Today’s News 1st August 2023

• More Warmongers Elevated In The Biden Administration
  More Warmongers Elevated In The Biden Administration

  Authored by Caitlin Johnstone,

  The Biden administration looks set to become even more warlike than it already was if you can imagine, with virulent Russia hawk Victoria Nuland and virulent China hawk Charles Q Brown now being elevated to lofty positions by the White House.

  Nuland, the wife of alpha neocon Robert Kagan, has been named acting deputy secretary of state by President Biden, at least until a new deputy secretary has been named. This places her at second in command within the State Department, second only to Tony Blinken.

  

  In an article about Nuland’s unique role in souring relations between the US and Russia during her previous tenure in the State Department under Obama, Responsible Statecraft’s Connor Echols writes the following of the latest news:

  Nuland’s appointment will be a boon for Russia hawks who want to turn up the heat on the Kremlin. But, for those who favor a negotiated end to the conflict in Ukraine, a promotion for the notoriously “undiplomatic diplomat” will be a bitter pill.

  A few quick reminders are in order. When Nuland was serving in the Obama administration, she had a now-infamous leaked call with the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. As the Maidan Uprising roiled the country, the pair of American diplomats discussed conversations with opposition leaders, and Nuland expressed support for putting Arseniy Yatseniuk into power. (Yatseniuk would become prime minister later that month, after Russia-friendly former President Viktor Yanukovych fled the country.) At one memorable point in the call, Nuland said “Fu–k the EU” in response to Europe’s softer stance on the protests.

  The controversy surrounding the call — and larger implications of U.S. involvement in the ouster of Yanukovych — kicked up tensions with Russia and contributed to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to seize Crimea and support an insurgency in eastern Ukraine. Her handing out  food to demonstrators on the ground in Kyiv probably didn’t help either. Nuland, along with State Department sanctions czar Daniel Fried, then led the effort to punish Putin through sanctions. Another official at State reportedly asked Fried if “the Russians realize that the two hardest-line people in the entire U.S. government are now in a position to go after them?”

  In a 2015 Consortium News article titled “The Mess That Nuland Made,” the late Robert Parry singled out Nuland as the primary architect of the 2014 regime change operation in Ukraine, which, as Aaron Maté explained last year, paved the way to the war we’re seeing there today. Hopefully her position winds up being temporary.

  In other news, the Senate Arms Services Committee has voted to confirm Biden’s selection of General Charles Q Brown Jr as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replacing Mark Milley. A full senate vote will now take place on whether to confirm Brown — currently the Air Force Chief of Staff — for the nation’s highest military office.

  Brown is unambiguous about his belief that the US must hasten to militarize against China in the so-called Indo-Pacific to prepare for confrontation between the two powers, calling for more US bases in the region and increased efforts to arm Taiwan during his hearing before the Senate Arms Services Committee earlier this month.

  Biden’s Joint Chiefs Pick Wants More Bases in Asia to Prepare for War With China
  Gen. Charles Q. Brown has been nominated to replace Gen. Mark Milley
  by Dave DeCamp@DecampDave https://t.co/q0WAJj0lJC pic.twitter.com/z6cxX1Og6f

  — Antiwar.com (@Antiwarcom) July 12, 2023

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  Back in May, Moon of Alabama flagged Brown’s nomination in an article which also noted that several advocates of military restraint had been resigning from their positions within the administration, including Wendy Sherman, the deputy secretary of state who Nuland has taken over for.

  It’s too soon to draw any firm conclusions, but to see voices of restraint stepping down and proponents of escalation stepping up could be a bad portent of things to come

  * * *

  My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon, Paypal, or Substack, buying an issue of my monthly zine, and following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley. 

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  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 23:40

• Watch: South African Black Party Chants 'Kill The Boer (White), Kill The Farmer'
  Watch: South African Black Party Chants ‘Kill The Boer (White), Kill The Farmer’

  The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, also known as the “Black Party” in South Africa, is a far left Marxist movement with a membership in the millions.

  The party has consistently called for the eradication of all white South Africans, though this fact often goes completely ignored by the western media.

  At a rally this week packed with members wearing communist red, EFF leader Julius Malema hyped up the mob with a racially charged chant of ‘Kill the Boers! Kill the farmers!’

  The word Boer is used in South Africa to describe white farmers of Dutch heritage, or white people in general. 

  Shocking video shows South Africa’s black party singing “kill the Boer (Whites), kill the White farmer”

  This is all downstream from the rotten secular religion of wokeness and CRT plaguing America today.

  You have been warned.

  WATCH.

  pic.twitter.com/P4T8XqSjMq

  — Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 31, 2023

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  As a reminder, in 2022, The Equality Division of the Supreme Court in South Africa has ruled that the song “Kill the Boers” was not a case of “hate speech.” 

  The hateful song, which celebrates the killing of Dutch settlers in South Africa, is protected by freedom of expression and must be left to the political debate within society, according to the court.

  EFF members are suspected in the past of engaging in attacks on white owned farms and murdering farmers; horrifying crimes which the media has consistently denied are a problem in the region.  In some cases perpetrators are acquitted by courts despite ample evidence of their guilt. 

  In 2018, as the violent attacks and death threats against white farmers in South Africa ramped up, a delegation of 30 South African farming families arrived in Russia’s Stavropol region seeking refuge.

  “It’s a matter of life and death – there are attacks on us. It’s got to the point where the politicians are stirring up a wave of violence,” Adi Slebus told the media at the time.

  “The climate here [in the Stavropol region] is temperate, and this land is created by God for farming. All this is very attractive.”

  It appears the rhetoric (and actions) are once again boiling over.

  South African political leaders claim the attacks are not racially motivated. 

  “anti-racist” means “anti-white” #WhiteGenocide pic.twitter.com/Kg5nH2glGX

  — Robert Sepehr (@robertsepehr) July 31, 2023

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  As many in the US have noted, the rise of Marxist movements in South Africa may be a glimpse into America’s future if something is not done soon to stop the proliferation of woke ideology. 

  Calls for racial violence against white people have become commonplace, and though any similar public declarations within the US by white supremacist groups are admonished as reprehensible, if minority activists do it, it’s simply called “political speech.”

  Not surprisingly, coverage of the EFF rally by the western media has been thoroughly washed, with the majority of news outlets not mentioning the underlying atmosphere of racial hatred. 

  It’s no different from their treatment of the BLM riots, which were described as “mostly peaceful” and “fiery but peaceful” protests as neighborhoods in multiple American cities burned. 

  Luckily, there is a growing contingent of moderate and conservative minorities refusing to submit to the far-left plantation. 

  One can only hope that this will be enough to diffuse racial tensions in the US in the coming years. 

  Unfortunately, South Africa may be too far gone into the clutches of Marxist fanaticism to turn back. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 23:20

• Energy Industry Fears White House Will Declare COVID-Like 'Climate Emergency'
  Energy Industry Fears White House Will Declare COVID-Like ‘Climate Emergency’

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

  Some energy industry groups are expressing concern that the White House will declare a COVID-19-like emergency—but for the climate instead.

  “They’re leaning to that direction,” U.S. Oil and Gas Association President Tim Stewart told Just the News in an article published on July 30. “If you grant the president’s emergency powers to declare a climate emergency, it’s just like COVID.”

  

  An emergency declaration on the climate could give the president “vast and unchecked authority to shut down everything from communications to infrastructure,” said Mr. Stewart, who has been a critic of the Biden administration.

  Infrastructure around water and electricity could be affected by such a decision, he said.

  “They can literally do exactly what they did in COVID,” Mr. Stewart said. “If you disagree with the climate emergency, [speech] can be shut down. We really need to be paying attention to that because that power could be extended indefinitely until the ‘climate emergency’ is over. Who knows how long that would last.”

  The White House press office didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment about whether the administration might be preparing such a declaration.

  President Joe Biden and other administration officials have said that the United States and the world are in the midst of a “climate crisis” and have used language describing it as an emergency. So far, Mr. Biden has stopped short of declaring an emergency, although some Democrats and environmental groups have pushed the idea.

  About 60 congressional Democrats recently backed legislation known as the “Climate Emergency Act of 2021,” sponsored by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), that would require the Biden administration to make a climate-related emergency declaration.

  Last week, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres released an alarmist message saying that “the era of global warming has ended” and “the era of global boiling has arrived.” Using adjectives that included “terrifying,” Mr. Guterres said U.N. member states “must turn a year of burning heat into a year of burning ambition.”

