Today’s News 20th July 2024

• The Ballot Or The Bullet
  The Ballot Or The Bullet

  Authored by Michael Kochin via American Greatness,

  Saturday’s attempted assassination of President Trump killed one rallygoer, a father of two who died shielding his children from the assassin, and critically wounded two others. President Trump miraculously escaped with a slight wound in one ear, and in the photo of the century, he stood up from under the swarm of secret service agents, literally bloody but unbowed, raised his right hand in a fist, and mouthed, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

  

  Some of Mr. Trump’s partisan critics attacked Mr. Trump’s “violent rhetoric.”

  Of course, none of them squawked when President Biden said on Monday before the attack that “we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.” 

  We do not know, and may never know, whether the murderer perceived that he was simply following an order from his Commander in Chief.

  It is time to man up, stop blaming others, and figure out what we ourselves have done or not done that made this attack and the inciting rhetoric that led to it possible. The hard truth is that it is our weakness, not our extremism or our own “violent rhetoric,” that invited this attack.

  The regime media from the top down, in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Republic, on television and on social media, have repeatedly called Mr. Trump a fascist, compared him to Hitler, and called for his elimination from the race by any means necessary.

  We know that nothing Mr. Trump did or said, and nothing we, his partisans, have done or said, can be called the true cause of this kind of talk. We know that because the same outlets said the same kinds of things about other Republican leaders, from Thomas Dewey to Mitt Romney.

  Democrats talk this way about Republicans because they are not afraid of the consequences of talking that way. The party that banned God from the schoolroom and forbade public worship has no fear of God, who sees and punishes the deceitful, and has no fear of us. They believe, correctly, that they can, without fear of us, delegitimize elections by effectively licensing fraud and intimidation of voters, and that they can turn mobs on synagogue-goers and conservative speakers. Too many Democrats live their lives in media, public “service,” nonprofit or academic echo chambers in which everyone either amens such transgressions or is silenced by fear of violence or corporate HR.

  Ignore the hysterics about “violent rhetoric.” Politics is about violence, about the control and deployment of the force of the community for the ends of the community. Free and fair elections, free discussion, and even the right of the people to peaceably assemble come not from rhetorical or actual disarmament. These necessary features of free government come from a balance of terror that produces mutual fear and, thus, mutual respect.

  Sadly, in western countries, including the United States, that balance of terror does not exist. MAGA may have guns, but our anti-populist, that is to say anti-democratic rivals, have the secret police, the intelligence services, and, when necessary, Antifa, the stormtroopers of the woke capital, ever ready at the nod of the authorities or the regime media to target peaceful opposition.

  We who fear God have to be better than them, but that also means we have to be at least as frightening as them.

  As Malcolm X said sixty years ago, it is always and everywhere “the ballot or bullet.” 

  It is better to fight it out with violent rhetoric and ballots than with bullets, but that is only possible, Malcolm X explains, as long as every side fears what their rivals could do should they become enemies.

  Yes, my friends, we have to fight. We have to fight for the right to speak and to be heard, for the right to rally for our candidates and our beliefs, and for the right to wear a red hat in every corner of this great land.

  The only way that we can maintain our right to fight this “campaign” without resorting to actual violence is to frighten our rivals into refraining from violence, even when they know that the media and “authorities” will take their side.

  In this struggle, there is no substitute for courage, but there is also no substitute for brains about when and how to show fight. Our situation is not yet desperate, and to make sure it never becomes so, we must manifest both menace and discipline.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 23:40

• Distraction? Blinken Says Iran Just 1-2 Weeks Away From Producing Material For A Nuclear Weapon
  Distraction? Blinken Says Iran Just 1-2 Weeks Away From Producing Material For A Nuclear Weapon

  A well-timed distraction? Or is it real this time? The White House says Iran is on the verge of being nuclear weapons capable. 

  US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Friday that the Islamic Republic will have enough enriched uranium for producing fissile material to achieve a nuclear weapon within just “one or two weeks.”

  “Iran, because the nuclear agreement was thrown out, instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that,” Blinken said at a forum in Colorado.

  

  He did add a caveat, saying there’s as yet no evidence Iran is actively pursuing a nuke at this point; however, the timing is interesting given the White House crisis of Biden’s reelection bid, as well as the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to address Congress next week.

  “What we need to see, if Iran is serious about engaging, is actually pulling back on the work that it’s been doing on his program,” Blinken continued.

  “Second, we have been maximizing pressure on Iran across the board. We’ve imposed more than 600 sanctions on Iranian persons and entities. We haven’t lifted a single sanction,” he said.

  And yet the irony here is that clearly the sanctions haven’t worked. While Biden and Democrats in general had long ago been frequent critics of Trump’s prior “maximum pressure” campaign, in reality little has changed. 

  Blinken still touted the Biden admin’s record on Iran at the Aspen Security Forum, describing, “When this administration came in, we tried to pursue again, nuclear diplomacy with Iran, because if you could at least take one problem off the board, which is Iran potentially with a nuclear weapon, that’s inherently a good thing.”

  The White House says it has still been wielding a big stick, particularly in light of the Gaza crisis and the prior Israeli massive attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus which sent tensions spiraling. 

  Axios reported earlier this week that the Biden admin’s behind the scenes pressure campaign has yielded limited results: 

  • The U.S. officials said the Iranians came back with a response that included explanations for these nuclear activities, stressing there has been no change in policy and they are not working on a nuclear weapon.
  • The exchange of messages and other information obtained by the U.S. and Israel addressed some of the concerns and somewhat eased anxieties over the Iranian research and development activities, U.S. and Israeli officials said.
  • A U.S. official said that the message the U.S. sent to the Iranians was effective, but added there are still significant concerns about the Iranian nuclear program.

  Iran has grown bolder in its declarations of late, and so all of the above doesn’t actually sound like “effective” diplomacy.

  JUST IN: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Iran is “probably one or two weeks away” from getting their hands on a nuclear weapon.

  The comment ‘ironically’ came at the same time as Rep. Michael Waltz said Trump’s would-be assas*in Thomas Crooks had “3 encrypted overseas… pic.twitter.com/IqCQjfYbcp

  — Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 19, 2024

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  Without doubt, Iranian leadership is watching the US presidential race closely, given that a potential future Trump administration will be stacked with Iran hawks, as was the first.

  Israel has meanwhile vowed preemptive attack if its intelligence believes Tehran is bent on developing a nuke, and if it is on the threshold. At the same time, critics of Netanyahu have alleged his hawkish position is rooted in political survival, like with his hardline Gaza policies.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 23:15

• The Ascendance Of Sociopaths In US Governance
  The Ascendance Of Sociopaths In US Governance

  Authored by Doug Casey via InternationalMan.com,

  An International Man lives and does business wherever he finds conditions most advantageous, regardless of arbitrary borders. He’s diversified globally, with passports from multiple countries, assets in several jurisdictions, and his residence in yet another. He doesn’t depend absolutely on any country and regards all of them as competitors for his capital and expertise.

  Living as an international man has always been an interesting possibility. But few Americans opted for it, since the U.S. used to reward those who settled in and put down roots. In fact, it rewarded them better than any other country in the world, so there was no pressing reason to become an international man.

  Things change, however, and being rooted like a plant – at least if you have a choice – is a suboptimal strategy if you wish to not only survive, but prosper. Throughout history, almost every place has at some point become dangerous for those who were stuck there. It may be America’s turn.

  For those who can take up the life of an international man, it’s no longer just an interesting lifestyle decision. It has become, at a minimum, an asset saver, and it could be a lifesaver. That said, I understand the hesitation you may feel about taking action; pulling up one’s roots (or at least grafting some of them to a new location) can be almost as traumatic to a man as to a vegetable.

  As any intelligent observer surveys the world’s economic and political landscape, he has to be disturbed – even dismayed and a bit frightened – by the gravity and number of problems that mark the horizon. We’re confronted by economic depression, looming financial chaos, serious currency inflation, onerous taxation, crippling regulation, a developing police state, and, worst of all, the prospect of a major war. It seems almost unbelievable that all these things could affect the U.S., which historically has been the land of the free.

  How did we get here? An argument can be made that things went bad because of miscalculation, accident, inattention, and the like. Those elements have had a role, but it is minor. Potential catastrophe across the board can’t be the result of happenstance. When things go wrong on a grand scale, it’s not just bad luck or inadvertence. It’s because of serious character flaws in one or many – or even all – of the players.

  So is there a root cause of all the problems I’ve cited?

  If we can find it, it may tell us how we personally can best respond to the problems.

  In this article, I’m going to argue that the U.S. government, in particular, has been overrun by the wrong kind of person.

  

  It’s a trend that’s been in motion for many years but has now reached a point of no return. In other words, a type of moral rot has become so prevalent that it’s institutional in nature. There is not going to be, therefore, any serious change in the direction in which the U.S. is headed until a genuine crisis topples the existing order. Until then, the trend will accelerate.

  The reason is that a certain class of people – sociopaths – are now fully in control of major American institutions.

  Their beliefs and attitudes are insinuated throughout the economic, political, intellectual, and psychological/spiritual fabric of the U.S.

  What does this mean to you, as an individual? It depends on your character.

  Are you the kind of person who supports “my country, right or wrong,” as did most Germans in the 1930s and 1940s? Or the kind who dodges the duty to be a helpmate to murderers? The type of passenger who goes down with the ship? Or the type who puts on his vest and looks for a lifeboat? The type of individual who supports the merchants who offer the fairest deal? Or the type who is gulled by splashy TV commercials?

  What the ascendancy of sociopaths means isn’t an academic question. Throughout history, the question has been a matter of life and death. That’s one reason America grew; every American (or any ex-colonial) has forebears who confronted the issue and decided to uproot themselves to go somewhere with better prospects. The losers were those who delayed thinking about the question until the last minute.

  I have often described myself, and those I prefer to associate with, as gamma rats. You may recall the ethologist’s characterization of the social interaction of rats as being between a few alpha rats and many beta rats, the alpha rats being dominant and the beta rats submissive. In addition, a small percentage are gamma rats that stake out prime territory and mates, like the alphas, but are not interested in dominating the betas. The people most inclined to leave for the wide world outside and seek fortune elsewhere are typically gamma personalities.

