Aug 15

Today’s News 15th August 2022

  • How Your Carbon Footprint And Your Carbon Wallet Are Really Going To Work In The Dystopian World That WEF Has Planned?
    How Your Carbon Footprint And Your Carbon Wallet Are Really Going To Work In The Dystopian World That WEF Has Planned?

    Via ‘threadsbyirish’ Substack,

    Let me introduce you to Barbara Baarsma. Barbara is the CEO of Rabo Carbon Bank. Yes, you read that right. Not Rabo Bank but Rabo Carbon Bank. In this 53 second video interview below she is advocating for a “Personal Carbon Wallet”. That may not seem like a big deal but when you hear what she has to say you should be concerned, very concerned in fact.

    I’ve transcribed the interview as it is in Dutch. It contains critical information. If you prefer to watch the video with subtitles by all means please do so.

    “Let’s ensure that every household or every citizen of the Netherlands receives a certain amount of carbon emission rights. This way we can ensure that we do not emit more than our yearly limit. Your emission rights will be stored in a carbon wallet. So if I wanted to fly, I would buy some carbon emission rights from someone who can’t afford to fly. For example this way this poor person can earn some extra money.

    Or if someone lives in a small house, he can sell his emission rights to someone who lives in a big house, this way poor people can benefit from the green economy”

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

    Wow. Quite something isn’t it. Let’s pick it apart and then look at how they are probably going to implement it.

    You could argue that it’s just another level of taxation which the globalists will take. I think it runs far deeper. When Bankers start using expressions like rights, poor people and green economy you can be sure that they are envisaging a world for the elite. They don’t give a fig about anyone else.

    So in its most basic form, you’ll have no fun and won’t be allowed to travel anywhere. But don’t worry the elites will have the fun for you.

    This is nothing more than Totalitarianism.

    Did I forget to mention that Rabobank and Baarsma are both in the World Economic Forum.

    https://www.weforum.org/organizations/rabobank-group

    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/authors/barbara-baarsma

    When most people think of carbon emissions and carbon footprints they think it only refers to travel, fuel, gas and electricity all under the guise of emissions. I hate to break it to you but it runs far deeper than that.

    Let me now introduce you to Doc Ono, a company you may never have heard of.

    Doconomy is a “credit card” endorsed by Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum.

    In May 2019 an article appeared on the WEF site called

    “This credit card has a carbon-emission spending limit”

    In the article it says

    “Swedish fintech company Doconomy has launched a new credit card that monitors the carbon footprint of its customers – and cuts off their spending when they hit their carbon max”

    Yikes, cuts off their spending.

    It continues

    “The DO card tracks the CO2 emissions linked to purchases to calculate the carbon impact of every transaction. The aim is to encourage people to actively reduce their carbon footprint and demonstrate the impact that small changes can have on the environment.

    The card uses the Aland Index as the basis on which it calculates the carbon footprint of each product purchased. Users can set a maximum value for their carbon spend and learn how to compensate for their carbon footprint by contributing towards schemes to reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions”

    Now we are getting closer to the truth of how this is going to operate. It isn’t just travel, it will be for everything.

    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/05/this-credit-card-has-a-carbon-emission-spending-limit/

    In February 2019 Mastercard published an article called

    Mastercard and Doconomy Launch the Future of Sustainable Payments

    where they say

    “Doconomy and Mastercard announce their joint effort to combat climate change by enabling DO – a free and easy-to-use mobile banking service that lets users track, understand and reduce their CO2 footprints through carbon offsetting”

    https://www.mastercard.com/news/press/2019/february/mastercard-and-doconomy-launch-the-future-of-sustainable-payments/

    Isn’t it fascinating that they emphasise it will allow the users to track everything. It would never be used for nefarious purposes such as banks and governments tracking everything. Of course not 🙄

    Mastercard is also a WEF partner.

    https://www.weforum.org/organizations/mastercard

    The United Nations also got on board in May 2019. They published an article called

    Innovative Climate Action – New Credit Card Limits Climate Impact of Users

    https://unfccc.int/news/innovative-climate-action-new-credit-card-limits-climate-impact-of-users

    Patrica Espinosa, the UN Climate Change Executive Secretary couldn’t get enough of the concept, singing its praises.

    And yes, you guessed it, Espinosa and UN are also WEF partners. We are beginning to see a trend here yet again, aren’t we.

    https://www.weforum.org/people/patricia-espinosa-cantellano

    https://www.weforum.org/organizations/united-nations

    The big banks also see this as a massive opportunity. In 2021 Barclays hopped into bed with MasterCard and Doconomy.

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

    Seems like full on surveillance and socialism to me. And you probably don’t need me to tell you by this stage that Barclays is also a WEF member.

    https://www.weforum.org/organizations/barclays

    But that’s not even close to what the WEF, Mastercard, UN and all these globalist bodies have planned. You are only being told a fraction of the story.

    Let me paint you a picture of how this might play out. In Ireland, back in March of this year, Marc Ó Cathasaigh who is a Green Party TD (MP) paid a visit to a pub called Brew Dog in Dublin. He showed an image of the menu which had CO2 (carbon dioxide) labelling beside every food item on the menu and asked the question

    Would this influence what you would order?

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

    On the left side of the menu is your standard chicken, beef, lamb etc whilst on the right is your ‘plant-based’ food including the lab processed ‘Beyond Meat’. Bill Gates is also an investor in ‘Beyond Meat’

    https://www.beefcentral.com/news/synthetic-meat-investor-bill-gates-calls-for-rich-countries-to-eat-only-synthetic-meat/

    There isn’t much difference in the outrageous Dublin prices between the two food types. There is however a massive difference in the CO2 levels.

    The other point which is important to mention is that a seed is being planted in people’s minds about the different CO2 levels. They are trying to influence people into the hands of plant based foods and Beyond Meats. There is no doubt about it that there is an agenda at play.

    I have no idea what the criteria was that they used for measuring the CO2 levels but the point is restaurants are beginning to trial this. I read all the comments below the thread with some saying it was a good idea and some said it wasn’t. The problem though was that everyone responding totally missed the point.

    Here is what is probably going to happen. When you go out to a restaurant depending on what your “carbon footprint” has been, will determine what you can and cannot order off the menu.

    Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it ? Depending on how many points you have left for that month will determine whether you are allowed to eat “proper food” or “lab food”.

    If you’ve been a bold boy or girl you’ll only be allowed to eat the lab grown plant-based food so you don’t surpass your carbon quota. If you try to order beef which apparently has high CO2 levels you won’t be allowed to.

    This will also be the case when you go to supermarkets to do your weekly shop. Every item you buy will be assigned a CO2 number.

    It gets even more ridiculous though. Within the last month Eamonn Ryan who is a WEF member and leader of the Green Party in Ireland has advocated for the reduction in the numbers of Irish cattle. Instead we will import cattle from Brazil. I like to call this the work of the “Ruminati” 😉 If you know, you know.

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

    How do you think the carbon footprint of importing beef from Brazil would look like on a menu now. It would be off the charts. Do you see what they are trying to achieve and where this is going ?

    The whole thing sounds ridiculously Dystopian, doesn’t it ? That would never happen. It’s so 1984, I hear you shout. If you have been paying attention to the last 2.5 years then you will realise it’s not remotely far-fetched at all.

    We are being told how this is going to pan out. All you have to do is watch an episode of Black Mirror called Nosedive where the topic is social credit scores. Just substitute social credit score with carbon footprints and you will understand. Digital IDs and Currency, Social Credit Scores and Carbon Footprints will all work in tandem in the future.

    I mentioned earlier Doc Ono. On their own site they give another example of how this would work for clothing. Let’s say you wanted to buy a pair of jeans 👖

    On their web site they say

    “Consumers could cut their carbon footprint in half by choosing lower impact products”

    https://doconomy.com/consumers-could-cut-their-carbon-footprint-in-half-by-choosing-lower-impact-products/

    Imagine going shopping and having to whip out your “carbon calculator” and realise you only have 10 points to play with. You won’t be able to buy the 21.45 CO2 jeans, you’ll have to plump for the 8.98 CO2 jeans. After all, you won’t be allowed to go over your quota or your card will stop working and your digital payment will be declined.

    I just mentioned a “carbon calculator”. It just so happens that Mastercard have already developed it.

    In a 2021 press release on their site they say

    Mastercard unveils new Carbon Calculator tool for banks globally, as consumer passion for the environment grows.

    Guess who they have collaborated with. Doconomy. Go Figure.

    https://www.mastercard.com/news/press/2021/april/mastercard-unveils-new-carbon-calculator-tool/

    This will be rolled out in the shape of an app so you can check your carbon footprint which will determine what you can and can’t buy.

    https://www.2030calculator.com

    But it isn’t just any old “carbon calculator” it’s a 2030 carbon calculator, as in Agenda 2030. If you look closely enough at the top left hand corner of the image you can see the transition from 2020 to 2030.

