Jul 17

Today’s News 17th July 2024

  • German Govt Launches Massive Crackdown On (Right Wing) Press Freedom
    German Govt Launches Massive Crackdown On (Right Wing) Press Freedom

    Via Remix News,

    In what may be the most aggressive move against press freedom since the Second World War, Germany has banned Compact Magazine and had over 200 police officers raid the office and home of the publisher, Jürgen Elsässer, along with the homes of other employees and financial backers.

    At 6:00 a.m., masked German police officers raided the home of Elsässer and confiscated hard drives and assets. The magazine has a large readership in Germany and a Youtube channel with millions of views and over 300,000 subscribers. The website and its social media channels have now been erased from the web.

    Far-left German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser took to X to celebrate the banning of the publication, which she says she personally ordered.

    “Today, I banned the right-wing extremist ‘COMPACT Magazine.’ It agitates in an unspeakable way against Jews, against Muslims and against our democracy. Our ban is a hard blow against the right-wing extremist scene,” she wrote.

    While speaking about the incident, she stated:

    “We will not allow ethnic definitions of who belongs to Germany and who does not. Our constitutional state protects all those who are persecuted because of their faith, their origin, their skin color or their democratic stance.”

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    The press was informed ahead of time of the raid, and was on hand to photograph Elsässer in his night robe while he was surrounded by masked police officers. In addition, his video production company, Conspect Film GmbH was also banned.

    It also marked the first time a media outlet of this size has been targeted in such an extraordinary manner,

    Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leaders, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla issued a joint statement on X, writing:

    “The ban on Compact magazine is a serious blow to press freedom. We are watching these events with great concern. Banning a press organ means denying discourse and diversity of opinion. A ban is always the most far-reaching step. Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser is abusing her powers to suppress critical reporting. We call on the minister to respect press freedom.”

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    According to Germany’s Welt, the ban came about because Compact allegedly violated the constitutional order in a “combative and aggressive manner.”

    The private homes of various employees were also raided in Brandenburg, Hesse, Saxony, and Saxony-Anhalt, including the home of Elsässer in Falkensee near Berlin. In addition, financial backers of the outlet also had their properties raided and digital and personal assets confiscated.

    The Nöbeditz manor of former AfD politician André Poggenburg in Stößen near Naumburg was also reportedly raided.

    What is Compact Magazine?

    Compact has described itself as a “magazine for sovereignty.” As Welt notes, on the magazine’s website, which has now been deleted from the web, along with its social media channels, it wrote that “It does not prescribe a political line, but rather an attitude: That is walking upright, that is the spirit of freedom and pride in our history.”

    Welt, which is a mouthpiece of the rival Christian Democrats party, clearly is against the magazine, writing: “What the editors meant by this could be seen on the front pages. Compact presented its readers with doomsday scenarios and racism, conspiracy theories and agitation against politicians from the hated ‘old parties’ — and as a way out of all this misery: the AfD.”

    “Compact specifically addressed right-wing extremists, conspiracy theorists and opponents of democracy with well-known narratives: of the ‘lying press’ and ‘high finance,’ of ‘corrupt politicians’ and ‘powerful puppet masters in the background’ who were deceiving them.”

    However, Welt does not note how any of this is illegal or even factually incorrect, as high finance exists, there are corrupt politicians, and in the background, there are powerful people who call the shots in many different scenarios. Calling them “puppet masters” may be a theatrical take, and some may take the phrase “lying press” as a harsh term to use against journalists, but the fact that many journalists have lied or distorted the truth has been proven to be correct on many occasions.

    It is hard to address many of these allegations, as the entire website has been erased from the web.

    Welt also goes on to detail how Compact became highly successful during the pandemic, and was making substantial profit margins on its merchandise sales, which allowed the team to “professionalize” the media outlet’s operations.

    The Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) placed the publication under monitoring in 2021, and was listed as a “confirmed extremist endeavor.”

    The ban is sure to be met with legal challenges, and even some on the left are questioning the legitimacy of such a ban, as it appears to violate a number of provisions on free speech guaranteed in the constitution.

    German media outlet Tichys Einblick writes that “The Compact magazine undoubtedly represents right-wing extremist positions and calls for the overthrow of the government. However, Article 5 of the Basic Law also protects these radical views.”

    Speaking with constitutional lawyer and former Federal Minister of Defense Rupert Scholz, he said: “Freedom of opinion enjoys such a high constitutional status that it cannot simply be undermined by an executive decision. A medium can only be banned if it represents a revolutionary position, i.e., calls for the overthrow of the existing order by force. But that would then have to lead to criminal proceedings.”

    In other words, Elsässer would first have to be prosecuted and convicted before his outlet could be shut down; however, there are so far no signs that he has even been charged with anything. Nevertheless, his entire publication was targeted for closure before any criminal proceedings even began.

    Scholz also stated that in his opinion, the “ethnic concept of the people” that Compact uses, which makes a distinction between ethnic Germans and those simply with German citizenship, is also “not unconstitutional” and is protected constitutional speech. He added that “Faeser’s actions are clearly unconstitutional.”

    Other top lawyers took to X to write about the unprecedented raid, including, Carsten Brennecke, a lawyer in the renowned Chancellor Höcker law firm. He stated that among other things, the presence of a press photographer for the raid was clearly a criminal act.

    “The Compact magazine is banned and, strangely and of course purely by chance, there are images staged for press effect of the people being attacked, taken by surprise in their private lives and presented to the press. Such ‘coincidences’ are becoming more frequent. Just think of the Reich Citizens’ raid, the search of Zumwinkel or Cardinal Woelki. Of course, leaking search dates in advance by ministries or other authorities for the purpose of self-promotion is not only potentially punishable, it also represents an unlawful infringement of the general personal rights of those affected,” Brennecke writes on X.

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    In addition, journalists are also pouring on the criticism, including from various mainstream papers. For instance, Zeit journalist Lars Weisbrod wrote on X. “Freedom of the press is so important. I think that in Germany a court should always decide first about banning a medium, not the Interior Minister or the Office for the Protection of the Constitution,” wrote Weisbrod. He also questioned whether such a ban is even constitutionally possible

    Mal juristische Fragen beiseite: ich finde das kein gutes werbeFoto für einen liberalen rechtsstaat. Sturmhauben-cops klingeln morgens rechtsradikale Publizisten aus dem Bett und bringen gleich presse mit die möglichst peinliche Fotos davon macht? Finde ich komplett verkehrt pic.twitter.com/lrr0xw64gV

    — @larsweisbrod@det.social (@larsweisbrod) July 16, 2024

    Faeser herself famously wrote for Antifa Magazine, which was a publication supported by the VVN-BdA, which had been classified by the Office Protection of the Constitution (BfV) as “left-wing extremist.” She wrote the article shortly before she became interior minister.

    As for the publisher of Compact, the 67-year-old editor, Jürgen Elsässer, originally aligned with the far left and supposedly coined the phrase: “Never again Germany,” a popular slogan shouted at Antifa events. He wrote for a variety of left-wing parties before he took on a far more right-wing oriented world view and founded Compact in the 2010s.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 07/17/2024 – 02:00

  • The Hope For National Unity In The Shadow Of A Failing State
    The Hope For National Unity In The Shadow Of A Failing State

    Authored by Tho Bishop via The Mises Institute,

    For the second time in three weeks, a political event actually mattered. The attempted assassination of Donald Trump, evaded only by a short turn of the head, has created a rare moment of national reflection about the current state of American politics. Whether or not it is a moment that has true historical relevance beyond simply influencing a single election or canonizing a new iconic photo in future school textbooks will be decided by how seriously its lessons are internalized by the public.

    First of all, the most noteworthy aspects of this attempted attack are precisely how unsurprising such an extraordinary act was. If one takes the regime’s opposition to Donald Trump seriously and recognizes how weakened, the regime’s hold on political opinion is, then the long expectation has been for some sort of black swan event to emerge to prevent a democratic process from dictating who holds the presidency of the next four years.

    Acknowledging this does not require a belief that the shooter himself was some sort of regime asset.

    The environment for violence has been stoked for years, with every major institution – from the corporate press to the Supreme Court – pushing into the zeitgeist the idea that Donald Trump, a relative political moderate, represented a fascist threat that would destroy all that is sacred in American politics.

    If one sincerely believes that Trump is a modern Hitler, one has the moral obligation to attempt to kill such a figure if one has the chance.

    From such a worldview, doing so would be a true act of righteous self-sacrifice, a rare incident of heroism in value in a time when such qualities are in low supply.

    The problem, of course, is the absurdity of this comparison. It is Trump’s allies and supporters that have faced the brunt of prosecutions, not his enemies. It is Trump’s enemies that have actively worked to undermine political norms related to the conduct of elections, legislative procedure, and the treatment of courts. It is Trump’s greatest critics, in both parties, that have advocated for a more muscular America abroad, both via the military and the abuse of the dollar.

    Trump’s failings, and there are many, have always been those areas where he most resembles his political critics.

    A smarter regime would have been more successful at co-opting Trump’s populist appeal for their own. Instead, their refusal to ever embrace Trump has served to make him a symbol of radical rejection of the ruling class. His immediate response to a bullet tearing a hole in his ear is a reminder of why that is, his bravado and rhetorical patriotism are a constant and striking reminder of how unimpressive the regime’s leaders are and just how much they despise the public they plunder.

    This unimpressive nature of the modern regime makes it all the more difficult to discern the true story about Trump’s potential assassination. Government agents have demonstrated they have no problem using assets to terminate pesky political figures. At the same time, it is equally believable that the regime simply lacks the competency to properly protect those they are charged to protect.

    As such, it becomes difficult to figure out whether obvious questions, such as how was a young man with a rifle able to take a sniper position at an identified high-priority station, are answered best by incompetency or sinister conspiracy. Just as Trump’s bloodied fist pump illustrates why he inspires so much of America, the image of a female agent charged with his protection cowering behind the former president and struggling with her holster is the perfect illustration of the modern American state.

    Thankfully for Americans, the FBI has been charged with doing a thorough investigation into the matter.

    Going forward, the question is what lasting impact this brush with death has on the ever-more-likely second Trump Administration.

    Going into the well-timed Republican National Convention, Trump has talked about his desire to “unify” the country.

    Unity in the hands of most politicians is a word that should send shivers down one’s spine. Political unity means bipartisanship, the triumph of the regime. National unity gave us the New Deal, the Civil Rights Act, the Patriot Act, and the Iraq War, among other disasters. It is wrapped up in the state’s most powerful propaganda, usually some form of paternal patriotism.

    If war is the health of the state, political unity has been the instrument for applying the medicine.

