Aug 22

Today’s News 22nd August 2024

  • The Political Matrix Sustains The Illusion Of Freedom
    The Political Matrix Sustains The Illusion Of Freedom

    Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience, and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; culture-death is a clear possibility.” 

    – Neil Postman

    What you smell is the stench of a dying republic.

    Our dying republic.

    We are trapped in a political matrix intended to sustain the illusion that we are citizens of a constitutional republic.

    In reality, we are caught somewhere between a kleptocracy (a government ruled by thieves) and a kakistocracy (a government run by unprincipled career politicians, corporations and thieves that panders to the worst vices in our nature and has little regard for the rights of American citizens).

    For years now, the government has been playing a cat-and-mouse game with the American people, letting us enjoy just enough freedom to think we are free but not enough to actually allow us to live as a free people.

    In other words, we’re allowed to bask in the illusion of freedom while we’re being stripped of the very rights intended to ensure that we can hold the government accountable to abiding by the rule of law, the U.S. Constitution.

    We’re in trouble, folks.

    This is no longer America, land of the free, where the government is of the people, by the people and for the people.

    Rather, this is Amerika, where fascism, totalitarianism and militarism go hand in hand.

    Freedom no longer means what it once did.

    This holds true whether you’re talking about the right to criticize the government in word or deed, the right to be free from government surveillance, the right to not have your person or your property subjected to warrantless searches by government agents, the right to due process, the right to be safe from militarized police invading your home, the right to be innocent until proven guilty and every other right that once reinforced the founders’ commitment to the American experiment in freedom.

    Not only do we no longer have dominion over our bodies, our families, our property and our lives, but the government continues to chip away at what few rights we still have to speak freely and think for ourselves.

    My friends, we’re being played for fools.

    On paper, we may be technically free.

    In reality, however, we are only as free as a government official may allow.

    We only think we live in a constitutional republic, governed by just laws created for our benefit.

    Truth be told, we live in a dictatorship disguised as a democracy where all that we own, all that we earn, all that we say and do—our very lives—depends on the benevolence of government agents and corporate shareholders for whom profit and power will always trump principle. And now the government is litigating and legislating its way into a new framework where the dictates of petty bureaucrats carry greater weight than the inalienable rights of the citizenry.

    With every court ruling that allows the government to operate above the rule of law, every piece of legislation that limits our freedoms, and every act of government wrongdoing that goes unpunished, we’re slowly being conditioned to a society in which we have little real control over our lives.

    As Rod Serling, creator of the Twilight Zone and an insightful commentator on human nature, once observed, “We’re developing a new citizenry. One that will be very selective about cereals and automobiles, but won’t be able to think.”

    Indeed, not only are we developing a new citizenry incapable of thinking for themselves, but we’re also instilling in them a complete and utter reliance on the government and its corporate partners to do everything for them—tell them what to eat, what to wear, how to think, what to believe, how long to sleep, who to vote for, whom to associate with, and on and on.

    In this way, we have created a welfare state, a nanny state, a police state, a surveillance state, an electronic concentration camp—call it what you will, the meaning is the same: in our quest for less personal responsibility, a greater sense of security, and no burdensome obligations to each other or to future generations, we have created a society in which we have no true freedom.

    Government surveillance, police abuse, SWAT team raids, economic instability, asset forfeiture schemes, pork barrel legislation, militarized police, drones, endless wars, private prisons, involuntary detentions, biometrics databases, free speech zones, etc.: these are mile markers on the road to a fascist state where citizens are treated like cattle, to be branded and eventually led to the slaughterhouse.

    Freedom, or what’s left of it, is being threatened from every direction.

    The threats are of many kinds: political, cultural, educational, media, and psychological. However, as history shows us, freedom is not, on the whole, wrested from a citizenry. It is all too often given over voluntarily and for such a cheap price: safety, security, bread, and circuses.

    This is part and parcel of the propaganda churned out by the government machine.

    That said, what we face today—mind manipulation and systemic violence—is not new. What is different are the techniques used and the large-scale control of mass humanity, coercive police tactics and pervasive surveillance.

    We are overdue for a systemic check on the government’s overreaches and power grabs.

    By “government,” I’m not referring to the highly partisan, two-party bureaucracy of the Republicans and Democrats. Rather, I’m referring to “government” with a capital “G,” the entrenched Deep State that is unaffected by elections, unaltered by populist movements, and has set itself beyond the reach of the law.

    For years now, we have suffered the injustices, cruelties, corruption and abuse of an entrenched government bureaucracy that has no regard for the Constitution or the rights of the citizenry.

    We have lingered too long in this strange twilight zone where ego trumps justice, propaganda perverts truth, and imperial presidents—empowered to indulge their authoritarian tendencies by legalistic courts, corrupt legislatures and a disinterested, distracted populace—rule by fiat rather than by the rule of law.

    Where we find ourselves now is in the unenviable position of needing to rein in all three branches of government—the Executive, the Judicial, and the Legislative—that have exceeded their authority and grown drunk on power.

    We are the unwitting victims of a system so corrupt that those who stand up for the rule of law and aspire to transparency in government are in the minority. This corruption is so vast it spans all branches of government.

    The predators of the police state are wreaking havoc on our freedoms, our communities, and our lives. The government doesn’t listen to the citizenry, it refuses to abide by the Constitution, which is our rule of law, and it treats the citizenry as a source of funding and little else.

    The American kleptocracy has sucked the American people down a rabbit hole into a parallel universe in which the Constitution is meaningless, the government is all-powerful, and the citizenry is powerless to defend itself against government agents who steal, spy, lie, plunder, kill, abuse and generally inflict mayhem and sow madness on everyone and everything in their sphere.

    This dissolution of that sacred covenant between the citizenry and the government—establishing “we the people” as the masters and the government as the servant—didn’t happen overnight. It didn’t happen because of one particular incident or one particular president. It is a process, one that began long ago and continues in the present day, aided and abetted by politicians who have mastered the polarizing art of how to “divide and conquer.”

    Unfortunately, there is no magic spell to transport us back to a place and time where “we the people” weren’t merely fodder for a corporate gristmill, operated by government hired hands, whose priorities are money and power.

    Our freedoms have become casualties in an all-out war on the American people.

    Through every fault of our own—our apathy, our ignorance, our intolerance, our disinclination to do the hard work of holding government leaders accountable to the rule of law, our inclination to let politics trump longstanding constitutional principles—we have been reduced to this sorry state in which we are little more than shackled inmates in a prison operated for the profit of a corporate elite.

    If we continue down this road, there can be no surprise about what awaits us at the end.

    For there to be any hope of real change, we must change how we think about ourselves, our fellow human beings, freedom, society, and the government.

    The following principles may help any budding freedom fighters in the struggle to liberate themselves and our society.

    First, we must come to grips with the reality that the present system does not foster freedom. The government’s primary purpose is maintaining power and control. It’s an oligarchy composed of corporate giants wedded to government officials who benefit from the relationship. In other words, it is motivated by greed and exists to perpetuate itself.

    Second, voting is no guarantee of liberty. Voting is a way to keep the citizenry pacified. That’s why the government places so much emphasis on the reassurance ritual of voting. It provides the illusion of participation while maintaining the status quo. As Jordan Michael Smith, writing for the Boston Globe, concludes about the American government, “There’s the one we elect, and then there’s the one behind it, steering huge swaths of policy almost unchecked. Elected officials end up serving as mere cover for the real decisions made by the bureaucracy.”

    Third, question everything. Don’t assume anything the government does is for the good of the citizenry. As James Madison warned, “All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.” Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

    Fourth, there is little hope for any true resistance if you are mindlessly connected to the electronic concentration camp. Remember, what you’re being electronically fed by those in power is meant to pacify, distract, and control you.

    Fifth, be wise and realize that there is power in numbers. Networks, coalitions, and movements can accomplish much—especially if their objectives are focused, practical and nonviolent—and they are very much feared by government authorities.

    Sixth, as always, change must start with “we the people.” I’ve always advised people to think nationally, but act locally. Yet it can be hard to make a difference locally when the local government is as deaf, dumb and blind to the needs of its constituents as the national government.

    Seventh, local towns, cities and states can nullify or say “no” to federal laws that violate the rights and freedoms of the citizenry. When and if you see such federal laws passed, gather your coalition of citizens and demand that your local town council nullify such laws. If enough towns and cities across the country would speak truth to power in this way, we might see some positive movement from the federal governmental machine.

    Clearly, it’s time to clean house at all levels of government.

    We have been saddled with the wreckage of a government at all levels that no longer represents the citizenry, serves the citizenry, or is accountable to the citizenry.

    “We the people” are not the masters anymore.

    It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about the federal government, state governments, or local governing bodies: at all ends of the spectrum and every point in between, a shift has taken place.

    “We the people” are not being seen, heard or valued.

    We no longer count for much of anything beyond an occasional electoral vote and as a source of income for the government’s ever-burgeoning financial needs.

    Everything happening at the national level is playing out at the local level, as well: the violence, the militarization, the intolerance, the lopsided governance, and an uneasy awareness that the citizenry have no say in how their communities are being governed.

    So, what’s the answer?

    For starters, stop tolerating corruption, graft, intolerance, greed, incompetence, ineptitude, militarism, lawlessness, ignorance, brutality, deceit, collusion, corpulence, bureaucracy, immorality, depravity, censorship, cruelty, violence, mediocrity, and tyranny. These are the hallmarks of an institution that is rotten through and through.

    Stop holding your nose in order to block out the stench of a rotting institution.

    Stop letting the government and its agents treat you like a servant or a slave.

    You’ve got rights. We’ve all got rights. This is our country. This is our government. No one can take it away from us unless we make it easy for them.

    You’ve got a better chance of making your displeasure seen and felt and heard within your own community. But it will take perseverance and unity and a commitment to finding common ground with your fellow citizens.

    As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, we’re making it way too easy for the police state to take over.

    So, stop being an accessory to the murder of the American republic.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 23:25

  • Beijing Rips Biden For 'Peddling China Nuclear Threat Narrative'
    Beijing Rips Biden For ‘Peddling China Nuclear Threat Narrative’

    China has responded to the fresh NY Times revelation that President Joe Biden recently (and secretly) approved a new nuclear strategic plan that includes US preparations for a simultaneous nuclear war with Russia, China, and North Korea. The new strategic doctrine was reportedly put into effect in March.

    “The U.S. is peddling the China nuclear threat narrative, finding excuses to seek strategic advantage,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning responded on Wednesday.

    Via Xinhu

    “China is seriously concerned about the relevant report and the facts have fully proved that the United States has constantly stirred up the so-called China nuclear threat theory in recent years,” she added.

    Mao insisted that instead of hyping fake threats, Washington should pursue setting an example of nuclear disarmament and de-escalation, and reminded a press briefing that Beijing officially maintains a a policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons.

