- Is Western Media Credible Anymore?
Is Western Media Credible Anymore?
Authored by Prof. Engr. Zamir Ahmed Awan for The Saker Blog,
Western media is spreading fake news and fabricating stories with evil intentions. Western Media is biased and creating unrest and chaos in various parts of the world. Media is being used by the Western world to coerce, influence and achieve their ill-political motives. Unfortunately, Western Media is already dominating and controlling public opinion throughout the world.
Let me give you a particular example of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation). BBC reported that the Saddam Hussain regime in Iraq possesses Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). America along with its allies attacked Iraq, destroyed Iraq, killed millions of people, damaged Infrastructure, Power Houses, Telecommunication, Hospitals, Schools, Churches, Mosques, Roads, Industry, Oil Wells, Refineries, etc. Finally noticed that there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). Later on, the British Prime Minister of that time, acknowledged that the BBC news was not accurate, and information about WMD was not correct. But after damaging a country totally and harming millions of people, pushing Iraq into stone ages, one’s mere apology may not be accepted and may not be forgiven by humanity, irreversible damage to Iraq may never be forgotten by the history.
It is worth mentioning, Iraq was a very stable, oil-rich, and total welfare state under President Saddam Hussain. Education, health care was free of cost to its citizens, plenty of food, variety of food was available abundantly. Electricity was available in all parts of the country in abundance sufficiently. Fuel and items of daily use were available everywhere conveniently. The society was very much stable, satisfied and living a comfortable life. All factions of the society were enjoying harmony and was a tolerant society. It might be possible a few exceptionally politicians opposing the ruling party “Bath” or President Saddam Hussain, were victimized. They might be few in numbers or two digits only. But the vast majority of the nation was comfortable with the rulers.
But after the US war on Iraq, today, people of Iraq are facing a shortage of food, fuel, electricity, medicines, and items of daily life. No free education and health care are provided by the government. The society is extremely polarized, intolerance and factionist are very much common. Terrorism, lawlessness, and chaos are witnesses everywhere.
Is publically apology is sufficient to cool down the suffering of millions of Iraqis? Can anyone ignore the dirty role of the BBC? Is it possible, people of Iraq forget the BBC? Can the victim forgive the BBC?
It is only one example only. The same trick was played in the case of Syria. BBC reported that the Syrian Government possesses Chemical Weapons and is using against rebellions. Western Alliance NATO, under the US leadership, attacked Syria, killed millions of innocent people, displace millions of common citizens, damaged the whole country, and pushed the Syrian into stone ages. Forced the Syrian people to take asylum in the Western World where they are humiliated, especial the women and children are being abused. A huge portion is forced to live in temporary camps within the country, where life is very hard and lacks the basic amenities of daily life. Western World has made the life on common Syrian misery and curse only. While Syrians was a very stable country, may not be very rich, but with all basic amenities available conveniently. Nature has blessed the Syrians with best fruits and vegetables, and traditional Syrian food is one of the important attractions in the region. The people of Syria are very pretty and a superior creature. They can compete any beauty villain in the world easily. The law and order situation was very much comfortable and society was stable and living in harmony.
The same is the case of Libya, where ill-motivated fake News led to the destruction of a sovereign country. A very stable, oil-rich nation turned into chaos and lawlessness. A nation with all comforts and facilities has been deprived of even basic needs of life. A sate with total welfare for its citizens has been changed into a lack of everything like food, medicines, fuel, electricity, etc.
The situation in Yemen, Egypt, Tunisia, and Afghanistan is not much different than this. The US admits its role in spreading fake information about Afghanistan and admits its failure in Afghanistan. Pakistan, Turkey, and Iran are on the list and Western World is engaged in a hybrid war, where media is the basic weapon and in some cases over-engaged in spreading fake news and fabrication of stories to create chaos and promote instability.
In Pakistan , we noticed many illegal radio stations operating by Western-funded NGOs, spreading hate, misinformation, and troubles only. Many media houses and individual journalists are hired by Western World and used as front-man or under-cover operation of hybrid war in Pakistan.
Only in the Middle East, around two million people have been killed, several million have been displaced from their homes, either to live in Camps or to move to other countries seeking asylums.
In fact, the world is full of such examples and unfortunately, the developing world is the victim and under direct target.
The recent reports regarding Mike Pompeo regarding lies, cheating, stealing, etc are further confirmation that information is deliberately changed to achieve designed results. The US role in
1970s ‘Operation Condor,’ in which South American dictators systematically tortured and killed dissidents in the region. An estimated 60,000 people were killed by the Latin American states in the clandestine operation, 30,000 in Argentina alone. Another 30,000 were disappeared and 400,000 imprisoned during the Operation. It is now known that the CIA was a guiding hand throughout the whole process, by training and helping military and civilian personnel. “Diplomacy and military strength go hand in hand. They are indeed intimately related. Each relies on the other,” Pompeo also admitted during the conference called “Why Diplomacy Matters.”
Covert operations, ousting democratically elected governments, inciting revolts and supporting transnational companies are run of the mill actions for the CIA, all justified as part of the fight against those who question U.S. interests. Actions that continue until this day. In 2018, one of its offshoots, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) channeled over US$23 million to meddle in the internal affairs of key Latin American countries, under the flagship of “human rights” or “democracy,” which represent a real menace for national sovereignty and the continuity of progressive governments in the region and the world.
These are the only few known facts, there must be much more in various parts of the world similar incidents and fake news or spread of misinformation.
I believe the Western World is misusing Media and the spread of distorted information as an unarmed wing or tool of defense and diplomatic strategies, to achieve their evil goals. It seems Western media is notorious for spreading fake news and the fabrication of stories. They have lost their credibility at all. The intellectuals and people with common sense no more believe Western Media anymore. The credibility of Western Media is challenged and lost recognition among the people having conscious.
I have been traveling internationally frequently and come across many foreigners. Most of them have a very negative impression about Pakistan. But those who have travelled to Pakistan, are very different and praise Pakistan. In fact, media is projecting negative image of Pakistan, however, the ground realities are very different. I do not claim that Pakistan is perfect and everything is ideal, but reject the extremely negative impression posed in the Western Media. There might be many problems in Pakistan but just like other countries, not much different from the rest of world. In some respect, Pakistan is better than many other nations awhile facing few challenges too like other nations. Misinformation and distorted stories regarding Pakistan are part of Western Media war launched against Pakistan.
I understand some of you may disagree with my opinion and maybe offended but at least it may initiate an open debate. Let’s explore the avenues of a common ground where we can seek the truth. The common man is interested only in seeking the real facts and figures. Let’s judge the reports and news on an impartial basis and reach conclusion at our own. With the improvement of technology, and especially with the help of the internet and ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), it is possible for the dissemination of facts instantly. We should conceive the facts with open-minded and be receptive to facts only.
I wish for a peaceful world where justice, freedom, and truth will prevail. Let’s join hands toward this goal and all those willing to achieve this goal, be struggling till the victory. In fact, journalism is a holy profession and must not be politicized. Let the media work for the welfare of humanity. There are many media houses working very well and are serving humanity properly. We must salute them and extend our full cooperation. We must differential among good and bad News agencies or media houses. It is our own duty to judge the good and evil media and should appreciate the positive role of media where ever necessary.
I must offer my heartiest apology if offended a few of you. But willing to find common ground and extend my full cooperation, if it is desired by some of you. Let’s build a better world, where tomorrow should be better than yesterday. Our next-generation must not face the same challenges which we have faced. Love humanity, love peace, seek the truth.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 12/13/2019 – 00:05 - San Fran Loses Another Convention Over Skyrocketing Costs, Human Excrement
San Fran Loses Another Convention Over Skyrocketing Costs, Human Excrement
San Francisco has lost another major convention thanks to “poor street conditions” (aka poo and the vagrants who produce it), along with prohibitively high costs.
The Oracle OpenWorld conference – which typically hosts 60,000 people, will no longer be held in San Francisco according to a Monday email from the San Francisco Travel Association obtained by CNBC.
“Oracle stated that their attendee feedback was that San Francisco hotel rates are too high,” reads the email in part. “Poor street conditions was another reason why they made this difficult decision.”
The conference brought the city an estimated $64 million per year. Instead, that money will now go to Las Vegas – where Oracle has signed a three-year agreement to bring the event to the Caesars Forum.
According to a survey published in October by Cheaphotels.org, San Francisco is the fourth most expensive city for hotels, behind Nashville, Boston and San Jose. The average double room at San Francisco’s cheapest hotel with at least three stars was $214 in October, the survey showed. Las Vegas was all the way at the other end of the spectrum. –CNBC
An Oracle spokesperson confirmed the move with CNBC, writing in an email “Oracle is excited to offer a modern, state-of-the-art experience for attendees at Oracle OpenWorld and Code One 2020 in Las Vegas.”
