Today’s News 20th January 2023

• 360-Degree Surveillance: How Police Use Public-Private Partnerships To Spy On Americans
  360-Degree Surveillance: How Police Use Public-Private Partnerships To Spy On Americans

  Authored by John and Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

  “We live in a surveillance state founded on a partnership between government and the technology industry.”

  – Law Professor Avidan Y. Cover

  In this age of ubiquitous surveillance, there are no private lives: everything is public.

  

  Surveillance cameras mounted on utility poles, traffic lights, businesses, and homes. License plate readers. Ring doorbells. GPS devices. Dash cameras. Drones. Store security cameras. Geofencing and geotracking. FitBits. Alexa. Internet-connected devices.  

  There are roughly one billion surveillance cameras worldwide and that number continues to grow, thanks to their wholehearted adoption by governments (especially law enforcement and military agencies), businesses, and individual consumers.

  With every new surveillance device we welcome into our lives, the government gains yet another toehold into our private worlds.

  Indeed, empowered by advances in surveillance technology and emboldened by rapidly expanding public-private partnerships between law enforcement, the Intelligence Community, and the private sector, police have become particularly adept at sidestepping the Fourth Amendment.

  As law professor Avidan Y. Cover explains:

  A key feature of the surveillance state is the cooperative relationship between the private sector and the government. The private sector’s role is vital to the surveillance both practically and legally. The private sector, of course, provides the infrastructure and tools for the surveillance… The private sector is also critical to the surveillance state’s legality. Under the third-party doctrine, the Fourth Amendment is not implicated when the government acquires information that people provide to corporations, because they voluntarily provide their information to another entity and assume the risk that the entity will disclose the information to the government. Therefore, people do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their calling data, or potentially even their emails. As a result, the government does not normally need a warrant to obtain information transmitted electronically. But the Fourth Amendment is not only a source of protection for individual privacy; it also limits government excess and abuse through challenges by the people. The third-party doctrine removes this vital and populist check on government overreach.

  Critical to this end run around the Fourth Amendment’s prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures by government agents is a pass play that allows police to avoid public transparency requirements (open bids, public meetings, installation protocols) by having private companies and individuals do the upfront heavy lifting, leaving police to harvest the intel on the back end.

  Stingray devices, facial recognition technology, body cameras, automated license plate readers, gunshot detection, predictive policing software, AI-enhanced video analytics, real-time crime centers, fusion centers: all of these technologies and surveillance programs rely on public-private partnerships that together create a sticky spiderweb from which there is no escape.

  As the cost of these technologies becomes more affordable for the average consumer, an effort underwritten by the tech industry and encouraged by law enforcement agencies and local governing boards, which in turn benefit from access to surveillance they don’t need to include in their budgets, big cities, small towns, urban, suburban and rural communities alike are adding themselves to the surveillance state’s interconnected grid.

  What this adds up to for government agencies (that is, FBI, NSA, DHS agents, etc., as well as local police) is a surveillance map that allows them to track someone’s movements over time and space, hopscotching from doorbell camera feeds and business security cameras to public cameras on utility poles, license plate readers, traffic cameras, drones, etc.

  It has all but eliminated the notion of privacy and radically re-drawn the line of demarcation between our public and private selves.

  Over the past 50 years, surveillance has brought about a series of revolutions in how governments govern and populations are policed to the detriment of us all. Cybersecurity expert Adam Scott Wandt has identified three such revolutions.

  The first surveillance revolution came about as a result of government video cameras being installed in public areas. There were a reported 51 million surveillance cameras blanketing the United States in 2022. It’s estimated that Americans are caught on camera an average of 238 times every week (160 times per week while driving; 40 times per week at work; 24 times per week while out running errands and shopping; and 14 times per week through various other channels and activities). That doesn’t even touch on the coverage by surveillance drones, which remain a relatively covert part of police spying operations.

  The second revolution occurred when law enforcement agencies started forging public-private partnerships with commercial establishments like banks and drug stores and parking lots in order to gain access to their live surveillance feeds. The use of automatic license plate readers (manufactured and distributed by the likes of Flock Safety), once deployed exclusively by police and now spreading to home owners associations and gated communities, extends the reach of the surveillance state that much further afield. It’s a win-win for police budgets and local legislatures when they can persuade businesses and residential communities to shoulder the costs of the equipment and share the footage, and they can conscript the citizenry to spy on each other through crowdsourced surveillance.

  The third revolution was ushered in with the growing popularity of doorbell cameras such as Ring, Amazon’s video surveillance doorbell, and Google’s Nest Cam.

  Amazon has been particularly aggressive in its pursuit of a relationship with police, enlisting them in its marketing efforts, and going so far as to hosting parties for police, providing free Ring doorbells and deep discounts, sharing “active camera” maps of Ring owners, allowing access to the Law Enforcement Neighborhood Portal, which enables police to directly contact owners for access to their footage, and coaching police on how to obtain footage without a warrant.

  Ring currently partners with upwards of 2,161 law enforcement agencies and 455 fire departments, and that number grows exponentially every year. As Vice reports, “Ring has also heavily pursued city discount programs and private alliances with neighborhood watch groups. When cities provide free or discounted Ring cameras, they sometimes create camera registries, and police sometimes order people to aim Ring cameras at their neighbors, or only give cameras to people surveilled by neighborhood watches.”

  In November 2022, San Francisco police gained access to the live footage of privately owned internet cameras as opposed to merely being able to access recorded footage. No longer do police even have to request permission of homeowners for such access: increasingly, corporations have given police access to footage as part of their so-called criminal investigations with or without court orders.

  We would suggest a fourth revolutionary shift to be the use of facial recognition software and artificial intelligence-powered programs that can track people by their biometrics, clothing, behavior and car, thereby synthesizing the many strands of surveillance video footage into one cohesive narrative, which privacy advocates refer to as 360 degree surveillance.

  Finally, Wandt sees autonomous cars equipped with cameras that record everything around them as yet another revolutionary expansion of surveillance to be tapped by police.

  Yet in the present moment, it’s those public-private partnerships that signify a watershed moment in the transition from a police state to a surveillance state and sound a death knoll for our privacy rights. This fusion of government power and private power is also at the heart of the surveillance state’s growing stranglehold on the populace.

  As always, these intrusions into our personal lives are justified in the name of national security and fighting crime. Yet while the price to be paid for having the government’s so-called protection is nothing less than our right to privacy, the guarantee of safety remains dubious, at best.

  As a study on camera surveillance by researchers at City University of New York concluded, the presence of cameras were somewhat effective as a deterrent for crimes such as car burglaries and property theft, but they had no significant effect on violent crimes.

  On the other hand, when you combine overcriminalization with wall-to-wall surveillance monitored by police in pursuit of crimes, the resulting suspect society inevitably gives way to a nation of criminals. In such a society, we are all guilty of some crime or other.

  The predatory effect of these surveillance cameras has also yet to be fully addressed, but they are vulnerable to being hacked by third parties and abused by corporate and government employees.

  After all, power corrupts. We’ve seen this abuse of power recur time and time again throughout history. For instance, as an in-depth investigative report by the Associated Press concludes, the very same mass surveillance technologies that were supposedly so necessary to fight the spread of COVID-19 are now being used to stifle dissent, persecute activists, harass marginalized communities, and link people’s health information to other surveillance and law enforcement tools. As the AP reports, federal officials have also been looking into how to add “‘identifiable patient data,’ such as mental health, substance use and behavioral health information from group homes, shelters, jails, detox facilities and schools,” to its surveillance toolkit.

  These cameras—and the public-private eyes peering at us through them—are re-engineering a society structured around the aesthetic of fear and, in the process, empowering “people to not just watch their neighborhood, but to organize as watchers,” creating not just digital neighborhood watches but digital gated communities.

  Finally, there is a repressive, suppressive effect to surveillance that not only acts as a potentially small deterrent on crime but serves to monitor and chill lawful First Amendment activity. As Matthew Feeney warns in the New York Times, “In the past, Communists, civil rights leaders, feminists, Quakers, folk singers, war protesters and others have been on the receiving end of law enforcement surveillance. No one knows who the next target will be.”

  No one knows, but it’s a pretty good bet that the surveillance state will be keeping a close watch on anyone seen as a threat to the government’s chokehold on power.

