- 'A Dark Alliance': Musk's Twitter Files Exposed The Fifth Estate
‘A Dark Alliance’: Musk’s Twitter Files Exposed The Fifth Estate
Authored by Mike Solana via PirateWires.com,
Dangerous alliance. In 1787, Edmund Burke said there were “Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there [sits] a Fourth Estate more important than they all.” The notion of some vital power beyond our government was imported to the New World, and today constitutes a core belief of the American liberal: there is no free people, we’re often told, without a free press independent of congress, the courts, and our president. But throughout the 20th Century thousands of media outlets gradually consolidated, and by the dawn of our internet era only a few giants remained. These giants largely shared a single perspective, and in rough agreement with the ruling class the Fourth Estate naturally came to serve, rather than critique, power. This relationship metastasized into something very close to authoritarianism during the Covid-19 pandemic, when a single state narrative was written by the press, and ruthlessly enforced by a fifth and final fount of power in the newly-dominant technology industry.
It was a dark alliance of estates, accurate descriptions of which were for years derided as delusional, paranoid, even dangerous. But today, on account of a single shitposting billionaire, the existence of the One Party’s decentralized censorship apparatus is now beyond doubt.
A couple weeks back, alleging proof Twitter acted with gross political bias, and in a manner that influenced U.S. elections (!), Elon Musk opened his new company’s internal communications to a small handful of journalists. They set immediately to breaking a series of major stories that have rewritten the history of Trump-era tech. Long story short, Twitter leadership lied to the public, relentlessly, for years, and everything the most paranoid among us ever said about the platform was true. “Trust and safety” is a euphemism for political censorship, with “expert” teams comprised almost exclusively of the most radical, joyless grievance studies majors you ever met in college. Their goal is to reshape American politics by dominating the bounds of what the public is permitted to consider American politics. In these efforts, they have mostly been succeeding.
On December 2nd, Matt Taibbi shared conversations from the company’s “trust and safety” team that led to Twitter’s suppression of the New York Post’s infamous Hunter Biden laptop story. While interesting, Taibbi’s most notable revelation came almost as a side: both major political parties, as well as the White House, maintained direct lines of communication with Twitter, which they used to formally request content be removed from the platform. The company responded enthusiastically to many of these requests, and the examples we have (for now) come from the Democratic Party. Critics have been quick to point out Trump was in the White House at the time, though less interested, for some reason, in what — if anything — he removed from the site.
On December 6th, Bari Weiss and her colleagues reported out proof of Twitter’s secret blacklists, in which both specific topics and, more problematically, people were de-amplified by the “trust and safety” team. The blacklisting was done for a nebulous host of reasons that generally amounted to something like ‘this feels dangerous.’ Danger was, of course, defined by partisan operatives, and exclusively targeted right-coded positions. Skepticism of radical gender ideology, distrust of public Covid policy, and almost anything having to do with the integrity of our last election were at the top of the list.
Separate from any opinion concerning whether such topics, or the purveyors of such topics, should have been “shadow banned,” the revelation that they were is immensely important on account of Twitter’s censors, with their many supporters in the press, have denied the existence of these tools for years.
Finally, over the last few days, Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, and Bari have all reported out pieces of Donald Trump’s deplatforming, which is easily the most famous digital unpersoning in history. It is also the least compelling story in the series. While it’s good to finally know exactly what happened, it really just was what everyone assumed: Trump was not banned for violating policy. Trump was banned because Twitter employees, who donated literally 99% of their political contributions to the Democratic Party, demanded it be done regardless of their own rules.
Altogether, the Twitter Files — an ongoing story — paint a portrait of clear and inevitable partisan bias at one of the most dominant speech platforms in history. A small handful of very left-wing executives, who naturally perceived most opinion right of center as dangerous, worked tirelessly to limit those opinions from view. Empowered to censor “unsafe” content, and protected by a team of people who shared their political orientation, the executives produced, in a legal and decentralized manner, a key component of our defacto state censorship apparatus. While we don’t know for sure this is also happening at Google, Meta, or TikTok (which is for some reason still allowed to operate in this country), I think it’s a safe bet we’re looking at an industry-wide affliction.
But I do have questions.
Where is the full list of shadow-banned accounts? Which political campaigns, specifically, communicated with Twitter, and what specifically was taken down? What about requests from foreign governments? What about requests from our own government? We need to know which of our government agencies, if any, had content removed from the platform, and we need to know the nature of this content. Taibbi alluded to Trump’s White House — did someone from the Trump administration request a takedown? Who made the request? Who received the request? Was it answered? What, if anything, was removed?
The Trump line of questioning is, in particular, something you might assume attractive to the media, which has waged all-out war on the populist clown king for the last seven years. Alas, the press seems broadly disinterested. Is this because they don’t believe the former president ever made such requests, or is their lack of interest rather stemming from a fear of validating a major story most of them are currently trying to frame — for their own obvious political reasons — as not worth reading?
A brief selection of positions from our cherished Fourth Estate: This entire story is a “dud” (The Washington Post) — no bombshells here! (Forbes). The Twitter Files, in which a handful of committed partisans enthusiastically censor large swaths of the conservative base, including a former president, actually prove the company was not politically biased. It is, however, now biased against Democrats (New York Magazine). Elon’s exposé is a flop that doesn’t matter. It has also placed multiple “trust and safety experts” in mortal danger (The Verge, predictably). Then, my favorite: it is good to finally see the blacklist tools I have been curious about for many years, which we have by the way always known existed, and therefore don’t matter (The Atlantic).
The charge of shadow banning evoked uniquely loud jeering from the press, including Charlie Warzel in particular, a man formerly of the position “Twitter isn’t shadow banning Republicans.” Now, in the face of evidence the company absolutely shadow banned Republicans, the official position is we are using the term “shadow ban” incorrectly.
It’s a game of semantics, in which the public is dragged through the exhausting, useless question of how much invisible speech suppression, precisely, constitutes a “real” shadow ban, rather than the glaringly important questions of both ethics and, frankly, safety. In the first place, is it right to run a decentralized censorship apparatus, and to make your rules invisible? In the second, what happens to a free country when the bounds of acceptable speech are set by a small cabal of unelected partisan cops? Because my sense is the answer isn’t “freedom.”
There have been a few notable, if cautiously dissenting opinions from prominent voices in media. Buzzfeed’s Katie Notopoulos, the Los Angeles Times’ Jeff Bercovici, and the New York Times’ Mike Isaac all took somewhat risky positions in favor of transparency, apparently no longer in vogue among journalists, with Jeff explicitly acknowledging the important nature of the revelations. But I’ve only seen one actual piece, drafted and published by a reasonably mainstream media entity, embrace any aspect of the Twitter Files.
Anthony Fisher, an opinion editor at the Daily Beast, danced around the subject, and awkwardly tried to obscure his overall agreement the story mattered behind many paragraphs demonstrating his conservative-hating bonafides. But in addressing Twitter’s censorship he did include the following important line:
And that lesson is “Don’t trust (or demand) billionaire tech bros to be the arbiters of truth and news.”
It was a flashback to the position most journalists and activists shared in the days before Donald Trump. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before they realized they had a political ally in tech industry hall monitors, and set about a national power grab. In any case, if you were to strip the above position from all its obnoxious tribal language, it would really just be: no few people should control the bounds of acceptable discourse. I agree. But narrowly focused on the “tech bro,” the point not only betrays a bias, but misses a defining aspect of technology.
The Fifth Estate is a fundamentally different kind of power. It’s more difficult to consolidate than media, and more difficult to control than even our government divided by design. Its impact is also far more difficult to predict. This is because technology is above all things defined in terms of newness, which not only makes it disruptive of pre-existing power, but destructive of itself — a sort of anti-power that only guarantees change. The true failsafe. Our ultimate reset. Tremendously empowering of tyranny in times of stagnation, technology is also our most powerful weapon against tyranny in times of innovation.
While many tech giants have gone the way of media in consolidating power, centralizing, and aligning with the state, the future of technology is always change. From encrypted chats and blockchain to artificially intelligent search, every tech giant that amassed power over the last two decades will be facing existential threats in the years to come — not only from the government, but from the industry.
In terms of Twitter, Elon is already leveraging Fifth Estate properties, and not by employing current tools to amplify his own opinions (an emerging conspiracy). He is iterating product more rapidly than we’ve seen from any major, consumer-facing tech company in years. The trial and error here has largely been ridiculed by people who have never built a technology company. But while detractors are obsessed with his censorship abilities, Elon’s platform experiments are the things actually capable of root-changing the national discourse. The medium is the message, and the medium is evolving. Whatever works on Twitter will be cloned. The bounds of acceptable discourse will change, and none of this will have anything to do with Elon’s spicy tweets.