    It will eventually take the shape of an app that covers all the bases of Digital ID, Digital currency, social credit score etc. Basically a total control and surveillance grid which there will be no escape from. Welcome to Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and George Orwell’s “1984” rolled into one.

    Now whether this happens in reality or not is another story entirely. These are not the rantings of some mad, conspiracy theorist. I’ve tried to provide proof of what is going on in the real world. It’s up to you whether you want to believe it or not and whether we let it happen….

    *  *  *

    Thanks for reading threadsirish! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 08/15/2022 – 02:00

  • Modern US Warmongering Is Scaring Henry Kissinger
    Modern US Warmongering Is Scaring Henry Kissinger

    Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

    In a new interview with The Wall Street Journal, immortal Hague fugitive Henry Kissinger says the US is acting in a crazy and irrational way that has brought it to the edge of war with Russia and China:

    Mr. Kissinger sees today’s world as verging on a dangerous disequilibrium. “We are at the edge of war with Russia and China on issues which we partly created, without any concept of how this is going to end or what it’s supposed to lead to,” he says. Could the U.S. manage the two adversaries by triangulating between them, as during the Nixon years? He offers no simple prescription. “You can’t just now say we’re going to split them off and turn them against each other. All you can do is not to accelerate the tensions and to create options, and for that you have to have some purpose.”

    On the question of Taiwan, Mr. Kissinger worries that the U.S. and China are maneuvering toward a crisis, and he counsels steadiness on Washington’s part. “The policy that was carried out by both parties has produced and allowed the progress of Taiwan into an autonomous democratic entity and has preserved peace between China and the U.S. for 50 years,” he says. “One should be very careful, therefore, in measures that seem to change the basic structure.”

    Mr. Kissinger courted controversy earlier this year by suggesting that incautious policies on the part of the U.S. and NATO may have touched off the crisis in Ukraine. He sees no choice but to take Vladimir Putin’s stated security concerns seriously and believes that it was a mistake for NATO to signal to Ukraine that it might eventually join the alliance: “I thought that Poland — all the traditional Western countries that have been part of Western history — were logical members of NATO,” he says. But Ukraine, in his view, is a collection of territories once appended to Russia, which Russians see as their own, even though “some Ukrainians” do not. Stability would be better served by its acting as a buffer between Russia and the West: “I was in favor of the full independence of Ukraine, but I thought its best role was something like Finland.”

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

    I don’t know about you, but to me this warning is much, much more ominous coming from a bloodsoaked swamp monster than it would be from some anti-imperialist peace activist who was speaking from outside the belly of the imperial machine. This man is a literal war criminal who, as a leading empire manager, helped to unleash unfathomable horrors all around the world the consequences of which are still being felt today.

    And as far as you can tell from his own comments, he remains completely unreformed.

    “Looking back over his long and often controversial career, however, he is not given to self-criticism,” The Wall Street Journal’s Laura Secor writes.

    “I do not torture myself with things we might have done differently,” Kissinger tells her.

    So Kissinger remains an unapologetic warmongering psychopath. But if he hasn’t changed as a person, what has? Why is he now cautioning against US aggression and warning that the empire has taken things too far?

    Well, if Kissinger hasn’t changed, we can only surmise that it is the US empire itself that has changed. Its behavior is now so insane and illogical that it is making a 99 year-old Henry Kissinger nervous.

    Which, if you really think about it, is one of the scariest things you could possibly imagine.

    The empire’s departure from the Henry Kissinger iteration of murderous madness to its new form of insanity appears to have begun around the turn of the century, when the influx of neoconservatives into the White House combined with the jingoism which followed 9/11 to usher in an era of interventionism and military expansionism of such brazenness and recklessness that many from the old guard balked.

    Kissinger was supportive of the 2003 Iraq invasion, but well before it began he was already saying that he had serious misgivings about the lack of clear thinking and forward planning he was seeing on that front. The neoconservative goal of US planetary hegemony at any cost which led to that invasion (and the planning of many more) has since become the mainstream Beltway consensus perspective on US foreign policy, and it is responsible for the escalations that Kissinger is now warning about.

    “The PNAC plan envisions a strategic confrontation with China, and a still greater permanent military presence in every corner of the world,” wrote Michael Parenti in his 2004 book Superpatriotism. “The objective is not just power for its own sake but power to control the world’s natural resources and markets, power to privatize and deregulate the economies of every nation in the world, and power to hoist upon the backs of peoples everywhere — including North America — the blessings of an untrammeled global ‘free market.’ The end goal is to ensure not merely the supremacy of global capitalism as such, but the supremacy of American global capitalism by preventing the emergence of any other potentially competing superpower.”

    By “PNAC plan” Parenti means the plans of the neoconservatives behind the notorious Project for the New American Century think tank, whose unipolarist militaristic agendas they explicitly advocated.

    Henry Kissinger is warning about the dangers of US warmongering not because he has gotten saner, but because the US war machine has gotten crazier. That we are now hurtling toward confrontations that don’t appear rational to someone who has spent the majority of his life watching the mechanics of empire from inside its inner chambers should concern us all. When you are talking about brinkmanship between major world powers, especially nuclear brinkmanship, the last thing you need is for one of the parties involved to be acting erratically and nonsensically.

    We need de-escalation and detente, and we need it yesterday. If you’re too hawkish for Henry Kissinger, you’re too motherfucking hawkish.

    *  *  *

    My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, buying an issue of my monthly zine, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my American husband Tim Foley.

    Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 23:30

  • China Unexpectedly Cuts Rates As Terrible Econ Data Confirms "Alarming" Slowdown, Yields Plunge
    China Unexpectedly Cuts Rates As Terrible Econ Data Confirms “Alarming” Slowdown, Yields Plunge

    Has Beijing finally realized it will need to step in aggressively if it wants to avoid an economic collapse?

    Moments ago, and just days after the release of China’s dismal woeful new credit data, the National Bureau of Statistics reported the July data dump which was just awful. Among the latest monthly data:

    • Industrial production rose 3.8% from a year ago, lower than June’s 3.9% and missing economists’ forecast of a 4.3% increase
    • Retail sales grew at a 2.7% annual pace, also lower than June’s 3.1%, and badly missing the consensus estimate of 5.0%
    • Fixed-asset investment gained 5.7% in the first seven months of the year, which however was also below the June YTD number of 6.1%, and also missed the 6.2% projected by economists
    • The silver lining is that just as in the US, the worse the economy founders, the lower the jobless rate which in July fell to 5.4% from 5.5%

    “July’s economic data is very alarming,” said Raymond Yeung, Greater China economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. “The Covid Zero policy continues to hit the service sector and dampen household consumption.”

    It’s not just Covid Zero: the “alarming” collapse in China’s economy was strongly hinted last Friday when Beijing reported that July credit growth, in the form of total social financing and RMB loans, came in well below the already-low market expectations.

    According to Goldman, the detailed breakdown of the July loan data pointed to weaker credit demand: household and corporate loans both slowed in July from June, and interbank rates declined to very low levels in recent weeks. Smaller government bond net issuance also contributed to the lower TSF. That said, local government officials are working on preparing the pipeline for additional infrastructure investment projects, and the July Politburo meeting pointed to likely additional local government special bond issuance beyond this year’s budget in the next few months.

    However, Beijing appears to finally realize that at a time when China’s housing is crashing (with residential property sales plunging 28.6% in July, it’s no surprise the WSJ last week wrote that “The Bursting Chinese Housing Bubble Compounds Beijing’s Economic Woes“), it will have to do something at the national level, as the latest credit figures clearly raise the risks of a liquidity trap where monetary easing is failing to spur lending in the economy.

    As such, moments before the latest horrific data dump, China’s central bank unexpectedly cut its key interest rates in a feeble attempt to prop up the failing economy weighed by Covid lockdowns and a deepening property downturn.

    The PBOC cut the rate on its one-year policy loans by 10 basis points to 2.75% and the seven-day reverse repo rate to 2% from 2.1%, surprising China watchers with all 20 economists polled forecasting the rate on the one-year medium-term lending facility would be left unchanged. Expect all other key reference rates to follow a similar 10bps rate cut in the coming days.

    While the rate cut was small, “it’s more of a signaling effect” showing authorities are prepared to act, said Zhang Zhiwei, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management Ltd. “In terms of the size of this action, it’s quite limited. In order to turn around the market expectation and break the downward spiral, they need to do a lot more.“

    And they will… eventually.

