Today’s News 19th February 2023

• Escobar: Raisi In Beijing – Iran-China Strategic Plans Go Full Throttle
  Escobar: Raisi In Beijing – Iran-China Strategic Plans Go Full Throttle

  Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,

  Raisi’s visit to Beijing, the first for an Iranian president in 20 years, represents Tehran’s wholesale ‘Pivot to the East’ and China’s recognition of Iran’s centrality to its BRI plans…

  

  The visit of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Beijing and his face-to- face meeting with counterpart Xi Jinping is a groundbreaking affair in more ways than one.

  Raisi, the first Iranian president to officially visit China in 20 years, led an ultra high-level political and economic delegation, which included the new Central Bank governor and the Ministers of Economy, Oil, Foreign Affairs, and Trade.

  The fact that Raisi and Xi jointly supervised the signing of 20 bilateral cooperation agreements ranging from agriculture, trade, tourism and environmental protection to health, disaster relief, culture and sports, is not even the major take away.

  This week’s ceremonial sealing of the Iran-China comprehensive strategic partnership marks a key evolution in the multipolarity sphere: two Sovereigns – both also linked by strategic partnerships with Russia – imprinting to their domestic audiences and also to the Global South their vision of a more equitable, fair and sustainable 21st century which completely bypasses western dictates.

  Beijing and Tehran first established their comprehensive strategic partnership when Xi visited Iran in 2016 – only one year after the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iranian nuclear deal.

  In 2021, Beijing and Tehran signed a 25-year cooperation deal which translated the comprehensive partnership into practical economic and cultural developments in several fields, especially energy, trade and infrastructure. By then, not only Iran (for decades) but also China were being targeted by unilateral US sanctions.

  Here is a relatively independent analysis of the challenges and prospects of the 25-year deal. And here is an enlightening perspective from neighboring Pakistan, also a strategic partner of China.

  Iran: gotta modernize everything

  Beijing and Tehran are already actively cooperating in the construction of selected lines of Tehran’s subway, the Tehran-Isfahan high-speed railway, and of course joint energy projects. Chinese tech giant Huawei is set to help Tehran to build a framework for a 5G telecom network.

  Raisi and Xi, predictably, stressed increased joint coordination at the UN and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), of which Iran is the newest member, as well as a new drive along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

  While there was no explicit mention of it, underlying all these initiatives is the de-dollarization of trade – in the framework of the SCO but also the multipolar BRICS group of states. Iran is set to become one of the new members of BRICS+, a giant step to be decided in their upcoming summit in South Africa next August.

  There are estimates in Tehran that Iran-China annual trade may reach over $70 billion in the mid-term, which will amount to triple the current figures.

  When it comes to infrastructure building, Iran is a key BRI partner. The geostrategy of course is hard to match: a 2,250 km coastline encompassing the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, Sea of Oman and the Caspian Sea – and huge land borders with Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Every think tank in China sees how Iran is irreplaceable, not only in terms of BRI land corridors, but also the Maritime Silk Road.

  Chabahar Port may be a prime Iran-India affair, as part of the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC) – thus directly linked to the Indian vision of a Silk Road, extending to Central Asia.

  But Chinese port developers do have other ideas, focused on alternative ports along the Persian Gulf and in the Caspian Sea. That will boost shipping connections to Central Asia (Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan), Russia and the Caucasus (Azerbaijan).

  And that makes perfect sense when one combines port terminal development with the modernization of Iran’s railways – all the way to high-speed rail.

  An even more revolutionary development would be China coordinating the BRI connection of an Iranian corridor with the already in progress 3,200 km-long China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), from Kashgar in Xinjiang to Gwadar port in the Indian Ocean.

  That seemed perfectly plausible when Pakistani Prime Minister  Imran Khan was still in power, before being ousted by a lawfare coup. The key of the whole enterprise is to build badly needed infrastructure in Balochistan, on both sides of the border. On the Pakistani side, that would go a long way to smash CIA-fed “insurgents” of the Balochistan Liberation Army kind, get rid of unemployment, and put trade in charge of economic development.

  Afghanistan of course enters the equation – in the form of a China-Afghan-Iran corridor linked to CPEC. Since September 2021, Beijing has explained to the Taliban, in detail, how they may profit from an infrastructure corridor – complete with railway, highway and pipeline – from Xinjiang, across the Wakhan corridor in eastern Afghanistan, through the Hindu Kush, all the way to Iran.

  The core of multipolarity

  Iran is perfectly positioned for a Chinese-propelled boom in high-speed cargo rail, connecting Iran to most of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan).

  That means, in practice, cool connectivity with a major logistics cluster: the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) of Khorgos, only 330 km from Almaty on the Kazakh-China border, and only four hours from Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital.

  If China pulls that off, it would be a sort of BRI Holy Grail, interconnecting China and Iran via Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Nothing less than several corridors in one.

  All that is about to happen as the Islamic Revolution in Iran celebrates its 44th year.

  What is already happening now, geopolitically, and fully recognized by China, might be defined as the full rejection of an absurdity: the collective west treating Iran as a pariah or at best a subjugated neo-colony.

  With the diverse strands of the Resistance embedded in the Islamic Revolution finally consolidated, it looks like history is finally propelling Iran as one of the key poles of the most complex process at work in the 21st century: Eurasia integration.

  So 44 years after the Islamic Revolution, Iran enjoys strategic partnerships with the three top BRICS: China, Russia and India.

  Likely to become one of the first new members of BRICS+, Iran is the first West Asian state to become a full member of the SCO, and is clinching a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

  Iran is a major strategic partner of both BRI, led by China, and the INSTC, alongside Russia and India.

  With the JCPOA all but dead, and all western “promises” lying in the dust, Tehran is consolidating its pivot back to the East at breakneck speed.

  What Raisi and Xi sealed in Beijing heralds Chinese pre-eminence all across West Asia – keenly perceived in Beijing as a natural consequence of recognizing and honoring Iran’s regional centrality.

  Iran’s “Look East” strategy could not be more compatible with BRI – as an array of BRI projects will accelerate Iran’s economic development and consolidate its inescapable role when it comes to trade corridors and as an energy provider.

  During the 1980s Tehran was ruled by a “Neither East nor West” strategy – faithful to the tenets of the Islamic Revolution. That has now evolved, pragmatically, into “Look East.” Tehran did try to “Look West” in good faith, but what the US government did with the JCPOA – from its murder to “maximum pressure” to its aborted resuscitation – was quite a historical lesson.

  What Raisi and Xi have just demonstrated in Beijing is the Sovereign way forward. The three leaders of Eurasia integration – China, Russia and Iran – are fast on their way to consolidate the core of multipolarity.    

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 23:30

• Which Countries Pollute The Most Ocean Plastic Waste?
  Which Countries Pollute The Most Ocean Plastic Waste?

  Millions of metric tons of plastic are produced worldwide every year. While half of this plastic waste is recycled, incinerated, or discarded into landfills, a significant portion of what remains eventually ends up in our oceans.

  In fact, many pieces of ocean plastic waste have come together to create a vortex of plastic waste thrice the size of France in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii.

  Where does all of this plastic come from? In this graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Freny Fernandes and Louis Lugas Wicaksono used data from a research paper by Lourens J.J. Meijer and team to highlight the top 10 countries emitting plastic pollutants in the waters surrounding them.

  

  Plastic’s Ocean Voyage

  First, let’s talk about how this plastic waste reaches the oceans in the first place.

  Most of the plastic waste found in the deep blue waters comes from the litter in parks, beaches, or along the storm drains lining our streets. These bits of plastic waste are carried into our drains, streams, and rivers by wind and rainwater runoff.

  The rivers then turn into plastic superhighways, transporting the plastic to the oceans.

  A large additional chunk of ocean plastic comes from damaged fishing nets or ghost nets that are directly discarded into the high seas.

  Countries Feeding the Plastic Problem

  Some might think that the countries producing or consuming the most plastic are the ones that pollute the oceans the most. But that’s not true.

  According to the study, countries with a smaller geographical area, longer coastlines, high rainfall, and poor waste management systems are more likely to wash plastics into the sea.

  For example, China generates 10 times the plastic waste that Malaysia does. However, 9% of Malaysia’s total plastic waste is estimated to reach the ocean, in comparison to China’s 0.6%.

  

   

  The Philippines—an archipelago of over 7,000 islands, with a 36,289 kilometer coastline and 4,820 plastic emitting rivers—is estimated to emit 35% of the ocean’s plastic.

  In addition to the Philippines, over 75% of the accumulated plastic in the ocean is reported to come from the mismanaged waste in Asian countries including India, Malaysia, China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Thailand.

  The only non-Asian country to make it to this top 10 list, with 1,240 rivers including the Amazon, is Brazil.

  The Path to a Plastic-free Ocean

  The first, and most obvious, way to reduce plastic accumulation is to reduce the use of plastic. Lesser production equals lesser waste.

  The second step is managing the plastic waste generated, and this is where the challenge lies.

  Many high-income countries generate high amounts of plastic waste, but are either better at processing it or exporting it to other countries. Meanwhile, many of the middle-income and low-income countries that both demand plastics and receive bulk exports have yet to develop the infrastructure needed to process it.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 23:00

• Inside China's Military Balloon Program
  Inside China’s Military Balloon Program

  Authored by Eva Fu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Years before a gigantic white spy balloon from China captured America’s attention, a top Chinese aerospace scientist was keenly tracking the path of an unmanned airship making its way across the globe.