    “China has always kept its nuclear capabilities to a minimum required for national security needs with no intention to engage in any arms race with any country,” the spokeswoman continued.

    She then called attention to the fact that the US possesses “the largest and most advanced nuclear arsenal” and at the same time “stubbornly adheres to a nuclear deterrence policy based on the first use of nuclear weapons.”

    As we featured previously, the US nuclear strategy is updated about every four years or so and is highly classified. The Times described the new strategy as the “first to examine in detail whether the United States is prepared to respond to nuclear crises that break out simultaneously or sequentially, with a combination of nuclear and nonnuclear weapons.”

    China’s arsenal is still just a fraction of what the US and Russia possess. The State Department said in July that the US has 5,748 warheads, including 2,000 that are retired and awaiting dismantlement.

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    According to the Arms Control Association, Russia has 5,580 warheads, including 1,200 that are retired and awaiting dismantlement. Russia has 1,549 nuclear warheads that are deployed, and the US deploys 1,419.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 23:00

  • Diversity Is A False Religion To Destroy America
    Diversity Is A False Religion To Destroy America

    Authored by Teresa Manning via American Greatness,

    This week, the National Association of Scholars (“NAS”) and the Heritage Foundation are sponsoring a panel discussion on diversity ideology in higher education. A number of reports have recently been published on the topic, with most documenting monies spent by state universities on “diversity, equity and inclusion” (“DEI“). The Maryland affiliate of the National Association of Scholars released the most recent such report this summer, but the Virginia affiliate issued one last year, while Idaho, North Carolina, Maine, and Tennessee produced similar documents before that.

    The Maryland report reminds state officials that “diversity” is usually a cover for race-based practices that are now likely illegal under the 2023 United States Supreme Court case, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (or “SFFA”). That opinion found that racial preferences in university admissions were a violation of federal civil rights laws and also the Constitution’s Equal Protection clause. SFFA means that any race-based practice in college is presumptively unlawful. As the Court said, “Eliminating discrimination means eliminating all of it … distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry are by their nature odious.”

    Virginia’s report is similar to the others with its focus on money, asking Should Virginians Pay for University “Diversity” Leftism? It found that DEI expenditures at Virginia’s state universities have exploded with the University of Virginia (UVA) probably the worst offender. In 2020, for example, UVA spent $4,149,732 on DEI programs with 38 DEI administrators; but within one year, both those figures had nearly doubled. In 2021, UVA spent $6,924,279 on DEI and had 77 DEI administrators. Incredibly, more recent findings show that UVA’s DEI expenditures have skyrocketed even more, with over $20 million spent in 2023 including for 235 DEI employees.

    That’s taxpayer money not spent on instruction, library holdings, or lab equipment.

    The “diversity” contagion is a relatively recent mind virus. The word was almost unheard of for most of American history, making its first real appearance in a 1978 United States Supreme Court case finding racial quotas in school admissions illegal but allowing some consideration of race for the sake of diversity in education. The brief mention may have seemed innocuous but “diversity” was then seized upon by those hostile to Western civilization to dilute social cohesion in Western nations. (Diversity is not a thing in Japan, which would likely view it as an act of war.)

    America typifies the West as it is a product of Great Britain and, for its first 200 years, was populated almost entirely by Western peoples of the United Kingdom and Europe. America’s founding documents—the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution—enshrine Western principles of limited government for a free and presumably moral people. In fact, most founders emphasized that the Constitution would not work without a moral people. And the governance established by the Constitution—its separation of powers, its checks and balances including between the federal and state powers—reflects America’s Christian heritage and especially the Christian notion of man’s tendency toward corruption and sin. Hence the checks on power. As Lord Acton famously explained, “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

    Nowhere in these founding documents does the word “diversity” appear, nor do its partner buzzwords “equity,” “inclusion,” etc. In fact, diversity ideology is not only un-American (that is, not part of our basic laws), it’s arguably anti-American in that it obsesses about race to pit Americans against each other. It also undermines America as the land of opportunity where individuals matter most—their talent, industry, and character.

    Where America would value the individual, DEI wants tribes. It’s preoccupied with groups, typically based on race or sex. All this fosters poisonous identity politics where the individual barely matters. This also undermines excellence as the tribe trumps individual talent. It’s no coincidence that collectivist, socialist regimes tend to have crumbling bridges, bad cars, and outdated technologies. They’re against individual achievement. America was never like this. But it’s getting that way now.

    Worse, diversity ideologies always have a religious flavor. They’re packaged as moral imperatives and pitched especially to young people as if they’re a “new and improved” ethics. Young people are by definition inexperienced and usually unwise—which is to say, they’re easy prey. Family and societal breakdown has also made them unanchored, free radicals who are even easier to manipulate, indoctrinate, and control. And they’re tragically ignorant not only of their own Western heritage but also of norms throughout the world. For example, young Americans are taught the evils of slavery, where the simplistic story is that African Americans were victims and Americans of European descent were victimizers. But they’re never taught that Africans also participated in the slave trade, with one African tribe often selling another to the Europeans. They also don’t seem to realize that Europeans—“whites”—were the ones to abolish slavery. Even today, slavery remains a common practice in much of the world, especially within the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia. Any praise for Western civilization and especially its religious heritage for this moral progress? Nope. Just more diversity propaganda, the false religion.

    America needs to reject these destructive diversity ideologies and return to its place as the land of opportunity for individuals—its citizens. It can start by rooting out DEI in its educational institutions, starting with colleges and universities. It’s none too soon.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 22:35

  • Staggering Incompetence: Biden's Commerce Secretary Is "Not Familiar" With The Bureau Of Labor
    Staggering Incompetence: Biden’s Commerce Secretary Is “Not Familiar” With The Bureau Of Labor

    We are too speechless to even offer any snarky, sarcastic commentary because, frankly, this is beyond idiotic.

    Asked about today’s near record downward jobs revision, Biden’s Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo – who we repeat, is the Secretary of the Department of Commerce which is responsible among other things, for the Bureau of Economic Analysis – said she “doesn’t believe” the revision because, somehow Trump was behind it. But when she was informed that the data comes from her own administration, namely the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, Raimondo’s response was simply legendary: “I am not familiar with that.”

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    And there you have it: the person who is at the top of the US propaganda data collection and distribution pyramid is, checks notes, “not familiar” with the Bureau of Labor.

    To this, all one can ask the former Governor of Rhode Island and current “Commerce Secretary” is what would you say… you do here?

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 22:10

  • Don't Expect A Radical Response From Russia To Washington's Involvement In Ukraine's Invasion Of Kursk
    Don’t Expect A Radical Response From Russia To Washington’s Involvement In Ukraine’s Invasion Of Kursk

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

    Russia’s foreign spy agency SVR revealed that “the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ operation in the Kursk region was prepared with the participation of the special services of the USA, Great Britain and Poland. The units involved in it underwent combat coordination in training centers in Great Britain and Germany. Military advisers from NATO countries provide assistance in managing the UAF units that have invaded Russian territory and in the use of Western types of weapons and military equipment by Ukrainians.”

    They ended their statement to popular newspaper Izvestia by adding that “The alliance countries also provide the Ukrainian military with satellite intelligence data on the deployment of Russian troops in the area of ​​the operation.” This coincided with the Russian Foreign Ministry summoning the US charges d’affaires to protest American journalists’ illegal crossing of their border for propaganda purposes in support of this invasion as well as the military role therein played by at least one American PMC.

    Commander of the Akhmat Special Forces from Russia’s Chechen Republic Apty Alaudinov accused the invaders of carrying out a spree of war crimes as part of Zelensky’s stated goals of carving out a “buffer zone” and bolstering Ukraine’s “exchange fund” for future prisoner swaps. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had earlier warned in an interview with leading Russian media that Ukraine might actually want Russia to use nuclear weapons, the possible rationale of which was explained here.

    What all of these details show is that what’s happening in Kursk is a real NATO-backed Ukrainian invasion of universally recognized Russian territory, not some “5D chess master plan” by Russia to encircle the Ukrainians in a “cauldron” like some in the Alt-Media Community (AMC) have speculated. The US can play dumb about this all it wants, but Russia is convinced that it orchestrated this unprecedented provocation, thus raising questions about how it’ll respond.

    A lot of AMC folks on social media demand something radical like Russia striking targets in NATO and/or having Wagner carry out cross-border incursions against its frontline members from Belarus, but neither are likely to materialize. Regardless of whatever one’s personal opinion might be about his approach, Putin has proven to have the patience of a saint by refusing to escalate in response to the slew of provocations that have been carried out against his country since the special operation began.

    This includes Ukraine’s bombings of the Crimean Bridge, its destruction of the Kakhovka Dam which risks turning Crimea into a desert, the assassination of journalists like Darya Dugina, incessant attacks against civilians in Russia’s new regions, the bombing of its strategic airbases and early warning systems, involvement in the Crocus terrorist attack, and even attacking the Kremlin. All of these provocations and more were carried out with American assistance, yet Russia hasn’t radically responded to any of them.  

    The most that it’s done is carry out strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in an attempt to impede its military operations as well as recently carve out a tiny buffer zone in Kharkov Region, but it won’t bomb bridges across the Dnieper nor political targets like the Rada.

    Time and again, Russia consistently refuses to escalate, only doing the bare minimum of what its most zealous supporters in the AMC demand when it finally decides to do something out of the ordinary.

    The reason for this (some would say too) cautious approach is Putin’s fear of inadvertently triggering World War III, which he’s afraid might become inevitable if Russia radically responds to its foes’ provocations due to the fast-moving sequence of events that it could lead to. To be clear, Russia has the right to respond in such a way, but it’s voluntarily eschewing that right for the aforementioned reasons that it considers to be for the “greater global good”.

    Accordingly, it’s highly unlikely that Putin will finally throw his characteristic caution to the wind by deliberately risking World War III (or at least that’s how he’d see everything as being) by opting for a radical response to his government’s conclusion that the US is involved in Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk.  

    The only plausible scenarios in which he’d change his calculations would be if there was a nuclear provocation, a high-level assassination, or a terrorist attack even worse than the recent Crocus one.

    Recalling what was written earlier about how Lukashenko warned that Ukraine might actually want Russia to use nukes, none of these scenarios and whatever other ones might cross Putin’s non-negotiable red lines (which the previously enumerated provocations didn’t do) can be ruled out. They’d also likely be used in the far-fetched event of a Russian military collapse along its western border, or Belarus’ collapse along its own with NATO or Ukraine, and subsequent large-scale invasion.

