Today’s News 20th December 2023

• Our First Insurrection? The Boston Tea Party
  Our First Insurrection? The Boston Tea Party

  Authored by Richard Samuelson via RealClear Wire,

  On the evening of December 16, 1773, 250 years ago today, New England colonists disguised as Native Americans calmly boarded three ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 90,000 pounds of tea overboard.

  

  By 1773, the Americans had been pushing back against Parliament’s efforts to tax the colonies for roughly a decade. In 1764, Parliament passed the Sugar Act, and in 1765 the Stamp Act. These laws sparked intense resistance. The Stamp Act, requiring that all papers – legal documents, newspapers, and other publications (in addition to playing cards and dice) – bear the King’s stamp as proof of having paid the tax, sparked intense resistance, often in the form of mobs which gathered to ensure that no colonist was foolhardy enough to be the official stamp agent. 

  According to an old nugget of wisdom, the key to a good tax is to pluck the maximum number of feathers from the goose with a minimum amount of squawking. From that perspective, taxing writers, publishers, and lawyers was particularly ill-conceived. 

  But how to protest an act that faraway British subjects, with no representatives in Parliament, regarded as illegal? The colonists believed they had the right to tax themselves in their legislatures which were, significantly, the only elected legislatures in the Americas at the time.

  In an age before elected legislatures were generally understood to be the heart of the government, mobbing was sometimes recognized across the board as a legitimate, albeit extreme, way of vetoing what the common people regarded as an unconstitutional law, or of blocking an illegal action by the government. Hence, colonists would distinguish between legal and illegal mobs.

  Such mobs generally reflected the opinion of the local majority – they were not part of street fights between factions. Some of the Stamp Act mobs did get out of hand; others were more restrained (perhaps not by the standards of our more civilized age) and the colonists succeeded in blocking the Stamp Act, which was repealed.  

  Parliament saved face by asserting its right to rule the colonies “in all cases whatsoever.”  Parliament soon followed that assertion with the Townshend Acts, named after the Parliamentary leader Charles Townshend. These were revenue-raising duties on lead, paper, paint, glass, and tea. The colonists resisted and boycotted the goods, and in early 1770, these taxes were also repealed, with the exception of the duty on tea, which was retained – like the previous assertion of Parliament’s right to rule – as a marker defending Parliament’s claim of the right to tax the colonists. Repeal broke the boycott, although some colonists tried to sustain the boycott on British tea, preferring smuggled tea instead. Compared to other port cities, Boston’s tea boycott was less solid after 1770.

  In early 1773, with the British East India Company in financial trouble, Parliament tried to help the company, and perhaps force the tax issue, by allowing it to sell directly in the colonies, eliminating the middlemen. They were blind to the reality that this act was, in fact, extremely provocative. In reaction, the boycott movement returned in full force. 

  In most colonies, the patriots succeeded in keeping the tea out, but in Boston, Gov. Thomas Hutchinson sought to force the issue. He refused to give the tea ships clearance to leave port. And it was illegal for a ship to leave without proper papers. The ship owner could lose everything if he failed to comply with the law. Leading colonists repeatedly lobbied the governor to let the ships go, but he was adamant. 

  The first tea ships arrived in Boston Harbor on Nov. 28. By law, a ship had 19 days to unload its goods, or it was forfeited to the government on the 20th day. In other words, at midnight on Dec. 17, the tea would become the government’s property, and the government could unload it forcibly and, presumably, sell it to the minority in Boston who opposed the boycott. That would confirm the legal precedent the colonists wished to prevent – it was an implicit acceptance of the right of Parliament to tax citizens without their consent.

  On the afternoon of Dec. 16, after a failed final appeal to the governor, the town of Boston convened at the Old South Church, the largest meeting house in Boston. The assembly represented the “Body” of the people, not merely a faction. After the speakers concluded that there was nothing to be done, out of the streets came the whoop of the tea partiers, disguised as Native Americans, who marched down to the harbor and systematically and peacefully destroyed the tea – and nothing but the tea.

  Lifting 400-pound chests of tea with 18th-century implements was skilled work. The patriot leaders had done a good job selecting workmen. They unloaded the tea chests methodically, broke them open, and made sure the tea was spoiled in the salty water of Boston Harbor. Meanwhile, the tea partiers kept their focus on the tea, blocking, for example, those who tried to break into the ships’ liquor supply. This was no unruly, out-of-control mob parading randomly about the ships or the harbor. It was focused directly on blocking enforcement of the Tea Act.

  The Tea Party was a sensation. Some colonists, notably George Washington, believed it was excessive – attacking property in the name of property rights was a step too far. But then the British government reacted harshly, replacing the free government of Massachusetts with a military one, and taking other extreme measures. Parliament’s “Intolerable Acts,” as the colonists called them, did not divide the colonies as Parliament had hoped. Instead they rendered Washington’s qualms moot. In response the colonists called the First Continental Congress; several months later, fighting began at Lexington and Concord, and we were on the road to Revolution. 

  At the Second Continental Congress, which met not long after those battles, Massachusetts’ John Adams nominated Virginia’s George Washington to lead the Continental Army. The Union was coming together. On the other side, Gov. Hutchinson, unwilling to bend to overwhelming public opinion, lost the right to rule. British government would suffer the same fate across the colonies.

  Riots, mobs, and the like have historically been the tool of outsiders. The Tea Party was not quite that. It was the act of men who, by 1773, had long been part of their colonial political system.  Yet they were outsiders in British politics. The British wished to fix that by creating a separate class of their kind of gentlemen who ruled over the colonists. The scope of the people’s role in colonial government made them shudder. In other words, they sought to change the norms of colonial government to make them more like the norms of British government. That’s what the taxes would pay for. The colonists had other ideas. And the Revolution came.

  Americans today might consider a couple of lessons from the Tea Party. One has to do with tea itself. Only in the 18th century did tea begin to become a staple in Britain or British America. Enjoying daily tea and other like consumer goods became common and not merely a luxury for gentlemen and aristocrats. Tea drinking grew with the rise of global trade and the British merchant class. It was part of the revolution of rising standards of living that began in that age.  (As we know today, drinking tea has health benefits. It has antioxidant properties and other good things. Globalization has many benefits.)

  Back in the 18th century, the economic turn that produced an expanding middle class enjoying consumer goods, combined British liberties and literacy came the desire of more and more colonists to be respectable – and recognized as solid and responsible members of society. That meant one should not merely drink tea, but one ought to do it properly, in that way becoming a civilized British subject. Drinking tea and other respectable activities were signs that one was worthy of the responsibilities that came with British liberties. Part of the reason the colonists reacted so strongly against the efforts by Parliament to tax them without their consent was that their English cousins were, by implication, treating them as inferiors not truly worthy of the political rights that were their due.

  Another lesson has to do with the mobs. This was one way those outside the political system could make their voice heard. After the Revolution, replacing bullets with ballots and mobs with peaceful mass meetings, protests, and petition campaigns represented a fundamental turn. 

  On the other side, the question of the right to block the government when it violates the law remains a problem, and probably will be as long as governments are staffed with human beings.  In the late 1760s John Adams successfully defended John Hancock when he had his men forcibly block government agents trying to conduct an illegal search below the deck of one of his ships. Their warrant was only for the deck; Hancock kept them to the letter of the law.

  The larger move from mobbing to voting was itself built upon a more robust idea of rights – the rights of men rather the rights of Englishmen. And that points to the looming crisis of slavery. As soon as the colonists transformed the rights of Englishmen into the rights of men, slavery was logically and morally untenable. Yet it was deeply entrenched. In some ways, slavery and racial caste grew deeper in a human and also perverse way to manage the tensions between American slavery and American freedom, and, as the centuries pass, the problems of race and the legacy of slavery threaten to be the dram of evil in the tragedy of American liberty.

  Finally, there is in the Tea Party the eternal political problem of elites and commoners. All societies have them. When an elite grows distant (or is literally distant) and loses touch with the bulk of the people, it always causes trouble. The less connection it has to the local democratic process, the more likely it is to be a problem. On the other side, if the people have rights, they also have responsibilities.

  Two hundred and fifty years after the Boston Tea Party, are our elites once again the snobs who look down on the common citizens, deeming them unworthy of full participation in government? On the other side, does the common citizen still understand that to be a citizen is, in a sense, to be a little bit of an aristocrat, with the duties and responsibilities that necessarily entails? 

  On this anniversary of the Tea Party, as we begin the 250th celebration of the American Revolution, we ought to begin, once again, to think seriously about what it means to live in a democratic republic, and how we might sustain it for another 250 years.

  Richard Samuelson is an American historian and associate professor of government at Hillsdale College, Washington, D.C., campus.

  Tyler Durden
  Wed, 12/20/2023 – 00:05

• The "Post-Degree" Era Is Here: Study Reveals Top 10 Six Figure Careers That Don't Rely On College
  The “Post-Degree” Era Is Here: Study Reveals Top 10 Six Figure Careers That Don’t Rely On College

  During a day and age when the idea of going to college looks less and less like a way to get ahead in the world and more and more like a path for a guaranteed “woke” lobotomy, younger generations are starting to question the importance of higher education.

  We already know that kids out of high school who learn a trade are often on a fast track to starting their own businesses and making six figure incomes with far less debt than college students, in quicker time.

  Now, experts at Velents AI have offered up research to find other modern careers that could earn six-figure salaries without requiring a college degree, what they are calling the “post-degree” era. 

  Their methodology involved analyzing Google data, studying salary ranges from Indeed and ZipRecruiter, and examining job listings on Indeed until December 2023.

  

  The study found that:

  • Video game streamer is leading the list as the highest-paying job accessible without a degree and offers earnings up to $170,000. 
  • Virtual assistants, with potential earnings of up to $123,180, are the most sought-after on the list, with the most job openings and over 3 million searches on Google.
  • Event planners, despite having the fewest available positions, were still searched on Google over 632K times.

  Freelance writers rank second, earning $60,990 to $156,000, with over 900 job listings on Indeed and significant interest on Google.

  Third, affiliate marketing specialists can earn $72,620 to $142,450, open to individuals regardless of formal education. Content creators, fourth on the list, potentially earn $115,730 to $128,500, with 787 job openings on Indeed, suitable for skilled storytellers and media influencers.

  Virtual assistants, at the midpoint, have potential earnings of $74,660 to $123,180, being the most sought-after role with 3,930 job openings on Indeed. Social media managers, in sixth place, can earn $64,370 to $113,000, with 767 job openings on Indeed, requiring skills in online branding.

  Seventh-ranked influencers have earning potentials of $65,098 to $104,100, building careers on social media platforms through personal branding. Event planners are eighth, with earnings between $60,759 and $101,000, requiring creative planning skills and having 443 jobs listed on Indeed.

  Ninth are graphic designers, earning $58,130 to $97,850, with 1,860 job openings and over 1 million Google searches. Customer support representatives, rounding out the top ten, can earn $52,200 to $71,700, with 446 job openings on Indeed.

  To which we can only reply: video game streamers are making $170,000 a year? Maybe we’ll have to cut out the “sitting at home in mom’s basement” jokes for a little while…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 23:45

• "He's Starting A Revolution": Does Milei’s Win Signal A Global Anti-Communist Turning Point?
  “He’s Starting A Revolution”: Does Milei’s Win Signal A Global Anti-Communist Turning Point?

  Authored by Marcos Schotgues via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Javier Milei’s landmark election as president of Argentina might prove a turning point in the dominance of leftist governments in Latin America. Some are hoping it goes beyond.

  

  “He’s starting a revolution that begins here, is going to go through America, all the way to the north and then on to Europe,” Lilia Lemoine, a newly elected congresswoman in Argentina and long-time Milei ally, told The Epoch Times at President Milei’s inauguration on Dec. 10.

