Aug 16

Today’s News 16th August 2023

  • West Alarmed As Putin Has Begun To Mediate Niger Coup Crisis
    West Alarmed As Putin Has Begun To Mediate Niger Coup Crisis

    Western nations are alarmed at the prospect of Russia deepening its presence and influence in West and Central Africa, particularly following the tumult in Niger late last month, which culminated in the July 26 coup against democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum.

    The West-friendly group of surrounding nations, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has since threatened military intervention towards restoring Bazoum, and there have been persistent rumors that France is encouraging concrete action. Mali has played a key role in all of this given it stands on the other side, and is dead set against any interference in Niger, with fresh reports that Mali’s military leader Assimi Goita has spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone. 

    Goita and Putin

    Goita announced that in the Tuesday call Putin “stressed the importance of a peaceful resolution of the situation for a more stable Sahel” – and the sides confirmed it was initiated by Mali.

    According to a Kremlin statement, “The parties specifically focused on the current situation in the Sahara-Sahel region and emphasised, in particular, the importance of settling the situation in the Republic of Niger solely through peaceful political and diplomatic means.”

    Putin separately told Tuesday’s Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS) that “The countries of the Sahara-Sahel region, such as the Central African Republic and Mali, were under direct attack from numerous terrorist groups after the US and its allies unleashed aggression against Libya, which led to the collapse of the Libyan state.”

    The handful of regional supporters of the Niger junta have emphasized the same point of late…

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    Niger is known for having uranium, but it is the significant gold and oil resources which likely of greater interest to the large powers of Russia, China, the US, and Europe.

    The West’s concern is likely to grow given Putin’s mediation with Mali’s leadership. Russia’s Wagner Group also has an extensive presence across the African continent, having long had security and counterterrorism contracts with multiple governments. 

    So far, there’s still not been openness to negotiations on the part of the Niger coup leaders and Bazoum remains under hose arrest. Per the latest update in Reuters, “West African army chiefs will meet on Thursday and Friday in Ghana to prepare for a possible military intervention, which the main regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has threatened to launch if diplomacy fails.”

    Any external military intervention could spark a broader war across the Sahel, and would also be seized upon by regional terrorist groups. In this scenario Wagner fighters would likely enter the fray.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/16/2023 – 02:45

  • AfD Bavaria Chief Beaten Up In Organised Migrant Attack
    AfD Bavaria Chief Beaten Up In Organised Migrant Attack

    Authored by Thomas O’Reilly via EuropeanConservative.com,

    The chairman of the AfD in the Bavarian district of Augsburg and candidate for state legislature is nursing severe wounds after being set upon in what he describes as a politically motivated attack by migrants.

    Andreas Jurca was returning home with a party colleague Sunday when he was approached by a group of foreign males who asked him if he was the AfD candidate featured on nearby posters. Before he could answer, Jurca was punched and kicked to the ground with shouts of “f*****g Nazi.” His party colleague was also assaulted.

    After the altercation, Jurca, who is seventh on the AfD’s candidate list for state elections, was rushed to the hospital where his condition was referred to as stable Monday morning. In a post-attack statement, Jurca confirmed that the perpetrators of the attack were indeed of foreign origin. In his own words, “I don’t mean Spaniards or Italians.”

    Photos appearing on social media show Jurca with two black eyes as well as facial lacerations. He is currently under observation in hospital due to the head injuries he endured. In an interview with the populist publication Deutschland-Kurier magazine, Jurca said that the assault would only make him redouble his political efforts undeterred.

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    Acts of violence by left-wing anti fascist groups are a regular occurrence for AfD representatives, as is state-backed harassment from domestic intelligence services, the BfV, which formally placed the party under surveillance last year.

    The German political establishment is struggling both to comprehend and to deal with the continued rise of the AfD, which now sits as the country’s second most popular party. This puts the party in a position to potentially break the sacrosanct ‘firewall’ that prohibits mainstream parties from cooperating with them at a national or municipal level.

    German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier issued a thinly veiled warning in favour of banning the populist party at a speech, a move that has been echoed by Berlin head of intelligence Thomas Haldenwang, and even Der Spiegel, which published an editorial endorsing proscribing the AfD.

    Many observers have noted an ideological shift to the anti-Altanticist right within the AfD. This was shown by its recent conference in Magdeburg as the party comes under the de facto leadership of Björn Höcke and the East German Thuringian branch of the party.

    The attack on Andreas Jurca was not the first physical attack on an AfD official. In 2019, the party’s regional leader in Bremen was beaten within an inch of his life by masked left-wing antifascists. Violent demonstrations outside AfD events have also been common.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/16/2023 – 02:00

  • 'Raped And Pillaged': Maui Fire Survivors Describe Nighttime Looting, Botched Supply Drops
    ‘Raped And Pillaged’: Maui Fire Survivors Describe Nighttime Looting, Botched Supply Drops

    The tragic disaster that we just witnessed in Hawaii should break all of our hearts. 

    The death count just keeps going up, and it is being reported that these were the deadliest fires in the United States in more than 100 years. 

    In addition, Hawaii Governor Josh Green is telling us that this was actually “the largest natural disaster” that his state has ever experienced.  More than 2,700 structures have been burned down in Lahaina alone, and it is being estimated that the value of the property that has been destroyed is over 5 billion dollars. 

    But, there are some stories that are not making the evening news.

    As Insider.com reports, Maui residents are becoming increasingly desperate for local leadership to take control of the emergency response to the catastrophic fires that leveled parts of the Hawaiian island and left at least 93 dead.

    While rescue crews made their way across the island with water, food, and first aid, locals told Insider supply drops were being rerouted and anguished residents were taking matters into their own hands.

    “There’s some police presence. There’s some small military presence, but at night, people are being robbed at gunpoint,” Matt Robb, a co-owner of a Lāhainā bar called The Dirty Monkey, told Insider.

    “People are raped and pillaged. I mean, they’re going through houses – and then by day, it’s hunky-dory. So where is the support? I don’t think our government and our leaders, at this point, know how to handle this or what to do.”

    The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported a riot nearly broke out between police and about 100 residents after officers closed off access to a highway leading to Lāhainā, one of the hardest-hit areas on the island, preventing people from returning home to gather items that could be salvaged.

    Members of the staff of The Dirty Monkey said they had been coordinating with local authorities and community members, organizing and trying to direct supply drops and shipments of essential medications such as insulin to families in need.

    Kami Irwin, a Maui resident helping to coordinate relief efforts at the Maui Brewing Co. location in Kihei, told Insider that locals were working around the clock, forgoing sleep and creating neighborhood patrols to help keep each other safe and find essentials such as clean drinking water and medications.

    Residents told Insider they believed the mayor, who has offered limited public comments regarding the tragedy, had floundered in response to the emergency.

    “I think it’s the mayor’s fault,” Aivazian said.

    “If he would’ve asked, they had Marines, Coast Guards sitting there waiting, ready to go, and he didn’t send them over. Why wouldn’t the feds send them over? The mayor didn’t ask and the governor didn’t push. I mean, what the hell are they doing over there? They’re just hanging out at the beach.”

    How/why is this happening?!

    We have never seen anything quite like this before, and, as Michael Snyder remarks, the following are 8 questions that we should all be asking about the fires in Hawaii right now…

    #1 How did the fires start?  Governor Green is convinced that they were caused by a confluence of factors.  Do you buy his explanation?…

    Echoing wildfire experts, Gov. Green said Friday that he believes a confluence of weather conditions contributed to the ignition and spread of the blazes.

    “It is a product, in my estimation, of certainly global warming combined with drought, combined with a super storm, where we had a hurricane offshore several hundred miles, still generating large winds,” Green told CNN.

    #2 How did the fires spread so rapidly?  According to multiple news reports, people were literally jumping into the ocean to escape because the fires were moving so rapidly…

    With fires raging on Maui, two men felt there was nowhere to escape the flames – except for the ocean.

    The two men live in Lahaina, a historic part of Maui loved by tourists, which appears to be heavily damaged by this week’s raging fire. They described a terrifying scene as they evacuated from Prison Street, right in the heart of Lahaina.

    “I saw a couple people just running, I heard screams out of hell … explosions. It felt like we were in hell, it really was. It was just indescribable,” one of the men told Nexstar’s KHON.

    #3 How did a fire that was supposedly “out” end up causing the most damage of all?  According to  Governor Green, the Lahaina fire was supposedly given new energy “by far-off Hurricane Dora”…

    After first erupting early Tuesday, the fire was initially deemed to be out, but winds whipped up by far-off Hurricane Dora that reached up to 81 mph fanned the flames and spurred the blaze to travel about 1 mile every minute, Green said.