    It should also give us pause that the closest Trump came to a “unity” moment during his first term was the nation’s response to covid-19, resulting in the canonization of Fauci and prompting the greatest wealth transfer in modern history.

    A defense of this moment, however, would highlight that Trump’s response to covid, beyond the economic response, was largely a federalist moment in terms of state action. It was the ones who decried him as an authoritarian fascist who demanded a more robust unleashing of federal power to crush those who demanded medical freedom.

    What Trump could mean by “unity” going forward is, however, still an open question. One suggestion he has already made is to drop criminal cases against him.

    What national unity could look like is a consolidation of public resentment against the regime that has been so determined to destroy the likely next president. 

    Already, Trump avoided a major pitfall by announcing J.D. Vance, not a “respectable” neoconservative such as Nikki Haley, as his Vice Presidential nominee, which is a step in the right direction. While some of Vance’s economic views are valid reasons for concern, he does better complement, as Daniel McCarthy has noted, the populist America First agenda that is so anathema to the worst elements of the Republican Party.

    Similarly, to the extent that something resembling a substantial platform for Trump’s campaign exists, there is a consistent drumbeat of attacking the administrative state, undermining federal agencies, and even providing greater monetary freedom. It is noteworthy that along with Trump’s newfound appreciation for Bitcoin (or at least, political donations from the industry), the infamous Project 2025 has even suggested the need for considering “alternatives to the Federal Reserve.”

    The great value of these reforms is that they are all necessary to striking at what is ultimately the root of the toxic nature of modern politics: the consolidation of power in the hands of a decadent and delusional imperial city. So long as moments of crisis result in political unity, these moments will only serve to continue to fuel the cancer that plagues the nation.

    It is quite likely that the attempted assassination of Donald Trump will be viewed as a defining moment in the re-establishment of a Trump Administration and whatever lasting impact on American politics that comes with it. Should Trump’s call for “unity” result in further moderation of his politics, the result could ultimately still provide a win for the regime that either desired his death or was at least disinterested in preventing it.

    If, however, it serves as a moment to fuel a Trump Administration that better acts on the themes of his candidacy, then it could achieve something that is truly worth celebrating: a nation better unified as a result of a diminished national government.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 23:55

  • Antioxidant Supplement Shows Promise For OCD Treatment
    Antioxidant Supplement Shows Promise For OCD Treatment

    Authored by Susan C. Olmstead via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The antioxidant n-acetylcysteine (NAC) is emerging as a promising treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder, offering new hope for the approximately 50 percent of adults with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) who do not respond to customary treatments.

    (Pormezz/Shutterstock)

    Researchers have been accumulating evidence over the last few years that NAC, a derivative of the amino acid cysteine, available as an over-the-counter supplement, could help people with OCD. It’s also showing promise in the treatment of patients with the hair-pulling disorder trichotillomania and is being investigated as a treatment for compulsive gamblers and drinkers.

    However, research into NAC has been slow, in part because the drug, now available without a prescription, has limited commercial potential, according to Dr. Massimo Caroll,  a pharmacologist and clinical toxicologist in the Department of Diagnostics and Public Health at the University of Verona in Italy.

    Currently, first-line treatments for OCD are usually selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). However, “approximately 40 percent to 60 percent of OCD patients do not achieve adequate symptom relief from first-line treatments or experience adverse events/reactions that preclude continuation of the therapy,” Dr. Carollo told The Epoch Times.

    “This high rate of treatment resistance underscores the complexity of OCD and the need for alternative therapeutic approaches,” he said. This complexity, he wrote in a letter in the February issue of the journal CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics, “likely emerges from a multifaceted interplay of factors, encompassing neurochemical imbalances, genetic predispositions, environmental triggers, and psychological influences.”

    Dr. Carollo and colleagues published the letter to raise awareness of the use of NAC to treat OCD.

    In it, they wrote that to the best of their knowledge, despite NAC’s potential effectiveness, “only five randomized controlled trials have tested the potential efficacy of NAC as an adjunctive treatment in OCD.” Four of these studies reported significant symptom improvement as measured by Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) scores at dosages of 2,000 milligrams (mg) to 3,000 mg per day, they wrote.

    NAC has been proven to be safe even at these high dosages, they claim. But because the NAC products now available on the market typically contain 200 mg to 600 mg, the practicality of achieving a therapeutic dose is limited.

    OCD and Serotonin

    NAC’s potential effectiveness in treating OCD suggests that the disorder’s cause may arise in the body’s glutamatergic system, according to Dr. Carollo.

    OCD may be due to problems with the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate, not the inhibitory neurotransmitter serotonin, some researchers believe, and so it may be better treated with NAC than with SSRIs. But investigation into the role of glutamate in OCD has been limited, Dr. Carollo said.

    “The majority of OCD treatments have traditionally focused on modulating serotonin levels, as evidenced by the widespread use of SSRIs [to treat OCD],” Dr. Carollo told The Epoch Times. “This emphasis on SSRIs is not unique to OCD, but extends to other psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety, where serotonergic dysfunction is also a key target.”

    Abnormal levels of glutamate have been observed in specific brain regions of people with OCD, such as the anterior cingulate cortex, crucial for attention allocation and emotion regulation, Dr. Carollo said.

    These findings, along with documented altered functioning of glutamate receptors and transporters, suggest that glutamatergic dysfunction plays a significant role in OCD, he explained, although it likely does not explain the entirety of the disorder. “More research is needed to explore glutamate-targeted treatments,” he said.

    More Evidence, Funding Needed

    Dr. Carollo cited three reasons for the lack of large-scale trials on the use of NAC for OCD:

    1. Limited financial incentives for conducting expensive large-scale trials. “Pharmaceutical companies typically fund large trials for new drugs with strong commercial potential, a scenario less applicable to NAC,” he said.
    2. The need for more conclusive evidence regarding NAC’s optimal dosages, long-term efficacy, and safety in the treatment of OCD. “This necessitates phase II and III studies, which require considerable time and resources,” he said.
    3. The historical focus on serotonergic mechanisms behind OCD, which may have diverted attention and resources away from exploring alternative pathways.

    Does NAC Help Children With OCD?

    NAC may be less helpful for children with OCD, according to a review article published in the June issue of the journal Pediatric Drugs.

    In children, the practice guidelines recommend CBT monotherapy for youth with mild to moderate OCD, and combined treatment for those with more severe presentations, according to coauthor Eric Storch, a professor, vice chair, and head of psychology in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

    “NAC should not be a first-line treatment, given the very limited supporting data for youth with OCD (as well as adults with OCD),” Mr. Storch, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology, told The Epoch Times.

    “I certainly hope that there is more research, but at the same time what has been reported has not been supportive of NAC for pediatric OCD treatment,” he said. “Understanding underlying mechanisms better would be a helpful avenue. Researching dissemination of effective treatments would also be helpful.”

    About 10 percent of children are refractory to treatment, he said, and a recent study (published in May in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) showed that 90 percent of youth with OCD were either in remission or much improved three years later.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 23:30

  • CBP: Southern Border Arrests In June Reach Lowest Number Since January 2021
    CBP: Southern Border Arrests In June Reach Lowest Number Since January 2021

    Authored by Lorenz Duchamps via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The number of illegal immigrants arrested at the U.S. southern border fell by nearly 30 percent in June, reaching the lowest monthly total since January 2021, according to figures released this week.

    Customs and Border Patrol officers arrive with a vehicle after a group of illegal immigrants walked from Mexico into the United States at Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif., on June 5, 2024. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

    Arrests totaled 83,536 illegal immigrants in June, down from 117,901 in May, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced in a June 15 statement.

    The agency attributed the decline to President Joe Biden’s order announced on June 4 that halts asylum requests at the southern border once the average daily number of illegal immigrant arrests exceeds 2,500 for seven days.

    “Recent border security measures have made a meaningful impact on our ability to impose consequences for those crossing unlawfully, leading to a decline of 29 percent in U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions from May to June,” Troy Miller, acting CBP commissioner, said in a statement.

    President Biden issued the proclamation as his administration had been dealing with historic levels of illegal immigrant encounters at the U.S.–Mexico border, while Americans rank border security as one of the country’s top concerns.

    The order is a proclamation under Immigration and Nationality Act sections 212(f) and 215(a) and prohibits immigrants who cross the southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum when, as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a June statement, “high levels of encounters at the southern border exceed our ability to deliver timely consequences.”

    This is the same legal rationale former President Donald Trump used to take some of his toughest executive actions to address border security during his term.

    Meanwhile, Mr. Miller also said the seven-day average of border-crossing encounters has decreased by more than 50 percent in the past six weeks to below 1,900 per day.

    “We are continuing to work with international partners to go after transnational criminal organizations that traffic in chaos and prioritize profit over human lives,” he said.

    Since the executive action went into effect on June 5, the Department of Homeland Security has “removed or returned more than 70,000 individuals to more than 170 countries, including by operating more than 150 international repatriation flights,” according to the CBP.

    The border agency noted that the total number of removals and returns over the past year is the highest of any year since 2010.

    Decline in Illegal Border Crossings

    Arrests have fallen by more than half in recent months after reaching an all-time high of 249,785 in December.

    Border officials said the agency has registered sharp declines across various nationalities, including Mexicans as well as Chinese people, who generally fly to Ecuador and travel to the U.S. border over land.

    San Diego was the busiest of the Border Patrol’s nine sectors bordering Mexico by number of arrests, followed by Tucson, Arizona.

    In addition, more than 41,800 immigrants were processed through an online appointment app called CBP One in June. The agency said more than 680,500 immigrants have successfully scheduled appointments since the app was introduced in January 2023.

    “The top nationalities processed subsequent to arrival for their appointment are Venezuelan, Cuban, and Haitian,” the border agency stated.

    Meanwhile, nearly 500,000 migrants from four countries have been allowed entry into the country under the Biden administration’s Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela CHNV parole program from October 2022 through June 2024, according to the CBP.

    The agency said they include 104,130 Cubans, 194,027 Haitians, 86,101 Nicaraguans, and 110,541 Venezuelans.

    The parole program was set in motion for Venezuelans by President Biden in October 2022. It was intended to help ease the number of illegal border crossings by flying people from certain countries directly to the United States. It was expanded in January 2023 to include nationals from Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    From NTD News

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 23:05

  • Trump Reveals Key Pillars Of "Trumponomics": Low Taxes, Sky High Tariffs, Powell Not Fired, Treasury Secretary Dimon And Much More
    Trump Reveals Key Pillars Of “Trumponomics”: Low Taxes, Sky High Tariffs, Powell Not Fired, Treasury Secretary Dimon And Much More

    Before the failed assassination attempt, before the catastrophic (for Biden) first presidential debate, Donald Trump gave Bloomberg an extensive interview in which he laid out the core tenets of Trumponomics 2.0 that will define his next presidency. Here are the key highlights:

    According to the interview, if Trump wins, he will…

    • enforce huge bilateral sanctions even though he claims “I don’t love sanctions,” he says. He keeps circling back to William McKinley, who he says raised enough revenue through tariffs during his turn-of-the-20th-century presidency to avoid instituting a federal income tax yet never got the appropriate credit.

