• Whitehead: The Constitution Has Already Been Terminated
  Whitehead: The Constitution Has Already Been Terminated

  Authored by John and Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

  “That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary.”

  – Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

  If there is one point on which there should be no political parsing, no legal jockeying, and no disagreement, it is this: for anyone to advocate terminating or suspending the Constitution is tantamount to a declaration of war against the founding principles of our representative government and the rule of law.

  

  Then again, one could well make the case that the Constitution has already been terminated after years on life support, given the extent to which the safeguards enshrined in the Bill of Rights—adopted 231 years ago as a means of protecting the people against government overreach and abuse—have been steadily chipped away at, undermined, eroded, whittled down, and generally discarded with the support of Congress, the White House, and the courts.

  Consider for yourself.

  • We are in the grip of martial law. We have what the founders feared most: a “standing” or permanent army on American soil. This de facto standing army is made up of weaponized, militarized domestic police forces which look like, dress like, and act like the military; are armed with guns, ammunition and military-style equipment; are authorized to make arrests; and are trained in military tactics.

  • We are in the government’s crosshairs. The U.S. government continues to act as judge, jury and executioner over a populace that have been pre-judged and found guilty, stripped of their rights, and left to suffer at the hands of government agents trained to respond with the utmost degree of violence. Consequently, we are at the mercy of law enforcement officers who have almost absolute discretion to decide who is a threat, what constitutes resistance, and how harshly they can deal with the citizens they were appointed to “serve and protect.” With alarming regularity, unarmed men, women, children and even pets are being gunned down by the government’s standing army of militarized police who shoot first and ask questions later.

  • We are no longer safe in our homes. This present menace comes from the government’s army of bureaucratized, corporatized, militarized SWAT teams who are waging war on the last stronghold left to us as a free people: the sanctity of our homes.

  • We have no real freedom of speech. We are moving fast down a slippery slope to an authoritarian society in which the only opinions, ideas and speech expressed are the ones permitted by the government and its corporate cohorts. In more and more cases, the government is declaring war on what should be protected political speech whenever it challenges the government’s power, reveals the government’s corruption, exposes the government’s lies, and encourages the citizenry to push back against the government’s many injustices. The ramifications are so far-reaching as to render almost every American who criticizes the government an extremist in word, deed, thought or by association.

  • We have no real privacy. We’re being spied on by a domestic army of government snitches, spies and techno-warriors. This government of Peeping Toms is watching everything we do, reading everything we write, listening to everything we say, and monitoring everything we spend. Beware of what you say, what you read, what you write, where you go, and with whom you communicate, because it is all being recorded, stored, and catalogued, and will be used against you eventually, at a time and place of the government’s choosing.

  • We are losing our right to bodily privacy and integrity. The debate over bodily integrity covers broad territory, ranging from forced vaccinations, forced cavity searches, forced colonoscopies, forced blood draws and forced breath-alcohol tests to forced DNA extractions, forced eye scans, and forced inclusion in biometric databases: these are just a few ways in which Americans continue to be reminded that we have no real privacy, no real presumption of innocence, and no real control over what happens to our bodies during an encounter with government officials. The groundwork being laid with these mandates is a prologue to what will become the police state’s conquest of a new, relatively uncharted, frontier: inner space, specifically, the inner workings (genetic, biological, biometric, mental, emotional) of the human race.

  • We no longer have a right to private property. If government agents can invade your home, break down your doors, kill your dog, damage your furnishings and terrorize your family, your property is no longer private and secure—it belongs to the government. Hard-working Americans are having their bank accounts, homes, cars electronics and cash seized by police under the assumption that they have allegedly been associated with some criminal scheme.

  • We have no due process. The groundwork has been laid for a new kind of government where it won’t matter if you’re innocent or guilty, whether you’re a threat to the nation, or even if you’re a citizen. What will matter is what the government—or whoever happens to be calling the shots at the time—thinks. And if the powers-that-be think you’re a threat to the nation and should be locked up, then you’ll be locked up with no access to the protections our Constitution provides.

  • We are no longer presumed innocent. The burden of proof has been reversed. Now we’re presumed guilty unless we can prove our innocence beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. Rarely, are we even given the opportunity to do so. The government has embarked on a diabolical campaign to create a nation of suspects predicated on a massive national DNA database. Having already used surveillance technology to render the entire American populace potential suspects, DNA technology in the hands of government coupled with artificial intelligence will complete our transition to a suspect society in which we are all merely waiting to be matched up with a crime.

  • We have lost the right to be anonymous and move about freely.  At every turn, we’re hemmed in by laws, fines and penalties that regulate and restrict our autonomy, and surveillance cameras that monitor our movements. Likewise, digital currency provides the government and its corporate partners with a mode of commerce that can easily be monitored, tracked, tabulated, mined for data, hacked, hijacked and confiscated when convenient.

  • We no longer have a government of the people, by the people and for the people. In fact, a study conducted by Princeton and Northwestern University concluded that the U.S. government does not represent the majority of American citizens. Instead, the study found that the government is ruled by the rich and powerful, or the so-called “economic elite.” Moreover, the researchers concluded that policies enacted by this governmental elite nearly always favor special interests and lobbying groups. In other words, we are being ruled by an oligarchy disguised as a democracy, and arguably on our way towards fascism—a form of government where private corporate interests rule, money calls the shots, and the people are seen as mere subjects to be controlled.

  • We have no guardians of justice. The courts were established to intervene and protect the people against the government and its agents when they overstep their bounds. Yet through their deference to police power, preference for security over freedom, and evisceration of our most basic rights for the sake of order and expediency, the courts have become the guardians of the American police state in which we now live. As a result, sound judgment and justice have largely taken a back seat to legalism, statism and elitism, while preserving the rights of the people has been deprioritized and made to play second fiddle to both governmental and corporate interests.

  • We have been saddled with a dictator for life. Secret, unchecked presidential powers—acquired through the use of executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements and which can be activated by any sitting president—now enable past, president and future presidents to operate above the law and beyond the reach of the Constitution.

  Unfortunately, we have done this to ourselves.

  We allowed ourselves to be seduced by the false siren song of politicians promising safety in exchange for relinquished freedom. We placed our trust in political saviors and failed to ask questions to hold our representatives accountable to abiding by the Constitution. We looked the other way and made excuses while the government amassed an amazing amount of power over us, and backed up that power-grab with a terrifying amount of military might and weaponry, and got the courts to sanction their actions every step of the way. We chose to let partisan politics divide us and turn us into easy targets for the government’s oppression.

  Mind you, the powers-that-be want us to be censored, silenced, muzzled, gagged, zoned out, caged in and shut down. They want our speech and activities monitored for any sign of “extremist” activity. They want us to be estranged from each other and kept at a distance from those who are supposed to represent us. They want taxation without representation. They want a government without the consent of the governed.

  They want the Constitution terminated.

  “We” may have contributed to our downfall through our inaction and gullibility, but we are also the only hope for a free future.

  After all, the Constitution begins with those three beautiful words, “We the people.” Those three words were intended as a reminder to future generations that there is no government without us—our sheer numbers, our muscle, our economy, our physical presence in this land.

  As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, when we forget that, when we allow the “Me” of a self-absorbed, narcissistic, politically polarizing culture to override our civic duties as citizens to collectively stand up to tyranny and make the government play by the rules of the Constitution, there can be no surprise when tyranny rises and freedom falls

  Remember, there is power in numbers.

  There are 332 million of us in this country. Imagine what we could accomplish if we actually worked together, presented a united front, and spoke with one voice?

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 23:40

• Self-Service Kiosks Are Crawling With Fecal Bacteria: Study
  Self-Service Kiosks Are Crawling With Fecal Bacteria: Study

  A new study has found both feces and vomit-inducing pathogens all over the surfaces of self-service checkout kiosks.

  British scientists took swabs from every day items touched by multiple people – and found thousands of bacteria on the frequently used payment machines, according to Study Finds.

  Present on nearly all surfaces was E. Coli, while fecal bacteria and microbes associated with urinary tract infections (UTIs) were also found on the self-service screens.

  

  A bug commonly found in the vagina, mouth, throat and gut called Candida albicans, which can cause yeast infections, was also discovered on an escalator handrail.

  And shoppers may also be at risk if they share their desk with others at work, as intestinal microbes that can cause a range of infections, including UTIs, were found on computer keyboards. The findings were confirmed by scientists at the Infection Innovation Consortium (iiCON) in Liverpool, England, which led the study. -Study Finds

  According to iiCON chief researcher Dr. Adam Roberts, self-checkouts have a particularly high viral load.

  “The self-checkout samples had one of the highest bacterial loads, as we found five different types of potential disease-causing bacteria surviving on them,” he told the South West News Service. “This included Enterococcus which is found in human feces and, while this is usually harmless, it can of course lead to disease, particularly in those who may have weakened immune systems.

  “This included Enterococcus which is found in human feces and, while this is usually harmless, it can of course lead to disease, particularly in those who may have weakened immune systems,” he continued. “While both exist naturally in feces and intestines, given the right environment, they are able to cause quite severe diseases in humans, so it’s vital that we wash our hands before and after eating when working at the computer.”

  According to Dr. Roberts, shoppers need to minimize risk by washing their hands regularly, especially after using the bathroom.

  

  “It’s vital to try to minimize their effects in terms of infection prevention and control, so when we touch our mouths or go to the toilet and don’t wash our hands, we’ve likely got bacteria from these places on our hands which can then transfer to other things – and subsequently to other people,” he said. “If those individuals are more susceptible to infection than you are, there may be a problem.”

  Previous research confirms the common suggestion that it’s best to wash your hands for at least 20 seconds to get rid of infectious bacteria. A mathematical model concludes that it takes that long for bacteria to escape from the “valleys” in the surface of the skin that requires a heavy stream of water and fast scrubbing. Other studies suggest only 5.3 percent of people spend 15 seconds or longer washing, rubbing and rinsing, with the average time spent being only six seconds. -Study Finds

  Liverpool Director of Public Health, Matt Ashton, said that those with vulnerable family members should take are to wash their hands. “Our results showed that there are multiple bacteria living on objects that we touch every single day. These bacteria are completely invisible to the naked eye – surfaces may look clean but can be covered in bacteria,” he said. “But there are simple things we can do to prevent the spread of them and stop the transfer completing its cycle”

  “This is particularly important if you are visiting vulnerable relatives in hospitals and care homes, for example. Hospital admissions for illnesses like Norovirus and flu always spike at this time of year, but we can take steps to reduce how quickly germs transfer from one person to another, by simply keeping our hands clean – washing them after going to the bathroom and before and after.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 23:20

• Johnstone: I Don't Want A Sci-Fi Future
  Johnstone: I Don’t Want A Sci-Fi Future

  Authored by Caitlin Johnstone,

  I don’t desire a future for humanity like the ones imagined by our culturally designated future-imaginers. I don’t want humans living in Elon Musk Mars colonies or Jeff Bezos space cylinders. I don’t want us to fly out into the stars, to disappear into virtual reality universes, or to move away from our humanness by becoming cybernetic organisms.

  

  Not yet anyway. Not for a long time. Not until we’ve done what we need to do here first.

  Have you ever noticed that most books, shows and movies set in the future tend to depict a humanity that’s more technologically advanced than our own, but thinks and behaves in basically the same way? In the average sci-fi story people are still waging wars, still fighting, conquering, subjugating, toiling and surviving just like today, except they’re doing it out in space surrounded by a bunch of aliens (who are also oddly entangled in the same egoic patternings as humans in the 21st century).

  In this common vision for the future, we have mastered space travel but still haven’t mastered basic psychological health. Our technology has enabled us to kill, enslave, manipulate and exploit among the stars so that we are no longer confined to killing, enslaving, manipulating and exploiting down here.

  This tendency is partly due to the limits of imagination; it’s easy to imagine more advanced versions of our own technology, but trying to imagine a mindframe that’s very different from your own is like trying to imagine being twice as intelligent as you are. Trying to imagine living in a conscious civilization while your own civilization is deeply unconscious is like a dream character trying to imagine life outside the dream. It’s not hard to extrapolate upon existing patterns, but envisioning the complete dissolution of patterns can be much more difficult.

  This tendency is also due to the fact that science fiction writers are telling stories for an immature civilization full of restless minds who would be easily bored by tales of a peaceful future without any major problems. But that’s the kind of future that I want for humanity. A peaceful one without any major problems. One that wouldn’t make a good Hollywood blockbuster.

  And it’s actually kind of a problem that the future which humanity is mentally pointing itself toward is one in which all our restlessness and dysfunction persists. Our steps into the future will be guided by our collective vision for it, and when those visions are about space colonization, virtual reality and transhumanism, our collective compass is going to be skewed toward dysfunction.

  Right now for example most human innovation goes toward generating profits and/or military dominance, which puts us on a trajectory toward more and more technologically advanced personal doodads to buy at the store and more and more ways of killing large numbers of people at a time. It doesn’t put us on a trajectory toward finding ways to make sure everyone has enough, to helping people have more leisure time, to helping humanity move in harmony with our ecosystem. All of those innovations would do infinitely more to create a more pleasant future for humanity than spaceships and laser guns, but our systems do not give rise to them, because they are not profitable and don’t help increase a government’s military power.

  There are so many assumptions baked in to our collective visions for the future and the systems we’ve set up to carry us there. Assumptions like we’ll never have peace; we’ll always have violence, conflict and domination; we’ll always have poverty and the need for endless toil; we’ll never be able to stop consuming our biosphere to death so we’d better get out into space so that capitalism can keep expanding. All of those assumptions point us away from a healthy and harmonious future.

  And of course that’s what you’d expect from a deeply unconscious species, which is what we still are currently. We’re still largely operating on autopilot like any other animal, whipped about by the forces of conditioning patterns that have been reverberating from the most distant reaches of our evolutionary ancestry. A collective history of trauma and fear combined with our newly evolved capacity for abstract thought has left us confused and disoriented in ways we haven’t yet gained lucidity on; an adolescent species in an awkward transition phase.

  And I can’t help but think how productive it would be if, rather than spending our energy trying to dash off into outer space or bury our heads in virtual reality, our movement into the future was focused more on resolving all that? If rather than feeding into our unconscious restlessness by giving ourselves more and more places to try and escape to, we set about learning to simply be here now?

  What if instead of trying to be anywhere but here, humanity made a mad push for enlightenment? What if instead of spending the next centuries trying to get away from the present reality, our society began emphasizing things like meditation and self-enquiry to help us finally truly meet the present reality? What if our science became less focused on profit and destruction and more on trying to find ways to help people be okay with themselves? What if psychedelic institutions were set up around the world to help everyone explore their inner realms and bring the unconscious into consciousness using skillful methods and entheogenic compounds?

  I mean, most of us can’t even sit still in meditation for an hour without their mind racing all over the place and doing everything except what it’s asked to do. Does that sound natural to you? Does that sound like a conscious, healthy species? Or does it sound like a species that, if handed paradise on a golden platter, would immediately destroy it out of boredom?

  A lot of what we see the most influential minds envisioning for our future just looks like restlessness to me, a relentless compulsion to be anywhere but here, much like the mental fidgeting of an individual attempting to meditate. We don’t even have any evidence that humans can live completely independent of Earth’s biosphere, yet it’s taken as a given that we’ll be running off into the stars so we don’t have to make the drastic changes in ourselves that will be necessary to sustain human life on this planet. The idea of simply settling down and learning to be here sounds unthinkably hellish to a mind enslaved to restlessness, to such an extent that it will concoct unrealistic fictions about the future rather than facing reality.

  Even if we did succeed in colonizing space, it wouldn’t solve any of our problems, and it wouldn’t make our future any more pleasant. We’d just be moving our restless, violent, insatiable, discontented minds offworld, where we’ll immediately recreate all the same problems we created down here except we’ll be doing it in artificial bubbles surrounded by deadly black desert on all sides. I mean, you think Thanksgiving is hell? Imagine cooped up with your family all day every day in what’s essentially a mall that you can never leave. Is your head really ready for that?

  A head rattling with mental chatter would be incapable of experiencing any wonder in space exploration, and would be incapable of experiencing joy in the creation of virtual worlds. A serene mind experiences wonder and joy walking across a parking lot. What we really want is equanimity, not space colonization and VR. Deep down we don’t really want to be somewhere else, we want to be able to truly be here.

  I’d really like to see humanity begin recalibrating its visions for the future away from these pathways toward glorified escapism, and toward the creation of a healthy and harmonious world. It might not sell books and movie tickets (at least not right away), but it will point us toward where we all really want to be in our heart of hearts.

  *  *  *

  My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal, or buying an issue of my monthly zine. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my American husband Tim Foley.

  Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

  Liked it? Take a second to support Caitlin Johnstone on Patreon!

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 23:00

• China Quietly Launches QE: Beijing Orders Large Insurers To Buy Bonds To Contain Selling Panic
  China Quietly Launches QE: Beijing Orders Large Insurers To Buy Bonds To Contain Selling Panic

  At its core, when stripped away of all rhetoric and technicalities, the Fed’s QE is just one big bond-buying operation by the so-called Lender (and Buyer) of Last Resort, an operation meant to stabilize the market and restore order and price transparency even if it means creating an artificial market (as the Fed found out the hard way 12 years of QE will do). And if one goes by that simple definition, last night China – which has so far been against replicating the Fed’s repertoire of market intervention amid concerns it would exacerbate the country’s giant debt bubble – quietly  launched QE.

  According to Bloomberg, Chinese regulators asked the nation’s biggest insurers to buy bonds being offloaded as retail customers pull their cash from fixed-income investments. At a meeting on Wednesday, Chinese regulators told top insurers to backstop the market and buy bonds sold by wealth management units at banks to prevent further volatility. Some banks also proposed to use their proprietary trading desks to scoop up bonds, one source said.

  Of course, in China where virtually every major financial enterprise is a SOE – i.e., state -wned – there is no such thing as “big independent insurers”: they are all essentially government entities, and just one-step removed from official state apparatus to preserve some semblance of a private market (with state characteristics). But at the end of the day, what the regulators just greenlighted is nothing shy of QE, and what’s more, unlike the US where at least there is some pretense of an asset swap as banks exchange bonds for reserves, in China the flow of funds is much simpler: someone, anyone, buys bonds to calm down the market. And since this is a step that is usually taken as a last-ditch resort, one can confidently say that we may have very well seen the bottom in Chinese assets.

  The guidance, handed down at a meeting that was also attended by big (state-owned) banks and lenders, comes as Chinese traders and retail investors have been ditching fixed-income assets and pouring money into stocks on growing economic optimism as China rolls back its strict Covid Zero approach. The turmoil last month, which saw large withdrawals from bond-backed wealth management products, earlier also prompted regulators to ask banks to report on their liquidity situation.

  According to the report, some insurance firms, whose investment products are less vulnerable to short-term redemptions, have already heeded the call and “purchased bonds on a positive market outlook” even before the latest guidance. The biggest insurance firms include China Life Insurance Co. and Ping An Insurance Group of China. The asset management arms of just those two manage a combined 8.74 trillion yuan ($1.3 trillion), according to their websites. Both are, of course, majority state-owned, and thus all that is taking place, is China’s state now actively buying up bonds to stabilize the market.

  Some more background: in an effort to increase transparency of risks and instill more discipline in China’s 29 trillion yuan wealth management market (yes, don’t laugh), authorities had embarked on a multi-year reform to have banks ditch a fixed-return model and move to mark-to-market pricing. However, this spooked investors who for years have been used to steady, guaranteed returns, causing large outflows and forced selling by money managers.

  As a result, China’s benchmark bond yields surged the most in six years on Nov. 14 as signs China is loosening its Covid Zero policies caused a rapid shift into stocks. Yields continued to climb since, before easing a bit on Wednesday as news of the unofficial QE spread. China’s one-year government bond yield has risen to near the highest this year at 2.25%, after a spike of more than 50 basis points since November.

  And, lo and behold, as always happens central bank/state buying of bonds commences, the market immediately stabilized and Chinese bond futures surged on Thursday, posting their biggest gain in two weeks.  Futures contracts on the 10-year note rose as much as 0.4% to 99.855, the most since Nov. 23. Yields on 10-year and one-year notes both declined after having blown out in the past month alongside repo yields.

  

  Meanwhile, daily redemptions on largely bond-backed wealth management products could have peaked at as much as 200 billion yuan, according to an estimate from Everbright Securities.

  

  In other words, those insurance giants will be busy. Or may not: after all, the mere hint that the state will buy bonds if they drop enough should be sufficient to prevent further selling: we saw just that in March 2020, and we saw it all again in September, when the BOE scrambled to restart QE following the liability-driven investment crash when all fixed income assets were dumped after the mini-budget fiasco.

  And if that’s not enough, Beijing slapped even more measures to preserve market stability: Banks and asset managers have also moved to limit redemptions. Bank of China, one of the four big state banks, has set a daily quota on what customers can redeem at 10,000 yuan starting mid-December. Suyin Wealth Management and Bank of Guiyang have also capped real-time redemption on some products at 10,000 yuan per day, according to their latest mandates.

  More than 95% of outstanding wealth management products sold by banks and asset managers are marked to market, according to official data as of the end of June. Bonds account for about 68% of the total underlying assets.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 22:40

• Major Economic Contraction Coming In 2023… Followed By Even More Inflation
  Major Economic Contraction Coming In 2023… Followed By Even More Inflation

  Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

  The signs are already present and obvious, but the overall economic picture probably won’t be acknowledged in the mainstream until the situation becomes much worse (as if it’s not bad enough). It’s a problem that arises at the onset of every historic financial crisis – Mainstream economists and commentators lie to the public about the chances of recovery, constantly giving false reassurances and lulling people back to sleep. Even now with price inflation pummeling the average consumer they tell us that there is nothing to worry about. The Federal Reserve’s “soft landing” is on the way.

  

  I remember in 2007 right before the epic derivatives collapse when media pundits were applauding the US housing market and predicting even greater highs in sales and in valuations. I had only been writing economic analysis for about a year, but I remember thinking that the overt display of optimism felt like compensation for something. It seemed as if they were trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the public in the hopes that if people just believed hard enough that all was well then the fantasy could be manifested into reality. Unfortunately, that’s not how economics works.

  Supply and demand, debt and deficit, money velocity and inflation; these things cannot be ignored. If the system is out of balance, collapse will set its ugly foot down somewhere and there’s nothing anyone including central banks can do about it. In fact, there are times when they deliberately ENGINEER collapse.

  This is the situation we are currently in today as 2022 comes to a close. The Fed is in the midst of a rather aggressive rate hike program in a “fight” against the stagflationary crisis that they created through years of fiat stimulus measures. The problem is that the higher interest rates are not bringing prices down, nor are they really slowing stock market speculation. Easy money has been too entrenched for far too long, which means a hard landing is the most likely scenario.

  In the early 2000s the Fed had been engaged in artificially low interest rates which inflated the housing and derivatives bubble. In 2004, they shifted into a tightening process. Rates in 2004 were at 1% and by 2006 they rose to over 5%. This is when cracks began to appear in the credit structure, with 4.5% – 5.5% being the magic cutoff point before debt became too expensive for the system to continue the charade. By 2007/2008 the nation witnessed an exponential implosion of credit, setting off the biggest money printing bonanza in US history in order to save the banking sector, at least for a time.

  Since nothing was actually fixed by the Fed back then, I will continue to use the 5% funds rate as a marker for when we will see another major contraction. The difference this time is that the central bank does not have the option to flood the economy with more fiat, at least not without immediately triggering a larger stagflationary spiral. I am also operating on the premise that the Fed WANTS a crash at this time.

  As I noted in my article ‘The Fed Is Taking The Punch Bowl Away – But The Inflation Crisis Will Continue To Grow’, published in May:

  “Mainstream financial commentators want to believe the Fed will capitulate because they desperately want the party in stock markets to continue, but the party is over. Sure, there will be moments when the markets rally based on nothing more than a word or two from a Fed official planting false hopes, but this will become rare. Ultimately, the Fed has taken away the punch bowl and it’s not coming back. They have the perfect excuse to kill the economy and kill markets in the form of a stagflationary disaster THEY CAUSED. Why would they reverse course now?”

  My position is that the central bank has a global agenda that eclipses any national loyalty, and that it requires the decline of the American economy in order to expedite the introduction of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) linked together through the IMF. So far they are getting exactly what they want and they are perfectly aware of what they are doing.

  The Fed is expected to slow rate hikes to 50bps in December, but this is not assured with the jobs market still running hot from $8 trillion in covid stimulus the past two years (mostly lower paying retail and service sector jobs). By the February meeting of 2023 the Fed will be at or very near 5% interest rates, which I believe will help trigger a considerable plunge in markets and mass layoffs.

  There are other factors to consider, though. One lesser known issue is the new 1% excise tax on stock buybacks planted within Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The measure, which goes into effect in January of next year, will not reduce prices on goods. That said, stock buybacks are still the primary means by which equities are kept afloat by major corporations. Over the past decade, buybacks have been funded by money borrowed from the Fed at near zero interest – essentially free money. Now, the easy money party is about to end.

  The 1% excise tax added on top of a 5% Fed funds rate creates a 6% millstone on any money borrowed to finance future buybacks. This cost is going to be far too high and buybacks will falter. Meaning, stock markets will also stop, and drop. It will likely take two or three months before the tax and the rate hikes create a visible effect on markets. This would put our time frame for contraction around March or April of 2023.

  Inflation is not going anywhere anytime soon, however. The underlying problem of energy prices needs to be considered as they contribute to further supply chain stress.

  Think about this for a moment: The current reduction in oil prices and energy is artificial and government driven, not supply and demand driven. Oil prices in the US are being kept down by Joe Biden’s constant supply dumps from the strategic reserves. Eventually Biden is going to run out of oil to drop on markets and he will have to replenish those reserves at a much higher cost.

  Furthermore, oil and energy prices are being kept down because of China’s suspiciously bizarre Zero Covid policy, which is slowing their economy to a crawl and reducing oil usage to a minimum. With public riots escalating, the CCP will probably seek to ease conditions as a means to placate dissent, playing a game of release the steam valve. A reopening by early next year is on the way, with a number of controls still in place of course.

  As soon as China reopens, oil prices will skyrocket once again on the global market.

  Then, there is the war in Ukraine and the ongoing sanctions against Russia. Europe is about to face the worst winter in decades with natural gas supplies severely limited and the cost of power for manufacturing no longer tenable. Their only hope is for mild temperatures for the rest of the season. If the current trend continues, production in Europe will be throttled, causing chaos in the global supply chain.

  High energy prices and supply chain disruptions will mean ongoing inflated prices in goods and services well into 2023, even with a contraction in jobs markets and stock markets. I will be publishing an article soon with a working theory on how the US could actually stop inflation without crushing the rest of the economy. The model would require cooperation from leaders at the state level, though, along with a number of business interests that focus on necessities. In the meantime, I suggest readers stock provisions whenever possible and organize within their local communities before next April.

  *  *  *

  If you would like to support the work that Alt-Market does while also receiving content on advanced tactics for defeating the globalist agenda, subscribe to our exclusive newsletter The Wild Bunch Dispatch.  Learn more about it HERE.

   

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 22:20

• New Zealand Takes Baby From Parents Demanding "Unvaccinated" Blood For Heart Surgery
  New Zealand Takes Baby From Parents Demanding “Unvaccinated” Blood For Heart Surgery

  New Zealand’s High Court on Wednesday took custody of an infant whose parents demanded he only receive blood from donors who are unvaccinated against Covid-19 for an urgently needed heart surgery to repair a congenital defect.

  

  “He remains in urgent need of an operation, and every day that the operation is delayed his heart is under strain,” reads the order, citing one of his doctors.

  The parents, Cole Reeves and Samantha Savage, rejected doctors’ assertion that using blood donated from outside normal channels was “impractical” for the child’s circumstance, and that surgery without donated blood was “not an available option.”

  Apparently an unvaccinated volunteer with the same blood type is not ‘an available option.’

  Judge Ian Gault ruled that it was in “Baby W’s best interests” for the court to take temporary custody of him so the surgery could be performed. The infant was placed under the guardianship of the court from Wednesday until he recovers from surgery, but not beyond January 31st, the Washington Post reports.

  The surgery, which is set for Friday morning, is estimated to take 48 hours to complete. Two doctors were appointed as Baby W’s legal representatives for the purpose of consenting to surgery, and Reeves and Savage were appointed as his representatives for “all other purposes.” Doctors said they would “take the parents’ views into consideration” whenever possible — as long as doing so wouldn’t compromise “Baby W’s interests.”

  The decision followed a tense period of several weeks fraught with baseless claims, according to the order. -WaPo

  Reeves and Savage how now tried to stop doctors preparing the infant for the operation on Friday – which the High Court responded to by ordering the parents not to obstruct staff at Starship Hospital.

  Te Whatu Ora has asked for the police to step in and also asked the court if officers are entitled to use reasonable force to remove the baby from the parents.

  In his decision yesterday, Justice Gault also said doctors from Te Whatu Ora had been made agents of the court to carry out the surgery, including the adminstration of any blood products.

  In a minute issued this evening, Justice Gault said he had been informed by the lawyer acting for Te Whatu Ora that the baby’s parents had prevented doctors from taking blood tests, performing a chest X-ray and performing an anaesthetic assessment.

  The lawyer understood the parents had threatened to lay criminal charges against medical staff if they went ahead, Justice Gault said. –RNZ

  “You touch our child and we will press criminal charges against you,” the parents told hospital staff, according to the filing.

  The parents’ lawyer, Sue Grey, petitioned the judge, asking for the opinions of two US doctors to be considered, adding that it would be “extreme overreach” if police were called in to remove the baby from his parents in order to perform the surgery.

  Justice Gault denied the request, saying Grey was effectively seeking to re-open the case he had already ruled on.

  “Baby W urgently requires surgery and, as I concluded in my judgment, an order enabling the surgery to proceed using NZBS [New Zealand Blood Service] blood products without further delay is in Baby W’s best interests,” wrote Gault.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 22:00

• The Monopoly-Labor "Let It Rot" Death Spiral
  The Monopoly-Labor “Let It Rot” Death Spiral

  Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

  The only rational response to this reality is to opt out, lay flat and let it rot.

  

  In my previous post, The Bubble Economy’s Credit-Asset Death Spiral, I described the self-reinforcing feedback of expanding credit and soaring asset valuations and how the only possible result of this financial perpetual motion machine was a death spiral of collapsing debt service, collateral and credit impulse.

  But this didn’t exhaust the destructive dynamics of this self-reinforcing wealth-creation machine for the few who own the vast majority of the assets. As longtime correspondent T.D. explains, this concentration of the benefits of financialization in the hands of the few also concentrates political power and the wealth to distort every function of the economy to enrich the few at the expense of the many.

  This concentration of wealth and corruption isn’t cost-free. As I’ve discussed here many times, capital siphoned $50 trillion from labor via hyper-financialization and hyper-globalization:

  The Bill for America’s $50 Trillion Gluttony of Inequality Is Overdue (September 21, 2020)

  Our Phantom Middle Class (December 23, 2020)

  Monopolies and cartels focus on self-enrichment, not social or economic stability. Concentrating wealth and power in the hands of the most self-serving few and their entrenched interests has crushed the ladders of social mobility. Assets such as a family home are out of reach in many locales for all but the few. Inflation, high taxes and the corruption of student loans, etc. have stripped all but the top 10% of any hope of gaining middle-class security.

  The only rational response to this reality is to opt out, lay flat and let it rot: stop the self-exploitation of working to make the already-rich even richer. Direct resistance is easily suppressed by force. But “letting it rot” by withdrawing one’s labor and conformity cannot be reversed with force. Once a critical mass of the workforce opts out of self-exploitation and “lets it rot,” the system of financialization / exploitation of labor can no longer sustain itself and it collapses in a putrid heap.

  Here’s T.D.’s explanation of these dynamics:

  Don’t forget the ‘monopolization effect’ promoted by the cycle you describe.

  Large organizations in any industry use their inflated valuations as leverage to acquire whatever resources are needed to bully their smaller competitors out of the game.

  They can buy off politicians, regulators, talent, and competitors to ensure their market dominance.

  It’s happened in every industry–including healthcare.

  It’s also left every industry dominated by a small number of colluding Potemkin organizations reliant on financialization to generate stakeholder value. They are formidable appearing but bereft of talent and mission. When challenges appear they simply do more of the same, becoming ever more reliant on their financialization to keep their systems churning.

  In healthcare we are left with consolidating providers and payers who deliver just enough ‘care’ to create the simulacrum of a ‘health system’ but in reality they are completely unable to cope with their putative mission.

  Need proof? Imagine what health care would look like if there were no Federal dollars of any kind.

  There would be no more palaces of healing, no indecipherable bills, and no onerous pricing.

  Just a service priced on value as judged by the purchaser.

  Through inflation, speculative price swings, regulatory opacity, and preferential access to capital, the system described in your post is quite intentionally designed to use ever-inflating capital valuations to take the value of labor from the wage-earner and place it in the pocket of those who have the capital.

  That’s why it’s so vulnerable to those who withdraw their labor. They work outside the system, they limit the excess value they create by ‘laying flat.’

  Without the labor, there’s nothing to steal.

  And all the IRS agents in the world won’t change that.

  We’re seeing a huge labor shift in healthcare. Last year the big news was the mass migration of nurses to the Agency model where they could earn 2-3 x their hourly wage–you read that right, wages had been suppressed for so long, a freer market was able to treble them.

  There was significant regulatory pushback, as health systems accused agencies and the nurses they represent of price gouging (heh).

  That didn’t last long though.

  It quickly became clear that those nurses weren’t going to return to their jobs at their previous pay, even if the agency option was regulated away.

  So now, needing those nurses on the floor, the dominant model is a hospital staffed with agency nurses earning far more (and happier!) than they would have as full-time employees

  Through using complexity to capture each industry and reducing the individual rewards of overcoming that complexity, the system you describe has sowed the seeds of the labor shortage which will result in its own destruction.

  And all the anxiety, distraction, and division they sow only accelerates the very thing they seek to prevent.

  And those of us who can see it simply need to prepare, sit back, and watch.

  Well said, T.D. Thank you for the explanation.

  *  *  *

  My new book is now available at a 10% discount ($8.95 ebook, $18 print): Self-Reliance in the 21st Century. Read the first chapter for free (PDF)

  Become a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 21:40

• TSA Plans Nationwide Rollout Of Biometric Machines For Airport Travelers
  TSA Plans Nationwide Rollout Of Biometric Machines For Airport Travelers

  Traversing Transportation Security Administration (TSA) lines is already stressful enough at airports. All travelers are screened during the security process by technology or an invasive pat-down. One such machine currently being tested in more than a dozen airports with a possible nationwide rollout next year is one where travelers look straight into a camera, according to The Washington Post.

  The TSA is quietly testing a biometric machine called the next generation of Credential Authentication Technology (CAT) to verify the identity of travelers via their face. CAT scans the traveler’s photo ID and then compares that with the Secure Flight database. 

  

  CAT machines are currently at 16 major airports with plans to expand nationwide, according to WaPo, adding, “Kiosks with cameras are doing a job that used to be completed by humans: checking the photos on travelers’ IDs to make sure they’re not impostors.” 

  

  The controversial tech is currently opt-in for passengers (at the moment). It’s so controversial that several cities, such as San Francisco, have banned it.

  There’s a lot to worry about if TSA is given the green light for a nationwide rollout next year. One thing is, how can anyone trust this federal agency to handle biometric data properly? 

  TSA recently said, “Photos captured by CAT units are never stored or used for any other purpose than immediate identity verification.” But still — with trust in government at low levels, who actually believes that statement. 

  The expansion of biometric verification data for travelers is a sign that the US is following down a terrifying path that China took to become a surveillance nation. 

  So what does this all mean? Well, it’s a warning of the dystopic future where biometrics will be used to identify citizens across all facets of society. Think about Amazon’s palm-reading payment technology that allows customers at some Whole Foods locations to pay with their fingerprints. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 21:20

• Call For Investigation Into Mortality Rates As Australia Sees Death-Rate Spike
  Call For Investigation Into Mortality Rates As Australia Sees Death-Rate Spike

  Authored by Victoria Kelly-Clark via The Epoch Times,

  Australia has seen a spike in its mortality rates in 2022, with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) stating that by the end of August 2022, 128,797 deaths had been registered, which is 18,671 deaths, or 17 percent, more than the historical average.

  In the data release on Nov. 25, the ABS noted that of registered deaths; there had been a rise in the number of Australians dying from dementia (18.9 percent above the baseline average), diabetes (20.8 percent higher than the baseline average), cancer, and COVID-19.

  

  Karen Cutter, a spokesperson for the Actuaries Institute of Australia (AIA) said in a media release (pdf) that even after the Institute’s COVID-19 Mortality Working Group removed all “from” and “with” COVID-19 deaths, it was not clear why Australians were dying in larger numbers from other diseases such as ischaemic heart disease, cancer, and cerebrovascular disease in 2021 and 2022.

  In an analysis (pdf) from Nov. 3, the AIA noted that 1,200 more Australians had died from ischaemic heart disease than expected, while cerebrovascular disease had 450 more deaths than normal. Meanwhile, mortality rates from diabetes increased by 400 deaths, and dementia saw an extra 800 deaths.

  According to the ABS, between January and August this year, 7,727 Australians died from COVID-19.

  “It is not clear what might be driving this, although we expect that at least part of the excess will be in respect of people who otherwise may have succumbed to respiratory disease in 2020 and 2021,” said Cutter.

  They also said that diabetes deaths have generally been higher than expected throughout the pandemic.

  Cutter noted that the AIA had also noticed that of the excess deaths in the 0-44 and 45-64 age bands were small, and the number of women dying was higher than expected.

  She has called on the federal government to launch an inquiry into the cause of the spike.

  “The differences are worth investigation, although the small numbers mean that there is considerable natural variation,” she said.

  Spiking Mortality Rates a Global Phenomenon

  The spike in mortality rates is being experienced globally, with the UK’s Chief Medical Officer, Sir Chris Whitty, as well as Sir Patrick Vallance, the country’s Chief Scientific Adviser, declaring the country is facing a “prolonged period” of excess deaths after people differed treatment during the initial stages of the pandemic.

  Meanwhile, the UK’s health secretary Steve Barclay said that the government needed to come clean about the excess deaths.

  In a speech to the Spectator Health Summit in London on Nov. 28, Barclay said that the government must share the scale of the COVID backlog, which he estimated was now “around now 7.1 million patients.”

  “We know from the data that there are more 50-to 64-year olds with cardiovascular issues. It’s the result of delays in that age group seeing a GP because of the pandemic and, in some cases, not getting statins for hypertension in time,” he said.

  “When coupled with delays in ambulance times, we see this reflected in the excess death numbers. In time, we may well see a similar challenge in cancer data,” Barclay said.

  COVID-19 Lingering Effects

  The AIA agrees that delayed medical treatment may be a cause behind Australia’s rising death rate.

  In an analysis of the pandemic in 2022, they said that it was highly likely that delays in medical care was a contributing factor to the excess death rates from other diseases.

  “Pressure on the health, hospital and aged care systems, including ambulance ramping and bed block, could lead to people not getting the care they require, either as they avoid seeking help, or their care is not as timely as it might have been in pre-pandemic times,” they said.

  “There is some evidence that this may be affecting cancer deaths. It may also be a factor in higher deaths from other causes, such as ischaemic heart disease, diabetes, and the large ‘other’ category.”

  They also noted that COVID-19 lingering health effects could also be contributing to the increased rates.

  Studies show that coronavirus is associated with increased mortality risks from heart disease and other causes. However, because doctors certifying the death would not necessarily know of the infection if it had occurred months prior, this could demonstrate a causative link several months after recovery from COVID-19.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 21:00

• Chinese Health Official Admits 80-90% Of Population May End Up With COVID
  Chinese Health Official Admits 80-90% Of Population May End Up With COVID

  After just within the past week China’s government dramatically pivoted from its ultra-harsh ‘zero Covid’ policy – a policy which had triggered unprecedented widespread protests against communist authorities and health officials as in some instances they barricaded whole neighborhoods into strictly controlled quarantine zones – toward what appears a full embrace of a more lax ‘Swedish model’ type approach, national health authorities are prepping the population for the coming Covid wave, which could impact an estimated 80 to 90% of the Chinese population, according to a fresh projection by Feng Zijian, a former deputy chief at China’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

  “It’s going to be inevitable for most of us to get infected once, regardless of how the Covid-fighting measures are adjusted,” Feng said Tuesday during a virtual conference discussing the zero Covid offramp at Tsinghua University in Beijing. As a senior health official, Feng is part of the central government’s task force in implementing new policies which has moved away from the ‘one size fits all’ mentality that guided Beijing’s health response since the pandemic began.

  “Some 60% of Chinese people may be infected in the first wave, before the curve flattens, Feng predicted,” as cited in Bloomberg. “By comparison, about 58% of the US population had been infected by February this year, according to a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis released in April. That was up from 33.5% in December.”

  

  So it seems two years too late, China is learning the lessons of a number of countries that embraced a more flexible stance based on understanding herd immunity early, also centered on protecting the most vulnerable demographic, the elderly and the infirm, while not shuttering the economy wholesale.

  Further, as of Thursday morning in China (local time), health authorities are reporting “more than 20,000 new cases a day at the moment, as outbreaks flare from Beijing to the southern manufacturing hub of Guangzhou. That’s up from less than 100 a day in June, and zero for long periods of 2020.”

  But China says it’s ready amid its more localized approach which will seek to prep hospitals, civic authorities, and the citizenry on “proper protective measures” – such as greater deployment of at home rapid antigen test kits. “It is better to direct the flood than block it,” Lu Jiahai, a senior expert at the state drug regulator National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), said.

  As for this approach looking more like a Swedish model policy (though don’t expect anyone in Beijing to call it that), Caixin Global recently captured the following quotes which illustrate an astounding about-face in thinking on the pandemic among Chinese officials: 

  Although there are challenges in the implementation of home quarantine, the infection risks should not be exaggerated, said University of Hong Kong’s Jin.

  “Scientific guidelines should be provided for everyone to follow with a clear accountability mechanism, as there have been many examples that even couples in the same room didn’t infect each other,” said Jin, citing the experience in Hong Kong, where home isolation has been widely adopted after the worst outbreaks hit in the spring.

  One resident in Beijing agreed. “I think it is more important to eliminate the irrational fear of being infected, and at the same time learn how to reduce the risk of cross-infection,” Ma Qiao, who has studied preventative medicine, told Caixin.

  Some of the new measures from the communist government call for isolating asymptomatic or mild Covid cases at home rather than in quarantine camps or hospitals for seven days. Anyone in contact with the infected would have to quarantine at home for five days instead of eight days at a camp and then at home.

  The State Council further disbanded the rule for people to show negative Covid tests before entering public places. As the SCMP summarized of the new approach this week: “The new policy stressed that basic social and medical services need to be provided. People’s movements, work and production should not be restricted in low-risk areas.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 20:40

• Federal Pandemic Program Forgave $809 Million In PPP Loans To White-Shoe Law Firms: Watchdog
  Federal Pandemic Program Forgave $809 Million In PPP Loans To White-Shoe Law Firms: Watchdog

  Authored by Mark Tapscott via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Federal officials forgave $809 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans handed out during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to more than 100 of the nation’s top law firms and another $635 million given to hundreds of elite accounting offices, according to a new analysis of government spending to be made public on Dec. 2.

  

  As described by the Department of Treasury, the PPP was established in 2020 to provide “small businesses with the resources they need to maintain their payroll, hire back employees who may have been laid off, and cover applicable overhead.”

  The program was administered by the federal Small Business Administration, which made $787 billion in federal loans to companies and firms spanning all industries. The vast majority of the “loans” were subsequently turned into grants, which didn’t require repayment.

  An investigation by Open the Books found that hundreds of millions of federal tax dollars went to top law and accounting firms even though most of them didn’t qualify as small businesses and didn’t have to lay off employees.

  Open the Books is a nonprofit watchdog that uses public information laws such as the federal Freedom of Information Act to make government spending public, including “every dime online, in real time.”

  The Epoch Times obtained an advance copy of the investigative report.

  Auditors “found an astonishing $1.4 billion in forgiven PPP loans that flowed to the largest and most successful law and accounting firms across America,” the report stated.

  “Today, it is an open question whether many of the firms needed a taxpayer subsidy to ‘save’ any jobs during the Covid-pandemic. Many racked up record revenues while their equity partners made millions of dollars.

  “For example, in the years 2020 and 2021, we found equity partners individually received $7 million in profits while their law firms received $10 million in forgiven PPP ‘loans.’ The Guam office of Ernst & Young, a Big Three accounting firm with 365,000 employees, took a $750,000 forgiven loan.

  “In 2020, millions of mom and pop businesses on Main Street had to shut down during the forced economic lockdown [occasioned by the pandemic]. So, Congress created the Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) to compensate those businesses for their economic losses.

  “Firms with 500 employees or fewer met eligibility requirements. However, Congress didn’t anticipate that Biglaw and the largest accounting firms would cash in so profitably.”

  Among the biggest winners was Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, the New York City-based law firm of Democratic superlawyer David Boies, which received a forgiven $10.14 million PPP loan.

  Boies first came into national prominence in 2000, when he headed Vice President Al Gore’s legal team during the Florida presidential election recount. The election wasn’t decided until the Supreme Court’s Bush v. Gore decision, which put Texas Gov. George W. Bush in the Oval Office.

  Boies also gained national notoriety by representing the Department of Justice in its successful prosecution of Microsoft, and he headed a legal team that challenged California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriages. The proposition was approved in 2008 by voters, but the Supreme Court effectively nullified it in a 2013 decision.

  His firm’s PPP debt was forgiven in October 2021 under the Biden administration, even though during the period covered by the loan “the firm’s equity partners earned $4.5 million each in profit compensation—receiving $2.219 million (2021) and $2.283 million (2020). The firm billed clients $480 million during this two-year period,” Open the Books found.

  The second-biggest law firm beneficiary of PPP loans was the Birmingham, Alabama-based Maynard Cooper & Gale, which received $10.13 million under the pandemic relief program. Even so, the firm’s workforce increased from 247 in 2019 before the pandemic, to 260 in 2020 during the pandemic, and 283 in 2021.

  No. 3 among the white-shoe law firms getting tax dollars via the PPP program was the New York-based Kasowitz Benson Torres. The firm’s “revenues grew from $216.8 million (2019), to $219.4 million (2020) and then $238.4 million (2021). In April 2020, the firm received a $10.13 million PPP loan that was forgiven in July 2021—while profit per equity partner averaged $2.418 million (2021),” according to Open the Books.

  Among the big accounting firms getting tax dollars, Prager Metis CPAs in New York City received $10.2 million, which was forgiven in June. Revenues for 2021 reached $139 million, an increase from 2020’s total of $123.9 million.

  Withum’s of Princeton, New Jersey, was next, getting a PPP loan worth $10.1 million that was forgiven in June 2021. Withum’s revenues were $425.3 million in 2021, up significantly from its 2020 total of $257 million, according to Open the Books.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 20:20

• House Democrat Claims Her Children Had 'Nightmares' About Climate Change
  House Democrat Claims Her Children Had ‘Nightmares’ About Climate Change

  As Nancy Pelosi and other aged House Democrats seem to be backing away from the political stage, a new crop of Dems are trying to make their mark by one-upping the ideological insanity of their predecessors. 

  Incoming House Democrat Whip Katherine Clark claims in a recent interview with NBC that she is politically inspired because she remembers her middle child “waking up with nightmares” about climate change, and her family going to movie theaters with the expectation and fear that a mass shooter would appear.

  One’s immediate reaction to these claims, if one has common sense, is to laugh. 

  Children don’t have nightmares about climate change or worry about mass shooters unless their parents or other adults have conditioned them to obsess over such things. 

  Climate change is a non-issue, with the Earth’s overall temperature increasing by less than 1°C in the past 100 years.

  While mass shootings are highly publicized by the media (unless they end up involving an ethnic minority or a member of the LGBT community and then the story disappears), such events make up only 0.4% to 0.8% of all gun related deaths in the US according to RAND Corporation.

  This kind of commentary is built on agenda and exaggeration, to be sure, but it tells us a lot about the Democrats in that their political and social policies are rooted in a foundation of irrational fear.  Everything they do is motivated by a need to quell these fears in themselves or to inspire those same fears in the public (and our children) in order to gain more power. 

  Clark goes on to suggest that the GOP is going to “take down the economy” by opposing budget initiatives.  She does not explain why a constantly growing federal budget should have anything to do with the overall economy, likely because she does not understand the basics of the issue.  Massive government spending (and Federal Reserve money printing) is in fact a key trigger for the ongoing inflationary crisis. 

  The national debt doubled in the eight years Barack Obama was in the White House, with the central bank creating tens of trillions in fiat to artificially prop up “too big to fail” banks.  Inflation in the US today is a direct result of this historic spending blitz, along with the $8 trillion in covid money injected into the system over the past two years.  The Democrat solution to the problem is even more spending.

  Another interesting new narrative is also touched on in terms of the DNC being tied up with the FTX scandal, including over $40 million donated to the party in preparation for the 2022 mid-term elections.  The latest argument from Democrats is a direct parallel to the argument used by central banks and globalist institutions, which is that the fall of FTX should be used as a springboard for government regulation of the crypto space (leading to CBDCs).  Clark ignores the fact that money stolen by FTX flooded into Democrat campaign coffers and distracts from the bigger question.

  The outgoing Dem House is seeking to pass as many bills as possible before they exit in January, with even more funding for Ukraine and the passage of the NDAA at the top of their list.  The NDAA in particular is about to become a central House issue with Republicans saying they will not provide more military funding until the Pentagon abandons their covid vaccine mandates for soldiers.  The Dems will be a House minority after a number of losses in the mid-terms, making Clark and her cohorts a political footnote for at least the next two years.      

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 20:00

• THE TWITTER FILES, PART II – Twitter's Secret Blacklists
  THE TWITTER FILES, PART II – Twitter’s Secret Blacklists

  After nearly a week’s delay on the second installment of “THE TWITTER FILES” – Twitter’s internal correspondence surrounding their decision to censor the New York Post‘s Hunter Biden laptop story – Journalist Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) has begun releasing more information via Twitter.

  

  The second installment – which was released days after Musk fired former deputy General Counsel James Baker for ‘filtering’ the first release, is titled: “Twitter’s Secret Blacklists“

  1. A new #TwitterFiles investigation reveals that teams of Twitter employees build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics—all in secret, without informing users.

  — Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) December 9, 2022

  2. Twitter once had a mission “to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.” Along the way, barriers nevertheless were erected.

  3. Take, for example, Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (@DrJBhattacharya) who argued that Covid lockdowns would harm children. Twitter secretly placed him on a “Trends Blacklist,” which prevented his tweets from trending.

   

  

  4. Or consider the popular right-wing talk show host, Dan Bongino (@dbongino), who at one point was slapped with a “Search Blacklist.”

  

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

  5. Twitter set the account of conservative activist Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) to “Do Not Amplify.”

  

   

  7. What many people call “shadow banning,” Twitter executives and employees call “Visibility Filtering” or “VF.” Multiple high-level sources confirmed its meaning.

   

  8. “Think about visibility filtering as being a way for us to suppress what people see to different levels. It’s a very powerful tool,” one senior Twitter employee told us.

   

  9. “VF” refers to Twitter’s control over user visibility. It used VF to block searches of individual users; to limit the scope of a particular tweet’s discoverability; to block select users’ posts from ever appearing on the “trending” page; and from inclusion in hashtag searches.

   

  10. All without users’ knowledge.

   

  11. “We control visibility quite a bit. And we control the amplification of your content quite a bit. And normal people do not know how much we do,” one Twitter engineer told us. Two additional Twitter employees confirmed.

   

  12. The group that decided whether to limit the reach of certain users was the Strategic Response Team – Global Escalation Team, or SRT-GET. It often handled up to 200 “cases” a day.

   

  13. But there existed a level beyond official ticketing, beyond the rank-and-file moderators following the company’s policy on paper. That is the “Site Integrity Policy, Policy Escalation Support,” known as “SIP-PES.”

   

  14. This secret group included Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust (Vijaya Gadde), the Global Head of Trust & Safety (Yoel Roth), subsequent CEOs Jack Dorsey and Parag Agrawal, and others.

   

  15. This is where the biggest, most politically sensitive decisions got made. “Think high follower account, controversial,” another Twitter employee told us. For these “there would be no ticket or anything.”

   

  16. One of the accounts that rose to this level of scrutiny was

  @libsoftiktok

  —an account that was on the “Trends Blacklist” and was designated as “Do Not Take Action on User Without Consulting With SIP-PES.”

  

  17. The account—which Chaya Raichik began in November 2020 and now boasts over 1.4 million followers—was subjected to six suspensions in 2022 alone, Raichik says. Each time, Raichik was blocked from posting for as long as a week.

  18. Twitter repeatedly informed Raichik that she had been suspended for violating Twitter’s policy against “hateful conduct.”

  19. But in an internal SIP-PES memo from October 2022, after her seventh suspension, the committee acknowledged that “LTT has not directly engaged in behavior violative of the Hateful Conduct policy.” See here:

  

  20. The committee justified her suspensions internally by claiming her posts encouraged online harassment of “hospitals and medical providers” by insinuating “that gender-affirming healthcare is equivalent to child abuse or grooming.”

  21. Compare this to what happened when Raichik herself was doxxed on November 21, 2022. A photo of her home with her address was posted in a tweet that has garnered more than 10,000 likes.

  22. When Raichik told Twitter that her address had been disseminated she says Twitter Support responded with this message: “We reviewed the reported content, and didn’t find it to be in violation of the Twitter rules.” No action was taken. The doxxing tweet is still up.

  

  23. In internal Slack messages, Twitter employees spoke of using technicalities to restrict the visibility of tweets and subjects. Here’s Yoel Roth, Twitter’s then Global Head of Trust & Safety, in a direct message to a colleague in early 2021:

  

  24. Six days later, in a direct message with an employee on the Health, Misinformation, Privacy, and Identity research team, Roth requested more research to support expanding “non-removal policy interventions like disabling engagements and deamplification/visibility filtering.”

  

  25. Roth wrote: “The hypothesis underlying much of what we’ve implemented is that if exposure to, e.g., misinformation directly causes harm, we should use remediations that reduce exposure, and limiting the spread/virality of content is a good way to do that.”

  26. He added: “We got Jack on board with implementing this for civic integrity in the near term, but we’re going to need to make a more robust case to get this into our repertoire of policy remediations – especially for other policy domains.”

  27. There is more to come on this story, which was reported by @abigailshrier @shellenbergermd  @nelliebowles @isaacgrafstein and the team The Free Press @thefp. Keep up with this unfolding story here and at our brand new website: http://thefp.com.

   

  /Fin

  And some replies:

  “This is deeper than censorship. This is about propaganda and mind control, and the control of the American public. Twitter, and the social media aps have been rigged to control our minds”…@JasonWhitlock sums it all up on @TuckerCarlson tonight #TwitterFiles pic.twitter.com/F3SRldi35X

  — Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) December 9, 2022

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

  Gotta love seeing a “direct messages” tab on this screenshot where I’m assuming any staffer could read your DM’s 🤣🤣

  — Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) December 9, 2022

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

  I’ll just leave this here @jack @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/49dnI1Ik9h

  — TONY™️ (@T0NY_X2) December 9, 2022

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

  Former head of censorship at Twitter was perhaps not entirely unbiased … pic.twitter.com/yynb9whc5S

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022

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

  Twitter is working on a software update that will show your true account status, so you know clearly if you’ve been shadowbanned, the reason why and how to appeal

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022

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

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 19:51

• Judge Orders Pro-Life Flight Attendant Re-Hired At Southwest Airlines
  Judge Orders Pro-Life Flight Attendant Re-Hired At Southwest Airlines

  Authored by Janice Hisle via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A Texas federal judge has ordered Southwest Airlines to reinstate Charlene Carter, the flight attendant who made headlines after a jury ruled that she was unlawfully fired for expressing pro-life views and for criticizing her union.

  

  In a decision filed on Dec. 5, five months after a jury decided in Carter’s favor, Judge Brantley Starr remarked, “Bags fly free with Southwest. But free speech didn’t fly at all with Southwest in this case.”

  Starr granted Carter $300,000 in compensatory and punitive damages from Southwest; $300,000 in compensatory and punitive damages from the flight attendants’ union, Transport Workers Union of America Local 556; $150,000 in back pay, and $60,180.82 in prejudgment interest.

  Although the jury voted that Carter deserved more than $5 million, laws and rules limit the amount that can be awarded in such cases.

  “The jury also awarded front [or future] pay, but Carter would rather have her job back,” the judge wrote. “The Court reinstates Carter to her former position … If the Court opted for front pay over reinstatement, the court would complete Southwest’s unlawful scheme. Reinstatement is appropriate.”

  Further, the judge explicitly ordered Southwest and Local 556 to share the jury’s verdict and Starr’s decision with all members of the union via email and to post the documents in conspicuous places for a 60-day period.

  Starr’s order also forbids both the company and the union “from discriminating against Southwest flight attendants for their religious practices and beliefs, including—but not limited to—those expressed on social media and those concerning abortion.”

  Southwest and Local 556 are required to inform employees that federal law prohibits such discrimination.

  Both entities also must “reasonably accommodate Southwest flight attendants’ sincerely held religious beliefs, practices, and observances,” Starr wrote.

  The judge’s rulings and rationale are contained in three documents totaling 43 pages in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.

  Carter, who now lives in Colorado, fought for five years after she was fired. As The Epoch Times previously reported, Carter had become an outspoken opponent of abortion after she suffered physical and emotional effects from terminating a pregnancy years earlier, when she was 19.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 19:40

• Remote-Work Revolution Has Wiped Out $453 Billion In Commercial Real Estate Value
  Remote-Work Revolution Has Wiped Out $453 Billion In Commercial Real Estate Value

  Leading up to the Covid-19 pandemic, roughly 95% of commercial office space was occupied across the United States, according to US National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) – a nonprofit, non-government organization. By March 2020, occupancy plummeted to 10%, and has only recovered to 47%, according to a new NBER report which claims $453 billion in office commercial real estate value has been wiped out in an “office real estate apocalypse.”

  

  Around the US, that resulted in a 17.5 percent decrease in lease revenue between January 2020, and May 2022, and not only because fewer offices were being occupied, but also because those that are being rented are going for shorter terms, lower prices per month, and a lot less floor space is needed as staff are told they can work from home for most or all the week.

  Prior to the pandemic, 253 million square feet were rented per year; as of May 2022, just 59 million square feet had been rented, NBER’s data indicates. “This indicates a massive drop in office demand from tenants who are actively making space decisions,” NBER said. –The Register

  

  What’s more, while vacancy rates have hit a 30-year high, 61.7% of in-force commercial leases haven’t come up for renewal since the pandemic – meaning that “rents may not have bottomed out yet.”

  

  What this means is that commercial real estate – a popular choice for pension fund managers and investors alike – may not be the best idea for the foreseeable future, given the continuing work-from-home options adopted by corporate America.

  A common method used to invest in office real estate is commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), which are managed and traded via commercial mortgage-backed indexes (CMBX) made up of pools of CMBSes. 

  According to NBER, more recent CMBXes tend to include a higher percentage of office collateral than earlier vintages. Those newer, office-heavy CMBXes, NBER said, are what’s losing the most money. -The Register

  NBER says that in 2019, commercial real estate assets topped $4.7 trillion – offices being the largest component.

  

  Read the report below:

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 19:20

• The Ongoing COVID Deceptions: How Ruling Elites Lied About Masks And Mask Mandates
  The Ongoing COVID Deceptions: How Ruling Elites Lied About Masks And Mask Mandates

  Authored by Lipton Matthews via The Epoch Times,

  The mishandling of the covid-19 pandemic by global elites has severely eroded confidence in expert opinion. New information is emerging that senior officials doubted policies that were foisted upon the American public. By sharing the results of his deposition with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Missouri attorney general Eric Schmitt exposed Fauci’s advocacy of face masks as insincere:

  Another tidbit from the Fauci depo: In Feb 20 he emailed a friend advising her that masks were ineffective.

  Confirmed again on Mar 31.

  On April 3 he’s adamant masks should be worn even though he couldn’t cite a single study to prove it.

  Mandates followed—Lives ruined.

  Numerous studies disputed the efficacy of face masks, yet mask mandates rose to national prominence. During the apex of pandemic hysteria, the American Institute for Economic Research ran a series of scathing articles debunking the usefulness of face masks. In fact, one prominent 2020 study boldly admitted that mask use is primarily symbolic:

  We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes…

  The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflective reaction to anxiety over the pandemic.

  Not even children were spared from the covid-19 hysteria. Masks became commonplace in schools across America and the wider world, despite the large volume of research arguing that they could harm minors. One study from Germany noted that parents raised concerns about mask use having adverse effects on children. Moreover, evidence suggests that mask use limits the expressive capacity of children. Reading the facial expressions of teachers and peers aids a child’s language development, but unfortunately, masks were even required during intergroup conversations.

  

  A recent paper published in the journal Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications argues that mask use has hindered face recognition abilities in children. The researchers posited that impaired face recognition abilities have negative consequences for the emotional development of children, saying that “changes in face recognition performance and alteration in the processing of partially occluded faces could have significant effects on children’s social interactions with their peers and their ability to form relationships with educators.”

  Widespread mask mandates failed to benefit children, and instead of averting covid-related deaths, they led to people dying. According to Dr. Zacharias Fogen of Germany, “Mask mandates actually caused about 1.5 times the number of deaths or [approximately 50 percent] more deaths compared to no mask mandates.” Dr. Fogen theorized that the re-inhalation of hyperconcentrated droplets caught by masks led to worse ailments and fueled fatality rates.

  The scandal of covid-19 has demonstrated that elites deliberately misinformed the public at every corner. Citizens were scolded for ignoring mask mandates, even though the evidence was clear that they don’t work. The vilification of those who refused to endorse covid-19 vaccines was even more egregious.

  Vaccines are usually successful, but covid-19 vaccines were imposed on the public without proper research. Contrary to the claims of politically motivated actors, the latest research on covid-19 vaccines is astoundingly negative. Scientific research shows that rates of myocarditis are higher among the vaccinated and that natural immunity offers great protection against the virus. Moreover, there is overwhelming evidence that the highly touted lockdowns were a disaster. After the ruling elite’s orchestrated deception of the public, we would be foolish to trust their proposals.

  The pandemic has rightly taught us that governing elites will fabricate evidence and misuse data to promote their agenda at our expense, and it is unlikely that they will ever be able to regain our trust.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 19:00

• Xi Inks Tens Of Billions In Deals With Saudis, From Huawei Cloud-Computing To Expanded Military Ties
  Xi Inks Tens Of Billions In Deals With Saudis, From Huawei Cloud-Computing To Expanded Military Ties

  On the first full day of his visit wherein he was lavishly greeted and given full red-carpet treatment after arrival in the kingdom (clearly more so that Biden’s summer trip to Jeddah), Chinese President Xi Jinping met with King Salman and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Thursday, and wide-ranging economic and tech trade agreements were signed to the tune of tens of billions of dollars, along with pledges to expand military cooperation. 

  Among the commercial deals made, one name that featured prominently is sure to raise eyebrows in Washington, given the blanket ban and years-long controversy in the states: Huawei. Among the over $29 billion in agreements signed, The Wall Street Journal reports the Saudis are “setting up a Huawei cloud-computing region, building an electric-vehicle manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia and supplying green hydrogen batteries for a futuristic smart city the prince wants to build.”

  

  Little in the way of official statements fully detailing the process of the discussions and joint agreements have been issued as talks with Xi and his top aides have occurred entirely behind closed palace doors.

  The WSJ continues, “Missing from the leaders’ public statements was any mention of the more controversial aspects of a relationship that have raised the hackles of U.S. officials—such as advanced military sales, expansion of 5G and 6G telecommunications networks and pricing some Saudi oil sales in yuan, which accelerated this year.”

  Among other areas of cooperation include urban development, housing construction, high tech complexes, as well as health, environmental, and energy-saving building projects, all related to the Saudi Vision 2030 and Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative.

  Concerning the latter area, the WSJ details that “One of the agreements involves a top Saudi renewable energy company, Acwa Power, and the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd.—China’s largest commercial bank, which is a direct participant in CIPS, the Chinese version of SWIFT—hinting at deepening financial cooperation between the countries.”

  🇸🇦🤝🇨🇳The royal family of Saudi Arabia personally came to meet President Xi Jinping at the airport. pic.twitter.com/I8dOLHbkl4

  — AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎 (@AZgeopolitics) December 7, 2022

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

  It goes without saying that the China-Saudi summit is being held against the backdrop of strained Saudi relations with Washington, also as Saudi officials likely increasingly see America as a superpower in decline. This theme has also been on display with apparent cozier coordination with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, despite the Ukraine war, which has seen MbS firmly rebuff Biden’s pleas to produce more oil.

