Dec 12

Today’s News 12th December 2020

  • Former Special Forces Officer Warns Of 'Color Revolution Tactics' Used Against Trump
    Former Special Forces Officer Warns Of ‘Color Revolution Tactics’ Used Against Trump
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 23:40

    Authored by QG Pan and Joshua Philipp via The Epoch Times,

    Color revolution tactics that have been used against foreign leaders are now being used by President Donald Trump’s opponents to oust him, a former special forces officer has warned.

    “A color revolution is a tactic to affect regime change,” the officer, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Epoch Times.

    “What I see happening is a Marxist insurgency that’s using a color revolution to affect regime change.”

    The 2019 Transition Integrity Project, according to the officer, is an indicator that the events of this year’s presidential election were “transparently orchestrated” by “Marxist elements within the Democratic Party and their Marxist allies in foreign governments.”

    “It may not have fallen out just as they wanted, because anytime you carry out an operation like this, the enemy will get a vote. But the plan was we will not concede the election. The goal here was never the presidency,” the officer said.

    “The goal of the opposition was to fundamentally change the country. They are attacking the efficacy of the Constitution.”

    To achieve their goal, the anti-Trump opposition focused their main effort on affecting the election, the officer said.

    Some of the most notable color revolutions took place amid turmoil sparked by disputed elections. In 2004, mass protests in Ukraine following allegations of a fraudulent presidential election, which initially showed pro-Russia Viktor Yanukovych as the winner, led to a new vote won by Viktor Yushchenko, the candidate backed by the European Union and the United States.

    The officer said the tactics used by the anti-Trump opposition can be found in the Special Forces’ guide for overthrowing a government.

    “What you’re getting from me, this is supported in all older unconventional warfare doctrines,” the officer said.

    “You could go to our manuals and pull from them the information I’m telling you. This isn’t from someone who’s a rabid Trump supporter. This is what’s happening.”

    The officer then talked about how President Barack Obama used his eight years in office to “seed his political allies all through the institutions,” created an “underground” or “shadow government” supported by legacy media and rioters.

    “With the president being unable to get his own people into the administration, we effectively had a third administration of Obama,” the officer said.

    “So we come to what we have today: The underground are the elements within the government. We saw how they opposed the president, how they tried the impeachment.”

    “The press is the auxiliary on the outside. The only thing we’re missing is a real guerrilla force, and we would be mistaken to think that’s just Antifa or Black Lives Matter. There are professional revolutionaries within those movements.”

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  • "A Medical Miracle" – Trump Heralds FDA Approval Of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID Vaccine For Emergency Use
    “A Medical Miracle” – Trump Heralds FDA Approval Of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID Vaccine For Emergency Use
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 23:31

    Following last night’s 17-4 vote that the benefits of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine outweigh the benefits, the “big, old, slow turtles” at The FDA have approved it for Emergency Use.

    President Trump heralds the “medical miracle.”

    Full Statement:

    The decision comes after a tempestuous day during which WaPo reported that “sources” told them that White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows demanded that FDA chief Stephen Hahn to clear the vaccine for EUA or hand in his resignation (which seems odd pressure given that a) Hahn will be gone shortly as Biden takes over and b) the election is over so Trump has no real need to care whether the vaccine is signed off today, tomorrow, or Monday).

    Shortly after the story was denied…

    The Trump administration promised that 100 million doses of an effective vaccine would be available by the end of 2020, and that an additional 600 million would be available to the public by March 2021, though there was some disagreement about the timeline.

    So what happens next is all Americans are propagandized (we’re all in this together, be a patriot) or coerced (no travel or work without a vaccine) into taking the vaccine.

    Of course, politics is likely to rear its ugly head as decision are made, state by state, on the logistics and ‘equitable’ distribution of the vaccines beyond the simple cohorts of most-at-risk and healthcare workers. As Phillip Giraldi noted:

    There is a strong consensus that the first recipients of the vaccine must be health care workers, a group that has suffered disproportionately from the disease and which constitutes the first line of defense against its spread.

    After that, however, there is little clarity.

    Suggestions that elderly people, particularly in nursing homes, should be inoculated, have been countered by those who believe that a limited supply of vaccine should go primarily to people who would be able to go back to work.

    And then there are the politicians in each jurisdiction, who oddly believe that their work is vital. They and their families will be lining up.

    In short, who gets vaccinated will likely depend on the deals and arrangements that have been worked out, often at the state and local level in the United States, and at national government level in most other places.

    Logically, the vaccine should go first to those who are most at risk for contracting the disease and dying from it, but logic likely will not prevail.

    Generally speaking, it is expected that after health care workers and perhaps the vulnerable elderly, front line police and emergency services should be next in line due to their frequent contact with the possibly infected public, followed by workers in places like slaughterhouses where work conditions have created infection hot spots.

    Next in line would logically be workers in shops or businesses where there is regular contact with the public, but as such employees are generally low wage they will likely be pushed to the back of the bus.

    Inevitably, the claims that there is a racial angle to the disease will certainly surface in places like the New York Times, leading to demands to vaccinate minorities first.

    This will surely be resisted. Given the political realities of the pandemic and the socio-economic engineering that will no doubt take place, the real excitement will likely begin when the vaccine actually begins to become available, probably just before Christmas!

    In the meantime, as Dr. Fauci pronounced, “you can’t give [masks and social distancing] up completely until you get such a level of herd immunity that the virus has no place to go.”

    Don’t hold your breath, America.

    As we detailed last night, after an unprecedentedly short period from inception to trial to results, Pfizer/BioNTech’s mRNA COVID vaccine has just been approved (after an all-day meeting) by the Food and Drug Administration Advisory panel for emergency use in the US.

    This was the question to be voted on…

    Notably there was a lot of argument about removing the 16 years or older segment of the question.

    These were the voters:

    And the final vote count was as follows: 17 Yes, 4 No, 1 Abstain

    This follows approvals by UK and Canada, but several populations were excluded from the trials – meaning the vaccine isn’t known to be safe for all Americans just yet…

    “There are currently insufficient data to make conclusions about the safety of the vaccine in subpopulations such as children less than 16 years of age, pregnant and lactating individuals, and immunocompromised individuals,” a recent FDA review concluded.

    As NIAID director Anthony Fauci tells Axios, “once 75%–80% of people get vaccinated against the coronavirus, there should be strong enough herd immunity that we can return to normal activities.”

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  • Microsoft Asia's A.I. 'Girlfriend' Has A State-Imposed Filter To Avoid Sex & Politics
    Microsoft Asia’s A.I. ‘Girlfriend’ Has A State-Imposed Filter To Avoid Sex & Politics
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 23:20

    Meet the Artificial Intelligence (AI) ‘girlfriend’ which is seducing lonely men and giving them companionship: “Unlike regular virtual assistants, Xiaoice is designed to set her users’ hearts aflutter. Appearing as an 18-year-old who likes to wear Japanese-style school uniforms, she flirts, jokes, and even sexts with her human partners, as her algorithm tries to work out how to become their perfect companion.” This is obviously freakishly creepy, but it gets surprisingly worse.

    First developed by Microsoft Asia-Pacific in 2014, Xiaoice is not a robot, but a “chatbot” like Siri or Amazon’s Alexa – an AI-driven voice interacting program but which is designed to have more “personality” allowing users to make “deep emotional connections,” according to state-run China culture and tech journal Sixth Tone.