    And with China once again dovishly diverging aggressively from the rest of the Developed world which is hiking at every opportunity, it’s no surprise that as the PBOC confirms the economy is rapidly slowing, that Chinese bond yields slumped after the rate cuts: China’s 10-year government bond yield slid five basis points to 2.675%, the lowest level since May 2020, while the offshore yuan extended losses, falling 0.3% to 6.7607 per dollar. Stocks were also volatile in the morning session, with the benchmark CSI 300 Index was little changed after rising as much as 0.7% following the PBOC’s rate cuts.

    Beijing’s commitment to Covid Zero – which has emerged as a convenient smokescreen for Xi Jinping who can blame all of China’s ills on his own failed response to the Wu Flu – has made it impossible to sustain any hard-won economic progress, as the threat of repeated restrictions and re-openings continues to loom. As Bloomberg notes, August saw a surge in cases in the resort island of Hainan, where authorities have locked down holidaymakers, suspended flights and shut businesses to contain infections.

    Yet even today, the PBOC decided to confound China watchers, as the central bank withdrew liquidity from the banking system (by issuing 400 billion yuan of MLF funds, only partially rolling over the 600 billion yuan of loans maturing this week) at the same time as it cut rates.

    “The dominating downside risk for growth and weak credit data prompted the PBOC to lower the policy rates,” said Ken Cheung, chief Asian FX strategist at Mizuho Bank. The cut widens the divergence between the PBOC’s easing stance and other major central banks that are tightening monetary policy to curb soaring inflation. That’s raising risks for the yuan as capital outflow pressures increase. It also comes a surprise as the PBOC recently warned against the risk of rising inflation, even though domestic demand still remains soft, keeping overall price pressures in check for now.

    The rate reduction underscores the severity of growth challenges. China’s top leaders vowed last month to achieve “the best outcome” possible for economic growth this year while sticking to a strict Covid Zero policy, and downplayedthe official target of around 5.5% growth. Economists polled by Bloomberg forecast the economy to expand only 3.8% this year.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 22:58

  • Brother Of Marine Killed In Botched Afghan Pullout Commits Suicide At 1-Year Memorial Service
    Brother Of Marine Killed In Botched Afghan Pullout Commits Suicide At 1-Year Memorial Service

    Monday August 15 marks the one year anniversary since the Taliban takeover of Kabul, Afghanistan – which kicked off weeks of a botched US scramble to evacuate the remaining military, State Department, and US civilians from the Afghan capital. Tens of thousands of translators and other Afghans arrived at the airport in waves, desperate to get out amid the Taliban onslaught. 

    As the US-propped up president Ashraf Ghani was among the first officials to flee the country, reportedly with some $169 million raided from state coffers, local Afghan troops also melted away, allowing the Taliban to march into Kabul with ease. From there a chain of events saw what was then known as Hamid Karzai International Airport descend into chaos as a poorly prepared US and international coalition security perimeter struggled to prevent the flood of people desperate to escape the war-torn country from overwhelming the runways. 

    Scene of the aftermath of the ISIS-K suicide attack, via AFP/Getty Images

    On August 26, 2021, a suicide bomber attacked a crowded airport entry checkpoint, killing scores of Afghan civilians and 13 American troops, mostly Marines. An estimated 45 additional US troops had been wounded in the blast, considered among the greatest US military disasters in over two decades of occupation since 2001. 

    In the months following, not only was the Biden administration under fire for what was clearly a woefully ill-prepared and disorganized pullout of the country (importantly which also reportedly left thousands of dual citizens behind, in addition to tens of thousands of local Afghan translators and coalition partners), but the Pentagon came under scrutiny as well for positioning Marines on extremely exposed perimeters and checkpoints as “sitting ducks” for potential terror attacks. 

    Following a Pentagon investigation of the events leading to the deadly suicide attack, not a single American general, officer, or Biden administration was ever disciplined or so much as blamed. Instead, they had the gall to declare the pullout a “success”. Multiple US agencies on the ground had also failed to assess what they’d be facing amid the rapid US pullout, with one subsequent review finding the following: 

    The report calls out the State Department, which had been in charge of evacuation plans and timelines, for deeply underestimating the number of refugees they would be sending to American bases.

    “For example, on August 18, 2021, Ramstein Air Base leadership was informed they had to prepare to receive 2,500 evacuees,” according to the report. “Less than 2 weeks later, 28,517 evacuees had arrived at Ramstein Air Base.”

    And one year on, tragedy continues to be compounded for those still mourning the 13 US personnel killed on Aug.26. 

    AFP/Getty Images/FOX: A military honor guard carries the flag-draped casket of Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Grant Nikoui at Harvest Christian Fellowship Church on Sept. 18, 2021, in Riverside, California. 

    Fox News is reporting Sunday that the brother of one of the slain Marines took his own life at a one-year memorial service: 

    The brother of a young Marine killed during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan reportedly died by suicide a year later during a recent memorial service for the fallen service member.

    Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20, from Norco, California, was one of 13 American troops killed on Aug. 26, 2021, when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive outside the Kabul airport as crowds of Americans and Afghan allies sought to flee Taliban fighters taking over control of the capital city.

    Nearly a year later, Nikoui’s older brother, 28-year-old Dakota Halverson, died on Aug. 9, a press release from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in California confirmed, though offering few details.

    “The older brother of one of the 13 KIA in Kabul recently killed himself at his little brother’s memorial,” Rep. Mike Waltz, of Florida announced Saturday on Twitter. “Please pray for his family. There MUST be accountability for this continued carnage.”

    Fox underscores while referring to Shana Chappell, mother of two deceased sons, “Chappell and the fallen Marine’s father, Steve Nikoui, have been vocal critics of President Biden’s principal military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley, regarding the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan last August following a 20-year conflict.”

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

    But if there’s been one constant to come out of the disastrous Afghan war and botched pullout – it’s the complete lack of any accountability spanning multiple administrations and military commands. The same trend has been seen in Iraq, with lower-ranking US troops as well as untold numbers of local civilians bearing the brunt of the follies of US politicians and generals. 

    It also seems that all the Washington war machine and neocon architects of the so-called Global War on Terror have to show for two decades of military interventionism is a Middle East in flames, instability, and continued economic unraveling. Syria too, is still directly occupied by US troops in its oil-rich northeast region.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 22:55

  • Missouri AG Questions Need For Potentially Armed IRS Army
    Missouri AG Questions Need For Potentially Armed IRS Army

    Authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt wants answers from the IRS commissioner on why the IRS needs an army of potentially armed new agents.

    State Attorney General Eric Schmitt speaks at an election-night gathering after winning the Republican primary for U.S. Senate at the Sheraton in Westport Plaza in St Louis, Mo., on Aug. 2, 2022. (Kyle Rivas/Getty Images)

    Schmitt, who is a Republican Senatorial Candidate, sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles P. Rettig on Aug. 11,questioning the agency’s massive expansion plans that include hiring 87,000 more IRS employees over the next 10 years.

    The IRS has stockpiled 5 million rounds of ammunition and spent $750,000 this year to buy more, according to Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who introduced a bill to block future purchases by the agency.

    Concurrently, social media was set ablaze this week by an IRS job post for Criminal Investigation Special Agents that would require them to “carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force.”  https://www.jobs.irs.gov/resources/job-descriptions/irs-criminal-investigation-special-agent

    “This arsenal makes a recent IRS job advertisement downright frightening,” Schmitt wrote.

    On Aug 12, the Democrat-led Congress was poised to pass the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, giving the IRS $80 billion, with $45.6 billion for “enforcement.”

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) speaks during a news conference about the Inflation Reduction Act outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Aug. 4, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

    “The people of Missouri love our country,” Schmitt wrote. “But, with every passing day, we find more reasons to fear our government.”

    Public concern has built over what some call the militarization of the IRS, and many Republicans fear increased audits on lower and middle-class taxpayers.

    “To put this in perspective, the IRS will be larger than the FBI, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the Border Patrol combined,” Schmitt wrote. “The thought of 87,000 new IRS agents terrorizing Missourians is disturbing, to say the least.”

    Even more troubling to Schmitt is the militarization of the IRS. In the most recent public accounting five years ago, the tax agency had more than 5 million rounds of ammunition to use in rifles, shotguns, pistols, and submachine guns.

    Schmitt pointed out that the federal government wants to limit law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment rights, while the IRS continues to buy ammunition.

    Proponents of a well-funded, well-staffed, potentially armed IRS say the agency has lost thousands of employees through attrition since 2010, and the 87,000 new employees will not double the agency’s numbers. Both Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Rettig have assured the public that the IRS won’t target those making less than $400,000.

    However, experts such as Preston Brashers, a senior tax policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, told The Epoch Times those assurances are meaningless because they are not in the law that Congress passed.

