- Don't Trust The Government With Your Privacy, Property, Or Your Freedoms
Don’t Trust The Government With Your Privacy, Property, Or Your Freedoms
Authored by John and Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,
How do you trust a government that continuously sidesteps the Constitution and undermines our rights? You can’t.
When you consider all the ways “we the people” are being bullied, beaten, bamboozled, targeted, tracked, repressed, robbed, impoverished, imprisoned and killed by the government, one can only conclude that you shouldn’t trust the government with your privacy, your property, your life, or your freedoms.
Consider for yourself.
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Don’t trust the government with your privacy, digital or otherwise. In the two decades since 9/11, the military-security industrial complex has operated under a permanent state of emergency that, in turn, has given rise to a digital prison that grows more confining and inescapable by the day. Wall-to wall surveillance, monitored by AI software and fed to a growing network of fusion centers, render the twin concepts of privacy and anonymity almost void. By conspiring with corporations, the Department of Homeland Security “fueled a massive influx of money into surveillance and policing in our cities, under a banner of emergency response and counterterrorism.” For instance, all across the country, police are installing Flock Safety license plate readers as part of a public-private partnership program between police and the surveillance industry. These cameras, which upload data in real time to fusion crime centers, signal a turning point in the transition from a police state to a police-driven surveillance state.
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Don’t trust the government with your property. In yet another effort to legitimize warrantless searches, police are employing “hit-and-hold” tactics in which police enter a home, carry out an initial sweep of the property, handcuff the occupants, then wait for official search warrants to be secured and applied retroactively. In the meantime, police have managed to bypass the Fourth Amendment. The rationale, to prevent possible destruction of evidence, is the same one used to deadly effect with no-knock raids. If government agents can invade your home, break down your doors, kill your dog, damage your furnishings and terrorize your family, your property is no longer private and secure—it belongs to the government. Hard-working Americans are having their bank accounts, homes, cars electronics and cash seized by police under the assumption that they have allegedly been associated with some criminal scheme.
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Don’t trust the government with your finances. The U.S. government—and that includes the current administration—is spending money it doesn’t have on programs it can’t afford, and “we the taxpayers” are being forced to foot the bill for the government’s fiscal insanity. The national debt is $31.3 trillion and growing, and we’re paying more than $300 billion in interest every year on that public debt, yet there seems to be no end in sight when it comes to the government’s fiscal insanity. According to Forbes, Congress has raised, extended or revised the definition of the debt limit 78 times since 1960 in order to allow the government to essentially fund its existence with a credit card.
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Don’t trust the government with your health. For all intents and purposes, “we the people” have become lab rats in the government’s secret experiments, which include MKULTRA and the U.S. military’s secret race-based testing of mustard gas on more than 60,000 enlisted men. Indeed, you don’t have to dig very deep or go very back in the nation’s history to uncover numerous cases in which the government deliberately conducted secret experiments on an unsuspecting populace—citizens and noncitizens alike—making healthy people sick by spraying them with chemicals, injecting them with infectious diseases and exposing them to airborne toxins. Unfortunately, the public has become so easily distracted by the political spectacle out of Washington, DC, that they are altogether oblivious to the grisly experiments, barbaric behavior and inhumane conditions that have become synonymous with the U.S. government, which has meted out untold horrors against humans and animals alike.
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Don’t trust the government with your life: At a time when growing numbers of unarmed people have been shot and killed for just standing a certain way, or moving a certain way, or holding something—anything—that police could misinterpret to be a gun, or igniting some trigger-centric fear in a police officer’s mind that has nothing to do with an actual threat to their safety, even the most benign encounters with police can have fatal consequences. The number of Americans killed by police continues to grow, with the majority of those killed as a result of police encounters having been suspected of a non-violent offense or no crime at all, or during a traffic violation. According a report by Mapping Police Violence, police killed more people in 2022 than any other year within the past decade. In 98% of those killings, police were not charged with a crime.
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Don’t trust the government with your freedoms. For years now, the government has been playing a cat-and-mouse game with the American people, letting us enjoy just enough freedom to think we are free but not enough to actually allow us to live as a free people. Freedom no longer means what it once did. This holds true whether you’re talking about the right to criticize the government in word or deed, the right to be free from government surveillance, the right to not have your person or your property subjected to warrantless searches by government agents, the right to due process, the right to be safe from militarized police invading your home, the right to be innocent until proven guilty and every other right that once reinforced the founders’ belief that this would be “a government of the people, by the people and for the people.” On paper, we may be technically free, but in reality, we are only as free as a government official may allow.
Whatever else it may be—a danger, a menace, a threat—the U.S. government is certainly not looking out for our best interests, nor is it in any way a friend to freedom.
Remember the purpose of a good government is to protect the lives and liberties of its people.
Unfortunately, what we have been saddled with is, in almost every regard, the exact opposite of an institution dedicated to protecting the lives and liberties of its people.
As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, “we the people” should have learned early on that a government that repeatedly lies, cheats, steals, spies, kills, maims, enslaves, breaks the laws, overreaches its authority, and abuses its power at almost every turn can’t be trusted.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 23:40 -
- These Are America's Most (And Least) Trusted Professions
These Are America’s Most (And Least) Trusted Professions
Some occupations have a better reputation for honesty than others.
As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, Gallup examines the issue in a reoccurring poll showing that nurses are the most trusted professionals in the United States, followed by doctors and pharmacists.
They have actually topped the ranking for two decades and were regarded as highly honest and ethical by 79 percent of respondents in 2022, down from a coronavirus high of 89 percent in 2020.
You will find more infographics at Statista
Other than the healthcare sector, trusted professionals in the eyes of Americans also come from the fields of teaching, the judiciary and law enforcement, despite long-standing criticism of police behavior that came to a boil in the country in 2020.
Other professions that more people see positively than negatively are accountant, banker and real estate agent.
Public opinion flips for labor union leaders, lawyers, journalists and business executives, with skepticism towards these occupations prevailing.
Journalists were among the professions dropping the most in the ranking since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
At the very bottom of the list, members of Congress rub shoulders with those from professions traditionally considered untrustworthy, like car salespeople and telemarketers. 62 percent of respondents said Congresspeople had low standards of honesty and ethics.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 23:20 - Senator Questions CDC On Why It Claimed No 'Unexpected Safety Signals' For COVID Vaccines
Senator Questions CDC On Why It Claimed No ‘Unexpected Safety Signals’ For COVID Vaccines
Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A U.S. senator is questioning a top agency’s public statements over safety signals for the COVID-19 vaccines.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), claimed in 2022 that safety monitoring revealed no “unexpected safety signals” for the vaccines.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) speaks during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Aug. 6, 2020. (Toni Sandys-Pool/Getty Images) But the results to which she was referring showed hundreds of safety signals, or adverse events potentially linked to the shots.
