- The Political Left Has Proven Beyond A Doubt That They Are Authoritarians
The Political Left Has Proven Beyond A Doubt That They Are Authoritarians
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,
Nearly 20 years ago when I started my work in the independent media the common mantra among my peers was noting the existence of the “false left/right paradigm” – The idea that Democrats and Republicans were essentially the same and were working towards the same exact authoritarian goals. This was before the Ron Paul movement and the libertarian/patriot shift within conservative circles when Neocons (fake conservatives) dominated all Republican discourse.
In the 16 years since there has been some interesting developments at the state level, with a return to true conservative and constitutional principles. Conservative ideals were on the verge of death in the early 2000s, but thanks to Ron Paul and others there has been a resurgence. The false left/right paradigm still applies in many ways and we have to remain vigilant, but the most blatant RINO frauds are quickly losing favor.
Nihilists (and paid federal provocateurs) will constantly claim we aren’t making any progress, but consider this: Decades ago conservatives used to clamor to defend people like John McCain, Lindsay Graham or Mitt Romney, now they despise such fakes (McCain was hated by most conservatives well before he died). Times are changing; this is a fact, and we need to acknowledge the positive move forward.
This is not to say that Americans should rely on politics to fix our national problems, but it would be a lie to claim that there are no political representatives on our side. A common argument against right leaning movements is that conservative ideals are “poorly defined” and that we “don’t stand for anything.” This is simply not true. In fact, it’s leftists that are constantly changing their positions like they have schizophrenia. Conservatives have been far more consistent in comparison.
The guidelines are relatively easy to understand – Conservatives and liberty activists support a return to constitutional governance, the protection of the Bill of Rights, free markets, meritocracy, the right to choose associations, truth in media, secure borders, the protection of children from exploitation, keeping America out of foreign entanglements, moral and accountable leadership, etc. The degree to which leaders can adhere to these parameters determines how much trust they earn, and trust is the only currency that matters these days.
Do we disagree on certain nuances of these issues? Of course. We aren’t like leftists following a central hive mind, always afraid of being canceled by the mob; we argue. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as long as we unify on basic tenets and principles.
Democrats (and leftists in general) on the other hand have gone in the complete opposite direction. If there was ever a time when the average leftist and conservative could find common ground, that time was LONG gone. Many leftists used to be pro-individual rights; today they argue incessantly against personal liberty as if it’s dangerous to society. They used to be anti-war; now they froth at the mouth over countries like Russia and press for WWIII without any rational thought. Their methods have become violent, vicious, egregious in execution as they adopt an “ends justify the means” approach.
The political left does not care about what is right. They do not care about what is true. They only care about “winning.”
It is this leftist infatuation with the dark side that is driving the US to the edge of civil war. Would a candidate like Trump be taken as seriously under normal political conditions? It’s hard to say – He wasn’t taken very seriously in 2012. However, when Democrats started to go full bore authoritarian suddenly Trump became very appealing to conservative voters.
Why? Because he represents a big middle finger to the communists, a bull in the china shop. If you want to piss off authoritarian Democrats trying to control what you say and what you think, you put Trump in their faces for another 4 years. Does this fix our underlying national problems? No, not in the slightest. In fact, I still believe Trump distracts patriots from what really needs to be done. I’m convinced that, at this stage, only war will resolve the issue. Voting for Trump is a good way to enrage the woke cry-bullies, and I wouldn’t fault anyone for wanting that, but any real return to honor and order would have to be implemented by the public, not the government.
The deeper problem is one of unavoidable cultural division – Conservatives and patriots cannot live side-by-side with rabid leftists, nor can we accept a leftist controlled government. They have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they intend to destroy every aspect of western culture and institute a regime of oppression.
So much has happened recently that I fear many Americans will become overwhelmed and forget the recent trespasses of leftists. In case you had any doubts at all or know people that still defend them, here are just a handful of examples of the worst authoritarian crimes committed by Democrats in the past four years alone…
Weaponizing The Legal System Using Selective Prosecution
When Democrats talk about “equity” in criminal justice, what they are referring to is the unbalanced application of law depending on the ethnicity or political beliefs of the people being charged. The most blatant example being the kangaroo court for the Jan 6th event and their attempt to lock up conservative protesters as “insurrectionists.”
Not a single death occurred due to protesters, property damage was minimal and capitol police INCITED the riot by firing rubber bullets and CS gas into the otherwise peaceful crowd. Yet, the protesters were painted by Dems and the media as monsters trying to “destroy democracy.”
Compare this to the Democrat response to the BLM and Antifa riots across the US since 2016 in which dozens were killed, thousands of police injured, billions in property damage and multiple government buildings attacked. These people tried to hold the country hostage, yet, the vast majority of those that were actually arrested were released and never charged by Democrat District Attorneys and prosecutors. The media even portrayed them as heroes.
If Jan 6th had been a far-left protest, there would have been no commission and no one would be in jail for 10-20 years today. There are numerous examples of selective prosecution targeting patriots and the message is clear – “If you defy us in any way, we have no problem misusing the legal system to crush you.”
Pandemic Hysteria And Medical Tyranny
Did some Republicans initially support the covid lockdowns? Yes. When it became clear that covid was a non-threat did they end the lockdowns in their own states? Yes, surprisingly most of them did.
Half the states in the US (all red states) blocked attempts to continue the pandemic lockdowns. These same states also passed legislation to disrupt any future attempts at lockdowns or vaccine passports. And, all the governors and legislators involved were accused by Democrats and the media of “killing Americans” because of their defense of freedom.
In reality, these states along with conservatives across the country defeated a draconian agenda that almost brought the US to the brink of full spectrum medical tyranny. Democrats and globalists tried to use covid as an opportunity to institute sweeping anti-liberty mandates without checks and balances. Some of rules they wanted to put in place included:
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Forced vaccination.
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No employment for the unvaccinated.
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No access to public spaces for the unvaccinated.
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No access to normal medical treatment for the unvaccinated.
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House arrest for the unvaccinated.
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Fines for the unvaccinated.
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Jail time for people speaking against the mandates or vaccines.
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Government tracking of the unvaccinated.
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Taking children away from the unvaccinated.
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Secret vaccination of children at public schools without knowledge of parents.
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Mass online censorship of anyone presenting information contrary to the government narrative.
Some Democrats including Biden even threatened to go “door-to-door” to vaccinate individuals, though the official position was that they would instead seek to “make life so hard” for the unvaxxed that anyone in refusal would eventually be forced to comply. Luckily their plans failed. The CDC published a bunch of unverified stats claiming most Americans were vaccinated, no one took the boosters and the agenda fizzled into the background. That said, it’s important that we never forget what happened.
The true nature of the political left was exposed from 2020-2023, and the difference between conservatives and leftists was made undeniably clear – Red states were made free. Blue states tried to keep authoritarianism in place. Democrats embraced medical tyranny, conservatives did not. Conservatives left blue states (and blue cities) in droves because they were oppressive, red states gained millions of people and turned a deeper shade of red. This is reality.
Targeting Children For Indoctrination And Exploitation
There’s no surer sign of authoritarianism than a group that recruits children as foot soldiers using political indoctrination under the noses of parents. Democrats and the woke movement have taken the mask off completely when it comes to America’s youth.
The widespread used of woke symbols such a pride flags in public schools and libraries. The use of drag queen performances (often sexual) as a means to normalize baseless gender fluid theories, mental illness and sexual aberration. State government funding of sexualized content including graphic lessons and books for young kids. The list goes on and on.
I can’t think of anything more insidious and evil as the leftist attempt to hijack American children as a weapon for their political coup. And make no mistake, the woke movement is not a movement for equality, it’s a communist and collectivist insurgency. They see children as tools, not as people.
Democrats are going so far as to pass laws allowing children to engage in sex change procedures including hormone blockers and surgeries without parental consent. This is a monstrous policy that needs to be snuffed out immediately. Children are not capable of consent.
Again, all this is being done in the name of winning. What is moral or ethical never crosses their minds.
Mass Censorship And The Demonization Of “Radical Speech”
Who nominated the Democrats to become the arbiters of acceptable speech? Well, they nominated themselves, and the protections of the 1st Amendment are being quietly degraded every day we allow them to continue acting as if they are the thought police.
The new term being thrown around in 2024 is “radical speech”, meaning any speech that runs contrary to “diversity, equity and inclusion” requirements, or any speech that contradicts the preeminence of the official narrative. Understand that “radical speech” is an arbitrary label; one has to consider what the legitimate consequences are and what the intent is.
For a Democrat, any speech that is detrimental to their goal of extorting public support for their policies suddenly becomes “radical.” The label is designed to elicit images of terrorism and fascism, as if mere words are magical and can compel the public to do great evil without them realizing it. This is childish fantasy based on projection. It’s leftists (collectivists) that believe words have magical powers, and so they put great emphasis on controlling speech in general.
I would partially agree, only in the fact that lies do have power to evoke emotional responses, but the only way to combat lies is with the truth. Anyone who says that the best way to combat lies is to use mass censorship is a liar. Democrats lean heavily on mass censorship, as we have seen with nearly every Big Tech social media platform and corporate news platform in the past few years.
The bottom line is this – When someone tells you exactly who they are, believe them. When a group of people show through a host of actions that they are authoritarians, they should not be allowed anywhere near power. It’s time to rethink our ongoing political relationship here in America and consider whether or not we should continue to live with a political movement that has made it so abundantly clear that they are hostile to freedom.
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Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 23:40 -
- BJP Dominates Election Polls But Loses Southern India
BJP Dominates Election Polls But Loses Southern India
According to an opinion poll carried out in March in all of India’s 543 constituencies by India TV and CNX, Narendra Modi’s BJP and its allies are projected to win almost three quarters or 399 seats in India’s lower house Lok Sabha in this year’s national election which starts on April 19. Right now, the party’s National Democratic Alliance has 346 seats in the assembly, or 64 percent.
As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, a landslide victory of the BJP had been predicted previously.
However, due to the loss of strategic allies and the party’s general weakness in the region, Modi’s results look less than perfect in India’s South, where constituents continue to vote for opposition parties like the Indian National Congress and its allies of the I.N.D.I.A. coalition.
You will find more infographics at Statista
Bloomberg Opinion points out that while the rejection of Modi in the South won’t matter this time around as the current prime minister has captured much of the populous North and Center, many of India’s progressive cities and regions are in this part of the country. Southern constituents are important for the country as a whole due to the region’s strong industries and flourishing economy but currently lack a sufficient voice in national politics, which has already led to friction with India’s leaders.
