it was dubbed a “fortress” city given its long having heavily-fortified surroundings and being in an upland position.

    Even The Daily Beast recently underscored that while President Zelensky was pitching his ‘victory plan’ in Washington, his forces were suffering loss after loss:

    On a visit to the U.S. last week, Volodymyr Zelensky gave the hard sell to his “Victory Plan” for Ukraine. In meetings with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and an awkward encounter with former President Donald Trump, the Ukrainian leader insisted his country could still–with Western help–emerge victorious in its long-running war with Russia.

    …After two and a half years of war, soldiers are tired. The same soldiers who gave Vladimir Putin’s forces a bloody nose after the February 2022 invasion, and pushed the invaders from Kyiv and Kharkiv, say they are under-equipped and complain that they are being ordered to carry out impossible missions as Kyiv struggles to supply the military with new recruits and acquire more Western weapons to ward off Russian advances.

    The same report has said that in some instances entire battalions are refusing orders from command centers as they see them as “suicide missions”.

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    “With little training and battleground conditions far removed from what they signed up for at the beginning of the war, the men are sent on what they describe as suicide missions: They are told to get behind enemy lines to launch attacks, yet are not given the weaponry to do so successfully,” Daily Beast wrote.

    As for Vuhledar, Russia’s defense ministry (MoD) and state media are in a celebratory mood. “As a result of conclusive operations by the units of the ‘East’ group of forces, the town of Ugledar in the DPR has been liberated,” the miliary announced Thursday.

    US state-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has confirmed the below video:

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    Widely circulating images and footage show Russian troops raising a flag over Vuhledar’s central administrative building. Over the past two-and-half years, Russian forces had tried to take the town on a number of occasions, but were pushed back, until this week.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 18:22

  • These Are The Most Popular Investing Strategies By Generation
    These Are The Most Popular Investing Strategies By Generation

    When it comes to investing, each generation has their own mix of strategies, and younger generations like to try a bit of everything.

    This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Kayla Zhu, visualizes the breakdown of how each generation uses each of the following types of investing strategies:

    • Buy and hold: Investors purchase stocks or assets and keep them long-term, regardless of short-term market fluctuations

    • Growth investing: Investing in companies expected to grow at an above-average rate, even if their stock prices are higher

    • Fractional shares investing: Purchasing a portion of a full share, allowing investors to invest in expensive stocks with smaller amounts of money

    • Short-term trading: Buying and selling assets quickly, typically within days or weeks, to capitalize on short-term market movements

    • Direct indexing: A method where investors buy and own individual stocks of an index directly rather than through a mutual fund or ETF, allowing for greater customization and tax efficiency

    • Socially responsible investing: Investing in companies that meet specific ethical, environmental, or social criteria

    • Robo-advisor investing: An automated investment service that uses algorithms to manage and optimize an investor’s portfolio, typically with low fees

    • Thematic investing: A strategy centered on investing in companies tied to specific trends or themes, such as clean energy or technological innovation

    The data is based on a Charles Schwab Modern Wealth survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, and is updated as of March 2024.

    Buy and Hold Investing Most Popular Across Generations

    Americans of all generations mostly rely on the buy and hold strategy, with boomers relying on this strategy the most (60%) and Gen X relying on it the least (48%).

    Across the board, younger generations tend to adopt a wider range of investing strategies than older generations. Specifically, Gen Z and Millennials tend to use newer investing strategies more often, including fractional shares investing (48% for both) and short-term trading (52% for both).

    Both younger generations also use technology-driven strategies like robo-advisor investing much more than the older two generations.

    Robo-advisors are online investing platforms that use algorithms to create and manage investment portfolios, like Betterment and Wealthsimple.

    Younger generations are also increasingly turning to social media to inform their financial choices.

    According to the Charles Schwab survey, 72% of Gen Z respondents considered financial advice from social media, compared to 57% of Millennials, 38% of Gen X, and only 19% of Boomers.

    Gen Zs are also starting to invest earlier. On average, Gen Zs started investing at 19 years old, compared to 25 for Millennials, 32 for Gen X, and 35 for Boomers, according to Charles Schwab.

