Today’s News 14th April 2023

• Escobar: Waiting For The End Of The World
  Escobar: Waiting For The End Of The World

  Authored by Pepe Escobar,

  NOTE: This is the English original of a column specially commissioned by leading Russian business daily Vedemosti.

  We were waiting for the end of the world
  Waiting for the end of the world, waiting for the end of the world
  Dear Lord, I sincerely hope You’re coming
  ‘Cause You really started something

  Elvis Costello, Waiting for the End of the World, 1977

  We cannot even begin to fathom the non-stop ripple effects deriving from the 2023 geopolitical earthquake that shook the world: Putin and Xi, in Moscow, de facto signaling the beginning of the end of Pax Americana.

  

  This has been the ultimate anathema for rarified Anglo-American hegemonic elites for over a century: a signed, sealed, comprehensive strategic partnership of two peer competitors, intertwining a massive manufacturing base and pre-eminence in supply of natural resources – with value-added Russian state of the art weaponry and diplomatic nous.

  From the point of view of these elites, whose Plan A was always a debased version of the Roman Empire’s Divide and Rule, this was never supposed to happen. In fact, blinded by hubris, they never saw it coming. Historically, this does not even qualify as a remix of the Tournament of Shadows; it’s more like Tawdry Empire Left in the Shade, “foaming at the mouth” (copyright Maria Zakharova).

  Xi and Putin, with one Sun Tzu move, immobilized Orientalism, Eurocentrism, Exceptionalism and, last but not least, Neo-Colonialism. No wonder the Global South was riveted by what developed in Moscow.

  Adding insult to injury, we have China, the world’s largest economy by far when measured by purchasing power parity (PPP), as well as the largest exporter. And we have Russia, an economy that by PPP is equivalent or even larger than Germany’s – with the added advantages of being the world’s largest energy exporter and not forced to de-industrialize.

  Together, in synch, they are focused on creating the necessary conditions to bypass the US dollar.

  Cue to one of President Putin’s crucial one-liners: “We are in favor of using the Chinese yuan for settlements between Russia and the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.”

  A key consequence of this geopolitical and geoeconomic alliance, carefully designed throughout the past few years, is already in play: the emergence of a possible triad in terms of global trade relations and, in many aspects, a Global Trade War.

  Eurasia is being led – and largely organized – by the Russia-China partnership. China will also play a key role across the Global South, but India may also become quite influential, agglutinating what would be a Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on steroids. And then there is the former “indispensable nation” ruling over the EU vassals and the Anglosphere rounded up in the Five Eyes.

  What the Chinese really want

  The Hegemon, under its self-concocted “rules-based international order”, essentially never did diplomacy. Divide and Rule, by definition, precludes diplomacy. Now their version of “diplomacy” has degenerated even further into crude insults by an array of US, EU and UK’s intellectually challenged and frankly moronic functionaries.

  It’s no wonder that a true gentleman, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, has been forced to admit, “Russia is no longer a partner of the EU… The European Union ‘lost’ Russia. But the Union itself is to blame. After all, EU member states… openly declare that Russia should be dealt a strategic defeat. That is why we consider the EU to be an enemy organization.”

  And yet the new Russian foreign policy concept, announced by Putin on March 31st, makes it quite clear: Russia does not consider itself an “enemy of the West” and does not seek isolation.

  The problem is there’s virtually no adult to talk to on the other side, rather a bunch of hyenas. That has led Lavrov to once again stress that “symmetrical and asymmetrical” measures may be used against those involved in “hostile” actions against Moscow.

  When it comes to Exceptionalistan, that’s self-evident: the US is designated by Moscow as the prime anti-Russia instigator, and the collective West’s overall policy is described as “a new type of Hybrid War.”

  Yet what really matters for Moscow are the positives further on down the road: non-stop Eurasia integration; closer ties with “friendly global centers” China and India; increased help to Africa; more strategic cooperation with Latin America and the Caribbean, the lands of Islam – Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt – and ASEAN.

  And that brings us to something essential that was – predictably – ignored en masse by Western media: the Boao Forum for Asia, which took place nearly simultaneously with the announcement of Russia’s new foreign policy concept.

  The Boao Forum, started in early 2001, still in the pre-9/11 era, has been modeled on Davos, but it’s Top China through and through, with the secretariat based in Beijing. Boao is in Hainan province, one of the islands of the Gulf of Tonkin and today a tourist paradise.

  One of the key sessions of this year’s forum was on development and security, chaired by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is currently Boao’s president.

  There were quite a few references to Xi’s Global Development Initiative as well as the Global Security Initiative – which by the way was launched at Boao in 2022.

  The problem is these two initiatives are directly linked to the UN’s concept of peace and security and the extremely dodgy Agenda 2030 on “sustainable development” – which is not exactly about development and much less “sustainable”: it’s a Davos uber-corporate concoction. The UN for its part is basically a hostage of Washington’s whims. Beijing, for the moment, plays along.

  Premier Li Qiang was more specific. Stressing the trademark concept of “community of shared future for mankind” as the basis for peace and development, he linked peaceful coexistence with the “Spirit of Bandung” – in direct continuity with the emergence of NAM in 1955: that should be the “Asian Way” of mutual respect and building consensus – in opposition to “the indiscriminate use of unilateral sanctions and long-reaching jurisdiction”, and the refusal of “a new Cold War”.

  And that led Li Qiang to the emphasis on the Chinese drive to deepen the RCEP East Asian trade deal, and also advance the negotiations on the free trade agreement between China and ASEAN. And all that integrated with the new expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in contrast to trade protectionism.

  So for the Chinese what matters, intertwined with business, is cultural interactions; inclusivity; mutual trust; and a stern refusal of “clash of civilizations” and ideological confrontation.

  As much as Moscow easily subscribes to all of the above – and in fact practices it via diplomatic finesse – Washington is terrified by how compelling is this Chinese narrative for the whole Global South. After all, Exceptionalistan’s only offer in the market of ideas is unilateral domination; Divide an Rule; and “you’re with us or against us”. And in the latter case you will be sanctioned, harassed, bombed and/or regime-changed.

  Is it 1848 all over again?

  Meanwhile, in vassal territories, a possibility arises of a revival of 1848, when a big revolutionary wave hit all over Europe.

  In 1848 these were liberal revolutions; today we have essentially popular anti-liberal (and anti-war) revolutions – from farmers in the Netherlands and Belgium to unreconstructed populists in Italy and Left and Right populists combined in France.

  It may be too early to consider this a European Spring. Yet what’s certain in several latitudes is that average European citizens feel increasingly inclined to shed the yoke of Neoliberal Technocracy and its dictatorship of Capital and Surveillance. Not to mention NATO warmongering.

  As virtually all European media is technocrat-controlled people won’t see this discussion in the MSM. Yet there’s a feeling in the air this may be heralding a Chinese-style end of a dynasty.

