- Court Rules 'ISIS Terror Bride' Can Freely Return Home To UK From Syria
Court Rules ‘ISIS Terror Bride’ Can Freely Return Home To UK From Syria
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/17/2020 – 02:45Last year we detailed the political firestorm unleashed in the UK after so-called British jihadist bride Shamima Begum demanded of British authorities to be repatriated.
The now 20-year old UK citizen joined Islamic State in 2015 after fleeing the UK when she was just 15. Last year she gave birth in a Syrian refugee camp and is demanding safe return to Britain for fear that she and her child could die in the camp, so near the war zone. Proponents for her legal return to British soil have argued that as a teenager she was unwittingly manipulated into traveling to Syria by ISIS propaganda.
But over a year ago her family was notified in a letter (on Feb. 19) from the Home Secretary that authorities had revoked her British citizenship because she traveled to join a foreign terrorist group. The decision has been under appeal while Begum and her child remain in custody of US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.
Shamima Begum, via ITV News/Daily Express But on Thursday British High Court judges ruled she should be allowed to return to the United Kingdom. CNN reports:
The Court of Appeal and a Divisional Court of the High Court on Thursday ruled Begum should be allowed to return to the United Kingdom to pursue her appeal before the Special Immigrations Appeals Commission (SIAC) “albeit subject to such controls as the Secretary of State deems appropriate.”
Under the 1981 British Nationality Act, UK authorities have the legal right to revoke a person’s citizenship should it be “conducive to the public good” and they won’t become stateless as a result. She was captured in early 2019 in that was at the time ISIS’ last holdout pocket of Baghuz, in Syria Deir ez-Zor province. While in an SDF detention camp, she remains stateless since her British citizenship was stripped.
Conservatives in Britain, such as previous Interior Minister Sajid Javid argued at the time the Begum case was driving national headlines that “dangerous individuals” coming back to the UK from battlefields in the Middle East should be stripped of their British citizenship. He said this option has already been “so far exercises more than 100 times,” otherwise he also advocates prosecution of apprehended returning suspects “regardless of their age and gender.”
“Jidadi Bride” Shamima Begum being interviewed by Sky News. Conservative MPs have said they would not “hesitate to prevent” the return of Britons who set off for the Middle East to join ISIS.
The UK Home Office is expected to fight the High Court appeals decision to allow her to return, with a spokesperson saying the decision was “very disappointing”. The statement said further: “The government’s top priority remains maintaining our national security and keeping the public safe.”
In recent interviews she expressed respect for “British values” while also demanding British ‘fairness’ in her case, yet still said she did not regret traveling to Syria to join ISIS and some aspects of the “good life” under the Islamic State.
This latest decision to allow her return to the UK will unleash fresh debate and controversy, given Britons will no doubt be legitimately concerned over having someone who willingly and unrepentantly joined ISIS living freely in their midst.
- Turkey: At Cross Purposes
Turkey: At Cross Purposes
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/17/2020 – 02:00Submitted by Gefira
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced the conversion of the Hagia Sophia from the museum to a mosque.
The temple, which was built in 537 and served as the greatest Christian orthodox cathedral for a thousand years, was turned into a mosque in 1453 at the fall of Constantinople, Byzantium’s capital. After four centuries in 1934 this mosque was turned into a museum by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who wanted to tout himself to the world as a modern ruler of secular Turkey. President Erdoğan’s announcement met with an enthusiastic applause of the Muslims, not only those residing in Turkey. Much of the Western press denounced the move as Erdoğan’s maneuver aimed at diverting the nation’s attention from the current economic problems. This explanation – Marxist through and through – does not take into consideration at least two factors: psychological (Muslim faith) and political (symbolic message to the world). A nation’s attention can be diverted in a wide variety of ways, so why should it be the conversion of a museum into a mosque?
Turkey’s Hagia Sophia turned back into a mosque, causing a divide, CBC News: Tha National YouTube. Atheist, deist or agnostic Western analysts typically cannot grasp the phenomenon of religious faith, its palpable reality. In scientific terms faith can be viewed as a psychological phenomenon and psychological phenomena are to be reckoned with just as physical ones or – at times – even more. Man is constricted in his actions by these two: physical reality and his internal psychological automatic pilot, so to say. It is not true that faith can move mountains in the literal sense of the world, but it is not true either that everything is a matter of physical coercion. There are women who turn prostitutes although they have money to burn, and there are such who will never even consider selling themselves despite the fact that they suffer want.
Religious (read: psychological) factor is as strong as economic. Failure to understand it caused the Western liberals to import millions of Muslims to (post-)Christian countries. The liberals regarded religious faith as a mere facet of tradition, culture or heritage, which can be changed at will and which constitutes no serious impediment to liberal ideas. How wrong they were is plain to see today, when religious – mainly Muslim – minorities pose serious social problems. Turkey has a special Directorate of Religious Affairs (known as Diyanet for short) that operates also abroad, especially among Turks dispersed in many West European countries. There is nothing comparable to it in any of the Western countries. The Diyanet has a large budget at its disposal and the word religious in its name obviously equates with Muslim.
Turkey turns Hagia Sophia back into a mosque, TRT World YouTube. Western analysts also claim that President Erdoğan has broken with the secular tradition set down by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as the former was creating the modern Turkish state on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War. They either genuinely fail to recognize that secularism is the same as faith or religion only with the minus sign assigned to it or they intentionally do it to present themselves as those who occupy moral high ground. Why should secularism be something better than religiousness? Being lukewarm Christians at best, the Western journalists are incapable of imagining how serious this psychological phenomenon known as religious faith can be. If they have this inability to place themselves in the shoes of genuine believers, they should at least learn something from psychology. If they could be bothered to do so, that is. Then they would have learnt that religion is anything that constitutes the highest value in a man’s psyche. Hence, it need not be Christianity or Islam alone; religion can take the form of communism, fascism, feminism or secularism for that matter. A few centuries earlier Europeans discovering, conquering and administering foreign territories would bring with themselves the Christian cross and Bible (one of Columbus’s ships was named the Santa Maria); today, Western powers display homosexual rainbow flags on foreign territory and enforce accepting homosexual rights the way they once forced indigenous people to accept Christianity.
Why should Turks refrain from re-converting a mosque-turned-museum into a mosque and be somehow ashamed of it when at almost the same time Americans and the British can be proud of flying homosexual flags from their Moscow embassies? Why should the former message be reprehensible while the latter not? The West treats its enshrined values with all seriousness, why should the East not treat theirs in an analogous way? Why should the allegedly high-minded principle of secularism stymie the expression of Muslim or Christian beliefs but not those of homosexuals?
It was in 1934 that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk signed an order that turned Istanbul’s historical mosque into a museum. At around that time – a few years earlier and a few years later – Soviet commissars would do the same in the vast territory of the Soviet Union: some churches and mosques – the lucky ones, we might say – would be converted into museums (of faith and atheism!), others into stables, depots, and similar facilities. Was the conversion of Istanbul’s landmark mosque – to use present-day political vernacular – not a slap in the face of the then Muslims and a violation of human rights to profess any religious faith? Is President Erdoğan’s act not a rectification of the past wrong? Whence this doublethink?
President Erdoğan has long been thinking about reconverting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque. He has just delivered on his promise. Western mainstream media are now doing what they are accustomed to: they give the floor to westernized Turks, irreligious Turks living in the West or Turkish domestic dissidents – in a word all those who oppose Erdoğan’s move – and thus the media make the impression that the majority of Turks would so much rather their president ordered the Turkish embassy in Moscow to fly the homosexual flag instead of recovering the Hagia Sophia for Islam. That’s what these media habitually do. When president Putin wins an election or a referendum, when a right-wing candidate wins in an East European country, the BBC, Deutsche Welle and their ilk hasten to impress it on their viewers, listeners and readers that countries with such winning candidates have serious problems with democracy and human rights. That is to say demos (the people) electing a right-wing candidate is doing harm to democracy. In this case, too, selected residents of such countries are chosen to voice their criticism and express their fear at what is going on. The usual trick.
These considerations apart, Turkey’s president may also be testing the West’s fortitude. Not that there is much to be tested. Again and again the world could see the West’s total inability to act and incompetence to undertake anything. The 2015 influx of Third World people and the handling of it when President Erdoğan was paid billions to act as Europe’s bouncer spoke volumes. He might consider cashing in another billion for not converting the museum into a mosque, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Post-Christian Europe would rather pay him for not closing a mosque.
Pope Francis uttered the usual words of “concern” (all impotent politicians utter words of concern), but that’s about everything he can do. And why should President Erdoğan care? What does he think about the pope who in 2019 together with the Grand Imam of Al Azhar signed the Abu Dhabi Declaration, in which it is stated that “the pluralism and the diversity of religions are willed by God in His wisdom”?1)Why should such a pope care whether Hagia Sophia is Christian, secular or Muslim?
Pope in UAE: Oppose war with sweet prayer; Abu Dhabi Declaration signed, UAE. Mosques have been mushrooming in Western Europe and increasingly so in North America and Australia, whereas the Christian churches are empty, sold or converted into all kinds of facilities if not torn down. The fact that descendants of Christians do not care about the temples of their ancestors does not mean that believing Muslims ought to do the same. Muslims want their temples as places of worship. Europeans have discos in theirs.
- The Social Justice Cult Really Hates Parler – Here's Why…
The Social Justice Cult Really Hates Parler – Here’s Why…
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 23:30Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,
I have never been a fan of social media platforms, primarily because I realize most of them are operated by leftists and globalists with an antagonistic agenda. The idea of spending all the time and resources needed to build a following on these websites only to then have that work used against you as leverage to silence your viewpoints is not appealing.
The more effort you put into sites like Twitter, the more dependent you become on it to get your message out, and the more dependent you become the more power the people at at these companies hold over you.
Just ask any of the numerous conservative personalities that have been banned from Twitter over the past couple of years because of their political positions. Or ask the people who were banned from YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, etc. as part of a massive purge of accounts this past month, the vast majority of them considered conservative or moderates. Of course, these companies usually don’t admit outright that they are biased against conservative and moderate viewpoints; instead, they accuse accounts of spreading “hate speech”, violating community guidelines or violating “copyright rules”.
The claim by Twitter that they have no political bias is typical leftist misdirection. Banning people for copyright or for “hate speech” is not necessarily politically motivated, right? However, as analysts have shown in the past, conservatives are somehow FOUR TIMES more likely to be accused of “neutral” policy violations than leftists on Twitter. As for hate speech, everything conservative is now considered a form of hate speech. Everything moderate is considered hate speech. Everything that does not conform to the social justice religion is considered hate speech. And if it’s not considered hate speech today, it will be considered hate speech tomorrow.
It’s interesting that SJWs on social media can froth at the mouth with anti-white rabies whenever they please and consequences rarely befall them, yet conservatives can relate nothing more than facts and figures and are summarily booted for “racism”.
No bias? Yeah, right…
YouTube banned thousands of accounts over the past two weeks because of “supremacist ideas and conspiracy theories”, calling the people behind them “harmful users”.
Twitch organized a “Safety Advisory Council” made up primarily of social justice leftists (including a power hungry lunatic that thinks he’s a female deer) to “inform and guide decisions” specifically on protecting the safety of “marginalized” users.
Look, I understand the concepts behind Alinsky Tactics and the reality that leftists as a rule deny everything they are doing no matter how obvious it is. They’ll even claim their own groups (like Antifa) don’t exist whenever they get caught in a compromising position. But there comes a point when the gaslighting just isn’t going to work anymore. We all know that social media platforms HATE anyone that opposes the social justice narrative; the only reason they haven’t kicked all conservatives off their platforms yet is because there is something else they hate even more – the prospect that conservatives and moderates might retaliate en masse by organizing on their own competing platforms.