    #4 According to U.S. Representative Jill Tokuda, the alarm system that is supposed to warn residents that a disaster is happening appears to have failed.  How is that possible?…

    We know everybody who’s ever lived in Hawaii knows the warning sirens. It goes off once a month at the beginning of the month at 12 noon, and it blares and if it doesn’t, it gets fixed, because that is our first line of defense. Unfortunately, in this situation, sadly, tragically in this situation, those sirens likely did not go off. The warning signals that were on cell phones, we had no cell coverage or electricity in some of these areas. And the reality is with those warning signs, it tells all of us to turn on the television or look at our phones or turn on the radio. The reality is was how fast this burn was. And you could see it in the videos that survivors were showing me. You could see it in the wreckage. If you turned on your phone, you turned on a radio, if you even could. Remember things were out at that particular point, you would not know what the crisis was.

    #5 Why are emergency supplies not getting to the people that desperately need them?  It is being reported that a “telecommunications blackout” has been one of the factors that has been hampering relief efforts…

    But an enduring telecommunications blackout hampered government and grassroots efforts to distribute those supplies in the worst-affected neighborhoods, especially for an unknown number of survivors waiting out the aftermath in the few buildings still standing in the historic town of Lahaina and neighborhoods on the outskirts.

    With their vehicles burned to a crisp, some sheltering at home have no way to drive to distribution centers miles away, or their cars have run out of gas. Others simply don’t know where to go for help. Toxic fumes and downed power lines with live wires make venturing outdoors dangerous.

    #6 Why are people that have just had their homes burned down in the fires already being bombarded with calls with offers to purchase their properties?

    The vultures are circling, and it appears that there are some people out there that are extremely interested in scooping up land inexpensively.

    #7 Why has the FBI moved a “mobile refrigerated morgue” into Lahaina?…

    A mobile refrigerated morgue has been brought to the devastated town of Lahaina as Maui officials continue their search for victims of the worst U.S. wildfire in 100 years.

    The death toll on Sunday rose to 96, but Hawaii officials said it was likely to rise significantly.

    John Pelletier, the Maui police chief, said only three percent of Lahaina – home to more than 9,000 people – had been searched so far.

    #8 Why is Joe Biden lounging on the beach while all of this is happening?…

    Outraged Americans blasting President @JoeBiden after he said ‘no comment’ when asked about the catastrophic Maui wildfire, now the deadliest US blaze in over a century. Despite the death toll climbing to about 100, Americans were outraged that Biden remained sunbathing on a beach near his Delaware home.

    How can Biden be sunbathing on a beach while such tragedy is unfolding in Hawaii?

    I don’t understand it.

    This country has experienced so many great tragedies over the past few years, and it is inevitable that there will be many more in the years ahead.

    When disaster strikes, we need a leader in the White House that knows how to act appropriately.

    Those that have lost so much in these fires need our support and our prayers.

    Hawaii will never be quite the same after this, and the people of the state deserve to get some answers to the very pressing questions that they are asking right now.

    *  *  *

    Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 23:45

  • Oakland's 'Soros' DA Faces Chopping Block As Recall Effort Kicks Off
    Oakland’s ‘Soros’ DA Faces Chopping Block As Recall Effort Kicks Off

    Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, whose jurisdiction includes the crime-ridden city of Oakland, has become the latest ‘Soros’-funded DA to face a recall, after several groups have called out the rampant violence and lack of response.

    Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price in a county office building on Wednesday, April 13, 2023, in Oakland, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group) 

    A recap of recent headlines:

    On Tuesday, members of a “Save Alameda for Everyone” (SAFE) filed a Notice of Intent with Alameda County officials to begin the recall process, following years of inaction by Price.

    “As crime spirals out of control on Alameda County streets, DA Price reduces sentencing for criminals and even refuses to charge violent felons with crimes,” reads a statement from the group which cites Oakland PD statistics stating that homicides are up 80% vs. pre-pandemic figures, and violent crime and burglaries are up 15% and 40% respectively over the same period.

    “African Americans are disproportionately hit the hardest by crime in East Oakland,” the group states, per KRON. “Women have been beaten and robbed by youths; hate crimes against Asian Americans are surging; street vendors have been assaulted, and basic services are under attack.”

    The recall, organizers say, is a community-led effort comprised of “residents, business owners, survivors, and family members of victims that demand justice and a return of law and order to Alameda County.”

    DA Price has addressed the recall effort and likened its organizers to those that stormed the U.S. Capitol to try and prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 election.

    “In what appears to be a page out of the January 6th playbook, outside special interest groups, supported by the Republican Party, are trying to seize control from local voters because they refuse to accept the results of a legitimate, democratic election to remove the status quo,” said Price’s campaign in a statement.

    Boy did Soros get his money’s worth! 

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    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 23:25

  • Doctors Sound The Alarm Over Latest Obesity Drug Risk
    Doctors Sound The Alarm Over Latest Obesity Drug Risk

    Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Doctors are warning popular drugs taken for weight loss, such as Ozempic and Wegovy, may include the risk of life-threatening complications under anesthesia.

    In this photo illustration, boxes of the diabetes drug Ozempic rest on a pharmacy counter in Los Angeles, Calif., on April 17, 2023. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

    Patients who take drugs like Wegovy or Ozempic for weight loss may face life-threatening complications if they need surgery or other procedures that require empty stomachs for anesthesia.

    This summer’s guidance to halt the medication for up to a week may not go far enough, officials said. Some anesthesiologists in the United States and Canada say they’ve seen growing numbers of patients on the weight-loss drugs who inhaled food and liquid into their lungs while sedated because their stomachs were still full—even after following standard instructions to stop eating for six to eight hours in advance.

    The drugs can slow digestion so much that it puts patients at increased risk for the problem, called pulmonary aspiration, which can cause dangerous lung damage, infections, and even death, said Dr. Ion Hobai, an anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

    “This is such a serious sort of potential complication that everybody who takes this drug should know about it,” Mr. Hobai, who was among the first to flag the issue, told The Associated Press this week.

    Mr. Hobai suggested that individuals taking the drugs first tell their doctors before sedation and discuss the risk profile. “If you’re taking this drug and you need an operation, you will need to have some extra precautions,” he said.

    It’s not clear how many patients taking the anti-obesity drugs may be affected by the issue. But because the consequences can be so dire, Mr. Hobai and a group of colleagues decided to speak out. Writing in the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia in mid-July, they called for the drug to be stopped for even longer—about three weeks before sedation.

    That accounts for how long semaglutide, the active medication in Ozempic and Wegovy, remains in the body, said Dr. Philip Jones, a Mayo Clinic anesthesiologist who is also deputy editor-in-chief of the journal. “When 90 percent of it is gone, which is after three weeks, hopefully everything should go back to normal,” Mr. Jones said.

    Several weeks ago, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) said that people who take GLP-1 agonists like Wegovy or Ozempic every day should stop taking the drugs on the day of their surgery.

    That guidance was disseminated after “many reports from medical literature and anesthesia leaders about people who fasted but still vomited either going to sleep or waking up from anesthesia,” said Dr. Ronald L. Harter, the incoming president of the ASA and a professor of anesthesiology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

    “This was very concerning and something we needed to address and communicate to the public like we are doing right now,” Mr. Harter told ABC.

    Anesthesiologists have long discouraged patients from drinking or eating before surgery to ensure the stomach is empty to reduce the chance of vomiting during the procedure.

    “This is really a fairly unique situation where you have a relatively new class of drugs that are very, very quickly being taken up by and are being used by a fairly significant portion of the population,” Mr. Harter said. “One of the potential side effects of these medications is to delay gastric emptying, which has a unique risk or potential for aspiration for patients undergoing anesthesia. It was a combination of all those factors that really prompted us to give guidance, really to our anesthesiologist and to our patients who are on these medications.”

    The group stated that if the patient is having symptoms such as vomiting, bloating, abdominal pain, or nausea, doctors should consider delaying the surgical procedure.

    Several weeks ago, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it was investigating a connection between Ozempic and Wegovy and suicidal thoughts. About 150 reports of possible cases of self-injury among people taking semaglutide GLP-1 agonists were flagged.

    Sales of semaglutide products—particularly Ozempic—have soared in the past few years after the drug was shown to spur fast and significant weight loss. The drugs manufactured by Novo Nordisk include the brands Ozempic and Rybelsus, which are approved to treat diabetes, and Wegovy, which is approved by the FDA to treat obesity.