    From Russia’s perspective, Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk remains manageable despite the US’ involvement in this unprecedented provocation, thus meaning that Putin probably won’t resort to the radical response that many in the AMC have been fantasizing about. If he finally decided to let loose, however, then he might only ramp up the intensity of the special operation in Ukraine instead of attacking NATO and thus risking the outbreak of World War III that he’s worked so hard to avoid thus far.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 21:45

  • Northwestern Implements 'Mandatory Anti-Hate Trainings' Following Chaotic Gaza Campus Protests
    Northwestern Implements ‘Mandatory Anti-Hate Trainings’ Following Chaotic Gaza Campus Protests

    Higher education is nothing more than leftist indoctrination camps, costing students (or taxpayers, in some cases) tens of thousands of dollars per year to be uploaded with the woke mind virus. Some of these woke activist students were triggered earlier this year, spewing racist hate speech and death threats against Jewish students (and we’re sure the hate went both ways) over the Israel-Gaza conflict. 

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    The chaos and hate that flooded schoolyards at universities and colleges like Northwestern University earlier this year has served as a major wake-up call for Americans, leading many to question how leftist institutions might be indoctrinating vulnerable young minds. 

    Hate at Northwestern must have been such a serious issue for the administration because now, the school has announced mandatory training for all students on preventing antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus. 

    “There is no room on our campus for antisemitism; there is no room for Islamophobia; there is no room for racism and other forms of identity-based hate. Northwestern will not tolerate behavior or speech that harms members of our community,” Northwestern President Michael Schill wrote in a statement. 

    Schill revealed new ‘educational opportunities’ for students this coming semester:

    • Mandatory trainings on antisemitism and other forms of hate will be used in September at incoming student orientation and over the Fall Quarter for all returning students. Training also will be provided to staff and faculty.

    • A set of lectures and panels on antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism as well as the history and politics of the conflict in the Middle East.

    This comes as pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators clashed on campus in late 2023 and through the spring 2024 semester. Also, there was a failed effort by the pro-Palestinian side to force Northwestern’s administration to divest from all things Israel. 

    Meanwhile, Harvard University added a new essay topic for applicants: how they handle disagreements.

    The changes are coming in response to a nation shocked after witnessing the out-of-control uprisings at left-wing colleges and universities over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, along with the surge of hate that emerged from these woke institutions.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 21:20

  • Supreme Court Urged To Overturn Federal 'Ghost Gun' Regulation
    Supreme Court Urged To Overturn Federal ‘Ghost Gun’ Regulation

    Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

    A former police officer challenging the federal government’s rule regulating so-called ghost guns that can be assembled at home urged the Supreme Court on Aug. 13 to strike down that rule.

    The new filing previews the arguments that will be made when the Supreme Court hears the high-profile case, Garland v. VanDerStok, on Oct. 8.

    The petitioner is U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. The lead respondent who brought the original lawsuit is Jennifer VanDerStok, a high school teacher and former police officer in Texas who wants to make her own firearms.

    “Ghost gun” is a term used to describe a homemade firearm that lacks a serial number and therefore can’t be tracked by law enforcement.

    Although some states regulate homemade guns, gun control organizations have been trying for years to ban or regulate homemade guns and gun-assembly kits at the federal level but have failed to persuade Congress to act.

    President Joe Biden has claimed that privately made guns, which are often made with gun kits, are the “weapons of choice for many criminals.”

    The regulation in dispute—the government’s “frame or receiver” rule—dates to April 2022. It requires individuals who assemble homemade firearms to add serial numbers to them. The rule also mandates background checks for consumers who buy gun kits from dealers.

    Pieces of guns that are shipped are nonetheless guns and are subject to existing laws, the government argues.

    In June 2023, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor disagreed. He blocked the rule and determined that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which is part of the Department of Justice (DOJ), went beyond its statutory authority in regulating “partially manufactured firearm components, related firearm products, and other tools and materials.”

    In July 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sided with O’Connor. In September 2023, the judge narrowed his injunction, but the DOJ told the Fifth Circuit he was ignoring the Supreme Court’s October 2023 order that temporarily reinstated the rule.

    Also in October 2023, the Fifth Circuit said it disagreed with the DOJ’s argument, but at the same time found O’Connor’s injunction “sweeps too broadly” because it affected persons who were not participating in the litigation.

    The circuit court vacated the part of the injunction that applied to gun kit customers, saying it did so based on the federal government’s assurances that it “will not enforce the Final Rule against customers who purchase regulated ‘frames or receivers’ and who are otherwise lawfully entitled to purchase firearms.”

    The federal government appealed the ruling, filing a petition with the Supreme Court on Feb. 7, which granted it on April 22.

    In the new brief filed on Aug. 13, VanDerStok says that the federal Gun Control Act (GCA) of 1968 regulates firearms, which are defined as “any weapon (including a starter gun) which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive,” and “the frame or receiver of any such weapon.”

    Around the same time, a regulation defined “frame or receiver” as “that part of a firearm which provides housing for the hammer, bolt or breechblock, and firing mechanism, and which is usually threaded at its forward position to receive the barrel.”

    A breechblock closes the rear end of the barrel and blocks gases from escaping.

    That definition “said nothing about precursors of frames or receivers or parts kits,” the brief says.

    But in April 2022 the ATF created a rule that expanded the definition of “firearm.” The rule defined “frame or receiver” to encompass “precursors that ‘may readily be … converted to function as a frame or receiver.’”

    The rule defined firearm “to include weapon parts kits that ‘may readily be … converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive.” The rule also modified the definition of “frame or receiver” to cover the “housing only of the breechblock (for receivers) or one component of the firing mechanism (for frames),” the brief says.

    The changes included in the rule “are inconsistent with the GCA’s definition of firearm,” and parts kits are not “firearms” within the meaning of the statute, the brief says.

    It is key that when Congress passed the statute it chose “to focus on the commercial firearm market rather than the private making of firearms for personal use.” This means the law does not cover “the items used in private firearm making that ATF attempts to regulate.”

    Only Congress, not the ATF, gets to make the changes the ATF desires, the brief says.

    In its petition, the DOJ previously argued that the rule should be upheld because it “makes clear that a weapon parts kit that allows a purchaser to readily assemble an operational weapon is a ‘firearm.’”

    “Those provisions of the Rule reflect the plain meaning of the relevant provisions” of the GCA, which the Fifth Circuit “failed to meaningfully analyze.”

    The circuit court’s interpretation “would frustrate the Act’s design and make it trivially easy to circumvent the central requirements of the federal firearms laws,” according to the petition.

    The Epoch Times reached out to the DOJ for comment on the new brief but did not receive a reply by publication time.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 20:55

  • Ford Ditches Plans For Electric SUV As Industry Continues To Backpedal From EVs
    Ford Ditches Plans For Electric SUV As Industry Continues To Backpedal From EVs

    The trend of legacy automakers ditching their plans and investments in EVs continues, with Ford reportedly the latest to cancel plans for a large three-row electric sport-utility vehicle, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.

    The company will take $1.9 billion in related special charges and write-downs as a result, the report said. 

    Ford is canceling due to pricing pressures and increased competition, instead opting to focus on hybrid versions of its popular Explorer and Expedition models.

    This decision reflects a broader trend among automakers that we have written about over the last year or two, especially since the UAW extorted negotiated their latest labor contracts from the Detroit automakers. 

    Additionally, consumer demand has been weaker than anticipated, with concerns over cost and charging infrastructure. As a result of all of these factors, combined with increased competition out of China, legacy automakers are scaling back EV investments. VW also announced it was stepping back from EVs to focus on hybrids earlier this year, as we wrote in May.  

    Ford Chief Financial Officer John Lawler commented: “Based on where the market is and where the customer is, we will pivot and adjust and make those tough decisions.”

    The WSJ reported on Tuesday that Ford has also delayed the launch of a new electric pickup truck to 2027, marking the second postponement, and reduced its EV investment to 30% of its budget, down from 40%.

    The company expects to lose $5 billion on its EV business this year, with a loss of about $44,000 per vehicle in the second quarter. Executives are focused on reducing losses and ensuring future EVs are profitable.

    Despite recalibrating plans to include more hybrids, Ford is still moving forward with several full EVs, including an electric commercial van in 2026 and two new pickup trucks in 2027, according to the report. 

    Farley said last month: “We believe that the fitness of the Chinese in EVs will eventually wash over our entire industry in all regions.”

    We wrote back in June that nearly half of EV drivers in the U.S. were considering switching back to gas. Forty-six percent of EV owners surveyed in the United States say they will likely return to driving gas-powered vehicles.

    Globally, the survey of 30,000 respondents in 15 countries found that more than one-quarter (29 percent) of EV owners are likely to go back to driving gas-powered cars.

    Recall back in April we noted that Ford was “re-timing” its efforts to go all electric and back in February we wrote that GM was shifting to plug-in hybrids, too. 

    CEO Mary Barra said on an earnings call back in February: “Let me be clear, GM remains committed to eliminating tailpipe emissions from our light-duty vehicles by 2035, but, in the interim, deploying plug-in technology in strategic segments will deliver some of the environment or environmental benefits of EVs as the nation continues to build this charging infrastructure.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 20:30

  • China's CDC Reports New COVID-19 Cases Hit Nearly 20 Percent
    China’s CDC Reports New COVID-19 Cases Hit Nearly 20 Percent

    Authored by Alex Wu via The Epoch Times,

    The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that new COVID-19 infections in the country of origin have increased to nearly 20 percent in the past few weeks, as two new Omicron subvariants spread across the country.

    But while increases to China’s official COVID-19 test positivity rate mirrors that of the rest of the world, its number of reported COVID-19 deaths remains orders of magnitude lower than is expected for a country of its population, given the ongoing reports of COVID-19-related deaths in other countries.

    According to its Aug. 8 report, China’s CDC reported that the COVID-19 test positivity rate in the country spiked to 18.7 percent in the last week of July, up from 8.9 percent at the start of the month. According to the official data, that rate has not exceeded 8 percent since the start of the year.

    The trend of China’s official infection data parallels that reported in the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC), in its Aug. 8 biweekly update, reported that the COVID-19 test positivity rate in the United States had increased in the past six months to 17.6 percent.

    According to the World Health Organization’s monitoring data from 84 countries, the overall COVID-19 test positivity rate stands above 10 percent but varies by region. That percentage has been rising for weeks, it said. Europe also reported a 20 percent increase in its positive COVID-19 tests since the start of 2024.

    But for the month of July, China’s CDC reported only two deaths from COVID. Meanwhile, the U.S. CDC data reflected significantly more provisional COVID-related deaths, with 1,920 U.S. deaths reported in July citing COVID-19 as an underlying or contributing cause. China also has a much larger population: 1.4 billion to the United States’ 335 million.

    China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been accused by the international community of downplaying and covering up the true scale of COVID-19 infections and deaths in the country since late 2019, when COVID-19 first broke out in Wuhan, in the country’s Hubei Province.

    New Omicron Subvariants

    China’s CDC named the XDV and JN.1 Omicron subvariants as the prevalent strains contributing to the 7,042 COVID-19 cases officially recorded in July.

