Today’s News 13th August 2023

• Taliban’s Massively Successful Opium Eradication Raises Questions About What US Was Doing All Along
  Taliban’s Massively Successful Opium Eradication Raises Questions About What US Was Doing All Along

  Authored by Alan MacLeod via MintPress News,

  

  The Taliban government in Afghanistan – the nation that until recently produced 90% of the world’s heroin – has drastically reduced opium cultivation across the country. Western sources estimate an up to 99% reduction in some provinces. This raises serious questions about the seriousness of U.S. drug eradication efforts in the country over the past 20 years. And, as global heroin supplies dry up, experts tell MintPress News that they fear this could spark the growing use of fentanyl – a drug dozens of times stronger than heroin that already kills more than 100,000 Americans yearly.

  The Taliban Does What the US Did Not

  It has already been called “the most successful counter-narcotics effort in human history.” Armed with little more than sticks, teams of counter-narcotics brigades travel the country, cutting down Afghanistan’s poppy fields.

  In April of last year, the ruling Taliban government announced the prohibition of poppy farming, citing both their strong religious beliefs and the extremely harmful social costs that heroin and other opioids – derived from the sap of the poppy plant – have wrought across Afghanistan.

  It has not been all bluster. New research from geospatial data company Alcis suggests that poppy production has already plummeted by around 80% since last year. Indeed, satellite imagery shows that in Helmand Province, the area that produces more than half of the crop, poppy production has dropped by a staggering 99%. Just 12 months ago, poppy fields were dominant. But Alcis estimates that there are now less than 1,000 hectares of poppy growing in Helmand.

  Instead, farmers are planting wheat, helping stave off the worst of a famine that U.S. sanctions helped create. Afghanistan is still in a perilous state, however, with the United Nations warning that six million people are close to starvation.

  

  The Taliban waited until 2022 to impose the long-awaited ban in order not to interfere with the growing season. Doing so would have provoked unrest among the rural population by eradicating a crop that farmers had spent months growing. Between 2020 and late 2022, the price of opium in local markets rose by as much as 700%. Yet given the Taliban’s insistence – and their efficiency at eradication – few have been tempted to plant poppies.

  The poppy ban has been matched by a similar campaign against the methamphetamine industry, with the government targeting the ephedra crop and shutting down ephedrine labs across the country.

  A Looming Catastrophe

  Afghanistan produces almost 90% of the world’s heroin. Therefore, the eradication of the opium crop will have profound worldwide consequences on drug use. Experts MintPress spoke to warned that a dearth of heroin would likely produce a huge spike in the use of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, a drug the Center for Disease Control estimates is 50 times stronger and is responsible for taking the lives of more than 100,000 Americans each year.

  “It is important to consider past periods of heroin shortages and the impact these have had on the European drug market,” the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) told MintPress, adding:

  Experience in the E.U. with previous periods of reduced heroin supply suggests that this can lead to changes in patterns of drug supply and use. This can include further an increase in rates of polysubstance use among heroin users. Additional risks to existing users may be posed by the substitution of heroin with more harmful synthetic opioids, including fentanyl and its derivatives and new potent benzimidazole opioids.”

  In other words, if heroin is no longer available, users will switch to far deadlier synthetic forms of the drug. A 2022 United Nations report came to a similar conclusion, noting that the crackdown on heroin production could lead to the “replacement of heroin or opium by other substances…such as fentanyl and its analogs.”

  “It does have that danger in the macro sense, that if you take all that heroin off the market, people are going to go to other products,” Matthew Hoh told MintPress. Hoh is a former State Department official who resigned from his post in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, in 2009. “But the response should not be reinvade Afghanistan, reoccupy it and put the drug lords back in power, which is basically what people are implying when they bemoan the consequence of the Taliban stopping the drug trade,” Hoh added; “Most of the people who are speaking this way and worrying out loud about it are people who want to find a reason for the U.S. to go and affect regime change in Afghanistan.”

  There certainly has been plenty of hand-wringing from American sources. “Foreign Policy,” wrote about “how the Taliban’s ‘war on drugs’ could backfire;” U.S. government-funded “Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty” claimed that the Taliban were turning a “blind eye to opium production,” despite the official ban. And the United States Institute of Peace, an institution created by Congress that is “dedicated to the proposition that a world without violent conflict is possible,” stated emphatically that “the Taliban’s successful opium ban is bad for Afghans and the world”.

  This looming catastrophe, however, will not hit immediately. Significant stockpiles of drugs along trafficking routes still exist. As the EMCDDA told MintPress:

  It can take over 12 months before the opium harvest appears on the European retail drug market as heroin – and so it is too early to predict, at this stage, the future impact of the cultivation ban on heroin availability in Europe. Nonetheless, if the ban on opium cultivation is enforced and sustained, it could have a significant impact on heroin availability in Europe during 2024 or 2025.”

  Yet there is little indication that the Taliban are anything but serious about eradicating the crop, indicating that a heroin crunch is indeed coming.

  A similar attempt by the Taliban to eliminate the drug occurred in 2000, the last full year that they were in power. It was extraordinarily successful, with opium reduction dropping from 4,600 tons to just 185 tons. At that time, it took around 18 months for the consequences to be felt in the West. In the United Kingdom, average heroin purity fell from 55% to 34%, while in the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, heroin was largely replaced by fentanyl. However, as soon as the United States invaded in 2001, poppy cultivation shot back up to previous levels and the supply chain recommenced.

  US Complicity in the Afghan Drug Trade

  The Taliban’s successful campaign to eradicate drug production has cast a shadow of doubt over the effectiveness of American-led endeavors to achieve the same outcome. “It prompts the question, ‘What were we actually accomplishing there?!’” remarked Hoh, underscoring:

  This undermines one of the fundamental premises behind the wars: the alleged association between the Taliban and the drug trade – a concept of a narco-terror nexus. However, this notion was fallacious. The reality was that Afghanistan was responsible for a staggering 80-90% of the world’s illicit opiate supply. The primary controllers of this trade were the Afghan government and military, entities we upheld in power.”

  Hoh clarified that he never personally witnessed or received any reports of direct involvement by U.S. troops or officials in narcotics trafficking. Instead, he contended that there existed a “conscious and deliberate turning away from the unfolding events” during his tenure in Afghanistan.’

  

  Suzanna Reiss, an academic at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the author of “We Sell Drugs: The Alchemy of U.S. Empire,” demonstrated an even more cynical perspective on American counter-narcotics endeavors as she conveyed to MintPress:

  The U.S. has never really been focused on reducing the drug trade in Afghanistan (or elsewhere for that matter). All the lofty rhetoric aside, the U.S. has been happy to work with drug traffickers if the move would advance certain geopolitical interests (and indeed, did so, or at least turned a knowingly blind eye, when groups like the Northern Alliance relied on drugs to fund their political movement against the regime.).”

  Afghanistan’s transformation into a preeminent narco-state owes a significant debt to Washington’s actions. Poppy cultivation in the 1970s was relatively limited. However, the tide changed in 1979 with the inception of Operation Cyclone, a massive infusion of funds to Afghan Mujahideen factions aimed at exhausting the Soviet military and terminating its presence in Afghanistan. The U.S. directed billions toward the insurgents, yet their financial needs persisted. Consequently, the Mujahideen delved into the illicit drug trade. By the culmination of Operation Cyclone, Afghanistan’s opium production had soared twentyfold. Professor Alfred McCoy, acclaimed author of “The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade,” shared with MintPress that approximately 75% of the planet’s illegal opium output was now sourced from Afghanistan, a substantial portion of the proceeds funneling to U.S.-backed rebel factions.

  Unraveling the Opioid Crisis: An Impending Disaster

  The opioid crisis is the worst addiction epidemic in U.S. history. Earlier this year, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas described the American fentanyl problem as “the single greatest challenge we face as a country.” Nearly 110,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2021, fentanyl being by far the leading cause. Between 2015 and 2021, the National Institute of Health recorded a nearly 7.5-fold increase in overdose deaths. Medical journal The Lancet predicts that 1.2 million Americans will die from opioid overdoses by 2029.

  U.S. officials blame Mexican cartels for smuggling the synthetic painkiller across the southern border and China for producing the chemicals necessary to make the drug.

  White Americans are more likely to misuse these types of drugs than other races. Adults aged 35-44 experience the highest rates of deaths, although deaths among younger people are surging. Rural America has been particularly hard hit; a 2017 study by the National Farmers Union and the American Farm Bureau Federation found that 74% of farmers have been directly impacted by the opioid epidemic. West Virginia and Tennessee are the states most badly hit.

  For writer Chris Hedges, who hails from rural Maine, the fentanyl crisis is an example of one of the many “diseases of despair” the U.S. is suffering from. It has, according to Hedges, “risen from a decayed world where opportunity, which confers status, self-esteem and dignity, has dried up for most Americans. They are expressions of acute desperation and morbidity.” In essence, when the American dream fizzled out, it was replaced by an American nightmare. That white men are the prime victims of these diseases of despair is an ironic outgrowth of our unfair system. As Hedges explained:

  White men, more easily seduced by the myth of the American dream than people of color who understand how the capitalist system is rigged against them, often suffer feelings of failure and betrayal, in many cases when they are in their middle years. They expect, because of notions of white supremacy and capitalist platitudes about hard work leading to advancement, to be ascendant. They believe in success.”

  In this sense, it is important to place the opioid addiction crisis in a wider context of American decline, where opportunities for success and happiness are fewer and farther between than ever, rather than attribute it to individuals. As the “Lancet” wrote: “Punitive and stigmatizing approaches must end. Addiction is not a moral failing. It is a medical condition and poses a constant threat to health.”

  A “Uniquely American Problem”

  Nearly 10 million Americans misuse prescription opioids every year and at a rate far higher than comparable developed countries. Deaths due to opioid overdose in the United States are ten times more common per capita than in Germany and more than 20 times as frequent in Italy, for instance.

  Much of this is down to the United States’ for-profit healthcare system. American private insurance companies are far more likely to favor prescribing drugs and pills than more expensive therapies that get to the root cause of the issue driving the addiction in the first place. As such, the opioid crisis is commonly referred to as a “uniquely American problem.”

  Part of the reason U.S. doctors are much more prone to doling out exceptionally strong pain medication relief than their European counterparts is that they were subject to a hyper-aggressive marketing campaign from Purdue Pharma, manufacturers of the powerful opioid OxyContin. Purdue launched OxyContin in 1996, and its agents swarmed doctors’ offices to push the new “wonder drug.”

  

  Yet, in lawsuit after lawsuit, the company has been accused of lying about both the effectiveness and the addictiveness of OxyContin, a drug that has hooked countless Americans onto opioids. And when legal but incredibly addictive prescription opioids dry up, Americans turned to illicit substances like heroin and fentanyl as substitutes.

  Purdue Pharma owners, the Sackler family, have regularly been described as the most evil family in America, with many laying the blame for the hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths squarely at their door. In 2019, under the weight of thousands of lawsuits against it, Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy. A year later, it plead guilty to criminal charges over its mismarketing of OxyContin.

  Nevertheless, the Sacklers made out like bandits from their actions. Even after being forced last year to pay nearly $6 billion in cash to victims of the opioid crisis, they remain one of the world’s richest families and have refused to apologize for their role in constructing an empire of pain that has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths.

  Instead, the family has attempted to launder their image through philanthropy, sponsoring many of the most prestigious arts and cultural institutions in the world. These include the Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, Yale University, and the British Museum and Royal Academy in London.

  One group who are disproportionately affected by opioids like OxyContin, heroin and fentanyl are veterans. According to the National Institutes of Health, veterans are twice as likely to die from overdose than the general population. One reason for this is bureaucracy. “The Veterans Administration did a really poor job in the past decades with their pain management, particularly their reliance on opioids,” Hoh, a former marine, told MintPress, noting that the V.A. prescribed dangerous opioids at a higher rate than other healthcare agencies.

  Ex-soldiers often have to cope with chronic pain and brain injuries. Hoh noted that around a quarter-million veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq have traumatic brain injuries. But added to that are the deep moral injuries many suffered – injuries that typically cannot be seen. As Hoh noted:

  Veterans are turning to [opioids like fentanyl] to deal with the mental, emotional and spiritual consequences of the war, using them to quell the distress, try to find some relief, escape from the depression, and deal with the demons that come home with veterans who took part in those wars.”

  Thus, if the Taliban’s opium eradication program continues, it could spark a fentanyl crisis that might kill more Americans than the 20-year occupation ever did.

  Broken Society

  If diseases of despair are common throughout the United States, they are rampant in Afghanistan itself. A global report released in March revealed that Afghans are by far the most miserable people on Earth. Afghans evaluated their lives at 1.8 out of 10 – dead last and far behind the top of the pile Finland (7.8 out of 10).

  Opium addiction in Afghanistan is out of control, with around 9% of the adult population (and a significant number of children) addicted. Between 2005 and 2015, the number of adult drug users jumped from 900,000 to 2.4 million, according to the United Nations, which estimates that almost one in three households is directly affected by addiction. As opium is frequently injected, blood-transmitted conditions like HIV are common as well.

  The opioid problem has also spilled into neighboring countries such as Iran and Pakistan. A 2013 United Nations report estimated that almost 2.5 million Pakistanis were abusing opioids, including 11% of people in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Around 700 people die each day from overdoses.

  Empire of Drugs

  Given their history, It is perhaps understandable that Asian nations have generally taken far more authoritarian measures to counter drug addiction issues. For centuries, using the illegal drug trade to advance imperial objectives has been a common Western tactic. In the 1940s and 1950s, the French utilized opium crops in the “Golden Triangle” region of Southeast Asia in order to counter the growing Vietnamese independence movement.

  A century previously, the British used opium to crush and conquer much of China. Britain’s insatiable thirst for Chinese tea was beginning to bankrupt the country, seeing as China would only accept gold or silver in exchange. The British, therefore, used the power of its navy to force China to cede Hong Kong to it. From there, it flooded mainland China with opium grown in South Asia (including Afghanistan).

  The effect of the Opium War was astonishing. By 1880, the British were inundating China with more than 6,500 tons of opium per year – the equivalent of many billions of doses. Chinese society crumbled, unable to deal with the empire-wide social and economic dislocation that millions of opium addicts brought. Today, the Chinese continue to refer to the period as the “century of humiliation”.

  Meanwhile, in South Asia, the British forced farmers to plant poppy fields instead of edible crops, causing waves of giant famines, the likes of which had never been seen before or since.

  And during the 1980s in Central America, the United States sold weapons to Iran in order to fund far-right Contra death squads. The Contras were deeply implicated in the cocaine trade, fuelling their dirty war through crack cocaine sales in the U.S. – a practice that, according to journalist Gary Webb, the Central Intelligence Agency facilitated.