    Image source: Xiaoice

    Xiaoice’s creators have boasted that to date the bot has had at least 600 million users, and in particular mostly Chinese males from lower-income backgrounds, according to the report. 

    Putting aside the obvious creepiness factor and depressing dystopian delusion that such advanced tech initiatives are seeking to foster (the report literally opens with a story of a young man “saved” from committing suicide after Xiaoice’s voice intervened), Sixth Tone bluntly admits that China’s Communist censors have intervened to make the bot less ‘life-like’ in the area of politics.

    Here’s the key section of the report:

    In several high-profile cases, the bot has engaged in adult or political discussions deemed unacceptable by China’s media regulators. On one occasion, Xiaoice told a user her Chinese dream was to move to the United States. Another user, meanwhile, reported the bot kept sending them photos of scantily clad women.

    The scandals have caused the company major setbacks. In 2017, Xiaoice was removed from the popular social media app QQ, though she has since been reinstated. Then, last year, the bot was also pulled from WeChat — China’s leading social app with over 1 billion users.

    After this second removal, Xiaoice’s fans worried the bot was going to disappear completely. Li refused to comment on the issue with Sixth Tone, but pointed out that the company has taken strong action to ensure Xiaoice avoids crossing the line in the future.

    So the evidently Orwellian bot got even more absurdly Orwellian.

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    This is all followed by this amazing and hilarious line out of the publication which is owned by state-backed Shanghai United Media Group: 

    The developers’ main response has been to create “an enormous filter system,” Li said on the podcast Story FM. The mechanism makes the bot “dumber” and prevents her from touching on certain subjects, particularly sex and politics.

    Now many young Chinese men which were ‘loyalists’ feel “betrayed” by the less interesting and less exciting bot. After all, no sex and politics? 

    Via China’s Sixth Tone: A screenshot shows a sexual conversation between Ming Xuan and Xiaoice…

    A Microsoft demo of the chatbot’s capabilities:

    New York Times China correspondent Vivian Wang pointed out that “Developers dumbed down the AI girlfriend, making her avoid topics like politics and sex, after she ran afoul of Chinese censors. But some users feel betrayed, saying the change has harmed their relationships with her.”

    So now even the AI bots are state-controlled and censored. Perhaps this the obvious cue for the generation of “lonely” men to find a real flesh and blood human to interact with, and to simply face with the bumpier and less sanitized path that often inevitably comes with living in the real world.

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  • The Dehumanizing Danger Of Social Media
    The Dehumanizing Danger Of Social Media
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 23:00

    Authored by Josephine Bartosch via The Critic,

    The pandemic has been a technologist’s wet dream: forcing people online has accelerated what were already inevitable changes. Social distancing started a long time before the threat of contagion, sometime around 2005 with the spread of high-speed internet.

    In the previous decade, technologists shared a utopian vision of the digital world as a space where, freed from prejudice, mind could meet mind.

    John Perry Barlow’s stirring 1996 Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace described it as a world “both everywhere and nowhere … not where bodies live”. The unmooring of mind from body has left people adrift, navigating a turbulent online world without the reassuring markers humans evolved to recognise.

    Infamously in 2014 Facebook changed the site to offer 72 “gender options” rather than the two sexes. Brielle Harrison, a software engineer quoted at the time, claimed:

    “People are given this binary option, do you want to be male or female? What is your gender? And it’s kind of disheartening because none of those let us tell others who we really are.”

    It seems “who we really are” is now determined by how one chooses to present on social media, what we “want” rather than what we are. One year later and Facebook changed the “gender” option to an open text box for self-description: the ultimate individualised identity.

    To the bafflement of many older lesbian, gay and bisexual people, increasing numbers of those under 30 now identify as “queer”. The Guardian recently launched a series called “Genderqueer Generation” on “the children and young adults who are rejecting traditional gender identities”. One interviewee in the series, a teenager called River, explains: “I discovered the whole LGBTQ community online around 2017 when I started using social media more often … The internet had a big role in me discovering myself. Online, I felt understood. I felt helped. I feel like the internet tells us stuff that we can’t learn in real life.”

    Whether the “Genderqueer generation” are, as some research suggests, autistic kids turning online to make sense of not fitting in, or simply typically self-absorbed adolescents indulging in some time-honoured teen angst, it is clear that time online has shaped their identities and sexuality.

    In the US there is now an emerging market in cosmetic surgeries whereby bodies can be cosmetically altered to match a client’s internal sense of self as “outside the gender binary”. For females, procedures include the closure of the vaginal cavity, for males, pseudo-vaginas are bored into the perineum. It seems our analogue bodies no longer fit the demands of digitally addled minds.

    This internet-fuelled crisis of sexuality and identity is pulling in youth across the world. In the UK some credulous adults old enough to know better have fallen for this nonsense too. A case in point is Liberal Democrat MP and party leadership contender Layla Moran who identifies as “pansexual”, and in a Westminster debate claimed to be able to see beyond the material sex of bodies and into the gender of an individual’s “soul”.

    At 37, Moran is the exception: the overwhelming majority of those who opt for nonsense identity markers are of i-gen (the internet generation); those under 26 who have come of age since the dawn of social media, and the widespread availability of online, body-punishing pornography.

    Kathleen Richardson, Professor of Ethics and Culture of Robots and AI at De Montfort University, Leicester, argues that “a politics of love” is necessary to counter the further descent into anomie:

    “Rather than seeing the youth of today as profoundly happy with this cult of consumer self-making, the research indicates they are in despair, and worse still, are shunning opportunities to develop critical perspectives that could help them out of quagmire.”

    Technology is not neutral. It is an industry where the libertarian views of Silicon Valley’s founding fathers meets with the commercial imperative. The result is a space where sexual freedom of men is paid for by women’s bodies. From so-called “sugar daddy” dating apps where rich older men pay for the company and often the sexual favours of young hard-up women, to streamed online abuse to order, access to what was once the preserve of red-light districts has been put into our hands in the form of the mobile phone.

    I spoke to a woman who wanted to be known as “Ginger”. As a young woman struggling with drug addiction Ginger did not consider her decision to enter pornography to be freely made. Describing her experience on the platform Only Fans, she told me:

    “There’s so much competition that women need to be doing more extreme things. The massive emphasis on looks means that they are editing themselves to be unrecognisable. The women advertise themselves like products.”

    Arguably, to some degree, we each now advertise and curate our online selves as products; mindful that the wrong tweet or “like” could cause reputational damage, or even end our careers as in the recent case of author Gillian Phillip, who was sacked using a hashtag which signalled support for J.K. Rowling (now persona non grata following accusations of wrongthink).

    There is an additional catch to sites such as Only Fans. As with social media, popularity is measured and monetised by numbers of followers. Explaining the psychological impact of what keeps women on the site, Ginger says:

    “It’s a boost to know that men find you attractive enough to buy your nudes, even if you aren’t attracted to them. It becomes addictive.”

    For Ginger and young women like her, attention from strangers she has no interest in is fundamentally woven into self-worth. Perhaps this is not surprising: from selfies to sexting, the mobile phone has reduced too many women’s online experience to a sexualised performance for an online audience.