  President Milei, a libertarian and self-described “anarcho-capitalist,” has bucked the left-wing grip that, by the beginning of 2023, has held all nations in the Americas except Uruguay, Paraguay, El Salvador, and Ecuador.

  “Just like the fall of the Berlin Wall marks the end of a tragic era for this world, this election marks the turning point of our history,” President Milei said in his inaugural address.

  Brazilian lawmaker Cristiano Caporezzo called Milei’s election “absolutely historic.”

  “It marks a very strategic moment for Latin America, a right-wing ‘reconquering’ of the continent,” Mr. Caporezzo told The Epoch Times.

  “Milei’s arrival in Argentina will give the Chilean elections some strength. More countries in Latin-America will start walking towards conservatism.”

  Colombian Senator María Fernanda Cabal also attended President Milei’s inauguration in Buenos Aires on Dec. 10.

  “He today gave us hope, in Latin America, also in the U.S. and worldwide,” she told The Epoch Times.

  “What we see is that Javier Milei has opened the door and all these governments that have been ruling, societies that have been suffering with all these activists that go against the nature of human beings … currently, everything is going to turn right,” Ms. Cabal said.

  “We hope that Trump wins. We hope that Jose Antonio Kast in Chile wins, and we hope that we can save Colombia too.”

  Ernesto Araújo, former minister of foreign relations of Brazil, now a strategic aid for international affairs at Spain-based think tank Fundación Disenso told The Epoch Times he sees a global shift towards conservatism.

  

  “This can be a true ‘reconquest’ of freedom worldwide, which might be starting here in Argentina. I like to think big, and I think this might indeed be the case,” Mr. Araújo said.

  “If [the Milei administration’s proposals] work out, people might realize that the ideas of freedom work. That they work in a big country.“

  In his first week in office, President Milei slashed nine government ministries, took steps towards strengthening trade partnerships, and prepared to crack down on protests that may arise from upcoming drastic economic measures.

  He has promised to reduce government spending, eliminate Argentina’s Central Bank, and potentially adopt the U.S. dollar as an official currency. During his campaign, he pledged to replace the public education system with a voucher-based alternative, and move the public health care model to an insurance-based system.

  “This new social contract [people voted for] offers us a different country, a country in which the State does not direct our lives, but rather safeguards our rights, a country in which people are held accountable for their actions,” President Milei said during his inaugural speech.

  Hermann Tertsch, a Spanish member of the European Parliament, celebrated President Milei’s victory at the latter’s inauguration in Buenos Aires on Dec. 10.

  “I believe this victory—of the truth—in Argentina is a historical victory, and a victory of enormous repercussions,” said Mr. Tertsch told The Epoch Times.

  “It’s so important, and it has implications for all of the Americas, and for all of the West, an extremely important turnaround.”

  The recent win in The Netherlands by conservative Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom, has buoyed conservatives in the region. Mr. Wilders won the election, but must form a majority coalition with other political parties in order to become Prime Minister.

  

  “We can, for the first time in the history of the European Parliament, make right wing politics,” Mr. Terstch said.

  “We can stop the monstrosities of the 2030 Agenda, of the green pact, of all their permanent meddling into the livelihood [of people], the liquidation of subsistence that the current European Commission is pushing. This can change. We can change the Commission. And then we’ll see a difference in Europe.”

  The 2030 Agenda is the United Nations plan to achieve 17 “sustainable development goals” by the year 2030. The goals include “gender equality,” “responsible consumption and production,” and climate action.

  “The green pact” referred to by Mr. Tertsch is the “European Green Deal,” a framework in which European Union countries have committed to achieving “climate neutrality” by 2050.

  “We have yielded so much in 50 years, 60 years, that we can yield no more. Now we can only reconquer. And we are in a full reconquest campaign,” Mr. Terstch said.

  But conservative and libertarian politics are up against some determined and well-coordinated forces.

  “[This] is not just about the economy, this is not just about Argentina’s runaway inflation, it’s not about the fact there’s no growth,” Mr. Araújo said.

  “It is also about the matter of narco-trafficking, of organized crime. It is the problem of Latin-American organized crime being connected with worldwide organized crime. It is the problem of the China-Russia-Iran totalitarian bloc.”

  Socialist administrations across Latin America, particularly the Venezuelan regime, have facilitated or engaged in international drug trafficking and coordinated with Iran, China, and Russia against United States interests and regional security for years.

  In 2020 the U.S. Department of Justice charged Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and 14 other current and former officials in a “narco-terrorism” conspiracy to “flood” the United States with narcotics.

  In February 2023, Irani military ships sanctioned for terrorism docked in Brazil and in June a defense deal between Iran and Bolivia bound the two nations closer together.

  Latin American socialist regimes have enabled Iran-backed terrorist groups to operate broadly in South America for years.

  The Chinese communist regime has been spreading its influence widely in Latin America for years with trade deals, an expanding military presence, and ties to radical leftists groups in the region.

  The São Paulo Forum is the hub for leftist groups and political administrations.

  

  Created in 1990 by Brazil’s President Lula da Silva and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, it united narco-terrorist communist guerrilla groups such as Colombia’s FARC and political parties often in power, including Mexico’s MORENA and Brazil’s Workers Party.

  The group’s stated goal is to move the region further left.

  The São Paulo Forum inherited a framework of cooperation among left-wing parties that have been coalescing for more than a century with organizations such as the Third Communist International.

  The Heritage Foundation’s Mike Gonzales has called the São Paulo Forum “the world’s largest and most impactful Marxist international organization.”

  The group’s leaders often flaunt anti-American rhetoric and either are authoritarian or condone authoritarianism.

  The Chinese Communist Party has cooperated increasingly with São Paulo Forum parties, some of which are now in power.

  In March 2022, ahead of elections in Brazil and in Colombia, the Chinese Communist Party and the São Paulo Forum held a series of conversations. During a talk, CCP official Sun Yanfeng, affiliated to the China Institute of Contemporary International relations and to the China’s Ministry of State Security, said he rooted for leftist victories in both countries.

  Read the rest here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 23:25

• MSM Knives Are Out For DeSantis Over Super PAC "Illegal Coordination" Claims
  MSM Knives Are Out For DeSantis Over Super PAC “Illegal Coordination” Claims

  With Former President Donald Trump firmly in the lead of the 2024 GOP primary field (nothing new), the establishment’s only hope appears to be with Nikki Haley.

  

  To that end, the Washington Post took the opportunity to seize and pounced on DeSantis‘ super PAC, Never Back Down, for allegedly coordinating with the campaign. Hours after the report was published, a top strategist left the operation.

  On Monday, nonprofit watchdog Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint alleging that DeSantis “illegally coordinated” with the super PAC, and that Never Back Down violated an “explicit legal requirement that super PACs must remain ‘independent.'”

  

  As The Hill describes things, this is the latest in a “string of setbacks and shakeups” for the Florida governor’s campaign, “as he struggles to hold on to second place in the Republican presidential field.”

  “When things go badly in a campaign, the wheels tend to come off. There’s a lot of finger-pointing, there’s a lot of blame, and it inevitably spills out into the public and just compounds the problems,” said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist, adding that the Post‘s story of “a trouble structure” within the campaign and super PAC, “read like a post-mortem.”

  GOP strategist Doug Heye said it’s not clear whether the reports of super PAC tumult signal the wheels coming off DeSantis’s campaign — or if the wheels actually “have never actually been on.”  

  Never Back Down chairman Scott Wagner said in a statement to The Post that senior officials were terminated “following mismanagement and conduct issues, including numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information.”

  But a lawyer for the employees claimed Wagner’s assertions were false, and the statement was revised to refer to “opinions regarding mismanagement and conduct issues” and to say the super PAC and the senior officials “parted ways,” according to the report. -The Hill

  “I cannot in good conscience stay affiliated with Never Back Down (NBD) given the statements in the Washington Post today. They are not true and an unwanted distraction at a critical time for Governor DeSantis,” said Never Back Down adviser Jeff Roe, following his departure from the super PAC.

  I can’t believe it ended this way. I’m so proud to have worked alongside these men and women at NBD 24/7 the past nine months to save the country. Good luck the next 28 days and a wake up. I’m so sorry I can’t be there with you. pic.twitter.com/Rh4oQQ1tAE

  — Jeff Roe (@jeffroe) December 17, 2023

  Talk to the hand…

  The DeSantis campaign is putting on a good face, saying in a statement: “We have full confidence in the NBD ground game and field operation, which is second to none. There is a stellar team in place and we appreciate their independent efforts to fight for Ron DeSantis.”

  On Monday, DeSantis reportedly said that Roe’s resignation is “not a distraction,” and stressed that he has nothing to do with the “separate entity.”

  Of course… then we have this:

  

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

   

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 23:05

• Chasing The Rally Now Requires High Conviction
  Chasing The Rally Now Requires High Conviction

  By Michael Msika, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and strategist

  With good news on interest rates and the economy priced into stocks at this point, chasing the rally could soon become a lot more difficult.

  Fed officials tried to tone down excitement about rate cuts over the weekend, with markets starting to look seriously stretched. European stocks have jumped 11% since late October, with about two-thirds of Stoxx 600 members now above their 200-day moving average — although the level of bullishness is not yet extreme. And adding risk at the end of December is probably not on the cards for many investors.

  

  For Societe Generale strategists led by Roland Kaloyan, an upside scenario has been supported by Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s comments on rate cuts, strong US jobs data and an unexpected drop in oil prices. But the strategists are warning against buying into the rally from here and recommend caution around a Goldilocks outcome where the job market and consumer demand remain resilient but inflation falls quickly.

  “It is far easier for the market to price in the monetary policy impact — the Fed gave three cuts, the market is pricing in six — rather than the impact of inflation trends on revenues and margin,” Kaloyan says. “The market made a similar mistake last year by pricing in rate hikes but mispricing the impact of inflation on profits. The risk could be the other way around for 2024.”

  Meanwhile, the ECB had a much less dovish stance than the Fed at its last meeting, which could mean a slower pivot in Europe than in the US. Final Eurozone inflation numbers later today will help set the tone this week.

  Still, talk from central bankers won’t change investor positioning that much, according to Pierre Veyret, technical analyst at ActivTrades. “While some may think markets may have gone too high too quickly, investors will probably need more substantial evidence than just plain semantics that they were wrong with their dovish anticipations before bringing significant adjustments to their risk exposure,” he says. 

  

  With that in mind, traders may seek refuge in technicals and watch how benchmarks behave around key levels. DayByDay technical analyst Valerie Gastaldy says that the next big level for the MSCI World index is an all-time high, which could be reached by the end of the year.

  Still, “overbought conditions are a hanging sword,” she says, while also noting that softness in the market is possible after December’s option expiry.

  

  Trading volumes also typically come down after the December expiry and as holidays approach, setting the scene for some slightly less predictable market moves and providing another reason for caution into the year-end.

  “Recent developments point to a good year for stocks in 2024, even if the current enthusiasm seems somewhat exaggerated from a shorter-term perspective and a setback is highly likely,” says Unicredit strategist Christian Stocker. “The positives are priced in, sit back and enjoy the holidays,” he says.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 22:45

• Major Pharmacy Chains Handing Over Patient Records To Law Enforcement Without Warrants
  Major Pharmacy Chains Handing Over Patient Records To Law Enforcement Without Warrants

  A startling revelation has emerged from a recent congressional investigation: several leading pharmacy chains in the United States, including CVS Health, Kroger, and Walgreens Boots Alliance, have been found to provide patients’ medical records to law enforcement agencies without warrants.

