Sep 11

Today’s News 11th September 2021

  • Leftists Have Appointed Themselves As Our "Cultural Educators" – But They Have Nothing To Teach
    Leftists Have Appointed Themselves As Our “Cultural Educators” – But They Have Nothing To Teach

    Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

    It is often said that ignorance is the source of all evil, but I find that the most destructive people in the world are not the most ignorant, but the most arrogant. Ignorant people are more likely to become victims, while arrogant people have enough intelligence to knowingly absorb and regurgitate a particular dogma in a way that appeals to unsuspecting bystanders that were never given the tools to defend themselves.

    In other words, it’s malicious “educators” that promote incendiary collectivism, usually by preying on those that lack the armor of reason. Ignorance is encouraged by these supposed teachers as a marinade; it tenderizes their victims and makes them ready to absorb more and more cultism.

    Their arrogance is the key to all of this because these folks are really just middlemen for an agenda that is ultimately designed to harm them. They see themselves as brilliant minds that cannot be denied; they think they are the prophets of our age. They do what they do because they have a bias or hatred of independent thought, or, they believe they are earning a seat at the table of power by evangelizing for totalitarianism. The reality is that the globalist establishment will throw the leftists away as soon as they have what they want. History shows us that the most devout messengers of totalitarian regimes are usually lined up against a wall and shot once the revolution is achieved, but their hubris blinds them to this inevitable outcome.

    They generally fall into two categories – the young acolytes and the aging adherents, and the vast majority of them are leftists. Whenever I examine the dangers of leftists I inevitably get accusations that I am “perpetuating the false left/right paradigm”, but the people that make this argument don’t understand what the left/right paradigm is.

    At the top of any government pyramid you will find that the politicians may claim to represent different parties or ideologies but when it comes to their policies these leaders are all the same. Their vested interests are in maintaining power for themselves and the globalists that line their pockets. This is not to say all politicians are frauds, just most of them, and the higher up you go in government the more frauds you will find.

    The opposite is true in terms of the bottom of the pyramid among regular citizens – There is no “false paradigm” for the masses – The leftists are truly ideologically obsessed in their collectivism and communism, and conservatives and constitutionalists truly embrace personal freedom and civil liberties. The divide is not fake, it is very real. There are people who want to control others and there are people that want to be left alone, and the political left is staunchly on the side of control.

    Leftists are the ONLY people supporting draconian lockdowns, business closures, mask mandates, vaccine passports and forced vaccinations, mass censorship and the silencing of anyone that disagrees with their twisted worldview. They ignore all science to the contrary of their positions and seek to exploit every possible crisis to gain power through people’s irrational fears. They are also the only group that is receiving unmitigated support from governments, corporations and globalist foundations. The very people they say are “evil capitalists” are the same people that make their movement possible.

    This is why I have to laugh every time I’m confronted with a hatchling communist trying to “educate me” on the “dangers of conservatives and individualists”; they know nothing, but have an opinion on everything.

    The behavior and mentality of the acolytes is very familiar to me, and I have had many opportunities to observe burgeoning leftists in their native environments. The newer generations of leftists have never been told by those close to them that they really are not as smart as they think they are. They have never been given the reality check or the slap upside the head that they needed. They have been conditioned from a very early age to believe that everything they say and do is profound. And even though most of them have not accomplished anything of note or merit in their lives, they think that their ideology gives them the power to assume a mantle of wisdom and look down on others that do not share in their religion.

    The notion of the young teaching the old is an extension of a philosophy from the early 1900s called “Futurism”. It promotes the idea that all “old ideas” should be cast off and all new ideas are automatically superior. It teaches that tradition and heritage are a prison that holds humanity back from progress. Futurism is the root ideology that helped to spawn both the rise of the National Socialists (Fascists) in Europe as well as the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, so it’s not surprising that leftists today use a similar mantra.

    Of course, those of us who are a little older than 20 years of age know from experience that there are no new ideas, only old ideas like authoritarianism repackaged as new. Tear off the shiny wrapper and social justice and Critical Race Theory have the same rotten putrid guts as the communism and fascism of old.

    Strangely, many young leftists pontificate and worship at the altar of social justice extremism while at the same time claiming to be “moderates” or “middle-of-the-road.” They have learned that once they openly admit what they are it is much harder to demand the attention of others, so they will exhibit rabid fits of zealotry in the face of conservative viewpoints and then argue that Cultural Marxists “don’t exist.”

    The leftist ability to gaslight is really quite astonishing, because in order to master tactical dishonesty at such a high level one has to be an accomplished sociopath.

    To be clear, the purpose of confronting their disinformation and cultism is not to change their minds or to force them to admit they are wrong, that’s not ever going to happen. They will double and triple down on their false narratives no matter how much the facts debunk them. The only reason to confront them is so you can publicly dismantle them, so that the rest of the world can see how frail their dogma really is.

    The majority of the younger acolytes don’t have their own families and they never want a family. They have never been responsible for other human beings and the mere thought of it terrifies them. They can barely take care of themselves and they seem to like it that way. And though they tend to blame “boomers” for all the world’s ills, they also have a habit of living off their boomer parents well into their late 20s and early 30’s; some stick around for even longer.

    No one ever told them how boring they are or how badly they suck, so they never improve or strive for more. They then waltz into adult life with grand assumptions of their genius and righteousness.

    In their teens and twenties they think they are ready to refashion the very pillars of society and rewrite all the “wrongs” of humanity. It is no wonder than communists target the youth as a rule, because many of them lack a grasp on the basics and their views are painfully simplistic. Today young leftists think everything is racist, everything is sexist, everything is homophobic, everything is about discrimination and unfairness, all of their weaknesses are actually strengths, everything our society values is wrong and all of their failures are caused by others holding them back from their own imminent greatness. They cannot meet today’s standards of accomplishment because today’s standards are dated and obsolete. The world is wrong and they are right.

    As you can imagine, this mentality is enticing because it feeds young narcissism. No one at that age wants to admit they know nothing, and maybe that is one of the biggest problems in Western society.

    You cannot talk to these kids because they will not talk to you about anything other than themselves and their non-accomplishments and their social justice religion. They will never ask you about your own views or experiences or knowledge earned over a lifetime that dwarfs theirs – They don’t care. For how could you possibly know more than they do about anything of importance? Their cult has taught them that everything old is always wrong and has nothing to offer. Only the new and the young and the untested are relevant to the future.

    Tearing things down is far more exciting to them than keeping what has already been built alive. Surely this is insanity, but think about it from their perspective for a moment – When you have no merits or inherent abilities, how do you feel like you have control over your environment and your destiny? Building things and creating things of value is hard, but destroying things of value and burning structures down is easy.

    Gullible leftist children are not our main concern, however. The older adherents are the true source of the indoctrination campaign beyond the think-tanks and establishment non-profits that fund it. These people are the predators of the political left and they know EXACTLY what they are doing.

    I have long been fascinated with the existence of psychopathic people, and in particular I find the behaviors of narcissists at once horrifying and illuminating. If you ever wanted a chance to study an alien life-form, the closest you will probably ever get is to study a narcissistic sociopath or psychopath. One aspect of narcissists is that they tend to be magnetically drawn to a handful of career fields in which they can control people and gain a captive audience. You will often see medicine, finance, media, non-profits and politics listed as common fields that attract narcissists, but lesser mentioned fields include academia and teaching.

    I have come to realize recently that the teaching profession is a perfect petri dish for narcissists because it draws less negative attention while offering comparable fuel for their control addictions. Many people think that a person that wants to be a teacher must be a selfless saint because who wants to babysit other people’s kids all day unless they are kind hearted, but the temptations are plenty for those with aberrant psyches.

    Children are especially vulnerable to influence well into their teens. The younger they are the more trusting they tend to be of the adults around them, who they see as their protectors and providers in a world they have no power over. The further they tread into adolescence the more they start to question their place in the world and what values they should adopt in order to find meaning. Furthermore, they have an innate inclination to test boundaries and to rebel if their parents use helicopter methods or refuse to enforce rational limitations, and there’s nothing more dangerous than a rebel without a cause.

    Leftist adherents see these children as their playground and revel in the notion of manipulating their minds to bring them into the cultist fold. I can’t think of a more captive audience for a narcissist than a public school classroom or university lecture hall in which the teacher is able to establish a dominant hierarchy and demand fealty without ever actually having to EARN the trust of the students. The children are expected to listen and accept their pontificating without question from day one, even though the teacher in front of them might be a smooth-brained lunatic.

    I think the most revealing factor in these situations is that leftist teachers usually try to hide their lesson plans from parents, or argue that parents have no right to be informed of what goes on in the classroom.  This tells you all you need to know about their intentions.  If their lessons were valid and stood on their own merits, then they would not need to hide them at all. 

    Under indoctrination programs like CRT, teachers are the confessors, the saviors and the judges “awakening” their students to their own original racial sins. The kids that fall in line will be rewarded and the kids that don’t will be browbeaten into silence or submission. The teachers become the center of their universe for the bulk of their day and when those children go home they will still have to think about how to best navigate tomorrow so they do not attract the ire of the cult leaders and their growing flock. The pursuit of knowledge is supplanted by the stresses of conformity. Learning is the last thing on their minds.

