Today’s News 13th August 2021

• Russian Embassy Trolls US State Dept Over Litany Of "Human Rights Abuses" At Home
  Russian Embassy Trolls US State Dept Over Litany Of “Human Rights Abuses” At Home

  Despite the jailed anti-Putin activist Alexei Navalny largely falling out of headlines in recent months, this week State Department spokesman Ned Price featured his fate in Wednesday statements about severe human rights violations in Russian and by various other bad actors like Cuba and Belarus. Price called out the Kremlin’s “violent crackdown” against protesters seeking to highlight Navalny’s plight.

  The response out of Russia was to slam Washington for its own human rights violations. The Russian Embassy in the US further trolled the State Department Spox’s Twitter account with the following…

  🔻@StateDeptSpox keeps criticizing 🇷🇺 for assumed human rights violations. Meanwhile, it is high time the #US drew its attention to the internal situation. Here are some guidlines:
  🔻https://t.co/ipr6yu60pl pic.twitter.com/SWQKkUOSTi

  — Russian Embassy in USA 🇷🇺 (@RusEmbUSA) August 12, 2021

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  “Meanwhile, it’s high time the US drew its attention to the internal situation,” the embassy stated in part while linking to Russia’s own detailed review of human rights abuses around the globe, with particular focus on the United States.

  The section of the document focusing on the US begins as follows:

  The United States continues to grossly violate human rights both inside and outside the country, including through illegal unilateral coercive measures (sanctions), the most egregious example of which is the imposed and ongoing (despite numerous UN General Assembly resolutions) blockade of Cuba. However, this does not prevent them from positioning themselves as a “world standard” in the field of protecting fundamental freedoms. Even non-governmental organizations loyal to Washington admit that the state of affairs in the human rights sphere is getting worse here every year. At the same time, criticism about the real situation with human rights in the country is still ignored by the authorities. Instead, Washington is looking for “violations” anywhere but at home.

  And there’s heavy focus on “inequality” and racial tensions which over a year ago gave rise to recent Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, unrest, and riots…

  In the United States, the level of racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other manifestations of such discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance continues to rise. In addition, the problem of racism has acquired a systemic character in American society, permeating all spheres of society. This is indicated with alarm by human rights organizations. The rapid spread of such a phenomenon that disgraces America hardly correlates with the image declared by Washington as a “global leader” in the field of protecting rights and freedoms around the world.

  The lengthy document which was published by the Russian Foreign Ministry only last month takes frequent swipes at Washington, including a multitude of sarcastic quips calling out US ‘human rights hypocrisy’. It further includes a list of “very disturbing pattern” foreign policy failures by the US especially in regions like the Middle East and Central Asia.

  

  Currently in Afghanistan US-trained national forces are in retreat amid a rapid Taliban advance while Washington is reportedly mulling the evacuation even of its embassy in Kabul, according to Politico. Russia, at the same time, is offering sales of combat helicopters to the Afghan government, in a bit of a historical ironic twist. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/13/2021 – 02:45

• UK's SAGE Advisor Says Lockdowns Can No Longer Be Justified
  UK’s SAGE Advisor Says Lockdowns Can No Longer Be Justified

  Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

  A top SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) adviser to the UK government says that COVID lockdowns can no longer be justified and that measures to control the virus should instead be aimed at protecting the most vulnerable.

  

  Professor Andrew Hayward, a University College London epidemiologist, said that the days of disruptive restrictions imposed on everyone should end in favor of a more targeted approach.

  “I think as we generally move into an endemic rather than pandemic situation the potential harm that a virus can cause at a population level is much less,” Hayward told BBC Radio 4.

  “So you can’t really justify such broad population-wide control measures and we tend to target the control measures more to those who are most vulnerable,” he added.

  “And so I think, not only in testing but in all sorts of forms of control, as we move into a situation where we’re coming to live with this virus forever, then we target the measures to the most vulnerable rather than having the more disruptive measures,” said the professor.

  Hayward’s view that we need to learn to live with the virus was echoed by signatories to the Great Barrington Declaration, in which 12,000 scientists asserted that the strategy should be centered on “focused protection,” not endless lockdowns.

  However, the UK government is still pursuing the idea of vaccine passports for some venues from September onwards while eliminating the option of negative COVID tests, despite the fact that fully vaccinated people can still catch and spread the virus.

  The domestic passports have proven highly controversial in France, where police were seen earlier this week checking the medical papers of people sitting outside at cafes.

  As we previously highlighted, some lockdown advocates appear to be upset that the restrictions might not make a return, with a Guardian journalist writing about how he is “going to miss being locked down.”

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/13/2021 – 02:00

• Why Do Some People Support Tyranny While Others Defy It?
  Why Do Some People Support Tyranny While Others Defy It?

  Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

  There is a fundamental question that haunts the pages of history and it is one that has never been addressed in a satisfactory manner. There are many schools of thought on why and how tyranny rises in any given society and all of them miss the mark in terms of explanations, primarily because they all allow their biases to rule their conclusions and blind them to the deeper aspects of power and conspiracy. In other words, they are willing to go down the rabbit hole only so far, and then they deny that the rabbit hole even exists.

  

  The common assumption when it comes to autocracy or oligarchy is that people are “stupid” and easily manipulated into following compelling personalities that make promises they never intend to keep. This is a foolish oversimplification. In truth, the level of manipulation needed to lure a majority of people into dictatorship is so complex that it requires an advanced understanding of human psychology.

  In our modern era, people cannot merely be ordered to submit at gunpoint, at least not right away. They must be tricked into conforming, and not only that, but they must be made to think that it was THEIR IDEA all along. Without this dynamic of self censorship and self enslavement, the population will eventually rebel no matter how oppressive the regime. A thousand year tyranny cannot exist unless a number of people are conned into applauding it, or, they directly benefit from it.

  And this is where we find the true key to totalitarianism – It only thrives because there is an inherent portion of any given society that secretly loves it and wants it to exist. We might call these people useful idiots, but it is much more than that. They are not necessarily unaware of what they are doing; they understand to some extent that they are helping in the destruction of other people’s freedoms…and they revel in it. Sure, there are elitists and globalists that levy core conspiracies and seek out more and more control, but they could not accomplish much of anything without the aid of the army of sociopathic aberrations that live among us.

  This strange and destructive characteristic is ever visible today in light of the covid lockdowns and the push for forced vaccinations. It is clear that there are some people out there that are overly concerned with the personal health decisions of everyone else. The science and the stats prove there is nothing for them to worry about from the virus, but they ignore the science. They thirst for the taste of power. They have become a cult which ignores all logic and demands fealty to their fraudulent narrative. They do not care about the facts, they only care that we comply.

  Well, as I have said time and time again: We Will Not Comply!

  And so begins the epic conflict; a tale as old as civilization itself. There are two types of people in this world: Those that want to control others, and those that want to be left alone. But what motivates the control freaks? Why are they the way they are? Lets examine some of the causes…

  The Fear Engine

  There are people that are driven by success, by merit, by hope, by prosperity, by faith, by optimism, by love, and by honor. And then, there are people driven by fear. There are hundreds of various fears, but only a few ways to react to any of them. Collectivists respond to fear with a desperate need to micromanage their environment; they believe that if they can dictate people and events to a certain degree, they can eliminate unexpected outcomes and be free of fear. But life does not work this way and it never will.

  The level of influence these people seek is so far beyond them that it can never be attained. That is to say, they will never be satisfied until they get more. Their fears will always haunt them because fears cannot be dealt with from without, they can only be dealt with from within.

  Furthermore, the things they fear often revolve around their own narcissism and are of their own making. They fear failure, but they rarely work hard enough to succeed. They fear exposure, but only because they constantly lie. They fear conflict, but only because they are weak in body and character. They fear death, because they believe in nothing greater than themselves. They clamor for dominance of their surroundings because they wrongly believe that they can cheat fate and the consequences of their own terrible choices.

  The Safety Of The Mob

  The issue of fear extends into the common mindset of the totalitarian and how they find safety. The idea of standing on their own two feet and standing by their principles in the face of opposition is completely foreign to them. They avoid these situations at any cost and the notion of risk is abhorrent to them. So, they instead look for a mob to blend into. This makes them feel safe in obscurity while also wielding force through collectivist action. They can feel powerful while at the same time being pitiful and weak.

  These people almost always operate through large single minded groups that punish any dissension in the ranks, usually with gatekeepers that moderate the motivations of the hive.

  The mob itself is a weapon, its only purpose beyond the comfort of its adherents is to destroy those people that do not hold the same beliefs or values as the controllers. There is no defensive purpose to the mob; it is an assassin’s tool, it is a nuclear bomb. And, as we have seen in every modern dictatorship from the Bolsheviks in Russia to the Fascists in Germany to the communists in Mao’s China, the totalitarian mob is capable of murdering more people than any nuclear weapon in existence, all in the name of “the greater good of the greater number.”