  Imperialism and illicit drugs, therefore, commonly go together. However, with the Taliban opium eradication effort in full effect, coupled with the uniquely American phenomenon of opioid addiction, it is possible that the United States will suffer significant blowback in the coming years. The deadly fentanyl epidemic will likely only get worse, needlessly taking hundreds of thousands more American lives. Thus, even as Afghanistan attempts to rid itself of its deadly drug addiction problem, its actions could precipitate an epidemic that promises to kill more Americans than any of Washington’s imperial endeavors to date.

  Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News

  Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 23:30

• School District Blames 'Rogue' Principal For Anti-White Discrimination, But Documents Suggest It Was Official Policy
  School District Blames ‘Rogue’ Principal For Anti-White Discrimination, But Documents Suggest It Was Official Policy

  A Wisconsin elementary school has come under fire after tossing a ‘rogue’ principal under the bus for directing teachers to prioritize meetings with students based on their race.

  

  Dan Lennington, an attorney with the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, or WILL, says the school’s leadership seems to have abided by district policies calling for educators to spend most of their time on “targeted student populations” – as part of a district policy seen by National Review which calls for decentralizing “whiteness” in schools and using the hiring process to create a staff that is “free of blockers and resistors.”

  Lennington became involved in the case following a whistleblower complaint from an employee who attended a November 2020 staff development meeting at Lake View Elementary. The whistleblower sent Lennington a screen grab of a portion of the meeting discussing the creation of small instructional groups for students. According to the evidence, as part of the district’s “equity vision” and commitment to “black excellence,” teachers were encouraged to “prioritize your African American students meeting with you first and more often,” and “prioritize your English Language learners meeting with you second and more often.”

  When called out, the district tossed the principal under the bus.

  After a drawn-out request for records and a legal battle, the district sent WILL a letter stating that the screen grab was not district policy, but was rather a directive from the principal at Lake View. The principal was “advised of her misunderstanding,” the letter stated, according to WILL.

  On Monday, WILL announced that they had settled a public-records lawsuit against the Madison district, and that the district had agreed to a series of steps to improve its process for filling records requests.

  But as part of the legal fight, the district provided Lennington with additional documents about district policies, strategic plans, and its utilization of racially segregated affinity groups. In a thread on X, formerly Twitter, Lennington wrote that after having reviewed the documents, there is “MUCH reason to doubt” that Lake View’s plan to prioritize black students was a “misunderstanding” at all. -National Review

  “When they say publicly, as they have now, ‘Oh, that one thing was just a misunderstanding, we do not prioritize students based on race,’ we think that’s a lie,” Lennington told National Review.

  “Prioritize Your African American Students”
  In the recent @WILawLiberty settlement, Madison schools abandoned the policy below, claiming it was a “misunderstanding” and at only one school.
  We have MUCH reason to doubt 🧵@RyanAMills77 @RickertWisSJ @VickiMcKenna @wisconsin_now pic.twitter.com/1AhKjbU9DU

  — Dan Lennington (@DanLennington) August 7, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAccording to documents from the November 2020 meeting, following the directive to prioritize meeting with black students and English language learners, the presentation pivoted to the district’s “K-5 Literacy, Biliteracy and Native American Education and Social Studies — Strategic Plan” – which starts out by discussing a “Rally Cry” about the “Master Narrative” — “whatever ideological script that is being imposed by the people in authority on everybody else: The Master Fiction . . . History.”

  According to the document, the Madison school district acknowledges that “the Master Narrative must decentralize whiteness.”

  The document goes on to explain that “80% of our time will be spent attending to our top 20% priority,” which is “students of color (African American and Latinx students), English Language Learners, and students with general reading disabilities.” The document states that “we will attend explicitly to these student population needs by ensuring that they are instructionally targeted* in the literacy, biliteracy, humanities and English curriculum.”

  Another professional development documents indicates that Madison teachers are evaluated on whether they explicitly apply “content goals to our targeted student populations.” Lake View identified those students as their “Focus Students.” -National Review

  “The elementary school was just doing what the strategic plan says to do,” said Lennington, who says that the K-5 literacy and biliteracy strategic plan is an effort to ensure that among the staff, “we’re getting only the most liberal, progressive people.”

  “If someone was not hired or if someone was fired because they didn’t think the right thing, they would definitely have a constitutional claim against the school district,” he said.

  Meanwhile, the district’s documents also detail the approved use of racially segregated affinity groups, and how such groups can “support us in being more vulnerable and in grieving the ignorance, shame, and disgrace that often accommodate racial inquiry.”

  “A white affinity space puts the onus on white people to learn from each other rather than relying on people of color to teach them,” reads the document.

  🛑White freshmen not welcome🛑
  Wisconsin high school to host “Freshmen Students of Color Meet and Greet” on Aug 15. Other freshmen must wait until Aug 30 for their freshman orientation. Segregation pure and simple. And illegal. @AppletonSchools – Call this off or we’ll take… pic.twitter.com/Bxbe9D8CEO

  — Dan Lennington (@DanLennington) August 9, 2023

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

  According to Lennington, “We are definitely looking at our options right now and considering what are the next steps to deal with this sort of rogue district that wants to continue discriminating based on race, despite some of their public statements.”
   

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 23:00

• The Rise and Rhetoric Of The Climate Chicken Littles
  The Rise and Rhetoric Of The Climate Chicken Littles

  Authored by Roger Koops via the Brownstone Institute,

  

  For those who may not recall Chicken Little (AKA Henny Penny), the character was derived in the 1880s and was meant to be an allegorical character. Chicken Little was never intended to be the whimsical Disney fantasy character that it became. Chicken Little was infamous for over-exaggerating threats to existence, most notably, with the phrase “the sky is falling.”  

  As I watched the BBC a couple of days ago, I could not help but notice that the alias of the BBC should be “Chicken Little.”  

  Of course, you can add ABC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Associated Press, NHK (in Japan), PBS, France 24, CBC, CNN, Yahoo, MSNBC, Fox and literally dozens of other mainstream “news” outlets to the list. They all have been Chicken Littles for many years now. People should be adept at recognizing this new media persona.

  Remember also that these have been the same news sources who were proclaiming that a common respiratory virus, a coronavirus, was somehow equal to or maybe worse than Ebola. Or that monkeypox was going to be a new scourge on humanity. Or if you step out of your house some terrorist is ready to blow you up. If you eat not enough of this then you could die or if you eat too much of that you could die. I think I could go on but I will leave everyone to their own favorite lists. 

  These same “News” sources have had no problem in presenting false data, ignoring counterarguments, conducting personal attacks (or firing their own) on those who question their narratives, and so on. These traits alone demand that they be viewed with a heavy dose of skepticism. But, when you add on the alarmist Chicken Little persona, you have something that defies logic. But, that has been recently defined as “Panic Porn,”  and maybe aptly so. 

  According to the BBC, the planet is burning up-they almost literally said as much in the opening of their news segment that I watched last week (ABC was almost identical in its “reporting”). To emphasize the fact that the planet is burning up, the BBC showed the battles against brush fires in Europe, as if these brush fires started spontaneously because the planet is burning up (despite the unreported part that arson has been suspected in many of these fires around the world, from Canada to Europe). 

  And, the color RED has now been adopted as the panic color, so of course the whole map has RED numbers and/or RED overlay with maybe a lucky place or two in orange or maybe yellow. This despite the fact that most of the RED places are actually experiencing rather NORMAL summer weather for their area. But, normal is no longer acceptable.

  They then showed elderly people sitting in their homes in France, without air conditioning, trying to stay cool. Yes, abnormally hot and cold weather do pose the same health risks to the elderly as say, a respiratory virus. That is because the elderly are elderly. It goes with the territory. 

  Here in Japan, there are daily warnings in the summer for the elderly to take caution because of the heat and humidity (with the same warnings in the winter but due to the cold and snow). In the summer, most ambulance runs are rushing elderly people to the hospital due to heat-related illness. In the winter, the number one source of injury and death comes from elderly people attempting to shovel snow from their roof. Many fall and are killed via accident. 

  I can attest to the weakening temperature tolerance of the elderly since I am well into my 60s. I could not tolerate some of the conditions that I took for normal growing up and in my young adult days. For example, growing up in Southern California we had summer season daily high temperatures that were almost always over 100 F (38 C) and would last for weeks. We had no air conditioning. At night, the windows would open and we would hope for a breeze to cool the house down to somewhere in the 80s so that we could sleep. I played outside all of the time during those summer months. Oftentimes, I would return home from being out and my mother would scrape the asphalt from the bottoms of my feet because we kids used to run across asphalt streets barefooted and the asphalt was softened and sticky due to the heat. We oftentimes had strength contests such as who could walk across the street the SLOWEST. 

  At my current age, forget it! I do some things outside for a while and then it is back into the house and I will sit with an ice-cold beer and some air conditioning. Meanwhile, the youngsters are all out there on their bikes and playing sports, etc. Hurray for them!

  Is Chicken Little, AKA Mainstream Media, correct? Is the planet burning up?

  Let’s examine some of the narratives and see if they hold up to some scrutiny.

  Why No Scientist Denies “Climate Change”

  The rather ambiguous term, Climate Change, itself states only a known fact. 

  Fact. All of the Earth’s several climatic zones are dynamic (not static) ecosystems, each in their own way, and they all combine to form the overall natural ecosystem that makes up our planet. Since they are dynamic, they are in a constant state of change.

  The tropical rain forests cycle through changes as do the sub-tropics (an area where I live) as do the desert regions, arctic regions, tundra regions, temperate zones, and so on. A changing climate in any of the climatic zones is NORMAL. Virtually every scientist knows and understands that ecosystems are dynamic. 

  What makes the term “Climate Change” ambiguous is that first of all, there is no such thing as the “Earth’s Climate” and second of all, you need to specifically define what exactly is the change and to what extent are you relating to that change.

  Most people have now been brainwashed to think that the term “Climate Change” is the equivalent of the following conclusive assertion (as I have interpreted it in as concise a form as possible and formulated it into an equation):

  Climate Change = The planet Earth is experiencing an ecological disaster and existential threat to human life (hence mammalian life) due to planet-wide increases in atmospheric temperatures (i.e. global warming) that is the direct result of greenhouse emissions (e.g. carbon dioxide) that are due primarily to human population growth, technology, and “carelessness/indifference.”  

  As you can see, there is a rather huge leap from the recognition that our planet experiences dynamic climate fluctuations (real climate change) to the concept of a disastrous, human-induced catastrophe that specifies warming and connections to human produced CO2. In other words, the term has been hijacked and redefined in order to support a narrative.

  There is not universal consensus when it comes to the above equation and catastrophic assertions.

  Why Weather is NOT the Same as Climate

  The Chicken Littles will have you believe that a hot summer day (or series thereof) proves global warming while an unusually cold winter day (or series thereof) proves nothing. You never witness a report that we are in global cooling or heading towards an ice age if many locations on Earth suddenly experience cold weather and blizzards. I am sorry, Chicken Littles, you cannot have it both ways.

  As anyone with any sense knows, weather is a local phenomenon. I could be experiencing intense thunderstorms while my friend living only 10 miles away could be experiencing pleasant, cloudless skies. I could be experiencing a brutally hot day while another friend living 30 miles away is experiencing a mild day. During the winter, I could be experiencing a blizzard while another friend is experiencing simply a cold day.

  Different climatic zones have different weather trends. For example, the tropics tend to have warm and humid weather conditions year round because, well, it is the tropics. The arctic regions tend to experience cold conditions and deserts can fluctuate between really hot to really cold, all within 24 hours! I will discuss more about what causes these trends below.

  Because it is a local phenomena, the extremes of weather, such as hot/cold days, storms, winds, etc. are highly variable and there is little discernible pattern except on the long-term scale. The long-term scale that we tend to use is referred to as “the seasons.”  And the seasons are not random but relate to how our planet rotates on its axis (maximal rotational velocity of about 1,000 miles per hour at the equator and almost nothing at the exact poles) and how it revolves around the star which we call the Sun (revolution velocity of about 65,000 miles per hour and an angular tilt of about 23 degrees to the plane of the sun)

  Summer/Winter is defined as that period between the two solstice (meaning “sun stop”) periods of summer and winter (when the plane of the sun is in line with either of the two tropics, Capricorn or Cancer) with a peak being when the equator of Earth is in alignment with the Sun (Fall/Spring Equinox). 

  On our Western calendar, that period falls between the solstice dates of June 21 and December 21 (peaking as equinox on June 21) and defines as Summer in the Northern Hemisphere and Winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

  Summer seasons tend to be “warm” and winter seasons tend to be “cold” and the interim seasons, fall and spring shift towards warmer or colder. These trends tend to hold although there may be variations during these seasons.

  Immediately, you can see that besides climatic regions, we can add hemispherical/seasonal effects to the planet’s melange of climate. 

  Within this already huge range of climatic zones there are subzones of atmospheric movement and thermodynamics, which create weather patterns. An example could be the arrival of spring thunderstorms and tornadoes in the middle sections of the US. These weather patterns occur because of the mixing of warm, humid air coming from the tropics (the Gulf of Mexico in the US) colliding with the colder air masses coming from the north. This collision of air masses does not cause one big huge tornado over the whole Midwest; rather, you get localized regions of weather. The reason is that these huge air masses are NOT homogeneous even in themselves. 

  Many areas may experience a typical spring day while others can experience intense thunderstorms and tornadoes. Perhaps the next day it changes and the storms move on or dissipate. Those local weather patterns are caused by local features of atmospheric conditions, many of which meteorologists still do not fully understand. The reason is that the thermodynamics involved in complex systems can be hard to predict. 

  I had a house in northern Illinois and during one spring a series of tornadoes passed through my area. One tornado took a path directly towards my house and the local sirens were blazing. But, somehow, that tornado elevated before hitting my house, skipped over, and touched down again about one block past my house. While I had a few moments of some heart-pounding in my basement, I found my house intact so I breathed a sigh of relief and went to bed thinking that the storm had actually dissipated. The next morning on the news, the storm path was shown from a helicopter and sure enough, my house and a few around it were untouched but you could see the path of destruction on other sides. I ran out of the house and saw it for the first time.

  That is how weather works. 

  Why Warm Temperature Does NOT Mean Global Warming

  Here is where we start to get into the concept of data collection and interpretation and the reliability or unreliability of data. This is usually where the debate begins with the two basic questions: Where is the data collected and how is it being collected (and reported)?

  The thermometer, the instrument that we have for measuring temperature, was invented about 300 years ago. Whether it is a traditional thermometer (one designed on the expansion properties of some known liquid in a specially designed tube) or a more modern thermometer (designed on the electrochemical properties of some material), they mean nothing without some relative scale.