  It’s George Orwell’s 1984 on a global scale.

  As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, Orwell’s dystopian nightmare has become our looming reality.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 01/20/2023 – 00:00

• Long Chinese Stocks Seen Among Most-Crowded Trades
  Long Chinese Stocks Seen Among Most-Crowded Trades

  By Ye Xie, Bloomberg markets live reporter and analyst

  What a difference two months can make. In November, selling short Chinese stocks was considered by fund managers in a Bank of America survey as one of the most crowded trades. Now, bullish bets on Chinese equities made the list. It underscores the tremendous volatility Chinese assets have endured in recent months.

  The BofA survey published this week showed that 12% of investors believed going long Chinese equities was one of the most-popular positions in global markets. It trailed only long-dollar and long-ESG positions, which garnered 32% and 17% of the votes, respectively. Two months ago, fund managers considered betting against Chinese stocks to be the second-most crowded trade after long-dollar positions.

  

  The 180-degree shift in sentiment is hardly a surprise. Until late October, investors had been dumping Chinese assets as Covid restrictions sank the economy and President Xi Jinping installed his loyalists to the top leadership at the Party Congress. Over the past two months, China abandoned the Covid Zero policy, propped up the ailing housing market and turned more supportive on tech companies. Since hitting the lowest since 2009 in late October, the Hang Seng Index has jumped 48% in dollar terms as the best performer among the world’s major stock benchmarks.

  A crowded position is generally viewed as a negative. When many investors are positioned the same way, there’s no marginal new buyers to push the market higher. And when the fundamental story changes and everyone heads for the exit, it exacerbates the selloff.

  So should we be worried about investors being too sanguine? Not necessarily.

  On the positioning front, the BofA survey does show fund managers are “unabashedly bullish” on China. A net 91% of fund managers expect a stronger Chinese economy, the highest percentage in 17 years.

  

  In a separate survey of Asian managers, 42% said they are overweight China, up from 14% in October. In addition, 90% of them think Chinese stocks can deliver positive returns this year, even if US equities fall.

  Still, it’s debatable whether the perception of China being crowded is accurate. While Asian investors are more bullish, US investors haven’t been fully on board with the “everything is great” narrative. A recent Morgan Stanley analysis showed that American fund managers have actually kept their underweight positions on China unchanged in recent months.

  

  Secondly, there’s no clear catalyst to threaten the China recovery narrative when people are just returning to their work and when the policy objective is to get the economy going again. Until the recovery is well underway, it’s hard to prove the markets’ expectations on growth are unreasonable.

  But leaving aside the question of whether the China trade is crowded or not, the volatility that the Chinese markets has shown over the past year clearly reduces the attractiveness for long-term investors.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 23:40

• After Teacher Shot By 6-Year-Old, Staff And Parents Blame Tolerance Of Violent Kids
  After Teacher Shot By 6-Year-Old, Staff And Parents Blame Tolerance Of Violent Kids

  Shock over the shooting of a teacher by a 6-year-old in Newport News, Virginia has turned into anger, as both parents and staff say district officials tolerate violent students to bolster school ratings. 

  On Jan. 6, a first-grader fired a single pistol shot at his 24-year-old teacher, Abby Zwermer. A bullet passed through her hand and into her chest, sending her to a hospital with a life-threatening wound. Last week, school officials say a staff member searched the shooter’s backback earlier that morning — after someone tipped them to the possibility he was armed — but didn’t find the weapon. 

  Tuesday brought the first board meeting of Newport News Public Schools since the incident — and a stream of angry teachers and parents took to the podium to condemn a culture in which the pursuit of favorable district statistics means fostering an increasingly dangerous environment.  

  

  Former school psychologist Amber Thomas left the district after a 10-year career.  “A school counselor and I were often called to intervene with explosive behaviors, and the administrator would see what was going on and turn around and walk the other way,” Thomas told the board. 

  “We see students being assaulted (and) we see teachers being assaulted…daily,” said elementary teacher Djifa Lee. “[Disciplinary] referrals are so closely tied to accreditation, and this puts educators and office staff or administrators in a tough position.”

  A former employee told WAVY that, on multiple occasions, she initiated disciplinary referrals, but administrators failed to schedule follow-up meetings with parents and teachers. She says peers had similar experiences. 

  “Every day in every one of our schools, teachers, students and other staff members are being hurt,” said high school librarian Nicole Cooke. “Every day, they’re hit. They’re bitten. They’re beaten. And [violent children] are allowed to stay so that our numbers look good.”

  In a November board meeting, the district touted a 40% decline in disciplinary incidents and a 19% decrease in students being removed from instruction.  

  “Ask any teacher in this school division why discipline incidents decline, and I have a feeling the response will be the same: Infraction numbers are down because incidents are not always officially reported,” said Cindy Connell, a middle school teacher in the district. 

  Wary of officials’ focus on making the district’s statistics look better, Sarah Marchese, president of a high school Parent Teacher Student Association, asked for an external investigation of the disciplinary policies to be reviewed by an outside, impartial party. 

  “Our administrators are under an intense pressure to make everything appear better than it is in reality,” Connell told AP.

  The incident was the third shooting in the district since September 2021. “Enough is enough. What will it take? I pray it is not a fourth shooting, because that blood will be on your hands,” said parent John Krikorian. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 23:20

• CDC Knowingly Left Serious Adverse Events Off Post-Vaccination Surveys, Documents Show
  CDC Knowingly Left Serious Adverse Events Off Post-Vaccination Surveys, Documents Show

  Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) didn’t include serious adverse events like heart inflammation on post-vaccination surveys even though the agency knew the issues could be linked to COVID-19 vaccines, documents show.

  

  Even before the surveys were rolled out in December 2020 after the first vaccines were authorized, the CDC knew that myocarditis—a form of heart inflammation since confirmed as being caused by the Pfizer and Moderna shots—and other serious adverse events were of “special interest” when it came to the vaccines, according to a newly disclosed version of the protocol for the survey system.

  The Nov. 19, 2020, protocol (pdf) for V-safe, the survey system, lists myocarditis, stroke, death, and a dozen “prespecified medical conditions.” The protocol was obtained by the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), a nonprofit that seeks transparency around health information. All of the conditions can cause severe symptoms.

  V-safe is a system of surveys that was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic to monitor vaccine safety. It was developed and is managed by the CDC.

  Updated versions of the protocol list the same 15 adverse events.

  None of the conditions were included in the actual surveys.

  Respondents could check boxes if they experienced certain symptoms, but only 10 lower-level problems such as fever and nausea were listed as options.

  “It’s deeply troubling that the CDC would construct V-safe in a manner that does not permit it to be able to easily assess the rate of harm from adverse events the CDC had already identified as potentially being caused by these products,” Aaron Siri, a lawyer representing ICAN, told The Epoch Times. “This calls into question what the CDC was really trying to accomplish with V-safe. Was it trying to assess the actual safety of these products? Or was it trying to design a system that would be more likely to affirm its previous public pronouncements regarding the safety of these products?”

  The CDC did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

  V-Safe Data Finally Made Public

  The CDC rolled V-safe out in December 2020. Americans were told to use the surveys, which are only available through smartphones, to report how they felt after vaccination.

  “Through V-safe, you can quickly tell CDC if you have any side effects after getting the COVID-19 vaccine,” one poster promoting the tool stated.

  Users were asked how they felt, whether they had a fever, their temperature, and common symptoms. They were also asked whether they were unable to work or go about their daily activities, and whether they needed medical care.

  About 10 million people signed up through July 31, 2022.

  The CDC has described the results of V-safe in multiple studies, but refused to release the raw data until ICAN brought litigation against it. Data released to ICAN in October 2022 showed that more than 3.2 million people sought medical attention or missed school, work, or other normal activities following vaccination.

  The CDC posted some of the v-safe data on Dec. 1, 2022, several months after a self-imposed deadline passed.

  Hiding Free-Text Entries

  V-safe users could report the serious adverse events, but only if they wrote them out in a free-text field.

  The prompt was, “Any other symptoms or health conditions you want to report.”

  The CDC has resisted releasing the results from the field, insisting that it would be too onerous to review the 6.8 million entries for personally identifiable information (PII), according to a joint status report made to the court in November 2022.

