• Healthier McDonald's Options Available In Europe, But Not In The US
  Healthier McDonald’s Options Available In Europe, But Not In The US

  Authored by Cara Michelle Miller via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  People can get healthier McDonalds in Europe, food activist Vani Hari said at a recent Senate roundtable discussion.

  

  For instance, in the United States, McDonald’s fries contain 11 ingredients, while the UK version has only three, with salt being optional. Hari highlighted this disparity during her testimony at the Sen. Ron Johnson roundtable, American Health and Nutrition: A Second Opinion, revealing how many U.S. foods are laden with unsafe chemicals banned in other Western countries.

  The Epoch Times verified that U.S. McDonald’s fries contain ten or more ingredients, while the UK version has three or more ingredients.

  How can a food additive be considered risky in other countries yet deemed safe in America?

  Legal Loophole Allows Unsafe Ingredients

  “The problem is the law—there’s nothing that requires the industry to submit safety data,” Jennifer Pomeranz, associate professor of public health policy and management at NYU School of Global Public Health, told The Epoch Times.

  “As a result, companies can just self-regulate and designate ingredients as GRAS [generally recognized as safe] without notifying the FDA or the public.” Her recent research published in the American Journal of Public Health sheds light on this legal loophole, allowing unsafe ingredients in the U.S. food supply.

  Europe tends to take a precautionary approach, looking at evidence of harm and protecting their public, whereas the U.S. is more company-friendly, requiring evidence to remove unsafe ingredients from the food supply, she added.

  For example, the European Food Safety Authority bans substances like growth hormones and certain artificial colorings based on potential harm. In contrast, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) evaluates food additives through a petition process, relying on the “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) principle, which allows some ingredients to enter the market without thorough testing.

  Companies can self-designate substances as GRAS based on their own evaluations, with limited oversight from the FDA. The Epoch Times reached out to the FDA for comments.

  Notably, potentially harmful chemicals, like azodicarbonamide, a chemical used in bread—which is linked to cancer in animal studies and banned in several countries—remain legal in the U.S. because of the GRAS principle.

  “In other countries, this is the same chemical they use in yoga mats and shoe rubber … when this chemical is heated, studies show that it turns into a carcinogen,” Hari said. This ingredient was previously used in Subway bread until Hari got it removed by petitioning the company.

  “There are now hundreds, if not thousands, of substances added to our foods for which the true safety data are unknown to independent scientists, the government, and the public,” said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, senior author of the study with Pomeranz and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, in a statement.

  500 Percent Rise in Food Dye Consumption

  Another concern discussed at the Senate roundtable is the significant rise in artificial food dye consumption, particularly among American children.

  Consumption of artificial food dyes has increased by 500 percent in the last 50 years, and 43 percent of products marketed to children contain these dyes, Hari said. These dyes have been linked to various health issues, including hyperactivity and allergic reactions, raising serious concerns for parents.

  Using Kellogg’s as a case study, Hari pointed out the difference between U.S. and Canadian cereals. The Canadian version of Fruit Loops is colored naturally with juice from watermelons and carrots, while the U.S. version contains artificial dyes and preservatives.

  “Kellogg’s announced plans to remove dyes by the end of 2018 but never followed through,” she said, contrasting the neon-colored version with the less-colorful, pastel one.

  California passed the School Food Safety Act on Aug. 29, which will restrict several artificial color additives—including blue dye No. 1, red dye No. 40, and titanium dioxide—in foods sold in public K–12 schools, effective Dec. 31, 2027.

  Reacting to a petition filed for FD&C Red No. 3, the FDA is reviewing the safety of red dye No. 3. In addition, on Aug. 2, the FDA banned brominated vegetable oil. Companies have until Aug. 2, 2025 to phase it out.

  FDA and Congress Can Do More

  Hari calls for stricter regulations and greater transparency with ingredient lists to protect consumers, especially children.

  “Asking food companies to remove artificial dyes would make an immediate impact on children’s health,” wrote Hari in her email to The Epoch Times. “They don’t need to reinvent the wheel, as they are already using natural alternatives in other countries.”

  Pomeranz and Mozaffarian propose several policy recommendations, including requiring companies to notify the FDA of how they determined that a substance is GRAS and sharing their safety data before adding substances to foods. Additionally, increased funding from Congress is needed to allow the FDA to enhance its reach.

  They also advocate for a stricter review process for both GRAS ingredients and food additives to ensure that substances such as caffeine, sugar, and salt are safe—not just in small amounts—but also at the higher levels found in many processed foods.

  “There is widespread agreement that current [food additive] levels in many products are not ’recognized as safe,‘” Pomeranz said on Sept. 25 during the FDA public meeting on improving the FDA’s review process of food chemicals. Excessive amounts can lead to serious health risks, she said.

  “Both the FDA and Congress can do more to enable the FDA to meet its mission of ensuring a safe food supply,” she added.

  A Safer Food Supply

  As food safety concerns grow,  the FDA is set to launch a new Human Foods Program on Tuesday to reorganize its operations and other improvements, including a proposed post-market review of food additives and GRAS substances to increase transparency and improve safety evaluations.

  The FDA has published a paper showing that the program will assess factors such as the potential toxicity of a substance, changes in exposure levels, and their presence in foods consumed by vulnerable populations like infants. Additionally, it will consider new scientific data and public or organizational interest in these chemicals.

  The agency would also consider state-level regulations on certain food products.

  This approach suggests that state-level actions could influence the FDA’s future assessments. For example, California’s recent restriction on certain food dyes could play a role in future considerations.

  Pomeranz said that a more robust review process is needed not just for existing ingredients but also for any new additives.

  However, consumers also need to be involved, Hari said. After she uncovered potentially toxic ingredients in Starbucks’ popular pumpkin spice lattes, media attention prompted Starbucks to remove an ammonia-derived ingredient linked to cancer.

  Public pressure can help drive changes for safer food options, says Hari, adding, “It’s time for consumers to demand healthier choices and for the FDA to prioritize public health.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 10/03/2024 – 02:00

• Hezbollah's Role As A "Liberator"
  Hezbollah’s Role As A “Liberator”

  Authored by Carlo J.V. Caro via RealClearDefense,

  Unlike many movements that adopt the mantle of liberation for political gain, Hezbollah’s portrayal as a liberating force is tied to a long-standing cultural memory of foreign oppression, from the Ottoman Empire to the French Mandate. Understanding how Hezbollah leveraged this identity requires an examination of Lebanon’s history of local resistance, which was not always violent but often manifested as passive defiance, economic self-sufficiency, and cultural preservation, especially among marginalized Shia agrarian communities.

  

  During the Ottoman era, southern Lebanon’s Shia population was systematically neglected and excluded by the ruling class, which favored the Sunni elite and Christian coastal merchants. Ottoman tax farmers exploited Shia agricultural communities in the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon, fostering deep resentment toward external governance. The Shia community’s refusal to pay taxes or serve in the Ottoman military, a resistance that subtly persisted under the French Mandate, reinforced their self-perception as an oppressed yet resilient group. Though largely nonviolent, this resistance cultivated a cultural aversion to foreign control, which Hezbollah later capitalized on.

  In contrast, Mount Lebanon operated under a semi-autonomous Mutasarrifate system, allowing Druze and Maronite elites to negotiate governance with the Ottomans—an advantage not extended to the Shia of southern Lebanon. While Maronites and Druze enjoyed self-governance and strong trade ties with European powers, the Shia were relegated to peripheral roles, fostering isolation and mistrust toward both central authorities and foreign powers. This fragmented Lebanese identity, with allegiance often directed toward local feudal lords or religious leaders, persisted into the post-Ottoman period, worsened by the French Mandate’s efforts to centralize control in Beirut, further marginalizing southern Lebanon.

  When the French assumed control of Lebanon after World War I, they introduced modern institutions but often at the expense of local autonomy, particularly in rural areas. While infrastructure development flourished in Beirut and other urban centers, the agrarian Shia south was largely neglected, reinforcing economic isolation and discontent. The French also shaped Lebanon’s political system to the detriment of the Shia. The Confessionalist system they implemented ensured minimal political representation for the Shia, who were overshadowed by Maronite Christians and Sunni Muslims. This marginalization persisted after independence, reaching a breaking point during the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990). Shia exclusion from economic and political power became a critical factor in Hezbollah’s rise, as it united the community under its banner. The political system, rooted in colonialism, fueled Hezbollah’s anti-colonial narrative, allowing it to position itself as the true heir to Lebanon’s liberation struggles.

  Hezbollah effectively co-opted the Shia principle of sabr (steadfastness), a deeply ingrained religious and cultural value stemming from the martyrdom of Imam Hussein at Karbala in 680 CE. The theme of enduring suffering and injustice while remaining resolute became central to Hezbollah’s narrative, aligning with both the historical experience of foreign oppression and the contemporary struggles of Lebanese Shia. When Hezbollah claimed responsibility for Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, it framed the event as a validation of the Shia legacy of perseverance, demonstrating that victory could be achieved through unwavering resistance.

  Hezbollah further reinforced this narrative by invoking the concept of muwajaha (confrontation), a term in Shia tradition closely tied to the symbolic power of Karbala. In southern Lebanon, muwajaha extends beyond military struggle to encompass the religious and cultural duty to resist oppression. Hassan Nasrallah consistently framed the conflict with Israel not merely as a political battle but as a religious and moral obligation, linking Lebanon’s quest for autonomy with the Shia tradition of resisting injustice. This approach allowed Hezbollah to merge its military actions with a broader cultural identity, resonating across both historical and religious dimensions.

  Hezbollah’s evolution from a guerrilla force to a quasi-state actor involved more than just military expansion or political participation. Its infrastructure has not only filled the gaps left by the Lebanese state but has actively competed with and undermined the government to assert its dominance. By the early 2000s, Hezbollah had embedded itself in Lebanon’s political system, securing key ministerial positions and forming alliances with major political parties, including the Christian Free Patriotic Movement led by Michel Aoun. These alliances marked a significant shift in Lebanon’s sectarian dynamics, as it was the first time a Shia party gained the support of a major Christian faction, expanding Hezbollah’s political legitimacy beyond its Shia base. This legitimacy enabled Hezbollah to strengthen its influence over state institutions, including the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Ministry of Telecommunications, granting access to critical national infrastructure.

  Hezbollah’s state-building strategy involves Sharia courts, operating alongside Lebanon’s national judiciary, playing a crucial role in controlling the Shia population in southern Lebanon. These courts handle civil disputes, family law, and even criminal cases within the framework of Islamic jurisprudence, offering an alternative to the secular legal system. This parallel judiciary reinforces Hezbollah’s ideological legitimacy as the guardian of Shia Islamic values while providing services that the state cannot or will not offer, especially in rural areas where government presence is minimal and Hezbollah’s influence dominates.

  Hezbollah also uses commemorations as a powerful tool for political mobilization and social cohesion. Ashura, the annual Shia ritual mourning Imam Hussein’s martyrdom, holds deep symbolic significance. Hezbollah has repurposed it to strengthen its narrative of resistance, organizing large public demonstrations where Nasrallah delivers speeches drawing parallels between Hussein’s martyrdom and Hezbollah’s struggle against Israel. These events, while religious in origin, are highly political, serving as both a rallying point for supporters and a demonstration of Hezbollah’s ability to mobilize large segments of the population.

  In an effort to unite different factions under a broader nationalist identity, Hezbollah has made subtle but significant appeals to Lebanon’s ancient Phoenician heritage. Traditionally embraced by Maronites, Hezbollah has strategically invoked Phoenician identity to appeal to Lebanese Christians and secular nationalists wary of its Islamist roots.

  Hezbollah often references Lebanon’s ancient maritime heritage in speeches and cultural events, portraying itself as the inheritor of a legacy of resistance to foreign domination. This blending of Phoenician and Islamic identities acts as a form of cultural diplomacy, positioning Hezbollah as a defender of all Lebanese, beyond sectarian lines. Control over key archaeological sites, like the ruins at Tyre and the temples at Baalbek, further integrates this narrative into its political strategy, solidifying Hezbollah’s role as a guardian of Lebanon’s cultural legacy.

  While Hezbollah is often perceived as a monolithic organization, there are significant, underexplored tensions within its leadership, particularly between its military commanders and the religious clerics who provide its ideological and theological legitimacy. Hezbollah’s formal allegiance to the doctrine of wilayat al-faqih (the guardianship of the Islamic jurist), which binds it to the authority of Iran’s Supreme Leader, creates a unique dynamic that does not always align with the local religious authority of Lebanon’s Shia clerics.

  In southern Lebanon, clerical authority has traditionally been fragmented, with multiple maraji (sources of emulation) influencing the Shia population. Before Hezbollah’s rise, many Lebanese Shia followed clerics who were either neutral or opposed to the doctrine of wilayat al-faqih, including the followers of Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah. Fadlallah, a prominent Lebanese cleric with significant influence in Beirut and southern Lebanon, supported the resistance movement but advocated for a more independent Shia political theology that did not place Lebanon’s Shia community under the direct control of Iranian clerics.

  Hezbollah’s rise, with its explicit allegiance to Iranian clerical authority, quietly created significant tensions within the Lebanese Shia religious community. These tensions became particularly evident in the 1990s when several key clerics, including those aligned with Fadlallah, voiced concerns about Hezbollah’s growing power and its subordination to Tehran. Although Hezbollah publicly expressed respect for Fadlallah, it effectively marginalized his influence, especially in political decision-making. This subtle power struggle remains largely hidden from public view but is crucial to understanding the internal complexities of Hezbollah’s religious authority.

  The relationship between Hezbollah’s leadership and Lebanon’s local Shia clerics is further complicated by the group’s military ambitions. While Hezbollah’s clerical supporters in Iran, particularly Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have consistently endorsed military action against Israel, some Lebanese clerics have expressed reservations about the long-term costs of ongoing conflict. During the 2006 war with Israel, reports—rarely discussed publicly—indicated that several prominent Shia clerics privately questioned the wisdom of continuing the war, particularly given the widespread destruction it caused in southern Lebanon’s Shia villages.

  This tension between local religious authorities and Hezbollah’s military leadership reflects a broader struggle within the Shia community over the future direction of the resistance. While Hezbollah’s public face remains unified, these internal fissures over religious authority and military strategy could have significant implications for the group’s future, particularly if local clerics begin to assert a more independent line.

  Hezbollah’s rise and consolidation of power in southern Lebanon can be largely attributed to its strategic use of traditional clan and family networks (hamulas). In rural areas like southern Lebanon, Lebanese society remains deeply organized around familial and clan-based allegiances, which have historically shaped local political dynamics. Hezbollah’s ability to navigate and, in some cases, co-opt these powerful networks has been crucial to its success in establishing itself as more than just a political or military movement.

  Southern Lebanon’s Shia clans, some tracing their ancestry back centuries, often acted as local power brokers in the absence of strong state governance, particularly during the Ottoman and French Mandate periods. Clans such as the Bazzi, Haidar, and Moussawi wield significant influence in their territories, often determining the outcome of local elections and resolving disputes. While these clans had traditionally been neutral or aligned with other Lebanese factions, Hezbollah’s leadership recognized early on that integrating—or at least securing the neutrality of—these networks would be vital for controlling the region.

  Hezbollah’s outreach to these clans was not purely political but also strategic. The group offered economic incentives, protection, and integration into its organizational structure in exchange for loyalty. For example, by placing clan leaders in influential positions within Hezbollah’s social service networks, such as the Jihad al-Bina reconstruction organization, Hezbollah ensured its reach extended into the deeply rooted clan systems. This allowed Hezbollah to leverage these networks for recruitment and intelligence gathering while maintaining an appearance of local autonomy.

  However, this relationship has not always been without conflict. Hezbollah’s rise often displaced traditional clan power structures, particularly when it came to control over smuggling routes and agricultural lands. In the early 1990s, there were several instances of violent clashes between Hezbollah fighters and clan militias over control of key trade routes used for smuggling goods across the Lebanese-Syrian border. While these clashes rarely made international headlines, they were significant in shaping Hezbollah’s long-term strategy of integrating rather than overtly dominating clan networks. By the late 1990s, most of these clans had either been absorbed into Hezbollah’s broader structure or neutralized through a combination of political maneuvering and economic inducements.

  Read the rest here…

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 23:25

• Prosecutors Seek Indefinite Delay In Trial Of Alleged Trump Assassin Over "Complex" Evidence
  Prosecutors Seek Indefinite Delay In Trial Of Alleged Trump Assassin Over “Complex” Evidence

  Federal prosecutors on Wednesday requested an indefinite delay in the upcoming trial of Ryan Routh, the man accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump, claiming that a massive trove of evidence has emerged in recent weeks rendering the case “complex,” ABC News reports.

  

  According to a Wednesday filing with Florida District Judge Aileen Cannon, prosecutors have gathered too much evidence to proceed to trial – including hundreds of witness interviews, 13 search warrants, and the seizure of “multiple electronic devices” from locations in Florida, Hawaii, and North Carolina. The overwhelming amount of digital data to review – around 4,000 terabytes – allegedly led to the request.

  The FBI also continues to conduct forensic tests on other evidence, including “ballistics testing, and fingerprint and DNA comparisons,” which will likely require them to prepare several expert witnesses to testify about in advance of Routh’s eventual trial.

  The filing states Routh’s defense attorneys did not oppose the government’s request to indefinitely delay his trial date.

  Routh, 58, appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday for his arraignment on attempted assassination charges. Routh’s lawyers entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. -ABC News

  The delay request came just one day after Judge Cannon had set a tentative trial date of November 18. But with prosecutors still awaiting over 100 subpoena responses and conducting forensic analysis, including ballistics and DNA testing, the government says their case is far from ready to proceed.

  Routh allegedly staked out the Trump International Golf Course in Florida for 12 hours on September 15, waiting for the former president to arrive. According to prosecutors, his attempt was thwarted when Secret Service agents spotted a rifle poking through the golf course fence. Routh was later apprehended on I-95.

  The incident echoes a previous attempt on Trump’s life just two months prior, when gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Crooks’ attack injured Trump and left one attendee dead.

  h/t Post Millennial

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 23:00

• 8 Israeli Troops Killed In Hezbollah Ambush As Close-Quarter Fighting Intensifies
  8 Israeli Troops Killed In Hezbollah Ambush As Close-Quarter Fighting Intensifies

  On Wednesday Israel has disclosed that its military suffered the loss of eight soldiers killed in combat thus far. The slain troops were young conscripts, ranging in age 21 to 23. Hezbollah sources are claiming that dozens more Israeli troops were wounded.

  Israeli media published photos of the young deceased troops, saying they were all killed Wednesday during cross-border ground operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and mark the first deaths since the launch of ‘Operation Northern Arrows’.

  “The six Egoz commandos were all killed during a gun battle with Hezbollah operatives in a southern Lebanon village. Another officer and four soldiers were seriously wounded in the same incident,” Times of Israel writes. Egoz is special forces reconnaissance unit made up of elite commandos. Two other deaths were recorded in a separate battle incident in Lebanon.

  

  Earlier in the day Hezbollah issued a statement saying it set an explosives trap ambush into which an Israeli unit walked, resulting in a group of casualties.

  It is a clearly intensifying ground situation, also as the IDF said Wednesday Hezbollah has launched at least 140 rockets into Israel. The IDF’s stated objective is to permanently push Hezbollah back far away enough from the border to create a buffer zone, so that tens of thousands of Israeli citizens may return to their homes in the north.

  Even rescue and extraction efforts by the IDF related the Lebanon casualties appeared chaotic and difficult. “During the extraction of the casualties following the gun battle in a building, Hezbollah operatives fired mortars at the soldiers, wounding further troops,” TOI details.

  By Israel’s account, it looks like the slain IDF troops had walked into an ambush during which fire came from multiple sides, and included shoulder-fired rockets:

  An IDF probe into the deadly battle in which the six Egoz commandos were killed found that they began an offensive against a village near the border early this morning, where Hezbollah had infrastructure that the army was seeking to dismantle.

  The troops had entered a building in the village, where they then encountered a group of Hezbollah operatives and exchanged fire with them.

  Moments later, a series of other encounters began in the surrounding area, with dozens of Hezbollah operatives opening fire, firing anti-tank missiles, and launching mortars at the soldiers.

  Prime Minister Netanyahu offered condolences to the families of the slain, and added this: “We are in the middle of a tough war against Iran’s axis of evil, which seeks to destroy us. This will not happen, because we will stand together, and with God’s help — we will win together.”

  The Israeli military evacuates its dead and wounded militants following clashes with Hezbollah. pic.twitter.com/SU8WPGzQic

  — Sharmine Narwani (@snarwani) October 2, 2024

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  Netanyahu added: “We will rescue our hostages in the south, we will return our residents in the north, we will guarantee Israel’s eternity.”

  The IDF has said “close-range engagements” are unfolding in southern Lebanon, and that infantry forces are supported by tanks and airpower. Artillery from backline positions are also assisting, and the IDF has sent tens of thousands to the Lebanese border.

  FOX has obtained rare footage of Israeli ground force operations: 

  Exclusive: As Israeli forces started their ground operation into Lebanon, we were embedded with a commando unit that cleared a Hezbollah position.

  To cover this story, we crossed minefields and hiked through a dense forest. Our report also covers the toll on Lebanese civilians. pic.twitter.com/IqBkQb4DFy

  — Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) October 2, 2024

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  The Associated Press details of the geographic space being fought over, “The Israeli military has warned people in and around 50 villages and towns to evacuate north of the Awali River, some 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the border and much farther than the northern edge of a U.N.-declared zone intended to serve as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah after their 2006 war.”

  A Wednesday Lebanese Army statement has said Israeli forces entered around 400m into Lebanese territory near Oddaiseh but then withdrew after intense clashes. Hezbollah says it pushed the IDF out following the skirmish.

  Still frame of AP live stream showing major new strikes on Beirut in the late night hours of Wednesday:

  

  Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians have fled north, or into Syria, while others remained trapped in the war zone. Air raids on Beirut have continued through Wednesday. Over 1,000 people have died in the last two weeks of Israeli Air Force airstrikes over Lebanon.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 22:10

• Student Wearing Black Paint On Face Isn't Protected By First Amendment: Judge
  Student Wearing Black Paint On Face Isn’t Protected By First Amendment: Judge

  Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

  A middle school student who wore black paint on his face during a California football game is not protected by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, according to a federal judge.

  

  The student, dubbed J.A. in court papers, his parents, and his lawyers have not shown that wearing the black paint is expressive conduct shielded by the First Amendment, U.S. District Judge Linda Lopez said in a Sept. 30 ruling.

  J.A. said he put on the paint during the game to show team spirit, but that doesn’t meet the bar established in other rulings, including a 2019 decision that found “First Amendment protection is only granted to the act of wearing particular clothing or insignias where circumstances establish that an unmistakable communication is being made,” Lopez wrote.

  “Based on the current record, it is not likely that [the] plaintiff can prevail on the merits of his First Amendment claim, nor are there serious questions about it. It ‘is possible to find some kernel of expression in almost every activity a person undertakes,’ such as ‘walking,’ ’meeting one’s friends,‘ or ’coming together to engage in recreational dancing‘ and other sports, ’but such a kernel is not sufficient to bring the activity within the protection of the First Amendment,’” she added later, citing from other rulings.

  J.A. was suspended for two days by Muirlands Middle School, which said he was wearing blackface despite the black paint being used often by athletes, and accused him or his friends of uttering racial slurs during the October 2023 game.

  Lopez was denying a request for a preliminary injunction that would have in part removed J.A.’s two-day suspension from school records. The final ruling in the case has not yet been handed down.

  The game was at a different school, whose officials forwarded concerns about the incident to Muirlands Middle School officials.

  “Just three years ago, the Supreme Court held that schools can only punish students for their off-campus speech in very limited circumstances not present here. The district court never addressed this threshold problem with Muirland Middle School’s actions,” Karin Sweigart, a lawyer with Dhillon Law Group who is representing J.A. and his parents, told The Epoch Times in an email.

  “There was no disruption of any kind that would have warranted punishing my client under binding Supreme Court precedent, and that would be true even if my client HAD engaged in a racist act, which he did not. My client had the right to engage in expressive activity by wearing eye black to show spirit on the sidelines of a football game, and we believe he will ultimately be vindicated as the facts come out in this case moving forward.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 21:45

• Boise State, Wyoming Forfeit Volleyball Games To Trans-Equipped San Jose State
  Boise State, Wyoming Forfeit Volleyball Games To Trans-Equipped San Jose State

  The growing female athletes’ revolution against “inclusion” gone mad has escalated, with the Boise State Bronco and Wyoming Cowgirl volleyball teams forfeiting games against conference rival San Jose State, in apparent objection to the Spartans roster including an alleged male-to-female trans player. 

  The Spartans rolled into the weekend with a sparkling 9-0 record — and controversy over the squad’s senior outside/right side hitter Blaire Fleming, who is one of the team’s top players in terms of kills and points. The buzz was killed, however, when Boise State announced it would take a conference loss rather than play the Spartans. The school did not give a reason for the decision, but the motive seems clear to all observers. 

  

  On Tuesday, the Wyoming Cowgirls followed suit with this announcement: 

  “After a lengthy discussion, the University of Wyoming will not play its scheduled conference match against San José State University in the UniWyo Sports Complex on Saturday, Oct. 5. Per Mountain West Conference policy, the Conference will record the match as a forfeit and a loss for Wyoming. 

  That move appeared to be a change of course brought about by political pressure. Wyoming had initially declared it would play the game, but reversed that decision after state legislators began organizing a letter to the university’s president and athletic director.  

  The developments were applauded by former Kentucky Wildcat swimmer Riley Gaines, who’s been leading the revolt against the woke contamination of women’s sports: 

  LETS GOOOO. University of Wyoming is the third school to forfeit their match against SJSU because they have a man on their women’s team

  This is the way. Do not comply. Major kudos to @WYO_Volleyball @BroncoSportsVB @SUUVolleyball 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼https://t.co/xhmh9SxS4k

  — Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) October 1, 2024

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  Last week, Fleming’s teammate, Brooke Slusser, joined a lawsuit against the NCAA, which accuses the organization of violating Title IX by permitting male athletes to compete against women and enjoy access to women’s locker rooms. The suit asserts that including male-to-female trans players not only disadvantages women but also presents a safety hazard…as highlighted in this video shared by Republican Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn:

  Complete slap in the face to every single female athlete. Why is the @NCAA pretending that it is “fair” for biological men to compete against women?

  Just look at how hard and fast biological male Blaire Fleming from @SanJoseStateVB hits this ball – unfair AND dangerous. pic.twitter.com/wJQkYn1hfa

  — Marsha Blackburn (@VoteMarsha) September 12, 2024

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  According to a passage of the legal complaint reviewed by Cowboy State Daily… 

  “Brooke estimates that Fleming’s spikes were traveling upward of 80 mph, which was faster than she had ever seen a woman hit a volleyball…The girls were doing everything they could to dodge Fleming’s spikes but still could not fully protect themselves.” 

  In addition to asserting that the situation gives her Spartans an unfair advantage, Slusser also said she was troubled that Fleming requested to share a room with her on the team’s road trips, only to eventually admit that he was a man who wanted to be a woman. 

  

  Speaking to Outkick, Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock, said the entire situation is a bad mix of physical danger and injustice: 

  ”One thing that’s important in this case is really the physical safety issues in volleyball…and that’s what they’re facing in practice every day. So it’s just a crazy, misguided policy that steals athletic dreams from women and gives them to men, and at the same time, puts women’s health and safety in danger.”

  Earlier in September, Southern Utah University volleyball was first to forfeit to the Spartans. That was a nonconference loss; the Boise State and Wyoming forfeits represent far larger sacrifices as losses in Mountain West Conference competition. When the Wyoming forfeit is put on the books this weekend, San Jose State will be 3-0 in the league standings — with two of the wins coming by forfeit. 

  

  The mother of a player on a team that played the Spartans twice said the situation took a toll on her daughter, who was heavily using ice to soothe her arms that were repeatedly being hammered by Fleming’s spikes. She told Reduxx: 

  “[Fleming] was basically unstoppable at times. [She] was jumping so high that I was concerned our blockers could not defend against such a fast-moving hit…Coincidentally, those two games, my daughter’s stats were not as good as most other games. Her stats were dramatically different because she was trying to compete against a male who my daughter said would stare her down after plays and was extremely arrogant.”

  Outkick also reports that San Jose State players were allegedly ordered not to discuss Fleming’s true gender with anyone outside the squad — and ominously warned that “things would go badly” for anyone who violated the directive. With her participation in the lawsuit, Slusser violated that order in a big way. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 21:20

• Media Uses Hurricane Helene To Promote "Global Warming" Agenda
  Media Uses Hurricane Helene To Promote “Global Warming” Agenda

  Authored by Eric Lendrum via American Greatness,

  Even as the death toll from Hurricane Helene continues to rise, pundits in the mainstream media are rushing to use the disaster as an excuse to promote their narrative that “global warming” is real.

  

  As reported by Just The News, a number of prominent anchors, commentators, and other television personalities have used the occasion of the hurricane to spread lies about so-called “global warming,” also referred to as “climate change.”

  “We are living in an era of extreme weather that requires new language,” said CBS News’ Major Garrett.

  He went on to falsely claim that the world has seen an increase in the number of every kind of natural disaster, despite this having been debunked by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

  CNN’s Angela Fritz declared that Hurricane Helene was caused by “fossil fuel pollution,” claiming with no evidence that “the atmosphere, warmed by more than a century of fossil fuel pollution, is hotter now than it was in pre-industrial times.”

  However, studies have shown that carbon dioxide emissions are created by just about every single process in existence that provides basic necessities to the population, including the shipping of materials and products, ranging from food to clothing.

  Fritz went on to further claim that “More than 90% of warming around the globe over the past 50 years has taken place in the oceans, and it’s making storms more likely to undergo these rapid intensification cycles.”

  But this claim has also been disproven, with Dr. Matt Wielicky, former assistant professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Alabama, explaining how two consecutive similar tropical storms that impacted North Carolina in 1916 were even worse than Helene despite lower carbon emission levels overall.

  “The 1916 event occurred even though atmospheric CO2 levels were approximately 120 ppm lower than they are today,” Wielicki confirmed.

  “Blaming the fossil fuel industry for all weather-related disasters overlooks the complexity of natural climate variability and the role of poor urban planning in flood-prone regions.”

  The subject of global warming was brought up at the vice presidential debate on Tuesday night, with CBS News’ moderators blaming global warming for the hurricane.

  After both candidates gave their answers on the statement, the moderators falsely claimed that the “scientific consensus” is that global warming is real, even though there is no such consensus.

  The overall death toll from Hurricane Helene has risen to 139.

  The storm impacted the southeastern United States, including Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 20:55

• US Closes $1.5 Billion Loan To Resurrect Shuttered Michigan Nuclear Power Plant
  US Closes $1.5 Billion Loan To Resurrect Shuttered Michigan Nuclear Power Plant

  The world was abuzz two weeks ago when we learned that the notorious Three Mile Island nuclear power plant – site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history – would restart to power Microsoft data centers. As we said at the time, that was only the beginning, as the staggering electricity needs of the coming AI revolution – which we dubbed “the next AI trade” earlier in the year, meant that much more nuclear capacity will have to be either built from scratch or reopened.

  Sure enough, the US said on Monday that it closed a $1.52 billion loan to resurrect Holtec’s Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, and a senior Biden administration official said it could take two years to reopen the plant (longer than the company predicted). The Biden administration has called for a tripling of U.S. nuclear power capacity as U.S. power demand surges and worries about climate change mount. The Trump administration, should it take over in November, will be even more aggressive about the coming US nuclear renaissance.

  “Palisades is a climate comeback story,” Ali Zaidi, the White House climate adviser, told reporters in a call, adding that nuclear power supports high-paying union jobs.

  The renewed push for nuclear will include the reopening of major commercial reactors that have been shut for decommissioning, including the abovementioned Three Mile Island. And even though restarting shut nuclear plants is a complicated and expensive process never before accomplished in the country, it would take less time than building new power plants from scratch.

  The $1.52 billion in financing from the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, was accompanied by funding for nonprofit electric cooperatives to purchase power from Palisades. Deputy U.S. Agriculture Secretary Xochitl Torres Small announced more than $1.3 billion in public funding to power cooperatives Wolverine and Hoosier Energy.

  Nuclear reactors generate emissions-free power, which is valued as electricity demand soars for the first time in decades on growth in artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and cryptocurrencies.  The chart below shows data center power consumption, by providers/enterprises in gigawatts (left) and in share percent (right).

  

  As noted back in April, electricity peak demand and energy growth rates are increasing in North America after being flat for years. Load growth had already electrification trends and electric vehicles, but annual peak demand growth was still only up 0.9%. With the increased focus on data centers, industrial facilities, and other near-term investments, this is likely to be an underestimate considering that in just one year (2023), the forecast of cumulative electricity growth over the next 5 years increased from 2.6% to 4.7% driven by major utilities further revising up their estimates.

  

  Nuclear critics, however, point out that the U.S. has not agreed on a permanent place to bury radioactive nuclear waste.

  Palisades still needs licensing from regulators and the senior U.S. official said that means it could take “a couple of years to turn back on”. Holtec has estimated a comeback in the fourth quarter next year.

  

  Patrick O’Brien, a Holtec spokesperson, said Palisades was on target for “repower” in October or later in 2025.

  Still, the plant has been shut since 2022 and needs work. The U.S. nuclear regulator said this month that preliminary results from inspections “identified a large number of steam generator tubes with indications that require further analysis and/or repair.” Steam generators are sensitive components of a nuclear power plant that require meticulous maintenance.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 20:30

• Israel Bans UN Chief From The Country After Statement Failing To Condemn Iran
  Israel Bans UN Chief From The Country After Statement Failing To Condemn Iran

  The Israeli government is fuming at UN chief Antonio Guterres’ response to the Tuesday night massive Iranian ballistic missile attack which pummeled Tel Aviv and area bases and infrastructure.

  The United Nations Secretary-General wrote Tuesday evening as an initial reaction, “I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation. This must stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire.”

  

  However, he made no mention of Iran, which at that very moment had sent nearly 200 ballistic missiles – reportedly including hypersonic missiles – into Israel.

  Israel sees the omission as purposeful, and as indicative of the UN’s refusal to condemn Iran. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday blasted Guterres for failing to “unequivocally” condemn Iran’s missile attack, which was the largest in history (given it was comprised entirely of heavy ballistic missiles).

  As a result, Israel has now declared Guterres persona non grata – effectively barring him from entering the country.

  “Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil,” Katz wrote on X.

  He went on to charge the UN chief with giving “backing to terrorists, rapists, and murderers” and castigated him as “a stain on the history of the UN.”

  Israeli officials and Guterres have frequently clashed going all the way back to the Oct.7 terror attacks. Tel Aviv has complained that the UN head only selectively condemns atrocities. Guterres often highlights the rising Palestinian death toll, but Israeli leaders see him as conspicuously quiet on the subject of Israeli casualties.

  I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation.

  This must stop.

  We absolutely need a ceasefire.

  — António Guterres (@antonioguterres) October 1, 2024

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

  Last Friday’s Israeli assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah resulted in Guterres calling for all sides “step back from the brink” and warning against “an all-out war.”

  Katz responded at the time: “Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without Antonio Guterres.” Tensions have been on edge ever since, and now the UN Secretary-General is banned from Israeli territory.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 19:40

• Georgia Judge Says State Election Certification Rule "Vague" In Hearing
  Georgia Judge Says State Election Certification Rule “Vague” In Hearing

  Authored by Sam Dorman via The Epoch Times,

  A Georgia judge seemed skeptical on Oct. 1 of policies passed by the state’s election board.

  

  Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney called one of the challenged rules “vague” and needing clarification. He said that much of the policies coming out of the state’s election board were inconsistent with a Supreme Court ruling on rules passed before an election.

  One of the rules at issue in Tuesday’s trial provides a definition of certification that includes requiring county officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying results, but it does not specify what that means.

  The other includes language allowing county election officials “to examine all election-related documentation created during the conduct of elections.”

  Supporters of the rules say they are necessary to ensure the accuracy of the vote totals before county election officials sign off on them.

  However, critics worry that supporters of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump could use the rules to delay or deny certification if the former president loses the state to Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, causing confusion and casting doubt on the results.

  Need for Clarity

  On the “reasonable inquiry” rule, McBurney told Ben Thorpe, attorney for the Democratic National Committee, “That one, to me, on its face, is vague and needs clarification.”

  McBurney seemed amenable to the examination rule, which he said appeared to be a “permissive rule.”

  “I struggle to see how that presents uncertainty to anyone because it permits access but doesn’t obligate anyone to do anything,” he said.

  Thorpe took issue with a portion of the rule that requires election workers to meet and conduct a review of precinct returns hours before all of the returns are complete. That creates a “direct and actual concrete problem” for the workers, Thorpe said.

  The trial was prompted by Democrats’ request for declaratory judgments invalidating two policies passed by the election board. On Sept. 30, the Democratic Party also filed a lawsuit challenging another policy in which the election board required ballots be counted by hand.

  McBurney started the trial by asking the attorneys present whether they agreed that election certification was mandatory under the new rules.

  They did, leaving McBurney to focus, in part, on how county officials might interpret the rules laid out by the election board.

  Thorpe told McBurney that to the extent the judge didn’t invalidate the rules in question, he should clarify that election workers must certify by the appointed deadline despite uncertainties. McBurney seemed to agree, suggesting a reasonable inquiry into the results without forgoing certification.

  Attorneys for the election board and the Republican National Committee maintained that the new rule allowed election workers to stay within the confines of the law.

  Elizabeth Young, an attorney for the election board, said that a ruling from the judge was unnecessary. She said if McBurney did anything further than suggesting election workers follow the law, he might be getting into the territory of issuing an “advisory” opinion, which he said he wanted to stay away from.

  Bad faith on the part of an election worker, she suggested, wasn’t a valid reason for issuing an advisory opinion since it indicated that the workers wouldn’t be willing to follow their legal obligations.

  “Let’s say you got a majority [of an election board] and they did not fulfill their legal duty, that sounds to me in that particular hypothetical like a very strong case for mandamus,” she said.

  Mandamus refers to a court ordering someone to fulfill their legal obligations.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 19:15

• Warren Buffett, Dave Ramsey, & John Maynard Keynes Are Wrong!
  Warren Buffett, Dave Ramsey, & John Maynard Keynes Are Wrong!

  Authored by Mark Thornton via The Mises Institute,

  This week, we explain how Warren Buffett, Dave Ramsey, and John Maynard Keynes are wrong about gold.

  

  John Maynard Keynes, the Godfather of Keynesian economics, famously called gold the “barbarous relic,” a term he used to denigrate the gold standard and to disparage the use of gold as money.

  Specifically, he hated the constraint the gold standard placed on government spending. If the government prints too much currency that can’t be redeemed in gold, then it must cut back its spending, bringing on a recession or depression, or face runaway price inflation in the economy.

  Following in Keynes footsteps, investment whiz kid Warren Buffett, son of the great investor and Congressman, Howard Buffett, has famously disparaged gold as an investment, saying it has “no yield.” He otherwise has voiced no coherent political philosophy, like his father.

  Hotshot Radio voice, Dave Ramsey, has likewise sharply disparaged gold as an investment, saying it’s just a “shiny, shiny rock,” with no yield, and is a terrible investment.

  Gold in Society

  Of course, in this “age of inflation,” people like Buffet junior and Ramsey are heralded for their calls for prudence in what otherwise is a financial landscape warped by hedonistic government policies of spending, borrowing without limits, and printing fiat money by the trillions.

  I will show here how wrong all three men are on all the investment points and even how contradictory their views on gold are, but I must emphasize that I am not offering any kind of investment advice here! This is just analysis and commentary on the current scene.

  This hatred and disparagement of gold as money and the gold standard has become standard dogma of and a pillar of the modern state.

  In complete contrast, regular people in society still instinctively see gold as an emblem of excellence more than a half century since the last vestige of the gold standard was taken away from us.

  Gold medals represent the very best achievements; silver medals represent the next level down.

  Teachers and parents still use the “star system” with gold or yellow stars representing the highest achievement. From babies to high school students, gold stars are still an inducement to effort and achievement. 

  Later on in life, gifts of jewelry are used to convey our affection and admiration. First, it might be things like friendship rings, but we all know that gifts of gold jewelry are an attempt to convey a high level of esteem by the gift giver. When the Wise Men visited the baby Jesus they brought gifts of gold, along with the precious perfume-medicinal compounds of frankincense and myrrh. 

  Even marketers of companies and company products—where there is a profit and loss prime directive—strive to be able to claim that their company, their product, or their service is “the gold standard” in their industry, or with their customers.

  When humans started to see the world in terms of its elements, humanity took off! The Bronze Age: society, culture, religion, buildings, science, etc.—gold was the rarest and most precious, even cherished, of them all. Human history is replete with gold exclamations whether it is culture, religion, art, and now technology and even medicine! The greatest age of peace and prosperity is the gold standard era of the 19th century!

  Investment Comparisons

  First of all, gold is not primarily an investment. Gold and silver are monies, the most advanced forms of money for thousands of years before the “age of inflation.”

  Technically, gold and silver are not money now, but only because they were forced out of that role by the state. Gold shackles the state; paper money unleashes it from its golden cage. Murray Rothbard explains this in his What Has Government Done to our Money? This is such an important work.

  Obviously, if gold and silver are money, you don’t need to “invest” in gold and silver, as you are already keeping some large percentage of your net worth in cash balances, checkable deposits, savings deposits, and gold- or silver-denominated bonds and insurance policies. 

  I remember as a kid that after we were taken off the gold standard that investment advice typically recommended, say a 20% cash holding position, with say half of that in cash funds for personal use and emergencies and half in precious metals for reasons such as inflation protection. The rest of your net worth statement would be in investments such as stocks, bonds, and real estate. The cash type holdings were not considered investments, but were for emergencies, diversification, and to take advantage of investment opportunities as you built bigger cash holdings.

  Of course, this cuts off Warren Buffett’s objections at the knees. He is after all the “king of cash,” often with mountains of cash on the balance sheet of his company. Yes, this cash does earn a yield, which might be important to his investors, but the cash yield is also subject to the inflation premium tax and all the government taxes too. The risk of loss has been very low.

  Gold can underperform stock investments. However, when I took a look at the average closing prices for gold, the Dow, and the S&P 500, during 1971—when we were taken off the gold standard—and last year, 2023, dividing 2023 into 1971, gold went up 47 and a half times, the Dow went up only 38.6 times, and the S&P 500 only went up 44.6 times. 

  So, gold actually wins that simple comparison over the 52-year period. It’s a “simple” comparison because it doesn’t include reinvested dividends, where stocks would win, and it doesn’t include capital gains taxes on stocks or fees, which would hurt stocks, and it doesn’t include the annual safety deposit box fee where for less than $100 per year you can rent a box in a bank that would hold a large amount of gold and your important papers.

  Again, my points are not a matter of financial advice, or that gold is a superior investment, it’s just to point out that Mr. Buffet and Mr. Ramsey don’t know what they are talking about and have failed to look at the facts of history—any kind of history—in voicing their “opinions.”

  In fact, I’m not even suggesting that putting all your money into gold or silver is a great idea! In the past, investment advisors simply recommended that part of our cash investments be in precious metals to protect long run purchasing power, a diversification asset, and something to balance your net worth statement. It also helps build your “buy and hold” mentality towards savings because gold and silver come with transaction fees and difficulties—less than real estate, but more than typical stocks today, or just using your debit card.

  In the end result, John Maynard Keynes was a socialist who preferred more of an absolutist state that could do much as it pleases, including unrestricted borrowing and spending. The anti-gold dogma generated by the Federal Reserve’s propaganda machine is intensely strong among us. Mr. Buffet and Mr. Ramsey swallowed that statist creed hook, line, and sinker.

  *  *  *

  We have kicked off the Fall Campaign at the Mises Institute. I humbly request that you make a small donation in the name of this podcast using the link in the show notes. It would mean a great deal to me. For every $100 or more donation, or recurring donation of $5 or more, using this link, I will send you a signed copy of my Skyscraper Curse book: mises.org/mi5

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 18:25

• Sentiment Of American Farmers Implode
  Sentiment Of American Farmers Implode

  A new reading from the Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer Index shows sentiment across the Heartland, more specifically, on America’s farms, has tumbled to the lowest levels since 2016 as incomes pressured lower on concerns of “commodity prices, input costs, and future of trade after upcoming elections.” 

  In September, the Ag Economy Barometer, a survey of 400 farmers across America, plunged 12 points to 88, the lowest reading since March 2016, or around the time former president Trump began his first term. 

  

  “These were the weakest barometer and future expectations readings since March 2016, when the farm economy was in the throes of an economic downturn,” James Mintert and Michael Langemeier of the Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture wrote in the report. 

  They noted, “The current conditions assessment very nearly matched that of April 2020, when COVID concerns were top of mind for US farmers. Weak output prices combined with high input costs were key problems cited by survey respondents in September.” 

  Both of the Ag Economy Barometer’s sub-indices, the Index of Current Conditions and the Index of Future Expectations, tumbled as the farming industry has been battered by backfiring Bidenomics policies. 

  

  “Farmers are concerned about commodity prices, input costs, the future of agricultural trade and how the upcoming election could affect their farm operation,” the authors of the report explained. 

  

  Here’s the conclusion from the report:

  Concerns about low commodity prices coupled with high input costs leading to poor financial performance expectations weakened farmer sentiment for the second month in a row. This month’s sentiment decline pushed the Ag Economy Barometer index below 100, indicating farmer sentiment is lower than during the barometer’s base period of late 2015-early 2016 when farm incomes were very weak. Producers expect markedly worse financial performance for their farms in the upcoming year compared to their expectations at this time last year. Weak farm income expectations combined with lingering interest rate concerns and a pessimistic agricultural export outlook helped push the Short-Term Farmland Value Expectations Index below 100 for the first time since 2020.

  In a separate note, researchers at the University of Missouri expect farm income to plunge 35% next year, compared to a high in 2022. The good news is that incomes are above what farmers made in 2015-20, yet the drop is steep, given elevated input costs. 

  “Farmers will have a tighter situation … than they experienced in the last three years, and they’ll have to be much more cognizant about having a very strategic marketing plan in order to make a good cash flow,” said Bob Maltsburger, a senior research economist at the Food & Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the university.

  Seems like farmers want… 

  President Trump will stand up for American farmers & ranchers 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/bDzkDJJtH7

  — Mammoth Nation (@MammothNationUS) September 26, 2024

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  I’m ready for harvest
  Farmers stand with TRUMP 24 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/NXbbJm4Kb9

  — Glen (@oldfarmer92) October 1, 2024

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  UDDER TRUTH: “Thanks to [Trump’s] efforts to open new markets, use effective tariffs to force fair competition, and lower costs to make farming profitable again.” How the former president is fighting for American farmers: https://t.co/gKW8upmvaf pic.twitter.com/AVQPoBAQGn

  — FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) September 26, 2024

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  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 18:00

• Biden Says He Won't Back Israeli Strikes On Iran's Nuclear Facilities
  Biden Says He Won’t Back Israeli Strikes On Iran’s Nuclear Facilities

  Update(1759ET): Israel appears to be taking its time mulling or planning a response to Iran. Perhaps this is why?…

  United States President Joe Biden has voiced opposition to any strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in response to Tehran’s missile attack on Israel.

  When asked by reporters on Wednesday whether he would back such retaliation, Biden stated “the answer is no”.

  Biden says the White House opposes Israeli attacks against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

  The Trump campaign says America isn’t going to tell Israel how to defend itself from Iran. pic.twitter.com/zGtIA9CO4L

  — Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) October 2, 2024

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  All recent statements from Netanyahu and his top security leadership suggest some kind of major retaliation strike is imminent. An Israeli official speaking to local media as said “it is not certain that Washington will agree with us, but it knows that we have to respond.”

  The US administration is seeking ‘alignment’ with Israel before it launches a potential attack:

  The White House is looking to align its perspectives on any potential response to the Iranian attack on Israel with counterparts in the Netanyahu administration. 

  US deputy secretary Kurt Campbell described the current situation in the Middle East as “a moment of peril” and outlined the need for clear communication between America and Israel. 

  “I think we recognize as important as a response of some kind should be, there is a recognition that the region is really on a knife’s edge, and real concerns about an even broader escalation or a continuing one,” said Mr Campbell.

  Meanwhile, new Israeli strikes have rocked central Beirut in the night hours (local). Hezbollah is expected to potentially retaliate by sending missiles toward Tel Aviv:

  The residential apartment building in Al-Bashoura, central Beirut that was bombed moments ago reportedly in an assassination attempt on MP Amine Cherri. pic.twitter.com/XovjCgXvkp

  — Eye on Palestine (@EyeonPalestine) October 2, 2024

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  * * *

  Update(1315ET): Is tonight the night of the expected big Israeli retaliation attack? Iran appears to be bracing for new aggression from Israel: Iran has just announced the closure of its airspace, and it has diverted all civilian flights.

  There are reports the government has shut down Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport in anticipation of the potential Israeli retaliation: 

  Iran announced that airports in the western half of the country, including Tehran and Mehrabad, are closed until Thursday except for emergency and certain other flights, according to aviation security specialist Osprey Flight Solutions via WSJ.

  Speaking from Doha, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country is not seeking war, but in the scenario that “Israel acts against us we will respond.”

  Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran #Iran, all passengers have been told to leave the airport.

  Flights to and from Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz have all been cancelled until further notice. pic.twitter.com/rGoXyDbYma

  — Emily (@emilyshar1) April 19, 2024

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  President Biden claims he’s offering the Israeli’s “advice”…

  Biden: “We will be discussing with the Israelis what they are going to do. All seven of us agree that they have a right to respond…we are giving them advice. I will talk to Bibi relatively soon” https://t.co/YnCEXtAfjS

  — Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) October 2, 2024

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  * * *

  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to be in meetings with his security cabinet Wednesday to mull potential operations to last night’s Iranian attack which saw some 181 ballistic missiles fired directly at Israel.

  Israel’s military claims most were intercepted, and that there was almost no damage or Israeli casualties, but the avalanche of available on-the-ground videos contradict these assertions. Israeli media has cited officials who say retaliation on Iran could include hitting targets like gas or oil rigs, and Iran’s nuclear sites.

  

  “An attack on Iranian oil facilities could devastate the country’s economy, and any of the considered responses could mark another escalation, almost one year into the ongoing war that began when the Hamas terror group attacked Israel in October 2023,” Times of Israel writes. 

  A correspondent from the same publication has cited another official who says the response will aim to inflict “significant financial damage” and that Israeli leaders feel the strike “must be significant, and it must come soon.”

  The security cabinet spent much of Tuesday night in a secure bunker under Jerusalem. By the end of the meeting there was reportedly consensus that Israel’s military would hit back.

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s first words in the wake of the attack were “Iran made a big mistake tonight, and it will pay for it” and included the vow, “whoever attacks us — we will attack them.”

  “The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and our determination to retaliate against our enemies. They will understand. We will stand by the rule we established: whoever attacks us, we will attack him,” Netanyahu continued.

  Netanyahu met with Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, Mossad director David Barnea, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday:

  

  Axios also suggests in its reporting that a “massive payback” is coming:

  Israeli officials staring down all-out regional war tell Axios Israel will launch a “significant retaliation” to Tuesday’s massive missile attack within days that could target oil production facilities inside Iran and other strategic sites.

  An Israeli official told the outlet, “We have a big question mark about how the Iranians are going to respond to an attack, but we take into consideration the possibility that they would go all in, which will be a whole different ball game.”

  People were celebrating the ballistic missile attacks inside Iran and Gaza. The size of it was unprecedented in history in terms of a single volley of heavy rockets sent directly on Israel.

  Iranians celebrating the IRGC attack against Israel tonight all over the country pic.twitter.com/yJ2dp9srd4

  — Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) October 1, 2024

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  Meanwhile, in south Lebanon Israeli ground troops are reportedly engaged in close-quarters combat with Hezbollah fighters. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have confirmed the first troop death of its Operation Northern Arrows in Lebanon.

  “The soldier is named as Cpt. Eitan Itzhak Oster, 22, a team commander in the Egoz Commando Unit, from Modi’in,” TOI writes. “Oster was killed during a battle with Hezbollah operatives in a village in southern Lebanon.” 

  Despite overnight scenes like the below, Israel on Wednesday claims its bases and infrastructure came out largely unscathed…

  6. A strike on Nevatim Airbase, verified by The Post, @JakeGodin and others. One of the heaviest documented so far. pic.twitter.com/37QlbnhvFB

  — Evan Hill (@evanhill) October 1, 2024

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  There have been unverified reports circulating of additional casualties suffered by the Israelis, and the situation is fast looking like the 2006 war, which had high casualties on both sides.

  Al Jazeera writes of the heavy fighting, “Hezbollah has issued a statement saying its fighters detonated an explosive device that killed and wounded members of the Israeli army trying to circumvent the village of Yaroun in southern Lebanon.” The Israeli Army did not put out an immediate statement confirming or denying.

  Iranians preparing for the worst…

  Endless line of cars for gas station in Tehran tonight 👇

  They know that Iran’s oil infrastructure will be gone soon.
  pic.twitter.com/8WvhL17oOT

  — Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) October 1, 2024

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  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 17:59

• "A Post-Apocalyptic Scene": North Carolina Communities 'Wiped Off The Map' By Helene, Governor Says
  “A Post-Apocalyptic Scene”: North Carolina Communities ‘Wiped Off The Map’ By Helene, Governor Says

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

  The governor of North Carolina said that “hundreds of roads” were destroyed and that entire communities were “wiped off the map” because of storm Helene last week and over the weekend.

  

  “Consider the roads closed in western North Carolina,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told CNN on Sept. 30. “We do not need sightseers coming in to observe the damage. We ask you not to come in unless you are on a specific mission to help with rescue.”

  The North Carolina Department of Transportation warned in a Sept. 30 post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that “all roads in Western NC should be considered closed to all non-emergency travel.”

  In a separate post, the agency included photos of area roads that were collapsed, washed out, or blocked by debris.

  📸 – Southeastern Buncombe County; South of N.C. 9

  Scenes like this are common across Western NC today as crews are spread out for #HeleneNC cleanup and recovery.

  All roads in Western NC should be considered closed to all non-emergency travel. pic.twitter.com/lqgTgfr3Og

  — NCDOT (@NCDOT) September 30, 2024

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  In the Asheville area, which was especially hard-hit by the storm, people who are still seeking to evacuate can use Interstate 40 and Interstate 26 East, the department stated. Residents in other areas need to consult local emergency officials first before traveling.

  The mayor of Asheville described the aftermath as a “post-apocalyptic scene.”

  Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer told reporters on Sept. 30 that the city is “seeing just piles of people’s houses that were destroyed. Buildings that were destroyed. Cars overturned.”

  “The power lines look like spaghetti. It’s hard to describe the chaos that it looks like,” she said.

  “We are cut off from highway access from three of the four major highways into Asheville. Some resources are having to be flown in. … I can’t even think about a time frame for how long it’s going to take to recover from this storm.”

  The storm killed more than 100 people across North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Virginia, and the death toll is expected to rise once rescue teams reach isolated towns and telecommunications are restored.

  “We know that death toll will rise,” Asheville’s mayor said. “We’ve heard accounts of people seeing houses floating down the river with people in them.”

  In North Carolina, some 300 roads were closed and more than 7,000 people have registered for Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance, officials said on Sept. 30. The National Guard was flying 1,000 tons of food and water to remote areas by plane and helicopter.

  

  North Carolina was coordinating 92 search-and-rescue teams from 20 states and the federal government, according to Cooper. Most efforts were in the Appalachian Mountains, which run through the western part of the state, where the storm ripped up roads, leveled trees, and tossed homes about.

  

  Tracking website PowerOutage.us shows that nearly 1 million people were without power in South Carolina and North Carolina. More than 450,000 were without power in Georgia, 73,000 lacked power in Virginia, and 64,000 had no power in Florida as of the morning of Oct. 1.

  In total, the storm knocked out service to about 5.5 million customers.

  Helene made landfall on the evening of Sept. 26 in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 “major” hurricane with 140 mile-per-hour winds before it was downgraded. However, the storm produced significant rainfall across the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Georgia.

  President Joe Biden said he would visit North Carolina on Oct. 2 and Georgia and Florida soon after. He may also ask Congress to return to Washington for a special session to pass supplemental aid funding.

