Today’s News 16th December 2024

• The Democratic Party Changed While We Stayed In Place
  The Democratic Party Changed While We Stayed In Place

  Authored by Josh Stylman via The Brownstone Institute,

  Let me start by saying I loathe politics. I’ve always been drawn to liberal ideas—individual freedom, protecting the vulnerable, questioning authority, and the fundamental belief that consenting adults should be free to live their lives however they choose as long as they’re not harming others. These aren’t political positions to me; they’re basic human principles. But the game of politics itself repulses me. What I’m about to share isn’t about politics; it’s about our shared reality and how we’ve lost touch with it.

  

  The Mindvirus

  What’s truly mind-numbing to me is how people don’t see what’s happening right in front of them. The media has devolved into nothing more than a propaganda mouthpiece for the establishment, programming people to react rather than think. I’ve experienced this firsthand: When I drew historical comparisons between vaccine mandates and 1933 Germany’s early authoritarian policies, I was instantly labeled an extremist and cancelled by my NYC community. Yet now, these same people casually call everyone at Trump’s MSG rally Nazis. The irony would be funny if it weren’t so tragic.

  My Liberal Foundation

  I still believe deeply in core liberal principles:

  • Genuine free speech, not the controlled corporate version we see today
  • Standing against establishment overreach
  • Opposing unchecked corporate power
  • Fighting against unnecessary wars
  • Complete bodily autonomy – your body, your choice, in ALL contexts
  • Defending individual rights consistently, not selectively

  These aren’t just political positions—they’re principles about human dignity and freedom.

  The Democratic Party’s Transformation

  The Democratic Party’s drift from these values didn’t happen overnight. Many of us, exhausted by Bush’s brutal wars, lies about weapons of mass destruction, and the Patriot Act’s assault on civil liberties, invested our hopes in Obama’s promise of change. But instead of the transformation we sought, we got what felt like Bush’s third and fourth terms.

  Under Obama, we watched as corporate influence grew stronger, not weaker. The Snowden revelations exposed massive surveillance programs. The housing crisis devastated ordinary Americans while Wall Street got bailouts. Rather than challenging institutional power, the Democratic establishment became increasingly entangled with it.

  The betrayal of liberal values became even clearer with Bernie Sanders. Like Trump, Bernie tapped into something real—a deep frustration with a system that had left ordinary Americans behind. Both men, from vastly different perspectives, recognized that working people were suffering while elites prospered. But the Democratic establishment couldn’t allow an actual progressive challenger. They used every trick in the book—from media manipulation to primary shenanigans—to block him from the nomination. Most disappointing was watching Bernie himself bend the knee to the same establishment he had railed against, leaving millions of supporters feeling betrayed and politically homeless.

  When Hillary Clinton emerged as the nominee, we were told rejecting her meant rejecting women’s leadership. But we weren’t rejecting female leadership—we were rejecting warmongering and corporate cronyism. What we needed was a leader embodying the feminine divine: qualities of compassion, understanding, nurturing wisdom, and the ability to truly listen. Instead, we got another hawk in the corporate establishment’s pocket. And when that failed, they doubled down on cynical identity politics with Harris.

  Today, the situation relating to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. perfectly exemplifies how far the party has fallen. Here was a lifelong Democrat, a member of the party’s most popular family, who wanted to challenge these corrupting influences—and they wouldn’t even let him on the debate stage. I firmly believe that had they given him the opportunity, he could have united the country and beaten Trump.

  But that reveals the truth: this was never about beating Trump. It was about ensuring they maintained control by installing another establishment stooge who wouldn’t challenge their power structure. His departure from the party isn’t just about one candidate; it’s the culmination of a long betrayal of liberal principles.

  The Politics of Distraction vs. Real Issues

  Take abortion rights. This is an incredibly nuanced issue with deeply held convictions on all sides. I’ve spoken with several constitutional lawyers who’ve explained that overturning Roe was legally sound—not a political decision but a constitutional one about federal versus state authority. That makes it even more telling that Democrats, when they had a supermajority, chose not to codify these protections into federal law. Instead, they’ve kept this issue unresolved, using it as a reliable tool to drive voter turnout every four years.

  While abortion access matters deeply to many Americans, we’re facing multiple crises that threaten the very foundation of our republic: inflation is crushing working families while Wall Street posts record profits; government surveillance of citizens has reached dystopian levels; and our regulatory agencies—the FDA and CDC—have been completely captured by corporate interests, approving one toxic product after another while our children are being poisoned by processed foods, environmental toxins, and experimental drugs.

  The climate crisis (or what some see as deliberate geoengineering) threatens our very survival. Our border is in complete chaos—while we send billions to foreign conflicts most Americans barely understand. All this while our own infrastructure crumbles and our nation grows more divided than ever.

  The hypocrisy around women’s rights is particularly telling. The same party that claims to champion women’s bodily autonomy pushed for mandatory experimental medical interventions, despite documented evidence of mRNA vaccines affecting women’s reproductive cycles and fertility. These effects were known from early trials, yet raising concerns got you labeled as “anti-science.” Meanwhile, they’ve insisted that biological males have access to women’s spaces—including locker rooms, bathrooms, and sports competitions—prioritizing fashionable ideologies over women’s safety and fair competition.

  The Democrats permanently lost any moral authority on bodily autonomy the moment they advocated for mandatory medical procedures—yet they continue to lecture us about it without a hint of self-awareness. Liberal principles aren’t a Chinese menu where you get to pick and choose which freedoms matter.

  Take Kamala Harris—she literally campaigned on “My body, my choice” while simultaneously mandating experimental Covid shots for her own campaign staff. You can’t claim to champion bodily autonomy in one breath and deny it in the next based on political convenience. Either you believe in individual liberty and bodily autonomy, or you don’t. There’s no à la carte option when it comes to fundamental human rights.

  

  The Corporate-State Fusion

  What we’re seeing today aligns disturbingly well with Mussolini’s definition of fascism: the merger of state and corporate power. Look at Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum promoting “stakeholder capitalism,” where corporations and governments form partnerships to control various aspects of society. The WEF’s corporate membership reads like a who’s who of Democratic Party megadonors: BlackRock, which donated millions to Biden’s campaign while pushing ESG policies that benefit their bottom line; Pfizer, which poured over $10 million into Democratic coffers while securing massive government contracts; Google and Meta, which not only donate heavily but actively suppress information challenging Democratic narratives.

  This isn’t a coincidence; it’s coordination. These same companies shape policy that enriches them: BlackRock advises on financial policy while managing government assets, Pfizer helps write drug approval guidelines while selling mandatory vaccines, and Big Tech collaborates with federal agencies to control information flow. We saw this play out in real time: from day one of the Biden administration, they created backdoor channels into social media companies to censor Americans’ speech about Covid, the 2020 election, and other sensitive topics.

  This isn’t a theory—it’s documented fact. Every major policy decision seems to benefit these corporate partners: vaccine mandates, digital currency initiatives, censorship programs, climate policies—all funneling money and power to the same corporations that fund the Democratic machine. When corporations and government work together to control information and behavior, that’s precisely the corporate-state fusion that classical liberals once fought against. The Democratic Party has become the party of corporate fascism while claiming to fight against it.

  The Democratic Facade

  The current administration embodies everything wrong with our system. Look at Kamala Harris—she dropped out of the 2020 presidential race before any primary, polling below 1%. Biden then selected her solely because he limited his pool to black women—not because of her qualifications, but because of identity politics. Her record as Senator was abysmal—she sponsored zero significant legislation and missed 84% of votes during her brief tenure. Then as Vice President, her role as border czar has been an unprecedented disaster—one the administration now tries to pretend never happened.

  And here’s the ultimate irony: this is the party screaming loudest about “threats to democracy,” yet they literally installed Harris as their candidate when nobody voted for her—she dropped out before a single primary vote was cast due to dismal polling. They wouldn’t even let their own members participate in primary debates. They’re lecturing us about democracy while actively suppressing democratic processes within their own party. When they say “democracy is on the ballot,” what they really mean is their controlled version of democracy where they pick the candidates and we’re supposed to fall in line.

  Nobody voted for her, and honestly, nobody really likes her—they just hate Trump more. They could prop up a steaming pile of manure as a candidate, and people would vote for it just to vote against Trump. But here’s the real question: If Trump is truly the democracy-ending threat they claim, why didn’t democracy end during his first term? And if Harris is the solution to our problems, why hasn’t she fixed anything while in office?

  The Trump Enigma

  My view on Trump has evolved, though not in the way many might expect. I didn’t vote for him in 2016 or 2020. Growing up in this region, I knew him only as a second-generation real estate developer—Woody Guthrie had written those critical lyrics about his father, “Old Man Trump.” At the time, I thought Donald was just another entitled heir who happened to opportunistically tap into something real. 

  But there’s so much more to this story. His connections to secret societies and the occult run surprisingly deep. His Trump Tower penthouse is essentially a Masonic temple, designed as a replica of Versailles with deliberate esoteric symbolism throughout. His mentor was a 33° Scottish Rite, and Roy Cohn’—master of blackmail and dark arts—shaped his early career. Most intriguingly, his uncle John Trump was the MIT scientist tasked with reviewing Nikola Tesla’s papers after his death—papers that allegedly contained world-changing technologies, from free energy to more exotic possibilities. I don’t know what it all means, but there’s clearly more to this story than the “orange man bad” narrative we’re fed.

  At this point, I see only three possibilities:

  1. He’s playing his part in a grand political wrestling match (WWF style)
  2. He’s a dueling bad guy (genuinely a thorn in the establishment’s side)
  3. He’s actually the hero of this story (which would be the most hilarious plot twist imaginable from the vantage point of someone like me)

  The Path Forward

  Candidly, I don’t know and at this point, any of these seem plausible. What I do know is what the blue team represents—their actions have made that crystal clear. But Trump remains a bit of a mystery to me. I have a hard time believing any politician could be our savior—real change has always come from the bottom up, not the top down. But something interesting happened that gave me a glimmer of hope: RFK, Jr. jumping on board.