    Earlier this year, Novo Nordisk promised to boost its supply of Wegovy. However, in the company’s first-quarter earnings report, the firm said that it would “temporarily” reduce U.S. supply.

    Demand for the medications has outstripped supply. As of May, Ozempic and Wegovy remain on the FDA’s list of drug shortages. When drugs are in short supply, compounding pharmacies are permitted to produce versions of those medications.

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2014 approved semaglutide for weight loss among overweight or obese individuals with high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol.

    The Epoch Times has contacted Novo Nordisk for comment on Wednesday.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 23:05

  • The US States Losing & Gaining Population The Fastest
    The US States Losing & Gaining Population The Fastest

    Florida and Idaho are America’s fastest-growing states, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Their populations increased by 1.9 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively, causing them to rise to 22.2 million and 1.9 million from July 2021 to June 2022.

    The two are followed by South Carolina, Texas and South Dakota. While Texas is seeing both a high number of births and high levels of national and international migration, domestic movement of people has been a major factor for Idaho, South Carolina and South Dakota to achieve population growth. In Florida, the state with the largest net birth deficit, it has been even more crucial (while aided by international migration).

    As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, over the course of the pandemic, more states started to lose people due to excess deaths and new patterns of out-migration.

    Infographic: The U.S. States Losing & Gaining Population | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    18 U.S. states decreased in population – some only slightly – between the 2021 and 2022, up from ten in between 2018 and 2019.

    While states in the West or South had been attractive for new residents since before the pandemic because of low cost of living, low taxes and lower prices of housing, coastal states saw white color workers unmoored from their places of residence by remote work regimen seek out new (and often cheaper) living arrangements. Lower levels of Covid-19 restrictions in the South’s or West’s red states have also been named as a factor for some to move there.

    Even before the coronavirus pandemic, New York had been among the states losing population – then due to a decline in immigration that used to make up for people moving away.

    Over the course of the pandemic, even more people famously left the state, causing a deficit of -0.9 percent (previously -0.4 percent).

    Populous states like California, Pennsylvania and Ohio only started to decrease in population during the pandemic, which coincided with increased population growth in the American South and West.

    Texas, which previously grew by 1.3 percent, now increased in population by 1.6 percent – while Florida even stepped up from 1.1 percent to 1.9 percent.

    Population winners in the West were Montana (0.8 percent growth to 1.5 percent) and South Dakota (0.7 percent to 1.5 percent).

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 22:45

  • Middle Class Meltdown: Thanks To The Reckless Policies Of Our Leaders, 'Average' Americans Are In Huge Trouble
    Middle Class Meltdown: Thanks To The Reckless Policies Of Our Leaders, ‘Average’ Americans Are In Huge Trouble

    Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

    The middle class in the U.S. has been steadily shrinking for decades, but in recent years our leaders have greatly accelerated that process.  In 2020, 2021 and 2022 they absolutely flooded the system with new money, and almost all of that new money went into the pockets of the wealthy.  The gap between the wealthy and the rest of us is now larger than ever, and that isn’t a good thing for our society.  Even if you are still making as much money as you did a few years ago, you have lost a lot of ground financially, because the cost of living has been rapidly eating away at our standard of living.  As I covered the other day, household income in the United States has declined by 9.1 percent since April 2020 after adjusting for inflation and taxes.  In other words, the middle class is a whole lot smaller than it was in April 2020, and it continues to get smaller with each passing day.

    According to Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi, on average Americans are now spending “$709 more per month on everyday goods and services than they did two years ago”…

    Americans are spending $709 more per month on everyday goods and services than they did two years ago, according to Moody’s Analytics.

    Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi made the statement Friday on X, formerly known as Twitter, as part of his analysis of July’s consumer price index report.

    Is the rising cost of living causing financial stress for you?

    If it is, you are definitely not alone.

    The wealthy are doing just fine for the moment, but inflation has caused a lot of pain for the vast majority of the rest of us.

    Just paying for a place to live has become incredibly oppressive.  Personally, I was astounded to learn that the average rent in Manhattan has now reached $5,588 per month…

    New Yorkers are feeling the squeeze as rents hit a new high.

    Rent in Manhattan soared to a record-high average of $5,588 in July, up 9% from 2022.

    It’s hurting tenants struggling to find apartments they can afford. One apartment hunter said she can’t find a studio to suit her work-from-home needs for less than $5,000.

    Who can afford that?

    Only the wealthy.

    Of course the truth is that rents have been soaring all over the country.

    It is being reported that the nationwide average rent-to-income ratio has exceeded 30 percent for the past two years.

    This is the very first time in the entire history of our country that this has ever happened.

    With rents being so high, a lot of Americans are being forced out into the streets.

    According to the Wall Street Journal, the United States “has seen a record increase in homeless people this year”.

    Please let that statement sink in for a moment.

    So far in 2023, the number of homeless people in the U.S. is up 11 percent from last year.

    That is the biggest jump that the government has ever recorded.

    Not even during the recession of 2008 and 2009 did we see anything like this.

    Unfortunately, the outlook for the months ahead is not promising, because it looks like the cost of living is going to continue to rise at a brisk pace.

    According to CNN, the average price of a gallon of gasoline has nearly reached 4 dollars a gallon…

    Pump prices are creeping towards $4 a gallon nationally.

    The national average for regular gasoline hit $3.85 a gallon on Monday, according to AAA. That’s the highest level since October 19 and comes just weeks ahead of Labor Day weekend when millions of Americans will hit the roads.

    I remember the days when I could fill up my vehicle for less than 20 dollars.

    But the other day I spent 70 dollars at the gas station and that didn’t even fill the tank.

    And we are being warned that U.S. consumers are going to have a lot less discretionary income in the months ahead as tens of millions are forced to start making payments on student loans again…

    For more than three years, federal student loan borrowers have not had to make monthly payments. But that pandemic-era pause is coming to an end this fall, setting up a financial shock for millions of Americans and the big-name stores, such as Target, Nike, Under Armour and Gap, where they shop.

    About 44 million borrowers in the U.S. were affected by the payment pause, which initially began in March 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Biden administration extended the pause for the eighth time in November but will not do so again as part of the bipartisan debt ceiling deal approved by Congress.

    More than 60 percent of all Americans are already living paycheck to paycheck, and many are increasingly turning to debt in order to make ends meet.

    In fact, total credit card debt now exceeds the one trillion dollar mark for the first time ever, and that is not a good sign at all.

    Also, an increasing number of Americans are now dipping into their 401(K) plans…

    When father-of-two Ivan Marusic lost his job overnight in 2020, he was left panicking about how he would cover his mortgage.

    It prompted the 35-year-old, from Texas, to do something he never thought he would: withdraw $20,000 from his 401(K). It is a decision he is still paying for now.

    ‘I was really hesitant to do it because I knew it would set me back financially in the long run. But I didn’t have any other options. I had already maxed out my credit card and I was running out of money,’ Marusic, a tech worker who has since founded the website Game Taco, told Dailymail.com

    We really are witnessing a middle class meltdown.

    I have been warning about this trend in my books for years, and now the evisceration of the middle class has greatly accelerated.

    I wish that I could tell you that there is economic hope on the horizon.

    But I can’t do that, because our leaders continue to make incredibly self-destructive decisions which are going to cause immense economic pain for the entire country.

    *  *  *

    Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 22:25

  • Pandora Wins "Massive" Market Share As Lab-Grown Diamonds In Hot Demand
    Pandora Wins “Massive” Market Share As Lab-Grown Diamonds In Hot Demand

    Pandora, the world’s largest jewelry brand, upgraded its full-year revenue outlook following a solid second-quarter earnings report. As the industry faces a contraction, the Danish jewelry giant is capturing a significant market share due primarily to the soaring demand for its lab-grown diamonds. 

    “Given our solid performance so far, our updated guidance now sees another year of positive organic growth,” Pandora CEO Alexander Lacik wrote in a statement. 

    Pandora updated its full-year projections, anticipating an organic sales growth of 2% to 5%, compared to the previous estimate of -2% to 3%. Before today’s announcement, Wall Street analysts were forecasting 3% sales growth for the year based on a survey provided by the company.

    Lacik told Bloomberg in a phone interview that the company is winning a “massive” market share this year as it grows amid mounting macroeconomic uncertainty and an industry in contraction. 

    Lacik said, “We’re building market share in a very tough environment, which just shows that the brand is growing stronger and stronger all the time.” 