Enter Parler…
I have been arguing for years that alternative analysts and anyone not on the political left should be building their own social media. If you are dependent on controlled systems, then you can be controlled. It’s really that simple. Whenever someone puts in the work to establish an alternative system, it behooves us to support it and at least give it a chance.
There have been some attempts to make this happen, but in every case the attacks from the mainstream media and leftists have been relentless. What I want to explore here is why? Why do the lefties care so much if we leave them to their little bubble world and start our own thing?
Parler in particular has been under endless attack the past few weeks from SJWs attempting to troll and disrupt the site, as well as disjointed criticism from the MSM.
Perhaps part of the reason is that Parler has been gaining momentum; with 500,000 new people joining in a matter of days. We have to consider the possibility that if Parler wasn’t a threat to the social justice cult, they would not be attacking it so consistently.
The main criticism of Parler by the left goes a little something like this:
“Parler claims it’s a free speech site but it censors people just like Twitter, so why leave Twitter at all?”
I love this argument because it really showcases the dishonest sophistry of leftists.
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First, leftists do not care about free speech and haven’t cared for at least a decade. They only care about controlling the narrative. How often do you see leftists attacking Twitter or YouTube for censorship of conservatives? They won’t do that, because they like it and they know the odds are slim that those platforms will ever come after them.
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Second, when Parler says it’s a “free speech platform” I think it’s obvious that they are referring to political speech specifically. Leftists OPENLY ADMIT to trolling Parler in order to disrupt and sabotage its progress, including posting pornography and other childish tactics in order to force Parler to ban them so that they can then say “Look! Parler lied about free speech…”
The left defends censorship by companies like Twitter, Facebook and Google because they are “private corporations” and websites are private property (imagine that, commies defending private property rights). I actually agree with that basic premise, but there are some problems with their arguments. Parler is indeed a private company and is perfectly within its rights to ban trolls that are attempting to disrupt discussion and drive people off the platform. But, there is a big difference between sites like Parler and the major media platforms.
Most major tech conglomerates, like Google and Facebook, receive billions of dollars in state and federal government subsidies and taxpayer dollars. As far as I can tell from my research Parler does not. Twitter even received an extensive tax break for eight years worth over $70 million for being based in San Francisco as part of a program called “the Twitter tax break”. In return for giving welfare and special treatment to silicone valley, Californians in SF now enjoy a historic bubble in real estate and rental prices, along with a spike in poverty and homelessness as well endless traffic. Many of the people that work at these companies can’t even afford to live in the same city as them.
Major social media platforms that accept government funds are receiving an unfair advantage over other competing companies and should therefore be held accountable as public services, not private businesses. If a corporation like Google wants to give up taxpayer cash and pay full price for all that bandwidth it uses, then sure, they should be allowed to censor whoever they want. But until then, these companies are subject to oversight, just as any corporate monopoly would be.
The fact that Parler is encouraging political free speech is what matters here. And so far the only leftists being kicked off the site are those that deliberately go there to try to burn it down. Is it perfect? No, nothing is. But Twitter and others have a proven prejudice against conservative voices and even liberal voices that go against the accepted script. Why stay on Twitter when there are other options that are more free?
I suspect SJWs despise Parler because it represents a focal point for conservative organization, and they think they own the organizational wheelhouse.
Leftists, being collectivist in nature, are only adept at one thing – mobilizing bodies through lies and manipulation. This is where they have a distinct advantage over conservatives. The issue is that leftists are easy to mobilize because they have a drone mentality. They tend to follow their gatekeepers blindly. Conservatives tend to be more independent and often question the motives behind any given movement, and this causes internal disagreements on mobilization. Our liberty mindedness is our strength as well as our weakness, and the political left knows it.
By congregating on a platform that is not relentlessly hostile to us, we are given a free hand to discuss options and organize without being attacked by an engineered mob in the process.
When I see the vitriol from leftists over Parler, I am also reminded once again that communists don’t see people as “allies”, they see people as property. They want to get rid of conservatives from their platforms but also don’t want conservatives to leave and build their own platforms. I often think of the Chinese invasion of Tibet when pondering this mentality. The CCP’s strategy was one of ethnic cleansing; building railways to Tibet to import Chinese people and run out the indigenous Tibetans. But, when Tibetans sought to leave the country on foot to go to Nepal, the Chinese government set up snipers in the mountains to kill them as they tried to escape.
This is the communist philosophy – You are not allowed to walk away. You are not allowed to stay as you are. Your only choice is to be reeducated. Your only option is to conform.
One criticism that I’ve seen on the conservative side is that by moving to Parler we are “walling ourselves off” from public discourse and will not have any sway going into election time. This is an idiotic notion.
There is no rule that says you can’t use BOTH Parler and Twitter to spread your message. If you really think elections still matter, then by all means jump on as many platforms as you can. Just understand that the purge on sites like Twitter and YouTube is going to get much worse as 2020 comes to a close. Count on it.
Beyond that, if you believe that the lines are not already deeply drawn on the political divide in the US then you are kidding yourself. Most people have made up their minds as to which side they are on. The only ambiguity is perhaps that many people don’t yet realize how bad the situation could get. Staying on leftist platforms to “fight the good fight” is, in my view, a waste of time. Now is the time to build community so that we are ready for the political and social storm that is ready to make landfall, I have no interest in trying to win raving leftists to my side.
I’m promoting Parler in this article because it’s the first major attempt I’ve seen to grow a conservative friendly social media outlet. They don’t pay me, I don’t know the people that run the company, and I don’t have any stake in Parler’s success or failure. I have joined the site, and anyone who wants to follow me there can do so by searching brandon@altmarket. My hope is that the site will become an internet safe haven for conservatives during these troubled times. I feel it can be used as a tool for us to join forces and prepare. Conservative ideals and principles of limited government, civil liberties, free markets and individualism must endure for the sake of future generations. We have to start building our citadels, and Parler could be a good place to start.
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- Ex-Google Tech Lead: "Why Diversity Policy Is Toxic"
Ex-Google Tech Lead: “Why Diversity Policy Is Toxic”
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 23:10We’re told that institutional ‘bias reduction’ training and ‘diversity’ hiring policies are meant to create an inclusive environment which values and respects minorities.
Certainly, as 21st Century Wire notes, Silicon Valley believes it is leading the world in advancing such values.
Upon closer inspection, the opposite seems to be the case.
Diversity training and hiring practices do not extinguish prejudice – they actually promote it.
Ex-Google and Facebook employee, Patrick Shyu, explains why ‘diversity’ policy creates more problems than solutions.
Watch:
- Astronomers Discover Four Never-Before-Seen Circular Radio Objects In Deep Space
Astronomers Discover Four Never-Before-Seen Circular Radio Objects In Deep Space
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 22:50Authored by Jake Anderson via TheMindUnleashed.com,
As much as astronomy has revealed to us about the universe, there is still much we don’t know and anomalous discoveries routinely remind scientists of this. The newest discovery could be a totally brand-new type of astronomical object that is fascinating and a bit spooky.
Astronomers have discovered four rings, called “odd radio circles,” or ORCs, that so far have defied explanation or description. We don’t know how big the objects are, how far away they are, or how they formed-all we know is that they are only visible at radio wavelengths, where they are very bright at the edges. The ORCs are totally invisible when viewed with the visible, infrared, and X-ray wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The paper describing this phenomenon, which was submitted for publication to the journal Nature Astronomy, offers explanations for ORCs but also methodically rules them out. So far, supernovas, star-forming galaxies, planetary nebulas, and gravitational lensing have all been excluded as possible explanations.
Two of the ORCs appear to contain central galaxies that can be seen at visible wavelengths; scientists speculate those rings could be connected to some kind of local galactic phenomena. The other two ORCs share close physical proximity and so could be interconnected in some way.
Astronomer Kristine Spekkens at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen’s University says,
“[The objects] may well point to a new phenomenon that we haven’t really probed yet. It may also be that these are an extension of a previously known class of objects that we haven’t been able to explore.”
Other astronomers have speculated the ring-shaped islands in deep space could be the result of shockwaves or radio galaxies.
Astronomers discovered the ORCs while working on another project, the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU), which is a map of radio frequencies in space. The EMU pilot survey employs the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder, or ASKAP, a radio telescope network of 36 dish antennas which are collectively generating a wide-angle view of the night sky and which scientists expect will identify 70 million new radio objects.
“This is a really nice indication of the shape of things to come in radio astronomy in the next couple of years,” Spekkens added. “History shows us that when we open up a new [avenue of looking at] space to explore … we always find new and exciting things.”
The discovery comes right at a time when astronomers are still struggling to understand more about another space radio anomaly, the Fast Radio Bursts, or FRBs, that spew incomprehensible amounts of energy in concentrated beams across the universe. While there are many outlandish speculations–including often specious murmurs of advanced extraterrestrial life–anytime scientists discover something in space that defies explanation, we will have to wait substantially longer to learn what both ORCs and FRBs really are.
- DoJ Busts Texas Man Using Million Dollar PPP Loan To Trade Crypto
DoJ Busts Texas Man Using Million Dollar PPP Loan To Trade Crypto
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 22:30The Government Accountability Office (GAO) warned in June there was a “significant risk” of fraud for Paycheck Protection Program loans.
GAO said, which oversees spending for the CARES Act, “a number of loans approved, the speed with which they were processed, and the limited safeguards, there is a significant risk that some fraudulent or inflated applications were approved.”
The GAO said the Small Business Administration (SBA) had safeguards to deter fraudulent loans, but as we find out in mid-July, they weren’t good enough.
Fortune reports a Texas man received almost $1 million in PPP loans to support 51 employees at his “Texas Barbecue” company to payout salaries during months of lockdowns.
The only problem, Joshua Argires, who received $956,250, never had a BBQ company nor any employees, but received the money and deposited in Coinbase to trade cryptocurrency.
On Tuesday, Argires was charged with wire fraud, bank fraud, and engaging in the unlawful monetary transactions by the Department of Justice (DoJ).
The DoJ didn’t specify how they detected the fraud but suggest something was a miss when Argires noted on PPP forms he would pay 51 of his fictitious employees $90,000 per month.
“Such a high average salary for a barbecue operation raises further suspicion,” the DoJ’s complaint said.
Argires was involved in another PPP scam, that was with a fictitious business called Houston Landscaping. The DoJ said he was paid out $160,657 in PPP funds.
There was no mention of what cryptocurrencies the Texas man bought or how frequently he was trading.
During the PPP disbursements period, we outlined how some Americans who received Trump stimulus checks were taking the money and using it for “securities trades.”
The rise of daytraders, as Goldman strategists have recently pointed could explain the surge in small trades over the last several months. It seems like President Trump’s CARES Act partially funded the boom in day trading during the pandemic. With Nasdaq at new highs, well, mission accomplished Mr. President.
- Trump Admin Exempts European, But Not Chinese, Students From Coronavirus Travel Restrictions
Trump Admin Exempts European, But Not Chinese, Students From Coronavirus Travel Restrictions
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 22:16Following in the foosteps of a report from earlier thisweek, that the White House would rescind its decision to deny student visas to students who won’t be studying on campus full time this fall, Reuters reports that foreign students coming from Europe will be exempt from a travel ban the United States imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. State Department told congressional offices on Thursday. The State Department also told lawmakers that it would offer exemptions for some au pairs and family members of visa holders in the United States, according to a memo sent to lawmakers and seen by Reuters.
The decision is part of the administration’s effort to gradually reopen international travel following months of sweeping restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. In March, President Trump banned travelers from most European countries as COVID-19 cases soared in the region before the disease took hold in the United States.
