Jan 14

Today’s News 14th January 2025

  • WEF Elites Unveil Plan To Use Carbon Controls As A Trojan Horse For Global DEI
    WEF Elites Unveil Plan To Use Carbon Controls As A Trojan Horse For Global DEI

    Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

    The underlying strength of economics is that (when approached honestly and with respect to the data) it can give us a relatively accurate measure of progress versus cost. If the rewards outweigh the costs after careful calculation then that economic endeavor will bear fruit. The ability to gauge production, innovation and prosperity with an unbiased eye is essential to true economics.

    The problem is that economics is not only a mathematical science, it is also, for lack of a better term, a social science. One has to understand individual psychology and mass psychology. You have to be knowledgeable in the inconsistencies of human emotion and desire as much as you are knowledgeable in the hard realities of supply and demand. Furthermore, not all people that engage in economic study do so for the benefit of humanity.

    There is a contingent of financial elitists that seek to use their understanding of the psychological side of economics to socially engineer political outcomes. We’ve heard it said that nuclear science or genetic science offer a power so terrible that they could wipe out civilization if exploited by the wrong hands. I would argue that economic science in the wrong hands outdoes every other competitor because it can be used to enslave humanity forever.

    Case in point: What happens when economics is combined with far-left activism and scientific cultism based on fabricated claims? What happens when a group of ultra-wealthy Fabian socialists combine their resources to strangle the free market and manipulate economic outcomes? What do you get when a vast network of international corporations abandon competition and profit for a long term agenda of power and control?

    Well, you get insidious programs like ESG and groups like the Council For Inclusive Capitalism. You get direct cooperation between governments and corporations to force a specific way of thinking and living. They present it as philanthropy when it is really a complex form of tyranny.

    These specific efforts have failed, but not without much struggle on the part of liberty voices and the alternative media. ESG is mostly dead and as far as I can tell the Council for Inclusive Capitalism has been abandoned. However, the people behind these programs remain in the same positions of influence.

    In terms of the diversity, equity and inclusions subset, the woke model is in popular media is breaking down. You’re going to see less and less progressive pundits and content creators trying to mold public opinion using “social justice” over the next few years. They know their time is over.  But, the other half of ESG, the climate change agenda, is still well underway.

    The World Economic Forum, the premier globalist think tank, has released more information this past month showcasing their plans to make carbon taxation about “justice, fairness and DEI”. When they talk about “equity in climate change” what they are referring to is a developing project designed to redistribute wealth away from first-world western nations into the coffers of third-world countries.

    The narrative is that these parts of the world have been victimized by climate change perpetrated by the developed world. In other words, our success is supposedly built on the backs of poor nations. It’s nothing more than a rewriting of the old Marxist attack on free markets – If someone wins then someone else has to lose and that’s just not fair, so let’s tear the whole society down so that there can be no winners.

    But it’s not free markets that have created the wealth gap that enrages leftists. International corporations are, in fact, socialist by definition and by nature. Without protection from governments, without their extensive partnerships with bureaucrats and politicians along with their limited liability and corporate personhood, most companies would not have an edge on everyone else.

    Carbon credits will only exacerbate that dynamic and widen the wealth gap even further, because carbon taxation will crush small businesses and leave only massive corporations able to weather the tax burden.

    Sure, tax dollars from rich countries will also be redistributed to poor countries, but this money will not be going to the destitute in Africa or Asia. It will be going into the hands of more corporations, more non-profits and more politicians. In the end, the middle class which made the west a beacon of freedom will disappear completely. Everyone will be equal – We will all be equally poor.

    The WEF calls this shift a global “reorganization” of how we engage with the economy. At the forefront of this plan are, once again, globalist think tanks and non-profits partnered with the biggest corporations and central banks.

    The globalists want to redefine how we calculate growth according to their illusory metrics. How does one quantify happiness, or fairness, or environmental purity and then add that into GDP? It’s not possible, at least not in an unbiased manner.

    Flowery terminology like equity and inclusion have nothing to do with production or economic survival. They do, though, have a lot in common with the social engineering ideals of ESG that most of the west is rejecting. They’re giving “inclusive capitalism” a climate change paint job.

    Progressives often condemn the free market profit motive as a “disease” that will destroy our species, but believe me, the worst thing that can possibly happen to the western world today is for corporate moguls to decide they don’t care about money anymore. When groups of mega rich narcopaths discover ideology and start seeing you and I and society as their pet project, the world is in deep trouble.  What is most disturbing is that they scratch and grasp for greater power while pretending as if they’re doing it “for our benefit”.

    Will a few of them do good? Sure, that happens at times. But, usually when elites try to influence culture through carrot or stick methods the results are disastrous.

    We need to understand this reality first before we can ever understand the motives behind the “net zero” movement. The persistent globalist push for carbon taxation has nothing to do with saving the planet and everything to do with changing the very soil of the economic landscape. Keep in mind that globalism is just a modernized form of feudalism posing as socially conscious governance.

    These people don’t actually care about the environment or equality; they care about environmental taxation and “equity”. These are very different things.

    And lets not forget that climate scientist claims are based on data derived from the 1880s onward, while they act as if millions of years of the Earth’s temperature history doesn’t exist. Temperatures in the past have been far hotter (and far colder) than they are today, and atmospheric carbon content records going back millions of years show there is no causational relationship between carbon emissions and warming conditions.

    The moment you look at the Earth’s climate outside of that tiny sliver of 140 years that climate scientists use for their data, the entire man-made global warming theory falls apart. We barely just exited an ice age and these people are doom mongering about 1.5 degrees Celsius!

    Let’s instead consider the short term ramifications of using an equity model for the global economy. What will happen when fairness becomes more important than merit and net zero becomes more important than prosperity?

    The more self sufficiency people have, the more free they can be. The more dependency they have on the system, the easier they are to enslave. Carbon controls create an economic environment in which self sufficiency is impossible because they centralize all production into the hands of a select group of self appointed high priests in charge of climate change management. They get to choose the tax burden arbitrarily and they get to choose the conditions of production. Therefore, the elites will control the means of production, all while telling us that those in poverty are the beneficiaries.

    The carbon scheme seems to be the last fallback of globalist organizations to create a rationale for wealth redistribution. What will they do if it fails? That’s hard to say. I suppose they will try to start WWIII (I would argue that it’s already started). The point is, much of what the globalists do is a rehashing of old-hat centralization and oligarchy. Call it ESG, call it carbon taxes, call it DEI, the goal is the same – The destruction of the west to make way for a new dark age.

    *  *  *

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    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 23:25

  • Pentagon Reluctantly Admits Russian 'Incremental Gains' In Eastern Ukraine
    Pentagon Reluctantly Admits Russian ‘Incremental Gains’ In Eastern Ukraine

    With just days to go before the United States gets a new Commander-in-Chief with Trump’s inauguration on Jan.20, the Pentagon has made a rare admission, acknowledging that Russian forces are basically dominating on the battlefield in Ukraine.

    The Pentagon during its daily press briefing on Monday acknowledged Russian forces’ “incremental gains” in the Donbass. Below is from the question and answer transcript: 

    Q:  And then a completely different topic — can you give us an update on the Ukrainian battlefield? Does Putin indeed have the upper hand right now?

    PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY MAJOR GENERAL PAT RYDER:  Well, what we’re seeing on the battlefield is that, especially in the East, Russia has made some incremental gains. Of course, it’s very tough fighting, as well as in the Kursk region as well. But when you talk about the upper hand, of course, tactically, again other than those incremental gains, what you’re seeing strategically is that again Russia has not achieved any of Its strategic objectives that it set for itself almost three years ago.

    Pokrovsk was once home to 60,000 people, but is now largely abandoned. Via NPR

    This does seem to be a Department of Defense admission that yes, Putin does have the upper hand in the war, despite the Pentagon spokesman’s reluctance to fully put it in these terms.

    Russia’s state-run TASS news has summarized these significant gains as follows:

    The Russian Defense Ministry reported on January 6 that Russian forces had liberated the city of Kurakhovo in the Donetsk People’s Republic. The cities of Avdeyevka and Ugledar were liberated in 2024. Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov said on December 16 that Ukraine’s overall losses in the course of Russia’s special military operation had amounted to nearly one million troops.

    As for the mentioned immense casualty toll, this is impossible to verify. Both warring parties have an interest in inflating numbers of war deaths on the other side. 

    The start of this week has seen reports that Russian forces have captured the the village of Pishchane, which is merely five miles southwest of the strategic Donetsk city of Pokrovsk. In other locations Russian troops are said to be just within a mile of the outskirts of the city.

    Reuters on Monday said a Ukrainian coal mine in the area has ceased production as the war encroaches. “They have all stopped working now,” an industry source said of workers at the mine shafts in Pokrovsk.

    “There’s no production there, they’re only working on the surface,” another source said, citing an ongoing evacuation of the mines and the emergency halt in operations.

    Below: Watch the Russian military’s steady progression in the Pokrovsk area stretching back to the first week of August:

    The Russian military has been making slow but steady advances on Pokrovsk since the summer of 2024. It represents a last big Ukrainian stronghold, the capture of which will ensure Russia’s hold over the whole of Donetsk. It would also give Russia the ability to cut off the E-50 highway connecting Pokrovsk to the Dnipropetrovsk city of Pavlohrad. This would be a major blow to the Ukrainian army’s logistical operations.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 23:00

  • Former UK Ambassador: How The West Destroyed Syria
    Former UK Ambassador: How The West Destroyed Syria

    Authored by Peter Ford & Rick Sterling

    Peter Ford served in the UK Foreign Ministry for many years including being UK Ambassador to Bahrain (1999-2003) and  then Syria (2003-2006). Following that, he was representative to the Arab world for the Commissioner General of United Nations Relief and Works Agency. He was interviewed by Rick Stering on Jan 6, 2025.

    RS: Why do you think the Syrian military and government collapsed so rapidly?

