Jun 15

Today’s News 15th June 2021

  • Jon Stewart Hijacks Colbert Show With Lab-Leak Rant, Liberal Twitter Explodes
    Jon Stewart Hijacks Colbert Show With Lab-Leak Rant, Liberal Twitter Explodes

    Comedian Jon Stewart overpowered Stephen Colbert’s ability to shill on Monday, hijacking the Late Show‘s return to a live (and fully vaccinated) audience with an epic rant on the COVID-19 lab-leak theory.

    “I think we owe a great debt of gratitude to science. Science has, in many ways, helped ease the suffering of this pandemic, which was more than likely caused by science,” Stewart said after Colbert asked how he was feeling about the scientific response to COVID-19.

    “Do you mean perhaps there’s a chance that this was created in a lab?” asked Colbert, adding “There’s an investigation.”

    “A chance?” shot back Stewart – kicking the door open.

    “Oh my god, there’s a novel respiratory coronavirus overtaking Wuhan, China, what do we do? Oh, you know who we could ask? The Wuhan novel respiratory coronavirus lab. The disease is the same name as the lab. That’s just a little too weird, don’t you think? And then they asked those scientists – they’re like ‘how did this… so wait a minute, you work at the Wuhan respiratory coronavirus lab. How did this happen?’ and they’re like ‘mmmm – a pangolin kissed a turtle?‘ and you’re like ‘no… the name of your lab! If you look at the name! Can I… let me see your business card. Show me your business card. Oh – I work at the coronavirus lab in Wuhan. Oh, cause there’s a coronavirus loose in Wuhan. How did that happen?‘

    ‘Maybe a bat… flew into the Cloaca of a turkey and… then it sneezed into my chili. And now we all have Coronavirus.”

    Stewart landed one final joke as Colbert desperately tried to control the situation;

    “HOLD IT, HOLD IT! What about this, what about this… listen to this! ‘OH MY GOD, there’s been an outbreak of chocolately goodness near Hershey, Pennsylvania. What do you think happened?’

    ‘Oh I don’t know, maybe a steam shovel mated with a cocoa bean?’

    “Or… it’s the fucking chocolate factory! Maybe that’s it!” Stewart screamed.

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    “Can I say this about scientists?” Stewart said after the break. “I love them and they do such good work but they are going to kill us all.“

    As noted by Stephen Miller, Liberal Twitter is not happy.

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    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 06/15/2021 – 02:55

  • Fairfax Board Member Rails Against The Dangers Of "Excessive Individualism"
    Fairfax Board Member Rails Against The Dangers Of “Excessive Individualism”

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    There has been a great deal of controversy over the graduation address of Fairfax County school board member Abrar Omeish to the Justice High School in Falls Church on June 7th.

    In her remarks to the graduates, Omeish praised a teacher who made social activism part of her class and warned the graduates that they are going into a world filled with racism and white supremacy.

    However, what really struck an admittedly libertarian chord with me was the third danger that she warned about: “excessive individualism.” 

    Like free speech, individualism is now being presented as a danger rather than a strength in our society.

    Omeish is a strong speaker who impressively moved between English, Spanish, and Arabic in her address. However, many parents objected in Fairfax (where I live) to the content of the remarks. She labeled those who do not agree with the activism agenda as effectively opposing anti-racism values: 

     “You understand that social justice is only political for those that can afford to ignore it. You understand that ‘neutral’ is another word for complicit. And you have made a choice to take a stand.”

    She encouraged the students to remain activists and pursue “jihad” because “we struggle with human greed, racism, extreme versions of individualism and capitalism, white supremacy, growing wealth gaps, disease, climate crisis, extreme poverty amidst luxury and waste right next door. And the list goes on.”

    As we have previously discussed, “jihad” in Arabic does not mean violent acts despite the common view of the term. It is a reference to good acts or public service. There is no basis to suggest that this speech was encouraging violent action.  Rather, she declared “Every part of your being may scream in rage at the ways others have wronged you,” but “let compassion for your fellow human beings, not anger or rage — and believe me this is hard to do — fuel you.”

    What stood out for me was the reference to “extreme versions of individualism.”  There was a time when individualism was viewed as a core protection and value in our society. Now it is often denounced as a harmful value that resists more collective and communal priorities from fighting Covid-19 to racial justice.

    For years, academics have lashed out at individualism as a barrier for public policy goals like health care. On study on the “excesses of individualism” concluded, for example, “Libertarian individualism has created political isolation and prevents the evolution of democratic decision making and real partnerships in healthcare.” The case against individualism has been made in books ranging from Robert N. Bellah’s book Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life, Amitai Etzioni’s The Spirit of Community. Writers like Nick Romeo insist:

    Radical individualism today retains this highly circumscribed conception of government’s role; the body politic – above all – serves to protect the safety and the property of the individual. This is exemplified in a line made popular by the US president Ronald Reagan: the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’ It is a radical philosophy that suggests the political collective should have no role beyond the protection of the individual.

    The old view of “rugged individualism” has become reactionary individualism for those arguing for a new collective consciousness. 

    The move against individualism brings to mind a quote from Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago:

    “The main misfortune, the root of all the evil to come, was the loss of confidence in the value of one’s own opinion. People imagined that it was out of date to follow their own moral sense, that they must all sing in chorus, and live by other people’s notions, notions that were being crammed down everybody’s throat.”

    Few would argue that there is no value in collective action and policies.  Individualism is not anarchy. The concern is that the attacks on individualism are coinciding with attacks on values like free speech.  There is a movement to force adherence to accepted norms or values — and a corresponding intolerance for opposing views.

    That is why the dire warning of Omeish for the young graduates to fear “excessive individualism” was so jarring for those of us who find believe that on certain rights, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, nothing succeeds like excess.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 06/15/2021 – 02:53

  • The Fight Against Child Labor Has Stalled
    The Fight Against Child Labor Has Stalled

    A report released yesterday by UNICEF and the International Labor Organization shows that even before the coronavirus pandemic came into full swing, progress in combating child labor around the world had stalled. Statista’s Katharian Buchholz reports that at the beginning of 2020, there were once again 160 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 engaged in age-inappropriate and/or hazardous work. The new number marks an increase from around 152 million in 2016.

    Infographic: Fight Against Child Labor Has Stalled | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    While child labor in Asia and Latin America has decreased, it has been rising again in Sub-Saharan Africa – in absolute and relative terms. While in 2016, 22.4 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 17 were in child labor in the region, that number had risen to almost 24 percent in early 2020. The global share of 9.6 percent of children engaged in child labor stayed the same between 2016 and 2020, showing that while the increase in child labor was in line with world population growth, the burden has shifted between regions.

    The report also reveals that one of the most common images of child labor in the developing world – children working for a wage on factory floors – is actually the least common scenario. Child labor in industry stood at around 10 percent globally, being trumped by work in the service sector (around 20 percent) as well as the most common field for child labor, agriculture (70 percent). Earning a wage is also most uncommon for children, as 72 percent of child laborers work with their families.

    Both numbers rise above 80 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa. The shift towards Africa therefore means that more young children below the age of eleven have become engaged in child labor, since agricultural and family work typically involve younger child workers. Yet, the region’s particular profile is more likely to keep child workers in school.

    Child labor in Latin America and Asia typically involved more children from ages 12 to 17, more employed or self-employed work, more urban work and more work in services and industry, even though family work and the agricultural sector still provided the majority of jobs for children in the regions. Child workers were most likely to be out of school in Asia at rates between 32 and 35 percent and least likely to miss out on an education in Latin America at just 16 percent of child workers being out of school. Boys became child laborers only at a slightly higher rate when taking into account age-inappropriate domestic work carried out by girls. Globally, around half of child workers carried out hazardous work, defined as work likely to harm a child’s health, safety or morals.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 06/15/2021 – 02:45

  • England Footballers 'Taking The Knee' Engaged In "Gesture Politics": UK Minister
    England Footballers ‘Taking The Knee’ Engaged In “Gesture Politics”: UK Minister

    Authored by Alexander Zhang via The Epoch Times,

    UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said on Monday that she does not support England footballers taking the knee ahead of Euro 2020 games, calling the act “gesture politics.”

    Home Secretary Priti Patel arrives at Downing Street in London, on Sept. 8, 2020. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

    The England team was booed by some fans in London’s Wembley Stadium on June 13 when players took the knee before kick-off in their match with Croatia in Euro 2020.

    A Number 10 spokesman said before the match that Prime Minister Boris Johnson “wants to see everybody getting behind the team to cheer them on, not boo.” But the requests fell on deaf ears.

    England’s manager Gareth Southgate (L) and Steve Holland, Assistant Coach of England, ‘take a knee’ ahead of the international friendly football match between England and Romania at the Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough, north-east England on June 6, 2021. (Scott Heppell/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

    Patel appeared to have taken a different stance to Johnson. She told GB News:

    “I just don’t support people participating in that type of gesture, gesture politics.”

    Asked whether England fans were right to boo the national team, she said: “That’s a choice for them, quite frankly.”

    Patel also said the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests last summer had a “devastating” impact on policing in the UK.

    “It’s all well to support a cause and make your voices heard,” she said. “But actually, quite frankly, and we saw last year in particular with some of the protests that took place, I speak now very much from what I saw in the impact on policing. It was devastating.”