But about those spicy tweets —
As the former lords of Twitter descend into hysterics with outlandish comments declaring Elon a Nazi, or a proponent of the QAnon conspiracy, or whatever other bit of unhinged loser bullshit, he faces two significant threats. First, he’s clearly made an enemy of every other major fount of power, including in particular the Fourth Estate. This will impact all of Elon’s companies, as they all require support from the government and public, and the opinions of our government and public are still shaped, to a large extent, by the media. It’s no coincidence most powerful tech executives, from Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos to Jack Dorsey, share a carefully-crafted language of neutrality. This air of neutrality is how a king behaves, because the air of neutrality is how a king survives. In flaunting his power, rather than obscuring it, Elon is asking to be attacked, and his enemies are happy to oblige, even while more dominant platforms go unbothered.
Something like 80 million Americans are using TikTok, a company hopelessly compromised by the Chinese Communist Party. Do you even know the name of its CEO?
For a man who controls the bounds of acceptable speech for a third of the country’s adults, he sure doesn’t seem especially interested in speaking.
Elon’s second danger is the far more formidable danger of himself. What the Twitter Files prove beyond doubt is censorship in the age of social media is power — a real and dangerous power that corrupts.
Last year, Dorsey appeared before Congress, and declared neither he nor anyone else, and certainly not anyone in government, should be allowed to set the bounds of acceptable speech for the entire country. But with no viable alternative, someone does need to bear the ring. In leaked texts from the recent Twitter legal saga, it’s clear Jack believed Elon a worthy steward of this tremendous power, and, for what it’s worth, I agree. But provided the nation remains free, the rules of the Fifth Estate are immutable. Power comes in dramatic upward swings, and resets the status quo. It will not — it can not — last forever. So change the world, but be mindful of temptation, and make good use of your god mode powers while you have them. Because they never last forever.
* * *
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 23:40 - Salt Lake City Faces Toxic Dust Storms Amid Declining Water Levels
Salt Lake City Faces Toxic Dust Storms Amid Declining Water Levels
Salt Lake City, Utah, was already in trouble. Between vast open-pit mining operations in the surrounding areas, oil refineries, and a unique mountain range that traps pollution in a winter ‘inversion layer,’ the cities surrounding the Great Salt Lake have grappled with air quality issues for years.
“We have 2.5 million residents along the edges of the lake,” said Kevin Perry, a University of Utah atmospheric scientist researching the Great Salt Lake dust. “These dust plumes come off and make the air unhealthy regardless of what’s in it.“
Now, as NBC News reports, declining water levels in the Great Salt Lake have created new challenges as dust laden with toxic metals threaten the region.
Dust researcher Kevin Perry poses with his fat bike and a PI-SWERL machine, which can measure wind erosion and dust emission.Evan Bush / NBC News Since Mormon pioneers settled the valley in the mid-1800s, the lake’s volume is down 67% – thanks to a combination of irrigation projects, which account for roughly 75% of the loss, and the ongoing megadrought, which accounts for the remainder of the drop, according to research from Utah State University.
This isn’t an issue caused by climate change, according to the report. Residents are simply consuming too much water for agriculture, residential use and industry, from overtaxed rivers that feed the terminal lake. Humans diverting water has reduced the Great Salt Lake by around 11 feet – while increased evaporation has added to the problem by around half-a-foot.
During dust storms, host spots on the lake will pop and emit swirls of dust, collecting particles less than a fraction of the width of a human hair, darkening the sky and propelling them into communities nearby. The smallest particles can remain airborne for weeks at a time.
The lake bed contains pollutants like arsenic, distributed widely across the surface, which could be an indication that some of it occurs naturally, Perry said.
The lake has long been a catchment for industrial pollution. Each area of the lake has its own recipe of toxic metals and other substances, fed by different polluting industries nearby. Researchers are concerned that what’s been stored in the lake will soon be carried on the wind into Salt Lake City and other neighboring communities. -NBC News
In 2018, roughly 9% of the lakebed was a source of dust – with a protective crust covering much of the rest. But wind and weathering is breaking that down.
“The longer the lake bed is exposed, we expect that to increase. It could increase to 24% to 25% of the lakebed,” said Perry.
Lawmakers are starting to take notice – but in typical fashion, it’s too little, too late. They have passed a series of bills designed to revamp how Utah uses its water. In November, Gov. Spencer Cox closed the basin to new water appropriations. A step in the right direction after years of neglect.
“The entire state has an unhealthy relationship with water,” said Perry. “We need to start living like we live in the desert.“
Water levels on the Great Salt Lake have retreated away from what was once the shoreline, leaving acres of exposed playa. The crusty lake bed surface, seen here from Antelope Island, is breaking down in some areas and blowing away. The playa is a source of dust that could worsen air pollution.Evan Bush / NBC News Researchers looking into the toxic dust have been examining exactly where it goes – including whether it’s easily absorbed into people’s bodies, and what risks it may present.
In 2018, scientists with the US Geological Survey placed 18 dust traps throughout the Salt Lake City area – where they trapped dust from the lake, local construction, and local deserts, for a period of several months.
What they found was concerning. At every site, arsenic concentrations exceeded EPA levels of concern for residential soil. One site had a concentration 35x higher.
“We’ve got some bells going off,” said USGS hydrologist, Annie Putman, who led the study. “The pieces are there to think we should be concerned.”
The Salt Lake City area has long had a reputation for pollution gong back decades. Out of 888 US metro areas, the EPA ranked it the ninth-worst on a 2020 risk screening model that ranks health risks from toxic chemical releases. Last year it ranked 20th for short-term particle pollution by the American Lung Association.
Highway vehicles traffic travel past a poor air quality sign in Salt Lake City, on Jan. 23, 2013.Rick Bowmer / AP file “If you look at Salt Lake, it’s essentially a bowl and the dense emissions are in the lower elevations,” said John Lin, an atmospheric research professor at the University of Utah, who noted that pollutants such as black carbon, nitrogen dioxide and other particulate matter “tend to be higher in lower-income neighborhoods.”
Residents in the lower portion of the ‘bowl’ are inundated in a pea soup of refinery emissions, car exhaust and other pollutants.
The researchers suspect that urban, diverse neighborhoods are receiving much of their dust and the toxic metals within that dust from local sources — nearby polluters or construction projects. It’s also possible that dust from the Great Salt Lake and other nearby playas picks up local pollutants from nearby mines, refineries and pesticides as dust travels into the city.
Meanwhile, researchers found the highest levels of dust — and metals — in suburbs outside urban Salt Lake City. Researchers suspect communities north of the city, including areas such as Syracuse, Ogden and Bountiful could be receiving the majority of the dust that blows off the lake. In early October, less than a mile from what was once lakeshore, workers were hammering away to frame new housing. -NBC News
“It irritates the eyes and gives me sinus infections,” said 58-year-old George Casillas, who’s lived on the west side for 15 years. “It’s hard to be trapped in the valley.”
“There’s so much sediment and so much trapped for so long. It’s pulling up stuff that’s been trapped for 100 years,” he continued. “Are there carcinogens or other health risks? That’s what I’m worried about.“
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 23:20 - Musk Unexpectedly Sells $3.6 Billion In Tesla Stock In Last 3 Days
Musk Unexpectedly Sells $3.6 Billion In Tesla Stock In Last 3 Days
There had been a quiet at first, and then increasingly louder chorus of disapproval among Tesla bulls at the relentless decline in the TSLA stock price, which someone was aggressively selling in recent days and slashing nearly a quarter of its value since the start of the month (and more than 60% from its all time high just over a year ago).
It turns out that at least one of the whale sellers was none other than Elon Musk himself who – just days after losing the world’s richest man rank to French luxury titan Bernard Arnault – late on Wednesday filed a Form 4 showing he sold nearly 22 million shares, or some $3.6 billion worth, of TSLA stock between Nov 12 and Nov 14.
The sales, which took place at a price between $176.702 and $156.14, brought Musk’s total TSLA holdings down from 445.617 million to 423.622 million, a decline of 21.995 million shares.
The week’s sale, which follows a similar dump one month ago when during a 4 day period from November 4-8, Elon Musk sold 19.5 million shares or roughly $4 billion in TSLA stock, means that the Tesla – and now Twitter – chief executive has sold more than $39 billion in Tesla shares since the company’s stock peaked in November 2021. Tesla, still the world’s largest auto maker by value, has lost more than $700 billion in market value since that all-time high.
It wasn’t clear what prompted Musk to sell additional Tesla stock, and the company didn’t respond to a request for comment from the WSJ, but on Tuesday, in what may have been a foreshadowing of what’s to come, Musk tweeted, “At risk of stating obvious, beware of debt in turbulent macroeconomic conditions, especially when Fed keeps raising rates.”
Musk, of course, has lots of debt from his completed acquisition of Twitter in October. While Musk provided $33.5 billion in equity financing to pay for the deal, Twitter also took on around $13 billion in debt as part of the takeover, in which the company went private. According to reports from Bloomberg, the banks which are stuck with the debt and unable to syndicate it to willing buyers, offered to lower the interest on some of the more expensive tranches if Musk is willing to exchange the Twitter debt with a personal margin loan (backed by far more valuable Twitter stock).