    Schmitt’s letter noted that FBI agents brandishing automatic weapons “invaded” the Florida home of former President Donald Trump, whose attorneys were blocked from observing the “unprecedented and intrusive raid.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 22:20

  • 400 Square Foot Nantucket Cottages Are Selling For Millions
    400 Square Foot Nantucket Cottages Are Selling For Millions

    Just in case you were wondering whether or not the real estate market is still mired in a bubble, just remember there are 350 square foot cottages in Nantucket that are selling for millions of dollars.

    Several cottages in the area were assessed at $10,000 per square foot, according to the Wall Street Journal. It makes Nantucket some of the “most expensive real estate in the world,” according to the report. 

    Henry Sanford, who has owned property in Nantucket for decades, said: “You can’t make sense of it mathematically. I don’t even know anywhere else in the world where you can find that.”

    About 25 cottages on Old North Wharf have become “trophy properties”, according to the report, highly sought after by sailing enthusiasts and wealthy homeowners. Each cottage comes with its own boat slip and their owners include people like Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife, Wendy Schmidt, billionaire businessman Charles Johnson, and Charles Schwab.

    Joe Farrell Jr. commented: “There’s half a dozen billionaires on this wharf. I’d have been self-conscious walking down here when I barely had two nickels to rub together.” 

    Susan Burke didn’t know her husband bought an 889 square foot cottage for $5.8 million, she read about it in the local press first.  “I just said, ‘Can you imagine anyone stupid enough to pay that price for this tiny little place?’” she said.

    Her husband told her two weeks later: “It’s yours.”

    The Old North Wharf properties are generally purchased for their private waterfront access on an island with “only a limited number of docks”, the report says. Few people rarely sleep in the them. They are part of a 99 year old cooperative that is responsible for common areas, like landscaping, the gravel road, parking lot and weekend security. 

    Co-op president Christopher Quick told WSJ: “It’s a pretty private little place. A lot of people use them as a little getaway from the madness. They’re all sort of playhouses.” 

    The co-op also manages three deep water docks, which also go for millions each. One sold for $4.75 million in 2016 while others sold for $2.1 million in 2002 and 2003. 

    “I really was just looking for access to the water and the lifestyle on the wharf,” said Harvey Jones, who paid $1.6 million for a 375 square foot cottage. He then collaborated with a neighbor to build a shared dock to accommodate his 36 foot yacht. 

    The cottages on the Wharf rarely turn over and the board of the Old North Wharf Cooperative has to vet new buyers. 

    “People want to get in here in the worst way,” Quick concluded. 

    You can read the full WSJ article on the Wharf here.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 20:35

  • Congressman Perry Gets Phone Back From FBI, Unclear About Motives Behind Seizure
    Congressman Perry Gets Phone Back From FBI, Unclear About Motives Behind Seizure

    Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

    House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-Pa.) confirmed that he has received his cell phone back from the FBI after the agency had seized it a few days back.

    Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), joined by members of the House Freedom Caucus, speaks at a news conference on the infrastructure bill outside the Capitol Building in Washington, on Aug. 23, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

    On Aug. 9, a day after raiding former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, FBI agents had taken Perry’s phone as part of a separate investigation. At the time, Perry was traveling with his family. Speaking to “Capitol Report” on NTD News, the GOP member confirmed that he has received his phone.

    He is still uninformed as to why the phone was confiscated by the FBI. However, Perry was informed by his attorneys that he was not a target of the FBI’s investigation.

    After the seizure, Perry had blasted FBI agents for making no attempt to contact his lawyer who would have made arrangements to submit the phone if needed by the agency.

    In a statement, Perry said that though he was outraged, he was “not surprised” that the FBI under the direction of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice would seize the phone of a sitting member of Congress.

    Perry claimed that his phone contains information about political and legislative activities as well as private conversations with his family members, friends, and constituents, none of which is the “government’s business.”

    “DOJ chose this unnecessary and aggressive action instead of simply contacting my attorneys,” the statement said. “These kinds of banana republic tactics should concern every citizen.”

    Unprecedented Move

    In an interview with NTD, Greg Shaffer, a retired FBI agent for the elite hostage rescue team, said that the FBI needs to have special permission to seize any property belonging to members of Congress, members of the clergy, attorneys, or other individuals who deal with privileged information. Seizing Perry’s phone was a “show of force” by the Biden administration.

    “For an FBI agent to go walk up to a sitting congressman and take his cell phone … that had to be approved at the highest level at the FBI and DOJ,” Shaffer said. “That is very, very difficult to do. Unprecedented.”

    It is unclear whether there is a link between Perry’s phone seizure and the raid on Trump’s home. Speaking to The Epoch Times, Perry pointed out that the separation of powers is a firewall that keeps the three branches of government in check.

    By taking control of a phone belonging to a sitting member of Congress, the DOJ, “for maybe the first time in history, is preparing to pierce that veil.”

    Darlene McCormick contributed to the report.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 20:00

  • "They Can Do Audio, Video, & Physical Surveillance On You 24H/365D A Year": Rex Lee On Intrusive Apps
    “They Can Do Audio, Video, & Physical Surveillance On You 24H/365D A Year”: Rex Lee On Intrusive Apps

    In this special episode, The Epoch Times’ Tiffany Meier sat down with Rex M. Lee, cybersecurity adviser at My Smart Privacy. He helps shed light on China’s cyberattacks on America, how they affect us in our daily lives, and what can be done to stop them.

    Lee notes one way adversarial countries can get in is through invasive apps:

    “You have to look at an app as legal malware. And that’s the best way you can describe apps today. An app—whether it’s a social media app developed by Bytedance, such as TikTok, or Facebook, or Instagram—any of these apps, they are basically legal malware that enable the developer to monitor, track, and data mine the end user for financial gain 24 by seven, 365 days a year.

    “A single intrusive app enables the developer to collect over 5,000 highly confidential data points associated with the end user’s personal information, business information, medical information, legal information, and employment information because the surveillance and data mining done by these companies is indiscriminate, meaning that they’re not only collecting consumer information, they’re collecting every bit of information from the end user, including text messages, email, email attachments, calendar events, and so forth,” he added.

    As to just how invasive these are, Lee said:

    “What an app will do is it will interlink with all of the hardware on the device and the sensors on the device, such as camera and microphone, as well as sensors, such as the accelerometer. So they can do audio, video and physical surveillance on you 24 hours, 365 days a year while collecting those 5,000 highly confidential data points on the end user. What they’re doing is they package that and they monetize it. But also, as we’re seeing in the news, is that these tech companies are aligned with governments. So the information a lot of times is ending up in the hands of the government.”

    Meier also sat down with Greg Copley, president of the International Strategic Studies Association and author of “The New Total War.” He touches on the recent buzz over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan and what that means for this November, both in terms of our midterm elections and Chinese leader Xi Jinping seeking an unprecedented third term.

    Copley said:

    “We’re now getting a better idea as to how the People’s Liberation Army [PLA] would fight a war against Taiwan, if it came to that. And if they in fact allowed the General Secretary Xi to make them go to war on the Taiwan issue, Japan has made it clear, and it repeated that declaration during Speaker Pelosi’s visit, that Japan would support Taiwan in the event of a military attack by the People’s Republic of China. Certainly, the U.S. will be drawn into it one way or another. Yes, it would involve high risks and the potential for many casualties. But it would also involve higher risks for the People’s Republic of China, not just in the direct conflict between the PLA and the Republic of China armed forces and the United States armed forces and the Japanese self-defense forces, but also there are other forces who would become engaged automatically.

    “That probably would include Australia, but it would certainly include India, and the Indian factor is one which Beijing does not wish to discuss openly. Even in the current war game posture against Taiwan, the PLA started moving additional forces down into the Tibetan plateau to be ready for an Indian response there. The Indian response would be massive. India has a similar force capability in many respects to the People’s Republic of China, and could move the entirety of its forces against the PRC, both on the Tibetan plateau and in the Eurasian context, but also in the Indian Ocean in a naval context,” he added.

    Watch the full interview below:

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 19:25

  • Time To Take A Stand
    Time To Take A Stand

    Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

    “I’m not going to sit on my ass as the events that affect me unfold to determine the course of my life. I’m going to take a stand. I’m going to defend it, right or wrong, I’m going to defend it.”

    – Cameron Frye

    My paid subscribers know we were pretty much spot on in predicting that the 9.1% CPI print from last month (1) marked the short term CPI peak and that (2) equity markets would rally in the short to mid-term as a result. I predicted it would happen in my July 2022 portfolio update:

    I think it’s likely the 9.1% print is the peak, for a little while at least, based on current spot prices. Used cars are down, new cars are down, home prices are starting to come down as more inventory comes on the market, oil has sold off over the last 2 weeks, etc. This doesn’t mean inflation is over, not does it mean stocks won’t still move lower in the longer term once the effect of rate hikes put into place in 1H 2022 finally surface in credit markets, but it means we could be at a lull for the time being (1-2 quarters).

