Jan 01

Today’s News 1st January 2023

  • Top 10 Conspiracy Theories That Will Be Validated In 2023
    Top 10 Conspiracy Theories That Will Be Validated In 2023

    Authored by Ben Sellers via Headline USA,

    A female recruit receives her badge during an FBI graduation ceremony. / IMAGE: FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation via YouTube

    There has been a lot of talk lately about the “word of the year.”

    Some say it is “gaslighting,” which happens to be a personal favorite of mine.

    Others say “goblin mode,” a bizarre term linked to Kanye West and Elon Musk that the Left’s semantic gatekeepers have rushed to redefine from a meme that was funny precisely because it had no obvious definition.

    In the spirit of New Year’s predictions, I will boldly assert that the same may be true of 2023’s future word of the year, “conspiracy theory.”

    Like “gaslighting” and “goblin mode,” it is a term that has taken on a new meaning in light of current events—and one that the Left–Establishment hegemony has desperately sought to appropriate and weaponize for its own purposes.

    But in the next 12 months, we will see conservatives successfully reclaim it. In fact, the early adopters are already lighting the way on social media.

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    Increasingly, we are seeing the corruption of the Biden administration start to come out in the wash, with growing backlash. Questions that the media tried to deny and deride in service to their agenda have since had the curtain lifted. More and more, even averred leftist idealogues, like ex-Planned Parenthood leader Leana Wen, are admitting that they lied about various aspects of the COVID pandemic. https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jshttps://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

     While the Twitter Files have played a huge role in exposing the unseemly and unconstitutional collusion between U.S. spy agencies and Big Tech, a flurry of GOP-led investigations in the House will bring at least the semblance of accountability back to The Swamp, even if it is more or less a paper tiger.

    Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who was named Media Matters’s “Misinformer of the Year,” recently reflected on the origin of the term “conspiracy theory,” which emerged from the Warren Commission’s efforts to cover up the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy.

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    JFK may have been the first time that deep-state operatives in the intelligence community succeeded in overthrowing a sitting president.

    Since then, it has happened at least two more times, with FBI and CIA fingerprints all over both the Watergate scandal and the 2020 election fraud.

    But having overplayed their hand, the entire house of cards now seems poised to collapse, validating skeptics’ belief that everything they have been told for the past half-century has been part of the real Big Lie, and that our idea of democracy has been but an illusion.

    With that in mind, here are 10 things that the powers-that-be in D.C. have yet to cop to, but which will soon be impossible to ignore, in no particular order:

    1. The role that the intel community and the Justice Department played in fomenting violence through psy-ops on Jan. 6, 2021, will be exposed.  Sadly, in their expected counter-investigation responding to the Pelosi-run Jan. 6 committee, even House Republicans may withhold state secrets from us. But the FBI’s damaging partisan conduct has generated a multitude of whistleblowing defectors who should be willing to shed light on the dubious allegations of right-wing extremism and violence at the U.S. Capitol—and in the 2017 Charlottesville riot that was its dress rehearsal.
    2. The deadly impact of the COVID vaccines will become undeniable. Initially, I had considered writing about how the GOP House will expose Anthony Fauci’s role in developing the COVID-19 virus, but that already has been scrutinized to death, and without any accountability to back it up, it makes no difference. But there are plenty of other COVID abuses that will keep on yielding new storylines. And none may be greater than the decision by pharmaceutical companies to suppress therapeutics and overplay the importance of their untested and experimental new vaccines. The evidence is mounting that the vaccines themselves may have been as deadly and damaging as the virus—something to which many life-insurance actuaries may be able to attest. Whether the vaccines do, indeed, have nanobots that self-assemble and transmit wi-fi, there is a lot of reason to suspect that they are harmful on some level.
    3. The scope of China’s control over the U.S. government will become clearer. We know about the various financial ties between the Biden family and the CCP. We know that other top leaders, including Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell are heavily invested in Chinese industry. But what we have yet to fully explore is the way that China-linked companies like BlackRock have also completely infiltrated the White House and are effectively writing U.S. foreign policy.
    4. The true nature of David DePape’s relationship with Paul Pelosi will be revealed. While court hearings have kept a tight lid on the evidence in the Paul Pelosi assault case, including body-cam footage, it will be harder for Nancy Pelosi to flex her authority after stepping down as House speaker. It is very clear that the assailant, David DePape, is no right-wing extremist and that there is more going on that meets the eye.
    5. We will find out what Trump’s purloined Mar-a-Lago files really contained. Punting the DOJ probes that resulted in the unprecedented raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort to corrupt special counsel Jack Smith was a good way to keep them out of the reach of GOP oversight in the U.S. House. But, eventually, the clock will run out and it will be necessary to explain why, exactly, this norm-violating measure was taken. Odds are it was a CYA operation by the FBI to prevent Trump from exposing the Russia-hoax documents that he already had publicly declared to be declassified.
    6. We will learn what the Democrats intend to do with Joe Biden and who will be tapped to replace him. Will it be Michelle Obama, as I and others have long predicted? Or could they pull out another yet-unknown figure who has been carfully vetted and groomed in secret, like her husband, Barack? Once the Democrats finally decide that Biden has outlasted his usefulness, their reasons for installing him in the first place may become clear. When Barack Obama was overheard telling a Democrat donor “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f**k things up,” there is a good chance it was a sales pitch more than a warning.
    7. We will discover the truth about the U.S.–Ukrainian partnership to research and develop bioweapons. Congress has allocated in excess of $100 billion to defend something in Ukraine, but it sure ain’t democracy. While their personal investments in Burisma—or in weapons manufacturers like Raytheon—may be prime motivators, all indications are that the country is a rat’s nest of CIA operations.
    8. The Left’s plans to normalize and mainstream pedophilia will come to fruition. The initial push to sexualize and groom children in schools and on kid-friendly mediums like Disney may have fallen flat, but leftists will only redouble their efforts to foist this onto the population because the ability to control and manipulate young minds is pivotal to their long-term plans for control. By acclimating children to sex at an early age, they can add it as another weapon in their quiver, which also includes cultivating ignorance and racial grievances, so that the plebian class is as pliable as possible.
    9. The World Economic Forum will lead the way in trying to turn humans into glorified Matrix-style batteries. The convergence of artificial intelligence technology, the metaverse, the decline of office culture, growing clamor about digital passports and currencies, guaranteed incomes and an ever-increasing scarcity of resources suggest that the global plans to collectivize all nations under a one-world government are being gamed out as we speak.
    10. As the relationship between Big Tech and the spy agencies becomes clearer, we will learn that our personal devices are tracking our every move. Knowing what we know about the interest that the FBI and the CIA have in manipulating technology companies to perform extralegal operations, and what we know about the reprehensible virtue signaling of Google and Apple, is there really any doubt that they have empowered our intel community to conduct warrantless domestic surveillance from any device at any time and that our phones are being used to monitor us, in true Big Brother fashion, around the clock?

    Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at truthsocial.com/@bensellers or twitter.com/realbensellers.

    Tyler Durden
    Sun, 01/01/2023 – 00:31

  • Pornhub's 2022 Year In Review Reveals World's Darkest And Dirtiest Searches
    Pornhub’s 2022 Year In Review Reveals World’s Darkest And Dirtiest Searches

    Yet another website has published its year-in-review. This one comes from Pornhub’s statisticians, who have published its users’ consumption habits in colorful infographics for the ninth year. 

    Let’s begin with the US, the country with the highest daily traffic to Pornhub this year. 

    Pornhub’s global average visit duration decreased by 1 second to 9 minutes and 54 seconds. The US saw a 3-second decrease to 9 minutes and 41 seconds. 

    On a state-by-state basis, users in many southern states, including Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi, had the highest visiting times on the website. Ohio, Washington, and South Dakota users had some of the lowest. 

    Worldwide, Friday was the least favorite time to watch porn, while Sunday afternoon into the evening was the best time. 

    Here are the world’s most viewed categories. 

    The average user age is 37 years old.

    A breakdown of searches by generation. 

    How most users access the website. 

    A breakdown of most searched terms, pornstars, trending searches, top categories, and relative categories for the US. 

    Oh, and there’s this…

    In a separate report, data from SimilarWeb shows Pornhub is one of the top-trafficked websites in the world. 

    Digging deep into Pornhub data can provide a glimpse into society’s darkest and dirtiest secrets. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 22:15

  • A Multipolar Shift With Energy And Dollar Disruptions
    A Multipolar Shift With Energy And Dollar Disruptions

    Authored by Victor Xing via The Mises Institute,

    Executive Summary

    • In the near term, China’s reopening and buying of ESPO crude would likely erode the role of Brent & energy indices

    • Gulf nations envision the scope of petroyuan to be on par with demands for Chinese goods & technology transfer

    • Rising yuan payments for Russian energy and more China-Gulf bilateral trade imply future dollar demand decline

    • In the long term, more local currency trade settlements would erode dollar flows and Federal Reserve’s influence

    China’s yuan denominated Russia crude rivals Saudi imports

    In 2021, China imported 79.6 million tons of crude from Russia (1.6 million barrels per day) vs. 87.6 million tons from Saudi Arabia (1.8 million barrels per day). These two producers respectively accounted for 15.5% and 17.1% of China’s total crude import at 513.2 million tons (10.3 million barrels per day), which was near Saudi Arabia’s total 2021 output of 515 million tons. At present demand, China is both Saudi Arabia and Russia’s top energy customer:

    Following the onset of the war in Europe, rising yuan-denominated Russian crude export and omission of Russia’s Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean (ESPO) grade crude from broader commodity indices would likely erode Brent crude’s role as a global oil benchmark. Investors focusing solely on Brent may overlook key market shifts.

    China’s energy demand was subdued in 2021 and 2022 due to pandemic restrictions, and a broader economic reopening would likely accelerate demand for both Russian and Saudi energy products (by 2+ million barrels a day). However, Brent would only reflect part of the demand surge due to ESPO shipment and direct Russo-China pipeline flows. In 2022, sale of Russian pipeline crude to China totaled 33.3 million tons by October (nearly half of Russian flows to China over the period). Given crude pipelines would not use EU or G7 insurance services, the products would trade at uncapped prices into 2023.

    Meanwhile, seaborne ESPO crude traded at $79 per barrel in Asian markets after the G7 + EU price cap came into effect at $60 per barrel, because the presence of a Russian tanker fleet that uses its own insurance.

    The Bloomberg Commodity Index, as well as its futures instruments, uses WTI and Brent crude to construct its crude constituents, and it would underrepresent energy market developments in Asia if ESPO decouples from Brent:

    Currently, yuan-denominated purchases of Russian crude uses a quasi-barter system: Chinese buyers would settle Russian crude purchases in yuan, and Russia would subsequently use the yuan to purchase Chinese technology products.

    This is the same petroyuan model discussed at the China-Saudi Summit.

    Saudi-China Summit and long-term impacts

    A key market focus on the Saudi-China Summit attended by Crown Prince Bin Salman and President Xi was petroyuan. Xi proposed making “full use of the Shanghai Petroleum and National Gas Exchange as a platform to carry out yuan settlement of oil and gas trade.” A Saudi source previously said a decision to sell small amounts of oil in yuan to China could make sense in order to pay for Chinese imports directly, but “it is not yet the right time” to take the step.