Musk tried for months to get out of the Twitter deal but failed. To raise enough cash for the purchase, he offloaded more than $15 billion in Tesla shares — about $8.5 billion in April, then another $6.9 billion in August. In November, after vowing he was done selling, he unloaded another $3.95 billion of his stake.
Besides Musk’s sales, TSLA stock has been hit by concerns that rising interest rates will make the cars more expensive for consumers while demand issues in China, Tesla’s largest market after the US, have reportedly depressed local production.
Twitter now faces annual interest payments approaching $1.2 billion, which could get even more expensive given that the interest rates on about half of that debt aren’t locked in and will rise with the market. To cut costs, Twitter not only fired more than half of its employees, but according to the NYT has not paid rent for its San Francisco headquarters or any of its global offices for weeks; Twitter has also refused to pay a $197,725 bill for private charter flights made the week of Musk’s takeover, and has also discussed the consequences of denying severance payments to thousands of people who have been laid off since the takeover.
Musk’s recent sales will bring his stake in the company to roughly 13%; he remains the company’s largest shareholder by a wide margin. Musk’s net worth was $160.9 billion as of Wednesday’s close, ranking No. 2 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index after France’s Bernard Arnault. His fortune has dropped by $109.4 billion this year.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 23:01 - LA's New Mayor Declares 'State Of Emergency' Over Homelessness
LA’s New Mayor Declares ‘State Of Emergency’ Over Homelessness
After making it a central part of her campaign, Los Angeles’ new mayor Karen Bass declared homelessness a ‘state of emergency’ in the city.
The declaration “will recognize the severity of Los Angeles’ crisis and break new ground to maximize the ability to urgently move people inside,” according to a statement from Bass’ office, on the same day she visited the city’s Emergency Operations Center, ABC News reports.
I just declared a state of emergency on homelessness to unlock every tool and authority at our disposal to bring unhoused Angelenos inside.
This is a matter of life and death and that’s exactly how my administration will treat it.
It is a new day in Los Angeles.
— MayorOfLA (@MayorOfLA) December 12, 2022
According to a three-day study conducted earlier this year, just under 42,000 people experienced homelessness in the city of LA, according to the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA).
At least 69,144 people experienced homelessness in the same-named county – a 4.1% increase over 2020, and a 1.7% rise in the city itself.
Local COVID-era policies like eviction moratoriums and rentals assistance, as well as federal assistance have helped people stay housed throughout the pandemic, according to LAHSA.
However, many of those policies have since ended or are about to end, and it’s left unhoused and people facing housing insecurity without a safety net, LAHSA reports. -ABC News
As a House representative, Bass was instrumental in funding millions for long-term shelter solutions for homeless residents, job training and career development programs. She also backed substance abuse programs.
“These investments to combat homelessness, improve community safety and assist families with the increasing costs of living in our congressional district are coming at a crucial time,” she said in a March statement. “Now that we have these new allocated funds on the federal level, we have to ensure that they reach our communities as soon as possible.”
During her campaign, Bass vowed to “House 15,000 people by the end of year one, dramatically reduce street homelessness, end street encampments,” and “lead on mental health and substance abuse treatment.”
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 22:40 - Ron Paul: Mother Of All Economic Crisis Will Lead To "Social Unrest & Violence"
Ron Paul: Mother Of All Economic Crisis Will Lead To “Social Unrest & Violence”
Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,
Nouriel Roubini, a former advisor to the International Monetary Fund and member of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors, was one of the few “mainstream” economists to predict the collapse of the housing bubble. Now Roubini is warning that the staggering amounts of debt held by individuals, businesses, and the government will soon lead to the “mother of all economic crises.”
Roubini properly blames the creation of a debt-based economy on the near-or-at-zero interest rate and quantitative easing policies pursued by the Federal Reserve and other central banks. The inevitable result of the zero-interest and quantitative easing policies is price inflation wreaking havoc on the American people.
The Fed has been trying to eliminate price inflation with a series of interest rate increases. So far, these rate increases have not significantly reduced price inflation. This is because rates remain at historic lows. Yet the rate increases have had negative economic effects, including a decline in the demand for new homes. Increasing interest rates make it impossible for many middle- and working-class Americans to afford a monthly mortgage payment for even a relatively inexpensive home.
The main reason the Fed cannot raise rates to anywhere near what they would be in a free market is the effect it would have on the federal government’s ability to manage its debt. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), interest on the national debt is already on track to consume 40 percent of the federal budget by 2052 and will surpass defense spending by 2029! A small interest rate increase can raise yearly federal debt interest rate payments by many billions of dollars, increasing the amount of the federal budget devoted solely to servicing the debt.
The federal government’s fiscal picture is made worse by the fact that the Social Security “Trust Fund” will begin to run deficits by 2035 while the Medicare Trust Fund will run deficits by 2028. The looming bankruptcy of the two major entitlement programs, combined with the unwillingness of most in Congress to reduce either welfare or warfare spending, puts the Fed in a bind. If it raises rates to the levels needed to really combat price inflation, the increase in interest payments will impose hardships on individuals and businesses, as well as raise federal interest payments to unsustainable levels. This will cause a major economic crisis including a government default on its debt causing a rejection of the dollar’s world reserve currency status. Also, if the Fed continues to facilitate federal deficits by monetizing the debt, the result will be an economic crisis caused by a collapse in the dollar’s value and rejection of the dollar’s world reserve status.
The crisis will lead to social unrest and violence, as well as increased popularity of authoritarian movements on both the left and the right. This will lead to government crackdowns on civil liberties and increased government control of our economy. The only bright spot is this crisis will also fuel interest in the ideas of liberty and could even help bring about a return to limited, constitutional government, free markets, individual liberty, and a foreign policy of peaceful trade with all. Those of us who know the truth have two responsibilities. The first is to make the necessary plans to ensure our families can survive the forthcoming turmoil. The second is to do all we can to introduce as many people as possible to the ideas of liberty.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 22:35 - Epstein Island: Newly Unsealed Evidence Of Abuse
Epstein Island: Newly Unsealed Evidence Of Abuse
Authored by Techno Fog via The Reactionary,
We have newly unsealed documents – including the depositions of Ghislaine Maxwell and one of her victims – revealing new details on the extent of the abuse and victimization that took place by Jeffrey Epstein. Those filings come from Giuffre v. Maxwell, a civil case filed against Maxwell in 2015 in the New York Southern District.
Some of the broader allegations have already been made public. Sarah Ransome, who accused Epstein and Maxwell of abuse that took place during her early 20s, settled a civil lawsuit against them in 2018. Ransome has publicly described some of the abuse. And there have been reports on what transpired at Little St. James, often referred to as Epstein Island.
Let’s get to the new details, starting with the testimony of Ransome, available here. She actually lived one of Epstein’s apartments in 2006 with a few other girls. During that time, she worked for what she described as an “agency” which arranged paid dinners with wealthy clients: “I was paid to spend dinner with a gentleman.” Whatever happened after dinner with the client was done on her “own accord” and “after that time period had finished.”
Ransome was introduced to Epstein by a female associate of his (her name is still redacted), who described Epstein as a wealthy “philanthropist” who “really cares about people” and “really wants to help them.” She was open to meeting Epstein because she was struggling financially. Soon after meeting Epstein, Ransome was invited to travel on Epstein’s plane to Epstein Island. She was told it “was going to be a girls’ week” and they would have “so much fun”:
Q. How did the flight meeting become arranged, if you know?
A. So it was pretty a last-minute thing. phoned me up and said that Jeffrey Epstein would very much like to have me go to his island. It was going to be so much fun, it was going to be a girls’ week, there were lots of other girls going, we were going to have so much fun, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
What happened on the flight – her first flight with Epstein – must have been shocking to Ransome. She described what happened after they took off:
“The rest of the passengers in the — I think it’s towards the front of the plane where all the seats are — we all — all the guests were — fell asleep. I pretended to be asleep.
Jeffrey then went – Jeffrey went to his — was in his bed on the plane, having open sex with for everyone to see, on display.”
Ransome would eventually give massages to Epstein at the Island. She had been told that Epstein “loves women, loves getting massages” and that this “was a nice way to make extra cash.” At first, the massages were relatively normal. Then then escalated to the type of “massage” Epstein is now notorious for – much of which was done without Ransome’s consent.
She described her experiences at Epstein’s Island as being constantly surrounded by “beautiful young people” and that there “were always girls” there to visit “Jeffrey and Ghislaine.” Ransome also gave a description of the Island as having multiple buildings – a main house and then various buildings around the Island for Epstein and his guests:
“like little shelter things where him and his guests used to have sex with the girls, like beds set up for instant sexual entertainment.”
There was a “constant influx of girls” at this Island. It was a type of brothel. According to Ransome:
“It’s like, I’m sure if you go into a hooker’s brothel and see how they run their business, I mean, it’s just general conversation about who’s going to have sex with who and, you know — what do you talk about when all do you is have sex every day on rotation? I mean, what is there to talk about?”