  

  On a real-time map, the white blimp appeared as a blinking red dot, although in real life its size was formidable, weighing several tons and measuring 328 feet (100 meters) in length—about 80 feet longer than a Boeing 747-8, one of the largest passenger aircraft in the world.

  “Look, here’s America,” the vessel’s chief architect, Wu Zhe, told the state-run newspaper Nanfang Daily. He excitedly pointed to a red line marking the airship’s journey at about 65,000 feet in the air, noting that in 2019, that flight was setting a world record.

  Named “Cloud Chaser,” the airship had been flying for just shy of a month over three oceans and three continents, including what appears to be Florida. At the time of Wu’s interview in August, the airship was hovering above the Pacific Ocean, days away from completing its mission.

  

  Wu, a veteran aerospace researcher, has played a key role in advancing the Chinese regime in what it describes as the “near space” race, referring to the layer of the atmosphere sitting between 12 and 62 miles above the earth. This region, which is too high for jets but too low for satellites, had been deemed ripe for exploitation in the regime’s bid to achieve military dominance.

  Despite having existed for decades, the regime’s military balloon program came into the spotlight recently when the United States shot down a high-altitude surveillance balloon that drifted across the country for a week and hovered above multiple sensitive U.S. military sites. That balloon, the size of three buses, was smaller than Cloud Chaser.

  The U.S. and Canadian militaries have since taken down three flying objects over North American airspace, although President Joe Biden on Feb. 16 said those are likely linked to private companies.

  

  Wu is turning 66 this month. He has ties to at least four of the six Chinese entities Washington recently sanctioned for supporting Beijing’s sprawling military balloon program, which the U.S. administration said has reached over 40 countries on five continents.

  As a specialist in aircraft design, Wu has helped develop the Chinese regime’s homegrown fighter jets and stealth technology during his more than three decades in the aerospace field, taking home at least one award for his contribution to the military.

  He was the vice president at Beihang University in Beijing, a prestigious state-run aeronautics school, until he voluntarily gave up the title for teaching and research in 2004, and he once served on the scientific advisory committee for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) General Armaments Department, a now-dissolved agency in charge of equipping the Chinese military.

  Public records show that Wu is well-connected in the aerospace field, with stakes in many aviation firms. He is the chairman of Beijing-based Eagles Men Aviation Science, one of the six firms that, along with its branch in Shanxi, Washington has named as culprits in the balloon sanctions.

  Both Beihang and the Harbin Institute of Technology, Wu’s alma mater and dubbed “China’s MIT,” are on a U.S. trade blacklist, the former for aiding China’s military rocket and unmanned air vehicle systems, and the latter for using U.S. technology to support Chinese missile programs.

  ‘Silent Killer’

  The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long vied for dominance in near space, which Chinese scientists see as a region for a variety of applications, from high-altitude balloons to hypersonic missiles.

  From high above, there’s a wealth of information that an aerostat, equipped with an electronic surveillance system, can intercept and turn into an intelligence asset.

  “If you’re flying a balloon that is 100,000 feet up in the air, you’ve got … visibility on the ground of hundreds and hundreds of miles over several states, because it’s up so high,” said Art Thompson, co-founder of California aerospace company Sage Cheshire Aerospace. During his three decades in the aerospace industry, Thomspon has worked on the B-2 stealth bomber and was technical director for the Red Bull Stratos project that broke the record for the highest balloon flight and the largest manned balloon.

  

  “Whether it’s phone data, radio data, transmissions from aircraft, as to what the airplanes are, who owns it, all that data is available,” Thompson said.

  As early as the 1970s, efforts were underway at the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences to explore high-altitude balloons, according to a state media report. Lacking the aid of computers, Chinese researchers drew inspiration from German and Japanese aerospace books and cut up newspapers to piece together prototypes.

  The result was a helium balloon with an aluminum basket, altogether about the size of a typical hot air balloon. The team triumphantly named it HAPI and flew it into the stratosphere in 1983 to observe signals from a neutron star.

  For the Chinese military, there’s high strategic value in aerostats, a technology that was in use as early as the late 1700s by the French as lookouts. Compared to airplanes or satellites, balloons are cheaper and easier to maneuver, can carry heavier payloads and cover a wider area, and are harder to detect, two regular columnists wrote in a 2021 article for PLA Daily, the Chinese military’s official newspaper. They consume less energy, allowing them to loiter in a target area for an extended period. And critically, they are often not caught by radars, so they can easily evade an enemy’s air defense system or be classified as UFOs.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 22:30

• The State Of Global Democracy, US Is 'Flawed'
  The State Of Global Democracy, US Is ‘Flawed’

  The Economist Democracy Index rates countries on the state of their governing system each year. In the latest published edition, corresponding to the year 2022, only 24 countries in the world have been rated as ‘full democracies’, representing 8% of the world’s population.

  This category includes all Scandinavian countries, several Western European nations, as well as Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Mauritius, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Latin American countries Uruguay, Costa Rica and Chile.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  With an overall average score of 5.29 out of 10, almost the same as the previous year (5.28), the index shows a worldwide stagnation that experts did not expect, as it had been projected that after the pandemic more nations would find democratic stability.

  It is estimated that 37% of the world’s population lives under authoritarian rule (59 of the 167 countries and territories analyzed).

  Russia recorded the largest democratic decline of all countries in the world, falling 22 places from the previous ranking to 146th.

  Globally, the three worst-rated countries are Afghanistan, Myanmar and North Korea.

  At the other extreme, Norway, New Zealand and Iceland are ranked as the most democratic countries in the world.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 22:00

• After School Satan Club Provokes Parent Outrage
  After School Satan Club Provokes Parent Outrage

  Authored by Jillian Schneider via RealClear Wire,

  A Virginia school board is considering revising its policies on after-school clubs following conflict over a new “After School Satan Club.”

  

  The Chesapeake Public School Board previously allowed the Satan club to meet on school property, stipulating it pay over $600 for security for each meeting, something the district’s policy allows, local media reports.

  The likelihood of demonstrations is part of what makes securing the event so expensive, as Satan clubs are frequently protested. Last January, an Ohio superintendent was even reprimanded by the attorney general for discouraging parents from protesting the Satan club.

  However, Chesapeake’s school board put a temporary hold on any non-sanctioned school clubs as it considers revisions to its policy. Among the proposed changes:

  • Security costs must be paid by an organization in advance. 

  • The school district determines the number of officers needed for security. 

  • Promotional materials cannot include the school or facility name without permission from the Office of Student Activities and Facility Use. 

  At Monday’s board meeting, which included a discussion of the proposed revisions, community members didn’t shy away from expressing their views. 

  “If this club meets, I plan on removing my daughter from school and finding a private alternative,” declared Steve Scheerbaum, a local parent.  

  Another said limiting the club’s access to public property would be unconstitutional.  

  “I sincerely hope that the Satanic Temple takes this city to court for this blatant disregard of the constitution,” said another resident.  

  The Chesapeake school board is scheduled to vote on the proposed policy revisions at its Feb. 27 meeting. 

  In the meantime, Superintendent Jared Cotton assured the community the board wouldn’t discriminate against religious groups.  

  “It’s important for us to point out that the groups in particular that we’ve been discussing over the last couple of months are outside groups, not school-sponsored,” he explained. “We do have groups who ask to use our facility from time to time but we have to treat all groups fairly.” 

  After-School Satan Club, an initiative of The Satanic Temple, “exists to provide a safe and inclusive alternative to the religious clubs that use threats of eternal damnation to convert school children to their belief system.”  

  Satan clubs market themselves as an alternative to the Christian evangelical Good News Club, often targeting schools that already have a Christian club. 

  “They’re opposed to our views and they’re trying to counter and even undermine our presence there so I’m concerned in that regard,” said Chris Williams, a Christian pastor in Chesapeake. “I think the wrong kind of attention could force the school board to say we can’t do any of these clubs.”  

  Fred Pry, associate vice president of USA Ministries for Child Evangelism Fellowship, was more optimistic. 

  “The reality is, parents are the gatekeepers for all the clubs in schools,” he said. “All of them need permission slips signed by the parents so parents hold the power. Parents are the ones who control the Satan clubs because if no children sign up, Satan clubs are not going to exist.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 21:30

• War Certainly Is A Racket
  War Certainly Is A Racket

  Authored by Iain Davis via Off-Guardian.org,

  In 1935, Major General Smedley Butler’s seminal book “War Is A Racket” warned of the dangers of the US military-industrial complex, more than 25 years before the outgoing US President Eisenhower implored the world to “guard against” the same thing.

  

  One of the most decorated soldiers in US military history, Butler knew what he was talking about, famously writing that war is “…conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many.”

  While he lamented the loss of his fallen comrades and despite the gongs he received for defending his country, Butler came to understand that he was actually a “high class muscle man for big business, for Wall Street and the bankers.” Later, the historian Antony C. Sutton proved that Butler was right.

  When the US administration of George Bush passed its Foreign Operations Appropriation Law in 1991, it ended all US credit to the former, thriving socialist republic of Yugoslavia. At the time the perception on the Hill was that Yugoslavia was no longer required as a buffer zone between the NATO states and their former Warsaw Pact adversaries, so its independent socialism was no longer tolerated.

  The US military industrial complex, that Butler and Eisenhower told everyone to tackle, effectively destabilised the entire Balkan region, destroyed hitherto relatively peaceful countries and then fuelled the resultant wars with its pet Islamist terrorists. Ably assisted by the World Bank and the IMF.

  So-called “assistance,” via the Train and Equip Program, gave US taxpayers the opportunity to funnel $500M to private security contractors like DynCorp. DynCorp put taxpayer’s money to use, seemingly by training terrorists and child trafficking to paedophiles.