    She criticised the BLM rioters who pulled down the statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol.

    “I just don’t subscribe to this view that we should be rewriting our history, pulling down statues, the famous Colston statue, and what’s happened there. Toppling statues is not the answer.

    “It’s about learning from our past, learning from our history, and actually working together to drive the right outcomes.”

    Patel was not the first British government minister to criticise England footballers taking the knee.

    Education minister Gillian Keegan said on June 10 that the act is “divisive,” as it is an expression of support for the BLM movement.

    “There are some Conservative MPs [that] are very much against it. Why? Because Black Lives Matter stands for things that they don’t stand for. It’s really about defunding the police and the overthrow of capitalism, which is, you know, Black Lives Matter the actual political organisation,” she told the BBC’s “Question Time” programme.

    “And some people will take it and think that’s supporting Black Lives Matter. I’m sure Black Lives Matter will think it’s supporting them.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 06/15/2021 – 02:00

  • Is A "Climate Lockdown" On The Horizon?
    Is A “Climate Lockdown” On The Horizon?

    Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,

    If and when the powers-that-be decide to move on from their pandemic narrative, lockdowns won’t be going anywhere. Instead it looks like they’ll be rebranded as “climate lockdowns”, and either enforced or simply held threateningly over the public’s head.

    At least, according to an article written by an employee of the WHO, and published by a mega-coporate think-tank.

    Let’s dive right in.

    THE REPORT’S AUTHOR AND BACKERS

    The report, titled “Avoiding a climate lockdown”, was written by Mariana Mazzucato, a professor of economics at University College London, and head of something called the Council on the Economics of Health for All, a division of the World Health Organization.

    It was first published in October 2020 by Project Syndicate, a non-profit media organization that is (predictably) funded through grants from the Open society Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and many, many others.

    After that, it was picked up and republished by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), which describes itself as “a global, CEO-led organization of over 200 leading businesses working together to accelerate the transition to a sustainable world.”.

    The WBCSD’s membership is essentially every major company in the world, including Chevron, BP, Bayer, Walmart, Google and Microsoft. Over 200 members totalling well over 8 TRILLION dollars in annual revenue.

    In short: an economist who works for the WHO has written a report concerning “climate lockdowns”, which has been published by both a Gates+Soros backed NGO AND a group representing almost every bank, oil company and tech giant on the planet.

    Whatever it says, it clearly has the approval of the people who run the world.

    WHAT DOES IT SAY?

    The text of the report itself is actually quite craftily constructed. It doesn’t outright argue for climate lockdowns, but instead discusses ways “we” can prevent them.

    As COVID-19 spread […] governments introduced lockdowns in order to prevent a public-health emergency from spinning out of control. In the near future, the world may need to resort to lockdowns again – this time to tackle a climate emergency […] To avoid such a scenario, we must overhaul our economic structures and do capitalism differently.

    This cleverly creates a veneer of arguing against them, whilst actually pushing the a priori assumptions that any so-called “climate lockdowns” would a) be necessary and b) be effective. Neither of which has ever been established.

    Another thing the report assumes is some kind of causal link between the environment and the “pandemic”:

    COVID-19 is itself a consequence of environmental degradation

    I wrote an article, back in April, exploring the media’s persistent attempts to link the Covid19 “pandemic” with climate change. Everybody from the Guardian to the Harvard School of Public Health is taking the same position – “The root cause of pandemics [is] the destruction of nature”:

    The razing of forests and hunting of wildlife is increasingly bringing animals and the microbes they harbour into contact with people and livestock.

    There is never any scientific evidence cited to support this position. Rather, it is a fact-free scare-line used to try and force a mental connection in the public, between visceral self-preservation (fear of disease) and concern for the environment. It is as transparent as it is weak.

    “CLIMATE LOCKDOWNS”

    So, what exactly is a “climate lockdown”? And what would it entail?

    The author is pretty clear:

    Under a “climate lockdown,” governments would limit private-vehicle use, ban consumption of red meat, and impose extreme energy-saving measures, while fossil-fuel companies would have to stop drilling.

    There you have it. A “climate lockdown” means no more red meat, the government setting limits on how and when people use their private vehicles and further (unspecified) “extreme energy-saving measures”. It would likely include previously suggested bans on air travel, too.

    All in all, it is potentially far more strict than the “public health policy” we’ve all endured for the last year.

    As for forcing fossil fuel companies to stop drilling, that is drenched in the sort of ignorance of practicality that only exists in the academic world. Supposing we can switch to entirely rely on renewables for energy, we still wouldn’t be able to stop drilling for fossil fuels.

    Oil isn’t just used as fuel, it’s also needed to lubricate engines and manufacture chemicals and plastics. Plastics used in the manufacture of wind turbines and solar panels, for example.

    Coal isn’t just needed for power stations, but also to make steel. Steel which is vital to pretty much everything humans do in the modern world.

    It reminds me of a Victoria Wood sketch from the 1980s, where an upper-middle class woman remarks, upon meeting a coal miner, “I suppose we don’t really need coal, now we’ve got electricity.”

    A lot of post-fossil utopian ideas are sold this way, to people who are comfortably removed from the way the world actually works. This mirrors the supposed “recovery” the environment experienced during lockdown, a mythic creation selling a silver lining of house arrest to people who think that because they’re having their annual budget meetings over Zoom, somehow China stopped manufacturing 900 million tonnes of steel a year, and the US military doesn’t produce more pollution than 140 different countries combined.

    The question, really, is why would an NGO backed by – among others – Shell, BP and Chevron, possibly want to suggest a ban on drilling for fossil fuel? But that’s a discussion for another time.

    AVOIDING A “CLIMATE LOCKDOWN”

    So, the “climate lockdown” is a mix of dystopian social control, and impractical nonsense likely designed to sell an agenda. But don’t worry, we don’t have to do this. There is a way to avoid these extreme measures, the author says so:

    To avoid such a scenario, we must overhaul our economic structures and do capitalism differently […] Addressing this triple crisis requires reorienting corporate governance, finance, policy, and energy systems toward a green economic transformation […] Far more is needed to achieve a green and sustainable recovery […] we want to transform the future of work, transit, and energy use.

    “Overhaul”? “reorienting”? “transformation”?

    Seems like we’re looking at a new-built society. A “reset”, if you will, and given the desired scope, you could even call it a “great reset”, I suppose.

    Except, of course, the Great Reset is just a wild “conspiracy theory”. The elite doesn’t want a Great Reset, even if they keep saying they do…

    …they just want a massive wholesale “transformation” of our social, financial, governmental and energy sectors.

    They want you to own nothing and be happy. Or else.

    Because that’s the oddest thing about this particular article, whereas most fear-porn public programming at least attempts subtlety, there is very definitely an overtly threatening tone to this piece [emphasis added]:

    we are approaching a tipping point on climate change, when protecting the future of civilization will require dramatic interventions […] One way or the other, radical change is inevitable; our task is to ensure that we achieve the change we want – while we still have the choice.

    The whole article is not an argument, so much as an ultimatum. A gun held to the public’s collective head. “Obviously we don’t want to lock you up inside your homes, force you to eat processed soy cubes and take away your cars,” they’re telling us, “but we might have to, if you don’t take our advice.”

    Will there be “climate lockdowns” in the future? I wouldn’t be surprised. But right now – rather than being seriously mooted – they are fulfilling a different role. A frightening hypothetical – A threat used to bully the public into accepting the hardline globalist reforms that make up the “great reset”.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/14/2021 – 23:40

  • Visualizing 50 Years Of Global Steel Production
    Visualizing 50 Years Of Global Steel Production

    From the bronze age to the iron age, metals have defined eras of human history. If our current era had to be defined similarly, it would undoubtedly be known as the steel age.

    Steel is the foundation of our buildings, vehicles, and industries, with its rates of production and consumption often seen as markers for a nation’s development; and as Visual Capitalist’s Niccolo Conte details below, today, it is the world’s most commonly used metal and most recycled material, with 1,864 million metric tons of crude steel produced in 2020.

    This infographic uses data from the World Steel Association to visualize 50 years of crude steel production, showcasing our world’s unrelenting creation of this essential material.

    The State of Steel Production

    Global steel production has more than tripled over the past 50 years, despite nations like the U.S. and Russia scaling down their domestic production and relying more on imports. Meanwhile, China and India have consistently grown their production to become the top two steel producing nations.

    Below are the world’s current top crude steel producing nations by 2020 production.

    Despite its current dominance, China could be preparing to scale back domestic steel production to curb overproduction risks and ensure it can reach carbon neutrality by 2060.

    As iron ore and steel prices have skyrocketed in the last year, U.S. demand could soon lessen depending on the Biden administration’s actions. A potential infrastructure bill would bring investment into America’s steel mills to build supply for the future, and any walkbalk on the Trump administration’s 2018 tariffs on imported steel could further soften supply constraints.

    Steel’s Secret: Infinite Recyclability

    Made up primarily of iron ore, steel is an alloy which also contains less than 2% carbon and 1% manganese and other trace elements. While the defining difference might seem small, steel can be 1,000x stronger than iron.

    However, steel’s true strength lies in its infinite recyclability with no loss of quality. No matter the grade or application, steel can always be recycled, with new steel products containing 30% recycled steel on average.