  

  Initiated in June, the congressional review targeted eight prominent pharmacy chains to scrutinize their privacy practices in response to rising public concerns about health privacy and surveillance. This investigation, led by Senator Ron Wyden, Representative Pramila Jayapal, and Representative Sara Jacobs, was propelled into motion following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, which heightened fears about the confidentiality of medical records.

  Key findings from the probe:

  • Lack of Legal Review: CVS Health, Kroger, and Rite Aid, among others, do not require legal review before complying with law enforcement requests for patient records. This practice puts immense pressure on pharmacy staff, who are not legal experts, to immediately respond to such demands.

  • Inconsistent Privacy Protections: The investigation discovered a concerning disparity in how these pharmacies handle government demands for patient data. Many Americans are left vulnerable due to inconsistent privacy protections across different pharmacy chains.

  • Warrantless Sharing: Alarmingly, none of the eight surveyed pharmacies require a warrant before sharing pharmacy records with law enforcement, except where state law mandates otherwise.

  • Transparency and Notification: Only a few companies, like CVS Health, Walgreens Boots Alliance, and Kroger, have committed to issuing annual transparency reports regarding law enforcement demands. Amazon Pharmacy stands out as the only entity that proactively notifies patients of law enforcement requests for their records, barring legal prohibitions.

  Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), patients in the U.S. have the right to know who accesses their health information. That said, one has to request this disclosure data, as healthcare providers are not obliged to provide it. This gap in the HIPAA provisions leaves room for unchecked access to sensitive medical information by law enforcement without patients’ knowledge.

  Officials with CVS, Kroger and Rite Aid said they instruct their pharmacy staff members to process law enforcement requests on the spot, saying the staff members face “extreme pressure to immediately respond,” the lawmakers’ letter said.

  The eight pharmacy giants told congressional investigators that they collectively received tens of thousands of legal demands every year, and that most were in connection with civil lawsuits. It’s unclear how many were related to law enforcement demands, or how many requests were fulfilled.

  Only one of the companies, Amazon, said it notified customers when law enforcement demanded its pharmacy records unless there was a legal prohibition, such as a “gag order,” preventing it from doing so, the lawmakers said. -WaPo

  The lawmakers have called on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to address these shortcomings and revamp HIPAA standards. Senator Wyden, voicing concerns on social media, warned of a potential ‘witch hunt’ in Republican-led states, where law enforcement could misuse this access to prosecute women for abortion-related procedures or even birth control.

  CVS retorted that its practices are in alignment with industry standards and HIPAA regulations, while Amazon reiterated its commitment to customer privacy.

  According to the lawmakers, “Americans deserve to have their private medical information protected at the pharmacy counter.”

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 22:25

• On Abortion, One Size Won’t Fit All
  On Abortion, One Size Won’t Fit All

  Authored by Thomas W. Smith via RealClear Wire,

  The Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision did not outlaw abortion. The decision asserted that there does not exist a constitutional right to abortion and sent the issue back to the states to resolve with a limited role for the federal government (as was the case prior to 1973).

  

  The Founding Fathers who met in Philadelphia to give life to a venerable Republic had great vision. Having chafed under monarchy, they shared a profound concern that a powerful central government could become increasingly intrusive, and knew that power tends to corrupt. As an antidote, the Constitution they created clearly states that any power not specifically allocated to the federal government remains with the states.

  The problem, and it is not a new one, is that political partisans on each side tend to forget their civics when a political issue of great moment arises for which there is no consensus. On the issue of abortion, which is literally life and death,  the country is deeply divided. For many Americans, it is tantamount to murder. Even more Americans believe it is a matter of personal freedom.

  Compromise between those two sides is not easy to find. It requires some to concede that it might not be murder, and others to concede that there can be limitations on personal freedom. There cannot be “half murder.” So, the two sides fight it out.

  The outlines of a political compromise are not difficult to sketch out, although they seem morally unsatisfying. Does an abortion before 15 weeks not take a life? Does that mean one day before 15 weeks does not take a life? That one day after 15 weeks, it does take a life? Think about what took place in those first 15 weeks. Sperm and an egg come together and create an organism that grows into a human life form in 3 1/2 months. Does not abortion during those 15 weeks, like abortion after 15 weeks, end a potential life?

  The polls show that most Americans are abortion moderates, not binary “pro-life” or “pro-choice” absolutists. In one scientific survey after another, it is clear that relatively few people believe abortion should always or never be legal. Nevertheless, and understandably, the abortion issue is viewed quite differently in different states. Abortion, in spite of those polls, is now banned or severely restricted at all stages of pregnancy in 15 states. Both sides should applaud the Supreme Court decision. It is clearly more “small-d” democratic than the rule of law that preceded Dobbs.

  The abortion issue remains high-pitched. Emotional. Divisive. Counterproductive. It has enhanced disrespect for government. The Democratic Party sees the abortion issue as an opportunity to gain votes. The Democrats’ message is that Republican candidates want to diminish your freedoms, that the Supreme Court decision is flawed, that the abortion issue should remain with the federal government.

  This is at a time when the rule of law is under a multifaceted attack. The rule of law is precious. It is vulnerable. It exists more because of compliance than enforcement. For compliance to be effective, to be as universal as possible requires respect for government. Unfortunately, respect for government today is, at least since it has been measured, at an all-time low.

  Unfortunately, the heated debate over abortion has contributed to that alienation for half a century, and it’s only getting more partisan. Those who care about other issues other than reproductive rights can do something about it. Candidates for federal office, regardless of their political party, could state clearly what an overwhelming majority of Americans know to be true: that the moral dimensions of abortion are complex, and passionate people of good will are on both sides of the issue. Then they can state, as Nikki Haley has done, their own position on the issue, followed by a realistic assessment of the political realities. That means acknowledging that one law, in one jurisdiction, is not the answer.

  Democrats, particularly those who claim to fear that our democracy is hanging by a thread, do their cause no favor by pretending that they have never heard of the doctrine of federalism. Democrats do damage to the country and their own cause when they demonize Republican political candidates with dishonest attack ads over this issue. Or when they claim they want to enshrine all the elements of Roe v. Wade into federal law while deceiving voters about the elements of that jagged jurisprudence they know are unpopular, such as parental consent.

  For their part, Republicans campaigned for five decades to return this issue to the states. When legislative action and statewide referendums don’t go their way – and they haven’t been – it’s hypocritical to start pushing for a federal ban. And unpopular.

  That this issue is now in the hands of the state could eventually help tone down the abortion issue. It should help all voters recognize the issue is complex, that one law does not fit all, that we are fortunate to have a constitutional government. That the issue properly rests with the states.

  No matter what one believes with regard to abortion, one should also be concerned with preserving the rule of law, with preserving the greatest country in the history of humankind.

  Thomas W. Smith is chairman of OpenTheBooks.com.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 22:05

• Actually Axios, An Unproductive Congress Is A Good Thing 
  Actually Axios, An Unproductive Congress Is A Good Thing 

  New data from analytics firm Quorum shows that the 118th Congress is on the verge of becoming the least productive in decades, possibly even in history. Interestingly, this is being viewed negatively by Axios journalists, who seemingly do not understand that internal conflicts within the House Republican majority have been a blessing in disguise that has only slowed down the federal government’s ability to enact new legislation in a climate of overregulation weighing on economic productivity. 

  “Just 20 bills have been passed by both chambers and signed into law this year, with another four currently awaiting President Biden’s signature,” Axios journalist Andrew Solender wrote. 

  Solender continued, “That’s far below even historically unproductive first years: The 104th, 112th and 113th Congresses, in which Republicans controlled one or both chambers with Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama in the White House, passed between 70 and 73 laws.” 

  

  X users state an unproductive federal government is a blessing: 

  More laws..rules..regulations….that is what make the country unproductive….

  — Bryan W Cross (@BryanWCross1) December 19, 2023

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  Excellent!

  — Diversity Requires Freedom 🐳 (@uniteCOforus) December 19, 2023

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  Great work, GOP!

  — Matt Nowak (@MatthewNowak20) December 19, 2023

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  That’s a win for limited govt

  — Tim 🇺🇸 (@thesaultyTTT) December 19, 2023

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  This is progress. Every law passed is another right infringed. You may enjoy living in a box that if you accidentally step outside of it you get charged with multiple crimes, but I don’t. Congress has been mostly worthless for decades. I would rather they do nothing.

  — Military Arms (@MAC_Arms) December 19, 2023

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  According to a recent report by the center-right think tank American Action Forum, the Biden administration has increased the regulatory burden by $318 billion in total costs and more than 218 million hours of paperwork in the last two years (as of May of this year). 

  AAF noted, “An increased regulatory burden erects barriers to entry that are negatively associated with firm births, firm deaths, and increased profits among incumbent firms – meaning regulations inhibit new market entrants while cementing the position of existing firms.” 

  

  Fewer regulations are a start; as one X user pointed out, “Now do the spending.” 

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 21:45

• Are Smartphones Really Making Kids Dumb?
  Are Smartphones Really Making Kids Dumb?

  Authored by Ross Muscato via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  After decades in the classroom, award-winning teacher Steve Gardiner, of Billings, Montana, became acutely aware of a new problem making it difficult for his high-school students to learn.

  

  Ironically, it was the so-called smartphone.

  “The phones were disruptive and distracting—the most disruptive and distracting thing in the classroom in my 38 years of teaching,” Mr. Gardiner, now retired, told The Epoch Times.

  “Students could not stop looking at them. And when they weren’t looking at them, they were thinking about looking at them. I called it an addiction.”

  Experts now are calling attention to how smartphone use in the classroom can have negative effects on learning and safety at school. They show evidence that suggests allowing students to keep the devices with them during the school day leads to poorer academic performance, and sometimes even compromised safety and an increased chance of devastating consequences of bullying.

  Mr. Gardiner takes teaching—and impediments to it—seriously. He holds a doctorate in education, served three years on the board of directors of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. He was Montana’s Teacher of the Year in 2008.

  While teaching English at Billings Senior High School, he was so concerned about the impact of phones on learning that he conducted an informal survey. He asked eight business owners in town how they addressed employee use of cellphones on the job.

  “It was amazing,” Mr. Gardiner said. “All but one had a variation of the same policy, and that was that texting on the job was not allowed, and an employee would be given two warnings, if caught texting, and after that, he would be terminated.”

  The only exception was the local newspaper, he said, because staff sending texts “to ask questions, research, and receive information was part of the job.”

  Teens Tethered to Phones

  As the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic caused social isolation and prolonged absences from school, children’s time online increased dramatically.

  In the United States, children and teens aged 10 to 14 more than doubled their daily time online, going from an average of 3.8 hours to 7.7 hours, according to research published in a JAMA Pediatrics research letter on Nov. 1, 2021.

  

  Even as quarantine restrictions were reversed, the authors wrote, “screen use remains persistently elevated.”

  Almost all students have smartphones now.

  “Getting a smartphone is now a rite of passage for most children and adolescents in the United States,” states Common Sense Media in its 2023 study titled “Constant Companion: A Week in the Life of a Young Person’s Smartphone Use.”

  The study notes that “about half of U.S. children get their smartphone by age 11.”

  Common Sense Media—citing its own data and research from Peggy Rideout and the Pew Research Center—reported that 88 percent to 95 percent of teens (aged 13 to 18) have their own smartphone.

  Shortly after Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, almost all schools implemented some sort of ban on phones.

  But the breadth of the ban has fluctuated over the years.

  In 2009, 90 percent of U.S. schools had bans on cell phones in class, according to the National Education Association (NEA).

  By 2015, only 67 percent of schools had cell phone bans.