  Reuters contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 17:40

• Bank Of America Customers Report Widespread Outage, Zero Balances
  Bank Of America Customers Report Widespread Outage, Zero Balances

  Bank of America customers on Wednesday reported having problems accessing their bank accounts or that their account balances currently show $0.

  The outage started at around 12:30 p.m. E.T. on Wednesday, according to the tracking website Downdetector.

  

  About an hour later, more than 20,000 user complaints were submitted via the website.

  

  The Epoch Times’ Jack Phillips reports that numerous Bank of America users have posted screenshots of empty account balances on social media.

  An Epoch Times staff member also reported not being able to log in to their Bank of America account.

  Some users on social media stated that Bank of America had not yet alerted them to the issue.

  Meanwhile, some users have reported having problems with Zelle, the digital payment system that is used by multiple banks and is owned by Bank of America and several other banks.

  It’s not clear how many customers were impacted or when the problem will be resolved.

  

  The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank has not released details about what’s causing the issue.

  On the social media platform X, Bank of America’s team was responding to complaints by asking for additional information.

  However, it did not appear that the bank provided information about the nature of the outage or how long it could take to fix.

  “Hi, we are sorry to see this. If you’re still experiencing the concern, please click below to let us know. Thank you,” one Bank of America representative wrote on X to a user who expressed concerns about logging in.

  Another post said:

  “Hello, your concern caught our attention. Please use the link below to connect with us and send additional details. We’d be happy to follow up with you.”

  The Epoch Times contacted the company for comment on Wednesday but received no response by publication time.

  Last year, fellow banking giant Wells Fargo issued an alert on its website after customers reported not seeing their paychecks and direct deposits in their accounts.

  Several users on social media were quick to remind everyone of BofA CEO Brian Moynihan’s comments just a few years ago…

  “Bitcoin is highly Speculative, you could wake up one day and your account would be worth zero.”

  And it’s gone…

  Bank of America Customers following Countrywide outages & their accounts showing $0.000

  It’s all so obvious. pic.twitter.com/z6sL19ssMC

  — Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) October 2, 2024

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

   

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 17:20

• Unsurprisingly, The Bitcoin Price Follows Global Liquidity
  Unsurprisingly, The Bitcoin Price Follows Global Liquidity

  Authored by Vivek Sun via BitcoinMagazine.com,

  I have been intrigued by the significant increase in global liquidity during 2024, driven by extensive money printing and debt expansion, and how it impacts Bitcoin’s price. 

  Bitcoin is an expression against the government’s monetary expansionist policies, so its price follows global liquidity, as seen here on this chart.

  

  It was fascinating to read the recent report by Lyn Alden and Sam Callahan analyzing Bitcoin’s correlation to global liquidity.

  This further reconfirmed my view that more monetary expansion drives more people to Bitcoin, increasing prices. 

  Their rigorous analysis found that over 12-month periods, Bitcoin’s price moves in the same direction as global liquidity a remarkable 83% of the time.

  This is higher than any other major asset class, making Bitcoin a uniquely pure barometer for global liquidity trends.

  

  The report quantified Bitcoin’s correlation with global M2 money supply, finding a very strong 0.94 overall correlation between May 2013 and July 2024. Bitcoin’s average 12-month rolling correlation was 0.51, while stocks and gold showed moderately high correlations as well in the 0.4 to 0.7 range.

  Of course, Bitcoin’s correlation isn’t perfect. Shorter-term breakdowns can occur around crypto-specific events like exchange hacks or Ponzi schemes collapsing.

  Supply-demand imbalances also cause temporary decoupling when Bitcoin reaches extreme overvaluation levels during market cycle peaks.

  Yet despite these breakdowns, the long-term relationship persists. 

  Right now, liquidity is soaring to unprecedented levels, suggesting Bitcoin could soon embark on a massive bull run if this relationship holds.

  While I believe no model perfectly captures Bitcoin’s complexity, recognizing its role as a monetary canary in the coal mine can lend valuable insight.

  If history rhymes, Bitcoin’s sirens are ringing loudly that a liquidity-driven boom will soon be underway. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 17:00

• Wings Clipped: Red Bull Owners Get Lowest Payout In Four Years As Sales Stumble, Competition Grows
  Wings Clipped: Red Bull Owners Get Lowest Payout In Four Years As Sales Stumble, Competition Grows

  Red Bull’s owners have seen their ‘wings’ clipped a bit, as the energy drink maker distributed its “lowest payout in four years” to owners this year, according to a new report from Bloomberg. 

  Its two groups of shareholders, Mark Mateschitz and the Yoovidhya family in Thailand, were distributed €810 million ($897 million) in dividends and related payments, according to the report. 

  Bloomberg reports that Red Bull’s net sales grew 9% in 2023 to €10.6 billion, but rising costs limited net income growth to just 3.1%, reaching €1.7 billion, according to the company’s Austrian filings.

  This marked a slowdown from the 20%+ sales growth seen in each of the previous two years.

  

  The report comes during the first full year since Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz passed away, with his son Mark now holding the family’s 49% stake. For the first time since 2018, the Mateschitz family won’t receive a bonus payment, as stated in a recent shareholder resolution.

  Red Bull typically distributes a pro-rata dividend to all shareholders along with additional payments. Chalerm Yoovidhya, who holds a 2% individual stake, has received €3.2 million annually since 2020, including for 2023.

  Red Bull maintains a no-debt policy and is highly secretive about its operations, making corporate filings one of the few glimpses into its financials.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 16:40

• America's Dwindling National Wealth
  America’s Dwindling National Wealth

  Authored by Michael Wilkerson via The Epoch Times,

  What is a rich country? In relative financial terms, it is a country whose net investment position is positive. The net investment position reflects how much one country owns of all other countries’ assets, less how much those countries own of it.

  

  Throughout most of the 20th century, the United States’ net investment position was not only positive but also the highest in the world. Those days are over. Today, foreign governments, corporations, funds, and wealthy individuals own tens of trillions more of U.S. stocks, bonds, real estate, and other assets than we own of theirs.

  The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) recently released information revealing that the United States’ net international investment position, the difference between U.S. residents’ foreign financial assets and liabilities, hit an all-time low of negative $22.5 trillion in the second quarter of 2024.

  Breaking it down, U.S. entities and individuals owe other countries $58.5 trillion. These countries will earn interest, dividends, and capital appreciation over time on those assets. That represents future income and wealth accumulation potential that is flowing out of the United States into other’s hands, way too much to be offset by the $36 trillion in foreign assets U.S. residents hold. We are, in effect, transferring our children’s inheritance to strangers, impoverishing future generations of Americans so that we can consume more ourselves today.

  The decline in American wealth is accelerating rapidly.

  On the eve of the global financial crisis (2007), the U.S. net international investment position was negative $1.2 trillion, having turned negative just a few years before.

  A dozen years later, on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic (2019), this deficit had grown by $10 trillion to negative $11.7 trillion. Since then, the negative gap has grown by an additional $10 billion in just five years. Of this amount, $6 trillion has been lost in the last two years alone. Let that sink in.

  The cause is obvious. As a nation, we are consuming more than we produce, and borrowing to do so. This is true of our government, our corporations, and our households. Each of these groups is over-leveraged and living beyond its means through excessive borrowing enabled by incontinent monetary and fiscal policies alike. We are borrowing from our futures and that of the nation, with no obvious means of repayment.

  The cure is as simple as the cause, though painful to follow through on. It requires substantial changes to our economic policies and regulatory framework. First, we must close the over $1 trillion annual trade deficit. Free trade isn’t free if it isn’t fair, and many of our trading partners have not treated the United States fairly. For years now, the United States has been subject to currency manipulation, industrial espionage and IP theft, state subsidies of foreign national champions, artificially low lending rates enabled by foreign central banks, and the closing off of foreign domestic markets to U.S. exports. China, which in recent years has represented between more than a quarter and nearly a half of the U.S. trade deficit, is the most visible example of these problems.

  We must rebuild our domestic manufacturing capability.

  We cannot keep consuming if we do not produce goods and services that the market demands. This is not an easy or quick process, but an appropriately targeted and structured system of tariffs, along with a sound industrial policy favoring reshoring, would help substantially.

  Debt-based money isn’t the source of wealth; production and creativity are.

  Americans’ ability to consume should be based not on the availability of cheap credit but on successful U.S. production and sale of something of value for the marketplace. Income produced by prior production and sale works its way into workers and investors pockets alike, enables demand fulfillment, and creates wealth.

  At the same time, we must unleash our domestic energy capabilities. There is no such thing as an energy-poor “rich” country. We have abundant natural resources and domestic energy productive capability, but it has been hamstrung by an ideologically driven regulatory regime. Our domestic oil and gas, coal, nuclear, and other resource companies have the ability to energize and empower the world, and to generate substantial national wealth in the process. Let them do their jobs.

  Finally, we must balance our budget. We must find a way to exit the deficit–debt–inflation doom loop that has enabled our government to print money at will and spend over $2 trillion a year that it doesn’t have. With $35.4 trillion of national debt, not including liabilities such as Social Security and Medicare, each growing by the trillions each year, the process cannot continue forever. At some point, foreign buyers of U.S. Treasuries will decide they have had enough, as the credit risks are simply too great.

  This appears to be a train wreck in slow motion, and it must be averted at all costs. We must not put our heads in the sand and ignore what is happening. It is not too late to change course. But we must accept the gravity of the situation, and unify our national resources around sensible policy objectives, if we have any hope of stopping and then reversing this rapid outflow of our future prosperity.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 16:20

• Bonds Drop, Dollar Pops As Traders Brace For Jobs
  Bonds Drop, Dollar Pops As Traders Brace For Jobs

  US markets chopped around today after yesterday’s risk off tape as Geopolitics remain the focus, and while Chinese stocks rallied,  Goldman Sachs trading desk noted that for the first time in a week they’re seeing more balance in their China flows:

  “Seeing both HF and LO sell tickets today across the complex.”

  Certainly didn’t slow the upward trajectory for now (remember China is closed for Golden Week)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  On the US side, things were quieter… Small Caps lagged, Nasdaq led the gains but the majors traded in a narrow range (which is unexpected given the drop in gamma)…

  

  We note that the S&P 500 is back within the post-Powell spike range…

  

  Mag7 stocks are back down into the post-Powell squeeze range…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  But the vol market readying itself for chaos on Friday as payrolls prints…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Bear in mind that ‘seasonally’, shit’s about to get real for vol markets…

  

  Source: Goldman Sachs

  Treasury yields were higher across the board today with the long-end lagging (2Y +3bps, 30Y +6bps). All yields are higher on the week…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The dollar extended its rebound, back up to the post-Powell spike on FOMC day…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  …as JPY weakened, erasing all of Friday’s election panic bid…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Gold ended marginally lower on the day…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Crypto was monkeyhammered again with Bitcoin dumped back to FOMC-Day levels ($60,000)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Crude prices pumped and dumped amid inventory data, further escalations in Israel/Lebanon, and OPEC+ headlines…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Finally, despite the fact that we have crossed the month-/quarter-end rubicon, the plumbing in the financial services sewage remains a little clogged…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The last time this happened, the repo market blew up… just saying.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 10/02/2024 – 16:00

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• "The Chinese Are Watching", Says Incoming EU Defense Commissioner
  “The Chinese Are Watching”, Says Incoming EU Defense Commissioner

  Authored by Anders Corr via The Epoch Times,

  The incoming defense commissioner of the European Union says that China sees the U.S. and EU responses to Russian aggression in Ukraine as weak. He’s right. Our show of weakness only invites further aggression by other rogue members of the “axis of evil,” including China, Iran, and North Korea.

  

  As the world devolves into wars that strain U.S. and partner defense budgets—along with the borders that divide the democracies from authoritarian states like Russia, Iran, and North Korea—“the Chinese are watching,” according to the European Union’s first incoming defense commissioner, Andrius Kubilius.

  In the case of Europe’s response to Russia, according to a Sept. 22 report, “The Chinese will make one simple conclusion,” noted Kubilius. “The West is quite weak.” He said that despite economies that are 25 times that of Russia, we are not winning. “What is the reason?” he asked. “It’s a question of political will.”

  It’s also a question of risk avoidance, of course. Democracies are more risk averse than autocracies when it comes to war. This makes sense from one perspective, as democracies care more about people—both in their own societies and those of other states—than do dictators and terrorists. It could also make sense from a strategic perspective if modern war is a “wood chipper” for attacking armies, as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin rightly noted in 2022 regarding Ukraine.

  The axis dictators are power-hungry to the point of a willingness to kill tens of millions in pursuit of their territorial and ideological ambitions. The number of Russian and Ukrainian dead from the current war has now reached approximately 1 million, according to a Sept. 17 report. Even more have been wounded. And Vladimir Putin is raising the stakes by frequently threatening nuclear strikes that could escalate to a direct war with the United States.

  Iran is following the same strategy of feeding its proxies into the wood chipper, with its pursuit of nuclear weapons and support for terrorist proxies like Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah against Israel, giving just cause for a robust defense. On Sept. 22, the United States warned Israel against starting a full-scale war against the latter terrorist organization after Hezbollah refused to end its cross-border rocket attacks and let tens of thousands of internally displaced Israeli refugees return to their homes in northern Israel.

  U.S. and allied ammunition reserves are running so low due to these wars—for which the United States has served as the “arsenal of democracy” since World War I—that Taiwan is now searching for new sources of ammunition necessary to defend itself in a war against the People’s Liberation Army, according to a Sept. 21 report.

  Perhaps that is why Beijing tacitly approved of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allies with Iran in its negotiations with the United States, thus encouraging its violence against Israel and Saudi Arabia. The CCP bankrolls all of the “axis of evil” companies through energy purchases from Russia and Iran and being the biggest trade partner of North Korea. The CCP has a motive for encouraging these far-flung wars and North Korea’s nuclear saber-rattling. It distracts the democracies, depletes our arsenals, and thus will make it harder to defend Taiwan if that day comes.

  Xi Jinping has told the People’s Liberation Army to be ready for a Taiwan war in 2027, and the chief of Naval Operations of the U.S. Navy, in turn, told her forces to be ready for a war with China by the same date. Meanwhile, the FBI continues to discover Beijing’s preparations for massive cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure that could disable us during a Taiwan war. Such preparations are destabilizing as the first to strike the other’s electricity grid and satellites, for example, will have a major advantage on the battlefield.

  So the question of U.S. and European weakness that Kubilius and Beijing perceive matters. What we do to defend Ukraine matters to whether the CCP decides to launch a war against Taiwan in 2027. Defeating Russia in Ukraine by 2026 could avoid a war with China that year that blacks out the entire United States and destroys us as a global superpower, even if we win. In that case, we would not be very helpful in defending Europe.

  Kubilius of Lithuania is one unlikely successor to former president Ronald Reagan and his doctrine of “peace through strength.” But this is his approach. He wants the European Union to borrow money to massively increase defense spending. He wants to require each country in the EU to stockpile enough ammunition for a war with Russia that could come within a few years, he said. Germany, according to a report in 2022, only had enough ammunition for two days of war. That explains its general willingness to give in to Russia, China, and Iran.

  EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen likewise believes the European Union must spend far more on defense to deter war with Russia. She estimates that the EU must spend approximately $560 billion to account for low defense spending that stretches back to the wishful thinking of the 1990s when some in the United States thought we had achieved global “primacy.” In fact, the enemies of democracy were just regrouping for a future fight.

  The CCP regime is indeed watching as Ukraine and Israel struggle to put down dictatorial and terrorist aggressions against them. Calls in the United States for them to moderate their responses, however popular among our voters, look weak to the CCP. Similar calls over the decades for Taiwan to moderate its response to the CCP also look weak. To keep the peace that is left in the world, we need to meet these aggressions not with fear and weakness but with strength and courage. That is the surest way to not only a lasting peace but to one with justice.

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

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 23:25

• Watch: The Battle Of The Back-Ups – Vance-Walz Veep Debate
  Watch: The Battle Of The Back-Ups – Vance-Walz Veep Debate

  The two vice presidential nominees – Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz – will face each other in a debate tonight (Oct. 1), one month out from the 2024 election.

  Debate host CBS News announced on Aug. 15 that after proposing four dates for the matchup – Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 1, and Oct. 8 – the Harris–Walz campaign quickly agreed to the third.

  “See you on Oct. 1, JD,” Walz wrote on X.

  In response, Vance said he accepted the date, while also pushing for another debate on CNN on Sept. 18.

  “Not only do I accept the CBS debate on Oct. 1, I accept the CNN debate on Sept. 18 as well. I look forward to seeing you at both!” Vance wrote on X.

  What Are the Rules?

  CBS released the debate rules on Sept. 27.

  There will be no opening statements, and the moderators will begin by introducing the incumbent party candidate, Walz.

  Vance’s podium will be on the left side of the television screen, while Walz’s will be on the right.

  Both candidates will remain behind their podiums for the duration of the debate.

  Like both presidential debates this year, there will be no studio audience.

  Each candidate will have two minutes to answer questions, and the opposing candidate will have two minutes to respond. There will also be an additional minute for rebuttals.

  The moderators are allowed, at their discretion, to give both candidates an additional minute to continue a topic. They will remain seated for the debate and are the only ones in the studio allowed to ask questions.

  CBS will have lights in front of both Walz and Vance to indicate how much time remains for each response. Both candidates will also have a countdown clock.

  Vance won the coin toss to determine the order of the two-minute closing statements and opted to go last.

  CBS may opt to mute the microphones at any given point, but otherwise, they will both remain on for the debate.

  Neither candidate will receive questions in advance of the showdown and campaign staffers are not allowed to interact with the candidates during the breaks.

  Like the previous debates this year, no props or pre-written notes are permitted onstage.

  Vance and Walz will be given a pen, a pad of paper, and a bottle of water.

  What to Watch For

  Walz has labeled the Republican ticket as “weird” while Vance has argued that Walz is too progressive for voters.

  Walz, 60, has a two-decade political record to draw on, including his governing experience in Minnesota and his years representing the state’s first congressional district, which had often voted for Republicans before Walz won it in 2006.

  He also emphasizes his Midwestern roots and plain-spoken rhetorical style.

  In newly unearthed video, Tim Walz BRAGS about overwhelming small-town America with migrants:

  “We have more refugees per capita than any other state. That’s not just morally a good thing, it’s our economic and cultural future.

  “This beautiful diversity we see out in… pic.twitter.com/oRwpr8KPs3

  — Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 1, 2024

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

  Vance, 40, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022 and has made strong appeals to both rural and working-class America in recent campaign stops, often championing U.S. manufacturing and energy independence.

  While criticizing the Harris–Walz campaign, he has described them as radical liberals, particularly for Harris’s California roots and Walz’s gubernatorial policies.

  Thomas Hollihan, a professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, said that conversationally, Vance is likely to be bold and declarative.

  “I think we’re going to see a much more populist style of presentation from Vance,” he told The Epoch Times.

  John Murphy, a professor specializing in presidential rhetoric at the University of Illinois, said Walz has a more relaxed approach to debating.

  “He enjoys stories, he talks with people, and he uses a regular-guy, dad-joke speaking style. He is preeminently a personable speaker, shaped by the norms of conversation,” Murphy told The Epoch Times.

  Vance has also strongly criticized Walz for mischaracterizing his retirement rank with the Minnesota National Guard.

  Vance served in the Marine Corps as a public affairs officer and was deployed to Iraq for six months.

  Walz has defended his military record, which includes 24 years in the National Guard, but the Harris campaign recently said he misspoke in a 2018 video where he mentioned “weapons of war that I carried into war.” He has never served in combat.

  Aaron Dusso, a political science professor from Indiana University-Indianapolis, said the best strategy for both candidates is to always “try and seem competent on the issues that are not your campaign’s strength and then move as quickly as possible to talking about the issues that are your strength.”

  “So Walz will want to continue to emphasize reproductive freedom and social issues like health care and education and continue to hammer Project 2025,” Dusso told The Epoch Times.

  Vance, on the other hand, should stick to policy and avoid ad-libbing, Dusso added.

  “Be a policy wonk; stick to the border, economy, and crime … even though crime is down and the economy is doing pretty well, it’s still best for Republicans to focus on those issues because the average voter sees those issues as their strengths,” he said.

  Watch the full debate live here (due to start at 2100ET)

  Matt Taibbi has once again done God’s work to make these debates somewhat more palatable, here are the drinking game rules:

  DRINK EVERY TIME…

  • Walz mentions Project 2025.

  • Vance questions Walz’s military record.

  • Anyone says “Proud of my service.”

  • Vance accuses Walz of favoring socialism or having ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

  • Walz accuses Vance of fomenting anti-Haitian bigotry.

  • Vance mentions a colorful family member. Double if the relative is armed or high or both.

  • Walz brings up January 6th or claims democracy is on the ballot.

  • Vance brings up the Minneapolis riots.

  • Either candidate mentions the middle class or the working class. (Do not do shots of hard alcohol for this rule.)

  • Either candidate uses folksy rhetoric or Midwestern slang, or the word “folks” is uttered, at all.

  • Anyone says, “Right here in New York City.”

  • Either candidate mentions Hurricane Helene or the situation in Asheville, North Carolina.

  • Either candidate accuses the other of being insufficiently protective of Israel or Ukraine.

  • A moderator fact-checks either candidate.

  • You feel like driving off a cliff in despair.

  *  *  *

  Peter Navarro warns that voters may want to consider that 15 of America’s 46 presidents were first vice president.

  This includes Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson following the death of a president; Gerald Ford by succession; and Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, and Joe Biden by election.

  Historically, this puts the odds of either Governor Walz or Senator Vance eventually becoming president at about one-third. Despite these short odds, conventional wisdom has it that vice presidential candidates don’t decide presidential elections. Yet, this time, these candidates should matter a great deal, at least to voters concerned about the economic and national security threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

  Here, even a cursory Vance versus Walz comparison reveals a stark contrast between a Trumpian China hawk in Vance and a China dove in Walz.

  As is well-documented, communist China’s subversive strategies include wooing foreign academics, businessmen, and politicians so that they knowingly or unknowingly advance the CCP’s agenda.

  Walz was born in 1964, just two years before China’s decade-long Maoist Cultural Revolution. From his childhood years, Walz romantically remembers “pictures of Mao Tse-tung, hung in public places and carried in parades.”

  In 1989—the year Vance turned 5 and the CCP slaughtered thousands in Tiananmen Square—the 25-year-old Walz took his first China trip and would rave about the “royal treatment” his CCP hosts provided. Walz would gush a mere year after the slaughter at Tiananmen: “No matter how long I live, I’ll never be treated that well again. They gave me more gifts than I could bring home. It was an excellent experience.”

  By 1994, Walz was honeymooning in Kunming, China, after he had deliberately scheduled his wedding to be on the same day, June 4, as the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. When asked by the Scottsbluff Star-Herald why, wife Gwen said Tim simply “wanted to have a date he’ll always remember.”

  Between early 1990 and 2008, Walz would establish his own personal private and lucrative business, and bring to China young and persuadable American students who surely were indoctrinated. Walz took “travel cost” payments from the Chinese government as well.

  According to Walz’s congressional financial disclosure statements, his China-focused travel company was only dissolved in the fall of 2008, more than a year and a half after he became a member of Congress in January 2007. During that period, Walz would visit China more than 30 times.

  Vance’s experience with communist China and its economic aggression couldn’t be more different. That experience is best revealed in his bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”

  Vance was born in 1984 in the poor, Rust Belt manufacturing town of Middletown, Ohio. In his heart-wrenching elegy, Vance references the all-American ethos of Hank Williams, Jr.’s country classic “A Country Boy Can Survive” and describes how his hardscrabble childhood was filled with lessons from his Mamaw and uncles in eastern Kentucky, including the family lore of “classic good-versus-evil stories” about “defending a sister’s honor or ensuring that a criminal paid for his crimes.”

  Throughout “Hillbilly Elegy,” the specter of communist China and its destruction of the jobs and factories in Vance’s Rust Bowl environs looms large. In his vice presidential nominee acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in July, Vance described China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 as a “sweetheart deal” facilitated by out-of-touch Washington politicians and power brokers that “destroyed even more good American middle-class manufacturing jobs.”

  Vance himself saw firsthand how communities across the United States were “flooded with cheap Chinese goods, with cheap foreign labor, and in the decades to come, deadly Chinese fentanyl.” Meanwhile, as China entered the WTO in 2001, a 37-year-old Walz continued to capitalize on China’s economic rise at America’s expense, organizing more trips to China through his private travel company.

  In 2005, both Vance and Walz were readying to deploy to Iraq, Vance as a Marine, Walz as the command sergeant major of his National Guard unit. Only Vance would go; Walz quit his unit before it was deployed to Iraq in order to run for Congress, was eventually demoted in rank, and later, after he falsely claimed he saw combat, accused of stolen valor.

  In 2007, Vance was honorably discharged from the Marines as a corporal after serving in Iraq. Under the G.I. Bill, Vance completed his undergraduate studies at The Ohio State University in just two years, graduating with a double major, summa cum laude and would follow that with a law degree at Yale that Walz would later inexplicably ridicule.

  Meanwhile, even as a congressman, Walz worked as an international fellow at Macau Polytechnic University, a state-run Chinese institution that backs CCP dictator Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative and touts its “long held devotion to and love for the [Chinese] motherland.”

  In the same year that Vance published “Hillbilly Elegy,” chronicling the economic carnage communist China had inflicted on his community, then-Congressman Walz publicly downplayed the need to stand up to communist China’s aggression, stating in a 2016 interview: “I don’t fall into the category that China necessarily needs to be an adversarial relationship. I totally disagree.”

  Walz would double down on his CCP accommodation strategy in 2019. As the governor of Minnesota, in opposition to the tariffs that form a vital part of America’s defense against China’s economic aggression, Walz called for President Trump to “end the trade war with China.” In Walz’s world view, “there’s just no substitute for 1.6 billion consumers, who are hungry, to get our China trade negotiations normalized,“ and ”there’s not enough market in the rest of the world to absorb our capacity.”

  This year, Walz has met with Zhao Jian, the Chinese consul general in Chicago, to discuss “China–U.S. relations and sub-national cooperation”—a euphemism for facilitating more Chinese influence in the United States at the state level. In response to Walz’s selection as Kamala Harris’s running mate, China Daily, a CCP mouthpiece, wrote that he would bring “sanity” to U.S.–China relations—code for Walz softening America’s stance against Chinese economic aggression.

  During his August acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Walz made no mention of the CCP or Chinese aggression.

  By contrast, during his July acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Vance made a point to defend the American people and explicitly stand up against communist China and the CCP’s aggression.

  Promised Vance: “Together, we will protect the wages of American workers and stop the Chinese Communist Party from building their middle class on the backs of American citizens.”

  If elected, Walz would be the highest-ranking U.S. official ever to have had such extensive dealings with communist China. As vice president, Walz would surely seek to further accommodate the CCP.  With the odds of Walz eventually also becoming president at more than 30 percent, that’s a bad bet for anyone concerned about the existential threat the CCP poses.

  

  As Jacob Burg detailed earlier via The Epoch Times, a total of 43% of registered voters say that they will watch the entire vice presidential debate live, according to a CBS News/YouGov survey. Those who said they would watch or read highlights made up 27%, compared to 18% who said they would watch part of it live, while 12% said they would not watch the debate. Only 24% said they will be watching the debate to help them decide who to vote for.

  The survey also found that 49% of registered voters believe Walz is qualified to be president, if necessary, while 44% believe the same of Vance. However, 51% said that Walz isn’t qualified, and 56% said the same about Vance.

  Of the registered voters surveyed, 86% said that they want to hear the candidates’ economic views, 76% said they want to learn about the candidates’ immigration views, 56% want to hear their views on abortion. Just 14% of respondents said they want to hear the candidates criticizing each other.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 22:50

• The Creation Of Our "Permanent Record"
  The Creation Of Our “Permanent Record”

  Authored by David Barnhizer via The Brownstone Institute,

  There is no longer an American democracy, and the American Republic is disintegrating as those in control of what is generally referred to as “The Left” aggressively pursue the elimination of the Constitutionally-created Electoral College, a process created specifically to diffuse power and prevent a single group from gaining total and permanent control of America’s federal government. America was a vast, sprawling, diverse, and complex nation at the time of its creation. That scale, diversity, and complexity have been multiplied exponentially since that point.

  

  As Aristotle warned, one of the flaws of democracy was that even though such systems began with a sense of shared community, eventually a majority would emerge that understood its voting power essentially provided full power to dictate rules. The flaw that undermined the system was that the members of the controlling majority would come to realize they could help themselves by extracting from the minority a growing share of social goods and benefits. This would allow the controlling majority to impose higher costs on the minority that often disproportionately created greater returns. I guess we could think of this as imposing a “Wealth Tax” or even more a tax on “Unrealized Income” under the rubric of “Fair Share.”

  America is changing by the moment into a new political form, the “Post-Democracy Electronic State.” It has “morphed” into competing fragments seeking power operating within the physical territory defined as the United States while tenuously holding on to a watered-down minimal list of the basic creeds that represent what we long considered an exceptional political experiment. The Rule of Law is significantly weakened and the institutions of law are being used politically by those in power. Freedom of speech and the press are increasingly corrupted to the point that you can’t be certain of the truth or intent of what we are seeing and reading.

  Our “leaders” have morphed into cartoon characters who unfortunately have no real understanding of the challenges we face and potential solutions that could preserve the integrity of America. We are beset by various crises—economic, the effects of Artificial Intelligence, immigration, and much more—that are weakening and distorting the nation and appear incapable of understanding or coping. Our educational systems in too many instances have become instruments of propaganda over critical matters over which our “educators” are taking one side of issues with complex elements rather than methods for educating an advanced population in ways that provide them the knowledge and focus needed to deal with the challenges we face.

  The post-democracy political order now in power paradoxically consists of a combination of fragmented special interests eager to punish anyone who challenges their desires and a central government that is consolidating its power to monitor, control, and intimidate its citizens. This set of anti-democratic actors also includes an insatiable coterie of Big Data/Big Tech information gathering businesses that are functioning as “enablers” by amassing an inconceivable amount of data on Americans and everyone else for that matter. In some ways they have become a sort of “quasi-government” that subtly and surreptitiously operates almost invisibly but wields incredible influence.

  A flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

  – Alexis de Tocqueville

  None of us can claim the quality of original insight achieved by Alexis de Tocqueville in his early 19th century classic Democracy in America when he observed that the “soft” repression of democracy was unlike that in any other political form. De Tocqueville explained:

  [T]he supreme power [of government]…covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided…Such a power does not destroy…but it enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

  The US, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe are far along in experiencing a “gentle” drift of the kind Tocqueville describes and are rapidly losing their integrity to the point they are becoming “pretend” democracies. The technological power of the Internet, and here I am using that term as shorthand for the host of information and communication capabilities that have developed over the past 15 to 25 years, has come into national and global society with such overwhelming speed that a “social tsunami” has swept through our society in ways that have devastated existing institutions and corrupted the traditional order.

  Linked with the psychological effects of what is certain to be a multi-generational (if mislabeled) “War on Terror,” the changes generated by this incredible “event” involve phenomena we are still struggling to understand. The result is that we have changed seemingly overnight from a world in which government and communications media moved at relatively slow speeds with highly controlled access to political decision-makers, data sharing, and investigation, to one in which everyone is endowed with the unprecedented ability to present their views, establish relationships, and organize networks and action groups for both good and bad purposes.

  On the Internet, we have billions of voices resounding in an uncontrolled cacophony where 95 percent represent ignorance and malice and perhaps five percent useful insights. This “new normal” includes the strange effects of X.com (formerly Twitter) as an “instant public opinion poll” for political hacks who will do anything to remain in office. It can be used to stir up rage and indignation, make absurd accusations, and create false impressions of a non-existent groundswell of support for the agendas of interest groups that have organized to use the Internet’s capabilities to push for what they want and punish those who deny or otherwise threaten their overtures.

  The impact of this still-evolving system on governments and other traditional institutions is profound. One element of what is taking place is a change in the basic nature of society into the “surveillance state.” That newly created system is one in which powerful governmental and private actors increasingly keep track of everything we do in the name of national security, social cohesion, and consumer preference.

  Nor is it solely the fading democracies of the West that are experiencing the angst of uncontrollable communication and all-penetrating surveillance. China, Russia, Egypt, and other Middle Eastern nations are all trying to cope with the fact that they are no longer in control of information and the levers of propaganda. The solution of course is to censor, deny access to specific sites, monitor the communications of citizens and others, and take “legal” steps to punish those defined by the governmental monitors as violators of communications defined as harmful or offensive such as “misinformation” or “disinformation” as defined by the state. China has recently arrested its most prominent blogger and enacted harsh criminal laws that impose multi-year prison sentences for spreading rumors through the Internet.

  The upshot in the West is that there has been a shift in the nature of government from a reasonably representative hybrid form of complex democracy to a strange mixture of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm along with William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Perhaps one of the most ironic features is that as Internet-based communications systems and applications have come into use over the past two decades they have greatly enhanced the ability for widespread communication among a nation’s citizens. For the first time in our history, we have overcome physical distance and separation to the degree that it is possible to achieve face-to-face interchanges of the kind we always assumed were central to true democracy.

  Unfortunately, the ability to communicate has been overwhelmed by numerous competing factors. This includes the discovery that we are a somewhat less than admirable species when provided a “voice”. The Internet has revealed an embarrassing level of ignorance, an increase in cynicism and distrust that has further weakened our views of others, and the loss of any sense of “civic virtue” or community. We no longer seek or achieve compromise in the interests of the larger common community because there is none.

  The anonymous nature of many of our Internet communications is both cause and effect of the disintegration of the American community. Too many people hide behind masks while spewing venom and unfounded claims in a sort of “Urban Legend” syndrome circulated as fact. The cowardice and/or cynicism of anonymity is made even worse by the malice underlying much of the commentary as well as the over-hyped sensationalism of our mainstream media, and the disturbing desire for “fifteen minutes of fame” that characterizes many of our individual messages.

  Along with these go abuses of power, illicit and criminal uses of Internet technology to harm and intimidate, and the inability of governments to know how to draw limits on their desire for information. At this point, we do not have the slightest clue about how to deal with the interacting forces of the new and still evolving forms of government and accompanying social order.

  One thing that seems clear, however, is that much of it is not a positive evolution. The paradox is that the emerging system is in the process of becoming increasingly repressive at the same time it has expanded into a profoundly fragmented society. Each piece, whether representing an economic interest or one of political activism, is committed to relentlessly pursuing its particular agenda. This paradox disappears when we realize that fragmentation works well for the most powerful central political and economic organizations because it implements a “divide and conquer” strategy in which fragmented groups can always be set against each other while the core “power brokers” continue to consolidate power and reap the rewards of their “game.”

  The threat from massive government surveillance of its citizens is psychological. The apprehension about what they “could” be doing and who might be looking at our profiles intimidate and “dumb us down.” We “think” without knowing that the National Security Agency (NSA), Department of Homeland Security, or FBI are building up something like our High School Permanent Record or our “social credit” record. Former Director of US National Intelligence James Clapper eventually was forced to admit he misstated (or lied) to Congress during testimony concerning the extent of his Agency’s illegal monitoring of US citizens’ telephonic communications.

  Our “virtual” NSA Records could contain potentially bad things about us that we are not allowed to see or rebut, including the opinions of people who may have reasons to criticize us fairly or unfairly. Whether NSA or other actors we experience the fear of exposure of things we would prefer to remain hidden.

  The fear exists even though we can never be certain of what “They” actually “know.” It is as if J. Edgar Hoover and his secret files have suddenly been brought back to life. Hoover was long thought to retain his enormous power over politicians in Washington due to possession of secret files detailing the “sins” of our leaders. Now the ability to control all of us by our “sins” if we “get out of line” has been moved to the corridors of the National Security Agency, Homeland Security, Google, Yahoo, and Facebook.

  Republished from the author’s Substack

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 22:25

• Shocking Investigation Finds CIA Contractor Moved Migrant Children Across America
  Shocking Investigation Finds CIA Contractor Moved Migrant Children Across America

  “The disastrous border policies of the Biden-Harris Administration are only one dimension of the US Federal government’s complicity in the mass trafficking of children. The entire migration pipeline from South America up to the US Southern border is controlled by networks of human traffickers who funnel tens of thousands of alien children into the United States every year. For many alien children, crossing the US Southern border is only the beginning of their problems,” Muckraker’s Anthony Rubin said in a bombshell report titled “Finding The Feds’ Missing Children | CHILD TRAFFICKING IN AMERICA.”

  

  Rubin conducted a three-month investigation to give readers a glimpse of the exploding child trafficking industry in the United States, all of which was facilitated by the globalists in the Biden-Harris administration. 

  Here’s a breakdown of what Rubin and his team found after tracking down some of the 320,000 illegal alien children lost by the Biden-Harris administration:

  • The federal government is sending children to strangers.

  • A CIA contractor is moving children across America.

  • Children are being sent to labor trafficking rings.

  • Traffickers use deportation as a threat to exact “debt” payments from sponsored children.

  We Found the Biden-Harris Administration’s Missing Children | FIRST-HAND TESTIMONIES FROM CHILDREN WHO WERE TRAFFICKED IN AMERICA

  We tracked down some of the 320,000 illegal alien children lost by the Biden-Harris administration.

  During the course of our investigation, we… pic.twitter.com/VO3XaOIe0o

  — Muckraker.com (@realmuckraker) September 25, 2024

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

  “This report reveals the cold, hard truth about the reality of the Biden-Harris administration’s open-border policies, which have resulted in the trafficking of untold numbers of children,” Rubin noted. 

  *   *   * 

  Here’s the full report:

  Finding The Feds’ Missing Children | CHILD TRAFFICKING IN AMERICA

  On August 19th, 2024, the Department of Homeland Security announced that they had lost track of over 300,000 children. But what exactly does this mean?

  Since 2021, an average of 400 unaccompanied children have been smuggled into the United States every day.

  These children, who cross into the United States without parents, are subsequently detained, processed by the federal government’s unaccompanied children program and eventually released into the country.

  Per the DHS’ August 19th announcement, 291,000 of the 300,000 unaccounted-for children were released into the United States without a scheduled court date, while another 32,000, who were given court dates, never showed up for their scheduled court appearance.

  In June of 2024, an insider from the department of Health and Human Services provided Muckraker with a list detailing the names of over 8,000 alien children, and their last known addresses. So, we began an operation to find the missing children ourselves.

  Over the course of our investigation, we discovered the dangerous places where children have been delivered, confronted a CIA contractor who moves these children, heard shocking stories from children who the federal government has lost track of, and exposed a child trafficking network in Florida.

  Children and minors who enter the United States illegally and without parents are subsequently detained and placed in holding camps while the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR for short) works to find the child a permanent home through their Unaccompanied Children or UC Program.

  

  The goal of the UC Program is to place alien children with vetted sponsors who are typically relatives or close family friends. However, it is well documented that this program has placed children in the hands of criminal organizations such as MS13, as well as labor and sex trafficking rings.

  We began our investigation by door-knocking the addresses of the most vulnerable children on our list, focusing on the youngest who were at the highest risk of trafficking.

  One of our first finds was an abandoned house where two boys aged 7 and 10 had allegedly been delivered. It is unclear what happened to the boys who were delivered to the sponsor at this address, we were ultimately unable to locate them.

  

  Our investigation eventually led us to the projects of the Bronx, where we found a girl who told us a horror story from inside the facility she was detained in at Pomona, California.

  

  The girl pictured above, who we will call Alexa, was ultimately placed with a safe sponsor. However, she told us that while in a holding facility in Pomona, California, she encountered children who would cry because they were being sent to a sponsor who they did not know.

  Alexa explained how children are woken up at 3 o’clock in the morning taken from the holding facility to their sponsors without the opportunity to say goodbye to their friends.

  Alexa also told us about a friend of hers who was with her at the Pomona, California facility. Alexa and her friend had agreed to contact each other on Facebook once they were placed safely with their sponsors. Unfortunately, Alexa never heard from her friend again. It is unclear what the fate of her friend ultimately was.

  The federal government uses contractors to move the children from detention centers, like the one Alexa was held at, into the hands of their sponsors. One of these contractors is MVM, a private security contractor with ties to the CIA, NSA, FBI, and Homeland Security.

  

  MVM’s work has included providing security at Guantanamo Bay, guarding CIA stations in Iraq, and conducting research for the FBI’s High Value Detainee Research Group which is responsible for conducting interrogations of terrorists.

  Over the past few years, MVM has secured contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to escort detained alien children to their sponsors across America.

  The three states which have received the most unaccompanied children since 2021 are Texas, California, and Florida, with each state taking in over 10,000 per year.

  We learned that two illegal aliens from Guatemala named Baltazar and Juana had requested to sponsor 13 children across 5 different addresses in Bonita Springs, Florida. Even more concerning, was that these same addresses were also being used by other illegal aliens who were attempting to sponsor children.

  At one particular two bedroom house, 13 children were being sponsored by 4 different adults.

  

  We were told that this trafficking case had been reported to HSI, the FBI, and HHS, but after sitting on the case for years, none of these agencies made any progress.

  We managed to track down a brother and sister from Guatemala who had been delivered to the suspected trafficking ring in Bonita Springs, Florida, a few years earlier.

  They claimed to have a trafficking debt hanging over them and described a labor trafficking system that targets unaccompanied alien children.

  Watch: Finding The Feds’ Missing Children | CHILD TRAFFICKING IN AMERICA

  *   *   * 

  If we want to get to the bottom of who the federal government hired to facilitate the greatest migrant invasion this nation has ever seen, more specifically, which companies are profiting, well, look no further than private security contractor MVM. 

  A quick glance at their website reveals their ‘Mission Solutions,’ which include “Transportation and care for vulnerable populations.” 

  

  Want to know how MVM made its money? … well, profiting off the endless wars in the Middle East…

  Read this story here…

  

  MVM has shifted its business model from staffing solutions in the Middle East wars to catering to open-border solutions.

  Read this story here…

  

  Running migrant trafficking networks is big business for the globalists in the DC Swamp. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 21:55

• US Oil And Gas Output Slide, Squeezed By Lower Prices
  US Oil And Gas Output Slide, Squeezed By Lower Prices

  By John Kemp, energy analyst

  U.S. oil production growth continues to slow in response to the fall in prices, as the initial shock from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions imposed in response more than two years ago fades.

  Crude and condensates output from the Lower 48 states excluding federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico averaged 11.0 million barrels per day (b/d) in July 2024, according to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

  

  Production had increased by less than 0.4 million b/d compared with the same month a year earlier, the smallest increment for the time of year since the first waves of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020/21.

  

  Following the invasion, oil prices peaked in June 2022 but have since retreated, and production growth has decelerated with a delay of around twelve months, typical for the lag between a change in prices and output.

  Inflation-adjusted front-month U.S. futures prices fell to an average of $79 per barrel in July 2023 (48th percentile for all months since 2000) from $124 (82nd percentile) in June 2022.

  

  Twelve months later, production growth had halved to 0.4 million b/d in July 2024 from 0.8 million b/d in June 2023.

  

  By July 2024, there had been no net growth for eight months since November 2023, as the sector’s expansion ground to a halt.

  Since then, prices have fallen even further to an average of just $69 (38th percentile) in September 2024, which is likely to ensure production remains fairly flat through the middle of 2025.

  If prices stay around current levels, production growth from the Lower 48 will probably fall close to zero by late 2024 or early 2025.

  

  By curbing U.S. shale producers’ willingness to boost drilling, and forcing Saudi Arabia and its OPEC⁺ partners to postpone plans to increase output, lower prices are heading off an incipient surplus later in 2024 and 2025.

  U.S. GAS PRODUCTION

  Dry gas production averaged 104.3 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) in July 2024, up from 103.3 bcf/d a year earlier, but the seasonal increment was the smallest since the pandemic in 2020.

  

  

  Output growth has slowed as prices have slumped from post-invasion highs reached in the third quarter of 2022 to record lows by the early months of 2024.

  

  Between February and April 2024, front-month futures tumbled to around $1.80 per million British thermal units, the lowest for over three decades, after adjusting for inflation.

  

  Fewer than 100 rigs have drilled for gas on average in the third quarter of 2024 down from an average of nearly 160 in the third quarter of 2022.

  

  Even more than oil, gas has been hit by over-production, and unlike crude there has been no equivalent of OPEC⁺ to limit the accumulation of excess inventories by coordinating output cuts.

  Exceptionally mild temperatures slashed heating and power generation in the winter of 2023/24, leaving the industry carrying near-record stocks at the end of the heating season and intensifying the crisis.

  By February 2024, the price slump had become so severe that several major U.S. producers announced plans to curb drilling and production.

  Since then, however, ultra-low prices have encouraged record gas consumption by power generators throughout the summer and gradually returned stocks to more normal levels.

  

  By late September 2024, working gas inventories were within ±1 standard deviations of the prior ten-year seasonal average.

  

  In response, front-month prices climbed to an average of $2.40 last month, still only in the 3rd percentile for all months since 2000, but a significant bounce from the multi-decade lows six months earlier.

  If gas production remains subdued, the remaining surplus is likely to be eliminated over the course of winter 2024/25.

  Once the surplus is gone, prices and production will have to increase significantly in 2025 to satisfy the growing demand from generators and exporters.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 21:25

• Which Countries Are Stashing The Most Wealth Offshore?
  Which Countries Are Stashing The Most Wealth Offshore?

  Individuals and corporations send money abroad for various reasons, including seeking better investment opportunities, minimizing tax burdens, and protecting their wealth in low-tax or no-tax jurisdictions.

  This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, shows the top 10 countries that owned the most offshore financial wealth in 2022, according to data from the Atlas of the Offshore World.

  

  Chinese Hold Over $2 Trillion Abroad

  Chinese mainland businesses and individuals hold over $2 trillion abroad, nearly matching Mexico’s GDP. Hong Kong is a top destination for Chinese corporations and individuals conducting offshore operations.

  

  Meanwhile, the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, and Singapore are common destinations for U.S. offshore operations. American hold almost $1.6 trillion abroad.

  Together, individuals and companies from the UK, France, and Germany hold $2.1 trillion abroad.

  What Is a Tax Haven?

  A tax haven offers foreign businesses and individuals minimal or no tax liability. They also have politically and economically stable environments.

  Entities may legally use tax havens to stash money earned abroad while avoiding higher taxes in the U.S. and other nations.

  For this kind of operation, companies often establish a shell corporation, which is a corporation without active business operations or significant assets in the country they are located.

  To learn more about topics like offshore wealth and tax havens, check out this graphic that shows the top 10 countries hosting the most offshore financial wealth.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 20:30

• Hypocrisy: Leftist Media Warns Trump May Use Lawfare Against Democrat Opposition
  Hypocrisy: Leftist Media Warns Trump May Use Lawfare Against Democrat Opposition

  Many conservatives remember back in May of this year when the announcement hit the news feeds that Donald Trump was found guilty by a New York court of 34 “felony” charges related to the Stormy Daniels hush money case.  The charges claimed that this was approximate to “election interference” and NY prosecutors used legal wrangling in what would have been a misdemeanor case to create a felony case from thin air.  

  “This was a rigged, disgraceful trial,” Trump told reporters after leaving the courtroom. “The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5th by the people. They know what happened, and everyone knows what happened here.” 

  The conviction could be considered the peak of a long and unprecedented agenda of “lawfare” waged by the Democratic Party in an effort to remove Trump from the 2024 election race before voters ever get a chance to cast a ballot.  The leftist cheers were resounding; they thought they had the White House in the bag.

  The deranged left are celebrating Trump’s guilty verdict, want to ‘kiII him next’pic.twitter.com/l9n75ghYEL

  — TaraBull (@TaraBull808) May 30, 2024

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

  At the time, numerous progressive journalists published article’s listing all the ways in which the conviction would end Trump’s political career.  None of them questioned the validity of the charges and how they were brought, nor did any of them question the obvious political motives behind turning a misdemeanor charge into a felony charge.  What they did admit to was the intent to use the label “convicted felon” as much as possible during the campaign cycle. 

  Of course, the Supreme Court poured ice water on the DNC party when they determined Trump’s presidential immunity precluded him from the charges in question.  It is unlikely that any of the cases brought by Democrats against Trump in the past few years will have any bearing on the election.  Hypocritically, the media is now warning that Trump might use the Department of Justice as a weapon against his Democrat opponents should he win the Oval Office in November. 

  Politico writes in a recent article titled ‘The Coming Trump Revenge Tour’:

  “Trump has campaigned on a wave of retaliatory criminal prosecutions. It’s not the first time he’s promised to lock up his rivals — but a second term would be different…”

  “Trump has been through the legal wringer in the last year-and-a-half and will want payback. He’s a convicted criminal and still faces trials that could send him to prison, and he’s not likely to forget all about that even if his legal troubles essentially disappear once he reaches the White House. He could easily wreak havoc with many of his political opponents’ lives simply by subjecting them to long, costly and highly disruptive criminal investigations and prosecutions…”

  “…Even if the effort failed to produce any real convictions, the process itself would be a form of punishment for the targets. It could also seriously erode public faith in the federal criminal justice system while chilling political opposition to Trump.”

  The Washington Post in a recent Op-Ed titled ‘Trump’s Promise To Exact Revenge Won’t Be Hindered By Mere Laws’, they argue that Trump will go beyond lawfare and enact a full -blown police state:

  “The idea of justice as being blind never seems to have appealed to Trump, any more than does the idea of an independent federal bureaucracy. In each case, he’d rather have the apparatus of power deployed in the way he wishes without constraint…”

  “This is the entire point of the justice system: to work slowly in an effort to avoid mistakes before then bringing the weight of government power to bear. Trump, seemingly like many Americans, appears to believe that it is somehow weak. That removing prejudices in an effort to effect justice evenly means that too many criminals go unpunished…”

  The disconnect leftists have from their own behavior is alarming. These are the same people that rushed to judgement on the Russian collusion allegations and the Steele Dossier, declaring Trump a traitor and foreign agent.  The dossier was debunked and the allegations found fraudulent.  They are also the same people that spent over two years trying to enforce unconstitutional mandates and economic lockdowns on the American public during the covid pandemic.  Nearly all of those mandates were found to be useless.

  Are Democrats suddenly realizing that after years of encouraging race riots, encouraging leftist mobs to target conservative politicians and Supreme Court judges, subverting individual liberties in the name of public health, colluding with Big Tech companies to censor millions of Americans in violation of their 1st Amendment rights, using the legal apparatus as a weapon against their primary political adversary and promoting the idea of assassination which led to two separate attempts on Donald Trump’s life, they might be due for some payback?

  Perhaps the great fear that leftists seem to harbor over the return of Donald Trump is not due to his supposed “racism” or “fascism.”  Maybe they are afraid of Trump because they fear Karma. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 19:40

• The Digital Puppeteers: Big Tech's Influence On Society
  The Digital Puppeteers: Big Tech’s Influence On Society

  Via SchiffGold.com,

  Tech companies have revolutionized the modern age, allowing for transcontinental communication, instant access to information, and unprecedented connectivity between people worldwide. But this revolution has come at a cost; these companies have undue influence over our lives, possessing the capability to shape public discourse, consumer behavior, and even political outcomes.

  

  The scale of Big Tech’s market dominance is staggering. Google controls 81% of all general searches and Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp collectively boast 3.27 billion daily active users. Amazon commands almost 50% of all U.S. e-commerce. These figures demonstrate how a handful of companies can wield unprecedented power over our digital lives.

  This concentration of power allows Big Tech firms to design markets in ways that benefit themselves and stifle competition. It can result in higher prices for consumers and reduced innovation as smaller competitors are squeezed out.

  The impact of this monopolistic control extends beyond economic concerns to the sanctity of our democratic discourse. As these platforms have become the de facto public squares of the digital age, their content moderation policies and algorithmic decision-making wield enormous influence over what information reaches the public.

  Big Tech’s selective censorship has become increasingly apparent, with conservative voices often bearing the brunt of content moderation. In 2020, a New York Post exposé on Hunter Biden’s laptop was suppressed on both Twitter and Facebook. After the first Trump assassination attempt, Google intentionally omitted search results which referenced the attack, despite providing suggestions for historical assassination attempts on other presidents. These incidents highlight the growing concern over Big Tech’s power to shape public discourse through selective content moderation

  At the core of this issue lies Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which shields interactive computer services from liability for content posted by users. While originally intended to promote free speech online, this provision has become a double-edged sword. It allows platforms to avoid responsibility for harmful or false content while simultaneously giving them broad discretion to censor or promote content as they see fit.

  This legal framework has created a situation where Big Tech companies enjoy the benefits of both publisher and platform status without the corresponding responsibilities of either. They can curate content to maximize engagement and profits while avoiding accountability for the societal impacts of their decisions.

  While proponents of the current system argue that users have the freedom to choose alternative platforms, the reality is far more complex. The network effects and data advantages enjoyed by incumbent players create significant barriers to entry for potential competitors. As Kashmir Hill’s experiment demonstrated, it’s nearly impossible to avoid the services of Big Tech companies entirely, as their reach extends far beyond their branded products and services.

  As the digital economy often tends towards natural monopolies, simply breaking up these companies or imposing heavy-handed regulations is not the answer. The solution to these challenges must balance the need for innovation with the protection of free speech and fair competition. 

  This calls for a comprehensive reevaluation of our regulatory framework for the digital age. This could include reforming Section 230 to strike a better balance between platform immunity and accountability and increasing transparency in algorithmic decision-making and content moderation practices.

  The promise of the internet was a democratization of information and commerce, but the current reality falls short of this ideal. We must remember that a truly free market of ideas and commerce requires vigilance against the concentration of power, whether in the hands of governments or corporations.

  By fostering genuine competition, protecting free speech, and ensuring accountability, we can harness the transformative potential of technology while preserving the fundamental principles of a free and open society. The stakes are too high to allow a handful of companies to become the arbiters of our digital lives.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 19:15

• Nuclear Is Back: U.S. Closes On $1.5 Billion Loan To Resurrect Holtec's Palisades Nuclear Plant
  Nuclear Is Back: U.S. Closes On $1.5 Billion Loan To Resurrect Holtec’s Palisades Nuclear Plant

  Following the news of the Three Mile Island restart plans, it looks like our assertion that ‘nuclear is back’ is correct.

  That’s because this week the U.S. closed on a deal to resurrect another nuclear plant, Holtec’s Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, thanks to a $1.52 billion loan from the Biden administration, according to Reuters.

  A senior Biden administration official stated that reopening the plant could take up to two years—longer than the company’s estimate.

  The Reuters report said that the administration aims to triple U.S. nuclear power capacity as demand rises and climate concerns grow, which could include restarting decommissioned reactors like Three Mile Island, site of the nation’s worst nuclear accident. Restarting these plants is a complex and costly process that has never been done before in the U.S.

  “Palisades is a climate comeback story,” said White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi, emphasizing that nuclear power supports high-paying union jobs.

  The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office is providing $1.52 billion in financing, along with $1.3 billion in public funding to power cooperatives Wolverine and Hoosier Energy, for the purchase of power from Palisades. Deputy Energy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small made the funding announcement.

  

  Recall just days ago we wrote that Sam Altman-backed Nuclear SMR company Oklo announced it had finalized an agreement with the Department of Energy to advance the next phase of sitting at the Idaho National Lab. 

  As we’ve noted last week, the nuclear energy embrace is starting to make its way across the country. Just hours ago Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was urging for Three Mile Island to reopen as quickly as possible, as well. 

  Following Microsoft’s agreement to purchase power from the dormant nuclear plant, Shapiro urged regulators to prioritize the reactor’s connection to the electrical grid, according to a new report from Barron’s.

  In a letter to PJM Interconnection, the grid operator serving Pennsylvania and several other states, Shapiro emphasized that the plant should not face the extended delays typical for new developments, as Microsoft aims to start utilizing the reactor’s energy by 2028.

  PJM Interconnection responded to Shapiro’s concerns, stating that it is developing a “fast track” process to prioritize certain electricity projects, potentially speeding up the reactor’s return to service.

  Shapiro wants the reactor to “be allowed to come online as quickly as possible rather than waiting in the queue as if they were an entirely new development,” he wrote.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 18:50

• Housing Starts Are Tumbling As Completions Soar, It's Very Recessionary
  Housing Starts Are Tumbling As Completions Soar, It’s Very Recessionary

  Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

  The discrepancy between housing starts and completions is the largest since 1980. Let’s discuss…

  

  Data from the Census Department, calculation and chart by Mish

  The DotCom bust was unrelated to housing. Most recessions impact housing or housing busts lead to recession.