    • allow Jerome Powell to serve out his term as chair of the Federal Reserve, which runs through May 2026

    • will lower the corporate tax rate to as low as 15%

    • no longer plans to ban TikTok.

    • considers Jamie Dimon to serve as secretary of the Department of the Treasury

    • ambivalent (if not outright hostile) to the idea of protecting Taiwan from Chinese aggression and to US efforts to punish Putin for invading Ukraine.

    While the broad strokes of Trumponomics might not be different from what they were during his first term, what’s new is the speed and efficiency with which he intends to enact them. He believes he understands the levers of power much more deeply now, including the importance of selecting the right people for the right jobs. “We had great people, but I had some people that I would not have chosen for a second time,” he says. “Now, I know everybody. Now, I am truly experienced.”

    Maybe he is, or maybe he just is surrounded by better people. Here is the inner circle of Trump economic policy advisors:

    In a world where everything else has been tried – and has pushed US debt to stratospheric levels that virtually assure the US will lose the dollar reserve status in coming years, Trump is betting that his unorthodox agenda of tax cuts, more oil, less regulation, higher tariffs and fewer foreign financial commitments will appeal to enough swing state voters to hand him the election. And it’s working: debate and assassination attempt boosts aside, recent polling has showed that Black and Hispanic men are shifting to the Republican Party as they tire of historically high prices for food, housing and gas. As many as 20% of Black men now back Trump while Biden is struggling to sell key voters on his catastrophic economic record (not to mention the panic over his age). While Trump is almost assured a win in November according to online prediction markets, many Democratic leaders are increasingly concerned he’ll also deliver Republicans control of the House and Senate along with the White House: a sweeping red tsunami. In such an outcome, Trump would have unprecedented leverage to shape the US economy, the climate for global businesses and trade with allies for decades to come.

    But there is one hurdle: while the business leaders Trump would be working with prize stability and certainty, they didn’t get much of either in Trump’s first presidency. This time around, his campaign is more professionally run, but he hasn’t produced a detailed economic policy agenda to reassure them. The vacuum has generated confusion among those who are planning for a second Trump term.

    So Trump took advantage of the interview to set the record straight on some key items:

    The Fed

    In late April, a few of Trump’s informal policy advisers leaked to the Wall Street Journal an explosive draft proposal to severely curb the independence of the Federal Reserve. It was inferred that Trump had endorsed the idea, which didn’t seem like a stretch given his prior attacks on Powell. In fact, the Trump campaign insisted he’d endorsed neither the proposal nor the leak, and his top campaign brass were furious about it. But the episode was a consequence of Trump’s still-unformed policy, which has left wonks from such think tanks as the Heritage Foundation battling to fill in the details and jockey for influence. Other conservative policy entrepreneurs have been pushing proposals to devalue the dollar or institute a flat tax. At Mar-a-Lago, Trump makes it clear he’s fed up with the unauthorized freelancing. “There’s a lot of false information,” he complains. He’s eager to set the record straight on several topics.

    First, there’s Powell. While in February, Trump told Fox News that he wouldn’t reappoint the Fed chair; now he states unequivocally that he’ll let Powell finish his term, which would last well into a second Trump administration. “I would let him serve it out,” Trump says, “especially if I thought he was doing the right thing.”

    Even so, Trump has thoughts on interest-rate policy, at least in the near term. The Fed, he warns, should abstain from cutting rates before the November election and giving the economy, and Biden, a boost. That would be a problem for a market that has already priced in not one but two rate cuts in the second half (the first of which in September). “It’s something that they know they shouldn’t be doing,” he said.

    Inflation

    Trump has been ruthlessly critical of Biden’s stewardship of the economy. But he sees, in the anger generated by high prices and interest rates, an opportunity to woo voters who typically don’t support Republicans, such as Black and Hispanic men. Trump says he’ll bring down prices by opening up the US to more oil and gas drilling. “We have more liquid gold than anybody,” he says, even though the tariffs he plans on implementing will certainly lead to higher prices for imported goods. A report from the Peterson Institute estimates that Trump’s tariff regime would impose an additional annual cost of $1,700 for the average middle-income family. And Oxford Economics estimates that Trump’s combination of tariffs, immigration restrictions and extended tax cuts could also increase inflation and slow economic growth. The through line of these policies, says Bernard Yaros, lead US economist at Oxford Economics, is “an increase in inflation expectations.”

    Immigration

    He believes harsh restrictions are key to boosting domestic wages and employment. He characterizes immigration restrictions as “the biggest [factor] of all” in how he’d reshape the economy, with particular benefits for the minorities he’s eager to win over. “The Black people are going to be decimated by the millions of people that are coming into the country,” he says. “They’re already feeling it. Their wages have gone way down. Their jobs are being taken by the migrants coming in illegally into the country.” Trump’s language turns apocalyptic. “The Black population in this country is going to die because of what’s happened, what’s going to happen to their jobs—their jobs, their housing, everything,” he continues. “I want to stop that.”

    Budget deficit

    Trump’s desire to renew his landmark 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and to further reduce corporate taxes means that the budget deficit, having ballooned to war levels, will not shrink any time soon if ever. Coupled with the upward pressure on interest rates that economists expect from his protectionist policies, Trump’s plans could exacerbate the country’s growing debt burden. In the end, however, Trump’s other positions could be enough to sway business leaders to his side. Harold Hamm, a Trump donor and the executive chairman of oil giant Continental Resources Inc., writes in an email: “There seems to be outright hostility to free markets in the Biden Administration. As a result, capital is parked on the sidelines. Why? Because of regulatory uncertainty and in some cases downright regulatory hostility toward certain sectors.” Hamm cites the pause Biden put on liquefied natural gas projects in January as one example. “When Trump is re-elected,” he predicts, “that capital that was parked on the sidelines will be unleashed once again.”

    Treasury Secretary Dimon

    It is no secret that most Fortune 1000 CEOs have never been fans of Trump, but slowly the tide is turning. Overnight, the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, announced he would donate $45 million a month to a Trump PAC. Expect many others to follow. But the biggest praise for Trump in recent months has come from a card-carrying Democrat and the CEO of the largest US bank: “Be honest,” Jamie Dimon said at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January. “He was kind of right about NATO, kind of right about immigration. He grew the economy quite well. Tax reform worked. He was right about some of China. … He wasn’t wrong about some of these critical issues, and that’s why they’re voting for him.” According to Bloomberg, Trump relishes the compliment. He’s changed his view of the man he attacked on Truth Social last year as “Highly overrated Globalist Jamie Dimon” and now says he could envision Dimon, who’s thought to be contemplating a political career, as his secretary of the Treasury. “He is somebody that I would consider,” Trump says.

    Tariffs and Foreign Policy

    As president, Trump shattered the long-standing Republican orthodoxy of favoring free trade. He says he’ll go further if reelected. To Bloomberg, he offered an impassioned defense of US tariffs — he’s been studying McKinley, dubbing him “the Tariff King” — to make it clear he intends to ratchet up levies not just on China but on the European Union, too. “McKinley made this country rich,” Trump says. “He was the most underrated president.” In Trump’s reading of history, McKinley’s successors squandered his legacy on costly government programs such as the New Deal (“the whole thing with the parks and the dams”) and unjustly poisoned an important tool for economic statecraft. “I can’t believe how many people are negative on tariffs that are actually smart,” Trump says. “Man, is it good for negotiation. I’ve had guys, I’ve had countries that were potentially extremely hostile coming to me and saying, ‘Sir, please stop with the tariff stuff.’”

    Another confirmation that Trump was right: despite rampant criticism, Biden maintained Trump’s tariffs on China, even increasing ones on steel, aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries and other goods. “This is going to add price inflation across the board, all in the name of ‘tough guy’ election-year politics,” Yaël Ossowski, deputy director of the Consumer Choice Center, a nonpartisan advocacy group, said in May. And sure enough, in Trumpworld, Biden’s actions are seen as validation that Trump was right, and his Democratic critics were wrong, about the threat China poses to the US economy and security. Trump is eager to prescribe more of the same medicine, including to European allies. In addition to targeting China for new tariffs of anywhere from 60% to 100%, he says he’d impose a 10% across-the-board tariff on imports from other countries, citing a familiar litany of complaints about foreign countries not buying enough US goods.

    “The ‘European Union’ sounds so lovely,” Trump says. “We love Scotland and Germany. We love all these places. But once you get past that, they treat us violently.” He mentions reluctance in Europe to import US automobiles and agricultural products as key drivers of the more than $200 billion trade deficit, a statistic he considers a critical measure of economic fairness.

    Taiwan

    Asked about America’s commitment to defending Taiwan from China which views the Asian democracy as a breakaway province, Trump makes it clear that despite recent bipartisan support for Taiwan, he’s at best lukewarm about standing up to Chinese aggression. Part of his skepticism is grounded in economic resentment. “Taiwan took our chip business from us,” he says. “I mean, how stupid are we? They took all of our chip business. They’re immensely wealthy.” What he wants is for Taiwan to pay the US for protection. “I don’t think we’re any different from an insurance policy. Why? Why are we doing this?” he asks. Another factor driving his skepticism is what he regards as the practical difficulty of defending a small island on the other side of the globe. “Taiwan is 9,500 miles away,” he says. “It’s 68 miles away from China.” Abandoning the commitment to Taiwan would represent a dramatic shift in US foreign policy, as significant as halting support for Ukraine. But Trump sounds ready to radically alter the terms of these relationships.

    Saudi Arabia

    His views about Saudi Arabia are far more amicable. He says he’s spoken to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud within the past six months, though he declines to elaborate on the nature and frequency of their talks. Asked if he worries that increasing US oil and gas production would upset the Saudis, who wish to maintain their primacy in energy, Trump replies that he doesn’t think so, pointing once more to a personal relationship. “He likes me, I like him,” he says of the crown prince. “They’re always going to need protection … they’re not naturally protected.” He adds: “I’ll always protect them.” Trump blames Biden and former President Barack Obama for eroding US relations with Saudi Arabia, saying they pushed the country toward a key adversary. “They’re not with us anymore,” he says. “They’re with China. But they don’t want to be with China. They want to be with us.”