  False Piety In Place Of Self Worth

  All tyrants believe themselves to be righteous in their cause, even when they know that their actions are morally abhorrent. I have seen this dynamic on bold display during the covid mandates and the vaccine passports initiatives. Consider for a moment that 99.7% of the population is under no legitimate threat from the covid virus; they will not die from it, and in the vast majority of cases they will recover quickly from it. Yet the covid cult consistently argues that people who refuse the mandates, the lockdowns and the vaccines are putting others at risk, which is why we need to be “forced” to submit.

  Most of them know according to the data that covid is not a threat, but the narrative gives them an opportunity to apply power through “moral judgment”, and so they lie, and they continue to lie about the data until they think the lie will be accepted as reality. This is a common aspect of most cults and of fundamentalist religions that have gone astray – The habit of adherents to value lies over facts and evidence not because they are trying to protect their faith, but because it affords them the chance to feel pious and superior to those they are determined to harm.

  Those who disagree are labeled heretics, the lowest of the low, the unwashed terrorists. The anti-mandate crowd is thus stripped of its humanity in this way and is painted as demonic. The people who want to remain free become monsters, and the totalitarian monsters become heroes out to save the world. As author Robert Anton Wilson once said:

  “The obedient always think of themselves as virtuous rather than cowardly.”

  The Love Of A Cage

  I feel as though I understand this mindset to an extent, but it never fails to shock me the way in which people who scratch and scrape for power over others also seem to love being slaves to the system. I’m not so sure that it is ironic, as authoritarianism does fulfill some of its promises of “security” as long as the people involved are willing to trade away any impulses of liberty. If you do as you’re told at all times and serve the system without fail, then there is a good chance you will be able to hold onto the meager necessities of survival. You will live a life, though probably not a happy one.

  For those that go above and beyond and cast aside all personal principle in order to further the goals of the system, they might even enjoy a modicum of wealth beyond their peers. You see, in a despotic society, the people who are most without honor are the people that are most rewarded. They don’t need merit, or accomplishment, or skills, or even brains; all they have to do it sell their souls and do whatever it takes to catch the eye of the oligarchy. They don’t have to be good at anything, all they have to do is be evil, and for some people that’s easy.

  In this way the system becomes a comfortable blanket that otherwise useless deviants can be swaddled in. They wrap themselves in it and luxuriate in its warmth. They are not concerned with freedom because freedom feels cold to them. Freedom can be isolating and the existence of choice is terrifying. When all your choices are made for you there is never any doubt or internal stress. All that is required is that you wake up each day and obey.

  For weak and ignorant people, subservience is a gift instead of a curse. They believe that a cage is meant to be gilded, not escaped from, and anyone that seeks escape must be crazy or dangerous. If free people exist then the slaves are forced to question their own condition and their own compliance, so everyone must be enslaved to remove any and all doubt from society. The hive mind is placed above all else.

  The Defiant And Free

  The little tyrants that infiltrate humanity probably look at liberty advocates as some kind of alien creatures from far beyond the bounds of their universe. They just can’t fathom how it is possible for someone to defy the system, to stand against the mob or the collective, even when they are outnumbered or when the risk is so high. They assume that it is a form of madness or a lack of intelligence; for how could anyone smart think they have a chance of fighting back against the dictatorship?

  Liberty people are individualists by nature, but we also care about the freedoms of others. There is a common propaganda narrative that claims that individualists are “selfish”, but this is not the case at all. It is not enough for us alone to escape slavery, we will not stand by and watch others be forced into bondage either. We are willing to risk our lives not just to save ourselves but to save future generations from autocracy.

  As the vaccine passports and mandates continue to escalate the totalitarians will find themselves even more bewildered, because each new mechanism of control will result in even greater impetus for rebellion, and frankly at this point it is going to be us, or them. They will not stop their pursuit of dominion and we will not comply, so we are at an impasse. Our two tribes cannot coexist within the same society, maybe not even the same planet.

  The truth is that if voluntarism was a valued ideal then this whole fight could be avoided. If the collectivist cult was willing to accept the notion that they can choose to live in a highly micromanaged environment while others can choose to live independently, then there would be no crisis. We could easily go our separate ways. But this is not how totalitarians think: To them, all people are chattel, we are property to be staked down and reeducated until we see the light. And if we don’t see the light, we are to be done away with and erased.

  This is why they are utterly to blame for the war that is coming. They cannot stop themselves from grasping for our throats and our minds. They are addicted to supremacy. They are living in a fever dream and the only drug that cools their veins is total oppression of everyone around them. I see what is coming next and it is not pretty for either side, but it will be especially gruesome for the collectivists because they cannot imagine a scenario in which they lose. They are so certain of their preeminence and the safety of their self imposed prisons that they will see failure as a phantom, a ghost that cannot touch them. It would only take a handful of minor defeats to bring them down, but this requires freedom advocates become more organized than they are.

  The bottom line is this: Tyrannical systems are planned by elitists groups and governments and it is they that benefit most from the destruction of public freedoms. It is indeed a conspiracy, and the pandemic lockdowns and forced vaccine response are no exception. However, tyrannical systems could not be executed without the help of a larger psychopathic contingent of the population, and these people congregate together to make terrible things happen. It’s as if they hear a silent dog whistle as totalitarianism rises, or they smell the blood of innocent victims in the air.

  Call them leftists, call them communists, call them collectivists, call them whatever you want; but know that the globalists are not our only concern. There is a wall of self absorbed and power hungry peons in the way, and they want whatever scraps they can get from the big boy’s table. They are not oblivious; they have not been tricked into doing the things they do. They are a sad and pathetic bunch but they are still dangerous in their ambitions, and they will continue to slither out of the woodwork as the covid agenda progresses.

  *  *  *

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  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 08/13/2021 – 00:05

• Beirut Goes Dark As Economic Tailspin Sees Dire Fuel & Electricity Shortages 
  Beirut Goes Dark As Economic Tailspin Sees Dire Fuel & Electricity Shortages 

  Starting Wednesday night Lebanon’s Central Bank announced that fuel subsidies have been halted, already at a moment where there’s been scarcity of both gas and electricity. Fuel prices are expected to at least quadruple, leading to a national scramble for fuel, exacerbating rolling blackouts akin to what’s become the tragic “norm” of recent years in neighboring war-torn Syrian.

  International reports are underscoring that the enduring economic crisis beginning in 2019 which sparked a year of mass protests and a currency crisis, and subsequent failed attempts to stave off total collapse amid a drastic “shock” change in government, are now coming to a head, sending already impoverished areas of the country of nearly seven million spiraling into steadily worsened conditions.

  Darkness falls #beirut pic.twitter.com/kpL14RfIsm

  — Quentin Sommerville (@sommervilletv) August 12, 2021

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  Regional director of humanitarian aid NGO Crisis Group, Heiko Wimmen, was cited in CNN as saying “This is obviously going to ripple through the whole economy.” He emphasized that seemingly overnight basic staples that support daily life have now become a “luxury”.

  “For a large part of the population, electricity will become a luxury. Driving your car will become a luxury, too. Transportation will become a luxury,” Wimmen added.

  The cutting of subsidies was expected, but still a “shock” nonetheless. Like everything else in Lebanon energy has been severely mismanaged, after already the government suspended lines of credit to fuel importers.

  

  So the sudden liberalization of fuel prices meant whole villages, towns, and parts of cities were plunged into darkness overnight as not even generators could keep the lights on:

  The ripple effects of the decision came before the decision itself. Petrol stations across the country shuttered. Highways became clogged by long lines that snaked out of the few petrol pumps that remained open. Many bakeries have closed. Factories, including one that supplies the majority of Lebanon’s intravenous lines to hospitals, closed. They blamed diesel exhaustion.

  Several towns and neighborhoods, already suffering from the effects of long outages from state electricity, lost access to diesel, which is needed to power backup generators, and were plunged into darkness.

  This guy on my street in Beirut is so angry about the power cut he wants to light the generator guy’s shop on fire—using a bottle of precious gasoline! which ends up spilled on the street as a fight break out. #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/ndndNz0I3a

  — Rebecca Collard (@rebeccacollard) August 11, 2021

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  Over past months there were increasing scenes of astoundingly long lines at gas stations, with fights and disputes over supplies becoming almost routine. 

  How is life in Lebanon?
  🔸️No electricity
  🔸️No generators
  🔸️No gasoline
  🔸️No Water because no electricity
  🔸️We buy water from private sellers at proces that go over the roof while the water is polluted
  🔸️no medicine because cartels are hoarding them for more profit

  — Marwa Osman || د. مروة عثمان (@Marwa__Osman) August 11, 2021

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  And it appears rolling blackouts have even hit Beirut International Airport, which is a major hub for the entire region…

  Beirut airport now.
  No fuel. No electricity.