  The agency declined a request from ICAN to provide a random sample of a few hundred entries, which plaintiffs say would back their argument that the entries likely hold little or no PII such as names and addresses.

  The entries are important because they would show how many respondents reported experiencing the prespecified adverse events like heart inflammation.

  The CDC instead offered to review all the entries and convert them into medical codes, according to the filing.

  “It was apparently willing to do this because, even though it would have been more time consuming and complex then simply reviewing for PII, this approach would permit the CDC to hide from the public most of what is actually written in the free-text fields,” ICAN said in the document.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 23:00

• US Finalizing Next Ukraine Military Aid Package At $2.6 Billion
  US Finalizing Next Ukraine Military Aid Package At $2.6 Billion

  The US is in the final stages of preparing a massive new military aid package to Ukraine which will total as much as $2.6 billion, the Associated Press previewed Wednesday night, and its to include nearly 100 Stryker combat vehicles – marking the first time the Stryker will be introduced to the Ukrainian battlefield – and at least 50 Bradley Fighting Vehicles.

  

  It could be announced by the end of the week, and is expected to rank among the biggest single packages unveiled since the start of the war. When pressed for further details, State Department spokesman Ned Price simply said, “Two words: stay tuned.”

  Similar to Bradley vehicles, the Stryker moves infantry across the battlefield, but are lighter and faster than the Bradley. “What we’re trying to look at is the mix of armored and mechanized forces that make sense,” undersecretary of defense for policy Colin Kahl said separately on Wednesday.

  “The Russians are really digging in. They’re digging in. They’re digging trenches, they’re putting in these dragon’s teeth, laying mines. They’re really trying to fortify that that FLOT, that forward line of troops,” Kahl continued.

  “To enable the Ukrainians to break through given Russian defenses, the emphasis has been shifted to enabling them to combine fire and maneuver in a way that will prove to be more effective.”

  But the real question is whether Washington will sign off on going past the ‘light tanks’ or mere troop carriers that it has currently limited itself to providing. The Scholz government of Germany surprised allies this week in saying it’s ready to approve sending German-manufactured Leopard tanks to Ukraine only if Washington leads the way in approving its own heavy tanks.

  “Germany won’t allow allies to ship German-made tanks to Ukraine to help its defense against Russia nor send its own systems unless the U.S. agrees to send American-made battle tanks, senior German officials said on Wednesday,” according to The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

  But given Berlin knew that the Biden administration has shut the door on approving American M1 Abrams (at least for now), this could have been a ploy to effectively end the debate and take the pressure off the Scholz government.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 22:40

• Another Power Substation Damaged By Alleged Gunfire: Officials
  Another Power Substation Damaged By Alleged Gunfire: Officials

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

  Another power substation in North Carolina was damaged due to alleged gunfire—the third such incident in recent weeks—officials have confirmed.

  

  EnergyUnited said officials discovered an “equipment issue” at the Pleasant Hill Substation in Thomasville on Jan. 17. Thomasville is about an hour from Moore County, where two other substations were damaged.

  When crew members were sent to investigate the matter, they “discovered damage to the substation transformer from an apparent gunshot,” the firm said. “The damage was quickly assessed and contained to mitigate the impact to members in the Pleasant Hill area and law enforcement officials were notified.”

  Customers who are served by the Pleasant Hill Substation didn’t experience any power outages due to the damage, EnergyUnited added. The Randolph County Sheriff’s Office said that investigators canvassed the station and later said they believe the shooting occurred at around 3 a.m. local time on Jan. 17.

  The FBI and North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations were notified about the alleged gunfire, the sheriff’s office said. Investigations are ongoing.

  “The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force responded to conduct a parallel investigation,” the statement also said. No suspects have been named, and no arrests were made.

  “EnergyUnited continually strives to deliver safe, reliable energy to its members,” Steve McCachern, vice president of energy delivery for EnergyUnited, said in a statement. “While we are glad that our members did not experience any service interruptions, we take this matter very seriously and are currently investigating the incident.”

  On Dec. 3, 2022, gunshots were fired at two substations in Moore County that left some 45,000 customers without power for several days. In that case, no suspects have been apprehended and no motive has been disclosed.

  Officials said that a person or persons drove to the Duke Energy-operated substations and opened fire, causing significant damage. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said at the time that the Moore County incident “raises a new level of threat” while adding that federal and state officials are working to “harden our infrastructure where that’s necessary and work to prevent future damage.”

  Duke Energy spokesperson Jeff Brooks said in a news conference last month that damage was done to major equipment.

  “Some of this equipment does take a significant amount of work [to be installed]” he said. New substation equipment must be handled carefully and tested before it’s ready to serve the grid.

  

  Around the same time, the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin warning of a “heightened threat environment” ahead of the Christmas holiday season. Faith-based institutions, government buildings, U.S. infrastructure, schools, and public gatherings could be targeted by groups with “a range of ideological beliefs” and “personal grievances,” the agency said on Nov. 30, 2022.

  Nevada Incident

  Earlier in January, officials in Nevada said a man was facing terrorism-related charges after driving his car to a solar power plant, dousing it with gasoline, and setting it on fire. An employee told local media that the fire caused “major damage” and estimated it would take two years to receive replacement parts.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 22:20

• Project Veritas Exposes Non-Profit That Hides Critical Race Theory In School Curriculum
  Project Veritas Exposes Non-Profit That Hides Critical Race Theory In School Curriculum

  The conflict over Critical Race Theory in schools boils down to two basic responses from the political left – They claim that there is no such thing as “CRT” in the way that conservatives see it, and that the accusation it is being used to indoctrinate young children is a “right wing conspiracy theory.”  Or, when they get caught they claim CRT is nothing more than an accurate portrayal of American history inclusive to minorities that has been suppressed because of “bigotry.” 

  For years the former argument, that CRT does not exist and is not taught in school curriculum, has been the primary argument. 

  Critical Race Theory is the mostly faulty theory that western society today is built on a foundation of systemic racism.  Its root assertion is that all American accomplishments over the past few centuries are owed to slavery and the exploitation of minorities.  In other words, we have to abandon our past because it is inherently racist and “evil” and start over – Using the political left’s ideals as a framework, of course.

  CRT is a product of the Marxist concept of deconstruction.  The purpose of such products is to dismantle the foundations and historical relationships of a target society, to make people hate their own heritage so that they are easier to manipulate towards a new leftist Utopian standard.

  States like Florida have begun to actively monitor school textbooks and curriculum to identify a possible invasion of CRT and other woke propaganda.  This has led to a flurry of angry attacks from leftists, who say it is paranoia akin to “book burning” and censorship.  The accusation is hypocritical considering the left’s rampant censorship over the past few years, but whenever they react so viciously to a simple thing like a state government checking the contents of textbooks before they buy them with public tax dollars, then you know that state is hovering very close to something leftists don’t want them to discover.

  Florida found CRT and leftist propaganda in at least 41% of the textbooks slated to be purchased by the state for the coming school year, and they gave numerous examples of CRT related content as the media attacked.  With red states starting to vet curriculum, leftists are attempting to hide their ideology more carefully using “non-profit” curriculum creators as middle men that can get around state laws.  

  Project Veritas recently exposed one of these non-profit groups in Georgia, called The Teaching Lab, and how they inject CRT into public schools by “not calling it CRT” and selling textbooks and other products directly to school districts without the state knowing the contents.  

  An important detail to note here is that Teaching Lab employee Quintin Bostic admits that their products are indeed CRT.  Also, he admits that the group is funded by very rich establishment leftists including MacKenzie Scott, now ex-wife of Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos.  

  The intrusion of political activism into the American school system is a fundamental violation of the public trust and of state law in many places.  It is unacceptable for children to be targeted for ideological indoctrination in school when they are supposed to be taught basic academics.  Imparting to young people the ability to function and succeed in adulthood is a key task of the public school system; instead leftists see schools as rich hunting grounds for conversion.  In this way, they destroy the future of the country by replacing useful knowledge and skills with brainwashing and cultism.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 22:00

• Bovard: Will The Corrupt FBI Come To Biden's Rescue?
  Bovard: Will The Corrupt FBI Come To Biden’s Rescue?