In Tamil Nadu, popular voting choices include Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the socialist leading party expected to win 18 seats (46 percent). Congress itself is projected to take another eight seats (21 percent) in the state, while unaffiliated All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), which disassociated from the BJP last year, could win four (10 percent). In neighboring Kerala, the mostly-Congress aligned United Democratic Front (UDF) is expected to take 10 seats (50 percent) while another seven (35 percent) could fall to the communist-dominated Left Democratic Front (LDF), which has ruled the state legislature since 2016. In Telangana, Congress’ voting intentions would amount up to nine seats (53 percent).
Other Southern states where the BJP is expected to fare worse than in India overall are Odisha and Andrah Pradesh. Here, more unaligned parties are expected to win big, including Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the ruling Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) in Andrah Pradesh as well as Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha, where it also heads the state legislature. States in other regions where the BJP has a weaker showing are Punjab, where the Aam Aadmi Party is expected to win six seats (46 percent) and West Bengal, home to the newly unaligned All India Trinamool Congress, expected to take 19 or 45 percent of seats.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 23:20 - Landmark Study Reveals 'Transgender' Kids Actually Have Other Mental Health Diagnoses
Landmark Study Reveals ‘Transgender’ Kids Actually Have Other Mental Health Diagnoses
Authored by Sara Parshaall Perry via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
It’s been a red-letter week for destroying the gender narrative. And the trans juggernaut just hit another speed bump.
Transitioning children not only harms them physically and psychologically, but it also causes medical conflicts. (Sangiao Photography/Shutterstock) Fresh off the heels of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics announcing that it would not allow transgender-identified men to compete in women’s athletic events in any of its association’s 239 small private schools, a landmark study was released on Wednesday that defies the hysterical warning that if gender dysphoric adolescents don’t receive “gender-affirming care,” they will kill themselves.
The new study from British pediatrician Dr. Hilary Cass confirms what we’ve always known: Children presenting with sudden onset gender dysphoria are actually suffering from other mental health diagnoses—not true gender dysphoria. Her research debunks the gender ideologues’ frequent talking point: that the imposition of medical “gender-affirming care” on mentally ill children is not only necessary, but life-saving.
Cass’ research instead reveals that children who think they are transgender disproportionately have mental health issues stemming from a difficult family situation or domestic abuse. They are also more likely to be neurodiverse and have a co-morbid autism spectrum disorder.
Cass reveals that “gender affirming” medical interventions would not remedy any of these psychological issues. Effectively using such interventions would mean turning a blind eye to the real underlying psychological distress with which gender-confused children often struggle.
Cass’ groundbreaking report reveals that mental health therapy is the best approach for gender-dysphoric children, rather than rushing to put them on hormones or puberty blockers or performing mutilating and irreversible surgeries.
Her report also warns that if children are permitted to make choices to physically and socially conform with their gender of choice, rather than receiving the necessary treatment for their underlying mental health issues, they will experience significant negative psychological repercussions.
Yes, you read that right. Securing medical “gender affirming” care creates the negative psychological repercussions gender identitarians warn us about. And the failure to receive it does not.
At last, the narrative about adolescent gender dysphoria has started to crumble.
Conservatives and gender critics have long warned against rushing to chemically castrate and mutilate gender-confused kids, advocating instead for the European approach of “watchful waiting” and mental health counseling. It seems they were right all along.
Cass’ report on gender dysphoria was the second damning study to be released in 10 days. It was launched soon after another study that breaches the once seemingly impenetrable dam of gender identity built by the White House, cultural elites, celebrities, and politicized medical groups.
A Dutch study of 2,700 children revealed that a significant majority of gender-confused children grow out of that feeling by the time they are full grown adults. This newly published research tracked adolescents for over 15 years and found that gender confusion in children drastically decreased over time, supporting the argument that when children believe they are transgender, it is often nothing more than a passing sensation—and not indisputable fact.
Both Cass’ study and the recent Dutch study argue against transitioning kids who report gender dysphoria. Together, they advise for holistic treatment of these adolescents, treatment which addresses the complex psychological reasons a child may think he or she was born in the wrong body.
Gender-confused children have been lied to, and the adults who have lied to them must be held accountable. The flood of litigation challenging these pernicious practices is only just beginning.
Reprinted by permission from The Daily Signal, a publication of The Heritage Foundation.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 23:00 - Harvard To Once Again Require SATs For Admissions
Harvard To Once Again Require SATs For Admissions
Harvard is joining the ranks of other universities in recognizing the obvious: SATs are a great way to measure aptitude. And now that Harvard is busy grappling with other issues like plagiarism among its top ranks, it has decided to quietly shuffle SAT requirements back to where they were pre-Covid.
Harvard will reintroduce standardized testing requirements for admissions starting with the Class of 2029, deviating from its prior commitment to remain test-optional through the Class of 2030.
This change, prompted by criticism as peers like Yale, Dartmouth, and Brown resumed mandatory testing, will affect applicants for fall and winter 2024, who must submit SAT or ACT scores unless exceptions apply. In specific cases where students can’t access these tests, Harvard will accept scores from Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams instead, according to the Harvard Crimson.
Complete and utter defeat for the anti-test crusaders pic.twitter.com/ubfbg2QTxL
— Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp) April 11, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Hopi E. Hoekstra said: “…standardized tests are a means for all students, regardless of their background and life experience, to provide information that is predictive of success in college and beyond. More information, especially such strongly predictive information, is valuable for identifying talent from across the socioeconomic range. With this change, we hope to strengthen our ability to identify these promising students.”
Uh, yeah. That’s why it was a requirement to begin with. But we digress…
The Crimson wrote that despite a majority of undergraduates submitting standardized test scores over the past four years, the exact figure has not been disclosed.
Recently, Harvard officials, including Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons, were non-committal about reinstating testing requirements, noting ongoing policy reviews. However, a study from the Harvard-affiliated Opportunity Insights indicated that SAT scores are a better predictor of college success than high school GPA. Experts also suggest that requiring standardized tests could enhance racial and socioeconomic diversity at universities like Harvard.
Harvard economist David J. Deming commented that test scores provide the “fairest admissions policy for disadvantaged applicants.”
“Not everyone can hire an expensive college coach to help them craft a personal essay. But everyone has the chance to ace the SAT or the ACT,” he continued.
Recall, we wrote just days ago that $500 tutors were back en vogue now that SATs were being reinstated. It was earlier this year when we noted that SATs were once again being reconsidered by colleges who had reduced or eliminated their requirement due to (pick one: diversity, racism, climate change, equity, gender affirmation).
As a result of the comeback, Bloomberg noted that tutors, sometimes costing $500 per hour, are all of a sudden back in vogue. They wrote that demand for SAT tutoring and prep centers is surging as several top colleges reintroduce mandatory SATs, and students adapt to the SAT’s new digital format.
Kaplan reported a significant enrollment increase, attributed to digital testing and the reinstatement of testing requirements by institutions and three Ivy League schools—Yale, Dartmouth, and Brown—have reinstated mandatory SATs, alongside MIT and the University of Texas at Austin. This shift has left many students scrambling for preparation before early application deadlines.
Companies like The Princeton Review have also seen a spike in interest for prep services.
We noted earlier this year in a piece from American Greatness, that according to Axios, multiple colleges used the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to weaken the importance of SAT and ACT test scores in most student applications. But in recent weeks, several schools have reversed course; Yale is considering repealing its prior policy of making SAT/ACT requirements optional, with Dartmouth already reinstating the requirements earlier this month. MIT reversed a similar policy back in 2022.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 22:40 - Can The US And Iraq Move Beyond Military Ties?
Can The US And Iraq Move Beyond Military Ties?
Authored by James Durso via ResponsibleStatecraft.org,
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani is in Washington next week with both sides hoping to expand their economic relationship…
Twenty-one years ago, the U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq in the erroneous belief that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction and was allied with al-Qaida, the terror group responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
The U.S. created an occupation authority, but failed to restore order and helped spawn the insurgency that bedeviled it by dismissing the entire Iraqi military and the most experienced civil servants. Coalition troops fought a losing battle, regained their footing with the 2007 troop surge, and finally departed in 2011. U.S. troops returned in 2014 to fight the Islamic State and they remain there to this day, though ISIS was largely eliminated by 2019.
In January 2020, Iraq’s parliament voted on a nonbinding measure to remove the U.S. troops from Iraq, but the Americans remain at the request of the Iraqi government. However, in response to the parliament’s 2020 vote, Iraq and the International Coalition changed the mission of the troops from a combat mission to one of advisory and training.
Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani, will meet U.S. President Joe Biden on April 15, primarily to discuss the U.S. troop presence.
Though the U.S.-Iraq Higher Military Commission is reviewing the troop presence issue, will the U.S. side stall fearing it may have to agree to a smaller presence and constrained operations?
Possibly, so Sudani may want a public commitment from Biden to force the march to a constructive, timely decision.
Aside from the troops issue, Sudani wants to strengthen Baghdad’s ties with Washington, which he considers Iraq’s top bilateral relationship, and to add an economic dimension to Iraq’s ties with America.
When Americans think of Iraq in economic terms it’s all about the oil, but in November 2023 ExxonMobil, America’s biggest oil company, exited Iraq with nothing to show for a decade-long effort.
The departure will lower the expectation of other U.S. companies, but Sudani wants to revitalize economic ties, and he will be accompanied by many of the country’s top businessmen.
U.S.-Iraq trade has room for growth.
In 2022, the U.S. exported $897 million in goods, the top product being automobiles. Iraq, in turn, exported $10.3 billion in goods, most of it crude oil.
A key economic objective of Iraq is the $17 billion Development Road, an overland road and rail link from the Persian Gulf to Europe via Turkey, that will host free-trade zones along its length.
Biden and Sudani should consider the shape of the future U.S.-Iraq relationship, which has to now been governed by military considerations, and has become the best example of The Meddler’s Trap, “a situation of self-entanglement, whereby a leader inadvertently creates a problem through military intervention, feels they can solve it, and values solving the new problem more because of the initial intervention. …A military intervention causes a feeling of ownership of the foreign territory, triggering the endowment effect.”
Iraq is the only real democracy in the Arab world, and many young Iraqis want a separation of religion and state, something that should resonate with Americans and, Iraqis hope, cause the U.S. to deal with Iraq as Iraq, not a platform for operations against Syria and Iran, or to support Washington’s Kurdish clients.