  The country is crumbling.
  More and more every day.pic.twitter.com/EOw6iCMYoc#Lebanon

  — Sara Assaf (@SaraAssaf) August 12, 2021

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  Even food and medicines are now running scarce, as The New York Times detailed this week: “The supply of medicines has also become unreliable. At a pharmacy, a line stretched, where anxious shoppers sought medicines that are now scarce, such as pain killers & blood pressure meds.”

  By all accounts things look to get worse before they get better – and compounding all this remains US and EU sanctions on both Lebanon and Syria.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/12/2021 – 23:45

• "Defund The Police" Is A Problem; Not Prosecuting Criminals Is Worse…
  “Defund The Police” Is A Problem; Not Prosecuting Criminals Is Worse…

  Authored by Pedro Gonzalez via NationalInterest.org,

  The Democratic Party has spent months retreating from its progressive incantations about defunding the police after discovering, to their surprise, that most Americans are yet fond of their unmolested person and property. Unfortunately for Democrats, Missouri Rep. Cori Bush has ruined their egress from a messaging disaster.

  

  In an interview with CBS, Bush defended spending $70,000 on a private security detail amid her calls for eliminating the boys in blue.

  “So suck it up and defunding the police has to happen,” she huffed, “we need to defund the police and put that money into social safety nets.” In other words, protection for me but not for thee.

  Her comments occurred in the shadow of a crime wave so big that it has become impossible to ignore.

  Citing police data, the Washington Post reported 462 homicides in New York City last year, up from 319 the previous year. Phoenix counted 200 homicides last year, up from 139 in 2019. In Philadelphia, there were 499 homicides last year, up from 356 a year earlier. These trends are everywhere.

  Bush’s honesty understandably caused a stir, even within the Democratic Party, because she has handed Republicans fodder for campaign messaging. But the truth is, one need not defund the police to impair their ability to fight crime.

  In St. Louis, prosecutors in the office of Attorney Kim Gardner failed to appear at a series of pretrial hearings for accused murderer Brandon Campbell. Consequently, a judge dropped the murder charges against him.

  The St. Louis attorney has made a name for herself as a progressive activist. Gardner doggedly pursued Mark and Patricia McCloskey after they confronted left-wing agitators outside their home with firearms. After the McCloskeys successfully argued Gardner’s personal politics had infected the proceedings, she was removed from the case. The local NBC news affiliate reported she had used the case in campaign fundraising emails before and after the charges were issued.

  Gardner’s office missed multiple hearings related to the Campbell case; Gardner herself failed to respond to an email from the accused murderer’s attorney.

  “Kim Gardner is a poor excuse for a prosecutor,” said Brandy Veasley, one of the victim’s sisters.

  “It’s not fair.”

  It’s not fair, but Gardner is, in fact, playing her part in the politicized legal regime.

  For now, police are still allowed, though certainly discouraged, from policing violent crime, especially when the suspect is a minority.

  But increasingly, the people they pick off the streets travel through a revolving door tended to by so-called “reform” bureaucrats like Kim Gardner. 

  The Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund is one of the only organizations keeping track of prosecutorial malpractice. They found a 20 percent increase in dropped or lost felony cases nationwide and a 19 percent decline in guilty verdicts or pleas. Wherever prosecutions have declined, crime has climbed—and it’s not just blue states.

  In Dallas, Texas, guilty verdicts or pleas have fallen by 30 percent, while dropped or lost cases have increased 18 percent under Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot.

  As if to antagonize critics, Creuzot has openly bragged that his campaign was largely funded “through [George] Soros. And I got money through the Texas Organizing project.” Under his reign, everything from assault to auto theft has steadily risen. According to police data, there were twelve homicides and 469 aggravated assaults in March, both increasing over the previous year.

  Chants of “F— the [Fraternal Order of Police]” accompanied Larry Krasner’s victory party when he won the primary to be Philadelphia District Attorney in 2017. Like Creuzot, Krasner applies a gentle hand on violent criminals, even promoting the appeal of convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jama. Since Krasner took office, guilty pleas or verdicts are down, lost or dropped cases are up, and aggravated assaults by shootings have risen 18 percent.

  In New York, hundreds of looters arrested last year during the George Floyd riots have had charges against them dropped by a friendly legal system. Police risked life and limb to take back the streets then; looters even ran over some officers. But all seems to be forgiven now.

  Police across America find themselves between a rock and a hard place. Doing their job risks vilification, but often what good they can do is undercut by a legal system with a pathological affection for the criminal. Moreover, in major cities, police chiefs can become virtually indistinguishable from bureaucrats who are more concerned with political patronage than the safety of their officers or the community they are supposed to serve.

  Democrats, in truth, are torn on the issue of defunding the police. On the one hand, they don’t necessarily want to eliminate law enforcement so much as they want to change its priorities, policing the law-abiding instead of the law-breaking. On the other hand, Bush’s comments illustrate that security increasingly appears to be a luxury for those who can afford it and those whose politics align with the zeitgeist of depravity.

  In either case, the breakdown of the central social and ethical standards in society which law enforcement is intended to help maintain will continue, and when the center cannot hold, nothing good follows.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/12/2021 – 23:25

• Cargo Ship Splits In Half After Running Aground Off Japanese Port
  Cargo Ship Splits In Half After Running Aground Off Japanese Port

  Wood chip carrier Crimson Polaris ran aground in the northern Japan harbor, broke into two, and remains adrift Thursday. The main section of the dry bulk carrier, carrying thousands of tons of wood chips, remains anchored. 

  “The hull of the vessel, a dedicated wood-chip carrier operated by NYK, split in two at 4:15 am on August 12, and oil from the vessel has spilled into the ocean. The amount is currently under investigation,” NYK wrote in a statement. 

  NYK, the ship’s operator, confirmed the vessel was “swept away by a strong wind while anchored and resultantly ran aground.”

  NYK statement:

  Crimson Polaris, a dedicated wood-chip carrier operated by NYK, was swept away by a strong wind while anchored and resultantly ran aground off Hachinohe in Aomori prefecture at around 7:35 am (JST) on August 11.

  Afterward, a portion of the ship’s wood-chip cargo was lost from the damaged part of the hull, NYK is currently confirming the amount of cargo and the impact on the sea area at the site. Fortunately, no oil pollution has occurred. All crew members have been evacuated from the ship with the cooperation of the Japan Coast Guard, and those seafarers have been confirmed to be safe.

  The vessel is owned by MI-DAS Line S.A. and managed by Misuga Kaiun Co. Ltd. NYK is currently chartering this ship from the shipowner.

  NYK has organized a crisis management center lead by NYK president Hitoshi Nagasawa to rapidly address the situation. The company is cooperating with related parties based on advice from the Japan Coast Guard. Company personnel have been sent to the site, and necessary support will be provided to the shipowner and ship-management company. We hope the situation will be bought to a safe and timely conclusion.

  Bloomberg data shows the vessel remains adrift. 

  

  Video of the ship split in two shows a possible oil leak has developed. 

  Ship sailing under #Panama flag runs aground in northern #Japan, splits in two.#CrimsonPolaris

  More Details: https://t.co/lfOVajkIcp pic.twitter.com/X4p3VzXxuM

  — Alghadeer English (@alghadeertv_eng) August 12, 2021

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  More images of the incident. 

  

  

  

  In a separate incident not too long ago, a roll-on/roll-off vessel sank off the coast of Japan due to weather-related issues. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/12/2021 – 23:05

• Blinken's Diversity & Inclusion Plan Erodes Equality & Excellence
  Blinken’s Diversity & Inclusion Plan Erodes Equality & Excellence

  Authored by Peter Berkowitz via RealClear Politics (emphasis ours),

  On April 12, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the appointment of Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, a career Foreign Service Officer and former ambassador to Malta, as the State Department’s first chief diversity and inclusion officer (CDIO). On July 21, Blinken sent an unclassified cable to U.S. diplomatic and consular posts around the world to introduce Abercrombie-Winstanley — who, in her new position, reports directly to the secretary of state — and to tout the new Office for Diversity and Inclusion.

  

  A State Department that welcomes, and offers opportunities for advancement, to all Americans is a priority. Yet the lofty rhetoric of diversity and inclusion has often provided a cover for imposing ideological conformity and distributing benefits and burdens based on race. Therefore, Blinken’s new undertaking gives cause for concern. His near silence in the two official pronouncements about the personal qualities, educational attainments, professional achievements, and areas of expertise that the State Department values in building a workforce that responsibly conducts American foreign policy heightens apprehensions.

  To advance U.S. interests abroad, the State Department must live up to America’s highest principles by ensuring that service in the nation’s diplomatic corps is open to all citizens based on skills, talents, and character. Individuals with diverse experiences, opinions, and training enrich understanding within the department of the vast array of jobs, opportunities, and threats that the United States faces abroad. These range from efficient processing of visa requests and effective operation within international organizations to protect health and the environment to cooperating with friends and partners to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s aim in every region of the globe to reorient world order around Beijing’s authoritarian imperatives.