    I think equities are going to rally on this sentiment (the fact that stocks didn’t crash spectacularly in the last 48 hours on that 9.1% print says something to me). The market is forward looking and the inflation numbers are backward looking, as much as I absolutely hate to admit it.

    And while I’m happy to take a victory lap on that prediction (Disclaimer: I never predict anything correctly, so don’t get used to it), I want to now also lay out seperate game theory for the Fed going forward.

    Not unlike Cameron at the very end of the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day off, when he finally decides to stand up to his father and show backbone for the first time in his life, the Fed has reached a similar opportunistic inflection point.

    Given this week’s “good” (read: still absolutely dogshit 8.5% YOY) inflation print, markets have moved higher under the assumption that the Fed is going to use the data as an excuse to pivot. I think there’s an opportunity being presented to the Fed that’s profoundly different, and wanted to discuss it.

    A couple of questions to ponder.

    What has the Fed been desperately trying to do over the last six months?

    In my opinion, it has been trying to regain its credibility with the American public, consumers and the market.

    And why is gaining credibility important at this juncture?

    Because part of inflation is a psychological game, and if the Fed can show the public that it has inflation under control, or at least has the means to contain it, it may help alter consumer behavior and quell inflation even further. At the very least, it will prevent panic and will appease politicians.

    On an even broader scale, there are many who think that the Fed has lost significant credibility over the last couple of decades. If I were Jerome Powell, I would be keen to the idea of being able to claw back some of that credibility.

    And now there’s a way that the Fed can do it. They can hold steady and continue to hike rates, as planned, despite the fact that inflation has “peaked”. Everyone is assuming the Fed is going to use the first bit of good news as a reason to pivot – hell, I have even suggested this – but they also have a very unique opportunity in the sense that they can do what is now the “unexpected” and show some backbone going forward.

    Continuing to hike aggressively despite the fact that inflation is coming down would be a giant step in the Fed creating a new image for itself.

    Of course, this would also exacerbate what I think is a coming trainwreck in credit markets. I described my thoughts about this in a recent piece when I noted that this year’s hikes are occurring far quicker than they did in 2018, when the market crashed in December.

    For comparison, I noted in my recent piece calling out the Biden administration’s lies about the economy that the Fed hiked at nowhere near the current pace leading up to 2018. The hikes leading up to 2018 took almost 3 years to reach 2.25-2.5%.

    Meanwhile, we have hiked to 2.25%-2.5% this time in just five months.

    One way or another, whether the Fed hikes or decides to start pivoting soon, I still believe there’s going to be a trainwreck coming in credit markets once the aftershocks of the rate hikes that have already taken place start to make their way through the system.

    At this point, the best the Fed can do is make it seem like a willing mess of their own making.

    By embracing more hikes, it’ll come off as though the coming crash of the economy is what the Fed was planning for, even if it wasn’t. Last week’s job numbers, no matter how fudged they may have been, could be seen as enabling the Fed to embrace the course they are already on. In other words, the Fed may think that there have so far been no consequences of their rate hike actions.

    However, the truth is that there are consequences, we just haven’t seen them yet.

    I’m predicting we will feel the full force of them in the second half of this year and, as a result, markets are going to move lower from where they are rallying to this week. As such, personally, I have increased some short exposure to index ETFs to try and balance both my long and short book in my personal portfolio.

    But the key takeaway from this piece is that the Fed has a chance to scrape back some of its long lost credibility given the circumstances of this past week. Whether or not they are able to find their spine for the first time since I can remember remains an entirely different question.

    “When Morris comes home, he and I’ll just have a little chat.”

    Disclaimer: I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I own/owned positions as disclosed above and in linked pieces. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities. I own or may own all crypto/stocks I mentioned or linked to in this piece. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. These positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 18:50

  • Former National Intelligence Director: Trump Has 'Ultimate Declassification Authority'
    Former National Intelligence Director: Trump Has ‘Ultimate Declassification Authority’

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

    A former director of national intelligence said Aug. 12 that it is “virtually impossible” to prosecute people for mishandling classified documents, and asserted that former President Donald Trump has the “ultimately declassification authority” in terms of such documents.

    “The president does have ultimate declassification authority. He can literally declassify—and President Trump had that authority, and could declassify anything you want while he was president,” John Ratcliffe, a Republican congressman before Trump appointed him to be director of national intelligence, said on Fox News.

    Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe looks on as President Donald Trump presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former football coach Lou Holtz, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Dec. 3, 2020. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)

    According to documents unsealed earlier Friday, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was raided by FBI agents on Aug. 8 because of potential violations of several laws, including the Espionage Act, which some legal experts say relates to possessing classified defense information.

    An inventory showed that agents seized what they listed as classified, secret, and top secret documents.

    Ratcliffe said on Fox that before the search warrant materials were made public, he didn’t believe the raid was about classified materials.

    “It has to be more than that because the Department of Justice and the FBI have already set a standard that makes it virtually impossible to prosecute a case like that,” he said, pointing to how former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s possession of classified documents was handled by the FBI, including then-Director James Comey.

    “As people talk about Espionage Act and classified documents and all of that, the standard was set in 2016. Remember the Department of Justice and the FBI took the official position that Hillary Clinton, who was in possession of classified documents … that [being] in possession of that, that wasn’t enough, and that being grossly negligent and being careless, Jim Comey told us, that’s not enough under the Espionage Act. You have to know you’re violating the law,” Ratcliffe said.

    “Even if you assume the worst case scenario for President Trump, that there were classified documents in his possession at Mar-a-Lago, that only puts him where Hillary Clinton was. And what the FBI and the Department of Justice would have to show is that he knew the documents were there and he didn’t think they were declassified,” he added.

    Trump wrote on Truth Social that all the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago were declassified.

    “He had a standing order that documents removed from the Oval Office and taken into the residence were deemed to be declassified,” a Trump spokesperson told Just the News. “The power to classify and declassify documents rests solely with the President of the United States. The idea that some paper-pushing bureaucrat, with classification authority delegated BY THE PRESIDENT, needs to approve of declassification is absurd.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 18:15

  • "He's Not Running Again": Top Democrat Lawmaker Predicts One Term For Biden
    “He’s Not Running Again”: Top Democrat Lawmaker Predicts One Term For Biden

    Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), who chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, told the NY Times Editorial Board in a weekend interview that President Joe Biden won’t run for office a second time.

    “Off the record, he’s not running again,” Maloney said, when asked – to which the Times responded, “Not off the record. On the record.”

    “On the record?” She replied. “No, he should not run again.“

    Earlier this month, Maloney said during a debate against Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) that she doesn’t think Biden will run again – a comment she walked back the next day.

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

    “Mr. President, I apologize,” she said on CNN, adding “I want you to run. I happen to think you won’t be running, but when you run or if you run, I will be there 100%. You have deserved it.”

    “You are a great president, and thank you for everything you’ve done for my state and all the states and all the cities in America,” she continued.

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

    Maloney’s latest comments come as recent polling shows that a majority of Americans are worried about Biden’s mental health.

    Maloney’s comments are in stark contrast to the Biden camp – with Bloomberg reporting earlier in the week that the president is planning to launch his re-election campaign shortly after midterms (despite the fact that 75% of Democrats want another candidate to run).

    Mean while, in an appearance on ABC‘s “The View,” White House spox Karine Jean-Pierre insisted the president is running.

    “So let me just say this and the president has been asked this question multiple times. So have I,” she said, adding “The president intends to run in 2024. That is something that he’s, again, has said multiple times. It is so far away right now. It is a long time away and what we are going to focus on, on how do we continue to deliver for the American public today, and the next day and has we have been doing the past 18 months. I will say this from that same poll that you are reading off of, is that in a head-to-head, the president beats Donald Trump.”

     

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 17:40

  • Hedge Fund CIO: Here's Why Trading Often Destroys People, Devouring Them From Within
    Hedge Fund CIO: Here’s Why Trading Often Destroys People, Devouring Them From Within

    By Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management

    Losing money sucks. Lots of other things do too. Most of us hate being wrong. We go to extraordinary lengths to protect our egos. Which is absurd of course, but we are curious little creatures, taught as children to aim for 100% on each test, to win every ball game.

    At some point in a trading career, we either learn to deal with the humiliation of making mistakes or we fail. And the way karma works, the harder we deny our errors the more public the ultimate humiliation.

    Lots of investors target longer time horizons so that they make infrequent predictions, which means fewer possible mistakes to confront. Traders on the other hand, make lots of smaller bets, which guarantees frequent winners and losers. But for some odd reason, victories are less pleasurable than defeats are painful, so on balance, trading depletes us. Which is why it often destroys people, slowly devouring them from within.

