- Techno-Authoritarianism Is Here To Stay: China & The Deep State Have Joined Forces
Techno-Authoritarianism Is Here To Stay: China & The Deep State Have Joined Forces
Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,
“If this government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back.”
– Senator Frank Church
The votes are in.
No matter who runs for office, no matter who controls the White House, Senate or the House of Representatives now or in the future, “we the people” have already lost.
We have lost because the future of this nation is being forged beyond the reach of our laws, elections and borders by techno-authoritarian powers with no regard for individuality, privacy or freedom.
The fate of America is being made in China, our role model for all things dystopian.
An economic and political powerhouse that owns more of America’s debt than any other country and is buying up American businesses across the spectrum, China is a vicious totalitarian regime that routinely employs censorship, surveillance, and brutal police state tactics to intimidate its populace, maintain its power, and expand the largesse of its corporate elite.
Where China goes, the United States eventually follows. This way lies outright tyranny.
Censorship. China’s censorship machine is straight out of Orwell’s 1984 with government agencies and corporations working together to limit the populace’s freedom of expression. Just a few years ago, in fact, China banned the use of the word “disagree,” as well as references to George Orwell’s novels Animal Farm and 1984. Government agencies routinely harass and intimidate anyone seen as non-compliant. Activists are frequently penalized for gathering in public places and charged criminally with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” China has also gone to great lengths to muzzle journalists reporting on corruption or human rights abuses.
Surveillance. COVID-19 brought China’s Orwellian surveillance out of the shadows and gave China the perfect excuse for unleashing the full force of its expansive and sophisticated surveillance and data collection powers on its citizenry and the rest of the world. Thermal scanners using artificial intelligence (AI) were installed at train stations in major cities to assess body temperatures and identify anyone with a fever. Facial recognition cameras and cell phone carriers tracked people’s movements constantly, reporting in real time to data centers that could be accessed by government agents and employers alike. And coded color alerts (red, yellow and green) sorted people into health categories that corresponded to the amount of freedom of movement they’re allowed: “Green code, travel freely. Red or yellow, report immediately.”
Social media credit scores. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, the Chinese surveillance state had already been hard at work tracking its citizens through the use of some 200 million security cameras installed nationwide. Equipped with facial recognition technology, the cameras allow authorities to track so-called criminal acts, such as jaywalking, which factor into a person’s social credit score. Social media credit scores assigned to Chinese individuals and businesses categorize them on whether or not they are “good” citizens. A “citizen score” determines one’s place in society based on one’s loyalty to the government. A real-name system—which requires people to use government-issued ID cards to buy mobile sims, obtain social media accounts, take a train, board a plane, or even buy groceries—coupled with social media credit scores ensures that those blacklisted as “unworthy” are banned from accessing financial markets, buying real estate or travelling by air or train. Among the activities that can get you labeled unworthy are taking reserved seats on trains or allegedly causing trouble in hospitals.
Safe, smart cities. Having pioneered the development of so-called “safe” smart cities, China is exporting worldwide the high-tech communities in which residents are monitored round the clock, their every action under constant surveillance, and every device is connected to a central brain operated by artificial intelligence. As privacy expert Vincent Mosco concludes, “The benefit from smart cities clearly goes to the authorities who are able to use the promise of the modern, high-tech city to extend and deepen surveillance. It also goes to the big tech companies who profit first from building the smart city infrastructure and secondly by commodifying the entire smart city space. Citizens gain some operational efficiency but at great cost to their liberty.”
Digital currency. China has already adopted a government-issued digital currency, which not only allows it to surveil and seize people’s financial transactions, but can also work in tandem with its social credit score system to punish individuals for moral lapses and social transgressions (and reward them for adhering to government-sanctioned behavior). As China expert Akram Keram wrote for The Washington Post, “With digital yuan, the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] will have direct control over and access to the financial lives of individuals, without the need to strong-arm intermediary financial entities. In a digital-yuan-consumed society, the government easily could suspend the digital wallets of dissidents and human rights activists.”
Digital authoritarianism will redefine what it means to be free in almost every aspect of our lives. Again, we must look to China to understand what awaits us. As Human Rights Watch analyst Maya Wang explains: “Chinese authorities use technology to control the population all over the country in subtler but still powerful ways. The central bank is adopting digital currency, which will allow Beijing to surveil—and control—people’s financial transactions. China is building so-called safe cities, which integrate data from intrusive surveillance systems to predict and prevent everything from fires to natural disasters and political dissent. The government believes that these intrusions, together with administrative actions, such as denying blacklisted people access to services, will nudge people toward ‘positive behaviors,’ including greater compliance with government policies and healthy habits such as exercising.”
AI surveillance. In much the same way that Chinese products have infiltrated almost every market worldwide and altered consumer dynamics, China is now exporting its “authoritarian tech” to governments worldwide ostensibly in an effort to spread its brand of totalitarianism worldwide. In fact, both China and the United States have led the way in supplying the rest of the world with AI surveillance, sometimes at a subsidized rate. In the hands of tyrants and benevolent dictators alike, AI surveillance is the ultimate means of repression and control, especially through the use of smart city/safe city platforms, facial recognition systems, and predictive policing. These technologies are also being used by violent extremist groups, as well as sex, child, drug, and arms traffickers for their own nefarious purposes.
While countries with authoritarian regimes have been eager to adopt AI surveillance, as the Carnegie Endowment’s research makes clear, liberal democracies are also “aggressively using AI tools to police borders, apprehend potential criminals, monitor citizens for bad behavior, and pull out suspected terrorists from crowds.” Moreover, it’s easy to see how the China model for internet control has been integrated into the American police state’s efforts to flush out so-called anti-government, domestic extremists. This is how totalitarianism conquers the world.
Secret police. According to recent reports, China has planted more than 54 secret police forces in 25 cities around the world, including the United States, as part of their efforts to track and threaten dissidents and deport them back to China for prosecution. The campaign to surveil, intimidate and punish ex-patriates living abroad engaging in dissent has been dubbed Operation Fox Hunt. As one human rights agency noted, “The message from the [Chinese] ministry of foreign affairs – that you are not safe anywhere, that we can find you and that we can get to you – is very effective.”
Police brutality. Not much has changed about China’s brutal crackdown on protesters in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Chinese policing remains brutal, excessive and inflexible, now with the added power of the surveillance state behind it.
Intimidation tactics. China has mastered the art of intimidation tactics, threatening activists, their families and their livelihood should they fail to comply with the government’s dictates. As one activist explained, “There have been telephone calls in the middle of the night that family members won’t find work if you don’t cooperate with the government, or that your parents’ phone number will be posted online and they’ll be harassed. Or with Uyghurs, that the rest of your family will be put in camps.”
Disappearance, brainwashing and torture. Those who fail to fall in line with China’s dictates are often made to disappear, arrested in the dead of night and imprisoned in Orwellian re-education camps. China has built more than 400 of these internment camps in recent years to detain people for offenses that run the gamut from challenging the government to so-called religious crimes such as owning a Qur’an or abstaining from eating pork. As the Guardian reports, “abuses include detailed arbitrary detentions, torture and medical neglect in the detention camps and coercive birth control.”
China’s global influence, its technological reach, its quest for world domination, and its rigid demand for compliance are pushing us towards a world in chains.
Through its growing stranglehold on surveillance technology, China has erected the world’s first digital totalitarian state, and in the process, has made itself a model for aspiring dictators everywhere.
What too many fail to recognize, however, is that China and the American Deep State have joined forces.
As I make clear in Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, this is fascism hiding behind a thin veneer of open government and populist elections.
For all intents and purposes, we have become the embodiment of what Philip K. Dick feared when he wrote The Man in the High Castle, a vision of an alternate universe in which the Axis powers defeat the Allies in World War II, and “fascism has not simply conquered America. It has insinuated itself, with disturbing ease, into America’s DNA.”
Yet while Dick’s vision of a world in which totalitarianism has been normalized is chilling, our growing reality of a world in which the Deep State is not merely entrenched but has gone global is downright terrifying.