  The RFK, Jr. situation is fascinating. Here’s a Kennedy—essentially Democratic royalty—teaming up with Trump after being shut out by his own party. This isn’t just any political alliance. RFK, Jr.’s deep understanding of the administrative state, from public health institutions to regulatory agencies, combined with his proven track record of exposing corporate capture and fighting pharmaceutical corruption, makes this particularly intriguing. Maybe, just maybe, this alliance could protect our children from harmful policies and unnecessary wars?

  I struggle with what comes next because I understand the gravity of our situation. Our republic is incredibly fragile—more fragile than most people realize. The Founders knew this, warning us about the difficulty of maintaining a democratic republic. But I refuse to give up on dialogue, even when it feels hopeless. If people don’t see what’s happening by now—the censorship, the mandates, the war-mongering, what appears to be intentional schismogenesis (I wrote about this idea here)—will they ever?

  The powers that profit from our division; they’ve mastered the art of keeping us fighting each other so we don’t look up to see who’s really pulling the strings. These aren’t just political issues—they’re existential challenges that require reasonable people to discuss complex solutions. Your neighbor who voted differently isn’t your enemy—they likely want many of the same things you do: safety, prosperity, freedom, and a better future for their children. They might just have different ideas about how to get there.

  I know this is heavy stuff. You might disagree with everything I’ve said, and that’s okay. What’s not okay is letting these disagreements destroy our relationships and communities. The choice isn’t just about who we vote for—it’s about how we treat each other, how we discuss our differences, and whether we can find common ground in our shared humanity.

  The way forward isn’t through hatred or fear. It’s through understanding, open dialogue, and most importantly, love. We might be living through the death throes of the American experiment, or we might be witnessing its rebirth. Either way, we’re in this together, and our strength lies in our ability to work through these challenges as a community, as neighbors, and as friends. Let’s choose wisdom over reaction, understanding over judgment, and love over fear. Our future depends on it.

  Republished from the author’s Substack

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 23:20

• Federal Officials Will Deploy High-Tech System To New York After Drones Shut Down Airport, Governor Says
  Federal Officials Will Deploy High-Tech System To New York After Drones Shut Down Airport, Governor Says

  By Jack Phillips of The Epoch Times

  New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that the federal government will send a “a state-of-the-art drone detection system” to her state after a number of drone sightings across New York and New Jersey in recent days.

  

  While she did not elaborate on the system that will be deployed, it “will support state and federal law enforcement in their investigations,” she said in a statement on the morning of Dec. 15.

  “I am grateful for the support, but we need more. Congress must pass a law that will give us the power to deal directly with the drones,” the governor wrote on social media platform X around the same time. She urged Congress to pass the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act that will give states “the authority and resources required to respond to circumstances like we face today.”

  It’s not clear whether the federal government sent a similar system to New Jersey, where most of the drone sightings have occurred, or in other states. Over the weekend, swarms of drones were spotted in other states along the East Coast, including Maryland.

  On Dec. 14, Hochul said that a drone sighting shut down Stewart International Airport, a small airport located in Orange County within the Hudson Valley.

  “Last night, the runways at Stewart Airfield were shut down for approximately one hour due to drone activity in the airspace,” the governor said in a statement. “This has gone too far.”

  Hochul then called on the federal government to provide assistance in dealing with the unmanned vehicles, adding that federal rules make it difficult for the state to deal with drones.

  “Extending these powers to New York State and our peers is essential,” the governor also said. “Until those powers are granted to state and local officials, the Biden administration must step in by directing additional federal law enforcement to New York and the surrounding region to ensure the safety of our critical infrastructure and our people.”

  Federal officials in the past week have stressed that there is no evidence the drones pose a security or public safety threat to the United States, while also asserting the drones are not being operated by a foreign adversary such as Iran or China.

  On the morning of Dec. 15, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas suggested in an ABC News interview that the drones also were not flying around sensitive military sites.

  Despite the assurances from federal officials, multiple elected officials have called on the government to shoot the drones down.

  “Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge,” President-elect Donald Trump wrote on social media over the weekend. “I don’t think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down.”

  Continue reading at The Epoch Times

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 22:10

• Suspicious OpenAI Whistleblower Death Ruled Suicide
  Suspicious OpenAI Whistleblower Death Ruled Suicide

  The November death of former OpenAI researcher-turned-whistleblower, 26-year-old Suchir Balaji was ruled a suicide, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

  

  According to the medical examiner, there was no foul play in Balaji’s Nov. 26 death in his San Francisco apartment.

  Balaji had publicly accused OpenAI of violating US copyright law with ChatGPT. According to the NY Times;

  He came to the conclusion that OpenAI’s use of copyrighted data violated the law and that technologies like ChatGPT were damaging the internet.

  In August, he left OpenAI because he no longer wanted to contribute to technologies that he believed would bring society more harm than benefit.

  “If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company,” he said during a recent series of interviews with The New York Times.

  The Times named Balaji a person with “unique and relevant documents” that the outlet would use in their ongoing litigation with OpenAI – which claims that the company, and its partner Microsoft, are using the world of reporters and editors without permission.

  In an October post to X, Balaji wrote: “I was at OpenAI for nearly 4 years and worked on ChatGPT for the last 1.5 of them. I initially didn’t know much about copyright, fair use, etc. but became curious after seeing all the lawsuits filed against GenAI companies. When I tried to understand the issue better, I eventually came to the conclusion that fair use seems like a pretty implausible defense for a lot of generative AI products, for the basic reason that they can create substitutes that compete with the data they’re trained on. I’ve written up the more detailed reasons for why I believe this in my post. Obviously, I’m not a lawyer, but I still feel like it’s important for even non-lawyers to understand the law — both the letter of it, and also why it’s actually there in the first place.”

  He then made a lengthy post on his personal blog outlining why he thinks OpenAI violates Fair Use. Four weeks later he was dead.

  Balaji, who grew up in Cupertino, California, studied computer science at UC Berkeley – telling the Times that he wanted to use AI to help society.

  “I thought we could invent some kind of scientist that could help solve them,” he told the outlet.

  But in 2022, after two years with OpenAI, Balaji grew concerned over the data he was assigned to gather for the company’s GPT-4 program, which was trained on virtually the entire internet. He told the Times that this violated US “fair use” laws.

  “Microsoft and OpenAI simply take the work product of reporters, journalists, editorial writers, editors and others who contribute to the work of local newspapers — all without any regard for the efforts, much less the legal rights, of those who create and publish the news on which local communities rely,” the Times said in its lawsuit.

  OpenAI has refuted the claims, saying all of its work is covered under fair use.

  “We see immense potential for AI tools like ChatGPT to deepen publishers’ relationships with readers and enhance the news experience,” the company said.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 21:35

• Cold Shoulder: Democrats Ignore Tulsi Gabbard's Request To Meet
  Cold Shoulder: Democrats Ignore Tulsi Gabbard’s Request To Meet

  Authored by Phillip Wegmann via American Greatness,

  The return of Tulsi Gabbard to Capitol Hill began with breakfast in the Senate dining room courtesy of Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, followed by back-to-back meetings with other Republicans, all of whom were happy to welcome the former Hawaii Democrat and discuss her nomination to lead the U.S. intelligence community.

  

  But members of her old political party, including one-time House colleagues, largely ignored her. It’s still early in the process, but Gabbard has been unable to schedule a single meeting with Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

  Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, outgoing chairman of the committee, has not responded to her requests for a meeting, according to a source directly familiar with Gabbard’s efforts. Others have replied to her outreach but remain hesitant about putting anything on the books. At least one Democrat scheduled a sit-down this week only to abruptly cancel.

  The cold shoulder comes nearly a month after President-elect Donald Trump picked Gabbard to be his director of national intelligence, two years after she quit a Democratic Party that she called “an elitist cabal of warmongers,” and immediately after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

  Gabbard met with the now-deposed dictator twice in 2017 while on a “fact-finding mission” to the war-torn country. These meetings proved to be an impediment when she ran for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2020.

  “What do you say to Democratic voters who watched you go over there, and what do you say to military members who have been deployed repeatedly in Syria, pushing back against Assad?” Kasie Hunt asked two years later during an MSNBC interview.

  Gabbard replied that U.S. troops deployed there “without understanding what the clear mission or objective is.”

  Gabbard added that Assad was “not the enemy of the United States because Syria does not pose a direct threat to the United States.” Hillary Clinton promptly accused Gabbard, then a major in the Hawaii National Guard, of being a “Russian asset.”

  The Republicans who will control the Senate next year do not see the meeting with Assad eight years ago as disqualifying or insurmountable. Despite the suggestion of Democrats such as Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who recently worried that Gabbard “couldn’t pass a background check,” Republicans point out that as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, Gabbard already has a top-secret security clearance. More than 250 military veterans co-signed a letter published Monday endorsing her as “a warrior whose vote cannot be bought.”

  Trump remains unbothered by the meeting with Assad. Asked by NBC News if the meeting “compromises her,” the president-elect all but rolled his eyes. “I met with Putin,” he said of the Russian president now sheltering the Syrian dictator. “I met with President Xi of China. I met with Kim Jong-un twice. Does that mean that I can’t be president?”

  Nonetheless, Gabbard will be grilled about her Syria meeting. Defense hawks, Republicans and Democrats alike, are expected to press her for details in committee and challenge her foreign policy views that some have described as “isolationist.” Allies of the president-elect prefer the term “America First.” And it is increasingly the new orthodoxy among a GOP base wary and weary of overseas entanglements.