    The official Chinese reporting said that Omicron subvariant XDV and its descendants accounted for 38 percent to 43 percent of infections, while Omicron subvariant JN.1 and its descendants—including the subvariants JN.1.7, JN.1.18, KP.2, KP.3, and LB.1—accounted for 55 percent to 60 percent of infections.

    U.S. CDC data showed that as of Aug. 8, XDV.1 subvariant of parent strain XDV accounted for only 0.3 percent of cases in the United States—a reduction from previous months. Meanwhile, the KP.3.1.1 variant is now the most common strain in the United States, followed by KP.3, LB.1, KP.2.3, and KP.2—all of which came from the JN.1 parent strain. The U.S. CDC said it saw no evidence that these new variants were causing more severe symptoms.

    Dr. Dong Yuhong, an infectious disease specialist and senior medical columnist for The Epoch Times, said on Aug. 9 that the JN.1-derived subvariants “KP.3 and KP.2 have similar virological and epidemiological characteristics” but that their test positivity rate in China has increased.

    She noted that the variants have a stronger ability to evade the antibodies that people have developed from past infections or vaccination.

    China’s latest vaccine targeted the XBB.1.5 variant, she said, which belongs to a different sublineage of the shared parental BA.2 Omicron variant.

    Dong said that while there are again signs of increased COVID-19 transmission, it remains unclear whether a deadly COVID-19 strain that could cause another pandemic could emerge. She added that COVID-19 “requires continuous monitoring and close observation.”

    She said that the speed of vaccine development “can’t keep up” with the virus’s continuous mutation and that “simply depending on vaccines is unsafe and unreliable.”

    “We have an innate multi-immune barrier in each of us,” she said. “As long as we pay attention to strengthening and protecting it, it will be effective.”

    She advised everyone to avoid habits that damage immunity, such as smoking, drinking, and staying up late, and develop more good habits that enhance immunity, such as regular exercise, meditation, and improving our capacity to regulate our emotions.

    “That’s a positive approach to dealing with epidemics,” she said.

    No Transparency, Trust

    After years of controlled releases of approved official data, censorship of whistleblowers, and mandating COVID-19 restrictions and prolonged lockdowns across China, the CCP suddenly reversed course and lifted all its restrictions, testing, and reporting about COVID-19 in 2022. But it continued with its lack of transparency, leaving many Chinese feeling that they are unable to trust their institutions and still in the dark about the true seriousness of the COVID-19 epidemic in the country.

    The Chinese regime’s experts estimated that 80 percent of China’s population was infected with COVID-19 at the end of 2022 when its restrictions were lifted.

    Recent posts by Chinese doctors on Chinese social media heightened the populace’s fear, with a number saying that a more contagious COVID-19 variant is responsible for China’s new infections.

    Hu Yang, a chief physician of the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care at Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital and associate professor at Tongji University, said in a video posted on Chinese social media that with the recent wave of COVID-19 infections, some young people have also been found to be suffering severe infections in their lungs and exhibiting white lung symptoms.

    “With the virus causing COVID-19 still mutating, the dominant virus strain [in China] has become XDV, which is more contagious, and many people have been infected again,” Hu said. “At present, XDV mutant strains can still spread in high-temperature environments.”

    Feng Ge, a member of the China Association for Research and Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine, wrote on Chinese social media on Aug. 4 that “currently, there are two new most poisonous subvariants spreading—XDV and KP.3.”

    He warned that children have been more vulnerable to the new subvariants and that parents shouldn’t treat an illness caused by them like a simple cold.

    Dr. Guo Kai, the deputy chief physician of the Department of Pediatrics at the Wangjing Hospital in Beijing, posted on Chinese Weibo on Aug. 2 that the new variant KP.3 has been “fierce” and that four types of pediatric medicines should be kept on hand.

    Parents with children suffering from respiratory diseases line up at a children’s hospital in Chongqing, China, on Nov. 23, 2023. CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

    Reports of Youth Infections, Deaths

    Sean Lin, a microbiologist and assistant professor in the Biomedical Science Department at Fei Tian College in New York, says the Chinese regime continues to hide information about COVID-19 cases in China.

    “The Chinese government has concealed the number of people who have died from COVID-19,” Lin told The Epoch Times in an interview on Aug. 9.

    “I think many elderly people with poor immunity may have already died in the past multiple waves of COVID-19 in China. And now, it’s spreading rampantly among young people.”

    Lin said that now, KP.3 in China has the momentum to replace some of the other JN.1 subvariants causing the rise in infections.

    “However, I think the situation in China is not just a problem of virus mutation, because this variant also occurs in other parts of the world,” he said. “I think it is that the immune systems of so many ​​young Chinese people have been exhausted. I think China’s problem is a comprehensive health problem.”

    Lin said of COVID-19 infections outside of China: “The hospitalization rate has not increased, and the death rate has not increased, although the transmission rate has increased. The entire society does not feel the impact of COVID that much, as most people can recover from it after about two weeks.”

    “But the situation in China is different,” he said.

    A resident of Huzhu County, in Qinghai Province in northwest China, who asked to be referred to only as Yang out of fear for his safety, told The Epoch Times in early August that there have been several families around him in which their children were infected with COVID-19.

    “The outbreak is still very serious in some places,” he said.

    Patients line up for an emergency pre-check at the new pediatric building of Xinhua Hospital in Shanghai on the evening of Sept. 25, 2023. The emergency and night care outpatient hall is crowded with children and family members waiting for treatment. CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images

    Yang also noted that there have been known incidents of “many people of all ages dying very suddenly.” This is despite that all of them have received COVID-19 vaccines for earlier variants, he noted.

    Cao, a resident of Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province who also asked to withhold his first name, told The Epoch Times that locals believe there have consistently been people infected with COVID-19 in recent years, despite the lack of testing and reporting.

    “Unexplained sudden deaths also occur from time to time,” he said. Some of his relatives and friends have been among the casualties.

    A citizen of Nanyang in Henan Province in central China, who also asked to be referred to as Yang, told The Epoch Times that local clinics have consistently been busy.

    “But doctors don’t tell patients the truth,” he said. “They go around it and won’t tell you anything.”

    He said that some locals are suspected to have died from COVID-19, including many young people.

    “I went to the hospital and there were quite some people in their 20s and 30s who died,” he said. “There were more people who had myocardial infarction [a known side effect of COVID-19 vaccinations]. Many of us know that there is no way to solve it.”

    In dealing with the ongoing infections and side effects, Lin suggested that Chinese people abandon the CCP’s materialism and atheism, which gives people no mental solace or moral support, and look for meaning and hope in China’s own rich spiritual traditions, “whether it’s Buddhism, Taoism, or Falun Gong.”

    “There are too many examples of pandemics in history that show many people could handle it if they had faith and can maintain a kind heart. This is still very important,” he said. “After all, I think it gives people all over the world a chance to survive amid all kinds of hardships.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 20:05

  • Wall Street Outraged Over Latest Epic F*ck Up By Biden's Labor Department
    Wall Street Outraged Over Latest Epic F*ck Up By Biden’s Labor Department

    It’s delightfully fitting that on the day the entire financial world was holding its breath for Biden’s highly politicized and grossly incompetent Bureau of Labor Statistics to admit it had massively fucked up the jobs data over the past year, that Biden’s highly politicized and grossly incompetent Bureau of Labor Statistics fucked up even more.

    At exactly 10am ET this morning, the BLS was supposed to publish its annual CES Preliminary Benchmark Announcement revision, an update on how many jobs in the past year were, for lack of a better word, made up (as we reported earlier, it just so happened that the number was 818,000, which was the second biggest annual overestimation of job creation in US history… something that surely was pure coincidence in an election year).

    However, 10:01am ET hit… and nothing happened: millions of traders, thousands of economists and countless macrotourists were furiously slamming the F5 key, refreshing the revisions page to see…. nothing change. This went on, and on, and on…. and even though the market actually reacted as if data had been published, it turned out that algos were merely responding to phantom triggers in hopes of triggering momentum ignition up or down. No actual data was reported.

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

    As the desperate wait continued, and as seconds turned to minutes, we joked – nearly 30 minutes after the report was originally due – by publishing the phone number for the BLS department responsible for today’s report.

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

    As it turns out, at least some people had more luck than us in reaching said department (we repeatedly got voicemail with the promise that someone would get back to us in 24-48 hours), because as Bloomberg reports, “at least three banks managed to obtain key payroll numbers Wednesday while the rest of Wall Street was kept waiting for a half-hour by a government delay that whipsawed markets and sowed confusion on trading desks.”

    That’s right: while the rest of the world was freaking out, paralyzed by the gross incompetence of the Biden Department of Labor (which, as a reminder, was merely informing us of just how incompetent it truly was by overestimating nearly 1 million jobs in 2024), banks such as Mizuho, BNP Paribas and Nomura all called into the phone number listed above… and got the answer, by some absolute BLS moron who was not aware that they are leaking material, non-public information to extremely sophisticated investors while the rest of the world was stuck in the dark courtesy of, well, other absolute BLS moron who had days if not weeks to prepare today’s report and yet still couldn’t get it out on time… or even 30 minutes after time.

    And then, frustration turned to anger and outrage on Wall Street as word spread from trading desk to trading desk that the BLS was releasing the number to some firms over the phone!

    When the data was finally released shortly after 10:30 am, it showed payrolls will likely be revised down by 818,000 for the 12 months through March, the biggest downward revision to the job numbers since 2009.

    Stocks initially jumped and bonds gained because the report lent support to speculation that the Fed will start cutting interest rates next month, then quickly reversed as panic seemed to sweep over Wall Street at the thought that the BIden admin had been actively covering up a labor market recession. In the end, hopium won out and stocks closed near the highs of the day, because – well – Powell will always make sure stocks keeps rising.

    “I don’t wonder that people are upset,” Nancy Tengler, the chief executive officer of Laffer Tengler Investments. “The whole thing reeks of incompetence.”

    Well, yeah, but what makes it especially hilarious is that the incompetence came on the day the BLS was admitting 12 months of prior propaganda incompetence. Seriously, not even the USSR had fuck ups of this caliber.

    The delay – and subsequent one-by-one disclosure – is the latest in a series of embarrassing mishaps to roil Labor Department data releases, which hilarious is who the markets have to rely on for “accurate” data on the state of the US labor market and the trajectory of inflation and the economy.

    In a post on X, the agency said it was “looking into the reason for the delay”…

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

    … to which we responded that when the idiots responsible for this latest fuck up are fired, the BLS should make sure to seasonally adjust it so it adds at least another 1 million government jobs.

    As Bloomberg reminds us, the government’s economic data reports were once released under tightly controlled embargos to accredited news agencies, including Bloomberg. But the practice was abandoned during the pandemic, when departments across the government shifted to just releasing the data on the Internet to everyone at once. Officials said that method would better protect the security of market-moving data, but instead all it did was create groups of wealthy “super users” who had preferential and early access to government data from Biden’s corrupt agency.