The Epoch Times obtained the results through a Freedom of Information Act after the CDC refused to release them.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is now wondering why the CDC expected so many signals after vaccination.
In a Jan. 10 letter citing The Epoch Times article on the results, Johnson demanded the CDC explain how it determined what is and is not an “unexpected safety signal.”
“The American people have a right to know the extent to which your agency was aware of and tracked COVID-19 vaccine adverse events. Your lack of transparency is unacceptable. Without immediately providing complete and reliable information about COVID-19 vaccine adverse events, you are obstructing Congressional oversight and leaving the public in the dark,” added Johnson, who was stonewalled when he requested the monitoring results.
The CDC did not respond to a request for comment.
False Statements
The CDC has made multiple false statements on the outcomes found from a type of analysis called Proportional Reporting Ratio (PRR). The analysis involves comparing the number of adverse events reported to a system co-managed by the CDC after COVID-19 vaccination to the number of adverse events reported after vaccination with other vaccines.
The CDC initially said that performing PRRs was outside of its purview, contradicting a government document that stated the agency “will perform” the technique. Dr. John Su, a top CDC official, then claimed it started performing the analysis in February 2021 and continued to do so as of July 18, 2022.
Both statements turned out to be wrong. After being pressed by Johnson, the CDC later said that it did not start the PRRs until March 25, 2022, and stopped performing them on July 31, 2022.
Walensky, a Biden appointee, admitted the CDC provided false information in a September 2022 letter to the senator.
The CDC “recently addressed a previous statement made to The Epoch Times to clarify PRR were not run between February 26, 2021, to September 30, 2021,” she said.
Johnson noted that the missive did not explain why the CDC offered the false information. Martha Sharan, a CDC spokesperson who herself made a false claim, told The Epoch Times in an email that no CDC workers intentionally provided false information.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks in Washington on June 16, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Results
The results of the PRRs, obtained by The Epoch Times and released to the public for the first time in January, shows CDC analysts found hundreds of adverse events met the threshold for a safety signal.
That included severe conditions such as blood clotting and even death.
PRRs analyze reports lodged with the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which health officials describe as “the nation’s early warning system” for vaccine issues.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 23:00 - Rolls-Royce Sales Hit Record As Rich Splurged On Luxury While Everyone Else Crushed By Inflation
Rolls-Royce Sales Hit Record As Rich Splurged On Luxury While Everyone Else Crushed By Inflation
2022 was a terrible year for billionaires, many of which lost nearly $2 trillion combined. Despite stock, crypto, and bond market turmoil, as well as soaring interest rates, elevated inflation, and increased risk of economic uncertainty, the ultra-wealthy were increasingly purchasing luxury vehicles.
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars published a press release stating it recorded its “highest-ever annual sales” in 2022, delivering 6,021 motor cars, up 8% versus 2021.
“This is the first time in the company’s 118-year history that its sales have exceeded 6,000 in a single 12-month period,” the British luxury carmaker said.
Rolls-Royce’s sales were led by the US, China, and European markets. The automaker said orders stretched well into this year and noted the high demand for its vehicles, many of which fetch $500k, which led to an expansion of the company’s Goodwood plant in the UK.
“2022 has been a momentous year for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars,” CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös wrote in a statement.
“Our order book stretches far into 2023 for all models,” Müller-Ötvös continued. “We haven’t seen any slowdown in orders.”
Müller-Ötvös added the brand’s bespoke, customized approach to “ever more imaginative and technically demanding – a challenge we enthusiastically embrace.”
And it’s not just Rolls-Royce. Bentley and Lamborghini had record sales last year.
Lamborghini delivered 9,233 vehicles in 2022, a 10% increase from the year before. Bentley delivered 15,174 vehicles, a 4% increase over 2021, which was a record year.
The growth of luxury vehicle sales reflects high net wealth folks are doing just fine despite a vast amount of wealth vaporization due to central banks tightening monetary policy. As for everyone else, many folks can barely afford their $1,000 car payment, as an auto bust seems almost inevitable.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 22:30 - What's Behind The Global Erosion Of Civil Liberties, Privacy, & Property Rights?
What’s Behind The Global Erosion Of Civil Liberties, Privacy, & Property Rights?
Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
The second essential step is to recognize how the spectacles of “news” and entertainment distract our attention from this erosion of basic rights.
Hierarchical power structures like city-states arose as problem-solving solutions, not just for the elites who benefited from the concentration of wealth and power but for the citizenry. This dynamic underpins the analysis presented in my recent book Global Crisis, National Renewal: when nation-states and global hierarchies no longer solve the key problems of their populaces, they dissolve and are replaced by some new arrangement.
It’s easy to see how hierarchies benefit the leaders / elites at the top, but there’s always a trade-off to the populace ceding power/control to elites: we will cede control over our lives in exchange for benefits we cannot gain by ourselves, starting with security from invasion and starvation, i.e. the existential threats posed by Nature and other human organizations.
Over time, as energy surpluses and knowledge increased, city-states aggregated into nation-states and empires. These larger organizations were able to solve problems on a larger scale than city-states.
When these entities could no longer solve existential problems (surpluses diminished, elites failed to provide successful leadership, etc.), they eroded and then collapsed, and were replaced with some other more successful organizational arrangement.
Over time, the citizenry of some regions began expanding the benefits nation-states and their elites were expected to provide in exchange for power: the state was expected to secure the rights to individuals’ property and various civil liberties relating to the free exchange of ideas and knowledge, freedom of worship, and having a say in national decisions.
Globally, these basic human rights are being eroded by state-elite over-reach and consolidation of power beyond what the citizenry agreed upon. For example, the citizenry ceded power to the state to protect individuals’ privacy from the surveillance and information-gathering of both the state and private interests.
As Richard Bonugli and I discuss in our podcast on Eroding Civil Liberties and Property Rights, these privacy statutes are still on the books but they are routinely disregarded by both state agencies and private-sector interests with little functional enforcement by state agencies tasked with protecting the citizens’ rights to privacy.
Big Tech routinely harvests private data for profit with little oversight, state agencies collect private data beyond their mandated scope and mobile phones gather private information which others manage to collect or access.
Property rights are also being eroded. Civil forfeiture enables local and national governments to expropriate individuals’ private property without due process, in effect declaring them guilty and effecting punishment (taking their money/property) and then forcing them to prove their innocence via a lengthy, costly, Kafkaesque process.
War by other means now includes sanctions and expropriation of individuals’ assets, not just the assets of other states or state entities (central banks, state-owned corporations, etc.)
