Oct 21

Today’s News 21st October 2021

  • The Cost Of Going Green Is About To Get More Expensive
    The Cost Of Going Green Is About To Get More Expensive

    The cost of going green is about to become more expensive as polysilicon prices are erupting and will likely remain elevated due to factory shutdowns in China. 

    Polysilicon is a superrefine form of silicon used in solar panels for its semiconductor-like material properties. Spot prices for polysilicon bottomed at $6.30/kg in mid-2020 and have jumped 600% to $36.09/kg as of last week, according to BloombergNEF. 

    China is a top producer of polysilicon. The latest factory shutdowns of energy-intensive factories, such as ones that refine silicon, have resulted in declining output that will affect global supply. Countries, in a rush, to greenify their economies are increasing demand for solar panels that are pressuring polysilicon prices higher. 

    “It’s been a very crazy year,” Sakura Yamasaki, the Singapore Solar Exchange director, said during a recent Roth Capital Partners webinar. She said polysilicon prices could stabilize in the second quarter of 2022 but thinks prices will continue to increase. 

    “The ride up is not over,” Yamasaki said.

    She said the market will remain “chaotic” in 2022 as other costs such as freight and commodities will make the cost of producing solar panels much higher than in previous years. 

    “There will be no relief in 2022,” she said, with the outlook “as crazy as this year.”

    Perhaps the cost of polysilicon and ultimately solar panels will continue to move higher over the years as Bank of America recently noted: no less than a stunning $150 trillion in new capital investment would be required to reach a “net zero” world over 30 years – equating to some $5 trillion in annual investments – and amounting to twice current global GDP.

    The move to a net zero global economy is shockingly expensive. For the US alone, President Biden wants 40% of the US power grid sourcing solar generation by 2035, either a bunch of new polysilicon factories will need to be built, or the cost of going green will be astronomically expensive.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/21/2021 – 02:45

  • Taliban-Russian Meeting In Moscow Takes Place Amid "Friendly Atmosphere"
    Taliban-Russian Meeting In Moscow Takes Place Amid “Friendly Atmosphere”

    By South Front.org

    On October 20th, the first official meeting between the Taliban and the Russian government took place, following the forming of the Afghanistan government.

    Notably, Russia called on the Taliban to form an inclusive government with the participation of all political forces in the country, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

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    The task of achieving sustainable peace in Afghanistan is still urgent. We see the key to its sustainable solution, first of all, in the formation of a truly inclusive government, which should fully reflect the interests of all, not only ethnic, but also the political forces of the country,” he said.

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    Lavrov spoke at the opening of the third Moscow-format meeting on Afghanistan in Moscow. It was in Moscow in 2018 that representatives of the Ashraf Ghani government and the Taliban movement met for the first time in this format. The format originated in 2017, and was a tool for negotiations between the former government and the Taliban.

    It should be mentioned that Lavrov did not attend a meeting with US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, but personally attended the online meeting with the Taliban representatives. Still, Lavrov expressed regret that there was no USA at this event.

    Lavrov said he was satisfied with the level of interaction with the Taliban and was grateful to them for their assistance in returning Russians home from Afghanistan.

    Lavrov condemned the previous republican government for abandoning its citizens to the Taliban and de-facto recognized the established government and the currant status of Afghanistan as The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

    He underlined that the current Afghanistan issues are terrorism and drug trade. ISIS and Al-Qaeda need to be dealt with, while drug trafficking needs to be reduced, as the two issues are interlinked.

    Finally, Lavrov called on the international community to mobilize financial assistance to Afghanistan. He further said that NATO and the collective West was responsible for the crisis in this Central Asian country.

    He called on the West to ensure payments to Afghan teachers and doctors, who have been entirely abandoned and said that after 20 years of US and NATO intervention the economy has been left in a collapse, with no development.

    The remainder of the meeting is behind closed doors.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/21/2021 – 02:00

  • The Empire Of Lies Breaks Down: Ugly Truths The Deep State Wants To Keep Hidden
    The Empire Of Lies Breaks Down: Ugly Truths The Deep State Wants To Keep Hidden

    Authored by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”

    – Albert Einstein

    America is breaking down.

    This breakdown – triggered by polarizing circus politics, media-fed mass hysteria, racism, classism, fascism, fear-mongering, political correctness, cultural sanitation, virtue signaling, a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness in the face of growing government corruption and brutality, a growing economic divide that has much of the population struggling to get by, and militarization and militainment (the selling of war and violence as entertainment) – is manifesting itself in madness, mayhem and an utter disregard for the very principles and liberties that have kept us out of the clutches of totalitarianism for so long.

    In New York City, for example, a 200-year-old statue of Thomas Jefferson holding the Declaration of Independence will be removed from the City Council’s chambers where it has presided since 1915. Despite Jefferson’s many significant accomplishments, without which we might not have the rights we do today, he will be banished for having been, like many of his day, a slaveowner. Curiously, that same brutal expectation of infallibility has yet to be applied to many other politically correct yet equally imperfect and fallible role models of the day.

    In Washington, DC, a tribunal of nine men and women spoke with one voice to affirm that the government and its henchmen can literally get away with murder and not be held accountable for their wrongdoing. The Supreme Court’s latest rulings are yet another painful lesson in compliance, a reminder that in the American police state, “we the people” are at the mercy of law enforcement officers who have almost absolute discretion to decide who is a threat, what constitutes resistance, and how harshly they can deal with the citizens they were appointed to ‘serve and protect.”

    All across the country, from California to Connecticut and every point in between, men and women who have worked faithfully and diligently at their jobs for years are being terminated for daring to believe that they have a right to bodily integrity; that they should not be forced, against their conscience or better judgment, to choose between individual liberty and economic survival; and that they—and not the government, or the FDA, or the CDC, or the Corporate State—have dominion over their bodies. Conveniently enough, this COVID-19 pandemic has created yet another double standard in how “we the people” navigate this country: while “we the middling classes” are subjected to vaccine mandates and denied even the right to be skeptical about the origins of the COVID virus, let alone the efficacy of the so-called cure, the government, corporations and pharmaceutical companies have been shielded from liability with blanket immunity laws that ensure we are little more than guinea pigs for their questionable experiments.

    And then in Pennsylvania, a man traveling on a commuter train harassed, assaulted and then raped a woman over the course of 40 minutes and more than two dozen train stops while fellow travelers, watching and filming the attack, did nothing. Not a single witness called 911. Not a single bystander intervened to help the woman. Despite the fact that the man was outnumbered and could have been overwhelmed by those on the train, no collective effort was made to ward off the attack. Only when it was too late, when the damage had been done and the train had pulled into its last stop, did police show up to intervene.

    There is an allegory here for what is happening to our country and its citizens, who have also been waylaid by a madman (the Deep State), stripped of their safety nets (their rights undermined and eroded), and savaged out in the open by a fiend (the American Police State and its many operatives—the courts, the legislatures and their various armies) that is devoid of humanity while those not in the immediate crosshairs watch safely from a distance without making a move to help.

    This is madness, yet there is a method to this madness.

    This is how freedom falls and tyranny rises.

    Remember, authoritarian regimes begin with incremental steps: overcriminalization, surveillance of innocent citizens, imprisonment for nonviolent—victimless—crimes, etc. Bit by bit, the citizenry finds its freedoms being curtailed and undermined for the sake of national security. And slowly the populace begins to submit.

    No one speaks up for those being targeted.

    No one resists these minor acts of oppression.

    No one recognizes the indoctrination into tyranny for what it is.

    Historically this failure to speak truth to power has resulted in whole populations being conditioned to tolerate unspoken cruelty toward their fellow human beings, a bystander syndrome in which people remain silent and disengaged—mere onlookers—in the face of abject horrors and injustice.

    Time has insulated us from the violence perpetrated by past regimes in their pursuit of power: the crucifixion and slaughter of innocents by the Romans, the torture of the Inquisition, the atrocities of the Nazis, the butchery of the Fascists, the bloodshed by the Communists, and the cold-blooded war machines run by the military industrial complex.

    We can disassociate from such violence. We can convince ourselves that we are somehow different from the victims of government abuse. We can continue to spout empty political rhetoric about how great America is, despite the evidence to the contrary.

    We can avoid responsibility for holding the government accountable.

    We can zip our lips and bind our hands and shut our eyes.

    In other words, we can continue to exist in a state of denial. Yet there is no denying the ugly, hard truths that become more evident with every passing day.

    1. The government is not our friend. Nor does it work for “we the people.”

    2. Our so-called government representatives do not actually represent us, the citizenry. We are now ruled by an oligarchic elite of governmental and corporate interests whose main interest is in perpetuating power and control.

    3. Republicans and Democrats like to act as if there’s a huge difference between them and their policies. However, they are not sworn enemies so much as they are partners in crime, united in a common goal, which is to maintain the status quo.

    4. The lesser of two evils is still evil.

    5. Some years ago, a newspaper headline asked the question: “What’s the difference between a politician and a psychopath?” The answer, then and now, remains the same: None. There is virtually no difference between psychopaths and politicians.

    6. More than terrorism, more than domestic extremism, more than gun violence and organized crime, the U.S. government has become a greater menace to the life, liberty and property of its citizens than any of the so-called dangers from which the government claims to protect us

    7. The government knows exactly which buttons to push in order to manipulate the populace and gain the public’s cooperation and compliance.

    8. If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.

    9. America’s shadow government—which is comprised of unelected government bureaucrats, corporations, contractors, paper-pushers, and button-pushers who are actually calling the shots behind the scenes right now and operates beyond the reach of the Constitution with no real accountability to the citizenry—is the real reason why “we the people” have no control over our government.