    This is not to say that all teachers are like this, but the profession clearly attracts the worst of the worst in many cases. Teachers unions are the biggest driving force behind medical tyranny in the US next to the government itself. They are also the driving force behind the communist CRT indoctrination being introduced in public schools. To these people children are an endless buffet. Their goal is not to teach, but to coerce and to manufacture useful minions for the collective.

    Critical Race Theory and social justice are the new plantations and leftist adherents are the slave owners, or at the very least they are the overseers with their whips in hand. In the movie ‘Platoon’, Oliver Stone’s character Chris Taylor states: “Hell is the impossibility of reason.” The political left revels in its destruction of reason; they even think they have transcended it. The worst possible future would be to allow these people to continue their theatrics as supposed educators. You cannot mentor the next generation if your only goal is to manufacture an army of proxies that blindly think exactly as you do.

    *  *  *

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    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 23:40

  • China Reveals Flight Control System To Land Hypersonic Drone
    China Reveals Flight Control System To Land Hypersonic Drone

    Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post revealed Tuesday that Chinese military researchers have reportedly found a way to land hypersonic drones on standard runways safely. If reports are correct, this would be a monumental step for Chinese aerospace and put the country lightyears ahead of the US. 

    A peer-reviewed study released in the defense journal Tactical Missile Technology on Sept.1 described how Dai Fei of Beihang University in Beijing and his team worked with the People’s Liberation Army Air Force to refine the technology behind hypersonic drone landings. 

    They determined an “unpowered return guidance scheme” for the drones traveling at Mach 5 (3,836 mph) was sufficient. At those super-fast speeds, at an altitude of 19 miles, the onboard computer would shut off the drone’s engine 125 miles before landing. 

    Dubbed the “automatic landing interface,” the software prediction computer, similar to what is on commercial and military planes, would make micro-adjustments to the plane’s trajectory based on a multitude of variables, such as air pressure and altitude. The researchers said the new and improved software provides “possible landing scenarios” for the drone. 

    Researchers also said the drone would perform a series of subtle S turns to slow down ahead of landing. Shutting down the engines more than a hundred miles before landing adds to the complexity of the landing as hypersonic aircraft engines are more difficult to restart. 

    The new paper may confirm China’s hypersonic drone called the Wuzhen 8 appeared in Beijing’s military parade two years ago. It is unclear whether Dai’s team has successfully tested the new software in the field. 

    If China pursues hypersonic drones, it could provide an umbrella of defense around the South China Sea, Taiwan Strait, and other hostile areas against US stealth fighters. 

    On a commercial aspect, the technology could improve future hypersonic aircraft landings. These fast planes could whisk people around the world in an hour and take to the skies as early as 2035. 

    There’s no doubt in our mind that a rapidly advancing China challenges American airpower in the 21st century. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 23:20

  • Mysterious Radio Signals From The Center Of The Milky Way Detected
    Mysterious Radio Signals From The Center Of The Milky Way Detected

    Via Entrepreneur.com,

    The nature of the emitting object is not known, since it does not coincide with anything known…

    We have much more to know! 

    If something has become clear in recent years, it is that we are largely ignorant of what happens outside the Earth (also within it). Millionaires embody a battle to reach the Moon, Mars and the ends of the galaxy, but there are countless unknowns. 

    Such is the case with a mysterious new radio signals coming from the center of the Milky Way.

    The technical name of the waves is ASKAP J173608.2-321635 .

    Scientists have not yet been able to know what it could be. The signal has been detected six times between January and September 2020, then reappeared until February 7 of this year.

    In a study on the finding, which has not yet been published in The Astrophysical Journal , but can be consulted on the arXiv server, the researchers explain that it is “a highly polarized, variable and steep spectrum radio strong” .

    ” ASKAP J173608.2-321635 , could be part of a new class of objects that are being discovered through radio imaging studies,” the authors write.

    How did they discover the signs?

    Thanks to the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) , a radio telescope. A set of 36 antennas of 12 meters in diameter, which function as one and make it one of the most sensitive in the world. It is designed to analyze cosmic magnetism, identify black holes, and explore the origin of galaxies.

    The signal is unknown, several types of stars have been ruled out. But it does share some properties with the Galactic Center Radio Transients (GCRT), another mysterious signal discovered in 2000, which is also emitted from the center of the Milky Way.

    To find out what it is, researchers need to observe radio signals longer. In this way, certain patterns that have not been seen before could be established. “We will be able to understand how unique ASKAP J173608.2-321635 truly is and if it is related to the galactic plane, which should ultimately help us deduce its nature.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 23:00

  • Trudeau's Chances Of Winning Snap Election Dwindle As Conservatives Surge
    Trudeau’s Chances Of Winning Snap Election Dwindle As Conservatives Surge

    On Sept. 20, Canadians will head to the polls for a snap federal election called by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in an effort to try and parlay his handling of the COVID pandemic into a four-year mandate. The plan was to strike while the iron’s hot, so to speak.

    Trudeau’s primary motive is that since the last election in September, 2019, Trudeau has only commanded a minority in parliament, leaving him dependent on rival parties (mostly the left-leaning New Democrats) to govern. Trudeau argues the pandemic has changed Canada like WWIII changed Canada and the rest of the west, and that, due to this change, voters should now choose whom they want to call the shots going forward.

    Unfortunately for Trudeau, the resurgence in COVID cases across North America over the past couple of months have left him vulnerable to the criticism that he placed the health of Canadians at risk in the name of “ambition.” This take, along with Conservative leader Erin O’Toole’s other criticisms of Trudeau, have apparently resonated with voters, leaving the Conservatives neck and neck with Trudeau’s Liberals according to the latest polls, with early voting just about to begin.

    The opposition Tories have 33% support compared with 31% for Trudeau’s Liberals and 19% for the left-leaning New Democratic Party, according to the latest Nanos Research Group survey. The Nanos survey, which was conducted for CTV News and the Globe and Mail newspaper, is based on a three-day rolling average and has a margin of error of 2.8%, according to Bloomberg.

    If those numbers hold through the last 10 days of the campaign, Canada is facing another minority parliament in which the government needs the support of another party to pass legislation. Liberals could still win the most seats will losing the popular vote, like they did in 2019. Support for Trudeau has waned as the New Democratic Party has attracted more younger Canadians with more progressive politics.

    During a Thursday night debate, Trudeau was attacked frm all sides. O’Toole, who simultaneously criticized the prime minister’s record on fighting climate change and his motivation for triggering the vote, accused Trudeau of having “Great Ambition.”

    O’Toole also hammered Trudeau over his failure to secure the release of two Canadian men who were arrested in China likely as political retribution for Canada’s arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou at behest of the US. Trudeau replied with a memorable line: “you do not simply lob tomatoes across the Pacific” to illustrate his “delicate” approach to handling the situation with China.

    Trudeau was perhaps shaken by a major loss earlier that day, when the Conservatives won what could be decisive support from the popular premier of Quebec, Canada’s second most populous province. “For the Quebec nation, Mr. O’Toole’s approach is a good one,” Premier Francois Legault said, warning that victory for any other party could prove “dangerous” for provincial autonomy.

    When Trudeau was first elected in 2015, he ended nearly a decade of conservative rule under PM Stephen Harper. At the time, pundits in the US, Canada and all over the English-speaking world praised Trudeau’s win – despite his obvious inexperience and other flaws – as a generational shift. But Trudeau seems to finally have run out of steam barely halfway through. And in just a couple of weeks, Canada’s voters might finally relegate the political scion to the scrap heap of history.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 22:40

  • The Unseen Costs Of The War On Terror
    The Unseen Costs Of The War On Terror

    Authored by Kim Iskyan via American Consequences.com,

    It’s similar – for generations before mine – to when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, or the moment that President John F. Kennedy was shot.

    For me… it was early evening (Moscow is seven hours ahead of New York), and I had wandered over to the trading floor of the investment bank to chat with a trader. Strangely, the TV in the corner – usually ignored, with the volume turned down – was the center of attention… And it was immediately clear why.

    Twenty years later, we’re remembering 9/11 and the 2,977 victims of the four terrorist attacks by the militant Islamist terrorist group Al Qaeda on American soil… and the people – in total, a multiple of the number of Americans who died on that day – who have died of illnesses stemming from being exposed to the debris of the attacks.

    The cost of the attacks on America in terms of human lives was enormous. And, in a different way, the cost of the resultant War on Terror – as launched by then-President George W. Bush shortly after the 9/11 attacks, to “direct every resource at our command” in order to “[disrupt and] defeat… the global terror network” – is similarly incalculable.

    The price of the War on Terror that was launched by the events of 9/11 has been the fundamental reweaving of the very fabric of American society, government, and culture… into something thinner and more likely to rip, unravel, and tangle.