    Ukraine

    Western allies are taking extensive measures to prepare for his possible return to the White House. These include increasing defense spending, transferring control of military aid for Ukraine to NATO, racing to improve relationships with Trump’s advisers and affiliated think tanks, and reaching out to Republican governors and thought leaders to divine his intentions. At a NATO summit in Washington, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged allies to act quickly to help his country repel Russia’s invasion instead of waiting for the election results in November to decide what to do. Dan Caldwell, a policy adviser at the right-leaning think tank Defense Priorities, says that “it’s actually in Europe’s interest to ‘America-proof’ their defense and to start operating on the assumption that the United States has other, more urgent national security priorities, and domestic ones as well.”

    TikTok

    The one exception to Trump’s claim to not want to harm US tech companies, and to privilege domestic ones over foreign ones, is TikTok. Discussing his recent embrace of the Chinese-owned social media platform, where he’s already quite popular, Trump mentions that banning it in the US would benefit a company and a CEO he has no desire to reward. “Now [that] I’m thinking about it, I’m for TikTok, because you need competition,” he says. “If you don’t have TikTok, you have Facebook and Instagram—and that’s, you know, that’s Zuckerberg.” It’s an outcome he won’t abide. He’s still stung by Facebook’s decision to bar him indefinitely in the wake of the Jan. 6 attacks. “All of a sudden,” Trump grouses, “I went from No. 1 to having nobody.”

    Crypto

    His reversal on cryptocurrency has been marked by similar dynamics: not long ago he criticized Bitcoin as a “scam” and a “disaster waiting to happen.” Now he says it and other cryptocurrencies should be “made in the USA.” He frames this about-face as a practical necessity. “If we don’t do it, China is going to figure it out, and China’s going to have it—or somebody else,” he says.

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    Not coincidentally, the crypto industry – spurned by the Democratic Party, brimming with cash and eager for friends in Washington – has now found its way to Trump. “Thanks largely to the actions of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Biden administration has stumbled into becoming anti-crypto,” says Justin Slaughter, policy director at the crypto-focused investment firm Paradigm. “Given that about 20% of Democrats own crypto, per polling, and its ownership skews young and non-White, this was politically unwise.” Trump has moved to fill the void, declaring in a May speech that he would “stop Joe Biden’s crusade to crush crypto.” The following month he reaped the benefits, raising money from Bitcoin miners at a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser. Trump’s campaign then announced it would “build a crypto army,” and it now accepts crypto contributions.

    More in the full Bloomberg interview here.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 22:40

  • Should Bump Stocks Be Illegal?
    Should Bump Stocks Be Illegal?

    Authored by Laurence Vance via The Future Of Freedom Foundation,

    In October of 2017, a gunman in a hotel room on the Las Vegas Strip fired multiple guns from his hotel window on a crowd of 22,000 gathered for an outdoor country music festival. After shooting over 1,000 rounds in about 10 minutes, 60 people lay dead, and more than 860 people were injured before the gunman took his own life. The incident was the deadliest mass shooting committed by an individual in the United States.

    Naturally, even while the dead bodies were still warm, gun-control advocates began clamoring for more and stricter gun-control laws—especially when it was discovered that the shooter had used a bump stock.

    Slide Fire Solutions SSAK-47-XRS-RH Bump Fire Stock mounted on a GP WASR-10/36 AK-47. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

    A bump stock is a device that when attached to a semiautomatic rifle allows it to more rapidly fire bullets by harnessing the rifle’s recoil, but it does not turn a semiautomatic weapon into an automatic one. Between 2010 and 2018, Americans spent more than $100 million purchasing an estimated 520,000 bump stocks.

    Until the Las Vegas shooting, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) classified bump stocks as a “firearm part” not subject to federal regulation. Only two states had banned bump stocks prior to the shooting, but since then, about 15 more states and the District of Columbia have banned them.

    But it’s not just Democrats and progressives who were advocating more gun-control laws after the Las Vegas shooting. After the shooting at Parkland High School the following year, and at the instigation of then-President Donald Trump, the ATF announced that it would reclassify bump stocks as machine guns subject to the National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Gun Control Act of 1968. Tweeted Trump: “As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns.”  The final rule issued by the ATF to ban bump stocks was published in the Federal Register on December 26, 2018. It banned new sales and required current owners to destroy or surrender their bump stocks to the government.

    The ban, however, was just overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Garland v. Cargill.

    Michael Cargill, a Texas firearms store owner, sued the ATF in 2019 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. He maintained that the ATF lacked authority to issue the final rule because its interpretation of what is a machine gun conflicted with the statutory definition. The suit was dismissed in 2020, and in 2021, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the ban. That opinion, however, was vacated in 2022, and the case was reheard en banc, then reversed in 2023. Upon appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the 2018 final rule was vacated in a 6–3 decision.

    Wrote Justice Clarence Thomas in his majority opinion:

    A bump stock does not convert a semiautomatic rifle into a machinegun any more than a shooter with a lightning-fast trigger finger does. Even with a bump stock, a semiautomatic rifle will fire only one shot for every “function of the trigger.” So, a bump stock cannot qualify as a machinegun.

    We conclude that a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a “machinegun” because it does not fire more than one shot “by a single function of the trigger.”

    A bump stock is not a “machinegun” for another reason: Even if a semiautomatic rifle with a bump stock could fire more than one shot “by a single function of the trigger,” it would not do so “automatically.”

    Predictably, Justice Thomas was joined by conservative justices John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch. And just as predictably, liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. “Today’s decision to reject that ordinary understanding will have deadly consequences,” said Justice Sotomayor.

    The Supreme Court certainly made the right decision. As Justice Thomas also wrote in his opinion:

    For many years, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) took the position that semiautomatic rifles equipped with bump stocks were not machineguns under the statute. On more than 10 separate occasions over several administrations, ATF consistently concluded that rifles equipped with bump stocks cannot “automatically” fire more than one shot “by a single function of the trigger.”

    And as Justice Alito wrote in his concurring opinion:

    The horrible shooting spree in Las Vegas in 2017 did not change the statutory text or its meaning. That event demonstrated that a semiautomatic rifle with a bump stock can have the same lethal effect as a machinegun, and it thus strengthened the case for amending §5845(b). But an event that highlights the need to amend a law does not itself change the law’s meaning.

    The Supreme Court’s decision struck a blow to the bureaucratic administrative state that makes its own laws independent of Congress, although Congress rarely does anything about it.

    Democrats in Congress are already trying to pass legislation to institute a federal ban on bump stocks. Republicans in Congress, many of whom supported a bump stock ban when Trump was president, are now opposing legislation to reinstate the ban. As usual, Republicans are wetting a finger and holding it up to see which way the political winds are blowing.

    The issue before us, then, is whether bump stocks should be illegal.

    There is no question that Congress could pass legislation to ban bump stocks, just like Congress has passed legislation to ban all sorts of things and all manner of activities. Although such a ban would clearly be unconstitutional, in reality, the Constitution has nothing to do with it. Congress has been passing unconstitutional legislation for over a hundred years; otherwise we wouldn’t have Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, federal job training programs, the war on drugs, and a thousand other federal programs and agencies.

    There is also no question that the states could institute a bump stock ban, as at least 15 of them have already done. This is because, as James Madison explained in The Federalist, No. 45, “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State Governments are numerous and indefinite.” Of course, it’s conceivable that such state bans might not survive a challenge under the Fourteenth Amendment.

    So, should bump stocks be illegal?

    Of course not.

    If the guns that bump stocks are attached to are not illegal, even though they can be used to kill large numbers of people in a short time, with or without the help of a bump stock, then neither should bump stocks be illegal.

    But more importantly, bump stocks shouldn’t be illegal for the same reason that no inanimate objects should be illegal.  An object—whether it be a gun, a knife, a hammer, a saw, a needle, or a pen—can be used for good or ill. Should pillows be banned because they can be used to smother someone?

    The right to own a bump stock is essential to a free society. It is what you do with the bump stock that is the issue. If someone uses it to help him shoot more people, then the fault lies with him, not the bump stock.

    The outrage of some family members who lost loved ones in the Las Vegas shooting over the Supreme Court’s decision is misplaced. The gunman who shot himself after killing all those people at the music festival is the culprit — not the gun, not the gun dealer that sold the gun, not the gun manufacturer, not the ammunition, not the ammunition manufacturer, not the store that sold the ammunition, and not the bump stock.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 22:15

  • "Intentional" Failures? Rep. Cory Mills Triggers CNN Host, Vows 'J13 Committee' To Investigate Trump Assassination Attempt
    “Intentional” Failures? Rep. Cory Mills Triggers CNN Host, Vows ‘J13 Committee’ To Investigate Trump Assassination Attempt

    Former sniper and defense contractor Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) triggered a CNN host on Tuesday after suggesting that “intentional” failures may have resulted in the assassination attempt on Donald Trump on Saturday.

    “The amount of negligence, the amount of mistakes that was made here, I have a very difficult time not leaning myself towards this was intentional, as opposed to fecklessness,” Mills told anchor Kate Bolduan.

    “If I have a building 160 yards perfectly adjacent to the stage, that’s an obvious threat,” he continued. “Especially with an elevated position that has overwatch? That’s a sniper’s paradise.“

    Mills, an Iraq war veteran and former DynCorp security specialist, co-founded private security company Pacem Defense, and says he’s overseen security for thousands of events.

    After a stunned Boulduan pressed Mills, he replied: “I sit here and scratch my head. You don’t want to be the conspiracist. That’s the issue. You walk this fine balance, but you look at it and think ‘How could this have gone so wrong?’.”

    Meanwhile, journalist Laura Loomer  spoke with Mills outside the Republican National Convention, where he told her that he plans to create a ‘J13 committee’ that’s ‘bigger than the J6 committee,’ and that he will push to be in charge of it.

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    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 21:50

  • Increased Tax Rate Makes California Gas Highest in US
    Increased Tax Rate Makes California Gas Highest in US

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

    Drivers in California are paying the highest prices in the nation for gas this summer by nearly 6 cents after a higher gas tax went into effect earlier this month.

    A gas station in Huntington Beach, Calif., on May 31, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    The extra 2 cents per gallon added July 1 was announced earlier this year by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. The department is required to adjust the gas and diesel fuel tax rates on July 1 each year, based on inflation.

    For diesel, the state’s tax rose from 44.1 cents a gallon to 45.4 cents.

    In all, the state charges about 60 cents a gallon now, which bumps up the already high cost state consumers pay at the pump during summer months, when gas stations are required to sell a special eco-friendly summer blend.

    The additional bump puts California at the top of the list for the highest gas price in the United States with an average price of $4.75 a gallon July 15. The national average was $1.25 less at $3.52 a gallon, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).