  The US and its Western allies’ military industrial complex pulled off more or less the same trick in Iraq, Libya and nearly in Syria. In hindsight this doesn’t appear to have been a very good idea. That is, if you think wars are fought for the reasons we are told.

  Having bombed Iraq into the stone age, to stop its regime producing the WMDs it didn’t have, the US then “rescued” the country, from the horrific violence and starvation sanctions the US government itself visited upon the Iraqi people, by establishing the US led coalition’s puppet Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) government. Once installed, the CPA did things like award US engineering firm Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) a ‘sole source contract’ to fix and operate all of Iraq’s oil wells.

  That US Vice President Dick Cheney, who lied passionately about Iraqi WMD, was also in receipt of an annual $2M stipend from KBR was just a coincidence. As was the massive boost to the value of his Halliburton shareholdings as a direct result of the war he was instrumental in starting.

  When the former UK Prime Minister Teresa May OK’d missile trikes upon Syrian civilians, the fact that her husband made millions out of it, as his investments in missile manufactures went through the roof, was also just a coincidence. In no way did she personally profit from killing children and the fact that her family continues to make a fortune by killing more children in Yemen does not undermine Theresa’s very public profile as a champion of good causes. Although, it appears, not killing children isn’t one of them.

  So we shouldn’t be surprised when, once again, we discover that war, far from an impediment to business, actually improves operational margins, increases production, boosts markets and offers white collar criminal enterprises industrial scale profits.

  Sure, people, including children, die in huge numbers but so what? Where there’s muck there’s brass. War certainly is a racket.

  It turns out that Ukraine has been buying Russian fuel from the EU member state Bulgaria throughout the Ukraine War. An odd oversight for alleged combatants in a war. It is similar to the Ukrainian government’s decision to allow the continuing transit of Russian gas from Gazprom to EU markets through its resident pipelines.

  The Russian energy giant Lukoil, whose former CEO Ravil Maganov accidentally fell out of a window a few months ago—a common problem for the wrong Russian executives—has been shipping Russian oil to its refinery in the Bulgarian port city of Burgas. The Burgas refinery is the only one in Bulgaria and the largest in the Balkans. From there the refined gas-oil (red diesel) is exported to Russia’s supposed enemy, Ukraine.

  This was all being done in secret, says the Russian MSM, although this is just perception management, pro-war propaganda. There has also been a lot of nonsense written by the Western MSM, alleging that Bulgaria has been illicitly circumnavigating EU “sanctions.” Regardless of the fact that this too is monumental tripe.

  There isn’t anything “secret” about it. In truth, the door was left open for Russia and Bulgaria to continue this trade, at least until the end of 2024, because the EU inserted a loophole to ensure that they could.

  Presumably, the Russian government knew nothing about the massive oil shipments, which is why it remained a “secret,” according to Russian MSM.

  Given that the “secrecy” narrative is total claptrap, why would both the Western and the Russian MSM want to peddle essentially the same disinformation? Let’s spend a moment to reflect upon the EU’s non-sanction sanctions shall we?

  It means that third party non-EU trading nations, like Kazakhstan for instance, can ship Russian oil to the EU unhindered by the inconvenience of alleged sanctions. The sanctions are for reordering global energy flows, not ending them.

  While the switch-over has plunged European citizens into an energy crisis, that’s OK. It is essential for the future of the planet that Europeans are convinced to accept ever increasing energy prices. Otherwise they might not welcome the transition to the “sustainable energy” that will make their lives much worse.

  Red diesel in Ukraine is used for industrial and heavy machinery, in agriculture and manufacturing for example. It is also used for, oh I don’t know, fuelling tanks and armoured personnel carriers, mobile artillery units and stuff like that.

  Stories from European news outlets that Bulgaria provides nearly 40% of Ukrainian military fuel are all nonsense because ‘reasons’. Officials have denied the evidence, such as confirmation from the former Bulgarian President, so it isn’t “officially approved” evidence. Consequently, it can safely be discounted by anyone gullible enough to do so.

  Don’t forget, according to Western and Russian MSM outlets, it’s all a secret. Which may come as a relief to some, because otherwise the Russian government would have been colluding with the EU to ensure that the Ukrainian military could stay in the fight wouldn’t it?

  Recently, despite apparently running out of weaponry, if you believe Western propaganda that is, Russia has launched a massive missile strike on Ukraine, targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. According to Russian MSM this is part of the Russian governments efforts to undermine Ukraine’s “military capabilities.”

  The fact that it ensures that Ukraine will need to be rebuilt by borrowing enormous sums from international financiers, with the diligent assistance of Gazprom investors BlackRock, is not relevant. So ignore this too please.

  Gazprom sells gas to Moldova which is now going to provide gas to Ukraine via the Ukrainian transit gas pipelines that Russian bombing has accidentally missed entirely. The Moldovan government is keen to stress that this is not the gas it buys from Gazprom but is rather the gas it buys from somewhere else it hasn’t specified despite admitting that it is completely reliant upon Russian energy.

  If the energy and the fuel from countries like Moldova, Bulgaria and Kazakhstan is used by the Ukrainian government’s military, which it won’t under any official circumstances whatsoever, and Gazprom gas helps keep Ukrainian’s lights on, despite the missile strikes, it looks like the Russian government’s objective is to keep Ukraine at war while hobbling it just enough to ensure it can’t win.

  This can’t be true because NATO appears to be doing exactly the same thing and Russia and NATO are enemies. Although NATO’s not quite enough assistance differs from the Russian governments not quite enough aggression, it essentially amounts to the same thing.

  The piddly number of tanks offered to Ukraine by its NATO “partners,” the reluctance from NATO to give Ukraine military aircraft and the tepid reception for Ukraine’s more recent pleas to join NATO, appears to signal that NATO isn’t prepared to provide, or perhaps isn’t capable of providing, the military support Ukraine would need for victory. But it is seemingly willing to give it just enough old used scrap to keep it loosing.

  This means Ukrainians, the new Russian populations in the Donbas, and troops on both sides, though primarily the Ukrainians, will continue to die while the geopolitical landscape continues to shift around them. Meanwhile the military industrial complex and the billionaires it enriches, such as Elon Musk, are making a fortune. When the conflict is concluded, multinational corporations on both sides will be awarded the contracts to rebuild the stuff their government partners have just destroyed.

  Butler wrote:

  Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our munitions makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted.

  While some might think it wise to add politician’s to that list, for some unfathomable reason, far more people seem to think this is a good point but that it isn’t a serious proposal. Why not? Do they not get it, do they not understand what Butler, Eisenhower, Sutton and many more like them have been trying to tell them for nearly a century?

  What is it about the military industrial complex that they assume to be inevitable? Why on Earth do they think it is a “necessary evil?”

  It is only necessary because millions, perhaps billions, of us accept that war is the “failure” of foreign policy and diplomacy, instead of understanding the obvious fact that it is the extension of foreign policy. As we are seeing right now with the warmongering posturing of the West and China, war is the intended product of foreign policy and sledgehammer diplomacy.

  Wars don’t just “happen” by accident. They are planned, engineered and delivered as required. Our’s and our children’s deaths mean nothing to the people who we allow to lead us into war. They don’t have skin in the game but they should and we have the power to make sure that they do. All we have to do is refuse to fight. It really isn’t rocket science. Obedience is not a virtue.

  But we won’t because we continue to fall for the same old lies, time and time again. We continue to imagine, like amnesiac slaves, that we can only be led to a better future by following another bunch of parasitic criminals.

  Around and around we go: blowing up and starving children to death, condemning pensioners to freezing fuel poverty and accepting that we might just have to sacrifice ourselves and our loved ones along the way.

  When the warmongers next press gang our sons and daughters into dying for their ambitions, we will again say it is in a good cause: for the defence of our country, our culture or our way of life.

  It isn’t, it never was and it never will be as long as we continue to go along with it.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 21:00

• Taibbi: US Senator Wanted ZeroHedge Banned From Twitter
  Taibbi: US Senator Wanted ZeroHedge Banned From Twitter

  Since Elon Musk took over Twitter in October 2022, he has continued to keep his promise of transparency with regard to the company’s past behavior

  Thanks to the revelations in the so-called  ‘Twitter Files’, we have seen clear evidence that the FBI and other three-letter agencies worked directly with various social media entities to suppress perfectly “lawful speech” for purely political reasons.

  Twitter suppressed or removed content on various subjects, including irregularities in the 2020 elections, mail-in voting issues, and various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company was under government pressure to purge such content and its purveyors from the platform, though most of the time it was cooperating with the censorship requests willingly, the documents indicate.

  

  And yet, as Matt Taibbi writes, these extremely newsworthy revelations…

  2. The #TwitterFiles have revealed a lot: thousands of moderation requests from every corner of government, Feds mistaking both conservatives and leftists for fictional Russians, even Twitter deciding on paper to cede moderation authority to the “U.S. intelligence community”: pic.twitter.com/njklzvX0n1

  — Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) February 19, 2023

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

  …have produced exactly zilch in mainstream news coverage in the last two months.

  Something he discussed with Joe Rogan this past week…

  However, as Taibbi notes, House hearings were held last week, at which one witness told a story about Donald Trump asking to remove a mean tweet by Chrissy Teigen.

  The press went bananas. Now THAT was big news!

  

  And so, Taibbi throws down the gauntlet in the latest ‘Twitter Files’, “purely to show the bankruptcy of media in this area”…

  5. Purely to show the bankruptcy of media in this area, let’s introduce a pair of loud new data points, and see if any press figures at all cover either of them.

  — Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) February 19, 2023

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

  If a president freaking out about one tweeter is news, surely a U.S. Senator finking on three hundred-plus of his constituents also must be?

  

  Here’s Maine Senator Angus King writing to Twitter to call a slew of accounts “suspicious” for reasons like:

  • “Rand Paul visit excitement”

  • “Bot (averages 20 tweets a day)”

  • Being followed by rival Eric Brakey

  • Or, my personal favorite: “Mentions immigration.”

  

  Taibbi notes that King’s office declined comment. If Dick Nixon sniffed glue, this is what his enemies list might have looked like:

  

  Read the full (rather lengthy) spreadsheet here in a Google doc to see if you’re on ‘the list’.

  Yes, the Maine Senator demanded @ZeroHedge (and 100s more) Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts (and Facebook Groups) be instantly removed for being “suspicious”.

  As one wit on Twitter responded via DM when we remarked on Senator King’s actions: “the f**king balls on these people!!”

  We could not have said it better.

  As Matt writes in a follow-up…

  One of the funniest things about the @SenAngusKing suspicious accounts list is that they seemed to think @zerohedge is a bot. https://t.co/2jiOKvpc9o

  — Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) February 19, 2023

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

  Taibbi concludes the latest tweet thread with a big reality-check slap to the face of the mainstream media

  The fact that mainstream outlets ignored the Schiff story but howled about Teigen shows what they’re about.

  Responses like this are designed to keep blue-leaning audiences especially focused on moronic partisan spats, obscuring bigger picture narratives.

  The real story emerging in the #TwitterFiles is about a ballooning federal censorship bureaucracy that’s not aimed at either the left or the right per se, but at the whole population of outsiders, who are being systematically defined as threats.

  Beginning in March, we’ll start using the Twitter Files to tell this larger story about how Americans turned their counterterrorism machinery against themselves, to disastrous effect, through little-known federal agencies like the Global Engagement Center (GEC).

  All of which, roughly translated, sounds like – look out MSM, there’s so much more to come that you will never get away with not covering it! We won’t hold our collectively censored breaths but with Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, and others on the forensic case, we suspect the run up to the 2024 election will be a little more ‘free’ than the run-up to the 2020 election.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 20:30

• Florida Surgeon General Warns Life-Threatening VAERS Reports Up 4,400 Percent Since COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout
  Florida Surgeon General Warns Life-Threatening VAERS Reports Up 4,400 Percent Since COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout

  Authored by Chris Nelson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo is sounding the alarm about a 4,400 percent increase in life-threatening conditions reported in the state to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) since the 2021 rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines.

  

  In a letter dated Feb. 15, Ladapo asks the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to “promote transparency in health care professionals to accurately communicate the risks these vaccines pose.”

  VAERS, co-managed by the FDA and CDC, documents reports of injuries and conditions related to vaccines.

  

  “In Florida alone, we saw a 1,700 percent increase in reports after the release of the COVID-19 vaccine, compared to an increase of 400 percent in vaccine administration for the same period,” Ladapo’s letter reads. “The reporting of life-threatening conditions increased 4,400 percent. ”

  “Even the H1N1 vaccine did not trigger this type of response,” reads the letter.

  In 2009, during the H1N1 vaccination campaign, 1358 reports were made to the VAERS system in Florida.

  After the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in 2021, 41,473 reports of adverse reactions were made to VAERS.

  In his letter, Ladapo cites a study on the website of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) entitled, “Serious adverse events of special interest following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination in randomized trials in adults.”

  The study lists documented reactions including coagulation disorders, acute cardiac injuries, Bell’s Palsy, and encephalitis.

  “To claim these vaccines are ‘safe and effective’ while minimizing and disregarding the adverse events is unconscionable,” Ladapo’s letter to federal health officials reads.

  Warning to Floridians

  In addition to the letter, the Florida Department of Health has issued a health alert related to the safety of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

  “The state surgeon general is notifying the health care sector and the public of a substantial increase in Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System reports from Florida after the COVID-19 vaccine rollout,” the warning reads.

  VAERS relies on healthcare professionals and individuals to report adverse reactions. But some have worried that findings have been downplayed by the media and even censored by Big Tech.

  In January 2022, after the number of reported COVID-19 vaccine adverse events reported hit one million, Senator Ron Johnson posted a graphic from the VAERS website to Twitter.

  “Unsurprisingly, Twitter blocked my VAERS chart tweet,” Johnson wrote later in a post.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 20:00

• OnlyFans Creators Asked What They're Thinking About AI-Generated Porn
  OnlyFans Creators Asked What They’re Thinking About AI-Generated Porn

  Authored by River Page and Brandon Gorrell via Pirate Wires (Subscribe here)

  Intro by Mike Solana:

  Following a viral photo series of realistic, AI-generated “sexy” women, and in the wake of a Twitch deepfake porn scandal — in which the likenesses of real women were cloned without their consent, and manipulated into pornographic images — River Page and Brandon Gorrell spoke to OnlyFans creators Aella and others about the future of artificial intelligence and sex work.   

  Editor’s note: best to assume all links in this piece are Not Safe for Work (NSFW). 

  -Solana

  

  “I might just generate AI nudes of myself,” Aella told us over Zoom. 

  Aella’s a sex researcher with a popular, thoughtful, and often provocative presence on Twitter. At one point, she was also one of the top OnlyFans creators, making up to $100,000 a month. “I might just say they’re AI nudes, and have it be fun,” she said. “Taking nudes is so boring. I’ve taken so many nudes, and it’s like, you stand in the same place and take another photo. I don’t understand male psychology really. Like I do, but I don’t. Guys want to see the same pair of boobs, but they want to see a different photo of the same pair of boobs over and over again. And it’s just excruciatingly boring to do on your own. But, they like it. I’d love to be able to do it more creatively. ” 

  On the heels of a major deepfake scandal, the negative discourse surrounding AI-generated porn seems to have reached critical mass. Will synthetic porn meaningfully compete with human OnlyFans creators? Will creators lose control of their own likenesses, as a separate class of parasitic creators train AI on their bodies and use it to sell deepfakes without their consent? Or will AI be a boon to OnlyFans creators, enabling them to create their own synthetic nudes and videos? In this way, they could create more content than ever before. They could also create content in categories they wouldn’t have previously been able to monetize. 

  HarperTheFox is an OnlyFans creator who, according to her Twitter bio, uses AI trained on her own body to create fantasies for her fans. For example, here she is using AI to give herself fox-like features, here she is skewing more masculine, and here’s an AI-generated cyberpunk-inspired nude she made, where she’s brandishing an AR-style weapon. 

  Avalon, an Australian OnlyFans creator we talked to over DM, was also bullish on leveraging AI for her OnlyFans. “Real people using AI in their own likeness to create content could be an amazing game changer,” she said, “allowing them to work while hiding injuries, pregnancy, or even old age. Or they can hire employees to create and upload new content on their behalf if they need to take a break.”

  It’s inevitable, but people with reach now will be able to leverage AI to keep creating.

  When Hollywood is full of machine generated characters, people will still want to see movies with Brad Pitt (or “Brad Pitt”) in the@. https://t.co/S6IBmqfZgK

  — ai chick 🦊 HarperTheFox (@HarperTheFox) January 30, 2023

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

  For OnlyFans creators, there may be a new opportunity in business models that leverage AI in such a way that the creator can personalize her content by ‘shapeshifting’ on request. Content strategies that identify trending motifs and use AI to generate content that targets those signals in real time could be a huge advantage for ambitious OnlyFans creators. But others pursuing this same business model could cut them out entirely by producing this type of content without them — without a human subject at all. 

  “I think they’re absolutely going to be able to do that,” Aella said. “I don’t think we’re that far from running a language model and having the perfect girlfriend. We’re already trying to get the perfect girlfriend. [For example], there’s Replika trying to bond, and make people feel warm.” 

  Avalon had a different take. She’s short on prolific output, long on emotional connection and worldbuilding. “People who only want to look at boobs can find what they’re looking for on Google for free. The people who pay, they want intimacy, a sense of companionship, and entertainment,” she said. “We sell our characters and personalities as much as we sell images of our naked bodies. For better or worse, successful sex work thrives on parasocial relationships. Guys who want to replace OnlyFans creators will need to create realistic characters and find fans who connect with their creation before they’ll make any real money. Most people burn out quickly when the reality of the actual work involved hits them.” 

  This might be the case for sites like MyFreeCams, Aella said, but not OnlyFans, which — if it weren’t for its robust creator identity verification protocols (more on this below) — would already be vulnerable to completely synthetic creators. “[With] MyFreeCams and other livestreaming websites, men are aware of each other, and can compete with each other. A lot of the incentive to tip comes from doing it in front of other people. It’s like peacocking. The men develop a status in the community, with the girls — 80 percent of your income can come from one or two people. So the girls have a very strong connection with the men. It’s extremely delicate. These girls will be texting with a guy all day.  

  “So if you’re marketing to the very high-end, very intelligent man who needs that deep connection, sure, it’s going to be more difficult to replicate,” Aella said. “But that’s a minority of where your money comes from on OnlyFans, where you’re not allowed to see the other men. It’s structured such that it encourages you to send mass DMs that look like personalized DMs. Girls even sign up with agencies that have warehouses of people running their accounts, talking in DMs to men. These people DMing the men are not the actual OnlyFans girls. The quality of the exchange is quite low. One time I pretended to be a man and signed up to one of these girls’ OnlyFans in order to see what it was like talking to the people in the warehouse, and it was terrible! Just really bad! So with OnlyFans you’re selecting for guys who don’t need that kind of emotional connection. The guys who do need a big emotional relationship don’t have the incentive to stick around.” 