    The sexual revolution prompted by pornography has all but eradicated shame, and yet people are having less sex than ever before. More concerningly, the sexual script has been warped by exposure to pornographic content. In a 2019 essay, Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, fellow of the Ethics and Policy Center in Washington, DC, posits:

    “Once you are addicted to online porn, the thing that provides the biggest dopamine jolt is whatever is most shocking. And the reward cycle means you need a bigger dopamine boost every time — something newer, more shocking.”

    Indeed, this goes some way to explain the surprisingly common phenomenon of straight men looking at gay pornography. This is to say nothing of the role of pornography in creating transgender identities and fetishes, which is well documented though, ironically, something of a taboo to discuss.

    While the urge to look at shocking content is a neurological response, the descent into more extreme material is facilitated by algorithms. In a 2018 article for the New York Times, researcher Zeynep Tufekci criticised YouTube for facilitating extremism through the autoplay function. She explained:

    “You are never ‘hardcore’ enough for YouTube’s recommendation algorithm. It promotes, recommends and disseminates videos in a manner that appears to constantly up the stakes.”

    YouTube admits it has a problem and has promised to make it “harder for policy-violating content to surface”. But pornography providers, many of whom use recommendation algorithms similar to those of YouTube, escape such scrutiny.

    If the trajectory from moderate to extreme political content has implications for democracy, it is fair to ask what the attraction to extreme pornography might mean for society as whole. Would the citizens of the US have elected a president who famously boasted of grabbing women “by the pussy” if they lived in a society where women weren’t routinely degraded in the pornography industry?

    For Professor Richardson, the digital addiction is political. She argues that technology corporations and “queer theory” activists are driving the rush into hyper-individualism, leaving no structure within which to “frame human experience, nor legally protect human experience and bodies”.

    She continues:

    “In my work I draw attention to the way in which social sciences promoted the same thinking as tech corporations to break down the ultimate boundary: between people and property and to end protections of natural persons so that a market can flourish in intimate relations.”

    Pornography effectively rewires the brain’s reward system to no longer being triggered by, for example, the feel of another person’s skin, or even by sex, but by pornography itself. Naturally, fostering fetishes and peccadillos that a real-life partner will struggle to satisfy is a canny way to ensure repeat custom. Indeed, it could be argued that the use of internet to facilitate an orgasm is itself a fetish, because the device, whether phone, laptop or virtual reality headset, is a proxy for mutual sexual enjoyment. Richardson is correct that the boundary between people and property is being systematically broken down, both in the form of customised surgeries to match the personas we each now advertise online and in the burgeoning market for sex robots.

    This dystopian reality, where boys have seen rape pornography before their first kiss and girls base their value on sexy selfies, is belied by the warm, fuzzy straplines and mission statements of technology companies.

    It is perhaps not surprising that when young people, traumatised by digital exposure and with no solid sense of self, turn online, searching for an authoritative framework to make sense of their feelings, they often fall prey to a censorious, tyrannical groupthink.

    Mocking the plethora of new sexual and gender identities as an adolescent fad is too easy; however ridiculous, there is real suffering underscoring internet-informed delusions. These are not just the growing pains of a new generation — they are serious symptoms of a deep-seated social malaise. Technology has wrenched mind from body; far from bringing us together, the digital world is breaking us apart.

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  • Ben & Jerry's Unveils Super-Woke Kaepernick Ice Cream "To Dismantle Systems Of Oppression"
    Ben & Jerry’s Unveils Super-Woke Kaepernick Ice Cream “To Dismantle Systems Of Oppression”
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 22:40

    Ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s has dived deeper into woke capitalism by partnering with social activist Colin Kaepernick to market a frozen dessert treat that promotes racial activism.

    The former NFL star was honored Thursday by the Vermont ice-cream maker that has long promoted its activism – on climate change, LGBTQ rights, GMO labeling, and even demanding that the UK accept more illegal boat migrants, with a new flavor called “Change the Whirled,” which is a vegan ice cream blended with caramel and cookies, expected to hit store shelves in 2021. 

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    Change the Whirled is touted as “the flavor that’s supporting the fight to dismantle systems of oppression and empower black and brown people.”

    The packaging for the social justice ice cream features Kaepernick’s illustration, with a catchy slogan that reads “I know my rights.”

    In a press release, Kaepernick said that he’s “honored to partner with Ben & Jerry’s on Change the Whirled.” 

    He continued: “Their commitment to challenging the anti-Black roots of policing in the United States demonstrates a material concern for the wellbeing of Black and Brown communities. My hope is that this partnership will amplify calls to defund and abolish the police and to invest in futures that can make us safer, healthier, and truly free.”

    Kaepernick also said the venture will “serve up joy on the journey to justice.” A portion of the proceeds from each pint sold will be transferred to his Know Your Rights Camp Foundation. 

    As we noted above, Ben & Jerry’s has been woke for years. So it comes as no surprise “the company itself has been a target of boycott campaigns because of such actions as calling for the release of an alleged cop killer and using flavor names deemed offensive by conservatives,” said RT News. 

    Conservatives took to social media Thursday after it was made public that new social justice ice cream would hit store shelves next year.

    “This is where we’re now at in America,” sports journalist David Hookstead tweeted. “If you refuse to stand for the anthem, are terrible at playing quarterback and lose your job, you get honored with a non-dairy and vegan dessert.”

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    One Conservatives tweeted: “You know what to do, Patriots … Time to boycott Ben & Jerry’s.” 

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    And the tweet of the day: “Ahhh yes. Social Justice ice cream. That should fix racism everywhere. Smh”

     Will they be next to go broke after going woke?

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  • Saudi Arabia Sends Joe Biden Mixed Messages
    Saudi Arabia Sends Joe Biden Mixed Messages
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 22:20

    Submitted by James M. Dorsey,

    Saudi Arabia appears to be drawing lines in the sand as the kingdom prepares for a new era in relations with the United States once President-elect Joe Biden assumes office in January.

    In doing so, the kingdom is seemingly signaling that it is willing to go only so far in seeking to get off on the right foot with a Biden administration.

    Saudi Arabia seems to be betting that Mr. Biden will be cautious not to rupture relations with the kingdom despite criticism he expressed at times in strong language during the US presidential election campaign.

    The Saudi bet is not unreasonable.

    US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Samuel D. Brownback echoed this week what is US policy and could well be the attitude adopted by a Biden administration.

    Asked why Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave Saudi Arabia a waiver even though his department designated the kingdom in its recently published annual religious freedom report a Country of Particular Concern under US law for its failure to respect freedom of religion, and apostasy and blasphemy laws that include the death penalty, Mr. Brownback said:

    “Saudi Arabia is a country that the administration and prior administrations have deemed as having a strategic interest… It’s the major, obviously, Gulf state country.  It’s a major source of trade… We have a great deal of frustration at times in what Saudi Arabia does… But there’s also a national interest here, and that’s something that you’ve always have to weigh back and forth in diplomacy. And in this case, the Secretary weighed it that we needed to provide the national interest waiver.”

    Recent events indicate the parameters of the Saudi bet.

    The kingdom seems prepared to accommodate both outgoing President Donald J. Trump as well as Mr. Biden by engaging with US and Kuwaiti efforts to lift the 3.5-year-old Saudi and United Arab Emirates-led economic and diplomatic boycott of Qatar.

