Nov 19

Today’s News 19th November 2023

  • How It Felt To Carry A Gun In Combat
    How It Felt To Carry A Gun In Combat

    Authored by John Waters via RealClear Wire,

    The following is an excerpt from River City One: A Novel. 

    The safety was flicked off, the hammer cocked.

    The gun was one inch above the seam of my pants pocket. A sudden move and the thing might go off. I closed both eyes and held my breath to slow everything down, breathing only to catch my breath. It was a couple of pounds, maybe three, and I felt it hanging, the weight of bullets pressed inside the hollow grip and tugging down on the waistband of my khakis.

    The gun had been an accessory, a set of car keys slipped into my pocket on the way out of the house; I had taken for granted that it would follow me everywhere. Metal grooves and small notches of the grip filled with rust when shamal winds whipped sand into the air, the heavy rotations of a dust-off grinding blue skies into dust. Oiling and scrubbing. Oiling and scrubbing, cleaning each nook with a toothbrush to make sure the bolt didn’t jam up with grit, just to make sure the thing fired when I needed it to. I carried it inside dust-filled trucks rumbling over potholes and every cut and groove in the road. I carried it standing in line for a plate of hot food, holding a plastic tray in my hands, letting my elbow rest at my hip, in the small space between the hammer and sight posts. I took the gun off my hip only to clip the holster into the nylon straps of the flak jacket that covered my chest, so high up I could rest my chin across the long steel grip and fall asleep.

    But there was risk in taking it off, so I took the gun with me into the green plastic porta-shitters, the dense sound of metal striking the soiled plastic floor when I unfastened my belt, pants sagging to my knees. When I slept, when I ate, it stayed clipped into my pants, welded to my side through so many places I forgot it was on me until I saw somebody else’s pistol lodged in a leather-strapped shoulder holster—dangling under his armpit like he was a police detective in an old movie—reminded me. The calm returned only when my palm grabbed onto a fistful of black grip stock.

    That was years ago.

    Today it was new again.

    “Wait for the natural pause in breath,” a voice said.

    The words sounded strange coming from the blonde with a pistol tucked into the top of her white pants. She was hanging close enough that I could see the brown of her irises and the freckles splashed across the bridge of her nose.

    I pressed the soft flesh between my thumb and forefinger into the smooth notch and let my right hand fold around the outside of the three-inch handle, forefinger resting straight along the barrel, just above the trigger well. The rough surface of the gun’s handle grated like sandpaper against the insides of my fingers. I drew in a long breath and held it. One, two, three counts.

    My heartbeat thudded through the insides of my ears, each beat deepening the longer I held the breath. The air exited as my right index finger touched the holster’s release button. I swept the pistol forward in one smooth motion until my arm reached full extension. My left hand molded onto the opposite side of the pistol, cradling the gun in both hands, index fingers pointed to the target.

    She was smiling.

    “Slow and steady pressure—let the weapon surprise you,” the voice said.

    I pulled my fingertip back gently and waited for the sound.

    Crack.

    The hammer dropped into a bright spark of flame and the barrel jerked upward, my shoulders rocking me backward onto my heels.

    I exhaled then waited.

    Crack.

    Inhaled.

    Crack.

    The firing became automatic, shell casings leaping from the barrel and falling soundlessly to the ground. The empty magazine dropped from the handle and I took one long breath, relieved, noticing for the first time the smell of charcoal smoke and sulfur. I set the pistol down on the metal tray and stepped back, eyes panning left and right. The room was small, only a few shooters standing within arm’s reach of one another. A hand reached beside me and turned the switch, making the sheet of paper come flying toward me, stopping so close to my head I felt the brush of air on my cheeks.

    The report was good. Five holes clustered like a honeycomb inside the target’s chest.

    John J. Waters graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy. He served in the Marine Corps on deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. He lives with his family in Nebraska, where he was born.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 23:55

  • New J6 Footage Shows Capitol Police May Have Incited Riot By Firing Munitions Into Peaceful Crowd
    New J6 Footage Shows Capitol Police May Have Incited Riot By Firing Munitions Into Peaceful Crowd

    House Speaker Mike Johnson has released over 40,000 hours of J6 footage including capitol police body cam footage to the public in the interests of transparency, an action which should have been taken years ago.  Each new piece of footage only confirms what many Americans already understood – That the few scant minutes of available video recycled by the media paint a false picture of what really happened.  Many would argue that J6 was nothing more than a protest that was turned into a riot by police incitement and establishment spin. 

    Even worse, there are many people now languishing in prison because of that spin.

    The latest footage shows capitol police inviting protesters into the building as they peacefully assembled in the corridors (the same people who would later be prosecuted and labeled “insurrectionists”). 

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    However, what about what happened before the “riots” started? 

    Did they happen spontaneously, or were they incited? 

    New video clips seem to show capitol police firing rubber bullets, tear gas grenades and stun grenades into crowds of peaceful protesters on J6 before anyone tried to enter the capitol building, possibly triggering the violence that would follow (and creating the footage that was played ad nauseum on major news networks as proof of insurrection).

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    Keep in mind that if such tactics had been used to incite BLM or pro-Palestinian riots there would undoubtedly be 24/7 news coverage of it.

    These revelations further confirm why J6 footage was withheld from the country for so long.

    It’s easy to control the narrative when you have all the evidence under lock and key.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 23:20

  • David DePape Found Guilty In Federal Trial Over Paul Pelosi Attack
    David DePape Found Guilty In Federal Trial Over Paul Pelosi Attack

    Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A federal jury on Nov. 16 convicted David DePape, the man who was accused of attacking Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), with a hammer last year at the Pelosis’ San Francisco home.

    Mr. DePape, 43, could face decades in prison.

    During a several-day-long trial this week, Mr. DePape said that he was “sorry that he got hurt,” referring to the 83-year-old Mr. Pelosi. “I reacted because my plan was basically ruined.”

    Mr. Pelosi suffered a skull fracture after he was hit in the head with a hammer during the Oct. 28, 2022, incident, which occurred at his San Francisco home just days before last year’s midterm elections. Ms. Pelosi, who was the speaker of the House at the time, was in Washington.

    According to police body camera footage that was taken during the night of the attack, officers opened the door to see Mr. DePape and Mr. Pelosi both holding what appeared to be a hammer. As police told Mr. DePape to drop the tool, he responded that he wouldn’t and appeared to strike Mr. Pelosi while off-camera.

    Other footage that was released by police this year appears to show Mr. DePape breaking into the Pelosi home.

    He was charged with attempted kidnapping and assault on account of a federal official’s performance of official duties. He pleaded not guilty. The jury convicted him on both charges.

    During testimony this week, Mr. Pelosi said that he was awakened that night when Mr. DePape entered his bedroom while holding zip ties and a hammer. The suspect repeatedly said, “Where’s Nancy,” referring to his wife, according to Mr. Pelosi.

    “I recognized I was in serious danger, so I tried to stay as calm as possible,” he testified.

    Defense attorney Jodi Linker argued during the trial that Mr. DePape didn’t commit a federal crime because he wasn’t driven by Mrs. Pelosi’s official duties as speaker. Instead, she argued, his firm belief in what she described as “conspiracy theories” motivated him to bring down the ruling class in the United States.

    Ms. Linker did not contest some of the facts in the case as the hammer strike was recorded by police body cameras. Mr. DePape also admitted to his actions while testifying in his own defense.

    The suspect told the jury he wanted to kidnap Nancy Pelosi, interrogate her, and break her kneecaps if he found her to be lying. But after breaking into the home he instead found her husband, then age 82, asleep in his bed. Mr. DePape said the attack was a reaction to his original plan going awry.

    Police recovered zip ties in the bedroom and in the hallway near the front door, plus a roll of tape, rope, a second hammer, a pair of gloves, and a journal in Mr. DePape’s backpack, according to court records.

    Reactions

    After the guilty verdict was handed down on Nov. 16, the Pelosi family released a statement saying they are thankful for the “outpouring of prayers and warm wishes for Mr. Pelosi from so many across the country during this difficult time.”

    “The Pelosi family is very proud of their Pop, who demonstrated extraordinary composure and courage on the night of the attack a year ago and in the courtroom this week,” the spokesperson said. “Thankfully, Mr. Pelosi continues to make progress in his recovery.”

    Mr. DePape’s former girlfriend, also the mother of his children, recently told the New York Post that Mr. DePape appeared to be under duress during the trial, and she claimed that he was pressured by officials.

    “His testimony lasted about 15 to 20 minutes, but he broke down and cried three or four times,” Gypsy Taub, a nudist activist, told the paper. “It was as if he wasn’t even present in the room and sat there, frozen.”

    Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her husband Paul Pelosi at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican in a file image. (Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images)

    She said, “[I] already had doubts that his confession to police was false because it was only on audio, but I am glad the jury was able to see him testify and will be able to decide on the authenticity of that confession.”