What is driving this global erosion of the most basic civil liberties and property rights? As I describe in my book Resistance, Revolution, Liberation, all states share the same ontology, which is to respond to any threats or challenges by increasing their reach and control.
In other words, all states share the same teleological Prime Directive: always expand the state’s control and power. No state has the institutional memory or means to reduce the state’s reach, control or power.
The only limit on state expansion is the citizenry’s resistance to the loss of civil liberties, property rights and having a say in decisions which affect the entire citizenry. If the citizenry do nothing to protect their rights as individuals and communities, the state will nibble away at these until they exist only in name, not in the real world.
The first essential step is to recognize the erosion as real and consequential. Richard and I do our best to further this in our podcast Charles Hugh Smith on Eroding Civil Liberties and Property Rights (31:35 min).
The second essential step is to recognize how the spectacles of “news” and entertainment distract our attention from this erosion of basic rights. Before we know it, we’re in prisons without bars and grateful to get a questionnaire about how we like the torture (i.e. the “entertainment”).
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My new book is now available at a 10% discount ($8.95 ebook, $18 print): Self-Reliance in the 21st Century. Read the first chapter for free (PDF)
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 22:20 - National Security Experts Criticize Media, Scientists Who Dismissed COVID-19 Lab Leak Theory In Open Letter
National Security Experts Criticize Media, Scientists Who Dismissed COVID-19 Lab Leak Theory In Open Letter
Authored by Ryan Morgan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A group of 43 national security experts published an open letter on Jan. 11 criticizing news organizations and scientific publications that dismissed the possibility that the COVID-19 pandemic might have been the result of a lab leak.
Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan as members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus make a visit to the institute in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province on Feb. 3, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images) The letter is addressed “To the editors, authors, and contributors to major scientific, medical, and journalistic publications worldwide.” The addressees include The Lancet, Nature Medicine, The New York Times, and TIME magazine.
The letter was coordinated by the Vandenberg Coalition, and included signatures from House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), former U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, Former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger, and analysts from the Heritage Foundation, the Hudson Institute, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), and other security and foreign policy analysts.
“Leading scientific journals censored dissenting voices; many science writers at major news outlets promoted narratives or asserted conclusions unsubstantiated by evidence; reporters failed to make even cursory attempts at surfacing potential conflicts of interest of their sources,” the letter states.
“This served to hamper national and international policy discussions about how to mitigate against future pandemics of any origin—natural, accidental, or deliberate.”
The letter faults editors and reporters at news organizations and scientific publications for stifling debate on the origins of the virus.
The letter references a Fox News article about a May 2021 tweet by a New York Times reporter who said, “Someday we will stop talking about the lab leak theory and maybe even admit its racist roots. But alas, that day is not yet here.”
The New York Times reporter deleted the tweet the same day she wrote it.
“Our security and prosperity depend on rigorous scientific debate, research, and scholarship, as well as an intrepid and independent news media,” the letter continues.
“The responsibility of scientists and journalists alike is to ask hard questions and seek truth. By prematurely dismissing or stigmatizing certain questions—from the very outset of the pandemic—many prominent scientists and journalists failed in their duty.”
The letter went on to list “notable failures” by the various news and scientific publications. A February 2020 statement by The Lancet “asserted without evidence that questioning the supposed natural origin of COVID-19 constituted ‘misinformation’ and a ‘conspiracy theory,” the letter states.
Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, was listed as a co-author the February 2020 statement by The Lancet. EcoHealth Alliance worked directly with China’s Wuhan laboratories to research coronaviruses. The Lancet subsequently acknowledged questions if Daszak had a “competing interest” when he co-authored the 2020 statement.
The letter authors also noted that a report by Nature Medicine, which “became one of the most-cited academic journal articles in history” had “effectively stigmatized anyone who questioned whether the outbreak may have originated in a laboratory.”
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 21:40 - DeSantis Eyes Ban On China-Based Entities From Purchasing Florida Property
DeSantis Eyes Ban On China-Based Entities From Purchasing Florida Property
Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is mulling a move to ban Chinese entities from purchasing property in the state due to the economic and security risks posed by China’s communist regime.
“If you look at the Chinese Communist Party, they’ve been very active throughout the Western Hemisphere in gobbling up land and investing in different things,” DeSantis said during a press conference on Jan. 10.
“And, you know, when they have interests that are opposed to ours, and you’ve seen how they’ve wielded their authority… it is not in the best interests of Florida to have the Chinese Communist Party owning farmland, owning land close to military bases.”
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Republican Jewish Coalition Annual Leadership Meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Nov. 19, 2022. (Wade Vandervort/AFP via Getty Images) The remarks follow warnings from security experts and lawmakers that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China as a single-party state, is seeking to purchase strategic parcels of land throughout the United States from which it can conduct espionage or otherwise sabotage U.S. national security interests.
In recent years, Chinese land buys in Texas and North Dakota, which were both situated near U.S. military bases, have raised alarm among both locals and policymakers in state and federal governments.
DeSantis said that the CCP had “taken a much more Marxist-Leninist turn” under current Party leader Xi Jinping and suggested that communist China was now a “hostile nation.”
“We do not need to have CCP influence in Florida’s economy,” DeSantis said.
A sign opposing a corn mill in Grand Forks, N.D., stands near 370 acres recently annexed by the city for the project. Many residents don’t want the project in the city because the owner, Fufeng Group, has reputed ties to the Chinese Communist Party through its company chairman. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times) China Spending Billions on US Land Every Year
Chinese investors purchased more than $6 billion in U.S. real estate between March 2021 and March 2022, according to the National Association of Realtors, making it the largest foreign buyer in terms of dollars spent.
Florida has been at the center of that purchasing craze, with 24 percent of all foreign property purchases in the nation happening there. The next state with the highest amount of foreign purchases was California, which accounted for 11 percent.
DeSantis described the CCP’s influence in American society as “very insidious” and, to that end, said that he was not only concerned with the CCP seeking out farmland, but also wanted to terminate its access to residential properties.
“Why would you want them buying residential developments and things like that?” DeSantis said. “I don’t want them owning subdivisions and things like that.”
Though outrage over the issue has been widespread in recent months, there have been relatively few concrete actions taken to curb the flow of U.S. land to CCP-aligned organizations.
Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) introduced legislation in November that would “prohibit the purchase of public or private agricultural land in the United States by foreign nationals associated with the Government of the People’s Republic of China.”
Likewise, Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) introduced legislation to improve national security by “preventing foreign adversaries from taking any ownership or control of the United States agriculture industry.”