  There is some evidence that skepticism of a muscular foreign policy has gained traction among younger Democrats and independents in the last four or five years. When Hillary Clinton questioned Gabbard’s logic and loyalty, Gabbard punched back. In a series of tweets, she called the former secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee “the queen of warmongers” and “personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party.”

  Upstart presidential candidate Andrew Yang took Gabbard’s side. “Tulsi Gabbard deserves much more respect and thanks than this,” Yang tweeted. “She literally just got back from serving our country abroad.”

  As Gabbard made the rounds Monday, the nominee mostly ignored shouted questions from reporters. The only public statement Gabbard made was a reiteration of the Trump policy announced over the weekend that the U.S. would stay out of Syria.

  “My own views and experiences have been shaped by my multiple deployments and seeing firsthand the cost of war and the threat of Islamist terrorism,” Gabbard said.

  “It’s one of the many reasons why I appreciate President Trump’s leadership and his election where he is fully committed, as he has said over and over, to bringing about an end to wars, demonstrating peace through strength, and putting the national security interests and the safety, security, and freedom of the American people, first and foremost.”

  Gabbard would oversee a vast intelligence apparatus if confirmed, a role of tremendous influence and significant authority over presidential intel briefings and issues of declassification. Sympatico with Trump, she has already earned support from very different corners of the GOP. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a skeptic of foreign intervention, endorsed her last month as did the much more hawkish South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who previously served in the same Army reserve unit with the nominee.

  She still holds out hope for Democratic support. The Senate Intelligence Committee, which prides itself on bipartisanship, unanimously advanced the nomination of Avril Haines, President Biden’s director of national intelligence, before the Senate confirmed her 84-10.

  But Gabbard isn’t starting from scratch. She knows at least one member of the committee already. New York Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, who now sits on the intel committee, once campaigned on behalf of Gabbard and called the then-little-known Hawaii politician “a rising star.”

  Republicans now lay claim to the lapsed Democrat, and the president-elect sees in Gabbard an opportunity to cement the political “realignment” that he heralded after winning the election.

  While Trump locked down the Republican faithful, he won the election by expanding his base to include what his longtime pollster John McLaughlin calls “disaffected Democrats.” These voters jumped ship, like Gabbard, and became MAGA converts, also like Gabbard. The question as Trump begins his second term, and as Republicans look to the next election without him atop the ticket, is whether the GOP can keep them.

  “Right now, these Trump voters, the Republican Party is just renting them,” McLaughlin told RealClearPolitics. Putting an ex-Democrat like Gabbard in a Republican cabinet, he said, would go a long way toward making those voters “permanent.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 21:00

• Trump Considers Privatizing US Postal Service That Lost $9.5 Billion In FY2024
  Trump Considers Privatizing US Postal Service That Lost $9.5 Billion In FY2024

  Donald Trump is fired up about finally giving the money-losing US Postal Service its long-overdue shove into the private sector, according to three sources who talked to the Washington Post. 

  Trump is said to have discussed the idea with Howard Lutnick, who’s co-chairing his transition team and who’s been tapped to serve as Commerce secretary in the new administration. He also held a meeting with various transition officials to exchange thoughts on privatization of the huge organization. Separately, the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, has held its own discussions about drastic action. 

  

  Last month, USPS disclosed that it posted a net loss of $9.5 billion for the 2024 fiscal year — a loss that was 46% worse than the service’s $6.5 billion deficit in 2023. The plunge came alongside a slight uptick in revenue enabled by the latest annual increase in postage rates, pursuant to the 2021 Delivering for America plan. That program was supposed to help the perennially-profitless behemoth “achieve financial sustainability and service excellence.” The service also has a crummy balance sheet, with nearly $80 billion in liabilities. 

  

  After reviewing the numbers, Trump stated his opinion that the Postal Service shouldn’t be subsidized by the government, the Post’s sources said. Casey Mulligan, a University of Chicago economics professor who served on Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, tells the Post it’s time for a major change:  

  “The government is slow, slow, slow — decades slow on adopting new ways of doing things, and there’s a lot of [other] carrier services that became legal in the ’70s that are doing things so much better with increased volumes and reduced costs. We didn’t finish the job in the first term, but we should finish it now.”

  

  The Postal Service is politically powerful — starting with its raw headcount: While you may not guess it given the long lines that typify a visit to a post office, USPS has a staggering 650,000 employees, who become  very active whenever privatization gains momentum. It’s also popular among Americans — 72% view it favorably, compared just 21% who view it unfavorably, according to a 2024 Pew Research poll. 

  Meanwhile, though a belief in small government is supposedly a GOP cornerstone, the postal service is particularly valued by people living in rural, Republican districts. Earlier this month, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley angrily confronted Postmaster General Louis DeJoy over a plan to save costs by slowing delivery for some mail, something that would affect rural areas more than urban ones. “I hate this plan and I’m going to do everything I can to kill it,” said Hawley in a Senate hearing.   

  

  In addition to having GOP control of the Senate and the House in the next legislature, Trump is positioned to fill three vacancies on the Postal Service’s 11-member board. (Biden has submitted nominees, but you can expect the Senate to ignore them through Jan 20.) Of the incumbents, three are Republicans, with two of them appointed by Trump in his first term. 

  Even if privatization doesn’t happen, Trump’s mere threat of pursuing it could help drive changes to the organization. As the Lexington Institute‘s Paul Steilder tells the Post… 

  “At the end of the day, the Postal Service is going to need money, it’s going to need assistance, or it’s going to have to come up with some radical, draconian measures to break even in the near term. That gives both the White House and Congress an awful lot of power and an awful lot of leeway here.”

  Sound good on paper…but, as evidenced by the “profit”-and-loss chart above, Congress has long shown a lack of urgency about seeing the USPS “break even in the near term.” Even with a president who’s fired about it — for now — we’re not convinced it will be any different this time. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 20:25

• This Week's Fed Meeting Is Barely On The Radar Screen
  This Week’s Fed Meeting Is Barely On The Radar Screen

  By Peter Tchir of Academy Securities

  It is unusual to say that I don’t really care that much about the FOMC meeting, but I don’t. Everything seems incredibly well telegraphed coming into this meeting.

  • Markets are pricing in a 93% chance of a 25 bp cut. We will get it.
  • Markets are pricing in an 87% chance of no cut in January. We won’t get a cut.

  The Fed tends not to deviate that much from market expectations, and the next two meetings appear pretty cut and dry right now, without some unforeseen large data (or geopolitical) surprises.

  The hawkish sentiment expected is appropriate:

  • The only real weakness in the jobs data recently has been in the often (and rightfully) maligned Household Survey. The margin for error in the Establishment Survey is big enough to drive a truck through it, and the Household Survey margin for error would let you drive a tanker ship (while blindfolded in rough seas) through it. The two surveys often deviate, significantly and over extended periods of time, but if we get any “normalization” we should see unemployment rates decrease in the coming months.
  • Inflation is proving to be sticky. As companies purchase inventory ahead of potential tariffs, we will see inflation remain sticky. Many investors and business owners are seeing the surge in NFIB Small Business Optimism (as one concrete example) and we are likely to see people prepare for that growth, which should keep prices elevated.
  • Seasonality. We have argued that the seasonal adjustments have been off for two main reasons:
    • Shifting demographics. Basically, any upward adjustment for construction in the winter to account for Northeast slowdowns is erroneous now that the bulk of construction has shifted away from that region.
    • Including COVID-era data. The timing of COVID lockdowns and re-openings has been included in the data and tends to create adjustments that overstate the strength of the economy in the winter and understate it in the summer.
  • So seasonal adjustments should contribute to (artificially) higher inflation and jobs data in the coming months. It won’t be as impactful as last year, or the year before, but it will be a factor and will “manufacture” or “create” data that keeps the Fed on the sidelines.

  Even the Neutral Rate seems to have settled into around 3.75% towards the end of 2025, which is hard to argue with (I think it should be 4%, but that would be quibbling since we had the move from 2.875% over the past few months). Nothing the Fed says at this presser is likely to move the needle on the neutral rate, since I think they had every intention of getting the market to price it higher, and they have been successful.

  Drones are the 1st Thing I Search For (mostly on X and news sources, not the skies)

  Drones, especially the ones that have been over New Jersey for weeks (but are apparently being seen elsewhere), have become fascinating. Even President-elect Trump tweeted about them (though I’d be shocked if he hasn’t been briefed, or at least had the opportunity to be briefed).

  It is fascinating and makes me think a lot about Twilight Zone episodes (just in time for hopefully some Twilight Zone marathons during the holidays).

  Academy’s Geopolitical Intelligence Group has been discussing them, but so far, nothing conclusive is emerging, which again adds to the “Twilight Zone nature” of this drone phenomenon.

  As we get info that can be shared (and we have a high degree of faith in its accuracy), I’m sure we will send out a SITREP, but in the meantime, everyone is left speculating. However, while the rough consensus is that these are almost certainly ours, we aren’t really sure why the details aren’t being released (especially when there is so much curiosity).

  Some Trump 1.5 Pleasant “Surprises”

  Two things struck me as very interesting in the past week. I would say “out of character,” but they aren’t really out of character once you think about them.

  Inviting Xi to the inauguration. Given all the rhetoric about China, unfair practices, tariffs, etc., it was easy to be surprised by this invitation. But that’s only because “we” forgot to account for how much Trump believes he can influence people in personal meetings. It is very interesting, though in the back of my mind, this time seems “different.” According to a few of our GIG members, he feels strongly that Xi failed to live up to promises on the purchases of certain agricultural products.

  Getting rid of Daylight-Saving Time. I don’t think it was a campaign promise, but who doesn’t agree with the idea of keeping it lighter later in the day? Let’s remember not to forget that Trump wants people to like him, so why wouldn’t he embrace something that very few people would seem to disagree with (and I really can’t think of the reasons to disagree with this).
  In the meantime, while President Biden is still the president and making headlines of his own, it is pretty clear that wherever possible, people have moved on to positioning themselves for the new Trump administration. Hence our use of the term – “Trump 1.5.”