    The state with the second most-expensive price for gas was Hawaii at $4.69 Monday, followed by Washington state at $4.27 and Oregon and Nevada both at $4 a gallon, AAA reported.

    California and Hawaii are often the top two states for gas prices, according to AAA affiliate Auto Club of Southern California Spokeswoman Anlleyn Venegas.

    “It’s usually between us and Hawaii,” Ms. Venegas told The Epoch Times. “We have higher taxes and just a general higher cost of living in California.”

    The Golden State also has the most drivers and must import fuel from out of state or overseas, she added.

    California’s fuel prices are historically elevated during the summer, when the state requires a special blend that adds about 20 cents to 25 cents per gallon.

    The state also adds a federal excise tax, 27 cents a gallon for the state’s cap-and-trade program, a low-carbon fuel tax of 11 cents per gallon, about 2 cents for underground gas storage fees, and another 3.7 percent in state and local taxes.

    Despite the higher tax, California’s gas prices were 16 cents lower a gallon Monday compared to the same day last year and 4 cents down from a week ago, AAA reported.

    Although the official numbers are not yet in, the drop in gas prices over last year was good news for drivers, Ms. Venegas said.

    “It’s already good news that we’re paying less than a year ago,” she said. “It’s a good thing.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 21:25

  • Widow Of Trump Rally Victim Refuses Biden's Phone Call
    Widow Of Trump Rally Victim Refuses Biden’s Phone Call

    Authored by Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov via Headline USA,

    The widow of the firefighter who was shot and killed during the assassination attempt against Donald Trump recently said that she rejected a phone call from Joe Biden because her conservative, Trump-supporting husband would not appreciate her talking to Biden.

    Helen Comperatore, the widow of Corey Comperatore, the person who died at the July 13, 2024, Trump rally / PHOTO: The New York Post via Twitter

    Helen Comperatore told the New York Post that Biden tried to call her after her husband, Corey Comperatore, died at the Trump rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024.

    “I didn’t talk to Biden. I didn’t want to talk to him. My husband was a devout Republican, and he would not have wanted me to talk to him,” she told the news source on July 15, 2024.

    Her husband was killed, and two people were seriously injured when Thomas Matthew Crooks tried to assassinate Trump while he was speaking at the rally.

    Helen then went on to say that she didn’t blame Biden for the death of her husband, even though he and the entire establishment have been spreading the hateful anti-Trump rhetoric for almost over the decade, which resulted in the shooting.

    “I don’t have any ill will towards Joe Biden. I’m not one of those people [who] gets involved in politics. I support Trump. That’s who I’m voting for, but I don’t have ill will towards Biden. He didn’t do anything bad to my husband. A 20-year-old despicable kid did,” she said.

    Her husband was praised as a hero after his daughter said that he died trying to protect her and the rest of his family at the rally.

    “He shielded my body from the bullet that came at us. He loved his family. He truly loved us enough to take a real bullet for us,” Allyson Comperatore, the victim’s daughter, said.

    People on social media agreed with Helen’s decision.

    “Understandable… Biden said it was time to put ‘Trump in the bullseye…’ [Then] her husband was murdered while someone tried to assassinate President Trump,” @USBornNRaised wrote.

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    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 21:00

  • Top Five Reasons J.D. Vance Is The Perfect VP Pick
    Top Five Reasons J.D. Vance Is The Perfect VP Pick

    Authored by Steve Cortes via RealClearPolitics,

    Undeterred by even the sting of a would-be assassin’s bullet, Donald Trump charged strongly onward into Wisconsin for the Republican National Convention. This demonstration of determination and life force provides a stark contrast to the dithering and often incoherent meanderings of his opponent, Joe Biden.

    Trump further accentuated that show of vitality by selecting a running mate who is sure to help him win, serve as an invaluable second-in-command for the next four years, and then carry the banner of America first into the future after Trump completes his second term.

    As someone who has spent many hours with J.D. Vance and campaigned for him vigorously in his successful underdog Senate win, I can provide insight into the five best reasons that Vance was the pitch-perfect pick:

    1. His Backstory: Like Trump, Vance arrives in politics as an outsider. J.D. gained national recognition when he captured hearts and minds with his bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, and the Academy Award-winning movie adaptation. With searing eloquence, he describes the challenges facing working-class America, especially heartland communities decimated by economic decline and cultural decay.

    Vance shares his rare perspective as someone who rose from a troubled family and poor communities to an Ivy League law degree and professional success. For J.D., a devoted grandmother and the U.S. Marine Corps formed his path toward upward mobility – the keys to his Horatio Alger life story that will resonate with voters, especially blue-collar citizens in battleground states.

    2. America First Foreign Policy: As a veteran who was deployed with the Marines to a war zone, Vance speaks with personal authority and authenticity when he counters the schemes of the interventionist Washington foreign policy establishment. In fact, Vance has emerged as one of the most persuasive voices for a true Trumpian international approach of realism and restraint. Regarding trade policy with China or military assistance to Ukraine, Vance represents well the growing populism of Republican and independent voters who insist that we secure America’s own prosperity and our own border before prioritizing foreigners and faraway regional battles.

    These issues matter materially to voters. In fact, Trump’s 2016 victory was decisively propelled by key voter shifts in the areas of battleground states with the highest concentrations of injured veterans. Those patriots rallied to Trump’s peace agenda, and they will again.

    3. Media and Debate Skills: Vance won his Senate seat as an outsider political novice in a hotly contested primary against far better-financed opponents with significant political experience. This grueling come-from-behind win sharpened his media abilities enormously, and that trend has only accelerated since he joined the Senate. Unlike many Republican elected officials, Vance willingly and enthusiastically welcomes tough, confrontational interviews on hostile platforms, and handles those interrogations with aplomb.

    In addition, anyone rooting for Donald Trump to serve a second term should relish the prospect of a Vance vs. Kamala Harris debate, which might prove almost as much of a mismatch as Trump’s drubbing of mumbling Biden. Vance commands mastery of policy details, yet delivers that knowledge with clarity and likeability. As for the current vice president? Well, let’s just say she will not enjoy trying to match Vance’s intellect or authenticity. 

    4. The Correct Political Detractors: Vance acts as a magnet for particularly heated vitriol from the spokesmen and platforms of the American ruling class. Why? Because they see him as a former insider who turned on them. In other words, just like Donald Trump, Vance was once considered part of the “club” of elites, given his educational pedigree and experience in finance. Moreover, the huge success of his book and movie made him, briefly, the toast of the town in places like Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Like Trump, he could have continued on that path of lucrative deals and constant adulation from the supposed “important people.”

    Instead, to pursue better lives for Americans in circumstances he knew as a child and young man, Vance chose the more difficult path as a populist political thinker and officeholder. He knowingly passed on rewards and accolades for higher patriotic goals, which speaks to his true character as a man and as a candidate.

    5. Youth and Vigor: In a race where the cognitive state of the current president becomes a front-and-center theme of the campaign, the vitality and strength of Vance provide an important contrast. But even more importantly, beyond this election, Vance is perfectly positioned to be Trump’s effective partner and understudy for four years in the White House – and then to lead the America First movement well into the future after Trump’s term.

    Intraparty contests can be tough and bruising, whether primary fights or competitions for running-mate selection. Clearly, there were other super impressive candidates in the mix for this key position as vice-presidential nominee. The GOP bench is populated and healthy!

    But all Republicans should now march in lockstep behind this ticket and trust that our fearless nominee, Donald Trump, has made the best possible selection in J.D. Vance.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 20:35

  • These Are The World's 10 Most Valuable 'Unicorns'
    These Are The World’s 10 Most Valuable ‘Unicorns’

    Unicorn companies are privately-owned, venture-backed startups worth at least $1 billion, and are therefore not publicly traded on normal stock markets.

    In this chart created by Trendline, Visual Capitalist’s Ryan Bellafontaine looks at the world’s highest-valued unicorn companies, based on data from CB Insights as of June 1, 2024.

    TikTok on Top

    The Chinese media and entertainment company ByteDance, which owns the social media platform TikTok, is the world’s most valuable unicorn company at $225 billion.

    However, as U.S. regulatory pressure grows for ByteDance to divest TikTok in the U.S., this leading valuation may be in doubt going forward.

    Source: CB Insights.

    Meanwhile, the largest unicorn company in the United States is SpaceX, led and founded by Elon Musk, valued at $150 billion. SpaceX is the only company on the list in the industrial category.

    OpenAI, founded in 2015, is the world’s highest-valued artificial intelligence pure-play company. Best known for its groundbreaking program ChatGPT, it is worth $80 billion.

    American Exceptionalism

    The United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and China appear only once in the top 10, while the United States takes six places.

    Australia’s only appearance is its graphic design company, Canva, which is worth $25 billion. Canva was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Sydney.

    Revolut, a fintech company, is the United Kingdom’s highest-valued unicorn. Founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko, it is valued at $33 billion.

    Finally, home to fast fashion company Shein, Singapore is the only Asian entry besides ByteDance in the top 10. That said, Shein is the world’s largest retail unicorn, valued at $66 billion.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 20:10

  • Equal Versus Equitable
    Equal Versus Equitable

    Authored by Mark Ford via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    You have two adult children. Alissa and Tony. They are twins. At the time of their birth, you had set up a trust account designated to go to them when they turned 30.

    They are 29 years old now—happily married, each with two children. As twins, they share many of the same traits. But there is a significant difference between them. Alissa is a neurosurgeon, making $400,000+ a year. And Tony is a violinist in a regional orchestra, making an eighth of that.

    Alissa has already developed a net worth of $1 million and will likely become a decamillionaire before she turns 40. Tony has a net worth of zero and zero prospects of ever making a lot of money. He isn’t complaining. Nor is he jealous of his sister. He’s comfortable with the life he chose. And his wife and children are happy and thriving.

    The trust account is worth $1 million. If you move forward as planned, Tony and Alissa will each be $500,000 richer on their next birthday. That will give Tony a net worth of $500,000 and Alissa a net worth of $1.5 million.

    That’s a good outcome for both of them. But is it fair?

    (Me dia/Shutterstock)

    Because of the advantages Alissa already has, one could argue that the right thing to do would be to give Tony the entire $1 million. That would leave them each with the same net worth: $1 million. They would be even.

    Is that what you would do?

    You know the answer. You would not. You would give them each $500,000. Giving Tony a million and Alissa nothing would achieve an equal outcome, i.e. they would both end up with an equal net worth. But it would be insanely unfair.

    It would be unfair to Alissa who worked her entire life to get into and through medical school. She would feel, justifiably, that she had earned the net worth she has. And it would send the wrong message to Tony: that he is entitled to have the same net worth as his sister, even though he chose a profession that is poorly paid.