    The alloy’s magnetic properties make it easy to recover from waste streams, and nearly 100% of the steel industry’s co-products can be used in other manufacturing or electricity generation.

    It’s fitting then that steel makes up essential parts of various sustainable energy technologies:

    • The average wind turbine is made of 80% steel on average (140 metric tons).

    • Steel is used in the base, pumps, tanks, and heat exchangers of solar power installations.

    • Electrical steel is at the heart of the generators and motors of electric and hybrid vehicles.

    The Steel Industry’s Future Sustainability

    Considering the crucial role steel plays in just about every industry, it’s no wonder that prices are surging to record highs. However, steel producers are thinking about long-term sustainability, and are working to make fossil-fuel-free steel a reality by completely removing coal from the metallurgical process.

    While the industry has already cut down the average energy intensity per metric ton produced from 50 gigajoules to 20 gigajoules since the 1960s, steel-producing giants like ArcelorMittal are going further and laying out their plans for carbon-neutral steel production by 2050.

    Steel consumption and demand is only set to continue rising as the world’s economy gradually reopens, especially as Rio Tinto’s new development of atomized steel powder could bring about the next evolution in 3D printing.

    As the industry continues to innovate in both sustainability and usability, steel will continue to be a vital material across industries that we can infinitely recycle and rely on.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/14/2021 – 23:20

  • Why Are Hordes Of Wealthy People Hitting The Escape Button And Heading To Montana?
    Why Are Hordes Of Wealthy People Hitting The Escape Button And Heading To Montana?

    Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

    Why have thousands upon thousands of very wealthy people suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to buy a home in Montana?  At this moment, Montana is one of the hottest real estate markets in the entire country.  When a desirable house is put on the market, it can often spark a wild bidding war.  Of course the vast majority of the potential buyers involved in these bidding wars do not actually have any roots in Montana at all.  Vast hordes of wealthy individuals from Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and other major cities are flooding into the state, and there is only a limited amount of housing to accommodate them.  As a result, home prices are being pushed to absolutely absurd levels.

    In the Flathead Valley, home builders have been working incredibly hard to construct houses for the new arrivals.  The following comes from a New York Post article entitled “Montana, the sold-out state New Yorkers can’t get enough of”…

    All around the Lodge, along Montana Highway 35, from Kalispell to Whitefish, are what the locals call “COVID homes,” prefabricated track houses that line up along what used to be a timber farm — all of which were built last year and sold at around $550,000.

    “Most were bought sight unseen for cash deals,” said Doug Averill.

    $550,000 may have seemed like a hefty price when those homes originally went up, but today $550,000 would be considered a bargain price.

    That is because the average selling price of a home in Flathead County has now risen to more than $638,000…

    In May 2020, the average sale price for a home in Flathead County was $447,387 — a year later it had increased to $638,992. The average number of days a property stayed on the market has been cut almost in half, from 77 days in May 2020 to 41 days in May 2021.

    The Flathead Valley possesses great natural beauty, and Whitefish in particular has become an extremely popular tourist destination.

    All of this interest in Whitefish has helped to fuel a home price boom that is unlike anything the region has ever experienced…

    While this may be good for realtors, locals are shell-shocked at the price hikes due to what the Flathead Beacon called the “COVID migration” from states like New York. “(The housing crisis) is happening all over Montana,” one Whitefish local told The Post. “No one who is from here can actually afford to live here anymore.”

    According to Realtor.com, just before the pandemic in December 2019, the average home price in Whitefish, a town of 7,700 people just south of Glacier National Park, was $369,450. A year and a half later, that has almost doubled — and the average home price is now $704,000. Local average wages in Whitefish are just $30,642, according to bestplaces.net.

    Needless to say, the vast majority of Americans cannot afford a $700,000 home.

    Only the wealthy have enough money to relocate to Whitefish now, and many locals with roots in the area are having to leave for good because housing has become so ridiculously expensive.

    A similar thing is happening over in Missoula.  From last May to this May, the median sales price in Missoula shot up a staggering 41 percent…

    New real estate data for the month of May shows an increasingly competitive market in western Montana.

    New Multiple Listing Service data shows the median sales price in Missoula increased 41% from May 2020 to May 2021, up to $449,338.

    Ten years ago, the median sales price in Missoula was just $205,000.

    If you go all the way back to 2001, it was just $138,000.

    Things are getting crazy in Bozeman too.  At this point, “the average home in the greater Bozeman area is going for more than $650,000”…

    One hundred thirty thousand dollars. That’s what it takes for a down payment to buy an average-priced home in Bozeman, Montana. Then an aspiring homeowner must fork out another $3,000 each month, which is more than two-thirds of their household’s paychecks if they make the median income for the metro area.

    That’s because the average home in the greater Bozeman area is going for more than $650,000, up from an already astronomical $500,000 in early 2020.

    So why is this happening?

    Why are home prices in Montana and other desirable locations around the country going absolutely nuts?

    Many are blaming the COVID pandemic, and that certainly played a major role at first, but now the COVID pandemic is subsiding.

    Ultimately, I believe the the largest reason why we are seeing such a home buying frenzy is because people can see that our society is starting to come apart at the seams and they can sense that enormous trouble is ahead.

    Just consider what happened this weekend.  We literally witnessed mass shootings in four different U.S. cities in a period of just six hours…

    At least four major U.S. cities were reeling from an onslaught of mass shootings over the weekend that left at least 39 people wounded, five dead and police officials alarmed that the surge in gun violence is a prelude to a bloody summer as the nation emerges from the pandemic.

    Police in Austin, Cleveland, Chicago and Savannah were all investigating on Sunday mass shootings that erupted over a six-hour streak that began around 9 p.m. on Friday and spilled over into Saturday morning.

    All over America, countless numbers of people are finally waking up and realizing that it is time to leave the major cities and head for greener pastures.

    As I have been encouraging people to do for years, those that are leaving are looking for areas with low population density and low crime rates.

    Of course the wealthy also value great natural beauty, and this is one of the big reasons why the Flathead Valley has become so popular.

    And once they have purchased their beautiful new homes in remote parts of the nation, many wealthy individuals are filling them up with emergency food and supplies.

    Collectively, rich people tend to be much more into “prepping” than the general population as a whole.

    Sadly, the vast majority of the population is still asleep.  The mainstream media keeps telling us that everything is going to work out just fine somehow, and most Americans blindly believe them.

    Meanwhile, many among the wealthy are buying up properties in remote locations at a blistering pace, and this is going to permanently change the character of those communities.

    *  *  *

    Michael’s new book entitled “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/14/2021 – 23:00

  • Chinese Stealth Fighters Buzz Beijing In Fly Over Rehearsal Ahead Of Centenary Parade 
    Chinese Stealth Fighters Buzz Beijing In Fly Over Rehearsal Ahead Of Centenary Parade 

    The celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China is nearing and will be held on July 1. So naturally, like any massive government-sponsored celebration involving war machines, there needs to be lots of preparation. Over the weekend, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was spotted flying all sorts of warplanes and helicopters in a rehearsal event, but what has caught our attention is the video of stealth fighter jets and new heavy-lift helicopters.

    According to state-run media Global Times, thousands of people in the Tiananmen area of Beijing gazed into the skies as warplanes and helicopters practiced flying formations. The event included “the warm-up, a grand gathering, and entry and exit, as well as preparations in the event of an emergency,” Global Times added. 

    During the day on Sunday morning, several echelons of PLA warplanes were seen flying through the sky in the rehearsal, including dozens of helicopters forming a formation representing the number “100,” a J-10 fighter jet formation representing “71,” or July 1, the birthday of the CPC, and formations consisting of five J-20 stealth fighter jets, Beijing-based magazine the Aerospace Knowledge reported on Sunday. – Global Times 

    Pictures and videos of the rehearsal event have circulated on social media showed the J-20 stealth jets and helicopters. 

    Videos uploaded onto social media are pretty impressive. 

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    China is obviously making a statement to the West as tensions between the US and China continue to sour under a Biden administration. The great power struggle between both countries is pushing both countries closer and closer towards Thucydides Trap.

    We’re surprised the “God of War” stealth bomber is not featured in the upcoming celebrations – or maybe it will? 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/14/2021 – 22:40

  • Putin Warns Against Ongoing NATO Warship Build-Up In Black Sea Ahead Of Biden Meeting
    Putin Warns Against Ongoing NATO Warship Build-Up In Black Sea Ahead Of Biden Meeting

    Authored by Rick Rozoff via AntiWar.com,

    In comments that got past editors in the Western news media, President Vladimir Putin in a recent Russian television interview accused the West of abusing what were good relations at the time (1999-2004) to expand NATO up to Russia’s borders. And in doing so, he specified, violated verbal pledges made by American officials to then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, adding that the latter is alive and in good health and can confirm what he was told. In a candid assessment of the matter, Putin added, “I do not want to use harsh words, but they simply spat upon our interests and that’s that.”

    Lengthy excerpts of his comments were published on the English-language site of the government news agency TASS on June 9. The most significant, and most alarming, aspect of the interview is the Russian president’s warning of Ukraine joining NATO, which contrary to what he acknowledged is a dismissal of that prospect by many experts in Russia and in the West he takes seriously, especially in regard to its membership providing the U.S. and NATO with new missile sites.