  In 2020, the number of schools banning smartphones had jumped back up to 77 percent of schools, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

  Teachers have been competing with cell phones for the eyes and ears of students for more than a decade, an insight documented by a 2010 Pew Research Center study. It includes data from 2009, when 90 percent of U.S. schools had cellphone bans.

  Of the teens surveyed, 62 percent said they could have their phones in school but not in class, and 24 percent were not allowed to have phones on school property. Of those who attended a school with a total ban, 65 percent brought their phones to school anyway, and 58 percent texted in class.

  While in class, 64 percent of teens said they had texted, and 25 percent had made or received a call, researchers found.

  

  Growing Opposition to Phones in School

  Arnold Glass understands well the lure and attraction of the phone to students.

  Mr. Glass, a professor of cognitive psychology at Rutgers University, led a team that, in 2018, published the first academic study documenting how cell phones in classrooms lower student test scores.

  “The negative effects of cell phones in the classroom were immediately obvious, which led to the initial bans,” Mr. Glass told The Epoch Times.

  “However, there was pushback from parents and school boards, and principals caved in to what they knew was a destructive policy” and allowed students to bring them to school.

  “Now school boards are being sued by parents for outcomes—including bullying—that are consequences of permitting cell phones in schools,” he said. “So, the self-protective bans are being reinstated.”

  While bans in varying forms are common now throughout the nation, only Florida has made it the law. In May, two weeks before announcing his presidential run, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 379, which prohibits student use of phones in class during instructional time in public schools.

  

  And in Florida, the school board of Orange County Public Schools (OCPS)—the eighth largest public school district in the country—instituted an even more restrictive cell phone policy than the state law.

  Under the new regulations, approved in August, students are prohibited, except in an emergency, from using their phones at any time during the school day. Students are allowed to have their phones on them, as long as they’re kept in a backpack.

  OCPS now is conducting a survey asking students, parents, and teachers about the policy and how it can be improved. The survey results will be released after winter break.

  Yet already there is positive feedback on the phone restrictions, OCPS media relations manager Michael Ollendorff told The Epoch Times.

  “Anecdotally, we are seeing an improvement in grades, and more positive in-person interactions among students,” Mr. Ollendorff said.

  “We are also finding that during lunchtime—when in the past kids were busy on their phones—they’re now playing games, including pickleball and cornhole.”

  Lawmakers in Congress also are considering the topic of cellphones in school.

  In October, U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) introduced the Focus on Learning Act. The bill would appropriate $5 million for the Secretary of Education to “conduct a study regarding the use of mobile devices in elementary schools, and to establish a pilot program of awarding grants to enable certain schools to create a school environment free of mobile devices.”

  China, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, and other nations have established variations of bans on phones in class.

  In August, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) called for an international ban on smartphones in classrooms. The United States is a member of UNESCO.

  Proof of the Problem

  “Dividing attention in the classroom reduces exam performance,” Mr. Glass showed in a 2017 study published in the academic journal Educational Psychology. He co-authored the work with Mengxue Kang, a fellow professor of cognitive psychology at Rutgers.

  The study is often referenced by those advocating for bans or curtailed access to phones in school.

  “I’ve studied learning and memory for over 50 years,” Mr. Glass said. One of his main pursuits has been “to create instruction tools to improve performance in the classroom.”

  Research and analysis of the academic performance of his students from 2005 through 2010 showed that the technology and tools he implemented in his teaching and in the classroom environment were producing positive results, he said.

  

  “The students were doing better in their exams every year until 2010, when we hit a ceiling, and then marks started falling, and I needed to see why,” Mr. Glass said.

  Read the rest here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 21:25

• October Was The 2nd Biggest Month Of Foreign Selling Of US Stocks Ever, Officials Dump TSYs As Gold Reserves Soar
  October Was The 2nd Biggest Month Of Foreign Selling Of US Stocks Ever, Officials Dump TSYs As Gold Reserves Soar

  For the second month in a row, total foreign net long-term portfolio securities inflows to the US were tiny (just $3.3BN)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  October was an ugly month for US equities (only to be followed by two months of staggering gains)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  …and now we have a good idea who was behind that selling. The latest TIC dats shows October saw the second biggest month of foreign selling of US stocks ever…

  

  While both private and official entities were sellers of stocks in October, Foreign Official entities were net sellers of US Treasuries…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  …but Private entities were buyers of Treasuries…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Belgium and Luxembourg were the biggest sellers of US Treasuries (-$31.6BN and -$28.2BN respectively) and China was also a seller (-$8.5BN)

  Combining China and Belgium’s data (since Beijing is using Euroclear as custodian for many of its TSY holdings), we see that “China” sold over $40BN in TSYs in October – its second biggest-selling month since Nov 2016…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Finally, we continue to broadly see the trend of de-dollarization with gold holdings on the rise as UST holdings slide lower…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  It really began gathering pace in 2019…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  …and if Powell pivots as promised, we suspect that will continue.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 21:05

• Investigation Leads To Additional Details Regarding The Mastermind Behind Secret Chinese Biolab In California
  Investigation Leads To Additional Details Regarding The Mastermind Behind Secret Chinese Biolab In California

  Authored by Steve Ispas and Lear Zhou via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  An Epoch Times investigation has revealed further details on Jiabei “Jesse” Zhu, the person behind the black-market biolab discovered in California, as well as his connections with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

  

  The secret biolab operated in a warehouse in Reedley, California, about 25 miles southeast of Fresno. It was discovered on Dec. 19, 2022, by Jesalyn Harper, a code enforcement officer with the City of Reedley Fire Department.

  In the warehouse, Ms. Harper discovered thousands of vials of infectious agents, including coronavirus, chlamydia, E. coli, streptococcus pneumonia, HIV, hepatitis, herpes, rubella, and malaria.

  On Oct. 19, 2023, Mr. Zhu was arrested in California and charged with manufacturing and distributing misbranded medical devices and for making false statements to the FDA.

  Mr. Zhu filed a suit against the city of Reedley for $30 million and against the county for $50 million. The prospect of having a conversation with the city leaders regarding his claims was used to entice him to show up at the warehouse and have him arrested on the spot by FDA agents with automatic machine guns in their hands.

  Mr. Zhu had claimed that he was a consultant named David He hired to help get Universal Meditech and Prestige Biotech out of the trouble they were in. Prestige Biotech is the company that owns the biolab in Reedley.

  However, City of Reedley officials recognized him as Universal Meditech’s president.

  “This is not a hired consultant; this is the lab CEO. The picture we have of the lab CEO matches this guy perfectly,” said Nicole Zieba, Reedley city manager, in an interview with The Epoch Times.

  But she still cannot figure out what Mr. Zhu was thinking in suing the city, pretending to be someone else, and bringing attention to himself, which ultimately led to his arrest.

  “I’m not sure if it’s stupidity, arrogance, or some long con that we simply haven’t figured out … but it certainly is confounding and baffling to me,” said Ms. Zieba.

  The investigation by The Epoch Times revealed additional connections between Mr. Zhu and the CCP.  Mr. Zhu’s father, Zongxiang Zhu, was born in 1923 and is a famed acupuncture expert and medical educator in China. He also serves as Director Professor of Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, according to 163.com.

  According to a Chinese encyclopedia, until recently Zongxiang Zhu has been involved in various activities and has been a very well recognized figure in China.

  Jiabei Zhu’s mother, Pengdi Zhu, was listed as one of the ultimate beneficial owners at Aide Modern Cattle Industry (China) Company Limited and at least four other Chinese companies controlled by Jiabei Zhu, according to the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party report that was released on Nov. 15, 2023.

  Pengdi Zhu’s name is also listed as the beneficial owner of Qingdao Aide Biotechnology Development Fund (General Partnership), a company that partners with Jiabei Zhu’s company Ai De Biopharmaceutical Industry (Qingdao) Co., Ltd.

  Shanghai Kunpeng Technology Investment and Development Limited, a company that has Pengdi Zhu as its legal representative and that is currently suspended according to the Shanghai Businesses listing website, invested 2,250,000 yuan (approximately $314,879) in Aide Modern Cattle Industry (Qingdao) Company Limited in December 2020.

  According to the House Select Committee’s report, the main company Jiabei Zhu controlled, Aide Modern Cattle Industry (China) Company Limited, was established in 2002 with a registered equity of 181,000,000 yuan ($25,219,092 with today’s exchange rate).

  According to the company’s listing website, the company has gotten into 62 lawsuits, the most recent one a financial loan contract dispute, which triggered a 10 million yuan ($1,393,418 under current rate) equity freeze and ended in an execution that targeted 12,294,755 yuan ($1,713,698 under current rate) on Oct. 27, 2023.

  According to the updated status on the qcc.com website, Aide Modern Cattle Industry (China) Company Limited was listed as “abnormally operating” on Sept. 23, 2021 because people were not able to contact the company via the registered address.

  Though The Epoch Times did not obtain the exact date Mr. Zhu entered the United States as Qiang (David) He, the year 2021 matches the time that his main company in China was listed as “abnormally operating” due to lack of contact.

  Aide Modern Cattle Industry (China) Company Limited is still active, according to the qcc.com website. Xuejun Zhang, board member of the public company Jushri Technologies Inc., was also listed as an active board member of Aide Modern Cattle Industry (China) Company Limited, on page 39 of the Jushri Technologies 2022 annual report issued April 24, 2023.

  Mr. Zhu had a judgment against him in 2016 for $330 million in Canadian dollars from the Canadian Supreme Court as well as another judgment for $8.5 million in Canadian dollars in a Hong Kong court in the same year. However, no lawsuits were filed in China for the same damages incurred, where Aide continues to operate.

  Other connections include Barry Zhang (Bai-Rui Zhang), who is listed as Prestige Biotech’s registered agent by the Nevada Secretary of State; and Michael M. Lin (Meng-Ru Lin) of Lin Law Group in Nevada, who is the leading attorney hired by Universal Meditech. Both have close relationships with the CCP’s United Front.

  Mr. Zhang was listed as one of the community leaders in Hunan Benevolent Association of America, according to its official website, while Mr. Lin was an active sponsor for the Las Vegas Chinese Spring Festival Gala supported by Consulate General of P.R.C. in San Francisco.

  Universal Meditech also seemed to have a close relationship with the Chinese government. Its COO, Candace Liu, attended the 2019 China-California Business Forum as a guest. The forum was mainly organized by the Chinese General Consulate Los Angeles as well as the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, according to a UNE News report.

  Currently, according to LinkedIn, Ms. Liu is the vice president of business development, North America, at jd.com, one of China’s largest online retail companies.

  The California biolab received more than $1.3 million in unexplained payments from banks in China while in operation, according to U.S. lawmakers.

  Possible Ebola in Freezer

  In May 2023, several agencies inspected the lab—the CDC, FDA, County Public Health, and California Department of Public Health. They looked at all the items in the refrigerators and freezers that were labeled and that they could determine what they were. However, there were many other items that were not labeled or were labeled with a code that the city officials had no key to.

  

  The CDC created a report for the 20 items that were labeled. All these items were sprayed down, disinfected, and put in special waste containers to be incinerated.

  In July, a city worker found a freezer that was labeled “Ebola.”

  “It was a white piece of paper that was folded over where you couldn’t read it unless you specifically unfolded it. And that paper read Ebola, and it was handwritten,” Ms. Harper with the city of Reedley told The Epoch Times.

  Nothing inside that freezer was labeled. This gave Ms. Harper some sleepless nights. The CDC would not investigate something unless it had a specific label on it.

  “Unless an item is actually labeled Ebola, it doesn’t fall under the CDC purview for their select agents,” said Ms. Harper.

  The bags of potential Ebola virus were shoved in the freezer in a disorderly fashion. They were all in silver sealable bags.