  To Aella’s point, the state of mainstream entertainment is a testament to a corporation’s ability to create franchises that thrive on their fans’ parasocial relationships with their characters. K-Pop is an obvious example of top-down, high-budget worldbuilding characterized by a rotating cast of replaceable stars whose personas are meticulously developed and maintained, funded by multi-trillion dollar conglomerates who profit off obsessive fans. It seems too optimistic to assume that adult entertainment will forever be ignored by highly-funded entities who have the resources to pick off any category they want, at will.

  Is there any reason OnlyFans creators should be worried that deepfake content of themselves, produced and sold by someone else, could meaningfully claim their own content’s market share? OnlyFans in particular has a system in place that seems pretty good at preventing that. Avalon described it as very strict, automated, and monitored. Even human creators can get mistakenly flagged when their appearance changes.

  “If you post on OnlyFans and your makeup or a wig changes your appearance too much, your post will be flagged, prompting you to tag the creator you shared. Since AI artwork can have minor differences in facial features, even within the same character prompts, there’s a good chance an AI account will get flagged often.” 

  And beyond the OnlyFans verification process, Avalon thinks most websites would be unwilling to work with AI “because of obvious litigation issues. Since AI learning uses photos of real people, you risk having an AI character who looks too similar to an actual person, so the creator will likely need to prove that their creation is not the person it resembles, and is not based on that person, because that can start falling into revenge porn legislation.”

  But OnlyFans and other more ‘reputable’ adult entertainment sites aren’t the only places you can find and buy porn, and for Bombshell Barista, an OnlyFans creator from Washington, it’s not the potential competition that bothers her. She just hates the idea of it being done without her consent. On the phone, she described the experience of having her content reposted without her permission as terrifying, saying it made her feel like she’d lost control. She worries deepfakes will make this problem even worse. “When it comes to AI, I have no control over that. That’s a big issue for me.”

  Rogan, a gay porn creator who does live action porn as Harlem Hookups, and animated porn as SneakyLinks, told us in a phone call that he thinks AI’s intrusion into the world of porn is inevitable, and that sex workers need to organize to make sure their content is legally protected. He even said he’s looked into getting a 3D model of his face copyrighted in hopes that this would offer him some protection against deepfake plagiarism. 

  “But would it even matter, to your audience, if the people in your videos weren’t real anymore?” we asked him. “To people of a certain age, it would,” he said. But younger generations, whose porn options have included VR, animation, and gaming for as long as they’ve been old enough to be interested, will have a much easier time normalizing fully synthetic porn. 

  On our read, most of the internet seems to think AI porn will wipe human-created porn out of existence. When @heartereum tweeted the viral AI-generated photorealistic bikini pics, their caption was “It is SO over.” But a few days later, Arabelle Raphael, an OnlyFans creator with nearly 400k Twitter followers, quote tweeted @heartereum’s tweet: “This is so funny because it’s obvious all these takes are from people who don’t understand sex work, and why consumers consume sex work. The looks are one thing but the intimacy and interaction are a huge thing which AI can’t really do.”

  We all do seem to agree that AI will be disruptive. We just aren’t sure how, or how much yet. We suppose the OnlyFans creators, just like the rest of us, will have to wait and see. 

  -River Page and Brandon Gorrell

  All conversations have been edited for structure, flow, length, and brevity. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 19:30

• Trudeau Responds To Leaked CSIS Files Saying Beijing Interfered In 2021 Election To Support A Liberal Minority
  Trudeau Responds To Leaked CSIS Files Saying Beijing Interfered In 2021 Election To Support A Liberal Minority

  Authored by Andrew Chen via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has responded to a news report about leaked Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) documents detailing how China used a strategy to interfere in the 2021 federal election in order to return the Liberals to office.

  

  The Feb. 17 Globe and Mail article cited top-secret CSIS documents covering the period before and after the September 2021 election campaign which resulted in a minority Liberal government. That result was one of the goals of the interference, while Beijing also sought the defeat of Conservative MPs it deemed critical of the regime, the Globe reported.

  Beijing’s desire for a second Liberal minority in Parliament was to ensure that Trudeau’s power would be kept curtailed, according to the CSIS documents.

  “I have been saying for years, including on the floor of the House of Commons, that China is trying to interfere in our democracy, in the processes in our country, including during our elections. We are aware of this,” Trudeau told reporters on Feb. 17, hours after the Globe article was published.

  “This is not a new phenomenon. This is something that countries around the world have been grappling with for a long time and Canada is no exception.”

  Trudeau also insisted that the Canadian election process is intact.

  “For the 2019, and for the 2021 elections, and for elections going forward, this government created a panel of top civil servants, who would lean on all the information provided to them by our security agencies like CSIS to ensure that interference by foreign actors does not affect the running or the outcomes of our elections,” he said.

  “All Canadians can have total confidence that the outcomes of the 2019 and the 2021 elections were determined by Canadians and Canadians alone.”

  The Globe report noted that the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force, established by the Trudeau government to monitor threats to federal elections, never raised the issue of foreign interference during the 2019 or 2021 campaigns.

  This was further supported by Walied Soliman, who served as the Conservative party representative to SITE.

  “I can confirm that after extensive security clearances and multiple meetings with our security establishment in Ottawa, these specific threats to our democracy were *never* raised, despite what is now clear evidence of tampering by China in the 2019 election,” Soliman wrote on Feb. 17 on Twitter in response to the Globe report.

  “What’s worse: our party was seeing clear signs of tampering in ridings with substantial Chinese diasporas. We made the conscious decision to work through the Task Force and appropriate security channels. Our concerns were never taken seriously.”

  When asked if the leaked documents signal a discomfort within CSIS about the government’s inaction, Trudeau said the agency needs to review its security.

  “It’s certainly a sign that security within CSIS needs to be reviewed, and I am expecting CSIS to take the issue very seriously,” he said.

  Following the publication of the Globe’s report, Bloc Quebecois and Conservative MPs weighed in on criticizing the Liberal government.

  “Today the Globe & Mail reported that CSIS documents confirm “Chinese diplomats and their proxies backed the re-election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals,” Conservative MP Raquel Dancho wrote on Twitter.

  “Parliament must investigate these reports thoroughly and transparently.”

  The Epoch Times has not seen the original CSIS documents.

  Beijing Interference Operation

  According to the CSIS documents reported on by the Globe, Beijing instructed its diplomats and other proxies—including some Chinese-language media—to propagate the idea that Conservative MPs were too critical of China, and that, once elected, they would follow the lead of former U.S. President Donald Trump and ban Chinese students from certain universities or education programs.

  “This will threaten the future of the voters’ children, as it will limit their education opportunities,” a Chinese Consulate official said, according to the CSIS documents as reported by the Globe.

  “The Liberal Party of Canada is becoming the only party that the PRC can support,” the official added, according to the report.

  Beijing’s interference tactics involved “pressuring its consulates to create strategies to leverage politically [active] Chinese community members and associations within Canadian society,” as well as using Canadian organizations to advocate on behalf of China, the article said.

  The CSIS documents said former Chinese consul-general in Vancouver, Tong Xiaoling, had bragged in 2021 about how she helped defeat two Conservative MPs.

  In early November 2021, CSIS reported, Tong discussed the defeat of a Vancouver-area Conservative, whom she described as a “vocal detractor” of the Chinese regime. The Globe said an unidentified national-security source said that the MP was Kenny Chiu, then Tory MP for Steveston–Richmond East, B.C.

  When asked about Tong taking credit for the defeat of Conservative MPs, Trudeau said it’s not surprising.

  “The fact that a Chinese diplomat would try to take credit for things that happened is not something that is unseen in diplomatic circles around the world,” he said.

  “The fact is, the work that CSIS has done, including with our election integrity panel, headed by our top public servants, … will always ensure that any risks to our election or to the integrity of those elections get highlighted to Canadians.”

  The CSIS documents also say that the Chinese Communist Party leadership in Beijing was “pressuring its consulates to create strategies to leverage politically [active] Chinese community members and associations within Canadian society.”

  The regime uses Canadian organizations to act on its behalf “while obfuscating links to the People’s Republic of China,” the documents said, according to the Globe.

  The documents also said people sympathetic to Beijing’s cause were encouraged to give campaign donations to candidates favoured by China, the Globe said. Political campaigns would then quietly return a portion of the contribution—“the difference between the original donation and the government’s refund”—to the donors, which is illegal, the report added.

  The anonymous national-security source told the Globe that nine Liberal and two Conservative candidates were favoured by Beijing, and that the two Conservative candidates were viewed as friends of China.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 18:30

• How The Metaverse Is Making Money
  How The Metaverse Is Making Money

  Statista’s Advertising & Media Markets Insights estimates that worldwide metaverse revenue will stand at $490 billion in 2030…

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz notes, this is a comparatively conservative forecast. Other analyst companies assume a market volume of between approximately 750 and 1,700 billion U.S. dollars.

  For the Statista outlook, the term metaverse is defined as a virtual world or a collection of virtual worlds that exist in a common digital space and that users can access over the internet. 

  Metaverses include applications of virtual reality, augmented reality and other immersive technologies.

  

  The biggest revenue drivers for metaverses are e-commerce and gaming. In addition, metaverses also offer new opportunities for revenue creation in the segments of education, entertainment, health and fitness and even telecommuting.

  Metaverse e-commerce sales alone could grow to more than $200 billion by 2030 from currently just around $20 billion. Gaming is expected to grow even more, from just around $10 billion as of now to around $163 billion in 2030.