  In the Chinese calendar this is how it always goes: their historical-societal clock always runs with periods of between 200 and 400 years per dynasty.

  There are indeed intimations that Europe may be witnessing a rebirth.

  The period of upheaval will be long and arduous – due to the hordes of anarco-liberals who are such useful idiots for the Western oligarchy – or it could all come to a head in a single day. The target is quite clear: the death of Neoliberal Technocracy.

  That’s how the Xi-Putin view could make inroads across the collective West: show that this ersatz “modernity” (which incorporates rabid cancel culture) is essentially void compared to traditional, deeply rooted cultural values – be it Confucianism, Taoism or Eastern Orthodoxy. The Chinese and Russian concepts of civilization-state are much more appealing than they appear.

  Well, the (cultural) revolution won’t be televised; but it may work its charms via countless Telegram channels. France, infatuated with rebellion throughout its history, may well be jump to the vanguard – again.

  Yet nothing will change if the global financial casino is not subverted. Russia taught the world a lesson: it was preparing itself, in silence, for a long-term Total War. So much so that its calibrated counterpunch turned the Financial War upside down – completely destabilizing the casino. China, meanwhile, is re-balancing, and is on the way to be also prepared for Total War, hybrid and otherwise.

  The inestimable Michael Hudson, fresh from his latest book, The Collapse of Antiquity, where he deftly analyzes the role of debt in Greece And Rome, the roots of Western civilization, succinctly explains our current state of play:

  “America has pulled a color revolution at the top, in Germany, Holland, England, and France, essentially, where the foreign policy of Europe is not representing their own economic interests (…) America simply said, – We are committed to support a war of (what they call) democracy (by which they mean oligarchy, including the Nazism of Ukraine) against autocracy (…) Autocracy is any country strong enough to prevent the emergence of a creditor oligarchy, like China has prevented the creditor oligarchy.”

  So “creditor oligarchy”, in fact, can be explained as the toxic intersection between globalist wet dreams of total control and militarized Full Spectrum Dominance.

  The difference now is that Russia and China are showing to the Global South that what American strategists had in store for them – you’re going to “freeze in the dark” if you deviate from what we say – is no longer applicable. Most of the Global South is now in open geoeconomic revolt.

  Globalist neoliberal totalitarianism of course won’t disappear under a sand storm. At least not yet. There’s still a maelstrom of toxicity ahead: suspension of constitutional rights; Orwellian propaganda; goon squads; censorship; cancel culture; ideological conformity; irrational curbs of freedom of movement; hatred and even persecution of – Slav – Untermenschen; segregation; criminalization of dissent; book burnings, show trials; fake arrest mandates by the kangaroo ICC; ISIS-style terror.

  But the most important vector is that both China and Russia, each exhibiting their own complex particularities – and both dismissed by the West as unassimilable Others – are heavily invested in building workable economic models that are not connected, in several degrees, to the Western financial casino and/or supply chain networks. And that’s what’s driving the Exceptionalists berserk – even more berserk than they already are.

  *  *  *

  Pepe Escobar is a Eurasia-wide independent geopolitical analyst and author. His latest book is Raging Twenties (Nimble Books, 2021). Follow him on Telegram at @rocknrollgeopolitics

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 23:40

• 1.25 Million Have 'Top Secret' Access In The US
  1.25 Million Have ‘Top Secret’ Access In The US

  The recent leak of classified Pentagon documents has highlighted the vulnerability of the system which grants access to classified government information.

  Initially suspected to have been an intelligence operation by a state actor, evidence is increasingly indicating that the leak originated from an individual working on a U.S. military base – motivated by impressing members of an online chat group.

  As Statista’s Martin Armstrong details below, the federal government grants top secret security clearance to large numbers of government employees and contractors: 1.25 million according to the latest publicly available figures.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Speaking in Ireland on Thursday, President Biden spoke publicly for the first time on the issue, saying there was a “full-blown” investigation into the issue and that despite the potentially damaging nature of the leak, ““there’s nothing contemporaneous that I’m aware of that is of great consequence.”

  The alleged leaker has been identified as 21-year-old National Guardsman Jack Teixera.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 23:20

• Appeals Court Ruling May Threaten DOJ Position In Dozens Of Jan. 6 Cases: Lawyer
  Appeals Court Ruling May Threaten DOJ Position In Dozens Of Jan. 6 Cases: Lawyer

  Authored by Gary Bai via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  An April 7 decision issued by the D.C. Court of Appeals may jeopardize a key legal backing used by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prosecute participants of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach, according to attorney Albert Watkins.

  

  “What this opinion did do was, it practically begged for other [Jan. 6] cases to be brought up to the Court of Appeals that would permit a more balanced opinion,” Watkins, who has represented four Jan. 6 defendants, including released prisoner Jacob Chansley, told The Epoch Times in an interview on April 11.

  Watkins’ comment came after a three-judge panel at the D.C. Court of Appeals, on April 7, struck down a lower court’s ruling in a 2–1 vote, dismissing a federal charge against three Jan. 6 defendants, and rejected the lower court’s reasoning about the scope of the obstruction charge.

  While the higher court’s ruling (pdf) allowed the DOJ’s prosecution of these three specific defendants—Joseph Fischer, Edward Lang, and Garret Miller—to continue, the impact of the higher court’s opinion extends beyond these cases, the attorney said.

  According to Watkins, this extended impact has to do with the interpretation of a term about “corrupt” intention in the wording of obstruction charges, considering that the DOJ has been using the obstruction charge as an “attractive” legal tool to prosecute Jan. 6 cases and score plea agreements.

  According to a provision in the statute for obstruction charge (18 U.S. Code § 1512 2(c)), “Whoever corruptly … otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.”

  A narrowed definition of this provision could hinder the DOJ’s ability to use the charge further and introduce uncertainties in the ongoing trials, the attorney indicated. The DOJ had charged more than 200 Jan. 6 defendants with obstruction-related charges.

  “It should cause a certain degree of trepidation on the part of the Department of Justice about utilizing—in a very footloose and fancy-free fashion—the obstruction of an official proceeding charge as the count of choice for pleas,” Watkins said. “I will say it was, in many respects, an extraordinary opinion—more time was spent addressing potential issues not before the court than the issues actually before the court.”

  ‘Corrupt Intent’

  The key issue here is the interpretation of a necessary component of the obstruction charge (18 U.S. Code § 1512 (c)(2))—namely, the definition of “corrupt intent.”

  The appeals court ruling indicates that the DOJ prosecutors set forth an interpretation of “corrupt” criminal obstructive conduct as having “a broad meaning that encompasses all forms of obstructive conduct, including appellees’ allegedly violent efforts to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.”