  You may be thinking that what happened in places like Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, and scores of other countries in recent history could not, for some reason, happen in the U.S. Actually, there’s no reason it won’t at this point. All the institutions that made America exceptional – including a belief in capitalism, individualism, self-reliance, and the restraints of the Constitution – are now only historical artifacts.

  On the other hand, the distribution of sociopaths is completely uniform across both space and time.

  Per capita, there were no more evil people in Stalin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s China, Amin’s Uganda, Ceausescu’s Romania, or Pol Pot’s Cambodia than there are today in the U.S. All you need is favorable conditions for them to bloom, much as mushrooms do after a rainstorm.

  Conditions for them in the U.S. are becoming quite favorable. Have you ever wondered where the 50,000 people employed by the TSA to inspect and degrade you came from? Most of them are middle-aged. Did they have jobs before they started doing something that any normal person would consider demeaning? Most did, but they were attracted to – not repelled by – a job where they wear a costume and abuse their fellow citizens all day.

  Few of them can imagine that they’re shepherding in a police state as they play their roles in security theater. (A reinforced door on the pilots’ cabin is probably all that’s actually needed, although the most effective solution would be to hold each airline responsible for its own security and for the harm done if it fails to protect passengers and third parties.) But the 50,000 newly employed are exactly the same type of people who joined the Gestapo – eager to help in the project of controlling everyone. Nobody was drafted into the Gestapo.

  What’s going on here is an instance of Pareto’s Law. That’s the 80-20 rule that tells us, for example, that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your salesmen or that 20% of the population are responsible for 80% of the crime.

  As I see it, 80% of people are basically decent; their basic instincts are to live by the Boy Scout virtues. 20% of people, however, are what you might call potential trouble sources, inclined toward doing the wrong thing when the opportunity presents itself. They might now be shoe clerks, mailmen, or waitresses – they seem perfectly benign in normal times. They play baseball on weekends and pet the family dog. However, given the chance, they will sign up for the Gestapo, the Stasi, the KGB, the TSA, Homeland Security, or whatever. Many seem well intentioned, but are likely to favor force as the solution to any problem.

  But it doesn’t end there, because 20% of that 20% are really bad actors. They are drawn to government and other positions where they can work their will on other people and, because they’re enthusiastic about government, they rise to leadership positions. They remake the culture of the organizations they run in their own image. Gradually, non-sociopaths can no longer stand being there. They leave. Soon the whole barrel is full of bad apples. That’s what’s happening today in the U.S.

  It’s a pity that Bush, when he was in office, made such a big deal of evil. He discredited the concept. He made Boobus americanus think it only existed in a distant axis, in places like North Korea, Iraq and Iran, which were and still are irrelevant backwaters and arbitrarily chosen enemies. Bush trivialized the concept of evil and made it seem banal because he was such a fool. All the while, real evil, very immediate and powerful, was growing right around him, and he lacked the awareness to see he was fertilizing it by turning the U.S. into a national security state after 9/11.

  Now, I believe, it’s out of control.

  The U.S. is already in a truly major depression and on the edge of financial chaos and a currency meltdown.

  The sociopaths in government will react by redoubling the pace toward a police state domestically and starting a major war abroad. To me, this is completely predictable. It’s what sociopaths do.

  *  *  *

  A big part of any strategy to reduce your political risk is to place some of your savings outside the immediate reach of the thieving bureaucrats in your home country. Obtaining a foreign bank account is a convenient way to do just that. That way, your savings cannot be easily confiscated, frozen, or devalued at the drop of a hat or with a couple of taps on the keyboard. In the event capital controls are imposed, a foreign bank account will help ensure that you have access to your money when you need it the most.

  In short, your savings in a foreign bank will largely be safe from any madness in your home country. Despite what you may hear, having a foreign bank account is completely legal and is not about tax evasion or other illegal activities. It’s simply about legally diversifying your political risk by putting your liquid savings in sound, well-capitalized institutions where they’re treated best. We recently released a comprehensive free guide where we discuss our favorite foreign banks and jurisdictions, including, crucially, those that still accept Americans as clients and allow them to open accounts remotely for small minimums. New York Times best-selling author Doug Casey and his team describe how you can do it all from home. And there’s still time to get it done without extraordinary cost or effort. Click here to download the PDF now.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 22:50

• Illegal Alien TikToker Who Urged Migrants To Invade US Homes Reportedly Worked For Venezuela's Military Intel
  Illegal Alien TikToker Who Urged Migrants To Invade US Homes Reportedly Worked For Venezuela’s Military Intel

  Millions of Americans were disgusted when they learned earlier this year that an illegal alien used TikTok to inform other migrants how to “invade” unoccupied homes across America and take advantage of progressive squatter laws. 

  We noted at the time, “The Marxist destruction of private property rights is on full display after a viral video circulating TikTok, then posted on X, shows a migrant informing other migrants how to “invade” unoccupied …” 

  

  Remember this idiot? 

  Remember the ILLEGAL who encouraged squatting in US homes? Turns out, he’s a (former) sergeant in Venezuela’s military intelligence unit named Leonel Moreno. pic.twitter.com/UCa5RBUneG

  — End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 19, 2024

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  The good news is that in March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested the illegal alien who goes by the name “Leonel Moreno.” 

  And now, time for the bad news: Since Moreno’s arrest, US intel officers have found the illegal alien was a sergeant in Venezuela’s military intelligence unit before he invaded the US southern border, the New York Post reports, citing a Homeland Security source.

  It’s believed Moreno illegally entered the US through Eagle Pass, Texas, on April 23, 2022, and was released into the country with no proper vetting. He intentionally skipped check-ins with ICE. 

  Here’s more from NYPost: 

  Information from foreign countries is often hard to come by for border agents trying to protect the country from potential threats.

  When it comes to Venezuela, the task is nearly impossible because the government there is unwilling to communicate with US authorities, several Border Patrol sources have told The Post.

  The issue with Moreno is that many others like him are still running amok across this nation, unvetted and lost by the incompetent federal government overseen by the Biden administration. This risk has been repeatedly highlighted by former President Trump, Elon Musk, and many others who have warned Biden’s disastrous open southern border policies are flooding the nation with military-aged men. 

  Meanwhile, we were the first to report in early March about the Iranian assassin roaming the US and possibly plotting assassination attacks against former and current government officials. This is still a very real and active threat. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 22:25

• The Quiet Power And Influence Of Timothy Mellon
  The Quiet Power And Influence Of Timothy Mellon

  Authored by Austin Alonzo via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

  The largest donor of the 2024 election cycle is also, arguably, the most mysterious.

  

  Since the beginning of 2023, no one has given more to political causes than Timothy Mellon. Through the first five months of 2024, Mr. Mellon gave more than $115 million to various Republican candidates for federal office and conservative causes.

  Brendan Glavin, deputy research director at money-in-politics watchdog OpenSecrets, told The Epoch Times what makes Mr. Mellon’s millions so odd is the apparent lack of desire for attention attached to the gifts.

  “When you are making these contributions … it gives you access, it makes you a player,” Mr. Glavin said of the typical so-called megadonor. “It creates a situation where you know people are going to cater to you because they want your money.”

  Despite this, Mr. Mellon can only be found in donor records.

  The recipients of his money and his associates often decline to speak about the 81-year-old investor, who apparently lives close to Saratoga, Wyoming. He’s hard to reach. Even biographers writing about his influential family can’t get a word from him.

  The Epoch Times attempted to reach Mr. Mellon through his publisher, a public relations firm who represented him in the past, associates who said they read his book, the Mellon family foundation, and through organizations he regularly supports.

  Old Money

  Timothy Mellon is an heir to the Mellon family fortune. Forbes estimates the entire group of descendants of Irish immigrant Thomas Mellon is worth more than $14.1 billion.

  The family’s wealth dates back to the 19th century and its name is attached to companies such as The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. and institutions such as Carnegie Mellon University. Timothy Mellon’s grandfather, Andrew Mellon, and his father, Paul Mellon, were instrumental in the foundation of the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

  As the U.S. treasury secretary, Andrew Mellon served from 1921 to 1932 under Republican Presidents Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover.

  Timothy Mellon founded a privately held transportation company—Guilford Transportation Industries—in 1981, which acquired several New England-area railways. In 1998, Guilford paid $24.5 million for the name and assets of the airline Pan American World Systems and renamed itself Pan Am Systems. In 2020, that company was purchased by CSX Corp. for an undisclosed amount.

  Mr. Mellon also sat on the board of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation from 1981 to 2002. Maggie Slowey, a spokeswoman for the foundation, told The Epoch Times, “Neither Tim Mellon nor any other family member has any current connection to the Foundation nor have they, in recent years, played a significant role in the Foundation’s giving strategy or day-to-day operations.”

  Mr. Glavin said Mr. Mellon is the only eight-figure political donor of this cycle to come from so-called old money. Most others, he said, have made their fortunes as investors or entrepreneurs relatively recently.

  Liberal commentator and former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich has called Mr. Mellon “the poster child” for the perils of generational wealth in America.

  

  “Timothy Mellon … is the product of a tax system pioneered by his grandfather that allows the perpetuation of dynastic wealth and the maintenance of its political power,” Mr. Reich wrote on his blog in February.

  Representatives of Mr. Reich did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

  Silent Partner

  In 2024, Mr. Mellon is drawing attention for simultaneously bankrolling the presidential campaigns of former President Donald Trump and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

  On May 31, the day after the 45th president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee was convicted of multiple felonies in New York, Mr. Mellon sent a $50 million check to Make America Great Again Inc., the super political action committee (PAC) that’s backing former President Trump’s campaign.

  Representatives of MAGA Inc. declined to comment, citing the group’s policy not to comment on donors.

  Mr. Glavin said the $50 million contribution was one of the largest in American history. Donor records indicate it is the biggest single gift of Mr. Mellon’s federal giving career.

  Mr. Mellon’s May donation brought his overall support for MAGA Inc. since the beginning of 2022 to $76.5 million, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records. He is currently the PAC’s biggest individual sponsor.

  Federal records show Mr. Mellon also gave $20 million to the Trump-supporting super PAC America First Action Inc. in 2020.

  Additionally, since the beginning of 2023, Mr. Mellon has donated $25 million to American Values 2024. The hybrid PAC is helping Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Mellon is also the biggest individual backer of the PAC.