  Meanwhile, there’s been a lot of media commentary in the West over just how “lavish” Xi’s reception in the kingdom has been, and for good reason. The below greeting included much more than a fist bump…

  HRH Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦, Mohammed Bin Salman Al-Saud, welcomes the President of China 🇨🇳 , HE Xi Jinping, to the Arab world. 🤝

  pic.twitter.com/n39D0hTYph

  — Ebrahim Hashem 李思瑞 إبراهيم هاشم (@EbrahimHashem) December 8, 2022

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

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 18:40

• State Attorneys General Say FedEx And UPS Help Feds Track Gun Sales
  State Attorneys General Say FedEx And UPS Help Feds Track Gun Sales

  Authored by Kevin Stocklin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, together with 17 other state attorneys general, has demanded that shipping companies UPS and FedEx explain their newly implemented policies to track and record Americans’ firearms purchases, and disclose whether these policies have been coordinated with the Biden administration.

  

  In letters sent on Nov. 29 to FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam and UPS CEO Carol B. Tomé, Knudsen and co-signers wrote that the shipping companies’ policies “allow your company to track firearm sales with unprecedented specificity and bypass warrant requirements to share that information with federal agencies.”

  “What both of these companies are saying is that they’re doing this so they can better cooperate with law enforcement,” Knudsen told The Epoch Times. “That’s all fine and well, until you find out that that’s a violation of federal law.”

  Based on reports from gun stores, Knudsen’s letter states, FedEx and UPS are now requiring Federal Firearms License holders (FFLs) to provide details of each shipment to the shipping companies, including the contents and recipient, allowing them “to create a database of American gun purchasers and determine exactly what items they purchased.

  Citing the new policies, the letter states: “Perhaps most concerning, your policies allegedly allow FedEx [and UPS] to ‘comply with … requests from applicable law enforcement or other governmental authorities’ even when those requests are ‘inconsistent or contrary to any applicable law, rule, regulation, or order.’ In doing so you—perhaps inadvertently—give federal agencies a workaround to federal law, which has long prevented federal agencies from using gun sales to create gun registries.”

  “The ATF is hoping they’re not going to have a warrant problem,” Knudsen said. “They could just go get this information from UPS and FedEx.”

  FedEx and UPS’s new gun-tracking policies follow on the heels of efforts by Visa, Mastercard, and American Express to also monitor purchases from gun stores, with the intention of handing this information over to federal law enforcement. The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits the federal government from conducting searches of U.S. citizens without a warrant and “probable cause” that a crime was committed. Increasingly, however, banks, credit card companies, and now shipping companies are conducting those searches on the government’s behalf.

  The letter demands that the shipping companies respond within 30 days, clarifying their policies and explaining whether or not they acted in coordination with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), or any other government agency. It also asks them to clarify a reported “gag order” under which they directed gun shops not to disclose the terms of this policy to the public.

  Is There Possibly Collusion?

  The two attorneys general letters to UPS and FedEx were virtually identical because the policies the two shipping companies implemented appear to be strikingly similar, raising the additional issue of possible collusion between companies that hold an oligopolistic position in shipping. Collusion in restraint of trade has long been illegal under U.S. antitrust laws, including the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.

  “It’s either collusion, they’re working together, or what I suspect is, it’s probably originating out of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, or the Biden administration,” Knudsen said. His letter recommends that the shipping companies “consider taking actions to limit potential liability moving forward, including the immediate cessation of any existing warrantless information sharing with federal agencies about gun shipments.”

  If the shipping companies don’t answer his questions within 30 days, Knudsen said, “I’ll probably start with an actual formal civil investigative demand where we’ll ask for some some documentation. That’s short of a subpoena and an actual lawsuit,” he said, “but, ultimately, if they don’t want to cooperate, a lawsuit is where we’re going to end up.”

  In response to the letter, FedEx issued a statement to The Epoch Times that “FedEx is aware of the letter from the state attorneys general. We are committed to the lawful and safe movement of regulated items through our network.”

  UPS responded that it “has not bypassed any laws to provide customer information to the Biden administration or federal agencies related to the shipment of firearms. UPS will only provide information about our customers or shipments when required to do so by law, such as in response to a subpoena or a warrant.”

  UPS added that it “will respond to the letter sent by several state attorneys general to answer their questions and clarify misinformation. UPS will continue to abide by all applicable laws in providing service for firearm shipments.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 18:20

• House Passes Record $858 Billion Defense Policy Bill
  House Passes Record $858 Billion Defense Policy Bill

  Update(1358ET): On Thursday the House passed the massive, record-setting annual defense authorization bill, which will now see the $847 billion measure go to the Senate, which has to be voted on before the year-end deadline. 

  It passed in a vote of 350-80 along largely bipartisan lines. According to The Hill, “It was approved under suspension of the rules, an expedited process to pass legislation in the House that requires a two-thirds majority.”

  One interesting measure which will be welcomes across the Department of Defense is a 4.6% pay raise for both military members and the DoD’s civilian workers. 

  

  * * *

  As Dave DeCamp of AntiWar.com previously detailed, the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday narrowly voted down a bill that would audit the tens of billions of dollars that Congress has approved to spend on the war in Ukraine. The bill was rejected by the Democrat-led panel in a vote of 26 to 22. The legislation was introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and a small group of Republicans who oppose US aid to Ukraine, but it received strong support from more hawkish Republicans.

  Republican Reps. Thomas Massie (KY), Matt Gaetz (FL), Barry Moore (AL), and Andrew Clyde (GA) cosponsored Greene’s bill. Greene has said that she will reintroduce the measure in the next Congress when Republicans have a majority in the House. “It’s official the Democrats have voted NO to transparency for the American people for an Audit for Ukraine,” Greene wrote on Twitter after the vote. “But we take over in January! This audit will happen!”

  

  Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), who is expected to head the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the next Congress, has come out in favor of the audit bill. “The era of writing blank checks is over,” McCaul said, according to The Washington Post.

  McCaul has been critical of the Biden administration for not sending longer-range weapons to Ukraine and wants to encourage Ukrainian strikes on Crimea despite the risk of escalation. But he represents the mainstream Republicans who want to keep arming Ukraine but agree there should be more oversight.

  Democrats have been critical of the growing Republican calls for more oversight of the Ukraine aid. Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the head of the House Armed Services Committee, even dismissed the concerns as “Russian propaganda” and said the calls from Republicans to increase oversight “makes me a little crazy.”

  Meanwhile also on Tuesday night, Congress unveiled the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), worth $858 billion, $45 billion more than what President Biden requested for the military spending bill. The House is expected to vote on the legislation this week, and it could be brought to the floor as soon as Thursday. Once the House approves the bill, it will be sent to the Senate, then to President Biden’s desk for his signature.

  Biden’s initial defense budget request: $813 billion
  House Armed Services Committee version: $839 billion
  Senate Armed Services Committee version: $847 billion
  Final version, just released: $859 billion

  Oddly, this one budgetary process always seems to go in the same direction

  — Michael Tracey (@mtracey) December 7, 2022

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

  The massive $858 billion bill represents an 8% increase from the 2022 NDAA, which was also larger than what Biden requested. The $858 billion includes $817 billion for the Pentagon, and the remaining funds go toward military spending for other departments.

  Notable amendments packed into the NDAA include $10 billion in military aid for Taiwan that will be dispersed over five years. The aid is in the form of Foreign Military Financing, a State Department program that gives foreign governments funds to purchase US-made military equipment.

  The NDAA also includes $800 million in the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, a program that allows the US government to purchase weapons for Ukraine. But the vast majority of spending on the Ukraine war will come through emergency funding, and the White House is hoping Congress approves a new $37.7 billion tranche of Ukraine aid during the lame-duck period.

  Rep. Gerry Connolly was one of the Democrats who shut down @RepMTG’s resolution to audit the 80 billion+ taxpayer dollars flowing into the pockets of Ukrainian warlords.

  “I support transparency and accountability,” Connolly claimed, “but not now.” pic.twitter.com/pkrPbU9vQY

  — Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) December 7, 2022

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

  The NDAA includes $11.5 billion in new investments for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, a program to build up in the Asia Pacific to confront China. The Pentagon has identified China as its main focus, and the NDAA includes investment in new technology research and development that US military leaders say is meant to counter Beijing.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 12/08/2022 – 18:11

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• The WEF Isn't A Cabal, It's A Cult
  The WEF Isn’t A Cabal, It’s A Cult

  Authored by Mark Jeftovic via BombThrower.com,

  World Domination in An Age for Lucifer

  “This book explores a strange new spirituality about to enter into competition with other established religions. My purpose here is to convince you that its emergence is probable, if not inevitable.

  

  I begin this exploration with an unproven assumption based on Darwinian evolutionary principles: a new predator will appear on our planet, an evolutionary prototype designed to prey on humans. Another assumption then follows: this predator will evolve gradually and incrementally from humanity, just as we apparently evolved from lower forms to prey on them.

  A further assumption suggests that these predators have already appeared as evolutionary prototypes, as new humans with advanced methods of survival and new forms of spiritual expression and religious organization designed to support and advance their predation.“

  — Robert C Tucker, An Age For Lucifer: Predatory Spirituality & The Quest for Godhood

  Robert C. Tucker was a Canadian psychologist who worked with an organization called COMA – Council On Mind Abuse (not to be confused with his namesake, an American political scientist who covered the Soviet Union and wrote a biography of Stalin).

  Our Tucker worked with “adult survivors and child victims of ritual abuse“ and spent time interviewing self-described “Satanists”. His book was more of a thought experiment, which tried to identify an impelling idea behind the ideology of a cult:

  “with destructive cultism, however, I sensed something else animating these stories of Satanic activity and ritual abuse, something familiar yet unspoken. Satanism was a puzzle behind which it hid, or a myth beneath which it lived. Like cultism, Satanism seemed to point at something beyond itself“.

  Tucker’s book is not about Satanism: it’s about a theorized class of spiritual predators he called Luciferians. In later chapters, Satanists are almost dismissed as cartoonish, lower order predators. They would be shunned by truly elite Luciferians. “Distant cousins”, at best.

  Where Satanists pursue unrestrained ego and impulse gratification, Luciferians play the longest game of them all, and seek to attain Godhood itself. Pure power.

  Tucker posits that this type of impulse would emerge out of evolutionary imperatives and that it would begin to form its own psycho-spiritual framework among participants – possibly on a subconscious level.

  COMA spent much of its existence waging legal battles with the cults they sought to protect the public from. However, after a protracted lawsuit from the Church of Scientology, Tucker announced COMA’s dissolution in 1992.

  But there is something in Tucker’s book, particularly how he ‘described the merging goals of cults and corporations:

  “We have to recognize that cults are successful organizations with techniques now being borrowed by other successful organizations”’

  Arguably one of the most successful organizations in existence today, is the World Economic Forum. World leaders are known to emerge from annual conclaves chanting the same mantra, nation states actively fund them, the WEF boasts of having penetrated the world’s governments and even the UN seems to take its cues from Davos.

  In past articles, I’ve been looked at the thin scab of elites that sits atop the global cap table.

  

  Class structure, now and future

  And the story so far is:

  • John Maynard Keynes, from whose work the modern economic system is derived, was a Marxist.

  • The super-wealthy 0.1% of the 1%  who coagulate into supra-national policy organizations are Malthusians.

  • The core premise driving their ideology is a radical reductionist materialism.

  While many view the Davos elites as a global, all-encompassing cabal, which Controls Everything™, I could never quite bring myself to accept that description. The fact is, the world is inherently uncontrollable.

  We can stipulate that people and groups can acquire outsized influence, then use it to do morally bankrupt things in order to further their own aims. We can further agree that the higher up the sociopolitical hierarchy from where these agendas originate, the more likely it is that the consequences  are borne most heavily by the plebes. Most of the time, those whose machinations were responsible for catastrophic outcomes, escape being held to account for it.

  

  I said most of the time

  But the world we live in today is proof positive of one thing: nobody is in control of anything.

  However, like Tucker, I look at agendas like Stakeholder Capitalism, The Great Reset or The Great Narrative (or whatever it’s being called these days), and sense something behind it. “Something that points beyond itself”.

  Years ago, in what feels like another life-line (a.k.a “Before Covid”), I was supposed to be writing  a book about the dangers of techno-utopianism. In it, I was already recognizing transhumanism as a kind of religion, and deemed it one of the four ideological pillars of techno-utopianism (the other three being: AI, technocracy and fully automated luxury communism).

  Very early in my work on that, I concluded that techno-utopianism was ultimately a Luciferian construct. Not necessarily literally Lucifer, but that the aspiration to “usurp God” was Luciferian in character (the plan was for the final section of the book to propose a counter-framework called “techno-realism”, based on humanity’s hyper-adaptability as a superior approach to central planning).

  When we seek to shape the world through technocracy – not to mention reality itself through transhumanism and AI – we are pursuing a uniquely eschatological event known as “The Singularity”: a point in time when our technology becomes the base layer of reality.

  It is probably not the first time we thought we were capable of leveraging our gizmos into Godhood. The legend of Babel hints at a prior iteration, one that didn’t end well. We don’t know for sure where mythology borders pre-history, but whatever happened most certainly left deep grooves in our collective psyche.

  When you consider the positioning and branding of the WEF, with their certitude and paternalism, it all makes a lot more sense when viewed  as a cult instead of a cabal. Cultists know all, they have the inside track – and most importantly, they claim moral authority over us all by Divine Right.

  

  The stated objectives of the World Economic Forum:

  From their institutional report “to stakeholders”, the WEF pursues  three Phases of Interaction:

  Our activities drive communities through three phases of interaction, each resulting in increased impact:

  1) stimulating dialogues and generating insights;

  2) shaping agendas and developing influence; and

  3) catalysing initiatives and generating impact.

  …which in that characteristically banal WEF-speak, is a dog whistle for world domination.

  They feel no compunction about it.  An Age for Lucifer posits the emergence of a type of human whose beliefs hold the adherents to be higher up the spiritual food chain than everybody else. Literally a breed above.

  The key component of Luciferian metaphysics is predation.

  “reality is layered from the physical to the spiritual. Pure power thrums only in the higher reaches of the spiritual domains. The higher dominates the lower. Spirit determines matter, not the reverse… Elitism is of the essence here; only powerful spiritual adepts and Luciferian masters deserve to occupy the higher realms and to enjoy the the benefits found only there.”

  If we replace all instances of “spiritual” in the above passage with “intellectual”, then we have an accurate model for the ideological framework of “Davos Man”, because the entire elite ontology (or what passes for it) rests upon radical material reductionism.

  And materialism, at its core, is pure nihilism.

  There is no spirit. We have no souls. There is only matter, and lower humans are merely “hackable animals”.

  Everyone has likely seen this montage, but it does capture “The Essential Harari”, who I personally think talks about all this in more of a descriptive than prescriptive timbre. But he is undeniably a Davos darling and when you get him going, he has that pronounced Dr. Strangelove-style glee.

  Through the utter domination of what is intellectually permissible – and with expert technocratic oversight – matter can be subjugated to models …and elites can ascend to Godhood. All in a metaverse of their own making.

  Cabals are self-serving and mundane. And while Davos Man is certainly that, a cabal is missing that essential element that makes for full-throated commitment – that thing that “points beyond itself”. Participants in a cabal will abandon it the moment it ceases to serve their interests… but cultists will double-down. They will burn themselves alive and eat their children. They are ideological berserkers.

  What is this thing “that points beyond itself?”

  I frequently say that the reason I think Bitcoin ultimately prevails, and industrial-era central planning fails, is because the former has sprung forth from a higher order of intellectual abstraction than the hierarchical, centrally-planned one.

  This is all part of an inexorable progression, an unfolding, if you will. It distinguishes itself from a techno-utopian singularity, in that it is not something we’ve seized control of and are expertly managing, it’s something coursing through us. Impelling us, in fact all living things, forward.

  I’ve never found a great word to describe this “thing beyond itself” that runs through everything; obviously it’s the inspiration for spiritual movements throughout the ages, for mythological constructs.  I’ve always just called it “The Great Externality”. It’s the indescribable (“the Tao which can be explained is not The Tao”), and ineffable. It can be experienced as “I am”, but if you try to put that into a Ted Talk it’ll probably stiff.

  When I talk about how the architecture of intellectual abstraction has shifted from centralized to networked, that’s just a surface attribute. I’ve never really done an adequate job of explaining the fundamental change in the level of intellectual abstraction and how important that is. Jean Gebser called it the aperspectival world in “Ever Present Origin”, his exhaustive study of the evolution of consciousness itself.

  “The condition of today’s world cannot be transformed by technocratic rationality, since both technocracy and rationality are apparently nearing their apex; nor can it be transcended by preaching or admonishing a return to ethics and morality, or in fact, by any form of return to the past.

  We have only one option: in examining the manifestations of our age, we must penetrate them with sufficient breadth and depth that we do not come under their demonic and destructive spell.

  We must not focus our view merely on these phenomenon, but rather on the the humus of the decaying world beneath, where the seedlings of the future are growing, immeasurable in their potential and vigor”

  Gebser wrote Ever Present Origin in 1949; it wasn’t translated into English until 1985. He understood that crises of modernity were brought about not by differing political views or even economic incentives, but in collisions between successive iterations of consciousness itself. Humanity, according to Gebser, arced over three broad phases of Unperspectival (we could barely differentiate our own minds from the wider experience of the world), Perspectival (linearity and rationality) and into Aperspectival (what comes next – a level that integrates those which came before).

  Perhaps one way to make the analogy is to frame it as the layering of dimensional orders:

  In the Unperspectival world, our minds basically merged with reality; we were largely undifferentiated as self-aware creatures. It was a zero-to-one dimensional existence:

  ‘The initial, archaic structure is zero-dimensional; it is thus spatial and temporal, although our present mentality, if it grasps this at all, will see this in a paradox. It is origin; only in a terminological sense is it a “first” structure emanating from that perfect identity existing “before” (or behind) all oneness or unity which it initially might have represented. It is akin, if not identical, to the original state of biblical paradise: a time where the soul is yet dormant, a time of complete non-differentiation of man and the universe.’

  Over the Perspectival Era, we became self-aware and to underwent individuation, straddling two-to-three dimensional constructs. I’ve mentioned before W R Clement’s “Quantum Jump”, which described the Enlightenment as a leveling up in mental abstraction. The discovery of perspective in art both impelled and signified this jump.

  

  The fiat, technocratic era, is essentially the tail end of this Perspectival mindset – and what comes next contains yet another higher-order dimension, an axis into an Aperspectival construct… like a hypercube.

  

  How high does the dimensional ladder go?

  String theory posits a universe existing in ten dimensions.

  A ten dimensional hypercube? Who in their right mind comes up with this stuff.

  

  Anyway, this thing that points beyond itself isn’t arising from within the 3D construct that materialists assume forms the edges of existence. It comes from one level beyond.

  There are phenomena that exist in this larger, super-reality that when experienced here, from within the perspective of our limited awareness, we struggle to contain within our senses. We may experience them as egregores or morphic fields, even a zeitgeist.  The Russian mystic Vedim Zeland’s concept of “The Pendulum” has aspects of both absorbing and channelling thought energy:

  An energy pendulum is created when a group of people begin to think in a certain way and then:

  “their thought energy finally unites into a single current. When this happens, as if in the middle of an entire ocean of energy, a separate, independent energy-information structure is created which is referred to as an energy pendulum. Eventually this structure begins to live its own life and subjugate to its laws the very people who created it.

  The structure is referred to as a pendulum because the more people-adherents that feed it with their energy, the more powerfully it sways”
  — from Vadim Zeland’s ‘Transurfing’

  A pendulum is self-perpetuating with a single imperative: to draw as much energy into itself as possible. More importantly, it is agnostic about the energy charge – it doesn’t matter if people are in harmony with the pendulum or opposed to it. Both poles create the energy that the pendulum craves.

  This is why the New Thought philosopher Neville Goddard’s advice about the need to renounce evil rather than resist it, is so important.

  There is a great difference between resisting evil and renouncing it. When you resist evil, you give it your attention; you continue to make it real.

  When you renounce evil, you take your attention away from it and give your attention to what you want.

  Now is the time to control your imagination and give your energy to what you want.”

  — Neville Goddard, The Power of Awareness

  Pendulums can be benign or malevolent – the conditions that bring them forth make it so.

  The world’s great religions can be seen as super-pendulums. Movements and cults could be minor ones.  In any case, once the pendulum has formed, active opposition to it only has one effect: to give it more energy and amplify it.

  Techno-communism as typified by the WEF, and crypto-anarchism as embodied by Bitcoin, are both pendulums.

  This is why taking up arms against the WEF doesn’t hurt the WEF – it strengthens it. And this is also why Bitcoin is an anti-fragile honey badger.

  Pendulums feed on the energy of both their adherents and opponents, but their centre of gravity forms an axis through our experiential world and anchors them into The Great Externality.

  The WEF pendulum is distinctly Ahrimanic. 

  Ahriman is traditionally an evil spirit of chaos from Zoroastrianism, however I’m drawing on the work of the Austrian mystic Rudolf Steiner, who had been trying to warn us of the coming Age of Ahriman almost exactly a century ago.

  From lecture GA 191 delivered on 1 November 1919, Dornach (excuse the length):

  Whenever preparation is being made for incarnations of this character, we must be alert to certain indicative trends in evolution. A Being like Ahriman, who will incarnate in the West in time to come, prepares for this incarnation in advance. With a view to his incarnation on the earth, Ahriman guides certain forces in evolution in such a way that they may be of the greatest possible advantage to him….

  The right stand can be taken only by recognising in one or another series of events the preparation that is being made by Ahriman for his earthly existence. And the time has now come for individual men to know which tendencies and events around them are machinations of Ahriman, helping him to prepare for his approaching incarnation.

  It would undoubtedly be of the greatest benefit to Ahriman… if the vast majority of men were to regard these preparations for the Ahriman-incarnation as progressive and good for evolution. If Ahriman were able to slink into a humanity unaware of his coming, that would gladden him most of all. 

  Here’s the punch line:

  One of the developments in which Ahriman’s impulse is clearly evident is the spread of the belief that the mechanistic, mathematical conceptions inaugurated by Galileo, Copernicus and others, explain what is happening in the cosmos.

  Pure materialism. Pure reductionism. Pure Harari.

  Steiner warns that:

  “The consciousness of those human beings whom I have called devourers of soul and spirit is in a condition of dimness…; for by not accepting the spiritual into their human nature, they drive straight into the Luciferic stream everything they introduce … What men eat and drink without spirituality goes straight to Lucifer!”

  Here Steiner is talking about spiritual predation and warning those who think they’re the predators, are actually the prey for the egregores they serve. (Ahriman and Lucifer were two separate incarnations in Steiner’s cosmology, yet they worked in concert across the three thousand years that separate their physical incarnations in earthly terms).

  This materialist undercurrent that forms the basis of our conventional paradigm is anchored in this, and it cleaves our earthly existence away from our souls. Is it any wonder why reductive, technocratic impulses and hyper-normality increasingly permeate our elite institutions?

  “Too little attention has been paid to the fact that politics lures disordered, Messianic personalities into positions of power”.
  — Rees-Mogg & Davidson, The Sovereign Individual 

  It isn’t so much  cognitive incoherence afflicting the psyches of those both attracted to and ensnared within the corridors of power, as aperspectival madness – a term coined by Ken Wilber, the integral theory philosopher who has picked up the baton from Gebser here in the West.

  Wilber used the phrase in his 2017 ‘Trump in a Post-Truth World’, which is arguably a book from the left about excessive wokery and Trump Derangement Syndrome. We’re seeing these types of infections of the psyche play out in escalating waves, going under different names:

  Hyper-normality; TDS; …apersepectival madness.

  “Mass Formation Psychosis” being most recent.

  Of course, our expert overlords are having none of it…

  

  Some day they will inform us that “Experts say there is no higher-order reality” (string theory having been stricken down by MSM fact checkers).

  But this soul sickness that threatens to overrun the world is the result of ignoring these higher order constructs, and of attempting to pack reality into a 3-dimensional, materialist box. Everything has to warp just to attempt to fit it all in there.

  Pick Your Pendulum

  The Party at Davos is increasingly being regarded as a malevolent and controlling force on society, and with ample justification.

  Yet they seemingly wield so much power and wealth; how can one hope to counter their influence?

  By actively going out there and resisting the WEF, you are giving your energy to it.

  The key is to put your energy into what you want, not what you don’t want.

  The counterbalancing pendulum to the Luciferian-inspired fully automated luxury communism of the WEF  is a distinctly Promethean construct – an impulse that had been building for decades, perhaps longer, and then revealed itself during the Global Financial Crisis.

  

  Via TheBitcoinTimes

  That emergent impulse manifested in Bitcoin. I’ve described elsewhere the seemingly preternatural circumstances behind its emergence and the mind-boggling synchronicities I’ve personally experienced around it.

  That trend has continued.

  We’ve already had certain warnings  of the similarities between CBDCs and Revelations-style “number of the Beast” prophecies even before the freakishly numbered WIPO Patent 2020/060606 which described implantable digital-currency systems:

  

  (Owned by Microsoft, btw.)

  That previous article put me in touch with someone who made me aware of Revelations 2:17:

  “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.”

  You mean everybody gets their own private key? Kinda sounds like it.

  So on one side, we have an implant or a mark on the hand or head “without which one cannot buy or sell or conduct business of any kind” – while on the other there’s this group of the victorious who have possession of their own private keys.

  As I said in the other article, I don’t subscribe to Biblical prophesy in the literal sense that it predicts the future. What I do believe is that we exist in a multi-faceted reality that transcends the material, 3-D reduction, which conventional thought insists upon. These mythologies attempt to describe something glimpsed in hyper-dimensional constructs from beyond linear time.

  Sidebar: Life is but a dream

  (Here’s an analogy for how I look at these concepts: think of a dream. My guess is whatever is happening in them, is happening at light-speed. The reason why is because you can experience a dream in which you seemingly pass hours, or even a lifetime – and then your snooze goes off, again. Turns out it’s been 10 minutes.

  

  Then in that dream, something starts to happen, usually a sound but maybe it manifests in other ways, and when you wake up and you realize that your dream was reacting to something external to it, something happening in your waking world, like the doorbell ringing or a loud truck driving by.

  When we wake up we have a hard time parsing what we experienced in the dream state – my theory there is because we dream in at least one additional dimensional axis – so of course it would be near impossible to unpack what happened in the hypercube back into 3D experience.)

  I went on that tangent because I often suspect something like that is happening with synchronicities. Even prophesies or premonitions may be akin to this: an incursion into our waking world from some stimulus originating from a higher dimensional order outside of our conventional state. It would be exceptionally hard to make any sense of it because we’re missing a dimensional axis when we even try to think about it.

  Our collective thought energies are responding to higher-order impulses, and we create or join pendulums. Those pendulums are further shaped by larger, underlying morphic fields and act as filters or bridges to The Great Externality. We gravitate into benign, healthy pendulums or malevolent self-defeating ones.

  If we persistently engage in contemplative or spiritual practices, we may garner enough self-awareness to recognize these larger currents and make conscious decisions about which ones to put our energy into.

  Conventional material reductionism would have it that our minds are just something our brains are gassing off, and there’s nothing more to it. But there is more to it than that, a lot more – and we aren’t consciously choosing what to think or how to steer our own evolution, as much as we’re akin to iron filings arranging ourselves in line with one magnetic field or another.

  If we’re really aware, we can make a conscious decision around which one to align with. The majority of people just go with whatever ones they get swept up in.

  

  Digesting it all

  There will never be path function where the WEF either loses their power or reforms their ideals. The only option is irrelevance (which is why I’ve always told the cancel-culture and deplatforming crazies that the one, true magic bullet for killing a truly indefensible idea, is indifference).

  The Party at Davos is under the impression that they are the vanguard of neo-Darwinist evolution – when it’s looking instead like they are functionaries of a larger morphic field that is distinctly Luciferian or Ahrimanic in character. This field encapsulates transhumanism, techno-Marxism, technocracy and social credit.

  The antidote in our age is to choose a life path of radical sovereign individuality, and to embrace the Promethean impulse that gave rise to Bitcoin, public cryptography, and decentralization. This field is expressed through crypto-anarchy and network societies, yet with a grounding in spiritual expression, contemplative practices, family, community and tribes.

  So when the next Davos meeting comes around, don’t bother picking up a placard and demonstrating in the streets; stack some sats and orange-pill your friends, family, neighbours and colleagues. That’s how we win.

  I cover macro tensions between the globalists and sovereign-individual extensively in The Bitcoin Capitalist Letter, along with a tactical focus on CBDCs, pending legislation, digital assets and crypto stocks. Get the overall investment / macro thesis free when you join the Bombthrower mafia. Follow on Twitter here,  Gettr, or join the Bombthrower Telegram

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 23:40

• G-7 Offers $15 Billion To Vietnam, Up From $2 Billion, To Transition To Renewables Months After Country Snubbed Climate Ambassadors
  G-7 Offers $15 Billion To Vietnam, Up From $2 Billion, To Transition To Renewables Months After Country Snubbed Climate Ambassadors

  You know the old saying: when bribery doesn’t work…just bribe using more money…

  Such is the unfolding case in Vietnam, where G-7 nations have made a $15 billion offer to the country to try and wean it off of its reliance on coal, according to a report by Reuters. The country is among the top 20 coal users in the world and had previously turned down or ignored prior offers, the report notes.

  Vietnam had already agreed to sign up for an “energy transition partnership with G7 nations” at a global climate summer this November, but high-level talks “broke off” before the meeting, the report says.

  To bring the country back to the bargaining table, the EU and Britain are leading negotiations on behalf of the West, who have offered a financial package that includes $7.5 billion in loans from the public sector and loans totaling about the same amount from the private sector. 

  Sources told Reuters this was the West’s “final offer” from the G7 before a December 14 deadline, when a summit of EU and Asian nations will take place. As Reuters notes, this $15 billion offer has grown from an “initial pledge” that was just $2 billion in public funds. 

  Despite the bigger offer, it “remains unclear whether Vietnam would be prepared to accept the increased offer”, Reuters wrote. 

  

  Vietnam had previously asked for more grants instead of loans, because the country is “traditionally opposed” to taking on loans. Sources indicated the chance of a deal getting done was at “50/50”, while others said talks are ongoing. 

  After Vietnam walked from talks in November, its authorities cancelled a planned meeting with US and EU climate ambassadors and instead drafted a new long-term power plan that actually increased the country’s use of coal. 

  The country is left to consider how much of its energy security could be put at risk during a switch to renewables, the report says. A transition “may result in power shortages in the booming nation without a credible backup in the event of low power output from wind farms or solar panels”. 

  Personally, if we’re Vietnam, we hold out for $100 billion. At the pace with which the G-7 keeps upping its offer, it should only take a couple of weeks…

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 23:20

• Philly Or Fallujah? Gas Station Owners Hire Militarized Security, City Imposes Curfew
  Philly Or Fallujah? Gas Station Owners Hire Militarized Security, City Imposes Curfew

  It’s no secret Philadelphia is a dangerous city.

  In 2019, the murder rate was 22.47 per 100,000 residents according to FBI data, with 331 homicides that year. Fast forward three years, and there have been 480 murders year-to-date.

  

   Most affected are black males between the age of 18 and 45.

  

  According to city statistics released in September, overall shootings have increased by 3% over last year, while violent crime is up 7%. Robberies involving guns are up 60%, while rapes are down more than 25%. Property crimes are up over 30%. Businesses getting hit particularly hard – with commercial burglaries up a staggering 50%, according to Axios Philadelphia. What’s more, the city’s drug crisis is spiraling further out of control with a new drug called “Tranq” – an anesthetic and pain reliever used to treat horses and cattle, and which turns people into zombies.

  Crime is so out of control that the Philadelphia City Council recently approved a 10 p.m. curfew for anyone under the age of 18 – making a temporary summertime law permanent.

  To combat the crime wave, Philadelphia gas station owners have turned to hiring heavily armed guards.

  “They are forcing us to hire the security, high-level security, state level,” said Karco gas station owner, Neil Patel, who has recruited Kevlar-clad S.I.T.E. agents packing AR-15s or shotguns. “We are tired of this nonsense; robbery, drug trafficking, hanging around, gangs,” Fox5 reports.

  The final straw for Patel after his business was reportedly vandalized by young people who stole an ATM machine. His car has also been a casualty of crime, according to the report.

  “We wear Kevlar, we are trained, my guards go to training every other week, they’re proficient with [their guns] and with their taser, they know the law,” said police chief Andre Boyer.

  A realtime online poll on Fox5‘s website reveals that 93% say they feel safer with guards who have AR-15s at gas stations:

  

  When asked about residents who are concerned over the gun-toting guards, Patel said: “I listen to them, but according to some people, violent people, they carry the guns, they’re not afraid of them? This is the protection for the neighborhood and the customers.”

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 22:40

• Transgender Activists Attack Feminists Protesting Men In Women's Prisons
  Transgender Activists Attack Feminists Protesting Men In Women’s Prisons

  Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times,

  Women protesting the possible transfer of convicted killer Dana Rivers—a biological man who identifies as female—to a women’s prison were attacked outside of the Alameda County Superior Courthouse in Oakland, Calif., on Dec. 5.

  The women, representing mainly feminist and lesbian groups, said they are opposed to a California law that allows male inmates who self-identify as women to request to be housed in women’s prisons.

  Watch a woman peak in real time

  She begins by using ‘she’ for murderer #DanaRivers “Do you think it’s justice if she’s put in a violent prison with other men?”

  Seconds later “What the hell? I don’t get that! They took your sign! OMG freedom of expression Who are these people? pic.twitter.com/YjB4xG7aig

  — mazeks (@JeanMazeks) December 7, 2022

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

  One hooded assailant was caught on video, obtained by The Epoch Times, throwing an egg into the group of women and also seen striking one with an umbrella, while another attacker in all black garb with red armbands on a bicycle plowed into the women from the opposite direction.

  

  Women protesting the possible transfer of convicted killer Dana Rivers—a biological man who identifies as female—to a women’s prison were attacked outside of the Alameda County Superior Courthouse in Oakland, Calif., on Dec. 5, 2022. (Courtesy of Women’s Declaration International, U.S.A.)

  The women, who wore sashes reading “Woman Adult Human Female,” and carried signs saying “No Men In Women’s Prisons” and “Dana Rivers Is A Man,” were also pelted with pies in the video.

  Rivers, born David Warfield, was convicted last month on three counts of first-degree murder and felony arson. He was found guilty in the 2016 slayings of lesbian couple Charlotte Reed and Patricia Wright, and their teenage son, Benny Diambu-Wright, as well as setting their home in Oakland on fire.

  According to multiple news reports, Rivers shot Reed multiple times and stabbed and bludgeoned her. He also shot Wright twice and the teen in the heart.

  A hearing to determine Rivers’ mental competency at the time of the murders began Dec. 5. If found “insane,” Rivers is expected to be sent to a mental hospital for part of or all of his impending sentence.

  Rivers waived his right to a jury for the insanity plea phase of the trial.

  If the judge overseeing the trial determines Rivers was sane when he committed the murders, it is unclear if he will be sent to a women’s or men’s prison.

  Several sources told The Epoch Times he is currently being held in protective custody in the women’s section of the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, Calif., in Alameda County.

  “We are firmly opposed to housing any men in women’s prisons under any circumstances, including Dana Rivers,” Kara Dansky, president of Women’s Declaration International, told The Epoch Times preceding the protest. “All men are male, regardless of any administration of hormones and/or surgeries, and our view is that women’s prisons ought to be for female inmates only, which is in alignment with the principles of international law.”

  Dansky said the women had planned the peaceful protest to demand justice and stand in solidarity with lesbians and incarcerated women.

  

  Women protesting the possible transfer of convicted killer Dana Rivers—a biological man who identifies as female—to a women’s prison are attacked outside of the Alameda County Superior Courthouse in Oakland, Calif., on Dec. 5, 2022. (Courtesy of Women’s Declaration International, U.S.A.)

  

  Women protesting the possible transfer of convicted killer Dana Rivers—a biological man who identifies as female—to a women’s prison are attacked outside of the Alameda County Superior Courthouse in Oakland, Calif., on Dec. 5, 2022. (Courtesy of Women’s Declaration International, U.S.A.)

  

  Women protesting the possible transfer of convicted killer Dana Rivers—a biological man who identifies as female—to a women’s prison are attacked outside of the Alameda County Superior Courthouse in Oakland, Calif., on Dec. 5, 2022. (Courtesy of Women’s Declaration International, U.S.A.)

  

  Women protesting the possible transfer of convicted killer Dana Rivers—a biological man who identifies as female—to a women’s prison were attacked outside of the Alameda County Superior Courthouse in Oakland, Calif., on Dec. 5, 2022. (Courtesy of Women’s Declaration International, U.S.A.)

  In 2020, the California State Legislature passed Senate Bill 132, The Transgender Respect, Agency and Dignity Act, authored by State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

  The law, which was enacted on Jan. 1, 2021, allows prisoners who identify as transgender, non-binary, and intersex “to request to be housed and searched in a manner consistent with their gender identity,” according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

  There are currently 1,657 incarcerated people in California prisons who identify as transgender, non-binary and intersex,” according to the corrections and rehabilitation department. The agency additionally reports 342 men requested transfers to women’s jails since the end of November. Of those, 47 have been approved for transfer, 19 were denied, and 31 changed their minds. The remaining requests remain under review.

  

  Women protest the possible transfer of convicted killer Dana Rivers—a biological man who identifies as female—to a women’s prison outside of the Alameda County Superior Courthouse in Oakland, Calif., on Dec. 5, 2022. (Courtesy of Women’s Declaration International, U.S.A.)

  “It’s happening in numerous other states. We just rarely hear about it because the media doesn’t like to talk about it,” Dansky said. “We know that the state of Washington also houses male prisoners in the women’s prison on the basis of their so-called female gender identity. We know that it’s happening in New Jersey on the basis of a settlement that was entered into between the state and the ACLU.”

  Danksy, who is also the author of “The Abolition of Sex: How the ‘Transgender Agenda Harms Women and Girls,” said her chapter of the organization has more than 5,000 U.S. signatories supporting its declaration, “ to advance women’s sex-based rates in law and throughout society all over the world.”
  Lierre Keith, of the Women’s Liberation Front, a group that is suing the state over the issue of biological males in women’s prisons, said female inmates are “living in terror” of violent male prisoners entering women’s facilities.

  “Right now, in California, any man can simply declare he is a woman and get transferred to a women’s prison—even if he’s murdered two women, even if he stabbed a woman 28 times in the face,” she said.

  Jesika Gonzalez of TERF Collective, a group “working to end the international campaign of female erasure that is transgender ideology,” also spoke at the protest.

  “In California … even the most dangerous men are moved to women’s prisons upon request. Dana Rivers is the kind of man that proves the need for single-sex prisons,” Gonzalez said.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 22:20

• Feds Probing Bankman-Fried's Manipulation Of TerraUSD, Luna… Which Eventually Crushed FTX
  Feds Probing Bankman-Fried’s Manipulation Of TerraUSD, Luna… Which Eventually Crushed FTX

  Oh the irony…

  While questions remain over what was known and by whom about commingled FTX client funds being used to fill a vast and leaking bucket of a balance sheet at Alameda, it appears, based on a report from The New York Times (NYT), that the catalyst for this whole debacle could have been none other than the world’s (second) greatest Democrat donor and (ineffective) altruist – Sam Bankman-Fried.

  NYT reports that federal prosecutors are investigating whether FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and his hedge fund orchestrated trades in a way that led to the collapse of two cryptocurrencies in May – TerraUSD and Luna.

  Specifically, Manhattan prosecutors (US attorney for the Southern District of New York) are examining the possibility that Bankman-Fried steered the prices of two algorithmically-interlinked currencies to benefit entities he controlled, including FTX and Alameda Research.

  According to two people with knowledge of the matter, NYT reports that the focus on possible market manipulation adds to the legal storm brewing around Mr. Bankman-Fried.

  It is illegal for an individual to knowingly stage market activity designed to move the price of an asset up or down.

  TerraUSD was a so-called stablecoin, but unlike other stablecoins, its value wasn’t backed directly by the U.S. dollar. Rather, it maintained its value from a second coin called Luna through a complex set of algorithms. Traders within the digital ecosystem could mint these coins, the prices of which would fluctuate based on how many were in circulation. Anytime the price of TerraUSD fell, the supply of Luna would increase, as traders created more Luna to try to capitalize on the difference.

  In May, major cryptocurrency market makers — exchanges or individuals who arrange for buyers and sellers to be matched — noticed a flood of “sell” orders coming in for TerraUSD, said one person with knowledge of the market activity.

  The orders were in small denominations, but they were placed very quickly, the person said.

  The sudden jump in sell orders for TerraUSD overwhelmed the system, making it hard to find matching “buy” orders for them. Under normal conditions, any sell orders that remained unfulfilled for too long would be matched with buy orders at a lower price.

  The longer the orders lingered without being matched, the more they forced down the price of TerraUSD and caused a corresponding drop in Luna prices because of the way the two coins were linked..

  

  The exact causes of the collapse of the two cryptocurrencies remain unclear. However, the bulk of the sell orders for TerraUSD appeared to be coming from one place: Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency trading firm, which also placed a big bet on the price of Luna falling, according to the person with knowledge of the market activity.

  [ZH: Note the action in late January, early February, when pressure to the downside on Luna saw a positive reaction (flight to safety perhaps) into FTX’s Token (FTT). Did Bankman-Fried and his girlfriend think the same would happen when they tried to pressure Luna lower in May?]

  Had the trade gone as expected, the price declines in Luna could have yielded a fat profit.

  Instead, the bottom fell out of the entire TerraUSD-Luna ecosystem.

  The collapse caused more trouble in the cryptocurrency industry, sending several prominent companies into bankruptcy and erasing about $1 trillion in value from the crypto market.

  The ripple effects from the Luna crash ultimately contributed to the collapse of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s business empire.

  

  Bankman Fried reportedly told NYT that he was “not aware of any market manipulation and certainly never intended to engage in market manipulation.”

  “To the best of my knowledge, all transactions were for investment or for hedging,” he added.

  NYT does note that the investigation in early stages and that it is unclear if prosecutors have determined any wrongdoing by Bankman-Fried. All of which would be glorious for the screenplay of this whole farce as the ‘smartest man in the room’ – having been trained on ‘arbing’ such assets for ‘months’ – suddenly fell victim to the first lesson learned in any veteran arb-trader’s risk management book – volatility wounds but liquidity kills – just ask the Nobel-prize winners at LTCM.

  Not realizing that the interlinked and levered chaos that his Luna short’s success could cause is perhaps the greatest sin of someone who – for all intent and purpose – could see almost the entire market (positioning, inter-linkage, leverage, and liquidity) through his two toys – FTX and Alameda.

  And don’t forget that FTX is also under investigation for violating U.S. money-laundering laws that require money transfer businesses to know who their customers are and flag any potentially illegal activity to law enforcement authorities (but we are sure Bankman-Fried had no knowledge of any of that).

  On Tuesday, Binance Chief Executive Changpeng Zhao called Bankman-Fried a “master manipulator” and “one of the greatest fraudsters in history.”

  

  Still, we are sure that Maxine Waters will ask him all about this during the hearing next week.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 22:00

• Cosco Pulls China-Canada-US Express Service
  Cosco Pulls China-Canada-US Express Service

  By Martina Lu of Container-News

  COSCO Shipping Lines has withdrawn its express China-Canada-US intermodal service that was launched in October 2021, as carriers continue to trim capacity to respond to falling demand.

  

  Container News was informed that the CEN-EXPRESS service had its last sailing when the Xin Ying Kou arrived at Prince Rupert on 29 November.

  The service used five 4,250 TEU ships to move containers from Qingdao and Shanghai in China to Prince Rupert in Canada, from where the containers were railed from DP World’s terminal in Prince Rupert port, via the Canadian National Railway, to Chicago in the United States.

  The ships have since been redeployed to COSCO’s Pacific Northwest services.

  At the time it was launched, CEN-EXPRESS was marketed as an alternative way for shippers to move boxes from China to the US West Coast; at the time, the lane was suffering unprecedented congestion due to Covid-19 restrictions. Since then, however, the situation has reversed, as global economic uncertainties and inflation affects consumption.

  Freight rates have fallen to almost the low levels seen before the pandemic, and carriers have been blanking sailings as a result.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 21:40

• Loudoun School Officials 'Dropped The Ball' Over Transgender Bathroom Rape: Report
  Loudoun School Officials ‘Dropped The Ball’ Over Transgender Bathroom Rape: Report

  Loudoun County Public School officials put their own interests above that of their students in their handling of two sexual assaults committed by the same transgender student, according to a 24-page grand jury report released on Monday.

  

  “LCPS administrators were looking out for their own interests instead of the best interests of LCPS. This invariably led to a stunning lack of openness, transparency, and accountability both to the public and the special grand jury,” reads the report, after the grand jury uncovered evidence that the district was aware of multiple sexual assaults that occurred on two high school campuses in 2021 – yet failed to inform community members about them over ‘privacy concerns.’

  On May 28, 2021 a transgender teenage boy raped another student in a bathroom at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn. The rapist, 15, was convicted on one count of forcible sodomy and one count of forcible fellatio, both felonies, local media reported. The boy was found guilty of sexual assault in October, 2021 by a Virginia judge.

  After the incident, Scott Smith, the father of the 15-year-old victim, says he was told by school officials that there had been a ‘physical altercation.’ After he arrived on scene, he learned that she had actually been raped. According to Smith the school staff said they wanted to handle the situation ‘internally,’ and chose not to call the police.

  Smith became furious and challenged their decision, after which officials called Loudon County Sheriff’s deputies.

  “I went nuts. I called the principal a pussy. Six cop cars showed up like a fucking SWAT team,” said Smith, adding that he had “exploded with rage.”

  

  Smith and the family’s attorney say a rape kit and other tests prove a sexual assault occurred. After presenting the evidence to the police, a case was opened.

  “Thank God that I drew enough attention to it, without getting arrested, that we got an escort to the hospital and they administered a rape kit that night,” he said.

  Two months after the incident, the boy was arrested for forced sodomy along with other counts, according to the family’s attorney.

  Three weeks after the alleged rape, Smith attended a school board meeting on June 22, where a discussion on a proposal to protect transgender students was on the agenda. After he was dragged out of the meeting, he was ridiculed on social media, and painted as a right-wing anti-trans bigot by the left.

  The school covered up a crime. The justice system behaved in a flagrantly political manner. And the media was happy to participate in the politically-useful smearing, as usual. Morally appalling failures from top to bottom.

  — Inez Stepman ⚪️🔴⚪️ (@InezFeltscher) October 13, 2021

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

  “My wife and I are gay- and lesbian-friendly,” Smith told the Daily Wire. “We’re not into this children transgender stuff. The person that attacked our daughter is apparently bisexual and occasionally wears dresses because he likes them. So this kid is technically not what the school board was fighting about. The point is kids are using it as an advantage to get into the bathrooms.”

  Cover-up

  During the June 22, 2021 meeting, school board member Beth Barts claimed not to know of any assaults happening in bathrooms or locker rooms during the trans student discussion. Superintendent Scott Ziegler echoed that sentiment, saying “To my knowledge, we don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms,” adding “the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist.”

  He went on to quote Time magazine research that he said disproved the notion transgender kids might sexually attack cisgender kids, and said: ‘I think it’s important to keep our perspective on this, we’ve heard it several times tonight from our public speakers but the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist.’ 

  Smith said he became irate. He started arguing with another woman at the meeting, labeling her a ‘b***h’ after she allegedly denied his daughter’s claim. 

  He was then charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. –Daily Mail

  Smith told the Wire that he was attacked by an activist who insisted his daughter was not assaulted, during which an officer came over.

  “The next thing I know, I’m getting touched from all over the place. I didn’t know who was touching me, who was grabbing me. I turn around, the police are grabbing me and next thing I know, I’m tackled to the ground. I’m just shocked and horrified,” Smith told Fox News.

  Dropped The Ball

  According to the Grand Jury, “LCPS dropped the ball in this instance in alerting the community about this incident,” reads the report.

  The jury noted there were several instances where senior division administrators, including the superintendent, could have been transparent and could have avoided the sexual assault at Broad Run High School.

  The jury stated in the documents they believed the Oct. 6 abduction and sexual assault “could have and should have been prevented,” saying administrators were ultimately to blame for the second assault.  –LoudounNow

  “Had any one of a number of individuals across a variety of entities spoken up or realized a serious problem was brewing regarding earlier incidents at BRHS then the sexual assault most likely would not have occurred. But nobody did,” they wrote, adding “Not a single person with knowledge of the student’s history or of this current action stepped in to do anything. Instead, discipline was left to the BRHS principal, who did nothing more than issue him a verbal reprimand.”

  2: The grand jury found that LCPS administration was looking out for its own interests, not the best interests of @LCPSOfficial. This led to a “stunning” lack of transparency and accountability by the admin which “failed at every juncture” with respect to the sexual assaults. pic.twitter.com/tSeFznOEU2

  — Ian Prior (@iandprior) December 5, 2022

  The grand jury made eight recommendations based on its investigation, according to LoudonNow:

  • Increase transparency and foster better communication and recommended the school division include as much information as reasonably possible when informing the public about significant events happening on school property, a bus or a school sponsored event.
  • Re-examine its transfer process and create a formalized protocol emphasizing better communication.
  • Greater involvement from the division’s director of safety and security in situations that threaten the safety and security of students, faculty and staff. 
  • The School Board should tighten polices about the apps available to students on their school-issued devices.
  • The School Board should limit the degree to which legitimate matters and information of public concern are shielded from the public under the cloak of attorney-client privilege.
  • Improved communication, cooperation and coordination across all agencies when addressing criminal conduct by students, faculty and staff. 
  • Strengthen support and advocacy for faculty and staff who are faced with challenging scenarios that could be dangerous.
  • The superintendent’s recommendation for the non-renewal of a teacher’s contract should be the subject of a separate agenda item and not placed on the School Board’s consent agenda. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 21:20

• Border Patrol Agents Eviscerate Biden For Saying He's Got "More Important Things" To Worry About
  Border Patrol Agents Eviscerate Biden For Saying He’s Got “More Important Things” To Worry About

  Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

  Joe Biden declared Tuesday that he has “more important things” to worry about than visiting the border, despite the fact that he was in Arizona anyway for an appearance.

  

  It started with the White House attempting to avoid the issue altogether:

  Then Fox News reporter Peter Doocy outright asked Biden why he wasn’t going to check on the border despite being only a few miles away.

  Watch:

  Biden skipped checking out the border, instead visiting visit a computer chip plant.

  Here is the “more important thing” Biden was referring to. A thing Biden clearly has zero understanding of:

  Joe Biden reminding America that he isn’t with it.

  “It will construct a second fab here in Phoenix to build chips, three nano chips, three nano chip, chips that are three nano. Anyway, you know what I’m saying. Nano Nono, I don’t know.” pic.twitter.com/LRLybudhto

  — Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) December 6, 2022

  As we have repeatedly highlighted, there is an all our crisis on the border that is about to get even worse:

  Border patrol agents were not impressed, with one commenting to the Daily Caller “MORE IMPORTANT THINGS? This is HIS disaster, he created this catastrophe. The border crisis is a total breach of National Security. Give me a fucking break…I can’t wait for this clown to be out of office.”

  Another Border agent charged that Biden’s comments betray “another example of how delusional he is.”

  “It’s in their narrative to downplay the destabilization of the U.S. What could possibly be more important than criminals and terrorists infiltrating the country and tens of thousands of fentanyl overdoses, mostly being young adults,” the agent added.

  National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd added “The President’s most fundamental job is the safety and security of the American people. He’s failing. With a record number of people and dangerous drugs flowing across our borders, the President owes it to this country to go to the border and develop a strategy of security.”

  “Unfortunately, President Biden’s record speaks for itself. He cares more about politics than American lives,” Judd asserted.

  *  *  *

  Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

  In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support our sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Also, we urgently need your financial support here.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 21:00

• US Targets Illicit Pakistan Nuclear Activity As Part Of Russia-Related Sanctions Blacklist
  US Targets Illicit Pakistan Nuclear Activity As Part Of Russia-Related Sanctions Blacklist

  The Biden administration has unveiled a sanctions blacklist of two dozen companies and other entities accused of supporting Russia militarily, as well as who have violated sanctions on Iran. But perhaps most surprising is that among the 24 companies also includes entities charged with illicit activities related to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program. 

  The US Commerce Department identified companies based in Latvia, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore and Switzerland, including Russia’s AO Kraftway Corporation, considered among the country’s largest IT companies. 

  Fiber Optic Solutions in Latvia is named as well as Russian AO Scientific Research Center for Electronic Computing, LLC Fibersense, and Scientific Production Company Optolin, AO PKK Milandr; Milandr EK; Milandr ICC JSC; Milur IS; Microelectronic Production Complex (MPK) Milandr; and Ruselectronics JSC and Swiss based Milur SA, according to a press release.

  Regarding the Iran-related sanctions, “The Commerce Department also added four trading and supply companies in Singapore for supplying or attempting to supply an Iranian electronics company, Pardazan System Namad Arman,” which as Reuters recounts was initially subject of US Treasury sanctions in 2018 following the Trump administration’s pullout of the Iran nuclear deal.

  While over the past many months sanctions on Russia and Iran have become a normative thing in Washington, the Pakistan-related development is what’s most interesting. As Reuters explains:

  The Biden administration also added 10 companies in Pakistan and UAE that it says pose unacceptable risks of using or diverting items for Pakistan’s unsafeguarded nuclear activities or are involved Pakistan’s “nuclear activities and missile proliferation-related activities.”

  

  Pakistan, it must be remembered, is a nuclear-armed ally of Washington, but one which has always made US officials incredibly nervous given the alarming possibility of nukes ‘falling into the wrong hands’. Of course some of the world’s most notorious Islamic terror groups have had a significant presence inside Pakistan and especially along the Af-Pak border for decades.

  Following the Taliban reconquering of Kabul in the wake of the US pullout from the country, the Brookings Institution warned of the following: 

  The president will not have to look too far. Bordering Afghanistan, now again under Taliban rule, is Pakistan, one of America’s oddest “allies.” Governed by a shaky coalition of ineffective politicians and trained military leaders trying desperately to contain the challenge of domestic terrorism, Pakistan may be the best definition yet of a highly combustible threat that, if left unchecked, might lead to the nightmare of nightmares: jihadis taking control of a nuclear weapons arsenal of something in the neighborhood of 200 warheads.

  Wednesday’s fresh US Commerce sanctions apparently have the above unpredictable nature of the Pakistani political and security landscape still fresh in mind. Currently Pakistan has the sixth largest nuclear arsenal in the world.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 20:40

• 4 Takeaways From Sen. Johnson's Panel On COVID-19 Vaccines
  4 Takeaways From Sen. Johnson’s Panel On COVID-19 Vaccines

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

  Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) held a panel on COVID-19 vaccines in Washington on Dec. 7, featuring experts including Dr. Robert Malone and Dr. Peter McCullough.

  Experts discussed vaccine development, vaccine composition, data from insurance and adverse event systems, and other topics.

  Here are four takeaways from the panel.

  

  Insurance Experts Record Jump in Excess Mortality

  Edward Dowd, a former BlackRock analyst now with the Humanity Project, showed data from the Society of Actuaries 2021 Group Life Insurance survey that showed a jump in excess mortality among young and middle-aged adults starting around the time the vaccines began being administered.

  The only thing that changed at the time, Dowd said, was “vaccines and mandates.”

  He pointed out that Denmark and the United Kingdom, among other countries, have stopped recommending or entirely halted vaccination of young, healthy people because of growing concerns over side effects like heart inflammation that can lead to death.

  “Why are our health authorities still pushing this vaccine if other countries are backing off?” Dowd asked.

  Representatives from major U.S. health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), were invited to the discussion but did not attend.

  Josh Stirling, an insurance analyst, presented an analysis of data from the United Kingdom that concluded death rates were higher among the vaccinated as of May 2022.

  Doctors Report Increase in Heart Inflammation Since Pandemic Started

  Several vaccines have been linked to side effects such as myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation that can turn deadly.

  Doctors testifying during the panel said they’ve seen an increase in patients with the inflammation.

  “It’s been very high,” Dr. Reneta Moon, a clinical associate professor at the Washington State University College of Medicine.

  Moon said she saw a handful of cases in her 20 years of practicing before the pandemic. The number has jumped since the pandemic started, she said.

  Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatrician based in Hawaii, said he’s also seen more cases.

  Milhoan said that the research that’s emerged shows myocarditis and a related condition, pericarditis, are caused by the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

  Moderna and Pfizer have not responded to requests for comment on heart inflammation.

  The studies show that the spike protein, which the vaccines cause the body to make, is “cardiotoxic and cause the heart to be inflamed,” Milhoan said. “Let that sink in, the current public health plan is asking our own body to make a cardiotoxin.”

  COVID-19 can also cause myocarditis, according to some studies, though other research has challenged that view.

  

  Young People at Little Risk From COVID-19

  Dr. Harvey Risch, a professor emeritus of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, presented data from the CDC that show young people face little risk from COVID-19.

  The share of infection among those aged 0 to 17 that led to death, for instance, was just 0.01 percent through September 2021, while the share was 0.05 percent among those 18 to 29.

  “When you have such low or nonexistent mortality in these low age groups, the potential severe adverse effects of the vaccine will surmount the nonexistent mortality of these age groups and therefore, what we’ve been told, that everybody has to be vaccinated … had no reason to be there in the first place, because there was no mortality they were trying to prevent,” Risch said.

  The share was much higher among older people. Among those 85 and older, for example, the share was 24.6 percent.

  Because vaccines have little to no impact on transmission or infection, the only point of getting vaccinated is for treatment, but most young people “had no reason to choose that when mortality from infection is orders of magnitude is much less than from vaccination,” Risch said.

  No Strong Trials

  As the vaccines have performed worse and worse against infection, health officials say they should still be taken to protect against severe disease.

  But McCullough, chief scientific officer of The Wellness Company, said that no randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial has shown the vaccines reduce hospitalization or death.

  Such trials, known as RCTs, are generally considered the highest form of evidence for a drug.

  Both the emergency authorization and approval for the vaccines have been on the basis of preventing infection. In fact sheets, prospective recipients are told the vaccines “have been shown to prevent COVID-19.” There’s no mention of severe illness or death.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 20:20

• End Of An Era: Final Boeing 747 Rolls Off Assembly Line
  End Of An Era: Final Boeing 747 Rolls Off Assembly Line

  The last Boeing 747 jumbo jet rolled off the production line at the company’s factory in Everett, Washington, on Tuesday night, marking a close to a significant chapter in aviation history. 

  

  Aviation historians call the 747 the original jumbo jet was first produced in 1967. Three years later, Pan Am started flying the double-decker jumbo jet that could haul over 500 passengers worldwide. 

  “For more than half a century, tens of thousands of dedicated Boeing employees have designed and built this magnificent airplane that has truly changed the world. We are proud that this plane will continue to fly across the globe for years to come,” Kim Smith, Boeing vice president and general manager, 747 and 767 programs, wrote in a press release. 

  Last night, the 1,574th 747 rolled out of the Everett factory. 

  There she goes!

  The last 747 has left our Everett factory ahead of delivery to Atlas Air in early 2023. #QueenOfTheSkies

  Photos: Boeing/Paul Weatherman pic.twitter.com/duzgr6MzQl

  — Boeing Airplanes (@BoeingAirplanes) December 7, 2022

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

  The 747 was once the premiere choice of aircraft for airlines and has since been replaced with a twin-engine, wide-body aircraft that is more fuel-efficient. Still, 341 of these jumbos are in use but only as freighters. 

  “The 747-8 is an incredibly capable aircraft, with capacity that is unmatched by any other freighter in production,” UPS wrote in a statement in 2020 when Boeing said production of the jet would end in late 2022. 

  “With a maximum payload of 307,000 lbs., we use them on long, high-volume routes, connecting Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East,” the shipper continued. 

  The last 747 was sold to air freighter Atlas Air which will use the aircraft to haul goods worldwide. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 20:00

• A Big Theory Of Boom And Bust
  A Big Theory Of Boom And Bust

  Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via DailyReckoning.com,

  Our times of boom to bust are the perfect illustration of the credit cycle first presented in its fullness in the 1920s. Why then? Because this was the first decade after most countries created central banks. They caused some very odd behavior that made 19th-century-style economics seem to have less explanatory power.

  

  That was when a few economists working in Vienna put together a model for understanding how business cycles work in a modern economy. Their names were Friedrich von Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. They drew on their theoretical knowledge based on the following inputs:

  Richard Cantillon (1680–1734) observed that when governments inflate the money supply, the effects are unevenly distributed among economic sectors, affecting some more than others and in different ways.

  Adam Smith (1723–1790) explained that a critical element of rising wealth is embedded in the division of labor, in which individuals specialize in tasks and cooperate across firms and those firms cooperate with each other.

  Carl Menger (1840–1921) saw money as an organic market creation, not an invention of the state, which implies that it should be produced like any other good or service.

  Knut Wicksell (1851–1926) demonstrated that interest rates function as a price mechanism to allocate investment decisions over time, which is why the yield curve exists. Manipulation of the interest rate disturbs the natural allocation of resources.

  Eugen von Boehm-Bawerk (1851–1914) explained the structure of production as consisting of far more than just consumer and capital goods. Capital itself is heterogeneous in that investment decisions include a forecast of time expectations, and the interest rate is crucial to coordinating them.

  You can put all those pieces together to come up with a mental model of a well-functioning economy as described by Jean-Baptiste Say (1767–1832) who saw the alignment of supply and demand as a law of economics, which is to say that a market economy is inherently stable.

  The Central Bank

  One can see, then, how a central bank messes everything up. By lowering the interest rate, the central bank fuels the creation of new bank credit that otherwise would not exist. An artificially lowered interest rate acts like fake savings.

  Savings are resources drawn from deferred consumption. They serve as the basis for sustainable investment. But artificially low rates signal the existence of savings that are not there.

  Not only do low interest rates create fake savings, but they actually draw real savings away from short-term projects toward longer-term projects, thus distorting the production structure as described above. They create a kind of subsidy toward capital products that would not exist had the interest rate stayed at its natural market-based level.

  Massive Distortion

  The result then is not just inflation, as the monetarists would describe it. It is also a distortion of the production structure.

  Capital gets a subsidy over consumption goods, and not only that, but longer-term projects get a boost over shorter-term projects.

  Bottom line: The last 14 years of zero-interest rates have created a paradigmatic case of the Austrian business cycle theory. It has massively distorted interest rates, more so than ever before. This was Ben Bernanke’s wonderful innovation. Many people thought his move in 2008 would generate inflation but he found a workaround.

  Bernanke paid the banks to keep their new and faked resources locked away in the vaults of the Fed. This kept the hot money off the streets and kept prices stable. But that only solved one problem. It created another: It created huge malinvestments in a whole series of sectors in tech and media and housing yet again!

  What resulted was a disgustingly overbuilt tech world replete with Zoom-class employees with college degrees earning six figures without limit. Central bank credit caused the creation of an overclass that eventually caused all sorts of mischief, economic and cultural. They invented idiotic ideas like ESG, DEI and woke philosophy in general.

  None of this nonsense had anything to do with reality but in Bernanke’s world, reality didn’t matter anymore. This sector got so huge that it became a critical number to push lockdowns under the slogan “Stay home, stay safe.” These privileged elites forced the working classes to serve them food at their doorsteps and face the virus while they luxuriated in their fancy apartments pretending to work on laptops.

  The Chart That Reveals All

  So that we understand the radical nature of this experiment, please study the following chart carefully. This is the federal funds rate adjusted for inflation. What we see is the longest period of production distortion in American history. This chart goes from 1950s to the present.

  

  This whole policy becomes unsustainable once the value of the dollar begins to fall due to price inflation. At some point, the central bank has to turn things around. When things become shaky or prices start to shift and the central bank starts to back off its pillaging policies, the house of cards starts to fall apart, as resources are drained from long-term speculation to shorter-term consumption and the restarting of real savings.

  That’s precisely where we’re in the cycle. Long-term projects are falling apart. Consumers and investors are turning away from the long parts of the yield curve to make money in the short term. Resources in general are going through a massive shift in terms of time allocation as interest rates shift.

  The Yield Curve

  That the yield curve has dramatically inverted is hardly a surprise. It is a sign that the ship of production is turning very slowly, and investors are unconvinced yet that the Fed will keep this up.

  But that point is that the Fed must keep this up if it intends to get inflation rates back to the target. The federal funds rate will have to enter back into positive territory in real terms. That means 6%, 8% or even 10%, pushing long yields far into the double-digit range.

  To be sure, we should all in a macroeconomic sense look forward to a new age of more honest finance. The disaster of zero-interest rate policy is finally coming to an end. Former Fed chief Ben Bernanke’s Nobel Prize notwithstanding, this policy massively distorted capital allocation in the economy and around the world for the better part of 14 years. With its end, we’re going to get a taste of some economic and financial rationality.

  We might even be able to save money without losing money. So in that sense, the man who bears the main responsibility for inflation, current Fed Chair Jerome Powell, is the same guy who will finally fix what Bernanke broke all those years ago. Remember those days when everything seemed too good to be true? There was a financial crisis that the Fed magically fixed with no downside.

  Except that there was a huge economic, cultural and social downside. Frugality and prudence gave way to massive excess and a level of craziness in culture that we never imagined we would experience.

  What made this preposterously unjust system possible was the Fed with Bernanke at the helm. Quantitative easing turns out to mean upending all normal life and paying the horrid price for this a decade and a half later.

  Someday historians will look back at our times as a great turning point. We’ve been through calamity, and it worsens by the day. Will we enter into a new Dark Age? Or find the light and crawl our way toward it before it’s too late?