  But the soothing words “diversity and inclusion” mask a different agenda. Blinken seems to believe that turning race, ethnicity, and gender into crucial determinants of career advancement honors America’s highest principles and will enhance the State Department’s work.

  His April 12 remarks stress the comprehensiveness of the new undertaking, saying that “our Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan” aims at “aligning and advancing diversity and inclusion efforts across the department.” His July 21 cable emphasizes that the Office of Diversity and Inclusion has been structured, and provided with ample resources, to accomplish its ambitious task. An “11-person full-time staff” — including a “Deputy Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Chief of Staff, Chief Data Scientist, two Senior Advisors, two Strategic Communications Advisors, two Special Assistants, and two Staff Assistants” — reports to the chief diversity and inclusion officer. Supplementing the “core team” are “Foreign Service and Civil Service detailees, Presidential Management Fellow rotations, contractors, and interns.”

  The State Department must mobilize personnel and take decisive action because the problem is “systemic,” Blinken explained in April. “It goes much deeper than any one institution or any one administration — and it’s perpetuated by policies, practices, and people to this day.” Notwithstanding Blinken’s blanket claim, even the government report that examines under-representation of minorities in higher levels of the State Department bureaucracy offers the remarkable acknowledgement that “some unobservable factors that our analyses may not have captured include employees’ skills, motivation, performance, or abilities.” In neither his April remarks nor his July cable, moreover, does Blinken identify a single policy, practice, or person that perpetuates systemic racism in the State Department — where he served as deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 and which for 16 of the last 21 years has been led either by an African American secretary of state or has been accountable to an African American president.

  Nevertheless, Blinken insists that so pervasive and deep-seated is systemic discrimination at the State Department that “Promoting diversity and inclusion is the job of every single member of this department.” By asserting that advancing diversity and inclusion is “mission critical,” Blinken implies that systemic discrimination impairs the formulation and implementation of State Department policy. It would be useful, therefore, to know what role Blinken believes systemic discrimination played in the devising of an Iran deal that brought the ayatollahs billions of dollars and which supported their violent pursuit of hegemony throughout the region, in the failure to prevent North Korea’s acceleration of its nuclear program, and in the neglect of China’s increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea and around the world — all of which transpired while he served as deputy secretary of state.

  All department employees should treat colleagues courteously and respectfully and judge one another based on character and competence. It is something else to demand that every member of the State Department workforce promote select minorities and women. This conscripts employees into an experiment in social engineering that, according to Blinken, aims to “change the culture” at the State Department including “our norms, our behaviors, and our biases.”

  Blinken has put State Department employees on notice that whatever your task — from monitoring Islamic extremists to negotiating arms treaties to understanding China’s domestic tensions and global ambitions — you will be evaluated on your contribution to hiring, retaining, and promoting designated categories of people.

  Here a lesson from abroad is instructive. Highlighting differences among individuals ostensibly engaged in a joint enterprise by allocating power based on membership in identity groups has not fostered a devotion to common purpose in Lebanon, the Balkans, or almost anywhere else it has been tried. There is little to reason to expect that it will foster a sense of shared mission among the State Department’s tens of thousands of employees.

  Nor is there is good reason to hope that the Office of Diversity and Inclusion will, as Secretary Blinken promises, improve the State Department’s ability “to pursue U.S. national security interests in a world that grows ever more complex.” By institutionalizing within Foggy Bottom’s labyrinthine bureaucracy the imperative to focus on skin color, ethnic background, and gender in decisions about hiring, retention, and promotion, Blinken demotes questions of skill, talent, and character. Indeed, by reproducing within the State Department the education establishment’s obsession with identity politics, Blinken runs the risk of diverting the State Department from its principal tasks, as our schools have been sidetracked from transmitting knowledge and cultivating students’ ability to think for themselves.

  This is a reasonable inference from Joel Kotkin’s disquieting recent essay, “The End of Merit.” A fellow at the Claremont Institute Center for the American Way of Life and a fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University, Kotkin argues that schools’ concentration on systemic racism “both reflects and contributes to the ‘systemic’ decline of education itself.” The decline is measurable and costly: “Over time, our educational deficit with other countries, notably China, particularly in the acquisition of practical skills in mathematics, engineering, medical technology, and management, has grown, threatening our economic and political pre-eminence,” writes Kotkin. “In math, the OECD’s 2018 Program for International Student Assessment found the United States was outperformed by 36 countries, not only by China, but also Russia, Italy, France, Finland, Poland, and Canada.”

  The decline of our ability to compete will accelerate, suggests Kotkin, because the fixation on systemic racism in schools does not merely displace attention that would otherwise be focused on the acquisition of skills. It also vilifies the disciplined pursuit of excellence as itself an instrument of systemic racism. Educators imbued with the tenets of critical race theory assert, for example, “that ‘merit, meritocracy and especially meritocracy based on standardized testing’ are essentially ‘racist systems,’” observes Kotkin. “Some among the new racial cadres even denounce habits such as punctuality, rationality, and hard work as reflective of ‘racism’ and ‘white privilege.’”

  Secretary Blinken is far from endorsing such folly. Yet where are his initiatives to promote integrity and excellence in the workforce? What undertakings has he showcased to enhance diplomats’ understanding of our partners as well as our competitors by, say, creating incentives to increase the number of officials who attain fluency in critical foreign languages? When will he boast of new programs to recruit to the State Department, and train within its ranks, individuals whose knowledge of science and technology enables them to comprehend the intricacies of, and devise policies to address, the commercial, conventional military, and cybersecurity threats posed by China’s quest for dominance in artificial intelligence? 

  Instead of dividing its workforce by race, ethnicity, and gender, the State Department should treat all employees with equal respect, which is also the best means of fostering a common sense of purpose and attaining excellence throughout the ranks.

  Peter Berkowitz is the Tad and Dianne Taube senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. In 2019 and 2020, he served as Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department. His writings are posted at PeterBerkowitz.com and he can be followed on Twitter @BerkowitzPeter.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/12/2021 – 22:45

• Shippers Frantic After China's Busiest Port Shuts Container Terminal Due To Covid
  Shippers Frantic After China’s Busiest Port Shuts Container Terminal Due To Covid

  We recently discussed how already astronomical container shipping costs are set to rise even higher should China lock down one or more shipping terminals to contain the spread of the delta variant in provinces that have direct exposure to global commerce (“Shipping Rates From China To US Hit Record $20,000 With No Drop In Sight” and “Brace For Astronomical Shipping Costs As China Goes Into Lockdown Mode“) with Goldman Sachs explicitly warning that “port closures or stricter control measures at ports could also put further upward pressure on shipping costs, which are already very high.”

  

  It now looks that this worst case scenario is in play after Chinese authorities on Wednesday closed a major container terminal at the Port of Ningbo after a dock worker tested positive for COVID, raising fears among traders that supply chain disruptions that occurred when Yantian terminal in Shenzhen reduced output by 70% for a month earlier this summer would be repeated. 

  According to FreightWaves which cited local media reports and logistics operators, all operations at the Ningbo Meidong Container Terminal, also referred to as the Meishan Terminal, were immediately suspended following the positive test results.

  “With this sudden suspension, we expect a delay in planned sailings that might affect your cargo planning. Please know that we are working on alternatives, and hope for your understanding on a matter that is beyond our control,” German vessel operator Hapag-Lloyd said in a customer notice posted on its website, anticipating the howls of rage as already stratospheric shipping rates are poised to surge.

  There are five container terminals in Ningbo. The port’s decision to shut down vessel and gate operations for at least a day effectively eliminated 20% of the port’s capacity.

  Ningbo is the third-largest container port in the world after Shanghai and Singapore, but the most . It handled more freight in the first seven months of this year – 18.7 million twenty-foot equivalent units – than any other port in China, the Ministry of Transportation said last week. 

  

  The consequences of the shutdown are already apparent: on Thursday, Mediterranean Shipping Co. pushed back estimated arrival times for two vessels departing Ningbo to the U.S. The MSC Danit, on the Sequoi service, is now scheduled to arrive on the U.S. west coast on Sept. 15, and the Maersk Seville, on the Lone Star service and part of the 2M Alliance, will arrive at its first east coast port on Oct. 2, according to an updated schedule issued Thursday.

  With vessels rerouted to Shanghai, ports in the area are experiencing a fresh burst of congestion, with about 30 vessels waiting on anchor at the Yangshan port. The chart below from Refinitiv shows vessel congestion in Shanghai & Ningbo’s main ports.

  

  If the outbreak spreads and authorities take further steps to lock down, the impact potentially could be greater than what happened at Yantian in late May and June according to FreightWaves. The limited activity in Yantian forced vessels to wait more than a week to reach a berth and created ripple effects worldwide. Many vessels skipped Yantian for other ports in south China, creating massive congestion in those locations. Backlogged shipments took weeks to clear from the docks and are still being pulled from warehouses and factories, upsetting delivery schedules for retailers and manufacturers.