    10. You no longer have to be poor, black or guilty to be treated like a criminal in America. All that is required is that you belong to the suspect class—that is, the citizenry—of the American police state. As a de facto member of this so-called criminal class, every U.S. citizen is now guilty until proven innocent.

    11. “We the people” are no longer shielded by the rule of law. By gradually whittling away at our freedoms—free speech, assembly, due process, privacy, etc.—the government has, in effect, liberated itself from its contractual agreement to respect our constitutional rights while resetting the calendar back to a time when we had no Bill of Rights to protect us from the long arm of the government.

    12. Private property means nothing if the government can take your home, car or money under the flimsiest of pretexts, whether it be asset forfeiture schemes, eminent domain or overdue property taxes. Likewise, private property means little at a time when SWAT teams and other government agents can invade your home, break down your doors, kill your dog, wound or kill you, damage your furnishings and terrorize your family. 

    13. We now find ourselves caught in the crosshairs of a showdown between the rights of the individual and the so-called “emergency” state, and “we the people” are losing.

    14. All of those freedoms we cherish—the ones enshrined in the Constitution, the ones that affirm our right to free speech and assembly, due process, privacy, bodily integrity, the right to not have police seize our property without a warrant, or search and detain us without probable cause—amount to nothing when the government and its agents are allowed to disregard those prohibitions on government overreach at will.

    15. If there is an absolute maxim by which the federal government seems to operate, it is that the American taxpayer always gets ripped off.

    16. Our freedoms—especially the Fourth Amendment—continue to be choked out by a prevailing view among government bureaucrats that they have the right to search, seize, strip, scan, spy on, probe, pat down, taser, and arrest any individual at any time and for the slightest provocation.

    17. Forced vaccinations, forced cavity searches, forced colonoscopies, forced blood draws, forced breath-alcohol tests, forced DNA extractions, forced eye scans, forced inclusion in biometric databases: these are just a few ways in which Americans continue to be reminded that we have no control over what happens to our bodies during an encounter with government officials.

    18. Finally, freedom is never free. There is always a price—always a sacrifice—that must be made in order to safeguard one’s freedoms.

    We cannot remain silent in the face of the government’s ongoing overreaches, power grabs, and crimes against humanity.

    Evil disguised as bureaucracy is still evil. Indeed, this is what Hannah Arendt referred to as the banality of evil.

    As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, such evil happens when bureaucrats (governmental and corporate) unquestioningly carry out orders that are immoral and inhumane; obey immoral instructions unthinkingly; march in lockstep with tyrants; mindlessly perpetuate acts of terror and inhumanity; and justify it all as just “doing one’s job.”

    Such evil prevails when good men and women do nothing.

    By doing nothing, by remaining silent, by being bystanders to injustice, hate and wrongdoing, good people become as guilty as the perpetrator.

    There’s a term for this phenomenon where people stand by, watch and do nothing—even when there is no risk to their safety—while some horrific act takes place (someone is mugged or raped or bullied or left to die): it’s called the bystander effect.

    It works the same whether you’re talking about kids watching bullies torment a fellow student on a playground, bystanders watching someone dying on a sidewalk, passengers on a train filming a fellow traveler be raped without intervening to help, or citizens remaining silent in the face of government atrocities.

    We need to stop being silent bystanders.

    It’s time to stand up for truth—for justice—for freedom—not just for ourselves but for all humanity. Tomorrow may be too late.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/21/2021 – 00:10

  • New China Law Will Punish Parents For Children's 'Bad Behavior'
    New China Law Will Punish Parents For Children’s ‘Bad Behavior’

    China has drafted a law that would punish the parents of children who exhibit “very bad behavior” – which would be one of the first laws of its kind anywhere in the modern world.

    A spokesman for the Legislative Affairs Commission of China’s parliament, which is often dubbed in the West a “rubber-stamp” institution for the dictates of Communist party leadership, said “There are many reasons for adolescents to misbehave, and the lack of or inappropriate family education is the major cause.”

    It comes amid a broader initiative by President Xi and party leaders to stamp out what they’ve dubbed the false “spiritual opium” of Western culture, in reference to everything from internet gaming, to worship of Hollywood celebrities, to pop music, also to things deemed effeminate. 

    Image via Quartz 

    The blanket youth cultural reform initiative centered on “anti-addiction” has already resulted in severe restrictions placed on online video gaming for people under 18-years of age. A decree passed in early September grabbed world headlines and drew outrage from West-based human rights groups. Currently children are only legally allowed to participate in online gaming from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.

    Additionally video games and other popular media content that don’t promote “correct values” are being banned.

    As for the newly proposed legislation that can effectively deem a parent a “criminal” for their child’s actions, it will reportedly include language that encourages parents to allow children to rest and play and appropriate times, likely in an effort to promote ‘well-roundedness’ in youth education. 

    According to further media commentary on the controversial law:

    They’re also expected to instill children with a sense to “respect the elderly and care for the young,” according to a draft version of the bill, which is the latest attempt by China to address how its young citizens behave at home, according to Reuters.

    It’s as yet unclear, however, the actual punishments that could be handed out to parents if their child is caught misbehaving. It also remains uncertain just how certain actions of children will be interpreted. Likely the law will initially apply to the recent dictates surrounding the video game bans and restrictions, as well as consumption of Western pop culture.

    Likely it’ll initially give authorities more tools to go after parents caught encouraging activities that go against what are dubbed “correct values”.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/20/2021 – 23:50

  • Marine Vet Sues Walmart After Pharmacist Refused To Fill His Ivermectin Prescription
    Marine Vet Sues Walmart After Pharmacist Refused To Fill His Ivermectin Prescription

    Authored by Debra Heine via AmGreatness.com,

    Walmart is facing a new lawsuit after a pharmacist in Albert Lea, Minnesota, refused to fill a prescription for ivermectin to treat a Marine vet and his wife, both of whom were suffering with COVID-19.

    The Marine, Bill Salier, shared his story the “Steve Deace Show” on BlazeTV Monday.  Salier told Deace that out of desperation, he ended up purchasing the “pony paste” from the feed supply store, and they both almost immediately got better.

    Salier, 53, told Deace that he began feeling sick on Oct. 1, and tested positive for COVID-19 a few days later. After his diagnosis, Salier said he attempted to receive monoclonal antibody treatments through the Minnesota Resource Allocation, but his requests were ignored.

    “We never so much as heard a word back, not even in acknowledgement that the requests had been put in,” he said.

    Salier said he then went to a clinic that had one monoclonal treatment, but they were saving it for a more severe case. He said he asked for ivermectin, but the clinic refused to treat him with it because the FDA has not cleared the use of the drug for treatment of COVID.

    Generally, doctors in the U.S. have followed the government’s recommendations on ivermectin, and have shunned it as a treatment for COVID-19 patients.

    Groups like the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance and America’s Frontline Doctors, on the other hand, have championed the Nobel-prize winning drug as an effective at treatment for COVID-19.

    With Deace’s help, Salier said he found a doctor who would treat him and his wife. After a teleconference call, he said, the doctor prescribed ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and some other drugs for them to take. The doctor said that Salier’s case had deteriorated to the point where he would have to be hospitalized within 48 hours without a serious intervention.

    Salier said his prescription was sent to his local Walmart in Albert Lea, Minnesota, but the pharmacist refused to fill it.

    “This pharmacist contacted my wife, telling her that he would not fill it. My wife stated that he did not have the right to stand between our physician’s prescription and the patent, he asserted that he did have that right and he refused to do so,” Salier said.

    The Marine vet said that their physician later called the Walmart pharmacy to insist that the script be filled, but the pharmacist refused, and hung up on him.

    “We were faced with either continuing to suffer and quite possibly ending up in the hospital where you have—I don’t know—a 50/50 chance of coming out,”  he told Deace, explaining that they were forced to turn to their local farm store, and purchase the horse paste, which is the same compound as the human pharmaceutical (with a few non-toxic additives like apple flavoring), but dosed for horses.

    “I was forced with this decision and I was either going to lay there, suffer, and be at life’s peril of losing my time with my family, or I was going to eat that horse paste. And down the hatch it went,” Salier said. His wife, he added, “was forced into the same option.”

    Salier told Deace that “within eight hours” he was feeling better.

    “I started to feel the turnaround in my body,” he said, adding, “it turned her (his wife) around within six hours.”

    People who resort to using the veterinary version of the drug generally know to convert the dosage to one that is appropriate for human consumption. Horse medication that contains Ivermectin and additional deworming agents are reportedly not safe for human consumption in any dosage.

    Salier confirmed to American Greatness that he and his wife reduced the dosage, and took the pony paste for a week. He added that they were finally able to get a prescription through a pharmacy in Florida, but because demand was so high, they didn’t get the prescription until today.

    “In the end, the option was forced on us by the refusal to fill the prescription,” he said.

    “We had to gamble on the pony paste or gamble that I would survive what I was going through. We prayed, and put the paste in the applesauce, and down the hatch,” he added. “I thank God for that decision.”

    After being forced to take livestock medicine to treat his COVID, the Marine is on the warpath.

    “If you ever wanted to find out what it is to punch a Marine in the face and what type of response you’re gonna get, well, America, you’re about to see the type of response that you get. Because if you take on me and my family, and you stand between our physician and the health care that they have prescribed to me as a life-saving thing — in my opinion that is what it did — then you have got a fight on your hands and I am coming for that fight,” he told Deace.