    When it didn’t come out on time, Yelena Shulyatyeva, senior US economist BNP Paribas, said she kept refreshing the web page, waiting for the numbers. Then “we called the public line a couple times and they gave us the number,” she said.

    Steven Ricchiuto, chief US economist at Mizuho, did the same. “Knowing the data was delayed we had to call for the number before it showed up on their website,” he said.

    ZeroHedge itself received the leaked data at 10:24am ET through our expert network, but not even we dared to publish it to our premium subscribers amid concerns that the BLS could not possibly be this stupid and incompetent to be releasing the number on a case by case basis instead of blasting it to the entire world at the same time.

    In the end, it turned out the BLS was even more incompetent than we could possibly imagine.

    “I am more than a little annoyed,” said Troy Ludtka, senior US economist at SMBC Nikko Securities Americas, who was among those who waited on the public release.

    “To put it in the most generous terms: Government agencies absolutely cannot be selectively releasing critical, market-moving information to some agents and broker dealers first via telephone while keeping others in the dark,” he said. “This is anathema to the very idea of a balanced market built on fair, accessible information.”

    Troy, but you ain’t seen nothing yet: if Kamala wins and if the US goes full Kam-unist, the very idea of a balanced market will be anathema, replaced by centrally planned… well, everything.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 19:40

  • Fascism 2.0 – The Changing Face Of Social-Media Censorship
    Fascism 2.0 – The Changing Face Of Social-Media Censorship

    Authored by Paul Lancefield via Off-Guardian.org,

    Facebook make only about £34 a year from the average customer in the UK – a little under £3 a month (and that’s before costs) so clearly there is no head-room or motivation, for a human level of customer service or attention. The user is not the customer; rather, they are the product whose data is sold to advertisers.

    Thus, users do not have a direct customer relationship with the platform. The network is not directly incentivised to “care” about the user before the advertiser. And no matter where you lie on the spectrum between “free speech absolutism” and “private entities have the right to censor any user”, with such low margins it is inevitable machine processing will have to be used to moderate posts and deal with the customer interface.

    But it is a fact the customer processing and management capabilities Social Networks are now evolving is being utilised in a variety of ways beyond just moderation. And it is also true this automated processing is being done at scale and is now applied to every post every member makes. 68% of US voters are on Facebook. In the UK it’s 66% and France 73.2%. The figures are similar for every democratic nation in the West. So it is vitally important the applied rules should be politically neutral.

    The power that exists within the ability to machine-process every users posts is far deeper and more profound than perhaps many realise. And while it can’t directly dictate what users write in their messages it has the capacity to fundamentally shape which messages gain traction.

    Social Media services have become de-facto town squares and most would agree their corporate owners should avoid ever putting a hand on the scales and influencing politics.

    Additionally as everyone who uses Facebook is aware, especially when it comes to politically sensitive topics, the system will qualify an individual’s reach; sometimes to an extreme degree. Or that user will simply be banned for a period of time, or banned from the network entirely.

    So we can ask the question, since the social media corporations have so much censorship power, how do we know they aren’t engaging in unethical political interference? Can they be trusted with the responsibility?

    I will return to this question, but it’s clear that trust in these corporations is deeply misplaced.

    The pandemic woke many people up to the levels of control those in charge of our Social Media networks are imposing. They, write the rules to boost engagement for posts they favour, making certain individuals’ follower counts more valuable. Conversely, users who go against the grain (or against the establishment narrative) see their engagement subtly reduced or even tank, or they can be banned from the service entirely. And the evidence is that, somewhat contrary to the principles of democracy, hands have been very firmly placed on the scales at Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

    When Elon Musk bought Twitter, he invited independent journalists Matt Taibbi, Bari Weiss and Michael Schellenburger into the Twitter offices to research internal company communications and see how far the previous owners had been censoring user tweets.

    The Twitter Files are the result, and they clearly demonstrate there has been interference on a major scale and that it has also in many cases been on political grounds. The Twitter Files team established government agencies have been firmly embedded at the company monitoring and censoring US citizens and the citizens of other nations and government agencies were regularly (strongly) requesting censorship actions. But more than this they have also revealed similar levels of interference have been taking place at other Social Media networks such a Facebook.

    But since The Twitter files evidence of interference, a new and potentially even greater interference threat has emerged.

    AI.

    There was a time it seemed like algorithms were the only topic of conversation digital marketers could discuss. And since there is no margin for human intervention at the level of individual posts, algorithms were what was being used.

    To start with they were quite simple, like the equations we practiced in school math class, so they were relatively easy to work out. Google’s rise was powered by a simple yet brilliant idea: counting external links to a webpage as a proxy for relevance.

    But algorithms have since given way to more complex machine-learning models which still at core, rely on algorithms, but now they are automatically generated and so vast any human attempt to untangle them is a non-starter. So we confine our thinking about them to what they can achieve, what significant things they can discriminate rather than exactly how the code works.

    And now we have entered a third generation of technology. Machine learning has transformed into the development of Large Language Models (LLMs) or, more popularly, AI. And with this latest evolution, corporatists have found immense and frightening new opportunities for power and control.

    The creation of LLMs involves training. The training imbues them with specific skills and biases. The purpose of the training is to fill in gaps, such that there are no obvious holes in the LLMs capacity to deal with the building blocks of human conceptualisation and speech. And this is the distinguishing feature of LLMs; that we can converse with them and the conversation flows, and the grammar and the content feels normal fluent and complete. Ideally, an LLM acts like a refined English butler—polite, informative, and correct without being rude. But also training confers specialisations to the LLM.

    In the context of social media – and this is where the frightening levels of power start to become evident – LLMs are being used to act as the hall monitor, enforcing “content moderation.”

    Meta’s Llama Guard is a prime example, trained not just to moderate but also to report on users. And this reporting function embodies not just the opportunity to report, but also through that reporting data, the mining of opportunities to influence and make suggestions about the user and too the user. And when I say suggestions, an LLM is capable not only of the obvious kind that the user might welcome and is happy to receive, but also a more devious unconscious kind that can be manipulative and designed to control.

    There is not yet evidence gathered (that I’m aware of) LLMs in particular are being used this way; yet. But the capability is most certainly there and if past behaviours indicate future developments, likely to be so used.

    You only need watch the 2006 episode from the Derren Brown’s TV show “Derren Brown: The Heist” where he convinces a group of strangers they have to commit a bank heist, to appreciate just how deep, and powerful the use of suggestion can be. For those unaware of Derren Brown, he is is a stage hypnotist and mentalist, who tends to emphasise the power of suggestion over hypnosis (most of his shows contain no hypnosis at all). Merely through the power of suggestion he gets people to do the most extraordinary things.

    “Derren-Brown-like” suggestions work because the human brain is actually far less agile and far more linear than we like to think. Consciousness is a precious resource and many actions we do frequently are transferred to habit, so we can do them without thinking and this is so we can preserve consciousness for where it is needed most.

    Through habit we change gear in a stick-shift car without having to think about it. And we’ve all experienced that game where you have a set time to think of a list of things such as countries, ending with the letter A. If put on the spot in front of a crowd, it can sometimes be difficult to come up with any at all. The brain often isn’t actually that good at thinking creatively or making fast conscious on the spot recall.

    But, if someone you spoke too a few minutes before the game told you about their holiday in Kenya, you can be sure Kenya will be the first answer to pop into your head. More than that the association will happen automatically, whether we want it to or not!

    This is simply the way the brain works. If information is conveyed at just the right time and in the right way, it can be made almost a dead cert a given suggestion will be followed.

    Derren Brown understands this and is a master at exploiting it.

    Search engines and social media platforms wield immense power to engineer behaviour through subtle suggestions. And indeed, there is evidence Facebook and Google have done so.

    Professor and researcher Dr Robert Epstein – as it were – “caught Google out” manipulating the search suggestions box that appears under the text box where users enter a search request. The whole episode became additionally sordid when it become clear they were being deceptive and had a level of were awareness their experimentation is unethical. I won’t recount the full details, but do check out the links to this – it is an interesting story in its own right.

    Users are in a particularly trusting and receptive mental state when using Google’s suggested links function and don’t notice when the results contain action and imperative suggestions that, far from being the best answer to your search query – are there to manipulate a user’s subsequent actions.

    In relation to Social media posts, the use of suggestion is often far more subtle, making it harder to detect and resist. LLM analysis across the database of user Posts can reveal related posts which supply suggest actions. Here the network can utilise the fact they have many millions of user messages at their disposal, including messages suggesting preferred outcomes. Such messages can be selected and preferentially promoted in user feeds.

    Content moderation is, of course, necessary to handle unacceptable language and anti-social behaviour. However, there’s a large grey area where disagreeable opinions can labeled as “hate speech” and because it is a grey area, there is much leeway for the social network to intrude into the personal politics and free speech space.

    The term “hate speech” has been very effective device for justifying use of the ban-hammer, but the main concern now is that, with the deployment of LLMs a major historical milestone has passed with barely a whisper that implies a whole new level of such constraints and threats to users freedom to communicate.

    And that milestone is that now LLMs are being used to govern human behaviour and not the other way around. The passing of this milestone has barely been noticed because we already previously had more simple algorithms performing this role and it is done in the dark anyway.

    User’s don’t see it until unless they are affected by it in an obvious way. But even so there is ample reason to think in the future we may will look back and recognise this milestone was something of a critical juncture after which some version of a “Sky-Net” like future became inevitable.

    Just last week, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced a police initiative to use social media to identify those involved in quelling public disorder, illustrating how LLM automated reporting is poised to be used beyond social media and in the context of law enforcement.

    There is no detail as yet of how this monitoring will be done, but, having experience of Tech Project pitching you can be sure the government will have a roster of technology firms suggesting solutions. And you can be sure LLMs are being pitched as integral to almost all of them!

    So we have established Social Media is closed and proprietary and has enabled new media power structures to be established. We have seen Social Media owners have the power to suppress or boost a posts virality and have now implemented policing and reporting by LLM (AI) which looks set to extend into real world policing. We have seen, through the Twitter Files, social media corporations broke the law during the Pandemic and displayed a willingness to collaborate with government agencies to censor and suppress disfavoured

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 19:15

  • After Undercover Ops, Texas Launches Investigation Into Orgs 'Illegally Registering Non-Citizens To Vote'
    After Undercover Ops, Texas Launches Investigation Into Orgs ‘Illegally Registering Non-Citizens To Vote’

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) launched an investigation on Wednesday into organizations that are allegedly registering non-citizens to vote.

    Following undercover operations, the AG’s Election Integrity Unit found that multiple nonprofit organizations have opened booths outside of Texas Department of Public Safety Driver’s license offices in order to ‘assist’ with voter registration.