  I still expect some “chaos” as Trump thrives (or believes he thrives) in chaotic environments and things seem to be a little too complacent right now.

  How High Can Yields Go?

  

  While I don’t care that much about this week’s FOMC, I do care a lot about where longer dated yields are headed.

  • I haven’t liked how the moves to higher yields have generally been unidirectional (if that is a word). Despite all the positive messaging from DOGE, there is renewed concern about the path of the deficit.
  • I did enjoy Treasury Secretary Yellen expressing “regret” that they didn’t do more to contain the deficit, since it wasn’t very apparent that any time was spent on trying to control the deficit. Until the voters make it clear that the deficit scares them (and I don’t really think that was part of the message that voters sent at this election), both sides will continue to spend, because it generally helps them.
  • If we are correct on inflation, jobs, and seasonal effects, there are some more problems out there for the rates market. We thought 4.4% and higher in the aftermath of the election was overdone and highly susceptible to a short squeeze. I don’t see that right now (and we haven’t seen it since it was at 4.2%). If anything, while we have been steadfast that the risk of a gap higher of 50 bps is far more likely than a similar gap to lower yields, we must take our range up to the 4.4% to 4.6% area on 10s.

  Bearish the longer end of the yield curve (10s through 30s), though we will see how the market responds here to what seems like resistance.

  Refine Baby Refine

  While guest hosting on Bloomberg TV Tuesday morning (link), I was able to ask Ellen Wald (an energy expert) about not just “drill baby drill,” but also about refining (starts at the 36:25 mark).

  Her response fit perfectly into a couple of our themes:

  • We need to not just focus on the extraction of commodities, but also on the processing!
    • She did say that “Refine Baby Refine” would be a more important goal for the U.S. (citing that under 20% of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve can be refined in the United States).
  • Challenging NIMBY (not in my backyard) and reviewing regulations that were put in place when we were the sole superpower (economically and militarily) and the world seemed to be on course for further globalization, rather than deglobalization with a series of hot wars!

  I think that betting on infrastructure and anything critical that we are required to extract from the earth (and process), especially in areas of importance to the nation’s ability to be independent of foreign suppliers, will do very well in the coming year. Yes, the stock market is all about a handful of stocks again, but we think that this thesis will be our biggest recommendation to start the new year.

  Crypto

  We spent time on this in last weekend’s The Genius of Mariah Carey, but I think I have underestimated how much higher this can all go.

  • The donations were so big and so one-sided that they definitely contributed significantly to the win. That is unlikely to be ignored. The wealth being created in the crypto space allows for even bigger donations going forward. I had thought about that, but was convinced by one of our advisory board members that I was heavily underestimating the power that this donation base currently provides to the administration. It does seem a bit like a Twilight Zone episode, but it is a convincing argument (and the administration is filled with crypto advocates).
  • Trump can control it. We’ve argued that Trump likes things that he can “control” and if his goal is to have it go higher (and that appears to be his goal) then he certainly can do a lot to make it go higher. He can probably do a lot more to move the price of Bitcoin significantly (in a direction of his choosing) than he can with the dollar! While I think over time he won’t have that connection, I’m probably wrong that the timing is any time soon.

  Not sure I can make myself buy up here. Virtually every historical use case has failed, except that now the “limited supply” theme seems to be helping it rise. I have to admit, the “digital gold” rebranding is also interesting as advocates beg big governments to adopt it as a reserve asset.

  Maybe I can convince myself to add some ETH to the portfolio? Logically I struggle with the value proposition, but this market has always been about flow and adoption, and it seems to be on their side right now.

  Bottom Line

  The FOMC will be boring, but that won’t stop 10-year yields from rising further.

  Stocks have had almost no breadth, we’ve seen some valuations hit extreme levels, and we just had the Nasdaq 100 rebalancing announced, etc., but it is difficult to fight especially when a major player in the chip industry can still surprise the market to the point that it had a record setting rise (for them) which was big enough to drag that entire sector of the market higher. As a contrarian, it is difficult to judge sentiment and positioning when so many people seem checked out, so keep looking for some trading ranges, and wait for a real “consensus” type of trade as we near the new year. I think (officially) the Santa rally starts this week.

  I will “refine” the “refine baby refine” viewpoint as I do think that could be the best risk/reward theme out there, if we can identify it properly.

  Credit, boring. I cannot say that I like it here and now, but spreads still seem unlikely to do much. I will stick to my argument that I do NOT like credit on an all-in yield basis, and investors should still be reducing their yield exposure, while corporations should take advantage of the ongoing window to issue more!

  Crypto, feels like another pump and dump, but this pump seems like it could have a lot more legs to it.

  Have a great week, and we can only hope that we find out what all these drones are up to sooner rather than later as, to quote Rod Serling: “So, if you’re ever feeling like you’ve entered a strange new world, just remember, you might have crossed into….the Twilight Zone.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 19:50

• Bird Or Drone? Mystery Behind What Struck AAL Flight 1722 During Departure From NYC
  Bird Or Drone? Mystery Behind What Struck AAL Flight 1722 During Departure From NYC

  An American Airlines flight departing from LaGuardia and bound for Charlotte, North Carolina, was forced to make an emergency landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Thursday night after what authorities described as a “bird strike” that caused an engine fire. However, given the ongoing mystery of drone sightings in the New Jersey-New York City airspace, one can’t help but wonder…

  American Airlines flight AAL1722 departed LaGuardia on Thursday night en route to Charlotte and suffered what authorities said was a bird strike on departure. A spokesperson for the airline said none of the 190 passengers or six crew members were hurt during the incident. 

  According to NBC New York, the plane landed without incident at JFK minutes later. 

  

  A verified video of the incident from a passenger’s smartphone shows the moment an object was sucked into one of the plane’s jet engines. 

  NBC New York cited a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration that explained the object was, in fact, a “bird.” 

  However, not everyone was convinced. 

  REPORT: COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT HITS DRONE?
  American Airlines Flight 1722 From LaGuardia, New York Thursdat Night To Charlotte Reportedly Suffered A “Bird Strike” Causing Emgine Damage.
  The Flight Made Emergency Landing.
  Freeze Frames Appear To Show A POSSIBLE DRONE, Not A Bird. pic.twitter.com/ukKBchfFNW

  — John Basham (@JohnBasham) December 14, 2024

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

  Meteorologist John Basham wrote on X, “Freeze Frames Appear To Show A POSSIBLE DRONE, Not A Bird.” 

  

  Hmm.

  Yep!

  — John Basham (@JohnBasham) December 14, 2024

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

  “Looks Too Big To Be A Bird. I’d Love For @AmericanAir To Post Images Of The Damage To The Engine. If There Was A Bird Strike, I’d Expect To See Biological Remnants,” Basham pointed out.

  Looks Too Big To Be A Bird.
  I’d Love For @AmericanAir To Post Images Of The Damage To The Engine.
  If There Was A Bird Strike, I’d Expect To See Biological Remnants.

  — John Basham (@JohnBasham) December 14, 2024

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

  Thursday night’s incident comes amid exploding mass hysteria surrounding drone sightings in the area. Some speculate the drones may be part of the government’s nuclear drone sniffer taskforce, while others suggest it could be a psyop.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 19:15

• Abu Mohammad al-Julani: Putting Lipstick On A Pig
  Abu Mohammad al-Julani: Putting Lipstick On A Pig

  Via The Cradle

  Just in time for the Al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) lightning conquest of Syria, a western PR campaign was launched to rebrand the terror group’s leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani. 

  The BBC assured their readers that Julani, now commonly referred to as Ahmed al-Sharaa – which is his real name – had “reinvented himself,” while the Telegraph insisted that the former deputy to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is now “diversity friendly.”

  

  On December 6, just days before entering the capital Damascus, Julani sat down with CNN journalist Jomana Karadsheh for an exclusive interview to explain his past.

  “Julani says he has gone through episodes of transformation through the years,” CNN wrote, after he assured Karadsheh “no one has the right to eliminate” Syria’s Alawites, Christians, and Druze.”

  But why was Julani so eager to convince the American public that he had no plans to exterminate Syria’s religious minorities? This question looms larger when recalling the massacre of 190 Alawites in Latakia on August 4, 2013, and the taking of hundreds more as captives. 

  Back then, militants from HTS (then the Nusra Front), ISIS, and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) attacked 10 villages, slaughtering civilians in ways documented by Human Rights Watch: gunshot wounds, stabbings, decapitations, and charred remains. “Some corpses were found in a state of complete charring, and others had their feet tied,” the report stated.

  Another useful US asset 

  Fast forward to recent years, and Julani’s “transformation” seems less about repentance and more about utility. Despite HTS remaining on the US terror list – and an American bounty of $10 million reserved for Julani himself – former US special envoy to Syria, James Jeffrey, described the group as a strategic “asset” for US operations in Syria. 

  Under the guise of countering extremism, Washington pursued a dual strategy: enforcing crushing economic sanctions on Syria – of the sort that killed 500,000 Iraqi children in the 1990s –  while ensuring its wheat-abundant and oil-rich regions remain under US control. 

  Ambassador Jeffrey admitted to PBS in March 2021 that Julani’s HTS was the “least bad option of the various options on Idlib, and Idlib is one of the most important places in Syria, which is one of the most important places right now in the Middle East.”

  But how did Julani ascend to power in Idlib? His Nusra Front spearheaded the 2015 conquest under the banner of Jaish al-Fatah (the Army of Conquest), a coalition that combined Nusra suicide bombers with Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters equipped with CIA-supplied TOW missiles. Foreign Policy hailed the campaign’s swift progress, crediting this synergy of jihadists and western arms.

