Oct 14

Today’s News 14th October 2023

  • Why Israel Needs A Second Amendment
    Why Israel Needs A Second Amendment

    Submitted by Aidan Johnston of Gun Owners of America,

    While insurgents were flying across the Israeli border on paragliders, a series of coordinated attacks left more than 1200 Israelis dead, many at a music festival on the Gaza border. 

    A day later, in response to the tragedy, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced that the country would be taking a series of actions to loosen its strict gun control laws.

    Of course, with videos of Hamas gunmen kicking in doors in an Israeli village near the border, it’s not hard to understand why the government of Israel is starting to second-guess its strict gun control laws.

    The truth is the individual right of the people to keep and bear arms is “necessary to the security of a free state.”

    That’s something that Americans understand. There’s no need to fear an invading force of paragliders, (or any force at all, really) coming over the US border. Even if the military didn’t immediately take care of the threat, American citizens would convert their F-150s into makeshift technicals and squash the invaders with overwhelming firepower.

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    And to those who say, “That could never happen here.” Never say never.

    The ATF recently notified all FFLs in border states to be on the lookout for straw purchases of belt-fed & 50-caliber firearms.

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    Israel’s gun culture is fraught with civilian firearm restrictions. And to make matters worse, the Israel Defense Forces have spent the last few years confiscating guns from local civilian security forces.

    This confiscation has led to Israeli civilians being outgunned as they defend their homes. While Hamas terrorists invaded with machine guns, grenades, and missiles, these Israeli gun owners were forced to fight back with only a single handgun and 50 rounds of ammunition each, the maximum allowed by law.

    But while the changes in Israel’s Firearms Licensing Division will no doubt benefit self-defenders held up by bureaucracy and paperwork, those who are eligible to carry firearms under the new rules will still have “to undergo a telephone interview” and may have to wait up to “a week” for approval.

    Even then, Israeli gun owners can only purchase a meager 100 rounds of ammunition. That’s not even enough ammo for a good range day.

    As of the writing of this article, the license application portal is down, likely due to overwhelming demand.

    That means even citizens who qualify under this may-issue permitting system can’t apply for that “speedy” telephone interview.

    Instead of ammunition restrictions, waiting periods, and bureaucratic firearm licensing, Israel needs a Second Amendment protecting individuals’ right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. 

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    American politicians who sit horrified by the scenes unfolding in Israel should stop attempting to strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights and consider the unknown number of terrorists who may have crossed the southern US border undetected. 

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    Maybe that will finally wake them up to the importance of our Second Amendment.

    *   *   *

    We’ll hold the line for you in Washington. We are No Compromise. Join the Fight Now.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 23:40

  • STEM College Degrees Still Male-Dominated
    STEM College Degrees Still Male-Dominated

    Over the past decades, progress towards gender parity in varying societal and economic contexts has advanced, albeit slowly in some places.

    While, for example, literacy in females has caught up to that of their male counterparts since the 1970s, Statista’s Florian Zandt notes that many scientific fields are still heavily male-dominated. This is especially true for STEM jobs.

    Statista’s chart, based on data from the National Center for Education Statistics, shows that progress towards a more equal distribution of conferred degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics was barely achieved over the past ten years.

    Infographic: STEM College Degrees Still Male-Dominated | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    In the academic year ending in 2021, more than 60 percent of all bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in United States postsecondary education institutions were awarded to men. The share distribution is even more tilted towards males for tertiary education below or at associate’s degrees. The former are comprised of certificates not necessarily leading to an undergraduate degree, while the latter are typically awarded after completing community college or similar institutions. Here, 71 percent of degree holders in the academic year of 2020-21 were male. Still, associate degrees saw the most substantial shift towards a more equitable distribution over the past ten years, while the share of doctorate degrees awarded to females in STEM studies remained virtually the same.

    Overall, around 800,000 STEM degrees were conferred in the academic year of 2020-21, an increase of 42 percent compared to ten years prior.

    In terms of total associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees awarded in the United States in 2021, STEM degrees account for around 20 percent.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 23:20

  • A New "Brave New World"
    A New “Brave New World”

    Authored by Raw Egg Nationalist via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    For the past century, it’s been a mainstay of the science-fiction genre: the medicated society—a society in which the majority of the population is given some form of drug to alter their behaviour, ostensibly for the better.

    (Lapina/Shutterstock)

    The most famous example of the genre is, of course, Aldous Huxley’s novel “Brave New World,” published in 1932. In Huxley’s vision of the 26th century, the drug Soma is used to ensure the obedience of the lower classes of a “perfect” eugenic world where people are bred specifically for the social function they perform.

    More recently, in the Christian Bale film “Equilibrium” (2002), the citizens of a totalitarian city-state must take an emotion-killing drug as a means to prevent war. Those who refuse to take the drug, called Prozium, are labeled “sense offenders” and are violently hunted down and sentenced to death by a special caste of “clerics.” Art, literature, and any expression of human emotion and creativity are prohibited.

    Science-fiction writers return again and again to these scenarios because they raise fundamental questions about the nature of authority and social control. In doing so, they also ask us to question what it is that makes us truly human.

    Would it be desirable to eliminate human imperfection with something as simple as a pill? Would the loss of certain “negative” or “destructive” aspects of our humanity be justified by the net gain to social order and the reduction in suffering? And would it be better to try to persuade ordinary people to surrender these aspects of themselves voluntarily for the greater good, or would an “enlightened” class of rulers have every reason to force people to do so, perhaps even without their knowledge?

    The dramatization and the fictional settings shouldn’t blind us to the fact that such possibilities are very real. Very real—and very close. Just how close has been revealed by new figures from Public Health Scotland, which show that more than a million men and women, close to a quarter of Scotland’s adult population, are now being prescribed anti-depressants, powerful drugs with wide-ranging effects on mood and physical health. This probably makes Scotland the nation with the highest rate of anti-depressant use in the world. In the United States, by contrast, around 15 percent of adults are on anti-depressants, which is still, by any metric, a lot.

    It’s not just anti-depressants that Scots are swallowing in record numbers. According to figures published by the Mail on Sunday, more than a third of Scottish adults are now being prescribed drugs from one of five broad classes associated with mental health issues. This includes a further 200,000 adults taking benzodiazepines, which are prescribed for anxiety and insomnia, and 190,000 who take gabapentinoids. Another 130,000 adults are given so-called z-drugs (such as zopiclone and zolpidem), and more than 800,000 are on opioid-based pain medication.

    A situation like this doesn’t emerge overnight. It’s taken decades for Scotland to reach this point. The problem was already bad enough in 2007, when the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) first came to power, that the government made a pledge to reduce the country’s dependency on anti-depressants. Instead, the figures have risen every year since. By 2010, 630,000 adults were taking anti-depressants, and an extra 390,000 were added over the next 12 years. There’s no reason to believe the trend won’t continue.

    Politicians are now asking serious questions. Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament Maurice Golden told the Mail on Sunday: “The sheer number of prescriptions being issued for depression and anxiety in Scotland is astonishing. The fact it has risen so considerably requires urgent and serious attention from the Scottish Government.

    “There was a time when the SNP pledged to reduce the rise in these prescriptions, but it has only ever gone in this direction since.”

    So why is this happening? A representative from Scotland’s Royal College of Psychiatrists, Dr. Jane Morris, suggested it may simply be due to increased public knowledge of mental health issues and the treatments on offer.

    “We’d like to think public education and awareness of the treatability of mental illness means that more people are coming forward,” she told the Mail on Sunday.

    On this view, the number of people suffering from depression would be fixed, more or less: All that actually changes is how many people decide to seek treatment. We’re supposed to conclude, then, that at least a quarter of the adult population of Scotland has always been depressed. You don’t need to be an expert to have serious doubts that this could ever actually be the case. Dr. Morris did at least acknowledge that “increased prescribing may now reflect a rise in Scotland’s need for mental health treatment.”

    Getting to the bottom of the problem is likely to prove difficult. And the difficulties are only made more acute by the fact that anti-depressants don’t really work.

    The state of depression research is shockingly limited. Even after decades of scientific study, there’s still no evidence that the dominant chemical explanation for depression—serotonin deficiency—is true. And yet the doctors of Scotland, and doctors throughout the Western world, continue prescribing selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (“SSRIs”) on the assumption that serotonin levels are the issue.

    Many studies have shown that anti-depressants are barely more effective at improving mood than placebo. The improvement is so small that some scientists argue it’s really non-existent. Access to these minimal benefits is also unevenly distributed among users. A large-scale meta-analysis in the British Medical Journal, considering data from 232 studies of anti-depressant use dating back to 1979, showed that just 15 percent of users experienced an improvement they would not have derived from the placebo, with the remaining 85 percent gaining no benefit from their use.