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    Without naming them he mentioned that Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) missile defense (so-called) interceptors in Romania and Poland could strike Moscow in 15 minutes if a warhead was added to them; which, although the West denies its intent to do so, could be easily done. Russia has not been invited to inspect the missiles, for example. Paraphrasing the head of state, the TASS report disclosed the above threat is eminently practicable “because the missile defense launch systems stationed there can be used to carry out strikes as well.”

    Installing SM-3s in Ukraine, Putin warned, would reduce the time needed to strike Moscow to 7-10 minutes. “Is it a red line for us or not?” he asked.

    He also drew the inevitable comparison with the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when he estimated Soviet missiles on that island nation could have hit Washington in 15 minutes, adding another parallel:

    “To lower this flight time to 7-10 minutes, we should station our missiles on Canada’s southern border or Mexico’s northern border. Is it a red line for the US or not?”

    Though perfectly transparent and accurate in all regards, his comments have been ignored and, if brought to people’s attention, would be dismissed. That’s how wars and that’s how a nuclear catastrophe beyond a healthy mind’s powers of comprehension can occur. Sleepwalking into Armageddon.

    Five years ago the U.S. installed an Aegis AN/SPY-1 radar and twelve missile tubes for Standard Missile-3 Block IB interceptors at Deveselu in Romania, and plans to do the same in Poland under an initiative called Aegis Ashore or European Phased Adaptive Approach, first announced by the Barack Obama administration in 2009. Aegis Ashore is derived from the Aegis Combat System used by U.S. Navy to equip American warships and those of its allies with SM-3s to shoot down other nations’ missiles. The U.S. has 62 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers (with more under construction) and 22 Ticonderoga-class cruisers that are equipped for the Aegis Combat System. They can fire the same SM-3s Vladimir Putin warned about in his interview.

    In addition to presenting the threat to Russia described above, the US and its allies, in ringing Russia in with land- and sea-based interceptor missiles, could not only undermine but neutralize its deterrence capabilities. Any Russian missiles surviving a first-strike attack by the US and NATO would be shot down with interceptors. At the NATO summit in 2012 the military bloc endorsed the second phase of a so-called missile defense policy; NATO’s and the U.S.’s systems are fully integrated. The European Phased Adaptive Approach includes SM-3s on American destroyers and cruisers in the Atlantic and Mediterranean as well as missiles placed in Romania and Poland. Washington has also recruited nations to Russia’s east, the Asia-Pacific region, into the Aegis Combat System; to date Japan, South Korea and Australia. NATO members Norway and Spain are also directly integrated into the system.

    On June 11 the U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa site simultaneously announced that the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Laboon entered the Black Sea and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Roosevelt arrived in Gdynia, Poland on the Baltic Sea.

    The first occurred despite the cancellation of the deployment of two American warships to the Black Sea in April allegedly for fear of too openly antagonizing Russia. Instead, it was announced shortly afterward that two British warships assigned to the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier’s strike group, a destroyer and a frigate, would substitute for them. The latter may occur shortly.

    Five American warships were in the Black Sea earlier this year, including the Aegis-class destroyers USS Donald Cook and USS Porter in January and the USS Thomas Hudner destroyer and USS Monterey cruiser in March.

    While in the Black Sea, Laboon will, according to U.S. Navy, conduct “multi-domain operations with a U.S. Navy P-8A aircraft from Patrol Squadron VP-40 and NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force E-3A Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS).” The press release announcing the warship’s entry into the sea states: “The U.S. Navy routinely operates in the Black Sea to work with our NATO Allies and partners, including Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Turkey, and Ukraine.” That is, five of the Black Sea’s six (recognized) littoral nations. The other of course is Russia.

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    Laboon is currently assigned to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, so its presence (and that of other Aegis-class warships so assigned) is independent of the four American guided-missile destroyers based (on a rotating schedule) at the Naval Station Rota in Spain as part of the European Phased Adaptive Approach and in conjunction with NATO.

    The Navy release also states: “The ship’s operations in the Black Sea will strengthen interoperability with NATO allies and partners and demonstrate collective resolve to Black Sea security under Operation Atlantic Resolve.” The latter is a Pentagon operation launched in 2014 along what NATO calls its Eastern Flank from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

    On June 11 the Navy also reported that USS Roosevelt had docked at the Polish port city of Gdynia to refuel while engaged in this year’s massive Baltic Operations 50 (BALTOPS) war games.The destroyer’s commander said of the event, “During BALTOPS, Roosevelt has honed our skills in air, surface, and anti-surface warfare exercises with our NATO partners.” Russia is the only Baltic Sea nation that is not a NATO member or Enhanced Opportunities Partner. All the others are: Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden.

    Roosevelt is one of four – soon to be six – U.S. interceptor-missile destroyers based in Rota, Spain. The Navy says this about their capacity and their mission: “These Forward-Deployed Naval Forces-Europe ships have the flexibility to operate throughout the waters of Europe and Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope to the Arctic Circle, demonstrating their mastery of the maritime domain.”

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    Also on June 11 U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa announced – shortly after the Russian president had so powerfully warned of the SM-3 threat to his country – that Vice Admiral Eugene Black, commander alike of the U.S. Sixth Fleet and Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO, had inspected the five Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers assigned to Commander, Task Force 65 during a visit to Naval Station Rota on June 8. In addition to USS Arleigh Burke, USS Donald Cook, USS Porter and USS Ross forward deployed to Rota, he also visited USS Paul Ignatius, which too is currently assigned to the Mediterranean Sea.

    The Navy press release on the subject stated that Arleigh Burke, Paul Ignatius and Ross had recently participated in the At-Sea Demo/Formidable Shield 21 Integrated Air and Missile Defense exercise that was completed in Norway’s Arctic region on June 3. It also mentioned that Paul Ignatius had “conducted a cooperative engagement of a live medium-range ballistic target using a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptor.” That event was described by a American military official involved in the exercise as “a ballistic missile intercept in outer space.”

    President Putin is fully justified in sounding the alarm over NATO’s encroachment on and the U.S.-NATO missile threat against his nation. The pertinent question is why it’s taken him twenty years to do so.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/14/2021 – 22:20

  • G7 Nations Spend More On Fossil Fuels Than Green Energy
    G7 Nations Spend More On Fossil Fuels Than Green Energy

    Development charity Tearfund published a report in collaboration with the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Overseas Development Institute ahead of the G7 summit.

    As Statista’s Niall McCarthy reports, it found that G7 countries are spending billions of dollars more on fossil fuels than green energy. Between January 2020 and March 2021, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.S. and the UK pumped $189 billion into coal, oil and gas energy while only $147 billion was spent on clean energy.

    The transportation sector received the bulk of the funding, primarily due to the approval of large bailout plans for the automotive and aviation sectors during the early stages of the pandemic. The report’s authors claim that these rescue packages were provided with very little incentives “to go green” and that they will sustain highly polluting industries for the forseeable future.

    Infographic: G7 Nations Spend More On Fossil Fuels Than Green Energy | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    A mere 17 percent of commitments to fossil fuel intensive sectors had green strings attached and 83 percent did not include any climate targets or pollution reduction requirements.

    Describing the pandemic as a lost opportunity for G7 countries to support a transition to cleaner energy, the report says that funding based on green conditions needs to be the minimum approach and that only one in 10 dollars committed to the pandemic response benefited the cleanest energy measures.

    Along with direct funding for dirty forms of energy, some governments rolled back regulations affecting the fossil fuel industry. This ranged from the introduction of fuel tax exemptions to the suspension of penalties for companies in breach of environmental regulations.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/14/2021 – 22:00

  • "Like Hell Went To Hell" – The Tragic Demise Of Venice Beach
    “Like Hell Went To Hell” – The Tragic Demise Of Venice Beach

    Authored by Jamie Joseph via The Epoch Times,

    World-renowned Venice Beach has long been a place where visitors, residents, and business owners commingled with artists, musicians, and entertainers from all over the country. Over 10 million tourists visit the beach’s famous boardwalk each year, drawn in by the ocean view and the unconventional lifestyle of the city’s eccentric community.

    But the famed destination no longer circulates in headlines for its wacky tourist attractions or local eateries. Instead, the beach town has become known worldwide for its flourishing homeless encampments, burgeoning filth, skyrocketing crime rate, and increasingly violent transients.

    Women walk past homeless encampments in venice Beach, Calif., on June 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    As city officials dawdle, the beachside town is falling to ruin, residents say, overwhelmed by the homeless that are making their lives a living hell.

    Their cries for help have gone largely unheeded—until now. Earlier this week, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva announced a July 4th sweep that aims to clean up the mess.

    For residents who have been trying to get local officials to act for months, the action can’t come soon enough.

    During a recent trip to Venice, Villanueva said the tents need to be cleared by Independence Day, after reports of crime, arson, and filth went unaddressed for months. He blames elected leaders for not handling the issue.

    “When I was out there in Venice, I talked to a shop owner, and he was fit to be tied,” Villanueva told The Epoch Times.

    “He’s tired of politicians, tired of people in the city doing nothing. And it’s impacting his ability for customers to come in, [with] the cost of people trying to break into his business and people causing scenes, fights, [and] outside fires. It’s like a third-world country.”