She testified that all those girls “appeared to be teenagers.” They “looked young.” One girl in particular “looked well under 18.” This girl told Ransome that “they abused her on the island.” Another girl ran out of Epstein’s room crying and saying she was “forced to have sex with Jeffrey Epstein.”
Unsealed photographs of Epstein at Epstein Island, 2006. Ransome would meet Ghislaine Maxwell on a later trip to Epstein Island. She was told that Maxwell was “a very dangerous character and has connections,” and “to do everything she told me to do.” The girls would report to Maxwell. Ransome and other girls were in fact intimidated by and scared of Maxwell:
“I met a lot of girls who we all had the same opinion of Ghislaine; we were all frightened of her. She had a very odd relationship with Jeffrey and — yeah, she’s not a nice — I’m sorry, I know she’s your client, but she’s not — she’s not a friendly, warm person.”
Ransome also described the role of Ghislaine Maxwell at Epstein Island:
“Ghislaine was Jeffrey’s right-hand woman, so, you know, whatever Jeffrey wanted went through Ghislaine and then filtered through.”
“So there was — everyone was afraid of Ghislaine. All the girls were afraid of her…”
“And we were told by Jeffrey Epstein to listen to Ghislaine. So Ghislaine was the main right-hand woman of Jeffrey Epstein. We were told by Jeffrey Epstein to listen to Ghislaine.”
Maxwell would actually assist Epstein with managing his sexual “rotation” on the Island:
Q. And when you say you were on rotation, you mean you were having sex with Jeffrey multiple times per day?
A. No. As in when I was finished, another girl was called by Ghislaine. And when they had finished, another girl was called.
Q. How do you know that another girl was called by Ghislaine?
A. Because I was there, and I saw it and heard it with all my senses. I saw Ghislaine call another girl, and she called me herself, to go give Jeffrey Epstein a sexual massage.
…
Q. What do you mean by call? I guess I’m thinking like telephone. That may be my —
A. No. As in going up to the person and going, Jeffrey wants to see you in his bedroom, which meant it’s your turn to be abused. That kind of thing.
++
Other unsealed parts of the civil case concern the deposition of Rinaldo Rizzo – something we have previously reported on – who said Epstein and Maxwell were with a 15 year-old girl and had taken her passport:
A. What happens next when Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein and a 15-year-old girl walk into Eva Anderson’s home? . . . “A. She proceeds to tell my wife and I that, and this is not – this is blurting out, not a conversation like I’m having a casual conversation. That quickly, I was on an island, I was on the island and there was Ghislaine, there was Sarah, she said they asked me for sex, I said no.
And she is just rambling, and I’m like what, and she said — I asked her, I said what? And she says yes, I was on the island, I don’t know how I got from the island to here. Last afternoon or in the afternoon I was on the island and now I’m here. And I said do you have a — this is not making any sense to me, and I said this is nuts, do you have a passport, do you have a phone? And she says no, and she says Ghislaine took my passport. And I said what, and she says Sarah took her passport and her phone and gave it to Ghislaine Maxwell, and at that point she said that she was threatened.”
There is still more to come. Currently, multiple “John Does” are fighting the unsealing of their names. We expect those names to be unsealed but there is an appeals process we’ll have to wait for.
Some of the men are only casually referenced in the case. Others were potentially involved in Epstein’s criminal acts. We’ll publish those names once they’re out.
In the meantime, if you need to catch up on the Epstein/Maxwell details, here are some good places to start:
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Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted. Who is next? A New York Grand Jury was reviewing the criminal conduct of another Epstein associate.
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Unsealed records detail FBI/DOJ cover-up of Epstein’s crimes.
Subscribe to The Reactionary here.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 22:20 - DeSantis Forms Florida Grand Jury To Investigate Misconduct Surrounding Covid Vaccine Rollout
DeSantis Forms Florida Grand Jury To Investigate Misconduct Surrounding Covid Vaccine Rollout
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is establishing a grand jury through the state’s supreme court to investigate malfeasance involving the rollout of the covid mRNA vaccines. The investigations will include the claims of vaccine safety by pharmaceutical companies and the CDC, along with the rising number of deadly reactions to the jab including Myocarditis. The announcement was made in a virtual town hall-style meeting and was met with a positive response.
DeSantis notes the moral bankruptcy of the scientific establishment in the US during the pandemic lockdowns – With the federal government and many scientists admonishing the public for going outside their homes (even though UV light from the sun is a natural sterilizer), while at the same time supporting the BLM protests in which thousands of people congregated on city streets to riot. Stopping the spread was not important in the case of BLM, but deadly important when it came to people walking on the beach or protesting the lockdowns.
DeSantis has proven to be a consistent opponent of the lockdowns and mandates, despite Florida’s large population. This policy helped to provide proof that the lockdowns were pointless. If Florida (along with other defiant red states) could stay open without any noticeable jump in fatalities compared to blue states, then what was the point of the lockdowns and restrictions?
A trend is growing among the American public which runs contrary to the mainstream covid narrative. People are beginning to question the validity of government policies, the claims of snake oil salesmen like Anthony Fauci and the rules enforced by the CDC. Most importantly, they are beginning to apply skepticism to the mRNA vaccines, which is something that should have been done before they were ever distributed. At the very least, the pendulum seems to be swinging back after nearly three years of attempted medical authoritarianism.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 22:00 - Nuclear Fusion 'Breakthrough' Touted By White House, Drawing Praise And Some Skepticism
Nuclear Fusion ‘Breakthrough’ Touted By White House, Drawing Praise And Some Skepticism
Authored by Nathan Worcester via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
It was 1:03 a.m. on Dec. 5 that experimental physicist Alex Zylstra first spotted it: for the first time, a target yielded more energy from a fusion reaction than a laser put into it—though that’s not counting the much greater input energy that was needed to power the laser in the first place.
“One of the first things I did was call one of the diagnostic experts to double-check the data,” he said during a Dec. 13 press conference with his colleagues from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm briefs reporters at the White House in Washington on May 11, 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Zylstra was running a test with the world’s most energetic laser—Lawrence Livermore’s National Ignition Facility (NIF).
By blasting a capsule of hydrogen atoms with that laser until the atoms heat into plasma and combine, he and his colleagues were hoping to achieve nuclear fusion through an approach known as inertial confinement.
The other main approach to fusion, magnetic confinement fusion, uses devices such as tokamaks to contain plasmas using powerful magnetic fields.
NIF physicist Tammy Ma said that “tears were running down [her] face” when she learned about the result.
“I want to emphasize that each experiment we do is building on 60 years of work in this field, and more than a decade on NIF itself,” Zylstra said.
His team’s latest work comes as the latest in a recent series of fusion-related achievements from that facility, where fusion research is pursued under the National Nuclear Security Administration’s “Stockpile Stewardship” program, as an alternative to the underground nuclear testing that ended during the early 1990s.
The most important of those achievements may have occurred in August 2021, when NIF researchers first briefly achieved ignition according to one set of criteria—namely, when the forces cooling plasma down aren’t strong enough to swamp the forces heating it up. (The Dec. 5 result has also been called “ignition,” as it marks scientific energy breakeven.)
“The NIF result in August 2021 changed everything, but this result changes nothing,” said Daniel Jassby, a former research physicist with Princeton University’s plasma laboratory, in a Dec. 13 interview with The Epoch Times.
At the Dec. 13 press conference, Lawerence Livermore director Kim Budil said that about 300 megajoules of energy drove the experiment as a whole. The target produced about 3.15 megajoules of energy from 2.05 megajoules of energy, according to a press release.
The latest result and press conference coincides with Congress negotiating a last-minute spending bill. Republican senators have called for their colleagues to wait until after their party takes the House of Representatives in January to finalize the package.
Jassby did not rule out the possibility that the latest announcement’s timing has something to do with the ongoing spending debate.
“That could be—that’s standard political activity,” he said.
The reported breakthrough also coincides with increasing tension between the United States and its nuclear-armed geopolitical rival, Russia, in the midst of the Ukraine war. Lawrence Livermore’s Mark Hermann noted how NIF’s fusion research aided the United States’ nuclear deterrent capabilities.
The scientists, bureaucrats, and administration officials who spoke on Dec. 13 said the results vindicate decades of earlier researchers who have sought energy breakeven.
“They never lost sight of this goal,” said White House office of science and technology policy director Arati Prabhakar.
Yet, an apparent discrepancy emerged as to a plausible timeline for commercial fusion power.
Budil, of Lawrence Livermore, stated that commercialization could be achieved in “probably decades,” though perhaps not 50 or 60 years.
“With concerted effort and investment, a few decades of research on the underlying technologies could put us in a position to build a power plant,” she said.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, by contrast, appealed to President Joe Biden’s “decadal vision to get to a commercial fusion reactor within 10 years.”
She said the latest result “shows that it can be done.”
When Granholm was asked about that gap by a reporter, Budil jumped in to say that magnetic fusion was more advanced than inertial confinement fusion. However, she did not state that either approach could be realistically commercialized within a decade.