  “If something goes sideways in Ningbo, it’s going to be a real problem. At least as big, potentially, as what happened in Yantian,” a sea freight executive at a large logistics company said during a customer briefing American Shipper was privy to.

  The freight forwarding division of C.H. Robinson told customers in an email notice to expect port delays and congestion.

  Any lengthy closure could result in cargo diversion to other terminals and ports, putting a strain on their operations and exacerbating capacity challenges that have led to record shipping rates 10 times greater than normal for certain routes.

  As Michael Every concluded in his daily note this morning, Delta is leading to further disruption to shipping at China’s busiest ports, and even Vietnamese and Thai production are being impacted by the virus. In short, shipping snarls are going to get worse. Anecdotes are of shippers telling clients they will not deliver except at a premium; of smaller firms, and countries, being pushed down the priority list; of ships refusing to pick up goods exports from some locations; and of a structural supply-demand mismatch of sought-after shipping containers.

  It is against this backdrop that another supply-chain snafu is emerging, and unless contained quick, could lead to a dramatic deterioration in global shipping logistics just as optimism was emerging that the historic logjam was set to normalize by early 2022.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/12/2021 – 22:25

• Biden Sending Troops To Afghanistan To Help Evacuate US Embassy Staff
  Biden Sending Troops To Afghanistan To Help Evacuate US Embassy Staff

  Submitted by Jack Phillips of Epoch Times

  

  American troops will be deployed to aid the evacuation of some U.S. Embassy personnel in Kabul amid significant Taliban military gains across Afghanistan, a senior U.S. Department of State official confirmed on Thursday.

  Around 3,000 US troops, including two Marine infantry battalions and one Army infantry battalion, will be deployed to the Kabul airport to secure the civilian population, said Department of Defense spokesman John Kirby in a news conference. Diplomatic work will still continue at the embassy, said State Department spokesman Ned Price during a separate press briefing.

  “This is a temporary mission with a narrow focus,” Kirby said. “We’re mindful that the security situation continues to deteriorate in Afghanistan. And as I said before, our troops will as always have the right of self-defense. But this is a narrowly focused mission to help safeguard an orderly reduction of civilians.”

  The United States, Price said, is “further reducing our civilian footprint in Kabul in light of the evolving security situation” and said the Department of Defense will “temporarily deploy additional personnel to Hamid Karzai International Airport.”

  Price said the U.S. military will also help with the departure of embassy and State Department staff from Afghanistan “in the coming weeks,” but he emphasized: “This is not a full evacuation.”

  “This is not abandonment. This is not an evacuation. This is not the wholesale withdrawal,” Price also said. ‘It’s a very important distinction between planning and contingency planning,” he said, without providing more details. “We will continue to have a diplomatic presence on the ground.”

  However, the move suggests the Biden administration doesn’t have confidence in the Afghan government’s capacity to push back the Taliban after the terror group took over swaths of the country, including the third-largest city, in recent days. It comes a few months after President Joe Biden ordered a full withdrawal.

  The Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001, has no air force or navy and is vastly outnumbered by U.S.-trained Afghan army forces but was able to take provincial capital after provincial capital with alacrity. Anonymous U.S. officials have told media outlets that the Afghan government army has collapsed even faster than previously thought possible.

  The U.S. embassy in Kabul, in a fresh warning to American citizens, urged them to leave Afghanistan immediately. Its ability to assist Americans in the country will soon be “extremely limited,” according to the bulletin, due to reduced staffing and security concerns.

  President Joe Biden initially set Sept. 11 as the target date for all American forces to be pulled out of the beleaguered country, coming 20 years after the terrorist attacks that propelled the United States into the war.

  “We spent over $1 trillion over 20 years. We trained and equipped with modern equipment over 300,000 Afghan forces. And Afghan leaders have to come together. We lost thousands, we lost to death and injury, thousands of American personnel. They’ve got to fight for themselves, fight for their nation,” Biden said in recent remarks.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/12/2021 – 22:08

• Another Industrial Metal Hits Record High Prices: Aluminum Billet
  Another Industrial Metal Hits Record High Prices: Aluminum Billet

  Commodities, including industrial metals, have exploded to the upside due to an unprecedented amount of pandemic-driven government stimulus. The latest metal to hit news highs is a specialized aluminum known as billet. 

  The aluminum billet is used in several applications such as automotive, transport, buildings, heat transfer, general engineering, electronics, and aviation.

  

  With central banks and governments flooding the world with stimuli, supercharging the global economy, along with tight supplies due to supply chain disruptions, prices of aluminum billet have leaped to all-time highs, according to Bloomberg data. 

  Aluminum spot prices are up more than 30% on the London Metal Exchange this year. Buyers are paying an even higher premium over futures to obtain aluminum billets. Bloomberg shows in the chart below that combined price and premium for buyers in Europe now exceeds $3,750 a ton, the highest ever, taking out the highs in 2007-08. 

  

  Bloomberg explains several factors for the surge in the industrial metal:

  Aluminum’s rally has been driven by a rebound in construction as economies open, and supply issues including power shortages that dented Chinese output. For the coming years, analysts and traders expect further gains as usage in electric vehicles and renewables accelerates and China cracks down on energy-intensive industries. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. forecasts futures prices to hit a record by late next year.

  In a recent webinar organized by Commodities People, Andrew Busch, an economist with the Bank of the Philippine Islands, said a “massive wall of money and momentum in the US economy is driving demand for commodities.” 

  Below we show how the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet expansion has been bullish for the Bloomberg Industrial Metals index.

  

  The question we have: What happens to industrial metal prices if Democrats and the Biden administration can push through a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure spending bill? 

  Indeed this would exacerbate inflationary forces and force commodity prices even higher. 

  Here’s what the ING Commodities desk had to say about this:

  The metals complex regained some buoyancy on Wednesday after the US Senate passed a US$550 billion infrastructure plan, sparking some optimism for US metals demand. However, the bill may face further hurdles in the House, which is scheduled to be on a break until 20 September. Meanwhile, a slightly weaker dollar after US inflation data provided further support to metals. Copper was the exception, with LME prices closing lower yesterday due to a reduced risk premium after mining company, BHP, reached a preliminary wage agreement with the union representing miners at its Escondida mine. The agreement will be put to a vote and must be signed by union leaders by Thursday. In addition, the Caserones copper mine in Chile continues to operate despite a strike by one of its biggest unions which began on Tuesday, as members of other unions continue to work. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/12/2021 – 21:45

• California Governor Newsom Faces Imminent Recall And A Libertarian Might Win
  California Governor Newsom Faces Imminent Recall And A Libertarian Might Win

  Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

  Larry Elder, a Libertarian, might be the next governor of California…

  

  Recall of Governor Gavin Newsom 

  A recall vote of California Governor Gavin Newsom is in progress. It started over Newsom’s handing of Covid and most figured it was doomed.

  But in April 2021, the secretary of state certified that the effort had enough signatures to trigger a vote.

  The vote is on September 14. The vote has two parts: 

  Part one is a yes-or-no question: Shall the officeholder be recalled? Part two offers a list of successor candidates—46 have qualified in this recall. Each voter chooses one of them, and if the recall is successful, whichever candidate earns a plurality fills out the term.

  Larry Elder did not enter the race until July 12, but suddenly he is either leading or in second place depending on what poll one believes.

  Who Is Larry Elder?

  The Sacramento Bee reports Right-Wing Talk Show Host is Leading the California Recall Election Polls.

  From minimum wage to Black Lives Matter, Donald Trump to the War on Drugs, Elder has taken a number of far-right conservative positions over the years. 

  The article reads like a hit piece on Trump. He is actually a Libertarian, not right-wing.

  Actually, I’m a libertarian. So you’re good.

  — Larry Elder (@larryelder) July 7, 2018

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

  Elder Does Not Believe in Minimum Wages

  Similarly, the Washington Post goes after Elder in Meet the leading candidate to unseat California’s governor — who doesn’t believe in the minimum wage

  Radio host Larry Elder, the leading opponent to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), has long embraced the position that the minimum wage is unnecessary. The conservative even told a newspaper editorial board last week that “the ideal minimum wage is $0.00,” adding, “Why two people who are adults can’t determine what the price of labor ought to be is beyond me.”

  Most polls — though not all — show that if Newsom goes down, Elder will get a plurality of the voters, despite the fact that Elder announced his run only last month. (One poll shows voters favoring little-known Democrat Kevin Paffrath, a YouTube vlogger.)

  Elder has zero elected government experience. He’s an ardent Trump supporter in a state where even many Republicans find the former president abhorrent. He didn’t even bother to show up to Wednesday night’s Republican candidates’ debate.