    He said, “Pandora is back to growth,” the plan is to introduce new collections with lab-made diamonds to all the company’s top markets.

    Even though lab-created stones made up less than 1% of the revenue in the first half, these cheaper alternatives to mined gems represented Pandora’s fastest-growing segment. 

    Hot demand for synthetic stones is likely due to thrifty consumers who no longer can afford the real thing. 

    Here are the earnings highlights from the second quarter:

    • Ebit before significant items DKK1.19 billion, estimate DKK1.17 billion

    • Revenue DKK5.89 billion, estimate DKK5.73 billion

    • Organic revenue +5%, estimate +3.06%

    • Net income DKK778 million, estimate DKK819.8 million

    • Ebitda DKK1.69 billion, estimate DKK1.7 billion

    And full-year:

    • Sees organic revenue +2% to +5%, saw -2% to +3%, estimate +3.08% (Bloomberg Consensus)

    •  Still sees adjusted Ebit margin about 25%, estimate 25.6%

    Analysts were overwhelmingly pleased with the results, with Jefferies highlighting the ability to navigate the challenging US market. 

    Here’s more commentary from analysts (courtesy of Bloomberg):

    RBC Capital Markets, Piral Dadhania (underperform)

    • Pandora posted better-than-expected results, with revenue and gross margin coming ahead of expectations

    • Dadhania sees “modest” consensus earnings upgrades

     Jefferies, Frederick Wild (hold)

    • Results show Pandora is navigating a difficult US market “surprisingly well”

    • Expects debate to stay focused on resilient organic growth dynamics against the uncertainty inherent in a margin guidance that so heavily relies on 4Q inflection

    • “But the fact remains the stock has managed to navigate challenges in key markets relatively well, even as peers have struggled”

    Bloomberg Intelligence, Deborah Aitken and Andrea Ferdinando Leggieri

    • “Pandora’s upgraded 2023 organic-growth outlook to 2-5% could still be cautious given its 2Q revenue beat and accelerated trading in 3Q to date”

    Shares of Pandora in Copenhagen are flat after the earnings release. Shares have rebounded in the last year after peaking around DKK 937 in late 2021. 

    Lab-grown diamonds are gaining popularity, a reflection of a more budget-conscious consumer.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 22:05

  • With China's Economy On "Verge Of Collapse", PBOC Central Banker Calls For Helicopter Money
    With China’s Economy On “Verge Of Collapse”, PBOC Central Banker Calls For Helicopter Money

    As Bloomberg’s Garfield Reynolds writes in the aftermath of last night’s unexpected Chinese rate cut, while the nation’s economic struggles were (finally) severe enough for the authorities to respond with their biggest interest-rate cut since the pandemic, it will be nowhere near powerful enough to help spark a turnaround.

    For a start, Reynolds writes, that scope “is rather less impressive when you realize the reduction in the rate on one-year PBOC loans — or medium-term lending facility — was all of 15 basis points. Most central banks faced with the sort of slowdown China is facing might well decide to cut by three times as much or more.”

    The real difficulty for China is that previous reductions haven’t done all that much to galvanize lending in order to stimulate activity; after all as we have discussed previously, one can’t fix a lack of demand problem with more supply (one can , however, create asset bubbles).

    Furthermore, as we observed on Sunday, China’s new loans tumbled in July to the lowest since 2009…

    …. and the PBOC’s ever-increasing interest-rate benchmarks were all at multi-year lows even before this month’s reduction.

    Part of the reason for the lack of demand is the ongoing woes in the key property sector, though the situation also underscores concerns that China is tipping into a balance-sheet recession in which companies avoid fresh borrowings in order to service and pay down their existing debt.

    As China slides into a Japan-style balance sheet recession and the resulting deflation – as recently discussed by Richard Ku – it is facing even bigger problems than just a garden-variety property and/or debt crisis.

    Indeed, as Rabobank’s Michael Every cites the Economic Observer, a subsidiary of Xinhua News Agency, which published a newsletter titled “Finance Bureau Chiefs in the Past Half Year”, and which concluded that local government finances and the national economy are reportedly “on the verge of collapse, and the thunder will explode at any time.” To be sure, recent events ensure the coming collapse:

    • Country Garden just defaulted;
    • Zhongzhi Enterprise Group missed payments on high-yield investment products;
    • recent bank loan data were terrible;
    • and today saw industrial production 3.7% y-o-y (4.3% expected),
    • retail sales 2.5% y-o-y (vs. 4.0%),
    • fixed asset investment 3.4% y-o-y year-to-date (vs. 3.7%),
    • property sales -8.5% y-o-y year-to-date (vs. -8.1%),
    • and unemployment 5.3% vs. 5.2% (not to mention that youth unemployment which just hit all time highs, will no longer be reported for obvious reasons).

    Summing it up, China “has fallen into a psycho-political funk,” says the FT, as its youth tell Soviet jokes again or say ‘let it rot’, and a high-earning Beijing worker is quoted as saving as much as he can to prepare for a property crash or a move against Taiwan.

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    So is there anything that could actually stop the bleeding in China from an economic or market perspective?  Well, as Nomura’s Charlie McElligott writes – and agrees with our assessment – the biggest reason why China is imploding in slow-motion is that that, as opposed to rest of world, Chinese authorities never responded with Fiscal transfer into pockets of individuals and businesses who were bled dry during the covid crisis.

    Hence, the one thing that could truly “shock and awe” markets would be outright “helicopter drops” of money direct to households and businesses in order to stimulate DOA Chinese consumption.

    Impossible you say, after all China has nearly 300% debt/gdp… only the terminal economic basket case that is Japan is higher.

    Or maybe not: as Bloomberg writes today (see “PBOC Adviser Says China Urgently Needs to Boost Consumption”) Cai Fang, a member of the monetary policy committee at the PBoC, i.e. one of China’s top central bankers, warned that the top priority for policymakers is to stimulate household consumption:

    Cai added in the article posted late Monday on a social media account of the China Finance 40 Forum, one of the nation’s top economic think tanks, that continued unemployment in the wake of the pandemic is crimping household spending and that consumer confidence is expected to weaken without new policies.

    “The most urgent goal now is to stimulate household consumption, and it is necessary to use all reasonable, legally compliant and economic channels to put money in residents’ pockets,” said Cai, 66, one of the most well-known economists in China to focus on demography and labor economics.

    The former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a state think tank, joined the PBOC’s policy advisory body in early 2021, and has helped the government map five-year plans for economic and social development. In July, Cai called on officials to reform the household registration system to unleash the consumption potential of the nation’s large pool of migrant workers.

    Cai Fang

    One can almost see why just hours later Beijing halted the publication of China’s youth unemployment data.

    More importantly, however, Cai called for the inevitable helicopter drops to boost household consumption and aid the economic recovery:

    He is among a group of economists who have called for providing direct stimulus to consumers to boost spending, a path that Beijing has so far been unwilling to follow. Earlier this year, Cai said direct stimulus of 4 trillion yuan ($551 billion) paid directly to Chinese households is an option to spur a recovery in consumer spending that has been slowed by weak wage growth during the pandemic.

    And while China can probably pretend it can avoid what’s coming for a few more months, it is now just a matter of time before China joins the rest of the “developed” world in what Michael Hartnett recently called the “era of fiscal excess.”

    After all, there is probably a reason why former PBOC governor, Yi Gang, who called for “economic prudence” and was against against massive stimulus, was recently “retired.”

    See Cai’s full post from the China Finance 40 Forum here.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 21:43

  • Blackstone's Real Estate Trust Changes President As CRE Markets Crack
    Blackstone’s Real Estate Trust Changes President As CRE Markets Crack

    Blackstone Inc.’s $68 billion real estate trust has been bombarded with nine months of heavy redemption requests while storm clouds gather over commercial real estate markets. The latest sign of bad news from Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT) is an announcement from the company that its president will go on nine months of leave. 

    BREIT filed an 8-K filing on Tuesday morning, announcing president A.J. Agarwal “will be taking a continuing education sabbatical beginning September 15, 2023 for nine months, and is stepping down from his role as President and Board member effective August 14, 2023.” 

    Agarwal will be replaced by “Robert Harper, BREIT’s current Head of Asset Management and Head of Blackstone Real Estate Asset Management Americas,” the filing said.

    The management change comes as BREIT has been working through redemption requests since last November. Wealthy investors have panicked out of the fund but have only been met with redemption restrictions to prevent massive outflows. 

    Remember when BREIT received a $4 billion bailout cash infusion from the University of California earlier this year?