  If we find our way, it will be because the Austrian economists of old will guide us.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 19:40

• San Francisco Backpedals On Killer Cop Bots
  San Francisco Backpedals On Killer Cop Bots

  One week after San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted to give police the ability to use lethal, remote-controlled robots, wisdom has prevailed.

  

  Following heavy criticism from civil liberties groups, and anyone with a brain, the Board of Supervisors thought twice about giving cops the ability to ‘take down’ suspects at the push of a button. After sending the measure to committee for further review, the city reversed course.

  The vote came following a new California law requiring city police forces to keep inventories of military-grade equipment and seek approval for their use.

  Dr Catherine Connolly, from the group Stop Killer Robots, told the BBC the move was a “slippery slope” that could distance humans from killing.

  Protesters and several dissenting board members gathered on the steps of city hall to call for the city to reverse its decision. –BBC

  Opponents also said the robots would lead to the further militarization of the police force.

  

  The original proposal will need to be completely revamped, or entirely scrapped.

  Advocates for the killer robots say they would only be used in ‘extreme’ circumstances, with a spokesperson for the SFPD saying that “robots could potentially be equipped with explosive charges to breach fortified structures containing violent, armed, or dangerous subjects.”

  Under the original proposal, “Robots will only be used as a deadly force option when [1] risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and [2] officers cannot subdue the threat after using alternative force options or de-escalation tactics options, **or** conclude that they will not be able to subdue the threat after evaluating alternative force options or de-escalation tactics. Only the Chief of Police, Assistant Chief, or Deputy Chief of Special Operations may authorize the use of robot deadly force options.”

  But as the EFF‘s Matt Guariglia noted last week; The “or” in this policy (emphasis added) does a lot of work. Police can use deadly force after “evaluating alternative force options or de-escalation tactics,” meaning that they don’t have to actually try them before remotely killing someone with a robot strapped with a bomb.

   

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 19:20

• On-Chain Data Shows 'Potential Bottom' For Bitcoin But Macro Headwinds Remain
  On-Chain Data Shows ‘Potential Bottom’ For Bitcoin But Macro Headwinds Remain

  Authored by Dylan LeClair and Sam Rule via Bitcoin Magazine Pro,

  Bitcoin has seen significant capitulation from its all-time high and many on-chain indicators suggest the worst may be behind us. Yet, significant macro challenges remain. Is the bottom truly in?

  On-Chain Data Trends

  November was a painful month. By looking at on-chain realized profit and loss data, we can see that this was true for many forced-sellers of bitcoin. Before any bitcoin price bottom, a hallmark sign that you want to see is extended periods of forced selling, capitulation and rise in realized losses. One way to view this is by looking at the sum of realized profit and loss for each month relative to bitcoin’s total market cap. We saw these bottom signals in November 2022, and similarly in the July 2022 Terra/LUNA crash, March 2020 COVID fear and December 2018 cycle bottom capitulation events.

  

  Looking at the raw profit and loss numbers without normalizing to market cap, we saw $17.85 billion in realized losses over the last 30 days, which is fairly significant this cycle, but less than LUNA crash losses of $26.68 billion.

  

  Looking at the 2018 cycle, the end was marked by excess realized losses, although this was much different with the forced liquidations and cascades of private balance sheet leverage and paper bitcoin unwinding that we saw this year. 

  

  We’ve talked about the current drawdown in bitcoin’s price and how that compares to previous cycles many times over the last few months. Another way to look at cyclical drawdowns is to focus on bitcoin’s realized market capitalization — the average cost basis of the network which tracks the latest price where each UTXO moved last. With price being more volatile, realized price is a more stable view of bitcoin’s growth and capital inflows. The realized market capitalization is now down 17.33% which is significantly higher than 2015 and 2018 cycles of 14.13% and 16.51%, respectively.

  

  Bitcoin looks to be monetizing in phases or cycles, and by using the realized price metric which converts the exchange rate/market capitalization into much more precise metrics, we can evaluate the bitcoin monetization cycles using the rate of change in the realized price. The chart below shows the 30-day rate of change in the realized price.

  

  As for duration, we’re 176 total days into the price being below bitcoin’s realized price. Those aren’t consecutive days as price can temporarily go above realized price, but price trends below realized price in bear market periods. For context, trends in 2018 were short-lived at around 134 days and the trends in 2014-15 lasted 384 days. 

  On one hand, bitcoin’s realized market capitalization has taken a significant hit in the previous round of capitulation. That’s a promising bottom-like sign. On the other hand, there’s a case to be made that price being below realized price could easily last another six months from historical cycles and the lack of capitulation in equity markets is still a major headwind and concern. 

  In both charts below, you’ll see annotations for the ratio between price and realized price: market-value-to-realized-value ratio (MVRV).

  

  

  If you standardize the MVRV metric, bitcoin is in the 6th percentile of historical readings in terms of its market exchange rate relative to its average cost basis.

  

  

  As per the net-unrealized-profit/loss (NUPL) ratio, we are firmly in the capitulation phase. NUPL can be calculated by subtracting the realized cap from market cap and dividing the result by the market cap, as described in this article authored by By Tuur Demeester, Tamás Blummer and Michiel Lescrauwaet. 

  There is no denying it: For bitcoin-native cycles, we are firmly in the capitulation phase. Currently, only 56% of circulating supply was last moved on-chain in profit. On a two-week moving average basis, under 50% supply was last moved above the current exchange rate, which is something that has only ever happened in the depths of previous bear-market lows.

  

  

  

  When thinking of the bitcoin exchange rate, the numerator side of the equation is historically cheap. The Bitcoin network continues to produce a block approximately every 10 minutes in an unabated fashion, as hash rate ticks higher and as the ledger offers an immutable settlement layer for global value. The speculation, leverage and fraud of the previous cycle is washing to shore and bitcoin continues to exchange hands.

  Bitcoin is objectively cheap relative to its all time history and adoption phases. The real question over the immediate future is the denominator. We have talked at length about the global liquidity cycle and its current track. Despite being historically cheap, bitcoin is not immune to a sudden strengthening in the dollar because nothing truly is. Exchange rates are relative and if the dollar is squeezing higher, then everything else will subsequently fall — at least momentarily. As always, position sizing and time preference is key for all. 

  As for the catalyst for a surge higher in the dollar denominator of the bitcoin exchange rate (BTC/USD), there are 80 trillion possible catalysts…

  BANK OF INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENTS: FOREIGN EXCHANGE SWAP POSITIONS POINT TO OVER $80 TRILLION OF HIDDEN US DOLLAR DEBT, REPORTED OFF-BALANCE SHEET.

  — Breaking Market News ⚡️ (@financialjuice) December 5, 2022

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

  *  * *

  Thank you for reading Bitcoin Magazine Pro, we sincerely appreciate your support! Please consider leaving a like and comment if you enjoyed this piece. As well, sharing goes a long way toward helping us reach a wider audience!

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 19:00

• A New Drug Called "Tranq" Is Worsening Philadelphia's Already Out-Of-Control Drug Problem
  A New Drug Called “Tranq” Is Worsening Philadelphia’s Already Out-Of-Control Drug Problem

  As if Philadelphia didn’t have a big enough problem on its hands with its “zombie streets” in the Northeast lined with drug users…

  …a new drug is making its way out into the city. Philly Voice published a new piece this week detailing the veterinary sedative xylazine, also known as “tranq”, which is now being “pervasive” in the drug scene and is mixed with fentanyl. 

  It is responsible for “more complex overdoses and painful skin wounds,” the report says. The drug is a “anesthetic and pain reliever” that “is used by vets to treat horses and cattle”. The appeal of mixing it with Fentanyl is that it can extend the perception of a person’s high. 

  It has been found in 90% of dope samples that the city tested last year, the report says. Last year, it was found in 44% of Fentanyl overdose deaths in the city and was found in 34% of all overdose deaths. It marks a 39% increase from the year prior. 

  Jennifer Shinefeld, a field epidemiologist for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, commented: “Xylazine was initially added into the drug supply because a heroin high lasts for 6-8 hours, but a fentanyl high lasts from 1-2 hours.”

  “The tranquilizer was being added to mimic a traditional heroin high, but also to allegedly prolong the effects.”

  Fentanyl is already responsible for the lion’s share of the city’s overdoses, the report notes:

  Among Philadelphia’s 1,276 fatal overdoses in 2021 — the city’s deadliest year on record — fentanyl was linked to 71% of fatalities. The drug was present in 94% of fatal overdoses in which opioids were found, showing the extent to which fentanyl has supplanted heroin as the predominant opioid.

  And now using xylazine as an additive is “further complicating drug interactions in people who use these substances, requiring urgent changes to Philadelphia’s public health response”.

  

  In other words, Philadelphia’s drug crisis has (once again) taken a turn for the worse – and the city is being labeled “ground zero” for the new drug, which made its way from Puerto Rico:

  Xylazine first emerged as a recreational drug in Puerto Rico during the early 2000s, years before fentanyl became a staple of the U.S. drug supply.

  “It was seen among folks who were residing in towns where there was higher veterinary use of it,” said Jewell Johnson, a substance use epidemiologist in Philadelphia’s health department.

  As fentanyl spread first in the Northeast, then westward over the last decade, xylazine came to be seen by drug suppliers as an appealing substance to offset the shorter run of a fentanyl high. The drug doesn’t make opioids last any longer, but it prolongs the mental state of being on a drug.

  Philadelphia, long an epicenter of the nation’s opioid epidemic, became an ideal place for tranq dope to flourish.

  “Outside of Puerto Rico, for lack of a better word, Philadelphia is ground zero for xylazine,” Shinefeld said.

  Shinefeld concluded: “Xylazine is the primary adulterate (in the drug supply), I say that because we no longer consider fentanyl a primary adulterate, but (rather) the primary component. Fentanyl started to take over the drug supply in 2010. There’s not very much heroin left. There are certain areas where you can still get it, but all of the bags that we’ve ever tested that had actual heroin also had fentanyl present in them.”

  You can read Philly Voice’s full report on the drug here. 

   

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 18:40

• Ted Cruz On Twitter Files Revelations: "This Was All About Weaponizing Big Tech"
  Ted Cruz On Twitter Files Revelations: “This Was All About Weaponizing Big Tech”

  Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

  Republican Senator Ted Cruz has weighed in on the revelations in Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter Files’ publication, urging that it is “evidence of corruption that goes to the highest level of government.”

  

  Appearing on Fox News, Cruz asserted that the effort to crush the Hunter Biden laptop story went “to the highest level of the FBI. And it goes to the highest level of Big Tech.”

  “We’ve known for a long time that big tech is censoring conservatives,” Cruz said, adding that “what Elon did here is he just laid naked all of the lies that the corporate media has told.”

  “It’s clear during the 2020 election, over and over and over again, the Biden campaign and the DNC would reach out to their buddies at Twitter and say, hey we don’t like this, and their response is ‘handled,’ and they’d take it down, over and over and over again,” Cruz stated.

  He continued, “And in particular, all of the exchange back and forth when the Hunter Biden laptop story broke, it was evidence that the leadership at Twitter knew within hours that their ridiculous, fake excuse that it was hacked was a ridiculous fake excuse.”

  “Even James Baker, who…had been the FBI’s general counsel and then was at Twitter — even he acknowledged well, gosh, we don’t have the evidence on this, but it doesn’t matter, Let’s block it anyway,” Cruz noted, referring to the now fired Twitter Fed, who continued to try to censor Musk’s data dump.

  Cruz further highlighted that in “one of the exchanges back and forth they reveal the reason, which is they say we want to avoid — we want to avoid what happened in 2016, Donald Trump winning.”

  Thank goodness for the @FBI otherwise we mighthave accidentally elected the wrong person president https://t.co/YihaIWdHhn

  — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) December 5, 2022

  “This was all about weaponizing big tech. It is absolutely corrupt. And what is amazing is the Democrats were fully in on it,” Cruz charged, adding “The corporate media was fully in on it, and Elon’s released the receipts, which shows all of them are willing to abuse power to stay in power.”

  * * *

  Brand new merch now available! Get it at https://www.pjwshop.com/

  In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. We need you to sign up for our free newsletter here. Support our sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Also, we urgently need your financial support here.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 18:20

• Senate Committee To Subpoena SBF If He Does Not Testify Voluntarily
  Senate Committee To Subpoena SBF If He Does Not Testify Voluntarily

  Update (8:20pm ET): Following a tidal wave of disgust, outrage and loathing at corrupt politicians, Maxine Waters took to twitter to slam the earlier CNBC report that she wouldn’t subpoena SBF as a “lie” even though just one sentence lower in her tweet she confirms that she has, in fact, not done anything yet and that a “subpoena is definitely on the table.”

  Furthermore, she notes that SBF has “been requested to testify” even though as everyone knows by now, he turned down said “request” and unless he is compelled (i.e., issued a subpoena) he won’t go. But it’s cool: “A subpoena is definitely on the table.” The question is whether the check to Maxine clear and it stays there or someone actually signs it and delivers it to the prominent Democratic donor.

  Lies are circulating @CNBC that I am not willing to subpoena @SBF_FTX. He has been requested to testify at the December 13th hearing. A subpoena is definitely on the table. Stay tuned.

  — Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) December 8, 2022

  The responses suggest that America’s corrupt politicians no longer fool anyone.

  pic.twitter.com/gQC4uqUEEv

  — Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) December 8, 2022

  “On the table” LOL. You coward. You can’t even do damage control right. $32 billion valuation collapse and your party is worried about $600 Venmo transactions from some Uber driver. You know as much about economics and meaningful consequences as I know about not being bald.

  — Quoth the Raven (@QTRResearch) December 8, 2022

  This you? https://t.co/OBI594jhtS

  — Hank Rogers (@HankRogers17) December 8, 2022

  And while Maxine counts her inbound wire transfers and donations from SBF for a cost-benefit analysis of what the humiliated rep should do next, at least two US senators have no such qualms, and the two highest rated members of the Senate Banking Committee told Sam Bankman-Fried they expect him to appear before them next week in person to discuss the collapse of FTX, and will subpoena him if he does not appear voluntarily, a letter from its leaders said Wednesday.

  As Coindesk first reported, Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), respectively the chair and ranking member of the committee, wrote a public letter to Bankman-Fried, who resigned from the exchange the same day it filed for bankruptcy last month. The committee is holding a hearing on Wednesday, Dec. 14, a day after the House Financial Services Committee holds its own hearing on the exchange.

  “FTX’s collapse has caused real financial harm to consumers, and effects have spilled over into other parts of the crypto industry. The American people need answers about Sam Bankman-Fried’s misconduct at FTX,” the lawmakers said in a prepared statement. “The Committee has requested that he testify at our upcoming hearing on FTX’s collapse, and will consider further action if he does not comply.”

  Normally witnesses appear voluntarily, the lawmakers said in the letter. If Bankman-Fried does not confirm his participation by Thursday, “I am prepared, along with Ranking Member Pat Toomey, to issue a subpoena to compel your testimony,” the letter signed by Brown said.

  He now faces a number of investigations, including an investigation by federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York, who are investigating whether Bankman-Fried may have tried to manipulate the price of TerraUSD and Luna, which collapsed in their own dramatic fashion earlier this year, according to the New York Times.

  * * *

  Just when you thought House Democrat, and easily one of the smartest people in Congress, Maxine Waters couldn’t humiliate herself and outrage the peasantry any further with her white-glove treatment of Sam Bankman-Fried, whose fraud was behind the largest ponzi scheme since Bernie Madoff, she has bested herself once more.

  Waters, the House Financial Services Committee Chair, is not planning on subpoenaing Sam Bankman-Fried, or is that Sam Bankman-Freed – to testify at the upcoming December 13th Congressional hearing about the collapse of FTX. 

  “Waters informed committee members of her decision at a private meeting Tuesday with Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler on Capitol Hill,” CNBC reported late in the day on Wednesday. 

  Waters apparently said “she wants committee staff try to convince Bankman-Fried to voluntarily testify”.

  

  And if he disagrees? Well… oops, but that’s what all those tens of millions in donations to Democrats were for. Or is that billions?

  That’s just the publicly disclosed number. His actual support of Dem elections is probably over $1B. The money went somewhere, so where did it go?

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 3, 2022

  For those still confused, one month after the historic implosion, Bankman-Fried appears to be getting away with one of the most blatant heists in history and still has not been held to account by any regulatory agency, other than what appeared to be some perfunctory palm greasing that may have taken place in the Bahamas. 

  Baffled by why there has been no consequences for Bankman-Fried, even while Democrats and the Biden administration perpetually rail against billionaires and the upper class? Well, there’s the small detail that Bankman-Fried and FTX associates gave $300,000 to the very same House Committee members that are investigating him, per the Washington Free Beacon:

  Bankman-Fried and his co-founders at FTX contributed $300,351 to nine members of the House Financial Services Committee, according to Federal Election Commission records. Some of the largest contributions were to Democrats on the committee’s Digital Assets Working Group, which worked on regulation of the crypto industry. 

  Recall that Maxine Waters has been already widely lampooned and ridiculed for the gentle treatment she has given Bankman-Fried thus far.  In an endearing sounding Tweet to SBF on December 2, 2022, asking him to testify in front of Conrgess, she wrote: “We appreciate that you’ve been candid in your discussions about what happened at FTX. Your willingness to talk to the public will help the company’s customers, investors, and others. To that end, we would welcome your participation in our hearing on the 13th.”

  The public was not amused by Waters’ approach.

  “If you don’t arrest him I will have lost all faith in our government being the tiniest bit of just,” bitcoin advocate Dan Held responded to Waters. 

  “Rep. Waters, we appreciate that you’re holding a hearing on the 13th, and we look forward to substantive fact-finding about what happened at FTX. I am certain that factfinding will show that SBF has not, in fact, been candid in his discussions. He committed fraud, full stop,” commented Lawyer Jake Chervinsky.

  And then Bankman-Fried himself humiliated Waters by publicly shunning her offer to testify, telling Waters he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to testify on December 13th. 

  “Once I have finished learning and reviewing what happened, I would feel like it was my duty to appear before the committee and explain,” he wrote to her on Twitter. 

  Rep. Waters, and the House Committee on Financial Services:

  Once I have finished learning and reviewing what happened, I would feel like it was my duty to appear before the committee and explain.

  I’m not sure that will happen by the 13th. But when it does, I will testify. https://t.co/c0P8yKlyQt

  — SBF (@SBF_FTX) December 4, 2022

  And to think, SBF dodging the question of an appearance before the House on December 13 came even after Waters blew Bankman-Fried a kiss…

  CAUGHT: Maxine Waters appears to blow a kiss at FTX’s chief fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried at a Congressional hearing while the cameras were still rolling

  She’s the one who’s supposed to grill SBF next month?

  pic.twitter.com/qxWXuNsyuK

  — Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 18, 2022

  We guess the ole’ Willie Brown treatment doesn’t quite work with the charm it used to. Maybe Maxine can have Kamala Harris stand in for her next time. 

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 18:00

• Russia's Oil Exports Nosedive Following Price Cap
  Russia’s Oil Exports Nosedive Following Price Cap

  By Alex Kimani of OilPrice.com

  Russian crude-oil exports have taken a serious hit since new sanctions and a price cap came into force earlier in the week, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that figures from two data providers on Russian crude both show a big fall, though their magnitudes differ. 

  

  According to one commodity-analytics firm Kpler, Russia’s seaborne exports fell by nearly 500,000 barrels per day on Tuesday, a 16% decline from the November average of 3.08 million bpd. 

  Meanwhile, TankerTrackers.com, which tracks sea vessels using signals and satellite images, has reported that Russia’s crude exports fell by nearly 50%. With shipments from the Black Sea and Baltic ports accounting for most of the fall.

  According to Samir Madani, cofounder of TankerTrackers.com, this is a notable drop rather than a blip, “Russian exports have been moving steadily up until now. The two biggest visible snags are in the Black and Baltic seas. Pacific and Arctic regions remain unaffected, at least for now”.

  Analysts at StanChart have predicted that Russia’s crude production is set to fall sharply in the coming year, noting that the key unknown is whether Russia can transport oil to its major consumers (including providing adequate insurance) without using EU or other G7 services. 

  According to StanChart, Russia has acquired a large enough ‘shadow’ tanker fleet since its invasion of Ukraine that it can use to move most of the displaced volumes; however, the analysts note that the insurance aspect is likely to cause significant issues. This situation leads analysts to predict that Russian crude output is likely to fall by 1.44 million barrels per day in 2023 thanks to a progressive shortage of high-quality equipment and a lack of access to international service companies.

  At the same time, we are seeing a traffic jam of more than a dozen oil tankers stuck in the Turkish Straits thanks to a dispute between maritime insurers and the local authorities due to the new sanctions and price cap.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 17:40

• China Confirms It Is "Mystery" Massive Gold Buyer With First Official Purchase In 3 Years
  China Confirms It Is “Mystery” Massive Gold Buyer With First Official Purchase In 3 Years

  One month ago, we sparked a frenzy across precious metals circles when we reported that a “mystery” buyer had bought some 300 tons of gold, roughly three quarters of what would be a record 399 tons of central bank gold purchases in the third quarter.

  

  While regular readers already know the details (which we laid out here), here again is the bigger picture: Central banks bought a net 399.3 tonnes of gold in the July-September period, more than quadrupling on the year, according to the November report by the World Gold Council. The latest amount marks a steep jump from 186 tonnes in the preceding quarter and 87.7 tonnes in the first quarter, while the year-to-date total alone surpasses any full year since 1967.

  Buyers such as the central banks of Turkey, Uzbekistan and India reported purchases of 31.2 tonnes, 26.1 tonnes and 17.5 tonnes, respectively. The problem, as we calculated at the start of November, is that those amounts only add up to roughly 90 tonnes – “meaning it is unclear who bought the remaining roughly 300 tonnes net.”

  And while we clearly had one name as the most likely suspect behind the residual buying, it wasn’t until a report two weeks later by Japan’s Nikkei that said name emerged front and center.

  According to the Nikkei, which paraphrased verbatim what we had previously said, with central banks snapping up gold this year amid uncertainty which ones are behind most of that shopping spree, “speculation emerged that China is a big player.” And citing analysts, the Nikkei then goes on to suggest that seeing how Russia has been hit by monetary sanctions by the West, “China and some other countries must be hurrying to reduce dependence on the dollar.“

  “Seeing how Russia’s overseas assets were frozen after its invasion of Ukraine, anti-Western countries are eager to accumulate gold holdings on hand,” said Emin Yurumazu, a Japan-based economist from Turkey.

  Those familiar with China’s gold buying patterns are all too aware that Beijing has made similar moves in the past. After keeping radio-silent since 2009, Beijing shocked the market in 2015 when it disclosed it had boosted gold holdings by about 600 tonnes. It has not reported any activity since September 2019.

  “China likely bought a substantial amount of gold from Russia,” added market analyst Itsuo Toshima. According to Toshima, the People’s Bank of China likely bought a portion of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation’s gold holdings of over 2,000 tonnes.

  * * *

  Fast forward to today when while we still don’t know if Russia sold some of its gold to China – all we know is that Russia did sell some gold in recent months after its holdings hit a record in 2020…

  

  … what we do know for a fact is that China was indeed loading up on gold.

  We know this, because overnight the PBOC officially reported an increase in its gold reserves for the first time in more than three years, confirming that the world’s most populous country was indeed the mystery buyer in the bullion market.

  In keeping with a time-honored practice of masking its purchases for years (the “dormant” period between 2009 and 2015 when China did not reveal any purchases, and then suddenly reported a 57% jump in reserves being the most famous) and then only gradually letting on how much it had purchased, on Wednesday the Chinese central bank raised its holdings by 32 tons in November from the month before and really from the last official update in Sept 2019, according to data on its website.

  

  That brought its total to 1,980 tons (or 63.67m fine troy ounces) the sixth-biggest central bank bullion hoard in the world, but similar to previous disclosures it is likely that China has purchased far more in the past three years but will only reveal just how much in coming months. That said, China has a long way to go for its gold holdings to catch up to the US (which may or may not have the gold it represents), and even if combined with Russia’s holdings, the two countries would still not be the world’s largest gold holder.

  

  Why now? Well, as Bloomberg reports, echoing Nikkei above, “for China, the need to find an alternative to dollars, which dominate its reserves, has rarely been greater.” Tensions with the US have been high since measures taken against its semiconductor firms, while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated Washington’s willingness to sanction central bank reserves. In other words, now that the US has shown it is ready to weaponize the dollar, any USD reserves held by the Fed, Western banks or any other counterparty, could and will be promptly confiscated if China does something unpalatable… like invading Taiwan. Which is why China is desperately seeking money without counterparty risk. Here it has just two choices: crypto or gold. For now, it has picked the latter.

  Others echoed this dedollarization thesis which we have been pushing for years: according to UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo, the PBOC’s purchases may be part of a plan to diversify its reserves away from the dollar: “Gold holdings in China as part of the total reserves are still very low, so there is probably room for further purchases down the road.”

  As regular readers are well aware, China has previously gone long periods without disclosing changes in its gold holdings. When the central bank announced a 57% jump in reserves to 53.3 million ounces in mid-2015, it was the first update in six years. It took another breather from the end of October 2016, before resuming reporting purchases in December 2018.

  While central bank buying rarely drives sustainable gold rallies, it can provide an important pillar of support when prices fall. The precious metal has been under pressure this year from the Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary tightening, though it has held up relatively well against moves in the dollar and Treasury yields.

  “As deglobalisation accelerates, the non-G-10 nations are expected to ‘re-commoditize’ and ramp up gold holdings,” said Nicky Shiels, head of strategy at MKS PAMP SA.

  Meanwhile, as Zoltan Pozsar wrote yesterday in a must-read note, the role of gold may be changing as first Russia, then other countries (China) seek to force out the petrodollar and replace it with petrogold, a move which would finally lead to substantial price upside for the yellow metal which has gone nowhere in the past 2 years.

  Gold rose to $1,782 an ounce by 12:30pm ET. Bullion had a shortlived rally back above $1,800 on Friday, and is down about 3% this year.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/07/2022 – 17:30

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• The Real Reason Behind China's "Zero-COVID" Policy
  The Real Reason Behind China’s “Zero-COVID” Policy

  Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,

  Most of the Western world is no longer in lockdown, some vaccine mandates are being loosened, mask wearers are distinctly the minority everywhere you look.

  For now at least, and for want of a better phrase, we have largely “gone back to normal”…except, you know, now with a totally broken economy, more centralised financial power, dozens of alarming precedents set up for future deployment and millions upon millions of people injected with poison under false pretences.

  But on the lockdown front at least, we’re normal…mostly.

  Lockdowns are quickly becoming one of those embarrassing things that were only ever supported by other people, like wearing flares or voting for Thatcher. Politicians are feverishly passing the buck back and forth, claiming to have never wanted lockdowns in the firstplace.

  …but not in China.

  

  As the rest of the world “lives with Covid”, people in Chinese cities are still subject to dystopian levels of control and surveillance. Up to and including being welded inside their own homes.

  Why?

  Well, we can certainly rule out a few mainstream “explanations”:

  • We know it’s not because Covid is a real disease or uniquely dangerous in any way whatsoever. The data has spoken on that.

  • We know it’s not because lockdowns work to protect the health of the public or prevent disease outbreaks. The data has spoken on that too.

  • We know it’s not because the Chinese government holds the lives of their citizens as more precious than their Western counterparts.

  • And we know it’s not because they were the victim of some bio-engineered viral attack by the West. That idea was always absurd.

  …so what’s the real explanation?

  Well, there are really several answers to that, all of which come back to our old friend the fake binary.

  1. HEEL VS FACE

  If you accept that the Covid “pandemic” was in fact a global psy-op, carried out by most of the governments of the world working in concert at the behest of supra-national financial, corporate and political interests, then it de facto follows that any apparent differences in approach or attitude between those co-operating governments serve a role in the narrative.

  In short, someone has to play “the bad guy”.

  In this case, China’s brutal “zero-Covid” approach allows the Western governments to claim the “moderate” label simply by virtue of not being so cartoonishly “evil” as China.

  Of course, this works in both directions.

  “The West” can say to their citizens, “look how brutal China’s lockdown was, we would never go that far, because we care about your rights”.
  Meanwhile, China can say “look how lax and disorganized the West’s Covid response was, we would never be that careless, because we care about your health”.

  It is – and here’s that phrase again – a fake binary.

  Each side serves as the good guy in their own narrative, and the bad guy in the other, and in that fashion they actually support each other whilst corralling each other’s dissidents into a controlled “alternative opinion”.

  2. PROMOTING VACCINES

  In The Guardian two days ago, the now-ubiquitous Devi Sridhar actually defended China’s “tough decisions” on Zero Covid, coming at it from the angle that China has to be that harsh because their vaccines don’t work as well as ours do:

  China’s population has a lower vaccination rate, with vaccines that appear less effective, than in most other countries. And many people don’t have any immunity gained from a previous infection either. If China gives up on containment and allows a large wave of infections, the country will take a huge loss of life given current vaccination levels

  The entire column is really just a way of shilling “safe and effective” mRNA vaccines (as well as other agenda we’ll deal with below):

  Rising concerns about the low effectiveness of the non-mRNA Chinese vaccines were also a concern: studies indicated that protection faded fast and was undetectable after six months […] China takes, it needs to improve its vaccines. But to do this it will need access to mRNA technology, and this has been stuck at an impasse. Moderna has refused to transfer its technology to Chinese firms for manufacturing, instead eager to sell directly to a large market. China has instead worked to develop a homegrown mRNA vaccine but this has caused delays in rollout […] China need to get mRNA vaccines to the biggest priority groups quickly

  Again, the twin-sided narrative.

  The West says, “see, we don’t need these brutal lockdowns, because we’ve got magical vaccines”, with the inevitable unspoken corollary of this being “we’ll need to go into lockdowns if you don’t get vaccinated enough” .

  Meanwhile, China gets to lay the blame for their own lockdowns on Western selfishness, “the only reason we have these lockdowns is the mean selfish Western companies won’t share their technology”. This neatly turns ALL pro-Chinese voices in Western alternate media voices into pro-vaccine voices too.

  3. FEEDS THE LIE THAT “LOCKDOWNS WORK”

  Lockdowns do not work to halt the spread of diseases and, before 2020, were never suggested or used in that manner.

  Then, in the spring of 2020, almost every world government seemingly simultaneously took the unprecedented decision to go into lockdown to fight Covid. To justify this the mainstream narrative was in need of some evidence lockdowns work.

  Enter China.

  Over and over and over again you will read apparent “condemnation” of China’s lockdowns alongside the qualification of their supposedly low Covid death numbers.

  In mainstream sources, the clear implication is left unspoken, but prominent alternative voices are happy to say it out loud: “These lockdowns may appear unethical, but they saved millions of lives.”

  Since ALL Covid “cases” are entirely the product of PCR testing programs, and ALL “Covid deaths” are subject to ludicrously tortured definitions, we can conclude China’s Covid statistics are a contrivance designed to sell the idea that lockdowns actually work.

  More than just lockdowns, an undercurrent of the pandemic narrative has been a softening of the public attitude to authoritarian governence in general, usually through compliments to China.

  As early as March 2020 we had “experts” on Channel 4 praising China’s approach, we had Neil Ferguson lamenting the UK government didn’t have the power to follow China’s gameplan, we had western news outlets claiming China had “triumphed” over Covid.

  The message was clear, and not at all subtle: “Man, obviously having no regard for individual rights is bad, but that approach really does seem to work, doesn’t it? Clearly, we would never do that, but you can’t deny it’s effective, can you?”

  That messaging still carries on today, and it has nothing to do with China per se, and everything to do with the slow-burn legitimisation of tyranny by virtue of the ends justifying the means.

  CONCLUSION

  To sum up, China’s “zero covid” approach forms a vital piece of the overall pandemic narrative, working in conjunction with Western governments as a deliberately stark contrast:

  1. It promotes the idea that vaccines work and helped prevent further lockdowns here.

  2. It shines a flattering light on Western governments, who appear less draconian by comparison.

  3. It serves as an argument for the effectiveness of lockdowns and other authoritarian measures.

  Perhaps most importantly, the supposed difference works to corral and control public debate.

  Traditionally leftwing critics of Western capitalism are forced to defend vaccines and lockdowns by their ideological loyalty to China.

  Conversely, right-wingers have China’s “socialist” practices to point their fingers at, whilst praising Western capitalist pharmaceutical innovation for saving us from the need for tighter lockdowns.

  Each side is controlled by their ideology, not realising their loyalties are being used to position them inside the permissible spectrum of opinion.

  All the while, both sides claim the virus is real and dangerous, both sides use the same PCR tests and both sides shill vaccines made by the same companies. The superficial “differences” serve only to sell their many points of agreement.

  In other words, the divide over Covid tactics is as real as the fight over Ukraine. It all serves the same purpose, promoting the great reset and the global technocratic government. A system neither communist nor capitalist, but absorbing the worst vices of whilst purging the virtues.

  Zero Covid is just China working as the other side of the scissors.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 23:55

• Texting Is Alive And Well At 30
  Texting Is Alive And Well At 30

  30 years ago, on December 3, 1992, the English software engineer Neil Papworth used his computer to send a message to Vodafone director Richard Jarvis. The message simply read “Merry Christmas” but it became known as the first SMS message ever sent, because Jarvis received the slightly premature Christmas greetings on his clunky Orbitel 901 cell phone. He never replied.

  As Statista’s Martin Armstroing notes, it took a while for text messages to really take off, but in the early 2000s texting really hit the mainstream and became a very lucrative side business for mobile carriers around the world.

  At the time, operators typically charged a fee of $0.10 to $0.20 per SMS, which, considering the 160 character limit, quickly piled up for more chatty users.

  As Armstrong shows in the chart below, text messaging (including MMS) in the United States peaked in 2011, when U.S. cell phone users sent a total of 2.4 trillion messages, up from 162 billion five years earlier. Over the proceeding few years however, the popularity of text messages, at least in the form of SMS, began to wane.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  These days, smartphone users mainly text each other using free SMS alternatives such as iMessage or WhatsApp.

  That said, the good old-fashioned SMS is still clinging on to its relevance, with somewhat of a reprisal in recent years in the U.S. and a solid 2 trillion sent last year.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 23:35

• The "Crazy, Right-Wing Shooter" Myth
  The “Crazy, Right-Wing Shooter” Myth

  Authored by John Lott Jr via RealClearPolitics.com,

  If you only read the New York Times editorials, you’d believe that political violence in America is a “right-wing” problem. The Times has been warning of violence from the right for years, but on Nov. 19 and 26, they wrote two long editorials making these claims. The violence stems from the lies “enthusiastically spread” by Republican politicians. Democrats’ only complicity was their $53 million in spending on “far-right fringe candidates in the primaries.” The fringe candidates, it was hoped, would be easier to beat in the general election. 

  

  Both editorials mention the mass murderer in Buffalo, New York, as a political right-winger. But they have been doing that all year. In May, the Times claimed he was of the right because he was racist and listened to a video on a “site known for hosting right-wing extremism.” 

  The headline in the Times announced:

  “Replacement theory, espoused by the suspect in the Buffalo massacre, has been embraced by some right-wing politicians and commentators.”

  You wouldn’t know it from reading the Times, but the Buffalo killer was yet another mass murderer motivated by environmentalism. 

  In his manifesto, the Buffalo mass murderer self-identifies as an “eco-fascist national socialist” and a member of the “mild-moderate authoritarian left.” He expresses concern that minority immigrants have too many children and will damage the environment. “The invaders are the ones overpopulating the world,” he writes. “Kill the invaders, kill the overpopulation and by doing so save the environment.”

  The murderer argues that capitalists are destroying the environment, and are at the root of much of the problem.

  “The trade of goods is to be discouraged at all costs,” he insists.

  Overpopulation and the environment are hardly signature conservative issues.

  It’s certainly not something you’ll hear Donald Trump talk about at his rallies. And while some Republicans believe in limiting international trade, it’s certainly not for environmental reasons.

  The Buffalo murderer’s manifesto has word-for-word similarities to those of the mass shooters in 2019 at a New Zealand mosque and at an El Paso Walmart. 

  But the New York Times has consistently referred to the New Zealand mosque attacker as “far-right,” and tried to link the murderer to President Donald Trump’s supposedly racist language. The Times describes the El Paso murderer as having “echoed the incendiary words of conservative media stars” who have spoken out against illegal immigration.

  But conservatives don’t usually declare that “conservatism is dead” and that “global capitalist markets are the enemy of racial autonomists.” Nor do they call themselves “eco-fascist” and profess that, “The nation with the closest political and social values to my own is the People’s Republic of China.”

  The El Paso murderer had the same sentiments.

  “The decimation of the environment is creating a massive burden for future generations … The next logical step is to decrease the number of people in America using resources. If we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can become more sustainable.”

  All three of these deranged killers made minorities their principal target. But they’ve done so out of a crazy environmentalist determination to reduce the human population by whatever means necessary. 

  The news media and politicians who constantly warn about the world’s imminent end can’t bring themselves to acknowledge the environmentalist connection, even though climate activists time and again agree that overpopulation is part of the problem. “It does lead, I think, young people to have a legitimate question: Is it okay to still have children?” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2019. She also warned that the “‘world will end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change.”

  Similarly, President Biden fans the flames of alarmism when he claims that “climate change poses an existential threat to our lives … this is code red.”

  Of the 82 mass public shootings from January 1998 to May 2021, 9% have known or alleged ties to white supremacists, neo-Nazis, or anti-immigrant views.

  But many of those, such as the Buffalo murderer, are environmentalist authoritarians.

  Another 9% of mass public shootings are carried out by people of middle eastern origin, despite them making up only 0.4% of the US population. Whites and Hispanics are underrepresented as a share of the population. Blacks, Asians, and American Indians commit these attacks at a slightly higher rate than their share of the population.

  Seventy-one percent of mass public shooters have no identifiable political views.

  Even violence against pro-life people and organizations this year has been over 22 times more frequent that violence against pro-choice groups.

  The New York Times, like the Washington Post and other news outlets, is intent on construing any racist as a conservative, right-winger. But they aren’t. And if there’s any ideological cause that really is sparking violence, it’s environmental extremism.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 23:15

• Walmart CEO Warns Retail Thefts Will Lead To Price Hikes, Store Closures
  Walmart CEO Warns Retail Thefts Will Lead To Price Hikes, Store Closures

  Walmart CEO Doug McMillon told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the massive wave of retail thefts at company stores will lead to higher prices or closed stores if the problem persists. 

  “Theft is an issue. It’s higher than what it has historically been,” McMillon told Squawk Box’s hosts. 

  “We’ve got safety measures, security measures that we’ve put in place by store location. I think local law enforcement being staffed and being a good partner is part of that equation, and that’s normally how we approach it,” he continued.

  Squawk Box’s Rebecca Quick then pointed out how certain cities have changed shoplifting rules, making it harder for police to prosecute criminals. She asked McMillon: “Does that matter?” 

  He responded: “If that’s not corrected over time, prices will be higher, and/or stores will close.” 

  

  Besides Walmart, Target complained last month about an organized retail crime wave, resulting in a massive hit on profits this year. The retailer employed theft-deterrent merchandising strategies, but that wasn’t enough to stop criminals from running off with everything on the shelves. 

  Target’s latest earnings report revealed gross profit margins were reduced by $400 million this year due to shrinking, the industry’s term for theft and product loss.

  Target CFO Michael Fiddelke said, “We know we’re not alone across retail in seeing a trend [crime wave] that I think has gotten increasingly worse over the last 12 to 18 months.” 

  Organized retail crime has exploded under the Biden administration while progressive-run cities implement social justice reform. Such policies have backfired and fueled a nationwide crime wave. 

  Walmart and Target blame thefts on organized crime gangs. Stores have deployed on/off duty police and shatterproof glass cabinets to guard high-value items. 

  US retailers have demanded Congress do something. The US Chamber of Commerce has described the looting as a “national crisis.”  

  Walmart could follow Walgreens Pharmacy’s playbook and begin closing stores in Democrat-controlled cities to mitigate theft. 

  Here’s the full interview:

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 22:55

• Democrat Warnock Beats Walker To Win Georgia Senate Runoff
  Democrat Warnock Beats Walker To Win Georgia Senate Runoff

  Update (2245ET): With 95% of votes counted, a number of mainstream media outlets have called the Georgia Senate Runoff election for incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock.

  Well over 1 million people went to the polls Tuesday. That followed record-breaking early voting in the runoff, in which about 1.85 million in-person and mail-in votes had been tallied by Dec. 2, the last day of early voting.

  

  Mr. Warnock’s victory means that Democrats will control the Senate 51-49 starting in January, slightly increasing their hold on the chamber they have controlled since early 2021, when Mr. Warnock was first elected, along with his Georgia Democratic colleague Sen. Jon Ossoff.

  The win means Democrats will have control of Senate committees outright and will no longer have to adhere to a power-sharing agreement with the GOP.

  *  *  *

  Georgia voters will head to the polls on Tuesday to settle the final Senate contest in the country between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and football legend Herschel Walker, following a four-week runoff that has attracted a flood of outside spending.

  

  The outcome of Tuesday’s vote will determine whether Democrats will have a 51-49 Senate majority, or will maintain the 50-50 control of the chamber which often resulted in the party kowtowing to centrist Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (AZ).

  Atlanta voters were greeted Tuesday morning with 40-degree weather with rain.

  The contest between Walker and Warnock pits the state’s first black senator and senior minister against Walker, who has the support of former President Donald Trump. If Warnock wins, it would solidify Georgia’s status as a battleground state heading into the 2024 election, AP reports. If Walker wins, it would reflect limited Democratic gains in the state – particularly in light of Republicans marking wide-ranging victories across the state in last month’s midterm elections.

  In that election, Warnock led Walker by about 37,000 votes out of almost 4 million cast but fell shy of a majority, triggering the second round of voting. About 1.9 million votes already have been cast by mail and during early voting, an advantage for Democrats whose voters more commonly cast ballots this way. Republicans typically fare better on voting done on Election Day, with the margins determining the winner.

  Last month, Walker, 60, ran more than 200,000 votes behind Republican Gov. Brian Kemp after a campaign dogged by intense scrutiny of his past, meandering campaign speeches and a bevy of damaging allegations, including claims that he paid for two former girlfriends’ abortions — accusations that Walker has denied. -AP

  On Monday Walker campaigned with his wife, Julie, where he thanked supporters and backed off the attacks on Warnock.

  “I love y’all, and we’re gonna win this election,” he told supporters at a winery in Ellijay, adding “I love winning championships.”

  As far as campaign spending, Warnock’s has spent around $170 million vs. Walker’s $60 million or so, according to federal disclosures. Their respective party committees have spent more, according to the report.

  During the campaign Warnock attacked Walker’s rocky past – claiming the ex-NFL star paid for two former girlfriends abortions, while Walker was forced to admit during the campaign that he fathered three children out of wedlock whom he had never publicly acknowledged.

  Walker, a multi-millionaire and successful businessman, has campaigned on his business achievements and philanthropic activities – though he was caught exaggerating, saying he employed hundreds of people and grossed tens of millions of dollars in sales, when in fact he employed eight people and had around $1.5 million in average annual sales.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 22:48

• Biden's Climate Change War Picks Up Steam In More Ways Than One
  Biden’s Climate Change War Picks Up Steam In More Ways Than One

  By Mish Shedlock of MishTalk

  US allies are steaming mad at Biden for his climate change war. Let’s discuss who fired the first shot and who is escalating the war.

  The Wall Street Journal comments Biden Starts a Climate Trade War

  Wasn’t President Biden going to end Donald Trump’s destructive trade wars against allies? Apparently not. His “super aggressive” climate protectionism—to quote French President Emmanuel Macron—is infuriating U.S. friends and may set off a subsidy and tariff war.

  U.S. allies are upset about the Inflation Reduction Act’s generous subsidies for domestically manufactured green technologies. In his trip to Washington last week, Mr. Macron said the U.S. subsidies may “perhaps fix your issue but you will increase my problem.” They’re really a problem for everybody.

  The dispute involves tax credits for electric-vehicle and battery production. The IRA’s $7,500 consumer tax credit are restricted to EVs assembled in North America. Most foreign auto makers make EVs abroad and export them because the global and U.S. markets are still small.

  The law also offers generous tax credits for domestic EV battery production, including a $35 per kilowatt-hour credit for U.S.-made battery cells, plus $10 per kilowatt-hour for domestically produced modules. These credits are expected to shave the cost of producing an EV battery by 30% to 40% and reportedly prompted Tesla to reconsider plans to make battery cells in Germany.

  A Toyota spokesman in Canada spoke the truth: “While the IRA is being presented in many quarters as key legislation to fight climate change, in reality it is an act of trade protectionism.” The Canadian Steel Producers Association has warned that U.S. steel producers would also indirectly benefit from the climate subsidies without incurring carbon costs.

  WTO Subsidy Violations 

  Under WTO rules, Biden is offering illegal subsidies.  The EU’s game is illegal tariffs. 

  EU Tries to Convince Trading Partners Its Carbon Tax is Not a Tax

  

  Please recall my July 6 post EU Tries to Convince Trading Partners Its Carbon Tax is Not a Tax

  The EU wants to stop “carbon leakage”. Supposedly a carbon tax will do the trick.

  In order to keep profits up in the EU, the EU resorted to CBAM, a carbon border adjustment mechanism designed to cut emissions by creating financial incentives for greener production and by discouraging “carbon leakage.” 

  The US way of doing business was to hand out subsidies to favored union businesses, especially GM. 

  Since direct handouts are more efficient at graft than tariffs, the EU is now steaming mad. 

  Inflationary Practices

  Trump started trade wars with most of the world. Biden has escalated them. 

  Both the EU’s CBAM initiative and Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act are inflationary. They raise prices on the end consumer by shutting out foreign competition. 

  De-carbonization and deglobalization are both very inflationary. The Fed will have to kill a lot of demand to make up for competing idiotic trade and energy policies. 

  For more on the IRA please see my November 30 post The EU is Very Worried About Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 22:35

• US Army Selects Bell's V-280 To Replace Black Hawk Helicopters
  US Army Selects Bell’s V-280 To Replace Black Hawk Helicopters

  Late Monday evening, the US Army awarded Textron Inc’s Bell unit with the contract to build the next-generation helicopter, ending years of fierce competition between Lockheed Martin Corp.-Boeing Co. to replace the aging fleet of Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks by 2030. 

  The Army’s “Future Vertical Lift” award went to Bell’s V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft, similar to the V-22 Osprey. The new aircraft can take off and land vertically like a helicopter but rotate massive props to fly like a fixed-wing aircraft at impressive speeds. 

  

  “The V-280’s unmatched combination of proven tiltrotor technology coupled with innovative digital engineering and an open architecture offers the Army outstanding operational versatility for its vertical lift fleet,” Bell said in a statement.

  “We are honored that the US Army has selected the Bell V-280 Valor as its next-generation assault aircraft.

  “We intend to honor that trust by building a truly remarkable and transformational weapon system to meet the Army’s mission requirements. We are excited to play an important role in the future of Army Aviation,” Scott C. Donnelly, Textron’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. 

  Shares of Textron jumped significantly on the news, back at their highest since April…

  

  Textron didn’t release the terms of the contract. However, Bloomberg noted the contract was worth up to $1.3 billion, with development expected to take approximately 19 months. 

  The Army said V-280 will “provide transformational increases in speed, range, payload, and endurance to replace a portion of the Army’s current assault and utility aircraft fleet.”

  

  Douglas Bush, Army assistant secretary for acquisition, told reporters at the Pentagon Monday that the selection of the V-280 “is our chance to move to the next step in this vital program.” Army officials said if all contract options were exercised, it could rise to $7 billion, including the first initial low-rate production of the next-generation helicopter. 

  The Army has been testing and evaluating another aircraft besides the V-280: A coaxial lift compound rotor helicopter called Defiant X, built by the Lockheed-Boeing team.

  

  Lockheed-Boeing group released a statement that the fight to win the contract wasn’t over: 

  “We remain confident Defiant X is the transformational aircraft the US Army requires to accomplish its complex missions today and well into the future,” the group said. “We will evaluate our next steps after reviewing feedback from the Army.”

  Rapid modernization efforts are underway for the US military. Last Friday, the Air Force unveiled the next-generation bomber called the B-21 Raider. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 22:15

• FTX Crypto Fraudsters Targeted Poor Black Neighborhoods In PR-Lobbying Effort
  FTX Crypto Fraudsters Targeted Poor Black Neighborhoods In PR-Lobbying Effort

  Authored by Michael Shellenberger via Substack,

  Father of FTX CEO, Stanford Professor Joseph Bankman, oversaw intertwined philanthropic and regulatory efforts…

  In the spring of 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, made Chicago its U.S. headquarters, drawing the applause of the city’s mayor.

  “This is a mechanism and a tool to bring traditionally underrepresented and ignored populations into the world of crypto so they can take ownership and control of their own financial destiny,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot at the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the opulent, 9,000 square foot FTX headquarters in May.

  “I think the sky is the limit.”

  The reason FTX.US chose Chicago was, in part, to use the city to pilot a cash giveaway program aimed at poor African American residents.

  FTX was essentially contributing to two ”guaranteed basic income” programs, one run by a nonprofit called Equity And Transformation (EAT), and the other by the city.

  

  Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot cuts the balloon at FTX headquarters in Chicago. Next to her is Richard Wallace, founder of the Equity and Transformation (EAT) nonprofit which aimed to give cash to poor people of color.

  Ostensibly a charitable exercise, the program, which FTX also ran in Florida, expanded the market for FTX’s app, and appears to have been a crucial part of a public relations and lobbying effort aimed at winning the support of Democrats for FTX’s agenda to effectively regulate itself.  

  Bankman-Fried was the second largest donor to both President Joe Biden in 2020 and to Democrats in 2022, after George Soros.

  There is abundant evidence that Bankamn-Fried’s donations bought influence.

  After Bankman-Fried testified in May to a Congressional committee chaired by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), she blew him a kiss.

  

  The episode is a cautionary tale about how powerful financial interests use progressive social justice ideology to advance their business interests at the expense of the communities they claim to be helping. 

  “We, like most nonprofits, are shocked by this because they presented this ‘effective altruism’ model to everyone and seemed to push for racial equity,” said Richard Wallace, the co-founder and executive director of EAT, one of the cash-giveaway initiatives.

  The whole strategy was overseen by Bankman-Fried’s father, Joseph Bankman, a Stanford Law professor.

  I am the first to report that Bankman had been working for FTX from the very beginning.

   “From the start [of FTX], whenever I was useful, I lent a hand,” said Bankman.

  Bankman went on to describe the cash giveaway scheme.

  “Like all FTX app users,” he explained, “you get a bank account with your app, if you want it. So in Chicago, for example, we’re working with justice-impacted families. A lot of poor families, especially people of color, have had family members spend time in prison. That’s what we mean by ‘justice-impacted.’ Almost none of these people have bank accounts.”

  The connections between the Bankman-Fried family and Democrats ran deep…

  Subscribers can read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 21:55

• FBI Investigates Gun Attack On North Carolina Power Grid
  FBI Investigates Gun Attack On North Carolina Power Grid

  The FBI joined state and local law enforcement officials to investigate deliberate attacks on two power substations in North Carolina.

  Shelley Lynch, a spokesperson for the FBI field office in Charlotte, told The Washington Post that agents are on the ground at the substations in Moore County. They’re investigating the “willful damage” of power systems brought down by gunfire on Saturday night. She declined to provide further details.

  Duke Energy personnel inspect power systems damaged by bullets. 

  

  About 36,000 customers of Duke Energy in southeastern North Carolina were without power early Tuesday morning. Officials estimate service repairs could take several days to complete. 

  

  A state of emergency was declared over the weekend, with a countywide curfew from 9 pm to 5 am. Schools will remain closed for a second day. 

  North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper told reporters in a news briefing on Monday, “this kind of attack raises a whole new level of threat.” He added safeguarding critical infrastructure must be a “top priority.”

  “The person, or persons, who did this knew exactly what they were doing … not sure why they targeted Moore County,” Sheriff Ronnie Fields said at a news conference on Sunday. 

  Fields said the FBI was working with local authorities to determine who was responsible, adding someone rode up and “opened fire on the substation, the same thing with the other one.” There was no word on the type of weapon or caliber used in the incident. 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 21:35

• Army Plans 'Dramatic' Hike In Ammo Production
  Army Plans ‘Dramatic’ Hike In Ammo Production

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  The US Army is planning a “dramatic” increase in the production of 155mm artillery rounds as the US has sent a staggering amount of ammunition to Ukraine over the past eight months.

  According to a Pentagon fact sheet released at the end of November, the US has sent Ukraine 924,000 155mm artillery rounds to Ukraine since February 24. The US currently makes 14,000 155mm rounds each month, but the Army is set to ramp that up.

  

  “Funding is already in place, contracts are underway to basically triple 155mm production,” Doug Bush, the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, told Defense News. “There’s funding on the Hill, in the supplemental, to more than double that again. That would take a period of years.”

  Bush said that the US wants to increase the amount of ammunition it has to higher than the levels it had before Russia invaded Ukraine. “We want to be able to build our stocks not just where we started the war, but higher. We’re posturing for a pretty ― over a period of three years ― a dramatic increase in conventional artillery ammunition production,” Bush said.

  Bush said that the plan will use aid that has already been authorized for Ukraine but will require new funding that’s part of the $37.7 billion aid package the White House has asked Congress to approve.

  Congress is also working to include an amendment to the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that would give the Pentagon wartime purchasing power to accelerate arms production. Among other things, the authority would allow the Pentagon to offer multi-year contracts for purchases that are typically reserved for larger equipment, such as warplanes and naval vessels.

  Regrettably, some of my congressional colleagues are more concerned about tracking that $600 Venmo payment you made than tracking $60,000,000,000 of your money they sent to Ukraine.

  — Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 5, 2022

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

  According to Defense News, the Army has awarded contracts to three private companies to help in the production of 155mm artillery, including General Dynamics, American Ordnance, and IMT Defense.

  The US policy of shipping tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine, led by former Raytheon board member Lloyd Austin, has been a boon for defense contractors. Last week, Raytheon was awarded a $1.2 billion contract to produce air defense systems for Ukraine.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 21:15

• Polestar Charges $17.50 Per Horsepower For Boost Package As Microtransactions Invade Car Industry
  Polestar Charges $17.50 Per Horsepower For Boost Package As Microtransactions Invade Car Industry

  We’ve come across what could be another automotive company intentionally detuning engines so it can offer performance packages to customers via an over-the-air update. 

  Swedish EV car company Polestar, a subsidiary of Volvo and Geely, is charging customers $17.50 per horsepower in an over-the-air software update for the long-range, dual-motor variant of the 2, reported Autoblog. 

  The upgrade adds 68 horsepower and 15 pound-feet of torque that boosts the 2’s dual-motor powertrain from 408hp and 487 lb-ft of torque to 476hp and 502 lb-ft. It will cost a one-time fee of $1,195.

  

  What is intriguing about Polestar’s performance boost package blocked behind a paywall is that the power is already there and may suggest the company is intentionally detuning the vehicles to milk the customer for every last cent. 

  Polestar isn’t the only one doing this. Just weeks ago, Mercedes-Benz unveiled the “Acceleration Increase” package for its EV Mercedes-EQ models, which costs $1,200 for a yearly subscription and will boost horsepower. 

  And it gets worse. BMW recently sparked social media uproar by charging an $18 monthly subscription in some countries for owners to use heated seats already installed in the vehicle. 

  So far, Polestar, Mercedes, and BMW have embraced microtransactions, which force customers to make in-car purchases to enhance or unlock features. 

   

   

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 20:55

• Can A Deeply Unserious America Fix Its Economy?
  Can A Deeply Unserious America Fix Its Economy?

  Authored by Jeff Deist via The Mises Institute,

  Does America simply lack the political will to face economic reality?

  

  In the teeth of the Depression, Treasury secretary Andrew Mellon famously told President Herbert Hoover to “liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate farmers, liquidate real estate”—in other words, to resist bailing out any industry through state intervention. This was a tough sell even in those days, and of course Hoover succumbed to politics and took the opposite approach, greatly and needlessly damaging the US economy for decades to come.

  Less often quoted are Mellon’s follow-up words to Hoover: Liquidation would “purge the rottenness out of the system,” so “people will work harder” and “live a more moral life.”

  Mellon, having lived most of his life in an America without a central bank, understood economic recessions as necessary cures rather than ills to be avoided. But he also understood the human price that would be paid in the aftermath of a period of phony economic prosperity. Only hard work and personal sacrifice, person by person and town by town, could get America out of its economic mess. Fiscal and monetary policy would provide no free lunch, as millions of Americans learned the hard way in the 1930s.

  Fast-forward to 2022, and it’s hard to imagine Janet Yellen calling for liquidation or telling Americans to improve their moral fiber. Nobody votes for austerity or personal responsibility, and any politician or bureaucrat or central banker who even suggests it is doomed today.

  Yet this mythology of austerity persists, that a stingy federal Treasury and reticent central bank don’t intervene enough in economic crises. Consider this howler from Paul Krugman back in 2011, apparently delivered with a straight face: “One thing is clear: Mellon-style liquidationism is now the official doctrine of the G.O.P.” Keep in mind he wrote this several years into the most “extraordinary” monetary intervention in the history of the world—one which ultimately saw the US Fed purchase several trillions’ worth of Treasury debt from the “market”! Yet for Krugman, it is never enough.

  As the bruising midterm elections recently demonstrated, America is a deeply unserious country. A serious political discussion at the federal level would center on existential structural problems of war and peace, debt and the dollar, and entitlements. But these issues can be addressed only by real austerity and real pain. So instead, we distract and divert ourselves worrying about whether Donald Trump should be allowed on Twitter. We argue over flu viruses, guns, transgenderism, climate, and abortion (none of which the federal government has the slightest jurisdiction over) rather than the material standard of living we will leave our grandchildren.

  This is possible only because millions of Americans, maybe a majority, are simply economics deniers. They either don’t believe economic laws exist or think economics can be overcome by legislation, regulation, or central bank actions. And there are plenty of deniers among the ranks of professional economists! The profession does itself no favors when it cheerleads for politics, providing an intellectual veneer for interventionism. Human nature makes us want to believe untrue things, but economics should help disabuse Americans of political fantasies.

  Let’s face it: the US is not a free-market economy because we don’t much believe in markets, despite our lip service. Most Americans, and virtually all political, media, academic, corporate, and banking elites, believe economic intervention (fiscal and monetary stimulus) form the basis of our economy—not production and saving.

  So, what would a serious America do to correct our disastrous economic path? This may seem like an academic or rhetorical question, but it’s worth laying out the actual steps necessary to build a real economy rather than a fake one dependent on monetary or fiscal interventionism. As Dr. Mark Thornton recently explained, these steps may be conceptually simple even as they are wildly beyond political imagination today:

  • a wholesale adoption of laissez-faire economic doctrine by national politicians;

  • immediate deep tax and regulatory reductions;

  • immediate sharp reductions in government spending at every level (leaving federal spending well below federal revenue);

  • rigorous entitlement cuts, using some combination of means testing and raising age eligibility for both Social Security and Medicare;

  • rigorous defense spending cuts of at least 50 percent, combined with a radically reduced US military footprint overseas;

  • cessation of new debt issuance by the US Treasury;

  • cessation of active monetary “policy” by the Federal Reserve Bank, meaning no intervention with respect to the money supply, interest rates, or credit and debt markets (including US Treasurys);

  • a radical reduction in the Fed’s balance sheet by letting existing Treasurys mature and roll off;

  • an entirely hands-off approach allowing the US dollar to float freely relative to other currencies and commodities;

  • an express policy against bailouts or subsidies of any kind to any industry or company, regardless of the severity of an economic downturn;

  • allowing troubled industries or companies, no matter how big, to fail—through bankruptcy and asset sales; investor losses; and firing boards, management, and employees when restructuring is possible;

  • actively encouraging business and individuals to save (through market/floating interest rates);

  • elimination of any price ceilings or floors on prices, wages, and profits;

  • elimination of any unemployment subsidies to individuals, along with abolition of minimum wage laws; and finally,

  • the immediate sale of federal land and other assets to reduce debt service on the $31 trillion in Treasury obligations and to restore worldwide confidence in the US economy.

  This, ladies and gentlemen, is what a real program of austerity looks like. That these actions are politically unfeasible—complete nonstarters—shows how politics dominates economics in America. The profession charged with explaining how no free lunch is possible instead mostly operates as a handmaiden to the state and its bosses. But politics won’t fix this, and we won’t vote our way out of trouble.

  The best path forward is at the state and local levels, attempting to build regional economies with less fragility in the face of the warring, borrowing, spending, and devaluing mania of Uncle Sam.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 20:35

• Hurricane In December? 50% Formation Odds In Atlantic As Storm Churns
  Hurricane In December? 50% Formation Odds In Atlantic As Storm Churns

  Nearly one week after the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season ended, an incredibly rare tropical disturbance formed over the central subtropical Atlantic.

  The National Hurricane Center released a tropical weather outlook on Tuesday, explaining the storm has a 50% chance of becoming the 15th named storm of the season over the next two 2-5 days. 

  

  “Environmental conditions appear marginally conducive for development and a subtropical or tropical storm could form in the next couple of days,” NHC said. However, it added:

  “By Thursday night or Friday, the low will move northeastward over cooler waters and interact with a mid-latitude trough, limiting subtropical or tropical development of the system.”

  Christianne Pearce, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Tampa Bay office, told Tampa Bay Times the storm doesn’t threaten Florida or the US as it moves northeast into even cooler waters. 

  “The probability of having a storm this late in the season is very low because the waters out there are a lot cooler.

  “We just have different atmospheric phenomenon happening that kind of put a damper on those things developing,” Pearce said.

  The Atlantic hurricane season begins on June 1 and concludes on Nov. 30. Tropical storms and hurricanes forming in December are rare. According to Fox 35 Orlando, data between 1851 to 2017 showed that 2% of tropical storms formed outside “off months” (December to May) of the season. 

  Keep an eye on the Atlantic’s tropical region over the next few days. If the storm does form, it will be named “Owen.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 20:15

• Canada To Increase Warship Presence In Taiwan Strait: Foreign Affairs Minister
  Canada To Increase Warship Presence In Taiwan Strait: Foreign Affairs Minister

  Authored by Peter Wilson via The Epoch Times,

  Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada is planning to increase its number of warships in the Taiwan Strait as a message to China that the waters are not its national property.

  “We will continue to enforce the international rules-based order when it comes to the Taiwan Strait. And that’s why also we had a frigate going through the Taiwan Strait this summer, along with the Americans, [and] we’re looking to have more frigates going through it,” Joly told the Financial Times.

  “We need to make sure that the question of the Taiwan Strait is clear and that it remains an international strait.”

  The Taiwan Strait is a stretch of international waters less than 200 kilometres wide separating Taiwan from mainland China. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin had said at a regular news briefing in Beijing on June 13: “There is no such thing as international waters in international maritime law. … Relevant countries claim that the Taiwan Strait is in international waters with the aim to manipulate the Taiwan question and threaten China’s sovereignty.”

  

  Foreign Affairs Minister Joly’s comments come less than two weeks after she unveiled Canada’s new Indo-Pacific Strategy, during the announcement of which the Foreign Affairs Minister referred to China as an “increasingly disruptive” global power.

  The new strategy also includes a pledge by the federal government to spend $2.2. billion on investments in the region over the next five years.

  Joly said Canada will be “committing to new military assets” in the Indo-Pacific, and later told reporters in Bucharest, Romania, where she is attending a NATO foreign affairs ministers’ meeting, that Canada must “play a role in the security” of the Indo-Pacific.

  “We need to invest in deterrence because we believe … it is the best way to, at the end of the day, respect international norms,” she said.

  More Military

  Before Joly announced the strategy, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Canadian Armed Forces will also be increasing its presence in the Indo-Pacific region, with additional investments by the federal government to support them.

  “We’ll be making new investments to enhance the Canadian Armed Forces engagement in the region,” Trudeau told reporters in Bangkok, Thailand, on Nov. 18. “This will support our allies, Japan and South Korea, and all of us in the Pacific.”

  Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy also says China continues to disregard “international norms” as a means toward becoming the region’s “leading power.”

  “China’s assertive pursuit of its economic and security interests, advancement of unilateral claims, foreign interference and increasingly coercive treatment of other countries and economies have significant implications in the region, in Canada and around the world,” the strategy reads.

  Joly previously said Canada will “challenge China when we ought to, and we will cooperate with China when we must” when speaking to reporters in Toronto, on Nov. 9.

  “Its sheer size and influence makes cooperation necessary to address the world’s existential pressures,” she said.

  However, while recently speaking to reporters in Bucharest, Joly also reacted to a report from the Pentagon released several days ago saying China is on pace to almost quadruple its number of nuclear warheads by 2035.

  Joly said Canada is “taking note definitely” of China’s increasing nuclear capacity and said Canada will “make sure we have better intelligence capacity across the region” in the near future.

  “We are a Pacific nation, we need to make sure that we play a bigger role,” she said, according to the Financial Post.