Meanwhile, even though the European Union began to allow non-essential travel from a limited number of countries last month, travelers from the United States remain banned due to the recent spike in coronavirus cases.
The U.S. decision to allow European students comes days after the Trump administration agreed to drop a policy that would have forced tens of thousands of international students to leave the United States if their classes went entirely online; the reversal came amid legal challenges by major universities and pressure from business and tech companies.
China, Brazil and Iran face similar travel bans, but students from those nations were not included in the U.S. exemptions. Students in European countries who already have visas to study in the United States are exempt from the ban, according to the memo.
The State Department also said spouses and children of certain foreign workers coming to the United States could qualify for exemptions, including the spouses of skilled workers with H-1B visas.
- The Quiet Return Of Feudalism
The Quiet Return Of Feudalism
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 22:10Authored by Jorge Gonzalez-Gallarza via TheAmericanConservative.com,
Few policy items have more ominously heralded the ongoing realignment of our politics than Universal Basic Income. That its proponents and detractors can’t seem to agree on what UBI is intended for in the first place is merely a measure of that omen.
Take Spain. The country’s far-left government was an early fan of the policy, and when it leaped on the unemployment caused by lockdowns to implement a version of it, the handouts were popularly mocked as la paguita—Spanish for pocket money. The derisive analogy was swiftly censured as xenophobic—the potential pull effect for illegal migrants deemed a red herring—or more creatively still, as aporophobic, a made-in-Spain woke neologism for aversion towards the poor. Yet it was fresh college graduates, not illegal aliens nor the destitute, that users of la paguita fretted UBI would put on the dole. UBI-skeptics fear this more than any potential loopholes for migrants or layabouts: namely, further untethering the over-credentialed young from the demands of the labor market, directing them instead towards “more creative pursuits” of dubious societal interest while turning the self-sufficient lower-middle classes into their unconsenting patrons.
The dissonance over who exactly UBI is meant to assist is extremely revealing. The policy was initially designed in Silicon Valley to make automation painless, but liberals on both sides of the Atlantic have hailed the insurance it provides against labor market disruptions. The reckoning with the need for a larger safety net is actually widespread, but the unalloyed welfare that UBI would afford entitled millennials remains a no-go across much of the right. By embracing UBI, the left seems to have made peace with our tech-induced drift away from self-sufficiency and towards generalized dependence. But creating a dependent class out of the supposedly “best and brightest” is still deemed profoundly perverse on the right.
This realignment around work and welfare is but one instance of what Joel Kotkin describes in his latest book as The Coming of Neo-Feudalism, the surreptitious supplanting of liberal capitalism—a blend of economic opportunity, pluralism and dispersed political power—with a new regime dominated by tech oligarchs, enabled by their legitimizers in the so-called “progressive clerisy,” and so far acquiesced to by most everyone else. The proposition that a class of tech overlords is infiltrating liberal institutions will sound far-fetched to most of Kotkin’s readers, but that’s only because our connotations of “feudalism” suffer from recency bias. This f-word often calls to mind pre-revolutionary France, where a monarchic nobility and a conservative priesthood united to preserve their privileges at swords’ point until 1789.
That late form of feudalism is displayed in Kotkin’s choice of cover—an engraving of a nobleman and a priest riding a peasant’s back printed two months before the storming of the Bastille. But what the book warns about is feudalism at an embryonic stage, one where the interests of nobility and clerisy may not jibe all the time, and where the third estate’s submission is still unknowing. Similarly, it took centuries after Rome fell for medieval feudalism to fully take shape, with the Church emerging first as a check on kings’ earthly power before becoming their geopolitical ally, and the servants toiling in the rural estates of the post-Roman nobility barely conscious of their evolving towards serfdom. Then as now, Kotkin argues our feudalization is slow but steady, with ever more power concentrating among fewer hands. Kotkin is better known as an urbanist than as a historian, which is precisely how he garners the historical savvy and prescience to discern the trend stealthily unfolding—for unlike in the early Middle Ages, cities and not rural areas are the microcosm of the neo-feudal order.
Big tech CEOs and the “progressive intelligentsia” form an unlikely coalition, corporate power being a classic progressive gripe. So what about today’s tech overlords makes them more palatable than the bankers and utility oligopolists they’ve replaced? Hipness and woke capitalism surely play a part, but their primary appeal to the wider society is in Kotkin’s view technical, grounded in the growing premium our economy places in technological skill. More than a technocracy, this is a technocratic ratchet—the techies hold the keys to an economy they’ve ushered in and keep making more complex. Progressive opinion-makers have largely acquiesced to the concentration of productive know-how in ever fewer hands, even as the less affluent are shut out of the pathways towards acquiring it. Worse still, the societal benefits from technological innovation reaped by everyone else keep diminishing—where innovation was once concerned with productivity, transport or housing, its link with improved living standards has all but broken under society’s hype over social media and artificial intelligence.
Atop the neo-feudal order sit these two powerful blocks, and the economic disruption their alliance portends is correspondingly far-reaching, not limited to a single set of policy wins for tech companies. Even if their tax evasion or greedy data collection practices are reined in with transnational digital taxes and ambitious privacy rules, for big tech these will amount to little more than inches on the margin, mere bumps on the road towards neo-feudalism. To work out the contours of the new economic order, Kotkin proposes instead to size up the larger tenets of liberal capitalism undergoing erosion. This starts with property, the ladder through which a majority could once reach middle-class prosperity but that is being pulled up before our very eyes.
Under feudalism, serfdom was the norm—toiling on the land of someone else who robbed you was the only path to subsist. Similarly, as the clustering effects of today’s knowledge economy keep driving capital and labor towards already cramped cities, property has concentrated in ever fewer hands, with home renters left similarly property-less. Cities used to be hotbeds of opportunity, today they are segregated dystopias. Where strivers could once take jobs that afforded spacey homes, amenities and savings, today the squeezed middle is driven out of cities altogether by skyrocketing housing, transport and childcare costs. Where suburbia once stood to pick up the pieces of our urban dysfunctions, today that last redoubt of the property-owning middle is reaching full capacity in turn, with the comfortable lifestyle it affords shunned by the environmentalist clerisy.
This crisis of property is behind the mantra that “today’s young are the first generation to face dimmer prospects than their parents,” borne out in endless surveys. A married couple of first-generation college graduates today struggles to buy a home even at the age their non-college educated parents did, effectively delaying the age at which the upward mobility both generations worked so hard to chase can take its effect. Even as it remains the only real launchpad to wealth accrual, homeownership is increasingly the monopoly of those lucky to inherit it, which further tilts a playing field at birth already more uneven than ever. And all this concerns only what Kotkin calls the modern “yeomanry” of financially insecure but credentialed professionals. Even grimmer are the prospects of the neo-feudal serfdom, that netherworld of low-skilled jobs in the service precariat. Devoid of technical skills, these neo-serfs live paycheck to paycheck in what former Labor Secretary Robert Reich once called the “share-the-scraps-economy”—a wordplay on the “sharing economy”—with not a whiff of any real economic opportunity.
But just like medieval serfs felt bound to the feudal system through the Christian hope of redemption, so is our neo-feudal order held together, as much as by economic relationships, by the cultural values evangelized from the clerisy downwards. Yesteryear’s societal ethos was one of dynamism, creative destruction and widespread opportunity for all, which, when sincerely embraced by those at the top, gave the entire system a buttress of legitimacy. For the managerial class holding the reins, living out these values and leading by example reinforced their position atop the system—creating jobs meant supporting middle-class livelihoods, reneging from corporate welfare and accepting the diktats of antitrust enforcement meant playing by the rules.
The values underpinning today’s neo-feudalism, rather than allowing for elites to be renewed through competition and merit, serve to entrench the ones we’re stuck with. Pluralism in online discourse is on the way out and any talk of breaking up the tech giants is defamed as antitrust heresy, effectively enshrining their natural monopoly over the digital space. As for philanthropy, today’s tech overlords truly see their lot as the kindest hearted in society, but their foundations no longer seek to align status with merit but to refashion our political economy entirely by normalizing dependence. UBI is to philanthropy what giving away fish is to fishing education.
Whenever economic opportunity is invoked by big tech’s allies in the clerisy, it is most often in the discourse of identity politics, which derives policy prescriptions that fail to create more of it, resorting instead to shoving ethnic minorities amidst the ranks of the technocracy. Instead of expanding access to high-quality education, vocational training or urban property, the siren song of identititarianism calls for numerical quotas and affirmative action. If anything, economic opportunity stands to lose even more ground if the shibboleths promoted from atop are pursued à la lettre, to the extent they pose further penalties on the less fortunate, such as through environmentalism or multiculturalism. And this is where policies such as UBI come back into the picture—their aim is to make the lack of economic opportunity less painful and politically costly, not to reverse our direction of travel towards neo-feudalism. Evangelized with the brimstone of religion, these values are ushering in a new regime of what Kotkin calls “oligarchic socialism,” with productive work increasingly the province of a fortunate few, while everyone is left to battle out for the scraps but numbed with progressive piety.
The alarm Kotkin sounds is all the more courageous and credible coming from an old-school progressive like him, and shows that the left’s realignment around the interests of tech oligarchs and the gospel of wokeism won’t go without internal pushback. Kotkin has even earned an audience on the right—the book is published by Encounter. If his Warning to the Global Middle Class is to be heard widely, it will need all the support it can get from conservatives, whom are undergoing a realignment of the kind Kotkin advocates for his own side. Which calls to mind the ominous words of the abbé Sieyès in 1789—“what is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it been in the current political order? Nothing. What does it desire to be? Something!”
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- "We'll Have To Suck It Up" – America's Nut-Glut Sends Prices Plunging
“We’ll Have To Suck It Up” – America’s Nut-Glut Sends Prices Plunging
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 21:50America has a nut problem; oversupplied conditions with plunging demand thanks to President Trump’s trade war and the virus pandemic could prove disastrous for nut farmers this year who produce a majority of the world’s almonds, walnuts, and pecans.
Bloomberg describes a world in which an economic boom led farmers to increasingly plant more and more saplings. Several years later, these trees are now becoming nut-bearing ones, will soon increase supply at a time when the trade war has crushed demand for US agriculture products, and the virus pandemic has crashed the global economy.
h/t Bloomberg Bill Carriere, a seasoned nut farmer in California, said saplings were planted about five years ago are now becoming nut-bearing ones, could produce an unusually high crop yield this year.
“It’s been five years since the last trees were planted, and now that production is hitting, and the young trees are coming on board,” said Carriere. “It’s going to be a big crop, and that will be true for the next few years.”
A bumper crop of nuts is one thing, but now the nut industry, comprising of almonds, walnuts and pecan farmers, has been at the mercy of the president’s trade war, resulting in plunging demand for American nuts.
“We’re nervous, especially for next year, with where prices are,” said Carriere, who is also on the California Walnut Board and California Walnut Commission. “They could get below the cost of production.”
America’s nut boom is becoming more and more like a nut bust. The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) latest crop report projects almond yields will jump 20% this year to a record 3 billion bounds. California produces about 80% of global almonds – any decline or collapse in price will undoubtedly be felt in local communities in the West Coast state.
h/t Bloomberg China, and the rest of Asia, have been regularly importing US nuts over the years, but that has decreased since the trade war began, forcing Beijing to slap America’s nuts with tariffs.
USDA estimates US almond exports will reach a three year low in 2020 – suggesting supply concerns will pressure spot prices.
In addition to declining trade flows between the US and China – the coronavirus pandemic has plunged world trade into a depression.
Carriere expects more saplings will be planted on his California farm through 2022. He added:
“Once the new trees are in, you’re in for 40 to 50 years,” he said. “We’ll have to suck it up and grit our teeth and get through it.”