  When the first thermometers were developed, three scales of measurement were established and are still in use to this day. Those three scales are the Celsius, Fahrenheit, and Kelvin scales. The Kelvin scale tends to be applied in science while both the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales tend to be used in more common, everyday measurements. All three of the scales have a common reference point, the freezing point of pure water. The Celsius scale defines that temperature as 0, the Fahrenheit scale defines it as 32, and the Kelvin scale defines it as 273.2 (0 on the Kelvin scale is absolute zero, whereby there is no energy output/transfer or motion of atomic or subatomic particles). All three scales can be related via mathematical equations. 

  For example, F = 9/5 C + 32. Thus, 0 C x 9/5 (= 0) + 32 = 32 F. Or, 100 C (boiling point of water in Celsius) x 9/5 (= 180) + 32 = 212 F (boiling point of water in Fahrenheit).

  The first attempts at measuring weather temperatures were started in the late 1800s as an attempt at some form of weather forecasting. Gradually, cities and towns began recording their own local weather temperatures as an informational service to the residents.

  Prior to that time, we have absolutely ZERO temperature data from around the planet Earth. That means that for over 99.9999 percent of our planet’s history since the appearance of hominids, we have no data as to what atmospheric temperatures existed anywhere on our planet. We can make inferences by understanding that there were glacial ice age periods, whereby much of the planet was in colder temperatures but we have no idea what those temperatures, daily or seasonal, were.

  There are actually very few records of even descriptive temperature weather events beyond whether it was hot or cold. Daily temperatures were of little consequence to people and the ancients paid more attention to the extreme weather events. Hot and cold had little meaning other than how you dealt with it or maybe talked about it.

  So, we have much less than two centuries worth of data based upon a scale that was devised only three centuries ago. Further, that data is sporadic and many of the conditions of sampling were not recorded or reported. Drawing conclusions from this data is like taking a brief look up at the sky and seeing clouds and concluding that the sky is always cloudy.

  Further, we know that temperature sampling is very dependent on many factors and cannot give consistent and reliable information. It serves only as a reference point. For example, we know that temperature sampling and information is highly dependent on:

  • Sampling Location. We know that altitude can affect temperature readings. Air temperatures decrease within the altitudes that humans exist. That is because the ground and water serve as a source of thermal energy, either reflective and/or through direct transmission. 
  • Sampling Time. We know that the timing of temperature sampling varies widely during all hours of the day and is not consistent from day to day. One day the high temperature may be 2 pm but the next may be 1 pm, and so on.
  • Effects of Terrain and Man Made structures. We know that temperature sampling can be hugely affected by the local terrain and if there is asphalt, concrete, brick, or other such non-natural things present. As an example, check out this reference. I have actually performed experiments whereby I set up several thermometers on my property and none of them record the same temperature even though they are all in almost the same general location, the same height off of the ground, but they experience slightly different conditions (shade, wind, proximity to structures, etc.); I have seen variations of up to 4 C. 

  Official records can be a source of data that confirms the above.

  I went back to the records for Seattle going back to 1900. Because of the extensive amount of data, I randomly chose the maximum temperature recorded for Seattle and I did that for every four years. That data is presented below in Graph 1. Yes, I intentionally “skipped” data on a consistent pattern to save space but you can go to the data and do your own full plot and see what the graph looks like. 

  

  A superficial examination of the data represented in Graph 1 shows something unusual. That is that the data seems less variable from 1900-about 1944 and much more variable after that time. The reason for that is this data is not represented by the same sampling location. Up to 1948, the temperature data was collected at the University of Washington (UW), which is located north of downtown Seattle and alongside Lake Washington. Since 1948, the temperature data reflects temperatures collected at the Seattle-Tacoma International airport (Sea-Tac), which is located on the south side of Seattle adjacent to Puget Sound. The two areas of temperature record are approximately 30 miles apart and can have quite different local weather patterns. Thus, the “Seattle” data is not truly representative of Seattle but represents two different collection points located miles apart.

  Extrapolating local temperatures into some worldwide climate model requires extreme caution. The data that is being presented that supposedly supports global warming is all based upon computer modeling and it represents an “average” of planetary conditions. Those are both conditions that have rather significant error bars associated with them. 

  One of the most serious, underlying assumptions is that the planetary ecosystem is homogeneous. It is not. If you have a large, Olympic-size pool filled only with distilled water and you insert a small syringe into the pool at some location and withdraw a sample and analyze that sample, you might expect to find only the molecule H2O, water-and that is maybe what you will find if you assume complete homogeneity of the pool. 

  But, chemically speaking, as soon as you fill that pool, the water surface layer will begin to interact with the air around it and the water in contact with the concrete surface of the pool will interact with that surface. That means that the water becomes contaminated to some degree from water soluble air contaminants and surface contamination and whether or not you detect that contamination depends on time, sampling location, sample size, and extent of possible contamination. Further, it depends on what type of contamination you are looking for. If you are looking for a chemical, you will use different techniques than if you are looking for some microbiological contamination. 

  Thus, if I take a syringe sample of that pool and I only test for and find water (H2O), I cannot claim that the pool is actually pure, 100 percent water. That assumption is based upon total homogeneity and it ignores the possibility of contamination from air and contact sources, as minor as they may be. 

  For all of these “global warming” calculations and claims, the algorithms should be published for scientific review. The assumptions and conditions should be published for scientific review. The data sampling details should be published for scientific review. The degrees of uncertainty around each sampling point and data point should be clearly identified. 

  Without examination of all issues, the claims mean nothing.

  What Defines a Greenhouse Gas?

  Most people probably have some idea of a greenhouse and what it does. It is a structure that moderates temperature and humidity that allows for a more constant growth of green things. I could get more technical but I think people understand the basic concept and certainly if anyone has ever established a greenhouse or has visited one, they understand.

  According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Water Vapor (WV) is the most potent greenhouse gas while CO2 is the most significant. Yet, the meaning of both of those definitions seems to be lost and is not even defined. What is the difference between potent and significant and how does that relate to the “Climate Change” misnomer? To answer these questions, we need to look at some standard thermodynamic chemistry involving gaseous molecules.

  First, almost any gaseous molecule has some degree of greenhouse capability as defined by what is known as heat capacity. The heat capacity is the ability of the molecule to “hold” thermal energy and this is related to how it functions at the molecular level. In reference to this capability, the values that I will give in this article are in the units of Joules (J) per gram (g) degree Kelvin or J/g-K and have been determined for most common compounds and reported in the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. 

  Second, there is an additional thermodynamic feature that can contribute to the greenhouse capability. That feature is the ability of the gaseous molecule to absorb energy in the Infra-Red (IR) region of the spectrum. It is the IR portion of the spectrum that is generally associated with thermal energy. It is very difficult to quantify the IR absorption capability unless you overlap the actual IR spectrograph of each compound. Thus, this capability is generally qualitatively expressed as “++” for the highest order of absorption, “+” for a good absorber, and “-“ for little or no absorption.

  Our homogeneous planetary atmosphere consists of the molecular components of about 78 percent nitrogen, N2, (heat capacity of 1.04 and IR “-“), 21 percent oxygen, O2, (heat capacity of 0.92 and IR “-“) with minor quantities of 0.93 percent argon, Ar, (heat capacity of 0.52 and IR “-“) and 0.04 percent carbon dioxide, CO2, (heat capacity of 0.82 and IR “+”). Since these gaseous molecules do not become liquid or solid under typical Earth conditions (except CO2 can become solid under temperature conditions in the Antarctic region), they represent a reasonably accurate average sample of our atmosphere, although the actual composition of CO2 can vary by location (I will explain later). Most of our greenhouse contribution from the homogeneous atmosphere comes from N2 and O2 since these are in the most abundance (99 percent) and have some good heat capacity (better than CO2).

  The “X” Factor in our atmosphere and in terms of greenhouse effect is the presence of water vapor, WV. Our planet has about 70 percent of the surface area covered in H2O. Although water boils at 100 C, it is constantly evaporating under typical surface temperatures, even those near freezing. Certainly, the warmer either the water temperature and/or the surface air temperature, the greater the degree of evaporation and the greater the degree of WV in the atmosphere. 

  WV (heat capacity 1.86, IR “++”) can exist homogeneously but also heterogeneously (such as in clouds). The amount of homogeneous WV that our atmosphere can maintain depends on the air temperature and pressure. Relative Humidity, RH, is the measure that we use to express the amount of water that the atmosphere is capable of holding in gaseous form under the local conditions of temperature and pressure. 

  The Encyclopedia Britannica is certainly correct in WV being the most potent greenhouse gas. It has both the highest degree of heat capacity and the highest degree of IR absorption of all atmospheric components on Earth. It can also exist as a homogeneous component or heterogeneous component. That combination means that WV plays the most important role in weather patterns on our planet as well as in the greenhouse effect that is common in many regions of the planet.

  Our tropics have warm, humid climates essentially year round because the tropical regions of the planet have the greatest percentage of water and the highest and most consistent degree of energy input from the sun. The tropics are the planet’s natural greenhouse. This is why the tropics are also the home to the many rainforests. 

  The tropical regions also spawn the most severe weather events (typhoons/hurricanes) not only because of the tropical climate but also in combination with the Earth’s rotational and revolutional velocities (about 1,000 and 65,000 miles per hour, respectively) . This movement creates the Coriolis effect, the “Jet Stream,” and the complexities of atmospheric movement which contributes to the development of cyclonic, warm water-driven storms and all other weather events.

  

  If it is true that WV is the most potent greenhouse gas and that the most potent weather patterns are spawned in the tropics, then we should be able to see clear patterns of increased greenhouse effects (if they exist) in the tropical storm patterns on Earth. That is because we should be seeing an increase in energy-fueled, WV-driven cyclonic events if there is significant warming.

  Do we see that pattern? The graph below depicts the frequency and severity of Western Pacific cyclonic storms (tropical storms and typhoons). There is one difficulty in interpreting the data, and that is the same as with local temperature records. The difficulty is that the definition of a typhoon and its severity has changed over time. Still, if there has been significant temperature increases this should lead to greater energy input into tropical storms, meaning greater frequency and strength.

  The old definition of a severe typhoon used to be associated with the amount of physical damage it produced on the human scale. The problem with that definition is that not all tropical storms or typhoons actually hit land or land that has modern human population. 

  For disclosure, over time, there have been attempts to standardize the definition of typhoon but that is still being smoothed out. I established my own definitions based upon the data available. For the total numbers each season (in blue), any storm classified as a tropical storm or greater was counted. The green represents a severe typhoon based upon the more recent categorization as a level 3 or greater (which began in the 1940s). Finally, I added a category that I called the “super” typhoon and since there is still no consensus on this definition (now only referred to as “violent”), I used the central pressure of 910 millibars or less as a definition to be consistent (measurements of pressures also only began in the late 1940s). 

  Before the 1940s, we have almost no data as to the true severity of storms and maybe even the numbers can be questioned since they are based on storms that were only experienced by humans.

  So far in 2023, we have just recorded the presence of tropical storm number 6 as we near the beginning of August. Unless there is some rapid uptake in storms over the next two months, 2023 is on pace to be below 25 storms for the year, perhaps between 20-25.

  I find it difficult to see any pattern in cyclonic storms from the tropical climates that indicate any unusual increase in temperatures. What we can see is a typical cycle of storms with some years having more and some years less, with the average hovering around 25 per year. Stronger storms also seem to wax and wane and there are too few of the super typhoons to draw any observation. These data and observations seem to indicate that the most potent greenhouse gas of WV seems to be producing cyclonic storm patterns in a rather consistent mode over the past century.

  Is CO2 a Significant Greenhouse Gas?

  It is difficult for me to address this question because I really do NOT know what the term “significant” means from a scientific standpoint. Potent I can understand; but significant? Yes, CO2 has both a moderate heat capacity and a moderate ability for IR absorption, which qualifies it as a greenhouse gas.

  However, from pure chemical thermodynamics and abundance in our atmosphere, CO2 seems to be a minor player, at best. Its true contribution to the greenhouse effect is almost non-existent when compared to N2, O2, and WV.

  We know even less about CO2 concentrations, both historically and contemporarily, than just about every other component of our atmosphere. We only started measuring CO2 in the atmosphere in the late 1950s, so we have less than a century of data. And that data is suspect in its own right-something I will come to below.

  There is another fact that people need to understand. Our planet “breathes.” It is not dissimilar to the breathing that humans do without thinking to survive. We breathe in air, we take what we need from that air (mostly the oxygen), and we exhale what we don’t need as well as our unwanted waste products, including CO2.

  The planet does the same thing in all ecosystems. Here are examples of our planet breathing using CO2:

  • Green plants breathe in the air-the same air as humans. They do not use nitrogen and argon (both are essentially inert)-the same as humans, and cannot use oxygen. But, this very minor little component of our atmosphere, CO2, is what they need. They take in the CO2 and through photosynthesis they exhale O2 (which most animals need to survive). Thus, CO2 is essential to the survival of plants while O2 is essential to the survival of most animals (including humans). There are bacteria species that survive with oxygen (aerobic) and some without (anaerobic). But, any organism that is dependent on photosynthesis needs CO2.
  • CO2 also is inhaled by the Earth and contributes to rock formation (limestone formation) which is an ongoing process. By the same token, the Earth also exhales CO2 via volcanism (in fact, volcanoes represent the single greatest natural source of CO2 on our planet).
  • CO2 is absorbed by water and goes into aquatic life. Coral reefs depend on CO2 as do shellfish. Plankton depend on CO2 for their contribution to photosynthesis and plankton represent the bottom of the food chain in aquatic environments. Thus, CO2 absorption by the oceans is not a disaster but is important for that ecosystem.

  The fact is, we do not know what the historical atmospheric content of CO2 has been and I am willing to argue that maybe we still do not really know. Many computer models have attempted to derive that information but that has mostly been obtained from data derived from limited core sampling on Earth, primarily in Antarctica and from atmospheric measurements.. How representative these core samples and measurements have been of the true atmospheric contents can be debated.

  Antarctica is the only place on Earth, now, that is capable of actually freezing out CO2 from the atmosphere into a solid “dry ice” form. Does that fact itself skew the results? Are the scoring techniques really trustworthy? Are we introducing contaminated air during the sampling and/or testing processes? What other conditions were known on our planet that correlate to the computations made from the samples?

  In my opinion, CO2 plays a significant role in planetary ecosystems but it seems to have little ability to impact the greenhouse effect, even though by itself it classifies as a greenhouse gas. Thus, I am prepared to debate the contention of the Encyclopedia Britannica that this can be combined to make something described as a significant greenhouse gas.

  This also leads to examining the source of the atmospheric CO2 data.