  “Since this part of the world is so important for us, we need to be a reliable partner because for too long we weren’t.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 19:55

• Musk's Neuralink Suddenly Under Investigation Over Animal Testing
  Musk’s Neuralink Suddenly Under Investigation Over Animal Testing

  Knives are out for Elon Musk, after the richest man in the world bought Twitter, began reinstating the accounts of ‘political prisoners’ banned by wokelings for unpopular speech, and then began releasing evidence of 2020 election interference via the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story.

  

  Remember, the FBI and other official bodies went around warning Facebook and Twitter about a Russian hacking campaign right before the Hunter laptop story hit, and said companies appear to have gladly complied with said ‘tap on the shoulder.’

  So now, Musk’s Neuralink – a medical device company, is now under federal investigation for potential animal-welfare violations (Anthony Fauci’s ‘cruel’ puppy experiments are just fine, by the by), according to information leaked to Reuters from somewhere.

  Neuralink is developing a brain implant in the hopes of helping paralyzed people walk again (and probably put your Tesla in valet mode by just thinking about it). According to Reuters, the federal probe was opened months ago, but disclosed just now, for some reason.

  The probe was opened by the US Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General at the request of a federal prosecutor, who alleges that Neuralink has committed violations of the Animal Welfare Act.

  The investigation has come at a time of growing employee dissent about Neuralink’s animal testing, including complaints that pressure from CEO Musk to accelerate development has resulted in botched experiments, according to a Reuters review of dozens of Neuralink documents and interviews with more than 20 current and former employees. Such failed tests have had to be repeated, increasing the number of animals being tested and killed, the employees say. The company documents include previously unreported messages, audio recordings, emails, presentations and reports. -Reuters

  In total, approximately 1,500 animals have been killed – including over 280 sheep, pigs and monkeys, since 2018 according to records reviewed by Reuters.

  Why were so many animals killed? Because evil Elon demanded results, and fast!

  Through company discussions and documents spanning several years, along with employee interviews, Reuters identified four experiments involving 86 pigs and two monkeys that were marred in recent years by human errors. The mistakes weakened the experiments’ research value and required the tests to be repeated, leading to more animals being killed, three of the current and former staffers said. The three people attributed the mistakes to a lack of preparation by a testing staff working in a pressure-cooker environment. -Reuters

  Fauci’s puppies, meanwhile, had their heads locked in mesh cages with hungry sand flies so that the insects could ‘eat them alive,’ all to test an experimental drug. 

  

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 19:35

• Deglobalization And The End Of Trust-Based Money Set The Stage For National Bitcoin Adoption
  Deglobalization And The End Of Trust-Based Money Set The Stage For National Bitcoin Adoption

  Authored by Ansel Lindner via Bitcoin Magazine.com,

  Breakdowns in global trade and credit call for money that doesn’t depend on trust. Bitcoin is the modern answer for international economics…

  

  Two forces have dominated the globe economically and politically for the last 75 years: globalization and trust-based money. However, the time for both of these forces has passed, and their waning will bring about a great reset of the global order.

  But this is not the global, Marxist kind of Great Reset promoted by Klaus Schwab and those who attend Davos. This is an emergent, market-driven reset characterized by a multipolar world and a new monetary system.

  GLOBALIZATION IS ENDING

  The first reaction I usually get to my claim that the age of hyper-globalization is ending is flippant disbelief. People have so completely integrated the environment of the dying global order into their economic understanding that they cannot fathom a world where the cost-to-benefit analysis of globalization is different. Even after COVID-19 exposed the fragility of complex supply chains, like when the U.S. very nearly ran out of surgical masks and basic medications or when the world struggled to source semiconductors, people have yet to realize the shift that is happening.

  Is it that hard to imagine that the businessmen who designed such fragile, overcomplicated production processes didn’t properly weigh the risks?

  All that is needed to break globalization is for risk-adjusted costs to change a few percentage points and outweigh the benefits. The pennies saved by outsourcing numerous tasks to numerous jurisdictions will no longer outweigh the possibility of complete collapse of supply chains.

  These concerns about fragile supply chains did not disappear as horrible COVID-19 policies ended. Now, they have shifted to concerns about trade wars and real wars. U.S. trade sanctions against China, the Russian conflict with NATO-proxy Ukraine and subsequent sanctions, the seemingly-erratic U.S. position on Taiwan, the coronation of Xi Jinping and his Marxist revival, the Nord Stream sabotage, the clear split of international consensus in the UN and even the weaponization of these international institutions, and most recently, the Turkish ground offensive versus the Kurds — all these things should be interpreted as a rise in costs.

  Gone is the time when complex supply chains were robust against typical risks. The risks today are much more systemic. Sure, there were skirmishes around the world and disagreements among parliaments, but great powers did not openly threaten one another’s spheres of influence. Risk-adjusted costs and benefits to globalization have radically changed.

  CREDIT DOESN’T LIKE CONFLICT

  Very closely related to deglobalization of supply chains is deglobalization of credit markets. The same factors that affect business peoples’ physical, risk-adjusted costs and benefits are also felt by bankers.

  Banks don’t want to be exposed to the risk of war or sanctions wrecking their borrowers. In the current environment of deglobalization and rising risks to international trade, banks will naturally pull back on lending to those associated activities. Instead, banks will fund safer projects, likely fully-domestic or friend-shoring opportunities. The natural reaction by banks to this risky global environment will be credit contraction.

  The deglobalization of supply chains and credit will be as closely linked on the way down as they were on the way up. It will start slowly, but pick up speed. A feedback loop of rising risk leading to shorter supply chains and less credit creation.

  THE CREDIT-BASED U.S. DOLLAR

  The prevailing form of money in the world is the credit-based U.S. dollar. Every dollar is created through debt, making every dollar someone else’s debt. Money is printed out of thin air in the process of making a loan.

  This is different from pure fiat money. When fiat money is printed, the balance sheet of the printer adds assets alone. However, in a credit-based system, when money is printed in a loan, the printer creates an asset and a liability. The borrower’s balance sheet then has an offsetting liability and asset, respectively. Every dollar (or euro or yen, for that matter) is therefore an asset and a liability, and the loan that created that dollar is both an asset and a liability.

  This system works extremely well if two factors are present. One, highly-productive uses of new credit are available, and two, a relative lack of exogenous shocks to the global economy. Change either of these things and a breakdown is bound to occur.

  This dual nature of credit-based money is at the root of both the dollar’s spectacular rise in the 20th century, and the coming monetary reset. As global trust and supply chains break down, the comingling of assets in banks becomes more risky. Russia found this out the hard way when the West confiscated its reserves of dollars held in banks abroad. How is trust possible in that sort of environment? When credit-based money’s creation is based on trust… Houston, we have a problem.

  BITCOIN’S ROLE IN THE FUTURE

  Luckily, we have experience with a world that doesn’t trust itself — i.e., the entire history of man prior to 1945. Back then, we were on a gold standard for reasons which included all those that bitcoiners are very familiar with (gold scores highly in the characteristics that make good money), but also because it minimized trust between great powers.

  Gold lost its mantle for one reason — and you’ve probably never heard this anywhere before: because the global economic, political and innovation environment post-WWII created an extremely fertile soil for credit. Trust was easy, the major powers were humbled and all joined the new international institutions under the security umbrella of the U.S. The Iron Curtain provided a stark separation between zones of trust economically, but after it fell, there was a period of roughly 20 years where the world sang “kumbaya” because new credit was still extremely productive in the old Soviet block and China.

  Today, we are facing the opposite sort of scenario: Global trust is eroding and credit has exploited all productive low-hanging fruit, forcing us into a period that demands neutral money.

  The world will soon find itself split between regions/alliances of influence. A British bank will trust a U.S. bank, where a Chinese bank will not. To bridge this gap, we need money that everyone can hold and respect.

  GOLD VS. BITCOIN

  Gold would be the first choice here, if not for bitcoin. This is because gold has several drawbacks. First, gold is owned mainly by those groups who are losing trust in one another, namely the governments of the world. Much of the gold is held in the United States. Therefore, gold is unevenly distributed.

  Second, gold’s physical nature, once a positive holding profligate governments in check, is now a weakness because it cannot be transported or assayed nearly as efficiently as bitcoin.

  Lastly, gold is not programmable. Bitcoin is a neutral, decentralized protocol that can be tapped for any number of innovations. The Lightning Network and sidechains are just two examples of how Bitcoin can be programmed to increase its utility.

  As globalization of both trade and credit is breaking down, the economic environment favors a return to a form of money that doesn’t depend on trust between major powers. Bitcoin is the modern answer.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 19:15

• Josh Hawley Is Imploring White House To Prioritize Arming Taiwan Over Ukraine
  Josh Hawley Is Imploring White House To Prioritize Arming Taiwan Over Ukraine

  In a wholly expected development, given GOP leadership has of late expressed its unease over what’s been dubbed Biden’s “blank check” given to Ukraine at the expense of the American taxpayer, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was grilled Tuesday over why the US isn’t doing enough to help Taiwan instead.

  Republican senator from Missouri Josh Hawley questioned Blinken in a signed letter over why the Pentagon is diverting arms intended for Taiwan to the Ukrainian government. Hawley argued that it’s actually staving off potential Chinese invasion of the democratic-ruled island that should be the highest priority. 

  “Seizing Taiwan is Beijing’s next step toward dominating the Indo-Pacific region,” Sen. Hawley argued in the letter. “If Beijing succeeds, it would have dire ramifications for Americans’ national security, as well as our economic security and freedom of action.”

  

  Anticipating the Biden administration’s response, Hawley said that he expects Blinken to say that approved mechanisms differ for delivery of arms to Taiwan vs. Ukraine. That’s when the Republican senator pointedly stressed: “But this explanation does little to allay concerns,” writing further, “Regardless of the weapons’ source, if both Taiwan and Ukraine need them, they should go to Taiwan first.”

  He additionally reminded Blinken of the top US diplomat’s own October assessment saying that Beijing is looking to achieve “reunification” of Taiwan on a faster timeline. According to the letter summarized in The Hill: 

  Hawley said the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, an independent government agency that submits annual reports to Congress on the U.S.-Chinese relationship, found that the direction of existing stocks of munitions and arms to Ukraine and supply issues stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic have caused a backlog in delivering weapons that were approved for sale to Taiwan. 

  Hawley referenced a Wall Street Journal report from days ago which estimated the current arms backlog to the island has reached $18.7 billion worth of defense supplies. 

  Taiwan and its Western backers have long feared that a Chinese blockade would come first, before invasion. But an effective blockade would eventually make successful invasion and occupation more likely. Hawley argued that US strategy should seek to prevent a blockade in the first place, which is why the approved arms flowing to the island unimpeded remains crucial, according to the letter.

  Regrettably, some of my congressional colleagues are more concerned about tracking that $600 Venmo payment you made than tracking $60,000,000,000 of your money they sent to Ukraine.

  — Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 5, 2022

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

  Hawley’s letter also comes amid what some have called “Ukraine fatigue” among both officials and the Western public. There are also fears among hawks that the GOP takeover of the House starting next month could erode ‘necessary’ support needed to Ukraine’s armed forces, especially as anger grows over lack of Ukraine arms oversight coupled with the astronomical price tag.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 18:55

• Top Marine Corps General Admits COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Has Led To Decline In Military Recruitment
  Top Marine Corps General Admits COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Has Led To Decline In Military Recruitment

  Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

  A top general in the Marine Corps has acknowledged that the COVID-19 vaccine mandate is hampering its recruitment goals, but he credited the requirement with keeping military personnel healthy.

  

  Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger made the comments during a panel discussion at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, on Dec. 3.

  “Where it is having an impact for sure is on recruiting, where in parts of the country there’s still myths and misbeliefs about the backstory behind it,” Berger said, Military.com reported.

  The general noted that the requirement for military personnel to be fully vaccinated has created recruitment issues in the south of the country in particular.

  “There was not accurate information out early on and it was very politicized and people make decisions and they still have those same beliefs. That’s hard to work your way past, really hard to work,” he said.

  However, Berger also credited the vaccines for preventing deaths among the Marines, stating that they were needed in order to “maintain a healthy unit that can deploy, on ship, ashore.”

  Berger’s comments come as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has pledged not to pass the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) if the military COVID-19 vaccine mandate remains in place.

  Military Not Meeting Recruitment Goals Right Now

  Speaking on the “Ingraham Angle” on Monday, McCarthy, who looks set to be the next speaker of the House, said he has spoken with President Joe Biden regarding the bill and made it “very clear from the very beginning,” that the NDAA will not pass unless the vaccine mandate for military men and women is lifted, citing a decline in recruitment.

  The vaccine mandate was announced by the Marine Corps in September 2021 and has faced multiple legal challenges.

  “Why? They are not meeting the recruitment goals right now because of this. People are leaving,” McCarthy said. 

  “I told the president if we don’t have the lifting of the vaccine, I’ll do it in January.”

  As of August, 3,299 Marines had been separated from the Corps for refusing to get vaccinated, Marine Corps Times reported. Separate data from the Defense Department peg that number at 3,717.

  Meanwhile, roughly 96 percent of the Marines’ active-duty force is fully vaccinated, according to the latest monthly COVID-19 update from the Marines (pdf), while 99 percent are at least partially vaccinated.

  A total of 96 percent of reserves are fully vaccinated and another 96 percent are partially vaccinated too, according to the update.

  The White House has said Biden is considering dropping the mandate but that he ultimately supports Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recommendation to keep it in place.

  “Discussions about the NDAA are ongoing,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Dalton said on Monday.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 18:35

• US Nuclear Submarine 'Buzzed By Underwater Object' Traveling 'Faster Than Speed Of Sound': Scientist
  US Nuclear Submarine ‘Buzzed By Underwater Object’ Traveling ‘Faster Than Speed Of Sound’: Scientist

  A scientist carrying out classified work onboard the USS Hampton nuclear submarine in the late 1990s says the sub was ‘buzzed’ by an unidentified object traveling underwater faster than the speed of sound.

  

  In a YouTube interview with UFO researcher Chris Leto, scientist Bob McGwier said that the sub was “running deep and fast” when it was passed at extremely high speed by an object. According to McGwier, the encounter was confirmed by a member of the crew who was shocked at the speed of the Unidentified Submerged Object (USO), Daily Star reports.

  “We were under way and all of a sudden I hear the sound. It’s really strange because it’s clear that what is going on is something is whizzing by us and it’s moving so fast I just can’t believe it,” said McGwier, adding “This thing blew by us like we were standing still.”

  “A person with knowledge of onboard systems came out and said ‘this goddam thing is going faster than the speed of sound underwater – but that’s faster than the speed of sound in air’,” he continued.

  According to McGwier, the crew “didn’t want to report it, didn’t want to tell anybody, didn’t want to cause any problems.”

  Sound moves at 1,480 meters per second in water (3,355 miles per hour) vs. 331 meters per second in air.

  Perhaps it was a ‘Tic Tac’ UFO, which have been seen emerging from the ocean at high rates of speed?

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/06/2022 – 18:15

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Mapped: Global Energy Prices By Country
  Mapped: Global Energy Prices By Country

  For some countries, energy prices hit historic levels in 2022.

  Gasoline, electricity, and natural gas prices skyrocketed as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ruptured global energy supply chains. Households and businesses are facing higher energy bills amid extreme price volatility. Uncertainty surrounding the war looms large, and winter heating costs are projected to soar.

  Given the global consequences of the energy crisis, Visual Capitalist’s infographics below shows the price of energy for households by country, with data from GlobalPetrolPrices.com.

  1. Global Energy Prices: Gasoline

  

  Which countries and regions pay the most for a gallon of gas?

  

   

  Source: GlobalPetrolPrices.com. As of October 31, 2022. Represents average household prices.

   

  At an average $11.10 per gallon, households in Hong Kong pay the highest for gasoline in the world—more than double the global average. Both high gas taxes and steep land costs are primary factors behind high gas prices.

  Like Hong Kong, the Central African Republic has high gas costs, at $8.60 per gallon. As a net importer of gasoline, the country has faced increased price pressures since the war in Ukraine.

  Households in Iceland, Norway, and Denmark face the highest gasoline costs in Europe. Overall, Europe has seen inflation hit 10% in September, driven by the energy crisis.

  2. Global Energy Prices: Electricity

  Extreme volatility is also being seen in electricity prices.

  The majority of the highest household electricity prices are in Europe, where Denmark, Germany, and Belgium’s prices are about double that of France and Greece. For perspective, electricity prices in many countries in Europe are more than twice or three times the global average of $0.14 per kilowatt-hour.

  

  Over the first quarter of 2022, household electricity prices in the European Union jumped 32% compared to the year before.

  

  Source: GlobalPetrolPrices.com. As of March 31, 2022. Represents average household prices.

  In the U.S., consumer electricity prices have increased nearly 16% annually compared to September last year, the highest increase in over four decades, fueling higher inflation.

  However, households are more sheltered from the impact of Russian supply disruptions due to the U.S. being a net exporter of energy.

  3. Global Energy Prices: Natural Gas

  

  Eight of the 10 highest natural gas prices globally fall in Europe, with the Netherlands at the top. Overall, European natural gas prices have spiked sixfold in a year since the invasion of Ukraine.

  

  Source: GlobalPetrolPrices.com. As of March 31, 2022. Represents average household prices.

  The good news is that the fall season has been relatively warm, which has helped European natural gas demand drop 22% in October compared to last year. This helps reduce the risk of gas shortages transpiring later in the winter.

  Outside of Europe, Brazil has the fourth highest natural gas prices globally, despite producing about half of supply domestically. High costs of cooking gas have been especially challenging for low-income families, which became a key political issue in the run-up to the presidential election in October.

  Meanwhile, Singapore has the highest natural gas prices in Asia as the majority is imported via tankers or pipelines, leaving the country vulnerable to price shocks.

  Increasing Competition

  By December, all seaborne crude oil shipments from Russia to Europe will come to a halt, likely pushing up gasoline prices into the winter and 2023.

  Concerningly, analysis from the EIA shows that European natural gas storage capacities could sink to 20% by February if Russia completely shuts off its supply and demand is not reduced.

  As Europe seeks out alternatives to Russian energy, higher demand could increase global competition for fuel sources, driving up prices for energy in the coming months ahead.

  Still, there is some room for optimism: the World Bank projects energy prices will decline 11% in 2023 after the 60% rise seen after the war in Ukraine in 2022.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 23:20

• Benchmark Diesel's 17.4-Cent Plunge Comes Amid Broad Market Slide
  Benchmark Diesel’s 17.4-Cent Plunge Comes Amid Broad Market Slide

  By John Kingston of FreightWaves.com

  

  The benchmark price for most diesel surcharges fell the most in a week since the early days of the 2009 financial crisis, with physical markets suggesting there are further declines to come. 

  Not since October 2009 has the Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration weekly diesel price fallen as much as the 17.4 cents it dropped Monday. The price came in at $4.967 a gallon, the first time it has been below $5 since Oct. 3. 

  This week’s decline is only 1 cent more than the 16.4-cent drop recorded July 25. The DOE/EIA had not dropped more than 17.4 cents since a decline of 19.4 cents Oct. 27, 2009, which wrapped up a four-week decline of more than 67 cents as the full impact of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and other financial market turmoil was kicking into high gear.

  The latest price decline came on an eventful day for oil and diesel markets. Those markets also suggest that retail diesel prices still have a long way to fall to catch up with broader market conditions.

  The FUELS.USA data series in SONAR, which reflects the spread between retail and wholesale prices, has pushed past $1.90 a gallon in recent days. That is easily the highest number in the more than four and a half years that SONAR has tracked the spread, which before the enormous volatility of this year tended to move toward a range of $1 to $1.10, though with significant swings above and below that range.

  

  If wholesale prices were to be locked into place at the current level, retail diesel would be expected to fall at least 50 cents and likely more just to get back to some level of normalcy.

  That retail/wholesale spread has been affected not only by recent declines in the ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) price on the CME commodity exchange, but also by weakness in the physical markets that trade as a differential against the ULSD futures price.

  For example, the daily basis differential for ULSD in New York Harbor published by DTN Energy stood at $1 on Nov. 15. That means that delivery of ULSD in New York Harbor in the subsequent few days after Nov. 15 traded at $1 more than the price of ULSD on the CME commodity exchange. On Nov. 15, ULSD on CME would have been reflecting product to be delivered during December. 

  That spread is normally a few cents. And on Monday, it was down to that level, being assessed by DTN at a spread of 1.5 cents. The differential has shed 98.5% of its value in just three weeks.

  The benchmark U.S. Gulf Coast physical price never soared as East Coast prices did. On Nov. 15, it was negative 28.5 cents, according to DTN, meaning physical diesel in the U.S. Gulf Coast was that much less than the CME ULSD price. It has gotten stronger since then, to negative 23.5 cents. But that is still well below normal prices, which are also generally 10 cents or less under the CME price.

  Those strong spreads on the East Coast and in other markets incentivized refiners to run their plants at high levels, and they have responded. In the more than 30 years of data on refinery operating rates published by the EIA, there have been only three times in the final weekly report of November when the nation’s refineries ran at an operating rate more than the 95.2% they  recorded in the week ended Nov. 25, the latest report published by EIA.

  That has led to a significant easing of inventories. The closely watched Days Cover figure for distillate inventories — which are generally 85% to 90% ULSD — came in at 29 days in that report for the week ended Nov. 25. That figure was less than 26 days just a few weeks earlier and the highest since the end of September. Days cover represents the number of days of current consumption that could be supplied solely by inventories.

  The background of this movement in diesel prices Monday was the start of a price cap implemented by Western nations on purchases of Russian crude, combined with an EU ban on waterborne imports of Russian crude. 

  The $60/barrel cap for now would not have an impact on sales of Urals crude, the grade of oil it ships out to Western markets, because the price of Urals has been less than $60.

  But a more immediate test will come with sales of ESPO, a crude exported out of Russia’s east coast, which before the large declines of Monday was selling for  more than $70 a barrel.

  The prospect of the Russian cap being implemented and the possibility it might end up restricting Russian crude exports was seen as a factor in early gains Monday in global oil markets. 

  But the later weakening of equity markets pulled oil down with it. The end result was that the DOE/EIA price was not the only one to break through a key number; the CME price for ULSD did too, falling below $3 a gallon for the first time since Feb. 25, settling at $2.9998 a gallon.

  The volatility in Monday’s market could best be seen by the fact that while ULSD settled at less than $3 a gallon, it traded as high as nearly $3.24 earlier in the day.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 23:02

• NASA's Homeward-Bound Orion Spacecraft Captures Last Stunning Image Of Moon
  NASA’s Homeward-Bound Orion Spacecraft Captures Last Stunning Image Of Moon

  On the 19th day of the historic Artemis I mission, a camera mounted on the uncrewed Orion spacecraft captured a stunning image of the moon. 

  Mission Time: 19 days, 11 hrs, 39 min
  Orion is 243,167 mi from Earth, 5,132 mi from the Moon, cruising at 1,202 mph.
  P: 175493, 159868, 68671
  V: 1001, 17, -666
  O: 25º, 15º, 313º
  What’s this? https://t.co/voR4yGy2mg #TrackArtemis pic.twitter.com/DQFiNcYUTW

  — Orion Spacecraft (@NASA_Orion) December 5, 2022

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

  The Orion spacecraft performed a powered flyby burn of the moon — the longest so far — as it’s now on its final stretch of the 25-day mission. 

  “We’ve completed our return-powered flyby burn and are heading home!” NASA tweeted. 

  

  Orion will travel 238,900 miles back to Earth, and reentry into the atmosphere is expected on Dec. 11 — with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. If successful, the spacecraft would complete a 1.3 million-mile space mission. This would allow astronauts to make the journey in the Artemis II mission in 2024 and return to the lunar surface by 2025. 

  NASA has said the mission has yet to experience major issues. There was a minor issue when the spacecraft lost communication for about an hour.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 22:40

• Victor Davis Hanson: How Corrupt Is A Corrupt Media?
  Victor Davis Hanson: How Corrupt Is A Corrupt Media?

  Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via AmGreatness.com,

  The media has ceased to exist, and the public plods on by assuming as true whatever the media suppresses and as false whatever the media covers.

  

  The current “media”—loosely defined as the old major newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post, the network news channels, MSNBC and CNN, PBS and NPR, the online news aggregators like Google, Apple, and Yahoo, and the social media giants like the old Twitter and Facebook—are corrupt. 

  They have adopted in their news coverage a utilitarian view that noble progressive ends justify almost any unethical means to obtain them. The media is unapologetically fused with the Democratic Party, the bicoastal liberal elite, and the progressive agenda. 

  The result is that the public cannot trust that the news it hears or reads is either accurate or true. The news as presented by these outlets has been carefully filtered to suppress narratives deemed inconvenient or antithetical to the political objectives of these entities, while inflating themes deemed useful. 

  This bias now accompanies increasing (and increasingly obvious) journalistic incompetence. Lax standards reflect weaponized journalism schools and woke ideology that short prior basic requisites of writing and ethical protocols of quoting and sourcing. In sum, a corrupt media that is ignorant, arrogant, and ideological explains why few now trust what it delivers.

  Suppression

  Once a story is deemed antithetical to left-wing agendas, there arises a collective effort to smother it. Suppression is achieved both by neglect, and by demonizing others who report an inconvenient truth as racists, conspiracist “right-wingers,” and otherwise irredeemable. 

  The Hunter Biden laptop story is the locus classicus. Social media branded the authentic laptop as Russian disinformation. That was a lie. But the deception did not stop them from censoring and squashing those who reported the truth. 

  Instead of carefully examining the contents of the laptop or interrogating Biden-company players such as Tony Bobulinksi, the media hyped the ridiculous disinformation hoax as a mechanism for suppressing the damaging pre-election story altogether.

  Joe Biden’s cognitive state was another suppression story. The media simply stifled the truth that 2020 candidate Biden was unable to conduct a normal campaign due to his frailty and non-compos-mentis status. Few fully reported his often cruel and racist outbursts of the “lying-dog-faced-pony-soldier” and “you ain’t black”/“terrorist” sort. 

  The #MeToo media predictably quashed the Tara Reade disclosure. In fact, journalists turned on her in the manner that they previously had insisted was sexist and defamatory “blame-the-victim” smearing. 

  Joe Biden has long suffered from a sick tic of creepily intruding into the private space of young women and preteen girls: blowing their hair, talking into their ears, squeezing their necks, hugging in full body embraces—all for far too long. In other words, Biden should have expected the Charlie Rose or the Donald Trump Access Hollywood media treatment. Instead, he was de facto exonerated by collective media silence. To this day, despite staffers’ efforts to corral his wandering hands and head, he occasionally reverts to form with his creepy fixations with younger women. 

  Ask the media today which administration surveilled journalists and they will likely cry “Trump!” Yet their own sensationalist reporting that the IRS was weaponized by Trump was proven a lie when the inspector general notedTrump never went after either James Comey or Andrew McCabe. And it was an untruth comparable to the smear that “nuclear secrets” and “nuclear codes” were hidden away at Mar-a-Lago or that Donald Trump sought to profit from the trove. Nor does anyone remember that Barack Obama went after the Associated Press reporters and Fox News Channel’s James Rosen. Nor do they care that Biden sought to birth an Orwellian Ministry of Truth censorship bureau.

  Fantasy

  The media does not just suppress, but concocts. The entire Russian-collusion hoax—Robert Mueller’s vain 22-month and $40 million investigation—was a complete waste of time on the one hand, but on the other an effective effort to destroy the effectiveness of an elected president. 

  How many print and television celebrity journalists declared that Trump would shortly resign, be jailed, or impeached over the pee-pee tape or Christopher Steele’s other mishmash of lies? The problem for the media in promoting the fallacious dossier was not just that it was untrue, but that it was so awfully written, so obviously poorly sourced, and so Drudge Report-like amateurishly sensational that it could not be appear factual to any sane person—other than an agenda-driven and addled journalist who found it useful.

  Do we remember the Hillary Clinton-approved Alfa Bank/Trump Tower fable that is now resurfacing for a second try? 

  Or the Jussie Smollett caper that trumped even the Brett Kavanaugh-as-teenage-assaulter and rapist lie? Or the Covington kids fabrications that trumped the Duke lacrosse hoax that trumped the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” myth that trumped the “white Hispanic,” doctored photo/edited 911 call smear about George Zimmerman? 

  Recall Trump’s supposed “immigration jails” and “kids in cages” at the border—in truth both not cages and in fact birthed by Obama. 

  Then there was Trump’s supposedly impeachable offense of purportedly canceling military aid to Ukraine so that he could allegedly hound the innocent Biden family—rather than delaying, but not canceling, offensive arms vetoed by the Obama Administration for the prescient worry that the Biden family had left a trail of corruption in Ukraine.  

  Who ran with the “voter suppression” untruth that Stacey Abrams was the “real” governor of Georgia or the yarn that Donald Trump was illegitimately elected? How exactly did Jeffery Epstein and Harvey Weinstein operate as sexual perverts and high-profile, liberal-benefacting deviants for years without media scrutiny? Who created the cable news myth of now-felon Michael Avenatti as presidential timber? 

  Chronological Manipulation

  Why, after the midterms, did we suddenly learn that Donald Trump did not, as in the case of Barack Obama’s Lois Lerner skullduggery, manipulate the IRS for political purposes to go after James Comey and Andrew McCabe? Why suddenly post-election did we read that his presidential papers at Mar-a-Lago really did not contain “nuclear codes” and “nuclear secrets” or stuff intended for sale? Why did we learn after November 8 that a special counsel was suddenly appointed? Why did we discover the Ponzi scheme of Sam Bankman-Fried only after the midterms and why is he treated as an aw-shucks teen in bum drag rather than a calculating and conniving crook?

  The answer is the same as why, just days before the 2016 election, we were assured suddenly by the media that the DNC’s planted stories about Christopher Steele’s dossier “proved” that Trump was a Russian stooge. 

  Asymmetry 

  When did the media finally dribble out that Obama’s memoir Dreams From My Father was chock full of lies and thus was intended all along to be read as “impressionistic” rather than factual? 

  We only learned belatedly that Hillary Clinton did not brave the front lines in virtual combat in Bosnia. We were assured that she was completely out of the loop on the Uranium One deal and thus knew nothing about the cash that poured into the Clinton Foundation and Bill Clinton’s honoraria from Russian sources? 

  Did the media ever fully report that Hillary Clinton: 1) broke the law by using a personal server to communicate while Secretary of State; 2) lied about the missing emails by claiming they were all personal about “yoga” and “weddings” and such; 3) destroyed subpoenaed evidence by smashing her devices; 4) had her husband accidently bump into Attorney General Loretta Lynch on a Phoenix tarmac who was supposedly investigating Clinton at the time; and 5) became our first major election denialist by declaring “Russian collusion” to be true, Donald Trump to be illegitimately elected, and the 2016 balloting to be “rigged”?

  Unethical Behavior 

  Our once lions of network news were long ago revealed to have feet of clay. Dan Rather insisted that “fake but true” memos “proved” George W. Bush got special exemptions from military service. Brian Williams fabricated an entire Walter-Mitty fantasy existence with ease. The Wiki Leaks Podesta trove revealed blue-chip reporters checking in with the Clinton campaign and the DNC to “fact check” and brainstorm their pre-publication puff pieces. 

  Throughout the Obama years, Ben Rhodes, the failed novelist and deputy national security advisor distorted U.S. foreign policy, as CBS News, overseen by his brother, warped its coverage of him. 

  Do we remember the commentary on MSNBC of the brilliant Vanderbilt professor and MSNBC “analyst,” presidential historian Jon Meacham? He periodically praised Joe Biden’s eloquence and moving addresses without informing his audience that he contributed to or indeed helped write what he gushed about. No problem. Even after finally being fired, Meacham is still at it, offering his input on Biden’s September 1, Phantom-of-the-Opera “un-American” rant.

  CNN Sums It Up

  The long, slow death of Jeffery Zucker’s CNN is emblematic of all the mortal sins listed above of our present-day corrupt media.

  It is ancient history now and thus forgotten that the self-righteous MSNBC anchorman Lawrence O’Donnell falsely claimed that Deutsche Bank documents would prove that Russian oligarchs co-signed a loan application for Donald Trump. 

  Over a decade ago, CNN’s Candy Crowley—remember this impartial “moderator” of the second 2012 presidential debate?—infamously transformed before our very television eyes into an active and shameless partisan by attacking candidate Mitt Romney. CNN commentator Donna Brazile topped Crowley when she unethically leaked primary-debate questions to candidate Hillary Clinton. When pressed, Brazile serially denied her role.

  CNN’s former Obamaite Jim Sciutto is known as a serial offender of journalistic ethics and was recently the subject of an internal investigation. Sciutto has also alleged, falsely, that the CIA had yanked a high-level spy out of Moscow because of President Trump’s supposedly dangerously reckless handling of classified information. Sciutto joined CNN’s Carl Bernstein and Marshall Cohen to falsely report that Lanny Davis’ client Michael Cohen would soon assert that Trump had prior knowledge of an upcoming meeting between his son and Russian interests.

  Another CNN trio of Thomas Frank, Eric Lichtblau, and Lex Harris were forced out from CNN for their mythologies that the Trump-hating Anthony Scaramucci was directly involved in a $10 billion Russian fund.

  CNN’s Julian Zelizer fabricated his own tall tale that Donald Trump never reiterated America’s commitment to honor NATO’s critical Article 5 guarantee. The quartet of CNN’s Gloria Borger, Eric Lichtblau, Jake Tapper, and Brian Rokus all were exposed wrongly assuring that former FBI director James Comey would unequivocally contradict President Trump’s prior assertion that Comey had told him he was not under investigation. 

  CNN reporter Manu Raju in December 2017 trafficked in lots of fake news stories that Donald Trump, Jr. supposedly had prior access to the hacked WikiLeaks documents. And he offered another fable that Trump, Jr. would be indicted by Mueller’s special-counsel investigation. But then, who at CNN did not blast out such “bombshells” and “walls are closing in” lies?

  The once supposedly great Chris Cuomo—finally fired for softball incestuous interviews with his brother Andrew while serving as confidant to his sibling’s sexual-harassment dilemmas—had been caught on tape screaming obscenities. He also lied on the air when he assured a CNN audience in 2016 that it was illegal for citizens to examine the just-released WikiLeaks emails.

  Julia Ioffe was eagerly hired by CNN after Politico fired her for tweeting that the president and his daughter Ivanka might have had an incestuous sexual relationship. CNN Anderson Cooper was every bit as creepy. He harangued a pro-Trump panelist with “If he [Trump] took a dump on his desk, you would defend it!”

  Erstwhile CNN religious “expert” Reza Aslan was not so subtle. He trashed Trump as “this piece of sh**.” The late CNN cooking show guru Anthony Bourdain openly joked about poisoning Trump with hemlock. Recall CNN New Year’s Eve host Kathy Griffin posing with a bloody facsimile of Trump’s severed head. Was there something in the CNN contract that stipulated CNN journalists had to be obscene, vulgar, and threatening? 

  The CNN circus also hired as a “security analyst” the admitted liar James Clapper. So, was it any surprise that on spec Clapper did what he was hired to do—by falsely claiming that President Trump was a veritable Russian asset?

  But for that matter, former CIA director Michael Hayden preposterously alleged that Trump’s immigration policies resembled those in the death camps of Nazi Germany. Was it any wonder either that CNN host Sally Kohn and her roundtable panelists raised their hands to reverberate the “hands up, don’t shoot” lie of the Ferguson shooting?

  Do the bias, invective, and lack of ethics of the media even matter anymore? 

  In truth, media corruption has changed the course of recent history. 

  Had the true nature of the contents of the Hunter Biden laptop been reported, the 2020 voters have polled that the revelation may well have made a difference because they would not have voted for a candidate so clearly compromised by foreign interests. 

  Tell the full story of death, destruction, arson, looting, and injured police of the post-George Floyd rioting and what emerges is not the MSNBC denial of violence or the August 2020 CNN lie of a “fiery but mostly peaceful” sort of idealistic protestors.

  The Kavanaugh and Smollett fake news accounts helped further to tear apart the country and greenlighted the new assaults on the Supreme Court, from Senator Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) rants and threats to the would-be assassin who turned up near the Kavanaugh residence. 

  The Russian collusion hoax and the first impeachment media hysteria virtually ruined a presidency and have had grave foreign-policy consequences vis à vis Russia.

  The media, moreover, matter-of-factly assumed Twitter was an arm of the Democratic Party. Mark Zuckerberg and the FBI worked together to suppress any news embarrassing to the Biden campaign. Do not expect much media coverage of Elon Musk’s serial disclosures of Twitter’s efforts to suppress free communications.

  No thanks to the media, after nearly three years we are finally learning that the Wuhan Lab proved the likely source of the COVID pandemic and that the media-sainted Dr. Anthony Fauci subsidized gain-of-function viral research in Wuhan. 

  Despite the lies, Americans assumed that Officer Brian Sicknick was not killed by Trump supporters as reported. The public shrugged “of course” when the media did its best to suppress the name of the Capitol policeman who lethally shot Ashli Babbitt for attempting to go through a broken window inside the Capitol. And on and on.

  In sum, there is no media. It has ceased to exist, and the public plods on by assuming as true whatever the Pravda-like news outlets suppress and as false whatever they cover.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 22:20

• "Conditions Are In Place": Chile On Alert As Villarrica Volcano Spits Lava Balls
  “Conditions Are In Place”: Chile On Alert As Villarrica Volcano Spits Lava Balls

  Chile’s Villarrica volcano’s last major eruption was in 1984. The 9,300-foot-high snow-capped volcano has become active again, belching lava fireballs into the night sky and shaking the ground with earthquake swarms. Local officials are concerned the next big eruption could be nearing. 

  “While we cannot predict when the volcano will erupt, the conditions are in place,” Alvaro Amigo, the head of the National Volcanic Surveillance Network, told AFP. 

  Chile’s snow-capped Villarrica volcano has been shaken by earthquakes and is belching fire, placing authorities on alert for a possible eruption in a picturesque area beloved by tourists:https://t.co/Y98oubiENT pic.twitter.com/D1Pr6Q0Nsw

  — Ann Kae (@KarlieVoisin) December 5, 2022

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

  🇨🇱 #Alerta ⚠
  ➡ Continuan Las Incandescencias💥☁
  del #Volcan🌋 🏔 #Villarrica Volcano
  Madrugada 3 al 4 de Diciembre
  Pucon Chile 🇨🇱#Sismo #FelizLunes #Temblor Volcan Villarrica #Erupcion #Terremoto #Eruption #Meteorito #VolcanVillarrica Vidal Diveana pic.twitter.com/qAS15bxxBU

  — Temblor 🔴 Alerta Sismica (@elluchin1) December 4, 2022

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

  Amigo warned a large population and infrastructure are around Villarrica, and any eruption would be hazardous because of the volcanic rock and mud flows.  

  “The thing about Villarrica is the risk, because many people are living in areas that are highly exposed” to potential damage from the volcano, geophysicist Cristian Farias said. 

  About 28,000 people live less than ten miles from the peak in a city called Pucon. Officials have placed a yellow alert for the volcano, which means imminent eruption. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 22:00

• Contradictions, Lies, And "I Don't Recalls": The Fauci Deposition
  Contradictions, Lies, And “I Don’t Recalls”: The Fauci Deposition

  Authored by Techno Fog via The Reactionary,

  

  Today, Missouri Attoney General Eric Schmitt released the transcript of the testimony of Dr. Anthony Fauci. As you might recall, Fauci was deposed as part of an ongoing federal lawsuit challenging the Biden Administration’s violations of the First Amendment in targeting and suppressing the speech of Americans who challenged the government’s narrative on COVID-19.

  Here is the Fauci deposition transcript.

  And here are the highlights…

  EcoHealth Alliance – the Peter Daszak group – is knee-deep in the Wuhan controversy, having been funded by the Fauci’s NIH for coronavirus and gain of function research in China (and having worked with the Chinese team in Wuhan). What does Fauci say about EcoHealth Alliance? Over two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, and after millions dead worldwide, he’s “vaguely familiar” with their work.

  

  In early 2020, Fauci was put on notice that his group – NIAID – had funded EcoHealth alliance on bat coronavirus research for the past five years.

  

  This coincided with early reports – directly to Fauci, from Jeremy Ferrar and Christian Anderson – “of the possibility of there being a manipulation of the virus” based on the fact that “it was an unusual virus.”

  

  Fauci conceded that he was specifically made aware by Anderson that “the unusual features of the virus” make it look “potentially engineered.”

  

  Fauci couldn’t recall why he sent an article discussing gain of function research in China to his deputy, Hugh Auchincloss, telling him it was essential that they speak on the phone. He couldn’t recall speaking with Auchincloss via phone that day. But remarkably, Fauci did remember assigning research tasks to Auchincloss

  

  Fauci was evasive on conversations with Francis Collins about whether NIAID may have funded coronavirus-related research in China, eventually stating “I don’t recall.”

  

  The phrase “I don’t recall” was prominent in Fauci’s deposition. He said it a total of 174 times:

  According to the transcript, Dr. Fauci said “I don’t recall” 174 times, including when asked about emails that he sent, interviews that he gave, and other important information.

  — Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) December 5, 2022

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

  For example, Fauci couldn’t remember what anyone said on a call discussing whether the virus originated in a lab:

  

  During that same call, Fauci couldn’t recall whether anyone expressed concern that the lab leak “might discredit scientific funding projects.” He also couldn’t recall whether there was a discussion about a lab leak distracting from the virus response. Fauci did remember, however, that they agreed there needed to be more time to investigate the virus origins – including the lab leak theory.

  What else couldn’t Fauci remember? Whether, early into the pandemic, his confidants raised concerns about social media posts about the origins of COVID-19.

  

  Yet Fauci did admit he was concerned about social media posts blaming China for the pandemic. He even admitted the accidental lab leak “certainly is a possibility,” contradicting his prior claims to National Geographic where he said the virus “could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated.”

  

  Fauci also couldn’t recall whether he had any conversations with Daszak about the origins of COVID-19 in February 2020, but admitted those conversations might have happened: “I told you before that I did not remember any direct conversations with him about the origin, and I said I very well might have had conversations but I don’t specifically remember conversations.” And he couldn’t recall telling the media early on during the pandemic that the virus was consistent with a jump “from an animal to a human.”

  Fauci said he was in the dark on social media actions to curb speech and suspend accounts that posted COVID-19 information that didn’t fit the mainstream narrative: “I’m not aware of suppression of speech on social media.” Yet it was Fauci’s proclamations of the truth, whether about the origins of COVID-19 to the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, that led to social media companies banning discussions of contrary information.

  Regarding those removals of content, Fauci had no personal knowledge of a US Government/Social Media effort to curb “misinformation.” But he conceded the possibility numerous times.

  

  Then there’s the issue of masks. In February 2020, Fauci informed an acquaintance that was traveling: “I do not recommend that you wear a mask.” Fauci would later become a vocal proponent of masks only two months later.

  I’m near my Substack length limit – posting the excerpts does that – but you can see from Fauci’s testimony that his public statements about COVID-19 origins and the necessity to wear a mask didn’t match his private conversations. This has been known for some time, but it’s finally nice to get him on record.

  Again, read it all and subscribe here.

  Fauci makes them ask him if he knows anyone that works for a social media platform FIVE TIMES before he finally admits his daughter worked for Twitter.

  Five. Times.

  — Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) December 5, 2022

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

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 21:40

• "That Is Where Tyranny Starts": New Zealand May Take Baby From Parents Demanding 'Unvaccinated' Blood For Heart Surgery
  “That Is Where Tyranny Starts”: New Zealand May Take Baby From Parents Demanding ‘Unvaccinated’ Blood For Heart Surgery

  Over 100 anti-vaccination protests showed up in New Zealand to support the parents of a critically ill 4-month-old baby in New Zealand who demanded that the hospital provide supplementary blood from unvaxxinated donors before the child goes under the knife for pulmonary valve stenosis, a heart valve disorder.

  

  The boy’s mother says she wants “safe blood” to be used, which her lawyer described as a fear of blood containing traces of vaccines using mRNA technology.

  The request has been denied by New Zealand health service, which says vaccines pose no risk to donor supplies, according to RNZ. On Tuesday, the Auckland High Court will decide whether to grant a request to remove the child from the family to perform the surgery.

  Paul White, a lawyer for Te Whatu Ora, aka Health New Zealand, described the baby as “getting sicker with every heartbeat.”

  Te Whatu Ora is making an application under the Care of Children Act regarding the baby who needs open heart surgery.

  It is asking that the baby be placed under the guardianship of the court.

  Te Whatu Ora then wants the court to appoint the doctors as agents of the court for medical care, and the parents agents of the court for all other care. -RNZ

  According to White, a child with this condition would have been treated by now.

  

  Sue Grey, a lawyer for the family, said the doctors are dismissing the parents as conspiracy theorists and ignoring their concerns.

  A full hearing on the matter will be held on Tuesday.

  One supporter of the family, Sarah McNaulty, said she was standing up for freedom of choice.

  “There’s so many people lined up to give their blood freely,” she said, adding “That is where tyranny starts. When the state provides us with not being able to give blood freely to a patient that needs it.”

  

  According to officials, the Blood Service does not segregate blood from vaccinated and unvaccinated donors, and that there is no risk from the Covid-19 vaccine.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 21:20

• Censorship By Surrogate: Why Musk's Document Dump Could Be A Game-Changer
  Censorship By Surrogate: Why Musk’s Document Dump Could Be A Game-Changer

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  Below is my column in the Hill on the recent disclosures in the “Twitter Files” on the coordination of censorship between the company and both Biden and Democratic party operatives. Beyond personally attacking Elon Musk and Matt Taibbi, many have resorted to the same old saw of censorship apologists: it is not censorship if the government did not do it or direct it. That is clearly untrue.  Many groups like the ACLU define censorship as denial of free speech by either government or private entities.  It is also worth noting that this censorship (and these back channels) continued after the Biden campaign became the Biden Administration. Moreover, some of the pressure was coming from Democratic senators and House members to silence critics and to bury the Hunter Biden influence peddling scandal.

  

  Here is the column:

  “Handled.” That one word, responding to a 2020 demand to censor a list of Twitter users, speaks volumes about the thousands of documents released by Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, on Friday night. As many of us have long suspected, there were back channels between Twitter and the Biden 2020 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to ban critics or remove negative stories. Those seeking to discuss the scandal were simply “handled,” and nothing else had to be said.

  Ultimately, the New York Post was suspended from Twitter for reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop scandal. Twitter even blocked users from sharing the Post’s story by using a tool designed for child pornography. Even Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was suspended for linking to the scandal.

  Twitter’s ex-safety chief, Yoel Roth, later said the decision was a “mistake” but the story “set off every single one of my finely tuned APT28 hack and leak campaign alarm bells.” The reference to the APT28 Russian disinformation operation dovetailed with false claims of former U.S. intelligence officers that the laptop was “classic disinformation.”

  The Russian disinformation claim was never particularly credible. The Biden campaign never denied the laptop was Hunter Biden’s; it left that to its media allies. Moreover, recipients of key emails could confirm those communications, and U.S. intelligence quickly rejected the Russian disinformation claim.

  The point is, there was no direct evidence of a hack or a Russian conspiracy. Even Roth subsequently admitted he and others did not believe a clear basis existed to block the story, but they did so anyway.

  Musk’s dumped Twitter documents not only confirm the worst expectations of some of us but feature many of the usual suspects for Twitter critics. The documents do not show a clear role or knowledge by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Instead, the censor in chief appears to be Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s former chief legal officer who has been criticized as a leading anti-free speech figure in social media.

  There also is James Baker, the controversial former FBI general counsel involved in the bureau’s Russia collusion investigation. He left the FBI and became Twitter’s deputy general counsel.

  Some Twitter executives expressed unease with censoring the story, including former global communications VP Brandon Borrman, who asked, “Can we truthfully claim that this is part of the policy?” Baker jumped in to support censorship and said, “It’s reasonable for us to assume that they may have been [hacked] and that caution is warranted.” Baker thus comes across as someone who sees a Russian in every Rorschach inkblot. There was no evidence the Post’s Hunter Biden material was hacked — none. Yet Baker found a basis for a “reasonable” assumption that Russians or hackers were behind it.

  Many people recognized the decision for what it was. A former Twitter employee reportedly told journalist Matt Taibbi, “Hacking was the excuse, but within a few hours, pretty much everyone realized that wasn’t going to hold.”

  Obviously, bias in the media is nothing new to Washington; newspapers and networks have long run interference for favored politicians or parties. However, this was not a case of a media company spiking its own story to protect a pal. It was a social media company that supplies a platform for people to communicate with each other on political, social and personal views. Social media is now more popular as a form of communications than the telephone.

  Censoring communications on Twitter is more akin to the telephone company agreeing to cut the connection of any caller using disfavored terms. And at the apparent request of the 2020 Biden campaign and the DNC, Twitter seems to have routinely stopped others from discussing or hearing opposing views.

  The internal company documents released by Musk reinforce what we have seen previously in other instances of Twitter censorship. A recent federal filing revealed a 2021 email between Twitter executives and Carol Crawford, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s digital media chief. Crawford’s back-channel communication sought to censor other “unapproved opinions” on social media; Twitter replied that “with our CEO testifying before Congress this week [it] is tricky.”

  At the time, Twitter’s Dorsey and other tech CEOs were about to appear at a House hearing to discuss “misinformation” on social media and their “content moderation” policies. I had just testified on private censorship in circumventing the First Amendment as a type of censorship by surrogate. Dorsey and the other CEOs were asked about my warning of a “‘little brother’ problem, a problem which private entities do for the government that which it cannot legally do for itself.” In response, Dorsey insisted that “we don’t have a censoring department.”

  The implications of these documents becomes more serious once the Biden campaign became the Biden administration. These documents show a back channel existed with President Biden’s campaign officials, but those same back channels appear to have continued to be used by Biden administration officials. If so, that would be when Twitter may have gone from a campaign ally to a surrogate for state censorship. As I have previously written, the administration cannot censor critics and cannot use agents for that purpose under the First Amendment.

  That is precisely what Musk is now alleging. As the documents were being released, he tweeted, “Twitter acting by itself to suppress free speech is not a 1st amendment violation, but acting under orders from the government to suppress free speech, with no judicial review, is.”

  The incoming Republican House majority has pledged to investigate — and Musk has made that process far easier by making good on his pledge of full transparency.

  Washington has fully mobilized in its all-out war against Musk. Yet, with a record number of users signing up with Twitter, it seems clear the public is not buying censorship. They want more, not less, free speech.

  That may be why political figures such as Hillary Clinton have enlisted foreign governments to compel the censoring of fellow citizens: If Twitter can’t be counted on to censor, perhaps the European Union will be the ideal surrogate to rid social media of these meddlesome posters.

  The release of these documents has produced a level of exposure rarely seen in Washington, where such matters usually are simply “handled.”

  The political and media establishments generally are unstoppable forces — but they may have met their first immovable object in Musk.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 21:00

• These Are The World's Richest Billionaires Over The Past 10 Years
  These Are The World’s Richest Billionaires Over The Past 10 Years

  The last decade has seen a number of changes in the world’s richest billionaires list.

  For one, there are new faces at the top of the leaderboard that were never there before. But, as Visual Capitalist’s Nick Routley details below, one of the most obvious changes though, is that the richest billionaires have accumulated a lot more wealth in recent years.

  Using annual data from Forbes on the richest billionaires, Routley has visualized the wealth and ranking of the top 10 billionaires over the past decade.

  

  Who are the World’s Richest Billionaires?

  While the pecking order has fluctuated, the leaderboard remains very exclusive. Out of a possible 10 spots, there are only 19 individuals that have made the list over the last decade.

  Here’s the current list of richest billionaires in 2022, including when they first made the list (if in the last decade):

  

   

  *Billionaires with “-” first made the list at an earlier date. Example: Mukesh Ambani made the 2008 list.

   

  Microsoft co-founder turned philanthropist, Bill Gates, is a perennial presence at the top of these lists. Gates is currently at his lowest rank over this time period, but is still in fourth spot. The billionaire has pledged to give away nearly all of his fortune to the eponymously named Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

  From 2018 to 2021, Jeff Bezos sat at the top of the world’s richest people ranking, only to be bumped out by Elon Musk. In 2020, Bezos became the first person to amass a $200 billion fortune after Amazon’s stock price surged during the pandemic. In recent months, Bezos’ net worth has taken a hit as Amazon’s share price has fallen back down to Earth.

  Today, Elon Musk is the world’s richest person.

  The Rich Get Richer

  Over time, the median net worth of the richest billionaires has grown significantly.

  

   

  Most fortunes are held in the form of business equity, real estate, and publicly-traded stocks—all asset classes that have benefited from the era of cheap money and ultra-low interest rates.

   

  Over the decade period, the median net worth of the top 10 billionaires has nearly tripled from $39 billion to $115 billion.

  In fact, the first billionaire to pass the $100 billion threshold was Jeff Bezos in 2018, when he took the top spot on the list from Bill Gates. However, now all but two on the top 10 wealthiest list are centibillionaires.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 20:40

• Teacher Who Wears Large Prosthetic Breasts Subject Of College Review, Possible Lawsuit
  Teacher Who Wears Large Prosthetic Breasts Subject Of College Review, Possible Lawsuit

  Authored by Tara MacIsaac via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A teacher in Oakville, Ontario, who wears large prosthetic breasts in class has been the subject of protests, bomb threats, a College of Teachers review—and now, potentially, a lawsuit.

  

  The teacher at Oakville Trafalgar High School wears oversized prosthetic breasts with protruding nipples, under tight-fitting shirts. Pictures of the teacher posted on social media by students have received international attention.

  The school had four bomb threats from September through November targeting the teacher. One demanded, for example, that the teacher be fired. No explosives were found at the school, and no arrests were made.

  Parents of students at the school have formed a group called Students First Ontario and say their concerns have not been adequately addressed.

  “We have retained legal counsel and are in the process of moving forward with a legal strategy,” the group told The Epoch Times via email. This announcement follows up on a recent review of the case by the Ontario College of Teachers.

  Professional Conduct Review

  The controversy around the Oakville teacher came to the attention of Education Minister Stephen Lecce, who asked the Ontario College of Teachers in September to “consider strengthening” professional standards.

  “In this province, in our schools, we celebrate our differences,” he told reporters at Queen’s Park. “We also believe there must be the highest standards of professionalism for our kids, and on that basis, I’ve asked the Ontario College of Teachers to review and to consider strengthening those provisions.”

  pic.twitter.com/DGuxwYzPPW

  — Royce Lopez (@hippojuicefilm) September 14, 2022

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

  The college completed the requested review October 14, though its contents were first made public Dec. 5 by the National Post. The Epoch Times has obtained a copy of the review.

  It concludes that no strengthening of professional standards is needed. It said the standards of conduct already in place for teachers should be sufficient to address the situation at the Oakville school.

  “Following our review, Council has concluded that the standards, governing legislation and supporting resources appropriately address professionalism in today’s modern learning environment,” the review said. “All Ontario Certified Teachers, in their position of trust, are expected to demonstrate responsibility and sound judgement in their relationships with students.”

  It suggested that the teacher in question should review the standards already in place. It said there is a “critical need for teachers to adhere to government and employer policies and protocols, as part of their commitment to teacher professionalism. For example, the College’s Essential Advice for the Teaching Profession advises that ‘OCTs should consult their employers’ policies to ensure that they know and follow the expectations and obligations in their particular workplaces and communities.’”

  College spokesperson Andrew Fairfield said the college cannot discuss any complaints or concerns filed against teachers. A search of the teacher’s name in the college database shows the teacher is in “good standing.”

  ‘A Safe Environment’

  At a protest outside the school in September, parent Dave Kvesic told The Epoch Times, “Kids should have a safe environment to learn free of ridiculous distractions.” He said the protest wasn’t about “transphobia.” It was “just about my kids.”

  Since that time, some parents have expressed continued frustration with the Halton District School Board (HDSB).

  In a Nov. 21 statement, the Students First parent group said, “parents have been largely silenced by HDSB administrators and there has been little desire for open inquiry, transparency, and accountability.”

  It continued: “Many parents/students have significant questions that need to be addressed given the HDSB’s insistence that there are effectively ‘no boundaries’ when it comes to the ‘expression’ of adults in the company of minors in a publicly-funded school system. It appears our children are part of a social experiment—one that is testing the limits of ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.’”

  HDSB spokesperson Heather Francey did not respond specifically to questions about the parents’ concerns regarding the teacher as of publication. But she said via email, “We have every confidence in the security measures and safety procedures in place at all Halton District School Board (HDSB) schools. …. The HDSB and police work together to investigate threats.”

  Board Chair Margo Shuttleworth told The Epoch Times in September that HDSB supports the teacher “as prescribed by the Ontario Charter of Human Rights.”

  Moral Codes, Dress Codes

  The parent group criticized Shuttleworth for requesting a change to the Education Act that would remove section 264 (1)(c), related to religion and morals. Shuttleworth made the request in an Oct. 20 letter to Education Minister Lecce.

  The section in question says that a teacher’s duties include, “to inculcate by precept and example respect for religion and the principles of Judaeo-Christian morality and the highest regard for truth, justice, loyalty, love of country, humanity, benevolence, sobriety, industry, frugality, purity, temperance and all other virtues.”

  Shuttleworth requested that it be replaced with a clause that reflects “contemporary and current diversity, equity and inclusion policy and practices, and to reflect the Calls to Action 62 and 63s brought forward by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”

  HDSB recently considered a proposal to implement a dress code for staff. The proposal was made by board trustees. On Nov. 9, HDSB Superintendent of Human Resources, Sari Taha, said at a board meeting that a dress code for teachers would likely be found discriminatory and should not be implemented.

  He said as an employer, the board has the right to implement a dress code or rule for employees as any business does. But, if a dress code places additional burdens on one gender over another, that’s a problem.

  A dress code that results in “deferential treatment⁠—that’s key to really pay attention to this word, deferential treatment⁠—will generally be found to be discriminatory,” Taha said.

  “Arbitrators will often engage in a balancing of the employer’s legitimate business interest with employees’ interest in personal expression. The employer bears the burden in these cases to establish that the employee’s appearances pose a real threat to its business that is more important than the rights of the employee,” Taha said. “And that is the burden of proof on us if we are to establish a dress code.”

  The Epoch Times reporter Peter Wilson contributed to this report. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 20:20

• Global Wages Take A Hit As Inflation Eats Into Paychecks
  Global Wages Take A Hit As Inflation Eats Into Paychecks

  The global inflation crisis paired with lackluster economic growth and an outlook clouded by uncertainties have led to a decline in real wages around the world, a new report published by the International Labour Organization (ILO) has found.

  As Statista’s Felix Richter reports, according to the 2022-23 Global Wage Report, global real monthly wages fell 0.9 percent this year on average, marking the first decline in real earnings at a global scale in the 21st century.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  The multiple global crises we are facing have led to a decline in real wages.

  “It has placed tens of millions of workers in a dire situation as they face increasing uncertainties,” ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo said in a statement, adding that “income inequality and poverty will rise if the purchasing power of the lowest paid is not maintained.”

  While inflation rose faster in high-income countries, leading to above-average real wage declines in North America (minus 3.2 percent) and the European Union (minus 2.4 percent), the ILO finds that low-income earners are disproportionately affected by rising inflation. As lower-wage earners spend a larger share of their disposable income on essential goods and services, which generally see greater price increases than non-essential items, those who can least afford it suffer the biggest cost-of-living impact of rising prices.

  “We must place particular attention to workers at the middle and lower end of the pay scale,” Rosalia Vazquez-Alvarez, one of the report’s authors said.

  “Fighting against the deterioration of real wages can help maintain economic growth, which in turn can help to recover the employment levels observed before the pandemic. This can be an effective way to lessen the probability or depth of recessions in all countries and regions,” she said.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 20:00

• Everything And Everybody Is More Important Than You
  Everything And Everybody Is More Important Than You

  Authored by Robert Gore via StraightLineLogic.com,

  You will sacrifice and sacrifice until there’s nothing left to sacrifice…

  

  If we’re all responsible to everybody, what’s in it for you? How does it work, exactly? Can you claim anything—your production, property, expression, body, mind, life, or soul—for yourself? If you can’t, if everyone else has first claim to them, what can you claim for yourself? Do you give up everything for our eight billion fellow earth-citizens as they give up everything for you? Do you get one eight-billioneth of what’s nominally everyone else’s? Or is this supposed to be pure sacrifice—give up everything and receive nothing in return? If you give up everything, is there any you left?

  It’s best not to think about such questions, they won’t get you anywhere but confused. What you do know is what you’ve been told your entire life: everything you do for others is good; everything you do for yourself is selfish and bad. Just look what happens when everyone pulls together in a cause greater than themselves, like war. Isn’t that a cause greater than yourself, maiming and killing people you don’t know? You must be doing it for the greater good, because you might be maimed or killed by those people you don’t know. Oh, you can’t let yourself think of it that way. Everyone has to pitch in.

  Government must be a cause greater than yourself, because you spend several months every year working to pay your taxes. That’s a good chunk of money, and you and millions of other hard-working Americans pay it. People complain a bit, but everybody pays, because it’s necessary to keep the country running and fund all the great things the government does. Like what, exactly? You’re funding those wars, and a lot of money ends up in the pockets of people who are of no discernible benefit to you. A lot of it stays right there in Washington. And even with all the money they take in they are still $31 trillion in the hole. Stop it! You can’t let yourself think of it that way; we’ve got to have government.

  Think what would have happened the last couple of years if we hadn’t had the government. We saw that pull-together spirit, with everyone wearing their masks and getting vaccinated. Well, almost everybody. There were a few people who didn’t wear masks or get vaccinated.

  But here’s where things started to break down. Because you know a few antisocial refuseniks and they either didn’t get sick or if they got sick, they took care of themselves, took the medicines they weren’t supposed to take, and got well. And you know people who had both rounds of vaccines and every booster and got sick. And there are those stories, all over the Internet, about apparently healthy people, young people, collapsing, some dying; you’ve seen the videos.

  The thoughts you can’t shut down started when somebody close to you, a relative or friend, had a severe reaction after a shot, or told you about someone they know who did. And maybe you brushed it off, but then it happened again . . . and again. These weren’t stories on the Internet; this was direct experience, or direct experience once removed. And it wasn’t just severe reactions, the afflicted recovering after hospitalization. There were long term effects for which there are apparently no cures, lives ruined. And there were those who died. You know of more people harmed by the cure than the disease.

  One day, out of nowhere, the question popped into your head: Who’s collecting the sacrificial offerings? Because that’s what all this is—sacrificial offerings—not to propitiate some unseen deity, but to line the pockets and to increase the power of . . . of those telling you that you have to sacrifice! That’s the thought you’ve pushing down all these years: All this sacrifice is a damn scam, a racket! Once you gave it some thought, you realized it’s been going on for years, decades, centuries. Somebody telling people they must sacrifice for some greater good, and those same somebodies collecting the sacrificial offerings.

  If we’re all responsible to everybody, what’s in it for you? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Actually, less than nothing. You no longer have whatever it is you offer. It’s not even an offering, something you do voluntarily. Your “offerings” are taken from you under implicit or explicit threat of force. What you get back, if anything, is worth less to you than what you gave up.

  You’ve never minded giving up things for something you regarded as a greater value—saving for the down payment on a house or a child’s college education. Paying for groceries and utilities rather than taking a vacation you couldn’t afford. Those weren’t sacrifices, not like the sacrifices you’re told you must make for the greater good, where you give up something and get nothing in return.

  If you’re giving something and getting nothing, somebody’s getting something and giving nothing. Think of what they’ve done with your sacrifices—your money, your time, and your life—and what you could have done with them. There’s nothing greater or good about their greater good; the country’s going to hell in a hand basket. We’re riding a ruination train downhill, the grade is getting steeper and steeper, and the engineer has it on full throttle.

  Their greater good is your greater bad—your life gets increasingly risky and difficult. What you’re paying out is rising faster than what you’re taking in. All while money is tossed down the toilet of the latest war and domestic boondoggles and the trillion-dollar milestones on the national debt come faster and faster. You hear the bell tolling: doom, doom, doom.

  You’re dealing with reality to the fullest extent of your capacity so that people you despise, and who despise you, don’t have to. Accept the morality of sacrifice, accept that everybody and everything is more important than you, and you’ve issued them a blank check. They have, they are, and they will continue to take everything you offer, up to and including your life.

  The lie has always been that the sacrifices of you and your fellow sacrificers would build a better world for everyone. Now they no longer try to hide it: sacrifice gets you worse, not better. Bugs instead of meat; an urban apartment instead of a house and land; mass transit instead of a personal automobile; a guaranteed income instead of meaningful work; computer entries instead of money, surveillance instead of privacy; compliance instead of freedom; punishment instead of reward.

  “And you will be happy.” That assurance is as stale and false as the phony causes they trot out to justify your unhappiness: the climate, the earth, a virus, a war, an alien invasion, the common good, etc. We do owe them one debt. The last few years have made it obvious to anyone who will look that it’s not about the phony causes, it never has been; it’s about power and control, and always has been.

  That’s not nothing, for from that recognition comes the realization: run from those demanding sacrifice, which at the least means every government on the planet. Sadly, running is only possible in the metaphorical sense. Gangster governments are the order of the day, regardless of how they cloak their intentions and actions.

  And when you ask ’em, “How much should we give?”
  Ooh, they only answer, “More, more, more, more!”