“The city and its vast amenities are tailor-made for hosting large-scale events, and we look forward to bringing the industry’s most comprehensive technology and developer conference to America’s premier hospitality destination. Oracle continues to enjoy a strong relationship with the City of San Francisco and partners such as the San Francisco Giants and the Golden State Warriors. We look forward to working with our longstanding counterparts in San Francisco on future events.”
In July of last year, a major medical convention expected to bring in 15,000 visitors and $40 million in tourism dollars decided to stop holding the event in San Francisco because attendees didn’t feel safe walking the streets.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 23:45 - Who Are The Globalists And What Do They Want?
Who Are The Globalists And What Do They Want?
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,
I get the question often, though one would think it’s obvious – Who are these “globalists” we refer to so much in the liberty movement? Sometimes the request comes from honest people who only want to learn more. Sometimes it comes from disinformation agents attempting to mire discussion on the issue with assertions that the globalists “don’t exist”. The answer to the question can be simple and complex at the same time. In order to understand who the globalists are, we first have to understand what they want.
We talk a lot about the “globalists” because frankly, their agenda has become more open than ever in the past ten years. There was a time not long ago when the idea of the existence of “globalists” was widely considered “conspiracy theory”. There was a time when organizations like the Bilderberg Group did not officially exist and the mainstream media rarely ever reported on them. There was a time when the agenda for one world economy and a one world government was highly secretive and mentioned only in whispers in the mainstream. And, anyone who tried to expose this information to the public was called a “tinfoil hat wearing lunatic”.
Today, the mainstream media writes puff-pieces about the Bilderberg Group and even jokes about their secrecy. When members of Donald Trump’s cabinet, Mike Pompeo and Jared Kushner, attended Bilderberg in 2019, the mainstream media was wallpapered with the news.
When the World Government Summit meets each year in Dubai, attended by many of the same people that attend Bilderberg as well as shady mainstream icons and gatekeepers like Elon Musk and Neil deGrasse Tyson, they don’t hide their discussions or their goals, they post them on YouTube.
I remember when talking about the US dollar being dethroned and replaced with a new one world currency system and a cashless society controlled by the IMF was treated as bizarre theory. Now it’s openly called for by numerous leaders in the financial industry and in economic governance. The claim that these things are “conspiracy theory” no longer holds up anymore. In reality, the people who made such accusations a few years ago now look like idiots as the establishment floods the media with information and propaganda promoting everything the liberty movement has been warning about.
The argument on whether or not a globalist agenda “exists” is OVER. The liberty movement and the alternative media won that debate, and through our efforts we have even forced the establishment into admitting the existence of some of their plans for a completely centralized global system managed by them. Now, the argument has changed. The mainstream doesn’t really deny anymore that the globalists exist; they talk about whether or not the globalist agenda is a good thing or a bad thing.
First, I would point out the sheer level of deception and disinformation used by the globalists over the past several decades. This deceptions is designed to maneuver the public towards accepting a one world economy and eventually one world governance. If you have to lie consistently to people about your ideology in order to get them to support it, then there must be something very wrong with your ideology.
Second, the establishment may be going public with their plans for globalization, but they aren’t being honest about the consequences for the average person. And, there are many misconceptions out there, even in the liberty movement, about what exactly these people want.
So, we need to construct a list of globalist desires vs globalist lies in order to define who we are dealing with. These are the beliefs and arguments of your run-of-the-mill globalist:
Centralization
A globalist believes everything must be centralized, from finance to money to social access to production to government. They argue that centralization makes the system “more fair” for everyone, but in reality they desire a system in which they have total control over every aspect of life. Globalists, more than anything, want to dominate and micro-manage every detail of civilization and socially engineer humanity in the image they prefer.
One World Currency System And Cashless Society
As an extension of centralization, globalists want a single currency system for the world. Not only this, but they want it digitized and easy to track. Meaning, a cashless society in which every act of trade by every person can be watched and scrutinized. If trade is no longer private, preparation for rebellion becomes rather difficult. When all resources can be manged and restricted to a high degree at the local level, rebellion would become unthinkable because the system becomes the parent and provider and the source of life. A one world currency and cashless system would be the bedrock of one world governance. You cannot have one without the other.
One World Government
Globalists want to erase all national borders and sovereignty and create a single elite bureaucracy, a one world empire in which they are the “philosopher kings” as described in Plato’s Republic.
As Richard N. Gardner, former deputy assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations under Kennedy and Johnson, and a member of the Trilateral Commission, wrote in the April, 1974 issue of the Council on Foreign Relation’s (CFR) journal Foreign Affairs (pg. 558) in an article titled ‘The Hard Road To World Order’:
“In short, the ‘house of world order’ will have to be built from the bottom up rather than from the top down. It will look like a great ‘booming, buzzing confusion,’ to use William James’ famous description of reality, but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault.”
This system would be highly inbred, though they may continue to give the masses the illusion of public participation and “democracy” for a time. Ultimately, the globalists desire a faceless and unaccountable round table government, a seat of power which acts as an institution with limited liability, much like a corporation, and run in the same sociopathic manner without legitimate public oversight. In the globalist world, there will be no redress of grievances.
Sustainability As Religion
Globalists often use the word “sustainability” in their white papers and agendas, from Agenda 21 to Agenda 2030. Environmentalism is the facade they employ to guilt the population into supporting global governance, among other things. As I noted in my recent article ‘Why Is The Elitist Establishment So Obsessed With Meat’, fake environmentalism and fraudulent global warming “science” is being exploited by globalists to demand control over everything from how much electricity you can use in your home, to how many children you can have, to how much our society is allowed to manufacture or produce, to what you are allowed to eat.
The so-called carbon pollution threat, perhaps the biggest scam in history, is a key component of the globalist agenda. As the globalist organization The Club Of Rome, a sub-institution attached to the United Nations, stated in their book ‘The First Global Revolution’:
“In searching for a common enemy against whom we can unite, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like, would fit the bill. In their totality and their interactions these phenomena do constitute a common threat which must be confronted by everyone together. But in designating these dangers as the enemy, we fall into the trap, which we have already warned readers about, namely mistaking symptoms for causes. All these dangers are caused by human intervention in natural processes. and it is only through changed attitudes and behaviour that they can be overcome. The real enemy then is humanity itself.”
In other words, by presenting human beings as a species as the great danger, the globalists hope to convince humanity to sublimate itself before the mother earth goddess and beg to be kept in line. And, as the self designated “guardians” of the Earth, the elites become the high priests of the new religion of sustainability. They and they alone would determine who is a loyal servant and who is a heretic. Carbon pollution becomes the new “original sin”; everyone is a sinner against the Earth, for everyone breaths and uses resources, and we must all do our part to appease the Earth by sacrificing as much as possible, even ourselves.
The elites don’t believe in this farce, they created it. The sustainability cult is merely a weapon to be used to dominate mass psychology and make the populace more malleable.
Population Control
Globalists come from an ideological background which worships eugenics – the belief that genetics must be controlled and regulated, and those people they deem to be undesirables must be sterilized or exterminated.
The modern eugenics movement was launched by the Rockefeller Foundation in the early 1900’s in America, and was treated a a legitimate scientific endeavor for decades. Eugenics was taught in schools and even celebrated at the World’s Fair. States like California that adopted eugenics legislation forcefully sterilized tens of thousands of people and denied thousands of marriage certificates based on genetics. The system was transferred to Germany in the 1930’s were it gained world renown for its inherent brutality.
This ideology holds that 4% or less of the population is genetically worthy of leadership, and the elites conveniently assert that they represent part of that genetic purity.
After WWII the public developed a distaste for the idea of eugenics and population control, but under the guise of environmentalism the agenda is making a comeback, as population reduction in the name of “saving the Earth” is in the mainstream media once again. The Question then arises – Who gets to decide who lives and who dies? Who gets to decide who is never born? And, how will they come to their decisions? No doubt a modern form of eugenics will be presented as the “science” used to “fairly” determine the content of the population if the elites get their way.
Narcissistic Sociopathy
It is interesting that the globalists used to present the 4% leadership argument in their eugenics publications, because 4% of the population is also consistent with the number of people who have inherent sociopathy or narcissistic sociopathy, either in latent or full-blown form, with 1% of people identified as full blown psychopaths and the rest as latent. Coincidence?
The behavior of the globalists is consistent with the common diagnosis of full-blown narcopaths, a condition which is believed to be inborn and incurable. Narcopaths (pyschopaths) are devoid of empathy and are often self obsessed. They suffer from delusions of grandeur and see themselves as “gods” among men. They believe other lowly people are tools to be used for their pleasure or to further their ascendance to godhood. They lie incessantly as a survival mechanism and are good at determining what people want to hear. Narcopaths feel no compassion towards those they harm or murder, yet crave attention and adoration from the same people they see as inferior. More than anything, they seek the power to micro-manage the lives of everyone around them and to feed off those people like a parasite feeds off a host victim.