President Trump’s failure to sign a legitimate trade deal with China, as we now know, the phase one deal was nothing more than hype to boost the president’s election odds as Beijing had zero intention on fulfilling trade purchase commitments (in dollar amount). Nevertheless, the president is now saying the phase two trade deal is “unlikely.”
The Trump administration might to ready the next bailout to farmers, this time with maximum concentration on nut growers.
- As The Economy Reopened, This Is Where Job Applications Surged
As The Economy Reopened, This Is Where Job Applications Surged
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 21:30Via Priceonomics,
The coronavirus outbreak and resulting shelter-in-place orders have created enormous changes in the hourly job market. Some industries, like hospitality, have seen unprecedented job losses. Other industries, like warehouse and logistics, have actually seen job growth as the delivery of goods becomes essential.
In this article, we’ll look at job applications. Are people looking for work currently or still shying away from employment due to the virus?
We found that in March and April, job applications for hourly jobs plummeted compared to February. However, this May, we’ve seen a very strong rebound. A lot of this rebound in May has been due to restaurants and healthcare facilities reopening. Nevertheless, most industries are seeing job applications below pre-pandemic levels.
While almost all metropolitan statistical areas have seen an increase in job applications, Miami, Las Vegas and Baltimore have seen the largest surge in applications this May.
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First let’s examine the overall national trends in job applications. What happened to the number of applications on Snagajob since before the pandemic through the end of May? The chart below shows the total applications, indexed to 100 in February:
In March and April we saw a steep decline in job applications, with job applications down 42% from their pre-pandemic level. However, this May has seen a sudden rebound in job applications as states have lifted stay-at-home restrictions. Applications are still well below pre-pandemic levels.
Is this dynamic of falling (and then rising) job applications because of fewer job postings available or because skittish individuals are less likely to apply for jobs during the pandemic? The answer is a little bit of both. The chart below shows the number of job applications per available position on Snagajob:
As the pandemic began, the number of applications per position fell in March and stayed similarly low in April. However by May, the number of applications per position available swung back to pre-pandemic levels.
While people are applying for jobs again at pre-pandemic levels, total applications are still down because the number of job postings are still less than in February:
Compared to February, hourly job postings are down 19%. Companies are hiring more in May than in April, but still at a much lower level than in February. On the national level, it appears as though both employers and potential employees are re-entering the labor market in May.
Which industries are seeing this great rebound in job postings this May? The chart below shows categories experiencing the largest (and smallest) surge in applicants last month:
By a considerable margin, sit-down restaurants have seen the largest surge in applications in May compared to April. Because of the COVID-19 lockdown, most restaurants across the country were closed for sit-down dining in April. As these restaurants have reopened, job applications have returned. Grocery stores continue to attract applications, as they have continued hiring throughout the pandemic. Cleaning services have also rebounded during reopening, as have healthcare job applications as places like dentist offices are now allowed to operate.
However, most of these categories are receiving fewer applications in May than they were prior to the pandemic beginning in February:
Compared to prior to the pandemic, only the categories of Logistics/Warehouse have seen strong applications growth. On the other hand, Hospitality and Entertainment applications are down over 80% from February.
As economies have reopened across the United States, we have seen a growth in job applications. The chart below shows the growth in job postings in the top 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) on Snagajob in May compared to April.
This prior month, the metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) of Miami, Las Vegas and Baltimore have seen the highest surge in job applications, followed by Houston and Orlando. Boston and Detroit have seen the smallest surge in job applicants, though both cities still received 13% more job applications than the prior month.
However, almost all geographies are seeing fewer hourly job applications than before the pandemic in February:
Just 13 of the top 50 largest metro areas on Snagajob are receiving more applications than prior to the pandemic’s start in February. Each of the top 6 locations are in the South, with Charleston and Greenville, South Carolina leading the way. Of all the metros we examined, Detroit has had the largest dropoff in applications with 46% fewer job applications in May compared to February.
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As the economy has reopened, job applications have flooded back this May. The average job posting on our site in May got about as many applications as one would have in February. However, employer job postings still haven’t fully bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. Nevertheless, for some job categories like restaurants, job applications are booming.
- Portland 'Under Siege By Anarchists' As City Officials Twiddle Thumbs, Says DHS Chief
Portland ‘Under Siege By Anarchists’ As City Officials Twiddle Thumbs, Says DHS Chief
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 21:10Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf condemned “rampant, long-lasting violence” in Portland, Oregon on Thursday, after the city “has been under siege for 47 straight days by a violent mob while local political leaders refuse to restore order to protect their city,” he said in a Thursday morning statement.
Wolf traveled to Portland to survey the city after members of Antifa established the “Chinook Land Autonomous Territory” outside of the Portland federal courthouse earlier in the week.
#BREAKING Motorcade with acting Homeland Security Secty Chad Wolf in Portland #KOIN6NEWS #PortlandProtest #BLM pic.twitter.com/BzBKHoGgke
— Lisa Balick (@lisabKOIN) July 16, 2020
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City of Portland is working overtime to clean up ASAP the mess left by antifa. DHS acting secretary is reportedly in Portland now to do a walkthrough soon. pic.twitter.com/NbmmYWLjR2
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) July 16, 2020
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“A federal courthouse is a symbol of justice – to attack it is to attack America,” Wolf said, referring to the protesters as “anarchists.”
Local businesses have reported $23 million in losses due to looting and rioting that have gripped its downtown area, and rioters were seen lighting mattresses on fire and setting off fireworks in the streets. Protesters have also set up tents in the park near the federal courthouse and have barricaded streets to create their own autonomous zone, likened to the since-disbanded Capitol Hill Organized Protest in Seattle.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security deployed more than a half-dozen law enforcement agencies and departments, with officers from the U.S. Marshals, the Federal Protective Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection rotating protection services throughout the city in a bid to quell the violence and protect federal property — a move opposed by local politicians. –Fox News
“Instead of addressing violent criminals in their communities, local and state leaders are instead focusing on placing blame on law enforcement and requesting fewer officers in their community. This failed response has only emboldened the violent mob as it escalates violence day after day,” the statement continues.
.@PortlandPolice have released photos of the #antifa autonomous zone that was set up overnight in the parks by the federal courthouse. Extremists confronted police during the standoff. The area has extensive damage. Nine were arrested. https://t.co/5vYntPRaGg #PortlandRiots pic.twitter.com/d1RVhNNbrD
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) July 16, 2020
According to journalist Andy Ngo, “One of the biggest scandals of the last 50 days is how Portland media & politicians describe rioters as peaceful while declaring police violent agitators. This lie keeps riots going.”
Wolf provided a list of offenses committed by “Violent anarchists” in Portland going back to late May:
- Violent anarchists broke a front window at the Hatfield Courthouse.
- Violent anarchists graffitied the Hatfield Courthouse.
- Overall, the cost of damages on federal property done by the violent mob this first night was estimated at $5,000.
05/30/2020
- Violent anarchists graffitied the BPA Building.
- Violent anarchists graffitied the Hatfield Courthouse.
- Violent anarchists graffitied the Edith Green-Wenell Wyatt Building.
- Violent anarchists graffitied the Terry Schrunk Plaza.
- Violent anarchists graffitied the 911 Federal Building.
- Violent anarchists graffitied the Pioneer Courthouse.
- Violent anarchists graffitied the Gus J. Solomon Courthouse.
06/01/2020
- Violent anarchists graffitied the Hatfield Courthouse.
- Violent anarchists graffitied Terry Schrunk Plaza.
- Violent anarchists graffitied The Pioneer Courthouse.
- Violent anarchists graffitied The Gus J Solomon Courthouse.
06/02/2020
- Violent anarchists graffitied the U.S. Custom House.
06/06/2020
- Violent anarchists destroyed fencing surrounding federal property.
06/07/2020
- Violent anarchists damaged and breached the fence around the Hatfield Courthouse.
- Portland Police were forced to deploy crowd control spray to disperse a crowd that was throwing animal seed at officers.
06/08/2020
- Violent anarchists broke a window at the Hatfield Courthouse while pelting the building with objects.
- Violent anarchists cut a hole in the fence surrounding Hatfield Courthouse.
06/10/2020
- Violent anarchists removed the entire fence around Hatfield Courthouse and graffitied its front columns.
- Violent anarchists attempted to remove wooden barriers from a window on the Hatfield Courthouse.
06/11/2020
- Violent anarchists dismantled a section of the fence protecting the Edith Green-Wenell Wyatt Federal Building.
06/13/2020
- Violent anarchists destroyed the card reader at the Hatfield Courthouse by ripping it off its mount.
- Violent anarchists destroyed the fence at the Hatfield Courthouse.
- Violent anarchists threw metal pipes at the Hatfield Courthouse, causing Portland Police to issue a disbursal warning for unlawful assembly.
06/17/2020
- Violent anarchists graffitied the Hatfield Courthouse.
06/20/2020
- Among a group of over 400 protesters marching in front of the Pioneer Courthouse, violent anarchists attempted to cause eye damage to officers with commercial grade lasers.
- Violent anarchists graffitied the Gus J. Solomon Courthouse.
06/25/2020
- Violent anarchists vandalized an FPS camera at the Hatfield Courthouse.
- Violent anarchists breached the fence of the Justice Center, adjacent to the courthouse.
06/30/2020
- Violent anarchists ripped down plywood covering the windows at the Edith Green-Wenell Wyatt Building, before breaking the windows.
7/01/2020
- Violent anarchists graffitied new plywood covering the windows at the Hatfield Courthouse and ripped down plywood on the other side of the building.
- A group of over 200 violent anarchists blocked access to the building and proceeded to launch aerial fireworks at federal property.
07/02/2020
- Violent anarchists broke a front window to the Hatfield Courthouse and attempted to enter the building.
- Violent anarchists refused orders to vacate the Hatfield Courthouse area, and instead launched fireworks and threw objects at officers, while attempting to cause eye damage with lasers. One explosive firework was shot into the courthouse.
- FPS law enforcement officers were forced to utilized crowd control measures for safety.
07/03/2020
- After ongoing riots around the Hatfield Courthouse, crowds were dispersed only to make a return later into the night.
- Violent Anarchists broke the front window of the Hatfield U.S. Courthouse and shot fireworks into the building.
- Violent anarchists firebombed the building. Federal law enforcement extinguished the fire.
07/04/2020
- Around 1,000 violent anarchists spray painted, threw rocks, and shot fireworks (including mortar style fireworks) at the Hatfield Courthouse. They also destroyed a security camera at the facility.
- A CBP team supporting FPS at the courthouse arrested suspects from the graffiti and camera vandalism incidents.
- The mob continued to throw rocks and paint-filled balloons, while attempting to breach the doors.
- Teams were forced to utilize crowd control measures for safety.
- Multiple individuals were seen carrying rifles, including the driver of a vehicle who attempted to strike a Portland Police Bureau officer with his car in front of the Hatfield Courthouse.
07/05/2020
- A hostile crowd of about 250 violent anarchists returned to the vicinity of Hatfield Courthouse to vandalize and attack numerous facilities and police, while failing to comply with dispersal order.
- Violent anarchists surrounded and blocked law enforcement from the area as extremists proceeded to attack police with thrown projectiles and large mortar style fireworks.
- Two Portland Police Bureau officers were injured by the crowd (possible concussion).
- Portland Police Bureau took five into custody for directing lasers against aircraft.
- Violent anarchists set fires in front of Hatfield Courthouse and Chapman park.
- At the entrance of Hatfield Courthouse, Violent Anarchists fired large fireworks and threw other dangerous objects toward the entrance and the personnel protecting it.
- The mob was pushed completely out of the area of Hatfield Courthouse; FPS made two arrests during push.