    Salier reiterated to American Greatness why he felt called to fight the giant corporation.

    “I believe with all my heart that when our liberties and decisions for our own lives are stripped from us, our answer must be NO,” he said. “I will not stand for this.”

    Salier has partnered with We the Patriots USA, a nonprofit organization that defends civil liberties, to raise money for his federal lawsuit against the pharmacist and Walmart.

    Brian Festa, an attorney with We the Patriots USA, told Deace that it was “abhorrent” for the Walmart pharmacist to “play God” with the Saliers’ lives.

    He pointed out that even the FDA acknowledges there are times when it is appropriate for health care providers to prescribe repurposed drugs.  It’s actually a fairly common practice.

    “So, this is talking about off-label usage. This has been done for years,” Festa said.

    “We’re talking about a drug, ivermectin, that was part of a treatment protocol that won the Nobel Prize in 2015 as an anti-parasitic for malaria. This is FDA-approved, it’s been used for decades as an anti-parasitic, and now you’re suddenly telling us in 2021 that it’s unsafe because it’s being used for off-label usage? Which again, is so common in the practice of medicine.”

    Festa added that the pharmacist “had absolutely no right to tell Bill and his wife that he was not going to fill this prescription” and that Walmart should be held accountable for denying the Saliers access to a potentially lifesaving drug.

    ‘We the Patriots USA’ announced on its website on Tuesday that it had raised enough money to proceed with the lawsuit.

    “Thanks to the incredible generosity of our supporters and the listeners on The Steve Deace Show, we are proud to announce that we have fully funded a lawsuit on behalf of Bill Salier, a retired Marine who was refused ivermectin at a Walmart pharmacy in Minnesota when he fell seriously ill with the covid bioweapon.” the group stated. 

    “We fully support Bill in his fight against the covid fascists, and that’s why We The Patriots USA committed $25,000 to Bill’s lawsuit even before we launched yesterday’s fundraising campaign. After all, Bill served his country honorably in the U.S. Marine Corps. It’s time we fought for him!”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/20/2021 – 23:30

  • Russia Says Another Putin-Biden Meeting A Likely Possibility "By Year's End"
    Russia Says Another Putin-Biden Meeting A Likely Possibility “By Year’s End”

    The Kremlin has teased another potential face-to-face summit between Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin “by the end of the year,” according to government spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday.

    Peskov said a meeting is possible in “one format or another” – suggesting various possibilities including a remote format meeting, following their first in-person summit in Geneva on June 16, which was aimed at thawing tensions and opening up communications. “In one form or another (a meeting) is quite realistic,” the Russian spokesman added.

    Last summer’s Geneva meeting, via Reuters

    In reporting the statements, Reuters underscored that Moscow-Washington relations now “languish at post-Cold War lows” despite the summer summit which both leaders described generally as positive and cordial. 

    Crucially the announcement comes after last week’s rare visit to Moscow of Biden’s Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland. Russia issued a temporary suspension of travel sanctions against her just so that she could enter the country for direct dialogue with Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov.

    According to TASS:

    Ushakov and Nuland reached some understanding “in terms of the prospects for further dialogue at the highest level in the near future.”

    …”We will inform you once they are finalized in terms of a format and dates,” he said.

    And further there were these recent comments by Putin himself suggesting continued high level contacts amid heightened tensions:

    At a Russian Energy Week plenary session on October 14, President Putin mentioned that Nuland, during her visit to Moscow, touched upon the possibility of contacts at the highest level.

    Meanwhile, weeks after Nord Stream 2 has been deemed complete, and with the first section filling with gas while still awaiting German regulatory approval, Biden is being widely blamed by Russia hawks for allowing the Russia-to-Germany pipeline to move forward, supposedly allowing the Kremlin to hold Europe’s energy “hostage”…

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    Nuland in comments last week after more than an hour-and-a-half worth of meetings that included Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov hailed “the frank, productive review” of US-Russia relations, noting that the two sides are “committed to a stable, predictable relationship,” according to a prior US Embassy statement.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/20/2021 – 23:10

  • US Marshals Investigating Whether January 6 Defendants Being Deliberately Mistreated
    US Marshals Investigating Whether January 6 Defendants Being Deliberately Mistreated

    Authored by Matt Vespa via TownHall.com,

    The feds have locked up hundreds of people connected to the January 6 riot. That’s all it was, by the way. It was a riot. It was not a violent insurrection. It wasn’t an armed coup. It wasn’t worse than the American Civil War. It sure as hell wasn’t worse than the 9/11 attacks. It was mostly a bunch of people walking around inside the Capitol Building. It’s why Democrats don’t want us to see all the security camera footage. It’s bland and boring as hell—far from the “end of the republic” narrative they’ve been stroking for months. Get over it. Everyone else has—and the fact that hundreds have been arrested undercuts the reasoning behind creating a select committee to investigate how this happened. No one cares—especially now.

    Source: AP Photo/Julio Cortez

    Yet, since hundreds are locked up as quasi-political prisoners, a judge seemed worried about deliberate mistreatment. One defendant had a broken wrist which required surgery. DC officials dithered on doing anything for four months. Why? Well, they wouldn’t say, which is why they were held in contempt. 

    Judge Royce C. Lamberth called for an investigation into the conditions of the prisoners and the US Marshal Service has acted upon that request (via NBC4 Washington): 

    A week ago, a federal judge raised questions about the treatment of those Jan. 6 inmates at the jail after revelations one of the defendants had a broken hand that was allegedly improperly cared for.

    The judge also formally found the jail warden and the director of the D.C. Department of Corrections in contempt of court for not responding to court questions about the medical care of Jan. 6 inmates.

    The judge says he’s referring the matter to the U.S. attorney general for a possible civil rights violation investigation.

    […]

    D.C. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Chris Geldart confirmed Monday the inspectors are speaking with Jan. 6 defendants and said all court orders are being followed.

    “We have been working with the marshals office,” he said. “As a matter of fact, they’re in there today doing an inspection of the jail and talking with many of the Jan. 6 folks that are there to make sure that we are continuing to do that.”

    Most of these people should be set free. The sentencing guidelines for some have also been questioned, with federal prosecutors asking for decades-long jail sentences for people who just walked around a building. It’s classic overreach. You don’t need to have a law degree to see that—even Obama-appointed judges see through it. For those who fought with the cops, that’s a different story—but most of these folks didn’t do anything that requires jail time. Sorry—it’s a political witch hunt. And for all this technology that found these people, it seems it’s incapable of finding Brian Laundrie in Florida. This circus has gone on long enough.  

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/20/2021 – 22:50

  • NYC Mayor Expands Vaccine Mandate To All City Workers, Offers $500 "Carrot"
    NYC Mayor Expands Vaccine Mandate To All City Workers, Offers $500 “Carrot”

    Despite pushback against the vaccine mandate imposed on the city’s teachers and public school workers and managers, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is taking coercive city mandates to the next level Wednesday by announcing that they would be extended city-wide.

    The mayor told MSNBC in an interview Wednesday morning that his mandate will now expand to “all city agencies, all city workers. It’s time for everyone to get vaccinated,” de Blasio said. “Our public employees are going to lead us out of the Covid era.”

    So, starting Wednesday, the mayor is once again attempting a combo of “the carrot and the stick” by requiring some 160,500 city employees to get the jab, and who will get an extra $500 in their paychecks just for receiving their first shot at a city-run vaccination site.

    Although that benefit will “end at 5pm on Friday, Oct. 29, by which point city employees are required to have proof of at least one dose, according to an NYC government website.

    And for those who refuse: “Unvaccinated employees will be placed on unpaid leave until they show proof of vaccination to their supervisor.”

    Already, most city workers had to be vaccinated or tested weekly due to either city or state mandates. Health-care workers in the state and city have all been forced to accept the jab or weekly testing due to a mandate from the state.

    Somehow, we suspect this new mandate will go over about as well as the last one.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/20/2021 – 22:30

  • Jim Chanos: China's "Leveraged Prosperity" Model Is Doomed…And That's Not The Worst Of It
    Jim Chanos: China’s “Leveraged Prosperity” Model Is Doomed…And That’s Not The Worst Of It

    Authored by Lynn Parramore via The Institute for New Economic Thinking,

    Famed short-seller is even more concerned with political fallout from Evergrande than economic/financial woes.

    Renowned short-seller Jim Chanos, founder of Kynikos Associates, is what you might call the “ever-bear” of China. For more than a decade, he has warned that the country was building a real estate-driven economy on a feeble house of cards. He spoke to the Institute for New Economic Thinking’s Lynn Parramore about how he views the chickens coming home to roost as the property giant Evergrande – now the world’s most indebted property developer — teeters on the verge of collapse.

    Lynn Parramore: Back in ’09, when you started looking at China, your real estate analysts alerted you to the mind-boggling amount of real estate overdevelopment there. You warned that this overdevelopment would end badly. After Xi Jinping became president in 2013, you expressed the then-minority view that a different kind of leader had arrived on the scene. What’s your take on what has happened since then?

    Jim Chanos: In 2013, we put a slide in our presentation for investors and talks that was very controversial – especially for Chinese nationals. It showed President Xi Jinping in emperor’s garb. People thought we should take it out, that it was offensive. At the time, Xi was widely seen as just the latest in a series of technocrats who had risen through the ranks — one who would follow along with Deng Xiaoping’s reforms. It’s “capitalism with Chinese characteristics.” It’s okay to get rich as long as the country prospers.