    Investing earlier allows investors more time to grow their wealth, as compounding interest can significantly increase returns over the long term.

    To learn more about Americans’ investing patterns, check out this graphic that visualizes shows the percentage of financial assets allocated to corporate equities among U.S. households and non-profits.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 18:00

  • Canada Banned Certain Guns, Can't Figure Out How To Collect Them
    Canada Banned Certain Guns, Can’t Figure Out How To Collect Them

    Authored by Michael Clements via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    CALGARY, Canada—On May 1, 2020, the Canadian government outlawed 1,500 types of semiautomatic rifles and announced a firearms buyback program to take possession of the newly banned guns.

    Gun supporters of the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Sept. 12, 2020. Lars Hagberg/AFP via Getty Images

    The action was the federal government’s response to a mass shooting in Nova Scotia in which 22 people were killed over April 18–19, 2020.

    The killer, dressed as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer and driving a car rigged to look like a patrol car, used an AR-style rifle smuggled into Canada from the United States.

    Four years later, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party struggles to keep control in Parliament, both sides of the debate anticipate the possible end of the program even before the first gun has been surrendered.

    One gun control activist has criticized the buyback program as too weak.

    Nathalie Provost is the spokesperson for PolyRemembers, a group formed after the Dec. 6, 1989, mass shooting at the Polytechnique engineering school in Montreal that killed 14.

    Provost, a survivor of that crime, did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

    In a Sept. 11 statement, she called on the government to eliminate exemptions to the ban, accelerate completion of the buyback, and close loopholes in the law.

    “Even the mandatory buyback program … will lose all of its meaning if current [gun] owners … can simply take the money from the buyback to purchase [guns] that remain legal or new models introduced … by manufacturers seeking to increase their sales and profits,” Provost wrote.

    Under the program, certain automatic and semiautomatic rifles, so-called assault weapons, were banned.

    Rifles such as the AR-15, AK-47, and similar types can no longer be bought, sold, imported, or even transported in Canada. The plan calls for owners of the now-illegal guns to sell them to the federal government.

    The government established a two-year amnesty period during which owners must securely store their prohibited firearms until the logistics of the buyback program are worked out.

    In 2022, the amnesty period was extended to October 2025.

    James Bachynsky, president of the Calgary Shooting Center since 2011, said the Nova Scotia shooting was simply used as an excuse for the Liberal Party to institute a ban it wanted all along.

    Bachynsky said the ban would not have prevented the killings in Nova Scotia.

    He pointed out that the killer had violated several laws before he fired his first shot. From smuggling guns into the country to impersonating a police officer, the shooter could have been charged with a crime without ever putting his finger on a trigger, he said.

    “The government wanted to be seen to be doing something. They introduced this [Order in Council], banned all these guns, and then the investigation determined that all [the killer’s] guns had been smuggled in over the U.S. [border] anyway,” Bachynsky told The Epoch Times.

    James Bachynsky, president of the Calgary Shooting Center, talks about how a ban on semiautomatic rifles in Canada has impacted his business, in Calgary, Alberta, on Aug. 29, 2024. Michael Clemente/The Epoch Times

    Brian Kent agrees. He owns Proline Shooters II in Calgary and has been in the firearms business for 42 years. He said restricting legal gun ownership is the easiest way for the government to give the impression that it is doing something.

    Kent says he believes the “government wants to do away with all firearms,” and people who own guns legally are “low hanging fruit and … easy to pick on.”

    During a Sept. 19 meeting, Dominic LeBlanc, Minister for Public Safety, Democratic Institutions, and Intergovernmental Affairs, denied these claims when questioned by Conservative Sen. Yonah Martin.

    “This program in no way targets sports persons, or indigenous persons or persons who hunt for sustenance or who practice a sport; this is designed to get military weapons off the streets,” LeBlanc said.

    But Kent is not convinced.

    He said officials use terms such as “assault weapons,” “military weapons,” and “weapons of war” to alarm and confuse their constituents. The difference between the banned guns and legal guns is a matter of form rather than function, he said.