    Late January, Blackstone President Jonathan Gray told Financial Times that BREIT was experiencing a “backlog” of redemption requests. 

    Redemption requests surged in Spring:

    And continued this summer:

    BREIT’s troubles stem from shifts in real estate demand and rising interest rates that have caused rumbles in CRE markets. 

    Taking a “continuing education sabbatical” is a new one… Typically, executives resign citing ‘health reasons’.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 21:25

  • History Rejects President Biden's Rejection Of Reaganomics
    History Rejects President Biden’s Rejection Of Reaganomics

    Authored by Bruce Thompson via RealClearMarkets.com,

    President Biden has been traveling the country, touting the benefits of Bidenomics, claiming his tax and spending policies have been an economic success.

    The President says his approach is a better alternative to Reaganomics, which he constantly refers to as trickle down economics, or tax cuts for the rich.

    He argues that the Reagan approach has never worked, and that his tax and spend policies will produce stronger economic growth.

    But history shows that free market policies of low tax rates and limited spending have consistently led to stronger economic growth.

    In the early 1980s, with the economy facing double digit inflation and a recession, President Reagan’s economic recovery program was enacted by Congress with bipartisan support. The Reagan tax cuts were not tax cuts for the rich.

    His tax cuts reduced tax rates across the board in every tax bracket. Every taxpayer received tax relief, and everyone benefited from the subsequent higher economic growth.

    According to the Joint Tax Committee, two-thirds of the tax cuts went to middle-income taxpayers. Only six percent went to the top income level.

    More importantly, the Reagan tax cuts worked, producing the longest peacetime economic expansion since World War II. The tax cuts ignited an economic boom, with real GDP increasing 7.9% in 1983 and more than 8% in the first half of 1984. All told, economic growth averaged nearly 5% a year through 1988.

    By comparison, real GDP has averaged only 2% a year since 2007, and an anemic 1.3% over the last year and a half. CBO is projecting the economy to grow at only 1.7% a year for the next decade.

    Under Reagan, inflation dropped from double digit levels to 4%. The unemployment rate was cut in half, and 20 million new jobs were created. Business investment soared, and real income grew at every level.  By the  end of Reagan’s second term, the U.S. economy was one-third larger than when he took office.

    Biden used to appreciate the benefits of pro-growth economic policies.

    Then-Senator Biden voted for the Reagan tax cuts, saying in a Senate speech that he has “long advocated a reduction in the tax burden for individuals and businesses,” and that the tax cuts would “give a boost to the sluggish economy and encourage businesses to invest to achieve greater productivity.”

    That is exactly what happened. Thanks to the corporate tax cuts, manufacturing productivity grew at an average annual rate of more than 4%, nearly 50% faster than during the period 1948-1973, leading to higher wages, better jobs, and greater growth.

    Biden was right then, and he is wrong now.

    We need to move away from Bidenomics and put in place the Reagan pro-growth policies of low tax rates and spending restraint to unleash stronger economic growth.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 21:05

  • Watch: San Francisco Retailers Are Abandoning The City In Droves
    Watch: San Francisco Retailers Are Abandoning The City In Droves

    Remember when San Francisco officials and the media denied that retailers were leaving metro areas?  Then they claimed that the businesses leaving were not leaving because of rising crime?  Remember when the government tried to institute a law which would allow them to continue taxing people and businesses up to ten years after they moved out of the state?  Remember when CNN reporters did a story on the crime epidemic in San Francisco and they got robbed in the process?  It’s hard to hide the economic consequences of bad policies and ignorant ideology – Eventually, the effects become undeniable.

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    The establishment media continues to suggest the pandemic is the primary cause of the decay, but residents of San Francisco disagree.  The majority of people mention crime and widespread drug use in the streets as the threat destroying the once vibrant retail environment.  It’s over for San Francisco – And as the saying goes, if you’re looking for someone to blame, the fish rots from the head down.  

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 20:45

  • Awkward: Rachel Maddow Calls Out 'Election Deniers' As Hillary Clinton Offers Blank Stare
    Awkward: Rachel Maddow Calls Out ‘Election Deniers’ As Hillary Clinton Offers Blank Stare

    Hoax-funding election denier Hillary Clinton sat down with MSNBC‘s Rachel Maddow this week to cackle over the prosecution of Donald Trump.

    According to Clinton, who destroyed evidence with bleachbit and hammers, ran an illegal server out of her house containing highly classified documents, and was given a ‘no reasonable prosecutor’ pass by the FBI, Trump’s indictments represent a “terrible moment” for America, and that “The only satisfaction may be that the system is working.”

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    Things got a little awkward, however, when Maddow launched into a screed over election denial – during which Clinton sat in silence.

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    Awkward!

    Watch the entire Maddow-Clinton interview below:

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    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 20:25

  • Biden Announces $39 Billion Student Loans Will Be "Automatically Discharged" Soon
    Biden Announces $39 Billion Student Loans Will Be “Automatically Discharged” Soon

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

    The Department of Education announced Monday that it will begin notifying more than 804,000 borrowers that their $39 billion in federal student loans will be “automatically discharged in the coming weeks.”

    “The forthcoming discharges are a result of fixes implemented by the Biden-Harris Administration to ensure all borrowers have an accurate count of the number of monthly payments that qualify toward forgiveness under income-driven repayment (IDR) plans,” said the administration in an Aug. 14 press release—a month after the forgiveness plan was announced.

    President Joe Biden is joined by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona as he announces new actions to protect borrowers after the Supreme Court struck down his student loan forgiveness plan in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on June 30, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

    The department said that the forgiveness program was part of fixes to address “historical failures” in which “qualifying payments made under IDR plans that should have moved borrowers closer to forgiveness were not accounted for.”

    If borrowers have accumulated the equivalent of either 20 or 25 years of qualifying months, they were “eligible for forgiveness,” said the department.

    In total, the current Biden administration has approved more than $116.6 billion in student loan forgiveness for more than 3.4 million borrowers, according to the release.

    Furthermore, the department touted the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, which will cut payments on undergraduate loans in half compared to other IDR plans, ensure that borrowers never see their balance grow as long as they keep up with their required payments, and protect more of a borrower’s income for basic needs.

    “A single borrower who makes less than $15 an hour will not have to make any payments.”

    Borrower benefits from the SAVE plan is estimated to begin rolling out this summer, according to the administration.

    SCOTUS Ruling and Biden Counter

    On June 30, the Supreme Court voted in a 6–3 decision to strike down the Biden administration’s loan forgiveness plan.

    In what is widely considered a political move, President Joe Biden promised to cancel as much as $20,000 for around 40 million borrowers, resulting in a massive $800 billion commitment, with experts claiming it could easily cross the trillion-dollar mark.

    “They said no, no—literally snatching from the hands of millions of Americans thousands of dollars in student debt relief that was about to change their lives,” President Biden said after the SCOTUS decision. “Today’s decision has closed one path and now we’re going to pursue another.”

    President Biden promised a “new way” to circumvent the decision.

    The Department of Education then started to pave the way to finalizing “the most affordable repayment plan ever created” using the authority found under the Higher Education Act. There were several programs put under this plan to support borrowers.

    “President Biden, Vice President Harris, and I will never stop fighting for borrowers, which is why we are using every tool available to provide them with needed relief,” said Education Secretary Miguel Cardona at the time. “Earlier today, the Department of Education initiated a regulatory process to provide debt relief, so we can help the working- and middle-class borrowers who need it most.”

    Despite the administration’s insistence that low- and middle-income borrowers would benefit, experts have pointed out the programs a putting strain on the economy, with some estimates placing the amount at up to $1 trillion in additional federal expenditures over the next decade.

    “We have a student loan system that assumes that people are going to pay their debt back, and instead, it’s just this massive government spending policy that has negative effects for everybody,” said Caleb Kruckenberg, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation to The Epoch Times.

    Eligibility Complications

    The loan forgiveness is only applicable to loans that were made under the IDR plan provided the borrowers have made 240 to 300 monthly payments, which is equivalent to 20 to 25 years’ worth.

    An IDR plan sets the monthly repayment at an amount deemed to be affordable for the borrowers based on their income and family size.

    In addition to being an IDR plan, the loan must either be a federal Direct Loan or a Federal Family Education Loan held by the Department of Education, including Parent PLUS loans.

    To be eligible for loan forgiveness, the borrower must hit the required loan forgiveness threshold as a result of receiving credit for IDR forgiveness on any of the following five periods, per the press release.