    Previously, Ms. Taub also said that her former partner had progressive viewpoints but noted that he had significant mental problems. Several years ago, she claimed to local media he disappeared for months before returning and claimed to be Jesus Christ.

    Days after he was arrested, U.S. immigration officials confirmed that Mr. DePape is a Canadian national who was in the United States illegally, having overstayed his visa years ago.

    Mr. DePape still faces state charges, including attempted murder, in connection to the attack. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

    Lear Zhou and Reuters contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 22:45

  • A Preview Of Argentina's Consequential Election On Sunday
    A Preview Of Argentina’s Consequential Election On Sunday

    Argentinians return to the polls on Sunday, November 19 to elect the next president in a consequential runoff election. Voters will choose between incumbent Finance Minister Sergio Massa and right-wing libertarian Javier Milei. The election results will shape Argentina’s social and macroeconomic outlook in coming years.

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    As Goldman writes in its election preview note, polls point to a tightly contested race, with a majority showing Milei having a slight edge in voter preferences. A significant fraction (around one third of polls), however, suggests that Massa is in the lead. In general, polls in Argentina have a poor track record and in this electoral process they have systematically failed to capture shifts in voters’ sentiment. To add to the uncertainty, Massa was seen as outperforming Milei in the final presidential debate last week.

    In the August primary elections (PASO), Javier Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party surprised by taking the lead, followed by the center-right coalition Juntos por el Cambio whose presidential ticket would be led by Patricia Bullrich. Massa’s left-leaning Peronist coalition, Unión por la Patria, finished third. In the October first round election, in turn, Massa topped most expectations with an improved performance and finished first. Milei came in second place without a significant change in support, and Bullrich disappointed and finished a distant third.

    After the first-round election, part of the Juntos por el Cambio coalition, the faction led by Ms. Bullrich and former President Mauricio Macri, announced their support for Mr. Milei. While the bloc represented by the Radical Party decided not to formally endorse any of the candidates, some members have publicly sided with Mr. Massa.

    Following Sunday´s results, investors will turn their attention to economic policy announcements. In the short term, the highly managed exchange rate will be a critical variable to follow. After the August primary elections, the government weakened the exchange rate by about 22% to 350 ARS per Dollar. Subsequently, the exchange rate was kept frozen at this level until this week, when a crawl resumed (1.0% so far this week). Nevertheless, pass-through was high and inflation accelerated considerably after the post-PASO devaluation and as a result, the real exchange rate is now even more overvalued than before the August devaluation.

    Parallel exchange rates, for their part, continue to trade at a significant spread over the official rate (162% for the informal market exchange rate and around 145% for the bond (MEP) and equity (CCL) implied rates) and the futures market anticipates a meaningful depreciation in the months ahead. Pressures in both markets, however, eased after the first-round election showed Massa first, having increased significantly following Milei’s outperformance in the August PASO.

    Likewise important, in the coming months there are significant payments scheduled to the IMF (around US$0.9bn in December and US$1.9bn in January) and foreign currency bond holders (approximately US$1.5bn due in interest payments in January). In the meantime, the EFF program with the IMF remains off track, and in our view its realignment will take time.

    Regardless of the election winner, Goldman writes that a swift change in economic policies is imperative. The accumulated imbalances in the economy have grown too large and must be addressed promptly. The bank expects the economy to contract for the second year in a row in 2024, annual inflation is tracking at close to 150% and is expected to continue to rise in the coming months, the exchange rate is overvalued, international reserves are at critical levels, net reserves are significantly negative (around -US11bn), the fiscal imbalance persists, sovereign bonds trade at distressed levels, and the government lacks access to international financial markets. All in, if policymakers do not steer macro policy in a more orthodox direction, the macro adjustment could impose itself sooner or later, bringing a loss of control of the process and even higher social and economic costs.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 22:10

  • You're Paying For The Israel War. You'll Also Pay For The Refugees.
    You’re Paying For The Israel War. You’ll Also Pay For The Refugees.

    Authored by Ryan McMaken via the Mises Institute,

    The United States regime has picked sides in the Israel-Hamas war and has committed to funding Israel’s ongoing bombing of non-combatant men, women, and children in the Gaza strip. Northern Gaza’s infrastructure is now all but destroyed, with millions of Gazans displaced and homeless. Nearly ten times more Gazans than Israelis have now died in the conflict. Many Gazans have fled to the southern portion of Gaza, but homelessness and abject poverty awaits them there. 

    By employing what is essentially the carpet-bombing approach, Tel Aviv has made the choice of adopting a policy that is sure to produce hundreds of thousands of refugees—or perhaps even more than a million. Indeed, many in the Israeli regime are motivated to maximize refugees, and push Gazans out of the country altogether using the Orwellian phrase “voluntary migration.” 

    On a military, tactical level, the Israeli state will have no problem accomplishing this. Tel Aviv has an air force, a deep reservoir of American-funded weapons, and a nuclear arsenal. The Israeli military can easily reduce all of Gaza to rubble. But what is sure to result from this is a humanitarian disaster accompanied by a global debate over which foreign country will host the refugees. 

    Israeli mouthpieces are already at work pushing the cost onto foreign taxpayers, including American ones. This week, two Israeli politicians—one from the militarist Likud party, and one from the center-left Yesh Atid party—took to the pages of The Wall Street Journal to demand that “countries around the world should offer a haven for Gaza residents who seek relocation.” According to these politicians, “[t]he international community”—i.e., not Israel—”has a moral imperative” to resettle Gazans somewhere outside Israel at not-Israel’s expense. 

    It is significant these claims appeared in an American publication. Tel Aviv is the latest welfare-queen regime—in the tradition of Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky—repeatedly haranguing the American public with demands for free money. It’s no coincidence that Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is now seemingly ubiquitous on American prime-time news programs. His primary job right now is to demand money and favors from Washington and from other Western regimes. 

    It will probably work. Americans should get ready for plane-loads of Gaza refugees arriving in their cities, funded by the American taxpayers who can now barely afford to keep up with the price of groceries. This will be sold as a “humanitarian” effort, but anyone who sees through the propaganda will see that it’s really all a cynical effort to please pro-Israel interest groups and Israeli politicians. 

    A Pattern of War and Refugees 

    This was all predictable from the minute the war started last month. 

    The US and its allies have settled into a predictable pattern in foreign policy over the past thirty years: force the taxpayers to pay for the regime’s wars which involve bombing various poor foreign countries “back into the stone age.” Then, once the refugees start pouring out—and the Americans have lost the war, of course—Western regimes then tell the taxpayers back home to cough up even more money to pay for resettlement of all those refugees whose countries were needlessly destroyed by the bombs dropped by Washington and its allies. 

    This is no small phenomenon. A 2020 report from Brown University estimated that 37 million people have been made refugees by the US-led “War on Terrorism.” By 2016, 5.2 million of them reached Europe. In 2022 alone, more than 159,000 refugees arrived by sea in Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus, and Malta. Thousands more arrive at the land borders of the EU every year.

    Thanks to the distance from western Asia and North Africa, refugees totals have been smaller in the United States. Nonetheless, the total number of refugees has ranged from 50,000 to 90,000 per year in most years since the US began its war in Afghanistan. This has transformed a number of communities in the United States, however, since refugees often tend to concentrate in specific places along ethnic or religious lines. In the decades of the US’s endless on-again, off-again military meddling in Somalia, tens of thousands of Somali refugees have been relocated to Minnesota at taxpayers’ expense. Since 2018, Minnesota has hosted more than 40,000 Somalia-born migrants (many classified as refugees). Most of the refugees, of course, are concentrated within Minneapolis’ metro population of only 3.5 million. In democracies, this has political consequences. 

    It is also important to remember that migrants who enjoy the legal status of refugees are not normal immigrants. Ordinary immigrants arrive at the United States at their own expense. The vast majority must find work on their own if they wish to have an income. They are eligible for few social benefits. Those seeking legal residency, of course, must go through a lengthy administrative process. For example, Mexicans who obtain a work visa in the United States have to work. They don’t show up and receive “free” help from government-funded refugee agencies in finding jobs, apartments, and other government freebies. 

    In contrast, all of that is fast-tracked for people labeled “refugee” by the federal government, and most of these refugees are immediately eligible for a wide array of taxpayer funded benefits. In total, this all costs the taxpayers nearly two billion dollars per year, or $80,000 per refugee per year in the form of federal and state programs including food stamps, child care, and public housing.

    It’s not enough that you pay for the bombs that create the refugees, dear American taxpayer. You’ll also have to pay to resettle those refugees in your town. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 21:35

  • Israel And Hamas Reach Tentative 5-Day Pause To Free Hostages
    Israel And Hamas Reach Tentative 5-Day Pause To Free Hostages

    Israel, Hamas and the United States are reportedly close to announcing an agreement to pause ongoing hostilities in order to free dozens of women and children being held hostage in Gaza.