    The astronomical cost of the War on Terror, beyond lives lost and the $8 trillion all-in price tag, has included the end of American privacy and the erosion – and redefinition – of freedom… a permanent fear and distrust of the world around us… the dissolution of one of America’s greatest intangible assets, its soft power… and a dangerous war fatigue.


    The End of Privacy

    One of the ironies of the War on Terror is that its objective of countering terrorism has long enjoyed almost unprecedented bipartisan support. Only the struggle to control and contain the Soviet Union during the Cold War experienced a similar level of sustained across-the-aisle consensus.

    Efforts to “win” the War on Terror, though, have been a slippery slope and have undercut some of the liberties the War on Terror was supposed to be defending. Today, “an abundance of caution” can lead to excessive and unnecessary – and ultimately counterproductive – efforts to contain COVID-19. And at the height of the War on Terror, there was no political upside to exercise restraint in the effort to fight Al Qaeda, particularly on American soil.

    One result has been the construction of a surveillance society “in which the long-standing ‘wall’ between surveillance for law enforcement purposes and for intelligence gathering has been dismantled,” the American Bar Association explained.

    An important part of this was the Patriot Act, the quick approval – and eventual de facto permanent institutionalization – of which stemmed from the “stop at nothing” attitude toward the War on Terror. If the parents of preciously precocious toddlers can be hoodwinked into paying more than $72,000 for preschool (at the Stephen Gaynor School in New York) – since, after all, that might make the difference between admission to Brown or just Tufts… and, after all, nothing is too good for Junior – it isn’t surprising that it didn’t take much to convince congressmen that no liberty should be left unsacrificed at the altar of the War on Terror.

    The Patriot Act in effect loosened the restrictions that had long been a bedrock of the assumption of privacy on government entities acquiring personal information about citizens that could (possibly, perhaps, maybe) link them to terrorist activities. And just like bureaucracies don’t simply fold up and go away when their assigned task ends, laws that extend the power of government agencies – privacy, and his close friends, freedom and civil liberty, be damned – don’t instantaneously dissolve when the immediate threat has passed.

    The Patriot Act has been trimmed and expanded, spun off, revamped, and reauthorized. Twenty years on, its evil spawn have hacked away at the privacy, liberties, and freedoms that Americans once took for granted.

    And today, in the post-9/11, post-Edward Snowden world, there’s little doubt that they are listening… or rather, that they can whenever they feel like it – and that you’re as much a terrorist as you are a moon-shooting billionaire is irrelevant. (There’s a reason that if you’re talking on your cellphone as you drive by the Central Intelligence Agency’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, the reception regularly fails.)

    Before 9/11, most people could, most of the time, assume a certain level of privacy. But no longer.

    And since then, the threat is omnipresent… or at least that’s what you might think. Another effect of the War on Terror is that there’s always a reason to be afraid…

    Permanent Fear

    War on Terror bureaucracies – Exhibit A is the Department of Homeland Security, the proud employer of a quarter of a million Americans with a $50 billion budget – need a raison d’être. And in a world where data is power, government agencies – and the politicians who ostensibly oversee them – need a reason to collect more data. Like mojitos by the pool and flying Qatar Airways business class, there’s no such thing as enough, or too much, data.

    And what better way to do that than to cultivate a sense of fear of terrorism – forever. America’s presidents since the grandfather of the War on Terror, George W. Bush, have regularly pulled the levers of the fear of terrorism to their benefit. (Is there anything that can not be justified by a mention of “chatter” about a potential terrorist attack?)

    Former President Donald Trump elevated turning fear into power to an art form, as Foreign Affairs magazine explained in 2018…

    Donald Trump… helped incite a wave of fear about terrorism and then rode it to an unlikely electoral victory, vowing to ban Muslims from entering the United States and to ruthlessly target terrorists wherever they were found.

    But American presidents and legislators may be fueling the American frame of mind of fear as much as they’re mirroring it. Think tank and public-opinion pollsters Pew Research Center explained that “defending the country from future terrorist attacks has been at or near the top of… annual survey[s] on policy priorities since 2002.”

    As recently as 2020 – before COVID-19 emerged as a more immediate concern – 74% of Americans said that terrorism should be a “top priority” for the U.S. government… that compared with the economy at 67% and jobs at 49%.

    Is this permanent sense of fear justified? The American terrorism industrial complex has grown like a weed on steroids… which is, for some, justification in itself.

    But in terms of the actual threat… no. According to think tank Brookings Institution, just 100 Americans have died in militant Islamist terrorist attacks since 9/11.

    That’s one-third the number of people in the U.S. who die from falling off a ladder every year… It’s the number of Americans who died of an opioid overdose every 12 hours in 2020… or the number of people in America who were killed in a car crash each day last year.

    Have so few Americans died in jihadist terrorist attacks because of the country’s permanent fear posture? It’s when we let down our guard and our level of vigilance declines – so they say – that they will strike. Right?

    Meanwhile, America has lost something after 9/11 that’s arguably its most important asset on the international stage. And it’s not getting it back.

    The Decline of American ‘Soft Power’

    “Soft power” is the ability of a country to influence – and convert the preferences and behavior of – other countries, companies, and communities by using attraction or persuasion… rather than through force or coercion.

    Soft power is winning hearts and minds through leadership, values, and weapons of mass influence. It’s the flip side of – but a key complement of – the “hard power” of bullets and bombs. In the War on Terror, the power of American persuasion has been, in theory at least, an important element of the arsenal.

    But as I wrote in July, the United States has in recent years been losing soft-power ground. It’s ignored or abandoned long-held security and multilateral arrangements and commitments – like its wavering support for NATO, leaving the Paris Climate Agreement, and ending funding for the World Health Organization. (And more recently, it didn’t step up to swing at what would have been the biggest soft-power pitch in generations by vaccinating the world against COVID-19.)

    President Joe Biden has tried to reverse these soft-power own-goals. But the latest chapter of the War on Terror, the exit of American forces from Afghanistan, has washed away – like fragile topsoil on a floodplain – any small advances by the current White House in rebuilding soft power.

    The disastrous, hasty, and poorly executed American retreat from Afghanistan left allies shocked and appalled at being left out of the exit strategy… Afghan allies were stranded as the Taliban took over… and the U.S. appeared – and, in fact, was – unprepared, incompetent, unfaithful, and untrustworthy.

    As the Financial Times explained earlier this month, “[T]he manner in which [the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan] unfolded, with U.S. allies blindsided by the speed of the Taliban takeover and pleading in vain for more time to evacuate their citizens, has undermined confidence in the U.S.”

    When the “next Afghanistan” – it’s coming soon – happens, American soft power won’t be the potent pixie dust that it has been in the past. Instead, it will be little more than a pile of dirt. And the latest failure of the War on Terror just solidified that reality.

    A War-Fatigued America

    Whatever your vice – penthouse view of the beach, Sichuan food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, 18 holes in perfect weather, or binging Netflix – it would probably get old after doing it every day for two months… and that’s to say nothing of two decades.

    Sustaining excitement and engagement (or, at a bare minimum, support) for the War on Terror – no one’s idea of fun – for 20 years was, of course, impossible. The share of Americans who thought that the initial decision to use force was wrong doubled from 2006 to 2018, for example. That reflects a broader decline in support for the War on Terror, despite continued concerns about jihadist terrorism on American soil.

    This drop in interest reflects a dangerous “war fatigue,” as Foreign Affairs explained…

    Under four presidents, the American people at first celebrated and then endured the endless wars playing in the background of their lives. Gradually, the national mood soured, and adversaries have taken notice. Americans’ fatigue – and rival countries’ recognition of it – has limited the United States’ strategic options… Fatigue may seem like a “soft” cost of the war on terror, but it is a glaring strategic liability. A nation exhausted by war has a difficult time presenting a credible deterrent threat to adversaries.

    The American withdrawal from Afghanistan – and the broader winding down of the War on Terror as President Biden focuses on implementing his “foreign policy for the middle class” vision – signals to friends and foes alike that the U.S. has little appetite for foreign adventures. That may embolden (say) China to encroach upon Taiwan (as I wrote recently, a potential “next Afghanistan”)… or Russia to take another bite out of Ukraine. And the War on Terror will be to blame.

    The War on Terror as the response to 9/11 was – at the time – reasonable and necessary. But the sacrifices demanded of the War on Terror have metastasized, and the cancer is killing off parts of the country it was intended to save.

    And the risks to America – from the end of privacy, an aura of permanent fear, the decline of soft power, and war fatigue – are rising.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 22:20

  • New Study Finds 'Excess Suicides' In Japan Surged Due To COVID Restrictions
    New Study Finds ‘Excess Suicides’ In Japan Surged Due To COVID Restrictions

    Here’s a study that wasn’t covered at all by the media, despite it’s chilling findings, which cut against claims by American health experts that COVID lockdowns haven’t led to an increase in suicides.

    A recent UK study showed 5x as many children have died via suicide since the start of the pandemic than the number who have died from COVID (almost no children – and no healthy children – have died from COVID in the US and UK). And the fact that suicides have increased in Japan over the past year has already been documented.