    • Any month in which a borrower was in a repayment status, regardless of whether payments were partial or late, the type of loan, or the repayment plan;
    • Any period in which a borrower spent 12 or more consecutive months in forbearance
    • Any month in forbearance for borrowers who spent 36 or more cumulative months in forbearance;
    • Any month spent in deferment (except for in-school deferment) prior to 2013; and
    • Any month spent in economic hardship or military deferments on or after January 1, 2013.

    “In addition, months described above that occurred prior to a loan consolidation will also be counted toward forgiveness.”

    Blowback to ‘Forgiveness’

    The Biden administration’s income-based student loan repayment plan could cost $475 billion over a period of 10 years and end up encouraging “more loan borrowing” among college students.

    Students protest the rising costs of student loans for higher education on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, Sept. 22, 2012. Citing bank bailouts, the protesters called for student loan debt cancelations. (David McNew/Getty Images)

    According to an estimate by the Department of Education, the SAVE plan will cost $138 billion over a decade.

    However, the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton’s Budget Model predicts the cost to be more than three times that. “We estimate SAVE will incur a net cost of $475 billion over the 10-year budget window,” a July 17 post about the Budget Model said.

    Roughly $200 billion of this cost will come from payment reduction for the student loans that are already outstanding this year. Once SAVE comes into effect in July next year, the model estimates that over half of the current loan volume will switch to the plan.

    The remaining $275 billion of the cost will come from reduced payments for around $1 trillion in new loans that the model calculates will be extended over the next decade.

    The model warns that “due to the increased generosity of the newly proposed IDR (income-driven repayment) plan, future student borrowers have the incentive to increase their federal student loan borrowing.” As a result, the current college financing pattern will shift toward “more loan borrowing instead of paying out-of-pocket.”

    The $475 billion is the “medium” estimate of the model, which predicts a conservative estimate of $390.9 billion and a “maximum” estimate of up to $558.8 billion.

    In a June 30 statement, Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of Job Creators Network, slammed President Biden for criticizing the Supreme Court order striking down his student loan forgiveness plan and his vowing to find another way to push ahead with it.

    “President Biden shamelessly failed to recognize a co-equal branch of government in his remarks,” Mr. Ortiz said. “Rather than respecting the court’s decision, Biden promised more executive overreach to forgive student loan debt. His proposals include expanded income-driven repayment plans and a 12-month grace period when payments are set to restart this fall.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 20:25

  • 'Stay Home': Feds Tell San Francisco Workers To Telecommute Due To Crime Wave
    ‘Stay Home’: Feds Tell San Francisco Workers To Telecommute Due To Crime Wave

    Crime is so bad near San Francisco’s US Department of Health and Human Services federal building that officials have advised hundreds of employees to work remotely for the foreseeable future.

    Pelosi federal building in San Francisco

    Citing public safety concerns outside the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building on Seventh Street – which houses several federal agencies including the HHS, the Department of Labor, the Department of Transportation and Nancy Pelosi’s office – officials issued the stay-home recommendation in an Aug. 4 memo to regional leaders.

    “In light of the conditions at the (Federal Building) we recommend employees … maximize the use of telework for the foreseeable future,” according to a copy of the memo by HHS Assistant Secretary for Administration Cheryl R. Campbell, and obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle, which notes that the area surrounding the building is home to ‘one of the city’s most brazen open-air drug markets.’

    “This recommendation should be extended to all Region IX employees, including those not currently utilizing telework flexibilities,” the memo continues, referring to the federal government’s zone governing California and other Western states.

    The memo came on the same day that, according to Axios, President Biden’s White House chief of staff called for more federal employees to return to their offices after years of remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

    It was not immediately clear whether other tenants in the building had issued similar directives. Officials with Pelosi’s office and the Department of Labor said they have been working closely with local and federal law enforcement to ensure safety for their staffers, but they have not advised employees to work from home. 

    The building has long been a locus of some of the city’s most intractable problems. -SF Chronicle

    According to the report, dozens of drug dealers routinely post up on, next to, or across the street from the building, where they operate in shifts as users smoke, snort or shoot up drugs – particularly on the property’s concrete benches, where drug users regularly pass out.

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    “The safety of workers in our federal buildings has always been a priority for Speaker Emerita Pelosi, whether in the building or on their commutes,” said a Pelosi spokesperson in a statement. “Federal, state and local law enforcement — in coordination with public health officials and stakeholders — are working hard to address the acute crises of fentanyl trafficking and related violence in certain areas of the city.”

    Meanwhile, the owners of one of San Francisco’s most famous department stores, Gumps, have written a scathing letter to city leaders and California Governor Gavin Newsom.

    “Gump’s has been a San Francisco icon for more than 165 years,” reads the letter from Chairman John Chachas, who acquired Gump’s in 2018 out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. “Today, as we prepare for our 166th holiday season at 250 Post Street, we fear this may be our last because of the profound erosion of this city’s conditions.”

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    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 20:05

  • 'Justice Shrugged': The Persecution Of Donald Trump
    ‘Justice Shrugged’: The Persecution Of Donald Trump

    Authored by Frank Miele via RealClearPolitics.com,

    Here’s what I dream of Donald Trump saying when he stands trial on bogus charges proffered by his political opponents: “I do not recognize this court’s right to try me … I do not recognize my action as a crime.”

    Those are the fighting words of industrialist Hank Rearden when he was put on trial for ignoring an unjust law in Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged.” Although the circumstances of the cases differ, Rearden is a perfect avatar of Donald Trump, as both larger-than-life men are persecuted by the justice system for seeking to pursue their own self-interest and for refusing to surrender to government oppression.

    Self-interest is central to the Objectivist philosophy of Rand, who grew up in Russia and witnessed first-hand the oppression of free thought and free enterprise following the 1917 Communist revolution. Her masterpiece, “Atlas Shrugged,” is the ultimate roadmap to how American democracy can be subverted by leftist bureaucrats and a corrupt media to destroy some individuals and intimidate the rest.

    In the novel, Rearden has created a unique metallic alloy that carries his own name. Rearden Metal is far superior to steel and was in high demand by contractors, but tyrannical government regulations prohibited Rearden from selling to customers of his own choice. He ignored the government’s warnings and sold to one of the few honest businessmen left in the country. That meant he had broken the law, and because of his stature and reputation for excellence, the government prosecuted him as a warning to others that they dare not pursue their own self-interest, too.

    Rearden epitomizes the essence of individualism, striving to achieve his goals despite societal pressure. As an industrialist, he prioritizes his innovation and accomplishments, unapologetically pursuing personal success. His trial underscores the struggle between individual rights and the perceived interests of society, reflecting Rand’s championing of individualism.

    Similarly, Trump’s refusal to accept the election results turns on his deep sense of individualistic ambition, his willingness to challenge societal norms, and his determination not to surrender his principles, even at the expense of public ridicule, political persecution, and now potentially years in prison. But you can’t view the 2020 election in a vacuum. Trump was no different than Rearden in fighting what he knows is a rigged system. For the preceding five years, Trump had been the victim of a series of vicious attacks by the Deep State and the  media who never really accepted him as president. So Trump had no reason to accept the election results parroted by the same actors who had already tried to destroy him multiple times.

    And now, two and a half years after the 2020 election, as Trump has a fighting chance of returning to the White House in the greatest political comeback in history, his enemies have come for him again, with three separate indictments and soon to be a fourth.

    The four-count indictment most recently brought against Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith is intended to make a victory in 2024 nearly impossible. The Deep State in this case represents the entrenched bureaucracy of the federal government as well as the individual states’ election officials. This is the same Deep State that gathered up 51 national security officials to sign a statement prior to the 2020 election that falsely claimed that Hunter Biden’s laptop “has all the classic earmarks of Russian disinformation.” It had none of them. No wonder Trump was disinclined to accept their conclusions that the election was secure and fair. Trump sought to prove his concerns about the legitimacy of the 2020 election by pursuing a vigorous legal strategy as was guaranteed to him under the First Amendment’s right “to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

    Biden’s weaponized Department of Justice is determined to deny that right to Donald Trump, and by extension to the rest of us. You either agree with the government’s interpretation of election results or else you risk going to jail. The indictment brought against Trump acknowledges that everyone has a First Amendment right to speak their minds and even to “formally challenge the results of the election through lawful and appropriate means,” but it then avers that Trump’s right to believe he won the election is abrogated by a string of court losses and equally pessimistic assessments from so-called experts.

    Here’s where it gets interesting, and where the Department of Justice has overstepped. The four counts in the indictment are based on what prosecutor Jack Smith calls three conspiracies: “A conspiracy to defraud the United States” by seeking to stop the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021; “a conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the Jan. 6 congressional proceeding at which the collected results of the presidential election are counted and certified; and “a conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted.”