  Democrats see this connection as clear evidence that Mr. Mellon is backing Mr. Kennedy exclusively to foil President Joe Biden’s reelection effort. In a March release, Alex Floyd, the Democratic National Committee’s Rapid Response Director, called RFK Jr. a “stalking horse to help Trump return to the White House.”

  Mr. Glavin agreed with the Democratic analysis, saying he believes the funding is a “tactical move” to help former President Trump’s chances in November.

  

  In a May 26 interview with host Brian Tyler Cohen, Mr. Kennedy said he’d met Mr. Mellon twice.

  “Here’s what I believe from talking to Tim Mellon: I think Tim Mellon would prefer me to be president,” Mr. Kennedy said in the interview. “If I’m not going to be president, then he would prefer President Trump to President Biden.”

  Deep Mellon–Kennedy Connections

  The Mellon family’s links to the Kennedys stretch back to the 1960s.

  According to author Meryl Gordon’s 2017 book, “Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend,” Timothy Mellon’s mother, Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, was a friend of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s uncle President John F. Kennedy. Bunny Mellon redesigned the White House Rose Garden during his presidency.

  Ms. Gordon told The Epoch Times that Mr. Mellon declined to be among the hundreds interviewed for the book.

  Much of what is known about Mr. Mellon comes from a self-published 2016 autobiography, “panam.captain,” that is no longer publicly available. Skyhorse Publishing is due to publish a new version of “panam.captain” in July.

  At some point after June 2020, when The Washington Post published an article claiming Mr. Mellon used “racial stereotypes to describe African Americans,” the book was scrubbed from the internet. The Epoch Times cannot independently verify the newspaper’s claims about the book’s content.

  According to screenshots of the book’s website captured when it was still live, “panam.captain” could be purchased with a donation to groups apparently picked by Mr. Mellon. None of the groups Mr. Mellon solicited donations for—Hillsdale College, the Pan Am Historical Foundation, and Landmark Legal Foundation—responded to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

  Since its foundation in 2006, the New York-based imprint has published numerous books by and about Mr. Kennedy and others associated with the non-profit organization Children’s Health Defense. Skyhorse’s “panam.captain” will feature a quote from Mr. Kennedy on its front cover.

  

  Skyhorse President Tony Lyons co-founded American Values. In FEC filings, Mr. Lyons is listed as the group’s treasurer.

  Furthermore, three of the six reviewers of “panam.captain,” listed on the Skyhorse website, are connected to either Children’s Health Defense or American Values. Mr. Kennedy, the group’s founder; Mary Holland, the group’s CEO; and Gavin de Becker, founder of private security firm Gavin de Becker & Associates, all provided quotes in praise of Mr. Mellon and the book.

  According to federal records, Mr. de Becker is the second-largest sponsor of American Values behind Mr. Mellon. His firm is also providing security for Mr. Kennedy during his presidential run. As of the end of May, Mr. de Becker had sent $14 million to American Values since the beginning of 2023.

  “These pages reveal Tim Mellon’s open-mindedness in action—and show that it’s possible to resist tribalism,” Mr. de Becker’s review said.

  Mr. de Becker declined to comment further about Mr. Mellon. Representatives of Children’s Health Defense and the Kennedy campaign did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

  The Power of Money

  According to donation data collected by OpenSecrets and shared with The Epoch Times, Mr. Mellon has donated about $239 million to federal and state political causes since he began giving in 1990.

  Most of the money went to Republican candidates or conservative causes; $22,800 has gone to Democrats or liberal causes; and about $25 million has gone to Mr. Kennedy’s American Values 2024.

  Records show Mr. Mellon did not begin to make significant contributions until 2018.

  After his presidential donations, Mr. Mellon’s most significant contributions have gone to the Congressional Leadership Fund and the Senate Leadership Fund. Since 2018, Mr. Mellon sent a combined $75 million to the funds.

  Both are conservative PACs helping Republicans win seats in the House and Senate.

  Representatives of the Congressional Leadership Fund and Senate Leadership Fund did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

  In August 2021, Mr. Mellon reportedly donated about $53.1 million in stock to the state of Texas to aid in Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s effort to build a wall along the U.S. southern border. The state is building the border wall as part of Mr. Abbott’s Operation Lone Star.

  

  According to the operation website, as of July 2, the state had collected about $55.4 million in donations specifically for the border wall project.

  The report about Mr. Mellon’s border wall donation was initially published by the Texas Tribune Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headed by Sonal Shah. Ms. Shah is a former member of the Obama administration and former leader of Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 presidential campaign. Mr. Buttigieg is now the Secretary of Transportation.

  Mr. Abbott’s office declined to comment on Mr. Mellon’s reported donation. Instead, it directed The Epoch Times to file a public records request. On July 16, the open records division of Mr. Abbott’s office sent documents to The Epoch Times that confirmed Mr. Mellon had donated stock worth about $52.7 million in August 2021.

  In 2022, Mr. Mellon sent about $29 million to eight different PACs backing Republican Senate candidates. Most of his chosen candidates were not successful and the Democratic Party retained control of the chamber in the mid-term election.

  The increase in Mr. Mellon’s giving matches up with what Mr. Glavin of OpenSecrets described as an “explosion” in the amount of money a handful of extremely wealthy people are injecting into American politics.

  A 2020 report published by OpenSecrets summarizing the effect of the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling on Citizens United vs. FEC found that total super PAC spending increased from $62 million in 2010 to $822 million in 2018. The decision is often credited with creating super PACs that can accept and spend unlimited amounts of money, given that they do not directly interact with political campaigns or candidates.

  The same report found that donations from the top 1 percent of the wealthiest Americans accounted for 96 percent of super PAC funding in 2018.

  Mr. Glavin said most Americans don’t know who the big donors are that channel money into competitive races.

  Donors get access to politicians, Mr. Glavin said. Those who give the most get the most. However, only the people with the money and the people with the power know precisely how much influence donors may have on politicians.

  “They don’t always have to necessarily ask for something because they’ve already chosen the candidate that they know agrees with them,” Mr. Glavin said.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 22:00

• Leftists Prove They Are Zealots In The Wake Of Trump Shooting
  Leftists Prove They Are Zealots In The Wake Of Trump Shooting

  The response by a large portion of the political left to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump has revealed a disturbing ideological madness – A dedication to lies and delusions that goes deep into the realm of zealotry.  It’s something that thousands of commentators have warned about over the years.  The general public has long denied the claim as being “reactionary” and many thought conservatives were exaggerating. Recent events prove otherwise.

  

  What else would you expect from the same group of people that can’t define what a woman is?  The same people that think sexualized drag performances and graphically sexual picture books are a good idea for young children in public schools?  The same people that engaged in years of violent rioting because of the death of a hardcore criminal and fentanyl addict who happened to be black?  The same people that supported medical authoritarianism and mass censorship during the covid pandemic? The same people that claimed “stagflation was transitory”?  The people that bought into the Russiagate hoax, refused to believe that Hunter Biden’s laptop was real and denied Joe Biden’s steep cognitive decline? 

  This zealotry continues to be exposed through their response to the attempted assassination of Donal Trump.  The narrative in the media is that now is the time for “cool heads” and calm, yet, at the same time they are working diligently to peddle the conspiracy that the plot was staged by Trump himself.

  Joy Reid of MSNBC is now suggesting that Donald Trump was never hit by a bullet, and that his campaign and the Secret Service colluded to kill two people in a fake assassination attempt just so Trump could have a photo op.

  Outrageous. Insane. Defamatory.

  NBC must take Reid off… pic.twitter.com/OLXz08fbE9

  — Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) July 18, 2024

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  The envy from Joy Reid is transparent – The leftists are furious about that iconic photo and they wish they could diminish it somehow.  They aren’t honest enough to say “Hey, I don’t like Trump’s policies, but that moment was ballsy.” 

  She seems to be asserting that Trump trusted a sniper enough to barely miss his face so that he could get a great photo.  This would mean that the plan was for Trump to fake an ear injury with hundreds of people and cameras around him, and that the shooter would have to fire close enough to his head to make it believable, hitting three bystanders and killing one of them in the process. And of course, most of Trump’s Secret Service security team and local police would have to be in on the plot, not to mention the photographer.

  Keep in mind, there’s no evidence to support any of this and the leftists suggesting the conspiracy are the same people who argued that conservatives should “follow the science” during the pandemic lockdowns.  When it comes to leftists and Trump, reason goes completely out the window and their true insanity shines through.  Those that aren’t entertaining conspiracies about the shooting are simply enraged that the shooter missed. 

  BLUEANON: A shocking amount of Dems are fully on board with “Trump staged the assassination”, blaming him for casualties at the rally.

  One man even saying the blood on Trump’s ear was drawn by secret service when they ran to cover him. pic.twitter.com/u9foz3QKBH

  — James Klüg (@realJamesKlug) July 16, 2024

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  VILE: Ana Navarro says she wishes Trump was sh*t in the mouth. pic.twitter.com/Xyep60w5g0

  — Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 19, 2024

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  Why are these people like this?  One could assume they’ve always been this way – Zealots with a pure hatred for anyone that contradicts their ideology and Trump happens to be a convenient magnet for their animosity.  Then again, it’s more likely that they have been radicalized by the very media that’s calling for conservatives to “calm down” after the attack, not to mention the Biden Administration.  Remember this speech painting MAGA Republicans as monsters ready to tear down “democracy”?

  Biden gave a speech desperately trying to lower the political temperature. Oh, wait… pic.twitter.com/Yucg8EbI8q

  — Military Arms (@MAC_Arms) July 15, 2024

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  When leftists are referred to as “useful idiots” it’s important to understand what that means.  It means that they are willing to say anything and do anything to further a cause which, in the end, doesn’t even benefit them.  It means they have ascended to a dangerous level of incompetence; a world in which reason and logic have no meaning and everything they do to win is emotionally justified. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 21:35

• The REPO Act: A Precursor To The Dollar's Downfall
  The REPO Act: A Precursor To The Dollar’s Downfall

  Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,

  In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the US government has launched its most aggressive sanctions campaign ever.

  The US government and its allies froze around $300 billion of the Russian central bank’s reserves—the nation’s accumulated savings.

  It was a stunning illustration of the political risk associated with the US dollar and Treasuries. It showed that the US government could deny access to another sovereign country’s reserves at the flip of a switch.

  Recently, President Joe Biden signed the REPO Act into law.