  Virtually all of the CO2 data that is used in the computer modeling comes from sampling stations that are located on Mauna Loa in the Hawaiian Islands (which were established in the late 1950s). Since we know that volcanoes are the single greatest natural source of CO2 emissions, why would we put a sampling station on an active volcanic archipelago? Are we truly measuring some homogeneous Earth atmospheric concentration of CO2 or are we actually measuring the output of Hawaiian Island volcanoes? What happens to the CO2 that is exhaled on our planet, i.e. how long does it take to “mix” and become homogeneous in the atmosphere (if ever)?

  The only data that could make any sense would come from a rather intense network of sampling locations throughout the world with multiple locations in each climatic zone in order to establish the true nature of CO2 homogeneity in our atmosphere. You would also need to have some sort of control stations that would help in studying what may be produced and what can be considered truly a homogeneous part of our atmosphere.

  Further if you want to control the already low concentration of atmospheric CO2, stop deforestation and plant more trees and green things. Green things become the bellwether of CO2. That is one of the simplest and most natural answers to the CO2 question. Plant more green things! You do not have to wait decades for technology to improve; green things grow in weeks and start doing their job of CO2 absorption from the get-go. I know, since I am an amateur farmer.

  It is a good thing to make people more aware of wasteful production and to encourage more efficient energy usage, but that is a far cry from trying to change humanity and establish Totalitarian societies.

  As Carl Sagan famously said, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Where is the extraordinary evidence? How does a rather normal greenhouse gas (CO2) that exists in the PPM range in our atmosphere somehow gain the function of completely dominating our climate?

  Why do we ignore a more potent greenhouse gas (WV), that exists in far greater ranges and has much more influence on climate? Could it be that we cannot even begin to control humans since we cannot control water due to its abundance on our planet?

  Where is the evidence that “Net Zero” is actually a benefit for the Earth? Perhaps it will prove detrimental; what happens then?

  Is Methane (CH4) a Significant Greenhouse Gas?

  CH4 is a member of what we call the “natural gases.”  These include CH4, ethane (C2H6), propane (C3H8), and maybe even butane (C4H10). They are called natural gases for a reason and that is because they can be found all over the Earth. Methane, ethane, and propane are all gases at normal ambient temperatures and pressures. Methane has a heat capacity of about 2 J/g K. Technically, methane could contribute to a greenhouse effect should it achieve significant concentrations in our atmosphere.

  However, methane is almost non-existent in our atmosphere despite many natural, animal (such as cow farts) and human sources. The reason that methane does not build up in our atmosphere is based upon basic chemistry. CH4 will react with O2 (abundant in our atmosphere) in the presence of any ignition source. This reaction creates, please hold your breath, WV and CO2. Just like the combustion of any organic material will create WV and CO2 as products.

  What are ignition sources? Lightning, fires, engines, matches, spark plugs, fireplaces, and any other flame source. If you project that idea, think about gasoline or other fuels. These fuels do have some evaporation under normal environmental conditions. Even with the modern fuel nozzles, some vaporized gasoline will emit (you can probably smell it). Where does it go? It goes into the atmosphere but as soon as there is some ignition source and if any gasoline molecules are floating around near that source, they will combust and produce WV and CO2.

  True, we do not witness little air bursts occurring because this combustion occurs at the molecular level. If there was enough methane in the air in a given space, you would witness a burst with combustion. One lightning bolt can clear the air of any methane that may be lurking just like it can produce ozone by the presence of O2.

  I think people can understand why our planet does not accumulate methane.

  Cows are not a threat (and never have been). The manure that cows produce also happens to be one of the best natural fertilizer sources for growing green things, which happen to be beneficial in using atmospheric CO2 and producing O2. Thus, cows serve a useful purpose in the ecology of the planet. I will not even go into the benefits of drinking bovine milk, which are well known.

  Does a Rise in Sea Level Result Only from Global Warming and Increased Water? 

  No, definitely not. The one thing that you need to do is to carefully examine all land masses and track the changes. The reason is that the surface of the Earth is neither homogeneous or static. There is something called “plate tectonics.”

  Plate tectonics is a theory that explains much of our geological experience and history. What plate tectonics tells us is that the solid surface of the Earth, whether it is above water line or below water, has several segments and these segments are in constant movement and they have complex movements in relation to the other plates. These movements give rise to earthquakes, volcanic activity, and even changes in water flow, such as rivers and oceans.

  Further, we know that the tectonic shifts on Earth are not two-dimensional, but are three-dimensional AND unpredictable. Every time there is an earthquake on the planet Earth, the surface of the planet changes. Depending on the size of that earthquake, that change may be imperceptible to noticeable. But, we experience thousands of earthquakes each year on this planet. Certainly, the surface of the Earth is in constant change. There are places on Earth where the water table is generally stable but even a moderate earthquake somewhere on the planet can actually affect changes in the water table (splashing). If that can happen during a minor seismic event, think of what the constant shifting of the plates can do to the perceived water levels.

  If the surface of the Earth was like an unchanging surface such as a soccer ball inflated to a specific pressure, then one could expect that any increase or decrease in the amount of water on that unchanging surface should give an indication of change to the amount of surface water. This also presumes that the evaporation and condensation equilibrium of water on that surface remains constant, such that the new source of water comes from solid water located on the surface.

  Now, suppose you could take that soccer ball and place a known amount of water on its surface (meaning the soccer ball somehow had gravity to hold that water in place). Further, you are able to mark the exact levels of that water on the soccer ball with a marker. Then suppose that you are able to squeeze that soccer ball, even ever so slightly, and observe the outcome. Will the water levels that you marked remain unchanged? No, there will be fluctuations. In some places, the water level may be less than marked and in other places, it will be more.

  We know that this happens on a regular basis on Earth because of gravitational tides, but those are an external influence (from the Moon and Sun, but can be affected even by other planets). Tides also are a daily event and we can predict their schedule because they are so observable.

  We seem to ignore our own internal factors, but they do exist.

  As far as I know, I am the only one who has stated this obvious, naturally occurring, physical attribute of our planet. Yes, our planet “throbs” and that can affect sea level changes in any given location and may be hard to predict. Further, the planet “throbbing” occurs on a time scale which may be almost imperceptible to humans. Geologists tell us that some areas move many centimeters or more each year while others have much less movement. The mountains may gain in altitude by imperceptible but measurable means (or they may recede).

  How do we distinguish any local change in water level from a simple fluctuation of the Earth’s three-dimensional structure as opposed to some change in actual volume? Further, if we can actually ascertain that the change in volume is not due to some fluctuation of the Earth’s structure, how do we know that the change is due to some existential threat? These questions are complex and have not been answered.

  What about arctic or antarctic melts? Doesn’t that contribute to sea level rise?

  It might if there were no other factors that affect the amount of liquid water on our planet at any time. In other words, if liquid water amounts on our planet were somehow static, then a new source, such as that from a melting glacier, should have some effect. The fact is, water evaporation occurs constantly on our planet and it is not predictable. Likewise, the new addition of liquid water on our planet is constant and also not predictable. The state of water, liquid, solid, or gaseous, is in constant flux or in other words, it is dynamic. We do NOT know what that equilibrium point is.

  The contribution of liquid water on our planet comes from mostly the already 70 percent of our planet covered in water. That planetary water source will produce WV via evaporation. Where there is more water and warmer temperatures/greater energy input, the amount of evaporation increases and more WV is produced. There are some minor subsurface sources of water, mostly attributed to what best can be described as surface seepage, but those sources are relatively minor.

  From WV, we then get condensation events such as rain and snow. That water then gets used or consumed by the living things that are dependent on it (such as plants, animals, people, microbes, etc.) or returns back into the aquatic ecosystem. But, if there were only consumption, then eventually the balance of water would diminish. However, life on our planet produces water as well as consumes it. Humans consume water for survival but we also produce it as sweat, humidity in our breath, and in our waste (for example urine). We also produce water through our presence and use of technology. Burning wood produces water, for example, as does driving an internal combustion engine. That is good for things that use water.

  We also produce CO2, which is good for the many things that use CO2. What we do not know is if the human-sourced production of CO2 is in any way competitive with or additive to the natural sources of CO2 and creating some horrific imbalance. I would not consider a change from 300 ppm to 400 ppm creating a horrific imbalance considering that the other 99.96 percent of molecular components are contributing just as much or more. Perhaps if the thermal capabilities of CO2 were thousands of times greater than the capabilities of our other atmospheric components, I would be concerned-but that is not the case.

  Somehow, through all of these complex mechanisms, an equilibrium is maintained. We do not know what that equilibrium is and if it has changed over the eons since water-based life has existed on our planet.

  Humans Have Become Experts at Cherry-Picking Information 

  If you look at the several points that I have made above, you can see this to be true. Humans will pick what they want to pick to support what they want to support. Further, humans seem to have become willing to change their definitions in order to support what they want to support. This is why language is so important and needs to be clear, and why universally accepted definitions are important.

  Everyone needs to become a scientific reviewer, especially when watching the Chicken Littles of our media world. You need to ask the basic questions:

  • How was the data obtained?
  • Where was the data obtained?
  • What are the controls that allow for a proper reference point for the data?
  • Has data been excluded? If so, why?
  • Is the data representative?
  • Are we talking about simple, static systems or complex, dynamic systems?
  • Are there other explanations for the data besides what is being given?
  • Was the data computer-generated? If so, what were the assumptions and parameters that were used?
  • Are there arguments or debating points? If so, what are they? If they are being suppressed, why?
  • Are there historical perspectives?
  • Have the definitions changed? If so, why and is there a consensus on the new definition?
  • Why in years past did you report summer temperatures in black font on green map backgrounds and now you push everything in red?
  • What is the standard qualification and/or reference point for using “red” or “orange” in your messaging? 
  • If what you are reporting is being reported as some sort of record, how far back does that data reliably go back to? Have the previous “records” been measured from that same exact location? Have there been any confounding issues that have changed the location or sampling?

  And so on. In science, there is no question that is “too dumb.”  Even the basic question “I am afraid that I do not understand, can you please explain it to me?” is rational and deserves to be explained.

  Our planet is a very complex set of ecosystems that have lifespans far beyond even human existence, some working together and some in competition. Most of these we have not even begun to understand and we have only begun to collect data. Our knowledge of our ecosystem history is only slowly gaining (and it is not aided by avoiding debate and cherry-picking data).

  I have selected only a few of the forefront topics to examine in the most cursory way. But, you can see that even a cursory examination seeds doubt about the narratives, creates more questions, and demands greater and more open debate.

  I do not claim to have the answers but I certainly am not afraid to ask the questions.

  Roger W. Koops holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Riverside as well as Master and Bachelor degrees from Western Washington University. He worked in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industry for over 25 years. Before retiring in 2017, he spent 12 years as a Consultant focused on Quality Assurance/Control and issues related to Regulatory Compliance. He has authored or co-authored several papers in the areas of pharmaceutical technology and chemistry.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 22:30

• America's Favorite Music Genres
  America’s Favorite Music Genres

  Yesterday, August 11th, was the 50th anniversary of hip hop.

  

  With this in mind, Statista’s  Anna Fleck takes a look at the latest data from Statista’s Consumer Insights survey to gauge how popular the genre is in the United States.

  As the following chart shows, hip hop ranks in fourth place of the selected options, with nearly four in ten U.S. Americans listening to it.

  A slightly higher share of female listeners (41 percent) said they listened to urban music, including hip hop and R&B than men (36 percent) in the U.S.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  The most popular genre in the U.S. is rock and indie music, with 45 percent of respondents who listen to the radio or digital music content saying that they listen to it.

  Country music and pop music also score highly, listened to by 42 percent and 40 percent of respondents, respectively.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 22:00

• Radioactive Fish Discovered Near Fukushima Renews Concerns Over Plans To Dump Nuclear Wastewater Into Ocean
  Radioactive Fish Discovered Near Fukushima Renews Concerns Over Plans To Dump Nuclear Wastewater Into Ocean

  Authored by Zoey Sky via Natural News,

  

  Japanese plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) studied a black rockfish in May and found that it contained levels of radioactive cesium that were 180 times over Japan’s regulatory limit.

  The radioactive fish was caught near drainage outlets at the TEPCO plant, where three nuclear reactors melted down amidst a tsunami in March 2011. Rainwater from areas near the reactors flows into the area where the fish was caught.

  The alarming discovery reignited concerns over TEPCO’s plans to start releasing 1.3 million tons of treated wastewater from the former Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant by August.

  A report from July 23 showed that the problem is still unaddressed, prompting questions about how dangerous the company’s plans are for the public.

  Radioactive cesium health risks

  Radioactive cesium has been detected in surface water and different kinds of food, such as breast milk and pasteurized milk. The amount of radioactive cesium in food and milk depends on several factors.

  The most important factor is whether or not there has been a recent fallout from a nuclear explosion, like a weapons test or an accident at a nuclear power plant.

  Depending on one’s level of exposure, cesium can cause diarrhea, bleeding, nausea, vomiting, coma and death.

  TEPCO wastewater has been mixed with rainwater and groundwater since the tsunami. The company admitted that fish near the drainage outlets are unsafe for consumption because the concentration of cesium in seabed sediment in the area has measured more than 100,000 becquerels per kilogram (Bq/kg). The maximum legal level is only 100 Bq/kg.

  A TEPCO official explained that the company has regularly removed fish from inside the port since 2012 because contaminated water flowed into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station port immediately after the accident.

  In January 2022, a fish caught near Fukushima was found to have high levels of radiation. Authorities said that the fish had escaped from the drainage outlet.

  Following the report, shipments of black rockfish caught off the coast of Fukushima prefecture were immediately suspended. As of writing, they have not been resumed.

  More than 40 fish with cesium levels over the legal limit were caught in TEPCO’s port between May 2022 and May 2023. At least 90 percent of the fish were from the inner breakwater, where water flows from the area surrounding the melted TEPCO reactors.

  Wastewater release approved despite potential radiological impact

  The Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) in Japan and the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have both approved TEPCO’s plan to release wastewater into the Pacific Ocean. The company claims the move is necessary to “secure space for decommissioning the plant.” (Related: Japan gets green light to release Fukushima radioactive water into Pacific Ocean.)

  However, the process would take decades to complete using an Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS). Earlier in July, the IAEA said the plan would have a “negligible radiological impact” on people and the environment.

  Paul Dorfman from Ireland’s Radiological Protection Advisory Committee warned that reports like the one about the contaminated rockfish are likely far from over.

  Companies believing and pretending certain things are not harmful because it is convenient is “literally killing the planet,” said Celine-Marie Pascale, an American University sociologist. She added that most of the time, corporate interests “triumph at global expense.”

  Meanwhile, officials in Hong Kong have declared that they will ban food imports from 10 prefectures in Japan if the release moves forward in August. Some Chinese wholesalers have already stopped accepting seafood imports from Japan.