Luciferianism
It is often argued by skeptics that psychopaths cannot organize cohesively, because such organizations would self destruct. These people simply don’t know what they’re talking about. Psychopaths throughout history organize ALL THE TIME, from tyrannical governments to organized crime and religious cults. The globalists have their own binding ideologies and methods for organization. One method is to ensure benefits to those who serve the group (as well as punishments for those who stray). Predators often work together as long as there is ample prey. Another method is the use of religious or ideological superiority; making adherents feel like they are part of an exclusive and chosen few destined for greatness.
This is a highly complicated issue which requires its own essay to examine in full. I believe I did this effectively in my article ‘Luciferians: A Secular Look At A Destructive Globalist Belief System’. Needless to say, this agenda is NOT one that globalists are willing to admit to openly very often, but I have outlined extensive evidence that luciferianism is indeed the underlying globalist cult religion. It is essentially an ideology which promotes moral relativism, the worship of the self and the attainment of godhood by any means necessary – which fits perfectly with globalism and globalist behavior.
It is also the only ideological institution adopted by the UN, through the UN’s relationship with Lucis Trust, also originally called Lucifer Publishing Company. Lucis Trust still has a private library within the UN building today.
So, now that we know the various agendas and identifiers of globalists, we can now ask “Who are the globalists?”
The answer is – ANYONE who promotes the above agendas, related arguments, or any corporate or political leader who works directly with them. This includes presidents that claim to be anti-globalist while also filling their cabinets with people from globalist organizations.
To make a list of names is simple; merely study the membership rosters of globalists organizations like the Bilderberg Group, the Council On Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, Tavistock Institute, the IMF, the BIS, World Bank, the UN, etc. You will find a broad range of people from every nation and every ethnicity ALL sharing one goal – A world in which the future for every other person is dictated by them for all time; a world in which freedom is a memory and individual choice is a commodity only they have the right to enjoy.
* * *
If you would like to support the work that Alt-Market does while also receiving content on advanced tactics for defeating the globalist agenda, subscribe to our exclusive newsletter The Wild Bunch Dispatch. Learn more about it HERE.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 23:25 - This Is Why A Record Number Of Americans Are Fat & Broke
This Is Why A Record Number Of Americans Are Fat & Broke
Fast food and takeout are anathema to the ‘clean eating’ lifestyle trend that has swept the US – and much of the developed world – over the past 10 years. But while spending on gym memberships and boutique fitness classes has risen significantly over the past ten years, recent studies show that over-spending on takeout was the biggest financial mistake made by younger Americans in 2018, according to a MarketWatch report that cited data from a recent study published by Principal.
According to the data, nearly one in three Americans – 29%, up from 26% in 2018 – said dining out was this year’s top budget buster for them, followed closely by spending on groceries (which is ironic given the proliferation of low-cost grocers like Aldi that have sprouted up in recent years).
But that’s not all: In a separate study, Fidelity found that the No. 1 small financial mistake that most Americans admit to is dining out too much, something that 36% of respondents said they’d done in the past year.
Americans spent roughly $3,500 a year on dining out in 2018, according to government data. That’s a new record high, and a 2.8% improvement from the prior year. Sales are projected to hit a record high of $863 billion this year, according to the National Restaurant Association.
Since February 2010, there have been just 5 months out of 117 where the number of waiters and bartenders in the US has posted a monthly decline. November was no different.
What’s worse: The cost of getting takeout or going out to eat is rising much more quickly than the price of buying groceries, but that hasn’t had much of an impact on the spending habits of young people. And if the latest Gallup poll (a different poll than the ones cited above) shows, Americans eat out often: Six in 10 ate out at least once in the past week. And 16%
“Dining rooms and kitchens across the U.S. are getting a little less use than they used to,” said research firm Nielsen in a recent report. “That’s because Americans have embraced the experience of eating out.”
Eating out is hammering Americans’ savings, but that’s not the only impact it’s having on their general sense of well-being: It’s also probably the biggest contributor to the expanding waistlines of millions of Americans. When Americans eat out, they chow down on an extra 200 calories more than on a normal day.
Furthermore, government research has shown that “when eating out, people either eat more or eat higher calorie foods – or both – and that this tendency appears to be increasing.”
Meanwhile, a staggering 75% of Americans are either overweight or obese, according to the CBC. And over time, the costs in the form of deteriorating health associated with obesity will will continue to climb. According to the CDC, obese patients often shoulder costs that are $1,429 higher on average than patients of a normal weight.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 23:05 - Places With The Most And Least Traffic Fatalities In America
Places With The Most And Least Traffic Fatalities In America
Submitted by Priceonomics,
Each year, tens of thousands of people tragically die in traffic accidents. By latest count almost 37,000 people died last year in automotive accidents. Many of those people were pedestrians who were hit by cars. Others were passengers or drivers. Among children age 8 and older, motor vehicles accidents are the leading cause of death.
Still, some strides have been made to reduce vehicle deaths. Because of airbags, seat belts, and improved automotive technology, cars are generally safer today than in prior decades. Moreover, some municipalities are redesigning their roads to make them safer for both drivers and pedestrians.
So where are the roads most dangerous in America? Along with Priceonomics customer PersonalInjurySanDiego.org, we decided to analyze the latest data available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on the rate of traffic fatalities in states and cities across America.
Among states, we found that Mississippi has the highest rate of traffic fatalities in the country, while New York has the lowest. Montana has the highest rate of alcohol-related traffic fatalities in the country. When it comes to wearing seat belts, Hawaii leads the nation with a 97.8% compliance rate. New Hampshire is last in the nation when it comes to seat belt safety as only 76.4% buckle up in the “live free or die” state.
***
The NHTSA is a governmental organization tasked with creating and enforcing automobile standards. As part of its mission to “Save lives, prevent injuries, reduce vehicle-related crashes” the agency releases traffic fatality data on an annual basis. On a state level, the most recent data available is from 2018, which we have analyzed in this report.
To begin, let’s look at the states that are most dangerous when it comes to motor vehicle-related deaths. The chart below shows the number of traffic fatalities per 100,000 living in each state.
By a considerable margin, Mississippi is the most dangerous state when it comes to automotive fatalities. In Mississippi there are 22.1 auto-related deaths per every 100,000 people living there. In Mississippi, the probability of dying in a motor vehicle accident is nearly 5 times as high as in New York, the state with the lowest death rate.
According to the CDC, rural roads tend to be much more dangerous which helps explain why states like Mississippi and South Carolina top the rankings. On the other hand, states where a lot of the population live in an urban center like New York tend to have safer streets on average.
However, the rural-urban divide only explains part of the divide when it comes to deaths in car crashes. Another factor is that there is considerable variation in how likely the population is to embrace life-saving safety measures like wearing a seatbelt.
Part of the reason a place like Mississippi have high traffic fatality rates is non-compliance with wearing seatbelts. In Hawaii, the state with the highest seat belt rate, 97.8% of people wear their seatbelts. In contrast, Mississippi has the 4th lowest seat belt rate at just 80.2%. Of note, New Hampshire is the only state in the country that does not require wearing seatbelts and therefore ranks last on this metric.
Seatbelts is just one safety measure that can be embraced or rejected by the population. Another measure to consider is the prevalence of drunk driving. The following chart shows the rate of motor vehicle deaths that involved a positive blood alcohol concentration (BAC) by state:
When it comes to drunk driving deaths, Montana has the highest rate in the country, followed by Wyoming and South Carolina. On the other hand, drunk driving deaths are much more rare in New Jersey, New York and Minnesota.
***
Automobiles can be lethal. They are extremely heavy and are capable of moving at extraordinary speeds. A moment of distraction from a driver or a poorly designed intersection can easily result in death. In the United States, traffic fatalities are much more common than in others. Mississippi, South Carolina and Alabama lead with the highest fatality rates. These states also tend to have lower rates of seat belt wearing and higher rates of drunk driving, indicating that many of these deaths are completely preventable.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 22:45 - Chinese Internet 'Influencers' Helped Sell More Than $4 Billion In Goods Last Year
Chinese Internet ‘Influencers’ Helped Sell More Than $4 Billion In Goods Last Year
Internet influencers are quickly becoming the new preferred type of advertising in China, mirroring a trend that has taken place in the U.S.
And the influencers run the gamut: from livestreaming moms, to farmers – and even dogs, according to the Wall Street Journal. These “key opinion leaders” sold more than $4 billion in goods in China in 2018, according to China’s largest influencer company, Ruhnn Holding.
While that is still a small fraction of the $2 trillion in e-commerce sales that are expected out of China this year, it’s still an area that companies are paying attention too. 67% of advertisers this year said that internet celebrities and influencers have becoming their preferred method of advertising in China. Supporting the influencers is a new industry of producers and talent agencies, which has doubled in size over the last two years.
