Sep 21

Today’s News 21st September 2023

  • Syria On The Verge Of Collapse?
    Syria On The Verge Of Collapse?

    Authored by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi via the Gatestone Institute,

    Syria’s southern province of al-Suwayda’, whose population primarily comes from the Druze minority, is currently witnessing protests on an unprecedented scale. Pictured: People protest in al-Suwayda’, Syria on September 5, 2023. (Photo by Sam Hariri/AFP via Getty Images)

    Syria is clearly on the verge of collapse in terms of the economy and humanitarian situation.

    The country’s southern province of al-Suwayda’, whose population primarily comes from the Druze minority, is currently witnessing protests on an unprecedented scale. While the province has previously seen protests motivated primarily by the country’s deteriorating economic and livelihood situation, these protests are now far more widespread in the province and larger in scale.

    There has also been a definite paradigm shift in these protests: the main initial demands to improve the economy and livelihood situation were endorsed by the Druze community’s three leading religious authorities in Syria. Calls for the government to resign, for the departure of President Bashar al-Assad and a political transition are now stronger and more prevalent. In multiple localities in the province, which has formally been under government control since the start of the unrest and civil war in 2011, demonstrators have closed the Ba’ath Party headquarters and removed portraits of Assad and his father, Hafez al-Assad.

    While these protests are in themselves remarkable for the province in terms of the numbers participating, their persistence and how open the calls for political change are, they do raise the question about whether they constitute the potential for a real shift in Syria’s “status quo” since spring 2020. However much one might sympathise with the protests, they are probably unlikely to shift the situation in a significant way. The protestors, although immensely courageous, are too few, and have little leverage.

    The current status quo means that Syria is effectively divided into three major zones: the majority of the country that is held by the Damascus-based government backed by Russia and Iran; the northeast held by the American-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (the second-largest zone of control); and parts of the northwest and north of the country on and near the border with Turkey, controlled by an assortment of insurgent factions that are backed by Turkey to varying degrees. What has kept the frontlines frozen since the spring of 2020 are the understandings between the main foreign powers involved in the war as well as policies of deterrence through the stationing of foreign troops in these zones of control. The most important in this regard seems to be the Turkey-Russia dynamic, whereas American influence is far more limited.

    At the same time, all the major zones have been seeing low-level skirmishes along their frontlines and experiencing internal security concerns. The Syrian Democratic Forces, for example, which are dominated by Kurdish cadres linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party, are contending with an ongoing Islamic State insurgency and more recently have had to deal with an uprising among Arab tribal elements in the east. In a similar vein, the southern province of Deraa, which is next to al-Suwayda’ and formally came back in its entirety under Syrian government control in 2018, sees regular incidents of assassinations and bomb attacks, some of which can be attributed to Islamic State, while others, in terms of responsibility, remain murky.

    For the Syrian government, however, it is not the military frontlines and internal security that are the main issue today, but rather the deterioration of its economy and the accompanying fall in standards of living. The clearest indication of this decline is the fall in the value of the Syrian pound. Since the onset of the war, it had been steadily falling, but took a sharp turn for the worse in late 2019. This steep decline has continued despite some brief hiatuses; the currency now stands at record low values versus the U.S. dollar. In 2010, the rate of exchange was around 50 Syrian pounds to the dollar, now the rate of exchange is hovering near 15,000 Syrian pounds to the dollar.

    There is much debate about the causes of this downturn, but it seems clear that the decline can be attributed in significant part to the Syrian government’s economic isolation and its shortage of hard currency. Despite controlling the country’s most important cities and the sole access to the Mediterranean Sea along the northwest coastline, the government faces extensive Western economic sanctions; it does not benefit from the main oil assets held by the Syrian Democratic Forces and sees only marginal trade over the land border with neighbouring Jordan to the south. The Syrian government also has extremely little control over its extensive northern border with Turkey, which could be a major trading partner with the government.

    The Syrian government’s isolation has also meant that its economy became ever more intertwined with that of neighbouring Lebanon, which is also facing its most severe economic crisis since the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990 and has also seen a sharp decline in the value of its currency.

    In the meantime, the Syrian government has no real solutions to its economic woes. It has been offering up measures such as increasing the salaries of state employees, military personnel and pensioners while also cutting fuel subsidies. While the normalisation of relations between Arab states and Syria (foremost embodied in Syria’s return to the Arab League) has attracted considerable media attention, it is probably unrealistic to expect that this development will lead to a sudden turn-around in the Syrian government’s economic fortunes. The government is not going to be given handouts of billions of dollars in aid and foreign investment from Arab states or the international community at large in a short timeframe and for nothing in return from Damascus. In the meantime, any concept of normalisation with Turkey still has a long way to go, with a fundamental sticking point: that the Damascus-based government would like Turkey to agree to withdraw troops from Syrian territory, whereas Turkey appears to have no interest in doing so in the near- or even medium-term.

    Few within government-held areas would deny that the economic and livelihood situation is difficult. It is common to see people there venting their frustrations on Facebook about the quality of services provided, the rising prices of goods, perceptions of corruption, and so on. Yet opinions about the causes of these woes are varied. Some blame the Western economic sanctions on Syria, others see the economic problems as created from within. Some impugn government corruption but consider criticism of Assad himself to be a red line: they seem to think that he is doing all he can to try to help the country — while being surrounded by corrupt officials. Unfortunately, trying to determine what proportion of people subscribe to which views is virtually impossible: no reliable polling data exist, and it is doubtful anyone could conduct such surveys under the present circumstances.

    Yet qualitatively speaking, it can be said that in al-Suwayda’, criticism of Assad is less of a red line than in other areas that have remained under government control throughout the war. Besides the current deterioration of both the economy and living standards, there has long been resentment of a perceived marginalisation of the southern province in economic and developmental terms. In addition, there are grievances against conscription; conspiracy theories that the government colluded with the Islamic State to allow the group, in 2018, to attack the eastern countryside of the province while killing hundreds of Druze in the process; complaints about the spread of drugs in al-Suwayda’ and the use of the province as a gateway for smuggling them into Jordan. The government’s most recent economic decisions to raise salaries of state employees, military personnel and pensioners while cutting fuel subsidies provided a spark for protests in the province that are even larger than before.

    It is nonetheless important to be realistic about what these protests can achieve. The protestors remain committed for now to sustaining a civil disobedience movement that is peaceful. There appears to be no plan to launch an armed rebellion and make the province a separate rebellious enclave akin to the Turkish-backed enclaves in the northwest. Moreover, the Syrian government is adopting a non-confrontational stance towards the protests. The government seems to have issued general directives to its security forces in the province to lie low and avoid opening fire or taking any repressive measures unless they are attacked.

    In effect, these protests remain a peripheral rebellion in the grander scheme of things and are unlikely by themselves to bring down the government and lead to real change. There are really only two ways in which Assad can be brought down: either being militarily overthrown (not being contemplated by any international power) or if the elites propping up his rule decide that his presidency is no longer worth preserving. Despite the deterioration of Syria’s economy and living standards, it seems that those closest to Assad who could bring about his removal from within are either largely unaffected by the situation or possibly even benefitting from it.

    To stand some sort of chance of realising change, the al-Suwayda’ protests would have to transform into a large-scale movement of protests and unrest across government-held Syria, including in areas such as the capital Damascus and the coastal regions that have served as key constituencies of support for the government throughout the war.

    In turn, these protests raise the question about the efficacy of the ongoing Western sanctions on the Syrian government. A more optimistic portrayal would see the protests as bringing about the precise results intended by the sanctions: a deterioration in the economy and living standards, popular discontent with that deterioration, unrest, and thus some sort of pressure that would lead the government to agree to a peaceful political transition. Yet it is unlikely that these sanctions will accomplish those results. Instead, one finds an immiserated population that is unable to do much to better its own lot, with outbreaks of ultimately ineffectual protests, the continued outflow of people from Syria seeking to migrate to other countries in the region and Europe, and the persistence of the country’s division between its major zones of control.

    A greater focus on stemming the country’s collapse in terms of the humanitarian situation could certainly help — if “middlemen” were left out. The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) now faces a much larger shortfall in terms of funding requirements and actual funding for WFP’s operations in Syria, with the result that monthly assistance was cut to 2.5 million people in Syria in July. An important reason behind this reduction, according to the Syria Report, is a reduction in the American contribution to WFP’s global budget. Making up for that shortfall would at least provide some short-term relief.

    Sanctions – no doubt well-intended to prevent governments from brutalizing their own people even further and to encourage the leadership toward a democratic form of rule – seem simply not to work. First, it is harder for a people who are starving to rise up against a dictatorship; they are often too busy looking for food and trying to survive on a daily basis, besides having an understandable fear of reprisals. Countries such as Russia and Iran, as we well know, find ways around sanctions; or else the population starves, while the leaders go on living in indifferent comfort.

    Perhaps a more realistic approach might be as follows: rather than tying sanctions to vague hopes of political transition, sanctions could instead be linked to more specific concessions such as serious efforts to combat drug trafficking, the release of political prisoners, and so on.

    Otherwise, sanctions often deliver just a punitive message, which, although understandable for dictators such as Assad, does not really accomplish anything in terms of accountability, change or bettering the lot of Syrians like the protestors in al-Suwayda’.

    Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is an Arabic translator and editor at Castlereagh Associates (a Middle East-focused consultancy), a writing fellow at the Middle East Forum, and an associate of the Royal Schools of Music. Follow on Twitter and at his independent Substack newsletter.