  “Fortunate Son,” John Fogerty, Credence Clearwater Revival, 1969

  You will sacrifice and sacrifice until there’s nothing left to sacrifice, and then they’ll discard you like last night’s garbage. Your life means one thing to them—enslaved, subjugated submission. It’s the less than zero existence, the logical consequence, of everybody and everything is more important than you.

  Accept that—and most people do—and you’ll deserve what you get—less than zero. Claim your life and resolve that nothing is more important to you than the freedom to live it, and your course will be fraught with danger. It’s not the less-than-zeros who change things; expect nothing from them but opposition. If you want what’s yours you’re going to have to fight for it, and yes, fight means fight. That is the truth that can no longer be evaded.

  Resistance is lonely and dangerous. Choose it, and you may have compatriots, but if you’re not careful, you’ll also have false friends who will betray you in the darkest hour. You will, fortunately, have an ally in the incompetence and evil of those who seek to enslave you. Nothing they’ve established can last and their system is collapsing. In some ways that will make things easier—bankrupt and collapsed governments don’t have the wherewithal to maintain order. However, chaos presents its own dangers.

  Fight for your life, or accept endless sacrifice and less than zero. There are no other choices, no middle ground. It’s your choice. It’s your life.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 19:40

• Putin Signs Into Law Sweeping Ban On "LGBT Propaganda"
  Putin Signs Into Law Sweeping Ban On “LGBT Propaganda”

  As if the West needed more reason to hate Vladimir Putin, the Russian president on Monday signed into law updated legislation which expands the current ban on the prohibition of what it dubs LGBT propaganda to children, shrugging off widespread Western human rights criticisms leveled at Moscow.

  The new law now expands to banning anything that promotes LGBT propaganda before the entire population, regardless of age or demographic, which makes it much more sweeping and broad. 

  The law also aggressively targets transgender ideology. At this point, anything interpreted as advancing or displaying information that “can make minors want to change their gender” is banned, according to the new law. This includes promoting “non-traditional sexual relations”.

  

  Violation of the law, for example with media campaigns or formal organizing and activism, could see entities face a fine of up to 4 million rubles (or just under $64,000). Time in jail is also possible as a punishment. It further effectively bans all future attempts at ‘pride’ parades.

  According to details in The Moscow Times: 

  People of all ages are now banned from accessing certain content under the new legislation. From now on, LGBT relationships and “lifestyles” cannot be displayed or mentioned, according to activists.

  The display of LGBT relationships is also banned from advertising campaigns, films, video games, books and media publications. Outlets that break the new law could be fined or shut down by the government.  

  Foreigners could also be booted from the country if they are found in violation of the law. 

  For years it has been illegal to promote ‘alternative’ sexual lifestyles among minors, based on an initial 2013 law that focused on rooting out “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” aimed at children. As it previously existed, violators could face 15 days in prison, or also a fine. 

  President Putin has over the last few years increased his focus on fighting against gender ideology in speeches, vowing to protect the country and the Russian people from “gender obscurantism” – as he dubbed it in a 2021 speech. Many Russian officials also associate it with nefarious intentions from NATO.

  “I am a proponent of the traditional approach that a woman is a woman and a man is a man,” Putin said at the time – in a theme which has since been reiterated. “A mother is a mother, a father is a father. And I hope that our society has the internal moral protection dictated by the traditional religious denominations of the Russian Federation.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 19:20

• Democrat Head Of Armed Services Committee Says Ukraine Oversight Push "Russian Propaganda"
  Democrat Head Of Armed Services Committee Says Ukraine Oversight Push “Russian Propaganda”

  Authored by Dave Smith via AntiWar.com,

  Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the head of the House Armed Services Committee, said Saturday that the growing calls for more oversight of the billions of dollars the US is spending on Ukraine are “part of Russian propaganda.”

  While the majority of Republicans strongly favor continuing to arm Ukraine, even the more hawkish GOP members have said they favor increased oversight for the aid. Smith said that the concern from Republicans for more transparency “makes me a little crazy.”

  

  “Ukraine is spending the money really well; that’s why they’re winning,” Smith said at the Reagan National Defense Forum, according to Defense News. “Yes, we need oversight, but we don’t need that as an excuse to not fund what we’re doing.”

  Last month, a small group of House Republicans opposed to arming Ukraine led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced a bill that would require an audit of the funds that the US has spent on the war so far. Greene said that if she needed to, she would reintroduce the legislation after the next Congress is sworn in this January.

  House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who is expected to be the speaker in the next Congress, has said a Republican-controlled House wouldn’t send a “blank check” to Ukraine.

  McCarthy later downplayed his comments and said the lack of oversight was the issue, and other Republican leaders insisted they would keep arming Ukraine. But McCarthy’s comments were still enough to prompt a push to approve a massive new Ukraine aid package.

  The White House is looking for Congress to approve $37.7 billion in new Ukraine aid during the lame-duck period. If authorized, the new funds will bring total US spending on a proxy war on Russia’s border to about $105 billion.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 19:00

• BofA Finds Increasing Number Of Wealthier Americans Now Shop At Value Supermarkets
  BofA Finds Increasing Number Of Wealthier Americans Now Shop At Value Supermarkets

  US consumers, the biggest economic force in the world, are rapidly altering their spending habits and where they get groceries due to persistently high inflation, 19 months of negative real wage growth, and threats of recession. 

  Bank of America’s report on consumer trends titled “Supermarket Swap” found consumers are “trading down” (i.e., shifting spending from more to less expensive items within the same category), with yearly growth spending at value grocery stores up more than a third versus premium stores. 

  According to the findings of the report:

  So who is “trading down” the most? Middle – and higher-income consumers have more scope to trade down and shift spending to less expensive versions of items, since lower-income consumers are more likely to be shopping at less expensive grocery stores already. For the higher-income consumers , spending at value-tier grocery stores in October 2022 was up 22% relative to January 2019, according to Bank of America data, likely due to persistent negative real wage growth this year

  BofA reminds readers of the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) print via the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which shows prices for the ‘food at home’ category were still at a shocking 12.4% YoY in October. They said, “real (inflation-adjusted) grocery spending per household, estimated using Bank of America card data and CPI inflation, has slowed substantially since 2021 and was below 2019 levels in October,” but the number of transactions per household made at the grocery store was still holding levels in line with 2019, indicating “real grocery spending per household per transaction that has dropped meaningfully.” 

  

  This means the consumer is trading down for cheaper items at the supermarket. BofA data shows consumer spending at value-tier supermarkets exploded earlier this year as inflation surged, “suggesting an increasing rotation into cheaper grocery options. This adds further evidence that consumers might have been looking for alternative ways to save on groceries by trading down and purchasing from less expensive stores,” the report said. 

  

  And why are consumers shifting to value-tier supermarkets? One big issue has been 19 months of negative real wage growth. Essentially the vast majority of Americans find their cost of living is increasing faster than the income they bring home.

  

  BofA said middle- and higher-income consumers are more likely to be the ones trading down since lower-income folks are already shopping at value-tier stores. 

  The report focused on annual incomes of $50k – $100k and >$100k and found significant shifts in spending as value-tier supermarkets surged in popularity among wealthier Americans. 

  

  And now, people in higher income brackets are trading down for cheaper items and shopping at value supermarket stores. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 18:40

• FBI Held "Weekly Meetings" With Big Tech Ahead Of 2020 Election, "Sent Lists Of URLs And Accounts" To Be Censored
  FBI Held “Weekly Meetings” With Big Tech Ahead Of 2020 Election, “Sent Lists Of URLs And Accounts” To Be Censored

  Authored by Chris Menahan via InformationLiberation.com,

  The FBI held “weekly meetings” with social media giants ahead of the 2020 election and sent in “lists of URLs and accounts” for them to take down in the name of fighting “foreign influence operations,” an FBI agent revealed Tuesday while under oath.

  🚨BREAKING: In our deposition of FBI agent Elvis Chan on Tuesday, we found that the FBI plays a big role in working with social media companies to censor speech – from weekly meetings with social media companies ahead of the 2020 election to asks for account takedowns.

  — Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) December 2, 2022

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

  Chan, the FBI’s FITF, and senior CISA officials had meetings with social media companies in the lead-up to the 2020 election, in which Chan personally told the social media companies that there could potentially be a Russian “hack and leak” operation shortly before the election.

  — Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) December 2, 2022

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

  Those meetings were initially quarterly, then monthly, then weekly heading into the 2020 election.

  — Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) December 2, 2022

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

  Chan stated that the FBI regularly sent social media companies lists of URLs and social media accounts that should be taken down because they were disinformation from “malign foreign influence operations.” The FBI then inquired whether the platforms have taken down the content.

  — Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) December 2, 2022

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

  On many occasions, the platforms took down the accounts flagged by the FBI.

  — Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) December 2, 2022

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

  This is what real “election interference” looks like.

  From Fox News:

  On Tuesday, lawyers from the offices of Attorneys General Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Jeff Landry of Louisiana deposed FBI Supervisory Special Agent Elvis Chan as part of their lawsuit against the Biden administration. That suit accuses high-ranking government officials of working with giant social media companies “under the guise of combating misinformation” to achieve greater censorship.

  Chan, who serves in the FBI’s San Francisco bureau, was questioned under oath by court order about his alleged “critical role” in “coordinating with social-media platforms relating to censorship and suppression of speech on their platforms.”

  During the deposition, Chan said that he, along with the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and senior Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency officials, had weekly meetings with major social media companies to warn against Russian disinformation attempts ahead of the 2020 election, according to a source in the Missouri attorney general’s office.

  Those meetings were initially quarterly, then monthly, then weekly heading into the presidential election between former President Donald Trump and now President Biden. According to a source, Chan testified that in those multiple, separate meetings, the FBI warned the social media companies that there could be potentially Russian “hack and dump” or “hack and leak” operations.

  In their complaint, the GOP AGs noted an Aug. 26 podcast episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” in which Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that “the FBI basically came to us” and told Facebook to be “on high alert” relating to “a lot of Russian propaganda.” Zuckerberg added that the FBI said “there’s about to be some kind of dump… that’s similar to that, so just be vigilant.”

  BREAKING: Mark Zuckerberg tells Joe Rogan that Facebook algorithmically censored the Hunter Biden laptop story for 7 days based on a general request from the FBI to restrict election misinformation. pic.twitter.com/llTA7IqGa1

  — Minds💡 (@minds) August 25, 2022

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

  […]

  “Since filing our lawsuit, we’ve uncovered troves of discovery that show a massive ‘censorship enterprise,'” Attorney General Eric Schmitt told Fox News Digital. “Now, we’re deposing top government officials, and we’re one of the first to get a look under the hood — the information we’ve uncovered through those depositions has been shocking to say the least. It’s clear from Tuesday’s deposition that the FBI has an extremely close role in working to censor freedom of speech.”

  Elon Musk released internal documents from Twitter last week showing the “Biden team” sent in requests for URLs to be taken down ahead of the election.

  8. By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive would write to another: “More to review from the Biden team.” The reply would come back: “Handled.” pic.twitter.com/mnv0YZI4af

  — Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022

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

  As we saw with Zuckerberg’s comments on Rogan, the FBI’s “warnings” were a way to pressure Big Tech to censor content the regime viewed negatively.

  https://t.co/j4EeXEAw6F can see the confusion in the following lengthy exchange, which ends up including Gadde and former Trust and safety chief Yoel Roth. Comms official Trenton Kennedy writes, “I’m struggling to understand the policy basis for marking this as unsafe”: pic.twitter.com/w1wBMlG33U

  — Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 3, 2022

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

  Truly incredible — former Twitter executive @yoyoel, who just got caught fabricating a fake justification for censoring a media outlet, says the decision to ban Trump after Jan 6 was impelled by the “trauma” he and other “content moderators” experienced online that fateful day pic.twitter.com/JSE7tpXtGz

  — Michael Tracey (@mtracey) December 3, 2022

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

  The FBI not only directed the censorship of the internet ahead of the 2020 election but also manufactured a fake terror plot in the swing state of Michigan to hype the phony threat of “right-wing extremism.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 18:20

• Macron: Russia Needs Security Guarantees 'Essential' To Ending The War
  Macron: Russia Needs Security Guarantees ‘Essential’ To Ending The War

  As we detailed earlier, a clear division is arising between Europe and the United States over Washington’s more hawkish and hardline stance on resisting all negotiations with Russia, but instead which is centered on encouraging Kiev to pursuing ‘victory’ on the battlefield. “The fact is, if you look at it soberly, the country that is most profiting from this war is the U.S. because they are selling more gas and at higher prices, and because they are selling more weapons,” one senior European official bluntly complained to Politico last month.

  Underscoring that Europe is more ready to pursue avenues of negotiated settlement in Ukraine, over the weekend French President Emmanuel Macron urged for the West to take seriously Russia’s security concerns regarding NATO expansion near its border. He called for greater willingness to give Moscow the “guarantees” necessary for negotiations to be successful. He called them ‘essential’ if the West wants to get serious about talks and peaceful settlement. 

  

  “We need to prepare what we are ready to do, how we protect our allies and member states, and how to give guarantees to Russia the day it returns to the negotiating table,” President Macron said in an interview that aired Saturday.

  That’s when he underlined something which a mere months ago would elicit rage and accusations of ‘pro-Kremlin’ stooge among Western mainstream punditry. “One of the essential points we must address — as President Putin has always said — is the fear that NATO comes right up to its doors, and the deployment of weapons that could threaten Russia,” Macron said. 

  The timing of the remarks was interesting given the interview was recorded while he was on the US on a state visit to the White House, and it aired as he departed. 

  According to The New York Times, “The interview with TF1, a French television network, appeared sympathetic to the concerns of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and was immediately picked up prominently by TASS, the Russian state news agency. It prompted an angry reaction in Ukraine.”

  While there was no immediate reaction from the Biden administration, the Ukrainian presidency’s office said such negotiations and security guarantees would only be possible “after tribunal, conviction of war authors and war criminals” and the “imposition of large-scale reparations.”

  Separately, David Arakhamia, the chief of the Ukrainian negotiating group involved in short-lived ceasefire talks in the opening months of the war, also echoed that Russian forces must first “leave the territory of our country; pay reparations; punish all war criminals; voluntarily give up nuclear weapons.”

  The Times further points out that Russian state media was quick to amplify Macron’s interview statements: 

  Responding to a tweet from TASS featuring Mr. Macron’s remarks, Nicolas Tenzer, a prominent French political scientist and essayist, commented: “Devastating.”

  During the summer months and prior, European leaders seemed to tilt toward Washington’s more hardline approach to the conflict, but with the energy crisis becoming more acute and now headed into the winter months it appears a new consensus is emerging.

  As another example, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with President Vladimir Putin on Friday, with the Kremlin side later saying that Scholz admitted the West’s policy on Ukraine is “destructive” and that Berlin may pursue a rethinking of its policy. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 18:00

• Ron Paul: The 'Twitter Papers' Reveal The Totalitarians Among Us
  Ron Paul: The ‘Twitter Papers’ Reveal The Totalitarians Among Us

  Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute,

  I admit to being skeptical of Elon Musk as a free speech hero. He has moved from one US government-subsidized business to another on his path to becoming the world’s richest person. But there is no denying that his release of the “Twitter Papers” this past weekend, which blew the lid off government manipulation of social media, has been a huge victory for those of us who value the First Amendment.

  

  The release, in coordination with truly independent journalist Matt Taibbi, demonstrated indisputably how politicians and representatives of “official Washington” pressed the teams that were then in charge of censorship at Twitter to remove Tweets and even ban accounts that were guilty of nothing beyond posting something the power-brokers did not want the general public to read. Let’s not forget that many of those demanding Twitter censorship were US government officials who had taken an oath to the US Constitution and its First Amendment.

  It is important to understand that both US political parties were involved in pushing Twitter to censor information they didn’t like. There is plenty of corruption to go around. However, as the Twitter Papers demonstrated, vastly more Tweets were censored at the demand of Democratic Party politicians simply because Twitter employees on the censorship team were overwhelmingly Democratic Party supporters.

  Perhaps the most damning piece of evidence released in this first installment of the Twitter Papers was a series of Tweets from the Biden 2020 campaign to its contact inside Twitter asking that the social media censor them. An internal Twitter document shows that the censor team “handled these,” meaning censored them.

  Elon Musk himself openly stated before the release that, prior to his taking control of the company and engaging in mass firing, Twitter had been manipulating elections. So all those years we heard lies from the Washington elites that Russia was interfering in our elections when after all it was Twitter. Of course that raises the question about other large social media companies like Facebook. Will Mark Zuckerberg come clean about his own company’s election interference? Will anyone have the courage to demand that he do so?

  How did they get away with all of this? As another truly independent journalist, Glenn Greenwald, pointed out on the Tucker Carlson show the night the “Twitter Papers” were released, while it was once controversial for the CIA to attempt to manipulate what Americans consume in the mainstream media, nowadays these outlets openly hire “former” US intelligence leaders and officers as news analysts. CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and the rest of them all bring on “former” members of the intelligence services to tell Americans what to think. “Big tech censorship is a critical tool of the national security state,” Greenwald told Tucker. “Whenever anyone tries to do anything about it these former people from the CIA and the Pentagon and the rest jump up and say ‘we cannot allow you to restore free speech.’”

  This is a corruption scandal so massive that it is almost guaranteed to never be properly investigated. Government itself is among the most guilty and we know “government commissions” are really about covering up rather than uncovering the crimes committed. But the truth is powerful. Some 58 years after the Warren Report whitewashed the assassination of President Kennedy, polls show that few Americans believe the “official” narrative.

  Truth is powerful and we must always seek it. No amount of lies can withstand the disinfectant of truth. Thanks to Elon Musk for his courage and we encourage him to continue.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 17:40

• PepsiCo To Lay Off Hundreds After Price-Hikes As Consumer 'Strength' Questioned
  PepsiCo To Lay Off Hundreds After Price-Hikes As Consumer ‘Strength’ Questioned

  Up until now, the majority of layoffs have been focused in technology firms and banks, as talking heads proclaim ‘the consumer is still strong’.

  However, tonight’s news that no lesser staple than PepsiCo is to announce a major belt-tightening suggests the pain is spreading much more broadly across the US economy.

  

  The Wall Street Journal reports, according to people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed, that the giant firm will be cutting hundreds of jobs at its North American snack and beverage headquarters.

  As of Dec. 25 last year, PepsiCo employed about 309,000 people worldwide, including about 129,000 people in the U.S.

  In a memo sent to staff that was viewed by the Journal, PepsiCo told employees that the layoffs were intended “to simplify the organization so we can operate more efficiently.”

  Of course, it’s anyone’s guess when these layoffs appear in the official jobs data…

  the BLS will need a +10 million birth death adjustment soon to keep their BS going https://t.co/WZZ8WIsKzi

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 5, 2022

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

  This decision comes just a few week after the company announced it had raised prices on its snacks and drinks by 17% on average from last year.

  “The consumer has very much stuck with our products,” said Hugh Johnston, PepsiCo’s finance chief, in an interview.

  “In a world where there are many struggles and stresses, we are kind of an affordable luxury.”

  …

  “There may be a point when the revenue growth slows down,” Mr. Johnston said. He added: “We just have to be prepared for it.”

  Do the layoffs mean that the consumer is cutting back further? Or have margins been crushed even more by inflation?

  Are Doritos now out of reach for the average joe?

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 12/05/2022 – 17:20

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• China Operating Illegal Police Stations Worldwide
  China Operating Illegal Police Stations Worldwide

  Authored by Judith Bergman via the Gatestone Institute,

  • China has set up at least 54 overseas police stations in 30 countries, including in the United States (New York), Canada, Spain, Italy, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Argentina and Nigeria, according to a recent report from Safeguard Defenders, a human rights NGO.

  • The police stations are part of China’s campaign to “persuade” Chinese citizens suspected of criminal acts – particularly telecommunications fraud, but also political “crimes” such as political dissent – to return to China to face criminal prosecution. China not only threatens the Chinese citizens themselves but also members of their families who have stayed behind in China. Such threats have been continuing for years, as FBI Director Christopher Wray pointed out in 2020, when he mentioned a case from the US in which a Chinese government “emissary” visited a target in the US and told him that he could choose between returning to China or committing suicide.

  • China’s overseas police stations purport merely to have administrative or consular functions, but function as means of threatening Chinese abroad to return to China, thereby skipping the necessary legal requirements under international law.

  • Crucially, the police stations operate without the consent and knowledge of the host countries, such as in the Netherlands, where one of the police stations operates out of a plain ground-floor apartment in Rotterdam belonging to a small Chinese handyman business.

  • Beijing, not surprisingly, has denied all wrongdoing. “The organizations you mentioned are not police stations or police service centers,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian Zhao insisted. “Their activities are to assist local Chinese citizens who need to apply for expired driver’s license renewal online….”

  • Safeguard Defenders has appealed to countries to take swift action against the police stations.

  • “Action needs also be taken to protect a quickly growing Chinese diaspora in the target countries, unless the latter are content with having a foreign government police minority groups on their territory, often to the intentional detriment of the target country and its policies, and aimed at intimidating the diaspora into obedience to the CCP anywhere in the world. Dedicated reporting and protection mechanisms must urgently be made available.” – Safeguard Defenders, January 18, 2022.

  

  China has set up at least 54 overseas police stations in 30 countries, including in the United States (New York), Canada, Spain, Italy, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Argentina and Nigeria, according to a recent report from Safeguard Defenders, a human rights NGO. Most of these police stations are located in Europe, with nine such police stations in major Spanish cities, four in Italy, and three in Paris, among others.

  According to Peter Dahlin, director of Safeguard Defenders, those are just the tip of the iceberg:

  “We are convinced that there are many more, because these only belong to two jurisdictions – Fuzhou and Qingtian, where most of the Chinese in Spain come from – and China itself admits that it has launched the project in ten. So it could be up to five times more.”

  The police stations are part of China’s campaign to “persuade” Chinese citizens suspected of criminal acts – particularly telecommunications fraud, but also political “crimes” such as political dissent – to return to China to face criminal prosecution. China not only threatens the Chinese citizens themselves but also members of their families who have stayed behind in China. Such threats have been continuing for years, as FBI Director Christopher Wray pointed out in 2020, when he mentioned a case from the US in which a Chinese government “emissary” visited a target in the US and told him that he could choose between returning to China or committing suicide.

  On August 17, China’s Ministry of Public Security stated:

  “The number of cross-border telecom fraud cases targeting Chinese residents has been significantly decreased in China, with 230,000 telecom fraud suspects being educated and persuaded to return to China from overseas to confess crimes from April 2021 to July 2022…”

  “Official guidelines explicitly outline the different tools made available to ‘persuade’ the targets to voluntarily return to China to face charges,” Safeguard Defenders wrote.

  “These include targeting the purported suspects’ children in China, denying them the right to education, as well as targeting family members and relatives in a similar fashion. In short, a full-on ‘guilt by association’ punishment to ‘encourage’ suspects to return from abroad.”

  China’s overseas police stations purport merely to have administrative or consular functions, but function as means of threatening Chinese abroad to return to China, thereby skipping the necessary legal requirements under international law. According to Safeguard Defenders:

  “These methods allow the CCP and their security organs to circumvent normal bilateral mechanisms of police and judicial cooperation, thereby severely undermining the international rule of law and territorial integrity of the third countries involved… In eschewing regular cooperation mechanisms, the CCP manages to avoid the growing scrutiny of its human rights record and the ensuing difficulties faced in obtaining the return of ‘fugitives’ through legal proceedings such as formal extradition requests. It leaves legal Chinese residents abroad fully exposed to extra-legal targeting by the Chinese police, with little to none of the protection theoretically ensured under both national and international law…

  “Openly labeled as overseas police service stations… for example in renewing Chinese driver’s licenses remotely and other tasks traditionally considered of a consular nature… [the stations] also serve a more sinister goal as they contribute to ‘resolutely cracking down on all kinds of illegal and criminal activities involving overseas Chinese.'”

  The police stations are obviously also used to target Chinese abroad who disagree with the regime.

  “One of the aims of these campaigns, obviously, as it is to crack down on dissent, is to silence people,” Laura Harth, a campaign director with Safeguard Defenders said. “So people are afraid. People that are being targeted, that have family members back in China, are afraid to speak out.”

  Crucially, the police stations operate without the consent and knowledge of the host countries, such as in the Netherlands, where one of the police stations operates out of a plain ground-floor apartment in Rotterdam belonging to a small Chinese handyman business. Several countries, such as Canada, the Netherlands, the UK, Portugal and Spain, are now investigating the matter and some have already demanded the closure of the Chinese overseas police stations on their soil.

  “[We] have asked the Chinese ambassador for full clarification on the so-called police service stations carrying out tasks in the Netherlands on behalf of the Chinese government,” Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra wrote on Twitter.

  “As no permission was sought from the Netherlands for this, the ministry has informed the ambassador that the stations must close immediately. In addition, the Netherlands itself is also investigating the stations to find out their exact activities.”

  In the US, FBI Director FBI director Christopher Wray said that the FBI was investigating the matter.

  “We are aware of the existence of these stations. To me, it is outrageous to think that the Chinese police would attempt to set up shop, you know, in New York, let’s say, without proper coordination. It violates sovereignty and circumvents standard judicial and law enforcement cooperation processes.”

  Wray added that the FBI was “looking into the legal parameters,” and stated that the FBI has opened charges related to Chinese government harassment, stalking, monitoring and blackmailing Chinese in the US who were critical of China’s President Xi Jinping.

  “It’s a real problem and something that we’re talking with our foreign partners about, as well, because we’re not the only country where this has occurred.”

  Beijing, not surprisingly, has denied all wrongdoing. “The organizations you mentioned are not police stations or police service centers,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian Zhao insisted.

  “Their activities are to assist local Chinese citizens who need to apply for expired driver’s license renewal online, and activities related to physical examination services by providing the venue.”

  Nevertheless, the Spanish newspaper El Correo quoted an unnamed official from the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Shanghai, who reportedly acknowledged that the police stations abroad are part of how China operates:

  “The bilateral treaties are very cumbersome, and Europe is reluctant to extradite to China. I do not see what is wrong with pressurizing criminals so that they are brought to justice.”

  Safeguard Defenders has appealed to countries to take swift action against the Chinese police stations.

  “We call on Members of Parliament to raise this issue with their Governments: ask if and how this practice is being monitored; to what extent such operations take place in their country, and what measures are being formulated to counter them. Action needs also be taken to protect a quickly growing Chinese diaspora in the target countries, unless the latter are content with having a foreign government police minority groups on their territory, often to the intentional detriment of the target country and its policies, and aimed at intimidating the diaspora into obedience to the CCP anywhere in the world. Dedicated reporting and protection mechanisms must urgently be made available.”

  Judith Bergman, a columnist, lawyer and political analyst, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

  • Follow Judith Bergman on Twitter

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 23:50

• "Utterly False": Musk Blasts New York Times For Hate Speech Report On Twitter
  “Utterly False”: Musk Blasts New York Times For Hate Speech Report On Twitter

  Authored by Naveen Anthrapully via The Epoch Times,

  Twitter owner Elon Musk blasted a New York Times report claiming problematic content and hate speech was on an “unprecedented” rise on the platform following his takeover, countering earlier claims by the billionaire.

  

  According to findings by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League, and other groups, the NY Times reported that slurs against black Americans increased from 1,282 times a day to 3,876 times. Posts against gay men and Jews went from 2,506 times to 3,964, and 61 percent, respectively during the two weeks after Musk bought Twitter.

  Musk replied in a tweet that the report was “Utterly false.”

  The NY Times report has, till now, gotten over 44,000 likes, while the Musk response garnered 346,000 likes, and nearly 21,000 retweets.

  “Elon Musk sent up the Bat Signal to every kind of racist, misogynist and homophobe that Twitter was open for business,” said Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, in the report. “They have reacted accordingly.”

  The outlet said that accounts related to the terrorist group ISIS were coming back on the platform, along with QAnon supporters who have received verification symbols.

  “This reporting is such garbage,” said Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow and director of the initiative on critical race theory at the Manhattan Institute.

  “The experience on Twitter is pretty much the same as it was before, plus a few ‘edgy’ accounts being reinstated. The left-wing journalists want to create a false narrative to justify more censorship. It’s transparent and pathetic.”

  Hate Speech on Twitter

  Musk has reiterated his view that hate speech will not be tolerated on the platform, and that there will be no “free-for-all hellscape” regarding speech. However, he has also upheld free speech on Twitter by uncensoring prominent conservative personalities like former president Donald Trump, investigative news organization Project Veritas, and satire site The Babylon Bee.

  This has irked many on the left who advocate for banning these accounts under the pretext of hate speech.

  “By ‘free speech’, I simply mean that which matches the law,” said Musk earlier in the year.

  “I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.”

  In a Dec. 2 tweet, Musk said, “Hate speech impressions (# of times tweet was viewed) continue to decline, despite significant user growth! @TwitterSafety will publish data weekly. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom of reach. Negativity should & will get less reach than positivity.”

  He added, “There are about 500M tweets per day & billions of impressions, so hate speech impressions are <0.1% of what’s seen on Twitter!”

  European Backlash, Advertiser Boycott

  A senior European Union official issued a warning to Musk that Twitter could be blocked on the continent if it fails to comply with the bloc’s regulations.

  “There is still huge work ahead, as Twitter will have to implement transparent user policies, significantly reinforce content moderation, and protect freedom of speech, tackle disinformation with resolve, and limit targeted advertising,” EU Commissioner Thierry Breton told Musk, according to a readout of a call between the two had on Wednesday.

  The warning comes amid a pullback by advertising from investing on the platform. Major brands such as Jeep, Mars candy, cereal maker Kellogg, pharma giant Merck, and Verizon had paused advertising according to an analysis report by The Washington Post.

  Other brands, including United Airlines, Carlsberg, Mondelez, and General Motors, have also stopped displaying ads on Twitter.

  Twitter’s policy on hateful conduct states: “You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease. We also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm towards others on the basis of these categories.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 23:15

• Wuhan Whistleblower: Former EcoHealth VP Says Covid "Man Made", Escaped From Lab
  Wuhan Whistleblower: Former EcoHealth VP Says Covid “Man Made”, Escaped From Lab

  Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

  Just hours after we find out that the Hunter Biden laptop not only wasn’t “Russian disinformation”, but rather was being actively covered up by social media, another “conspiracy theory” that wound up costing tons of honest truth seekers their social media accounts (including Zero Hedge, who was first to talk about the lab leak all the way back in February 2020), is inching closer toward being validated as reality.

  That’s because a scientist who formerly worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology has now gone on record and has said that COVID was “man-made” and leaked from the lab.

  The claims are according to the Post, who cited The Sun, who was provided a copy of the scientist’s forthcoming book.

  The gravity of the allegations, which I have written about at length over the last year, would make the global Covid-19 pandemic cover up among the most stunning lies ever perpetrated on modern humanity.

  The whistleblower, epidemiologist Andrew Huff, called the lab leak the “biggest US intelligence failure since 9/11″. He detailed his allegations in his book “The Truth About Wuhan”.

  ---

  Get 50% off: If you enjoy this article, would like to support my work, I would love to have you as a subscriber and can offer you 50% off for life: Get 50% off forever

  ---

  Huff is the former vice president of EcoHealth Alliance, which studied coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He worked for the company from 2014 to 2016 and, per the Post:

  …said that the non-profit helped the Wuhan lab put together the “best existing methods to engineer bat coronaviruses to attack other species” for many years.

  Meanwhile, EcoHealth Alliance has been awarded millions to continue their work as recently as this year: Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Was Just Awarded Another NIH Grant To Study Bat Coronaviruses

  “Foreign laboratories did not have the adequate control measures in place for ensuring proper biosafety, biosecurity, and risk management, ultimately resulting in the lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” he wrote in his book.

  

  Huff wrote: “China knew from day one that this was a genetically engineered agent. The US government is to blame for the transfer of dangerous biotechnology to the Chinese.

  “I was terrified by what I saw. We were just handing them bioweapon technology.”

  Fringe Finance has been covering the idea of a lab leak since the blog’s inception and we have long maintained that a leak from the lab was the most obvious explanation for Covid.

  Now the question becomes: who will be held accountable…not only for the leak but for the campaign against those who asked honest questions about the lab for the last 3 years?

  And what other “conspiracy theories” will we soon find out are closer to truth?

  You can read more here: Covid “Much More Easily Explained” By Lab Leak: Harvard PhD & Rutgers Chem Professor

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 22:40

• Alameda's Caroline Ellison Spotted In NY Amid Speculation She Is About To Roll On SBF After Hiring Iconic Clinton Lawyer
  Alameda’s Caroline Ellison Spotted In NY Amid Speculation She Is About To Roll On SBF After Hiring Iconic Clinton Lawyer

  As Sam Bankman-Fried enters day six of his whirlwind media tour in which he makes one or more daily appearances – against the advice of his lawyers – in hopes of convincing someone that he was too dumb to be a criminal mastermind with billions in crypto in cold storage and in bank accounts in Dubai and Singapore (luckily all his wire transfers can be traced), also known as the Simple Jack defense…

  So today was day one of @SBF_FTX “i am too dumb to be a criminal mastermind” world tour.

  Join us tomorrow for day two when he channels Simple Jack next to Janet Yellen and Zelenskyy at the NYT summit of totally non-criminal folks.

  — zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 30, 2022

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

  … the weakest link in SBF’s defense was just spotted in a New York coffee shop, amid speculation she is preparing to blow up SBF’s entire defense strategy.

  According to Autism Capital, the former CEO of Alameda Capital (which as a reminder was ground zero of the FTX implosion after it blew up $8 billion in FTX client funds on trades gone horribly wrong), Caroline Ellison, was spotted at 8:15am this morning at the Ground Support Coffee on West Broad in SoHo Manhattan. This, as AC notes, “would mean she is not in Hong Kong and is in NY not in custody.”

  PLEASE CONFIRM: A user claims that they spotted Caroline Ellison at Ground Support Coffee on West Broad in SoHo Manhattan at 8:15 AM. This would mean she is not in Hong Kong and is in NY not in custody. pic.twitter.com/QUduYO9GfZ

  — Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) December 4, 2022

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

  A statement from a barista at the coffee shop confirmed that it was in fact Caroline.

  CONFIRMED: The barista behind the counter has confirmed it was Caroline. https://t.co/BzO8KZRE8V

  — Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) December 4, 2022

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

  Why does this matter? Because while the prominent Democrat donor, who reportedly is “responsible for Biden being in office” and who – at least according to Musk – donated over $1 billion to democrats…

  That’s just the publicly disclosed number. His actual support of Dem elections is probably over $1B. The money went somewhere, so where did it go?

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 3, 2022

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

  … continues his deluded daily media appearances while casually throwing his former alleged lover, co-worker and penthouse-mate, Caroline – and pretty much all other co-workers – under the bus by claiming he has no idea how $8 billion in FTX client funds just vaporized in SBF’s personal hedge fund, Alameda (implying that only Alameda’s CEO, Ellison, was responsible for the theft and fraud) Caroline is two-steps ahead of SBF and is already cooperating with members of the DOJ, and specifically the SDNY, which we previously reported is probing the collapse of FTX.

  The general consensus is that Caroline Ellison is likely in NY cutting a deal and cooperating with SDNY prosecutors to roll on Sam.

  — Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) December 4, 2022

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

  Subsequent reports have only reinforced this rumor, and the latest is that Ellison is being represented by DC law firm, WilmerHale…

  A highly credible source claims that Caroline Ellison is currently being represented by WilmerHale, a well known DC insider law firm. Please verify.

  — Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) December 5, 2022

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

  … best known for its Government Affairs Department Chair, Jamie Gorelick, who was the former No. 2 ranking member in the Clinton Justice Department, and in a recent interview, she referred to Garland as her “wingman.”

  If indeed Ellison is working the Feds while currying favor with SBF’s former closest friends, the days of Bankman-Fried – who may or may not soon commit Epsteincide – outside of a prison cell are numbered.

  As for SBF, who is still wasting his time “uhhhm“-ing and “like“-ing across various interviews hoping to demonstrate to the world – and his future jurors – just how bloody stupid he really was…

  … and blaming it all on messy accounting, poor risk management, and of course, Caroline Ellison – not his premeditated fraud of course – even the CEO of Coinbase is no longer buying his relentless bullshit, saying earlier that no matter how “messy you accounting is (or how rich you are) – you’re definitely going to notice if you find an extra $8B to spend” adding that “even the most gullible person should not believe Sam’s claim that this was an accounting error” (here he is referring to Bill Ackman, of course), and correctly concluded that “it’s stolen customer money used in his hedge fund, plain and simple.”

  It’s stolen customer money used in his hedge fund, plain and simple.

  — Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) December 3, 2022

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

  All that’s missing is the definitive proof, and if the above rumors are correct, Caroline Ellison is in the process of, or already has provided it to the Feds. Which incidentally, may explain why SBF’s “I am Simple Ja-ja-ja-jack, i’m so-so-so-sorry” tour just came to a crashing halt, when late on Sunday, the commingling masterming told Maxine Waters he won’t be voluntarily appearing before Congress – where any lie is a perjury – on the 13th (or ever for that matter).

  Rep. Waters, and the House Committee on Financial Services:

  Once I have finished learning and reviewing what happened, I would feel like it was my duty to appear before the committee and explain.

  I’m not sure that will happen by the 13th. But when it does, I will testify. https://t.co/c0P8yKlyQt

  — SBF (@SBF_FTX) December 4, 2022

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

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 22:11

• Former Global Head Of Trust And Safety At Twitter Reveals Widespead Scientific Censorship
  Former Global Head Of Trust And Safety At Twitter Reveals Widespead Scientific Censorship

  After Elon Musk’s buyout and the ongoing release of the the “Twitter files”, the cat is out of the bag, as it were, when it comes to Twitter’s extreme leftist political agenda and their collusion with the federal government and the DNC.  And, it appears that some of the people deeply involved in the platform’s censorship model are willing to discuss their tactics and motives.  One might expect them to take a more apologetic position in light of their exposed lies and trespasses against their customers and site users, but this is definitely not the case.

  Former Twitter employees, most especially former moderators and Trust and Safety employees, are unrepentant for their censorship efforts tainted with political bias and seem to loath Elon Musk for opening the door to fair debate on the social media site.

  One Twitter executive, Yoel Roth, was recently in the headlines for admitting that Twitter’s aggressive censorship of the Hunter Biden Laptop story was a “mistake.”  Roth is the former Global Head of Trust And Safety and played a direct role (along with other executives) in the suppression of the news, leading to the banning of the New York Post account merely for relaying accurate reporting.

  Presenting the event as a “mistake” rooted in the company’s concerns about “misinformation”, however, seems disingenuous.  As we now know, Twitter and the DNC were in regular contact with each other and requests were made by DNC officials to block any mention of such damaging stories.  There was round-table debate at Twitter, but it was not about whether it was morally right to censor the information.  Rather, Twitter execs debated whether or not they could get away with it.

  The trust and safety elites within Big Tech companies have no doubts about the validity and righteousness of their cause, and that’s the biggest problem.  The monstrous nature of the ideology of scientifically precise censorship is on full display in the following interview with Roth at the Knight Foundation.  Roth has no qualms about the notion of crushing free speech.

  Roth equates banned information to “malicious campaigns,” painting a picture of some nebulous organization of “trolls” with ill intent working from the shadows to spread mean words and falsehoods.  This is projection.  The only organized and shadowy efforts were performed by Twitter’s leadership and were designed to silence dissent, in some cases in an effort to influence the outcome of the 2020 election for their friends in the Democratic Party. 

  This is even hinted at by Roth, who explains the widespread decision within Big Tech companies after the 2016 election to focus heavily on campaign and election influence.  Roth cites the long debunked theory that Russia manipulated the 2016 election as the reason for this agenda to control election information.

  A clear case of collusion can be presented between the Democrats and Twitter to do the exact thing Roth warns about, which is the subversion of election outcomes.  But the psychology of people like Yoel Roth is disturbing beyond the issue of potential political manipulation.  For example, Roth goes on to claim that the satire inherent in organizations like Libs of Tikok and the Babylon Bee is “dangerous” and specifically suggests they threaten the lives of people within the trans community.

  Keep in mind that satire and humor are usually the first targets of any authoritarian regime clamoring for power because the greatest comedy strikes at the heart of lies and speaks truths that many people are otherwise afraid to discuss.  If a joke is based on falsehoods it’s usually not very funny.  As far as Libs of TikTok is concerned, all they do is re-post videos of leftists’ own arguments and confessions, and for that they are labeled “dangerous.” 

  The former trust and safety exec goes on to admonish the removal of covid censorship, calling it “bad and damaging” without explaining how.  One can only suggest that the leftists at Twitter were also in collusion with government officials to silence any and all facts and evidence that ran contrary to the mainstream pandemic narrative.  Much of this information, like the Biden Laptop, was labeled “conspiracy theory” and banned, only to later be revealed as absolutely true.  

  The deeper poison of Trust and Safety cultism is two-fold:  First, it is being done scientifically and with increasing precision.  It is not only based simply on community flagging; these people are exploiting algorithms and computer modeling in the hopes that they can develop predictive suppression.  They think they can “measure hate events” as if they are hurricanes and batten down the hatches before the waves hit.  The thing is, much of the “hate” they fear is all in their minds.  The “malicious campaigns” they see are often merely people disagreeing with them on the basis of facts and principles. 

  You cannot accurately measure “hate”, for one, and when that hate is perceived through a lens of delusion built on bias and zealotry, we run into a threat much bigger than hate – The threat of despotism wrapped in technocracy.  They aren’t blocking hate, they are blocking free debate.      

  The real discussion should be on whether or not Trust and Safety metrics should even exist.  Why do we need them?  Roth never questions the validity of his former job and the motivations behind it.  The bottom line is this: Big Tech censorship is founded on the argument that people cannot be trusted to make up their own minds on the information they see.  Social media leaders think that THEY should be the arbiters of information in order to protect people from themselves. 

  What qualifies them to hold this kind of power?  Nothing.  No one is qualified enough, intelligent enough or objective enough to mediate the speech of millions of people, and since Big Tech holds a veritable monopoly on modern communications, their policies become a kind of law that affects the whole of society.  Twitter by itself is only a small part of the overall picture, but the cold and calculating censorship promoted by Roth is something that is being executed by the majority of Big Tech companies right now.  We have to ask ourselves as Americans (and western culture in general needs to ask) if this kind of ideological monopoly can be allowed to persist, because it means the eventual destruction of free speech as we know it.      

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 22:05

• Six Degrees From James Baker: A Familiar Figure Reemerges With Release Of Twitter Files
  Six Degrees From James Baker: A Familiar Figure Reemerges With Release Of Twitter Files

  Authored by Jonathan Turley via jonathanturley.org,

  

  As thousands of Twitter documents are released on the company’s infamous censorship program, much has been confirmed about the use of back channels by Biden and Democratic officials to silence critics on the social media platform. However, one familiar name immediately popped out in the first batch of documents released through journalist Matt Taibbi: James Baker. For many, James Baker is fast becoming the Kevin Bacon of the Russian collusion scandals.

  Baker has been featured repeatedly in the Russian investigations launched by the Justice Department, including the hoax involving the Russian Alfa Bank. When Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann wanted to plant the bizarre false claim of a secret communications channel between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, Baker was his go-to, speed-dial contact. (Baker would later testify at Sussmann’s trial). Baker’s name also appeared prominently in controversies related to the other Russian-related FBI allegations against Trump. He was effectively forced out due to his role and reportedly found himself under criminal investigation. He became a defender of the Russian investigations despite findings of biased and even criminal conduct. He was also a frequent target of Donald Trump on social media, including Twitter. Baker responded with public criticism of Trump for his “false narratives.”

  After leaving the FBI, Twitter seemed eager to hire Baker as deputy general counsel. Ironically, Baker soon became involved in another alleged back channel with a presidential campaign. This time it was Twitter that maintained the non-public channels with the Biden campaign (and later the White House). Baker soon weighed in with the same signature bias that characterized the Russian investigations.

  Weeks before the 2020 presidential election, the New York Post ran an explosive story about a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden that contained emails and records detailing a multimillion dollar influence peddling operation by the Biden family. Not only was Joe Biden’s son Hunter and brother James involved in deals with an array of dubious foreign figures, but Joe Biden was referenced as the possible recipient of funds from these deals.

  The Bidens had long been accused of influence peddling, nepotism, and other forms of corruption. Moreover, the campaign was not denying that the laptop was Hunter Biden’s and key emails could be confirmed from the other parties involved. However, at the request of the “Biden team” and Democratic operatives, Twitter moved to block the story. It even suspended those who tried to share the allegations with others, including the White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who was suspended for linking to the scandal.

  Even inside Twitter, the move raised serious concerns over the company serving as a censor for the Biden campaign. Global Comms Brandon Borrman who asked if  the company could “truthfully claim that this is part of the policy” for barring posts and suspending users.

  Baker quickly jumped in to support the censorship and said that “it’s reasonable for us to assume that they may have been [hacked] and that caution is warranted.”

  Keep in mind that there was never any evidence that this material was hacked. Moreover, there was no evidence of Russian involvement in the laptop. Indeed, U.S. intelligence quickly rejected the Russian disinformation claim.

  However, Baker insisted that there was a “reasonable” assumption that Russians were behind another major scandal. Faced with a major scandal implicating a Joe Biden in the corrupt selling of access to foreign figures (including some with foreign intelligence associations), Baker’s natural default was to kill the story and stop others from sharing the allegations.

  The released documents may show why Twitter was so eager to hire Baker despite his role in the Russian collusion controversies. What likely would have been a liability for most companies seemed an actual draw for Twitter. For censors and political operatives in Twitter, Baker likely seemed like a “made man” for a company committed to systemic censorship. He would be working with the chief legal officer at the company, Vijaya Gadde, who functioned as the company’s chief censor.  Gadde was widely reviled by free speech advocates for her dismissal of free speech principles and open political bias.

  Not unexpectedly, Gadde and Baker would play prominent roles in the suppression of the Hunter Biden scandal. There was hardly a need to round up “the usual suspects” in the suppression scandal when Musk took over the company. Both lawyers swatted down internal misgivings to bury a story that could well have made the difference in the close 2020 election.

  It is striking how many of the figures and institutions involved in Russian collusion claims are within six degrees of James Baker. Not only did Baker work closely with fired FBI director James Comey and other key figures at the Justice Department, but he was an acquaintance of key Clinton figures like Sussmann who pushed the false collusion allegations. He was also hired by Brookings Institution, which also has a curious Bacon-like role in the origins and development of the false Russian collusion allegations.

  None of these means that Baker was the driving force of the scandals. To the contrary, Baker earned his bones in Washington as a facilitator, a reliable ally when it came to the business of the Beltway. It is hardly a surprise that Baker found a home at Twitter where “caution” was always “warranted” in dealing with potentially damaging stories for Democratic interests.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 21:30

• Nonprofit Blood Donation Service Starts Matching Unvaccinated Patients With Donors
  Nonprofit Blood Donation Service Starts Matching Unvaccinated Patients With Donors

  Authored by Allan Stein via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Swiss naturopathic physician George Della Pietra believes people worldwide should be free to choose whether to get a COVID-19 vaccine injection or not.

  

  He believes the same should hold for those receiving transfusions with “vaccinated” blood.

  “The problem is right now we have no choice,” said Della Pietra, founder of the nonprofit Safe Blood Donation service in 2021, matching unvaccinated blood recipients with donors in 65 countries.

  “It was very clear from the beginning that the COVID hype was way out of control,” Della Pietra said. “It was not as dangerous as they say it was.

  “As a naturopath, I can make no sense of this pandemic, which was never really a pandemic. It leaves space for so many explanations.”

  Della Pietra believes that an mRNA injection is more dangerous than the pharmaceutical companies are willing to admit. He said the growing numbers of adverse reactions are reason to question their safety and effectiveness.

  Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that vaccinated and boosted people made up 58.6 percent (6,512) of the COVID-19 deaths in August—up from 41 percent in January.

  “We can no longer say this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Cynthia Cox, the Vice President of the Kaiser Family Foundation told The Washington Post in an article on Nov. 23.

  Nearly 70 percent of the world’s 8 billion people have received at least one mRNA injection for COVID-19 since the vaccines began rolling out in 2021 at the height of the virus’s spread.

  Each of the three primary mRNA COVID-19 vaccines contains COVID-19 “spike protein” fragments, which bind at the cellular level to stimulate an immune response to the virus.

  Della Pietra believes these spike proteins produce “classic symptoms”—namely blood clots—that “horrified” him.

  “I’ve never seen anything similar—and I’m not talking only about spike proteins,” Della Pietra told The Epoch Times in a phone interview.

  “It’s unbelievable because we never had this problem before. It’s been only two years. They want to keep the narrative [that an mRNA vaccine] is not dangerous.”

  

  Although donated blood and plasma must undergo a cleansing process before transfusion, Safe Blood Donation says this is not enough to remove all mRNA ingredients.

  “I’m talking about graphene oxide and non-declared inorganic components in the vaccine, which we can see in the blood. When I see them, I have no idea how we can get rid of them again,” Della Pietra said.

  Looking at the abnormalities in vaccinated blood, he said, “OK, we have a problem.” People are receiving the vaccine “more or less through the back door.”

  “You can not avoid it anymore.”

  In the United States alone, there are approximately 16 million units of donated blood annually. Of those units, about 643,000 are “autologous”—self-donated—and the number is increasing yearly, according to BloodBook.com.

  Della Pietra said that, to his knowledge, Safe Blood Donation, based in Switzerland, is the first unvaccinated blood donation service of its kind.

  “So, there is no blood bank with mRNA-free blood yet, not even with us,” Safe Blood Donation states on its website.

  “And, although we have already asked hundreds of clinics, at the moment—at least in Europe—all of them still refuse to allow the human right of free blood choice with them—or at least do not want to be mentioned because otherwise, they fear reprisals.”

  

  Della Pietra said the main goal of Safe Blood Donation is not to start an mRNA-free blood bank. Rather, it is to make it possible to match unvaccinated blood donors and unvaccinated recipients, “which we bring together in a clinic (medical partner) that allows the choice of blood donor.”

  Medical website Seed Scientific said that blood banks and biotech companies will offer as much as $1,000 monthly for blood donations.

  While Della Pietra said there are no unvaccinated blood banks, he sees the demand for unvaccinated blood rising.

  “This is why I decided to do [SafeBlood Donation]. I wanted to make a network for unvaccinated people looking for a blood donor because they need it—whether they have scheduled surgery or an emergency,” he said.

  Safe Blood Donation began working in the United States about a month ago, building an infrastructure of medical partners.

  However, in the current medical environment, central blood banks such as the Red Cross do not segregate their blood donations based on their vaccinated or unvaccinated status.

  

  “The American Red Cross does not facilitate designated donations for standard blood needs, as this process often takes longer and is more resource intensive than obtaining a blood product through our normal process,” the Red Cross told The Epoch Times in an email.

  “In a small number of situations, there is an exception for rare blood types where compatible blood types are extremely difficult to find. A rare blood type is defined as one that is present in less than 1/1000 people.

  “We want to emphasize that the Red Cross adheres to all donor and product requirements as determined by the FDA to ensure the safety of the blood supply and is committed to continuing to provide life-saving blood products for patients across the country.”

  The National Library of Medicine said that “across study sites, the average hospital cost per unit transfused was $155 and the average charge per patient was $219.”

  Still, the Red Cross, which provides 40 percent of the nation’s blood donations, said “no studies” demonstrate adverse outcomes from transfusions of blood products collected from vaccinated donors.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 20:55

• Wokeism Is Costume Elites Wear To 'Signal Virtue' And 'Hide Greed, Corruption': Former Levi's Executive
  Wokeism Is Costume Elites Wear To ‘Signal Virtue’ And ‘Hide Greed, Corruption’: Former Levi’s Executive

  Authored by Ella Kietlinska and Jan Jekielek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The pose of wokeness is a costume that the left liberal elite puts on to virtue signal that they care about social justice and to hide their greed and corruption, said the former executive of a major brand-name apparel manufacturer.

  

  Jennifer Sey, former chief marketing officer and brand president of Levi Strauss & Co., told EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program that she had “pushed back” on the public school closures due to COVID-19 for two years, and in the end, she was pushed out of the company for her advocacy.

  Sey, who was sending her children to public schools, believed that prolonged school lockdowns were harmful to children and started speaking out against them at the beginning of the pandemic.

  Sey said she and her husband were reading the data that was coming out of Italy at the start of the pandemic, a country heavily hit by the disease, and the data showed that the median age of death due to the disease was over 80.

  “Nobody was bothering to look at actual data or adhere to the pre-pandemic playbook, which said you never shut schools down for more than a couple of weeks,” Sey pointed out. “It was from day one that me and my husband, we both said, ‘Hell no, this is wrong. People are going to be harmed.’”

  

  In September 2020, Sey’s company warned her that her advocacy against school closures could be considered speaking on behalf of the company, “the implication being, there would be reputational harm to the company caused,” she said.

  At the same time, her peers began sending their kids back to private in-person schools, Sey continued.

  “I was so angry that these people would dare to say to me while sending their own kids to in-person school: ‘You can’t advocate for poor children to be in school.’”

  Sey said it was atypical for her peers—and even for employees two or three levels below her in the corporate hierarchy—to send their kids to public school in her city of San Francisco.

  “I thought the lightbulb would go off, and people would see the hypocrisy if I just made it clear in a calm, nice way. But they didn’t, because the hypocrisy, in a sense, is the point.”

  “This pose of wokeness, it’s a cloak they wrap themselves in to signal virtue … to hide greed, corruption, keeping all the good stuff for themselves,” she said.

  “It’s this costume that the left, liberal elite wraps around themselves to say, ‘I care about social justice. I care about all these causes. I am a good person.’ If you threaten to expose that, you need to be banished.”

  Sacrificed Career for Speaking Out

  Around the time of the new year in 2022, Sey was told that there was no longer a place for her at the company.

  “You can’t be the CEO because of the things you’ve been saying and doing. Therefore, you can’t sit in your current chair because that is the role that ultimately becomes the CEO, so you need to leave,” Sey said she was told.

  She was offered a $1 million severance package, which she decided to turn down because it would come with the signing of a nondisclosure agreement.

  “What the nondisclosure agreement would require is that I never speak about the terms of my ousting. I was not OK with that,” she said.

  In February, Sey resigned from her post at Levi Strauss & Co. after almost 23 years with the company.

  The Epoch Times reached out to Levi Strauss & Co. for comment.

  Sey said the illiberalism that has traveled from college campuses into companies and taken hold of corporations across the country is “incredibly dangerous.”

  “If you insist on a culture where free speech is not tolerated, not only is it non-inclusive, which is problematic in and of itself, but I actually think it’s fraught and rife with the potential for corruption and fraud, like we’ve seen with Theranos and FTX and Enron,” she said,

  Theranos, a company that claimed to provide blood testing lab services with a single drop of blood, defrauded its investors in a multimillion-dollar scheme. Its founder, Elizabeth Holmes, was recently sentenced to 11 years in prison.

  FTX, a Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange, recently went bankrupt along with more than 130 affiliate companies due to insufficient liquidity. FTX users are potentially facing $8 billion in cumulative losses, while investors in the company are likely to lose their entire investment as a result of the bankruptcy.

  Enron, a Texas-based energy-trading company, went bankrupt in 2001 due to fraudulent accounting practices and conflicts of interest. Within a year, Enron’s stock price plummeted from about $90 per share to 26 cents per share, which caused billion-dollar losses to investors, thousands of job losses, and the liquidation of more than $2 billion in pension plans.

  “There were people in those companies who knew what was going on, but they didn’t feel they could say anything,” Sey said.

  “If you cannot have a conversation in the company about what is working and what is not working, what is true and what is not, you can’t innovate. You can’t move forward,” she said. “It stands in the way of progress when we can’t have these conversations because we’re all just adhering to propaganda.”

   “It is a violation of the spirit of the First Amendment,” Sey added.

  

  Wokeism Is an Ideology

  Being “woke” during the 1940s through the beginning of the 1960s meant “being awake or alert to the fact that there was racial inequality, and being part of the movement to change that,” Sey said. “It’s admirable, I have no issue with that.”

  However, in the last 10 or 15 years, and especially in the last three to five years, those beliefs have been corrupted and commodified “into an ideology which can never be questioned,” such as gender ideology, race ideology, or body positivity, Sey explained.

  Sey said that she was very supportive of transgender people working in her team. “I would never want a person to be discriminated against for anything, including being unvaccinated.”

  But someone who questions whether an 11-year-old should be on puberty blockers, when there is no research on the mid- to long-term impacts of this therapy, is considered evil and must be banished for violating this ideology, Sey said.

  “[Wokeism] has become religious in nature. Woke capitalism is really just an attempt to profit off of this ideology and the passion behind this ideology amongst primarily Gen Z and millennial consumers,” she said.

  Another example of ideology that cannot be questioned is the idea of “body positivity,” which touts that the size of the body does not affect its health, Sey said.

  “We couldn’t say during COVID that it was dangerous to be overweight. I said it, and that made me a fat-phobe,” she said.

  “We can’t say that, because the mantra is ‘healthy at any size.’ It’s ideological. And you have to be pure in the belief of that ideology, or you are evil and must be shunned.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 20:20

• 'General Public Unaware' Of Push to Normalize Pedophilia In Culture And Academia
  ‘General Public Unaware’ Of Push to Normalize Pedophilia In Culture And Academia

  Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Colorado mom Lydia Lerma feels punched when she hears the trendy new term “minor-attracted person.” Just thinking of the damage a pedophile inflicted upon her son, who was six at the time, causes pain.

  

  Creating a polite-sounding term for someone sexually attracted to children enrages her.

  Any push to normalize pedophilia or designate it as another sexual orientation to be tolerated is “unconscionable,” Lerma told The Epoch Times.

  “That’s a bunch of [expletive]!” she said of academics pushing acceptance of pedophilia.

  “They are going to face the greatest resistance that they have ever seen. Society is not going to let that happen.”

  

  But in academic circles, some have begun to argue that pedophilia should be considered just another sexual orientation, not a mental disorder.

  And a therapist who treats pedophiles told The Epoch Times that he believes pedophilia is on its way to becoming normalized.

  ‘Like Any Other Sexual Orientation’

  In 2018, medical student Mirjam Heine, who said she had a background in psychology, gave a presentation called “Pedophilia is a Natural Sexual Orientation” during a TEDx event at the University of Würtzberg in Germany. A program guide for TEDx said she was mainly guided by the works of Prof. Dr. Klaus Michael Beier, the head of the institute for sexology and sexual medicine at the University Hospital Berlin, and the prevention network “Kein Täter Werden.”

  In her remarks, Heine said pedophilia is an “unchangeable sexual orientation,” just like heterosexuality.

  “No one chooses to be a pedophile; no one can cease being one,” Heine argued during her talk. “The difference between pedophilia and other sexual orientations is that living out this sexual orientation will end in a disaster.”

  Most countries in the world, including the United States, outlaw adults having sexual contact or intercourse with children in most situations.

  The term minor-attracted person grabbed headlines after professor Allyn Walker used it during a discussion on pedophiles in November 2021. Walker, a woman who transitioned to live as a man, was discussing her book: “A Long Dark Shadow: Minor-Attracted People and Their Pursuit of Dignity.

  In the interview with the Prostasia Foundation—a San Francisco organization focused on child sexual abuse—Walker said it’s less stigmatizing to use the term minor-attracted person than pedophile when referring to people “who don’t act on their urges to have sex with children.”

  The interview drew fiery criticism. Within weeks, Walker resigned from her job as an assistant sociology and criminal justice professor at Old Dominion University in Virginia.

  After stepping down, Walker said in a prepared statement that her research was “mischaracterized” by some in the media. Walker blamed the public outcry on intolerance for her transgender identity and said the research aimed to prevent child sexual abuse.

  Later, Johns Hopkins University hired Walker to work at the Moore Center for Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse in Baltimore. She did not immediately respond to an Epoch Times email through the Moore Center requesting comment.

  

  Two former colleagues at Old Dominion defended Walker in the journal of the American Society of Criminology.

  “Our friend and colleague, Dr. Allyn Walker, was the victim of a trolling attack on their research and their person that resulted in the loss of their position at Old Dominion University (ODU),” wrote Ruth Triplett and Mona Danner.

  The attacks, they wrote, were “centering around misinformation and links to Dr. Walker’s identity as non-binary, transgender, and Jewish.”

  Growing Cultural Acceptance

  The fashion house Balenciaga faced backlash recently after running an ad campaign depicting little girls holding a Teddy bear wearing bondage gear. One ad shows pages from a child pornography court ruling. Balenciaga later apologized for the advert.

  A November headline from a Washington Post theater review read: “‘Downstate’ is a play about pedophiles. It’s also brilliant.” The off-Broadway play characterizes pedophiles as complicated and troubled victims of harsh punishment.

  Jon Uhler is a 30-year veteran counselor who has worked with sex offenders in the Pennsylvania and South Carolina prison systems. Throughout his career, he has assessed hundreds of pedophiles.

  Uhler, a member of the Association for Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA), said he’s afraid pedophilia is on the road to normalization.

  Sex offender treatment specialists are now trained to view sex offenders as victims of trauma, he said.

  The idea is that pedophiles are reenacting their trauma by choosing a victim of the age they were when abused, Uhler said. But that’s not accurate, he added.

  Researchers are taking information from interviews with pedophiles and considering it to be true,  instead of realizing they’re dealing with the “world’s greatest deceivers,” Uhler said.

  Even so, Walker’s ideas have permeated sex offender treatment circles, he said. Walker spoke at this year’s ATSA conference.

  Creating a Protected Class

  Normalizing pedophilia ultimately could lead to a major cultural change—elevating pedophilia to a protected class.

  “They are going to push to have it recognized as a sexual orientation, which would grant it civil rights status,” Uhler said.

  If that happens, employers could no longer discriminate against pedophiles in areas such as employment, he said.

  And if teens are given the legal right to decide if they want to have a sex-change operation or take hormones to try to appear as the other sex, that could help make it legal for pedophiles to act on their sexual urges, he predicted.

  If children legally can decide what they can do with their bodies, then pedophiles could argue that they should be able to consent to a sexual relationship, he said.

  “They’re jackals that are feeding off the carcasses of these kids,” he said. “The predator’s interest is ultimately lowering the age of consent.”

  The general public doesn’t understand what is happening, he said. It’s one of the defining issues of our time, he added.

  Scott Clark, a minister who teaches church history and historical theology at Westminster Seminary in California, has called the destigmatization of pedophilia the last stage of the “neo-pagan sexual revolution.”

  Clark hosts the Heidelcast podcast and writes The Heidelblog. Both tackle religious and moral issues facing modern society.

  “There’s a pretty obvious move to normalize pedophilia,” he said. “This invariable comes from adults. It’s not coming from children.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 19:45

• "Even Our Labor-Friendly Party Does Not Have The Stomach For The Resurgence Of Union Power"
  “Even Our Labor-Friendly Party Does Not Have The Stomach For The Resurgence Of Union Power”

  By Eric Peters CIO of One River Asset Management

  “Right now, people’s wages are being eaten up by inflation,” said Jay Powell. “So what you want to do is you want to have inflation stable and then have a very strong labor market where the biggest wage gains are going to the people at the bottom end of the spectrum,” continued the Fed Chairman.

  No doubt that’s right. With the pendulum now retreating from peak inequality, there are two ways to narrow the divide. The fastest, of course, is through making the wealthy poor, or at least less rich in real terms, which started this year in earnest and has a very long way to go. The preferable way is to raise the poor.

  To sustainably lift low earners requires our economy to become more productive, so laborers receive a higher share of the nation’s economic pie. An economy that is deglobalizing will become less productive, at least for some years. So the rebalance must come through a shift in the distribution of America’s economic pie from capital owners to laborers, which lifts inflation, shrinks corporate profit margins, and lowers multiples.

  This week’s intervention by Democrats in Congress to limit our rail worker’s negotiation ability demonstrates that even our labor-friendly party does not have the stomach for the resurgence of union power.

  “And we had that at the end of the very long expansion that ended with the pandemic. That’s not what we have now. Now, for most workers, wages are being eaten up by inflation,” explained Powell, nervous, without the tools to mediate this rising conflict.

  “That’s not true at the bottom end, where wage increases are higher than inflation, a good thing. But if you want to have a sustainable, strong labor market where real wages are going up right across the wage spectrum, especially for people at the lower end, you’ve got to have price stability,” he explained, unsure how to achieve it given the arc of this pendulum. “And until we restore that, we can’t, we can’t get back to that place where we, where we kind of were for the two years before the pandemic hit.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 19:10

• Reversal Of Long-Standing Policy Keeps Key Documents On Hunter Biden’s Business From Congress
  Reversal Of Long-Standing Policy Keeps Key Documents On Hunter Biden’s Business From Congress

  Authored by Mark Tapscott via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Congressional investigators are being denied access to 148 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) filed with the Department of the Treasury by banks concerning financial dealings of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, and brother, Jim, according to incoming House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

  “Most Americans have never heard the term ‘Suspicious Activity Reports.’ These are actual reports that financial institutions file with the Treasury Department when they see suspicious activity,” Jordan told Epoch TV’s Joshua Phillip in an interview for the “Newsmakers” program.

  “Typically, it’s money laundering type of activity, so most Americans don’t get these. Or if they do, there is a good reason for it. But there are 150 of them on Hunter Biden and Jim Biden, the President’s brother, and that to me is a big concern,” Jordan said.