  It allows the US government to seize frozen Russian state assets and transfer the funds to Ukraine.

  The US dollar and Treasuries have become weaponized in a way they had not before. They are now clearly not neutral assets worthy of forming the bedrock of the international financial system but political tools for Washington to coerce others.

  

  The rising political risk attached to Treasuries has made them even less attractive as a store of value. It’s now apparent to everyone that dollars are only dollars as long as you don’t upset the US government.

  Many countries are undoubtedly wondering if the US government will seize their savings if they run afoul with Washington.

  China is one of the largest holders of US Treasuries, and it indeed took note of what is happening.

  Since 2022—when the US froze Russian state assets—China has sold about 25% of its Treasuries, an enormous change in such a short period.

  In the first three months of 2024 alone, China dumped a record $53 billion worth of US Treasuries.

  Further, China has increasingly ditched the US dollar in international trade. For example, over 90% of the $240 billion in trade between Russia and China is done outside of the dollar in yuan and ruble.

  At the same time, China and Russia have been on a gold buying spree to make their economies and financial systems more resilient to US sanctions.

  China is the world’s largest producer and buyer of gold. Russia is number two. Most of that gold enters the Russian and Chinese governments’ treasuries.

  

  Russia has over 75 million ounces of gold, one of the largest stashes in the world. Nobody knows China’s exact amount of gold—Beijing is notoriously opaque—but most observers believe it is even larger than Russia’s stash.

  Even if we take China’s official gold statistics—which almost certainly understate reality—Beijing’s gold holdings have soared by 17% in the past 17 months to around 73 million ounces.

  China’s recent gold buying spree unsurprisingly coincides with the US seizure of Russian assets in the wake of the Ukraine conflict and their dumping of US Treasuries.

  

  Conclusion

  Treasuries have been the bedrock of the international financial system ever since President Nixon severed the dollar’s last link to gold in 1971.

  However, the US government’s seizure of Russian state assets was a fundamental change to this system, signaling the end of an era.

  The fiat US dollar can be either a neutral reserve asset or a political tool Washington wields. It cannot be both.

  After 2022, Russia, China, and everyone else saw that the international financial system centered on the US dollar was over.

  That is terrible news for the US dollar, which was already in big trouble as it is becoming clear the Fed is trapped in ever-increasing debasement.

  Ray Dalio is one of the world’s most successful hedge fund managers. His success is due to his consistent ability to get the Big Picture right. He recently said this:

  “The indicators of when a fiat currency is going to decline and to collapse, is when those holdings its debt sell the debt and the government, the central bank, has to print money to buy that debt in large size while the currency is going down. Those are the most important indicators.”

  In short, I believe we are on the verge of a paradigm shift as gold replaces Treasuries as the base layer asset—the bedrock—of the international financial system.

  The last time the international monetary system experienced a paradigm shift of this magnitude was in 1971.

  Then, gold skyrocketed from $35 per ounce to $850 in 1980—a gain of over 2,300% or more than 24x.

  I expect the percentage rise in the price of gold to be at least as significant as it was during the last paradigm shift.

  That’s because this coming gold bull market could be fundamentally different from other cyclical bull markets. It will be riding the wave of a powerful trend: the re-monetization of gold as the king store-of-value asset. It could lead to the biggest gold bull market ever.

  While this megatrend is already well underway, I believe the most significant gains are still ahead.

  That’s precisely why I just released an urgent report on where this is all headed and what you can do about it… including three strategies everyone needs today. Click here to download the PDF now.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 21:10

• Russia Says 'Let's Be Realistic' About Chances Of Trump Ending Ukraine War
  Russia Says ‘Let’s Be Realistic’ About Chances Of Trump Ending Ukraine War

  Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

  On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said she noted comments from former President Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance about ending the war in Ukraine but said Moscow needed to be “realistic” about the prospect.

  “We saw the statements — Trump said he would resolve the conflict within 24 hours, then Vance said that China is a bigger problem for the United States than the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” she said, according to Reuters.

  

  “It’s necessary to separate pre-election rhetoric from statements by government officials vested with the appropriate powers. If we talk about whether it’s possible to resolve the conflict, let’s be realistic,” she added.

  Zakharova pointed out that during the previous Trump administration, the president and some of his advisors made statements about bringing peace to the Middle East.

  “They prepared for the ‘deal of the century’ for quite a long time, but it did not end in anything, and under Biden, on the contrary, a colossal historical tragedy happened,” she said.

  Russian President Vladimir Putin has also noted Trump’s comments about ending the war in Ukraine and said he took them “seriously” but said he’s not familiar with any concrete proposals put forward by the former president.

  In an interview with The New York Times last month, Vance outlined some ideas for a potential peace plan.

  “What I would like to do … is you freeze the territorial lines somewhere close to where they are right now. That’s number one. Number two is you guarantee both Kyiv’s independence but also its neutrality. It’s the fundamental thing the Russians have asked from the beginning,” he said. “And then three, there’s going to have to be some American security assistance over the long term. I think those three things are certainly achievable, yes.”

  Vance wants the US to wind down its support for Ukraine so it could focus more on building up in the Asia Pacific and arming Taiwan.

  “The thing that we can control now is making it costly for [China] to invade Taiwan, and we’re not doing that because we’re sending all the damn weapons to Ukraine and not Taiwan,” he told the Times.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 20:45

• Zuck Praises Trump As An American "Badass"
  Zuck Praises Trump As An American “Badass”

  Authored by ‘Sundance’ via TheConservativeTreehouse.com,

  My, how quickly the winds can change [or do they]. 

  Previously in order to assist his ideological travelers, specifically Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg gave the DNC a $500 million ballot harvesting operation as a gift in 2020.  It was one of the most obvious examples of election fraud facilitated.

  Fast forward a full election cycle, the installed 2020 outcome, Joe Biden, is on the ropes and being isolated, ridiculed and marginalized -in part- by the same network of ideological travelers (i.e. the Obama network). 

  When asked if he was going to participate in funding the goals and objectives of the political apparatus in 2024, Zuckerberg announced his intention to stay out of the game of influence, he would not be endorsing “any political candidate.” 

  He then went further saying what he witnessed in the assassination attempt of President Trump, “was one of the most badass things I ever witnessed in my life.” 

  

  WATCH:

  Not only does this put the DNC at a deficit for their ballot harvesting operation; on the other side of the coin billionaire Elon Musk has pledged $45 million per month to help the RNC counteract the ballot harvesting operation of the DNC.

  President Trump is well positioned to win the 2024 presidential election.  However, nothing can be taken for granted and all efforts must be maximized to ensure a secure election and get every element of the Trump movement out to vote.

  

  On a smaller point, I had noted earlier this year (see tweet below) that perhaps Mark Zuckerberg is not quite as severe a leftist as the tribe around him.

  I’m going to put this here today, because headlines kinda warrant it.

  I was previously told, by 2 extremely solid people I have known for a long time, that Mark Zuckerberg is not a leftist as people think. Not even close. MZ problem is that he rides a Leftist dragon. FWIW pic.twitter.com/4e4YbHkqiF

  — TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) February 1, 2024

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  I was told by people close to Zuckerberg that he is much more of a right-leaning independent thinker than everyone thinks.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 20:20

• These Are America's 'Most Trustworthy' News Organizations In 2024
  These Are America’s ‘Most Trustworthy’ News Organizations In 2024

  America’s trust in the media has plateaued over the last few years with only around one-in-three Americans saying they trust the news.

  Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualizes the percentage of Americans who trust (or distrust) various news organizations. Importantly, this is not an exhaustive list of media brands.

  

  Data is sourced from a 2024 YouGov survey commissioned by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

  ℹ️ More than 2,000 nationally representative Americans were asked to rate a brand’s trustworthiness on a scale of 0–10. Responses that picked 0–4 were coded as “don’t trust;” similarly 6–10 were coded as “trust.” The middle number, 5, was categorized as “neither.”

  CNN & Fox Are the Most Divisive News Outlets

  Local TV stations and newspapers are still Americans’ most trusted news organizations, despite the gutting of local news outlets over the last decade.

  Brand	Trust	Neither	Don’t Trust
  📺 Local television news	62%	21%	17%
  📰 Local newspapers	58%	24%	18%
  🅰️ ABC News	52%	20%	28%
  🌍 BBC News	52%	25%	23%
  📺 CBS News	52%	20%	28%
  🗽 New York Times	50%	20%	30%
  📺 NBC/MSNBC News	49%	18%	32%
  💼 Wall Street Journal	49%	26%	25%
  📺 CNN	48%	15%	37%
  📻 NPR News	47%	23%	29%
  🇺🇸 USA Today	47%	27%	27%
  🏛️ Washington Post	46%	23%	31%
  🦊 Fox News	43%	15%	43%
  🌐 Yahoo! News	40%	29%	30%
  📰 HuffPost	39%	28%	32%

  Note: Figures are rounded and may not sum to 100.

  Meanwhile, broadcasters ABC, BBC, and CBS are also more trusted than not for at least half of those surveyed. Print and digital newspaper The New York Times also managed a 50% trust rating—the only named newspaper to do so.

  Towards the bottom of this sample of companies, HuffPost is the least trusted (39%) news brand. In 2012, the organization was the first commercially-run U.S. digital news website to win a Pulitzer Prize. In 2015 ownership moved when Verizon acquired AOL (which owned HuffPost). As of 2020, the company is now by Buzzfeed Inc.

  Fox News is the most polarizing brand listed, with an equal 43% share for “trust” and “don’t trust.” It is also the only listed outlet where more than 40% of those surveyed didn’t trust it.

  If you liked this article, check out Ranked: The Most Popular Paid Subscription News Websites for a list of news outlets subscribers are willing to pay for.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 19:55

• Existence Tax: The Vig Plus 3%
  Existence Tax: The Vig Plus 3%

  Authored by Tim Hartnett via LewRockwell.com,

  In the bad old days, before G-Men took down the mob, were urbanites getting a better deal? Does the betting man receive worse odds from state run lotteries than Vinny gave on the corner running numbers? Did businesses shaken down for “protection” have higher hopes of survival in mob clutches than in municipal ones? Was there more or less anxiety about making rent or the mortgage in 1974 than in 2024? Which is the greater fiscal peril, organized crime or uber-societal-organization? It has become a valid question.