  A number of legacy media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, have floated proposals such as purposefully implementing an “occasional blackout” to “help solve climate change.” A Guardian article published last week calls on the Biden administration to “declare a climate emergency” and states that it “must do so now.”

  Mr. Stewart recently said the LA Times article and similar reports are part of a “propaganda war” that’s designed to “condition the public to think people it is their duty to the State to be miserable, cold, and hungry.”

  “It wasn’t too long ago that even posing a question like this would be considered preposterous even from Democrats,” he said. “After all—one of the defining problems of Third World countries is the lack of reliable energy infrastructure and supply.”

  Amid relatively high temperatures across the East Coast last week, the White House sent out what it described as the “first-ever” heat wave hazard alert for people working outside.

  

  “President Biden has asked the Department of Labor (DOL) to issue the first-ever Hazard Alert for heat, and DOL will also ramp up enforcement to protect workers from extreme heat,” a White House fact sheet released on July 27 states. “For years, heat has been the number one cause of weather-related deaths in America.”

  At the time, Mr. Biden’s announcement came as about 40 percent of the U.S. population was under heat advisories, according to the National Weather Service. As of July 30, the hot weather was mostly relegated to the southeastern United States, the agency stated.

  The largest power grid operator in the country also issued an emergency alert, which ended on July 28, because of high demand.

  “PJM has issued these alerts to help prepare generators for the onset of intense heat,” the grid operator said. “A Hot Weather Alert helps to prepare transmission and generation personnel and facilities for extreme heat and/or humidity that may cause capacity problems on the grid.

  “Temperatures are expected to be near or above 90 degrees in these regions, which drives up the demand for electricity.”

  Notably, data from the Environmental Protection Agency show that some of the hottest heat waves in the United States occurred in the 1930s and particularly in 1936. At the same time during that same decade, the Dust Bowl occurred, greatly damaging farmland across the central United States while sparking a mass exodus of farmers to Southern California that inspired author John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.”

  Earlier this year, PJM released a report that suggested that state and federal policies to de-carbonize the grid are “[presenting] increasing reliability risks during the transition, due to a potential timing mismatch between resource retirements, load growth and the pace of new generation entry.”

  De-carbonization of the grid refers to the reduction of fossil fuel usage and greater reliance on solar, wind, and hydroelectric power sources.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 23:00

• Canadian Pastor Convicted Of Inciting Mischief In Trucker Protests Facing Up To 10 Years Prison
  Canadian Pastor Convicted Of Inciting Mischief In Trucker Protests Facing Up To 10 Years Prison

  Authored by Allan Stein via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s troubles with the Canadian authorities began long before his sermon to commercial truckers encouraging their peaceful defiance against what he thought were “oppressive” public health mandates for COVID-19.

  

  In 2005, he began serving and ministering to downtown Calgary—Alberta’s poor and downtrodden. “In other words, feeding the homeless and praying for them, which is now illegal,” he described to The Epoch Times in a telephone interview while under house arrest in Calgary following his court conviction in May for inciting mischief and violating his release conditions.

  The police eventually showed up at Mr. Pawlowski’s church, telling him he couldn’t feed the homeless by law. Neither was he allowed to assemble or preach in public.

  Such actions are also illegal and punishable with tickets, fines, and even jail time.

  

  “They even have laws on the books that distributing printed materials—Bibles and Gospel tracts—is illegal. So I got tickets for that,” Mr. Pawlowski said.

  He added that tensions with the authorities had reached the point where police showed up at his church weekly.

  During the pandemic, he received 40 tickets for COVID-19 violations, including one for a Christmas celebration he said drew a response from over 100 police officers, 52 police vehicles, as well as anti-terrorism units.

  Over 300 Citations

  Between 2005 and 2015, Mr. Pawlowski said he received over 300 citations for refusing to stop preaching, feeding the homeless, and doing what he thought was helpful to those in need.

  He was arrested and charged in 2006 for reading the Bible in public, and considers being the first Canadian to receive a COVID-19 ticket for feeding the homeless a badge of honor in what he’d say was righteous defiance.

  “I asked them a simple question: ‘What do you think will happen to the homeless if we kick them out of shelters and shut down soup kitchens?’” he said of his efforts.

  

  Mr. Pawlowski, pastor of the Cave of Adullam ministry and founder of Street Church Ministries in Calgary, said he has also been granted some victories in the eyes of the law. He won significant court battles through Alberta’s provincial courts of appeal.

  On Aug. 9, Mr. Pawlowski, a native of Poland and an acolyte of the “Solidarity Movement,” could receive up to 10 years in prison for the charge of “inciting mischief” during Canada’s nationwide trucker protests last year.

  The protests rose in response to the public health rules of Canada’s Trudeau administration, sparking a massive “Freedom Convoy” from like-minded residents that threatened to bring the nation’s economy to a halt unless COVID-19 restrictions that were also impacting the economy and mental health were lifted.

  Response to Government Overreach

  As a Christian minister, Mr. Pawlowski said he believed he was waging a spiritual battle against “government overreach” during the pandemic, even if it means he has to pay fines, get arrested, or go to jail.

  On Feb. 7, 2022, at the border crossing blockade in Coutts, Alberta, Mr. Pawlowski told a crowd of commercial truckers, “It’s about time for Canadians to rise up and start roaring.”

  “For the first time in two years, you’ve got the power. They’ve got the guns, yes—it’s all useless when you all rise up. There is no tyrant big enough that can stop [the] masses.”

  Canadian authorities arrested and charged him with inciting mischief and interfering with essential infrastructure under Alberta’s Critical Infrastructure Defense Act of 2020.

  The Critical Infrastructure Defense Act “protects essential infrastructure from damage or interference caused by blockades or similar activities, which can cause significant public safety, social, economic and environmental consequences.”

  

  Mr. Pawlowski said Canadian authorities also accused him of promoting “genocide” for referencing the Solidarity Movement contributing to the fall of communism in Poland.

  “Of course, if you listened to my service, you will know that I said no guns, no swords, just stand for God and human rights during my sermon three times,” he said of the accusation.

  Mr. Pawlowski said he spent 50 days in prison, mostly in solitary confinement surrounded by concrete cells, before he was placed in maximum security and a psychiatric ward without evaluation.

  The court found him guilty of inciting mischief in May. Judge Gordon Krinke placed him under 12-hour daily house arrest until his sentencing date.

  

  “So, encouraging Canadians to stand for God and state human rights is a criminal act, a terrorism act,” said Mr. Pawlowski, who needs special permission to leave his house between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. “Therefore I am guilty, and all of them are guilty, according to this judge.”

  Months later, he is “still under house arrest in Calgary,” he said.

  Belief on Trial

  “I am the first Canadian where my sermon and speech were on trial. Everything was about what I said. The lawyers argued what I meant. It was a charade, a show trial—a joke,” Mr. Pawlowski said.

  “I was not allowed to say a word as they debated what I said and what I meant. They couldn’t agree on the wording.”

  Mr. Pawlowski said he is also the first Canadian citizen charged with eco-terrorism in the history of Canada.

  “And now, the judge ruled I am the first Canadian ever to be found guilty of inciting mischief and eco-terrorism,” Mr. Pawlowski said. “The Canadian courts are upside down. I am a political prisoner. It has nothing to do with law and order,” he expressed.

  An Alberta Crown Prosecution Service spokesman told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency has “no comment on this matter.”

  Sarah Miller of JSS Barristers is currently representing Mr. Pawlowski in the case. She said she “currently cannot speak to media regarding this case while the sentencing is outstanding.”

  However, Ms. Miller said she does not expect sentencing to occur on Aug. 9. Rather, the proceedings will “set the date for sentencing.”

  “I hope to be able to speak publicly about this case in the future,” Ms. Miller added.

  Son Expresses Cry for Help

  The pastor’s son, Nathan Pawlowski, recently testified in the European Parliament about the “consequences of abuse of power under the guise of help” during the pandemic by the Canadian government.

  “I am here today in desperation—a cry for help,” Nathan Pawlowski said by videolink from Canada. “I would like to tell you all the things about freedom and democracy that I like, but I no longer know those things.

  “They have been taken away from us Canadians. Canada has fallen. We no longer have freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or the right to assemble, associate, or express ourselves, or have free media or disagree with the government.”