    Those who should supposedly benefit the most from anti-depressants—sufferers of severe depression, comorbid anxiety, and suicidal thoughts—may actually benefit the least from their use. Most clinical trials of anti-depressants deliberately exclude these people, resulting in misleading claims being directed at the drugs’ main target consumers.

    If Scotland is facing an enormous mental health crisis, and there’s no reason to believe it isn’t, anti-depressants are unlikely to be the answer. Their blanket use is just complicating matters further. Not least of all because they introduce a range of unpleasant side-effects, ranging from widely publicized loss of libido and sexual function, to gastrointestinal problems, dizziness, insomnia, headaches, loss of or increase in appetite, and even suicidal ideation and self-harm, especially in the early stages of use.

    But, more fundamentally, our reliance on drugs that don’t really even work is preventing us from understanding the root causes of depression and devising new ways—real ways that work—to address them.

    This is a textbook case of what the philosopher Ivan Illich called “iatrogenesis,” or “medically caused harm.” In his famous book “Medical Nemesis” (1975), Illich argued that the growing medicalization of society is having the paradoxical effect of making us less and less well. In particular, what medicalization does, according to Illich, is reduce our capacity to respond to our problems of health and well-being in suitable ways.

    When we see illness simply as an issue to be solved by technical interventions—with pills, injections, and surgery—administered to us by an anointed class of experts, we lose the ability to see illness on any other terms, as anything else. Like, for example, the product of a mismatch between our nature as human beings, stretching back 200,000+ years, and the very different social world we now inhabit. There’s no pill or surgery that can cure that.

    I make the case repeatedly in my work that the modern industrial diet, consisting of more and more processed food, and our unprecedented exposure to harmful industrial chemicals are making us deeply unwell, including causing a precipitous decline in markers of reproductive health such as sperm counts and testosterone levels. I think depression is part and parcel of this too. In the last few weeks, new research has shown, for instance, that consumption of processed food, especially products containing artificial sweeteners, can increase depression risk by up to 50 percent, and that elevated exposure to phthalates, a class of ubiquitous chemicals found in everything from personal-care products to plastic bottles, can significantly increase the risk of post-partum depression in new mothers.

    There’s still much investigation to be done of what’s clearly a very complex issue. But we would be fools not to heed the warnings of the thinkers who have shown us, on the page and on the screen, the dangers of a world of total medication. If we really want to do something about the massive rise in depression, in Scotland or anywhere else, we must face the possibility of a new Brave New World: one in which pills are not the answer to all our problems.

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 23:00

  • China's Birth Rate Plummets 10% To Lowest On Record
    China’s Birth Rate Plummets 10% To Lowest On Record

    China’s birthrate fell 10% last year to its lowest level on record, a significant drop in spite of extensive efforts by the CCP to encourage people to get busy.

    Children play outside a cafe in Beijing, China. (AFP)

    The country had just 9.56 million births in 2022, the lowest figure since they began keeping records in 1949, according to a report by the National Health Commission.

    The high costs of child care and education, growing unemployment and job insecurity as well as gender discrimination have all helped to deter many young couples from having more than one child or even having children at all. -NBC News

    China’s population also fell for the first time in six decades, dropping to 1.41 billion people – a demographic shift that’s caused officials to worry that the country will ‘get old before it gets rich’ – with a slowing economy and declining tax receipts amid increases in government debt due to soaring health and welfare costs.

    According to the report, the demographic downturn is largely thanks to China’s one-child policy imposed between 1980 and 2015. Nearly 40% of Chinese babies last year were the second child of a married couple, while 15% were from families with three or more children.

    The sharp decline in births comes despite Beijing’s efforts to increase child care and provide other financial incentives. In May, President Xi Jinping presided over a panel to study the topic.

    Not just China

    As we noted in June, Japan’s birth rate has also plummeted to a record low for the seventh straight year, with the number of babies born falling below 800,000 this year, health ministry data showed on June 2.

    The number of newborns in Japan fell to 770,747 this year, down 40,875 from the previous year and the lowest since the country began record-keeping in 1899, Kyodo News reported, citing health ministry data.

    Japan’s fertility rate—the average number of children born to a woman in her lifetime—fell from 1.30 in 2021 to 1.26 last year, equivalent to the previous low recorded in 2005. The number is far below the 2.07 rate necessary to sustain a stable population.

    The decline in Japan’s birth rate is attributed to people delaying parenthood due to the economic impact brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the prevailing trend among couples to delay marriage, according to the report.

    The US birthrate has also been in decline, falling slightly in 2022 compared to 2021, with roughly 3.7 million babies born nationwide. It still hasn’t recovered to pre-pandemic levels according to the CDC.

    And as Mike Shedlock noted two years ago.

    More via Mish Talk, worth a review:

    The Pandemic Caused a Baby Bust, Not a Boom

    Scientific American reports The Pandemic Caused a Baby Bust, Not a Boom

    When the COVID pandemic led to widespread economic shutdowns and stay-at-home orders in the spring of 2020, many media outlets and pundits speculated this might lead to a baby boom. But it appears the opposite has happened: birth rates declined in many high-income countries amid the crisis, a new study shows.

    Arnstein Aassve, a professor of social and political sciences at Bocconi University in Italy, and his colleagues looked at birth rates in 22 high-income countries, including the U.S., from 2016 through the beginning of 2021. They found that seven of these countries had statistically significant declines in birth rates in the final months of 2020 and first months of 2021, compared with the same period in previous years. Hungary, Italy, Spain and Portugal had some of the largest drops: reductions of 8.5, 9.1, 8.4 and 6.6 percent, respectively. The U.S. saw a decline of 3.8 percent, but this was not statistically significant—perhaps because the pandemic’s effects were more spread out in the country and because the study only had U.S. data through December 2020, Aassve says. The findings were published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

    Birth rates fluctuate seasonally within a year, and many of the countries in the study had experienced falling rates for years before the pandemic. But the declines that began nine months after the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency on January 30, 2020, were even more stark. “We are very confident that the effect for those countries is real,” Aassve says. “Even though they might have had a bit of a mild downward trend [before], we’re pretty sure about the fact that there was an impact of the pandemic.”

    Covid Accelerated the Existing Trend

    Covid accelerated the already declining birth rates. 

    Given the 16-year lag between births and the civilian noninstitutional population coupled with the aging of the workforce there will be fewer and fewer workers supporting retired workers on Social Security. 

    Notice the relatively steep decline in the birth rate starting in 2008 and continuing through today. 

    That impact will start showing up in 2024 and last a minimum of 12 years.

    How long depends on whether the birth rate picks up after Covid. I highly doubt the birth rate will pick up.

    Deflationary and Inflationary Impacts

    1. Inflationary: Shortage of workers increases wage pressures
    2. Deflationary: Fewer workers support an increasing number of retirees
    3. Deflationary: Older workers need more assistance, buy fewer things, travel less. 
    4. Deflationary: More government debt and deficits. Government spending has a negative impact on real GDP.

    *  *  *

    Time for another sexual revolution?

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 22:40

  • California Bans Student Suspensions For Defying Teachers, Disrupting Classes
    California Bans Student Suspensions For Defying Teachers, Disrupting Classes

    Authored by Sophie Li via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    It will be illegal for California public schools to suspend students for disrupting class or defying teachers—known as willful defiance suspensions—starting July 1, 2024.

    “With Governor Newsom’s signing of SB 274, California is putting the needs of students first,” bill author Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) said in a statement a day after the governor’s signing Oct. 8. “No more kicking kids out of school for minor disruptions. Students belong in school where they can succeed.”

    A class at Stark Elementary School in Stamford, Conn., on March 10, 2021. (John Moore/Getty Images)

    SB 274—an extension of the author’s previous legislation from 2019 that banned willful defiance suspensions for TK–5 students permanently and for grades 6–8 until 2025—now broadens such policy to include all public-school grades from TK–12 across the state, with a sunset date of July 1, 2029.

    Traditionally, willful defiance suspensions have been imposed on students for disrupting school activities, including wearing hats backward, nodding off in class, using bad language in school, or engaging in verbal disagreements with teachers, Ms. Skinner’s office said in the statement.

    Under the new law, teachers can remove a student from class for unruly behavior, but the youth would not be suspended from school. Instead, school administrators would be responsible for evaluating and implementing suitable in-school interventions or support for the student, according to the senator’s office.