    According to this new study, which was carried out via scientists from a Japanese university along with Japan’s Infectious Diseases Surveillance Center, 2,665 excess cases of mortality were identified between July 2020 and March 2021. The study’s methodology was similar to that from an earlier study. “Excess mortality” was defined as the difference between the actual number of deaths, and the expected epidemiological threshold (assuming the actual number exceeds the expectation).

    The study used data from all causes, as reported, from 2005 through February 2021. Deaths reported from across Japan were incorporated.

    Using their model, the researchers determined that “significant excess mortality attributable to suicide” was seen between July 2020 and March 2021, with the biggest excess seen in October of last year, which we noted at the time.

    The number of COVID deaths during that period was 8,153, meaning excess suicide deaths attributable to lockdowns and other pandemic-related circumstances were almost equivalent to one-third of the total deaths from COVID.

    The study’s authors concluded that governments should examine cost-effectiveness analysis. The impact on quality of life should be considered among the various drawbacks of lockdowns and other restrictions on economic and social activity as a major part of countermeasures.

    “Continued careful monitoring of excess mortality attributable to suicide is expected to be necessary.”

    Interested parties can read the study preprint below:

    2021.02.13.21251670v6.full on Scribd

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 22:00

  • IPCC's "No One Is Safe" Slogan Is Deeply Misleading: Shellenberger
    IPCC’s “No One Is Safe” Slogan Is Deeply Misleading: Shellenberger

    Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,

    The message stated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) report, warning that “nobody is safe” from human-caused climate change is “irresponsible and misleading,” according to longtime environmental activist Michael Shellenberger.

    The IPCC published a report in August stating that human-caused climate change is accelerating and that radical changes to human behavior are needed to avert disaster.

    Following the findings, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said of the report that the “alarm bells are deafening” and the situation is a “code red for humanity.”

    Meanwhile, Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said the findings showed that “nobody is safe. And it is getting worse faster.”

    However, Shellenberger, who is the founder and president of the nonprofit Environmental Progress and the author of “Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All,” disagrees with this sentiment.

    In an interview with EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders,” Shellenberger noted that while climate change is a very “real” thing, the slogan that no one is safe is “misleading” to the general public.

    “Climate change is real. The world is getting warmer, it’s gotten about one degree Celsius warmer since the pre-industrial period. But on so many other environmental metrics, things are going in the right direction,” Shellenberger said.

    “The hottest the period of worst heat waves, for example, was in the 1930s. It has been a hot decade, but the 1930s remained the highest magnitude of heat waves. The chance of dying from an extreme weather event has declined over 99 percent for the average human being.

    “Deaths from natural disasters overall are 90 percent down, we produce 25 percent more food than we need. There’s no estimate of running out of food.”

    “Sea level rise is something that we’ve done a very good job adapting to and we’ll continue to do a good job adapting to. The Netherlands is a country where many parts of it are seven meters below sea level. The median estimate for sea level rise by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is about a half a meter,” he continued.

    “So what I object to is the painting of humans as sort of fragile or super vulnerable. We’ve never been more brilliant, we’ve never been less vulnerable, at least at a physical level. I think we’re seeing some rising anxiety and depression, particularly [among] young people, probably due to social media. But physically humans are safer than ever.”

    “But I think the the message that people need to hear that they’re not hearing is that the vast majority of environmental trends are going in the right direction, including on climate change.”

    The front page of the IPCC’s report “Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis.” (IPCC/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

    Shellenberger went on to call the communications in the IPCC’s report “irresponsible,” stating that, owing to more modern infrastructure, among other things, humans are are 99 percent less likely to die from extreme weather than they were previously.

    “The communications from the United Nations have been irresponsible. The slogan that they published the day of the IPCC reports publication was ‘no one is safe’ … It’s deeply misleading in that we’re safer than ever,” he said.

    “We just look around us [to see] we have a built infrastructure, go on YouTube and look at what life was like in 1800 or 1900, we were just much more vulnerable to weather events back then.”

    Shellenberger referenced a Financial Times graphic depicting the rate of climate change based on the IPCC’s findings, noting that “if you make your graph tall enough, and you cherry pick a particular period of time, you can make anything look scary … It’s really what they don’t show you.”

    The longtime environmental activist said that the public fails to be informed about other aspects that protect them from climate change, such as large increases in food surpluses and incredible flood management systems.

    He also noted that in Europe, more people live in areas where floods historically occur, such as riverbanks, and it was not because of a modest amount of more rain that more people experienced floods in Europe.

    “So we see in all these problems, whether it’s forest fires, or floods, or hurricanes, that what humans do on the ground massively outweighs any increase in wind speed or precipitation or air temperatures,” he explained.

    Shellenberger noted that while the natural science reviewed by the IPCC is accurate, “the vast majority of the distortions and the pessimism regarding climate change appears in the summary in the statements by those who helped assemble the report.

    “So it’s really in the public relations that the distortions are occurring. However, in this most recent report, there was some bad behavior in the actual scenarios they constructed,” the author continued.

    “So about half of the scenarios assume much higher levels of emissions, and therefore higher levels of warming in the future, than really any mainstream expert believes is possible,” he added.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 21:40

  • PLA Military 'On Alert' As US Carrier For 1st Time Launches F-35 Stealth Jets In South China Sea
    PLA Military ‘On Alert’ As US Carrier For 1st Time Launches F-35 Stealth Jets In South China Sea

    For the first time ever a US Navy aircraft carrier with F-35 stealth fighters on board has entered the South China Sea this week. The Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group entered the contested waters near China days ago, and subsequently the Navy released a photo of an F-35 launching from the Carl Vinson.

    This comes as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold is gaining most attention from Beijing after it sailed near Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands, which is an area long claimed by China.

    New F-35C Joint Strike Fighters preparing for launch from the USS Carl Vinson, USNI News

    Business Insider details of the new stealth fighter carrier deployment, “The F-35A is a variant built for the Air Force. The F-35B, mainly used by the Marine Corps, is designed to fight from amphibious assault ships. And the C variant is designed to operate aboard US Navy carriers. It can carry more fuel and weaponry and is built for catapult launches and fly-in arrestments.”

    A subsequent report in Chinese state mouthpiece Global Times indicated that the presence of both the Benfold and stealth jet carrying Vinson carrier has put the PLA military on ‘high alert’.

    Global Times wrote: “As the first carrier to get the F-35C, the USS Carl Vinson went straight to the South China Sea with the aim of deterring China, but China has already developed a number of anti-stealth radar systems, so the F-35C can be detected, Fu said, noting that China also has countermeasures against the vertical take-off and landing-capable CMV-22Bs, which could land on islands and reefs in the region.”

    US Navy image of F-35C Lightning II launching from a carrier for the first time in the South China Sea.

    The PLA Southern Theater Command meanwhile charged the US Navy with “trespassing” and “violating” Chinese sovereign waters. It particular it claimed to have “warned off” the USS Benfold destroyer from near the reefs during the Wednesday incident. The US responded that the navy continues upholding lawful freedom of navigation operations.

    State media also called the carrier’s arrival with the stealth jets on board a “provocative deployment” which China is able to counter if needed.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 21:20

  • Justice Breyer Issues Warning To Democrats Who Want To Remake Supreme Court
    Justice Breyer Issues Warning To Democrats Who Want To Remake Supreme Court

    Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

    Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer issued a warning on Democrats wanting to remake the Supreme Court, including expanding the institution with justices, suggesting that Republicans will exploit Democrats’ agenda.

    Breyer, in a wide-ranging interview with NPR, said he will not kowtow to calls from progressive lawmakers to retire due to his age.

    “I’m only going to say that I’m not going to go beyond what I previously said on the subject, and that is that I do not believe I should stay on the Supreme Court, or want to stay on the Supreme Court, until I die,” the 83-year-old justice told the partially publicly funded broadcaster. 

    “And when exactly I should retire, or will retire, has many complex parts to it. I think I’m aware of most of them, and I am, and will consider them.”

    When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died last year and Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to the top court, left-wing Democrat lawmakers called for the expansion, or “packing,” of the Supreme Court with several more justices.

    In April, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that established an investigatory body to determine whether more seats should be added to the Supreme Court or whether term limits should be established for justices.

    “There is no question that Justice Breyer, for whom I have great respect, should retire at the end of this term,” Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) told news website Cheddar in April, referring to Ginsburg’s death.

    “My goodness, have we not learned our lesson?” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has issued similar statements.

    But Breyer, who dismissed such calls earlier this year, again said that such notions haven’t had an impact on the justices.

    “What goes around comes around. And if the Democrats can do it, the Republicans can do it,” Breyer told NPR while promoting his upcoming book, “The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics.”

    During the interview, Breyer also said that he welcomes in-person oral arguments after the court went virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “I think it’s better to be there where you can actually see the lawyer and see your colleagues, and you get more of a human interaction,” he said to NPR.