    Survivors develop ways to inoculate themselves from the pain, humiliation, defeats, losses. Some train their minds to reverse decisions in an instant. They can appear confused, confusing, contradicting themselves in the same sentence. Such people are masters at self-preservation.

    The greatest traders and investors eventually build firms around themselves. Team efforts yield psychic benefits that help restore balance to the emotionally drained. Being surrounded by a group of fellow risk takers and business builders allows you to refocus your efforts when you feel you’re probably wrong. Uncertain. Or when you simply lack conviction.

    And a team gives you leverage to press hard when you feel you’re right and the risk reward is compelling. Because after years of focused effort, introspection, you gain a good feel for when you’re likely right or wrong.

    And you begin to see the same in others. Better yet, you can sometimes sense when others are wrong and stubbornly unwilling to yet admit it. Large groups of such people present the greatest trading opportunities. And as awful as it all sounds, the truth is, there is nobility in this struggle. Joy in the pursuit.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 17:05

  • Ray Epps Told FBI He Expected Bomb Attack Near The Capitol On January 6, Documents Show
    Ray Epps Told FBI He Expected Bomb Attack Near The Capitol On January 6, Documents Show

    Authored by Joseph M. Hanneman via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    When James Ray Epps Sr. first called the FBI regarding his January 2021 activities in Washington D.C., he didn’t mention how he implored protesters in several locations to go inside the Capitol, but he later told an agent that he expected a bomb would detonate on a side street near the Capitol.

    Ray Epps encourages protesters to go into the Capitol the night before the siege of January 6, 2021. (Villain Report/Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

    Those are just two of the revelations in a collection of Epps-related material obtained by The Epoch Times, including FBI interview summaries, FBI audio recordings, transcripts, videos, and photographs.

    In two interviews with the FBI in 2021, Epps explained his actions on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6. He admitted he was guilty of trespassing on restricted Capitol grounds and confessed to urging protesters to go to—and into—the Capitol on Jan. 6.

    Despite the admissions, the FBI never arrested Epps and he was not charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with any Jan. 6 crimes. The non-action has fueled a crop of theories that he might have been working for the FBI or another agency.

    Epps, 61, has repeatedly denied those suggestions through his attorney.

    Epps recently sold his house and land in Queen Creek, Ariz., because of threats and harassment and moved to Colorado, he told the New York Times in July. According to online records, the Arizona property sold for $2.2 million on April 28, 2022.

    Epps at one time was No. 16 on the FBI’s Jan. 6 most-wanted page. His entry was later scrubbed from the list without explanation. He is among a handful of persons of interest to have their photos deleted from the FBI site.

    ‘Like a Terrorist Act’

    In an interview with FBI agents on March 3, 2021, Epps said he brought a first-aid kit in his backpack to Washington because he expected a terror attack.

    “Yeah, I thought there might be a problem. That’s why I was there,” Epps told an FBI agent and an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force officer in a meeting at the Phoenix office of Epps’s attorney, John Blischak.

    Blischak told The Epoch Times he would comment after reviewing the FBI interview summary, but had not done so by press time.

    “I was afraid they were going to set off an explosion on one of the side streets,” Epps said, according to a recording of the interview obtained by The Epoch Times. “So we tried to stay in the middle, tried to get there early, tried to stay away from the sides. And if something like that happened, I had a first-aid kit. I could help out.”

    Epps told the agents the possibility of violence weighed heavily on his mind and he originally did not plan to travel to Washington. It was only when learning that his son, James Epps Jr., was going to the Trump rally that the senior Epps decided to go and keep an eye on his son, he said.

    Ray Epps is shown at the lower left on an early FBI “wanted” poster. His photo has since been scrubbed from the FBI website. (FBI.gov/Wayback Machine)

    Ray Epps is shown at the lower left on an early FBI “wanted” poster. His photo has since been scrubbed from the FBI website. (FBI.gov/Wayback Machine)

    “As time went on, I started getting a bad feeling like something’s gonna happen,” said Epps, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and former Oath Keepers leader in Arizona. “There’s a lot of wackies out there. I thought something would happen in D.C. I thought there might be, what do they call them, EOD, something like that?”

    Epps might have been referring to an improvised explosive device (IED), which is a homemade bomb that was a favorite weapon of insurgents in Afghanistan during the United States’ long war there. In military parlance, an EOD refers to an explosive ordnance disposal specialist—someone who defuses and destroys explosives.

    An agent asked for clarification: “Oh, you mean like a terrorist act?”

    “Right, like a terrorist act,” Epps said.

    The agents did not press Epps on what led him to believe there would be an explosion, nor did they ask about the two alleged pipe bombs found outside the Republican and Democrat party headquarters, each just blocks from the Capitol. The RNC pipe bomb was placed near the corner of the Capitol Hill Club facing a side street, similar to the description Epps offered.

    The devices did not detonate and the FBI has not arrested anyone in those cases.

    Epps told the FBI he regretted the things he said in downtown D.C. the night of Jan. 5, 2021. He spoke to internet personality Baked Alaska and video podcaster Villain Report, both of whom recorded their exchanges.

    “In fact tomorrow, I don’t even like to say it because I’ll be arrested. …I’ll say it. We need to go into the Capitol,” Epps told Baked Alaska, whose legal name is Anthime Gionet.

    Epps shouted a similar theme to the crowd at large: “Tomorrow, we need to go into the Capitol. Into the Capitol. Peacefully,” he said. The crowd then started chanting, “Fed! Fed! Fed! Fed!”

    The FBI agents told Epps that his statements on Jan. 5 were problematic. They said they found him often on video and in photographs from Jan. 5 and 6.

    Epps replied: “I’m the tallest guy in the crowd, and I stick out, man. They followed me.” Then he joked, “I could never be a bank robber.”

    “We said that the same way,” one of the agents said. “We said, ‘It’s a big guy and every photo we find, he’s in it.’ The night before, that video didn’t help.

    “…And the video the night before, what you said basically predicted what happened,” the agent said.

    “I wish I could take that back,” Epps replied. He called the statements “really stupid.”

    On Jan. 6, Epps was filmed near the Washington Monument imploring the crowd, “We are going to the Capitol, where our problems are. It’s that direction. Please spread the word.”

    When speaking to a young man in a red and black mackinaw jacket, Epps said, “When we go in, leave this here [pointing to something]. You don’t need to get shot,” according to a video of the exchange.

    First Call to FBI on Jan. 8

    Epps first called the FBI on Jan. 8, 2021, after his brother-in-law notified Epps’s wife that a photograph of Epps was on the FBI website. That call to the National Threat Operations Center (NTOC) lasted about 27 minutes, according to an audio file of the call obtained by The Epoch Times.

    In describing his activities, Epps never mentioned that he urged the crowds on Jan. 5 to go into the Capitol the next day. He said he went down to Black Lives Matter plaza to try to calm things down after people he suspected were Antifa activists were harassing police.

    “I tried to calm them down,” Epps told the FBI operator. “I tried to let them know that, you know, that this is not what we’re here for. We’re here because of the Constitution, not the police. Police are on our side.”

    Nor did Epps mention getting on a bullhorn on Jan. 6 and encouraging people to go to the Capitol as soon as President Donald Trump was finished speaking. He would comment on those topics nearly two months later when interviewed by FBI agents.

    On the January call, Epps insisted his presence on Capitol grounds was to de-escalate when things got violent.

    “I am guilty of being there and probably trespassing,” he said. “But I had a reason. I was trying to calm ’em down. I wanted to be there, but I’m trying to calm ’em down. Anything I can do to help. There’s no call for that kind of behavior. I will be your witness.”

    Ray Epps at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, shortly before pepper gas is shot into the crowd. “Been a long time,” he said. “Aah, I love it!” (Screen Capture/Rumble)

    Ray Epps at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, shortly before pepper gas is shot into the crowd. “Been a long time,” he said. “Aah, I love it!” (Screen Capture/Rumble)

    Epps told the agents he came to Washington to express his concerns about the 2020 presidential election. He said he received five ballots at his Queen Creek address: one each for him and his wife, and three with names he did not recognize.

    “We’ve owned the property for 11 years now. I’ve never heard of those three people that came there. I didn’t recognize the names,” he said. “And then when the election went the way it did, I was a little concerned. I mean, how many apartments are there in Arizona, 3 million? And if they’re sending all these ballots to these different apartments. I mean, you know, that’s a concern.”

    Epps said he also went to support Trump, although he did not stay at the Ellipse for all of  Trump’s speech. He said he followed crowds that left the speech early and walked toward the Capitol.

    “People started leaving early after President Trump started speaking. So they were running and it was the same people that was, ‘F Antifa,’ and this and that and the other,” Epps said.