    • Follow Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi on Twitter

    ZeroPointNow
    Thu, 09/21/2023 – 02:00

  • Escobar: Russia, North Korea Stage 'Strategic Coup' Against Western Hegemony
    Escobar: Russia, North Korea Stage ‘Strategic Coup’ Against Western Hegemony

    Authored by Pepe Escobar,

    ​It will take ages to unpack the silos of information inbuilt in the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok last week, coupled with the – armored – train-keeps-a-rollin’ conducted by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un straddling every nook and cranny of Primorsky Krai.

    ​The key themes all reflect the four main vectors of the New Great Game as it’s being played across the Global South: energy and energy resources; manufacturing and labor; market and trade rules; and logistics. But they go way beyond – exploring the subtle nuances of the current civilizational war.

    Key statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his address to delegates at the Eastern Economic Forum:

    ▪️ The global economy continues to change, primarily because the West is tearing down the system of financial relations;

    ▪️ Amid the destruction of the financial system by the West, the list of countries that are ready to cooperate not based on Western conventions, but for all humanity, is expanding;

    ▪️ The dynamics of investment in the Far East is three times faster than for all of Russia in its entirety;

    ▪️ Most regions in the Far Eastern Federal District still face energy shortages, and this is a problem; a large-scale update of this industry is needed;

    ▪️ It is necessary to expand logistics routes in the Far East, including the Northern Sea Route;

    ▪️ High-speed highways will pass through Siberia, the Far East to the Pacific Ocean;

    ▪️ Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for a comprehensive action plan to be prepared by 1 March for the development of the air complex of the Far Eastern Federal District;

    ▪️ Constantly enhancing the conditions for doing business in the Far East is a must;

    ▪️ The global economic situation has invigorated our work in the Far East;

    ▪️ The restriction of payments in dollars has driven all countries to set their sights on payments in national currencies, while trust in the West is being eroded;

    ▪️ Today, logistics chains for the supply of goods have almost recovered, and by the same token, this is due to the exchange rate;

    ▪️ We must come to an agreement with the business community, so that they understand that it is safer to work in Russia.

    So Vladivostok presented…

    – A serious debate on the surge of anti-neocolonialism, presented for instance by the Myanmar delegation; geostrategically, Burma/Myanmar, as a privileged gateway to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, was always an object of Divide and Rule games, with the British Empire only caring about extracting natural resources. This is what “scientific colonialism” is all about.

    – A serious debate on the concept of the civilization-state, as already developed by Chinese and Russian scholars, applied to China, Russia, India and Iran.

    – The interconnection of transport/connectivity corridors. That includes the upgrading of the Trans-Siberian in the near future; a boost for the Trans-Baikal – the world’s busiest rail line – connecting the Urals to the Far East; a renewed drive for the Northern Sea Route (last month two Russian oil tankers sailed from Murmansk across the Arctic to China for the first time; ten days shorter than the Suez Canal route); and the coming of the Chennai-Vladivostok channel, which will be connected to the International North South Transportation Corridor (INTSC).
    ​
    – The common Eurasia payment system, discussed in detail in one of the key panels: Greater Eurasia: Drivers for the Formation of an Alternative International and Monetary and Financial System. The immense challenge to set up a new payment settlement currency against “toxic currencies” instrumentalized amid relentless Hybrid War. In another panel, the possibility of a timely BRICS and EAEU joint summit next year has been evoked.

    All Aboard The Kim Train

    The genesis of Kim Jong Un’s train journey to the Russian Far East – coinciding with the Forum, no less – is a masterful strategic coup that was in the works since 2014, at the time of the Maidan.

    Xi Jinping was still in the beginning of his first mandate; he had announced the New Silk Road exactly ten years ago, first in Astana and then in Jakarta. The DPRK was not supposed to be integrated into this vast pan-Eurasian project that would soon become China’s overarching foreign policy concept.

    The DPRK then was on a roll against the Hegemon, under Obama, and Beijing was no more than a worried spectator. Moscow, of course, was always focused on peace in the Korean Peninsula, especially because its geopolitical priorities in 2014 were Donbass and Syria/Iran. The last thing Moscow could afford was a war in Asia-Pacific.
    ​
    Putin’s strategy was to send Defense Minister Shoigu to Beijing and Islamabad to calm it all down. Pakistan at the time was helping Pyongyang to weaponize their nuclear arsenal. Simultaneously, Putin himself approached Kim, offering serious guarantees: we’ve got your back if ever there is an attack by the Hegemon supported by Seoul. Even better: Putin got Xi himself to double down on the guarantees.

    ​The categorical imperative was simple: as long as Pyongyang did not start any trouble, Moscow and Beijing would be by its side.

    A sort of calm before any possible storm then set in – even if Pyongyang continued to test their missiles. So over the years, Kim’s mindset changed; he became convinced that Russia and China were his allies.

    The DPRK’s geoeconomic integration into Eurasia was seriously discussed in previous, pre-Covid editions of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. That included the tantalizing possibility of a Trans-Korean Railway linking both North and South to the Far East, Siberia and the wider Eurasia.

    So Kim started to see the Big Eurasia Picture, and how Pyongyang could finally start to benefit geoeconomically from a closer association with the EAEU, SCO and BRI.

    This is how strategic diplomacy works: you invest during a decade, and then all the pieces fall into place when an armored train keeps-a-rollin’ across Primorsky Krai.

    From the perspective of a Russia-China-DPRK triangle, it’s no wonder the collective West has been reduced to the status of crying toddlers in a sandbox. The Hegemon’s puny US-Japan-South Korea axis to counter, simultaneously, China and the DPRK, is a joke compared to the DPRK’s brand-new role as a sort of Asia-Pacific Military District, adjacent to their immediate neighbor, the Russian Far East.

    There will be military integration, of course, in missile defense, radars, ports, airfields. But the key vector, along the way, will be geoeconomic integration. Sanctions from now on are meaningless.

    No one in 2014 was seeing this all play out, except for a very sharp analyst who coined the precious Double Helix concept to define the still evolving, at the time, Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership.
    ​
    The Double Helix perfectly explains the full-spectrum geostrategic symbiosis between two civilization-states which happen to be former empires but since the middle of the previous decade willfully decided to accelerate their mutual drive to lead the Global Majority in the path towards multipolarity.

    ​The Road to Polycentricity

    All of the above finely coalesced in the last panel in Vladivostok – informally known even to the Japanese and Koreans as “the European capital of Asia”, in the heart of Asia-Pacific. The debate was on a “global alternative to Western dominance”. The West, incidentally, was absolutely invisible at the Forum.

    Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova summed it all up: the recent G20 and BRICS summits had set the stage for President Putin’s remarkable address to the plenary session in Vladivostok.
    ​
    Zakharova alluded to “fantastic strategic patience”. That applies to the whole “pivot to Asia” policy and boosting the development of the Far East, initiated in 2012, and now implying a full turn of the Russian economy towards Asia-Pacific geoeconomics. But at the same time, that also applies to integrating the DPRK into the geoeconomic Eurasian high-speed train.

    ​Zakharova stressed how Russia “never supported isolation”; always “advocated partnership” – which the Forum graphically displayed for dozens of Global South delegations. And now, under the conditions of a “dirty fight, unlawful and with no rules”, a serious stand-off, the Russian position remains easily recognizable for the Global Majority: “Not to accept dictatorship”.

    Andrey Denisov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, made a point to mention crack political analyst Sergey Karaganov as one of the key drivers of the concept of Greater Eurasia. More than “multipolarity”, Denisov argued, what is being built is “polycentricity”: a series of concentric circles, involving plenty of dialogue partners.

    Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl now heads a new think tank in St. Petersburg, G.O.R.K.I. As a European who ended up being ostracized by her own peers under the blatant toxicity of cancel culture, she stressed how freedom and rule of law have disappeared in Europe.

    Kneissl referred to the Battle of Actium as the key passage of power from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Western Mediterranean: “That’s when the dominance of the West started”, complete with all the mythology built around the Roman Empire which obsesses the Anglosphere to this day.

    With sanctions dementia and irrational Russophobia installed at the head of the EU and the European Commission, Kneissl stressed, the notion that “treaties must be preserved” disappeared while “the rule of law has been destroyed. This is the worst that could have happened to Europe”.
    ​
    Alexander Dugin, online, called for understanding “the depth of Western domination”, expressed via hyper-liberalism. And he proposed a key breakthrough: the Western modus operandi should become an object of research, in a sort of Gramscian attempt to define what distinguishes Western ideology, and thus act towards “deep decolonization”.

    ​In a sense this is what is being attempted by current actors in West Africa – Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger. That poses the question of who is a real Sovereign in a new world. The West, argues Dugin, is a Total Sovereign; Russia, as a nuclear power and prime military power defined as an existential threat by the Hegemon, is also a Sovereign.

    Then there’s China, India, Iran, Turkey. These are key poles in a dialogue of civilizations; actually what was proposed by former Iranian President Khatami way back in the late 1990s, and then dismissed by the Hegemon.
    ​
    Dugin remarked how China “has moved far away in building a civilizational state”. Russia, Iran, India are not far behind. These will be the essential actors steering the world towards polycentricity.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 23:40

  • Subtropical Storm Might Swamp Northeast This Weekend 
    Subtropical Storm Might Swamp Northeast This Weekend 

    As Hurricane Nigel churns in the Atlantic Ocean, weather forecasters are closely watching the possibility of a subtropical depression or storm forming off the Southeast coast later this week and could swamp the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast by the weekend. 