  But all three judges of the D.C. Court of Appeals expressed some level of concern in their April 7 ruling about whether the government’s current interpretation of “corrupt” intent is appropriate.

  Biden appointee Florence Pan, who wrote the majority opinion, indicated that the definition of “corrupt” intent should be determined in a later case.

  “At least one pending case on this court’s docket squarely raises the definition of ‘corruptly’ under § 1512(c),” Pan wrote. “It is more prudent to delay addressing the meaning of ‘corrupt’ intent until that issue is properly presented to the court.”

  ‘Implausibly Broad’

  Trump appointee Justin Walker, in his opinion partially concurring with the ruling, diverged from Pan’s view that “corrupt intent” should be interpreted later and wrote in his opinion that the term should be precisely defined to avoid criminalizing legal civil discourse.

  Establishing a corrupt intent requires proving that a defendant intended to “obtain a benefit that he knows is unlawful,” Walker wrote, adding that this interpretation is narrower than the one offered by the government.

  Without a narrowed definition, Walker wrote, the obstruction charge could become “implausibly broad” and thus “criminalize many lawful attempts to ‘influence’ congressional proceedings—protests or lobbying, for example.”

  A narrowed definition could be applied to a “hypothetical” Jan. 6 protestor, Walker noted.

  “This rioter joined the throng outside Congress because he was angry at the nation’s elites. He saw the riot as an opportunity to display his bravado. Though likely guilty of other crimes, he did not act ‘corruptly’ under [the statute] because he did not intend to procure a benefit by obstructing the Electoral College vote count,” Walker wrote.

  It is yet to be seen if Walker’s opinion will become a binding precedent on the lower courts. Walker contends that it should be: He cited the Supreme Court’s reasoning in Marks v. United States (1977), which says the “narrowest” concurring opinion should be the binding opinion. Pan, objecting to this point in a footnote, says that the D.C. Court of Appeals “has never applied Marks to its own cases” and that “only one federal appellate court has done so.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 23:00

• Ailing, Failing Feinstein To Step Down From Judiciary Amid Calls For Resignation
  Ailing, Failing Feinstein To Step Down From Judiciary Amid Calls For Resignation

  Under pressure from colleagues as her absence from the Senate impairs the Biden administration’s quest to cram the federal judiciary full of diversity-hire leftist fanatics, Sen. Diane Feinstein late Wednesday announced she will “temporarily” step down from her post on the Judiciary Committee.   

  Last month, Feinstein announced she wouldn’t run for re-election in 2024. The 89-year-old hasn’t cast a Senate vote of any kind in two months, as she’s been in her native San Francisco battling a persistent shingles infection. Three people who’ve recently visited her tell Politico that it’s taken a heavy toll on the oldest member of Congress. 

  Along with the 8-week absence of Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman — while he received inpatient treatment for severe depression — Feinstein’s disappearance from duty has caused headaches for Democrats who only have a 51-49 Senate majority. Vice President Kamala Harris has been called in to cast tiebreaker votes, but some measures lacking unanimous Democratic support have stalled. 

  Interesting that they call for Feinstein to resign while pretending Biden and Fetterman know what they had for lunch today.

  — Anna James Zeigler (@ajzeigler) April 12, 2023

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  Feinstein’s empty seat has an even more pronounced impact on the Judiciary Committee, forcing Democrats to forego committee votes on nominees, delaying their progress toward votes of the full Senate. 

  “I understand that my absence could delay the important work of the Judiciary Committee,” said Feinstein in a statement, “so I’ve asked Leader Schumer to ask the Senate to allow another Democratic senator to temporarily serve until I’m able to resume my committee work.”

  By “important work,” she means advancing underwhelming nominees like Kato Crews, who last month demonstrated an alarming lack of fundamental legal knowledge during a confirmation hearing. 

  Earlier on Wednesday, House Democrats Ro Khanna (CA) and Dean Phillips (MN) publicly called for Feinstein to retire altogether. 

  “We have a crisis in the judiciary with extremist judges stripping away women’s rights,” Khanna told NBC News. “You can’t preach on television about the danger of these judges and then sit silently as Senator Feinstein misses vote after vote to confirm pro-choice judges.”

  I agree with @RoKhanna. Senator Feinstein is a remarkable American whose contributions to our country are immeasurable. But I believe it’s now a dereliction of duty to remain in the Senate and a dereliction of duty for those who agree to remain quiet. https://t.co/lvaHhLJYsi

  — Rep. Dean Phillips 🇺🇸 (@RepDeanPhillips) April 12, 2023

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  Long before she came down with shingles, Feinstein had already demonstrated a mental incapacity to continue serving — but she did so anyway. Last year, Democrat-catering media outlets — including her hometown San Francisco Chronicle — began publishing articles with troubling accounts from Capitol Hill legislators and staffers.  

  In May, The New York Times ran an extensive article titled “As Feinstein Declines, Democrats Struggle to Maintain an Open Secret.” Two pointed takeaways: 

  • Ms. Feinstein sometimes struggles to recall the names of colleagues, frequently has little recollection of meetings or telephone conversations, and at times walks around in a state of befuddlement. 
  • One Democratic lawmaker who had an extended encounter with Ms. Feinstein in February said…the experience was akin to acting as a caregiver for a person in need of constant assistance. The lawmaker recalled having to reintroduce themself to the senator multiple times, helping her locate her purse repeatedly and answering the same set of basic, small-talk questions over and over again.

  Almost fittingly, even the announcement of her retirement seemed to validate accounts of her severe cognitive decline. Just a few hours after her office announced her retirement, reporters asked her about the news. “I haven’t made that decision. I haven’t released anything,” she said.    

  If Feinstein were to step down before finishing her term through 2024, California Gov. Gavin Newsom would install an interim replacement. Representatives Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff have already announced their candidacy for the Democratic nomination, which would make a Newsom choice very impactful. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 22:40

• Iran, Russia, China, Pakistan FMs Hold Meeting To Deal With Afghan Economic Collapse
  Iran, Russia, China, Pakistan FMs Hold Meeting To Deal With Afghan Economic Collapse

  Via The Cradle,

  The foreign ministers of Iran, Russia, China, and Pakistan held four-way talks on 13 April in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, on the sidelines of the fourth regional meeting of Afghanistan’s neighbors – where various issues and concerns regarding Afghanistan were discussed.

  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein-Amir Abdollahian, and Pakistani Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Rabbani Khar were photographed together before proceeding with the closed-door meeting, Russian news agency TASS reported.

  

  Following the meeting, Amir-Abdollahian said that he and the other diplomats discussed a wide range of issues regarding Afghanistan – including a recent surge in extremist activity, problems caused by US sanctions, the poor living conditions of the Afghan people, and the flow of Afghan refugees into Iran and other countries.

  The Iranian foreign minister stressed the importance of countering drug trafficking originating in the country, and the Taliban government’s responsibility in that area.