    This little mental exercise is meant to illustrate an ethical and social argument that is raging in American culture today. And though it is unnoticed by many, it’s beneath and/or behind some of the most important issues affecting every U.S. family, almost every U.S. company, our military, our educational institutions, and even the entertainment industry.

    I’m talking about the distinction between equal and equitable.

    Two Similar Words That Have Come to Mean Two Very Different Things

    The first principle stated by the Declaration of Independence—as every citizen knows—is that “all men are created equal.” And when Thomas Jefferson penned those words in 1776, he was talking about equality in terms of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

    Of course, he didn’t mean all men exactly. He wasn’t suggesting that slaves had those equal rights. And his usage of “men” in this case did not include women with respect to such things as voting and property.

    Some of these disparities were addressed in 1863 with the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation and in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th Amendment. And during the Civil Rights era, the term “equal rights” was used to include access by minorities to education, public facilities, and job opportunities.

    This tells us something we should keep in mind: The original, constitutional definition of equality has been expanded to include additional rights that our Founding Fathers never even thought of.

    Like equality, equitable derives from the Latin for “uniformity, impartiality, fairness.” And like equality, its meaning has evolved over the years.

    Here are two simple dictionary definitions:

    • Equality: The quality or state of being equal; having the same rights, social status, etc.
    • Equity: Fairness or justice in the way people are treated

    It’s easy to understand what equality means. But equitable is a slippery fish. Going back to the mental exercise above, giving Alissa and Tony $500,000 each would be, by definition, an equal action. But not necessarily an equitable one. And this difference, as I said, underpins arguments we are having today about just about every aspect of our lives.

    Affirmative action is one example.

    At one time, African Americans were not given equal opportunities for employment. The establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson helped, but the situation improved only marginally.

    To remedy that, some businesses and educational institutions introduced their own affirmative action policies. The argument was that factors other than raw intelligence and hard work were holding minorities back. To make it fair, it was necessary for them to make adjustments to standards for minorities. The idea was something like, “Just give them a leg up. They will get the rest of the way themselves.”

    I don’t have a problem with that thinking. I have promoted affirmative action efforts in my businesses and in my personal life. Giving help to people who want help seems like a sensible course of action in all areas of human interaction. (How well affirmative action works, however, is a subject for another essay.)

    But in recent years, the definition of equitable has expanded beyond “equal” or even “more-than-equal” opportunities and treatment. Today, when you hear equitable used in political or social debates it means equal outcomes.

    It’s not enough that everyone has an equal start. We must also guarantee an equal finish. And for those who espouse this line of thinking, that means equal outcomes in everything from childhood competitions, to test scores, to hiring and promotions, and wealth.

    That is a problem.

    The Only Measure of Achievement That Makes Sense

    If our objective is equal outcomes, we must disregard all the factors that determine success in the real world. Such as aptitude. And ambition. And hard work. And persistence. And intellectual and emotional intelligence. And we must admit that affirmative action—and all laws, regulations, and protocols that provide disadvantaged communities with extra help and second chances—is not enough because it does not result in equal earnings.

    Equal-outcome advocates are like parents who believe the fair thing is to give Tony the million and Alissa nothing, because they want their children to have equally happy and fulfilling lives. And for them, that means having an equal net worth.

    They don’t understand that giving each of them the same amount is giving them the same opportunity. Tony is every bit as smart and savvy as Alissa. He can invest and grow that money as well as she can. But they also know that Alissa has a big head start with her existing net worth and a much better financial future because of her income.

    They don’t want to face the reality that, unless something terrible happens to Alissa or Tony decides to give up music and get a job as, say, a plumber, Alissa and her family will continue to grow richer while Tony and his family may very well grow poorer.

    They can’t change those facts. But what they can do is make their children equal for a moment in time. That, and that alone, they can do. So, they will do it.

    What they refuse to see is all the damage it will do—to both children and to the relationship between them, a topic worth digging into, but that is for another day.

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 19:45

  • Auto Insider Warns More Americans Fall Behind On Car Payments As Repos Soar 23%
    Auto Insider Warns More Americans Fall Behind On Car Payments As Repos Soar 23%

    The delayed day of reckoning has arrived for millions of Americans who purchased vehicles with absurdly high monthly payments they no longer can afford. New data shows auto repossessions surged in the first half of the year, driven by elevated inflation and high interest rates, resulting in increased consumer distress (read: here & here) as the labor market slows. 

    Before we delve into the data from Cox Automotive, let’s revisit several of our reports from mid-2022, showing how we have been diligently tracking the perfect storm brewing for auto repossessions:

    Two years later, the deterioration has accelerated. Cox data shows repos jumped 23% in the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2023. Repos started moving higher last year and have now exceeded pre-Covid levels, up 14% compared to the first half of 2019. 

    “When you think about the costs for rent and shelter and insurance, all those things hit consumers and they have to choose what they will pay,” Jeremy Robb, senior director of economic and industry insights at Cox, told Bloomberg. 

    Robb warned, “More people are getting behind on payments because everything is more expensive.”

    Fitch Ratings data shows that the percentage of subprime auto borrowers who were at least 60 days late on their bill in June was around 5.62%, down from the record in February.

    Data from Bankrate indicates that the average interest rate for a new 60-month auto loan is now 7.94%, while for a used car, it’s around 12%. The average monthly payments have risen to $739 for new vehicles and $549 for used cars. 

    What’s clear is that consumers have used more debt than ever to fund near-record new car purchases. Fast-forward to today and the ominous new development is that high monthly payments in a period of elevated inflation and high interest rates have made these vehicles unaffordable for some. 

    We believe this surge in nominal auto debt and elevated interest rates will crush the subprime borrowers as more fall behind on their car payments—a trend that should only accelerate.

    Recently, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officials have been concerned about troubling signs in the auto market, particularly among so-called subprime borrowers.

    Now, it’s a race against time for the Federal Reserve to provide relief to consumers. Traders are anticipating the first rate cut in September, driven by cooling inflation data. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 19:20

  • VDH: Assassination Porn & The Sickness On The Left
    VDH: Assassination Porn & The Sickness On The Left

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via X:

    If we were leftists and we were to use leftist tropes to editorialize the recent attempt on Trump’s life, then we would frame the assassination attempt in the following way:

    We have witnessed for years blatant exceptions to the once common custom that we don’t normalize the imagined killing of any president or presidential candidate and thus lower the bar of violence.

    But the Left constantly makes Trump an exception.

    Now, it as if the imagined killing of Trump had been mainstreamed and become acceptable in a way inconceivable of other presidents.

    (Do we remember the rodeo clown who merely wore an Obama mask during a bull riding contest and was punished by being permanently banned by the Missouri State Fair authorities?)

    So since at least 2016 there has been a parlor game among Leftist celebrities and entertainers joking (one hopes), dreaming, imagining, and just talking about the various and graphic ways they would like to assassinate or seriously injure Trump:

    By slugging his face (Robert De Niro),

    by decapitation (Kathy Griffin, Marilyn Manson),

    by stabbing (Shakespeare in the Park),

    by clubbing (Mickey Rourke),

    by shooting ( Snoop Dogg), by poisoning (Anthony Bourdain),

    by bounty killing (George Lopez),

    by carrion eating his corpse (Pearl Jam),

    by suffocating (Larry Whilmore),

    by blowing him up (Madonna, Moby),

    by throwing him over a cliff (Rosie O’Donnell),

    just by generic “killing” him (Johnny Depp, Big Sean),

    or by martyring him (Reid Hoffman: “Yeah, I wish I had made him an actual martyr.”).

    Or should we deplore the use of telescopic scope imagery, given that the Left blamed Sarah Palin for once using bullseye spots on an election map of opposition congressional districts, claiming that such usage had incited the mass shooting by Jared Lee Loughner?

    Yet, recently POTUS Joe Biden was a little bit more graphic and a lot more literal.

    In a widely reported call to hundreds of donors last week, Biden boasted, “I have one job, and that’s to beat Donald Trump. I’m absolutely certain I’m the best person to be able to do that. So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.”

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

    “In a bullseye?”

    At least, Biden did not go back to the full Biden beat-up porn of the past (e.g., “If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him”/ “The press always asks me, ‘Don’t I wish I were debating him?’ No, I wish we were in high school – I could take him behind the gym. That’s what I wish.”).

    Then there is the question of the Secret Service and one’s political opponents. Given the tragic history of the Kennedys, why in the world did the Biden administration not insist that third-party candidate Robert Kennedy, Jr. be accorded Secret Service protection?

    Because his candidacy was felt to be disadvantageous to Biden?

    And why just this April would the former head of the January 6th Committee and 2004 election obstructionist Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) introduce legislation ridiculously entitled, “Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated toward Convicted and Extremely Dishonorable (DISGRACED) Former Protectees Act” to strip away Secret Service protection for former President Trump and by this April current leading presidential candidate?

    Had Thompson’s bill passed, would that not have been confirmation for a potential shooter to feel his task was just made much easier?

    But in a wider sense, if the common referent day after day on the Left is that Trump is another Hitler (cf. a recent The New Republic cover where Trump is literally photoshopped as Hitler), then it seems reckless not to imagine an unhinged or young shootist believing that by taking out somewhat identical to one of the greatest mass murderers in history, he would be applauded for his violence?

    So is their logic, shoot Trump and save six million from the gas chambers?

    After all, The New Republic defiantly explained their Hitler-Trump cover photo this way, “Today, we at The New Republic think we can spend this election year in one of two ways. We can spend it debating whether Trump meets the nine or 17 points that define fascism. Or we can spend it saying, “He’s damn close enough, and we’d better fight.”

    Well, New Republic, recently someone took you up on your argument that Trump was “damn close enough” to Hitler and so he likewise chose to “fight”— albeit with a semi-automatic rifle.

    If ad nauseam, a Joy Reid is screaming about Trump as a Hitlerian dictator (“Then let me know who I got to vote for to keep Hitler out of the White House”) or Rachel Maddow is bloviating about studying Hitler to understand Trump, then finally the message sinks in that a mass murderer is about to take power – unless…

    Finally, the idea, if true, that bystanders spotted a 20-year-old on a nearby roof with a gun, a mere 130 yards from Trump, and in vain warned police of his presence, is surreal. Is it all that hard for the Secret Service to post a few agents on the tops of a few surrounding buildings closest to the dais, or at least coordinate with local law enforcement to do the same?

    That is a no brainer.

    Whoever made the decisions concerning the proper secret service security details for presidential events should be immediately fired.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 19:11

  • Quinn: "They" Will Do Anything To Win
    Quinn: “They” Will Do Anything To Win

    Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

    “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”  – William J. Casey, CIA Director (1981)

    The always mysterious question when trying to figure out what is happening in this insane world and why it is happening is who are “they”? In the current chaotic atmosphere, “they” are in the process of throwing their senile child sniffing pedophile Trojan horse president overboard because his dementia ridden brain has been laid bare for all the world to see. It isn’t just the Democratic Party throwing him to the wolves.