    The National Hurricane Center expects a non-tropical area of low pressure to form east of the Florida coast by late week:

    “This system could acquire some subtropical characteristics this weekend while it moves generally northward. 

    “Regardless of subtropical development, this low could bring gusty winds, heavy rain, and high surf conditions to portions of the coastal Carolinas into the coastal Mid-Atlantic states this weekend.”

    Although it’s unclear if the system will be a named storm, it is anticipated to cause gusty winds, rough seas, dangerous rip currents, and coastal flooding. 

    Additionally, it might result in heavy rainfall from the Carolinas through the Northeast. 

    At the same time, Hurricane Nigel is in the central Atlantic, and a new tropical wave is emerging from western Africa. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 23:20

  • A Nation Of Snitches: DHS Is Grooming Americans To Report On Each Other
    A Nation Of Snitches: DHS Is Grooming Americans To Report On Each Other

    Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “There were relatively few secret police, and most were just processing the information coming in. I had found a shocking fact. It wasn’t the secret police who were doing this wide-scale surveillance and hiding on every street corner. It was the ordinary German people who were informing on their neighbors.”

    – Professor Robert Gellately, author of Backing Hitler

    Are you among the 41% of Americans who regularly attend church or some other religious service?

    Do you believe the economy is about to collapse and the government will soon declare martial law?

    Do you display an unusual number of political and/or ideological bumper stickers on your car?

    Are you among the 44% of Americans who live in a household with a gun? If so, are you concerned that the government may be plotting to confiscate your firearms?

    If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you may be an anti-government extremist (a.k.a. domestic terrorist) in the eyes of the government and flagged for heightened surveillance and preemptive intervention.

    Let that sink in a moment.

    If you believe in and exercise your rights under the Constitution (namely, your right to speak freely, worship freely, associate with like-minded individuals who share your political views, criticize the government, own a weapon, demand a warrant before being questioned or searched, or any other activity viewed as potentially anti-government, racist, bigoted, anarchic or sovereign), you have just been promoted to the top of the government’s terrorism watch list.

    I assure you I’m not making this stuff up.

    So what is the government doing about these so-called American “extremists”?

    The government is grooming the American people to spy on each other as part of its Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships, or CP3 program.

    According to journalist Leo Hohmann, the government is handing out $20 million in grants to police, mental health networks, universities, churches and school districts to enlist their help in identifying Americans who might be political dissidents or potential “extremists.”

    As Hohmann explains, “Whether it’s COVID and vaccines, the war in Ukraine, immigration, the Second Amendment, LGBTQ ideology and child-gender confusion, the integrity of our elections, or the issue of protecting life in the womb, you are no longer allowed to hold dissenting opinions and voice them publicly in America. If you do, your own government will take note and consider you a potential ‘violent extremist’ and terrorist.”

    Cue the dawning of the Snitch State.

    This new era of snitch surveillance is the lovechild of the government’s post-9/11 “See Something, Say Something” programs combined with the self-righteousness of a politically correct, hyper-vigilant, technologically-wired age.

    For more than two decades, the Department of Homeland Security has plastered its “See Something, Say Something” campaign on the walls of metro stations, on billboards, on coffee cup sleeves, at the Super Bowl, even on television monitors in the Statue of Liberty. Colleges, universities and even football teams and sporting arenas have lined up for grants to participate in the program.

    The government has even designated September 25 as National “If You See Something, Say Something” Awareness Day.

    If you see something suspicious, says the DHS, say something about it to the police, call it in to a government hotline, or report it using a convenient app on your smart phone.

    This DHS slogan is nothing more than the government’s way of indoctrinating “we the people” into the mindset that we’re an extension of the government and, as such, have a patriotic duty to be suspicious of, spy on, and turn in our fellow citizens.

    This is what is commonly referred to as community policing.

    Yet while community policing and federal programs such as “See Something, Say Something” are sold to the public as patriotic attempts to be on guard against those who would harm us, they are little more than totalitarian tactics dressed up and repackaged for a more modern audience as well-intentioned appeals to law and order and security.

    The police state could not ask for a better citizenry than one that carries out its own policing.

    After all, the police can’t be everywhere. So how do you police a nation when your population outnumbers your army of soldiers? How do you carry out surveillance on a nation when there aren’t enough cameras, let alone viewers, to monitor every square inch of the country 24/7? How do you not only track but analyze the transactions, interactions and movements of every person within the United States?

    The answer is simpler than it seems: You persuade the citizenry to be your eyes and ears. You hype them up on color-coded “Terror alerts,” keep them in the dark about the distinctions between actual threats and staged “training” drills so that all crises seem real, desensitize them to the sight of militarized police walking their streets, acclimatize them to being surveilled “for their own good,” and then indoctrinate them into thinking that they are the only ones who can save the nation from another 9/11.

    Consequently, we now live in a society in which a person can be accused of any number of crimes without knowing what exactly he has done. He might be apprehended in the middle of the night by a roving band of SWAT police. He might find himself on a no-fly list, unable to travel for reasons undisclosed. He might have his phones or internet tapped based upon a secret order handed down by a secret court, with no recourse to discover why he was targeted.

    This Kafkaesque nightmare has become America’s reality.

    This is how you turn a people into extensions of the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent police state, and in the process turn a citizenry against each other.

    It’s a brilliant ploy, with the added bonus that while the citizenry remains focused on and distrustful of each other and shadowy forces from outside the country, they’re incapable of focusing on more definable threats that fall closer to home—namely, the government and its cabal of Constitution-destroying agencies and corporate partners.

    Community policing did not come about as a feel-good, empowering response to individuals trying to “take back” their communities from crime syndicates and drug lords.

    Rather, “Community-Oriented Policing” or COPS (short for Community Partnerships, Organizational Transformation, and Problem Solving) is a Department of Justice program designed to foster partnerships between police agencies and members of the community.

    To this end, the Justice Department identifies five distinct “partners” in the community policing scheme: law enforcement and other government agencies, community members and groups, nonprofits, churches and service providers, private businesses and the media.

    Together, these groups are supposed to “identify” community concerns, “engage” the community in achieving specific goals, serve as “powerful” partners with the government, and add their “considerable resources” to the government’s already massive arsenal of technology and intelligence. The mainstream media’s role, long recognized as being a mouthpiece for the government, is formally recognized as “publicizing” services from government or community agencies or new laws or codes that will be enforced, as well as shaping public perceptions of the police, crime problems, and fear of crime.

    Inevitably, this begs the question: if there’s nothing wrong with community engagement, if the police can’t be everywhere at once, if surveillance cameras do little to actually prevent crime, and if we need to “take back our communities” from the crime syndicates and drug lords, then what’s wrong with community policing and “See Something, Say Something”?

    What’s wrong is that these programs are not, in fact, making America any safer while turning us into a legalistic, intolerant, squealing, bystander nation.

    We are now the unwitting victims of an interconnected, tightly woven, technologically evolving web of real-time, warrantless, wall-to-wall, widening mass surveillance dragnet comprised of fusion centers, red flag laws, behavioral threat assessments, terror watch lists, facial recognition, snitch tip lines, biometric scanners, pre-crime programs, DNA databases, data mining, precognitive technology and contact tracing apps, to name just a few.

    This is how the government keeps us under control and in its crosshairs.

    By the time you combine the DHS’ “See Something, Say Something” with CP3 and community policing, which has gone global in the guise of the Strong Cities Network program, you’ve got a formula for enabling the government to not only flag distinct “anti-government” segments of the population but locking down the entire nation.

    Under the guise of fighting violent extremism “in all of its forms and manifestations” in cities and communities across the world, the Strong Cities Network program works with the UN and the federal government to train local police agencies across America in how to identify, fight and prevent extremism, as well as address intolerance within their communities, using all of the resources at their disposal.

    What this program is really all about, however, is community policing on a global scale with the objective being to prevent violent extremism by targeting its source: racism, bigotry, hatred, intolerance, etc. In other words, police will identify, monitor and deter individuals who could be construed as potential extremist “threats,” violent or otherwise, before they can become actual threats.

    The government’s war on extremists has been sold to Americans in much the same way that the USA Patriot Act was sold to Americans: as a means of combatting terrorists who seek to destroy America.

    However, as we now know, the USA Patriot Act was used as a front to advance the surveillance state, allowing the government to establish a far-reaching domestic spying program that has turned every American citizen into a criminal suspect.

    Similarly, the concern with the government’s ongoing anti-extremism program is that it will, in many cases, be utilized to render otherwise lawful, nonviolent activities as potentially extremist.

    Keep in mind that the government agencies involved in ferreting out American “extremists” will carry out their objectives—to identify and deter potential extremists—in concert with fusion centers, data collection agencies, behavioral scientists, corporations, social media, and community organizers and by relying on cutting-edge technology for surveillance, facial recognition, predictive policing, biometrics, and behavioral epigenetics (in which life experiences alter one’s genetic makeup).

    This is pre-crime on an ideological scale and it’s been a long time coming.

    For example, in 2009, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released two reports, one on “Rightwing Extremism,” which broadly defines rightwing extremists as individuals and groups “that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely,” and one on “Leftwing Extremism,” which labeled environmental and animal rights activist groups as extremists.

    These reports, which use the words terrorist and extremist interchangeably, indicate that for the government, anyone seen as opposing the government—whether they’re Left, Right or somewhere in between—can be labeled an extremist.

    Fast forward a few years, and you have the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which each successive presidential administration has continually re-upped, that allows the military to take you out of your home, lock you up with no access to friends, family or the courts if you’re seen as an extremist.