  He also strongly criticized the continued ban on female education in the country – which Iran has repeatedly listed as a condition for its recognition of the interim government.

  In this regard, the diplomats discussed steps to bring about a political settlement that includes an inclusive government, something Beijing has also consistently called on the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) to implement.

  They also discussed ways to stabilize humanitarian and socio-economic conditions in the country – particularly through “the development of regional economic integration and the implementation of transport and energy projects with Kabul’s participation,” TASS said.

  The White House signaled that it should have sounded the alarm earlier about the risks that Afghanistan’s government could collapse as the war came to a close, and partially blamed the chaotic U.S. withdrawal on a lack of preparation by President Trump https://t.co/aMrZ4G8jaN

  — The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) April 6, 2023

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  In the joint statement released after the meeting, the ministers expressed support for the principle of “Afghan leadership, Afghan ownership” regarding Afghanistan’s political determination and development path, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said.

  Afghanistan is currently facing a severe economic and humanitarian situation as a result of Washington’s decision to freeze billions of dollars in the country’s foreign reserves in 2021. This pushed the country into an acute crisis, given that the central bank lacks the resources to combat high inflation and food insecurity – which has become rampant. The country has also been facing an increased extremist threat through attacks from groups such as ISIS-K. Moscow has accused the US of encouraging ISIS-K activity in Afghanistan.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 22:20

• Uber Accused Of Price Surging Customers If Phone Battery Is Low
  Uber Accused Of Price Surging Customers If Phone Battery Is Low

  Belgian newspaper Dernière Heure alleges that the ride-hailing app Uber is modifying prices according to customers’ smartphone battery levels. A small study investigating this claim found discrepancies for similar trips: 

  Dernière Heure conducted a test using two smartphones, one with 84% battery and the other with 12%, to request a ride from their office in Brussels to Tour & Taxis in the centre.

  The result showed a significant price difference, with the phone at 12% battery being charged €17.56 and the phone at 84% battery being charged €16.6 for the same service.

  Uber rejected the small study by the Belgian newspaper. When contacted about the results, a spokesperson said:

  “Uber does not take into account the phone’s battery level to calculate the price of a trip. The dynamic pricing applied to trips booked via Uber is determined by the existing demand for rides and the supply of drivers who can respond to it. During peak hours, when there are many ride requests and few available drivers in a certain geographical area, this may impact the price of the trip.”

  “Uber’s explanation does not clarify why two users requesting the same ride at the same time would pay different fares. In any case, the price discrepancy may encourage users to compare offers on their respective phones when booking rides together,” The Brussels Times

  … and this isn’t the first time Uber has been accused of taking advantage of its users’ battery life.

  

  A broader study might be needed. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 22:00

• US Military Would Need Conscription To Fight China: Expert
  US Military Would Need Conscription To Fight China: Expert

  Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  

  The U.S. military could not achieve victory in a war with China using its current, all-volunteer force, according to one expert.

  The United States will thus need to radically transform its force structure to better contend with the emerging threat environment, up to and including by reinstating conscription, said Jonathan Askonas, an assistant professor of Politics at Catholic University of America.

  “This is a five-alarm fire,” Askonas said during an April 11 discussion with the Hudson Institute think tank. “We’re facing global threats and we have a force structure which we know will not work against those threats.

  “We basically can’t fight a war larger than Iraq with the all-volunteer force.”

  The all-volunteer force has been a staple of U.S. military organization since 1973, when the draft was terminated along with the United States’ direct involvement in the Vietnam War.

  Unfortunately, Askonas said, the all-volunteer force was proving incapable of generating the number of service members required for a war between great powers, and its burdensome logistical processes were likely to be ineffective in either a conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific theater or supporting European powers against Russia.

  “We have a Goldilocks problem,” Askonas said. “Our army is too small as constituted to actually prosecute a war with these countries, but it’s large enough that it’s sucking a lot of resources away.”

  “We have to be ruthless. We need to adapt our force structure not to hypothetical threats or in some universal Swiss army knife approach, but to the actual threats that we face.”

  To that end, Askonas suggested that the military should re-adopt a “cadre” system for deploying the military, not dissimilar to that used in World War II.

  Under such a system, the number of resource-heavy full time service members would be decreased in peacetime in favor of investing in expensive, slow-to-build items like warships.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 21:40

• FSU Prof Leaves $190,000 Job After Claims Of Fraudulent Racism Studies
  FSU Prof Leaves $190,000 Job After Claims Of Fraudulent Racism Studies

  In the latest example of what happens when demand for racism exceeds supply, a black criminology professor has suddenly resigned from his $190,000-a-year post at Florida State University in the wake of accusations he distorted data with the purpose of “finding” racial prejudice where none existed.

  

  Eric Stewart, who’d spent 16 years at FSU and is a fellow of the American Society of Criminology, has for years been the subject of allegations of academic fraud. That’s led to six of his research studies being retracted, and now the Florida Standard reports he’s abandoned his exceedingly lucrative post in mid-semester. 

  Accusations of his fraud originated in 2019, and they came from a credible witness: University of Albany professor Justin Picket, who co-authored a 2011 study with Stewart.

  The study concluded that, as black and Hispanic populations grew, the public sought more discriminatory criminal sentences. Picket, however, says the data found no such relationship. Indeed, at least where Hispanics are concerned, the data point to the opposite effect. 

  “Pickett found that their sample size somehow had increased from 500 to over 1,000 respondents, the counties polled had decreased from 326 to 91, and the data was altered to the point of mathematical impossibility,” reports the Standard. 

  

  Pickett says when he asked for access to the original data, Stewart refused, with the support of the other co-authors, FSU’s Marc Gertz and Maryland’s Brian Johnson, who are white. 

  As FSU assembled a three-member inquiry committee to study allegations of academic fraud in five of his racism studies, Stewart told school officials that Picket’s accusation “essentially lynched me and my academic character.” 

  He also told the Washington Times that “data thugs are after me. It seems very personal. All of the blame is being directed at me.” 

  The university was accused of pursuing a flimsy and tainted 2020 inquiry. In a seeming conflict of interest, two of the three people charged with the investigation had co-authored research with the accused Stewart.

  Perhaps brushed back from the plate by Stewart’s accusations of racist motives behind the inquiry, the panel concluded there was no need for a full investigation because “the professor had already been working with the journal’s editors to address any questions they had about the work,” said Gary K. Ostrander, FSU’s then-vice president for research.  

  Just when Stewart seemed to have dodged five bullets, a sixth study came under fire from Pickett, later in 2020. That apparently lit the fuse for Stewart’s sudden exit from US News & World Report‘s 7th-ranked criminology department, which ironically seems to care very little about imposing consequences for wrongdoing.  