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 21:00 - 'Decision To Arm Ourselves Or Arm Ukraine': Navy Secretary Admits Crisis In US Defense Stockpiles
‘Decision To Arm Ourselves Or Arm Ukraine’: Navy Secretary Admits Crisis In US Defense Stockpiles
The leader of the US Navy has admitted that the question of dwindling US arms stockpiles in the rush to arm Ukraine, which now stands at over $100 billion in defense aid and counting, is dire enough that some tough unprecedented decisions are coming, which shocked a group of reporters this week.
Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro acknowledged before a naval warfare conference in Arlington, Virginia on Wednesday that the US within the next six months could face a decision of whether to arm itself or Ukraine, due to rapidly depleting stockpiles due to supplying Ukraine
Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) Carlos Del Toro, via Flickr/US Navy The comments were first revealed by Defense One editor Marcus Weisberger on Twitter, and subsequently reported in the publication, and in Newsweek and others. Earlier in the conference the US Navy’s Adm. Daryl Caudle put things in stark terms by saying the decision will eventually come down to ‘arm ourselves or arm Ukraine’.
Weisberger wrote of the comments: “An admiral alluded to the US needing to choose between itself and Ukraine during a panel at the conference.”
Below are the rare, very revealing words of the exchange heard by reporters:
The secretary was asked to respond to comments made at the conference by Adm. Daryl Caudle, commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command. Caudle, the reporter said, worried that “the Navy might get to the point where it has to make the decision whether it needs to arm itself or arm Ukraine, and has the Navy gotten to that point yet?”
Del Toro replied, “With regards to deliveries of weapons systems for the fight in Ukraine…Yeah, that’s always a concern for us. And we monitor that very, very closely. I wouldn’t say we’re quite there yet, but if the conflict does go on for another six months, for another year, it certainly continues to stress the supply chain in ways that are challenging.”
While most weapons going to Ukraine are from Army stockpiles, it remains that the US recently pledged Sea Sparrow missiles to Ukraine. Additionally US-made Harpoons have long been transferred to Kiev via Denmark.
Navy Secretary Del Toro went on to explain that Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks has been working “very closely with [the defense] industry, to motivate them to find out what their challenges or obstacles are to be able to increase their own production rates,” as quoted in the Defense One report.
US defense officials are wringing their hand over the RAPID DEPLETION of US ammo stockpiles. Yes, the US has drained its munitions stockpiles to fight its proxy war with Russia. Now, it’ll have to cough up EVEN MORE $ to restock its own US arsenal. MADNESS.https://t.co/s53bVlpTgH
— Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) January 5, 2023
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
“It’s obvious that you know, these companies have a substantial pipeline for the future,” Del Toro added. “They now need to invest in their workforce, as well as the capital investments that they have to make within their own companies to get their production rates up.”
Department of Defense stockpiles have been a concern in relation to steadily ramped up arms supplies to Ukraine from within the opening months of the Russian invasion. Additionally other NATO allies are facing this same problem and worry, especially ‘neutral’ Germany which due to the war dramatically shifted its historic stance on not sending weapons into foreign conflict zones. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock admitted as early as the summer that “Unfortunately, the situation here is such that we have an absolute deficit in our own stocks.”
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 20:45 - Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders Signs Executive Order Banning CRT In Arkansas
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders Signs Executive Order Banning CRT In Arkansas
Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed an executive order banning indoctrination and critical race theory (CRT) in the state after being sworn in as governor.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders talks to reporters outside the White House in Washington, on April 29, 2019. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Schools must “educate, not indoctrinate” students and that the state’s education policies need to “protect children and prepare them to enter the workforce,” according to the executive order, obtained by the Daily Caller.
CRT controversially teaches that America is fundamentally racist, promotes skin color as a person’s primary characteristic, and assigns moral fault to individuals—usually white people—solely based on their skin color.
CRT has been a controversial ideology meeting resistance from parents and communities across America, who argue that it teaches a distorted definition of what racism has traditionally meant.
Sanders’ executive order, signed Jan. 10, declares CRT “antithetical to the traditional American values of neutrality, equality, and fairness.”
“It is the policy of this administration that CRT, discrimination, and indoctrination have no place in Arkansas classrooms,” the executive order reads.
‘Prohibited Indoctrination’
The executive order directs Arkansas’ education secretary to ensure that “prohibited indoctrination” is not communicated to students by any public school employee, public school representative, or guest speaker.
CRT is considered prohibited indoctrination because it encourages students to adopt, affirm, and profess ideas that white people are inherently racist, in violation of the Civil Rights Act.
“This prohibited indoctrination would include anything that teaches that people of one color, creed, race, ethnicity, sex, age, marital status, familial status, disability, religion, national origin, or any other characteristic protected by federal or state law are inherently superior or inferior to people of another color, creed, race, ethnicity, sex, age, marital status, familial status, disability, religion, national origin, or any other characteristic protected by federal or state law,” the order states.
The order bans any requirement for school employees or students to attend any training sessions or orientations that on prohibited indoctrination or CRT.
Curriculum Transparency
In signing the executive order as one of her first acts as governor, Sanders has taken the stance that government education policies must empower parental rights and foster curriculum transparency across the state.
The order directs the secretary of the state’s education department to review the rules, policies, materials, and communications of the department to ensure they comply with Title IV and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance,” Title VI of the Civil Rights Act states.
Arkansas’ state constitution and the U.S. Constitution provide equal protection under the law, regardless of color, creed, race, ethnicity, sex, age, marital status, familial status, disability, religion, and national origin.
Sanders’ executive order directs the state’s secretary of education to probe the department for any “items” that promote ideologies such as CRT that purposely encourage students to discriminate based on race and other protected attributes.
Any “items” that are found to indoctrinate students with ideologies like CRT, such as rules, regulations, policies, materials, or communications, must be changed or annulled, according to the order.
Sanders Signals ‘Turning Point’
Sanders took the oath of office in the lower chamber of the state Legislature ahead of a joint session and was formally inaugurated on the state Capitol steps on Tuesday afternoon.
Speaking for roughly 15 minutes at her inauguration, Sanders said her ascension to the office marks a “turning point in the history of Arkansas” that would usher in a new era of “good jobs, great schools, safer streets, and stronger families.”
“The people of Arkansas, in their vast wisdom, have entrusted a new generation to lead. This is our moment. This is our opportunity,” she said.
Sanders, whose father Mike Huckabee was Arkansas governor from 1996 to 2007, is the first woman to hold the governor’s office in Arkansas. Her election marks the first time a father and daughter have been elected to the role.
During her campaign, Sanders, who served for nearly two years as White House press secretary under former President Donald Trump, focused mainly on national issues. She regularly promised to use the office to fight the policies of President Joe Biden and the “radical left.”