  Years later, US official Brett McGurk would label Idlib “the largest Al-Qaeda safe haven since 9/11.” Yet, the crucial role of US weapons and strategic aid in this outcome went unmentioned. 

  Assistance from Tel Aviv and Brussels too 

  This assistance extended beyond arms: the Financial Times (FT) reported that in response, EU foreign ministers “lifted an oil embargo against Syria to allow rebels to sell crude to fund their operation.” 

  While the FSA claimed control of the oil fields, activists openly acknowledged that the Nusra Front was the true beneficiary, trucking barrels to Turkiye for refining or export to Europe. The arrangement netted Nusra millions before ISIS seized the fields a year later.

  Academic and Syria expert Joshua Landis noted the importance of controlling the oil fields, explaining that “Whoever gets their hands on the oil, water, and agriculture holds Sunni Syria by the throat” and that “the logical conclusion from this craziness is that Europe will be funding Al-Qaeda.”

  Behind the scenes, western and regional powers facilitated Julani’s ascent. Israeli airstrikes supported Nusra during clashes with Syrian forces, while outgoing Israeli Army Chief Gadi Eisenkot admitted to supplying “light weapons” to rebel groups – essentially acknowledging what the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) had been reporting for years to “discredit the rebels as stooges of the Zionists.”

  Previous reports in the Wall Street Journal showed that Israel had for years provided humanitarian and medical aid to “rebels” in southern Syria, including by bringing Nusra fighters across the border into Israel for treatment. 

  In an interview with The American Conservative in border village Beit Jinn, militants revealed that Israel had been paying salaries – to the tune of $200,000 per month – for the entire year before HTS troops were expelled from the area by the SAA and fled to Idlib.

  Meanwhile, the US oversaw a “cataract of weaponry” to Syria’s opposition, as described by the New York Times. Though publicly earmarked for the FSA, these arms frequently ended up in Nusra’s hands.

  Julani’s meteoric rise began years earlier, seeded by his ties to Al-Qaeda in Iraq and its Jordanian leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The latter, whose activities conveniently justified the US invasion of Iraq, operated with tacit US acknowledgment. 

  pic.twitter.com/HePk8igzKa

  — Narragonia4 (@Laellenkoenig) December 11, 2024

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

  Julani followed a similar trajectory, emerging as a key player in the Nusra Front, which conducted bombings in Damascus and other cities in 2011 and 2012, with attacks initially misattributed to the Syrian government.

  A salafist principality

  Why did the EU choose to “fund Al-Qaeda” by dropping oil sanctions? Why did the US provide a “cataract of weaponry” to Nusra?

  An August 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report revealed that the US and its regional allies supported the establishment of a “Salafist principality” in eastern Syria and western Iraq as part of the effort to depose president Bashar al-Assad and divide the country.

  The DIA report said a radical religious mini-state exactly of the sort later established by ISIS as its “caliphate” was the US goal, even while admitting that the so-called Syrian revolution seeking to topple Assad’s government was being driven by “Salafists, the Muslim Brotherhood, and al-Qaeda.”

  The seeds of the Salafist principality were planted when late ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi dispatched Julani to Syria in August 2011 – at that time, Baghdadi’s group was known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI).

  Prominent Lebanese journalist Radwan Mortada, who was embedded with Al-Qaeda fighters from Lebanon in Syria, met Julani in the central Syrian city of Homs at this time. Mortada informs The Cradle that Julani was being hosted by the Farouq Brigades, an FSA faction based in the city.

  Contrary to media reports, Farouq commanders insisted the group was not comprised of defectors from the Syrian army. Instead, they said Farouq was a sectarian Salafist group that included fighters who had fought for Zarqawi’s Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) after the 2003 US invasion. 

  A few months later, Julani and his fighters secretly entered the war against the Syrian government by carrying out multiple terror attacks. In Damascus on December 23, 2011, Julani sent suicide bombers to target the General Security Directorate in Damascus, killing 44, including civilians and security personnel.

  Two weeks later, on 6 January 2012, Julani sent another suicide bomber to detonate explosives near a bus in the Midan district of Damascus, killing some 26 people.

  The establishment of the “Support Front for the People of the Levant,” or the Nusra Front, was revealed after a videotape was provided to journalist Mortada showing Julani and other masked men announcing the group’s existence and claiming responsibility for the attacks, which opposition activists had blamed on the Syrian government itself.

  The great prison release

  Julani’s rise, however, was facilitated years earlier. In what has been dubbed the “Great Prison Release of 2009,” the US military freed 5,700 high-security detainees from Bucca Prison in Iraq. Among these was Julani, alongside future ISIS leaders like Baghdadi. Craig Whiteside of the US Naval War College described Camp Bucca as “America’s Jihadi University,” emphasizing the role of these releases in revitalizing the Islamic State of Iraq – which had been nearly defeated by Sunni tribal uprisings.

  “The United States is often unjustly blamed for many things that are wrong in this world, but the revitalization of ISIL [ISIS] and its incubation in our own Camp Bucca is something that Americans truly own,” Whiteside wrote. 

  “The Iraqi government has many enemies, and the United States helped put many of them out on the street in 2009. Why?” Whiteside wondered, not realizing they would be sent to Syria as part of the US’s covert war to topple Bashar al-Assad.

  More alarming today is the prospect of HTS releasing thousands of ISIS fighters from US–Kurdish prisons in Syria’s north to expand their ranks. It wouldn’t be the first time. This past July, American-backed Kurds released around 1,500 ISIS prisoners from detention camps, which the US military describes as an ISIS “army in waiting.”

  The question of who Abu Mohammad al-Julani is – his motivations, ideologies, and transformations – is ultimately less important than what he represents. Over the past two decades, one fact remains consistent: Julani is a tool of US and Israeli strategy.

  From his early days in Iraq to his rise as the leader of the Nusra Front and later HTS, Julani has played a pivotal role in advancing the geopolitical interests of his benefactors. Whether branded a terrorist or a “blazer-wearing” moderate, his actions have consistently served as a means to destabilize Syria and the wider West Asian region. 

  Julani’s “reinvention” is no more than a veneer designed to mask the enduring reality of his role: a strategic asset in a game where ideology is secondary to power.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 18:40

• Jordan Peterson Flees "Totalitarian Hellhole" Canada For U.S. Due To Censorship, Taxes
  Jordan Peterson Flees “Totalitarian Hellhole” Canada For U.S. Due To Censorship, Taxes

  There were a number of celebrities claiming they’d move to Canada if President Trump was re-elected, but now there’s one Canadian who’s doing the opposite.

  World famous psychologist Jordan Peterson has said Canada is turning into a “totalitarian hellhole” by suppressing free speech and has fled Canada as a result, according to the New York Post.

  In a recent episode of his daughter’s podcast, Peterson revealed he moved to the U.S. due to Canada’s contentious Bill C-63 and his dispute with the College of Psychologists of Ontario.

  Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, seeks to curb hate speech by holding social media platforms accountable for reducing harmful content.

  Peterson said: “The issue with the College of Psychologists is very annoying, to say the least, and the new legislation that the liberals are attempting to push through, Bill C-63, we’d all be living in a totalitarian hellhole if it passes.”

  

  The New York Post writes that the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association warned the bill could lead to wrongful convictions, while others criticized it for allowing complaints based on mere “fear” of a hate crime. In response, the Canadian government recently decided to split the bill into two parts, separating free speech concerns from child protection measures.

  Meanwhile, Jordan Peterson, facing criticism for his views on transgenderism, racism, and COVID-19, remains at odds with the College of Psychologists of Ontario. The college threatened to revoke his license unless he completes social media re-education training—a decision upheld by Canada’s Supreme Court in August after Peterson’s appeal was dismissed.

  Peterson also cited Canada’s high cost of living under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a factor in his decision to leave.

  “The tax situation is out of hand,” he concluded. “The government in Canada at the federal level is incompetent beyond belief, and it’s become uncomfortable for me in my neighborhood in Toronto.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 18:05

• Israel To Deploy Remote Automated Weapons In West Bank For First Time
  Israel To Deploy Remote Automated Weapons In West Bank For First Time

  Via Middle East Eye

  The Israeli military is preparing to deploy remotely controlled automated weapons across occupied West Bank checkpoints to target Palestinians, according to a report by the Israeli Army Radio on Sunday.

  The system, named “Roeh-Yoreh” (“See-Fires”), is an advanced weaponry structure developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. It includes a tower with sophisticated surveillance equipment and a remote-controlled lethal fire mechanism. 

  

  Since its introduction into the Israeli military arsenal in 2008, the system has been exclusively used in Gaza, where it was deployed along the security fence to target Palestinians approaching the barrier. 

  According to Army Radio, the move to use the system in the West Bank comes despite its limited effectiveness in repelling the Hamas-led October 7 attacks out of Gaza. 

  In the early hours of the assault, Hamas used drones to hit the tower-mounted weapons, disabling them with ease and allowing fighters to cross the boundary into Israel. 

  The Israeli military plans to deploy dozens of Roeh-Yoreh systems in strategic locations across the West Bank, including settlement entrances and key control points, according to the report.

  The goal, it added, was to prevent armed attacks and infiltrations into illegal Israeli settlements. The manufacturing of these systems for the West Bank has already begun. 

  Initially, they will be installed at high-risk locations by the Israeli military, with plans to expand deployment to additional sites.

  According to the report, the 636 Reconnaissance Unit of the West Bank Division will operate the systems, amid rising Israeli concerns about growing security threats in the territory. 

  Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live in roughly 300 illegal settlements in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, which have been constructed since they were captured by Israel in the 1967 war. Under international law, settlement construction in an occupied territory is illegal.

  

  Since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October last year, violence by the army and settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank has skyrocketed. 