  Some of Stewart’s number-bending exploration for racism has been funded with federal tax dollars, via grant money awarded by the National Science Foundation, a US government agency. 

  “There’s a huge monetary incentive to falsify data and there’s no accountability,” Pickett tells the Standard. “If you do this, the probability you’ll get caught is so, so low.”  

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 21:20

• The Biden 10-Step Plan For Global Chaos
  The Biden 10-Step Plan For Global Chaos

  Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via AmGreatness.com,

  Our enemies do not fear us, our allies judge us unreliable, and neutrals assume America is in descent and too dangerous to join…

  

  Why is French President Emmanuel Macron cozying up to China while trashing his oldest ally, the United States?

  Why is there suddenly talk of discarding the dollar as the global currency?

  Why are Japan and India shrugging that they cannot follow the United States’ lead in boycotting Russian oil?

  Why is the president of Brazil traveling to China to pursue what he calls a “beautiful relationship”?

  Why is Israel suddenly facing attacks from its enemies in all directions?

  What happened to Turkey? Why is it threatening fellow NATO member Greece? Is it still a NATO ally, a mere neutral, or a de facto enemy?

  Why are there suddenly nonstop Chinese threats toward Taiwan?

  Why did Saudi Arabia conclude a new pact with Iran, its former archenemy?

  Why is Egypt sending rockets to Russia to be used in Ukraine?

  Since when did the Russians talk nonstop about the potential use of a tactical nuclear weapon?

  Why is Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador bragging that millions of Mexicans have entered the United States, most of them illegally? And why is he interfering in U.S. elections by urging his expatriates to vote for Democrats?

  Why and how, in just two years, have a confused and often incoherent Joe Biden and team created such global chaos?

  Let us answer by listing 10 ways by which America lost all deterrence.

  1) Joe Biden abruptly pulled all U.S. troops from Afghanistan. He left behind to the Taliban hundreds of Americans and thousands of pro-American Afghans. Biden abandoned billions of dollars in U.S. equipment, the largest air base in central Asia—recently retrofitted at a cost of $300 million—and a $1 billion embassy. Our government called such a debacle a success. The world disagreed and saw only humiliation.

  2) The Biden Administration allowed a Chinese high-altitude spy balloon to traverse the continental United States, spying on key American military installations. The Chinese were defiant when caught and offered no apologies. In response, the Pentagon and the administration simply lied about the extent that China had surveilled top-secret sites. 

  3) In March 2021, at an Anchorage, Alaska mini-summit, Chinese diplomats unleashed a relentless barrage at their stunned and mostly silent American counterparts. They lectured the timid Biden Administration diplomats about American toxicity and hypocrisy. And they have defiantly refused to explain why and how their virology lab birthed the COVID virus that has killed tens of millions worldwide.

  4) In June 2021, in response to Russian cyber-attacks against the United States, Biden meekly asked Putin to at least make off-limits certain critical American infrastructure.

  5) When asked what he would do if Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden replied that the reaction would depend on whether the Russians conducted a “minor incursion.”

  6) Between 2021 and 2022, Joe Biden serially insulted and bragged that he would not meet Muhammad bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, and one of our oldest and most valuable allies in the Middle East.

  7) For much of 2021, the Biden Administration made it known that it was eager and ready to offer concessions to re-enter the dangerous Iran nuclear deal—at a time when Iran has joined China and Russia in a new geostrategic partnership.

  8) Almost immediately upon inauguration, the administration moved the United States away from Israel, restored financial aid to radical Palestinians, and both publicly and privately alienated the current Netanyahu government.

  9) In serial fashion, Biden stopped all construction on the border wall and opened the border. He made it known that illegal aliens were welcome to enter the United States unlawfully. Some 6-7 million did. He reinstated “catch and release.” And he did nothing about the Mexican cartel importation of fentanyl that has recently killed over 100,000 Americans per year.

  10) In the last two years, the Pentagon has embarked on a woke agenda. The army is short by 15,000 in its annual recruitment quota. The defense budget has not kept up with inflation. One of the greatest intelligence leaks in U.S. history just occurred from the Pentagon. The Pentagon refused to admit culpability and misled the country about Afghanistan and the Chinese spy balloon flight. The current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff called his Chinese communist counterpart and head of the People’s Liberation Army to advise him that the U.S. military would warn the Chinese if it determined an order from its commander-in-chief Trump was inappropriate.

  This list of these self-inflicted disasters could be easily expanded.

  But the examples explain well enough why our emboldened enemies do not fear us, our triangulating allies judge us unreliable, and calculating neutrals assume America is in descent and too dangerous to join.

  Yet without America, the result is a new Chinese order in which, to quote the historian Thucydides, “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 21:00

• China Sanctions House Foreign Affair Committee Chairman McCaul
  China Sanctions House Foreign Affair Committee Chairman McCaul

  So much for a diplomatic detente between the world’s two superpowers.

  China has banned US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul from entering the country, along with other countermeasures after the politician’s recent visit to Taiwan, Bloomberg reported.

  

  The government is freezing any property or other assets McCaul, a Texas Republican Representative, may have in China (not that he has any) and banning Chinese nationals and organizations from transacting with him, according to a statement from its foreign ministry Thursday.

  His visit to Taiwan earlier this month and previous comments and actions interfere with Chinese internal affairs, the ministry said.

  McCaul led a bipartisan delegation of US lawmakers on a visit to Taiwan. While meeting Taiwan Vice President Lai Ching-te, the US politician compared Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Adolf Hitler.

  “Michael McCaul has frequently interfered in China’s internal affairs and harmed China’s interests in recent years,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in the statement. His delegation’s visit to Taiwan has damaged China’s sovereignty and “seriously violated the one China principle and the provisions of the three joint communiques of China and the US.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 20:40

• Washington Braces For Diplomatic Fallout Amid Fears Of Further Intel Leaks
  Washington Braces For Diplomatic Fallout Amid Fears Of Further Intel Leaks

  Authored by Adam Morrow via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  U.S. federal agencies are scrambling to contain the diplomatic fallout after scores of classified documents pertaining to Ukraine—and other U.S. allies—were leaked online by as-yet-unknown actors.

  

  “U.S. officials across the interagency are engaging with allies and partners at high levels over this,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said at an April 10 press briefing.

  According to Patel, Washington seeks to reassure allies “of our commitment to safeguarding intelligence and the fidelity of securing our partnerships.” 

  The documents, most of which date from February or March of this year, initially appeared last month on online forums such as Discord and 4Chan. 

  

  But they only made headlines on April 6, when the New York Times, citing “senior Biden administration officials,” reported their appearance on Twitter and Telegram.

  Both the Pentagon and Justice Department are now trying to find the source of the leaks—some of which point to U.S. spying activity—amid fears they could damage relations with allies.  

  “There is no question that they [the leaks] present a risk to national security,” Patel said.