  The single-family stats aren’t good, but they aren’t as bad.

  Single Family Housing Starts Minus Completions

  

  The next chart puts the discrepancy into proper perspective.

  Housing Starts and Completions

  

  Housing Starts Minus Completions Detail

  

  The Strong Economy?

  Fed Chair Jerome Powell put on a strong display during the FOMC press conference.

  But if the economy was as strong as Powell let on, the Fed arguably should have not cut rates at all.

  On September 19, I noted Existing Home Sales Decline for the 24th Time in 31 Months

  From a year ago sales are down 2.5 percent. Sales are down 39 percent from the January 2022 high.

  The Ominous Reason Continued Unemployment Claims Have Improved

  Also, please note The Ominous Reason Continued Unemployment Claims Have Improved

  The brief synopsis is unemployment benefits are expiring rapidly.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 18:25

• Watch: Matt Taibbi And Walter Kirn Give Epic Speeches Everyone Should Watch
  Watch: Matt Taibbi And Walter Kirn Give Epic Speeches Everyone Should Watch

  Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn gave gave must-watch speeches last weekend at the ‘Rescue The Republic’ rally in Washington D.C. – which was organized to promote free speech and the 8 pillars of ‘Join the Resistance.‘

  

  Taibbi torched the establishment, starting with John Kerry – who recently said he wants the First Amendment “hammered out of existence” so the elites can control information.

  Taibbi also went full Les Grossman on the ‘anti-disinformation’ dickheads from the censorship industrial complex…

  Let me pause to say something about America’s current intellectual class, from which the “anti-disinformation” complex comes. By the way: there are no working-class censors, poor censors, hungry censors. The dirty secret of “content moderation” everywhere is that it’s a tiny sliver of the educated rich correcting everyone else. It’s telling people what fork to use, but you can get a degree in it. –Matt Taibbi

  But while “the Michael Haydens, John Brennans, James Clappers, Mike McFauls and Rick Stengels who make up America’s self-appointed behavior police” keep trying to censor, they’re on “a fool’s errand.”

  But “Motherfucker, I’m an American. That shit does not work on me. And how can you impugn my patriotism, when you’re sitting in Klaus Schwab’s lap, apologizing for the First Amendment to a crowd of Europeans? Look in the mirror.”

  Watch:

  Novelist Walter Kirn also spoke at the event, telling “a little bedtime story” about his childhood in rural Minnesota – “the land of the deplorables,” that can best be summarized by the man himself via Racket News (emphasis ours);

  

  When I was a kid in rural Minnesota, the land of the deplorables in the late sixties and early seventies, my mother had a little record player. The problem was, she only had five records, and all were protest music. Pete Seeger, the Weavers, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul, and Mary. I used to listen to the records, and I had a favorite song. Maybe you know it: “If I had a Hammer.”

  It was very strange that my mother had these records, because she was a young Republican. Anyway, I was eight years old, and I had no idea what this song meant. It seemed to have something to do with being powerless, and dreaming or fantasizing that you had power. If I had a hammer, I’d hammer out justice. I’d hammer out freedom all over this land. I’d hammer out love between the brothers and the sisters…

  That was my favorite line, because it was so puzzling. Isn’t love between brothers and sisters incest? As I said, I found this song confusing, and the thing that confused me most about the song was: Why didn’t the singer have a hammer? What had happened? Who’d taken it away?

  This morning, I was reading Twitter and I was reminded of this song in the most unlikely way. I saw a clip of a discussion at one of those big international conferences that you and I are never invited to, and on this video was John Kerry, former Secretary of State, former Skull and Bonesman, that secret society at Yale — the same secret society that George W. Bush belonged to. The guy who ran against John Kerry for president in 2004: Skull and Bones versus Skull and Bones. Talk about the illusion of choice.

  Anyway, what Kerry was talking about was the First Amendment, and how it was a problem. A big, big problem. He had a peculiar complaint about it.

  The First Amendment stopped people like him, he said, from trying to “build consensus.” Now, that’s how these people think about themselves, as builders of consensus. What does that make you and me? We’re construction materials!

  John Kerry, master builder, had a complaint. The First Amendment, he said, was a “major block” for people like him from stopping what he now calls disinformation. It kept him from, he said, “hammering it out of existence.”

  Now, I’m pretty sure that in 1949 when Pete Seeger wrote, “The Hammer Song,” or “If I Had a Hammer,” he didn’t mean if John Kerry had a hammer. He didn’t mean if they had a hammer:

  If they had a hammer,

  They’d hammer out disinformation.

  They’d hammer out vaccine hesitancy,

  All over this land.

  They’d hammer out Kennedy.

  They’d hammer Matt Taibbi….

  That is not the song, and John Kerry has it wrong. The hammer does not belong to him.

  That hammer belongs to us. It’s ours. But why don’t we have it? That’s the mystery.

  That’s the question I’ve spent a lifetime trying to figure out. Look at this gray hair. It’s been a lifetime. Why doesn’t the singer have a hammer? Why? Why do we have to dream to fantasize? Why do we have to wish we had one?

  Well, I think I’ve finally answered it. We have it right in front of us. The question is, will we pick it up? The question is, will we use it? So, I have a request for you. When you go home tonight, when you get home, pick up your hammer. Pick up your hammer and use it. It’s time to build.

  My mother had one other record. It was by Simon and Garfunkel. It also had a song I loved called El Condor Pasa. I think you remember its greatest line: “I’d rather be a hammer than a nail.”

  Don’t be a nail. Pick up your hammers. Go home. Let’s build a New America.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 18:00

• "Absurd Program" – Texas A&M Cuts LGBT Minor
  “Absurd Program” – Texas A&M Cuts LGBT Minor

  Authored by Gabrielle Temaat via The College Fix,

  Texas A&M University is discontinuing its LGBTQ+ minor due to low enrollment, following criticism of the program from Republican lawmakers over what they called “liberal indoctrination.”

  The Battalion, the school’s student newspaper, reported last week that the university is cutting 14 minors and 38 certificates following an internal review that deemed them “low-producing” programs.

  The university slashed programs that awarded “fewer than five degrees per academic year and fewer than 25 degrees in five years.”

  The description of the LGBTQ+ minor on the school’s website states that it “prepares students to examine the ways in which gender and sexuality are socially constructed and offers a critical understanding [of] how sexuality and sexual orientation shape gender roles, identities, and social statuses in societies.”

  The minor “also examines homophobia and transphobia’s relationship to racism, colonialism, sexism, ableism, classism and other forms of power,” the description states.

  “After months of calling for A&M to end this absurd program, I was pleased to learn…they plan to end it. Proud to have helped deliver this victory for Texas taxpayers, who should never be forced to fund liberal indoctrination,” Texas Representative Brian Harrison wrote in a post on X.

  “I look forward to further discussions with A&M and will continue fighting to keep taxpayers from funding leftist propaganda that does nothing to strengthen our economy or the workforce of tomorrow,” he told the Daily Caller.

  Harrison (pictured) called for the school to discontinue the minor in March to “protect [his] constituents’ tax dollars, as well as the integrity of Texas A&M,” the Battalion reported.

  

  “I asked them to discontinue this minor or provide to me in writing a justification for this minor to be continued. The most charitable way to characterize the response is as a ‘non-response,’” Harrison told the Daily Caller.

  Texas Representative Chip Roy also called for the school to be “held accountable” for pushing “radical woke policies” earlier this year.

  In contrast, Texas A&M Sociology Professor Mary Campbell said that removing the minor would negatively impact students opportunities and academic freedom. 

  “The minor is a legitimate area of study that you should be able to study at A&M,” Campbell said. 

  “If we want to be a high-quality university, that’s how we do it: by providing those opportunities to students,” she said. 

  “I think we should work very hard to protect academic freedom, the freedom to study any legitimate area of study, which this minor absolutely is,” the professor said. 

  The school also discontinued the Asian Studies minor, along with certificates in “Diversity and Social Justice,” “Popular Culture,” and “Performing Social Activism,” the student newspaper reported.

  However, “courses associated with the deactivated programs will be unaffected,” according to the Battalion.

  The full list of deactivated minors and certificates will not be public until Oct. 14 when it “appears before the Faculty Senate.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 17:40

• WTI Extends Gains After API Reports Another Crude Inventory Draw
  WTI Extends Gains After API Reports Another Crude Inventory Draw

  Oil prices surged today as the record spec shorts suddenly realized that the Middle East is shitshow of geopolitical bomb fuses just ready to be lit. WTI spiked dramatically up near $72 on the Iranian missile attack in Israel before fading back a little

  “Iran sits astride the world’s most strategic energy region, oil- and gas- production facilities and transit choke points,” said Bob McNally, founder of Rapidan Energy Group and a former adviser to president George W Bush.

  “So, when Iran is involved in a shooting war with its neighbours, you have to price in some geopolitical disruption risk, especially when it comes to Israel,” he added.

  Will the already low (tank bottoms) crude and Cushing stockpiles get tested further…

  API

  • Crude -1.46mm (unch exp)

  • Cushing +700k

  • Gasoline +900k (-300k exp)

  • Distillates -2.7mm (-1.4mm exp)

  For the sixth week in the last seven, crude stocks fell last week (and distillates inventories tumbled). Cushing stocks increased for the second week in a row…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Total crude stocks are back at their lowest since April 2022…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  WTI was hovering just above $70 ahead of the API print and inched higher on the unexpected crude draw….

  

  “This fresh escalation is serious and justifies oil’s jump,” said Bill Farren-Price, a veteran oil market watcher and senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

  “But we’ve been here before — the conflict needs to show signs of spreading to the Gulf if it is to ignite a broader and sustained oil price rally. At the moment it has not.”

  Helima Croft, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets and a former CIA analyst, said oil traders needed to assess whether Israel would retaliate by directly targeting critical Iranian military and economic assets, including energy infrastructure.

  “In April, the Israelis opted for a muted response to the Iranian missile and drone strikes. And yet in the past two weeks the [government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] has demonstrated an increasingly high-risk tolerance for escalatory actions to achieve their strategic objectives.”

  Of course President Biden (well – whoever is running the show behind getting ‘her’ elected) will not want to see crude prices rising (nor will Jay Powell, so soon after his mission accomplished 50bps cut out of nowhere).

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 17:20

• Rickards: Biggest Monetary Shock In 50 Years
  Rickards: Biggest Monetary Shock In 50 Years

  Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

  I’d like to start today’s issue by extending my thoughts and prayers to those impacted by Hurricane Helene, which has devastated significant portions of the southeast with massive flooding.

  The death toll is over 100 and may increase significantly. Let’s all hope the affected areas will recover.

  Moving on, with so much attention focused on the U.S. presidential election, the war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza, which is spreading to Lebanon, it’s easy to lose sight of other geopolitical developments that may be even more significant in the long run.

  One of these developments is the rise of the new BRICS currency and its potential role in the global monetary system.

  I’ve been warning readers about the collapse of the dollar for years and I was one of the first people to alert you to the rise of BRICS.

  It’s a monetary shock about to hit the global financial system, and something I consider the most significant development in international finance in over half a century.

  The annual leaders’ summit of BRICS nations is being held in Kazan, Russia from Oct. 22–24, and will include announcements moving the BRICS currency plans forward in material ways.

  

  The Power of BRICS

  The original BRICs membership from 2009 consisted of Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa was added in 2010 when the group’s name was changed to BRICS.

  That group expanded significantly at the 2023 leaders’ summit in South Africa when Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were added. (Argentina and Saudi Arabia were also permitted to enter but Argentina withdrew its application, and Saudi Arabia deferred its membership saying it was still considering the matter.)

  BRICS has been active over the years in institutionalizing its initiatives. In 2014, the BRICS created the New Development Bank (NDB), which functions along the lines of the World Bank to promote infrastructure development in emerging economies.

  The NDB was capitalized with over $100 billion from its members and currently has 53 projects underway with commitments of over $15 billion to those projects.

  Beyond the nine current members, there is a waiting list of over 20 aspiring members including economic powers such as Nigeria, Venezuela, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Thailand and Vietnam.

  The BRICS are part of an emerging Global South that is challenging the Collective West for world economic and geopolitical dominance.

  The BRICS Currency Defined

  The subject of a BRICS currency is confusing to most observers and is a fraught topic even for many experts. We’ll call the potential currency a BRIC for convenience, although no formal name has been announced.

  The BRICS currency is very far along in establishing itself as a viable payment currency. The prerequisites are: agreed-upon value (which can be fixed to another currency, floating or pegged to a weight of gold), secure payments channels (basically high-speed, encrypted digital pipes for authenticated message traffic), digital ledgers and an agreed issuer (the NDB based in Shanghai may be suitable for this purpose, but another institution could be created).

  The single most important element is a sufficiently large membership in the BRICS currency union such that a recipient of BRICS payments can use them for purchases in many jurisdictions for many goods and services.

  This last point is where most alternative currency payment arrangements fall down. Russia can sell oil to China for CNY (which they are currently doing), but they are constrained in terms of where they can spend the CNY (basically limited to Chinese manufactured goods and semiconductors).

  The same issue arises when Russia sells oil to India (for rupees) or weapons to Iran (for rials). The seller is limited in terms of what they can buy with the trading partner’s currency.

  This constraint goes away in a currency union with 15 or 20 members or more. If Russia earns BRICs from China, they can buy Embraer aircrafts from Brazil or semiconductors from Malaysia.

  For that matter, the use of a payment currency in a multi-member currency union is not limited to members. With access to the payment channels, non-members can nevertheless agree to receive the BRICS currency in payment, confident in their ability to spend it among the other BRICS members who are trading partners.

  The proof of this is the eurozone, which is currently a 20-member currency union with a single central bank and worldwide acceptance of the euro.

  New Developments to Watch

  There are several interesting developments taking place. The first is that the U.S. is squandering its rule-of-law advantage with sanctions on Russia, the freezing of the assets of the Central Bank of Russia and efforts to actually steal those assets and convert them into a $50 billion loan to Ukraine using structured finance.

  Given this rogue behavior by the U.S., countries are becoming more cautious about large U.S. Treasury note reserves. This may account in part for the recent rally in the price of gold.

  The second is that the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia in late October will announce significant progress in building out secure payment channels and will admit new members, which will drive the group closer to the critical mass needed to launch a currency union.

  None of this happens overnight. It’s helpful to recall that the euro took almost 10 years to launch from the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 to the actual creation of the euro in 2000.

  I worked closely with Alberto Giovannini in the late 1990s. He was one of the leading economists and scholars who helped create the euro. I was quite familiar with the technical hurdles to creating a new currency, especially the determination of the exchange rates at which Deutsche marks, lira, francs and other member currencies would be converted to euros.

  A Linkage to Gold

  It will take years to develop a BRICs-denominated bond market, although the process could be accelerated if BRICS members offered bonds directly to their own citizens as retail investors.

  There is a short path to making the BRICs a viable reserve currency — gold. Members of the BRICS currency union could use surplus BRICs to buy gold bullion to hold in their reserves.

  Russia, China and South Africa are all major gold producers and China has an extensive network of refineries so there should be ample gold available for purchase. When needed for purchases or settlements, the gold could be easily sold for BRICS currency. The common thread in these and other solutions is that they obviate U.S. dollar transactions.

  It will still take a few years to add members, build out the infrastructure and firm up some valuation issues. Still, this currency is coming.

  Even as a payment currency, the BRICS unit could be used in a material percentage of global trade giving the dollar a run for its money. The BRICS unit does not mark the end of the dollar as a widely accepted currency.

  Still, in conjunction with the badly misguided weaponization of the dollar, it could mark the beginning of the end.

  

  Slowly, then suddenly, said Hemingway about how men go bankrupt. The same could apply to the dollar.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 17:00

• 'Oceans Eleven' Style Jewelry Burglaries By South American Thieves Are Becoming Widespread
  ‘Oceans Eleven’ Style Jewelry Burglaries By South American Thieves Are Becoming Widespread

  Complex, sophisticated ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ style burglaries are becoming widespread across the U.S., so much so that jewelers have been officially put on notice.

  The Jewelers’ Security Alliance (JSA) and Jewelers Mutual warned this week about some stores suffering major losses as a result of the break-ins, according to a new report from JCK.

  Scott Guginsky, the JSA’s vice president, said: “We see burglaries everywhere, from New York to Texas. Some of the hits are in the millions. These are the largest dollar losses we’ve seen in some time.”

  “It doesn’t appear like they’re stopping,” said Howard Stone, vice president of global risk services and analytics for Jewelers Mutual. He started noticing the crimes in June, the report says. 

  

  Thefts usually happen on weekends, with gangs dressing as construction workers to blend in, the report says. They use cellphone and Wi-Fi blockers, cut power cables, and wait for backup alarms to drain. Sometimes, they set up hunting cameras as motion sensors.

  The JCK report says that the gangs meticulously plan their heists, gathering detailed intelligence beforehand. “They’re all from South America and they are somewhat in communication. But it’s a loose-knit group. It’s not like there’s a [mob boss] John Gotti coordinating everything.”

  Guginsky added: “They usually roll into town for a week and do surveillance. They scout out the store, follow the jeweler home. They often send someone in the store during business hours, with a camera on their hat and their shirt, so they have a sense of the layout.”

  To prevent burglaries, the JSA and Jewelers Mutual suggest several measures for jewelers: stay alert to suspicious individuals who may be scouting the store or following you, and report any concerns to both the JSA and local authorities, keeping a log of incidents.

  They also suggest regularly testing alarms and cameras, updating your emergency contact list, and ensuring contacts are available on weekends and holidays.

  Lastly, they tell store owners to build relationships with local law enforcement and mall security to identify store vulnerabilities, the report concludes. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 16:40

• Chaos As Cover
  Chaos As Cover

  Authored by T.L.Davis via Substack,

  If you’re looking toward this election as anything other than a trigger event, you’re missing the point. It doesn’t even matter who wins in respect to your preparedness. Contact with the enemy is ensured either way. There is no peaceful path other than total and complete compliance; abandoning any hope for the future of the republic and human rights.

  

  As LTC Steven Murray put it in a recent video, this vote is not like any other, it is the last act of a civilized man participating in a civilized act simply to erase the last vestige of responsibility before becoming absolutely ungovernable. The goal is to make the communists exert every effort to overcome the popularity and vote count to arrive at a Kamala win. The harder they have to work the more careless they become and the more eyes open as to the real status of the coup.

  Where Trump would have to be inaugurated before implementing any of his policies, Kamala could start immediately, bypassing the ordinary transition, because all of her secretaries and sychophants would already be in place. They would basically be those of Barack Obama’s fourth term, anyway. She will then be able to go to sleep like Joe and let them run it all, but with much strengthened zeal toward the outright denigration of the population.

  If you think Trump and his MAGA minions were attacked and brutalized under sleepy Joe, you can’t even imagine the level of hostility to be brought against them post November 5th. Should Trump win; by some massive failure of the left, or “too big to rig” actual overwhelming of the ballot box, it will probably be a short-lived victory for he will become target number one of every crackpot and government agency goon in the current administration. They’ve already proved they can coordinate nut jobs with lax security to produce the desired effect. Times that by 1000 and you might understand the situation accurately. With all of these crackpots and enemy agents activated post election, it will be something to awaken even more and importantly, expose those law enforcement agencies already on the wrong side of the republic.

  It is an election of no serious consequence as to the future. It is bleak no matter how one turns it, but this is why I encourage the masses to vote, to absolve themselves of the slightest hesitance toward self-defense. It is simply a question of willing surrender or fight from this point on and the vote is the first act of willingness to fight those terrible odds.

  I say this not to be inflammatory or hyperbolic, I think the sense of many are starting to realize there’s no help coming from any of the traditional sources. Tennessee and North Carolina can attest to how they are held in contempt and even hostile esteem by the federal government, punishment for not backing Harris.

  This is how it goes, your state either resists and blocks federal action or they submit willingly to it. One must be in one of the states that resist and blocks or the fight will be much harder and nearly impossible to win. What I mean by “win” is to survive it.

  This is no longer a long-range forecast, there’s a little over a month to the election, i.e., trigger point. The facts might come clear even before that, or WWIII, but at least then if not sooner. In my estimation, this is the time to start putting plans into place, if for no other reason than the dock strike is probably to keep last minute preparations from being completed. I’m not at the hunker-down stage yet, simply by virtue of my location, but if I were inner-city or local to a large population center, I would have a different outlook. Going to work, would be more of a day to day decision.

  The two prongs are individual survivability and survivability of those I hold dear. All decisions are weighed against one or the other. Fortunately for us, we have been able to move our jobs to remote status and so work is no longer a question of the journey as survivable or not as we move into this volatile stage of the crumbling republic. Tomorrow the conflict begins, in my mind, with the strike, the squeezing and softening of the resistance to the regime, the breaking of the spirit, the restraint of goods, the civilians at war with each other to spread the chaos they seek.

  This signifies the time to rise, to take advantage of their efforts toward chaos for their purposes and to use it against them. Chaos is the cover action for necessary deeds.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 16:20

• Strikes (Missiles & Dockworkers) Spark Surge In Oil, Gold, & Bonds; Big-Tech & Bitcoin Battered
  Strikes (Missiles & Dockworkers) Spark Surge In Oil, Gold, & Bonds; Big-Tech & Bitcoin Battered

  Today’s mixed macro picture (construction spending down, National Manufacturing surveys and Dallas Fed in contraction offset by surge in JOLTS) was overwhelmed by Strikes (from Iranian missiles and American longshoremen).

  The widespread union strike deadline passed and bond markets shifted lower in yield on that news overnight. Then as Iranian missiles rained down on Israel, investors poured into safe-havens (bonds, gold) and dumped stocks as oil prices re-discovered geopolitical risk premium.

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Treasury yields were all bid today, but are mixed on the week with the short-end significantly underperforming…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Gold was also bid as safe-haven (erasing all of yesterday’s losses)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  The dollar strengthened significantly on the day (more safe haven flows perhaps)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Oil prices surged higher on the missile launches with WTI reaching almost $72 before pulling back a little.

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Stocks lurched lower on the Iran-Israel headlines – led by Small Caps and Mega-Cap Tech – but once Europe closed, the algos started trying to BTFD. The momentum did ignite but failed to get any of the majors green before some late-day profit-taking from 0-DTEs dragged everything down again…

  

  VIX and VVIX both surged higher today…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Bitcoin continued to serve its role as an anti-geopolitical risk asset – dumping every time a MidEast headline hits the Bloomberg terminal (which makes little to no sense to us… but hey we don’t have PhDs)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  It seems BTC and Big-Tech are joined at the hip again for now…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Finally, as Bloomberg reports, while investors are focused on policy cues (and liquidity infusions), earnings momentum has turned negative and could be a drag on stocks if it doesn’t improve with the upcoming earnings season.

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Buy hey, for now liquidity is all that matters…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  …until it doesn’t!

  And there’s some liquidity stress in the banks’ plumbing…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Let’s just hope it’s quarter-end window-dressing (but this is one to keep an eye on).

  Is that why USA Sovereign risk is also spiking…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Probably nothing..

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 16:00

• A Dozen Veterans Affairs Staffers Improperly Accessed Medical Records Of J.D. Vance, Tim Walz; Report
  A Dozen Veterans Affairs Staffers Improperly Accessed Medical Records Of J.D. Vance, Tim Walz; Report

  Authored by Eric Lendrum via American Greatness,

  An investigation has revealed that the medical records of vice presidential nominees J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Tim Walz (D-Minn.) at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) were improperly accessed by at least a dozen employees over the summer.

  

  According to the Daily Caller, the internal investigation carried out by VA investigators found that these employees would be in violation of federal privacy laws, and could themselves face criminal investigations.

  The breaches occurred in the VA’s Veterans Health Administration (VHA), according to anonymous sources close to the investigation. Both campaigns have already been formally informed of the data being compromised.

  Federal prosecutors have already been contacted by the VA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), presented with evidence that could lead to charges.

  Among the accused employees are a physician and a contractor, who allegedly spent “extended time” looking at the medical records without proper authorization to do so.

  “We reported to law enforcement allegations that VA personnel may have improperly accessed Veteran records,” a VA spokesman said in a statement.

  “We take the privacy of the Veterans we serve very seriously and have strict policies in place to protect their records. Any attempt to improperly access Veteran records by VA personnel is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

  The breaches occurred in July and August, shortly after the announcements that Senator Vance and Governor Walz would be serving as the running mates of presidential nominees Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, respectively. The breaches were discovered after officials conducted routine security checks of all of the high-profile accounts with records stored at the agency.

  Back in August, VA Secretary Denis McDonough sent an internal memo reminding all employees that “viewing a Veteran’s records out of curiosity or concern — or for any purpose that is not directly related to officially authorized and assigned duties — is strictly prohibited.”

  The subject of both Walz and Vance’s military records has become a focus of both campaigns, primarily due to controversy surrounding the exact details of Walz’ service, including his rank upon retirement and when he retired. Multiple members of Walz’ former Army unit, including his former commanding officer and his former chaplain, accused him of deliberately abandoning his unit once he found out that the unit was going to be deployed to Iraq for war. Walz also lied about his rank, claiming to have retired as a command sergeant major when he actually never completed the full requirements to achieve the rank. These and other scandals have led to widespread accusations of stolen valor on Walz’ part.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 15:45

• At Least 6 Israelis Dead In Jaffa Terror Shooting Hours Before Iran Ballistic Missile Attack
  At Least 6 Israelis Dead In Jaffa Terror Shooting Hours Before Iran Ballistic Missile Attack

  On Tuesday there was a mass shooting and large casualties in the Israeli city of Jaffa, in the south Tel Aviv area. A pair of gunmen went on a shooting rampage in or near a strain station on Jerusalem street, local media says.

  Several casualties were down at the scene, amid a huge police and emergency responder presence. Police are calling it a suspected terror attack. It occurred within hours before a large-scale Iranian ballistic missile attack on Tel Aviv.

  

  “Initial reports in Hebrew media indicate that there were at least two gunmen in the attack and that there are at least 10 wounded, including two in critical condition,” Times of Israel initially reported.

  But as emergency responders made it to the scene, the death toll quickly rose: 

  Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) confirmed that eight individuals were killed in the attacks that occurred Jaffa, the Times of Israel reported.

  Police also stated that two individuals who carried out the attacks had been “neutralized” according to the outlet.

  Some reports are saying that at least 14 people were shot. Initially circulating security camera images showed two Arabs or presumably Palestinian men carrying assault rifles. Reports remain conflicting as police investigate the scene.

  Footage showed a chaotic shootout and many Israelis on the ground (warning: graphic):

  Multiple Individuals have been Shot at the Light-Rail Station on Jerusalem Boulevard in Jaffa, in a Suspected Terrorist Attack. pic.twitter.com/UjXriTF8sK

  — OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 1, 2024

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

  “Eight people were murdered in the terror shooting attack in Jaffa this evening, MDA says,” according to Times of Israel.

  Tuesday evening has been chaotic and fearful across Israel, given that just as headlines of the deadly Jaffa shootings began emerging, Iran began launching a huge ballistic missile assault on Israel. Millions of Israelis took to bomb shelters amid widespread alarms sounding.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 15:25

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• Enough Already: Stop Provoking Russia
  Enough Already: Stop Provoking Russia

  Authored by Carus Michaelangelo via The Mises Institute,

  Like many people, I eagerly await Scott Horton’s upcoming book, Provoked, which will explain in detail the US provocations that led to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But will it come too late?

  

  Since the Russia-Ukraine war began, the Biden administration, in collaboration with the Ukrainian government and much of Europe, has continued incessantly provoking Putin toward a wider conflict with the West. One can recognize the dangerous path we tread without justifying any of Russia’s responses to these provocations.

  The US and Europe have armed Ukraine to the teeth.

  The West has funded Ukraine’s military effort—and a great deal of corruption—to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. Supposedly this is good for the US because it aids the US military-industrial complex, but this will be cold comfort in the event of war with Russia. 

  Ukraine sabotaged the Nord Stream pipeline, but everyone rushed to blame Russia initially. Ukraine launched an invasion of Russia’s Kursk region in early August, apparently surprising the US government. Since the invasion and the Wall Street Journal’s revelations about the Nord Stream pipeline, the US government’s support for Ukraine has not changed one iota. Indeed, the Kursk incursion ultimately met US approval.

  The US government supplied Ukraine with ATACMS missiles that exploded a beach in Crimea in April. And now, Ukraine is again launching attacks on Moscow, this time sending drones that have attacked residential buildings and an airport. Is our blank check to Ukraine—as its action steadily increases in desperation—going to make war less likely, as the war hawks seem to imagine? Hardly.

  The US makes an elementary blunder: they treat war with Ukraine as a proxy war. But to Russia, it is anything but. Our Ukrainian proxy is not fighting a Russian proxy, but Russia itself. Just because the fighting was taking place in neighboring Ukraine, rather than in Russia, changes nothing. US money, weapons, and intelligence are being used to make war on Russia. It is that simple to Russian leaders.

  The US establishment is playing a dangerous game. Blinded by their own hubris into thinking that they know better, they claim that Putin bluffs when he hints that he may use nuclear weapons, or when Russian officials indicate Russia is changing its nuclear doctrine in response to the West’s actions. Establishment hacks claim Putin is a “coward” who will back down to displays of power and resolve from the West. (One might call this the “coward, coward, coward” narrative). The Ukrainian government, unsurprisingly, spins the same yarn.

  Of course, this narrative is blatantly inconsistent and self-serving. Michael McFaul, former US Ambassador to Russia and a fanatical Russia hawk, at one and the same time knows Putin will back down to US deterrence, but can state with a straight face that, “Putin consistently acts belligerently even when the costs would seem to outweigh the benefits.” Moreover, he says, “American policymakers also underestimate the Russian leader’s tolerance for risky behavior, often assuming he will respond predictably to threats and inducements.” Well, which is it? Do we know Putin will back down, or is he unpredictable and willing to take costly actions driven by fear? It is no exaggeration to say that everything hinges on this single, unverifiable speculation about Putin.

  When their narrative invariably runs into the harsh mistress of reality, they resort to page one of the Washington, DC playbook—unprecedented action and funding was not enough, we need to do and spend even more. If the West does not fund Ukraine or if we make peace with Russia, Putin hawks say, we are rewarding aggression. Hundreds of billions of dollars to signal that we cannot “reward aggression” is the typical Beltway or out-of-touch, think tank logic: take costly, symbolic action that makes no difference. Because in the end, it will have made no difference, other than to prolong the conflict and increase death and suffering. Doing more will only move us closer to the brink. As revealed in the New York Times in late August, the Biden administration at one point “feared the likelihood of nuclear use might rise to 50 percent or even higher.” Yet, we escalate further.

  At every step, the US political establishment has been an obstacle to peace. Victoria Nuland, Biden’s former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, recently admitted what we already knew: that the US helped sabotage a peace proposal that could have ended the Russia-Ukraine war in its infancy. Their incessant refrain that Putin could not be trusted, and that he was salivating at the prospect of moving on to Eastern Europe after Ukraine, was not helpful either. History will remember that the war could have been over almost immediately, and countless Ukrainians alive today, had the US establishment had peace in mind, rather than Putin in their crosshairs.

  When will US leaders say enough is enough: it’s time to end our support for Ukraine; it’s time to pull back from the bellicosity against nuclear powers; and it’s time for peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none? To paraphrase Murray Rothbard, while some may prefer death in nuclear war to Russian rule over Ukraine, most Americans—and many Ukrainians—rightly prefer not to end up in a “free world” cemetery.

  Some European leaders are coming around to peace. But only an intense and sustained campaign for peace from the American people can counter the hawkish establishment impulses to defend Ukraine at all costs.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 10/01/2024 – 02:00

• Essential Liberty Vs. Temporary Safety
  Essential Liberty Vs. Temporary Safety

  Authored by Carl M. Cannon via RealClearPolitics,

  This article was originally published on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 – with the election in 40 days, which in the Judeo-Christian tradition is a number of profound significance. It signals, among other things, the difficulty of maintaining one’s spiritual faith in the face of adversity.

  

  The Bible tells us that the rains of the “great flood” lasted 40 days and 40 nights. Moses fasted for 40 days – and spent 40 days and nights atop Mount Sinai waiting to receive the Lord’s law. The New Testament tells us that Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights in preparation for his ministry – and ascended to heaven 40 days after his crucifixion.

  Is it merely a metaphor? Perhaps. But a comforting one, as the number 40 also suggests that God has patience with us. This year, in America, He will need it.

  Friday is also the day of the week when I reprise a quotation intended to be uplifting or educational. Today’s words of wisdom concern the secular issue of criminal justice policy, as rendered not in the Old Testament, but in the Old West – by none other than Wild Bill Hickok.

  But first, some context: Eight years ago this week Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump held their first debate. More than midway through the session – by then they were openly contemptuous of one another – the pair sparred over criminal justice policy. The context was rising homicide rates, particularly in Chicago and several other large cities.

  The two candidates talked past one another. Trump tried to pin the violent crime increase on progressive Democratic Party reforms such as getting rid of “stop and frisk” in New York City. Clinton denied crime was really increasing and, with an assist from NBC anchorman Lester Holt, tried to pivot the discussion into a conversation about race.

  Suffice it to say that nothing enlightening was uttered that night. But, in fairness, criminal justice policy is complicated. It’s difficult to even know the basic facts. In 2024, for example, despite assurances from Kamala Harris and her fellow Democrats (repeated word-for-word by the press) that violent crime is declining in this country, the picture isn’t that simple.

  The source for the Democrats’ claim is the annual FBI Uniform Crime Report, which does show declining homicide rates. But the FBI numbers aren’t as solid as they once were. The reasons vary. For one thing, not every major police department even reports their numbers to the FBI anymore. Also, there is some evidence that more crimes, even serious felonies, are going unreported.

  Another government metric, which comes from the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, is the National Crime Victimization Survey. It’s not perfect, either, but it shows an increase in crime. I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle, as it often is, but I will say this: When someone smugly assures you that crime is going down, check and see if you still have your wallet in your pocket or purse.

  Which brings me (at long last) to Wild Bill Hickok.

  Crime, a perennial political hot potato in this country, was the main issue in a local election held in central Kansas more than a century and a half ago. Tired of being brutalized by itinerant cowboys and local roughnecks who liquored up in the saloons in the county seat of Hays City, the citizens of Ellis County turned to an outsider in a special election on August 23, 1869.

  The results were disputed, but ultimately Wild Bill Hickok was installed as sheriff. It didn’t take long for people to notice a difference.

  Just a few days later, a bad hombre from Missouri named Bill Mulvey showed up in town. Mulvey’s reputation as a mean drunk preceded him, and the journey to Hays hadn’t mellowed him out. When informed that Wild Bill was the new law in town, Mulvey shot out the mirrors in the saloon where he was drinking whilst using bad language and issuing menacing warnings.

  They were not veiled threats. Mulvey went so far as to boast that he’d come to Kansas to kill Bill Hickok. This may have just been whiskey talk, but as events unfolded it happened the other way around.

  According to one eyewitness account, Mulvey rode up the street on his gray horse, rifle at the ready. Wild Bill strode out to meet him. Hickok broke the ominous silence by suddenly calling out to an imaginary gunman behind Mulvey.

  “Don’t shoot him in the back!” Hickok shouted. “He is drunk.”

  When Mulvey turned around, Hickok drew his pistol and shot him in the head.

  A few weeks later, at 1 a.m. on September 27 – 155 years ago today – Hickok and his deputy came upon a gang of drunken cowboys tearing the hell out of John Bitter’s Beer Saloon. When Hickok ordered them to desist, one of the men, Samuel Strawhun, turned as if to rush the sheriff. Hickok quickly shot and killed him, quelling the melee.

  The city fathers of Hays were left to contemplate that after only five weeks in office, Wild Bill Hickok had killed two men in the name of restoring order. Voters mulled it over, too, and in the regular November election that year, Hickok was voted out of office in favor of his deputy.

  This tension between freedom and law and order is not a new one.

  Benjamin Franklin referenced it in the context of frontier strife between settlers and Native Americans in 1755. Twenty years later at a conference in Boston intended to forestall war between the colonists and the British, Ben Franklin reprised a slightly different version of his aphorism. The Massachusetts Conference, as it was called, was in vain. War was coming. And Franklin’s comment explains why: “They who can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary Safety,” he wrote, “deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

  And that is our quote of the week.

  Carl M. Cannon is the Washington bureau chief for RealClearPolitics and executive editor of RealClearMedia Group. Reach him on X @CarlCannon.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 23:25

• Escobar: Watching The China River Flow
  Escobar: Watching The China River Flow

  Authored by Pepe Escobar,

  Leading website Guancha has published the transcript of a first-class lecture at Renmin University on China-U.S. relations by Martin Jacques, author of When China Rules the World. Jacques is one of the very few Westerner scholars with on the ground experience who actually understands the Chinese psyche and way of life in contrast to the West.

  A particularly intriguing section of the lecture concerns research by Danny Quah, the dean of the widely respected Lee Kuan Yew Institute in Singapore. This is the money quote:

  “Between 1980 and 2020, Europe’s share of global GDP fell from 26% to 15%. In other words, it fell by 11 percentage points, a very large drop. Although the decline in the United States was smaller, it fell from 21% in the 1980s to less than 16% in 2020. From another perspective, Asia and East Asia are constantly rising. The share in 1980 was 11.5%, and it has risen to 25% in 2020. Among this 25%, China has made the largest contribution, accounting for 18% of the world.”

  What this graphically illustrates is the acute swing in the world’s center of economic gravity – no matter the rhetorical tsunamis emanating from the Hegemon. In 1980 the economic center was Atlanticist. Quah though believes that the economic center will reach the Sino-Indian border only by 2050.

  When we take China compounded with the 10 members of ASEAN, without even considering South Asia, it’s fair to argue that the economic center will already be in the East by 2030, and will be Sino-Indian before 2040.

  Jacques is correct that by then “the ‘Asian Age’ will replace the ‘Western Age’, and since 1750, the world has always been in the Western Age.” On a personal note, after living and working in Asia for most of the past three decades, I qualify our century as “The Eurasian Century”.

  And that, in a nutshell, is the reason why the Hegemon/Atlanticist elites are in Deep Panic mode. The free lunch – of exploiting the wealth of the Global South – is coming to an end.

  

  Hong Kong back in the spotlight

  China has already designed the masterplan of its development strategy all the way to 2035 and in many aspects all the way to 2049. The current juncture though is extremely tricky.

  The People’s Bank of China is taking the necessary master tweaks of the economy very seriously. Earlier this week the PBoC announced cuts to the outstanding mortgage rate and the reserve requirement ratio: that’s the amount of cash commercial banks need to hold as reserves. The PBoC also cut the benchmark policy rate and boosted capital markets.

  Then the Politburo, chaired by President Xi Jinping himself, intervened in full force, vowing to protect China’s private enterprises; finally stabilise the always wobbly property sector; and adopt the necessary fiscal expenditures.

  That’s the domestic front. On the external front, China is on a roll. The top priority is the slowly but surely internationalization of the yuan. And that’s where the crucial role of Hong Kong comes in – as detailed in a report by Renmin University.

  China is already de-dollarizing at nearly breakneck speed. The U.S. dollar’s share of bilateral trade has already fallen from 80% to less than 50%.

  China is now trading with the world mostly in yuan – and the petroyuan is not even in full force. Since the start of the SMO by Russia in Ukraine in February 2022, the yuan is the de facto Asian reserve currency for Russia. In parallel, Beijing is accelerating currency swaps all across the spectrum and designating more clearing banks around the world.

  Hong Kong is in a class by itself when it comes to state of the art financial institutions. Hence the connection is inevitable for global investors: all sorts of deals are open in China via Hong Kong, with the added bonus of avoiding Hegemon sanctions.

  So from now on Hong Kong will be even more of a Holy Grail for all sorts of yuan-denominated transactions. Talk about a magnet for finance tech wizards.

  Hong Kong is already the world’s top market for the offshore yuan – processing nearly 80% of all settlements. Three months ago, according to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the Special Administrative Region had $151.7 billion in offshore deposits.

  A top HKMA executive not by accident attended the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok earlier this month. With high U.S. interest rates and low PBoC interest rates, offshore yuan bonds will be issued like there’s no tomorrow.

  Nuclear destruction or an imperfect evolving new order

  From Beijing to Hong Kong, Chinese politico-economic elites are quite comfortable with the fact that for the first time in History, the rise of a great power is not being conditioned by imperialism, war, slavery, looting and all of the above, but under what has been codified since the Little Helmsman Deng Xiaoping’s late 1970s reforms as “peaceful development.”

  That is mirrored in several concepts such as win-win; mutual prosperity; equality; “community of shared future for mankind”; and as a master geoeconomic project, the interlocking connectivity corridors across the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

  While China invests in infrastructure development around the world, the Hegemon imposes sanctions, engages in bombing, supports variations of the Forever Wars, finances and weaponizes color revolutions.

  Hegemon “strategy” barely qualifying as utter mediocrity ranges from the U.S. government funding a $1.6 billion campaign to smear China to Republicans divided on whether regime change in Beijing is their ultimate goal and the Democrat ambassador in Beijing convinced that Washington’s China policy is not too hawkish.

  Then there’s puny functionary and Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell – the man who invented the “pivot to Asia” during the first Obama administration – ordering the Europeans to go hawkish on China and defining Beijing in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee as “the most significant challenge in our history”.

  Very few IQs above room temperature across Asia pay attention to such clowns. In contrast, what is now emerging in informed discussions from South to Southeast Asia is that BRICS progress will not be steady enough if the emphasis remains on consensual decisions.

  A daring proposition is emerging that Russia and China – the actual BRICS leaders – should announce at the summit in Kazan next month that they are backing a yuan/ruble/gold alliance: as in if the world needs to choose between NATOstan hegemony or a BRICS alternative, better start with sound (real) money.

  Beyond the feasibility of such proposal, there’s a serious critique of Utopia; the Global Majority must be pushed to face the harsh reality it faces – nuclear destruction or an imperfect evolving new order – and make a stand, fast.

  Meanwhile, like a river undisturbed while traversing a rocky wilderness, China silently flows away on its path to peaceful primacy.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 22:35

• These Are The Hardest-Working US States
  These Are The Hardest-Working US States

  This map, via Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao, shows the U.S. states that work the hardest, as scored out of 100 by a Wallethub study conducted in July 2024.

  

  Naturally trying to measure and compare “hard-work” requires a little bit of data analysis.

  How Is Hard Work Quantified?

  Here’s what Wallethub did. First they analyzed all states on 10 indicators and assigned them different weights.

  These indicators are then divided into two categories. The main one, “Direct Work” contributes 80 points to the total score.

  

  Meanwhile, “Indirect Work” indicators help the state achieve the last 20 points.

  

  Clearly, states that score better on higher-weighted indicators end up with a higher overall score, as seen below.

  Ranked: America’s Hardest-Working States

  Wallethub states North Dakota is the hardest-working American state, giving it a rounded score of 67/100. The state’s 98% employment rate helped in securing first place.

  Overall Rank	State	State Code	Total Score
  1	North Dakota	ND	67
  2	Alaska	AK	64
  3	Nebraska	NE	60
  4	Wyoming	WY	60
  5	South Dakota	SD	60
  6	Maryland	MD	58
  7	Texas	TX	57
  8	Colorado	CO	55
  9	New Hampshire	NH	54
  10	Kansas	KS	53
  11	Virginia	VA	52
  12	Oklahoma	OK	52
  13	Georgia	GA	52
  14	Hawaii	HI	51
  15	Tennessee	TN	49
  16	Mississippi	MS	49
  17	Iowa	IA	48
  18	Alabama	AL	47
  19	Louisiana	LA	47
  20	Missouri	MO	46
  21	Minnesota	MN	46
  22	Maine	ME	46
  23	North Carolina	NC	45
  24	Indiana	IN	45
  25	Montana	MT	44
  26	South Carolina	SC	44
  27	Idaho	ID	44
  28	Utah	UT	44
  29	Arkansas	AR	43
  30	Florida	FL	43
  31	Vermont	VT	43
  32	Arizona	AZ	41
  33	Wisconsin	WI	41
  34	Pennsylvania	PA	40
  35	Washington	WA	40
  36	Delaware	DE	40
  37	Kentucky	KY	40
  38	Massachusetts	MA	39
  39	California	CA	38
  40	Illinois	IL	38
  41	Oregon	OR	38
  42	Ohio	OH	37
  43	New Jersey	NJ	37
  44	Rhode Island	RI	37
  45	Nevada	NV	37
  46	Connecticut	CT	37
  47	New Mexico	NM	35
  48	Michigan	MI	34
  49	New York	NY	34
  50	West Virginia	WV	32

  Note: Figures rounded.

  Meanwhile, Alaska ranks second with 64 points, due to its average workweek crossing 41 hours. It’s the only state in the study which crossed the standard 40-hour metric.

  And Nebraska comes in third with 60 points. Wallethub states that more than 7% of its workforce has multiple jobs, the third-highest of all states.

  A quick overview of the map reveals that the strip of states in the center of the country are the hardest-working, with scores falling as one moves east and west respectively. Interestingly this is also America’s farming country, a demanding sector that requires long hours.

  Another interesting phenomenon is how Alaska and North Dakota have high direct work ranks but are bottom of the pack for indirect work.

  Overall Rank	State	Direct Work Factors Rank	Indirect Work Factors Rank
  1	North Dakota	1	41
  2	Alaska	2	34
  3	Nebraska	5	5
  4	Wyoming	6	2
  5	South Dakota	3	26
  6	Maryland	7	4
  7	Texas	4	31
  8	Colorado	9	7
  9	New Hampshire	12	9
  10	Kansas	10	25
  11	Virginia	16	12
  12	Oklahoma	8	44
  13	Georgia	11	32
  14	Hawaii	14	29
  15	Tennessee	15	36
  16	Mississippi	13	46
  17	Iowa	18	24
  18	Alabama	17	48
  19	Louisiana	19	38
  20	Missouri	24	20
  21	Minnesota	26	8
  22	Maine	33	1
  23	North Carolina	23	30
  24	Indiana	25	28
  25	Montana	27	22
  26	South Carolina	21	42
  27	Idaho	30	6
  28	Utah	35	3
  29	Arkansas	20	50
  30	Florida	22	47
  31	Vermont	31	14
  32	Arizona	28	39
  33	Wisconsin	29	40
  34	Pennsylvania	36	16
  35	Washington	39	13
  36	Delaware	32	37
  37	Kentucky	34	35
  38	Massachusetts	40	15
  39	California	37	27
  40	Illinois	42	19
  41	Oregon	46	10
  42	Ohio	43	21
  43	New Jersey	45	17
  44	Rhode Island	44	23
  45	Nevada	38	43
  46	Connecticut	49	11
  47	New Mexico	41	45
  48	Michigan	48	33
  49	New York	50	18
  50	West Virginia	47	49

  However, Nebraska performs equally well in both categories. The Cornhusker state has a low share of idle-youth, and has the fifth-highest volunteer hours per capita in the country.

  Interestingly, many of America’s hardest-working states have much lower cost of living requirements. See how the data shakes out in The Income an Individual Needs to Live Comfortably in the States.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 22:10

• Is Huntington Beach Ahead of the California Curve?
  Is Huntington Beach Ahead of the California Curve?

  Authored by Christian Milord via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Once again, Surf City in California appears to be ahead of the curve on common sense issues.

  For years, Huntington Beach officials have fought for ideas like voter ID requirements in political elections and for greater local autonomy regarding residential housing construction in the city over the next decade. The city has also pushed back against the concept of California as a sanctuary state.

  

  Along with a few other city councils and school boards in California, including the Chino Valley Unified School District, Huntington Beach City Council has battled for the protection of parental rights regarding their own children’s wellbeing in the schools.

  The council has filed a lawsuit against several state officials over Assembly Bill 1955 (labeled the “Safety Act”), which mandates that public schools hide any changes in the gender identity or sexual orientation of students from parents, unless the student gives permission to share the information.

  This month, the Huntington Beach City Council filed suit with support from America First Legal Foundation in its fight to protect parental rights. A number of parents have also signed on to the recent lawsuit against the state. Under the Education Code, parents have the “absolute right” to access student records.

  Huntington Beach Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark has called the bill an “egregious piece of legislation that seeks to compel educators to keep secret from parents sensitive, private, and often life-saving information related to their child’s gender issues and/or expression.”

  Why would any school official want to hide critical information from parents regarding this issue unless they have something to hide? Students are in the community and with their families about 80 percent of an average week, so why would any school think they can dictate terms to parents? While some parents do abandon children or are derelict in their duties, most parents are in charge of their children’s upbringing and protection. Their children don’t belong to government entities.

  One would hope that state leaders would have recognized by now that the unscientific transgender issue is primarily a social contagion. It is being advanced by social media influencers and some medical personnel who haven’t clearly thought out the moderate to longterm effects of gender transitions. What they label as “gender-affirming care” actually condemns healthy young people, who might have some gender identity confusion, to a life of regret and suffering.

  Indeed, some nations in Europe and elsewhere have paused cross-sex hormones and radical sex change surgeries for children. They have begun to realize the devastating effects and suffering of transition recipients who were not fully informed about the mental and physical consequences of such life-altering decisions.

  Whether the state’s intentions are good or not, controversial gender issues and political activism aren’t within the province of public education. The role of public education is to impart a rigorous curriculum that will build character and prepare students for higher education and for life in general. Public education should not be using minors as guinea pigs in an experiment that defies moral and natural laws.

  Most children have challenges as they experience puberty. These youngsters learn to deal with the process of growing up with some counseling, guidance, and spiritual advice from parents and others who genuinely care about their entire wellbeing. Despite individual human flaws, most can celebrate the gender they were born with, as it was gifted by God and their parents.

  In recent years, Sacramento has waded into the culture wars that have an impact on businesses and taxpayer-funded government agencies such as public schools. Sacramento ought to stick to providing essential services, such as educational improvements, fire prevention and suppression resources, infrastructure repair, law enforcement, water storage facilities, etc. Leave personal and sensitive issues out of the classroom, because students already have enough challenges to cope with on a daily basis.

  Moreover, instead of inserting divisive issues into the schools and keeping parents in the dark, school officials at all levels ought to focus on raising test scores in the public schools. They should approve additional charter schools, keep phones out of the hands of students during the school day, and teach both academic and occupational courses to secondary students. Kudos to the “Parents’ Rights” city of Huntington Beach and other governing bodies that fight back against the pervasive unlawful intrusions of Sacramento politicians.

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

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 21:45

• China Offers Easing "Gift" To Homebuyers, Sparking Continued Iron Ore & Property Market Euphoria 
  China Offers Easing “Gift” To Homebuyers, Sparking Continued Iron Ore & Property Market Euphoria 

  Iron ore and Chinese property stocks surged after three of the country’s largest metro areas loosened homebuyer rules. This move follows last week’s central government stimulus package, which was aimed at stabilizing the vicious downturn in the housing market.

  Bloomberg reports that Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen eased homebuying rules: 

  On Sunday, the trading hub of Guangzhou became the first tier-1 city to remove all restrictions, saying it will stop reviewing homebuyer eligibility and no longer limit the number of homes owned.

  Both Shanghai and Shenzhen said they will allow more people to purchase residences in suburban areas, as well as allow others to buy more homes. Shanghai, China’s financial hub, and Shenzhen, the southern city known for its tech industry, also announced they were lowering minimum downpayment ratios for first and second homes to 15% and 20%, respectively, in a bid to boost demand.

  Goldamn’s James McGeoch told clients this AM: 

  The weekend Spec was that China fiscal would come ahead of the holiday, as a “gift” to the 75th anniversary on National Day, released in the press release of the Second State council Meeting. Focus on property and consumption in the headlines i have read and the iron ore indexes up a short 10% (SGX $112 and DCE +10%).

  Iron ore’s stunning multi-day reversal has sent prices from $90/ton to $108/ton. Gains overnight topped 11%, adding to 11% last week following the central government’s move to deploy stimulus (read here).

  

  A separate note from Goldman’s Thomas Evans early last week told clients to “fade iron ore rallies” on potential short covering ahead of the long holiday in China, noting “steel overcapacity and growing supply in iron ore are the two biggest headwinds to ferrous supply chain, which can’t be fixed any time soon.”

  In equity markets, a Bloomberg gauge of Chinese real estate stocks jumped as much as 14% after the news. There was also mention that China’s central bank would allow mortgage refinancing.

  

  Bloomberg’s Jake Lloyd-Smith penned a note this Am titled “Iron Ore’s Sudden Euphoria May Be Overdone,” in which he said: 

  Beijing’s pre-holiday salvo, plus follow-through steps in key urban centers, will do much to improve the mood. Over time, this may stabilize the real estate market. But whether that’s enough to persuade mills that have been complaining of an industry-wide crisis to change course and actually increase steel output on a sustained basis in the coming quarter remains to be seen.

  The slowdown in China’s property market has been a significant challenge for steelmakers, with some slashing production and warning about an outlook that mirrors 2008 and 2015. 

  Meanwhile, Citigroup analysts led by Wenyu Yao noted that China’s stimulus will be supportive: “Bullish momentum could persist into LME Week.”

  The most interesting aspect of China’s recovery will be its shape. Analysts warn that the property market still faces headlines. 

  “It may take time and could still prove challenging to turn around residents’ bearish views with existing policies,” Morgan Stanley’s Cheung told clients. 

  Perhaps the days of a ‘V-shape’ recovery are long past. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 21:20

• Democrats Sue Georgia Election Board Over New Ballot Rule
  Democrats Sue Georgia Election Board Over New Ballot Rule

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

  National and state Democrats are suing the Georgia Election Board to stop a new rule that requires workers to hand count ballots in the upcoming presidential election.

  

  In a filing released on Sept. 30, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Georgia said the rule is illegal because the board only has the authority to promulgate regulations that are “conducive to the fair, legal, and orderly conduct of primaries and elections” and “obtain uniformity.”

  Approved by the board on Sept. 20, the rule requires workers to hand count ballots to confirm that the number of ballots matches the number generated by machines.

  If the new rule is allowed to take effect, “the general election will not be orderly and uniform—large counties will face significant delays in reporting vote counts, election officials will struggle to implement new procedures at the last minute, poll workers will not have been trained on the new rule because it was adopted too late, and the security of the ballots themselves will be put at risk,” Democrats allege.

  The suit, set to be lodged in the Superior Court of Fulton County, notes that the attorney general and secretary of state of Georgia both opposed the rule. The office of Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said that the rule likely exceeded the board’s authority and appeared “to conflict with the statutes governing the conduct of elections.”

  Members of the election board did not respond to requests for comment on the legal action by publication time.

  Democrats are asking the court to invalidate the rule and permanently block it.

  The rule, approved by a 3–2 vote, requires the hand count to be done before the election is certified.

  “I can guarantee you, as a voter, I would rather wait another hour to ensure that the count is accurate than to get a count, or to get a number, within that hour, and then to find out at the close of an election, after certification has already taken place, that we have people suing because the count was not accurate,” Janelle King, one of the members who voted for the rule, said before the board voted on it.

  Sara Tindall Ghazal, one of the members who voted against the rule, cited the number of election officials who said it should not be implemented. The Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials is among the groups that expressed opposition.

  Ghazal also expressed concerns over the board possibly overstepping its authority.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 20:55

• Time Is Running Out: US Port Strike Could Begin Tuesday; Goldman Finds Highly Exposed Retailers  
  Time Is Running Out: US Port Strike Could Begin Tuesday; Goldman Finds Highly Exposed Retailers  

  Time is running out for the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the US Maritime Alliance (USMX)—a coalition of port operators and carriers—to form a new labor contract as the existing one expires at midnight. A no-deal scenario would mean thousands of longshoremen at three dozen facilities across 14 Gulf and East Coast ports would begin striking at 12:01 am EST. Tuesday would mark the beginning of a major supply chain storm (inflation surge) in a no-deal scenario.

  Goldman analyst explained last week that a walkout by ILA members would jeopardize $5 billion in daily international trade coming into the Gulf and East Coast ports. 

  

  Goldman’s Jordan Alliger told clients, “Upwards of $4.9bn per day is at risk in international trade along the East and Gulf coasts, along with the potential for supply chains to likely become less fluid due to emergent congestion, which in turn could result in a re-emergence of transport price inflation.”