Our national flag may not boast the red and white stripes with a swastika on a field of blue as depicted in The Man in the High Castle, but be warned: we are no less occupied.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 23:40 - "Seismic Unrest Burbling" Under World's Largest Active Volcano In Hawaii
“Seismic Unrest Burbling” Under World’s Largest Active Volcano In Hawaii
United States Geological Survey data shows earthquake swarms continue around the world’s largest active volcano, Mauna Loa, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Such unrest could be a precursor to an eruption not seen in decades.
In the 24 hours ending Tuesday, at least 50 quakes measuring 3.0 magnitude or below rattled Mauna Loa. Geologists are worried the quakes are signs magma churns underneath the volcano could spark an eruption, though there are no signs of anything imminent.
Here’s USGS’ latest update:
Mauna Loa continues to be in a state of heightened unrest as indicated by increased earthquake activity and inflation of the summit. The current unrest is most likely being driven by renewed input of magma 2–5 miles (3–8 km) beneath Mauna Loa’s summit.
During the past 24 hours, HVO [Hawaii Volcano Observatory] detected 50 small-magnitude (below M3.0) earthquakes 2–3 miles (2–5 km) below Mokuʻāweoweo caldera and 4–5 miles (6–8 km) beneath the upper-elevation northwest flank of Mauna Loa. Both of these regions have historically been seismically active during periods of unrest on Mauna Loa.
Seismic unrest is still burbling under Mauna Loa #volcano on Hawai’i island. No eruption is imminent, but taking steps now to prepare gives you more control if the situation changes. @USGSVolcanoes has compiled a good set of preparedness resources here: https://t.co/YMbSNw6q49 pic.twitter.com/aA9E80u0Ly
— Hawaii EMA (@Hawaii_EMA) November 15, 2022
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
This heightened unrest began in mid-Sept. with increased earthquake rates below the Mauna Loa summit. By October, we reported the volcano was placed on red alert.
“Geologists say they expect to see more persistent and heightened rate of ground deformation and seismicity before a future eruption,” Fox Weather noted.
Mauna Loa is about half of the Hawaii Island landmass. So any eruption would immediately impact residents. There are about 200,000 people on the island. It last erupted in 1984, and lava flows took out homes in under two hours.
Swarms of quakes are sometimes the first indications of volcanic reawakening.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 23:20 - Escobar: Russia, India, China, Iran – The Quad That Really Matters
Escobar: Russia, India, China, Iran – The Quad That Really Matters
Southeast Asia is right at the center of international relations for a whole week viz a viz three consecutive summits: Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Phnom Penh, the Group of Twenty (G20) summit in Bali, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bangkok.
Eighteen nations accounting for roughly half of the global economy represented at the first in-person ASEAN summit since the Covid-19 pandemic in Cambodia: the ASEAN 10, Japan, South Korea, China, India, US, Russia, Australia, and New Zealand.
With characteristic Asian politeness, the summit chair, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen (or “Colombian”, according to the so-called “leader of the free world”), said the plenary meeting was somewhat heated, but the atmosphere was not tense: “Leaders talked in a mature way, no one left.”
It was up to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to express what was really significant at the end of the summit.
While praising the “inclusive, open, equal structure of security and cooperation at ASEAN”, Lavrov stressed how Europe and NATO “want to militarize the region in order to contain Russia and China’s interests in the Indo-Pacific.”
A manifestation of this policy is how “AUKUS is openly aiming at confrontation in the South China Sea,” he said.
Lavrov also stressed how the West, via the NATO military alliance, is accepting ASEAN “only nominally” while promoting a completely “unclear” agenda.
What’s clear though is how NATO “has moved towards Russian borders several times and now declared at the Madrid summit that they have taken global responsibility.”
This leads us to the clincher: “NATO is moving their line of defense to the South China Sea.” And, Lavrov added, Beijing holds the same assessment.
Here, concisely, is the open “secret” of our current geopolitical incandescence. Washington’s number one priority is the containment of China. That implies blocking the EU from getting closer to the key Eurasia drivers – China, Russia, and Iran – engaged in building the world’s largest free trade/connectivity environment.
Adding to the decades-long hybrid war against Iran, the infinite weaponizing of the Ukrainian black hole fits into the initial stages of the battle.
For the Empire, Iran cannot profit from becoming a provider of cheap, quality energy to the EU. And in parallel, Russia must be cut off from the EU. The next step is to force the EU to cut itself off from China.
All that fits into the wildest, warped Straussian/neo-con wet dreams: to attack China, by emboldening Taiwan, first Russia must be weakened, via the instrumentalization (and destruction) of Ukraine.
And all along the scenario, Europe simply has no agency.
Putin, Raeisi and the Erdogan track
Real life across key Eurasia nodes reveals a completely different picture. Take the relaxed get-together in Tehran between Russia’s top security official Nikolai Patrushev and his Iranian counterpart Ali Shamkhani last week.
They discussed not only security matters but also serious business – as in turbo-charged trade.
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will sign a $40 billion deal next month with Gazprom, bypassing US sanctions, and encompassing the development of two gas fields and six oilfields, swaps in natural gas and oil products, LNG projects, and the construction of gas pipelines.
Immediately after the Patrushev-Shamkhani meeting, President Putin called President Ebrahim Raeisi to keep up the “interaction in politics, trade and the economy, including transport and logistics,” according to the Kremlin.
Iranian president reportedly more than “welcomed” the “strengthening” of Moscow-Tehran ties.
Patrushev unequivocally supported Tehran over the latest color revolution adventure perpetrated under the framework of the Empire’s endless hybrid war.
Iran and the EAEU are negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in parallel to the swap deals with Russian oil. Soon, SWIFT may be completely bypassed. The whole Global South is watching.
Simultaneous to Putin’s phone call, Turkiye’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan – conducting his own diplomatic overdrive, and just back from a summit of Turkic nations in Samarkand – stressed that the US and the collective West are attacking Russia “almost without limits”.
Erdogan made it clear that Russia is a “powerful” state and commended its “great resistance”.
The response came exactly 24 hours later. Turkish intelligence cut to the chase, pointing out that the terrorist bombing in the perpetually busy Istiklal pedestrian street in Istanbul was designed in Kobane in northern Syria, which essentially responds to the US.
That constitutes a de-facto act of war and may unleash serious consequences, including a profound revision of Turkiye’s presence inside NATO.
Iran’s multi-track strategy
A Russia-Iran strategic alliance manifests itself practically as a historical inevitability. It recalls the time when the erstwhile USSR helped Iran militarily via North Korea, after an enforced US/Europe blockade.
Putin and Raeisi are taking it to the next level. Moscow and Tehran are developing a joint strategy to defeat the weaponization of sanctions by the collective West.
Iran, after all, has an absolutely stellar record of smashing variants of “maximum pressure” to bits. Also, it is now linked to a strategic nuclear umbrella offered by the “RICs” in BRICS (Russia, India, China).
So, Tehran may now plan to develop its massive economic potential within the framework of BRI, SCO, INSTC, the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), and the Russian-led Greater Eurasia Partnership.
Moscow’s game is pure sophistication: engaging in a high-level strategic oil alliance with Saudi Arabia while deepening its strategic partnership with Iran.
Immediately after Patrushev’s visit, Tehran announced the development of an indigenously built hypersonic ballistic missile, quite similar to the Russian KH-47 M2 Khinzal.
And the other significant news was connectivity-wise: the completion of part of a railway from strategic Chabahar Port to the border with Turkmenistan. That means imminent direct rail connectivity to the Central Asian, Russian and Chinese spheres.
Add to it the predominant role of OPEC+, the development of BRICS+, and the pan-Eurasian drive to pricing trade, insurance, security, investments in the ruble, yuan, rial, etc.
There’s also the fact that Tehran could not care less about the endless collective West procrastination on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as Iran nuclear deal: what really matters now is the deepening relationship with the “RICs” in BRICS.
Tehran refused to sign a tampered-with EU draft nuclear deal in Vienna. Brussels was enraged; no Iranian oil will “save” Europe, replacing Russian oil under a nonsensical cap to be imposed next month.
And Washington was enraged because it was betting on internal tensions to split OPEC.
Considering all of the above, no wonder US ‘Think Tankland’ is behaving like a bunch of headless chickens.