  Seoul: Leaks ‘Utterly False’

  Comprised of dozens of pages of text and images, most leaked documents relate to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. 

  Others, however, purportedly contain classified information—which U.S. officials say may have been doctored—about key U.S. allies in Asia and the Middle East.  

  One document, for example, appears to give details of closed-door discussions between top South Korean officials regarding alleged U.S. pressure on Seoul to contribute more to Ukraine’s war effort. 

  The document’s content, and the fact that it was seemingly obtained via “signals intelligence” (intercepted communications), suggests that U.S. agencies may have spied on the government of South Korea, a longstanding ally of the United States.

  

  On April 11, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed the issue in a telephone call with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jong-sup. 

  On the same day, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said that allegations that his office had been the target of U.S. spying were “utterly false.” 

  Any attempt to damage relations between the United States and South Korea was contrary to the latter’s “national interest,” Yoon’s office said in a statement. 

  Yoon is slated to visit Washington later this month for talks with U.S. President Joe Biden.

  South Korean opposition figures, however, have decried alleged U.S. surveillance on government officials as a breach of the country’s national sovereignty.

  When asked directly about South Korea, the State Department’s Patel stressed that the U.S. commitment to South Korea was “ironclad.”

  “They are one of our most important partners in the region,” he said.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 20:20

• Putin Personally Approved Arrest Of WSJ Journalist, Report Says
  Putin Personally Approved Arrest Of WSJ Journalist, Report Says

  Russia says it will wait to consider the possibility of entering negotiations with the US over a prisoner swap until the courts settle the case of detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

  Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS on Thursday that talks about a potential prisoner swap “can be examined only after a court delivers its verdict.” This is the same stance Russia maintained regarding the Brittney Griner case. Her swap with notorious arms trafficker Victor Bout came only after she was handed a 9-year sentence and began serving it at a prison some 300 southeast of Moscow.

  

  Secretary of State Blinken demanded Gershkovich’s immediate release in a rare phone call last week with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

  In the fresh Thursday comments, Ryabkov stressed that Moscow is not interested in any level of intervention by other countries. 

  “We are absolutely not interested in this,” Ryabkov said upon the suggestion that an outside country could help mediate. “We have a functioning channel, in the past it was used to reach specific agreements; these agreements have been implemented so third countries don’t play a part here.”

  The Biden administration’s recent classification of Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained” paves the way for a potential prisoner swap as he’s now considered a hostage of a foreign government. 

  The 31-year old WSJ reporter and American citizen had been detained by the FSB on a reporting trip in the city of Yekaterinburg on March 29. He’s accused of “espionage” for gathering information on a state-linked defense company. 

  Bloomberg has a fresh report saying that President Putin personally signed off on his arrest, which the Kremlin has denied: 

  The Kremlin on Thursday denied claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally endorsed the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich for espionage.

  Citing sources “familiar with the situation,” Bloomberg on Wednesday reported that the initiative to arrest Gershkovich came from “hawks among top officials of Russia’s security services.”

  Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the American journalist’s detention “the total prerogative of the special services” and not Putin’s decision.

  The American reporter has yet to be granted consular access, something which has angered the Biden administration. Given his case is more serious than the WNBA’s Griner (given the spy allegations), it could drag on for months through the courts. Ex-Marine Paul Whelan is also still languishing in Russian prison, after his arrest in 2018. In 2020 he was handed a 16-year sentence, also for spying-related charges, which the US has condemned as false.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 20:00

• Biden Admin Proposes Reducing Water Supply From Colorado River Basin Amid Drought
  Biden Admin Proposes Reducing Water Supply From Colorado River Basin Amid Drought

  Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  

  The Biden administration has proposed a federal mandate to reduce the supply of water to 40 million Americans who live in western states dependent on the Colorado River Basin to address long-term severe drought and low run-off conditions.

  The actions were part of a draft report by the Department of the Interior’s (DOI’s) Bureau of Reclamation.

  The draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement proposes to revise the current guidelines for the near-term operation of Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams.

  According to the DOI, the move forms part of the Biden administration’s efforts to invest in climate change resilience for the Colorado River Basin and all the communities that rely on it.

  The draft report explores different alternatives to ensure continued water deliveries and hydropower production for the 40 million Americans who depend on the river system.

  Two man-made reservoirs along the Utah–Arizona border, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, have dropped to dangerously low levels, nearing the so-called dead pool levels, which threaten water supplies and the hydropower-generated electricity for tens of millions of Americans.

  

  DOI Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau has said failure to act is not an option.

  “Recognizing the severity of the worsening drought, the Biden-Harris administration is bringing every tool and every resource to bear through the President’s Investing in America agenda to protect the stability and sustainability of the Colorado River System now and into the future,” Beaudreau said in a statement.

  Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said drought conditions in the Colorado River Basin have worsened over two decades.

  “To meet this moment, we must continue to work together, through a commitment to protecting the river, leading with science and a shared understanding that unprecedented conditions require new solutions,” Touton said in the same statement.

  Proposed Action Alternatives

  The draft report proposes two ways to change how the dams are operated. Both involve using less water from the Glen Canyon Dam and dealing with additional water shortages. The main difference between the two proposals is how the shortages are shared out.

  The first option, referred to as “Action Alternative 1,” modeled the shortages based on who has the highest priority water rights. The second option, referred to as “Alternative 2,” modeled the shortages being shared out equally among all water users in the Lower Basin.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 19:40

• Kunstler: How's That War Going?
  Kunstler: How’s That War Going?

  Authored by John Howard Kunstler via DailyReckoning.com,

  How’s the war going? Huh? Do you mean the war over in Ukraine? Or the US government’s war against its own people?

  

  Well, the first one, the Ukraine War, is mostly destroying Europe — though, apparently, the denizens of Germany, Holland, et al., haven’t figured that out yet. Europe’s industrial economy is toast without affordable Russian natural gas supplies.

  We turned off their pipeline for that in September and nobody in Europe objected. They just sucked it up and went back to smoking cigarettes at their café tables.

  A year or so from now, maybe nobody in Europe will have enough money for a cappuccino (or cigarettes) and maybe then they’ll start asking the mental mollusks who run things there some questions — if they don’t just leapfrog all that politesse and burn the joint down.

  The U.S. Wants the War to Continue

  The main thing about the Ukraine War is that the US doesn’t want it to end. You understand, it is not about any airy-fairy principles such as freedom for Ukraine. It’s about bleeding Russia. no matter how many dead Ukrainians it takes.

  It traces back to a US official plan to promote a delusional psychosis about Russia after years of using it to propagandize American citizens.

  Naturally, our folks-in-charge have to justify that antagonism by pretending we have vested interests in Ukraine, which we don’t, by the way.