- Portland Police made multiple arrests and found a loaded weapon on one subject.
- Two more violent anarchists were arrested, and one was found to be carrying what appears to be a pipe bomb.
- Violent anarchists assaulted construction crews by targeting them with fireworks while they repaired Hatfield Building.
- A joint team had to be deployed to create buffer between violent anarchists and construction crew to protect construction workers.
07/06/2020
- Violent anarchists attempted to cause vision damage to personnel with lasers. Five arrests were made for assaulting law enforcement.
07/07/2020
- Violent anarchists held a “Night of Rage,” in which a 400-500-person protest devolved into riots, assaulting law enforcement officers and federal property.
- Approximately 200 violent anarchists began pursuing law enforcement officers to disrupt enforcement actions, assaulting them with rocks and bottles.
- Around 150 violent anarchists in front of the Justice Center began attacking personnel with lasers and peppered the area with fireworks.
- Three violent anarchists were arrested for attacking law enforcement.
07/08/2020
- Approximately 200 violent anarchists attacked DHS law enforcement officers while apprehending a subject who was wanted for property damage.
- One arrest was made after three law enforcement officers were injured.
- Law enforcement officers’ personal information was publicly exposed, including FPS, ICE, and CBP personnel.
- Violent anarchists continued to attack officers with lasers.
07/09/2020
- Violent anarchists attacked DHS law enforcement officers while apprehending a subject who was wanted for property damage.
- A violent anarchist graffitied the Hatfield courthouse.
- An unidentified subject fired several shots from a gun into the air from the rear seat of a passing white SUV.
07/10/2020
- Crowds of approximately 300 violent anarchists vandalized federal property and cameras with spray paint, blocked roadways, and assaulted law enforcement officers.
- Three were arrested for Assault on a Federal Officer.
- Violent anarchists attempted to ambush Portland Police Department PD during their shift change, but a DHS team was deployed and able to prevent any attacks.
07/11/2020
- DHS law enforcement officers supported local police to help a violent anarchist who overdosed.
- Four violent anarchists were arrested, including one who attempted to assault an officer with a hammer.
- Violent anarchists sieged the barricade of the courthouse and tried to damage it with a large hammer.
- A law enforcement officer was assaulted with blows from a hammer. Violent anarchists fought officers while they were arresting those responsible.
07/12/2020
- Six violent anarchists were detained and cited.
- A mob of 300 refused to comply with directions not to trespass on federal property.
- Another mob of 200 individuals armed with sledgehammers, tasers and/or stun guns, gathered in Chapman Park across from the Hatfield Courthouse.
- Violent anarchists launched fireworks, threw fecal matter and large objects, and pointed lasers at federal law enforcement officers.
- Violent anarchists deployed a plywood blockade while graffitiing the Edith Green-Wenell Wyatt Federal Building, before firing wrist rockets at the facility.
- When an arrest team was deployed to apprehend a rioter who encroached on a police barrier and refused to leave, they were assaulted by violent anarchists.
- A rioter trespassed on the steps of the Hatfield Courthouse and was confronted by federal law enforcement Officers, then swallowed a large amount of narcotics. Law enforcement called medical services after the individual started to convulse.
- Despite more orders to stay off of federal property and to cease unlawful activity, FPS was forced to push back violent anarchists. The Portland Police Bureau declared the mob an unlawful assembly.
07/13/2020
- Violent anarchists released personal information of federal law enforcement officers to the public, publishing names of those in Portland.
- Violent anarchists continued to assault law enforcement officers with lasers, slingshots and fireworks. Others were armed with sledge hammers, tasers, and stun guns, and dragged flaming debris into the scene.
07/14/2020
- Violent anarchists set a container of liquid on fire at the Terry Schrunk Plaza.
- Violent anarchists jumped a fence and attempted to breach the Edith Green Federal Building.
- Violent anarchists assaulted federal law enforcement officers with cans and other hard objects while they attempted to unblock the entrance of the Edith Green Federal Building.
07/15/2020
- Violent anarchists doxed members of federal law enforcement.
- Violent anarchists attempted to damage the Hatfield Courthouse by throwing objects at it and spray painting it. Numerous fireworks were also lit.
- Violent anarchists trespassed on federal property and destroyed a card reader at the Justice Center.
- It's The Preppers That Are Laughing Now…
It’s The Preppers That Are Laughing Now…
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 20:50Submitted by Luke Eastwood,
Since the crash of 2008 much has been made of the fact that the world did not end or the sky fall in on us – unless of course you are one of the people who have been touched by bankrupcy, homelessness, addiction or even suicide as a result of the crash. The truth is that, since the financial collapse, life has not improved, improved very little or even got worse for a huge number of individuals around the world.
Many political and financial pundits have highlighted the fact that the problems that caused the sub-prime crisis and subsequent bank collapses around the world are in fact a systemic problem. However, it appears that very little has been done to remedy the situation. The basic problem is not complex at all – it is very simple in fact:
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All closed systems have limits and the economic and ecological world system is nearing the limits of tolerance.
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The main beneficiaries of the current system are a tiny minority (often referred to as the 1%), which is in fact growing smaller, further exacerbating imbalance.
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No attempt has been made to address a flawed system that is ultimately unsustainable – papering of the crack is all that has occurred.
If you accept the 3 points above then it is easy to see that we are not in fact headed anywhere better in the short or medium term. If no attempts are made to deal with the distribution of capital, the availability of financially meaningful employment, the facilitation of resources and investment in genuinely productive and beneficial enterprises then circumstances will continue to deteriorate.
The short to medium term solution to the 2008 crisis was quantitative easing, or stimulus, however many would argue that the stimulus was given to the arse when it needed to be given to the brain of the patient. Stimulus in the wrong place is of no benefit if the system remains unchanged, or if the beneficiaries only gain more from maintaining the status quo, instead of engaging in reform.
So here we are in 2020, QE or stimulus never ended, although somewhat declining in recent years, it has now been ramped up again to frightening levels. We now have a situation where the broken system of 2008 is still broken but now with a level of leveraging across countries and corporations that is eye-wateringly catastrophic. If this is not a black swan moment in itself, the fact that we have to contend with COVID19, political and social unrest, locust plagues in Africa and Asia, increased threat of war, plus increased protectionism and nationalism should be ringing everyone’s alarm bells.
There is a significant drag in the system, a time delay or delayed reaction if you will. I personally regard this as being about 6 months lag between disaster A and full comprehension of the impact of disaster A. This is then followed by the repercussions of this new understanding, which is from that point onwards is reflected in financial markets, on main street, employment levels, the media and in every day life. At this moment we are seeing or are about to see Q2 figures from across the world, which is the beginning of the comprehension of disaster A, and a growing awareness that disasters B, C, D and E are in progress right now.
Preppers have long been derided as maniacs who see doom and gloom and impending disaster around every corner. While many of these people and social/financial commentators may have been wrong about the timing, they have been right all along about the systemic weakness and the strong likelihood of an implosion that could gut societies all across the world. It may have been fun to have a good laugh at ‘Johnny no mates’, filling his plastic bins with non-perishable foods and buying gold coins, but now Johnny is not look so stupid any more.
The full impact of the coming financial devastation is a long way off, what we have seem this year is just the entré, a small taste of what is to come. I would suggest that Q3 and Q4 will yield results of unprecedented disaster that will lead to a mass exodus from financial markets, a collapse of the derivatives market, commercial and domestic property collapse and possibly the insolvency of many large financial institutions and corporations across the world.
For those who have not prepared at all for the coming economic and social chaos, I would to suggest that right now is a good time to start – as soon as you have finished reading this article! Those with a high level of debt would be wise to pay it off if they have the ability to do so. Those with financial assets likely to be devalued by a stock market slide, derivatives collapse etc would be wise to get out while the getting is good. Those that have property that is expensive, costly to maintain and not generating income would also be wise to sell it while it still retains any quantifiable value.
In my own case, I have sold my home which had an unsustainable mortgage and cleared that debt. I have made arrangements to settle all other borrowings within the next 12 months. I have relocated to a low population area, living in a very affordable rented home. I have changed job and now work part-time as a government employee in a pensionable job. I also have a supply of non-perishable food that will last 3-6 months, tools and equipment to deal with lack of supply and a shared ‘allotment’ near by, to grow food. I also have a reasonable supply of 1oz silver coins and bars, which should hopefully retain some purchasing value when the hyperinflation eventually hits.
My own prepping is fairly minor, compared to some, however I feel adequately prepared to ride out the inevitable storms that are coming our way. I would not have revealed these steps in the past, given the general derision of most people towards those preparing for disaster. I would most likely be lumped in with the ‘tin foil hat’ conspiracists for taking steps to avoid destitution, hunger and the disintegration of my personal situation, brought on by events beyond my control. Now that we have finally arrived at the ‘perfect storm’ people like me are not looking like fools any more.
In truth it is the people with zero vision, foresight and planning who are going to look stupid. It is those who have sleep-walked through the last decade and done nothing to safeguard their own future who will be feeling stupid very soon. However, total disaster is not upon us just yet – it is still in the post. There is still time to sell up, move house, change career, pay off debt. If you have not already analysed your life and its future viability, in the face of unprecedented change, now would be a very good time to start.
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Luke Eastwood is a horticulturist and writer, living in Ireland. He has formerly worked in the financial industry in UK, journalism, publishing, design, advertsing and marketing. You can read more of his work at lukeeastwood.com
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- "Death Yard" – Where Rental Cars Go To Die
“Death Yard” – Where Rental Cars Go To Die
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 20:30Several months ago, we noticed parking lots across the US were quickly filling up with rental cars as the entire car rental industry collapsed. The virus-induced recession crushed the travel and tourism industry, so it would only make sense that indirect industries, like rental cars, would get hammered.
In May, rental car fleets were being shifted from airports to massive parking lots at sports stadiums from Philipedia to Los Angeles; the pictures below show the magnitude of the collapse:
About 2,200 Enterprise rental cars are parked at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia 
Aloha Stadium’s parking lot has become the temporary home to 1,000 to 1,500 rental vehicles on Oahu that have become idle because of the novel coronavirus pandemic. 
Hundreds of rental cars are being temporarily parked at Dodger Stadium as travel continues to constrict amid the coronavirus pandemic. Thanks to mcm-ct.com, who also showed us the commercial real estate bust in South Florida in May, has once again posted stunning pictures of where rental cars now ‘go to die’.
MCM might have uncovered the evolution of what happens to rental cars after they’re temporarily parked at sports stadiums or massive parking lots – that is, as he describes – ends up in a “death yard” – as Hertz and other rental car companies will eventually markdown these assets from their respective balance sheets.
On Sunday, MCM’s Twitter post said he “drove past” the Palm Beach International Airport on Saturday and uncovered a huge parking lot of “rental cars needing maintenance/out of commission.”
Drove past the WPB Airport yesterday & saw this:
A DEATH YARD FOR RENTAL CARS NEEDING MAINTENANCE/OUT OF COMMISSION
1. EVERY CAR mechanical issue marked on window
2. THEY ARE BAKING IN THE
3. WILL TAKE YEARS & $$$ TO GET THROUGH THESE REPAIRS
Can you say asset impairment? /1 pic.twitter.com/oSLi0JoBkv
— mcm-ct.com (@mcm_ct) July 12, 2020
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He said, “every car” had mechanical issues “marked on” the window – as they bake in the South Florida sun. He said it would “take years & $$$ to get through these repairs,” as he suggested: “Can you say asset impairment?”