    But a few things made us think, no, this guy is different. His first speech in China after becoming president was critical of the Soviet Union for being soft on perestroika. They should have crushed it when they had the chance, he said. Xi then set up an institute to study the Soviet Union’s collapse. That was a red flag to us that he was going to be more hardline than people thought. He went on to do an anti-corruption drive, which people dismissed as a typical settling of scores that Chinese leaders do. But it actually extended beyond that. A couple of years later, he began talking in Puritanical terms about social issues. Again, that was different. Nobody had cared about that stuff for 20 years. Do what you want as long as you don’t question the party. Next, we had the book collecting his speeches and writings, which people could be seen carrying around. He started showing up in military events dressed in Mao jackets. This symbolism isn’t lost in China.

    We noticed all this, but the real switch occurred in 2019 when he started going after celebrities like Jack Ma [co-founder of Alibaba]. At that point, it was clear that this president was not stepping down at the end of 10 years. He was taking a much harder line on the “flowers of capitalism,” if you will, than past presidents. In 2021, all of this exploded into the open. There’s been initiative after initiative. Redistributing wealth to the masses. Going after other leaders. Overlaid on top of this is the Evergrande saga.

    LP: Let’s talk about Evergrande, the Shenzhen developer whose crisis has got everybody worried. How did things get so bad?

    JC: Last year, as the tech crackdown was gaining momentum, Xi’s administration put down a set of rules called the “three red lines.” They were sort of balance sheet financial tests. It was an attempt to deleverage the real estate developers.

    LP: Which means he knew something was wrong.

    JC: Well, here’s the problem. I always joke that when you have an investment-driven economic model, you know your annual GDP on January 1st of that year, because you can stick shovels in the ground to make your growth numbers. That’s how the model works. It’s not a consumption-based model. As we now know — and the Wall Street Journal just had some phenomenal numbers in a recent piece – that real estate construction is now larger than it was when he took office. I would always hear, well, don’t worry: these are smart guys, technocrats who see the problem and will wean themselves off this apartment construction-on-steroids. But they haven’t.

    LP: Why haven’t they been able to slow it down?

    JC: Since we started following China at the end of ’09, this is the fourth time that they’ve attempted to slow the real estate market down, because they do know that this is going to be basically too big to deal with if it keeps growing at the rate it’s growing. But every time they’ve done it, the economy has hit stall speed very quickly, and they panicked. They went from hitting the breaks to hitting the accelerator. That’s why we’ve seen higher levels of real estate. The idea that “I can’t lose buying apartments” became ingrained with bankers, real estate speculators, and the public.

    LP: So with Evergrande, everyone came to expect a bailout?

    JC: I think we’re at that crossroads. The problem is that these companies are so much bigger than they were in 2015 or 2011. Can you bail everybody out? In the case of the developers, you have an additional problem. The biggest amount of liabilities is not necessarily to banks and bondholders. It’s to apartment buyers. Here’s why: the Chinese real estate finance system is exactly the opposite of ours. In our system, when there’s a new development, you’re typically required to put 10% down to sign a contract, with the balance due on closing. You go get your financing and your mortgage proceeds pay for the rest of the house or the apartment. In China, you pay upfront. You are extending the developer a loan. So, of the $300 billion in liabilities Evergrande owes, I think the biggest chunk, last time I checked, is basically what we would call a deferred revenue item. It’s money that you took in from people, and you owe them an apartment. And the apartments aren’t done, but the money’s been spent. So the problem is not just bailing people out, but the question of who is going to put up more capital to pay off the retail people that have bought apartments that haven’t gotten anything.

    These numbers are big, and Evergrande is not the only one. There are a handful of developers that are missing interest payments and have their bond prices reflecting distress.

    LP: How much has corruption played a role in this mess?

    JC: That’s a problem with their economic model focusing so much on real estate. Because they don’t have a local tax system, like property taxes, the local governments sell land to pay for local services. But whenever you have private developers buying land from municipalities controlled by one party, yeah, it’s ripe for corruption. We know that’s rampant in China.

    LP: How do you view the policy reaction to Evergrande?

    JC: So, what do the policymakers do? It’s not a Lehman moment in that there’s not a lot of cross-border interbank lending here. The Chinese system is still pretty much a closed financial system. That’s not the risk. During the Global Financial Crisis [GFC], what brought us to our knees was the liability side of the banks’ books. They couldn’t roll over the loans to each other because no one trusted the assets. Here, it’s the assets. I think that if they try to inflate it again, if they try to bail it out again, we’re only going to be right back in this soup in another two or three years, with even bigger problems.

    LP: Is this only a problem with the real estate sector, or is it more extensive?

    JC: Based on our analysis of the numbers – and you have to take the Chinese numbers with more than a shaker of salt – we’ve long thought that residential real estate was probably 20% of GDP and that all in, real estate construction and related services was about 25%. Ken Rogoff came out with a study last year that said it was 29%. That’s already a huge amount compared to other countries.

    Well, the numbers that the Wall Street Journal just put out were staggering, implying that there were 1.6 million acres of residential real estate under construction. If you do the math, it’s the equivalent of 72 million apartments. We believed that they were selling 20 million a year, but the WSJ story seems to imply that the numbers are actually much, much bigger. That tells me that our numbers and Rogoff’s numbers regarding GDP are probably on the low side. It could be a 30-40% problem, not a 20-25% problem. It’s just magnitudes bigger. We’ve never seen anything like this. And there’s no game plan, no historical analog. Maybe Tokyo in ’89? But this is worse than that. It’s worse than Spain in ’06 or Ireland in ’06. We’ve just never seen an economy this dependent on putting up apartment buildings — apartments that nobody is residing in. Everybody already has an apartment! These additional ones are second and third apartments at this point, and only for people who can afford them because they’re extremely expensive.

    I think the Chinese government has convinced themselves that by borrowing lots of money from their own citizens and elsewhere, that there’s ongoing activity that is sustainable. But as we find out in every real estate bubble that bursts, when your activity is constructing real estate itself and you’re taking capital and turning it into income by paying construction workers and real estate brokers and everybody else, when that activity ends, it goes poof! And there’s no income from the asset you’ve just financed. It’s not like building a factory where you have demand for your products. It’s just apartments sitting empty in Beijing or Shenzhen.

    LP: How does this problem relate to Chinese politics?

    JC: As all of this is happening on the financial and economic front, along with the crackdown on business elites, we’ve seen a commensurate rise in bellicosity, in saber-rattling toward Taiwan, India, and Tibet. We’ve seen a much more aggressive posture from Xi in relating to the West. Now every day there’s a warning in one of the Chinese Communist Party organs threatening Australia if they come to Taiwan, threatening Japan. I don’t know if the Party is preparing the citizenry for a “them.” Someone to blame.

    LP: As we’ve seen with the pandemic already.

    JC: Yes, and in the way they’ve treated the West’s outrage about the concentration camps in Xinjiang province. That’s the classic authoritarian move. We know it from our own country. Blame someone. “It’s their fault, not our fault.” We need an enemy. I don’t know how real the saber-rattling is. Is it a distraction from domestic belt-tightening that’s coming? Planting the idea that we’re going through hard times because the whole world is against us? We’ll see. It’s an incredibly interesting time to be watching China.

    LP: What does it all mean to the rest of the world?

    JC: Again, I think it’s not a financial transmission issue reverberating through the financial systems and markets. I do think that it will affect global growth. China was a full point of the 3% global real growth we’ve had since the GFC. Without China, it’s 2%. So China itself, by growing 7 or 8% a year was a disproportionate amount of global growth. It’s also going to impact what I call Greater China, which is Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore – the areas that trade very actively with China. And it will definitely impact commodity exporters. In this massive build-out, China has continued to suck in iron ore and copper and all kinds of things from a variety of different countries like Brazil and Australia. But I think that the impact might be more political than financial. That’s what worries me.

    LP: How would you characterize these worries?

    JC: It’s the rise of bellicosity, the rise of a more militant China as the economy and the financial situation has gotten more precarious. That’s a 1930s kind of problem. We know that a rise in authoritarianism and statism around the world was one of the upshots of ’29-’32. You had leaders saying, “I’m the one that can get us out of this problem” and “They are the ones who got us here.” This situation in China is a little bit frightening to the student of history, because there’s no doubt, whether you’re flying over Taiwan airspace or coming close to ships in the South China Sea, that there’s a rise of tensions in and around China. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.

    LP: To touch on Xi’s crackdown on the tech industry, how do you view that in the context of the need to lessen this dependency on the real estate sector? Certainly, we can see in our own case with Silicon Valley — Facebook and so on — that poorly regulated tech is a problem. But what does Xi’s stance mean in the context of his desire for China to be a leader in innovation, on the cutting edge of technology?

    JC: That was always one of the responses to our concerns about the investment-driven model. People said, well, everyone does everything on their smartphone in China. They’re far more advanced in social media than we are and more advanced in payment systems, and so on.

    The problem was that, number one, it gave rise to these global tech celebrities, and number two, I think China, or the Party, realized a little bit later than they might have that the control of databases and information that these companies have is certainly a power center. And the one thing that the Communist Party cannot brook is a threat to its control. There are no other political parties, no free press. The only thing that could challenge control is the thing that people said would liberalize China – the internet. Access to the internet, access to ideas, access to global media. People thought these things would democratize China, but Xi is saying no: we’re going to put up a Great Firewall and we’re not going to allow Alibaba to have as much power as the Party.

    LP: And it looks like he’s going after the banks next.