    Additionally, the bill prohibits the suspension or expulsion of students due to tardiness or truancy.

    “The punishment for missing school should not be to miss more school,” Ms. Skinner said in an earlier press release after the bill passed the California Assembly and Senate.

    According to Ms. Skinner, suspending students could potentially lead to them dropping out of school.

    “Suspending students, no matter the age, doesn’t improve student behavior, and it greatly increases the likelihood that the student will fail or drop out,” she said in the Oct. 9 statement.

    Additionally, the senator’s office said that such suspensions have been “disproportionately directed at students of color, LGBTQ students, students who are homeless or in foster care, and those with disabilities.”

    According to Ms. Skinner’s office, a 2018 report shows that such suspensions accounted for 21 percent of all suspensions involving black male students in middle schools in California and 26 percent in high schools.

    However, opponents of the bill have said that it would create more chaos in schools.

    Davina Keiser, a former teacher with four decades of teaching experience in the Long Beach Unified School District, told The Epoch Times in a previous interview that disruptive behavior was “detrimental to the learning of everybody else in the classroom.”

    “It’s almost like a license for the rest of the kids to go ahead and misbehave,” she said.

    Ms. Keiser still works as a substitute teacher for the district and is the president of the education nonprofit Del Rey Education.

    Lance Christensen, the vice president of the California Policy Center, an educational nonprofit that focuses on policy and government affairs, said that such bills could lead to a loss of teacher resources in the public education system.

    “I’ve warned about the dire consequences of public school classes without discipline,” Mr. Christensen wrote on X. “The governor just signed SB 274 which will exacerbate the havoc in our schools by stripping teachers & principals of tools to deal with ‘willfully defiant’ kids. Expect more teachers to resign.”

    Micaela Ricaforte contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 22:20

  • Trump's Unflattering Story About Netanyahu Elicits Outrage From Republican Rivals
    Trump’s Unflattering Story About Netanyahu Elicits Outrage From Republican Rivals

    Republican rivals of former President Donald Trump have lashed out at the GOP front-runner for telling a story about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which put him in a negative light and suggested he’s ‘weak’ at a sensitive moment. 

    It happened Wednesday night at a campaign rally. Trump was recounting the events and hours leading up to his decision to kill top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a 2020 drone strike outside the Baghdad airport. Trump told a cheering crowd that the Israeli prime minister “let us down” by backing out of participation in the covert operation at the last minute. Watch:

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    Trump also controversially said this week Israeli leaders need to “step up their game” as Netanyahu “was not prepared” for the deadly Saturday raid into southern Israel. He further called Hezbollah “very smart” while generally urging Israel to be more prepared and efficient. He had at one point called Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant a “jerk”.

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, chief among Trump’s 2024 rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, blasted the somewhat impulsive words, saying “Now is not the time to be attacking our ally,” – especially as the Israeli bodies and missing are still being counted. 

    DeSantis also admitted that while “there’s a lot of people that generally like Trump’s policies,” they are not “big fans” of his behavior, in a swipe at the story about Soleimani’s death. 

    But it was Chris Christie, also in the 2024 race, who went even more on the attack, calling Trump “a fool”. 

    “Only a fool would make those kinds of comments. Only a fool would give comments that give aid and comfort to Israel’s adversary in this situation, and he always places it in the context of himself,” the former New Jersey governor said.

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    “This is someone who cares not about the American people, not about the people of Israel, but he cares about one person and one person only: The person he sees in the mirror when he wakes up in the morning,” Christie continued. “As a Republican Party, we cannot once again nominate a fool like this to be our nominee and get him anywhere near the presidency of the United States.”

    Jewish groups also weren’t happy:

    Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary who serves on the board of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said he wished Trump would “let his personal grievances with Bibi, whatever they are, slide for now.”

    And here’s Trump’s own former Vice President weighing in…

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    Journalist Max Blumenthal offered his opinion on Trump’s words, saying “Every US President has hated Netanyahu, regarding him as a conniving fanatic. But only Trump said out loud what Obama was overheard saying on a hot mic and Clinton said in private.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 22:00

  • The Movie Disney And China Don’t Want You To See
    The Movie Disney And China Don’t Want You To See

    Authored by Jonathan Miltmore via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Few directors in Hollywood have more power than Martin Scorsese, the Oscar-winning director of box office hits such as “Goodfellas,” “Casino,” “The Departed,” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

    (L-R) Actor Richard Gere, director Martin Scorsese, the Dalai Lama, and producer and screenwriter Melissa Mathison hold hands at the end of a brief meeting with reporters prior to a speech by the Dalai Lama at an awards ceremony in New York on April 30, 1998. The ceremony honored Mr. Scorsese and Ms. Mathison for their work on the film ‘Kundun.’ (Matt Campbell/AFP via Getty Images)

    But even the legendary filmmaker lacked the clout to save the fate of his movie “Kundun” (1997) when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came knocking on Disney’s door.

    The film is probably one that most readers have never heard of, even though it was nominated for four Academy Awards and included the legendary Mr. Scorsese. A historical drama written by Melissa Mathison, “Kundun” explores the life of the young Dalai Lama, who in 1950 saw his homeland of Tibet invaded by the CCP.

    Ms. Mathison conceived the project after meeting the Dalai Lama in 1990, and although she had concerns that Hollywood wouldn’t be interested in such a film, she caught a break when she convinced Mr. Scorsese to direct the film.

    “I’m not saying he wants to do it, but I know he’s going to get it,” Ms. Mathison recalled thinking. “I knew he’d understand the society, the moral code, the journey, and the spirituality of it,” she said in the documentary “In Search of Kundun with Martin Scorsese.”

    Disney eventually agreed to distribute the film, which was given a $28 million budget. But China had other ideas.

    Tibet, along with Taiwan and Tiananmen, is among the forbidden Three Ts—the issues considered most contentious by the CCP. So with China becoming an emerging global power in the 1990s, the CCP decided to flex its muscle and attempted to nix the project.

    Two days into the production of “Kundun” in 1996, a representative from the Chinese Embassy approached Disney’s chief strategic officer, Lawrence Murphy.

    “You started shooting a film in Morocco about the Dalai Lama called ‘Kundun,’” the diplomat said before explaining that Beijing had concerns with the film’s subject matter.

    ‘Play by China’s Rules’ … or Else

    At the time, Mr. Murphy hadn’t even heard of the film. But it would soon become clear that the CCP wanted the shooting of “Kundun” shut down. Why Beijing would want the movie censored is obvious. “Kundun” describes atrocities that China’s communist regime committed in the 1950s following its invasion of the Himalayan country.

    “The Chinese have bombed the monastery of Lithang. It has been destroyed,” an adviser tells the Dalai Lama at one point in the movie. “Nuns and monks are made to fornicate in the streets. They put guns in the hands of Khumba children and force the child to kill the parents.”

    While the description is horrifying, even more moving is the scene in which an elderly Tibetan woman tearfully and frantically insists that she’s “happy and prosperous under the Chinese Communist Party.”

    This isn’t exactly flattering stuff for the CCP, any more than “Schindler’s List” is for the Nazis. Yet history isn’t always pretty.

    In any event, the CCP’s decision to lean on the film left Disney CEO Michael Eisner in a pickle.

    If Mr. Eisner shut down the film, he’d anger Mr. Scorsese and look weak for caving to the CCP. If he proceeded with production, he risked losing Disney’s commercial and manufacturing foothold in China, as well as the 1.4 billion potential consumers.

    So Mr. Eisner opted for a third way. He allowed the shooting of “Kundun” to proceed, but he limited the film’s distribution and marketing. “Kundun” was released on Christmas Day in 1997—in two theaters nationwide.

    In other words, in the contest over truth and creative freedom versus government censorship, Disney blinked, and film producer Matt Tabor describes what Disney’s decision meant going forward.

    “If foreign companies wanted access to [China’s] market, they were going to play by China’s rules,” Mr. Tabor noted in a recent production by the Foundation for Economic Education on the showdown. “’Kundun’ marked the first opportunity for China to flex that muscle in the movie business.”

    It was a watershed moment. And if there was any doubt that Disney caved to China, which officially considered the film “an interference in China’s internal affairs,” one need only read the groveling message that Disney sent to China after the dust had settled a year later.

    The Apology: ‘We Made a Stupid Mistake’

    Despite “sending ‘Kundun’ quietly to the gulag,” Disney found itself kicked out of China’s burgeoning market, along with other U.S. film studios.

    “These films are full of inaccuracies,” a Chinese official told The Washington Post. “That’s why they are not popular within China.”