    “There’s no difference between a [prohibited] AR-15 system and a [legal] Remington 742 semiautomatic rifle. There’s no difference in the function,” Kent told The Epoch Times. “The AR-15 looks dangerous and military and ‘oh my goodness, we’re going to all die.’ There’s no actual functioning difference between the two firearms.”

    Bachynsky said that as a firearms dealer, he keeps track of changes in the gun laws. He said the buyback program is confusing. According to Bachynsky, the changes could catch some gun owners unaware.

    The list of prohibited rifles has grown from 1,500 to almost 2,000 over the past four years. This means that rifles that were legal when the list was written in 2020 may no longer be allowed.

    “But if you own any kind of semiautomatic rifle now, or even a hunting rifle, you need to check [the restricted firearms list] regularly to see whether it’s become prohibited,” Bachynsky told The Epoch Times.

    Brian Kent, owner of Proline Shooters II, speaks to The Epoch Times in his store in Calgary, Canada, on Aug. 29, 2024. Michael Clements/The Epoch Times

    The program is divided into two phases. In the first phase, gun stores will sell to the government any stock they haven’t been able to export or sell before the amnesty period ends. In the second phase, individual owners will sell their prohibited guns to the government.

    In each case the price will be determined by a government estimate, not the amount the store or owner paid.

    As of Sept. 25, the Public Safety Canada website had no details on how or when either phase would begin.

    “More information on the methods affected firearms businesses can use to turn in their inventory and how they can participate in the program will be provided at a later date,” the Public Safety Canada website reads.

    In December 2023, the government enacted Bill C-21, which codified the plan’s prohibition on the sale or transfer of handguns.

    Current handgun owners can transport their handguns to shoot on approved firing ranges. But they cannot sell or give them to anyone. When current handgun owners die, their guns must be handed over to the government.

    The Liberal Party has been able to advance its agenda through an agreement with the New Democratic Party (NDP). However, on Sept. 4, the NDP backed out of the agreement.

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 17:40

  • Doug Casey Exposes The Global Elites' Plan For Feudalism 2.0… And How You Can Resist
    Doug Casey Exposes The Global Elites’ Plan For Feudalism 2.0… And How You Can Resist

    Authored by Doug Casey via InternationalMan.com,

    International Man: There’s little doubt the self-anointed elite are hostile to the middle class, which is on its way to extinction thanks to soaring inflation and taxation.

    It seems they would like to implement a kinder and gentler version of feudalism.

    What is really going on here, and what is the end game?

    Doug Casey: The middle class, the bourgeoisie, emerged with the death of feudalism, the inception of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and finally, the Industrial Revolution.

    “Middle class” has been given a bad connotation in recent times. Leftists want everybody to believe that the bourgeoisie is full of consumerist faults. They’re mocked for being concerned with material well-being and improving their status. The elites feel threatened by them. Unlike the lower class plebs, grunt workers who don’t expect more from life.

    Bourgeoisie simply means city dweller. Starting in the late Middle Ages, city dwellers were independent, with their own trades and businesses. Living in towns got them out from under the control of the feudal warrior elites.

    Cities became intellectual centers, where the growing wealth of the bourgeoisie—the middle class—gave them the leisure needed to develop science, technology, engineering, literature, and medicine. Universities expanded the idea of education beyond the realm of theology. Commerce and personal freedom attracted the best of the peasants, who rose to the middle class. Cities ended feudalism, a system whereby everyone was born into a class and occupation, and was expected to stay there for life, obligated to pay taxes—protection money—to his “betters”. The rise of the bourgeoisie didn’t suit the ruling classes, who liked dominating society.

    Capitalism developed as the bourgeoisie became wealthy. The rest is well-known history, but the point must be made that the creation of the middle class, capitalism, and bourgeois values elevated peasants from poverty and created today’s world.

    But, then and now, a certain percentage of the population wants to control everyone else. The types who go to Bilderberg, the World Economic Forum, CFR, and the like see themselves as elite new aristocrats who should dominate the others. Even though most of them came from the middle class, now that they’ve “made it,” they like to pull the ladder up. And if not eliminate, at least neuter or defang the remaining bourgeoisie.