The queue to join BRICS
During the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand last September, it was already tacit to all players how the Empire is cannibalizing its closest allies.
And how, simultaneously, the shrinking NATO-sphere is turning inwards, with a focus on The Enemy Within, relentlessly corralling average citizens to march in lockstep behind total compliance with a two-pronged war – hybrid and otherwise – against imperial peer competitors Russia and China.
Now compare it with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Samarkand presenting China and Russia, together, as the top “responsible global powers” bent on securing the emergence of multipolarity.
Samarkand also reaffirmed the strategic political partnership between Russia and India (Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it an unbreakable friendship).
That was corroborated by the meeting between Lavrov and his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar last week in Moscow.
Lavrov praised the strategic partnership in every crucial area – politics, trade and economics, investment, and technology, as well as “closely coordinated actions” at the UN Security Council, BRICS, SCO and the G20.
On BRICS, crucially, Lavrov confirmed that “over a dozen countries” are lining up for membership, including Iran: “We expect the work on coordinating the criteria and principles that should underlie BRICS expansion to not take much time”.
But first, the five members need to analyze the ground-breaking repercussions of an expanded BRICS+.
Once again: contrast. What is the EU’s “response” to these developments? Coming up with yet another sanctions package against Iran, targeting officials and entities “connected with security affairs” as well as companies, for their alleged “violence and repressions”.
“Diplomacy”, collective West-style, barely registers as bullying.
Back to the real economy – as in the gas front – the national interests of Russia, Iran and Turkiye are increasingly intertwined; and that is bound to influence developments in Syria, Iraq, and Libya, and will be a key factor to facilitate Erdogan’s re-election next year.
As it stands, Riyadh for all practical purposes has performed a stunning 180-degree maneuver against Washington via OPEC+. That may signify, even in a twisted way, the onset of a process of unification of Arab interests, guided by Moscow.
Stranger things have happened in modern history.
Now appears to be the time for the Arab world to be finally ready to join the Quad that really matters: Russia, India, China, and Iran.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 23:00 - Wray Refuses To Say If FBI Had Sources 'Dressed As Trump Supporters' On January 6
Wray Refuses To Say If FBI Had Sources ‘Dressed As Trump Supporters’ On January 6
FBI Director Christopher Wray refused to say whether the agency had confidential informants mixed among Trump supporters during the Jan. 6, 2021 capitol riot.
“Did the FBI have confidential human sources embedded within the Jan. 6 protesters on Jan. 6 of 2021?” Rep. Clay Higgins asked Wray on Tuesday.
“As I’m sure you can appreciate, I have to be very careful about what I can say, about when we do and do not, and where we have and have not used confidential human sources,” Wray replied, adding “But to the extent there’s a suggestion, for example, that the FBI’s confidential human sources or FBI employees in someway instigated or orchestrated Jan 6th, that’s categorically false.”
Higgins then asked, “Did you have confidential human sources dressed as Trump supporters inside the Capitol on January 6th prior to the doors being opened?”
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) questions FBI Director Christopher Wray in Washington on Nov. 15, 2022. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) To which Wray pushed back, “Again, I have to be very careful about what I can say.”
“It should be a no!” Higgins interjected. “Can you not tell the American people: ‘no, we did not have confidential human sources dressed as Trump sources positioned inside the Capitol on January the 6th?”
To which Wray replied: “You should not read anything into my decision not to share information about confidential human sources.”
REP. HIGGINS: “Did you have confidential human sources dressed as Trump supporters inside The Capitol on January 6th prior to the doors being opened?”
FBI DIR. WRAY: “I have to be very careful about what I can say.” pic.twitter.com/COGkWCPCpY
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 15, 2022
More via The Epoch Times,
Higgins’s time to question Wray and other Biden administration officials then expired. He did not get to ask more questions later, and no other members pursued the line of questioning further.
Wray, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and National Counterterrorism Center Director Christine Abizaid testified before the House Homeland Security Committee on Capitol Hill.
The FBI has never confirmed having confidential sources or undercover agents among the crowd on Jan. 6 but court filings indicate that a number of sources were embedded with the Oath Keepers and other groups whose members took part in the Capitol breach.
Questioned on the matter in 2021, then-FBI official Jill Sanborn said she could not answer.
Officials have also not answered questions about videos that show doors being opened on Jan. 6, enabling people to enter the Capitol.
Later in the hearing, Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) said she was concerned about people thinking the FBI “is a political tool” and asked Wray to “explain in your words why they should trust their federal law enforcement.”
Wray said that he hears from people outside the FBI that the FBI “does the right thing in the right way” and that he would “stack our workforce up against anywhere in the world, anytime.”
“And the Americans should have deep confidence in those people. And I will add that when it comes to perceptions of the FBI, that the number of Americans all across this country applying to be special agents in the FBI, has been going up, up significantly over the past three years. At a time when, as I hear all the time, law enforcement all over this country is having the opposite experience. And I think that speaks very well of Americans in every state represented on this committee.”
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 22:40 - Sheriffs Refuse To Enforce Democrat-Controlled State's New Gun Law
Sheriffs Refuse To Enforce Democrat-Controlled State’s New Gun Law
Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Several sheriffs in Oregon said they will not enforce the state’s new gun law that places a limit on magazine capacity, arguing that the provision violates the Constitution’s Second Amendment.
A California-legal AR-15 style rifle is displayed for sale at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, Calif., on June 5, 2021. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images) Oregon voters approved Measure 114, also known as the Reduction of Gun Violence Act, during the Nov. 8 midterm elections. The rule, among other restrictions, outlaws magazines that hold more than 10 rounds—similar to rules that have been implemented in New York, California, and other Democrat-controlled states.
Several county sheriffs have publicly announced they won’t enforce the law or parts of the law.
“The biggest thing is this does absolutely nothing to address the problem,” Sheriff Cody Bowen of Union County told Fox News on Tuesday. “The problem that we have is not… magazine capacity. It’s not background checks. It’s a problem with mental health awareness. It’s a problem with behavior health illness.”
Bowen added that “society as a whole is a bigger problem rather than saying that, you know, the guns are killing people.” Union County, which is sparsely populated, is located in northeastern Oregon near the Idaho border.
“There’s just no way possible for us to enforce that and nor would I simply because it’s an infringement on our Second Amendment, you know, our right to keep and bear arms,” he said, adding that it won’t reduce shootings in the state.
Malheur County Sheriff Brian Wolfe stated that he won’t enforce the magazine limit.
“I don’t think this is superseding anything. I don’t believe that I am superseding state law by not enforcing it. Anybody in law enforcement, including the state police, including the governor, has to pick and choose what laws they are going to be able to enforce,” he told local media.
Linn County Sheriff Michelle Duncan wrote on Nov. 9 in a Facebook post that she wants “to send a clear message to Linn County residents that the Linn County Sheriff’s Office is NOT going to be enforcing magazine capacity limits.”
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 22:20 - Chuck Schumer Calls For Amnesty For Illegals Because Americans Are 'Not Reproducing'
Chuck Schumer Calls For Amnesty For Illegals Because Americans Are ‘Not Reproducing’
It’s a classic argument used ten years ago when European officials called for open borders and the acceptance of a mass injection of Islamic immigrants into the region – The idea that westerners are not having enough babies to support population replacement, and thus, open borders must be established.
Chuck Schumer is promoting the same concept for the US, with calls for amnesty for 11 million+ illegals. Americans aren’t reproducing anymore, according to Schumer, and so immigration is the only answer.
There are many problems with this nonsensical philosophy, with the most obvious being that population replacement from non-western countries that do not respect western values leads to cultural destruction. As we have seen with the exponential rise in crime and instability within European countries where immigrants are most concentrated (like Sweden), there are often consequences to open borders.
The EU has desperately tried to deny the rising threat and has even commissioned multiple studies in an attempt to debunk the idea, but you can’t tell a population they are not experiencing more crime after migrants overrun their neighborhoods when they are witnessing the crime daily. In many cases, European governments have even sought to cover up migrant crimes, refusing to prosecute because this would be an admission of the failure of open border policies.
This behavior has been cited as one of the primary reasons for the rise of “right wing” parties in Europe in the past few years, after decades of socialist dominance. Immigration without review and without vetting makes no sense, and it is a policy pushed onto western countries by ideologues while almost every other nation in the world maintains restrictions.