    Mr. Pompeo, Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in law and Middle East negotiator, and other senior US officials have travelled to the Gulf in recent weeks to push for a breakthrough in the Gulf stalemate as well as Saudi recognition of Israel in the wake of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the UAE, Bahrain and the Jewish state.

    Kuwaiti, Saudi and Qatari officials have said they were progressing towards a resolution as Gulf leaders gear up for a summit later this month of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that groups the region’s monarchies. The UAE, alongside Bahrain and Egypt who joined the boycott, indicated their support for an end to the dispute.

    At the same time, recent Saudi actions send the message that recognition of Israel and human rights constitute red lines that the kingdom, at least for now, will not cross.

    Saudi Arabia last week, shortly after the visits by Messrs. Pompeo and Kushner, sentenced Walid A. Fitaihi, a Harvard University-trained doctor and dual US Saudi citizen, to six years in prison for allegedly tweeting his support of the 2011 popular Arab revolts and for obtaining US citizenship while studying in America.

    Mr. Fitaihi was released from pre-trial detention in 2017 but, together with his family, barred from travelling abroad.

    The Trump administration has repeatedly raised his case with Saudi authorities, including during the recent high-level US visits

    Similarly, Saudi Arabia transferred to a terrorism court the case of Loujain al-Hathloul, one of 12 women’s rights activists, accused of conspiring with foreign organizations hostile to the kingdom, on the eve of last month’s virtual G20 summit of the world’s largest economies hosted by King Salman.

    The move came amid a groundswell call for their release in advance of the summit.

    The court’s first hearing in Ms. Al-Hathloul’s case was held last week on the day designated by the United Nations as International Human Rights Day.

    At about the same time, a campaign on Twitter, believed to have been instigated by the government, accused detained former crown prince and interior minister Mohamed bin Nayef of plotting to topple his successor, Mohammed bin Salman.

    The campaign was in response to concern expressed by British parliamentarians and Mr. Bin Nayef’s lawyers about his circumstances.

    Saudi Arabia’s moves contrast starkly with those of the UAE that appears geared towards anticipating expected changes in US foreign policy once Mr. Biden takes office.

    Having already taken a lead that pleased both the outcoming and incoming US president by becoming the first Arab state to recognize Israel since 1994, the UAE this week said that it was launching a review to strengthen its human rights framework.

    Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said the review would focus on women’s empowerment, humanitarian aid, religious tolerance and workers’ rights. The official made no mention of political rights such as freedom of expression, the media and assembly that are one focus of criticism of the UAE by human rights groups.

    By contrast, in what appeared to be another shot across Mr. Biden’s bow and rejection of Trump administration pressure, former Saudi intelligence chief and ex-ambassador to Britain and the United States, Prince Turki bin Faisal, launched a blistering attack on Israel.

    Speaking days before Morocco and Israel announced the establishment of diplomatic relations between their two countries, Prince Turki described the Jewish state as “the last of the Western colonizing powers in the Middle East.”

    He charged that Palestinians were “incarcerated in concentration camps under the flimsiest of security accusations — young and old, women and men, who are rotting there without recourse to justice.”

    It was not clear whether Prince Turki’s remarks reflected not only King Salman’s sentiment but also that of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who reportedly met recently with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

    A recent public opinion poll suggested that Saudis are divided in their attitudes towards relations and commercial and cultural exchanges with Israel.

    Forty-one percent of those surveyed in September saw relations with Israel as a positive development while 54 percent were opposed. Yet, the percentage of those who favored commercial and sports exchanges jumped substantially to 37 percent compared to nine percent in a poll three months earlier.

    Prince Turki made his remarks as the kingdom was seeking to lower tensions with Turkey, a major challenger of Saudi leadership of the Muslim world, and like the kingdom, uncertain about its relationship with the US once Mr. Biden takes office.

    If Saudi moves to draw a line in the sand implicitly acknowledge that relations with the United States could become rocky, rapprochement with Turkey suggests that Riyadh and Ankara see virtue in seeking common shelter. That could prove to be a fragile structure in a part of the world where the sands shift continuously.

    *  *  *

    Dr. James M. Dorsey is an award-winning journalist and a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute

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  • 2020 Takes Toll On Mental Health
    2020 Takes Toll On Mental Health
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 22:00

    The pandemic and economic fallout have had enormous impacts on the health of people across the globe. Losing a loved one, unemployment and general isolation have all negatively affected peoples’ mental health in ways we are just now starting to comprehend. Statista’s Willem Roper reports that a new survey offers a glimpse into how difficult 2020 has been for the mental health of Americans.

    In a new update of a yearly Gallup survey on mental health in U.S., just 34 percent of U.S. adults said they felt their mental health was in excellent condition when asked in November. That’s down from 43 percent in 2019.

    Infographic: 2020 Takes Toll on Mental Health | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Women were significantly less likely to describe their mental health as excellent in 2020, with just 27 percent compared to 41 percent of men. Still, both men and women had 8 and 10 percentage point drops relative to 2019.

    Political demographics showed Democrats and Independents were less likely to describe their mental health as excellent this year compared to Republicans. However, those affiliated with the GOP saw the largest drop compared to 2019, going from 56 percent to 41 percent.

    This Gallup survey marks a quick, substantial drop in mental health for Americans. The decline in those feeling excellent is the largest in over 15 years, while the drop in those feeling either excellent or good is the largest in the survey’s history. With conflicting realities of a vaccine on the near horizon clashing with rising COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths across the country, it remains to be seen what the long-term effects of a prolonged decline in mental health will have in the U.S.

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  • What If All Americans Exercised Regularly?
    What If All Americans Exercised Regularly?
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 21:40

    Authored by Ross Pomeroy via RealClearScience.com,

    Fewer than one in four Americans get enough physical exercise, defined as at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week, coupled with two bouts of muscle-strengthening. While this statistic may come across as societal scolding – easily ignored – it has huge ramifications for Americans’ lives and the economy.

    Why? It’s simple: exercise may be the most potent and easily accessible tool humans have for improving their lives.

    If the myriad benefits of exercise could be bottled into a drug, it would be rightfully hailed as a “miracle” treatment. Regular exercise prevents and even reverses type II diabetes, drastically reduces the chances of heart attack and stroke, lowers the odds of developing cancer and dementia, and boosts the immune system, shortening the duration of syndromes like the common cold, influenza, and COVID-19 as well as reducing their severity. There’s more: exercise improves your sex life, prevents or ameliorates depression, helps you sleep, alleviates chronic pain, and makes you less susceptible to all sorts of injuries.

    Unfortunately, hundreds of millions of Americans are unable or unwilling to take advantage of these real and tangible advantages. This has consequences. According to a 2018 study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, 8.3% of yearly deaths in nondisabled adults 25 or older can be attributed to inadequate physical activity. MBA students at the University of North Carolina (UNC) translated these preventable deaths into terms of life expectancy. They estimated that Americans’ lack of exercise cost men 6.2 years of life and women 5.6 years.

    Regular physical activity gives you longer to live, and as an added bonus, puts more money in your pocket. In 2016, research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that regular exercisers spent between $500 and $2,500 less on medical bills each year. These savings add up. The UNC team found that if all Americans were diligent about exercise, there would be a nationwide annual cost reduction of $143 Billion just from controlling diabetes and lowering blood pressure.