She succeeded incumbent Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, who left office as he cannot seek re-election to a third term because he is term-limited. Hutchinson endorsed Sanders’s bid, along with Trump.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 20:20 - America Runs On… Bottled Water
America Runs On… Bottled Water
The most popular drink in America is sold at a 4000 percent markup and is responsible for tens of millions of discarded containers each day: bottled water.
As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, despite U.S. tap water – with some notable exceptions – being safe to drink, around one third of Americans don’t consume it at all, while another third is most likely to drink their tap water filtered.
You will find more infographics at Statista
Plastic bottles and plastic bottle caps are among the most common items to pollute oceans. Yet, the U.S. has introduced few regulations to reign it their use.
The Statista Global Consumer Survey shows that 63 percent of Americans consume bottled water regularly, placing the drink ahead of coffee, which only 57 percent said they drank somewhat frequently.
Almost as many people – 56 percent – said they regularly grabbed a soft drink.
Alcoholic drinks – among those 21 years and older – proved less popular. Beer still beat wine at 25 percent vs. 24 percent popularity.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 20:00 - "This Is Election Interference": House Oversight Veteran On Biden Classified Documents
“This Is Election Interference”: House Oversight Veteran On Biden Classified Documents
Authored by Nathan Worcester via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A House Oversight Committee veteran said the delay in publicizing President Joe Biden’s retention of classified documents from his time as vice president amounts to election interference.
“The documents were allegedly discovered on Nov. 2. The midterms are on Nov. 8. To me, this is election interference by omission,” Mike Howell said in a Jan. 11 interview with The Epoch Times.
“Does anyone think if this had been President Trump or any other Republican, the news wouldn’t have been leaked immediately for political gain? We needn’t wonder—just look at all the affirmative updates, releases, and leaks in the Trump case,” he said in a Jan. 10 statement.
President Joe Biden speaks during a Cabinet meeting in the White House on Jan. 5, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Howell was an attorney for the Department of Homeland Security under President Donald Trump. He previously worked as a lawyer on the House Oversight Committee as well as the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent on horseback tries to stop a Haitian migrant from entering an encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande near the Acuna Del Rio International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas, on Sept. 19, 2021. (Paul Ratje/AFP/Getty Images) He now leads the Oversight Project at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Heritage Oversight is, in Howell’s words, “suing the Biden administration aggressively” over Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
“We’re gathering as much as we can and hoping that Congress makes use of it,” he said, noting that FOIA lawsuits are just one of the organization’s tactics.
Notably, Heritage Oversight obtained an email to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas that shows that he knew Haitian migrants weren’t whipped by Border Patrol agents at Del Rio, Texas, by Sept. 24, 2021.
Yet during a press conference that same day, Mayorkas offered no clarification on the whipping allegations, instead saying that the images “painfully conjured up the worst elements of our nation’s ongoing battle against systemic racism.”
FOIA Requests Filed
“He [Mayorkas] chose to ignore the information to preserve the far-left narrative on this whole incident,” Howell said in a 2022 Heritage Foundation interview.
Heritage Oversight filed FOIA requests with the Department of Justice and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) regarding the classified materials found at the Penn Biden Center.
“Why was this information not made public prior [to] the election? It likely would have had substantial electoral salience,” Howell wrote in his FOIA request to the Department of Justice.
Democrats have frequently accused Republicans of election interference, citing everything from voter I.D. laws to state-level election integrity legislation.
Now, Republicans are zeroing in on the apparently coordinated suppression of stories prior to national elections in an election interference narrative of their own.
The Penn Biden Center incident, which could have broken before the 2022 midterm election, comes just two years after the Hunter Biden laptop story was shut down in the run-up to the 2020 election.
“People need to be aware that our elections, when things like this happen, are not free and fair,” Howell said.
Comes Alongside House Oversight Requests
Heritage Oversight’s FOIA requests come as the House Oversight Committee, now under Republican control, launches its own investigation into the Biden documents.
In a Jan. 10 letter to White House counsel Stuart Delery, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote that the committee he now leads is “concerned that President Biden has compromised sources and methods with his own mishandling of classified documents.”
“The committee expects President Biden will receive equal treatment under the law given that he maintained classified documents in his unsecured office for several years with access to an unknown number of people,” the letter reads.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), then-ranking GOP member of the House Oversight Committee, during a hearing in Washington on July 27, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Howell thinks Heritage Oversight’s FOIA requests will complement the House Oversight Committee’s accommodation process.
“The accommodation process” refers to constitutionally sound negotiations between different branches of government, particularly when the legislative branch seeks information from the executive branch.
The House Judiciary Committee has described the accommodation process as “the bedrock of congressional investigative activity.”
“Now, the Biden administration is forced to deal with document requests from two different angles in two different legal proceedings,” Howell said.
He foresees a long, tough fight to get answers.
“This is going to be the most obstructive administration in history,” Howell said.
He expects obstructionism from NARA, recently in the headlines over its referral to the Justice Department regarding documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago—the basis for a subsequent search warrant served by the FBI.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 19:40 - Delayed Flights – The New Post-Pandemic Normal?
Delayed Flights – The New Post-Pandemic Normal?
The outage of a Federal Aviation Administration system grounding thousands of U.S. flights Wednesday is just the latest in a string of events that have led to delays and cancellations in air travel lately.
As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz notes, looking at the share of major North American airline flights arriving late at their destination over the past years, a post-pandemic dip in punctuality becomes visible.
Reports by Cirium show that while some airlines have kept it together more, others’ on-time performance has virtually imploded.
You will find more infographics at Statista
Among the latter is Southwest Airlines, the biggest carrier with a majorly decreased punctuality score. While in 2019, only 18.6 percent of the airline’s flights were delayed, 2021 and 2022 saw the airline be late around 26-29 percent of the time. Interestingly, the complete meltdown of Southwest’s computer systems at the end of December – leading to droves of stranded customers and fliers separated from their luggage – did not create a worse score in 2022 than in 2021.
Other airlines where tardiness skyrocketed were low(er)-cost carriers JetBlue, Frontier and Allegiant Air, the latter hitting 35.4 percent delayed flights in 2021 and 34.1 percent in 2022.
Among the largest U.S. airlines, delays increased, but on a lower level. Delta Air Lines continued to be the most punctual carrier throughout the survey period, even though delays were somewhat up in 2022. Alaska Airlines and American Airlines also saw the share of delayed flights rise slightly, while United Airlines – only the seventh most punctual carrier in 2019 – improved its performance, landing in rank 2 of the most on-time airlines in 2022.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 19:20 - China's $7 Trillion "Hidden Debt" Is Back In Focus
China’s $7 Trillion “Hidden Debt” Is Back In Focus
By Ye Xie, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and analyst
While optimism toward China has been growing amid the economic reopening, the recent loan restructuring of a local government financing vehicle shined a light on this $7 trillion in “hidden” debt. While this group of borrowers has never defaulted, markets are starting to get worried, shunning some weaker borrowers.