    According to Paxton’s office, “Texans are deeply troubled by the possibility that organizations purporting to assist with voter registration are illegally registering noncitizens to vote in our elections.“

    “The Biden-Harris Administration has intentionally flooded our country with illegal aliens, and without proper safeguards, foreign nationals can illegally influence elections at the local, state, and national level. It is a crime to vote—or to register to vote—if you are not a United States Citizen. Any wrongdoing will be punished to the fullest extent of the law,” Paxton continued.

    As American Greatness notes further, 

    On Sunday, Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo revealed on X that, according to a friend, Democrats had set up voter registration drives outside of three DMVs in Weatherford and Fort Worth.

    “Friend of mine’s wife had to take her 16 yr old son to the DMV this week for a new license,” Bartiromo began.

    Couldn’t get an online appointment (all full) so went in person and had to go to 3 DMV’s to get something done. First DMV was in Weatherford. Had a massive line of immigrants getting licenses and had a tent and table outside the front door of the DMV registering them to vote! Second one was in Fort Worth with same lines and same Dems out front. Third one was in North Fort Worth had no lines but had same voter registration drive.

    Brady Gray, Chairman of the Parker County Republican Party in Weatherford, reacted to the report on X, saying he would look into it.

    “Under Kamala’s watch the border has been overrun, now MY county is being overrun,” Gray wrote. “I’m done listening to those who claim ‘replacement theory’ is racist and conspiratorial. Democrats are intentionally trying to circumvent law to steal elections. That’s not hyperbole, it’s a fact.”

    The Republican chairman added that since Bartiromo’s disturbing post went out, he had been inundated with messages from concerned residents asking if the Parker County GOP was aware of the report.

    “We are, and I will be fully investigating the claims in our community,” Gray said.

    Bo French, chairman of the Tarrant County GOP also reacted to the story on X: “This is beyond troubling. It’s time we not only shut down the border, we need to immediately implement e-verify, proof of citizenship to vote and deport every illegal alien in America,” he said.  “As for this election, we need intervention from @GovAbbo @DanPatrick @KenPaxtonTX to prevent illegals from voting. We are on the cusp of losing Texas forever.”

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton reposted Bartiromo’s post on Sunday without comment, signaling that the shocking report was also on his radar.

    American Greatness has reached out to the Texas AG’s office, the Parker County GOP, and the Tarrant County GOP for further comment.

    Another X account, Hollywood Resistance, reported a similar voter-registration drive was happening in McKinney, Texas.

    “On either side of the [DMV]doors were voter registration tables, & all the signs were in Spanish. Not one word of English. No asking for ID, just for an address,” Hollywood Resistance wrote.

    The Biden regime has allowed and in many cases, facilitated the entrance of 12 to 18 million migrants into the United States in the past three and a half years, leading many Republicans to fear that a “perfect storm” of election-changing voter fraud is imminent.

    Election Integrity Network founder Cleta Mitchell told RealClearInvestigation’s Ben Weingarten that two factors are about to produce that perfect storm: “the invasion of our country by millions of illegals” and new Democrat-driven policies that ease voter registration and participation limits.

    A new study estimates that 10–27 percent of noncitizen adults are registered to vote illegally, and 5–13 percent expected to cast illegal ballots in 2024.

    According to Mitchell and other election integrity experts, significant numbers of these noncitizens will wind up on voter rolls thanks to Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14019, which directs every federal agency to register and mobilize voters.

    Officials in Alabama and Mississippi say that under the executive order, which RCI has previously examined, authorities are already attempting to register noncitizens to vote. The Biden Administration initiative calls on federal agencies to coordinate with third-party groups in pursuit of its objectives as well.

    In testimony before the House Administration Committee in May,  J. Christian Adams, a fellow former DOJ official and president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, affirmed that “most often noncitizens are getting on the rolls through the motor voter registration process or third-party registration drives.”

    During the congressional election integrity hearing in May, New York University Brennan Center for Justice President Michael Waldman repeated the Democrat mantra that “under current law, noncitizen voting in federal elections is illegal four times over: it is both a state and federal crime to register to vote, and it is both a state and federal crime to vote in federal elections.”

    While its arguable that these laws are sufficient to curb noncitizen registration and voting, voter integrity experts claim that the ultimate goal of illegal voter registrations is to generate ballots for Democrat groups to harvest.

    According to Adams,  there is “almost nothing the public or political parties can do on the back end to identify, challenge, and invalidate noncitizen votes prior to election certification.”

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 18:50

  • Harris's Kamunist Agenda Faces Harsh Reality
    Harris’s Kamunist Agenda Faces Harsh Reality

    Authored by Roger Kimball via American Greatness,

    Don’t cry for me, Argentina.

    Cry for Kamala the Kamunist.

    It took them a while, it’s true, but at least Argentina has someone with a rudimentary knowledge of economics in charge.

    Indeed, Javier Milei, one of my favorite leaders on the world stage today (along with Viktor Orbán, Benjamin Netanyahu, Georgia Meloni, and Nayib Bukele) is a Trump-like dynamo.  If I had a more developed entrepreneurial bent, I would try marketing a line of Milei chainsaws in the United States.  Just as he took a chainsaw (sometimes literally) to excessive spending, regulation, and bureaucracy in Argentina, so my Milei Chainsaws could be employed against waste, fraud, and abuse here across the fruited plain. Milei’s robust policies have put Argentina on the runway to economic success. They have slashed inflation—some 200% when he took office—and his abolition of rent control—surprise, surprise—has sparked a 195% rise in available housing stock.

    Meanwhile, the socialists funneling ideas to Harris have put together an economic plan redolent of Venezuela or, indeed, the Soviet Union.  Its centerpiece revolves around centrally promulgated and enforced wage and price controls—a recipe for shortages and inflation.

    The plan itself has been ridiculed across the ideological spectrum, from CNN to The Wall Street Journal.  “Harris’ plan to stop price gouging,” quoth CNN in a masterpiece of understatement,  “could create more problems than it solves.”

    The WSJ was a bit franker. For one thing, there is “no evidence that supermarkets or other food retailers are gouging anyone. Food prices are higher than they were before the Biden Presidency, but that is because of inflation.”

    And who caused that inflation, Kemo Sabe? The man with the keys to the money duplicating machine, Joe Biden or his handlers.

    Moreover, “fixing prices is a recipe for shortages, as controls would discourage grocery suppliers. Voilà, empty store shelves. Price controls have led to shortages everywhere they’ve been tried, from Moscow to Caracas.”

    Some of the propaganda press—The New York Times, MSNBC, etc—have been working overtime to keep up a brave face. The low hum you hear is the hydrogen pumps shooting gas into the leaky balloon of the Democrat consortium.  As I have noted ever since Kamala was plucked out of the bin marked “ridiculous” and dusted off as the mannequin’s understudy, the intoxicating paroxysms of glee that convulsed the left-leaning media pundits was but a sugar-high. It induced feelings of giddiness but could not last.  I thought it would probably linger through the DNC convention next week, but the manic phase is already passing the stupor consequent on the sudden drop in energy has set in.

    The depressive funk is not helped by the Harris campaign’s strategy of “out-of-sight-out-of-mind.” They concluded that it worked with Joe Biden in 2020, and so they thought they would try it again.  But there is no COVID emergency to shut the country down this time around and it is pretty clear that the Dems’ basement strategy cannot be successfully dusted off and applied to Kamala.  True, she is nearly as inarticulate as Biden, but the public will not put up with the Wizard of Oz gambit a second time.

    Besides, Team Trump is wheeling out all sorts of embarrassing things that will destroy Harris if they are not effectively answered. 

    For example, a clip of Harris discussing her support of the government taking over private patents by fiat has surfaced and is being industriously circulated.

    I will snatch their patents, so that we [the American government] will take over.

    Yes we can do that!

    The question is: ‘Do you have the will to do it’!?

    I have the will to do it.

    Noted.

    I almost feel sorry for Harris, emphasis on the adverb.  Reports are that 100,000 protestors are set to converge on Chicago next week to torch the city and torment Democrat convention-goers. Will it be a bigger, badder version of what happened in Chicago in 1968?  That time, golden boy Hubert Humphrey*  went in on a cloud of fairy dust and came out of the convention 20 points behind Nixon.

    Efforts to paint Trump and JD as “weird” have failed miserably, as have the embarrassing efforts to gild the Harris-Walz socialist platform and history of failure by stealing various Trump ideas like exempting tips from federal income tax.

    Even more damaging have been the mounting attacks by conservatives on the whole Harris-Walz concession.  Governor Walz has turned out to be a special kind of liability, a sick freak who orders schools to put tampons in boys’ bathrooms while sitting back and watching Minneapolis burn as the BLM rioters rampaged through the city. His patina of plaid, dad-like folksiness is completely belied by his sympathy for Communist China not to mention his personal inclinations.

    Why was Walz picked as Harris’s running mate in the first place?  One midwestern friend might have hit upon the answer.  Tim Walz, he said, was what the coastal elites of this country believe a midwesterner looks and acts like.  He has all the “progressive” attitudes of the left, but he articulates them accoutered in a more string-tie, aw-shucks manner

    I expected a certain amount of small-caliber fire by now, but it turns out that Trump supporters are already pounding Harris-Walz with heavy artillery.  For example, speaking on “The Five” just a few days ago, Greg Gutfeld utterly vaporized Harris’s record on the border, inflation, and other issues.

    What’s coming will not be pretty. But I predict that it will be cathartic.  It’s hard to know just how much of a hose Trump’s victory will be for the rank Augean stables of Democrat incumbency. Doubtless, many clumps of ordure will remain.  Many, however, will be flushed into the impatient, rushing currents of change.  I am looking forward to it.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 18:25

  • Israeli Assassinations Are Near-Daily In Lebanon, Airstrikes Reaching Deeper
    Israeli Assassinations Are Near-Daily In Lebanon, Airstrikes Reaching Deeper

    The past several days have seen a significant uptick in rare Israeli airstrikes deep into Lebanese territory, with multiple airstrikes having hit the Bekaa Valley in the country’s east.

    Most of the strikes were late Monday into Tuesday, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) describing that fighter jets attacked a “Hezbollah weapons storage facilities in the area of Bekaa Valley in Lebanon” – resulting in massive fireballs lighting up the night sky.

    Burned-out car after a Wednesday strike on the outskirts of Lebanon’s southern port city of Sidon, which reportedly killed a Palestinian commander, via Reuters.

    “Following the strikes, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of large amounts of weapons in the facilities struck,” the Israeli army said.

    These strikes occurred more than 40 miles from the Israeli border, and Israeli typically launches such rare long-range operations in response to deadly Hezbollah rocket attacks. This latest escalation came after a Hezbollah attack killed a 45-year old IDF Warrant Officer in the Western Galilee.