    This ambiguous stance preserved policy option for the Kingdom, for the Saudis do not see the yuan as an alternative reserve currency as Russia does. Riyadh, like Hong Kong, pegs its currency to the dollar, and it would require an ample dollar reserve to defend the riyal. As long as this system persists, Saudi Arabia would use petrodollar as a liquidity source, and it would reinvest reserves in interest-bearing dollar-denominated assets such as U.S. Treasury securities or corporate bonds. This supports the dollar and contributes to easier dollar-based financial conditions by boosting dollar asset prices. Ultimately, the petrodollar system plays a role to elevate the Federal Reserve as the dollar system’s central bank that affects global financing costs.

    Yet, Saudi Arabia’s willingness to consider a system modeled after yuan-based Russian crude trade reflects its pragmatic considerations: it creates an incentive for Beijing to broaden economic ties with Riyadh. Greater the overall bilateral trade in yuan, greater the Kingdom’s demand for renminbi to pay for Chinese goods and technology, and petroyuan would fulfill a similar purpose as petrodollar to supply Riyadh with a non-dollar invoicing currency.

    Overtime, greater the Saudi-China bilateral trade, greater the likelihood of more crude transactions settled in yuan, thus smaller the role of the dollar (and Fed policy) on global asset markets. While petroyuan would hardly replace petrodollar given its limited scope, less dollar in commodity settlement would result in less reinvestment of dollar reserves into dollar assets. This has ramifications from U.S. fiscal policy (less demand for dollar debt) to U.S. fixed income and equity markets.

    Combined with India’s work on rupee transactions with Russia, a slow grind toward a multipolar (fragmented) world would likely weaken the dollar and erode existing asset correlation paradigms to create new market opportunities.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 21:30

  • 2022's Ten Most 'Conspiratorial' Events
    2022’s Ten Most ‘Conspiratorial’ Events

    Via 21st Century Wire,

    It’s New Year’s Eve again, and with that our time-honoured tradition of looking back at the most conspiratorial events of the past year. 

    It goes without saying that 2022 has seemed like an extended nightmare for many, but it has also served as a reoccurring revelation too. Still, many are glad to see the back of it, while cautiously optimistic that this next year ‘couldn’t get any worse.’ That remains to be seen, and more insights on that front are available in our other annual opus, Trends and Predictions for 2023.

    Another important truism: the tin foil hat conspiracy theorists continue to be vindicated as significant events unfold. So much so, that we can now lay the common trope, “Oh, it’s just a coincidence” – safely to rest. Henceforth, those who still insist on referring to bona fide conspiracies as mere coincidences, shall be dubbed as coincidence theorists.

    Before we get to the top ten list, here are some of the honourable mentions from the past year…

    Here are some of this past year’s standout stories which didn’t make the top tier. We should first mention that the ongoing fallout from the experimental mRNA ‘vaccine’ roll-out and the vaccine passport/digital ID could easily be at the top of any list of conspiracies and scandals, and will unfortunately remain as a looming threat to the lives of billions of people for many years, if not decades to come. That said, some other controversial events of note from this past year include the incredible Canadian Truckers Protest against a vaccine-obsessed Trudeau regime and its unprecedented draconian attack on Canadian citizens demanding a restoration of their basic human rights. We also saw the mysterious demolition of the infamous Georgia Guide Stones monument to Malthusian eugenics, the precarious trial of Jeffrey Epstein’s partner in crime Ghislane Maxwell which somehow netted no VIP client names (and amazingly, she’s still alive in one piece), and also the bizarre political tale of Nancy Pelosi’s husband Pauli P. supposedly getting mauled with a hammer by a known local personality in their San Francisco mansion – a story promptly buried my the MSM right before the election. On the tech front, we should point to the ominous unleashing by Google’s OpenAI of their new ChatGPT artificial intelligence bot. It was a moderate year for false flags and mass shootings, with a few heavily politicized high-profile anomalous events like the Uvalde School Shooting in Texas and the Club Q Shooting in Colorado Springs. In Europe, the Dutch Farmers Revolt exposing a pernicious anti-farming and GMO food agenda by the World Economic Forum and Bill Gates networks, along with meat shortages and continued supply chain disruptions – all converging to form the perfect financial storm which now threatens to ravage an already weak and unstable global economy. Later in the year came a real blast from the past, reports of an imminent document release which contains some evidence of the CIA’s role in the JFK Assassination. Granted, these are just a few in a long list of major events which didn’t make our final cut.

    So without further ado, here are the top ten conspiracies of 2022…

    10. US Midterm Election Fraud

    Considering all that is going on in the US and internationally at this time, most Americans would agree that the 2022 Midterm Election was one of the most important and consequential elections of their lifetime. Both the House of Representatives and US Senate were up for grabs, and there was a real opportunity to correct a serious imbalance of power in Washington. However, before Nov. 8th there was a real air of trepidation, as the shadow of the controversial 2020 Election still loomed large, with accusations of widespread and systemic election fraud still unresolved. The sum of all fears became real again in the key swing state of Arizona: on election morning most of the voting machines in the state’s largest population center, Maricopa County, just happened to malfunction. Officials claimed it was just an unfortunate coincidence. That was only the beginning, as boxes with thousands of ballots continued to mysteriously turn up after election day. In short, the Arizona election became a national and international embarrassment. As it goes, the state’s election and processes were being controlled by Democratic Party operatives – who then slow-walked the vote counting for two weeks after the election was meant to be over. Not surprisingly, the favorite in the governor’s race, Republican, Kari Lake (image, above) barely lost to an unremarkable Democrat candidate Katie Hobbs (if you believe the final contested result), and to add insult to injury, the person in charge of the state’s election debacle… was Katie Hobbs, who happened to also be serving as Arizona’s Secretary of State. Kari Lake sued the state to demand a recount and a run-off, but political and media pressure on the courts prompted the judge to dismiss her challenge – despite having truckloads of evidence proving foul play. Lake has appealed the decision. What’s important is that this time the world saw what happened, and the state and Democratic Party machine was widely exposed – effectively vindicating millions of Americans who still hold well-founded suspicions about the infamous 2020 Election which managed to install the corrupt, deep state candidate Joe Biden into power. Similar anomalies were observed in 2022 – in states like Nevada and Pennsylvania. In the end, the Republicans still managed to flip the House of Representatives by a slim margin, while losing the US Senate by an even slimmer margin. In a country where half the population still do not trust the democratic process, civility and stability are now teetering on borrowed time.

    9. Monkeypox

    As the Covid gravy train began to break down, the globalists’ Government-Media-Pharma Complex grew desperate for a new ‘pandemic’ to maintain the structures of control and human surveillance which they erected during the contrived Covid-19 ‘state of emergency’. Enter a relatively unknown and exotically-titled alleged pathogen, Monkeypox. Attempts were made to portray this mythical epidemic as some sort of universal threat, and when that failed, the Establishment then pivoted to try and promote it as a new “gay disease” in an attempt to emulate a familiar template used to reproduce the perennial (and highly questionable) HIV crisis. In the end, their fear campaign never really took off, but not before a brand-new vaccine was created to “protect the public from another potentially deadly epidemic.” And after all that failed, efforts were then made to use it in order to harvest some political capital – by sacrificing this brand at the altar of political correctness, as social justice clerics demanded the mythical virus be rebranded due to fears that name “Monkeypox” was somehow racist…? But how? Against primates? No one was quite sure what they meant. Oh well. Introducing “MPOX”. Rinse, and repeat. Welcome to the world of Modern Virology (aka Big Pharma’s main meal ticket). Meanwhile, we’re all waiting with bated breath for Bill Gates’ self-confessed “next pandemic.”

    8. China Lockdown Redux 

    Just when the Chinese were beginning to get a taste of freedom again, the Central Party decide to fire-up the pandemic control grid again. In February 2022, an alleged COVID-19 ‘outbreak’ was announced in the city of Shanghai. Central Party claimed that the alleged ‘outbreak’ was caused by the Omicron variant. The state then proceeded to decree a new “Zero Covid” policy, before locking-down more cities, and dragging the country back into the authoritarian hell of February 2020. As it turned out, the real reason this new ‘Covid wave’ materialized was because of nondiagnostic PCR testing ‘case’ data generated through more meaningless mass COVID-19 testing. Finally, after 8 months of Covid madness, foreign investment began drying up, and China’s already fragile economy was destabilizing. The state’s overzealousness then triggered mass protests against Orwellian government restrictions, with millions of Chinese taking to the streets across the country to demand their basic freedom. This prompted Central Party to quickly abandon its failing social control program, and not surprisingly their economy began to rebound as people and business got back to work. Rather interestingly, the US government seemed unhappy that China was taking its foot off the authoritarian pedal, and so Biden then levied an administrative punishment against China by slapping a new mandatory Covid test travel restriction on any Chinese travelers arriving in the USA. It really seems that as the world’s most populous nation, without China’s total compliance the globalists’ New Normal agenda will quickly fall apart. This incident should tell us all we need to know about the so-called ‘global pandemic.’

    7. The Trans Agenda

    On March 17, 2022, Lia Thomas (formerly named William Thomas), 22, became the first openly transgender athlete to win America’s top college sports title – following a cringe worthy  victory in the women’s 500 yard freestyle. Let us explain: because Thomas believes he is now a woman, some institutions like the NCAA – who have come under political pressure from the radical leftist wing of the political machine – now feel obligated to allow a biological male like Thomas to compete against physically inferior biological females (aka real women). The victory was short-lived though, as the woke bombast of the Thomas debacle quickly became a lightning rod in the debate about so-called “trans women” in sports – triggering a massive backlash against this extreme ideological invasion of womens’ competitive sports. Not long after, international sporting organizations ruled that biological male athletes like Thomas can no longer compete in top races. FINA, the world swimming’s governing body, also announced plans to create a new “open” category of competition to include “transgender women” (aka men who believe they are female). Now that the debate has been blown wide open, expect further course corrections as people gradually return to their senses on the issue. But do not expect radical leftists to surrender just yet, as the culture wars will continue to rage on.