There are an estimated 21 million influencers in China and they have embraced livestreaming on platforms like Alibaba’s Taobao and Douyin, a version of TikTok. Although Amazon has started to look into livestreaming and influencer channels, livestreaming is still relatively new in the U.S. compared to China. In the U.S., most influencers use posts and short videos on YouTube and Instagram.
Consumers in China were the most susceptible to brand recommendations by influencers than any other country surveyed – partly because Chinese consumers have a long history of being cheated by counterfeit products. Many consumers say they trust online celebrities, who largely portray themselves as regular people, instead of websites or brands.
Mark Tanner, managing director of marketing-research firm China Skinny said: “It comes down to the inherent lack of trust by Chinese consumers. For many, Chinese KOLs are the most trustworthy and authentic source of information, particularly as there are relatively few other ways to get information with the state controlling the media.”
Brands like using online influencers because they are effective: roughly one in five consumers watching online infomercials will buy a product, compared to less than 1% of consumers viewing conventional e-commerce advertising.
Alibaba has invested heavily into influencers, broadcasting the shows of about 100,000 livestream hosts per day on its shopping app. Even leaders of China’s communist party have started to talk about ways to use influencers to reach out to the public.
But there are some downsides, too. Because customers feel close to the influencers they buy from, there can be swift outrage when a customer feels betrayed. For instance, one of China’s most famous influencers, Li Jiaqi, went viral for the wrong reason when he tried to fry an egg on a non-stick pan earlier this year and the egg stuck to the pan. He also went viral after claiming to sell “big meaty crabs” from Suzhou. When customers received the crabs, they found them to not be big, meaty or from Suzhou.
Searches for Li Jiaqi’s “misleading advertising” totaled 700 million hits after the incidents.
Deng Xuerui, who received 10 undersized crabs earlier this month said: “He betrayed my trust”. She said she used to watch his show daily but is now no longer a fan. State newspapers also piled on Jiaqi, suggesting that he was an example of why government regulation was necessary for influencers.
The work can be grueling for influencers, many of whom host shows live six or seven days a week. Regardless, pay can be good, as well. A key opinion leader can earn has much as $50,000 with one pre-recorded post on a social media site. In the U.S., big name stars can bring in as much as $100,000, as we noted in our recent writeup about the influencer trend in the U.S.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 22:25 - The Race To Construct The First Solar Space Station
The Race To Construct The First Solar Space Station
Authored Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,
China aims to turn the dream of science fiction writer Isaac Asimov into reality by building a solar power station in space by 2035, according to Chinese researchers.
Scientists at the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) plan to build a solar power station in space that would capture solar energy from the Sun and beam it wirelessly to the Earth via lasers or microwaves, China’s news agency Xinhua reported on Monday.
“We hope to strengthen international cooperation and make scientific and technological breakthroughs so that humankind can achieve the dream of limitless clean energy at an early date,” Xinahua quoted CAST research fellow with the space solar station program, Wang Li, as saying at a Chinese-Russian engineering event in China last week.
According to the Chinese scientist, solar energy in the space will be more efficient and sustainable than fossil fuels in powering satellites and isolated or disaster-hit regions on earth.
The idea of a solar power station in space was first proposed in a short story Asimov published in the 1940s, and despite decades of research, the challenges of installing solar panels in space and developing efficient wireless energy transmission technology have hindered major breakthroughs.
China has invested US$28.4 million (200 million Chinese yuan) in the construction of a test base in Chongqing in the southwest to test its developments.
Earlier this year, Chinese scientists revealed plans to build and launch in orbit a space solar station that could capture the Sun’s rays 24/7.
China has already started to build an early experimental space power plant in the city of Chongqing.
China is not the only country studying the potential of harnessing the power of the Sun in space.
Caltech, for example, has its Space Solar Power Project, which has researched the use of ultralight, foldable, 2D integrated elements. Caltech has developed a prototype which collects sunlight, converts it to RF electrical power, and wirelessly transmits that power in a steerable beam.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 22:05 - Visualized: Ranking The Most Traded Goods Between The U.S. And China
Visualized: Ranking The Most Traded Goods Between The U.S. And China
From a young age, many of us were taught that sharing is caring. In fact, as Ashley Viens of Visual Capitalist notes, many countries have also followed this simple principle, in the interest of growth and prosperity, when doing business on a global scale.
Today’s infographic from HowMuch.net charts the top imports and exports between the U.S. and China, pulled from the Observatory of Economic Complexity’s (OEC) global market data for 2017.
Which items do you find most surprising?
Give and Take: The Trade Relationship of the U.S. and China
Two of the world’s largest superpowers today, the U.S. and China have typically had a long-standing trade relationship going back decades. The table below shows the top 10 exports the U.S. sent to China in 2017, along with the proportion of each item in the total export value of $132 billion. The top 10 items account for 39% of total exports to China.
The Top 10 Exports from the U.S. to China (2017)
While the majority of these are highly specialized, manufactured products─such as airplanes, integrated circuits, and semiconductors─the U.S. still relies on exporting many basic commodities such as gold, copper, and soya beans.
Below is the list of the top 10 imported products from China, and the percent that each product accounts of the total $444 billion in 2017. These top 10 items make up 30% of all products imported from China.
China is best known for its electronics and technology-focused products─with electronics products accounting for two-thirds of the top 10 Chinese imports. In 2017, China also dominated all electronics imports into the U.S., claiming over 60% of the market. But how has the recent trade war impacted the imports and exports between the U.S. and China?
The U.S.-China Trade War Continues
At one point, China was the United States’ top trading partner in terms of the total value of imports and exports. Since the trade war began in 2018, China has fallen to third place. For example, soybean exports to China in 2019 are predicted to only reach a third of numbers seen in 2018, and the price of this commodity has been nearly cut in half.
In the first nine months of 2019 alone, the U.S. saw a 13.5% drop in imported products from China, due to actual and threatened increased tariffs. In addition, U.S. exports to China dropped by 15.5%─a significant loss of $53 billion.
The Future of U.S.-China Trade
To date, the U.S. has enacted tariffs on over $550 billion worth of imported products from China. In response to the U.S. tariffs, China has added tariffs to $185 billion worth of exported goods from the United States.
With the 2020 U.S. presidential election looming on the horizon, threats of increased tariffs seem to dominate headlines internationally. If these trends continue, many U.S. businesses—both at home and abroad in China—could find their bottom lines threatened by rising trade costs.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 21:45 - Virginia Lawmakers Threaten 2nd Amendment Sanctuaries With National Guard
Virginia Lawmakers Threaten 2nd Amendment Sanctuaries With National Guard
Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,
Virginia is the new battleground of the Second Amendment. After the most recent election, the state’s House and Senate are both Democrat majorities and they haven’t wasted a moment in attempting to gut the gun laws in what has historically been a permissive state.
What are these new gun laws?
The so-called “assault weapon ban” is SB16 and has that perilously vague wording we all know to be incredibly dangerous. In some interpretations, this law, if it passes, could make illegal the ownership or transportation of any semi-automatic gun because extendable magazines are available for it – and you don’t even have to have the extendable mags.
The Virginia Mercury reports:
The new Democratic majorities are expected to pass a variety of gun restrictions, including universal background checks, red flag laws that would allow authorities to take guns from people deemed dangerous and reinstatement of a one-handgun-a-month law…
…But the proposed ban on particular types of firearms — and the prospect of criminal charges for gun owners who didn’t give them up — seemed to stoke the strongest outrage in the 40-plus rural localities that have declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries within the past few weeks. Of the dozens of bills already filed for the session that begins in January, Saslaw’s assault weapon bill was the most-read, according to the state’s online legislative system. (source)
Since the above article was written, it should be noted that 2nd Amendment Sanctuary Counties are at 80 and counting. One sheriff has even vowed to deputize citizens should these unconstitutional laws pass.
After the public outcry, Governor Northam has said a provision will be added for current gun owners.
“In this case, the governor’s assault weapons ban will include a grandfather clause for individuals who already own assault weapons, with the requirement they register their weapons before the end of a designated grace period,” Northam spokeswoman Alena Yarmosky said in a statement Monday evening. (source)
Good try, but no cigar.
Gun owners aren’t going to take this lying down.
We’ve written before about Second Amendment sanctuaries popping up across the nation, and now Virginia is joining the fight. According to Gun Rights Watch, practically the entire state is saying NO.
Check out this map.
Map from Gun Rights Watch as of 12/11/19
Watch this article which is being updated regularly with the sanctuary movement.
These counties have passed resolutions vowing not to enforce unconstitutional gun laws. USA Today’s report refers to them as “publicity stunts” and “political statements.”