  “The biggest wild card in the presidential election that nobody’s talking about? The looming port strike that could shut down all East and Gulf Coast ports just 36 days before the election,” Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen wrote on X earlier this month. 

  On Monday morning, with just a little over half the day left, a team of Goldman analysts led by Brooke Roach provided clients with the “current state of the supply chain and freight environment for the retail industry.” 

  • What is happening: The International Longshoreman Association and US Maritime Alliance contract is set to expire on September 30th. Our US transports analyst, Jordan Alliger, detailed the potential ramifications should labor disruption arise at East / Gulf Coast Ports in this note published on 9/26. While we take no view on the likelihood of any outcome, our team has fielded an increased number of investor queries focused on potential disruption to US retail as a result of potential congestion, which could come at a critical shipping period for US retailers ahead of the holidays.

  • Comments from retail associations: The American Apparel and Footwear Association estimates that 53% of all US apparel, footwear, and accessories imports are routed through the East and Gulf Coast ports. The AAFA also noted risk from East Coast / Gulf port disruption to impact West Coast port operations, creating strains/delays across the supply chain. Separately, the Retail Industry Leaders Association has also stated that while retailers have activated contingency plans to mitigate potential effects of work disruption, it becomes harder to mitigate the longer a work stoppage goes on.

  • Our view on potential impact: We surveyed our hardlines and softlines coverage universe to assess exposure, and we found the majority of companies who responded pointed to the following: (1) A higher rate of reliance on West Coast ports for their primarily Asia-sourced product; (2) Proactive rerouting and other plans ahead of potential disruption to ensure critical product arrives on-time for holiday; (3) Other contingency plans in place, including airfreight for select items. Many companies indicated they were already planning for higher freight expense in 2H due to a variety of risk factors, with port contract negotiations one factor alongside ongoing Red Sea disruption and higher rates on spot product. That said, we note that the magnitude of potential disruption is likely a function of the length of any work disruption and subsequent port congestion (which could likely impact both West and East Coast ports). Historically, a longer period of congestion for retailers has typically been associated with a higher risk of delayed product arrival, which can be a headwind to full-price sales for holiday or seasonal items. Full detail of exposure by company is listed in the tables below.

  Here is the historic labor action example the analysts laid out:

  • While not an exact corollary given the higher level of importance of West Coast ports to the retail industry (a function of Asia-based supply chains), we note one historical example in 2014/15. The West Coast port labor dispute between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association lasted from June 2014 through February 2015, with the situation worsening in January and February as an apparent work slowdown escalated to closure of 29 ports for several days around Presidents’ Day weekend in 2015 before reaching an agreement on February 20th, 2015. Delayed product impacted seasonal timing of spring apparel product launches, with inventory drawdown during the initial period of disruption (likely due to delayed shipments) and then a subsequent build in inventories which lasted through the year for many companies. Several of our covered companies cited port delays as a driver of gross margin pressure, with promotional pricing in mid-2015 seen across department stores, specialty retail, mass retailers and apparel/accessories brands.

  The analysts then surveyed retailers about their freight exposure at US ports. In one instance, Dollar Tree warned that half its products pass through Gulf and East Coast ports.

  Unleash the Apoorcalypse pic.twitter.com/fA79SE9JZD

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 30, 2024

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

  Some retailers warn that supply chain snarls could spark chaos for them:

  

  Another industry survey found which retailers will be the most flexible in an East Coast port strike environment.

  

  Earlier this morning, when Biden was asked about “Yemen strikes,” the president responded incoherently to reporters: “I’ve spoken to both sides. They gotta settle the strike. I’m supporting the collective bargaining effort. I think they’ll settle the strike.”

  REPORTER: “Any comment on the strikes in Yemen, Mr. President!?”

  BIDEN (or whatever’s left of him): “I’ve spoken to both sides. They gotta settle the strike. I’m supporting the collective bargaining effort. I think they’ll settle the strike.”

  🤔 pic.twitter.com/iFawNWdWyH

  — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 30, 2024

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

  Dr. Jill has had enough. 

  

  What’s embarrassing for the nation is that Democrats lied to the American people about the president’s cognitive collapse. No wonder domestic and foreign policy is a mess.

  Meanwhile… 

  https://t.co/pzAGa5W5Vi pic.twitter.com/jmfJaDy9Ro

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 30, 2024

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

  Bro.

  CNBC: What are you hearing will happen if dockworkers strike and it goes longer than a week?

  Harris-Biden Commerce Sec. Gina Raimondo: “I have not been very focused on that.”

  What is she focused on? That is her job.

  pic.twitter.com/CCpD32lrm3

  — Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) September 30, 2024

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

  Isn’t that your job?

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 20:45

• Watch: Russian Jet Buzzes NORAD Warplane Off Alaska
  Watch: Russian Jet Buzzes NORAD Warplane Off Alaska

  The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has revealed more details of a close call incident between US fighter jets and Russian aircraft off the coast of Alaska which took place one week ago.

  Four Russian military planes had breached Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) – though which is still deemed international airspace – before being intercepted and shadowed by US planes. But on Monday NORAD published video of the incident, which for the first time reveals that a Russian Su-35 came very close to the American jets. Watch:

  “The conduct of one Russian Su-35 was unsafe, unprofessional, and endangered all – not what you’d see in a professional air force,” NORAD said in a fresh statement.

  The video shows that while US pilots were mirroring a Russian long-range bomber from a safe distance, the Russian Su-35 buzzed the US aircraft at a high rate of speed, apparently in an effort to warn the US plane off.

  Immediately after the Sept.23rd incident NORAD had tried to downplay the encounter…

  “The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” it wrote in a press release. “This Russian activity in the Alaska ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat.”

  But clearly based on the video the Russian jets did maneuver threateningly close to the American fighters. The American pilot’s voice is caught on video acting shocked and surprised at how close the Russian jet came.

  NORAD has previously said Russian bomber flights near Alaska occur “regularly”. But recently China has also joined some Russian patrols of northern Pacific areas, including areas extending near Alaska.

  “On Sept 23, 2024, NORAD aircraft flew a safe and disciplined intercept of Russian Military Aircraft in the Alaska ADIZ. The conduct of one Russian Su-35 was unsafe, unprofessional, and endangered all – not what you’d see in a professional air force.” – Gen. Gregory Guillot pic.twitter.com/gXZj3Ndkag

  — North American Aerospace Defense Command (@NORADCommand) September 30, 2024

  The threatening aerial maneuvers by the Russian side are likely on the increase as a result of tensions connected with the Russia-Ukraine war, in which NATO has been upping its involvement.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 20:30

• 'Go For Gold' – Goldman Sachs Raises Precious Metal Price Forecast Amid "Secret Buyers"
  ‘Go For Gold’ – Goldman Sachs Raises Precious Metal Price Forecast Amid “Secret Buyers”

  Despite having rallied 29% YTD and 47% since 2022, gold continues to set all-time highs, reaching $2,685/toz on Thursday.

  

  Goldman Sachs Precious Metals analysts have raised their gold price forecast from $2,700/toz to $2,900/toz for early 2025 for two reasons.

  • First, our economists now look for faster declines in short-term interest rates in the West and China, and we recently showed that the gold market doesn’t fully price in the rates boost to Western ETF holdings backed by physical gold yet, which tends to be gradual.

  • Second, our new nowcast shows that EM central bank purchases on the London over-the-counter (OTC) market continue to fundamentally drive the rally since 2022, and we believe that these structural purchases will remain elevated.

  Under Goldman’s forecast, moderating but still significant central bank purchases on the London OTC market drive about 2/3 of the expected rise of the gold price to $2,900/toz in early 2025.

  The gradual rise in ETF flows following the Fed rate-cuts our economists expect drives the remaining 1/3 of price upside.

  This forecast also relies on our rule of thumb that 100 tonnes of physical demand lifts gold prices by at least 2.4%, the lower bound of our regression estimate.

  

  Following Goldman’s analysis of structurally higher demand from central banks, they developed a nowcast of central bank demand in the London OTC market, where most of these transactions take place.

  Central Banks Continue to Drive the Rally Since 2022

  Top of mind for investors is “Who is the ‘secret’ gold buyer?“, as gold has rallied 47% since 2022, despite rising rates which typically predict lower prices.

  While the gold-price-to-rates relationship remains intact in changes, the ‘secret’ buyer has elevated prices and reset the relationship in absolute levels.

  

  Our new nowcast shows that EM central bank gold purchases on the London OTC market continue to drive the rally since 2022. Our nowcast of central bank and other institutional demand in the London OTC market shows that purchases remained strong through July, averaging 730 tons annualized year-to-date, or about 15% of global annual production estimates.

  

  China’s central bank, the PBoC, is a key focus for gold investors, given its reported streak of 18 consecutive months of purchases since November 2022. Our estimates of China’s institutional gold purchases in the London OTC market align with the PBoC reports, but tend to be higher, start earlier, and last longer.

  

  While the PBoC reported no additional purchases after April, our nowcast estimates 50 tonnes of institutional purchases from China on the London OTC market in May, with no further activity in June and July.

  Goldman’s nowcasting model leverages customs data and knowledge of the London OTC market, the largest hub for trading large 400 oz gold bars, which central banks and other institutions favor due to their size and lower cost per ounce, and which are typically too expensive for most retail buyers. London also provides storage for ETF holdings, central bank reserves (held in custody at the BOE), and unallocated gold accounts. Changes in these gold bar holdings in London vaults are a proxy for OTC net demand and match UK net imports, which are available by trade partners.

  

  Our nowcasting model is the sum of two components:

  (1) UK exports of gold bars to the world ex-Switzerland, and

  (2) the portion of UK exports of gold bars to Switzerland we identify as central bank demand.

  Goldman differentiates between UK gold bar exports to Switzerland and other countries because the former typically represent retail demand while the latter indicate central bank and institutional demand. The UK, with no (significant) gold mines or accredited refineries producing large 400 oz bars, primarily imports these large bars from Switzerland, the global refining hub, when London institutional demand or ETF inflows are high. Conversely, when demand in London is low, the UK exports large 400 oz bars back to Switzerland, where they are refined into smaller bars and sent to retail markets.

  

  Go for Gold

  We reiterate our long gold recommendation due to i) the gradual boost from lower global interest rates, ii) structurally higher central bank demand, and iii) gold’s hedging benefits against geopolitical shocks, including tariffs, Fed subordination risk, debt fears, financial, and recessionary risks.

  After an already very large price rally, we end by addressing the potential factors that may moderate our base case of significant additional upside to gold prices.

  These potential factors to monitor include a potential softening in our nowcast of central bank demand (for instance because of easing in geopolitical tensions), potentially lower-than-expected ETF inflows (if central banks cut rates less than expected), or a potential sharper-than-expected pullback in China’s retail demand due to price sensitivity or a sharper-than-expected gain in consumer confidence.

  Professional subscribers can read the full report from Goldman Lina Thomas on what is driving Goldman’s increased gold price forecast.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 20:25

• Brown Bananas, Crowded Ports, Empty Shelves: What To Expect If Major Port Strike Erupts On Tuesday 
  Brown Bananas, Crowded Ports, Empty Shelves: What To Expect If Major Port Strike Erupts On Tuesday 

  Authored by Anna Nagurney, Professor and Eugene M. Isenberg Chair in Integrative Studies, UMass Amherst, via The Conversation: 

  Whether you’re buying a can of sardines or a screwdriver, getting products to consumers requires that supply chains function well.

  The availability of labor is essential in each link of the supply chain. That includes the workers who make sure that your tinned fish and handy tools smoothly journey from their point of origin to where they’ll wind up, whether it’s a supermarket, hardware store or your front door.

  Amazingly, 90% of all internationally traded products are carried by ships at some point. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was hard not to notice the supply chain disruptions. For U.S. ports, there were many bouts of congestion. Demand for goods that were either more or less popular than they would normally be became volatile. Shortages of truckers and other freight service providers wreaked havoc on land-based and maritime transportation networks.

  

  Consumers became exasperated when they saw all the empty shelves. They endured price spikes for items that were suddenly scarce, such as hand sanitizer, computer equipment and bleach.

  I’m a scholar of supply chain management who belongs to a research group that studies ways to make supply chains better able to withstand disruptions. Based on that research, plus what I learned while writing a book about labor and supply chains, I’m concerned about the turmoil that could be around the corner for cargo arriving on ships.

  Concerns over pay and technology

  The International Longshoremen’s Association’s six-year contract with the East Coast and Gulf Coast ports will expire on Sept. 30, 2024, at midnight unless the two sides reach an agreement before that deadline. Without a breakthrough, the 45,000 port workers intend to take part in a strike that would paralyze ports from Maine to Texas.

  Should they walk off the job, it would be the first such work stoppage for the East Coast ports since 1977.

  Labor and management disagree over how much to raise wages, and the union also wants to see limits on the use of automation for cranes, gates and trucks at the ports in the new contract. The union is seeking a 77% increase in pay over the next six years and is concerned that jobs may be lost because of automation.

  Dockworkers on the West Coast, who are not on strike, are paid much higher regular wages than their East Coast and Gulf Coast counterparts who are preparing for a strike. The West Coast workers earn at least an estimated US$116,000 per year, for a 40-hour work week, versus the roughly $81,000 dockworkers at the East Coast and Gulf Coast ports take home, not counting overtime pay.

  Management is represented in the talks by the U.S. Maritime Association, which includes the major shippers, terminal operators and port authorities.

  White House officials are calling for dock workers and port operators to settle their differences as a strike looms.@MrSethHarris, former top labor policy advisor to President Biden, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss: pic.twitter.com/rund2TWQI3

  — Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) September 27, 2024

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

  What to expect if there’s a strike

  As many as 36 ports would have to stop operating if a strike happens, blocking almost half of the cargo going in and out of the U.S. on ships.

  If the strike lasts just a day, then it would not be noticeable to a typical consumer. However, businesses of all kinds would no doubt feel the pinch. J.P. Morgan estimates that a strike could cost the U.S. economy $5 billion every day.

  Even if only a one-day strike happens, it could take about five days to straighten out the supply chain.

  If a strike lasts a week, the results would quickly become apparent to most consumers.

  Some shipping companies have already begun to reroute their cargo to the West Coast. Even if there’s no strike at all, costs will rise and the warehouses could run out of room.

  The effects on everything from bananas and cherries to chocolate, meat, fish and cheese could be severe, and the shipping disruption could also hamper trade in some prescription drugs if the strike lasts at least a week.

  If the strike were to last a month or more, supplies needed by factories could be in short supply. Numerous consumer products would not be delivered. Workers would be laid off. U.S. exports, including agricultural ones, might get stuck rather than shipped to their destinations. Inflation might increase again. And there would be a new bout of heightened economic anxiety and uncertainty – along with immense financial losses.

  All the while, West Coast ports would face unusually high demand for their services, wreaking havoc on shipping there too.

  Yes, we’d have no bananas

  My research group’s latest work on supply chain disruptions and the effects of various transportation disruptions, including delays, quantifies the impact on the quality of fresh produce. We did a case study on bananas.

  This isn’t a niche problem.

  Bananas are the most-consumed fresh fruit in the U.S.

  Many of the bananas sold in the U.S. are grown in Ecuador, Guatemala and Costa Rica. About 75% of them arrive at ports on the East and Gulf coasts.

  Although bananas are relatively easy to ship, they require appropriate temperatures and humidity. Even under the best conditions, their quality deteriorates. Long delays will mean shippers will be trying to foist mushy brown bananas on consumers who might reject them.

  Alternatively, banana growers may opt to find other markets. It’s reasonable to expect to find fewer bananas and much higher prices – possibly of a lower quality. Flying bananas to the U.S. would be too expensive to sustain.

  Fresh meat and other refrigerated foods could spoil before they can complete their journeys, and fresh berries, along with other fruits and vegetables, could perish before reaching their destinations.

  If there’s a port strike, tons of fresh produce, including bananas, that would arrive after Oct. 1 would end up having to be discarded. That is unfortunate, given the rising food insecurity rate in the U.S.

  1947 Taft-Hartley Act

  More than 170 trade groups are urging the Biden administration to intervene at the last minute to avoid a strike.

  The government can invoke the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which allows the president to ask a court to order an 80-day cooling-off period when public health or safety is at risk.

  However, President Joe Biden reportedly does not plan to invoke it – even as he urges the two sides to settle their differences.

  So if you’re planning to bake banana bread or were thinking you might get an early start on your holiday shopping, I’d advise you to make those shopping trips as soon as possible – just in case.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 20:05

• Heroes And Villains
  Heroes And Villains

  Authored by James Howard Kunstler,

  “It’s really hard to govern today… The First Amendment stands as a major block.”

  – John Kerry.

  Thus spake the Haircut-in-Search-of-a-Brain who ran for president in 2004. Something must have been amiss in Conception Central the night God made John Kerry. Maybe they were low on inventory up there for the stuff that goes inside the head, so they overdid it on the roofing material. Maybe they assigned him an extra testicle, too, in compensation. It certainly took balls (but not brains) to assert from the stage of the World Economic Forum (WEF) that free speech is cluttering up America’s march to totalitarianism.

  

  Mr. Kerry’s hapless utterance tells you all you need to know about how the party of John F. Kennedy turned years later into a demon-driven cult seeking to smash everything that was once noble and upright about our country. If there is any such thing as disinformation — and the claim is dubious since, really, there is only truth and untruth — then the chief dispenser of it is our own depraved government. Every morsel it issues is some species of Orwellian counter-think.

  Just yesterday, former Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking of Mr. Trump returning to office, told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki:

  “They will use the mechanisms of the DOJ to go after people who are their political foes. This is something that has never really happened in the history of this republic.”

  Mr. Holder may have been born at night, but probably not the night before last.

  Apparently, he has not noticed the uses to which current AG Merrick Garland has put “Joe Biden’s” DOJ, bending heaven, earth, and the law to put Mr. Trump behind bars and bankrupt him — not to mention the scores of Trump-adjacent lawyers prosecuted in cockamamie cases based on their efforts to pursue ballot fraud in the 2020 elections.

  Hillary Clinton was similarly on-point last week with Margaret Hoover on PBS’s Firing Line, declaring:

  “The press needs a consistent narrative about the danger that Trump poses.”

  Of course, she asserts this incessantly — and the media parrots her — without ever specifying what that danger is. So, I will tell you: Hillary Clinton and hundreds of Democratic Party affiliated officials past and present fear that they will be subjected to legal process in crimes ranging all the way up to treason for their conduct the past decade, including the mass murder and injury of millions with their Covid policy, their deliberate abetting of millions crossing the border illegally, their use of several government agencies to abridge the First Amendment, their abuse of DOJ and FBI power in malicious prosecutions, their shell games funneling taxpayers’ money to hundreds of crony NGOs, and their use of Ukraine as a money laundry for the entire Beltway criminal cartel. Surely even more than that.

  It was the last item on that list that prompted impeachment No. 1 of Mr. Trump, who came uncomfortably close to inquiring about it in that fateful 2019 phone call to President Zelensky. And, of course, it was exactly in that maw of corruption that the Biden family helped itself to millions of grifted dollars while Joe was out-of-office, and his bagman-crackhead son gamboled about the globe shaking loose more millions from exotic money-trees wherever he landed. All of which is to say that the “danger” Mr. Trump poses is to them personally and directly, certainly not to “our democracy,” their phony war-cry. So, now you know.

  Many of these players have gone to ground the past year or more. You don’t hear much these days from the likes of Jim Comey, John Brennan, Jim Clapper, Andy McCabe, Tony Fauci, Peter Hotez, and many more who were so active shooting their mouths off on cable news after the blob managed to install “Joe Biden” as its “beard” in the Oval Office. Now, they all lie low in terror as the immense battery of lawfare against Mr. Trump failed spectacularly to stop him from running again, and the first two attempts on his life went awry. Meanwhile, Garland, Mayorkas, Christopher Wray, remain in the trenches, reduced to stonewalling every and all efforts to get straight answers out of them as to how badly they are running things. And out in front of all of them you have their supposed protector, Kamala Harris, the most feckless candidate imaginable. No wonder they’re so desperate.

  In contrast to all this low-down treachery in-and-around the craven Party of Chaos and, its corrupt, depraved agents fearing the turn of genuine law against them, there was the Rescue the Republic event on the mall in Washington Sunday. The intelligence and honesty on view there was a startling reminder of the sentiments that birthed our country in the first place. RFK, Jr, Tulsi Gabbard, Jordan Peterson, Matt Taibbi, Senator Ron Johnson, Del Bigtree, Dr. Pierre Kory, Dr. Robert Malone, and many more figures aligning with the Trump campaign, delivered one stirring message after another informing us that the cardinal virtues of honor, fortitude, courage, and justice are still alive in the background of this sore-beset nation. I’ve never heard a more eloquent extempore appeal to our shared human virtues than the speech delivered by UK national Russell Brand, supposedly a comedian. It was Shakespearean.

  And so, tomorrow we slot into October, the month of promised “surprises” and generally not the happy kind. Hillary alluded to that in her Firing Line palaver. Does her posse (Huma, Alex Soros) have something up their sleeves? Fake Special Prosecutor (illegally appointed and unconfirmed by the Senate) Jack Smith is coming into Judge Tanya Chutkan’s DC federal courtroom with a big fat brief detailing his superseding indictment cooked up to replace the previous case derailed by the Supreme Court decision earlier this year on presidential immunity. Teams of assassins are roaming the land hunting Mr. Trump. And those are just the known unknowns.

  But there’s something else in the air little more than a month away from this fateful election day. It feels like just enough Americans have recovered their senses to act against war, censorship, wide open borders, and the despotic rule of a malevolent bureaucratic blob nobody voted for. Mail-in ballot fraud is already being discovered. Mr. Trump might survive this campaign ordeal after all despite his enemies’ best efforts. The nation could climb out of this slough of self-destruction and despair after all. We used to say proudly this is a free country. It can be that again.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 19:15

• Israel Launches Ground Invasion Of Lebanon: Operation Northern Arrows
  Israel Launches Ground Invasion Of Lebanon: Operation Northern Arrows

  Update(1908ET): Israel has named the new cross-border offensive “Operation Northern Arrows”. Below is an early description by the IDF as posted to Telegram and other government channels [emphasis ZH]:

  IDF troops have begun limited, localized and targeted raids against Hezbollah terror targets in the border area of southern Lebanon

  In accordance with the decision of the political echelon, a few hours ago, the IDF began limited, localized, and targeted ground raids based on precise intelligence against Hezbollah terrorist targets and infrastructure in southern Lebanon. These targets are located in villages close to the border and pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities in northern Israel.

  The IDF is operating according to a methodical plan set out by the General Staff and the Northern Command which IDF soldiers have trained and prepared for in recent months.

  The Israeli Air Force and IDF Artillery are supporting the ground forces with precise strikes on military targets in the area.

  Some Lebanese accounts have claimed that Hezbollah has already killed and wounded some invading Israeli soldiers, but these reports will remain hard to verify within the opening hours of the campaign and amid the fog of war.

  Heavy strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs during the night hours (local):

  ⚡️More than 7 strikes on Dahye pic.twitter.com/NEpYAfczGy

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) September 30, 2024

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  New strike on Damascus:

  BREAKING: Israel is bombing Syria, targeting Mazzeh in the vicinity of the capital Damascus RIGHT NOW pic.twitter.com/66SQaFDJ0c

  — Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) September 30, 2024

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  * * *

  Update(1630ET): The Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon has begun, with various regional news correspondents saying IDF tanks have been spotted breaching areas earlier deemed ‘closed military zones’.

  “Israeli forces have launched limited incursions in Lebanon, the United States said, as Israel vowed to keep fighting Hezbollah and sealed part of the border after killing the Iran-backed militants’ leader,” AFP reports.

  Netanyahu’s decision to invade Lebanon just a month before the U.S. election has thrown the Biden-Harris administration into turmoil. Whether it’s a limited operation, an invasion is still an invasion. Kamala is staying out of the spotlight, aware of the political fallout. pic.twitter.com/S7leNZ0oF8

  — Russian Market (@runews) September 30, 2024

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  Thus a ground war has begun in Lebanon a mere month before the US presidential election. Meanwhile neither President Biden nor VP Kamala Harris have had much to say. Quite the opposite: they might prefer to hide from the media. 

  There are meanwhile reports that it was a US-provided 2,000 pound bomb which killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last Friday. Israel’s use of the US-supplied “bunker busters” has been described Monday as follows:

  A video published by the Israeli military on Saturday showed jets it said were used to carry out the attack carrying at least 15 2,000-pound bombs, including the US-made BLU-109, according to Trevor Ball, a former senior explosive ordnance technician for the US Army who reviewed the footage for CNN.

  Biden has meekly called for ceasefire, while simultaneously backing the high level assassination. 

  Israeli army tanks have entered Lebanon – Al Arabiya and Al Hadath

  The Israeli Defence Forces are reportedly conducting a ground operation in #Lebanon – for the first time since 2006, when the second Lebanon war began.#Israel pic.twitter.com/Eb1yAhZASa

  — Boris Alexander Beissner (@boris_beissner) September 30, 2024

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  Intense airstrikes are now once again hitting the Lebanese capital…

  

  * * *

  Israel has been busy over the weekend striking multiple fronts. Not only has it expanded airstrikes on Beirut in the wake of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s Friday death, but it is attacking Yemen and Syria as well.

  Starting late last week into Saturday, Yemen’s Iran-linked Houthis announced the launch of several ballistic missiles toward Tel Aviv, which Israel’s military said were intercepted. And on Friday, in an incident which went underreported (given headlines were focused heavily on Beirut events), three US warships in the Red Sea came under simultaneous rocket attacks from the Houthis.

  

  “The Houthi said they had targeted three U.S. warships which media reports tonight are identifying as the guided missile destroyers USS Spruance and USS Stockdale and the littoral combat ship USS Indianapolis. They were reported to have been north of the Bab el-Mandeb at the time,” The Maritime Executive reported.

  “U.S. officials are confirming that warships in the Red Sea were targeted with possibly the largest barrage since the conflict began with the Houthis in Yemen nearly 10 months ago,” the publication added.

  On Sunday Israeli jets had the assistance of US military intelligence as they conducted a massive airstrike on Yemen’s key port of Hodeidah. It happened in the early evening local time. Axios reports that “sensitive” Houthis facilities were on the target list.

  Yemen’s Health Ministry in the aftermath announced that at least four people were killed and 40 others injured in the Israeli raid, which left massive plumes of smoke over the area. Videos show a huge fire engulfing the port.

  כאילו, מה החות’ים חשבו?
  שנשב בשקט ונמתין שהם ירו עלינו?
  מתרשם שהם די דפקטים pic.twitter.com/MhyBOe7RGq

  — ינון מגל (@YinonMagal) September 29, 2024

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  Israeli media has confirmed that it was the biggest Israeli strike on Yemen since the conflict began in the wake of Oct.7 of last year. “Dozens of Israeli aircraft, including F-15I fighter planes, participated in the operation, striking 1,800 kilometers from Israeli territory after the Houthis fired three ballistic missiles on the Tel Aviv and central Israel areas in recent weeks, including one on Saturday,” Jerusalem Post details.

  During Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Friday United Nations speech, the Israeli leader said his country is fighting a war on seven fronts. He brought props, as has been his pattern at major UN speeches:

  The Israeli leader explained “the blessing” was establishing a “landbridge” from India to Israel. The blessing requires Saudi Arabia to enter the Abraham Accords and normalize ties with Israel. Netanyahu claimed that would have happened, but the October 7 Hamas attack prevented the deal.

  In the map titled “the curse,” five countries were represented in black: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon. The Israeli leader claimed that Tehran was working to eliminate Tel Aviv using its allies in the region. Netanyahu presented the conflict as a battle between forces of civilization against barbarism.

  Netanyahu shows ‘maps of blessing and curse’ pic.twitter.com/I6kFso8gyo

  — RT (@RT_com) September 27, 2024

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  He is now targeting the very countries he listed in the speech. According to more details of the Hodeidah attack from Yemeni sources:

  In a statement, the army said “dozens of air force aircraft” struck power plants and sea port facilities at the Ras Isa and Hodeidah ports. The attacks killed at least four people – including a port worker and three electrical engineers – and wounded 30 others, according to Yemen’s ministry of health.

  Also on Sunday, and also largely underreported in Western media, there was another Israeli raid on Syria, which reportedly targeted a base with ‘pro-Iranian’ assets. It happened on the outskirts of the capital Damascus. “At least seven pro-Iran militants were injured in an Israeli strike in the countryside of Damascus, near the Syria-Lebanon border, a war monitor reported on Monday, amid soaring regional tensions against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war,” regional source Rudaw reports.

  “Seven elements, most of them non-Syrians, were injured in an Israeli airstrike on a border crossing on the Syrian-Lebanese border in Rif Dimashq from the Syrian side,” the report said. A similar raid occurred on Friday, as Israel was bombing Beirut. Syrian state SANA said the Friday aggression killed five Syrian soldiers.

  Meanwhile on Monday Israel has expanded its strikes in Lebanon to include targeted attacks on central Beirut, which is a first since the 2006 war. The apparent targets included three senior figures in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Subsequently the leftist group which conducted airline hijackings in the 1970s said its officials Mohammed Abdel Aal, Emad Odeh, and Abdel Rahman Abdel Aal were killed in Beirut’s Cola district.

  Aftermath of the airstrike on an apartment building in central Beirut:

  ⚡️From the enemy strikes on an apartment in Kola, central Beirut pic.twitter.com/UVWEJK143I

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) September 29, 2024

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  The Guardian described of the attack, “Initial footage from the scene showed two storeys of an apartment building completely blown out, and onlookers running towards the building. Two bodies could be seen lying on the street on top of a car outside the building, seemingly ejected by the force of the blast.”

  As if all this weren’t a chaotic enough powder keg ready to explode further, Iran-backed paramilitaries in Iraq are now ramping up attempts to directly attack Israel, with a fresh drone operation against Israel’s port city of Haifa:

  The Islamic Resistance in Iraq said in a statement today that it attacked four Israeli targets in response to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and Gaza.

  It said that it attacked two “vital” targets in the Israeli port city of Haifa using drones, as well as two other unspecified targets.

  Amid what’s clearly a rapid escalation on several fronts in the Middle East, the US Commander-in-Chief doesn’t seem to know what’s going on…

  REPORTER: “Any comment on the strikes in Yemen, Mr. President!?”

  BIDEN (or whatever’s left of him): “I’ve spoken to both sides. They gotta settle the strike. I’m supporting the collective bargaining effort. I think they’ll settle the strike.”

  🤔 pic.twitter.com/iFawNWdWyH

  — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 30, 2024

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  This despite Yemen and the Red Sea being scene of what one US military commander previously called America’s most serious and intense naval combat going back to WW2.

  In northern Israel, the IDF continues building up forces along the border with Lebanon, as well as in the Golan region, ahead of a potential ground invasion. There have also reportedly been repeat incursions into Lebanese territory by Israeli special forces troops. Hezbollah has continued sporadic missile fire into northern Israel over the past days as well, but the big expected retaliation for Nasrallah’s killing has yet to come on any large scale.

  Netanyahu on Monday issued a new warning: “There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach.  There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country,” he said, describing that Israel is in “a war for our very existence.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 19:08

• Pittsburgh Restaurant Claims 'Momentary Confusion' After Denying JD Vance Entry, Threatening With Arrest
  Pittsburgh Restaurant Claims ‘Momentary Confusion’ After Denying JD Vance Entry, Threatening With Arrest

  Pennsylvania is a major battleground state in the 2024 presidential election, but many Americans may not be aware of how tenuous the situation is for Democrats. Stats show that since 2016 the state has seen an exponential increase in conservative and independent voters and a steady decline in Democratic support. The majority of presidential polls show a dead-heat between Trump and Harris, and if we take into account the fact that most polls have been weighted in Kamala’s favor with extra Democrats surveyed, it’s not looking good for her.

  

  When an election is so ideologically contested and the popular divide is so brutal, malicious behavior from one side or the other is likely.  It just so happens that all the malicious behavior during this campaign has been on the left side of the political spectrum (including two attempted assassinations against Donald Trump by Act Blue donators). This is not the America of decades past in which people were opposed based on policy and when the election was over they moved on – This time people are opposed based on core morality and there is no moving on.

  Another example of this dynamic is a recent controversy involving Trump’s running mate JD Vance – who made an impromptu stop at a popular Pittsburgh restaurant chain called Primanti Bros.  Washington County GOP chair Sean Logue was one of what he said was about 100 Trump supporters inside the restaurant who had been tipped off that Vance would make a stop there. They arrived an hour early. 

  

  “The manager told patrons, other Republicans, that Vance is not allowed to make a campaign stop at Primanti Brothers,” Logue said. “And then when there was pushback to say, ‘Wait a second, Kamala Harris just did this a month ago,’ the response was, ‘Well, if he wants to sit down and order food, we can’t stop him.”

  When Vance did arrive ahead of an event in Monroeville, Logue said that the restaurant’s manager ran out to tell him that he was not allowed inside, that he couldn’t have a campaign stop there, and that if he did go inside – they’d call the police and file trespassing charges.

  Vance handled the situation with class.

  BREAKING: Primanti Bros restaurant in Pittsburgh, PA Refused to let JD Vance in to Greet his Supporters!

  BOYCOTT THEM! SHARE EVERYWHERE!

  All the supporters paid for their drinks but cancelled their food in mass.

  GO WOKE GO BROKE! @primantibros 🖕

  Video 1… pic.twitter.com/yA0IKiogCu

  — MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) September 28, 2024

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  The Pittsburgh chain has been a favorite of politicians for years.  Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton swung by the Primanti’s in Market Square in 2016 and And GOP presidential candidate John McCain went to the one in the Strip District in 2008, chatting up customers as he waited for his order.

  Primanti Bros. was already a subject of controversy after they allegedly kicked out real customers so that Kamala Harris could bus in her own crowd of supporters for a staged campaign meet and greet. 

  Trump supporters have called for a boycott of the business after what they argue was unfair treatment of Vance.  Primanti Bros. has released a statement on the incident, but not an apology. 

  

  They say the incident was due to “confusion” and that Vance was eventually invited in.  Witnesses argue that this is untrue.  Republican Allegheny County Councilman Sam DeMarco stated:

  ‘While Senator Vance was extremely gracious today about being denied entry to Primanti’s today, this statement is NOT accurate…Senator Vance was denied entry and he and his team were NOT welcomed into the restaurant after the initial “confusion.” ‘

  ‘Primanti’s perhaps isn’t being told the truth by their Manager who threatened to call the police if he entered. Senator Vance spoke with and took photos with patrons outside in the parking lot but there were no interactions inside other than him going in to pay for everyone’s food…’

  The political leanings of the restaurant’s owners or manager are not known, but judging by their pettiness one can easily guess.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 18:50

• Ahead Lies Ruin: The Decay Of Social Trust
  Ahead Lies Ruin: The Decay Of Social Trust

  Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

  Loss of social trust has consequences.

  There are three solvents of social trust: 1) the self-aggrandizement of insiders; 2) decay of competence, and 3) precarity, generated by soaring inequality / cost of living and the decay of social mobility, all of which erode confidence in the social contract, i.e. our confidence that the system isn’t rigged to benefit the few at the expense of the many.

  These are of course related, but let’s tease them apart. Once insiders focus on maximizing their personal gain as the purpose and goal of their employment, the value of the institution’s service to the public / customers decays behind a flimsy screen of self-serving PR promoting the successes of the hollowed-out institution.

  Even if insiders are devoted to serving the public, if their ability to perform the necessary work is impaired due to under-competence, the public’s trust decays. Rather than look for incompetence, which presumably could be fixed by replacing the incompetent with the competent, the real problem is under-competence, a subject I addressed in The Catastrophic Consequences of Under-Competence (subscribers/patrons only).

  The basic idea here is the organization has lost the core competencies needed to handle anything other than day-to-day processes. In other words, those inside the organization think they have what it takes, until challenges arise that they do not fully recognize or understand due to institutionalized under-competence. Here is an excerpt from my essay:

  We all understand human error: someone was tired and misread the situation, or they were impatient. We also understand incompetence: the individual simply didn’t have the knowledge and experience needed to make the right decisions and take corrective action.

  Author Charles Perrow studied organizational weaknesses that generate flawed responses to what he calls “normal accidents,” responses that made the situation far worse. In other words, the system itself increases the risks of normal accidents becoming catastrophic accidents.

  In other words, as organizations become more complex, the staff no longer has the competence required to manage challenges and crises that were previously considered part of the job.

  When self-interested insiders no longer care about the organization’s under-competence, this is toxic to social trust. On a society-wide scale, this decay erodes the social contract, the unstated but implicit understanding that the system is functional and fair, i.e. a level playing field, and we “get what we pay for,” i.e. we will receive fair value for our work and money.

  Soaring inequality, the rising cost of living and the decay of social mobility are all indicators of an increasingly unlevel playing field and a decline in the value of our work and money, even as we’re constantly assured that we have the best of everything.

  This reliance on artifice and propaganda is also toxic to social trust. When we sense that we’re just marks / chumps being ripped off by corporations and institutions, and the gains are going to the few at our expense, we lose trust in the system.

  No wonder social trust has been declining for decades. This is inversely correlated to rising inequality: as inequality increases, social trust declines.

  

  The widening gap between the the few and the many is reflected by this chart: those who find the system works very well for me have great trust in the institutions that employ and enrich them, while the rest of us, i.e. the marks and chumps being stripmined, have very little trust in our elites or the institutions that empower them.

  

  Consider Higher Education, the vast “industry” of universities and colleges tasked with imparting higher levels skills and knowledge. That the emergence of student loans–from near-zero two generations ago to $1.75 trillion in “free money” to higher education–enabled a vast expansion of shiny new buildings and well-paid administrators is beyond question.

  This chart shows federally backed student loan debt–$1.48 trillion–out of a total (federal and private-sector debt) of $1.75 trillion. Note that Higher Education managed to expand for decades without any federally backed student debt. In 20 years, federally backed student debt rose from $87 billion to $1.48 trillion. How did the “industry” survive all those postwar decades as it expanded at an unprecedented rate?

  

  Two generations ago, critics inside and outside the “industry” were already questioning the value of the education being offered to students, for example Ivan Illich’s Disabling Professions and Deschooling Society , and Donald Schon’s The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think In Action, in which Schon, a professor at M.I.T., explored how little was understood about how students learn real-world skills in management and other professions.

  That student enrollment in the Higher Education industry has plummeted from 18 million to 15 million in the past few years reflects not just demographics but an erosion of trust in the value of what’s being taught. The real test of the value of what’s been sold as a valuable education lies ahead, when extraordinary challenges will reveal that what’s been taught largely qualifies as under-competence.

  The same can be said of what’s being sold by Corporate America, as the quality, durability and value of goods and services has declined to the point of parody: in effect, Corporate America’s “party line” is: our products and services are garbage, but if you upgrade to Premium, you’ll suffer less.

  That this doesn’t inspire trust in the status quo is obvious to the many, but the few continue living in their protected bubble, confident that since I’m doing so well, everyone is doing well.

  Loss of social trust has consequences which are difficult to predict. The first-order effect is precarity, the general sense that life is increasingly precarious on multiple levels. The second-order effects start with the unraveling of the social order and proceed from there.

  *  *  *

  Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

  Subscribe to my Substack for free

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 18:25

• US Forces At Baghdad Airport Come Under Rocket Attack
  US Forces At Baghdad Airport Come Under Rocket Attack

  Update(1808ET): It appears the pro-Iranian Iraqi paramilitary factions are going on the offensive in response to the Friday assassination of Hassan Nasrallah.

  “At least two Katyusha rockets were fired at a military base hosting U.S. forces near Baghdad International Airport, two Iraqi military officials told Reuters early on Tuesday.” 

  Air defenses at the base have reportedly intercepted the rockets. The location has come under attack several times before. This weekend saw large protests outside of the US Embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone and clashes with local police, as largely Shia demonstrators tried to access the embassy compound.

  Iraq

  Alarms at the Victoria base at the airport.

  Recall that the Americans announced earlier that they would respond to any attack on their bases by the resistance pic.twitter.com/lI9mZ6S5D0

  — Alex Kennedy (@therealmindman) September 30, 2024

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  * * *

  Update(1143ET): There are several breaking reports that Israel’s military (IDF) is preparing to launch a “limited” ground invasion of South Lebanon. Fox Pentagon correspondent Liz Friden writes:

  Israel will launch a “limited” ground incursion into South Lebanon. Incursion is imminent. Will be smaller in scale than in 2006 and last a shorter period of time.

  The White House has since announced that President Biden opposes an Israeli ground operation. He is still calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon, after saying he supported the Nasrallah assassination in the name of “justice” for past attacks on Americans.

  Biden in fresh remarks issued somewhat weak and meager statements opposing the imminent ground op…

  President Biden on #Israel on a question about #Israel planning an imminent ground operation in #Lebanon: “I am more aware than you might know, and I’m comfortable with them stopping. We should have a ceasefire now” pic.twitter.com/tfxtcHobWL

  — Middle East and North Africa Breaking News (@MENA_BRKNews) September 30, 2024

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  The new ground op was first signaled Monbday by Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant, who said the “next phase of the war against Hezbollah will begin soon.” The IDF has been amassing troops near the Lebanese border for several days now.

  Gallant said while visiting the north and as reported by the Times of Israel: “The next stage in the war against Hezbollah will begin soon … We will do this. And as I said here a month ago [that] we will shift the center of gravity [to the north], this is what I say now: We will change the situation and return the residents home.”

  Israel expanded attacks into central Beirut on Monday, killing three senior members of the leftist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Aerial forces also struck the Lebanese town of Ain Deleb. The country’s health ministry says at least 45 people were killed.

  And another first of the conflict:

  Hezbollah said in a statement that it fired a “Nour missile” at Israel, which sources familiar with the Lebanese militant group told Reuters is a ballistic missile.

  The missile hit the village of Kafr Giladi in northern Israel, the statement said, adding that it had fired it in response to “Israeli violations of cities, villages, and civilians.”

  * * *

  In a defiant speech, Hezbollah’s #2 who survived Friday’s Israeli decapitation strikes of the group’s leadership which killed Hassan Nasrallah, vowed that the Iran-backed group is ‘ready’ to take on any potential Israeli ground offensive into Lebanon.

  Deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Monday insisted Hezbollah will continue to fight despite the huge series of blows which began with the pager explosions. “We are quite ready, if the Israelis want a ground incursion, the resistance forces are ready for that,” Qassem declared.

  

  He told the Lebanese people to be “reassured, victory is our ally, we need a bit of patience” and claimed that “Israel was not able to affect our (military) capabilities.”

  “Israel is committing massacres in all areas of Lebanon until there is no house left without traces of Israeli aggression in it,” he continued. “Israel attacks civilians, ambulances, children and the elderly. It does not fight fighters, but rather commits massacres.”

  At one point in the speech he called out the United States for shipping billions in weaponry to Israel, and for providing intelligence and other support. He called Washington “a partner with Israel, through unlimited military support – culturally, politically, financially.” The Biden administration had quickly tried to say it had no prior awareness that Israel was about to assassinate Secretary-General Nasrallah and his top leadership on Friday.

  Qassem stressed, “We will win, just as we won in our confrontation with Israel in 2006.” But he indirectly acknowledged the group’s mounting losses, saying, “There are deputy commanders and there are replacements in case a commander is wounded in any post.”

  He also hinted at something high on everyone’s mind, including Israel’s: the question of a successor to Nasrallah. As related by Al Jazeera: 

  He added that Hezbollah will install a new leadership soon via “internal mechanisms”. The choice of new leadership is clear, Qassem continued, without offering further details.

  He said a new chief will be chosen “at the earliest opportunity.” Nasrallah had long been an easily recognized figure even on an international front, gaining the respect of both the Arab world and across the religious divide. At times, even Christians and Sunnis and secular leaders in the region would praise his ‘resistance’ to Israel and ability to command tens of thousands of effective fighters. 

  Who might be next?

  Does this mark the moment of the baton of command of the Lebanese resistance movement #Hizbullah passing to its new leader Sayyed Hashem Safiuddin? pic.twitter.com/bb0uhFLQcS

  — tim anderson (@timand2037) September 29, 2024

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  Much media speculation has focused on Hashem Safieddine, a cousin of Nasrallah and one who even resembles him in appearance. However, he’s said to be even more hardline. According to one profile of the potential successor: 

  Hashem Safieddine, a potential successor to his slain cousin Hassan Nasrallah, is one of Hezbollah’s most prominent figures and has deep religious and family ties to the Shiite Muslim movement’s patron Iran.

  Safieddine bears a striking resemblance to his charismatic maternal cousin Nasrallah but is several years his junior, aged in his late 50s or early 60s.

  A source close to Hezbollah, requesting anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media, said the grey-bearded, bespectacled Safieddine was the “most likely” candidate for party’s top job.

  

  The United States has had him on its list of “designated terrorists” since 2017, given his leadership within Hezbollah via the group’s decision-making Shura Council, as well as close ties to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

  While Hezbollah sources are currently denying that he’s yet been chosen, Reuters and others have been digging into his background. “Safieddine’s family ties and a physical resemblance to Nasrallah, as well as his religious status as a descendant of Mohammed, would all count in his favor,” Reuters wrote.

  A number of Israeli media sources have labeled him as more extreme than Nasrallah.

  Yedioth Ahronoth quoting a senior Israeli military official:

  “Hashem Safieddine is more extreme than Nasrallah and apparently has already begun to control the party” pic.twitter.com/nw2cK4LwmF

  — SilencedSirs◼️ (@SilentlySirs) September 30, 2024

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  According to more from his background and closeness to Nasrallah:

  Nasrallah’s younger cousin was born in the southern Lebanese village of Deir Qanoun En Nahr near Tyre in 1960. The young men studied theology together at two Shia institutions – one in Najaf, Iraq and the other in Qom, Iran.

  They are seen from their supporters to be from a well-respected Shia family that has produced both religious scholars and Lebanese politicians.

  Safieddine’s brother is Hezbollah’s representative to Iran, while his son is married to the daughter of Qassem Soleimani – the Iranian general killed in a US drone strike during Donald Trump’s presidency in 2020.

  Back in 2017, he stated of the Trump administration: “This mentally impeded, crazy US administration headed by [Donald] Trump will not be able to harm the resistance.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 17:59

• Zelensky Tells Fox: Trump Assured Me He Would Support Ukraine
  Zelensky Tells Fox: Trump Assured Me He Would Support Ukraine

  Authored by Kyle Anzalone via The Libertarian Institute,

  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Fox News that former President Donald Trump reassured him that Washington will maintain its support for Kiev should he return to the White House. 

  The Ukrainian leader said Trump made the remarks when the two met last week. “I don’t know what will be after [the] elections and who will be the president… But I’ve got from Donald Trump very direct information that he will be on our side, that he will support Ukraine,” he said. 

  

  Last week, Zelensky traveled to the US and met with Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris, and President Joe Biden to present Ukraine’s “victory plan.”

  The Wall Street Journal reports that senior US and European officials say the proposal contains no clear path to victory for Ukraine. 

  The plan was described as offering nothing new, and repackaged several old requests for more weapons and permission to use them in Russia. “I’m unimpressed, there’s not much new there,” one official told WSJ. 

  While Democrats have targeted Trump as an apologist for Russian President Vladimir Putin and not supportive enough of Ukraine, the former president has supported sending arms to Ukraine.

  During his term in the Oval Office, Trump authorized arms transfers to Kiev, something his predecessor Barack Obama refused to do out of fear of crossing Moscow’s redlines. 

  Earlier this year, a massive $60 billion aid package for Ukraine was stalled in Congress. Several key figures in the debate report that Trump broke the deadlock when he threw his support behind the aid. 

  Although Trump has claimed he would end the war if elected in November, he has not outlined a precise plan for accomplishing that.

  Trump: “I think Zelensky is the greatest salesman in history. Every time he comes into the country, he walks away with 60 billion dollars” pic.twitter.com/IbrIPZslba

  — unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) September 29, 2024

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

  Instead, he has repeatedly stated the 2022 invasion would not have occurred if he had been president. Trump also insisted on Wednesday that Zelensky should have made a peace deal with Putin shortly after the war began. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 17:40

• A Strange, Unidentified Smell Made Its Way Across Southern Washington Last Week
  A Strange, Unidentified Smell Made Its Way Across Southern Washington Last Week

  Make as many hippie jokes as you’d like, but it appears there is a strange smell making its way across the South of Washington State. 

  Cowlitz County EMS started receiving 911 calls about the smell around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday of last week as it spread through South Kelso, Rose Valley, Kalama, Woodland, and Cumbia County before reaching Portland, a new report from USA Today said.

  Cowlitz County said in a statement this weekend: “The source of the odor and what the odor is/was, are still unknown and under investigation.”

  Leading theories for the smell include “ship, train, highway transportation leak; Scappoose Bio Solids; industry; pipelines; natural gas; Mt St Helens; and ground movement.” 

  The county’s EMS said: “Complaints have varied from unpleasant odors to minor health issues. All agencies continue to work on the situation.” 

  Early reports showed a strange smell was first reported between Vancouver and Kelso. By tracking winds, we can estimate the path that it may have taken, briefly drifting down near Vancouver WA before southerly winds around 4AM would have pushed it back north again. #WAwx #ORwx pic.twitter.com/bU03MbSfM1

  — NWS Portland (@NWSPortland) September 25, 2024

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

  The USA Today report said that Cowlitz County reported variable wind conditions until 6 p.m. on Tuesday, pushing the odor from Longview toward Portland.

  Several county agencies responded to complaints, coordinating with local and federal authorities to identify the source. The National Weather Service also tracked the odor’s path on social media.

  “By tracking winds, we can estimate the path that it may have taken, briefly drifting down near Vancouver WA before southerly winds around 4AM would have pushed it back north again,” EMS said. 

  They called the smell “unusually very inconsistent.” 

  “Descriptions have varied from, similar to natural gas, propane, burning garbage, burning rubber, ammonia, and others. As of this briefing, complaints have varied from unpleasant odors to minor health issues,” they concluded.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 17:20

• The UN Just Adopted The "Pact For The Future" Which Lays The Foundation For A New "Global Order"
  The UN Just Adopted The “Pact For The Future” Which Lays The Foundation For A New “Global Order”

  Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

  While everyone was distracted, the global elite got exactly what they wanted.  The UN adopted the “Pact for the Future” on September 22nd, and the mainstream media in the western world almost entirely ignored what was happening.  Instead, the headlines urged us to just keep focusing on Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.  Sadly, the vast majority of the population has never ever heard about the “Pact for the Future”, and so there was very little public debate about whether or not we should be adopting a document which lays the foundation for a new “global order”.  The text of the “Pact for the Future” is available online, but hardly anyone will ever read it and many of the most important provisions are buried toward the end of the 56 page document.  Of course everyone should take the time to actually read this document, because our leaders just committed us to an extremely insidious global agenda that literally covers just about every conceivable area of human activity.

  

  September 22nd, 2024 is a day that will go down in infamy.

  Once the “Pact for the Future” was formally adopted, the following was posted on the official UN website…

  World leaders today adopted a Pact for the Future that includes a Global Digital Compact and a Declaration on Future Generations. This Pact is the culmination of an inclusive, years-long process to adapt international cooperation to the realities of today and the challenges of tomorrow. The most wide-ranging international agreement in many years, covering entirely new areas as well as issues on which agreement has not been possible in decades, the Pact aims above all to ensure that international institutions can deliver in the face of a world that has changed dramatically since they were created. As the Secretary-General has said, “we cannot create a future fit for our grandchildren with a system built by our grandparents.”

  You would think that the “most wide-ranging international agreement in many years” would make headlines all over the planet.

  But that didn’t happen.

  The UN press release also boldly declares that the “Pact for the Future” will “lay the foundations” for a new “global order”…

  “The Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact, and the Declaration on Future Generations open the door to new opportunities and untapped possibilities,” said the Secretary-General during his remarks at the opening of the Summit of the Future. The President of the General Assembly noted that the Pact would “lay the foundations for a sustainable, just, and peaceful global order – for all peoples and nations.”

  The Pact covers a broad range of issues including peace and security, sustainable development, climate change, digital cooperation, human rights, gender, youth and future generations, and the transformation of global governance.

  I don’t want to live in a new “global order” that includes “all peoples and all nations”.

  I am sure that most of you feel the exact same way.

  Another page on the official UN website tells us that “UN 2.0” is all about creating a “modern UN family”…

  Halfway through the 2030 Agenda, the world is not on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. It is not too late to change course, if we all rethink, refocus, and recharge. “UN 2.0” encapsulates the Secretary-General’s vision of a modern UN family, rejuvenated by a forward-thinking culture and empowered by cutting-edge skills for the twenty-first century – to turbocharge our support to people and planet.

  We will strive towards this vision with a powerful fusion of innovation, data, digital, foresight and behavioural science skills and culture – a dynamic combination that we call the “Quintet of Change”. It is about evolution towards more agile, diverse, responsive, and impactful UN organizations.

  That sounds so cozy, doesn’t it?

  Who wouldn’t want to be a part of a “family”, right?

  But the truth is that the agenda that they intend to impose on all of us will not be pleasant at all.

  Over the years, much has been written about how insidious the UN’s “Sustainable Development Goals” are.

  Well, the UN is openly admitting that the “Pact for the Future” was specifically designed “to turbo-charge implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals”…

  • The entire Pact is designed to turbo-charge implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

  • The most detailed agreement ever at the United Nations on the need for reform of the international financial architecture so that it better represents and serves developing countries, including:

    • Giving developing countries a greater say in how decisions are taken at international financial institutions;

    • Mobilizing more financing from multilateral development banks to help developing countries meet their development needs;

    • Reviewing the sovereign debt architecture to ensure that developing countries can borrow sustainably to invest in their future, with the IMF, UN, G20 and other key players working together;

    • Strengthening the global financial safety net to protect the poorest in the event of financial and economic shocks, through concrete actions by the IMF and Member States;

    • and accelerating measures to address the challenge of climate change, including through delivering more finance to help countries adapt to climate change and invest in renewable energy.

  • Improving how we measure human progress, going beyond GDP to capturing human and planetary wellbeing and sustainability.

  • A commitment to consider ways to introduce a global minimum level of taxation on high-net-worth individuals.

  • On climate change, confirmation of the need to keep global temperature rise to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

  In one way or another, all forms of human activity contribute to “climate change”.

  And so they intend to strictly regulate all forms of human activity in order to meet their twisted goals.

  The “Pact for the Future” also recognizes a “central role” for the UN and a “coordinated and multidimensional international response” whenever future “global shocks” arise…

  We recognize the need for a more coherent, cooperative, coordinated and multidimensional international response to complex global shocks and the central role of the United Nations in this regard. Complex global shocks are events that have severely disruptive and adverse consequences for a significant proportion of countries and the global population, and that lead to impacts across multiple sectors, requiring a multidimensional and whole-of-government, whole-of-society response.

  The next time that there is a major global crisis, do you want the UN running the show and telling everyone what to do?

  I tried to warn everyone about this.

  I have written extensively about the “Pact for the Future”, but in the end only a very small sliver of the population got fired up about it.

  Now the global elite have achieved their goal, and the opposition that they encountered was barely perceptible.

  *  *  *

  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
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 17:00

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• Five Lessons That Russia Can Learn From The Latest Israeli-Lebanese War
  Five Lessons That Russia Can Learn From The Latest Israeli-Lebanese War

  Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack.com,

  The latest Israeli-Lebanese War and the Ukrainian Conflict are so different from one another as to be practically incomparable, but Russia can still learn some general lessons from Israel if it has the will.

  

  The first is that prioritizing military goals increases the chances of achieving political ones. Russia’s special operation continues to be characterized by self-restraint, which is influenced by Putin’s magnum opus “On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians”, unlike Israel’s conduct in its war with Lebanon.

  The expectation was that the lightning-fast on-the-ground advances during the opening stage of the conflict would coerce Zelensky into agreeing to the military demands that were made of him. The only miniscule collateral damage that would have occurred could have then facilitated the process of Russian-Ukrainian reconciliation. This plan was predicated on Zelensky’s capitulation, which didn’t happen. Instead, he was convinced by former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to keep fighting.