  The city never found out what was actually in the bags, as the CDC never examined them.

  “They didn’t come, they didn’t test, they didn’t even ask us to sample, and I think that’s why the congressional report was so critical to [the] CDC,” said Ms. Harper.

  Nevertheless, the samples were destroyed.

  Some of the other refrigerators were found to have things of unknown nature spilled on the bottom of the trays, and it looked like they were taped and moved around in the warehouse or from another warehouse, Ms. Harper said.

  “Everything seems to have been done very haphazardly,” she said.

  

  Previously, the CDC ended up hanging up on Ms. Harper on a different inquiry. In March 2023 during an inspection warrant, after the inspectors left, Ms. Harper was left alone in the building as she had to determine whether to turn off the power to the building in order to prevent a fire, given the disorderly things in the warehouse.

  With the power off, the freezers’ contents would melt with potentially dangerous consequences due to the pathogens. This is when she called the CDC for advice.

  “It was a very short-lived and frustrating phone call that ended with them hanging up,” said Ms. Harper.

  

  She ended up not turning off the power in the part of the building where the freezers were after she consulted with Ms. Zieba.

  While Ms. Zieba and Ms. Harper are not aware of any other possible charges against Mr. Zhu, they feel that the Energy and Commerce congressional committees should get involved, since the select committee on the CCP does not have authority over privately funded labs, according to Ms. Zieba.

  “There needs to be a single source within the government that is responsible for private labs,” added Ms. Zieba.

  Both Ms. Zieba and Ms. Harper added that the congressional investigation was very non-partisan and involved great cooperation.

  “From the way they talked, you couldn’t tell who was a Democrat and who was a Republican. And I thought, wow, this is phenomenal,” said Ms. Zieba.

  While these viruses could have been used for research, they could also be weaponized.

  “It is all in the intention,” said Ms. Harper.

  According to Dr. Limeng Yan, a virologist who worked at the WHO Reference Lab at the University of Hong Kong until 2020, it is extremely difficult to transport these dangerous pathogens internationally and even more difficult to obtain them in the United States.

  “If you need to do international transport, you have to acquire a very strict license from the local government and also the imported government; that means you have to get both approval from the country you ship it from and also [from] the United States. And also, all of these shipments need to be carefully monitored by the couriers, like, we use FedEx or DHL. Without a license, it could only be done illegally,” Mr. Yan told The Epoch Times.

  

  Zhu’s Legal Case

  Mr. Zhu is represented by Tony Capozzi, a well-known defense attorney in the Fresno area. Right after he was announced as Mr. Zhu’s defense attorney, Mr. Capozzi mentioned to another outlet that Mr. Zhu applied for asylum, but the attorney provided no confirmation or evidence when repeatedly asked by The Epoch Times.

  Mr. Capozzi did respond to The Epoch Times stating that he is waiting for the evidence on the criminal charges filed against his client Mr. Zhu.

  “I have not received any such discovery. The government indicated that it was not using the select committee report in the criminal case,” Mr. Capozzi stated.

  Mr. Zhu pleaded not guilty to both charges on Nov. 16, and in the detention hearing, he also entered denial of forfeiture to the properties in the warehouse that have been mostly destroyed by the Reedley City under an abatement court order.

  The next court date is set to Jan. 17, 2024 for a status conference. Until then, Mr. Zhu is to stay in custody, according to the court status website.

  A date for the trial to start has not yet been set.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 20:45

• Mexican President Rages Against New 'Migrant Arrest' Law In Texas, Vows To Challenge
  Mexican President Rages Against New ‘Migrant Arrest’ Law In Texas, Vows To Challenge

  Mexican President  Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) is spitting mad after Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a measure into law that allows state law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants who have entered the US without authorization.

  

  “We’re always going to be against these measures, and we want to say to our countrymen and migrants that we’re defending them. The governor of Texas is acting this way because he wants to be a candidate for vice president,” AMLO said during a Tuesday press briefing, adding “He’s not going to gain anything with this measure.”

  The move comes after Texas – fed up with a federal government that continues letting illegal immigrants pour across the Rio Grande and then roam with impunity – took matters into its own hands on Monday, enacting a law that makes it a state crime to illegally enter the Lone Star State from a foreign nation.  

  When that law takes effect in March, illegal border crossings will become a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail. Repeat offenses will be a second-degree felony subject to prison sentences from two to 20 years. Judges can kill the charges if an arrested immigrant agrees to go back to Mexico. 

  

  “President Biden’s deliberate inaction has left Texas to fend for itself,” said Abbott. “Today, I will sign three laws to better protect Texas—and America—from President Biden’s border neglect.” The other laws provide for an additional $1.54 billion to continue building border barriers, and increase the minimum jail sentence for migrant-smuggling from two years to 10.  

  Some sheriffs are uneasy about their capacity to hold and manage what could be an enormous population of detainees. “In just one section of the 1,254-mile Texas border with Mexico, around the cities of Eagle Pass and Del Rio, federal agents encountered 38,000 migrants in October,” reports the New York Times.

  Abbott’s signing ceremony comes as jaw-dropping hordes of migrants swamped the border in Eagle Pass, and as the Border Patrol has halted freight train activity on two railway bridges connecting Texas and Mexico, as smugglers pack migrants like cattle onto northbound rail cars. 

  JUST IN: Fox News’ Bill Melugin utterly shocked at the overwhelming amount of migrants currently waiting to be processed in Eagle Pass, Texas.

  “I’ve spent hundreds of days there over the last 2+ years and I’ve never seen it like this.”

  pic.twitter.com/uUsOGuvyck

  — Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) December 19, 2023

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  The law authorizing Texas police officers to arrest illegal immigrants is certain to precipitate a legal showdown between Texas and the federal government — one that could ultimately see the US Supreme Court take a new look at their decision in Arizona v United States. In that June 2012 case, the court ruled by a 5-3 majority in favor of the federal government monopolizing immigration policy.  

  However, as law professor Josh Blackman points out at The Volokh Conspiracy, the Arizona majority decision included a sentence that left open the issue of detentions like those enabled by the new Texas law:

  “There is no need in this case to address whether reasonable suspicion of illegal entry or another immigration crime would be a legitimate basis for prolonging a detention, or whether this too would be preempted by federal law.”  

  Democrats are already urging the Justice Department to intervene. In a letter to the DOJ, San Antonio Congressman Joaquin Castro and 20 other representatives ask Attorney General Merrick Garland to “assert your authority over federal immigration and foreign policy and pursue legal action, as appropriate, to stop this unconstitutional and dangerous legislation from going into effect.” 

  Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), a union representing 18,000 support Border Patrol personnel, has an entirely different view: “As the flagrant disregard of our laws too often is the norm throughout our country, Texans can be proud that their governor will not back down to pervasive and radical woke ideology.“

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 20:25

• Many Republicans Find Ally In RFK Over Vaccines, But Remain Loyal To Trump
  Many Republicans Find Ally In RFK Over Vaccines, But Remain Loyal To Trump

  Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Many Republicans still want a reckoning over the government-imposed pandemic lockdowns and mandates, particularly for vaccines. While they support former President Donald Trump, they don’t resonate with his praise of COVID-19 vaccines and Operation Warp Speed.

  

  When it comes to the vaccine issue, many of them align with independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who remains one of the most outspoken critics of the shots’ safety.

  Pundits and voters are at odds about whether the issue will play a role in determining if President Trump returns to the White House, or if his stance will shift support to Mr. Kennedy, who is running as an independent candidate.

  In a three-way general election Quinnipiac poll conducted on Nov. 1, Mr. Kennedy pulled more votes from President Trump than from President Joe Biden, flipping what would have been a narrow victory for President Trump to a win for President Biden. The scenario repeated when independent candidate Cornel West was added to the hypothetical ballot.

  President Trump maintains a commanding lead among Republican presidential candidates in every national poll.

  Mr. Kennedy is a favorite among independents and voters under the age of 45. President Biden dominates the Democratic field.

  President Trump’s defense of Operation Warp Speed, the program he rolled out in May 2020 to spur COVID-19 vaccine development and distribution amidst the pandemic, remains a sticking point for some of his supporters, who now say they will vote for Mr. Kennedy in 2024.

  

  The initiative featured a partnership between the government, the military, and the private sector, with the government paying for millions of vaccine doses to be produced.

  MaryJo Perry, a longtime advocate for vaccine choice and a Trump supporter, thinks votes will be at a premium come Election Day, particularly because the independent field is becoming more competitive. Besides Mr. Kennedy and Mr. West, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has hinted at a possible independent run.

  Ms. Perry, president of Mississippi Parents for Vaccine Rights, believes advocates for medical freedom could determine who is ultimately president.

  She believes that Mr. Kennedy is “pulling votes from Trump” because of the former president’s stance on the vaccines.

  “People care about medical freedom. It’s an important issue here in Mississippi, and across the country,” Ms. Perry told The Epoch Times.

  “Trump should admit he was wrong about Operation Warp Speed and that COVID vaccines have been dangerous. That would make a difference among people he has offended.“

  President Trump released a statement in March 2021 saying: “I hope everyone remembers when they’re getting the COVID-19 Vaccine, that if I wasn’t President, you wouldn’t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all.

  “I hope everyone remembers!”

  President Trump said in an interview on Fox News that without the vaccine, 100 million people might have died from COVID-19. He added that he is “very proud” of his efforts.

  The former president has on many occasions said that he is not in favor of vaccine mandates.

  “I really believe in somebody’s choice, somebody’s freedom. I’m a big fan of our freedoms, and people have to make that choice for themselves,” he said.

  The Trump campaign didn’t respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

  Wes Farno, a Republican campaign strategist in Ohio, doesn’t believe a significant number of people will switch their votes from President Trump to Mr. Kennedy over the vaccines.

  President Trump won in Ohio by eight percentage points in both 2016 and 2020. The Ohio Republican Party recently endorsed President Trump for the nomination in 2024.

  

  “The positives of a Trump presidency far outweigh the negatives,” Mr. Farno said.

  Only 16 percent of adults had received the newest COVID-19 vaccine boosters as of Nov. 25, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

  A Kaiser Family Foundation survey of adults released in September showed that political affiliation is a factor in COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Eight in 10 Democrats said they trust the new shots compared to 1 in 3 Republicans.

  Only 24 percent of Republicans planned to get the new vaccine compared to 70 percent of Democrat respondents.

  Vaccine Safety Critic

  An environmental attorney, Mr. Kennedy founded Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that aims to end childhood health epidemics by promoting vaccine safeguards, among other initiatives.

  Earlier this year, Mr. Kennedy told podcaster Joe Rogan that ivermectin was suppressed by the FDA so that the COVID-19 vaccines could be granted emergency use authorization.

  He has criticized Big Pharma, vaccine safety, and government mandates for years.

  Since launching his presidential campaign, Mr. Kennedy has made his stances on the COVID-19 vaccines, and vaccines in general, a frequent talking point.

  “I would argue that the science is very clear right now that they [vaccines] caused a lot more problems than they averted,” Mr. Kennedy said on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” in late April.

  “And if you look at the countries that did not vaccinate, they had the lowest death rates, they had the lowest COVID and infection rates.”

  Additional data show a “direct correlation” between excess deaths and high vaccination rates in developed countries, he said.

  

  A vocal opponent of the pharmaceutical industry, Mr. Kennedy has pledged to ban pharmaceutical advertising if elected president.

  Though critics call Mr. Kennedy a “conspiracy theorist” and “anti-vaccine” for speaking out about vaccine safety, multiple studies have shown that the COVID-19 vaccines are linked to a plethora of health conditions, including myocarditis and heart disease.