  

  Only two of the 150 have been made public and the Biden administration through the Department of the Treasury is refusing to make the other 148 SARs available to congressional investigators, Jordan explained.

  “It used to be before the Biden administration, if the committee wanted to see that information, whether it was Democrats on the committee or Republicans on the committee, they could have access to it … until the Biden administration,” Jordan told Phillip.

  “So the Biden administration hasn’t complied with any of the correspondence, any of the letters and requests that came from [incoming House Committee on Oversight and Reform Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.)]. They have changed the policy on SARs for the ability of committees to review that information,” Jordan continued.

  “So we’ll see if we get access. Maybe we’re going to have to go to the banks to get that information, and not through the Treasury Department,” he said.

  A Treasury Department spokesman did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for an explanation of the Biden administration’s 2021 decision to end a long-standing process whereby SARs and other reports provided under the Bank Secrecy Act whenever requested by a congressional committee with appropriate jurisdiction.

  Following the administration’s decision, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) introduced, and the House subsequently approved, H.R. 7734, the “Timely Delivery of Bank Secrecy Act Reports Act.”  The Waters bill was approved by the House July 26, 2022, on a 349-to-70 vote, with majorities of both parties supporting the measure.

  The Waters measure would require the Treasury Department to provide copies of SARs to requesting congressional officials within 30 days and requires financial institutions to turn over requested copies upon receipt of a congressional subpoena.

  The Waters bill was introduced in the Senate and referred to the Senate Banking Committee, chaired by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), but no action has been taken on the bill since being referred to the Ohio Democrat’s panel.

  Biden administration officials have offered several cumbersome alternative processes that would only allow congressional aides to go to reading rooms at the Treasury Department to view SARs, but they would not be allowed to make copies of the documents.

  The bill report on the Waters measure explained why House officials rejected the Biden administration’s suggested alternatives.

  “Unfortunately, Treasury and [Financial Crimes Enforcement Network] FinCEN have recently severely restricted congressional access to Suspicious Activity Reports by requiring congressional staff to review all material in a reading room at Treasury, prohibiting the copying of materials for purposes of highlighting, ongoing reference, or margin notation, and restricting information collection to note taking.

  “As an alternative, Treasury and FinCEN have offered to bring the material to the requesting committee and then take the material back to Treasury when the review is completed.

  “The restrictions that they have imposed upon congressional access to SARs and related materials are unworkable given the complexity and amount of information contained in such materials, and severely impairs Congress’ responsibility to carry on its oversight work in a timely and effective fashion.”

  Despite the overwhelming House vote for the Waters measure that would have effectively restored congressional access on a par with what it was prior to President Joe Biden taking office, the Treasury Department continues to withhold access to SARs, except as decided on a case-by-case basis.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 18:35

• Rate Hikes: The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Declines
  Rate Hikes: The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Declines

  Stagflationary crisis events are relatively rare in modern history, and the average mainstream economist will have very little input to give on why they happen and how they can be solved.  Their knowledge is limited on the issue and their experience is non-existent.  

  It has been argued by alternative analysts for several years now that the majority of banking executives, investors and economists entering the field in the past decade have never worked within a financial environment without direct monetary intervention by central banks.  They can’t even comprehend a world where the Federal Reserve does not artificially support equities, bonds and other elements of the system.  They have no concept of consequences.

  This dynamic is finally being acknowledged by those in the mainstream. Alison Harding-Jones, vice chair of corporate and investment and head of M&A in EMEA at Citigroup, recently noted that the majority of junior bankers had never worked in an investment world without the existence of cheap money. These people are about to experience a rude awakening beyond anything they can imagine.   

  It was the long term existence of central bank support that conditioned many economists into assuming the easy money party would never end.  The Fed will step in, they say, because the Fed has always stepped in and nothing will ever change.  But things always change, and the notion that the Fed cares about the longevity of the markets is naive.  The past year alone has debunked that little theory, with rates continuing to climb.

  

  A cycle of cope has formed with a predictable set of reactions – The Fed suggests hikes will continue, the mainstream freaks out.  The Fed then suggests that “one day” the hikes might stop, maybe sooner maybe later.  The mainstream rejoices and interprets the comments to mean that the Fed is about to pivot, markets rocket higher.  Then, the Fed does not pivot, and they freak out again.

  No one is asking the question that really matters here:  Why is it so important what the Fed says about rate hikes?  Why is the entire system dependent on their whims?  This is not how it should be.  

  The US economy is addicted to cheap money like that money is heroin, and many elements of the system just can’t let it go.  People thought that the central bankers, our resident drug dealers, would never stop providing the fix.  They thought that there was incentive for the Fed to continue dealing that delicious fiat.  But the easy money drug has diminishing returns and the addict is acclimated.  The negative health effects are starting to set in, the addict is beginning to die, and the dealer wants to distance himself from the corpse.

  Stagflation has arrived and now there is no reason for the central bank to continue providing easy money because there is nothing to be gained.  

  The circumstances surrounding stagflation are chaotic.  Certain sectors of the economy will go into steep decline while others will appear to remain resilient.  For example, US jobs numbers came in far hotter than expected this month (some might suggest a little too hot for reality), inspiring the Biden White House to claim a victory in the midst of fiscal defeat.  At the same time, the US is facing an unprecedented manufacturing slowdown, a housing market sales implosion, a GDP sinking back into contraction, a rising poverty rate, an explosion in homelessness, etc. 

  It might be confusing – Why is there better than expected employment numbers and in some cases retail numbers while there is also a major contraction across the board in multiple other areas of the economy?  That’s what happens when a central bank pumps over $8 trillion into the veins of the system in only two years, on top of tens of trillions of dollars over the past decade.  That money is circulating rapidly and wearing down the gears of the machine, some parts break while others still function.  

  These are the effects of stagflation, as well as the effects of a central bank which is now abandoning the inflation game and actively seeking to create a deflationary event.  Without the endless trillions in free money which kept the system on life support since 2008/2009, they will get what they want eventually, but it will take time.  

  Meaning, the Fed is going to continue with rate hikes well into next year until there is a hard landing; there will be no “soft landing” and Jerome Powell knows this.  He openly warned about it back in the October Fed meeting of 2012, stating that the economy would not know how to function without stimulus measures because those measures had been active for so long.  That was 10 years ago; imagine how bad things are today.

  Powell is all too aware of the effects of rate hikes into economic weakness and stagflationary crisis.  He knows what is about to happen, and Joe Biden’s economic advisers likely know as well.  

  In the meantime, an important issue that the Fed and many mainstream economists don’t want to discuss is that prices continue to remain painful on most necessities no matter how high interest rates go.  Rent is high, food is high, energy prices fell due to Biden’s market manipulation but are still high, home prices are high, vehicle prices are high, everything is incessantly expensive for the average consumer.  This is not going to stop anytime soon.  

  Once stagflation takes hold it hangs on like a bad rash.  When jobs numbers finally hit a wall (and they will, probably by the second quarter of next year), costs will still be suffocating the public’s savings.  If the goal is truly an engineered deflation event that reduces money velocity and drags down prices, we have to ask ourselves how long will that take to accomplish?  Two years?  Five years?  How high will rates have to go?  Maybe only 5%, maybe 10%, maybe more.  How much damage will be done to the middle class and the poor as this process unfolds?  

  The Fed does not care.  Those hoping for an immediate pivot should understand that the rate hike beatings will continue until morale declines.  The quantitative tightening will stop when the contraction has fully pummeled the jobs market and the populace in general.  

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 18:00

• UC San Diego Students Say Strike Disrupting Classes, Exams
  UC San Diego Students Say Strike Disrupting Classes, Exams

  Authored by Micaela Rocaforte via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  As finals week commences, students at the University of California–San Diego say they are feeling the impact of the largest academic worker strike in U.S. history, now in its third week.

  

  After months of negotiating pay raises, 48,000 researchers and student employees across all 10 University of California (UC) campuses launched a strike Nov. 14, demanding pay raises due to cost-of-living increases.

  This has left some classes without instructors and professors without teaching assistants to grade assignments ahead of end-of-semester exams.

  

  Tarah Lachmandas, a third-year communications major at UC–San Diego, said that while faculty in her department supports the strike, they have adapted final exams to accommodate the absence of teaching assistants.

  “Our assignments were not graded. They were just marked complete or incomplete,” Lachmandas told the Epoch Times. “And in another class, the professor removed essay questions from the final exam, so it’s just going to be all multiple choice.”

  Tristan Fhaardo, a second-year chemical engineering major, said the structure of his classes were upset by the strike.

  “Attendance in a lot of my lectures has gone down, since teaching assistants were the ones to [take] attendance,” Fhaardo said. “Assignments have been more lenient because [there’s no one to] grade them, and classes have felt a lot more jumbled and disorganized since the strike started.”

  However, for Desi—a graduate student and neuroscience researcher on strike, who declined to provide his last name—that’s the goal.

  “The whole point of the strike is to cause disruption,” Desi told The Epoch Times. “It takes a collective action to create change. … We’re not doing this because we don’t want to work … We’re doing this because we deserve to be able to pay our bills and rent.”

  

  Other graduate students disagreed with the United Auto Workers’—the union representing the strikers—methods of negotiating higher wages.

  Philip Zhu, a chemistry graduate student and teaching assistant who did not strike, told The Epoch Times he thought students still deserved to get the education they paid tuition for.

  “Although the strike is intended to pressure the university, students are the direct victims,” Zhu said. “I believe if the bargaining team cares … there will be better strategies that don’t place all the power in ‘doing damage’ to force the other party to do what they demand.”

  UC officials struck a tentative deal with postdoctoral scholars and academic researchers Nov. 29—though they say they will not return to work until the demands of the graduate students are met.

  However, the union’s demands for graduate and student workers could prove to be a bit more complicated.

  UC Provost Michael Brown said Nov. 14 that two of the group’s demands—tying compensation to housing costs and waiving nonresident tuition for out-of-state and international students—could cost the UC system up to several hundred million dollars per year and be unfair to resident students, since nonresident students would be given a larger compensation package for the same workload.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 17:25

• Bipartisan Group Of US Senators Warns CCP Over Quelling Of Protests
  Bipartisan Group Of US Senators Warns CCP Over Quelling Of Protests

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

  As protests continue to rage throughout China over the regime’s harsh COVID-19 policies, and the police respond with notable force, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators has sent a sharply worded letter to Beijing’s ambassador to Washington, Qin Gang, warning of “grave consequences for the U.S.-China relationship” if the communist regime carries out a crackdown reminiscent of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989.

  

  One of the lead signers, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), said in a statement accompanying the letter’s publication on Dec. 1 that the world’s response to Beijing’s efforts to quell the protests has been “tepid at best.” Hence Sullivan and the other signers saw a need to speak out and warn Beijing about what would happen if it failed to respect the right of citizens to signal their opposition to the severe COVID policies that have deprived millions of Chinese of freedom of movement.

  The letter emphasizes the nonviolent character of the protests going on in China, implying that any abusive and violent conduct on the part of the regime’s forces will be illegal and unethical.

  “We are following the current peaceful protests in China over your government’s policies very carefully. We are also closely watching the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) reaction to them,” the letter states.

  The letter goes on to remind Ambassador Gang about the notorious events of June 1989, which drew worldwide condemnation and became a synonym for excessive force on the part of an authoritarian regime.

  “In 1989, the Chinese Communist Party and People’s Liberation Army undertook a violent crackdown on peacefully protesting Chinese students, killing hundreds, if not thousands,” the letter states, before issuing a stark warning.

  “We caution the CCP in the strongest possible terms not to once again undertake a violent crackdown on peaceful Chinese protestors who simply want more freedom. If that happens, we believe there will be grave consequences for the U.S.-China relationship, causing extraordinary damage to it,” the letter concludes.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 16:50

• Antifa Aims To Disrupt Florida Rally Opposing The Sexualization Of Children
  Antifa Aims To Disrupt Florida Rally Opposing The Sexualization Of Children

  Authored by Jannis Falenstern via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  A rally organized to out activism that encourages children to question their gender identity and sexual orientation has inspired fury.

  

  Now, threats of a rage-filled counter-protest have rally organizers requesting law enforcement officers to attend their planned gathering on Dec. 3 at a beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

  Conflict bubbled up after three very different groups organized the Protect the Children rally to display solidarity against policies aimed at sexualizing children, alienating them from their parents, and helping them pursue gender-transition treatment. They plan to gather at Fort Lauderdale Beach on the corner of Las Olas Boulevard at 11 a.m.

  Local chapters of Moms for Liberty, Fathers for Freedom, and Gays Against Groomers wanted to come together to peacefully speak against “radicalized sexual curriculum, gender ideology, child grooming, parental alienation, and ‘gender-affirming care,’” said Eulalia Jimenez, president of the Moms for Liberty Miami chapter.

  But when Antifa members heard of the gathering, they urged their peers in Twitter posts to “confront this hatred” and “protest against hate.” They referred to Protect the Children rally organizers as “fascists” proliferating “stochastic terrorism,” and spread fliers that read, “We can’t allow this kind of bigotry to go unchecked.”

  The term “stochastic terrorism” refers to public demonization through so-called “hate speech,” which some say can be used to incite violence against a person or group.

  

  A flier for the Antifa response urges, “Assert your right to exist! Counter protest against far-right bigotry and stand with the LGBTQ+ community. Bring masks, signs, and rage. Stand against those who aim to erase your existence.”

  Jimenez isn’t surprised. Antifa members often disrupt Moms for Liberty gatherings and shout down parents speaking at local school board meetings, she said.

  The Protect the Children rally was planned at the beach because it’s a place where people congregate, a “good spot to spread awareness, empower others, and create unity,” Jimenez said.

  She hopes the event will be about peace, unity, “empowering others and informing parents and citizens,” she said. “We feel children should have the right to be children.”

  The rally isn’t meant to be against other groups.

  “It’s not about ugliness and nastiness,” Jimenez said. “And unfortunately, the other side, that’s the way they roll.”

  Hijacking LGBT

  Antifa’s rhetoric harms the gay community, said Anthony Raimondi, a board member of Gays Against Groomers (GAG).

  “As an organization, we want to protect the LGBT community in the sense that the community has been hijacked,” Raimondi told The Epoch Times.

  Years ago, gay people erroneously were assumed to be pedophiles, he said.

  “We have come so far” in dispelling that assumption, he said. But in the current culture, as many gay people and others oppose efforts to block the sexualization of children, “it’s almost like we’ve been set back,” Raimondi said.

  On social media, GAG founder Jaimee Michell has described her group as “a coalition of gays against the sexualization, indoctrination, and medicalization of children.”

  Gays Against Groomers posted on its Twitter feed that the gay community has “fought for decades to dismantle binary gender stereotypes, just for radicals to build them up again, and butcher and sterilize children who don’t abide by them.”

  Michell also has posted on Twitter, “There is no such thing as a trans kid.”

  

  Jimenez understands the frustration. She’s not just the local leader of the conservative group Moms for Liberty. She’s also the mother of a gay daughter. So she values groups like Gays Against Groomers, she says, because they’ve “stood up and said, ‘No! You’re not going to use us.’”

  Jimenez respects that they assert, “We choose [whom] to love, but we don’t push anything on the kids.”

  She also has compassion for those participating in Antifa activities. Many, she said, are kids who are just being used.

  “Many of them don’t even understand what is really going on,” Jimenez said. “They’re just so desperate for love and attention, and they’re going about it the wrong way.

  “Others,” she continued, “are just plain—in my opinion—evil and they do not care who they hurt and what they have to do to get what they want.”

  Antifa has the right to assemble, says Florida Fathers for Freedom organizer Elon Gerberg. He’s not worried about the group’s so-called “counter-protest,” calling it nothing more than a “distraction.”

  The Protect the Children rally is “about coming together to bring attention to this attack on our children,” Gerberg told The Epoch Times. “In my opinion, they are our most precious commodities and our future leaders. If we can’t stand up for them, who can you stand up for?”

  In signing the Parental Rights in Education bill in March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, “put his head on the chopping block for parents and the children of the state,” Gerberg said.

  Before it was signed into law, the five-page legislation was debated around the country and was reviled by its opponents, who misleadingly referred to the measure as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill.”

  Despite what opponents said, the bill doesn’t prohibit teachers or students from discussing a child’s questions about sexual orientation or gender identity, and it doesn’t keep them from talking about LGBT loved ones in class.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 16:15

• Stocks Have "Considerably More Downside" & Commodities Have A "Brand New Tailwind" In 2023
  Stocks Have “Considerably More Downside” & Commodities Have A “Brand New Tailwind” In 2023

  Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

  Friend of Fringe Finance Mark B. Spiegel of Stanphyl Capital released his most recent investor letter last week, with his updated take on the market’s valuation and Tesla.

  Mark is a recurring guest on my podcast (and will be coming back on again soon hopefully) and definitely one of Wall Street’s iconoclasts. I read every letter he publishes and only recently thought it would be a great idea to share them with my readers.

  Like many of my friends/guests, he’s the type of voice that gets little coverage in the mainstream media, which, in my opinion, makes him someone worth listening to twice as closely.

  

  Photo: Real Vision

  Mark was kind enough to allow me to share his thoughts from his November 2022 investor letter.

  Mark’s Thoughts On Macro

  Despite the stock market’s recent rally (we were up a hell of a lot more this month before today!) we  continue to carry a large SPY short position, as I believe the major indexes—although not all individual  stocks—have considerably more downside to go, the inevitable hangover from the biggest asset bubble in U.S. history.

  For far too long, the Fed printed $120 billion a month and held short-term rates at zero while the government concurrently ran a record fiscal deficit. Now, thanks to the massive inflationary  hangover from those idiotic policies (November’s “not as bad as feared” data not withstanding), the Fed is reducing its balance sheet and raising interest rates, and although the current rate of high-7% year over-year inflation is unsustainable, the eventual end of China’s “zero-Covid policy” and its November reversal on bailing out its real estate industry combined with the end of Biden’s SPR drawdowns will give commodity prices a brand new tailwind in 2023.

  Longer term, the war on fossil fuel, expensive “onshoring,” fewer available workers and perpetual government budget deficits make a new baseline of  around 4% inflation (double the Fed’s 2% target) likely. 

  Even a 2023 Fed interest rate “pause” at 4.75% (and remember, a “pause” is not a “pivot”!) would,  combined with $90 billion a month in ongoing QT, make current stock market valuations unsustainable,  as stocks are still expensive.

  [QTR’s note: This echos Kenny Polcari’s sentiments & my sentiments of recent.]

  According to Standard & Poor’s, with 97% of companies having reported, Q3 S&P 500 GAAP earnings came in at around $44.79, which annualizes to $179.16. (And these were the sixth  highest quarterly earnings in history; i.e., they were not “trough.”)

  A 16x multiple on that—generous for  a rising rate, recessionary (or even just slow-growth) environment—would bring the S&P 500 down to 2867 vs. November’s close of 4080.11. And remember, just as in bull markets, PE multiples usually overshoot to the upside, in bear markets they often overshoot to the downside. A bottom formed at a  considerably lower multiple is not unfathomable. 

  Additionally, we can see from CurrentMarketValuation.com that the U.S. stock market’s valuation as a  percentage of GDP (the so-called “Buffett Indicator”) is still very high, and thus valuations have a long way  to go before reaching “normalcy”:

  

  Regarding sentiment, we can see from Ed Yardeni that in the Investors Intelligence poll the highest the “bear percentage” got so far in the current market was only around 45% (in the most recent poll it was just 31.5%), yet there were multiple times during the 1980s, 1990s and 2008 that it climbed much higher: 

  

  Also, we can see from this old academic paper that during the grinding bear market of 1973 to 1975, when  the S&P 500’s GAAP PE multiple dropped from 18x to 8x, the bears in the Investors Intelligence poll climbed to around 75% and went over 80% during the bear markets of the 1960s.

  So if you think that based on this bear market’s sentiment we’ve “seen the bottom,” I wish you luck!

  Meanwhile, interest costs on the Federal debt are already set to grow massively. Does anyone seriously think this Fed has the stomach to face the political firestorm of Congress having to slash Medicare, the  defense budget, etc. in order to pay the even higher interest cost that would be created by upping those rates to a level commensurate with crushing even just 4% inflation?

  Powell doesn’t have the guts for that, nor does anyone else in Washington; thus, this Fed will likely be behind the inflation curve for at least a  decade. And that’s why we remain long gold (via the GLD ETF). 

  Mark On His Fund’s Positions (Positions May Change At Any Time)

  We continue to own automaker Stellantis (STLA), which has a great balance sheet with plenty of net cash (and a 7% dividend yield!) and which—at a current price of $15.62/share—sells for only around 3x 2022 earnings estimates of $5.26/share.

  I believe Jeep alone (which in September announced a full  electrification strategy) could be worth more than what we paid for the entire company, which also  includes Dodge, Chrysler, Ram, Fiat, Citroen, Peugeot, Opel, Alfa Romeo, Vauxhall, Lancia and Maserati. And if current EV sales are your interest, Stellantis already has Europe’s best-selling mass-market model. 

  We continue to own Volkswagen AG (via its VWAPY ADR, which represent “preference shares” that are  identical to “ordinary” shares except they lack voting rights and thus sell at a discount). VW currently sells  for around 4.2x estimated 2022 earnings due to a combination of “recession fears” and short-term issues obtaining energy (until either the Ukraine war is over or alternative supplies are in place), but it controls a massive number of terrific brands including Porsche, of which it recently IPO’d a small percentage at  a $73 billion valuation, thus valuing the rest of the company at only around $10 billion; I believe Audi  alone is worth 4x that! And a Lamborghini IPO may be next. Additionally, VW will pay a January special  dividend of around $1.90 per VWAPY share in proceeds from Porsche’s IPO, and the regular yield is  currently over 5%!

  Meanwhile VW Group’s EVs (several of which are more technologically advanced than  any Tesla) combine to heavily outsell Tesla in Europe and by 2025 may outsell Tesla worldwide.

  We continue to own General Motors (GM), which currently sells for only around 6.5x the $6.26/share  midpoint of its 2022 GAAP EPS guidance (which was reiterated in November). GM is doing all the right  things in electric cars, autonomous driving (via its Cruise ownership) and software, yet it’s cheap because,  as with other established automakers, many investors have (for now) forsaken it in favor of “electric car  pure-plays,” a sector which has thus become the largest valuation bubble in history.

  ---

  Get 50% off: If you enjoy this article, would like to support my work, I would love to have you as a subscriber and can offer you 50% off for life: Get 50% off forever

  ---

  And regarding  “autonomy,” keep in mind that unlike Tesla, which sells a LiDAR-less fraud to rubes, Cruise is already  running a fleet of fully autonomous cars in San Francisco (and soon Phoenix and Austin); you can see many  videos of this on its YouTube channel. GM will also benefit more than any other manufacturer from the  proposed new EV tax credit, as it will soon have the largest variety of North American-made (a requirement of the credit) EV models fitting within the new price restrictions. Additionally, in August the  company reinstituted a modest dividend.

  I thus consider these positions (Stellantis, GM and VW) to be both “freestanding value stock buys” and “relative-value paired trades” against our Tesla short.One oft heard knock against “the autos” is a belief  that their recent earnings have been “peak,” but keep in mind that due to supply chain issues they all  sold around 20% fewer cars than they otherwise could have. Thus, I believe those recent earnings are more like “strong midcycle” and should likely have around a 10x run-rate PE, not the current 3x to 6x. Also, thanks to those same supply chain issues they’re much lighter on inventory than they’d normally  be heading into a recession. Therefore, I believe these stocks have considerable upside from here. 

  We continue to own Fuel Tech Inc. (FTEK), a seller of air and water pollution control technologies, which in November reported a solid Q2, with revenue up 6.1% year-over-year (although at a lower gross margin),  .01/share in GAAP earnings and around $600,000 in free cash flow. At a current price of $1.24/share with  30.3 million shares outstanding and $33.9 million in cash and Treasuries (and no debt), this is a 43% gross  margin business selling for an enterprise value of only around 0.14x 26.4 million in TTM revenue. This is  the kind of company that will either ignite growth and its stock will take off (its new “Dissolved Gas  Infusion” water treatment technology is a potential medium-term catalyst for that), or it’s so cheap that  it will make for a good strategic acquisition target, as removing the costs of being an independent public  company could make it instantly earnings-accretive while allowing the buyer to acquire a nice chunk of  revenue very cheaply. In short, I think it’s a good “value stock” in which to park some money and see what  happens. 

  And now, Tesla… 

  Despite big, margin-slashing price cuts in both China and Europe, Tesla delivery wait times worldwide  have declined substantially, down to just one week in China while in the U.S. (where Musk’s Twitter boondoggle is rapidly destroying the brand) Tesla is choking on Model 3 inventory and offers December Model Y delivery, while Europe’s backlog is expected to be completely gone by year-end. This means Tesla’s production capacity now outstrips its rate of incoming orders despite the new German and Texas  factories producing at only around 10% of capacity! 

  Meanwhile, combined deliveries for the last two quarters (Q2 & Q3 2022) were lower than those for  the previous two quarters (Q4 2021 & Q1 2022). As Tesla slashes prices it will undoubtedly sell more  cars (I expect Q4 deliveries to be in the range of around 400,000 vs. previous quarters in the 300,000s,  thanks to the cuts plus a rush to beat year-end expiring EV incentives in China, Germany and France), but any other car company can slash prices and do the same thing. (Welcome to the auto business,  which currently sells for around 5x earnings!) Tesla’s apparent market saturation rate of around 1.6 million cars/year worldwide (at least until it slashes prices yet again!) is massively below its current factories’ production capacity, much less the bulls’ absurd expectations of adding a new factory every six months for the next ten years!

  For some valuation perspective, BMW sells around 2 million cars a year with very high margins  (including the best electric SUV now on the market (the new iX), the best luxury EV( the new i7), and  among the best small luxury EVs (the new i4), and has a market cap of around $59 billion. If Tesla grew annual deliveries to the size of BMW’s and had BMW-level margins, at BMW’s current market cap it  would sell for less than $19/share vs. this month’s closing price in the $194s! (Remember: Tesla now  has 3.16 billion shares outstanding!) 

  Meanwhile, Elon Musk remains the most vile person ever to head a large-cap U.S. public company, and  we remain short Tesla, the biggest bubble-stock in modern market history, because: 

  1) It has a sliding share of the world’s EV market and a share of the overall auto market that’s less than 2%, yet a market cap almost as big the next 6 largest automakers (by market cap) combined. 

  2) It has no “moat” of any kind; i.e., nothing meaningfully proprietary in terms of its electric  car technology (which has now been equaled or surpassed by numerous competitors) and its previously proprietary Superchargers are being opened to everyone), while existing  automakers—unlike Tesla—have a decades-long “experience moat” of knowing how to  mass-produce, distribute and service high-quality cars consistently and profitably. 

  3) Excluding working capital benefits and sunsetting emission credit sales Tesla generates only  minimal free cash flow. 

  4) Growth in sequential demand for Tesla’s cars is at a crawl relative to expectations.

  5) Elon Musk is a pathological liar. 

  In October Tesla claimed that it had Q3 GAAP earnings of around .87/share excluding sunsetting emission  credit sales. If you believe that after viewing this chart (courtesy of Twitter user @Keubiko), I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn:

  

  Orange is revenue, green is operating expenses

  Furthermore, Tesla’s minimal depreciation of its new factories appears fraudulently low, as does its  warranty reserve. 

  Even if you believe Tesla’s clearly nonsensical earnings number, it annualizes to only $3.48/share, which  based on November’s closing price of $194.70 = a run-rate PE ratio of around 56 for a now slow-growing (or growing-but-margin-slashing) car company in an industry with a current average PE of around 5. 

  Meanwhile, Tesla has objectively lost its “product edge,” with many competing cars now offering comparable or better real-world range, better interiors, similar or faster charging speeds and much better quality. (Tesla ranks near the bottom of Consumer Reports’ reliability survey while British consumer  organization Which? found it to be one of the least reliable cars in existence.) Thus, due to competitors’ temporary production constraints, waiting times are now longer for many of Tesla’s direct EV competitors than they are for a Tesla.  

  In fact, Tesla is likely now the second, third or fourth choice for many EV buyers, and only maintains its  volume lead though a short-lived edge in production capacity that will disappear over the next 12 to 36 months as competitors rapidly increase the ability to produce their superior EVs. Tesla’s poorly-built  Model Y faces current (or imminent) competition from the much better made (and often just better) 

  electric Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, Ford Mustang Mach E, Cadillac Lyriq, Nissan Ariya, Audi Q4 e-tron, BMW  iX3, Mercedes EQB, Volvo XC40 Recharge, Chevrolet Blazer EV & $30,000 Equinox EV and Polestar 3. And  Tesla’s Model 3 now has terrific direct “sedan competition” from Volvo’s beautiful Polestar 2, the great  new BMW i4, the upcoming Hyundai Ioniq 6 and Volkswagen Aero, and multiple local competitors in  China. 

  And in the high-end electric car segment worldwide the Porsche Taycan (the base model of which is now  considerably less expensive than Tesla’s Model S) outsells the Model S, while the spectacular new BMW  i7, Mercedes EQS, Audi e-Tron GT and Lucid Air make it look like a fast Yugo, and the extremely well  reviewed new BMW iX, Mercedes EQS SUV and Audi Q8 eTron (as well as multiple new Chinese models)  do the same to the Model X. 

  Indeed, for years I’ve said “Tesla is Blackberry”—the maker of a first-generation version of a product  that—once the market was proven—would be supplanted into niche obscurity by newer, better versions;  now I can provide a much more recent analogy: Tesla is Netflix.

  For years Netflix had an absurd valuation  based on its pioneering position in streaming media, but once it proved that such a market existed myriad  competitors swarmed all over it, and this year the stock collapsed when we learned that not only is Netflix  no longer in “hypergrowth” mode but for the first time since 2011 (when it transitioned from physical  DVDs) it actually lost subscribers. I believe Musk knows that Tesla is “the next Netflix” (hence his recent  “Twitter buying distraction”), with VW, Hyundai/Kia, Ford, GM, Stellantis, BMW, Mercedes, BYD & other  Chinese competitors and, in a few years, Toyota & Honda, being the Disney, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, Peacock, Hulu, Paramount +, etc., of the electric car market, stealing Tesla’s share and eventually  pounding its stock price down 90% or so from today’s, into the valuation of “just another car company.”

  Despite this obvious “writing on the wall,” many Tesla bulls sincerely believe that ten years from now the  company will be twice the size of Volkswagen or Toyota, thereby selling around 20 million cars a year (up  from the anticipated Q4 annualized run-rate of around 1.6 million); in fact in May Musk himself even  raised this as a possibility. Setting aside the absurdity of selling that many cars into the limited market of Tesla’s high price points, the “logistical absurdity” of selling 20 million cars/year in ten years means that 

  in addition to 2.4 million cars a year of sold-out existing claimed production capacity (once the German  and Texas factories are fully operational), Tesla would have to add 35 more brand new 500,000 car/year  factories with sold out production; i.e., a new factory approximately every single quarter for the next ten years! Only a Teslemming could be dumb enough to believe this! 

  Meanwhile, in June the NHTSA announced that its investigation of Tesla’s deadly Autopilot has  expanded into “an engineering analysis,” the last required step before (finally!) demanding a full recall,  and in October it was reported that this deadly scam is being investigated by both the SEC and the DOJ.  The refund liability potential for Tesla for this is in the billions of dollars, and possibly even the tens of  billions if a class action lawsuit proves that the cars involved were purchased solely due to the  (fallacious) promise of “full self-driving.”

  And, of course, there will be a massive “valuation reappraisal”  for Tesla’s stock as the world wakes up to the fact that Tesla’s so-called “autonomy technology” is deadly, trailing-edge garbage. In fact, the NHTSA has reported a slew of Autopilot-related deaths just  since last year. For all Tesla deaths cited in the media—which is likely only a small fraction of those that  have occurred—see TeslaDeaths.com. And Tesla has sold this trashy software for over six years now: 

  

  …and still promotes it on its website via a completely fraudulent video!

  Another favorite Tesla hype story has been built around so-called “proprietary battery technology.” In fact  though, Tesla has nothing proprietary there—it doesn’t make them, it buys them from Panasonic, CATL and LG, and it’s the biggest liar in the industry regarding the real-world range of its cars. And if new-format 4680 cells enter the market some time in 2024 (as is now expected), even if Tesla makes some of its own,  other manufacturers will gladly sell them to anyone, and BMW has already announced it will buy them  from CATL and EVE. 

  And oh, the joke of a “pickup truck” Tesla previewed in 2019 (and still hasn’t shown in production-ready  form) won’t be much of “growth engine” either, as by the time it’s in mass-production in 2024 it will enter  a dogfight of a market; in fact, Ford’s terrific 2022 all-electric F-150 Lightning now has over 200,000 retail  reservations (plus many more fleet reservations), GM has introduced its fantastic 2023 electric Silverado which already has nearly 200,000 reservations, Rivian’s pick-up has gotten excellent early reviews, and  Ram will also be out with a great truck in 2024.

  About Mark Spiegel

  Mark manages Stanphyl Capital, established in 2011, a deep-value equity & macro long-short investing fund based in New York City. Mark can be reached at mark@stanphylcap.com or at @StanphylCap on Twitter.

  Disclaimer: This letter was not reproduced in full. I may own Tesla call and put options and may be long/short TSLA and or any names mentioned. You should assume I have positions in any names I publish about. I have no position in Mark’s funds. Mark is a subscriber to Fringe Finance via a comped subscription I gave him and has been on my podcast. The excerpts from Mark’s letter, above, shall not be construed as an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to sell, any securities or services. Any such offering may only be made at the time a qualified investor receives formal materials describing an offering plus related subscription documentation. There is no guarantee the Fund’s investment strategy will be successful. Investing involves risk, and an investment in the Fund could lose money.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 15:40

• "He Turned His Back": Rail Workers Fume After Biden Forces Unions To Accept Deal
  “He Turned His Back”: Rail Workers Fume After Biden Forces Unions To Accept Deal

  Rail works are furious after President Joe Biden on Friday signed bipartisan legislation into law to avert an industry strike that could have had grave economic fallout.

  

  One rail worker, Justiun Schaaf, told AP that he had to choose between getting dental work or attending his son’s 7th birthday party.

  “Ultimately I decided to take the day off for my kid’s birthday party,” he said, adding “Then when I am finally able to get into the dentist four, five, six months later, the tooth is too bad to repair at that point, so I have to get the tooth pulled out”

  According to Schaff, if he had the option of taking a sick day, he “would have never been in that situation.”

  In comments after he signed the legislation, Biden acknowledged that more work needs to be done, Fox News reports.

  “Look, I know this bill doesn’t have paid sick leave, that these rail workers and, frankly, every worker in America deserves. But that fight isn’t over,” he said.

  Roadway mechanic Reece Murtagh was more direct, telling CNN Friday that unionized workers’ collective bargaining rights have been “trampled on.”

  “Their voice has not been heard, they voted against the contract,” Murtagh said. “We have a pro-labor president who loves to, you know, pat himself on the back for that, and when the going got tough, he turned his back on the people he’s supposed to be looking out for.” -Fox news

  The deal struck by Congress, which is now law, would raise workers’ pay by 24% over five-years, between 2020 and 2024, which includes an immediate payout on average of $11,000 each once ratified. It was approved by eight of the 12 transportation unions involved in the negotiations – with the four dissenting unions arguing that it was unfair because it included insufficient paid-sick leave, of which they wanted seven. Congress nixed that demand from the bill despite efforts by mostly progressive lawmakers to amend the legislation.

  

  “What was negotiated was so much better than anything they ever had,” Biden said during a news briefing alongside French President Emmanuel Macron.

  The rail unions said they weren’t able to get more concessions out of the railroads because the big companies knew Congress would intervene and railroads refused to add paid sick days to the deal because they didn’t want to pay much more than a special board of arbitrators appointed by Biden recommended this summer. 

  In addition, the railroads said that unions have agreed over the years to forego paid sick leave in favor of higher wages and strong short-term disability benefits. -Fox News

  “ou hear when you hire out on the railroad you’re going to miss some things. But you’re not supposed to miss everything,” said retired engineer Jeff Kurtz, an active participant in the Railroad Workers United Coalition. “You shouldn’t miss your kids growing up. You shouldn’t miss the seminal moments in your family’s life.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 15:05

• Twitter Staff To Be Grilled Before Congress For Censoring Hunter Biden Laptop Story: Rep. Comer
  Twitter Staff To Be Grilled Before Congress For Censoring Hunter Biden Laptop Story: Rep. Comer

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

  The top Republican on the House Oversight Committee said that Twitter staff involved in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 presidential elections will face Congress and testify about their actions.

  

  Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the GOP ranking member on the Committee, made the remarks in a Friday appearance on Fox News after Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk dropped part one of the so-called “Twitter Files,” an expose of the inner workings of Twitter’s censorship machine.

  “Every employee at Twitter who was involved in suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story will have an opportunity to come before Congress and explain their actions to the American people,” Comer told program host Sean Hannity.

  Musk and independent journalist Matt Taibbi on Friday unveiled a series of internal Twitter communications that give insight into steps taken by staff at the social media platform around suppressing the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story.

  Republicans have long accused Twitter—and some media outlets—of suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story, which included reporting that bolstered claims that the president lied when he said he had no involvement in his son’s overseas business dealings.

  

  ‘Marking This as Unsafe’

  In order to suppress the Hunter Biden report, Twitter executives marked it as “unsafe,” limiting its spread and even blocking it from being directly shared via the platform’s direct message function, Taibbi said in comments on the disclosures. He noted that such extreme restrictions were reserved for content such as child pornography.

  Messages between executives in Twitter’s communications and policy departments, shared by Taibbi in screenshots, show some confusion about the actions taken, with a communications executive writing: “I’m struggling to understand the policy basis for marking this as unsafe.”

  The disclosures show that both Democrats and Republicans had access to Twitter’s censorship system and each side lodged various requests and complaints with the social media platform’s staff. But because of Twitter employees’ predominantly left-leaning political convictions, Democrats had more avenues to press their case, Taibbi said.

  The Epoch Times has been unable to independently verify the content of the disclosures shared by Musk and detailed by Taibbi.

  

  ‘Just the Beginning’

  Comer, in his interview on Fox News, said that the Twitter Files expose shows that the New York Post’s reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop is “being vindicated.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 14:30

• Apple Accelerates Plans To Shift Production Out Of China
  Apple Accelerates Plans To Shift Production Out Of China

  Apple has accelerated plans to shift some of its production outside of China, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing insiders.

  The company has been reportedly telling suppliers to ‘actively’ plan on assembling Apple products elsewhere in Asia – primarily India and Vietnam, as the company looks to reduce dependence on Taiwanese assemblers spearheaded by Foxconn.

  The company’s goal is to ship 40-45% of iPhones from India, vs the current single-digit percentage, according to TF International Securities analyst, Ming-chi Kuo. Vietnam is also expected to shoulder more of the manufacturing of other Apple products, such as AirPods, smartwatches and laptops.

  

  The decision was sparked by turmoil at “iPhone City” inside Zhengzhou (a ‘city-within-a-city’), where as many as 300,000 workers assemble iPhones and other Apple products as a Foxconn-run factory, which produces roughly 85% of the iPhone Pro lineup, according to Counterpoint Research.

  In November, violent protests hit the Zhengzhou factory – as workers upset over wages and Covid-19 restrictions began rioting and throwing things at the police. All of this poses a risk to Apple, which has relied on the factory as a stable manufacturing center.

  

  “Apple no longer feels comfortable having so much of its business tied up in one place,” according to the report.

  So no, Apple isn’t moving production out of concerns over human rights abuses, censorship, or other types of oppression.

  “In the past, people didn’t pay attention to concentration risks,” said former US-based Foxconn executive, Alan Yeung. “Free trade was the norm and things were very predictable. Now we’ve entered a new world.”

  One response, say the people involved in Apple’s supply chain, is to draw from a bigger pool of assemblers—even if those companies are themselves based in China. Two Chinese companies that are in line to get more Apple business, they say, are Luxshare Precision Industry Co. and Wingtech Technology Co. 

  On calls with investors earlier this year, Luxshare executives said some consumer-electronics clients, which they didn’t name, were worried about Chinese supply-chain snafus caused by Covid-19 prevention measures, power shortages and other issues. They said these clients wanted Luxshare to help them do more work outside China. -WSJ

  The concerns over production revolve around new product introduction (NPI), which requires teams to work with contractors to translate blueprints and prototypes into a detailed manufacturing plan. According to the report, Apple has put its manufacturing partners on notice to start trying to do more of this outside of China.

  That said, unless places like Vietnam and India can excel at NPI as well, they will ‘remain stuck playing second fiddle’ according to supply chain specialists.

  For now, consumers doing Christmas shopping are stuck with some of the longest wait times for high-end iPhones in the product’s 15-year history, stretching until after Christmas. Apple issued a rare midquarter warning in November that shipments of the Pro models would be hurt by Covid-19 restrictions at the Zhengzhou facility. -WSJ

  

  The shift marks a massive change in the relationship between Apple and China – which for decades have been engaged in a mutually beneficial relationship.

  According to Kup, the supply-chain analyst, iPhone shipments in the fourth quarter of this year were likely to reach between 70 and 75 million units – around 10 million fewer than market projections before the Zhengzhou riots.

  “Apple is going to have to find multiple places to replace iPhone City,” said Dan Panzica, a former Foxconn executive who now advises companies on supply-chain issues. “They’re going to have to spread it around and make more villages instead of big cities.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/04/2022 – 13:55

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Mapped: Where Does Our Food Come From?
  Mapped: Where Does Our Food Come From?

  Did you know that over two-thirds of national crops originated from somewhere else?

  Humans have been selecting and growing crops for specific traits since the origins of agriculture some 10,000 years ago, shaping where and what crops are grown today.

  However, as Visual Capialist’s Tessa di Grandi details below, now our food system is completely global and many of the world’s top producers of staple crops are in countries far from their historical origin. For example, Brazil is now the largest soybean producer in the world, though the crop is originally from East Asia.

  The below infographic by Brazil Potash shows the historical origins of crops before they were domesticated across the globe and the main producers of our staple crops today.

  

  Producers Of Staple Crops Today

  Staple crops are those that are the most routinely grown and consumed. These can vary between countries depending on availability.

  In 2020, sugarcane, maize, wheat, and rice made up around 50% of global crop production.

  But when the production and distribution of staple crops are threatened, the consequences can be felt globally. Let’s take a look at the countries that were the top three producers of some of our staple crops in 2020.

  

   

  As you can see from the data above, Brazil is the world’s largest producer of sugarcane and one of the top three producers of maize.

   

  The Future of Food Security

  Global food security depends on staple crops and the countries that produce them. As the global population increases, so does the need to grow more crops.

  The FAO estimates that by 2050 the world will need to increase its food output by around 70% in order to feed an ever-growing population.

  Early food security solutions were transplanting crops from other regions to supplement diets. Now crop yields must increase as the next evolution in strengthening our food security. Fertilizers are a vital step in this process and are an essential ingredient in the future of global food security. They provide vital nutrients that increase crop production and strengthen nutrition security.

  Brazil Potash extracts vital potash ore from the earth for it to return to the earth as fertilizer, fortifying food and helping to maintain continuous growth in the agricultural sector.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 23:00

• Not Even N95 Masks Work To Stop Covid
  Not Even N95 Masks Work To Stop Covid

  Authored by Ian Miller via the Brownstone Institute,

  

  “The Experts™” have repeatedly tried to deflect from the failure of their policies with misdirection.

  The reason lockdowns didn’t work in the United States or the United Kingdom is because they weren’t strict enough, according to many in the expert community.

  Of course, their excuses have been conveniently ignored as China’s repressive zero COVID lockdowns have continued, with horrific consequences.

  Now that mass protests have broken out in the country that “The Experts™” revered for their COVID handling, there’s a massive effort to disregard their own previous advocacy.

  This is perhaps best exemplified by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who clearly used authoritarian measures to suppress the protests in his own country, while now supporting Chinese demonstrations.

  pic.twitter.com/FiFoIJJxqy

  — Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) November 30, 2022

  The bewildering lack of awareness of their own hypocrisy seems to be a feature of COVID-obsessed politicians and public health authorities.

  Another similar, oft-repeated assertion is that the failure of universal masking can be explained by the type of masks being used by the public.

  Even though the CDC and Dr. Fauci explicitly claimed that wearing anything to cover your face would be effective at preventing transmission, many have now quietly dismissed that messaging.

  Fauci specifically said that “cloth coverings work,” not just surgical or N95s. Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams famously suggested that rolling up a t-shirt in front of your face would be effective protection.

  Yet public health departments and the media are now highlighting the importance of “high quality,” “well-fitted” masks. 

  Their desperation to justify masking has led to remarkably poor studies being released to support their anti-science messaging.

  There is new research that has been released showing that masks are ineffective, regardless of type.

  And it’s not just new research, it’s high quality research.

  Finally, Another RCT on Mask Wearing

  The Annals of Internal Medicine just published a randomized controlled trial comparing the ability of medical masks to prevent COVID infection to fit-tested N95s.

  Importantly, this trial was conducted on healthcare workers who would be most likely to use masks appropriately.

  To determine whether medical masks are noninferior to N95 respirators to prevent COVID-19 in health care workers providing routine care.

  That trial design was also important as it was meant to determine whether or not N95 respirators were superior to “regular” surgical masks.

  They examined 29 different health care facilities on multiple continents, from North America to Asia and Africa.

  The percentage of healthcare workers testing positive for COVID in each group was tracked to determine how effective or ineffective higher-quality masking was in preventing infection.

  Unsurprisingly, the results confirmed that there is essentially zero difference between surgical or N95 respirators when it comes to tests results.

  In the intention-to-treat analysis, RT-PCR–confirmed COVID-19 occurred in 52 of 497 (10.46%) participants in the medical mask group versus 47 of 507 (9.27%) in the N95 respirator group (hazard ratio [HR], 1.14 [95% CI, 0.77 to 1.69]). An unplanned subgroup analysis by country found that in the medical mask group versus the N95 respirator group RT-PCR–confirmed COVID-19 occurred in 8 of 131 (6.11%) versus 3 of 135 (2.22%) in Canada (HR, 2.83 [CI, 0.75 to 10.72]), 6 of 17 (35.29%) versus 4 of 17 (23.53%) in Israel (HR, 1.54 [CI, 0.43 to 5.49]), 3 of 92 (3.26%) versus 2 of 94 (2.13%) in Pakistan (HR, 1.50 [CI, 0.25 to 8.98]), and 35 of 257 (13.62%) versus 38 of 261 (14.56%) in Egypt (HR, 0.95 [CI, 0.60 to 1.50]). There were 47 (10.8%) adverse events related to the intervention reported in the medical mask group and 59 (13.6%) in the N95 respirator group.

  52 of 497 participants who wore medical masks got COVID-19, and 47 of 507 in the N95 group got COVID-19. 

  No matter how “high quality” your mask is, it’s entirely irrelevant.

  The researchers also took pains to ensure that the control and treatment groups shared as many similarities as possible.

  They excluded workers who could not pass a fit test, had laboratory-confirmed COVID, or “had received 1 or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine with greater than 50% efficacy for the circulating strain.”

  Yet none of that mattered; there was no difference in outcomes between the medical and N95 level masks.

  The N95s in use were even specifically fit tested and approved respirators, far from the KN95s commonly used by the general public.

  “Health care workers randomly assigned to the N95 respirator group were instructed to use a fit-tested National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health–approved N95 respirator when providing routine care to patients with COVID-19 or suspected COVID-19.”

  It didn’t matter.

  Even more importantly, these disappointing results were from facilities with universal masking policies in place.

  Everyone, in each health care facility, “for all activities,” was required to wear masks. 

  The intervention included universal masking, which was the policy implemented at each site. This refers to the use of a mask when in the health care facility for all activities, whether patient related or not, including in workrooms, meetings, and treating persons that were not suspected or known to be positive for COVID-19.

  It still didn’t work.

  They even tracked potential exposure points, whether at home, in the community or in hospital exposures.

  There was no difference.

  What’s even more impressive about the futility of masking is that outside of Egypt, the observed results occurred before the more contagious Omicron variant emerged.

  There were substantial differences in results between countries, which indicates the impact of N95s might have been further muted had it covered the Omicron period.

  

  Canada, which was observed pre-Omicron, showed the biggest “benefit” to N95s, while post-Omicron Egypt was nearly identical. 

  It’s possible that the mild difference in Canada could have been erased entirely if subjected to the Omicron era.

  On top of being functionally useless, N95s were substantially more likely to result in adverse effects.

  According to the results page, there were significantly more reported issues in the respirator group:

  “There were 47 (10.8%) adverse events related to the intervention reported in the medical mask group and 59 (13.6%) in the N95 respirator group.”

  This becomes even more noteworthy since compliance with respirator masking was lower.

  “Adherence with the assigned medical mask or N95 respirator was self-reported as “always” in 91.2% in the medical mask group versus 80.7% in the N95 respirator group and as “always” or “sometimes” in 97.7% in the medical mask group versus 94.4% in the N95 respirator group.”

  While still extremely high, health care workers “always” wore N95s 80.7% of the time instead of 91.2% for medical masks.

  This is one of the many issues the “experts” now pushing for (now disproven) “higher-quality” masking should address.

  Health care professionals who are trained to use N95s can’t always use them yet experience higher rates of adverse effects.

  Imagine how much worse compliance would be among the general public, especially if 13% are suffering significant side effects.

  Results Show Expert Incompetence

  This is yet another randomized controlled trial to show that masks do not work.

  It also confirms the DANMASK study conducted earlier in the pandemic, which proved there was no benefit from masking in COVID prevention.

  Even the Bangladeshi study, comparing villages, showed there was no benefit to masking at a population level. They used statistical misdirection and purposeful p-hacking to try and generate a positive result, and still could only get to a ~10% reduction for those over 50.

  No matter the quality, no matter the compliance, masks are entirely ineffective at preventing transmission or infection.

  The participants in this examination lived and worked in environments where universal masking was a requirement.

  It didn’t matter.

  This also examined health care workers, who, in theory, would be using and disposing of medical or N95 level masks properly. 

  There was no difference. 

  Now imagine how much worse the results would look for mask fanatics if it examined the Fauci-approved cloth coverings. 

  If “The Experts™” actually cared about following “the science,” or “the evidence,” this would once again be the nail in the coffin for masking.

  More like the 40th nail in the coffin.

  We have observational evidence through population-level comparisons that masks do not prevent the spread of COVID.

  

  

  We also now have multiple randomized controlled trials confirming that masks do not prevent the spread of COVID.

  And we have extremely well done comparisons of neighboring jurisdictions confirming it.

  All the mask fanatics have is politically motivated wishful thinking, desperate advocacy from disproven CDC “studies,” and a commitment to avoiding reality.

  Fauci and his health authority allies have lied to the public repeatedly about masking. The obsession with credentialism and appeals to authority within the media has resulted in tremendous, unjustified harm.

  You’d hope that results like these would finally end their ridiculous posturing, but it’s abundantly clear they’re too dug in to ever relent.

  But thankfully those paying attention now have even more ammunition in the fight for the inarguable scientific reality that masks do not work.

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

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 22:30

• "Damning": The Twitter Files And The FBI
  “Damning”: The Twitter Files And The FBI

  Authored by Techno Fog via The Reactionary,

  

  In the event you missed last night’s thread of The Twitter Files, here it is:

  1. Thread: THE TWITTER FILES

  — Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) December 2, 2022

  To give a short explainer, the talented Matt Taibbi posted internal Twitter documents around the 2020 presidential election which demonstrated how political operations – such as the Biden presidential campaign and the DNC – petitioned the company to remove “offending” tweets. Twitter complied. The Trump White House would make similar requests, but as Taibbi observe, “this system wasn’t balanced.” Instead, it was based on contacts. And as you can imagine, Twitter’s staff, especially at the highest levels, was far left and supported the Democrats.

  What of the other Twitter Files? Elon has promised more transparency and Taibbi posted on his Substack that “there may be a few more big surprises coming.” Catch Taibbi and Walter Kirn, both of whom we’re big fans, explaining the Twitter Files on Episode 15 of “America This Week.”

  But there’s a bigger story slowly emerging: the FBI’s involvement in political censorship.

  As Miranda Devine observed today, there is much more to be divulged. Specifically, the FBI’s meddling in the 2020 election and the FBI’s pressure of social media companies, including Facebook and Twitter, to essentially censor the Hunter Biden story. It’s the story of FBI Supervisory Special Agent Elvis Chan, who recently testified he was part of that effort:

  During the deposition, Chan said that he, along with the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and senior Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency officials, had weekly meetings with major social media companies to warn against Russian disinformation attempts ahead of the 2020 election, according to a source in the Missouri attorney general’s office.

  These FBI warnings had to do with the potential Russian “hack and dump” or “hack and leak” of sensitive materials. And they may have contributed to Twitter’s assessment that the Hunter Biden materials may have been hacked, justifying Twitter’s censorship of the story.

  FBI Director Christopher Wray actually took pride in these efforts, admitting to the agency’s involvement with social media companies “to make sure that their platforms are not used by foreign adversaries to spread disinformation and propaganda.” The censorship was directed from the top.

  The Response

  Not that any of this matters to much of the left. The clichés started once the story was posted. Twitter’s former former head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, complained that the leaks were essentially “violence” and put the censors in danger.

  

  The media’s response to the Twitter File story was equally predictable and boring. It was a non-story, it was public relations for the world’s richest man. They misrepresented the leak, ignored the merits, downplayed the significance of the Hunter Biden story by focusing on scandalous photos and not corruption and influence peddling and tax evasion and violations of federal law, and criticized Taibbi for posting the story on Twitter. Undertones of jealousy and resentment. As if we expected anything else. If their attacks are anything, they’re unoriginal. By this time we know what they’re gonna say before they say it.

  Thankfully, we were able to see the documents for themselves. They’re damning, demonstrating the danger of the political control of social media. The DNC and Biden Team knew they had friends at Twitter who would do their bidding during the election. And Twitter lied to the FEC about that influence.

  But that’s just at the surface. There’s something worse underneath it all, hidden from public: governmental influence and coercion over social media platforms, and the lies of the FBI to keep politically damaging – and true – material away from Americans.

  It’s the massive “censorship enterprise” by the Federal Government. It’s the one-sided influence operation on American soil. (The CIA would be proud.) It was there in 2016, and it continued through the 2020 election to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the development of the COVID-19 vaccines. And it’s slowly coming into view. 

  Subscribers to The Reactionary can read more here…

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

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 22:00

• The Trumpification Of Elon Musk
  The Trumpification Of Elon Musk

  Authored by J. Peder Zane via RealClear Politics,

  

  The relentless attacks on Elon Musk since he purchased Twitter should be familiar to most Americans. It’s exactly what Democrats and their media and corporate allies did to demonize Donald Trump.

  The McCarthyite formula is simple: Claim you are defending high-minded principles (Democracy! The rule of law! Civil discourse!) to justify efforts to delegitimize someone you’ve identified as a political opponent.

  Democrats denied Trump’s presidency from day one; Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden themselves declared for years that he had stolen the 2016 election. In the name of election integrity, Democrats turned a bogus conspiracy theory cooked up by Clinton’s campaign about Russian collusion into years of official investigations that undermined and tainted Trump. When Special Counsel Robert Mueller proved that a lie, Democrats immediately seized on a few innocuous sentences in a Trump phone call with a foreign leader to launch just the third presidential impeachment in U.S. history.

  Those events are well-known, but ponder them for a moment. This was a soft coup, a nonviolent version of Jan. 6 that was far more dangerous than the Capitol riot. The effort to remove a lawfully elected president was planned and orchestrated by officials at the highest level of government and the media. While Jan. 6 was a one-off eruption of crazed anger, the false attacks on Trump edged our political discourse toward Orwellian Newspeak by presenting lies and smears as ringing defenses of sacred constitutional values.

  The ongoing attacks against Musk are following the same playbook. The man once hailed by liberals as a genius for developing electric vehicles is now Public Enemy No. 1 because he says Twitter should allow more free speech. Ponder that as well: Musk’s enemies are casting him as a threat to the country because of his commitment to one of America’s most cherished freedoms.

  Progressives have abandoned their longstanding anti-corporate stance to argue that an unelected, unaccountable company must aggressively censor the vox populi. We saw the same dizzying turnabout in Russiagate, where the left abandoned its historic defense of Russia to cast dealings with that nation as un-American (making Joe McCarthy their new “Uncle Joe”). 

  Yes, Musk has restored Donald Trump’s Twitter account which the company’s previous leaders had disabled when he was president. But there is zilch, zero, nada evidence at this point that Twitter has become a toxic cesspool of hate. Nevertheless, that is the bogus claim being advanced by thought leaders including Jelani Cobb, dean of Columbia University’s journalism school.

  Ponder the argument here that a corporation should have the power to remove the president of the United States from communicating through one of the nation’s prime networks. The same people who cheered that decision also thought it was appropriate for Twitter to help swing the 2020 election by prohibiting users from sharing blockbuster reports about Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings, recorded on his laptop.

  If one needs any more proof that principle has no part in the attacks on Musk, consider that while Apple has joined many other major companies in pulling its advertising from Twitter, it issued an update only for its Chinese users limiting a function commonly used by protestors as discontent was percolating against that country’s extreme COVID restrictions.

  The attacks on Musk shed light on a darker mystery of American life: Why did the left attack Trump so savagely? Yes, Trump is a coarse, combative man who has the same relationship with truth as a used-car salesman. But that hardly makes him an outlier in our coarse, combative culture where, the left has long argued, truth and almost everything else we used to define as reality are just social constructs.

  At bottom, they saw Trump – and now Musk – as a threat to their power and privilege. For all their talk of democracy and the will of the people, the left has always embraced a top-down approach in which a benighted few control society. Trump was the first president without political or military experience. He  was not just an outsider; he  also promised to expose the hypocrisy and self-dealing of the ruling class, both Democrats and Republicans (hence the rise of “Never Trump” Republicans).

  The fact that this man with no political experience accomplished so much – including helping the economy hum, brokering a peace deal in the Middle East, calling out China’s ruthlessness, and creating conditions for the development of a COVID vaccine in record time – exposed the failures of our best and brightest. He wasn’t a threat to the nation, but to their authority.

  The left sees Musk as a similar threat. For decades they have largely controlled the flow of information in prestige publications and network news divisions. The rise of social media gave them new mechanisms for defining national narratives, and for silencing those who disagreed with them through cancel culture and outright censorship. They see Musk’s promise to restore free speech on Twitter as a threat to this power. Whoopi Goldberg stated this baldly when she counseled liberals to walk away from Twitter until they figure out how to “get the control you need” of the platform.

  Hence the effort to Trumpify Musk.

  Ponder for a moment the ubiquity and ferocity of attacks on this one man and the outrageous effort to cast calls for censorship as ringing defenses of liberty. Consider too that this, like the treatment accorded Trump, has not just been normalized, but valorized.

  When authorities lose the power to convince, they coerce. That is what is going on now as they tell us to shut up and submit. Please tweet that out.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 21:30

• San Francisco Is The Canary In The Coal Mine For Where Wokeism Is Headed
  San Francisco Is The Canary In The Coal Mine For Where Wokeism Is Headed

  Authored by Alan Dershowitz, op-ed via The Daily Caller,

  The City of San Francisco is constitutionally prohibited from disqualifying job applicants on the basis of race. That is precisely what occurred to John Arntz who has held the job of San Francisco’s director of the Department of Elections for two decades.

  

  He has been repeatedly praised for his excellent performance at this increasingly important job – important because of so many election challenges and doubts. Just two years ago, the election commission commended him for his “incredible leadership.”

  But now they are essentially firing him because he is apparently of the wrong race to satisfy their “racial equity plan”.

  This is what he was told:

  “Our decision wasn’t about your performance, but after twenty years we wanted to take action on the City’s racial equity plan and give people an opportunity to compete for a leadership position.”

  The mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, disagreed:

  “John Arntz has served San Francisco with integrity, professionalism and has stayed completely independent. He’s remained impartial and has avoided getting caught up in the web of City politics, which is what we are seeing now as a result of this unnecessary vote.”

  “Over the last year John successfully ran four elections while navigating a pandemic that thwarted San Francisco into crisis response – all without a single issue. Rather than working on key issues to recover and rebuilt our City, this is a good example of unfair politicization of a key part of our government that is working well for the voters of this city.”

  All of the 12 managers in his department asked that his contract be renewed. But in today’s woke world of identity politics, race trumps meritocracy. “Racial equity” plans are apparently more important than electoral integrity.

  It well maybe that Arntz’s “equity” replacement will be as good as or better than him. There are, after all, highly qualified people of all races and backgrounds. But that is not the point. His contract would clearly have been renewed — he would not have been fired — if he were of an “acceptable” race.

  But he is not, because he does not meet the criteria for the city’s “racial equity plan.”

  To cover their legal rear ends (“CYA”) the panel has said that Arntz can “reapply” and be considered among the pool of candidates who do meet the criteria of racial equity, even though he does not! This “CYA” tactic does not even pass the giggle test.

  It certainly does not pass the constitutional test, even the one that currently allows universities to place the thumb of racial diversity on the scale of admissions. That test is likely to be changed — perhaps disallowed — even in the context of private universities such as Harvard.

  There is one important benefit to the San Francisco decision — at least as compared to university admissions decisions. The San Francisco panel did not try to disguise the racial criteria they are employing, whereas most universities go to great length to deny that race alone is often a dispositive factor in ranking applicants.

  This will make it easier for the courts to hold San Francisco’s Arntz decision as a clear violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

  But even if this particularly outrageous decision is struck down as unconstitutional, many cities and other governmental units will continue to use race as a basis for hiring and firing employees. They will simply be less transparent about it than San Francisco was.

  In the bad old days, race was often used to discriminate against black applicants. Today race is often used to discriminate in favor of black applicants. I guess that is some sort of progress. But real progress will be achieved only if and when race is no longer a factor that trumps meritocracy.

  Only then will Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of how his children and ours should be judged become a reality.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 20:30

• Snowden Receives Russian Passport After Taking Citizenship Pledge
  Snowden Receives Russian Passport After Taking Citizenship Pledge

  Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who exposed the U.S. government’s unconstitutional mass surveillance programs, received a Russian passport on Thursday after taking the country’s citizenship oath. 

  “Edward received a Russian passport yesterday and took the oath in accordance with the law,” his lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said, according to Russian media. “He is, of course, happy, thanking the Russian Federation for the fact that he received citizenship.”

  That citizenship comes with an enormously valuable feature: “Under the Constitution of Russia, he can no longer be extradited to a foreign state,” said Kucherena. 

  Snowden faces prosecution on espionage charges for giving journalists an enormous volume of classified documents about NSA surveillance programs.

  In 2013, Snowden famously traveled from Hawaii, where he worked for the NSA, to Hong Kong, where he arranged to meet journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. 

  To obtain a Russian passport, one must pledge to: 

  “…observe the constitution and legislation of the Russian Federation, the rights and freedoms of its citizens; perform the duties of a citizen of the Russian Federation for the benefit of the state and society; defend the freedom and independence of the Russian Federation; be loyal to Russia, respect its culture, history and traditions.”

  Snowden’s citizenship and accompanying oath are prompting reiterations of the false claim that he “fled to Russia” after leaving Hong Kong. The truth, however, is that the Obama administration trapped Snowden in Russia.  

  Snowden was merely using Moscow as a flight connection as he tried to make it to Ecuador and seek political asylum. Upon arriving in Russia, he learned Obama had revoked his passport. After spending 40 days at Sheremetyevo airport — and applied to 27 countries for asylum — he was granted asylum by Russian President Putin.  

  I’m in Russia because the White House intentionally canceled my passport to trap me here. They *downed the President of Bolivia’s diplomatic aircraft* to prevent me from leaving, and continue to interfere with my freedom of movement to this day.

  In case that was unclear. https://t.co/hOb2Azc41G

  — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) December 2, 2022

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

  Despite all the contrary facts that have been in plain view for nine years, a chorus of deep state useful idiots unleashed a new round of social media smears against the NSA whistleblower. “Edward Snowden, Russian asset and now citizen,” tweeted Washington Post columnist and Bulwark culture editor Sonny Bunch.  

  Meanwhile, headlines at many outlets emphasized that Snowden “swore allegiance to Russia,” implying he’d abandoned his American citizenship. 

  Shame on @WaPo for not checking w/ ⁦@Snowden⁩’s lawyers in the US. This misleading headline makes it sound like he renounced his US citizenship and swore fealty to Russia. He & his wife remain Americans. https://t.co/ZSrILewDlO

  — unR̶A̶D̶A̶C̶K̶ted (@JesselynRadack) December 2, 2022

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

  Snowden’s wife, Lindsay Mills, is also seeking Russian citizenship. The couple lives in Moscow with their two sons, who were born in Russia. 

  Pleas for then-President Donald Trump to pardon Snowden — along with Julian Assange– fell on deaf ears.  

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 20:00

• Senate Republicans Demand McConnell Only Accept Short-Term Spending Bill
  Senate Republicans Demand McConnell Only Accept Short-Term Spending Bill

  Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Senate Republicans have vowed to oppose any spending bill that would go on beyond the 117th Congress.

  

  After a long effort to pass an omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2023, Democrats were forced to accept a short-term continuing resolution (CR) instead.