  

  Gangsters had fingers in a lot of pies. Credit card racketeers, waging the present battle against physical currency, demand a slice of everything out of the oven. They’d gladly have us believe that paying for anything, without their supervision and cut, equals a criminally tainted transaction. Mobsters found their pecuniary prevalence legit in its way too. Transactions that jibed with their economic codes they called “kosher.” Other trading activity inside their ambit was deemed transgressive. Parasites tend to sound tiresomely alike. The difference is that the above ground finance industry finds no place outside its ambit.

  Street people’s encampments clutter cities all over the country. What pushed so many over the edge? And how many are treading that edge carefully now? We know that insanity is somewhat genetic, but scientific observation has yet to prove external factors can’t nudge innately inclined individuals into psychosis. Facts point that way.

  Should we harbor suspicion of so-called improvements in the finance system? The Bush-Obama era housing crisis arrived after the government gradually amped up its influence on the mortgage market. Once mortgages became de-localized and Wall Street joined in default skyrocketed and losses went international. Isn’t the NYSE supposed to make markets safer and more efficient? Have we seen anything like that coming out of financial centralization?

  The present squeeze goes on in commercial space. Businesses, particularly restaurants, are shutting down at disturbing rates. The biggest burden is rent. This goes on as city centers are awash in more empty commercial space than ever. Local government isn’t helping. While serenading us about how much they love love and hate hate, they stay busy inundating entrepreneurs with licensing fees, new taxes, permit demands and other hurdles that restrain new ventures from ever launching. If they somehow get going anyway the municipality lurks at every juncture. They’ll keep you from thriving when they can’t stop you altogether. Actions speak louder than words. What they “love,” in practice, is bleeding prey pale with revenue demands and entangling bureaucratic complications.

  In 1977 the minimum wage was $2.30 an hour. You could get nearly four Big Macs for that amount then. When the minimum went up to $12 on July 1st, the same earner only got two and one third double-deckers for his money. Losing 1.3 sandwiches an hour takes a big bite out of a working class lifestyle. 10.4 Mc-grubbings per eight-hour-day to be exact.

  One year after the bicentennial average rent in the US was about $160. An NYT article from 1973 said a family of four needed less than $12,000 a year to live “moderately” in NYC in 1973. The same amount must have been a somewhat comfortable living in flyover country. By 1977 average income was over $13,000. 47 years later, average rent is at least ten times higher. While only about 10% of the population earns $130,000 or more. Where did all the value go?

  Clearly, production is out of sync with consumption. What is the variable? Crops still grow at the same rate. Cargo travels at the same speed. Bricks are laid at the same pace. Chickens plop their eggs with the same regularity. Is anyone in the economy getting more than their fair share?

  Almost 103 billion in “official” currency was circulating in the US in 1977. As of today, that figure stands at nearly 2 trillion 340 billion. The population has increased by about 58%. The greenbacks flowing back and forth went up by over 2000%. Those figures describe a small fraction of the overall economy. Because banks can create spending power with credit, leaving out other fiscal legerdemain, hundreds of trillions are outstanding in fiscal reality. Federal tax revenue alone, will soon hit over 5 trillion so far this year. That’s over twice the official amount of currency in circulation.

  The Big Mac went from 65 cents to $5.17 in that time span. That’s about 700%. Minimum wage rose by about 450%. Watching these fiscal details we know at once that sparse fractions of all that new money is getting to where it is needed most – while we have no evidence it lands in hands that have created actual value. With everyone competing for resources and finished goods, these facts equal a devastating pay cut for many making far above minimum wage.

  The idea that people are taking out according to what they contribute simply doesn’t fly. We can start with where the money supply is expanded.

  A century ago banks were more accountable. They could make risky loans, as they did for Fritz Heinze, but doing so could still mean hell to pay. The series of events that shook the fiscal foundations of South Manhattan in 1907 remain mysterious over a century later. By 2007, banks were getting bailed out and it was everyone else who paid. How we got there is an intriguing conundrum of modern finance.

  Heinze was a mining engineer from New York who showed up in Butte, Montana in the 1890’s. The copper market was hot at the time. That rustic town was already swimming in East Coast toffs and class consciousness. Although born into wealth and circumstances, Augustus Heinze was above pretension and indifferent to “society.” He soon developed a smelting process that greatly expanded the profitability of low-grade copper ore. Rather than pocketing the plunder, his next step was cutting 2 hours off the miner’s workday. How did that go over in the part of Butte that ‘dressed for dinner’? About like The Declaration of Independence did with George III.

  Fritz couldn’t have cared less. The airs put on at posh WASP tables left the man impatient and bored. He did his excess boozing in public places where a man who’d spent the day 500 feet underground was at the next stool. Guys who loaded trams rarely bought a round with Heinze in the house.

  By 1895 he’d amassed the capital to purchase the Rarus copper mine. The new-coming city slicker literally hit paydirt. His holes were always filled with the best pick and shovel men Montana could provide. The swells he snubbed had to take what hired help they could get.

  An officer fraternizing with the enlisted class was high treason to mine owners of the aughts. Heinze was held in a kind of hostile awe. Butte gentry were unaccustomed to a guy who dared not to care if they liked him.  What’s an enraged starched collar to do? We’ll never be entirely sure. Deadly measures were far from uncommon in late 19th century mining strife. What happened to Heinze is one of the murkier mysteries of the robber baron era.

  J.D. Rockefeller’s brother, William, was a director of Anaconda Copper. That firm was run by people who’d never pop a cork with working stiffs. They were revolted by Augie’s effrontery. Their solution was one that has retained its financial force. Whether Heinze was bought out under duress, or sold out of his own volition in 1906 isn’t fully clear. What is known is that he returned to New York as a Wall Street plunger specializing in copper stocks. Using familial connections, and a personal fortune, Heinze got himself onto the boards of almost a score of NYC banks. When shares of United Copper were being shorted in a bear run, Fritz used his position to buy aggressively, borrowing heavily from the Knickerbocker Bank and other commercial lenders where he held sway.

  By October of 1907 the Heinze brothers thought they had cornered the market in United Copper. They demanded the shares from traders who were contractually short – falsely believing the bears would be forced to buy from them. It soon became clear that these shares were not hard to come by. Heinze’s bullishness ended in catastrophic loss rather than profit. This meant that he would default on loans of millions from each of over 15 NYC banks.

  The story, possibly apocryphal but true in effect, goes as follows. Knickerbocker was experimenting with 24 hour banking in 1907. The brainchildren of Wall Street met for dinner at an upstairs private dining room in Delmonico’s to discuss the coming cash crunch. Waiters for the event heard what was said in the meeting. They shared this knowledge with less connected patrons chowing down on the ground floor. A run on Knickerbocker began that night, by morning it had spread to every bank in town. The Panic of 1907 was instantly afoot.

  Soon banks all over Gotham were out of cash to meet a seismic wave of withdrawals. In no time connected institutions from further out were tapped too. JP Morgan famously locked every player he could muster into his mansion’s library to discuss solutions. A plan was worked out and widespread depression was averted. But the financial hierarchy of south Manhattan was far from done. Their next step entailed placing the money supply and credit generally into the possession of elite governors.

  This banking scandal ultimately resulted in the Federal Reserve Act that was passed December 23rd 1913. Whether it solved the problem or laid the foundation for larger ones has been debated since. Getting into the particulars of the statute became inconvenient with the legislature still in session so close to Christmas. ‘Fightin’ Bob LaFollette, gave in and failed to press for a more exacting bill he saw as necessary at the time. The ruckus over the bill’s details were mostly passed over as ‘conspiracy theory’ throughout the 20th century. That line held sway in economic academia for many decades. Scholarly reckoning always comes too late; there is little dispute the charter helped cause and make the Great Depression worse among “experts” today. We are commanded to defer to them with amps at 11. What they got wrong is reported by the same sources at about 2.5.

  Left unexamined is why the Heinze brothers misunderstood who held what in United Copper in 1907. Why did they mistakenly believe they had cornered the market? These were highly educated, seasoned men in the world of finance. How far would William Avery Rockefeller Jr. go to settle a score with Fritz Heinze? Was he cleverly stashing available shares in ostensibly immobile accounts to set up an ambush? The first generation of the Rockefeller fortune was not known to take financial affronts lightly. Is it possible, or more likely probable, William Avery had the means and motive to manipulate the market into this unlikely position?

  John D. Rockefeller Jr. married Abby Aldrich in 1901. Her father, Nelson Aldrich, was the driving senatorial force behind the Federal Reserve Act, although he left the Senate before its passage. The Rockefeller gang has been evangelizing the faith of centralization in everything for over a century. It started when JD Sr. practically accomplished that in the petroleum industry before the turn of the 20th century. If you think they were never capable of violent, gangland style treachery, fast your gaze on the Ludlow massacre of 1914.

  Can we measure the effect of centralization in the financial sector? By 2013 it had almost doubled its share of the economic pie since 1980. When their take went from 5% to 9% in 40 years it had to come at a loss for others at the table. Did the Fed have a role in this? And what justification is offered for doubling the squeeze?  As the economy grows so does the money industry’s cut, just as any salesman’s commission rises as the sales price is higher. Is South Manhattan insatiable? What explanation, other than parasitic predation, fits here?

  The idea of market liquidity and available credit is efficiency and a fluent trading place for financial wares. Theoretically, this is competitive and brings transactional costs down while driving transactional fluidity up. Have we seen any such thing? The NYSE and kin have become like those “clubs” everyone is forced to join avoiding rip-offs for groceries, lunch, medicine, movies etc. The difference is that Wall Street’s anti-rip-off club is exclusive. You are not invited.

  Where are we now? Exactly in the same place as when mobsters skimmed off the top in Vegas casinos, but far worse. The difference is that you get clipped without ever placing a bet or owning a share of a betting parlor. The south Manhattan mob is, supposedly, worth nearly 10% of all the action. What other slices of the take have widened with government intrusion and centralization? The mob focused its shakedowns on high rollers. Higher Ed goes after every kid hoping to drag letters behind his name. They call themselves “non-profits.” Does the description fit the beast?Disciplines of a Godly…Hughes, R. KentBest Price: $4.97Buy New $9.41(as of 01:52 UTC – Details)

  Finding university administrators at leisure is not a job for Columbo. Just head toward any resort, high-dollar fleshpot or country club where profiteers do their squandering. Educational altruists, financial “experts” and well-heeled bon vivants occupy the same weekend turf – as well as the same self-serving sphere of self-justification.