    As for the latest IDF attacks on Bekaa, Lebanon’s health ministry said in the aftermath that eight people total, including two Syrian children, were wounded. Hezbollah then retaliated with some 200 rockets fired at Israel on Tuesday.

    “Hezbollah said the attack was in response to an Israeli strike deep into Lebanon on Tuesday night that killed one and injured 19,” AP reports. “On Tuesday, Hezbollah launched more than 200 projectiles toward Israel, after Israel targeted a Hezbollah weapons depot some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the border, a significant increase in the daily skirmishes.”

    Wednesday has seen at least 50 Hezbollah rockets fired on northern Israel, reportedly in response to the IDF assassinating a top Palestinian official from the West Bank who was in southern Lebanon when his vehicle was struck. The targeted killing happened outside the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon. Al Jazeera’s correspondent details:

    The strike targeted Khalil al-Maqdah, a commander in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a loose coalition of Palestinian groups that believe in armed resistance. The Martyrs Brigades issued a statement, calling [al-Maqdah] a commander who played a key role in supporting the Palestinian people and supporting Palestinian resistance in the West Bank.

    A short while ago, we saw the Lebanese army take away the car that [al-Maqdah] was targeted in.

    Israel has been escalating its attacks as of late, expanding the scope of its attacks. And clearly there’s no front line any longer.

    Al Jazeera concludes after this latest that “Targeted killings are becoming a near-daily occurrence.”

    Below: Hezbollah arms depot struck, far away from Israeli border…

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    As both sides slide closer to potential all-out war, which could eventually witness an Israeli military invasion of southern Lebanon, the AP tallies that “The exchanges have killed more than 500 people in Lebanon — mostly militants but also including around 100 civilians and non-combatants — and 23 soldiers and 26 civilians in Israel.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 18:00

  • 'Two Minutes Of Hate': Dems Roll Surreal, Unhinged Attack Montage On Loop At The DNC
    ‘Two Minutes Of Hate’: Dems Roll Surreal, Unhinged Attack Montage On Loop At The DNC

    Authored by Mark Jeftovic via The Daily Bell,

    In George Orwell’s prophetic and seminal work, 1984, the Two Minutes of Hate was a daily ritual of operant conditioning, in which a video reel depicting enemies of the state was broadcast throughout society with the express aim of whipping the masses into a frenetic state of loathing towards any who opposed Big Brother.

    Since the appearance of the “Dark Brandon” entity, the non-brainwashed have been wary of the nasty turn politics has taken in the United States, and elsewhere.

    If four years of unhinged Trump Derangement Syndrome from the MSM wasn’t enough, now the President and incumbent party was channeling unrestrained animus at roughly half the U.S. population.

    While constantly professing to be the party for “preserving democracy” and “inclusivity”, the US Democratic Party is channeling ominous and blatant overtones of repression, dare I say, even hatred toward their fellow citizens who may not be so like-minded.

    So far the Democratic National Convention has been a dumpster fire of cringe, disrespect and hypocrisy but one takeaway, posted on twitter (I originally saw it here) takes the cake:

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    The profanity laden video depicts political opponents as cockroaches (could you imagine the reaction if a conservative made that comparison?), and sprinkles in sexualized images, including Elon Musk deep throating a phallic object labeled “MAGAsickle”.

    If there was any doubt that the Democratic Party has been captured by far-left lunatics, the big takeaways were:

    • America is evil (MAGA literally stands for restoring the country to its former grandeur)

    • Wealth is evil (“F*CK BILLIONAIRES”), and

    • Literal communism (“REDISTRIBUTE THAT SHIT”)

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    In case you were wondering what you’re really voting for if you tick the box for the Dems this November – it’s looks like some kind of deranged mutation of Orwell’s 1984 and Ayn Rand’s “We The Living”, replete with wealth redistribution and re-education camps.

    Remember – it’s always relatively easy to vote your way into communism – but you have to fight your way out.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 17:40

  • Top Biden-Harris Official Calls For 'Queering Nuclear Weapons'
    Top Biden-Harris Official Calls For ‘Queering Nuclear Weapons’

    A recent Biden-Harris administration Department of Energy high level hire is attracting controversy, as well as appropriate widespread mockery, for publishing formal articles calling for the “queering of nuclear weapons”. This is almost word-for-word an actual title of one of her papers.

    Sneha Nair was named special assistant in the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) less than a year ago, and since then several of her recent academic papers have been unearthed, focusing on “the relationship between queerness and nuclear policy” as a “substantive” issue. Bellow is one such paper co-authored by Nair, featured at the prominent publication Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists…

    The article, which is one of several such examples authored by her, claims that “discrimination against queer people can undermine nuclear security and increase nuclear risk.”

    “Equity and inclusion for queer people is not just a box-ticking exercise in ethics and social justice; it is also essential for creating effective nuclear policy,” Nair continues. 

    And supposedly the US homeland faces greater nuclear risk if there is “exclusion” and “unfair” treatment under the aegis of the supposed white male patriarchy. Below are some actual segments taken from this top Biden official’s work, which includes interesting buzzwords like a “male-dominated” “nuclear priesthood” [emphasis ZH]: 

    Exclusion and unfair treatment of queer individuals and other minorities by a homogenous, cis-heteronormative community of practitioners also creates vulnerabilities in nuclear decision making.

    * * *

    Including a wider range of perspectives in nuclear decision making creates a more comprehensive definition of who or what constitutes a “threat” to nuclear security. An example of this is the threat posed by some white supremacist groups with plans to acquire nuclear weapons or material, which can go undetected when a white-majority workforce does not perceive these groups and their ideological motivation as a relevant threat to their nuclear security mission.

    * * *

    Nuclear deterrence is associated with “rationality” and “security,” while disarmament and justice for nuclear weapon victims are coded as “emotion” and a lack of understanding of the “real” mechanics of security.

    * * *

    Queer theory is also about rejecting binary choices and zero-sum thinking, such as the tenet that nuclear deterrence creates security and disarmament creates vulnerability.

    * * *

    Diversity and inclusion are especially important for the policy community dealing with arsenal development and nuclear posture. Women familiar with this “nuclear priesthood” describe it as “male-dominated and unwelcoming.”

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    And considering one more rather interesting quote, perhaps Russia’s Putin or China’s Xi is open to hearing about the “hidden stories” of “trauma” among those personnel overseeing America’s nuclear arsenal?…

    “Finally, queer theory informs the struggle for nuclear justice and disarmament,” Nair wrote. “Queer theory helps to shift the perception of nuclear weapons as instruments for security by telling the hidden stories of displacement, illness, and trauma caused by their production and testing.” 

    Nair appears to have risen to her position on a DEI wave of new hires. She has recently vowed to focus her efforts on implementing ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ values at the highest levels of US national security. “By understanding DEI as a set of values critical to security, and therefore as an element of an effective nuclear security culture, stakeholders can explore how DEI can contribute to stronger security at nuclear facilities,” she has written. 

    Meanwhile, Fox News has also noted her pre-administration position and funding:

    Before she joined the administration, she worked for the Stimson Institute, which has received hundreds of thousands from Soros’ Open Society Foundations and millions from “The Embassy of the State of Qatar” over the years, Fox News Digital’s review of their funding sources revealed. 

    This is all coming to light quite dangerously at a moment the Ukraine war is escalating by the day, given especially that the ongoing Kursk incursion risks deeper NATO involvement, and amid the recent infusion of more Western weapons into the conflict, especially US-made F-16 fighter jets.

    Additionally, just this week The NY Times revealed that President Biden last March made changes to US strategic doctrine. “In a classified document approved in March, the president ordered U.S. forces to prepare for possible coordinated nuclear confrontations with Russia, China and North Korea,” the Times wrote. Alongside, Putin and Xi, North Korea’s Kim is surely not going to be ‘scared’ or impressed by our new DEI nuke officials.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 17:20

  • US Jobs Revised Down By 818,000 In Election Year Shocker, Second Worst Revision In US History
    US Jobs Revised Down By 818,000 In Election Year Shocker, Second Worst Revision In US History

    Back in March, when most of Wall Street and economists still believed the lies spewed forth by the Biden Bureau of Labor Statistics, which intentionally uses inaccurate, rushed “data” from the Establishment survey which is meant to pad sentiment and make the economy appear far stronger than it is for propaganda purposes (as one can see by the constant monthly downward revisions), we did an in-depth analysis looking at the actual, “uncooked” numbers published by the Philadelphia Fed preview of the annual Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages employment revision, and warned our readers that actual US payrolls are overstated by at least 800,000.

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    Specifically, we concluded that “the BLS had overstated payrolls by 800,000 through Dec 2023 (and more if one were to extend the data series into 2024)” and added that “it’s truly statistically remarkable how every time the data error is in favor of a stronger, if fake, economy.”

    Furthermore, we also noted that the revision “also means that far from the stellar 230K average monthly increase in payrolls in 2023, which the White House would spin time and again as direct evidence of the benefits of Bidenomics, the true average monthly payroll increase in 2023 was only 130K! The full monthly change in payrolls as originally reported by the BLS (in green) and the actual monthly number, as per the QCEW (in red) is shown below.”

    This matters because as we reminded our followers this weekend, today at 10am, the BLS would publish its annual nonfarm payrolls benchmark revision where it would unveil as , which it did (with the usual 35 minute delay because that’s the kind of service $35 trillion in debt buys you), and it confirmed that we were right almost to the dot, because as the BLS unveiled in its CES Preliminary Benchmark Announcement, “the preliminary estimate of the benchmark revision indicates an adjustment to March 2024 total nonfarm employment of -818,000 (-0.5 percent)” or just above the 800,000 was said to expect back in March.

    The revision is mainly due to the highest-paying sectors: i.e., professional services -358k, leisure -150k, and manufacturing -115k. Not at all surprising: government was revised +1,000.

    As an aside, while the data were scheduled to be released at 10 a.m. in Washington but didn’t appear on the BLS’s website for more than a half hour later. A spokesperson for the agency didn’t answer Bloomberg’s questions as to why the figures were delayed, but we have some pretty good guesses about the panic that gripped the BLS as they realized they needed a green lights from the propaganda ministry before going live with this number.

    How big is the 818,000 revision in context? As the chart below shows, the 2024 revision was the biggest in the past decade, and the second biggest on record, with just the 824K downward revision in 2009 just (barely) greater.

    The revisions confirm that – as we had been warning for much of the past year – the labor market started moderating much sooner than flawed conventional wisdom thought. It wasn’t until earlier this month that markets and economists grew concerned with the release of the July jobs report. That set off alarm bells with a weak pace of hiring and a fourth month of rising unemployment, but other metrics like jobless claims and vacancies have suggested a more moderate slowdown.