From the street, MCM snapped a panoramic view of the parking lot with at least a thousand of these cars left in the sun to die.
h/t MCM He shows every window is “marked with mechanical issues.”
h/t MCM Here’s another angle of the yard – with a closer look – all of these vehicles are basically brand-new.
h/t MCM Another view:
h/t MCM And another:
h/t MCM MCM said: “Anyway you look at it, its YEARS OF INVENTORY that is sitting baking in the sun…it is a major operation imo just to find the keys for these cars let alone repair and move them – they will be there for a very long time it seems and that means these cars will deteriorate a lot.”
Adding that, “DON’T WORRY THE @federalreserve CAN FIX THIS as @neelkashkari is on the job.”
And if MCM is right – Hertz and or other rental car companies could be on the cusp of writing down their vehicle fleets as the anticipation of steady cash flows from these assets are now deemed unrecoverable as the whole travel and tourism industry has gone bust and will remain depressed for years.
- Georgia Gov Kemp Sues Atlanta Mayor Over "Illegal" Mandatory Mask Order: Live Updates
Georgia Gov Kemp Sues Atlanta Mayor Over “Illegal” Mandatory Mask Order: Live Updates
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 20:19Summary:
- Brian Kemp sues Keisha Bottoms
- Texas suffers record COVID-19 deaths
- Brazil passes 2MN cases
- Puerto Rico closes bars, beaches
- Rumor about impending Texas shutdown surfaces
- Colorado expected to issue statewide mask mandate
- Russia denies vaccine hacking
- New restrictions imposed Pennsylvania
- California deaths climb
- # of patients on ventilators hits new record
- New York reports latest numbers
- Arizona sees another decline in new cases
- Florida reports 156 deaths, new daily record
- Global cases top 13.5 mil
- HK reports 63 new cases for 3rd record in a week
- US reports 65k+ cases; 2nd highest daily tally
- Indonesia orders social distancing violators punished
- Tokyo suffers record jump
- Victoria reports more than 300 new cases Thursday
- ICU deaths moving lower around the world
- Texas reports daily record yesterday
* * *
Update (2000ET): As Georgia’s daily cases climb and pressure builds on governors to authorize more restrictions and enforcing social distancing rules, he is instead doing the opposite and has decided to sue Atlanta over Mayor Keisha Bottom’s mandatory mask order.
In a tweet, Kemp claimed that he was acting on behalf of small business owners and hard-working employees.
This lawsuit is on behalf of the Atlanta business owners and their hardworking employees who are struggling to survive during these difficult times. (1/4) https://t.co/vxiOmteHaH
— Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) July 16, 2020
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A week ago when Bottoms became one of the first to independently impose the mandatory mask order, Gov Kemp chimed in to insist that it was unenforceable and that individuals retained the right not to wear them, if they so choose.
Atlanta Mayor @KeishaBottoms‘ action today is merely guidance – both non-binding and legally unenforceable. As clearly stated in my executive orders, no local action can be more or less restrictive, and that rule applies statewide. (1/3) https://t.co/3pQdB0pI70
— Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) July 10, 2020
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Kemp issued an order a few days ago “strongly encouraging” Georgians to wear masks and public and follow the social distancing guidance.
To flatten the curve, I urge all local elected officials to enforce the terms of this order. Together, we will keep fighting #COVID19, weather this storm, and emerge stronger than ever.https://t.co/CKFdrW4C3M
— Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) July 16, 2020
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As lawsuits have been filed in red states, including Texas, by various parties, masks have become a major political flashpoint while Dr. Fauci urges Americans to abandon the polarizing partisanship and simply follow the guidelines.
He also said some states should reimpose a lockdown order, against the explicit wishes of the president, who fears lockdowns could cost him the election.
“We’ve got to regroup, call a time out,” Dr. Fauci said live in an interview with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
In Asia, Japan’s agriculture ministry has decided to suspend bids seeking contractors for its “Go To Eat” campaign aimed at bolstering struggling restaurants as the number of new cases surges in Tokyo.
* * *
Update (1755ET): One day after the Lone Star State posted a record jump in new cases and fatalities, it followed up with another record-breaking death tally of virus-linked fatalities on Thursday. The Texas death toll climbed by 129 to 3,561, eclipsing the jump of 110 from Wednesday.
Though Thursday’s 10,291 cases fell short of yesterday’s record by about 500 cases, it marked the third straight day of 10k+ new cases in Texas.
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While Hispanics make up 40% of infected patients in Texas, young people in their 20s and 30s comprise the largest age groups of patients.
Though the fatality data breakdown tell a much different story.
As deaths appear to be moving off their lows for the first time since the latest wave began last month, the positivity rate on Thursday came in at 17.8% (overall, the figure is 10.8%).
Hospitalizations remain near record highs.
Meanwhile, rumors are swirling about Gov Abbott potentially moving Texas back into Phase 1 of its reopening, or even a partial – or complete – lockdown.
In Puerto Rico, the island’s governor just announced plans to close bars and other areas where the virus might spread.
- PUERTO RICO CLOSING BARS, MOVIE THEATERS, CASINOS, GYMS
- PUERTO RICO GOVERNOR: BEACHES CLOSED FOR GROUPS, SUNBATHERS
As the CDC rapidly falls out of favor in the West Wing, the agency said Thursday that it would be extending its “no sail” cruise ship order through September.
- CDC: CRUISE SHIP NO SAIL ORDER EXTENDED THROUGH SEPT 2020
And in Brazil, the number of new cases pushed the total passed 2 million.
- BRAZIL SURPASSES 2 MILLION COVID-19 CASES
* * *
Update (1540ET): As we mentioned earlier, Florida has taken the lead for daily COVID-19 cases per capita from Arizona.
FLORIDA has taken lead for new daily COVID cases *per capita*
Followed by:
ARIZONA
LOUISIANA
SOUTH CAROLINA
ALABAMA pic.twitter.com/Ke9SwDwnRN— Steven Dennis (@StevenTDennis) July 16, 2020
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* * *
Update (1520ET): Arkansas Gov Asa Hutchinson has just declared that mask-wearing will be made mandatory across the state.
The announcement was made during Thursday’s briefing.
LIVE: Governor Hutchinson Provides COVID-19 Update (7.16.20): https://t.co/mmUfaR1Bgi
— Gov. Asa Hutchinson (@AsaHutchinson) July 16, 2020
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* * *
Update (1445ET): We’re hearing chatter that Texas Gov Greg Abbott is on the cusp of shutting down Texas following a surge in new cases yesterday and over the past week.
Rumor TX shutdown announcement tomorrow
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 16, 2020
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TEXAS SHUTDOWN TO BE ANNOUNCED TOMORROW : SOURCES
— FXHedge (@Fxhedgers) July 16, 2020
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Texas Gov Abbott has dismissed these rumors, yet they persist. A couple of days ago, the Texas Tribune reported that hospitals in the state were running low on everything, drugs, PPE, beds, ventilators, and even staff.
* * *
Update (1430ET):The Denver Post reports that Colorado Governor Jared Polis is expected to issue a statewide mask mandate Thursday afternoon after facing pressure from several of his fellow Democrats. The Post cited several unidentified sources with knowledge of the governor’s decision-making. Roughly 40 cities and counties had already imposed the mask ban.
Additionally, PA Gov Tom Wolf declared an “alarming escalation” in virus cases and imposed new rule on Thursday, including shutting down nightclubs and bars while limiting indoor restaurant seating to 25% capacity.
Meanwhile, a Russian official denied accusations by the UK (along with US & Canada) that the country’s state intelligence agencies are hacking international research centers that are working to develop the vaccine.
* * *
Update (1415ET): California COVID-19 cases rise 8,544 (+3.3%), compared with 11,126 previously, recorded 118 deaths Wednesday, well above the 14-day rolling average of 84. The average positivity rate over the last 2 weeks has been 7.2%, which is little changed from yesterday. Thursday’s increased pushed the state’s total to 347,634, within striking distance of passing 350k. The state’s death toll is 7,227. More than 5.75 million tests have been run.
Here’s the rundown of cases by county:
The number of hospitalized patients declined by 9, after adding 41 the prior before. The number of patients confined to the ICU declined by 10 (from an increase of 21 from the prior day).
* * *
Update (1334ET): Following the discouraging numbers out of Fla. earlier, Miami has just confirmed that the number of patients on ventilators has reached a new record.
- MIAMI-DADE HAS RECORD 257 COVID-19 PATIENTS ON VENTILATORS
- MIAMI-DADE COVID-19 ICU PATIENTS AT RECORD 472; PREV. 431
* * *
Update (1145ET): New York Gov Andrew Cuomo released today’s COVID-19 update….
Today’s update on the numbers:
72,685 tests were performed yesterday. 769 tests came back positive (1.06% of total).
Total hospitalizations fell to 813.
Sadly, there were 14 COVID fatalities yesterday. pic.twitter.com/rg5UUJYl0L
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) July 16, 2020
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….along with a tweet showcasing his state’s generosity toward the people of Houston.
NY didn’t wait for Houston to call — we offered help to @houmayor and the City of Houston.
We have teams on the ground to set up testing sites that are now up & running.
We are grateful for what people across the US did for NY. We’ll never forget it & we are paying it forward. pic.twitter.com/nuGiY7yPip
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) July 16, 2020
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Houston is on the cusp of crossing the 70k threshold.
Cuomo added that NYC is still headed for ‘Phase 4’ to begin on Monday, though the final decision won’t be made until Friday. He also warned about the risks of travelers from out of state hotspots reigniting the outbreak in his state.
For comparison, here are the numbers from yesterday.
Today’s update on the numbers:
63,598 tests were performed yesterday. 831 tests came back positive (1.30% of total).
Total hospitalizations are at 831.
Sadly, there were 9 COVID fatalities yesterday. pic.twitter.com/mvgTEFa7bj
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) July 15, 2020
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* * *
Update (1130ET): Arizona reported 3,259 (+2.5%) new cases on Thursday, compared with a 7-day average of 2.8%.
Hospitalizations were down 39 (-1.12%) from the prior day to 3,454; officials reported 58 (+2.4%) new deaths, bringing the statewide death toll to 2,492. Total cases climbed to 134,613.
In Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and the worst-hit part of the state, there are now more than 86,000 new coronavirus cases, and more than 1,200 deaths.
The percentage of ICU beds occupied declined slightly to 89%.
The state’s total positivity rate declined to 12.1%.
* * *
Update (1040ET): Florida was one of the few silver linings yesterday. As California and Texas posted new records, the Sunshine State reported roughly 10k new cases, its lowest tally in days. But that reversed on Thursday as the state reported nearly 14k new cases, a near record daily total.
But that changed on Thursday, as Florida reported 13,837 (+4.6%) new cases over the last 24 hours, per the state Department of Health (that’s compared with a 7-day average of 4.4%) and another record number of new daily deaths.
Florida’s total case count surpassed 300k earlier in the week; presently, it stands at 315,775 following Thursday’s increase (all cases are reported with a 24-hour delay).
But a more disheartening headline on Thursday was the death toll, which came in at a record 156 on Thursday, beating the last record by more than 30 cases. That brought the statewide death toll to 4,677, and comes as media warns about the risk of deaths surging in the coming days and weeks due to the ‘death lag’. The percentage of tests that came back positive was 15.4%.
As Arizona’s outbreak continues to slow (just as Goldman anticipated), likely due at least in part to Gov Ducey’s aggressive action, Florida has cemented its position as coronavirus leader for the entire US.
Experts are blaming the spike on tourists in hot spots like Miami ignoring social distancing regulations, and spreading the virus from other parts of the US.
Whatever the cause or causes, this will undoubtedly ratchet up pressure on Gov Ron DeSantis to make mask-wearing mandatory in public.
* * *
Days after adopting its more restrictive measures to combat COVID-19 yet, Hong Kong has reported a record single-day jump in newly confirmed cases, its third record-setting tally in a week.