    But not all locals approve of the sweep. Some activists quickly criticized the move on social media. “Why is this @LASDHQ dressed like this to do outreach? Why do they have guns?” the People’s City Council asked on Twitter.

    For some residents, the uptick in recent violent attacks by the homeless on workers, residents, and the elderly are justification enough.

    A homeless individual in Venice Beach, Calif., on June 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Cleaning Up the Mess

    Within the last two weeks alone, there have been three reports of alleged attacks by the homeless.

    A 70-year-old man, a small business manager, and a security guard were all victims of random attacks, according to local reports. It was the final straw that caught the attention of law enforcement—even though residents say the problem has been bubbling to the surface for months.

    Butch Say, a traveling transient who sings rock ‘n’ roll on the boardwalk, has called Venice home for the last two years. He said people like himself are attracted to the neighborhood by its welcoming culture and the weather—but even he’s noticed that things are getting worse.

    “It’s nutty, but they like it. And that’s part of the reason a lot of people come here,” Say told The Epoch Times.

    Say watched on June 8 as 18 officers from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Housing Outreach and Services Team (HOST) descended on the boardwalk, cleaning up trash and alerting the homeless of the upcoming action.

    “The trash is going to fill right back up in a few days,” Say said with a chuckle.

    HOST stepped in to mitigate the chaos that has been ensuing in the area, and tried to connect homeless individuals with housing and other stabilization resources ahead of the July 4th sweep.

    Say said this was the first time he’d seen the Sheriff’s Department in force.

    “You never see him. It’s usually LAPD [the Los Angeles Police Department], and they’re cool. They roll by and they just keep the peace—which is not much more you can ask from them, because this is on nonstop, 24-hours-a-day going, this lifestyle, and it gets crazy,” he told The Epoch Times.

    “Some people, you know, [do] too much drugs. They’re up for days—weeks—and they’re just psychotic, running around screaming at … invisible trees and whatever.”

    Deputy Lewis, one of the officers on duty that day, told The Epoch Times, “To be honest, I didn’t know about Venice Beach until 6 a.m. this morning.”

    But Lt. Jeff Deedrick, who led the HOST team, was bothered by the recent attacks.

    “Our mission is humanitarian; this is a crisis, and this is bad. And the acts of violence here have been significant,” Deedrick told The Epoch Times.

    “It was heartbreaking to see the gentleman the other day get punched in the face in broad daylight. That can’t happen. We have to have a civil society. And it needs to be to where everybody can enjoy this place.”

    A law enforcement officer speaks to a man on Venice Beach, Calif., on June 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Skyrocketing Crime

    The conditions in Venice Beach have been deteriorating for over a year. City codes prohibiting encampments on the beach and sidewalks were rolled back per new COVID-19 regulations when the pandemic hit, and normal street sweeping crews were cut to limit contact.

    Then Venice was declared a sanctuary zone by Los Angeles Councilmember Mike Bonin, whose district includes the beach. Tents were no longer violating city policy.

    Bonin, who is facing a recall effort over his policies, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also championed temporary A Bridge Housing units in Venice to help with the problem.

    But residents have told The Epoch Times that the facility has only served to attract more homeless to the nearby streets since its development. Tents and trailers parked on the side of the street are present outside of the complex. Many of those same people living in A Bridge Housing are “dual residents,” with some still dwelling in their tents outside, according to locals.

    Soledad Ursua, chairwoman of the Venice Neighborhood Council (VNC), told The Epoch Times that the issue is one of “lack of enforcement” due to COVID-19.

    “That’s really how a lot of these crime problems have really spiraled out of control,” she said.

    “And it’s sad that we have to ask the city to resume enforcing our laws, you know, laws that we have on the books. So, Venice residents, we have to basically beg for our laws to be enforced again.”

    The Los Angeles Fire Department announced last month that over 54 percent of fires in the county this year had been started by homeless encampments. In Venice, a number of fires sparked in encampments have been reported, with one corporate building burning to the ground earlier this year.

    A homeless individual in Venice Beach, Calif., on June 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Say said he personally witnessed a homeless person start a fire on the beach only last week.

    “It was somebody’s little wagon with batteries, and they wired it up wrong to play their musical instruments, and it blew up, caught on fire, [and] burned itself out,” Say recalled.

    The neighborhood is also experiencing a sharp uptick in crime, according to statistics provided to the Venice Neighborhood Council by LAPD Capt. Steve Embrich.

    Year-to-date numbers show that robberies have nearly tripled since the same period last year. Homeless-related robberies are up 260 percent; homeless-related assault with a deadly weapon is up 118 percent; property crimes and area burglaries are up 85 percent; and grand theft auto is up 74 percent.

    According to Embrich, felony arrests are up 68 percent, while misdemeanor arrests have grown by 355 percent. But arrests aren’t enough: Suspects are often released back onto the streets within hours.

    “So, arrests are way up—the officers arrested a lot more people—but you may not see a difference because most of those arrests, like 99 percent, are we arrest them, and they’re coronavirus released, they’re released back into the community shortly after we book them,” Embrich told the VNC during a recent meeting.

    Grand theft auto (GTA) incidents in Venice are “much higher than the rest of the area,” Embrich said.

    “And with our GTA, what we see is that we have a very short recovery window. So, most of the cars that are stolen are recovered within Pacific area, very close, or they’re recovered in Culver City or whatever adjacent cities, and the recovery period is short—that means your cars are being stolen out of Venice, for the purpose of sleeping or for the purpose of transportation.”

    A homeless individual in Venice Beach, Calif., on June 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    ‘Tearing the Community Apart From Within’

    How to solve the problem is tearing the community apart, according to Venice Neighborhood Councilmember Brian Averill.

    “The city of L.A. has dropped the ball on the crime in Venice. … It’s not being addressed. So, people on different sides of the issues in our community are sort of turning on each other. Not only is it unsafe, but it’s really tearing the community apart from within,” Averill told The Epoch Times.

    “Because people pay taxes to feel safe and to feel protected, and it is chaotic out there, so that’s the city’s sort of ineptitude.”

    Say said he understands the residents’ frustrations.

    “It’s crazy about the fighting stuff. I’ve seen neighbors and houses fight, and it goes on for years down here. They’re in the morning ready to chop each other’s heads off, and at night they’re sharing dinner,” Say said.

    Averill said the push for “housing first,” a theory the city has embraced that believes more housing units are needed as the first step to help the homeless, does not treat the complexities of each individual case, as people may need other resources to rehabilitate them.

    He said that “a triage situation” would be the best option right now.

    “It’s a disaster out there, frankly,” he added.

    “Why we’re not seeing some sort of triage is beyond me. … You should be getting people into the triage, figuring out what they need. Some people just need $1,000 so they can get a bus ticket or a plane ticket home, some people need addiction help, some people need detox. Some people need serious, you know, mental illness help.”

    On June 7, Averill was present at a press conference on the boardwalk when a knife-wielding homeless woman was subdued steps away from L.A. Councilmember Joe Buscaino. At the time, Buscaino was in the middle of a news conference addressing homelessness on the boardwalk as part of his mayoral campaign.

    Bystander Nico Ruderman yelled “Knife!” and LAPD’s Embrich subdued the woman, sustaining minor cut injuries while arresting her. It is unclear if the woman intended to attack Buscaino. Some witnesses say she was arrested because the knife fell out of her pocket.

    Within hours, however, the suspect was released back onto the boardwalk, charged only with a misdemeanor.

    Said VNC’s Ursua, “Our concerns are valid. We were afraid to go out. … If a councilmember can almost get stabbed, it means that it could happen to us.”

    A few days after the incident, Buscaino requested that the city restore its ban on sidewalk encampments.

    A homeless individual in Venice Beach, Calif., on June 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    ‘Inept and Corrupt Politicians’

    Since the pandemic began, the boardwalk has become “like hell went to hell,” according to Say.

    “It was bad [before], but it wasn’t like this,” he said.

    For years, the colorful history of homeless dwellers has been an integral part of Venice Beach, with locals referring to them as “street people.” Business owners told The Epoch Times they used to know most of them by name. They were part of the community—until the pandemic brought a massive influx of new transients.

    “It was with COVID, people getting tossed and all that. This place filled up quick: all women, men, middle-aged, you know, everybody here, little kids sometimes,” said Say.

    “A lot of new people, they try to blend in. They say, ‘I’ve been here 20 years,’ and it’s like, ‘I’ve only been here two and I haven’t seen you.’”

    If parents have little children, “they get hooked up quick” with help, Say said. “And if you’re part of it—they call it ‘the family,’ you know—if you’re part of the family, they know you down here, you’re OK.”

    But they still get into fights with each other, he added. “I’ve seen people fighting, screaming, threatening [each other] with pipes and poles in the morning, and bringing them a pair of shoes at night and sharing their dinner,” he said.

    Venice Beach Bar manager Luis Perez told The Epoch Times previously that when the stay-at-home orders were declared last year, homeless people were bussed in from other cities and dropped off on the boardwalk. It was clear they didn’t fit in with the culture, he said. Most of them were addicts.

    Now, attacks against visitors and other homeless people are regularly documented on social media by a local watchdog group, with new videos uploaded nearly every day.