    6. FTX and SBF Ponzi Scheme

    Like the S&L scandal of the 1980’s, and the Eron and Bernie Madoff financial scams – this latest iteration of the classic Ponzi Scheme managed to destabilize markets and rob countless investors of their life savings. Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), a 30-year-old crypto celebrity icon and celebrated savant, founded what he claimed were two separate companies: a hedge fund called Alameda Research and FTX cryptocurrency exchange, before going the whole hog by hyping his own fiat crypto token and then used it as collateral to create hundreds of millions of loans for himself, before robbing his depositors to embezzle and gamble away untold fortunes on the markets. And that’s just the beginning. It turns out that SBF was the number two political donor to the Democratic Party, and used his laundered proceeds to bankroll a sizeable portion of the Democrats’ 2020 Midterm Election campaigns, not to mention his mother just happening to be a chief organizer for the Democratic Party as well. Not surprisingly, the Biden Administration waited until after the Midterm Election to begin an investigation into the floppy haired SBF and his FTX ponzi empire. SBF was eventually arrested in the Bahamas and awaits federal trial in the Southern District of New York. The trial is sure to be both shocking and entertaining in equal measure. But the real question remains: how will this drama effect the government’s role in the world of cryptocurrency? More crucially: is the FTX takedown really a controlled demolition of crypto designed to pave the way for an oppressive Central Bank Digital Currency global ‘cashless’ takeover? We shall see…

    5. CBDC

    2022 was the year the CBDC has made landfall, and is currently waiting in the wings of the halls of power. For the last few years, elites have been gathering at globalist confabs like Bilderberg and the World Economic Forum in Davos to wax lyrical about the need to abolish the ‘old money’, or ‘dirty cash’ – and to make way for the central bankers’ new Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) – turning the planet into a full-blown cashless society. In the US, this technocratic overhaul is being hatched under the guise of “Project Hamilton” as a joint effort between the Boston Federal Reserve Bank and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to design and plan the release of a “digital dollar” – which will destroy the value of old dollar in order to force people onto the new monetary matrix. As cash disappears from the economy, so does privacy.  Essentially, CBDCs are meant to be an electronic form of fiat money in a particular country or region, but unlike Bitcoin, this digital coin is centralized and regulated by the governments and their central banks. Without ever putting this matter to a public vote, elites and technocrats have simply been moving ahead to implement this authoritarian monetary system. While the mainstream media and globalist think tanks claim that the CBDC is designed to reign in crypto currencies, and supposedly tackle crimes like money laundering, and tax avoidance (something which elites partake in daily), the reality of the CBDC is something altogether different. They plan to issue a programmable currency whereby the bank can control where and what you are allowed to spend your CBDC’s on. They can also shut your money off. Imagine this digital money system combined with a Chinese-style social credit score, or a vaccine passport/digital ID. This dystopian digital control grid will transform commerce and human society in ways we can possibly imagine. For these reasons, many rightly believe that this is the road to digital slavery. The window of opportunity to push back against this massive authoritarian assault is now closing.

    4. The Twitter Files

    This is the biggest tech scandal in modern history – and it’s gone mostly unreported by 90% of the mainstream media because of the partisan nature of its revelations. The Twitter Files have provided an unprecedented look behind the dirty inner workings of the firm’s opaque censorship regime, and exposes an openly fascist merger of Silicon Valley’s ‘Big Tech’ companies and the bloated National Security State. In early December, under new management of owner and CEO Elon Musk, Twitter HQ began disseminating a massive trove of internal documents revealing the direct collusion between former CEO Jack Dorsey’s corporate regime and the US Federal Government – to censor and cancel users from the platform for speech or political views which went against globalist or government policies. This included copious evidence of election interference. It seems that in their desperation to conjure up proof of alleged “foreign influence” on Twitter, FBI and other federal government officials doubled-down to try and save their sinking Russiagate narrative, and creating a monster in the process. New revelations also exposed the FBI’s role in leaning on Twitter to expedite illegal censorship operations, and how so-called ‘public health’ officials strong-armed Twitter into sanitizing all speech relating to COVID-19 and the experimental mRNA ‘vaccine’ injections. The FBI were also drawing-up shadowbanning and censorship blacklists in an attempt to cleanse the platform of effective opposition to the Biden campaign in 2020 and later into his first term. Under Dorsey, the platform became an open cesspool for spooks and government operatives – many of whom appeared to be allowed to spy on users’ DMs, and to dictate terms of censorship on the platform. Watch this space. This is only the beginning.

    3. Sabotage of the Nordstream Pipelines

    Back in late September, the world woke up to truly horrific news – both the Nordstream 1 and 2 pipelines were reported to be leaking gas into the Baltic Sea and into the atmosphere – after what looked like a deliberate act of sabotage. While the media played dumb, pretending not to know who carried out this attack, sane onlookers were well aware of the only entity who had the motives, means and opportunity to carry out this state-sponsored act of terror – namely the United States and its NATO partners. Incredibly, the entire western media quickly began blaming Russia for blowing up its most important energy infrastructure project. The result of this attack was a further devastation of Europe’s energy supplies and hyperinflationary EU and UK consumer prices for the fall and winter – not to mention the millions of cubic meters of methane which were released into the Earth’s atmosphere. Despite all the vacant US denials, the facts are clear as day: Joe Biden and Victoria Nuland were both on record beforehand promising they would “end the Nordstream pipeline.” Of course, this is a hugely dangerous red line which the US and its allies have crosses: by declaring a no-holds-barred geopolitical energy war, the gates are now open for further escalations – which may lead to WWIII. History has shown this can happen. Consider the Anglo-American energy embargo and strong-arming of Japan which led up to the Attack on Pearl Harbor which opened the door for the US to enter WWII. Think of the Nordstream attack as just that, but worse – as it was also direct attack on the day-to-day energy and finances of people living in the EU and the collective West. Indeed, the West is playing an extremely dangerous game, which is really the Great Game 2.0.

    2. The Energy Shock

    In the future, we will look back at 2022 as one of the most consequential years of young 21st century history. If you live in the collective West or the EU, you know that the energy crisis is now a reality. The real question is: is all of this by simply by happenstance, or is it being done by design? And can it be traced back to a much older global agenda, and forward through to the WEF’s Great Reset? The answer to all those questions is course, yes. But this is only the surface of this issue. For Brussels and Berlin, this ‘green’ road to energy scarcity pure economic suicide. Rather than change this policy course and work to stabilise global energy and agricultural markets – the gallant virtue-signalling West has opted instead to double-down on their precarious stance by further tightening anti-Russian sanctions, as well as pursue even deeper commitments towards de-nulearisation and the not-so-green ‘Net Zero’ carbon reduction agenda. The cancelation of Russia, coupled with the disastrous ‘green’ energy policies are only accelerating inflationary cycles globally. All of this is a recipe for disaster – all due to policies directly created by western governments. By blocking inbound energy supplies from the Nordstream and other Russian pipelines which supplied them with affordable and reliable gas and oil into the EU, Europe has painted itself into a very perilous corner. Behind the energy wars and even beyond Klaus Schwab’s globalist facade – you will find hardcore geopolitics at play. The main Anglo-American objective: the deindustrialization of Germany and EU, the separation of Russian resources and political leadership from western markets. We live in truly perilous times.

    1. The Ukraine War

    In late February 2022, the unthinkable happened: Russia launched its military intervention into neighboring Ukraine. War is hell, and while Russia seems intent on seeing its “Special Military Operation” through, the US and its allies are going to have to decide just how long they plan to fight Russia down to the last Ukrainian. How many dead Ukrainian soldiers and lost territory will it take for the West to instruct Ukraine’s President Zelensky to finally sue for peace? Welcome to NATO’s ultimate proxy war of attrition in Ukraine, driven by the greatest western media propaganda campaign of all-time. Suffice to say that Russia, Ukraine, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance are now at war – with each party firmly in the belief that they are fighting an existential war, not over any particular political or territorial dispute, but for the future existence of their countries, or in the case of NATO, over their ability to maintain regional hegemony for the Atlanticist power bloc. Will this near frozen conflict escalate to a WWIII situation, or a thermo-nuclear exchange between the great powers? The US and British invasion of Iraq nearly two decades ago is a particularly pertinent and telling counterpoint to events in Ukraine. Then, as now, the ‘free and democratic Western World’ was supposedly faced with a dangerous, unhinged despot in Saddam Hussein, who, like Putin is said to be unwilling to compromise. It’s a well-worn script for the West, and will likely remain the justification of another endless war. Of course, Zelensky could end it all tomorrow if he declared his intentions to disavow any NATO aspirations, demilitarize the country, and declare Ukraine a neutral state. Such a declaration would certainly be welcome by Russia today, but the West are determined to keep this proxy war going, and cancel Russia from the global economic system. Besides, business is just too good for Ukraine who have managed scrape more than $100 billion from the US and EU treasuries so far, not to mention the billions in profits for shareholders in the US defense industry. Oh, and on the backend of this war, the WEF and BlackRock are eyeing Ukraine’s remaining assets, as private oligarchs hatch their plan to carve up and reshape the post-war landscape there. The future world order is at stake.

    What an unbelievable year. Expect some seriously impactful moments in 2023.

    HAPPY NEW YEAR.

    *  *  *

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 21:15

  • The US Is The Champagne-Drinking Champion Of The World
    The US Is The Champagne-Drinking Champion Of The World

    The United States and the UK are leading the way when it comes to procuring real champagne with 34.1 and 29.9 million 750 milliliter bottles imported in 2021, respectively.

    As Statista’s Felix Richter shows in the chart below, based on data by the trade association Comité Champagne, most of the biggest import nations are located in Europe.

    Infographic: The Champagne Champions of the World | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    With the exception of the U.S., Japan and Australia, Western European countries like Germany, Belgium and Italy are dominating last year’s top 10.

    This is not to say that other countries don’t enjoy sparkling wine, but the numbers only refer to the higher-priced, regionally produced drink from the French region of Champagne.

    The area was officially designated in 1927 and is home to winemakers like Veuve Clicquot, Moët & Chandon and Krug.

    While French champagne only makes up around nine percent of the global sparkling wine consumption, it’s responsible for 33 percent of the market value, generated with only 0.5 percent of the world’s total vineyard area. Overall, champagne exports from France amounted to $5.7 billion in 2021, with the U.S. alone being responsible for roughly $793 million.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 20:45

  • China Conducts Military Maneuvers Near US Bases At Guam, Okinawa
    China Conducts Military Maneuvers Near US Bases At Guam, Okinawa

    Authored by Kyle Anzalone & Will Porter via The Libertarian Institute,

    The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning has sailed near the Japanese island of Okinawa and the US territory of Guam over the past two weeks. The naval operations came at the end of a year which saw several military escalations between Washington and Beijing.

    Tokyo reported that the Liaoning and at least four other large warships operated in waters near Okinawa, adding that the ships remained about 150 miles offshore for several days. While in the area, the Chinese carrier conducted over 200 takeoff and landing drills.

    The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy aircraft carrier Liaoning is seen in waters near Hong Kong, via Wikimedia Commons.

    On Thursday, Japanese officials confirmed that, after sailing away from Japan, the flotilla then traveled near the US territory of Guam. According to the Global Times, a Chinese newspaper closely linked with the country’s ruling Communist Party, the operation “showed that the Chinese carrier is ready to defend the country against potential US attacks launched from there.”

    The relationship between Washington and Beijing has continued to deteriorate in 2022, perhaps best exemplified by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan last summer and a massive round of Chinese military drills launched near the island in retaliation. 

    President Joe Biden has further fueled tensions by repeatedly asserting that US forces would come to Taiwan’s defense in the event of a Chinese invasion. However, Taiwan is not recognized as a sovereign nation under US law, which instead endorses Beijing’s claim to the island and calls for a position of “strategic ambiguity” towards Taipei. 

    While a number of past US administrations have refrained from openly saying whether Washington would intervene against China on Taiwan’s behalf, Biden has increasingly eroded that position, prompting senior White House officials to walk back his statements on multiple occasions. Proponents of strategic ambiguity contend that the policy acts as a deterrent against any future attack by Beijing, and stops short of emboldening Taipei to take aggressive actions of its own. 

    Biden recently met with Chinese President Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit. While the goal was to seek to resolve various outstanding issues between the two powers, both countries continue to conduct provocative military exercises. 

    Map source: Encyclopaedia Britannica

    Tokyo – which is part a three-way security pact with Washington and Seoul created to confront Beijing – has also escalated regional tensions by announcing an end to its post-WWII defense-oriented military and plans to become the world’s third-highest weapons spender over the next five years. Moreover, the United States has worked to persuade its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to take part in its operations in Chinese-claimed waters, while Canada recently announced plans to conduct more military transits through the disputed Taiwan Strait. 

