- Outrage As Raw Sewage From US Embassy & NATO Regularly Dumped Into Kabul River
Outrage As Raw Sewage From US Embassy & NATO Regularly Dumped Into Kabul River
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/15/2020 – 02:45The US state-funded Department of Defense newspaper Stars and Stripes is out with a surprising report sure to add more fuel to the fire regarding America’s nearly two-decade long occupation of Afghanistan.
The weekend report found that the US Embassy in Afghanistan as well as NATO headquarters in the country routinely dumps sewage waste into the Kabul River, which spans much of the country East-West for 430 miles.
“Raw sewage pours into the fetid waters of Kabul River each day, including some of what comes from the U.S. Embassy and the military headquarters for Resolute Support NATO,” the damning report begins.
Refuse fouls the Kabul River as it flows through Afghanistan’s capital city. Image via Peak Water/ENS.com Afghan officials say the practice endangers the health of many thousands of families, given the river is a vital resource used by villages living near it in a variety of ways.
The scandalous issue began after the main sewage treatment facility in the Afghan capital stopped working nearly two years ago, leading to mass dumping into the Kabul River.
Apparently Western occupying forces are responsible for a vast amount of sewage getting regularly dumped:
At least 21,000 gallons of raw sewage from portable toilets at the U.S. Embassy are unloaded each month at the aging Makroyan Waste Water Treatment Plant, which pipes the untreated sewage into the river, according to Afghan officials and a representative for the contractor Oryx-Afghanistan, who handles waste for the compound.
About 12,000 gallons of sewage from U.S. and coalition troops the also go into the river each month, according to Malika and Refa Environmental Solutions, which services the U.S.-led NATO headquarters in Kabul and Bagram Airfield.
However, it’s reportedly being done indirectly, through contracting companies which deliver the US and NATO waste to the derelict facility, before it gets dumped into the river.
Image via Stars & Stripes “Since the wastewater treatment plant does not function and its canals are damaged, the sewage from Makroyan dumping site directly goes into the Kabul River,” a local Afghan waste treatment official said.
Children as well as some 3,000 families living in the direct vicinity of both the damaged treatment plant and the river have reported persistent gastrointestinal issues, including severe diarrhea.
One obvious question remains: what of the trillions of dollars Washington has sunk into the country over the course of the past two decades?
Apparently the country’s central capital doesn’t so much as have a proper sewage treatment system, which strongly suggests lack of facilities throughout the rest of Afghanistan. What has our two decade long post 9/11 war wrought?
- The Lie Of Rwanda & America's "Doing Nothing" As Genocide Unfolded
The Lie Of Rwanda & America’s “Doing Nothing” As Genocide Unfolded
Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/15/2020 – 02:00Authored by Jared Wall via The Libertarian Institute,
When Barack Obama launched his war against Libya in 2011, a war that resulted in a bloody chaos that continues to this day, Susan Rice and Samantha Power both invoked the memory of Rwanda as justification. According to them, Muammar Qaddafi was on the verge of committing genocide against the people of Benghazi, and the United States couldn’t just sit by waiting for “another Rwanda” to happen.
The conventional narrative is that between April and July of 1994, hundreds of thousands of Tutsis were victims of a genocide perpetrated by Rwanda’s Hutu government. As the official story goes, this was predictable, yet the UN and the Western powers did nothing. As a result, they say, preventative intervention in cases of imminent humanitarian crises must become the norm.
This misunderstanding stems from the common mistake of failing to account for historical context when it comes to world events. The truth of what happened during those bloody days can only be found through an understanding of the quagmire that precipitated the tragedy.
Prior to the “Scramble for Africa,” Rwanda was a feudal kingdom in which the Tutsi minority (approximately 10-20% of the population) ruled over the Hutu majority (approximately 80-90% of the population). The Tutsis were cattle herders and landowners while the Hutus were peasants and serfs living under Tutsi overlords. When German imperialists arrived in 1885, they empowered the Tutsi monarchy and used them as proxy rulers. After Germany lost World War I, Belgium took control of Rwanda but continued the same practice of empowering and ruling via the proxy of Tutsi kings.
While the preceding years of Tutsi-controlled feudalism had been bad enough for the Hutu majority, the addition of foreign imperialism only exacerbated tensions between the two groups. In 1956, with their foothold becoming tenuous due to these tensions, Belgium held democratic elections. With more than 80% of the population, the Hutus won easily and took control of Rwanda’s new government. Newly empowered, the new Hutu rulers began violently taking out their long-held, pent up frustrations against the Tutsi minority who fled en masse to neighboring countries, including Uganda and Burundi.
During the “Inyenzi Wars” of 1960-1967, Tutsi exiles launched at least seven cross-border attacks against the new Hutu-led Rwanda regime. On July 1, 1962, the UN granted independence to Rwanda, but this did little to change the situation on the ground. The cross-border attacks continued, while those Tutsis who remained in Rwanda continued to be victims of reprisal killings.
‘Hollywood created a myth’: Hotel Rwanda hero’s tarnished reputation https://t.co/1z2wyMcSfk pic.twitter.com/i6LM5hjMYv
— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) September 2, 2020
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Meanwhile in Burundi, Rwanda’s southern neighbor with roughly the same demographics, a Tutsi monarchy remained in power. In 1972, to protect their rule from the Hutu majority, the Burundi army began systematically killing the literate Hutu population. In all, more than 100,000 Hutus were killed, and many of the survivors fled across the border to Rwanda.
On July 5, 1973, the Rwanda National Guard, led by General Habyarimana, overthrew the government, and took power. Habyarimana, a Hutu, was generally supported by the Tutsi minority and the period from 1973-1990 was a time of relative peace.
The history of Uganda, Rwanda’s neighbor to the North, is also vital to understanding what happened during those infamous months in 1994. Colonized by the British in 1894, Uganda gained independence in 1962. The period between 1962 and 1986 was a time of chaos and violence as a series of governments came to power only to be quickly overthrown and replaced. The Rwandan Tutsis who had earlier fled to Uganda were treated poorly, used as pawns, and many were forced to return to Rwanda.
In 1986, Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Army (NRA) came to power and Museveni took control of the country. His army largely consisted of Rwandan Tutsi exiles. Since coming to power, U.S. taxpayers have unwittingly provided his regime with more than $20 billion in development aid, vast military aid, and more than $4 billion in debt relief.
In Museveni’s 30+ (and counting) years of rule, Uganda would be more aptly described as a military dictatorship than a democracy. He controls an unofficial security force that operates solely at his discretion. It controls arsenals, overrides local legislation, and closes NGOs, newspapers, and radio stations. During elections, it is common for voting stations to be surrounded by tanks, teargas trucks, and soldiers in body armor wielding high-powered weapons. Those who speak out in opposition often wind up in prison or a body bag.
The Rwandan Tutsi exiles residing in Uganda, in large part the former ruling class and their offspring, had long sought a “right to return” to Rwanda. Unsurprisingly, the Hutu government was not eager to let that happen. When the Cold War ended, Western powers took notice of the Tutsi refugees and began pressuring Habyarimana’s government to allow them to return. Finally, at a UNICEF meeting in New York on September 28, 1990, where Museveni was also present, Habyarimana announced that all Rwandan refugees could return, no questions asked.
The Uganda-based Tutsis weren’t satisfied. They wanted power more than they wanted passports, and they had been trained how to fight by Museveni. Two days later, a large contingent of Museveni’s army, comprised of Rwandan Tutsi exiles who called themselves the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), invaded Rwanda intent on reclaiming control of the country. This sparked a war that ultimately led to what has become known as the “Rwanda Genocide.” While Habyarimana rushed back to Rwanda, Museveni remained in New York, seemingly unconcerned with a large portion of his army having apparently gone rogue.
The RPF soon came to be led by Paul Kagame, a Rwandan Tutsi born in southern Rwanda whose family had fled to Uganda in 1959 when he was two years old. Kagame, as Chief of Military Intelligence in Museveni’s NRA, had plenty of experience in brutality. At the time, Kagame was in the U.S. studying field tactics, psyops, and propaganda techniques at the U.S. Army Command & General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. Upon learning of the invasion, he left immediately to join the fight with no objection from the Americans. His junket to the U.S. for military training was common among Museveni’s military officers, and many of those officers ended up, like Kagame, fighting with the RPF in Rwanda.
When the RPF invaded, hundreds of thousands of Hutus fled the invaders who were conducting a scorched Earth campaign that was killing, abducting, and raping their way south. It wasn’t just the Hutus who were fearful of the RPF. Many of the Tutsis who remained in Rwanda were also quick to flee the violence, and were rightly concerned with the prospect of resultant reprisal killings. Millions of innocent Tutsis and Hutus alike were killed and displaced during the years that followed. More than a civil war, this was an invasion by a foreign army against a democratically elected government.
Ostensibly to quell the violence, the UN placed an embargo on arms shipments into Rwanda. This embargo was fiercely enforced in the case of Habyarimana’s government, but ignored almost entirely in the case of the RPF invaders. Uganda routinely shipped people, arms, and money across the border to their former military comrades. If anything, this violation of the embargo was actively encouraged. In the three and a half years following the invasion, U.S. aid to Uganda doubled. In 1991, Uganda bought more than 10 times the weapons they had bought in the previous 40 years. Many of these arms came from the U.S., and a large number of them found their way to the RPF.
The heavily enforced arms embargo against the Rwandan government made it extremely difficult for them to fight. The RPF, on the other hand, invaded with machine guns, mortars, rocket launchers, rifles, cannons, and sophisticated radio communication equipment. Their supplies were continuously re-stocked by Uganda, so there was never a shortage of the arms and equipment necessary to continue their violent campaign.
To the south in Burundi, Melchior Ndadaye became the first democratically elected Hutu president of the country in July of 1993. Three months later, members of the Tutsi-dominated Burundi army assassinated him, sparking cheers from the RPF. Ties between the RPF and the Burundi army increased, and Habyarimana’s government found itself surrounded. After the death of their president, nearly 375,000 Burundi Hutus fled to Rwanda where they joined more than a million internally displaced Rwandans.
In the midst of the war, Western powers, not satisfied with Habyarimana’s agreement to allow Tutsi refugees to return, began to insist that he implement a system of multiparty politics to give the RPF a seat at the table. These parties were introduced in 1991, and a multi-party government was sworn in April 1992. Many of these new opposition parties, seeing which way the Western powers were leaning, established direct ties to the RPF with hopes of receiving financial & political support. Leaders of these parties, at the behest of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Herman Cohen, met with RPF leaders in Brussels during the summer of 1992. They were effectively forming a coalition with an invading army with the full support of Western powers. Habyarimana’s regime was now facing enemies from Uganda, Burundi, and from inside its own government.