    JC: The real estate system is so big, and so levered – the banking system has grown with it, of course. It seems to me that Xi is basically going through all the power centers — technology, finance, etc., and cracking down. He’s making sure his people are completely in charge and that there’s no interference, no other power centers. And it makes me ask why. What’s the end game? I mean, the Party has control of the country for the most part. The citizens understand that. So why? What is coming that he feels he needs to make sure that all of his people are in control? I can’t help but think of Stalin. The end game puzzles me the most. Is it to prepare for a takeover of Taiwan? To be more forceful on the international stage? I don’t know.

    LP: What is distinct about China’s vision of capitalism in the context of a one-party system? What are its particular features and challenges?

    JC: What distinguishes China and what makes it so unique from my perspective, putting on the financial historian’s hat, is that the speed at which they developed was unprecedented, and the amount of risk they have taken to do that is unprecedented. Their banking system is now the largest in the world. The amount of real estate construction is just completely insane, and until, perhaps, this past 12 months, we haven’t seen a real, serious effort to say, “Maybe we should rethink this fantasy where everybody is going to have six apartments. Maybe we need to do other things in our economy to balance it out.”

    How are they going to deal with the transition? Because they’re going to have to do it at some point. I think it’s going to be fascinating to see how they try to get out of it. Do they switch spending to defense spending? Do we get an arms race? Can they keep a closed currency? There are a whole lot of big questions.

    They’ve got to make some tough decisions on how the economic model is going to work going forward. In the late ‘80s, everybody thought Japan was going to surpass the U.S., but they had the same problems – a banking system that was bloated, real estate prices too high, too dependent on exports, and they’ve had 30 years of muddling through. The idea that China is going to be growing 6 or 7% while the rest of the world is growing 2% just has to be revisited. It’s not gonna happen. That realization is going to be the bucket of cold water that’s going to force them to rethink next steps. The population has been used to this leveraged prosperity, and everybody has borrowed money to buy real estate. What are the next steps? It’s otherworldly what they have done with real estate. Whatever happens, it’s going to be severe somehow. Whether it’s politically or financially — whatever it is, it’ll be severe.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/20/2021 – 22:10

  • As Buffalo-Area Starbucks' Rally To Unionize, Corporate "Support Managers" Keep Showing Up At Stores
    As Buffalo-Area Starbucks’ Rally To Unionize, Corporate “Support Managers” Keep Showing Up At Stores

    Starbucks employees at several Buffalo area stores have filed for union elections. Not long after, “support managers” from Starbucks corporate started showing up for site visits. 

    The corporate employees are “part of a counteroffensive” by the company to help sniff out and prevent unionizing, employees told the New York Times. 

    Executives from out of town have also made an increasing number of visits, a move that Starbucks says is “standard company practice” and is to help “improve training”. 

    Decade long Starbucks veteran Michelle Eisen said: “For a lot of newer baristas, it’s an imposing force. It is not an easy job. It should not be complicated further by feeling like you’re having everything you’re doing or saying watched and listened to.”

    Starbucks employee Alexis Rizzo said: “It’s insane. Even if you’re just trying to run to the back to grab a gallon of milk, you now have to run an obstacle course to fit between all the folks who have no real reason to be there.”

    She said it was “intimidating” and that dozens of employees could all be in the store at once. 

    A Starbucks spokesman said: “The listening sessions led to requests from partners that resulted in those actions. It’s not a decision where our leadership came in and said, ‘We’re going to do this and this.’ We listened, heard their concerns.”

    Starbucks has so far staved off similar uprisings for unions in New York City in the early 2000s and in Philadelphia in 2019. 

    According to the NY Times, “Starbucks is also seeking to persuade the labor board to require that workers at all 20 Buffalo-area stores take part in the election, rather than allow stores to vote individually, arguing that employees can spend time at multiple locations.”

    As of now, none of Starbucks’ 9,000 locations are unionized. The National Labor Relations Board says union elections should be able to take place in an environments free of intimidation. Former NLRB chair Wilma Liebman said that Starbucks’ actions could eventually result in a union election being set aside, should the union lose.

    “You could say it’s part of an overall series of events that seems to create a tendency that people would be chilled or inhibited,” she said.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/20/2021 – 21:50

  • Joe Biden & The Disappearing Elephant: How To Make A Full-Sized Scandal Vanish In Front Of An Audience Of Millions
    Joe Biden & The Disappearing Elephant: How To Make A Full-Sized Scandal Vanish In Front Of An Audience Of Millions

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    This week marked the anniversary of one of the greatest political tricks in history: the disappearance of Hunter Biden scandal. 

    New emails were released that added new details to what was a raw influence peddling operation that netted millions from foreign sources. A new tranche of emails connecting President Joe Biden to key accounts prove just how this political sleight of hand was worthy of Houdini. After all, Houdini only made an elephant disappear. The Bidens made the equivalent to an entire circus disappear in front of an audience of millions.

    How Houdini made his 10,000 pound elephant Jennie disappear every night in New York’s Hippodrome remains a matter of some debate. There are no good pictures of his famous cabinet and Houdini later threatened to sue those claiming “disappearing elephants.”  What is clear is that the sheer size and the audacity of the act (like that of the Bidens) contributed to the trick. The fact is that Jennie never left the large cabinet, people just didn’t see it.

    The Bidens achieved the same effect. They made a full-sized scandal disappear with the help of media and members who did not want the public to see it.  Twitter banned postings about the laptop until after Biden was elected. The media dismissed the story as a conspiracy theory with some mocking the “New York Post and everyone else who got suckered into the ridiculous Hunter Biden Laptop story. Take a bow.”

    Committee Chairman Adam Schiff assured that public that “this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin.”

    Some 50 former intelligence officials, including Obama’s CIA directors John Brennan and Leon Panetta, also insisted the laptop story was likely the work of Russian intelligence.

    The laptop is, of course, now recognized as genuine even by some of the early deniers. Hunter remains under criminal investigation for possible tax and money laundering violations. But the greatest “reveal” is the person referred to as “the Big Guy” and “Celtic” in these emails: President Biden.

    Recently released emails reference payments to President Biden from son’s accounts and indicate the possible commingling of funds.  Even more embarrassing, the shared account may have been used to pay a Russian prostitute named “Yanna.” In one text, a former secret service agent warns Hunter (who was holed up with a prostitute in an expensive hotel) “Come on H this is linked to Celtic’s account.”

    The question is whether prosecutors will continue to act like they do not see the elephant. Consider these established facts:

    • First, it is widely believed that Hunter Biden and his uncle James Biden, received millions in influence peddling. For his part, Hunter only had influence and access to sell. He admits that he was a crack addict and alcoholic all the way up to the start of his father’s presidential campaign — in his words, “Drinking a quart of vodka a day by yourself in a room is absolutely, completely debilitating,” as well as “smoking crack around the clock.”

    • Second, Joe Biden has continued to deny knowledge or involvement in these foreign dealings and those denials are now directly contradicted by emails and witnesses. Hunter himself contradicted his father’s repeated denials. Likewise, a key business associate of Hunter Biden, Anthony Bobulinski, directly accused Joe Biden of lying about his involvement. Bobulinski has detailed a meeting with Joe Biden in a hotel to go over the dealings. Past emails included discussions of offering access to then-Vice President Biden. They also include alleged payments to Joe Biden. In one email, there is a discussion of a proposed equity split of “20” for “H” and “10 held by H for the big guy?” Bobulinski confirmed that “H” was used for Hunter Biden and that his father was routinely called “the big guy” in these discussions.

    • Third, while he was vice president, Joe Biden allowed Hunter to fly on Air Force 2 to countries like China where he was seeking millions. He also met with Hunter’s foreign business associates. In 2015, a State Department official flagged the possible conflicts from Hunter’s dealings during the Obama Administration.

    • Fourth, new emails suggest a commingling of funds between Hunter and his father. Emails from Eric Schwerin, his business partner at the Rosemont Seneca consultancy, refer to the payment of household bills for both Joe Biden and Hunter Biden. He also notes that he was transferring money from Joe Biden. Rosemont Seneca is directly involved in the alleged influence peddling schemes and questionable money transfers from Chinese and Russian sources.

    • Finally, Hunter himself admitted that his missing computers files may have been stolen by foreign agents for blackmail purposes. Hunter’s emails claim one of his laptops may have been stolen by Russian agents after a drug and alcohol binge with prostitutes.

    Given the ongoing criminal prosecution, that would seem an ample basis for the appointment of a special counsel. The President is mentioned repeatedly in emails and by witnesses in relation to influence peddling schemes and even receiving funds from shared accounts. He has also denied knowledge that key witnesses refute, including his son.

    Influence peddling is common in Washington and can be done legally. Yet, it has also been the subject of intense criminal investigations. For example, the FBI raided the home of Trump counsel Rudolph Giuliani and others based on allegations of influence peddling in an ongoing criminal investigation. The Justice Department wants to know if Giuliani secured contracts in exchange for access or influence. The media gleefully recounted the raids and how Giuliani may have cashed in on his access.

    It seems that the illusion depends on the specific elephant.

    Houdini once said that “It is still an open question . . . as to what extent exposure really injures a performer.” The same question can be asked about a politician. President Biden is in full display in these emails. The question is whether the public – or the prosecutors – want to see him.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/20/2021 – 21:30

  • "Prepare For The Worst" – Caribou Coffee Panic Hoards Arabica Beans Amid Global Deficit 
    “Prepare For The Worst” – Caribou Coffee Panic Hoards Arabica Beans Amid Global Deficit 

    US restaurant chain Caribou Coffee Co. is panic hoarding coffee beans as a global supply deficit grips the world and fuels inflation. 