    Peter Ford: Everybody was surprised but with hindsight, we shouldn’t have been. Over more than a decade, the Syrian army had been hollowed out by the extremely dire economic situation in Syria, mainly caused by western sanctions. Syria only had a few hours of electricity a day, no money to buy weapons and no ability to use the international banking system to buy anything whatsoever. It’s no surprise that the Army was run down. With hindsight, you might say the surprise is that the Syrian government and Army were successful in driving back the Islamists. The Syrian Army forced them into the redoubt of Idlib four or five years ago. But after that point, the Syrian army deteriorated, became less battle ready on the technical level and also morale.

    Syrian soldiers are mainly conscripts and they suffer as much as any ordinary Syrian from the really dreadful economic situation in Syria. I hesitate to admit it, but the Western sanctions were extremely effectively in doing what they were designed to do: to bring the Syrian economy down to its knees. So we have to say, and I say this with deep regret,  the sanctions worked. The sanctions did exactly what they were designed to do to make the Syrian people suffer, and thereby to bring about discontent with what they call the regime.

    Sipa USA/Rex Features via Atlantic Council

    Ordinary Syrians didn’t understand the complexities of geopolitics, and they blamed the Syrian government for everything: not having electricity, not having food, not having gas, oil, high inflation. Everything that came from being cut off from the world economy and not having supporters with bottomless pockets.

    Syria was being attacked and occupied by major military powers (Turkey, USA, Israel). Plus thousands of foreign jihadis. The Syrian army was so demoralized that they really were a paper tiger by the end of the day.

    RS: Do you think the UK and the US were involved in training the jihadis prior to the December attack on Aleppo? 

    Peter Ford: Absolutely. The Israelis also. The leader of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS),  Ahmed Hussein al Sharaa (formerly known as Mohammad abu Jolani) almost certainly has British advisors in the background. In fact, I detected the hand of such advisors in some of the statements made in impeccable English. The statements had Americanized spelling, so the CIA are in there too. Jolani is a puppet, a marionette saying what they want him to say.

    RS: What’s is the current situation,  a month after the collapse?

    Peter Ford: There are skirmishes here and there, but broadly, the Islamists and foreign fighters are ruling the roost. There are pockets of resistance in Latakia where the Alawite are literally fighting for their lives. Much of the fighting is about the attempts by HTS, the present rulers to  confiscate weapons.The Alawites are resisting and there are pockets of resistance in the South where there are local Druze militias.

    HTS is spread thinly on the ground. They are facing problems in asserting themselves. Although they had a walkover against the Syrian army, they never actually had to do much fighting. I would guess they only have about 30,000 fighting men and spread across Syria, that is not a lot. There’s an important pocket of resistance in the Northeast where the Kurds are. The Kurdish American allies are resisting. The so-called Syrian National Army, which is a front for the Turkish army, may  go into a fully fledged war against the Kurdish forces. But that’s going to depend partly on what happens after the  inauguration of the new US president, how Trump deals with the situation.

    RS: What are you hearing from people in Syria?

    Peter Ford: It is not a pretty story. HTS and their allies have been parading showing their dominance, flying ISIS and Al-Qaeda flags. They have been bullying, intimidating, confiscating and looting. Surrendering Christian as well as Alawite soldiers have been given summary justice, roadside executions being the norm. Christians in their towns and villages are just trying to hunker down and pray. Literally. I’m sorry to say the senior Christian clerics, with one or two noble exceptions, have opted for appeasement and effectively betrayed their communities. The senior leadership at the Orthodox Church, in particular Greek Catholic church, have had themselves photographed with dignitaries of the jihadi regime.

    They are turning the other cheek. It’s quite a contrast with the Alawite. But they have no choice. You may remember that the slogan of the jihadi armies during the conflict was, “Christians to Beirut, Alawite to the grave.”  HTS  is going through the motions of having meetings with clerics and making soothing noises. All the while their henchmen are driving around in trucks flying ISIS flags. What I’m hearing is very depressing.

    The regime is leaving the Alawites totally abandoned. You barely read a word in the west in media about the plight of the Alawite and not much more about the Christians.

    RS: Western media have demonized Bashar al Assad and even Asma Assad. What was your impression of Bashar and Asma when you met them? What do you think of accusations they accumulated billions of dollars?

    Peter Ford: The accusations are completely spurious. I know some members of the Assad family, some of them have lived for many years in Britain. They lived in very modest personal circumstances. If Assad had been a billionaire, like they’re saying, some of that would’ve trickled down. I can guarantee you that has not been the case. These accusations also go against the impressions that I picked up when I was seeing the Assads when I was an ambassador there. They appreciated the good things of life the same as everybody else, but they didn’t come across as the (Ferdinand & Imelda) Marcos-type. Nothing at all like that. It is all lies,  made up to serve the deeper agenda.

    The media kicking of Bashar and Asma is really distasteful. It’s pointless. He’s disappointed his few remaining followers, although it was unrealistic, I believe, for them to expect more. But the fact is that he ran when others were not able to run, and many of those have been killed, or they’re hiding or they’ve escaped to Lebanon in some cases where they’re also hiding. He did get out with his skin, but to beat up on him as the media are doing is really distasteful and pointless. It is akin to this new genre of political pornography, Assad porn, the torture stories, the hyped up narrative about prison and graves being opened up. Actually, by the way, most of those graves are war dead. They were not people who’d been tortured to death as the media pretends. Hundreds of thousands of people died in the conflict over more than a decade, and many of them were buried in unmarked graves. But the western media are reveling in this new genre of Assad porn.

    This is all being whipped up to make Western audiences more accepting of the way the West is getting into bed with Al-Qaeda. The more they demonize Assad and harp on the misdeeds of the Assad regime, and the more likely we are to swallow and be distracted away from the  hideous atrocities being carried out right now.

    Western leaders are kissing the feet of a guy who’s still a wanted terrorist and who has been a founder member of ISIS for God’s sake, as well as a founder member of Al-Qaeda in Syria. It is morally distasteful and shaming.

    Jolani needs the west desperately now. Otherwise, he will face the same fate as Bashar Assad. If the economy continues on its trajectory of the years, then Jolani will be dead meat in fairly short order. He has to deliver massive rapid economic improvement to survive as leader. And this is what it’s all about. His strategy, obviously, is to milk his status as a puppet of the West in order to secure not just reconstruction aid, but that’s for the long term, but more immediately sanctions relief, the electricity flowing again, the oil.

    Right: Former British Ambassador to Syria Peter Ford

    Let’s not forget that the oil and gas of Syria is still effectively in the hands of the United States, which through its Kurdish puppets, controls a segment of the economy, which used to be worth, I think, 20% of serious GDP and provide essential oil for fuel, cooking, everything. He’s got to get his hands on that and get sanctions lifted. That’s what so much of it is about. But he has one major problem: Israel. Israel’s not buying it. Israel is the exception. All the western front is tumbling over itself to go and kiss the feet of the sultan of Damascus. But the Israelis are sucking their teeth, saying they don’t trust the guy.

    Israel is destroying the remnants of the Syrian army and its infrastructure. Meanwhile they grab more Syrian land. They want to keep Syria on its knees indefinitely by insisting that Western sanctions not be lifted.  I sense there’s a battle royal going on in Washington between what we might call the deep state, which would favor lifting sanctions and the Israel lobby, which is resisting that for selfish Israeli reasons. Given that the Israeli lobby wins these tussles nine times out of 10 , the outlook may not be that great for the Jolani regime.

    RS: What are your hopes and fears for Syria? What’s the nightmare scenario and what’s the best possible?

    Peter Ford: I’m very pessimistic. It is very hard to see a silver lining in what has happened. Syria has been taken off the table as a Middle East player. The old Syria has died effectively. Syria was the last man standing among the Arab countries that supported the Palestinians. There was no other. There were militias like Hezbollah plus Yemen but there were no states other than Syria. Syria is now gone, and the jihadis are saying, telling the world they don’t care. By the way, this is an example of how the Israelis will not take yes for an answer. The jihadis keep telling the world, “We love Israel. We don’t care about the Palestinians. Please accept us. We love you.”  And the Israelis won’t take yes for an answer.

    The best hope for the Syrian people is that they may get some respite. It is possible to imagine a scenario where the Syrian people are able to recover, at least economically a scenario under which sanctions are lifted, under which Syria, the central government recovers control of its oil and grain, where fighting has stopped, where it doesn’t have to pay anything to keep up an army because it’s not trying. They might be able to put everything into reconstruction.

    So it is possible to imagine a scenario where Syria loses its soul, but gains more hours of electricity. That is possibly the most likely scenario. But there are major obstacles as we discussed, Israel standing in the way of sanctions, lifting pockets of resistance in discipline among the jihadi ranks, Turkey rampaging against the Kurds and ISIS which is still not a completely spent force. So the outlook is obviously cloudy. We should take stock in a month’s time when we see the early days of the new regime in Washington on which so much will depend.

    RS: In Trump’s first term he tried to remove all US troops from east Syria but his efforts were ignored. Perhaps that could have made a big difference?

    Peter Ford: Yes, it could have been a total game changer. If Syria had access to its oil, it wouldn’t have had the fuel problem, the electricity problem. It could have changed the history of the region.

    Now, the US is increasing the number of soldiers and bases in Syria. And they recently assassinated a ISIS leader which might have played a role in sparking the recent terrorist attack in the US. All of this makes it much harder now for Trump to withdraw US forces because it will seen as a retreat, a reward for ISIS.

    I argued for years that the sanctions were manifestly not working. But in the end they did. It’s like a bridge. It gets undermined and then suddenly it breaks. There was no single cause. It was just the culmination and things reached a tipping point.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 22:35

  • Zelensky 'Ready' To Hand North Korean POWs To Kim Jong Un
    Zelensky ‘Ready’ To Hand North Korean POWs To Kim Jong Un

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made an unprecedented offer of a prisoner exchange deal involving North Korea. Over the weekend Zelensky announced that two wounded North Korean soldiers were recovered from the battlefield by Ukrainian forces. He subsequently shared photos of the foreign fighters on social media.