    Now connect the dots, from the 2009 Extremism reports to the NDAA and the far-reaching data crime fusion centers that collect and share surveillance data between local, state and federal police agencies.

    Add in tens of thousands of armed, surveillance drones that will soon blanket American skies, facial recognition technology that identifies and tracks you wherever you go and whatever you do. And then to complete the circle, toss in the real-time crime centers which are attempting to “predict” crimes and identify criminals before they happen based on widespread surveillance, complex mathematical algorithms and prognostication programs.

    If you can’t read the writing on the wall, you need to pay better attention.

    As I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, unless we can put the brakes on this dramatic expansion and globalization of the government’s powers, we’re not going to recognize this country five, ten—even twenty—years from now.

    As long as “we the people” continue to allow the government to trample our rights in the so-called name of national security, things will get worse, not better.

    It’s already worse.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 23:00

  • Despite 'Financial Tsunami' From Migrants, NYC Mulls Reparations, Removal Of George Washington Statues
    Despite ‘Financial Tsunami’ From Migrants, NYC Mulls Reparations, Removal Of George Washington Statues

    While NYC Mayor Eric Adams insists that the migrant crisis will “destroy New York City,” and hurt ‘low-income New Yorkers‘ because of the ‘financial tsunami,’ it seems the city is somehow able to rationalize launching a reparations task force, and removing statues of George Washington.

    These are among various measures the city council discussed on Tuesday during a public hearing on a measure to remove works of art on city property that “depict a person who owned enslaved persons or directly benefited economically from slavery, or who participated in systemic crimes against indigenous peoples or other crimes against humanity,” Fox News reports.

    [We assume this includes all Islamic art, since Muhammad had 14 concubines?]

    The removals would include statues of America’s first president, George Washington, Dutch governor and New York settler Peter Stuyvesant, and Christopher Columbus.

    If the Public Design Commission (PDC) determined not to remove the work of art, then it would be required to include a plan to install an “explanatory plaque” next to the work of art. The proposal would also require PDC to consult with the Department of Education to install plaques on sidewalks or other public space adjacent to schools named after a person that fits the criteria. -Fox News

    The city’s agenda also included a proposal to create a task force which would “consider the impact of slavery and past injustices for African Americans in New York City and reparations for such injustices.”

    Other proposals include anti-racism training for human services contractors, as well as a plaque near the intersection of Wall and Pearl Streets to “mark the site of New York’s first slave market.”

    Never forget, right? Because the nation can’t heal until we all have constant reminders of a practice which ended almost 150 years ago.

    Heaven forbid we focus on tackling modern slavery around the world.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 22:40

  • Hedge Funds Add China Stock Shorts Even As Growth Bottoms
    Hedge Funds Add China Stock Shorts Even As Growth Bottoms

    By Ye Xie, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and strategist

    China’s economy has shown signs of bottoming. Yet that hasn’t prevented hedge funds from boosting their short positions in the stock market once again.

    Wednesday’s market highlight was, of course, the US Federal Reserve meeting, which turned out to be more hawkish than markets expected. Officials kept one more rate hike on the table for this year, while raising the median dot for 2024 to 5.1% from 4.6%. The shift in the “mode” – or the most-frequent dot on the plot — is even bigger, marking an increase of 75 bps.

    The projections revealed the Fed’s reaction function: upside growth risks will bring less easing next year, even with steady inflation expectations. In other words, the Fed will raise real yields in respond to stronger growth. That should put a bit more pressure on risky assets and support the dollar, particularly against lower yielding currencies, including the yuan.

    Back in China, recent data showed the economy has stabilized. Capital Economics’ China Activity Proxy Index, an alternative measure to official GDP, suggested annual growth accelerated to 6.1% in August, from 4.3% in the previous month.

    The main bright spot is the industrial sector, with a “strong upward trend” in freight traffic at the ports and across roads and railways, according to economists Sheana Yue and Julian Evans-Pritchard. While property sales have yet to bottom, a pickup in car sales also pointed to improvement in consumer sentiment.

    Source: Capital Economics

    A Standard Chartered survey of small and medium enterprises also showed improvement, with the headline index edging up for a second consecutive month.

    Yet the markets are sending conflicting signals. The 10-year bond yield, arguably one of the best indicators of China’s growth momentum, is trading at the top of its range over the past three months. But the equity market remains under pressure, with turnover drifting toward the lowest in 2023.

    Coincidentally, hedge funds boosted their bearish bets on Chinese and Hong Kong stocks. Short interest has increased this month pretty much across sectors, according to data compiled by Morgan Stanley. Among the prominent names, the pickup in short interest in PDD, an e-commerce company, stood out. Outflows from active long-only managers also continued, strategists including Gilbert Wong wrote in a report.

    Source: Morgan Stanley

    Apparently, fund managers didn’t get the “China Recovery” memo.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 22:20

  • US Army's Hypersonic Missile Hit With Fielding Delay As China And Russia Lead Global Arms Race
    US Army’s Hypersonic Missile Hit With Fielding Delay As China And Russia Lead Global Arms Race

    Assistant Secretary of the US Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology Doug Bush told Defense News in an interview on Monday that the service’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) aims to be fielded at the end of the year, contingent on a successful retest after missing a four-year-old target to deploy by the government’s fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. 

    Bush said the delay of the LRHW is due to the cancellation of a test of the Common Hypersonic Glide Body, adding the test planned for this month was going to be “pretty close to an operational test” instead of a developmental test. 

    “We still have a path with a follow-up test to get to a fielded capability by the end of calendar 2023,” Bush said. 

    He continued, “It is just what it is, I mean, a fact of life, we’re not going to field something until we have some confidence that if soldiers are asked to go use it in combat that it’s going to work and be safe for them to use.”

    Bush noted, “We’re still finding problems” and “it’s actually good we’re finding these” problems rather than later.

    One of those problems is a “flaw that triggered a ‘don’t shoot’ warning two seconds before launch,” he said. 

    Meanwhile, the Pentagon has poured billions of dollars into these superfast weapons but has struggled to keep pace with China and Russia.

    The spending is part of America’s struggle to re-establish dominance in key military technologies as it enters a new era of great-power competition. The US is straining to keep up with China in an array of military technologies, ranging from artificial intelligence to biotechnology.

    Moscow’s work on hypersonics is also a concern for the Pentagon, even if Russia’s weapons are mostly based on Cold War research and not as sophisticated as those China is now developing. Moscow has developed weapons that can threaten NATO forces in Europe, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has touted Avangard, a hypersonic weapon that can reach the US –The Wall Street Journal 

    WSJ noted:

    The Pentagon’s problems with developing hypersonics run up and down the decision chain, from failed flight tests and inadequate testing infrastructure to the lack of a clear, overarching plan for fielding the weapons. The situation is raising alarms among some former officials.

    Mounting delays for the US’ hypersonic weapons program is not a surprise, as we’ve outlined to readers over the years: “America Falls Behind Russia And China In Combat-Ready Hypersonic Missiles, Report Says.” 

    The inability to deploy hypersonic weapons and severe challenges surrounding the F-35 stealth jets are very concerning for taxpayers forced to subsidize a bloated military-industrial complex to the tune of hundreds of billions every year without having any say in the matter. 

     

     

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 22:00

  • California Awarded $100 Million From Fed To Plant Trees To Combat Extreme Heat
    California Awarded $100 Million From Fed To Plant Trees To Combat Extreme Heat

    Authored by Carol Cassis via The Epoch Times,

    Officials announced last week that California will share in over $1 billion of federal funding allocated to all 50 states to help plant trees in an effort to cool rising temperatures and fight climate change.

    The state will receive around $103 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, which in turn will be dispersed to 43 recipients across Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and other areas for tree planting and maintenance, urban canopy improvements, and other green efforts.

    The funding, which stems from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act passed last year, is the act’s largest investment in urban and community green spaces, according to officials.

    Those from the Biden administration said such funding is aimed at fighting climate change due to global warming.

    “Unfortunately, the difficulties and challenges we’ve seen with weather are not going to go away,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was quoted in the Los Angeles Times.

    “We’re going to continue to be challenged by Mother Nature, so we want to make sure that our communities are more resilient and more capable of withstanding what Mother Nature may have in store.”

    Supporters of the program say the funding is arriving just in time after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Sept. 14 that last month was the planet’s warmest August on record, and that the Northern Hemisphere experienced its hottest meteorological summer to date.

    Research has shown that areas with more pavement and fewer trees are hotter in temperature than greener spaces, and experts say that extreme heat kills more each year than hurricanes, tornadoes, and other weather dangers, according to data from the National Weather Service.

    A group of men sit underneath a tree for shade amid a heatwave in Calexico, Calif., on Aug. 31, 2022. (Ariana Drehsler/Getty Images)

    Such areas with less shady tree cover or “urban canopy,” such as parts of Los Angeles and Riverside counties have been shown to have elevated temperatures compared to areas within the same regions with more tree cover.

    The largest program grant awarded in California was $12 million to the San Francisco Public Works Bureau of Urban Forestry, which aims to plant and create “thousands of street trees in low-canopy communities,” according to its project description. San Diego will receive $10 million to plant and preserve trees and promote “tree equity,” wherein the city plans to increase trees planted in lower-income areas where fewer trees are currently present, among other goals.