    “I believe, just my belief, they were Antifa, the ones that were saying that stuff,” he said. “And they were like running that way and I’m like, ‘Maybe I can calm this down.’ So I went with them.”

    Epps said it was his original intention to stay for all of the speeches at the Ellipse.

    “I planned on being and word was being passed around that right after he gets done speaking, we’re gonna go to the Capitol. And it was a given,” Epps said. “So spread the word spread the word. So I started spreading the word and I said that to a lot of people there: ‘We’re going to the Capitol right after the president speaks.’”

    Perhaps the scene that drew the most attention and speculation about Epps on January 6 was when he appeared at the first breach point of police lines. Some 20 minutes before Trump finished speaking at the Ellipse, an aggressive crowd gathered at a lightly defended barrier on a sidewalk not far from the Peace Monument.

    As rioters began yanking at the bicycle-rack barriers, Epps pulled Ryan Samsel back from the front line and spoke in his ear. Seconds after that exchange, Samsel and others knocked down the barrier, causing one officer to fall back and hit her head on the concrete.

    “I walked up to him, and I put my arm on him and said, ‘Hey, that’s not why we’re here. Don’t be doing that,’ you know.

    “I don’t know who he was. No clue,” Epps said. “I just tried to talk him out of doing what he was doing. And then all of a sudden, it blew up.”

    When interviewed by an FBI special agent and a detective on Jan. 30, 2021, Samsel corroborated Epps’s description of their brief verbal exchange, according to a transcript of the session obtained by The Epoch Times. Samsel faces nearly a dozen January 6-related charges in U.S. District Court in Washington.

    “Now that guy I talked to,” Samsel said, pointing to a photograph of Epps. “He came up to me and he says, ‘Dude,’ his exact words were, ‘Relax,’ he says, ‘The cops are doing their job.’ That’s exactly what he says to me right there in that picture.”

    Inconsistencies in Interviews

    Epps’s two interviews with the FBI included some inconsistencies and changed details, according to the recordings and FBI summary documents.

    Epps told the FBI on Jan. 8 that his brother-in-law called him to notify him his picture was on the FBI’s January 6 website. During his March 3 interview with FBI agents, Epps said, “Someone contacted me and said, ‘Hey, your picture’s up.’”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 16:30

  • "You Are Next": JK Rowling Receives Death Threat In Wake Of Salman Rushdie Attack
    “You Are Next”: JK Rowling Receives Death Threat In Wake Of Salman Rushdie Attack

    Popular author JK Rowling, who wrote the famous Harry Potter series, has become the latest high profile writer to face a public death threat after the horrific Friday knife attack on Salman Rushdie at a New York speaking event, which has left the 75-year old on a ventilator fighting for this life. 

    Rowling had issued a tweet expressing solidarity with Rushdie as the world received news of the assassination attempt. “Horrifying news. Feeling very sick right now. Let him be ok,” she had posted. But quickly after, an account identified as “Meer Asif Aziz” responded to Rowling: “Don’t worry you are next.”

    Aziz’s account had previously expressed support for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Additionally when Rushdie’s attacker was identified as 24-year-old Hadi Matar of New Jersey, the Aziz Twitter account hailed Matar as a “revolutionary Shia fighter”.

    Police are currently investigating any possible ties between the Iranian government or foreign entities and the knife attack on Rushdie, given especially the well-known decades long fatwa in place by the Ayatollah calling for his killing.

    Rowling reached out to Twitter Support and soon after acknowledged that the police have become involved. Initially, she had received a message from Twitter saying the Aziz threat “did not violate the community guidelines.” But later the account was frozen.

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

    So it appears Twitter only took action after Rowling and her followers kept up the pressure: 

    The email from Twitter read: ‘After reviewing the available information, we determined that there were no violations of the Twitter rules in the content you reported. We appreciate your help and encourage you to reach out again in the future if you see any potential violations.’ 

    The 57-year-old posted a screenshot of the response, commenting: ‘These are your guidelines, right? “Violence: You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people. We also prohibit the glorification of violence… “Terrorism/violent extremism: You may not threaten or promote terrorism”…’

    Authors JK Rowling and Salman Rushdie

    As for Rushdie, it’s being reported that he’s now able to speak, but could lose and eye and has suffered serious liver damage as well as nerve damage to his arm, after being stabbed up to ten times. His agent said Sunday he’s been taken off the ventilator as the “road to recovery” begins.

    Hadi Matar entered a plea of non-guilty during court proceedings on Saturday. Authorities have said he’s been cooperative during questioning, but still haven’t detailed the precise motive or if there were external terrorism links.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 15:55

  • Damning FBI Report Concludes Alec Baldwin Pulled Trigger In 'Rust' Shooting
    Damning FBI Report Concludes Alec Baldwin Pulled Trigger In ‘Rust’ Shooting

    Authored by Katie Hudson via The Mind Unleashed (emphasis ours),

    In spite of Alec Baldwin’s repeated denials that he pulled the trigger of the gun that killed his film’s cinematographer, the FBI has concluded in a damning new report that he did, in fact, pull the trigger of that gun.

    On the set of Baldwin’s film “Rust” in October 2021, the 64-year-old actor unexpectedly shot and killed his cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, who was 42 years old. Baldwin also injured his director, Joel Souza, during the shooting, which took place at Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico on October 21, 2021.

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

    Baldwin has always maintained that he did not pull the trigger of the gun that killed Hutchins, which was only intended to be loaded with blanks. However, a new report has determined that the gun could not have been discharged unless the trigger was pulled first.

    This indicates that Baldwin may still be held accountable for the incident in the form of criminal charges, as the Santa Fe Sheriff’s department has confirmed that the investigation would be handed over to the District Attorney.

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

    On Friday (August 12), authorities stated that they are waiting for the actor’s phone records, which the District Attorney has been working with Suffolk County Police Department in New York and Baldwin’s attorneys to acquire them.

    Detectives will examine the documents, and then a case file will be delivered to the district attorney so that she can decide whether or not any criminal charges will be filed.

    The FBI’s new forensic report examines all aspects of the shooting as part of a larger investigation to determine whether or not any criminal charges can be filed.

    The investigation concluded that the revolver, which was a single-action F.lli Pietta in.45 Colt caliber, was simply not capable of being fired unless someone pulled the trigger.

    According to ABC News, they arrived at their conclusion after carrying out an accidental discharge test; however, it is not apparent whether the test was carried out using the exact same gun or an identical clone.

    It states that even if someone messes around with the hammer, the gun will not fire a bullet and a primer at the same time when it is operating normally.

    During interviews with investigators, Baldwin said that he was informed the weapon he was holding was a “cold gun,” which meant the revolver was loaded with blank cartridges.

    Baldwin claimed that the weapon fired without him pulling the trigger when he pulled back the hammer and posed for Halyna’s camera, with the actor adding: “I did not pull the trigger.”

    According to the FBI, it is theoretically possible for the device to produce the sound of a gunshot without actually firing a bullet; however, it is abundantly clear that this was not what happened in Baldwin’s case.

    The damning FBI report may result in criminal charges being brought against Alec Baldwin and potentially others involved in the shooting as well, with the Santa Fe Police Department still investigating the circumstances surrounding Halyna’s death.

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

    The forensic analysis was immediately sent to the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator as soon as it was received, which was then forwarded to the Sheriff’s Office.

    Police also released several new videos of Baldwin being interviewed about the shooting.

    Speaking earlier this year, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said that criminal charges should not be ruled out.

    “It’s too early to rule anything out right now, I don’t think anybody’s off the hook when it comes to criminal charges,” Mendoza said.

    “I’ve said this before: I think there was complacency on the set. There was disorganization and a degree of negligence—whether that rises to a criminal level, that will be up to the district attorney,” he added.

    Although no one has been charged with a crime in connection to the shooting, Baldwin is being sued by Hutchins family.

    Like this article? Get the latest from The Mind Unleashed in your inbox. Sign up right here.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 15:20

  • "Supply, Commodity, And Dollar Shocks": Morgan Stanley Sees Gathering Storm Clouds Of A Global Recession
    “Supply, Commodity, And Dollar Shocks”: Morgan Stanley Sees Gathering Storm Clouds Of A Global Recession

    By Seth Carpenter, chief global economist at Morgan Stanley

    The clouds of recession are gathering globally. The Chinese economy contracted in 2Q. The US notched a “technical recession.” The flow of natural gas to Western Europe is restricted. In the past three months, we have revised down our forecast for global growth to 2.5%Y in 2022, which is about 50bp below consensus and 40bp lower than in May. We are edging closer to the bear scenario from our May Mid-year Outlook. Is a global recession upon us?