    “We continue to increase safety stock on key items,” CEO John Butcher told Bloomberg. Besides coffee beans, he said the company is loading up on cups, lids, packaging, chocolate, and anything that comes to mind as supply chains remain snarled. 

    Butcher said, “my gut tells me to hope for the best and to prepare for the worst. I personally don’t see any reason to believe that supply-chain disruptions are going to go away anytime soon.”

    “Everybody is in the same boat: They’re hopeful that things will improve by the end of 2022. But for now, we have to prepare as though they won’t,” he said. 

    Caribou, now part of Panera Brands, has approximately 450 US locations and plans to expand its franchising program in 2022. However, an emerging global supply deficit of arabica coffee beans (something we first warned in March and later explained in May), disruptions of logistical networks around the world, caused by container shortages and port congestion, will continue to elevate coffee prices higher for longer.

    Arabica coffee prices have soared to fresh decade highs this week, as news of the global supply deficit paints a grim outlook for 2022. Some of the deficit originated in Brazil, one of the world’s top coffee producers, as droughts and frosts crushed crops. 

    “We believe in a deficit of around four million bags, other analysts see it as high as seven million bags,” Carlos Mera, head of Rabobank’s commodities desk, wrote, adding that exports from Brazil and other top producing countries are slowing. 

    If Caribou is panic buying coffee beans, imagine what Starbucks are other larger chains have been doing… 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/20/2021 – 21:10

  • Newman: "Deep State Cannot Stop Unprecedented Awakening"
    Newman: “Deep State Cannot Stop Unprecedented Awakening”

    Via Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com,

    Award winning journalist Alex Newman says, “The Deep State globalists cannot stop the “unprecedented awakening going on in America.” 

    Newman, who wrote the popular book called “Deep State: The Invisible Government Behind the Scenes,” explains, “Everybody knows that the press is lying…”

    ”  Nobody believes the press anymore.  ‘Let’s go Brandon.’  Everybody knows this is absolutely absurd.  The point is not to make people believe these absurdities anymore.  The point now is to demoralize people and to really silence us.  That’s what’s going on with sicking the FBI and DOJ on parents complaining about hate being taught to their children, and that’s what’s going on with the propaganda…

    They want to silence us.  They want to intimidate us.  They want to bully us, and they want to terrorize us into staying quite…

    AG Garland said all these parents are intimidating and harassing school boards.  What could be more intimidating than sicking one of the world’s most powerful law enforcement agency on parents expressing their concern?  I can’t think of more things that would be more intimidating than that.  So, the irony is off the charts, but the goal here is to silence people into submission.”

    Newman says the threats and bullying are backfiring and is not working in the least.  There is good news, and Newman explains,

    “They trot out these people to demoralize us and to scare us and make us think that everything is over.  Just keep your head down and comply, but it’s not working. 

    It is absolutely not working. 

    We have an awakening going on in this country… there’s an awakening that is happening here that is unprecedented in the modern history of this country.  It is such good news, but now we are in a race against time.  They are trying to collapse the supply chain and trying to implode everything before enough people wake up and do something about it.”

    Newman points out that since 2016, the Deep State has been losing the narrative and losing badly.  Newman explains,

    “The entire propaganda machine was non-stop bombarding Americans with anti-Trump propaganda, and Americans went to the polls.  Even with all the voter fraud in 2016, Trump still won in an Electoral College landslide.  That’s how much they have lost control of the narrative. 

    They thought by shadow banning us and rigging their algorithms, people should not come across our information.  That failed, and that’s why they had to ban you.  This is why they had to ban thousands of top content creators that were making huge amounts of money for them. 

    They have lost total control of the narrative, and they are left with what can they blow up and what can they do to scare us?  What can they do to make us think we are all alone, and that’s exactly what we are seeing right now, and it is crystal clear.  I think everybody should be able to see this at this point.”

    In closing, Newman points out how weak the Deep State really is and says, “Their entire narrative is based on lies, deception, trickery and intrigue...”

    ”  When you examine it closely, it all falls apart.  It’s true with the clot shots.  It’s true with the mandates.  It’s true with the schools.  It’s true with the courts, and it’s true with everything that they are doing.  They have to rely on lies.  The Bible says the devil is the father of lies.”

    Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with award winning journalist Alex Newman, founder of LibertySentinel.org and author of the recent popular book “Deep State.” (10/16/21)

    (There is much more in the 38 min. video interview.)

    To Donate to USAWatchdog.com Click Here

    For a copy of Alex Newman’s popular book “Deep State” click here. For a copy of Alex Newman’s popular book “Crimes of the Educators” Click here.  (Please support the truth tellers!!) Newman also has his own website called LibertySentinel.org. There is lots of free information and articles there.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/20/2021 – 20:50

  • Biden Nominee For Top Banking Regulator Facing Growing Resistance In Senate
    Biden Nominee For Top Banking Regulator Facing Growing Resistance In Senate

    Unsurprisingly, some influential Senate Democrats are getting cold feet about the prospect of President Biden nominating Saule Omarova to lead the OCC. The  Cornell law professor educated in the USSR who has proposed that the Fed take over most retail banking activities from the private sector (which a Fedcoin – or ZuckCoin – just might help it to do) while wholeheartedly supporting the progressives’ “Green New Deal” agenda.

    This has, understandably, made many in both Congress, and the industry she is about to regulate, uncomfortable.

    As we have reported, Omarova has previously favorably compared  the USSR to the US – at least when it comes to the “gender pay gap”.

    “Until I came to the US, I couldn’t imagine that things like gender pay gap still existed in today’s world. Say what you will about old USSR, there was no gender pay gap there. Market doesn’t always ‘know best,’” Omarova tweeted in 2019, adding (after receiving harsh criticism) “I never claimed women and men were treated absolutely equally in every facet of Soviet life. But people’s salaries were set (by the state) in a gender-blind manner. And all women got very generous maternity benefits. Both things are still a pipe dream in our society!”

    Additionally, as the Wall Street Journal editorial board notes, “Ms. Omarova thinks asset prices, pay scales, capital and credit should be dictated by the federal government. In two papers, she has advocated expanding the Federal Reserve’s mandate to include the price levels of “systemically important financial assets” as well as worker wages. As they like to say at the modern university, from each according to her ability to each according to her needs.”

    In a recent paper “The People’s Ledger,” she proposed that the Federal Reserve take over consumer bank deposits, “effectively ‘end banking,’ as we know it,” and become “the ultimate public platform for generating, modulating, and allocating financial resources in a modern economy.” She’d also like the U.S. to create a central bank digital currency—as Venezuela and China are doing—to “redesign our financial system & turn Fed’s balance sheet into a true ‘People’s Ledger,’” she tweeted this summer. What could possibly go wrong? -WSJ

    Omarova also wants to create a “Public Interest Council” of “highly paid” academics who would wield subpoena power over regulatory agencies, including the Fed.

    But President Biden has put these concerns aside and said he plans to nominate Omarova, though he has yet to make it official. Many speculate her nomination is mostly a sop to the party’s progressive wing, since even Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen opposes her nomination.

    But according to a report published Wednesday by CNBC, Omarova’s nomination is running into resistance in the Senate, including among key Democratic members of the committee that must approve her nomination before it goes before the entire Senate.

    Senate Democrats are fractured over whether to support Saule Omarova, Biden’s indicated choice to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, jeopardizing her candidacy.

    Any Democratic defection, or an indication of such, could force Senate leadership to scrap the nomination before putting Omarova up to a vote.

    According to CNBC’s main source (who remains anonymous) is that these Senators have already shared their misgivings with President Biden.

    Her selection, coupled with her views on how to overhaul the US banking system, prompted several Senate Democrats or their staff to complain to the White House and suggest that the president’s choice will be tough to support on Capitol Hill, according to a person familiar with the matter.

    This person declined to be named in order to speak openly about private discussions between the White House and Senate offices.

    Others surrounding the OCC nomination process said a handful of moderate Democrats harbor reservations about Omarova and her aspirations to “end banking as we know it,” as she suggested in a Vanderbilt Law Review article.

    Those people cautioned that skeptical senators likely haven’t made a final decision yet but are leaning against her candidacy.

    But it’s not just the whispers of anonymized sources from the Hill suggesting that the nomination of what would be America’s first formerly Communist chief of the OCC (Saule once earned a “Lenin” award back in the USSR, which has favorably compared to the US in at least one notable instance) is in trouble. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, a critical red state Democrat and community banking champion, told CNBC that he’s having second thoughts – though he didn’t say he opposes the nomination.

    Sen. Jon Tester of Montana told CNBC on Tuesday that he has “concerns about Omarova’s candidacy. Tester, known in the Senate as a champion of community banks, did not indicate whether he opposes her outright.

    “Some of Ms. Omarova’s past statements about the role of government in the financial system raise concerns about her ability to impartially serve at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency,” he said. “I’m looking forward to meeting with her to discuss them.”

    Tester, a moderate member of the Senate banking committee, would also vote on whether to recommend Omarova to the broader chamber. A representative for Sen. Mark Warner, another moderate on the banking committee, said the Virginia Democrat has not yet made a decision on whether to support Omarova.

    Of course, Senate progressives like Sherrod Brown of Ohio still full-throatedly back Saule’s nomination.

    The office of banking committee Chairman Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, a fierce advocate of Omarova’s, reiterated its support for Biden’s pick.

    “Senator Brown and the White House continue to push back against Republicans’ misleading statements against Ms. Omarova’s character and policy positions,” a spokesperson said.

    The White House continues to support Omarova’s nomination, an official said.