    “This was not an easy task: Russian forces and other North Korean military personnel usually execute their wounded to erase any evidence of North Korea’s involvement in the war against Ukraine,” Zelensky had said on X. Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have yet to acknowledge that North Korean troops have been captured or killed.

    Stillframe of video Zelensky published on social media showing a N.Korean captive.

    Zelensky indicated he authorized the SBU intelligence service to give reporters access to the two POWs because the “world needs to know the truth about what is happening.”

    Zelensky’s new offer came Sunday. He said on X: 

    “Ukraine is ready to hand over Kim Jong Un’s soldiers to him if he can organize their exchange for our warriors who are being held captive in Russia.”

    It marked a rare moment of the Ukrainian leader addressing Kim Jong Un directly. Zelensky has vehemently condemned North Korea several times since reports first surfaced that some 10,000 North Korean troops have been sent to help Russian forces.

    They are believed to only be operating in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine forces have held territory since a risky cross-border offensive began in early August. Moscow and Pyongyang inked a defense treaty last summer.

    Zelensky further asserted there will “undoubtedly be more” North Korean soldiers captured by his forces. For “those North Korean soldiers who do not wish to return, there may be other options available,” said the Ukrainian leder.

    North Koreans who want “to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in Korean will be given that opportunity,” he continued.

    Zelensky has put out a video of the North Korean POWs being questioned and interrogated, wherein the captive said he’s willing to stay and live in Ukraine…

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

    In this new video featuring the wounded North Korean troops, one of the men said that his commanders “told him it was just training” and that’s how he ended up in Russia and then Ukraine.

    Zelensky has further alleged that Russian President Vladimir Putin could not “manage without military support from Pyongyang”—and that’s why he must be reliant on foreign military manpower.

    Meanwhile South Korea’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, has informed lawmakers in Seoul it believes that some 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed since being transferred to Russia, and around 2,700 others injured.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 22:10

  • Crazy Like A Fox: Trump's Greenland Pitch
    Crazy Like A Fox: Trump’s Greenland Pitch

    Authored by Frank Miele via RealClearPolitics,

    It was back in August 2019, just about the time Democrats were wasting everyone’s time with the first fake impeachment scandal, when Donald Trump originally introduced the idea of buying Greenland from Denmark.

    At the time, the notion was dismissed by the pointy-headed arbiters of right and wrong known as the mainstream media, who concluded that Trump must see his presidency as an extended season of “The Apprentice.” In this episode, the modern-day land baron outsmarts the Scandihoovian rubes who didn’t know the “green” in Greenland was cold hard cash.

    Like almost every other preconception of Trump in his first term, that take was nonsensical. There was considerable historical and geo-political justification for Trump’s proposal to rescue Greenland from European colonialism, and perhaps if his enemies had not sprung the Ukraine phone call impeachment hoax shortly after the Greenland gambit was proposed, it might have become a major accomplishment of Trump’s first term.

    I wrote about the original proposal on Aug. 26, 2019, for RealClearPolitics in an article that declared “Trump’s No Safe Bet; He’s a Leader.” The premise was that unlike the feckless, washed-out, safety-in-numbers politicians who lead by following polls, Trump used common sense and intuition to find solutions to problems no one else even liked to think about. Building a wall to keep out illegal immigrants might seem like an obvious idea now, but before Trump, no one would have dared to say it.

    The same is true of his wish to reclaim Greenland as North American territory. Few if any of Trump’s contemporaries had considered the idea, but it was not without precedent. Lincoln’s Secretary of State William Seward had sought to purchase Greenland for the United States in 1867, the same year he famously acquired Alaska from Russia.

    These days, it may seem jarring to talk about buying large chunks of real estate for the purpose of national aggrandizement, but it wasn’t always so. In addition to Seward’s purchase of Alaska, the United States also can be grateful for Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase, which nearly doubled the size of the country, as well as for the largely free acquisition of Florida from Spain. Land deals are not just in Trump’s blood; they are part of our national heritage.

    They can also be vital to national security. Certainly everyone can agree we were infinitely better off during the era of the Soviet Union because Alaska was no longer in the hands of the Russian oligarchs. And President-elect Trump alluded to a similar benefit on Truth Social when he appointed his ambassador to Denmark in December:

    “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”

    Trump elaborated on that sentiment last week during his impromptu press conference at Mar-a-Lago.

    “We need Greenland for national security purposes. … People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security. That’s for the free world. I’m talking about protecting the free world. You don’t even need binoculars. You look outside, you have China ships all over the place. You have Russian ships all over the place. We’re not letting that happen. We’re not letting it happen.”

    So again, we have the Russian threat, but this time added on top of the perhaps even greater Chinese threat. As I pointed out five years ago, China has its own eyes on Greenland, not just for the strategic importance but because it is a repository of rare earth minerals and other resources:

    “President Trump was well aware that the Chinese had already expressed their own interest in Greenland, offering to fund millions of dollars of infrastructure improvements on the island as part of the plan for global economic domination known as the ‘Belt and Road Initiative.’”

    Fortunately, pressure on Denmark largely thwarted China’s Greenland ambitions, but meanwhile Trump’s appetite for American expansionism was whetted.

    It is perhaps significant that the play for Greenland has been paired with Trump’s threat to take back the Panama Canal, which was turned over to the nation of Panama by Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s. The canal zone, after all, has proven to be a lucrative foothold for China in the New World, and provides a chilling warning of what might happen if someone of Trump’s stature did not step forward to hold the communist state out of Greenland.

    And one thing is certain. No one is laughing at Trump this time around for his pitch to Denmark. Far-fetched? Maybe, but no one dares to underestimate Trump any longer. His willpower is a force of nature, and if he says he wants Greenland, don’t count him out.

    Trump has already become the dominant force on the world stage weeks before he takes office. His attendance at the reopening of Notre Dame caused ripples throughout Europe. Mexico and Canada were put on notice that there was no more free ride once Trump took office, as he threatened them both with tariffs. Trump’s jest about making Canada the 51st state deserves a lot of the credit for (Governor?) Justin Trudeau’s resignation as prime minister. And that’s just the beginning.

    You don’t have to take my word for it. Time magazine ran a little-heralded essay by Ray Dalio that examined “How a Second Trump Administration Will Change the Domestic and World Order.” Dalio, one of the world’s most powerful hedge-fund managers, is no friend of Trump. Before the election, he lamented that Trump led a “strong, unethical, almost fascist Republican Party.”

    But after the fact he was forced to acknowledge that Trump’s election would lead to “a giant renovation of government and the domestic order aimed at making it run more efficiently” and that China would be “widely considered the United States’ single greatest threat.”

    Although Dalio is nostalgic for the post-war international order, he recognizes that under the new rules, “The U.S. and China will be competing for allies, with China generally believed to be in a much better position to win over nonaligned countries because China is more important economically and does a better job exerting its soft power.”

    Unless you are a secret admirer of Xi Jinping, that assessment makes the best case for why Donald Trump is the right person for the job of restoring American dominance. No one does a better job of exerting “soft power” than the 45th and soon-to-be 47th president. He has already changed the conversation just with a social media post and a press conference. So what happens when he gets in office?

    I’m not the only one taking Trump seriously. So are both Republicans and Democrats.

    Sen. John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat, for instance, said, “I do think it’s a responsible conversation if they [Denmark] were open to [the United States] acquiring it, you know, whether just buying it outright. If anyone thinks that’s bonkers, it’s like, well, remember the Louisiana Purchase.”

    And MAGA superstar Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, accompanied Donald Trump Jr. to Nuuk, Greenland, last week to test the waters for Making Greenland America Again.

    “What we learned is a couple of things,” he told his huge YouTube audience. “Number one, the people of Greenland are awesome. They’re tough people, they have tough winters. They’ve been through a lot and they feel forgotten, but they are the most lovely people. Number two, they feel as if they’re mistreated right now by the Danish government, that the Danish government is not treating them the way they’d like to be treated, and they want to be wealthy again.”

    In just one week, the real work begins after Trump is sworn in. There’s no guarantee that he will accomplish his goal of buying Greenland, but with his salesmanship, one thing is certain – it’s more likely that Greenland will become the 51st state than that Canada will.

    Frank Miele, the retired editor of the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell, Mont., is a columnist for RealClearPolitics. His book “The Media Matrix: What If Everything You Know Is Fake” is available from his Amazon author page. Visit him at HeartlandDiaryUSA.com or follow him on Facebook @HeartlandDiaryUSA and on X/Gettr @HeartlandDiary.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 21:45

  • Intercepted Mexican Fishing Boat Smuggling Migrants Rams Coast Guard Boat, Prompting Machine Gun Fire, Arrests
    Intercepted Mexican Fishing Boat Smuggling Migrants Rams Coast Guard Boat, Prompting Machine Gun Fire, Arrests

    Tensions at the Southern Border are on the rise just days before President Trump takes office.

    Last week, the captain and first mate of a Mexican fishing boat are in federal custody after brawling with U.S. Coast Guard members attempting to board their vessel, according to Border Report.

    The clash occurred last Sunday off San Diego’s Mission Bay after a federal Joint Operations Center in Imperial Beach flagged the boat as suspicious.

    The boat, with six occupants and an “excessive number” of fishing poles, was under surveillance by U.S. Border Patrol near Dana Launch. Agents observed four passengers disembarking, later identified as Mexican migrants. They were instructed to sit on the pier while agents searched for the boat’s operators.

    The Border Report article says agents spotted two individuals hiding near public restrooms, but the pair fled back to the boat, quickly unmooring and escaping before they could be apprehended.

    The Joint Operations Center tracked the boat remotely and dispatched a U.S. Coast Guard vessel to intercept it. About 20 minutes later, the Coast Guard caught up, using emergency lights and loudspeakers to order the boat to stop.