In August 1993, the United States, United Kingdom, and Uganda held the Arusha Peace Accords. At the time, the UK had no embassy or consulate in the country and had no diplomatic relations with Rwanda. Those involved with the accords decided that: Habyarimana should be stripped of his powers; a “neutral” international force should be deployed to Rwanda; the RPF should be integrated into the Rwandan military; and a RPF battalion should be deployed to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
This neutral international force became known as the UN Aid Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) and was led by Canadian General Remeo Dallaire. Between the end of 1993 and the beginning of 1994, 2,500 international soldiers arrived in Rwanda. The troops were to speak English despite Rwanda being a largely French speaking country. At the time, since France had a relatively good relationship with Habyarimana’s government, the French offered to act as mediators, but that overture was refused. In fact, French troops that were in the country (who supported Habyarimana) were forced to leave, while the mostly Belgian troops that were sent by the UN supported the RPF.
The first action of these UN forces was to escort six hundred RPF soldiers from Mulindi in northern Rwanda to the capital city of Kigali. Meanwhile, they trained, provided logistics to, and fed RPF soldiers. Foreign embassies began working with the RPF as if they had already seized power and told Habyarimana he had to go.
Throughout the war, Western powers and their NGOs issued human rights declarations and reports that served as propaganda to make the RPF look like the good guys. One of the most influential was the “Report of the International Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights Violations in Rwanda Since 10/1/1990,” which was issued on March 8, 1993. William Schabas, a member of this commission, began to use the word genocide in reference to Habyarimana’s government at the end of January 1993, after the commission had completed its investigation, but before they had issued their final report. The RPF used this as an excuse to launch a massive “punitive” attack in early February 1993 that resulted in thousands dead and which pushed the total number of internal refugees to over a million.
The groups sponsoring this commission were either founded by the RPF or had been infiltrated by it. One such group was the “Association rwandaise pour la défense des droits de l’Homme,” which was founded on September 30, 1990, the day before the RPF invasion. It was founded by Alphonse-Marie Nkubito, who later became Minister of Justice when the RPF took control of Rwanda’s government after winning the war in July of 1994. Because the report was constrained to a narrow timeframe, it purposely omitted the biggest crime of the whole conflict, the RPF invasion on 10/1/1990. When asked about this, William Schabas, along with fellow commission member Andre Paradis, admitted that the timeline was chosen by the sponsoring human rights organizations.
Of the ten commission members, six admitted to knowing nothing about Rwanda prior to traveling there, and that they had to look for Rwanda on a map. None spoke Kinyarwanda. Those who wrote the report spent only two weeks in Rwanda. During those two weeks, only two hours were spent in RPF occupied territory, which, according to Schabas, was to “demonstrate our impartiality.” While Habyarmina’s government allowed the commission full freedom to investigate and interview witnesses, the RPF only allowed the commission to meet witnesses in the presence of armed soldiers.
In January 1994, General Dallaire sent a fax to UN authorities citing information from a “Jean-Pierre,” who said that Habyarimana’s government was planning to provoke a civil war by assassinating Tutsi political leaders and Belgian troops. This fax also stated that he suspected lists were being compiled of Tutsis to be killed, and that the Habyarimana government had plans and weapons ready to go. In exchange for this information, he wanted protection from the UN for him and his family. The official narrative states that the UN leadership did nothing, ignored the fax, and genocide raged.
In reality, Dallaire’s fax was based on hearsay. He never personally met with Jean-Pierre. The information was relayed to him by Faustin Twagiramungu, leader of one of the opposition parties. Jean-Pierre, whose real name was Abubakar Turatsinze, had been a driver for Habyarimana’s MRND party, but was fired in November 1993 after being suspected of peddling information. Twagiramungu, like Dallaire, never personally met with Jean-Pierre. When Twagiramungu passed this second-hand information to Dallaire, Luc Marchal, Belgian commander of UNAMIR troops in Kigali, was sent to investigate. Marchal found few weapons and no lists of Tutsis to be killed. Nevertheless, Dallaire sent his infamous fax to the UN.
Untold in the conventional narrative is that Dallaire’s fax was not to inform about an impending genocide, but instead to ask for advice as to what to do given the lack of credible information. The only advice he received back was to warn Habyarimana that such a plan for inciting a civil war (that was already in progress) was a bad idea. In the years since, Twagiramungu has stated that he thinks Jean-Pierre’s story was totally false. Unfortunately, that hasn’t stopped those pushing the “genocide” narrative from citing this as proof that the Western world knew what was about to come, yet sat on their hands and did nothing.
The tipping point in the conflict came on April 4, 1994, when President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down on its approach to Kigali airport. The Rwandan President died, along with Cyprien Ntaryamira, President of Burundi, in what for years was only ever officially described as a “crash.” The death of President Habyarimana sparked what has become known as the Rwanda Genocide.
Prior to Habyarimana’s death, UNAMIR had shut down a runway of Kigali airport, making it so incoming planes could only approach from one direction. For anyone wanting to shoot down a plane, this action by the “neutral” international forces made it a lot easier.
File image via International Policy Digest Panicked Hutus, fearing a return to serfdom, chose extremism. Between April 4 and July 2, 1994, hundreds of thousands of innocent Tutsis, with no relation to or involvement with the RPF, were brutally murdered by Hutu militias. During the same period, the RPF killed tens of thousands of Hutus per month, dumping many of the bodies in rivers. There are some estimates that more Hutus were killed during this period than Tutsis.
This “genocide” came to an end on July 2, 1994 when the RPF took control of Kigali, overthrew the government, assumed power, and effectively won the war. Back in control of the country, the RPF rebranded itself as the RPA (Rwanda Patriotic Army). Paul Kagame, one of the top leaders of the RPF, became the de facto leader while serving as Vice President and Minister of Defense, and became President of Rwanda in 2000.
After their rise to power, millions of Hutus fled to refugee camps. One such camp was called Kibeko, located inside Rwanda. The RPA attempted to close this camp in 1995, but the Hutus living there, fearing for their safety, refused to leave. In response, the RPA massacred them. Local aid workers counted 4,000 dead bodies before they were ordered to leave the area.
Other camps were set up just a few miles across the border from Rwanda in what was then known as Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Of the hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, the vast majority were women and children, though approximately 30,000 were former members of the Rwandan Armed Forces and other Hutu militias who had fought against the RPF.
Between 1995 and 1996, Zaire’s President Mobutu provided these former Rwandan soldiers with arms to re-take Rwanda. Numerous “hit-and-run” attacks took place from within these refugee camps. At the same time, Mobutu allied with anti-Museveni Sudan-backed rebels to fight against Uganda. In 1996, the RPA raided the refugee camps in Zaire and herded Hutus back into Rwanda to live in camps under their control. To escape such a fate, hundreds of thousands of Hutus fled further into the jungles of Zaire.
Zaire is home to an estimated $24 trillion of cobalt, uranium, oil, gold, diamonds, coltan, chrome, and platinum. Africa is thought to contain 78% of the world’s chrome, 59% of the world’s cobalt, and 89% of the world’s platinum, and Zaire is considered the most mineral-rich country in Africa.
It is these resources that perhaps best explain Washington DC’s generosity to Yoweri Museveni. The U.S. saw Museveni as a “brilliant military strategist.” After all, his army overthrew the much stronger Ugandan national army when he came to power in 1986, and he was seen as a partner in securing access to Zaire’s plentiful resources.
Rwanda’s RPA, after raiding the Zaire-based Hutu refugee camps, chased the Hutus who had escaped their initial attack further into Zaire, as well as into Burundi, Tanzania, and elsewhere. Those they caught up with, regardless of if they were among those who had fought against the RPF during the 1990-1994 war, were dealt with brutally. The RPA routinely strangled, shot, bayoneted, bashed in skulls, and hacked to death any Hutu they were able to track down. U.S. Special Forces were actively involved in training those RPA commandos, and remain trainers of the RPA to this day.
In 1997, the U.S.-trained RPA, together with the U.S.-supplied Ugandan army, and a Congolese rebel group known as the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of the Congo (which had been trained and armed by Uganda and Rwanda) marched to Kinshasa, toppled Mobutu, and installed their own strongman, Laurent-Desire Kabila. It was then that Zaire became known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
With a puppet in power across the border, Museveni’s army occupied a mineral-rich swathe of the DRC, and his generals looted more than $10 billion of gold and other precious resources. Meanwhile, Museveni continued to back local Congolese rebel groups who murdered and raped local Congolese while helping themselves to the country’s resources. When, eventually, Laurent Kabila turned on his supporters and made moves toward nationalizing resources, he was assassinated. Kabila’s son Joseph took power, and Uganda’s army has remained in the country virtually unmolested ever since.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, founded in November 1994, was tasked with finding those responsible for the “genocide” as well as any other serious violations of international law. Effectively, the ICC’s tribunal for Rwanda functioned in much the same way as the Versailles Treaty following World War I. It placed all the blame on one side while exempting the other from any fault whatsoever.
Perhaps most notable is their treatment of the plane crash that killed President Habyarimana. An investigation by Michael Hourigan in 1997 found it likely that Kagame was behind the assassination and that the RPF was foreign sponsored. When Hourigan submitted his report to Louise Arbour, ICC prosecutor for this tribunal at the time, she was initially enthusiastic about the report until Madeleine Albright intervened in the matter. Hourigan’s report was subsequently killed, and he was given a gag order. Ever since, Arbour has avoided questions about the plane crash. Several high-ranking members of the RPF have since confirmed Hourigan’s investigation and have gone so far as to explain how they executed the assassination with Kagame’s assistance.
Backing up Hourigan’s findings, Charles Onana, a Cameroonian investigative journalist, published a French book in 2002 titled “Les Secrets de Genocide Rwandais.” Paul Kagame sued him, but then dropped the case when Onana was willing to go to trial. Additionally, a seven-year investigation into the matter was conducted by French anti-terrorist Judge Jean-Louise Brugiere. He found evidence that the plane crash was indeed an assassination, and that Kagame and the RPF had planned, ordered, and carried out the attack. He also found evidence of CIA involvement. That investigation has been smothered and is rarely, if ever, mentioned in any media or official channels.
Also notable are the prosecutors of the tribunal, all of whom were chosen by the U.S. government. First was Richard Goldstone, who was fed information by the CIA to form his indictments and who was quick to compliment Madeleine Albright. UN Secretary General Boutros Ghali was concerned about Goldstone’s closeness to the Americans, citing his “cocktail schedule.” These concerns led quickly to his removal and replacement with Louise Arbour who was handpicked by Albright.
Carla del Ponte, who became a prosecutor for the tribunal in 1999, actually had some independent ideas. She began criminal investigations of RPF officers, and reported that Louise Arbour had suppressed Hourigan’s investigation into Habyarimana’s plane crash. During her time as prosecutor, the Rwanda RPF government disallowed prosecution witnesses from attending, and the RPF and U.S. Ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper both argued that the RPF alone should be responsible for investigating RPF war crimes.