    “We’re not automatons. We’re human beings,” Breyer also said. “And I believe when human beings discuss things face to face … there’s a better chance of working things out. That’s true with the lawyers in oral arguments, and it’s true with the nine of us when we’re talking.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 21:00

  • Exxon To Start Measuring And Disclosing Shale Gas Emissions Amidst ESG Pressure
    Exxon To Start Measuring And Disclosing Shale Gas Emissions Amidst ESG Pressure

    Exxon is caving to the expectations of activist investors and a market that is looking for ESG (or at least the optics of ESG) investments.

    The company announced this week it would start measuring its methane emissions from production of natural gas at a facility it owns in New Mexico, according to Reuters. Exxon joins other shale gas producers, like EQT, who already provide similar data. 

    Bart Cahir, a senior vice president at Exxon Mobil, told Reuters: “Certifying our natural gas will help our customers achieve their goals.”

    The oil major has signed an agreement with “independent measuring firm MiQ to certify 200 million cubic feet of natural gas per day” at its New Mexico facilities. 

    Its plant in Poker Lake, where the measurements will be take, already had some technology in place to help detect leaks and reduce emissions. Exxon says it continues to look at options for deploying technology to help mitigate leaks and emissions. 

    There is a possibility that the measurement initiative could carry over to other shale production areas of Exxons. 

    Meanwhile, MiQ also has similar deals with Chesapeake Energy and Northeast Natural Energy. Some LNG companies, like NextDecade, say they will follow suit and will offer greenhouse gas emission data to their clients. 

    Exxon’s plan is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15% to 20% by 2025, from 2016 levels. 

     

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 20:40

  • Indian Media Claims Pakistan Airforce Struck Panjshir, Proves It With Video Game Footage
    Indian Media Claims Pakistan Airforce Struck Panjshir, Proves It With Video Game Footage

    Via SouthFront.org,

    Indian news broadcasts claimed that the Pakistani airforce attacked the Panjshir valley in Afghanistan to assist the Taliban in fighting the Resistance Front.

    Indian media did so by sharing footage of alleged Pakistani airstrikes.

    The only issue?

    It’s not real, as it was footage from the video game Arma 3.

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

    The footage first appeared on Indian news channels including Republic TV, Times Now Navbharat, Zee Hindustan, and TV9 Bharatvarsh. The original video was credited to a source called “Hasti TV” on Facebook, which has since been deleted.

    In fact, the footage came from the above video, originally posted on the YouTube channel Compared Comparison, which has now been viewed 23 million times. The gameplay shows players engaging in a ground-to-air battle between a jet and a vehicle-mounted anti-air turret with tracer rounds seen firing through the sky at the jet.

    A representative for Arma 3 developer Bohemia Interactive confirmed that the original footage does indeed come from the game.

    “Strangely, we’ve seen this particular game footage be used several times by certain media outlets in support of their real-life news coverage,” the Bohemia Interactive rep said.

    “We know this because we’ve been previously approached regarding similar occurrences by fact-checkers from organizations such as Agence France-Presse, Check Your Fact, PolitiFact, and if I remember correctly, also Reuters.”

    “The clip in the [original viral tweet] is so cropped and low-res that I find it hard to compare and say for sure which it is, but I’m confident it is Arma 3 footage,” Bohemia Interactive’s rep said.

    During Republic TV’s broadcast, the anchor can be heard repeating the claim that the Pakistani airforce performed an airstrike in Panjshir. The claim was originally recognized as fraudulent by Boom, a group that calls itself India’s “first and leading fact checking website and initiative,” and is a member of the Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network initiative.

    While Arma 3 is a somewhat realistic battle simulator, one has to question why mainstream news outlets began airing video content without verifying its authenticity, and in fact, called it “exclusive footage” to prove that Pakistan is helping out Taliban in Afghanistan. One media outlet, Republic, has now posted a clarification on its Facebook page, stating that:

    “The video in question of ‘Pak Army striking Panjshir’ was taken and credited to Hasti TV – which as per their bio claims to be ‘the only Afghan TV channel in the UK catering to the needs of the Afghan/Persian Diasporas in the UK and rest of the World’. Hasti TV aired the video on their channel and also shared it on social media with the caption which when translated reads, ‘A video that we just received from Panjshir shows that a Pakistani military airplane is flying over Panjshir. Until now, the official sources have not approved this video.’ Multiple media outlets have carried and reported the said video. Since it has been brought to our notice that the video may not be accurate, the erroneous video sourced to Hasti TV has since been deleted from our official handles.”

    The misleading content has now been taken off-air and has been removed from social media platforms, online coverage, and YouTube.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 20:20

  • Companies Increasingly Using 'Tattleware' To Monitor Employees Working From Home
    Companies Increasingly Using ‘Tattleware’ To Monitor Employees Working From Home

    As waves of Covid-19 continue to dictate working (or not working) habits for millions of Americans, employers have been turning to digital surveillance platforms to monitor their at-home workers, according to The Guardian.

    Illustration via People Management

    David, 23, admits that he felt a twinge of relief when the first wave of Covid-19 shut down his Arlington, Virginia, office. A recent college graduate, he was new to the job and struggled to click with his teammates. Maybe, he thought, this would be a nice break from “the face-to-face stuff”: the office politics and small talk. (His name has been changed for this story.)

    “I couldn’t have been more wrong,” David says.

    That’s because, within their first week of remote work, David and his team were introduced to a digital surveillance platform called Sneek. -The Guardian

    Sneek captures live photos of people every minute or so via their laptop webcams – which are then displayed across a wall of a ‘digital conference room’ that everyone else on the team can see. If caught not working, other workers can forward the offending photos to bosses via Sneak Slack chat.

    “We know lots of people will find it an invasion of privacy, we 100% get that, and it’s not the solution for those folks,” said Sneek co-founder Del Currie. “But there’s also lots of teams out there who are good friends and want to stay connected when they’re working together.”

    David, however, wasn’t having it and quit after less than three weeks on the job thanks to the digital nanny.

    “I signed up to manage their digital marketing,” he said, “not to livestream my living room.”

    According to the report, such “tattleware” or “bossware” was more or less a niche market pre-covid, however in March 2020 that all changed – as employers scrambled to implement new rules surrounding the work-from-home movement due to the pandemic. Last April, for example, Google searches for “remote monitoring” rose 212% y/y. By April of this year, queries surged another 243%.

    One of the major players in the industry, ActivTrak, reports that during March 2020 alone, the firm scaled up from 50 client companies to 800. Over the course of the pandemic, the company has maintained that growth, today boasting 9,000 customers – or, as it claims, more than 250,000 individual users. Time Doctor, Teramind, and Hubstaff – which, together with ActivTrak, make up the bulk of the market – have all seen similar growth from prospective customers.

    These software programs give bosses a mix of options for monitoring workers’ online activity and assessing their productivity: from screenshotting employees’ screens to logging their keystrokes and tracking their browsing. But in the fast-growing bossware market, each platform potentially brings something new to the table. There’s FlexiSpy, which offers call-tapping; Spytech, which is known for mobile device access; and NetVizor, which has a remote takeover feature. -The Guardian

    Employers aren’t just using tattleware either – and have reportedly been using in-house IT departments to also monitor emails for phrases such as “recruiter,” or “salary,” in order to sniff out who’s looking to make a jump to greener pastures (we would note that spying on employees is hardly a recent phenomenon).

    In April, 2020, Zoom quickly canned a short-lived “attention tracking” setting which alerted call hosts if a participant was away from the camera for more than 30 seconds. In December, Microsoft anonymized a “productivity score” feature for its 365 suite which rated workers on various metrics – including email use and how long they’ve been connected to the network. The tool still exists, users are no longer identified by name.

    “There’s no real sign of this trend slowing down,” says digital researcher and privacy advocate, Juan Carloz, with the University of Melbourne. “No sign of legislative change in any jurisdiction I can name, and no sign of pushback from employees, even when they’re aware of it happening.”

    Does it work?

    UCSD professor of management Elizabeth Lyons says it does.

    “A study we conducted found people doing data collection work out of the office were more productive when they were made aware they were being monitored, compared to their colleagues who weren’t told they were being tracked,” said Lyons, who noted that remote employees ‘appreciate signals that their performance is integral to the organization.’

    That said, Lyons admits that employee morale can take a hit if monitoring is too Orwellian.

    “In other studies we’ve looked at, the workers were essentially saying, ‘If the manager is going to watch everything I do, then I’m not going to do anything above and beyond what they expect of me’,” she said.

    Carloz, meanwhile, expressed concern that the tattleware has created an unfair dynamic in favor of the employer.

    “Prior to the pandemic, the line between work and play was [clearer] – surveillance, in other words, stopped at the door,” he said.

    But the rise of tattleware changes the game. If an employee uses a spy-enabled, work-sponsored computer outside of hours, their employer could easily access their personal data, down to internet banking passwords and Facebook messages.