Washington damaged itself in Iraq by killing Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in January 2020. Baghdad had moved the PMF, once a militia, into the government in 2016 (no doubt with American encouragement), so the killing of Muhandis, then a government official, increased popular support the PMF.
What are some clouds on the horizon for the U.S. and Iraq?
Corruption. Pervasive corruption in Iraq has slowed economic development and subjected Iraqi citizens to ineffective governance. The 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International ranked Iraq 154 of 180, a slight improvement from 2022 when it ranked 157 of 180.
Iraq was previously described by TI as: “Among the worst countries on corruption and governance indicators, with corruption risks exacerbated by lack of experience in the public administration, weak capacity to absorb the influx of aid money, sectarian issues and lack of political will for anti-corruption efforts.”
Sudani has not ignored corruption, calling it one of the country’s greatest challenges and “no less serious than the threat of terrorism.”
Elizabeth Tsurkov. Tsurkov is a Russian-Israeli academic who was kidnapped in 2023 by Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iranian-influenced Iraqi militia. Tsurkov, a doctoral student at Princeton University in the U.S., entered Iraq with her Russian passport and did not disclose that she was an Israeli citizen and Israeli Defense Forces veteran. (A 2022 Iraqi law criminalized any relations with Israel.)
Tsurkov’s family wants the Biden administration to designate Iraq a state sponsor of terrorism for failing to secure her release. Sudani’s office announced an investigation into the matter and the issue may arise when Sudani meets Biden, though the best outcome for Iraq and the U.S. is a Russia-brokered deal between Israel and Iran.
If Biden designates Iraq a state sponsor of terrorism that will irreparably damage the relationship and open the door for China.
China. The U.S. is Iraq’s top relationship, but not its only relationship. China will respond to the ostracism of Baghdad by extending invitations to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS, the latter of which can fund infrastructure projects through the New Development Bank. PetroChina replaced ExxonMobil in West Qurna 1, one of Iraq’s biggest oil fields, and is ideally positioned for further expansion. And Iraq was the “leading beneficiary” of China’s Belt and Road Initiative investment in 2021.
Sudani has said Iraq should not be a cockpit of conflict for the U.S. and Iran, but when Iran is concerned it, in Washington, is always 1979.
Though Sudani has many challenges to face, Biden has more: he must reorient his government away from its colonial mentality in West Asia, recognize that Baghdad must reach a modus vivendi with Tehran that may not be to Washington’s pleasure, and not smooth the way for Beijing’s greater penetration of West Asia.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 22:20 - Google Begins Blocking News From California Outlets Over State Bill
Google Begins Blocking News From California Outlets Over State Bill
Google has temporarily blocked access to California-based news outlets for some state residents, as the search giant escalates its battle with the state over a landmark bill which would force tech giants to pay online publishers for their content.
In doing so, the company has revived a political tactic used repeatedly by the tech industry to try and derail similar legislation in places like Canada and Australia which require online platforms to pay outlets for articles featured on their websites, Politico reports.
“We have long said that this is the wrong approach to supporting journalism,” said Google’s VP for global news partnership, Jaffer Zaidi, in a Friday blog post. According to Zaidi, the bill could “result in significant changes to the services we can offer Californians and the traffic we can provide to California publishers.”
Sacramento is hosting the latest round of a global fight over the journalism industry’s future in the digital age, and California’s battle has taken on additional resonance because the state is home to tech titans. Advocates for such legislation argue companies like Google and Meta have helped decimate already flagging newsroom revenues through their control over digital advertising, and outlets deserve compensation for content that users may see on their platforms for free.
The companies counter that these laws could stifle vital sources of information — and they’ve fought back by attempting to preview what they say that would look like. -Politico
In Canada, Google similarly threatened to block content before reaching a deal with the government last November, three weeks before the ‘Online News Act’ came into effect. The company agreed to make annual payments to news outlets in the range of $100 million.
Meta, meanwhile, has completely removed news content from its social feed in Canada, and has threatened to do the same in California – where the company has lobbied heavily against the measures currently under consideration in the state legislature. The company has spent over $1 million to run an ad campaign decrying the bill as a “link tax,” a phrase Zaidi used in his blog post.
According to state Sen. Ben Allen (D), “Newspaper publishers and the journalists provide a really important service as a part of [Google’s] broader business model, and meanwhile they’re going bankrupt and you guys have record profits.“
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 22:00 - Did Lockdowns Set A Global Revolt In Motion?
Did Lockdowns Set A Global Revolt In Motion?
Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Brownstone Institute,
My first article on the coming backlash – admittedly wildly optimistic – went to print April 24, 2020.
After 6 weeks of lockdown, I confidently predicted a political revolt, a movement against masks, a population-wide revulsion against the elites, a demand to reject “social distancing” and streaming-only life, plus widespread disgust at everything and everyone involved.
I was off by four years. I wrongly assumed back then that society was still functioning and that our elites would be responsive to the obvious flop of the whole lockdown scheme. I assumed that people were smarter than they proved to be. I also did not anticipate just how devastating the effects of lockdown would be: in terms of learning loss, economic chaos, cultural shock, and the population-wide demoralization and loss of trust.
The forces that set in motion those grim days were far more deep than I knew at the time. They involved a willing complicity from tech, media, pharma, and the administrative state at all levels of society.
There is every evidence that it was planned to be exactly what it became; not just a foolish deployment of public health powers but a “great reset” of our lives. The newfound powers of the ruling class were not given up so easily, and it took far longer for people to shake off the trauma than I had anticipated.
Is that backlash finally here? If so, it’s about time.
New literature is emerging to document it all.
The new book “White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy” is a viciously partisan, histrionic, and gravely inaccurate account that gets nearly everything wrong but one: vast swaths of the public are fed up, not with democracy but its opposite of ruling class hegemony.
The revolt is not racial and not geographically determined. It’s not even about left and right, categories that are mostly a distraction. it’s class-based in large part but more precisely about the rulers vs. the ruled.
With more precision, new voices are emerging among people who detect a “vibe change” in the population.
One is Elizabeth Nickson’s article “Strongholds Falling; Populists Seize the Culture.”
She argues, quoting Bret Weinstein, that:
“The lessons of [C]ovid are profound. The most important lesson of Covid is that without knowing the game, we outfoxed them and their narrative collapsed …. The revolution is happening all over the socials, especially in videos. And the disgust is palpable.”
A second article is “Vibe Shift” by Santiago Pliego:
“The Vibe Shift I’m talking about is the speaking of previously unspeakable truths, the noticing of previously suppressed facts. I’m talking about the give you feel when the walls of Propaganda and Bureaucracy start to move as you push; the very visible dust kicked up in the air as Experts and Fact Checkers scramble to hold on to decaying institutions; the cautious but electric rush of energy when dictatorial edifices designed to stifle innovation, enterprise, and thought are exposed or toppled. Fundamentally, the Vibe Shift is a return to—a championing of—Reality, a rejection of the bureaucratic, the cowardly, the guilt-driven; a return to greatness, courage, and joyous ambition.”
We truly want to believe this is true. And this much is certainly correct: the battle lines are incredibly clear these days. The media that uncritically echo the deep-state line are known: Slate, Wired, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, New Republic, New Yorker, and so on, to say nothing of the New York Times. What used to be politically partisan venues with certain predictable biases are now more readily described as ruling-class mouthpieces, forever instructing you precisely how to think while demonizing disagreement.
After all, all of these venues, in addition to the obvious case of the science journals, are still defending the lockdowns and everything that followed. Rather than express regret for their bad models and immoral means of control, they have continued to insist that they did the right thing, regardless of the civilization-wide carnage everywhere in evidence, while ignoring the relationship between the policies they championed and the terrible results.
Instead of allowing their mistakes to change their own outlook, they have adapted their own worldview to allow for snap lockdowns anytime they deem them necessary. In holding this view, they have forged a view of politics that it is embarrassingly acquiescent to the powerful.
The liberalism that once questioned authority and demanded free speech seems extinct. This transmogrified and captured liberalism now demands compliance with authority and calls for further restrictions on free speech. Now anyone who makes a basic demand for normal freedom—to speak or choose one’s own medical treatment or to decline to wear a mask—can reliably anticipate being denounced as “right-wing” even when it makes absolutely no sense.
The smears, cancellations, and denunciations are out of control, and so unbearably predictable.
It’s enough to make one’s head spin. As for the pandemic protocols themselves, there have been no apologies but only more insistence that they were imposed with the best of intentions and mostly correct. The World Health Organization wants more power, and so does the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even though the evidence of the failure of pharma pours in daily, major media venues pretend that all is well, and thereby out themselves as mouthpieces for the ruling regime.
The issue is that major and unbearably obvious failures have never been admitted. Institutions and individuals who only double down on preposterous lies that everyone knows are lies only end up discrediting themselves.
That’s a pretty good summary of where we are today, with vast swaths of elite culture facing an unprecedented loss of trust. Elites have chosen the lie over truth and cover-up over transparency.
This is becoming operationalized in declining traffic for legacy media, which is shedding costly staff as fast as possible. The social media venues that cooperated closely with government during the lockdowns are losing cultural sway while uncensored ones like Elon Musk’s X are gaining attention. Disney is reeling from its partisanship, while states are passing new laws against WHO policies and interventions.
Sometimes this whole revolt can be quite entertaining.
When the CDC or WHO posts an update on X, when they allow comments, it is followed by thousands of reader comments of denunciation and poking fun, with flurries of comments to the effect of “I will not comply.”
DEI is being systematically defunded by major corporations while financial institutions are turning on it. Indeed, the culture in general has come to regard DEI as a sure indication of incompetence. Meanwhile, the outer reaches of the “great reset” such as the hope that EVs would replace internal combustion have come to naught as the EV market has collapsed, along with consumer demand for fake meat to say nothing of bug eating.
As for politics, yes, it does seem like the backlash has empowered populist movements all over the world. We see them in the farmers’ revolt in Europe, the street protests in Brazil against a sketchy election, the widespread discontent in Canada over government policies, and even in migration trends out of US blue states toward red ones. Already, the administrative state in D.C. is working to secure itself against a possible unfriendly president in the form of Donald Trump or RFK, Jr.
So, yes, there are many signs of revolt. These are all very encouraging.
What does all this mean in practice? How does this end? How precisely does a revolt take shape in an industrialized democracy? What is the mostly likely pathway for long-term social change?
These are legitimate questions.
For hundreds of years, our best political philosophers have opined that no system can function in a sustainable way in which a huge majority is coercively governed by a tiny elite with a class interest in serving themselves at public expense.