With Beijing pivoting on key policies, a cyclical recovery appears to be underway. But structural issues – such as the heavy debt load of local governments — haven’t gone away. On Dec. 30, Zunyi Road & Bridge Construction Group from Guizhou province, one of the poorest regions, extended its bank loans for two decades. It pledged to honor payments on its bonds.
The restructuring caused a splash among market participants. Local government financing vehicles, or LGFVs, are mostly tasked with building infrastructure projects. They allow local authorities to raise money without having the debt appear on the government’s balance sheet. This “hidden” debts and contingent liabilities have risen to 47 trillion yuan ($7 trillion and 39% of GDP) in September, up from 20 trillion yuan at the end of 2016, according to Adam Wolfe, an economist at Absolute Strategy Research.
Source: Absolute Strategy Research So far, these risky state borrowers – with the perception of an implicit guarantee from local governments — have avoided default in public bond markets. But slumping land sales and massive Covid-induced expenditures weaken local governments’ finances and raise questions about their ability to pay, as shown by Zhunyi’s restructuring.
Investors have already showed some concerns about the sector, shunning weaker LGFV and muni bonds. Exhibit 2: Guizhou has been squeezed out of muni market, with its share of issuances falling.
Source: Absolute Strategy Research Exhibit 3: The spread differential between AA-rated and AAA-rated five-year LGFV bonds has widened to the highest since 2018.
The spread widening, in part, reflects offloading by wealth-management products to meet redemptions，but also signals “the tail risk concerns on weaker LGFVs,” according to Goldman Sachs analysts Kenneth Ho and Chakki Ting. The Zunyi restructuring “reinforces our view that an element of caution is warranted for China LGFVs, as we believe further credit differentiation is likely amongst LGFVs, exacerbated by uneven fiscal stress in local governments,” they wrote.
LGFV bonds — known as “chengtou zhai” or “city investment debt” – are enormous, accounting for about a third of total issuance. The stress there could easily spread to the rest of the credit market.
Moreover, their inability to borrow may reduce local governments’ spending. Losses at LGFVs could also increase non-performing loans at banks that lend to them.
Few expect a full-blown crisis. As Bloomberg economist David Qu noted, many LGFVs have diversified away from real estate and government-related businesses, and the ones that still rely on local governments financially would probably get official aid in some form in a crunch.
Still, this hidden debt remains what’s known as a “grey rhino” — a high-risk threat that is often ignored until it’s too late. In the words of Wolfe, Guizhou’s debt restructuring is just “a tip of the iceberg.”
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 19:00 - White House Argues That Sudden Disappearance Of Migrants During Biden Border Visit Coincidental
White House Argues That Sudden Disappearance Of Migrants During Biden Border Visit Coincidental
As we noted during Joe Biden’s recent lighting speed tour of southern border, El Paso was an epicenter of the illegal immigration crisis up until just two weeks ago, when suddenly and magically there was a mass exodus or removal of thousands of migrants from the streets of the city.
El Paso went from over 2500 migrants crossing the border per day to essentially zero after a quiet cleanup effort, increased border patrol and national guard as well as the building of a makeshift border wall using cargo containers and barbed wire.
When confronted with the fact that this purging of migrants from El Paso was rather opportune for Joe Biden, allowing him to tour the border and facilities without having to deal with the presence of hordes of illegal immigrants, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre clumsily insinuated that the lack of migrants in the city at the time was purely “coincidental.”
Simultaneously, Pierre asserts that there was a cleanup and that this is a good thing. Of course, the removal of migrants from El Paso was not undertaken until the past two weeks because of optics. It was done to ensure that no images of Joe Biden surrounded by illegal immigrants laying in garbage strewn streets see the light of day. In other words, the cleanup was enacted to hide the extent of the migrant crisis, not fix it.
Not only that, but it proves that the White House does have the means to stop the invasion at the border using the same measures they used in El Paso, they just don’t want to.
The Biden Administration has ignored the increasingly dire state of affairs on the border ever since he took office. His amnesty policies and attempts to shut down Title 42 have led to larger caravans of illegals each month. With the recent tactics to obscure the situation in El Paso it would appear that Biden has no intention if changing his open border plans anytime soon.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 18:40 - American Ponzi
American Ponzi
Authored by Hardscrabble Farmer via The Burning Platform blog,
The first question that came to mind as the closing credits rolled on the Netflix documentary Madoff The Monster of Wall Street was why?
Why would they make a movie like this that connects as many dots?
The film lays out so many of the obvious truths of how America and the economic systems we have come to depend upon are nothing more than a colossal fiction, a fraud operating at every level and throughout every aspect of our Government, and the institutions we have come to think of as our culture.
And then it hit me.
The purpose of this revelation is to serve as cover for the even larger Ponzi scheme that is SBF about to unravel, and eventually, if I suspect correctly, the death blow that will be discovered when BlackRock is finally shown to be the exact same kind of Ponzi scheme as all the others. When the final downturn in our economic collapse goes into full Krakatoa and wipes out every last vestige of economic stability in the Western World.
The central underlying explanation for what transpired is based upon the rickety tripod of incompetence, misplaced altruism, and bad luck. Had it not been for the crisis of 2008, Madoff’s scheme would have continued to be as successful as it was up to 2007. Had it not been Madoff’s central concern to please people, he never would have made the kinds of promises he did. Had it not been for a couple of low level SEC examiners who weren’t properly trained, it would have been caught sooner. None of these explanations pass the sniff test of course.
From the beginning the SEC with their bloated multi-billion dollar annual budget do little if any work on anything other than drawing paychecks and providing cover for large scale institutional level white collar criminals to operate without fear of accountability. Without the greed of the people helping to run the operation anyone with two eyeballs and a heart beat would have been able to discern what was going on inside the offices of Madoff’s criminal empire in a week or less.
Had it not been for the gullibility and rank stupidity of the American people the common denominator between all of these parties, save for a few, low-level associates, would be readily discernible. The producers do not want anyone to notice these obvious signs of just how the global banking and economic systems really operate because if they were made clear there’d be a revolution tomorrow.
Our entire system is a Ponzi scheme. Everyone is in on it. The government is a Potemkin village, populated by a criminal syndicate that is raping the American people and stealing every last thing of value right before our eyes, with impunity. On occasion when it becomes so obvious that nothing can conceal the crimes, they’ll toss one of their associates overboard to placate the roiling masses before quickly moving their shop to another 17th floor.