    A plume of smoke rises above northern Gaza after an Israeli strike. (Photo: AFP/Menahem Kahana)

    According to the Washington Post, the release could begin within the next several days – and would mark the first sustained pause in the conflict.

    Under the terms of a six-page agreement;

    • All parties would freeze combat operations for at least five days.
    • During this period, an initial 50 or more hostages would be released in batches every 24 hours. 
    • It is unknown how many of what is believed to be 239 hostages will be released.
    • The halt is also intended to allow humanitarian assistance to flood in, including fuel, which would arrive from Egypt.

    According to the report, an outline of the deal was created during several weeks of talks in Doha, Quatar – where Israel, the USA and Hamas – indirectly represented by Qatari mediators, hashed out the logistics. Until now, it was unclear if Israel would agree to it.

    “We are not going to comment,” said a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington late Saturday.

    Concern about the captives — two of whom Israel said were found dead — along with the rising number of Palestinian civilian casualties have steadily increased pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. More than 100 countries — but, notably, not the United States — have called for a full and immediate cease-fire.

    The decision to accept the deal is difficult for Israel, said one person familiar with the situation who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations. While there is strong domestic pressure on Netanyahu to bring the hostages home, there are also loud voices in Israel demanding that the government not barter for their release. -WaPo

    On Friday, Israeli National Security Council head Tzachi Haegbi told the press that a decision had been made by the war cabinet to agree to a limited ceasefire only after “a massive release of our hostages … and it will be limited and short, because after that we will continue to work towards achieving our war goals.”

    REUTERS/Ammar Awad

    Netanyahu, meanwhile, insisted on Saturday that the offensive would continue despite a decision last week to allow the first consistent flow of fuel back into Gaza since the start of the war. Israel has notably cut off all but a minimal amount of food, water, fuel and medicine.

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 21:00

  • Investigators 'Have Not Ruled Out A Hate Crime' In Jewish Man’s Death In California
    Investigators ‘Have Not Ruled Out A Hate Crime’ In Jewish Man’s Death In California

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

    Attorney Ron Bamieh (L) talks to his client Loay Abdelfattah Alnaji, a professor of computer science at Moorpark College, during an appearance in Ventura County Superior Court in connection with the death of Paul Kessler in Ventura, Calif., on Nov. 17, 2023. (Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo)

    Authorities are continuing to investigate whether the man arrested for the death of Paul Kessler at a dual protest between Israel and Palestine supporters earlier this month will be charged with a hate crime, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko announced Nov. 17.

    “We have not ruled out a hate crime,” Mr. Nasarenko said during a press conference Friday. “The investigation into an alleged hate crime is ongoing. There are still four search warrants that remain outstanding, the returns of which we are awaiting. But at this moment in time, we do not have the elements of a hate crime satisfied.”

    The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office arrested Loay Alnaji, 50, a computer science professor at Moorpark College, Wednesday morning at his home in Moorpark.

    He pleaded not guilty Friday in Ventura County Superior Court. His bail was reduced from $1 million to $50,000, and his attorney Ron Bamieh said he expected Mr. Alnaji to be out of jail within hours, according to the Ventura County Star.

    Mr. Alnaji was charged with one felony count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of felony battery causing serious bodily injury. The District Attorney also added a special allegation of personally inflicted great bodily injury to each charge, which would add to his penalty or prison time if convicted.

    “We did not file murder [charges] because there was no intent on the defendant’s part to commit one,” Mr. Nasarenko said Friday.

    Authorities are continuing to investigate the incident and asking for the public’s help to establish what happened during the altercation.

    Law enforcement and the district attorney’s office were able to piece together video and digital footage of the event to establish a clear sequence of events leading up to the confrontation. The new pieces of evidence and the technology used allowed the district attorney to file criminal charges.

    Although the county has not charged Mr. Alnaji with a hate crime, authorities haven’t ruled it out.

    “What we are looking for in particular is whether or not the acts, the impact, the force, was accompanied by specific hate speech, specific statements or words, that demonstrate an antipathy, a hatred toward a specific group,” Mr. Nasarenko said. “We don’t have that at this point.”

    Detectives and the district attorney’s office inspected more than 600 pieces of evidence and talked with more than 60 witnesses in the past two weeks. The investigation started hours after Mr. Kessler died in the early morning hours of Nov. 6 following an altercation at a protest in Thousand Oaks the day before.

    Paramedics assist Paul Kessler, 69, after he sustained a head injury during an altercation with a pro-Palestinian protester in Thousand Oaks, Calif., on Nov. 5, 2023. (Courtesy of Rabbi Mark Blazer)

    According to witness accounts from Nov. 5, Mr. Kessler was standing on the corner of Westlake and Thousand Oaks boulevards—a popular spot for protests—where about 75 to 100 pro-Palestinian demonstrators were rallying.

    It was the third time the group had protested in the area since Oct. 7, when Israel was invaded by the terrorist group Hamas, which resulted in the killing of about 1,400 and the kidnapping of more than 200. Israel subsequently began bombing Gaza in retaliation.

    Mr. Kessler, 69, of Thousand Oaks, was allegedly struck in the face during the altercation at the rally and fell on the ground, hitting his head on the pavement. He died early the next morning of a traumatic brain injury, according to the county’s medical examiner.

    “We want to continue to remember and honor Paul Kessler and the tragic loss of life that has occurred,” Mr. Nasarendo said Friday.

    The district attorney and Sheriff Jim Fryhoff met virtually with the Kessler family briefly on Wednesday, Mr. Nasarenko said.

    (L–R) Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko, Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff, and Thousand Oaks Chief of Police Jeremy Paris answer questions during a news conference in Thousand Oaks, Calif., on Nov. 17, 2023, concerning the death of Paul Kessler. (Juan Carlo/The Ventura County Star via AP)

    “They are mourning,” he said. “They are grieving, and they are asking for privacy during this very difficult period.”

    Mr. Kessler worked in medical sales for many decades and taught sales and marketing at many satellite college campuses, according to Mr. Nasarenko. He leaves behind a wife of 43 years and a son, he added.

    “We want to continue to remember and honor Paul Kessler and the tragic loss of life that has occurred,” Mr. Nasarenko said Friday.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 20:25

  • In Stunning Reversal, OpenAI Board In Talks With Sam Altman To Return As CEO After Satya Nadella "Furious" At Ouster
    In Stunning Reversal, OpenAI Board In Talks With Sam Altman To Return As CEO After Satya Nadella “Furious” At Ouster

    Less than a day after JPMorgan came up with this pearl of a headline after the shocking news that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had unexpectedly been ousted by his own (incompetent) board for being “not consistently candid” (whatever that means, details of what actually happened have yet to be revealed)…

    … the drama surrounding Altman’s departure just took a turn for the even more dramatic, because according to reports in the WSJ and Verge, OpenAI’s investors are “pressing the board” to reinstate Sam Altman back as CEO, and none more so than Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella who was “furious” by the ouster, Bloomberg reported, and has been in touch with Altman pledging to support him whatever steps he takes next.

    Sam Altman

    The WSJ adds that while Altman is considering returning, he has told investors that he wants a new board, which inexplicably includes such woke luminaries as Helen Toner (whose tweets are protected of course), the director of strategy at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (which means she does nothing at all), and who is perhaps best known for her support of the malignant fraud espoused by SBF that is “effective altruism” better known as virtue signaling covering up flagrant crime and fraud.

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    Besides Toner, OpenAI’s current board consists of chief scientist Ilya Sutskever (who also co-founded OpenAI and leads its researchers, was instrumental in the ousting of Altman this week, according to sources), Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo, and former GeoSim Systems CEO Tasha McCauley, wife of actor Joseph Godron-Levitt. Unlike traditional companies, the board isn’t tasked with maximizing shareholder value, and none of them hold equity in OpenAI. Instead, their stated mission is to ensure the creation of “broadly beneficial” artificial general intelligence, or AGI.

    The now former (and soon-to-be again current) CEO also discussed starting a company that would bring on former OpenAI employees, and is deciding between the two options. Altman is expected to decide between the two options soon, the WSJ said, although the Verge notes that the former CEO is “ambivalent” about coming back and would want significant governance changes.

    Altman holding talks with the company just a day after he was ousted indicates that OpenAI is in a state of free-fall without him. Hours after he was axed, Greg Brockman, OpenAI’s president and former board chairman, resigned, and the two have been talking to friends and investors about starting another company. A string of senior researchers also resigned on Friday, and people close to OpenAI say more departures are in the works.

    The OpenAI board has been subjected to intense criticism over its decision, made public late Friday afternoon in a blog. post  Several people, including co-founder Greg Brockman and three senior researchers have departed from the company in protest.

    Besides Microsoft, which is the leading shareholder in OpenAI, venture capital firm Thrive Capital is also working to orchestrate efforts to reinstate Altman. The motive is clear: Microsoft invested $13 billion into OpenAI and is its primary financial backer. Thrive Capital is the second-largest shareholder in the company. Other investors in the company are supportive of these efforts, the people said.