In 2003, an “agreement” was reached in which del Ponte was relieved of all investigative authority, required to hand over all collected evidence, and removed from her post. In what could have only been coincidence, del Ponte’s removal came at the same time that President George W. Bush was planning his invasion of Iraq and was looking for international partners to sign bilateral agreements that would exempt U.S. soldiers from prosecution of any potential war crimes. Rwanda’s RPF was the first African government to become such a partner. Throughout the entire history of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which continued until December 2015, nobody from the RPF was ever prosecuted, much less indicted.
The prevailing narrative paints a simplistic picture of what happened in Rwanda in the early 90s. It serves to provide cover for the military-industrial interests that profit from war, and acts as useful propaganda for convincing the people to support inhumane wars of aggression in places like Kosovo and Libya.
A sober look at the history of Rwanda reveals that tensions between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes had existed for centuries. Far from sitting on the sidelines and doing nothing, it was decades of Western imperialism and interventionism that exacerbated and inflamed those tensions. It wasn’t a genocide, but rather a war that was precipitated by an invasion from a foreign army armed with U.S. military equipment, led by men who had been trained at U.S. military bases. Both sides committed unspeakable atrocities, but the RPF invaders started it.
- Stop The Coup!
Stop The Coup!
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 23:40Michael Anton’s new article “The Coming Coup?” went viral almost as soon as we posted it a week ago today. This is not simply because figures like Lara Logan, Mollie Hemingway, Newt Gingrich, Dan Bongino, and the editors of the New York Post took note. It spread because concerned citizens began sharing it throughout the nation. We could tell it was especially effective because so many in the mainstream media maintained studious radio silence.
But hyperventilating ruling-class supporters of the Biden/BLM/Antifa coalition did predictably lash out. The epitome of these reactions is an article in New York magazine’s Intelligencer, by political columnist Ed Kilgore, entitled “Trump Backers Make Case for Stealing Election, Before Biden Gets the Chance.”
The title itself reveals the stubborn simplicity of the Democratic Party’s coup narrative. Their elites have worked themselves and their base into a frothing lather of existential fright. In article after article, liberal intellectuals and activists have been talking for months about how Trump could steal the election or refuse to leave the White House even if he loses. But if the Right dares to point out that Democrats are actually changing the rules of the electoral process and actually speaking publicly about refusing to concede even if they lose, well, this only proves that the Right is going to steal the election and refuse to concede if they lose!
In reality, of course, Anton and others are simply trying to shine a light on what Democrats are now openly declaring in public.
Kilgore frames Anton’s essay as part of an effort among conservatives to spread the craaaazy idea that Democrats’ obsessive focus on mail-in voting is part of a panicky effort to throw the election, not a good-faith scheme to protect people from coronavirus. Let’s leave aside the fact that no less an establishment authority than the Atlantic admits the voting booth is as safe as the grocery store. In fact, says Kilgore, echoing the new establishment narrative, so many legitimate Biden votes may come flooding in by mail after the in-person voting is through that the election will turn around all on its own.
Every major media outlet is now full of supposed expert authorities – even Mark Zuckerberg recently got into the act – telling the American people that the rule changes Democrat apparatchiks are pushing throughout the nation are totally normal. But as elections expert Hans Von Spakovsky pointed out in these pages, “what is clear from all of these lawsuits is that the Democrats and these organizations are trying to change the rules governing the administration of the November election” midstream while Republicans are trying to “preserve the status quo.” (If you want to understand what the Democrats are up to, give Spakovsky’s “Democrats Versus the Vote” a close read.)
Kilgore likes to present himself as a reasonable man. But how are voters supposed to respond when the message from the Democrat Party is “our lawsuits to change the way we’ve always voted in the middle of a tumultuous election season are not part of a partisan cheat. Oh, but one more thing: America needs to understand that while it might very well look like Trump won on election night, due to our new rules votes will be counted for weeks afterward and then our candidate will probably win.”
More significantly, Kilgore sidesteps outrageous statements from leftist activists and Democrat Party royalty indicating they do not plan to concede even if Trump wins. There is no elephant in a corner here. There is a donkey in the middle of the room. So what if Kilgore thinks that ackshually Democrats will concede the election if Trump wins? The problem is that this is not what Democrats are saying.
As Anton and even Kilgore observe, Hillary Clinton and company have already put Biden and Harris on notice – along with the rest of us – that the Democrat ticket must refuse to concede, no matter how lopsided the loss. Is this report from the Daily Beast wrong? “Inside the coalition, there is dispute over whether Biden should even concede if he wins the popular vote but loses the Electoral College…. The Transition Integrity Project noted that there would be immense pressure on Biden to fight it out.” You get that? Even if Trump wins the Electoral College and therefore the presidency, like every other President in American history, the Left is preparing to—to what, exactly?
As TIP co-founder Rosa Brooks wrote in the Washington Post, “with the exception of the ‘big Biden win’ scenario, each of our exercises reached the brink of catastrophe, with massive disinformation campaigns, violence in the streets and a constitutional impasse” – almost as if the party of chaos is the one whose powerful ideologues run the media, the mobs, and the deep state. We’ve already seen what “mostly peaceful” unrest looks like. But the Daily Beast article tells us “the larger game plan is to apply pressure through mass mobilization.” Given the long list the article provides, every left-leaning group in the nation is seemingly coordinating for “mass public unrest.”
But that’s not all. There are also those on the Left who would threaten secession from the United State of America rather than live in an America in which President Trump won reelection. Granted, “there were mixed opinions over what to do.”
“It’s the hardest scenario,” the source said.
“It’s 2016. But it’s that plus all Trump has done on voter suppression. So I think there is a question but I think both sides are going to fight this till the very end.” And what, we asked, was the very end? “I don’t know,” the official replied.
The left elite press has sure gotten the message: it’s Trump and his followers who “may” steal the election. Democracy dies in orangeness—even if voters overwhelmingly agree that orange man is, in fact, good.
Ed Kilgore is not worried about any of this. His concern, he says, is that “if conservative opinion leaders convince each other and a big segment of Trump voters that Biden won’t accept a constitutionally legitimate loss, that’s all it may take to rob the 2020 presidential election of legitimacy.” Buddy. Pal. Robbing the presidency of legitimacy is the full-time job of your side since, er, before Trump took office. Do you remember your colleague Jonathan Chait’s deranged essay and its totally not insane conspiracy theory graphic about how the President of the United States was a Russian agent and Putin was his handler?
No matter. Kilgore is deeply concerned that if the Republicans mistakenly believe what the Democrats are saying and doing is real, the Republicans might refuse to concede the election and then “all hell really could break loose.” You mean, like, riots and stuff? Ed, your side is doing that already, and telling us they plan more of it. Lots more.
Still, Kilgore has one good suggestion: “Joe Biden could stop this toxic cycle of conspiracy theories justifying conspiracies by clearly announcing he will accept a clear Trump Electoral College win.” To do so, Ed, he’d have to speak specifically to the people in his own party who are saying they do not want him to do so. These are the “Democrats” you acknowledge in your next sentence—the Democrats for whom accepting the result of a legitimate election “offends” (your word, not ours).
Will Joe Biden and Kamala Harris tell Clinton, Pelosi, and now General Mattis to stop speaking about what sounds an awful lot like orchestrated insurrection? Of course they won’t. They won’t even tell BLM and Antifa to stop burning down American cities.
Rest assured that if the American Right spoke like this, the feds would start investigating. Then again, if the politics was reversed, BLM and Antifa would be considered domestic terror groups.
What is to be done? Republicans need to directly address and denounce the problem, and everyone must press Democratic leaders to do the same.
There is no way out of the coming cataclysm without Republican leaders closing ranks against the coup—and making clear that all Americans who join them will be well-supported in doing so.
As Andy Busch writes in “Sleepwalking into Secession,”
Those who find the Podesta Gambit [in which John Podesta, playing Biden, refused to concede his loss in a TIP war game] troubling need to shine the brightest possible spotlight onto it. To the highest degree possible, Joe Biden must be pressed as soon as possible to disavow it, whether in the form of pushing for the appointment of alternative electors, holding the election hostage to drastic constitutional change, or (above all) using threats of secession as a weapon.
Likewise, the actual governors central to Podesta’s hypothetical strategy (in California, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, Michigan, and North Carolina) must be challenged to put on record a pledge to reject that path. Kamala Harris, as a Californian, should face the same questions. These are simple questions. Do you reject threats of secession to get your way electorally? Will you pledge not to appoint electors contrary to the vote of the people of your state?
As Busch warns, “it is before votes are cast, not after, that maximum pressure will be on Biden and his co-partisans to behave in ways that do not repel swing voters. Once the votes are in, the party base will carry the most weight, and the pressure they will exert (as Podesta acknowledged in the simulation) will all be in the direction of driving out Trump by any means necessary.”
Today’s incessant scaremongering that a defeated Trump will barricade himself in the White House – the Nation devoted its latest cover story to this phony fever dream – is a smokescreen from party bigs scrambling to plan for just the opposite. Progressive radicals have spent years assembling a nationwide machine for legitimizing their switch-flip to autocratic rule. The full apparatus of that machinery – the media, the mobs, the deep-staters – is being leveraged to intimidate and disorient the people into accepting a Biden coup. Now is the time for Americans to make it known we won’t let our country be treated this way.
Republican leaders who love America more than they fear the ruling class will do the same.
- Who's The Most Popular YouTuber In Every Country?
Who’s The Most Popular YouTuber In Every Country?
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 23:20Forgot about becoming an astronaut – these days, kids are three times more likely to dream of becoming a professional YouTuber.
And as Visual Capitalist’s Carmen Ang details below, who can blame them? With a big enough fan base, vlogging can be a lucrative business. Who exactly are these professional content creators, and how do they make their money?
This graphic by Accredited Debt Relief shows the most popular YouTuber in nearly every country. The list only considers individual YouTubers, so brands, bands, or shows didn’t make the cut.
How Do YouTubers Make Money?
Before diving into the list, it’s important to understand the basics of the business. How do these content creators generate revenue?
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Advertisements
If a YouTuber reaches 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours within a year, they can start to monetize their account with advertisements. YouTubers only get paid when a viewer watches the full ad, or clicks on it. -
YouTube Premium
This is a monthly subscription service that allows fans to watch their favourite content without ads. YouTubers get a cut of subscription profits, based on how many views their channel attracts. -
Corporate Sponsorships
Also known as influencer marketing, this is when brands pay content creators to promote their product. A vlogger typically needs a large following before brands are willing to work with them, but expectations from brands vary based on the company and their marketing objectives. -
Merchandise Sales
If an influencer has a loyal fan base, they can make a pretty penny selling branded swag. It’s estimated that PewDiePie, the world’s most popular YouTuber, makes over $6 million a month from merch sales.