  Authored by Jim Bovard,

  The White House is being whipsawed by the discovery of secret documents from President Joe Biden’s vice presidency recklessly stored around his garage, his Delaware house and his rented Washington office. The appointment of a special counsel to investigate Biden’s classified-document violations could imperil the president’s survival. But Biden may be saved by the charades the FBI concocted to rescue Hillary Clinton.

  But breaking news Tuesday night revealed the investigation may already be turning into a farce. Amazingly, the Justice Department is permitting Biden’s personal lawyers to control the evidence — without the FBI.

  Federal law penalizes the removal or mishandling of classified documents via “gross negligence” by up to 10 years in prison. The number of clearly marked confidential documents discovered on Biden’s turfs is up to 20 — all of which were supposedly “inadvertently misplaced” (for at least six years), per White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

  It looks bad — but the FBI got Hillary out of a worse legal tar pit.

  Clinton’s presidential campaign was roiled by the disclosure she’d used an insecure private email server to handle top-secret documents while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. In 2015, the FBI Counterintelligence Division opened a criminal investigation of the “potential unauthorized storage of classified information on an unauthorized system.”

  The FBI treated Clinton and her coterie like royalty worthy of endless deference, according to a 2018 report by the Justice Department inspector general. The FBI agreed to destroy the laptops of top Clinton aides after a limited examination of their contents (including a promise not to examine any post-Jan. 31, 2015, emails or content). When BleachBit software and hammers were used to destroy email evidence under congressional subpoena, the FBI treated it as a harmless error.

  The IG criticized federal investigators for relying on “rapport building” with Team Hillary instead of using subpoenas to compel the discovery of key evidence. The IG recommended possible disciplinary penalties for five FBI employees who sent blatant anti-Trump texts (some of those agents later staffed special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of President Donald Trump).

  FBI investigators shrugged off every brazen deceit they encountered. The IG report quoted an unnamed FBI agent responding to a fellow agent’s question on how an interview went with a witness who worked with the Clintons at their Chappaqua residence: “Awesome. Lied his ass off. Went from never inside the scif [sensitive compartmented information facility for classified documents] at res [residence], to looked in when it was being constructed, to removed the trash twice, to troubleshot the secure fax with HRC a couple times, to everytime there was a secure fax i did it with HRC. Ridic.”

  The agency waited until the end of the investigation in July 2016 to question Clinton and refused to videotape that crucial interview. Bizarrely, the FBI planned to absolve her “absent a confession” by Clinton during the interview, the IG report noted.

  There was no question of whether Clinton violated federal law, since she received numerous classified emails marked with “(C)” on her private server. The IG report notes, “According to the [FBI memo] from Clinton’s interview, Clinton told the FBI that she did not know what the ‘(C)’ meant and ‘speculated it was a reference to paragraphs ranked in alphabetical order.’”

  The report declared, “Witnesses told us, and contemporaneous emails show, that the FBI and Department officials who attended Clinton’s interview found that her claim that she did not understand the significance of the ‘(C)’ marking strained credulity. [FBI] Agent 1 stated, ‘I filed that in the bucket of hard-to-impossible to believe.’”

  Shortly after that interview, FBI chief James Comey publicly announced that “no charges are appropriate” because Hillary didn’t intend to violate a federal law that had no intent requirement.

  Comey told the inspector general, “By her demeanor, she was credible and open and all that kind of stuff” in her interview.

  

  A video recording of the showdown (especially that alphabet line) would have enabled Americans to judge both Clinton and the FBI. But minimizing disclosures maximized the arbitrary power of Comey and other FBI officials in a landmark political case.

  House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) Friday condemned Biden’s “three strikes against transparency” and declared it was “alarming” that “Biden aides were combing through documents knowing there would be a special counsel appointed.” Some Republicans, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, are clamoring for full FBI raids of Biden properties.

  Unfortunately, there may be no reliable way to conduct a full, honest search when the suspect is the most powerful individual in the land. Why expect the FBI to be more honest with Biden’s secret stashes than with Hunter Biden’s laptop?

  Perhaps the investigation will be “fixed” even before the FBI arrives on the scene. After illegally stored confidential documents in Biden’s DC office turned up, the Justice Department prevented FBI agents from being present for searches at his other locales. Instead, Biden’s personal attorneys were permitted to check out the properties and trusted to report if they found any more evidence incriminating their boss, The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday.

  Democrats are boasting that Biden is “cooperating” with the investigation. But why wouldn’t he “cooperate” when the Justice Department is letting Biden’s tools control the evidence?

  The Journal said law-enforcement officials justified keeping the FBI out of the investigation to “preserve the [Justice Dept.] ability to take a tougher line, including executing a future search warrant, if negotiations ever turned hostile.” As with the Hillary Clinton investigation, “rapport building” is trumping finding smoking guns.

  The FBI’s treatment of Hillary Clinton vivifies how far federal law enforcement will twist the law to absolve the nation’s political elite. Will the latest Biden scandal be dead-ended by the old Roman question, “Who guards the guardians”?

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 21:40

• Traders Book Huge Profits By Mixing, Reselling Cheap Russian Oil
  Traders Book Huge Profits By Mixing, Reselling Cheap Russian Oil

  A ban on Russian crude oil by the European Union and the US went into effect late last year, forcing Russia to find more buyers in the eastern part of the world. Besides China’s and India’s surging appetite for Russian crude imports, a flood of cheap oil is pouring into Singapore. It’s being blended and then re-exported globally as traders reap huge profits. Recall that Russian energy products were sold to China and repackaged for European markets last summer. 

  Before Russia invaded Ukraine, Europe was Moscow’s largest crude and refined petroleum products customer. But those days are over as Western sanctions forced Russia to rejigger its energy supply chains towards the East. 

  Moscow realized besides expanding pipelines to Asia and elsewhere, which could take years to develop infrastructure to increase flows, a fleet of shadow tankers would be its best bet to transport the oil. 

  Now demand is soaring in Singapore for storage tanks as inexpensive Russian crude finds a home, according to Bloomberg. 

  Tank space in the city-state is being snapped up due to a rise in interest and profits from mixing cheap fuel supplies from Russia with shipments from other sources, according to an executive from a tank operator and a consultant who advises traders on the matter. This process can help to obscure the cargoes’ origins, they said.

  Unlike many Western countries, Singapore has yet to ban Russian oil or petroleum products, although banks based in the country are prohibited from financing or dealing directly with Russian countries. 

  In the coming weeks, Europe prepares to enforce new sanctions on Russian petroleum products, which will only increase Russia-to-Asia flows that will be pushed to hubs like ones in Singapore, mixing cheap Russian fuels with other sources for re-distribution globally. 

  “We have observed an increase in the number of inquiries of short/spot-term storage in the period leading up to December,” a spokesman for oil storage company Advario Asia Pacific said via e-mail.

  Six-month leases for Singapore fuel oil or crude oil storage jumped by as much as 20% last year, according to local tank operator firms, including Advario, Jurong Port, Horizon, and Royal Vopak. 

  

  Ship tracking data by Vortexa Ltd. showed oil-receiving terminals more than doubled volumes of Russian naphtha and fuel oil in December versus a year ago. Terminals received 2.6 million barrels of naphtha, nearly 40 times higher than the volume one year ago. 

  

  Russian naphtha sitting in Singapore tank farms is being quickly re-exported to other Asia markets, according to Armaan Ashraf, global head of natural gas liquids at industry consultant FGE. 

  William Tan, senior vice president of fuel consultancy Miyabi Industries, said Singapore tank farm storage is becoming very popular with traders taking in cheap Russian crude, blending it, and exporting it elsewhere for “very good” profit margins. He said traders are reaping 20% profit margins. 

  Russia will need to expand its shadow fleet tankers as energy supply chains are rejiggered because of Western sanctions. Traders are capitalizing on these new trade flows. Still, the West has yet to cripple Russia but only bring forward a world where energy is traded in anything but dollars.  

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 21:20

• US Considering Helping Ukraine Strike Crimea
  US Considering Helping Ukraine Strike Crimea

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  The New York Times reported Wednesday that the US is warming to the idea of helping Ukraine strike Crimea, something the Biden administration has previously avoided due to the risk of provoking a major response from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

  Citing unnamed US officials, the report said that after months of discussions with Ukrainian officials, the administration is now “starting to concede that Kyiv may need the power to strike the Russian sanctuary, even if such a move increases the risk of escalation.”