Why is the west expected to embrace open borders while other cultures and countries are not?
It should be noted that Democrats have become outraged after buses filled with illegal immigrants were sent to major leftist cities including New York and Washington DC, with the mayors of those cities declaring a state of emergency and asking for federal intervention and the National Guard. Major Democrat controlled cities can’t handle the influx of a mere 10,000 to 15,000 migrants, let alone millions; hardly proof that mass immigration is good for the economy.
Amnesty promoters often argue that they only want citizenship for illegals that have been in the US for years. However, amnesty for those people encourages the increased migration of others. The cycle never ends, with the US border now facing record numbers of illegals under the Biden Administration.
Furthermore, if Democrats are worried about inflation and population decline, then why do they continue to defend abortion? The best way to shore up the US population would be to stop the use of abortion as a convenient form of birth control for people that don’t want to take the pill or use a condom. The two policies contradict because the Democrats do not care about the economy, nor do they care about population replacement. What they care about is transplanting millions of immigrants into the US, most of which come from socialist countries, and using them as a voting bloc to secure power for generations to come.
Not only that, but one could argue that leftists also want the destruction of western culture because it harbors ideals of freedom that do not exist in most other cultures. With the west invaded and our principles diluted, our freedoms will be easier to eliminate and our system easier to supplant and replace.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 22:00 - Short-Covers Unwind One Of The Most-Crowded Trades
Short-Covers Unwind One Of The Most-Crowded Trades
By Ye Xie, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and analyst
The recovery of Chinese assets has been fast and furious. It was mainly driven by short-covering, according to Morgan Stanley. Now that peak pessimism has been pared and positioning is less lopsided, the easy part of the rally may be behind us. Improving data and a successful retreat from Covid Zero are needed to keep the momentum going.
Bank of America’s latest fund-manager survey shows investors saw shorting Chinese equities as the second-most crowded trade after long-dollar positions. The survey was conducted between Nov. 4 and Nov. 10, sandwiched between the party congress that disappointed investors and the official confirmation of the fine-tuning of the Covid policy.
The crowded positioning suggests short-covering may be one of the drivers that pushed the MSCI China Index up 26% this month, after Beijing loosened Covid restrictions and stepped up the support for the housing market. Indeed, Morgan Stanley’s quant analysts found evidence supporting the theory. Strategists including Gilbert Wong wrote:
Regional hedge funds were covering short positions from the YTD high levels of short interest, while some hedge fund managers in China were building tactical long positions again to chase the rally.
They believe the rally would be prolonged into year-end amid rising expectation of various fundamental improvements – e.g., Covid-zero relaxation and a temporary easing of geopolitical tensions. Thus, the most shorted stocks were leading the covering flows, resulting in the rally of low-quality and unprofitable tech plays.
What’s more interesting is that the rally has been so quick that trading signals for trend-following strategies have flipped from short to long, according to the strategists. “Their algorithms have to trade on a reversal basis in the near term to minimize drawdown risk,” Wong wrote.
That shift in expectations is also captured by Bank of America’s survey of Asian investors. A net 26% of investors said they’d overweight China, up from 14% in the October survey. The overweight is more than any other places in the region.
Make no mistake: The nascent optimism is more tactical than structural. A whopping 80% of the survey respondents said that the China equity market is in a “structural de-rating process.”
In other words, don’t overstay the party.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 21:40 - SpaceX Attempting To Raise Funding At $150 Billion Valuation
SpaceX Attempting To Raise Funding At $150 Billion Valuation
Well, that’s one way to try and help alleviate a cash crunch at your empire…
SpaceX is reportedly attempting to raise a funding round that values the space exploration company at a whopping $150 billion, multiple reports, including one from Bloomberg, on Tuesday confirmed.
The report cited “people familiar with the matter” and people “asking not to be identified discussing confidential information”. The valuation is a boost from the $125 billion the company sported earlier this year.
Terms have not yet been finalized and could change, Bloomberg noted.
Shares are being talked about at $85 each, which is up from $70 price that the company last funded itself at. It looks as though employees will be able to sell into the funding round, as, well, Bloomberg noted:
“Investors may buy new shares in SpaceX at the same time employees sell via a private placement, or tender offer, at the same valuation…”
Elon Musk responded to the report on Tuesday, calling it “false” on Twitter, without offering up additional details as to why the report was incorrect. SpaceX didn’t respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment before they published.
The news will come as welcome to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, who are early investors in SpaceX. The pension fund was most recently in the news for getting caught up in the FTX implosion to the tune of $95 million. Perhaps they can offload some SpaceX shares to try and offset the carnage in crypto…
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 21:20 - Yes, 3D-Printed Steaks Are A Thing
Yes, 3D-Printed Steaks Are A Thing
Authored by Bruce Wilds via Advancing Time blog,
Believe it or not, 3d printed meat may soon be on its way to a store near you. Reuters recently reported that Israel’s Redefine Meat has struck a partnership with importer Giraudi Meats to drive the distribution of its ‘New Meat’ steak cuts produced on 3D printers. At this time, they will be targeting the European market.
Redefine hopes to reach thousands of restaurants by the end of next year with its plant-based whole cuts of alternative meat. Their product, which mimics meat, or as they say, flank steak, is a mix of soy and pea protein, chickpeas, beetroot, nutritional yeasts, and coconut fat.
The Israeli company has been working with about 150 restaurants in Israel, they say the whole cuts they offer will broaden the appeal of alternative meat products. These, up until now, have mostly been limited to ground-beef dishes, including hamburgers and sausages.
Is This What We Want?
As the larger cuts of alternative meat which are more complicated to produce evolve, companies are gearing up to meet the demand which could reach $140 billion by 2029, according to Barclays. This would account for about 10% of the world’s market for meat.
“We’re scaling up the capacity. Every batch that we make is five times larger than the previous batch. So we’re changing … the machines, the flow and we’re also changing the product attributes.” Redefine Meat’s CEO Eshchar Ben-Shitrit said.
To be clear, Redefine Meat, is not the only company moving in the direction of what some of us see as “fake meat.” In fact, competition in this sector is growing, players include California’s Beyond Meat (BYND.O) and Impossible Foods as well as Spain’s Novameat, and Israel’s Aleph Farms, which is developing a method to cultivate meat in the lab from cow cells.
Adding New Meaning To, Where’s The Beef?
It is likely that if Europe does not reject this concoction, it will soon reach our shores. To many Americans and other people across the world, this will most likely be viewed as an abomination pushed upon us by climate change activists that see cattle as harming the environment.
This move to produce food in ways foreign to nature can also be framed as proof that mankind is moving further from its roots and off into some strange bizarre future.
This is certainly not something our ancestors would not have seen coming.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 21:00 - Did SBF Buy Puff-Piece Propaganda?
Did SBF Buy Puff-Piece Propaganda?
As FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried faces extradition to the USA following his fund’s commingled asset implosion, one might be a bit confused about the gravity of the situation given recent press coverage.
For example, the NY Times on Monday published a cowering puff-piece which mentioned exactly none of the major accusations against the well-connected Democrat mega-donor.
Word count NYT’s puff piece on SBF:
“Fraud”: 0
“Enron”: 0
“Crime”: 0
“Illiquid”: 0
“Stolen”: 0
“Hidden”: 0
“Criminal”: 0
“Back door”: 0
“He’s getting sleep”: 1 pic.twitter.com/htbte8IyPI— Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) November 15, 2022
Why the puff piece @nytimes?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2022
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Same author.https://t.co/8VRGhJOred
— Xerxes (@XerxesEmperor) November 15, 2022
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Months before his firm imploded, Vox penned a slobbering review of SBF’s “Effective Altruism” program, painting him as a benevolent crime-fighter in his efforts to help ensure Joe Biden won the 2020 US election.
But his motivations aren’t those of an ordinary Democratic donor — Bankman-Fried told Goldstein that fighting Trump was less about promoting Democrats than ensuring “sane governance” in the US, which could have “massive, massive, ripple effects on what the future looks like.” -Vox
Another slam dunk splainer by Vox. https://t.co/tM4D6JyWAt
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) November 12, 2022
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsFast forward to Tuesday, when Vox proclaimed that SBF’s support of Democratic candidates to the tune of $40 million, second only to George Soros, is “massively overstated” and essentially no big deal.