While there are several options for making money on YouTube, it’s nearly impossible to make a living without a large following.
The Full Breakdown
With over 50 million content creators on YouTube, getting noticed is no easy feat. Here’s a look at the most popular YouTubers in 187 different countries, based on their total subscribers:
As mentioned earlier, the world’s most popular YouTuber is Swedish-born vlogger PewDiePie. He’s well known for his “Let’s Play” videos, which document him playing various video games. PewDiePie joined YouTube in 2010, and has now amassed 105 million subscribers. While he’s based in England, his channel is registered under the United States.
It’s worth noting the vast discrepancies between certain countries. For example, while the U.S.’s most popular YouTuber, Like Nastya boasts 57 million subscribers, Eswatini’s top vlogger, OuSSama MiZani has less than 800. Clearly, some markets are more saturated than others.
Categories, Ranked by Popularity
Geography isn’t the only factor that impacts popularity—the type of content is important as well. Which 10 categories do the top earning YouTubers fall into?
Not surprisingly, the most popular category is entertainment, which has 72 of the top earning YouTubers. Some of the biggest YouTube personalities fall under this category, such as PewDiePie and Chilean YouTuber HolaSoyGerman, who has 41 million subscribers.
The second most popular category is gaming, which has 25 of YouTube’s top earners. Some big names in this category include Ireland’s jacksepticeye with 24.7 million subscribers, and Canada’s VanossGaming, who has 25.2 million.
In third place are “How To” videos—18 of the 187 top earners fall into this category. Life Hacks & Experiments is the most popular YouTuber in this group, with 8.3 million subscribers.
Categories, Ranked by Earnings
Here’s the highest earning YouTuber on this list for each category.
When ranked by monthly earnings, the kids category comes in at first place. Six-year-old Like Nastya makes an estimated $7.73 million per month—that’s over 5 million more than the second ranking category, which is entertainment. The third most lucrative category is gaming, with the highest earner, jacksepticeye grossing an estimated $990,000 a month.
It’s important to note that figures are estimates of each YouTuber’s ad revenue, so it doesn’t account for corporate sponsorships, merchandise sales, or any fan donations.
So for all we know, these influencers could be making even more money. If that doesn’t inspire you to start posting amateur videos on YouTube, we don’t know what will.
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- What I Learned About COVID-Merica Across 8,550 Miles
What I Learned About COVID-Merica Across 8,550 Miles
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 23:00Authored by Chuck Raasch via RealClearPolitica.com,
It was the final August morning in a rented cabin on a South Dakota lake, and as half a dozen family members sat talking and overlooking the water’s placid glass surface, a visitor interrupted the serenity.
“It’s an eagle,” my brother-in-law said in his quiet way. He pointed to a majestically gliding creature overhead in a soft Sunday sun. Very soon, majesty turned to fury, and the bird swooped, accelerating toward the water, attempting to grab a breakfast of surface-feeding fish. It missed, circled high and down and missed again, and again and again, until it gave up and flew away, empty.
Though thrilled with the show by this emissary from the natural world, we were disappointed that the bird left hungry. It seemed symbolic of 2020, having begun with so much promise and anticipation, but devolving into our famed national symbol grasping and coming up with nothing, with so much hidden beneath the surface we could not see, only to fly off and be lost in that endless Dakota sky.
Little did we know how much of a premonition it would be for the family and the brother-in-law, Bill, who had just received great remission news from doctors about an 18-month battle against a rare cancer he’s been fighting so hard. And how, amid a pandemic that has all the world on the edge of the unknowing, life itself is never a sure thing.
That summer week at the cabin, a family tradition that annually reacquaints my wife and her siblings with memories of their youth, was at the center of a 29-day, 8,550-mile drive across the country, from Alexandria, Va., to Los Angeles and back, with many here-and-yonder detours to places like Silicon Valley and Yellowstone and the Wisconsin Dells in between. A COVID-postponed visit in March with a son and daughter-in-law in their new Southern California home was the spark. In mid-July, we headed west.
CovidMerica is vastly different in 2020 than the country we had previously explored. Since the 1970s, I have had bylines from 49 states and visited all 50, so I had some context. The differences started from the very route we chose. We purposely avoided hot-spot states like Oklahoma and Arizona altogether. When planned overnight stops – places like Elko, Nev. – suddenly became hot, we canceled reservations and drove on, adding hundreds of miles to overnight where the virus was not such a threat.
We took nothing for granted and arrived at carefully chosen motels with our own cleaning supplies. Over that month, we daily encountered no more people than we would on a trip to the grocery store or on a long walk in Alexandria. You can do that in America 2020 if you choose national parks and two-lane highways over cities and interstates.
Most people we did encounter seemed weary and wary. And despite a parade of rah-rah signs in virtually all of the 21 states we visited declaring some form of “we are in this together,” the opposite seemed to be true.
Roughly half the strangers who crossed our paths in the motels, on the streets, at gas stations and at national parks or along the beaches of Southern California were wearing masks. A few non-maskers were conspicuously defiant, some even making caustic comments about ours.
Mask wearing, and lack thereof, didn’t fall along red state/blue state lines during the author’s cross-country trip. (Keith Birmingham/The Orange County Register via AP)
Despite what you can sometimes hear on cable shout shows, this was not a red state-blue state divide; one of the most massive violations of distancing and masking was on the Santa Monica beach, where a group of about 35 young surfers had gathered in a cluster, and where unmasked joggers and packs of bikers huffed and puffed past walkers as if they’d never heard of COVID-19.
The mixed messages from officialdom were ubiquitous. In Illinois, where highway electronic signs repetitively blared that “masks are required,” we saw a mask-free highway patrolman walk into a busy truck stop, where many of the customers also were not wearing them. The town square of Jackson, Wyo., where local news reports declared that tourism traffic was up over 2019 by double-digit percentages, was shoulder-to-shoulder packed with visitors, a large percentage of them not wearing masks. We stayed in a motel on the edge of town. In Yellowstone, we skipped Old Faithful because of crowds.
In some motels, we seemed to be the only customers on an entire floor. In Denver, where a huge lobby was dimmed to near-darkness and the parking lot was nearly empty, we jokingly wondered if we had landed in the Eagles’ “Hotel California.” Yet, other motels were jammed – think Jackson again — and some guests acted as if it was 2019, ignoring prominent “masks required” signs on the doors. Their indifference mocked the seals put on the room doors to ensure guests they had been cleaned to an anti-COVID state.
So much of America’s history comes from people on the move. The impulses that drove our ancestors, that yearning for freedom and a better life, propelled the westward pioneers of the 19th century and the northward Black Americans escaping Jim Crow and seeking better economic opportunities in the 20th. We are ripe for a repeat. We heard it and sensed it all along the 8,550-mile way.
A young Silicon Valley software engineer said he believed that isolation and working from home had been an epiphany for many like him, and that over the last few months there has been widespread assessing and prioritizing – with many arriving at the shared realization that millions of Americans can live where they want to and work how they want to, and that their employers know this, too.
Pandemic-mandated remote working has sparked an exodus from high-rent cities. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
This young techie is already seeing exoduses from the valley and predicting more from the expensive-to-live high-tech corridor. He himself is contemplating where he will live next. A Southern California landlord said separate renters discovered during the pandemic they didn’t have to live near their offices and gave notice they were moving to South Carolina and Indiana to be closer to family. In Jackson and in the Black Hills of South Dakota, we heard stories of New Yorkers and others fleeing big cities hit hard by the virus — or this summer’s protests and riots — who were buying property to move in permanently.
News stories, both locally and nationally, buttressed the anecdotes, with reports of falling market demand and prices in New York, San Francisco, and other cities. “During the official quarantine, certainly we did get a lot of phone calls – some of them attributed to people saying, ‘I want to get out of the big city and [move] to wide-open Wyoming,” one real estate agent told the Casper Star-Tribune.
Mass movement has followed major shocks in U.S. history. In his autobiography, Ulysses S. Grant, who directed armies across a landscape previously populated with isolated villages and remote farms, declared that the Civil War “begot a spirit of independence and enterprise” and a feeling that “a youth must cut loose from his old surroundings to enable him to get up in the world.” What followed, the take-it-on-faith westward settlement of millions, many of them Civil War veterans or newly arrived immigrants, is embedded deeply in American myth and culture. Our “Grapes of Wrath.”
What has survived through them all is a risk-taking sentimentality and attitude toward failure that remains palpable the further west you go. Our young Silicon Valley friend, who grew up in Northern Virginia, told us that he believed the biggest difference between California and D.C. is in its attitude toward failure. Among the innovators of Silicon Valley, having had one or two failures on your resume is often a plus, a starting point. By contrast, the Washington political class obsesses on others’ failures above all else, trivializing the risk necessary to solve problems.
Driving through America, you also get the sense not just of its inspiring beauty, but a realization that vast swaths of the West and Midwest are still at the mercy of nature in farming, ranching, tourism and other livelihoods, and that to survive you develop an ethic of playing the hand you are dealt. That may explain some of the Midwest red-state resistance to COVID mandates.
But compared with previous migrations, this movement in 2020 is different because of how isolating it can be. Wagon trains and new settlements formed for communal survival; campfire circles remain an American tradition. Settlers saw safety in congregating in numbers. Today, many travelers avoid such communality as if their lives literally depended upon it. Fellow pilgrims are threats; crossed paths are hazards.
Mask-less bikers fill the streets of Sturgis, S.D., during the town’s annual motorcycle rally in August. (Amy Harris/Invision/AP)
Therein lies another rub of the road. You can declare yourself to be totally free and in defiance of COVID’s harm, gather in crowds while mocking mask and distancing orders, as the throngs at Sturgis, S.D., did, days after we drove through. But in 2020, defying science and health guidance is also a declaration against interdependence.
The further west we drove, the more distant the daily dramas of Donald Trump and Congress became. Big swaths of America treat the constant fighting in their nation’s capital carried on cable news like annoying elevator music, as a familiar and irritating refrain they could not change even if they wanted to.
Billboards are still a signs of the times. The ones we saw were heavily concentrated in four categories: religious, adult “superstores,” personal injury lawyers (including one calling himself “The Hammer,” who seemed to have Indiana and Illinois nailed down), and, finally, food banks and pantries.
Missouri, especially, seemed engaged in a billboard competition between religious messengers and adult sex-toy merchants. The food bank and help-the-hungry billboards were often the freshest — signs of the pandemic’s attack on the economy.
Yet in the end, the eagle made the biggest impression of the 8,550-mile journey. Long endangered, these magnificent symbols of America were never seen by me or my wife in our childhoods on the eastern South Dakota prairies. Now they are back and becoming abundant, not just an emblem of a nation, but living proof of a people’s ability to collectively reverse course in the right way when challenged.