  The next biggest applications for metaverse revenue are health & fitness, workplace and education.

  Statista’s Metaverse Market Report provides more information and data on the subject.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 18:00

• US Ends Search For 2 Airborne Objects Recently Shot Down Over Alaska And Lake Huron
  US Ends Search For 2 Airborne Objects Recently Shot Down Over Alaska And Lake Huron

  Authored by Mimi Ngyuen Ly via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The U.S. Northern Command said Friday it recommended to conclude searches for two unidentified objects that were shot down in U.S. airspace earlier this month.

  

  Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin concurred with the recommendation, the command said in a statement.

  One of the unidentified objects was shot down on Feb. 10 over U.S. waters off the northern coast of Alaska, near Deadhouse. Another was shot down on Feb. 12 over Michigan’s Lake Huron.

  The objects are two of the four flying objects separately shot down over North American airspace earlier this month. They are also two of the three objects that remain unidentified.

  Search operations for the two objects have “discovered no debris,” according to the command. The searches were conducted by the U.S. military, federal agencies, and Canadian partners. They used “a variety of capabilities, including airborne imagery and sensors, surface sensors and inspections, and subsurface scans,” the command stated.

  “Artic conditions and sea ice instability informed decisions to conclude search operations” in Deadhorse, the statement reads.

  Meanwhile, according to the statement, multiple days of searches and subsurface scans failed to find any debris from the flying object that was shot down on Lake Huron.

  At the same time, Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) separately announced that “a decision was reached to suspend the search due to several factors including deteriorating weather and the low probability of recovery.”

  Remaining Debris of Chinese Spy Balloon Sent to FBI

  The U.S. Northern Command and RCMP also issued updates on developments regarding the other two flying objects.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 17:30

• Beleaguered Los Angeles Port Pins Hopes On 2nd-Half Rebound
  Beleaguered Los Angeles Port Pins Hopes On 2nd-Half Rebound

  By Greg Miller of FreightWaves,

  Containerized imports to the Port of Los Angeles in January followed the same pattern as in neighboring Long Beach: up versus December but down year on year and down versus pre-COVID levels.

  

  It looks like it will get worse in Los Angeles before it gets better. 

  During a news conference on Thursday, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka predicted “a significant volume decline” in February, with more canceled sailings in the weeks and months ahead and “a softer market heading into the second quarter.”

  However, Seroka does expect volumes to improve in the second half, with a return to a more traditional peak-season import pattern. “While last year we saw strong volumes in the first six months, 2023 is shaping up to be more robust in the back half of the year,” he said.

  Still no labor deal

  Seven and a half months after the West Coast port labor contract expired on July 1, 2022, there’s still no deal. Seroka once again acknowledged the lack of a deal is affecting imports and pushing cargo to East and Gulf Coast ports and conceded “some of that cargo may be lost for good.”

  “There is still trepidation,” Seroka said. “There are many transportation managers who couldn’t go back to the boss for a third straight year and say, ‘I got our cargo stuck in the jaws of congestion out in California.’ To meet the criticism and to meet the conjecture that’s out there, we’ve got to get this collective bargaining agreement done and remove that from the discussion.”

  Seroka had previously predicted a new West Coast port labor contract in the February-March time frame. He sounded less confident about that Thursday.

  “With respect to timing, we’re now at the outer edges of what historically has been the [longest period] of negotiations between these two sides,” he said. “It may not get done in February or March, but I’m still pretty confident that we’ll see some real progress in the springtime.”

  ‘Mini-bump’ in January

  The Port of Los Angeles reported total throughput of 726,014 twenty-foot equivalent units, down 16% year on year (y/y). 

  Imports came in at 372,040 TEUs, down 13% y/y. Exports totaled 102,723 TEUs, up 3% y/y. Empty containers totaled 251,251 TEUs, down 26% y/y.

  

  On a positive note, Los Angeles’ January imports were up 6% compared to December. That “mini-bump” can be attributed to “cargo owners who pushed their product here ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays,” said Seroka.

  West Coast vs. East Coast

  The unprecedented COVID-era import surge was in full swing at this time in 2022, meaning that y/y comparisons at U.S. ports are down.

  Long Beach’s imports plunged 32% y/y in January, a much steeper fall than in Los Angeles. On the East Coast, January imports to Savannah were down 16% y/y, with imports to Charleston, South Carolina, down 7%.

  In contrast, Long Beach did even better in January versus December than Los Angeles, with imports up 9% sequentially. Charleston’s January imports were up 4% versus the month before, while Savannah’s pulled back by 3%.

  The big divide between the East and West coasts can be seen in comparisons to the pre-pandemic period. While Los Angeles was down 10% and Long Beach was down 15% compared to January 2020, Savannah’s imports were up 12% over the same time frame and Charleston’s were up 20%.

  

  Seroka maintained that the shift from the West Coast to the East Coast is not all about recent labor issues.

  “Let’s be clear. This cargo shift isn’t new. It started more than 20 years ago,” he said. “Since 2002, the West Coast share of the trans-Pacific trade has declined from 80% to 56%. Right here at home in San Pedro Bay, the share of import volume has dropped from 50% of our nation’s boxes down to 33%.

  “Cargo owners and decision makers tell us we’re too expensive, overregulated and have complicated labor issues. Meanwhile, East and Gulf Coast ports have hired leadership aligned with policymakers and they partner together state to state with elected officials going to D.C. to get money for infrastructure projects.

  “Between 2010 and 2020, we got left behind on federal investment here along the West Coast. East and Gulf Coast ports received more than $11 billion compared to just over $1.2 billion invested in West Coast ports during that 10-year span. And the early take on the bipartisan infrastructure bill: two projects for the West Coast compared to more than 30 for the East and Gulf coast ports.”

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 17:00

• It's True What They Say About the NYT
  It’s True What They Say About the NYT

  Authored by Patrick Maines via RealClear Wire,

  In 1972, National Review magazine published a content analysis titled “Is it true what they say about the New York Times?”

  

  The analysis and conclusion reached in that study was an unwelcome shock to many of the conservative magazine’s subscribers, as it held that the Times was editorially balanced in its news pages, in contrast to its editorial pages. NR founder William F. Buckley Jr. took a lot of heat from his supporters, as did the co-authors of the study. Not surprisingly, NYT Executive Editor Abe Rosenthal loved it and bought hundreds of copies of the issue.

  Five decades later, in early January this year, another study was published that comes to a very different conclusion about the objectivity of the legacy media, particularly the New York Times. The subject of this inquiry was news coverage of “Russiagate.”

  This examination, undertaken by Jeff Gerth, a decorated investigative journalist formerly with the Times, was published by Columbia Journalism Review. It’s a tour de force! Having taken a year and a half to research and write, and at a length of 24,000 words in four installments, Gerth utterly destroys whatever is left of the lie that Trump was in league with the Russians, and of the extraordinary lengths the media went to spread that smear.

  Taken as a whole, this series strikes me as the most important media criticism in my lifetime. For one thing, Gerth mentions a number of media outlets by name rather than referring to them in the collective as “the media.” This kind of specificity is rarely found, especially in news stories about poll or survey results regarding the media.

  But that is nothing compared to the fact that the news organization that is front and center in Gerth’s piece is the New York Times. The Times, and to a lesser extent the Washington Post, is to U.S. journalism what magnetic north is to compasses – the needle always points in their direction.

  Broadcasters and other newspapers take their cues from them, especially regarding national and international issues. This partly explains why you rarely see stories on television you haven’t seen in the two papers, especially the Times. If the whole of the news industry were considered a single company, the New York Times would be the CEO of that company.

  And then there is the shock of Columbia Journalism Review as the publisher. This small circulation magazine, published by the Columbia Journalism School, operates at the heart of the media establishment. More than this, both CJR and the journalism school have many ties with the Times. The current chairman of CJR, for instance, was until recently the deputy managing editor of the Times.

  That CJR’s editor/publisher, Kyle Pope, would agree to publish such a study elevates him to a kind of hero status that few editors or publishers have attained. Pope’s contribution to the piece extends beyond his courage in publishing it. It includes his editor’s note, kicking off the series, part of which seems especially brave and wise:

  No narrative did more to shape Trump’s relations with the press than Russiagate. The story, which included the Steele dossier and the Mueller report among other totemic moments, resulted in Pulitzer Prizes as well as embarrassing retractions and damaged careers. For Trump, the press’s pursuit of the Russia story convinced him that any sort of normal relationship with the press was impossible.

  Ultimately, this study could prove to be a seminal document in recovering journalism’s lost soul. So far, only a few brave dissidents – reporter Matt Taibbi, podcaster Walter Kirn, and RealClearInvestigations’ editor Tom Kuntz, and a handful of others – have been willing to challenge the prevailing, and factually problematic, Russiagate narrative. Kirn says it is his hope that the Times is working on a mea culpa response to the CJR piece, like the Times’ published about its own Iraq coverage. Taibbi believes this is wishful thinking.

  And given that neither the Washington Post nor the Times have publicly addressed the gaping hole Gerth’s reporting has torn in their credibility – and the muted reaction of most of the rest of the corporate media to Gerth’s exposé, we seem to have entered a new era. In today’s brave new journalism world, objectivity and even truth have been abandoned in favor of a journalism that simply reflects whatever political or ideological narrative is prevalent at the time.