This documentary is an absolute must see for anyone with even the slightest interest in how things are going to, in the not too distant future, play out in the last days of the dying Empire that was once America. The only requirement is to watch it unfold without listening to the rhetorical assurances of the ones trying to pull this polished wool over your eyes, but as you would a true con man with his hand on your wallet. In the final analysis the greatest con of all is in how this story is told by Netflix rather than the shoddily constructed grift that was Madoff Investments.
* * *
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 18:20 - Is It Payback Time For Democratic Zealots?
Is It Payback Time For Democratic Zealots?
Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,
The Left has gone mad over former President Donald J. Trump — past, present, and future.
The current Democratic Party and NeverTrump “conservatives” assumed that Trump was and remains so obviously toxic that they do not have to define exactly what his evil entails.
Accordingly, they believe that any means necessary are justified to stop him.
And furthermore, these zealots, when out of power, insist such extraordinary measures should not be emulated and institutionalized by their opponents, much less ever boomeranged back upon their creators.
In this context, the Republicans retaking control of the House of Representatives once again raises the question of whether they should reply in kind.
Given the current investigation following the Mar-a-Lago raid, should there also be a mirror-image special prosecutor to examine President Joe Biden’s lost stash of classified documents in his insecure office following his vice presidency?
Can House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., ever be considered too inflammatory, given that his predecessor, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tore up the president’s State of the Union address on national television?
How many Democratic House members should be denied committee assignments to remind the Congress that Pelosi’s rejection of Republican nominees was a terrible precedent?
How many congressional subpoenas with threats of criminal prosecution and performance-art arrests should be issued to Democratic politicos to stop the criminalization of political differences?
In our current age, will all former president’s private homes, closets, and drawers now be subject to FBI raids to ensure that “classified” documents were not wrongly stored there?
Are Biden’s current homes also a logical target, given his sloppy handling of classified foreign policy papers — eerily reminiscent of an abandoned laptop belonging to son Hunter Biden and daughter Ashley Biden’s lost diary?
Was it ever a good idea to impeach a first-term president the moment he lost his party’s majority in the House — but without any hope of a conviction in the Senate? Would such a similar impeachment send a warning to Biden to honor his oath of office and start enforcing U.S. immigration law?
Does a phone call now an impeachment make, on the grounds that Trump mixed domestic politics with foreign policy?
But was Trump’s Ukrainian call that much different from former President Barack Obama’s 2012 quid pro quo in Seoul, South Korea, where he asked the Russian president to convey a deal to Vladmir Putin: Stay calm and give Obama space during his reelection bid while Obama in turn would be flexible on missile defense.
Putin did just that and put off invading Ukraine until Obama was reelected. And Obama made sure there was no joint missile defense projects in Eastern Europe. Was that deal in America’s interest, or Obama’s own and thus similarly impeachable?
Or consider Biden mixing foreign policy and politics on the eve of the midterm elections. For example, he kept draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to dangerously low levels while begging hostile foreign dictators to pump more oil.
Thereby Biden sought to win votes from angry commuters buffeted by high fuel prices. And he also appeased the Left by not ordering more drilling for gas and oil. Was that gambit in the nation’s — or Biden’s — best interest?
What is wrong with the House investigating whether the FBI infiltrated and contracted social media companies to warp news coverage and suppress free expression of American citizens?
The Left certainly thought it was necessary in 1975 for the Church Committee to investigate the CIA. That committee found the agency was contracting new organizations to front for its covert operations, while partnering with telecommunications corporations to monitor the data of citizens on CIA watch lists. Sound familiar to today’s FBI?
Was it a good idea for the Democratic House to release Trump’s tax returns?
If the Republican House were to do the same with the Biden consortium’s tax records, would the result be far more incriminating?
There was much talk once in Congress of evoking the 25th Amendment to remove a supposedly mentally impaired Trump. A Yale psychiatrist was even paraded before Congress to attest the president was dangerously unbalanced. Calls for aptitude testing resulted in Trump acing the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.
Should the House now follow the Democrats’ precedent? Should medical professionals review all of Biden’s incoherent utterances, his fantasy biographic tales, and his often physical fragility and determine whether he is non compos mentis? Is that a precedent we wish to follow?
When a defeated first-term president leaves office and vows to return in four years, is it wise to impeach and try him as a private citizen?
Did not the House impeach Trump in part because he warned the Ukrainians that Biden, a possible opponent in 2020, was likely corrupt?
Do the endless Democratic efforts to go after Trump, a possible Biden opponent in 2024, constitute far more than a Trump single phone call to the president of Ukraine?
Somehow supposedly worldly and sophisticated partisans in their self-righteousness ignored ancient laws of what goes around comes around, of Karma, of Nemesis, of payback’s a bit—h, and all that stuff.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 17:40 - PC Bust Cycle Will Last Until 2024
PC Bust Cycle Will Last Until 2024
The PC bust cycle will extend well into 2023 and might not see a turnaround until 2024. The pandemic-era demand has mostly evaporated as consumers and companies delay purchases.
The hangover for the PC market has been well underway for the last two quarters. A note from Gartner Inc. shows worldwide shipments of PCs fell 29% in the fourth quarter from a year ago. Another report from International Data Corp. confirmed the pandemic-era computer boom is over for now.
Mikako Kitagawa, the director analyst at Gartner, said the first cracks of the PC bust cycle materialized in the third quarter of last year when corporate buyers began to pull back on purchases.
“Enterprise buyers are extending PC life cycles and delaying purchases, meaning the business market will likely not return to growth until 2024,” Kitagawa said, who was quoted by WSJ.
Gartner’s report showed that PC makers shipped 65.3 to 67.3 million PCs in the fourth quarter. For the full year, shipments totaled about 286.2 million units, a 16% increase versus the year before.
IDC said Dell Technologies recorded the most significant decline in PC shipments for the year. Other PC brands that recorded shipment declines were Lenovo, HP, Apple, and Asus.
Despite all the gloom, Lenovo, a Chinese tech company, had the largest market share of all PC sales in the quarter at around 23%.
Entirely separate but worth noting is the computer-equipment maker Logitech that saw shares crash as much as 19% today, the most since April 2011. The company slashed guidance due to a slowdown in the PC space.
Recall that we have outlined how graphics cards, memory chips, and monitor prices have plunged in the last two quarters.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 17:20 - Roads Are Racist
Roads Are Racist
Authored by Eric Peters via EricPetersAutos.com,
Everything is racist – even roads.
It is why roads must be dug up and converted to foot/bicycle paths, which are more “equitable”- since you do not need to own a car to be able to use those.