    Then again, Microsoft is probably not all that angry: according to the Sam Bankman-Fried funded Semafor, “only a fraction of Microsoft’s $10 billion investment in OpenAI has been wired to the startup, while a significant portion of the funding, divided into tranches, is in the form of cloud compute purchases instead of cash” which gives the software giant whose stock last week hit an all time high and is about to surpass Apple as the world’s most valuable company, leverage as it sorts through the fallout from the ouster of Altman.

    The report goes on to note that “Nadella believes OpenAI’s directors mishandled Altman’s firing and the action has destabilized a key partner for the company.” It is also unclear if OpenAI, which has been racking up expenses as it goes on a hiring spree and pours resources into technological developments, violated its contract with Microsoft by suddenly ousting Altman. At the same time, Microsoft has rights to OpenAI’s intellectual property so if their relationship were to break down, Microsoft would still be able to run OpenAI’s current models on its servers. This is critical because Microsoft has made OpenAI’s products such a key part of its offerings, from Windows to Microsoft Office to GitHub, that anything involving that underlying technology would have an instant and adverse material impact on the $2.75 trillion company’s bottom line.

    That’s why since Friday, Silicon Valley has been buzzing about what could happen to this key partnership, including whether Microsoft and other OpenAI investors might attempt to reinstate Altman as CEO (which, as we now learn, is in process).

    On Saturday in a note to employees, OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap said the company’s leaders “still share your concerns about how the process has been handled, and are working to resolve the situation,” according to an internal memo reviewed by Semafor. Lightcap shared new insight into the board’s decision, clarifying that there was no “malfeasance or anything related to our financial, business, safety, or security/privacy practices.”

    That struck a different tone than the board’s statement on Friday that said Altman was “not consistently candid” with directors. Instead, Lightcap characterized it as a “breakdown in communication” between Altman and the board and added that the leadership has full faith in interim CEO Mira Murati.

    The exact reason for Altman’s firing remains unclear. But for weeks, tensions had boiled around the rapid expansion of OpenAI’s commercial offerings, which some board members felt violated the company’s initial charter to develop safe AI, according to people familiar with the matter.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 19:54

  • ASU Pulls Plug On Tlaib's Speech In Wake Of House Censure
    ASU Pulls Plug On Tlaib’s Speech In Wake Of House Censure

    In the wake of her bipartisan censure by the U.S. House of Representatives for saying that the Biden administration ‘supports genocide’ in Gaza, a planned speech by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) was canceled by Arizona State University (ASU).

    The censure, introduced by Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA), accused Tlaib of promoting false narratives about Hamas’ attacks on Israel and calling for the destruction of the state of Israel​​. Notably, 22 Democrats joined the majority of Republicans, while four Republicans voted against it on free speech grounds.

    While ASU didn’t point to the censure, the timing couldn’t be more obvious. Instead, the university on Friday told The Center Square (via Just the News) that her speech wouldn’t happen on school grounds because the group organizing the event failed to adhere to proper protocols.

    “Organizers of events using ASU facilities must be properly registered with ASU and must meet all university requirements for crowd management, parking, security, and insurance,” said a spokesperson. “In addition, the events must be produced in a way which minimizes disruption to academic and other activities on campus. The event featuring Congresswoman Tlaib was planned and produced by groups not affiliated with ASU and was organized outside of ASU policies and procedures.“

    Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman in Congress, has been a vocal critic of the Israeli government. The clip which got her in hot water shows pro-Palestine protesters chanting “from the river to the sea” – a refrain which Tlaib described as “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.”

    Tlaib defended her position on the House floor, stating that her criticism was solely directed at the Israeli government and arguing that labeling such criticism as antisemitic sets a dangerous precedent​​.

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    The canceled ASU event was planned by groups opposing Israel’s military actions against Hamas and was expected to address issues pertinent to the Palestinian perspective.

    In response to the university’s decision, Students for Justice in Palestine at ASU, one of the event’s sponsors, criticized the university for stifling free speech and Palestinian voices on campus. The cancellation and the surrounding events highlight the ongoing and complex debate surrounding free speech, academic freedom, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the United States.

    “Rashida Tlaib must be heard on campus as the only Palestinian member of Congress who plans to speak on an American issue at this event,” the group stated. “ASU cannot claim to hold free speech as a principle while denying Palestinians their voices on campus.”

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    A post shared by SJP at ASU (@sjpasu)

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    Amazing how quickly the left starts eating its own when one of them attempts free speech contradicting establishment orthodoxy, eh?

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 19:15

  • Millions Of Americans Are Walking Into A Chinese-Made Trap
    Millions Of Americans Are Walking Into A Chinese-Made Trap

    Authored by John Mac Ghlionn via The Epoch Times,

    According to a new Pew report, a growing number of U.S. adults admit to regularly getting their news on TikTok. “This,” notes the report, “is in contrast with many other social media sites, where news consumption has either declined or stayed about the same in recent years.”

    This should concern all readers who care about the United States. As this piece clearly demonstrates, TikTok is an incredibly dangerous app that is most likely being weaponized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). More specifically, it’s being used by the CCP to further divide a country that is already dangerously divided.

    The Pew report states that, since 2020, the percentage of U.S. adults who regularly get their news from TikTok “has more than quadrupled,” from 3 percent three years ago to 14 percent in 2023. Today, add the authors of the sobering report, “43% of TikTok users say they regularly get news on the site, up from 33% who said the same in 2022.”

    It’s not often that journalists on both sides of the political aisle agree on a particular issue. However, with TikTok—from the New York Post to The New York Times, The Washington Post to the Washington Examiner—everyone seems to agree that TikTok is a destructive app.

    This explains why Nepal recently chose to ban TikTok, saying the platform spreads content that negatively affects “social harmony.” Nepal’s neighbor, India, has also banned TikTok—for good reason.

    Earlier this year, The Guardian published a piece meticulously outlining how TikTok appears to be part of the CCP’s “cognitive warfare campaign.”

    TikTok is the latest addition to the CCP’s cognitive domain of military operations. In short, the human mind is the new battlefield, and what better way to conquer it than by weaponizing an app currently used by 150 million Americans?

    James Giordano, an expert in the weaponization of technology, agrees. Co-director of the O’Neill Institute-Pellegrino Center Program in Brain Science and Global Health Law and Policy at Georgetown University, Mr. Giordano told me that the CCP considers TikTok a key cog in the evolution of psychological operations (PSYOPs).

    Mr. Giordano—whose research revolves around the misuse of neuroscientific techniques and technologies in medicine, public life, and military applications—believes that “both TikTok and more sophisticated forms of collective psychological intelligence/assessment and engagement will increasingly be used to leverage influence in narratives, image meanings, and contextual interpretations.”

    The app’s effects on “a variety of public and personal media,” he suggests, will likely increase, especially with the presidential election—arguably America’s most significant one of the 21st century—only a year away.

    Psyops, according to the expert, “constitute a defined domain of China’s ‘three [non-kinetic] warfares.’” The first domain involves the psychological evaluation of rivals’ collective cognitive patterns and beliefs. This is one of the reasons why TikTok is so dangerous. The app can be used to gauge the “temperature” of the United States’ political climate. After gauging the temperature, the second stage involves controlling various media outlets via specific psychological messaging. The final step involves the injection of pro-CCP narratives or modifications to narratives that benefit Beijing. The main aim here, Mr. Giordano says, involves the creation of “disruptive messaging and influence programs that access and affect key variables of US and Western cognition, emotions, and behaviors.”

    When someone as qualified as Mr. Giordano speaks, we should listen.

    After all, this is communist China we are talking about, a country that has stolen the personal data of 80 percent of American adults. It’s quite likely that TikTok is being used not just to influence Americans’ minds but also to steal their personal data.

    In February this year, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) called on Apple and Google to immediately remove TikTok from their respective stores, citing national security concerns. A Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mr. Bennet wrote a strongly worded letter, asking why “Chinese Communist Party dictates should have the power to accumulate such extensive data on the American people or curate content to nearly a third of our population.” Not only did the question go unanswered, TikTok is still available on Apple’s App Store and via Google Play.

    This is not okay.

    In September, a Microsoft threat analysis report clearly outlined how CCP-aligned influence and disinformation campaigns are targeting both American voters and political candidates on both sides of the aisle.

    The headquarters of ByteDance, the parent company of video sharing app TikTok, is seen in Beijing on Sept. 16, 2020. (Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images)

    According to the report, Beijing-affiliated “covert influence operations have now begun to successfully engage with target audiences on social media to a greater extent than previously observed.”

    Considering that Chinese-owned TikTok is the most used social media app in the United States, it’s safe to assume that the CCP is focused on influencing this platform more than the likes of Instagram and Facebook.

    The writing is on the wall. For some reason, too many of us refuse to read it. This has been the case for years.

    In 2013, an expert on China named Dean Cheng, then affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, warned readers that the “Information Age provides unparalleled ability to influence both a nation’s leaders and its population.”