    When you witness the party, supposedly loyal politicians, the regime media, surveillance state spooks, Hollywood celebrities, and globalist billionaires all simultaneously turn on the person they installed in 2020 through a rigged election, you realize the voting public have no say in how this country is run. Whether you refer to “they” as the Deep State, invisible government, ruling elite, globalist oligarchs, or shadowy men in smoke filled backrooms, we are just bit players in this surreal horror movie.

    It is no longer a conspiracy theory that we are ruled by unelected men using their wealth to pull the levers of society to benefit themselves and the apparatchiks who do their dirty work. At some level, this type of control has existed since the inception of our country. Andrew Jackson’s tirade in the 1830s revealed there were deceitful men operating in the shadows, with their greedy agendas prevailing over what was best for the people.

     “Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out!”

    The capture of our government, media and financial system accelerated during the last century as described by Edward Bernays in his 1928 book – Propaganda. Of course, he wrote this fifteen years after the capture of our financial system, with the Creature from Jekyll Island – the Federal Reserve being created by a cabal of bankers and politicians intent on lining their pockets.

    “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons… who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”– Edward Bernays – Propaganda (1928) pp. 9–10

    The traitorous president who signed the bill creating the Federal Reserve, in the same year he signed into existence the loathsome income tax, and later promised to keep the U.S. out of World War I, before taking us into that war, supposedly regretted handing over control of the government to a small cabal of dishonorable men. Politicians and Wall Street bankers have been using the debasement of our currency to enrich themselves at our expense, ever since.

    “I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world — no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.” – Woodrow Wilson – 1919

    For decades the Deep State was able to remain hidden, working in the shadows behind the scenes, with the general population oblivious to their existence. But their existence was outed when they assassinated John F. Kennedy in front of the entire world and took out their CIA patsy on national TV. The CIA, along with their media mouthpieces, created the term “conspiracy theorist” as a derogatory term to keep the public sedated and onboard with whatever narrative they were selling.

    The Church Committee in the mid-1970s further revealed the depth and breadth of the traitorous activities of the CIA and the surveillance state bureaucracy. Mike Lofgren defined the Deep State in his 2016 book, describing how the consent of the governed has been nothing more than a fantasy for many decades in this country.

    “I have come to call this shadow government the Deep State…a hybrid association of key elements of government and parts of top-level finance and industry that is effectively able to govern the United States with only limited reference to the consent of the governed as normally expressed through elections” ― Mike Lofgren, The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government

    Still, anyone questioning the officially approved narrative, as propagated by the bought off politicians; captured propaganda spewing regime media; paid-off “experts” in academia, finance, the military and the sciences; globalist organizations; and billionaires with fake foundations, was ridiculed and censored as nutjob conspiracy theorists.

    But, since Trump’s unlikely rise to power in 2016 and the subsequent traitorous acts by the Deep State and their lackeys in the government, media, and surveillance state bureaus, in attempting to destroy Trump through the fake Russiagate investigations, two impeachments based on nothing, creating a fake pandemic to rig the 2020 election, instigating a fake insurrection to keep him from running again, using the power of the DOJ to bring multiple fake charges against him, raiding his residence with orders to shoot if necessary, allowing millions of illegals to enter the country and encouraging them to vote illegally to throw the 2024 election, vilifying him as a threat worse than Hitler, and now being exposed using a patsy to try and assassinate him while his Secret Service detail pretended to protect him.

    There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind a Deep State/Invisible government is running the show, and we are all nothing more than spectators who are brainwashed into doing what we are told by those who “have our best interests at heart”. After they failed by one inch in blowing Trump’s head off (ala JFK), the narrative being spun is that we all must unite and tone down the vitriol. It is too late, and they know it. This is all for show.

    We are now at war with the Deep State, and anyone associated with their criminal deeds. Their need to retain power grows more desperate by the day. They have concluded they must win the upcoming election at all costs, or their unlawful acts over the last eight years will be revealed and retribution doled out to the perpetrators. Their failure in assassinating Trump, does not mean they will not try again.

    Their biggest hurdle is their ballot rigging operation only works in the swing states when the vote is reasonably close. The presidential debate and subsequent embarrassing press conferences have revealed Biden to be dementia ridden husk, who can’t even read a teleprompter at this point. Only the most brain-dead liberal kooks will vote for this walking dead candidate.

    After Trump’s triumphant post assassination attempt photo-op, with fist raised in victory, his odds of winning the election went through the roof. The potential replacement candidates for Biden are a motley crew of idiocy, failure and low IQ diversity options. When the Deep State was blindsided in 2016 with the Trump victory, they proceeded to derail his presidency by convincing him to hire their Deep State operatives into key roles, while keeping the Congress, DOJ, DOD, FBI, and CIA at war with everything Trump tried to accomplish. If he wins this time, he won’t make the same miscalculations again. And they know it.

    We have less than four months until the election. These being the waning years of this Fourth Turning, whatever happens from here on out will only be intensified. There will be no unity. There will be no compromise. Fourth Turnings do not wind down. They accelerate towards a bloody crescendo, with clear winners and losers. The potential for civil and global war rises on a daily basis.

    Most of the ignorant, I-gadget distracted, narrative believing masses, have no clue how close the world is to erupting in violent no-holds barred death and destruction. Virtually no one is alive who remembers the horrors of WWII. That is why Fourth Turnings re-occur every eighty years or so. We forget the past and are condemned to relive it. There are several scenarios that could play out.

    The Deep State may have provided Trump with a stark reminder about who really runs the show. Will he heed their warning? If so, they may let him win and then continue their control behind the scenes, letting him know they can take him out at a time of their choosing. Trump’s cooperation in this scenario is possible, but after the last eight years of unbridled attacks on him, this may be unlikely.

    They could try another assassination attempt, but the world is now aware of their hatred for Trump, and would likely react negatively towards all parties involved in the murder of the past and future president of the U.S. The question is how desperate are these godless authoritarians? How many innocent people are they willing to sacrifice at the altar of mammon and power, to continue their stranglehold on the political, financial, social, and economic structures of the U.S. and western world.

    Knowing they will do anything to win and remain in control of the levers of our society, what may seem unthinkable to you and me, wouldn’t make these sociopaths pause for a second. They’ve already killed tens of millions with their fake pandemic and their toxic antidote gene therapy. All done to rig an election, enrich themselves, and cull the herd. We already know the neo-con branch of the Deep State has been saber rattling towards both Russia and China.

    We also know false flags are one of their favorite tools to initiate conflict and fill their coffers with blood money. Our blood and their money. We’ve already seen a possible scenario with their puppet Zelensky in the Ukraine. If you can create a national emergency through either a civil or foreign war, you can cancel the election until the emergency is over.

    A successful assassination of Trump this past weekend would have initiated some form of chaos in the streets, with the political powder keg poised to be lit by one side or the other. The Deep State is certainly capable of creating a false flag that kills hundreds or thousands of innocents, blaming white nationalist Trumpers for the tragedy. Another George Floyd incident could be cooked up, with Soros unleashing his Antifa and BLM terrorist hordes on cities across the land.

    The normal citizens supporting Trump will only be pushed so far, and if they begin to fight back, all hell could break loose. This is what the Deep State wants. Chaos and violence in the streets would be their excuse to “delay” the elections. That would even cause more violence and upheaval. The Deep State thrives on violence, chaos, war, and a fearful populace, begging to be saved.

    The Deep State is conducting the war against Russia. The Ukrainian soldiers are being chewed up by the Russian army, but the high-tech aspects of the war are being carried out by Americans, who are the only ones capable of operating the drones and advanced missiles being used against Russia. They know Putin’s red lines. If they choose to start World War III, they will initiate an attack guaranteed to force Putin into a drastic response, attempting to ignite a conflagration across Europe, into the Middle East.

    With the US/EU sanction war having pushed Russia, China and the rest of the BRIC countries closer together, China and possibly India would side with Russia in a global conflict. The use of nuclear arms becomes more and more likely as the warring countries become more desperate and pushed into a corner.

    The Deep State has no qualms about killing millions to attain their goals and retain their wealth, power and control over the masses. I do believe the next four months will mark a turning point in the history of the world. I fear there will be much bloodshed, but will continue to try and decipher the path of this Fourth Turning and guide my family and anyone choosing to listen towards the light and away from the darkness. I do believe Strauss & Howe’s possible outcomes for this Fourth Turning are an accurate portrayal of what awaits us within the next decade. 

    1.  This Fourth Turning could mark the end of man. It could be an omnicidal Armageddon, destroying everything, leaving nothing. If mankind ever extinguishes itself, this will probably happen when its dominant civilization triggers a Fourth Turning that ends horribly. For this Fourth Turning to put an end to all this would require an extremely unlikely blend of social disaster, human malevolence, technological perfection and bad luck.

    2. The Fourth Turning could mark the end of modernity. The Western saecular rythm – which began in the mid-fifteenth century with the Renaissance – could come to an abrupt terminus. The seventh modern saeculum would be the last. This too could come from total war, terrible but not final. There could be a complete collapse of science, culture, politics, and society. Such a dire result would probably happen only when a dominant nation (like today’s America) lets a Fourth Turning ekpyrosis engulf the planet. But this outcome is well within the reach of foreseeable technology and malevolence.

    3. The Fourth Turning could spare modernity but mark the end of our nation. It could close the book on the political constitution, popular culture, and moral standing that the word America has come to signify. The nation has endured for three saecula; Rome lasted twelve, the Soviet Union only one. Fourth Turnings are critical thresholds for national survival. Each of the last three American Crises produced moments of extreme danger: In the Revolution, the very birth of the republic hung by a thread in more than one battle. In the Civil War, the union barely survived a four-year slaughter that in its own time was regarded as the most lethal war in history. In World War II, the nation destroyed an enemy of democracy that for a time was winning; had the enemy won, America might have itself been destroyed. In all likelihood, the next Crisis will present the nation with a threat and a consequence on a similar scale.

    4. Or the Fourth Turning could simply mark the end of the Millennial Saeculum. Mankind, modernity, and America would all persevere. Afterward, there would be a new mood, a new High, and a new saeculum. America would be reborn. But, reborn, it would not be the same.

    The odds are stacked against us, but if we give up the fight, we will surely lose. Our choices and actions in the coming days will surely matter. We must fight, fight, fight!! Godspeed and good luck.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 19:00

  • Hedge Funds Boost Bearish Bets On Corn To Record
    Hedge Funds Boost Bearish Bets On Corn To Record

    Hedge fund managers have ramped up their bearish bets on US corn futures to record levels, driven by elevated grain supplies and the best early crop ratings in years. These factors have pressured corn prices lower.