And what do we have here? SBF gave millions to corporate media outlets according to Tablet, and noted by @balajis, who suggests that it may have been done with “stolen customer funds.”
Over the past two years, Bankman-Fried cultivated the media lavishly, if not carefully. Drawing on what then seemed like an unlimited pool of cash, SBF (as we’ll call the mythologized version of the real person) dispersed investments, advertising dollars, sponsorships, and donations to key news outlets—including ProPublica, Vox, Semafor, and The Intercept—with extraordinary effectiveness. -Tablet
And while some of said outlets (Semafor, and The Intercept for example) covered FTX without obvious bias, recent pieces from Vox suggest the investment has paid off in spades.
SUE JOURNOS, EARN CRYPTO?
SBF gave millions to media corporations like Vox. We don’t know exactly when his theft of customer funds started, but there is a $10B hole. There’s also a multi-year lookback for “fraudulent conveyance”.
So, these corporations may be pursued. pic.twitter.com/Aj4erB7b1w
— Balaji (@balajis) November 16, 2022
On Wednesday, Vox must have realized how dumb they looked – leading to Vox’s Dylan Matthews (who oddly took the “Vox” reference out of his Twitter bio earlier today) dumping what appears to be incriminating texts with another Vox journo.
If you’re someone who bites the bullet on St. Petersburg paradoxes it turns out you’re eager to lose a lot of money on the roulette table! pic.twitter.com/H3sYWs0djL
— dylan matthews (@dylanmatt) November 16, 2022
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😬…. Well, this is awkward. 😂🤣😂 https://t.co/Ar993pPGiK
— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) November 16, 2022
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An interesting analogy…
SBF is the Jeffrey Epstein of retail: a protected, connected darling of the Washington DC halls of power, the media, academia and the establishment.
Epstein provided the elites with perversion & sex. SBF gave the elites the one thing they want even more: other people’s money.
— Bruce Fenton 🇺🇸 (@brucefenton) November 16, 2022
And while the NY Times wasn’t on the list of outlets that received money, perhaps SBF’s deep-rooted establishment connections have something to do with it.
“Man, this whole FTX fiasco really needs its own theme song.”
(said no one ever)https://t.co/oCKV4VmBpH
(bid on the NFT👆) pic.twitter.com/HkftDsinRT— Jonathan Mann (@songadaymann) November 16, 2022
The NYT drops a softball piece on SBF painting him as an aspirational dude who genuinely got in over his head
While writing hit pieces on the CEO’s of Coinbase & Kraken, two who actually protected their clients’ assets
Turns out FTX donated $70M to Politicians in 2022🤔
— Chris Josephs (@Chrisjjosephs) November 15, 2022
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 20:40 - The Road To Totalitarianism (Revisited)
The Road To Totalitarianism (Revisited)
Authored by CJ Hopkins via The Consent Factory,
It feels like it’s finally over, doesn’t it, the whole “apocalyptic pandemic” thing? I mean, really, really over this time. Not like all those other times when you thought it was over, but it wasn’t over, and was like the end of those Alien movies, where it seems like Ridley has finally escaped, but the alien is hiding out in the shuttle, or the escape pod, or Ridley’s intestinal tract.
But this time doesn’t feel like that. This time it feels like it’s really, really over. Go out and take a look around. Hardly anyone is wearing masks anymore (except where masks are mandatory) or being coerced into submitting to “vaccinations” (except where “vaccination” is mandatory), and the hordes of hate-drunk New Normal fanatics who demanded that “the Unvaccinated” be segregated, censored, fired from their jobs, and otherwise demonized and persecuted, have all fallen silent (except for those who haven’t).
Everything is back to normal, right?
Wrong. Everything is not back to normal. Everything is absolutely New Normal. What is over is the “shock-and-awe” phase, which was never meant to go on forever. It was always only meant to get us here.
Where, you’re probably asking, is “here”? “Here” is a place where the new official ideology has been firmly established as our new “reality,” woven into the fabric of normal everyday life. No, not everywhere, just everywhere that matters. (Do you really think the global-capitalist ruling classes care what people in Lakeland, Florida, Elk River, Idaho, or some village in Sicily believe about “reality”?) Yes, most government restrictions have been lifted, mainly because they are no longer necessary, but in centers of power throughout the West, in political, corporate, and cultural spheres, in academia, the mainstream media, and so on, the New Normal has become “reality,” or, in other words, “just the way it is,” which is the ultimate goal of every ideology.
For example, I just happened upon this “important COVID-19 information,” which you need to be aware of (and strictly adhere to) if you want to attend a performance at this Off-Broadway theater in New York City, where “everything is back to normal.”
I could pull up countless further examples, but I don’t want to waste your time. At this point, it isn’t the mask and “vaccination” mandates themselves that are important. They are simply the symbols and rituals of the new official ideology, an ideology that has divided societies into two irreconcilable categories of people: (1) those who are prepared to conform their beliefs to the official narrative of the day, no matter how blatantly ridiculous it is, and otherwise click heels and follow the orders of the global-capitalist ruling establishment, no matter how destructive and fascistic they may be; and (2) those who are not prepared to do that.
Let’s go ahead and call them “Normals” and “Deviants.” I think you know which one you are.
This division of society into two opposing and irreconcilable classes of people cuts across and supersedes old political lines. There are Normals and Deviants on both the Left and the Right. The global-capitalist ruling establishment couldn’t care less whether you are a “progressive,” or a “conservative,” or a “libertarian,” or an “anarchist,” or whatever you call yourself. What they care about is whether you’re a Normal or a Deviant. What they care about is whether you will follow orders. What they care about is whether you are conforming your perceptions and behavior and thinking to their new “reality” … the hegemonic global-capitalist “reality” that has been gradually evolving for the last 30 years and is now entering its totalitarian stage.
I’ve been writing about the evolution of global capitalism in my essays since 2016 — and since the early 1990s in my stage plays — so I’m not going to reiterate the whole story here. Readers who have just tuned into my political satire and commentary during the last two years can go back and read the essays in Trumpocalypse (2016-2017) and The War on Populism (2018-2019).
The short version is, back in 2016, GloboCap was rolling along, destabilizing, restructuring, and privatizing the planet that it came into sole unchallenged possession of when the Soviet Union finally collapsed, and everything was hunky-dory, and then along came Brexit, Donald Trump, and the whole “populist” and neo-nationalist rebellion against globalism throughout the West. So, GloboCap needed to deal with that, which is what is has been doing for last six years … yes, the last six — not just two and a half — years.
The War on Dissent didn’t start with Covid and it isn’t going to end with Covid. GloboCap (or “the Corporatocracy” if you prefer) has been delegitimizing, demonizing, and disappearing dissent and increasingly imposing ideological uniformity on Western society since 2016. The New Normal is just the latest stage of it. Once it gets done quashing this “populist” rebellion and imposing ideological uniformity on urban society throughout the West, it will go back to destabilizing, restructuring, and privatizing the rest of the world, which is what it was doing with the “War on Terror” (and other “democracy”-promoting projects) from 2001 to 2016.
The goal of this global Gleichschaltung campaign is the goal of every totalitarian system, i.e., to render any and all deviance from its official ideology pathological. The nature of the deviance does not matter. The official ideology does not matter. (GloboCap has no fixed ideology. It can abruptly change its official “reality” from day to day, as we have experienced recently). What matters is one’s willingness or unwillingness to conform to whatever the official “reality” is, regardless of how ridiculous it is, and how many times it has been disproved, and sometimes even acknowledged as fiction by the very authorities who nonetheless continue to assert its “reality.”
I’ll give you one more concrete example.
After I happened upon the “Covid restrictions” (i.e., the social-segregation system) still being enforced by that Off-Broadway theater, I stumbled upon this article in Current Affairs about the oracle Yuval Noah Harari, the writer of which article mentions in passing that somewhere between 6 million and 12 million people have “died of Covid,” as if this were a fact, a fact that no one in their right mind would question. Which it is, officially, in our new “reality,” despite the fact (i.e., the actual fact) that — as even the “health authorities” have admitted — anyone who died of anything in a hospital after testing positive was recorded as a “Covid-19 death.”