  Read the rest here…

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 20:05

• Biden's Polling Numbers Tank: Three Reasons He's Losing Support
  Biden’s Polling Numbers Tank: Three Reasons He’s Losing Support

  Authored by Carolyn Phippen via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  This week, President Biden’s approval ratings took another hit, according to a national Monmouth University poll. Sixty-one percent said they disapprove of Biden’s job performance, leaving him with a 34% approval rating. His national polling numbers have lingered under 40%, with continuous new polling showing an all-time low standing with American voters. 

  

  After leaving his campaign headquarters Sunday, a reporter asked why he was losing to Trump in the polls. Biden responded with, “You’re reading the wrong polls.” But like most topics, Biden would rather ignore reality. There’s a reason polling reflects such a low national approval rating, with one major factor being Biden’s advanced age (81) four years after he was the oldest person ever elected president in U.S. history. Here are three other reasons many Americans will not support President Biden next year.

  Soaring Inflation

  “Bidenomics” has made Americans poorer, not richer. Every day, Americans feel painfully high prices at the grocery store, the gas pump, and on their utility bills. Everything is more expensive today than it used to be. To put this in perspective, when fictional character Kevin McCallister in the movie Home Alone made a trip to his local grocery store in 1990, he picked up items such as milk, orange juice, detergent, toilet paper, and more. With his dollar-off coupon, his grocery bill totaled $19.83. Today, that same grocery bill at my local store would total roughly $83.00. That’s a 300% increase.

  According to Consumer Price Index data, inflation is now double what it was when President Biden took office. Inflation averages 5.8%, which is double under Biden’s presidency than the four presidents before him.

  The Financial Times reported a poll that shows 70% of American voters believe Biden’s policies have harmed the U.S. economy or had no impact, leaving only 14% of voters who believe they’re better off financially than they used to be. For the Biden administration to falsely tout otherwise is delusional.

  Senseless Energy Policies

  Under Biden, electricity prices have soared up to 24.3%. America has been a world leader in reliable, clean, and affordable energy, all while being environmentally savvy about it.

  Recently, at the UN’s Climate Change Conference (COP28 summit), world leaders flew into Dubai on their private jets to lecture the world on their latest comical climate change agenda. They called for eliminating fossil fuels as they burned through fossil fuels (which emit CO2) to get there. It’s fine for them, but not for you or me.

  At the conference, Biden’s Climate Envoy, John Kerry, called for the world to eliminate coal production altogether, which accounts for a quarter of electricity in America. Imagine what that would do to our country if we got rid of 36% of our electricity.

  Good, reliable energy is what powers our livelihoods. Without electricity to heat our homes in the winter, many would die. This is no small matter, so the Biden administration should think twice before making outlandish calls to do away with our coal production. Not to mention the astronomical impact this would have on prices for consumers when a quarter of Americans already struggle to pay their inflated energy bills.

  Open Border

  Biden’s border crisis has gotten out of control. On Dec. 5, there were over 12,000 migrant encounters at the southern border, the highest number ever recorded in a single day. We cannot have a thriving country when our borders are open, welcoming all kinds of people, including drug lords and terrorists. This is why it’s imperative to vet those who we allow to come into America.  

  It’s important to have a tall wall and a wide gate – securing our open border and fighting back against drug and human traffickers while welcoming legal immigrants who love our country.

  My heart breaks for the 11-year-old girl who was raped and killed last summer in Pasadena, Texas, because of Biden’s horrific policies. Guatemalan immigrant Juan Carlos Garcia-Rodriguez is believed to have illegally crossed the border earlier this year and has been charged with capital murder. This young girl will never know what it’s like to go to prom, or graduate from high school, or fall in love and have a family of her own. All of that was taken from her.  

  This is one of the many foolish consequences of open borders, thanks to the Biden administration. How many lives would have been spared if we had responsible border security?

  No matter which way you slice it, Biden’s policies have harmed Americans since he’s taken office. If we want a thriving economy, unleashed American energy, and secured borders, Biden is absolutely not the man to vote for come November 2024, and his abysmal polling numbers show it.

  Carolyn Phippen is a candidate for Utah’s U.S. Senate. She is a wife and a mother of five boys, former staffer to Sen. Mike Lee, and resides in Draper, Utah.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 19:25

• Colorado Supreme Court Disqualifies Trump From 2024 Ballot, Setting Up Supreme Court Challenge
  Colorado Supreme Court Disqualifies Trump From 2024 Ballot, Setting Up Supreme Court Challenge

  The Colorado Supreme Court has disqualified Donald Trump from Colorado’s 2024 presidential election ballot, and in a 4-3 ruling has effectively blocked Trump from seeking the presidency because of his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, citing the post-Civil War-era 14th Amendment to the US Constitution that bans insurrectionists from holding public office. The Colorado case was the first constitutional challenge to Trump’s 2024 run to go through a full trial.

  Voters, represented by the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, had argued he should be barred from the ballot for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

  Colorado’s highest court – whose seven-member bench was entirely appointed by Democratic governors – overturned a ruling from a district court judge who found that Trump incited an insurrection for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but said he could not be barred from the ballot because it was unclear that the provision was intended to cover the presidency.

  In its ruling, the Democrat-controlled court found that Trump engaged in insurrection by inflaming his supporters with false claims of election fraud and directing them to the Capitol. The state justices determined that the office of the president is covered under the insurrection clause, which specifically lists those who previously took oaths to support the Constitution as “a member of Congress,” “officer of the United States,” “member of any State legislature” or an “executive or judicial officer of any State.” The district court had previously ruled that the office of the president was not covered under the clause. 

  The majority opinion was unsigned but joined by four of the seven justices.

  Those who voted for fascism are the following four Democrat-appointed judges:

  • Justice Monica M. Márquez

  

  • Justice William W. Hood, III

  

  • Justice Richard L. Gabriel

  

  • Justice Melissa Hart

  

  Three justices dissented from Tuesday’s decision: Chief Justice Brian Boatright, Carlos Samour and Justice Maria Berkenkotter. Each wrote separate dissents taking issue with how the plaintiffs brought their 14th Amendment lawsuit using a provision of Colorado election law.

  Berkenkotter wrote that “the majority construes the court’s authority too broadly.”

  “The questions presented here simply reach a magnitude of complexity not contemplated by the Colorado General Assembly for its election code enforcement statute,” wrote Boatright. “The proceedings below ran counter to the letter and spirit of the statutory timeframe because the Electors’ claim overwhelmed the process.”

  Samour similarly wrote that Colorado’s election law provides no “engine” for such a lawsuit, also noting that no federal legislation existed to enforce the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause.

  “Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrible acts in the past—dare I say, engaged in insurrection—there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office. Procedural due process is one of the aspects of America’s democracy that sets this country apart,” Samour wrote.

  Ironically, all this ruling will do is further cement Trump’s status as leading presidential candidate as it not only affirms his status as target #1 of the Biden Department of Justice and liberal court system, but will test the Conservative-dominated Supreme Court appeal over its interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which according to many including a Colorado District court,  does not apply to the Presidency.

  Indeed, as Vivek Ramaswami observed, the 14th Amendment was part of the “Reconstruction Amendments” that were ratified following the Civil War. “It was passed to prohibit former Confederate military and political leaders from holding high federal or state office. These men had clearly taken part in a rebellion against the United States: the Civil War. That makes it all the more absurd that a left-wing group in Colorado is asking a federal court to disqualify the 45th President on the same grounds, equating his speech to rebellion against the United States.”

  And there’s another legal problem: Trump is not a former “officer of the United States,” as that term is used in the Constitution, meaning Section 3 does not apply. As the Supreme Court explained in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (2010), an “officer of the United States” is someone appointed by the President to aid him in his duties under Article II, Section 2. The term does not apply to elected officials, and certainly not to the President himself.

  The Framers of the 14th Amendment would be appalled to see this narrow provision—intended to bar former U.S. officials who switched to the Confederacy from seeking public office—being weaponized by a sitting President and his political allies to prevent a former President from seeking reelection. Our country is becoming unrecognizable to our Founding Fathers.

  The court put its ruling on hold until Jan. 4, so Trump can first seek review from the Supreme Court, which he will. Until then, Trump’s name automatically remains on the ballot until the justices resolve the appeal.

  “We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” wrote the court’s majority. “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”

  Naturally, Trump’s campaign immediately denounced the ruling.

  “Unsurprisingly, the all-Democrat appointed Colorado Supreme Court has ruled against President Trump, supporting a Soros-funded, left-wing group’s scheme to interfere in an election on behalf of Crooked Joe Biden by removing President Trump’s name from the ballot and eliminating the rights of Colorado voters to vote for the candidate of their choice,” a campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, said.

  “We have full confidence that the U.S. Supreme Court will quickly rule in our favor and finally put an end to these un-American lawsuits.”

  

  Constitutional law scholar Jonathan Turley, who previously said the case has no solid legal basis, also responded to the decision:

  “My first impression remains that same. The court is dead wrong in my view… …It is striking that the court relies on Schenck v. U.S., where the Court upheld the denial of core free speech rights of a socialist opposing a war. The opinion of the Colorado Supreme Court is so sweeping that it would allow for tit-for-tat removals of candidates from ballots.”

  Others was just as harsh in their assessment, with many agreeing that this witch hunt will only boost Trump. Some, such as presidential candidate Vivek Ramswami, pledged to withdraw from the Colorado primary unless Trump is reapproved, and urged all other Republican candidates to do the same.

  “Democracy” now means the right of the people to vote for candidates approved by liberal judges.

  — David Sacks (@DavidSacks) December 20, 2023

  This is what an *actual* attack on democracy looks like: in an un-American, unconstitutional, and *unprecedented* decision, a cabal of Democrat judges are barring Trump from the ballot in Colorado. Having tried every trick in the book to eliminate President Trump from running in…

  — Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 19, 2023

  Finally, here is Matt Taibbi’s kneejerk reaction:

  By now most readers will have heard that Donald Trump was disqualified from the ballot in the state of Colorado, by the Colorado State Supreme Court, for what amounts to a criminal offense neither proven nor charged. Fifth Amendment, Schmifth Amendment, apparently.

  This is a major escalation of the lawfare phenomenon that’s zoomed from simmer to boil in the seven short years since Trump was first elected in 2016. The glee of #Resistance dolts like Robert Reich and Dean Obeidallah at this decision shows that this was a move dreamed up at the very center of the bubble-within-a-bubble-within-a-bubble that is the blob of the modern Democratic Party. Racket readers, I had a piece planned for later on a quasi-related subject, but I’ll try to get it out in the day or so now.

  What a crazy effing country this is…

  Here is the Colorado Supreme Court Decision in its entirety.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 18:58

• Bhandari: The Structure – Or Lack Thereof – Of India
  Bhandari: The Structure – Or Lack Thereof – Of India

  Authored by Jayant Bhandari via LewRockwell.com,

  Even in the urban centers in India, you can hire a daily wage worker for as low as US$4 per day. This laborer has no day off, no employment insurance, no vacations, no health benefits, and no pension. If he cannot find work one day, he must sell a utensil or two to buy food. He is always in debt, a slave of loan sharks, and lives in a stinking, feces-ridden slum with pigs wallowing in the cesspool and starved, agitated, rabies-afflicted stray dogs ready to pounce. He must pass on a monthly “rent” to the local goon, who passes on a cut to the police. When a family member falls ill, a common occurrence in his disease-ridden environment, his financial option is not always to take the sick to the hospital.

  Based on the 2011-12 survey, a staggering 65% of Indians find themselves in a shape akin to or worse than that of our daily wage worker. India suppressed the 2017-18 report, for it likely showed a worsening situation.