  It seems unfathomable that Californians actually support what amounts to Elder’s fringe, right-wing position on worker pay. Despite the fact that the federal government has left the federal minimum wage at a paltry $7.25 an hour for more than a decade, California has moved aggressively to raise the lowest hourly earnings for its workers.

  Could a Conservative Replace Gavin Newsom?

  The Wall Street Journal gets the idea correctly: 

  “A quixotic effort to recall California’s governor is suddenly gaining steam. And libertarian radio host Larry Elder is the front-runner,” reports the WSJ.

  Please consider Could a Conservative Replace Gavin Newsom?

  He describes himself as libertarian—which means liberal on cultural issues like same-sex marriage. His dad instilled an ethos of self-reliance and personal responsibility. “My father always told us, hard work wins,” he says. “You can’t control the outcome, but you’re 100% in control of the effort.” 

  Mr. Elder ticks off numbers like a sportscaster. “There are 300,000 public-school teachers in California. It is estimated by virtually every expert I talk to that a minimum of 5% of them are incompetent. That’s 15,000 teachers walking through the corridors of our schools, educating our kids. Now, we wouldn’t put up with that with the LAPD”—the Los Angeles Police Department.

  “There was recently a study that showed two-thirds of black parents do not want to send their kids back to the Los Angeles School District, and one of the reasons they cite is ‘systemic racism,’ ” he says. “What they mean is this: the worst teachers end up in the urban schools. They don’t end up on the West Side, they don’t end up in the Valley; the worst teachers end up in the urban schools. And black and brown parents are aware of this, and they want something done about it.”

  Mr. Elder supports an initiative that the California School Choice Foundation may place on the November 2022 ballot to establish education savings accounts, allowing parents to use taxpayer dollars that would normally go to zoned public schools for private-school tuition, homeschooling and other education-related expenses.

  “You can now steal up to $950 without being guilty of a felony if you get caught. If you get caught, you get a ticket as a misdemeanor,” Mr. Elder says. That feeds addiction, as many shoplifters support their drug habits by selling stolen goods. “And by the way, it’s not just $950—it’s $950 every single day, at every single place, which is why you’re finding places like Walmart, Target that are closing up—because they can’t make any money, because people are stealing. Or they’re cutting hours and hurting the very employees that used to work there.”

  The Democratic secretary of state moved to keep Mr. Elder off the ballot because he didn’t properly redact personal information on 300 pages of personal tax returns he submitted. Mr. Elder sued and won his ballot spot.

  Face-ism

  “People have asked me whether or not this is some sort of attack against Larry Elder, whether or not it was racism. Well, the secretary of state happens to be a black female, and I’ve always said it’s not racism that they were engaging it, it’s ‘face-ism,’ meaning this particular face,” he says. “I’m from the inner city. I’m a product of public schools. . . . I believe that they’re afraid of my ability to explain these kinds of things in ways that Joe and Joanne Six Pack can understand, and in ways more effectively than Republicans have in the past.” 

  Is the Golden State ready for a political turn? “I hope it’s becoming more conservative, but I can’t say that,” Mr. Elder says. “All I know is people are fed up.”

  California Democratic Party instructs voters to leave ballot question 2 blank

  In many parts of California, ballots are already on their way for the recall election.

  Remember: Vote NO on the first question, and leave the second question blank.

  It’s up to all of us to #StopTheRepublicanRecall and stand with Governor Gavin Newsom. pic.twitter.com/z6w9imUm3I

  — California Democratic Party (@CA_Dem) August 10, 2021

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

  People Are Fed Up

  The key idea is “people are fed up”. 

  If they weren’t a Newsom recall would have zero chance in Democrat-led California.

  Of the 46 candidates to replace Newsom, only one is a Democrat. 

  If that was the only fact I had, I would place Elder’s chances at roughly zero percent.

  But here we are. 

  Expect the unions to launch an all out push for the Governor. 

  This will be decided on Turnout. If Democrats sit this out, and people of common sense do turn out, Elders has a good shot. 

  I am astonished by the Party’s recommendation to leave question 2 blank. 

  I believe that is bad instruction by Newsom and hope Democrats follow it.

  It would also help if some of Republicans dropped out and backed Elders.

  Good luck and best wishes to Elders.

  *  *  *

  Like these reports? I hope so, and if you do, please Subscribe to MishTalk Email Alerts.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/12/2021 – 21:25

• Plunging Crop Supplies Send Prices Soaring And Reignite Food Inflation Fears, WASDE Reports
  Plunging Crop Supplies Send Prices Soaring And Reignite Food Inflation Fears, WASDE Reports

  The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report was released Thursday afternoon and pointed to declining grain supplies that sent grain futures prices higher and will keep food inflation in focus. 

  The closely watched supply and demand report slashed estimates for corn yields and stockpiles. World inventories for wheat were reported near a five-year low. 

  Grain and oilseed futures soared to a near-decade high earlier this year but have been in a holding pattern for the last month, awaiting new reports on the outlook for upcoming U.S. harvests. A megadrought and back-to-back heat waves have plagued the corn belt and the U.S. West for much of the summer. 

  December corn futures were up more than 2% to $5.7150 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, soybean futures popped on the report and are now flat at the end of the U.S. cash session, wheat futures rose more than 3%, hitting a fresh eight-year high.

  

  The Bloomberg Grains Index closed up 1% on the report. 

  

  Bloomberg outlines the key takeaways from the August WASDE report: 

  • DROUGHT BITES: U.S. corn and soybean yields fell below analyst expectations and the declines were largely centered in the drought-stricken northern Plains, where severe drought has withered crops.

  • RUSSIA: So goes Russia’s harvest, so goes the wheat market. A large cut in the harvest means a lot less global wheat supplies and Russia’s wheat-export throne as the world’s top shipper is in doubt with the current forecast in line with exports out of the E.U.

  • WHEAT PEAK: Benchmark Chicago wheat prices hit the highest levels for a most-active contract since 2013. Corn and soybeans each touched multi-week highs but remain below multi-year peaks from earlier in 2021.

  • YOUR MOVE, FUNDS: With the USDA seeming to appease bullish traders with aggressive cuts and dry weather continuing to grip the Plains, an influx of speculative buying could bring the rally in grains, nearly a year-old at this point, to new heights.

  • FOOD INFLATION: Of course, with grain and soybean prices elevated for months, the higher costs should start to filter through the supply chain, pointing to higher prices for feed, seed, fertilizer, food and other goods.

  This report means that adverse weather conditions are another driver of food inflation that shows no signs of stopping. We noted not too long ago, grocery store prices were expected to rise through the fall. Earlier this week, Tyson Foods Inc. said the surge in raw materials costs would force them to raise food prices in the coming weeks.  

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/12/2021 – 21:05

• Tearful Virginia Teacher Resigns At School Board Meeting, Denounces "Highly Politicized Agendas"
  Tearful Virginia Teacher Resigns At School Board Meeting, Denounces “Highly Politicized Agendas”

  Authored by Masooma Haq via The Epoch Times,

  A Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) teacher in Virginia resigned in front of the school board Tuesday, saying that she refused to “be a cog in a machine” that forces her to transmit their “highly politicized agendas” to children.

  “Within the last year, I was told, in one of my so-called equity trainings, that white, Christian, able-bodied females currently have the power in our schools and that ‘this has to change,’” said the elementary school teacher Laura Morris during the public comment portion of the board meeting.

  

  Loudoun County, Virginia, has become a national focal point for the debate about teaching the divisive critical race theory in schools.

  “Clearly, you’ve made your point. You no longer value me or many other teachers you’ve employed in this county. So, since my contract outlines the power that you have over my employment in Loudoun County Public Schools, I thought it necessary to resign in front of you,” said the 5th-grade teacher.

  “School board, I quit,” she said.

  “I quit your policies, I quit your training, and I quit being a cog in a machine that tells me to push highly politicized agendas on our most vulnerable constituents—the children,” Morris added.

  In June, Loudoun County schools’ superintendent told Fox News, “Critical race theory is not something that is relatable on the K–12 level. It’s not taught in our school.”

  Monica Gill, an LCPS AP Government and U.S. History teacher of 25 years, said the district may say they don’t use critical race theory, but Ibram Kendi’s books are required reading for some of the county’s teachers. Gill said the board needs to embrace Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of unity and love, not Kendi’s message of division and discrimination.

  Kendi is an author, professor, and anti-racism activist whose work informs critical race theory and who has called for dismantling racist systems in America.

  “I have never been afraid to deal with issues of racism or injustice in our history, not once. It gives me the opportunity to point to America’s moral compass, which we have used time and time again to right those wrongs,” said Gill.

  “So, it is not that teachers like myself—and there are more of us than you think—or the parents who stand behind me don’t want to teach about racism. It’s that we don’t want our kids taught through this distorted lens of race.”