  Nathan Pawlowski said his father could be imprisoned for up to a decade for his trucker sermon and referenced the Solidarity Movement.

  “This case sets a precedent with all Canadians—and the world—if you allow this to happen,” he said.

  He explained that his father was charged with preaching and reading the Bible publicly because the government had ruled that the Bible is “hateful and isn’t inclusive.”

  “My father told the truckers to stand for their rights, Solidarity-style, and to do so peacefully.”

  “If he goes down, we are all lost as Canadians. If a pastor goes to prison, what can they do to the rest of us?” the younger Pawlowski said.

  ‘Seen This Movie Before’

  In a video recording played by his son, Mr. Pawlowski also addressed the European Parliament—as a political dissident “born behind the Iron Curtain of Poland, crushed by the iron fist of oppression” in Canada.

  “Freedom is more than a word—it’s a measure of our humanity, courage, and determination. It’s a cost borne by soldiers, journalists, and volunteers,” he said.

  Mr. Pawlowski told The Epoch Times he had received offers of money and government positions in exchange for his silence, but he’s “not for sale.”

  “I have seen this movie before” under communism in Poland, he said. “It does not end well.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 22:20

• Biden Admin Wants 58 MPG Fuel Efficiency Standard By 2032
  Biden Admin Wants 58 MPG Fuel Efficiency Standard By 2032

  The Biden administration on Friday announced a proposal to require raising fuel economy standards to 58 miles per gallon.

  

  The proposal, from the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), would aim for a respective 2% annual increase for passenger cars, and a 4% increase in light trucks’ Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for 2027 – 2032 models, and would require 2030 – 2035 “heavy-duty pickup trucks and vans” to boost fuel economy by 10% per year.

  “If finalized as proposed, the updated standards would save Americans hundreds of dollars at the pump,” reads a NHTSA press release. “all while making America more energy secure and less reliant on foreign oil.”

  CAFE requirements are not as stringent as an Environmental Protection Agency proposal in April to cut vehicle tailpipe emissions. NHTSA is barred by law from considering electric vehicles fuel economy in setting standards.

  The EPA said its proposed 2027-2032 standards would cut emissions by 56%, or 13% annual average pollution cuts and result in 67% of new vehicles in 2032 being electric.

  NHTSA estimates its proposal would cut gasoline consumption by 88 billion gallons through 2050. –Reuters

  The NHTSA also estimates $18 billion of “combined benefits” would be realized as a result.

  The rule, according to the agency, “will encourage manufacturers producing (internal combustion engine) vehicles during the standard-setting timeframe to achieve significant fuel economy, improve energy security, and reduce harmful pollution by a large amount.”

  The NHTSA is seeking comment on five alternatives, ranging from not hiking requirements to raising them annually by 6% for cars and 8% for light trucks.

  The Alliance for Automotive Innovation which represents GM, Toyota, Volkswagen and others has asked the EPA to soften its emissions proposal, calling it “neither reasonable nor achievable.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 22:00

• White House Rejects Australia's Call To Drop Assange Charges
  White House Rejects Australia’s Call To Drop Assange Charges

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday rejected Australian concerns about WikiLeaks founder and Australian citizen Julian Assange, who faces up to 175 years in prison if extradited to the US and convicted for exposing US war crimes.

  Blinken was in Australia with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to discuss bolstering military ties between the US and Australia. At a press conference during the visit, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Canberra has made clear to Washington that it wants the US to drop its case against Assange.

  

  “We have made clear our view that Mr. Assange’s case has dragged on for too long and our desire that it be brought to a conclusion. And we’ve said that publicly, and you would anticipate that that reflects also the position we articulate in private,” Wong said.

  Blinken confirmed that the issue has been discussed but rejected Australia’s concerns. He said Australia must recognize the US’s position on Assange, claiming the Wikileaks founder’s alleged actions risked “very serious harm to our national security.”

  “Mr. Assange was charged with very serious criminal conduct in the United States in connection with his alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of our country,” Blinken said. “So I say that only because just as we understand sensitivities here, it’s important that our friends understand sensitivities in the United States.”

  Assange has been indicted under the Espionage Act by the US Justice Department related to documents WikiLeaks published that it obtained from former Army Private Chelsea Manning. But Assange obtained the material using standard journalistic practices, and if he is convicted in the US, it would set a grave precedent for press freedom.

  Assange has been held in London’s Belmarsh Prison since April 2019 and recently filed another appeal against the UK’s decision to extradite him to the United States. “Mr. Assange has filed a renewal of appeal application in the UK,” Wong said. “The Australian Government is not party to these legal proceedings, and nor can we intervene with them. Having said that, we will continue to offer him consular assistance and to convey our expectations about his treatment.”

  

  While Wong says the Australian government wants the case against Assange to be brought to an end, it has not impacted ties between the US-Australia. After signing the AUKUS military pact that will eventually allow Canberra to acquire nuclear-powered submarines, the US and Australia continue to increase military cooperation.

  After two days of talks in Australia, the two sides announced the US would expand its military presence in the country by sending more submarines, adding regular rotations of US Army watercraft, and collaborating on joint missile production. The US expansion in Australia is part of its military buildup to prepare for a future war with China.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 21:40

• Joe Biden Met With Moscow Mayor's Wife Before $3.5 Million Wire To Hunter: Devon Archer
  Joe Biden Met With Moscow Mayor’s Wife Before $3.5 Million Wire To Hunter: Devon Archer

  While former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer spills the beans about Burisma, Joe, and the Biden family dealings, the Daily Mail revealed on Monday that Hunter Biden’s real estate firm received a $40 million investment from a Russian oligarch, Yelena Baturina, the billionaire widow of the former mayor of Moscow.

  

  Baturina also wired $3.5 million to a Hunter-linked company, in what her brother, Viktor Baturin, tells the Daily Mail was “a payment to enter the American market.”

  And which, as Devon Archer testified on Monday, kept her off the sanctions list.

  DailyMail.com can now reveal that Hunter’s financial relationship with Baturina was far more extensive, with her firm investing $40million in a real estate venture by Hunter’s company Rosemont Realty.

  In 2012 Hunter’s firm had a $69.7million plan to invest in 2.15million sq ft of office space in seven US cities.

  Documents outlining the plan said the money came from a mix of investors, including $40million from Inteco Management AG, a Swiss company owned by Baturina.

  The Inteco group is a plastics and construction behemoth that made Baturina the richest woman in Russia at the time. She has a current net worth of $1.4billion according to Forbes. -Daily Mail

  Baturina wired the $3.5 million on February 14, 2014, when Joe Biden was Vice President of the United States. The wires were made in a series of payments to Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC, for “Consultancy Agreement DD12.02.2014.”

  The deal had been negotiated in 2012. In 2016, Baturina established a US office to oversee her US investments, and in 2016 she invested $10 million in commercial buildings near the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

  The payments were flagged in suspicious activity reports filed with the US Treasury Department.

  Hunter’s lawyer, George Mesires (not the bong guy) has previously denied that the money went to Hunter.

  “Hunter Biden had no interest in and was not a co-founder of Rosemont Seneca Thornton, so the claim that he was paid $3.5 million is false,” he told CNN in September 2020.

  The emails came to the Daily Mail via the anti-corruption group, the Kazakhstani Initiative on Asset Recovery.

  Now, we find from Devon Archer that Joe Biden met with Baturina in Georgetown before the $40 million investment, after which she was left off the Biden administration’s sanctions list.

  LAST YEAR: Karine Jean-Pierre refused to say why Biden didn’t sanction Russian billionaire Elena Baturina — nor if Biden met with her in Georgetown while he was VP.

  Today, Hunter’s former business partner testified that meeting did, in fact, happen.pic.twitter.com/trzfN9ilMK

  — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 31, 2023

  More:

  8) The Biden Administration’s public sanctions list for Russian oligarchs does not contain Baturina.

  — Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 31, 2023

  And your daily reminder that Trump was impeached for simply asking about shady Biden family dealings.

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  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 21:20

• The Most Embarrassing "Facebook Files" Revelation? The Press, Exposed As Censors
  The Most Embarrassing “Facebook Files” Revelation? The Press, Exposed As Censors

  Authored by Matt Taibbi via Racket News,

  

  The most embarrassing revelation of the “Facebook Files” released by House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan yesterday (described in more detail here) involves the news media:

  

  In one damning email, an unnamed Facebook executive wrote to Mark Zuckerberg and Cheryl Sandberg:

  We are facing continued pressure from external stakeholders, including the White House and the press, to remove more Covid-19 vaccine discouraging content.