    Like Mr. Giordano, Mr. Cheng insisted that “the core of the Chinese concept of psychological warfare is to manipulate those audiences by affecting their thought processes and cognitive frameworks. In doing so, Beijing hopes to be able to win future conflicts without firing a shot—victory realized through a combination of undermining opponents’ wills and inducing maximum confusion.”

    Bear in mind that this warning came many years before the creation of TikTok, an app that is, cut by cut, gradually destroying the fabric of American society.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 18:40

  • The TSA Is Still Crazy After All These Years
    The TSA Is Still Crazy After All These Years

    Authored by James Bovard via The Mises Institute,

    The TSA has been promising to end its boneheaded ways for more than 20 years. Flying out of Dallas International Airport last week, I ruefully recognized that all TSA reform promises are malarkey.

    As I neared the end of a TSA checkpoint line, I saw two women loitering behind a roped off section for CLEAR, a new biometric surveillance program that works with 35 airports and coordinates with TSA. CLEAR involves travelers standing in photo kiosks that compare their faces with a federal database of photos from passport applications, driver’s licenses, and other sources. The Washington Post warned that airport facial recognition systems are “America’s biggest step yet to normalize treating our faces as data that can be stored, tracked and, inevitably, stolen.”

    Though the CLEAR program is purportedly voluntary, TSA agents at Washington National Airport recently threatened long delays for any passenger who refused to be photographed by CLEAR, including U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR). Merkley said that TSA falsely claimed there were signs notifying people that the facial scans are optional. But the clock is ticking down on seeking voluntary cooperation. TSA chief David Pekoske announced in March that “eventually… we will require biometrics across the board.”

    “Idle hands are the tool of the devil,” as the old saying goes, and the same is true of cell phones. I raised my phone camera, snapped a few shots of the women, and the howling commenced.

    “What are you doing?” screamed a young woman wearing a CLEAR jacket.

    “You can’t take my photo!”

    “But you’re scanning people’s eyeballs,” I replied. What could be more intrusive?

    “That doesn’t matter because you can’t take our photo – it’s not allowed!”

    She sounded as if I had desecrated a federal temple.

    I gave her a Chesire cat smile. With her three-inch artificial fingernails, I wondered if she planned to audition for a Dracula movie. Her colleague speedily exited, perhaps to summon police to end my assault. But if airport officials had sought to seize those photos, they would have faced a legal ruckus.

    The queue finally reached the stern middle-aged TSA dude sitting behind plexiglass who checked identification and boarding passes. He stared at my driver’s license and then gave me an intense look. TSA considers a “cold, penetrating stare” a terrorist warning sign, but I assumed this guy was above suspicion. I was tempted to ask how many TSA Watch Lists included my name thanks to TSA bashes I wrote for New York Times, USA Today, New York Post, Washington Times, and other publications. Was this TSA dude reading about how the TSA chief denounced me in 2014 for “maligning” TSA agents?

    TSA protocols make flying vexing without making travelers safe. As I approached the luggage scanner, I removed my wallet and stuffed it in the bottom of my carry-on bag. More than 500 TSA agents have been fired for robbing passengers. In July, three TSA agents at Miami International Airport were arrested because they pilfered property “while the passengers were distracted with their own screenings and not paying attention to their items,” the New York Post reported. A TSA agent admitted to partnering with another TSA employee to steal a thousand dollars a day, including grabbing cash from wallets sent through TSA x-ray systems.

    TSA decrees are wildly inconsistent, but every command is presumed sacrosanct. Flying out of Washington Dulles Airport the prior week, I was told to keep my laptop in my courier bag. Fine by me. In Dallas, a TSA drill sergeant wannabe barked orders for everyone to remove their laptops and lay them out before sending through the x-ray machines. TSA agents have been caught selling stolen laptops on eBay, so I tried to keep an eye on my computer.

    TSA lunacy also obliged me to modify my attire. Instead of good ol’ blue jeans, I was , wearing Dockers. Prior to entering TSA’s Whole Body Scanner at Washington National Airport for a recent flight, I did everything right – emptied my pockets, removed my belt and boots, and sported a friendly smile (ok, not that friendly). But as I exited the scanner, a TSA supervisor grimly announced, “We have to do a supplemental patdown.”

    “What the heck are you talking about?” I groused. 

    He pointed to the large screen next to the scanner that showed the problem: an illuminated thin line directly in front of my groin.

    “That’s the zipper on my pants,” I exclaimed.

    “Sir, we have to do a supplemental patdown. If you want it conducted in a private room, we can do that,” came the rote TSA reply.

    “Hell no. Let’s do it where the TSA surveillance cameras record the search.”

    Never, ever go into a private room with TSA agents.

    A tall, heavyset TSA agent with his hair tied in a bun atop his head came up and began vigorously grappling my ankles. Did TSA agents have a daily quote for groping or what? As I left the checkpoint, I muttered about TSA standing for “Too Stupid for Arby’s.”

     Dockers were slightly less likely to trigger this boneheaded alert than blue jeans. But it wasn’t my fault that TSA screeners failed to detect 95 percent of the test bombs and weapons during covert tests by federal inspectors.

    I had no trouble in the Whole-Body Scanner in Dallas last week, but my carry-on bag failed the TSA inspection.

    A beefy young female agent hoisted my bag and carted it to the end of the checkpoint area. She was the final participant in the gauntlet of village idiocy that I had to pass before reaching my plane. She summoned me to explain its contents and my depravity. “Is there anything sharp in this bag?”

    “No,” I replied. Geez, how much did TSA pay for x-ray gizmos that were more obtuse than a presidential speechwriter?

    She unzipped my bag and began pawing through it. In lieu of a machete, she found a small half-full jar of peanut butter.

    “You can’t take liquids on a flight,” she announced solemnly.

    “It’s peanut butter. It’s not liquid.”

    “It’s liquid and it’s prohibited,” was her decree. Did TSA covertly classify peanut butter as a bioweapon, or what?

    “Ya, whatever,” I said as I abandoned the jar to federal custody.

    Chatting with another jaded traveler as I put my boots back after clearing the checkpoint, he asked if I was upset about losing my peanut butter.

    I smiled: “I’ll settle accounts with TSA later.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 17:30

  • Rogan Sends The Rock Backpedaling Over Claim He Has 'Friends Who Support Biden'
    Rogan Sends The Rock Backpedaling Over Claim He Has ‘Friends Who Support Biden’

    Joe Rogan forced The Rock to backpedal on his claim that he has ‘friends who support Biden.’

    After Rogan made the point that political discourse has become extremely polarized, The Rock chimed in:

    “I have friends who support Trump. I have friends who support Biden,” to which Rogan jumped in and asked “Do you really have friends who support Biden?”

    “No, no, no, no, no… Thank you. That’s a good check because that’s important. This is important context. They support the Democratic Party.”

    The Rock also took heat for not knowing what the Cybertruck is.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAccording to a recent poll from ABC News/Ipsos, just 23% of Americans think the country is headed in the right direction under President Biden. Republicans, as expected, were overwhelmingly negative – with 95% saying things are headed in the wrong direction, followed by 76% of independents and 54% of Democrats.

    And following a recent NY Times-Siena College survey which showed Donald Trump smoking Biden in five out of six key swing states, the Washington Post penned a worried screed suggesting that Democrats need another candidate next year. 

    It would seem Democrats are leaving plenty of potential voters on the table — and possibly victory — with Biden. And some are spotlighting this as a reason to nominate someone else.

    Former Barack Obama strategist David Axelrod floated that possibility, and Bill Kristol explicitly endorsed it while citing the “generic” ballot. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who has launched a primary bid against Biden, also cited that finding, saying, “I could offer no statement more powerful than the one made by suffering Americans in today’s NY Times poll.” -WaPo

    All the way back in April, nearly 2/3 of Democrats said in a Rasmussen poll that they want to see challengers run against Biden in 2024.

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 16:55

  • "Attacks On US Forces Essential To Stop Bloodbath In Gaza": Hezbollah Leader
    “Attacks On US Forces Essential To Stop Bloodbath In Gaza”: Hezbollah Leader

    Via The Cradle,

    The second-in-command of the Lebanese resistance says Israel would have ‘collapsed within days’ of 7 October were it not for the support of the US…

    In an extensive interview with Spanish daily El Mundo, the Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, said that attacking US positions in West Asia is “essential” to stop the mass murder of Palestinians in Gaza due to the unfettered support given by Washington to Tel Aviv.

    “It is the [western] axis that supports the occupation, legitimizes the murder of children and women, the destruction of hospitals, and grants immunity to Israel to continue its massacres. The US is supporting these massacres, and that is why attacking the US is essential to stop the aggression against Gaza,” Qassem said in the interview published on 14 November.

    “US military intervention is part of the violent Israeli reaction and serves to protect this monstrosity,” the Hezbollah deputy chief stressed.