  

  President Biden is still holding off sending the longer-range missiles that could hit targets in Crimea that Ukraine is seeking. But the US is discussing with Ukrainian officials how to attack the land bridge to Crimea Russia has secured for itself using US-provided weapons, such as US-provided HIMARS rocket systems and Bradley Fighting Vehicles.

  The US, for the first time, pledged to send 50 Bradleys in a possibly $3 billion weapons package that was announced earlier this month. The Bradleys could potentially help Ukraine go on the offensive, and a US official said the HIMARS could be used to hit Russian supply lines coming out of Crimea from Ukraine’s line in Kherson.

  A senior US official told the Times that US and Ukrainian officials are set to meet in Germany this week to wargame out a potential offensive against Russia in southern Ukraine. But the report said that even with the additional military aid, the Biden administration doesn’t think Ukraine can actually take Crimea from Russia.

  The US thinking is that Crimea needs to be under threat to give Ukraine leverage for any future negotiations. Even though the risk of escalation is extremely high, US officials said there has been a “dampening of fears that targeting Crimea would drive Mr. Putin to use a tactical nuclear weapon.”

  The lessening concern about Putin resorting to nukes appears to be based only on the fact that he hasn’t used any up to this point. This reflects a December report from The Times of London that said the Pentagon was tacitly backing Ukrainian attacks inside Russia because Putin didn’t respond to earlier attacks with a tactical nuclear weapon or by attacking NATO territory.

  The New York Times report quoted Dara Massicot, a researcher from the RAND Corporation, who claimed that “Crimea has already been hit many times without a massive escalation from the Kremlin.” But Massicot’s claim is false as Russia began launching missile strikes on vital Ukrainian infrastructure in response to the October truck bombing of the Crimean Bridge.

  Can’t shake the feeling that we’re slowly creeping into WW3 without any serious consideration of consequences or alternatives.

  A series of small escalations will eventually discover the location of the hidden threshold that, once crossed, plunges the whole world into chaos. https://t.co/zqzy2ZFIAw

  — Edward L Hamilton (@EdwardLHamilton) January 19, 2023

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

  Before the bridge bombing, Russia didn’t launch large-scale attacks on infrastructure in Ukraine, but now such bombardments have become routine, and millions of Ukrainians are struggling to power and heat their homes.

  US officials admit that they don’t know how Putin would respond to the US supporting Ukrainian attacks on Crimea. Putin has previously warned he could use nuclear weapons to protect Russia’s “territorial integrity,” and Russia’s military doctrine allows for the use of nuclear weapons if the country faces an “existential threat.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 21:00

• Auto Crisis Worsens As Rate Of Severely Delinquent Loans Hits 2009 Levels
  Auto Crisis Worsens As Rate Of Severely Delinquent Loans Hits 2009 Levels

  An alarming number of Americans with auto loans are struggling to make monthly payments. Auto loan performance saw further deterioration in December, and loan delinquencies jumped. Of all loans, severely delinquent ones have reached the highest rate since the financial crisis about 15 years ago. 

  Recall last month. We pointed out the auto sector finds itself at a critical inflection point as a crushing auto loan crisis nears. The note was titled “Perfect Storm Arrives: “Massive Wave” Of Car Repossessions And Loan Defaults To Trigger Auto Market Disaster, Cripple US Economy.” It provides readers with a roadmap and how the dominos might fall in triggering what Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently warned: “Potentially, the biggest financial crisis ever.” 

  New bone-chilling data via Cox Automotive sheds light on the rapidly deteriorating auto loan market. The report said loans delinquent by more than two months increased by 5.3% and jumped 26.7% from a year ago.

  People are not paying their car loans.

  Auto loans delinquent (overdue) by MORE than 60 days are now up *26.7%* from a year ago.

  Not a crisis just yet but watch this trend closely.

  — CarDealershipGuy (@GuyDealership) January 17, 2023

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  And here’s where the alarm bells start sounding:

  Of all loans, 1.84% were severely delinquent, which was an increase from 1.74% in November and the highest rate since February 2009.

   In December, 7.11% of subprime loans were severely delinquent, increasing from 6.75% the prior month. The subprime severe delinquency rate was 163 basis points higher than a year ago, and the December rate was the highest in the data series back to 2006.

  Cox Automotive said even though an increasing amount of people are missing loan payments — this has yet to manifest into defaults:

   Loan defaults declined 13.5% from November but were up 16.9% from a year ago. The annualized auto loan default rate in December was 2.56%, which was lower than the 2.98% rate in December 2019. The default rate in 2022 was 2.28%, up from a low of 1.98% last year but still lower than the 2.90% rate in 2019.

  And perhaps the reason why defaults have yet to surge is that lenders don’t consider the borrower to be in default until 90 to 120 days late of insufficient payments. This might suggest that a default wave could be hitting over the next few quarters as consumers are tapped out by 20 months of negative real wave growth, depleted personal savings, and maxed-out credit cards. All those folks who bought cars they didn’t need nor could afford with +$1,000 monthly payments during Covid will be financially ruined when the next recession hits. 

   

   

   

   

   

   

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 20:40

• The Great Dropout: Why 1.4 Million Children Left Public Schools In 2020 And Where They Went
  The Great Dropout: Why 1.4 Million Children Left Public Schools In 2020 And Where They Went

  Authored by Lawrence Wilson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  Over a million children left public schools in 2020, a migration that came on the heels of school lockdowns and masking requirements, and was hastened by increased parental dissatisfaction with K-12 education.

  

  Enrollment in U.S. public schools declined by 1.4 million students between fall 2019 and fall 2020, dipping to 49.4 million, a loss of nearly 3 percent, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

  The decline may be closer to 2 million, according to a report by Education Next showing that traditional public school enrollment as a percentage of all school enrollment declined sharply between 2020 and 2022.

  Enrollment in traditional public schools fell from 81 to 76.5 percent of total enrollment during that period, while enrollment in public charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling grew by a combined 4.5 percent.

  Those numbers indicate that nearly 2 million students left traditional public schools for other educational options over the previous three years.

  In many cases, the disruption in learning due to COVID-19 policies was the catalyst many parents needed to make the jump away from public schools to charter schools, private schools, and homeschooling.

  Based on recent enrollment figures and the comfort many parents express with their decision to opt out of public schools, it appears the missing millions will not return.

  Dissatisfaction With Learning

  Parent satisfaction with K-12 education plunged between 2019 and 2022, according to GALLUP. Prior to the onset of COVID-19, 51 percent of parents said they were either completely or somewhat satisfied with their child’s education. Three years later, that satisfaction level was 42 percent, the lowest in over 20 years.

  

  Nearly a quarter of Americans, 23 percent, said they were completely dissatisfied with their child’s education.

  Parent interviews conducted by The Epoch Times revealed that distance learning during school lockdowns provided a glimpse into the classroom that made parents question their school’s ability to educate their children.

  “For a while, [our kids] were getting homework assigned to them by their teachers … but there was no teaching going on,” Matt Mohler of Tallahassee, Florida, said. He moved his children from a highly public school to a classical charter school in the fall of 2020.

  “Once a week they’d all get together on a classroom call, and that was the extent of what the teachers were doing. We realized that we weren’t getting a lot of effort out of the teachers.”

  “The distance learning was eye-opening,” said Maria Nicholas of Whittier, California, who began homeschooling her son in the fall of 2021. She said she would not have considered homeschooling if not for the lockdown, but seeing how her middle-school son thrived while at home rather than in the classroom was a factor in her decision.

  Shireen Qudosi of Orange County, California, took her autistic son out of public school in October 2020. “There wasn’t even a functioning curriculum in place, which access into the classroom through remote learning confirmed.”

  Mask and Vaccine Requirements

  In January 2022, 65 percent of public schools tracked by data site Burbio had student masking requirements. Parent and student protests against mandatory masking erupted that month in New York, California, and Massachusetts.

  The combination of public school mask policies and state vaccine mandates drove some parents to seek alternatives.

  Longtime home-schooler Christine Hamman saw an influx of parents to her home-school group during the last two years. “COVID added people who are anti-vax and anti-masking,” she said. “Mostly, parents didn’t want their kids masked for six hours a day.”