    “We made a stupid mistake in releasing ‘Kundun.’ This film was a form of insult to our friends. The bad news is that the film was made; the good news is that nobody watched it. Here I want to apologize, and in the future, we should prevent this sort of thing, which insults our friends, from happening. In short, we’re a family entertainment company, a company that uses silly ways to amuse people.”

    Mr. Eisner’s complete capitulation would have a profound impact on the global entertainment landscape for years to come. It explains why “Kundun” can’t be streamed on Amazon or Netflix even today. It explains why NBA executives go apoplectic when a single general manager tweets his support of protesters in Hong Kong.

    One can appreciate the tough situation that Mr. Eisner was in without agreeing with his decision to banish “Kundun” to Siberia. Companies have commercial interests, and balancing those against doing the right thing or supporting creative expression isn’t always easy. Indeed, this balancing act existed before Disney banished “Kundun,” evidenced by one executive’s stated reason for passing on the film.

    “I don’t need to have my spirits and wine business thrown out of China,” Edgar Bronfman Jr.—the CEO of Seagram, which briefly owned Universal Pictures—replied when pitched on “Kundun.”

    Yet, the message of Disney’s showdown with China isn’t really about the ethics of dealing with a powerful communist regime. The real lesson is that we should prevent governments from amassing such dictatorial power in the first place, and remind ourselves that governments are hardly arbiters of truth. Indeed, if the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that government officials have no business deciding what’s true and what’s false—even though it’s a power they clearly desire.

    The reality is that those who wish to censor speech are usually far more interested in power than truth—the CCP’s attempt to censor “Kundun” reinforces that idea—and reminds us that sometimes the best way to exercise freedom is to watch a movie they don’t want you to see.

    Matt Tabor contributed to this article.

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 21:40

  • What Does Strong El Niño Mean For Winter Activity Across US? 
    What Does Strong El Niño Mean For Winter Activity Across US? 

    NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center forecasts a 75% to 85% chance of a ‘strong El Niño‘ between November and January. This weather phenomenon has led to more winter activity in parts of the US.

    Courtesy of The Weather Channel, here are the main highlights of CPC’s report:  

    • Forecasters from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center still favor a strong El Niño late this fall into winter, or a 75-85% chance from November through January. That means the seasonal average of sea-surface temperatures in a certain region of the equatorial Pacific Ocean would be at or above the threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than average.

    • NOAA says there is an 80% chance El Niño will last through spring (March-May).

    • There is 3-in-10 chance this event could warm even further and become historically strong, or a so-called super El Niño, which means sea-surface temperatures would cross the 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than average threshold. There have been three super El Niño winters since 1950 in 2015-16, 1997-98 and 1982-83.

    Here are the El Niño impacts across the US, including temperatures and rain/snow patterns: 

    Current El Niño strength versus ‘super El Niños’ that have formed over the decades – many of these super El Niños have resulted in major snowstorms across the Lower 48. 

    Local media outlet KUNC in Greeley, Colorado, spoke with Stephen Yeager, a project scientist with the center’s Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory, who highlighted the shifting weather patterns in the US because of El Niño and what it means this winter: 

    “The United States tends to get wetter and colder in the south, from California all the way across to Florida, whereas the northern part of the country from the state of Washington and across tends to be drier and warmer than normal,” Yeager said. “States in the middle, like Colorado, don’t have very strong connections to El Niño that are consistent.”

    The new El Niño event could either diminish or boost winter snowfall significantly, depending on how the weather pattern develops.

    “We might see more snowfall sort of in the southern mountains of Colorado, maybe the southwest,” Yeager said. “It’s unclear exactly how far north that impact will reach. Whether we’ll get a really epic snow year is hard to say, but I would say there’s a potential to see extreme winter weather in one direction or another.”

    Yeager said this winter’s event is expected to be comparable to the major El Niño of 1997 and 1998, one of the most powerful in history. That event caused massive flooding, drought, and other natural disasters at the time. The 1997-98 El Niño peaked at a three-month average of +2.4 degrees Celsius on the Niño 3.4 Index.

    But Yeager said when it comes to the center’s predictions, he makes no promises.

    “Only time will tell if we’re accurate,” Yeager said. “But we believe our system has something to offer, and we’re excited to be able to contribute this knowledge to the conversation going on right now about the impacts El Niño may have in the coming months.”

    At the beginning of the month, we cited one US meteorological analyst who said: “This is not a typical year. The 2023-2024 winter season is going to be very different” due to “2023-2024 winter is an El Nino pattern.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 21:20

  • Animal Contraceptive And Antibiotics Detected In Top 10 Popular Fast Foods: Report
    Animal Contraceptive And Antibiotics Detected In Top 10 Popular Fast Foods: Report

    Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Two types of animal antibiotics and an animal contraceptive have been detected in food samples from America’s top 10 most popular fast-food chains, according to a laboratory report.

    (TotallyBlond/Shutterstock)

    In September, Moms Across America (MAA) submitted food samples from 10 popular American food chains to the Health Research Institute, an Iowa-based nonprofit laboratory that tests food for nutritional value, biofunctionality, and contaminants and toxins, requesting that the laboratory test the samples for over 100 common veterinary drugs and hormones. MAA is a nonprofit activism group formed by mothers intending to bring awareness to food that contains genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and pesticides.

    Molecular and chief scientist at the Health Research Institute, John Fagan, confirmed that his lab tested the food samples.

    8 in 10 Popular Fast Food Chains Tested Positive

    Most of the food was sampled from America’s top 10 most popular food chains. Volunteers for MAA went to their local McDonald’s, Starbucks, Subway, Chick-fil-A, Burger King, Taco Bell, Chipotle, Dunkin’, Wendy’s, or Domino’s stores and ordered the same meal several times.

    Kept in its packaging, each meal was sealed, frozen, and mailed to the Health Research Institute.

    At the laboratory, the food and its packaging were ground up and then tested for veterinary drugs and hormones.

    With the exception of Chipotle and Subway, all the food samples tested positive for veterinary drugs.

    Monensin, Narasin, and Nicarbazin

    The drug concentrations in all of the food samples were below 2 micrograms per kilogram, which is significantly below the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) acceptable daily intake.

    Mr. Fagan highlighted that the FDA’s acceptable intake levels are meaningful for checking acute poisoning. Yet in the case of fast food, which some people consume daily, there is a concern of chronic poisoning due to accumulation of toxins. 

    Monensin

    Less than 0.5 microgram per kilogram of the antibiotic monensin was detected in Taco Bell, Dunkin’, Wendy’s, Domino’s, Burger King, and McDonald’s.

    The acceptable daily intake for monensin is 12.5 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day. 

    The antibiotic monensin was detected in Taco Bell, Dunkin’, Wendy’s, Domino’s, Burger King, and McDonald’s.

    Monensin is a commonly used veterinary antibiotic with a slim margin of safety. Side effects of monensin in animals include anorexia, diarrhea, weakness, and motor problems. Overdose can cause an animal’s poisoning or even death.

    Monensin poisoning is rare in humans, and there is no effective treatment used in clinical practice.

    One case occurred in a man who ingested 300 milligrams of monensin, leading to severe rhabdomyolysis, or a breakdown of muscle tissue. This medical condition is quite severe and can lead to damaged heart and kidneys.

    The dose that man ingested, however, is a million times higher than the microgram doses detected in the food samples.

    Narasin

    Less than 2 micrograms per kilogram of narasin was detected in a Wendy’s cheeseburger. It was also found in trace amounts in a meal from Dunkin’, Domino’s, and a Starbucks sandwich.

    The acceptable daily intake for narasin is 5 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day.

    Narasin is an antibiotic and antiparasitic feed additive that helps control parasitic infections in fattened chicken. It is also often added to cattle feed, as it increases dry matter intake. Both narasin and monensin are ionophores, meaning they can disturb the balance of ions in cells and are often used in animals to control bacterial and parasitic infections.

    Side effects of narasin in animals include anorexia, diarrhea, and degeneration of heart and skeletal muscles.

    These antibiotic ionophores are not used in humans due to concerns of toxicity, though there are few cases of documented toxicity from these drugs.

    Nicarbazin

    Nicarbazin, an animal antiparasitic and contraceptive, was detected in the Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich sample. Less than 0.5 microgram per kilogram of nicarbazin was detected.

    The acceptable daily intake for nicarbazin is 200 micrograms per kilogram of body weight per day.

    The drug is primarily used as an antiparasitic drug in fattened chickens and turkeys, but it has also been used for population control of geese and pigeons.

    Since it is highly toxic to agricultural embryos and decreases egg laying and hatching among grown poultry populations, many farmers have called for more regulations to protect their animals from such exposures.