    U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) voiced her support for the program in a recent statement, stating funding to plant trees in urban spaces in turn will “filter out pollution, reduce energy consumption, lower temperatures and provide more Californians access to green spaces in their communities.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 21:40

  • Liquor In The Front, Poker In The Rear: Denver Homeless Camp Busted For Drinking, Prostitution
    Liquor In The Front, Poker In The Rear: Denver Homeless Camp Busted For Drinking, Prostitution

    A homeless camp in Denver was cleaned up after a viral video revealed that some enterprising individuals had set up a makeshift speakeasy with prostitution tents, according to police.

    The setup featured lounge chairs, umbrellas and astroturf was found in the city’s burgeoning homeless encampment at 23rd and Champa streets.

    The encampment resulted in “numerous complaints” to the police after pedestrians were forced into the street to pas it.

    “We’re hearing there was an open bar, sales of alcohol, things like that,” Denver Police Patrol Division Chief Aaron Sanchez told CBS Colorado, adding “We have officers looking into that.”

    Sanchez also said that there have been complaints that surrounding tents and couches at the streetside bar were being rented out for prostitution.

    Homeless aid group executive Meghan Shay of Step Denver says she noticed the apparent bar while driving to work, and said that an encampment featuring liquor would only exacerbate the city’s homeless problem – given that 80% of homeless have experienced lifetime alcohol and/or drug issues, according to Shay.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 21:20

  • Javier's Milei's Populist Strategy In Argentina Is Working
    Javier’s Milei’s Populist Strategy In Argentina Is Working

    Authored by Philipp Bagus via The Mises Institute,

    The Austro-libertarian movement has the better ideas. They continue to be discussed, elaborated, and intellectually defended. But how can the right ideas be implemented? What good is it to be right if the reality is left-wing? In fact, most of the population, or at least public opinion, seems to be drifting further and further to the left, with cancel culture, climate hysteria, a sprawling welfare state and ever higher taxes and levies.

    The right ideas and theories are there, but they have not yet been put successful in practice. How can this be changed? Of course, ideas are important, they must also be disseminated, from below, from the grassroots up. It’s an arduous process. And there has been undeniable progress in recent years. Nevertheless, the left-wing zeitgeist is rolling over the freedoms of citizens almost unhindered; most shockingly during the Covid crisis. The left tries to paint anyone who stands in the zeitgeist´s way as an extremist or even a Nazi.

    Against this background, what can a successful strategy look like? Murray Rothbard addressed this question in an article in the Rothbard-Rockwell Report entitled Right-Wing Populism: A Strategy for the Paleo Movement. His contribution is groundbreaking and forward-looking. He anticipates the successes of Donald Trump in the United States and, more recently, of Javier Milei in Argentina.

    Javier Milei is making a splash on all sides, because on August 13, 2023, he won the primaries for the presidency in Argentina. In the German media, he is described as ultra-right and ultra-libertarian. Recently, the Financial Times dealt with the self-confessed anarcho-capitalist in a column, in which the author insinuated that the libertarian Milei would follow the strategy of right-wing populism designed by Murray Rothbard in 1992. This gives rise to the question if that claim is true and what exactly is this right-wing populism?

    According to the paleo-libertarian Rothbard, the program of right-wing populism includes 8 main points:

    1. Radical tax cuts

    2. Radical reduction of the welfare state

    3. Abolition of privileges for “protected” minorities

    4. Crushing criminals

    5. Getting rid of bums

    6. Abolition of the Federal Reserve

    7. A program of America First (anti-globalist and isolationist)

    8. Defending traditional family values

    Indeed, Milei’s election manifesto is very much in line with Rothbard’s right-wing populism and paleo-libertarianism. Milei wants to radically reduce taxes. He never tires of calling taxes what they are, theft. He also wants to radically grind down the welfare state and likes to illustrate the reduction in government spending and his proposal of reducing Argentinian ministries from 18 to 8 with a chainsaw. His “Chainsaw Plan” is intended to radically trim the state.

    Milei repeatedly speaks of equality before the law as a fundamental liberal principle and wants to abolish privileges for minorities. As a result, he repeatedly clashes with radical feminists who defend legal privileges for women.

    The imprisonment of criminals is also on Milei’s agenda. Gun freedom is in his program so that victims can defend themselves against criminals. Those who refuse to work are no longer supported by the state in his Argentina.

    Milei also has the 6th of Rothbard’s points in his agenda: Milei wants to abolish the central bank of Argentina. Using right-wing populist rhetoric he aims to physically blow up the central bank. In doing so, he would wipe out the power of one of the most inflationary central banks, which willingly financed all Peronist and Kirchnerist spending programs. He wants to dollarize the country and open it up to currency competition.

    Milei also puts his own country first: Argentina first. Right-wing populism opposes the globalist agenda. It cuts development aid, climate programs and military adventures. Milei likes to point out that Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world at the beginning of the 20th century thanks to classical liberal policies and was destroyed by socialism in the 20th century. In 35 years, Milei promises, Argentina can be a superpower again. The prerequisite for this to happen is a return to libertarianism.

    Finally, Milei also defends traditional family values and opposes the state takeover of family responsibilities. The vehement opponent of abortion has defended the right to life several times in debates with radical feminists.

    Milei used to be chief economist at various institutions and a professor of economics. He is a follower of the Austrian School of Economics. One of his dogs is named Murray. He contributor a chapter two-volume Festschrift in honor of Jesús Huerta de Soto edited by David Howden and myself. A couple of years ago he was guest via zoom in my seminar in our Master’s degree in Austrian Economics that we offer in Madrid, and spoke about his strategy.

    In short, Milei is one of us. And he can win the election. He can become president of Argentina. An Austrian. An anarcho-capitalist. With an openly radical libertarian election program. In a country that has paid homage to socialism for decades. Amazing.

    Milei has been very present in the public debate in Argentina for years. He gained fame as a polarizing and fiercely arguing talk show guest. Later, he decided to create his own party to lead the culture war against socialism and statism more effectively and to bring the right ideas to more people.

    His rhetorical strategy in debates is vociferous, belligerent, and is sometimes perceived as offensive (if the truth can be offensive at all). He does not allow himself to be intimidated or belittled by left-wing opinion-makers. In a debate, he simply shouts louder than the leftists, whom he calls “Zurdos”, and interrupts them to tell them to their faces that they are saying an absolute stupidity and have no idea what they are talking about. You should read Hayek, Mises and Rothbard first, Milei recommends to them. He also calls leftists and politicians parasites and thieves, in a debate. For taxes are theft. 

    In keeping with Rothbard’s strategy of right-wing populism, he clearly names the profiteers of the state apparatus. He rails again and again against the caste of politicians and bureaucrats. He calls them parasites that live at the expense of the hard-working and decent citizens. Politicians are completely useless and could not live without the productive Argentinians. Politics is not the solution, but the problem. And politicians form part of the problem. In this way, Milei wins over those decent Argentinians who suffer most from the yoke of the state. Equally clear are his remarks on the concept of social justice. So-called social justice is a monstrous injustice because it means unequal treatment of people before the law. It is a fig leaf for envy and resentment.

    Milei’s emotional and polemical nature resonates with many, especially among young people. After winning the primaries in mid-August, he has legitimate hopes for the Argentine presidency.

    Milei’s successes have become a topic of everyday conversation, especially in the Hispanic world. One speaks of Milei with astonishment and appreciation. Acquaintances and friends send short videos of his rhetorical gems. Libertarian ideas are back in vogue. People are venturing forward with libertarian opinions, everywhere and unexpectedly. The window of public and permissible opinions is shifting in the direction of freedom. Thanks to Milei.

    Regardless of whether the charismatic Milei ultimately wins the election, his campaign has sparked a young and powerful libertarian movement. His triumph in the primaries may be more significant than the Ron Paul Revolution of 2008 and 2012. The incredible fact is that he is successful. With a right-wing populism that Rothbard recommended, in a run-down country, with his charismatic personality, with aggressive rhetoric. Nothing is impossible. Even a libertarian can win a democratic election. It’s the strategy that counts. ¡Vamos Javier! ¡Viva la libertad, carajo!

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 21:00

  • NATO Fractures: In U-Turn, Poland Announces It Will No Longer Arm Ukraine
    NATO Fractures: In U-Turn, Poland Announces It Will No Longer Arm Ukraine

    The dam is breaking on unified Western support for Ukraine, and the timing couldn’t be worse for Zelensky, given tomorrow he’s expected to meet with President Biden at the White House. On Wednesday evening there is monumental news out of Poland which could potentially change the entire course of the war.

    “Poland will no longer arm Ukraine to focus on its own defense,” Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced just hours after Warsaw summoned Ukraine’s ambassador related to a fresh war of words and spat over blocked grain, according to the AFP. Warsaw has throughout more than a year-and-a-half of the Ukraine-Russia war been Kiev’s staunchest and most outspoken supporter.

    Will this massive and hugely significant about-face mark the beginning of the end? Are peace negotiations and ceding of territory in the Donbas inevitable at this point? 

    Within the last 48 hours relations between Poland and Ukraine quickly spiraled to their lowest point since the Russian invasion, and it is directly related to Warsaw leading a handful of EU countries to extend a grain export ban on Ukraine, amid continuing anger and outrage from Polish farmers who are suffering due to their country being flooded with cheap Ukrainian wheat.

    Crucially, Poland will hold parliamentary elections on Oct.15. The prior atmosphere of enthusiastic pro-Kiev rhetoric has drastically changed, now with comparisons likening Ukraine to a “drowning man”. As The Associated Press explains:

    Polish leaders have compared Ukraine to a drowning person hurting his helper and threatened to expand a ban on food products from the war-torn country. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that EU allies that are prohibiting imports of his nation’s grain are helping Russia.