    All of these alleged conspiracies and the resulting four charges are directly related to the joint congressional session on Jan. 6, when the Electoral College votes were opened and debated to determine whether they should be counted. Moreover, when Jack Smith announced the indictment, he suggested that Trump was responsible for the riot that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on that day, yet none of the charges hold Trump responsible for the violence. Every charge in this dubious indictment could have been brought even if the protesters had marched “peacefully and patriotically” to the Capitol as Trump had requested. The charges in the indictment have nothing to do with the violence; they only relate to Trump’s insistence that he won the election, and that he would do whatever it takes to prove it.

    In other words, these are not real crimes like insurrection or sedition; they are thought crimes. Smith’s “conspiracy” charges simply reflect that Trump consulted his lawyers to develop a legal strategy on how to right the wrong that he perceived. In its substance, from paragraphs 8 to 123, the indictment merely alleges over and over again that Trump refused to accept the conclusions of others that the election of Biden was legitimate, and that he had help from like-minded attorneys. How infuriating that must be to prosecutor Smith, who believes with all his heart that no one could doubt the veracity of what government officials (like him!) tell us.

    But millions of us did doubt the official story of a Biden victory. In the weeks after the Nov. 3, 2020 election, I wrote about problems with the election on Nov. 6, Nov. 13, Nov. 23, Nov. 30, and Dec. 7. If I had been able to ensure that Trump had read those columns at RealClearPolitics, I might be under indictment for conspiracy now, too. Then on Jan. 2, 2021, I wrote a column called “Our Electoral Crisis: The Call of Conscience on Jan. 6.”

    In that preview of the challenge of electoral votes from disputed states, I wrote, “There is no reason to expect that the Jan. 6 session of Congress will result in certification of President Trump as the victor of the 2020 election. Despite the extensive evidence of fraud that has been amassed, this vote will be an exercise in raw political power, not an expression of blind justice. Probably the best that Trump supporters can hope for is a fair hearing before the American people regarding the reason why doubts exist as to the legitimacy of Biden’s apparent victory.”

    Because of the riot at the Capitol, even that small hope was dashed, as most of the congressional debate about fraudulent activity in swing states was canceled when the joint session resumed late in the evening. It is important to note that Trump was the political victim of Jan. 6, not its beneficiary. Because of the violence, he lost his last opportunity to have a public debate on the voting irregularities that made millions of us believe the election returns were compromised. Yet Jack Smith would have you believe that it was Trump’s plan all along to shut down the electoral count that day as part of a plan to overturn the results. It’s just a fairy tale told to Trump-hating liberals to make them feel better.

    MSNBC commentator Mike Barnicle summed up Smith’s theory of the case in a segment on “Morning Joe” the day after the indictment was unsealed. “It’s one thing to have beliefs. We all have beliefs,” Barnicle said. “Donald Trump had the belief that he won, and he can articulate it as long as he wants, but he does not have the right to transform that belief into illegal conduct.”

    What that means is that we all have First Amendment rights to be wrong, but we do not have a right to persuade others that we are right. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the first step toward totalitarianism. What we are seeing in Jack Smith’s indictment is the attempt to criminalize what I would call “other thought,” the insistence that you will make up your own mind and pursue your own truth regardless of what the government tells you. This is an attempt to codify the suppression of ideas that we saw the Deep State impose on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms in 2020. You have the right to think whatever you want, but as soon as you share thoughts that dispute the official narrative, you can be silenced, and in Trump’s case locked up in a federal penitentiary.

    Well, he wouldn’t be the first person to be jailed for “other thought,” and you don’t have to turn to Russia or China for examples. How about Henry David Thoreau, who spent a brief time in jail in 1846 for protesting the Mexican-American War and wrote about his beliefs in “Civil Disobedience”?

    “Any man more right than his neighbors, constitutes a majority of one already,” Thoreau told us. “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.”

    That certainly will be true should the unthinkable happen and Jack Smith achieve his goal of imprisoning Trump. In a very real sense, the indictment is less an accusation against one man than a ham-handed attempt to enforce group-think on any Americans who resist the imperial decrees from Washington, D.C. Consider this passage from “Atlas Shrugged” in light of the hundreds of Jan. 6 convictions that turned ordinary Americans into felons:

    “Did you really think we want those laws observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against … We’re after power and we mean it … There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”

    One of the most striking parallels between the Trump and Rearden cases is the complicity of the mass media in promoting hatred for the defendants. The legacy press has been trying to destroy Trump for seven years now, starting with the Russia hoax, the Ukrainian impeachment hoax, the Trump taxes hoax, and the classified documents hoax. It didn’t matter what topic came up; the media turned it into another reason to hate Trump. Most recently, they have drummed up the “fake electors” narrative as proof that Trump intentionally tried to steal the election.

    That is essentially the linchpin of Smith’s case. When Trump’s team put forward alternate electors on Dec. 14, 2020, they were following the entirely legal precedent that Democrat John F. Kennedy used successfully in the 1960 election, when Hawaii’s result was in doubt until after Dec. 14. The reason that date is so important is because the U.S. Constitution mandates that all electors must give their votes on the same day. If Trump’s lawyers were able to prove fraud after Dec. 14, but his electors had not voted on that day, then their votes would be lost forever.

    Trump is an obstacle to the Deep State that seeks power over people, just as Hank Rearden was an obstacle to the economic tyranny of “Atlas Shrugged.” Rearden was not a person of quite the stature of Trump, but more of an Elon Musk – a self-made man of unthinkable wealth who didn’t follow anyone’s rules but his own. But that last quality is shared by all three men, and perhaps that more than anything is what has made them all targets.

    Here’s how Rand described the media’s assault against Rearden as his trial began, and how their campaign to marginalize him had failed because the regular people oddly identified with the millionaire industrialist just as Trump gains popular strength with each new indictment thrown his way:

    The crowd knew from the newspapers that he represented the evil of ruthless wealth; and … so they came to see him; evil, at least, did not have the stale hopelessness of a bromide which none believed and none dared to challenge. They looked at him without admiration – admiration was a feeling they had lost the capacity to experience, long ago; they looked with curiosity and with a dim sense of defiance against those who had told them that it was their duty to hate him.

    That’s how the trial started, but by the time Rearden spoke in his own defense – or rather spoke to demolish the prosecution’s false claims – the crowd was in full support of Rearden in his battle against the nameless, faceless bureaucrats who had regulated the country into despair. When he turned to the crowd in the courtroom:

    He saw faces that laughed in violent excitement, and faces that pleaded for help; he saw their silent despair breaking out into the open; he saw the same anger and indignation as his own, finding release in the wild defiance of their cheering; he saw the looks of admiration and the looks of hope.

    As the crowd surged around him, he smiled in answer to their smiles, to the frantic tragic eagerness of their faces; there was a touch of sadness in his smile. “God bless you, Mr. Rearden!” said an old woman with a ragged shawl over her head. “Can’t you save us, Mr. Rearden? They’re eating us alive, and it’s no use fooling anybody about how it’s the rich that they’re after…”

    It is just that same magical connection which happens between Trump and his supporters at a MAGA rally, and that is why Jack Smith, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and President Joe Biden want to put Trump behind bars. He gives people hope, and hope is dangerous when you have a plan to subjugate them. To succeed, tyranny needs willing victims, and Trump – like any Ayn Rand hero or heroine –  fights back. That’s the true reason his enemies hate him.

    “We fight like hell,” Trump said on Jan. 6, not in regard to violence but in regard to protecting our country from the thugs who would transform it into a dictatorship. “And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

    That’s the fighting spirit which makes me know my dream of Trump rejecting the court’s authority, like Hank Rearden did, will never come to fruition. While it would have a hint of poetic justice, that’s not what Trump is after. He wants real justice, political justice, freedom for all, and that means he has to stand up, stand tall, stand firm. When he says that the government is coming through him to get to you, he’s not joking. And millions of us are on his side, with one desperate question on our lips: “Can you save us, Mr. Trump?”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 19:45

  • Watch: Five Dead Including Two Municipal Officials After House Explodes In PA
    Watch: Five Dead Including Two Municipal Officials After House Explodes In PA

    Five people have been declared dead and one person is in critical condition after a house exploded in Plum, Pennsylvania, a suburb of the Pittsburgh metro area.  The explosion rocked a Plum neighborhood, destroying three homes and damaging twelve others; witnesses reported hearing the blast from over 10 miles away.