That seems correct. In the days of the Occupy Wall Street movement of 15 years ago, the street protesters spoke of the 1 percent vs. the 99 percent. They were speaking of those with the money inside the traders’ buildings as opposed to the people on the streets and everywhere else.
Even if that movement misidentified the full nature of the problem, the intuition into which it tapped spoke to a truth. Such a disproportionate distribution of power and wealth is dangerously unsustainable. Revolution of some sort threatens. The mystery right now is what form this takes. It’s unknown because we’ve never been here before.
There is no real historical record of a highly developed society ostensibly living under a civilized code of law that experiences an upheaval of the type that would be required to unseat the rulers of all the commanding heights. We’ve seen political reform movements that take place from the top down but not really anything that approximates a genuine bottom-up revolution of the sort that is shaping up right now.
We know, or think we know, how it all transpires in a tinpot dictatorship or a socialist society of the old Soviet bloc. The government loses all legitimacy, the military flips loyalties, there is a popular revolt that boils over, and the leaders of the government flee. Or they simply lose their jobs and take up new positions in civilian life. These revolutions can be violent or peaceful but the end result is the same. One regime replaces another.
It’s hard to know how this translates to a society that is heavily modernized and seen as non-totalitarian and even existing under the rule of law, more or less. How does revolution occur in this case? How does the regime come around to adapting itself to a public revolt against governance as we know it in the US, UK, and Europe?
Yes, there is the vote, if we can trust that. But even here, there are the candidates, which are that for a reason. They specialize in politics, which does not necessarily mean doing the right thing or reflecting the aspirations of the voters behind them. They are responsive to their donors first, as we have long discovered. Public opinion can matter but there is no mechanism that guarantees a smoothly responsive pathway from popular attitudes to political outcomes.
There is also the pathway of industrial change, a migration of resources out of legacy venues to new ones. Indeed, in the marketplace of ideas, the amplifiers of regime propaganda are failing but we also observe the response: widened censorship. What’s happening in Brazil with the full criminalization of free speech can easily happen in the US.
In social media, were it not for Elon’s takeover of Twitter, it’s hard to know where we would be. We have no large platform in which to influence the culture more broadly. And yet the attacks on that platform and other enterprises owned by Musk are growing. This is emblematic of a much more robust upheaval taking place, one that suggests change is on the way.
But how long does such a paradigm shift take? Thomas Kuhn’s “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” is a bracing account of how one orthodoxy migrates to another not by the ebb and flow of proof and evidence but through dramatic paradigm shifts. An abundance of anomalies can wholly discredit a current praxis but that doesn’t make it go away. Ego and institutional inertia perpetuate the problem until its most prominent exponents retire and die and a new elite replaces them with different ideas.
In this model, we can expect that a failed innovation in science, politics, or technology could last as long as 70 years before finally being displaced, which is roughly how long the Soviet experiment lasted. That’s a depressing thought. If this is true, we still have another 60 plus years of rule by the management professionals who enacted lockdowns, closures, shot mandates, population propaganda, and censorship.
And yet, people say that history is moving faster now than in the past. If a future of freedom is ours just lying in wait, we need that future here sooner rather than later, before it is too late to do anything about it.
The slogan became popular about ten years ago: the revolution will be decentralized with the creation of robust parallel institutions. There is no other path.
The intellectual parlor game is over. This is a real-life struggle for freedom itself. It’s resist and rebuild or doom.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 21:40 - Buying Votes: Biden Cancels Student Debt For 277,000 Borrowers Ahead Of Presidential Elections
Buying Votes: Biden Cancels Student Debt For 277,000 Borrowers Ahead Of Presidential Elections
On Friday, President Joe Biden announced that he would cancel the federal student debt of more than 277,000 Americans, equating to about $7.4 billion. This would bring the total of what is considered classical vote buying ahead of the November presidential elections to more than $153 billion, or forgiving the debt of 4.3 million people.
The majority of the 277,000 Americans who were forgiven federal student debt were enrolled in the government’s income-driven repayment plan, known as SAVE, which promises borrowers to forgive their debts after ten years of loan repayments.
The White House touted:
Since President Biden took office, his administration has approved over $54 billion in debt cancellation for 1.3 million borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans, including the new SAVE Plan. This builds on additional actions the Biden-Harris Administration has taken to cancel debt for nearly 900,000 public service workers, 1.3 million borrowers cheated by their schools or borrowers covered by related court settlements, and nearly 550,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability, including many veterans.
Earlier this week, the Biden administration announced new student loan plans that would begin canceling federal student debt up to $20,000 in interest for millions of borrowers and total loan forgiveness for millions more. Those who qualify for the government’s income-driven repayment plan would have the full balance of their unpaid interest forgiven, benefiting at least 25 million Americans.
“This latest round of debt cancellation comes on the heels of President Biden announcing new plans that, if implemented, would cancel student debt for over 30 million Americans when combined with actions the Administration has taken over the last three years,” the White House said.
Meanwhile, a seven-state coalition filed a new lawsuit on Monday challenging the “most generous ever” federal student loan repayment plan.
In the complaint filed in federal court in Missouri, the seven states argued that SAVE is another unlawful attempt to force taxpayers to shoulder the bill for others.
“Just last year, the [U.S.] Supreme Court struck down an attempt by the President to force teachers, truckers, and farmers to pay for the student loan debt of other Americans—to the enormous tune of $430 billion,” the states wrote in the complaint, explaining how the high court’s 6-3 majority explicitly ruled that the president shall not sidestep Congress in making a decision that could have a significant impact on the economy.
“Undeterred, the President is at it again, even bragging that the Supreme Court blocked it. They blocked it. But that didn’t stop me,'” the complaint added.
The administration’s latest student debt push is a sign of desperation. It comes as Bidenomics has been a gigantic failure and risks causing a sovereign debt crisis. Gold’s push to record highs is figuring this one out.
Now that rate cuts are off the table, interest on US debt – currently the second biggest government outlay at $1.1 trillion – will surpass social security and become the single biggest US expense before the end of 2024 at $1.6 trillion. pic.twitter.com/OQYjHhOks9
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 11, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Also, inflation has been reaccelerating for months while nationwide gasoline pump prices inch closer to the politically sensitive $4 level. And if the inflation storm wasn’t enough, the nation has been swamped by a White House-facilitated illegal alien invasion as progressive cities burn under failed social justice reforms.
What’s worse, the Biden administration’s foreign policy has been an epic disaster as the world moves closer to World War III in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Still, don’t forget about what’s happening in the Pacific.
This is why the White House must buy votes…
What better way to distract voters about the failures of this administration and the inflation storm crushing the working poor than to distract with socialist policies of ‘free stuff’ – such as canceling student loan debt…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 21:20 - 20 Women Soccer Players Withdraw From League Over Transgender Players
20 Women Soccer Players Withdraw From League Over Transgender Players
Authored by Jim Birchall via The Epoch Times,
Concerns over the physical safety of female-born football (soccer) players competing against transgender athletes have compelled at least 20 players to quit, according to a source from within a Sydney-based league.
Calling itself the “biggest LGBTQIA+ women’s and non-binary football club in the world,” the Flying Bats FC has made international headlines for fielding 5 self-identifying transgender players, with at least nine transgender players in the wider NorthWest Association.
Critics have said the Bat’s domination of the four-week pre-season Beryl Ackroyd Cup, which followed an undefeated season in 2023 that produced scorelines disproportionate to other teams’ results, was a direct result of the inclusion of male-born transgender players.
According to the feminist and pro-woman online news source, Reduxx, president of St. Patrick’s Football Club Frank Parisi said a March discussion over the Flying Bats FC’s ease of victories had prompted an informal meeting with stakeholders of the Northwest Sydney Football Association to address “concerns around how implausible it has become for any team to win against the Flying Bats as well as physical safety concerns.”
Incensed by the Flying Bats’ domination, other clubs asked the league’s governing body Football NSW to force them into playing in a mixed-sex league.
One club official told the Daily Telegraph, “Our girls are here to play for fun and expect to play in the female competition. They did not sign up for a mixed competition. It was so disheartening for them to see the huge difference in ability—they’re killing it.”
The involvement of transgender athletes in sports is a current hot-button issue, as policymakers grapple with how to balance the effects on women’s players, versus the “rights” of female-identifying players born as biological men.
Advocates argue that transgender individuals should be able to participate in sports according to their gender identity, while opponents raise concerns about fairness and competitive advantage.
One of the key points of contention is the impact of testosterone levels on athletic performance.
Testosterone affects muscle mass, strength, and endurance, and transgender males who have undergone hormone therapy to transition may still have higher testosterone levels than cisgender females, providing a competitive advantage in women’s sports.
Pro-transgender inclusion campaigners argue for allowing individuals to compete according to their gender identity, regardless of hormone levels. They argue that excluding transgender athletes from women’s sports is discriminatory and goes against principles of inclusion and equality.
Teams Could be Punished for Forfeiting Matches
Despite the arguments for and against inclusion, anecdotal evidence has emerged of severe injuries being sustained by female players playing against the Flying Bats.
In audio of the Northwest Sydney Football Association meeting leaked to social media, Frank Parisi detailed an incident whereby a female player’s leg was broken during a game;
“A couple of year ago, one of the Flying Bats players broke one of our players’ legs in a game. It was a clumsy tackle from behind. Our player had her leg broken in two places and she’s no longer playing football. It was a direct result of a real bad, tall player… he didn’t get a red card.
“Accidents happen, but this could have been avoided,” Mr. Parisi said.
“One of our players rushed over to try to help her, she was screaming in so much pain. At that time, she made a derogatory remark to the Bats’ player, which we apologised for. [She was] suspended (for 8 weeks). The Bats player, nothing happened to [him].”
Trans activist and former YouTuber Riley Dennis was also involved in football in NSW and came under criticism while playing for the Inter Lions FC in NSW Women’s Premier League 2 for injuring a female player who required hospital attention.
Mr. Parisi said at the meeting, 24 women had recently withdrawn from his club’s team.
“There’s a massive impact. I’m a very small club, we’ve only got seven teams … and now I’ve lost both my women’s teams, and it was a direct result of members of the Flying Bats who were male playing in a female competition.”
Complicating affairs is a directive from Football NSW and Football Australia that allows players “to participate in football on the basis of the gender with which they identify.”
The clause is consistent with the Australian Human Rights Commission’s guidelines on transgender athlete participation.
Speaking with the Daily Mail, North West Sydney Football (NWSF) CEO Matthew Geracitano said he had heard a team that chooses not to play against the Flying Bats could potentially be censured for an “act of discrimination.”