  *  *  *

  Patrick Maines is the president emeritus of The Media Institute, a Washington-based think tank that in his time aggressively promoted free speech and journalistic excellence. He engineered the creation of an independent national celebration called Free Speech Week, now in its 20th year. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 16:30

• Donald Trump Plans To Visit Ohio Town Of Toxic Train Derailment
  Donald Trump Plans To Visit Ohio Town Of Toxic Train Derailment

  Former President Donald Trump will visit East Palestine, Ohio, next week, tweeted his son, Donald Trump Jr. 

  “Breaking News: Trump will visit East Palestine, Ohio next week.

  “If our “leaders” are too afraid to actually lead real leaders will step up and fill the void,” Donald Trump Jr. tweeted. 

  Breaking News: Trump will visit East Palestine, Ohio next week.
  If our “leaders” are too afraid to actually lead real leaders will step up and fill the void.

  — Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 18, 2023

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

  The former president’s planned visit comes as the Biden administration, Ohio state officials, and many mainstream media outlets have downplayed the environmental disaster in the small blue-collar town after a train hauling toxic chemicals derailed two weeks ago. 

  The botched response by the federal government, for instance, rejecting Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance early this week to only U-turn last night, shows the awful response effort by the Biden administration. 

  

  Trump wants to capitalize on what Legal Insurrection states, “Ohio’s toxic train derailment is Biden’s Katrina.” 

  President Biden has barely mentioned the East Palestine chemical disaster. It took Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg nearly a week to respond publicly to the incident while reports of residents getting sick from the fumes flared up after a controlled burn of toxic chemical vinyl chloride. 

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

  Looks like @EPA, @fema, @nscorp, @MikeDeWine, @potus, and @PeteButtigieg are throwing East Palestine to the wolves. They’re not going to help. They’re just hoping it goes away & the locals will just shut up & drink the contaminated water.

  These citizens need to get ANGRY. https://t.co/n3ubnTGWVr pic.twitter.com/z2a7kmr2rs

  — Jack Cochran (@TheJackCochran) February 17, 2023

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

  Trump is taking advantage of Biden’s response failure to civic catastrophe. We call this the ‘Katrina play’ as the former president will rile up his base next week about how lousy the Biden administration has been in assisting blue-collar Americans.

  If this works, Trump might score political points ahead of the 2024 presidential election cycle. Americans just want answers about the chemical disaster that the government and media have kept so many in the dark. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 16:00

• Natural Immunity As Good As Or Better Than COVID-19 Vaccination: Study
  Natural Immunity As Good As Or Better Than COVID-19 Vaccination: Study

  Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

  Post-infection immunity is similar or even superior to the protection bestowed by COVID-19 vaccines, according to a new study.

  

  Post-infection protection—known widely as natural immunity—was strong and remained significant over time, researchers found. Against the Wuhan, Alpha, and Delta variants, the protection against re-infection was 85 percent at four weeks, 78 percent at 40 weeks, and 55.5 percent at 80 weeks.

  That protection dropped more quickly against the Omicron BA.1 subvariant, declining to 36 percent by 40 weeks, and protection against symptomatic disease also waned below 50 percent.

  But shielding against severe disease was strong against all strains, including the BA.1 subvariant, researchers found. The naturally immune enjoyed 88.9 percent protection against BA.1 at 40 weeks, which was actually higher than against earlier strains.

  “Our analysis found significantly reduced protection against re-infection from the omicron BA.1 variant but that levels of protection against severe disease remained high,” Dr. Stephen Lim of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine, and his co-authors, said in the study.

  Dr. Brett Giroir, a former Trump administration health official whose post on natural immunity was censored by Twitter on behalf of Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb, said the study “demonstrates robustness of natural immunity.”

  Dr. Vinay Prasad, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco who was also not involved in the study, said that the paper made a “compelling case that we can effectively stop boosting average risk individuals (most adults) who have had covid.”

  “Vaccine policy should have been different in people with prior illness,” Prasad also said.

  Public health officials have repeatedly said that vaccination is better than natural immunity, or that the naturally immune should still get vaccinated despite the protection they have. Some other countries have acknowledged natural immunity by lowering the number of recommended doses for the population.

  Comparison to Vaccination

  The researchers performed a review and meta-analysis by looking for studies on natural immunity conducted through Sept. 31, 2022. Studies were included if a group of naturally immune, unvaccinated people were compared to unvaccinated people who had not been infected. Studies that also included vaccinated people were included if the research also included unvaccinated and naturally immune people. Studies that only had results for natural immunity in combination with vaccination, or hybrid immunity, were excluded.

  Researchers performed a modeling technique called Bayesian meta-regression to reach pooled estimates of protection by time since infection.

  In total, 65 studies were included in the meta-analysis from 19 different countries. Just 30, though, included information on time since infection, and a subset of those included information on one or more of the outcomes—re-infection, symptomatic disease, and severe disease—during the BA.1 era.

  One of the researchers’ main conclusions was that the study showed that natural immunity “is at least equivalent if not greater than that provided by two-dose mRNA vaccines,” or the Pfizer and Moderna messenger RNA vaccines.

  That conclusion was supported by references to just two studies—one unpublished paper and one published paper from Qatar that found natural immunity was more protective than the mRNA vaccines. A graph in the study also showed natural immunity conferring better immunity vaccination against infection, symptomatic disease, and severe disease—including against three vaccine doses, or a primary series and a booster.

  The researchers also emphasized that COVID-19 can cause problems, including death, but did not mention side effects from vaccination that can also cause long-term issues, including mortality.

  Limitations included the low number of studies that were analyzed for the analysis and the reliance on observational studies.

  The study was published by The Lancet. Researchers received funding from several sources, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder, has repeatedly promoted vaccination during the pandemic.

  …

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 15:30

• Retail Sector Faces More Downside From Struggling Consumers
  Retail Sector Faces More Downside From Struggling Consumers

  Authored by Simon White, Bloomberg macro strategist,

  Retail stocks are exposed to tighter credit and consumers facing rising non-discretionary costs. Their expected underperfomance also makes them a candidate as a portfolio hedge for an increasingly likely equity-market correction.

  (Nominal) retail sales were released this week, with January showing an improvement on December’s data. However, this should not detract from the strong downward trend leading indicators anticipate for retail consumption.

  As the Fed’s rate hikes increasingly bite, credit conditions are tightening. A key demand support for consumption comes from consumer credit. But banks are tightening lending conditions across the board, from company loans to consumer credit. Fewer banks are willing to make consumer loans, which points to much weaker retail sales through this year.

  

  Consumers are also having to tighten their belts. Inflation has ensured the cost of virtually all goods and services has risen over the past two years. Wages are not keeping pace with price rises, and certain essential outlays, such as rent and mortgage payments, cannot be readily cut.

  Therefore discretionary consumption, which retail sales mainly captures, suffers.

  My self-explanatory (but not catchily titled) Consumer Non-Retail Essentials Index shows that retail sales are going to face continued headwinds this year from consumer retrenchment.

  

  The index is a little off its highs (brown line in the chart above; NB it is reversed), but the costs of essential services remains very high, and this will continue to force consumers to prioritize their spending.

  This leaves retail stocks exposed. Retail is one of the most cyclical sectors, and as growth continues to weaken (as multiple leading indicators point towards), the sector will face increasing resistance.

  

  After being one of the best sectors year-to-date thus far, retail is likely to soon begin underperforming as it becomes apparent discretionary consumption will weaken more.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 15:00

• How To Resist CBDCs – 5 Ways You Can Opt Out Of This Dystopian Future
  How To Resist CBDCs – 5 Ways You Can Opt Out Of This Dystopian Future

  Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,

  There’s an excellent chance governments worldwide will soon force their citizens to use central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

  

  CBDCs enable all sorts of horrible, totalitarian things.

  They allow governments to track and control every penny you earn, save, and spend. They are a powerful tool for politicians to confiscate and redistribute wealth as they see fit.

  CBDCs will make it possible for central banks to impose deeply negative interest rates, which are really just a euphemism for a tax on saving money.

  Governments could program CBDCs to have an expiration date—like some airline frequent flyer miles—forcing people to spend them, for example, before the end of the month when they’d become worthless.

  CBDCs will enable devious social engineering by allowing governments to punish and reward people in ways they previously couldn’t.

  Suppose governments impose lockdowns again for flu season, so-called “climate change,” or whatever pretext they find convenient. CBDCs could be programmed to only work in a geographic area. For example, your payments could be denied if you travel more than a mile from your home during a lockdown.

  Suppose the people in charge want to encourage people to take a pharmaceutical product. With CBDCs, they could easily deposit money into the accounts of those who complied and deduct it from those who didn’t.

  Undoubtedly, CBDCs will be paired with a sort of social credit system. Such a system is already in place in China today. In the West, it’s likely to come in a different flavor. Perhaps CBDCs will be paired with an ESG score.

  Did you commit a thought crime on social media? Or perhaps you read too many politically incorrect articles online? Did you exceed your monthly meat consumption allowance? Then expect some financial punishment thanks to the CBDCs.

  CBDCs are, without a doubt, an instrument of enslavement. They represent a quantum leap backward in human freedom.

  Unfortunately, they’re coming soon.

  Governments will probably mandate CBDCs as a “solution” when the next real or contrived crisis hits—which is likely not far off.

  That’s the bad news.

  The good news is that CBDCs are destined to fail.

  Despite all the hype, CBDCs are nothing but the same fiat currency scam on steroids.

  It’s doubtful CBDCs can save otherwise fundamentally unsound currencies—as I believe all fiat currencies are.

  If the current fiat system is not viable, then CBDCs are even less viable as they enable the government to engage in even more currency debasement.

  Would a CBDC have saved the Zimbabwe dollar, the Venezuelan bolivar, the Argentine peso, or the Lebanese lira?