    US bases in Iraq and Syria have come under daily bombardment since 17 October by local resistance factions, prompting the Pentagon to deploy nearly a dozen warships, thousands of troops, and heavy weapons to the region.

    The Hezbollah official also stressed that Israel “still stands [today] because of the support of the US.”

    “You heard Nasrallah say in 2006 that Israel was more fragile than a spider’s web. Israel is weak. Their society is not motivated to defend their country. This is what happened on [7 October]. The amount of time it took for politicians and the army to react was unreal. If Israel still stands, it is because of the support of the United States. Otherwise, it would have collapsed within a few days. Israel is under intensive care by the west and we do not know how much longer it will last.”

    When asked about the fighting between Hezbollah and the Israeli army at the Lebanese border – which has been ongoing since 8 October – Qassem said Hezbollah has a plan to “force Israel to restrain itself.”

    Nonetheless, he added that any decision “will be made on the battlefield,” as the possibility of the fighting spreading beyond the Lebanese border region depends on “the evolution of the Gaza war and on Israel’s (hypothetical) decision to start a broader war.”

    “If they attack us, we will have to defend ourselves, and we will use all of our power,” he told El Mundo.

    When pressed on whether the “broader war” would be precipitated by a defeat of the resistance in Gaza, Qassem told the interviewer: “We will decide when the time comes. Now is not the time to talk about red lines.”

    The Hezbollah leader also illustrated that the main difference between the Lebanese resistance and the Israeli army goes far beyond each other’s arsenal, saying: “A confrontation cannot be measured only in terms of military capacity. The motivation and desire of the resistance to defend its people and land exerts great influence. We do not take into account the balance of power. We only seek to ensure that the enemy does not achieve its objectives; that is the real victory.”

    Qassem added that Hezbollah today is “in a much better position” than in 2006 when Israel was handed a humbling defeat at the hands of the resistance. “We don’t need weapons. Our warehouses are full. In fact, we need more warehouses,” he stressed.

    “If Israel uses nuclear weapons, it will kill the Israelis before it kills us. This is a very small territory. In any case, we are not afraid of nuclear weapons. [The statements by the member of the Israeli cabinet] are an example of their arrogance. The west should tell us what it thinks about an Israeli minister suggesting the use of nuclear weapons.”

    “If Israel decides to extend the aggression [against Lebanon], it will be digging its own grave and giving us a good opportunity to eliminate it once and for all,” Qassem asserted.

    He also took aim at the posture taken by western media outlets, saying they act “as if Israel has a right to [the occupied territories] and is the victim.”

    “The reality is that Palestinians are the occupied ones, and Israel is the occupier. We have to confront the problem of the occupation and not that of resistance to the occupation. For Hezbollah, Israel has no right to exist, and Palestinians are the real owners of that land. But it is up to the Palestinians, including Palestinian Jews, to decide their future. Those who have come from all over the world have no right to steal that land.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 16:20

  • In Incredibly Awkward Joint Presser, Erdogan Says Germany's Scholz Can't Criticize Israel Because Of The Holocaust
    In Incredibly Awkward Joint Presser, Erdogan Says Germany’s Scholz Can’t Criticize Israel Because Of The Holocaust

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has continued to be a thorn in Israel’s side, as well as the NATO alliance, given that on Friday he was in Germany and aggressively denounced Israel’s military operation against Hamas and Gaza.

    Erdogan made things awkward for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz while the two hosted a joint press conference in Berlin. The Turkish leader not only reiterated his calls for an immediate ceasefire, but went so far as to say that what Israel is doing is against the Jewish religion.

    He denounced attacks on children and civilians in hospitals as being contrary to the Jewish holy book. “Shooting hospitals or killing children does not exist in the Torah, you can’t do it,” Erdogan said. He then highlighted the large and growing casualties among Palestinian women, children and elderly, and even mentioned attacks on churches.

    Via AP: Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz talk to the media at a press conference at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Nov. 17, 2023.

    “Does Israel target hospitals, houses of worship and churches? Yes, it does. I, as a Muslim, am disturbed by this,” he said, as translated by Turkish media. He then called out Western leaders for failing to condemn such brazen human rights abuses, again with Scholz standing uncomfortably right beside him. 

    Erdogan further made things awkward by referencing an ultra-sensitive subject for Germans: 

    Erdogan suggested that Germany was unable to criticize Israel because of the Holocaust.

    “I speak freely because we do not owe Israel anything. If we were indebted, we could not talk so freely,” he said. “Those who are indebted cannot talk freely. We did not go through the Holocaust, and we are not in such a situation.”

    He also claimed Israel’s actions were against Judaism.

    He further held out the possibility that Turkey could mediate peace – which remains highly unlikely given the current soaring tensions in Israel-Turkey relations which recently witnessed the mutual withdrawal of ambassadors and tit-for-tat verbal denunciations.

    “As Türkiye, our goal is to facilitate an atmosphere in which Palestinians and Israel peacefully coexist,” he said.

    Erdogan has also been harping on Israel’s secretive nuclear arsenal, saying the world must demand that it be officially disclosed, while also vowing to send Israel to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes. 

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    Scholz, however, in the same press conference was unmoved: 

    In response to a journalist’s question about whether Germany would support legal action against Israel’s ongoing war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, Scholz said Israel’s “right to self-defense must not be called into question.”

    Scholz traveled to Israel to offer Germany’s unconditional and unwavering support after the Oct. 7 attacks.

    Erdogan’s commentary sparked immediate controversy among German leaders:

    Those and similar comments have appalled politicians across the spectrum in Germany. Scholz has described Erdogan’s accusations against Israel as “absurd.”

    “It’s no secret that we have, in parts, very different views on the current conflict,” Scholz said at a brief news conference alongside Erdogan before their talks. But “particularly at difficult moments, we need to speak directly to each other.”

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    Germany is also among European countries which have a large Muslim and especially Turkish population. Major pro-Palestinian protests have erupted there. One point of rare agreement between Turkey and Germany during Erdogan’s visit was the need for a two state solution.

    In the meantime, Erdogan’s Turkey will continue to be a foreign policy outlier in the NATO alliance – and the Turkish president certainly won’t be receiving a state invitation to visit Washington or London anytime soon. And yet, there are reports that the White House has actually been mulling such a visit.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 15:45

  • Trump Did 'Incite Violent Insurrection' But Can Still Run For President, Colorado Judge Rules
    Trump Did ‘Incite Violent Insurrection’ But Can Still Run For President, Colorado Judge Rules

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    Colorado Judge Sarah Wallace has become the latest jurist to reject the effort to bar former president Donald Trump from the ballot under the novel 14th Amendment theory.

    I have long been a vocal critic of the theory, which I view as historically and legally unfounded. I also view it as arguably the most dangerous theory to arise in decades.

    While Wallace reached the right conclusion, she committed, in my view, fundamental errors in her analysis on the free speech elements of the case.

    The case involves a chilling effort of Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold to use her office to prevent voters from being able to cast their ballots for Trump, one of the leading candidates for the presidency. Like other challengers, she claimed to be protecting democracy by denying voters the ability to vote for their preferred candidate on the basis of this dubious theory. Polls show Trump and Biden in a statistical dead heat at 42% (Biden) to 38% (Trump) which is within the margin of error.

    Judge Wallace rejected the use of the amendment to prevent voters from voting for Trump in the 2024 election, declaring that “[t]he Court holds there is scant direct evidence regarding whether the presidency is one of the positions subject to disqualification.”

    In her 102-page ruling, Wallace declared that “[a]fter considering the arguments on both sides, the Court is persuaded that ‘officers of the United States’ did not include the President of the United States. It appears to the Court that for whatever reason the drafters of Section 3 did not intend to include a person who had only taken the Presidential Oath.”

    Accordingly, “[t]he Court orders the Secretary of State to place Donald J. Trump on the presidential primary ballot when it certifies the ballot on January 5, 2024,”

    The scope of the provision is one of the inherent questions presented by this theory. There is also the problem with the limitation of Section 3 to those “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.” It then adds that that disqualification can extend to those who have “given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” These challengers argue that Jan. 6 was an “insurrection” and Trump gave “aid and comfort” to those who engaged in it by spreading election fraud claims and not immediately denouncing the violence.

    Most of the public do not agree with that assessment. In polling, most view Jan. 6 for what it was: a protest that became a riot. One year after the riot, a CBS News poll showed that 76 percent viewed it for what it was, as a “protest gone too far.” The view that it was an actual “insurrection” was far less settled, with almost half rejecting the claim, a division breaking along partisan lines.

    On Jan. 6, I was contributing to the coverage and denounced Trump’s speech while he was still giving it. But as the protest increased in size, some of us noted that we had never seen such a comparatively light level of security precautions, given the weeks of coverage anticipating the protest. We then watched as thinly deployed police barriers were overrun and a riot ensued. It was appalling, and most of us denounced it as it was unfolding. However, it was not a rebellion or insurrection in my view.

    Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — the “disqualification clause” — was written after the 39th Congress convened in December 1865 and many members were shocked to see Alexander Stephens, the Confederate vice president, waiting to take a seat with an array of other former Confederate senators and military officers. That was a real rebellion in which hundreds of thousands died.

    While Judge Wallace reached the right result, I have major qualms with her analysis.

    She states as a fact that Trump was guilty of incitement, a charge that no prosecutor has ever brought against him. That includes the D.C. Attorney General who announced his intention to pursue such charges. It also includes Special Counsel Jack Smith who threw every other possible criminal charge against Trump.

    Nevertheless, Judge Wallace concludes that Trump “incited imminent lawless violence.”

    She further found that:

    “[i]n addition to his consistent endorsement of political violence, Trump undertook efforts to undermine the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election well in advance of the election, making accusations of widespread corruption, voter fraud, and election rigging.”

    As such, she finds that his speech was not protected by the First Amendment. While I am a critic of Trump’s speech and actions on that day, I still believe that the the court is completely wrong on the First Amendment.

    In Brandenburg v. Ohio, the Supreme Court ruled in 1969 that even calling for violence is protected under the First Amendment unless there is a threat of “imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.”

    It is common for political leaders to call for protests at the federal or state capitols when controversial legislation or actions are being taken. Indeed, in past elections, Democratic members also protested elections and challenged electoral votes in Congress.

    The fact is that Trump never actually called for violence or a riot. Rather, he urged his supporters to march on the Capitol to express opposition to the certification of electoral votes and to support the challenges being made by some members of Congress.

    He expressly told his followers “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

    Trump also stated:

    “Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy…And after this, we’re going to walk down – and I’ll be there with you – we’re going to walk down … to the Capitol and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”

    He ended his speech by saying a protest at the Capitol was meant to “try and give our Republicans, the weak ones … the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.” Such marches are common — on both federal and state capitols — to protest or to support actions occurring inside.

    As I have discussed previously, the Ku Klux Klan leader Clarence Brandenburg referred to a planned march on Congress after declaring that “revengeance” could be taken for the betrayal of the president and Congress. The Supreme Court nevertheless overturned his conviction. Likewise, in Hess v. Indiana, the court rejected the prosecution of a protester declaring an intention to take over the streets, holding that “at worst, (the words) amounted to nothing more than advocacy of illegal action at some indefinite future time.” In NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., the court overturned a judgment against the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People after one official declared, “If we catch any of you going in any of them racist stores, we’re gonna break your damn neck.” That was ruled as the hyperbolic language of advocacy.

    Judge Wallace dismissed such arguments and holds that “while Trump’s Ellipse speech did mention “peaceful” conduct in his command to march to the Capitol, the overall tenor was that to save the democracy and the country the attendees needed to fight.”

    The decision comes just days after another defeat in Michigan for advocates of this theory.

    Had Wallace used this analysis to find in favor of disqualification, I believe that she would have been eventually reversed. As it stands, we will have to wait to see if Griswald has the confidence of her convictions to appeal. I hope that she does. We need to put this insidious legal theory to rest with the finality and clarity of a Supreme Court decision.

    Here is the opinion: Anderson v. Griswald

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 15:10

  • Stacey Abrams' Brother-In-Law Arrested, Accused Of Human Trafficking, Choking Underage Girl
    Stacey Abrams’ Brother-In-Law Arrested, Accused Of Human Trafficking, Choking Underage Girl

    Stacey Abrams’ brother-in-law was arrested in Tampa on human trafficking charges involving a minor.

    Jimmie Gardner, a well-known Georgia-based youth motivational speaker, is accused of human trafficking, lewd or lascivious touching, and battery. This development adds a dark chapter to Gardner’s already tumultuous life story, marked by a wrongful conviction and later exoneration.

    Gardner was arrested following a disturbing incident at a Hillsborough County hotel. According to the Tampa Police Department, Gardner invited a 16-year-old girl to his hotel room in the early hours of Friday, offering to pay her for sexual acts. The situation rapidly deteriorated when the girl, after initially agreeing, decided against it and informed Gardner of her change of heart.

    What transpired next, as per the police report, was an altercation that escalated to physical violence. Gardner is alleged to have choked the girl during the argument, a serious charge that underscores the severity of the situation.

    Police say Gardner invited the girl to his hotel room around 1:43 a.m. Friday. Once there, he offered to pay her in “exchange for sexual acts,” according to a Friday news release from the Tampa Police Department. The girl agreed, but later told Gardner that she had changed her mind.

    Police say Gardner became angry and told her to leave.

    The two had started arguing when Gardner put his hands around the girl’s neck and choked her, according to the release. Gardner then left the hotel room and the girl called 911. –Tampa Bay Times

    Following the incident, Gardner reportedly turned himself in at the Tampa police headquarters, leading to his arrest and subsequent booking into Orient Road Jail, where he is being held without bond.

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    Gardner, once a promising baseball player drafted by the Chicago Cubs and playing in the minor leagues was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault in 1987, leading to 27 years of imprisonment before his exoneration in 2016.

    Following his release, Gardner has enjoyed success as a motivational speaker – however this arrest raises numerous questions, not just about Gardner’s personal conduct, but also about the broader issues of human trafficking and exploitation. It casts a shadow on his past efforts to empower youth and advocate for positivity, highlighting a complex and tragic juxtaposition between his public persona and the allegations he now faces.

    h/t Colin Rugg

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 14:35

  • What's It Take To Be Middle Class Now?
    What’s It Take To Be Middle Class Now?

    Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

    Can an economy in which 10% of the households qualify as middle class claim to offer widespread opportunities for secure prosperity? No, it cannot.

    Defining the middle class is a perpetually popular parlor game because it’s well-known that the foundation of widespread prosperity is a broad-based middle class and a sturdy ladder of social mobility that enables those below the middle class to work their way up to middle class security.

    Here’s an example of a typical trope on the subject: What Does It Take To Be Middle Class?

    The topic is also a perennial favorite because the middle class is losing ground. By basic measures of income, it’s slipped from 60% of the populace to 50%.

    A strong case can be made that assessed by characteristics of middle class security and prosperity rather than income, the middle class has effectively shrunk to 10% of households as only the top 30% of households earn enough to afford what was within reach of the top 60% in decades past.

    By definition, the top 20% cannot be “middle class.” The top 20% is comprised of the upper-middle class, the wealthy and the super-wealthy (the 80% to 95% bracket, top 5% and the top 1%).

    Attempting to define the middle class by income alone is futile due to regional differences in costs and purchasing power. $100,000 annual household income that will barely pay rent and necessities in a major metro city can stretch considerably further in smaller cities far from high-cost zones.

    Regardless of income, households that are living paycheck to paycheck don’t qualify as middle class if we qualify “middle class” by these characteristics:

    In Why the Middle Class Is Doomed (April 2012) I listed five “threshold” characteristics of membership in the middle class:

    1. Meaningful healthcare insurance (i.e. not phantom coverage that only kicks in after thousands of dollars are paid in cash).

    2. Significant equity (25%-50%) in a home or other real estate.

    3. Income/expenses that enable the household to save at least 6% of its net income.

    4. Significant retirement funds: 401Ks, IRAs, etc.

    5. The ability to service all debt and expenses over the medium-term if one of the primary household wage-earners lose their job.

    I then added a taken-for-granted sixth:

    6. Reliable vehicles for each wage-earner that are fully covered by insurance.

    Author Chris Sullins suggested adding these additional thresholds:

    7. If a household requires government assistance (SNAP, Medicaid, rent subsidies, etc.) to maintain the family lifestyle, their middle class status is in doubt.

    8. A percentage of non-financial hard assets such as family heirlooms, precious metals, business equity, rental income property, land, etc. that can be transferred to the next generation, i.e. generational wealth.

    9. Ability to invest in offspring (education, extracurricular clubs/training, etc.).

    10. Leisure time devoted to the maintenance of physical/spiritual/mental fitness.

    Correspondent Mark G. suggested two more:

    11. Continual accumulation of human and social capital (adding new skills, expanding social networks and markets for one’s services, etc.)

    And the money shot:

    12. Family ownership of income-producing assets such as rental properties, bonds, etc.

    The key point of these thresholds is that propping up a precarious illusion of consumption and status signifiers does not qualify as middle class. To qualify as middle class (that is, what was considered middle class a generation or two ago), the household must actually own/control wealth that won’t vanish if the investment bubble du jour pops, and won’t be wiped out by a medical emergency.

    In Chris’s phrase, “They should be focusing resources on the next generation and passing on Generational Wealth” as opposed to “keeping up appearances” via aspirational consumption financed with debt.

    So how much does it cost to meet these qualifying standards? Two generations ago, public school teachers, healthcare workers, skilled craft workers and others with median-level incomes could meet all of these qualifications, for the purchasing power of their earnings was extremely high compared to now. A median wage bought a lot of shelter, vehicle, healthcare, college education, etc.