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

    Two municipal officials, Plum Borough Manager Michael Thomas and Community Development Director Heather Oravitz, were among the five people killed on Saturday, according to Mayor Harry Schlegel.  

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

    The Allegheny County Fire Marshal’s office is continuing to investigate the cause of the explosion.  In a statement issued Monday night, the office confirmed it is aware that the homeowners at 141 Rustic Ridge, the Oravitz home, were having issues with their hot water tank, located in the basement.  However, gas crews checked for leakages following the explosion and determined the gas system had been “operating as designed.”  Officials indicated that due to the time it would take to conduct forensic and other testing, the investigation could last “months, if not years.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 19:25

  • 'Flash-Mob' Daytime Burglaries Strike Southern California Stores
    ‘Flash-Mob’ Daytime Burglaries Strike Southern California Stores

    Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A second daytime “flash-mob” burglary in Los Angeles County over the weekend that cost a luxury department $300,000 may be related to a similar burglary four days earlier in Glendale, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

    Police officers search for a suspect in Los Angeles on May 7, 2018. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    At about 4 p.m. Aug. 12, more than 30 suspects wearing hoodies and ski masks, some carrying knives, swarmed the Nordstrom department store located in the Westfield Topanga Mall in Canoga Park, and stole about $300,000 worth of merchandise before running out of the store and entering several vehicles, according to police.

    The incident is similar to another flash-mob theft that occurred Aug. 8 at a Glendale shopping center about 45 minutes away.

    “We’re working with law enforcement partners throughout the county, to assist each other,” Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Sgt. Bruce Borihanh told The Epoch Times. “Maybe they’re the same [suspects] or maybe they’re not.”

    A viral video of the Nordstrom burglary shows members of the group running around the store grabbing clothing, handbags, and other items. Investigators are looking at surveillance video to see if they can identify license plates on the cars, Borihanh said.

    The incident lasted about two minutes, according to Mr. Borihanh.

    “They targeted handbags and high-end stuff they know they can sell,” he said.

    Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Sgt. Bruce Borihanh speaks to news reporters outside the Nordstrom store at the Westfield Topanga Mall in Los Angeles on Aug. 14, 2023. On Saturday, the store was ransacked by more than 30 suspects who stole about $300,000 in handbags and other merchandise. (Jill McLaughlin/The Epoch Times)

    One of the store’s security guards was sprayed with bear spray—which is similar to pepper spray—during the burglary. He was treated at the scene and recovered, according to police.

    An LAPD officer was deployed at the mall Monday, but an increased presence is not planned.

    Instead, LAPD is collaborating with retailers, security, and other law enforcement to prevent future incidents, according to Mr. Borihanh.

    “The LAPD doesn’t have the manpower to patrol the mall,” he said.

    Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the incident “unacceptable,” in a statement released Saturday.

    “Those who committed these acts and acts like it in the neighboring areas must be held accountable. The Los Angeles Police Department will continue to work to not only find those responsible for this incident but to prevent these attacks on retailers from happening in the future,” she said.

    ‘I’m Helpless’: Mall Security Guard

    Mall security guard Kevin Johnson was working at the time of the burglary and saw the aftermath of what happened, he said.

    “They’re hooligans,” Mr. Johnson told The Epoch Times.

    Theft regularly occurs at the mall, and he said he expects it to happen again.

    Mr. Johnson does not carry a firearm and said he is not allowed to confront suspected thieves.

    “If I see you stealing. I can’t even do anything. I can’t touch you. I can’t try to stop you. I’m helpless,” he said.

    Nordstrom store at the Westfield Topanga Mall in the Canoga Park neighborhood in Los Angeles on Aug. 14, 2023. (Jill McLaughlin/The Epoch Times)

    This was the second time the Nordstrom location was targeted by organized crime in the past two years. In 2021, the store was burglarized the day before Thanksgiving by five people. The thieves stole several expensive handbags before fleeing in a car. Similar to last week’s event, the security guard was also sprayed with a chemical by the suspects, according to news reports.

    The LAPD is working with the Glendale Police Department to see if the same suspects were involved in the burglary in that city four days earlier.

    The Glendale theft also occurred during daylight hours—just before 5 p.m.—when at least 30 suspects entered a Yves Saint Laurent store at The Americana at Brand shopping center.

    The suspects stole clothing and other merchandise before fleeing on foot and in numerous cars. The estimated loss was also about $300,000, according to the Glendale Police Department.

    The owner of the shopping center, Rick Caruso—who ran for Los Angeles mayor in 2022 and lost—has offered a reward of $50,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects, according to a Glendale Police Department press release.

    “This type of criminal activity will not be tolerated in Glendale,” Glendale Police Chief Manny Cid said in the release. “Expect an elevated police presence in and around the downtown Glendale corridor.”

    Further south in Irvine, California, police are looking for three suspects who were seen on store video walking into the Jewels by Alan store near Jamboree Road and Michelson Drive at 12:20 p.m. July 31. The thieves smashed several display cases before walking out with about $900,000 worth of jewelry.

    No suspects have been arrested in that incident, Irvine Police Department spokeswoman Karie Davies told The Epoch Times.

    California Crime Policy in Spotlight

    The recent incidents were caught on video and have been widely circulated on social media, attracting nationwide attention.

    Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody blamed California’s crime policies for the thefts.

    “A mob of thieves brazenly stole up to $100K from a California Nordstrom in a smash-and-grab rampage. These criminals are emboldened by the state’s lax criminal justice policies,” Moody posted on X, formerly Twitter. “In Florida, organized retail theft is NOT tolerated – we’re fighting back with FORCE, … combating organized retail theft rings.”

    The increase in flash mob-style retail crime comes on the heels of Los Angeles County’s reinstatement of a zero-cash bail system. In May, as a result of a lawsuit, a judge ordered the county to return to its policy of requiring no bail for suspects charged with most non-violent felonies or misdemeanors.

    Although the county and city are awaiting a final ruling in the case, the judge’s temporary halt of the cash-bail system has already caused property crime to increase, according to local law enforcement.

    LAPD Chief Michel Moore and Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna testified in the lawsuit Aug. 7 about how the zero-cash bail was affecting their departments.

    “I do believe that bail acts as a general deterrence,” Chief Moore testified. “It creates consequences. You face a risk of being incarcerated as a punishment.”

    Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore speaks during a vigil with members of professional associations and the interfaith community at Los Angeles Police Department headquarters in Los Angeles, on June 5, 2020. (Mark J. Terrill/File/AP Photo)

    He said he did not agree, as the plaintiffs in the case have argued, that cash bail creates a “two-tier system.”

    Chief Moore told reporters after the court hearing that 76 people released on the zero-bail system since May have been arrested again for another crime, and the city had since seen a 4-percent rise in car theft.

    Criminals who offend again and again need to be held accountable, the sheriff also told the judge.

    “We’re not saying that zero bail is completely out,” Sheriff Luna said. “We’re saying if you have a repeat offender, someone who is a habitual criminal, they have to be held accountable—even for a stack of lower-level crimes.”

    According to the sheriff, in the past 10 weeks since the county’s zero-cash bail was reinstated by the court, his department had arrested 1,573 people, 226 of whom were released and then arrested again for a different crime—a 14.3-percent recidivism rate.

    In other action statewide, California lawmakers are close to prohibiting businesses from asking employees to confront shoplifters or active shooters. Senate Bill 553 has already passed the state Senate and has sailed through two committees in the Assembly on its way to a final vote.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 19:05

  • US Gas Pump-Prices Surge To 10-Month-Highs
    US Gas Pump-Prices Surge To 10-Month-Highs

    At a time when gasoline prices – on average – should be falling, US pump prices are soaring (up seven weeks in a row – the longest streak since June 2022)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    And while drivers benefited from the relative cheap prices as the summer driving season began, they are now facing pressures as the national average price in within pennies of its highest in a year (and given the surge in WTI Crude and wholesale gasoline prices – which tend to lead retail prices by one-to-two weeks – things are about to get a whole lot more painful again…

    Source: Bloomberg

    All of which is a major problem for ‘inflation’ as CPI’s gasoline component is set to explode next month…

    Source: Bloomberg

    “While July CPI [Consumer Price Index] data looked pretty good with energy prices well below their year-ago level, August data isn’t going to look nearly as friendly,” warned Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.

    What will Joe do? Return to draining the SPR again? Complain to the Saudis (and be ignored)? Blame “Big Oil” again?

    We wonder what ’emergency’ he will blame this release on?

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 08/15/2023 – 18:45

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