    Putting it all together, we now know – as we reported first back in March – that the labor market is, and was, far weaker than conventionally believed. In fact, no less than 800,000 payrolls would end up “missing” when one uses the far more accurate Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data rather than the BLS’ woefully inaccurate and politically mandated payrolls “data”, and if one looks back the the monthly gains across most of 2023, one gets not 218K jobs added on average every month but rather 150K, a 31% decline. Needless to say, the market would look very different if it had known that effectively all the payroll “beats” of the past year would be deleted!

    Of course, none of that paints Bidenomics, or Kamalanomics, or whatever it is now, in a flattering picture, because while one can at least pretend that issuing $1 trillion in debt every 100 days to add 3 million jos per year is somewhat acceptable, learning that that ridiculous amount buys 800,000 jobs less is hardly the endorsement that the White House needs. On the flip side, pretending that the US had added an additional 800,000 jobs in the past year is precisely what Biden, and now, Kamala would have wanted to generate the kind of buzz and momentum that somehow translates into the “greatest economy ever”… at least until it is all revised away as the admin’s lies finally wash away.

    What is the implication for the market? Well, as UBS trader Leo He correctly notes, “the Fed is well aware of nonfarm payrolls (establishment survey) overstating the job market, but unemployment rate (household survey) underestimating the job market” and he goes on to quote Governor Bowman’s speech on Tuesday:

    “There are also risks that the labor market has not been as strong as the payroll data have been indicating, and it appears that the recent rise in unemployment may be exaggerating the degree of cooling in labor markets. The Q4 Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) report suggests that job gains have been consistently overstated in the establishment survey since March of last year, while the household survey unemployment data have become less accurate as response rates have appreciably declined since the pandemic. The rise in the unemployment rate this year largely reflects weaker hiring, as job searchers entering the labor force are taking longer to find work, and layoffs remain low. It is also likely that some temporary factors contributed to the soft July employment report. The rise in the unemployment rate in July was largely accounted for by workers who are experiencing a temporary layoff and are more likely to be rehired in coming months. Hurricane Beryl also likely contributed to weaker job gains, as the number of workers not working due to bad weather increased significantly last month.”

    At the end of the day, all this does is cement the Fed’s 25bps rate cut next month.

    As for broader socio-political implications, the reactions are already pouring in with those on the blue side of the spectrum pretending nothing happened, while those on the other side of the aisle raging at what has now become clear propaganda by the highly politicized Department of Labor. To wit, here is RFK, Jr., proposed VP candidate Nicole Shanahan slamming the BLS, and using our data to do so:

    The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has long been used as a tool of propaganda by the executive branch. Here’s how: they distort definitions, manipulate data, exclude discouraged workers, and revise past reports to create narratives that fit the agenda of whichever administration is in power. This skews the actual economic picture and misleads citizens about the true state of our economy. It’s like a game of musical chairs, and neither side wants to be caught standing when the music stops. The Constitution doesn’t grant the government the authority to track unemployment statistics, so why do we even have this agency? Perhaps it’s time to get rid of it. Their $750M budget could surely be put to better use, and private companies already track U.S. unemployment for free. Win-win.

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    We agree: back in March we concluded our article, which predicted today’s revision with near 100% accuracy, by warning that the staggering size of the revised data “is also why nobody in the mainstream media – which is now nothing more than the PR smokescreen for the Biden puppetmasters, the government and the deep state – will ever mention this report.”

    Today it will be more difficult for the propaganda press to ignore it.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 17:16

  • Weight Loss Drug Linked To 45% Higher Suicidality; WHO Data Shows
    Weight Loss Drug Linked To 45% Higher Suicidality; WHO Data Shows

    Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times,

    A new study has linked semaglutide, the active drug ingredient in weight-loss and diabetic drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic, to suicidal ideation.

    The finding “warrants urgent clarification,” the authors wrote.

    Researchers analyzed the World Health Organization’s (WHO) database for adverse drug events. They compared the reporting rates of suicidal ideation and other suicidal behaviors from reports about semaglutide and another weight-loss drug of the same class, liraglutide (brand name Victoza and Saxenda). The reporting rates of suicidal ideation and other self-injurious behavior were then compared against all other drugs in the WHO database. The findings were also compared to other antidiabetic drugs like dapagliflozin, metformin, and orlistat.

    The results, published on Wednesday in the JAMA Network Open, show that semaglutide was linked with a 45 percent greater likelihood of suicidal ideation when compared to other drugs. Liraglutide had no significant link to suicidality.

    The authors noted a slight increase in adverse drug reports for both semaglutide and liraglutide up until August 2023. However, the rise was substantially more pronounced for semaglutide, climbing from 0 percent in 2017 to 0.8 percent in 2023, compared to liraglutide’s increase from 0.09 percent in 2014 to 0.4 percent in 2023.

    Semaglutide was approved in 2017 while liraglutide was approved in 2011.

    “What I take away from this is that there is increased reporting, we should be aware of this,” Dr. Roger McIntyre, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at the University of Toronto, who was not involved in the study, told The Epoch Times in an email.

    “The reporting of an elevated signal in a pharmacovigilance database cannot establish causation, it is association only,” he said.

    “Most of the drugs that have been studied for the management of obesity are central nervous system drugs. And so there’s long been a concern about any psychiatric adverse events associated with those drugs, be it anxiety, insomnia, depression, any of these things,” Patrick O’Neil, a professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina and was not involved in the study, told The Epoch Times.

    Most Reports Linked to Off-Label Use

    The authors evaluated over 36 million reports in the pharmacovigilance database. They identified 110 cases of suicidality among semaglutide users and 160 cases among liraglutide users.

    Between the two drugs, around half of the suicidality cases occurred when people took the drug off label, the researchers said.

    “The observed high proportion of cases due to possible off-label use and a recently published postmarketing signal of misuse or abuse call for urgent clarification of patient-related and drug-related risk factors,” the authors wrote.

    Taking semaglutide with antidepressants or benzodiazepines, a drug often prescribed for anxiety, was associated with a 150 to 300 percent greater increase.

    “People with anxiety and depressive disorders maybe at higher probability of reporting suicidal ideation when medicated with semaglutide,” the study authors wrote.

    It is very difficult to study suicidality in obese patients given the bidirectional relationship between obesity and depression, O’Neil said. That is, people who are depressed are more likely to be obese, and people who are obese are more likely to develop depression.

    Conflicting Findings

    The study is one of many that have linked semaglutide drugs to suicidal ideation and other suicidal behaviors. There have also been studies that found semaglutide was linked to reduced suicidality, as well as studies that found no significant link between use of such drugs and suicidal behavior.

    Both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medical Agency have investigated the link between semaglutide and suicidality. Both investigations yielded inconclusive results, though the FDA’s investigation is still ongoing.

    “Contradictory results in studies based on pharmacovigilance data are quite expected,” Drs. Francesco Salvo and Jean-Luc Faillie, who wrote an editorial accompanying the JAMA Network Open study, said. A disproportionate study, like the current study, tends to use a larger variety of methods and models than other studies, thus having a wider variety of results, they noted.

    “[There are] probably more studies not seeing a relationship than there are that find it. Does that mean we can rule [suicidality] out? No,” O’Neil said.

    No Established Mechanism

    There is currently no mechanism that can explain the difference in drug adverse event reporting rates between the two drugs, according to McIntyre.

    Unlike rimonabant, an obesity drug that was pulled off the market due to early reports of suicidality, there was a possible clear mechanism for rimonabant explaining why some people may become suicidal. Rimonabant targeted the endocannabinoid receptors to reduce people’s appetite and drive for more food, which are the same receptors cannabis targets to cause psychoactive effects.

    McIntyre previously commented that semaglutide and liraglutide, which have been shown to reduce food cravings in both animals and humans, should be linked to a decrease in impulsivity and therefore suicidality.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 17:00

  • Return To Sender: Panama Starts Flying Migrants Home… At US Taxpayer Expense
    Return To Sender: Panama Starts Flying Migrants Home… At US Taxpayer Expense

    The Republic of Panama on Tuesday initiated a new program by which illegal immigrants transiting the country are flown back to their native nations — with the cost borne by US taxpayers.

    The repatriation flight program is one of multiple avenues by which new Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino is following through on his campaign pledge to end his country’s role as a major funnel of illegal immigrants bound for the United States. Last year saw a new record, with more than a half-million migrants crossing the infamous Darien Gap jungle wilderness that spans the Panama-Colombia border region. 

    Under watch of dozens of National Border Service officers, a shackled Colombian migrant boards a plane at Panama City’s Tocumen International Airport (Aris Martinez via Reuters)

    Tuesday’s first repatriation flight was loaded with 29 Colombians, all of whom have criminal records in their home country, with one alleged to be a member of the powerful Clan del Golfo gang, aka the Gaitanistas. Each was caught after they’d made it through the Darien Gap, and were in handcuffs and ankle-irons as they were guided onto an Air Panama plane. Panama’s senior migration-management officer, Roger Mojica, told reporters that flights to other destinations are in the works — including India and Ecuador — with the next flight happening as soon as Friday. 

    Critically, the deportation of Venezuelans — who represent the largest subset of the illegal migrant flow — could be delayed, thanks to Panama’s suspension of diplomacy with Venezuela following July’s contested presidential election. Pre-election polls indicated many Venezuelans intended to leave their country if President Nicolas Maduro won. His declared victory is in dispute, and the Biden administration wants him to regime change himself. Supporting Washington’s agenda, Panama’s Mulino offered Maduro “safe passage” en route to a third country; Maduro warned Mulino not to “mess” with Venezuela. 

    Migrants slogging their way across the dangerous Darien Gap. The top four countries of origin are Venezuela, then Colombia, Ecuador and Haiti (Getty Images via BBC)

    In accordance with a deal announced on the same July day on which Mulino was sworn into office, the United States government will cover Panama’s expenses for deporting people who enter Panama illegally, in addition to helping with “equipment, transportation and logistics.” The initial commitment has America on the hook for $6 million. 

    The famed Pan-American Highway has a 66-mile gap that starts just inside Colombia — forcing migrants to make a treacherous journey on foot through a mountainous, marshy region called the Darien Gap. They not only have to survive dangerous natural conditions, but robberies, kidnappings, rapes and murders perpetrated by criminal gangs lurking in the hot jungle. 

    Earlier this month, Panamanian border police arrested 15 people linked to an illicit “VIP” migrant-smuggling operation that caters to Chinese clients. Using boats, canoes, ATVs and horses, the top-tier service promised a faster, easier and safer passage into Panama — at a higher price. Migrants pay about $500 for a standard escort through the gap, but fees for the expedited trip range from $2,600 to $8,000. 

    Referring to Tuesday’s flight taking Colombians back home, the US Department of Homeland Security’s Marlen Pineiro told reporters, “The message we’re sending is very clear: Darien is no longer a route.” Considering she was referring to a few dozen Colombians against an estimated 8,000 people who crossed the gap in just the first few weeks of August, that’s some pretty big talk. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 08/21/2024 – 16:40

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