Richard Schragger, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, who focuses on the intersection of the Constitution and local law, told USA Today:
Rather than challenging an existing statute, the resolutions are “mostly expressive and symbolic” declarations, he said.
“In Virginia, state law supersedes local law. Citizens and local officials have to comply with state law even if a county declares itself to be a Second Amendment sanctuary,” Schragger added. (source)
It seems they may be underestimating the force of thousands of clearly well-armed and outraged Virginians if they think it’s just a publicity stunt. I’m pretty sure that the Virginians I know mean business.
Now the state legislature is threatening the sanctuary counties and officials.
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring says that the gun owners are “being ginned up by the gun lobby” and had a few words to say about the rebellion.
“The resolutions that are being passed are being ginned up by the gun lobby to try to scare people. What we’re talking about here are laws that will make our communities and our streets safer. We’re talking about universal background checks, finally, maybe, Virginia will pass universal background checks to make sure that people who are dangerous, who are criminals and who aren’t permitted to buy guns, won’t be able to buy guns,” said Herring. “So, when Virginia passes these gun safety laws that they will be followed, they will be enforced.” (source)
How exactly do they plan to enforce those laws?
One representative hopes that the law enforcement officers will just resign.
“I would hope they either resign in good conscience, because they cannot uphold the law which they are sworn to uphold, or they’re prosecuted for failure to fulfill their oath,” Democratic Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly told the Washington Examiner of local county police who may refuse to enforce future gun control measures. “The law is the law. If that becomes the law, you don’t have a choice, not if you’re a sworn officer of the law.” (source)
I’m 99.9% sure that any sheriff who has supported such a motion is not going to say, “Oh, it’s the law. My bad, Gerry.”
Rep. Donald McEachin believes cutting off state funds would do the trick, and if that doesn’t work he has another suggestion that is far more drastic.
McEachin also noted that Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam could call the National Guard, if necessary.
“And ultimately, I’m not the governor, but the governor may have to nationalize the National Guard to enforce the law,” he said. “That’s his call, because I don’t know how serious these counties are and how severe the violations of law will be. But that’s obviously an option he has.” (source)
Bringing in the National Guard to confiscate guns or override sanctuaries could only end one way: in bloodshed. Although, one must wonder whether the National Guard members would comply with the governor over their friends, families, and neighbors.
It’s going to get ugly fast. As serious as these legislators are about “getting guns off the street,” Virginians are equally serious about defending their right to bear arms.
It’s the ultimate game of chicken. It looks like we really have reached the point of “out of my cold, dead hands.”
Virginia gun owners, myself included, have no intention whatsoever of complying with this gun grab, and no conciliatory “you can keep them but you have to register them” gesture is going to suffice.
The only question remaining is, who’s ready to die on this hill?
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 21:25 - Meet The Banker Who Had To Tell Aramco That A $2 Trillion IPO Valuation Wasn't Happening
Meet The Banker Who Had To Tell Aramco That A $2 Trillion IPO Valuation Wasn’t Happening
As Aramco’s valuation jumped notably after its IPO – briefly topping the magical $2 trillion valuation level, one banker could be breathing a sigh of relief.
Achintya Mangla, one of JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s most senior bankers, told Aramco Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan prior to its IPO that there was “no way” investors were going to value Aramco at $2 trillion. In response, Al-Rumayyan “erupted” with expletives in both English and Arabic, according to Bloomberg. After all, Al-Rumayyan now likely had to tell his boss, the crown prince, the bad news.
The prince had long insisted on the $2 trillion valuation for Aramco, who pumps 10% of the world’s oil. Nobody had been able to convince the price along the way that global investors wouldn’t agree. Those who argued with him were pushed aside, like Khalid Al-Falih, who was fired as Aramco chairman and oil minister earlier this year.
When bankers pitched underwriting the IPO for Aramco this year, they told Al-Rumayyan that $2 trillion “wasn’t out of the question”. An initial valuation of $1.7 trillion to $2.4 trillion was tossed around.
But the valuation was becoming unsustainable as the IPO drew closer. Everywhere bankers pitched the IPO in September and October, they were told that the valuation was too high. One manager in Switzerland had a valuation as low as just $800 billion.
Bankers took notes on the feedback: the consensus valuation was about $1.2 trillion. Some investors said they could go slightly higher. “Up to $1.5 trillion based on dividend,” was the feedback from Franklin Templeton, for instance.
But the problem for many investors was the dividend yield. At $2 trillion, the yield would fall to less than 4%, which is well below what other oil and energy names are paying currently. Wellington Asset Management said the yield needed to rise to 7% or 8% to make the company a worthwhile investment. This implied a valuation of $900 billion.
Mangla’s job in October was to break the bad news to the client, speaking on behalf of all of the banks on the deal. And he wasn’t the only one who tried to break the bad news. Jonathan Penkin, a senior equity capital markets banker at Goldman Sachs was told not to speak at any more meetings after he tried to talk about the valuation later in October. Motassim Al-Ma’Ashouq, the top Aramco executive in charge of the IPO preparations was also told to stand down.
Karen Young, a Middle East specialist at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington and a specialist in the political economy of the Middle East said: “Saudi Arabia has always had this problem: top-down decision making. There’s a culture of fear. Savvy and able technocrats don’t feel comfortable speaking up.”
Saudi Arabia also “drew a blank” with strategic investors, who often agree to buy into an IPO earlier than others. Everywhere Aramco’s banks pitched – China, Singapore, Russia – they were told “thanks, but no thanks.”
Al-Rumayyan felt betrayed by the banks who once told him $2 trillion was possible and Aramco had a choice to face: delay the IPO and wait for a higher valuation, or cut the valuation and make the deal enticing to foreign investors.
Riyadh had another solution: sell the Aramco shares at home and ignore foreign investors. The government had the idea of pressuring wealthy local families and bringing in friends from places like UAW and Kuwait to help with the deal. Even after these reinforcement, Aramco had to settle for a $1.7 trillion valuation.
The IPO is a “shadow” of Aramco’s previous aspirations, but has still allowed the crown prince to claim victory. Last Thursday the company announced it had raised $25.6 billion, beating the $25 billion set by Alibaba and Aramco now has the highest valuation of any company in the world. Banks, on the other hand, face the prospect of not getting paid for nearly four years of work on the IPO. Many people were surprised the IPO happened at all.
On the first day of Aramco trading, its valuation went limit up 10%, giving it a market value of $1.88 trillion.
“Those who have not subscribed in Aramco will be chewing their thumb to the point that I will be worried about them that they go and fix themselves in the hospital,” oil minister Prince Abdulaziz concluded.
And during the second day of trading, the magical $2 trillion level was crossed (but not maintained)…
Source: Bloomberg
Shares jumped almost 10% in the first 90 minutes of trading Thursday, breaching the 37.51 SAR, the level which values Aramco over $2 trillion.
But prices faded in the back half of the session and closed at 36.75 SAR, or below MbS’ target.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 21:05 - How A Chinese Company Built A $250 Million Search-Hijacking Empire
How A Chinese Company Built A $250 Million Search-Hijacking Empire
Authored by Mike Snyder via Medium.com,
A publicly listed Chinese company has used a series of offshore shell companies to conceal their ownership of browser extensions that purport to offer a private search engine to users.
Search Hijacking Extensions in Browser Stores
These extensions with names like Search Encrypt and Hide My Searches engage in a form of ad fraud called search hijacking whereby searches are intercepted and redirected from one search engine to another.
Our research has identified almost 7 million users who are affected by these malware extensions, which are helping this company generate almost $250 million a year in revenue.
Search Hijacking 101
Search hijacking is a very simple type of fraud. A user with one of these extensions installed who types a search engine like Google.com into their browser address bar and intends to conduct a Google search will have their search intercepted and sent to one of several search domains setup by the perpetrator. These perpetrators monetize this traffic by placing their own ads on the search results pages. In this case, Microsoft provides both the ads and search results to the search hijacker, becoming an unwitting victim funding this fraud.
Perhaps the biggest irony is that Microsoft’s own Bing.com searches are also hijacked by the extensions and re-sold back to Microsoft.
Bing.com Search Hijacking
For example, a search for “airpods” on Bing leads to a Search Encrypt search results page that has more ads than search results. A user would have to have the stamina to scroll through 10 text ads from Microsoft and then 5 image ads before coming to an organic search result. You, the Medium reader, will also need the same stamina, as I have embedded a screenshot of the exact page below.
Search Encrypt Results Page
The Chinese Connection
Genimous Technology Co Ltd, a public company traded on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange under the symbol 000676, is the 12 billion CNY ($1.7 billion USD) company that is behind these extensions [1]. Their ownership is concealed through shell companies setup in offshore jurisdictions like Polarity Technologies Ltd in Cyprus and EightPoint Technologies Ltd in the Cayman Islands, but can be traced through analysis of the browser extensions terms of service and contact information [2, 3]. Based on public filings, in the first 6 months of 2019, Genimous made 900,296,410.76 CNY ($125 million USD) from its overseas division, which generates its revenues from ads on search results pages [4, 5 (page 15 of the PDF)] for a $250 million yearly run rate.