“With real investment and real focus, that timescale can move closer,” she said.
Praise and Skepticism
Some fusion insiders have stressed what they see as the significance of NIF’s contribution.
A spokesperson for a major international magnetic fusion collaboration called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) said the results were “a shot of adrenaline for the global fusion R&D enterprise.”
Tokamaks—the technology at the center of ITER’s work—are still “the closest to commercial deployment,” added ITER spokesperson Laban Coblentz.
Andrew Holland, the CEO of the Washington-based Fusion Industry Association, said that the announcement on the finding “shows the world that fusion is not science fiction: it will soon be a viable source of energy.”
He also called for regulation of the emerging fusion sector, adding that the NIF experiment “will give governments around the world further incentive to support the development of commercial fusion energy.”
Yet other experts who spoke with The Epoch Times sounded more skeptical, particularly with regard to the idea of fusion energy reaching commercialization within a decade.
“It will take half a century to develop the presently non-existent technologies required for a power reactor based on [inertial confinement fusion], including a practical laser or ion beam,” Jassby said in an email to The Epoch Times.
In his view, tokamaks remain “highly speculative.”
“Anyone who predicts commercial fusion before 2050 has a far greater imagination than I do,” said Rod Adams, a Navy nuclear veteran who is a partner with the Nucleation Capital venture fund, in a Dec. 13 email to The Epoch Times.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 21:40 - Zelensky Aide Accuses Musk Of Censoring Ukraine War On Twitter
Zelensky Aide Accuses Musk Of Censoring Ukraine War On Twitter
A senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Elon Musk of hiding reporting on the Ukraine war from Twitter trends.
Spokesman Mikhail Podoliak blasted the billionaire Twitter CEO for censoring vital Ukraine information. “‘War in Ukraine’ disappearance from Twitter trends. Radical curtailment of tweets mentioning ru-aggression coverage. Users aren’t allowed to register or log into accounts with Ukrainian phone number,” Podoliak wrote Tuesday on Twitter, tagging Musk.
“War in Ukraine” disappearance from Twitter trends. Radical curtailment of tweets mentioning ru-aggression coverage. Users aren’t allowed to register or log into accounts with Ukrainian phone number. @elonmusk, I wonder if will we ever see “Twitter Files” about Fall/Winter 2022?
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) December 13, 2022
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The Ukrainian presidency’s office spokesman additionally took a swipe at the ongoing “Twitter files” release, saying he doesn’t expect the issue he’s raising to be covered there. “Elon Musk, I wonder if we will ever see ‘Twitter Files’ about Fall/Winter 2022?” Podoliak questioned.
The suggestion was that Musk is seeking to tilt coverage in terms of content that appears on Twitter against anything highlighting “ru-“(Russian)”aggression” – as he wrote in the tweet.
Some recent local Ukrainian media reports have claimed that users within the country or anyone possessing a Ukrainian phone number can no longer register or log in to Twitter.
Based on prior official Twitter statements, but not directly addressing the Ukrainian charge, its trending topics are “determined by an algorithm and, by default, are tailored for you based on who you follow, your interests, and your location.” This “identifies topics that are popular now, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis,” according to Twitter.
Ukrainian leadership has been angered at Musk ever since he grew bolder in criticizing the open-ended US military and financial support to the Ukrainian government, expressing fears of stumbling into a nuclear-armed WWIII scenario. This despite his previously providing Starlink to the war-ravaged country.
He sparked outrage among Ukraine-supporters with his early October “Russia-Ukraine Peace” Twitter poll and related threads wherein he called out Washington and its rush to confront Russia in Ukraine.
At that time, Zelensky had even weighed in, condemning Musk. Musk had also engaged some of his irate followers who pointed out that he risked angering many Ukrainians. Musk responded, “You are assuming that I wish to be popular. I don’t care. I do care that millions of people may die needlessly for an essentially identical outcome” – in reference the potential for nuclear war between superpowers over Ukraine. He has since also pledged to clean up the bot accounts, which each side in the Russia-Ukraine conflict has said artificially tilts what gets presented to users.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 21:20 - China Sees $10 Billion In LNG Tanker Orders In 2022
China Sees $10 Billion In LNG Tanker Orders In 2022
By Julianne Geiger of OilPrice.com,
Three of China’s shipyards won almost a third of this year’s orders to make new LNG carriers, Reuters said on Monday.
China’s shipyards—only one of which has experience building new LNG tankers—are getting a significant piece of the pie for new LNG carriers, which hit a record this year at 163 orders. The orders that China’s shipyards are seeing tripled this year, to 45, and some of China’s shipmakers that only recently became certified to build the LNG tankers, are even seeing foreign orders for the first time ever.
China’s LNG tanker orders this year are valued at nearly $10 billion—about five times the order value of last year, Clarksons Research showed, cited by Reuters.
South Korean shipyards usually get a large share of the LNG tanker orders, but they are already at capacity as they try to service Qatar’s North Field expansion. This has created a backlog for South Korean shipyards, and has increased costs to build LNG tankers. The end result is that even foreign buyers who look favorably on South Korea’s ability to design and build LNG tankers free from problems are now giving a serious look at China—even for companies that have zero experience with the intricacies of LNG shipbuilding.
“As more Chinese gas traders engage local shipyards, they will be forced to climb the learning curve and eventually grow the whole industry,” Li Yao, founder of Beijing-based consultancy SIA Energy, told Reuters.
As of late November, Chinese shipyards had orders for 66 LNG tankers, bringing its total to 21% of all global LNG tanker orders, worth some $60 billion.
LNG tankers are notoriously difficult to build, and typically take more than two years to complete.
The LNG boom comes as 20 million tonnes of gas per year is set to ship from the United States.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 21:00 - Airlines Lobbying Congress To Allow Just One Pilot In The Cockpit
Airlines Lobbying Congress To Allow Just One Pilot In The Cockpit
Airlines, in their infinite mission to balance costs, profits, and keeping planes full of passengers alive between two points, might be going a little too far in their latest attempt to cut back.
According to CBS News, the industry has been quietly lobbing Congress to allow them to use just one pilot in the cockpit instead of two, as is currently required by part 121 of the Federal Aviation Regulations.
The airlines claim it would quickly solve staffing issues caused by the ongoing pilot shortage, and say that technology has improved to the point where it would be perfectly safe to do so.
There’s language in a new bill now introduced in Congress — the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill — asking the Federal Aviation Administration to reconsider part 121 and to allow the use of a single pilot operation, first in cargo aircraft.
Not surprisingly, airline pilots are loudly protesting this idea, claiming that it would diminish a safety discipline and culture that has been responsible for the safest 25 years in commercial aviation in the history of aviation. Pilots unions argue it’s all about the airlines saving money and could compromise safety. -CBS News
Unions have pointed to several examples of emergency situations in which two pilots were necessary – such as the “Miracle on the Hudson,” when pilots Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles worked together to glide a US Airways flight down to New York’s Hudson river after it hit a flock of Canadian geese on takeoff, saving all 150 passengers and crew.
Meanwhile, 10 days ago an American Eagle flight from Chicago to Columbus had an emergency when one of the two pilots became incapacitated. The co-pilot was able to gain control of the plane, declare an emergency, and safely land back in O’Hare.
The pilot later died at the hospital.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 20:40 - Musk Taking Legal Action Against Kid Who Tracks His Plane After "Crazy Stalker" Attack
Musk Taking Legal Action Against Kid Who Tracks His Plane After “Crazy Stalker” Attack
Update (2025ET):
We finally know why the @ElonJet Twitter account was suspended. Musk tweeted:
“Last night, car carrying lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood.”
Musk then said, “legal action is being taken against Sweeney [the kid who runs @ElonJet] & organizations who supported harm to my family.”
Musk also said, “any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info,” adding “posting locations someone traveled to on a slightly delayed basis isn’t a safety problem, so is ok.”
Last night, car carrying lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving & climbed onto hood.
Legal action is being taken against Sweeney & organizations who supported harm to my family.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 15, 2022
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The college kid who created the @ElonJet Twitter account before Elon Musk bought the social media platform has had the account “suspended.”
Last Friday, Jack Sweeney pointed out @ElonJet was “search banned,” though he mentioned the account had been “search banned for months before Elon’s takeover. “
It’s true ElonJet is search banned. But I’m not sure who to blame, it’s been search banned for months now way before Elon’a takeover. https://t.co/kYpSdFS6Tw
— Jack Sweeney (@JxckSweeney) December 9, 2022
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But now it appears the account that shared publicly-available information about Musk’s private jet locations and had over half a million followers has been “suspended.”
On Wednesday morning, Twitter users are chatting away about the suspension. Here’s what some had to say:
Elon Musk’s position on free speech pic.twitter.com/zvxTLf4Jhz
— Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) December 14, 2022
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Hey folks (@RonFilipkowski @DWUhlfelderLaw ), not only has Elon suspended @ElonJet, he’s now prevented Flight Aware from publicly tracking his airplane. I guess it’s good to be rich.