“In response to a direct question from a member Club, NWSF reminded stakeholders that NWSF’s Grievance and Disciplinary Regulations apply sanctions for teams who forfeit games in any competition and that these regulations have been in place for many years.”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 21:00 - Hummer Reportedly Kills EV Base 2 Trim Level As Demand Cools
Hummer Reportedly Kills EV Base 2 Trim Level As Demand Cools
In the latest setback, General Motors has ditched the base trim level for the Hummer EVs, according to a new report from the autoblog GM Authority. The legacy automaker has delayed and slowed its EV initiative in recent months as the industry continues to slide.
GM Authority has learned that there will be no “base” 2 trim level for the Hummer EV, as was originally announced. As background, the 2 trim was supposed to arrive for the 2024 model year for both the Hummer EV Pickup and Hummer EV SUV, but it seems as though the automaker changed its plans. Moving forward, there will be no 2 model for the 2025 model year.
For GM guys and gals who were promised Hummer EVs with base trims and lower prices (starting around $79,995 and offer 250 miles of range), the report from GM Authority does not bode well for EV price affordability.
This also comes as GM delayed the launch of its Toledo EV Propulsion Systems plant in Ohio by nine months. It will start operating in late 2024. GM said it will “retime the launch of Electric Drive Unit at the plant to Q4 2024 in order to better align with Orion Assembly’s planned production schedule.”
Furthermore, GM has announced production delays of EV trucks at its Orion assembly until late 2025, including the Chevy Silverado RST and GMC Sierra Denali EVs.
Consumer appetite for EVs is rapidly cooling. And legacy automakers have felt the brunt of the slowdown.
Last week, Ford Motor said it was postponing production of a new three-row SUV as it pushes the delivery date from late 2025 to 2026 and will focus on hybrid options across its entire North American lineup.
Even Tesla Motors, the leader in the EV space, is experiencing a slowdown in sales.
“Tesla is going from the golden era to a really challenging era,” said Mark Fields, a former CEO of Ford Motor.
As legacy automakers face waning demand and mounting delays in debuting EV SUVs and trucks, Tesla’s Cybertruck is in massive demand, and production is being ramped up.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 20:40 - School District Takes Next Step In Ditching Seattle Gifted Program
School District Takes Next Step In Ditching Seattle Gifted Program
Authored by Jason Rantz via mynorthwest.com (emphasis ours),
Privileged progressives, donning their white knight armor, are in the next phase of a plan to end Seattle Public Schools’ gifted students program — known locally as its Highly Capable Cohort (HCC). They complained the HCC was too white.
(Photo courtesy of KIRO 7) HCC separates academically gifted students from others via different classrooms or entirely different schools. But in 2020, white Seattle school board directors voted to terminate the HCC over the objections of parents. HCC will be completely phased out by the 2027-28 school year.
Outraged more by the success of white and Asian students than by the untapped potential of black and Hispanic pupils, progressives would rather drag achievers down than elevate everyone. These self-proclaimed saviors boast on social media about tackling inequities, oblivious to the harm they inflict. Indeed, the program to replace the HCC, and be implemented in every classroom, ensures that gifted students will be unchallenged, struggling students will escape the attention they deserve and teachers will be overwhelmed. In other words, everyone will be equitably harmed.
More from Jason Rantz: Seattle English students told it’s ‘white supremacy’ to love reading, writing
Why did Seattle Public Schools gifted program end?
Critics argued the students in HCC did not reflect the diversity of the community. The move was prompted by Black Lives Matter activism.
In 2018, three years after Seattle Public Schools (SPS) hired an “equity specialist” to address so-called racial inequities, the students HCC served 13% multiracial, 11.8% Asian, 3.7% Hispanic and 1.6% black. (By 2023, it was 20% multiracial, 16% Asian, 8.2% Hispanic and 3.4% black.) Critics argue that because the HCC didn’t match the district’s diversity, the program was irredeemably racist and needed to be dismantled.
But parents, including those who are black, Asian and Hispanic, argued against closing them down. They argued that SPS should work harder to identify minority students who are eligible for HCC, rather then kill the program entirely.
One father pleaded that the Seattle School Board “consider the disservice you would be doing to the minorities that are already in the HCC program.” He argued that the gifted program “does more for Black children, particularly Black boys, than it does for their peers.”
But the extremist Seattle School Board was unmoved.
Then-director Chandra Hampson accused black parents supporting the HCC as being “tokenized” by white Seattle parents.
What is replacing the gifted highly capable cohort program?
The “whole-classroom model” is replacing HCC and be implemented in each classroom starting in the 2024-25 school year. It’s unworkable.
Read the rest here…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 20:20 - The Freedom That Once Was The Internet
The Freedom That Once Was The Internet
Authored by Jeffrey A. Tucker via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
It’s time to declare as regards the internet of old: Requiescat in Pace.
In this photo illustration an internet page is displayed on a computer screen in London, England, on April 13, 2006. (Scott Barbour/Getty Images) It’s dead. We might as well face it.
Nearly every large application and website in existence, meaning most of what people use on what we call the internet, constituting an estimated 95 percent of the main portals of information, is now compromised by some power somewhere, making them no longer part of the free world and no longer part of the army of truth.
If that shocks you, you haven’t used Google or Facebook recently. They are both heavily rigged not to get you the information you want but rather to push out to you information that someone somewhere wants you to have. And the situation is getting worse, not better. This is despite impending court challenges that are hoping for a restoration of free speech. If there were a serious threat that this would happen, wouldn’t we see the censored venues improve and not worsen?
The situation is heartbreaking and gives rise to melancholic reflections on the promise and betrayal.
My fear is that hardly anyone remembers a time when the internet held out the highest hope in modern history for the emancipation of humanity from the control of the powerful. I had a model in my own head of a mass migration out of the controlled and regulated physical world and into a digital realm that was so large, so potentially infinite in scope, containing so many nodes and so many content providers, that states would be hopeless in the face of it.
Yes, I was the paradigmatic case of the techno-utopian who got bitten by the bug of progress in about 1996. I was sitting there at my desk, newly aware of these things called websites, and managing one myself. I put up a few old issues of a newsletter. A few days later, I needed to look at that newsletter. I saw it sitting across the room. At that moment, I suddenly realized that it would actually be easier just to look at it online.
Now, you might laugh when you hear that story. But keep in mind that at that point in history, most people had no idea of the extent of the power of this tool. I did not. I knew that I could post things and they would appear on a screen. But it wasn’t until that moment that it suddenly dawned on me. By posting anything online, I could liberate any bit of information from the physical world, in which only I could have access so long as I was sitting there, and give that same piece of information to millions and billions of people, possibly forever.
I did a deep intake of air in a state of shock and amazement. I immediately knew what my task was. I was determined to get every valuable piece of content in my possession and scan and post in every possible format. I was surrounded by out-of-print items of every sort. I got to work, piece by piece, putting it all up there for the world. I knew it would likely take me the rest of my career to do this but it was joyful work, work that would free the world. I would do my part.
It was two years later when a friend wrote me: “I have the name of a new search engine you absolutely have to try.”
“What’s wrong with AltaVista?” I asked.
“Nothing but this one is far better. It’s called Google.”
Sure enough, it was better. We all adopted Google as a friend. And it was for a very long time. It only improved day by day, and eventually solve the problem of email spam that was the biggest threat to software functioning at the time.
In those days, those of us playing with all these new tools felt like insiders and revolutionaries. We learned to code. We ate and slept HTML, and later learned to separate content and presentation with style sheets. We learned to manage servers and then build online databases to economize on processes to avoid tangles. We played with image formats and sizes. We learned about maximizing speed and search engine access. Every day, we learned a new trick and deployed it.
Goodness, those were heady times. We wore thumb drives from strings around our necks and were constantly plugged in, as builders of the new world.
We felt like we were part of a community, a global one, with the same ideals. Information naturally wanted to be free, we theorized and we believed, and it was up to us to make that happen. Nothing could stop us, not even governments. With unbreakable encryption not even backdoors to servers could do the trick. I ended up writing two full books on the thesis that the more we digitize everything, the freer we would become.
Truth is that everything around us seemed to confirm this view. Social media came along as did video services and free video calling plus every form of instant message to connect us instantly with anyone on the planet. When translation tools became available, even language barriers were breaking down.
My scanning and publishing projects had gone on hyperdrive. I put in several thousand books plus old journals plus diaries plus newsletters and magazines. And I cooperated with teams around the world to make them into digital books and then print books and searchable databases. The universe of information we were creating scaled and scaled and there seemed to be no limit to the abundance of connectivity and information that would pass through these magical tubes that were connecting the planet from one end to the other, regardless of nation states.
Was it always an illusion? Probably. The point is that the internet at its height was built by people (like me) who believed in it and worked toward achieving the ideal.
The ideal became gradually compromised over time. Copyright claims wrecked the idea of putting all knowledge online, as the Google Books program quickly discovered. Patent claims stopped the development of new tools, and did their part to consolidate the industry. Gradually what led to institutional power on the internet was not use or innovation but war chests of claims of “intellectual property.”
Such claims were inherently at war with what the internet wanted to be. I joined a band of brothers and sisters who were going to get rid of such old-fashioned rules and replace them with new ones, including file sharing apps and open declarations of Creative Commons licensing. Indeed, we had everything solved, a perfect way forward.
We forget one thing: the long historical trajectory of powerful states and their powerful corporate allies to work together to consolidate control and exploit the rest of humanity. As it turned out, there was no technical solution to that problem, no code, no app, no legal trick, no innovation, and not even a mass movement. The cartels got busy to regain control.
I’m going to date this new period of consolidation from about 2012 onward. It’s hard to say exactly when it all took shape but it was at some point during the Obama years. The antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft was the warning shot: play ball with the state or we will break you up. That threat is still with us.
Looking back, it’s clear that some people in government and corporate boardrooms simply declared: this new freedom that people think they have cannot work for stabilizing our power. We have to bring it to an end. The new world will operate more like the old.
The victory of Brexit in the UK and the election of Donald Trump in 2016 terrified elites the world over, and these seemed to be backed by growing populist movements far and wide. It was at this point that powerful interests simply decided that internet freedom had not worked for their interests. They decided to declare it to be over.
There were three steps in this process.
First, consolidate the industries, so that we only have to deal with a few rather than many: Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and a few others. Have them buy up any and all innovative competitors and either rope them into their operations or shut them down completely.