This is how “reality” (i.e., official “reality,” consensus “reality”) is manufactured and policed.
It is manufactured and policed, not only by the media, corporations, governments, and non-governmental governing entities, but also (and, ultimately, more effectively) by the constant repetition of official narratives as unquestionable axiomatic facts.
In our brave new totalitarian global-capitalist “reality,” anyone who questions or challenges such “facts” immediately renders oneself a “Deviant” and is excommunicated from “Normal” society. Seriously, just for fun, try to get a job at a corporation, or a university, or a part in a movie or a Broadway play, or a book deal, or a research grant, etc., while being honest about your beliefs about Covid. Or, if you’re a “respectable” journalist, you know, with literary and public-speaking agents, and book deals, and personal managers, and so on, go ahead, report the facts (i.e., the actual facts, which you know are there, but which you have been avoiding like the plague for the last two years), and watch your career get violently sucked down the drain like a turd in an airplane toilet.
That last bit was meant for “urban professionals,” who still have careers, or are aspiring to careers, or are otherwise still invested in remaining members in good standing of “Normal” society, i.e., not you folks in Florida and Idaho, or my fellow literary and artistic “Deviants.”
We have pretty much burned our bridges at this point. Unless you’re prepared to mindfuck yourself, and gaslight yourself, and confess, and convert, there’s no going back to “normal” society (which we couldn’t go back to anyway, on account of how it doesn’t exist anymore).
I realize that a lot of folks have probably been looking forward to that … to the day when the Normals finally “wake up” and face the facts, and truth prevails, and we return to something resembling normality. It’s not going to happen. We’re not going back. The Normals are never going to “wake up.” Because they’re not asleep. They’re not hypnotized. They’re not going to “come to their senses” one day and take responsibility for the damage they have done. Sure, they will apologize for their “mistakes,” and admit that possibly they “overreacted,” but the official narrative of the Covid pandemic and the new “reality” it has ushered into being will remain in force, and they will defend both with their lives.
Or, rather, they will defend both with our lives.
If you think I’m being hyperbolic, well, consider the epithets GloboCap has conditioned the Normals to use to demonize us … “conspiracy theorist,” “science denier,” “insurrectionist,” “extremist,” “violent domestic terrorist.” None of which signify a political ideology or any political or critical position whatsoever. They signify deviation from the norm. Any type of deviation from the norm. They are tactical terms, devoid of meaning, designed to erase the political character of the diverse opposition to global-capitalism (or “globalism,” if you are touchy about the word “capitalism”), to lump us all into one big bucket of “deviance.”
It is usually not a very good omen when nations — or totally unaccountable, supranational global-power systems — suddenly break out the “deviance bucket.” It is usually a sign that things are going to get ugly, ugly in a totalitarian fashion, which is precisely what has been happening for the past six years.
Back in July of 2021, at the height of the fascistic New Normal hate frenzy, with the military enforcing “Covid restrictions,” a global segregation system being implemented, and people threatening to decapitate me for refusing to get “vaccinated,” I published a piece called The Road to Totalitarianism. We are still on that road. Both the Normals and we Deviants. We’ve been on that road for quite some time, longer than most of us probably realize. The weather has improved, slightly. The scenery out the window has changed. The destination has not. I haven’t seen any exits. Let me know if you do, will you?
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 20:20 - Second GOP Mega-Donor Talks Greasy About Trump
Second GOP Mega-Donor Talks Greasy About Trump
While Donald Trump has a ‘massive war chest’ built through donations from smaller donors around the country, and wide support from allies in congress such as Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ), a second GOP billionaire donor has come out against the former president, who formally announced a 2024 run on Tuesday night.
Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman After Citadel founder Ken Griffin on Monday labeled Trump a “three-time loser,” who he hoped wouldn’t run in 2024, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman announced he would not back the former president’s latest run, despite Trump naming him chair of the now-defunct Strategic and Policy Forum.
“America does better when its leaders are rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday,” Schwarzman said in a statement. “It is time for the Republican Party to turn to a new generation of leaders and I intend to support one of them in the presidential primaries.”
It is unclear how much the rejection of big GOP donors hurts Trump, however. Trump was successful in 2016 without major party backers and appeals to his base with a populist message.
Griffin never gave to Trump. And Schwarzman didn’t support him until he was already president, giving $344,400 in Dec. 2017 to a committee that supported Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee. In all, Schwarzman gave $3.7 million to committees that supported Trump. –Bloomberg
Of note, Griffin never gave to Trump – and Schwarzman was a latecomer in his support, waiting till Trump was already president to give $344,400 in Dec. 2017 to a committee that supported Trump and the RNC (ultimately giving $3.7 million to committees that supported the former president).
According to the report, Trump’s rejection by two conservative billionaires ‘could give cover to elected officials who are still deciding who to back.’
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 20:00 - After FTX Implosion, It's Time To End Bitcoin's Dysfunctional Relationship With Crypto
After FTX Implosion, It’s Time To End Bitcoin’s Dysfunctional Relationship With Crypto
Authored by Tim Niemeyer, via BitcoinMagazine.com,
“Bitcoiners are trapped in a dysfunctional relationship with crypto and we want out!”
Amidst the carnage of the FTX drama, a moment of clarity illuminated the Twittersphere. Michael Saylor’s words were the signal in the noise resulting from the dysfunctional trainwreck unaffectionately known as “crypto”. Before we can truly appreciate his insights, we should first meditate on what makes this relationship dysfunctional or, in the context of couples therapy, a toxic relationship.
While many in the cryptocurrency industry were happily going about their life viewing their relationship with money (trust, commitment, support, etc.) in a positive light, they were ignoring the warning signs that their relationship was anything but healthy. Sure, all good relationships have their ups and downs. Disagreements happen, but overall you share common goals and trust the other to have your best interests at heart. There’s a certain level of expectation that your partner will support you, communicate openly and honestly, and refrain from controlling behaviors. Life this way is freeing and you’re generally able to flourish.
But what if one side doesn’t have your best interests at heart? What if they are dishonest? What if there becomes a pattern of disrespect? What if they ignore your needs? Sure, you can hope for change, but you still feel drained, stressed, anxious, or depressed. Eventually, you want out. Your need for a positive, healthy relationship overwhelms the comfort of the known, current relationship. The first step is admitting there’s a problem. Acknowledging signs of a toxic relationship are necessary.
SIGNS OF A TOXIC RELATIONSHIP
Photo by Girl with red hat on Unsplash
In regards to our relationship with money, support may be displayed in many ways. One way we support each other is through the ability to trust that our counterpart has our best interests at heart. The overwhelming problem with the cryptocurrency sphere (defined here as everything other than Bitcoin) is that it’s still largely based on an expectation of trust. Whether it’s FTX, Celsius, LUNA or the countless other scams and Ponzis that are sewn into the fabric of the cryptocurrency industry, it’s clear that having centralized entities controlling your value requires you trust the fallible seamstresses and their incentives. It’s like the trust fall; an exercise in which one person lets him- or herself fall without trying to stop it, relying on their friend(s) to catch them. How many times do you allow yourself to fall to the ground before you lose trust?
These recent fallouts in crypto continue to illuminate the inherent dishonesty in its DNA. Investors are deceived into a false sense of security in the relationship; it’s a form of dishonest communication based on non-transparency and the over-leveraged nature of exchanges. Allowing humans to control money allows controlling behaviors to be coded into the system, which leads to growing resentment in the relationship … The relationship is further strained when the toxic side puts their needs ahead of your own. The needs of some CEOs often incentivize them into leveraging the customers’ trust to benefit their gain. This display of negative financial behaviors is becoming all too common in the cryptocurrency industry (again, non-Bitcoin-only entities). At some point, as my father would say, we need to separate the wheat from the chaff.