    Beijing has significantly deepened its security and diplomatic ties with Moscow this year, with the two allies striking a “no limits strategic partnership” in the days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February. The Asian superpowers have conducted joint drills in the waters and skies around both Japan and Taiwan in recent weeks, having just wrapped up naval exercises in the East China Sea on Tuesday. Another round of wargames on December 14 saw Chinese warships cross multiple Japanese straits as Russian fighters and bombers flew near Japanese airspace over the Sea of Japan. 

    Underscoring the rising hostilities, earlier this week the Pentagon released a video, captured on December 21, showing a Chinese fighter that approached an American spy plane over the South China Sea, accusing the pilot of performing an “unsafe maneuver” that risked a collision. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 20:00

  • Laid-Off Silicon Valley Workers Panic Sell Start-Up Shares As Valuations Crash
    Laid-Off Silicon Valley Workers Panic Sell Start-Up Shares As Valuations Crash

    Silicon Valley tech companies have benefited from over a decade of low-interest rates and easy money. But since the Federal Reserve turned off the liquidity taps to combat inflation — at least for now — tech firms have been forced into aggressive cost-cutting measures, such as reducing headcount. 

    This brings us to the workers who were fired this year. Financial Times reported, “employees of embattled tech groups are flooding secondary markets — where stakeholders in a private company sell shares to third parties.” And as they unload shares on the private market, the valuations of these startups are collapsing. 

    The latest data from Crunchbase shows more than 91,000 workers in the U.S. tech sector have been laid off this year. 

    “We are seeing an inflow of people being laid off trying to sell their shares,” Greg Martin, managing director of Rainmaker Securities, which facilitates private stock transactions. “These companies have built their headcounts up so much, so there are a lot of people highly motivated to get a sale done,” he said.

    Martin added while there’s an increasing number of laid-off workers trying to cash out, many of these sales are happening during valuation declines of “30-80% from a year ago.” 

    A valuation reset for startups has led venture capitalists to sit on the sidelines and wait for the smoke to clear. The selling of private stock has also pushed down startup valuations. 

    FT published market valuations of private companies that show a rollercoaster ride in the last year. 

    The highly illiquid market for private secondary markets, such as those operated by Rainmaker, further complicates assessing valuations in times of market turmoil. 

    Data from Rainmaker showed that shares in Anduril, a defense artificial intelligence company backed by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz valued at $8.5bn, traded at $16.95 per share in November, down from $31.50 in March. Brokers such as Rainmaker trade Anduril shares indirectly through special purpose vehicles, as Anduril prohibits direct trading of its shares on secondary markets.

    Shares in SoftBank-backed Chime Bank, which was valued at $25bn when it last raised external capital in August 2021, have lost a quarter of their value since then on secondary markets, trading at $60 per share, according to the most recent data. –FT

    Rainmaker’s Martin warned there’s a wave of laid-off employees who are dumping private stock into illiquid markets. The collapse in fundraising for the IPO market has complicated things for private companies, who are now scrambling to find lending lifelines.  

    On public markets, unprofitable tech companies have underperformed this year and are likely to continue doing so until the Fed pivots. Interest rate swaps suggest the Fed could begin cutting by late 2023. 

    The basket of money-losing tech companies compiled by Morgan Stanley has plunged 54% — an epic roundtrip back to pre-Covid days. 

    Profitability has become necessary for investors in these challenging times. There may come a time when unprofitable companies outperform again, but that widely depends on Fed policy. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 19:15

  • Crypto 2022: A Disastrous Year That Saw Few Winners Among A Sea Of Losers
    Crypto 2022: A Disastrous Year That Saw Few Winners Among A Sea Of Losers

    Authored by Prashant Jha via CoinTelegraph.com,

    2022 was supposed to be the year crypto went mainstream, with a significant chunk of traditional venture capital firms betting heavily on the ecosystem in 2021. However, with one disaster after another, 2022 turned out to be a catastrophic year for the nascent crypto ecosystem. Some of the biggest names touted as pivotal to taking the crypto ecosystem forward turned out to be the orchestrators of its worst year in recent memory.

    That said, quite a few protagonists rose to the occasion. These winners proved that crypto is not just about a few select individuals and companies but a vibrant ecosystem that can survive significant setbacks.

    Let’s start with some of the biggest winners of the crypto ecosystem in 2022. The list includes individuals, companies and anonymous groups working for the betterment of the industry.

    The winners

    In a year that saw the multibillion-dollar collapses of the Terra ecosystem, FTX and Three Arrows Capital, it’s hard to pick winners. However, crypto has faced adversaries before, and 2022 was no different. Several positives came out of the year despite the collapse of several centralized entities.

    Ledger and Trezor

    When Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin, a core idea was to give people financial sovereignty that made them less dependent on centralized intermediaries.

    With offers of lucrative interest rates on yield products and derivatives trading services, most crypto users preferred to keep their crypto assets on centralized exchanges. However, these lucrative offerings become a nightmare when millions of customers lose their funds in the wake of a centralized exchange collapse.

    In the rubble of the FTX collapse, crypto investors lost trust in centralized exchanges. Hardware wallet providers like Ledger and Trezor have benefitted from investors shifting their behavior toward self-custody.

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

    By December, self-custody services and hardware wallets became the preferred choice of many. After the collapse of FTX, Trezor saw a 300% surge in sales and revenue and Ledger saw its biggest sale day ever.

    White hat hackers

    The crypto ecosystem is relatively new, and several use cases like decentralized finance (DeFi) are in early development. This makes it prone to bugs and exploits. According to DefiLlama, DeFi protocols were exploited for nearly $5.93 billion in 2022

    Total value hacked (USD) from DeFi protocols in 2022. Source: DefiLlama

    However, the figures would have been much higher if not for white hat hackers. These white hats returned millions of dollars in stolen funds and flagged security bugs that could have led to more exploits. Security service provider Immunefi claims to have prevented the theft of $20 billion worth of crypto assets alone through its bug bounty program for white hat hackers..

    While many projects tend to ignore white hats, 2022 showed that it’s better to pay out millions in bug bounties than lose billions in exploits.

    Tether

    Amid the chaos of 2022, the Tether stablecoin has successfully manoeuvred its way through the wreckage of both the Terra and FTX collapses.

    USDT price and volume on a 1-year chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

    The centralized stablecoin has been at the forefront of critics’ commentary for as long as it has existed. When Terra’s native stablecoin depegged, there were rumors about Tether’s exposure to the doomed ecosystem.

    However, USDT managed to overcome the scare, and throughout 2022, it has significantly decreased its volatile exposure. The firm also pledged to stop lending out funds from its reserves and put a full stop to all the fear, uncertainty and doubt, or FUD.

    Tether has become more transparent over time, with 82% of its reserves in liquid assets. The firm had total assets of $68.06 billion at the end of the third quarter, exceeding its total liabilities of $67.8 billion.

    The losers

    The crypto ecosystem saw many losers in 2022, with Sam Bankman-Fried the first to earn a mention. The former CEO of crypto exchange FTX started 2022 with a $20 billion net worth. In less than a year, that net worth disappeared and Bankman-Fried is now out on bail for allegedly stealing customers’ funds and committing securities fraud. Terra’s co-founder Do Kwon, whose last known location was Serbia, also makes the list.

    TerraUSD

    Algorithmic stablecoins were a novel, promising concept during the bull market. The Terra ecosystem rose to new highs based on this hype. However, the flawed design of TerraUSD (UST), now known as TerraClassicUSD (USTC), aided by the reckless decision-making of Kwon, led to its eventual downfall. The failure of Terra’s native stablecoin also tainted the concept of algorithmic stablecoins, with regulators warning against them.

    The collapse of UST obliterated $40 billion of investor capital and caused a contagion that claimed nearly half a dozen other crypto firms with exposure to Terra. While many firms and individuals could qualify in the losers list, Terra’s UST implosion was the catalyst that precipitated more upheaval in 2022.

    Alameda Research, FTX and centralized exchanges

    At the start of 2022, FTX was valued at $32 billion, while its sister company Alameda Research boasted a several-billion-dollar valuation of its own. However, the November bank run on FTX soon turned into bankruptcy. As more details emerged, it turned out FTX and Alameda Research were not as independent as they claimed. Even FTX US, which was supposed to be a separate entity regulated under United States law, was found to be embroiled in the complex saga.

    According to the authorities, FTX and Alameda funneled funds to each other, and the two firms were also involved in the embezzlement of customers’ funds. Alameda used FTX funds to loan billions of dollars to other firms. FTX, on the other hand, used nonexistent in-house projects with inflated valuations as collateral to take out significant loans. The whole Ponzi came crashing down in November.

    The downfall of FTX and Alameda created more contagion in the crypto ecosystem and single-handedly erased trust in centralized exchanges and the broader crypto ecosystem practically overnight.

    Crypto investors

    Among all the chaos and downfall of many crypto exchanges and leading venture capital firms, the biggest losers are crypto investors. If the burn of the bear market was not enough, millions of crypto investors who had their funds on FTX lost their life savings overnight.

    Terra was once a $40 billion ecosystem. Its native token, LUNA — now known as Terra Classic (LUNC) — was one of the top five biggest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. With millions of customers invested in the ecosystem, the collapse brought their investment to zero within hours. After the Terra collapse, crypto investors lost their funds on a series of centralized exchanges and staking platforms like Celsius, BlockFi and Hodlnaut. Crypto investors also lost significantly in the nonfungible token market, with the price of many popular collections down by 70%. Overall, crypto investors are among the biggest losers of the year.

    2022 will go down in crypto history as an annus horribilis. Crypto investors will want to forget the year and start fresh. Venture capital firms and investors in crypto projects are reevaluating their investment strategies. After such a tumultuous year in crypto, a likely outcome will be the acceleration of regulations in the industry throughout the coming year. This may restore some of the lost confidence in the industry.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 18:40

  • Russian Military Says Victory "Inevitable" In New Year Message
    Russian Military Says Victory “Inevitable” In New Year Message

    A New Year message issued by the Russian defense ministry declared that it sees victory in Ukraine as “inevitable” – even after the Russian ground forces’ advance in the east in south has appeared stalled for months, and as aerial forces take aim at the national power grid across Ukrainian cities.

    “In the coming year, I want to wish everyone good health, fortitude, reliable and devoted comrades… Our victory, like the New Year, is inevitable,” Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a Saturday video address soon before Russia rings in the new year.

    Sputnik via AP

    The military campaign is now it its 11th month, and will reach one full year on Feb.24. Shoigu explained that 2022 included times that “we all faced serious trials” and that the New Year has come during a “difficult military-political situation.” 

    “The outgoing year will forever enter the military chronicle of the Fatherland, filled with your immortal deeds, selfless courage and heroism in the fight against neo-Nazism and terrorism,” Shoigu said.

    “We will always remember our comrades who sacrificed themselves while performing combat missions in the name of saving civilians from genocide and violence only for the right to speak Russian,” he added. In mentioning the “right to speak Russian” – he was referencing a crackdown on Russian culture and language, which has included recent moves to push forward new laws, by the Zelensky government which Moscow had complained about even before the war.