  Israel never thought that a lasting deal is possible with Hezbollah, unlike what Russia thought and arguably still thinks is possible with Ukraine’s post-“Maidan” authorities, which is why Tel Aviv would never take a page from Moscow’s playbook by carrying out “goodwill gestures” in pursuit of that. From Israel’s perspective, political goals can only be achieved after a military victory, not the inverse like Russia believes with regard to the notion that a political victory can lead to the attainment of military goals.

  The second lesson is the importance of superior intelligence. Russia was reportedly under the impression cultivated by its Ukrainian assets in the run-up to the special operation that the locals would greet its troops with flowers and then Zelensky’s government would collapse. Intelligence collection focused mostly on the socio-political situation in Ukraine, which turned out to be incredibly inaccurate, and not on military details. That’s why Russian troops were surprised by Ukraine’s Javelin and Stinger arsenals.

  It also seems to be the case in retrospect that Russia’s Ukrainian assets told their handlers what they thought they wanted to hear, whether to deceive them or because they thought that telling tough truths could risk them being taken off the payroll. Russia either didn’t verify the socio-political intelligence that it received or the other sources that it relied on were driven by the same motives. In any case, an alternative reality was created, which reinforced the prioritization of political goals over military ones.

  Israel is no doubt interested in Lebanon’s socio-political situation, but it cares much more about tangible military intelligence that can be verified with images than intangible impressions of public opinion that could be shaded by their source’s biases and aren’t as easy to verify. These different intelligence collection priorities are the natural result of the different conflicts that they planned to wage as explained in the preceding lesson that Russia can learn from Israel.  

  The third is that Russia remains sensitive to global public opinion, which is another outcome of prioritizing political goals over military ones, while Israel is impervious to public opinion at home, in Lebanon, and across the world. Russia will therefore put its troops in harm’s way capturing locations block-by-block as opposed to practicing “shock and awe” like Israel is doing in Lebanon. Even though Russia’s approach led to a lot fewer civilian deaths, it’s still criticized much as Israel is, if not more.

  Israel believes that fear inspires respect, while Russia doesn’t want to be feared since it thinks that this impression would assist the West’s efforts to isolate it in the Global South. Respect, Russia believes, comes from restraining itself in order to protect civilians even at the cost of its own troops. Russia has also criticized the US for the way in which it waged the Afghan, Iraqi, and Libyan Wars, et al., and thus doesn’t want to appear hypocritical by prioritizing military goals even at the expense of civilians’ lives.

  Israel lacks the natural resources that Russia has so its opponents should have had a much easier time isolating it by at least getting others to impose symbolic sanctions, yet nobody has sanctioned Israel even though it’s responsible for many more civilian deaths than Russia. Even Russia itself won’t sanction Israel despite criticizing it. To be fair, the Global South hasn’t sanctioned Russia either, but it needs Russian resources so it likely wouldn’t sanction it even if it becomes responsible for many more civilian deaths.

  Moreover, the Global South’s partnership with Russia accelerates multipolar processes to their collective benefit, while the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions were meant to decelerate them. It should therefore have been predictable that the first wouldn’t submit to American pressure while the second would. Neither’s calculations have anything to do with Russia’s responsibility for civilian deaths and everything to do with their own grand strategy. Russia’s sensitivity to global public opinion might thus be misplaced.

  The fourth lesson is that Israel’s permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies (“deep state”) are more convinced of their conflict’s existential nature than Russia’s appear to be. That’s not to say that say that the Ukrainian Conflict isn’t existential to Russia, which was explained here and here, but just that Russia would have prioritized military goals over political ones by now if its “deep state” fully shared this assessment. Israel’s certainly does regardless of whether one agrees with their conclusion.

  Russia is still restraining itself by continuing to fight an improvised “war of attrition” with the West in Ukraine after it couldn’t successfully coerce Zelensky into agreeing to the military demands that were made of him during the special operation’s initial stage instead of escalating to “shock and awe”. It still won’t destroy any bridges across the Dnieper due to its prioritization of political goals over military ones and sensitivity to global public opinion and has even let several red lines be crossed already.

  To be sure, the West won’t cross Russia’s ultimate red lines of directly attacking it or Belarus or relying on Ukraine to launch large-scale strikes against them by proxy since it doesn’t want World War III, but some hawks are now talking about the latter scenario, hence why Russia just updated its nuclear doctrine. By contrast, Hamas’ sneak attack on 7 October 2023 crossed one of Israel’s red lines but didn’t ipso facto represent an existential threat since it was beaten back, yet Israel’s “deep state” still saw it differently.

  Although some differences of vision exist between various members thereof, this group as a whole is still convinced of the existential nature of the conflict that followed, ergo the prioritization of military goals over political ones that’s the opposite of Russia’s approach. To this day, despite compelling arguments from Russian officials about the existential nature of their country’s conflict, its “deep state” as a whole still doesn’t seem to be as convinced of this as their Israeli counterparts are of their own conflict.

  A change in perceptions would lead to a change in how this conflict is fought, but that hasn’t yet happened despite drone attacks against the Kremlin, strategic airbases, and even early warning systems, among many other provocations including Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk Region. Time and again, despite reminding everyone about how existential this conflict is, Russia continues exercising self-restraint. Political goals are still prioritized over military ones and Russia is still sensitive to global public opinion.

  That could change if it learns the last lesson from Israel about “radical decisiveness”. Philosopher Alexander Dugin wrote that “Those who act with decisiveness and boldness win. We, on the other hand, are cautious and constantly hesitate. By the way, Iran is also following this path, which leads nowhere. Gaza is gone. Hamas’ leadership is gone. Now Hezbollah’s leadership is gone. And President Raisi of Iran is gone. Even his pager is gone. Yet Zelensky is still here. And Kiev stands as if nothing has happened.

  He ended on the ominous note that “We must either join the game for real or… The second option is something I don’t even want to consider. But in modern warfare, timing, speed, and ‘dromocracy’ decide everything. The Zionists act swiftly, proactively. Boldly. And they win. We should follow their example.” Dugin was the first to foresee the latent existential threat to Russia posed by 2014’s “EuroMaidan” and has thus been pressing since the start of the special operation for it to stop exercising self-restraint.

  “Goodwill gestures” and self-restraint aren’t appreciated by Ukraine, which perceives them as proof of weakness that have only served to embolden it to cross more of Russia’s red lines. For as much as these policies have reduced civilian deaths, they haven’t yet advanced their envisaged political goals over two and a half years since the latest phase of this already decade-old conflict began. It might therefore be time to finally change them in light of how different the conflict has since become.

  Putin’s noble plan of a grand Russian-Ukrainian reconciliation after the special operation ends appears to be more distant than ever, yet he still believes that it’s supposedly viable enough to justify staying the course by continuing to prioritize political goals over military ones. He’s the Supreme Commander-in-Chief with more information available to him than anyone else so he has solid reasons for this, but maybe Israel’s example in Lebanon will inspire him to see things differently and act accordingly.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 09/30/2024 – 02:00

• What Are World Leaders Getting Paid?
  What Are World Leaders Getting Paid?

  World leaders frequently rub shoulders with the rich and famous, but does that mean they themselves can be counted among this category of people?

  As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, based on data taken from the website PoliticalSalaries.com, the answer is ‘it depends’.

  Among current world leaders is one income millionaire: Lawrence Wong, the prime minister of Singapore. He brings in an annual salary of the equivalent of almost $1.69 million, which makes him the best-earning world leader. His remuneration places him far ahead of second-ranked Viola Amherd, president of Switzerland, who earns upwards of a converted $570,000 per year.

  Year is indeed singular for Amherd, who started her term on January 1 and will end it on December 31. Swiss presidents are members of the country’s government cabinet voted in by the Swiss parliament for one year at a time. The cabinet consists of seven council members who can be re-elected, so it is possible that Amherd will serve another well-paid term as Swiss president in the future.

  Many of the remainder of the world’s best-paid political leaders hail from Anglophone countries, including the American president, who earns $400,000 annually. As of August 29 currency conversion rates, this was less that what Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is making, but more than what the Prime Ministers of New Zealand and Canada, Christopher Luxon and Justin Trudeau, are bringing in per year. German-speaking countries also pay their leaders well, with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer making slightly more than his German equivalent, Olaf Scholz.

  Including leaders of non-sovereign entities, Hong Kong is applying a similar approach to Singapore’s, paying its current Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu the equivalent of almost $700,000 annually. While Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew was a proponent of competitive public sector pay, Hong Kong’s high remuneration has been tied to its history of high pay for colonial governors. Another leader that doesn’t helm a country, but is still handsomely rewarded is Ursula van der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. She is bringing in one of the European Union’s highest salary of approximately $358,000 per year.

  Taking a different approach to determining the highest-paid world leaders on a level relative to their countries’ economic prowess, Kenyan President William Rutto is the biggest earner, bringing in the equivalent of almost 2,000% of his country’s per-capita GDP in 2023.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  On the basis of 2023 average exchange rates, Rutto made the equivalent of $126,000 last year. This is in stark contrast to Kenya’s GDP per capita of just $6,300 annually. The Presidents of Tanzania and South Africa, Samia Suluhu Hassan and Cyril Ramaphosa, also crack the 1,000% mark, while aforementioned Singaporian Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and his $1.7 million salary stand at 1,158% of the per-capita GDP of the city state of $141,500.

  Viola Amherd of Switzerland, Anthony Albanese of Australia and Christopher Luxon of New Zealand also reappear among the world leaders with the highest relative salaries, while U.S. President Joe Biden comes in rank 9 at a salary standing at 490% of per-capita GDP in 2023.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 22:45

• Lebowitz Calls For Biden-Harris To "Dissolve The Supreme Court": Turley
  Lebowitz Calls For Biden-Harris To “Dissolve The Supreme Court”: Turley

  Authored by Jonathan Turley via jonathanturley.org,

  Author and cultural critic Fran Lebowitz added voice to the unhinged calls on the left for trashing the Supreme Court. As I discussed recently in the Wall Street Journal (and in my book), there is a growing counter-constitutional movement in the United States led by law professors, pundits, and celebrities. Lebowitz amplified those calls in a radical demand to simply get rid of the Court.

  

  Lebowitz called for President Joe Biden to “dissolve the Supreme Court” despite the fact that it would violate the Constitution and remove one of the most critical protections against executive and legislative abuse.

  Lebowitz insisted that the Supreme Court is a “disgrace” because, in a reference to Donald Trump, it is “completely his.” To the wild applause of the New York audience, she added: “It’s so disgraceful, this court, that it shouldn’t even be allowed to be called the Supreme Court. It’s an insult to Motown. Basically, it’s a harem. It’s Trump’s harem.”

  Her views aligned with others on the left who have attacked the Constitution, the Court, and even rights like free speech as now threats to our democracy.

  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer previously declared in front of the Supreme Court, “I want to tell you, [Neil] Gorsuch, I want to tell you, [Brett] Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price.”

  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) announced that she wants the impeachment of all six of the conservative justices. She was immediately joined by other Democratic members.

  Previously, Ocasio-Cortez admitted that she does not understand why we even have a Supreme Court. She asked “How much does the current structure benefit us? And I don’t think it does.”

  Other members, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have called for packing the Court with additional members to immediately secure a liberal majority to rule as she desires.

  UNHINGED: Fran Lebowitz to Bill Maher: “Biden should dissolve the Supreme Court.” pic.twitter.com/z6oe0VURIo

  — Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) September 28, 2024

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

  Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D., RI), has assured voters that Vice President Kamala Harris will support the packing of the Court with a liberal majority.

  Despite supporting censorship to combat “disinformation,” many on the left now eagerly spread disinformation about the Court and its rulings. Lebowitz repeated false claims about the Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, stating that the decision makes the president a “king” who “can do whatever you want.”

  In reality, the Court followed the same approach that it has taken in prior conflicts between the branches.

  As it has in the past, the Court adopted a three-tiered approach to presidential powers based on the source of a presidential action. Chief Justice John Roberts cited Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer, in which the court ruled against President Harry Truman’s takeover of steel mills.

  In his famous concurrence to Youngstown, Justice Robert Jackson broke down the balance of executive and legislative authority between three types of actions. In the first, a president acts with express or implied authority from Congress. In the second, he acts where Congress is silent (“the zone of twilight” area). In the third, the president acts in defiance of Congress.

  In this decision, the court adopted a similar sliding scale. It held that presidents enjoy absolute immunity for actions that fall within their “exclusive sphere of constitutional authority” while they enjoy presumptive immunity for other official acts. They do not enjoy immunity for unofficial or private actions.

  None of this matters. Facts do not matter. Many on the left are calling for the trashing of the Constitution based on wildly inaccurate claims.

  Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley law school, is author of “No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States,” published last month. In a 2021 Los Angeles Times op-ed, he described conservative justices as “partisan hacks.”

  In the New York Times, book critic Jennifer Szalai scoffs at what she calls “Constitution worship.” She writes: “Americans have long assumed that the Constitution could save us; a growing chorus now wonders whether we need to be saved from it.” She frets that by limiting the power of the majority, the Constitution “can end up fostering the widespread cynicism that helps authoritarianism grow.”

  In a 2022 New York Times op-ed, “The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed,” law professors Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale called for liberals to “reclaim America from constitutionalism.”

  Lebowitz is also wrong about the voting record of the justices. In reality, the Court continues to rule largely by unanimous, or nearly unanimous decisions. After April, unanimity stood at 46 percent of cases.

  Of the 22 6-3 decisions, only half broke along ideological lines. That is the same as the 11 such cases last term.

  The average for unanimous decisions has been roughly 43 percent. The rate is back up to 48 percent for the last term. When you add the nearly unanimous opinions, it is the vast majority of cases. Moreover, Sotomayor agreed with Roberts in 71% of cases Kavanaugh and Barrett agreed with Sotomayor roughly 70% of the time.

  In critical decisions, conservative justices like Gorsuch and Barrett have joined their liberal colleagues and the Court has repeatedly voted against positions supported by Donald Trump.

  Again, none of this matters. Lebowitz and others are falsely telling the public that the Court is dysfunctionally and ideologically divided. Of course, even if you accept the false premise, the problem is not with the liberal justices always voting as a block but the conservatives doing so. The liberals are not robotic, they are simply right.

  Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 22:10

• "We Have Her Underwater": Michigan Lawmaker Admits Dire Internal Polling For Kamala Harris
  “We Have Her Underwater”: Michigan Lawmaker Admits Dire Internal Polling For Kamala Harris

  In a Sunday bombshell, Axios reports that Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) has privately warned donors that Vice President Kamala Harris is “underwater” in Michigan – a critical battleground state for Democrats – according to a video clip obtained by the outlet. Slotkin’s revelation comes at a time when the Dems are fighting tooth and nail to hold onto the Senate, and Michigan could be a deciding factor.

  

  During a virtual fundraiser last Wednesday with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Slotkin didn’t mince words. “I’m not feeling my best right now about where we are on Kamala Harris in a place like Michigan,” she admitted, further stating that their internal polling shows Harris sinking in the Wolverine State. The news comes as a blow Democrats as they eye a tough Senate race where Slotkin herself is vying for a seat against GOP contender, former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI).

  Why It Matters

  Michigan is a critical state for Democrats. If Trump sweeps the Sun Belt, taking Michigan – or any state in the so-called “Blue Wall” that includes Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, it could pave his way back to the White House. Recent polling averages from FiveThirtyEight have Harris ahead by just 2.4 points, while a New York Times/Siena College poll puts her lead at a razor-thin 1 point.

  

  Meanwhile, Senate Republicans smell blood in the water. Slotkin’s Senate race has seen millions of dollars pour in, with GOP operatives sensing a prime opportunity to flip the seat. Republican internal polling suggests the race may be neck-and-neck, despite some public polls showing Slotkin with a narrow lead.

  Money Talks, But Polls Walk

  While Slotkin’s public polling paints a more optimistic picture, with RealClearPolitics giving her a 48% to 43% edge, Republicans are raising alarms. GOP strategists believe the Michigan Senate race is tightening, especially as Slotkin’s campaign fights off the GOP war chest. With Slotkin admitting Harris is struggling in Michigan, it’s clear Democrats have a lot to worry about in 2024.

  The Senate map isn’t doing Democrats any favors either. While ruby-red Ohio and Montana have been getting attention, a surprise Republican win in Michigan could virtually guarantee a GOP majority come next November.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 21:35

• What Will Happen Tomorrow – JPM Collar Trade?
  What Will Happen Tomorrow – JPM Collar Trade?

  Via SpotGamma.com,

  Equities this past week have been very quiet, with the SPX having a range of only 0.75% over the last 6 sessions.

   

  In fact, the 0DTE SPX at-the-money straddle on Friday, in front of a key Core PCE data print, was a paltry $25.5 (45bps).

  That pricing is as low as it gets, reflecting that traders think that markets will continue to do… nothing.

  But here at SpotGamma, we think that is all about to change…

   

  … AND we have a brand new way for you to watch it change AS IT HAPPENS.

  Why this change?

  Enter, the infamous JPM Collar Trade.

  In what might be the most well-known option trade in existence, each quarter a large JPM Hedge Fund (JHEQX), sells ~40k contracts of an out-of-the-money call to fund a long put spread.

  In this case, the call they are currently (heavily) short is:

  40k contracts at the 5,750 strike, expiring tomorrow, Monday, 9/30.

  That 40k short call position means dealers are long a literal ton of Gamma, which you can see on our brand new TRACE heatmap and strike plot, below.

  

  TRACE is powered by SpotGamma’s new proprietary open interest models, allowing us to show you the latest in dealer hedging flows – flows that update throughout the day.

  You see the changes as they happen.

  This means that on Monday, when the existing JPM position(s) are closed, and rolled to new December strikes, you’ll be able to see it happen.

  Further, you’ll see how it changes the dealer hedging position.

  What does this matter?

  We believe these trades will lead to a pickup in S&P 500 volatility.

  Here’s why.

  If one believes that positive Gamma is linked to low volatility (which we do), then the removal of a giant blanket of positive Gamma (AKA JPM’s short call) should open the door for volatility.

  This is exactly what is set to happen on Monday, as the current JPM call is going to be closed and “rolled up and out.”

  The implication is then, that the new call is going to be changed to a ~5% higher strike, out in Dec ’24. That is far less positive Gamma in the new position vs. the current position, expiring tomorrow.

  Therefore, this expiration should allow for volatility (i.e. market movement) to expand, suggesting that starting Monday, the SPX will start moving and we’ll be relying on TRACE to show us the way.

  If YOU want TRACE in your corner as this change happens – in real time – then the time is now to sign up for our “Alpha” plan, which includes TRACE access PLUS a whole host of other real-time indicators and volatility tools.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 21:00

• Inside The Biden Admin's Plot To Destroy Silvergate And Debank Crypto For Good
  Inside The Biden Admin’s Plot To Destroy Silvergate And Debank Crypto For Good

  Submitted by Nic Carter

  • New bankruptcy filings and exclusive interviews with confidential sources suggest Silvergate could have survived if not for pressure from regulators, which allegedly included an informal mandate to cap its crypto deposits at 15 percent
  • Sen. Elizabeth Warren all but accused Silvergate of aiding and abetting FTX’s crimes, creating an “atmosphere of concern” around Silvergate that possibly contributed to a run on the bank
  • Sources told us the FHLB (Federal Home Loan Banks) refused to renew their monthly loan agreement with Silvergate due to political pressure from Warren, accelerating the bank’s losses
  • Claims of criminal wrongdoing related to Silvergate’s association with FTX have never been proven, and no criminal charges have ever been filed against the bank
  • Silvergate’s downfall may have been a primary cause of the 2023 regional banking crisis, which ultimately took down Signature, Silicon Valley Bank, and First Republic

  In late 2022, Silvergate Bank was on top of the crypto world. Once a small California savings and loan association, Silvergate had transformed itself into the most important bank in the crypto sector, allowing it to stage an IPO and claim a majority of the sector’s institutional deposits. The bank’s Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) had grown to become a crucial piece of infrastructure for crypto’s institutional players, and shares in the company had surged from $35 at the end of 2020, to $220 at the end of 2021.

  

  Today, Silvergate no longer exists. Although its depositors were made whole, common shareholders were completely wiped out, and preferred shareholders are getting back pennies on the dollar. The bank paid out large fines to its regulators: $43 million to the Federal Reserve, $20 million to California’s Department of Financial Protection, and $50 million¹ to the Securities and Exchange Commission. After having announced their intent to voluntarily liquidate in March 2023, they finally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week.

  Those who still remember Silvergate see the bank as emblematic of crypto’s worst elements and the most reckless behavior exhibited by regional banks during the crisis of 2023. A perfect storm of risk-seeking, turning a blind eye to crypto criminals, and compliance failures. Or at least — that’s how the story goes.

  

  This story — today presented as established fact in the financial press and by the government² — goes like this:

  Silvergate was a sleepy, small regional bank until it discovered crypto. When the space experienced surges of interest in 2017 and again in 2020, balance sheet expansion caused Silvergate’s deposits to swell. The bank then turbocharged its usefulness to the crypto space when it created SEN, allowing its clients — which now included many of the world’s largest crypto exchanges and trading firms — to settle between each other 24/7/365. (Because crypto settles 24/7, and bank wires only clear during banking hours, firms linking fiat and crypto often experience serious friction. SEN helped alleviate these issues.) Most crypto firms that mattered were clients of Silvergate, lending SEN powerful network effects.

  In 2017, Silvergate onboarded Alameda Research, a secretive trading firm run by Jane Street alum Sam Bankman-Fried. Alameda quickly grew to become one of the most active trading shops in crypto, deepening its dependence on Silvergate. When Bankman-Fried launched FTX, a flashy offshore exchange in the vein of Bitmex or Binance, Silvergate started processing wires for them, too.

  Silvergate grew to occupy a critical position in the domestic crypto industry. In the two years following Q4 2019, deposits ballooned from $1.8 billion to $14.3 billion. By year-end 2021, digital asset customers at Silvergate maintained $11.7 billion on deposit with the bank, equivalent to 82 percent of total deposits.

  Not long after, things began to go south in crypto. In May, the ponzi-esque “stablecoin” UST, issued by Do Kwon’s Terra, went belly up. Then, over the summer and fall, lenders Voyager, Celsius, and BlockFi blew up in quick succession as a credit crunch hit the industry. In June, “proprietary” trading firm Three Arrows Capital collapsed due to its remarkably stupid long bets on Terra/Luna, causing further reverberations as the firm absconded with investor cash. The coup de grâce came in November 2022, with the messy and extremely public collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s empire in the Bahamas.

  Throughout this period, balance sheets at crypto banks shrank as firms tried their best to satisfy their obligations and pay down their debt — or went out of business. Consequently, Silvergate suffered dramatic outflows, with non interest-bearing deposits (a large portion of which were attributed to crypto firms) falling from a peak of $14 billion in December 2021 to $7.4 billion in December 2022.

  Silvergate faced significant problems on both the asset and liability sides. The liabilities were deposits owed to crypto firms in the process of shrinking their balance sheets or outright failing. The assets were treasury bonds, agency securities, and municipal bonds cratering in value due to dramatic federal interest rate hikes aimed at stemming advanced inflation. As the bank’s crypto depositors withdrew, Silvergate was forced to sell its newly depreciated long-dated bonds for a fraction of their original value, resulting in a net loss in calendar year 2022 of $948 million.

  Simultaneously, questions began to emerge about Silvergate’s role in the FTX fiasco. Was it just a bank with a settlement network, or something more sinister? When Sam Bankman-Fried was processing funds in and out of FTX via Alameda, had Silvergate deliberately looked the other way? Had Silvergate been aware of the holes in Alameda’s and FTX’s balance sheets? Had the bank been party to the litany of ancillary crimes committed by SBF et al., which included campaign finance violations and bribing Chinese officials? As one of the most important banks for the Alameda/FTX apparatus, it was certainly plausible Silvergate was a co-conspirator.

  These were the questions posed by an unlikely confederation of short sellers and high-level members of Congress. First, the bombastic short seller Marc Cohodes implied Silvergate was not only doomed, but actually implicated in SBF’s crime syndicate. Then, Cohodes’ claims found surprising support from one of the most important political voices in finance: Massachusetts Senator and member of the Senate Banking Committee, Elizabeth Warren. Warren wrote two letters to Silvergate CEO Alan Lane in December 2022 and January 2023, lambasting the bank and lending credence to claims that it might have criminal liability stemming from its relationship with FTX.

  Reacting to these concerns, the Federal Reserve, FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), and OCC (Office of the Comptroller of Currency) issued a joint statement warning banks they faced significant risks if they served the crypto space. Two days later, Silvergate slashed costs and downsized to adapt to their shrinking depositor base. Another joint statement from federal bank regulators, again on the risk crypto posed to banks, soon followed. Meanwhile, shares in Silvergate were collapsing, falling to $16 by the end of 2022.

  For the plucky Silvergate, this all proved too much to bear. On March 8, 2023, Silvergate leadership announced its intention to voluntarily liquidate the bank. This was an unusual move — normally failed or failing banks are sent into receivership (placed under the control of a government-appointed entity, typically the FDIC), then sold off to larger, sounder banks. But given the risks of criminal liability from the FTX fiasco hanging over the bank, perhaps it made sense to just shut it down completely.

  To the average pundit, there’s nothing wrong with this story. Silvergate bet big on a risky industry and faced the consequences when a credit crunch led to a depository flight. It had onboarded the odious Sam Bankman-Fried, and possibly become party to his crimes. Meanwhile, the bank had greedily backed its short term liabilities (customer deposits) with long term, higher yielding instruments, and were forced to realize huge losses as they honored withdrawals. As a relatively small bank, Silvergate didn’t have the capital buffer to absorb these losses, so it chose to wind down.

  The warnings from Senator Elizabeth Warren had proved prescient. By 2024, Silvergate had settled with the Fed, California’s financial regulator, and the SEC, with individual executives paying fines and being barred from the business. This was all the confirmation anyone needed that Silvergate had lied about its compliance program and had experienced significant surveillance failures in their engagement with FTX/Alameda. Silvergate took on inadvisable risks by serving the generally fraudulent crypto space, got greedy by betting on long-duration, higher-yielding bonds, and paid the ultimate price.

  But what if that’s not the whole story?

  What if there’s another version of events, in which Silvergate was a victim of FTX, not an accomplice to their crimes?

  What if Senator Warren’s warnings about Silvergate served as a self-fulfilling prophecy, hastening the run on the bank?

  What if the Biden administration deliberately killed off Silvergate — and some of its peers — in an attempt to decapitate the domestic crypto industry? What if this was the spark that lit the flame of a gigantic regional banking crisis?

  And what if the settlements Silvergate made with its regulators effectively covered the government’s tracks, allowing it to continue to deny the existence of Operation Choke Point 2.0?

  This is the version of events no one is talking about, and one that official government accounts rebuke, but it’s what I’ve come to believe. Aside from a relative few on Crypto Twitter, it’s a story no one seems interested in — the mainstream financial press most of all. But in my mind, the official narrative is historical fiction at best, and recent events have only further convinced me of the fact.

  Until now, Silvergate executives have been muzzled by regulatory actions and litigation, unable to tell their side of the story. Based on conversations with confidential sources, and new revelations in Silvergate’s recently public bankruptcy filings, I believe Silvergate could have survived its drawdown — and was on a path to do so — before being hamstrung by regulators continuing to advance the covert Biden admin scheme to destroy the US crypto industry we now know as Operation Choke Point 2.0. In so doing, government officials eliminated Silvergate’s ability to operate as a bank focused on the crypto industry, and forced their “voluntary” liquidation.

  I further believe the targeted harassment of Silvergate which led to its downfall was a primary cause of the 2023 banking crisis, which ultimately took down Signature, Silicon Valley Bank, and First Republic, and threw the broader banking system into disarray.

  In short: the government’s desire to decapitate the domestic crypto industry through covert rulemaking aimed at crypto-focused banks both initiated and worsened the banking crisis of 2023, the largest since the great financial crisis in 2008.

  

  I first started hearing from individuals at Silvergate, Signature, Silicon Valley Bank, and First Republic that they were under inordinate pressure from regulators in early 2023. At the same time, multiple regulatory agencies were firing warning shots across the bow of crypto-adjacent banks. There was Elizabeth Warren’s hostile letter to Silvergate, the January 2023 joint statement from three regulatory bodies regarding crypto risk to banks, the Fed’s denial of crypto-focused Custodia’s application to become a Federal Reserve member bank, and the National Economic Council (NEC) cautionary statement on banks and crypto.

  In response, several banks that provided services to crypto firms began to curtail or eliminate their digital lines of business entirely. This retreat was reminiscent of Operation Choke Point, an Obama-era program aimed at marginalizing politically disfavored industries like firearm manufacturers not by passing legislation, but by using financial regulators to threaten banks providing services to those industries. In my first piece of reporting for Pirate Wires on the topic, I coined “Operation Choke Point 2.0” to describe how these same tactics were being used against the crypto space. At the time, Silvergate was under significant pressure, but still operational.

  Thirty days after I published Choke Point 2.0, Silvergate would announce its voluntary liquidation. The following day, Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse began in earnest, and on Sunday night, New York regulators sent Signature Bank following into receivership, despite protests from board member Barney Frank that the bank was still solvent, and that the move was politically motivated.

  Based on discussions with individuals with knowledge of the affected banks, I wrote a follow-up piece for Pirate Wires, alleging that Silvergate had been forced to close due to a secretly imposed 15 percent cap on crypto deposits, and that Signature had been wrongly put out of business. Additional provocations included the FDIC’s unwillingness to allow Signature to sell off its crypto-focused deposits or its SigNet product, a 24/7 settlement layer similar to Silvergate’s SEN. Instead of maximizing value for taxpayers by securing a price for the assets, the FDIC instead allowed these crypto-related lines of business to wither on the vine. Signature’s crypto deposits were forcibly returned to clients rather than being inherited by its acquirer, Flagstar Bank. By threatening the banks themselves, these actions not only looked like a covert attack on the crypto space, but they also potentially hastened, or even caused the demise of, the two most pro-crypto banks in the US.

  The Silvergate story was particularly vexing because, unlike at Signature, no one was able to speak out and tell their side of the story. I later learned that key elements of the regulatory crackdown, in particular the 15 percent threshold on crypto deposits (conveyed to Silvergate by the SF Fed, with apparent assent from other regulatory bodies) were considered “confidential supervisory information” (CSI)³, and hence ineligible to be shared publicly. Perversely, CSI is intended to protect banks themselves from leaks of information surfaced in examinations — routine procedures where regulators evaluate bank management, safety and soundness, and regulatory compliance — that could hurt their standing, but in this case, it was weaponized against the banks to protect the regulators’ reputation in the eyes of the public.

  So far, we have seen no acknowledgment from the Fed, its regional branches, or the FDIC regarding the 15 percent deposit caps, which government authorities primarily messaged verbally to a number of crypto banks, rather than in writing. Why did Silvergate and others feel compelled to comply with these informal deposit caps? An insider explained it to me this way: “They have eight million ways to shut us down, any way they want. When they say you gotta do something, you do it.” The caps were never publicly discussed or formally opposed as a rule, but when your primary regulator threatens you, you comply. “The regulators can pick anything and say, ‘Your compliance program is broken’ as a pretext for shutting you down,” the source told me.

  According to people briefed on the situation, though the 15 percent threshold on crypto deposits was issued to Silvergate by the SF Fed, it originated in DC. It is now widely suspected that the architect of this policy was Bharat Ramamurti, then-deputy chair of Biden’s National Economic Council, a powerful advisory body that coordinates economic policy across many executive agencies. Ramamurti was senior counsel for banking and economic policy in Senator Elizabeth Warren’s office from 2013 to 2019 and economic policy director on her 2020 campaign. Now, he’s an advisor to the Harris/ Walz presidential campaign.

  

  When I reported on Choke Point 2.0, there was little on the record to corroborate my findings, as Silvergate leadership and other insiders were ensnared in regulatory settlements and litigation, prohibiting them from speaking publicly. But Silvergate’s recent bankruptcy filings allowed them to tell their side of the story for the first time.

  The first-day bankruptcy filing from Silvergate Chief Administrative Officer Elaine Hetrick lays out the company’s side of the story, to the extent legally permissible. She starts by noting the difficulties Silvergate faced due to the crypto market downturn and the significant interest rate hikes, but maintains the bank had sufficient assets to operate as a going concern in early 2023. The bank’s challenges, however, “reached an inflection point in early 2023 following further regulatory scrutiny regarding its business model.”

  Hetrick states that in early 2023, Silvergate “had stabilized, was able to meet regulatory capital requirements, and had the capability to continue to serve its customers,” but maintains that “the increased supervisory pressure on Silvergate Bank and other banks focused on servicing crypto-asset businesses forced Silvergate Bank to a point where it would have needed to remake its business model away from its focus on crypto-asset businesses.”

  After the phrase “the increased supervisory pressure on Silvergate Bank,” Hetrick adds a footnote: “Silvergate is prohibited by law from disclosing confidential supervisory information, which broadly includes correspondence and communications with the Federal Banking Regulatory Agencies as well as reports of supervisory examination.” This means there’s more to be said about the nature of the pressure — which in my view would include the verbally-messaged 15 percent cap on crypto deposits — but Hetrick is prohibited from going into detail here, due to the supervisory pressure being considered CSI.

  Hetrick is adamant that sudden regulatory shifts, not the financial difficulties it had faced from the drawdown in deposits, forced Silvergate to shutter. In initial filings, she explains: “This public signaling and sudden regulatory shift made clear that, at least as of the first quarter of 2023, the Federal Bank Regulatory Agencies would not tolerate banks with significant concentrations of digital asset customers, ultimately preventing Silvergate Bank from continuing its digital asset focused business model.”

  She also points to the failure of Signature Bank as indicative of an anti-crypto stance on the part of regulators, referring to Chair Barney Frank’s comments that its closure was at least partially due to a desire to “send an anti-crypto message.” Hetrick notes that, tellingly, the FDIC refused to include $4 billion in crypto-related deposits in the sale of Signature to Flagstar Bank. As one confidential source told me regarding the FDIC’s refusal to sell crypto-related deposits or Signature’s SigNet, “The government is setting policy not based on law, but through selective sales.⁴”

  For now, Hetrick is unable to share the full extent of regulatory pressure the Fed applied to Silvergate, but her testimony, given under oath, is still extremely revealing. Notably, it’s a stark departure from the official government account as written by the GAO (Government Accountability Office), which makes no mention whatsoever of the novel regulatory pressures that ultimately doomed the bank.

  

  One of the first clues something with Silvergate’s downfall was suspicious was that it chose to voluntarily liquidate in March 2023, rather than entering FDIC receivership. This is so uncommon that I had to dig deep to find similar examples, and even then, I could only identify a tiny handful in the last 30 years. The most notable was West Virginia’s First National Bank of Keystone, a small bank with $1.1 billion in assets which voluntary liquidated in 1999 before eventually being taken over by the FDIC. Aside from First National, I couldn’t find any voluntary liquidations of banks with over $100 million in assets. It’s truly a rare thing. In fact, a source told me that when Silvergate leadership expressed its intention to voluntarily liquidate the bank, their California regulator, having no experience with the procedure, was completely unsure of how to proceed.

  Why is this notable? In my view, how rarely banks choose voluntary liquidation is further evidence Silvergate was ultimately killed by regulatory mandate, not the bank run it suffered. After all, in March 2023 — when the bank voluntarily liquidated — it had already survived the run. In fact, deposits had ticked up quarter over quarter from Q3 to Q4 2022.

  Instead, I learned the economics of the business simply didn’t make sense after regulators imposed the new 15 percent crypto deposit limit. SEN would be rendered useless, as the bank wouldn’t be able to maintain accounts with all the relevant firms that would be transacting. And the drastically reduced revenue streams would no longer justify the high fixed costs of supporting crypto firms (especially from a compliance perspective). Sources told me leadership even considered charging large clients high fixed fees for banking access — believing they would be willing to pay, since so few other banks served crypto at that time — but they couldn’t make the numbers work. So they chose to wind the bank down in an orderly manner and make all depositors whole, which they were able to do.

  We don’t know what would have happened had Silvergate been given the opportunity to rebuild its business after it right-sized following the bank run, rather than being permanently hamstrung by the 15 percent crypto deposit cap. We do know that the balance sheets of crypto firms recovered strongly in the US in 2023 and 2024, as the credit crunch ended and large caps like Bitcoin rallied once again.

  “If the [15 percent] limit hadn’t been imposed, Silvergate would be thriving right now,” someone familiar with the matter told me. I tend to believe this. There has been a gaping hole in domestic crypto banking since the imposition of Choke Point 2.0, and any firm brave enough to offer banking to crypto firms would have done tremendously well — had any been allowed to survive. Anecdotally, connections to domestic banks willing to onboard crypto clients is the number one request from portfolio companies at my blockchain-focused venture capital firm Castle Island. Unfortunately, regulators haven’t allowed the market for crypto-friendly banks to recover. As a result, crypto startups are moving offshore, where more banks are willing to support digital asset firms.

  

  On the first day of 2023, there were three major banks commonly known to serve crypto firms: Silvergate, a smallish bank almost exclusively focused on crypto; Signature, a relatively large bank with a significant but not exclusive concentration of deposits from crypto firms; and Metropolitan Commercial Bank, another boutique with a crypto arm. Silicon Valley Bank also had a single large crypto client in stablecoin network Circle. Four months later, they were all gone, reminiscent of the Henry VIII nursery rhyme about his doomed wives — “divorced, beheaded, died.” In this case, it was “liquidated/ collapsed/ acquired, exited the crypto business, and collapsed/ acquired.” At the two most notable crypto boutiques — Silvergate and Signature — there is strong evidence they were actively destroyed by regulators, rather than dying of natural causes.

  Any bank looking to fill the hole left by these three institutions would have faced a frigid regulatory environment and the presumed informal 15 percent cap on crypto deposits that rendered the economics infeasible. Previously, a bank could orient itself toward the crypto space and justify the investment in a tech stack and compliance overhead if they could expand their depository base, as Silvergate and Signature did. They could also create valuable intra-bank settlement networks like SEN and SigNet if they were able to get a meaningful share of the crypto industry under one roof.

  With hundreds of crypto firms in the US suddenly without banking access after Signature et al. went down, many chose to move over to fintech firms like Mercury, but things were still extremely tenuous. Even today, few banks are willing to onboard crypto firms, especially if they need more bespoke services beyond simple cash management. Those that serve the crypto industry do so quietly, cognizant of the fact that if they become known as a “crypto bank,” they’ll be maimed by regulators.

  This is exactly what happened to the two banks that tried to fill Silvergate’s and Signature’s shoes. After they ceased operations, Customers and Cross River were the two firms known to still bank crypto firms. And both were punished by their regulators.

  In May 2023, the FDIC hit Cross River with a consent order, which kneecapped the bank’s crypto efforts. Although the order didn’t mention Cross River’s crypto business, and it covered the bank’s fintech partnerships, it’s still plausible that it came on the FDICs radar due to its prominence as one of the few remaining pro-crypto banks.

  More directly, in August 2024, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia issued an enforcement action against Customers Bank, citing deficiencies with the bank’s “risk management practices and compliance with the applicable laws, rules, and regulations relating to anti-money laundering” in connection with its digital assets business. Just like Silvergate’s SEN and Signature’s SigNet, Customers operated an instant settlement business for clients called Customers Bank Instant Token (CBIT).

  Such intra-bank settlement networks appear to be utterly toxic to regulators. Sources with knowledge of the Cross River and Customers matters to whom I spoke surmised that the Fed’s July 2023 release of FedNow — an instant payment service that allows banks and credit unions to settle transactions in real time, 24/7 — could explain the Fed’s particular hostility toward banks that had created their own instant settlement networks. Certainly many view the timing as suspicious. I’m not entirely persuaded by the theory, but the fact that SEN, SigNet, and CBIT were all eliminated or defanged around the time FedNow launched did raise eyebrows.

  Since the imposition of Choke Point 2.0 in early 2023, other banks have tentatively sought to fill the gap left by Silvergate and Signature, and later by Customers after it curtailed its crypto efforts. It’s become a running joke at this point — I periodically hear about certain banks launching a crypto practice, then invariably, months later, they will abruptly reverse course. I can personally attest that this has been the case at MVB Bank and Axos Bank, but there are undoubtedly more.

  These days, if a bank does serve crypto clients, it keeps the service to a deliberately small portion of its depository base, and tends to downplay it in public. As a result, crypto startups find it difficult to even identify banks willing to serve them, and the few banks who still support institutional crypto clients are slow-moving, expensive, and unwilling to offer services beyond mere cash management.

  As an aside, it’s worth noting that in 2023 and 2024, the FDIC extended its Choke Point 2.0 playbook from banks serving crypto to banks serving non-crypto fintech startups as well. In April 2024, the American Fintech Council (AFC) wrote a letter to the FDIC accusing it of using its enforcement powers to quietly curb fintech activity in the US by bringing selective enforcement against banks serving fintech firms. As the AFC said in their letter: “While your agency has not issued public guidance or other statements explicitly admonishing or limiting banks from engaging in partnerships with fintech companies we have identified a distinct ‘regulation by enforcement’ approach from the FDIC.” The AFC noted that banks not partnered with fintechs had a 1.8 percent chance of facing an enforcement action from the FDIC, whereas fintech-partnered banks had a 15 percent chance of a regulatory rebuke.

  Just as with Choke Point 2.0 efforts against crypto, the government’s mode of engagement with fintech has been unusually antagonistic and ideological in nature. Instead of proposing new legislation and hosting a public debate, or even engaging in notice-and-comment rulemaking where affected parties would have the right to provide feedback, these agencies make arbitrary new rules and impose them by enforcement — and whispered “advice” which banks have no choice but to follow.

  

  Critics reading this article could point out that Silvergate did end up facing a consent order from the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (CA DFPI), which carried a $20 million fine. They also paid a $43 million fine to the Federal Reserve, and settled with the SEC for $50 million (though the bank was able to ‘apply’ the $63 million it had already paid to the latter, so they never actually paid the SEC anything). It’s worth noting that Silvergate has well over $100 million remaining on the balance sheet and has already paid out the $63 million in fines, so these fines would not have put them out of business had they still been operational.

  So what if regulatory pressure doomed Silvergate? They clearly made mistakes, and so the short sellers and Senator Warren were right… right? If you dig into the settlements, the actual charges against the bank fall short of the critics’ worst claims — and none are criminal. (In February 2023, the Justice Department initiated a fraud probe to investigate the bank’s dealings with Alameda/ FTX, but nothing has since materialized.)

  As for the SEC and California Fed settlements, Silvergate neither admitted nor denied any of the allegations made.

  The SEC case against Silvergate hinges on the fact that the bank and its CEO Alan Lane made “misleading statements to the investing public that the bank’s BSA [Bank Secrecy Act]/ AML [Anti-Money Laundering] compliance program was adequate,” a far cry from the most hysterical charges levied by Warren and the bevy of critics. As one source briefed on the situation explained to me, the core of the SEC’s allegation was that Silvergate’s regulatory examinations showed “matters requiring attention” in their BSA program, so it was misleading to represent to the public that they had a “robust AML program.” However, virtually every bank examination includes some nominal “matters requiring attention,” as there are always areas for improvement.

  Regarding Silvergate’s failure to detect FTX’s various schemes, banks are not expected to catch every single instance of suspicious activity among their clients, although leaders at the bank did tell me they regretted not detecting FTX’s sketchy behavior. The SEC did initially attempt to claim that Silvergate was aiding and abetting the fraud at FTX, but they were unable to prove anything to that effect.

  “Where we were not as buttoned up as we should have been was in regards to the FTX/Alameda clients. That was a function of the bank growing incredibly quickly,” a Silvergate executive told me. “Probably we could have figured out FTX was brokering deposits via Alameda. In retrospect I think we could have pieced this together and figured it out. But this is not a legal failure and we’re not required to catch everything. Our program passed legal muster. That’s something we could have done a better job of. But there was no intentional wrongdoing or cooperation with the bad guys.”

  In the FTX investigation, Silvergate was listed as a victim, not a co-conspirator.

  Of the three settlements, executives at Silvergate felt the SEC’s case was the least warranted. “The SEC was crazy. They wanted headlines. They were hitting us unnecessarily,” one told me. As I mentioned above, the SEC’s case didn’t concern Silvergate’s compliance failures, but instead perceived falsehoods in what their leadership said about its BSA/ AML program. According to a Silvergate executive that I spoke with for this story, “The SEC was stretching mild conclusions from the Fed and exaggerating them.” One wonders why the SEC would invest energy in suing a defunct bank that did not lose money for depositors — especially if the agency didn’t actually collect any fines for the trouble.

  The Federal Reserve settlement hinges on “deficiencies in Silvergate’s monitoring of internal transactions through the SEN.” As one source described it: “When you read the language, it’s pretty milquetoast” — the settlement contains no allegations of affirmative wrongdoing. The actual issue, I discovered, was that Silvergate’s transaction monitoring system for SEN had gone through an upgrade and experienced an outage. Because SEN was a settlement network for Silvergate’s own clients, every transaction on SEN was between clients known to the bank that had gone through rigorous KYC (Know Your Customer) and onboarding processes. So even during the monitoring outage, it’s not like the transactions were between unknown firms. One source told me that SEN volumes were around $2 trillion in the aggregate; massive transfers were common, so FTX/Alameda transfers would not necessarily have stood out as suspicious.

  Why would three regulators sue a bank that had already agreed to voluntarily liquidate, and ensured that depositors were made whole? The fines came out of investors’ pockets, mainly hurting common shareholders — ordinary members of the public. Deterrence, perhaps. But there’s a darker interpretation: regulators wanted to publicly establish unlawfulness to stand in for the real reason Silvergate was doomed — the secretly-imposed crypto deposit limit. “The Fed changed their policy based on OCP 2.0, but they don’t want to admit that,” a source told me. “So they looked around and tried to find wrongdoing. The settlement is a big number — but they didn’t find anything.” It makes sense: if the Fed could extract a settlement from a defunct bank, they could point to it as evidence the bank failed through mismanagement, rather than due to regulation-by-bullying.

  Another source told me, of the settlements: “For people in Congress, the fact that Silvergate got fined ‘proves wrongdoing’ and vindicates their anti-crypto stance. They wanted to be able to show people they had gotten justice for FTX.”

  The settlement with the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation is almost identical to the Fed complaint, citing “deficiencies with respect to Silvergate’s monitoring of internal transactions.” Initially, sources told me, California wanted a $200 million fine, even though they couldn’t prove negligence or any wrongdoing beyond “deficiencies.” The governor’s office was directly involved, and the first set of proposed charges included “elder abuse” and “elder fraud” — despite the fact that Silvergate had no retail customers.

  In all the settlements Silvergate ultimately assented to, there was no accusation of a criminal violation nor any claim that Silvergate had knowingly facilitated money laundering.

  

  One particularly bizarre subplot in this entire affair is the intersection of short seller Marc Cohodes and Senator Elizabeth Warren. As we now know, Senator Warren wrote a letter in December 2022 to Silvergate accusing the bank of breaking the law. From the letter (superscript removed):

  The arrangement between FTX and Alameda, which depended on your bank’s depository services, is just one example of the “lax record-keeping and poor centralized controls at the heart of the [FTX] empire’s unraveling” – and may have been illegal. Alameda’s depository account with your bank appears to be at the center of the improper transmission of FTX customer funds. Silvergate’s failure to take adequate notice of this scheme suggests that it may have failed to implement or maintain an effective anti-money laundering program, as required under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). What’s more, your bank’s failure to report these suspicious transactions to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) may constitute yet another violation of the law.

  On January 30, 2023, Warren wrote a second letter, complaining about Silvergate’s responses to her first one, this time appearing to pressure the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLB), which Silvergate was using for last-resort liquidity. It seems her objective was to get the FHLB to pull the rug on Silvergate, forcing them to close. The FHLB eventually declined to renew their monthly facility with Silvergate, which may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

  “Someone was putting pressure on the FHLB,” one person familiar with the situation told me. “If Silvergate had been allowed to hold to maturity the government-backed securities, they would have been able to stem their losses. They were trying to liquidate them slowly to minimize losses. But the FHLB started getting pressure, so they pressured them to pay back the loans.” To me, it certainly appears like the FHLB responded to Warren’s pressure campaign and cut Silvergate loose. (At the time, FHLB claimed it “did not request or compel” the bank “to prepay its outstanding advances.”)

  At the same time, Cohodes was also waging a public campaign against Silvergate, writing numerous memos and tweets, and making video appearances containing all sorts of allegations about the bank.

  Cohodes went far further than simply claiming Silvergate (and Signature, his next target) would collapse. He had a habit of calling the two banks “publicly traded crime scenes.” “You have terrorists, you have drug dealers, you have human traffickers,” he said in one interview, referring to SEN. In another interview with The Block, Cohodes repeated the “publicly traded crime scene” aphorism and argued that Silvergate CEO “Alan Lane belongs in prison.”

  These extraordinary claims, of course, have never been proven. Silvergate has not faced any criminal liability for either FTX/ Alameda (the DoJ came up empty after its highly touted investigation), nor has any liability regarding human trafficking or terrorism since materialized. Obviously this could change, but as of yet nothing has validated Cohodes’ most extreme claims.

  We also know that Cohodes reached out to Warren’s office directly. In January 2023, he emailed her staffer a link to a DoJ complaint (which does not mention Silvergate). “Have you seen this?” he wrote. “Would not be all that surprising if money from ISIS moved through Silvergate, and that would be attention getting.”

  Sources with firsthand knowledge told me that Cohodes emailed a slide deck entitled “Silvergate-101” with his allegations against the bank to various members of Congress around the same time. The deck, which I have reviewed, cites anonymous Twitter accounts like @bitfinexed, an account known primarily for spreading conspiracies about the stablecoin Tether.

  One individual told me about the Warren-Cohodes relationship: “For sure Warren’s letters intensified the run [on Silvergate]. What makes me sick is that Cohodes put together a deck and was shopping it to members of Congress including Warren. Much of his information was crowdsourced from Twitter.” Regarding Cohodes’ claims that Silvergate had done business with terrorists or human traffickers, the individual told me “there’s no basis for that whatsoever.”

  Cohodes doesn’t appear to be particularly shy about his role in Warren’s December 2022 letter. “Who do you think inspired that letter?” he wrote in a quote tweet of the letter in June 2024. Whether or not he actually spoke with Warren’s office, he appears happy to take credit for her work harassing the bank. Cohodes is also a Warren supporter, having told the New York Times during her 2020 presidential run, “She would be great, I think she would be a breath of fresh air.”

  Cohodes certainly has a habit of trying to enlist regulators in his short selling campaigns. In January 2023, he sent the Federal Reserve a memo with accusations against Silvergate, and one to the OCC in March 2023 regarding Signature. He also admits to having sent memos to the SEC and FDIC. Many of these celebrity short sellers try to make their predictions into self-fulfilling prophecies by looking for allies in their campaigns; Cohodes appears to have played the game very well.

  We don’t know if Warren reciprocated Cohodes’ entreaties. But we do know that she either wittingly or unwittingly helped short sellers by launching a campaign against Silvergate with two blistering letters in which she effectively accused them of aiding and abetting FTX’s crimes. Arguably, she also precipitated the ultimate collapse of Silvergate by pressuring the FHLB to cut off its line of credit, which was the thrust of her second letter. Her standing as member of the Senate Banking Committee gave her words huge weight. If she actually did coordinate with Cohodes to destroy a bank — causing losses to shareholders and creditors, and orphaning depositors — it would be extremely troubling.

  After Silvergate filed for voluntary liquidation, Senator Warren pounded her chest, tweeting, “As the bank of choice for crypto, Silvergate Bank’s failure is disappointing, but predictable. I warned of Silvergate’s risky, if not illegal, activity — and identified severe due diligence failures. Now, customers must be made whole & regulators should step up against crypto risk.” Far from being “disappointed” by Silvergate’s failure, she seemed practically thrilled by it. To her, the bank’s failure was evidence that crypto was an unacceptable risk to the banking sector, and so should be ringfenced from the financial system. Of course, she wasn’t a mere impartial observer — her own allegations against Silvergate helped create the atmosphere of concern around the bank that led to the run, especially her claims that they were engaged in illegal activity. It’s easy to take credit for predicting a bank’s collapse when you may be, in fact, one of the reasons the collapse occurred.

  This isn’t the first time a Senator has been accused of fomenting a bank run. In June 2008, Senator Chuck Schumer wrote a letter to federal regulators expressing concerns over IndyMac, which likely hastened that bank’s collapse. Consequently, he faced a serious backlash for his role in the failure. But Warren hasn’t been dealt any such recriminations. A Senator can question the solvency of a bank, but it’s self-evident such statements risk becoming self-fulfilling prophecies, especially when made so bombastically, as Warren did.

  

  The collateral damage wrought by the Silvergate wind down was catastrophic. The immediate effect was the destruction of shareholder capital in the business. Additionally, depositors were left scrambling to find new banking partners. The loss of SEN also hurt stablecoin liquidity and likely intensified the liquidity issues faced by USDC as it temporarily de-pegged during the SVB crisis. More damagingly, Silvergate’s collapse was the first trigger in a grave banking crisis that would ultimately take down SVB, Signature, and First Republic, banks which had $538 billion in deposits at the time of the collapse.

  Would these banks have collapsed, anyway? It’s possible, but the fact remains: Silvergate was the first bank to suffer a run in that volatile spring of 2023. Banking panics are contagious. It’s not far-fetched to imagine that Warren’s fear mongering caused more than a few depositors to pull their funds from Silvergate. Whether or not she actually colluded with Cohodes — and the public deserves to know the extent of their relationship — a powerful Senator effectively encouraging a bank run which escalated into a serious banking crisis is a complete betrayal of duty.

  

  Sticking up for a bank that did business with FTX, suffered a bank run, was voluntarily liquidated by management, then settled with three different regulators is not an enviable task. But an injustice visited upon a flawed subject is no less of an injustice. Silvergate could perhaps have tightened up its money laundering controls or detected SBF’s improper transfers earlier. But that doesn’t mean it deserved to be harrassed out of existence. One Silvergate insider told me: “We were a group of people that were trying to do the right thing and we understood risk management. It really was a pretty conservative place. And that stems from Alan Lane, and his 40 years of banking expertise.”

  Even when I was initially investigating Silvergate and Signature, a number of bankers, sympathetic to my cause, told me it wasn’t worth publicly supporting Silvergate, muttering ominously that the bank may have indeed done some reprehensible things. But this ended up not to be the case. Silvergate was the victim of a scathing and unconstitutional regulatory crackdown — an imperfect victim, but a victim nonetheless. What’s more, Washington’s desire to take down the crypto banks — which they accomplished deftly in March 2023 — was the spark that lit the fire of a massive regional banking crisis, which spread far beyond crypto. Yet today, no one levels criticism at President Biden, Senator Warren, or the Fed for starting a banking crisis in their attempts to stymie the crypto sector.

  At the end of the day, if policymakers in Washington want to ringfence the crypto industry and withhold its access to traditional banking, there’s a valid way to do that: through public debate and legislation. If they had passed a law through Congress limiting crypto firms’ access to banks, it would have been devastating to the sector, but it would have at least been valid under the rules of our democracy. But that’s not how the Biden administration officials went about doing things. They effectuated their crackdown through covert backroom dealings, by deputizing the bank sector, and using threats and intimidation rather than public rulemaking. Some portion of the crackdown was disseminated through various agency statements, but much of it was simply handed down verbally with no paper trail, like the presumed 15 percent cap on crypto-related deposits. Other measures were simply taken in the ordinary course of business, such as the refusal to sell on any of Signature’s crypto business.

  Ultimately, it’s precisely these marginal cases — the ones that no one wants to stick up for — where we have to draw the line. What happened to Silvergate was a travesty, and the public deserves to know the truth. Sympathetic members of Congress should hold a hearing and give executives at affected banks the chance to testify, with a waiver on criminal liability for sharing confidential supervisory information.

  ¹ The SEC fines did not involve the transfer of value, as Silvergate was able to ‘apply’ credit for the fines already paid.

  ² The GAO’s post-mortem on Silvergate blamed rising rates alongside idiosyncratic crypto risks and flighty depositors for the Silvergate collapse. They did not mention regulatory changes which adversely affected the bank’s business model.

  ³ Note that criminal liability for sharing CSI can be waived if, for instance, the House or Senate calls a hearing on the topic of the banking crisis and offers immunity to individuals invited to testify.