Genimous subsidiary, EightPoint Technologies, claims to have 10 million users and generate at least 5 billion searches a year [6]. Microsoft Bing sees 5.5 billion searches a month [7]. This implies Genimous could be responsible for driving 10% of the searches on Bing, which may not be an unreasonable assumption since we have identified almost 7 million active users of their extensions. Even at 1 search a day, 7 million users will generate 2.5 billion searches a year.
A Threat to National Security?
More concerning for users may be that Genimous is collecting and storing sensitive user data, including search queries, on Chinese servers, notwithstanding the extensions’ privacy policies which can be modified at any time, where the data are subject to Chinese laws on data privacy. While their privacy policies claim not to store “identifying” user data, past research has found how easy it is to de-anonymize data. Potentially sensitive searches could then be linked to users.
These same privacy concerns have sparked a national security investigation into TikTok because as a Chinese company, the “company must still adhere to Chinese law on supplying information to the government” [8]. However, while TikTok hosts fun and light-hearted content, the Genimous search hijacker extensions are marketed toward users who are seeking a private search engine and who may be surprised that their most sensitive searches are being stored by a Chinese company making promises that it cannot legally keep. Arguably, searches that reveal or imply a user’s sexual orientation or health status are far more damaging in the wrong hands than a funny TikTok video.
The marketing for Search Encrypt leaves little to the imagination as to the kind of searches that they are catering to [9]. These searches are also the most personal and deeply sensitive kind, exactly the kind of searches you wouldn’t want a foreign power to have access to. The forced divestment of the dating app Grindr from Chinese ownership being a case in point.
Moat Advertiser Report
Mozilla Takes a Stand
Mozilla, the maker of the popular Firefox browser, appears to have taken some preliminary steps to mitigate search hijacking with add-on policies [10] that prohibit search interception:
Search functionality provided or loaded by the add-on must not collect search terms or intercept searches that are going to a third-party search provider.
At the time of publication, however, the Genimous extensions are still active in the Firefox add-on store.
Next Steps
In the online advertising world, fraud has generally been seen as a scourge in the ad exchange space. Search advertising has been spared that level of scrutiny. As a result, standards like ads.txt that protect publishers on ad exchanges and ensure that bad actors are prevented from the unauthorized resale of publisher inventory are sorely missing when it comes to search advertising. Even the biggest publishers like Google and Bing are victims of search hijacking.
Browser extensions can only be distributed through the extension stores with the approval of the browser vendors. Will the major browser vendors like Google and Mozilla step up and stop the search hijackers?
* * *
Against Surveillance Capitalism – Fighting back against unscrupulous data collection
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 20:45 - The Farce Of The Deal: Terms Of 'Phase One' Trade Deal Will "Never Be Made Public"; There Will Be No Signing Ceremony
The Farce Of The Deal: Terms Of ‘Phase One’ Trade Deal Will “Never Be Made Public”; There Will Be No Signing Ceremony
There was much rejoicing and buying of stocks when Trump tweeted, to much fanfare and bombast early this morning, that he is “Getting VERY close to a BIG DEAL with China. They want it, and so do we!.” Sure enough, just a few hours later, there was a deal. Or was there? Because whereas we now know that the US & China have agreed to a Phase One deal on Paper, and Trump signed off on it… nobody will ever know what’s in the actual deal, even once we pass it!
Here’s what we do know: according to Fox Business correspondent Edwards Lawrence, China “verbally agreed to buy $50b in agriculture, but that will not be in writing.” In fact it appears that nothing will be.
Also, the deal supposedly includes intellectual property protections, something the US has been asking for as a core demand.
A trade source tells me this is a historic day. US & China agree to a Phase One deal on Paper. The source says Chinese verbally agree to buy $50b in agriculture, but that will not be in writing. The source says the deal includes intellectual property protections. #China #Trade
— Edward Lawrence (@EdwardLawrence) December 13, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Needless to say, a Chinese IP concession will most certainly not be in writing too.
Other parts of the deal include “increased access to the financial services market. There is language where the Chinese agree not to manipulate their currency. There is enforcement written into the agreement. Dec 15th tariffs do not go forward.”
The Phase One deal includes increase access to the financial services market. There is language where the Chinese agree not to manipulate their currency. There is enforcement written into the agreement. Dec 15th tariffs do not go forward. #China #Trade
— Edward Lawrence (@EdwardLawrence) December 13, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Perhaps most important for traders is that this is the end of the overnight “trade deal optimism” rally: phase two of the trade deal will “begin after 2020 elections.” Which means a whole year without Trump tweets that a deal is very close and that China is dying to do it.
The source says Dec 15th tariffs do not go forward. There will be a small reduction in tariffs on some Chinese goods as a gesture of good will. Phase Two of the negotiations will begin after 2020 elections. #China #Trade
— Edward Lawrence (@EdwardLawrence) December 13, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Yet for all of the above, here’s the most mindboggling part. Lawrence said that the Chinese have requested that the language of the trade deal will never be made public.
That’s right – there is (supposedly) a “deal”, written on paper somewhere, specifying certain terms, and signed by certain US and Chinese presidents. And nobody will ever see what that deal actually states.
The source says a signing ceremony will not happen with President Xi. There will be a rollout of the agreement by the White House Friday. The Chinese have requested that the language of the never be made public. #China #Trade
— Edward Lawrence (@EdwardLawrence) December 13, 2019
Effectively, the Phase One trade deal “could” be nothing more than a market manipulating blank piece of paper, and since China has only pledged to do something – which nobody will know as it is not written – and since China has not committed contractually in the court of public opinion, it will have absolutely no incentive to abide by the Phase One “deal>”
And just to confirm that it is all a farce, the source said there would be no signing event between President Trump and President Xi, confirming that there is no actual deal to certify.
Of course, none of this mattered to the algos, as markets soared then soared more on Thursday, pricing in for the 563rd time a trade deal that now appears does not exist. Here’s the moment when the Dow jumped 400 points on President Trump’s trade tweet.
As a reminder, today’s “we have a deal” news was just recycled headlines from Oct. 11, when President Trump first announced a phase one trade deal on Twitter.
And while we now have a secret, unsigned “deal”, the president spent the last several months jawboning stocks higher on imminent trade deal headlines. During this period, the S&P500 rose by nearly 8%.
Of course, in a world where the Fed’s NOT QE is about to inject $500 billion in liquidity in the next 4 weeks, and NOT bail out the biggest US and European banks, it is only fitting that the US-China unsigned, forever secret NOT trade deal is just the catalyst that pushes the NOT market to a new all time high.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 20:22 - Strange Things Are Happening In The Waters Along The West Coast, And Fish Are Starting To Disappear
Strange Things Are Happening In The Waters Along The West Coast, And Fish Are Starting To Disappear
Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,
Something is causing the waters just off the west coast to heat up dramatically, fish are dying off in staggering numbers, birds that feed on those fish are also dying off rapidly, and scientists have discovered 15,000 holes in the ocean floor off the coast of California.
Oh, and scientists don’t know for certain why any of these things are happening. Unfortunately, the mainstream media is not emphasizing this crisis, and so most Americans don’t even know what is going on. But the truth is that what we are facing is extremely serious.
In fact, officials have taken the “unprecedented” step of shutting down the federal cod fishery in Alaska for the year because of the lack of fish. We are seeing things happen that we have never seen before, and this is definitely going to affect our food supply.
So why are the fish dying?
Well, nobody knows for sure, but some officials are blaming the “marine heat wave” that has been happening in the waters along the west coast. The following comes from KING5 News…
A massive warmer-than-normal pool of water that’s formed in the Pacific Ocean off the Washington coast and up into the Gulf of Alaska may already be wreaking havoc with our weather.
This is something that I have written about previously. Scientists are telling us that water temperatures are “as much as 6 degrees Fahrenheit above normal”, and if such conditions persist we could see millions upon millions of fish die.
At this point, we are being told that this vast expanse of water is roughly “1,000 to 2,000 miles” in size in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Hopefully this “blob” will go away soon, but that hasn’t happened so far, and nobody really knows what is causing it.
Meanwhile, fish are dying off at an absolutely staggering rate. As I mentioned above, there are so few cod off the coast of Alaska right now that officials felt that it was necessary to shut down the federal cod fishery for the entire year…
In an unprecedented response to historically low numbers of Pacific cod, the federal cod fishery in the Gulf of Alaska is closing for the 2020 season. It’s a decision that came as little surprise, but it’s the first time the fishery has closed due to concerns of low stock.