    So what’s the end game?

    I think it might look something like the movie Rollerball. Keep the plebs entertained while the elite, in the form of a corporate aristocracy, controls society.

    International Man: Yuval Harari is a prominent World Economic Forum (WEF) member.

    He suggested that the elite should use a universal basic income, drugs, and video games to keep the “useless class” docile and occupied.

    What is your take on these comments in the context of Feudalism 2.0?

    Doug Casey: A nasty little fellow, Harari is what might be termed a court intellectual for the World Economic Forum. He’s there to provide an intellectual patina for the power members, who are basically the businessmen, politicos, and media personalities. They’re not thinkers or interested in ideas but philistines concerned with money and power. Harari gives them an intellectual framework to justify their actions and plans.

    As far as his books are concerned, they amount to a lot of generic truisms, obvious observations, justifications of current trends, and a projection of how the world will evolve. As an author and thinker, he’s knowledgeable and intelligent but grossly overrated. He owes his success to promotion from the new wannabe aristocracy and their hangers on. He illustrates the advantages of being hooked up with power people.

    Harari has gone from being just another college professor, living with his husband in Israel, to being an internationally famous multi-millionaire pundit.

    He expects the “useless eaters” will be maintained on a subsistence basis until they die out. I’m not sure how much the Covid hysteria, followed by the vaccine, has to do with that. It’s becoming quite clear that Covid itself was an artificially constructed flu variant, mainly affecting the very old, very sick, and very overweight. The vaccine is useless in preventing Covid but has caused significant increases in morbidity and mortality among healthy recipients. Was it a trial run to cleanse the world of useless eaters?

    I don’t know. But, based on what people like Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and Pol Pot—among many others—have done in recent years, I don’t think it’s out of the question. No doubt, the new aristocracy wants to cement themselves in place. They certainly don’t like rubbing shoulders with the hoi polloi when they visit Venice, Machu Pichu, and the like.

    International Man: How does the WEF’s vision of “you will own nothing and be happy” compare to the previous feudal system of medieval Europe?

    Doug Casey: Serfs, unlike slaves, had some rights; they owned tools and huts. But their position in society was fixed, they couldn’t easily move—rather like a medieval version of today’s 15-minute city. They had to recognize their betters, and not say anything challenging—like today’s increasingly draconian limits on free speech.

    I expect that the gigantic amount of debt in society today will be the means of turning middle-class Americans into serfs. The lower classes are already welfare recipients who produce very little; they’ll soon be replaced by robots.

    The better educated ones are buried under their college debts. But everybody is buried under growing credit card debt, auto debt, mortgage debt, and sometimes even tax debt.

    If someone makes a lucky capital gain in the stock market or by selling his house, he might spend that money only to find that the government wants 20%, 30%, or 40% of the gain. So the gain, instead of a blessing, becomes a disaster in disguise.

    Many people today are burdened by debt, living paycheck to paycheck. They’re barely getting by, under immense pressure to cover food and rent. They’d probably be quite willing to take a deal offering essentially “three hots and a cot,” a tiny apartment, internet, and some extra money to hang around Starbucks.

    International Man: How do you see Feudalism 2.0 developing over the coming months and years?

    What can be done to resist this agenda?

    Doug Casey: Trends in motion tend to stay in motion until they reach some type of a crisis—when anything can happen. Let’s look at some economic systems, as spelled out by Karl Marx.

    In Communism, the Marxist ideal, the State owns both the means of production (factories, farms, and such) as well as consumer goods (houses, cars, and theoretically, even your clothes). Mao’s China is as close as anyone’s come.

    Socialism is a way station to Communism. The State owns the means of production, but individuals can still own consumer goods. There are lots of countries with socialist ideals, but no real socialist countries. Cuba probably comes closest.

    Fascism is an economic system where both the means of production and consumer goods are privately owned, but they’re both 100% State-controlled. Most of the world’s countries are fascist. The word was coined by Mussolini; he meant it to describe the melding of the State, corporations, and unions.

    Few people know that Marx coined the word “capitalism”. It’s a system where everything is both privately owned and privately controlled. There are no purely capitalist countries.