This should be publicly available information. I’m sure someone can figure out how. pic.twitter.com/VQ2xCmBHra
— globetrotter (@globe55trotter) December 14, 2022
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Nearly a year ago, we told readers about Sweeney and how Musk requested the college kid to take down the account because of security risks.
At the time, Sweeney told Musk the price to take down @ElonJet would be a “Model 3.” Musk rejected the offer and told the kid: “I don’t love the idea of being shot by a nutcase.”
As we’ve told readers, tracking the private jets of CEOs is nothing new in the hedge fund industry. There are services that some traders pay upwards of $100k to retrieve flight data of the movements of deal-makers.
We also said Sweeney would have better luck selling his technology to a hedge fund or even Quandl, a flight-tracking company, rather than letting it stay on Twitter. Now the account has been nuked.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 20:25 - A Cryptocurrency Victim Turns Journalist To Uncover Scandals
A Cryptocurrency Victim Turns Journalist To Uncover Scandals
Authored by Lisa Cosgrove via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
After graduating from the University of Southern California in 2017, Tiffany Fong started several e-commerce businesses, earning passive income while traveling the world. She recently spoke with The Epoch Times about how she lost a lot of money investing in cryptocurrencies, which prompted her to become involved in exposing scandals in the crypto sector such as the FTX debacle.
Investor and independent journalist Tiffany Fong. (Courtesy of Tiffany Fong) Fong’s introduction to cryptos began early on, when a family member gifted her several Bitcoins in 2011. Still in high school at the time, Fong did not think much of the gift.
By the end of 2011, Bitcoin was worth a mere $4.25. Fong still owns some of the tokens today. The price of Bitcoin peaked at over $68,000 in November last year. Since then, it has fallen dramatically, and is now trading at a little more than $17,000.
During the crypto bull market of 2017, Fong became more interested in the asset class and its underlying philosophy: freedom from state-issued currencies and the ability to transact with whomever one chooses. After a couple years of crypto-hiatus, Fong began investing more heavily during the bull run of 2021.
Expanding on her initial Bitcoin holdings, Fong became interested in the decentralized lending platform Celsius. The project’s founder, Alex Mashinsky, would frequently make the rounds on financial media to tout the returns that Celsius users were earning, promising annual returns as high as 18 percent.
These returns were achievable for a time, but nothing lasts forever.
Rising interest rates and a crypto bear market quickly exposed the Celsius network as insolvent, forcing a withdrawal freeze in June and bankruptcy filing in July. Fong personally lost $250,000 she had stored on the platform, she said.
Motivated by her loss, Fong embarked on a mission to uncover what happened. With only a couple hundred followers at the time, she took to YouTube and Twitter to share her investigations.
After seeing her work on social media, several Celsius employees sent her confidential recordings of Mashinsky speaking at internal meetings. Fong then secured a notable milestone in her journalistic career by publishing the leaked recordings with The New York Times.
Bankman-Fried
Fong’s entry into crypto reporting caught the attention of then-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, who began following her work to stay updated on the Celsius situation. The two messaged on Twitter and occasionally kept in touch, according to Fong.
This relationship would prove fortuitous for Fong’s continued coverage of the crypto space.
In early November, as FTX underwent a Celsius-like series of events, freezing customer assets and filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Fong reached out to Bankman-Fried. His reputation tarnished and his company in ruins, she did not expect a response from the fallen founder.
Nevertheless, he granted Fong an interview that would reveal numerous unknowns about the collapsed exchange and provide an interesting look into Bankman-Fried’s character. During their conversation, the FTX founder claimed that he donated equal amounts to both political parties and confessed to lying about Bahamian regulators’ involvement in key FTX decisions.
Fong told The Epoch Times that she was uncertain whether she could trust the answers provided by Bankman-Fried. “There were some questions I asked him where I did feel he was very clearly being evasive,” she said, later adding that his elusive behavior was intriguing in itself.
During their November conversation, Fong asked Bankman-Fried about the alleged “back door,” which would have allowed client funds to be siphoned from FTX to its sister company, Alameda Research. He claimed that he is not well-versed in computer programming and, therefore, could not create such a tool, which Fong said she found to be an intentionally imprecise answer.
At the time of the interview, Fong believed the founder was genuinely remorseful, but mentioned her faith has faded over time. “My views have changed the more he’s talked,” she said, referring to Bankman-Fried’s subsequent appearances in mainstream media, including the New York Times’s DealBook Summit, his sit-down with Good Morning America, and his numerous discussions on Twitter Spaces.
“On our last call, he did mention that he would be ramping up communication soon, but I did not expect it to this degree,” Fong said, surprised by the scope of Bankman-Fried’s public relations campaign.
“It was fun being the first stop on [Bankman-Fried’s] apology tour,” Fong jokingly wrote in a tweet on Dec. 7.
Independent Journalist
Fong’s success as an independent reporter and brief experience working with legacy media has given her insights into the advantages of the former over the latter.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 20:20 - Florida Subpoenas Nearly Two Dozen Organizations Pushing Hormones, Transgender Surgeries For Children
Florida Subpoenas Nearly Two Dozen Organizations Pushing Hormones, Transgender Surgeries For Children
The state of Florida has subpoenaed almost two dozen medical and academic organizations which are pushing transgender sex change treatments for children, the Daily Caller reports, citing an ongoing lawsuit against a new Medicaid rule.
The subpoenas, issued by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), and which seek information about internal decision-making processes and leadership structures for pushing hormone treatments and transgender surgeries on minors, went out in November to 20 organizations.
The organizations signed onto a lawsuit against the state, which implemented a new rule in August to no longer cover “gender-affirming” care with Medicaid.
“Gender-affirming” care is a euphemism for treatments and procedures that facilitate sex changes, like hormone treatments or sex change surgeries. -Daily Caller
A preliminary injunction was filed against the Florida law, however federal judge Robert Hinkle denied it in October, ruling that the issue was not Constitutional, rather, applied to the Medicaid statute.
Transgender rights groups are suing Florida over its Medicaid ban on gender-affirming care.
Their argument: the ban violates the federal equal protection clause & prevents an estimated 9,000 state Medicaid enrollees from receiving gender-affirming care.https://t.co/aBnHK5UfdH
— POLITICO (@politico) September 7, 2022
Subpoena recipients include; the American Pediatric Association, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, Pediatric Endocrine Society, Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine and Yale University, according to the Caller, which notes that Yale is included despite not being a medical organization because Yale professors have been involved in pushing against the new rule.
All 20 organizations have either promoted or employ individuals who promote “gender-affirming” care for minors. The request includes documents pertaining to deliberations involving gender dysphoria and related care, along with policies which have been adopted, side effects associated with those policies and treatments, and how members voted to support said policies.
Plaintiffs in the case have argued that the Medicaid rule violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 20:00 - WaPo Corrects OpEd Conflating Lack Of Black Argentinian Footballers With "History Of Black Erasure"
WaPo Corrects OpEd Conflating Lack Of Black Argentinian Footballers With “History Of Black Erasure”
Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,
The Washington Post has been forced to issue a correction to an op-ed that asked ‘Why doesn’t Argentina have more black players in their World Cup lineup?’ after Argentinian people pointed out that the country is overwhelmingly white and not obsessed with virtue signalling about race.
The piece claimed that it is a ‘myth’ that Argentina is a white nation, with the author Erika Denise Edwards, an associate professor at the University of Texas at El Paso, suggesting her rantings uncover a “history of Black erasure in Argentina.”
A history of Black erasure in Argentina!! Check out my article! https://t.co/cSyaYaETt8
— Erika Edwards (@Prof_Edwards) December 10, 2022
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In the piece Edwards argues that in the 18th century, a third of Argentina’s population was black and that since then there has been an agenda to ‘whiten’ the country.
“They believed that to join the ranks of Germany, France and England, Argentina had to displace its black population — both physically and culturally,” she further asserts.
She also points to census figures from 2010, claiming they prove that “roughly one percent” of Argentina’s population of 46 million is black.
After people pointed out that this is just not true, The Washington Post issued a correction noting that the actual number was “far less than” one percent.
The Washington Post opinion piece complaining that there are no black players on Argentina’s team has been corrected after the fact, to note that “far less than 1%” of the Argentine population is black. https://t.co/G7B5BO8LJO pic.twitter.com/kSBhjTRoV9
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) December 12, 2022
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This piece is full of inconsistencies and misinterpretations, it is evident that the person who wrote it has no knowledge of Argentine culture and never lived in Argentina.
— Sara Stewart Brown (@Kiwita) December 10, 2022
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You can’t apply an American perspective to this, @washingtonpost. The obsession to put everything through a lens that fits your world view in deeply troubling. In your article, you demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of the Indigenous, and Hispanic history of Argentina https://t.co/YE3NjQz9cr
— Nico Slobinsky (@nicoslobinsky) December 10, 2022
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Just came back to laugh at Washington Post….
Washington Post- Argentina is racist because they don’t have black players in their team.