    In a sign of how little the leadership wants to deal with this right now, with so many other Democratic priorities being hammered out, including Biden’s entire domestic agenda, when approached by CNBC, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer refused to even return their request for comment.

    At the very least, the takeaway from all of this is that even if Omarova’s nomination isn’t already dead in the water, the Dems won’t have the bandwidth to deal with a high-profile nomination fight until next year.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/20/2021 – 20:30

  • Israel Approves $1.5 Billion Budget For Potential Attack On Iran
    Israel Approves $1.5 Billion Budget For Potential Attack On Iran

    Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

    According to a report from Israel’s Channel 12, the Israeli government approved a $1.5 billion budget to prepare for a potential attack on Iran.

    The extra funds would be used to purchase additional aircraft, surveillance drones, and the munitions needed to strike Iran’s underground nuclear facilities. The report said about $620 million would come from the 2022 military budget, and the rest of the funds would come from this year’s budget.

    Airstrikes in Syria, via Reuters.

    For years, Israel has been seeking bunker-busting bombs that could penetrate Iran’s underground facilities. If they did acquire the munitions, Israel would also need bombers capable of carrying them, something it currently doesn’t have.

    The US tested a new 5,000-pound bunker buster earlier this month, which Israeli media interpreted as a possible message to Iran.

    In July, it was reported that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) requested additional funds for next year’s budget to prepare for operations against Iran. Throughout the year, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi has repeatedly said the IDF is “accelerating” plans to strike Iran, and Israeli politicians have constantly been threatening the Islamic Republic.

    Israel frequently carries out covert attacks against Iran’s civilian nuclear program, but the IDF planning suggests an overt operation could happen in the future. The US has joined Israel in issuing threats against Iran.

    Footage of US “bunker buster” bomb being tested…

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    Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted at military action against Iran alongside Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. Blinken said if diplomacy with Iran fails, the US will turn to “other options.”

    Lapid made clear that one of Blinken’s “options” was military action. “I would like to start by repeating what the Secretary of State just said. Yes, other options are going to be on the table if diplomacy fails.  And by saying other options, I think everybody understands here … what is it that we mean,” Lapid said.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/20/2021 – 20:10

  • In 'Deep Ship'? Biden Weighs National Guard To Address Record Number Of Vessels Off Los Angeles
    In ‘Deep Ship’? Biden Weighs National Guard To Address Record Number Of Vessels Off Los Angeles

    It’s becoming impossible to ignore just how unprepared the Biden administration is in tackling the current shipping crisis and its impact on domestic supply chains and state economies. A significant backlog of container ships continues to pile up at Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, even though President Biden issued a directive last week to keep both ports, which account for 40% of all shipping containers entering the U.S., operating on a 24/7 basis. Now the administration is so desperate that they’re weighing the use of the National Guard to alleviate stretched supply chains so that Americans will hopefully get their consumer goods before the holidays, according to AP News. 

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

    With a record 97 container ships at anchor across the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, congestion at the nation’s top ports worsens. To alleviate bottlenecks threatening the holiday shopping season, the White House released a directive last week advising both ports to operate on a 24/7 basis to counter the backlog. For some context, the ports typically have 17 ships at anchor in pre-pandemic times, so with 97, it only suggests Biden’s plan is “too little too late,” explained one U.S. importer of toys. 

    The administration is searching for other ideas to alleviate port congestion. According to WaPo, citing three sources, Biden’s team has explored whether deploying the National Guard at the ports would quell overwhelmed supply chains. 

    One source said the administration has not considered activating the National Guard at a federal level but could soon deploy Guardsmen on a state level. They may take a page out from the U.K. when they deployed troops to resolve gas shortages last month. What’s likely to happen are Guardsmen with licenses to operate heavy machinery or trucks could be deployed.

    Much of the port congestion is due to the relentless, fiscally stimulated demand for (made in China) products by Americans, all thanks to the government handing out hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus checks. Labor shortages at ports have also been another issue, which originated when the Biden administration began paying people more money to sit on their couches than work. 

    A.P. notes that a trade group representing clothing manufacturers has requested the National Guard or even naval ports to unload cargo.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/20/2021 – 19:50

  • The FDA's War Against The Truth On Ivermectin
    The FDA’s War Against The Truth On Ivermectin

    Authored by David Henderson and Charles Hopper via The American Institute for Economic Research,

    On July 28, the Wall Street Journal ran our article “Why Is the FDA Attacking a Safe, Effective Drug?”

    In it, we outlined the potential value of the antiparasitic drug ivermectin for Covid-19, and we questioned the FDA’s vigorous attack on ivermectin. Many people praised us and many criticized us. We had clearly covered a sensitive subject. It didn’t help that one of the studies we referenced was retracted the day our article was published. Within hours of learning that fact, we sent a mea culpa to the Journal’s editors. They acted quickly, adding a note at the end of the electronic version and publishing our letter. It’s important to address two criticisms of our work. The first is that we exaggerated the FDA’s warning on ivermectin. The second is that Merck’s stance on ivermectin proved that even the company that developed ivermectin thought that it doesn’t work for Covid-19.

    First, we didn’t exaggerate the FDA’s warning on ivermectin.

    Instead, the agency changed its website after our article was published, probably to reflect the points we made.

    Second, Merck had two incentives to downplay ivermectin’s usefulness against the novel coronavirus.

    We’ll explain both points more fully.

    Ivermectin was developed and marketed by Merck & Co. while one of us (Hooper) worked there years ago. Dr. William C. Campbell and Professor Satoshi Omura were awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. They earned it for discovering and developing avermectin. Later Campbell and some associates modified avermectin to create ivermectin. Merck & Co. has donated four billion doses of ivermectin to prevent river blindness and other diseases in areas of the world, such as Africa, where parasites are common. The ten doctors who are in the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance call ivermectin “one of the safest, low-cost, and widely available drugs in the history of medicine.” Ivermectin is on the WHO’s List of Essential Medicines and ivermectin has been used safely in pregnant women, children, and infants.

    Ivermectin is an antiparasitic, but it has shown, in cell cultures in laboratories, the ability to destroy 21 viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the cause of Covid-19. Further, ivermectin has demonstrated its potential in clinical trials for the treatment of Covid-19 and in large-scale population studies for the prevention of Covid-19.

    Contradicting these positive results, the FDA issued a special statement warning that “you should not use ivermectin to treat or prevent Covid-19.” The FDA’s warning, which included language such as, “serious harm,” “hospitalized,” “dangerous,” “very dangerous,” “seizures,” “coma and even death,” and “highly toxic,” might suggest that the FDA was warning against pills laced with poison. In fact, the FDA had already approved the drug years ago as a safe and effective anti-parasitic. Why would it suddenly become dangerous if used to treat Covid-19? Further, the FDA claimed, with no scientific basis, that ivermectin is not an antiviral, notwithstanding its proven antiviral activity.

    Interestingly, at the bottom of the FDA’s strong warning against ivermectin was this statement: “Meanwhile, effective ways to limit the spread of COVID-19 continue to be to wear your mask, stay at least 6 feet from others who don’t live with you, wash hands frequently, and avoid crowds.” Was this based on the kinds of double-blind studies that the FDA requires for drug approvals? No.

    After some critics claimed that we overstated or overreacted to the FDA’s special warning, we reviewed the FDA’s website and found that it had been changed, and there was no mention of the changes nor any reason given. Overall, the warnings were watered down and clarified. We noticed the following changes:

    • The false statement that “Ivermectin is not an anti-viral (a drug for treating viruses)” was removed.

    • “Taking a drug for an unapproved use can be very dangerous. This is true of ivermectin, too” was changed to the less alarming “Ivermectin has not been shown to be safe or effective for these indications.” (Indications is the official term used in the industry to denote new uses for a drug, such as new diseases or conditions, and/or new patient populations.)

    • The statement, “If you have a prescription for ivermectin for an FDA-approved use, get it from a legitimate source and take it exactly as prescribed,” was changed to, “If your health care provider writes you an ivermectin prescription, fill it through a legitimate source such as a pharmacy, and take it exactly as prescribed.” This more clearly acknowledges that reasonable physicians may prescribe ivermectin for non-FDA-approved uses, such as Covid-19.

    • The ending statement about masks, spacing, hand washing, and avoiding crowds was replaced with one that recommended getting vaccinated and following CDC guidelines.

    • The reasonable statement “Talk to your health care provider about available COVID-19 vaccines and treatment options. Your provider can help determine the best option for you, based on your health history” was added at the end.

    The new warning from the FDA is more correct and less alarming than the previous one.

    In a statement from February, Merck, the company that originated and still sells ivermectin, agreed with the FDA that ivermectin should not be used for Covid-19.

    “We do not believe that the data available support the safety and efficacy of ivermectin beyond the doses and populations indicated in the regulatory agency-approved prescribing information.”

    To some, this appeared to be a smoking gun. Merck wants to make money, they reason, and people are interested in using ivermectin for Covid-19, therefore, Merck would warn against such usage only if the scientific evidence were overwhelming. But that’s not how the pharmaceutical industry works.

    Here’s how the FDA-regulated pharmaceutical industry really works.

    The FDA judges all drugs as guilty until proven, to the FDA’s satisfaction, both safe and efficacious. By what process does this happen? The FDA waits for a deep-pocketed sponsor to present a comprehensive package that justifies the approval of a new drug or a new use of an existing drug. For a drug like ivermectin, long since generic, a sponsor may never show up. The reason is not that the drug is ineffective; rather, the reason is that any expenditures used to secure approval for that new use will help other generic manufacturers that haven’t invested a dime. Due to generic drug substitution rules at pharmacies, Merck could spend millions of dollars to get a Covid-19 indication for ivermectin and then effectively get zero return. What company would ever make that investment?