    Carloz concedes that most employers are probably not interested in collecting their workers’ personal information. They want to know what websites employees are on, and what tasks they’re dividing their time on, during the workday. However, if a boss does feel like snooping around off-hours, Carloz points out, there are “essentially no legal protections afforded to [those employees] in most western nations”. -Guardian

    “But since, rightly or wrongly, [surveillance software] is being framed as a trade-off for remote work, many are all too content to let it slide,” he added.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 20:00

  • Facebook Pairs With Ray-Ban To Launch Smart Glasses, Sparking Privacy Concerns
    Facebook Pairs With Ray-Ban To Launch Smart Glasses, Sparking Privacy Concerns

    Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

    Facebook has teamed up with Ray-Ban to launch a pair of smart glasses that the social media giant says are “designed with privacy in mind,” though the product is already sparking privacy concerns.

    The glasses, which were created in partnership with Ray-Ban maker EssilorLuxottica, allow wearers to listen to music, take calls, or capture photos and short videos and share them across Facebook’s services using a companion app, the company announced in a Sept. 10 release.

    Facebook insists that the spectacles, called “Ray-Ban Stories,” were designed with privacy in mind.

    “As with any new device, we have a big responsibility to help people feel comfortable and provide peace of mind, and that goes not only for device owners but the people around them, too. That’s why we baked privacy directly into the product design and functionality of the full experience, from the start,” the company said in the release, which features a video of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussing some of the product’s features.

    Zuckerberg touted hardware protections like a power switch to turn off the mic and camera, along with a light meant to alert people that the glasses are in capture mode.

    “We put this LED light on the front of the glasses so that people around you will know when you’re taking a photo or video,” Zuckerberg said in the recording. “It lights up to let people know that the camera is on.”

    Facebook and Ray-Ban’s first smart glasses which launched on Sept. 9, 2021. (Ray-Ban and Facebook/Handout via Reuters)

    In remarks to Axios, Jeremy Greenberg, privacy counsel for the Future of Privacy Forum, praised the idea of an indicator like the LED light but noted it was hard to spot from a distance or by people with low vision.

    “Hopefully we don’t have folks using these for stalking,” Greenberg told the outlet.

    Zuckerberg insisted in the presentation video that when the glasses are turned off, “they are completely off.”

    “The mic is off and you can’t take photos or record videos,” the Facebook chief added.

    Facebook told The Wall Street Journal that it had reached out to privacy groups and experts like the National Consumers League regarding the product’s design. John Breyault, vice president for the National Consumers League, said his organization recommended an automatic disable function for the camera when the light was covered, or modifying the design to distinguish them from regular Ray-Bans to make it easier for people who don’t want to be recorded to spot them and raise objections.

    “Unfortunately, those features weren’t included in this first iteration of these smart glasses,” Breyault told the outlet.

    Facebook, which reported revenue of about $86 billion in 2020, makes most of its money from advertising but has invested heavily in virtual and augmented reality, developing hardware such as its Oculus VR headsets and working on wristband technologies to support augmented reality glasses.

    Major tech firms including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Snap have raced to develop various smart glasses products, but early offerings like Google Glass proved difficult to sell to consumers put off by high price points and design issues.

    Facebook, which has in the past faced criticism over its handling of user data, said it would not access the media used by its smart-glasses customers without their consent.

    The company also said it would not use the content of the photos or videos captured using the glasses and stored in the Facebook View app for personalizing ads, and said the glasses would be an “ads-free experience.”

    Facebook has also launched a privacy-focused micro-site where it offers guidelines for responsible use of the smart glasses.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 19:40

  • Top Container Ports In Asia Brace For Impact Of Powerful Typhoon
    Top Container Ports In Asia Brace For Impact Of Powerful Typhoon

    A powerful typhoon is expected to impact Taiwan and China this weekend. It may strain global supply chains even further due to the possibility of port disruptions and other logistical issues that would stem from storm damage. 

    Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said Typhoon Chanthu is north of the Philippines Friday as it closes in on Taiwan and the Chinese coast. In the path of the storm are major containerized ports and factories. The intensity of the storm is a significant concern. 

    The storm is rated as a category four typhoon, one level below a super typhoon, with maximum sustained winds of around 130 mph and gusts up to 160 mph. Taiwan is expected to feel the brunt of the storm late Saturday, then China on Sunday. 

    In focus, we begin with Taiwan’s globally important ports and semiconductor factories, along with other manufacturing plants that could be in the path of the typhoon. Across the Taiwan Strait, some of the largest Chinese containerized ports are preparing for severe weather. 

    “The likelihood that this typhoon will reach super typhoon category is not ruled out,” the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said in its Friday evening bulletin.

    China’s Maritime Safety Administration posted a warning late Thursday for Fujian province’s Xiamen Port, one of the main ports for trans-Pacific shipping. The port has requested vessels to avoid the area. The Ningbo Maritime Safety Administration, which covers Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, one of the world’s busiest containerized ports in cargo tonnage, has also issued warnings to vessels. 

    Ningbo was in the news not too long ago for closing one of its terminals due to a COVID-19 case. The closure disrupted supply chains and caused congestion issues at surrounding ports.

    Ports across Asia have been bottlenecks for global trade. The impact of Chanthu could shut down or damage top ports in the region that would strain supply chains even more. This would be devastating considering exporters have entered peak shipping season to fulfill holiday orders for North America. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 19:20

  • Mobs Of Angry Evergrande Homebuyers And Employees Begin To Protest
    Mobs Of Angry Evergrande Homebuyers And Employees Begin To Protest

    In two separate protests, mobs of China Evergrande Group customers and employees demonstrated this week as the world’s largest developer faces soaring probabilities of default. 

    According to Bloomberg, the first demonstration was held in Guangzhou as more than 100 homebuyers attended a demonstration in front of the Nansha district’s housing bureau Thursday wearing shirts that read “Resume construction, Evergrande.” Many of these customers are becoming increasingly angry as multiple large condominium projects have been halted for months, including the massive 5,000 apartment complex called Evergrande Peninsula since May. 

    The developer is stuck between a rock and a hard place as it struggles to restart stalled construction work due to its whopping $148 billion owed in trade and other payables to suppliers as of June. The company has more than $300 billion in liabilities and has been dubbed “China’s Lehman.” However, Beijing gave the company a lifeline Thursday by renegotiating payment deadlines with banks and other creditors. 

    There are more than 1.5 million Evergrande customers who put down payments on yet-to-be-completed condo building projects. This week’s protest could be an ominous sign of more social unrest to come.  

    Following the news of Evergrande’s dollar bonds due in 2023 slumping to a new low this week of 23.81 cents on the dollar (slightly rebounding to 25 cents on the dollar Friday) – Evergrande has become one of the biggest financial risks in China – the epicenter of a potential default shockwave given its massive pile liabilities to banks, shadow lenders, companies, investors, vendors, and home buyers.

    Other reports indicate employees of the developer demonstrated earlier this week. Some chanted: “Return my hard-earned money,” referring to the company’s suspension of interest payments to banks and payments to its wealth management products.

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    If the Evergrande story continues to deteriorate, don’t be surprised if Beijing blinks again to save the company. The one thing the communist don’t want right now is to create panic in the housing market as food inflation soars, a recipe for social unrest. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 19:00

  • Biden Adviser Says President "Will Run Over" GOP Governors Who Resist Vaccine Mandate
    Biden Adviser Says President “Will Run Over” GOP Governors Who Resist Vaccine Mandate

    Update (1650ET): Following Thursday’s threat from President Biden to “use my power as president” against GOP governors “to get them out of the way,” White House senior adviser Cedric ‘boy‘ Richmond said that Biden is willing to “run over” the governors.

    “The one thing I admire about this president is the fact that we are always going to put people above politics. And we’re going to fight for those who really need our help,” Richmond told CNN in response to a question about governors resisting the mandate. “And those governors that stand in the way, I think, it was very clear from the president’s tone today that he will run over them,” he added.

    “And it is important. It’s not for political purposes. It’s to save the lives of American people. And so, we won’t let one or two individuals stand in the way. We will always err on the side of protecting the American people.”

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    Cedric might want to get with the times – it’s way more than ‘one or two individuals.’

    States resisting federal vaccine mandate

    More via The Epoch Times‘ Jack Phillips:

    Richmond’s comment, however, raises questions about how the federal government plans to “run over” states, as the United States government is federalist and combines the central government with state and local governments.

    A number of Republican governors on Thursday, following Biden’s speech, said they would resist the vaccine mandate. Should the federal government direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to impose testing or vaccine mandates on private employees, Biden will face an avalanche of lawsuits.

    “My legal team is standing by ready to file our lawsuit the minute Joe Biden files his unconstitutional rule,” South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, wrote in a Twitter post. “This gross example of federal intrusion will not stand.”

    Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, also a Republican, wrote that his administration will “pursue every legal option available” in order to halt what he called a “blatantly unlawful overreach.”

    And Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona said his state will “push back” against federal mandates, saying “Biden-Harris administration is hammering down on private businesses and individual freedoms in an unprecedented and dangerous way. This will never stand up in court.”