  The Rockefeller family was the largest private benefactor of that ultimate centralizing scheme, the UN. The patriarch, William Avery Rockefeller Sr., was an infamous snake oil salesman and bigamist. He’s not the Rocky the family likes to advertise. They are prouder of efforts to get around the principle of one-man-one-vote and rule the world from the modern equivalent of a royal court on a planetary scale. Make a list of plans to place more bosses overhead and move them further out of reach.  The UN, CFR, WEF, Bilderberg, Trilaterals – you name it and the progeny of that greasy grifter is in on it. And who would they place in charge? The very soul-suckers with their fangs in the US neck pulsing at Wall and Broad.

  We are not looking at an abstruse, undecipherable picture here. You can do differential equations, make “relative assumptions” and discuss monetary theory until you ascend to the meta-fiscal plane of Laputa. None of that supposed “understanding” leaves Joe Six-Pack with another square foot of living space or another Big Mac. Uber-economic organization, aka David Rockefeller’s so-called “more integrated world,” is a progressively feudalistic plot that – with the compliance of the un-fake-news industry – rarely experiences any setbacks.

  Shrinking buying power has a very simple explanation: a prim and proper syndicate that is more ubiquitous and avaricious than any criminal mob ever.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 19:30

• "Day Has Finally Come": Instagram Censors Team USA Rifle Shooter Ahead Of Paris Paralympics
  “Day Has Finally Come”: Instagram Censors Team USA Rifle Shooter Ahead Of Paris Paralympics

  Big tech’s crackdown on “gunfluencers” is nothing new, but policies at social media companies are becoming increasingly restrictive (read: here), leading to the demonetization of numerous channels. The latest victim of this aggressive censorship isn’t even the typical gun YouTuber but instead a competitive rifle shooter on Team USA for the Paralympics. 

  Just The News reports that McKenna Geer, a competitive rifle shooter, had her Instagram account censored before she heads to Paris for the Paralympic Games in late August. Next week, the Olympic Games are set to begin.

  

  Geer’s Instagram account, “kennageer10.9,” was reportedly censored by the social media company because of photos she posted with firearms at a qualifying competition. 

  “I have always feared the day the media would censor my sport and speech just because I use firearms,” Geer wrote on Instagram, adding, “That day has finally come.” 

  She continued, “This sport is life-changing because of its ability to unite both able-bodied and disabled athletes, young and old, foreign and domestic. Me and my fellow athletes rely on our social media accounts to spread the word about our sport, firearm safety, build our personal brand, and connect with potential sponsors. Many of us (myself included) are either not paid or paid very little for our involvement in this sport. Our social media presence can often be the avenue that pays for us to continue competing.”

  Geer posted a screenshot of an image that shows her account has been censored.

  “Your account and content won’t appear in places like Explore, Search, Suggested Users, Reels, and Feed Recommendations,” the Instagram notification reads.

  

  On Thursday, she told Just the News that Instagram flagged three of her four latest posts.

  When she informed the USA Shooting public relations team about the matter, they reached out to Instagram and received this response:

  “On Facebook and Instagram’s Help Center websites, we indicate that while some content may be allowable, it may not be eligible for recommendation, including certain regulatory goods that ‘impedes our ability to foster a safe community.’ Help Center entries do not explicitly reference firearms as a regulated good; however, it does include a link to the Community Standards, which identifies firearms as a regulated good.” 

  For Geer and gunfluencers who have been censored or demonetized by social media platforms with ‘trust & safety’ teams aligned with the censorship blob, try X. You might find some relief on Musk’s ‘free speech’ platform. 

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 19:05

• The Federal Housing Agency Hasn't Gotten Its Economic House In Order, Under Both Parties
  The Federal Housing Agency Hasn’t Gotten Its Economic House In Order, Under Both Parties

  Authored by Bob Ivry via RealClearInvestigations,

  Paul Fishbein’s conviction on rent fraud charges in New York City last year was a feast for the tabloids. 

  

  The story was crazy enough to get readers to click. Prosecutors said that Fishbein, 51, somehow convinced local housing agencies that he owned dilapidated apartment buildings that he didn’t, enabling him to move in tenants and skim government rent subsidies meant for lower-income, disabled, and elderly residents. Fishbein kept the con going for more than years. His take: $1.8 million. 

  In February, a judge handed Fishbein 70 months in prison and ordered him to pay back roughly double what he’d taken. The case was a win for city investigators and federal prosecutors. But one agency was conspicuously absent from the celebration: the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a source of the taxpayer money that Fishbein stole. HUD had nothing to do with bringing to justice the fraudster who’d made off with its cash. It was an indictment of the agency’s decade-long resistance to fighting fraud — and a portent for any promise to tame the bureaucratic state, like the kind touted for a second Trump administration. 

  HUD’s lack of involvement in the Fishbein case isn’t necessarily a reflection on field investigators from the agency’s Office of Inspector General, a nationwide force of 140 sleuths who carry guns and badges and are armed with subpoena power. After all, also in February, HUD OIG investigators participated in a massive dragnet that busted 70 current and former New York City Housing Agency employees for soliciting bribes. HUD’s absence from the Fishbein affair was more a result of the agency’s inability to properly track rental-assistance money that, because of error or fraud, ends up in the wrong places — what the government calls improper payments. 

  HUD, like other agencies responsible for spending taxpayer money, is required to estimate improper payments and post the results. Auditing themselves in such a way is a sign that at least the agencies are following the money, even if a portion of it is lost to waste or crime. Most agencies are able to complete the task, but not HUD, which blames the failures on various snafus, both human and technological, and says the earliest it can start properly keeping tabs on the money is 2027, “dependent on funding.” 

  HUD’s internal watchdog has already spent the past 10 years hectoring the agency to improve its fraud detection. Fiscal 2023, which ended Sept. 30, marks the seventh consecutive year that HUD failed to report improper-payment estimates and the 11th year in a row that the inspector general found that HUD was not in compliance with improper-payment laws. Without changes, HUD Inspector General Rae Oliver Davis told the Cabinet Department in a January management alert, “HUD may miss opportunities to identify and eliminate fraud vulnerabilities, leaving its funds and reputation at risk.”

  That’s the watchdog’s gently diplomatic way of telling HUD to get its act together already. The lack of accountability spans the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations. There’s little doubt that it can be tough to track taxpayer money once it’s sent out into the world: HUD’s flows through 3,700 local housing authorities and countless landlords on its way to putting a roof over some 3 million American households. But those complications are also a convenient scapegoat for HUD, as is the lag in upgrading technology systems that could make the accounting job easier.

  Meanwhile, we’re talking about two rental assistance programs, which together constitute 68% of HUD’s annual budget. The programs’ combined fiscal budget for 2025, which starts Oct. 1, is slated to be $49.5 billion. Because the numbers are so high, undetected criminality can cause taxpayer losses in the multiple millions. 

  “Action is needed immediately,” Davis wrote in a January management alert addressed to acting HUD Secretary Adrianne Todman. 

  One Bright Spot

  There was one bright spot in the sometimes contentious relationship between HUD and its Office of Inspector General. Last month, HUD agreed to use a risk-management plan for fraud that the agency watchdog had put together during the COVID-19 pandemic. The inspector general said the move would improve monitoring in one of the two big rental assistance programs, laying the groundwork for improved fraud prevention.

  Congress created the two HUD programs – Project-Based Rental Assistance and Tenant-Based Rental Assistance – in an effort to stem homelessness. The $16.7 billion PBRA helps house 1.2 million lower-income families. About 49% of the households that receive PBRA are headed by an elderly person and 16% by the disabled. One-quarter of the recipients are families with children. The assistance is attached to certain rentals; an eligible tenant must live in a specific apartment to receive help. That contrasts with the $32.8 billion TBRA, which provides aid that follows a tenant from home to home. Both programs are administered by local housing agencies, whose cooperation with the federal government in tallying up payment errors sometimes lacks enthusiasm.

  Even though the law directs federal spending programs to estimate their improper payments, PBRA and TBRA aren’t the only ones that fail to do so. Among the transgressors are the Agriculture Department’s $111 billion Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which skipped filing estimates in 2015, 2016, 2020, and 2021, and the Department of Health and Human Services’ $31 billion TANF, or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. Both SNAP and TANF have blamed snags on a lack of coordination with the state and local agencies that manage the programs. 

  For fiscal 2023, improper payments across the entire government amounted to $236 billion, according to the Government Accountability Office, which compiles agencies’ estimates. While that number is the only one we have, it’s not accurate. The GAO said that it received a full accounting from only 14 of the 24 departments required to report. Historical numbers come with the same flaw. Since 2003, cumulative estimates of improper payments by executive branch agencies have reached $2.7 trillion, the GAO said. Even though that figure is low, because it’s missing numbers that agencies failed to report, it’s still equivalent to about 10% of America’s Gross Domestic Product. 

  Despite its failures in reporting improper payments, “HUD has oversight and monitoring in place to ensure the integrity of its rental-assistance programs,” an agency spokesperson said in an email statement. 

  The spokesperson said that local housing agencies and not HUD are responsible for determining whether tenants are eligible for the programs and how much assistance they qualify for, with HUD providing oversight directly or through the local housing agencies. 

  By reviewing compliance reports and audited financial statements, HUD is able “to ensure that improper payments are minimized and instances of non-compliance are identified and addressed,” the spokesperson said in the email. “In addition, HUD has requested more funding for system enhancements to modernize and improve HUD technology systems to support our oversight efforts.”

  Artificial intelligence might help HUD identify fraudsters such as Fishbein before his swindle can reach its seventh birthday, but as the HUD spokesperson said, that takes money. The Biden administration kept the agency’s budget steady at $72.1 billion from 2023 to 2024. Its proposed fiscal 2025 budget of $72.6 billion is a 0.6% bump.

  Joel Griffith said he knows where to find the money for expanding HUD’s computer-based fraud detection: the agency’s environmental programs. Griffith, a research fellow specializing in financial regulations for the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank responsible for Project 2025, recommends taking the $250 million earmarked for “climate resilience and energy efficiency” in HUD’s latest budget and spending it instead on upgrading information technology. Add the agency’s green retrofitting project – as much as $50,000 for each targeted housing unit – and that should add up to enough for HUD to prevent, rather than chase, a lot of rental-assistance fraud, he said.