When I first heard about that, I was quite stunned.
And the outlook for the future looks quite grim, because officials are telling us that there are “next to no” new eggs…
A stock assessment this fall put Gulf cod populations at a historic low, with “next to no” new eggs, according to NOAA research biologist Steve Barbeaux, who authored the report.
At their current numbers, cod are below the federal threshold that protects them as a food source for endangered Steller sea lions. Once below that line, the total allowable catch goes to zero — in other words, the fishery shuts down.
The birds that feed on those fish are also dying off in large numbers.
Because of a severe lack of fish, they are literally dropping dead from starvation, and at this point there isn’t much that officials can do about it. The following comes from the Big Wobble…
In November 2019, thousands of short-tailed shearwaters birds migrating from Alaska were washing up dead on Sydney’s iconic beaches and the bird deaths had nothing to do with the massive wildfires in the area, thousands more, short-tailed shearwaters were dying out at sea, in what was confirmation of the incredible fish shortages in the Pacific Ocean. The corpses had been spotted at several shorelines including Bondi, Manly and Cronulla. The birds were migrating back to southern Australia to breed after spending the summer in Alaska. But, according to experts, a higher number than usual are dying on the way due to a lack of food. The birds need to be at full strength to make the 14,000km trip over the Pacific but the krill and other fish they feed on have apparently dwindled due to sea temperatures rising.
Let us hope that things will return to normal eventually, but there is no guarantee that is going to happen.
Our planet is becoming increasing unstable, and really weird things are starting to take place.
Speaking of weird, scientists are telling us that they have found 15,000 holes in the ocean waters off the California coast…
Thousands of strange round holes scooped out of the ocean floor have been uncovered along the coast of California.
Some measure nearly 600 feet across, but scientists are unsure how they formed.
As many as 15,000 holes have been found during an underwater survey by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).
I was quite alarmed when I read that, and even more alarming is the fact that scientists are telling us that the cause of all of these holes “remains a mystery”…
“The cause and persistence of the pockmarks still remains a mystery, but we find no evidence they were created from gas or fluid in the sea floor in the recent past. The micro-depressions are recently formed erosional features; they are not ‘incipient pockmarks’. Overall, a lot more work needs to be done to understand how all these features were formed, and this work is in progress.”
For a long time I have been warning about what is happening to our planet. Volcanoes are going off like firecrackers all over the globe, and there was another major volcanic eruption in New Zealand on Monday. And earthquake activity continues to rise to very troubling levels. In fact, it was recently reported that there have been almost 60,000 earthquakes of at least magnitude 1.5 around the world over the last 12 months…
Earthquake tracking website EarthquakeTrack has recorded an astounding 59,841 tremors around the globe in the last 365 days on December 9. In the last 30 days, a total of 4,172 tremors higher than magnitude 1.5 were felt and 895 hit in the last seven days.
The official story is that everything is just fine and our planet will start behaving normally again soon.
But unofficially, a lot of scientists out there are deeply concerned about what we are witnessing.
A great shaking has begun, and nobody is quite sure what is going to happen next.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 20:05 - Trump's "Space Force" Officially Launched In $738BN Defense Bill
Trump’s “Space Force” Officially Launched In $738BN Defense Bill
The final 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed the House on Wednesday 377-48 at a massive and unprecedented $738 billion, in a nearly united Republican vote which also included over 180 House Democrats. It marks a $22 billion spending increase for the Pentagon.
It’s expected to be signed by President Trump likely next week after it goes through the Senate, after it was stripped of all significant items the administration would find objectionable, including a controversial War Powers Act resolution meant to end US involvement in Yemen and which would would have required Congressional approval for military action against Iran.
Interestingly, the House bill also removed language that blocked the Pentagon from researching low-yield nuclear weapons, and the House also backed away from controversial border wall restrictions.
Prior White House flag ceremony involving the newly established ‘Space Command’ file image, via Mic. Long sought after sanctions targeting Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to Germany were added. Trump had previously accused Berlin of handing “billions” of dollars to the Russians to the detriment of Ukraine, whose gas transit facilities will be bypassed by the new Gazprom spearheaded venture, set for completion within months. Expanded and severe new sanctions were also added against Syria, known as the ‘Caesar bill’.
Crucially, Trump’s ‘Space Force’ will now become a reality. As Defense News explains:
In a history making win for Trump, the agreement would add a new armed service, dedicated to space, under Title 10 of U.S. Code, which was an action the White House saw as pivotal to solidifying it as a fully independent military branch. The Space Force would be housed within the Air Force and led by the chief of space operations, who would report directly to the Air Force secretary and be a member of the Joint Chiefs.
Meanwhile, the most vocal progressive Democrat opponent of the massive defense spending bill, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), had this to say in a floor speech ahead of Wednesday’s vote: “there are many things you can call the bill, but it’s Orwellian to call it progressive.”
“Let’s speak in facts,” said Khanna. “This defense budget is $120 billion more than what Obama left us with. That could fund free public college for every American. It could fund access to high-speed, affordable internet for every American. But it’s worse. The bipartisan amendment to stop the war in Yemen: stripped by the White House. The bipartisan amendment to stop the war in Iran: stripped by the White House.”
Indeed, the most worrisome aspect to the new NDAA is that it makes it easier for the White House to go to war with Iran, at a moment tensions continue to soar.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 19:45 - "Greta, Chill!": Trump Taunts Thunberg, Tells Her To 'Work On Anger Management'; She Replies
“Greta, Chill!”: Trump Taunts Thunberg, Tells Her To ‘Work On Anger Management’; She Replies
President Trump has advised Greta Thunberg to “Chill,” and suggests that the fiery activist “work on her Anger Management problem.”
Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish environmentalist who dropped out of school to rail against everyone except China (the world’s largest polluter by gross volume), was just named TIME magazine’s most influential person for 2019.
So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill! https://t.co/M8ZtS8okzE
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2019
Quickly responding to Trump’s taunt, Thunberg (or her handlers) changed her Twitter bio to: “A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend.”
Meanwhile, a twitter account associated with Trump’s 2020 campaign, the “Trump War Room,” mocked Thunberg’s TIME magazine cover on Wednesday:
When it comes to keeping his promises, there’s only one Person Of The Year:
✅Booming Economy
✅Record Job Creation
✅Historic Tax Cuts
✅#AmericaFirst Trade Deals
✅ISIS Destroyed
✅Building the Wall#TIMEPOY #PromisesMadePromisesKept pic.twitter.com/pe1CNB7KKz— Trump War Room (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TrumpWarRoom) December 11, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsIn September, Thunberg delivered a dramatic speech to the UN general assembly in which she accused world leaders of ‘ruining her childhood’ and her ‘dreams’ – exclaiming how dare you!
In response, Trump tweeted: “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!”
She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see! https://t.co/1tQG6QcVKO
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 19:44 - The FBI Teams Up With The Post Office To Get Your Fingerprints
The FBI Teams Up With The Post Office To Get Your Fingerprints
Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is teaming up with the “highly efficient” post office to make sure they’ve got your fingerprints. Even though it wasn’t that long ago that people were warned of sharing their DNA with ancestry sites, it seems they might have reason to be concerned now about the FBI’s desire to snag your fingerprints too.
Now, the government has announced a new program in which they hope people will voluntarily give their fingerprints. As the public has become more aware of such privacy concerns, it seems strange that on Friday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced a new partnership with the United States Postal Service where customers can voluntarily provide them with their fingerprints while you’re at the post office.
Through a partnership between the #FBI and the @USPS, you can now submit your fingerprints electronically for an identity history summary check (IdHSC) while you buy stamps or mail packages. Learn more about IdHSC and find participating post offices at https://t.co/RUHjT1ZG31. pic.twitter.com/4aGwXAnO4d
— FBI (@FBI) December 6, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Surely all the bad guys will jump at the chance to give their fingerprints to the government, right?
— The Wako Kid (@OldGlory7476) December 6, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
This one tweet has everyone, left and right and those not even on the political spectrum in agreement.
I love how this is a tweet that both right and left 100% agree on🤣
— Single Payer or Bust🌹 (@stephlynn1982) December 8, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Mass Surveillance and Information Gathering.
Hard Pass.
— MostlySAFE Media (@Mostly_Safe) December 7, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Gotta buy some stamps or mail a package, why not help the government build up a national database of fingerprints. That sounds great for your privacy. –PJ Media
And, you get to pay for the privilege of having your privacy rights violated repeatedly.
For a fee, the FBI can provide individuals with an Identity History Summary—often referred to as a criminal history record or a “rap sheet”—listing certain information taken from fingerprint submissions kept by the FBI and related to arrests and, in some instances, federal employment, naturalization, or military service. –FBI.gov
The program is explained more on their website.
But there are ways to get this information without giving your fingerprints to the FBI. In fact, most of it is public record anyway.