A record 63 local cases were reported on Thursday. Of these, 35 were of unknown origin, according to the city’s health department. The city-state’s new outbreak has infected 300+ people under two weeks, with more than a third of infections bearing no discernible connections to preexisting outbreaks.
Meanwhile, in the US, as the nationwide death toll topped 140k, the number of new cases reported yesterday (remember these numbers come with a 24-hour delay) was the second-highest yet, coming in at more than 65k.
Yesterday, both Texas and California reported new single-day records, which certainly helped drive the total higher.
As another wave of infections sweeps across southeast Asia, Indonesia is planning to fine violators of social distancing rules under a new law as President Joko Widodo scrambles to contain an outbreak that his government once deliberately tried to ignore and dismiss as nonexistent, despite the threat posed to his people.
Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, Tokyo also reported another daily record of 286 new coronavirus cases as Japanese grow concerned about the outbreak in the capital, which is now under level 4 COVID-19 alert, the highest possible. The government is now trying to discourage travel and commuting, scrapping a campaign to promote domestic tourism. While the city’s latest cluster was traced to nightclubs, officials believe it has now traveled much further.
Meanwhile, Australia’s second-most-populous state, Victoria, also recorded 317 new cases, its biggest spike yet too, as the state struggles to clamp down on a sudden reemergence of infections that has threatened to spread across all of Australia. The jump comes one week after Melbourne and some of the surrounding area entered a new partial lockdown.
The 7-day average of COVID-19 deaths in the US as ticked higher to levels not seen in 2 weeks as the pattern appears to plateau. The US reported roughly 1,000 deaths on Thursday.
Globally, the US reported another 230k+ new cases, and just under 5k deaths, driving the global case total north of 13.5 million (exact total: 13,727,388 per Worldometer).
But while the numbers on the chart appear to show a slight tick higher, the deluge of MSM warnings that the death lag is very, very real have seemed almost unhinged in their authors’ refusal to acknowledge several factors – including lower median age of those infected and more effective treatment strategies – that might constrain deaths from returning to their highs from the NYC peak. Or 3,000 deaths a day, as the NYT once predicted.
However, the latest data out of Bloomberg shows that overall mortality continues to decline. Overall ICU deaths have fallen to just under 42% at the end of May from almost 60% in March, according to the first systematic analysis of two dozen studies involving more than 10,000 patients spanning three continents. Such news is fortunate given the “unprecedented demand” that the virus has imposed on these services.
- Has Cancel Culture Infected Your Kids' School? A Parent Group May Have A Remedy
Has Cancel Culture Infected Your Kids’ School? A Parent Group May Have A Remedy
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 20:10Submitted by Mark Glennon of Wirepoints
Claiming ‘Unique Opportunity to Lead the Nation,’ Parents Ask High School to Adopt ‘Freedom of Expression Resolution’
Has the cancel culture infected your kids’ school? A parent group may have a partial remedy. A resolution submitted to the New Trier High School board in north suburban Chicago would, if adopted, assure:
New Trier High School’s fundamental commitment is to the principle that debate or deliberation may not be suppressed because the ideas put forth are thought by some or even by most members of the New Trier High School community to be offensive, unwise.
It would guaranty all members of the school community “the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn.”
The resolution apparently would be the first of its kind in the nation at the high school level. It is modeled on The Chicago Statement, which was adopted by the University of Chicago in 2015 in response to the illiberal trend of free speech intolerance on college campuses. The full resolution appears below.
It was drafted by New Trier Neighbors, a parent group that grew out of opposition to what was criticized as one-sided content in the school’s “Seminar Day” in 2017, which a Wall Street Journal article called “Racial Indoctrination Day.”
The seminar received extensive, national media attention because of its exclusive focus on topics like systemic racism, implicit bias and, as the Journal put it, the “divisive view of race as a primordial fact, the essence of identity, a bright line between oppressed and oppressor.”
We wrote about it here at the time. My son attended the school then. I was among the critics who asked for a broader range of viewpoints like those of Robert Woodson, Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell, John McWhorter and Corey Brooks. The school rejected our requests.
New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois Since then, the school has only broadened what it describes as its “equity initiative,” expanding what dissenting parents regard as authoritarian imposition of the far left’s single-minded views on race – as well as other topics. Last year, the school moved to infuse its administration’s views on “equity” into virtually all subject areas including math, science, sports, language and more, which you can see in the memo linked here.
Some right-of-center students have spoken up about having their viewpoints squelched, and even being penalized on grading for their views. My kids reported the same things when there.
New Trier is hardly alone. Similar stories from high schools and even grade schools around the country are now common.
The resolution presents the school with an opportunity to move in a more balanced direction that respects diversity of opinion and returns the school to a focus on critical thinking skills. New Trier Neighbors drafted the resolution in consultation with the K-12 policy experts at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
No word yet on how or when the school board will act on it.
We often receive emails at Wirepoints from ordinary citizens asking “What can I do? How can I get involved to stop what’s happening?”
This resolution is one answer. Push for a similar one in your school districts.
The cancel culture that now plagues the nation has its roots where it should have no place whatsoever – schools. That’s especially true about the disastrously counterproductive orthodoxy on systemic racism, implicit bias and the like. Its easily predictable consequences are now apparent across the nation – more racism and division. Race relations have been set back by fifty years.
For those reasons, what New Trier itself does with the resolution is actually secondary. While we hope it will adopt the resolution, it’s far more important that its introduction set a trend for districts around the nation.
Indoctrination long ago replaced education on most college campuses. Freedom of expression resolutions might help save high schools from the same fate.
Parents, it’s in your hands.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
*******************
The New Trier High School Freedom of Expression Resolution, presented to the Board for adoption in its entirety, and based on The Chicago Statement:
Because New Trier High School is committed to free and open inquiry in all matters, it guarantees all members of the New Trier High School community the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge, and learn. Except insofar as limitations on that freedom are necessary to the functioning of New Trier High School, New Trier High School fully respects and supports the freedom of all members of the New Trier High School community “to discuss any problem that presents itself.”
Of course, the ideas of different members of the New Trier High School community will often and quite naturally conflict. But it is not the proper role of New Trier High School to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even offensive. Although New Trier High School greatly values civility, and although all members of the New Trier High School community share in the responsibility for maintaining a climate of mutual respect, concerns about civility and mutual respect can never be used as a justification for closing off discussion of ideas, however offensive or disagreeable those ideas may be to some members of our community.
The freedom to debate and discuss the merits of competing ideas does not, of course, mean that individuals may say whatever they wish, wherever they wish. New Trier High School may restrict expression that violates the law, that falsely defames a specific individual, that constitutes a genuine threat or harassment, that unjustifiably invades substantial privacy or confidentiality interests, or that is otherwise directly incompatible with the functioning of New Trier High School.In addition, New Trier High School may reasonably regulate the time, place, and manner of expression to ensure that it does not disrupt the ordinary activities of New Trier High School. But these are narrow exceptions to the general principle of freedom of expression, and it is vitally important that these exceptions never be used in a manner that is inconsistent with New Trier High School’s commitment to a completely free and open discussion of ideas.
In a word, New Trier High School’s fundamental commitment is to the principle that debate or deliberation may not be suppressed because the ideas put forth are thought by some or even by most members of the New Trier High School community to be offensive, unwise, immoral, or wrong-headed. It is for the individual members of the New Trier High School community, not for New Trier High School as an institution, to make those judgments for themselves, and to act on those judgments not by seeking to suppress speech, but by openly and vigorously contesting the ideas that they oppose. Indeed, fostering the ability of members of the New Trier High School community to engage in such debate and deliberation in an effective and responsible manner is an essential part of New Trier High School’s educational mission.
As a corollary to New Trier High School’s commitment to protect and promote free expression, members of the New Trier High School community must also act in conformity with the principle of free expression. Although members of the New Trier High School community are free to criticize and contest the views expressed on campus, and to criticize and contest speakers who are invited to express their views on campus, they may not obstruct or otherwise interfere with the freedom of others to express views they reject or even loathe. To this end, New Trier High School has a solemn responsibility not only to promote a lively and fearless freedom of debate and deliberation, but also to protect that freedom when others attempt to restrict it.”
- Trump Secretly Authorized CIA To Run "Very Aggressive" Cyberwar Ops With No Oversight
Trump Secretly Authorized CIA To Run “Very Aggressive” Cyberwar Ops With No Oversight
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 19:50A bombshell new investigative report in Yahoo News could shed light on the recent spate of ‘mystery’ blasts rocking strategic Iranian sites like Natanz nuclear plant and ballistic missile bases.
The report details that in 2018 President Trump issued a ‘secret authorization’ essentially allowing a ‘gloves off’ approach by US intelligence agencies in conducting cyber warfare against Iran and other so-called rogue states:
The Central Intelligence Agency has conducted a series of covert cyber operations against Iran and other targets since winning a secret victory in 2018 when President Trump signed what amounts to a sweeping authorization for such activities, according to former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the matter.
File image via Outside the Beltway It appears the kind of hidden ‘dirty war’ operations which accompanied the Washington’s long-running proxy war against Assad in Syria. This amid a broader Iran policy spanning across administrations – through at least the Bush years – targeting Tehran for regime change.
“The secret authorization, known as a presidential finding, gives the spy agency more freedom in both the kinds of operations it conducts and who it targets, undoing many restrictions that had been in place under prior administrations,” the report continues. “The finding allows the CIA to more easily authorize its own covert cyber operations, rather than requiring the agency to get approval from the White House.”
But it’s not just Iran, according to the report, but other ‘official enemies’ and so-called rogue states like North Korea, and including Russia and China.
This also as both Russia and China have this week stood accused of attempting to hack US labs and pharmaceutical companies to gain valuable coronavirus research and vaccine development information.
The Yahoo News report continues:
The “very aggressive” finding “gave the agency very specific authorities to really take the fight offensively to a handful of adversarial countries,” said a former U.S. government official. These countries include Russia, China, Iran and North Korea — which are mentioned directly in the document — but the finding potentially applies to others as well, according to another former official. “The White House wanted a vehicle to strike back,” said the second former official. “And this was the way to do it.”
Trump authorized covert ops when Pompeo was director of CIA, then made him Secretary of State. One goal of operation is *destabilizing* #Iran.
Pompeo never really left CIA, he uses Sec of State post for propaganda & sabotage. He’s an agent not a diplomat.https://t.co/bjMQaSF6ye
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) July 16, 2020
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In essence this means the CIA can simply authorize its own operations regarding these countries if there’s evidence or even just strong suspicion that an entity could be a threat to US national security. This means for example that Iranian or journalists, banks, or their foreign organizations could (and have been) targeted for state-run hacking and cyber-warfare operations.
One former official who remains critical of the Trump authorization said: “Our government is basically turning into f***ing WikiLeaks.” Consider this explosive section of the report:
The finding has made it easier for the CIA to damage adversaries’ critical infrastructure, such as petrochemical plants, and to engage in the kind of hack-and-dump operations that Russian hackers and WikiLeaks popularized, in which tranches of stolen documents or data are leaked to journalists or posted on the internet. It has also freed the agency to conduct disruptive operations against organizations that were largely off limits previously, such as banks and other financial institutions.
Another key change with the finding is it lessened the evidentiary requirements that limited the CIA’s ability to conduct covert cyber operations against entities like media organizations, charities, religious institutions or businesses believed to be working on behalf of adversaries’ foreign intelligence services, as well as individuals affiliated with these organizations, according to former officials.
And now recall the widespread speculation this month that the series of over six ‘random’ blasts and fires which have disabled key Iranian military and industrial sites is part of either a US or Israeli sabotage operation.