    To date, no reports have shown that nicarbazin causes toxic effects in humans, though its long-term ramifications are unknown. One research report assumed that nicarbazin would be safe for consumers since most turkeys fed the drug would act as a filter, breaking down the drug before it reached the market.

    “The impact of millions of Americans, especially children and young adults, consuming a known animal contraceptive daily is concerning,” said Zen Honeycutt, MAA’s executive director. “With infertility problems on the rise, the reproductive health of this generation is front and center for us, in light of these results.”

    Few studies have investigated the effects of veterinary drugs in humans.

    “That’s the problem,” Ms. Honeycutt told The Epoch Times. “These are veterinary drugs and hormones … so the only studies that I have found and that you will find will be for animals. [They’re] not authorized for humans, and yet they’re being allowed [into the food supply].

    “Some people are consuming this food every day, so we don’t know how much they are accumulating in their body,” Ms. Honeycutt added.

    Are All Fast Food Chain Stores Affected?

    Since each food sample was bought from only one store per fast-food chain, Ms. Honeycutt said that they would need to do more tests to know if all other chains served food containing similar veterinary drugs.

    However, she was suspicious that other chains may also be affected.

    “My understanding is that they’re grinding the meat up of hundreds of birds in order to make these processed meat patties. So when one is contaminated, it likely contaminates possibly hundreds of other samples … If one comes down with this particular disease, then the farmer will likely treat any of the birds at a facility,” Ms. Honeycutt said.

    When asked about potential package contamination, Mr. Fagan from the Health Research Institute said that the packages came from different states across the United States, so while one package might be contaminated, it would be difficult for all of them to be contaminated.

    The MAA previously tested 43 school lunches provided by participants. Lab tests found that 95 percent of the lunches had glyphosate, and 74 percent contained at least one harmful pesticide.

    Glyphosate is a weed killer, and childhood exposure to glyphosate has been linked to the development of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

    Thiabendazole, an immune suppressant, was detected in around 30 percent of the samples, and a developmental toxin was found in over 40 percent of them.

    The Epoch Times reached out to the fast-food chains reported in this article for comment.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 21:00

  • Ancient Solar Storm Discovered In Tree Rings Reveals 'Catastrophic' Event 14,000 Years Ago
    Ancient Solar Storm Discovered In Tree Rings Reveals ‘Catastrophic’ Event 14,000 Years Ago

    A new study, based on the analysis of growth rings in ancient trees, suggests that the most powerful solar storm on record slammed into Earth approximately 14,300 years ago. Should a storm of that intensity strike today, modern society would instantly collapse. 

    Researchers from the Collège de France, CEREGE, IMBE, Aix-Marseille University, and the University of Leeds published the new study in the Royal Society A journal. They measured radiocarbon levels in ancient trees preserved within the eroded banks of the Drouzet River near Gap, in the Southern French Alps, and found “tree trunks, which are subfossils – remains whose fossilization process is not complete – were sliced into tiny single tree-rings. Analysis of these individual rings identified an unprecedented spike in radiocarbon levels occurring precisely 14,300 years ago.” 

    They said, “By comparing this radiocarbon spike with measurements of beryllium, a chemical element found in Greenland ice cores, the team proposes that the spike was caused by a massive solar storm that would have ejected huge volumes of energetic particles into Earth’s atmosphere.” 

    “Radiocarbon is constantly being produced in the upper atmosphere through a chain of reactions initiated by cosmic rays.” Edouard Bard, lead author of the study, said in a statement.

    Bard said, “Recently, scientists have found that extreme solar events including solar flares and coronal mass ejections can also create short-term bursts of energetic particles which are preserved as huge spikes in radiocarbon production occurring over the course of just a single year.” 

    The researchers warned if “similar massive solar storms” slammed into Earth today, it would be “catastrophic for modern technological society, potentially wiping out telecommunications, satellite systems and electricity grids.” 

    The study’s co-author, Tim Heaton, a radiocarbon expert at the University of Leeds in England, explained, “Extreme solar storms could have huge impacts on Earth. Such super storms could permanently damage the transformers in our electricity grids, resulting in huge and widespread blackouts lasting months. They could also result in permanent damage to the satellites that we all rely on for navigation and telecommunication, leaving them unusable. They would also create severe radiation risks to astronauts.” 

    Researchers said nine extreme solar storms – known as Miyake Events – have been identified over the last 15,000 years. The last known major solar storm fried telegraph machines in 1859 – has been called the “Carrington Event.” 

    Solar Cycle 25 has been underway since April 2019 and might peak sometime in 2025. In December 2022, the total number of sunspots was at its highest in eight years, indicating solar activity has ramped up. Earlier this year, scientists observed twice as many sunspots — red flags that solar maximum could be nearing.

    Readers have been well-informed about what an ‘X-class’ flare could do to modern society:

    Forget the climate change narrative pushed by corporate media. Focus on how to protect the grid from major solar storms… 

    The world needs to prepare for the next big solar storm. Remember, in 2016, former President Obama signed an executive order titled “Coordinating Efforts to Prepare the Nation for Space Weather Events.”  

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 20:40

  • GOP Lawmaker Flies To Israel To Rescue Americans After 'Ton of Requests'
    GOP Lawmaker Flies To Israel To Rescue Americans After ‘Ton of Requests’

    Authored by Lorenz Duchamps via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), a U.S. Army combat veteran, has gone to Israel to aid with the evacuation of stranded American citizens after Hamas terrorists launched attacks on its territory.

    Representative-elect Cory Mills (R-Fla.) arrives at the Hyatt Regency in Washington, on Nov. 13, 2022. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

    A picture shared by former Rep. Mayra Flores on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, shows the Iraq veteran with a group of Americans he helped escape Israel by bus.

    “My friend … is currently on the ground in Israel, helping to evacuate American citizens who are trapped,” Ms. Flores wrote. “May God keep them safe as they continue their rescue efforts!”

    In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Mr. Mills said that he has already helped 32 Americans to escape the country, adding that he’s hoping to make another trip on Thursday.

    “Since the Biden admin has failed to do their job once again, I’ve stepped in to rescue Americans stranded in war-torn Israel,” the Florida Republican said in a post on X.

    The GOP lawmaker noted that he couldn’t get into the specifics of the operation because of safety reasons.

    It isn’t the first time Mr. Mills, who served in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division, has embarked on such a trip. He also helped to evacuate American families and Afghan refugees in Afghanistan amid the chaotic U.S. troop withdrawal in August 2021.

    “Unfortunately, this isn’t my first time doing this because my team and I actually had conducted the very first successful overland rescue out of Afghanistan … that rescued a mother and three children from Amarillo, Texas,” Mr. Mills told the network.

    “Right now, our big tactic is to try and look at consolidation points,” he added. “My team and I run the routes prematurely, so we can try and just make sure we can run it and see if there’s any safety issues and look at the best evac areas. Doing predominantly just ground evacs and getting to bordering countries like Jordan to ensure that we can get them back to America.”

    Mr. Mills’s trip to Israel comes as a bipartisan group of 146 members of Congress recently called on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to use all available resources, including chartering flights, to evacuate Americans seeking to leave Israel amid the ongoing war.

    Numerous airlines have already halted flights to and from Israel due to the conflict, which saw days of rocket fire and missile barrages between the Hamas terrorist group and the Israeli military, some of which have hit Ben Gurion International Airport.

    US in Talks to Evacuate Americans

    National Security Council coordinator John Kirby, meanwhile, said at a White House press briefing on Oct. 11 that they’re in “active conversations” about how to bring Americans, many of whom are dual citizens, back home safely. However, he fell short of providing a plan or specifics of what has been decided upon.

    “The State Department is an [sic] active touch with American citizens in Israel,” he said in a transcript of the briefing. “And we want to make sure—right now, there are still commercial carriers—not all, some—flying in and out of Ben Gurion every day. There are still now viable ground routes. If you wanted to leave safely out of Israel, that is also an option to you.”

    “But neither of those options may necessarily be feasible or affordable to certain Americans,” he added. “And so, we are exploring actively a range of other options to assist if Americans want to leave. I’m just not at liberty now to go into more detail about that.“

    The number of American citizens or dual nationals currently living in Israel remains unconfirmed by the U.S. Department of State, which confirmed Thursday that 25 U.S. citizens have died in the Israel-Hamas war and 17 remain unaccounted for, some of whom are feared to be taken as hostages by Hamas terrorists.

    When Mr. Mills was asked how many American citizens he believes currently remain in Israel, he said there was a high possibility that there are “large swaths of Americans across the entire country.”