It was fitting that Bill saw the bird first. In raucous gatherings, my brother-in-law was the quiet and contemplative one, a home-loving family man, appreciative of simple pleasures, like pickup rides with a red-headed 2-year-old grandson he’d affectionately nicknamed “Red Menace.” He was the mender and the fixer in the family, a mechanic and trucker, and more interested in helping others have a good time than attending to his own desires. Pointing out that eagle in flight was one of his many gifts to us.
During the week together on the lake, we had been extremely protective and COVID-careful around him, masking up, distancing, constantly cleaning surfaces. Because of his cancer, he’d worn a mask long before COVID, so he was a stickler on risks and boundaries.
We made plans for next year, optimistic he’d be with us again, proud of his tough fight against a terrible disease.
And then, five days after we parted, Bill was killed in a car accident two miles from the home where he and his siblings were raised.
Even for 2020 it seems surreal to write this, too trite to summon the usual homily of living to the fullest because you never know when it will end. The only thing we can do for him now is to try to be more like him, to be just a little bit kinder to everyone we encounter down the road past 2020, realizing that life is a gift, but never a guarantee.
- Chinese Econ Data Beats Across The Board: Retail Sector Grows For The First Time In 2020; Yuan Soars
Chinese Econ Data Beats Across The Board: Retail Sector Grows For The First Time In 2020; Yuan Soars
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 22:54Following another month of strong, expansionary PMIs, the latest Chinese hard data joined the soft data in beating consensus expectations, with Beijing reporting its monthly data dump moments ago which saw continued improvement across all segments, with both industrial production and retail sales handily beating expectations.
China’s The National Bureau of Statistics reported the following figures for August:
- Industrial production came in at +5.6% yoy, above market expectations of 5.1%, and faster than the +4.8% yoy in July. Based on IP by major product data, cement production was up 6.6% yoy in August, faster than 3.6% yoy growth in July, while automobile production decelerated to 7.6% yoy, from +26.8% in July (when a favorable base effect contributed to the fast growth in automobile production). One thing to note – as Goldman points out, the sequential figures are highly sensitive to the specific seasonal adjustment methodology (NBS estimates +1.0% s.a. non-annualized in August, same as July).
- Retail sales registered the first positive year-over-year growth this year, and was also better than market expectations: retail sales growth was +0.5% y/y in August, vs. -1.1% in July, stronger than the 0% expected print, with automobile sales growth staying strong at +11.8% yoy, vs. +12.3% yoy in July. This marked the first growth in the retail sector this year, with January and February’s data having been combined to account for distortions relating to the pandemic.
- Fixed asset investment, the year-to-date value of spending on real estate, infrastructure and capital equipment, fell by 0.3 per cent from a year earlier in the first eight months of 2020, stronger than the -0.4% expected, and also an improvement from July’s -1.6% reading, as investment edges back towards growth following a collapse in the early part of the year.
- The survey unemployment rates edged down in August, from 5.7% to 5.6%. However, while this is an indicator of the unemployment rate in a certain segment of the urban population, the SCMP notes that this is not viewed as an accurate depiction of the overall employment situation (one can technically say the same about virtually any other Chinese economic series).
“We think that China’s economic recovery is on a reasonably firm footing now and should continue through the fourth quarter and into 2021, with solid investment growth, gradually recovering consumption momentum and resilient exports,” said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia at Oxford Economics.
What is strange, while shops, restaurants and entertainment venues were closed for much of the first quarter, even as they reopened, people have been reluctant to engage in the sort of spending the authorities might have hoped would kick-start the recovery. And yet, here it is in the economic data, clear as day. While things have been slowly getting better, with passenger car sales rising 9.0% in August from a year earlier, and continuing to grow strongly into the first weeks of September, according to the China Passenger Car Association, cinema box office revenue, however, fell 56.8% in August, according to the China Movie Data Information Network.
Of course, this being China, for the most part the “recovery” has been powered by traditional levers of growth: soaring exports and a booming construction sector. This trend continued in August with excavator sales – a proxy for construction work in China – rocketing 51.3% year on year in August, after growing 54.8% in July and 63.1% in the second quarter of the year. Meanwhile, as the SCMP notes, heavy-duty truck sales rose 74.7% in August, per industry data cited by Nomura, significant growth even if it was down from 89.0% in July.
Also curious: one day after China reported another monthly increase in housing prices, the NBS reported property development data that were mixed at best:
- Jan.-Aug. property sales value rises 1.6% y/y to 9.69t yuan
- Jan.-Aug. home sales value rises 4.1% y/y to 8.68t yuan
- Jan.-Aug. property sales area falls 3.3% y/y to 985m sqm
- Jan.-Aug. home sales area falls 2.5% y/y to 872m sqm
- Jan.-Aug. new property construction falls 3.6% y/y to 1399m sqm
And in some good news for the battered commodities sector (and value investors everywhere), China’s apparent oil demand rose almost double digits, up 9.9% to 13.51m b/d in Aug.
While the yuan was already surging ahead of the news, having risen above the key level of 6.80 which has proven to be a strong resistance on numerous prior occasions, the offshore yuan was last seen at 6.7884, the highest print since May 2019.
While China may be delighted to demonstrate the yuan’s strength, if purely from a political perspective, sooner or later, the deflationary aspect of the strong currency – especially in a world where global trade is still moribund – will soon start impacting the country which as we noted over the weekend, is injecting record amounts of credit to jumpstart a benign credit impulse and a global reflationary wave.
As Bloomberg’s George Lei writes, “the offshore yuan’s advance this quarter is poised to be among the best ever since the currency started trading a decade ago. For the onshore yuan, its 3.72% gain so far this quarter represents the best performance since 1Q 2008. From a trading perspective, it is difficult to go against momentum for long and not lose money. Yuan shorts piled up – and then were crushed hard – when the offshore currency fell to a record low of 7.1965 per dollar on May 27, before rallying for the next few months. This time might be different for the currency’s momentum, however. Multiple warning signs have already flashed, pointing to at least a stall – and quite possibly a reversal – in the currency’s recent rally.”
Perhaps, but judging by the latest strong economic data, that reversal won’t be today.
- Louis Vuitton To Release "Ridiculously High-Priced" Face Shields For Rich People
Louis Vuitton To Release “Ridiculously High-Priced” Face Shields For Rich People
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 22:40One of the biggest accessory trends to come out of the virus pandemic has been personal protective equipment, or commonly known by many as “PPE.”
Luxury designer Louis Vuitton has jumped on the PPE trend and will release a $961 face shield for rich people.
The high-end fashion shield will be part of the company’s 2021 Cruise collection, available in stores late October. The plastic face guard will include Louis Vuitton’s signature monogram print on the elastic strap securing the shield onto the wearer’s head. The shield itself is trimmed with Louis Vuitton’s famous pattern.
In a statement, Louis Vuitton describes the shield as “an eye-catching headpiece, both stylish and protective.”
Other luxury brands, such as Fendi, Palm Angels, Marine Serre, and Cristian Siriano, have jumped on the PPE trend for rich people by releasing products of their own, including masks and face shields.
We suspect these luxury brand PPE items will not be available in PPE vending machines across the New York City subway system.
While the US CDC does not require the use of face shields in commercial settings, face masks, on the other hand, are essentially required across the country.
“This is a $1,000 (maybe) face shield. Don’t buy it! This is a ridiculously high-priced logo-covered item for rich people. But it’s also not exactly a trinket. If even some rich people are a little bit more inclined to wear personal protective gear, because they have purchased this face shield, that’s good for all of us,” said Slate’s Shannon Palus.
If readers think $1,000 face shields are overpriced, try the world’s most expensive coronavirus face mask, worth around $1.5 million.
When it comes to the rich and poor, there’s a noticeable divide into the quality and price of PPE products.
And, by the way, there’s still little conclusive evidence that face masks are an effective way to limit the spread of respiratory viruses.
So, really, what’s the point in fancy PPE gear? Is it just a status symbol?
- As Afghanistan Peace Talks Begin, Mish Asks "Why Bother? Just Leave!"
As Afghanistan Peace Talks Begin, Mish Asks “Why Bother? Just Leave!”
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 22:20Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,
The US is in peace talks with the Taliban. Concerns mount.
Will the Taliban Hold Up Their End of the Deal?
Here is the wrong question: Will the Taliban Hold Up Their End of the Deal?
The four-part agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban committed the U.S. to withdrawing most of its soldiers from Afghanistan, which it is doing. In exchange, the Taliban provided assurances that Afghanistan would no longer be used as a base from which to wage attacks against the U.S. and its allies. It also agreed to engage with the Afghan government.
But the promises made by the Taliban to meet those goals were vague and very difficult to verify.
Based on publicly available information, I find the Taliban has met only two of the seven conditions stipulated in its peace accord with the U.S.: releasing 1,000 Afghan prisoners and entering talks with the Afghan government.
Does It Matter?
Of course the Taliban will not honor the deal.
So what?
They will not honor it if we stay another 20 years and waste another $10 trillion in the process.
Right Questions
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Why are we still there?
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Why were we there in the first place?
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What did we accomplish?
The answer to #3 is nothing and if we stay another 20 years the answer will still be nothing.
Peace With Honor
In 1968, Nixon made this campaign pledge: “I pledge to you that we shall have an honorable end to the war in Vietnam.”
The US bickered over details with North Vietnam until January 23, 1973. US troops finally pulled out on March 29, 1973.
North Vietnam overran Saigon on April 30, 1975.
Paris Peace Accords
Please consider provisions of the Paris Peace Accords ending the Vietnam War.
Here are the two pertinent ones.
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A cease-fire in place in South Vietnam followed by precise delineations of communist and government zones of control.
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The establishment of a “National Council of National Reconciliation and Concord” composed of a communist, government, and neutralist side to implement democratic liberties and organize free elections in South Vietnam.
Debate over the Shape of the Table
The peace talks were delayed for months over the shape of the table.
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One of the largest hurdles to effective negotiation was the fact that North Vietnam and the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF, or Viet Cong) in the South, refused to recognize the government of South Vietnam; with equal persistence, the government in Saigon refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the NLF.
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A similar debate concerned the shape of the table to be used at the conference. The North favored a circular table, in which all parties, including NLF representatives, would appear to be “equal”‘ in importance. The South Vietnamese argued that only a rectangular table was acceptable, for only a rectangle could show two distinct sides to the conflict. Eventually a compromise was reached, in which representatives of the northern and southern governments would sit at a circular table, with members representing all other parties sitting at individual square tables around them.
Declare Victory and Get Out
Please consider “Declare Victory and Get Out”?
In 1966, in the middle of the Vietnam War, the late Senator George Aiken of Vermont famously recommended that the United States simply “declare victory and get out.” With the benefit of hindsight, that seems like pretty good advice. Today, it is more or less what the Obama administration is trying to do in Afghanistan.