Second, erect high regulations in the industry to make sure that these main players are permanent and not challenged anymore by punks in a garage somewhere.
Third, embed regime-sympathetic managers and investors at these institutions and gradually turn them from serving the public to serving the regime.
The lockdown games of 2020 and following were their chance to deploy their new machine of censorship and control to see just how well they worked to propagandize the population. As it turns out, they worked pretty well. And that leaves only one last step: criminalize all speech that contradicts that which is approved.
That is happening in Brazil. The United States is next. China is the model of control.
Fortunately and for now, the work of many of us from the past survives in various forms but for how long? It is clear where we are headed. The power elite want the internet to work exactly like media of old: three channels saying all the same thing forever.
Will they get away with it? So far it is working. Of the internet dreams of old, we can say: The dream was betrayed at multiple levels and in ways is worthy of great novels.
To gain full control of the internet as a means of managing the public mind, however, is going to take far more than consolidation and surreptitious infiltration. To complete the task will require a level of population coercion on a scale we’ve never seen in history. Possible? Doubtful.
As for the dream of achieving freedom itself, we will always say: “Per aspera ad astra.”
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 19:40 - Biden Punishes Drillers With 15-Fold Increase In Permitting Costs, Plans To Block Arctic Oil Extraction
Biden Punishes Drillers With 15-Fold Increase In Permitting Costs, Plans To Block Arctic Oil Extraction
One week after the Biden administration slapped new regulations on key power grid components, the Washington Post reports that US oil and gas companies will face a 15-fold increase in costs to drill on federal land, under a new rule released on Friday.
Workers operate a drilling rig while plugging an abandoned oil well north of Shelby, Mont. (Adrián Sanchez-Gonzalez for The Washington Post) (Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez/For The Washington Post) Under it, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management will require drillers to pay $150,000 per lease on federal lands, up from $10,000 – the first comprehensive update to the federal oil and gas leasing program in over three decades.
Fossil fuel companies will also be required to pay higher royalties to the government on oil and gas extracted from federal lands – jumping from 12.5% of revenue to 16.67%.
That’s not all…
The rule comes as the Biden administration readies a sweeping plan to limit future oil drilling across roughly 13 million acres of Alaska’s North Slope, which the US set aside a century ago as an emergency supply.
That initiative, set to be finalized in the coming days per Bloomberg, comes as both oil executives and Alaska lawmakers have sounded the alarm over the plan – saying that it could thwart oil and gas development throughout the reserve, even on existing leases.
The Interior Department said in a preamble the regulation wouldn’t affect existing leases. But the proposed rule text doesn’t offer similar, explicit assurance. Instead, it proposes to give the government broad authority to limit or bar access to existing leases, “regardless of any existing authorization.” Oil leasing and infrastructure development would be presumed not to be permitted unless specific information clearly demonstrates the work can be done with “no or minimal adverse effects” on the habitat.
“This would be bad for America’s energy security,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said on X, adding “It would openly defy federal law while ignoring rising energy prices and growing global volatility. “
“It would yet again sanction Alaska instead of nations like Russia, Iran, and Venezuela,” she added.
This would be bad for America’s energy security. It would disrespect Alaska Natives on the North Slope, who were ignored in a sham public process. It would openly defy federal law while ignoring rising energy prices and growing global volatility. It would yet again sanction…
— Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) April 12, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe Biden administration has argued that the changes are necessary to protect ‘sensitive landscapes’ that provide habitat for polar bears, migratory birds and caribou.
“We must do everything within our control to meet the highest standards of care to protect this fragile ecosystem,” said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in announcing the measure last year, Bloomberg continues.
How very inflationary…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 19:20 - "I Cannot Afford To Live": Americans Get Emotional As The US Economy Goes Off The Rails
“I Cannot Afford To Live”: Americans Get Emotional As The US Economy Goes Off The Rails
Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
As we approach what is likely to be the most chaotic presidential election in U.S. history, troubling signs are starting to erupt for the U.S. economy. In fact, CNN is actually admitting that “the long-predicted storm clouds in the economy may actually be forming”. I can’t remember the last time that I saw a CNN article with a headline like that. But at this point, it is becoming extremely difficult for the mainstream media to avoid the truth. Inflation is getting worse at the same time that many key sectors of our economy are slowing down. If you thought that the last couple of years were rough for the economy, just wait until you see what is coming next. Tremendous turmoil is on the horizon, and the American people are becoming increasingly emotional about our rapidly growing economic problems.
On Wednesday, we learned that prices jumped even more than expected during the month of March…
Inflation jumped in March as prices for consumer staples such as gasoline edged higher and those for housing remained stubbornly high, suggesting inflation may be a bit stickier than it seemed just a few months ago, economists said.
The consumer price index, a key inflation gauge, rose 3.5% in March from a year ago, the U.S. Labor Department reported Wednesday. That’s up from 3.2% in February.
Lots of pundits on television are telling us that this is really bad news for Joe Biden.
But if prices were only rising at a 3.5 percent annual rate, that would be outstanding news.
In fact, if prices were only rising at a 3.5 percent annual rate I would not be concerned about inflation at all.
Of course by now everyone realizes that the way inflation is calculated has been changed repeatedly over the years and so the numbers that the government gives us are essentially meaningless at this point.
In order to get a realistic idea of how much prices are rising, we need to look at specific categories.
For example, Fox Business is reporting that the cost of energy “is up 36.9% from where it was in Jan. 2021″…
Tuesday’s inflation numbers punctuate what has been a dreadful three years for energy consumers. The overall cost of energy in March is up 36.9% from where it was in Jan. 2021, according to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Of course energy prices are going to go a lot higher than they are right now.
Just wait until Iran and Israel start lobbing missiles at one another.
Housing has become insanely expensive as well.
In fact, the average monthly mortgage payment on a newly purchased home has approximately doubled since Joe Biden entered the White House.
So how in the world can they possibly tell us with a straight face that inflation is in the low single digits if that is the case?
Home insurance rates are going into the stratosphere as well.
One 71-year-old retiree in South Dakota says that his home insurance payment went up by 110 percent in just one year…
Ken Brown is worried he is going to be forced out of his house if his home insurance premium continues to go up.
The 71-year-old retiree who lives near Rapid City, South Dakota, has seen his annual cover with American Family skyrocket almost 110 percent in the last year – from $1,665 to $3,490.
Ken is on a fixed retirement income, while his wife Valeria, 68, is still working to help cover the insurance bill – and a whole host of other rising costs.
Let’s be honest with ourselves.
The truth is that we are in the midst of the worst inflation crisis that any of us have ever seen.
Don’t let them gaslight you.
The price of food is also going nuts. At one location in California, a 40 piece order of Chicken McNuggets and two orders of large fries will now set you back more than 25 dollars…
A viral social media video about a $25 McDonald’s “deal” recently sparked an online debate about California’s minimum-wage increase.
A TikTok user who posts videos under the username @shannon_montipaya shared the video on March 27. She was in the drive-thru of a Southern California McDonald’s location when she saw a sign for a 40-piece Chicken McNugget meal deal, which also included two large orders of fries.
The price of the meal bundle was $25.39 — including sales tax, it would come to roughly $27. In the video, the social media user lamented that the meal didn’t even include a drink.
“OK, so it’s $25.39 for 40-piece nuggets and two large fries,” she said. “You couldn’t even throw in the Sprite?
With everything that is going on, I can certainly understand why Americans are getting so emotional about inflation.
Recently, one TikTok user racked up 5 million views when he posted a rant in which he boldly declared that “I cannot afford to live”…
Last week, a TikTok user posted an angry rant about the cost of living that’s since been viewed 5 million times on the platform, with tens of thousands of comments and shares.
“I make over three times the federal minimum wage and I cannot afford to live,” he shouts into the camera. “It is embarrassing to come out and say that it is a struggle to survive right now but I know so many people are struggling.”
Later, he concludes: “The American Dream is dead.”
Many of you can identify with that.
I have heard from so many readers that are deeply struggling in this economy.
Unfortunately, there are signs that things are about to get even worse.
For example, small business optimism in the United States has dropped to the lowest level in 11 years…
The failure of Bidenomics has crushed confidence among US small businesses to the lowest level in more than a decade, as the future path of inflation remains a significant concern. Readers must remember small businesses are vital to the economy, contributing 44% of the country’s economic activity and creating two-thirds of net new jobs.
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) reported Tuesday that its small-business optimism index declined .9 points to 88.5, the lowest level since the second half of 2012 – or about when the US economy climbed out of the worst financial crisis ever.
And I was deeply saddened to learn that 99 Cents Only is moving toward liquidating all of their stores…
99 Cents Only shops will begin shuttering its hundreds of locations on Friday as the company moves toward total liquidation.
“99 Cents Only Stores, together with its financial and legal advisors, engaged in an extensive analysis of all available and credible alternatives to identify a solution that would allow the business to continue,” the company said in a press release.
“Following months of actively pursuing these alternatives, the company ultimately determined that an orderly wind-down was necessary and the best way to maximize the value of 99 Cents Only Stores’ assets.”
Prior to the announcement, 99 Cents Only was operating 371 stores in the United States.
Of course we also recently learned that Dollar Tree and Family Dollar will be closing about 1000 stores.
All over America, stores that were once thriving will soon be boarded up.
This is what the future of our economy looks like, and many Americans are preparing for rougher times by purchasing large quantities of gold…
Gold has turned into money for Costco, where yellow metal sales begun last year have turned into a cash cow for the big-box retailer.
In fact, sales are so brisk that analysts at Wells Fargo expect revenue “may now be running at” $100 million to $200 million a month, a rapid acceleration since bullion hit the warehouse club late in the summer of 2023.
Just like me, so many of you can feel what is coming.
A tipping point has arrived, and the outlook for the months ahead is very bleak.
The U.S. economy is going off the rails, and the worse things get the more frustrated the American people are going to become.
* * *
Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 19:00 - Gun Control Activist David Hogg "Gets Wrecked" By Chinese Immigrant Who Escaped Communism
Gun Control Activist David Hogg “Gets Wrecked” By Chinese Immigrant Who Escaped Communism
Earlier this week, elite liberal-leaning Ivy school Dartmouth College hosted a debate about gun control between radical leftist David Hogg and Libertarian vice presidential candidate Jeremy “Spike” Cohen. Late in the discussion, a Chinese immigrant who escaped the brutal hell of communism told Hogg in front of everyone in the auditorium about what happens when tyrannical governments ban guns. Hog was caught entirely off guard and left speechless, as he had no script with progressive talking points to combat what was said.