    Now, Polish officials, who are trying to win parliamentary elections next month with help from farmers’ votes, are expressing dismay over some of Ukraine’s latest moves, including a World Trade Organization complaint over bans on Ukrainian grain from Poland and two other EU countries.

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    In surprisingly blunt and terse words given to reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Tuesday: “Ukraine is behaving like a drowning person clinging to anything available.”

    He then said, “A drowning person is extremely dangerous, capable of pulling you down to the depths … simply drown the rescuer.” Given Ukraine’s battlefield losses and as it’s currently bogged down in a failing counteroffensive, the words no doubt stung. But as The Hill notes further of the domestic political context in Poland:

    Public sentiment around the issue, however, has started to deteriorate, putting the ruling party in a difficult position ahead of a close October election. The far-right Confederation party is hoping to capitalize on the waning support in the country. 

    Reuters reported that a recent poll showed support for Ukrainian refugees fell from 91 percent when the war started to just 69 percent recently. The same survey showed a quarter of Poles are against supporting refugees, compared to 4 percent in early 2022.

    In response to the grain ban, Zelensky during his UN speech had condemned the “alarming” behavior of allies regarding the import ban, but without naming Poland specifically. Further, Kiev has announced plans to sue Warsaw in the World Trade Organization while also holding out the possibility of its own embargo on Polish foodstuffs, including onions, tomatoes, cabbage, and apples. Again, all of this amounts to a full-blown diplomatic crisis for Zelensky which couldn’t come at a worse time, as he’s in D.C.

    To review, these are some of the major developments and setbacks in only the last few days:

    • Zelensky fired at least 6 top-ranking defense officials over corruption, after recently firing longtime Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov amid a graft probe.
    • American transgender spokesperson for Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces Sarah Ashton-Cirillo was suspended indefinitely by the Ukrainian military in an embarrassing debacle.
    • The New York Times ran an article which said a missile fired by Ukraine – not Russia – struck a busy civilian market …marking an unexpected establishment media about-face.
    • Biden has yet to pledge any new weapons for Ukraine as Zelensky is in the US, and there are reports that ATACMS long-range missiles will not be approved.

    And most importantly, there’s this per Politico…

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    According to the fresh Wednesday report:

    Delivering any new aid to help defend against Russia, even later this year, is looking tougher than ever.

    The obstacles are piling up: House Republicans are skeptical of any new money at all. What’s more, their dysfunction threatens to push the government into a shutdown — a move that certainly gets Zelenskyy no closer to getting the billions requested by the Biden administration. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, are divided over whether to continue providing humanitarian aid, arguing the rest of Europe needs to step up.

    As if fully aware that the tap at the expense of the US taxpayer may run dry, Zelensky has been meeting in New York with a who’s who of leading banks, hedge funds, and private investors. Fox Business, which broke the story, says the ongoing meetings are part of broader efforts to secure investment for rebuilding Ukraine and fixing destroyed infrastructure:  

    The meeting was put together by JPMorgan, the big bank serving as Zelenskyy’s financial adviser to attract private capital for a new investment fund to rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure destroyed in its war with Russia, according to people with knowledge of the matter. 

    Earlier in the afternoon, Zelenskyy met privately with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, the sources say. BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager and has also been advising Zelenskyy on how to attract U.S. private sector money for the rebuilding effort.

    The list of invitees, according to sources, includes William Ackman, the head of hedge fund Pershing Square Capital; Ken Griffin of the Citadel investment empire; Jonathan Gray, president and chief operating officer of private equity powerhouse Blackstone; Philipp Hildebrand, a vice chairman at BlackRock; Michael Bloomberg, former New York City mayor and founder of Bloomberg LP; and Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and now head of the Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic organization.

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    Tomorrow’s White House visit, and Zelensky’s planned meeting with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will surely be interesting.

    Meanwhile, for a foretaste and indicator of how much the tide is turning – and the very different, subdued optics – especially compared to Zelensky’s last trip to Washington (in Dec. 2022) when he was received with rockstar status, there’s this…

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 21:00

  • Ukraine's Transgender Military Spox Fired For 'Unapproved' Statements
    Ukraine’s Transgender Military Spox Fired For ‘Unapproved’ Statements

    Update(1336ET): The controversial American transgender spokesperson for Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces Sarah Ashton-Cirillo (born Michael Cirillo) has been suspended indefinitely by the Ukrainian military, also pending an investigation. According to an official Ukrainian military statement, Ashton-Cirillo’s recent statements regarding “hunting down” dissidents and “propagandists” were not approved…

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    And it’s additionally been confirmed by the country’s Defense Ministry: 

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    As we detailed below, Ashton-Cirillo had within the last days been in a verbal fight with influential Republican Senator J.D. Vance.

    Given the “hunting down” video had been online for well over a week, and Kiev did nothing, the timing of the suspension by Ukraine’s military seems more out of concern for Zelensky’s lobbying efforts in D.C. than anything else.

    Zelensky is about to visit the White House, and will also seek to lobby GOP holdouts and fence-sitters in Congress to approve billions more in defense aid for Ukraine. This is likely the real reason for Ashton-Cirillo being dismissed: Zelensky didn’t want the controversy hanging over his head in Washington, especially after Sen. Vance wrote a letter demanding answers to top White House defense and intelligence officials. 

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    Also, was only this week that the following bizarre and embarrassing scene played out in Las Vegas City Hall…

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    * * *

    The American man masquerading as a “female” spokesperson for the Ukrainian military has decided to pick a fight with a sitting American senator. 

    Senator JD Vance of Ohio has made formal inquiry as to whether Sarah Ashton-Cirillo (born Michael John Cirillo) is being funded by the US government or has ties to the US intelligence community. 

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    Sen. Vance has sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, toward that end of seeking information. 

    Last week a viral video by Ashton-Cirillo saw him declare on behalf of the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine that Russia’s “propagandists” will be “hunted down” around the world.

    Revealingly, this was said just as an American journalist, Gonzalo Lira, was due in Ukrainian court on vague charges of “justifying Russia’s aggression.” That video sparked frenzy and anger online, given it seemed an open threat to journalists or anyone that doesn’t toe a pro-Ukrainian line on any given issue related to the war.

    Fireworks ensued as Sen. Vance and Ashton-Cirillo went back and forth…

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    Vance’s letter to top US defense and intelligence officials stated in part:

    “In recent days, a video has circulated of an individual who claims to be an English-speaking spokesperson for the Ukrainian military. In the video, this individual, Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, looks directly into the camera and threatens physical violence to anyone who circulates ‘Russian propaganda’.”

    And more from the letter:

    “A number of reports purport to offer additional information, much of it unconfirmed, regarding Ashton-Cirillo. I’ve seen claims this individual is an American, a former intelligence operative in the United States, and an employee of the Ukrainian government. Others have argued Ashton-Cirillo is pulling an elaborate prank. If so, kudos for the delivery of high quality humor,” Vance continued in an apparent reference to Ashton-Cirillo’s reported direct lobbying of the U.S. Congress for military aid to Ukraine last December.

    These are the questions posed by the Ohio freshman Senator in the letter:

    1. Is this individual employed by the Ukrainian military, and do we have reason to believe the are compensated using American resources?
    2. Is this individual an American citizen? Did they ever serve, in any capacity, American intelligence services?
    3. Do we have reason to believe Ukrainian forces or intelligence services are planning to commit acts of violence against those who engage in ‘Russian propaganda’?

    According to the independent news source, The Dossier, Ashton-Cirillo issued some incriminating fresh statements on Monday, and then quickly backtracked, perhaps sensing he could be in hot water or that the whole episode might embarrass Kiev:

    Responding to an inquiry form Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Sarah Ashton-Cirillo — born Michael John Cirillo — declared that he answers to three people: “my Ukrainian commanders, the Ukrainian people, and the American taxpayer.”

    An hour later, Cirillo posted a video backtracking on the previous statement, insisting that the U.S. government is not funding his Ukrainian military media operation overseas.

    This is the bizarre response to Vance’s inquiries from the transgender YouTube spokesperson…

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    Vance later gave some apt and appropriate comments to Breitbart News, saying: “If the Ukrainians want to hire weirdos to threaten Americans and others for speaking their mind, I guess that’s their right. They shouldn’t use our tax dollars to do it.”

    He continued: “And we shouldn’t pretend this is a war for freedom when our supposed ally is threatening violence to anyone who opposes the war.”

    * * *

    Meanwhile, here’s how we know that the Ukrainian government will continue down this weird trajectory of giving platforms to transgender journalists in an effort to virtue-signal to Western-Left progressives…

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 20:59

  • Biden HHS Hits Wuhan Lab With 10-Year Funding Ban Amid Mounting Evidence Of Leak
    Biden HHS Hits Wuhan Lab With 10-Year Funding Ban Amid Mounting Evidence Of Leak

    The Biden administration’s Department of Health and Human Services announced on Wednesday that it has officially banned the Wuhan Institute of Virology from receiving US funding for a decade, based on mounting evidence that it was ground zero for the Covid-19 pandemic.

    On Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra sent a letter to WIV Director Genera, Dr. Yanyi Wang, to inform her that the lab – which Dr. Anthony Fauci offshored risky gain-of-function research to, would no longer be funded by US grants until July 16, 2033, the NY Post reports.

    The letter notes that attempts had been made to contact the lab via fax, email and mail about HHS’s decision to suspend funding in July, but no WIV officials had contested the designation or even responded to the agency.