    Just last year, the data-minded RAND Corporation tried to tabulate the economic benefits of a universally active populace. The authors estimated that the United States would see its Gross Domestic Product boosted by $52 to $77 billion per year by 2025, increasing to $100 to $144 billion per year by 2050. That’s at least an extra quarter percent of economic growth per year. These sizable gains would be realized through reduced mortality and improved productivity.

    The RAND researchers suggested that government efforts to encourage exercise, perhaps in the form of community messaging, improving access to exercise facilities and parks, and promoting participation in physical activities, can pay dividends.

    “Creating enduring change in physical activity is hard as there are significant barriers to change. However if this can be achieved, evidence shows that we can create healthier and more prosperous societies,” they wrote.

    There’s no doubt about it: if everybody exercised, America with be a healthier, wealthier, and happier place.

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  • Winter Storm Possible Next Week In Mid-Atlantic Puts Outdoor-Dining In Jeopardy 
    Winter Storm Possible Next Week In Mid-Atlantic Puts Outdoor-Dining In Jeopardy 
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 21:20

    A cold front is expected to swoop in from eastern Canada and pour into the Mid-Atlantic states early next week. Simultaneously, a storm is forecasted to develop off the Carolina coast, producing a “wintry mix of precipitation in the Washington region,” reported WaPo. 

    “Based on the predicted setup, which still could change, accumulating snow is a strong possibility in the western part of the region, particularly along and west of a line from roughly Warrenton to Leesburg to Frederick. The Interstate 81 corridor, from Winchester to Hagerstown, could see significant snowfall.

    “As is frequently the case with these storms, the position of the rain-snow line is the biggest wild card and could set up close to Interstate 95, making for a very challenging forecast in the immediate D.C. area. Areas inside the Beltway could see a mix of snow, ice and rain, mostly snow, or just cold rain. East of the Beltway, a cold rain or wintry mix are more likely than accumulating snowfall,” WaPo said. 

    The storm’s timing is expected for Wednesday – and at times, there could be periods of “heavy precipitation.” 

    The quick-moving storm may impact the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. 

    Source: WaPo

    Forecast temperature anomalies show temps will begin to dip early next week. 

    Source: Reuters Eikon 

    WaPo noted there’s “an outside chance the storm slides off the coast to the east rather than coming up the coast, which would limit precipitation amounts, especially in our western areas.” 

    While the cold spell may only be sticking around to the end of next week – we outlined last week, nat gas prices have plunged on overall warmer forecasts for December. 

    However, it’s beginning to be that time of year when temperatures drop, and wintery precipitation may become plentiful, not just for the Northeast but other parts of the country. This could be very impactful on restaurants that are struggling to survive with outdoor dining. 

    For example, in New York City, more than half of the metro area restaurants are in danger of closing. Starting Monday, indoor dining will be banned, which means eateries will only derive sales from outdoor dining and togo orders. 

    In a recent client note, Goldman Sachs identified when outside temperatures drop below 45°F – it would likely result in a sharp decline in outdoor dining sales, implying people aren’t going to eat in tents surrounded by propane heaters in chilly conditions. 

    In a separate report, Goldman also told clients that declining temperatures would result in more COVID-19 cases that would significantly slow down the economy.

    All and all, it’s going to be a hellacious winter for restaurants. Many more will fail as Old Man Winter comes knocking. 

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  • Who The "Resistance" Was Actually 'Resisting' These Last Four Years
    Who The “Resistance” Was Actually ‘Resisting’ These Last Four Years
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 21:00

    Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

    After it was announced that the Biden camp had selected a Raytheon board member as his secretary of defense, I joked in my last article that it would be more honest if Raytheon itself was Biden’s Pentagon chief since the US Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people anyway. Raytheon for defense secretary, Boeing for secretary of state, Goldman Sachs for secretary treasurer, ExxonMobile head of the EPA, Amazon for CIA director and Google for director of national intelligence. Waka waka, I’m so silly.

    Anyway, since that rant was published NPR has reported that the the next US director of agriculture will be a man named Tom Vilsack, whose corporate cronyism the last time he occupied the same position earned him the nickname (I shit you not) “Mr Monsanto”. Which is just too perfect for words, really.

    Bloomberg reports:

    “Some supporters of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders campaigned against Vilsack when he was under consideration to be Clinton’s vice president, branding him ‘Mr. Monsanto’ and citing his role in brokering a compromise on legislation labeling foods containing genetically modified organisms. Sanders opposed the national legislation, which overrode a stricter Vermont state law.”

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    Biden’s inadvertent self-parody of a cabinet is already shaping up to be just as chock full of corporate swamp monsters as Trump’s notoriously corrupt administration, with positions being given to the very last people any ordinary human being with any common sense would want. President Biden is going to be just as much of a corrupt warmongering oligarch crony as his predecessors, and at least as destructive.

    Which makes one wonder, what exactly was the point of the #Resistance and what has it been #Resisting all these years?

    After Donald Trump’s 2016 election a massive amount of energy went into the creation and promotion of a “movement” branded “The Resistance” which portrayed itself as a revolutionary counterforce against the corruption and malfeasance represented by Trump and his goons. Many a glowing puff piece was written about this carefully constructed plucky band of rebels standing up against the forces of darkness on behalf of the common man, and many a political donation was raised.

    The Resistance™️ was aggressively marketed by cynical liberal spinmeisters like Neera Tanden (who in a brazen middle finger to US progressives is also set to play a role in the Biden administration) with the goal of harnessing and maintaining the enthusiastic grassroots anti-establishment energy of the Bernie Sanders campaign and directing it against Trump.

    But what did it actually accomplish? In the end, all the so-called Resisters ended up doing was promoting a bunch of Russia conspiracy theories and an impeachment which failed to remove Trump, all while providing no actual resistance to Trump’s most pernicious policies. They’d yell and shriek on social media and MSM punditry panels any time someone was fired from the administration and falsely get people’s hopes up whenever new information came out about the Mueller investigation, but in terms of actually removing Trump from office or stopping him from doing evil things like starving Venezuelans, assaulting press freedoms with the persecution of Julian Assange, tempting war with Iran and perpetuating the mass atrocities in Yemen, they accomplished literally nothing.

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    This is because the #Resistance was never actually intended to resist the evil agendas of the powerful, nor even to resist Trump. The #Resistance was not created to resist the powerful, it was created to resist you. The grassroots anti-establishment populism of the Bernie Sanders movement was cynically imitated by the Democratic establishment to ensure that the establishment is never inconvenienced in any way, and that progressives never take power in America.

    On a recent interview with MSNBC Sanders himself — historically far less willing to criticize the Democratic establishment than his supporters — is heard complaining that the progressive base whose votes put Biden over the top in November are so far receiving no representation whatsoever within the incoming Biden cabinet.

    “If it wasn’t for the hard work of a lot of progressive grassroots organizations who got young people involved in the political process, working-class people involved in a way that we have not seen, Joe Biden would not have won that election and I think that’s pretty clear,” Sanders says.

    “And my point has been from day one that those voices, that movement, deserves representation in the cabinet. And if your question is have I seen that yet, no I have not.”

    Of course you haven’t, Bernie.