    With no sponsor, there is no new FDA-approved indication and, therefore, no official recognition of ivermectin’s value. Was the FDA’s warning against ivermectin based on science? No. It was based on process. Like a typical bureaucrat, the FDA won’t recommend the use of ivermectin because, while it might help patients, such a recommendation would violate its processes. The FDA needs boxes checked off in the right order. If a sponsor never shows up and the boxes aren’t checked off, the FDA’s standard approach is to tell Americans to stay away from the drug because it might be dangerous or ineffective. Sometimes the FDA is too enthusiastic and these warnings are, frankly, alarming. Guilty until proven innocent.

    There are two reasons that Merck would warn against ivermectin usage, essentially throwing its own drug under the bus.

    Once they are marketed, doctors can prescribe drugs for uses not specifically approved by the FDA. Such usage is called off-label. Using ivermectin for Covid-19 is considered off-label because that use is not specifically listed on ivermectin’s FDA-approved label.

    While off-label prescribing is widespread and completely legal, it is illegal for a pharmaceutical company to promote that use. Doctors can use drugs for off-label uses and drug companies can supply them with product. But heaven forbid that companies encourage, support, or promote off-label prescribing. The fines for doing so are outrageous. During a particularly vigorous two-year period, the Justice Department collected over $6 billion from drug companies for off-label promotion cases. Merck’s lawyers haven’t forgotten that lesson.

    Another reason for Merck to discount ivermectin’s efficacy is a result of marketing strategy. Ivermectin is an old, cheap, off-patent drug. Merck will never make much money from ivermectin sales.

    Drug companies aren’t looking to spruce up last year’s winners; they want new winners with long patent lives.

    Not coincidentally, Merck recently released the clinical results for its new Covid-19 fighter, molnupiravir, which has shown a 50% reduction in the risk of hospitalization and death among high-risk, unvaccinated adults. Analysts are predicting multi-billion-dollar sales for molnupiravir.

    While we can all be happy that Merck has developed a new therapeutic that can keep us safe from the ravages of Covid-19, we should realize that the FDA’s rules give companies an incentive to focus on newer drugs while ignoring older ones. Ivermectin may or may not be a miracle drug for Covid-19. The FDA doesn’t want us to learn the truth.

    The FDA spreads lies and alarms Americans while preventing drug companies from providing us with scientific explorations of existing, promising, generic drugs.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/20/2021 – 19:30

  • Putin Orders All Workers Home For One Week Amid Record COVID Surge
    Putin Orders All Workers Home For One Week Amid Record COVID Surge

    Cities across Russia appear to be heading into lockdown again, despite the Sputnik V vaccine having been the world’s first to have rolled out last year, and with at this point an estimated one-third of the population being fully vaccinated. Yet this week has witnessed new daily record highs as confirmed coronavirus cases surge once again. 

    Tuesday witnessed the highest single-day death toll thus far in the pandemic, with 1,038 deaths from the virus recorded, according to the AP. President Vladimir Putin announced on Wednesday an almost unprecedented order for all workers across the nation to stay home for one week. In some hard-hit cities, the mandate could reach up to two weeks. However, authorities have stopped short of imposing a full-fledged national lockdown.

    Via Newsweek

    During Wednesday statements, Russian health authorities reported 34,073 new coronavirus cases over the prior 24 hours, a new daily high.

    The work stoppage plan was initially proposed by Putin’s Cabinet – which the president is now backing – to take effect October 30, and going through the first week of November.

    “Our task today is to protect life and health of our citizens and minimize the consequences of the dangerous infection,” Putin said in a video call with officials Wednesday, The Associated Press reported. 

    “To achieve that, it’s necessary to first of all slow the pace of contagion and mobilize additional reserves of the health care system, which is currently working under a high strain,” he added.

    Putin further expressed frustrations with the course the pandemic is taking, after the vaccine has long been available to all seeking it: “I can’t understand what’s going on,” he said. “We have a reliable and efficient vaccine. The vaccine really reduces the risks of illness, grave complications and death.”

    “There are only two ways to get over this period — to get sick or to receive a vaccine,” Putin said. “It’s better to get the vaccine, why wait for the illness and its grave consequences? Please be responsible and take the necessary measures to protect yourself, your health and your close ones.”

    Graphs via Moscow Times

    Reports estimate that about 45 million Russians are fully vaccinated, which constitutes 32% of the total population of 146 million. According to France24, there continues to be widespread hesitancy based on “mixed signals” from government authorities, akin to the kind of confusion and contradictory messaging seen in the United States and other parts of the globe:

    Even though Russia in August 2020 became the first country of the world to authorize a coronavirus vaccine and vaccines are plentiful, Russians have shown hesitancy about getting the shots, a skepticism blamed on conflicting signals sent by authorities.

    While extolling Sputnik V and three other domestic vaccines, state-controlled media were often critical of Western-made shots, a controversial message that many saw as feeding public doubts about vaccines in general.

    Below are some further details on the recent Covid developments in Russia, via The Moscow Times:

    • President Vladimir Putin announced a non-working week in Russia from Oct. 30-Nov. 7. Putin pleaded with Russians to get vaccinated and said the public holidays could be extended further if cases do not start to fall.
    • Moscow will go into a strict lockdown if coronavirus infections continue to rise, according to a Moscow government order that was sent to businesses in the city Wednesday.
    • Moscow’s mayor announced Tuesday plans to reintroduce remote work, mandatory vaccinations for service workers and other measures to slow the surging fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic starting next week.
    • Nationwide, 87% of hospital beds reserved for coronavirus patients are occupied, Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said Wednesday in a televised meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

    While Putin’s nationwide one week work furlough is being described as an “order” – it’s unclear to what degree it will be legally enforced, or met with penalties should some offices and companies stay open for their workforce. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/20/2021 – 19:10

  • "It's Like A Zombie Apocalypse Walking Into Parts Of San Francisco": Addict's Mother Decries
    “It’s Like A Zombie Apocalypse Walking Into Parts Of San Francisco”: Addict’s Mother Decries

    Authored by Vanessa Serna via The Epoch Times,

    San Francisco’s leniency on drugs is filling the street with lawlessness, according to the mom of a 32-year-old drug addict, who’s urging policymakers to enforce stricter laws that criminalize drug use and sales in the city.

    “[Police] are on the streets and they’re not arresting anybody and the dealers are selling right in front of them,” Jacqui Berlinn said in an interview with California Insider, a show with The Epoch Times.

    “They allow the addicts to use in front of other people… Other people who live there can openly see the addict’s using needles and smoking … acting out in the ways that are harmful to them or the public.”

    Berlinn said her son is suffering from a fentanyl addiction, which has left him homeless and physically bent at a 45-degree angle.

    “A lot of people say, you have to let him hit rock bottom,” Berlinn said.

    “My son’s rock bottom I believe is death. Right now, he needs to be coerced to get help because his fear of the withdrawals from this drug are so great.”

    Berlinn’s son was introduced to drugs as a teenager and he became addicted after suffering from anxiety and depression.

    Nowadays, Berlinn’s son wanders the streets between Oakland and San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood since drugs are more accessible there.

    In the past, Berlinn traveled throughout the Tenderloin neighborhood in search of her son, and she described the area as a “zombie apocalypse” with drug dealers on the corners of the street accompanied by homeless drug addicts.

    Despite selling and consuming drugs in public, Berlinn has noticed police officers in the area allowed the lawlessness on the streets to continue.

    “I feel like they’re enabling these people to commit a slow suicide,” Berlinn said.

    “The people that are there that are homeless and addicted are being preyed upon and they are deteriorating slowly. It’s a slow death. They’re out in the elements. Many of them have open sores and they’re in bondage to these drugs and San Francisco particularly helps keep them in that situation by not prosecuting the drug dealers, by allowing the open-air drug scenes.”

    Berlinn once reported to police a naked homeless man in plain sight.

    Police stated there was not anything they could do, as people were frequently naked in the area, she said.

    Amid witnessing the drug crisis in San Francisco, Berlinn called for a statewide initiative to treat mental illnesses, rather than a county-by-county approach, stating homeless drug addicts come to San Francisco due to the “hands-off, live and let live policy.”

    According to Berlinn, Proposition 4 – a law that changed some lower-level crimes from felonies to misdemeanors – and other state laws has led to fewer arrests for carrying small amounts of drugs and shoplifting.

    The last time of his arrest, Berlinn’s son expressed his desire to get sober. He made a call to check into a rehabilitation center but was turned away due to a lack of availability.

    Temporarily, he was sent to a transitional sober living home outside of San Francisco where he eventually turned back to drugs.

    The transitional sober living home offered no mental health services while allowing him to come and go as he pleased, Berlinn said.

    Her son has shared that some addicts who’ve lived in the housing with no support services have overdosed while alone and nobody knew or was around to revive them.

    “His greatest fear is detoxing from fentanyl because it’s supposed to be incredibly horrible,” she said. “He could even die from it if he’s not getting help and being monitored.”

    Berlinn described the homeless drug addicts as people’s family members and loved ones who are trapped.

    “They’re definitely not cracking down on these open-air drug scenes,” Berlinn said. “They’re allowing it to flourish and the solution I hear is safe injection sites. My son says that then there’ll just be more people like him on the street because they’re just making it easier to be a drug addict. They’re normalizing drug addiction.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 10/20/2021 – 18:50

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