    Instead of complying, the boat rammed the Coast Guard vessel, and its two occupants began hurling metal objects at crew members. The Coast Guard disabled the boat’s engines with machine gun fire and used pepper ball projectiles to subdue the suspects. 

    Coast Guard members boarded the boat, subdued the non-compliant suspects with pepper spray, and placed them in handcuffs. Oscar Eduardo Audelo Rodriguez and Francisco Brado Cota were taken to Naval Base Point Loma for medical evaluation and released the same day.

    The pair declined to explain their actions or involvement with the migrants. According to court documents, three of the four migrants identified Audelo as the captain and Brado as the first mate, stating they paid $7,000 to $16,000 each to be smuggled into the U.S.

    Audelo and Brado remain in custody, facing charges of smuggling migrants for profit. A detention hearing is scheduled for next week, the report says.

     

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 21:20

  • 'Keep New England White' Banner Did Not Violate State Law, New Hampshire Supreme Court Rules
    ‘Keep New England White’ Banner Did Not Violate State Law, New Hampshire Supreme Court Rules

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    People who displayed a “Keep New England White” banner from a highway overpass in July 2022 did not violate state law because they did not appear to know they were trespassing, New Hampshire’s top court has ruled.

    William Gens, a lawyer representing the group, said its members were pleased with the New Hampshire Supreme Court’s decision. IPGGutenbergUKLtd/iStock

    New Hampshire law RSA 354-B:1 states in part that a person violates the rights of others when that person inflicts damage, threatens to inflict damage, or trespasses on property “when such actual or threatened conduct is motivated by race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, or disability.”

    State officials brought civil claims against the members of the Nationalist Social Club, also known as NSC-131, who unfurled the banner on July 30, 2022, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, contending they violated the law because their actions were motivated by race and interfered with the lawful activities of others.

    A trial court dismissed the case after finding the state civil rights law was unconstitutionally overbroad. An appeal placed the case in front of the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

    The justices, in a unanimous opinion handed down on Jan. 10, upheld the lower court ruling.

    “The overbreadth of the State’s construction of the Act creates an unacceptable risk of a chill on speech protected by Part I, Article 22 of our State Constitution. Specifically, the State’s construction of the Act would impose government sanctions on those who unintentionally trespass on public property and whose presence is ’motivated by’ one of the characteristics enumerated in RSA 354-B:1,” the justices wrote in a per curiam opinion. “Such a broad sweep discourages the expression of certain messages for fear of government sanctions under the Act based on the content of the messages expressed.”

    It’s also not reasonable to allow charges to be brought against people who don’t appear to know they are trespassing, the justices stated. They ruled that state officials must establish that people are knowingly trespassing and noted that officials did not do so in the case against Christopher Hood and the other members of the group that took credit for displaying the banners.

    The top court’s wrote in its opinion that Hood was not wearing a mask, spoke to police officers on the scene, and identified himself as the group’s leader. The group removed the banner and other banners when they were told that they were trespassing on public property.

    “Even when construing all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the State, we are not persuaded that the complaints sufficiently allege that the defendants knowingly trespassed,” the justices ruled.

    The attorney general’s office said it was disappointed by the court’s decision but respects it, spokesperson Michael Garrity said in a statement.

    “Our office remains steadfast in enforcing the Civil Rights Act to ensure all Granite Staters are free from discrimination, violence, and hate-motivated threats,” Garrity stated. “We will continue to explore all options to protect the rights and safety of our communities.”

    William Gens, a lawyer representing the group, said its members were “very pleased with the decision.”

    “It was based on grounds that we raised all along,” he said, adding that the attorney general’s interpretation “didn’t give adequate notice to the public as to what conduct, including the speech portion of the conduct, was a violation of the statute.”

    A second complaint filed against the group by the attorney general’s office is pending. It accuses the group of violations relating to a demonstration outside a Concord, New Hampshire café that hosted a drag story hour event.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 20:55

  • Starbucks Reverses Open Public Bathroom Policy After Junkie Influx Created Unsafe Environment
    Starbucks Reverses Open Public Bathroom Policy After Junkie Influx Created Unsafe Environment

    Newly appointed Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol has reportedly reversed a seven-year policy that allowed the general public to use store bathrooms without making a purchase. The policy had resulted in widespread drug use at certain store locations, particularly in lawless, Democrat-controlled cities.

    The Wall Street Journal obtained a copy of a memo sent to employees outlining the new code of conduct being rolled out across stores in North America. 

    “There is a need to reset expectations for how our spaces should be used and who uses them,” Starbucks North America President Sara Trilling said in the memo. 

    The updated policies also include adding signs prohibiting harassment, violence, threatening language, outside alcohol, smoking, and panhandling in its stores.

    In 2018, former CEO Howard Schultz transformed Starbucks into America’s “largest public restroom” by allowing non-customers to use the chain’s bathrooms across thousands of US stores. 

    Schultz’s bathroom policy backfired…

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    Ensuring safety with new bathroom policies is just part of Niccol’s turnaround strategy to save the struggling coffee chain, which has suffered from three straight quarters of declining sales. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 20:30

  • Judge Allows Public Release Of Volume 1, Blocks Volume 2 Of Smith's Report On Trump Cases
    Judge Allows Public Release Of Volume 1, Blocks Volume 2 Of Smith’s Report On Trump Cases

    Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A federal judge has cleared the way for the public release of volume one of special counsel Jack Smith’s final report on investigations involving President-elect Donald Trump while opting to keep volume two of the report restricted.

    (Left) Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks in Washington on Aug. 1, 2023. (Right) Former President Donald Trump attends his trial in New York State Supreme Court in New York City on Dec. 7, 2023. Drew Angerer, David Dee Delgado/Getty Images

    Volume one pertains to Smith’s election interference case against Trump, while volume two relates to the classified documents case.

    In a Jan. 13 order, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon partially denied an emergency motion by two Trump co-defendants—Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira—to block the public release of the report. Nauta and De Oliveira had filed an emergency motion seeking to prevent the release of both volumes of Smith’s report, citing concerns that it would prejudice their pretrial rights.

    Cannon upheld their request to restrict volume two—pertaining to a classified documents probe involving Trump in which Nauta and De Oliveira are co-defendants. The judge noted that release of volume two would be “inconsistent” with the defendants’ right to a fair trial.

    The Department of Justice (DOJ) had argued that selective release of volume two to congressional leaders was in the public interest but stopped short of advocating for broader dissemination. Nauta and De Oliveira had argued that releasing the volume, even in a limited capacity, could irreparably damage their legal standing.

    Cannon scheduled a hearing for Jan. 17 to address the DOJ’s request for limited disclosure of volume two to congressional leaders while withholding it from the public.

    “Release of Volume II, even on a limited basis as promised by the United States, risks irreversibly and substantially impairing the legal rights of Defendants in this criminal proceeding,” Cannon wrote. “The Court is not willing to make that gamble on the basis of generalized interest by members of Congress, at least not without full briefing and a hearing on the subject.”

    The judge noted that a portion of the hearing may need to be conducted under seal to prevent parts of volume two from being disseminated to the public.

    However, Cannon agreed with the DOJ’s position that volume one contained no substantive references to the defendants or the classified documents case. Noting that there was “insufficient basis” to restrict the public release of volume one, Cannon cleared the way for its public release.

    After Trump won the presidential election, Smith moved to dismiss the classified documents case and the election interference case against Trump, citing DOJ rules around not prosecuting presidents. The motions to dismiss were made “without prejudice,” meaning charges could be refiled after Trump finishes his second term as president. However, the statute of limitations and the prospect of Trump pardoning himself stand in the way of potential re-prosecution.

    Federal law requires special counsels to prepare a final report outlining their prosecution decisions and submit it to the attorney general, who has the discretion to determine whether the report will be made public.

    Attorney General Merrick Garland said last week that both volumes of Smith’s final report would be made public when the courts give it the green light.

    Smith, who was appointed by Garland to investigate Trump in the two cases—election interference and classified documents—resigned from the DOJ on Jan. 10. Smith’s resignation marks the end of his criminal prosecutions of Trump over the past two years or so.

    Trump has denied wrongdoing in the cases has repeatedly described the prosecutions as politically motivated.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 20:05

  • FBI's Wray Drops 'Chinese Infiltration' Bomb On Way Out, Warns Of Threat To Critical Infrastructure
    FBI’s Wray Drops ‘Chinese Infiltration’ Bomb On Way Out, Warns Of Threat To Critical Infrastructure

    While the FBI – the same FBI that participated in the Russiagage hoax, polarizing half of America into focusing on the Kremlin for a decade, the Chinese government – the same one that enriched the Biden family to the tune of millions, has apparently been ‘lying in wait’ all over America and is ready to attach critical infrastructure at a moment’s notice.

    According to outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray in a Sunday appearance on “60 Minutes,” – “The Chinese government is prepositioning on American civilian critical infrastructure to lie in wait on those networks to be in a position to wreak havoc & inflict real world harm at a time & place of their choosing.”

    Wray described the CCP as “the greatest long-term threat” and the “defining threat of our generation” due in part to its state-funded cyber program that’s poised to “wreak havoc” on a whim – targeting water treatment plants, the electrical grid, natural gas infrastructure and other systems.

    According to Wray, China has pre-positioned malware throughout American infrastructure.

    He also says that Beijing has been listening to communications by high-level US officials.

    Of course, while the media took the Russiagate ball and went full retard – Wray has been fairly consistent about China. In July of 2000, he warned that nearly half of the FBI’s 5,000 or so counterintelligence investigations are related to Chinese espionage.

    “We’ve now reached the point where the FBI is opening a new China-related counterintelligence case approximately every ten hours,” said the FBI chief, speaking at an event hosted by the Hudson Institute.

    “The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information, intelligence property and to our economic vitality is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat from China,” he added.