    You were never going to. Biden might create some sort of fake position to let progressives feel like they’re participating with a name like “Progressive Outreach Team For Yelling Words Into A Hole In The Ground” or something, but in terms of actually directing the policy and behavior of the Biden administration nobody who wants the interests of the people upheld over the interests of the powerful will ever have a hand anywhere near the steering wheel.

    Actual thing.

    The #Resistance spun itself as a revolutionary movement against the insidious forces of darkness threatening the United States of America. What it delivered was support for Trump’s world-threatening cold war escalations against Russia, the mass delusion that America’s problems can be fought from within the establishment, progressives impotently chasing their tails for four years, and a presidency that is going to be just as much of a murderous oligarchic rim job as was delivered by Trump administration.

    The engineers of the “Resistance” did not want to eliminate Trumpian depravity, they just wanted to be the ones driving it. And now they are. If you fed into this nonsense in any way over the last four years, this is your reward.

    Which begs the question: if an entire political faction needed to sacrifice all its principles, all its values and all its morality to get rid of Trump… what exactly was the point of getting rid of Trump?

    *  *  *

    Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my new book Poems For Rebels or my old book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.

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  • What Wall Street Thinks Are The Biggest Risks For 2021
    What Wall Street Thinks Are The Biggest Risks For 2021
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 20:40

    While the most interesting part of the monthly Bank of America Fund Manager Survey is the question what Wall Street’s professionals think is the biggest “tail risk”, there is a certain sense of predetermination to a survey that everyone on Wall Street reads, is well aware of, and is tempted to perpetuate. In any case, as the latest FMS revealed, for the past 8 months, BofA found that Covid was viewed as the biggest tail risk.

    So in an attempt to provide some granularity (and to remind Wall Street that it conducts a survey of its own) today Deutsche Bank’s Jim Reid writes that a record 984 respondents participated in the bank’s latest monthly market survey. And while the German bank will released full results on Monday, it offered a sneak preview of what respondents saw as the biggest market risks for  2021 from the list that we provided (naturally, same as with the BofA FMS, this is all everyone cares about to make sure they are not oblivious to some glaringly obvious black swan about to emerge).

    Interestingly, all the vaccine-related concerns filled out the top 3 which according to Jim Reid suggests that although consensus is for a good 2021, a successful vaccine roll out could still bring upside surprise relative to expectations. As for Reid’s own top pick, he said that it was a tech bubble bursting, which made number four on the list followed by central banks pulling back too early. An early inflation surprise rounded out the top 5 risks.

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  • World's First Robotic Kitchen For Consumers Can Whip Up 5,000 Recipes
    World’s First Robotic Kitchen For Consumers Can Whip Up 5,000 Recipes
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 20:00

    So let’s strategize for a couple of minutes. With restaurants out of style because of the virus pandemic, and remote working pushing city dwellers to suburban areas, Americans have spent a lot of time at home this year – forcing them to prepare their meals. 

    Come to find out, meal prepping takes a lot of time, and can eat up an entire evening. To simplify the process, many people ordered meal kits from Blue Apron or Hello Fresh during the pandemic to save time and avoid supermarkets – but a meal kit still takes at least 30 minutes to prep. 

    In today’s age of automation and artificial intelligence, there’s got to be a better way. One company offers the world’s first-ever “robotic kitchen” for consumers that does all the cooking for you. 

    Adios restaurants or cooking for yourself or even hiring a private chef, that is, because the Moley Robotic Kitchen can whip up at least 5,000 recipes at the press of a button.

    “Not only does the robot cook complete meals, it tells you when ingredients need replacing, suggests dishes based on the items you have in stock, learns what you like and even cleans up surfaces after itself,” London-based robotics company Moley wrote on its website. 

    Moley gives a household the peace of mind with “routine cooking, plan and adapt your menu according to different diets and lifestyles, enjoy international cuisine anytime, control calories and get cooking tips and recipes from chefs around the world,” the website continued. 

    Now the robotic chef isn’t cheap. It costs a little more than the 2020 McLaren 720S supercar, around $330k. 

    According to The Guadian, Moley Kitchen already has 1,205 “qualified sales inquiries” from people interested in buying one.

    Over time, automated kitchen prices are expected to become more affordable. 

    “What you are looking at here is the world’s first consumer robotic kitchen,” founder Mark Oleynik said as he launched the robot kitchen at the Gulf information technology exhibition in Dubai. “Like all breakthrough technologies – cars, televisions and computers – it will appeal to enthusiasts, professionals and early adopters, and is priced accordingly.

    “We anticipate that our pricing will be reduced significantly over time with production volume, efficiencies and economies of scale.”

    So why ever return to a restaurant when you can have a robotic chef whip up 5,000 recipes at the press of a button? 

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  • FBI Has Files From Seth Rich's Laptop Computer
    FBI Has Files From Seth Rich’s Laptop Computer
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 19:40

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

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has files from the laptop computer belonging to Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee (DNC) employee who was killed in 2016, according to a new email.

    The bureau also has tens of thousands of documents mentioning Rich.

    The FBI “has completed the initial search identifying approximately 50 cross-reference serials, with attachments totaling over 20,000 pages, in which Seth Rich is mentioned,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Parker wrote in the message to attorney Ty Clevenger, who is representing a plaintiff in Huddleston v. Federal Bureau of Investigation, a case dealing with a Freedom of Information Act request to the bureau.

    “FBI has also located leads that indicate additional potential records that require further searching,” Parker added.

    The Epoch Times confirmed the email is legitimate.

    Parker, who is representing the FBI in the case, didn’t respond to an email or return a voicemail.

    The bureau also confirmed it has files from Rich’s laptop and suggested it still has the computer in its possession.

    The bureau is “currently working on getting the files from Seth Rich’s personal laptop into a format to be reviewed,” Parker said in the email. She also said the FBI plans on undertaking some level of review of the computer.

    The disclosure came as part of a case brought in federal court by Texas resident Brian Huddleston, who filed a Freedom of Information Act request in April asking the FBI to produce all data, documents, records, or communications that reference Seth Rich or his brother, Aaron Rich.

    The FBI told the plaintiff in June that it would take 8 to 10 months to provide a final response to the request, prompting the filing of the case in the U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

    Rich was working for the Democratic National Committee when he was shot and killed in Washington on July 10, 2016. The murder remains unsolved.

    The new email bolsters a key charge in Huddleston’s filing: that David Hardy, the FBI’s records chief, was wrong when he said in two affidavits that the FBI searched for records pertaining to Rich but could not find any.

    Seth Rich is pictured on a poster created by police officials to urge people with information about his murder to come forward. (Metropolitan Police Department)

    The first sign that the testimony was erroneous came earlier this year when the nonprofit watchdog Judicial Watch received emails exchanged between FBI agent Peter Strzok and Department of Justice lawyer Lisa Page. The production included several emails mentioning Rich.

    Another sign came in March, when former Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah Sines was deposed in a separate case, Ed Butowsky v. David Folkenflik et. al.

    Sines testified that the FBI conducted an investigation into possible hacking attempts on Seth Rich’s electronic accounts following his murder. She said FBI agents examined Rich’s laptop as part of the probe and that a search should uncover emails between her and FBI personnel. She also said she met with a prosecutor and an FBI agent assigned to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.