“Hi, my name is Lily Tang Williams,” the woman said in the video posted on X.
“Welcome to my ‘Live Free or Die’ state. Actually, I am a Chinese immigrant who survived communism, and under Mao, you know, 40 million people were starving to death after he sold communism to them and 20 million people died… murdered during his Cultural Revolution. So, my question to you, David, is can you guarantee me, a gun owner tonight, our government in the US, in DC, will never become a tyrannical government? Can you guarantee that to me?” she asked…
Hogg replied, “There is no way I can guarantee that any government will not be tyrannical.”
Williams then said, “Well, then, the debate on gun control is over because I will never give up my guns.”
Listen here.
David Hogg torched by a Chinese immigrant warning against gun control.
This is what happens when liberals do an open mic. They get wrecked. They can’t defend their positions. pic.twitter.com/aeUGq0ff0c
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 11, 2024
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She told the unseasoned youngster, who is supported by radical leftist elites who want to ban guns nationwide, to do a little bit of homework and visit communist China. And not to forget about the millions of people who died during Mao’s Cultural Revolution and Communist dictatorship.
Williams, who is also running for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire, reposted this image from Spike on X.
Legend. https://t.co/03CmwtgmH6 pic.twitter.com/y6ngLaRi6r
— Spike Cohen (@RealSpikeCohen) April 11, 2024
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Williams, who has lived through real communism, has warned Americans before about the dangers of the radical left’s agenda of pushing socialism.
I am Lily Tang Williams. I was born in China to illiterate working-class parents, suffered under Mao’s Cultural Revolution and Communist dictatorship. I wanted freedom. America was my promised land.
I was 23 when I fled tyranny. Arriving with $100 in my pocket and knowing very… pic.twitter.com/cIoTlMOMxx
— Lily Tang Williams (@Lily4Liberty) June 1, 2023
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“That’s why I’m here to warn you: The Mao’s Cultural Revolution, in a similar style, is happening today on American soil,” Williams said on a panel held at The Heritage Foundation in December 2021.
Thanks for sharing. I am running for US House in NH02. Hope all the patriots will help me to win and donate here: https://t.co/GyGOfPMqqv
— Lily Tang Williams (@Lily4Liberty) April 11, 2024
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If it’s not apparent yet, progressives have a weird obsession with recruiting and supporting children to push their dirty work, such as Greta on climate change and Hogg on banning guns.
Meanwhile, Hogg’s activist group, Leaders We Deserve, has lately been under fire by conservative media outlets for barely spending money on actual candidates while racking up bills on travel and other expenses.
The problem with gun control activists is that they have very little to say that’s sensible when off-script.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 18:40 - Denver Cuts Taxpayer Services, Diverts $90 Million To Support Illegal Immigrants
Denver Cuts Taxpayer Services, Diverts $90 Million To Support Illegal Immigrants
Authored by Jana J. Pruet via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announced a major shift Wednesday in the city’s response to the illegal immigrant crisis, extending support to six months but with only about 1,000 spaces.
Illegal immigrants rest at a makeshift shelter, in Denver on Jan. 6, 2023. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announced a major shift on April 10, 2024, in the city’s response to the migrant crisis, extending support to six months but with only 1,000 spaces. (Thomas Peipert/AP Photo) The city’s nearly $90 million budget plan identifies how it will fund immigrant housing and aid for the remainder of 2024. The mayor’s pivot comes after the city failed to get federal aid. Denver has served more than 40,000 immigrants since late 2022, according to a press release.
“After more than a year of facing this crisis together, Denver finally has a sustainable plan for treating our newcomers with dignity while avoiding the worst cuts to city services,” Mr. Johnston said in a statement. “So many times, we were told that we couldn’t be compassionate while still being fiscally responsible. Today is proof that our hardest challenges are still solvable and that together, we are the ones who will solve them.”
Denver and other Democratic-led cities had asked the Biden administration for aid to assist with the influx of migrants into their communities.
President Joe Biden asked Congress for $1.4 billion in funding for the effort as part of his budget. Congress refused and instead cut the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program from $800 million to $650 million.
“Whether we’d like the federal government to do it or not, that was no longer a choice for us,” Mr. Johnston said.
City officials claim the new approach will allow for surges of immigrants while focusing on helping them become independent. The move is a departure from the city’s previous strategy of weeks- to months-long shelter stays.
The illegal immigrant will be housed in apartments for up to six months. They will also receive job and skill training, opportunities for skills certifications, unpaid job experience, food assistance, and help with filing asylum applications.
The “Denver Asylum Seeker Program” will act as a buffer and offer intensive preparation while immigrants wait six months for their work permits after applying for asylum.
“In Denver, we believe that the way to solve these problems is not by turning our back on our American values, but by turning to our American values,” Mr. Johnston said.
Earlier this year, Mr. Johnston asked all city departments to find creative ways to cut costs by 10 to 15 percent, according to KDVR-TV. That was when Denver was housing 5,000 illegal immigrants a day at a projected cost of $180 million.
The number of illegal immigrants has since decreased, allowing for a reduced total package of $45.9 million in budget cuts.
The new plan, which includes an earlier plan for $44 million, brings the program’s budget to a total of $89.9 million for the full year. The city has already spent $25 million of the budget during the first quarter.
Breakdown of Budget Spending Plan
- Program administration: $3 million
- Housing: $51.7
- Supportive services, including case management and workforce training: $9.7 million
- Transportation: $6 million
- One-time capital costs: $9.5 million
- Contingency: $10 million
The funds are coming from $9.5 million in capital fund cuts, $8.2 million in services and supplies cuts, $6.7 million in general fund reallocation, and $1.5 million in technology projects.
The largest reduction comes from not filling approximately 160 job vacancies at $19.9 million.
Services and supplies cuts include reducing marketing funds, official functions, conference travel, and “moving administrative pieces,” KDVR reported.
The city also said it hopes to have some funds remaining at the end of the year to roll over to 2025.
City Shelters
Denver is currently housing about 800 immigrants in its shelters. This group would be first in line for the new program, and the city expects to reach the 1,000 program cap in the coming days.
The new program was made possible in part by people offering up their apartments, rental assistance that doesn’t require U.S. citizenships, and through partnerships with nonprofits that provide debit cards for food to cook at home.
“We are going to share this playbook with all cities around the country. We think we have now cracked the code on how to help people,” Mr. Johnston said.
The city said it would continue to run a congregate shelter, with stays capped at one to three days—shorter than previous shelter allowances, which ranged from two to six weeks.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 18:20 - Brazil Reinstating Visa Requirements, Including Submitting Bank Statements, For U.S. Travelers
Brazil Reinstating Visa Requirements, Including Submitting Bank Statements, For U.S. Travelers
Brazil is reinstating its visa requirement for US tourists, previously lifted in 2019. Although e-visas were briefly available, the system was abolished. The processing time for visas averages five working days, but officials advise applying two months in advance.
Starting April 10, 2025, travelers from the US, Canada, and Australia must obtain a visa to visit Brazil, a requirement that includes submitting financial proofs like bank statements or pay stubs, the NY Post wrote this week.
Those earning under $2,000 will need a sponsor to visit, the report says, per the Brazilian government.
The e-visa application process can be completed online, eliminating the need for in-person consulate visits, the Post writes. According to the US Consulate in Brazil, the visa costs $80.90, is valid for 10 years, and permits stays of up to 90 days annually.
As part of the process, Americans must submit a letter detailing their trip’s purpose and duration, accommodation information, proof of US citizenship, and return tickets.
The visa process is more complex for Brazilians entering the US, the report notes. Brazilians must attend an in-person appointment and demonstrate financial stability and the visa fee is $185.
TravelPulse reports that from January to September 2023, nearly 483,000 Americans visited Brazil, making them the second-largest group after Argentinians. Meanwhile, the European Union has postponed its pre-travel program for Americans until 2025 due to various delays.
As part of that program, the European Travel Information and Authorisation System will soon be mandatory for visa-exempt travelers from 60 countries, including the US, UK, and Canada, to enter 30 European nations like Spain and France.
Similar to Brazil, applicants will need to provide passport details, personal information, and trip plans, and pay an $8 fee. ETIAS visas, valid for three years or until the passport expires, allow multiple short-term visits, generally up to 90 days within a 180-day period.
The only question we have is whether or not this will finally cut down on lines at customs…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 18:00 - Japan's Kishida Slams China In Address To Congress
Japan’s Kishida Slams China In Address To Congress
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivered an address to Congress on Thursday and declared China the “greatest strategic challenge” facing the world.
“Close coordination between Japan and the US is required more than ever to ensure that deterrence that our alliance provides remains credible and resilient,” Kishida said, according to The South China Morning Post.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday, Getty Images “China’s current external stance and military actions present the unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge, not only to the peace and security of Japan, but to the peace and stability of the international community at large,” he added.
Kishida also praised the US for its role in leading the Western proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. “The Ukraine of today may be the East Asia of tomorrow,” he said. “The leadership of the United States is indispensable. Without US support, how long before the hopes of Ukraine would collapse under the onslaught from Moscow?”
A day earlier, President Biden hosted Kishida at the White House, and the two leaders announced new steps to bolster the US-Japan alliance, including an upgrade to military command and control structures to facilitate more military cooperation.
“We announce our intention to bilaterally upgrade our respective command and control frameworks to enable seamless integration of operations and capabilities and allow for greater interoperability and planning between US and Japanese forces in peacetime and during contingencies,” Biden and Kishida said in a joint statement.
They also announced plans to increase joint weapons production and the potential inclusion of Japan in the AUKUS military pact, which focuses on military technology sharing. “Recognizing Japan’s strengths and the close bilateral defense partnerships with the AUKUS countries, AUKUS partners – Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States – are considering cooperation with Japan on AUKUS Pillar II advanced capability projects,” the statement said.
🇯🇵🇺🇸JAPANESE PM: THE WORLD NEEDS AMERICA
“The world needs the United States to continue playing this pivotal role in the affairs of nations. As we meet here today, I detect an undercurrent of self-doubt among some Americans about what your role in the world should be.
This… pic.twitter.com/B8UPO8vTsa
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) April 12, 2024
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Japan is a key part of the US’s preparations for a future war with China since it hosts over 50,000 troops, the largest foreign US military presence. Besides bolstering its own military footprint in Japan, the US is also encouraging Tokyo to build up its military, which breaks from Japan’s post-World War II constitution that renounces war and says armed forces with war potential should never be maintained. Kishida has announced several steps to significantly strengthen Japan’s military, including raising the military budget by 56%.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 17:40 - Iran Readies Over 100 Cruise Missiles For Possible Strike Against Israel: US Officials
Iran Readies Over 100 Cruise Missiles For Possible Strike Against Israel: US Officials
Update(1740): Multiple European airlines have canceled all flights to and from Iran, and flight trackers also indicate that skies above Israel are clear of civilian aviation.