    Two weeks ago, Russia admitted to just 5,937 military deaths in Ukraine, despite some Western estimates putting the figure as high as 100,000. Estimates of Ukrainian troop deaths are also difficult to assess accurately.

    Recently, the US military said it estimates that some 200,000 have been killed on both sides. Citing the US Joint Chiefs chairman, a November report gave the following grim tally and breakdown:

    The most senior US general estimates that around 100,000 Russian and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured in the war in Ukraine.

    Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, also suggested that around 40,000 civilians had died after being caught up in the conflict.

    The estimates are the highest offered yet by a Western official.

    This past week, the United Nations updated its numbers of civilian casualties over the course of the war since Feb.2022. An OHCHR press release cited a total number of 17,831 civilian casualties in Ukraine, including 6,884 killed and 10,947 injured. 

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

    For now the conflict remains essentially stalemated, with Russia exercising clear air superiority given it has of late been ramping up airstrikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure – but with Ukraine forces receiving more and more powerful, longer-range weapons from the West. The US says Patriot anti-air missiles are en route, but these are expected to take six months minimum to go operational in the country.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 18:05

  • Elon Musk Calls Out "Corporate Journalism" Over Twisted Coverage Of His 'Twitter Files'
    Elon Musk Calls Out “Corporate Journalism” Over Twisted Coverage Of His ‘Twitter Files’

    Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Elon Musk has criticized mainstream media outlets over their coverage of the so-called “Twitter Files.”

    “Why is corporate journalism rushing to defend the state instead of the people?” Musk wrote on Twitter on Dec. 27, in response to a tweet from journalist and documentary filmmaker Leighton Woodhouse. The latter was sharing his new Substack post about how corporate media rushed to defend the FBI and the state instead of exposing them.

    “The Hunter Biden laptop story shows the extent to which the corporate media has become the propaganda arm of the state,” Woodhouse wrote in his Substack, pointing to the recent release of the seventh installment of Twitter’s internal documents.

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk smiles as he addresses guests at the Offshore Northern Seas 2022 (ONS) meeting in Stavanger, Norway, on Aug. 29, 2022. (Carina Johansen/NTB/AFP via Getty Images)

    Independent author Michael Shellenberger published the seventh installment on Dec. 19, revealing how there was an “organized effort” by federal law enforcement agents to discredit the 2020 Hunter Biden laptop report, by targeting social media and news companies.

    Other installments of Twitter’s internal communications have shown how the media giant placed certain individuals on “secret blacklists,” debates over how to handle former President Donald Trump’s account before it was suspended in January 2021, and how the FBI allegedly flagged accounts and tweets for Twitter to take action against.

    The FBI has dismissed the “Twitter Files,” alleging that “conspiracy theorists” are attempting to discredit the bureau.

    A Twitter user responded to Musk’s question by writing, “Simple… it’s Corporate Journalism… Not Journalism.”

    To which Musk replied: “Exactly. Why would anyone trust corpo journalism?”

    Substack

    In the same thread, Musk also said that he was “open to the idea” of buying the Substack platform, while responding to a tweet from Wall Street Silver.

    The latter wrote, “Twitter plus Substack creates instantly massive competition for obsolete legacy corporate media.”

    Substack allows independent writers and podcasters to publish directly to their audiences and get paid through subscriptions, the platform’s website says.

    Tuesday was not the first time that Musk has expressed an interest in buying Substack.

    On Dec. 8, conservative commentator Dave Rubin started a thread by alleging that Google and YouTube’s “manipulation for political purposes is FAR worse than Twitter’s.”

    A Twitter user continued the thread and recommended Musk buy Substack.

    The Twitter user wrote: “You would have the information layer with Twitter and the narrative layer. Corporate media would then have [to] specialize on reporting government leaks, from ‘people familiar with the matter.’”

    “I’m open to the idea,” Musk wrote in response to the recommendation.

    Reputation

    On Dec. 28, Musk responded to a Twitter clip posted by CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” during which Axios reporter Hope King said the new Twitter chief’s reputation was “in danger.”

    “All of the macro conditions are against his favor. Market-share for $TSLA is down year-over-year. His reputation with Twitter is impacting his reputation when it comes to all of his companies,” she said.

    In response, Musk wrote: “The legacy media should worry about its reputation. We have only just begun.”

    Musk has promised to promote free speech after acquiring Twitter and his decision to release the company’s internal documents is tied to his promise.

    “The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened,” Musk wrote on Twitter on Dec. 28, just days before the first batch of the “Twitter Files” was released by independent journalist Matt Taibbi.

    The first installment exposed how the social media giant’s efforts to suppress the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story published just weeks before the 2020 presidential election.

    Emails from the laptop’s hard drive and Treasury records revealed how then-Vice President Joe Biden, his brother James, and Hunter Biden were involved in various foreign business ventures, in countries such as Ukraine, Russia, and China. At the time, many media outlets discredited the revelations as “Russian disinformation” and the news was blocked by social media platforms.

    Hunter Biden recently hired high-profile defense lawyer Abbe Lowell to his legal team, as House Republicans plan to launch probes into his overseas business interests.

    Congressional Probe

    Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, said Congress needs to probe “Big Tech” companies, following the revelations made by the “Twitter Files.”

    “These explosive revelations show the enormous power that a handful of liberal tech executives have over our public discourse,” Wicker wrote in his weekly report published on Dec. 26.

    “We should be grateful that new leadership is lifting the hood on Twitter, but Congress needs to follow up with wider investigations into Big Tech companies, including Facebook and Google,” he said.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 17:30

  • Visualizing The Smartphone Effect On The Camera Market
    Visualizing The Smartphone Effect On The Camera Market

    The smartphone camera has come a long way since the early 2000s, and its impact on the overall camera market cannot be understated.

    In fact, modern smartphones have become so sophisticated that the CEO of Sony’s semiconductor manufacturing company predicts that smartphone cameras will soon produce better quality images than DSLR cameras.

    Whether smartphones will be able to completely replace standalone cameras is still a contentious debate topic, but one thing is clear—while smartphone sales have skyrocketed over the last decade, digital camera sales have plummeted.

    As Visual Capitalist’s Carmen Ang notes, this animation by James Eagle compares annual sales data for film cameras, digital cameras, and smartphones over the years to show just how much smartphones have impacted the camera market.

    Charting the Smartphone Effect on the Camera Market from Visual Capitalist on Vimeo.

    A (Brief) History of Standalone Cameras

    Below, we’ve broken down the history of cameras into three overarching periods: early cameras, film cameras, and digital cameras.

    Early Cameras

    Cameras have been around for thousands of years, with descriptions of camera-like devices found in historical writings dating back as far as the 4th century:

    • 330 AD: Ancient Chinese texts describe a device known as a camera obscura. Similar to pinhole cameras, these didn’t produce actual photographs, but rather reflected light onto screens which could then be traced to produce a lasting image.

    • Early 1800s: It’s generally accepted that Joseph Nicéphore Niépce invented the first photographic camera in 1816. Using silver chloride, Niépce managed to develop an image that’s still around today.

    • 1840s: Early cameras produced negative images which had to be color corrected, until mirrored cameras were invented. Alexander S. Wolcott was the first person to patent a mirrored camera in 1840.

    • 1871: Richard Leach Maddox came up with an invention that led to instantaneous exposure, meaning cameras only needed to be exposed to light for a few seconds before producing an image.

    These early inventions were critical milestones in the development of the modern-day camera. However, cameras and film weren’t available to the masses until Kodak’s Brownie camera made photography relatively cheap.

    The Emergence of Film Cameras

    Released in 1900, the Kodak Brownie was a handheld, inexpensive roll film camera invented by George Eastman.

    When it first launched, the camera sold for $1.00, equivalent to about $35.48 in 2022 dollars. With more than 100,000 cameras sold within the first year, Eastman is often credited for making photography accessible to the masses.

    Fast forward a few decades, and technological advancements led to features in cameras like viewfinders, different shutter speeds, and detachable lenses. These features were possible on what’s known as twin lens reflex cameras, or TLR for short, but they were soon replaced by single lens reflex cameras (SLR).

    Digital Cameras Enter the Scene

    By the late 1990s, digital cameras were invented and began quickly outselling film cameras.

    Unlike their film counterparts, digital cameras feature a digital sensor, and store images on a memory card which could store thousands of pictures.

    Digital camera sales grew throughout the early 2000s—in 2005 the Photo Marketing Association International even estimated that 52% of households would own a digital camera by the end of the year.

    The Smartphone Camera Changes the Game

    In the early 2000s, camera phones were far less powerful than their standalone counterparts.

    For instance, one of the first camera phones to hit the market, Samsung’s SCH-V200, could take 20 pictures at 0.35-megapixel resolution. In contrast, Canon’s EOS D30 digital camera released the same year had a resolution of 3 megapixels.

    But the advent of the iPhone, and the rollout and accessibility of modern smartphones with powerful cameras, quickly saw many non-enthusiasts switch to smartphone cameras only. In 2022, Google’s Pixel 7 has multiple built-in cameras, with both a 50 megapixel wide rear camera and a 12 megapixel ultrawide rear camera. In comparison, Canon’s ​​enthusiast EOS 850 has a 24.1 megapixel sensor.

    The animated chart above highlights the direct impact on the digital camera market after its 2009/2010 peak:

     

    So does that make a modern smartphone camera better? Not at all, as there are other a multitude of factors to consider when assessing a camera’s quality besides resolution. But in an article in Wired Magazine, tech journalist Sam Kieldsen explains how the market has shifted:

     

    [Smartphones have] effectively killed off the cheap pocket point-and-shoot camera already, but there’s still so much they can’t do in comparison to a true purpose-built mirrorless or DSLR camera. Low light image quality, convincing bokeh effects and extreme close-up macro photography are all still significantly better on a real camera.

    Smartphones may not be fully replacing DSLR cameras anytime soon, but they’ve certainly changed the industry and game in which it plays.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 16:55

  • 28-Year-Old Charged in Killing Of 4 Idaho College Students
    28-Year-Old Charged in Killing Of 4 Idaho College Students

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

    Authorities in Pennsylvania arrested a suspect in the killings of four University of Idaho students who were found stabbed to death in their beds in November, authorities announced in a Friday news conference.

    Bryan Christopher Kohberger was taken into custody by police in Pennsylvania on Dec. 30. (Monroe County Correctional Facility)

    Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, was arrested early Friday morning by the Pennsylvania State Police at a home in Chestnuthill Township, authorities announced. He is being held for extradition to Idaho on a warrant for first degree murder, according to arrest paperwork filed in Monroe County Court.

    Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson confirmed in the Friday press conference that a criminal complaint was filed against Kohberger with four counts of murder and other charges in connection to the case. An affidavit has been sealed until Kohberger returns to Idaho to be served with a warrant, Thompson said.

    The prosecutor said that Kohberger is being held without bond in Pennsylvania, also confirming earlier reports that he was a graduate student at Washington State University. In the news conference, few details were given about the suspect, including a possible motive.

    “Once he gets here, he will have an initial appearance with a magistrate,” Thompson said.