  The Propaganda Campaign Is Backfiring

  So far, everything we’ve done to promote the conflict has backfired on Western Civ. Most of the rest of the world recognizes that the US has gone insane and they are taking careful steps to decouple from us — mainly to stop using our money for international trade.

  Really, would you want to have anything to do with a crazy person? No, you’d put as much distances as possible between you and this lunatic and stop even trying to communicate.

  If the world stops using the dollar in trade, the dollar will lose value, and so will the trillions in US bond paper held by other countries, which said countries will seek to unload as quickly as possible. Can you spell sovereign debt crisis?

  Look out below…

  Is It Worth It?

  Americans, apparently, are not emotionally exercised over the Ukraine War because we don’t have any troops coming home from there in body-bags (not yet, at least).

  Many have probably noticed that we’ve blown over $100-billion on the project, and, along with the aforementioned debt crisis, that might just plant a seed of resentment as prices in the supermarkets and at the gas pumps shoot up ever more and the mass job layoffs surge, and the repo man comes a’knocking, and more banks wobble.

  Of course, our Ukraine War project (based on the mind-game Why-Don’t-You-and-Him-Fight?) could end pretty suddenly if, as rumored, Ukraine runs out of cannon fodder and artillery shells (despite all our assistance). And then what?

  You’re left with “Joe Biden” looking like history’s all-time champeen loser, and watch out in the Taiwan Strait, where the US Pacific Fleet could get transformed into the world’s biggest set of floating ashtrays.

  You get the picture? Now how about that other war: our government’s war against us?

  The War Against the Public

  What canny reporters (Taibbi, Schellenberger) are calling the Censorship Industrial Complex has been pretty well outed. Everybody knows that the FBI, CIA, DHS, and many other agencies, via hijacked social media, have worked tirelessly to confound and bamboozle the public debate about, really, everything that matters.

  The odd part is that roughly half of America doesn’t seem to care. Of course, that is the same half of the country that has fallen in love with surveillance, censorship, political prosecutions, election monkey business, mandated mRNA shots, and other excursions into bad faith.

  Their auditors in the mainstream news media actually seem to relish their roles as enforcers of unreality.

  This degenerate wickedness has been escalating since one Donald Trump stepped onstage years ago. The “Joe Biden” regime affects to have trapped him finally in the lair of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg. Now the game gets interesting.

  As to the case itself, a judge with any self-respect would have tossed it in a pre-trial hearing like a six-day-dead carp at the slightest prompting by a defense attorney — based, as it is, on multiple specious novelties of criminal law, not to mention being well beyond the statute of limitations.

  Lawfare

  If this stinker can actually get to trial, the prosecution will be a jurisprudential joke for the ages. If they get a Big Apple jury to go along with the joke, it will be short-listed through the appeals process clean up to the Supreme Court in a New York minute.

  And if that whole thing falls apart like the janky jenga tower it is, there are two other matters against Mr. Trump in the wings — the BS case in Fulton County, Georgia.

  That’s where the grand jury process was already compromised by a jury fore-person, self-identified as a “witch,” shooting her mouth off to the press; and the operation out of the DC Federal District run by one Special Counsel Jack Smith in the Mar-a-Lago classified papers matter — another loser case, considering all the other high officials currently entangled in similar complaints, as yet unmolested by any official charges.

  Sound like a plan?

  A Plan to Foment Civil War?

  Yes, it sounds like a plan to foment a civil war. Especially considering all the other BS in our country is being subjected to by a bureaucracy-gone-wild, the regime fronting for it, and its legions of mentally ill useful idiots disturbing the peace all over the land.

  Probably more than half of America realizes that the legal system has been hijacked by the same rogues who infiltrated social media and the state boards of election.

  They’re getting good and sick of it, along with all the mental twerkery around transgenderism, race hustling, climate change, and Ukraine.

  I’m sure it means we’re in for a thrilling spring and summer.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 19:00

• Rat Czar: NYC's "Director Of Rodent Migration" To Be Paid $155,000 Per Year
  Rat Czar: NYC’s “Director Of Rodent Migration” To Be Paid $155,000 Per Year

  New York City has found another novel way to dole out the increasing levy it places on its citizens via out-of-control taxation: a new city employee earning $155,000 a year to focus on ridding the city of rats. 

  That’s right – as of this week, New York City officially has a “Rat Czar” on its payroll. The employee, Kathleen Corradi, was introduced by New York Mayor Eric Adams this week. Her title is officially “director of rodent migration”, according to a Bloomberg writeup published this week.

  And Corradi’s resume has rats on it too: she was formerly the Department of Education’s rat reduction specialist, the report says. 

  Mayor Adams had announced earlier this year that he was looking for a fighter in the city’s “war against rats” and was willing to pay between $120,000 and $170,000 for someone to do say. 

  

  “I think, fighting rats, that’s not enough,” Adams said about her salary.

  “When I first saw this job posting, I wasn’t sure it was real,” Corradi said. But Adams knew it was meant to be, stating: “That’s almost a job made for her”. 

  Corradi has said she will look for the “most effective technique” to mitigate the rat problem. The city is already putting into place a plan to keep garbage from sitting on the street for long hours. It is also enforcing cleanliness violations at an 80% higher rate than last year. 

  Corradi concluded: “The mayor has made it very clear his stance on rats. He hates rats, I hate rats, all New Yorkers hate rats.”

  Now, how soon before taxpayers are funding universal basic income for the rats as a way to “solve” the issue? And how long until we count on climate change getting the blame?

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 18:40

• North American Rail Volume Continues Decline Through Week 14: AAR
  North American Rail Volume Continues Decline Through Week 14: AAR

  By Railway Age,

  Through the first 14 weeks of 2023 (ending April 8), total North American carload and intermodal traffic dipped 3.9% from the same point last year, according to the Association of American Railroads’ (AAR) April 12 report. Both Canada and Mexico saw increases, while the U.S. experienced a drop-off.

  

  North American rail volume for the first 14 weeks of this year (ending April 8) on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads came in at 8,950,311 carloads and intermodal containers and trailers. Cumulative volume in Canada was 1,954,736 carloads and intermodal units, up 0.9% from 2022; in Mexico, 527,184 carloads and intermodal units, up 2.4%; and in the U.S., 6,468,391 carloads and intermodal units, down 5.8%.

  According to the AAR, for the week ending April 8, 2023, U.S. Class I railroads hauled a total of 451,336 carloads and intermodal units, falling 11.2% from the same week in 2022. This comprises 225,669 carloads—down 4.6% from the prior-year period—and 225,667 containers and trailers—down 17.0% compared with 2022.

  

  Four of the 10 carload commodity groups posted an increase compared with the same week in 2022. They included motor vehicles and parts, up 977 carloads, to 14,331; petroleum and petroleum products, up 543 carloads, to 9,861; and metallic ores and metals, up 529 carloads, to 21,230. Commodity groups that posted declines included grain, down 4,158 carloads, to 20,105; coal, down 3,655 carloads, to 62,070; and chemicals, down 3,615 carloads, to 31,525.