That article was written in 2012. We are still in Afghanistan pretending there is some mission of honor to accomplish and the Taliban will honor the deal.
Just Leave
No, the Taliban will not honor the deal.
I don’t really give a damn because we have no business there in the first place just as we had no business in Vietnam and numerous other places.
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- Massive Lines Form Outside Virginia Food Bank As Demand Hits One Million Meals Per Month
Massive Lines Form Outside Virginia Food Bank As Demand Hits One Million Meals Per Month
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 22:00The economic recovery has stalled, and in some cases, reversed. The $600 unemployment benefits that Americans received following the virus pandemic that crashed the economy in March-April expired on July 31, which means a fiscal cliff has been underway for 44 days (as of Sept. 14).
Millions of people are still out of work, their emergency savings wiped out, and insurmountable debts are increasing. As former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen warned in August, Congress’ inability to pass another round of stimulus checks could weigh on the economic recovery.
Readers may recall about a quarter of all personal income is derived from the government – so when a lapse in stimulus checks extends for well over one month – that could lead to new consumer stress.
In Richmond, Virginia, about 125 miles south of Washington, D.C., a food bank has been shelling out more than one million meals per month as the metro area battles deep economic scarring sustained by the virus-induced recession.
Kim Hill, the Chesterfield Food Bank CEO, told ABC 8News, “a lot of Chesterfield residents are showing up to get food would be an understatement — they’ve been averaging over a million meals a month.”
“You roll down that window, and you see the tears in that person’s eyes who never thought they would need the help of a food bank,” Hill said. “It breaks your heart.”
She said the volume of people her food bank is feeding is more than triple the levels versus last year. With increased demand, Hill said more volunteers are needed to handle the greater volumes.
“The life at the food bank here, we think it has changed forever,” Hill said. “Hunger should not exist in our country. We are one of the richest countries in the world, we need to be able to take care of our own people.”
She said the “Spanish-speaking population accounts for nearly half of all donations from their distribution sites.”
ABC 8News published a drone video outside the food bank on Friday (Sept. 11), revealing a massive line of cars of hungry people waiting to pick up food.
A ground-based video of the traffic jam of cars went viral over the weekend, recording, so far, nearly 1.8 million views.
The line on Route 10 for the Chesterfield food bank is currently a double wide line that stretches nearly half of a mile pic.twitter.com/785yt75KT7
— Brandon Jarvis (@Jaaavis) September 11, 2020
We recently noted low-income households had experienced the most financial hardships, which makes sense when Hill said many of the food donations are distributed to the “Spanish-speaking population.”
For some context here, food banks are slated to become the norm for the working poor. The pandemic has exposed the government’s intent to bail out corporate America while providing very little assistance to everyone else. Whatever the assistance the government did provide was a taste of socialism for many. Wealth inequality has been supercharged in 2020, food banks will continue to see elevated demand as the recovery could take a couple of years to return to 2019 activity levels.
- Peter Schiff: The Fed Set The Fiercest Wildfire
Peter Schiff: The Fed Set The Fiercest Wildfire
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 21:40Wildfires are raging out of control in western states doing millions of dollars in damage and disrupting countless lives. In a recent podcast, Peter Schiff said the Federal Reserve has set an even fiercer wildfire – inflation. And we are in danger of it burning out of control through the entire US economy.
Stock markets closed last week mixed, with the Dow and the S&P 500 up a bit, and the NASDAQ and the Russell 2000 down. Some analysts say the problems that seemed to be brewing, particularly in the NASDAQ, have passed since there really wasn’t any significant follow-through after the NASDAQ dipped into correction territory last Tuesday. But Peter says he doesn’t think the bulls are out of the woods yet.
I still think the charts look like there is a lot of potential that we can see a bigger decline. Of course, you’ve got the backstop of the Federal Reserve. In fact, it’s only because the Fed is there that the market didn’t have a bigger drop this week. The reason we didn’t have more follow-through is because people expect the Fed to come to the rescue. In fact, if the Fed wasn’t there, the market never would have been at the levels that it just dropped from.”
Meanwhile, gold finished with a small gain on the week. Peter said the technicals on gold look incredible.
It is building this new support, or consolidating rather, above the support level that used to be the resistance level. The spike-high that we had in 2011 of about 1,900 – that’s now the support. And the longer the old high can remain the new low, the new resistance, I think the stronger this next rally is going to be.”
Peter said the biggest factors that are going to be driving gold and gold stocks are inflation and the weakening dollar.
The dollar is going to lose value not only against other fiat currencies, but it’s going to lose even more value against real money – gold and silver.”
We started getting some of the government price inflation numbers last week. The Producer Price Index (PPI) came in at 0.3%, higher than the projected 0.2% projection. As Peter explained, the numbers are actually much higher than that.
The way the government has reverse-engineered the CPI and the PPI, a lot of the gains that prices are experiencing aren’t even reflected in these numbers. By the time they grind them through the mill there, they adjust them hedonically and they do some kind of weighted averaging or whatever happens – the data that comes out doesn’t really look much like the data that goes in. And so we constantly get a more benign picture of what’s happening. The consumers are paying prices that are rising at rates that are faster than what we get from these official numbers.”
Of course, this is exactly what the Fed wants. They’ve even come out and confessed they are pushing for more price inflation. Peter said they’ve basically just come out of the closet.
Everybody at the Fed was a closet inflationist. They just didn’t want to come out of the closet and admit it. … Because people think they’re the firemen. They don’t think they’re lighting the fires. But now you have the Fed coming out and telling you, ‘We’re going to light the fires. We’re a bunch of arsonists. And we’re going to go out and set fires.’ And people don’t think that’s a problem.”
One person who does think it’s a problem is former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. During a recent interview, he said inflation was his biggest worry. Ironically, Powell also says he’s worried about inflation but for the opposite reason.
Greenspan is worried about inflation because he thinks there is too much of it. He thinks inflation is going to be too high. That’s why he’s so concerned about inflation. He worried about inflation running out of control. Powell, on the other hand, is worried about inflation being too low. So you have two people, one a former Fed chairman and one the sitting Fed chairman, both looking at the same data-points and coming to the opposite conclusion. I mean, the polar opposite.”
How is this possible? They can’t both be right. One will be right and one will be wrong. Peter said his money is with Greenspan.
As I said, he wrote the playbook. He knows how it ends. Powell has no idea how this thing ends. He doesn’t understand the playbook or the rules. He doesn’t know how the game works.”
Of course, all this raises another question: if Greenspan gets it, why didn’t he do something when he had the chance.
Peter also talked about 9/11 in this podcast and the legacy of government expansion that happened in its wake.
- Baltimore On Pace For Deadliest Year Ever: 46 Shot, 12 Killed Last Week
Baltimore On Pace For Deadliest Year Ever: 46 Shot, 12 Killed Last Week
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 21:20As social unrest, wildfires, and hurricanes dominate the headlines, a surge in violent crime across major US metropolitan areas has also been observed since the virus-pandemic began in March.
Chicago and New York City have seen its fair share of violence this summer, with a rash of shootings and murders. Now Baltimore is back in the news, with at least 46 people shot – 12 of them died last week, according to The Baltimore Sun, citing new Baltimore Police Department (BPD) data.
BPD data showed a surge in shootings between Sept. 6 and Sept. 13 came in the final stretch of late summer as fall is around the corner. A decline in temperatures has often been associated with lower foot traffic in some of Baltimore’s roughest neighborhoods, resulting in a decline in shootings.
“Baltimore police confirmed on Sunday that from Sept. 6 to Sept. 13, 34 people were injured in shootings, and 12 others were killed. But the week had already started off rough, coming off a violent Labor Day weekend when 12 people had been shot, two others were killed, and one person was fatally stabbed. The latest shooting occurred around 6 p.m. Sunday in the 1300 block of N. Calhoun St., where a 47-year-old man was injured,” The Sun said.
As of Sunday (Sept. 13), Baltimore has recorded 233 homicides, about nine less than 242 reported last year during the same period. Cumulative homicide trends show the city will likely register well over 300 by year-end, on pace for a record or near-record year in homicides. Since the Baltimore Riots in 2015, homicides in the city have totaled over 300 per year (data via The Baltimore Sun).
Murders tend to spike in the spring and decline in late summer. Gun violence is primarily the cause of death.
Geographically, murders are widespread across the city, with the most seen in northwestern and southwestern parts.
Here’s a partial list of the homicides this month.
2020 Baltimore City Murder Map
The murder and chaos in Baltimore City, a Democratically-controlled metro area for nearly half a century, was recently put into the spotlight when President Trump tweeted GOP Congressional candidate Kim Klasick‘s campaign video accusing Democrats of failing to revive the city, and encouraging blacks in the city and some surrounding suburbs to try voting Republican for a change.
Trump has also gone after Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for ignoring the socio-economic implosions across major US cities are resulting in a surge in violent crime.
As readers know, the pandemic, social unrest, and violent crime have resulted in a mass exodus of folks from cities who are moving to rural communities and suburbia.
It’s only a matter of time before police organizations in Baltimore, Chicago, and New York City, buy billboard space warning motorists about the dangers of defunding police and surging violent crime.
- Straight Outta Marxism: Seattle BLM Takes Over Grocery Store To Protest "Lack Of Access To Grocery Stores"
Straight Outta Marxism: Seattle BLM Takes Over Grocery Store To Protest “Lack Of Access To Grocery Stores”
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 21:00Authored by Bryan Preston via PJMedia.com,
At some point, people will get sick of this.
Black Lives Matter activists occupied a Trader Joe’s in Seattle this week, claiming to be protesting “lack of access to grocery stores” and explaining to patrons “how capitalism exploits the working class.”
That “capitalism” line is straight from Marxism.
BLM founders do admit to being “trained Marxists.” Their training is trickling down.
Black Lives Matter protestors have occupied a Trader Joe’s in Seattle.
Liberal white women throughout the city are now stockpiling frozen burritos and wondering: “has this all gone too far”? pic.twitter.com/GAkOfj55YN
— Christopher F. Rufo (@realchrisrufo) September 11, 2020
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Yes, Karen*, it has.
Socialism and communism exploit the working class and everyone else under their bootheel. Free speech, free press, and freedom of religion tend to die under socialism and communism. Gulags and concentration camps for punishing wrongthink replace them.
Socialism and communism are forms of slavery, though they have seldom been called that.
If you’re a Uighur sent to a concentration camp in Xinjiang against your will and for having committed no crime by your unchecked rulers in the Chinese Communist Party, and you are forced to make products, what are you?
You’re no longer a Disney fan, that’s for sure.
Back to Trader Joe’s in Seattle:
This comes as leftists conflate Trader Joe’s and gentrification, according to The Atlantic in a 2019 article on the “conflicts between white Portlanders and long-time black residents” over “widening bicycle lanes” and “the construction of a new Trader Joe’s.”