Washington Post – Sorry we didn’t know there are no black people in Argentina.
This is a paper funded by Bezos, and this is their research
— Whyteknight (@whyteknight07) December 12, 2022
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So fewer than 150,000 in a country of 46 million. And that’s including women and all men who are not between the ages of about 18 and 35, which is the approximate age window for players of this caliber. https://t.co/oSppma35R9
— Noam Blum (@neontaster) December 12, 2022
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You just gathered one sided data that would confirm your bias and your preconceived idea of Blacks in Argentina.
— Pedro Bartholomai (@hansenribera) December 13, 2022
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These pieces are always written by people who know 0 about football but a lot about woke
Are @WashingtonPost suggesting there are good black Argentine players not being selected for the team due to racism? Who are they?
No footballing nation leaves great players out due to race https://t.co/EDJSFlbLiA
— Ben Harris-Quinney (@B_HQ) December 11, 2022
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Others noted that real life isn’t a Disney movie where each character is a different race:
Because we are a country, not a Disney movie. https://t.co/k8Lps8PgW2
— La Libertad Avanza (@LLibertadAvanza) December 10, 2022
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La estúpida nota del @washingtonpost sobre la falta de negros en la selección argentina me dejó asqueado. Estados Unidos vive obsesionado con las razas, Argentina no. Estados Unidos eligió mantenerlas separadas, Argentina las mezcló. Pero insisten en exportar sus neurosis.
— Gonzalo Garcés (@GonzaloGarces5) December 10, 2022
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Translation: “The stupid note from [Washington Post] about the lack of blacks in the Argentine team left me disgusted. The United States is obsessed with race, Argentina is not. The United States chose to keep them separate, Argentina mixed them. But they insist on exporting their neuroses.”
You have studied so many years for this article? You clearly have to study more.
You judgde Latinos and Latin America countries without understanding geography and history and so much more.
Do not transfer your racist problems to US.
— Pilar (@piluogorman) December 13, 2022
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There is nothing that I stated that is factually incorrect.–EDE @FoxNewsDigital https://t.co/a95415w7wE
— Erika Edwards (@Prof_Edwards) December 14, 2022
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Do something please, this can’t be tolerated anymore! There HAS to be black players in EVERY SINGLE soccer team of the world. Save us oh, great expert of racial identities! https://t.co/47KSABZVNp pic.twitter.com/7k8IMxVsql
— Cripto Moneda (@criptomonedaz) December 13, 2022
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The obsession with diversity and race in national sports is purely an American and British phenomenon. People in other countries are not concerned with obsessing about skin colour over skill and talent.
Thoughts on the BBC lamenting the English women’s football team having too many white players.
Yes, this actually happened.https://t.co/uxaRdX2RQr
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) July 15, 2022
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Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 19:40 - Chinese Hunker Down Despite Zero-Covid Policy Ending Amid Virus Wave
Chinese Hunker Down Despite Zero-Covid Policy Ending Amid Virus Wave
China faces a surge in Covid-19 infections as Beijing dismantles strict pandemic controls and embraces a faster reopening of the economy. The abrupt shift in policy is very problematic because not everyone is celebrating the easing of zero Covid rules, as many are hunkering down amid the winter Covid wave.
The sudden move away from zero Covid rules after nearly three years of Beijing following a stringent playbook used to eliminate the virus has yet to translate into economic success. People are staying home, avoiding stores and restaurants, and other public areas as they panic hoard staple items to survive the Covid wave, which could impact an estimated 80 to 90% of the Chinese population, according to a new projection by Feng Zijian, a former deputy chief at China’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
WSJ explained that people in large cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou stay home despite the shift in government policy. They spoke with one Beijing resident, Qian Yingqin, who said her family hadn’t left their home since Sunday.
“I’ve never seen fewer people on the streets and more people wearing masks outside in the past three years,” Yingqin said, who recently postponed a trip to Dali, a tourism hot spot in southwestern China. She warned: “It’s simply impossible to fend off the virus anymore.”
Bloomberg Intelligence’s chief pharmaceutical analyst Sam Fazeli said in a television interview on Tuesday that Beijing’s mindset since pivoting away from the zero-tolerance policy is “there’s not so much we can do, we’ve done the best we can. We’ve got the blueprint for what the West did and what happened, so let’s just let it rip – which is what I think is going on.”
“As China enters its first winter with Omicron, things could get worse before getting better,” Citigroup analysts told clients last month.
Bloomberg’s Fazeli said the reopening could result in some 5 million people hospitalized and up to 700,000 deaths.
Economists and analysts have been widely optimistic about the current path of reopening, but others warn it’s going to be a bumpy ride:
“There is a problem with people thinking the pullback of Covid-zero measures is equivalent to the economy reopening, which it is not,” said Leland Miller, chief executive officer of China Beige Book, a research firm that conducts surveys.
Even though Morgan Stanley economists upgraded China’s 2023 GDP growth target due to reopening, they admitted economic growth would suffer some near-term pain due to the Covid infection wave that might disrupt production and consumption.
WSJ pointed out high-frequency data, such as mobility and internet search trends, that don’t signal an imminent rebound in economic growth but rather one that will be muted, at least for the winter season, until infections wane.
Some recent data on mobility patterns show increases in traffic and subway usage in some cities, though the numbers remain depressed compared with 2021, when China was largely free of Covid cases. Sales of cars and properties also fared better last week than the previous week, giving a glimpse of what China’s economy could look like more broadly as it works through its Covid cases.
But behavior in places where Covid is becoming most prevalent—especially Beijing—suggest a rocky stretch in the near term. Searches for the words “fever” and “rapid antigen test” on Baidu, China’s dominant search engine, saw the highest surges over the past week in Beijing, according to economists from Nomura.
Li Jianxing, the co-founder of InstaShake, a milkshake chain in Shanghai, warned:
“There’s no sign of a strong recovery just yet, because people are still afraid of getting the virus.”
Logic doesn’t seem to apply to Beijing’s grand reopening of its economy during winter when spring would’ve been a much better time. Or perhaps the government wants to infect as many people as possible to get the Covid wave over with?
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 19:20 - Latin America's Slow Descent Into Interventionism
Latin America’s Slow Descent Into Interventionism
The latest estimates from consensus for the main Latin American economies show a continent facing a lost decade. The region GDP growth has been downgraded yet again to a modest 1.1% for 2023, with rising inflation and weakening gross fixed investment. Considering that the region was already recovering at a slower pace than other emerging markets, the outlook is exceedingly worrying.
The poor growth and high inflation expectations are even worse when we consider that consensus estimates still consider a tailwind coming from rising commodity prices and more exports due to the China re-opening.
How can a region with such high potential as Latin America be condemned to stagflation? The answer is simple. The rise of populist governments in Colombia, Chile and Brazil have increased the concerns about investor security, property rights and monetary discipline.
Argentina is expected to post a modest 0.2% GDP growth in 2023 with 95% inflation and a debt to GDP of 72%. Years of monetary and fiscal excess have destroyed the purchasing power of the local currency and dilapidated the prospect of real growth. In Argentina, poverty has escalated to 36.5% of the population and the government policies double down on interventionism, price controls and higher taxes with the expected negative result. Despite the tailwind of high demand for soja and cereals globally, Argentina dives deeper into Venezuela territory, where consensus expects another year of weak 3% bounce after destroying 80% of the output in a decade, with enormous inflation, 132%.
The problem? The new governments in Chile and Colombia are announcing policies that resemble those of the “Peronist left” in Argentina and the Fernandez government in Argentina is looking more like Maduro’s Venezuela each day.
Chile is expected to post no growth in 2023 despite an estimated higher copper price, and 15% inflation. Colombia, which showed the strongest recovery from the covid-19 crisis until 2022, in which consensus expects a 7% growth, is feared to stop on its tracks and deliver a poor 1.6% GDP growth with elevated inflation, close to 7%.
In Brazil, consensus expects a poor 0.9% growth with 5% inflation. It does not look as bad as Argentina, but the first major announcement of newly elected president Lula has already triggered all alarm bells. Lula stated that he wanted to change the constitution to lift the spending limit and increase government spending even more. The Brazil currency and 10-year bond reacted aggressively to this risk because everyone can remember that Lula’s “economic miracle” a decade ago came from massively high oil prices and, when the commodity bonanza ended, his successor Rousseff sent the country to a deep crisis where spending soared and growth stagnated.
You may say that the rise of populism in Latin America is the consequence of the failed classic liberal policies implemented before, but that would be a grave mistake. Most of these countries have not seen open and liberal economies but crony states. Statism failed and more statism fails even faster.
Global investors see the enormous potential of Latin America. However, when governments start to impose interventionist policies, put at risk property rights with expropriation threats and at the same time massively increase monetary imbalances printing currencies with no real global and diminishing local demand, the combination is destructive.
Why do citizens vote for politicians that implement confiscatory and extractive policies? In many economic debates in Latin American media one can hear the word “redistribution” repeated incessantly. Many believe that wealth is like a pied that can be cut and distributed at will, but ignore that wealth is either created or destroyed, it does not stay flat.