  In the dog-eat-dog, no-trust society, he is vulnerable to predation, not just from the conventional crooks but more importantly from his own family and friends, the society, and the government, with the only saving grace being that he hasn’t much to lose.

  He endures being spat at and slapped with equanimity. Dignity is an alien concept; he would suffocate if he understood it. Empathy is impossible to find; instead, he encounters schadenfreude from those around him. They are atomized and clueless that institutions should exist for their protection, not to prey on them.

  If his daughter gets raped when she goes out to the bush at night to relieve herself, they are unlikely to go to the police, partly for fear that she will be raped again and even “disappeared” if the rapist bribes right, but mostly because he and she feel no righteous indignation. They are part and parcel of the same society, well-adjusted to its degradations and depravities. Depending on the situation, they are opportunists, oppressors, victims, or, more suitably, jellyfish.Sports Research Triple…Buy New $26.95 ($0.30 / Count)(as of 07:43 UTC – Details)

  It is hard not to sympathize with her. However, without understanding her mindset and moral structure—or lack thereof—one cannot appreciate the complex entanglements that are Indian depravities and how virtually impossible it is to create a civilization. Christian missionaries of the past, deeply rooted in moral sentiments and, hence, unknowingly, in economics, had a sense of these challenges.

  The modern progressive, thinking that all successful people are wrong and the poor are inherently good, is, at best, stuck in a Groundhog Day. Lacking an understanding of the complexity and often driven more by virtue-signaling than wanting to do good, he fights for meme-level actions such as ending the caste system and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.

  Our daily wage worker is submissive and harbors an extreme inferiority complex, addressing you with “sir” in every sentence. However, if you afford him respect and a seat at a table, he transforms into a roaring tyrant. He sees all social relations through an oppressor-subservient lens. Even in moments of submission, you must watch your back, as his show of respect is transactional. Gratitude and honor are foreign concepts to him.

  If, through the magic of diversity quotas—potentially reaching 50% or more—he gets into a position of power, he will likely outdo his thoroughly corrupt predecessors in sadism, venality, and, of course, incompetence. He will be particularly ruthless with people of his kind. This is an essential part of India’s karmic cycle, the never-ending cycle of depravations. And without consciousness, the karmic cycle cannot be broken.

  Unhinged from any moral values, he and his daughter cannot discern right from wrong, perpetually swaying based on expediency, materialistic desires, and survival, fluidly, instinctively, without any thought or emotional reaction, compromising with the milieu.

  As if no emotional stress is involved, they don’t see their adjustments as compromises. When exploited, they willingly capitulate. Their instinct is to go after someone weaker to recoup their losses. When they have an opportunity to prey on someone, they feel no shame but a sense of achievement, openly advertising their exploits.

  In a society without a moral fabric, street-smartness and crookedness are glorified if successful.McCafe Premium Roast, …Buy New $34.93 ($0.42 / Count)(as of 07:43 UTC – Details)

  The happy-go-lucky adjustments to the savage society do not imply a carefree life—quite the contrary. Being both a predator and constantly being preyed on makes them cunning, as they consistently calculate when to attack, dodge, or submit. She, being a woman and physically weaker, makes up for it by being extra-cunning.

  Their minds work on magical thinking and superstitions, rendering them immune to reason. Unanchored to anything objective, they have no toehold. This condition leads to an existential crisis and free-floating chronic anxiety and makes them willing victims of quacks, cult leaders, and psychopaths.

  India is among the world’s most stressed and unhappy nations.

  In the new-age books, the poor people are depicted as happy, smiling, and satisfied with their meager possessions. Haven’t you seen their cute kids? Alas, politically correct and virtue-signaling readers want what is facile and easy on the brain. They want to feel good, not do good. Who will object to their talking about kissing and hugging dark-colored, wretched kids on the other side of the world whom they will never touch? They advocate for positivity as if it were a magical charm capable of altering reality.

  In their wretched existence, poverty-stricken people do find White visitors amusing or even godsends who can pass on some crumbs—and ephemeral catharsis and relief from their everyday drudgery. However, a true development economist—a profession rife with political hacks—instinctively knows that material poverty is often a symptom of inner, spiritual, moral poverty.

  Outsiders ushered in waves of civilizational influences to India. The British brought Victorian morals. Together with Christian missionaries, they bestowed a straightjacket of values, nutrients, institutions, social opprobrium, disinterested justice, equality, and the rule of law.

  This created an ecosystem for the emergence of a minority of Indian leaders. Most of these were petty, self-serving tyrants who used the façade of the fashion of the day, socialism, and the safety umbrella of British liberalism for their power-hungry projects and to undo the emerging liberal order. Many of these had been to universities in England, or the vague idea of self-governance would never have crossed their minds. This is worth mulling over. The concept of an individual being a sovereign of his life is uniquely Western.

  Not being grounded in Western values, they didn’t have the moral and rational faculties. At best, they learned in England the simplistic ideas of socialism, which, given the mental makeup they formed in their early years in India, is all they could see.

  A scarce one who grasped Western values desperately wanted the British to stay on.

  While everyone foresaw the inevitable consequences of British departure, the emerging “freedom fighters,” driven by an amoral psyche, hypocritically failed to factor in the repercussions. Many chose to relocate with the British, and some did so even earlier. The masses, devoid of the option to emigrate, preferred British rule over the arbitrary tyranny and sadism of Indian rulers. This unequivocally explains why Indians were silent bystanders and even aided foreigners when they arrived. There can be no patriotism without common values rooted in universal principles.

  The departure of the British consigned India to perdition.

  India has no core moral values, nothing like the Ten Commandments. Indian temples are dedicated to cathartic rituals involving singing or expecting material rewards from the gods, such as success in examinations that lead to positions that earn the most bribes. “Sins” are dos and don’ts, like how to deal with the cow. Searching for meaning and truth or seeking a higher purpose are concepts alien to the Indian mind. Such a society cannot even create leaders, let alone recognize and elevate them to higher positions.

  This is bewildering to those who were brought up in societies with the Ten Commandments ingrained in them, even if they are themselves atheists. What they think is a part of nature’s law isn’t.

  Actively encouraged by the British, a series of movements swept through the 19th century to eliminate some of the most brutal, inhuman, and superstitious practices. This came to be known as the Bengal Renaissance. The British believed that to have moral values stick, they had to find references to those somewhere in the local scriptures. I call this the Christianization of Brahmanism. With the departure of the British, the movements went off the rails.

  The inertia of amorality was so potent that today, even Christianity has become voodoo.

  A couple of hundred years of European rule wasn’t enough. Indians had and continue to have no capacity to build a civic fabric. They have failed to show a capacity to imbibe complex thinking. In their hands, what the British had left had to fall into disrepair, hallowed out, and eventually fall apart.

  India’s institutions have been worsening and are on their way to their pre-European (and even pre-Islamic) wild existence. Why is this happening? Indians do not have a moral consciousness, and no one has worked out a way to ignite it. Had the British stayed longer, India would have kept improving and done much better. However, there is no evidence that it would have ever become self-sufficient in governance and sustaining civilizational values without the straightjacket provided by the British.

  In the post-Christian world, the assumption is that prosperity and education must automatically lead to enlightenment. The results have, however, been quite the opposite, as these factors have instead provided leverage to the underlying irrational, amoral “system.”

  A foundation of rational, moral fabric must first be laid to have any hope of building a civilization. So-called education sits unconnected in the mind without a rational, moral foundation, at best as a cog in an industrial system. Mostly, they burden the mind and make it, ironically, more superstitious and confused. Not driven by a vision and a passion for learning, education for such people is nothing more than a certificate to get a job. They never assimilate in their minds what they supposedly learn.

  Technology, instead of being used for self-improvement and education, is mostly used for the satisfaction of base desires, spreading rumors and superstitions, and access to pornography. A foundation of discipline and impulse control must have been first laid.

  As Indians have become prosperous, they have become more atomized, materialistic, apathetic, and hedonistic, increasingly erupting into savagery and barbarism, quite in contrast to the conventional belief that prosperity, democracy, female empowerment, and education lead to an improved society.

  My generous, open-minded grandma, whose circle of friends included her tailor and a former chauffeur, used to say that you invite trouble if you pay certain people more than what keeps them at the edge. Those with no bigger vision than subsistence turn to hedonism if money is forced on them. Too much money takes away the only purpose their minds can fathom. They are then well on a path to troublemaking, savagery, barbarism, and self-destruction.

  With increasing education and prosperity and the increasing distance from the British past, the Indian middle class has grown more superstitious.

  Civilization does not exist in nature. You have to fight and work towards it. And the process is messy, as Europe experienced over three millennia. The necessary ingredients—honor, work ethic, integrity, fairness, respect for the individual, gratitude, empathy, and rationality—are conspicuous by their absence in India, even in the middle class, which is supposed to be the moral spine of any society. Alas, without civilizational values, one is left with the base, animalistic values, and might-is-right paradigm of resource acquisition and sensual pleasures. All you can have in this milieu is unbridled envy, hate, and covetousness.

  This “underpins” an Indian’s behavior, social relationships, and India’s economy, and understanding this is the key to connecting what would otherwise be disparate, confusing, bewildering experiences of India.

  Far more important than the institutions are the quality of leadership. Over time, fewer and fewer people trained under the British remained in positions of power. The top leaders today were born after the British departure.

  Today, Indian elections are based on the twin policies of freebies and Hindutava (political Hinduism). There is no conversation about public policy, law and order, and governance. The mafia is now firmly embedded in the government, directly commanding the bureaucracy, while the police function as the uniformed arm of the mafia.

  In the present Indian government, everything is based on bribes and connections. Attempting to address grievances by ascending the bureaucratic hierarchy leads to escalating bribes. Even resorting to the anti-corruption department comes with a price tag. If you go to court, you will pay. The British had created checks and balances. They are all gone. The bureaucrats, judges, police, and the mafia all talk with each other and scheme to extract the maximum bribes. This does not mean that they get along with each other. They look for every opportunity to backstab and undermine the other.

  India is often considered a socialist country. Nothing in the above is socialism. If India became socialist, however unrealistic, mechanical, and simplistic socialism might be, I would see that as a massive improvement.

  India has what I call chaos-ism.

  As one tries to deconstruct India, one realizes it has no structure. The country itself is a British creation. During the British times, the word Hindu, which, during the Persian and Greek invasions, referred to the people of the Indian subcontinent, came to be associated with the agglomeration of innumerable rituals and beliefs of the region for census purposes.

  The British colonizers were systems people. They encountered chaos in India, a madness that had no method. They tried to classify what they encountered. However, giving a theoretical structure to something without structure does not change the reality but confuses understanding of the fundamentals.

  The British, again for the census, created a caste classification. If you ask our daily wage worker what his religion, caste, and nation are, his response will confound you and might be incomprehensible even to other Indians. He associates his “nation” with people of his tribe in his local area with an ingrained hostility towards others there. He might still regurgitate something patriotic to do with India these days based on what he constantly gets propagandized to.

  Here is a better way to understand the Indian caste system. There are as many castes as there are Indians, with each Indian trying to dominate or be subservient to the other.

  

  I have been to a hundred countries and lived in several. What I say about India is primarily true for today’s Third World, all regressing to their pre-European savagery and barbarism. They represent the vast majority of the human population. Thus far, if they haven’t descended into the kind of chaos witnessed in Rwanda, it isn’t due to their democracies but because of the institutional inertia left by the colonizers and the apprehension of the USA—Pax Americana. Unfortunately, the USA is becoming weaker, and the Third World is poised to become extremely dangerous and chaotic.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 18:45

• Biden Mulls Relisting Houthis As A Terror Org, Weighs Offensive Strikes
  Biden Mulls Relisting Houthis As A Terror Org, Weighs Offensive Strikes

  The White House has confirmed that it is currently reviewing whether to (re)designate Yemen’s Houthis as a terrorist organization, after for the past weeks the militant Islamist group has attacked several commercial ships and launched missile and drone attacks against Israel as retaliation for the Gaza campaign.