  For the first 14 weeks of 2023, U.S. railroads reported cumulative volume of 3,219,161 carloads, down 0.1% from the same point last year; and 3,249,230 intermodal units, down 10.8% from last year.

  

  North American rail volume for the week ending April 8, 2023, on 12 reporting U.S., Canadian and Mexican railroads totaled 325,473 carloads, a 4.0% decrease vs. the year-earlier period, and 293,300 intermodal units, a 19.4% drop from 2022. Total combined weekly rail traffic in North America was 618,773 carloads and intermodal units, a 12.0% fall-off.

  

  Canadian railroads reported 78,797 carloads for the week ending April 8, 2023, down 0.3%, and 58,922 intermodal units, down 21.9% from the same week in 2022.

  

  For the week ending April 8, 2023, Mexican railroads reported 21,007 carloads, falling 11.2% from the year-ago period, and 8,711 intermodal units, plunging 47.8%.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 18:20

• North Korea Test Fires New 'Harder-To-Detect' ICBM
  North Korea Test Fires New ‘Harder-To-Detect’ ICBM

  After weeks of ratcheted missile tests in response to recent joint US-South Korean military drills, the north has launched another new missile for the first time, being described as a harder-to-detect missile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). 

  South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that it was launched from a high angle (presumably a mountainous region) near the capital and traveled 1,000km before plunging into the water between the Korean peninsula and Japan.

  

  It is believed to be a faster rocket than previous ICBMs tested by the north, given it was “a new type of ballistic missile that might have used solid fuel,” according to an official cited in The Hill. 

  A Biden administration National Security Council official said the US “strongly condemns” the long-range launch. “This launch is a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions and needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region,” she the official said. “This action demonstrates that the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] continues to prioritize its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs over the well-being of its people.”

  But the statement added that “The door has not closed on diplomacy, but Pyongyang must immediately cease its destabilizing actions and instead choose diplomatic engagement.”

  “The United States will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and Republic of Korea and Japanese allies,” the statement added.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 18:00

• Global Disinformation Index Withholds Information On Its Own Operations
  Global Disinformation Index Withholds Information On Its Own Operations

  Authored by Jonathan Turley,

  Gabe Kaminsky at the Washington Examiner is reporting that two U.S. nonprofit groups tied to the Global Disinformation Index are withholding information on their operations to protect staff and donors.

  

  The redactions of names from 2021 IRS tax returns is being justified on the basis that the GDI is being harassed by critics. It is an ironic move since, as discussed in earlier columns, the GDI targeted and blacklisted conservative groups to drain them of revenue and support.

  As discussed earlier, the British group ranked sites to warn people about high-risk disinformation sites. The ten most dangerous disinformation sites turned out to be conservative publications or Internet sites like Reason. Conversely, HuffPost made the top list of the most trustworthy for potential advertisers.

  The GDI is designed to steer advertisers and subscribers away from certain sites, working with “advertisers and the ad tech industry in assessing the reputational and brand risk when advertising with online media outlets and to help them avoid financially supporting disinformation online.” The State Department partially funded the effort. The Biden Administration gave $330 million to The National Endowment for Democracy, which partially supports the GDI’s budget.

  So the GDI actively sought to target other sites to organize opposition among advertisers, but now is withholding information to prevent a similar backlash against its own operations.

  The private AN Foundation, also known as the Disinformation Index Foundation, and its affiliated public charity, Disinformation Index Inc., redacted copies of their 2021 IRS tax returns. A lawyer cited a coordinated “harassment campaign” to justify the redactions.

  Some of the information was known from prior disclosures. For example, GDI CEO Clare Melford and its executive director, Daniel Rogers, are listed interchangeably in Delaware corporate records and other forms list Jo Jenks as treasurer. Other records reportedly list Melford as secretary, and Rogers as president.

  Other information was removed, including the redaction of who gave a $115,000 donation for this work.

  GDI also removed the list of its advisory panel members from its site. Again, these individuals were perfectly willing to participate in the blacklisting of conservative groups but appear to insist on anonymity for themselves. The panel reportedly included Finn Heinrich, a division director at the George Soros-funded Open Society Foundations grant-making network, according to his LinkedIn account.

  As the recipient of federal funds, the lack of transparency is troubling and is likely to be the focus of inquiries from House committees.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 17:40

• Bikini Barista Lawsuit Settled With 'Hillbilly Hotties' For $500K
  Bikini Barista Lawsuit Settled With ‘Hillbilly Hotties’ For $500K

  A six-year legal battle over employee attire at an R-rated coffee stand located in a Seattle suburb is finally over after the city of Everett, Washington voted unanimously last week in favor of a $500,000 payment to the owner and several employees.

  

  As part of the agreement, the city will retain most of its rules for probationary licensing of coffee stands and other quick- service businesses, but will no longer be able to dictate that baristas must don a minimum of tank tops and shorts. Instead, the city will adopt new dress code rules that comport with an existing lewd conduct standard that makes it a crime to publicly expose ‘too much’ of one’s private parts.

  Another provision will require that business owners post visible signs for employees on how to seek help if they’re being human trafficked.

  While the current lawsuit is six years in the making, the story starts in 2009, when Everett officials said they received complaints that some stands were selling sex shows, sex acts, and allowing customers to grope baristas. This led to four arrests and prosecutions.

  

  Then in 2013, the owners of two espresso stands were arrested on accusations that they promoted prostitution and exploited a minor. A Snohomish County sheriff’s sergeant was also arrested for tipping off baristas about undercover cops looking for sexual favors.

  In 2017, the city sought to hobble the stands’ draw by implementing a dress code ordinance requiring that owners and operators of such “quick service facilities” wear clothing that covers both the upper and lower portions of their bodies.

  Jovanna Edge, owner of the “Hillbilly Hotties” bikini barista stand sued the city, along with employees Natalie Bjerke, Matteson Hernandez, Leah Humphrey, Amelia Powell and Liberty Ziska, who argued that the ordinance violated their First Amendment rights.

  

  “Some countries make you wear lots of clothing because of their religious beliefs,” wrote Hernandez. “But America is different because you can wear what you want to wear. I wear what I’m comfortable with and others can wear what they are comfortable with.”

  

  While the case has been working its way through various courts, in October, a US District Court judge sided with the plaintiffs, finding the ordinance unconstitutional.

  While Edge and her employees sought $3 million, they settled for $500,000.

  As far as Everett officials are concerned, the settlement “still gives us our best tool to require stand owners to make sure their employees are not engaging in illegal conduct.”

  We hope you’ve enjoyed this constitutional content.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 04/13/2023 – 17:20

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