    Officers investigate a homicide at an apartment complex south of the University of Idaho campus on Nov. 13, 2022. (Zach Wilkinson/The Moscow-Pullman Daily News via AP)

    Earlier Friday, a mugshot of Kohberger was released to various news outlets by the Monroe County Correctional Facility in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Reports indicated that he was arrested near the Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania

    Kohberger graduated from Northampton Community College in Pennsylvania with an associate of arts degree in psychology in 2018, according to college spokesperson Mia Rossi-Marino. A Ph.D. student by the same name is listed in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University, which is a short drive across the state line from the University of Idaho.

    DeSales University in Pennsylvania confirmed that a student by that name received a bachelor’s degree in 2020 and completed graduate studies in June 2022.

    In a post that was deleted from Reddit after his arrest, a student associated with DeSales University named Bryan Kohberger sought participation in a project “to understand how emotions and psychological traits influence decision-making when committing a crime.”

    “In particular, this study seeks to understand the story behind your most recent criminal offense, with an emphasis on your thoughts and feelings throughout your experience,” the post read.

    Other Details

    Four Idaho students identified as Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin were stabbed to death at a rental home near the campus sometime in the early morning of Nov. 13. Investigators were not able name a suspect or locate a murder weapon for several weeks, triggering widespread online speculation about a possible suspect and motive.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 16:20

  • Here's A List Of Biden Tax Hikes Which Take Effect Jan. 1
    Here’s A List Of Biden Tax Hikes Which Take Effect Jan. 1

    When the Democrats finally passed the “Inflation Reduction Act” in 2022 (how’s that going?), they included several tax hikes set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2023.

    Americans for Tax reform‘s Mike Palicz has conveniently compiled a list of them, along with his take on their intended effects:

    $6.5 Billion Natural Gas Tax Which Will Increase Household Energy Bills   

    Think your household energy bills are high now? Just wait until the three major energy taxes in the Inflation Reduction Act hit your wallet. The first is a regressive tax on American oil and gas development. The tax will drive up the cost of household energy bills. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the natural gas tax will increase taxes by $6.5 billion.

    And of course, this tax hike violates Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on Americans making under $400,000 per year. According to the American Gas Association, the methane tax will slap a 17% increase on the average family’s natural gas bill.

    $12 Billion Crude Oil Tax Which Will Increase Household Costs

    Next up – a .16c/barrel tax on crude oil and imported petroleum products which will end up on the shoulders of consumers in the form of higher tax prices.

    The tax hike violates President Biden’s tax pledge to any American making less than $400,000 per year.

    As noted above, Biden administration officials have repeatedly admitted taxes that raise consumer energy prices are in violation of President Biden’s $400,000 tax pledge.

    As if it weren’t bad enough, Democrats have pegged their oil tax increase to inflation. As inflation increases, so will the level of tax.

    $1.2 Billion Coal Tax Which Will Increase Household Energy Bills

    This one increases the current tax rate on coal from $0.50 to $1.10 per ton, while coal from surface mining would increase from $0.25 per to to $0.55 per ton, which will raise $1.2 billion per year in taxes that will undoubtedly be passed along to consumers in the form of higher energy bills.

    $74 Billion Stock Tax Which Will Hit Your Nest Egg — 401(k)s, IRAs and Pension Plans

    Democrats are now imposing a new federal excise tax when Americans sell shares of a stock back to a company.

    Raising taxes and restricting stock buybacks harms the retirement savings of any individual with a 401(k), IRA or pension plan.

    Union retirement plans will also be hit.

    The tax will put U.S. employers at a competitive disadvantage with China, which does not have such a tax.

    Stock buybacks help grow retirement accounts. Raising taxes and restricting buybacks would harm the 58 percent of Americans who own stock and more than 60 million workers invested in a 401(k). An additional 14.83 million Americans are invested in 529 education savings accounts.

    Retirement accounts hold the largest share of corporate stocks, accounting for roughly 37 percent of the outstanding $22.8 trillion in U.S. corporate stock, according to the Tax Foundation.

    In 2017, corporate-sponsored funds made up $4.45 trillion in market value; union-sponsored funds accounted for $409 billion; and public-sponsored funds, which benefit teachers and police officers, added up to $4.25 trillion.

    A tax on buybacks could dissuade companies from doing so, and US companies will face significant compliance costs, which will – again, be passed along to consumers.

    $225 Billion Corporate Income Tax Hike Which Will Be Passed on to Households

    American businesses reporting at least $1 billion in profits over the past three years will now face a 15% corporate alternative minimum tax, which will be passed along in the form of higher prices, fewer jobs and lower wages, according to Americans for Tax Reform.

    A Tax Foundation report from last December found a 15 percent book tax would reduce GDP by 0.1 percent and kill 27,000 jobs.

    Preliminary cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office found the provision would increase taxes by more than $225 billion.

    According to JCT’s analysis, 49.7 percent of the tax would be borne by the manufacturing industry at a time when manufacturers are already struggling with supply-chain disruptions.

    Which industry will likely be most affected? According to the Tax Foundation, “the coal industry faces the heaviest burden of the book minimum tax, facing a net tax hike of 7.2 percent of its pretax book income, followed by automobile and truck manufacturing, which faces a 5.1 percent tax hike.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 15:45

  • The 10 Most Influential Figures In The History Of Oil
    The 10 Most Influential Figures In The History Of Oil

    Authored by Josh Owens via OilPrice.com,

    Oil has been the single most influential resource in modern history, driving industrialization, building nations, and deciding the outcome of wars. It has been responsible for raising millions of people out of poverty and for razing entire cities to the ground. From technological advancements to environmental disasters, few, if any, industries have left as large a mark on the earth.

    While the history of oil can be traced back as far as 3000 BC, when builders in Mesopotamia began to use bitumen to strengthen bricks, the story of the modern oil industry really began in the 1850s. Since then, explorers, investors, kings, journalists, spies, and scientists have all attempted to leave their mark on the industry. This is a list of the ten people who, for better or worse, are responsible for shaping the oil industry as we know it today.

    10. Winston Churchill

    Churchill may be best known as the stubborn wartime Prime Minister of Britain, but it was in his role as the First Lord of the Admiralty that he transformed the oil industry forever. In 1911, as tensions between Germany and Britain were mounting ahead of the First World War, Churchill made the fateful decision to convert the British fleet from coal power to oil power. While today such a decision may seem an obvious one, at the time it was considered both reckless and wasteful. 

    The conversion was not only expensive and experimental, but it left the British navy vulnerable as it would now have to rely on oil from Persia rather than coal produced at home. In 1914, in order to secure a reliable oil supply for the navy, Churchill convinced the British Government to buy 51% of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (which would later become BP).

    When the First World War broke out in July 1914, Churchill’s decision was vindicated, the new British navy was faster and more efficient than its counterparts. It was now accepted that oil would indeed be the fuel of the future, and securing it was a matter of national security. Thanks to Churchill, the international oil industry would now forever be intertwined with foreign policy. The battle for control over both the production and trade routes of this critical resource continues to this day.

    9. T Boone Pickens

    For the oil industry, the 1980s were a time of great upheaval. In the aftermath of the 1979 oil crisis, Ronald Regan completely deregulated oil, boosting competition and leading to consolidation across the industry. In 1983, the New York Mercantile Exchange introduced a futures contract in crude oil. Up until the creation of a futures market, the price of oil had been set by oil companies like Standard Oil, by regulators such as the Texas Railroad Commission, and by OPEC. Now, the price of oil was decided by traders on the open market. These events combined to mean efficiency and value were the two most important traits for oil companies, and one man more than any other would take advantage of this new age in oil.

    T Boone Pickens positioned himself at the intersection of the oil industry and Wall Street, styling himself as a servant of shareholder value. He was a master of mergers and acquisitions in the industry and would play a key role in making the industry leaner and more efficient. His strategy involved finding a company whose stock price did not reflect the value of its oil and gas reserves, acquiring a significant block of its stock, and then forcing the company’s management to act to increase its share value. His most famous deals included Gulf Oil,  Phillips Petroleum, and Unocal. Every corporate raider and activist investor in the industry today owes a debt to T Boone Pickens, the man who showed investors how to take power back from the oil giants.

    8. Harry St John Bridger Philby

    While he isn’t even the most famous person in his family (his son Kim was the notorious British intelligence officer who acted as a double agent for the Soviet Union), Harry Philby played an integral role in the development of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, helping to form what would ultimately become the largest oil company on earth, Saudi Aramco. 

    Philby was born in modern-day Sri Lanka, studied at the University of Cambridge, and in 1915 was recruited to the Indian Civil Service where he helped to organize the Arab Revolut against the Ottoman Empire. This first posting marked the beginning of his life-long obsession with Arabic culture and languages. In 1917, he was chosen to lead a mission to the Arabian Peninsula where he would meet a tribal chieftain by the name of Ibn Saud – the future founder of Saudi Arabia. His meeting with Ibn Saud would ultimately lead Philpy to leave the Indian Civil Service, convert to Islam, and play a central role in negotiating what could be considered the biggest oil deal of all time.

    By 1930, Philby was convinced that Ibn Saud and his government were sitting on a great untapped natural resource, but the King was more interested in drilling for water than oil. It was only in 1932 when Standard Oil of California made a discovery in Bahrain that the King began to consider his country’s oil potential. Standard Oil of California had already approached Philby in the hopes of gaining an introduction to the King, but Philby, in order to drive the price up, reached out to Anglo-Persian and started a bidding war. Ultimately, in May 1933, Standard Oil of California managed to outbid Anglo-Persion, marking the United State’s entry into Saudi Arabia, a decision that would have far-reaching consequences for both the oil industry and the geopolitical dynamics in the region.

    7. Mohammad Mosaddegh 

    The Prime Minister of Iran from 1951-1953, Mohammad Mosaddegh was the first leader of a Middle Eastern oil nation to exercise the ‘nuclear option’ of nationalizing its oil concessions. In response to this nationalization, Britain implemented an embargo on Iranian oil that saw the country’s production plummet from 660,000 barrels per day in 1950 to just 20,000 barrels per day in 1952. 

    Despite the growing economic pressure, Mosaddegh refused to relent, infuriating negotiators from both Britain and the U.S. In August 1953, the CIA and MI6 initiated Operation Ajax, an operation designed to overthrow Mosaddegh in a coup. The operation was a success, but the dynamics of the oil industry had already changed forever.

    Even with the Shah back in power, there was no reversing the nationalistic fervor regarding oil that Mossadegh had fanned. Resentment towards the British government and the Anglo-Iranian oil company was as strong as ever in Iran. Meanwhile, U.S. companies were reluctant to get involved in what they saw as a high-risk venture. Without pressure from governments, it seemed that there was no way back for Iran’s oil industry.

    In the midst of the Cold War, the U.S. government was worried that Iran would fall into the Russian sphere of influence if its oil industry wasn’t resurrected by Western companies. In the end, seven companies, supported by the U.S. and British governments, agreed to form a consortium in Iran. Critically, the consortium was forced to acknowledge that the National Iranian Oil Company now owned the country’s oil resources and facilities. Mosaddegh may have been overthrown and would spend the rest of his life under house arrest, but he had earned a vital victory for oil nations. The concept of foreigners owning an oil concession had now changed forever, and the Middle East would never be the same.