  We see repeatedly in internal communications not only in the email above, but in the Twitter Files, in the exhibits of the Missouri v Biden lawsuit, and even in the Freedom of Information request results beginning to trickle in here at Racket, that the news media has for some time been working in concert with civil society organizations, government, and tech platforms, as part of the censorship apparatus.

  In the summer of 2021, the White House and Joe Biden were in the middle of a major factual faceplant. They were not only telling people the Covid-19 vaccine was a sure bet — “You’re not going to get Covid if you have these vaccinations” is how Biden put it — but that those who questioned its efficacy were “killing people.” But the shot didn’t work as advertised. It didn’t prevent contraction or transmission, something Biden himself continued to be wrong about as late as December of that year.

  If you go back and give a careful read to corporate media content from that time describing the administration’s war against “disinformation,” you’ll see outlets were themselves not confident the vaccine worked. Take the New York Times effort from July 16th, 2021, “They’re Killing People: Biden Denounces Social Media for Virus Disinformation.” You can see the Times tiptoeing around what they meant, when they used the word “disinformation.” In this and other pieces they used phrases like, “the spread of anti-vaccine misinformation,” “how to track misinformation,” “the prevalence of misinformation,” even “Biden’s forceful statement capped weeks of anger in the White House over the dissemination of vaccine disinformation,” but they repeatedly hesitated to say what the misinformation was.

  Any editor will tell you this language is a giveaway. Journalists wrote expansively about “disinformation,” but rarely got into specifics. They knew that they couldn’t state with certainty that the vaccine worked, that there weren’t side effects, etc., yet still denounced people who asked those questions. This is because they agreed with the concept of “malinformation,” i.e. there are things that may be true factually, but which may produce political results considered adverse. “Hestiancy” was one such bugbear. Note the language from the unnamed Facebook executive above, which describes the press lashing out “Covid-19 vaccine discouraging content,” not “disinformation.”

  This is total corruption of the news. We’re supposed to be in the business of questioning officials, even if the questions are unpopular. That’s our entire role! If we don’t do that, we serve no purpose, maybe even a negative purpose. Moreover, think of the implications. News outlets wail about “disinformation” when they’re aware the public has tuned them out. When people don’t listen to reporters, it’s usually because they suck. You can do the math, as to why the current crop embraces censorship. A more embarrassing outcome for our business would be hard to imagine.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 21:00

• Meet One Startup Trying To End Hangovers With Synthetic Alcohol
  Meet One Startup Trying To End Hangovers With Synthetic Alcohol

  For at least a year we have been writing about the secular shift in the beverage world to non-alcoholic drinks – and the corresponding ways with which alcohol giants are changing their product roadmaps to adapt.

  Now, the next “big thing” in the alcohol world could wind up being synthetic alcohol, according to the Wall Street Journal. The idea of a synthetic alcohol substitute could seek to address hangovers or other ill-effects of cocktails, according to the report. 

  GABA Labs is one company that is looking to try and make synthetic alcohol that can deliver the positive effects of the drink, without the negatives. Namely, the company is seeking to avoid hangovers, health problems or slurred speech. The company is using gamma-aminobutyric acid to try and hit relaxation receptors in the brain while avoiding the negatives that alcohol delivers to the body. 

  David Orren, managing director of GABA Labs, told WSJ: “Alcohol is like playing the piano with boxing gloves on. You hit too many keys.”

  Dr. David Nutt, the chief scientific officer of GABA Labs, is a former psychiatrist and neuropsychopharmacologist. He has spent two years as chief of section of clinical science in the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health, the Journal notes, and has long argued about the negative effect of alcohol on society. 

  

  “It feels like what a glass of wine feels like. It feels relaxing. It makes you a bit more chatty, a bit more socially engaged with people,” he said about the company’s product, called Alcarelle. 

  GABA is looking to raise $10.3 million and finish food safety testing in the U.S. by the middle of 2026, the report says. Orren and Nutt have been testing the product themselves, with Orren commenting: “It feels like a warm glow. You’re being you. And you’re being with somebody that’s being them. You’re being real.” 

  The next step will be testing the product, including testing it when mixed with actual alcohol. 

  Dr. Mack Mitchell, senior medical advisor for Amygdala, a company working to inhibit alcohol cravings with an oral drug that targets similar receptors, commented: “People who can’t control drinking don’t always want to stop drinking completely. They just want to be able to drink normally.” 

  Another company, Indivior, is working on a nasal spray to inhibit alcohol cravings as well. Its CEO Mark Crossley added: “I arrive in the parking lot. I don’t want six or seven drinks. I’ll top up with a nasal spray.”

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 20:40

• Victor Davis Hanson: The Biden Presidency Is Unsustainable
  Victor Davis Hanson: The Biden Presidency Is Unsustainable

  Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

  Imagine if Gavin Newsom was currently Vice President amid the final meltdown of the Biden family consortium.

  

  Does anyone doubt that Biden would then either be forced to resign by Democratic politicos (for reasons in addition to his escalating dementia), or would be impeached and perhaps abdicate Nixon-style?

  The presence of the now predictable mediocrity of Kamala Harris and the impossibility, given her race and gender, of removing her, for now is about all that keeps a cognitively declining Biden still in office. The Left fears what she could do as president to the Democratic Party; conservatives are terrified of what she could do to the country.

  Joe Biden’s bewilderment exempts his embarrassments from accountability in the way that Hunter Biden’s addictions excuse his past serial criminality. But the passes granted to both father and son would be now unsustainable with a viable Vice President in waiting.

  Indeed, the Harris problem explains some of current Democratic strategy.

  Backroom leaks and growing insider rumors of Biden dementia confirm the portrait of an often befuddled president whom the public by now knows all too well.

  The aimless House Democrats’ “how-dare-you-even-consider-an-impeachment inquiry” furor, coupled with their half-hearted efforts, along with the media, to refute the actual charges of corruption of the Biden family, suggest that he will not run for reelection—but also not be impeached much less convicted or removed under the 25th Amendment.

  So the Harris dilemma explains a lot: finding a way to keep her out of current power until Biden somehow finishes his first term, and thus letting the Democratic 2024 primary candidates organically abort her presidential aspirations.

  There are a few problems, however, with this strategy.

  One, can Joe Biden finish his first term?

  That would require his staff to shorten his already truncated workday for the next 18 months to about 2-3 hours of work per day.

  He would have to be kept away from photo-ops with young (especially female) children, lest he turkey-gobbles the cheek of another victim to a worldwide audience.

  He can no longer read off a teleprompter without slurring his words, losing his place, or going off extemporaneously on to topics such as “Vladimir” Zelenskyy, the “Iraq” war in Ukraine, or relief over the curing of cancer.

  He cannot hold half-hour press conferences given his incoherence and his angry prevarications. He still insists incredulously that he never discussed the Biden family business with Hunter, although we may soon see transcripts, recordings, and affidavits that he was in fact intimately involved in and profited from it. 

  The Strange Case of Hunter in the White House

  Hunter is toxic and capable of leaving behind incriminating evidence or engaging in surreal behavior anywhere and anytime. Why would a former crack cocaine addict be brought into the White House, after which a bag of cocaine was for the first time in presidential history found abandoned in the West Wing?

  (Partial answer: why and how would an addict leave an incriminating crackpipe in a rental car, simply abandon a laptop at a repair shop with evidence of his own felonious behavior on it, or allow his illegally registered handgun to turn up in a dumpster near a school)?

  An outside, disinterested observer who read the contents of the laptop and Hunter’s wounded-fawn protestations about his unappreciated role in enriching his father and uncle, or digested his unhinged recent career as a quid-pro-quo, paint-by-the-numbers artiste, selling high-priced junk in exchange for presidential flavors, would conclude that the Bidens are apprehensive of the unpredictable Hunter. Keep your friends close, but your explosive son even closer.

  Of course, they fear Hunter’s recklessness, addictions, and greed—but more perhaps his ability to take down the entire Biden clan should they distance themselves too far from him or leak that the family’s corrupt schemes were birthed by the fall-guy Hunter alone.

  Aside from Joe’s cognitive decline and Hunter’s volatility, no one believes anymore Joe Biden’s patent lies that he never discussed with Hunter his lucrative grifting career. Already, the untruth has transmogrified into he never did business with Hunter—and soon perhaps he never profited from the business he did and discussed with Hunter.