  CRs, while they prevent the government from shutting down, make no changes to long-term federal spending. Rather, they simply continue to spend at levels set the prior fiscal year.

  Earlier this year, Democrats passed a CR that will fund the government through Dec. 16, at which point the government will shut down if lawmakers have not passed a new spending bill.

  One of the Democrats’ many agenda items during the lame-duck session is the passage of a more comprehensive omnibus spending bill. In contrast to a CR, an omnibus bill, if passed, would allow Democrats to set appropriations levels for next year even though they’ll be in the House minority.

  Because the 118th Congress will sit for the first time on Jan. 3, 2022, allowing a CR to run out before then could give a lame-duck Democrat majority a last-minute chance to fund its policies through all of fiscal year 2023.

  This, a group of Republican senators told Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a Nov. 30 letter, is unacceptable.

  The letter was written by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and signed onto by three other Republicans—Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.).

  In it, the coalition demanded that McConnell not allow Democrats to succeed in their efforts to set next year’s spending levels.

  “On November 8, 2022, the American people made their voices heard at the ballot box,” the letter opened. “Using the
  Democratic process, millions of Americans sent a message—they want divided power in Washington to curb the worst excesses of both parties.”

  The four Republicans said they “stand with the voters.”

  They wrote, “We believe it would be both imprudent, and a reflection of poor leadership, for Republicans to ignore the will of the American people and rubber stamp an omnibus spending bill that funds ten more months of [President Joe Biden’s] agenda without any check on his reckless policies that have led to a 40-year high in inflation.”

  According to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation has slowed from its peak of over nine percent in June, but it remains high. In October, the value of the dollar dropped by 7.7 percent, a situation that Republicans have blamed on Democrats’ “out of control spending” (pdf).

  Since taking unilateral control of the government, Democrats have rushed through trillions in new spending: first with the passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which received no GOP support, the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act.

  The effect of this spending, the Republicans wrote, has been higher costs for American households. They cited a figure provided by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget which estimates that Democrats have authorized $4.8 trillion in new borrowing since Biden took office.

  “Since taking office, President Biden has overseen a $4.8 trillion increase in the national deficit, costing the average American household an estimated $753 more a month,” the lawmakers wrote. “It should be up to the new Congress to set spending priorities for the remainder of this fiscal year.”

  Concluding the letter the Republicans wrote: “Now is the time for Republicans to get serious about leading America towards a better future.”

  They demanded that McConnell not make any deals that would fund the government well into the next fiscal year.

  “We must not accept anything other than a short-term Continuing Resolution that funds the federal government until shortly after the 118th Congress is sworn in,” they wrote, demanding that “[no] additional spending, [and] no additional policy priorities should be included.”

  Anything more urgent, they added, should be handled as an individual bill rather than as part of an omnibus spending bill.

  ‘A Lame Duck Spending Blowout’: Roy

  This demand, the passage of a short-term “clean” CR with no changes to current spending, has been growing among Republicans.

  In the House, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) circulated a letter making similar demands.

  In the letter, Roy wrote: “Federal dollars are fueling rampant inflation and funding the Biden administration’s radical agenda. This includes empowering authoritarian bureaucrats at agencies like the IRS and FBI, implementing open-border policies that are threatening our communities, imposing COVID-19 mandates that shut down schools and are forcing our military servicemembers out of their jobs, and advancing self-destructive energy policies.

  “As the September 30th federal funding deadline approaches, Republicans must do what is necessary to ensure that not one additional penny will go toward this administration’s radical, inflationary agenda,” he continued. “Any legislation that sets the stage for a ‘lame duck’ fight on government funding gives Democrats one final opportunity to pass that agenda.

  “Therefore, we, the undersigned, pledge to the American people to reject any continuing resolution that expires prior to the first day of the 118th Congress, or any appropriations package put forward in the remaining months of this Democrat-led Congress.”

  On Dec. 1, Roy re-upped these demands in an op-ed for the Washington Examiner. He described Democrats’ ongoing efforts to pass an omnibus bill as “a lame-duck spending blowout.”

  “When is $5 trillion still not enough?” Roy quipped. “Answer: When you’re a progressive about to lose your grip on total power.”

  Later, he wrote: “Taxpayers … deserve better than another rushed backroom deal as lawmakers sprint home for Christmas. Democrats ran all of government for two years but focused on their special spending causes rather than pass individual bills to finance the government. Now with three weeks left in a lame duck, they want to jam the GOP again.”

  Roy said that Republicans should not be cowed by Democrats threatening to shut down the government to pass a spending bill.

  “The GOP campaigned on a return to regular fiscal order, and why not start now?” Roy wrote. “Democrats can threaten a government shutdown, but they’d own it as the party in control. If Republicans aren’t going to use their power to enforce some fiscal discipline, they might as well stay in the minority.”

  What’s Next

  Despite opposition to an omnibus bill among both House and Senate Republicans, Democrats could still get what they hope for.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 19:30

• Not Everyone Is Looking Forward To Christmas
  Not Everyone Is Looking Forward To Christmas

  There are only a few weeks left until Christmas. That means most people are getting together with their family and spending time with their loved ones. But not everyone can look forward to a peaceful Christmas – for some people, the Christmas season is particularly stressful, as a survey conducted as part of the Statista Global Consumer Survey shows.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  According to the research, Christmas means pure stress for around 16 percent of the people surveyed in the United States. This even rises to 18 percent of respondents in the UK.

  This is seemingly in part because there are too many expectations associated with Christmas; a quarter of respondents from Germany and the United States and 39 percent from the UK confirm this.

  Five to nine percent of the survey participants even stated that the family get-together usually ends in arguments.

  For them, Christmas is emotionally and psychologically draining rather than energizing, and often requires a great deal of effort to get through.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 19:00

• "Highly Experimental And Unproven": Scientist Tells Judge Transgender Treatments For Minors Fraught With Risk
  “Highly Experimental And Unproven”: Scientist Tells Judge Transgender Treatments For Minors Fraught With Risk

  Authored by Janice Hisle via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  When a researcher begins with a conclusion, then looks for data to support that, “it’s a danger to all of science,” Dr. Paul Hruz, a St. Louis physician-scientist told a federal judge.

  

  Yet Hruz said he has seen this disturbing pattern recur in recent years, as he examined studies purporting to prove the benefits of hormones and surgeries as treatments for gender-conflicted youths.

  “It is erroneous to say that we identified an effective solution that maximizes benefits and minimizes risk,” Hruz testified Dec. 1 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

  Assailing the poor quality of research about gender-transition medical treatments for minors, and raising concerns about the risk of harm, Hruz said: “There are major, major questions that remain.”

  Hruz, a pediatric endocrinologist and researcher, also called the procedures “highly experimental” and “unproven.”

  He was the final witness to testify during a trial that is testing the nation’s first law banning hormones and surgeries for “gender-transition” of minors.

  Judge Faces Big Decision

  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit seeking to throw out the 2021 Arkansas law, alleging it is unconstitutional.

  The ACLU of Arkansas has denounced the law as part of a “hateful attack” on LGBT youths seeking “medically necessary care.”

  But the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office is defending the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act, asserting that the state has a compelling interest to protect vulnerable children from medical interventions that can cause permanent harm, including ongoing health problems and sterility.

  No dates have been set for attorneys to file final written briefs—the final pieces of the puzzle for Judge James Moody Jr. to consider before he issues a ruling. His decision could influence the way other states and courts respond to controversies surrounding similar legislation.

  Moody will be considering two weeks’ worth of testimony that began with witnesses the ACLU called in mid-October. After a month-long recess, the trial resumed on Nov. 28 with witnesses testifying on behalf of the SAFE Act.

  Treatments ‘Disrupt’ Healthy Process

  During the last day of testimony on Dec. 1, Dylan Jacobs, deputy solicitor general for the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office, systematically questioned Hruz to share his extensive knowledge about treatment of “gender dysphoria,” or gender-related distress, among adolescents.

  Based on his 25 years as a pediatric endocrinologist, along with 10 years of intensely researching gender dysphoria, Hruz said he would never prescribe puberty-blockers or cross-sex hormones without solid scientific studies showing that they do more good than harm.

  Endocrinologists are dedicated to “restoring the body to its natural state of health” by correcting hormonal imbalances or deficiencies, he said.

  Thus, Hruz objects to using hormones for gender dysphoria, and disrupting a normally functioning, healthy endocrine system.

  6,000 Sex-Based Differences

  Jacobs pointed out that ACLU witnesses described puberty blockers as a harmless “pause button.” Not so, Hruz said.

  Puberty blockers prevent sex-specific changes, including easily observed ones such as breast development in girls and testicle development in boys. But inside the body, many other changes are also occurring during adolescence; the impact of interfering with those changes remains largely unknown, which is troubling, Hruz said.

  “It is impossible to turn back time. So, once you’ve blocked puberty… you cannot buy back the time when that physical process has been disrupted,” Hruz said.

  He also said credible studies show that, if left alone, many transgender-identifying youths will likely revert to their biological sex. But if put on puberty blockers, 98 percent of the youths will go on to take cross-sex hormones.

  Flooding a person’s body with hormones of the opposite sex can cause myriad unknown effects, he said, noting that there are more than 6,000 sex-specific genetic differences between males and females.

  In addition, it’s unclear how the combined effects of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones could affect young people in the long run, Hruz said.

  Rapid-Fire Answers

  In instance after instance, Hruz enumerated specific problems with studies that claim hormones or surgeries benefited youths with gender dysphoria.

  “Despite the claims that are made about the efficacy of the affirmative approach, the evidence is insufficient to make that conclusion,” Hruz said.

  With near-encyclopedic detail, Hruz fired off answers so quickly that the court stenographer struggled to keep pace. Moody repeatedly asked him to speak more slowly.

  At one point, the judge became so frustrated, he threatened to stop the witness from further testimony unless Jacobs found a way to get Hruz to slow down his statements.

  Hruz moderated his pace but continued speaking authoritatively as he testified for more than three hours under Jacobs’ questioning.

  Generally, when considering medical treatment options, “The higher the risk, the lower the quality of evidence, the more caution that is used,” Hruz said.

  Yet, with gender-affirming care, that principle seems not to apply, he said.

  He couldn’t remember seeing any other medical treatments so strongly recommended despite such poor-quality evidence.

  Another “unique” feature of this debate: The existence of gender dysphoria hinges on the patient’s self-reported identity and desires, Hruz said. There is no way to “test the accuracy of that condition,” he said.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 18:30

• 1,000 New York Times Employees Threaten To Strike Next Week
  1,000 New York Times Employees Threaten To Strike Next Week

  More than one thousand New York Times employees could walk off the job late next week if a newsroom union fails to strike a deal with the publisher. 

  After 20 months of negotiations, enough is enough: Today, more than 1,000 @NYTimesGuild members pledged to walk out if @nytimes does not agree to a complete and fair contract by Dec. 8.

  — NYTimesGuild (@NYTimesGuild) December 2, 2022

  In a series of tweets, NYTimesGuild, the labor union of more than 1,000 NYTimes employees, complained about pensions, health care, and pay while the progressive newspaper is on track for an annual operating profit of $320 million and splurged $150 million on stock buybacks.  

  If you can believe it, NYTimes still pays their base journalist a measly $65,000 yearly, barely enough to live in NYC. 

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

  A company on track for an annual operating profit of $320 million or more should be paying its employees a minimum of $65,000 a year. The @nytimes thinks this is unreasonable. The @NYTimesGuild does not.

  — NYTimesGuild (@NYTimesGuild) December 2, 2022

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

  This walkout pledge was not a decision we made lightly. But the truth is @nytimes is a blank page without @NYTGuild members. It’s time they gave us a contract that reflects our true worth. pic.twitter.com/MTMdockEKK

  — NYTimesGuild (@NYTimesGuild) December 2, 2022

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

  The lack of pay increases and failed negotiations by the union to solidify a deal appears to have been the last straw:

  “Enough. If there is no contract by Dec. 8, we are walking out,” read the email’s subject line containing the letter that was sent to NYTimes publisher A.G. Sulzberger and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien on Friday, according to New York magazine.

  The labor union wants negotiations on health care, pension plans, and a pay increase. They threatened to stop working for a full day next Thursday if an agreement wasn’t reached. 

  “Labor unrest at the Times is always awkward for the top editor, who gets pinioned between the newsroom they run and the business side to which they must answer. The big walkout would be the first real crisis for new executive editor Joe Kahn,” New York Magazine wrote. 

  NYTimes spokesperson said:

  “While we are disappointed that the NewsGuild is threatening to strike, we are prepared to ensure The Times continues to serve our readers without disruption. We remain committed to working with the NYT NewsGuild to reach a contract that we can all be proud of.”

  Meanwhile, “the paper,” NYTimes television critic James Poniewozik said, “doesn’t write itself.” A labor action and what could result in content disruption wouldn’t necessarily be a terrible thing, as it would force readers to search for news elsewhere. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 18:00

• Uvalde Survivors File $27 Billion Lawsuit Against Texas Officials, Officers Over Response To Mass Shooting
  Uvalde Survivors File $27 Billion Lawsuit Against Texas Officials, Officers Over Response To Mass Shooting

  Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Survivors of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, have filed a $27 billion class-action lawsuit against multiple law enforcement officials in the state.

  

  This comes six months after the killings, which were the deadliest U.S. school shooting in almost a decade. Nineteen children and two teachers we killed by the gunman in May.

  The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. It names the city of Uvalde, its police department, the school district, the state Department of Public Safety, and several police and school officials as defendants.

  The plaintiffs, which include parents, teachers, and staff members, are alleging that the officials failed to follow protocols for an active shooter, despite having received active shooter training and that they did not neutralize the shooter immediately, leading to further trauma and injuries.

  “Law enforcement took seventy-seven minutes to accomplish what they were duty bound to expeditiously perform,” the lawsuit states.

  “Not only had CISD-PD undertaken a state-sponsored and mandated active shooter response training, but CISD had additionally promulgated its own required protocols and standards to employ in the event of an active shooter on one of its campuses.

  “Despite such preparedness, the CISD police department, along with similarly trained law enforcement agencies including the City of Uvalde’s police department, the Texas Department of Public Safety, San Antonio Police Department’s SWAT unit, Uvalde’s Sheriff’s office, and the United States Department of Homeland Security fundamentally strayed from conducting themselves in conformity with what they knew to be the well-established protocols and standards for responding to an active shooter,” the lawsuit added.

  

  Officers Waited Over an Hour

  Nearly 400 law enforcement officials arrived at the school on May 24 but opted to wait over 70 minutes to enter the fourth-grade classroom where gunman Salvador Ramos had locked himself in and take him down.

  A 77-page report published in July by the Texas state House of Representatives found that there were multiple “shortcomings and failures” across the board by both law enforcement and UCISD in its response.

  Plaintiffs are seeking damages for the survivors of the shooting, including parents whose children were killed and those who witnessed the deadly incident.

  According to the lawsuit, plaintiffs “sustained emotional and psychological damages as a result of Defendants’ conduct” on the day of the shooting, while some of the children are suffering from severe anxiety and nightmares.

  A string of lawsuits have been filed against the Uvalde school district and law enforcement officers since May.

  

  Mother of Victim, 10, Files Lawsuit

  Earlier this week, Sandra Torres, the mother of 10-year-old victim Eliahna sued over the response to the shooting.

  The lawsuit names the city of Uvalde; the County of Uvalde; the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District; the Uvalde Police Department; Uvalde CISD Police; Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office; Uvalde Constables, and the Texas Department of Public Safety as defendants.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 17:30

• Apple Accelerating Supply Chain Retreat From China After iPhone Factory Chaos
  Apple Accelerating Supply Chain Retreat From China After iPhone Factory Chaos

  Apple Inc’s massive exposure to Chinese manufacturing has left it with production shortfalls of iPhones due to Beijing’s harsh virus containment policies and unrest at a major factory in central China operated by Foxconn. A new report shows the iPhone maker’s retreat from China is accelerating. 

  WSJ said Apple is “telling suppliers to plan more actively for assembling Apple products elsewhere in Asia, particularly India and Vietnam, they say, and looking to reduce dependence on Taiwanese assemblers led by Foxconn.” 

  Apple’s supply chain data indicates China is the iPhone maker’s primary location. Market research firm Counterpoint Research recently noted 85% of the Pro lineup of iPhones is made in Foxconn’s giant city-within-a-city factory in Zhengzhou. 

  

  The factory has been hit with Covid-19 restrictions and unrest in recent weeks and months, leading to a production shortfall of 6 million iPhone Pros by the end of the year.

  “Apple no longer feels comfortable having so much of its business tied up in one place, according to analysts and people in the Apple supply chain,” WSJ noted. 

  “In the past, people didn’t pay attention to concentration risks.

   “Free trade was the norm and things were very predictable. Now we’ve entered a new world,” Alan Yeung, a former US executive for Foxconn, said. 

  People familiar with Apple’s supply chain said that not all production would be shifted outside China. However, the remaining production in China will draw on a larger pool of assemblers, not just Foxconn. They said Luxshare Precision Industry Co. and Wingtech Technology Co. are two companies in line to receive more business from Apple. 

  As for the shift out of China, people involved in the discussions said Apple is telling manufacturing partners to look at other countries. 

  However, Apple has spent decades interweaving its supply chains within China, and change won’t come overnight. 

  “Finding all the pieces to build at the scale Apple needs is not easy,” said Kate Whitehead, a former Apple operations manager who now owns her own supply-chain consulting firm.  

  Ming-chi Kuo, an analyst at TF International Securities who follows the supply chain, said Apple’s longer-term objective is to ship 40% to 45% of iPhones from India. And suppliers said Vietnam could soon be a significant player in manufacturing other Apple products such as AirPods, smartwatches, and laptops.

  The bigger trend is the fracturing of the global supply chain. US firms realize China’s zero Covid policy and shutdowns, along with heightened geopolitical risk across the region, are bad for business and recently outlined in the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai’s latest survey of US firms in China found a near doubling of respondents over the past year that are slashing investment.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 17:00

• Midterms No Mandate For Another Biden Run
  Midterms No Mandate For Another Biden Run

  Authored by A.B. Stoddard via RealClear Wire,

  Democrats face an inflection point, though they are trying not to face up to it. Surprising results in the November elections, producing a cloudy picture for both parties, have quieted a push to get President Biden to forgo a second term. But the liabilities of the GOP do not make Biden more popular; nor do they make him younger.

  

  A split decision at the ballot box has Democrats cheering, but they have lost control of the House, and Biden’s job approval ratings are still nothing to crow about. Republicans underperformed because of the Dobbs ruling by the Supreme Court, and because of the extreme candidates backed by Donald Trump, when they should have won big. Democrats were not saved from a red wave because voters liked all the bipartisan bills they passed or that gasoline prices went down here and there. Record high inflation, a crisis at the border, and rising crime remain resonant issues with voters and still pose problems for the Democratic Party.

  Yet Democrats seem to have backed down from the urgency of finding a new presidential nominee for their party in 2024. Talk of who could replace Biden – and when and how – had consumed Democrats throughout the summer and fall. They were not only anticipating a bad election, and a pivot point for the party, but whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would relinquish power as well, and support a new general of leadership for House Democrats. She did. And as I wrote in July, Biden should soon tell the country he will leave office in January of 2025.

  The purple wave that helped Democrats mitigate their losses seems to have weakened Trump and strengthened Biden – the opposite of what was expected, particularly had Trump’s senate candidates prevailed. Trump announced his third presidential campaign anyway, but his diminished standing with GOP elites – combined with the midterm results – seems to have stiffened Biden’s spine about facing off against Trump once again in 2024.

  Another campaign for Biden may even be a sure thing. “Those close to the White House say that, at this point, they expect only a family emergency or a personal health issue would change Biden’s mind about seeking re-election,” NBC reported, adding that Biden plans travel to potential battleground states and that advisors are reaching out to supporters “all in advance of a campaign launch early next year.”

  Right on cue Democrats are talking comfortably again, even publicly, about a second Biden campaign. Before the election, Democrats believed Biden could face a primary challenge, but now some potential contenders are swearing off running against him. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker have both said they won’t run if Biden does. “I think the president is running for re-election. So I think you’ll see Democrats supporting the president,” Pritzker told the New York Times. Newsom, who most Democrats assumed has been building a campaign-in-waiting, told Politico he assured the president, as well as his wife, that he wasn’t running if Biden ran or if he chose not to.

  “He not only beat Trump once, I think he can beat him again,” Newsom said. “I hope he runs, I’ll enthusiastically support him.”

  Biden himself is reportedly having conversations with his family, which started over Thanksgiving, about whether to run again. He has said running is his “intention” but has also said he wasn’t certain and would make an announcement early next year.

  At 80, Biden is already America’s oldest president. The office has visibly aged him. He and Democrats aren’t talking about him launching a campaign for an election to serve two more years, but to serve another six years. Biden is not even halfway through his term. The worst thing for the party is for Biden to pretend that a visibly fatigued 82-year-old man, even if his stamina was not further degraded whatsoever by the next two years, can promise to lead the free world in the most grueling job on the planet until his 86th birthday. Biden running and having to quit, or serving and having to quit, because of his health is a foreseeable, avoidable problem for Democrats. The risk this poses is not worth the advantages Biden’s incumbency would afford him in a reelection campaign. Moreover, if Biden runs and appears physically weaker late next year it is likely someone could jump in to challenge him. That is a bad scenario for the Democrats, no matter who that is or how it turns out.

  Polls show that rank-and-file Democrats don’t want Biden to run for a second term. Overall, strong majorities of Americans across the political spectrum don’t want Biden or Trump to run again.

  Plus, there was no blue wave, either. The 2022 elections did not affirm support for Democrats, their policies, or the president. Frustrated voters unhappy with Biden and Democrats retained a near status quo in Washington, angry over abortion and afraid of some freaky Republican candidates they couldn’t trust in office.

  In an interview, pollster Stanley Greenberg told the New York Times that his surveys show continued vulnerabilities for Democrats, and he thinks “we need a new voice to address huge challenges but also huge opportunities.”

  The sooner the next crop of Democrats capable of leading their party can begin to campaign openly for the 2024 nomination, the better off the party will be. Dragging that process out, and risking an emergency, is not a position a strong leader would leave his party in. Pelosi likes to say that power is not given, it is taken. But last month she gave hers away. If it wasn’t the best thing for her, it was still the best decision for her party. Biden should do the same.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 16:30

• Nigeria's President Says West-Supplied Weapons In Ukraine Are 'Filtering' Into Africa
  Nigeria’s President Says West-Supplied Weapons In Ukraine Are ‘Filtering’ Into Africa

  The Nigerian government says that foreign-supplied weapons transferred from the West to the Ukrainian government have begun to proliferate in the west African region. The illegal arms have begun to “filter” to the region, Nigeria’s president said.

  An urgent warning was recently issued by President Muhammadu Buhari himself. An official statement posted to the website of the Nigerian presidency’s office said that Buhari “urged more vigilance and tightening of security around borders, drawing attention to the increased number of arms, ammunition, and other weapons from the Russia and Ukraine war in the Lake Chad Basin.”

  

  It marks the clearest confirmation yet that weapons intended for Ukrainian forces are exiting the country in large numbers, precisely as many observers feared given the billions of dollars worth of arms that have been pumped in over the course of the nine-month war.

  President Buhari said, “Regrettably, the situation in the Sahel and the raging war in Ukraine serve as major sources of weapons and fighters that bolster the ranks of the terrorists in the Lake Chad Region. A substantial proportion of the arms and ammunition procured to execute the war in Libya continues to find its way to the Lake Chad Region and other parts of the Sahel.”

  He continued, “Weapons being used for the war in Ukraine and Russia are equally beginning to filter to the region.”

  “This illegal movement of arms into the region has heightened the proliferation of small arms and light weapons which continues to threaten our collective peace and security in the region. There is, therefore, the urgent need for expedited collaborative actions by our border control agencies and other security services to stop the circulation of all illegal weapons in the region,” Buhari noted.

  Critics of the massive US weapons pipeline to Ukraine have long pointed out there’s no accountability or appropriate tracking once those arms enter the country, presenting ripe opportunities for criminals, terrorists, or lucrative black market arms sellers to take advantage. 

  After #Nigeria‘s President Muhammadu Buhari’s clear warning, will we see more #US weapons making it into the hands of terrorist organizations?#Ukraine https://t.co/hkONcaWatV

  — Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) December 3, 2022

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

  In October, Finland began warning it too is seeing West-supplied weapons to Ukraine make their way to different countries, and falling into the hands of criminal gangs.

  NBI, which is Finland’s federal National Bureau of Investigation, had sounded the alarm at the time, saying in a statement, “We’ve seen signs of these weapons already finding their way to Finland.” 

  “Weapons shipped [by various countries] to Ukraine have also been found in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands,” NBI Detective Superintendent Christer Ahlgren was quoted in the Finnish media as saying. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 16:00

• Musk Is Right: It's A Battle For Future Of Civilization
  Musk Is Right: It’s A Battle For Future Of Civilization

  Authored by Daniel Flynn via The American Spectator,

  In China, authoritarians flood Twitter with ads for prostitutes and pornography in an effort to prevent users from obtaining information about protests.

  

  Authoritarians in the United States threaten to remove Twitter from more than 1.5 billion devices worldwide.

  “Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store,” Elon Musk tweeted, “but won’t tell us why.”

  The powerful few want to impede the free flow of information to the vulnerable many. Suppression strikes intelligent observers as not a Chinese thing but a fetish of the powerful in whatever nation they reside. It appears cruder and more thuggish in China, and more passive-aggressive and sophisticated in the United States. But whether the state or a monopoly suppresses expression, does the crushing effect of it on a free society really differ?

  White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spoke of “monitoring” and “keeping a close eye” on Twitter (big sister is watching!), which, she claims, bears a responsibility to “take action” against “misinformation” and “hate.”

  Does not the federal government bear a responsibility to ensure that the United States remains a free society?

  Instead of breaking out of the stranglehold Apple and Google have placed upon the information that we consume, the White House publicly nudges tech companies to censor.  

  Traditionally, the federal government assumed a massive role in ensuring, particularly when it came to communications, that no company controlled too much of the market share. During the 1940s, the feds forced NBC’s Blue Network to separate from the parent company. It eventually became NBC’s competitor ABC. Later, after decades of litigation, the government broke up the Bell System into the seven “Baby Bells” (four of which once again folded into “Ma Bell,” otherwise known as AT&T). This similarly resulted in a competitor to the monopoly in Verizon.

  Now people in positions of power cheer on the consolidation of information. Instead of breaking out of the stranglehold Apple and Google have placed upon the information that we consume, the White House publicly nudges tech companies to censor. Privately, we may learn that political actors do much more than nudge.

  “The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself,” Musk tweeted Monday.

  “The public deserves to know what really happened.”

  And, of course, Mark Zuckerberg noted that Facebook’s decision to suppress the true Hunter Biden laptop story came about after the FBI issued a stern warning to them about disseminating “disinformation,” a euphemism that now means information that disturbs progressives.

  Americans allow infringements on their freedom of speech because we imagine intolerance to that degree as remaining the domain of people who neither look like us nor sound like us. This speaks further to our small-mindedness.

  This can happen here because it does happen here.

  Elon Musk plays H.L. Mencken, who chomped the half-dollar of Watch and Ward Society moral crusader Frank Chase, played by Tim Cook, before selling him a copy of the American Mercury featuring a story about a prostitute. Ninety-six years later, we do not object much to prostitutes. Certainly, the Chinese, plastering them on Twitter to muck up searches on Wuhan or Chengdu, do not object to them. People increasingly object to differences of opinion or even facts that displease.

  The Boston Common bigots merely arrested Mencken for offending them. The ones in Silicon Valley threaten to erase tens of billions of dollars from Musk’s fortune. More importantly, they seek to shrink the parameters of debate. This changes the very character of the United States, which, as anyone familiar with lawyer Andrew Hamilton’s courtroom speeches in the John Peter Zenger libel trial knows, predates the United States:

  The question before the Court and you, Gentlemen of the jury, is not of small or private concern. It is not the cause of one poor printer, nor of New York alone, which you are now trying. No! It may in its consequence affect every free man that lives under a British government on the main of America. It is the best cause. It is the cause of liberty. And I make no doubt but your upright conduct this day will not only entitle you to the love and esteem of your fellow citizens, but every man who prefers freedom to a life of slavery will bless and honor you as men who have baffled the attempt of tyranny, and by an impartial and uncorrupt verdict have laid a noble foundation for securing to ourselves, our posterity, and our neighbors, that to which nature and the laws of our country have given us a right to liberty of both exposing and opposing arbitrary power (in these parts of the world at least) by speaking and writing truth.

  Progressives increasingly resemble Bill Cosby, New York’s colonial governor and not the comedian/roofie enthusiast, in finding opposing views intolerable. This meant, under the previous Twitter regime, deplatforming Meghan Murphy, a Canadian socialist-feminist, for tweeting “women aren’t men”; the removal of “learn to code” tweets in mock homage to Joe Biden offering that advice to displaced miners; and the suspension of the New York Post’s account for sharing a true story that Twitter falsely deemed disinformation about the president’s son.

  Elon Musk deserves gratitude for transforming Twitter from that woke wasteland into a vibrant Mecca for speech. Instead, Apple allegedly seeks to ruin his enterprise through restraint-of-trade practices. Similarly, Apple’s Chinese benefactors who make their iPhones now scour the devices of pedestrians to see if they contain Twitter and other apps.

  The interests of Apple and China, then, coincide on much more than the manufacture of cheap iPhones. Tim Cook and Xi Jinping imagine that they hold the right to dictate what apps you may keep on your phone.

  “This is a battle for the future of civilization,” Musk accurately tweets.

  “If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead.”

  Specifically, that tyranny lies 13 hours ahead.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 15:30

• Global Warming? Northern Hemisphere Snow Cover At 56-Year High
  Global Warming? Northern Hemisphere Snow Cover At 56-Year High

  The COP27 climate change conference wrapped up last month. World leaders flew in private jets to Egypt to discuss how fossil fuels were quickly heating the planet to the point of no return, as humanity was doomed if crucial climate change policies weren’t implemented. But while the climate alarmist leaders met in the desert, November’s snowfall across the Northern Hemisphere was running at rates exceeding a half-a-century average. 

  NOAA and Rutgers University released new data that showed snow cover across the Northern Hemisphere reached the highest level since measurements began in 1967 and are currently above the 56-year mean. 

  

  Here’s the Rutgers Global Snow Lab snow coverage map across the Northern Hemisphere. 

  

  And another from NOAA with more resolution. 

  

  “Extensive snow extent early in the season is an indicator of persistent cold as we head into winter proper,” weather blog Severe Weather Europe said. 

  Most mainstream media outlets overlooked this data because it is an inconvenient truth for the climate change narrative they’re pushing. 

  A severe winter for the Northern Hemisphere might complicate power grids for western countries that are hellbent on disrupting energy flows by sanctioning Russia, forcing the world into the worst energy crisis in a generation. Since the US and Europe’s natural gas storage facilities have flipped into withdrawal season, the clock starts as storage levels could quickly wind down if temperatures stay below average, which would continue to boost energy prices. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 15:00

• Judge Orders Arizona’s Cochise County To Certify Election Results
  Judge Orders Arizona’s Cochise County To Certify Election Results

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

  An Arizona county’s board of supervisors certified their jurisdiction’s midterm elections results on Thursday at the order of a judge three days after they missed the statutory deadline of Nov. 28.

  

  Judge Casey McGinley of the Pima County Superior Court instructed Cochise County’s board of supervisors to convene and declare the results official by 5 p.m. MT on Thursday.

  McGinley ruled that the failure of two Republican supervisors to certify the results before the state’s legal deadline was illegal.

  On Monday, the lone Democrat on the three-person panel, supervisor Anne English, voted against the motion to postpone the results, while Republican supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby voted to postpone.

  

  Following the certification on Thursday, state officials in Arizona will now be able to proceed with statewide certification on Monday after the board voted 2–0 to certify the outcomes of the Nov. 8 midterm elections.

  English and Judd cast the deciding votes to certify, with Republican Tom Crosby abstaining from the court-ordered hearing.

  Cochise County’s Board of Supervisors sought to push back certifying the results in order to further review claims that the county’s voting equipment was not properly certified in accordance with the law.

  According to election officials, the machinery was properly approved.

  Cochise County, which borders Mexico, has always been a bastion of Republican and conservative voters.

  Hobbs Sues Cochise Board

  After the two Republican members of the board voted to delay certification, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who was declared the victor of the state’s governor contest, sued Cochise County earlier this week.

  Cochise County “had a statutory duty to certify the results of the 2022 General Election” by Nov. 28., Hobbs said on Twitter, where she shared screenshots of the lawsuit.

  According to Hobb’s lawsuit, failure to certify the results before Dec. 1 will “sow greater confusion and doubt about the integrity of Arizona’s election system” and asked the court to issue an injunction compelling officials to do so.

  “The Board’s inaction not only violates the plain language of the statute but also undermines a basic tenet of free and fair elections in this state: ensuring that every Arizonan’s voice is heard,” the lawsuit (pdf) reads.

  

  Hobb’s lawsuit stated that without the court’s intervention, she would have no choice, as Arizona’s chief elections official in her role as secretary of state, but to complete the statewide canvass by Dec. 8 “without Cochise County’s votes included.”

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 14:30

• Major Web Browsers Drop Mysterious Authentication Company After Ties To US Military Contractor Exposed
  Major Web Browsers Drop Mysterious Authentication Company After Ties To US Military Contractor Exposed

  This week several major web browsers quickly severed ties with a mysterious software company used to certify the security of websites, three weeks after the Washington Post exposed its connections to a US military contractor, the Post reports.

  

  TrustCor Systems provided ‘certificates’ to browsers to Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge, which vouched for the legitimacy of said websites.

  “Certificate Authorities have highly trusted roles in the internet ecosystem and it is unacceptable for a CA to be closely tied, through ownership and operation, to a company engaged in the distribution of malware,” said Mozilla’s Kathleen Wilson in an email to browser security experts. “Trustcor’s responses via their Vice President of CA operations further substantiates the factual basis for Mozilla’s concerns.”

  According to TrustCor’s Panamanian (!?) registration records, the company has the same slate of officers, agents and officers as Arizona-based Packet Forensics, which has sold communication interception services to the U.S. government for over a decade.

  One of those contracts listed the “place of performance” as Fort Meade, Md., the home of the National Security Agency and the Pentagon’s Cyber Command.

  The case has put a new spotlight on the obscure systems of trust and checks that allow people to rely on the internet for most purposes. Browsers typically have more than a hundred authorities approved by default, including government-owned ones and small companies, to seamlessly attest that secure websites are what they purport to be. -WaPo

  Also of concern, TrustCor’s small staff in Canada lists its place of operation at a UPS Store mail drop, according to company executive Rachel McPherson, who says she told their Canadian staffers to work remotely. She also acknowledged that the company has ‘infrastructure’ in Arizona as well.

  McPherson says that ownership in TrustCor was transferred to employees despite the fact that some of the same holding companies had invested in both TrustCor and Packet Forensics.

  Various technologists in the email discussion said they found TrustCor to be evasive when it came to basic facts such as legal domicile and ownership – which they said was not appropriate for a company responsible for root certificate authority that verifies a secure ‘https’ website is not an imposter.

  The Post report built on the work of two researchers who had first located the company’s corporate records, Joel Reardon of the University of Calgary and Serge Egelman of the University of California at Berkeley. Those two and others also ran experiments on a secure email offering from TrustCor named MsgSafe.io. They found that contrary to MsgSafe’s public claims, emails sent through its system were not end-to-end encrypted and could be read by the company.

  McPherson said the various technology experts had not used the right version or had not configured it properly. -WaPo

  In a previous case which illustrates the importance of trusting root-level authorities – a security company controlled by the United Arab Emirates, DarkMatter, applied in 2019 to have top-level root authority from their status as an intermediate authority with less independence. The request followed revelations that DarkMatter had hacked dissidents and even some Americans – after which Mozilla denied it root power.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 14:00

• Von Greyerz: In The End The Dollar Goes To Zero & The US Defaults
  Von Greyerz: In The End The Dollar Goes To Zero & The US Defaults

  Authored by Egon von Greyerz via GoldSwitzerland.com,

  With US and Global debt exploding prior to both assets and debt imploding, let us look at the disastrous consequences for the US and the world.

  Debt explosion leading to the currency becoming worthless has happened in history for as long as there has been some form of money whether we talk about 3rd century Rome, 18th century France or 20th century Weimar Republic and many many more.

  So here we are again, another monetary era and another guaranteed collapse as von Mises said:

  “There is no means of avoiding the final collapse
  of a boom brought about by credit expansion”

  This disastrous borrowed prosperity, with ZERO ability to repay the surging debt,  will lead to one of the three consequences below:

  1. THE US$ GOES TO ZERO

  2. A US DEFAULT

  3. BOTH OF THE ABOVE

  The most likely outcome is number 3 in my view. The dollar will go to ZERO and the US will default. The same will happen to most countries.

  I outline the consequences for the world at the end of his article.

  Many people say that the US can never default. That is of course absolute nonsense.

  If a country prints worthless debt that nobody will buy in a currency that no one wants to hold, the country has definitely defaulted whatever spin they put on it.

  In the next few years, not just US but all sovereign debt will only have one buyer which is the country that issues the debt. And every time a sovereign state buys its own debt, it has to issue more worthless debt that nobody will touch with a barge pole.

  Printing more money to pay for previous sins has never worked and never will.

  And this is how money dies, just like it has throughout history.

  The current monetary era started with the foundation of the Fed in 1913 and the acceleration of debt and currency debasement since 1971 when Nixon closed the gold window. With just over 100 years into this era, it is now approaching the end, like they all do.

  

  Global currencies are already down 97-99% since 1971 and we can now expect the final 1-3% decline for all money to become virtually worthless. This is of course nothing new in history since every single currency has always gone to ZERO. We must of course remember that the final 1-3% move means a 100% fall from today. The final collapse is always the quickest so it could easily happen in the next 2-5 years.

  DEBT, DEBT AND MORE DEBT

  Let’s look at how it has all evolved.

  Although US debt has increased virtually every year since 1930, the acceleration started in the late 1960s and 1970s. With gold backing the dollar and therefore most currencies UNTIL 1971, the ability to borrow more money was restricted without depleting the gold reserves.

  Since the gold standard prevented Nixon to print money and buy votes to stay in power, he conveniently got rid of those shackles “temporarily” as he declared on August 15, 1971. Politicians don’t change. Powell and Lagarde recently called the increase in inflation “transitory” but in spite of their bogus prediction, inflation has continued to rise.

  Since 1971 total US debt has gone up 53X with GDP only up 22X as the graph below shows:

  

  As the widening Gap between Debt and GDP in the graph above shows, it now takes ever more debt to achieve increases in GDP.  So without printing worthless money, REAL GDP would show a decline.

  So this is what our politicians are doing, buying votes and creating fake growth through printed money. This gives the voter the illusion of  increased income and wealth. Sadly he doesn’t grasp that the illusory increase in living standard is all based on debt and devalued money.

  Let’s also look at US Federal Debt:

  

  Since Reagan became president in 1981, US federal debt has on average doubled every 8 years. Thus when Trump inherited the $20 trillion debt from Obama in 2017, I forecast that the debt would double by 2025 to $40t. That still looks like a valid projection but with the economic problems I expect, a $50t debt by 2025-6 cannot be excluded.

  So presidents know they can buy the love of the people by running chronic deficits and printing money to make up for the difference.

  But if we look at the graph above again, it shows that debt has gone up 35X since 1981 but that tax revenue has only increased 8X from $0.6t to $4.9t.

  How can any sane person believe that with debt going up 4.5X faster than tax revenue that the debt can ever be repaid.

  Even worse, with US interest payments on the debt surging from around 0% to probably 5% by 2025 the interest on the debt will climb to $2 trillion or circa 30% of the annual budget.

  

  So with higher interest rates, higher deficits and rising inflation the scene is set for a high or hyper-inflationary period in the next few years.

  

  FED PIVOT?

  So virtually every observer believes that the Fed (and ECB) will not just stop raising interest rates but pivot and lower them again.

  In my view this will not happen except for possibly very short term. The 40 year interest rate downtrend finished in 2020 and the world is unlikely to see low or negative rates for many years or decades.  High inflation and high rates will continue for years. But as we see in the 40 year chart of the 10 year US treasury below, there will be many corrections in the coming uptrend.

  

  US MONEY SUPPLY GROWING AT 74% ANNUALISED

  Between August 1971 and August 2019 US money supply grew at 6.1% p.a.

  In August 2019, the hangover from the 2006-9 Great Financial Crisis hit the financial system again resulting in major support actions from the Fed and other central banks.

  So the fresh problems emerged before Covid and before Ukraine. But those two new crises obviously exacerbated the systemic problems that had been put on ice for 10 years. This led to massive money printing and M1 in the US no longer increased at 6% annually but at a hyperinflationary 74% p.a. as the graph below shows.

  

  $25 TRILLION GLOBAL LIQUIDITY/DEBT INCREASE AT ZERO COST

  Central banks are always wrong and always behind the curve. They kept short term rates at zero or negative for over a decade. From 2009 to 2019 the balance sheets of major central banks increased by $13t. But then from Aug 2019 to 2022 an explosion in central bank debt took place, expanding their balance sheets $23t from $13t to $36t. All the same reasons that I discuss in the paragraph above regarding US money supply are obviously also valid for global debt expansion.

  

  There is nothing like free money! The banks created this money at ZERO cost. They did no work and nor did they produce any goods or services. All they needed to do was to press a button. And with interest rates at zero or negative, many central banks were actually receiving interest from the lenders.

  What a beautiful Ponzi scheme. CBs print/borrow money and then they are paid for the pleasure of borrowing this money.  Any private swindler launching such a scheme like Ponzi or Madoff would spend the rest of his life in prison but the bankers are praised for “saving” the system.

  What virtually no individual understands is that this free money then enters the financial system as having a real intrinsic value. As with all Ponzi schemes, the current financial system will collapse too as the holders of the fake paper money realise that the money is worthless and that the emperor is totally naked.

  That will be the final phase of the current monetary system with unlimited money printing as the $2.3 quadrillion debt pyramid collapses which I discussed in this article and also in this interview with Greg Hunter USA Watchdog .

  This is what the global financial system looks like: 

  

  The estimated $2 quadrillion gross derivatives is today quasi debt but will one day  become real debt, as central banks attempt to rescue the financial system. When counterparties fail, the gross will remain gross. So in total the world will face a $2,3 quadrillion debt resting on $2 trillion of central bank gold, a 0.1% coverage.

  Within the next five years or so, the triangle is likely to be inverted with central bank gold as the foundation at the bottom. But instead of gold being only 0.1% of global liabilities, it will be as much as maybe 20%. That 200x revaluation of gold will be a combination of the value of global assets and liabilities collapsing and gold rising.

  Personally I don’t believe in a lasting formal reset with a new currency system backed by gold. I cannot see the three major gold producers/holders China, Russia and India agreeing with the US on a revaluation. It is also questionable if the US has anywhere near the 8,000 tonnes of gold they are declaring. Also, China and Russia probably have considerably more gold than they are declaring.

  Instead, after the fake paper market in gold has collapsed, the price must be based on supply and demand of unencumbered physical gold or Free Gold. But that can only happen after the current financial system based on fake money, debt and derivatives no longer functions. 

  CONSEQUENCES

  But before that, the world must pay for the excesses of the last 50 years. The consequences will be dire as we are facing a major cataclysm or disorderly reset which will involve:

  • DEBT DEFAULTS – SOVEREIGN, CORPORATE  & PRIVATE

  • BURSTING OF EPIC BUBBLES IN STOCKS, BONDS & PROPERTY

  • MAJOR GEOPOLITICAL CONFLICTS WITH NO DESIRE FOR PEACE

  • SECULAR FALL OF LIVING STANDARDS DUE TO HIGHER COST OF ENERGY & ENERGY SHORTAGES

  • FOOD SHORTAGES LEADING TO MAJOR FAMINE AND CIVIL UNREST

  • POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC INSTABILITY & CORRUPTION

  • NO COUNTRY WILL AFFORD SOCIAL SECURITY OR PENSIONS

  • INFLATION HYPERINFLATION AND LATER DEFLATIONARY IMPLOSION

  I sincerely hope that these predictions will not take place. Because if they do, everyone will suffer dramatically for an extended period. No one, rich or poor will avoid these problems.

  I am naturally not predicting, like a Cassandra, (my 2017 article with a timely gold projection) that this disorderly reset will absolutely take place. Only future historians will tell us what actually happened.

  But what I am saying is that the risk of a major catastrophe has never been higher in history, whenever it actually happens.

  Physical gold and silver will not save you but clearly be the best financial insurance you can hold.

  Most important is a support system of family and friends. Remember also that in addition to family and friends, some of the best things in life are free like nature, music, books and many hobbies.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 12/03/2022 – 13:30

Digest powered by RSS Digest

• Why China Sucks: It's A Beta-Test For The New World Order
  Why China Sucks: It’s A Beta-Test For The New World Order

  Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

  For over a decade there has been an open globalist obsession with the Chinese governmental model – A love affair, if you will. Many top proponents of global centralization including Henry Kissinger and George Soros have praised China in the past and hinted that the communist country is burgeoning into a major player within the New World Order. Soros expressed this exact sentiment way back in 2009, around the time that China began courting the IMF and issuing trillions in Yuan based treasury debt in order to join their global currency initiative.

  

  Several years later, China was inducted into the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights basket. The CCP now avidly supports the creation of a new global currency system with the IMF in control.

  This is a reality I have been writing about for many years: China does NOT stand in opposition to global centralization under the control of western oligarchs. All they want is a prominent seat at the table when the “Great Reset” kicks off and total centralization begins. But the above information only suggests an economic relationship between China and the globalists. Does the alliance go even further than that?

  Recently, Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum gave an interview to the Chinese government controlled CGTN at the APEC Summit. In that interview, Schwab praises China as a role model for many other nations. This might shock some people considering China’s economy is faltering, with their global exports plunging in 2022 and their housing market in shambles. This decline is in large part due to global stagflation, but also due to their insane “zero covid” policy which has kept the nation under pandemic lockdown for years.

  Remember all those covid cultists who were cheering for China last year? Remember when they claimed that China was a perfect example on why lockdowns are necessary and proof that they work? Yeah, those people were morons.

  China’s economy is now in freefall with their manufacturing base under extreme stress from the mandates. Furthermore, it would appear that the Chinese populace is finally fed up with the draconian conditions and are rising up in revolt.

  In the video below, protests erupt at Foxconn’s flagship iPhone plant in China after workers marched out of the factory. They had been held there in quarantine against their will with poor working conditions and little food.

  The Chinese government sent hazmat clad troops to put down the rebellion while stomping protesters into the ground. Take note and remember this video when you hear about Apple’s hostility to Elon Musk’s free speech policies on Twitter – Apple loves authoritarianism, as do all globalist run corporations.

  China continues to terrorize the citizenry with secret police visits to vocal dissenters and fleets of drones hovering above city streets monitoring foot traffic and blaring propaganda messages. Some drones even spray unknown chemicals across entire city blocks. In the meantime, China has fully implemented digital vaccine passports systems tied to public venues and retail stores. You cannot function in a major Chinese city without an up-to-date vaccine passport or a negative covid test taken every couple of weeks.

  All of these events and conditions are often treated as disconnected or coincidentally associated. No one is asking the right questions. The big question being WHY? Why is the Chinese government sabotaging its own economy with lockdowns and oppressing the population to the point of open revolt (a rarity among the normally subservient Chinese people). Why keep the lockdowns going when it is clear to the rest of the world that the pandemic is over and that the lockdowns and masks never worked to begin with?

  I would ask CCP officials a simple question that many of us in America also asked our own government a over a year ago: If the vaccines work, why enforce mandates and lockdowns? If it’s because the vaccines don’t work, then why try to force the population to take the jab? Beyond that, if the masks and lockdowns work, then why is China facing yet another supposed covid infection wave?

  Obviously the CCP does not care about the well being of the average Chinese citizen. There is no logic to anything they are doing, just as there was no logic to anything Biden, Fauci and the CDC were doing in the US. The difference is, Americans were able to force the globalists in the US to abandon their mandate agenda, likely because we are heavily armed and they realized too many of us were non-compliant. In China, there is no civilian militia equivalent.

  The country was a dystopia before, now it is something different – It is an experiment in technocratic tyranny that is being taken to the extreme. China is willing to starve, arrest, beat and even kill people who they claim they are trying to protect from the virus.

  It is no mistake that nearly every policy China is implementing is a direct copy of policies suggested by the WEF and institutions like the Imperial College of London back in 2020 at the start of the outbreak. The globalists argued that “we are not going back to normal” and that the public would have to sacrifice many of our freedoms in order to stop the pandemic. In reality, none of their policies were effective in stopping the spread, but they were very effective at suppressing the populace. And in the case of China, nothing did ever go back to normal.

  The unspoken rationale, in my view, connects directly back to China’s long term relationship to the globalists and their desire to be a part of the New World Order, also referred to as the “multipolar world order”, the 4th Industrial Revolution, the Great Reset and a dozen other names. If you want to know the real globalist vision for the future, take a look at China today and then multiply the pain and suffering another hundred fold. China is a beta test.

  Perhaps it’s a test to see what level of tyranny people are willing to endure. Maybe a test of the functionality of different surveillance systems and control mechanisms. Maybe a practice run for the inevitable riots and rebellion that would occur in numerous countries and the best way to deal with them. Globalists like Klaus Schwab are not only interest in China as an economic role model, he sees China as a societal role model for much of the west, with some tweaks here and there.

  The problem for the establishment is that if there are visible examples of freedom despite covid, then other nations will start to question the necessity of their own lockdowns. Even the Chinese people are starting to fight back. They can’t implement their NWO one country at a time, they will have to oppress many countries at once.

  As I have been saying for the past year to some of the more nihilistic people in the liberty movement who think all it lost, understand that you are lucky to be living in the US right now and you should be thankful for the millions of conservatives that actively and vocally refused to comply with the mandates and vaccines. They saved the country from greater tyranny. If the globalists had got what they really wanted, we would look a lot like China right now.

  We hovered close to that black sun and danced with the devil, but we are not beaten.

  As it stands, China continues to represent a model of authoritarian dreams; a research study in mass psychological torture. Far from being a counter-point to the globalists, it is actually a globalist work in progress. Watch what happens there closely, because the evils perpetrated there will eventually be attempted here at home.

  *  *  *

  If you would like to support the work that Alt-Market does while also receiving content on advanced tactics for defeating the globalist agenda, subscribe to our exclusive newsletter The Wild Bunch Dispatch.  Learn more about it HERE.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 23:55

• Visualizing The World's Largest Hydroelectric Dams
  Visualizing The World’s Largest Hydroelectric Dams

  Did you know that hydroelectricity is the world’s biggest source of renewable energy? According to recent figures from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), it represents 40% of total capacity, ahead of solar (28%) and wind (27%).

  This type of energy is generated by hydroelectric power stations, which are essentially large dams that use the water flow to spin a turbine. They can also serve secondary functions such as flow monitoring and flood control.

  To help you learn more about hydropower, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu has visualized the five largest hydroelectric dams in the world, ranked by their maximum output.

  

  Overview of the Data

  The following table lists key information about the five dams shown in this graphic, as of 2021. Installed capacity is the maximum amount of power that a plant can generate under full load.

  

   

  At the top of the list is China’s Three Gorges Dam, which opened in 2003. It has an installed capacity of 22.5 gigawatts (GW), which is close to double the second-place Itaipu Dam.

   

  In terms of annual output, the Itaipu Dam actually produces about the same amount of electricity. This is because the Parana River has a low seasonal variance, meaning the flow rate changes very little throughout the year. On the other hand, the Yangtze River has a significant drop in flow for several months of the year.

  For a point of comparison, here is the installed capacity of the world’s three largest solar power plants, also as of 2021:

  • Bhadla Solar Park, India: 2.2 GW

  • Hainan Solar Park, China: 2.2 GW

  • Pavagada Solar Park, India: 2.1 GW

  Compared to our largest dams, solar plants have a much lower installed capacity. However, in terms of cost (cents per kilowatt-hour), the two are actually quite even.

  Closer Look: Three Gorges Dam

  The Three Gorges Dam is an engineering marvel, costing over $32 billion to construct. To wrap your head around its massive scale, consider the following facts:

  • The Three Gorges Reservoir (which feeds the dam) contains 39 trillion kg of water (42 billion tons)

  • In terms of area, the reservoir spans 400 square miles (1,045 square km)

  • The mass of this reservoir is large enough to slow the Earth’s rotation by 0.06 microseconds

  Of course, any man-made structure this large is bound to have a profound impact on the environment. In a 2010 study, it was found that the dam has triggered over 3,000 earthquakes and landslides since 2003.

  The Consequences of Hydroelectric Dams

  While hydropower can be cost-effective, there are some legitimate concerns about its long-term sustainability.

  For starters, hydroelectric dams require large upstream reservoirs to ensure a consistent supply of water. Flooding new areas of land can disrupt wildlife, degrade water quality, and even cause natural disasters like earthquakes.

  Dams can also disrupt the natural flow of rivers. Other studies have found that millions of people living downstream from large dams suffer from food insecurity and flooding.

  Whereas the benefits have generally been delivered to urban centers or industrial-scale agricultural developments, river-dependent populations located downstream of dams have experienced a difficult upheaval of their livelihoods.

  – RICHTER, B.D. ET AL. (2010)

  Perhaps the greatest risk to hydropower is climate change itself. For example, due to the rising frequency of droughts, hydroelectric dams in places like California are becoming significantly less economical.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 23:30

• Make Way For The Killer Robots: The Government Is Expanding Its Power To Kill
  Make Way For The Killer Robots: The Government Is Expanding Its Power To Kill

  Authored by John and Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

  “Crush! Kill! Destroy!”

  – The Robot, Lost in Space

  The purpose of a good government is to protect the lives and liberties of its people.

  Unfortunately, we have gone so far in the opposite direction from the ideals of a good government that it’s hard to see how this trainwreck can be redeemed.

  It gets worse by the day.

  For instance, despite an outcry by civil liberties groups and concerned citizens alike, in an 8-3 vote on Nov. 29, 2022, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a proposal to allow police to arm robots with deadly weapons for use in emergency situations.

  This is how the slippery slope begins.

  According to the San Francisco Police Department’s draft policy, “Robots will only be used as a deadly force option when risk of loss of life to members of the public or officers is imminent and outweighs any other force option available to SFPD.”

  

  Yet as investigative journalist Sam Biddle points out, this is “what nearly every security agency says when it asks the public to trust it with an alarming new power: We’ll only use it in emergencies—but we get to decide what’s an emergency.”

  A last-minute amendment to the SFPD policy limits the decision-making authority for deploying robots as a deadly force option to high-ranking officers, and only after using alternative force or de-escalation tactics, or concluding they would not be able to subdue the suspect through those alternative means.

  In other words, police now have the power to kill with immunity using remote-controlled robots.

  These robots, often acquired by local police departments through federal grants and military surplus programs, signal a tipping point in the final shift from a Mayberry style of community policing to a technologically-driven version of law enforcement dominated by artificial intelligence, surveillance, and militarization.

  It’s only a matter of time before these killer robots intended for use as a last resort become as common as SWAT teams.

  Frequently justified as vital tools necessary to combat terrorism and deal with rare but extremely dangerous criminal situations, such as those involving hostages, SWAT teams—which first appeared on the scene in California in the 1960s—have now become intrinsic parts of local law enforcement operations, thanks in large part to substantial federal assistance and the Pentagon’s military surplus recycling program, which allows the transfer of military equipment, weapons and training to local police for free or at sharp discounts.

  Consider this: In 1980, there were roughly 3,000 SWAT team-style raids in the U.S. By 2014, that number had grown to more than 80,000 SWAT team raids per year.

  Given the widespread use of these SWAT teams and the eagerness with which police agencies have embraced them, it’s likely those raids number upwards of 120,000 by now.

  There are few communities without a SWAT team today.

  No longer reserved exclusively for deadly situations, SWAT teams are now increasingly deployed for relatively routine police matters, with some SWAT teams being sent out as much as five times a day. In the state of Maryland alone, 92 percent of 8200 SWAT missions were used to execute search or arrest warrants.

  For example, police in both Baltimore and Dallas have used SWAT teams to bust up poker games. A Connecticut SWAT team swarmed a bar suspected of serving alcohol to underage individuals. In Arizona, a SWAT team was used to break up an alleged cockfighting ring. An Atlanta SWAT team raided a music studio, allegedly out of a concern that it might have been involved in illegal music piracy.

  A Minnesota SWAT team raided the wrong house in the middle of the night, handcuffed the three young children, held the mother on the floor at gunpoint, shot the family dog, and then “forced the handcuffed children to sit next to the carcass of their dead pet and bloody pet for more than an hour” while they searched the home.

  A California SWAT team drove an armored Lenco Bearcat into Roger Serrato’s yard, surrounded his home with paramilitary troops wearing face masks, threw a fire-starting flashbang grenade into the house, then when Serrato appeared at a window, unarmed and wearing only his shorts, held him at bay with rifles. Serrato died of asphyxiation from being trapped in the flame-filled house. Incredibly, the father of four had done nothing wrong. The SWAT team had misidentified him as someone involved in a shooting.

  These incidents are just the tip of the iceberg.

  Nationwide, SWAT teams have been employed to address an astonishingly trivial array of nonviolent criminal activity or mere community nuisances: angry dogs, domestic disputes, improper paperwork filed by an orchid farmer, and misdemeanor marijuana possession, to give a brief sampling.

  If these raids are becoming increasingly common and widespread, you can chalk it up to the “make-work” philosophy, by which police justify the acquisition of sophisticated military equipment and weapons and then rationalize their frequent use.

  Mind you, SWAT teams originated as specialized units that were supposed to be dedicated to defusing extremely sensitive, dangerous situations (that language is almost identical to the language being used to rationalize adding armed robots to local police agencies). They were never meant to be used for routine police work such as serving a warrant.

  As the role of paramilitary forces has expanded, however, to include involvement in nondescript police work targeting nonviolent suspects, the mere presence of SWAT units has actually injected a level of danger and violence into police-citizen interactions that was not present as long as these interactions were handled by traditional civilian officers. 

  Indeed, a study by Princeton University concludes that militarizing police and SWAT teams “provide no detectable benefits in terms of officer safety or violent crime reduction.” The study, the first systematic analysis on the use and consequences of militarized force, reveals that “police militarization neither reduces rates of violent crime nor changes the number of officers assaulted or killed.”

  In other words, warrior cops aren’t making us or themselves any safer.

  Americans are now eight times more likely to die in a police confrontation than they are to be killed by a terrorist.

  The problem, as one reporter rightly concluded, is “not that life has gotten that much more dangerous, it’s that authorities have chosen to respond to even innocent situations as if they were in a warzone.”

  Now add killer robots into that scenario.

  How long before these armed, militarized robots, authorized to use lethal force against American citizens, become as commonplace as SWAT teams and just as deadly?

  Likewise, how long before mistakes are made, technology gets hacked or goes haywire, robots are deployed based on false or erroneous information, and innocent individuals get killed in the line of fire?

  And who will shoulder the blame and the liability for rogue killer robots? Given the government’s track record when it comes to sidestepping accountability for official misconduct through the use of qualified immunity, it’s completely feasible that they’d get a free pass here, too.

  In the absence of any federal regulations or guidelines to protect Americans against what could eventually become autonomous robotic SWAT teams equipped with artificial intelligence, surveillance and lethal weapons, “we the people” are left defenseless.

  We’re gaining ground fast on the kind of autonomous, robotic assassins that Terminator envisioned would be deployed by 2029.

  If these killer robots follow the same trajectory as militarized weapons, which, having been deployed to local police agencies as part of the Pentagon’s 1033 recycling program, are turning America into a battlefield, it’s just a matter of time before they become the first line of defense in interactions between police and members of the public.

  Some within the robotics industry have warned against weaponizing general-purpose robots, which could be used “to invade civil rights or to threaten, harm, or intimidate others.”

  Yet it may already be too late for that.

  As Sam Biddle writes for The Intercept, “As with any high-tech toy, the temptation to use advanced technology may surpass whatever institutional guardrails the police have in place.”

  There are thousands of police robots across the country, and those numbers are growing exponentially. It won’t take much in the way of weaponry and programming to convert these robots to killer robots, and it’s coming.

  The first time police used a robot as a lethal weapon was in 2016, when it was deployed with an explosive device to kill a sniper who had shot and killed five police officers.

  This scenario has been repeatedly trotted out by police forces eager to add killer robots to their arsenal of deadly weapons. Yet as Paul Scharre, author of Army Of None: Autonomous Weapons And The Future Of War, recognizes, presenting a scenario in which the only two options are to use a robot for deadly force or put law enforcement officers at risk sets up a false choice that rules out any consideration of non-lethal options.

  As Biddle concludes:

  “Once a technology is feasible and permitted, it tends to linger. Just as drones, mine-proof trucks, and Stingray devices drifted from Middle Eastern battlefields to American towns, critics of … police’s claims that lethal robots would only be used in one-in-a-million public emergencies isn’t borne out by history. The recent past is littered with instances of technologies originally intended for warfare mustered instead against, say, constitutionally protected speech, as happened frequently during the George Floyd protests.”

  This gradual dismantling of cultural, legal and political resistance to what was once considered unthinkable is what Liz O’Sullivan, a member of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control, refers to as “a well-executed playbook to normalize militarization.”

  It’s the boiling frog analogy all over again, and yet there’s more at play than just militarization or suppressing dissent.

  There’s a philosophical underpinning to this debate over killer robots that we can’t afford to overlook, and that is the government’s expansion of its power to kill the citizenry.

  Although the government was established to protect the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of the American people, the Deep State has been working hard to strip us of any claims to life and liberty, while trying to persuade us that happiness can be found in vapid pursuits, entertainment spectacles and political circuses.

  Having claimed the power to kill through the use of militarized police who shoot first and ask questions later, SWAT team raids, no-knock raids, capital punishment, targeted drone attacks, grisly secret experiments on prisoners and unsuspecting communities, weapons of mass destruction, endless wars, etc., the government has come to view “we the people” as collateral damage in its pursuit of absolute power.

  As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, we are at a dangerous crossroads.

  Not only are our lives in danger. Our very humanity is at stake.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 23:05

• Has Smoking Lost Its Cool In The US?
  Has Smoking Lost Its Cool In The US?

  While lighting up a cigarette was once considered a sign of class and sophistication or, at the very least, an act of coolness, smoking seems to have lost some of its spark in recent years.

  As Statista’s Felix Richter notes, according to the Federal Trade Commission, 203.7 billion cigarettes were sold in the United States in 2020. While that marks a marginal increase over 2019 and the first uptick in 20 years, cigarette sales are still at their lowest level since the FTC started tracking them in 1963.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  As Statista’s chart above illustrates, cigarette sales have declined more or less continuously over the past 40 years, dropping more than 50 percent since 2000 and almost 70 percent since smoking’s heyday in the early 1980s. In the meantime, cigarette advertising and promotional spending climbed from $1.2 billion in 1980 to $7.8 billion in 2020, most of the latter coming in the form of price discounts for retailers and wholesalers.

  The number of cigarette smokers in the United States has also dropped over the past four decades, albeit not quite at the same pace as cigarette sales. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 30.8 million adults in the U.S. were smoking cigarettes in 2020, down 40 percent from 51.6 million in 1980.

  Additionally, as Statista’s Martin Armstrong details below, cigarettes do not have the same pull factor for young Americans that they used to. Looking at Gallup survey data going back to 2001-2003, roughly one-third of young adults in the U.S. said they smoked cigarettes twenty years ago. Now though, in the period 2019-2022, just 12 percent confessed to a smoking habit.

  This downward trend isn’t confined to Americans with less mileage on the clock, either. Falls in cigarette smoking rates were registered across the board, with the second-largest decrease seen in the 30 to 49 bracket. That said, the lowest overall rate belonged to the oldest group of respondents in 2022. For the over 65s, enough wisdom seems to have been gathered over the years to mean that just 8 percent said they had smoked a life endangering cigarette in the past week – a decrease from the 14 percent recorded in 2001-2003.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  That all being said, the positive news that smoking is on the decline needs to be taken with caution.

  As Gallup data also indicates, while young adults may be smoking less cigarettes, a significant share appear to have simply switched to a different vice. E-cigarettes, or vaping, are used by 19 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds. Although vaping eliminates the unpleasant smell emitted by cigarettes, the habit is far from healthy, is addictive and carries with it its own dangers and risk to life.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 22:40

• Lavrov Announces Russia, China Are Stepping Up Military Cooperation
  Lavrov Announces Russia, China Are Stepping Up Military Cooperation

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that the US and NATO’s move to focus on countering China in the Asia Pacific has led to an increase in military cooperation between Moscow and Beijing.

  “We know how seriously the People’s Republic of China regards these provocations [by NATO in the South China Sea], let alone Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait. We understand that this playing with fire by NATO in that part of the world carries threats and risks for the Russian Federation,” Lavrov said at a press conference, according to TASS.

  

  In recent years, the US has stepped up its military presence in the South China Sea and near Taiwan, and some of its European allies have sent ships to the region, including the UK, France, and Germany.