    6. Wanda Jablonski

    Referred to as “the most influential oil journalist of her time” in Daniel Yergin’s The Prize, Wanda Jablonski founded Petroleum Intelligence Weekly, the journal which came to be known as “the bible of the oil industry”. Yet it is not her remarkable journalism nor her legacy as a trailblazer for women in the industry that gets her on this list. ‘Wanda’, as she was referred to in the industry, played a critical role in the formation of one of the world’s most influential oil organizations: OPEC.

    The year was 1959, and tensions between international oil companies and oil-exporting countries were soaring. Russia had just returned to international oil markets and supply was climbing faster than demand. This led to a price war that saw oil companies cut the posted price of oil – unilaterally reducing the national revenues of oil-exporting nations. At the same time, the first Arab Oil Congress was taking place in Cairo, with 400 people in attendance, including, of course, Wanda. At the conference, she invited two of the most ardently anti-oil company individuals in the world to her room for a meeting. This was the first time that Saudi Oil Minister Abdullah Tariki met Juan Pablo Perez Alfonso, Venezuela’s Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons. As Wanda had predicted, the two men immediately established a rapport and went on to organize a secret meeting with other oil ministers on the side of the Cairo conference. It was at this meeting that the concept of an Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was first established.

    5. Nick Steinsberger

    Now, this could be a controversial one. Frequently, it is George P. Mitchell who is credited with solving one of the most consequential problems in the history of oil: how to economically extract oil and gas from shale rock. But it was Nick Steinsberger, an engineer at Mitchell’s company, who in 1997 first successfully applied the slickwater fracturing technique that ultimately led to the U.S. shale boom. Mitchell already has the moniker “father of fracking”, so it seems only fair that Steinsberger should have his place on this list.

    Technically, the fracturing of rock to stimulate oil wells can be traced all the way back to 1864 when Edward A. L. Roberts developed the first torpedo as a way of boosting production. Hydraulic fracturing, using a pressurized liquid to fracture rocks, can be traced back to an experiment in 1947. But it wasn’t until Steinsberger’s 1997 well that it was proven to be economically viable. U.S. oil production, which had been in terminal decline, began to soar on the back of this technological breakthrough. In 2018, thanks in large part to the shale boom, the United States became the largest oil producer in the world. At the same time, fracking came to the attention of environmental groups as it was seen to poison groundwater, induce earthquakes, and emit huge levels of methane. To this day, it remains a controversial topic, with some countries banning fracking altogether while others see it as a path to economic independence. Whatever you think of it, there are few technological breakthroughs that have had the same geopolitical, environmental, and economic impact as hydraulic fracturing.

    4. Ida Tarbell

    No history of the oil industry would be complete without the woman who took on the wealthiest American of all time, John D. Rockefeller. Ida Tarbell was an investigative journalist, or muckraker as they were then known, who was determined to hold the oil industry to account. Every anti-trust lawsuit or environmental claim that has been brought against the oil industry since her time is building upon her legacy.

    In her illustrious career, Tarbell wrote biographies of both Napoleon and Lincoln, but is most famous for her 1904 book titled “The History of Standard Oil”. The book, described by historian J. North Conway as a “masterpiece of investigative journalism”, detailed how Standard Oil would use its wealth, power, and an expansive intelligence network to put immense pressure on independents and other competitors. She wrote that Rockefeller had “systemically played with loaded dice” and painted him, in the words of Daniel Yergen, as an “amoral predator”. Ultimately, Tarbell’s work led to the dissolution of the world’s largest oil company and, in time, the birth of the U.S. oil majors that we know today.

    3. John D. Rockefeller

    John D. Rockefeller’s career in the oil industry began in 1865 when he bought his business partner out of their produce-shipping firm and slowly but surely refocused it on refining oil. Five years later, in an effort to consolidate the industry during a price crash, he joined with four other oilmen to form what would become the most powerful oil company in history, Standard Oil. In the following years, as kerosene and gasoline became a cornerstone of life in America, Rockefeller used his profits to buy up more and more of the industry – reportedly controlling 90% of U.S. oil by 1880.

    Rockefeller’s main goal was to tame the new and out–of–control oil industry in order to ensure it was as efficient and healthy as possible. In pursuing that goal, Rockefeller created the first-ever integrated oil company, initiated price wars to crush competitors, and, as Tarbell uncovered, ultimately built an oil monopoly. 

    When Standard Oil was broken up in 1911, the sum of its parts ended up being worth more than the company as a whole, and Rockefeller became even wealthier. While his focus largely shifted to philanthropy in the 20th century, the shadow of Rockefeller still looms large over the oil industry. In fact, the modern oil giants Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and Marathon Petroleum can all trace their origins back to the 1911 breakup of Standard Oil.

    2. Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo

    Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo’s list of achievements in the oil industry is as long as it is impressive. He is perhaps best known as one of the two founders of OPEC, an organization he later described as “my little idea that has changed the history of the world.” But OPEC was simply the logical conclusion of work he had started years earlier. 

    One of the most intractable problems in the oil industry is the division of ‘rent’. In economic terms, oil rent is the difference between the value of crude oil produced and the total cost of production. From 1943 to 1948, Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo played a key role in shaping what would become the global norm for dividing these rents between companies and countries. Under the 50/50 deal that he helped shape, Venezuela and the international oil companies agreed to divide that rent evenly. The deal resulted in Venezuela’s oil income increasing by 600% between 1942 and 1948. 

    Yet Perez Alfonzo wasn’t done. He recognized that low-cost producers in the Middle East posed a threat to Venezuela’s market share, and so had the documents translated into Arabic and brought to the Middle East by a Venezuelan delegation. Suddenly, Saudi Arabia wanted a 50/50 split of rents, while Iran’s Mosaddegh wanted to go further still. Once the concept of dividing the oil income equally between countries and companies had been established, it was near impossible for oil companies to fight it. The 50/50 formula remained the global norm until the 1973 oil crisis disrupted markets once again.

    In 1948, following the coup that toppled President Rómulo Gallegos, Perez Alfonzo obtained political asylum in the United States and spent years studying the Texas Railroad Commission and how it had dealt with the oil crash of the 1930s. It was during this period that many of his first thoughts of how OPEC should operate were formed, ideas that he then shared with Abdullah Tariki when Wanda introduced them in Cairo. 

    It may surprise some that a man who was so central to shaping the oil industry considered himself an ecologist and was primarily focused on the conservation of energy. He believed that OPEC would ultimately lower the use of energy around the world. 

    1.  George Bissell

    Commonly referred to as the “father of the American oil industry”, George Bissell was the spark that ignited the inevitable march of oil from a relatively unimportant liquid that oozed from rocks to the most important resource on earth. 

    Bissell recognized that ‘rock oil’, which he had seen being gathered with rags in order to make medicine, could actually be used as an illuminant. If he and his business partner James Townsend could only extract the liquid in sufficient quantities, it could compete with the whale fat and ‘coal oils’ that were then being used in lamps. After confirming that this ‘rock oil’ had the desired chemical characteristic, Bissel and his business partners launched the first-ever oil company, the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company.

    The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company decided that the best way to go about extracting the oil would be to drill for it using the same technique that had been developed to bore for salt. The company employed Edwin L. Drake, an out-of-work railway conductor who was staying in the same hotel as James Townsend, to carry out the project. Drake traveled to the tiny village of Titusville, secured the title to the land, and employed William A. Smith to help him drill. On August 27th, 1859, the two men hit oil for the very first time in history. Bissell immediately rushed to Titusville to buy up and lease as many farms as he could, becoming the first of many who would make their fortune off an industry that was about to change the world forever.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 15:10

  • Home Depot Co-Founder Rails Against Socialism And "Woke People," Warns 'Capitalism In Dire Straits'
    Home Depot Co-Founder Rails Against Socialism And “Woke People,” Warns ‘Capitalism In Dire Straits’

    The 93-year-old billionaire co-founder of Home Depot railed against “socialism” for why nobody wants to work and warned capitalism is in dire straits. 

    In an interview published Thursday, Bernie Marcus told Financial Times that “nobody works, nobody gives a damn,” blaming socialists and “the woke people” for the country’s troubles. 

    “‘Just give it to me. Send me money. I don’t want to work — I’m too lazy, I’m too fat, I’m too stupid,'” Marcus said, adding if he founded Home Depot in today’s toxic environment, it might not succeed. 

    On a video call for the interview, Marcus spoke from his home in Boca Raton, Florida, warning that he’s “worried about capitalism … it’s the basis of Home Depot [and] millions of people have earned this success and had success. I’m talking manufacturers, vendors and distributors and people that work for us [who have been] able to enrich themselves by the journey of Home Depot.” 

    “That’s the success. That’s why capitalism works,” he added. 

    Marcus then called President Biden “the worst president in the history of this country,” noting that former President Trump’s policies were “spot on,” but “it’s going to be very interesting in ’24 because I think that DeSantis will challenge him. And may the better man win.”

    Marcus was unapologetic for his support for Republicans:

     “I give money to them because I hope they’re going to do the right thing.” Since 1978, he has donated $63,801,322 to political campaigns, according to Bussiness Insider. 

    Insider reached out to Home Depot about Marcus’ FT interview. They said:

    “Our co-founder Bernie Marcus left The Home Depot more than 20 years ago, and his views do not represent the company.”

    Marcus’ warning is similar to co-founder and retired CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, who recently warned “socialists are taking over” and ‘capitalism cannot be replaced with disastrous socialism‘. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 14:35

  • 2022 Same Shit, Different Year: 55 Years Of Failed Eco-pocalyptic Predictions
    2022 Same Shit, Different Year: 55 Years Of Failed Eco-pocalyptic Predictions

    Authored by Myron Ebell and Steven Milloy via CEI.org,

    Thanks go to Tony Heller, who first collected many of these news clips and posted them on RealClimateScience. 

    SUMMARY

    Modern doomsayers have been predicting climate and environmental disaster since the 1960s. They continue to do so today.

    None of the apocalyptic predictions with due dates as of today have come true.

    What follows is a collection of notably wild predictions from notable people in government and science.

    More than merely spotlighting the failed predictions, this collection shows that the makers of failed apocalyptic predictions often are individuals holding respected positions in government and science.

    While such predictions have been and continue to be enthusiastically reported by a media eager for sensational headlines, the failures are typically not revisited.

    1967: ‘Dire famine by 1975.’

    Source: Salt Lake Tribune, November 17, 1967

    1969: ‘Everyone will disappear in a cloud of blue steam by 1989.’

    Source: New York Times, August 10 1969

    1970: Ice age by 2000

    Source: Boston Globe, April 16, 1970

    1970: ‘America subject to water rationing by 1974 and food rationing by 1980.’

    Source: Redlands Daily Facts, October 6, 1970

    1971: ‘New Ice Age Coming’

    Source: Washington Post, July 9, 1971

    1972: New ice age by 2070

    Source: NOAA, October 2015

    1974: ‘New Ice Age Coming Fast’

    Source: The Guardian, January 29, 1974

    1974: ‘Another Ice Age?’

    Source: TIME, June 24, 1974

    1974: Ozone Depletion a ‘Great Peril to Life’

    But no such ‘great peril to life’ has been observed as the so-called ‘ozone hole’ remains:

    Sources: Headline

    NASA Data | Graph

    1976: ‘The Cooling’

    Source: New York Times Book Review, July 18, 1976

    1980: ‘Acid Rain Kills Life in Lakes’

    Noblesville Ledger (Noblesville, IN) April 9, 1980

    But 10 years later, the US government program formed to study acid rain concluded:

    Associated Press, September 6, 1990

    1978: ‘No End in Sight’ to 30-Year Cooling Trend

    Source: New York Times, January 5, 1978

    But according to NASA satellite data there is a slight warming trend since 1979.