  “When SB 276 was signed, we realized we’d be homeschooling all of our children,” said Sara Cruz, speaking of a California law expanding vaccine requirements for schoolchildren. Cruz began home-schooling during the current school year.

  “I’m on the other end of this spectrum,” Nicholas said.

  “I’m for it, and I would like more people to have it,” she said, but seeing the number of people unmasked and unvaccinated at her school caused concern for her son’s health. “I thought they weren’t doing enough to keep the kids safe,” she said, which was a factor in her choice to withdraw.

  

  Other reasons for leaving public schools included concern over appropriate teaching on social issues like sex, gender, and drug abuse, as well as student safety.

  Parents don’t want their children exposed to the “radical indoctrination that the public schools are doing,” J. Allen Weston, Executive Director of the American Home School Association, told The Epoch Times.

  “The school had a ‘Say No to Drugs’ campaign, but they were going into detail on what drugs were out there,” Mohler said, speaking of his daughter’s second-grade class.

  “If they’re going to learn about that, they’re going to learn about that from me.”

  Other parents expressed concern over bullying, the stress created by active-shooter drills, and the availability of sexual content on smartphones carried by other students.

  Where They Went

  Most parents who opted out of public schools over the last few years chose other educational options for their kids. Homeschooling was the choice for many, though the number of children enrolled is difficult to estimate.

  “It is impossible to know the exact numbers because more than half of the states do not require parents to register as homeschoolers. Or if they are required, then the state does not keep count,” Weston said. He reported that his organization grew by a factor of 20 over the last three years.

  Heather Martinson, the founder of Celebration Education home-school co-op, told The Epoch Times the Facebook group for homeschoolers in her area tripled to 12,000 members since January 2020.

  Public charter schools, which had more than doubled to 3.4 million in the preceding decade, enrolled another 270,000 students between 2019 and 2021, according to the National Association of Public Charter Schools (NAPCS).

  

  Private school enrollment grew as well, adding over 500,000 in 2020 reach 11.1 million, according to data site Statista. A study by the CATO Institute shows that more private schools gained enrollment than lost it during 2020-21.

  Some students who left public schools in 2020 entered the workforce. About 2 million students dropped out of high school that year, according to NCES.

  In 2017, the NCES found that 47 percent of high school dropouts were employed. If the percentage remained similar in 2020, that would mean over 900,000 students left school for work that year.

  Other Shifts

  Though not reflected in national totals, public school enrollment in large cities has been in decline for up to 20 years in some cases. These losses appear to be driven more by demographic changes than by parents opting out of public schools.

  Enrollment in Denver public schools dropped 3 percent from 2019 to 2021, a change driven in part by low birth rates and a shrinking population, according to education news site Chalkbeat.

  New York City’s public school enrollment decreased by some 38,000 students in 2020, but 9,376 of them simply crossed the river to New Jersey according to the website Gothamist. More than 5,100 students moved from New York to Pennsylvania that year, and another 5,600 to Florida.

  Also, the population of New York state was in decline during that time. The state lost over 350,000 to domestic migration between July 2020 and July 2021.

  Enrollment in Los Angeles public schools has dropped 42 percent since the early 2000s, according to the online publication EdSource. LA Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told journalists in July that recent losses are attributable partly to people moving to other states because of political ideology or the desire for lower taxes.

  Return Unlikely

  Relatively few students who withdrew from public school in 2020 have returned so far. Public school enrollment rebounded just 0.2 percent in 2021, including first-time enrollees, and remains at its lowest level since 2010.

  Parents who made the choice to withdraw from public school during the last two years are highly satisfied with their choice, according to a report from NAPCS.

  Nearly 90 percent of families who changed school types experienced a positive change as a result of the switch, with 57 percent saying their child was happier, according to NAPCS.

  Read more here…

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 20:20

• Egg Seizures Skyrocket At US Border As Arbitrageurs Attempt To Capitalize On Poultry Crisis
  Egg Seizures Skyrocket At US Border As Arbitrageurs Attempt To Capitalize On Poultry Crisis

  America’s egg shortage worsens by the week. Supermarkets nationwide are running out of eggs as prices hyperinflate. Egg arbitrage is rising as people attempt to smuggle egg and poultry products across Mexico–US border for resale in the States where they can reap hefty profits. 

  Eggs in rural Mexico!
  100.00 pesos = USD 5.33 for a flat
  3.80 pesos for six eggs = .20 cents USD
  I think I need to get into the egg smuggling business! pic.twitter.com/6Qk7JEfctS

  — Eric S Neitzel (@EricNeitzel) January 15, 2023

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

  US Customs and Border Protection reported a 108% increase in egg and poultry seizures at land ports on the border from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31. The uptick in egg smuggling comes as retail prices erupt in the US as the avian flu forced producers to cull tens of millions of birds and egg-laying hens over the last year. 

  “My advice is, don’t bring them over. 

  “If you fail to declare them or try to smuggle them, you face civil penalties,” said CBP Supervisory Agriculture Specialist Charles Payne

  Egg seizures are so rampant that CBP tweeted that smugglers will be slapped with $10,000 fines. 

  The San Diego Field Office has recently noticed an increase in the number of eggs intercepted at our ports of entry. As a reminder, uncooked eggs are prohibited entry from Mexico into the U.S. Failure to declare agriculture items can result in penalties of up to $10,000. pic.twitter.com/ukMUvyKDmL

  — Director of Field Operations Jennifer De La O (@DFOSanDiegoCA) January 18, 2023

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  People have realized there are huge profits in buying a 30-count carton of eggs at $3.40 in Juarez, Mexico, and reselling them in the US. 

  

  It’s only a matter of time before cartels figure out about this lucrative trade. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 20:00

• …And Now, The Facebook Files: Emails Reveal The CDC's Role In Silencing COVID-19 Dissent
  …And Now, The Facebook Files: Emails Reveal The CDC’s Role In Silencing COVID-19 Dissent

  Authored by Robby Soave via Reason.com,

  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) played a direct role in policing permissible speech on social media throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Confidential emails obtained by Reason show that Facebook moderators were in constant contact with the CDC, and routinely asked government health officials to vet claims relating to the virus, mitigation efforts such as masks, and vaccines.

  

  For a broader analysis of the federal government’s pandemic-era efforts to suppress free speech—and whether they violated the First Amendment—see Reason‘s March 2023 cover story on the ramifications of these emails. This article provides screenshots of the emails themselves.

  After Elon Musk took control of Twitter, he permitted several independent journalists to peruse the company’s previous communications with the FBI, the CDC, the White House, and government officials elsewhere. These disclosures, which have become known as the Twitter Files, reveal that government bureaucrats put substantial pressure on Twitter to restrict alleged misinformation relating to elections, Hunter Biden, and COVID-19.

  The Facebook Files, which were obtained by Reason as a result of the state of Missouri’s lawsuit against the Biden administration, reveal that the CDC had substantial influence over what users were allowed to discuss on Meta’s platforms: Facebook and Instagram.

  The messages reveal an environment where the CDC kept tabs on Meta’s moderation practices and regularly told the company what the agency wanted it to do.

  For instance, in May 2021, CDC officials began routinely vetting claims about COVID-19 vaccines that had appeared on Facebook. The platform left it up to the federal government to determine which assertions were accurate.

  

  Facebook’s moderator notes that some of the above claims “would already be violating”—an implicit admission that the CDC’s opinion on the other claims would be a deciding factor in whether the platform would restrict such content. Facebook was clearly a willing participant in this process; moderators repeatedly thanked the CDC for its “help in debunking.”

  Claims vetted by the CDC included whether “COVID-19 is man-made.” The CDC told Facebook that it was “theoretically possible, but extremely unlikely.”

  

  For months, it was Meta policy to prohibit users from asserting that the pandemic may have originated from a lab leak. The platform revised this policy around the same time that the above email exchange took place.

  By July 2021, the CDC wasn’t just evaluating which claims it thought were false, but whether they could “cause harm.”

  

  Then, in November, the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization for children to receive Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Meta proudly informed the CDC that it would remove false claims—”i.e. the COVID vaccine is not safe for kids”—from Facebook and Instagram. Meta also provided the CDC with a list of new claims about vaccines and asked whether the government thought they could “contribute to vaccine refusals.”

  

  The CDC determined that this label applied to all such claims.