    “We were getting a ton of requests from Americans who were stranded, who had tried to reach out to the State Department, who were getting nowhere, had flights canceled, no more hotel room availability,” he explained.

    The congressman also said that he’s concerned evacuating efforts like the one he’s currently assisting with could turn into a redux of the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal.

    “The minute that you start seeing a potential counteroffensive or you start seeing General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah from Hezbollah kick in, or you see other proxy militia groups that are headed by people like Hadi al-Amiri [of the political-paramilitary Hadr group] or Qais Khazali [of Iran-backed paramilitary group Asa’ib Ahl al-Haqq] out of Iraq and Syria, that could definitely put a damper on things, especially if they start taking any type of indirect fire onto that runway,” Mr. Mills said.

    “I hope that we don’t see a repeat of what happened in 2021 in Afghanistan, where Americans were left behind and abandoned by this administration,” he added.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 20:20

  • Taylor Swift's 'The Eras Tour' Is Already The Most Profitable Concert Movie Ever Made
    Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ Is Already The Most Profitable Concert Movie Ever Made

    Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ is already the most profitable concert movie in history – and it’s only premiering today.

    Is it the ‘Kelce-effect’?

    As Statista’s Anna Fleck reports, according to data from AMC Theatres Distribution, The Eras Tour had pulled in more than $100 million in pre-sale tickets worldwide as of October 4.

    Analysts will be eyeing the box office this weekend, as some pundits estimate that the film of the U.S. stadium tour could bring in as much as $150 million in its debut.

    Data compiled by The Numbers platform shows that Swift’s new release has already surpassed the previous music concert movie record: Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never (2011), which had a worldwide box office revenue of $99 million.

    Infographic: 'The Eras Tour' Is Already the Most Profitable Concert Movie Ever Made | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    This was followed by Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert with $71 million in 2008 and One Direction: This Is Us with $68 million in 2013.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 20:00

  • Is Newsom’s Senate Appointment An 'Insulting' Pledge Fulfilled?
    Is Newsom’s Senate Appointment An ‘Insulting’ Pledge Fulfilled?

    Authored by Patrice Onwuka via RealClear Wire,

    The latest fad in the left’s identity politics game is the “black woman” pledge. Democratic lawmakers – particularly white men – are tripping over themselves to tip their hat to the core of the Democratic Party by appointing or nominating black women to prominent public positions.

    There are two problems with this kind of pledge: First, it can promote tokenism. Second, it advances loyal partisans who will advance an ideological agenda over those looking for bipartisan solutions for the good of the country.

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom made good on his 2021 pledge to appoint a black woman to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the late Senator Dianne Feinstein. Union veteran and current EMILY’s List President Laphonza Butler will be sworn in shortly as the next senator, ensuring that the high chamber has a black woman serving in office.

    Perhaps Newsom took a page from President Joe Biden’s 2020 playbook in selecting former campaign foe Kamala Harris as his running mate. Now, Vice President Harris could become the next president of the United States.

    Biden also nominated Ketanji Brown-Jackson to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He was fulfilling a pledge he made when his campaign was struggling and he needed to win South Carolina.

    While some people view this type of pledge as important to ensuring that black women’s voices are represented in national politics and public policy, others worry about the signals it sends.

    Not even one month ago, California Democrat Rep. Barbara Lee, who is ranking in third place in next year’s special election for Sen. Feinstein’s former seat, noted that “The idea that a Black woman should be appointed only as a caretaker to simply check a box is insulting to countless Black women across this country who have carried the Democratic Party to victory election after election.”

    Selecting individuals based on their race, gender, and sexual orientation easily opens the door to criticism that this person is not qualified but merely a window dressing. It’s a criticism (among many) that dogs diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

    Lee said as much, adding that “the people of California deserve the best possible person for that job. Not a token appointment. Black women deserve more than a participation trophy.”

    Laphonza Butler has not held elected office (not necessarily a disqualifier), but her resume reflects a career largely in either organized labor or lobbying. This contrasts with Rep. Lee’s deep ties to the community and decades-long experience in politics. Either way, though, both women would be reliably partisan, and that is the second weakness of the left’s black-woman pledge.

    Black women are not a monolith; we don’t all hold the same views despite largely being aligned with one party. Black female voters are more likely to call themselves moderate, not liberal. They are less likely to support abortion than other Democrats, are far less concerned about climate change, and are more likely to prioritize jobs and the economy. Unfortunately, the voting records of the 30 black females in Congress reflect near-perfect party allegiance. Would Butler be different?

    Butler is likely to push hard for abortion rights given her work at EMILY’s List.

    As a longtime organized labor advocate, Butler’s potential positions on federal labor policy come at a critical moment. Democrats have reintroduced the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which rips right-to-work laws apart and would lead to a wholesale reclassification of millions of independent contractors, half of whom are women – all to the benefit of labor unions.

    In a 2021 Elle magazine interview, Butler talked about the need for workplace flexibility to be a present mother as the new head of EMILY’s List. Time and location flexibility are critical to keep many women attached to the labor force as they balance childrearing, caregiving, health concerns, and other priorities. Would Butler champion flexibility for all women by opposing the PRO Act?

    The Biden Department of Labor is set to finalize its new rules cracking down on independent contracting nationwide, which Independent Women’s Forum contends will be devastating for women. Would Butler push back on this ill-advised policy as well?

    Butler consulted for Uber during its fight with California’s legislature when it passed Assembly Bill 5 (AB5). This bill reclassified independent contractors, leading to devastating results for freelancers – including the loss of incomes and livelihoods – and small businesses. We can only hope that her time at Uber might influence her view of freelancing to be more nuanced than those of union buddies, and inclined to protect independent work.

    Some will cheer Newsom’s pledge fulfillment. The black women, however, who view economic and social issues differently than Butler, have little to celebrate with her appointment.

    Patrice Onwuka is the director of the Center for Economic Opportunity at Independent Women’s Forum.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 19:40

  • Saudi Arabia Puts Israel Deal On Ice, Engages With Iran In Latest Hit To Us Foreign Policy
    Saudi Arabia Puts Israel Deal On Ice, Engages With Iran In Latest Hit To Us Foreign Policy

    As widely expected, Saudi Arabia has put its US-backed plans to normalize ties with Israel on ice indefinitely, Reuters reported citing two sources, signalling a rapid reversal (and rethinking) of the Kingdom’s foreign policy priorities as war escalates between Israel and Hamas.

    Meanwhile, as reported previously, the rapidly escalating war has also pushed the kingdom to engage with Israel’s sworn enemy, Iran: earlier this week, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman took his first phone call from Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi as Riyadh tries to prevent a broader surge in violence across the region.

    Two sources told Reuters there would be a delay in the US-backed talks on normalization with Israel that was a key step for the kingdom to secure what Riyadh considers the real prize of a U.S. defense pact in exchange, although it may just as well settle for a higher oil price now that geopolitical risk premium has exploded higher.

    As a reminder, until Hamas sparked a war on Oct. 7 by launching an attack on Israel, whether with or without Iran backing, both Israeli and Saudi leaders had been saying they were moving steadily towards a deal that could have reshaped the Middle East.

    While Saudi Arabia – birthplace of Islam and home to its two holiest sites – had until the latest conflict indicated it would not allow its pursuit of a U.S. defense pact be derailed even if Israel did not offer significant concessions to the Palestinians in the their bid for statehood, sources had previously said. But an approach that sidelined Palestinians would risk angering Arabs around the region, as Arab news outlets broadcast images of Palestinians killed in Israeli retaliatory airstrikes.

    Hamas fighters killed more than 1,300 Israelis in their Oct. 7 attack and more than 1,500 had been killed by Friday in Israel’s ongoing strikes on Gaza in response, according to official reports.

    The first Reuters source said talks could not be continued for now and the issue of Israeli concessions for the Palestinians would need to be a bigger priority when discussions resumed – a comment that indicates Riyadh has not abandoned the idea, although the probability of Palestine getting bigger concessions now from the Biden admin is negligible.

    The Saudi rethink highlights challenges facing Washington’s efforts to deepen Israel’s integration in a region where the Palestinian cause remains a major Arab concern.

    “Normalisation was already considered taboo (in the Arab world) … this war only amplifies that,” Saudi analyst Aziz Alghashian said.

    The Reuters source said Washington had pressed Riyadh this week to condemn the Hamas attack but said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan pushed back. A U.S. source familiar with the issue confirmed this.

    Meanwhile, Biden’s top National Security advisor Jake Sullivan once again lied, and told a White House briefing this week that the normalization effort was “not on hold” but said the focus was on other immediate challenges. The truth: the normalization effort is not only “on hold” but absent a miracle, is dead.