Of course, without a car, you can only walk – or pedal – so far. You are kept in your place, as it were. But that’s not racist – because it keeps everyone in their place. Well, everyone except the you-know-who’s. Who come in all colors but are all the same in that they want everyone else . . . kept in their place.
Irony of ironies, they intend to use our taken-for-granted but slipping-away freedom of movement – by car – as the vehicle to put us back in our place, as they see it.
By framing the car – and roads – as “racist.”
The car, which freed everyone who owns one from being stuck where they are. Expanded their options – for work, employment, education and recreation. That made it – per James Brown – easy to get anywhere.
For anyone.
But not so, according to the Roads Are Racist narrative, which argues that the Interstate Highway System in particular was not meant to make it “easy to get anywhere” – but rather to make it easy for whites to get away from blacks. And – in the process – leave blacks “behind” in the bypassed ghettoes of the inner cities. This is like blaming the “unvaccinated” – that is, the un-drugged – for the serial sickness of the “vaccinated” (the people who took the drugs that neither prevent the getting nor the spreading of sickness).
The downtown areas of big cities such as Detroit, Chicago and Baltimore have become blighted wastelands, it’s true. Full of boarded-up homes interspersed with liquor stores here and there – and derelicts everywhere. But this did not happen because the roads were built. It happened because the cities became shitholes. Many were burnt down by peaceful protestors back in the late ’60s – and were never rebuilt. People who wanted to live as far away as possible from the shit – literally, as in dumps on the sidewalk – and peaceful protests, too – left.
Which they could, because there were roads for them to leave on.
No one was kept from leaving.
But it is evidence of “racism” that those who chose to stay did just that. As opposed to evidence of lack of initiative. Just saying that latter being extremely “racist” – because it isn’t racist to imply that black people lack initiative. Are not capable of apprehending that the neighborhood is turning to shit and leaving it.
Which of course many did. Barack Obama, for instance.
Never mind that. Black folks are too indolent to use the roads to escape to a better place, far away from the shit, the peaceful protestors and the high cost of living in cities controlled by Leftists who make it shitty and expensive to live in cities. Whose policies cause the population that remains to bifurcate into two classes – the very rich and the very poor.
Who come in all colors.
The tent cities one sees in cities such as LA and San Francisco are in fact very diverse. Except in one way. It is that everyone living in those tents is poor.
Leftists see this and offer their analysis – and solution. Things must be made more equitable – by keeping everyone in his place. By making everyone equally poor.
Themselves excepted, of course.
Get rid of the roads. Get rid of cars, too. Make it harder for anyone to get anywhere, excepting the very affluent – who will as always be able to get anywhere they like. Viz, the Davos Crowd, private-jetting to their private conferences where the “racism” of freedom of movement is bruited about.
Roads “increase access to resources like jobs, healthcare and education,” says one of these – a Young Leader-in-the-making by the name of Raaj Kumar.
All of which is true and also the point. Why build – why travel upon – roads that don’t take you somewhere better than where you happen to be right now? But then he says “racist road planning and the proliferation of cars in white households, mega-highways . . . directly contributed to the city’s serious segregation problem.”
Italics added.
He refers to Atlanta, a city notorious for its traffic. Which he synonymizes with “segregation.”
This being akin to defining a drug that does not prevent the getting or spreading of sickness as a “vaccine.”
No person – of any color – is being thwarted by law from going anywhere they please. Which they are able to do, courtesy of all those roads – which everyone is free to use. The fact that some choose not to use them is just that, a choice. The Leftist says it is a false choice, because some lack the means to make use of roads. But this isn’t a color barrier – the defining attribute of segregation. As in, no – you cannot go there. You must remain here.
That is segregation.
Anyone can buy a car. Assuming it’s not an electric car. (Is this pushing of electric cars on people who cannot afford them also “racist”?)
And roads? They opened up America – all of it – to everyone.
Digging them up and replacing them with foot and bike paths will close off most of America to almost everyone. This is the “15 minute city” vision of the Davos-set, who deploy useful idiots such as Raaj Kumar to foment resentment by crying “racism” at literally everything.
Including the thing that has benefitted everyone.
That being the roads – which have made it easy for all of us to be anywhere we like.
* * *
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Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 17:00 - Seattle's "Dangerous" Homeless Camps Keep Catching On Fire
Seattle’s “Dangerous” Homeless Camps Keep Catching On Fire
The Seattle Fire Department has responded to over 1,500 incidents at local homeless encampments over the past two years, with some experts blaming drug use for some of the blazes – an 80% increase over 2020, according to data obtained by the Daily Caller.
Some of the fires start because of intoxicated homeless people either cooking drugs, warming themselves or cooking food, former SFD firefighter Steve Collins, whose career spanned more than 25 years, told the DCNF.
“What happens is, let’s just say they’re trying to heat up a can of spam or whatever they’re making for dinner, and they create a fire, and while they have a fire heating up their dinner they pass out because of excessive drug use and lack of sleep,” said Collins. “Well, they’re not gonna wake up. So then these fires get started, whether it’s in a building or it’s in a tent or a group of tents, and it’s off to the races.”
Collins was one of 60 firefighters who were fired for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine. He’s one of nearly two dozen who are suing the City of Seattle for wrongful termination (good luck with that).
“Pinpointing the cause of every encampment fire is difficult due to multiple possible ignition sources,” said SFD Communications Specialist David Cuerpo, adding “Many encampment fires are ruled as ‘accidental’ and are caused by warming or cooking fires getting out of control. Yes, some are also caused by drug use.”
The Democratic stronghold is home to over 13,000 homeless people in 2022, more than every similarly sized area nationwide with the exception of Los Angeles County and New York City’s five-boroughs, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
City statistics showed police responded to 113 calls about gunfire at or near encampments in 2021, up from 51 such calls in 2020, King 5 reported.
Seattle had a 17% increase in medical responses to homeless people between 2020 and 2022, according to the SFD statistics. Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day vigil organizers said a 20-year record number of homeless people died in King County in 2022, KOUW reported.
Washington Policy Center Vice President Paul Guppy argued the homeless encampment fire increase is part of a general public safety decline due to Seattle City Council policies that he called “the ongoing legacy of BLM riots and the defund the police movement, when arson and property destruction were widespread.” -Daily Caller
What’s more, it’s dangerous for firefighters to respond to homeless encampments, as one might imagine.
“Those places are always dangerous to firemen,” said Collins. “They have weapons, they don’t want you there, whether you’re gonna put out a fire or not, they have needles, they have all sorts of other stuff. The long-term danger is they have lots of bad things that when they burn and you inhale them, it harms you.”
Tyler Durden
Thu, 01/12/2023 – 16:40
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