  Likely this would allow for more offensive actions against Houthi positions by the US military, and without Congressional approval, when US assets or commercial shipping comes under attack. Asked about a possible new designation in an afternoon press conference, national security council spokesman John Kirby said that “we’re actually conducting a review right now on whether that’s the right course forward.” US officials have raised the possibility of offensive military strikes for the first time, via news wires:

  • POSSIBLE STRIKES ON HOUTHIS IN YEMEN CONSIDERED, PEOPLE SAY
  • US WEIGHS WHETHER TO ATTACK HOUTHIS BEYOND DEFENSIVE TASK FORCE
  • PEOPLE FAMILIAR SAY NO DECISION MADE YET ON STRIKING HOUTHIS

  Top Biden spokesman John Kirby says the Biden administration is considering re-designating the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization.

  REMINDER: It was Biden who LIFTED the terrorist designation on the Houthis back in 2021. pic.twitter.com/wrlpXKxj4o

  — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) December 19, 2023

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

  But ironically it was the Biden administration that took the Houthis off the terror list in the first place, in 2021.

  Below is what Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in February of that year:

  Effective February 16, I am revoking the designations of Ansarallah, sometimes referred to as the Houthis, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under the Immigration and Nationality Act and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13224, as amended.

  This decision is a recognition of the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen. We have listened to warnings from the United Nations, humanitarian groups, and bipartisan members of Congress, among others, that the designations could have a devastating impact on Yemenis’ access to basic commodities like food and fuel.

  The Saudi-UAE-US coalition has waged a brutal air war against Yemen and the rebel Houthis going back to 2015, unleashing a dire humanitarian crisis.

  The Houthis have long been seen as proxies of Iran, and have lately declared war against both Israel and any vessel going to Israeli ports. The US on Monday announced a ten-nation coalition to patrol and protect the Red Sea from these attacks. This has included, interestingly enough, the tiny island country of the Seychelles. But the Houthis say their resolve remains undeterred…

  Yemen tells America to bring it on. pic.twitter.com/85Otaasf3B

  — روني الدنماركي (@Aldanmarki) December 19, 2023

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  Amid White House indecision, the number of major shipping and container companies which have temporarily halted all transit through the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Red Sea has only grown.

  They are as follows: the Italian-Swiss giant Mediterranean Shipping Company, France’s CMA CGM, Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd, Belgium’s Euronav, oil giant BP, Denmark’s A.P Moller-Maersk, Taiwan shipping firm Evergreen, and Norway-based Frontline. As for the naval coalition, there are reports saying it could take a few weeks to actually materialize. By then, many more vessels are likely to come under attack.

  The Houthis have meanwhile said this is all part of the war against Palestinians. “The international coalition that America announced under the pretext of protecting maritime navigation in the Red Sea is an alliance to protect the Israeli entity and to protect Israeli ships. It is an integral part of the aggression against the Palestinian people, Gaza, and the Arab and Islamic nations,” the group said in a new statement.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 18:25

• Rufo Exposes Claudine Gay's DEI Empire
  Rufo Exposes Claudine Gay’s DEI Empire

  Authored by Christopher F. Rufo via City Journal,

  Harvard president Claudine Gay has been embroiled in controversy for minimizing Hamas terrorism and plagiarizing material in her academic work on race. Both scandals have discredited her presidency, but neither should come as a surprise. Throughout Gay’s career at Harvard—as professor, dean, and president—racialist ideology has driven her scholarship, administrative priorities, and rise through the institution.

  

  Over the course of her career, Gay quietly built a “diversity” empire that influenced every facet of university life. Between 2018 and the summer of 2023, as the dean of the largest faculty on campus, Gay oversaw the university’s racially discriminatory admissions program, which the Supreme Court found unconstitutional. Even after the court issued its ruling earlier this year, Gay said that it was a “hard day” and defended the university’s policies, which were deemed discriminatory against Asian and white applicants. Gay promised to comply with the letter of the law, while remaining “steadfast” in her commitment to producing “diversity”—a not-so-subtle message that Harvard would find a way, as the University of California has done, to evade the law in practice.

  This is incredible: In her dissertation, Claudine Gay plagiarized the language of her acknowledgment from the acknowledgment of another scholar, without citing the source. She couldn’t even say “thank you” without plagiarizing the language. pic.twitter.com/UcztaGBUzn

  — Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) December 19, 2023

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  While affirmative action has been a longstanding practice at Harvard, other programs led by Gay were new. Following the death of George Floyd in 2020, Gay commissioned a Task Force on Visual Culture and Signage, which released a series of recommendations the following year for engaging in the “historical reckoning with racial injustice.” The recommendations included a mandate to change “spaces whose visual culture is dominated by homogenous portraiture of white men.” In particular, the report maintained, administrators should “refresh” the walls of Annenberg Hall, which “prominently display a series of 23 portraits, none of [which] depict women, and all but three of [which] depict white men.” Who were these white men and why were they honored in the first place? The report does not say—their race and sex alone provided sufficient justification for their banishment.

  In 2022, Gay implemented an initiative at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for “denaming” any “space, program, or other entity” deemed racist by the faculty and administration. According to the report, commissioned by then-president Lawrence Bacow, these decisions would be “based on the perception that a namesake’s actions or beliefs were ‘abhorrent’ in the context of current values.” In other words, Harvard would use the standards of present-day social-justice activism to pass judgment on men who lived hundreds of years prior—at best, an ahistorical and deeply ambiguous method. As part of this project, Gay sent an email to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences community soliciting “requests for denaming,” promising to address the situation “through the lens of reckoning.” Since then, the university has grappled with denaming multiple buildings, including Winthrop House, named after John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and his great grandson, also John Winthrop, a Harvard professor and president.

  As president, Gay leads a sprawling DEI bureaucracy—officially, the Office of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging—that seeks to influence how students speak, think, and behave in relation to race. Though the university deleted nearly all DEI materials from its website following President Gay’s disastrous congressional testimony related to the Hamas terror attack, I have recovered some of these documents through an Internet archive. Harvard’s DEI administrators encourage students to internalize the basic narrative of critical race theory: America is a nation defined by “systemic racism,” “police brutality,” “white supremacist violence,” and the “weaponization of whiteness.” In another resource, students were invited to “unpack” their “white privilege” and “male privilege,” and to consider their “white fragility,” which stems from “the privilege that accrues to white people living in a society that protects and insulates them from race-based stress.”

  What is one to make of Gay’s record as a whole? She is hardly a “scholar’s scholar,” as the university magazine tried to portray her, having published, according to her curriculum vitae, just 11 academic papers—nearly half of which include plagiarized material. Nor is she a competent administrator, having botched the response to rampant anti-Semitism on campus and, by one estimate, lost the university more than $1 billion in donations. But she plays one role perfectly: the dutiful racialist, skilled at the manipulation of guilt, shame, and obligation in service of institutional power. For instance, she wrote last year in a message to the campus announcing a report on Harvard’s historical connection to slavery: “We have been excluded and denigrated for centuries from an institution where we now work, study, and lead. Our presence here should not feel so extraordinary. But now we see it was anything but inevitable.”

  The irony: Gay was, in fact, somewhat inevitable. In the long season of racial guilt and animus that followed George Floyd’s death, the university was desperate to recruit a “first,” as Gay put it in her inaugural address, and disrupt the university’s nearly 400 years of whiteness. As Harvard is now learning, however, naming as president someone who sees race and sex not as incidental human attributes but as ideological constructions that must be imposed on the institution comes with a significant downside.  Consequently, Harvard’s trustees find themselves in a bind: they hired Gay in large part for her identity and cannot fire her for the same reason. They seem resigned to muddling through the “racial reckoning,” however long it lasts and whatever further damage it inflicts on America’s oldest university.

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  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 18:05

• Trump Tries To Overturn Gag Order As Judge In Different Case Rejects Bid To Dismiss
  Trump Tries To Overturn Gag Order As Judge In Different Case Rejects Bid To Dismiss

  Former President Donald Trump made yet another attempt to overturn a federal gag order at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit – with his attorneys arguing that the appeals panel was wrong on five counts, and as such, a rehearing is in order in the decision regarding his 2020 election interference case before Judge Tanya Chutkan.

  

  “The opinion holds that President Trump must be silenced to protect trial participants from possible threats or ‘harassment’ from unrelated third parties,” reads the petition, after the appeals court panel agreed with the rationale of lower court judges in issuing two separate gag orders on the former president.

  “In doing so, the opinion conflicts with decisions of the Supreme Court and other Circuits, warranting en banc consideration both to secure uniformity of this Court’s decisions and because of the question’s exceptional importance,” they wrote, requesting an en-banc hearing before all of the judges in the court.

  The appeals panel said, first during a hearing and later in the issued opinion, that they sought a balance between First Amendment rights and the need to uphold the integrity of court proceedings.

  The defense attorneys argue that the court ultimately accomplished neither and reinforced the gag order based on “a third standard, for which it cites no authority.” When it comes to restricting speech to prevent harm, there is another set of precedents to inform these decisions, and defense attorneys argue that the appellate court judges did not meet those standards, primarily the “clear and present danger” test set by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. –Epoch Times

  Trump’s attorneys referenced cases in which it was ruled that presidential candidates have “absolute freedom” in their speech, and that the judges didn’t properly consider these cases. They also used the ‘heckler’s veto’ theory, arguing that the appeal’s court is wrongly making assumptions about anticipated reactions to Trump’s speech, and have justified those assumptions “on the basis that the audience is not ‘hostile’ to President Trump, but that justification contradicts the Supreme Court’s incitement doctrine.”

  Judge questions expert witness, denies bid to dismiss

  Meanwhile, in Trump’s New York real estate case, Judge Arthur Engoron rejected the former president’s bid to toss the case, while also questioning the credibility of a key defense witness who was paid nearly $900,000 to appear.

  

  According to ENgoron, there were “fatal flaws” in the Trump team’s argument – the “most glaring” being the assumption that the testimony of their witnesses “is true and accurate, or at least that the Court, as the trier of fact, will accept it as true and accurate.”

  One of the experts, NYU Professor of Accounting, Eli Bartov, refuted any suggestion that his payment influenced his opinion, and said he was “shocked” at the judge’s remarks, the Epoch Times reports.

  “Bartov is a tenured professor, but all that his testimony proves is that for a million or so dollars, some experts will say whatever you want them to say,” wrote Engoron in his three-page ruling. “His overarching point was that the subject statements of financial condition were accurate in every respect.”

  Mr. Bartov testified on Dec. 7 that he did not find any evidence of fraud in the Trump family real estate company’s financial statements, which are central to the New York attorney general’s allegations of overstating property values to gain favorable loan and insurance terms.

  However, he pointed out in an email that his testimony included the fact that President Trump’s statement contained errors.

  “No expert rebutted my testimony or testified that they found fraud,” Mr. Bartov said. “As to his speculation that my billing rate had anything to do with my opinion, this is my standard billing rate.”

  Mr. Bartov disclosed that he billed more than $870,000 for approximately 650 hours of work, with payments received from both the Trump Organization and Save America, a political action committee supporting Trump’s 2024 election campaign. -Epoch Times

  So, Trump can’t speak his mind, and his expert witness is discarded simply because the judge disagreed. What a world.

  Tyler Durden
  Tue, 12/19/2023 – 17:45

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