STEPS TO FIX A TOXIC RELATIONSHIP
Photo by Luca Bravo on Unsplash
The first step is to accept responsibility. Not that you caused the situation per se, but that you acknowledge the situation you’re in and begin advocating for yourself. This can be done by investing in yourself. In the context of this article, that investment is education in Bitcoin as well as understanding the unintended consequences of adopting a “digital fiat” mindset present throughout the altcoin and centralized exchange industries. Once we shift from blaming to understanding, we allow ourselves to begin healing. The pain resulting from the recent developments will linger for a while, but it is our responsibility to not dwell on the past but move forward with compassion. The next step in the journey to healing is allowing yourself to be vulnerable again. This can be attained by sharing your self-love with others; calmly and clearly explaining the benefits of Bitcoin, self-custody and proof of reserves to friends and family.
People recovering from a toxic relationship can benefit from finding support. It is the opinion of the author that Bitcoiners should be that support structure. It’s ironic that many Bitcoiners are known as the toxic ones when they are the ones trying to illuminate the toxicity inherent in the ecosystem. That being said, an “I told you so,” doesn’t assist in the healing process. This is the moment where we must rise above and lead with compassion. We should hold space in our heart and allow others the time to heal and change.
There will be many who do not recover from a toxic relationship of this magnitude. While we can continue to educate from a place of humility, we must remember that, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” Everyone will ultimately heal in their own way at their own pace. Some may never learn. We’ve probably all had a friend who’s jumped from one toxic relationship to another. As much as you may want to help, they need to first choose to help themselves. Even more, some people will continue to “Tinder around” with unhealthy cryptocurrency relationships. That’s their prerogative. If a friend of ours wants to be part of the hookup culture, that’s on them. They have to deal with the consequences of STDs and the like.
Regardless of the actions of certain exchanges or crypto in general, we must continue to espouse the benefits of Bitcoin in a positive light. Tell them how truth is born from trustlessness. Demonstrate how actual decentralization leads to pure democracy. Illuminate how immutability and permissionless systems allow for a free-flowing, cooperative society. Michael Saylor acutely recognized the toxicity we are allowing to proliferate through the perceived connection to crypto. We must choose to move forward towards a bitcoin standard for ourselves, our friends and family, and, ultimately, for society to flourish.
[ZH: Tl:dr:… ]
*mic drop* pic.twitter.com/x9qmyRDAk2
— Dylan LeClair 🟠 (@DylanLeClair_) November 16, 2022
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 19:40 - Democrats Flip Gubernatorial Seats
Democrats Flip Gubernatorial Seats
With the announcement of Katie Hobbs’ win in the gubernatorial race in Arizona, the Democratic Party has officially picked up three governor seats in the 2022 midterms, while the Republicans took over one governorship from Democrats.
New Democratic governors will also start their terms next year in Maryland and Massachusetts. In Nevada, Republican Joe Lombardo prevailed over the Democratic incumbent in the race to the governor’s mansion. All Democratic flips have been open-seat races.
As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, the net gain of two governorships for Democrats is unusual as the president’s party tends to lose rather than win gubernatorial election. At the end of last year, Democrats had only held on to 22 governorships when including then-governor-elect, Republican Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, whose term started in January 2022. Virginia’s had been the second governorship in a U.S. state passing over to a Republican since the election of Joe Biden in late 2020. Montana switched up its alliance at the same time when it elected Republican Greg Gianforte to the highest office in the state – the first Republican to serve as governor since 2005.
You will find more infographics at Statista
Which party wins the most governorships normally follows an anticyclical pattern but this year’s midterm election bucks this trend.
After Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, Republicans started to gain the upper hand in gubernatorial elections starting in 2009 and creating a record 34 Republican governors at the end of Obama’s second term in 2017. Likewise, most governors in the U.S. were Democrats during the second term of the Bush presidency (2005-2008) and most were Republicans during Bill Clinton’s time in office (1993-2001). The shorter presidency of Donald Trump didn’t have the same effect on gubernatorial races. Even though his party lost seven governor seats between 2017 and 2020, for example in Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois, Republican governors remained in the majority throughout Trump’s term.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 19:20 - New Online Tool Maps Out 867 US Military Bases Worldwide
New Online Tool Maps Out 867 US Military Bases Worldwide
Authored by David Swanson via AntiWar.com,
World Beyond War has launched a new online tool that allows the user to view a globe pock-marked with 867 U.S. military bases in countries other than the United States, and to zoom in for a satellite view of and detailed information on each base. The tool also allows filtering the map or list of bases by country, government type, opening date, number of personnel, or acres of land occupied.
This visual database was researched and developed by World Beyond War to help journalists, activists, researchers, and individual readers understand the immense problem of excessive preparation for war, which inevitably leads to international bullying, meddling, threats, escalation, and mass atrocity. By illustrating the extent of the US empire of military outposts, World Beyond War hopes to call attention to the wider problem of war preparations.
The United States of America, unlike any other nation, maintains this massive network of foreign military installations around the world. How was this created and how is it continued? Some of these physical installations are on land occupied as spoils of war.
Most are maintained through collaborations with governments, many of them brutal and oppressive governments benefiting from the bases’ presence. In many cases, human beings were displaced to make room for these military installations, often depriving people of farmland, adding huge amounts of pollution to local water systems and the air, and existing as an unwelcome presence.
US bases in foreign lands often raise geopolitical tensions, support undemocratic regimes, and serve as a recruiting tool for militant groups opposed to the US presence and the governments its presence bolsters. In other cases, foreign bases have made it easier for the United States to launch and execute disastrous wars, including those in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya.
Across the political spectrum and even within the US military there is growing recognition that many overseas bases should have been closed decades ago, but bureaucratic inertia and misguided political interests have kept them open. Estimates of the yearly cost to the US of its foreign military bases range from $100 – 250 billion. Thanks to davidvine.net for the variety of information included in this tool.
View a video overview the new interactive tool:
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 19:00 - "Paralyzing Snowfall" Could "Cripple" Buffalo With Feet Of Snow
“Paralyzing Snowfall” Could “Cripple” Buffalo With Feet Of Snow
The National Weather Service warned “paralyzing snowfall” will blanket parts of western and northern New York. Folks living in the cities of Buffalo and Watertown could be using yardsticks by the end of the weekend to measure the snow.
Lake-effect snow warnings have already been posted from Watertown to Buffalo-Niagara Falls to Erie, Pennsylvania, to northeastern Ohio.
“This will be the start of a prolonged lake-effect snow event which will likely include paralyzing snowfall for the Buffalo and Watertown areas late this week through the weekend,” NWS wrote in a Wednesday morning note.
NWS’ use of words such as “crippling” and “paralyzing” to describe the lake-effect snowstorm’s potential is very ominous.
Liz Jurkowski, a meteorologist at NWS’ Buffalo office, told NYTimes that NWS’ use of words is “very rare.”
“We usually don’t pull these terms out except for historic events,” Jurkowski said.
Snow begins Wednesday night and will continue through Saturday for Buffalo and Watertown. These areas could see between 1 and 3 feet of snow. Here’s more on possible snow totals via FOX Forecast Center:
The highest totals will likely be centered directly over the Buffalo and Watertown metro areas because of the nearly stationary bands of snow from Thursday night through Friday night. Between 1 and 3 feet of snow is expected to pile up by Sunday afternoon, with localized amounts of up to 4 feet not ruled out.
Jurkowski said residents in Buffalo and Watertown could expect “thundersnow” and high snowfall rates. Maybe now is the time to buy supplies and hunker down.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 18:40 - Fauci's Pandemic Leadership Needs To Be Investigated: Dr. Scott Atlas
Fauci’s Pandemic Leadership Needs To Be Investigated: Dr. Scott Atlas
Authored by Eva Fu via The Epoch Times,
Former White House COVID-19 adviser Dr. Scott Atlas sees multiple reasons for an investigation into Dr. Anthony Fauci, the outgoing director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Such a probe has been discussed as Republicans inch closer to a House majority that would grant them subpoena powers. Some Republican lawmakers have accused Fauci of playing a role in misleading the public about the origins of COVID-19 and supporting pandemic mandates they describe as draconian.
While Atlas, a vocal critic of the NIAID head, is “very skeptical” that an investigation like this could get away from politics or the perception of it being political, he thinks it’s warranted. Fauci’s changing stance on certain COVID-19 policies needs to be put under the spotlight, Atlas recently said on EpochTV’s “Newsmakers.”