  ‘Beef Up Enforcement’

  Donald Trump slashed the budget of HUD’s inspector general by 3.6% in 2021, the last year of his budget oversight, while President Joe Biden proposes hiking it by 10% for 2025. Regardless, Griffith urged the next president, “whoever he is,” to “beef up enforcement.”

  “Prevent fraud by prosecuting bad actors and publicizing it,” Griffith said. “Enforcing the law is a responsible use of taxpayer resources.”

  Though HUD’s Inspector General’s office may have missed out on the publicity surrounding the splashy Fishbein conviction, they’ve been busy. They helped lay the groundwork in Georgia for an October conviction of a Milledgeville Housing Authority payroll clerk who admitted she paid herself $575,014 more than she was entitled; helped secure a guilty plea from a San Francisco man who received $341,455 in fraudulent payments for a residence that turned out to be worth $2.4 million; and saw convictions on bribery and fraud charges of four Pennsylvania men, including the director of the Chester Housing Authority and his chief assistant.

  If those cases seem a tad small-fry for investigators hunting for misdeeds in the stereotypically shady rental industry – especially when solutions to systemic problems are called for – there’s the February arrest of 70 former and current New York City Housing Authority employees for bribery and solicitation of bribery. Prosecutors said the administrators pocketed a collective $2 million over 10 years in pay-for-play schemes to hand out work contracts at HUD-funded properties. The Department of Justice called it “the largest number of federal bribery charges on a single day in DOJ history.” 

  Though the arrests gave the tabloids an opportunity for a thorough public shaming of the accused – and were another example that there’s big money in poverty – they might have also pointed to a bigger issue: a possible reason why it’s been so difficult, at least in New York, for HUD to estimate improper payments.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 18:40

• These Are The Most Reliable Car Brands In The US
  These Are The Most Reliable Car Brands In The US

  Reliability is one of the most important aspects to consider when buying a new vehicle, especially as cars become ever more technologically complex…

  In this graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualizes the results of J.D. Power’s 2024 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study, which ranked automakers by the number of problems per 100 vehicles (PP100).

  

  Data and Methodology

  To come up with this ranking, J.D. Power collected responses from 30,595 original owners of 2021 model-year vehicles after three years of ownership. Their study was fielded from August to November 2023, and covers nine categories of problems:

  • Exterior
  • Seats
  • The driving experience
  • Climate
  • Features/controls/displays
  • Interior
  • Infotainment
  • Powertrain
  • Driving Assistance

  The data shown in this infographic is also listed in table below. Note that Tesla was not included because it did not meet study award criteria.

  Brand	Problems per 100 Vehicles
  🇯🇵 Lexus	135
  🇯🇵 Toyota	147
  🇺🇸 Buick	149
  🇺🇸 Chevrolet	174
  🇬🇧 MINI	174
  🇩🇪 Porsche	175
  🇯🇵 Mazda	185
  🇰🇷 Kia	187
  🇩🇪 BMW	190
  🇺🇸 Dodge	190
  🇺🇸 Jeep	190
  Average	190
  🇺🇸 Cadillac	196
  🇰🇷 Hyundai	198
  🇯🇵 Subaru	198
  🇯🇵 Nissan	199
  🇰🇷 Genesis	200
  🇺🇸 Ram	201
  🇺🇸 GMC	206
  🇯🇵 Honda	206
  🇺🇸 Acura	216
  🇩🇪 Mercedes-Benz	218
  🇯🇵 Infiniti	219
  🇺🇸 Ford	239
  🇸🇪 Volvo	245
  🇺🇸 Lincoln	251
  🇩🇪 Volkswagen	267
  🇬🇧 Land Rover	268
  🇩🇪 Audi	275
  🇺🇸 Chrysler	310

  From this dataset, we can declare Toyota and its luxury arm, Lexus, as the most reliable car brands in the United States.

  Compared to the other Japanese duos, Honda and Acura rank a distant 20th and 21st, with 206 and 216 PP100. Meanwhile, Nissan and Infiniti diverge, with the former ranking 16th (199 PP100) and Infiniti at 23rd (219 PP100).

  The least reliable automaker in this ranking is Chrysler, which was also the only brand to surpass 300 problems per 100 vehicles. It’s worthy to note that for the 2021 model year (basis of this study), Chrysler only offered two models: the Pacifica/Voyager minivan, and the 300 sedan.

  Infotainment Systems a Major Pain Point

  According to J.D. Power’s study, “Infotainment” was the most common type of problem experienced by owners, with nearly twice as many problems as the second-highest category, “Exterior”.

  Within the Infotainment category, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity was a frequent issue, as was built-in voice recognition.

  If you enjoyed this post, check out Charted: Automaker Sales by Region in 2023 to see which markets are the most important for major car brands.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 18:15

• UN Says Global Child Vaccination Rates Below Pre-Pandemic Levels
  UN Says Global Child Vaccination Rates Below Pre-Pandemic Levels

  Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

  Childhood vaccination rates stalled worldwide in 2023, the United Nations said in a new report, finding that some 2.7 million more children haven’t received vaccines as compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic.

  

  A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) issued on July 15 focused on vaccines targeting measles, as well as other illnesses targeted by childhood vaccines such as diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis—also known as whooping cough.

  Last year, some 84 percent of all children surveyed, or 108 million, received three doses of the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTAP) vaccine, according to the WHO and UNICEF. The 2023 rate was the same as the 2022 vaccination rate, the U.N. agencies stated, noting that the DTAP vaccination rate was 86 percent in 2019, a year before the pandemic started.

  The report found that the number of children who haven’t received a single dose of the DTAP vaccine, also known as DTP or DTP3, rose by 600,000 from 2022 to 2023, or an increase to 14.5 million from 13.9 million in 2022.

  Aside from those figures, about 6.5 million children worldwide didn’t receive a third dose of the DTAP vaccine, which the U.N. agencies say is “necessary to achieve disease protection” as an infant or a young child.

  Other than its DTAP findings, the U.N. agencies also stated that vaccination rates for measles “stalled” in 2023, leaving about 35 million children worldwide with “no or only partial protection.”

  About 83 percent of children around the world got their first measles vaccine in 2023 via routine health services, while the percentage of children getting a second measles vaccine dose was 74 percent last year, according to the U.N. agencies.

  “These figures fall short of the 95 percent coverage needed to prevent outbreaks, avert unnecessary disease and deaths, and achieve measles elimination goals,” the WHO said in a statement.

  Measles outbreaks have emerged in more than 103 countries over the past five years, the agencies noted, stating that “low vaccine coverage” of 80 percent or less was a “major factor.” Ninety-one countries that have more vaccine coverage didn’t report outbreaks of measles over the past five years, it found.

  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) earlier this year sent out a health alert over an increase in measles cases worldwide. It advised that American citizens traveling overseas “should be current” on their measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR, vaccinations.

  “Many countries, including travel destinations such as Austria, the Philippines, Romania, and the United Kingdom, are experiencing measles outbreaks,” the agency stated at the time.

  In the United States, a significant portion of measles cases reported so far in 2024 have been connected to an illegal migrant shelter in Chicago, according to the CDC. Some 57 out of 167 cases reported in the United States this year are associated with the shelter, it stated.

  War-hit countries in particular saw a big jump in the number of children who weren’t immunized in 2023, officials with the two U.N. agencies said at a press conference last week, ahead of releasing the data.

  “As conflicts continue to impact children around the region, Sudan, Yemen, and Syria are home to nearly 87 percent of the total zero-dose children in the region, with Sudan alone contributing 42 percent of these zero-dose children,” UNICEF said in a statement, noting that in Gaza and the West Bank, the “impact of the conflict has already started to show” on vaccination rates.

  The U.N. agencies stated that there were some positives. For example, there were about 600,000 fewer “zero dose” children across the African region in 2023 than in 2022, and coverage of the HPV vaccine, which protects against cervical cancer, also improved globally. Ukraine also saw an improvement in vaccinations amid its war with Russia, officials said.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 17:50

• Impatient Zelensky After NATO Summit: Where Are My Jets?
  Impatient Zelensky After NATO Summit: Where Are My Jets?

  During the big NATO summit earlier this month, everyone from Antony Blinken to Lloyd Austin to President Biden touted the imminent delivery of US-made F-16 jet fighters to Ukraine. “American-made F-16 fighter jets are on their way to Ukraine” and they will be flying “this summer” – Secretary of State Blinken had vowed at the summit on July 10. But in a fresh interview with BBC on Thursday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked his Western backers: where are the jets? 

  He emphasized that Kiev has yet to receive them, now a year-and-half after the program was first announced. Up to 20 of the total nearly 80 pledged were expected to arrive this year from donor states: The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and Norway.

  “It’s been 18 months, and the planes have not reached us,” Zelensky complained in the interview. He once again emphasized that the American jets are needed to “unblock the skies.” He’s also been complaining that his forces need many more Patriot and other anti-air defense systems.

  

  Zelensky has said he is ‘thankful’ for the warplanes but has still claimed the current pledged numbers will not be enough, and that Ukraine really needs at least 128 of the jets. Zelensky is also likely worried the program will be in further jeopardy if Trump gets into office. He stressed that working with the future Trump administration will be “hard work”.

  Interestingly, during the fresh interview Zelensky also reacted to some Ukraine commentary which has emerged during the Republican National Convention in the US, as BBC writes:

  Just days ago, Trump announced Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate in November’s vote. The 39-year-old has in the past said “he doesn’t care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.”

  The nomination has renewed fears that US commitment to Ukraine could fall away if Trump is returned to the White House in November’s election.

  Zelensky said he will work with US officials to ensure a potential future VP Vance understands the situation on the ground in Ukraine.

  “Maybe he really doesn’t understand what goes on in Ukraine, so we have to work with the United States,” Zelensky said in reference to Vance and a possible Trump administration after November.

  It is not just Ukraine that’s worried about Vance as Trump’s VP pic, but European officials as well. They too worry this could signal the start of waning US support to Kiev.

  During his address to the RNC Wednesday night, Vance at one point said “No more free rides for nations that betray the generosity of the American taxpayer.”

  He has also actually put in writing (in a Financial Times op-ed earlier this year) that “There is frankly no good reason that aid from the U.S. should be needed” given that “Europe is made up of many great nations with productive economies” and Ukraine in reality “needs more matériel than the United States can provide.”