    * * *

    Meanwhile, the regional conflict has also prompted the Saudi crown prince and Iran’s president to speak for the first time after a Chinese-brokered initiative prompted the Gulf rivals to re-establish diplomatic ties in April. A Saudi statement said the crown prince told Raisi “the kingdom is exerting maximum effort to engage with all international and regional parties to halt the ongoing escalation”, underling Riyadh’s move to contain the crisis.

    A senior Iranian official told Reuters the call, made by Raisi to the crown prince, aimed to support “Palestine and prevent the spread of war in the region”. “The call was good and promising,” the official said.

    A second Iranian official said the call lasted 45 minutes and had the blessing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

    The Saudi government did not provide further details on the call but the statement said the crown prince stated the kingdom’s “opposition to any form of civilian targeting and the loss of innocent lives” and expressed Riyadh’s “unwavering stance in standing up for the Palestinian cause”.

    Bottom line: while just one week ago the US was making progress in pushing Saudi Arabia and Iran far apart, events from last weekend have reminded the middle east that, at the end of the day, Arabs will be Arabs.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 19:20

  • Judge Admonishes DOJ For "Wasting the Court's Time" In Trump Documents Case
    Judge Admonishes DOJ For “Wasting the Court’s Time” In Trump Documents Case

    Authored by T.J. Muscaro and Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Attorney David Harbach with the special counsel’s office threw out a new argument during the two Garcia hearings scheduled Thursday, drawing ire from the judge for “wasting the court’s time” by not filing the arguments and case citations the motions the government had already submitted.

    Defendants Carlos De Oliveira and Waltine Naut leave the courthouse after the Garcia hearings with their attorneys, on Oct. 12, 2023. (TJ Muscaro/The Epoch Times)

    Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira and butler Waltine Nauta were charged alongside former President Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents, and on Oct. 12, the government argued that their attorneys had conflicts of interest and could not properly represent them. The purpose of a Garcia hearing is so the defendants are clear about any potential conflicts of interest and their ramifications. The hearings for Mr. De Oliveira and Mr. Nauta were held back to back.

    Mr. Harbach had argued there was an ethical issue with the defendants’ legal counsel, and that they should not be able to call into question their former clients’ credibility and characters on the witness stand. The roundabout arguments ended up frustrating the judge, and Mr. Nauta’s hearing was ultimately postponed.

    Carlos De Oliveira

    Mr. De Oliveira is represented by John Irving and local attorney Larry Murrell.

    The prosecution argued that Mr. Irving previously represented three potential witnesses only identified as Trump Employee 3, Witness 1, and Witness 2, and though he no longer represents them, attorney-client privilege would still apply, and he would not be able to make use of confidential information regarding his former clients. Mr. Irving stopped representing the three clients on Aug. 30, and said there was nothing he knew that the government didn’t already know, and no issue of confidentiality would be a problem in the case.

    Mr. Harbach appeared to cast doubt on the claim, saying “we don’t know what we don’t know.”

    Judge Aileen Cannon, presiding over the case, repeatedly asked Mr. De Oliveira if he understood the arguments, and the impact of retaining his attorney, and the possibility that his lawyer may not represent him as “vigorously” as he is supposed to. Mr. De Oliveira, who speaks with a thick Portuguese accent, answered affirmatively each time.

    When Mr. Harbach pointed out that this meant Mr. Irving would not be able to call the character or credibility of his three former clients into question during cross-examinations, his argument did not go smoothly. He tripped over his words as he presented the new argument, which was shut down by the defense.

    Mr. Irving made clear that he did not concede to the special counsel’s proposed “ethical prohibitions,” and argued that he should not “be precluded to talk to the jury about any witness.”

    Mr. Irving also said that Mr. De Oliveira’s local counsel, Mr. Murrell, would be able to cross-examine those three witnesses if necessary, and Mr. De Oliveira accepted this.

    After explaining to Mr. De Oliveira that his acceptance, and his waiving of any conflict in his legal representation, would mean he would lose attorney-conflict arguments as an appeal later down the line, Mr. De Oliveira elected to keep his lawyer.

    Waltine Nauta

    Mr. Nauta is represented by Stanley Woodward, who previously represented the Trump Employee 4 the government claimed “flipped” to become a key witness.

    Mr. Woodward’s law firm still represents Witness 1 and Witness 2, though during Mr. Nauta’s hearing Mr. Harbach said they no longer planned to call Witness 2 to testify.

    When Mr. Harbach made the new argument during the second Garcia hearing, saying the lawyer would not be able to stand up and attack a witness’s credibility and character in defense of his client, the defense immediately seized upon it, stalling the proceeding.

    Mr. Woodward refused to waive his right to call any witness’s character or credibility into question. He gave the hypothetical example of Trump Employee 4 having a stroke just before he was to testify—was he to not touch upon his medical condition and credibility if the court ordered such a prohibition?

    Mr. Woodward said that “filling the sky with hypotheticals to presume” that he was unable to properly cross-examine the witnesses to defend his clients was “wrong.”

    Mr. Harbach received little backup from the judge over his argument about issues of loyalty and confidentiality; Judge Cannon criticized him for citing three cases outside the 11th Circuit that couldn’t be used properly as parallels, but noted that Mr. Nauta should be aware of this. She expressed frustration and said it wasn’t clear whether Mr. Harbach was asking the court to prohibit the attorneys questioning former or current clients.

    The three cases the government mentioned were United States v. Yannotti, United States v. Spataro, and United States v. Rahman, which were all prosecuted in New York.

    Mr. Woodward requested more time as he said that Thursday was the first time he heard such an argument and could now not properly advise Mr. Nauta on his 6th Amendment rights meant to be highlighted by the Garcia hearing.

    No new hearing date has been scheduled.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 19:00

  • Friday Fun? Jon Stewart Summarizes The Israel-Palestine Conflict Conversation Conundrum
    Friday Fun? Jon Stewart Summarizes The Israel-Palestine Conflict Conversation Conundrum

    It appears nothing has changed in nine years…

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

    Will it be different this time?

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 18:40

  • WH Ups Pressure On Tuberville To Abandon Pentagon Blockade
    WH Ups Pressure On Tuberville To Abandon Pentagon Blockade

    Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClear Wire,

    As the war in Israel intensifies, the White House will accelerate its efforts to break the blockade on Pentagon promotions that Sen. Tommy Tuberville has kept in place for more than six months, arguing that the Alabama Republican’s “selfish stunt” amounts to “a windfall to our adversaries.”

    Tuberville has shown no sign of relenting even as the United States rushes munitions to Israel and sends American armed forces to the region, insisting that the “hold is not affecting our military’s readiness.”

    President Biden’s national security spokesman, John Kirby, noted Wednesday that the commander of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which patrols Middle Eastern waters, has not been relieved on schedule because his replacement, Rear Adm. George Wikoff, remains in Senate limbo.

    Conflict in Israel, Kirby told RealClearPolitics, “just highlights how dynamic the security environment is around the world and how much more critical it is that the leadership of the military be able to address that dynamism through the normal promotion process.”

    Republicans have backed Biden’s efforts to support Israel after a Hamas terrorist attack last weekend left more than 1,200 Israelis dead and killed 22 American citizens. For his part, Tuberville has said that Israel “has a right to go” into the Gaza strip to root out the terrorist organization. The senator cautioned Tuesday during an interview with a local Alabama Fox affiliate, however, that “the problem is, when you start picking sides in the Middle East, it can get really messy very quick.”

    In a White House memo obtained by RCP, the administration seized on that comment as “outrageous” and evidence that Tuberville, a former college football coach in his first term in office, was not only “directly sabotaging the American military” but also expressing weakness “after Israel endured horrific terrorist attacks from Hamas.”

    “When it comes to the horrific events in Israel, President Biden knows which side he’s on,” stated the memo authored by White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates. “Sen. Tuberville should look in the mirror and then follow the President’s lead.”

    “How many memos are we up to now,” Tuberville’s office replied. “A dozen at least?”

    “This memo will have the same impact as the previous memos from the Biden comms staff: none whatsoever,” Tuberville spokesman, Steven Stafford, told RCP. “Coach’s hold is not affecting our military’s readiness. No job is unfilled, and no job is going undone. The hold is certainly not affecting the militaries of other countries.”

    “This has to be the Left’s most ridiculous attack yet, but unfortunately the lamestream media has bought it completely,” he said before adding, “You should ask the Pentagon if they believe our military is not ‘ready at a moment’s notice.’”