  At least 800 Palestinians from the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire since the war began, with around 6,500 more wounded, according to Palestinian health officials. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 17:30

• Police In China Test Indestructible Ball Shaped Robot That Can "Identify And Chase Suspects"
  Police In China Test Indestructible Ball Shaped Robot That Can “Identify And Chase Suspects”

  Move over, BB-8: police in China are now testing a ball-shaped robot that “can identify and chase suspects” for the first time. 

  The spherical police robot in Wenzhou, China, features cameras, flashing lights, and a self-stabilizing design, according to the South China Morning Post. Equipped with tools like tear gas, it supports law enforcement and “cannot be smashed”.

  Authorities say it is also “resilient in hostile environments.”

  Developed by Zhejiang University’s College of Control Science and Engineering, the 125kg spherical robot addresses challenges faced by wheeled and legged robots. According to Associate Professor Wang You, it can reach a top speed of 35km/h in just 2.5 seconds, Wenzhou Daily reported.

  Wang You said: “This robot can cope with dangers such as falling or being beaten, and can perform tactical actions such as enemy identification, tracking and capture after modular modification.”

  

  “Because it can complete tasks in hostile environments, it can make up for the deficiencies of [Wenzhou police] drones and robot dogs,” Wang added. 

  The SCMP writes that the spherical robot remains functional even under attack, navigating crowds and harsh environments with ease. Equipped with speakers, net guns, and tear-gas sprayers, it enhances patrol efficiency and crisis response.

  The robot is part of China’s push for hi-tech innovation in policing. In March, the Ministries of Public Security and Industry issued a call for robot applications in areas like patrols, border defense, and evidence collection.

  Examples of robot use will be showcased later for promotion in future initiatives. This week, Chengdu police deployed robots in commercial areas to prevent mob violence. In a simulated fight, a robot flashed lights, announced, “Win the fight, go to jail; lose the fight, go to the hospital,” and alerted nearby officers via text.

  What could go wrong?

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 16:55

• Pelosi Recovering After Hip Surgery In Europe
  Pelosi Recovering After Hip Surgery In Europe

  Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

  Former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) underwent hip replacement surgery in Europe on Dec. 14, according to her spokesperson, who said the California Democrat is well on her way to recovery.

  “Earlier this morning, Speaker Emerita Pelosi underwent a successful hip replacement and is well on the mend,” Pelosi’s spokesman Ian Krager said in a statement Saturday morning.

  The spokesman conveyed Pelosi’s gratitude to U.S. military staff at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) in Germany and to medical staff at Hospital Kirchberg in Luxembourg for their “excellent care and kindness.” LRMC is the largest American military hospital outside the United States, while Hospital Kirchberg is a civilian hospital providing a range of medical services. It’s not clear at which facility Pelosi was operated on.

  “Speaker Pelosi is enjoying the overwhelming outpouring of prayers and well wishes and is ever determined to ensure access to quality health care for all Americans,” the spokesperson added.

  A day prior, Krager announced that Pelosi sustained an injury while on an official engagement as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation in Luxembourg and had to be hospitalized. He did not provide any further details about the injury but noted that Pelosi was receiving “excellent treatment” and “continues to work.”

  

  Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who joined the trip, shared on social media that he was “praying for a speedy recovery” for Pelosi. A group photo taken Friday at the U.S. Embassy in Luxembourg showed the two lawmakers holding hands.

  “I’m disappointed Speaker Emerita Pelosi won’t be able to join the rest of our delegation’s events this weekend as I know how much she looked forward to honoring our veterans. But she is strong, and I am confident she will be back on her feet in no time,” McCaul wrote.

  McCaul is leading the congressional delegation. Participants plan to take part in commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge in both Luxembourg and Belgium, along with veterans and their families, active duty service members, government and military officials, and foreign dignitaries.

  Over a career spanning seven presidential administrations, Pelosi has been a prominent figure in Washington. She first served as House speaker from 2007 to 2011 and again in 2019 after Democrats regained control of the House in the 2018 midterm elections.

  In November, Pelosi secured reelection in California’s 11th Congressional District, which includes most of San Francisco. The victory marked Pelosi’s 20th term in the House of Representatives. She stepped down as House speaker in 2023 but continues to serve in the chamber.

  Pelosi also played a pivotal role in passing President Joe Biden’s sweeping $1 trillion infrastructure bill in 2022.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 16:20

• Dramatic Video Shows Black Sea Storm Splitting Russian Oil Tanker In Half
  Dramatic Video Shows Black Sea Storm Splitting Russian Oil Tanker In Half

  Two Russian oil tankers sustained severe damage in heavy seas in the Kerch Strait, a strait in Eastern Europe that connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov.

  

  The Telegraph reports that the Volgoneft-212 tanker and Volgoneft-239 were damaged near Moscow-annexed Crimea, with one of the vessels breaking apart, killing at least one sailor, and causing an oil spill.

  Volgoneft-212 was transporting 4,300 tons of fuel oil. Likely similar load on the Volgoneft-239. Both were over 130 meters long.
  Last GPS location showed 212 just north of the Kerch Bridge, while 239 was just south of the bridge. pic.twitter.com/2fMZMyHENW

  — Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) December 15, 2024

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

  Additional reporting from the Telegraph:

  Russian investigators opened two criminal cases to look into possible “safety violations” after at least one person was killed when the 136-metre Volgoneft 212 tanker, with 15 people on board, split in half with its bow sinking, footage published by state media showed, with waves washing over its deck.

  The Russian-flagged vessel, built in 1969, was damaged and had run aground, officials said.

  “There was a spill of petroleum products,” said Russia’s water transport agency, Rosmorrechflot.

  A second Russian-flagged ship, the 132-metre Volgoneft 239, was drifting after sustaining damage, the emergency ministry said. It has a crew of 14 people and was built in 1973.

  Both tankers have a loading capacity of about 4,200 tonnes oil products.

  “Two Russian tankers carrying fuel oil — Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 — are sinking in the Kerch Strait,” Belarusian media outlet NEXTA wrote on X. 

  This is an unverified video. 

  Two Russian tankers carrying fuel oil — Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239 — are sinking in the Kerch Strait. pic.twitter.com/XjeUlj1i8N

  — NEXTA (@nexta_tv) December 15, 2024

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

  On Sunday, President Vladimir Putin ordered Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev to lead a rescue mission for the sailors on board the two tankers and mitigate the fuel spill. This directive was conveyed via the Kremlin’s Telegram channel.

  Ukraine has previously deployed kamikaze stealth boats in the area to attack Russian military vessels. However, Kyiv has not commented on the current situation in the strait.

  

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 15:45

• "Falling Off A Cliff": This Chart Proves That We Are In A Major Economic Downturn Right Now
  “Falling Off A Cliff”: This Chart Proves That We Are In A Major Economic Downturn Right Now

  Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

  The number of job openings in the United States has been “falling off a cliff”, and that is a major red flag.  

  

  The last four years have been an economic nightmare for most Americans, and that is one of the primary reasons why Donald Trump won the election.  But as we approach 2025, things are starting to get frighteningly bad.  When the number of job openings in the U.S. drops by 2 million or more, that normally signals that we are either in a recession or that one is about to happen.  Well, as you can see from this chart that was posted by Bravos Research on Twitter, we are witnessing a collapse in job openings that is absolutely unprecedented…

  

  I was floored when I saw that chart.

  I knew that job openings were falling, but I didn’t know that things had gotten this bad.

  Not too long ago, there were about 12 million job openings in the United States.  Unfortunately, here in the second half of 2024 that figure has fallen below 8 million…

  There were an estimated 7.4 million unfilled jobs on the last day of September, a drop from August’s revised tally of 7.86 million openings, according to new data released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The largest drop-offs in openings were in industries that have driven much of the job growth in recent years: health care and social assistance, and government, according to the report.

  Meanwhile, major employers continue to shed workers all over the nation.

  For example, the U.S. lost a total of 78,000 manufacturing jobs during a recent three month period…

  The manufacturing sector continued to shed jobs in October, bringing its tally of job losses to 78,000 over the past three months.

  The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday released its jobs report for October, which found that the manufacturing sector lost 46,000 jobs last month, according to the agency’s preliminary analysis.

  That followed a loss of 6,000 jobs in September, which is also a preliminary figure, as well as a decline of 26,000 jobs in August.

  Every day, there are more layoff announcements in the news, and the number of people filing initial claims for unemployment benefits increased much more than experts were projecting last week…

  The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the first time jumped significantly last week (from 225k to 242k – well above expectations of 220k) – the highest since the first week of October.

  On an un-adjusted basis, claims exploded higher (highest since January)…

  Throughout the second half of this year, I have been arguing that the U.S. economy is rapidly heading in the wrong direction.

  Now we have even more confirmation that this is indeed happening.

  Once we get past the holiday season, retailers are going to be dropping like flies.

  According to the Daily Mail, it appears that Party City could soon be forced to declare bankruptcy…

  A major party and craft retailer with 850 stores across the nation is considering filing for bankruptcy.

  Party City has been faced with the possibility of mass closures just a little over a year after the company surfaced from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

  The celebration retailer, known for selling balloons and essential party supplies, is currently behind on rent at some of its locations, people close to the matter told Bloomberg.

  And it is being reported that 670 Family Dollar stores have already been shut down…

  Discount behemoth Dollar Tree has shuttered 670 of its underperforming Family Dollar stores so far, about two-thirds of the nearly 1,000 it plans to close, as it considers whether to sell or spin off the struggling chain.

  The Chesapeake, Virginia-based retailer provided an update on its portfolio optimization efforts when it reported is fiscal third-quarter earnings. Dollar Tree officials also said they were still reviewing options for Family Dollar, with no set deadline or timeline to complete that process.

  Overall, thousands upon thousands of retail stores in the U.S. have been shuttered in 2024, and thousands upon thousands will be shuttered in 2025.