    In the meantime, the encampments are still growing—and impacting local businesses. Recently, another tent community appeared behind the Rose Café restaurant on nearby Rose Avenue, a few blocks from the beach. The encampment has barbecue pits, dressers, and motorbikes parked inside the tents.

    Right outside businesses on the boardwalk, trash, needles, and tents can be seen in plain sight, piled up on top of each other.

    Klaus Moeller is owner of the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream shop on the boardwalk. He has been dealing with problems caused by the homeless for over a year.

    On June 5, Moeller filed a police report against a homeless person who attacked his manager.

    “Woman hit a Hare Krishna monk, then threatened our customer. When our manager asked her to leave, she hit the manager in the face,” Moeller told The Epoch Times in an email.

    The police did nothing. “Police refused to make an arrest and told us that an assault apparently now is considered a misdemeanor,” he said.

    Moeller said he doesn’t blame the police, as current “catch and release” policies “make any arrest a waste of time for them.”

    “I blame the inept and corrupt politicians,” he said.

    Moeller said that only a day earlier, a beloved local security guard at a nearby skate shop “was hit over the head with a bottle and then repeatedly stabbed by a homeless guy in their parking lot.”

    Moeller said he has reached out repeatedly to Bonin, the local representative. But his attempts at communication have failed.

    “I have tried for a year now to have Mr. Bonin speak with me but emails are not answered. Our very own councilman, whose salary is paid with our taxes; refuses to even talk to us or acknowledge that there is a problem,” Moeller said.

    The Epoch Times reached out for comment but did not hear back from Bonin’s office. However, Bonin released a series of tweets defending his housing policies.

    A homeless encampment in Venice Beach, Calif., on June 8, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    “There is loud and growing criticism of homeless housing from people saying homelessness is about addiction and mental health, not housing. We absolutely need more mental health & drug rehab services—and we can’t address these issues among the unhoused without housing,” Bonin said in a June 3 tweet.

    On June 10, Bonin asked the Los Angeles Homeless and Poverty Committee to shift $5 million in budgeted aid to fund housing programs in his district.

    But Say warned that not every homeless person wants the help. He said most of the people living in Venice get government support.

    He pointed to a homeless man in a wheelchair wearing pajamas. The man gets $1,400 a month from the government, Say said, “and he loves it out here.”

    Say said that government Section 8 housing vouchers are available to many people, providing “a nice place to live,” and if you’re older, you get priority. But many people, like the man in the wheelchair, prefer to live on the street.

    “They go, ‘No, I love it out here. Nobody tells me what to do, and I run around in my underwear,’” Say said. “You know, whatever. They’re crazy. What can I say? It’s Venice.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/14/2021 – 21:40

  • Biden Admin Pats Self On Back After 'Gifting' Vaccine To 0.015% Of Trinidad Population
    Biden Admin Pats Self On Back After ‘Gifting’ Vaccine To 0.015% Of Trinidad Population

    Last Thursday, US President Joe Biden announced that the United States would donate 500 million doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to the world’s poorest countries with “no strings attached.”

    On Sunday, the US State Department proudly tweeted that they had donated 80 vials to Trinidad and Tobago, which has a population of 1.4 million.

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    Given that each vial can squeeze out six doses for a total of 480 jabs, and each person requires two shots, that’s enough to cover 0.015% of the country’s population!

    US Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, Joseph Mondello.

    The mockery came hard and fast:

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    According to Trinidad and Tobago’s National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds, the vials will be given to the National Security Ministry. 

    “This has nothing to do with any large donation that we expect is being considered by the United States Government,” he told the Trinidad Daily Express. “This is just a small number for the Ministry of National Security as a gift which we are happy to accept.“

    Ah – so the Biden admin was congratulating itself over a gift that’s meant for bureaucrats!

    The island nation has recorded 29,000 cases of COVID-19 and 670 deaths thus far, after a steep rise in May.

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    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/14/2021 – 21:20

  • Petition Demands Resignation Of New Jersey School Board After Holiday Names Replaced With Generic "Day Off"
    Petition Demands Resignation Of New Jersey School Board After Holiday Names Replaced With Generic “Day Off”

    Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

    A petition has been launched calling for the resignation of school board members in a New Jersey county over their vote last week to remove holiday names from the school calendar and replace them with a generic “day off” designation.

    The petition, created on the platform Change.org by a user identified as Thomas Tatem on Friday, seeks to build support among residents of Randolph Township in Morris County, New Jersey, for the immediate resignation of Superintendent Jennifer Fano and all of the Board of Education members.

    While the petition does not explicitly reference the board’s Thursday decision to label holidays generically, the comments of some of its 2,300 signatories make the context clear.

    “Now they’ve cancelled our holidays,” wrote Laura Assante of Randolph Township.

    “How will students learn about the significance of these days if our board doesn’t even deem them important enough to keep on the calendar? Enough! It’s time now to cancel the BOE and get a new, honest administration in place who values our children and community.”

    “I signed because this woke nonsense of erasing everything that has importance to different religions has to be stopped. Today, it is at Randolph. Where will it be tomorrow?” wrote Deborah Midkiff of Randolph Township.

    “We are all capable of living along side neighbors of different religions knowing that they are celebrating days that are special to them just as we celebrate ours!”

    Fano did not immediately respond with a request for comment on the petition, but the Randolph Township school board issued a statement on Sunday responding to the blowback.

    “The Randolph Board of Education is aware of the large public outcry regarding our decision on June 10, 2021 to remove the names of the holidays from our school calendar,” the statement reads, insisting that the move does not mean that children will not be taught about holiday traditions.

    “Our actions are somehow being misconstrued by some to mean that the Randolph School District is no longer recognizing these holidays, teaching about them to our students, and honoring the great veterans and the heroes for whom many of these holidays have been named. Nothing could be further from the truth,” the statement reads.

    “These State, Federal, and other holidays have not been cancelled or taken away by this Board of Education as some are falsely claiming. Schools will still be closed on the days that we originally approved and our children will know why. They will still continue to receive instruction in schools about these important historical events and the people behind them,” the board added.

    The main purpose of the school calendar is to inform parents about when schools are open or closed, the board said, adding that it is a school attendance calendar, “which is why we did not feel the need to list every State, Federal and Religious holiday on the one (1) page calendar that we adopt every year.”

    “Our State and Federal governments approve public holidays and the Randolph School District is in no way minimizing or taking that away from anyone. Everyone is still encouraged to celebrate them in whatever way they deem appropriate,” the board said.

    The board on Thursday unanimously voted to remove the names of all holidays from the school calendar, with the move prompted by an outcry over an earlier decision to change the name of Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day.

    “If we don’t have anything on the calendar, we don’t have to have anyone [with] hurt feelings or anything like that,” board member Dorene Roche told Fox 5.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/14/2021 – 21:00

  • ​​​​​​​Busy Start To Hurricane Season? NHC Currently Tracks 3 Disturbances
    ​​​​​​​Busy Start To Hurricane Season? NHC Currently Tracks 3 Disturbances

    The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is tracking three tropical disturbances, one off the coast of North Carolina, one in the Gulf of Mexico, and another off the western African coast. The Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and extends into late November. 

    On Monday, NHC’s focus is on “Disturbance 1,” located about 90 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The disturbance has a 70% Chance of Cyclone Formation in 48 Hours. NHC said the disturbance “is acquiring more tropical characteristics.” However, the system could move northeastward away from the US to colder waters south of Nova Scotia on Wednesday. 

    Meanwhile, “Disturbance 2” is located over the Bay of Campeche, in the southern area of the Gulf of Mexico, which has a 20% chance of developing into a cyclone in the next 48%. But there’s a 60% chance of formation over the next five days. 

    “Disturbance 3” is located offshore of West Africa and has a 10% chance of developing into a cyclone over the next 48% hours and a 20% over the next five days. 

    Readers may recall this hurricane season could be very active. Refinitiv estimates around “17 named storms, 8 hurricanes, and 3 major hurricanes are expected from June-November. This compares to historical averages of 14 named storms, 7 hurricanes, and 3 major hurricanes, respectively.”

    All three disturbances should be monitored this week. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/14/2021 – 20:40

  • Thomas Jefferson Versus The Federal Reserve
    Thomas Jefferson Versus The Federal Reserve

    Authored by Michael Maharrey via SchiffGold.com,

    The Federal Reserve is the engine that drives one of the biggest, most powerful governments in the history of the world.

    Without the Fed, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the government to fund its foreign wars, its massive, unsustainable social programs, the ever-growing police state, and the tangled web of corporate welfare programs. It’s almost certain none of this would exist as we know it today – not even close. The federal government would truly be limited.

    Although the Federal Reserve is relatively new within the scope of American history, its roots go back to the early days of the republic and the First Bank of the United States, chartered by Congress on Feb. 25, 1791. 

    A national bank was the brainchild of Alexander Hamilton. His rationale wasn’t much different from those who later came up with the Federal Reserve. Hamilton thought a central bank was necessary to stabilize and improve the fledgling nation’s credit and to better manage the financial business of the United States government.

    The notion of a national bank but wasn’t without its detractors. One of the most vocal opponents of the bank was Thomas Jefferson who argued that it was unconstitutional.