So…leftists block Trader Joe’s from building stores, and then protest the “lack of access” to those stores.
Why doesn’t this compute? Were there guards blocking these protesters from entering the store they protested over “lack of access?” Were there any actual impediments to them entering?
Were the roads blocked? If they were, it was probably by another of these protest groups. Blocking people from doing things is their jam.
Black Lives Matter protesters are blocking a media bus on its way back to the hotel at the Disney campus.
(via @ChrisBHaynes)pic.twitter.com/QqwTBNYjtE
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 13, 2020
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Trader Joe’s is a great store. They offer fantastic products at very competitive prices. Their staff are always friendly and helpful. The stores are always clean. The produce tends to be a bit cheaper than other stores in the area and it’s just as fresh. These stores provide jobs, help the tax base, and tend to increase property values around them.
All of which reminds me, I need to go to Trader Joe’s soon.
The patrons of this Seattle store are probably left-of-center affluent BLM supporters. Their temporary kidnapping surely left them with a positive impression of the organization.
The protesters are probably affluent too.
The framing of this shot using the background sign as commentary…
…genius.
- Citi Restarts Job Cuts, Ending Pandemic "No Layoff" Pledge
Citi Restarts Job Cuts, Ending Pandemic “No Layoff” Pledge
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 20:40And the hits just keep on coming for Citigroup.
While not nearly as much of a shitshow as Wells Fargo, where even Warren Buffett appears to have given up hope for a recovery, today Citi’s stock slumped more than 5% after reports that federal regulators were preparing to issue a costly reprimand Citigroup for failing to improve its risk-management systems stemming from a highly publicized scandal in which the bank inexplicably made an “accidental” $900 million payment to creditors of cosmetics company Revlon (after secretly scheming with Revlon to screw over those very same creditors). Hilariously, it was also reported that CEO Mike Corbat’s retirement and replacement with Jane Fraser, the first woman CEO on Wall Street, had little to do with the bank’s noble ESG intentions and lofty aspirations for sexual equality, but merely to have her clean up Corbat’s mess.
This in turn followed an earlier drop in the stock price after Citi’s CFO Mark Mason unveiled during The Barclays Global Financial Services conference that the bank’s full year revenue would be “flat to slightly down” and that it would move people to “low cost spots.”
Yet the trifecta hit late on Monday when Bloomberg reported that six months after Citi, and all other banks vowed they would not pursue banker layoffs during the pandemic, the pandemic appears to have ended because the bank will resume job cuts starting this week, joining rivals such as the abovementioned shitshow that is Wells Fargo, which last month said it was preparing to cut tens of thousands of jobs, in ending an earlier pledge to pause staff reductions during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The decision to eliminate even a single colleague role is very difficult, especially during these challenging times,” Citigroup said in a statement. “We will do our best to support each person, including offering the ability to apply for open roles in other parts of the firm and providing severance packages.”
The bank said that it would fire less than 1% of the total workforce, yet what is curious is that at the same time the bank said it has hired more than 26,000 people this year, and over one-third of those jobs were in the U.S (Citi currently employs around 204,000 worker).
After promising to pause layoffs in late March, Banks resumed job cuts in recent weeks, and many firms are now pushing to cut costs as the pandemic has dragged on, threatening lenders with higher credit costs and crimping revenue growth, which in the case of Citi is expected to decline this year as noted above.
And while thousands of bankers now have a dismal holiday season to look forward to, the biggest winner is “noble” Mike Corbat, whose departure comes at just the right time, dumping his farewell mess squarely on his replacement, the first woman CEO on Wall Street who may soon find that her historic ascent to the top of Citi’s rank was more than she bargained for.
- JP Morgan Shocked Young People Who Work From Home Are Less Productive
JP Morgan Shocked Young People Who Work From Home Are Less Productive
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 20:20JP Morgan was apparently surprised to discover that across its business lines, employees experienced a noticable decline in productivity during the last six months, as the world’s corporate office workers retreated to their work-from-home ‘rona rigs. The bank recently told its traders to report back to the office as the bank becomes the first Wall Street player to start recalling employees to the office, staking out a position opposite Google and the rest of ‘Big Tech’, which has (at least, publicly) embraced the ‘work from home lifestyle’.
Now, according to a report published earlier by Bloomberg, JPM has shared findings from some internal research with analysts at Stifel-owned Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. The report found that workers showed a definitive lack of “creative energy” while working from home.
JPM is shocked, SHOCKED to learn that young traders “working” from home are less productive
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) September 14, 2020
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CEO Jamie Dimon has even lent his name to this little project.
“The WFH lifestyle seems to have impacted younger employees, and overall productivity and ‘creative combustion’ has taken a hit,” KBW’s Brian Kleinhanzl wrote in a Sept. 13 note to clients, citing an earlier meeting with Dimon.
The bank has noticed the productivity decline among “employees in general, not just younger employees,” JPMorgan spokesman Michael Fusco clarified in an emailed statement, adding that younger workers “could be disadvantaged by missed learning opportunities” by not being in offices.
[…]
“Overall, Jamie thinks a shift back to the office will be good for the young employees and to foster creative ideas,” Kleinhanzl wrote.
According to Bloomberg, JPM’s claims are an interesting “data point” to stand alongside studies which found that employees tend to work longer hours when they’re home. Depending on the individual job, situations can of course very from one extreme to the other.
JPMorgan’s findings provide a data point in the debate over whether employees perform as well at the kitchen table as they do in the workplace, showing extended remote work may not be all it’s cracked up to be, at least for some job functions. While pre-pandemic studies found remote workers were just as efficient as those in offices, there were questions about how employees would perform under compulsory lockdowns.
But we suspect JPM wouldn’t take such a risk, and come out so strongly in opposition to the new post-COVID-19 reality where work from home situations are much more common, if its clients wouldn’t approve.
Somewhere, some JPM clients (and, perhaps, potential clients), are probably relieved to see JPM take such a strong, “evidenced-based” stand against WFH.
- CIA Threat Memo Says Iran Plotting To Assassinate Ambassador In Revenge For Soleimani
CIA Threat Memo Says Iran Plotting To Assassinate Ambassador In Revenge For Soleimani
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 20:00Politico released a bombshell on Sunday, citing “multiple US intelligence sources” which said Iran was plotting to assassinate the American Ambassador to South Africa, 66-year old Lana Marks.
Apparently the report is based on slightly more than the usual ‘anonymous’ CIA officials, given this time Politico is citing a specific CIA global threats document, which says the planned future assassination is to be in revenge for the January US killing by drone strike of IRGC Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani.
Allegedly the Iranian embassy in Pretoria is involved in the plot, based on the CIA document; however, it’s also said to reference other options in terms of potential revenge scenarios.
US Ambassador to South Africa, Lana Marks with President Trump, file image. The intelligence threat assessment appears to have come to light based on the CIA notifying Ambassador Marks, who has been at her post for less than a year. According to Politico:
An intelligence community directive known as “Duty to Warn” requires U.S. spy agencies to notify a potential victim if intelligence indicates their life could be in danger; in the case of U.S. government officials, credible threats would be included in briefings and security planning. Marks has been made aware of the threat, the U.S. government official said.
The intelligence also has been included in the CIA World Intelligence Review, known as the WIRe, a classified product that is accessible to senior policy and security officials across the U.S. government, as well as certain lawmakers and their staff.
Politico further cited sources speculating they think Marks was made a target due to her perceived personal closeness to President Trump.
The claims immediately sparked criticism and push-back from a number of independent geopolitical analysts, who noted that an ambassador to South Africa is nowhere near the stature of Soleimani, easily the most influential and powerful commander in the Islamic Republic, who further reported directly to the Ayatollah.
I have a hard time buying this.
Not because Tehran is done avenging the killing of Soleimani, but because a handbag designer turned ambassador is not on par with Soleimani, Iran’s foremost general.
I fear this may be the lead up to a October surprise.
>>https://t.co/w0plNOH5IM— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) September 14, 2020
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There’s also the perception that the Trump administration does not want to get sucked into another series of escalating incidents with Iran, given the huge “unknowns” in such a gambit would likely hurt Trump’s re-election chances so close to November.
- YouTube Censors White House Health Advisor
YouTube Censors White House Health Advisor
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 19:40Via The American Institute for Economic Research,
In late August, the Hoover Institution filmed an in-depth interview with Dr. Scott Atlas who serves as a top health advisor to the White House, more or less replacing Anthony Fauci in that role.
Atlas is an advocate for opening up the economy and allowing natural immunities to control the virus. In this, he has many colleagues in the public-health profession who agree with him, including many epidemiologists, virologists, immunologists, and medical doctors, all names frequently covered at AIER. This interview conducted by Hoover allows him to explain his views in depth.
Incredibly, YouTube has taken down the video interview of Scott Atlas for the usual vague reasons about community standards.
Alex Berenson is right:
“As censorship goes, this is both terrifying and idiotic. Like him or hate him, Scott Atlas is ADVISING THE PRESIDENT ON COVID – no one gains when YouTube denies everyone the chance to hear what he thinks. People who oppose him should want to know even more.”
Two aspects of this are fortunate. LBRY has retained a copy and that copy is embedded below. In addition, Hoover retains a complete transcript of the interview.
If this can happen to a world-class and highly credentialed expert like Atlas, it can happen to anyone.
We need decentralized solutions like LBRY now, in the interest of openness, freedom, and truth.
- Exhaustive Pentagon Review Finds No Evidence For NYTimes' "Russian Bounties" Story
Exhaustive Pentagon Review Finds No Evidence For NYTimes’ “Russian Bounties” Story
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 19:20There’s been huge efforts to validate The New York Times “bombshell” that wasn’t — concerning its summer reporting that Russia secretly offered bounties to the Taliban to kill US troops in Afghanistan.
Two months ago the Pentagon vowed to get to the bottom of it, launching a review of all intelligence and sources which might provide corroboration. And now at the end of that investigation Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of the U.S. Central Command overseeing the war in Afghanistan, says the detailed investigation found no corroboration of the story.
Image source: AFP Recall that from the start the whole thing smelled like a dramatic and desperate last ditch effort to revive the failed Russiagate narrative but in a different form. Multiple intelligence agency heads voiced their immediate skepticism in the wake of the claims linked to unnamed intelligence sources in the CIA.
Gen. McKenzie, told NBC News: “It just has not been proved to a level of certainty that satisfies me,” adding that, “We continue to look for that evidence. I just haven’t seen it yet.”
Every single time. https://t.co/8jc9bCZPYf
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) September 14, 2020
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The new NBC report, published Monday, finds further:
A U.S. military official familiar with the intelligence added that after a review of the intelligence around each attack against Americans going back several years, none have been tied to any Russian incentive payments.