  

  It’s important to consider the ramifications. Meta gave the CDC de facto power to police COVID-19 misinformation on the platforms; the CDC took the position that essentially any erroneous claim could contribute to vaccine hesitancy and cause social harm. This was a recipe for a vast silencing across Facebook and Instagram, at the federal government’s implicit behest.

  Meta frequently gave the CDC lists of pandemic-related topics that had gone viral, seeking guidance on how to handle them. And the CDC informed Meta “to be on the lookout” for misinformation stemming from specific alleged misconceptions.

  

  Meta also kept the CDC apprised of criticism of Anthony Fauci, the White House’s COVID-19 advisor and head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). One email warned the CDC that Facebook users were mocking Fauci for changing his mind about masking and double-masking. The CDC replied that this information was “very helpful.”

  

  If the tone of Meta’s communications seems overly friendly, it’s worth noting that staffers viewed government employees at the CDC as their “colleagues.” In one email, Meta discussed providing said colleagues with access to a “reporting channel” for COVID-19 misinformation. The list of individuals with access included CDC staff, as well as employees at Reingold, a communications firm advising government health agencies.

  

  This is just a snapshot of the messages exchanged between the CDC and Meta. They also had regular conference calls. The CDC was not the only arm of the federal government engaged in this work, of course: White House staffers also castigated Meta for not deplatforming alleged misinformation fast enough. President Joe Biden himself accused Facebook of “killing people” in July 2021.

  One wonders whether these condemnations, from Biden and others in his administration—which included the specific threat of punitive regulation if demands for greater censorship were not met—influenced Meta’s decision to delegate COVID-19 content moderation to the CDC.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 19:40

• SHOT Show Roundup: Newest Firearms, Vehicles, Drones For Special Operations Forces
  SHOT Show Roundup: Newest Firearms, Vehicles, Drones For Special Operations Forces

  SHOT Show 2023 kicked off earlier this week. Recall that we combed through Venetian Expo and Caesars Forum in Las Vegas, revealing some of the most innovative products the defense industry has. 

  We came across AeroVironment’s Kamikaze Switchblade drone (infamous since the Biden administration is sending thousands to Ukraine), grounded-based robots with mounted guns, UTVs for special operations forces, anti-drone guns, handheld thermite breaching tools, armored vehicles, high-tech weapons, and much more. 

  As the SHOT Show winds down, we found the last remaining exhibitors with high-tech guns, firearms accessories, vehicles, and/or gear — many of these defense firms have extensive military contracts. 

  One light vehicle used currently by special operations forces was featured at the SWORD Defense Systems exhibit. 

  

  The vehicle was outfitted with drones, multiple side mounts for light machine guns, and a turret on top for a heavy machine gun. 

  

  

  Walking the Venetian floor, we found the US Army’s new submachine gun. 

  

  The Army awarded B&T USA the contract for a submachine — this is the first award the service has made for a submachine in half a century. It’s called the APC9K, beating out SIG Sauer, CZ, PTR, and many more to win the contract. 

  

  In another exhibit, we noticed two fixed-wing drones. 

  

  A South Korean company had a massive drone that could shoot projectiles. 

  

  

  More next-generation military gear. Most everything you’ve seen in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has become a reality. 

  

  Here’s the original ArmaLite rifle, known by many as the AR platform.

  

  Tulsi Gabbard?

  

  All of those pistol-braced firearms will soon have to be registered as short-barrel rifles with the ATF. There was a lot of chatter about the new pistol brace rule at the event. ATF was also present at the event. 

  

  Here’s a special ops vehicle with a mini-gun on top. So it’s a Ford truck. What happened to all those Toyota Hilux?

  

  

  And last but not least, Ghost Gunner’s latest iteration of the CNC mill to finish 80% lowers to completion. 

  

  … and that’s a wrap from us at SHOT Show. 

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 19:20

• Major Texas University Blocks Students From Using TikTok On Network
  Major Texas University Blocks Students From Using TikTok On Network

  Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The University of Texas at Austin has banned students from using Chinese-owned TikTok on its Wi-Fi network, in line with Gov. Greg Abbott’s December directive that all state agencies eliminate the cybersecurity risks posed by the video-sharing app.

  

  In a message to students on Jan. 17, Jeff Neyland, adviser to the university’s president for technology strategy, said the school is taking steps to comply with Abbott’s order.

  “The federal government recognizes the video-sharing mobile application as a national security threat,” the email read. “Several federal agencies and states have already prohibited its use on their government networks and government-issued devices.”

  “Recently, UT Austin began the process of removing TikTok from all government-issued devices, including university-issued cell phones, laptops, tablets, and desktop computers. Today, the university blocked TikTok access on our networks. You are no longer able to access TikTok on any device if you are connected to the university via its wired or WIFI networks.”

  Neyland added that the school is taking steps such as banning students from using the app—which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, based in Beijing—in an effort to “eliminate risks to information contained in the university’s network and to our critical infrastructure.”

  Officials Say TikTok Poses Growing Threat

  The message then pointed to Abbott’s Dec. 7 directive, which states that there is a growing threat of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) trying to infiltrate the United States across multiple fronts.

  “While the federal government holds the ultimate responsibility for foreign policy issues, the State also has the responsibility and opportunity to protect itself,” the order states.

  Abbott’s directive also ordered all state agencies to ban employees from downloading or using the app on government-issued devices, including cellphones, laptops, desktops, and other devices capable of internet connectivity, although exceptions are made for law enforcement agencies.

  Additionally, the Republican directed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Information Resources to develop a plan that other state agencies can deploy to address “vulnerabilities presented by the use of TikTok on personal devices.”

  TikTok has more than 85 million users in the United States.

  According to Abbott and a string of other officials, the app harvests vast amounts of data from its users’ devices, including “when, where, and how they conduct internet activity” and could provide a trove of potentially sensitive information to the CCP.

  In December, FBI Director Chris Wray said that the agency has security concerns about TikTok, including that it could be used by the CCP to collect data on users which could potentially be used to conduct espionage operations.

  

  TikTok Disappointed by Texas University Decision

  TikTok claims it stores U.S. user data on servers outside of China.

  In a statement to The Hill, a company spokesperson said TikTok was “disappointed that so many states are jumping on the political bandwagon to enact policies that will do nothing to advance cybersecurity in their states and are based on unfounded falsehoods about TikTok.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 19:05

• Hunter Biden Lived In Classified Doc House While Raking In Millions Through Chinese Intelligence Ties
  Hunter Biden Lived In Classified Doc House While Raking In Millions Through Chinese Intelligence Ties

  National security concerns over Joe Biden’s classified document scandal just got worse, as two reports have emerged which place Hunter Biden at the Bidens’ Wilmington, Delaware residence while he was raking in millions of dollars from CCP-linked business dealings.

  

  First, Seamus Bruner  (researcher for legendary bombshell-dropper Peter Schweizer), reports via Breitbart News, that “While addicted to drugs, cavorting with prostitutes, and making deals with businessmen tied to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence, Hunter Biden lived in the house where Joe Biden stored classified documents.”

  While filling out a background check, Hunter made a crackhead error and listed his ‘rent’ as $49,910 – when in fact that’s the amount of the security deposit and 6 months of rent for prime office space at the prestigious House of Sweden in Washington DC. What’s most interesting, however, is that the dates Hunter listed as living at the Wilmington, DE residence – as claimed on other documents and financial statements – overlap with the period in which multiple Biden family members were taking money from foreign businessmen with connections at the highest levels of Chinese state intelligence services through energy company CEFC. As Bruner further notes, CNN described CEFC as a state-directed entity in 2018.

  CEFC, and at least four of its executives and associates – Ye Jianming, Patrick Ho, Gongwen Dong and Jiaqi Bao, have been linked to the CCP and its military intelligence apparatus. In one case, Hunter described Patrick Ho as “the fucking spy chief of China.”

  

  More via Breitbart,

  By early 2017, Hunter was directly corresponding with CEFC personnel and flew to Miami in February of that year to meet with CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming. During this trip, Ye Jianming gave Hunter a 3.16 carat diamond valued at approximately $80,000..

  

  When Hunter’s ex-wife discovered that he had obtained something of such immense value, she had her divorce attorney send an “Urgent” email seeking to determine the whereabouts of the diamond and secure the asset before Hunter could “dissipate” it. Hunter’s attorney offered a shady denial:

  “There is no diamond in Hunter’s possession. I don’t know where Kathleen is getting access to this information, but on this score, what your email purports below is inaccurate.”