  ⁴ It’s also worth noting Silvergate purchased the Diem (stablecoin) IP from Facebook based on recommendations made by Biden’s Presidents Working Group, seemingly giving the green light to bank-issued stablecoins. This stance shifted dramatically in 2023 as the Fed ended up effectively banning banks from engaging with stablecoins. This caused the Diem assets to become effectively worthless.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 19:50

• Musk Warns "If Trump Is Not Elected, This Will Be The Last Election"
  Musk Warns “If Trump Is Not Elected, This Will Be The Last Election”

  Elon Musk has argued that the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States, “something that the Democrats are expediting as fast as humanly possible,” will effectively establish a ‘one-party state and Democracy is over.‘

  

  Responding to a thread on X in which Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) pointed out that the DOJ is suing Alabama for trying to remove noncitizens from its voting lists, and blocked the SAVE Act – Musk noted that “Everywhere in America will be like the nightmare that is downtown San Francisco.:

  Read Musk’s entire post below (emphasis ours),

  Very few Americans realize that, if Trump is NOT elected, this will be the last election. Far from being a threat to democracy, he is the only way to save it!

  Let me explain: if even 1 in 20 illegals become citizens per year, something that the Democrats are expediting as fast as humanly possible, that would be about 2 million new legal voters in 4 years.

  The voting margin in the swing states is often less than 20 thousand votes. That means if the “Democratic” Party succeeds, there will be no more swing states!!

  Moreover, the Biden/Harris administration has been flying “asylum seekers”, who are fast-tracked to citizenship, directly into swing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Arizona. It is a surefire way to win every election.

  America then becomes a one-party state and Democracy is over. The only “elections” will be the Democratic Party primaries. This already happened in California many years ago, following the 1986 amnesty.

  The only thing holding California back from extreme socialism and suffocating government policies is that people can leave California and still remain in America. Once the whole country is controlled by one party, there will be no escape.

  Everywhere in America will be like the nightmare that is downtown San Francisco.

  Yet the media gaslights and continues to say this is a conspiracy theory.

  Here is the Democrat nominee saying she wants to give millions of illegals citizenship. pic.twitter.com/orWoqsFzp0

  — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 29, 2024

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  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 19:15

• Will China's "Whatever It Takes" Moment" Work
  Will China’s “Whatever It Takes” Moment” Work

  By Marcel Kasumovioch, Deputy CIO of Coinbase Asset Management

  “We need to establish a strong benchmark for selecting and employing people, conscientiously implement the ‘three exemptions,’ and support those who take responsibility and get things done.” This statement from the extraordinary Politburo meeting left no doubt about the leadership’s intentions.

  Those who demonstrate “the courage to take responsibility and innovate,” in Xi’s words, will be rewarded, with exemptions, a “responsibility and punishment” waiver for those acting on policy guidance. The thousands of financial executives who exited their positions and the Party since August serve as a reminder to those who resist.

  The Politburo followed sweeping actions taken by the central bank, in solidarity with PBOC governor joining the heads of the NAFR and the CSRC in announcing the measures. These included rate cuts, property loans for unsold homes, and equity buyback facilities – policies that underscore China’s desire for firm control over its economy, directing the capital of savers like the strings of a puppet rather than relying on the invisible hand of the market.

  China’s economy is cluttered with unsold homes, unfinished projects, and unused land, totaling an astonishing $4.1 trillion at mid-year. This isn’t China’s first financial hurdle: restructuring the FX market in 1994, bank overhauls in 1998 and 2004, asset management crackdowns in 2015, and the COVID response all showcased the country’s approach to handling economic strains.

  Financial repression and the central bank’s balance sheet softened these shocks before – and once again, this playbook of control is in motion. But as China’s economy grows more complex, maintaining this control becomes increasingly difficult. The global economy is infinitely more complex and managing it through sheer willpower alone is impossible.

  Reform, not stimulus, requires real courage. And it’s a global issue. A good economy is one that works for the many, not the few. Markets have a way of identifying and enforcing necessary reforms for that outcome, and nations that heed this call will strengthen their standing – near-term pain for long-term gain. After all, no country can simply inflate its way to prosperity.

  Courage:

  “The vast majority of party members and cadres must have the courage to take responsibility and dare to innovate,” Xi conveyed with urgency at this week’s Politburo meeting. The timing of the meeting itself reflected the gravity of the situation, being held earlier than usual. The Politburo introduced a rare “responsibility and punishment” waiver, offering protection to officials willing to embrace Xi’s challenge. This marks China’s “whatever-it-takes” moment, where pragmatic policies take precedence: a good economy is one that works.

  

  The foundation of Xi’s “courage economy” was laid the day before:

  • PBOC rate cuts will inject 1 trillion RMB in liquidity, while loans for unsold homes can now cover the entire purchase price.
  • The downpayment requirement for second-home buyers was reduced to 15%, in line with first-time buyers.
  • Meanwhile, bank regulators committed to a more gradual increase in capital requirements, and specialized refinancing facilities were established to encourage equity buybacks.

  These coordinated actions signal a unified directive to stabilize the economy.

  Deng Xiaoping famously quipped, “It doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice,” as China began its economic reforms in 1979. Desperate for an effective economy, China sought to balance traditional goals with pragmatic policies. Unlike many emerging markets with lofty objectives, China has managed to execute with its share of world GDP rising from 2% in 1980 to nearly 20% today. How did it avoid the pitfalls of past crises? Through a strong emphasis on domestic control — a policy that does not scale well.

  Mousetrap:

  Take China’s navigation of the 1990s Asia crisis. While its neighbors experienced fierce capital outflows, currency devaluations, and bank failures, China maintained its FX peg at around 8.33 to the US dollar. Stability masked material internal strain, with non-performing loans for Chinese state banks surging to 24% in 1998. But it was a domestic issue—by 1997, FX reserves were eight times greater than short-term external debt. Banks were restructured, imposing losses on domestic savers through reduced returns and financial repression.

  The repression strategy was repeated in 2004 and 2016 and now underpins the latest policy measures. China’s gross national saving rate is 43% of GDP, a captive audience given limited options for allocating their funds. As a result, these savers endure abysmal rates of return—the dark side of financial repression. It’s far from a free lunch. From bonds to stocks to real estate, this captive audience pays the price for policy through depressed returns. Market economies must do more with less, competing for global capital in freer environments.

  Will the “courage economy” work? In the near term, almost certainly yes. But its limitations are equally clear. China’s gross national saving rate is falling, shrinking the pool of capital available to plug financial holes in an increasingly complex economy. Leaders cannot strengthen an economy by willpower alone—incentives do the heavy lifting. Financial repression merely defers problems to the next generation, a global issue with more immediate consequences for China’s shrinking population. The time for a new trap to catch the mice may soon come.

  Anecdote:

  “It’s not the mindset of an emerging market. It’s the mindset of an emerging superpower,” said one of the greatest macro investors of all time to me, his eager protege.  This time, it was China’s FX revaluation making the headlines – not the investor’s famous predictions of devaluations in the past.

  “The world mistakes China as ideological. 1979 marked the shift to pragmatism,” he continued, referencing the pivotal moment when Deng Xiaoping opened China’s doors to the world. “It doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice,” the protege eagerly recalled from Deng, encapsulating the shift to a results-driven economic policy.

  China’s appearance at the 1979 World Economic Forum marked the beginning of its new economic era. Controlling inflation became a priority, achieved after 15 years of effort. The two-tiered foreign exchange system was replaced in 1994, laying the groundwork for a modern, integrated economy – though not without one last devaluation to prepare for the transition.

  China managed banking crises internally, with bank recapitalizations in 1998 and again in 2004. These were not the actions of a typical emerging market. “Deng’s approach seems almost ruthless in its pragmatism,” I ventured. And only a decade after the last devaluation, the US Senate demanded an upward revaluation of the currency or else China would face a hefty 27.5% import tariff.

  Learning from Japan’s painful experience after Plaza Accord, China adjusted on its own terms. “China is rewriting the rules,” the investor remarked, his eyes narrowing as if seeing the threads of history weaving into the present. “Markets must read them carefully…and politicians will need a heavy pen when editing.”

  The revaluation proved a very profitable day. There were no celebrations, no false glory – just a relentless focus on what comes next, recognizing the shift in the global power dynamic. For China, it wasn’t about winning a battle. It was about redefining the entire game. And I realized the true lesson. This was not just about currency or trade, but about a nation’s unwavering commitment to its vision of the future, one strategic step at a time.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 18:40

• Iran Confirms Top IRGC Officer Killed Alongside Nasrallah, Vows Revenge 
  Iran Confirms Top IRGC Officer Killed Alongside Nasrallah, Vows Revenge 

  On Sunday Iran vowed severe revenge against Israel not only for the killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah during massive bombings on Friday in Beirut’s southern suburbs, but for the death of a top Revolutionary Guard official in the same airstrikes.

  Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi gave high level confirmation for the first time that IRGC Deputy Commander, Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan – who apparently was meeting with Nasrallah at the time – was killed.

  

  Araghchi warned that this “horrible crime of the aggressor Zionist regime” will “not go unanswered.” However, he stopped short of specifying whether it would be a military response.

  “The diplomatic apparatus will also use all its political, diplomatic, legal and international capacities to pursue the criminals and their supporters,” he said. But he also stipulated that Iran has a legal right to respond militarily under international law if it wished. Nilforoushan was a top commander within the IRGC’s foreign intelligence and operations arm, the Quds force.

  Simultaneous to the warning from the Islamic Republic’s foreign ministry, Iran’s vice president for strategic affairs, Javad Zarif, said a response “will occur at the appropriate time and at Iran’s choice, and decisions will definitely be made at the leadership level, at the highest level of the state,” according to state IRNA.

  Iran’s Guardian Council meanwhile said that Israel will “receive a forceful answer” and ultimately threatened “the destruction of the Zionist regime” – as cited in Fars news agency.

  Meanwhile, more Israeli reservists and tanks have appeared along the Israel-Lebanon border in a sign that the IDF could be preparing to start a ground offensive, Al Jazeera has observed. Inbound rocket alarms have continued sounding in parts of northern Israel, particularly the Safed area, on Sunday.

  Israel’s Haaretz has also said the following: “U.S. officials say ‘small-scale border movements’ into Lebanon may have begun.”

  Israeli strikes on Beirut, the south, and Bekaa Valley area have continued for seven days straight…

  ⚡️Baalbak pic.twitter.com/JEWY6AqZiY

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) September 29, 2024

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  On Sunday, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said it’s as yet unclear what Hezbollah or Iran might do next. “The rhetoric certainly suggests they’re going to try to do something, coming out of Tehran,” adding that it’s “too soon to know how Iran’s going to react to this,” he said.

  Kirby called for restraint, also saying that Israel “will not be able to safely get people back into their homes in the north of the country by waging an all-out war with Hezbollah or Iran.” 

  On Sunday Israel conducted fresh airstrikes on Yemen, in response to Houthis firing ballistic missiles targeting Tel Aviv:

  Israel targets the port of Hodeidah following ballistic missile attacks on Tel Aviv.

  This is Yemen’s fourth largest city. Serious implications for the civilian population. The port is a lifetime for aid, food and power. pic.twitter.com/S5m7rjemBe

  — Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) September 29, 2024

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  The Pentagon has in the last days sent additional troops and assets to the region, with some going to Cyprus, ready to assist in Israel’s defense or also help evacuate American citizens from Lebanon if things continue to spiral. The war could spread to also engulf Yemen, Syria, and Iraq in the scenario that Iran and Israel enter a direct war.

  Below are some further weekend developments via Al Monitor correspondent Joyce Karem:

  • Nasrallah’s body recovered
  • Ali Karaki confirmed dead
  • Nabil Qawook killed
  • Iran to avenge killing of IRGC officer
  • Israeli strikes continue
  • Hezbollah fires barrage of rockets
  • Israeli strikes in Syria
  • French FM visits Lebanon

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 18:05

• You Don't Need A Weatherman To Know Which Way The Wind Blows
  You Don’t Need A Weatherman To Know Which Way The Wind Blows

  Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

  Keep a clean nose
  Watch the plain clothes
  You don’t need a weatherman
  To know which way the wind blows

  Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues

  

  Twenty years of schoolin’
  And they put you on the day shift
  Look out kid
  They keep it all hid

  Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues

  As we accelerate towards whatever disastrous outcome awaits our debt-ridden, delusional, decadent, despairing society, I seem to be drawn to the anti-establishment lyrics of Bob Dylan, written during the turbulent 1960s. Maybe it’s the assassinations and unpopular war in the 60s that have triggered my focus. You certainly don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing today. A gale force wind is blowing the nation towards civil and global war, simultaneously. And it is not a naturally occurring wind, but an artificial storm created by the ruling plutocracy in a last-ditch traitorous effort to retain their wealth, power and control over our lives.

  They have kept their evil machinations and malevolent schemes hidden from the view of the masses through their control of mass media, politicians, the financial system, and corporate entities, all doing their bidding in our corporate fascist totalitarian state, disguised as a democratic republic.

  After twenty years of schoolin, they have propagandized and indoctrinated generations into believing whatever they are told to believe by their overlords. They have been taught to feel, emote and embrace delusionary falsehoods, rather than think critically, analyze and embrace truthful reality. The question of our time is whether enough people can be awoken from their government induced mass formation stupor to reverse our downward spiral into the abyss.

  

  I believe I’ve known which way the winds have been blowing for the entirety of this Fourth Turning, but my expectations regarding the timing of major events have been inaccurate. My impatience is a result of not having lived through a Fourth Turning and accepting the crisis will last twenty to twenty-five years.

  I should be happy the violent, bloody phase of this Fourth Turning has been delayed, as it has given me more time to prepare by acquiring more firearms, ammo, supplies, and precious metals. But a feeling of melancholy engulfs me on a daily basis, knowing there is no exit strategy for avoiding what lies ahead. If anything, the delay in any significant level of violence thus far probably ratchets up the intensity and explosiveness when it does commence, like a pressure cooker ready to explode.

  

  If you don’t sense the impending volatility of our current state of affairs, you are either willfully ignorant, too dumbed down and distracted by your techno-gadgets to notice, or a participant in the machinations to undermine our civilized society and replace it with an authoritarian new world order of CBDCs, social credit scores, censorship, fifteen minute cities, techno-gulags, pervasive surveillance, and eating zee bugs.

  The plutocrats have been utilizing their vast wealth and control over politicians, bankers, and media moguls to impose their demented psychopathic vision upon the masses, blatantly trampling upon their rights, liberties and freedoms, with no fear of retribution or consequences for their treasonous acts. They believe they are invincible, as their hubris grows to colossal levels, portending their eventual downfall. We are hurdling towards our rendezvous with destiny, for good or for ill.

  

  The last two books I’ve read have further contributed to my sense of foreboding, as they confirm the historical fact of man’s inhumanity to man, insatiable greed driving those in power, and the willingness of the ruling elite to use violence as a means to achieve whatever outcomes they desire. The two books are Dune, by Frank Herbert, and End Times, by Peter Turchin. Dune is a science fiction novel published in 1965, capturing the corruption and duplicities practiced by the ruling classes as they fight for control over land, resources and wealth, during the waning days of a formerly great empire.

  The tone of the novel is dark, ominous and gloomy. The characters seemed resigned to their tragic fate, as melancholy pervades their world, and they are powerless to change the catastrophic events which are unfolding according to an immutable destiny. I have a similar feeling regarding the events unfolding on a daily basis, as we head towards a cataclysmic climax to our empire of debt, domination, delusion, and destruction. As Frank Herbert noted, there is no escape from the choices we have made over time.

  

  “There is no escape—we pay for the violence of our ancestors.” ― Frank Herbert, Dune

  

  “Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” ― Frank Herbert, Dune

  The non-fiction – End Times – was published in 2023 by Peter Turchin, a complexity scientist studying the dynamics of historical societies, further painting a very bleak picture of our current historical paradigm, with little opportunity to alter the violent upheaval about to engulf our decaying society. Him and his team created a quantitative model that analyzed complex societies across thousands of years and discovered predictable waves of political instability brought about by the same forces in a predictable pattern. Based upon this model, in 2010 Peter went on record predicting major instability in the U.S. in the early 2020s. The basis for his prediction was as follows:

  “When a state, such as the United States, has stagnating or declining real wages, a growing gap between rich and poor, overproduction of young graduates with advanced degrees, declining public trust, and exploding public debt, these seemingly disparate social indicators are actually related to each other dynamically. Historically, such developments have served as leading indicators of looming political instability. In the United States, all of these factors started to turn in an ominous direction in the 1970s. The data pointed to the years around 2020 when the confluence of these trends was expected to trigger a spike in political instability.” – End Times – Peter Turchin

  

  I know many people don’t trust academic created models, especially when they attempt to predict future history and sociological trends. Many dismiss Strauss & Howe’s Fourth Turning generational theory as voodoo and making history fit into their model. I’ve been convinced since reading the book in 2004 of its validity, and nothing that has occurred since the start of this Fourth Turning in 2008 has convinced me otherwise. Turchin’s model, based on entirely different criteria, essentially predicts violent upheaval, war and societal collapse on the same timeline as the Fourth Turning theory.

  In addition, I have been following the daily writings of Martin Armstrong, a non-academic investment manager, for a decade, and his Socrates model also predicts civil war, global war, economic collapse and a turbulent outcome by 2032. In fact, all three models are in alignment regarding the degree of violence, bloodshed and turmoil, with clear winners and losers by the time this crisis period resolves itself. This is a naturally occurring phenomenon as described by Turchin.

  

  “All complex societies go through cycles of alternative stretches of internal peace and harmony periodically interrupted by outbreaks of internal warfare and discord.” – End Times – Peter Turchin

  The level of gaslighting, propaganda, misinformation, censorship of the truth, and blatant mistruths being peddled to the masses by the plutocrats pulling the levers of this shitshow has reached epic proportions. This is being perpetrated as a last-ditch desperate effort to maintain the control they have been exercising since the 21st Century commenced. The upcoming election in five weeks has accelerated their efforts to derail Trump’s election at all costs.

  Two attempted assassinations by Deep State patsies, after a half dozen failed efforts to imprison Trump, and the ascension of Saint Kackler by the Deep State and controlled regime media using fake polls and trying to duplicate the Biden basement dummy strategy has failed. The vote margin in the swing states appears to be too large for the Democrat cheating schemes of illegal immigrants and dead people voting, mail-in ballot fraud, and Dominion vote switching to overcome. The plutocrats thought they had covered all their bases but are in danger of seeing their best laid plans self-destruct.

  

  “The plutocrats can use their wealth to buy mass media, to fund think tanks, and to handsomely reward those social influencers who promote their messages. In other words, they wield enormous power to sway the electorate toward the opinions that promote their interests. The plutocrats can afford to plan, and implement their plans, for the long term.” – End Times – Peter Turchin

  I believe the tapestry of history will be stained by the traitorous machinations of the nefarious Deep State forces controlling Biden, Harris, Congress, and every governmental department in the next five weeks. Spineless Jerome Powell has done as he was told by producing a crisis level interest rate cut when stock and housing markets are at all-time highs and unemployment is near all-time lows. They will stop at nothing to retain rule over our nation, even risking nuclear annihilation in their game of chicken with Putin.

  They believe their 3rd assassination attempt will be a charm. We should be vigilant for whatever false flag or new “deadly” pandemic they can activate in the coming weeks. Will it be another FBI created “white supremacist” Trump supporter terrorist attack on people of color? Or will they initiate a false flag in the Middle East with their Israeli co-conspirators to launch the neo-con dream war with Iran? They launched the Covid scamdemic in a matter of weeks, so a new terrifying super virus isn’t out of the question. Anything they can do to interfere with a smooth election will be attempted.

  

  They believe they can’t allow Trump to take office in January 2025. We all know the uni-party does as they are told by the monied interests. The plutocrats don’t spend $4 billion per year “lobbying” politicians for nothing. The election of Trump would not materially change the course of this titanic ship of debt. We’ve already struck the iceberg and are taking on water. Economic catastrophe is a certainty.

  Trump may only delay the inevitable. Turchin’s book explains what is really happening out of sight of the masses. Super-elites (Trump, Musk, Carlson versus Obama, Soros, Gates) are battling for supremacy, while the little people are nothing more than pawns in the chess game of world domination as our nation rots from within.

  “The social pyramid has grown top-heavy. We now have too many ‘elite aspirants’ competing for a fixed number of positions in the upper echelons of politics and business. In our model, such conditions have a name: elite overproduction. Together with popular immiseration, elite overproduction, and the intra-elite conflicts that it has engendered, has gradually undermined our civic cohesiveness, the sense of national cooperation without which states quickly rot from within.” – End Times – Peter Turchin

  

  Turchin’s model revolves around what he terms an oversupply of super-elites who are created when a country/empire devolves into a plutocracy, where the rich get richer by rigging the system in their favor, while the rest of society sinks into immiseration (impoverishment). Every empire goes through the same cyclical process, which eventually leads to its decline.

  Turchin marked the 1970s as when the tide turned heavily in favor of the elites, with the middle and lower classes slowly and steadily sinking into despair, as their standard of living has degraded year after year, while being lured deeper and deeper into debt by the ruling elite who have profited mightily from their indebtedness. The Establishment/Deep State/Plutocracy/Ruling Elite or whatever other term you want to use for the evil psychopaths running the show and telling their Biden and Harris puppets what to say and do, are all part of George Carlin’s Big Club – and you ain’t in it.

  

  “The business and political elites knew each other, went to the same schools, belonged to the same clubs, married into the same families, shared the same values – in reality, formed the phenomenon which has lately been dubbed The Establishment.”– The Triumph of Conservatism – Gabriel Kolko

  As the younger generations are enslaved in student loan debt to obtain degrees from left wing universities, controlled by communist academics, older generations are mired in debt from McMansions, $60,000 SUVs, outrageous medical expenses, and plain old grocery bills. For the past forty years, the relative wages of the average American have been in decline, while the wealth of the elites, controlling the mega-corps, too big to fail banks, media conglomerates, and political system, have risen to obscene heights on the backs of the working-class peasants. Life expectancy has been in decline, depression and suicides on the rise, discontent and anger reaching acute levels, and an oversupply of elite aspirants, created by all that newly printed fiat, have created a combustible mixture on the verge of erupting like Mount Saint Helens.

  

  Those who currently benefit from our utterly corrupt plutocracy of psychopaths and deviants, pretend everything is normal and anyone questioning their provably false narratives are dangerous conspiracy theorists who must be censored, silenced and prosecuted for thought-crime. Their arrogance towards the common man and hubris in believing their own bullshit has left them susceptible to the vengeance of those they have scorned, ridiculed, and belittled, while pillaging the wealth of an empire in its death throes.

  A feeling of despair leading to a revolutionary vibe is in the air, as sides have been drawn, no compromise is possible, and those 300 million firearms are poised to be put to use. The debased establishment doesn’t think enough people have the gumption and courage to step up and call their bluff. If they are able to steal this election again and install another actual moron in the White House, the country will begin to implode, with chaos, violence and much bloodshed likely.

  “Americans today grossly underestimate the fragility of the complex society in which we live. But an important lesson from history is that people living in previous eras similarly didn’t imagine that their societies could suddenly crumble around them. States die in a great variety of ways. Some go out in a bang of violence; others unravel quietly and die with a whimper.” – End Times – Peter Turchin

  

  I tend to lean towards the American empire going out with a bang, rather than a whimper. I’ve referenced this level of normalcy bias and cognitive dissonance among the masses previously with regards to the last two Fourth Turnings. In late 1859 there was virtually no one who foresaw the devastation and death that would engulf the nation in the next five years, with over 600,000 killed and 500,000 wounded. Over 8% of the white male population between the ages of 13 and 43 died in the space of those five years.

  In early 1938 very few people expected a global conflagration involving virtually every country on earth to result in the deaths of 65 million people (3% of the global population). We are now at another turning point in human history. When enough critical thinking citizens become convinced there is no hope of fixing their problems through conventional means, like the ballot box, because the system is unfixable and corrupt, violent upheaval will consume the nation, with an unknowable outcome. As Turchin has documented, this societal implosion has occurred on a regular basis across the centuries. The only difference is previous regimes didn’t have the means to destroy the planet with the push of a button.

  

  These periodic societal implosions are entirely the result of plutocratic greed, where the ruling elites feel impelled to rig the financial and political institutions in a way that pumps immense wealth into their pockets, creating a chosen few who see their mega-yachts rising on a tide of Fed created fiat, while the dinghies of the impoverished many sink to the bottom of the sea. This predictable devolution of every empire is what destabilizes their society and leads to discord, violence, and the overthrow of the existing social order.

  The “Haves” have so much wealth, so much control over our media, so much unwarranted influence over our political system, so much dominion over our intel agencies and military, and complete domination over central banking, while the “Have Nots” have little chance to succeed or even maintain their standard of living, as their anger towards the “Haves” reaches the boiling point. You can feel it. It will only take one spark to ignite this powder-keg of engineered wealth imbalance to initiate Civil War 2.0.

  Turchin’s model predicts a grim future, with an outbreak of serious violence during the 2020s. Based on the current trajectory of our societal disintegration, his model paints a dark, bleak future for the United States, and probably the entire world when the USA does everything in its power to maintain world domination through military means. Based on hundreds of previous empire collapses, Turchin provides this assessment:

  “The probability of ruler assassination was 40%. Bad news for the elites. Even more bad news for everybody was that 75% of the crises ended in revolutions or civil wars (or both), and in one-fifth of cases, recurrent civil wars dragged on for a century or longer. 60% of exits led to the death of the state – it was conquered by another or simply disintegrated into fragments. The overall conclusion is grim. In most cases, several disasters combined, and some societies experienced really severe outcomes – End Times – Peter Turchin

  

  Strauss and Howe’s Fourth Turning theory predicts war and bloodshed on a grand scale in the second half of this crisis period (2024 – 2032). Turchin’s model predicts the same. Martin Armstrong’s Socrates model also predicts the same. I find it interesting that Neil Howe and Peter Turchin, both academics, choose to disregard the unequivocal outcome of their models and pretend a positive outcome is a possibility. Hope is not a strategy, and denying the reality before our very eyes, benefits no one except those in power.

  Armstrong, an investment manager, shows no inclination to not trust his model. He expects civil and global war, while predicting this will be the last presidential election in U.S. history. What will happen between now and November 5, to ignite the next bloody phase of this crisis? Will they shoot Trump’s plane out of the sky? Will they blatantly cheat on election day through fake mail-in ballots and Dominion vote switching, installing kackling Kamala as their puppet? Will they provoke Russia and/or Iran into launching World War 3? We know for sure these societal storms will only intensify until a climax is attained, with distinct winners and losers.

  

  It has been a slow train coming, but it is picking up speed as we enter the final stages of this journey. The Deep State has had control for too long and their time has come. They have disregarded and torn the U.S. Constitution to shreds. We are no longer bound by their illegal laws, regulations and rules. They don’t apply no more. We’ve been standing around and waiting for someone else to do the dirty work.

  The Founders, like Jefferson, risked their very lives to give us this country. It is time to make a brave and courageous stand against the forces of evil and take this country back from the super-elite fools glorifying their traitorous deeds in the name of Satan. The slow train of justice is coming around the bend, and anyone who cares about the future of this Republic needs to hop on. The times that try men’s souls have arrived. The choices we make will matter.

  Man’s ego is inflated, his laws are outdated, they don’t apply no more
  You can’t rely no more to be standin’ around waitin’
  In the home of the brave, Jefferson turnin’ over in his grave
  Fools glorifying themselves, trying to manipulate Satan
  And there’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

  Slow Train Coming – Bob Dylan

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 17:30

• China Launches Massive Military Drills In Disputed South Sea Hours After Blinken Tries To "Reduce Regional Tensions"
  China Launches Massive Military Drills In Disputed South Sea Hours After Blinken Tries To “Reduce Regional Tensions”

  China didn’t just fire the proverbial stimulus bazooka targeting its markets and economy last week: it also fired a literal bazooka in preparation for the inevitable showdown with the US, which is not a matter of if just when.

  On Saturday, China’s military said that the country’s air and naval forces are conducting manoeuvres in a disputed area of the South China Sea, just hours after the country’s top diplomat discussed ways of reducing regional tension with his U.S. counterpart, confirming yet again that the world literally can not wait to make fun of Anthony Blinken.

  The news, first reported by Reuters, comes after Australia and the Philippines said their militaries would hold a joint maritime activity with Japan, New Zealand and the United States in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.

  The announcement of the manoeuvres came shortly after China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi met U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in New York for talks that covered ways to avoid conflict in the South China Sea.

  In March, Blinken had assured the Philippines its defence partnership with the United States was “ironclad,” after Manila accused Beijing of aggressive deployments in the South China Sea of its coast guard and fishing vessels suspected of being a maritime militia.

  On Friday Wang “emphasized that China insists on resolving differences with countries directly concerned through dialogue and consultation,” during the meeting, his ministry said in a statement.

  While Blinken said he raised China’s “dangerous and destabilizing actions” in the South China Sea and discussed improving communication between the two nations’ militaries, Wang responded that “the U.S. should not always stir up trouble in the South China Sea and should not undermine the efforts of regional countries to maintain peace and stability,” and launched the drill just to confirm how little it thinks of US attempts at deterrence.

  

  The Chinese drills will include “routine” early warning and reconnaissance exercises as well as patrols around Scarborough Shoal, the Southern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army said in a statement, but gave no details.

  “The theatre troops maintain a high degree of vigilance, resolutely defending national sovereignty, security and maritime rights and interests, (and) are firm in maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea,” it said.

  One of Asia’s most contested features, the Scarborough Shoal is 200 km (124 miles) off the Philippines, within its exclusive economic zone.  At the same time, China also claims almost the entire South China Sea, including the atoll, coveted for its bountiful fish stocks and stunning turquoise lagoon, despite overlapping claims in the busy waterway by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. While in 2016 the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague ruled that China’s sweeping claims were not supported by international law, Beijing refuses to recognise the decision. The tribunal did not determine sovereignty over the Scarborough Shoal, which it said was a traditional fishing ground for several countries.

  In a report on Friday, a thinktank based in Beijing estimated that warships of various nations spent more than 20,000 days annually in the South China Sea, while more than 30,000 military aircraft traverse it.  U.S. navy ships spent about 1,600 days at sea in the region, said the thinktank, the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative, as well as an undisclosed number of submarines.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 16:55

• Why Another Chinese Gold Mania May Be Starting
  Why Another Chinese Gold Mania May Be Starting

  Authored by Jesse Colombo,

  A few weeks ago, I published an article where I explored the potential for another China-driven rally in gold, one that could quickly push prices to $3,000. My thesis was rooted in the observation that China’s futures traders were the driving force behind gold’s explosive $400 surge this past spring. However, these traders had been dormant for the past five months as the yuan price of gold stagnated. I proposed that a technical breakout in the yuan price of gold could trigger a resurgence similar to the powerful rally we saw in the spring. Since sharing that idea, I’ve been watching for a breakout in the yuan price of gold—and it appears that moment has arrived.

  Let’s start by examining the chart of Shanghai Futures Exchange gold futures, the primary driver behind the gold frenzy in March and April. Since the April peak, prices have been oscillating within a well-defined trading range. However, in a promising turn of events, the contract has recently experienced a technical breakout as Chinese traders returned from the Mid-Autumn Festival, which had closed the country’s financial markets for three days. Although the breakout has been tame so far, with tepid trading volume, there’s significant potential for it to gain momentum—especially as volume continues to pick up after a lull earlier this month.

  

  The international spot price of gold in yuan (which is distinct from the mainland China gold price) had also been trading within a well-defined range since April. Its recent breakout lends further credibility to the breakout seen in Shanghai Futures Exchange gold futures.

  

  The U.S. dollar price of gold has also been on a strong upward trend, breaking through two key resistance levels in the past month and a half:

  

  An April Financial Times article titled “Chinese Speculators Super-Charge Gold Rally” provided a compelling explanation of the gold price surge this past spring. The article highlighted how trading volume in Shanghai gold futures had surged by 400%, propelling gold prices to record highs:

  

  Additional evidence of the Chinese gold trading frenzy earlier this year is visible in the chart of open interest in Shanghai gold futures:

  

  As the World Gold Council’s chief market strategist John Reade remarked in the Financial Times:

  “Chinese speculators have really grabbed gold by the throat.”

  “Emerging markets have been the biggest end consumers for decades but they haven’t been able to exert pricing power because of fast money in the west. Now, we are getting to the stage where speculative money in emerging markets can exert pricing power.”

  Now that Shanghai gold futures broke out of its trading range, it is likely to follow what technical analysts call a “measured move,” which is when a rally after a consolidation pattern is projected to rise the same number of points as the rally that preceded the consolidation pattern. According to that principle, gold is likely to reach approximately $3,000 in just a couple months after breaking out! In case that sounds preposterous, that is only a 12.8% move from here.

  

  To summarize, all signs point to the potential for another China-driven gold mania similar to the one that propelled prices earlier this year. The breakout of Shanghai Futures Exchange gold futures from their trading range, coupled with the rising price of gold in most major currencies, suggest that speculative fervor could soon return with full force. The strong likelihood of a measured move indicates that gold could quickly reach the $3,000 mark, fueled by renewed interest from Chinese traders. As the market dynamics shift, the influence of emerging market speculators on global gold prices is becoming increasingly apparent, setting the stage for what could be a dramatic surge in the months ahead.

  If you enjoyed this article, please visit Jesse’s Substack for more content like this…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 16:20

• Massive Fire Engulfs Atlanta-Area Chemical Plant, Evacuations Underway
  Massive Fire Engulfs Atlanta-Area Chemical Plant, Evacuations Underway

  A massive fire broke out at a chemical plant in Conyers, Georgia, prompting local area evacuations and road closures. Footage of the blaze shared on X might remind some of the train derailment fire in East Palestine, Ohio, early last year.

  

  The Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office said the fire occurred at BioLab, a chemical plant that makes specialty pool and spa care products. They told residents near the plant to stay indoors and keep windows closed to minimize exposure to harmful chemicals, adding, “Safety measures are in place to protect the public.”

  

  Earlier, officials said the sprinkler system malfunctioned, and water came in contact with a reactive chemical, sparking the fire. Shortly after, officials called for evacuations of residential homes around the facility.

  

  However, officials did not mention what chemicals were burning. EPA staff have been sent to the town for air sampling. 

  

  Given BioLab’s product line, as shown on its website, there’s reason to suspect the plumes of dark smoke are toxic.

  

  Local media outlet Channel 2′s Michele Newell reported that white smoke was visible from the plant, turning black and then orange. 

  Here’s the dramatic footage uploaded to X:

  Fire at Rockdale County biolab happening now 😳 pic.twitter.com/mG4mHJz1lD

  — ATL Uncensored (@ATLUncensored) September 29, 2024

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  🔥🚨BREAKING NEWS: A massive fire at BioLab in Conyers, Georgia is covering sky with smoke. I-20 is being blocked off as residents told to evacuate. pic.twitter.com/3S27RKl22q

  — Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) September 29, 2024

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  Thanks for the cancer Bio Lab pic.twitter.com/bQJY1jydY7

  — Burnt Toast (@Jacob_Andrew_88) September 29, 2024

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  This if from the fire at BioLab in Conyers GA. They have us sheltering in place with our doors, windows closed and air conditioning units turned off. We need more information about what kind of chemicals we are being exposed too. @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/KKC8ia6CZe

  — Imtroby (@imtroby) September 29, 2024

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  The view of the Bio Lab fire in Conyers from our back porch in North Rockdale County. pic.twitter.com/qoczQfB3Th

  — Jay Jones (@dockjones) September 29, 2024

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  Bio Lab explosion in Conyers 🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️

  UPDATE: Police jus said we have to leave the area/house.
  Quarantine 2024 #news #biolab #conyers #viral pic.twitter.com/clSAZ58Yob

  — NATELIVN (@NATELIVNFAVRD) September 29, 2024

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  Another?

  Yet ANOTHER fire at the Bio Lab chemical plant in Conyers GA pic.twitter.com/fe8l30AwQ1

  — ChuckD (@ChuckD_MSB) September 29, 2024

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  Wow.

  The fire at Bio Lab outside Atlanta showed up on radar pic.twitter.com/B7C8UDo18g

  — Your Favorite Arkie (@YourFavArkie) September 29, 2024

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  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 15:45

• The Emperor's New Clothes
  The Emperor’s New Clothes

  Authored by Peter Tchir via Academy Securities,

  The “big” news on the week, at least the news that seemed to move markets the most, was China’s stimulus plans. It started with some monetary policy, which didn’t do much, but China followed up with fiscal stimulus, and the perception that there is more to come permeated the market thinking. We highlighted in Thursday’s The “Other” Chinese Bazooka that this time, the benefits would accrue much more to China and its companies, than to the U.S. and its companies.

  Before delving into our take on how things will play out, let’s highlight just a couple of things from Academy’s Geopolitical Intelligence Group:

  • From Saturday, Israel Kills Hezbollah Leader.

  • And from Tuesday, September’s Around the World where we analyze the:

    • The Middle East and ceasefire discussions.

    • Iran sending ballistic missiles to Russia.

    • The U.S. potentially lifting restrictions on Ukraine’s use of some weapons in Russia.

    • The friction between China and the Philippines (which seems to take a back seat to Taiwan in our meetings, but we aren’t sure that it should).

  • Also, this seems like a good place to remind people about Academy’s Credit Focused Geopolitical Roundtable on October 10th, from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm at Bobby Van’s near Grand Central, led by General (Ret.) Spider Marks. Please register here as space is limited.

  • Finally, while not as geopolitical-focused as the prior Thursday’s discussion on Bloomberg TV (from the 5 to 15 minute mark, with even more focus on geopolitics than usual), we had a lively discussion with Rick Santelli on CNBC live from the floor of the CBOT – which is always a treat. We focused on “bumpy landings” and China.

  Maybe I Was Mean

  But I really don’t think so.

  

  After an overnight session that initially had U.S. indices rising with Chinese stocks (the Shanghai 300 did even better than the Hang Seng – 16% versus 13%), the performance sagged. Yes, U.S. shares eked out gains of less than 1%. That was nothing like we saw in Asia or even Europe (where the Stoxx 50 rose 4% on the week).

  Also, following up on last weekend’s Starting a New Cycle? report, it was noticeable how much of the strength in the U.S. appears to occur overnight, or at the open.

  Given that we should have seen some performance chasing on Friday, that seems concerning. September, which started out weak, just like August, managed to fight the “seasonals,” and the major U.S. indices are up around 2% with one trading day remaining. However, there is this lingering concern, for me, that the post-FOMC surge was “strange” and isn’t getting any material follow through.

  It seems highly unlikely to occur 3 times in a row, but let’s not forget First Friday’s which have not been kind to markets. While it seems unlikely to occur again, there is nothing about recent trading that makes me believe that we aren’t susceptible to another bout of weakness at the start of October.

  You Asked if I’m Scared

  And I said so.

  We had some great meetings last week in Minneapolis and Chicago. Somehow, with anything geopolitical, it seems that many people want to know “what scares you the most?”

  In a world where:

  • Russia is threatening to use nuclear weapons.

  • China fired an ICBM into the Pacific, and there are ongoing risks with the Philippines and with Taiwan.

  • There is escalation in the Middle East (at least Isreal is increasing their attacks, and as discussed in The “Other” Bazooka, I’m in the camp that Iran just doesn’t have the firepower to retaliate effectively).

  I answered that my biggest fear, right now, is that the U.S. will grab at a “carrot” offered by China, reducing the pressure on China’s economy and giving them the opportunity to buy a couple of more years to “properly” prepare for the competition with us.

  While Sinead O’Connor sang “Through their own words, they will be exposed,” I think General Spider Marks puts it more eloquently – China has a history of “marching in plain sight.” Basically China tells us what they want to do (in this case, to become the economic powerhouse of the world) and we ignore that at our own risk.

  Nothing about the new stimulus plan does anything to derail my view that The Threat of Made By China is one of the biggest threats facing American (and European) companies. The threat to sales in China has already occurred. The threat to sales in Emerging Markets is occurring and we are seeing increasing amounts of competition from Chinese brands in Europe and even the U.S.

  You Asked for the Truth and I Told You

  I keep trying to come up with a “positive” spin for the global economy on China’s stimulus efforts. But here is what I keep coming up with: 

  • Chinese stocks should continue to rally as many investors have been caught underweight the stocks.

  • Chinese stocks will continue to rally because when you look at some of their big names, they trade at a fraction of the multiples of our big names. They probably should, but in a market where many people have spent the last two years trying to catch rotations (including myself, with some modicum of success), the narrative behind “Chinese Stocks are Cheap” seems pretty powerful.

  • You should see Chinese spending increase and it will be heavily allocated to their own brands.

  • This influx of spending and capital will buy the Chinese companies time (and money and scale) to make further inroads regarding their foreign aspirations – which again, should help Chinese stocks.

  • Will their phones get better and cheaper? Will more and more people, including foreigners, fly on Chinese airplanes? Will their chip industry continue to grow and improve?

    • What is the risk that China is able to shift to using more and more Chinese made chips for items requiring mid-to-high level (but not state-of-the-art) tech?

  All of this is occurring while the U.S. is:

  • Starting another round of theater on the debt ceiling (highly unlikely that we don’t pay anything on time, but highly likely that both sides get to spend a bunch of $$$ on their priorities as part of the “kick the can” negotiations).

  • Political leaders on all sides are more focused on the election than on governing (at least it seems that way to me).

  • About to enter, what many other political systems seem to find awkward, a period of time where we will have a new president, who won’t assume control for almost 3 months after the election. An election that could be mired in controversy – even if it shouldn’t be (there is some small tail risk, I don’t think it is big, but it is there).

  At some level, even I’m forced to acknowledge that much of this “doesn’t sound like tomorrow’s problem,” but I fear it is and the markets will continue to price it in, like I think we saw most of Thursday and Friday.

  A Big Week on the Economic Data Front

  Lots of information coming out, and I’m continuing to lean towards the potential that the jobs data comes in “better” than expected. One thing that would really rattle markets (I think) would be an upward revision in Non-Farm Payrolls. Even writing that seems weird, but since consensus is now so fully on board the “jobs data has been inflated” boat, it is getting very crowded. If I’m correct on the problems with seasonals (too many additions to start the year, too many subtractions in the summer) and if the BLS has “corrected” some of their modelling assumptions around the birth/death model, it wouldn’t surprise me to see a beat on the headline number AND upward revisions. Not sure I want to bet on that, but…

  Finally, the discussion is clearly headed towards the “Neutral Rate.” The good thing about that is we all know it is a number somewhere between 0% and 5%.

  Seriously, I think we will find that the market is pricing in a terminal rate of sub 3% by the end of the July 2025 meeting and this number is “too low, too quick” (thinking more like 3.5% being the terminal rate and not getting there until the end of the year, unless we go from “bumpy” to “clunky” landing).

  Bottom Line

  If you want to play the China stimulus (and I do), do it direct via Chinese stocks (I use FXI and KWEB) and don’t assume U.S. “proxies” will do well.

  I think oil is the biggest beneficiary of geopolitical risk, but I’m leaning towards “escalation to deescalate” in the Middle East and even, though more hesitantly, between Russia and Ukraine.

  On the rates side of the equation, I think 10s and 30s are susceptible to moves higher on steepening, deficit concerns, debt ceiling negotiations, and auctions – call it 4% on 10s.

  I continue to like credit as I think that investors should be heavily overweight credit, especially at the front end (2-years and in) and think that the competition from private credit funds and even some big banks to get money out to customers will help support credit spreads from the bottom (lower rated entities) on up.

  Now that I’ve actually listened to (I cannot get the song out of my head) and read the lyrics to “Emperor’s New Clothes,” I cannot tell if the song is uplifting, or really depressing. And while I think China might be exposed as “being naked,” I think they are in the process of buying themselves (and their companies) time and that we will aid and abet them in their efforts to spur their economy forward, and we are not seeing the danger to ourselves.

  Maybe too heavy, maybe too melodramatic, but it is the path that keeps jumping out at me.

  In any case, let’s hope the first week of October starts better than the first weeks of August and September, but I’m starting to believe that we may see a three-peat!

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 15:10

• Democrats Suddenly Care About Illegal Immigration After Years Of Gaslighting Americans
  Democrats Suddenly Care About Illegal Immigration After Years Of Gaslighting Americans

  All the surveys show that the immigration crisis is the dominant social concern for Americans in how they will vote in the 2024 presidential election.  It only falls to second place behind the economic crisis in terms of overall importance.  Abortion, healthcare, racial inequality, climate change?  Nobody cares – At least not enough people to shift enough votes one way or the other. 

  Any candidate that wants to be taken seriously during this election cycle will have to address the open border problems created by the Biden Administration, and Democrats just decided they care about a month before the public goes to the ballot box.  The same people that created the problem now want you to believe they can be trusted to fix it.

  As your president, I will protect our nation’s sovereignty, secure our border, and work to fix our broken system of immigration.

  And I will partner with Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to do it.

  — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 28, 2024

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  Kamala Harris and many Democrat candidates have suddenly pulled a 180 degree spin on their open border cheerleading.  Not long ago they were gaslighting the American public on the crisis, denying that the danger existed and calling anyone who mentioned it a “racist.”  In September of 2021 Harris argued:

  “The border is secure, but we also have a broken immigration system, in particular over the last four years before we came in, and it needs to be fixed.” 

  This was a lie. Border crossings surged in 2021.  It has also now been reported that ICE was forced to release over 435,000 illegal immigrants with prior criminal convictions into the US due to Biden and Harris policies.  Over 13,000 of those convicts are murderers.  

  To clarify any confusion created by media denials, Kamala Harris was in fact placed in charge of the immigration and border problems by Joe Biden.  This is not debatable.  Harris then went on to do nothing, and even refused for many months to visit the border.  She preferred to take vacations in various Central American countries, offering them cash in exchange for discouraging people from migrating during the pandemic.

  When confronted on the surge in illegal immigration, Democrats conjured up a blackmail bill – They would cap illegal migrant entry at around 1.5 million people per year (or 5000 per day), with most of these people allowed to continue staying in the US after passing an “asylum review.”  Their cases would then be in stasis for months.  The bill did not address the fact that the immigration courts already had a backlog of over 3 million asylum cases. 

  In exchange for this gracious offer, Republicans would have to accept an “easy path to citizenship” for millions of migrants already in the country.  No mention of deportation of illegals already in the US.  No mention of building a wall.  No mention of ending welfare subsidies that are enticing illegals to come to the US in the first place.  It’s the complete opposite of border security, but Democrats desperately want those third-world voters familiar with life under socialism.

  When Trump and Republicans opposed this ridiculous bill, Democrats accused them of refusing to fix the border problem because they “wanted to use it as an election issue.”  In other words, Democrats tried to deflect the crisis they created back onto conservatives.  But Donald Trump showed that no new bills were necessary.

  It’s a simple enough problem to deal with and Trump deserves credit for proving that.  Trump created the lowest rate of border crossings the US has seen in decades and he didn’t even need to “build the wall”, all he had to do was take away the incentives for migrants to show up.    

  Title 42 was a federal health order based on concerns over the covid pandemic, but the fundamentals of it could be applied without the threat of a health emergency.  In tandem with Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, the order called for the immediate expulsion of migrants trying to cross the border without regard for amnesty, asylum or refugee claims. 

  

  The progressive model of immigration allows any illegal alien to declare that they come from an oppressive or dangerous nation without evidence, and they can stay in the US for years while their cases are reviewed by immigration courts.  During this time illegals have access to a multitude of welfare programs and handouts.  Some states are even offering home loans to non-citizens.  The vast majority of illegals take advantage of these programs while also working under the table.  Even if they are eventually removed from the US, they have already squeezed US taxpayers for thousands of dollars in goodies.   

  Democrats have widely supported this model and their motives are obvious, they intend to eventually offer these people mass citizenship in the hopes of buying off tens-of-millions of future voters.  Fact checkers continue to lie about the number of illegals entering the US; they claim that border encounters and apprehensions are not the same as border entries.  However, current Biden policies allow for the majority of these immigrants to enter the US under unconfirmed amnesty claims – They are not shipping the migrants back. 

  Biden has also been offering backdoor legal status for migrants from third world countries like Venezuela and Haiti, which explains the sudden surge of such nationals in towns across America.  Harris now claims she wants to stem illegal immigration, but her policy sounds a lot like the fraudulent immigration bill that conservatives and the majority of Americans have already rejected.

  The new Democrat immigration strategy is to copy Donald Trump’s immigration strategy (at least in rhetoric if not in action), while at the same time still trying to turn the millions of illegal migrants already in the US into votes so they can dominate American government for decades. 

  The bottom line?  There’s absolutely no reason to trust that Harris will do anything about the border.  Beyond that, political parties should not be allowed to import foreigners and use citizenship as a carrot to buy them off as voters.  And every foreigner in the US illegally should be deported.  This is not rocket science. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 14:35

• Port Poker And The East Coast Dock Strike
  Port Poker And The East Coast Dock Strike

  By Stuart Chris of FreightWaves

  “The sweetest words are, ‘Here is your end’ (of the bargain),” so a time-honored saying goes.

  

  That’s never more true than in union negotiations where just about every player has a piece of the action, and particularly in the current bargaining between port employers and union dockworkers at three dozen ports on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts, a public-private kerfuffle that’s already gone all the way to the White House. 

  Unlike contract talks between, say, baseball team owners and the players union, which take place under a glare of 24-hour media, bargaining on longshore contracts is notoriously confidential, shrouded in secrecy save for occasional dueling news releases that only succeed in flattening the actual drama that threatens to hold hostage a good chunk of a U.S. (and global) goods economy that’s bigger in value than all the professional sports leagues put together. The rare leak of actual contract details is promptly disavowed as stakeholders wait anxiously for the next announcement.

  That’s about how it’s gone during the current round of bargaining between port employers represented by the United States Maritime Alliance and the International Longshoremen’s Association, which count 25,000 workers in container and ro-ro services at ports from Maine to Texas. Whatever talks were taking place came to an abrupt halt in June when the union refused to buy what the employers were selling. The ILA, led by President Harold Daggett and his son, Executive Vice President Dennis Daggett, has since refused to return to negotiations, ratcheting up the rhetoric by calling for “war” against employers and insisting that “the docks belong to us.”

  Now, it’s traditional for unions to “get paid” when times are good, and most indicators are on an upward trend. GDP grew at an annual rate of 3% in the third quarter of this year, up from 1.6% the previous two quarters while lower energy, food and transportation costs helped inflation cool to 2.5% in August, the smallest one-year increase since pandemic-influenced March 2021.

  Throw in a tight jobs market, and that’s why a number of high-profile companies from UPS to railroads, airlines and automakers settled with their unions. Yes, machinists are on strike at beleaguered Boeing and thousands of hotel workers have walked off the job seeking higher wages and better working conditions, but mostly there is labor peace. 

  Containerized imports through U.S. gateways continue to surge to near-record levels, an indication that however people feel about the price of eggs, consumer sentiment to buy stuff remains resilient, a good sign leading up to the retail holiday season. Which brings us back to the East Coast longshore labor dispute.

  As everyone discovered during the COVID-19 pandemic, container ports are a choke point in a supply chain as essential to daily life in the United States as water, electricity and telecommunications. Disruptions have a ripple effect throughout the economy and are exponentially compounded as goods pile up at ports, terminals, warehouses and other distribution points. So it takes longer to restart the flow of goods than it does to stop it. Considerably longer.

  The domestic intermodal supply chain begins at the nation’s ports, and with some exceptions, it’s union employees who see to the efficient handling of incoming containers through these ports. Here’s where we see the players sitting in on a game where there’s more than one winning hand and a pot that only grows larger. But union contract negotiations aren’t like a winner-takes-all game of Texas Hold ’em. The optimal outcome of any negotiation is that all sides are rewarded as part of a compromise outcome.

  But wait, it’s an election year. That’s like a doubling down for each container move! President Joe Biden courted union support in his abortive reelection campaign, going so far as to walk with auto plant employees on their picket line. The United Auto Workers, flush with new contracts, rewarded Biden with its endorsement (since inherited by Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee since Biden dropped out in June). 

  So it was probably with more than a little trepidation that a cabal of importers, manufacturers, trade groups and House Republicans tried to pressure Biden to block an Oct. 1 strike by the ILA, for the good of the country, they said.

  There’s a remedy for just such a move. The Taft-Hartley Act gives the president powers to intervene in a labor dispute if it might compromise the country’s essential services, and orders a cooling-off period while the sides resume contract negotiations under federal facilitation. Taft-Hartley was last invoked in 2002 by President George W. Bush to resolve a West Coast dock strike that threatened to imperil his first-term agenda.

  So how to thread the needle? Biden told businesses he would not block a strike, but he might be playing semantics and still come back later and intervene, like Bush. Or, Biden can give the union some rope and let the work stoppage drag on just long enough to bake in 65,000 union votes ahead of an election where swing state polling is razor-thin, get employers to cave on a new longshore contract and — ta-da! — save Christmas!

  That’s the view from on high. But there are other state and federal bodies waiting for their turns.

  A container comes in from abroad, right away U.S. Customs and Border Protection claims its share of duties, taxes and tariffs. Ports are mostly public entities and extensions of local governments that rent space to private terminal operators, so the port is going to take its cut in order to continue to operate, and the local and state governments are going to collect taxes on goods as well as on port employees’ paychecks.

  The past 20 years have seen an infrastructure arms race as port authorities of all sizes vie to outspend one another in a breathtaking bid to expand their container handling capacity while ocean carriers build ever-larger ships. And if a port can pave another hundred acres to expand ro-ro, well, vehicles are lucrative sources of import duties — up to 25% for a truck based on value.

  So it’s always been in the interest of public entities not only to have thousands of union members on the ground, but to have that  number actually increase, if at all possible. And while we’re at it, don’t forget the thousands more truck drivers who provide drayage services hauling containers in and out of the ports. The states and federal government collect taxes on their wages, too.

  But a union isn’t a union without dues-paying members, so preserving jobs by keeping automation technology out of U.S. ports is always a high priority for ILA leadership even as, observers say, it compromises the efficiency of operations. Ports in Asia and Europe deploy advanced automation to make operations as efficient as possible, and U.S. ports struggle to keep pace. In 2023 the Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach complex, largest in the U.S., only ranked ninth for volume among the world’s container ports, and New York-New Jersey didn’t crack the top 20.

  But who cares?!

  The U.S. is the largest market for everything from cellphones to furniture to model trains made in China, the world’s largest exporter. China rightly has to worry about moving its stuff out as quickly as possible. While some automation has found its way into U.S. ports — always under the auspices of union contracts — governments and ports and, yes, unions are caught in the aforementioned Möbius strip of wants and needs that isn’t likely to substantially change the structure of U.S. port operations in the near term. And it doesn’t matter if getting containers through those ports is like trying to push an elephant through a keyhole. Let us worry about that!

  Or more accurately, let consumers worry about it. They’re the ones buying all that imported merchandise, and they’ll be the ones paying for disruptions, delays and other assorted supply-chain snarls that will be baked into the price of whatever shiny object hits store shelves.

  Eventually, the ILA will get its contract, containers will flow again and there will be labor peace — for six years at least.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 14:00

• SpaceX Launches Rescue Mission For Two Stranded Boeing Starliner Astronauts On ISS 
  SpaceX Launches Rescue Mission For Two Stranded Boeing Starliner Astronauts On ISS 

  Just two weeks after SpaceX completed the historic Polaris Dawn mission, which included the first private spacewalk and the highest orbit since the Apollo era…

  Views from Dragon in flight 🐉🌎

  During its five day mission, Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew completed 75 orbits around Earth pic.twitter.com/NzIFElzXAm

  — SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 27, 2024

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  … Elon Musk’s space company launched a Falcon rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Saturday to rescue the stranded Boeing Starliner astronauts on the International Space Station.

  Falcon 9 launches Crew-9, the first human spaceflight mission to launch from pad 40 in Florida pic.twitter.com/BYpPPtaKqm

  — SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 28, 2024

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  NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Gorbunov are aboard the Dragon capsule and will reach the ISS on Sunday afternoon. 

  Since NASA rotates ISS crews every six months, the stranded astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, won’t return to Earth until late February.