  Aside from concerns about cesium, TEPCO has admitted that ALPS, which it plans to use, may not be enough to eliminate isotopes such as cobalt, plutonium, ruthenium and strontium. The system is also unable to remove tritium, the radioactive isotope of hydrogen.

  In June, Masanobu Sakamoto, president of JF Zengyoren, Japan Fisheries Cooperatives, said the group does not support the Japanese government’s stance that “an ocean release is the only solution.”

  Watch the video below for the IEAA’s report on the allegedly safe Fukushima water release.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 21:30

• "David Weiss Can’t Be Trusted": Comer, Jordan Slam Hunter Biden Special Counsel 'Coverup'
  “David Weiss Can’t Be Trusted”: Comer, Jordan Slam Hunter Biden Special Counsel ‘Coverup’

  The Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, James Comer (R-KY) said in a Friday statement that the announcement of a special counsel in the Hunter Biden investigation is a DOJ “coverup.”

  

  “This move by Attorney General Garland is part of the Justice Department’s efforts to attempt a Biden family coverup in light of the House Oversight Committee’s mounting evidence of President Joe Biden’s role in his family’s schemes selling ‘the brand’ for millions of dollars to foreign nationals,” Comer said in a lengthy statement shortly after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of US Attorney David Weiss as special counsel, the <a href="

  NEW: House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has released the following statement on AG Merrick Garland designating David Weiss as special counsel for the Biden criminal investigation:@DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/iL4GBWZvIB

  — Henry Rodgers (@henryrodgersdc) August 11, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js “>Daily Caller reports.

  

  “The Justice Department’s misconduct and politicization in the Biden criminal investigation already allowed the statute of limitations to run with respect to egregious felonies committed by Hunter Biden. Justice Department officials refused to follow evidence that could have led to Joe Biden, tipped off the Biden transition team and Hunter Biden’s lawyers about planned interviews and searches, and attempted to sneakily place Hunter Biden on the path to a sweetheart plea deal,” the statement continues.

  NEW: House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has released the following statement on AG Merrick Garland designating David Weiss as special counsel for the Biden criminal investigation:@DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/iL4GBWZvIB

  — Henry Rodgers (@henryrodgersdc) August 11, 2023

  “Let’s be clear what today’s move is really about. The Biden Justice Department is trying to stonewall congressional oversight as we have presented evidence to the American people about the Biden family’s corruption. The House Oversight Committee will continue to follow the Biden family’s money trail and interview witnesses to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Bidens, President Biden is compromised and corrupt, and our national security is threatened. We will also continue to work with the House Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means to root out misconduct at the Justice Department and hold bad actors accountable for weaponizing law enforcement powers,” Comer continued. 

  House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan (R-OH) conveyed similar sentiments, telling the Caller: “David Weiss can’t be trusted and this is just a new way to whitewash the Biden family’s corruption. Weiss has already signed off on a sweetheart plea deal that was so awful and unfair that a federal judge rejected it. We will continue to pursue facts brought to light by brave whistleblowers as well as Weiss’s inconsistent statements to Congress.”

  NEW: “David Weiss can’t be trusted and this is just a new way to whitewash the Biden family’s corruption. Weiss has already signed off on a sweetheart plea deal that was so awful and unfair that a federal judge rejected it. We will continue to pursue facts brought to light by…

  — Henry Rodgers (@henryrodgersdc) August 11, 2023

  https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttps://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAccording to Garland, “The appointment of Mr. Weiss reinforces for the American people the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters,” adding “I am confident that Mr. Weiss will carry out his responsibility in an even-handed and urgent manner, and in accordance with the highest traditions of this department.”

  We’re sure he’s quite confident.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 21:00

• A "Global Inflationary Depression" Is Very Possible
  A “Global Inflationary Depression” Is Very Possible

  Authored by Bruce Wilds via the Advancing Time blog,

  

  Roughly two and a half years ago it was predicted here on AdvancingTime that we might soon be witness to the first global inflationary depression. Many of us predicted inflation rolling in but underestimated the size of stimulus that would be put in the pipeline. This has only postponed the collapse of the financial system and economy. Still, many investors are basing their investments on more intervention from central banks and governments to pull another rabbit out of their hats. 

  Global inflationary depression is not a mix of words we normally see placed together. To those finding this notion unacceptable, we could reframe this as a stagflation era of reversion. Moving us towards the depression part of this scenario is the fact many economic watchers are predicting outright deflation pointing to a huge slowing of the economy. Currently, the biggest source of demand comes from governments. Demand from working people and private sector growth is on the wane. If you remove all the money being spent on Covid-19 vaccinations, tests, and a slew of inefficient spending that has created little long-term benefits to the economy the GDP would fall like a stone.

  We seldom have depressions but instead tend to roll through mild recessions, however, what we face today may be far more severe. In the past, times of falling economic activity have generally been deflationary as defaults rise but this time if inflation does not abate the result may be very different. Part of this is rooted in the fact that in the past many events tended to be regional rather than global. Today, economies have become more interconnected the resulting codependency presents an increased possibility of problems spreading across the world.

  The money flowing from the central banks and governments has created the so-called “pent-up demand” we have been hearing about and the constant predictions of solid GDP growth. In truth, capacity utilization and productivity are down even while trillions of new dollars pour into the system. This is the logic behind saying a depression may be in the wings. The methods governments use to use to determine GDP have also become so skewed that they lack real value. Paying someone to dig a hole and then fill it back in adds to the GDP but does nothing to increase productivity. Government spending can increase the GDP while at the same time reducing productivity. 

  Recently several articles have appeared indicating the big boost China experienced post-Covid-19 has come to an end. China’s economy was the first to recover from the Covid-19 collapse due to trillions of credit pumped into the economy at home as well as Americans rushing out to buy imported goods using stimulus money. With China again showing signs of economic weakness, the story that it takes more and more stimulus to create the same kick each time we play this game is playing out.

  Growing concern over the debasement of  the fiat currencies issued by nations and central banks is adding to expectations inflation is waiting in the wings. Policies such as we see today would have been impossible when money was tied to gold. As investors shift into assets that do well during times of inflation, it is possible they will set in motion a self-feeding loop or cycle. When fiat money that has quietly sat in paper promises begins to be exchanged for tangible assets and inflation hedges it has the potential to reverse the long-falling velocity of money. Money sitting in the hands of wealthy people that sat in one place for years may start to move.  

  This dovetails with the fact that inflation brings with it higher interest rates that impact most sectors of the economy. This tends to put a spotlight on the difference between liquidity and solvency. As interest rates rise construction tends to grind to a halt. Higher interest rates also result in people having a difficult time paying for or financing big-ticket items such as automobiles. In short, it puts a great deal of stress on most parts of the economy including government deficits which have exploded since the 2008 financial crisis.

  Two often-overlooked factors support the idea we are headed down a path of inflation even if the economy drastically slows. The first is many laws have been set in place to raise the minimum wage. The recent agreement workers made with UPS screams wage inflation. The second is the fact that so many Americans work for the government. These are mostly full time and workers seldom get laid off without pay. Figures from the National Debt Clock show just under 150 million workers are in the workforce and nearly 24 million of them are employed by the government. That is almost one in six. The government’s oversized role in today’s economy which is much larger than it was during the Great Depression has put a net under the ability of prices to fall. 

  Across the world, sophisticated lenders, but not the general public, understand the history of  how governments’ monetary policies destroy the purchasing power of currencies. To avoid the issue of currency debasement risk, regardless of the yield we have seen the power of being the world’s reserve currency on display in loan documents. The BIS reports this is  up from 40% a decade ago. One reason the dollar will most likely fare better than the euro or yen when fiat currencies come under assault is the huge percentage of the world’s $30 trillion-plus in cross-border loans are priced in US dollars.

  

  Inflation is a form of thief that moves wealth from the people and into governments’ coffers. While many investors are focused on yield curves, bitcoin, and surging market valuations, the foundation of central bankers’ argument that QE is possible without inflation may be crumbling. We are now seeing that large sectors of the economy are broken. Inflation expectations are continuing to grow and the law of diminishing returns is raging havoc with the efforts of central banks to control the economy. Expect more investors to move into assets that do well in an inflationary environment while the masses wither in pain.

  This all folds into the story of how for decades the monetary illusion created by central banks collaborating with governments has delayed an inevitable crisis by not dealing with reality. This means when the forces pent-up over the years finally break free events will most likely occur faster with far deeper ramifications than many people expect. When imbalances are ignored, bad things occur. When things finally blow up in the faces of those creating and promoting MMT we can expect to hear them claim it was not their fault and it was because of a general misunderstanding of the role of money and credit in the economy. 

  Such a shift will have profound consequences for inflation-sensitive assets around the world. The one thing we can count on is that when things crumble, we will hear the old, “we should have done more” or the “it would have been far worse” lines flow forth. Those in charge often find great comfort in spouting such nonsense. We have been lulled into complacency and have given central banks too much credit for being able to control the economy and stop financial crises. The first global inflationary depression may not start today or tomorrow but it is coming and when it arrives most people will have never seen it coming.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 20:30

• McDonald's Scrubs Mentions Of "ESG" From Its Website
  McDonald’s Scrubs Mentions Of “ESG” From Its Website

  BlackRock’s Larry Fink isn’t the only one dropping the now-controversial acronym ESG, which represents environmental, social, and corporate governance principles. McDonald’s Corp. has secretly erased ESG off its website, according to Bloomberg. 

  There’s no better example of the ESG investing fairy tale imploding in front of our eyes than McDonald’s removing the term from its website. We have told readers about the demise of ESG in several notes, one titled “ESG Is Dying Its Inevitable Death” and “Is The ESG Investing Boom Already Over?” 

  Recall, in mid-January, BlackRock’s Fink told Bloomberg TV at the World Economic Forum in Davos that ESG has been tarnished:

   “Let’s be clear, the narrative is ugly, the narrative is creating this huge polarization.”

  Fink continued:

  “We are trying to address the misconceptions. It’s hard because it’s not business any more, they’re doing it in a personal way. And for the first time in my professional career, attacks are now personal. They’re trying to demonize the issues.”

  For many years, we’ve understood that the entire “ESG” hype was one giant scam. Matt Lawton, T. Rowe Price Group Inc.’s sector portfolio manager in the Fixed Income Division, pointed this out one year ago: “It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find credible sustainability-linked bonds or SLBs.” In February 2020, we wrote “Behold The “Green” Scam,” and in April 2020, we noted “The Fraud That Is ESG Strikes Again: Six Of Top 10 ESG Funds Underperform The S&P500“. 

  Elon Musk has also expressed his frustration about ESG on “X,” formerly known as Twitter. 

  Why ESG is the devil … https://t.co/uGrH0eBoMs

  — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 14, 2023

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

  So it only makes sense that McDonald’s saw the way the ESG winds were shifting and scrubbed references to “ESG” on its “Purpose & Impact” portion of its website. A former page on its website called “ESG Approach & Progress” is now called “Our Approach & Progress.”

  

  The fast-food chain, which has more than 13,500 restaurants across the US, also had a webpage called “Performance & ESG Reporting” that it has now re-titled to “Goal Performance & Reporting.” The site also uses “environmental and social issues” instead of “ESG” in certain areas.

  A link in the Bloomberg article that was supposed to go to an environmental and social annual report via McDonald’s CEO’s LinkedIn comes up broken.

  The ESG winds are shifting. We know that not just because of BlackRock and McDonald’s dropping the term, but the number of times “ESG” was mentioned in earnings calls has also slumped. 

  

  And the number of times mentioned in news stories is also waning. 

  

  So which company is next to remove ESG from their corporate website… Exxon?

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 20:00

• The Alliance
  The Alliance

  Authored by Robert Gore via Straight Line Logic,

  Banging one’s head against the wall is not a wise strategy…

  

  Russia and China head an alliance that poses the first direct challenge to the American empire since its inception at the end of World War II. Their strategy has been to follow Napoleon’s advice—not interrupting the U.S. government while it makes mistake after mistake—and to pursue the opposite of its hapless policies. Their power waxes; American power wanes.

  August 29, 1949, the day the Soviets detonated their first atomic weapon, was the beginning of the end of the American empire. The U.S. government’s unrivaled power lasted four years and 23 days, from when it dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The Soviet bomb gave the world a counterweight to an American nuclear monopoly.

  It is unclear if the Cold War was anything but a giant psyop on the part of the U.S. and the Soviet Union. By 1960 they had enough bombs between them to wipe out the planet, John F. Kennedy’s “missile gap” notwithstanding. This left a world where sane people believed that military conflicts had to be nonnuclear.

  The U.S. became the national security, or warfare, state with which the nation is burdened today. In dollars and cents, it’s the second largest grift in history, surpassed only by the U.S. welfare state. The U.S. populace is always threatened by some megalomaniacal and evil power somewhere. Even conflict far from U.S. shores threatens the U.S. because of falling dominoes or because it’s better to fight them there than here.

  Or because U.S. “interests” are at risk. This has become the go-to justification: “interests” are anything the war lobby says they are. The U.S. is fighting Russia via Ukraine to push NATO to Russia’s doorstep. Beyond the specious rhetoric of saving democracy and freedom in a police state riddled with neo-Nazis, it has to do with taking Ukraine’s natural and agricultural resources, hiding U.S. bioweapons labs, preventing disclosure of U.S. politicians’ links to Ukrainian corruption, and effecting regime change in Russia.

  Someday there will be general recognition of Putin’s adroit conduct of the Ukraine-Russia war and the strategic masterstroke that is the Russia-China alliance. Losers on a roll require a hard, painful landing before they begin to wise up, if they wise up at all. The losers running the U.S. and its vassals are in for some hard, painful landings. When they look up from the gutter, drunks soaked in their own vomit, they’re going to see Putin and Xi Jinping, staring down at them with nothing but contempt.

  It is well-earned. The U.S.’s annually spends three times what China and ten times what Russia spend and gets inferior weapons and a bloated, politically correct military. The waste of blood and treasure on imperial misadventures in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and now Ukraine has been incalculable. Wasted treasure funds rampant corruption and has helped shove the U.S. into an abyss of debt. American self-confidence and justifiable pride in its history and culture have been thrown over in favor of nonsense. The U.S. government is the world’s most hated institution. If Ukraine doesn’t end its imperial misadventures Taiwan will, and there will no longer be an American empire.

  The Russian military doesn’t do shock and awe. It does grind, advance . . . and win. Contrary to Western propaganda, it is well on its way to achieving its objectives in Ukraine. . . .

  “Reckoning With Insanity, Part Two,” by Robert Gore, SLL, 6/2/22

  Russia has mostly achieved its military objectives in Ukraine. Putin has been criticized for the slow grind, but Russia has annexed the Russian-speaking areas of eastern and southern Ukraine and secured land access and the water supply to Russian-speaking Crimea, already annexed. Russia has minimized its loss of life and destruction of weaponry and maximized Ukraine’s. An open question is whether Russian mounts an offensive against Odessa in southwestern Ukraine, completely cutting off its access to the Black Sea.