Of course, there are plenty of ways to obtain a criminal background check without providing the federal government your fingerprint. Most of the information is a part of the public record. If you’ve forgotten that you’ve been arrested in the past and want to check, you can start with local records before you give Big Brother your fingerprints. There are also some websites that can pull up records for a fee as well, without giving up your fingerprints. –PJ Media
Perhaps the most insidious part of the deep state, the FBI is trusted in this country about as much as uncooked pork. Senator Rand Paul feels the same:
🤨 Get a Warrant. https://t.co/rukpnDB3hu
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 7, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
the people who volunteer to do this kind of stuff are the same ones who ‘report their neighbors’ for wrong think
cause it’s the ‘right thing to do’ pic.twitter.com/g9uzfUG7dy
— 🐇Bad Rabbit🐇 (@MyBadRabbit) December 7, 2019
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 19:25 - Rep. Tlaib Blames "White Supremacy" For Shooting Carried Out By Black Supremacist Group
Rep. Tlaib Blames “White Supremacy” For Shooting Carried Out By Black Supremacist Group
Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,
Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib blamed “white supremacy” for a shooting in New Jersey targeting a Jewish kosher grocery store which was carried out by a member of a black supremacist group.
Three civilians and one police officer were killed during the shooting on Tuesday, with the civilian victims later being named as members of the local Chassidic community.
The tragedy took place in a “historically black neighborhood where an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community recently has taken root,” reported the Wall Street Journal.
David Anderson was subsequently named as one of the shooters, with NBC New York reporting that he had made anti-Semitic and anti-police statements online.
It’s been known for 2 days that the killers were black supremacists… pic.twitter.com/51UVNrbHTA
— Scott Greer (@ScottMGreer) December 12, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Anderson was “once associated with the Black Hebrew Israelite movement,” reports Heavy.com.
The Black Hebrew Israelite movement is described as “Groups of Black Americans who believe they are descendants of the ancient Israelites.”
However, despite this information being known yesterday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib tweeted earlier today, “This is heartbreaking. White supremacy kills.”
Tlaib deleted the tweet after an immediate backlash pointing out that at least one of the shooters was a black supremacist, not a white supremacist.
* * *
My voice is being silenced by free speech-hating Silicon Valley behemoths who want me disappeared forever. It is CRUCIAL that you support me. Please sign up for the free newsletter here. Donate to me on SubscribeStar here. Support my sponsor – Turbo Force – a supercharged boost of clean energy without the comedown.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 19:22 - China Downturn Could Last Five Years Warns Central Bank
China Downturn Could Last Five Years Warns Central Bank
An advisor to the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) said China’s economy might not recover for the next five years, reported Reuters.
Liu Shijin, a policy adviser to the PBoC, said the country’s GDP will decelerate through 2025 and could print in a range of 5 to 6%.
Shijin warned that excessive monetary policy is failing to stimulate the economy and could cause it to rapidly decelerate.
Last month, we noted that China’s credit growth plunged to the weakest pace since 2017 as a continued collapse in shadow banking, weak corporate demand for credit, and seasonal effects all signaled that China’s economy, nevertheless, the global economy, will continue to slow.
The latest Q3 GDP figure recorded a further drop in growth, now printing at 6% YoY, the weakest expansion since the early 1990s.
China will continue decelerating into 1H20 — thanks to ineffective monetary policy but could stabilize in a target range of 5.8% to 6% YoY.
A further economic slowdown in Chinese growth could ruin the party for equity bulls, who have already priced in a massive 2016-style rebound in the global economy. A slowing China means the world will fail to rebound, though we don’t discount the stabilization narrative.
With China’s economy unlikely to sharply rebound early next year, global investors will shortly have to reprice growth, which could result in a move down in global equities.
To gain more color on China’s extended slowdown, we turn to Fathom Consulting’s China Momentum Indicator (CMI), which provides a more in-depth view of China’s economic activity than the official Chinese GDP statistics.
CMI is based on ten alternative indicators for economic activity; some of those indicators include railway freight, electricity consumption, and the issuance of bank loans.
Fathom has stated that in CMI, the calculation of the index avoids measuring construction activity, and instead focuses on shadow measures of economic activity. The consulting group says this allows the index to be “less prone to manipulation than the headline GDP figures.”
“In 2014, when China’s traditional growth model was running out of steam and vulnerabilities were rising, authorities toyed with credit tightening and an enforced rebalancing. But at the end of 2015, when growth slowed too sharply, they quickly threw in the towel, resorting to the old growth model of credit-fuelled growth. With growth once again slowing, and past precedent suggesting credit has neared its limit, China finds itself at a crossroad,” Fathom recently said.
China’s failure to stimulate its economy suggests CMI will continue a downward trajectory that has been underway for the last decade.
We’ve recently outlined the bust of the global auto industry has weighed down the Chinese economy. With no signs of an upswing in the auto market, China’s economy will remain depressed in the years ahead.
As China’s economy slows, global commodity prices are stuck in a deflationary spiral.
China’s slowing economy warns that global equities have mispriced growth for early 1Q20.
Chinese stocks could see downside in the year ahead as the economy slows.
Looking for signs of life in the Chinese economy — there aren’t any at the moment.
Société Générale’s latest report shows employment in China contracting across manufacturing and non-manufacturing, outlining how the slowdown is broad-based.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that China’s economy is decelerating and could be locked in a downward spiral until 2025. This means without China being the beating heart of the global economy, which created 60% of all new global debt over the past decade – there can be no global recovery. Maybe the world has just transitioned into a period of low or below trend growth that could be the onset of a worldwide trade recession.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 19:05 - Gabbard Takes No Prisoners In DNC Warfare
Gabbard Takes No Prisoners In DNC Warfare
Authored by Sarah Cowgill via LibertyNation.com,
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), the outspoken, independent thinker from Hawaii running for the loftiest perch in the land, has just said “no” to taking the next Democratic presidential primary debate stage. This signals either a surrender or a strategic end-run around the field. Yes, we’ve been down this road before. It is the same sentiment she expressed prior to the last debate; although she threatened to boycott the circus, she did qualify, show up, and rebuke the other candidates and the Democratic Party.
Gabbard has been Public Enemy #1 in those circles since. Instead of playing into the cemented narrative, Tulsi, who has not so far reached the conditions imposed for participation in the next round, is not wasting her time.
The Most Repetitive Show On Earth
As the sixth platform for national domination looms, Gabbard tweeted a different plan, saying:
“For a number of reasons, I have decided not to attend the December 19th ‘debate’ — regardless of whether or not there are qualifying polls. I instead choose to spend that precious time directly meeting with and hearing from the people of New Hampshire and South Carolina.”
Whether her bold decision is based on not quite reaching the necessary baseline requirements, or because she has had enough of the game playing, Tulsi seems indifferent to striving for inclusion. And we all know Gabbard is not one to tread water in the shallow end of the pool when a good, strong crawl will cover more territory.
Tulsi Gabbard
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has upped the ante for primetime pandering by requiring candidates to have a minimum of 4% support in selected national polls and 6% in two state polls of the early primary states Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, or Nevada.
The deadline for polling qualification is Dec. 12 at the witching hour of 11:59 p.m. in the Eastern time zone. How dramatic for what is likely to be a boring rehash of Trump-bashing, held a scant week later.
Although Tulsi has the sheer donor numbers needed – the support of at least 200,000 unique donors – her national polling numbers haven’t yet reached the threshold. Those on the survey leaderboard are Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), former Vice President Joe Biden, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, billionaire Tom Steyer, and businessman Andrew Yang.
A Diverse Or One-Note Race?
Tulsi has been tilting at the DNC and its primary prerequisites since the get-go, claiming the surveyors they used weren’t “accurate” enough, or that the venues were biased. Gabbard’s campaign released a statement in August, which said:
“Many of the uncertified polls, including those conducted by highly reputable organizations such as The Economist and the Boston Globe, are ranked by Real Clear Politics and FiveThirtyEight as more accurate than some DNC ‘certified’ polls.”
The DNC was insistent that its criteria for inclusion have been fair and balanced. Just ask the committee’s spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa, who responded:
“This has been the most inclusive debate process with more women and candidates of color participating in more debates than billionaires. We are proud of this historic and diverse field with 20 candidates participating in the first two debates and at least 10 candidates in each debate after that.”
What’s ironic is that no people of color – because of the strident stipulations imposed – will be at the Dec. 19 debate hosted by PBS NewsHour and Politico at the Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. PBS is set to broadcast the debate, and most likely, fewer people will watch the event than Gabbard can reach by holding town halls or meet and greets. Perhaps she’s on to something, after all.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/12/2019 – 18:45
Digest powered by RSS Digest
Saving...![<!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>](https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/spacecommand.jpg?itok=YEo45B2Q){kind=link}