  Boeing’s first astronaut flight with the Starliner launched in June was only supposed to last a week, but multiple failures, including thruster troubles and helium leaks, led NASA officials to deem the spacecraft too dangerous for Williams and Wilmore. The crewless Starliner returned to Earth earlier this month, landing without a problem in New Mexico. 

  After Saturday’s launch, NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy said “human spaceflight” is very “complicated and dynamic.”

  SpaceX noted after launch. 

  After today’s successful launch of Crew-9, Falcon 9’s second stage was disposed in the ocean as planned, but experienced an off-nominal deorbit burn. As a result, the second stage safely landed in the ocean, but outside of the targeted area.

  We will resume launching after we…

  — SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 29, 2024

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  Meanwhile.

  If the rest of the year goes well, SpaceX will launch close to 90% of all mass to orbit. China will be ~6% and rest of world ~4%.

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 24, 2024

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  Where is Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin? 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 13:25

• John Kerry Says The Quiet Part Out Loud: "First Amendment Stands As Major Block" To "Govern"
  John Kerry Says The Quiet Part Out Loud: “First Amendment Stands As Major Block” To “Govern”

  The World Economic Forum held its ‘Sustainable Development Impact Meetings’ during last week’s United Nations General Assembly in New York City. Speaking at the meeting, far-left elitist and former presidential climate envoy John Kerry expressed frustration to fellow globalists, stating that the First Amendment frequently obstructs their agenda. 

  “Our First Amendment stands as a major block to the ability to be able to hammer [disinformation] out of existence. What we need is to win…the right to govern by hopefully winning enough votes that you’re free to be able to implement change,” Kerry said. 

  Kerry noted, “It’s very hard to govern today.”

  “Our First Amendment stands as a major block to the ability to be able to hammer [disinformation] out of existence. What we need is to win…the right to govern by hopefully winning enough votes that you’re free to be able to implement change.”

  No thanks.pic.twitter.com/SLGHOLVjCr

  — Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) September 29, 2024

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  We’ll translate “govern” for readers as it essentially means narration control (or official government-approved propaganda)—that is, through the censorship blob at federal government agencies in Washington, DC, the intel community, Silicon Valley’s big tech, fact-checkers, think tanks and legacy corporate media. 

  Kerry’s choice of words and tone shows that far-left radicals in the Obama-Biden-Harris team are frightened that their own misinformation and disinformation propaganda jammed through far-left corporate media outlets is no longer sticking as the citizens gravitate to the ‘free speech’ X platform run by Elon Musk for their news in the pursuit of truth after being lied to for decades by their corrupt government and corporate overlords.

  Here’s the Conservative Treehouse’s Sundance take on Kerry: 

  Within the recent WEF discussion, Secretary Kerry outlines how freedom of speech is a ‘threat to the global democracy ‘because the governing officials have a difficult time controlling information.  Kerry goes on to posit how the next administration, presumably in his hope Kamala Harris, will forcefully structure all the tools of government to stop Americans from using the first amendment to freely speak about issues.

  Governing is too challenging, according to Kerry, when the government cannot stop people from seeking and discovering information that is against their interests.  Effective governing required compliant adherence to a singular ideology.  Against the backdrop of COVID-19 and a host of similarly related government narratives, if people are free to find alternative information and think for themselves, they become increasingly more difficult to control.  Yes, this is said quite openly.  This is the mindset of those in power.  

  At a separate WEF meeting earlier this year, Emma Tucker, WSJ Chief Editor, said the days of corporate media “owning the news” and “being the gatekeepers of the facts” are over as she complained people are going to ‘other sources’ and questioning the official government-approved narrative. 

  This is why the fake news media is attacking Elon and the X platform. They have lost control of the narrative they once had.

  “We owned the news. We were the gatekeepers, and we very much owned the facts as well”.

  🔊 … Emma Tucker, WSJ Chief Editor

  pic.twitter.com/O7v7KIgUeb

  — Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) January 20, 2024

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  The masters of deception, that being the globalists, who are hellbent on dividing and conquering, have seen their power and control begin to wither away, because how dare the people actually be informed with truth and pick their own news sources!

  It’s our time.

  We must unite. It’s time to RESCUE THE REPUBLIC.

  Join us in Washington D.C on 9/29/24 #RescueTheRepublic #JoinTheResistance #Unite pic.twitter.com/lbkZXMmpk0

  — RescueTheRepublic (@RescueRepublic) September 18, 2024

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  Hence why, these globalists are waging war against Musk’s X on a global stage. 

  • X Warns Of Brazil Shutdown ‘Soon’ For Defying Judge’s “Illegal Orders To Censor Political Opponents”

  Here’s what others are saying about far-left Kerry:

  That pesky 1st Amendment always gets in their way. They hate the 2nd even more.

  — Courage Is A Habit (@CourageHabit) September 29, 2024

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  John Kerry says “It’s very hard to govern today”.

  Govern = Control

  They’re frightened of losing control of truth being exposed.

  — Patrick Bet-David (@patrickbetdavid) September 29, 2024

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  The vision of democracy held by John Kerry involves a small cabal of haughty people designating truths and falsehoods, and suppressing disfavored speech.

  Whether the truths are true or the falsehoods false does not matter as long as the high get to decide which is which. https://t.co/h5oX5joGcd

  — Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) September 29, 2024

  The quiet part is being said out loud: Globalists want to rip up the Constitution. 

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

  Thomas Jefferson said “In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.” Of course, power hungry politicians don’t like the chains that bind them. But those chains are there to protect the people.

  — Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) September 29, 2024

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  Correct. 

  ⬇️The fact that they are willing to say this in the open shows just how bad things are behind the scenes.

  It’s not just some isolated comment. The censorship enterprise is massive and wants to silence YOU. https://t.co/hmpwqcXfZM

  — America First Legal (@America1stLegal) September 29, 2024

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  *  *  * 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 12:15

• 'Complete Obliteration': DeSantis Says Hurricane Helene Damage Worse Than Idalia
  ‘Complete Obliteration’: DeSantis Says Hurricane Helene Damage Worse Than Idalia

  Authored by T.J. Muscaro via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis said Hurricane Helene’s “monumental storm surge” caused far greater damage than last year’s Idalia.

  “Clearly you saw storm surge in excess of 15 feet,” DeSantis said to reporters in Taylor County’s Dekle Beach on the morning of Sept. 28.

  

  “So that is much, much more significant than what we’ve seen in recent storms like Idalia that hit and certainly Debbie, and that is really, really destructive. So, as you look around here, you see some homes that are now just rubble.”

  He said some of the damage he saw while flying over the affected coastline on Sept. 27 en route to Cedar Key was “complete obliteration.”

  As recovery and emergency response efforts continue across the southeast United States in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, more than 50 storm-related deaths have been confirmed, and early estimates expect to see more than $15 billion in damages.

  DeSantis confirmed that at least 11 of those storm-related fatalities occurred in the state. However, none of these fatalities occurred in Taylor County, where Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane.

  The governor was joined by the executive director of Florida’s Department of Emergency Management, Kevin Guthrie, and FEMA Director Deanne Criswell. They expressed their shared desire to put everyone affected into a safe, dry living space, whether that is providing assistance through the state housing repair program, or provide full temporary housing in the form of trailer either through the state housing program or FEMA’s federal direct housing program.

  Guthrie said that trailers were already on their way to Taylor County and portions of Levy County, but he emphasized that they were a temporary solution. Florida building code does not allow permanent travel trailer construction in these areas, especially on the beach in Taylor County.

  “We want to help you get through that temporary [housing] onto what your permanent housing is going to be,” he said.

  Thousands of emergency response missions have been undertaken since Sept. 26, and power has been restored to nearly 2 million customers across the state. On Sept. 27, The Epoch Times reported more than 1.3 million customers were simultaneously out of power. As of 12:30 p.m. on Sept. 28, that number is down to a little more than 425,000.

  The governor also confirmed that more than 12,000 miles of roadways have been cleared by more than 800 cut-and-toss crews, and 1,400 bridges have been inspected by 129 inspectors. Major bridges have already reopened, including the Sunshine Skyway and Howard Franklin bridges in Tampa Bay.

  However, several roads and areas across the state remain inaccessible, including barrier islands in Pinellas County. Search and rescue missions from Florida’s National Guard, Florida’s State Guard, and local law enforcement are still ongoing.

  Other states also received devastating effects from Hurricane Helene. The list of fatalities includes people in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia.

  More than 1 million customers are still without power in South Carolina. Significant power outages had been recorded in the other aforementioned states as well as West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio.

  Historic rainfall of more than 11 inches in less than 48 hours was recorded in Atlanta.

  Multiple tornadoes were confirmed in North Carolina, and immense rain and landslides have all but cut off the western portions of the state.

  “All roads in Western North Carolina should be considered closed,” the North Carolina Department of Transportation stated on its website. ”I-40 and I-26 are impassable in multiple locations. Travel in this area for non-emergency purposes is hindering needed emergency response.”

  Departing flights out of Asheville Regional Airport in North Carolina have been canceled through 4:50 p.m. local time on Saturday.

  North Carolina’s Gov. Roy Cooper issued a major disaster declaration request for 39 counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians on Sept. 28, specifically requesting federal public assistance and individual assistance in the storm’s aftermath.

  “Helene brought pain and destruction to our state and we’re working to get help to people quickly,” Cooper said in a press release. “As waters recede and winds die down, families and communities will need assistance to clean up and recover and this request can help speed up the process.”

  The remnants of now-post tropical cyclone Helene are expected to hover over the Tennessee Valley for the remainder of the weekend.

  Moody’s Analytics said it expects $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 09/29/2024 – 11:40

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• The Democrats' "Kudzu Economy"
  The Democrats’ “Kudzu Economy”

  Authored by Thaddeus McCotter via American Greatness,

  As many a Gen Xer will do these days, I dusted off an old compact disc: REM’s album Murmur, which was released in 1983. As I listened to the first track, “Radio Free Europe,” I looked at the CD’s cover. It was an eerie photo of thick vegetation.

  As I later learned, when the REM album was released, this plant was well on its way to enveloping large swaths of the southeastern United States, including Georgia (which was REM’s original base). The name of the all-consuming plant? Kudzu (Pueraria montana).

  

  Immediately, I thought of the left’s “Green Economy.” Bear with me.

  Per a 2019 article in The Nature Conservancy entitled “Kudzu: The Invasive Vine that Ate the South”: “Kudzu looks innocent enough yet the invasive plant easily overtakes trees, abandoned homes and telephone poles.”

  Kudzu is an invasive species. “Kudzu—or kuzu (クズ) – is native to Japan and southeast China. It was first introduced to the United States during the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 where it was touted as a great ornamental plant for its sweet-smelling blooms and sturdy vines.”

  The invasive plant’s other ominous nickname is “mile-a-minute,” for its spread of up to “one foot per day.” This makes Kudzu’s spread as lightning quick as it is lethal to indigenous vegetation:

  “[Kudzu] outcompetes everything from native grasses to fully mature trees… This loss of native plants harms other plants, insects and animals that adapted alongside them, leading to cascading effects throughout an ecosystem. Over time, these effects of habitat loss can lead to species extinctions and a loss of overall biodiversity.”

  So, are we to blame posh 19th-century Americans’ vanity for the introduction of and devastation by Kudzu? The introduction, perhaps. But, like sundry other 21st-century problems, we can point to the 20th Century’s titans of science and the federal government for the vast extent of the devastation. As the Nature Conservancy concedes:

  “From the 1930s through the 1950s, the Soil Conservation Service promoted it as a great tool for soil erosion control and was planted in abundance throughout the south. Little did we know that kudzu is quite a killer, overtaking and growing over anything in its path.” [Italics mine.]

  Note the article’s use of “we,” to mute the culpability of the government and scientific community at the time. Some things never change, right Dr. Fauci? Nor does the present scientific community’s effort to without the slightest trace of humility or irony push their remunerative climate change narrative—and the more apocalyptic the narrative the better:

  “Kudzu thrives in areas with mild winters and hot summers. Climate change may be making it easier for creeping vine to spread, as winters in many areas of the U.S. become milder. Climate change also can lead to more regional drought, an opportunity for this versatile killer.” [Italics mine.]

  The weasel words “may” and “can” have been italicized, rather than, say, the words “does” or “will.” Why? It is an attempt to insulate subsequent speculative statements from having to be demonstrably factual—you know, like real science expects (or used to, anyway). This is the tell in apocalyptic climate change rhetoric.

  Here is an easy way to remember the climate change cult’s rhetorical conceit: “If I could be any plant in the forest, I would be Kudzu.” Yet, there are no “ifs,” “ands,” nor “buts” about it. You cannot be any plant in the forest; thus, you are not now and can never be a Kudzu. (Don’t shoot the messenger.) Still, such is advice for those who have not been indoctrinated to blindly “trust the science” and the expertise of the governing elite.

  Is there any hope of eradicating Kudzu? It is possible, though the size of the “patch” is determinative of how best to do so. “Newer, smaller patches can be controlled with persistent weeding,” as well as through persistent mowing and grazing (by cattle and goats, not people)” will weaken and eventually control the plant.” Bigger patches require cutting the invasive vine and treating it with herbicides. Oh, and here is the most comprehensive remedy 21st-century science provides: “The best way to deal with kudzu or other invasive plants is to prevent them from spreading.”

  You don’t say?

  On the subject of things best not to spread, ponder the latest collusion between the environmental and political science communities: the Democrats’ Kudzu Economy (a.k.a., the “Green economy”).

  Their Kudzu economy perversely denigrates increasing prosperity and promotes scarcity in the name of collective virtue. Reducing energy and product production, spurring inflation, and curtailing employment opportunities and the American Dream, itself, the Democrats’ Kudzu economy seeks to insulate its proven failures behind a veneer of collective “purpose.” Trillion-dollar spending bills combined with executive and administrative diktats are designed to curtail and, in many instances, eliminate consumer choices and smother the entrepreneurial spirit and productive capacity of the American people. Further, Democrats and their cohorts in radical climate change organizations seek to have an omnipotent federal government, as well as state and local governments, substitute their arbitrary and capricious decisions and preferences for those of the sovereign people it purports to—and is supposed to—serve.

  Rarely right but never in doubt, this elitist gaggle of climate alarmists, leftist politicians, collusion media, anti-competitive corporatists, and sundry know-it-all billionaires bent upon introducing and spreading within the most prosperous economy in human history their own version of an invasive socialist ideology that will smother and destroy everything in its path.

  Imbued with neo-pagan earth worship, including dire prophecies of an apocalypse if its dictates are not obeyed, at its invasive root the Democrats’ Kudzu economy is simply more hoary socialism in earth shoes: another duplicitous attempt to impose a demonstrably failed, inhumane ideology upon an unfortunate populace.

  Unlike their 20th-century predecessors in the Soil Conservation Service who acted and erred with inaccurate information but with the best of intentions to improve the lives of Americans, the proponents of the Democrats’ Kudzu economy should know better; however, they have allowed ideology and greed to desensitize them to the consequences of their actions upon their fellow citizens. For the rest of us, the Kudzu economy may be “The End of the World As We Know It,” but its elitist proponents feel fine.

  Well, for now, anyway. Kudzu advance is not limited to the largely “red,” southeastern states. It has been increasingly found in “blue” northern climes, including the states of Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, and Delaware. Should a landscaping crew happen upon the invasive vine on a tony estate on Martha’s Vineyard or any of the other retreats of the insulated elites, perhaps the Democrats will learn a painful lesson that blind faith in fallible science has unforeseen and unfortunate consequences. Heck, maybe that could then spur a further self-examination of their radical ideology and, thus, a reconsideration of their zealous promotion of their Kudzu economy.

  Is this too much to expect? Probably. But where there is life, there is hope; and, however deep the darkness enveloping it, a thin reed of truth will out to the light.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 23:20

• How American Tech Workers Feel About Joining A Union
  How American Tech Workers Feel About Joining A Union

  American tech workers, along with lawyers and accountants, have some of the lowest rates of union membership in the country.

  But in the last few years of ballooning layoffs, sentiments may be changing.

  This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu, shows the percentage of U.S. tech employees that would join a union if their company had access to one.

  

  Data is sourced from Blind, which conducted an online survey of 1,901 verified tech professionals.

  Which Tech Company Employees Are Likely to Join a Union?

  Amongst the companies, union support appears to be highest at Intuit (financial software), General Motors, and Oracle (enterprise software).

  Company Name	Likely	Unlikely
  💼 Intuit	94%	6%
  🚗 General Motors	92%	8%
  🖥️ Oracle	85%	15%
  💻 Atlassian	85%	15%
  🎨 Adobe	83%	17%
  📶 Qualcomm	83%	17%
  🔗 LinkedIn	82%	18%
  💽 Dell	79%	21%
  🏦 Capital One	78%	22%
  🌐 Cisco	77%	23%
  📱 ByteDance	75%	25%
  🔧 Intel Corporation	74%	26%
  📊 Splunk	73%	27%
  🟦 Block	73%	27%
  💳 Visa	73%	27%
  💸 Stripe	73%	27%
  ☁️ Salesforce	72%	28%
  🎮 NVIDIA	71%	29%
  🛒 Amazon	70%	30%
  🧑‍💼 Indeed.com	70%	30%
  🏦 PayPal	69%	31%
  👗 Nordstrom	69%	31%
  🏢 Meta	67%	33%
  🖥️ ServiceNow	64%	36%
  🚗 Uber	64%	36%
  🖥️ Microsoft	63%	37%
  🛍️ Walmart	60%	40%
  👻 Snap	58%	42%
  🚙 Rivian Automotive	58%	42%
  📝 DocuSign	55%	45%
  🏦 JPMorgan Chase & Co.	50%	50%
  🍏 Apple	47%	53%
  🚗 Tesla Motors	45%	55%
  🔍 Google	40%	60%
  📊 Survey Average	67%	33%

  On the other hand, Tesla, DocuSign, and Google employees have the least desire to join a union.

  As it happens, over a thousand workers in North America already belong to the Alphabet Workers Union, which represents employees at Google and other subsidiaries like Waymo.

  Meanwhile, Tesla has been involved in several controversies regarding unions. For example, in May 2024, a U.S. labor agency accused by Tesla of discouraging workers from creating a union at its Buffalo, NY plant.

  However, on average 67% of those polled in the Blind survey said they were likely to join a union and 73% said that unions “mostly helped.”

  When Blind asked tech workers why the industry’s union membership rate is so low compared to other jobs, the general sentiment indicated that tech employees are already well compensated for their jobs, without needing collective bargaining.

  The tech sector might be poised for an upswing after Federal Reserve’s first big rate cut. Check out How Sectors Perform After Rate Cuts to see where else gains are made.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 22:45

• Fauci's Inner Circle Shielded US Collaborator At Wuhan Lab
  Fauci’s Inner Circle Shielded US Collaborator At Wuhan Lab

  Authored by Emily Kopp via The Brownstone Institute,

  The Wuhan Institute of Virology’s chief American collaborator leveraged connections in Anthony Fauci’s inner circle to survive federal scrutiny and keep millions in public funding flowing without turning over key data, new records show.

  

  Hundreds of documents — emails obtained under Freedom of Information Act lawsuits or Congressional subpoena, as well as Congressional interview transcripts — show Fauci’s institute protected EcoHealth Alliance, which collaborated on novel coronavirus discovery and engineering projects with the Wuhan lab. 

  At a congressional hearing this summer, Fauci cast EcoHealth and its president Peter Daszak — who are currently under proposed debarment by the federal government — as minor and rogue grantees.

  But EcoHealth was among the first grantees that Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases contacted as news of a novel coronavirus first swirled, and Daszak requested supplemental funds to respond to the crisis. In early February 2020, when NIAID began conducting weekly calls with a few experts about the novel coronavirus, Daszak was among the invitees. And at the height of pandemic confusion and controversy in the summer of 2020, EcoHealth maintained the goodwill of NIAID, which awarded EcoHealth two new grants totaling $19.8 million, weakening the leverage of other officials to obtain information from one of the US government’s only sources of insight into the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

  Fauci “asked how Peter is doing, as he often does, and he seemed to commiserate with him to a degree,” Fauci’s senior scientific advisor David Morens wrote in apparent reference to Daszak on Nov. 18, 2021. 

  At the time, officials at the National Institutes of Health’s central headquarters or “Building One” — at the demand of the Trump White House — had suspended EcoHealth’s existing NIAID grant and sought lab notebooks and unpublished genomic data as a condition of getting its funding back. This information could have shed light on the coronavirus research in Wuhan before the pandemic. 

  But aided by allies within NIAID, millions continued to flow to EcoHealth, and Daszak would not ask his longtime collaborators in Wuhan for information sought by the US government until 20 months later, in January 2022 — two years after the pandemic began. 

  Some of the NIAID officials who helped Daszak were key to approving his coronavirus research in Wuhan in the first place, including gain-of-function research, research that can enhance the pathogenicity or transmissibility of a pathogen. Some of these NIAID officials had spent years championing gain-of-function research as worth the risks, Congressional transcripts also show. Namely, Morens and another NIAID employee named “Jeff T.” were the liaisons between the scientific community and Fauci during the years-long debates about gain-of-function research leading up to the pandemic, one email shows. After the pandemic arose, Morens and another NIAID scientist named Jeffery Taubenberger wrote an editorial defending EcoHealth and referred to people concerned about gain-of-function research as “luddites” and “the complaining crowd.” 

  Thousands of pages of grant proposals and other documents obtained by U.S. Right to Know show that EcoHealth planned to use the new NIAID funding to continue research similar to the work that had brought the group under scrutiny, using the very same viral samples.

  Most of the NIAID employees who helped Daszak maintain funding amid the pandemic still retain positions of influence at NIAID.

  PUThe revelations come as the US Senate considers legislation championed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) that would move regulation of the riskiest gain-of-function research out of the funding agency — which is typically NIAID — and empower an independent panel of scientists to determine when engineering new pathogens is worth the risk.

  More than four years after the pandemic began, the Department of Health and Human Services initiated debarment proceedings against EcoHealth and Daszak, citing problems uncovered by government officials outside of Fauci’s institute and the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. Funding to the group and its president has been suspended.

  Daszak said he would contest the prospective debarment. He has continued to lean on influential allies.

  None of the NIAID employees named in this story replied to questions.

  ‘A Friend in These Efforts…But Not Too out Front’

  Daszak was among the first scientists contacted by people within NIAID when news first broke of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan.

  Daszak spoke to his program officer Erik Stemmy, who broadly oversaw NIAID’s coronavirus research portfolio, on January 6, 2020.

  “Definitely focusing attention on this, Erik,” Daszak wrote. “I spent New Year’s Eve talking with our China contacts and with ProMed staff in between glasses. I’ve got more information but it’s all off the record. Could I give you a call to fill you in?”

  Yet he had stopped receiving updates on the emerging pathogen from his colleagues at the Wuhan Institute of Virology 12 days prior. He had last heard from Zhengli Shi of the Wuhan lab on December 25, 2019, six days before the world became aware of a new pathogen in Wuhan on December 31, 2019.

  By the spring, speculation that the lab had been the pandemic’s source reached a fever pitch.

  On April 17, 2020, Trump called for EcoHealth’s grant to be ended “very quickly.” 

  Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, got in contact with the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a Congressional report.

  NIH Director of Extramural Research Michael Lauer in the weeks following sent letters to EcoHealth in an attempt to end and investigate the grant, culminating in a July 8, 2020, letter that suspended all activities under the grant. 

  The letters sought information about the coronavirus work underway at the subcontracted lab. Lauer asked that Daszak arrange for an outside inspection. The letter asked that “specific attention” be paid “to addressing the question of whether WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology] staff had SARS-CoV-2 in their possession prior to December 2019.” 

  Lauer had previously spearheaded NIH’s response to the intellectual property and fraud concerns posed by China’s Thousand Talents Program, which Daszak noted with apparent annoyance to colleagues.

  Daszak contacted NIAID for help.

  David Morens and Jeffery Taubenberger

  Daszak leaned on the advice of his close friend and a longtime senior advisor to Fauci, Morens.

  “The fact that the determination letter came from ‘Building 1,’ that is, the NIH director’s office, and not NIAID, is telling,” Morens wrote on April 26, 2020. “There are things I can’t say except Tony is aware and I have learned that there are ongoing efforts within NIH to steer this with minimal damage.”

  Morens said in another email that NIAID was a “friend” of EcoHealth. 

  “I have spent alot of time over the last few months…to try to undo the harm that was done to Peter’s grant, PREDICT, and related things,” Morens wrote on August 18, 2020. “Lots is happening behind the scenes…Given that I work for NIAID, and that Tony Fauci is my boss, I have to be careful and generally talk to reporters off the record, but I think I can say that NIAID, at least, is a friend in these efforts, just not able at this time to be too out front.”

  Daszak was advised not to respond to Building One until the funding for a new multimillion-dollar project had landed in EcoHealth’s coffers.

  “This is an affront to science,” Gerald Keusch, director of the Collaborative Research Core at Boston University’s maximum security lab, said on April 24, 2020. Keusch is the former director of NIH’s Fogarty International Center. “It must be challenged. The question is not only how but also when – certainly not before the EIDRC funding comes through. And then in a smart manner.”

  He promised to lean on influential contacts, including former NIH Director Harold Varmus, Foundation for the National Institutes of Health President Maria Freire, and Research!America President Mary Woolley to vouch for him.

  Keusch’s lab was set to be a collaborator on EcoHealth’s EIDRC project, grant documents show. 

  The acronym EIDRC, or alternatively CREID, stands for Emerging Infectious Diseases Research Center. EcoHealth was being considered as one of just 11 of these multimillion-dollar projects across the country.

  Daszak had good reason to tread carefully.

  A formally binding term of award for his new EIDRC project had not yet been issued by the time Building One came knocking. According to the NIH website, an “NoA” or notice of award is “the official grant award document notifying the recipient and others that an award has been made.” Daszak conceded the project could “just quietly disappear” before any funding was guaranteed.

  “I am also very concerned that Trump could target our organization or me personally, leading to our EIDRC being nixed and we don’t even have an NoA on that, so it could just quietly disappear,” Daszak said.

  Morens noted that people within NIAID “will be your advocates.”

  Morens is “going to talk with Greg Folkers (Chief of Staff for Tony Fauci) to find out if Tony knows, and why it happened. He’s then going to let Tony know…We won’t respond to the termination notice (Michael Lauer) until we’ve found out more,” Daszak said on April 25, 2020.

  An editorial coauthored by an NIAID virologist gave credence to Daszak’s cause.

  Jeffery Taubenberger, chief of the viral pathogenesis and evolution section at NIAID and a pioneer in the controversial reconstruction of the 1918 pandemic influenza virus, was carbon-copied on a May 2020 email strategizing about how to recruit leadership at the prestigious American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene to protect EcoHealth.

  To that end, Morens and Taubenberger co-published a July 2020 op-ed in the society’s scientific journal, the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

  Taubenberger lent his credibility to the argument that the “theories about a hypothetical man-made origin of SARS-CoV-2 have been thoroughly discredited by multiple coronavirus experts.”

  The virus that causes Covid-19 is “thus a virus that emerged naturally,” the article reads. 

  Morens described the article in an email to a Science reporter, cc’ing his coauthor Taubenberger, as a publication that “defends Peter and his Chinese colleagues.” 

  The reporter thanked Morens and offered to link it in a recently published article, an interview with Shi in which she refuted the lab-leak theory, demanded an apology from Trump, and deemed the suspension of the EcoHealth grant “absolutely absurd.”

  Erik Stemmy and Emily Erbelding

  On April 23, 2020, as EcoHealth first began to dodge questions from Lauer, an EcoHealth employee pointedly told him that “as usual we are in close contact with our program officer Erik Stemmy.”

  Stemmy, Daszak’s program officer in the NIAID Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, and Emily Erbelding, the head of the NIAID Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, participated in Zoom calls with Daszak about his suspended research funding and flagged other alternative avenues of funding. Erbelding and Daszak had served together on a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine forum together for years.

  Although his existing grant was in jeopardy, Stemmy and Erbelding pointed Daszak to other funding opportunities and participated in Zoom calls with him.

  “We are always interested in hearing about your scientific advances,” Erbelding wrote. “I hope that you have seen our rolling [grant] announcements, which might afford you an opportunity to continue progress under another grant number. I know that Erik [Stemmy], Diane, and Alan in the Respiratory Disease Branch would be happy to advise you on a potential submission.”

  In May 2020, Daszak thanked them for their “support on this and other work.”

  As the topic heated up on Capitol Hill in the summer of 2021, Stemmy and Erbelding met with Daszak again. The NIAID meeting occurred on July 16, 2021, a few days before Lauer requested more information from EcoHealth on July 23, 2021.

  It’s clear from internal records that Stemmy and Erbelding were well aware of the lab origin controversy as they met with EcoHealth.

  Erbelding had been dispatched by Building One to discover how many of EcoHealth’s grant dollars had been subcontracted to the Wuhan Institute of Virology when the grant first received attention from the Trump White House, according to emails and congressional testimony. 

  When Fauci met with EcoHealth collaborator and University of North Carolina coronavirologist Ralph Baric in February 2020 to discuss whether his research with the Wuhan lab had been properly regulated, Erbelding was in the room. 

  Of course, the EcoHealth controversy threatened to turn a spotlight on the earlier decisions of NIAID officials.

  Stemmy had helped scientists from the Wuhan lab, including Zhengli Shi, obtain approval to visit the institute’s headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, in June 2017. As EcoHealth’s program officer, he helped facilitate EcoHealth’s gain-of-function research during a pause on most coronavirus gain-of-function research from 2014-2017 and did not recommend the work be evaluated by the Pandemic Potential Pathogen Committee (“P3CO”) put in place after the pause.

  Stemmy had also not flagged that EcoHealth missed a September 30, 2019, due date to submit its progress report describing its work in the months before the pandemic’s outbreak, Congressional testimony shows. In response to Lauer’s letters, the progress report was submitted on August 3, 2021, after the pandemic had already emerged, when an immense incentive existed to not disclose experiments that could bring the group under further scrutiny.

  Jean Patterson

  Despite concerns about Daszak’s research in the media, in the White House, and in NIH’s Building One, his goodwill within NIAID had apparently not diminished. 

  By August 2020, new NIAID funding of $7.5 million surged to EcoHealth to create an NIAID Center for Research on Emerging Infectious Diseases, its most generous NIH grant to date. 

  Once the funding was formally awarded, Morens asked Daszak about receiving a “kickback,” a comment he would later describe as “black humor.”

  “Ahem.… do I get a kickback???? Too much fooking money! DO you deserve it all? Let’s discuss….” he wrote. “Seriously, this is great news.”

  After his NIAID grant was suspended, Daszak had pitched the idea of continuing the same research in Southeast Asian countries bordering China to circumvent the concerns about the pandemic’s origins.

  “We’re working on a short draft of how we could have easily changed the geography to the countries adjacent to China, as we proposed to Erik Stemmy and Emily Erbelding,” Daszak wrote on April 25, 2020.

  According to a press release on the EcoHealth website that has since been deleted, the new project expanded their controversial research beyond coronaviruses in China to several families of viruses in Southeast Asia. Draft grant documents describing the $7.5 million project obtained by US Right to Know through a FOIA lawsuit further reveal the shift in focus to Southeast Asia. 

  Daszak even leveraged his contacts at NIAID to push back on provisions of his new contract related to biosafety. Daszak found a sympathetic ear in Jean Patterson, then the head of translational research at NIAID’s Virology Branch, who oversaw the CREID grants.

  “By the way, I’m currently in the process of dealing with unexpected changes to my Notice of Award for my new contract with NIAID. We had a para inserted that means we have send copies of subcontracts to NIAID, and explain our ‘Biosafety monitoring’ plans,” Daszak wrote to Morens in October 2020, a few weeks after the award was announced. “I spoke with Jean Patterson who’s running these CREID contacts and she had no idea what they were after. Clearly it’s the [NIH] director’s office interfering.”

  Daszak also said he may alert the press of his outrage over this proviso. 

  “I’m going to try to deal with it quietly for now,” Daszak said. “But if they fuck me around, I’ll be talking with the press.”

  Just weeks later, in September, NIAID obligated a further $2.3 million to EcoHealth for research on Nipah virus.

  “I’m thrilled to share the good news that our proposal to study Nipah virus has been awarded!” Vice President for Science and Outreach at EcoHealth Alliance Jon Epstein wrote on September 22, 2020. “The research has high relevance given the current pandemic.”

  Anthony Fauci

  Daszak praised Fauci’s statements to the press downplaying the possibility of a leak at Daszak’s partner lab — comments that Daszak in turn highlighted to Fauci’s employees at NIAID. Even as he expressed bitter resentment against Collins, Daszak expressed gratitude for Fauci. 

  Daszak flagged comments by Fauci “throwing cold water on the conspiracy theory coronavirus was created in a Chinese lab,” as they were summarized in the press, to Stemmy.

  “We’re all very delighted to see that Tony Fauci came out publicly with a comment that dispels the lab origin theory of COVID-19,” Daszak wrote. 

  Daszak also highlighted comments Fauci made in a National Geographic interview headlined, “Fauci: No scientific evidence the coronavirus was made in a Chinese lab” in which he “stated that he doesn’t buy the ‘accidental lab release’ hypothesis,” to Morens.

  “It’s a very worrying time for us here at EcoHealth, but knowing that you’re all out there working in the background and that Tony’s speaking truth to power is extremely important — a slight relief in a tough week,” Daszak wrote to Morens on May 7, 2020. 

  At a June 23, 2020, Congressional hearing when Fauci was asked about the grant being terminated, he did not defend the decision by others within NIH to seek data from Wuhan. He simply stated, “It was canceled because the NIH was told to cancel it,” in an apparent allusion to Trump.

  Three days later, House Democrats addressed a letter to HHS expressing concern about the termination of EcoHealth’s grant, citing press reports and Fauci’s testimony to characterize the grant’s jeopardy as part of a wider provocation of China by the Trump administration.

  In early 2021, Daszak briefed NIAID, and may have briefed Fauci directly, another email indicates, on the World Health Organization-commissioned international mission to China. Daszak had advanced the conclusion that a lab leak in Wuhan was “extremely unlikely” as the only American citizen on the team, bringing him into conflict with the World Health Organization Director-General Adhanom Ghebreyesus Tedros, who argued the possibility had been ruled out prematurely without evidence.

  But NIH officials outside of NIAID continued to ask EcoHealth about the Wuhan lab into the summer and fall of 2021. Daszak dragged his feet. 

  That year, the issue of a possible connection between NIAID and the pandemic’s origin became more salient because of a series of high-profile Senate hearings in which Paul questioned Fauci about it.

  Morens apparently ferried information from Daszak to Fauci about efforts in Congress to investigate the pandemic’s origins.

  In an October 24, 2021, email, Daszak asked Morens for input on a response to a letter from Lauer seeking, among other information, unpublished data that might shed light on whether the Wuhan lab housed a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2.

  “Peter, from Tony’s numerous recent comments to me, and from what Francis has been vocal about over the past 5 days, they are trying to protect you, which protects their own reputations,” Morens wrote back.

  The next day, in an October 25, 2021, email, Morens advised Daszak on a few points about how he should respond to Building One after speaking with Fauci. He did so through their colleague Keusch, as he had been advised by Fauci not to speak to Daszak directly. Daszak was advised to contact Stemmy to ensure he was “on board” with Daszak’s responses to Lauer.

  “First, on the timeline to make it more specific with dates and details. Getting in touch with Stemmy is really important and being sure he is well informed, acknowledges the communications you mention, and is on board because he will certainly be questioned,” the email reads. “He also suggested that you discuss with him that…when you were aware that it was necessary to file the 5 year report the system shut you out and you presumed that was normal process as you were then into grant year 1.”

  In other words, Fauci’s aide Morens, after speaking with Fauci, advised Daszak to confer with Stemmy on his explanation for the late progress report. Daszak has said that there was a technical glitch, so EcoHealth decided to forgo the final year’s report given some of this information had been reported in an application for an extension of the grant.

  Stemmy denied speaking to Daszak to advise him on responses to Lauer in a congressional interview.

  More of the Same

  It was obvious to Fauci’s inner circle at NIAID that the new CREID grant mirrored EcoHealth’s prior work — just the sort of research that had alarmed the public and the White House in the first place.

  Morens described the CREID endeavor to Folkers, Fauci’s chief of staff, as “PREDICT on steroids.” PREDICT was the name of EcoHealth’s grant with the U.S. Agency for International Development, which dovetailed with the group’s work for NIAID.

  The group may have simply reappropriated samples from its PREDICT program for the project, according to draft grant reports.

  Draft grant documents describing the $7.5 million project obtained through a FOIA lawsuit show the group intended to continue working with the viruses that had in part brought EcoHealth under scrutiny, namely viruses from Mojiang, a county in rural Yunnan, China.

  The “Mojiang mine” is the test cave in rural China where the American-Chinese research collaboration discovered one of the closest known relatives of SARS-CoV-2. The mine is also associated with a 2012 cluster of respiratory illnesses.

  Pressure campaign targets Francis Collins

  Several emails reveal the quarrel between NIH Building One, which was attempting to obtain information from EcoHealth, and NIAID, which was helping Daszak. Daszak worked connections in the scientific community to turn up the heat on Collins.

  Across many emails, Daszak and his allies expressed resentment against NIH’s Building One, especially Collins and Lauer.

  “Good that he’s going,” Daszak wrote in response to the news that Collins would be stepping down as NIH director in 2022. “But he’s left our organization as a daily target for conspiracies, with death threats, media attacks, and legal actions against us. All this began when he decided not to stand up to political interference in NIH funding, under Trump.”

  Daszak appears to have expressed no such resentment against Fauci, to whom he had a line through Morens.

  Daszak put pressure on Collins to restore his prior NIAID funding in late August, around the same time the separate $7.5 million grant had been formally secured.

  An August 19, 2020, Wall Street Journal story quoted Harold Varmus, the former NIH director whom Keusch told Daszak he would contact about his grant, denouncing the grant’s suspension.

  After the story published, Collins wrote to Varmus, linking to an article describing NIH’s pressure on EcoHealth Alliance to provide records about the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and another link to an article calling attention to RaTG13 and the Moijang mine.

  “This EcoHealth grant and its connection to Wuhan has presented one of the most difficult and wrenching situations of my 11 years as NIH Director. Most of that is not appropriate for email,” Collins wrote. “There’s a lot more to this story than we have been able to talk about. Tony and I would like the chance to speak with you about this.”

  Collins’ board of advisors also backed Daszak.

  “Recent statements from numerous scientific organizations and leaders in the scientific community express grave concern about the termination of an NIH grant to Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance,” the statement read. “Members of the NIH ACD share the grave concerns expressed by the community.”

  Richard Roberts, chief scientific officer of New England Biolabs, which sells restriction enzymes used in viral engineering, organized a group of Nobel laureates to oppose the suspension of the earlier grant. A letter of opposition signed by a coalition of scientific professional societies soon followed. 

  Daszak also recruited members of the press to pressure NIH into restoring funding without turning over key documentation. 

  Just 10 days after Daszak’s grant first generated controversy at a White House press briefing, Politico ran a story titled “Trump cuts U.S. research on bat-human virus transmission over China ties.”

  Keusch tried to persuade the Politico reporter to continue to turn her investigative spotlight on NIH’s Building One. 

  “The spotlight needs to turn on NIH and what it has done and what that is unleashing,” he wrote.

  “Pushing on this as I can,” the reporter replied.

  In a similar vein, Daszak persuaded a BuzzFeed reporter to submit a FOIA request for Lauer’s records to investigate Building One. The resulting story faulted an activist group for having “tapped into partisan politics to make big problems for Fauci” over the EcoHealth grant beginning in April 2020, when Fauci had first become privately concerned about NIAID connections to Wuhan two months prior.

  Other stories in the mainstream press also portrayed the termination of the grant as strictly political and scientifically unsound. 

  Despite Daszak’s ire, Collins was publicly dismissive of the idea that the pandemic could have resulted from EcoHealth’s research in Wuhan. 

  Under Collins’s direction, NIH apparently did not respond in detail to Congressional questions about its efforts to obtain more information from EcoHealth.

  When Congressional Democrats asked for details about EcoHealth’s grant in June 2020, NIH stonewalled. 

  “We are going to draft a response to the letter that doesn’t actually answer the questions in the letter but rather presents a narrative of what happened at a high level, ending with the reinstatement and attaching the NIH reinstatement letter,” wrote then-NIH Associate Director for Legislative Policy & Analysis Adrienne Hallett on July 21, 2020.

  “Sounds like a good plan,” Collins replied.

  In addition, Collins’s office reassured a Congressional committee and the public in October 2021 that the viruses and experiments funded by the US could not be connected to the pandemic’s origin.

  Collins’s public reassurances did not reflect the fact that NIH wrote to EcoHealth in a letter dated the same day asking for unpublished viral genomes.

  Known Unknowns

  Daszak never turned over genomic data about the viruses housed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology or lab notebooks. He only asked them for them once.

  Daszak sent the email to his longtime collaborators in January 2022, 20 months after Lauer first questioned EcoHealth about the Wuhan Institute of Virology in April 2020.

  “We did try to get them by the way,” Daszak said in reference to the lab notebooks at a Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing on May 1, 2024.

  “Well, ‘try’ might be a strong word,” replied the committee’s staff director Mitch Benzine.“You never actually requested the lab notebooks, you just forwarded the [NIH] letter. And you never emailed again?”

  “Correct,” Daszak replied. “Clearly the [Wuhan Institute of Virology] is not going to reply.”

  “It’s possible they have hidden away some viruses from us that we don’t know about, yes,” Daszak also conceded at that same hearing.

  To the public’s knowledge, the US government has never accessed the coronavirus genomic data stored in Wuhan, some of which was collected with American funding. 

  “We determined at the time we could not resolve the WIV record problem,” Lauer told congressional investigators.

  In July 2023, federal funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been temporarily suspended pending a debarment investigation. Two months later, in September 2023, the investigation concluded resulting in a 10-year debarment for the Wuhan lab.

  Lauer was asked by Congressional investigators whether he had seen any similar situations with a grantee or subgrantee refusing to turn over lab notebooks.

  “Yes, I have seen that,” he replied. “I’ve seen that in scientific misconduct investigations, where laboratory notebooks or other original files are requested and the parties concerned will state that they lost them, they don’t have them.”

  EcoHealth’s NIAID grant was reinstated by April 2023, a decision reached by Lauer, Erbelding, and Fauci’s principal deputy, Hugh Auchincloss. The grant would proceed without collaboration from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and with stricter biosafety and reporting standards. 

  Though NIH had given up on obtaining more information, journalists and Congressional investigators pried documents from EcoHealth through the Freedom of Information Act and Congressional subpoena.

  Evidence emerged of other apparent violations of federal grant laws, including evidence that EcoHealth planned to conduct risky coronavirus experiments at the lab in Wuhan without adequate biosafety protections, while telling prospective funders at the Pentagon that the experiments would be performed at a more rigorous biosafety level in the US.

  These revelations came in spite of Morens attempting to omit some of his emails with Daszak from their legally required public disclosure via FOIA and to obstruct the Congressional investigation, internal emails suggest.

  EcoHealth and Daszak found all of their federal funding suspended in May 2024 and a debarment investigation was initiated, more than four years after Lauer sent his first letter to the group.

  Emails used in the story were obtained through U.S. Right to Know FOIA lawsuits against the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, as well as other FOIA lawsuits and congressional subpoenas. Read all of U.S. Right to Know’s documents concerning the origins of Covid-19 here.

  Timeline

  January 6, 2020

  As word of a novel coronavirus in China spread, Erik Stemmy, who oversees the coronavirus research portfolio at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, contacted EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak for intel.

  “Definitely focusing attention on this, Erik,” Daszak replied. “I spent New Year’s Eve talking with our China contacts and with ProMed staff in between glasses. I’ve got more information but it’s all off the record. Could I give you a call to fill you in?”

  January 8, 2020

  Daszak spoke to Stemmy and Alan Embry, chief of the NIAID’s respiratory diseases branch. 

  Daszak reported that he had stopped receiving updates on the rumors from his colleagues at the Wuhan Institute of Virology two weeks prior. He had last heard from Zhengli Shi of the Wuhan lab on December 25, 2019, six days before the world became aware of a new pathogen in Wuhan on December 31, 2019.

  January 14, 2020

  Daszak informed Stemmy that the recently published genome of the novel coronavirus reveals it is similar to a virus collected by EcoHealth, “Rp3,” a likely reference to RaTG13, a bat coronavirus stored at the Wuhan Institute of Virology with 96 percent homology with SARS-CoV-2.

  January 23, 2020

  Daszak and Stemmy discussed supplemental funds for EcoHealth Alliance.

  January 27, 2020

  Daszak shared information about the novel coronavirus and his own work with David Morens, senior scientific advisor to Anthony Fauci, and Stemmy.

  February 4, 2020

  NIAID began hosting weekly calls about the “nCoV,” or novel coronavirus. Stemmy and Daszak were participants on this call.

  April 11, 2020 

  A Daily Mail story, citing research by animal rights group White Coat Waste Project, reported that “the Wuhan Institute was experimenting on bats from the area already known to be the source of Covid-19 – and doing so with American money,” prompting questions from Congress. 

  April 14, 2020

  Lawrence Tabak, then the principal deputy director of the National Institutes of Health, copied Deputy Director for Extramural Research Michael Lauer on an email thread about the controversy.

  “April 14, 2020: Larry Tabak (“LT”) loops in Mike Lauer (“ML”) on email string regarding Animal Rights and Congressional complaints,” Lauer wrote in his notes.

  April 15, 2020

  Daszak briefs NIAID on sarbecovirus gene sequences that he says help shed light on the geographic origins of SARS-CoV-2.

  April 17, 2020

  Fauci was asked about the lab origin hypothesis at a White House press briefing with former President Donald Trump present.

  Fauci stepped up to the podium, and citing a recent scientific editorial, said the genome was consistent with a natural spillover.

  Unbeknownst to the public, the March 2020 editorial in Nature Medicine Fauci cited to downplay the lab origin theory — “The proximal origin of SARS-Cov-2” — had been prompted in part by him, and he had been privy to its drafting. The authors’ private concerns about evidence for a lab origin and their lack of confidence in their key arguments were later revealed through FOIA and congressional subpoena. 

  Despite Fauci’s bravado, a few minutes later, another reporter pressed further on the possibility of a lab origin and the American grant that had funded coronavirus research at the lab at the center of speculation.

  “Why would the US give a grant like that to China?” she asked.

  “We’re going to end that grant very quickly,” Trump responded.

  Daszak, watching the press conference at home, hushed his family in sudden panic, Science later reported.

  April 18, 2020

  Daszak forwarded two news stories about Fauci’s comments diminishing the possibility of a lab origin to Erik Stemmy, the NIAID program officer overseeing his grant. He copied Emily Erbelding, the director of the NIAID division of microbiology and infectious diseases.

  “We’re all very delighted to see that Tony Fauci came out publicly with a comment that dispels the lab origin theory of COVID-19,” Daszak wrote. 

  Daszak sent the hyperlinks to two news stories about Fauci’s endorsement of “Proximal Origin,” one headlined, “Fauci Throws Cold Water on Conspiracy Theory Coronavirus Escaped from Chinese Lab.”

  April 19, 2020

  A letter suspending funding to EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology was drafted by then-general counsel to the Department of Health and Human Services Robert Charrow at the request of White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

  Tabak asked that Lauer send the letter. NIH Director Francis Collins was also part of discussions about this letter with Lauer and Tabak. The letter from NIH’s central “Building One” sought information about the Wuhan lab from EcoHealth as a condition of restoring the group’s NIAID funding. 

  The letter explicitly mentioned concerns about the pandemic beginning at the Wuhan lab.

  “The scientific community believes that the coronavirus causing COVID-19 jumped from bats to humans likely in Wuhan where the COVID-19 pandemic began. There are now allegations that the current crisis was precipitated by the release from Wuhan Institute of Virology of the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19,” the letter read.” Given these concerns, we are pursuing suspension of Wuhan Institute of Virology from participation in federal programs. While we review these allegations during the period of suspension, you are instructed to cease providing any funds to Wuhan Institute of Virology.”

  Lauer asked Daszak for a list of Chinese collaborators on his NIAID grant, “Type 1 and Type 2,” meaning both the original multiyear grant and its more recent renewal: “It would be helpful for us to know about all China-based participants in this work since the Type 1 grant started in 2014 – who they were and how much money they received. The sooner you can get us that information, the better. Best, Mike.”

  April 20, 2020

  An op-ed appeared in the Washington Post about State Department cables warning of safety issues at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

  April 21, 2020

  Daszak apparently misled Lauer in response to his request for a list of China-based participants on his research grant. 

  He responded by email to Lauer: “I can categorically state that no funds from 2R01 AI110964-06 have been sent to Wuhan Institute of Virology, nor has any contract been signed. Furthermore we will comply with NIAID’s requirements, of course.” The email referred to a grant number that only applied to the group’s grant since July 2019.

  Daszak may have “played semantics” to give a false impression that EcoHealth had never signed a contract with the Wuhan Institute of Virology or subcontracted funds there, according to a Congressional investigation. Daszak did not mention the extensive work with the Wuhan Institute of Virology under the “Type One” NIAID award that underwrote the research collaboration until 2019. Daszak would soon after describe the group’s relationship with “colleagues in Wuhan” as spanning 15 years.

  Lauer responded to Daszak: “Many thanks Peter for your response. We note that: No monies have gone to Wuhan Institute of Virology on the Type 2 award and no contract has been signed. You agree you will not provide any funds to Wuhan Institute of Virology until and unless directed otherwise by NIH. All foreign sites for the Type 1 and Type 2 awards have been documented in the progress reports submitted to NIH. We appreciate your working with us. Best, Mike.”

  April 22, 2020

  Lauer sent Tabak detailed information about EcoHealth and WIV, according to his notes.

  April 23, 2020

  On April 23, 2020, an EcoHealth employee told Lauer that “as usual we are in close contact with our program officer Erik Stemmy.”

  Daszak’s office again reached out to Stemmy and Erbelding at NIAID about NIH’s requests for documents, which Daszak mistakenly refers to as a “FOIA request.” The three apparently participated on a call the next day.

  April 24, 2020

  Lauer sent a letter to Daszak terminating the grant.

  “I am writing to notify you that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), an Institute with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has elected to terminate the project Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence, funded under grant R01 AI110964, for convenience,” it stated. “At this time, NIH does not believe that the current project outcomes align with the program goals and agency priorities.”

  April 27, 2020

  EcoHealth scheduled a call about “potential for geographic expansion” and “advice on next steps” with Stemmy, Erbelding, and Erbelding’s deputy.

  The email subject line was “EHA EcoHealth, NIAID, NIH Geographic Expansion Call.”

  Daszak wrote later that he made a pitch to Stemmy and Erbelding to expand EcoHealth’s research to Southeast Asia as a means of quelling concerns about its research in China. Four months later, NIAID granted EcoHealth a $7.5 million grant for the “Emerging Infectious Diseases South East Asia Research Collaboration Hub.”

  April 28, 2020

  Morens helped Daszak edit a statement about the grant’s termination.

  April 30, 2020

  Stemmy reached out to Daszak with “two new funding opportunities.”

  May 6, 2020

  Lauer sends detailed information about EcoHealth and the Wuhan Institute of Virology to “OIG OI / ONS,” according to his notes, likely the HHS Office of the Inspector General’s Office of Investigations and HHS Office of National Security.

  May 21, 2020

  A letter cosigned by 77 Nobel laureates protests the grant’s suspension. The letter was prompted by Rich Roberts, chief scientific officer at New England Biolabs.

  May 22, 2020

  The law firm representing EcoHealth notifies the NIH that it was appealing the termination.

  May 25, 2020

  Daszak writes to Stemmy and Erbelding to inform them that he is appealing the termination of his grant. He thanks them for their “support on this and other work.”

  Erbelding points Daszak to new funding opportunities and says that NIAID officials can advise him on how to successfully submit a proposal.

  “We are always interested in hearing about your scientific advances,” Erbelding wrote. “I hope that you have seen our rolling [grant] announcements, which might afford you an opportunity to continue progress under another grant number. I know that Erik [Stemmy], Diane, and Alan in the Respiratory Disease Branch would be happy to advise you on a potential submission.”

  June 23, 2020

  At a June 23, 2020, Congressional hearing when Fauci was asked about the grant being terminated, he did not defend the decision by others within NIH to seek data from Wuhan. He simply stated “it was canceled because the NIH was told to cancel it,” in an apparent allusion to Trump.

  June 26, 2020

  Democratic chairs of the House Committees on Energy and Commerce, and Science, Space and Technology address a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services with “strong concerns” about the termination of the EcoHealth grant, citing Fauci’s testimony in order to characterize the grant’s suspension as part of a wider provocation of China by the Trump administration.

  “The Administration has been pushing this [lab leak] theory despite scientific experts saying this path of transmission would be virtually impossible given what is known about the virus and lab safety protocols,” the letter read. “If this theory is the basis for the grant termination, it would be an egregious example of the Administration politicizing scientific decision making in order to further a politically convenient narrative.”

  July 8, 2020

  Lauer suspends EcoHealth’s grant and asks Daszak for more information about the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He writes that EcoHealth is out of compliance with laws regulating federal subcontractors. 

  Building One sought information about RaTG13, a closely related virus to SARS-CoV-2 collected with the assistance of EcoHealth, a third party audit of the lab, and other details about the coronavirus work underway at the partner lab. Lauer asked that Daszak arrange an outside inspection of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 

  The letter asked that “specific attention” be paid “to addressing the question of whether WIV staff had SARS-CoV-2 in their possession prior to December 2019.” 

  July 21, 2020

  Democrats send a letter to NIH opposing EcoHealth’s suspension, citing Fauci’s congressional testimony, putting Building One in a bind.

  “We are going to draft a response to the letter that doesn’t actually answer the questions in the letter but rather presents a narrative of what happened at a high level, ending with the reinstatement and attaching the NIH reinstatement letter,” wrote then-NIH Associate Director for Legislative Policy & Analysis Adrienne Hallett on July 21, 2020.

  “Sounds like a good plan,” Collins replied.

  August 27, 2020

  The Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases grant moves ahead, and EcoHealth received a surge of $7.5 million from NIAID without having to turn over data about the Wuhan lab. 

  Like Daszak had suggested, the grant involved shifting some of the same lines of research to China’s neighbors.

  Another $8.9 million is also awarded to two coauthors of the “Proximal Origin” paper that Fauci cited to downplay the possibility of a lab leak at the April 17, 2020, press conference.

  October 23, 2020

  Lauer rebuts the letter from Daszak’s lawyers and requests additional documents.

  February 1, 2021

  Morens writes to Daszak to request a briefing for Fauci on the WHO-China mission to Wuhan, in which a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology was described as being “extremely unlikely.” 

  March 3, 2021

  Erbelding has a call with Daszak. “Confirmed: Call with EcoHealth Alliance,” the email subject line read.

  March 10, 2021

  Lauer resends two prior letters (July 8, 2020 and October 23, 2020) to Daszak.

  March 17, 2021

  Morens meets with Daszak and Keusch on Zoom.

  March 29, 2021

  Morens edits Daszak’s response to Lauer.

  April 11, 2021

  Daszak replies to Lauer but the reply includes none of the requested documents.

  April 13, 2021

  Lauer again asks Daszak for documents.

  April 23, 2021

  Daszak submits some documents to Lauer. 

  May 16, 2021

  The NIH Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration and Office of the General Counsel finds “multiple deficiencies” in the documents, according to Lauer’s notes.

  May 26, 2021

  The Office of the Director of Extramural Research, Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration, and Office of the General Counsel meet and suggest that the Office of the Inspector General audit EcoHealth.

  June 11, 2021 

  OIG notifies NIH of a planned audit of NIH and EcoHealth.

  Meanwhile, Collins’s advisory group at NIH opposes the scrutiny of EcoHealth in a statement: “Recent statements from numerous scientific organizations and leaders in the scientific community express grave concern about the termination of an NIH grant to Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance,” the statement read. “Members of the NIH ACD share the grave concerns expressed by the community.”

  July 16, 2021

  Erbelding and Stemmy had another call with Daszak about his grant update.

  July 23, 2021

  In a letter dated July 23, 2021, the NIH requested that EcoHealth provide records “validating expenditures specific to R01AI110964 as well as any and all monitoring, safety, and financial reports specific to R01AI110964 that WIV submitted to EcoHealth, in order to analyze WIV compliance with the terms and conditions of the grant.”