    In that earlier missive, the NIH said it found the Wuhan Institute of Virology had “conducted an experiment yielding a level of viral activity which was greater than permitted under the terms of the grant,” which was for the study of bat coronaviruses.

    Other requests for the Chinese research institution’s lab findings had also been ignored after NIH made requests for them on Nov. 5, 2021, and Jan. 6, 2022. -NY Post

    “WIV has not acknowledged the violations, has not cooperated with the Government to address the violations, has not accepted responsibility for the violations, and, therefore, presumably has taken no action to eliminate the risk to the Government in conducting business transactions with WIV presently or into the future,” the letter reads.

    On Wednesday, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus released a redacted copy of the letter, calling it an “obvious step in the right direction.”

    “This is especially timely as mounting evidence and intelligence continue to suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from a laboratory failure in Wuhan,” said Wenstrup, a Republican from Ohio. “Rewarding the likely source of a global pandemic with American resources will only lead to more future health risks.”

    “Further, the Select Subcommittee recently revealed that prominent public health authorities — including Dr. Anthony Fauci — knew about the risky laboratory conditions in Wuhan prior to the spread of COVID-19 worldwide,” he added.

    “Covering up for the failures of a Chinese lab, hiding critical evidence from the American people, and facilitating the public promotion of a false, alternative narrative is extremely concerning and deserves thorough investigation.”

    Recall that Fauci – who offshored banned gain-of-function research to make bat coronaviruses more transmissible to humans – was accused by Congressional investigators of having ‘prompted‘ the fabrication of a paper by a cadre of scientists aimed at disproving the Covid-19 lab-leak theory.

    As the Post further notes, US taxpayers paid more than $2.1 million in grant funding via the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) between 2014 and 2021. Over $1.4 million of this went to WIV via EcoHealth Alliance.

    US intelligence agencies have issued conflicting reports about the origins of the COVID pandemic, with the FBI being the first to declare a lab leak the most likely explanation for the pandemic.

    The Energy Department has also concluded that SARS-CoV-2 most likely leaked from a Chinese lab. The CIA has been unable to come to a determination about pandemic origins. -NY Post

    Meanwhile, a senior CIA whistleblower recently told Congress that six analysts who originally concluded a lab-leak was the most likely origin of the pandemic were “given a significant monetary incentive to change their position.”

    Hey, remember when the Facebook fact checker who worked at the Wuhan lab decreed that a lab-leak was impossible? Good times.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 20:40

  • Viral RNA Can Persist For 2 Years After COVID-19: Preprint Study
    Viral RNA Can Persist For 2 Years After COVID-19: Preprint Study

    Authored by Megan Redshaw via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A new study may explain why some people who get COVID-19 never return to normal and instead experience new medical conditions like cardiovascular disease, clotting dysfunction, activation of latent viruses, diabetes mellitus, or what’s known as “long COVID” after SARS-CoV-2 infection.

    Roughly 15 percent of people who get COVID-19 experience long COVID, a term used to define the long-term physical, cognitive, and mental health impairments that persist from weeks to months after a person recovers from COVID-19.

    In a recent preprint study published on medRxiv, researchers conducted the first positron emission tomography (PET) imaging study of T cell activation in individuals who previously recovered from COVID-19 and found that SARS-CoV-2 infection may result in persistent T cell activation in a variety of body tissues for years following initial symptoms. Even in clinically mild cases of COVID-19, this phenomenon could explain the systemic changes observed in the immune system and in those with long COVID symptoms.

    To carry out the study, researchers conducted whole-body PET scans of 24 participants who were previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 and recovered from acute infection at time points ranging from 27 to 910 days following COVID-19 symptom onset.

    A PET scan is an imaging test that uses a radioactive drug called a tracer to assess the metabolic or biochemical function of tissues and organs and can reveal both normal and abnormal metabolic activity. The tracer is usually injected into the hand or vein in the arm and collects in areas of the body with higher levels of metabolic or biochemical activity, which can reveal the location of the disease.

    Using a novel radiopharmaceutical agent that detects specific molecules associated with a type of white blood cell called T lymphocytes, researchers found uptake of the tracer was significantly higher in post-acute COVID-19 participants compared to pre-pandemic controls in the brain stem, spinal cord, bone marrow, nasopharyngeal and hilar lymphoid tissue, cardiopulmonary tissues, and gut wall. Among males and females, male participants tended to have higher uptake in the pharyngeal tonsils, rectal wall, and hilar lymphoid tissue compared to female participants.

    Researchers specifically identified cellular SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the gut tissue of all participants with long COVID symptoms who underwent biopsy—in the absence of reinfection—ranging from 158 to 676 days following initial COVID-19 illness, suggesting that tissue viral persistence could be associated with long-term immunological concerns. Although the uptake of the tracer in some tissues appeared to decline with time, the levels still remained elevated compared to the control group of healthy pre-pandemic volunteers.

    “These data significantly extend prior observations of a durable and dysfunctional cellular immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection could result in a new immunologic steady state in the years following COVID-19,” the researchers wrote.

    To determine the association between T cell activation and long COVID symptoms, researchers compared post-acute COVID-19 participants with and without long COVID symptoms at the time of PET imaging. Those with long COVID symptoms reported a median of 5.5 symptoms at the time of imaging. Findings showed a “modestly higher uptake” of the agent in the spinal cord, hilar lymph nodes, and colon/rectal wall in those with long COVID symptoms.

    In participants with long COVID who reported five or more symptoms at the time of imaging, researchers observed higher levels of inflammatory markers, “including proteins involved in immune responses, chemokine signaling, inflammation responses, and nervous system development.” Compared to both pre-pandemic controls and those participants who had COVID-19 and completely recovered, people with long COVID showed higher T cell activation in the spinal cord and gut wall.

    Although the researchers attribute their findings to SARS-CoV-2 infection, all but one participant had received at least one COVID-19 vaccination prior to PET imaging. To minimize the impact of vaccination on T cell activation, PET imaging was performed more than 60 days from any vaccine dose except in one participant who received a booster vaccine dose six days prior to imaging. Except for that one participant, people who had received a COVID-19 vaccine within four weeks of imaging were excluded. Researchers also grouped participants by receipt of a COVID-19 dose greater than or less than 180 days prior to PET imaging—although vaccinated participants would have undoubtedly been included in both groups.

    The researchers said their study had several other limitations, including small sample size, limited correlative studies, evolving variants, rapid and inconsistent rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which required them to shift their imaging protocols, using pre-pandemic individuals as controls, and the extreme difficulty of finding people who had never been infected with SARS-CoV-2.

    “In summary, our results provide provocative evidence of long-term immune system activation in several specific tissues following SARS-CoV-2 infection, including in those experiencing Long COVID symptoms,” the researchers concluded. “We identified that SARS-CoV-2 persistence is one potential driver of this ongoing activated immune state, and we show that SARS-CoV-2 RNA may persist in gut tissue for nearly 2 years after the initial infection.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 20:20

  • AI, Critical-Thinking, & The Future Of Freedom
    AI, Critical-Thinking, & The Future Of Freedom

    Authored by Emile Phaneuf III via The American Institute for Economic Research,

    University professors around the world are struggling to adapt to a student body that is, for the first time in history, able to generate essays and conduct other sophisticated tasks in just a few seconds by ordering an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot such as ChatGPT to roll up its digital sleeves and do the dirty work.

    Since ChatGPT’s launch, I took the general viewpoint that higher education would eventually have to come around to allowing students to use such technologies as just another tool for research and writing, just as calculators are usually considered fair game in math classes.

    I was then delighted to stumble upon the AI chatbot policy of Stephen Hicks, Professor of Philosophy at Rockford University in Illinois. His policy reads as follows:

    I encourage you to use ChatGPT.

    It is a powerful new research tool. Anything that enables you to learn faster and become more skillful is to be embraced.

    At the same time, a tool is not a substitute for your own self-development. As a student, your goal is to acquire as much new knowledge as you can and to become skillful with every useful learning tool available. The goal is for you to become knowledgeable and wise, and for you to become excellent at research and judgment.

    Metaphorically: Become a lean, mean learning machine. And make that a personal goal and a matter of honor.

    If you are taking this course for credit, it is your responsibility to demonstrate that the work you submit is your own. There are many ways to do that, and you and I can consult individually to determine which way is best for you.

    Stephen R. C. Hicks
    Professor of Philosophy

    As you see, while Hicks recognizes the importance of the students’ own individual self-development, he still embraces an important disruptive technology that can push beyond the more laborious traditional methods of researching and writing.

    This reminds me of my 7th grade math teacher. She was an elderly lady who was often capable of working out long division math problems in her head, and she recounted stories of people she knew in her youth who were even more capable. (We, her students, worked it out on paper). Given that she grew up before the launch of the pocket calculator, her more advanced quantitative skills revealed the extent to which she was a product of her time. Similarly, as a student during middle school, I was (I believe) better at spelling than I am now, but then software (word processors) disrupted that with spell check. “Spelling Bees” seemed to disappear as I got older. While I am more reliant on spell check than I was in my younger years, it seems that this has freed up both cognitive space and time for me to be able to focus on more advanced (and less mundane) tasks. This phenomenon was articulated beautifully by Alfred North Whitehead:

    It is a profoundly erroneous truism, repeated by all copy-books and by eminent people when they are making speeches, that we should cultivate the habit of thinking what we are doing. The precise opposite is the case. Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.

    It seems to me that perhaps, for the first time ever, it could be critical thinking itself that is disrupted (at least at scale; a calculator does the same at a much smaller scale).

    A new problem for freedom?