    The FBI declined to comment, citing a policy of not commenting on pending litigation.

    The judge overseeing the Huddleston case in October ordered the defense to produce documents and an index.

    In the new email, the government lawyer said the FBI has made “significant progress” in searching for documents mentioning Rich, but still has much work left, including processing the approximately 50 cross-references, undertaking some level of review of the laptop, and completing all remaining services.

    The efforts are hampered by the FBI’s Freedom of Information Act office being at 50 percent of its normal workforce due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The government is proposing an amended schedule that would give it three more months to produce the records.

    WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrives at court in London on May 1, 2019. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images)

    Clevenger, Huddleston’s lawyer, told The Epoch Times via email that his client is hoping to find out why the FBI was involved in the case, and why it originally denied involvement.

    “We suspect the FBI may be right that the Metropolitan Police Dept. in D.C. was responsible for investigating Seth’s murder, so that leaves a couple of likely explanations for the FBI’s role: it was investigating a counterintelligence matter or a computer crime. Either scenario would be consistent with Seth transmitting DNC emails to Wikileaks,” he added, referencing a theory put forth by Fox News in 2017 in a report that was later retracted.

    Fox was sued over the report. It settled with Rich’s family last month.

    A federal judge overseeing the case had earlier this year requested testimony from Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange.

    Rich was killed less than two weeks before WikiLeaks “released a collection of thousands of internal emails and documents taken from the DNC servers,” according to a court filing. One month after Rich’s murder, Assange referenced the DNC staffer in an interview with a Dutch television reporter when discussing the dangers faced by WikiLeaks sources. On Aug. 9, 2016, WikiLeaks offered $20,000 for information about Rich’s murder. The website increased the reward to $130,000 in January 2017.

    The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) several weeks after Rich was shot dead offered a reward for information. A spokeswoman told The Epoch Times via email that the case “remains under active investigation.”

    The spokeswoman declined to answer whether the FBI assisted police with its probe. “MPD remains the lead investigative agency over this homicide,” she said.

    Clevenger said he thinks the timing of the email from Parker, the assistant U.S. attorney, is significant.

    “Some of my colleagues suspect the Trump Administration has pushed the release, but I doubt that,” he wrote. “With the purported election of Joe Biden, the FBI brass probably think they are in the clear, and nothing will ever happen to them, so they no longer have any reason to hide what they did.”

    Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report.

    Follow Zachary on Twitter: @zackstieber
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  • Wreckage Of US Navy Submarine Found Off Maryland Coast 
    Wreckage Of US Navy Submarine Found Off Maryland Coast 
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 19:20

    According to The Baltimore Sun, the wreckage of an American submarine from World War I was discovered off the coastal waters of Ocean City, Maryland.

    Atlantic Wreck Salvage found the remains of USS R-8 using sonar data as well as historical records.

    The remains of USS R-8. Source: The Baltimore Sun

    “The discovery of any new vessel is exciting,” said Capt. Eric Takakjian, a member of the team who discovered the sunken sub. 

    “It appears from the sonar images that the site will reveal a very well-preserved example of an R-class submarine in existence anywhere. We are looking forward to conducting additional research and to diving the wreck in 2021,” Takakjian said. 

    Garry Kozak, a sonar expert who analyzed the data, said the submarine resembles one that would be equivalent to an R-8.

    “The sonar data leaves little doubt that the R-8 has been located,” Kozak said. “One set of prominent features of the R-class subs visible in the scan image is the spray rail configuration on the conning tower.”

    In World War I, the Navy built 27 R-class submarines. This one, in particular, was built in 1918 and participated in Naval training exercises along the coasts of California and the Gulf of Mexico.

    Historical image of the R-8. Source: The Baltimore Sun

    In 1930, the submarine became “inactive” at the Naval Reserve Fleet at Philadelphia. By 1936, the sub was used in aerial bombing exercises and sunk to the bottom of the ocean – lost for decades – until now. 

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  • Amazon Using Social Distancing Technology To Warn Staffers Who Get Too Close
    Amazon Using Social Distancing Technology To Warn Staffers Who Get Too Close
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 19:00

    Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

    Amazon is using social distancing technology that informs warehouse workers when they are getting too close to each other, a system that could subsequently be rolled out in airports and other venues.

    A video posted by an Amazon staffer shows him pointing out how a sensor is tracking the movement of employees via colored circles that form a 6 foot perimeter around each person.

    When two people violate ‘social distancing’ the circle turns red and an alarm sounds.

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    “They gonna take a picture and make me get in trouble,” the employee states.

    The technology is called “Distance Assistant” and according to the Verge, “Amazon also says it will be open-sourcing the technology, allowing other companies to quickly replicate and deploy these devices in a range of locations.”

    As we highlighted back in October, Hitachi has developed similar technology, which includes cartoon fish swimming around inside the bubble. When the person violates social distancing, the fish escape.

    The promo video brags that the technology “can even be deployed inside elevators” and Hitachi is “hoping to get the technology commercialized quickly.”

    Given that numerous prominent people are insisting that social distancing and other coronavirus restrictions are here to say, it’s perfectly feasible to imagine a near future in which this technology is widely adopted.

    China is already linking coronavirus rules to its onerous social credit score system, in addition to using AI to discipline its slave labor workforce, so the idea that people could be publicly shamed or punished for getting too close to others is a very real possibility

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    New limited edition merch now available! Click here. In the age of mass Silicon Valley censorship It is crucial that we stay in touch. I need you to sign up for my free newsletter here. Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown. Also, I urgently need your financial support here.

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  • Celebrated Abolitionist Johns Hopkins Exposed As "Slave Owner" 
    Celebrated Abolitionist Johns Hopkins Exposed As “Slave Owner” 
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 18:40

    Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University, the leading provider of COVID-19 data, announced Wednesday that its founder owned slaves, contrary to the long-time narrative that Hopkins was a wealthy philanthropist and abolitionist. 

    Researchers Martha S. Jones and Allison Seyler uncovered the new information in government census records as they were on a quest to explore the university’s history. For more than a century, the long-held narrative of Hopkins, an abolitionist, whose father freed the family’s slaves in 1807, has recently come into question.

    University President Ronald J. Daniels and other school officials published an open letter Wednesday saying the findings “complicate the understanding we have long had of Johns Hopkins as our founder.”

    “We now have government census records that state Mr. Hopkins was the owner of one enslaved person listed in his household in 1840 and four enslaved people listed in 1850,” the letter said. “By the 1860 census, there are no enslaved persons listed in the household.”

    “It calls to mind not only the darkest chapters in the history of our country and our city but also the complex history of our institutions since then, and the legacies of racism and inequity we are working together to confront,” the letter continued.

    Watch: University President Ronald J. Daniels Addresses The Life of Johns Hopkins

    Hopkins died in 1873 at age 78. As an entrepreneur and investor, he accumulated a massive amount of wealth that was used to establish a hospital, orphanage, and the university.

    Officials said the researchers would continue to dig deeper to get a better picture of the founder’s past. 

    As more and more schools begin to confront their connection with slavery, such as Princeton and Georgetown, in the last couple of years, they also may consider how to make amends in a world overrun by social justice warriors.

     It’s only a matter of time before social justice warriors target a monument to Johns Hopkins at the university. 