    In feudalism, a lord owns everything but grants fiefs to subordinates. An aristocracy is supported by the plebs through taxation. Feudalism is based on the plebs providing service and taxes to the lord in exchange for “protection” from other lords.

    Now for some pure speculation on my part.

    Most of the world’s governments, including that of the US, are terminally bankrupt. They’ll prove unable to meet their obligations. Meanwhile, the prospect of wars, secessions, and crime is growing. I suspect wealthy corporations and individuals will wind up supplanting most traditional governments.

    The result could be called neo-feudalism.

    The average person is looking for someone or something to save him, to kiss everything and make it better, when times get tough. With governments bankrupt and dysfunctional, solvent and powerful individuals and corporations could take their place.

    Harari and his pals want to see the plebs given a guaranteed annual income, a place to live, and entertainment until the useless eaters fade away. But it won’t be as neat as Harari’s wet dreams imagine. The world will be chaotic. We may be on our way to an idiocracy as well, where the populace is dumbed down so they don’t get dangerous ideas.

    No matter how things sort out, I think we’re looking at a chaotic and dangerous situation in the near term.

    I don’t see voting as a solution. Notwithstanding the differences between Harris and Trump, it just amounts to choosing the lesser of two evils, which in this case would certainly be Trump. But even if you elected Mises, Hayek, Ron Paul, or Harry Browne, I’m afraid the tide of history would wash them away.

    In any event, your vote doesn’t really count. Or perhaps I should say it counts about as much as a grain of sand on a beach with hundreds of millions of grains of sand. And even then, as Stalin said, it’s not who votes that counts. It’s who counts the votes.

    What can you do to resist the shape of things to come?

    It’s an uphill fight because if you’re liberty-oriented, you’re part of a tiny minority at odds with the views of most of your fellow citizens, who’ve been indoctrinated by years of schooling, media, and entertainment. Collectivist memes are cemented in their minds. And when they talk to their contemporaries, they tend to mutually reinforce their beliefs.

    When you’re in a group, it can be dangerous to have different beliefs, in much the same way that it’s dangerous for a chicken in a flock to have a feather out of place. The other chickens will peck it to death. Reigning ideas tend to be brutally enforced.

    What can you do about this?

    Other than trying to maintain your personal integrity, there’s not much you can do to roll back the tsunami. There wasn’t much that a freedom-loving Russian could do in 1917, a freedom-loving German could do in 1933, or a freedom-loving Cuban could do in 1959. Or a freedom-loving Venezuelan today.

    The best you can do is to try to save yourself, your family, and your like-minded friends. Changing society for the better is a long shot. Although I hope Milei in Argentina proves me wrong.

    International Man: What do you suggest individuals do to ensure they don’t become modern serfs if Feudalism 2.0 emerges?

    Doug Casey: There are two types of freedom: physical and financial.

    From a physical point of view, it’s important not to be tied down the way a serf might be. You don’t want all your possessions to be in one place where they’re easily controlled by the powers that be. Don’t act like a plant. Staying rooted in one place is not an optimum survival strategy for a human in tough times.

    The powers that be are interested in controlling other people. It’s best to be a moving target, which makes you much harder to hit.

    This is a problem for those of us who think that the US is still the land of the free. It’s not. It’s been devolving for decades. My guess is that over the next few years, perhaps starting with this election, the US will evermore closely resemble the other 200 nation-states that cover the face of the globe like a skin disease.

    The single most important thing you can do is internationalize and make sure that all your assets aren’t in one bailiwick, under the control of one government.

    From a financial point of view, it gives you the freedom to travel and move, especially with the coming FX controls and CBDCs. Use gold and Bitcoin. You should already have a good stash of both. If you don’t, it’s not too late to start accumulating and transferring assets into them.

    *  *  *

    The months and years ahead will be politically, economically, and socially volatile. What you do to prepare could mean the difference between suffering crippling losses and coming out ahead. That’s precisely why, legendary investor and NY Times best-selling author Doug Casey just released this urgent report on how to survive and thrive. Click here to download the PDF now.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/03/2024 – 17:00

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