    A cyber strike of that scale would aim to impede the deployment of U.S. troops, induce societal panic and otherwise interfere with U.S. military actions, according to the report.

    China over the past decade has been accused of multiple state-sponsored hacking campaigns aimed at the U.S. — as well as European and Asian countries — but it routinely denies involvement.

    The U.S. Treasury on Jan. 3 sanctioned Integrity Technology Group Inc., a Beijing-based cybersecurity company, for its alleged involvement in multiple hacking attempts against the U.S.

    The hacks were connected to Flax Typhoon, which the Treasury described as “a Chinese malicious state-sponsored cyber group that has been active since at least 2021, often targeting organizations within U.S. critical infrastructure sectors,” according to the Treasury news release announcing the sanctions. –stripes.com

    According to a Feb. 5 assessment from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, China is the “most active and persistent cyber threat to U.S. Government, private-sector, and critical infrastructure networks.”

    “If Beijing believed that a major conflict with the United States were imminent, it would consider aggressive cyber operations against U.S. critical infrastructure and military assets,” the report said.

    In a Jan. 6 press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiakun Guo denied Beijing’s hacking program.

    “We urge the U.S. to stop using the issue of cybersecurity to vilify and smear China. For quite some time, the US has been trumpeting so-called ‘Chinese hacking’ and even using it to impose illegal and unilateral sanctions on China,” he said.

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    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 19:40

  • Vance Blasts "Dumpster Fire" Left For Trump By Biden/Harris
    Vance Blasts “Dumpster Fire” Left For Trump By Biden/Harris

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

    Soon to be Vice President JD Vance has slammed the outgoing regime for leaving “an absolute dumpster fire” in its wake on multiple issues.

    During a Fox News interview Sunday, Vance spoke about the economy, the California fires and the Southern border, and urged that there has been a “serious lack of competent governance.”

    “I will always be an optimist about our country, but I think that optimism has to start with a bit of realism. And the real truth is that Joe Biden has left us a dumpster fire,” Vance asserted.

    He added that “Donald Trump is going to have to put it out. But he’s good at doing that.”

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    Vance emphasized, “we’re excited to get to work. But we need to be open and honest about the fact that President Biden has not left the next administration in a good place, right? FEMA’s funds are depleted. We have a wide open southern border. Oil is going through the roof. Bond yields went from 4.1 percent to 4.8 percent in a month. And that’s on top of the fact that President Biden has been running the largest peacetime deficits in the history of this country.”

    “So we’ve got a lot of debt, a lot of problems, and a wide open southern border. And thank God that Donald Trump takes office in a week-and-a-half because we need somebody to actually govern this country effectively,” Vance further declared.

    On the border, Vance promised “dozens of executive orders” immediately to allow Customs and Border Patrol “to do your job again.”

    “To illegal immigrants all over the world, you are not welcome in this country illegally,” Vance further outlined, adding “if you came into this country illegally, you need to go back home. You need to have basic law enforcement.”

    Vance explained that Democrats have been hiding behind having “compassion” for families and not wanting to separate families, using it as an excuse not to crack down on illegal immigration.

    “It is not compassion to allow the drug cartels to traffic small children,” Vance urged, adding “It is not compassionate to allow the worst people in the world to send minor children, some of them victims of sex trafficking, into our country. That is the real humanitarian crisis at the border. You’re not going to exacerbate it through law enforcement. You’re going to fix it through law enforcement. And that’s what Donald Trump is going to do.”

    On the economy, Vance emphasised that Biden “has added trillions and trillions of dollars to the federal debt during a time of peace. He has left us with bond yields, meaning how we’re going to finance that debt, we have to sell treasury bonds. And the treasury bonds have gotten more expensive because of Joe Biden’s policies.”

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    On the California fires, Vance stated “There is a serious lack of competent governance in California, and I think it’s part of the reason why these fires have gotten so bad. We need to do a better job at both the state and federal level.”

    “President Trump has committed to doing a better job when it comes to disaster relief,” Vance continued, adding “We need competent, good governance. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t criticize the governor of California for I think some very bad decisions over a very long period of time.”

    “I mean, some of these reservoirs have been dry for 15, 20 years. The fire hydrants are being reported as going dry while the firefighters are trying to put out these fires,” Vance further stated.

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    Here is the full interview:

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    Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 19:15

  • "Closely Monitoring Situation": Tuberculosis Reported In Small-Town Charleroi, PA, Swamped By Haitians
    “Closely Monitoring Situation”: Tuberculosis Reported In Small-Town Charleroi, PA, Swamped By Haitians

    Health officials are on high alert after a case of tuberculosis was reported in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, a small town thrust into the spotlight by President-elect Donald Trump during a rally in September. Trump highlighted a staggering 2,000% increase in Haitian migrants in the town in just a few short years, many of whom were funneled into local factories like cattle. The TB case has heightened fears of a potential outbreak. 

    The Charleroi Area School District superintendent notified parents on Monday morning about a teen recovering from TB who returned to class without clearance from doctors.

    “I am writing to provide an update regarding a recent health matter involving one of our high school students. The student, who attended school today, was diagnosed with tuberculosis a couple of weeks ago. Upon learning that the student had returned without a doctor’s clearance to return to school, we immediately isolated the student and sent them home,” Superintendent Dr. Edward Zelich wrote in the letter.

    Zelich continued, “Please know that we are closely monitoring the situation and will continue to work with the appropriate health authorities to ensure our students’ and staff’s safety and well-being.”

    A little more than two weeks ago, Zelich called social media posts mentioning “supposed tuberculosis outbreak” fake news: “We are aware of recent social media posts circulating inaccurate information regarding a supposed tuberculosis (TB) outbreak.” 

    Think tank America 2100’s Nate Hochman pointed out on X, “Charleroi is a small town in Pennsylvania. In the past few years, it’s been flooded with thousands of Haitian immigrants. The school system has seen an 1,800% increase in non-English speaking students. Now, a student just tested positive for tuberculosis.” 

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    “Who would have thought Tuberculosis at Charleroi High School,” one X user said. 

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    No comment…. 

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    In a matter of weeks, the Charleroi Area School District shifted from calling social media posts about a potential TD outbreak as “fake news” to now acknowledging at least one student has caught the highly contagious bacterial disease that usually affects the lungs. 

    Was there a cover-up?

    Residents are furious (via Facebook group “Charleroi Ramblings”): 

    The second question: Is there an active tuberculosis outbreak in the town that has been swamped with migrants from third worlds? 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 18:50

  • Blaming 'Climate Change' For L.A. Fires Only Makes Newsom Look Criminally Incompetent
    Blaming ‘Climate Change’ For L.A. Fires Only Makes Newsom Look Criminally Incompetent

    Via Issues & Insights,

    “All these things are connected. This is a challenging time. But we’re up to this challenge.”

    That was California Gov. Gavin Newsom back in 2020 when he was busy blaming “climate change” for the wildfires that erupted that year.

    “I quite literally have no patience for climate change deniers,” he said.

    Four years later, Newsom is again blaming “climate change” for the fires ravaging Los Angeles.

    But wait. If climate change really is to blame, why was California so obviously, so woefully, so inexcusably unprepared?

    Someone needs to ask Newsom why the state didn’t spend the last four years aggressively clearing out underbrush to minimize the chances of a catastrophic wildfire. Why didn’t it carve out large and effective buffer zones to keep fires from reaching populated areas? Why wasn’t there a Marshall Plan-scale effort to build reservoirs so firefighters could get water from hydrants?

    It’s not as though the state didn’t have plenty of warning. For decades, environmentalists have been screaming about how “climate change” was going to make wildfires more frequent, more all-consuming, and more deadly.

    Yet in the very state where environmentalists hold all the levers of power, they dawdled and delayed, let bureaucratic red tape and environmental groups stall efforts to prepare for the worst, and put other ridiculous and massively expensive projects (such as the “bullet” train) at the front of the line.

    And in the process, California has wasted fantastic sums of money.

    In 2018, former Gov. Jerry Brown signed a $1 billion bill that was supposed to “prevent catastrophic wildfires and protect Californians.” Where did that money go?

    A 2019 report from Newsom’s wildfire “strike force” said that “Over the next five years, the state will commit over $1 billion for critical fuel reduction projects, to support prescribed fire crews, forest thinning, and other forest health projects.”

    Early in his term, Newsom launched the California Vegetation Treatment Program, which was advertised as a plan to speed environmental reviews for forest management projects.

    But as the Washington Examiner shows in a devastating account of waste and mismanagement:

    Those types of projects — such as thinning out dense clusters of trees and prescribed burns to remove the conditions necessary for fires to spread rapidly — have also been stifled by climate groups that regularly challenge them in court.

    A Free Beacon review of the program’s latest data found that of the 525 approved projects spanning 666,450 acres, only 231 projects spanning just 6,000 acres have been completed. There are only two projects located in the Los Angeles metro area spanning 130 acres — a fuel reduction project proposed by the Los Angeles County Fire Department and a nonprofit watershed project — but both remain incomplete.

    Newsom is hardly blameless. A report three years ago found that he’d been lying about his wildfire prevention efforts.

    An investigation from CapRadio and NPR’s California Newsroom found the governor has misrepresented his accomplishments and even disinvested in wildfire prevention. The investigation found Newsom overstated, by an astounding 690%, the number of acres treated with fuel breaks and prescribed burns in the very forestry projects he said needed to be prioritized to protect the state’s most vulnerable communities. Newsom has claimed that 35 ‘priority projects’ carried out as a result of his executive order resulted in fire prevention work on 90,000 acres. But the state’s own data show the actual number is 11,399.

    Now we learn that he’d cut funding for wildfire and forest resilience by $101 million in the budget he approved last June, and millions from other programs designed to mitigate fire damage. Is that what Newsom meant when he said in 2019 that he’d “made wildfire prevention and mitigation a top priority since taking office”?