Speculation is at a frenzy over the ‘when & where’ of the coming Iranian retaliation attack. “Anonymous US officials” have been feeding alarming headlines to media outlets all day – and among them the following:
Iran has readied a large number of missiles for a possible strike, according to three U.S. officials. Two of the officials said that Iran has readied more than 100 cruise missiles for a possible strike. Iran has also readied a sizeable number of drones that could be used in an attack on Israel, according to one official.
The officials said that Iran has been readying the missiles and drones over the last week.
The Pentagon has continued to move US naval assets closer to Israel, in apparent preparation to assist in repelling any potential attack.
Some have speculated that Hezbollah’s stepped up attacks on northern Israel in the last hours are meant as a prelude to bigger Iranian attack…
BREAKING🚨 A second Hezbollah voley of missiles is on its way depleting the iron dome.
Just as I predicted hours ago, the Iron Dome is being overwhelmed in preparation for Iran’s retaliation. https://t.co/nkLrAGSVlf pic.twitter.com/qVTatpeskp
— Syrian Girl 🇸🇾 (@Partisangirl) April 12, 2024
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* * *
Update(1317ET): Israeli hospitals have been put on a high state of alert by the home command, awaiting an ‘imminent’ Iranian retaliation attack. Iran has also reportedly put the United States on notice…
Three U.S. Officials told Axios : Iran has sent a message to the U.S. through several Arab countries, that if they interfere in Iran’s response against Israel, U.S. bases in the region will be struck.
Meanwhile, Russia just chose quite the wrong moment to conduct a test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile from its Kapustin Yar airbase in southern Russia. The rocket was reportedly seen soaring high in the atmosphere from parts of northern Iraq and Iran, triggering concerns it was Iran beginning its attack.
Below are some breaking headlines:
- ALERT US sends reinforcements to Middle East amid fears of Iran attack: official
- A large number of Iron Dome missiles were launched in the Upper Galilee after a salvo of 50 missiles was launched from Lebanon
- Israel’s Channel 12 reports Home Front Command has sent hospitals a message in the last hour asking hospital managers to ensure staff availability.
- The White House has Confirmed a change in U.S. Force and Alert Posture across the Middle East, but has Refused to go into further details.
Some additional reports that this may have been a Russian launch. https://t.co/rjqGWxh7RJ
— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) April 12, 2024
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Hezbollah appears to have ramped up its missile salvos over northern Israel:
⚡️View over the Galilee now pic.twitter.com/XkZuK28wWa
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) April 12, 2024
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There are also new reports that the US Navy has parked an advanced missile ship just off Israel’s coast, readying to assist with a possible response.
Channel 14 in Israel is reporting that an “Advanced Missile Ship” with the U.S. Navy, likely an Arleigh Burke-Class Guided-Missile Destroyer, has arrived off the Coast of Israel to assist with the Interception of Missiles and Drones launched by Iranian and/or Iranian-Backed Proxy… pic.twitter.com/hDuxYDEY3T
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) April 12, 2024
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* * *
Update(1116ET): At a moment US intelligence has indicated that Iran could strike Israeli soil in the next 24 to 48 hours, a top US general was spotted at an airbase in central Israel on Friday. US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla met with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at Hatzor Airbase “a short while ago,” according to Times of Israel military correspondent Emanuel Fabian.
The two defense officials discussed “readiness for an Iranian attack against the State of Israel, which may lead to regional escalation,” an official statement of the visit by Gallant’s said. Given it could be “bombs away” at any moment, is it a good idea for America’s top regional general to be hanging out at one of the very bases which could be directly targeted?
Via Times of Israel “Our enemies think that they can pull apart Israel and the United States, but the opposite is true, they are bringing us together and strengthening our ties. We stand shoulder to shoulder,” Gallant’s statement continued.
“I am certain that the world sees the true face of Iran, the terrorist body that incites terror attacks across the Middle East, and funds Hamas, Hezbollah, and additional forces [proxies], and now also threatens the State of Israel,” the Israeli defense chief added. “We are prepared to defend ourselves on the ground and in the air, in close cooperation with our partners, and we will know how to respond.”
It goes without saying that if top US military officials are currently on the ground and find themselves in the attack path when Iranian missiles are launched, it could be a direct trigger for massive regional war, given Washington wouldn’t hesitate to respond in a big way against Tehran in that scenario.
Barring some last minute development Iran is going to attack #Israel. The response and risk of escalation will depend on what and how they attack.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) April 12, 2024
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* * *
Iran is expected to attack Israel by week’s end, or at least within the coming days. However, the degree of telegraphing has almost taken the teeth out of the threat and what Iran hopes to accomplish in its retaliation.
“Iran is calibrating its plans for a major retaliatory strike against Israel to send a message — but not spark a regional war that compels Washington to respond, the U.S. assesses,” Politico reports of what’s expected. “Biden administration officials judge that Iran is planning a larger-than-usual aerial attack on Israel in the coming days, one that will likely feature a mix of missiles and drone strikes, said two U.S. officials who were granted anonymity to detail sensitive intelligence assessments.”
US Embassy in Israel, Getty Images The Pentagon has apparently moved naval assets closer to Israel in expectation of Iranian strikes (or else major attacks from their proxies like Hezbollah or the Houthis), including the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier which is patrolling the Red Sea. Israel’s Channel 14 also reports, “The US military deployed a missile ship with advanced defense capabilities near the shores of Israel.”
The US has said it is ready to coordinate a response with Israel if it is hit; however, the defense consensus is that Iran is unlikely to send missiles and drones directly from its soil. CBS has newly cited two US officials who say that “a major Iranian attack against Israel was expected as soon as Friday, possibly to include more than 100 drones and dozens of missiles aimed at military targets inside the country.”
But so far the past days have been a constant avalanche of speculation as an attack remains ‘imminent’. The US State Department is taking action, issuing a security warning to all government employees and their families for the US Embassy in Jerusalem. Travel restrictions have been placed on their movements, after the embassy has been on edge ever since Israel’s unprecedented April 1st attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
“Out of an abundance of caution, U.S. government employees and their family members are restricted from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv, … Jerusalem, and Be’er Sheva areas until further notice,” US Embassy security alert, issued Thursday says.
“The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem reminds U.S. citizens of the continued need for caution and increased personal security awareness as security incidents often take place without warning,” the alert continued. “The security environment remains complex and can change quickly depending on the political situation and recent events.”
Several other countries have issued travel warnings to their citizens, while bracing for a possible bigger war in the Middle East, including Russia and India of late. The UK and France have reportedly called on their citizens to leave immediately, citing an inevitable attack from Iran.
⚡️BREAKING
The US is bringing the aircraft carrier Eisenhower closer to Israel, probably in an attempt to intercept the Iranian missiles, since the US does not want to put its military bases at risk if it intercepts them from there pic.twitter.com/Qn1uS80Bf1
— Iran Observer (@IranObserver0) April 11, 2024
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Meanwhile the speculation continues as to the timing, with The Wall Street Journal on Friday reporting that “Israel is preparing for a direct attack from Iran on southern or northern Israel as soon as Friday or Saturday, according to a person familiar with the matter.”
However, even US intelligence doesn’t have a crystal ball. The WSJ follows with this caveat: “A person briefed by the Iranian leadership, however, said that while plans to attack are being discussed, no final decision has been made.”
Starting Thursday, Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), arrived in Israel amid reports that the US and Israel could respond jointly to any imminent Iranian attack on Israel. Alarmingly, Ynet reports Friday that “The IDF and Mossad approved plans for an attack on Iran in the event that Israel would come under attack from Iranian territory. Additionally, the coordination between the U.S. and Israeli militaries, has increased.”
Below are the morning’s geopolitical headlines via Newsquawk:
* * *
MIDDLE EAST – EUROPEAN MORNING
- “The (Israeli) army and the Mossad approved plans to target the heart of Iran if Israel (is) bombed from inside Iranian territory”, via Al Jazeera citing Yedioth Ahronoth.
- Hamas sources: “The organization’s leadership informed the mediators that it is not interested in further discussions about the deal, as long as there is no progress in its demands…”, according to journalist Kais citing Hezbollah-affiliated press.
- “US official to Al-Arabiya: We will participate in the response if Iran escalates with an appropriate response”, according to Al Arabiya
MIDDLE EAST
- Israel is prepared for an Iranian strike from its territory in the next 48 hours, according to WSJ. Israeli army said Iran is preparing its proxies in the region to attack them, according to Al Arabiya.
- Israeli Defence Minister Gallant told US Defense Secretary Austin that a direct Iranian attack on Israeli territory would compel Israel to respond in an appropriate way against Iran, according to Axios.
- Iran reportedly signalled to Washington it will respond to Israel’s attack on its Syrian embassy in a way that aims to avoid major escalation and it will not act hastily, according to Reuters citing Iranian sources. Furthermore, a source familiar with US intelligence was not aware of the message conveyed but said Iran has been very clear its response would be controlled and non-escalatory, and planned to use regional proxies to launch a number of attacks on Israel.
- US President Biden’s administration officials judge that Iran is planning a larger-than-usual aerial attack on Israel in the coming days which will likely feature a mix of missiles and drone strikes, according to two US officials cited by Politico.
- US official said the US expects an attack by Iran against Israel which they think will be calibrated to be bigger than usual but not so big it would draw the US into war, while US officials have also been in touch with regional partners to discuss efforts to manage and ultimately reduce further risks of escalation.
- US said it had restricted its employees in Israel and their family members from personal travel outside the greater Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Be’er Sheva areas amid Iran’s threats of retaliation against Israel.
- US State Department senior official said a robust conversation with Iraq is likely to lead to a second US-Iraq joint security cooperation dialogue later this year.
OTHER
- US President Biden warned that any attack on Philippine vessels in the South China Sea would invoke their mutual defence treaty.
- China’s top legislator Zhao Leji and North Korean counterpart discussed promoting exchange and cooperation in all fields, according to KCNA.
- Four drones shot down overnight near Russia’s Novoshakhtinsk in a town in near proximity to an oil refinery
Tyler Durden
Fri, 04/12/2024 – 17:40
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