  I don’t think so. And a CBDC won’t save the US dollar or the euro either.

  But that doesn’t mean governments won’t try implementing CBDCs… with immensely destructive consequences for many people.

  While I believe CBDCs will inevitably self-destruct, nobody knows how long it will take for that to happen. Communism was also destined to self-destruct, but it took generations. I don’t think it will take nearly that long for CBDCs to fail, but that’s just my guess.

  Therefore, the big question everyone should be asking is this… 

  What will you do when the government forces everyone to use CBDCs?

  I believe it’s incumbent on free individuals to reject CBDCs. It will be challenging, but the reward—maintaining your sovereignty—will be priceless.

  Below I discuss five ways you can do just that.

  It’s important to remember the wise words of Ron Paul:

  “What none of them (politicians) will admit is that the market is more powerful than the central banks and all the economic planners put together. Although it may take time, the market always wins.”

  No matter what edicts, decrees, or laws that politicians pass, they will never be able to fully extinguish the desire of people to use alternatives to CBDCs. That cracks the door open to other options.

  For example, consider that Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Argentina, Lebanon, and many other countries restrict the use of US dollars today. However, all that does is create a thriving black market—or, more accurately, a free market—for US dollars and a parallel financial system.

  We can expect the same kind of dynamic if governments impose CBDCs. I have no doubt significant parallel systems and underground markets will naturally emerge.

  Anyone who wants to avoid CBDC enslavement must learn to swim in those waters.

  Below are five steps anyone can take to opt out of this dystopia.

  Step #1: Use Physical Gold and Silver

  Avoiding CBDCs means using alternative forms of money.

  Although people use money every day, few consider what it actually is or what makes for a good money.

  Asking people, “what is money?” is like asking a fish, “what is water?”

  The fish probably doesn’t even notice the water unless it becomes polluted or something is wrong.

  Money is a good, just like any other in an economy. And it isn’t a complex notion to grasp. It doesn’t require you to understand convoluted math formulas and complicated theories—as the gatekeepers in academia, media, and government mislead many folks into believing.

  Understanding money is intuitive and straightforward. Money is simply something useful for storing and exchanging value. That’s it.

  Think of money as a claim on human time. It’s like stored life or energy.

  Unfortunately, today most of humanity thoughtlessly accepts whatever their government gives them as money. However, money does not need to come from the government. That’s a total misnomer that the average person has been hoodwinked into believing.

  It would be similar to transporting yourself back in time and asking the average person in the Soviet Union, “Where do shoes come from?”

  They would say, “Well, the government makes the shoes. Where else could they come from? Who else could make the shoes?”

  It’s the same mentality here regarding money today—except it’s much more widespread.

  The truth is money doesn’t need to come from the government any more than shoes do.

  People have used stones, glass beads, salt, cattle, seashells, gold, silver, and other commodities as money at different times.

  However, for over 2,500 years, gold has been mankind’s most enduring form of money.

  Gold didn’t become money by accident or because some politicians decreed it. Instead, it became money because countless individuals throughout history and across many different civilizations subjectively came to the same conclusion: gold is money.

  It resulted from a market process of people looking for the best way to store and exchange value.

  So, why did they go to gold? What makes gold attractive as money?

  Here’s why.

  Gold has a set of unique characteristics that make it suitable as money.

  Gold is durable, divisible, consistent, convenient, scarce, and most importantly, the “hardest” of all physical commodities. In other words, gold is “hard to produce” relative to existing stockpiles and is the one physical commodity most resistant to inflation of its supply. That’s what gives gold its monetary properties.

  Anyone can opt-out of CBDCs by using physical gold and silver to store and exchange value.

  Physical gold is optimal for long-term savings and large transactions. The best way to do that is with widely recognized gold bullion coins, like the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf or the American Gold Eagle.

  However, gold coins are generally inconvenient to use for small transactions. Silver coins are more practical here.

  Step #2: Obtain Financial Sovereignty With Bitcoin

  CBDCs and Bitcoin share some characteristics. For example, they are both digital and facilitate fast payments from a mobile phone. But that is where the similarities end.

  The reality is that CBDCs and Bitcoin are entirely different in the most fundamental ways.

  You need the government’s permission and blessing to use a CBDC, whereas Bitcoin is permissionless.

  Governments can (and will) create as many CBDC currency units as they want. With Bitcoin, there can never be more than 21 million, and there is nothing anyone can do to inflate the supply more than the predetermined amount in the protocol.

  CBDCs are centralized. Bitcoin is decentralized.

  Governments can censor transactions and freeze and confiscate CBDC units. Bitcoin is censorship-resistant. No country’s laws can affect the protocol.

  There is no privacy with CBDCs. However, if you take specific steps with Bitcoin, it is possible to maintain reasonable privacy.

  CBDCs are government money that are easy to produce and give politicians a terrifying amount of control over people’s lives. On the other hand, Bitcoin is non-state hard money that helps liberate individuals from government control.

  Bitcoin enables anyone to be their own bank. Bitcoin allows you to send and receive value from anyone anywhere without relying on third parties.

  If you avoid CBDCs, that will almost certainly mean avoiding the traditional financial system.

  Knowing how to use Bitcoin in the most sovereign way possible will be essential.

  Step #3: Get Organized Locally

  Get to know the people in your local community.

  If you avoid CBDCs, many of the conveniences of society will become unavailable.

  You will probably be unable to shop at Walmart and large stores of any kind, as they will all be roped into the CBDC system.

  You will have to become self-sufficient and rely on your local community to obtain what you need. And that starts with knowing who can provide you with the things you want and need.

  The Amish are incredibly successful in this regard.

  I am not saying you must go 100% Amish to avoid CBDCs. But we can learn how their societies work outside the traditional system and emulate the areas that make sense in our local communities.

  Step #4: Exchange Value for Value

  Humans invented money to solve the difficulties of barter.

  But with CBDCs, governments will have perverted money from a technology that facilities economic exchange into a tool of enslavement. With CBDCs, barter doesn’t look all that bad.

  The key is understanding what value you can provide to others in your local community and how you can exchange that for something you want.

  That might mean performing some landscaping work for your dentist in exchange for getting a cavity filled or washing the car of your butcher in exchange for some ground beef.

  Step #5: Become a Prepper

  To minimize the inconvenience of barter, it’s ideal to become as self-sufficient in as many areas as possible. That includes stockpiling supplies and gaining survival knowledge and skills.

  If you already have what you need—or can produce it yourself—that reduces the need to get it from others.

  Conclusion

  Unfortunately, CBDCs—and all the terrible things that go along with them—are probably coming soon.

  To summarize, here are five steps anyone can take to opt-out of this terrible system.

  • Step #1: Use Physical Gold and Silver

  • Step #2: Obtain Financial Sovereignty With Bitcoin

  • Step #3: Get Organized Locally

  • Step #4: Exchange Value for Value

  • Step #5: Become a Prepper

  *  *  *

  The economic trajectory is troubling. Unfortunately, there’s little any individual can practically do to change the course of these trends in motion. The best you can and should do is to stay informed so that you can protect yourself in the best way possible, and even profit from the situation. That’s precisely why bestselling author Doug Casey and his colleagues just released an urgent new PDF report that explains what could come next and what you can do about it. Click here to download it now.

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 14:30

• "Real Dick Move": Apple Has Allegedly Fired Contractors As Tech Layoff Wave Worsens
  “Real Dick Move”: Apple Has Allegedly Fired Contractors As Tech Layoff Wave Worsens

  The tech sector layoffs continue. Tech giants such as Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft have fired tens of thousands of workers. Now there’s word that Apple has quietly reduced its headcount of ‘contractors,’ according to NYPost, citing people with direct knowledge. 

  NYPost said Apple fired hundreds of contractors last week. These workers are employed by outside companies but work alongside Apple employees on projects. It appears Apple is reducing headcount as the macroeconomic environment remains challenging. 

  Here’s what one of the NYPost’s sources said:

  Instead of waiting for contracts that are typically renewed every 12 to 15 months to expire, Apple is firing contractors outright, sources said. One contractor claimed to have been blindsided, saying Apple management had assured him that all jobs were safe. Only a few weeks earlier, some had been gloating that Apple hadn’t overhired like other tech companies, the source added.

  The news comes after 1,045 tech companies last year fired 161,000 employees in 2022. So far this year, 380 companies have fired 108,000 workers, according to the jobs tracking website Layoffs.fyi. 

  Despite all the layoffs, technology-heavy Nasdaq had one of its best months in the last two decades. 

  We pointed out tech layoffs are accelerating through the first quarter. Here are the latest tech layoffs over the last 12 months. 

  

  Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook recently said layoffs are a “last resort kind of thing.” But sources said the firing of contractors is not firing employees. This means Apple doesn’t have to pay severance or face potential litigation from ex-employees. 

  Here’s what people are saying on the anonymous job website Blind about Apple’s move to axe contractors:

  “Gotta say it’s a real dick move to cancel a contract BEFORE it’s expiration date. They can’t afford to wait a couple months? What’s even the point of taking a job-insecure contract with Apple if they can’t guarantee you’ll actually stay for the duration of the contract, performance problems excluded?” one person said. 

  “I’ve been offered contract positions at apple and they were never more than what a FTE makes, usually $180k and you get worse benefits from the agency. Maybe it was org specific?” someone else said. 

  Another said: “Still not layoff, contractors are meant to be short term. They know what they are getting into.” 

  This person said: “I know, the real layoffs will be later.” 

  … and it’s only a matter of time before Apple trims the real fat. 

  Tyler Durden
  Sat, 02/18/2023 – 14:00

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