    Newsom has been just as lackadaisical when it comes to building new water reservoirs, which you’d think would Job No. 1 in a state convinced that “climate change” will cause more droughts and wildfires.

    In 2014, Californians overwhelmingly approved a $7.5 billion water bond proposal, nearly $3 billion of which was set aside to build new reservoirs. More than a decade later, not a single new reservoir has been built. Where has all that money gone?

    To be clear, we don’t buy the climate-change-is-to-blame nonsense.

    As we noted last week, there’s no evidence that wildfires have become more common or deadly, despite constant claims to the contrary. (See: “Fire, Snow And A Storm Of Climate Nonsense.”)

    But Newsom and the rest of the leftist Democrats who run the state do. It’s their religion.

    Every time something bad happens in the state, they blame fossil fuels. They are endlessly warning that urgent responses are needed.

    And yet, they’ve done next to nothing to protect their residents from what they repeatedly say is an existential crisis.

    By their own words, they have convicted themselves of criminal negligence.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 18:25

  • Zelensky Offers To Send 150 Ukrainian Firefighters To California After Stinging Rebuke From Trump Jr
    Zelensky Offers To Send 150 Ukrainian Firefighters To California After Stinging Rebuke From Trump Jr

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has declared that his country is ready to assist those affected by the devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area, with 150 Ukrainian firefighters ready to go.

    The offer, articulated Sunday, cited the “extremely difficult” situation in California and said that Ukrainians “can help Americans save lives”. It comes several days after Donald Trump Jr joined many others in criticizing the fact that a lot of LA firefighting equipment had previously been handed over to Ukraine. “Oh look of course the LA fire department donated a bunch of their supplies to Ukraine,” Trump Jr said on X last Wednesday.

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    Zelensky stated, “Today, I instructed Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs and our diplomats to prepare for the possible participation of our rescuers in combating the wildfires in California. The situation there is extremely difficult, and Ukrainians can help Americans save lives.”

    “This is currently being coordinated, and we have offered our assistance to the American side through the relevant channels. 150 of our firefighters are already prepared,” he continued.

    It remains unclear whether the Ukrainian firefighters are actually en route to the US or not. Canada and Mexico are key countries which have already sent firefighters to help. The Palisades fire and the Eaton fire have yet to be contained, having ravaged the area for over a week straight, amid high California winds.

    The several fires have resulted in at least 24 dead and over 150,000 people forcibly evacuated from their homes. Billions of dollars in damage has been documented.

    Critics of Biden’s essentially ‘blank check’ approach to Ukraine have pointed out that American taxpayers have been forced to foot the bill for a foreign country and a disastrous overseas proxy war, instead of investing in infrastructure and keeping people safe at home. This was a similar criticism in September and October when the Carolinas witnessed severe and deadly flooding by Hurricane Helene, and whole towns were stranded without resources, with US citizens having received minimal emergency funds. 

    Zelensky’s new offer to help California, despite the reality being that he’s in desperate need of more manpower in his own war-ravaged country, indicates he’s more and more worried on a PR level over the potential that Trump could drastically cut defense and economic aid to Kiev.

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    A March 2022 story out of California stated that “Los Angeles County fire crews are sending some of their extra equipment to firefighters in Ukraine.” It had detailed, “The plane carrying that much-needed surplus equipment, such as hoses, nozzles, turnouts, helmets, body armor and other personal protective gear, is expected to take off Friday.” Extra?… Putting America “Ukraine first” is the Biden bad foreign policy idea that keeps on giving… and taking away from American citizens caught in the throes of emergency and disaster.

    Meanwhile, one Ukrainian media outlet is asking the following question pertaining to the offer—Zelensky will send Ukrainian firefighters to California: Will they want to return home?

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 18:00

  • India Expects No Disruption To Russian Oil Supply Until March
    India Expects No Disruption To Russian Oil Supply Until March

    Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

    • India will allow Russian oil cargoes booked before US sanctions to be discharged until March.

    • This move aims to mitigate the immediate impact of sanctions on India, the world’s third-largest oil importer.

    • India faces potential disruption to its oil supply after March if alternative sources are not secured.

    Following Friday’s U.S. sanctions against tankers shipping Russian oil, India expects its flows of crude from Russia not to be disrupted until March as the sanctioned tankers will be allowed to discharge until then, a senior Indian government official told Reuters on Monday.

    India will allow cargoes carrying Russian oil booked before January 10 to discharge at ports when they arrive at Indian coasts, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

    The outgoing U.S. Administration on Friday imposed the most severe sanctions on Russia’s oil yet, designating two major Russian oil companies, Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas, as well as 183 vessels, dozens of oil traders, oilfield service providers, insurance companies, and energy officials.

    A large part of the newly sanctioned tankers by the U.S. have carried Russian crude mostly to China and India over the past year, according to analysts and ship-tracking data.

    The latest U.S. sanctions have already started moving oil markets and the oil-purchasing strategies in Russia’s top crude oil customers, China and India.

    Oil prices jumped on Friday as the U.S. sanctions were announced, and Brent Crude broke above $80 per barrel to hit the highest level in three months.

    The rally continued on Monday, with Brent jumping to a four-month high of over $81 per barrel.

    Prices will eventually fall back below $80 per barrel because there is no shortage of supply on the global oil market, the anonymous Indian government official told Reuters.

    “The market is waiting for Russia to respond on sanctions,” the official told the newswire, adding that “Russia will find ways to reach us.”

    India is bracing for a major disruption to Russian oil supply, which is currently the single largest source of crude for the world’s third-largest oil importer.

     

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 17:40

  • House Republicans Weigh Sweeping $5.7 Trillion In Spending Cuts To Fund Trump's Domestic Agenda
    House Republicans Weigh Sweeping $5.7 Trillion In Spending Cuts To Fund Trump’s Domestic Agenda

    In a bold and controversial fiscal gamble, House Republicans are circulating a “menu” of proposed spending cuts totaling almost $6 trillion over the next decade. The plan, designed to bankroll President-elect Donald Trump’s ambitious priorities – including tax cuts and increased border security – details reductions to major federal programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, and Biden-era climate initiatives.

    House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington is circulating the $5.7 trillion list of potential cuts.

    The early list, obtained by POLITICO, reflects the GOP’s long-standing goal of reducing government spending, though the magnitude of the suggested cuts underscores the high-stakes nature of the effort. The menu includes slashing welfare programs, revising Affordable Care Act subsidies, and rolling back green energy tax credits. While the list serves as a set of options rather than a formal proposal, it has already sparked intense internal debate among Republicans.

    The people, granted anonymity to discuss closed-door negotiations, said that the list originated from the House Budget Committee, chaired by Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas). Republicans involved in the reconciliation plans have been generally targeting the listed programs for several months, but internal GOP fights over trillions of dollars in potential cuts are just beginning.

    The overall savings add up to as much as $5.7 trillion over 10 years, though the list is highly ambitious and unlikely to all become law given narrow margins for Republicans in the House and Senate. -Politico

    The “document is not intended to serve as a proposal, but instead as a menu of potential spending reductions for members to consider,” one GOP source told the outlet.

    Yet even within the Republican caucus, there is skepticism about the feasibility of achieving such drastic savings. “They all feel pretty controversial,” one senior GOP lawmaker conceded when asked if there were any particularly controversial spending offsets dividing Republicans.

    House Speaker Mike Johnson is reportedly working to balance the demands of Trump’s domestic policy agenda, estimated to cost $10 trillion, with the fiscal constraints imposed by his own pledge to slash $2.5 trillion in government spending through the budget reconciliation process as part of last year’s govt. funding negotiations.

    Medicaid And ACA In The Crosshairs

    One of the most contentious components of the plan targets Medicaid, with proposed caps on federal spending tied to state population levels instead of maintaining the program as an open-ended entitlement. Additionally, the list suggests imposing work requirements for Medicaid recipients and aligning payments for able-bodied adults with those for low-income children and individuals with disabilities – a move projected to save $690 billion.

    The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is another significant target. Republicans are eyeing $46 billion in savings by letting key ACA insurance subsidies expire and limiting eligibility based on citizenship status. These cuts, if pursued, would reignite the political firestorm that has surrounded the ACA since its inception, potentially destabilizing coverage for millions of Americans.

    Cuts to Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and the country’s largest anti-hunger program would spark massive opposition from Democrats and would also face some GOP resistance. House Speaker Mike Johnson can’t afford any Republican defections if he wants to pass a package on party lines. -Politico

    Medicare is also under scrutiny, with proposed “site-neutral” payments that would equalize costs across outpatient settings – a policy that has garnered bipartisan attention but could face resistance due to concerns over its impact on providers. The list also includes repealing Biden administration health care regulations, such as minimum staffing requirements at nursing homes, which proponents argue drive up costs.

    Climate Programs On The Chopping Block

    Perhaps the most politically delicate area involves green energy and climate initiatives. The proposal identifies up to $468 billion in savings by repealing provisions from Biden’s climate policies, including electric vehicle incentives and elements of the bipartisan infrastructure law.

    Yet, not all Republicans are aligned on this front. Eighteen House Republicans, many representing districts benefiting from clean energy projects, have warned Speaker Johnson against prematurely dismantling green energy tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Technologies like hydrogen and carbon capture—viewed favorably by some GOP lawmakers—are among the measures that could be impacted.

    Even proposed cuts to green energy tax credits, worth as much as $500 billion, could be tricky — as the document notes, they depend “on political viability.” Already 18 House Republicans — 14 of whom won reelection in November — warned Johnson against prematurely repealing some of the IRA’s energy tax credits, which are funding multiple manufacturing projects in GOP districts. -Politico

    The challenge for Johnson and his leadership team will be corralling enough Republican votes in the House, where the GOP holds a narrow majority, while navigating the Senate’s more moderate composition. The specter of Republican defections looms large, particularly among lawmakers who represent districts reliant on federal spending for infrastructure and health care programs.