The suggestion of a Russian bounty program began, another source directly familiar with the matter said, with a raid by CIA paramilitary officers that captured Taliban documents describing Russian payments.
So there it is: the Pentagon did a detailed examination of each and every attack on American troops going back several years and found nothing.
Two tweets from today. I wonder which will be spread further???? pic.twitter.com/y3NCBGmtoR
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) September 14, 2020
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But it’s yet another instance of the initial unchecked and unverified sensationalist claims from deep within the bowels of the Russia-obsessed mainstream going viral. But don’t expect for a moment that this new Pentagon finding that essentially ‘there simply no evidence!’ will receive the same exposure and circulation.
But that’s how propaganda is supposed to work after all.
- "Everyone In The City Was Ready For War" – Terrifying Eye-Witness Account Of The Kenosha Riots
“Everyone In The City Was Ready For War” – Terrifying Eye-Witness Account Of The Kenosha Riots
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 19:00Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,
Much has been written about surviving riots and civil unrest. But there’s nothing like a firsthand account to bring it to life.
We shared an eye-witness story from a National Guard member who told us about the Seattle riots. Another writershared her family’s experience during the Ferguson riots. We’ve seen brutal videos on YouTube and social media. The violence in our country is increasing dramatically.
Here’s a first-hand story of the Kenosha riots.
And now, a woman has shared on Facebook what her family recently experienced in the Kenosha, Wisconsin riots. In her post, the thing that stands out in my mind the most is that help was not on the way. The residents of Kenosha who stood their ground were completely on their own against the mobs rampaging through their neighborhoods. I’ve redacted some identifying information from her post – otherwise, the public post is exactly as she shared it on the social media outlet. All emphasis is mine.
The day of the worst destruction, fires, looting, assaults… all of us in Kenosha were able to watch live -via independent media. The entire start to finish. The worst of it happened on 22nd & 60th, and I live on [redacted], so to tell you I was terrified is an understatement. The majority of Kenosha was watching our two [redacted] live footage well until 3am… police scanners on… bracing for the worst. It was apparent from the beginning there was no help. No police, no fire trucks no ambulances. None. Structures burned to the ground, people hurt and attacked were loaded into cars and raced to any hospital they could get to, rioters just broke into businesses and took what they wanted.
And we all watched it happen. There was nothing we could do.
A sleepless night, we faced the next day with more fear. A massive clean up effort, we helped as many homes and buisnesses as we could, brace for the night, we started to get inundated with messages from individuals and groups … targeting violence to specific neighborhoods, schools, libraries.. with fires and destruction… lots of messages. Most specifically targeting LOCAL NEIGHBORHOODS… families!!!
Cars and buses were coming in to the city with no plates… caravans of groups. Again, no extra police or national guard.
But the rioters came to Kenosha that night again.
Our PD and any help it had was standing ground at the PD building and courthouse… and many rioters did not know… our PD was trying to keep them from burning these down, not only because it was our infrastructure but because right between those buildings were A LOT of local inmates that were currently there due to Covid closing our jail (HUBER).
Again live, we watched hundreds of rioters throwing Molotov cocktails at these buildings and burning our city garbage trucks and dump trucks to the ground that we were using to protect these buildings.
I was afraid for the small line of policemen there that night.
Everyone was urging me and Jim to take all of my animals and to leave the city… and let my house burn. To run far away from Kenosha. I love my home. Those who know me, know the pride we have taken in buying an (as-is) house and turning it into a home. And my business! Could I let it be destroyed?? Absolutely NOT!
We have dear friends with a popular business just 4 houses away… we spend at least once a week there… they packed up boarded up and closed.. terrified … it’s on the main road.
All of us were now under now a state of emergency curfew. Get home and off the streets! gas stations ordered to close and turn OFF all gas pumps..
the sirens and alerts on all of our phones coming in non- stop.So we pulled out every firearm we owned. Loaded them up. And started to get ready… We were not leaving… Jim’s job told him to stay home and protect his family and home. Everyone in the city was getting ready for a war.
Are you starting to feel anxiety reading this?
Getting a grasp of how desperate we all were?
Knowing no law enforcement was helping? And I’m telling you… NO ONE was there.
I have a dear friend who lives in Gurnee. Has a home and a buisness there, and if she called me and Jim and told me her city was under attack, she was afraid for her LIFE and her store … I would help her. We would go to Gurnee and help her. Armed.
And that’s simply what happened. The residents started to realize this was on us. And we organized. Groups and individuals-On rooftop businesses -in the neighborhoods. I felt a little safer that night knowing we had some help.
So we watched again that night …live. Beginning to end.
At the lakefront… there was a small police presence again, where our courthouse and Pd is…. but the PD was nowhere else in the city. It was just us left to fend for ourselves, watching live feed again, Listening to the scanners … lights off, house alarm armed. Curtains drawn – guns ready as we listened to where the rioters were, which way they were headed. Despite the state of emergency curfew the city was flooded with cars driving around with no plates on, groups of people destroying our city. Not enough police to arrest or stop not ONE SINGLE PERSON.
Until the guard came to help… the entire city was left to its own defenses.
Hell… we ran out of plywood to board up!!!
I had the crates ready to throw the animals in and run… guns at every window and door. Constantly texting neighbors and friends around the city for updates.
When we say, if you don’t live here, you could not possibly know what was going on.. do you now understand? How afraid the whole city was?
The national guard FINALLY was called out – and did not mess around. The people who terrorized and destroyed Kenosha were not from Kenosha. Of all the arrests… most were from 44 other city’s. After our IDIOT governor finally asked, we got the help we should have had from DAY ONE. We had FBI and all the surrounding PD’s come to our aid.
If…you don’t live here… you could not possibly understand what we went thru. People should wait before they jump to conclusions. I just am disgusted beyond words at the judgement that’s happening. DISGUSTED
For those of you with children to protect, a business you put your heart and soul in… a home you struggled to own and pay for.. you have got to understand what we all went thru. The fear and the instinct to protect what you love, and what you worked so hard for is strong. I hope no one ever has to go thru anything like this. (source)
The damage in Kenosha is astounding.
Kenosha isn’t a huge city. It has a population of about 100,000 people. Until these riots, it was not considered a dangerous city. But things changed fast.
Here are some photos of the aftermath of the riots. Minus the damage from shells and sniper rifles, looks like a warzone to rival things I saw in Bosnia when I met with Selco and took one of his survival courses.
PHOTO CREDIT: By Lightburst – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93638834
PHOTO CREDIT: By Lightburst – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93638841
PHOTO CREDIT: By Lightburst – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=93638827
Is this the new America? If it’s this bad now, what’s going to happen after the election, particularly if the results are contested?
This is spreading across the country.
So many people are convinced this can never happen where they live. I see the denial all the time in the comments on my articles about this subject. And while it’s true that some parts of the country are more resistant to the riots and arson than others, it needs to be clearly understood that these are not locals perpetrating the damage. These are people being bussed in from other places. Time and time again, we see articles with local authorities claiming most of the arrests made were people from out of town.
This isn’t something you see coming a week ahead, like a hurricane on the horizon. One injustice, perceived or real, is all it takes to throw gasoline on a fire that is blazing across the country. It CAN happen to you, too.
A number of people in Minneapolis armed themselves to protect their families, businesses, and properties because they knew they were on their own. The story above only underlines that point. Literal battle zones are erupting across the nation. Armed conflict is already occurring and the writing is on the wall.
Be prepared for civil unrest and riots because you won’t have much warning should violence mobs deploy near you. Have a plan to leave if possible. And if that’s not possible, it cannot possibly be more clear that you must be personally prepared to defend your home, your family, and your business because the police won’t be able to do it for you.
- "Murphy's Law": New York May Follow New Jersey With Trading Tax Of Its Own
“Murphy’s Law”: New York May Follow New Jersey With Trading Tax Of Its Own
Tyler Durden
Mon, 09/14/2020 – 18:40As the feud grows between New Jersey, which houses both the main facility of the inappropriately named New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq and which sparked an uproar last month by proposing a tax on high frequency trading whose proceeds would be used to replenish the state’s empty coffers and funa a “social justice agenda“, and exchanges and various HFT firms which have threatened to promptly flee the state if such a trading tax does in fact pass, Height Capital Markets analyst Edwin Groshans wrote that a proposed tax on financial transactions under consideration by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy might “encourage other states facing budget shortfalls, like N.Y., to pursue a similar strategy.”
“It also increases the risk that the federal government will act on implementing a financial transaction tax,” and will be an “issue to watch at the federal level” if Joe Biden wins in November and the Democrats gain Senate control, according to Groshans.
For his part, the analyst gave the tax a surprisingly high 65% chance of passing as part of N.J.’s budget process, though he noted Murphy has said the law is likely to be challenged in the courts.
As reported previously, a bill sponsored by Democratic Assemblyman John McKeon calls for a quarter-of-a-cent tax on stocks, options, futures and swaps trading via northern New Jersey electronic data centers. McKeon said the state could collect $10 billion annually from entities engaged in at least 10,000 transactions per year, which is about how many transactions HFTs make every second. If enacted, N.J. would be the first state in more than 40 years to tax trading activities.
Needless to say, the backlash has been violent: the move by New Jersey would “cause unintended and irreparable harm to the U.S. capital markets,” Cboe said in a separate statement. “A transaction tax is a direct cost shouldered by investors, who will also end up paying for the price of diminished liquidity and wider spreads in our markets.”
Well of course those who would be taxed by the proposal would say that, and as for diminished liquidity, go shove it: there is already zero “liquidity” in this “market”. If anything, the market parasite that is HFT should be uprooted, Reg NMS should be torn apart, and broken markets should restart from scratch, ideally while eliminated the Fed.
The NYSE has already threatened to depart the moment a tax was enacted: “We have data centers in various states and the ability to move trading outside of New Jersey in a business day,” said Hope Jarkowski, co-head of government affairs for New York Stock Exchange parent Intercontinental Exchange.
Yes, Hope, but what happens when all the states in which you have data centers follow NJ in establishing a paywall for ultra fast trades which do nothing to make the market more efficient unless one counts surging flash crashes “efficiency.”
Which brings up the problem with “Murphy’s Law” as some jokingly call it. First of all, not only will it not raise NJ tax revenues, but perversely lead to a decline as corporations which pay NJ’s state tax will simply pick up and leave. The question, is what happens if and when New York follows in New Jersey’s footsteps as Height Capital suggests. And unless the world’s biggest financial companies and HFTs are willing to flee the world’s financial capital – which they can’t – the world’s speed traders may suddenly find themselves facing a huge hit to their margins, because in a world where every single trade, no matter how small, is taxed the core premise behind one of the most lucrative business models on Wall Street – just ask Ken Griffen how many houses he has bought in the last few years…
… is about to collapse, with potentially dire consequences for the market.
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