    The debate was really about more than chartering a bank. At its core, it was an argument about the extent of federal power. Jefferson held to the promise of the ratification debates – that federal authority would remain carefully circumscribed by the enumerated delegated powers. Given that the Constitution doesn’t authorize Congress to charter corporations, much less a national bank, Jefferson argued that it was an unconstitutional act.

    On the other hand, Hamilton pivoted from the position he took during the ratification debates and justified his project by invoking the doctrine of “implied powers.” His arguments foreshadowed how federal policies of every imaginable stripe would be justified moving forward. Arguably, Hamilton’s arguments for the First Bank of the United States set the foundation for much of the federal overreach we have today.

    Jefferson and Hamilton both wrote documents making their cases for the establishment of the bank. Jefferson wrote his Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank first.

    He rested his argument on the Tenth Amendment, writing:

    “I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That  ‘all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people.’ [XIIth amendment.] To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.”

    He then succinctly stated his conclusion.

    “The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this bill, have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States, by the Constitution.”

    Jefferson proceeded to outline the various clauses of the Constitution supporters of the bank used to constitutionally justify and explained why they failed to bear the burden of that power.

    The primary justification was the Commerce Clause, but Jefferson argued that “to erect a bank, and to regulate commerce, are very different acts.” Erecting a bank actually creates an institution of commerce, and as Jefferson pointed out, “to make a thing which may be bought and sold, is not to prescribe regulations for buying and selling.”

    He went on to argue that if erecting a bank is an exercise of the commerce power, it would be void because it would also impact commerce within individual states.

    “For the power given to Congress by the Constitution does not extend to the internal regulation of the commerce of a State, (that is to say of the commerce between citizen and citizen,) which remain exclusively with its own legislature; but to its external commerce only, that is to say, its commerce with another State, or with foreign nations, or with the Indian tribes.”

    Next Jefferson tackled the General Welfare Clause, pointing out that Congress cannot lay and collect taxes for any purpose it pleases, “but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union.” Likewise, Congress can’t do anything it pleases to promote the “general welfare.” It can only further the general welfare by laying taxes and acting within its enumerated powers.

    “In like manner, they are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase, not as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please, which might be for the good of the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and, as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please. It is an established rule of construction where a phrase will bear either of two meanings, to give it that which will allow some meaning to the other parts of the instrument, and not that which would render all the others useless. Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. It was intended to lacce them up straitly within the enumerated powers, and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect.” [Emphasis original]

    Jefferson drove his point home by pointing out a very inconvenient fact for Hamilton – the Philadelphia Convention debated and rejected delegating the power to charter corporations.

    On one of the final days of the convention, James Madison proposed the federal government be delegated the authority “to grant charters of incorporation where the interest of the U.S. might require & the legislative provisions of individual State may be incompetent.”

    Rufus King of Massachusetts objected specifically on the grounds that “It will be referred to the establishment of a Bank, which has been a subject of contention in those Cities (New York and Philadelphia). He also warned that “In other places it will be referred to mercantile monopolies.”

    George Mason of Virginia proposed limiting the power to charting corporations for the construction of canals. “He was afraid of monopolies of every sort, which he did not think were by any means already implied by the Constitution as supposed by Mr. Wilson.”

    Ultimately, the convention rejected the proposal completely. Historian Dave Benner wrote, “This casts overwhelming doubt on the notion that the Constitution allowed Congress to form such monopolies. No enumerated power to grant monopolies and corporate charters was ever included in the document, and during the ratification campaign, none of the Constitution’s advocates cited the presence of such a power.”

    But Hamilton’s arguments didn’t rely on the existence of any delegated power. Instead, he appealed to the existence of unwritten “implied powers.”

    In response to Jefferson’s appeal to the Tenth Amendment and that the federal government can only exercise delegated powers, Hamilton affirmed it, and then effectively nullified its limiting force. He wrote, “The main proposition here laid down, in its true signification is not to be questioned.” But he continued, insisting, “It is not denied that there are implied well as express powers, and that the former are as effectually delegated as the latter.”

    But who decides the extent of these implied powers? Who determines their limits? In effect, Hamilton sets up an almost unlimited reservoir of power the general government can dip into in order to take whatever actions it deems appropriate. This was a 180-degree reversal from the position he took during the ratification debates when he insisted that the new general government would only exercise limited powers.

    Hamilton primarily based his defense of the national bank on the “necessary and proper clause,” citing it as the source of these “implied” powers. While Jefferson relied on a very narrow definition of “necessary and proper,” Hamilton used the phrase to milk implied powers out of the Constitution.

    The debate centered on the meaning of the word necessary. Jefferson took a very narrow view, arguing that the government can carry out all of its enumerated powers without a national bank. “A bank therefore is not necessary, and consequently not authorized by this phrase.”

    “It has been urged that a bank will give great facility or convenience in the collection of taxes, Suppose this were true: yet the Constitution allows only the means which are ‘necessary,’ not those which are merely ‘convenient’ for effecting the enumerated powers. If such a latitude of construction be allowed to this phrase as to give any non-enumerated power, it will go to everyone, for there is not one which ingenuity may not torture into a convenience in some instance or other, to some one of so long a list of enumerated powers. It would swallow up all the delegated powers, and reduce the whole to one power, as before observed. Therefore it was that the Constitution restrained them to the necessary means, that is to say, to those means without which the grant of power would be nugatory.”

    Hamilton found this view too limiting. He wrote, “It is certain that neither the grammatical nor popular sense of the term requires that construction. According to both, necessary often means no more than needful, requisite, incidental, useful, or conducive to.”

    “It is a common mode of expression to say, that it is necessary for a government or a person to do this or that thing, when nothing more is intended or understood, than that the interests of the government or person require, or will be promoted by, the doing of this or that thing. … To understand the word as the Secretary of State does, would be to depart from its obvious and popular sense, and to give it a restrictive operation, an idea never before entertained. It would be to give it the same force as if the word absolutely or indispensably had been prefixed to it.”

    Jefferson hit the problem with Hamilton’s view on the head. It opens up a door to virtually unlimited government power. This runs counter to James Madison’s assurance in Federalist #45 that “the powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined.” [Emphasis added]

    Under Hamilton’s “implied power” doctrine and his loose reading of the necessary and proper clause, there is very little the federal government can’t do. After all, virtually anything could be defined as “needful” or “useful” to the government. During the ratification debates, opponents of the Constitution worried that the necessary and proper clause would be construed exactly as Hamilton read it. At the time, Hamilton swore they had nothing to worry about. In Federalist #33, he wrote, “It may be affirmed with perfect confidence that the constitutional operation of the intended government would be precisely the same, if these clauses [necessary and proper and the supremacy clause] were entirely obliterated, as if they were repeated in every article. They are only declaratory of a truth which would have resulted by necessary and unavoidable implication from the very act of constituting a federal government, and vesting it with certain specified powers.” [Emphasis added]

    Hamilton pivoted from “specified powers” in 1788 to “implied powers” just three years later.

    In his push for a bank, Hamilton also invoked a rule of construction very favorable to the government. He wrote, “This restrictive interpretation of the word necessary is also contrary to this sound maxim of construction, namely, that the powers contained in a constitution of government, especially those which concern the general administration of the affairs of a country, its finances, trade, defense, etc., ought to be construed liberally in advancement of the public good.”

    This was not “a sound maxim of construction” at the time.

    St. George Tucker was an influential lawyer and jurist, and he wrote the first systematic commentary on the Constitution. Published in 1803, View of the Constitution of the United States served as an important law book, informing the opinions of judges, lawyers and politicians for the next 50 years. He explained that we should always construe federal power in the most limited sense possible.

     “The powers delegated to the federal government, are, in all cases, to receive the most strict construction that the instrument will bear, where the rights of a state or of the people, either collectively or individually, may be drawn in question.”

    This is the exact opposite of Hamilton’s maxim. As “Light Horse” Harry Lee put it during the Virginia ratifying convention, “When a question arises with respect to the legality of any power, exercised or assumed by Congress, it is plain on the side of the governed. Is it enumerated in the Constitution? If it be, it is legal and just. It is otherwise arbitrary and unconstitutional.”

    When political power resides in the people, the default position should always be to assume the most limited government power possible – not the most liberal reading as Hamilton insisted.

    Later in his life, Jefferson made a similar point in a letter to William Johnson.

    “On every question of construction let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or intended against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”

    There was no probable construction authorizing charting a national bank.

    Reading Hamilton’s arguments for the bank, it becomes clear he was trying to “squeeze” meaning – and power – out of the Constitution. Under the limited general government promised by supporters of the Constitution during ratification, including Alexander Hamilton, there would have been no national bank.

    Hamilton’s twisting of the Constitution to wring out new powers set the stage for much the federal overreach that would follow. It was the “foundation” for the “living breathing” Constitution we live under today.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/14/2021 – 20:20

  • Goldman Sachs Latest Wall Street Giant To Move Traders To Florida After NY Tax Hikes
    Goldman Sachs Latest Wall Street Giant To Move Traders To Florida After NY Tax Hikes

    Goldman Sachs employees finally returned to the office this week (for at least part of the work week). But at least some Goldman employees who miss working from the beach, the bank might soon be moving some of its front-office workers from NYC down to sunny Florida, becoming the latest major Wall Street firm to beef up its operations in the Sunshine State.