  The NIH also informed EcoHealth that it was delinquent in the submission of its progress report for the period from June 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019. The report was due on September 30, 2019. The NIH requested that EcoHealth provide the remaining documents and outstanding reports by August 27, 2021. 

  August 27, 2021

  EcoHealth progress report submits some of the requested paperwork, including a progress report due nearly two years prior.

  October 20, 2021

  NIAID concedes that it funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan via EcoHealth Alliance, and it was not properly reported to NIH, as reflected in the newly submitted progress report.

  Yet Collins may have misled Congress and the public when NIH asserted in a press release that “analysis of published genomic data and other documents from the grantee demonstrate that the naturally occurring bat coronaviruses studied under the NIH grant are genetically far distant from SARS-CoV-2 and could not possibly have caused the COVID-19 pandemic. Any claims to the contrary are demonstrably false.”

  The statement did not reflect that the very same day NIH had asked EcoHealth to turn over any missing viral data. The NIH requested that EcoHealth provide all unpublished data supported by the grant not already reported in its progress reports. 

  October 26, 2021

  Daszak asked Morens to help him edit his response to questions from Lauer, including the request for unpublished data.

  November 2021 

  Lauer asked EcoHealth to provide missing lab notebooks and electronic files requested by NIH, which had still not been supplied by Daszak. 

  January 6, 2022

  The NIH again requested that EcoHealth provide the lab notebooks and WIV electronic files. 

  January 21, 2022

  EcoHealth informed the NIH that it had forwarded the NIH’s January 6, 2022, letter to their collaborators in Wuhan but that they had not heard back. 

  August 19, 2022

  The NIH notified EcoHealth that it was terminating the subaward from EcoHealth to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

  September 28, 2022

  Erbelding and Daszak participate on a call. The subject line is “Aim Renegotiation Discussion.” 

  October 18, 2022

  Erbelding and Daszak participate on another call. The subject line is “Aim Renegotiation Discussion.” 

  May 8, 2023

  EcoHealth’s grant is reinstated in a joint decision reached by Lauer, Erbelding, Diane Post, and Fauci’s principal deputy, Hugh Auchincloss.

  The grant would proceed without collaboration from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and with stricter biosafety and reporting standards. 

  September 2023

  The Wuhan Institute of Virology is debarred from receiving federal funding for 10 years.

  May 2024

  Prompted by a Congressional investigation, the Department of Health and Human Services initiates a debarment investigation into EcoHealth and Daszak that could bar them from federal funding for years. Both the organization and Daszak personally have funding suspended as the investigation proceeds.

  Daszak vows to contest it.

  August 2024

  EcoHealth repeats its strategy of leaning on contacts in the scientific community to maintain funding as it contests the debarment, releasing a statement to “commend virologists speaking out against lab leak disinformation and the anti-science movement.” The statement praises Fauci and media articles downplaying the lab-leak theory a conspiracy theory. It calls upon scientific organizations and professional societies to do the same.

  Republished from U.S. Right to Know

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 22:10

• Hillary Says She Didn't Go Far Enough In Describing Trump Supporters As "Deplorables"
  Hillary Says She Didn’t Go Far Enough In Describing Trump Supporters As “Deplorables”

  Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

  Two time failed presidential loser Hillary Clinton has said that she wishes she’d been MORE derogatory toward supporters of Donald Trump in 2016.

  

  Clinton has stated that her “basket of deplorables” comment was “too kind.”

  Writing in the legacy propaganda outlet The Washington Post, Hillary noted “In 2016, I famously described half of Trump’s supporters as ‘the basket of deplorables.’ I was talking about the people who are drawn to his racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia — you name it. The people for whom his bigotry is a feature, not a bug.”

  Hillary admitted that the comment was political suicide, but says she still wishes she’d gone further.

  “It was an unfortunate choice of words and bad politics, but it also got at an important truth. Just look at everything that has happened in the years since, from Charlottesville to Jan. 6,” she writes.

  “The masks have come off, and if anything, ‘deplorable’ is too kind a word for the hate and violent extremism we’ve seen from some Trump supporters,” she further snides.

  She continues:

  “Talking about the ‘deplorables’ in 2016, I said, ‘Some of those folks, they are irredeemable.’ Part of me would still say this is objectively true.”

  As we highlighted, just a day after Donald Trump was almost murdered by a deranged leftist lunatic for the second time in as many months, Clinton got on TV and described the former president as “dangerous.”

  She then ordered the media not to tone down the rhetoric where Trump is concerned and “stick with” the narrative that he is a ‘dangerous demagogue.’

  Who are the extremists?

  *  *  *

  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
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 21:35

• Wisconsin Supreme Court Rejects RFK Jr. Bid to Get His Name Off State Ballot
  Wisconsin Supreme Court Rejects RFK Jr. Bid to Get His Name Off State Ballot

  Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

  The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday ruled that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name will remain on the state’s presidential ballot in November even though he has suspended his independent campaign.

  

  In a ruling on Sept. 27, the Supreme Court said Kennedy’s appellate briefs offered no argument that the lower court misinterpreted the law stating a candidate can only be removed from the ballot in the event of their death.

  The court also found that Kennedy’s appellate briefs were inadequate for reviewing his claims and the lower court exercise of discretion in denying his request for a temporary injunction—which would have removed his name from the Wisconsin ballot.

  “The challenger must demonstrate that the circuit court did not examine the relevant facts, apply a proper standard of law, or reach a conclusion that a reasonable judge could reach by applying a demonstrated rational process. We conclude that he has failed to satisfy this burden,” the ruling stated.

  The Supreme Court noted that the lower court had concluded that Kennedy did not suffer any irreparable harm since he had voluntarily submitted his nomination papers and declaration of candidacy.

  The lower court also said that removing Kennedy’s name from the ballot could inflict harm on the public, citing the high cost of reprinting ballots and logistical problems in conducting an election with ballots on which stickers were placed to obscure his name, according to the ruling.

  “We emphasize that we are not making any legal determinations on our own regarding the claims made by Kennedy and we are not agreeing with the circuit court’s legal conclusions on those claims. We simply are unable to make such determinations, given the inadequate briefing presented to us,” the Supreme Court stated.

  “Consequently, because there is no basis in this appeal on which we could determine that the circuit court erroneously exercised its discretion, we must affirm the circuit court’s order denying Kennedy’s motion for a temporary injunction,” it added.

  The Epoch Times reached out to Kennedy’s attorney for comment but has not heard back as of publication time.

  In a concurring opinion joined by Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, Justice Rebecca Bradley stated that she did not disagree with the Supreme Court’s finding that Kennedy’s arguments were “insufficiently developed.”

  However, Bradley said that the timelines under which the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) and the Supreme Court operate “hamstring candidates in Kennedy’s situation.”

  “Kennedy could have filed an original action petition with this court rather than proceeding in circuit court, but this court’s decisions to grant or deny original action petitions lack predictable standards, leaving parties to guess the right avenue for challenging WEC’s decisions,” the justice stated.

  Bradley also raised concerns over the “immense” ramifications of the case, saying that keeping a non-candidate such as Kennedy on the ballot could lead to confusion among voters.

  “Voters may cast their ballots in favor of a candidate who withdrew his candidacy, thereby losing their right to cast a meaningful vote. Ballots listing a non-candidate mislead voters and may skew a presidential election,” the justice stated.

  Kennedy withdrew from the presidential race at the end of August, endorsing former President Donald Trump and seeking to have his name removed from the ballot in key battleground states so as not to split the conservative vote.

  After the WEC voted to keep Kennedy on the ballot despite his request to be removed, he filed a lawsuit in early September, alleging discrimination.

  His attorneys claimed that major-party candidates were subject to a “different playbook” from the one for independent or third-party candidates, who faced a tighter deadline to pull their nominations.

  Dane County Circuit Judge Stephen Ehlke denied Kennedy’s request on Sept. 16, and stated that many county clerks had already sent out ballots for printing with Kennedy’s name included ahead of a looming deadline.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 21:00

• Trump's Authentic Anger Versus Kamala's Phony Joy
  Trump’s Authentic Anger Versus Kamala’s Phony Joy

  Authored by Noel Williams via AmericanThinker.com,

  Harris’s handlers try to portray her as joyful, and Trump as angry. 

  How dumb can they be?  How dumb do they think we are? 

  Harris’s supposed joy is sickeningly fake, but Trump’s anger is righteous.

  

  Emotions of anger are often viewed negatively; in fact, change agents often experience anger, and they are also optimistic.  Those traits are not mutually exclusive, but often mutually dependent.  Indeed, angry people are often more optimistic. 

  Trump is well known for his negotiating strategies; his book The Art of the Deal is a bestseller — multiple times.  Well, it turns out that anger can also be a shrewd negotiating strategy.  As this research indicates, “Viewing angry negotiators as formidable opponents, we respond to their demands by making concessions.”

  In addition to being more optimistic and stimulating formidable negotiating tactics, anger is, when channeled constructively, a motivating force.

  So if Trump is angry, according to Harris, then bring it on! 

  Optimism, strength in negotiations, and motivation are what America needs right now.

  What we don’t need is another village idiot in the White House.  They can be mistaken as “joyful,” but that’s just a case of ignorance being bliss.  How dumb do they think we are?

  Our Founders were angry at times.  They were also motivated and optimistic, though Benjamin Franklin intimated some concern about the fragility of republics. 

  In reply to a question about what the constitutional delegates had crafted, he said: 

  “A republic, if you can keep it.” 

  Keeping a representative republic sometimes requires anger, and its accompanying traits, rather than wanton, incongruous joy.

  Given the anti-American policies and anti-republic demagoguery the disdainful Dems have wrought, we need some authentic anger to restore American exceptionalism. We need some grit and passion to assert our rightful place as the last great hope of Earth.  We need an “angry” negotiator like Trump to keep our republic, and that’s an optimistic and motivational point of view. 

  The current village idiot in the White House is angry, but without the positive synergetic traits; for the sake of our republic, we don’t want to replace him with a “joyful” village idiot. To play on the clarion call from the great Patrick Henry: Give me liberty, or give me joy.  The latter could be the death knell of our great republic.   

  Harris’s fake joy is a euphemism for blissful ignorance.  She can’t stand alone, so the Dem and MSM apparatus are propping her up, but we are not as dumb as their joyless village idiot. How dumb can they be? 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 19:50

• Border Patrol Union Fact Checks Harris Over 'Photo Op' After Ignoring 'Problem She Created' For 3 Years
  Border Patrol Union Fact Checks Harris Over ‘Photo Op’ After Ignoring ‘Problem She Created’ For 3 Years

  Following Kamala Harris’ photo-op trip to the southern US border – talking tough about border security as if she wasn’t responsible for the flood of illegal immigrants into the country, the Border Patrol Union slammed the VP for having ‘ignored the border problem she created for over three years.’

  

  Vice president Harris has ignored the border problem she created for over three years. She goes down there for 20 minutes for a photo op and decides to repeat some of the things the NPBC has said before. But again, where has she been the last 3 1/2 years?

  — Border Patrol Union – NBPC (@BPUnion) September 28, 2024

  “We have apprehended over 8 million illegal immigrants over the last 4 years and now you realize we need more help 38 days before the election,” reads another post on X.

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

  VP Harris asserted in Arizona that CBP needed more resources.

  We have apprehended over 8 million illegal immigrants over the last 4 years and now you realize we need more help 38 days before the election.

  — Border Patrol Union – NBPC (@BPUnion) September 28, 2024

  The Border Patrol Union also fact checked Harris‘ claim that she played a role in increasing Border Patrol Agent overtime pay, which they say “This couldn’t be further from the truth.”

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

  Fact check on Harris speech in Douglas, Arizona:

  Today, VP Harris claimed that she played a role in increasing Border Patrol Agent overtime pay.

  This couldn’t be further from the truth. As with all things border related she was no where to be found when we needed her.

  — Border Patrol Union – NBPC (@BPUnion) September 28, 2024

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

  *  *  *

  On Friday, ‘Border Czar’ Kamala Harris flew down to Arizona for a photo-op at the southern US border – through which untold millions of migrants from all over the world have entered the United States illegally during the Biden-Harris administration.

  While there, she gave a ridiculous speech in which she (get this) called for tougher border security – pledging to enact various forms of immigration reform if she’s elected in November, including a 5-year ban on reentry for those who enter the country illegally.

  Kamala: “The United States is a sovereign nation and I believe we have a duty to set rules at our border and enforce them. And I take that responsibility very seriously.”

  Just unbelievable gaslighting from the woman who purposefully caused an invasion at our border. pic.twitter.com/etLwpFszEk

  — Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 28, 2024

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

  After doing her best Trump impression, however, Harris then floated a path to citizenship for those who have been in the country “for years.”

  🚨 WTF? Kamala Harris at the border literally ENCOURAGING people to come over illegally

  She just promised them all a pathway to citizenship.

  She’s NOT interested in securing the border. She’s hellbent on importing more voters. pic.twitter.com/wJfxUaF79b

  — Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 28, 2024

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

  A reminder…

  Kamala (2019): President Trump’s border wall is a “medieval vanity project.”

  Kamala (2024): Looks up in awe at that very medieval vanity project. pic.twitter.com/iU3opXR9Rl

  — Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 27, 2024

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  Also on Friday, a damning revelation from Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX); US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) revealed that over 650,000 migrants with criminal histories were let loose in the United States between ‘mid-May 2023 through the end of July 2024.’

  As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket—13,099 criminally convicted MURDERS!

  Americans deserve to be SAFE in our own communities. pic.twitter.com/fIoCAduJ9M

  — Rep. Tony Gonzales (@RepTonyGonzales) September 27, 2024

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  “As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket, which includes those detained by ICE and on the agency’s non-detained docket. Of those, 435,729 are convicted criminals, and 226,847 have pending criminal charges,” wrote deputy DHS Director Patrick J. Lechleitner in response to a March letter from Gonzales demanding answers.

  In short, this couldn’t have come on a worse day for Harris…

  .@MZHemingway: “This border trip today happened at the worst possible time for her, given the other news that came out — that her administration allowed nearly half a million criminals, many of them violent criminals — to just be in the country and roaming freely… This is… pic.twitter.com/CLbb0yHrmp

  — Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 27, 2024

  Meanwhile, the internet is forever… (maybe)

  The scale of the deception is jawdroppingpic.twitter.com/g6EPFMmanQ

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 28, 2024

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  Kamala Harris is a complete fraud whose campaign can be summed up in a 13 second video. pic.twitter.com/dtQHMFeC2Q

  — MAZE (@mazemoore) September 28, 2024

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  True https://t.co/X2fJDliJWy

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 28, 2024

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  Kamala (today): “The United States is a sovereign nation and I believe we have a duty to set rules at our border and enforce them.”

  Kamala (last month): “I will close immigration detention centers on day one.” pic.twitter.com/mTvYDZ3qvG

  — John LeFevre (@JohnLeFevre) September 28, 2024

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  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 18:45

• Airdnc? Trump Group Accuses Airbnb Host Of Eviction On Political Grounds
  Airdnc? Trump Group Accuses Airbnb Host Of Eviction On Political Grounds

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  There is an interesting controversy growing over an alleged eviction by an Airbnb host in Philadelphia of Trump supporters. The conservative site Breitbart is reporting that “ballot chasers” for Trump were allegedly given an hour to clear out after the host learned that they were in Pennsylvania to get out the vote for Trump. If true, the incident raises a serious matter for Airbnb over hosts imposing political conditions for the use of their property.

  

  Once again, we have not heard the other side to this controversy. However, if these allegations are established, it raises a variation of an issue that has been discussed for years on this blog: the role of private companies or businesses in censoring speech or blacklisting individuals.

  First for the obvious threshold point. Private property owners have a right to exclude people from their property on any number of issues. This homeowner is likely to be lionized by many who agree with the decision. If an owner wants to run their home like an Airdnc, they have every right to do so. The question is whether they can do so as an Airbnb.

  It is worth noting that many of the same individuals supporting this owner likely opposed the right of business owners in cases like Masterpiece Cake Shop and 303 Creative. In those cases, the owners refused to make products for celebrations that conflicted with their religious views.

  I have previously written why businesses should have the right of such denial as a matter of free speech, including in my book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

  In this case, an owner is accused of refusing service or rentals based on political grounds.

  The question is not whether this owner has the right of exclusion in a home, but whether Airbnb is now allowing such threshold political tests to be applied by owners. It would create an uncertainty for guests who would not know if they may be tossed to the street if they reveal their political viewpoints or affiliations.

  The incident could be a type of micro-cancel problem. We have seen universities and colleges cancel conservative and libertarian speakers under pressure from faculty and students who cannot tolerate opposing views from being spoken on campuses.

  Citizens Alliance’s PA CHASE says that it is still pursuing a requested $5,000 refund.

  Airbnb notes in its contractual language that

  “Guest identity verification, reservation screening and the 24-hour safety line are tools or features used by Airbnb to help verify guest identities, screen reservations for potential party and property damage risk, and provide access to Airbnb’s 24-hour safety line.”

  There is no indication that the group was planning large gatherings at the location. However, it could be cited by the owner.

  If the group is mistaken or misrepresenting the facts, Airbnb should make that clear. It should also make clear what its policy is on possible political conditions for Airbnb listings. One possibility is that the owner will argue that he or she did not want the property used for a high-traffic political effort operating out of the home. A homeowner could reasonably demand that the property not be used for large parties or high-traffic enterprises.

  Conversely, Citizens Alliance is suggesting that they were simply planning to stay at the home. Moreover, other guests have likely held parties on rented premises without such alleged peremptory action. Notably, Airbnb promises homeowners up to $3 million in insurance for any damage to property.

  Airbnb has a strong anti-discrimination policy on race but is silent on political viewpoints.

  If the host barred Trump supporters due simply to their political affiliations or the purpose of their visit, it would seem inimical to the business model of the company. However, there are difficult hypotheticals on the extremes.

  For example, what if an owner came to hand over the keys only to find guests wearing KKK or neo-Nazi outfits? What if a pro-life owner learned that the home would be used at the base camp for a pro-abortion campaign? Do they have the right to decline service like a cake shop or web designer?

  The difference may be based on the use of the property. Airbnb operates like an aggregated hotel chain using private owners to supply the rooms. Just as Hyatt cannot impose political litmus tests, it is unworkable to allow such a test by individual owners and still maintain a viable national chain.

  If this owner was in compliance with Airbnb contractual conditions, the site should make that clear to renters. At a minimum, Airbnb would have to require owners to state upfront any threshold political conditions. That would be a nightmare for the company since the site would turn into a patchwork of threshold exclusions. That would destroy the premise of the site which treats the room stock as uniformly available and only differentiated on physical layout and pricing.

  Notably, in cases like Masterpiece Cake Shop, the owner insisted that he would sell pre-made cakes to anyone who wanted to buy them. He only objected to preparing special cakes for ceremonies that contradicted his religious views.

  In the same way, Airbnb could make clear that, so long as the property itself will not be used for political or advocacy activities, owners are expected to adopt a non-discriminatory policy on political viewpoints. The cost of renting out your home to strangers is that you will likely disagree with the values of many of the renters.

  Airbnb is reportedly still looking at the refund request.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 18:40

• Leaked Police Memo Warns Of "Explosion In Migrant Prostitution" Networks Across America 
  Leaked Police Memo Warns Of “Explosion In Migrant Prostitution” Networks Across America 

  As ‘Border Czar’ Kamala Harris visited the southern border for a photo-op on Friday, alarming new revelations also emerged showing that far-left Democrats in the White House rolled out the red carpet to 650,000 migrants with criminal records. This has already fueled chaos nationwide, including a new report of an “explosion in migrant prostitution” networks across America.

  A newly leaked law enforcement document obtained by New York Post journalists shows that the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua has exploited desperate migrant women into sex trafficking networks across eight states. 

  At least eight states have seen an explosion in migrant prostitution since the gang laid down roots in the US, with authorities in Texas, Nevada, Illinois, California, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey and New York now fighting to curtail the sex trade, the memo shows. -NYPost

  

  In New York City, police sources told the NYPost that Tren de Aragua gangsters are recruiting their members and victims straight out of city-run migrant shelters. 

  In the Big Apple, Tren de Aragua is trying to recruit foot soldiers to force women into sex trafficking — in the hopes that it will become a main source of income for the gang, according to the leaked memo. -NYPost

  

  The memo was circulated to federal and local law enforcement agencies nationwide. It said, “For some women, the debt is almost impossible to pay off due to penalty fees added by TdA members as punishment.”

  A separate leaked memo from the US Army, first reported by investigative reporter James O’Keefe, shows there are an estimated 5,000 Tren de Aragua gangsters, many of them armed, running amok nationwide. 

  

  

  Since January 2021, the Biden-Harris-Mayorkas trio destroyed whatever border security the Trump administration built and facilitated the greatest migrant invasion this nation has ever seen, flooding cities and counties with millions of unvetted migrants, some of which have been confirmed as criminals and terrorists.

  

  Also on Friday, a damning revelation from Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX); US Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) revealed that over 650,000 migrants with criminal histories were let loose in the United States between ‘mid-May 2023 through the end of July 2024.’

  As of July 21, 2024, there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket—13,099 criminally convicted MURDERS!

  Americans deserve to be SAFE in our own communities. pic.twitter.com/fIoCAduJ9M

  — Rep. Tony Gonzales (@RepTonyGonzales) September 27, 2024

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  Furthermore, there are reports of human trafficking labor mule networks of migrants by staffing companies from Charleroi, Pennsylvania to Springfield, Ohio to Colorado. 

  • “He’s Taking My People”: Alleged Murder-For-Hire Plot In Charleroi Reveals Migrant Labor Mules

  • “No Americans”: Insider Of Alleged Trafficking Network Reveals How Migrants Ended Up At Charleroi, PA Factory

  • “Blow Your Mind”: Ex-WSJ Journo Uncovers Hub Of An Alleged Migrant Trafficking Network In Springfield, Ohio

  • Union Makes Shock Claim: Colorado Meat Factory Involved In “Mgmt-Led Human Trafficking” Of Haitians

  VP Harris said the quiet part out loud yesterday. 

  🚨 WTF? Kamala Harris at the border literally ENCOURAGING people to come over illegally

  She just promised them all a pathway to citizenship.

  She’s NOT interested in securing the border. She’s hellbent on importing more voters. pic.twitter.com/wJfxUaF79b

  — Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 28, 2024

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  Weeks ago, Nancy Pelosi also said the quiet part out loud.

  Nancy Pelosi states that the goal of the Democrat party is to convert undocumented immigrants (illegals) into documented immigrants:
  Bill Maher: “The CA lawmakers giving government assistance to undocumented immigrants to buy houses.
  That’s kind of a different place than the… pic.twitter.com/pfeG9ngZUE

  — Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) August 31, 2024

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  The ten-plus million migrants that Biden-Harris administration dumped into neighborhoods across the country will only result in continued chaos.

  Maybe it’s time for folks to avoid these ‘sanctuary zones’… 

  Armed Venezuelan Prison Gang In Denver Highlights Map Of US Sanctuary Zones To Avoid Amid Migrant Crisis https://t.co/EzR9xqGDTp

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 3, 2024

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  At the expense of national security and the safety of all Americans, Democrats imported third-world criminals into the first world for what appears to be a new voting class. What if their plan is more sinister than just votes?

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 18:05

• Silver Is Starting To Break Out. Here's What To Watch
  Silver Is Starting To Break Out. Here’s What To Watch

  By Jesse Colombo

  Two days ago, I published a Substack piece titled “Here’s When Silver Will Surge Like Gold” and followed it up with a related Twitter thread that quickly went viral. On Tuesday, China cut interest rates and unveiled an extensive stimulus package to boost its struggling economy. These announcements sparked a surge in commodities like gold, silver, and copper, bringing my bullish outlook on silver closer to fruition. I decided it was an opportune time for a quick update.

  Let’s start with silver’s daily chart. Since its peak in May, silver had been languishing for several months until it finally broke above a downtrend line that started in May, closing above it last Friday. In my original Substack piece, I highlighted this breakout as a promising sign of strength. On Tuesday, silver had surged 4.56%, reaching its highest level since May. Silver now needs to close above its $32.50 resistance level with strong volume to confirm that the next leg of the bull market is underway. Once silver clears the $32.50 resistance, it’s likely to surge toward $50 rapidly. I’m focusing on $50 as an intermediate-term target because it’s a significant psychological level and the peak reached during both the 1980 and 2011 rallies.

  

  For further confirmation, I find it valuable to analyze silver priced in euros. This method removes the impact of U.S. dollar fluctuations, offering a clearer view of silver’s intrinsic strength or weakness. Interestingly, silver priced in euros often respects round numbers like €26, €27, and €28, frequently establishing key support and resistance levels at these points. These levels are worth monitoring closely—take a look for yourself. On Tuesday, silver closed above both the €28 level and a downtrend line that started in May, marking a very bullish development. The final hurdle is for silver to decisively close above the €30 level on high volume, which would be the signal that silver is ready to take off.

  

  Silver mining stocks are also important to watch for confirming silver’s price movements, as they often mirror investor sentiment toward the metal. The Global X Silver Miners ETF (symbol: SIL), the most heavily traded silver mining stock ETF, has been stuck in a flat range since April. A strong, high-volume close above the $36 to $37 resistance zone would signal that both silver mining stocks and silver itself are poised for a significant breakout. After surging on Tuesday, SIL is very close to breaking out.

  

  Similarly, the Amplify Junior Silver Miners ETF (symbol: SILJ)—a key proxy for junior silver mining shares—has been range-bound for the past five months. A decisive, high-volume close above the $13 to $13.50 resistance zone would indicate the start of a rally for both silver mining shares and silver itself. After its sharp rise on Tuesday, SILJ is very close to breaking out.

  

  Gold, a major driver of silver prices, is generating a tailwind for silver after breaking through two key resistance levels in the past month and a half. In a recent Substack piece, I explained how gold’s breakout across multiple currencies sets the stage for an imminent surge toward $3,000.

  

  The gold-to-silver ratio is a valuable indicator for gauging silver’s price direction. A double top chart pattern appears to have formed over the past two months, indicating a likely decline in the ratio. This suggests that silver may soon start outperforming gold. A close below the 83 to 84 support zone is key to confirming the start of a silver rally and its outperformance of gold. Following silver’s strong performance on Tuesday, the ratio is starting to break below the critical 83 to 84 support zone—an unmistakable sign of strength for silver.

  

  The price of copper is often an underappreciated factor in silver’s performance. Copper’s decline over the past several months has dragged silver down with it, but the copper rebound I’ve been anticipating following a technical breakout should significantly strengthen silver’s rally.

  

  Another potential bullish factor for silver, gold, and copper is the prospect of a weaker U.S. dollar as the Federal Reserve begins its rate-cutting cycle. Since commodities typically move inversely to the U.S. dollar, this is a critical development to monitor. The key level to watch is the 100 support on the U.S. Dollar Index. A close below this level would strongly suggest a continued decline toward the 90 support level. At the time of writing, the U.S. Dollar Index is trading at 99.95.

  

  As silver nears a critical breakout, the convergence of multiple indicators signals a strong bullish outlook. Recent economic developments, such as the U.S. rate cut and China’s stimulus measures, have fueled momentum in commodities like silver, gold, and copper. Silver’s ability to break through key resistance levels, both in U.S. dollars and euros, alongside potential strength in silver mining stocks and a weakening U.S. dollar, reinforces the bullish outlook. As the gold-to-silver ratio shows signs of decline and copper rebounds, the stage is set for silver to make significant gains, with $50 as a key intermediate-term target. Investors should keep a close eye on these developments as silver’s next major bull market may be just days away.

  If you enjoyed this article, be sure to check out my recent piece, “Why Another Chinese Gold Mania May Be Starting.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 17:30

• Starlink Hits 4 Million Users As Elon Musk Leads Space Race
  Starlink Hits 4 Million Users As Elon Musk Leads Space Race

  SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet network has reached a major milestone, surpassing 4 million users across 100 countries. This achievement raises a key question: How soon will Elon Musk debut Starlink on public markets via an initial public offering?

  “This week, by the way, we will pass 4 million customers for Starlink, which is quite exciting,” Starlink President Gwynne Shotwell told Texas legislators on Tuesday. 

  Congratulations SpaceX on this significant milestone of connecting 4M customers to Starlink! pic.twitter.com/gUIHIkUt2I

  — Teslaconomics (@Teslaconomics) September 26, 2024

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  By Thursday, Starlink wrote on X, “Starlink is connecting more than 4M people with high-speed internet across 100+ countries, territories and many other markets.” 

  Starlink is connecting more than 4M people with high-speed internet across 100+ countries, territories and many other markets.

  Thank you to all of our customers around the world! 🛰️🌎❤️ → https://t.co/zR6w4t1qM9 pic.twitter.com/sk7wucihxH

  — Starlink (@Starlink) September 26, 2024

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  X user Sawyer Merritt posted a chart showing Starlink’s parabolic customer growth since 4Q20.

  Merritt said, “SpaceX has announced that @Starlink now has ~4 million customers across 110 countries, up from 3 million in May, and 2.3 million in December 2023.’

  

  Starlink also has the largest number of satellites in orbit, with 6,371 currently operating a constellation network supplying internet worldwide.

  

  Worldwide coverage.

  

  “SpaceX added a record ~7,700 Starlink customers per day on average over the last 4 months. They are expanding their 1 million sqft Starlink terminal manufacturing facility in South Texas to be able to keep up with the high demand,” Merritt said. 

  In terms of going public, we’ve asked the question: 

  • Ready For IPO? Starlink Achieves Cash-Flow Breakeven

  Followed by: 

  • SpaceX Prepares For Starlink IPO In 2024, Report Says

  And…

  • IPO Nearing? Elon Musk’s Starlink In Hyper-Growth, Surprises Analysts With $6.6 Billion Revenue Projection

  Musk noted days ago:

  If the rest of the year goes well, SpaceX will launch close to 90% of all mass to orbit. China will be ~6% and rest of world ~4%.

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 24, 2024

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  In other words, SpaceX is America’s entire space program. 

  Views from Dragon in flight 🐉🌎

  During its five day mission, Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew completed 75 orbits around Earth pic.twitter.com/NzIFElzXAm

  — SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 27, 2024

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  But not all are happy about Musk’s efforts to further humanity.

  The Biden-Harris administration, through various federal agencies, stalled some SpaceX rocket launches and revoked Starlink’s internet award for rural America. Also, the administration of far-left progressives squandered $42.5 billion of taxpayer funds for the rural internet program, triggering a Senate investigation.  

  Musk is years ahead on high-speed space internet for humanity. Competitor Amazon’s Project Kuiper is nowhere close to commercializing its space internet for widespread use. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 16:55

• DoJ Sues Alabama For Voter Roll Purge Program Targeting Noncitizens
  DoJ Sues Alabama For Voter Roll Purge Program Targeting Noncitizens

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

  The Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit against the State of Alabama, accusing the state of breaking the law with its voter roll purge program that targets individuals who are—or once were—noncitizens.

  

  The DOJ announced the legal action in a Sept. 27 press release, in which the agency contends that Alabama’s program, which targets individuals with noncitizen identification numbers, violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) by removing potentially eligible voters within the federally mandated 90-day “Quiet Period” before an election.

  Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said that Alabama’s actions risk disenfranchising eligible voters just weeks before a key federal election.

  “As Election Day approaches, it is critical that Alabama redress voter confusion resulting from its list maintenance mailings sent in violation of federal law,” Clarke said in a statement. “The Quiet Period Provision of federal law exists to prevent eligible voters from being removed from the rolls as a result of last-minute, error-prone efforts.”

  The NVRA’s Quiet Period provision prohibits states from conducting systematic voter roll purges within 90 days of a federal election to prevent errors and ensure eligible voters are not wrongfully removed.

  The legal dispute centers around a program initiated by Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen that aimed to remove noncitizens registered to vote in Alabama from the state’s voter rolls.

  The actual details of this DOJ lawsuit against Alabama are insane.

  Kamala’s DOJ is suing them because they removed less than 4,000 people from the voter rolls who registered despite not being citizens. pic.twitter.com/rXne2h4l9d

  — Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 28, 2024

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  Allen’s office announced on Aug. 13 that 3,251 individuals on the state’s voter rolls had been flagged for removal due to being issued noncitizen identification numbers by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Allen instructed the state’s 67 county boards of registrars to deactivate these voters and begin the process of removing them from the rolls.

  “I have been clear that I will not tolerate the participation of noncitizens in our elections,” Allen said in a statement at the time.

  Allen noted that while some of those identified may have since become naturalized citizens, these individuals would need to update their status using a State of Alabama voter registration form in order to remain eligible to vote.

  Allen said that due to a lack of cooperation from the federal government in providing up-to-date lists of noncitizens for the purposes of the voter roll purge, Alabama had to rely on older data that does not reflect whether the individuals flagged for removal have since gained citizenship.

  Ask yourself — Why would the Harris-Biden DOJ be fighting to keep illegal immigrants on the voter rolls? https://t.co/h0lAD1dgjq

  — Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 28, 2024

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  The DOJ’s lawsuit said Alabama’s program could disenfranchise eligible voters, particularly naturalized citizens who were once issued noncitizen identification numbers. The department’s review found that both native-born and naturalized U.S. citizens had received letters stating that their voter records had been made inactive and that they would be removed from the rolls unless they submitted a new registration form.

  The DOJ is seeking an injunction to halt the voter roll purge and reinstate the rights of eligible voters. It’s also pushing for remedial mailings to inform voters about the restoration of their rights, along with training for local officials and poll workers to address any confusion or distrust among eligible voters wrongly flagged as being noncitizens.

  The Alabama Secretary of State’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the most recent DOJ lawsuit.

  In an earlier statement, Allen defended the program as necessary to maintain the integrity of Alabama’s elections, while vowing to continue efforts to ensure only U.S. citizens are registered to vote.

  “This is not a one-time review of our voter file. We will continue to conduct such reviews to do everything possible to make sure that everyone on our file is an eligible voter,” Allen said in a statement.

  “I am hopeful that in the near future the federal government will change course and be helpful to states as we work to protect our elections.”

  This is not the first legal challenge Alabama has faced over its voter roll maintenance efforts.

  Earlier this month, a coalition of civil rights organizations, including the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice and the League of Women Voters of Alabama, filed a separate lawsuit accusing the state of targeting naturalized citizens with the purge. This lawsuit claims that many of those flagged for removal are now U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote, but are being forced to re-register.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 16:20

• Maersk Halts All Bookings To Haiti As Gang Violence Shuts Down Major Container Terminal
  Maersk Halts All Bookings To Haiti As Gang Violence Shuts Down Major Container Terminal

  Maersk, one of the world’s largest container shipping lines, notified clients on Thursday that “recent social unrest in Haiti” has sparked disruptions at a key port in the failed Caribbean nation, prompting the shipper to suspend all new bookings immediately. 

  “In the wake of the recent social unrest in Haiti, which is preventing normal operations at the terminal, it has been decided, effective immediately, to stop any new bookings from and to Haiti to prevent the accumulation of boxes at the transshipment terminals,” Maersk said. 

  

  One day earlier, Reuters reported land access to the main container terminal in Port-au-Prince, called Caribbean Port Services, a privately owned and operated company that handles the majority of the container volume in the country, was closed off due to a surge in attacks by armed gangs. 

  “CPS will shut its barriers to all types of land-based traffic from Sept. 26 to Sept. 29,” CPS wrote in a statement, indicating this time will allow the military troops and national police to secure the terminal.

  This is insane. More from Reuters…

  A shipping official told Reuters this week that ships were being shot at, preventing them from docking and unloading containers, while authorities have reported the kidnapping of two Filipino crew members from a cargo vessel in the port.

  Senseless gang violence has led to the deaths of 3,661 people in the collapsed Caribbean nation in the first half of the year. 

  “This situation is not just a humanitarian emergency but it is a threat to the stability of our nation,” Haiti’s transition council president Edgard Leblanc Fils told the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, adding, “It’s never too late to act.”

  The number of people internally displaced by gang violence has jumped to more than 700,000, while 1.6 million face food and housing insecurities. 

  Earlier this year, Haiti’s main container port and international airport were shut down for three months following an eruption in violence. The chaos included a massive jailbreak, allowing thousands of prisoners to escape.

  Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration has been flooding small town USA with Haitians, as seen in Springfield, Ohio, and Charleroi, Pennsylvania. There are reports some of these Haitians are being trafficked domestically in labor mule schemes by staffing companies. 

  What a mess the West is in. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 15:45

• Biden Signs 3D-Printed Gun Crackdown, School Shooter Drill Executive Order
  Biden Signs 3D-Printed Gun Crackdown, School Shooter Drill Executive Order

  Authored by Jacob Burg and Michael Clements via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Sept. 26 to crack down on 3D-printed guns and improve active shooter drills in schools throughout the country.

  Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris discussed the order during a joint event on gun violence at the White House on Thursday.

  

  The first prong of the order targets machine gun conversion devices—which can convert a pistol or semi-automatic gun into an automatic—and 3D-printed guns.

  Under federal law, a machine gun is a firearm that fires continuously while the trigger is depressed.

  Commonly called “Glock switches” or “auto sears,” machine gun conversion devices are illegal after-market parts that alter a gun’s trigger to allow legal semi-automatic firearms to operate as illegal, fully automatic weapons.

  The White House noted that, between 2017 and 2021, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives recovered 5,454 guns that had been converted to match or “exceed the rate of fire of many military machineguns with a single engagement of the trigger.”

  In the order, Biden indicated he would like the law expanded to also ban devices like bump stocks that increase a shooter’s rate of fire but don’t mechanically alter the gun. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that bump stocks are not machine guns under current federal law.

  “The Vice President and I strongly disagreed with the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down an important gun safety regulation on bump stocks—the device used in the shooting at a crowded music festival in Las Vegas—and called on Congress to clarify that this dangerous accessory is a machinegun,” Biden stated in the order.

  Harris said more work needs to be done to make sure all Americans feel protected in public spaces.

  “I believe the right to be safe is a civil right, and that the people of America have a right then, to live, work, worship and learn without fear of violence—including gun violence—and yet, our nation is experiencing an epidemic of gun violence,” Harris said.

  The executive order targets 3D-printed firearms built with 3D printers using computer code downloaded from the internet. They lack serial numbers, making them difficult for law enforcement to trace.

  Unserialized guns are often referred to as “ghost guns.”

  Through the order, the White House will establish an emerging firearms threats task force that will generate a report within 90 days to assess the threat of these guns, how federal agencies can mobilize to combat, detect, and confiscate them, and congressional funding projections to limit these weapons.

  The order’s second portion aims to improve active school shooter drills in the nation’s schools. The Biden administration has reported that schools lack adequate resources for conducting these drills and that parents fear potential trauma for students from the drills.

  Biden’s order directs the secretaries for the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security—in coordination with Attorney General Merrick Garland—to create and publish informational resources for schools to reduce and minimize trauma from shooter drills and gives them 110 days to do so.

  Biden and Harris also discussed additional executive orders that will advocate safe gun storage, promote red flag laws, bolster community violence intervention funding, announce states that may allow Medicaid to pay health providers for parental and caregiver counseling on firearm safety and injury prevention, and improve the background check system.

  Harris is campaigning on signing universal background checks and a ban on so-called assault weapons. Both would require congressional approval—a difficult task without solid Democratic majorities in both chambers.

  “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 ahead of Biden’s signing the order.

  Biden agreed and said it was time to pursue a ban on so-called assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

  Second Amendment advocacy groups dismissed the order as nothing more than campaign rhetoric.

  “This Executive Order is just one more attempt by the Biden-Harris Administration to deflect attention from their soft-on-crime policies that have emboldened criminals in our country. The orders are notably heavy on election-year rhetoric and light on substance,” Randy Kozuch, Executive Director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, wrote in a statement on Thursday.

  Erich Pratt, senior vice president of Gun Owners of America (GOA), said the order will backfire on Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign. In a statement on the GOA website, Pratt lists what he says are elements of the order that infringe on Second Amendment rights instead of dealing with violent criminals.

  “The White House just made a huge mistake by reminding gun owners of Kamala’s radical, gun-grabbing agenda, with the election a mere month or so away. Kamala Harris just claimed responsibility for each infringement—every banned gun and part—by ATF in the last four years, so we are pushing back and calling her out,” Pratt wrote.

  During his term, Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022 that strengthened background checks for those purchasing guns between the ages of 18 and 21, made it a federal offense to buy guns through straw purchases or trafficking, and specified the status of a federally licensed firearm dealer.

  Last year, Biden established the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which has been overseen by Harris.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 15:10

• "Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars" Being Awarded For Electric Semi Truck Charging Infrastructure
  “Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars” Being Awarded For Electric Semi Truck Charging Infrastructure

  It has been a space in EVs that has been mostly ignored, especially since the auto market is drifting back toward hybrids…but now, eyes are starting to turn to charging for large electric trucks…

  Spending is increasing for charging infrastructure, according to Bloomberg, who writes that “hundreds of millions of dollars” in grants awarded by both state and federal programs are being written. 

  For example, Greenlane Infrastructure LLC, a $675 million joint venture involving Daimler Truck North America, NextEra Energy, and a BlackRock fund, has begun construction on its flagship site for a 280-mile commercial charging corridor between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

  Additionally, the Bloomberg report states that TeraWatt Infrastructure Inc., backed by over $1 billion in funding, is building a heavy-duty charging network from California’s Port of Long Beach to El Paso, Texas. WattEV, supported by Apollo Global Management and Vitol, currently operates several charging depots and has 15 more planned along the West Coast.

  Erika Myers, executive director of Charging Interface Initiative North America said: “We’re seeing industry making bigger investments.”

  She added that there’s a lot of “excitement and enthusiasm for the development of electrification in the medium- and heavy-duty space.”

  Electrifying medium- and heavy-duty trucks seems like an obvious solution for cutting emissions, as these vehicles make up just 5% of US road traffic but generate nearly a quarter of the transportation sector’s greenhouse gases.

  

  Yet adoption has been sluggish. BloombergNEF even labels the US a global “laggard” in decarbonizing its commercial fleets, with electric medium- and heavy-duty trucks accounting for only 6% of sales as of June and fewer than 1,000 sold in the first half of 2024.

  Bloomberg calls the issue a “classic chicken-and-egg problem”: manufacturers hesitate to produce electric trucks due to a lack of charging infrastructure, while infrastructure developers are reluctant to invest without a substantial EV fleet in place.

  A strained power grid, high vehicle costs, and uncertain policy support—especially with the upcoming presidential election—further complicate the transition.

  Recall days ago we wrote that EV semi prices still needed to fall between 30-50% to compete with diesel trucks, according to a new study. 

  Currently, less than 2% of the EU’s heavy freight vehicles are electric or hydrogen-powered, but this must rise to 40% of new sales by 2030 to meet EU climate goals. Electric trucks cost 2.5-3 times more to produce than diesel ones, and logistics companies are reluctant to bear the higher costs, making this target challenging, the report says. 

  McKinsey suggests electric truck prices should be no more than 30% higher than diesel models, requiring major battery advancements. 

  Reuters writes that a 25% reduction in charging costs and 900,000 private charging points by 2035, needing a $20 billion investment, are also key to the EU’s CO2 strategy. Additionally, European truckmakers face competition from Chinese manufacturers, who have captured 20% of the bus market with cheaper products.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 14:35

• Port Employers Seek NLRB Injunction Against Longshore Union
  Port Employers Seek NLRB Injunction Against Longshore Union

  By Stuart Chirls of FreightWaves,

  East and Gulf Coast port employers on Thursday raised the stakes in contract negotiations with the International Longshoremen’s Association, asking the National Labor Relations Board to order the union back to bargaining.

  “Due to the ILA’s repeated refusal to come to the table and bargain on a new Master Contract, USMX filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) with the National Labor Relations Board and requested immediate injunctive relief — requiring the union to resume bargaining — so that we can negotiate a deal,” USMX said in a release.

  Talks between employers and the ILA on a new six-year master contract covering 25,000 union employees in container and ro-ro services at three dozen East and Gulf Coast ports broke off in June over wages, benefits and the introduction of technology that would automate some dockside services.

  

  The ILA has called for a strike on both coasts when the current contract expires at midnight on Tuesday.

  The NLRB filing would not affect the strike deadline.

  “USMX has been clear that we value the work of the ILA and have great respect for its members. We have a shared history of working together and are committed to bargaining.”

  In an email to media a union spokesman called the filing a “publicity stunt”.

  While the USMX was completing its filing early Thursday, it’s unclear what kind of timeline would be established by the NLRB. According to the board’s website, an initial investigation would determine whether a complaint should be issued against the ILA, which would then have 10 days to respond at a formal hearing. At the same time, the NLRB would have to decide whether to seek an injunction from a district court in the form of a temporary restraining order, which would theoretically send the union back to negotiations. 

  The NLRB may also decide not to issue a complaint, or the sides could come to a settlement.

  Eventually, the NLRB could dismiss the complaint, order the union back to negotiations or ask an administrative law judge to further review the case. Any decision can be reviewed by a federal court of appeals; a decision there could be appealed to the Supreme Court.

  It is also unclear what would happen if the union defies an injunction, though fines would likely be issued.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 14:00

• Biden Backs Israel's Assassination Of Nasrallah, Hailing 'Justice' Served, As Russia Warns Of Bigger War
  Biden Backs Israel’s Assassination Of Nasrallah, Hailing ‘Justice’ Served, As Russia Warns Of Bigger War

  Update(1340ET): The White House has finally put out a statement by early Saturday afternoon. President Biden has called Nasrallah’s death ‘justice’ for the hundreds of Americans who perished over what the US called a ‘four-decade reign of terror’.

  “Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror.  His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians,” Biden said. The White House says the Pentagon has been ordered to enhance America’s defense posture and readiness in the Middle East.

  Biden has further repeated that the US “fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself”…

  “The US fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah. I have ordered Defense Secretary Austin to increase US forces in the Middle East to deter aggression from Iran and its proxies and reduce the danger of a wider regional war,” Biden said.

  Politico and some other publications have said the assassination of Nasrallah, apparently without US knowledge (that’s the current official line anyway), has put more distance between Biden and Netanyahu. “Biden administration officials were trying to figure out how to publicly respond Saturday to confirmation that Israel had killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group,” the publication said. 

  “The initial reaction from inside the White House was positive, even though U.S. officials had been trying to convince Israel to pause its operations against Hezbollah, according to two senior administration officials,” it added.

  Russia’s reaction has been the opposite, with the foreign ministry saying, “This forceful action is fraught with even greater dramatic consequences for Lebanon and the entire Middle East.”

  “The Israeli side could not fail to recognize this danger, but took the step of killing Lebanese citizens, which would almost inevitably provoke a new outburst of violence. Thus, it bears full responsibility for the subsequent escalation,” the Russian statement said.

  This is pretty simple. If you don’t want someone to do something, you don’t give them the means to do it. One must therefore conclude the US government does not object to what Israel has been doing for the past year.

  — Stephen Walt (@stephenWalt) September 28, 2024

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

  Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – who has been transferred to a secretive and secure location – has declared five days of public mourning for Hassan Nasrallah.

  “I … offer my condolences for the martyrdom of the great Nasrallah and his martyred companions and announce five days of public mourning in Islamic Iran,” Khamenei said according to the official IRNA news agency.

  * * *

  On Saturday Hezbollah has finally issued confirmation via its Al-Manar television channel that Hassan Nasrallah, the Lebanese Shia group’s leader for 32 years, has been killed in Friday’s major Israeli airstrikes on the Dahieh suburb of Beirut.

  The group said in the statement of the slain Secretary-General, “His eminence, the master of resistance, the righteous servant, has passed away to be with his lord who is pleased with him as a great martyr.”

  

  “The leadership of Hezbollah pledges … to continue its jihad in confronting the enemy [Israel], supporting Gaza and Palestine, and defending Lebanon and its steadfast and honorable people,” it added.

  There was nothing further detailed as to precisely how the group would respond, only that it plans to continue its fight against Israel. No doubt it could take some time before it regroups, as likely many more of its commanders were taken out in the large-scale strikes which utterly destroyed multiple large buildings Friday.

  Within hours prior to Hezbollah finally confirming and announcing the monumental development which will send shockwaves through the Arab world, the Israel Defense Forces issued a statement proclaiming: “Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world.”

  PM Netanyahu had ordered or monitored the strike from New York, after just stepping away from a speech before the United Nations General Assembly:

  

  Overnight it was clear something major was brewing given there was an emergency meeting in Tehran of top national security officials chaired by the Ayatollah in the wake of the Dahieh bombings. Within the last hours Reuters has reported that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been “transferred to a secure location inside the country with heightened security measures in place,” according to Iranian security officials.

  American-supplied heavy bombs were likely used in the strikes that killed Nasrallah: 

  Israel media says about 85 so-called “bunker-buster” bombs were used. Also known as “ground penetration munition”, these missiles burrow deep into the ground before they detonate.

  They have the power to destroy underground facilities and reinforced concrete buildings. The bombs each weigh between 2,000 and 4,000 pounds.

  Nasrallah has loomed large in the last decades of Middle East conflict and politics, having founded Hezbollah in 1982 and spending his life transforming it into a fierce guerrilla warfare group which has became Israel’s number one regional foe (alongside Hamas).

  Hamas published condolences:

  ⚡️Hamas Publishes:

  “Your soul lives on” pic.twitter.com/v9kb5i096O

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) September 28, 2024

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  Below is the full Hamas statement as translated and published in Al Jazeera:

  “We extend our sincere condolences, sympathy and solidarity to the brotherly Lebanese people and brothers in Hezbollah and the Islamic resistance in Lebanon.”

  “We condemn in the strongest terms this barbaric Zionist aggression and the targeting of residential buildings … in the southern suburb of Beirut, and we consider this a cowardly act of terrorism, a massacre and a heinous crime, which proves once again the bloodiness and brutality of this occupation.”

  Hamas further said that Hezbollah has a whole line-up of leaders waiting to take up the mantle of war against Israel: “History has proven that the resistance against the Zionist enemy, in all its factions and places of presence, whenever its leaders go as martyrs, has a generation of leaders to lead them on the same path,” the statement concluded.

  It is well-known that the group has also long been supported by Iran, from where it receives much of its most sophisticated surface-to-surface missiles, including ballistic missiles.

  ⚡️From the strikes on Beirut now pic.twitter.com/tZ0ZjLcxf7

  — War Monitor (@WarMonitors) September 27, 2024

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  Israel had kept its airstrikes on Beirut going throughout the night, even after the attack which killed Nasrallah and many top commanders, while civilians desperately fled the southern suburbs. 

  developing…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 13:40

• Sam Altman Just Pitched The Biden Administration On A Massive Build Out Of AI Data Centers
  Sam Altman Just Pitched The Biden Administration On A Massive Build Out Of AI Data Centers

  While most of the news this week about Sam Altman has been centered around the nearly $10 billion in equity he could be receiving in OpenAI, another headline slipped through the cracks mid-week: OpenAI has pitched the Biden administration on a build-out of massive data centers.

  OpenAI has urged the Biden administration to support the construction of massive data centers, each consuming as much power as a city, to advance AI development and compete with China.

  After a recent White House meeting attended by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the company submitted a document outlining the economic and security benefits of building 5-gigawatt data centers across several U.S. states—equivalent to the output of five nuclear reactors, enough to power 3 million homes, according to Bloomberg.

  The Bloomberg report says that OpenAI argued that these data centers would create tens of thousands of jobs, boost GDP, and secure U.S. leadership in AI.

  However, achieving this requires supportive policies to expand data center capacity. Altman has been seeking a global coalition of investors and U.S. government backing for the project, though the specific energy needs have not been previously disclosed.

  

  “OpenAI is actively working to strengthen AI infrastructure in the US, which we believe is critical to keeping America at the forefront of global innovation, boosting reindustrialization across the country, and making AI’s benefits accessible to everyone,” OpenAI told Bloomberg. 

  And how would these data centers be powered? We can venture a guess…

  Recall earlier this week we wrote that Altman-backed Nuclear SMR company Oklo announced it had finalized an agreement with the Department of Energy to advance the next phase of sitting at the Idaho National Lab. 

  “As the only advanced fission company with a DOE site use permit, along with substantial regulatory progress and a secured fuel supply, Oklo is uniquely positioned to deploy the first commercial advanced fission power plant in the U.S,” it said in a release. 

  As we’ve noted this past week, the nuclear energy embrace is starting to make its way across the country. Recall, just hours ago Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was urging for Three Mile Island to reopen as quickly as possible. 

  Recall we wrote last week the owner of Three Mile Island is investing $1.6 billion to revive the plant and has agreed to sell all of its output to Microsoft, which is seeking power for its data centers. 

  This momentum continues our “Next AI Trade” that we pointed out in April of this year, where we outlined various investment opportunities for powering up America, playing out. Backed by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Oklo remains one of our favorite names in nuclear. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 13:25

• Chinese Financial Executives Resign In Droves Amid Heightened Scrutiny
  Chinese Financial Executives Resign In Droves Amid Heightened Scrutiny

  Authored by Lynn Xu and Shawn Lin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  China faces a wave of resignations by chiefs and executives of listed companies and banks as Beijing ramps up a crackdown on the nation’s financial industry.

  In a little more than a month, more than a thousand senior leaders of China’s A-share listed companies, banks, and financial institutions resigned for personal reasons, according to Chinese state media reports.

  

  Following Liu Jin’s sudden resignation as vice chairman and president of the Bank of China at the end of August, the long resignation list includes chairmen, presidents, vice presidents, and other senior executives from various levels of banks, insurance companies, securities dealers, and state-owned enterprises.

  This wave of departures coincides with Beijing’s intensified purge in the financial sector. By Sept. 18, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection had listed at least 67 senior finance officials being investigated, disciplined, or expelled from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) this year.

  Du Wen, a former Inner Mongolia Legislative Affairs Office official, and economist Li Hengqing, both U.S.-based, told The Epoch Times that these high-level finance officials are insiders of the CCP system and that their resignations indicate their waning confidence in the economy and anticipation of heightened political risks.

  Resignations don’t happen easily, as they require approval from the CCP.

  Du said an insider told him that the central authorities did not approve most resignations “over financial stability concerns.” According to him, those bankers and company chiefs would have to remain in their positions, bearing the risks of being interrogated to assist any financial investigations by the disciplinary authorities and even being politically purged.

  Li said investment bankers are familiar with all kinds of bad debts and falsified account and audit reports in the financial system and that the CCP won’t want to see them fleeing with this secret.

  Some brokerage firms have required investment bankers to hand in their passports and impose conditional restrictions on outbound travel, while others suspended reviews of resignations, according to China’s state media. One report also quoted a financial chief who said he felt that the sector has become an “unfriendly environment” that is going through “one of the worst cycles” and causing “uncertainty about the future.”

  Amid the nationwide sweeping purge, financial executives and bosses of state-owned enterprises have been caught in a difficult situation, being unable to leave China or their jobs, according to David Huang, an economist familiar with the situation in China. Their difficult situation, he said, was caused by the current management system of the CCP, which requires them to submit their passports to the relevant authorities and withholds them unless they resign.

  The CCP has stepped up its “anti-corruption” efforts in the financial sector. So far, one of the most severely punished in financial crime is Tian Huiyu, former president of China Merchants Bank Co., who, in February, received a suspended death sentence over bribes and insider trading. Tian was also expelled from the CCP and had all personal property confiscated.

  In July, a former deputy general manager of Haitong Securities fled the country. Just a month later, he was caught and deported to China. Chinese media reported his case as part of the “Skynet” operation under Beijing’s Ministry of Public Security to apprehend corrupt CCP officials who flee to foreign countries.

  The financial system, a central pillar of the Chinese economy, has long been plagued by astronomical local debt, property bubbles, shadow banking, and repayment crises.

  “Those high-income earners with high-ranking positions are more exposed to the danger of a volcano that could erupt at any time, so they are eager to absolve themselves of responsibility and avoid becoming scapegoats before the financial market collapses,” Du said.

  China’s stock market has been trending downward in recent years. The CSI 300 Index—a free-float weighted index that reflects the overall performance of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets—hit a record low of 3,159.92 on Sept. 13, a stark contrast to 5,807.72 in February 2021, the highest point since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out and strict quarantine measures were imposed in the country.

  Xin Ning contributed to this report.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 09/28/2024 – 12:50