    According to the US Census Bureau, Real median household income was $74,580 in 2022. (Source: Income in the United States: 2022) This is the “middle income” that presumably qualifies as “middle class,” but it would take extreme frugality and sacrifices to stretch $75,000 to cover the qualifications listed above, even in low-cost regions.

    As a general guideline, $75,000 would only stretch to meet these qualifications if 1) the family home was owned free and clear, i.e. no mortgage, either via inheritance or extreme efforts such as building your own home with cash savings, 2) no student loan debt, either by gaining desirable skills outside college or completing college on scholarships, with family financial aid, etc., and no vehicle loan, i.e. a reliable used car/truck that is owned free and clear.

    These may strike younger readers as impossible fantasies, but as I’ve often noted here, forty years ago I worked my way through a four-year university program with part-time jobs and built a house from scratch with only savings, income from temp construction jobs and a $5,000 bank loan ($17,000 in today’s dollars) which we paid off in two years.

    Even with extreme frugality, this debt-free lifestyle is no longer within reach of the non-wealthy, as costs for college, land, permits and building materials have skyrocketed, along with the costs of healthcare, insurance, vehicles, childcare, etc.

    I submit that for most households in higher-cost regions, these qualifications can only be met with an annual household income of $150,000 or more, which according to the Census Bureau, is the cutoff level for the top 20% (top quintile) of American households.

    According to the Census Bureau, the top 20% earn 52% of all income, and the top 5% earn 23.5% of all income. The top 10% of households have an income of $216,000 or higher, and the top 5% have incomes of $295,000 or higher. The top 1% bracket is $867,000 and up. (TableA-4a, Income in the United States: 2022).

    In lower-cost regions, it may be possible for frugal households in the 70% to 80% income bracket to qualify. According to the Census Bureau, this bracket earns between $118,700 and $153,000. This 10% might qualify as middle class. Households earning less would likely qualify only if they inherited significant wealth from their families or received substantial financial aid from their families, such as college paid for in full, a down payment for a home purchase, etc.

    In summary: if we set minimum standards for qualifying as middle class by what was within reach of typical American households two generations ago, relatively few households qualify as middle class. Middle class means more than being able to charge a lavish cruise or foreign vacation on a credit card or buying a new truck with a huge loan. It once meant owning assets, not owing debt on assets.

    Consider a few charts. Here we see the percentage of wealth owned by the 50% to 90% bracket–what we might consider middle class–has declined sharply as wealth has concentrated in the top 10%.

    By way of example, the top 10% own 90% of stocks.

    Wages are the bedrock of middle class income and wealth accumulation, and here we see wages share of the national income has been in a freefall for 45 years. It has recently ticked up, but it is not yet clear if this is just another temporary blip or an overdue clawback of income that has predominantly flowed to capital.

    Can an economy in which 10% of the households qualify as middle class claim to offer widespread opportunities for secure prosperity? No, it cannot. “Middle class” isn’t just income or consumption; it demands a toehold of ownership of real assets that offer security, not a lifetime of debt servitude.

    As security becomes increasingly precarious and unaffordable, Self-Reliance offers an alternative to a lifetime of debt servitude.

    *  *  *

    My new book is now available at a 10% discount ($8.95 ebook, $18 print): Self-Reliance in the 21st Century. Read the first chapter for free (PDF)

    Become a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

    Subscribe to my Substack for free

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 14:00

  • Comer: White House 'Obstructing' Biden Inquiries
    Comer: White House ‘Obstructing’ Biden Inquiries

    Tensions are simmering in Washington as House Republicans intensify their probes into President Joe Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and the family’s business dealings, sparking a fiery standoff with the White House.

    The White House, meanwhile, has made clear to House Republicans that they won’t play ball – leading to accusations that the Biden White House is “obstructing” their investigative efforts.

    Spearheaded by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the Republicans are aggressively pursuing over 20 subpoenas issued to Biden staffers and family members.

    “We just received a letter from the Special Counsel to the president making it clear the White House intends to continue obstructing our investigation,” reads a post on X from House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY)

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    “We also need to know if these classified materials aided the Bidens’ global influence-peddling enterprise that brought in tens of millions for the Bidens and their associates,” Comer said on Friday. “This obstruction does not deter us, and we will continue to follow the facts and hold President Biden accountable to the American people.”

    In a scathing four-page letter pushing back against the inquiry, a senior White House attorney, Richard Sauber, hit back, accusing the GOP of twisting facts and pushing a narrative loaded with “distortions and falsehoods.” Sauber’s letter lambasts the Republicans’ efforts as “congressional harassment” and a mere play to “score political points.”

    Adding to the complexity, the White House accuses the Republicans of withholding critical information and shifting goalposts when their allegations are countered or debunked. This claim points to a deeper narrative battle, where each side accuses the other of misinformation and evasion.

    Meanwhile, Hunter Biden’s representatives have dismissed the subpoenas as a political charade but have signaled a willingness for a public address at an appropriate time. Similarly, James Biden’s attorney has highlighted the committee’s review of private bank records, suggesting that the necessary transparency is already in play.

    Remember when Democrats just up and impeached Trump twice with way less evidence?

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 13:25

  • Speaker Johnson Releases Jan. 6 Videos To The Public
    Speaker Johnson Releases Jan. 6 Videos To The Public

    By Joseph M. Hanneman of Epoch Times

    More than 40,000 hours of Jan. 6 Capitol Police security video will be made public on a dedicated website starting immediately and ramping up in the coming months, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) announced on Nov. 17.

    However, individual video clips released to media or other requesters will have the faces of identifiable individuals blurred, a senior congressional aide told The Epoch Times. That restriction drew immediate fire from some Jan. 6 criminal case defendants.

    “So while we are significantly expanding the amount of clips that will be available and who can request them, we will be blurring faces with respect to individuals who are identifiable,” the source said.

    “To restore America’s trust and faith in their government we must have transparency,” Johnson wrote on X.com. “This is another step towards keeping the promises I made when I was elected to be your Speaker.”

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    The Committee on House Administration’s Subcommittee on Oversight, chaired by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), has already posted 90 hours of Capitol security video in the online viewing room. The initial release includes footage previously provided to various media outlets.

    “The goal of our investigation has been to provide the American people with transparency on what happened at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and this includes all official video from that day,” Mr. Loudermilk said in a statement. “We will continue loading video footage as we conduct our investigation and continue to review footage.”

    More videos will be added to the public site on “a rolling basis,” the source said.

    “By current estimates, there are roughly 40,000 hours that we will be making public over the next few months as quickly as we can,” the congressional aide said.

    Some video will be withheld if it is deemed “security sensitive” or if it could “potentially provide a roadmap for doxxing and harassing private individuals,” the aide said.

    Beginning on Nov. 20, members of the public will also be able to view footage on terminals in the committee’s offices on Capitol Hill, the source said.

    Those wishing to view the video at committee offices will have to request a time slot by emailing charep.oversightrequests@mail.house.gov.

    In-person viewing on the congressional video terminals offers advantages over the online viewing room. In-person viewers can select individual cameras from an interactive Capitol map and narrow the footage by timeframe.

    The in-person system has maps for each level of the Capitol. The Capitol grounds are separated into zones, with the camera locations indicated by small icons. Viewers can access the entire database, whereas the online viewing room will be stocked with tranches of footage on a rolling basis.

    The announcement came amid mounting pressure from the public and Jan. 6 defendants to get access to the security video. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) earlier this year said he would release Jan. 6 video footage, but that commitment never resulted in the public getting direct access.

    The viewing room setup and the plans to blur faces on video clips given to media or the public drew some fire on social media.

    “Releasing batches of J6 CCTV is merely a way for Congress to pretend they are making the tapes public while holding back important footage they will ‘someday’ get to us in a ‘future’ batch,” Will Pope, a Jan. 6 defendant, wrote on X. “They gave it ALL to the FBI in January 2021! Americans deserve it ALL in one batch, too!”

    Mr. Pope said blurring the faces of those shown in the downloadable videos will erode public trust. He called the Nov. 17 announcement a “publicity stunt.”

    “Americans will never trust blurred and edited J6 footage,” he wrote.

    Some commenters on social media asked how they can be sure the files posted online have not been altered.

    During a Spaces online meeting on X, several of the more than 800 participants said they expect Google and YouTube to censor not only news about the Jan. 6 video releases but also any video clips people try to upload to social media. Others said they do not understand why the online viewing room does not have a download function.

    Congressional sources said the public can request downloadable videos based on their research, but all clips are subject to committee approval and will be processed to blur the faces of identifiable persons.

    Earlier this year The Epoch Times gained access to the Capitol Police database of nearly 1,700 cameras for Jan. 5 and 6. Based on research done on video terminals on Capitol Hill, the newspaper requested and was given dozens of individual clips that were used in the special report The Jan. 6 Tapes.

    https://twitter.com/amuse/status/1725713948547133881

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 11/18/2023 – 13:12

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