Interventionist policies destroy wealth in three ways: First, attacking independent institutions and introducing political random decisions in legal and investor security which erodes growth potential, investment, and employment. Second, by increasing taxes on the productive sector to pay for massive subsidies paid in a constantly depreciated currency, which creates a double negative of lower growth, weaker local businesses and a dependent subclass that rarely emerges. The productive sector ends forced to operate in the underground economy to avoid confiscatory taxes. Third, interventionism destroys the purchasing power of the local currency by breaking all the rules of prudent monetary policy and financing an ever-increasing government size printing a constantly devalued currency. The combination of these three factors means poverty and stagnation.
Why do interventionist governments do this when they know -and they do- it does not work?
Monetary destruction is the easiest and most effective way of nationalization of an economy. Printing currency is a form of expropriation of wealth, as money creation is never neutral, it benefits the government and hurts real wages and savers.
Why would “populist” governments impose policies that perpetuate poverty and hurt the people? Interventionism does not aim to increase prosperity but take full control of a nation. The three mentioned policies are aimed at grasping full control of a country and make the population dependent, not deliver growth and improve social conditions.
Extractive and confiscatory policies are not social measures, they are profoundly anti-social. The worst is that once implemented, it becomes difficult to unwind. We should learn the lesson everywhere because it is coming to your country soon.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 19:00 - Russia Reaching Out To North Korea, Iran As It Burns Through 40-Year-Old Ammo: Pentagon
Russia Reaching Out To North Korea, Iran As It Burns Through 40-Year-Old Ammo: Pentagon
The Pentagon this week is suggesting that Russia is growing increasingly desperate in maintaining steady ammo supplies, with senior officials describing 40-year old Soviet-era ammo being used, claiming Moscow is turning to countries like North Korea, and relying increasingly on Iran.
“They [Moscow] have drawn from ageing ammunition stockpiles, which does indicate that they are willing to use older ammunition, some of which was originally produced more than 40 years ago,” a senior Pentagon official told a press briefing.
This makes it potentially faulty, unreliable, and even dangerous for the Russian troops operating the heavy guns, the official described: “In other words, you load the ammunition and you cross your fingers and hope it’s going to fire or when it lands that it’s going to explode.”
AFP/Getty Images The official went on the predict that Russia could deplete its up-to-date ammunition stocks by early 2023 if it didn’t seek to tap both foreign suppliers and older ammo. Further the official alleged the chief foreign suppliers are likely to be Iran and the North Koreans.
“Russia, has been seeking to get additional capabilities from Iran,” the official said. “And you know, the [National Security Council] put out a fair amount of information on this last week. You know, in a lot of ways, given this current state of Russia’s munitions stockpile, it’s not surprising that they continue to look at opportunities to work with countries like Iran and with – and North Korea to try to gain additional capability.”
When pressed for evidence of the assertions, the Pentagon official cited that the Ukrainian army is increasingly finding duds and unexploded Russian ordinance littering the battlefield, which is a sign of reliance on older, undependable munitions:
“And so, ultimately, broadly speaking, our assessment is that Russia — the Russian military will very likely struggle to replenish its reserve of fully-serviceable artillery and rocket ammunition through foreign suppliers, increased domestic production and refurbishment.
So, again, this is why it’s not surprising that they’re reaching out to countries like Iran and North Korea to try to obtain some more dependable ammunition.”
The US spokesman continued, “we do assess that they have used quite a bit of their stockpile and that their numbers – the numbers available to them have really diminished their ability to sustain their current rate of fire when it comes to PGMs [precision-guided munitions].”
This latest assessment also echoed the prior words of Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, who said in early December as the war entered its tenth month that Russia is “quite quickly” burning through its military stockpiles.
“It’s really pretty extraordinary,” Haines said. “Our own sense is that they are not capable of indigenously producing what they are expending at this stage. That’s why you see them going to other countries effectively to try to get ammunition.”
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 18:40 - The Slow Strangulation Of The World Economy
The Slow Strangulation Of The World Economy
Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via DailyReckoning.com,
I was visiting with a friend recently and she was recounting her early panic over COVID. She has kids and loves them. As a mom, she believed her first duty was to protect them from the bad virus that was floating around. She went into full freak-out mode, keeping the kids indoors and spacing them out. Her heart never stopped racing.
One day, she looked out her window and saw that her neighbor’s dog was loose on her front lawn. She ran outside and started screaming at her neighbor to get that dog off her lawn immediately and never allow such an outrage again.
Why?
Because she had heard on CNN that dogs carry Covid. She believed that the dog was spreading Covid around and that this would waft through her windows and infect her kids.
Now, this is a brilliant woman, educated at a prep school that no normal person could afford and attended a top school before becoming a partner in a firm that serves only high-end clients.
Moreover, she is herself brilliant and stable, and not politically left-wing at all. She is sober and strong. But Covidophobia snagged even her. Simply amazing.
I had not remembered the weeks during which we were supposed to hate on people’s pets. We can add that to the endless litany of nonsense we’ve been through.
The Fauci Effect
Why the attack on pets? Well, the frightening Fauci in August took a day or two to work with his co-author from the National Institutes of Health on an academic article explaining the bigger picture. The problem, they explained, began 12,000 years ago. That’s when humankind started farming, killing land animals, and moving around from place to place.
That caused disease to spread! So they say. It only got worse once we got to cities. Then everyone started mixing. Icky germs were everywhere. Next thing you know, we spread smallpox and cholera and god knows what else.
Humankind was dooming itself with its ridiculous ambition to do more than live in a hut by the river and grab fish to eat! We are very, very bad.
That’s the origin of COVID, they wrote, which is why we need a “new infrastructure of human existence.” This will require emptying out the cities, getting rid of pets, abolishing large events, and forbidding people from meeting in groups in restaurants and things. Only once we massively reduce the population and go back to a state of nature can we fully conquer disease.
This is their vision. It’s pure insanity. Worse than Marx. Worse than anything even the nuttiest philosopher from the ancient world ever wrote. Worse than the devil himself.
And yet this was the guy who was practically running the world for the better part of two years. He was not only scripting the pandemic response. He was in charge of social media. He was in charge of economics. He was in charge of technology. He was the totalitarian dictator for the U.S. and really for the whole world by influence.
Nonstop Wreckage
It’s truly hard to imagine how it came to be that this pest ended up dismantling the whole of the Trump administration. He was the terrifying guru that even Trump could not swat away. As a result, Trump fell in the polls and lost, taking the House and Senate with him. The economy was wrecked. The Constitution was abolished.
Now we have terrifying inflation without end. In many parts of the world, people are having to choose between eating and heating. School kids are behind by two years. We’ve lost three years of lifespan just in the U.S. The whole country is utterly bankrupt. Trade is wrecked. Business is demoralized. 5.8 million people are missing from U.S. labor rolls right now.
What an unspeakable disaster. Even writing this, it sounds like fiction. It’s not. It’s our reality, and it is getting worse by the day.
Media won’t discuss the fullness of the calamity. Mostly we just pretend as if life is normal. What else can we do? Well, there are substances we can take, and millions take them if only to lessen the pain. They lead to early death. Excess deaths are through the roof right now, as ill-health spreads across the land.
Oh, but won’t the Fed save us? They are raising interest rates. The 30-year mortgage is at 6%. The demand side of the housing market is in free fall. The supply side is suddenly flat. Prices are still rising. This is what an inflationary recession looks and feels like.
Faucian Economics
I’ve never been one for conspiracy theory but one would have to be stupid not to see that there is something of a plan here. They are attacking cities, enterprise, economic growth, and even procreation too. How? In every conceivable way.
I’ve given up trust, all trust, in these people, their plans, and even their products. They are dangerous. Their vision of the world is even more so.
We used to say that socialism cannot work. What does that mean? It means that it will only make people poorer and more miserable. But what if you have an ideology that is actually intended to do that? Can Faucian economics work? Yes, if you mean to reduce the population, spread misery, end progress, abolish all comforts, empty the cities, cause people to freeze to death, and only allow what’s left of the population to live off bugs.
We need to get real. These people are truly up to no good. They have gotten their way. What’s more, the gang that did this is not subject to the voters, so elections might not make a bit of difference, even if they turn out well.
The Root of the Problem
The real problem is much more fundamental. It is structural. It is philosophical. It can be defeated but not through the usual ways. In the meantime, we really need to wake up, all of us, and recognize that nothing is normal anymore.
Surviving this period in history will require cleverness and courageous action. We simply cannot ignore the trends all around us and expect to survive.
It’s bad enough to realize the utter stupidity of the policies that are wrecking the world. It’s worse suddenly to realize that they are not stupid at all but rather the product of a diabolical mission to ruin civilization itself.
But in truth, it is all deliberate, I’m sorry to say. The people who run the world today have no interest in a thriving social order and civilization.
The means to survive them is to outsmart them.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 18:20
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