  In many areas of the country, the landscape is absolutely littered with once thriving businesses that have now been boarded up.

  More than a decade ago, I warned that we were headed for a future when impoverished areas of the U.S. would be filled with boarded up businesses and abandoned buildings.

  Now we are there.

  On top of everything else, inflation is starting to surge once again, and one recent survey discovered that about a third of all U.S. households have been forced to cut back spending just to keep the lights on…

  With the cost of things like food and housing still straining people’s budgets, many U.S. households over the past year have found themselves having to pare their spending on basic necessities just to keep the lights on at home.

  That’s according to a recent Lending Tree study which analyzed U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey data from Aug. 20, 2024 to Sep. 16, 2024 to find the percentage of Americans 18 and older that had cut back on necessary expenses to pay their energy bill, kept their home at an unsafe or unhealthy temperature, or was unable to pay the full amount on an energy bill at least once over the preceding 12 months.

  The study found that more than 34% of respondents said they have had to cut back or skip spending on certain necessary expenses at least once over the past year in order to pay their energy bill.

  As I discussed the other day, prior to the election most Americans believed that we were already in a recession.

  Since the election, conditions have only gotten worse.

  Many are hoping that our economic momentum can be reversed once the new administration takes over.

  We should all be hoping that is true.

  But right now we are on a freight train that is steamrolling in the wrong direction, and that is not good news at all.

  *  *  *

  Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 15:10

• CNN "Discovers" Syrian Prisoner Left Behind In Gulag – Skeptics Claim Incident Was Staged
  CNN “Discovers” Syrian Prisoner Left Behind In Gulag – Skeptics Claim Incident Was Staged

  Has the establishment media lost their touch when it comes to theatrical propaganda, or is the public becoming more savvy?  CNN’s reputation for accuracy has been extensively damaged over the past several years; their vitriol over Donald Trump and their defense of fraudulent pandemic narratives are often cited as likely contributors to their embarrassing audience losses.  It has gotten to the point where people don’t trust anything the outlet does anymore.

  A recent broadcast by CNN’s chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, has come under fire this week from skeptics who claim the outlet “staged” a dramatic encounter with a lone Assad prisoner trapped in a gulag in Damascus who was allegedly kept in a dark cell for years and did not realize the regime had fallen.

  The prisoner, who is found laying under a blanket but looking well dressed, well fed and well groomed, thanks the reporter profusely for saving him, then proceeds to walk outside into the bright daylight without any need to adjust his eyes after his long imprisonment in darkness.

  This is so fake haha

  To be expected from CNN

  pic.twitter.com/UqeMeQoT8q

  — Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) December 14, 2024

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

  “In nearly twenty years as a journalist, this was one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed,” Ward wrote on her X page.

  It is fair to say that the interaction comes off as scripted.  If so, this does not necessarily mean that CNN or Clarissa Ward was aware of the strange nature of the prisoner or his story.  They may very well have believed that the man was a real prisoner trapped in a cell without windows and tortured until Assad was deposed.          

  In a June 2021 interview with CBS News, Clarissa Ward, openly expressed her fascination with the Syrian “revolution” and her admiration for anti-government “rebels.”  “Yeah, I mean, you know, I will cop to the fact that I think I crossed the line in Syria. I became so emotionally involved, and I was crushed by the US response and the US policy,” she admitted to host Michael Morell, advocating for more aggressive “regime change” measures beyond the imposition of crippling sanctions.

  

  CNN was the first Western media to interview Mohammed Al-Jolani, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a militant group backed by the US and Israel.  The Biden Administration is currently discussing the possibility of removing the HTS terrorist designation.  The US media has invested a considerable amount of positive spin for the Syrian insurgents, and videos like CNN’s report from the prison in Damascus are likely to become commonplace over the next few months. 

  Image management was one of the biggest failures of western intelligence agencies after their initial support for rebel groups in Syria, with many of the same fighters ultimately forming the ISIS terror network and engaging in genocidal activities.  Media reports painted the insurgents as pure patriots ready to die for freedom, until videos began to surface of their horrific actions against minority groups including Syrian Christians.  The question is, why is the establishment so desperate for the public to have a positive opinion of these rebels?        

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 14:35

• Is Google's Willow Processor A Threat To Bitcoin?
  Is Google’s Willow Processor A Threat To Bitcoin?

  Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance

  Just a couple of days ago I wrote a piece reminding readers that, despite looking at bitcoin more favorably the last year or so, it still remains an unprecedented and opaque area of markets where risk could rear its head quickly, unexpectedly, and before chaos in broader equity and bond markets.

  Collectively worth about $3 trillion now, cryptocurrency is like catnip for risk takers right now, I wrote. Then, I looked at the question of quantum computing:

  I’ve also often raised the question of what comes next after SHA-256 hash functions and whether or not Bitcoin will be safe amidst the jump to quantum computing.

  The prevailing sentiment has always been that to protect the Bitcoin network, miners and those invested in developing the network will have to stay on the forefront of technological change and encryption capabilities to ensure the network doesn’t lose a beat as the world of microprocessing advances. The ‘bull case’ thoughts about this risk, at least according to Michael Saylor the last time I talked to him, was that if you had the power to crack SHA-256 encryption right now, there would be much bigger potential targets to go after than the Bitcoin network, seeing as how the very same encryption ensures the integrity of almost all major, consequential defense, military, and government computer networks worldwide.

  Saylor makes a valid point, but as Bitcoin’s market cap grows, so does the incentive to hack or compromise its network. With a $1.8 trillion bounty effectively on the line, the temptation for bad actors increases. Fortunately, Bitcoin’s network is built with significant redundancy and safeguards, but the true risks, especially from quantum computing, will only become clear as technology advances.

  And in my original case for being less skeptical on bitcoin, out in Spring of this year, I made note of the quantum computing risk I have always mentioned when discussing bitcoin. I wrote:

  It’s like the potential impact of quantum computing—I’ve heard both sides of that case and have pretty much acquiesced to the position that it’s a bridge we will have to cross when we get to it.

  Finally, back in 2021, in a debate between Peter Schiff and (now indicted) Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky, quantum computing was asked and answered in the same fashion, with the prevailing sentiment being ‘we’ll get to it when we get to it’:

  When talking about quantum computing, Mashinsky admits that bitcoin is going to have to be modified over the next decade as quantum computing advances. No one knows what those advancements or changes will look like and who is to say whether the bitcoin you buy today will adhere to the same rules and same mathematical certainties it will after such a modification is made.

  Well, to make a long story short, we’re going to have to ‘get to it’ a hell of a lot faster than most people may have thought. That’s because this week, Google introduced its new quantum processor, Willow.

  

  Even for not being a semiconductor nerd, I know the chip marks a groundbreaking leap in quantum computing. It is capable of solving problems in under five minutes that would take traditional supercomputers trillions of years, Willow addresses one of quantum computing’s major hurdles—reducing errors as systems scale.

  This advancement positions Google as a leader in the quantum field, even as some experts believe commercial uses are still years away, likely around 2030. But needless to say, the announcement has perked up the ears of many, including the cryptocurrency community.

  Protos wrote about two ways Google’s new chip and Bitcoin this week. They write the new chip has sparked fears it could pose a serious threat to Bitcoin’s security in two key ways: overtaking Bitcoin’s mining network and targeting Satoshi Nakamoto’s dormant coins.

  The piece argues that Willow’s breakthrough capabilities allow it to solve problems in minutes that would take supercomputers trillions of years — and that such power could hypothetically outpace Bitcoin’s global mining network, which secures transactions by solving complex cryptographic puzzles.

  If Willow could perform this work faster and cheaper than the network, it might seize control of Bitcoin’s blockchain, enabling it to reorder, censor, or even double-spend transactions.

  The second potential threat involves Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, who owns over 1 million BTC stored using an older cryptographic format (P2PK) that exposes public keys on the blockchain. A quantum computer could exploit this vulnerability by brute-forcing private keys, potentially unlocking Nakamoto’s holdings. Modern Bitcoin addresses are more quantum-resistant, as they hide public keys until transactions are initiated, reducing the risk of exposure.

  ---

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  It’s now officially a race, with Coinspeaker noting that the Bitcoin community is actively researching quantum-resistant solutions to safeguard against future advancements in quantum technology.

  And while Bitcoin may ultimately come out on top when all is said and done this time, it’s these types of unprecedented risks and uncertainties that, to me, continue to make gold the granddaddy of all stores of value and safety.

  Bitcoin trades like a risk asset because it will face countless new tests like this that gold has already endured over the past 5,000 years. One by one, Bitcoin will need to ‘pass’ each of these tests if it aims to maintain value over anywhere near the time horizon gold has achieved.

  If nothing else, the announcement of Willow and the ensuing discussion should serve as a wake-up call to the dormant nervous systems of Bitcoin holders and maximalists. They must remember that while Bitcoin has passed every test over the past 15 years, there will undoubtedly be more bumps in the road along its adoption curve.

  I continue to own some Bitcoin but still firmly believe that gold remains the ultimate store of value and the best way to preserve wealth when opting out of the fiat money system.

  

  QTR’s Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author.

  This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I may or may not own names I write about and are watching. Sometimes I’m bullish without owning things, sometimes I’m bearish and do own things. Just assume my positions could be exactly the opposite of what you think they are just in case. If I’m long I could quickly be short and vice versa. I won’t update my positions. All positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog. I exist on the fringe. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can’t guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I’m impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it’s that important.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 14:00

• Georgia's New President, An Ex-Soccer Player, Solidifies Anti-EU Leadership
  Georgia’s New President, An Ex-Soccer Player, Solidifies Anti-EU Leadership

  The Republic of Georgia has a new president, and he is a former professional footballer for Manchester City: 53-year old Mikheil Kavelashvili of Georgian Dream party.