  LCPS’ Superintendent Scott A. Ziegler on March 19 issued a statement to defend his district against claims that they were using the debated critical race theory curriculum and “to clarify many of the misperceptions being reported by certain media outlets and social media.”

  “In explaining LCPS’ equity priorities, it might be helpful to state what they are not. They are not an effort to indoctrinate students and staff into a particular philosophy or theory. What they are is an effort to provide a welcoming, inclusive, affirming environment for all students,” he wrote.

  Morris also alleged that the county told her not to express opposing views.

  “Concepts such as white supremacy and systemic racism are discussed during professional development. LCPS has not adopted Critical Race Theory as a framework for staff to adhere to. Social media rumors that staff members have been disciplined or fired for not adhering to the tenets of Critical Race Theory or for refusing to teach this theory are not true,” Ziegler wrote.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/12/2021 – 20:45

• Newsom Handed Win After California California Supreme Court Won't Hear GOP Case Against Vote-By-Mail 'Overreach'
  Newsom Handed Win After California California Supreme Court Won’t Hear GOP Case Against Vote-By-Mail ‘Overreach’

  The California Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to hear an appeal arguing that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) acted illegally when he issued an executive order laying out procedures for a mail-in election, according to the Sacramento Bee.

  

  The California Supreme Court denied the petition for review submitted by Assemblymen James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, and Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, which allows a lower-court ruling affirming Newsom’s powers to stand.

  Gallagher and Kiley sued the governor last year, saying the Democrat acted illegally when he issued an executive order laying out procedures for a mail-in election. The lawmakers, who represented themselves in court, said Newsom had unconstitutionally used executive action under the California Emergency Services Act when he changed how the state would conduct elections that year. -Sacramento Bee

  The appeal comes after the 3rd District Court of Appeals reversed a decision by a Sutter County Superior Court Judge, who sided with the GOP lawmakers last fall. The appeals court found in may that Newsom’s order complied with the state’s Emergency Services Act, giving him expanded powers in extreme circumstances. 

  “We conclude the issuance of such orders did not constitute an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power,” wrote the appeals court.

  Gallagher tweeted his disappointment on Wednesday:

  “I want everyone to understand what the CA Supreme Court passed on:  Newsom changing your election laws overnight to 1) shorten the number of days you can vote; 2) eliminate traditional polling places; 3) eliminate the need for publicly noticed meetings with voting rights groups,” adding “We argued only the Legislature can amend law, can’t do that by EO it’s blatantly unconstitutional.”

  We argued only the Legislature can amend law, can’t do that by EO it’s blatantly unconstitutional; Sutter Superior Court judge agreed with us; the 3rd District Ct of Appeal said during an emergency a Gov can change any law on any subject, Leg can end emergency if they don’t like

  — James Gallagher (@J_GallagherAD3) August 12, 2021

  Newsom staffer Erin Mellon said the administration was pleased with the court’s decision not to hear a “misguided attack on California’s Emergency Services Act” which allows the state to rapidly respond to emergencies.

  “It’s a law that carefully balances the Legislature’s and Governor’s roles, and we’re glad the state Supreme Court recognized there was no need to entertain fringe legal theories that sought to upset that balance,” said Mellon.

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  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/12/2021 – 20:25

• Here We Go Again… WHO Announces The "Marburg Virus"
  Here We Go Again… WHO Announces The “Marburg Virus”

  Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

  If you’ve been wondering what the next phase of this public health insanity is going to look like, your wait is over.

  

  Introducing… the MARBURG VIRUS.

  Earlier this week, as police fanned out across the streets of Paris going table-to-table in cafes to check people’s Covid papers, and as the Australian military deployed to the streets of Sydney to enforce extended lockdowns, the World Health Organization announced a brand new outbreak of the “Marburg Virus” in West Africa.

  Marburg is yet another highly infectious virus, and one that the WHO has classified as the highest level biological threat– “Risk Group 4”.

  (By comparison, SARS-Cov-2 is a lower, “Risk Group 3” biological agent.)

  Marburg comes from the same virus family as Ebola. And, while Covid-1984 has a roughly 1.7% fatality rate according to CDC data, the limited data from the past 20 years of Marburg cases shows a fatality rate of 85%.

  One person died from the Marburg virus in Guinea last week, and authorities there estimate that 145 people may have been in contact with him and potentially exposed to the virus.

  Here we go again…

  Public health policy is starting to look like a never-ending Mobius Strip– where we just go around an endless loop repeating the same things over and over again.

  Judging by harsh lockdowns, mask mandates, and police enforcement around the world due to the Delta variant, it looks like it’s April 2020 all over again.

  Even places that had some of the most extreme public health protocols, like Australia, have found themselves completely hapless in trying to combat Covid.

  Surprise, surprise. It turns out that you can’t wait out a virus. You can’t legislate it away. You can’t make it go away with endless money printing and fiscal stimulus.

  Human beings have had to content with influenza for at least eight thousand years. No public health official has ever been able to eradicate it.

  In fact the only virus that has ever been officially eradicated (according to the World Health Organization) among the human population is smallpox. But even that’s not actually true because smallpox is still used by terrorists and dictators as a biological weapon.

  But that hasn’t stopped public health officials from waging an endless crusade to play whack-a-mole with Covid.

  They have seized unconstitutional, dictatorial powers to control nearly every aspect of our lives. Stay home. Wear three masks. Shun human contact. No sex. Take this injection. Face the wall in elevators. Avoid speaking. Don’t ask questions. Obey.

  It’s also completely obvious these public health overlords lack any objectivity.

  There is almost zero discussion about natural immunity for people who already had Covid. Similarly, there’s very little attention given to the extensive research about treatment options for Covid.

  There are mountains of data, for example, across dozens of randomized control trials and peer-reviewed studies involving tens of thousands of patients, demonstrating that the drug Ivermectin is associated with a profoundly superior outcome for Covid-19 patients.

  This isn’t some wild conspiracy theory. Here’s one study, for example, on the US government’s National Institutes of Health website.

  But that’s never part of the discussion. In fact the Big Tech companies are standing by ready to squash any conversation about treatment.

  Twitter, for example, blocked the sharing of a medical study published late last year in the respected European Journal of Medical & Health Sciences because it had positive conclusions about Ivermectin.

  Ironically, these public health overlords claim to care so much about people who might potentially fall ill and die.

  So wouldn’t it make sense for them to disseminate objective information about medications and treatment options? After all, isn’t it possible that access to information about treatment might have saved some lives?

  But talking about medication and treatment doesn’t fit the narrative that these vaccine-brained public health officials are pushing. If you’re not talking about getting an injection, then you’re not allowed to talk. Period.

  Delta is now raging, and they’re already talking about the evil new ‘Lambda’ variant. And now, perhaps, the WHO may be starting to prime us for a new round of public health terrorism with the Marburg Virus.

  So if you thought the pandemic was over and everything was going back to normal… then I applaud your optimism. But think again.

  Given the public health response to the Delta variant, plus these new pathogenic threats that may be coming, it’s possible that there may be a new wave of lockdowns, travel restrictions, school closures, mask mandates, and more.

  Obviously I have no crystal ball, and am in no way trying to be alarmist. But it’s worth considering– if governments begin to impose quarantines once again, where would you want to be?

  Last year Covid took most people by surprise. But if it happens again, this time around we have the benefit of experience. We know their playbook and how they’re going to react.

  So it certainly makes sense to think about lockdowns, quarantines, and overall public health insanity when considering your Plan B options.

  *  *  *

  On another note… We think gold could DOUBLE and silver could increase by up to 5 TIMES in the next few years. That’s why we published a new, 50-page long Ultimate Guide on Gold & Silver that you can download here.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/12/2021 – 20:05

• Bill Gates Pledges $1.5 Billion To Develop New Green Technologies As Image-Rehab Tour Continues
  Bill Gates Pledges $1.5 Billion To Develop New Green Technologies As Image-Rehab Tour Continues

  Bill Gates’ campaign to rehabilitate his public image in the wake of his divorce from ex-wife Melinda French formally began earlier this month when Gates sat for a softball interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. It continued Thursday with another interview (this time with the conservative-leaning WSJ) where the Microsoft founder pledged to invest $1.5 billion in a series of public-private partnerships set up to develop new green technologies, like devices that suck carbon out of the atmosphere, or emissions-free jet fuel.

  The statement was clearly timed to coincide with the Senate’s passage of the “compromise” infrastructure bill, which, if passed by the House, would dedicate $25 billion to the Department of Energy for the development of new technologies and prototypes to help fight climate change, part of $100 billion in climate change-fighting funds tucked into the bill.

  Gates explained to WSJ that the money would be provided over a period of three years by a fund Gates has named “Breakthrough Energy”. These “Breakthrough” projects will focus on finding market-based solutions to climate change. To be sure, Gates’ grants will need to compete for the matching DoE funds with other private sources (but considering Gates’s vast connections in Washington, we will be shocked if the matching funds aren’t approved)

  He also seized the opportunity to praise the Dems for their dedication to fighting climate change, while also spouting boilerplate language about being “dedicated” to the cause.