  No matter, by year’s end there will be witnesses and hard data showing that Joe himself discussed pay-for-play schemes with foreign entities, of the sort he long ago boasted with previous impunity before a Council of Foreign Relations event.

  This is no Whitewater, Trooper-gate, or Stormy Daniels scandal, but bribery of the sort explicitly outlined by the Constitution for removal from office: “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

  Selling influence to foreign-government related enterprises is, of course, not just bribery but perhaps treason as well. And it involves other “high Crimes and Misdemeanors,” among them tax fraud on unreported foreign income.

  Moreover, it is arguable that the Biden shake-down consortium has altered the very nature of U.S. foreign policy. We will never know the full effect of the false Russian disinformation/laptop narrative, following the fake Russian collusion hoax, on Kremlin thinking. Nor can we explain why Joe Biden once urged Putin to lay off hacking humanitarian U.S. targets, or suggested that a minor invasion of Ukraine would not elicit a U.S. response, or offered to airlift Zelenskyy out of Kyiv in the first days of the war.

  Nor can we explain why China was never held accountable by Biden after new information entailed the role of the Wuhan lab in birthing the Covid virus, or for sending a spy balloon across the continental U.S. with impunity. Meanwhile, the administration’s crazy talk of partnering with a supposedly non-bellicose China seems unhinged.

  Finally, given the first Trump impeachment, what is the Left now going to say to House Republicans—“You cannot in this country impeach a president merely for threatening to cancel foreign aid unless Ukraine fired a prosecutor looking into his high-ranking family’s illegal influence selling?”

  Equality Under the Law?

  The Democrats in their Trump derangement fits so lowered the bar for impeachment and special prosecutions, that not impeaching or removing Biden under the Left’s own new standards seems almost ridiculous.

  If Trump earned hysteria about 25th-amendment removal (to the point of taking and acing the Montreal Cognitive Assessment) for a halting gait on an occasion descending a ramp, how could a non-compos-mentis and chronically falling Biden not be so examined?

  Moreover, Trump was impeached for 1) asking a foreign leader to examine the corruption of the Biden family with Ukraine while he put a hold on approved foreign aid to Ukraine; 2) and at the time, it was possible that Joe Biden could have been Trump’s likely future 2020 opponent.

  But in contrast note that Biden 1) issued an ultimatum that a Ukraine prosecutor would either be summarily fired, or aid would be ended. And he was fired!; and 2) Biden was only a possible general-election presidential rival when Trump called Zelensky; Trump is currently the front-runner against a putative Biden candidacy in 2024.

  Biden has also done far more than ask Ukraine to ensure a political opponent was not guilty of corruption, but rather sicced a special DOJ prosecutor on Trump for taking out classified papers in the manner that Joe Biden himself did years earlier, without the prerogative as a senator or vice president of declassifying such papers.

  Harris Paradoxes

  The open disregard for Kamala Harris is not just a Republican phenomenon. Her dismal popularity reflects that such disappointment in her is bipartisan. And now the likely machinations mentioned to keep her out of the presidency are undoing all the racial and gender pandering that explain her otherwise inexplicable appointment in the first place. At some point the Democratic identity-politics base is going to pressure the party’s hierarchy to back off and back Harris or face charges of racism.

  In an odd way, the Left’s tolerance of Biden’s own cognitive impairment also strengthens Harris’s case, especially among her diversity base. Kamala utters incomprehensible sentences; Joe cannot finish them. Kamala’s public declamations are kindergarten stuff; Joe’s are more nursery school level. In theory, Kamala can be coached and improve; Joe’s declines are at a geometric rate that is irreversible.

  So if someone so cognitively challenged is currently President with the full assent of the Democratic Party, for what reasons does it turn its animus on a Vice President who is still relatively young and hale?

  How odd that the Left knows that both the current President and Vice President should not be in either job after 2024; and yet its own prior pandering and rank politicking have made both almost impossible to remove. And how odder that the extra-legal measures the Left took to emasculate the Trump presidency are now the low standards by which an utterly corrupt Biden can be investigated, indicted, impeached, or forced to resign.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 20:20

• "National Priority": USAF Buys Six Midnight eVTOL Aircraft For Rescue Operations
  “National Priority”: USAF Buys Six Midnight eVTOL Aircraft For Rescue Operations

  The US Air Force entered into a contract with Archer Aviation Inc. to purchase six electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in a deal worth up to $142 million. The agreement is an expansion of Archer’s partnership with the Pentagon and represents a move by the world’s largest military to pursue new flight technology for the modern battlefield. 

  Archer first partnered with the Pentagon in 2021 on a series of projects through the Air Force’s AFWERX (work project) program to accelerate development in the vertical flight market. The purchase announced on Monday of six Midnight electric air taxis will provide an alternative to helicopters for personnel transport, logistics support, and rescue missions. 

  

  “This expansion of Archer’s partnership with the DoD represents a significant investment in the future of the country and will help ensure the US maintains its leadership position in aviation,” Archer wrote in a press release. 

  Now, with Archer recently completing the manufacturing of its first Midnight aircraft, the DoD recognizes that with its vertical takeoff and landing capabilities, target payload of approximately 1,000lbs, proprietary electric powertrain system, and low noise profile, Archer’s aircraft represents a potential paradigm shift in military aviation and operations. These aircraft hold the promise of enhancing rapid response, agility, and operational effectiveness across a wide range of mission profiles, from personnel transport and logistics support to rescue operations and more. — the company wrote 

  “This historic agreement reflects the steadfast commitment by our Armed Forces to embrace the cutting-edge technology our eVTOL aircraft offer,” said Adam Goldstein, Archer’s Founder and CEO.

  Goldstein continued, “It’s clear that the development and commercialization of eVTOL technology continues to remain a national priority. We look forward to working closely with the US Department of Defense and the US Air Force to integrate Midnight into their operational fleet with a focus on transport, logistics and rescue operations.”

  Besides Archer, Joby Aviation has already received orders from the Pentagon for its eVTOLs. Joby expects to deliver its first eVTOL to the USAF in 2024. 

  

  Archer shares jumped as much as 12%, and Joby shares were up 4.5%. 

  

  While the Pentagon is ramping up eVTOL orders, the Federal Aviation Administration is preparing for nationwide flying taxi operations by 2028. 

  

  And if you want to get in on the action, let’s say owning an Alef Aeronautics’ “Model A” flying car for recreational purposes — the pilot in command will likely need an airlift or eVTOL rating, which means you’ll need a private pilots license to operate in controlled airspace. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 20:00

• Kunstler: "Remember, The Government Is Not Our Country"
  Kunstler: “Remember, The Government Is Not Our Country”

  Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

  Blobulation

  “Biden has restored the integrity of the Department of Justice”

  – Dan Goldman, Congressman from New York

  Surely Merrick Garland is not running the Department of Justice, but which gloopy pseudopod of the Blob is?

  My guess would be some Intel Community politburo made up mostly of people you’ve never heard of.

  The trouble is these geniuses confuse political fuckery with the operations of law.

  

  So, Saturday night when the lights were supposedly off at the DOJ, and much of America was tuned out — getting new tattoos, arguing with the re-po man, watching the Orioles — the Blob told a lawyer from the Southern District of New York, one Damian Williams, to send a letter to Federal Judge Ronnie Abrams asking her to set a date for one Devon Archer to report to prison on a bond fraud conviction that Mr. Archer is appealing on the grounds of DOJ sentencing misconduct. Like, can you hurry that up, please?

  Devon Archer, you recall, was the college room-mate and later close business associate of R. Hunter Biden, First Son, who is in a bit of trouble for laundering money from foreign companies and governments through a score of shell companies that then made large payouts to Biden family members, including the so-called Big Guy currently living in the White House. Mr. Archer, who has been in hiding (wonder why?) is scheduled to be deposed by the House Oversight Committee today. It is believed that he knows a thing or two about the Biden family business doings, enough, say, to corroborate the shit-ton of documentary evidence already in the Committee’s possession that lays out a pretty stark template of bribery with adumbrations of treason.