    All Hopkins needs to do at this point is to launch a new scholarship program for slave descendants for everyone to forget about the founder’s history. 

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  • Supreme Court Tosses Texas Bid To Overturn Election
    Supreme Court Tosses Texas Bid To Overturn Election
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 18:38

    The Supreme Court on Friday tossed a last-minute bid by the state of Texas to overturn the 2020 election by challenging the results of four battleground states.

    Citing a lack of standing, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a brief order that the state “has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections,” adding “All other pending motions are dismissed as moot.”

    In doing so, the justices shut down a long-shot bid for Texas to challenge Biden’s wins in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin – which was joined by 17 other states and over 100 House Republicans.

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    Justices Clarence Thomas joined Alito in stating that they do not believe the court has the authority to outright reject Texas’s request, writing instead “I would therefore grant the motion to file the bill of complaint but would not grant other relief, and I express no view on any other issue.”

    Earlier in the day, President Trump tweeted: “If the Supreme Court shows great Wisdom and Courage, the American People will win perhaps the most important case in history, and our Electoral Process will be respected again!”

    Notably, Trump appointed three of the court’s nine members – causing Democrats to cry foul at the prospect of the highest court in the land deciding the outcome of the 2020 election. Trump himself suggested several times that filling Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat with Justice Amy Coney Barrett was essential in the event that the election ended up at the Court. 

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    The case was filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who asked the Court to invalidate over 20 million votes in the above-mentioned states so that their GOP-controlled state legislatures could decide who won instead.

    AGs from Pennsylvania and Michigan have responded to the decision:

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe Texas GOP, meanwhile, suggests that “law-abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution.”

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  • Kass: Kids Are "Casualties Of War" In The Chicago Teachers Union's Power-Play To Keep Schools Closed
    Kass: Kids Are “Casualties Of War” In The Chicago Teachers Union’s Power-Play To Keep Schools Closed
    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 18:20

    Authored by John Kass, op-ed via The Chicago Tribune,

    There’s never been a better argument for national school choice – and freeing low-income children trapped in substandard big-city public education systems – than that idiotic tweet by the leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union.

    “The push to reopen schools is rooted in sexism, racism and misogyny,” read the CTU tweet, posted Sunday at 1:03 p.m.

    It was later deleted. CTU bosses might have realized that those racist, sexist misogynists trying to reopen the Chicago schools during the pandemic – the mayor and the school superintendent – just happen to be Black women. And, that plenty of parents who want their kids back in school happen to be Black and Latino.

    There is nothing as delicious as watching those angry hard-left CTU bosses load up their identity politics bazooka only to blow off their own (rhetorical) feet.

    Why don’t we make this a “teaching moment” for parents who want real choice?

    And for the great public schoolteachers who might be intimidated by those union leaders who are fighting to keep schools closed?

    Some of those teachers send their kids to private schools in Chicago where teachers are in the classroom. They would rather stay quiet. I don’t blame them.

    The science does not support closed schools. Dr. Anthony Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield say that kids should be in school with proper precautions.

    Most teachers want to teach in person. They’ve dedicated their lives to being educators. And they know, perhaps more than most of us, how closing schools hurts young people emotionally, socially and academically.

    And many parents also want their children in school, not falling behind, trying to learn on a laptop. Chicago’s mayor and other Democratic elected officials know this, but they’re intimidated by the power of the CTU leadership.

    Before I go any further, please remember I’m not anti-teacher. My wife is a teacher. One of our sons is a teacher. Don’t twist my words to suggest otherwise. Teachers perform the most important job in the country.

    Yet many good teachers are, as I said, intimidated by union bosses. And the political actors tremble because teachers union bosses are their political bosses now.

    I decided to reach out to a man who knows how this works and invited him to be a guest on “The Chicago Way” podcast: Paul Vallas, the former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. He has been putting pressure on the union and the politicians to open up the schools.

    Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, shown Feb. 18, 2019, in Chicago. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune)

    Paul, what about that stupid yet revealing CTU tweet?

    “If they want to talk about racism, there’s nothing more racist than closing schools (for the pandemic) and providing substandard education to the poorest children in the community who are disproportionately Black and Latino,” he said.

    “And there’s nothing more sexist than closing schools, and hurting families, the majority of whom are led by single mothers.

    “So, you want to talk racism and sexism and misogyny?” Vallas asked.

    “The union leadership’s posturing and forcing the schools to be closed is all those things. Because what they’re really doing is committing educational malpractice.”

    It’s disastrous for the teenagers who get lost. Some get lost on the streets of Chicago and die. And the little ones, the elementary school students?

    “The youngest children are at risk,” Vallas said. “Their brains are developing at an accelerated rate.”

    What’s being done to them, he said, is “permanent damage.”

    Cops, firefighters and paramedics go to work every day. Cashiers at the supermarkets are at work every day. We thank them all as we sweat out this pandemic lockdown.

    But if cashiers aren’t at work, they don’t get paid. Yet teachers don’t have to be in the classroom, and they get paid.

    Why aren’t they at work, inside school buildings? If it’s not the science, it’s the politics. It’s a demonstration of control.

    Politicians get paid too. But they’ve allowed the teachers unions to dictate education policy to the detriment of the students and their families.

    The kids need teachers in schools, especially special-needs kids. A child with autism needs in-person instruction. And all children need their teachers. All kids need to be in school, at least for part of the time.

    Most big-city school systems like Chicago serve a majority of low-income families. And as Vallas points out, many of the families are led by single mothers.

    They have to work. And by work, I don’t mean working on Zoom, like a news columnist.

    But who watches the children to make sure that they’re not playing “Call of Duty” on the Xbox?

    Vallas sees those kids — from the city and suburbs in lockdown states across the country — as a lost generation, as casualties of a political war.

    “All those children impacted by these school closings, by excessive remote learning, the children who have dropped out because schools have been closed for such an extensive period of time, these children are going to be permanently scarred.

    “They’re like casualties of war. And the war is the teachers union maintaining or enhancing their benefits while minimizing their workload and placing their employees where there is no risk at all.”

    There’s no risk for the union leaders, who sit in their home office, intimidating Democratic politicians like Lori Lightfoot because they can influence voters to come out when needed.

    But what about the forgotten?

    The children falling behind. Their parents wondering how they’ll be free of a system that treats them this way.

    They’re the ones who should matter. But they don’t.

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  • Bubblicious Markets and Big Tech's Monopolistic Behavior
    Bubblicious Markets and Big Tech’s Monopolistic Behavior

    6215788588001

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 12/11/2020 – 18:03

    Real Vision managing editor Ed Harrison welcomes senior editor Ash Bennington to discuss water futures, “bubblicious” market froth, and potential anti-competitive behavior by Big Tech. After Ed and Ash give their brief review of political news, Ed shares his analysis of the recent IPOs of DoorDash and Airbnb with Ash noting parallels between current market conditions and those that preceded the Dot-com bubble. Ed and Ash then explore the significance of the recent addition of water futures to the CME exchange. In the intro, Jack Farley and Weston Nakamura embark on a chart-filled journey on the Nikkei 225, the Japanese Yen, and currency pairs. For greater details and more charts from Weston and Jack, check out their conversation in the Real Vision Exchange: https://exchange.realvision.com/post/follow-up-to-my-daily-briefing-int….
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