  Breakthrough will likely shift funding for the biggest projects to Europe and Asia instead if the package doesn’t become law, he added.

  “Critical for all these climate technologies is to get the costs down and to be able to scale them up to a pretty gigantic level,” Mr. Gates said. “You’ll never get that scale up unless the government’s coming in with the right policies, and the right policy is exactly what’s in that infrastructure bill.”

  Gates also insisted that these “demonstration projects” are critical to making new technologies work.

  The interview featured a subtle threat: if Congress doesn’t approve the infrastructure package (with the climate funding attached), Gates will take his “Breakthrough” funding elsewhere, likely to Europe and Asia.

  While Gates is doing everything he can to promote the public-private partnership plan included in the Infrastructure Bill, this approach to clean-energy technology has backfired before. The best-known example is probably the collapse of Solyndra, a solar panel maker that received $500MM+ in public funds from the Obama Administration via the post-crisis recovery bill passed in 2009. The company declared bankruptcy in 2011, laying off hundreds of workers, and leaving the Democrats’ with an embarrassing black eye.

  Can an investment from Bill Gates guarantee that this won’t happen again?

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/12/2021 – 19:45

• New Studies Suggest Lambda Variant Could Be Vaccine-Resistant
  New Studies Suggest Lambda Variant Could Be Vaccine-Resistant

  Two separate studies have concluded that the latest Covid-19 fearpocalypse – the Lambda strain – may be vaccine resistant, as well as more infectious than the original alpha strain of SARS-CoV-2.

  

  No word on how people with preexisting natural immunity fare against Lambda.

  As the New York Post reports, a not-yet peer-reviewed study out of Japan published on July 28 concludes that the C.37 Lambda variant is defeating the ‘leaky’ vaccine at an alarming rate.

  The strain has been contained in 26 countries, including substantial outbreaks in Chile, Peru, Argentina and Ecuador.

  “Notably, the vaccination rate in Chile is relatively high; the percentage of the people who received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine was [about] 60%,” the authors write.

  “Nevertheless, a big COVID-19 surge has occurred in Chile in Spring 2021, suggesting that the Lambda variant is proficient in escaping from the antiviral immunity elicited by vaccination,” they warn. –New York Post

  The new variant is thought to have emerged between November and December 2020 in South America, and has since emerged in countries throughout Europe, North America and Asia according to data from GISAID. That said, it’s only around one-tenth of 1% of cases in America, around 911 so far.

  “In addition to increasing viral infectivity, the Delta variant exhibits higher resistance to the vaccine-induced neutralization,” wrote the authors, adding “Similarly, here we showed that the Lambda variant equips not only increased infectivity but also resistance against antiviral immunity.”

  

  In a similar not-yet peer-reviewed study out of Chile, investigators concluded “that mutations present in the spike protein of the lambda variant of interest confer increased infectivity and immune escape from neutralizing antibodies elicited by CoronaVac.”

  CoronaVac is a vaccine manufactured by a Chinese company and that’s used in Peru. The study continues: “These data reinforce the idea that massive vaccination campaigns in countries with high SARS-CoV-2 circulation must be accompanied by strict genomic surveillance allowing the identification of new isolates carrying spike mutations and immunology studies aimed to determine the impact of these mutations in immune escape and vaccines breakthrough.”

  Of note, Peru has the highest Covid-19 death rate of any country in the world – around 600 for every 100,000 people, about double the next highest country, Hungary. Around 81% of cases in Peru since April were the lambda variant, according to the WHO.

  By the way, these genetic vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 are indeed “leaky”. Why does that matter? Read this.https://t.co/Zz13zWRC8F

  — Robert W Malone, MD (@RWMaloneMD) July 28, 2021

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  The news comes amid an Axios report that the Pfizer vaccine was just 42% effective in July – when the Delta variant was dominant. Meanwhile, 40% of migrants bused into Laredo, Texas are Covid-positive.

  The next time you hear Fauci, Biden or Psaki warn how scary the Lambda strain is, ask yourself why they won’t close the border – or mandate the ‘efficacy challenged’ vaccines they’ve bet the farm on.

   

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/12/2021 – 19:25

• Watch: Parents Make Threats After School Board Mandates Elementary Children Mask Up – "We Will Find You"
  Watch: Parents Make Threats After School Board Mandates Elementary Children Mask Up – “We Will Find You”

  “The scene in Franklin was only the latest display of resistance against covid-19 precautions coming from the streets of small cities and the desks of politicians alike,” wrote The Washington Post of the below chaotic scene showing a Franklin, Tennessee school board meeting erupting in chaos over a new mask mandate for local elementary schools.

  “We know who you are! We will find you and we know who you are…” angry parents told a health expert who had been called in to testify in support of masking up children to start the school year. “You can leave freely, but we will find you.”

  Anti-mask demonstrators heckle masked people (some of whom are Drs/nurses) leaving 08/10/21 #Williamsoncountytn #schoolboardmeeting following one man to his car and shouting “we will find you” & “we know who you are” @WilliamsonHmPg 1/2 pic.twitter.com/u8wbdfr3Xj

  — Matt Masters (@formvscontent) August 11, 2021

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  A large crowd of parents after the chaotic meeting were chanting as school board members and supporters of the mandate left the meeting: “Will not comply!”

  “There’s a place for you guys — there’s a bad place in hell,” another parent was heard yelling. “You will never be allowed in public again.”

  The Williamson County Board of Education meeting had reportedly dragged on to nearly four hours amid tense debate over the mandate to wear masks until at least Sept.21 at a moment of growing fears over the COVID-19 Delta variant. The board voted 7 to 3 in favor of masks in the classroom and on the bus.

  One of the pro-mask experts at the meeting, Meredith Duke, a surgeon at Vanderbilt University Medical Center – who also has children at Williamson County schools, told a local news affiliate that she was directly threatened: “There were people screaming and threatening me, and I just couldn’t believe it.” Other school board supporters said the scene was “hard to fathom”. Inside the meeting nearly a dozen parents spoke before the board on either side.

  “Take that mask off!” another woman is seen shouting toward school board members in the video. The crowd also charged school authorities for being “child abusers” for enforcing the masks.

  Another video showed local law enforcement attempting to calm the crowd of parents outside the meeting venue… “keep it peaceful,” they urged.

  2/2 Williamson County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. : “I am begging ya’ll to be peaceful” -hundreds of protesters earlier-School board voted to require masks for elementary schools until 9/21/21. FPD also on site. #williamsoncountyschools #franklintn @WilliamsonHmPg pic.twitter.com/Mic8zfXFZC

  — Matt Masters (@formvscontent) August 11, 2021

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  In the end some among the pro-mask school board officials and those testifying on their behalf had to be escorted out of the parking lot by police, especially as protesting parents began to surround one man’s vehicle, as seen in the video.

  Likely similar scenes will be witnessed in other parts of the country as debate intensifies and as schools move closer to the start of the school year, with many just a week away, and also as standoffs between local and state authorities come to a head – Texas and Florida being prime examples.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/12/2021 – 19:05

• Gold's "Flash Crash" Explained: Charts, Fundamentals, & Familiar Manipulations
  Gold’s “Flash Crash” Explained: Charts, Fundamentals, & Familiar Manipulations

  Via GoldSwitzerland.com,

  In this 23-minute MAMChat, Matterhorn principals Egon von Greyerz and Matthew Piepenburg address gold’s recent “flash crash” in the context of technicals, fundamentals, and good ol’ fashioned price manipulation from the bullion banks.

  “…it was a black hole [at that time of day] of liquidity, no trader would ever sell into that if they wanted to get rid of gold in an orderly way…”

  “…this we’ve seen many times before. Clearly, this is intervention, manipulation at the highest degree…”

  

  Toward this end, Egon gives careful attention to the technical indicators and their bullish trends/confirmations while Matthew digs deeper under the hood to reveal the relationship between Basel III regs, bullion bank gold shortages and the motives behind gold’s recent price decline.

  Egon then addresses the historical pricing and hence buying opportunities for gold when measured against the broader money supply, confirming that precious metals have never been so seductively undervalued as they are today. For longer-term investors rather than short-term speculators, gold is particularly well priced, positioned and essential in the current backdrop of just staggering debt, market and currency risk.

  In short, the “flash crash” is merely a buying opportunity.

  As to debt risk, debt cycles and the template of increased centralized controls by banks and governments, Matthew walks through the all-too sad yet familiar patterns of debt crises leading to social and economic instabilities which then inevitably usher in increased centralized control over financial and social systems, a trend all too familiar today, as Egon’s personal journey through financial and (hence) gold cycles confirm.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 08/12/2021 – 18:45

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