    If I am correct that AI will disrupt critical thinking itself, then it appears that we have a new potential threat to a free society. Consider, for a moment, the motto of the Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala:

    The education and spreading of ethical, judicial, and economic principles of a society of free and responsible persons

    Being free and responsible comes with an implied necessity for a citizenry capable of thinking for itself. But if I am correct that AI is on its way to disrupt critical thinking itself, then new generations of people may never learn critical thinking in the first place. If a free society requires a citizenry of free and independent thinkers, the future of freedom is confronted with a new problem. 

    Or, perhaps that worry is overly pessimistic. The way I see it, a combination of at least a couple of things is likely to happen. Upon first glance, they may seem at odds, but we could see that in some way one is true, while in another way, the other is simultaneously true. 

    1. Critical thinking is diminished because of an overreliance on AI. AI here, over the long-term, serves as a crutch. (This is the main concern I raise in this article). 

    2. Critical thinking reaches new heights, aided by AI.

    What remains of raw, mere-human critical thinking (without aid of AI) will likely need to be channeled into a certain healthy distrust for the biases of the AI bots and their developers, and into understanding the incentives under which the developers (and those who financially support them) operate.

    Whatever the outcome, let’s hope that AI (on the whole) works to serve as a tool for the betterment of the human condition, allowing for “a society of free and responsible persons.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 19:40

  • Elon Musk Says "Strange Almost No Legacy Media Coverage" On Worsening Southern Border Crisis 
    Elon Musk Says “Strange Almost No Legacy Media Coverage” On Worsening Southern Border Crisis 

    Fox News reporter Bill Melugin posted on X, “It’s a total free for all in Eagle Pass right now.” 

    Thousands of illegal immigrants continue flooding the southern US border while the Biden administration pretends everything is fine. 

    Melugin and his team are at Eagle Pass, Texas, where they have captured alarming footage that shows a massive flow of illegals crossing into the US. 

    Melugin said, “Mass illegal crossing taking place for over an hour and a half. Almost 2 years to the day we saw 15,000+ Haitians under the bridge in Del Rio, we now have thousands of predominantly Venezuelans gathering under Eagle Pass bridge.” 

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

    Melugin said Texas has declared an emergency in Eagle Pass. 

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

    Elon Musk commented on Melugin’s X post: “Strange that there is almost no legacy media coverage of this.” 

    Musk continued, “About 2 million people – from every country on Earth – are entering through the US southern border every year. The number is rising rapidly, yet no preventive action is taken by the current administration.” 

    Musk is correct that corporate media aligned with the Democrats are not covering the continuing border crisis. And why would they? It’s another failure of this administration, even after they put forth supposedly new ‘border enforcement actions’ earlier this year.  

    Earlier this week, Fox News journalist Griff Jenkins shared another shocking video of a train of illegals heading north in Mexico to the US border. 

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

    Under the Biden administration, disastrous open border policies have led to nearly 6 million illegal crossings. The influx of migrants has also supercharged the drug crisis nationwide, as fentanyl is now on every street corner. And things are quickly deteriorating in major metro areas, such as New York City, which have been swamped with migrants that risk sparking a financial crisis. 

    Radicals in the White House are going against the will of the people with open border policies. Why is that?

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 19:20

  • We Will Get Nuclear Weapon If Iran Does, Saudi Crown Prince Tells Fox
    We Will Get Nuclear Weapon If Iran Does, Saudi Crown Prince Tells Fox

    Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) said in an exclusive Fox News interview published Wednesday that Saudi Arabia will obtain a nuclear weapon if its number one regional rival does so first.

    “If they get one, we have to get one,” MbS told Fox’s ‘Special Report’ anchor Bret Baier when asked what the kingdom would do if Iran builds a nuclear weapon.

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

    It marks Riyadh’s clearest warning to date related to Iran’s alleged nuclear aspirations (though Tehran has long maintained its nuclear program is solely for peaceful nuclear energy purposes). 

    The blunt statements regarding Saudi Arabia’s intentions to go nuclear if the Islamic Republic does were set against a broader discussion about potentially achieving full peace and diplomatic relations with Israel on the basis of the Abraham Accords. 

    “Every day we get closer,” the crown prince said when asked about the recent expanding ties with Israel, which has lately included opening up airspace to Israeli flights for the first time, and exchanging official delegations.

    Interestingly, Israel itself is already the region’s sole nuclear-armed power, but has never confirmed this openly. MbS’ comments on going nuclear reflect the general thinking that Tehran achieving a nuke would set off a broader nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

    Despite the tough words of warning from the crown prince, China this summer brokered a detente between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which Beijing hopes will drive a “wave of reconciliation” in the region, particularly along the historic Shia-Sunni religious divide.

    As for the potential of full diplomatic relations with Israel, it’s been widely reported that Riyadh is asking Washington to allow it to have a nuclear energy program, which would see the Saudis enrich uranium, just like the Iranians currently do.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 18:40

  • Quinn: Fake Climate Narrative Is Easily Debunked
    Quinn: Fake Climate Narrative Is Easily Debunked

    Authored by Jim Quinn via The Burning Platform blog,

    Anyone capable of critical thought knows this entire globull warming/ climate crisis/ health emergency narrative is false, contrived by the ruling elite/globalist cabal billionaire class as a further means to gain control, increase their already ungodly wealth, tax us into oblivion, lock us down in their 15 minute cities, and dole out our daily allotment of bug protein.

    Their narrative is filled with lies, misinformation, and holes so big you can drive a Tesla through them.

    They have faked the temperature data for decades.

    CO2 is not a pollutant.

    Eating meat is not destroying the planet.

    Cows farting is not ruining our environment.  Of course, Chris Christie farting may be harming the planet.

    This fake narrative is dutifully spewed by the corporate regime media 24/7, as they are funded by Gates, Soros, and the WEF to do so. Lies, lies and more lies.

    The foolishness of the drivel they expect us to swallow is beyond the pale.

    They want to put oil companies and coal companies out of business because fossil fuels are evil.

    They are purposely attempting to drastically reduce our energy output, which means less electric power.

    But they also want to force everyone to drive an electric vehicle.

    And they won’t allow nuclear power plants to be built. These insane beliefs are ridiculous.

    Only low IQ willfully ignorant NPCs could believe them. More than half the population apparently fall into this category.

    Wind and solar are polluting, environmentally damaging and inefficient. They push solar, while at the same time push geo-engineering  to block the sun, to cool the planet.

    This idiocy speaks volumes to what these people running the show think about the intellectual capacity of the masses.

    They believe we are sufficiently dumbed down, distracted, and apathetic to implement their agenda through constant propaganda, fear mongering, and threats.

    They want to own everything, while you own nothing. It’s nothing but a show and they will keep it going until we do something about it.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 18:20

  • Stocks & Bonds Slammed As Powell Pi$$es In Next Year's Punchbowl
    Stocks & Bonds Slammed As Powell Pi$$es In Next Year’s Punchbowl

    If you’re not confused now, you weren’t paying attention.

    • Fed held rates unchanged (as expected) – neutral.

    • Fed increased its growth expectation, lowered its unemployment expectation, and increased its inflation outlook – dovish/soft-landing.

    • Fed erased 50bps of cuts expected for next year in its dot-plot – hawkish as hell.

    That sent STIRs hawkishly higher…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Mohamed El-Erian offered the most succinct summary of the malaise many were left in after the statement, the SEP, and the press conference:

    “I worry that the economic and policy signals coming out of this Federal Reserve press conference may come across to many as both confused and confusing.

    Some will deem this an inevitable consequence of this phase of the inflation and policy cycle; others will view it as further evidence of challenged Fed communication.”

    And the Dot-Plot crushed expectations for cuts next year…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Treasuries were mixed on the day – and very volatile – with the short-end dramatically underperforming. 2Y ended up 6bps while 30Y was down 3bps on the day. On the week, the long-end is lower but the short-end is significantly higher…

    Source: Bloomberg

    The pattern was similar for all bonds (except the 30Y) with early gains (erasing yesterday’s losses) quickly being eviscerated on the Fed’s SEP.

    Source: Bloomberg

    10Y yield broke out from the August highs late in the day to their highest since Oct 2007…

    Source: Bloomberg

    And 2Y yields soared to a new high since July 2006 (2y yields rose 14bps off the intraday lows this afternoon)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    All of which crushed the yield curve (2s30s)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Equities did what equities do around the FOMC. The kneejerk move was lower (hawkish SEP), but the second Powell started speaking the algos ripped the market back up to unch… but this time, they could not hold it and stocks tanked to the lows of the day, extending losses after Powell stopped speaking. Nasdaq (longest duration stocks) suffered most…

    Gamma-heavy 4500 was key resistance for the S&P 500…

    0-DTE selling was dominant after The Fed but we note that the S&P fell down to exactly match its Put Wall level…

    Source: SpotGamma

    ‘Most Shorted’ Stocks puked hard today with no bounce at all…

    Source: Bloomberg

    CART was carried out today, plunging all the way back to its IPO price…

    The dollar dumped overnight into The Fed statement then exploded higher…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Bitcoin ended lower, falling back below $27000 as stocks tumbled…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Gold (spot) rallied up to near $1950 intraday before fading as the dollar spiked after The Fed…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Oil prices managed gains on the inventory data but The Fed’s hawkishness dragged WTI back below $90…

    Finally, with Powell and his pals pissing in the punchbowl of rate-cuts for next year, one has to wonder just how long this chasm between real rates and equity valuations can remain…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …and real rates are getting higher.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 09/20/2023 – 18:01

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