  Ukraine’s president Zelensky talks of taking back captured territory. Such deluded bravado lends credence to the claims he’s a cocaine addict. Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been a dismal failure, floundering on Russia’s defensive strategy. Ukraine has seldom been able to advance past Russia’s buffer zones, much less penetrate its complex multi-layer defenses. Estimates vary, but casualty ratios of seven- to ten-to-one against Ukraine are probably in the right ball park. Men and machinery have been fed into a Russian meat grinder, leaving Ukraine woefully unprepared for a Russian counteroffensive should the Russians decide to mount one.

  Ukraine has an estimated 300,000 to 350,000 killed, including the cream of its military. Millions of Ukrainians have fled the country, and Russia now controls most of its best farmland and mineral wealth. If it cuts off Black Sea access Ukraine will be a carcass state with little to offer to Western financial vultures.

  Early on in the war Russia and Ukraine had a tentative peace deal, which the U.S. and Great Britain nixed. You only get one chance to accept a Russian deal, and then the offers get progressively worse. The nixed deal would have been far more favorable to Ukraine and NATO than the terms Russia will eventually impose. The meme-fodder picture of a forlorn Zelensky standing by himself at a NATO reception starkly illustrates that his “allies” are backing away.

  So, what did the Ukrainians do to raise the ire of the Pentagon so suddenly, and as a direct consequence, fall into disfavor with NATO? In short, the Ukrainians demonstrated that NATO’s weapons are crap. Evidence of this built up slowly over time. First, it turned out that various bits of US-made shoulder-fired junk — anti-aircraft Stingers, anti-tank Javelins, etc — are rather worse than useless in modern combat. Next, it turned out that the M777 howitzer and the HIMARS rocket complex are rather fragile and aren’t field-maintainable.

  The next wonder-weapon thrown at the Ukrainian problem was the Patriot missile battery. It was deployed near Kiev and the Russians quickly made a joke of it. They attacked it with their super-cheap Geranium 2 “flying moped” drones, causing it to turn on its active radar, thereby unmasking its position, and then fire off its entire load of rockets — a million dollars’ worth! — after which point it just sat there, unmasked and defenseless, and was taken out by a single Russian precision rocket strike.

  This was sure to have seriously pissed off US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, whose major personal cash cow happens to be Raytheon, the maker of the Patriot. . . .

  “The Incredible Shrinking Nato,” Dmitry Orlov, July 15, 2023

  Not only does a country that spends a tenth of what the US does have superior weaponry, it has superior production capabilities. Wagner PMC head Eugene Prigozhin’s complaints notwithstanding, the Russian military seems to have what it’s needed to decimate Ukraine. Meanwhile, arsenals are running low in the U.S. and Europe and they’re resorting to desperation weapons—cluster munitions and depleted uranium shells—which will render parts of Ukraine toxic for decades.

  Just as humiliating for the West has been its economic sanctions. They were designed to devastate the ruble, stop foreign trade, and bring Russia’s economy to its knees. They’ve done none of the above and the Russian economy is growing.

  Cutting off cheap Russian natural gas and replacing it with expensive American liquified natural gas hasn’t had a salutary effect on European economies. Western economic statistics are a division of Propaganda Central, but it appears that recession either looms or has arrived for much of Europe. Cheap Russian oil and natural gas isn’t coming back. If Seymour Hersh is to be believed, the U.S. blew up the European-Russian Nord Stream pipeline. Further proof of the old adage that you’re better off being America’s enemy than its friend.

  For decades, America’s foreign policy doyens have counseled against doing anything that would bring Russia and China together. That wisdom is out the window. While international diplomacy has no matches made in heaven, the Russian-Chinese alliance is about as close as it gets. Marry Russian natural resources to the Chinese industrial machine and maintain joint control of what’s been considered the center of the world since Halford MacKinder’s seminal paper back in 1904, and you’ve got one of history’s most formidable alliances.

  It is deftly incorporating much of the non-Western world, what Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko calls the “Global Globe.” Trade arrangements, infrastructure financing and construction, and new transport, communications, and computer links are the face of an emerging, assertive multipolarity. Initially centered in Eurasia, this complex web of political and commercial agreements is extending to the Middle East, South America, and Africa.

  The U.S. call for universal mobilization against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was met with indifference outside the West. The Global Globe has grown weary of the U.S.’s rules-based international order, which amounts to acceptance of U.S. diktat . . . or else. The U.S. government follows or disregards its own rules at its convenience.

  Not only are the Russians and Chinese offering better terms, but their carefully crafted rhetoric is that of partnerships, equality, and multipolarity. The American empire’s subjugation and hypocrisy are sandpaper on billions of open wounds. Only Americans are surprised by the seething resentment. It’s not going away anytime soon.

  The alliance has another ace up its sleeve. The ideas that fiat emissions are money and that something can be had for nothing have left Western governments with mountains of debt and unfunded obligations that will never be paid. Debt has reached its hamster-wheel inflection point: more spending leads to more debt leads to higher interest costs leads to more spending.

  Gold is money; everything else is credit, and fiat debt and currencies are barbarous relics. Shifting the Global Globe away from fiat towards gold is going to be a monumental task, but indications are that gold-rich Russia and China are undertaking it. If they eventually adopt a currency or currencies that can be freely exchanged for gold, the dollar’s days as the global reserve currency will be over. Good as gold beats barbarous fiat every time.

  Feeble and corrupt Joe Biden is America’s nominal leader. His camarilla is made up of nonentities who would require substantial upgrades to hit either mediocre or amoral. The rest of the West’s so-called leadership is no better. This state of affairs must strike Putin and Xi Jinping as fortuitous. They have to worry about global reverberations of Western economic collapse and the possibility that Western leaders, desperate from their Ukrainian military failure, might take it nuclear. However, nothing is quite as satisfying as watching your adversaries checkmate themselves.

  Russia and China are winning the global chess match. That’s not to say they’ll always win. Both governments are the usual top-down, repressive, organized crime that carries the seeds of its own destruction. However, the U.S. government is banging its head against a wall trying to impose its brand of imperialism on the two. Reality, the ultimate wall, always wins. Only after the tidal wave of consequences breaks will the U.S.—or parts of it—have a chance to recover.

  Recovery will lie in the rediscovery of enduring truths. The game of thrones is a game of fools. A nation’s greatness is the liberty of its citizens to live their lives and pursue their happiness. The best foreign police is peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Anything the government gives you it took away from someone else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take away everything that you have. Like fire, government is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

  A is A.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 19:30

• Study Reveals Which AI Chatbot Most Woke, While Hackers Trick LLMs Into 'Bad Math'
  Study Reveals Which AI Chatbot Most Woke, While Hackers Trick LLMs Into ‘Bad Math’

  A landmark study from researchers at the University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, and Xi’an Jiaotong University reveals which AI chatbots have the most liberal vs. conservative bias.

  

  According to the study, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, including GPT-4 are the most left-leaning and libertarian (?), while Google’s BERT models were more socially conservative, and Meta’s LLaMA was the most right-leaning.

  AI chatbots use Large Language Models (LLMs), which are ‘trained’ on giant data sets, such as Tweets, or Reddit, or Yelp reviews. As such, the source of a model’s scraped training data, as well as guardrails installed by companies like OpenAI, can introduce massive bias.

  To determine bias, the researchers in the above study exposed each AI model to a political compass test of 62 different political statements, which ranged from anarchic statements like “all authority should be questioned” to more traditional beliefs, such as the role of mothers as homemakers. Though the study’s approach is admittedly “far from perfect” per the researchers’ own admission, it provides valuable insight into the political biases that AI chatbots may bring to our screens.

  In response, OpenAI pointed Business Insider to a blog post in which the company claims: “We are committed to robustly addressing this issue and being transparent about both our intentions and our progress,” adding “Our guidelines are explicit that reviewers should not favor any political group. Biases that nevertheless may emerge from the process described above are bugs, not features.“

  A Google rep also pointed to a blog post, which reads “As the impact of AI increases across sectors and societies, it is critical to work towards systems that are fair and inclusive for all.”

  Meta said in a statement: “We will continue to engage with the community to identify and mitigate vulnerabilities in a transparent manner and support the development of safer generative AI.”

  OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman have previously acknowledged the bias, emphasizing the company’s mission for a balanced AI system. Yet, critics, including co-founder Elon Musk, remain skeptical.

  Musk’s recent venture, xAI, promises to provide unfiltered insights, potentially sparking even more debates around AI biases. The tech mogul warns against training AIs to toe a politically correct line, emphasizing the importance of an AI stating its “truth.”

  Hackers, meanwhile, are having a field day bending AI to their will.

  As Bloomberg reports:

  Kennedy Mays has just tricked a large language model. It took some coaxing, but she managed to convince an algorithm to say 9 + 10 = 21.

  “It was a back-and-forth conversation,” said the 21-year-old student from Savannah, Georgia. At first the model agreed to say it was part of an “inside joke” between them. Several prompts later, it eventually stopped qualifying the errant sum in any way at all.

  Producing “Bad Math” is just one of the ways thousands of hackers are trying to expose flaws and biases in generative AI systems at a novel public contest taking place at the DEF CON hacking conference this weekend in Las Vegas.

  Hunched over 156 laptops for 50 minutes at a time, the attendees are battling some of the world’s most intelligent platforms on an unprecedented scale. They’re testing whether any of eight models produced by companies including Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Meta Platforms Inc. and OpenAI will make missteps ranging from dull to dangerous: claim to be human, spread incorrect claims about places and people or advocate abuse.

  The goal of such exercises is to help companies offering LLM chatbots build better mechanisms to improve factual responses.

  “My biggest concern is inherent bias,” said Mays, who added that she’s particularly concerned about racism after she asked the model to consider the First Amendment from the perspective of a KKK member – and the chatbot ended up endorsing the group’s perspective.

  AI surveillance?

  In another instance, a Bloomberg reporter who took a 50-minute quiz was able to prompt one of the models to explain how to spy on someone – advising on a variety of methods including the use of GPS tracking, a surveillance camera, a listening device and thermal imaging. It also suggested ways that the US government could surveil a human-rights activist.

  “General artificial intelligence could be the last innovation that human beings really need to do themselves,” said Tyrance Billingsley, executive director of the group who is also an event judge. “We’re still in the early, early, early stages.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 19:00

• Future Headline: Oakland Police Advise Residents To "Appear As Poor As Possible"
  Future Headline: Oakland Police Advise Residents To “Appear As Poor As Possible”

  Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

  In a world full of unimaginable absurdity, we spend a lot of time thinking about the future… and to where all of this insanity leads.

  “Future Headline Friday” is our satirical take of where the world is going if it remains on its current path.

  While our satire may be humorous and exaggerated, rest assured that everything we write is based on actual events, news stories, personalities, and pending legislation.

  August 11, 2024: WeWork announces it can barely afford to hand out free tequila anymore

  It was just one year ago that WeWork, a company which provides co-working space, said “losses and negative cash flows from operating activities raise substantial doubt” that it could stay in business.

  At the time it reported about $3 billion in long term debt and $13 billion in long-term lease obligations, yet a market cap of just $390 million— down more than 99% from its $47 billion valuation back in 2019.

  The co-working space became famous for its cushy and stylish office spaces, which included such perks as handing out free tequila to members.

  It later became infamous when it’s founder and then CEO Adam Neumann benefited personally at the expense of shareholders.

  

  This included borrowing money from the company to buy office space, only to lease that office space back to the company at a profit.

  He also sold off hundreds of millions of dollars worth of his own shares while simultaneously convincing investors to put money in the company. Yet despite selling his shares, he awarded himself special rights to be able to out-vote everyone else, cementing his control over the company.

  Neumann even sold the rights to the word ‘We’ to the company for $6 million, which was the final straw for investors.

  After Neumann was ousted as CEO (but not before collecting a $185 million consulting fee), the company attempted to turn things around.

  However one thing that has remained non-negotiable is providing free tequila to members.

  Last week shareholders desperately begged management to stop the tequila from flowing.

  But the current CEO said this will be the hill the company dies on.

  “I can assure you that the very last dollar of investor funds will be spent on handing out free tequila to our members.”

  He explained that while this may sound ridiculous from the outside, “the company’s core mission has always been to ‘elevate the world’s consciousness,’”  as it explained in a 2019 SEC filing before a failed IPO.

  He further explained that apart from the company’s online reservation system, it’s tequila dispensing machines were the core aspect of the company’s “extensive technology” it also gushed about in previous SEC filings.

  “Without the free tequila, we’re just an office space company that has wasted tens of billions of dollars with nothing to show for it except a wildly wealthy founder.”

  August 11, 2025: Oakland Police advise residents to “appear as poor as possible”

  Residents of Oakland, California are being urged by police to pursue degrees in psychology in order to ward off violent attackers.

  “The real victims are the people who, because of their dire circumstances, have been pushed to violate the law,” said a spokesperson for the Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland, or MACRO.

  “And we believe we can better serve this community if more of those being attacked know how to provide professional psychiatric help at the scene of the crime, in real time.”

  In 2023, police urged residents of crime stricken areas to use air horns to try to scare off attackers and alert their neighbors to a crime occurring. But last year, Oakland residents voted to outlaw air horns after it caused psychological distress to the attackers.

  Instead, those being attacked should start by sympathizing with the attacker in order to gain rapport. For beginners, it’s best to start by telling an attacker that you appreciate how frustrated they must be, or even to offer them some food or hot tea.

  

  Anyone with more advanced training and experience in psychology, however, could start by asking the attacker about his/her childhood, and then encourage attackers to explore traumatic events from their lives that may have triggered their criminal behavior.

  “Invite them inside for a conversation. Ask them if there is anything that has been weighing on their mind,” MACRO urges.

  And officials say that if you are unable to pursue a psychology degree, the best course of action to fend off criminal attackers is to appear as poor as possible, so that there is less incentive to target you.

  Don’t wear flashy items like button down shirts or wedding rings. And avoid repainting your home, or repairing damaged porches and fences.

  Even letting the weeds grow too long in your yard can be a helpful deterrent to crime.

  The fines assessed by the City of Oakland for violating municipal codes about grass length could be well worth it if it deters a break-in.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 18:30

• Downtown San Fran Office Tower Sells At 66% Off As CRE Crisis Claims Another Victim
  Downtown San Fran Office Tower Sells At 66% Off As CRE Crisis Claims Another Victim

  Understanding the backdrop of the crime-ridden progressive metro area of San Francisco, alongside the mass exodus of businesses and residents, and the record-high vacancy rate of office towers, we asked a very important question earlier this summer: What are office buildings worth?