    President-elect Trump’s policy blueprint has added another layer of complexity. Trump’s focus on aggressive border security measures and significant tax reductions—signature issues of his campaign—comes with a hefty price tag. His allies in Congress are preparing to meet with him in Florida this weekend to discuss next steps. The proposed cuts to Medicaid, the ACA, and climate programs signal a sharp pivot away from Biden-era policies, but they also risk political fallout that could jeopardize fragile Republican majorities.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 17:20

  • Woke DEI + Green Nihilism = Dresden In California
    Woke DEI + Green Nihilism = Dresden In California

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

    Firebombing on the Pacific

    Over 25,000 acres are ablaze in Los Angeles in the Pacific Palisades fire, a veritable living hell.

    Some 12,000-plus structures were incinerated. More than 250,000 souls have been evacuated and are in need of shelter.

    No one has really taken charge yet. And now even the woke culprits for the catastrophe are blame-gaming each other to determine who was the more incompetent, which in this case translates to the most woke.

    No one knows how many have died; all know the number will escalate in the next few days.

    The eventual price tag of the ruin will exceed $200-300 billion and outstrip the billions of dollars given to Ukraine.

    And there are still some fires that are completely uncontained.

    The Los Angeles apocalypse was a multisystem, green-woke collapse—and a disastrous reminder that when Soviet-style, anti-meritocratic ideology permeates all aspects of modern life in California, disaster is inevitable.

    First, note that the culprit of the catastrophe is not climate change; it is not Donald Trump. Those are excuses for arrogant incompetency and disdain for the public. And it is not racism or homophobia to fault those who paraded and virtue signaled their tribal identities so extraneous to their actual responsibilities for public safety.

    Note that all California statewide officeholders are left-wing. The California left holds supermajorities in both houses of the state legislature. Only 17 percent of California’s huge congressional delegation of 52 seats is Republican. California’s judiciary is the most left-wing in the country. There is not a single Republican on the 15-member Los Angeles City Council.

    Add it all up, and the woke socialist state has been eagerly deindustrializing, decivilizing, and retribalizing its way into what is now a veritable peacetime Dresden on the Pacific.

    Again, there is no one else to blame, because California is one of those rare states in which Republicans have de facto zero political power. All the state media, the legacy newspapers, the Silicon Valley daily online news sites, the Bay Area-based Apple, Google, and Facebook monopolies, and the local news outlets are parrots of the woke-green mindset.

    To the degree that anything still works in California, it predates 2000. The core of the ossified Central Valley Water Project and the California Water Project remain—though they are in need of massive maintenance, like almost all the infrastructure the current generation of politicians inherited and largely ignored.

    Now crowded and obsolete highways that were once the nation’s best still function—but barely. And there are a few remnants of sanity in what is left of the pre-woke and once-great universities of Berkeley, Caltech, Stanford, UCLA, and USC, founded by a now despised but far wiser and more competent long-dead generation of visionaries.

    The Real ‘Basket of Deplorables’

    Los Angeles brags about its new $50 billion budget and trumpets how it expanded “Care First” programs. Indeed, the mayor’s budget claims it created a new “451 positions”—highlighting its investments in “growing the department of youth development.”

    It boasts it is adding positions to the “Justice, Care, and Opportunities Department,” “reducing our jail population,” and expanding “voting solutions for all people.” There is not much about fire, policing, or water—apparently now the low priorities that prior sexist, racist, and homophobic generations once worried about.

    The role of DEI? Mayor Karen Bass was warned of the current danger of dry hillsides of chaparral buffeted by record-high, 100-mph Santa Ana winds. Her response?

    She went junketing a continent away to the inauguration festivities of the president of Ghana—a strange way to prepare for a possible inferno to come. Does Ghana have firefighting expertise to share with Bass? In damage-control mode, Bass flew back only to be confronted at the airport by a now rare honest—and thus foreign—reporter.

    He asked her why she cut over $17.6 million from the LA fire service budget—itself just 65% of the city’s homelessness expenditures. (She had planned to cut millions of dollars more). And why, he asked, was she in Africa at all in her city’s hour of need?

    Bass stood mute—shamed into silence.

    I think Los Angelenos needed no answer since it was obvious to them: she went to Ghana because she could and wanted to—since identity chauvinism is what ensured she was elected, reelected, and immune from criticism. Look at her appointments and budget, and it is clear public safety, fires, and water are most certainly not her priorities.

    Bass was confident that if LA went up in smoke as she pursued her African agendas, the woke megaphones would silence critics as “racist” or “homophobic” or “sexist” in the way Soviet commissars used to send to Siberia any “ideological enemies of the state” who complained that the farms, industries, and trains of Russia no longer worked. And on spec, we now hear it is now racist to criticize a black woman incompetent mayor.

    How about the Bass-appointed DEI “deputy mayor for safety,” Brian Williams?

    Surely, he stepped up in the mayor’s absence, given his purview of the city’s “safety?” Nope.

    You see, he is currently under suspension for suspicion of phoning in a bomb threat to Los Angeles City Hall.

    Well, how about the DEI- and the much-acclaimed “first Latina” director of Los Angeles’s vast waterworks? Bass recruited such talent by nearly doubling the job’s normal salary to $750,000 per year.

    What did she accomplish on her over $2,000-a-day salary? Did Janisse Quiñones, “the new Chief Executive Officer and Chief Engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and the “first Latina woman to lead the organization,” leap into action?

    Well, the water very quickly ran out in Pacific Palisades, and the hydrants went dry—as many had been for months prior.

    Quiñones claimed that “three million gallons” in tanks above the suburb were mysteriously not up to the task of quenching the LA Dresden. You think?

    She apparently gauges disaster preparation by the number of gallons of water available in tanks, not the number of gallons needed to save thousands of homes and lives. And she forgot to tell the public that in fact there is a 117-million-gallon water reservoir atop Pacific Palisades built for some purpose unknown to her.

    Yet it was empty and “under repair” for months because of a mere damaged cover. Consider that: a dry autumn, the onset of the usual Santa Ana winds, a recent plague of hilltop wildfires, and Quiñones shuts down the linchpin of a prior generation’s plan to save the Palisades.

    Note Quiñones was supposed to be the professional replacement for a retired director of water and power, who himself had been a replacement for another director who was found guilty of bribery and is currently in federal prison.

    So goes the agency created by water wizard William Mulholland, who once created the 18-million-person Los Angeles megapolis by tapping every river and reservoir he could to feed the city’s unquenchable thirst for water.

    How about fire chief Kristen Crowley? She now blames the mayor for dry hydrants. But in doing so, she pleaded that her job starts only after water flows out of them—as if their inert condition is not really her concern.

    The self-celebrity, nonbinary fire chief Kristen Crowley has talked nonstop for the last two years about “diversity, equity, and inclusion” and the “LGBTQ community.” Less was said about the need to ensure the most meritocratic force possible, unmatched equipment, and long preplanned measures to prevent conflagrations—and screaming to high heaven that fire hydrants were either being stolen or bone dry.

    Instead, like Bass, Crowley was mostly mute about the lack of preparation or the absence of sufficient warning to those about to be engulfed.

    How about her deputy Kristine Lawson, who claimed people in need want to see fire officers arrive who look like they do? And if they don’t?

    She is also on record with this: “Am I able to carry your husband out of a fire? He got himself in the wrong place if I have to carry him out.” Consider that helpful LAFD logic: So, if you are a man who suffers cardiac arrest and collapses on your kitchen floor, it is your fault that you died without medical attention, not Kristine’s, who apparently either would not or could not carry you out the door.

    How about morally bankrupt politicians?

    The speaker of the California Assembly, Robert Rivas, along with Governor Gavin Newsom, had just called a special session of the legislature to “Trump-proof” California. He wished to allot millions of dollars in state funds—in a year of massive deficits—to sue and impede the federal government.

    Will Rivas’s Trump “resistance” session include canceling California’s simultaneous request for hundreds of billions of federal dollars for Los Angeles from the Trump administration? When asked whether it was wise to borrow millions to sue Trump while Los Angeles was burning, Rivas mumbled, stuttered, and revealed himself to be little more than a caricature of an incompetent.

    Governor Gavin “Nero” Newsom made his usual performance art, virtual-signaling appearance. When asked why the hydrants were dry, he batted it off as a “local problem.” He now uses his own campaign website, linked to Democratic fundraising efforts, to warn the fire-struck public about supposed “misinformation.”

    But what could Newsom do or say? His entire tenure is synonymous with too many catastrophic forest fires and too little water.

    He did nothing after the catastrophic Aspen and Paradise fires to revive the timber industry to glean and clean the forests. He never allowed much new grazing on fuel-rich hills or sent crews in to cut back the chaparral.

    He never reconsidered his policies of diverting precious snowmelt from the Sacramento River tributaries to flow into the sea to help the delta smelt rather than to ensure that farmers could irrigate their crops or that Los Angeles County reservoirs were fully banked.

    Despite an approved 2014 $7.5 billion bond to build three huge dams and reservoirs, Newsom ensured that we built none: not the easily constructed Sites reservoir, not Temperance Flat, and not Los Banos Grandes, all tertiary foothill reservoirs that could have given California by now nearly five million additional acre-feet of storage.

    Or is it worse than that?

    Governor Dam-Buster still brags about how he greenlit blowing up four dams on the Klamath River—the largest dam removal in American history. The dams provided 80,000 homes with clean hydroelectric power, farmers with irrigation water, and the public with recreation and flood control.

    Instead of following the voters’ bond to build reservoirs and dams, Newsom preferred to dynamite them. The ensuing muddy deluge wiped out the surrounding riparian ecosystem.

    Joe Biden, now in the last days of his disastrous tenure, was in the LA area by chance to boast that he had put thousands of valuable federal square miles off limits.