“The real, clear public airing of exactly what happened needs to be done,” said Atlas, a senior fellow in health care policy at the Hoover Institution and contributor to The Epoch Times.
“I personally am very skeptical that a political investigation, no matter who does it, is going to be done without politics, or if it’s going to be perceived as nonpolitical. I don’t trust people in government at all. They don’t deserve to be trusted, to be objective.
“What was the motivation to flip flop multiple times with policy?”
His question was referring to Fauci’s changing stance on pandemic school closures that drew criticism in late 2020.
Scott Atlas (L), a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany arrive ahead of President Donald Trump for a press conference at the White House in Washington on Aug. 12, 2020. (Andrew Harnik/AP Photo, File)
He further questioned if there had been any “cover-up” of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Fauci’s division, citing the awards to the Wuhan Institute of Virology through the New York nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance as an example.
EcoHealth Alliance, which continues to receive millions of dollars in grants from the NIH, was subjected to scrutiny by multiple federal agencies over its partnership with the Wuhan lab. The Office of Investigations of the Department of Health and Human Services in late 2020 briefly opened a probe over alleged “major fraud against the United States.” The probe was closed in January 2021, according to internal documents, which had the reasons for the closure redacted. The allegation states that “the COVID-19 virus was generated in … China with the assistance of an NIH Grant.”
Beginning in 2014, EcoHealth was the recipient of a $3.7 million grant to study bat coronaviruses in China. That grant was renewed through 2019 but suspended in 2020 because of compliance concerns. In August, the NIH ended the funding from the grant for the Wuhan facility after the lab at least twice rejected NIH’s request for lab notebooks and original files from the research.
“We cannot have illegal research being funded outside the country by American science” avoiding or circumventing the rules, Atlas said.
“These leadership positions come with massive responsibility. It’s not a game to be in charge of things. You’re not supposed to use it to circumvent rules. You’re not supposed to set up power, friends in the media to cover for you. No, you need to at least answer the questions in front of the American people.”
By the same token, Atlas also called for the Chinese regime to answer for its coverup of the initial outbreak, as well as its role in possibly causing the pandemic.
Besides a delayed admission of the outbreak’s severity to the world during the pandemic’s early days—behavior that Atlas called “unacceptable”—Beijing had “blocked real investigations” and “destroyed evidence of what happened,” he said.
“Of course they need to be held accountable,” he said.
“It needs to be done, though, by a government and multiple governments that actually have the credibility and ethical focus to do that, and I think that that remains to be seen.”
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the ranking Republican member of the House Oversight Committee, has vowed to summon Fauci in a planned probe of the origins of COVID-19 should the Republicans win the House.
“Why did Dr. Fauci lie for so long about American tax dollars through EcoHealth Alliance going to fund gain-of-function research? Why did he lie about gain-of-function research being done in the Wuhan lab? Why were we even in the Wuhan lab? There are so many questions that the Americans deserve answers to,” Comer recently told the “Capitol Report” program of NTD News, a sister media of The Epoch Times.
“The American people deserve answers and anyone that was involved in any type of cover-up should be held accountable.”
Representatives for NIAID didn’t respond to a query from The Epoch Times by press time.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 18:20 - Housing Affordability Worsens As Homeownership Out Of Reach For Anyone Making Under $100k
Housing Affordability Worsens As Homeownership Out Of Reach For Anyone Making Under $100k
The US housing affordability crisis continues to worsen as mortgage rates skyrocket to two-decade highs while the cost of an average home is still at bubbly levels. Financing costs are through the roof, and anyone earning less than $100,000 has been priced out of homeownership.
A new report via real estate brokerage firm Redfin Corp. found that in October, the average buyer needed to earn $107,281 to afford the monthly mortgage payment of a median-priced home, up a whopping 46% from a year ago of $73,668.
Considering there have been a record 19 consecutive months of negative real wage growth, most of which have been under President Biden’s tenure, many prospective homebuyers have likely given up and are now renting (or back in their parent’s basement).
“Affordability challenges are a major reason why home sales have slowed so dramatically over the last few months,” Redfin said in the report.
What’s made the affordability crisis worse is the Federal Reserve’s most aggressive interest rate hiking in decades to quell inflation has sent the 30-year fixed mortgage above 7% within the last several quarters.
This has caused a ‘payment shock’ as elevated rates, high home prices, and faltering wage growth have priced out millions of Americans.
According to the National Association of Realtors, today’s souring homebuying environment has been described as the ‘worst in decades’.
None of this should surprise readers since we first stated in March that soaring interest rates would significantly challenge housing affordability.
Today, we see the “Death Of The American Dream And Home Ownership.” And what’s the result: you’ll rent and own nothing… Well, that’s a very similar statement from the World Economic Forum: by 2030, “you’ll own nothing, and you’ll (still) be happy.
More importantly, all of this suggests home prices could be on the cusp of a major downturn.
We suspect 2023 will be a tumultuous year for the housing market until the Fed pivots.
… And we almost forgot that a Bloomberg OP-ED earlier this year said anyone earning less than $300k should eat lentils.
…
Ty
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 18:00 - Ron Paul: A Tale Of Two Midterms
Ron Paul: A Tale Of Two Midterms
Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,
Those searching for an explanation of why there was no “red wave” giving Republicans huge gains in Congress in this year’s midterm election should compare this year’s election with the midterm election of 2010. In 2010, Republicans gained a net 63 House seats. While Republicans then did not gain control of the US Senate, they did gain six Senate seats.
These Republican victories in 2010 were propelled by the Tea Party and the liberty movement. These movements became prominent during the waning days of the Bush administration. The liberty movement was advanced by grassroots supporters of my 2008 presidential campaign. The liberty movement’s focus was, and is, on restoring constitutional government in all areas, ending our interventionist foreign policy, and changing our monetary policy by auditing and ending the Federal Reserve and legalizing alternative currencies. Early on, the Tea Party largely focused on opposition to the 2008 bank bailouts.
There was overlap between the liberty movement and the Tea Party as many members of both groups fought for auditing and ending the Fed, ending bailouts, and preventing Congress from passing Obamacare.
Many Republican candidates in 2010 appealed to Tea Party voters by not just promising to repeal Obamacare. They also promised to work to restore limited, constitutional, fiscally responsible government in all areas. In contrast, in 2022 the average Republican candidate offered little in the way of a substantive agenda. In fact, few Republicans called for reversing President Biden’s massive spending increases, much less for restoring the federal government to its constitutional limitations. Despite the controversy over new critical race theory and transgender related policies in government schools, there has not been a renewed push to shut down the Department of Education.
Many Republican candidates in the 2022 midterm election also failed to make an issue out of their Democratic opponents’ support for mask and vaccine mandates and other instances of covid tyranny. Those who did oppose the covid tyranny, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and my son Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, won landslide victories.
The Tea Party’s success in forcing the Republican Party to focus on a more pro-liberty, limited government agenda was short lived. Soon after the 2010 election, the Republican establishment returned to its big spending ways. Spending and debt continued to rise under President Trump and a Republican Congress. Republicans even failed to deliver on their signature promise: repealing Obamacare.
The 2010 midterm election showed that people will respond to candidates offering serious pro-liberty ideas and policies. However, the Tea Party’s rise and fall also shows the danger facing ideological movements that become too close with one political party. These movements will start pulling their punches when one of “our team” begins casting bad votes. The argument goes that we must support big government Republicans or we get REALLY big government Democrats.
Fortunately, the liberty movement has remained committed to principles. As the failure of the welfare-warfare state to deliver peace and property — and the failure of the Federal Reserve to fulfill its mandate of ensuring stable prices and low unemployment — become clear, more Americans will join the liberty movement. Support for the liberty movement will accelerate when the inevitable economic meltdown occurs. This meltdown will be precipitated by a collapse in the dollar’s value and the rejection of the dollar’s world reserve currency status. It will bring the end of the welfare-warfare state and the fiat money system. Hopefully, the liberty movement will ensure the welfare-warfare state and fiat money system are replaced by a return to limited constitutional government, individual liberty, and peace.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 11/16/2022 – 17:40
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