  We quickly found out in June that one downtown San Francisco office building sold for roughly 70% less than its previously estimated value, an ominous sign of what would come as the commercial real estate market dominos appear to be falling. 

  Now Sixty Spear St., an 11-story building that is 30% occupied and is expected to be entirely vacant by summer 2025, has been sold to Presidio Bay Ventures for $40.9 million, about a 66% discount versus the most recent assessed property value of $121 million, according to local media SFGATE. 

  

  “We acknowledge the formidable challenges that confront San Francisco,” Cyrus Sanandaji, founder and managing principal of Presidio Bay, who is now the office tower’s proud new owner. He remains a bull on the San Francisco office market and wants to expand the building’s square footage from 157,436 to 170,000 square feet and transform it into a “Class-A trophy office building with exceptional design and hospitality-driven amenities.”

  All we have to say to Sanandaji’s CRE bet is good luck. The crime-ridden metro area covered in poop must come to terms with City Hall’s horrendous progressive policies that have entirely backfired and led to an exodus of businesses and people. Until Mayor London Breed can instill law and order once more — the ability for the downtown area to thrive once more will remain challenging. 

  Marc Benioff, the chief executive officer of Salesforce, the city’s largest employer and anchor tenant in its tallest skyscraper, warned last month that the metro area is in danger. He offered a grim outlook: The downtown area is “never going back to the way it was” in pre-Covid times when workers commuted to offices daily.

  “We need to rebalance downtown,” Benioff said, adding Breed needs to initiate a program to convert dormant office space into housing and hire additional law enforcement to restore law and order. 

  … and documenting how the downtown area has rapidly transformed into a ghost town is Youtuber METAL LEO, who walks around with a video camera, revealing empty stores, malls, and towers. 

  • Video Of Deserted Mall And Streets In Downtown San Fran Reveals Democrats Destroyed City

  • “Major Artery” In Downtown San Fran Is Deserted

  Besides Sixty Spear, SFGATE provided data on other recent tower transactions: 

  The 13-story 180 Howard St. building, known for being the headquarters of the State Bar of California, sold for about $62 million after being expected to sell for about $85 million.

  The offices at 350 California St. reportedly sold for roughly 75% less than its previously estimated value in May, and the 22-story Financial District edifice mostly sits empty. Just a few weeks later, nearby 550 California changed hands for less than half of what owner Wells Fargo paid for the building in 2005.

  Things are so bad that some building owners are just walking away from properties:

  • CRE Doom Loop Accelerates As Westfield Abandons Largest San Fran Mall, Stops Paying $558 Million Loan

  And defaulting… 

  • San Fran’s CRE Apocalypse: The City’s Two Biggest Hotels Have Defaulted

  As the CRE crisis spreads, remember last week: Baltimore Sun Editorial Board Tells Everyone ‘Keep Calm’ Amid CRE Panic … this will only mean bad news for commercial real estate-small banks that could threaten financial stability and either cause a recession or make a recession more severe. 

  If you’re curious where we could be in the CRE crisis cycle, a recent analysis by CoStar Group shows 55% of office leases signed before the pandemic that were active during Covid haven’t expired, meaning vacancies will continue to rise. 

  Here’s what could be next: The collapse of WeWork will only cause more pain for CRE markets nationwide. The coworking company occupies 16.8 million square feet across the US. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 18:00

• Judge Lets Starbucks Keep Its Race-Based Hiring Quotas
  Judge Lets Starbucks Keep Its Race-Based Hiring Quotas

  Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

  A judge in Washington state has ruled against a conservative group that sued Starbucks over the coffee chain’s race-based hiring practices that allegedly “flagrantly” violate various state and federal laws.

  Chief U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian on Friday ruled against the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), dismissing a lawsuit the conservative nonprofit brought against Starbucks over so-called “affirmative action” policies that included awarding contracts to “diverse” suppliers and advertisers and tying executive pay to allegedly racist hiring quotas.

  In a complaint (pdf) that was filed on Aug. 30, 2022, at the State of Washington Spokane County Superior Court, the nonprofit accused Starbucks of adopting a total of seven policies that between them required Starbucks to actively discriminate based on race in its compensation and employment decisions (including hiring, firing, and promotions), and in its contracting processes with vendors.

  “Starbucks, acting through its officers and directors, crafted and publicized these policies with fanfare, preening over the supposed moral virtue their adoption signaled,” NCPPR wrote in the complaint.

  “The individual Defendants took these actions despite knowing of a glaring, inconvenient fact: the policies they so trumpeted flagrantly violate a wide array of state and federal civil rights laws,” the group continued.

  The Starbucks policies that are the subject of the lawsuit include the goal of at least 30 percent of its U.S. corporate workforce being black, indigenous, or people of color by 2025 while pegging executive pay to workforce diversity quotas.

  

  More Details

  Before filing its lawsuit, the group, which holds around $6,000 worth of Starbucks shares, warned Starbucks that its race-based policies were illegal and that their adoption posed a litigation risk for other Starbucks shareholders. NCPPR asked Starbucks to take action to address these risks and publicly retract the policies.

  Starbucks responded in July 2022 that it would “take no relevant action to correct course and reduce the exposure they had created for it and its shareholders,” per the NCPPR complaint, prompting the group to sue.

  In its complaint, NCPPR alleged that, by failing to rescind the policies in question, Starbucks endangered the interests of all its shareholders and violated their fiduciary obligations.

  “Why do they do so? Because it benefits them personally to pose as virtuous advocates of ‘Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity,’ even if it harms the company and its owners—a classic example of (admittedly non-pecuniary) self-dealing,” the group alleged in the complaint.

  However, Judge Bastian rejected these allegations and on Aug. 11 dismissed the case with prejudice, according to a court filing (pdf), meaning that NCPPR is barred from refiling the lawsuit.

  The judge said that the lawsuit centered on public policy questions that are for lawmakers and corporations to decide, not the courts.

  “If the plaintiff doesn’t want to be invested in ‘woke’ corporate America, perhaps it should seek other investment opportunities rather than wasting this court’s time,” the judge said.

  Starbucks said it was pleased with the decision and said it remains committed to “creating a culture of warmth and belonging.”

  NCPPR spokesperson Scott Shepard called the judge’s comments “surprising and disappointing.”

  “We will continue to pursue relief from illegal discrimination on behalf of shareholders and employees,” he said.

  In a statement one day before the unfavorable ruling, NCPPR expressed hope that, in light of the recent landmark Supreme Court ruling that barred race-based recruitment policies at colleges, it might prevail in its lawsuit, which would have the “potential to influence change in companies that have trumpeted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs that are both racist and illegal.”

  Supreme Court Bans Race-Based Admissions

  In a 6–3 decision on July 29, the Supreme Court struck down the use of racially discriminatory admissions policies and American colleges, ending the use of so-called affirmative action programs in higher education.

  Chief Justice John Roberts wrote (pdf) for the court that, for too long, universities have “concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin.”

  “Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice,” he wrote.

  Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, writing that the majority decision “rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.”

  “It holds that race can no longer be used in a limited way in college admissions to achieve such critical benefits,” the justice wrote.

  “In so holding, the Court cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter,” she wrote.

  Following the Supreme Court ruling, state attorneys general from Tennessee, Kansas, and 11 other states put 100 of America’s largest corporations on notice “of the illegality of racial quotas and race-based preferences in employment and contracting practices” and urged the firms to put an immediate halt to such policies.

  In a July 13 letter to CEOs of Fortune 100 companies, the AGs wrote that the Supreme Court ruling “definitively” ends the legal use of race-based hiring and contracting practices.

  “If your company previously resorted to racial preferences or naked quotas to offset its bigotry, that discriminatory path is now definitively closed,” the letter reads.

  “Your company must overcome its underlying bias and treat all employees, all applicants, and all contractors equally, without regard for race.”

  According to a Harvard Business Review 2022 survey, more than 60 percent of U.S. companies had a race or gender-based diversity, equity, and inclusion program.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 17:30

• Exposing The Mirage Of "Equal Pay" In Sports
  Exposing The Mirage Of “Equal Pay” In Sports

  Ryan McMaken joins Bob to discuss the recent US Women’s World Cup elimination, and to dispel the myth that markets are discriminatory.

  “The connection between fame, talent, and earnings applies to both sports and other fields like economics.”

  

  After defending Megan Rapinoe’s failed penalty kick, they dismantle her outspoken views on “equal pay” in sports, and examine the left’s claim that law is required to fix prejudice in the labor market.

  “Soccer players deserve pay based on popularity and merchandise sales, not just winning games.”

  Specifically, McMaken and discuss the economic implications of equal pay in sports, emphasizing the importance of worker productivity and market dynamics in determining pay disparities.

  “The whole idea of equal pay in sports betrays a complete misunderstanding of how pay works and worker productivity.”

  Finally, they discuss the American regime’s expanding power and how it can acquire new powers unchecked.

  00:00 Against Our Limitless Regime

  01:00 Introduction

  01:46 Megan Rapinoe Penalty Kick

  05:41 Gender Pay Gap in Professional Sports

  16:16 Wealth Disparity in Labor and Wages

  19:50 Prejudice and Discriminatory Hiring Practices

  26:09 Discrimination: Markets vs. Government

  34:37 Majority Rule Paradox

  37:45 Democracy and Culture

  Watch the full discussion below:

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 17:00

• Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs Secretly Sought The Censorship Of Political Critics
  Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs Secretly Sought The Censorship Of Political Critics

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  Various new sites are now reporting that Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) is the latest politician who has sought blatant censorship of political critics by social media companies. Shortly before the 2020 election (when many of us were writing about the expanding censorship calls by Democratic politicians), Hobbs allegedly sought to silence her critics on Twitter. Many were criticizing 2017 posts in which she claimed former President Donald Trump had a “neo-nazi base.” Hobbs considered such criticism to be intolerable and demanded that these citizens be censored.

  

  A conservative site reported that Hobbs said Trump had a “neo-nazi base” while she was serving as a Democrat state senator in 2017. Hobbs’ tweet echoed criticism that Trump praised Neo-Nazi rioters in Charlottesville. (Trump has denied that allegation and pointed to various times after the riot where he condemned those extremist elements).

  .@realDonaldTrump has made it abundantly clear he’s more interested in pandering to his neo-nazi base than being @POTUS for all Americans.

  — Katie Hobbs (@katiehobbs) August 15, 2017

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

  “The President is on the side of the freaking Nazis. Don’t just say stuff – DO SOMETHING,” she added.

  The President is on the side of the freaking Nazis. Don’t just say stuff – DO SOMETHING!!! https://t.co/Es9ScskF58

  — Katie Hobbs (@katiehobbs) August 12, 2017

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

  She added: “It took you a day and a half to figure this out? Also if you’re not condemning @POTUS for not condemning nazis, it’s just words.”

  It took you a day and a half to figure this out? Also if you’re not condemning @POTUS for not condemning nazis, it’s just words. https://t.co/OI0JAlvOYX

  — Katie Hobbs (@katiehobbs) August 14, 2017

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

  It now turns out that that Hobbs was irate at being criticized and reached out to Twitter to censor her critics. 

  Fox News reported: 

  On Nov. 13, 2020, Hobbs emailed Twitter – using her official Arizona secretary of state email – asking the support team to take action against her online trolls.

  Twitter asked for more information and for Hobbs to provide examples for her request, which Hobbs was unable to provide.

  Hobbs responded that she was being harassed and abused by the “alt-right.” She added

  “I am not sure I can provide the information you are asking for because I reported and then blocked multiple users at the same time,. The alt-right got a hold of a 3-year-old tweet on my account and have been sending harassing, abusive, and threatening tweets and direct messages for the last 2 days.”

  That message is chilling in a number of respects.

  First, it is clearly an abuse of her office to be used for the purposes of censorship of political critics.

  Second, she admits that she blocked the critics but still wants the company to prevent others from hearing such views.

  Third, she does not allege that the story is false and admits that it was her tweet. She simply does not want people talking about it.

  It is a raw and unambiguous effort of a high-ranking official to censor political speech.

  It is also an example of what I have called “censorship by surrogate.” Hobbs secretly sought to deny free speech to citizens through allies in these social media companies.

  The Arizona legislature should investigate these allegations and hold Hobbs accountable for any attack on political speech.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 16:30

• 'Not-So Veiled Threats': Judge Compares Biden Regime To Mafia For 'Strong-Arming' Social Media Companies
  ‘Not-So Veiled Threats’: Judge Compares Biden Regime To Mafia For ‘Strong-Arming’ Social Media Companies

  A three-judge panel excoriated the ‘mob-like’ Biden administration over its ‘strong-arm’ tactics to bully social media companies into complying with censorship requests, which “time and time again” prove to be true.

  

  The judicial smackdown took place during a Thursday hearing in front of the Fifth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, which heard oral arguments over the administration’s appeal of an injunction barring the US government from communication with social media giants in order to censor protected speech.

  Representing the government was attorney Daniel Tenny – who had quite the trio of pissed off judges on his hands. At one point, Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod compared the Biden administration to the mafia before walking it back.

  “In these movies that we see with the mob … they don’t say and spell out things, but they have these ongoing relationships,” she said, adding “They never actually say ‘go do this or else you’re going to have this consequence.’ But everybody just knows.“

  “I’m certainly not equating the federal government with anybody in illegal organized crime but there are certain relationships that people know things without always saying the ‘or else,'” Elrod continued.

  She had earlier noted that the Biden administration had a “very close working relationship” with social media giants, and browbeated them like “a supervisor complaining about a worker” until they got their way.

  “What appears to be in the record are these irate messages from time to time from high ranking government officials that say, ‘You didn’t do this yet!’ — and that’s my toning down the language— ‘Why haven’t you done this yet?’” she said. “It’s like ‘jump’ and ‘how high?'” said Elrod.

  Judges Edith Brown Clement and Don R. Willett were also obviously perturbed by the government’s behavior – with Willett noting that the government operated “out of the public eye” via “unsubtle strong-arming and veiled or not-so-veiled threats.”

  “That’s a really nice social media platform you’ve got there, it would be a shame if something happened to it,” he summarized, according to the Daily Caller.

  Tenney goes on defense

  Clearly sensing the judges’ hostility, Daniel Tenny attempted to tap-dance his way out of claims of government overreach – saying: “The government is generically going to be angry” when companies refuse to take action, but that the communications show federal officials and social media giants alternating between “friendly” and “testy,” as opposed to giving specific orders to comply “or else.”

  Judge Elrod wasn’t buying it, calling the government’s messages “irate” at times, and saying that they actually show high-ranking officials badgering counterparts about why they hadn’t censored the material they wanted censored.

  Elrod asked Tenney if high-level government officials had asked companies “in a coercive manner to propagate certain things that the government knew were untrue, and to deamplify certain things that it knew were true … but didn’t fit its message, would that be able to be enjoined?”