  Sounds serious, a little bit, especially since it’s become ever more obvious that the whole federal law enforcement apparatus has been aware of the Biden family’s activities since well before “Joe Biden” was selected to be elected president. Of course, Mr. Archer’s testimony would only be the cherry on a well-baked cake. Chairman James Comer (R-KY) of the Oversight Committee says his investigators have rooted out new banking shenanigans on top of the over one hundred suspicious activity reports already in their files, despite obstruction and obfuscation from the Blob’s IRS and FBI arms. He seems determined to press forward and I daresay the Blob will find it very difficult to stop him.

  Speaker Kevin McCarthy declared last week that all this roguery was “rising to the level of an impeachment inquiry.” D’ya think? What I wonder is: would such an inquiry begin to unravel the secret of who has been running “Joe Biden” lo these many months of face-plants, preposterous utterances, morning “lids,” and other indications that the commander-in-chief of the USA is not much more than a media apparition? One might also ask: was this really the best that Blob could come up with? Really? Him? This ghastly load of damaged goods?

  Five House members: Matt Gaetz, Mike Johnson, Chip Roy, Harriet Hageman, and Dan Bishop, are calling for an emergency return from the August recess to get the impeachment process rolling. Let the case be made in an orderly and comprehensive process. See if The New York Times and its allies in the captive Blob media can ignore the proceeding. It will probably shock their readers-and-watchers to learn that the Biden family bribery and racketeering scandal actually exists. Will any of them ask: how come we never heard about this?

  Behind all these blobulations looms the specter of Mr. Trump’s attempted return to power. What would he do in the remote case that he escapes the Blob’s mendacious prosecutions? Chop the Blob into a million gelatinous fragments, expose it to enough heat to vaporize it all, and recalibrate a US government back to the task of operating the few things it might arguably be competent at. Such a program would obviate the Blob’s drive to destroy everything worth operating in the human project of remaining civilized.

  Alas, Blobism has become the religion of the deranged intellectual / managerial class in America. The chief concern of this crypto-gnostic religion is summoning demons to harass those it regards as heretics to Blobism. Thus, it is well within the historic tradition of fanatical / hysterical paroxysms that shake ordinary human doings and end up needlessly and wrongfully killing a lot of people.

  No doubt Blobism is a product of the Intel Community run by that mysterious politburo, with assists from partners in foreign lands such as the WEF, the WHO, the CCP, and a coterie of essentially stateless super-rich guys with axes to grind. It was designed to derange the people who do most of its on-the-ground dirty work. They already have a lot of blood on their hands with the Covid-19 trip laid on the world, the pointless war in Ukraine, which it started deliberately, and now the forced de-industrialization of the West with a crusade against farming on the side, to make sure that those who don’t die of vaccine-related immune system disorders just starve to death.

  Beginning a process to expel “Joe Biden” would be like cutting the head off a chicken. The head doesn’t have much going on inside of it except the eat-and-sleep-scratch-and-cackle algorithm, but without that head, the rest of the chicken just staggers around in circles for a minute before it drops dead. Our government needs to go through that for the country to become itself again. And remember: the government is not our country.

  *  *  *

  Support his blog by visiting Jim’s Patreon Page

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 19:40

• "Peacetime Is Over": Financial Times Pens Puff Piece On Silicon Valley Defense Tech Startups After NDAA Passage 
  “Peacetime Is Over”: Financial Times Pens Puff Piece On Silicon Valley Defense Tech Startups After NDAA Passage 

  We have pointed out that AI competition between the US and China is heating up. In 2019, we wrote a note titled As Tech War Unfolds, AI Arms-Race Erupts, China Could Overtake US By Next Decade and penned this in April, Winner Takes All: The US-China Race To AI Mastery. 

  In yet another sign the arms race could intensify, a new Financial Times article titled How Silicon Valley is Assisting the Pentagon in the AI Arms Race appears to be a promotional piece that reads as if a lobbying group wrote it to convince folks that after the passage of the fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, more taxpayers dollars should flow to Silicon Valley defense startups rather than the five prime contractors, which include Lockheed Martin and Boeing. 

  But getting the defence department to reallocate some of its mammoth $886bn budget from its five incumbent prime contractors, which include Lockheed Martin and Boeing, to the thousands of entrepreneurs producing cutting-edge systems remains an obstacle. Tech entrepreneurs and investors have accused military leaders of engaging in “innovation theatre” — paying lip service to the benefits of disruptive technology while holding back lucrative contracts. -FT

  Steve Blank, a tech veteran and founding member of the Gordian Knot Center at Stanford, said, “For the first time ever, the US military is dependent on commercial tech to win a war, but they’re not organized to deal with commercial tech.” 

  “China operates like Silicon Valley,” Blank added, in reference to the tech sector’s speed of innovation and agility — noting: “On a good day, the DoD operates like Detroit,” the metro area that has yet to recover from a plunge in auto-making. “It’s not a fair fight.”

  

  FT pointed out, “Ukraine’s deployment of dual-use technology — capabilities that have both commercial and defense applications — such as satellite imagery and autonomous drones is among the biggest catalysts for the US to bridge the chasm between Washington and California.”  

  “What’s happened in Ukraine has been a game-changer. More commercial technology is being used than during any other disagreement,” said Mike Brown, a venture capitalist at Shield Capital and the former director of the Defence Innovation Unit.

  Brown said, “That has got the wheels turning for the US military, which is saying, ‘We need to adopt far more of this.'”

  Again, the article reads that the “groundbreaking” commercial tech used in the war in Ukraine is grounds to divert military monies to California defense tech startups, which will better prepare the military for an even more significant issue: an AI arms race with China. 

  For some fear porn, the author declares, “Peacetime is over,” outlining a list of Silicon Valley defense startups that would add value to military capabilities on the modern battlefield if they received a larger chunk of the new Pentagon budget for 2024. 

  Furthermore, the promotional article about Silicon Valley’s defense startups failed to address potential dystopian outcomes, such as the dire implications of AI killing humans (there was already an incident of one rogue AI drone). 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 19:20

• "Too Big To Hide" – Ed Dowd Slams COVID Vax Injuries "Cover-Up… It's A Crime"
  “Too Big To Hide” – Ed Dowd Slams COVID Vax Injuries “Cover-Up… It’s A Crime”

  Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com,

  Former Wall Street money manager Ed Dowd is still a skillful number cruncher.  Dowd made billions of dollars in profits by being right on the data. He’s right on the data again in his recent wildly popular book “Cause Unknown” The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths in 2021 and 2022. 

  

  Dowd’s book documents the extreme deaths and horrible injuries that are now skyrocketing in number.  The huge problems being caused by the CV19 bioweapon/vax are increasing, unstoppable and no longer need to be proven.  Dowd says,

  “I was not in the room, but at this point, it is a crime because it’s a coverup. 

  I said this in my book in December of 2022.  They see the same data that I see, and the data has only gotten worse since then.  So, it’s a crime, and it’s a coverup.  That’s all you need to know...

  Forget about the who and the why.  It was a bioweapon.  It was a mistake.  I don’t care at this point.  This is a joke.  They are killing people. 

  They continue to mandate these jabs at some universities.  Some employers still mandate them.  The UK is requiring all school children who enter school in the fall to take these shots. 

  This is a joke.  This is a crime.  This is a coverup, and it’s murder at this point.”

  In 2022 alone, Dowd figured 30% of the workforce had been killed, disabled and cannot work or is working chronically ill.  Dowd says the death and disability trend for 2023 is way up.  Thousands everyday are reporting they are getting sick, and Dowd says the CV19 bioweapon injections are to blame.  Supply chains and society are going to grind to a crawl, and Dowd predicts,

  “Everything is slowly breaking down. 

  You won’t see this on the news, but you will see this when you need something done, and you will experience this. 

  You are going to be gaslit and told everything is fine. 

  There is not problem here.  Don’t look over here. 

  We are going to see glacial Mad Max.  

  Things are going to get harder to do.  Businesses and services you take for granted are going to become scarce. 

  I think we are going to see a deflation in financial assets that will start soon enough.  We will have inflation in things you need like food, medical care and much other stuff.”

  Dowd also points out,

  “The Justice Department is protecting the looting operation that’s been going on for 40 plus years. 

  Everybody in Washington D.C. is literally stealing your taxpayer dollars…

  The Deep State protects the looting operation, and they are all in on it.”

  Ivermectin is being used by doctors like Pierre Kory as a base drug for treating CV19 vaxed injured patients and unvaxed patients harmed by so-called “shedding.”  Yet, it is still being withheld from a public that desperately needs it.  Why is Ivermectin being restricted?  Dowd says,

  “For them to start pushing Ivermectin would expose them.  They are the ones who said what do you mean and called it horse paste.  Criminals and people in coverup mode continue as if everything is fine until they are caught. 