    He wrote: “This dictatorial approach is wrong, un-American and will do far more harm than good. How many workers will be displaced? How many kids are kept out of classrooms? How many businesses fined? The vaccine is and should be a choice.”

    Other than an order targeting private businesses, Biden also said he would mandate that all federal workers and contractors get the shot, mandate Medicare and Medicaid hospital staff to get vaccinated, and other mandates.

    *  *  *

    Republicans clapped back over the Biden administration’s unprecedented ‘jab or your job’ Executive Order for federal workers and contractors, and a ‘jab or test’ mandate for corporations with over 100 employees. 600,000 postal workers are oddly exempt.

    The sweeping new vaccine requirements, which completely ignore tens of millions in America who have recovered from Covid-19 and have natural immunity, will affect as many as 100 million Americans.

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    In response, the Republican National Committed (RNC) vowed to sue Biden once the mandate goes into effect, with President Ronna McDaniel tweeting that Biden lied.

    “Joe Biden told Americans when he was elected that he would not impose vaccine mandates. He lied,” McDaniel said in a statement, adding “Now small businesses, workers, and families across the country will pay the price.”

    “President Biden is so desperate to distract from his shameful, incompetent Afghanistan exit that he is saying crazy things and pushing constitutionally flawed executive orders. This is a cynical attempt to pick a fight and distract from the President’s morally disgraceful decision to leave Americans behind Taliban lines on the 20th anniversary of 9/11,” Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) told the Daily Caller. 

    Meanwhile, Republican governors across the country have issued statements vowing to sue, or otherwise oppose, the vaccine mandate after Biden threatened them during Thursday’s announcement.

    “Let me be blunt,” said Biden. “My plan also takes on elected officials in states that are undermining you in these life-saving actions. Right now local school officials are trying to keep children safe in a pandemic while their governor picks a fight with them and even threatens their salaries or their jobs. Talk about bullying the schools.”

    “If they’ll not help, if these governors won’t help us beat the pandemic, I will use my power as president to get them out of the way,” he added.

    Not so fast, say the governors

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    As Becker News reports:

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    Republican governors have begun to issue their responses to the federal government’s overreach and the president’s threats.

    “South Dakota will stand up to defend freedom,” Noem wrote. “JoeBiden see you in court.”

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    Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp also responded to Biden’s remarks.

    “I will pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden administration,” Kemp tweeted.

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    “Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt says as long as I am governor, there will be no government vaccine mandates in state,” Josh Caplan reported.

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    “Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announces the state already working to halt Biden’s vaccine mandate ‘power grab’,” Election Wizard reported.

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    Alabama Governor Key Ivey also released a statement declaring her intention to fight the mandate.

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    Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon also issuing a statement saying: “Not now, and not ever.”

    Tennessee’s Governor Bill Lee also stated his broad opposition to the federal mandate.

    “The Constitution won’t allow this power grab, and in the meantime, I will stand up for all Tennesseans,” Gov. Lee wrote.

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    Read more governors’ statements here.

    Cover illustration via Mother Jones, Getty

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 18:54

  • NYT Confirms Biden Murdered Innocent Family In Kabul Drone Strike
    NYT Confirms Biden Murdered Innocent Family In Kabul Drone Strike

    President Joe Biden murdered an innocent family when the US military conducted a “righteous strike” on Aug. 29 against a vehicle that American officials thought was an ISIS bomb that posed an imminent threat to thousands of people at the Kabul airport.

    In a late Friday afternoon report, the New York Times reveals that “Military officials said they did not know the identity of the car’s driver when the drone fired, but deemed him suspicious because of how they interpreted his activities that day, saying that he possibly visited an ISIS safe house and, at one point, loaded what they thought could be explosives into the car.”

    In reality, they were filling water bottles.

    More via the New York Times: 

    Times reporting has identified the driver as Zemari Ahmadi, a longtime worker for a U.S. aid group. The evidence, including extensive interviews with family members, co-workers and witnesses, suggests that his travels that day actually involved transporting colleagues to and from work. And an analysis of video feeds showed that what the military may have seen was Mr. Ahmadi and a colleague loading canisters of water into his trunk to bring home to his family.

    While the U.S. military said the drone strike might have killed three civilians, Times reporting shows that it killed 10, including seven children, in a dense residential block.

    Mr. Ahmadi, 43, had worked since 2006 as an electrical engineer for Nutrition and Education International, a California-based aid and lobbying group. The morning of the strike, Mr. Ahmadi’s boss called from the office at around 8:45 a.m., and asked him to pick up his laptop.

    Scroll down for a lengthy recap by one of the NYT journos

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    As we noted last week, NBC News spoke with members of the Ahmadi family who said they were hoping to make it onto an evacuation flight out of Kabul before the United States ended its withdrawal from the country.

    Ramal Ahmadi is supported by family members during a mass funeral in Kabul on Monday.Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

    “They were 10 civilians,” said Emal Ahmadi, whose 2-year-old toddler, Malika was among those killed. “My daughter … she was 2 years old,” he said.

    Malika Ahmadi, 2, was among those killed in Sunday’s U.S. drone strike in Kabul, her father, Emal Ahmadi, told NBC News.Courtesy / Emal Ahmadi

    More via NBC News:

    That day, Ahmadi’s cousin, Zemari Ahmadi, 38, had just pulled up at home from work, with his 13-year-old son, Farzad, his youngest of three, racing to greet him. (Other reports have said Farzad was 12, but both Ahmadi and another relative told NBC News he was 13.)

    Farzad, who had just learned to drive, wanted to park his father’s car, a wish Zemari was happy to oblige as other family members gathered around.

    It was in that moment that Ahmadi said an explosion tore through the vehicle, killing Zemari, Farzad and eight other family members, as was first reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post.

    According to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, Washington is “not in a position” to dispute reports that the Sunday drone strike killed civilians, however he claimed that one of the family members belonged to radical Islamic group, ISIS-K.

    Malika and two other toddlers were the youngest family members killed, along with Ahmadi’s nephews Arwin, 7, and Benyamin, 6, and Zemari’s two other sons, Zamir, 20, and Faisal, 16, Ahmadi said.

    Zemari was a technical engineer for Nutrition and Education International, a nonprofit working to address malnutrition based in Pasadena, California.

    Just a day before his death, he had been helping to prepare and deliver soy-based meals to women and children at refugee camps in Kabul, Steven Kwon, president of NEI, told NBC News in an email.

    One colleague and friend of six years to Zemari said he was devastated, while also describing Ahmadi as a “good man with good ethics.”

    Residents and family members gather next to a damaged vehicle a day after the drone strike. Wakil Kohsar / AFP – Getty Images

    Also killed in Biden’s drone strike was Ahmad Naser – a former officer in the Afghan Army and contractor with the US military, according to his cousin. Naser was days away from his wedding when he was killed.

    Instead, there will be a funeral.

    “They were all buried,” said 31-year-old Yousef. “We’re all ruined. The family is gone.”

    A relative throws himself on Farzad’s casket.Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

    According to an evidence-free statement by US Central Command, however, there “were substantial and powerful subsequent explosions resulting from the destruction of the vehicle,” suggesting that there was a “large amount of explosive material inside that may have caused additional casualties.”

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    We now know that was utter bullshit.

    Times journalist Evan Hill recaps the entire event in the following Twitter thread:

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    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 18:40

  • Biden, Fauci, Pelosi, & Newsom All Objected To Mandatory Vaccines
    Biden, Fauci, Pelosi, & Newsom All Objected To Mandatory Vaccines

    A common mistake people make is assuming the lying liar isn’t lying this time.

    For example, Joe Biden and Anthony Fauci have both previously said they wouldn’t require, or ‘couldn’t see’ a Covid-19 vaccine mandate in the United States.

    In April, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said “we cannot require someone to be vaccinated. That’s just not what we can do.”

    And as recently as July…

    Now, Human Events‘ Jack Posobiec reveals that California Governor Gavin Newsom – who’s essentially campaigning against his recall on mandatory vaccinations – had deep reservations over government officials ‘making a decision that is very personal.’

    Read:

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in July that healthcare workers and state employees must be vaccinated or succumb to weekly testing and wear masks; however, back in 2019, Newsom opposed the same kind of mandate. 

    “I believe in immunizations,” Newsom said at the meeting, “however I do legitimately have concerns about a bureaucrat making a decision that is very personal.” 

    “We don’t measure character or leadership by a commander’s posture during moments of comfort, but by his willingness to stand against the tides and storms of collective opinion during eras of controversy and hysteria,” Kennedy Jr. wrote in a Facebook post. “California Gov. Gavin Newsom has just passed that test with his wise and sober opposition to a draconian proposal to forcibly vaccinate medically fragile children against the wishes of their parents and the medical advice of their physician.” 