  “It’s as close to our shores and our seas as it is to Chinese territory. So, our military cooperation with the People’s Republic of China is developing. We are holding joint exercises, both counterterrorism exercises and air patrolling exercises,” Lavrov said.

  NATO has identified China as a “challenge” to the alliance and has said it should forge stronger relationships with countries in the Asia Pacific, including Australia, South Korea, Japan, and India. Building new alliances in the region is a key aspect of the US strategy against China, as outlined by the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy.

  Lavrov said that the US and NATO are trying to create an “explosive situation” in the Asia Pacific and pointed to the AUKUS military pact between the US, Britain, and Australia. Under AUKUS, Australia is expected to receive technology to develop nuclear-powered submarines, and the US will expand its military presence in Australia.

  China has previously warned that the Biden administration’s efforts to build alliances in the Asia Pacific could lead to a Ukraine-style “tragedy” in the region. “The United States has tried to create regional tension and provoke confrontation by pushing forward the Indo-Pacific strategy,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said back in April.

  Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday China is ready to work with Russia to forge closer partnership in energy cooperationpic.twitter.com/1j4zU9cB6k

  — Zhang Meifang张美芳 (@CGMeifangZhang) November 29, 2022

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

  The increasing military cooperation between Russia and China is a natural reaction to the similar pressure they are facing from the West. In a sign of the growing ties, Russian and Chinese bombers flew a joint patrol over the western Pacific on Wednesday.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 22:15

• Watch: Russia Conducts Monster Of Missile Test In Kazakhstan
  Watch: Russia Conducts Monster Of Missile Test In Kazakhstan

  Russia has successfully test-launched a monster of a weapon system, identified as a new anti-missile defense platform under the national Aerospace Forces, at its Sary Shagan firing range in Kazakhstan.

  “The anti-missile defense system is in service with the Aerospace Forces and is designed to protect against air and space attacks,” the defense ministry said in a statement. However, the statement didn’t specifically name the missile that was tested.

  

  “The new missile defense system, after a series of tests, confirmed its inherent characteristics, and combat crews successfully completed the task, hitting the conditional target with the specified accuracy,” said the head of the Aerospace Forces’ anti-missile defense unit, Major General Sergei Grabchuk.

  Moscow has previously confirmed it is strengthening its missile defense capability surrounding the capital of Moscow, and has been conducting a series of tests with an aim of upgrading air defense of national territory.

  There’s speculation that Thursday’s test launch in neighboring Kazakhstan was the S-500, previously identified by the Kremlin as the next generation anti-air system to defend Russian cities.

  Footage published by the Russian MoD appeared to show a huge rocket…

  WATCH: #BNNRussia Reports

  The Russian Aerospace Forces have completed the launch of a new anti-missile missile defense system at the Sary-Shagan test site in #Kazakhstan, according to the Ministry of Defense (@mod_russia). pic.twitter.com/2iLOl0o6PT

  — Gurbaksh Singh Chahal (@gchahal) December 1, 2022

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

  In recent years, Russia has sought to show off to the world its growing arsenal of hypersonics as well, producing some stunning footage. The West has meanwhile accused Moscow of using hypersonic missiles in Ukraine.

  Fox News has recently reported that “Russia is looking to add more sophisticated weaponry to its stocks and ordered ‘several dozen’ Tsirkon hypersonic missiles this fall,” citing state media sources. “The order is reportedly set to be fulfilled by the end of 2023 and comes after the Kremlin order a ‘batch of Tsirkons’ during the summer of 2021.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 21:50

• Texas Bartenders To Be Trained As "First Responders" In Strategy To Reduce Fentanyl Deaths
  Texas Bartenders To Be Trained As “First Responders” In Strategy To Reduce Fentanyl Deaths

  Authored by Jana Pruett via The Epoch Times,

  More than a dozen bars in Texas will soon be stocked with naloxone and bartenders will be trained as “first responders” to administer the medication that can reverse an opioid overdose, Travis County Judge Andy Brown announced on Monday.

  “Today, I’m excited to share how we are taking life-saving steps that are more inclusive and meet people where they are,” Brown said during a press conference at the Star Bar in Austin. The event was live-streamed on KVUE News.

  The initiative is part of the county’s strategy to reduce accidental overdose deaths.

  “Travis County is working with nonprofits here and local nonprofits to provide bars and bartenders with Narcan, plus the training that is required to use it,” he continued. Narcan is one of the brand names under which naloxone is sold.

  Overdoses are the No. 1 cause of accidental death in the county. Fentanyl-related deaths were up 237 percent from 2020 to 2021, according to the Travis County Medical Examiner Annual Report 2021 (pdf).

  “In all of last year, we had 118 people who died in Travis County with fentanyl in their system. In the first six months, so just the first half of this year of 2022, we have matched that,” Brown told reporters.

  “So, we’re on track basically to double that number of overdose and fentanyl deaths this year.”

  Fentanyl was involved in 59 percent of overdose deaths in the first six months of 2022, up from 38 percent in 2021.

  In May, the Commissioners Court declared overdoses to be a public health crisis after data from the medical examiner’s report showed 308 overdose deaths from all drugs last year.

  

  The declaration allowed the county to set aside $350,000 for overdose prevention efforts, KVUE reported. An additional $150,000 will be used to increase the availability of naloxone.

  “Overdose deaths are a public crisis, and together we can do something about it, and we are doing something about it,” Brown said.

  Bar Staff Training as First Responders

  On Tuesday, the Commissioners Court will vote on a contract to create a partnership with community members as part of its plan to get Narcan into bars and other nightlife venues and provide peer-based support for those seeking help for addiction.

  The county started purchasing boxes of Narcan after the public crisis was declared.

  SafeHaven Harm Reduction, a local nonprofit, recently received 90 boxes of the medicine with plans to distribute it among 13 Austin bars.

  Christie Mokry, executive director at SafeHaven, said the group would be working with Austin bar owners “to train the bar staff to be first responders.”

  “And so the cool thing about what we’re doing is, other organizations are giving this specifically to people who use drugs or may be impacted and what we’re doing is enabling our community members to be first responders,” Mokry continued.

  Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza was also on hand at the event, urging community members to call 911 if they witness someone who is overdosing.

  “What we hope everyone understands is that everyone is capable of saving a life. If you have the training, if you have the tools you need, you can help keep our community safe,” he said.

  “I want to be clear that if you call 911 because you see someone experiencing an overdose, you will not be prosecuted here in Travis County. We need everyone to stay safe and stay alive, and we need your help to do that.”

  Brown said Travis County would also be introducing a “Week of Action” to increase awareness and decrease overdoses.

  The county provided additional data for fentanyl-related deaths in the first six months of 2022 compared to 2021:

  • Women’s overdoses involving fentanyl increased by 150 percent

  • Black residents’ overdoses involving fentanyl increased by 180 percent

  • Hispanic residents’ overdoses involving fentanyl increased by nearly 155 percent

  “The data is clear, fentanyl does not discriminate,” Brown added. “It can impact, and it is impacting, all of us.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 21:25

• The Top 100 Most Valuable Brands In 2022
  The Top 100 Most Valuable Brands In 2022

  Given the elusive nature of brands, determining a brand’s financial value is a difficult task.

  Despite a brand’s intangibility, it’s hard to deny just how effective a strong one can be at boosting a company’s bottom line.

  With this in mind, Brand Finance takes on the challenge of identifying the world’s most valuable brands in the world in its annual Global 500 Report. Visual Capitalist’s Carmen Ang, Nick Routley, and Pernia Jamshed created the graphic below, using data from the latest edition of the report, to highlight the top 100 most valuable brands in 2022.

  

  Editor’s note: This ranking measures the value of brands, which can be thought of as marketing-related intangible assets that create a brand identity and reputation in the minds of consumers. It attempts to measure this in financial terms, calculating what the brand is worth to the company that owns it. For more information on methodology, calculations, and sourcing, go to the bottom of this article.

  A Full Breakdown of the Most Valuable Brands

  With an increase of 35% since last year’s report, Apple retains its top spot on the ranking as the world’s most valuable brand, with a total brand value of $335.1 billion.

  This is the highest brand value ever recorded in the history of the Global 500 report, which has been published each year since 2007.

  As one of the world’s largest tech companies, Apple dominates the smartphone market, especially in the U.S., where more than 50% of operating smartphones are now an iPhone.

  Here’s a list of the 10 most valuable brands according to the report:

  

  After Apple, coming in a close second is Amazon with a brand value of $350.3 billion. This is not surprising, considering the tech giant has often found itself neck-and-neck with Apple in the rankings, and has even come in first place in previous editions of the report.

  One other brand worth highlighting is TikTok. The social media company saw a 215% increase in its brand value year-over-year, making it the fastest-growing brand on the entire list.

  Between 2019 and 2021, the platform saw its userbase skyrocket, growing from 291.4 million to 655.9 million in just two years. If this growth continues, TikTok could reach nearly one billion users by 2025, according to projections from Insider Intelligence.

  Most Valuable Sectors

  Over a third of the brands on the list fall into the tech and services sector. Combined, this category has a brand value of $2.0 trillion.

  

   

  Media is the second most valuable sector—19% of the top 100 brands fall under the media and telecoms sector, including Google, Facebook, and WeChat.

   

  COVID-19 is partly the reason for this, as media consumption increased throughout the global pandemic. For example, in the first nine months of 2021, Snapchat’s daily usage grew by 77%. Despite increased traction with users, it’s worth noting the company is now feeling the sting as the real world competes for attention spans once again and advertisers begin to ghost the app due to recession jitters.

  As pandemic restrictions fade out around the world, and murmurs of a global recession threaten global economic growth, next year’s report could see some big shifts in brand value.

  The Geography of Valuable Brands

  When looking at where these brands are based, we see that the United States and China account for 73 of the top 100 brands on the ranking. Even more surprising—just six countries make up 94% of the list.

  The growth of Chinese companies on the global stage is reflected in this visualization. As a point of comparison, a decade ago, only six Chinese companies made Brand Finance’s Top 100 ranking, and none of them were in the top 30 for brand value.

  

  Interestingly, European countries only make up 14% of the list, which is a testament to just how much Europe’s economic dominance has dwindled over the last few decades.

  Back in the 1960s, Europe accounted for nearly a third of the world’s total GDP. But by 2017, it had dropped down to 16%. According to a forecast by the Pardee Center of the University of Denver, the EU’s share of global GDP is expected to drop down to 10% by 2100.

  Of course, if history has taught us anything, it’s that a lot can change over the span of a century. How a ranking like this will look in coming decades is anyone’s guess.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 21:00

• Scientists Claim To Have Created A Tiny Wormhole In The Quantum Realm
  Scientists Claim To Have Created A Tiny Wormhole In The Quantum Realm

  Authored by Elijah Cohen via TheMindUnleashed.com,

  For some who find the Fibonacci sequence used to entanglement qubits to be baffling, which is a crazy topic we published a video about here, you’d best grab onto something solid.

  

  Recently, a group of scientists discovered that quantum systems may mimic wormholes, theoretical shortcuts in spacetime, in that they permit the instantaneous transfer of information between distant places.

  Despite the fact that quantum particles are unaffected by gravity in the same manner that classical objects are, the study team believes their results may have ramifications for investigating quantum gravity. The study appeared this week in the journal Nature.

  “The relationship between quantum entanglement, spacetime, and quantum gravity is one of the most important questions in fundamental physics and an active area of theoretical research,” California Institute of Technology physicist Maria Spiropulu, the paper’s primary author, claimed in a press release. “We are excited to take this small step toward testing these ideas on quantum hardware and will keep going.“

  It’s time to take a breather. It should be made clear that the researchers did not really transmit quantum information via a spacetime rip, which in principle would unite previously disconnected parts of the universe.

  Think of it as folding a sheet of paper in half and sticking a pencil in between the folds. Since the paper represents spacetime, you may use it as a gateway to connect two seemingly inaccessible locations.

  In @Nature: making a traversable wormhole with a quantum computer. A qubit teleported across our Sycamore processor exhibits the dynamics expected from crossing a traversable wormhole, opening up possibilities to test quantum gravity theories. #GoogleAI https://t.co/I8sofabj8r https://t.co/lgedcmDVm7

  — Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) November 30, 2022

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

  In theoretical physics, there is a theory that posits wormholes are analogous to quantum entanglement, which Einstein notably referred to as “spooky action at a distance.” This indicates that the spins of entangled quantum particles characterize them uniquely, even at large distances. Due of their special bond, quantum particles make excellent teleportation prototypes.

  Separate research from 2017 showed that the gravitational description of spacetime wormholes is equal to the transfer of quantum information. The new group has been investigating the problem for themselves for some years.

  They aimed to demonstrate not just the equivalence of the two models, but also the possibility of describing information transmission in terms of either gravity or quantum entanglement. Scientists at Google were able to utilize its Sycamore quantum computer for the task.

  “We performed a kind of quantum teleportation equivalent to a traversable wormhole in the gravity picture,” said Alexander Zlokapa, a graduate student at MIT and a part of the team, in the release. “To do this, we had to simplify the quantum system to the smallest example that preserves gravitational characteristics so we could implement it on the Sycamore quantum processor at Google.”

  In an experiment that ticks most of the mystery boxes in modern physics, researchers announced they had simulated a pair of black holes in a quantum computer and sent a message between them through a “baby wormhole.” https://t.co/9wfYq2I2EB pic.twitter.com/S5Y7R12OZW

  — The New York Times (@nytimes) November 30, 2022

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

  A quantum bit (qubit) was introduced into a unique quantum system, and the scientists then saw data leaving the system.

  According to their paper, the information they had placed into one quantum system had exited the other system through the quantum counterpart of a wormhole.

  The researchers added that the teleportation of the quantum information was consistent with both quantum physical expectations and the gravitational knowledge of how an item would move through a wormhole.

  To see how this quantum information transfer could evolve in a more complicated experimental setting, the team aims to construct increasingly advanced quantum devices. It has been 87 years since Einstein and his collaborators first described wormholes; maybe by the time the concept reaches 100, scientists will have figured out how they work.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 20:35

• Raytheon Reveals US Plan To Remove Anti-Air Systems From Gulf For Ukraine
  Raytheon Reveals US Plan To Remove Anti-Air Systems From Gulf For Ukraine

  Via The Cradle,

  The CEO of US weapons giant Raytheon Technologies, Gregory Hayes, revealed on Thursday that Washington is working with partner nations in West Asia to transfer a handful of their air defense systems to Ukraine.

  “The [Pentagon] is going to attempt to do some trading for us where we’ll take some from the [West Asian] countries that are our friends and some from our NATO allies, and try and get those into Ukraine early next year,” Hayes said, before adding that the weapons will be  “[backfilled] with new production over the next two years.”

  

  Hayes did not mention specific countries the US is discussing the plan with. Washington’s goal with this plan is to deliver National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) to Ukraine within the next three to six months, to avoid a two-year wait for new ones from Raytheon’s factory.

  “Just because it takes 24 months to build, it doesn’t mean it’s going to take 24 months to get [to Ukraine],” he said.

  NASAMS are operated by five NATO members – Hungary, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, and Spain – as well as Oman and Qatar in West Asia, according to Defense Security Cooperation Agency records. Australia, Chile, Finland, and Indonesia also operate the systems.

  The White House reportedly approved the arrangement to transfer the air defense systems to Ukraine. However, a Defense Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Politico.

  Hayes made the revelations just a day after the US army awarded a $1.2 billion contract to Raytheon for six NASAMS for Ukraine, which are part of the fifth Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) package with a total value of $2.98 billion. Raytheon is also waiting in the wings for the approval of a $1 billion deal to provide Qatar with anti-drone systems.

  Since the start of the war in Ukraine in February, the US congress has approved $65.9 billion in Ukraine assistance through three separate supplemental funding packages.

  Just two weeks ago, US President Joe Biden asked congress for an additional $38 billion in Ukraine aid. If approved, this would bring the total amount of US taxpayer money Washington has funneled into the pockets of US weapon makers and Ukrainian authorities to $104 billion in less than a year.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 20:10

• Watch Live: Air Force Unveils B-21 Raider Stealth Bomber
  Watch Live: Air Force Unveils B-21 Raider Stealth Bomber

  Update (2017ET): 

  Here is the first image of the B-21 Raider. 

  

  *   *   *

  Update (2000ET): 

  The wait is finally over. Northrop Grumman Corporation and the US Air Force are set to unveil the world’s first sixth-generation aircraft. 

  “The unveiling of the B-21 Raider will be a historic moment for our Air Force and the nation.”

  “We last introduced a new bomber over 30 years ago. As we look to the threats posed by our pacing challenge; we must continue to rapidly modernize. The B-21 Raider will provide formidable combat capability across a range of operations in highly contested environments of the future,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr., said.  

  Only a few artists’ renderings of the Air Force’s next strategic bomber have ever been released in the public domain. Defense One said the “tightly controlled rollout ceremony for the B-21 Raider is scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern time.”

  Watch it here:

  *   *   *

  Northrop Grumman Corporation and the US Air Force are set to unveil the world’s first sixth-generation aircraft on Friday. 

  The B-21 Raider stealth bomber will be displayed at Northrop’s facility in Palmdale, California. There have been no photos, just renderings released in the public domain of the super secret aircraft that has been in development since 2015. 

  A team of more than 8,000 people from Northrop, 400 suppliers across 40 states, and the Air Force have been working on the B-21 program. 

  

  Northrop said the new stealth bomber “benefits from more than three decades of strike and stealth technology … and was developed with the next generation of stealth technology, advanced networking capabilities and an open systems architecture, the B-21 is optimized for the high-end threat environment.” 

  “The B-21 is the most advanced military aircraft ever built and is a product of pioneering innovation and technological excellence.

   “The Raider showcases the dedication and skills of the thousands of people working every day to deliver this aircraft,” Doug Young, sector vice president and general manager at Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems, said in a press release. 

  The plane, according to Northrop, will be the “backbone of the future for US air power” with new capabilities and advanced technology to deliver conventional and nuclear payloads. It will be able to “defeat the anti-access, area-denial systems,” the defense company said. 

  Northrop even called the new aircraft a “digital bomber.” Here’s why: 

  “Northrop Grumman uses agile software development, advanced manufacturing techniques and digital engineering tools to help mitigate production risk on the B-21 program and enable modern sustainment practices.”

  At least six of these new bombers are in various stages of final assembly and testing at the company’s plant in Palmdale. Tomorrow’s big reveal will be the first time public eyes have ever viewed a sixth-gen bomber in real-life. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 19:57

• Vaccinated People Make Up Majority Of COVID-19 Deaths: CDC Data
  Vaccinated People Make Up Majority Of COVID-19 Deaths: CDC Data

  Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that vaccinated and boosted people made up most of the COVID-19 deaths in August.

  

  Of the total 6,512 deaths recorded in August 2022, 58.6 percent of the deaths were attributed to vaccinated or boosted people, and seem to be a sign of a growing trend where vaccinated individuals are increasingly becoming the majority in COVID-19 mortalities.

  In January 2022, COVID-19 mortalities in the vaccinated was still the minority with 41 percent of the data related to vaccinated or boosted individuals.

  However, analysis of the CDC data from June and July showed over 50 percent of deaths were being reported in vaccinated individuals, with 62 and 61 percent reported respectively.

  “We can no longer say this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Cynthia Cox, the vice-president of the Kaiser Family Foundation told the Washington Post in an article dated Nov. 23. 

  

  Cox, while in support of COVID-19 vaccination, gave three reasons that may explain why.

  One was that the majority of Americans have at least been given the primary series. Her second reason is that elderly, who have the greatest risk of dying from COVID, are also more likely to take up vaccinations.

  Cox’s final reason was that the potency of the vaccine will wane over time and as variants become more resistant, and therefore recommended more booster uptake.

  COVID-19 vaccination effectiveness has been shown to wane dramatically over the period of a few months, sometimes falling into negligible efficacy.

  Professor Jeffrey Townsend from Yale University, biostatistician, and lead author to a research study evaluating natural and vaccinated immunity against COVID-19, wrote in an email to The Epoch Times that at this stage in the pandemic, rather than comparing the vaccinated against the unvaccinated, it is more helpful to look at an individual’s time since last exposure instead, with exposures meaning vaccinations or infections.

  “Most people have had some kind of exposure, the time since last exposure, along with what the last exposure was, dictates the level of immunity and can explain most variation in susceptibility, morbidity, and mortality,” Townsend wrote.

  Currently, long term studies on immunity against COVID-19 have shown that whether a person is vaccinated or infected with COVID-19, their immunity wanes over time.

  Other research compared natural immunity with vaccinations often showed that vaccination tends to wane at a much higher rate than that of natural infection.

  Some scientists also posited that mRNA vaccines may interfere with the body’s natural immune response. Since the current technology used in mRNA vaccines may “hide the mRNA from cellular defenses and promote a longer biological half-life and high production of spike protein,” according to a June 2022 paper published in Food and Chemical Toxicology. The spike protein is the main pathogenic part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

  Clinicians Question ‘Pandemic of the Unvaccinated’ Narrative

  Internal medical physician and cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough told The Epoch Times that the pandemic was only driven by the unvaccinated in 2020, where there were no vaccines available, and from 2021 it was mostly the vaccinated people who were dying from COVID-19. He reasoned that it is simply because the vaccine did little to control mortality.

  “[The CDC data] is far too late in drawing that conclusion, [the vaccinated] probably assumed the majority sometime during 2021,” said McCullough.

  In 2020, more than 385,000 COVID deaths were documented by the CDC, whereas in 2021, when vaccinations were rolling out, there were more than 463,000 COVID-19 deaths.

  By June of 2021, around 53 percent of the U.S. population had received their first dose and 44 percent were fully vaccinated.

  Yet there was little difference in COVID-19 mortality cases between the first half of 2021 and the second half, with over 244,000 cases (more than 50 percent of the whole year) reported from July to December.

  “It certainly can’t be a situation where we blame the unvaccinated for COVID deaths. And we certainly wouldn’t conclude that the vaccines made any impact on us as the majority of deaths happened during the era of vaccinations,” said McCullough.

  Data from other countries have also demonstrated higher rates of vaccinated patients being hospitalized with COVID as vaccination rates overall rose.

  As early as January 2022, hospitalization data coming out from the state of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia showed that a greater proportion of hospitalized patients were vaccinated. The vaccinated contributed to 50.3 percent of ICU presentations as compared to the 49.1 percent who were unvaccinated.

  NSW was the only state that continued to track and publicize the vaccine status of the people being hospitalized in Australia. It is one of the most vaccinated places; by Nov. 24, over 80 percent of people over the age of 16 received their first boosters.

  The most recent weekly data from NSW continued to show that the vaccinated make up the majority of COVID hospitalizations, ICU admission, and deaths. The most recent report, dated to Nov. 12, showed that unvaccinated patients contributed to 21 percent of COVID deaths, and less than 1 percent of hospitalizations and ICU admissions.

  However, it should be noted that there was only 24 cases of COVID deaths reported in the report, with 440 hospitalizations and 40 ICU admissions, suggestive of a decline in disease severity.

  Mortality data from Manitoba in Canada in the week July 31 to Aug. 6, 2022 also showed that while the boosted population made up 70 percent of all COVID mortalities, the unvaccinated contributed to less than 10 percent of deaths. This is with 43 percent of the population boosted.

  Reports out of the UK also showed similar findings. A report (pdf) published on March 31, 2022 showed that almost 73 percent of COVID mortalities were in boosted individuals while 10 percent were attributed to unvaccinated people. At the time, over 57 percent of the population received a booster shot and 73 percent received their primary doses.

  Unvaccinated Mortality Rates May Not Reflect the Whole Picture

  McCullough added that with the decrease in overall disease severity with Omicron, the data may not present an accurate understanding on COVID deaths.

  “The CDC death data has to be interpreted with caution, because they’re not adjudicated as dying of COVID. They can actually die with COVID.”

  The CDC’s website currently estimates that only 10 percent of COVID-19 deaths have COVID as the contributor of deaths. Therefore, there may be cases counted as a COVID mortality even if COVID was not the primary driver for the death.

  McCullough gave the example that a person may be admitted to the hospital for a heart attack and test positive on the COVID test from having contracted the disease 6 months ago.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 19:45

• Appeals Court Stops Special Master Review Of Documents Seized At Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Estate
  Appeals Court Stops Special Master Review Of Documents Seized At Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Estate

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

  A federal appeals court on Thursday has put a stop to a special master’s external review of the thousands of documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

  

  The ruling comes after a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit heard from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Trump’s lawyers on Nov. 22 regarding the government’s motion to remove U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie as special master.

  This appointment of a special master by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, barred the DOJ from getting their hands on the documents as they pursued a criminal investigation into Trump “pending resolution” of the review.

  The federal appeals court ruled that Cannon had no jurisdiction to exercise what’s known as equitable jurisdiction—or the authority of the court to act in the interest of fairness—in this scenario where an indictment hadn’t been announced and without showing that the seizure of documents was unlawful.

  

  Exercising equitable jurisdiction should only be “exceptional” and “anomalous,” the judges said. They noted that legal precedent had limited this jurisdiction with a four-factor test. Trump’s jurisdictional arguments “fail all four factors,” they said.

  In their opinion, the judges said they had considered their options: either “drastically expand” the availability of equitable jurisdiction for every subject of a search warrant, carve out an “unprecedented exception” in the law for former presidents, or apply their usual test.

  They chose to apply their usual four-factor test, noting that only the “narrowest of circumstances permit a district court to invoke equitable jurisdiction” and that this was “not one of them.”

  The appeals court judges remanded the district court to dismiss Trump’s civil action originally calling for the special master.

  “The law is clear,” the appeals court judges wrote in their opinion (pdf). “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”

  “Either approach would be a radical reordering of our caselaw limiting the federal courts’ involvement in criminal investigations,” the opinion continued. “And both would violate bedrock separation-of-powers limitations.”

  Jack Smith, a recently appointed special counsel, tasked with leading the investigation into whether the former president violated the Espionage Act and other federal laws through the handling of certain records, including papers with secret markings, brought the appeals court challenge.

  

  The DOJ is looking into any obstruction of justice by Trump, as well as any legal violations involving the removal of White House records.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 19:20

• Elon Musk Releases THE TWITTER FILES: How Twitter Collaborated With "The Biden Team" To Cover Up The Hunter Laptop Story
  Elon Musk Releases THE TWITTER FILES: How Twitter Collaborated With “The Biden Team” To Cover Up The Hunter Laptop Story

  In a greatly anticipated Friday night drop of what has was expected to be a cache of information involving the censoring of Hunter Biden’s notebook story days ahead of the 2020 presidential election, moments ago Elon Musk – who worked in collaboration with the notoriously independent gonzo journalist Matt Taibbi of “Vampire Squid” fame – has published the “Twitter Files.”

  Shortly before their release, Matt Taibbi sent the following email to his substack subscribers:

  Dear TK Readers:

  Very shortly, I’m going to begin posting a long thread of information on Twitter, at my account, @mtaibbi. This material is likely to get a lot of attention. I will absolutely understand if subscribers are angry that it is not appearing here on Substack first. I’d be angry, too.

  The last 96 hours have been among the most chaotic of my life, involving multiple trips back and forth across the country, with a debate in Canada in between. There’s a long story I hope to be able to tell soon, but can’t, not quite yet anyway. What I can say is that in exchange for the opportunity to cover a unique and explosive story, I had to agree to certain conditions.

  Those of you who’ve been here for years know how seriously I take my obligation to this site’s subscribers. On this one occasion, I’m going to have to simply ask you to trust me. As it happens, there may be a few more big surprises coming, and those will be here on Substack. And there will be room here to to discuss this, too, in time. In any case, thanks for your support and your patience, and please hold me to a promise to make all this up to you, and then some.

  Moments later Elon confirmed that he did, in fact, work with Taibbi:

  Here we go!! 🍿🍿 https://t.co/eILK9f3bAm

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022

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

  And this is what Taibbi has been tweeting in the past few minutes (link here):

  1. Thread: THE TWITTER FILES

  2. What you’re about to read is the first installment in a series, based upon thousands of internal documents obtained by sources at Twitter.

  3. The “Twitter Files” tell an incredible story from inside one of the world’s largest and most influential social media platforms. It is a Frankensteinian tale of a human-built mechanism grown out the control of its designer.

  4. Twitter in its conception was a brilliant tool for enabling instant mass communication, making a true real-time global conversation possible for the first time.

  5. In an early conception, Twitter more than lived up to its mission statement, giving people “the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers.”

  6. As time progressed, however, the company was slowly forced to add those barriers. Some of the first tools for controlling speech were designed to combat the likes of spam and financial fraudsters.

  7. Slowly, over time, Twitter staff and executives began to find more and more uses for these tools. Outsiders began petitioning the company to manipulate speech as well: first a little, then more often, then constantly.

  8. By 2020, requests from connected actors to delete tweets were routine. One executive would write to another:  “More to review from the Biden team.” The reply would come back: “Handled.”

  

  9. Celebrities and unknowns alike could be removed or reviewed at the behest of a political party:

  

  10.Both parties had access to these tools. For instance, in 2020, requests from both the Trump White House and the Biden campaign were received and honored. However:

  11. This system wasn’t balanced. It was based on contacts. Because Twitter was and is overwhelmingly staffed by people of one political orientation, there were more channels, more ways to complain, open to the left (well, Democrats) than the right.

  

  12. The resulting slant in content moderation decisions is visible in the documents you’re about to read. However, it’s also the assessment of multiple current and former high-level executives.

  … Okay, there was more throat-clearing about the process, but screw it, let’s jump forward

  16. The Twitter Files, Part One: How and Why Twitter Blocked the Hunter Biden Laptop Story

  17. On October 14, 2020, the New York Post published BIDEN SECRET EMAILS, an expose based on the contents of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop:

  

  18. Twitter took extraordinary steps to suppress the story, removing links and posting warnings that it may be “unsafe.” They even blocked its transmission via direct message, a tool hitherto reserved for extreme cases, e.g. child pornography.

  19. White House spokeswoman Kaleigh McEnany was locked out of her account for tweeting about the story, prompting a furious letter from Trump campaign staffer Mike Hahn, who seethed: “At least pretend to care for the next 20 days.”

  

  20.This led public policy executive Caroline Strom to send out a polite WTF query. Several employees noted that there was tension between the comms/policy teams, who had little/less control over moderation, and the safety/trust teams:

  

  21. Strom’s note returned the answer that the laptop story had been removed for violation of the company’s “hacked materials” policy:  https://web.archive.org/web/20190717143909/https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/hacked-materials

  

  22. Although several sources recalled hearing about a “general” warning from federal law enforcement that summer about possible foreign hacks, there’s no evidence – that I’ve seen – of any government involvement in the laptop story. In fact, that might have been the problem…

  23. The decision was made at the highest levels of the company, but without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, with former head of legal, policy and trust Vijaya Gadde playing a key role.

  24. “They just freelanced it,” is how one former employee characterized the decision. “Hacking was the excuse, but within a few hours, pretty much everyone realized that wasn’t going to hold. But no one had the guts to reverse it.”

  25.You can see the confusion in the following lengthy exchange, which ends up including Gadde and former Trust and safety chief Yoel Roth. Comms official Trenton Kennedy writes, “I’m struggling to understand the policy basis for marking this as unsafe”:

  

  26. By this point “everyone knew this was fucked,” said one former employee, but the response was essentially to err on the side of… continuing to err.

  

  27. Former VP of Global Comms Brandon Borrman asks, “Can we truthfully claim that this is part of the policy?”

  

  28. To which former Deputy General Counsel Jim Baker again seems to advise staying the non-course, because “caution is warranted”:

  

  29. A fundamental problem with tech companies and content moderation: many people in charge of speech know/care little about speech, and have to be told the basics by outsiders. To wit:

  30. In one humorous exchange on day 1, Democratic congressman Ro Khanna reaches out to Gadde to gently suggest she hop on the phone to talk about the “backlash re speech.” Khanna was the only Democratic official I could find in the files who expressed concern.

  

  31. Gadde replies quickly, immediately diving into the weeds of Twitter policy, unaware Khanna is more worried about the Bill of Rights:

  

  32.Khanna tries to reroute the conversation to the First Amendment, mention of which is generally hard to find in the files:

  

  33.Within a day, head of Public Policy Lauren Culbertson receives a ghastly letter/report from Carl Szabo of the research firm NetChoice, which had already polled 12 members of congress – 9 Rs and 3 Democrats, from “the House Judiciary Committee to Rep. Judy Chu’s office.”

  

  34.NetChoice lets Twitter know a “blood bath” awaits in upcoming Hill hearings, with members saying it’s a “tipping point,” complaining tech has “grown so big that they can’t even regulate themselves, so government may need to intervene.”

  

  35.Szabo reports to Twitter that some Hill figures are characterizing the laptop story as “tech’s Access Hollywood moment”:

  

  36.Twitter files continued:  “THE FIRST AMENDMENT ISN’T ABSOLUTE” 

  Szabo’s letter contains chilling passages relaying Democratic lawmakers’ attitudes. They want “more” moderation, and as for the Bill of Rights, it’s “not absolute”

  

  37. An amazing subplot of the Twitter/Hunter Biden laptop affair was how much was done without the knowledge of CEO Jack Dorsey, and how long it took for the situation to get “unfucked” (as one ex-employee put it) even after Dorsey jumped in.

  38. While reviewing Gadde’s emails, I saw a familiar name – my own. Dorsey sent her a copy of my Substack article blasting the incident

  

  39. There are multiple instances in the files of Dorsey intervening to question suspensions and other moderation actions, for accounts across the political spectrum

  40. The problem with the “hacked materials” ruling, several sources said, was that this normally required an official/law enforcement finding of a hack. But such a finding never appears throughout what one executive describes as a “whirlwind” 24-hour, company-wide mess.

  

  41. It’s been a whirlwind 96 hours for me, too. There is much more to come, including answers to questions about issues like shadow-banning, boosting, follower counts, the fate of various individual accounts, and more. These issues are not limited to the political right.

  42. Good night, everyone. Thanks to all those who picked up the phone in the last few days.

  *  *  *

  The release was telegraphed one week ago, when Musk acknowledged that revealing Twitter’s internal discussions surrounding the censorship of the New York Post‘s Hunter Biden laptop story right before the 2020 US election is “necessary to restore public trust.”

  This is necessary to restore public trust

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 24, 2022

  Recall that the Post had its Twitter account locked in October 2020 for reporting on the now-confirmed-to-be-real “laptop from hell,” which contained still-unprosecuted evidence of foreign influence peddling through then-Vice President Joe Biden – including a 2015 meeting with an executive of Ukrainian gas giant Burisma.

  Users who tried to share the link to the article were greeted with a message saying, “We can’t complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful.”

  Then, days after Musk’s tweet, Twitter’s former head of Trust and Safety, Yoel Roth, admitted it was a ‘mistake’ to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story.

  In his first public appearance since becoming an ex-employee, Roth suggested that the Hunter Biden laptop story was simply ‘too difficult’ for Twitter to verify. Alternatively, the company could have perhaps simply trusted the Post, one of America’s oldest publications that doesn’t have a reputation for fabricating bombshell stories – like Twitter does with countless anonymous bombshells from other major publications.

  “We didn’t know what to believe. We didn’t know what was true. There was smoke,” Roth said during an interview at the Knight Foundation conference, as noted by the Epoch Times. “And ultimately for me, it didn’t reach a place where I was comfortable removing this content from Twitter.”

  “It set off every single one of my finely tuned APT28 ‘hack and leak campaign’ alarm bells,” he said, referring to a notorious team of cyberspies affiliated with Russian military intelligence. “Everything about it looked like a hack and leak.”

  When asked whether if it was a mistake to censor the story, Roth replied, “In my opinion, yes.”

  Would Roth have suppressed the story if it was a Don Jr. laptop full of incriminating evidence?

  * * *

  Finally, it will be very interesting to see which “independent”, “impartial” and “objective” members of the Mainstream Media cover the Twitter Files, which unlike all that Russia collusion bullshit, was a real and actionable attempt to interfere with US democracy by covering up one of the most explosive political stories of a generation, not to mention an event that would have swayed the 2020 presidential election. 

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

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 19:05

• LA County Experiences 1,200% Increase In Fentanyl Overdose Deaths Over 5-Year Period
  LA County Experiences 1,200% Increase In Fentanyl Overdose Deaths Over 5-Year Period

  Between 2016 and 2016, Los Angeles County experienced a 1,280% spike in overdose deaths from fentanyl, according to a recent report from the county Department of Public Health.

  

  In a joint statement, the LA County District Attorney’s Office (which regularly refuses to charge drug dealers) and the health department announced the creation of a working group to address the situation “through prevention, education and enforcement.”

  The ‘enforcement’ part will of course mark a radical departure from DA George Gascón’s ‘catch-and-release’ policy when it comes to criminals.

  According to the health department, there were 104 deaths in 2016 attributed to fentanyl, which ballooned to 1,662 in 2001.

  

  According to City News Service, black residents had the highest overdose rate based on the population, at 30.6 per 100,000 residents. White residents are overdosing at a rate of 22.5 per 100,000, while Latinos are at 11.1 per 100,000 residents.

  The overdoses also occurred much more frequently in less affluent areas – which came in at 38.4 deaths per 100,000 vs. 12.3 per 100,000.

  “Fentanyl overdoses are a significant and growing public health problem across the United States and in [the county], across sociodemographic groups and geographic areas,” reads the report, which adds “The increases among youth and the widening inequities between under-resourced and more affluent groups underscore the need to target prevention efforts to those at highest risk to decrease fentanyl overdoses and advance health equity in [LA County].”

  

  Gascón, acting like he isn’t a huge part of the problem, said in a statement that the working group is “bringing together the county’s public health experts, education leaders, community advocates, and law enforcement professionals to support and utilize evidence-based and effective approaches to stopping the toll fentanyl is taking,” Gascón said in a statement.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 18:30

• Antifa Defendants Arrested In Attack On Trump Supporters Take Plea Deals
  Antifa Defendants Arrested In Attack On Trump Supporters Take Plea Deals

  Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Six of 11 alleged assailants connected with Antifa, a far-left extremist group, have taken plea deals and pled guilty to charges related to violent attacks on supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump at a “Patriot March” in San Diego shortly after the 2020 election.

  

  Five defendants pled guilty on Nov. 18, just over a week after Erich “Nikki” Louis Yach was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison for his role in the violence near Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach on Jan. 9, 2021. Yach was the first of the 11 to be sentenced.

  Yach earlier pled guilty to charges of conspiracy, assault, and the unlawful use of tear gas.

  At his sentencing hearing, GG Hubbard, Yach’s spouse, urged the court to send Yach—a biological male who identifies as female—to a women’s prison. Yach has spent nearly the last two years in a men’s prison and will be credited for time already served.

  “I want to make sure she gets put in the correct facility according to her gender,” Hubbard told the court.

  Hubbard claimed Yach is “not violent” and said incarceration in anything but a women’s facility was “violating the law” and “political and fascist nonsense.”

  San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan announced in June that a criminal grand jury had two weeks earlier delivered 29 indictments against all 11 defendants, including “conspiracy to commit a riot, use of tear gas, assault with a deadly weapon, and assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury.”

  

  “Antifa uses force, fear, and violence to further their interests and suppress the interests of others. The objective of this conspiracy was to incite and participate in a riot,” the district attorney’s office said at the time.

  The defendants named in the indictments are from Los Angeles and San Diego counties and are all “affiliated with Antifa” according to a statement from the district attorney’s office last December. The named are Alexander Akridgejacobs, Jesse Merel Cannon, Brian Cortez Lightfoot Jr., Christian Martinez, Luis Francisco Mora, Samuel Howard Ogden, Bryan Rivera, Faraz Martin Talab, and Jeremy White.

  Antifa supporters posted on social media on Jan. 2, 2021 calls for a “counterprotest” and “direct action” against Trump supporters, and then a week later gathered with other “uncharged co-conspirators” dressed in black garb with Antifa insignia to confront those participating in the Patriot March, the office stated.

  According to the district attorney’s office, such alleged action included “assault, battery, assault with deadly weapons, arson, and vandalism.”

  Videos posted online showed one of the masked, black-clad protesters carrying an “Antifascist Action” banner and another with a sign saying “No Nazis in PB”—a reference to Pacific Beach—as the group of about 100 shouted “Racists go home!” at Trump supporters.

  

  “Antifa uses force, fear, and violence to further their interests and suppress the interests of others. The objective of this conspiracy was to incite and participate in a riot,” the district attorney’s office said.

  The indictments accused the Antifa-affiliated group of planning the attacks and using a baseball bat, flagpole, stun gun, and tear gas on their victims. They were also accused of throwing a wooden lawn chair at a woman.

  Prosecutors also allege some Antifa members in the crowd chased down several minors whom they thought were part of the Patriot March, sprayed them with mace, and pushed one to the ground. The victim was later transported to a hospital for treatment of a concussion.

  Other “victims included a journalist [taking] photos, a dog that was maced and a business that was also vandalized,” prosecutors said.

  The San Diego Police Department reported a total of 16 separate attacks on eight people.

  The Antifa rioters allegedly threw eggs, rocks and bottles and sprayed mace at officers after police declared the dueling protests an unlawful assembly and tried to disperse the crowd.

  All the defendants pleaded not guilty in June.

  None of the Trump supporters or other bystanders were charged with any crimes.

  “Video evidence analysis shows that overwhelmingly the violence in this incident was perpetrated by the Antifa affiliates and was not a mutual fray with both sides crossing out of lawful First Amendment,” the district attorney’s office stated in June.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 18:12

• Minneapolis Settles With 12 Injured George Floyd Protesters, Police Barred From Arresting Lawful Protesters
  Minneapolis Settles With 12 Injured George Floyd Protesters, Police Barred From Arresting Lawful Protesters

  Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

  The city of Minneapolis on Wednesday reached a $600,000 settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota (ACLU-MN) over alleged police mistreatment of protestors following the death of George Floyd.

  

  The lawsuit was filed in 2020 by ACLU-MN, Fish & Richardson P.C., and Gustafson Gluek PLLC on behalf of 12 protesters who were injured when they took to the streets to peacefully demonstrate.

  According to ACLU-MN, the class action lawsuit awards a $600,000 payment, to be split among the plaintiffs, and includes “numerous reforms.”

  Specifically, it bans the city from “arresting, threatening to arrest, or using physical force,” which includes the use of chemical agents, flash-bang or concussion grenades, and foam-tipped bullets to stop people from engaging in lawful protests or demonstrations.

  It also limits police use of chemical agents to disperse peaceful protests and requires that officers deployed to protests are wearing body cameras that are recording and are “unobstructed.”

  Plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim to have suffered an array of injuries, including bruising, “lingering respiratory issues from tear gas, and psychological trauma “due to Minneapolis police using “unnecessary and excessive force” to suppress the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights to protests, including tear gas and rubber bullets.

  

  A police officer stands amid smoke and debris as buildings continue to burn in the aftermath of a night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

  

  Protesters face police as the latter move in with tear gas to take over the chaotic streets outside the Minneapolis Police 5th Precinct during the fourth night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

  They also alleged that officers often fired without warning or orders to leave.

  The plaintiffs claimed that the psychological trauma they suffered as a result of this “excessive force” had quashed their desire to protest in the future.

  Peaceful vs. Violent Expression

  

  Demonstrators gather for a rally in memory of George Floyd and Daunte Wright outside Cup Foods in Minneapolis, Minn., on April 18, 2021. (John Minchillo/AP Photo)

  Wednesday’s agreed settlement and injunction resolve two lawsuits filed in 2020 against the City of Minneapolis, Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, and various Minneapolis Police Department officers. Those lawsuits were later consolidated into one lawsuit.

  The settlement dismisses claims against individual officers.

  “People who are demonstrating peacefully should never be met with police violence as they were in Minneapolis during protests over MPD’s murder of George Floyd,” said ACLU-MN Legal Director Teresa Nelson in a statement.

  “Tear gas, foam bullets, and pepper spray became weapons for intimidating and hurting protesters, making it dangerous for people to exercise their First Amendment rights. We hope this settlement sends a message to law enforcement across Minnesota that this violation of our constitutional rights will not be tolerated.”

  

  A poster with George Floyd’s picture and a sign reads that “I Can’t Breathe” hang from a security fence outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, Minn. on March 31, 2021. (Kerem Yucel/AFP via Getty Images)

  Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed in May 2020 by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin during an arrest after Floyd allegedly tried to use a counterfeit $20 bill to purchase cigarettes.

  Chauvin held his knee against Floyd’s neck and back for approximately nine-and-a-half minutes as Floyd lay handcuffed and face-down on the pavement while, another officer, Thomas Lane, restrained his lower body and J. Alexander Kueng knelt on Floyd’s back.

  Video of the incident quickly went viral online, sparking protests across the country, in which thousands of peaceful protesters but also many non-peaceful rioters participated, resulting in damage to some businesses from looting and arson. Many of the protests continued into early 2021 and prompted calls to defund the police.

  

  A destroyed building still smolders near the Minneapolis Police 3rd Precinct the day after it was attacked and burned by rioters following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

  

  State Police stand guard as smoke billows from buildings that continue to burn in the aftermath of a night of protests and violence following the death of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, Minn., on May 29, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

  According to a report from Axios, the destruction that occurred as a result of the demonstrations was estimated to see at least $1 billion to $2 billion of paid insurance claims.

  Chauvin was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter charges in Floyd’s death in April 2021, and sentenced to more than 22 years in prison.

  The Epoch Times has contacted Minneapolis Police for comment.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 17:22

• California Governor's Reparations Committee To Recommend $223,200 Per Descendant Of Slavery
  California Governor’s Reparations Committee To Recommend $223,200 Per Descendant Of Slavery

  California taxpayers may be on the hook for as much as $223,200 for each descendant of slavery living in the Golden State, in order to compensate them for “housing discrimination,” according to the New York Times.

  

  The nine-member Reparations Task Force, formed by California Governor Gavin Newsom, has been focusing on ways to counter the claimed housing discrimination. Overall reparations would cost approximately $569 billion to compensate the roughly 2.5 million black Californians for ‘setbacks’ between 1933 and 1977 – eclipsing the state’s $512.8 billion expenditure in 2021.

  “We want to see the land and economic wealth stolen from Black families all across this country returned,” said activist Kavon Ward.

  The panel is still mulling how payments should be made – with some suggesting tuition and housing grants, while others are suggesting cash. Final figures will be released in a 2023 report, which would then be up to the state Legislature to act upon the recommendations and figure out how to fund them.

  They have also identified four other reasons for reparations – mass incarceration, unjust property seizures, devaluation of black businesses and health care. The $223,200 figure only applies to housing discrimination.

  “We are looking at reparations on a scale that is the largest since Reconstruction,” task force member Jovan Scott Lewis, a Berkeley professor, told the Times.

  Every year for almost three decades, Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan introduced legislation that would have created a commission to explore reparations, but the measure consistently stalled in Congress. After Mr. Conyers retired in 2017, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas began championing the measure, which passed a House committee for the first time last year, but stalled on the floor.

  Underscoring the political hurdles, opinions on reparations are sharply divided by race. Last year, an online survey by the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that 86 percent of African Americans supported compensating the descendants of slaves, compared with 28 percent of white people. Other polls have also shown wide splits. -NYT

  The Times points to Russell City, California as an example of housing discrimination. The city, once home to many black families who fled racial terror, was bulldozed and repolaced with an industrial park. Former resident Monique Henderson-Ford told the Times she was paid $2,200 for her home – less than 1/3 of what she paid.

  “Imagine if the houses were still here,” she said, adding “We would all be sitting on a fortune.“

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 16:50

• Quinn: We Are Trapped In 'A Truman Show' Directed By Psychopaths
  Quinn: We Are Trapped In ‘A Truman Show’ Directed By Psychopaths

  Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

  “Whether in actual fact the policy of the boot-on-the-face can go on indefinitely seems doubtful. My own belief is that the ruling oligarchy will find less arduous and wasteful ways of governing and of satisfying its lust for power, and these ways will resemble those which I described in Brave New World. Within the next generation I believe that the world’s rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience.” – Aldous Huxley – Letter to George Orwell about 1984 in 1949

  

  “There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution” ― Aldous Huxley

  When I step back from the day-to-day minutia and trivialities flooding my senses from all directions and media devices, it almost appears as if I’m living in a highly scripted reality TV program where the characters and plots are designed to create passions and reactions to support whatever narrative is being weaved by those directing the show. Huxley really did foresee the future as clearly and concisely as anyone could, decades before his dystopian vision came to fruition.

  Orwell’s boot on the face vision is only now being initiated because a few too many critical thinkers have awoken from their pharmaceutically induced stupor and begun to question the plotline of this spectacle masquerading as our reality. The mass formation psychosis infecting the weak-minded masses; relentless mass propaganda designed to mislead, misinform, and brainwash a dumbed down and government indoctrinated populace; and complete control of the story line through media manipulation, regulation, and censorship of the truth; has run its course. As Charles Mackay stated 180 years ago, the masses go mad as a herd, but only regain their senses slowly, and one by one.

  My recognition that the world seems to be scripted and directed by Machiavellian managers, working behind a dark shroud, representing an invisible governing authority, molding our minds, suggesting our ideas, dictating our tastes, and creating fear, triggered a recollection of the 1998 Jim Carrey movie – The Truman Show. The movie, directed by Peter Weir (Gallipoli, Witness, Dead Poet’s Society), had the surreal feel of Forest Gump, while beckoning the horrendous introduction of reality TV (Big Brother, Survivor), which poisons our shallow unserious society to this day. The plot of the movie focuses on individuality versus conformity, consumerism, voyeurism, reality versus manipulation, false narratives, the truth about the American Dream, and the dangers of surveillance in a technologically advanced society.

  

  Truman Burbank is the unsuspecting star of The Truman Show, a reality television program filmed 24/7 through thousands of hidden cameras and broadcast to a worldwide audience. Christof, the show’s creator seeks to capture Truman’s authentic emotions and give audiences a relatable everyman. Truman has been the unsuspecting star of the show since he was born 30 years prior. Truman’s hometown of Seahaven Island is a complete set built within an enormous dome, populated by crew members and actors who highlight the product placements that generate revenue for the show. The elaborate set allows Christof to control almost every aspect of Truman’s life, including the weather. The picture-perfect home, with picket fence and plastic people, is an attempt to convince Truman he is living the American Dream rather than in an inescapable dystopian techno-prison.

  

  To prevent Truman from discovering his false reality, Christof manufactures scenarios that dissuade Truman’s desire for exploration, such as the “death” of his father in a sea storm to instill aquaphobia, and by constantly broadcasting and printing messages of the dangers of traveling and the virtues of staying home. One cannot but acknowledge the plotline to keep Truman under control, obedient, and locked down in his controlled environment, with no escape hatch visible, as exactly the plotline used by our overlords during the Covid scam. Using fear to regulate your subjects is a familiar theme used by those controlling the narrative and pulling the strings behind the scenes of our glorious democracy of dystopia.

  The first task was to instill fear into the masses through fake videos, fake medical experts spewing fake “facts”, denying the reality masks, social distancing, and locking down the world did not stop a microscopic virus, while suppressing treatments which were clearly safe and effective (ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine) and forcing Fauci’s remdesivir and ventilators on patients – insuring their deaths. Truman’s life was built upon lies, deception, and fake narratives, controlled by a tyrannical director putting on a show to please his bosses and maximize profits. We are experiencing the same reality today.

  Since March 2020 we have been trapped in a dystopian reality show based on lies, deception, and fake narratives about a weaponized virus created in a lab funded by Anthony Fauci and utilized to further the totalitarian Great Reset agenda of Schwab, Gates and their ilk, while maximizing the profits of Pfizer, TV networks and filling the pockets of politicians, shills, and apparatchiks willing to sellout the people of our country for thirty pieces of silver.

  

  As the Truman Show approached its 30th anniversary, Truman began discovering unusual elements, such as a spotlight falling out of the sky in front of his house and a radio channel that precisely described his movements. He began to awaken to the fact he was nothing but a peculiarity trapped in a cage and constantly deterred from escaping at every turn, for the good of the show. He lived in a scripted world of conformity, where questioning the plot was not allowed, and the masses just played their parts.

  This is exactly how a dictatorship without tears uses technology, pharmaceuticals, and psychological manipulation to convince the masses to love their servitude. This is the reality show we have been living in during this 21st Century dictatorship dystopia of dunces. But this psychological phenomenon is not new to mankind, as Plato described an ancient Truman Show analog in the 6th Century with his Allegory of the Cave. The nature of human beings has not changed across the trials and tribulations of history.

  

  In the allegory, Plato describes a group of people who have lived chained in a cave all their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them and give names to these shadows. The shadows are the prisoners’ reality but are not an accurate representation of the real world. An enlightened man is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand the shadows on the wall are not reality.

  The ignorant inmates do not desire to leave their prison/cave, for it is the only life they know, and they fear reality. The fire and the puppets, used to create shadows, are controlled by artists. Plato indicates the fire is also the political doctrine taught by a nation state. The artists use light and shadows to indoctrinate the masses with the dominant doctrines of the times. Few humans ever escape the cave. Most humans will remain at the bottom of the cave, with a small few elevated as major artists, to project the shadows keeping the masses disoriented, confused and fearful.

  “Whereas the truth is that the State in which the rulers are most reluctant to govern is always the best and most quietly governed, and the State in which they are most eager, the worst.” ― Plato, The Allegory of the Cave

  

  “Most people are not just comfortable in their ignorance, but hostile to anyone who points it out.” ― Plato, The Allegory of the Cave

  

  The State is run by an eager group of psychopaths who are hell bent on destroying our civil society and common culture on behalf of globalists attempting to implement their Great Reset agenda, and enforcing it through technological surveillance, mind control through propaganda messaging, and strict management of the daily plot via mainstream media and social media censorship of the truth. As Plato contemplated fifteen centuries ago, most men will remain in their cave, believing shadows presented by their overlords is reality, never questioning their servitude or seeking the truth.

  Never has this fact been truer than during this covid pandemic reality show directed by our Christof – mass murderer Anthony Fauci. The willful ignorance of the masses was assumed by the covid controllers who cast shadows of fear and death on the cave walls of the locked down extras in this well-orchestrated reality show. Using a purposefully misleading PCR test to vastly overestimate “cases”, paying hospitals to classify all deaths as covid, and having the propaganda professionals at CNN, MSNBC and Fox showing Covid Death Counters on their screens 24/7 to terrify the masses into compliance was the Covid Show.

  

  Once the fear level was ramped to eleven on the control dial, the producers of this show introduced the miraculous Big Pharma vaccine antidote to save the day. Their script was so believable they were able to convince over 5 billion members of their captive audience to inject themselves with an untested, unproven genetic therapy, that didn’t prevent you from catching, transmitting, getting sick, being hospitalized, or dying from the Fauci funded Wuhan lab produced virus. But, as a dramatic twist to the tale, it seems the “vaccine” causes myocarditis, blood clots, infertility, miscarriages, heart attacks, cancer, and sudden death.

  

  Despite the obvious dangers and failures of these “vaccines”, those bullied into getting jabbed became so comfortable in their ignorance, they were easily persuaded to hate the unjabbed and wish for their deaths. Orwell’s “Two Minutes of Hate” was extended for over a year and continues to this day. Rather than think critically and question why annual flu cases averaged 35 million per year prior to 2020 but dropped to near ZERO during the covid “emergency”, the cave dwellers lashed out in anger at anyone questioning the plot, because to admit they were duped would destroy their self-esteem and decrease their virtue signal credits.

  The annual flu didn’t disappear. Covid was the annual flu, with a multi-billion-dollar marketing campaign. This wasn’t a pandemic, but an IQ test, and most people failed miserably. But the critical thinking unvaxxed are still considered the enemy of the state, especially since they have been proven right.

  

  Whether we are trapped in an artificial world produced in a dome, cave, or our current technologically advanced surveillance propaganda state, the goal of those controlling our false reality is to take away our freedoms, crush dissent, keep us ignorant of the truth, and treat us as plebs to be taxed and molded. Christof, whose name is supposed to invoke him being a god-like figure ruling over Truman’s world, declares Truman could discover the truth and leave at any time, while using every diabolical trick to keep that from ever happening, because his show generated revenues exceeding the GDP of a small country.

  Truman and ourselves are essentially prisoners in a vast production, and our overlords believe it is their duty to convince us to love our servitude and prefer our cells, because it is financially beneficial to the overlords and their crew.

  

  Our world is not fake, but it is tightly controlled by those running the show. Seemingly random events, plots, and subplots are manipulated to generate specific emotions and reactions by the public in order to achieve the objectives of those benefitting from the various storylines. They are molding our minds and forming our tastes through psychological and technological manipulation of our daily existence. Christof explained why most rarely discover the truth or question the world they live in – “We accept the reality of the world with which we’re presented. It’s as simple as that.”

  We have allowed men we have never seen to dictate how we live our lives, the choices we make, and which politicians and “experts” to believe, without ever putting in the effort to understand why we are being prodded to do so. We are locked in a self-imposed prison of desires, emotions, and needs through mass media messaging and a constant barrage of advertisements. Conformity and obedience are the desired traits sought by the ruling class, while individuality and skepticism are frowned upon and punished through social ostracism.

  We are conditioned from birth to believe what they tell us to believe. Government school indoctrination and mass media misinformation does the trick. Distracted by our techno-gadgets and ignorant of truth is how the globalist oligarchs methodically implement their Great Reset agenda. They are so convinced of the ignorance of the masses they openly proclaim their depopulation and techno-prison schemes with no fear of push back or retribution.

  

  The ending of the Truman Show is a lesson in resistance, persistence, and the strength of the individual, even in the face of a technologically advanced Big Brother state. It offers a message of hope, no matter how powerful our overlords appear to be. Refusing to obey or conform by one individual can inspire others to do likewise. Once Truman ‘awoke’ to his plight as a lab rat in a scripted show, he began to plot his escape. Using a makeshift tunnel in his basement, out of view of Christof’s cameras, he disappeared and forced the suspension of the broadcast for the first time in thirty years.

  

  Christof discovers Truman sailing away from Seahaven in a small boat, as he has overcome the fake conditioning of fear instilled in him by the man who supposedly loves him but traumatized him about the sea by faking his father’s death while at sea. Christof chooses to almost drown Truman by creating a violent storm to deter him from discovering the truth. Ultimately the storm ceases and his boat strikes the wall of the dome.

  This is exactly how our controllers treat the ignorant masses. They feed us stories designed to make us fearful and compliant to the exhortations of their paid experts. Paid to lie. Paid to misinform. Paid to persuade people a dangerous concoction is “safe and effective”. The evilness of using Sesame Street characters to convince four-year-old children they need this Big Pharma gene altering toxic brew, even though essentially ZERO children on earth died from covid, is a testament to the greed and malevolent impulses of those in power. Vast amounts of ever-increasing advertising revenue are what kept The Truman Show on the air for thirty years.

  

  The covid advertising campaign will never be topped, as Hollywood stars, top athletes, famous writers, rock legends, supposedly impartial journalists, and all the major networks said SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!! Everyone was for sale, and all they had to do was lie and say the jabs were “safe and effective”. Product placement was the money-making formula for the Truman Show, while hard selling a Big Pharma phony cure over the airwaves 24/7 using the tax dollars of the victims was the final solution of the Great Reset Cabal.

  The grand finale is a clash of the philosophies of reality versus false reality, as Truman discovers a staircase leading to an exit door. Christof speaks to Truman, claiming there was no more truth in the real world than in his artificial world, and he would be safe, with nothing to fear, in a world controlled by men invisible to him assuring him they have his best interests at heart. Truman chooses individuality, truth, risk, living a real meaningful life, and seeking honest relationships over a safe existence in a bubble where all decisions were made by others. Truman bows to the audience and exits, leaving Chistof to mourn the loss of his star and the revenue he generated. The ignorant masses watching the show cheer his escape and then ask, “what’s on next?” Plato captured the uncertainty and bewilderment Truman must have felt as he walked into the light.

  

  “Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light” ― Plato, The Allegory of the Cave

  This world of manufactured dystopian pleasure harkens more towards Huxley’s Brave New World, where pharmaceuticals and conditioning would keep the public seeking pleasure, pre-occupied with trivialities, distracted by materialism, unable to think critically, and reduced to passivity and egoism through the control of messaging by their controllers. Our efficient totalitarian state has gained complete control by convincing the masses to love their servitude and beg for more rules, restrictions, and reduction of liberties in the name of safety and security.

  

  Smart phones, smart cities, and smart streets are nothing more than code for spying on you and controlling you. Truman finally understood his liberty was his to choose and not Christof’s to give. There is a small minority of Americans who are realizing the same thing after two years of totalitarian measures designed to take away our freedoms and liberty. The question is whether enough will exit this tyrannical government produced show to make a difference. The future of mankind literally depends on the answer to this question.

  “Liberties aren’t given, they are taken.” ― Aldous Huxley

  

  “A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.” ― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

  Just as those controlling the Truman Show were not doing it for Truman’s benefit, but for their enrichment, those controlling the puppet strings of our society today had no interest in our health over the last two years, our financial well-being, our psychological well-being, or the peaceful rational functioning of our civilization. They have no interest in securing our border, reducing crime, holding fair elections, promoting peaceful solutions to global conflict, or allowing the truth to reach the masses. Their agenda has been and continues to be, the destruction of our civilized society, obliteration of our core standards and norms, depopulation of the planet, confiscation of our wealth, and ultimately our enslavement through technological shackles and chains.

  As Huxley noted decades ago, technology has just provided our civilization with a more efficient means of going backwards. Technology is being used by our controllers to monitor our movements, communications, and to surveil, distract, and amuse us to death. It is no longer a force for good, but a means to control us. They plan to use technology to disarm their citizens through increasingly authoritarian regulations, sold as keeping us safe from mass shooters.

  Their climate agenda isn’t about the climate, but about complete control of the masses. When government and their social media attack dogs monitor the citizens for “hate speech and misinformation”, and dole out retribution at their whim, our system is profoundly broken and extremely warped. They are supposed to answer to us. But these megalomaniacs have much bigger agenda.

  

  We’ve lost all sense of reality, reason, and truth in a profoundly abnormal world, created by those we allowed to ascend to power through the control and influence of shadowy globalist billionaires operating as an invisible government, with Deep State apparatchiks doing the dirty work. Schwab, Gates, Soros, the World Economic Forum, and whoever hides in the shadows behind these psychopaths, intend to control the entire world and steal all the wealth because they believe they are smarter, more ruthless, and know what’s best for the lowly peasants polluting their satanic playground planet.

  They know facts can be ignored when they’ve conditioned the masses to be willfully ignorant. They know they can lie without implications, but even more powerful, they can stay silent about the truth through censorship, suppression, and cancellation of truth tellers. The adaptation of the masses to this abnormal society, created by evil power-seeking men, is a form of mental illness – or as documented by Mattias Desmet in his book The Psychology of Totalitarianism – Mass Formation Psychosis.

  

   “The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.” ― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

  I know I will never adapt or adjust to this abnormal society. We certainly can’t change a system, so thoroughly rigged and controlled (e.g., 2022 Arizona election and the 2020 presidential election), through traditional means. Those in control can easily buy-off our politicians, scientists, doctors, academics, TV personalities, and journalists to spin whatever web they choose, enabling their despicable anti-human agenda of deviancy. The only viable solution is the individual solution of walking away from this phony world like Truman.

  

  Armed revolution is a non-starter, as the oligarchs have far more firepower, and the dissenters are unorganized and scattered. A form of ‘Irish Democracy’ where a silent dogged resistance, marked by the withdrawal from society, belligerence to authority and non-compliance with government dictates by millions of ordinary people would accomplish far more than rioting and armed revolution. Millions have already practiced a form of Irish Democracy by not masking, not social distancing, not getting jabbed, and taking control of their own health decisions.

  They have almost sealed the escape hatch in this dystopian paradise of pleasure and pain. They know their techniques of control through fear work like a charm. Their final task to achieve total control is central bank digital currencies (CBDC), where everything we buy and sell is tracked digitally, so taxes can be levied, your life tracked, and if you choose to dissent from government directives, your ability to utilize CBDCs will be turned off. Micro-chipping us is next on the agenda.

  We need to reduce our tax and digital footprint now. It might seem hopeless in going to battle against these vile, vindictive vermin, but the solution is to not play. Many have already walked away from the modern world, taking to the country – farming, homesteading, bartering, and only giving to Caesar the bare minimum. They’ve chosen a hard, but a far more fulfilling life.

  

  The more people who disassociate from their fake world, the weaker they get. As their hold on our lives weakens, they will lash out. This is why it is important to be armed. Direct armed confrontation with the establishment’s forces is foolish, but guerrilla tactics on land you know would start to eat away at the morale of the paid police thugs sent to enforce their dictates. The beast isn’t as strong as it portrays. It’s broke and its empire of debt is crumbling.

  If millions walk out the exit door, the beast will begin to starve and eventually die. Maybe a new, less complex, smaller, more community-oriented society could be born from the ashes. Tribe up with like-minded individuals with different skills, if possible. There is hope if enough patriots decide to regain their senses and walk away from this abnormal society, leaving our totalitarian Christofs to wallow in their failure to control the truly awoken.

  

  “Do not let the hero in your soul parish, in lonely frustration, for the life you deserved but never have been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.” ― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

  *  *  *
  It is my sincere desire to provide readers of The Burning Platform with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can’t do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 12/02/2022 – 16:25