  That’s what happened at Enron.  Enron was fraud, and the stock was down 50% from the highs… I was skeptical, and I protected my firm from it and got out of it…

  This is the same thing.  Criminals are going to act as if everything is fine, and they are not going to ever admit that Ivermectin is worth anything to anybody because to do so would unravel their whole thread of lies.  I take Ivermectin and I have never been vaccinated, and I take a little dose of Ivermectin a couple times a week.”

  In closing, Dowd says,

  “This is going to become too big to hide.  Congress needs to act.  These people in the GOP are forming committees on J6 and other things.  That’s great and good on you.  How about the Covid vaccine committee?  Call me up, I’ll share my numbers.”

  Dowd also talks about the importance of holding cash, the dollar’s near term and longer term future, gold as a core investment and the wild card of world war.

  There is much more in the 49-minute interview.

  Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with money manager and investment expert Ed Dowd, author of the book called “Cause Unknown” The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths in 2021 and 2022

  *  *  *

  To Donate to USAWatchdog.com Click Here

  You can order Dowd’s book called “Cause Unknown” by clicking here.

  If you want to go to Dowd’s website called PhinanceTechnologies.com, click here.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 19:00

• Exxon About To Become 'Lithium Kingpin'? Talks Begin With Tesla, Ford, Volkswagen, Reports Say
  Exxon About To Become ‘Lithium Kingpin’? Talks Begin With Tesla, Ford, Volkswagen, Reports Say

  Exxon Mobil Corp. is planning to enter the minerals game by becoming a supplier of lithium to Tesla Inc., Ford Motor Co., Volkswagen AG, and other automakers, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. 

  The sources said discussions are in the “early stages and also include battery giants Samsung and SK On Co.” If the report is correct, Exxon appears to be searching for buyers as it positions itself to capitalize on the electric-vehicle boom amid pressure by ESG funds and the Biden administration to shrink its core oil production and refining businesses. 

  The people also said Exxon is in talks with lithium producer Albemarle Corp. The company told Bloomberg, “Given Albemarle’s leadership role in the market, people routinely want to speak with us — especially when looking at potential resources.”

  

  In a conference call with investors last Friday, Exxon’s CEO Darren Woods broke the silence about the interest in lithium brine mining. He said Exxon wants to extract lithium from underground saltwater, a cheaper and more environmentally friendly method than traditional mining on the surface. 

  “We can bring it on at a much lower cost, and I think, importantly, with much less environmental impact versus open mining that they’re doing in other parts of the world,” Woods said. 

  

  He continued, “The processing of the brine and extracting the lithium is very consistent with a lot of the things that we do in our refineries and chemical plants and, in fact, in some of our upstream operations.” 

  The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that Exxon plans “to build one of the world’s largest lithium processing facilities” in Arkansas. 

  Exxon might be an emerging player in the lithium field as the US rushes to secure critical mineral supply chains amid souring relations with China. 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 18:40

• The Jokes Write Themselves
  The Jokes Write Themselves

  By Benjamin Picton of Rabobank

  It’s important to maintain a sense of humor in the markets. Here at Rabobank we occasionally get accused of being perma-bears but I think that’s a little unfair because, like any team, we have a diversity of views and some of us are actually quite upbeat! Nevertheless, we have been fairly negative on the global outlook for a while. I prefer to think of this as cheerful pessimism, which Charlie Munger assures us is the best way to be, and he ought to know.

  Indeed, there is much cause for mirth because funny things happen in the markets all the time. A case in point is the news over the weekend that the Bank of England will be leaning on the expertise of Ben “sub-prime is contained” Bernanke to lead a review into the Bank’s forecasting performance. We’re not suggesting that a bit of navel-gazing wouldn’t be justified for the Bank given its recent forecasting performance, but if you’re going to take advice on a subject wouldn’t it make sense to ask somebody with more of a track record of success?

  Another famous Bernanke clanger was his assurances to Congress that the United States would not enter recession in 2008. I don’t want to jinx it, but that sounds eerily similar to the prognostications of another former Fed Chair, Janet Yellen, who has also been telling us pretty much the same thing recently. Yellen isn’t alone in her view. Following the decision to increase the Fed Funds rate last week Jerome Powell told us that Fed staff no longer expect a recession in 2023. That probably invalidates my working theory that Yellen’s no recession call might just have been the magic mushrooms talking, but it still might be worth checking what was on the menu at the Bank of England when the Bernanke decision was made.

  Regular readers will know that our resident Fed expert, Philip Marey, has been cheerfully pessimistic for quite some time about the prospects for US growth later in the year. That is still the case, but the dataflow recently has been pretty good. Second quarter GDP last week beat the consensus forecast by miles, the core PCE deflator showed moderation, durable goods orders were strong and new jobless claims continue to outperform. Talk of a soft landing, or even “no landing” is creeping back into markets, but risks are legion! Commercial real estate jitters, deep losses on bank ‘hold to maturity’ portfolios, sky-high PE ratios and oodles of debt are all known-knowns (that we are ignoring for the time being), but what about the unknowns?

  For this, I turn to my colleague Michael Every:

  Saudi Arabia is to hold a peace summit over Ukraine, without Russia(!), and is potentially interested in a peace deal with Israel, with strings attached for the far-right Israeli government and the White House, which would have to offer a mutual defence treaty, against Iran, and backing for a Saudi civilian nuclear program – those who know the Middle East can see the upsides *and* the downsides of that potential dynamic. But ‘Peace now’, then, to match the ‘rate cuts soon’ vibe? Hardly! Consider: Kyiv may (or may not) have been behind new drone attacks on Moscow; Ukraine’s counter-offensive may finally be working; Russia’s Medvedev has stated Ukrainian success would require a Russian nuclear response; and, as the Financial Times (and others) warn, ‘Putin is looking for a bigger war, not an off-ramp, in Ukraine’, the Polish PM and senate suggest the Wagner group may soon stage a provocation at the Suwalki gap between Belarus and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad to test NATO unity. In short, far fatter tail risks than another 25bp hike from the Fed or ECB remain present. Even assuming we don’t get a bigger war, NATO defence spending needs to surge to keep pace with rising global threats just as some economists are talking about fiscal prudence again. Japan, which just tightened monetary policy, will see its military spending leap from $122.5bn to $310bn over the next five years. Meanwhile, the New York Times warns Chinese hackers placed malware in key US infrastructure, which logically may need to be replaced, alongside ongoing onshoring. In short, markets may like doves but there is no guarantee of either ‘peace now’ or ‘rate cuts soon’.

  It’s hard not to see some black humor in staging peace talks that don’t include the main belligerent. Signs of further Russian aggression are particularly concerning given the position of relative weakness that Europe is starting from. The German manufacturing PMI released last week looks absolutely diabolical, as do the preliminary growth figures for the second quarter. The situation is sufficiently serious for Economy Minister Habeck to caution last week that the economy faces five difficult years of green industrial transition.

  Greeks and Italians who have been subject to more than a little finger-wagging from Berlin over the years may be enjoying the Schadenfreude for the time being, but a weak Germany in a time of geopolitical tensions is not in the broader interests of the EU. That is no laughing matter.

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 18:20

• The Indoctrination Of America's Boys Is Not Working…
  The Indoctrination Of America’s Boys Is Not Working…

  Major media outlets, including The Washington Post and numerous left-slanted ones, have published articles to persuade the public that the up-and-coming generation holds more socially and politically progressive attitudes. However, a new respected federal survey of American youth shows otherwise. 

  The Hill cites a new survey from Monitoring the Future that shows an explosion of high school seniors that identify as male and say they’re “conservative” or “very conservative.” Data from the survey extends back more than a half-century to the mid-1970s. The eruption happened during President Trump’s first term. Meanwhile, male respondents who identified as “liberals” plunged to 13%. 

  

  As for female seniors during Trump’s first term, there was a surge in ones who identified as “liberals” while identifying as a “conservative’ was unchanged. 

  

  Although this is just one study, outlets such as WaPo and Axios reference other studies indicating a leftward shift among America’s youth.

  

  

  

  Even with progressives implanting their agendas in public schools, such as ‘woke’ math, this study shows that perhaps the indoctrination of the young generation into aligning with the Democratic party might be faltering.