    Goldman will join Carl Icahn, Dan Loeb’s Third Point, the private equity giant Apollo and a host of other firms in moving more employees to Florida, a state that, among other perks, has no income tax, according to a report published Monday by Insider.  But talk of the bank moving some of its personnel has been circulating since at least late last year.

    Per Insider, Goldman “is in the early stages of moving traders and salespeople to Florida,” and the leaders of its global markets group have recruited about 100 or so people to move down south, according to sources “with knowledge of the plans.”

    The fact that Goldman is moving some of its top-earning personnel to Fla. is extremely significant, as one of Insider’s sources pointed out. And it doesn’t exactly bode well for New York, which is struggling to convince firms to stay after the state raised taxes that make the state one of the most heavy taxers in the country. The moving of front-office traders and salespeople away from the world’s financial hub is a “once unthinkable outcome for a firm that has considered New York home for 152 years.” And in all likelihood, it wouldn’t have happened without COVID-19.

    What’s worse (as far as the Empire State’s tax base is concerned) is that many of the bankers who will be moving earning 7-figure salaries, meaning that once the move is over, New York Stat could be facing down a drop in revenue in the tens of millions of dollars.

    Goldman’s senior executives would take an active role in deciding who gets to move and would look to relocate clusters of teammates to the West Palm Beach office, one of the people said. Each cluster would be an offshoot of a larger team based in New York and made up of as many as eight or 10 people.

    Setting it up that way would ensure that employees still enjoy the benefits of working with close colleagues even though they’re 1,200 miles from the bank’s headquarters. Employees in Florida would likely spend significant time shuttling back and forth to New York for face time with executives working from Manhattan, one of the people said.

    The division’s leaders are agnostic about whether credit traders or interest-rate salespeople make the move, though those covering the emerging markets from New York may find Florida an easier location for working with Latin American clients, one of the people said.

    The move makes sense considering that one of Goldman’s top traders already commutes to New York from Boca Raton. As it happened, having at least one of its top traders in Fla. during the pandemic turned out to be a godsend for the bank, since they were able to meet with clients face-to-face more than six months before bankers in NYC were able to.

    Goldman’s sales-and-trading operation is led by Ashok Varadhan and Marc Nachmann. While Varadhan lives in New York, Nachmann commutes to New York from a private development in Boca Raton, Florida, according to real-estate records.

    Florida has been Nachmann’s home for more than 15 years, according to two people with knowledge of his arrangement. During the pandemic, his Florida base meant Nachmann met with clients in person roughly six to eight months before New York reopened, one of the people said.

    Insider reports that Goldman’s plans for relocating some of its top people to Florida started taking shape even before COVID. It started when one of the top executives in the bank’s asset-management arm stated exploring a potential move, just as more buy side firms (and more of the bank’s clients) were heading to Florida. When CEO David Solomon caught wind of GSAM’s plan, he decided to expand the project and explore moving even more personnel to the famously low-tax state.

    While it’s not exactly clear when these traders will be leaving, one thing is clear: New York State and its leader, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, are the biggest losers here.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/14/2021 – 20:00

  • Wisconsin Student Accused Of Arson In Hoax Hate Crime
    Wisconsin Student Accused Of Arson In Hoax Hate Crime

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    Viterbo University in Wisconsin has been the scene of protests for months over alleged hate crimes committed on campus.  The police however has charged a student, Victoria Unanka, with what it says was a hoax hate crime involving the setting of a fire in her dormitory. What interested me about the case was the curious combination of criminal charges. She is being charged with both arson and “the negligent handling of burning materials.”

    The arson occurred during protests over alleged racial incidents on campus. A student complained about racial slurs directed against her. The university cancelled classes and campus-wide demonstrations were held.

    One of those who reportedly spoke at the demonstrations was Unanka.

    The LaCrosse Police Department report states that Unanka “admitted to intentionally setting the fire in the second level lounge for attention purposes.”  

    According to media reports, President Glena Temple has later announced that the responsible student would be expelled.

    There were also slurs written on a dorm room door and the campus installed cameras and launched a full investigation.

    That investigation was closed and a Viterbo spokesperson said that “the remaining person of interest is no longer a student.”

    Viterbo is not the only university dealing with such a controversy.

    Wayne State University Police launched a major investigation after student Zoriana Martinez alleged that, on February 16 and March 1, someone threw eggs at her residence hall door. She also alleged someone tore down her LGBT Pride sticker and stole a photo of her dog.  While the police later concluded that Martinez was likely responsible for the acts herself, it did not seek charges. There was a notable twist.  The police report indicated that “Isis,” a Wayne State University employee was believed to have information on the case. However, she “isn’t compelled to speak with police or WSU administration despite the fact that Isis is a WSU employee and holds some obligation to report such concerns.”

    Back to Viterbo.  What struck me about the story was the initial charges of arson and negligent handling of of burning materials. One is an intentional act while the other is an act based on fault rather than intent.

    Here is the latter provision:

    941.10 Negligent handling of burning material.

    (1)Whoever handles burning material in a highly negligent manner is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.

    (2)Burning material is handled in a highly negligent manner if handled with criminal negligence under s. 939.25 or under circumstances in which the person should realize that a substantial and unreasonable risk of serious damage to another’s property is created.

    History: 1977 c. 173; 1987 a. 399.

    The charges seem inherently in conflict. However, this may be an effort to offer a plea for the lesser charge, though it is not clear why the prosecutors would not seek an arson plea if the evidence is strong. The fire endangered everyone living in the dorm.

    There is also a possibility that the prosecutors will shake out the charges by adding and dropping charges.  The negligent charge can be a placeholder in that sense, a charge that is likely to pass judicial muster on review as they work out other possible charges.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/14/2021 – 19:40

  • Zelensky Claims NATO "Confirmed" Ukraine Will Become Full Member
    Zelensky Claims NATO “Confirmed” Ukraine Will Become Full Member

    Coming off Monday’s meeting of top NATO leaders in Brussels with Joe Biden, President Volodymyr Zelensky has issued a shock statement, claiming that NATO has “agreed” to admit Ukraine into the military alliance with Biden’s blessing.

    However, in simultaneous remarks given during Biden’s anticipated press conference, the president actually appeared to suggest nothing has really change. He said Ukraine has more it must do to meet the “criteria” for NATO membership. “It depends on whether they meet the criteria,” Biden told reporters. “The fact is, they still have to clean up corruption… School’s out on that question.“

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    This has essentially been the Washington position all along – while the US desires a Ukrainian path to NATO membership, obstacles still remain.

    As The Guardian also observed, “A tweet today from the Ukrainian president had led some reporters to think that the Nato summit had approved adding Ukraine as a member, but it seems that will not yet happen.”

    Hours ahead of Biden’s Monday evening press conference, Zelensky had told US media outlets:

    “If we are talking about NATO and the [Membership Action Plan], I would really like to get [from Biden] specifics – yes or no… We must get clear dates and the likelihood of this for Ukraine.”

    Biden was asked point blank on whether the answer would indeed be yes or no…

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    Again, the Biden administration message to Kiev long appears to have been “yes” but with the key caveat of meeting the “criteria”.

    Washington is also very conscious that doing such would be a recipe for future war with Russia – something that also prevents NATO membership (that said country is engaged in border disputes or conflict), according to requirements for entry.

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    By all appearances Zelensky jumped the gun, or else used intentionally confusing wording in hopes of generating enough headlines to put the contentious the issue front and center during the June 16 Putin-Biden summit in Geneva.

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    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/14/2021 – 19:20

  • Stanford Study: Most Mass Shooters Have Undiagnosed Psychiatric Illnesses
    Stanford Study: Most Mass Shooters Have Undiagnosed Psychiatric Illnesses

    Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,

    Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine have published a study that reveals most of the perpetrators of mass shootings in America are people with undiagnosed psychiatric disorders.

    The study focused on 115 assailants of shootings committed between 1982 and 2019, and then narrowed that number down to ones who survived.

    “We found that most mass shooters in our study experienced undiagnosed and unmedicated psychiatric illness,” the researchers noted.

    Describing the findings as “striking,” the study notes that symptoms of clinical psychiatric disorders were identified in almost all the shooters, 32 out of 35.

    Over half of the perpetrators, 18, were found to have schizophrenia, with psychotic symptoms including the belief they were receiving messages from demons and seeing hallucinations ordering them to “kill, burn or destroy.”

    A further 10 of the shooters were diagnosed as bipolar, delusional and suffering from personality disorders.

    The study also noted that “None were medicated or received other treatment prior to the crime.”

    To make the diagnoses, the study focused on the records of forensic psychiatrists and court proceedings, in addition to writings and social media posts made by the shooters.

    Researchers also found that in 20 mass shooting cases where the perpetrators died, at least eight had schizophrenia, seven had other diagnoses, and five had unknown mental illnesses.

    While concluding that diagnosis and treatment of mental illness could have “decreased violence,” the study notes that “Psychiatric research… on the nature and the incidence of mental illness among mass shooters, however, remains largely understudied.”

    “Most of the cases of domestic mass murders possibly might have been prevented had the assailant… been more consistently assisted to receive a correct diagnosis… followed by psychiatric medication treatment… to save lives,” the study suggests.

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    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 06/14/2021 – 19:00

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