Aftermath of July 2 blast that destroyed a centrifuge workshop at the Natanz installation. Many speculated it was the work of Israeli or US intelligence, or both. Asia Times recently asked for example: are we witnessing the “the son of Stuxnet?”
Recent explosions in Iran may have been caused by computer viruses similar to the Stuxnet virus that disabled Iranian centrifuges in 2010.
Two of the blasts took place at power plants, one at a missile research, development and production site, one at a new uranium enrichment centrifuge center, and the last (if it can be considered part of the attacks) in downtown Tehran at a medical facility that could have been a cover for nuclear operations such as a hidden command center.
Thus the timing of this new revelation detailing the secret Trump presidential finding essentially giving the CIA near carte blanche powers to wage cyberwarfare is curious indeed.
- Profs Demand University Police Chief Resign After Seeing 'Blue Lives Matter' Flag At His Home
Profs Demand University Police Chief Resign After Seeing ‘Blue Lives Matter’ Flag At His Home
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 19:30Authored by McKenna Dallmeyer via Campus Reform,
Even after the police chief at West Virginia University publicly apologized for a “Thin Blue Line” flag displayed in his home during a Zoom meeting, professors at the university are still demanding his resignation.
In response to George Floyd’s death, West Virginia University’s Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Meshea Poore and W.P. Chedester, chief of University Police, sent out a letter to the students and faculty of WVU.
“We stand united against the violence and racism, discrimination or bias towards Black people that has plagued our country for so many years,” the letter read.
“And by recognizing there is a systemic problem in many law enforcement agencies across the U.S. and taking a stand against injustice, we can begin the process of rebuilding trust within our communities.”
In order to discuss “how we can work together to foster a safe, diverse, and inclusive culture,” West Virginia University hosted a virtual Campus Conversation over Zoom. The format of the call allowed students to ask questions to university officials regarding race relations on campus.
Visible during the video conference was a hand-carved Thin Blue Line flag on Chedester’s wall.
The Thin Blue Line flag is viewed by many as a symbol of “honor and respect” for law enforcement. According to Flags of Valor, “the Thin Blue Line embodies the unbreakable component of law enforcement standing as a safety barrier between the law-abiding citizens of America and the criminally inclined.”
Students and faculty were outraged by the chief’s choice of wall decor and expressed their grievances with WVU immediately.
Within hours, Chedester issued a letter of apology for the pro-law enforcement flag being displayed behind him during the virtual conference.
He said that the flag always symbolized “a way to honor the commitment I made as a first responder to protect our community,” adding “I understand now that it represents something else to many others; something that I now know was traumatic to some of our community tuning in for our Conversation.”
“I sincerely did not have any intent to suggest that police lives matter more than Black lives nor was I intentionally trying to cause any harm or offense,” Chedester continued.
Chedester then promised to remove the flag from his office.
“I am committed to rebuilding that trust beginning today. I am taking the flag down from my office wall,” he concluded.
Some WVU facuty members were still not satisfied with these sentiments.
On WVU’s tweet linking Chedester’s apology, assistant professor in WVU’s Department of English Rose Caseyreplied thanking Chedester and explaining that “the Blue Lives Matter flag is associated with white supremacy.”
She then linked a Politico article conflating the flag with racism because it was spotted beside a Confederate flag at the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The same article quotes Arizona State University professor of criminology Michael White who said the flag
“fosters this ‘us versus them’ mentality.’”WVU Associate Professor of Biochemical Genetics Vagner Benedito called for Chedester’s resignation on Twitter in reply to the chief’s apology letter: “The only way forward is with his resignation. Why is it so difficult to comprehend?”
The only way forward is with his resignation. Why is it so difficult to comprehend?
— Vagner Benedito (@vabenedito) June 11, 2020
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Thank you. The Blue Lives Matter flag is associated with white supremacy. Given the racism that the country is grappling with, which this talk was meant to address, UPD Chief Chedester’s apology is welcome. Let’s continue to be talk honestly about what we’re addressing: racism.
— Rose Casey (@ARoseCasey) June 11, 2020
Benedito commented again on Twitter demanding Chedester’s resignation.
“Campus police chief is a position we all should trust. POC will not be trusting his leadership. Moving forward, he must resign to make sure there is inclusions and equality regarding the police actions on campus!” Benedito wrote.
Benedito told Campus Reform that it while it would be “ludicrous” to expect Chedester to remove the flag from his office, he does “expect the police on campus to defend everyone, including minorities,” and believes that Chedesters’ possession of the flag demonstrates his unwillingness to do so.
“As you already know, that flag was crafted to oppose the Black Lives Matter movement, even though historically police lives have always mattered while black lives have been taken away by systematic police brutality over and over again,” Benedito said.
Benedito added that he did not find Chedester’s apology letter “convincing.”
“If he was indeed ignorant about its meaning, he should not be in a position of so much power for being so much misinformed about the current situation of the country, especially in matters involving the police,” Benedito told Campus Reform.
“To be clear, the diverse community at WVU and allies are demanding the replacement of WVU Chief Police moving forward,” Benedito said.
- State-Linked Chinese Firm Uses Own Workers As Guinea Pigs In Unregulated Vaccine "Pre-Test"
State-Linked Chinese Firm Uses Own Workers As Guinea Pigs In Unregulated Vaccine “Pre-Test”
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 19:10A major Chinese state-run pharmaceutical company is going to extreme, and some might say dangerous, lengths to develop a coronavirus vaccine at a moment the global race is on to get one safely out.
The company announced this week that its Chinese employees and even top executives stood in as guinea pigs for a “pre-test” of its potential new vaccine.
SinoPharm said that 30 of its own “special volunteers” had the experimental vaccine administered to them prior to it going through a rigorous regulations and official approval process. It’s bringing up serious ethical questions over to what degree state-linked Chinese firms are coercing their employees into participating in unregulated and experimental pharmaceutical tests.
SinoPharm boasts that its workers are “Giving a helping hand in forging the sword of victory.” Via AP The Associated Press reported of the company statements:
SinoPharm’s claim that 30 “special volunteers” rolled up their sleeves even before the company got permission for its initial human study raises ethical concerns among Western observers. The company’s post cites a “spirit of sacrifice” and shows seven men in suits and ties — a mix of scientists, businessmen and one Communist Party official with a background in military propaganda.
The SinoPharm statement touted that its employees were “giving a helping hand in forging the sword of victory.”
China’s state media propagated the firm’s statement via English language outlets:
Top Chinese executives at SinoPharm say they are proud to receive experimental shots ahead of government approved testing in people. The online post “giving a helping hand in forging the sword of victory,” highlights the world’s race to find a vaccine for #COVID-19. pic.twitter.com/nz72kiLANp
— CGTN America (@cgtnamerica) July 16, 2020
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Currently there’s some eight experimental vaccines in various stages of testing being developed in China, and many more at labs worldwide.
SinoPharm brochure touting that their own top executives are receiving an experimental shot:
The Hill described that SinoPharm’s vaccine is unique, in that it “mirrors the development of the polio vaccine, and uses an ‘inactivated’ or killed virus to develop the vaccine. Most Western vaccine development uses technology to focus on the protein on the virus instead.”
Critics have said it sets a precedent for employees at Chinese companies to feel “pressured” or forced into being human subjects in unapproved and unregulated tests. The whole thing also presents a severe conflict of interest when it comes whatever limited anecdotal data might be gained from tests on a few dozen of their own employees.
- That Civilized Relic: A Monetary System As Good As Gold
That Civilized Relic: A Monetary System As Good As Gold
Tyler Durden
Thu, 07/16/2020 – 18:50Authored by Alexander Salter via The American Institute for Economic Research,
John Maynard Keynes, the progenitor of modern macroeconomics, famously dismissed the gold standard as a “barbarous relic.”
Commodity monies have been held in low regard by economists ever since.
The disdain has spread to noneconomists in policy making circles, as well.
Dr. Judy Shelton is a rare exception. She is a well-known defender of the gold standard. For this reason, her nomination to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors has been somewhat controversial. Even the Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee seemed concerned about her support for gold. (Shelton directed the Sound Money Project, before it was acquired by AIER. I have been associated with the project since 2014.)
The legislators’ hesitance to confirm Dr. Shelton’s nomination seems to have waned. The committee confirmation vote has been scheduled. Nevertheless, it is both interesting and distressing that supporting the gold standard runs the risk of making one a persona non grata, even in supposedly pro-market circles.
The low regard economists and policymakers have for the gold standard is unfounded.
Sadly, many of these supposed “experts” are almost completely innocent of monetary history. To the extent that they are schooled in monetary economics at all, their education is largely theoretical. They can recite the standard academic boilerplate about how a perfectly managed fiat money system outperforms a perfectly operating commodity money system. It seems never to have occurred to them that the relevant comparison is actually existing fiat systems versus actually existing commodity systems. On this margin, the historical evidence is strongly suggestive if not definitive. In practice, the gold standard provides a better anchor for inflation expectations without an obvious cost in terms of lower output or higher unemployment.
Technically, there is no such thing as the gold standard. There were many gold standards. Some use the term to denote a system where physical gold coins are used as money. Others use it to mean any system where a given volume of gold is the unit of account and the medium of redemption for bank liabilities. And others still use it to refer specifically to the “classical” or “international” gold standard, which prevailed from 1879-1914. For the purposes of this essay, I use “gold standard” to mean the US experience under the National Banking System (1863-1914), starting in 1879, when the US retired the last of its lingering Civil War liabilities (greenbacks) and resumed gold redeemability.
If the gold standard were really so inferior to fiat money managed by modern central banks, you would expect it to show up in the historical time series. As it turns out, the evidence suggests the opposite.
In a 2012 paper, George Selgin, William Lastrapes, and Lawrence White rigorously compared the pre- and post-Fed periods in US economic history. Their findings are clear: even if you ignore the “learning curve” period from 1913 to 1945, there is scant evidence the Fed helped to stabilize markets. In addition to the long-run decline in the purchasing power of the dollar, the Fed period saw more instances of macroeconomic stability, not less. Furthermore, even over the short run, the purchasing power of money (the inverse of the price level) became less predictable.
The comparison provides an even more damning criticism of fiat money systems when one considers that (1) the US dollar has been one of the better-managed fiat monies and (2) the National Banking System had several known deficiencies. Examples include the requirement that banknotes be backed by government bonds and prohibitions against branch banking, which made the system rather unstable. And yet, the Fed was not an obvious improvement.
Many of these results were confirmed by my AIER colleague, Thomas Hogan, in a 2015 paper. Hogan also subjects the pre- and post-Fed periods to scrutiny. Once again, discretionary central banking is found wanting. Inflation has been higher under the Fed, while GDP growth has been lower. Inflation volatility, a key measure of monetary predictability, was worse under the Fed, too. And, yet, GDP was no less volatile under the Fed. So much for the superiority of fiat money.
As my friend and coauthor Bryan Cutsinger puts it, the gold standard apparently is “superior in some respects and no worse in others.” Rather than an antiquated holdover retarding economic performance, the gold standard was a crucial component of the impressive economic growth that occurred during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It is a period in Western history sometimes referred to as La Belle Époque: an era of peace and prosperity, driven largely by the growth of commerce and the extension of markets. That, in turn, depended upon the Western nations’ commitment to sound money, in the form of gold redeemability.
The inescapable conclusion is that gold is no “barbarous relic,” as Keynes maintained. If anything, it is a civilizing force. Don’t let anyone tell you the gold standard is a macroeconomic burden. It just isn’t true.
The gold standard isn’t perfect. No system is. But it has many virtues. A strong case can be made that it’s the best of all feasible institutional alternatives. As my dissertation adviser, Lawrence White, puts it: The gold standard is still the gold standard among monetary systems.
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