  Metadata gleaned from photos of the diamond on the abandoned laptop indicate that Hunter lied about not having the diamond and he in fact had the diamond with him in Wilmington. The current location of the 3.16 carat diamond remains unknown

  After the fateful February 2017 meeting with Ye, and around the time Hunter claimed to have moved into the Wilmington house where classified documents were found, the Bidens’ business with CEFC exploded.

  Nine days after Miami meeting, Hunter received two separate wire transfers of $3 million which the Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network flagged as suspicious.

  We encourage you to read the rest of the Breitbart report here, as it goes into extensive detail.

  Second, the Washington Free Beacon reports that photos from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop place him at the Wilmington House in July, 2017. Of note, the classified documents were reportedly brought to the house in January of that year.

  

  The photos ‘are the most concrete evidence to date’ that Hunter – who was actively negotiating a deal with a CCP-linked Chinese energy company – had access to areas of his father’s home where classified documents were stored.

  A Washington Free Beacon review of the laptop found four 2017 photographs of Hunter Biden, clad in a white collared shirt and a camouflage baseball cap, behind the wheel of his father’s 1967 Corvette Stingray. GPS metadata embedded in the photos indicate they were taken within a minute of each other at 6:49 p.m. on July 30 of that year, just outside the president’s Wilmington, Del., residence. The photos show Hunter Biden posing in the vehicle beside two young girls. One appears to be his then-12-year-old niece, Natalie Biden. The other could not be identified.

  

  Former Secret Service agent and certified cyber forensics expert, Konstantinos Gus Dimitrelos, analyzed the photos and confirmed their authenticity.

  “If requested, I will testify the photographs are genuine and were taken on July 30, 2017,” he told the Free Beacon.

  And as the Beacon further reports – corroborating Breitbart‘s reporting, “At the time the photos were taken, Hunter Biden was negotiating a lucrative business deal with the now-defunct Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC, which was closely tied to the Chinese government. Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski claimed to have met with Joe Biden in person in early May 2017—less than three months before Hunter Biden was pictured taking the wheel of his father’s prized vehicle—to discuss the Biden family’s Chinese business dealings.”

  In total, CEFC paid Hunter Biden $6 million in legal and consulting fees in 2017 and 2018.

  And of course, the same media which suggested the Trumps were Russian operatives based on a hoax – are virtually silent at actual risks to national security posed by the Biden family.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 18:55

• BlackRock Caves To DeSantis Over ESG
  BlackRock Caves To DeSantis Over ESG

  BlackRock has come to an agreement with the state of Florida after Governor Ron DeSantis (R) declared that asset managers overseeing some of the state’s $220 billion+ in pension funds cannot employ environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment strategies, according to Bloomberg.

  

  DeSantis and other trustees of the state authority running Florida’s pensions formally changed the plans’ policies on Tuesday to say that decisions surrounding investments “must be based only on pecuniary factors” which do not take into account “social, political, or ideological interests.”

  “To the extent that BlackRock has complied with the governor’s directives to abandon ESG metrics, we appreciate this and celebrate this win for Floridians,” said DeSantis press secretary Bryan Griffin.

  The effort by DeSantis began in August, when he banned state pensions from investing in ESG strategies. In response, Florida’s State Board of Administration began updating contracts with investment managers.

  “The SBA continuously evaluates all managers, and they are all held to the same exacting standards in delivering returns and performance,” reads a statement.

  Besides BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, dozens of other firms manage Florida’s pensions, including Morgan Stanley, Schroders Plc and Artisan Partners, according to filings.

  BlackRock, which managed about $13 billion in Florida pension funds as of December, said it’s “committed to the SBA’s mandate of prioritizing financial performance consistent with their investment objectives,” according to a statement. -Bloomberg

  The agreement between BlackRock and Florida also follows an announced move last year by state CFO Jimmy Patronis, who said he was pulling $2 billion in state funds out of the money manager – which he accused of using Florida’s pensions to fund a “social-engineering project.” He advised the SBA to remove the firm as one of its asset managers as well.

  On Tuesday, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said the ESG issue has turned “ugly.”

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 18:45

• High Profile Sound Money Bills Introduced In Mississippi
  High Profile Sound Money Bills Introduced In Mississippi

  Via Money Metals News Service,

  Lawmakers in Jackson have just introduced legislation to exempt gold and silver coins, bars, and rounds from the Mississippi’s state sales tax. Rep. Jill Ford has reintroduced House Bill 508 at the beginning of the 2023 session.

  

  This year’s legislative effort seeks to build on last year’s momentum.  Last year, Rep. Ford’s sales tax exemption bill passed out of the Mississippi House of Representatives overwhelmingly but it missed a deadline in the Senate needed to receive a hearing.

  Two similar Mississippi bills have already been introduced this session (HB 23 & SB 2019).

  Imposing taxes on the exchange of Federal Reserve notes for monetary metals (i.e. gold and silver) has become an unusual and outmoded practice in the United States… only 8 states still engage in it. 

  Most recently, Alabama, Tennessee, and Virginia last year passed legislation to exempt or extend current sales tax exemptions on the precious metals. With 42 states now having eliminated sales taxes on purchases of gold and silver, Mississippi may be the next state to do so.

  Under the status quo in Mississippi, citizens are discouraged from protecting their savings against the devaluation of the dollar because they are penalized with sales taxation for doing so. No state bordering Mississippi has the same policy. 

  Passage of HB 508 would remove disincentives to holding gold and silver — a move that has become especially pertinent at a time when inflation is ripping through the economy and wrecking havoc on family budgets.

  Eliminating sales taxes on gold and silver is good public policy for several reasons:

  • Levying sales taxes on precious metals is inappropriate. Sales taxes are typically levied on final consumer goods. Computers, shirts, and shoes carry sales taxes because the consumer is “consuming” the good. Precious metals are inherently held for resale, not “consumption,” making the application of sales taxes on precious metals inappropriate.

  • Studies have shown that taxing precious metals is an inefficient form of revenue collection. The results of one study involving Michigan show that any sales tax proceeds a state collects on precious metals are likely surpassed by the state revenue lost from conventions, businesses, and economic activity that are driven out of the state.

  The harm is exacerbated when you consider that all of Mississippi’s neighbors (Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee) have already stopped taxing gold and silver.  Most recently, Tennessee ended this tax in 2022, and Arkansas eliminated this tax in 2021.

  • Taxing gold and silver harms in-state businesses. It’s a competitive marketplace, so buyers will take their business to neighboring states, such as Alabama or Louisiana (which have eliminated or reduced sales tax on precious metals), thereby undermining Mississippi jobs. Levying sales tax on precious metals harms in-state businesses who will lose business to out-of-state precious metals dealers. Investors can easily avoid paying $136.50 in sales taxes, for example, on a $1,950 purchase of a one-ounce gold bar.

  • Taxing precious metals is unfair to certain savers and investors. Gold and silver are held as forms of savings and investment. Mississippi does not tax the purchase of stocks, bonds, ETFs, currencies, and other financial instruments. 

  • Taxing precious metals is harmful to citizens attempting to protect their assets. Purchasers of precious metals aren’t fat-cat investors. Most who buy precious metals do so in small increments as a way of saving money. Precious metals investors are purchasing precious metals as a way to preserve their wealth against the damages of inflation. Inflation harms the poorest among us, including pensioners, Mississippians on fixed incomes, wage earners, savers, and more. 

  Meanwhile, no states have permanently reversed their existing exemptions. The state of Louisiana and Ohio both experimented briefly with reimposing sales taxes on precious metals purchases. They both quickly reversed course (within two years) and reinstated their sales tax exemptions on precious metals — because businesses, coin conventions, and state tax revenues were leaving the state.

  In 2023, bills to restore sound, constitutional money have already been introduced in Alaska, West Virginia, South Carolina, Missouri, Minnesota, Tennessee, and more.

  Currently Mississippi is tied for 45^th out of 50 in the 2023 Sound Money Index.  Passage of HB 508 would allow the state to increase its ranking dramatically.

  Tyler Durden
  Thu, 01/19/2023 – 18:25

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