    Acrimony had already set in on both sides well before the Hamas attack. For months, Tuberville defended his hold on the promotions of hundreds of military officers in protest of a new Pentagon policy that reimburses servicemembers for abortion-related expenses. Democrats are welcome to bring the new Pentagon abortion policy up for a vote itself, he has said in response to the criticism, or confirm the promotions one by one.

    Republicans running for president, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, have previously expressed their support for the blockade, and the issue has become a sort of red line for 2024 candidates seeking the GOP nomination.

    If the Senate was to take up each military promotion one at a time as Republicans say Democrats are welcome to do, the Congressional Research Service estimates that the process would consume approximately 700 hours of floor time.

    The Senate did vote in September to confirm the promotion of the Marine Corps commandant and Army chief of staff, proving according to Tuberville that the upper chamber can still meet its obligations to offer advice and consent.

    The White House previously told RCP that the updated abortion policy is critical for military readiness. If soldiers are stationed in states like Alabama with restrictive abortion laws, Kirby told RCP in July, then some servicemembers may decide to leave the military. “That means we lose talent, important talent,” he said before adding that ensuring abortion access “is just the right darn thing to do for people who raise their hand and agree to serve in the military.”

    Tuberville has received a fair share of incoming. In an open letter published last May, former defense secretaries from both Republican and Democratic administrations warned that the blanket hold “risks turning military officers into political pawns.” More recently, former CIA Director Michael Hayden raised eyebrows by suggesting that more drastic measures may be needed.

    When asked if Tuberville should be removed from the Senate Armed Services Committee, Hayden responded on social media Monday, “How about the human race?” The senator called the comment “disgusting” and tantamount to an endorsement of “politically motivated assassination.” His office referred the issue to Capitol Police.

    “Regardless of any delusions Sen. Tuberville is under, this is not a game. The stakes for America’s military could not be higher,” the White House responded. “And the abhorrent Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel are an inescapable reminder that Tuberville is intentionally undermining our military readiness in th

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 18:20

  • Bitcoin Spot ETF Coming After SEC Abandons Appeal
    Bitcoin Spot ETF Coming After SEC Abandons Appeal

    Today was the deadline by which the SEC must either appeal the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, request the Appeals Court revisit its ruling, or follow the court’s August order and review Grayscale’s bid to change its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a spot Bitcoin ETF.

    Bloomberg has just reported, according to a person familiar with the matter, that the SEC isn’t planing to ask for an appeal.

    As a reminder, in August, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the SEC’s denial of Grayscale Investment’s application to convert the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into an ETF was invalid and must be reviewed, calling it an “arbitrary and capricious” rejection.

    The court said that federal agencies are required to “treat like cases alike.”

    The SEC’s decision not to appeal was somewhat expected as Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas tweeted yesterday…

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

    And as is evident in the collapse in the market’s discount for GBTC…

    So what happpens next?

    Bloomberg’s James Seyffart tweeted the following:

    1. Done deal I guess if this is accurate. No en banc application

    2. No. I do not think they will appeal to the Supreme Court either.

    3. Dialogue between Grayscale and SEC should begin next week. Hoping for more info on next steps sometime next week or week after?

    Bitcoin bounced a little on the headline…

    However, as CoinTelegraph reports, there’s still a chance regulators could delay and continue their ‘war onm crypto’:

    A September note from law firm Ropes & Gray warned the GBTC application could be sent back for review to the SEC, giving the regulator another chance to reject it on a different basis.

    “In this scenario, the new denial could itself then be subject to another appeal by GBTC to the D.C. Circuit,” wrote the firm.

    Another delay scenario, according to Ropes & Gray, would be if the New York Stock Exchange has to make a new filing to list GBTC – then it is possible the SEC could take up to eight months to reach a decision on the ETF.

    But, the likelihood of an approved spot Bitcoin ETF this year is 75%, according to Bloomberg analysts who updated the odds after Grayscale’s August court win (and is likely dramatically higher now as they previously noted the odds jump to a 95% likelihood of approval by the end of 2024).

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 18:00

  • The Net Zero Ship Starting To Sink
    The Net Zero Ship Starting To Sink

    Authored by Nicole James via The Epoch Times,

    Are we observing the early stages of worldwide resistance against the constraints of net zero policies?

    Investors are ditching renewable energy faster than any other funds on record.

    Reuters reports that renewable energy funds suffered a net outflow of $1.4 billion in the July to September 2023 quarter.

    LSEG Lipper data shows this to be the largest-ever quarterly outflow. There was also a 23 percent decline from the end of June of the total assets under management in the sector—now valued at $65.4 billion.

    The S&P Global Clean Energy Index (.SPGTCLEN), is also down by 30 percent this year with most of the decline occurring since July. This Index comprises major solar and wind power companies and other renewables-related businesses.

    Yet in contrast, the S&P 500 Energy Index (.SPNY), which is oil and gas-heavy, has increased slightly this year.

    It is not just investors who are exiting net zero. Politicians are also raising concerns.

    Australian Nationals Senator Matt Canavan said net zero has “absolutely carked it.”

    His position is that net zero is a “soundbite” and “totally insane.” It is unachievable because people will starve if it is enforced.

    “Almost everything we grow, we make, we do in our society relies on the use of fossil fuels,” he said.

    Patrick Moore, the co-founder of Greenpeace agrees.

    He told Tucker Carlson, “If we banned fossil fuels, agricultural production would collapse in a very short period of time. People will begin to starve … and half the population will die in a very short period of time.”

    Governments Across the World Bucking the Net Zero Trend

    Politicians around the world are also raising concerns.

    UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has delayed banning new petrol and diesel cars and residential gas heating until 2035. This has been previously delayed twice with deadlines moved from 2025 to 2030.

    He said, “We’re not going to save the planet by bankrupting the British people.”

    France’s President Macron has said that gas boilers will not be banned. He has also been shy about declaring a date for phasing out fossil fuels.

    The polls are showing that New Zealand’s government is heading for opposition in this weekend’s election.

    The taxing of livestock for methane emissions and transforming sheep and cattle farms into pine plantations has caused a revolt among rural voters.

    In the Netherlands, the Farmer-Citizen movement is the dominant party in the Dutch Senate and every provincial assembly.

    Germany is planning to resurrect its coal plants and some of Germany’s large corporations such as Volkswagen, Siemens, and BASF are leaving their homeland for better business climates after the increasing local cost of pushing for net zero.

    U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes that real environmentalism is about protecting natural habitats, sustaining ecosystems, and reducing pollution and deforestation. It’s not about net zero, he said.

    Even Bill Gates now says that “no temperate country is going to become uninhabitable.”

    This is quite different from his earlier statement on Fox News two years ago when he said, “The migration that we saw out of Syria for their civil war, which was somewhat weather dependent, we’re going to have 10 times as much migration because the equatorial areas will become unliveable.”

    While Australia contributes just over one percent of global carbon dioxide emissions (a similar level to the UK), in 2022, China approved 106 gigawatts of new coal fired power capacity which gives it 243 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity under construction.

    That is the equivalent of 243 coal power plants with China now accounting for around 30 percent of global CO2 emissions.

    Meanwhile, in June, Swedish authorities abandoned its 100 percent renewable target to reach net zero by 2045, and Norway followed this announcement by approving investments exceeding over US$18 billion to develop 19 oil and gas fields.

    Even in the European Union, there is a shift of voters turning away from Green parties and towards those with an anti-EU sentiment.

    According to Politico, one reason is voter attitude towards climate transition policies.

    Back in Australia, geologist, Professor Ian Plimer has been vocal in his criticism of net zero.

    He told ADHTV that, “The fundamentals of science are you do not tamper with the original evidence. That has happened with our temperature record, where the past has been cooled and it makes it look as if we’re warming. That is fraud.”

    Senator Ralph Babet told the Australian Parliament that net zero is a “complete and utter scam, designed to shut down our nation, enrich predatory globalists, and the CCP.”

    There are still some who cling to the net zero mission, however.

    Former UK PM Theresa May wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “Net zero isn’t a cost to be minimised—it’s the growth opportunity of the century, worth 1 trillion pounds to British business by the end of the decade.”

    But investors aren’t buying it.

    While many renewable projects are being shelved or delayed such as wind projects in the UK, Netherlands, and Norway because of constraints such as skyrocketing costs, Rich Pontillo, Lead Advisory at Nasdaq IR Intelligence, told Reuters there could be another upcycle because of “massive” U.S. government subsidies.

    However, if there is a change of president in 2024, Pontillo may need to rethink this statement.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/13/2023 – 17:40

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