  He emerged victorious on Saturday, but was the only candidate, after 224 out of 225 members of Georgia’s electoral college voted him in. This is after the country’s main opposition groups declared a boycott of parliament, claiming the October elections which saw the Dream Party sweep were rigged.

  

  Large pro-EU protests have since been a mainstay in the capital of Tbilisi. “According to the results provided by the secretary general [of the Central Election Commission/CEC], Mikhail Kavelashvili has been elected president,” CEC Chairman Giorgi Kalandarishvili announced this weekend.

  Kavelashvili’s inauguration is set for December 29, and that too is likely to be heavily protested, amid police deploying riot control methods against larger and larger crowds all this month.

  Western media describes him as “far right” and a hardline critic of the West, as well as ‘conspiratorial’ given he has in the recent past claimed that Western interests are seeking to drive Georgia into conflict with Russia.

  Who is Mikheil Kavelashvili?

  One European source provides the following brief backgrounder…

  It has been an unlikely path to the presidency for Kavelashvili, who emerged from Dinamo Tblisi’s youth system as a promising young footballer in 1989. He went on to build a successful career as a striker, becoming a regular for his local team before moving to Russian side Spartak Vladikavkaz in 1995.

  He then joined English side Manchester City for two seasons before playing for several different Swiss Super League teams and retiring in 2006. During his playing career, he amassed 46 appearances for the Georgian national team and scored nine goals.

  Just 10 years after his retirement from the football world, he was elected to Georgia’s parliament in 2016 on the Georgian Dream ticket. In 2022, he co-founded the People’s Power political movement, which was allied with Georgian Dream and became known for its strong anti-western rhetoric.

  

  He has been criticized for lack of governing credentials, despite having previously been an MP. More from EuroNews:

  Kavelashvili has often been mocked by the opposition in Georgia for lacking higher education. On the day of his election as president, protesters outside the parliament building brought their own university diplomas, while others kicked around footballs.

  Kavelashvili was one of the authors of a controversial law requiring organisations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interest of a foreign power,” similar to a Russian law used to discredit organizations critical of the government.

  Day 18th of non-stop protests.
  Tbilisi. Now#GeorgiaProtests

  pic.twitter.com/wGY1Sf6wI3

  — Tata Chemia 🇬🇪🇪🇺🇺🇦 (@tchemia) December 15, 2024

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

  The dividing lines for Georgia’s current crisis, which has seen the Dream Party solidify complete control of the government – but with unrest in the streets – is much like Ukraine’s political divide in 2014. But let’s hope the situation doesn’t turn to open conflict involving the US or Russia, which is something officials in Tbilisi have long been worried about.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 13:25

• US In 'Direct Contact' With Designated Terror Group HTS, Blinken Admits
  US In ‘Direct Contact’ With Designated Terror Group HTS, Blinken Admits

  The US has made “direct contact” with the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) under Abu Mohammad al-Jolani which now holds Damascus and most major Syrian cities in the wake of Assad’s fall.

  “We’ve been in contact with HTS and with other parties,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said following talks with Arab diplomats in Aqaba, Jordan.

  

  This is the first official acknowledgement that the Biden administration is interacting with HTS, which has long been an officially US-designated terror organization, as it originated as Syrian al-Qaeda. Jolani also was once the personal envoy of ISIS terror leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

  NBC News has underscored, “The U.S. designates HTS a terrorist organization, making it legally impossible to work with the group, but contact underscores ongoing efforts to change that designation as the U.S. and its allies look to support Syria’s transition from Assad rule.”

  A statement from Blinken’s meetings in Aqaba and signed by representatives of the US, EU, Turkey and several Arab countries called for a “a more hopeful, secure and peaceful future”. It urged the protection of women and all ethnic and religious minorities, and for the preventing of “the reemergence of all terrorist groups.”

  Also, Jordan’s foreign minister stressed that regional powers don’t want to see post-Assad Syria “descend into chaos”. Given that it remains formally listed as a terror group, HTS was not represented in the Jordan meeting.

  The EU has also listed HTS as a terror group. Jolani still has a $10 million bounty on his head. Ironically he has been seen openly at well-known areas of Damascus, and the US could target him if it wanted to – but is clearly not.

  “As we see Syria move in that direction and, in a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned process, take these steps, we in turn will look at various sanctions and other measures that we’ve taken and respond in kind,” Blinken said from Aqaba.

  Blinken affirmed the US position on Syria has been “communicated” to the new HTS leaders. Ironically, this comes after years of the US refusing to engage diplomatically with Bashar al-Assad, who was a secular ruler.

  The US had shuttered its embassy and severed relations going all the way back to 2012. Since then there have been minimal back-channel efforts to communicate with Assad officials.

  Is Jolani’s beard becoming shorter every week or is it me pic.twitter.com/KbdI4apbVC

  — Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) December 14, 2024

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

  Meanwhile, there have been reports that the Biden White House, with a mere weeks to go until Trump enters office, could actually remove HTS’ terror designation. This despite its long documented links to both Al Qaeda and Islamic State in the not too distant past.

  Washington has since 2011 pursued regime change against Assad, and though Syria emerged victorious by the early 2020s, the Army and country appeared demoralized after years of US-imposed strangling sanctions, and with US troops occupying the country’s oil and gas fields in the northeast.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 12:15

• 20 (Or So) Obvious Questions About January 6
  20 (Or So) Obvious Questions About January 6

  Authored by Jack Cashill via American Thinker,

  Even before Donald Trump ascends to the presidency on January 20, his appointees should ask themselves the questions that follow — all of them simple and straightforward.  With Christopher Wray stepping down from the FBI directorship, they will have a much better chance of getting straight answers quickly.

  

  Trump’s team should then share those answers widely.  This information will make President Trump’s pardon of more than 1,500 Americans much more comprehensible to the American public and much less controversial.

  –Although now the FBI admits to having 26 confidential human sources in the crowd on January 6, how many total “assets” did the FBI and other entities plant, and what roles did they play?

  –Was Ray Epps working for an entity? And if so, under what terms?

  –Who planted the pipe bombs outside the DNC and near the RNC headquarters?

  –Who instructed Kamala Harris to conceal the fact that she was at the DNC when the bomb was found and why?

  –Why did Harris allow hundreds of J6ers to be prosecuted for threatening her designated space at the Capitol when she wasn’t at the Capitol?

  –Who were the “two law enforcement officials” who told the New York Times that “pro-Trump rioters” fatally struck Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick with a fire extinguisher, inflicting “a bloody gash in his head”?

  –Who orchestrated the 100-day-plus suppression of Sicknick’s autopsy report?

  –If Sicknick was not murdered, as the DOJ finally conceded, why did a federal judge give Julian Khater an 80-month prison sentence for spritzing Sicknick with an over-the-counter pepper spray?

  –Has there been an official inquiry into the subsequent suicide deaths of four USCP officers, and if not, why has the DOJ routinely blamed the J6ers for causing those deaths?

  –Why was there no crime scene investigation in the likely homicide of Rosanne Boyland?

  –Who chose to ignore the obvious video evidence of Boyland being suffocated as a result of a police action and to falsely blame her death on an amphetamine overdose?

  –Who suppressed the Boyland autopsy report for 90 days and stonewalled her family at every turn?

  –Why was Lila Morris, the Metropolitan P.D. officer caught on video repeatedly bashing the unconscious Boyland over the head with a tree branch, not even disciplined?

  –Why was Metropolitan P.D. lieutenant Jason Bagshaw promoted despite having been caught on video bashing the defenseless Victoria White bloody?

  –Why did the DOJ not interview the eyewitnesses to the shooting death of Ashli Babbitt?

  –Why did the USCP coddle and promote Babbitt’s killer, Michael Byrd, despite a shooting that, according to use-of-force expert Stan Kephart, “violated not only the law but his oath”?

  –Who ordered the “shock and awe” raids on the homes of hundreds of non-violent protesters and why?

  –Why has the so-called “Scaffold Commander” not been arrested despite multiple clear images of his face?

  –Why has the man who constructed the mock gallows on the Capitol grounds not been arrested despite multiple clear images of his face?

  –Why did the USCP allow the gallows to stand unmolested on Capitol grounds for more than four hours before the crowds gathered?

  –Why was Emanuel Jackson quickly set free despite having been caught on video swinging a baseball bat at police officers over a two-hour period?

  –If there was no insurrection, as the DOJ conceded, why were the sentences given to the J6ers so much more severe than the $30–50 fines given to the protesters who physically obstructed the Kavanaugh hearings?

  These are the simple questions, the ones off the top.  I am sure readers will think of others I may have overlooked.  To be sure, more probing questions need to be asked about the January 6 Select Committee report as well as the charging documents for the J6ers.

  Having read through much of this material, I am impressed by how casually — and routinely — our elected officials and federal jurists distort the facts to protect the party line.  In short, they lie, and some have done so under oath.

  I am impressed, too, by the shamelessness of a DOJ that can boast of its success rate in securing convictions, knowing that the accused were allowed no change of venue and faced juries pulled from a pool 95 percent anti-Trump.  This needs to change.

  More questions need to be asked as well about the security failures at all levels on January 6.  In his otherwise worthy book, Government Gangsters, Kash Patel more or less exonerates the Pentagon.  He should not have.  Incompetence explains much of what went wrong on January 6, but so does treason.

  Nearly 1,600 American citizens were arrested for exercising their First Amendment rights on January 6, and roughly half of them have been incarcerated.  Save for the insurrectionists among them — if there were any — the rest deserve not just commutation of their sentences, but a full pardon.  Many may deserve compensation.  And all deserve the truth.

  To learn more, see Jack Cashill’s newest book, Ashli: The Untold Story of the Women of January 6.

  Tyler Durden
  Sun, 12/15/2024 – 11:40

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