    “He expressed his concern about giving faceless government officials (with no medical training) veto power over vaccine exemptions deemed medically necessary by a child’s doctor,” Kennedy Jr. continued. “Gavin argued that those decisions should be made between patients and doctors without government involvement.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 18:30

  • Red Light Robberies Across America
    Red Light Robberies Across America

    Authored by James Bovard,

    Crime is surging in American cities, but the official data leave out the most frequent source of highway robberies. More than 400 cities have set up red light cameras that are institutionalized racketeering that subverts public safety. Tens of thousands of American drivers have been injured and many people killed as a result of reckless revenue pursuit by local governments.

    Local governments have partnered with private companies to build, deploy, and maintain the cameras that bring bounty hunting to traffic intersections. Violations routinely hammer drivers for a hundred dollars a shot, and California skewers transgressors for up to $500.

    The evidence is clear

    Red light cameras have proliferated despite overwhelming evidence of their perils. In 2004, a U.S. Department of Transportation–financed study examined hundreds of red light cameras around the nation and revealed that they were “associated with higher levels of many types and severity categories of crashes.” In 2005, six years after the District of Columbia set up a red light regime that generated more than 500,000 tickets, a Washington Post analysis revealed that “the number of crashes at locations with cameras more than doubled.” A 2007 Virginia Department of Transportation study concluded that cameras were associated with a 29 percent “increase in total crashes.” A 2013 report by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation revealed “a 27 percent increase in the number of collisions involving an injury at red-light cameras intersections” in Philadelphia.

    With each passing year, more evidence has piled up proving the perils of red light cameras. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles analyzed traffic crash data and reported in 2016 that “fatalities from accidents doubled” at intersections with red light cameras. A Case Western Reserve University 2017 analysis predicted a 28 percent decrease in non-angle auto accidents if red light cameras were removed in Houston and Dallas.

    Chicago Tribune reporter David Kidwell, who exposed the chicanery behind his city’s red light regime, explained, “When you throw a red light camera up at an intersection, it creates a psychological problem because you’ve got all of these things going on in the driver’s mind. And one of them is, ‘Wow. If I don’t stop here and I go through on a short yellow at the very end, I’m gonna get nailed.’” Drivers slammed on the brakes — resulting in a “22 percent increase in rear-end accidents at these intersections that have red light cameras.”

    Yellow lights can kill

    Short yellow lights are also death warrants. Numerous federal studies have shown that the most effective and simplest step to reduce collisions at traffic lights is to lengthen the time of the yellow light to allow drivers more time to stop. A 2001 congressional report found that the time for yellow lights had been sharply shortened since the 1970s and that “inadequate yellow times are the likely cause of almost 80 percent of red light” violations. A Federal Highway Administration report concluded that “a one second increase in yellow time results in 40 percent decrease in severe red light related crashes.” Denton, Texas, added one second to yellow lights and reduced red light camera violations by almost two-thirds. After Georgia mandated longer yellow lights in 2009, the revenue from red light cameras collapsed by up to 90 percent in many localities.

    However, red light camera companies “often specify maximum yellow light times, and impose financial penalties if the city lengthens the yellow period,” as Digital Trends reported. Former San Diego mayor Roger Hedgecock testified to Congress that the city of Tempe, Arizona, “did a study which showed that simply increasing the yellow light interval cut photo enforcement citations by 50 percent. But the Lockheed Martin contract prevents the City of Tempe from extending the yellow light interval where Lockheed’s cameras are in place.” The Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), an activist group founded by Ralph Nader, reported that red light camera contracts for several California cities “potentially impose financial penalties on the city if traffic engineers extend the length of the yellow light … which would reduce the number of tickets the systems can issue.” In 2011, the Florida Department of Transportation revised official policy to shorten yellow light intervals. “A half-second reduction in the [yellow] interval can double the number of Red Light Camera citations — and the revenue they create,” an investigation by reporter Noah Pransky of WTSP-TV in Tampa revealed. In 2015, the state of Maryland suspended its mandate that yellow lights need to be at least three and a half seconds. Montgomery County, Maryland, reaped more than $300,000 in tickets after shortening one yellow light at a busy intersection to less than three seconds.

    In 2014, Chicago began issuing red light violation tickets for yellow lights shorter than three seconds — the federal minimum safety guideline. The city hit the jackpot, issuing an extra 77,000 tickets and pilfering almost $8 million from drivers’ pockets. A Chicago Tribune investigation “found malfunctioning cameras, inconsistent enforcement and millions of dollars in tickets issued purposely by City Hall even after transportation officials knew that yellow light times were dropping below the federal minimum guidelines.” After the Tribune exposed the city government scheme and after an Inspector General report labeled the red light camera regime “fundamentally deficient,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that the city would cease ticketing people for less-than-three-second yellow lights “because trust is the most important” thing. Three years later, after losing a class-action lawsuit, the city of Chicago grudgingly gave partial refunds to drivers who got shafted. Chicago activist and video camera expert Barnet Fagel said that “red light camera revenue is municipal crack cocaine. They’re hooked on it. They will go down fighting before they give up the revenue from the cameras.”

    Right turns on red

    The biggest cash cows for red light camera companies and local governments are drivers who make right turns on red without coming to a dead stop. A 2001 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report concluded that zero fatalities occurred nationwide in 1998 “from an accident resulting from a right hand turn on red when the driver yielded to oncoming traffic.” Ron Ely of the Maryland Drivers Alliance wrote in September 2012, “One study showed that an average motorist could drive a billion miles, the distance from Earth to Jupiter and back, before being involved in a deadly accident that resulted from a motorist making a rolling stop on a right-hand turn.” John Townsend, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, observed, “Ninety percent of the tickets we’re seeing across the country … for running red lights, are actually because the driver made a so-called rolling right turn on red…. These cameras were designed for people who run the red light and barrel through the intersection.” Townsend labeled right-turn-on-red cameras as “the biggest scandal in automated traffic enforcement.” Yet, as the PIRG report noted, “Some contracts require municipalities to strictly issue tickets on all right turns that do not first come to a complete stop, or enable vendors to impose financial penalties on cities that choose to alter their enforcement standards.”

    Some cities pilfer drivers for imaginary offenses created solely to fatten government treasuries. Rockville, Maryland, boosted the number of red light camera tickets by more than 300 percent in 2012 after it began ticketing cars that failed to come to a complete stop before the white line at an intersection prior to turning right.

    Arizona State Rep. Travis Grantham observed, “The practice of privatizing law enforcement actions is just wrong. When you add the equation of for-profit into the mix, it presents a lot of opportunity for fraud, for abuse.” According to the National Motorists Association, one of the largest manufacturers of red light cameras “included clauses in their contracts that prohibit city engineers from applying engineering practices that improve compliance and reduce accidents.” Some red light camera contracts “penalize municipalities if they do not approve enough tickets, effectively setting a ticket quota and undermining the authority of local officials to decide which violations warrant citations,” the PIRG report noted.

    Red light corruption

    Why would politicians impose traffic regimes that pointlessly penalize or kill hapless citizens? Bribery is often a good explanation. Chicago, home of “the most lucrative red light camera deal in the country,” has imposed more than a billion dollars in fines since 2003. Because the cameras were ATMs for local politicians, most of the intersections where they were installed were already among the safest in the city. In 2016, a former city commissioner was sent to prison for 10 years for taking a $2 million bribe from Redflex Traffic systems. The company’s former top salesman testified that Redflex had “sent gifts and bribes to officials in at least 14 states.” (Redflex denied the salesman’s allegation.)

    Scandals have snowballed since the Chicago takedown. Former Redflex chief executive Karen Finley was sentenced to 14 months in prison in 2016 after being convicted of bribing Columbus, Ohio, government officials to deploy her company’s red light cameras. A Texas County judge was indicted for setting up a secret deal for a private company to set up speed cameras in 2016. Also in 2016, a former traffic light enforcement camera vendor was sentenced to prison for bribery and fraud in Arizona. In 2018, the Dallas County Schools superintendent was convicted for taking $3 million in bribes as part of a deal placing traffic cameras on school buses. Federal agents raided city halls in the Chicago suburbs in late 2019 as part of an investigation involving a red light camera contractor and its payoffs to local government officials. In 2019, the Illinois Comptroller office announced that it would no longer serve as a collection agency for red light tickets by reducing state income tax refunds to cover outstanding local tickets. Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza condemned red light ticket regimes as “a program that’s broken and morally corrupt” and recommended ending them across the state.

    Unnecessary and unjust tickets disrupt lives and destroy people’s ability to feed their families. A 2019 study by the Federal Reserve concluded that almost half of Americans “could not afford an unexpected expense of $400 or more.” The National Motorists Association warned, “The practical results for many poor people may be a lot like putting them in debtor prisons, unable to legally drive to work.” In 2018, the D.C. government created a “community service option” under which low-income red light and speed camera violators could pay off tickets by working unpaid for the city at the minimum wage rate. At least the city has not yet created chain gangs sweating to pay their automatic traffic debts.

    Red light cameras epitomize how democracy provides no protection against politicians willing to force citizens to pay any price to boost government revenue. “Taxation by citation” is a license for bureaucratic tyranny. How much longer will local politicians be permitted to plunder drivers and subvert safety with impunity?

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 09/10/2021 – 18:20

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