    Source: DrRoySpencer.com

    1988: James Hansen forecasts increase regional drought in 1990s

    But the last really dry year in the Midwest was 1988, and recent years have been record wet.

    Source: RealClimateScience.com

    1988: Washington DC days over 90F to from 35 to 85

    But the number of hot days in the DC area peaked in 1911, and have been declining ever since.

    Source: RealClimateScience.com

    1988: Maldives completely under water in 30 years

    Source: Agence France Press, September 26, 1988

    1989: Rising seas to ‘obliterate’ nations by 2000

    Source: Associated Press, June 30, 1989

    1989: New York City’s West Side Highway underwater by 2019

    Source: Salon.com, October 23, 2001

    1995 to Present: Climate Model Failure

    Source: CEI.org

    2000: ‘Children won’t know what snow is.’

    Source: The Independent, March 20, 2000

    2002: Famine in 10 years

    Source: The Guardian, December 23, 2002

    2004: Britain to have Siberian climate by 2020

    Source: The Guardian, February 21, 2004

    2008: Arctic will be ice-free by 2018

    Source: Associated Press, June 24, 2008

    2008: Al Gore warns of ice-free Arctic by 2013

    But… it’s still there:

    Source: WattsUpWithThat.com, December 16, 2018

    2009: Prince Charles says only 8 years to save the planet

    Source: The Independent, July 9, 2009

    2009: UK prime minister says 50 days to ‘save the planet from catastrophe’

    Source: The Independent: October 20, 2009

    2009: Arctic ice-free by 2014

    Source: USA Today, December 14, 2009

    2013: Arctic ice-free by 2015

    Source: The Guardian, July 24, 2013

    The paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02550-9 (open access)

    Gas hydrate dissociation off Svalbard induced by isostatic rebound rather than global warming

    Abstract

    Methane seepage from the upper continental slopes of Western Svalbard has previously been attributed to gas hydrate dissociation induced by anthropogenic warming of ambient bottom waters. Here we show that sediment cores drilled off Prins Karls Foreland contain freshwater from dissociating hydrates. However, our modeling indicates that the observed pore water freshening began around 8 ka BP when the rate of isostatic uplift outpaced eustatic sea-level rise. The resultant local shallowing and lowering of hydrostatic pressure forced gas hydrate dissociation and dissolved chloride depletions consistent with our geochemical analysis. Hence, we propose that hydrate dissociation was triggered by postglacial isostatic rebound rather than anthropogenic warming. Furthermore, we show that methane fluxes from dissociating hydrates were considerably smaller than present methane seepage rates implying that gas hydrates were not a major source of methane to the oceans, but rather acted as a dynamic seal, regulating methane release from deep geological reservoirs.

    2013: Arctic ice-free by 2016

    Source: The Guardian, December 9, 2013

    2014: Only 500 days before ‘climate chaos’

    But…

    Sources: Washington Examiner

    Since then the climate catastrophists have only escalated.

    And bringing us up to date in 2022…

    As CEI reports, climate alarmists and their media allies once again made a slew of claims about natural disasters being caused by man-made emissions in 2022. And once again, these claims clashed with reality and science.

    Here are 10 fact checks of climate disaster claims made by the Associated Press and other media outlets in 2022.

    The Bottom Line: There is not a single natural disaster, nor trend in any type of natural disaster that can be credibly linked with emissions or whatever gradual “climate change” may be occurring for whatever reason, including natural climate change. Attributing natural disaster damages to emissions and climate change is without a factual or scientific basis. And that certainly goes for 2022.

    Regardless of one’s view of what passes as “climate science,” the good news is that even researchers who believe that “climate change” is a problem acknowledge that the number of weather-related deaths and the cost of weather-related damage are actually on the decline – despite ever-increasing emissions and whatever slight warming may be occurring.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 14:00

  • Russia Beefs Up Air Defenses Over Moscow For New Year Celebrations
    Russia Beefs Up Air Defenses Over Moscow For New Year Celebrations

    Russia says it has beefed up its anti-air defenses surrounding Moscow and other high population places across the country for the New Year’s weekend, given there’s expected to be large public gatherings celebrating the coming of 2023.

    The defense ministry was quoted in TASS as saying that some 2,000 service personnel are currently manning Moscow’s air defenses while “on duty at combat posts on New Year’s Eve.”

    Past New Year celebrations in Moscow, file image

    “In total for the period of the New Year holidays and weekends, about 20 thousand military personnel of the air defense-missile defense formation of the Aerospace Forces will be on combat duty for air defense,” the TASS statement continued.

    While there’s as yet to be any recorded Ukrainian missile or drone attack on Moscow (and the reality is that Ukrainian forces unlikely have this capability at this point), there has been a spate of recent attacks on Russian soil, especially in the Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border.

    Additionally, in December there’s been no less than three drone attacks on Engels airbase, which lies over 600km from the Ukrainian border.

    Meanwhile, on Saturday the Ukrainian capital was rocked by more airstrikes. “Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said there had been several blasts in the capital, causing at least one death. A hotel has also been damaged,” BBC reports.

    And in Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, which also witnessed large blasts, regional Governor Vitaly Kim stated: “The occupiers have decided to try to spoil the day for us” – in reference to New Year’s Eve celebrations.

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

    Ahead of these Saturday attacks Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky had warned the population that Russia was readying more attacks to make Ukrainians “celebrate the New Year in darkness.” Indeed much of the country is still without power, or else subject to rolling emergency blackouts. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 13:25

  • 9 Controversial California Laws Taking Effect On Jan. 1
    9 Controversial California Laws Taking Effect On Jan. 1

    Authored by Sophie Li via The Epoch Times,

    As Californians get ready to turn the page on 2022, hundreds of new laws will go into effect starting Jan. 1. From increasing the minimum wage to legalizing jaywalking to shielding criminal records, the new laws will impact employment, health care, housing, public safety, and consumer protection.

    The California State Capitol building in Sacramento on April 18, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Here’s a look at what to expect in 2023.

    Minimum Wage (SB 3)

    California’s minimum wage will increase by 50 cents to $15.50 per hour, which will also expand to nearly all workers—regardless of the number of employees at a business.

    This 3.33 percent increase is less than half of the 7.9 percent inflation increase between 2021 and 2022 calculated by California’s Department of Finance.

    According to the law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2016, if annual inflation increases by more than 7 percent, it triggers the minimum wage to increase.

    Currently, the minimum wage is $15 per hour for companies with 25 or more employees and $14 per hour for those with 25 or fewer employees.

    Jaywalking (AB 2147)

    Under the new “Freedom to Walk Act,” pedestrians will no longer be fined for crossing the street outside of designated intersections or crosswalks unless the person causes a hazard on the street.

    Supporters of the law state that it will reduce inequitable policing toward certain racial groups. Some also suggest that the law will encourage more people to walk instead of drive.

    Opponents worry that it will lead to more accidents and ultimately cause more pedestrian deaths.

    In California, the base fine for jaywalking is $25 and it can go up to $250 per ticket.

    COVID Misinformation (AB 2098)

    This law allows doctors to face discipline for spreading so-called misinformation or disinformation about COVID-19—including information about vaccine effectiveness and other treatments—and categorizes it as unprofessional conduct.

    Physicians and surgeons are regulated by the Medical Board. Under current law, the board is required to act against any licensed doctor who is charged with unprofessional conduct.

    Criminal Records (SB 731)

    At least 225,000 Californians with prior convictions or arrests will be able to have their records automatically sealed from criminal background checks due to a new law.

    While these records will be automatically sealed once people complete their sentence and go four years without new arrests, others will be able to petition a judge to have theirs sealed.

    In California, there are around 8 million people that have criminal records, according to Californians for Safety and Justice.

    Loitering (SB 357)

    A new California law decriminalizes loitering for the intent to engage in prostitution.

    Also known as the “Safer Streets for All Act,” the law was introduced last year by Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco). In a statement, Weiner said it “eliminates an anti-loitering offense that leads to harmful treatment of people for simply ‘appearing’ to be a sex worker.”

    However, opponents said that the law will place the community at risk by encouraging higher numbers of prostitutes and “Johns” in public. Los Angeles Sheriff Department officials also stated it will take a major tool away from law enforcement, especially for targeting sex buyers.

    Los Angeles Sheriffs Department (LASD) deputies patrol at Venice Beach in Los Angeles on June 16, 2021. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

    Parking Requirements (AB 2097)

    The law will prohibit cities across the state from enforcing a minimum number of parking spaces on a development project if the project is located within a half-mile of public transit.

    The law was established to support the development of affordable housing units by reducing the cost and land space required for development.

    Critics of the law say that it will, instead, reduce developers’ efforts to build affordable housing, because many cities are already reducing parking requirements as an incentive for developers to include affordable units in their projects.

    FAST Recovery Act (AB 257)

    The new law applies to fast-food chains that have 100 or more locations nationally and would create a council that would set industry-wide minimum standards on wages, working hours, and other conditions.

    Under the law, minimum wages could rise to as high as $22 an hour for 2023, with the option to increase further each year based on inflation.
     

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 12:50

  • "Somebody Was Lying": Biden Doesn't Trust Secret Service Detail, Thinks They Fabricated Dog Biting Incident
    “Somebody Was Lying”: Biden Doesn’t Trust Secret Service Detail, Thinks They Fabricated Dog Biting Incident

    President Biden doesn’t trust members of his Secret Service detail, and thinks they lied about details of the dog biting incident involving his dog Major, according to a new book which covers the administration.

    According to author Chris Whipple in his book “The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House,” Biden’s distrust stems from the fact that some agents are strong supporters of former President Trump.

    “A bigger problem was Biden’s discomfort with his Secret Service detail; some of them were MAGA sympathizers. He didn’t trust them,” Whipple wrote, according to The Hill.

    Biden’s detail as president is much larger than it was when he was vice president, and now many agents are “MAGA sympathizers” and “the Secret Service is full of white ex-cops from the South who tend to be deeply conservative,” Whipple wrote.

    The Secret Service response to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol after Trump tried to politicize the agency and made Tony Ornato deputy White House chief of staff for operations added to the president’s concerns. -The Hill

    “Surrounded by a new phalanx of strangers, Biden couldn’t help but wonder, Do these people really want me here?” wrote Whipple.

    What’s more, when news emerged that the Secret Service had deleted most messages from Jan. 6, Biden allegedly felt that the “Secret Service had looked both incompetent and politicized.”

    As for the dog – specifically, a March 2021 incident in which the president’s German shepherd, Major, allegedly bit a Secret Service agent – Biden was reportedly skeptical, and “wasn’t buying the details” – such as where the incident occurred, Whipple wrote. According to Biden, Secret Service agents are ‘never’ at the location of the incident – the second floor of the White House.

    “Somebody was lying, Biden thought, about the way the incident had gone down,” according to Whipple.

    Except there were two dog biting incidents; one on March 8, 2021, and another one several weeks later which took place on the White House South Lawn.

    Major, believed to be the first shelter rescue animal to live at the White House, received private training following the incident.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/31/2022 – 12:15

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