  

  Can this be attributed to Trump?

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 18:00

• A Tale Of Two Plea Deals
  A Tale Of Two Plea Deals

  Authored by Techno Fog via The Reactionary (emphasis ours),

  As discussed here and elsewhere, the Hunter Biden plea deal (and its accompanying exhibits and diversion agreement) is a curious document: it reduces the power of federal prosecutors to convict Hunter Biden for more serious charges; it eliminates the potential for Hunter Biden to be a cooperating witness; it keeps the DOJ from Congressional oversight; its ambiguous terms could have foreclosed future prosecution of Hunter Biden for Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) charges; and it left Judge Maryellen Noreika rejecting it, for the time being, citing concerns with its potential unconstitutionality and its unprecedented structure.

  

  And that doesn’t even take into consideration that the plea agreement was made after the statute of limitations on some of Hunter Biden’s crimes had passed, after charging recommendations of the DOJ Tax Division were ignored, after the scope of the broader investigation was improperly limited, and after search warrants were rejected and witness interviews were sabotaged.

  But we want to get to something else that has been all but ignored until now – how two prosecutors assigned to the Hunter Biden case, Leo Wise and Derek Hines, treated less serious tax cases as compared to the Hunter Biden case.

  Before we get to that, it’s important to understand who we’re dealing with. Leo Wise is a trial attorney in the DOJ Criminal Division – Public Integrity Section. He has held that position since June of 2023; prior to that, he was the Chief of the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland’s Fraud and Public corruption unit (a position from which he was demoted after disagreements with supervisors over staffing). He has been with the DOJ since at least 2004.

  By all accounts, Wise is an aggressive prosecutor. It’s in his DNA. He was part of the Enron Task Force, assisted in the racketeering trial against big tobacco (US v. Philip Morris), and prosecuted significant high-profile cases against corrupt leadership in Baltimore, including the Baltimore Police Gun Trace Task Force, former Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh, and former Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. Wise also “brought the biggest racketeering case in Maryland history.”

  Assisting Wise on the Hunter Biden case is Derek Hines, an equally aggressive prosecutor whose current role is Assistant US Attorney at the DOJ Criminal Division. Hines, for example, was part of Wise’s prosecution team in the Baltimore Police Gun Trace Task Force, which “won indictments against 11 men – eight Baltimore cops, two civilians, and one Philadelphia office” who robbed drug dealers, sold drugs, and ran interference for drug dealers.

  Wise and Hines have been described in one Baltimore Sun article as relentless prosecutors who “are like the terminator.” They are hardliners who “pursue stern sentences and prosecute even small-time crooks.”

  

  The Hunter Biden case isn’t the first time Wise and Hines have prosecuted a tax case. Back in 2018, they prosecuted Darryl De Sousa, a former Baltimore Police Commissioner for three counts of failing to file individual tax returns. The case of De Sousa is particularly instructive, as it demonstrates the uncharacteristically soft prosecution of Hunter Biden by Wise and Hines. Allow us to explain.

  De Sousa was charged with failing to file an income tax return for the years 2013-2015, in violation of 26 USC § 7203. Not only had he failed to file income tax returns for those years, but De Sousa had also owed the IRS taxes for other years (2008-2012) and had “falsely claimed deductions that he was not entitled to.”

  The De Sousa case was relatively small, though it did concern misconduct by a public official. He only owed approximately $60,000; the tax loss calculated by the IRS was between $40,000 and $100,000. De Sousa pleaded guilty to failing to file an income tax for the years 2013-2015. DOJ prosecutors Wise and Hines (who, by the way, both served under currently Special Counsel Robert K. Hur when he was US Attorney for the District of Maryland) saw to it that the stipulation of facts included in the November 20, 2018 plea agreement itemized (1) the false deductions claimed by De Sousa, such as vehicle expenses and travel expenses and charitable donations; (2) the specific times De Sousa was put on notice that he owed taxes; and (3) the specific amounts owed by De Sousa in each of the applicable years.

  Wise and Hines, true to their reputations, demanded De Sousa go to prison: 12 months incarceration was necessary to send a message to all other tax cheats. There was no promise to recommend probation. The judge would end up sentencing De Sousa to 10 months.

  Let’s compare De Sousa’s treatment to the Hunter Biden case.

  • Both cases involve violations of 26 USC § 7203 (willful failure to pay tax).

  • The tax loss in the De Sousa case was between $40,000 and $100,000; Wise and Hines recommended he serve a year in prison. The tax loss in the Hunter Biden case is between $1,199,524 and $1,593,329. Wise and Hines, in apparent agreement with DOJ supervisors, recommend Hunter get probation.  

  • Where Wise and Hines made sure the Court was aware of the numerous false deductions in the De Sousa Case, Wise and Hines agree that Hunter Biden’s more significant deductions for sex clubs and prostitutes was because Hunter “miscategorized certain personal expenses as legitimate business expenses.” In doing so, these prosecutors have allowed felony fraud to be excused as a mis-categorization.

  • In fact, Wise and Hines omitted a discussion of the facts underlying many of the charges recommended by the IRS Tax Division, including those involving fraud (26 USC § 7206). De Sousa never received that benefit – likely because De Sousa, unlike Biden, wasn’t allowed to write his own stipulation.

  • Wise and Hines agreed to the claim that Hunter Biden received $1,000,000 from Patrick Ho (a Chinese national convicted for bribery) “as a payment for legal fees” – without even thinking to question whether that payment was a bribe masked as legal fees.

  • Wise and Hines failed to inform the Court of whether Hunter Biden owed California income taxes. In the De Sousa case, that defendant’s outstanding Maryland tax obligations were listed for a number of years and he was required to pay restitution to Maryland.

  • De Sousa’s plea deal was standard and readily accepted by that court. The Hunter Biden plea/diversion was “unprecedented” and abnormal and without “authority”, contained ambiguous paragraphs that could have allowed Hunter to avoid any type of FARA prosecution, and the diversion itself is probably unconstitutional.

  If we can briefly summarize – in the De Sousa case, DOJ prosecutors Wise and Hines wanted to send a message that you get a harsh sentence if you try to avoid your taxes. The DOJ, assisted by Wise and Hines, now sends a different message in the Hunter Biden case: the son of the President gets preferential treatment. More egregious tax crimes are no longer subject to imprisonment.

  Barring shocking revelations, DOJ “terminators” Leo Wise and Derek Hines, the prosecutors who in the past pursued “stern sentences”, the two men who made their names in the Department by taking down notorious targets, are now doing all they can – from misrepresenting Hunter’s conduct to the Court to omitting key details of Hunter’s tax fraud – to make sure the President’s son doesn’t even get a slap on the wrist.

  Subscribe to The Reactionary here…

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 17:40

• Air Travel Bubble Might Be In A Stall
  Air Travel Bubble Might Be In A Stall

  There are early indications that the air travel boom post-Covid might be in the early stages of a stall following a slowdown in consumer credit and debit card transactions of airline ticket purchases in the second quarter, according to tech firm Bloomberg Second Measure. This would mark the first drop in two years since government-enforced lockdowns led carriers to reduce flights nationwide. 

  Once the skies reopened after lockdowns were lifted, consumers began to travel, and some called it ‘revenge travel’ to make up for time and experiences lost during the pandemic. But after a two-year boom and soaring airfare inflation, consumers are reducing travel, like other discretionary purchases, including electronics, apparel, and restaurants. 

  Bloomberg Second Measure data for the second quarter shows anonymous credit and debit card transactions made with airline carriers, such as Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and JetBlue. 

  

  According to the transaction data, Alaska, American, and Delta experienced the most significant quarterly declines. This data aligns with Alaska’s earnings report last week, warning about a slowdown in demand. 

  Southwest reported earnings last week that topped Wall Street’s expectations but was concerned about how demand will hold up in the second half of the year. 

  The good news is the latest CPI report showed ticket inflation has finally plummeted. 

  

  But that might not stoke demand as consumers are already pulling back on overall card spending as retailer sales disappointed in June. Many consumers have been battered by two years of negative real wage growth that forced them to drain personal savings and rack up insurmountable credit card debt in a high-rate environment. 

  The new data that shows consumers are pulling back on air travel is an ominous one despite the White House touting ‘Bidenomics’ has sparked an economic ‘renaissance.’ 

  Tyler Durden
  Mon, 07/31/2023 – 17:20

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