    Recession is our baseline view for the euro area. The flow of natural gas from Russia has been restricted, prices have surged, and we see weak growth through the end of the year. We expect a recession by 4Q, but the data will be noisy. While 2Q GDP surprised to the upside because of the timing of the European post-Covid rebound, PMIs were already negative for July. A complete gas cut-off is the worst-case scenario and remains possible, but normalization of gas flows would bring only modest relief. Winter price levels are already partially baked in. And with the ECB almost single-mindedly focused on inflation, more hikes are likely until there are hard data that show economic contraction or normalized inflation. Inflation and rate headwinds are not dissipating any time soon.

    I am only slightly more optimistic about growth in the US. The negative GDP prints in the first two quarters clearly cast a pall, but those readings are misleading. To be sure, the weakness in residential and business investment will not be reversing course with monetary policy continuing to tighten. But consumption spending was slammed by surging food and energy prices, a pullback from a year of goods overconsumption, and the rollover of the housing market. Nevertheless, household spending – the key driver of the economy averaged 1.4% at an annual rate in the first half. Indeed, the bright side of the negative 2Q print was the whopping 2 percentage point drag from inventories, correcting an overbuild. The inventory drag is now in the rearview mirror, and the July jobs report printed a massive 528k jobs. That pace of job creation almost certainly cannot last, however, and the Fed’s drag on the economy – and therefore jobs – is both substantial and intentional. But since the 1970s the US has never had a recession within a year of printing so many jobs. So what is the plan? As Chair Powell noted at the July press conference (and as we have repeatedly argued), the Fed’s strategy is to slow the economy enough that inflation pressures abate, but then to pivot. To be “nimble,” as Powell has said. A soft landing is by no means assured – again, we are only slightly more optimistic on the US than we are on Europe – but with the help of some good luck, the Fed’s plan has a chance.

    China’s situation is completely different. The economy contracted in 2Q amid stringent Covid controls, but real-time data show that we have now bottomed. The question is no longer whether we get a rebound, but how much of one. Covid-zero policies are slowly easing and we think more relaxation will follow the Party Congress in October. But will freedom of mobility be enough to reverse the challenges of the housing market? Recent policy action to address the housing crisis will help, but I fully expect that a much larger package will be needed. Ultimately consumer and property confidence will need to make a rapid recovery if the rebound can take shape.

    The world has been simultaneously hit by supply, commodity, and dollar shocks. Central banks are pulling back on demand to contain inflation. But even as we start to glimpse the other side of the inflation peak, the full effects of rate hikes are not yet manifest in the economy. Even if we avoid a global recession, it is hard to see economic activity getting back to its pre-Covid trend. I hope it is sunny where you are…you can worry about this storm tomorrow.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 14:45

  • Delaware Man Crashes Car Into US Capitol Barricade, Opens Fire And Kills Himself
    Delaware Man Crashes Car Into US Capitol Barricade, Opens Fire And Kills Himself

    Update(1632 ET): Police have identified the man who crashed into a Capitol barricade and killed himself as Richard Aaron York III, a 29-year old from Dagsboro, Delaware. “It’s still not clear why he chose to drive to the Capitol Complex,” the US Capitol Police said in a statement.  According to Yahoo, police say York was believed to have recently lived in Pennsylvania. 

    * * *

    A man drove his car into a barricade at the US Capitol early Sunday morning and, as it burst into flame, he exited the vehicle and began “indiscriminately” shooting a handgun. As US Capitol police approached him, he fatally shot himself in the head. 

    The car that crashed into the US Capitol barricade is carried away on Sunday morning (AP Photos)

    According to a statement issued by Capitol Police:

    Just after 4:00 a.m., a man drove his car into the vehicle barricade at East Capitol Street and Second Street. While the man was getting out of the car, it became engulfed in flames.

    The man then fired several shots into the air along East Capitol Street. When our officers heard the sound of gunfire, they immediately responded and were approaching the man when he shot himself.

    A police officer examines the charred street where the assailant’s vehicle struck the Capitol barricade and burst into flame (Daniel Slim/AFP via Fox5 NY)

    “It appears that the individual may have started the fire himself as he was getting out of the car,” said Capitol Police chief Tom Manger at a Sunday morning press conference. He described the attacker as firing a handgun “indiscriminately.”

    With the man’s identity not yet revealed, there’s no indication of motive thus far. Police are reviewing his social media accounts for any indications of his intent.

    “We do know that the subject has a criminal history over the past ten years or so, but nothing that at this point would link him to anything here at the Capitol,” said Manger. 

    The charred vehicle where it struck the Capitol security barricade and burst into flame (Erik Cox Photography via WTOP)

    No police fired their weapons, and no one else was hurt in the attack. Congress is currently in recess.  The death investigation will be managed by the DC Metropolitan Police Department.

    Though not directly declaring a motive, some major media stories on the incident are already putting it in the context of right-wing anger over the FBI’s Aug 8 search for classified documents at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.

    “US law enforcement agencies have faced a wave of threats and political discord ahead of the 2022 midterm elections and after an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s home in Florida last week,” writes Bloomberg‘s Victoria Cavaliere. 

    The last vehicular attack on the Capitol didn’t come from the right wing. In April 2021, black Nation of Islam disciple Noah Green killed one Capitol police officer and badly injured another one. Green struck the officers with his vehicle, leapt from his car with a knife and was shot and killed by Capitol police. 

    Referencing that incident in coverage of this morning’s attack, Reuters describes Green only as a “25-year-old motorist.” 

    The aftermath of the April 2021 attack on a Capitol police barricade (Oliver Contreras/The New York Times)

     

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 13:33

  • Former FBI Agent Says Mar-a-Lago Raid Was Government’s Attempt To 'Embarrass' Trump
    Former FBI Agent Says Mar-a-Lago Raid Was Government’s Attempt To ‘Embarrass’ Trump

    Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Greg Shaffer, a retired FBI agent for the elite hostage rescue team, said that the agency’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Aug. 8 was “completely and totally unprecedented.”

    “I don’t know what the FBI, Department of Justice, or this administration was thinking by doing this,” Shaffer said in an Aug. 10 interview with NTD. “It was an overt act meant to embarrass the former president. It just shows the total lack of optics on their end. The rule of law obviously does not play equal on both sides anymore.”

    Local law enforcement officers in front of the home of former U.S. President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 9, 2022. (Giorgio Viera/AFP via Getty Images)

    During the raid, Trump’s attorneys on the site were not allowed to watch what the FBI agents were doing, which Shaffer said was also unprecedented.

    Shaffer said that during most of the search warrants he executed as an FBI agent, the owner of the property usually watched over the agents to monitor what they were doing as they looked for the items included in the warrant.

    The ex-FBI agent said that a subpoena, which could have been done behind the scenes without embarrassing the Trump family or the Trump organization, would have been a “much better course of action.”

    Shaffer said he’s concerned about the heavy-handed way the raid was conducted, and that it was an intentional decision of the Biden administration as a “show of force,” he added.

    Government Reacts to Public Outrage

    On Aug. 11, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) asked a federal court to make the materials of the search warrant public.

    Speaking to The Epoch Times, John Malcolm, director of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation, said the government’s move to unseal the documents might be a response to public outrage.

    “I think that this is an attempt by the Department of Justice—who may have underestimated the reaction to this through this raid—to try to get out a little bit ahead of it by saying, ‘Oh, see, what we did here was perfectly on the up and up,’” Malcolm said.

    Following the raid at Trump’s home, the FBI also seized the cellphone of Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) on Aug. 9. The circumstances surrounding the seizure are not known. In a statement, Perry called the action “banana republic tactics.”

    In the NTD interview, Shaffer said the FBI must have special permission to seize the property of members of Congress, members of the clergy, attorneys, and other individuals who deal with privileged information.

    “For an FBI agent to go walk up to a sitting congressman and take his cell phone … that had to be approved at the highest level at the FBI and DOJ,” Shaffer said. “That is very, very difficult to do. Unprecedented.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 13:30

  • High Prices, Range Anxiety Holding Back EV Adoption
    High Prices, Range Anxiety Holding Back EV Adoption

    While the tax credits for new and used electric vehicles included in the Inflation Reduction Act will do its part in making electric cars more attractive to American consumers, Statista’s Felix Richter notes that there’s more than just the high purchase price keeping Americans from buying electric.

    According to a recent survey conducted by AAA, one quarter of Americans say that they would be likely to buy an electric vehicle (excluding hybrids) as their next car. That leaves three quarters who don’t see themselves plugging in instead of filling up just yet.

    And the reasons for that hesitancy are mainly threefold. As the following chart shows, it all comes down to three factors: high prices, range anxiety and charging challenges.

    Infographic: High Prices, Range Anxiety Holding Back EV Adoption | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    But hey, if you’re not re-mortgaging the house to buy that EV, you are a climate-change-denying nazi, right?

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 08/14/2022 – 13:00

Digest powered by RSS Digest