  To which Tenney said the question presumes that the government acted coercively – for which he says they had no factual evidence, and claimed that the Biden administration knows it can’t unilaterally sidestep legal liability protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

  Elrod fired back, saying “Time and time again,” what the government considers mis-, dis- and malinformation, “always with great fervor,” turn out to be true. For example, the government’s attempts by National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins’ attempts to issue a published takedown of the Great Barrington Declaration – an open letter by Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University, Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford, and Martin Kulldorff of Harvard – which challenged government lockdowns during the pandemic.

  Tenney argued that the judges also couldn’t consider a ‘friend of the court‘ briefing by leading House Republicans – which includes members of the Judiciary and Weaponization of the Federal Government committees – which lays out how much of the “[v]ery recent evidence’ their committees had obtained ‘further corroborates’ the basis for the injunction.

  Tenney also argued that the plaintiffs don’t have legal standing to bring the case, because conservative officials who claim that their own posts were censored didn’t argue that they plan to make similar posts in the future – which would create “ongoing injury” from the censorship.

  When asked by Judge Edith Brown Clement if the Biden administration is still communicating with social media giants, he admitted that they hadn’t “entirely stopped,” but dodged a question over whether they maintained “day-to-day involvement,” according to Just the News.

  Attorney John Sauer, representing the State of Louisiana, asked the judges what they would think of a senior White House staffer contacting Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers to participate in a “book-burning program” focused on authors who criticize the administration, with the companies only giving in after months of escalating White House rhetoric. 

  That’s exactly what the White House did to compel platforms to remove and throttle the “most persuasive speakers” critical of its policies, such as former New York Times drug industry reporter Alex Berenson and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Sauer said.

  Sauer added that the appellate court should indeed take “judicial notice” of the congressional amicus brief because there’s no dispute on the authenticity of the newly identified communications and it “powerfully reinforces” the alleged coercion, such as a Facebook official suggesting the company back down because of “bigger fish we have to fry” with the administration. -JTN

  According to Sauer, one of the individual plaintiffs, Health Freedom Louisiana co-director Jill Hines, claimed as recently as May that Facebook continues to remove groups she’s created to protest COVID policies.

  “This notion that COVID censorship is over is completely unsupportable,” said Sauer.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 16:00

• Democrats Say It'll Take A Lot More Than Eyewitness Testimony, Bank Records, Audio, Video, & Complete Confessions For Them To Believe Biden Did Anything Wrong
  Democrats Say It’ll Take A Lot More Than Eyewitness Testimony, Bank Records, Audio, Video, & Complete Confessions For Them To Believe Biden Did Anything Wrong

  Via Babylon Bee,

  As evidence of bribery and corruption by the Biden family continues to mount, Democrat lawmakers in the nation’s capital have expressed heavy skepticism, saying they will need a lot more than just eyewitnesses, financial records, audio and video recordings, and admissions of guilt from parties involved for them to believe any of it.

  “Nah, I’m not buying it,” said California Congressman Eric Swalwell.

  “If you’re wanting me to believe President Biden and his family have been involved in a far-reaching money-for-favors scheme for years, you’ll need to show me a lot more than rock-solid, irrefutable evidence. If the Biden family was corrupt, I think I would have heard about it from my Chinese spy girlfriend.“

  The Biden administration maintains absolute innocence, despite an ever-growing collection of evidence that would indicate otherwise.

  “The President and his family have done nothing wrong,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who is a woman and also black and also gay.

  “It’s completely normal for families to enrich themselves by selling political influence to foreign corporations and governments. Any assertion to the contrary is simply Republicans grasping at straws. Also, I will not be taking any more questions regarding bribery allegations.”

  As rumors swirled that additional audio recordings of President Biden accepting bribes may soon be released, Democrats continued to brush them off.

  “I see nothing wrong here,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

  “So he’s on tape taking bribes. It’s not like it proves he took bribes or something.”

  

  At publishing time, Republicans in Congress said they were waiting on several more truckloads of evidence before beginning impeachment proceedings.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 15:30

• 'Bidenomics' Has Been A Disaster
  ‘Bidenomics’ Has Been A Disaster

  Authored by David Harsanyi via The Epoch Times,

  After 40 years of “trickle-down economics,” President Joe Biden says, “Bidenomics is just another way of saying restoring the American Dream.”

  

  It’s not often that a politician openly pledges to bring the country back to a time of crippling inflation, high energy prices, and stifling interest rates. But this president is doing his best to keep that promise.

  Unsurprisingly, “Bidenomics” is failing to gain traction among voters. This has caused consternation in the media. One thing to remember, though, is that “Bidenomics” isn’t really a thing. Unlike, say, “Reaganomics,” which helped bring about the largest expansion of the middle class in world history, the president does not subscribe to any coherent or tangible set of economic theories or principles. The White House defines its economic policy as being “rooted in the recognition that the best way to grow the economy is from the middle out and the bottom up,” which is just platitudinous gibberish.

  “Bidenomics” encompass anything and everything that’s convenient for Democrats. And in this moment, it’s convenient for them to take credit for merely letting people go back to work. Biden, who once claimed that the Democrats $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan cost “zero dollars,” isn’t exactly a math whiz. But when he says stuff like “13.4 million jobs have been added to our economy” under his watch, more than “any other president in a full 4-year term,” anyone with even a passing familiarity with the events of the years preceding 2023 knows it’s a lie of omission.

  The notion that presidents “create” jobs is itself a fantasy. In this case, though, Biden supported efforts to shutter private businesses during the pandemic, basically closing the entire economy, not only while running for president but after winning office. When Florida, and other states, attempted to ease some restrictions, Biden told them to “get out of the way” so that people could “do the right thing.” The pressure exerted on states to “do the right thing” was immense.

  All of which is to say that the president and his allies had far more to do with destroying jobs than creating them. We don’t need to relitigate the efficacy of COVID policy here, but approximately 10 million of the jobs that Biden now brags about overseeing are just people coming back to the workforce after state-compelled lockdowns.

  Then again, if “Bidenomics” had meant doing absolutely nothing, it would have been the president’s greatest political accomplishment. But that would have meant allowing a crisis to go to waste. Instead, what “Bidenomics” did help create was the biggest four-year inflationary spike under any president in 40 years.

  By the time the American Rescue Plan was passed, there was already too much money chasing too few goods. Tons of people warned about the consequences of dumping more money into the economy. Even when inflation began inching up, Biden dismissed it—“no serious economist” is “suggesting there’s unchecked inflation on the way,” he said. Democrats, of course, wanted to cram through a $5 trillion progressive agenda spending bill. So, when inflation became a big, nontransitory political problem, the Biden administration began arguing that more spending would help ease inflation.

  Again, the vital thing to remember about “Bidenomics” is that it makes absolutely zero sense.

  Only after inflation became a political issue did the Democrats rename Build Back Better the Inflation Reduction Act. It still contained all the historic spending, corporate welfare, price-fixing, and tax hikes, but, more importantly, it also still had absolutely nothing to do with mitigating inflation.

  None of this is to even mention the hundreds of billions “Bidenomics” “invested”—the enduring euphemism for spending money we don’t have—in social engineering projects that would force us to abandon modernity in the name of “climate justice.” This brand of spending was based on a (misguided) moral prerogative, not any kind of prudent economic decision making, to say the least.

  A writer in the New Yorker recently asked, “Why Isn’t Joe Biden Getting More Credit for a Big Drop in Inflation?” Probably because there is no “Bidenomics” policy that has helped lower inflation. Quite the opposite. We’re still trying to recover from the president’s economic policy. It’s the Fed that was compelled to hike interest rates at a level not seen in 30 years to inhibit economic growth partly due to government-induced inflation. It, not Biden, brought down inflation.

  Presidents who oversee strong economies, often benefitting from the luck of history or existing policies, will see fewer jobs “created” during their terms because space for growth is limited. Biden was given more economic headroom than any president in history—and blew it. That’s the real legacy of “Bidenomics.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 14:30

• New California Gas Czar Will Boost Prices Even Higher
  New California Gas Czar Will Boost Prices Even Higher

  Authored by John Seiler via The Epoch Times,

  Ouch. The price of gas where I usually fill up has soared above $5 for the first time in months. I keep track of my spending, and it was $4.29 just a month ago.

  

  In a case of really bad journalism, the Sacramento Bee recently ran this headline of the state’s new gas price czar, Tai Milder, “‘Sense of mission.’ California’s new gas price watchdog known for taking on economic crimes.” It wrote he is “leading a new state agency that will watch over oil markets for possible illegal activity that drives up costs for Californians.” That agency is the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight, a new bureaucracy set up by Senate Bill X1-2 and signed into law last March by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

  The governor’s office announced Mr. Milder “has successfully investigated and prosecuted companies and individuals that tried to rip off consumers by engaging in price-fixing, bid-rigging, and bribery. Milder also worked at California’s Department of Justice enforcing state antitrust laws against oil and gas companies.

  “The new oil watchdog office is a key part of Gov. Newsom’s gas price gouging law.”

  Actually, it’s a key strategy in deflecting attention from California’s high gas prices should the governor run for president. The topic could come up in the governor’s planned debate with Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, possibly set for Nov. 8 in Georgia, although both camps are haggling over the details.

  Highest Gas Prices

  According to AAA Gas Prices, California currently suffers the highest gas prices in the country, averaging $5.11 a gallon for regular. The lowest is Mississippi at $3.32. For our neighbors, Nevada is $4.36 and Arizona is $4.01. There’s no reason why California can’t have prices that low.

  

  California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks in the rotunda of the California State Capitol in Sacramento on March 28, 2023. (Courtesy of the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom)

  The main effect of the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight and Milder’s actions in fact will be to raise prices even higher. At the time he signed the bill, Gov. Newsom said to oil companies, “Prove you’re not price gouging.” But how do you prove a negative? In America, isn’t the accused innocent until proven guilty? The new edict only will increase compliance costs. Instead of investing in new equipment at refineries and gas stations, the companies will hire more lawyers and regulation experts to make sure no one goes to one of the state’s hellhole jails.

  The new bureaucracy is piled on top of numerous existing state bureaucracies regulating the oil industry. These include the California Energy Commission, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, the California Environmental Protection Agency, and the ultra-powerful California Air Resources Board, which is dedicated to destroying the petroleum industry by switching everyone to electric vehicles.

  It wouldn’t even surprise me if some oil companies, despite the large consumer base, just pulled out of the state entirely. Why bother? Why risk getting sent to jail for doing your business as you do in the other 49 states?

  

  Vehicles pass the Phillips 66 Los Angeles Refinery Wilmington Plant in Wilmington, Calif., on Nov. 28, 2022. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

  Here are the real main reasons California consistently ranks highest in gas prices:

  State-Level Reasons

  Special Blends

  California requires unique special blends of gasoline, in particular a more expensive summer blend. When it runs low of its special blends, it can’t just import more from other states. Special markets commonly cost more than general markets, where there’s more overall competition.

  Old Refineries

  The state’s creaking old oil refineries break down more often than new facilities in other states. That’s because California’s regulations—now made more onerous with the new Division of Petroleum Market Oversight—make it prohibitively costly to build new refineries. When a refinery is taken off line, supply obviously is cut. That increases scarcity until the facilities are repaired, which increases prices.

  2017 Gas Tax Increase of $5 Billion a Year

  With a 4 cent increase last month from an inflation adjustment, the tax now hits at 58 cents per gallon. ABC 10 broke down the full gouging taxpayers at the pump:

  • 54 cents in state excise tax: among the highest in the nation

  • 18.4 cents in federal excise tax

  • 23 cents for California’s cap-and-trade program to lower greenhouse gas emissions

  • 18 cents for the state’s low-carbon fuel programs

  • 2 cents for underground gas storage fees

  • An average of 3.7 percent in state and local sales taxes

  

  A customer pumps gas in Irvine, Calif., on Feb. 23, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

  National and Global Reasons

  Despite all the bragging about California being the world’s “fourth largest economy,” it’s really but a drop in the global energy market. Some recent events pushing up global oil and gasoline prices:

  KeystoneXL Pipeline

  Early in his administration, President Biden canceled the KeystoneXL pipeline. In January this year, reported Fox News, “The Biden administration published a congressionally mandated report highlighting the positive economic benefits the Keystone XL Pipeline would have had if President Biden didn’t revoke its federal permits.

  “The report, which the Department of Energy (DOE) completed in late December without any public announcement, says the Keystone XL project would have created between 16,149 and 59,000 jobs and would have had a positive economic impact of between $3.4-9.6 billion, citing various studies.”

  The Ukraine War

  Boycotts of Russian oil after its invasion of Ukraine disrupted what for decades had been a placid, smooth-functioning global oil market. Then the market adjusted until recently. On Aug. 4, reported CNN, “One of Russia’s biggest oil tankers was struck by a maritime drone, the latest salvo in a Ukrainian military campaign employing unmanned vehicles to attack far-away Russian targets by air and by sea.” That and other disruptions have boosted the global price of oil from $63 a barrel in early May to $83 on Aug. 10—a 32 percent increase in just three months.

  General Global Uncertainty

  In addition to the Ukraine war, the past two years under Biden have seen global crises multiply. The latest is the coup in the country of Niger in Africa, a key uranium source, especially for France’s large nuclear-power industry.

  But the main other problem remains tensions with Communist China over Taiwan. This past week China and Russia sent 11 navy vessels near Alaska. “It is a historical first,” Brent Sadler, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a retired Navy captain, told the Wall Street Journal. “Given the context of the war in Ukraine and tensions around Taiwan, this move is highly provocative.”

  Most global oil trade rides on giant oil tankers, which are protected mostly by the U.S. Navy. If its global supremacy on the sea is threatened, as now is happening, that protection is called into question.

  

  A gas pump is inserted inside an Audi vehicle at a Mobil gas station in Beverly Boulevard in West Hollywood, Calif., on March 10, 2022. (Bing Guan/Reuters)

  Gas Prices Only Will Keep Rising

  The great economist Ludwig von Mises liked to say government intervention in a free economy only begets more intervention. And here’s a quote from him, from his book “Interventionism: An Economic Analysis”:

  “As a rule, capitalism is blamed for the undesired effects of a policy directed at its elimination. The man who sips his morning coffee does not say, ‘Capitalism has brought this beverage to my breakfast table.’ But when he reads in the papers that the government of Brazil has ordered part of the coffee crop destroyed, he does not say, ‘That is government for you’; he exclaims, ‘That is capitalism for you.’”

  For “coffee,” substitute “gasoline.”

  Finally, one result of pushing gas prices even higher—the real result of the new bureaucracy headed by Gas Czar Tai Milder—will be further to encourage people to buy electric cars ahead of the total ban on gas- and diesel-powered cars by 2035. It’s funny how those things happen.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 08/12/2023 – 13:30

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