    Instead, he mumbled about his new great-grandson and relief that his kid’s house was saved, as the fire was engulfing 12,000 homes of others. Then Biden unceremoniously left, heartbroken that his last junket to Italy might have to be canceled as Los Angeles continued to burn. Later he too grumbled about “misinformation,” which is his synonym for telling the truth about the Los Angeles green woke bomb.

    Kamala Harris? Was the vice president perhaps marshaling federal money and assets to stop the fires in her last weeks in office? After all, we remember from her 2024 campaign Harris’s frenzied efforts to help out during national disasters, as she scolded the capable Florida governor Ron DeSantis that he was not partnering enough with her to mitigate the effects of flooding.

    She too proved invisible other than remarking the fire was “apocalyptic.” Instead, Harris was too busy planning a multimillion-dollar junket in her last week in office and of free royal travel.

    Insurance? Is there some plan to rebuild these suburbs as they were, to ensure there are some $300 billion to pay out claims? Well, no again. The state is broke and is driving out insurance companies, not enticing them in. Its public “Fair” unfair insurance plan of last resort is underfunded and will go insolvent once a week or two of claims flows in.

    California’s failure to effectively prevent and put out fires—along with hyper-regulation and failure to combat an epidemic of insurance fraud—has destroyed the state’s insurance industry. Given the prior inability of homeowners to buy credible fire insurance at any cost, there are thousands of now-homeless who had no insurance at all.

    How about the region’s large homeless population that camps out on the streets and in the tinderbox chaparral above the suburbs? Did the city investigate arson or detain, arrest, charge, and jail those rounded up with incendiary devices or seen lighting fires? Of course not. They vetoed any notion long ago of an anti-camping ordinance.

    Collective Suicide

    Add it all up.

    The California nihilist green ethos and the left-wing politicians who run the madhouse ensured there is no effort to glean the forests and hills of combustible fuel.

    There is not enough water for hydrants, not enough to deliver to Los Angeles, and when it arrives, there is too much incompetence to know how to use it.

    There were no real warnings to residents that they had mere minutes to flee for their lives. Or was it worse still? As the fires wore on, continuous false alarms of new fires sparked unnecessary and dangerous mass evacuations citywide, destroying what, if any, trust was left in the fire department.

    There is no reason to believe that such derelict politicians during the next fire will not again be AWOL on DEI junkets, boasting of their genders, their race, and their sexual orientation, but not of their duties to those whose lives they are sworn to protect.

    The final tragic irony?

    California’s DEI “humanism” and Green New Deal environmentalism ensured the cruelest imaginable treatment of thousands of people and unrivaled destruction of the natural ecosystem.

    No one in the government dares to guess about what might have caused the fires, even as they cry “climate change”—as if to do so would expose their own incompetency or confirm rumors of sporadic homeless arsonists.

    The California green utopians, by their very ideological zealotry, ensured their fires likely will have released into the atmosphere several weeks’ worth of the entire state’s collective auto emissions.

    The fires will have wiped out thousands of protected flora and fauna, will have released toxic fumes into the air, and will have destroyed the lives of thousands of Los Angeles residents for years to come.

    To paraphrase a 1960s California left-wing slogan—green-woke is not healthy for children and other living things.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 17:00

  • Texas Sues Allstate For Secretly Tracking Drivers Through Apps, Using Data To Raise Rates
    Texas Sues Allstate For Secretly Tracking Drivers Through Apps, Using Data To Raise Rates

    The state of Texas has sued Allstate and a subsidiary, Arity, accusing the insurance giant of illegally tracking drivers through cell phone apps without their consent and then using the data to charge more for car insurance.

    Photo: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

    According to Texas AG Ken Paxton, Allstate created the “world’s largest driving behavior database,” which collected information on more than 45 million Americans after paying mobile app developers millions of dollars to secretly incorporate tracking software. The software was designed beginning in 2015 by Allstate’s data analytics unit, Arity, and integrated into several apps such as Fuel Rewards, GasBuddy, Life360 and Allstate-owned Routely.

    In a Monday complaint filed in a Texas state  court near Houston, Texas says Allstate also profited by selling the data to other insurers.

    According to a press release from Paxton, These actions violated the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (“TDPSA”), which created heightened protections for Texans’ sensitive data, including but not limited to precise geolocation information. The law requires clear notice and informed consent regarding how a company will use Texans’ sensitive data. Allstate never provided notice or obtained Texans’ consent to collect or sell their sensitive data. This is the first enforcement action ever filed by a State Attorney General to enforce a comprehensive data privacy law.

    In addition, Texas has accused Allstate of purchasing data about vehicles’ whereabouts directly from automakers in order to more accurately determine – not based on cellphone locations – when policyholders are actually driving.

    Participating manufacturers allegedly include; Toyota, Lexus, Mazda, and Stellantis’ Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati and Ram.

    The lawsuit seeks restitution and other damages for consumers, along with civil fines of up to $10,000 per violation, and the destruction of illegally collected data.

    Paxton filed a similar lawsuit in August accusing General Motors of installing tracking technology on over 14 million vehicles since 2015 to collect driver data, which the company sold to insurers and other companies without drivers’ consent.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 16:40

  • Climate Jeezus Taketh Away
    Climate Jeezus Taketh Away

    Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

    “State Farm, my insurer for decades, canceled my insurance and everyone in our immediate neighborhood just before the fire. State Farm WASN’T there. . . .”

    – James Woods

    “So-called progressives finally achieved what they supposedly warned of but in truth wished for: the eviction of the affluent descendants of colonizers, the incineration of their homes, and the destruction of a city that, more than any other, represents our bloody history of white supremacy and conquest.”

    – Michael Shellenberger

    For those in the USA with an interest in collapsing the USA, the Los Angeles fire is the gift that will keep on giving, and George Soros hardly had to cough up a dime to make it happen. From the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion angle, the fire got‘er done, cleansing nearly the entire PacPal population of snooty, rich, white “allies” of the oppressed and marginalized – who will now have LA to themselves. 

    Chez Whitey is “closed for renovations,” and it might be twenty years before it can re-open, if ever.

    Probably never, if the California Coastal Commission has anything to say about it. And why wouldn’t they? They do not generally approve of stuff getting built right up on the beach.

    They were probably all down on their knees Sunday in the Church of Luxury Belief thanking Climate Jeezus for sweeping Malibu and the hills above it clean.

    Ronald Reagan’s daughter, Patti Davis, rent her garments in The New York Times Sunday op-ed page, wailing:

    “My anger over what we have done to this fragile, exquisite Earth was muffled by grief until the other evening when I was watching a news program that had a panel of commentators. The subject was Los Angeles on fire, and one person mentioned climate change as a cause. Another commentator smirked and said he didn’t believe it was the cause.

    I felt rage surge up past my grief.

    My first thought was: “You think you know more than scientists?”

    Of course, my first thought reading that was: Who is paying those scientists? The same question you might ask of the scientists at the CDC, NIH, FDA, and NIAID who declared that Covid-19 was definitely not created in a Wuhan lab, and the mRNA vaccines were “safe and effective.”

    My second thought was: could you possibly find a better example of elite Utopian-Woke performative acting-out?

    My third thought was: since when are “experts” infallible? 

    My fourth thought was: doesn’t science advance on the basis of continuous argument?

    My fifth thought was: if Patti Davis is watching the news, she must be in some comfortable and probably luxurious place that did not burn down.

    So much for my thoughts, entertained without the rending of garments.

    More to the point of the fire itself, you must wonder what is happening to those tens of thousands of displaced persons and families right now? How many of them are sleeping out on their smoldering properties, or in their cars, or just shivering on a sidewalk somewhere. It does not seem possible that they all found a place to go, certainly not at their neighbors’ houses, who were all burnt-out, too. . . and there are just so many hotel rooms not occupied by “the undocumented.” Anyway, how many families can stay in hotel rooms that go for $1,000-a-night, and for how many nights? How many of them lost absolutely everything, including the possibility of a future?

    Which gets you to the realization that we have barely begun to see the knock-on effects of this catastrophe. Those tens of thousands of the burnt-out will not be reporting to work anytime soon. They will have all they can do to find a roof over their heads while they hassle with FEMA officials, State of California bureaucrats, insurance company claims agents, and other “helpers.” The rebuilding quandaries have already been rehearsed in the news. Even if politicians suspended all the building and zoning codes, and the tax issues, where will so many contractors come from in any reasonable time-frame? And where do you put all that melted plastic goop and toxic ash that remains on-the-ground where peoples’ lives used to be?

    If you lost a house valued at $5-million, it will cost you at least $10-million to replace it. Good luck, even if you were a mid-level movie star. Of course, if your insurance got cancelled lately — or you just didn’t have any because it cost too much — then there is zero chance you will get to even fantasize about living in the hills above Malibu ever again. And that job you’re not able to go to right now due to the pressing needs of sheer survival on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. . . you might never go to that job again. The business you worked for might not be there anymore, either.

    If there was ever a proverbial last-grain-of-sand-in-a-landslide, the Great 2025 Los Angeles Fire must be a sure thing vis-a-vis the US economy, especially the financial side of it. An awful lot of homeowners will not be paying their mortgages on a smoldering empty lot. The banks are not in super-fabulous condition these days.

    How many loans-gone-bad will it take to wreck already unstable banks? And, by the way, the collateral isn’t even there anymore. The re-po man is out of the picture.

    What happens to the insurance companies? And the re-insurance companies who theoretically stand behind the insurers? I’ll tell you what happens: they will be backstopped by the government, which doesn’t have the money to backstop them. . . but will create it out of pixels on screens. . . which means expect a considerable uptick in inflation (i.e., a downtick in the purchasing power of the dollar), which will be a black eye for the new Trump administration. How does all this thunder through the US economy as a whole?

    Nobody really know just yet, but the signs are not reassuring. You can infer countless chains-of-consequence. Friday’s action in the financial markets felt like a tremor of things to come. The Bubble-of All-Bubbles abides. . . for how long?

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/13/2025 – 16:20

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