    Bloomberg data reveals that money managers have boosted their short-only positions in Chicago corn futures and options to 507,901 contracts, exceeding the previous record of 506,000 contracts in 2019. The net position, which accounts for the difference in long and short holdings, was bearish by 353,983 contracts, the largest since 2006.  

    Last month, Reuters reported that an above-average volume of corn remains unsold, and if these grain inventories are not depleted, then supplies could reach six-year highs by late summer 2025.

    “Farmers risk waiting too long to sell as a flood of newly harvested grain is likely to drag down prices this October and November. Buyers, aware the harvest is coming, still need enough supplies to keep processing plants running and exports flowing this summer,” Reuters said. 

    Elevated supplies have pressured prices in Chicago to under the $4 a bushel level, the lowest level since early 2020.

    Bloomberg noted last week that US farmers are now holding the largest stockpiles of corn since 1988:

    “The US farmers, who are the world’s largest corn producers, have been holding off selling early in the season as prices of the key grain slide toward $4 a bushel for the first time since 2020.” 

    The USDA’s latest monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report revealed that demand for corn moved slightly higher. The report, released last Friday, has so far put a floor under prices. 

    The USDA’s WASDE report was “enough to halt, at least temporarily, the bear market in corn prices,” Sal Gilbertie, chief investment officer at Teucrium Trading, told MarketWatch. 

    “It looks like short sellers began to actively cover their positions upon the release of today’s WASDE, which occurs just as corn in the US begins to enter the critical pollination stage of development,” Gilbertie added.

    Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s Mike McGlone noted grain deflation while broader commodity markets remained positively diverged: 

    “Volatility in the grains (corn, soybeans and wheat) is higher than broad commodities: It’s the most elastic sector and prices are accelerating downward, with deflationary macroeconomic implications. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a good test of the propensity for commodities to go down, because they went up and the trajectory at the start of 2H may prove autocorrelation forces are more powerful than ever. Our graphic shows the tendency for the Bloomberg Grains Spot Index to lead broad commodities and potential for the Bloomberg Commodity Spot Index to drop about another 30%, to simply catch up to the grains.” 

    While falling grain prices may signal lower food costs for consumers, the combination of sliding prices and high production costs spells trouble for farmers’ incomes.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 18:40

  • Ron Paul: Why We'll Never Know What Really Happened In Butler, PA
    Ron Paul: Why We’ll Never Know What Really Happened In Butler, PA

    Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,

    Just days after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, theories are flying from all directions. Many who ridiculed the “conspiracy theories” of conservatives are now suggesting the whole event was a set-up to boost Trump in the polls ahead of the election. Others suggest it was the “deep state” or even foreign actors who organized it.

    Former US Navy Seal and founder of Blackwater, Erik Prince, claims that “The fact that [the Secret Service] allowed a rifle armed shooter within 150 yds to a preplanned event is either malice or massive incompetence.” He went on to observe that, “unaccountable bloated bureaucracies continue to fail us as Americans,” adding that “unserious and unworthy people in positions of authority got us to this near disaster. Merit and execution must be the only deciding factors in hiring and leadership, not the social engineering priority of the day.”

    Video has emerged showing that for at least two minutes law enforcement knew someone with a gun was on a roof aiming at the former President and no one communicated the need to pull Trump from the stage. You can clearly hear the crowd warning law enforcement that someone was on the roof. Yet he was unhindered until the first shots rang out.

    Considering this fact, Erik Prince has a point.

    If this is like any previous governmental foul-ups, we can expect hearings, investigations, and commissions that will actually serve to hide the official errors or even malicious intent by some in the government.

    That’s what government does no matter who is in office: protect itself from actual scrutiny and resist being exposed as incompetent or worse.

    But what if there was a genuine investigation that actually revealed the truth about what happened at the Trump rally over the weekend?

    Could we rely on the mainstream media to even report it?

    This is the same media that, after Trump was clearly shot on live television, reported “Trump escorted away after loud noises at PA rally.” (Washington Post). And “Secret Service rushes Trump offstage after he falls at rally.” (CNN).

    This is the same mainstream media that has been comparing Donald Trump to Hitler for years, and now pretends to be shocked that their vile rhetoric ended up in violence.

    There is a good reason why the mainstream media is regarded by the American public with record levels of contempt.

    The current Director of the Secret Service has been interviewed expressing her dedication to “diversity” in hiring agents.

    What if her dedication to DEI goals led to an agency that is more “diverse” but fails at its core mission? Can we rely on the media to inform us of this? Or will they, as usual, just blame it all on the Second Amendment?

    What if the problem with the Secret Service is that it was moved into the bloated, incompetent, and menacing Department  of Homeland Security, the creation of which I strongly opposed when I was in Congress?

    We shouldn’t count on hearing the truth about the attempted assassination from the mainstream media.

    No wonder the elites remain determined to censor social media sites like Twitter/X and TikTok.

    We live in an empire of lies, propped up by the mainstream media. And seeking the truth in this empire of lies is the greatest challenge for us in the moral bankruptcy in which we live.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 18:20

  • Visualizing The G7's Declining Share Of Global GDP
    Visualizing The G7’s Declining Share Of Global GDP

    Formed in 1975, the G7 is a group of seven advanced economies (U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Japan) that cooperates on economic policy and promotes global stability. At the time of the group’s inception, these countries were leading nations in the post-World War II economic order, and shared similar political and economic systems.

    While much of this is still true today, the G7’s collective economic influence has fallen significantly as emerging nations in other parts of the world have grown.

    To learn more about this trend, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualized the G7’s share of global GDP beside the G20’s, from 1990 to 2022. Numbers come from the World Bank, accessed via the Council on Foreign Relations.

    Data and Key Takeaway

    The G20 is an expanded group that was established with the goal of bringing together advanced and emerging economies to promote international cooperation. Major economies that are in the G20, but not in the G7, include China, India, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia.

    The data we used to create this graphic can be found in the table below.

    Year G7 share of GDP (%) G20 share of GDP (%)
    1990 66 80
    1991 66 81
    1992 67 81
    1993 67 82
    1994 67 82
    1995 66 81
    1996 65 80
    1997 64 81
    1998 65 80
    1999 66 81
    2000 65 81
    2001 65 81
    2002 65 80
    2003 64 80
    2004 62 79
    2005 60 78
    2006 58 78
    2007 55 77
    2008 52 76
    2009 53 76
    2010 50 77
    2011 48 77
    2012 47 77
    2013 46 77
    2014 46 77
    2015 46 78
    2016 47 78
    2017 46 78
    2018 45 78
    2019 45 78
    2020 46 78
    2021 44 78
    2022 44 78

    From this dataset we can see that the G7’s share of global GDP has shrunk from 67% in 1994, to 44% in 2022.

    Over this same time period, the G20’s share of global GDP has remained relatively steady near 80%. In short, this means that emerging markets are accounting for a relatively greater share of the world’s economy.

    What Does This Mean for the G7?

    Here are some possible consequences of the G7’s declining share of global GDP:

    • Reduced Global Influence: Diminished ability to shape global economic policies and standards.

    • Changes in Trade Dynamics: Potential shifts in trade relationships and alliances as other countries gain economic prominence.

    • Altered Investment Flows: Redirection of global investment towards faster-growing economies outside the G7.

    If you enjoyed this post, check out this infographic that visualizes the top six countries share of global GDP over time.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 18:00

  • Texas AG Appeals Ruling On Nonprofit Accused Of Facilitating Illegal Immigration
    Texas AG Appeals Ruling On Nonprofit Accused Of Facilitating Illegal Immigration

    Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday filed an appeal after a judge dismissed his lawsuit to shut down the nonprofit organization Annunciation House for allegedly facilitating illegal immigration.

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at CPAC at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas, on July 11, 2021. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

    District Court Judge Francisco Dominguez blocked the lawsuit in March, saying that Mr. Paxton “acted without regard to due process and fair play” in trying to revoke the registration of the nonprofit organization.

    The judge ruled Mr. Paxton’s agency must use the state court system if it wants to investigate the Catholic nonprofit, which has been operating in El Paso, Texas, since the 1970s, offering shelter and other services to illegal immigrants.

    Mr. Paxton said Monday he filed an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court against the judge’s decision.

    “For too long, Annunciation House has flouted the law and contributed to the worsening illegal immigration crisis at Texas’s border with Mexico,” the Republican attorney general said in a statement.

    He said the Office of the Attorney General has been investigating nonprofit organizations in Texas for their involvement in facilitating illegal immigration following Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s request.

    The investigation found Annunciation House was “openly operating in violation of the law without any pretense of trying to comply with the law,” Mr. Paxton’s office said. “According to Annunciation House’s in-court admissions, its employees enter Mexico to retrieve aliens, including aliens who have been denied entry by Border Patrol, to bring them into the United States.”

    The Epoch Times has reached out to Annunciation House for comment but has not heard back as of publication time.

    Annunciation House describes itself on its website as “a volunteer organization that offers hospitality to migrants, immigrants, and refugees in El Paso,” which is “rooted in Catholic social teaching.”

    The Office of the Attorney General issued a Feb. 7 “request to examine” the nonprofit’s records, including documents detailing what services it provides to immigrants who are in the country legally or illegally.

    According to Mr. Paxton, Annunciation House refused to turn over documents and sued his office soon after, seeking to halt his efforts to obtain their records. On Feb. 20, Mr. Paxton announced he was asserting a counterclaim, seeking to shut down Annunciation House’s operations within the state entirely.

    In his legal filings, Mr. Paxton states his initial request to inspect Annunciation House’s records “was not made in a vacuum.” Rather, he alleged state investigators had been monitoring the “unusually covert way” Annunciation House operates.

    Annunciation House’s Previous Response

    Annunciation House said on Feb. 23 that Mr. Paxton’s attempt to shut down the organization was “unfounded” and said that it was asking the court to decide which documents the Attorney General is allowed to access.

    “There is nothing illegal about asking a Court to decide a person’s rights. The AG has now made explicit that its real goal is not records but to shut down the organization,” it said in a statement.

    The organization said it has provided hospitality to “hundreds of thousands of refugees for over 46 years” and that its work was listed in the National Catholic Directory.

    “Annunciation House’s work is central to the City of El Paso. El Paso has made it a point of pride to provide humane support for people coming through our community in need,” the organization stated.

    “The work helps serve our local businesses, our City, and immigration officials to keep people off the streets and give them a shelter while they come through our community,” it added.

    Jane J. Pruet and Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/16/2024 – 17:40

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