  OH Senate candidate JD Vance: “I think it’s ridiculous that we are focused on this border in Ukraine. I got to be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.” pic.twitter.com/QtZbckZf0b

  — Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) February 19, 2022

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

  Vance has also recently described Ukraine ceding territory to Russia as being in “America’s best interest” given that it could bring ceasefire and a lasting peace. He has also as a Senator been a rare vocal critic of Kiev’s crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (the bishops who remain in communion with the Moscow Patriarchate) and questions of religious freedom.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 17:25

• Tennessee Drag Show Ban Upheld After Appeals Court Reverses Ruling
  Tennessee Drag Show Ban Upheld After Appeals Court Reverses Ruling

  Authored by Zachary Steiber via The Epoch Times,

  A federal appeals court on July 18 reversed a lower court ruling as it upheld a law in Tennessee that bans performances featuring strippers or men dressed as women in locations where they could be viewed by children.

  

  A majority of a panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that a nonprofit theater group challenging the constitutionality of the Adult Entertainment Act (AEA) failed to prove it has standing.

  The group, Friends of George’s, sued Tennessee officials over the law, alleging it violated rights conferred by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

  U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker ruled in 2023 that the law is unconstitutional because it is too vague and overbroad.

  The appeals court panel reversed that ruling, finding that Friends of George’s has not provided evidence that it intended to violate the law.

  That means the group lacks standing, the judges said.

  Even if the organization alleged it intended to violate the law, it would need to show that a constitutional interest would be affected, according to the ruling.

  “But the law in this area is clear—there is no constitutional interest in exhibiting indecent material to minors,” U.S. Circuit Judge John Nalbandian wrote for the majority.

  He pointed to a previous ruling from the appeals court that found certain speech, “while fully protected when directed to adults, may be restricted when directed towards minors.”

  “The only constitutionally protected expressions implicated by the AEA are adult-oriented performances that can be constitutionally restricted from minors but not from adults—a narrow slice of speech,” Judge Nalbandian said.

  “And the statute doesn’t even ban these performances, merely restricting them to adult-only zones.”

  U.S. Circuit Judge Eugene Siler Jr. joined Judge Nalbandian in the ruling.

  U.S. Circuit Judge Andre Mathis said in a dissent that Friends of George’s has standing because it will likely hold shows that are affected by the law, leading it to face a threat of prosecution under the statute. He also said that the group’s shows, which have no age restrictions, appear to be protected by the First Amendment.

  The majority and dissent also diverged over particulars of the law. The majority said the law’s prohibition of shows “harmful to minors” refers “only to those materials which lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for a reasonable 17-year-old minor,” citing a 1993 ruling from the Tennessee Supreme Court. But the dissent said it bars shows to all minors, noting that no court has narrowed the law as written by state legislators.

  Friends of George’s said in a statement it was shocked and disappointed with the decision.

  “Instead of addressing the constitutionality of Tennessee’s drag ban, today’s ruling has left us and thousands of others in the LGBTQ+ community dangerously in limbo, with no clear answers as to how this ban will be enforced and by whom,” the group said in a social media post.

  The organization is consulting with legal counsel on the next steps in the case as it rehearses its next production, which is set to open on Aug. 2.

  Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said in a statement that the law has been repeatedly misrepresented since it was signed by Gov. Bill Lee.

  “As a state overflowing with world-class artists and musicians, Tennessee respects the right to free expression. But as the court noted, Tennessee’s ‘harmful to minors’ standard is constitutionally sound and Tennessee can absolutely prohibit the exhibition of obscene material to children,” he said. “The court of appeals focused on what the law actually says and ordered the case dismissed.”

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 17:00

• Fed F**kery Turns $23BN US Bank Deposit Outflow Into $34BN Inflow Ahead Of Stock Slump
  Fed F**kery Turns $23BN US Bank Deposit Outflow Into $34BN Inflow Ahead Of Stock Slump

  Money-market fund total assets rose last week (+9.6BN) back to record highs ($6.15TN) as stocks tanked…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  In a breakdown for the period to July 17, government funds – which invest primarily in securities such as Treasury bills, repurchase agreements and agency debt – saw assets rise to $4.96 trillion, a $6.83 billion increase. 

  Prime funds, which tend to invest in higher-risk assets such as commercial paper, saw assets rise to $1.06 trillion, a $4.66 billion increase.

  The Fed’s balance sheet shrank modestly once again, to an interesting level…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  …with utilization of the bank bailout scheme actually dropping $2.75BN to $103BN… still quite a chunk for banks to roll at some point when their 12-month loans expire…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  After last week’s plunge, total US bank deposits (SA) rose a modest $9BN…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  But, as we have grown accustomed to, on an NSA basis banks saw $27.6BN in outflows from deposits last week…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Which meant that, excluding foreign deposits, The Fed’s magic turned a $23BN deposit outflow (NSA) into a $34.5BN deposit inflow (SA)…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Breaking that down, on an SA basis, large banks saw a $35BN surge in deposits with small banks a modest $0.5BN outflow. However, on an NSA basis both large (-$13.6BN) and small banks (-$9.4BN) saw sizable outflows.

  This was all to the week-ending 7/10 – so before the equity market carnage began.

  Loan volume rose overall during that week, thanks to a surge of $6.6BN from small banks (large bank saw volume shrink $0.6BN). Large bank loan volumes are down for four straight weeks…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  Finally, US equity market cap may have started to catch back down to the reality of its tight historical relationship with bank reserves at The Fed…

  

  Source: Bloomberg

  …but it may be a little soon to call that.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 16:40

• Slowly… Then All At Once!
  Slowly… Then All At Once!

  Authored by James Howard Kusntler via Kunstler.com,

  “Biden has been jabbed at least four times. This is his third covid diagnosis. The shots are working great.”

  – Jeff Childers, Coffee & Covid

  There was a lot of talk about divine intervention at the Republican Convention this week. The country has witnessed a rush of seemingly providential events since the fateful night of June 27th when, to universal horror, “Joe Biden” was unmasked as The Phantom of the White House. The attempt on Donald Trump’s life Saturday, with its intimations of blob involvement, was only the latest of countless trips, hoaxes, capers, and ops that smacked of demonic inspiration laid on the public, so you can’t blame them for feeling that “God is among us now.”

  A huge piece of this dynamic has been the Right’s amazing impotence in the eight-year-long march of insults to the republic – especially the failure to find relief for any of that in the courts of law, until last month when the SCOTUS finally kneecapped Democratic Party lawfare operations. A paramount example of that impotence was being unable to find one jurisdiction willing to adjudicate election fraud in 2020 on the merit of the arguments.

  But there was much more, starting with collective helplessness in the drawn-out RussiaGate psychodrama, even when all the players and their many nefarious acts were exposed by the alt news media, and extending to the mendacious roguery of the two-year Mueller (Weissmann) Commission, followed by fifty-one former intel higher-ups labeling Hunter Biden’s laptop “Russian disinformation, followed by Rep. Adam Schiff’s Ukraine “whistleblower” prank featuring CIA/NSC/DOD/DOJ moles Eric Ciaramella, Colonel Vindman and IC Inspector General Michael Atkinson, and then the FBI-instigated J-6 riot with the ensuing  faked-up House J-6 committee . . . plus you can throw in the stupid Ukraine war, the drag queens in the kindergartens, the bumbling Durham investigation, ten million unvetted illegal migrants flowing into the country and this year’s four show-trials put on to finally break Mr. Trump.

  For many in this land, it has been like the classic nightmare of being paralyzed in the presence of evil. So, it’s no wonder that the Republicans came into their convention with a tremendous tailwind of relief when events suddenly broke their way in June. Now, everyone knows that the current president is a vindictive invalid who will be tossed overboard by his own terrified party in a matter of hours now. And the entire scaffold of lies supporting “Joe Biden” and his party is wobbling badly, too.

  You could see it in the deranged terror of Rachel Maddow’s increasingly contorted face last night as she rehearsed all the hoaxes she has helped to perpetrate, along with her mentally-ill posse of Jenn Psaki, Joy Reid, Nicole Wallace, and the strangely mute white male Ari Melber. It seemed that any minute Rachel’s head would spin and start spewing pea soup at the camera. When will an exorcist finally pay a visit to MSNBC?

  

  As the sun sets on “Joe Biden’s” career, what’s left of his campaign runs an ad in which he promises “to finish the job.”

  Sounds kind of sinister now, doesn’t it, like something a crime boss might tell his caporegimes? And for sure the country is suffering from this three-year-plus reign-of-terror against common sense and common decency.

  The wreckage is everywhere, all over this land. “Defending our Democracy,” my ass.

  The party big dawgs have paid their terminal visit to the old grifter bringing the sad news that it’s over. Of course, this excites several new headaches for them. Foremost: how can “JB” bow out of the election on account of mental infirmity but still remain president? Even if they call it something else, make some other excuse, the whole world knows now that the president is gone in the head. There are six months remaining to the end of his term and a lot of urgent issues requiring a president’s attention. You can be sure that pressure will rise to shove him out of office altogether. And it may come before the Democratic Convention in late August — if we want to be taken seriously by the rest of the world.

  Of course, that would elevate Kamala to the White House. Would getting to be the first female president of-color for six months be her consolation prize for graciously declining an automatic nomination to run in “JB’s” place, so that the party can stage an “open convention” free-for-all? Or would she better serve the party as a sacrificial goat to head the ticket and get buried in what’s shaping up to be an election landslide for the Republicans? Anyway, which of the various replacement politicians — Newsom, Whitmer, Pritzker, PA Gov. Shapiro —really wants to squander a political future in an election that’s as much a vote against the Democratic Party itself as any particular figure in it? Let the party go down so it can be purged of Green Woke Satanic mentally-ill communists and reorganized on a sane and decent basis.

  But then there’s always HRC.

  

  She’s been laying back alertly, waiting for an opening to swoop in on her leathery wings and cast a fresh spell over the batshit-crazy women who, in recent times, comprise the party’s base.

  At one point, not many years ago, the party was broke and had to be bailed-out by the Clinton Foundation. To what extent does that entity still own the DNC, and especially its cargo of super-delegates? I guess we’re going to find out.

  Tyler Durden
  Fri, 07/19/2024 – 16:20

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