Dec 22

Today’s News 22nd December 2024

  • US Fighter Jet Shot Down Over Red Sea In Disastrous 'Friendly Fire' Incident
    US Fighter Jet Shot Down Over Red Sea In Disastrous ‘Friendly Fire’ Incident

    In the early morning hours of Sunday (local), two US Navy pilots were shot down over the Red Sea in an apparent friendly fire incident. This comes after more than a year of war against Yemeni Houthi rebels, who have targeted international transit in regional waters.

    The incident is highly unusual given that US and Western allied coalition ships have come under repeat drone and missile from from the Houthis, but have thus far suffered no disclosed losses. The Western coalition has reported no damage or casualties from this long-running battle, and yet it appears the first shootdown of an American fighter jet in the conflict has come by way of US aircraft carrier fire.

    Illustrative: US Navy Image

    The two pilots ejected after their F/A-18 fighter was hit and have been safely rescued in Red Sea waters, with one of the pilots suffering injuries.

    The Associated Press and ABC News are reporting the following details after official CENTCOM confirmation:

    Two U.S. Navy pilots ejected safely over the Red Sea after their F/A-18 fighter aircraft was mistakenly shot down early Sunday in what military officials are calling “an apparent case of friendly fire.”

    One of the pilots has minor injuries, according to a news release from U.S. Central Command.

    The guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg, which is part of the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, mistakenly fired on and hit the aircraft, that was flying off the USS Harry S. Truman, according to the news release.

    CENTCOM says it is investigating the incident. Again, it is clearly bizarre given the aircraft had just taken off from the same carrier strike group of which the USS Gettysburg is part.

    “The F/A-18 shot down had just flown off the deck of the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier,” Central Command indicated. 

    The US military was conducting an assault against militants in Yemen at the time of the incident. AP details further, “The U.S. military had conducted airstrikes targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the time, though the U.S. military’s Central Command did not elaborate on what their mission was and did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press.”

    There appears to have been some ‘fog of war’ confusion given that just prior to the friendly fire shootdown the Houthis had launched drones and a cruise missile at the US battle group. The F-18 may have been mistakenly identified by the Gettysburg warship as an inbound Houthi UAV.

    USS Gettysburg, via US Navy

    “However, Central Command said that warships and aircraft earlier shot down multiple Houthi drones and an anti-ship cruise missile launched by the rebels. Incoming hostile fire from the Houthis has given sailors just seconds to make decisions in the past,” the AP notes.

    Needless to say this is highly embarrassing for the Pentagon, and will be celebrated as a major ‘win’ by the Iran-backed Houthis. The Houthis have clearly been able to put the US warships on the defensive, given the confusion of the battle zone and trigger-happy premature response evident in this fresh incident.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 23:30

  • Post-Cold-War Geopolitics Worse For Global South
    Post-Cold-War Geopolitics Worse For Global South

    Authored by Jomo Kwame Sundaram via via Substack,

    The new geopolitics after the first Cold War undermines peace, sustainability, and human development. Hegemonic priorities continue to threaten humanity’s well-being and prospects for progress.

    End of first Cold War

    The end of the first Cold War has been interpreted in various ways, most commonly as a US triumph. Francis Fukuyama famously proclaimed the ‘end of history’ with the victory of capitalism and liberal democracy.

    With the collapse of the Soviet Union and allied regimes, the US seemed unchallenged and unchallengeable in the new ‘unipolar’ world. The influential US journal Foreign Affairs termed ensuing US foreign policy ‘sovereigntist’.

    But the new order also triggered fresh discontent. Caricaturing cultural differences, Samuel Huntington blamed a ‘clash of civilisations’. His contrived cultural categories serve a new ‘divide-and-rule’ strategy.

    Today’s geopolitics often associates geographic and cultural differences with supposed ideological, systemic and other political divides. Such purported fault lines have also fed ‘identity politics’.

    The new Cold War is hot and bloody in parts of the world, sometimes spreading quickly. As bellicosity is increasingly normalised, hostilities have grown dangerously.

    Economic liberalisation, including globalisation, has been unevenly reversed since the turn of the century. Meanwhile, financialization has undermined the real economy, especially industry.

    The G20 finance ministers, representing the world’s twenty largest economies, including several from the Global South, began meeting after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

    The G20 began meeting at the heads of government level following the 2008 global financial crisis, which was seen as a G7 failure. However, the G20’s relevance has declined again as the North reasserted G7 centrality with the new Cold War.

    NATO rules

    The ostensible raison d’être of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has gone with the end of the first Cold War and the Soviet Union.

    The faces of Western powers have also changed. For example, the G5 grew to become the G7 in 1976. US infatuation with the post-Soviet Russia of Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin even brought it into the G8 for some years!

    Following the illegal US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the sovereigntist Wolfowitz doctrine of 2007 redefined its foreign policy priorities to strengthen NATO and start a new Cold War. NATO mobilisation of Europe – behind the US against Russia – now supports Israel targeting China, Iran and others.

    Violating the UN Charter, the 2022 Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine united and strengthened NATO and Europe behind the US. Despite earlier tensions across the north Atlantic, Europe rallied behind Biden against Russia despite its high costs.

    International law has also not stopped NATO expansion east to the Russian border. The US unilaterally defines new international norms, often ignoring others, even allies. But Trump’s re-election has raised ‘centrist’ European apprehensions.

    Developing countries were often forced to take sides in the first Cold War, ostensibly waged on political and ideological grounds. With mixed economies now ubiquitous, the new Cold War is certainly not over capitalism.

    Instead, rivalrous capitalist variants shape the new geoeconomics as state variations underlie geopolitics. Authoritarianism, communist parties and other liberal dirty words are often invoked for effect.

    New Europe

    Despite her controversial track record during her first term as the European Commission (EC) president, Ursula von der Leyen is now more powerful and belligerent in her second term.

    She quickly replaced Joseph Borrell, her previous EC Vice President and High Representative in charge of international relations. Borrell described Europe as a garden that the Global South, the surrounding jungle, wants to invade.

    For Borrell, Europe cannot wait for the jungle to invade. Instead, it must pre-emptively attack the jungle to contain the threat. Since the first Cold War, NATO has made more, mainly illegal military interventions, increasingly outside Europe!

    The US, UK, German, French and Australian navies are now in the South China Sea despite the 1973 ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) commitment to a ZOPFAN (zone of peace, freedom and neutrality) and no request from any government in the region.

    Cold War nostalgia

    The first Cold War also saw bloody wars involving alleged ‘proxies’ in southwestern Africa, Central America, and elsewhere. Yet, despite often severe Cold War hostilities, there were also rare instances of cooperation.

    In 1979, the Soviet Union challenged the US to eradicate smallpox within a decade. US President Jimmy Carter accepted the challenge. In less than ten years, smallpox was eradicated worldwide, underscoring the benefits of cooperation.

    Official development assistance (ODA) currently amounts to around 0.3% of rich countries’ national incomes. This is less than half the 0.7% promised by wealthy nations at the UN in 1970.

    The end of the first Cold War led to ODA cuts. Levels now are below those after Thatcher and Reagan were in power in the 1980s. Trump’s views and famed ‘transactional approach’ to international relations are expected to cut aid further.

    The economic case against the second Cold War is clear. Instead of devoting more to sustainable development, scarce resources go to military spending and related ‘strategic’ priorities.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 23:20

  • Aide To California Politician Arrested, Accused Of Conspiring With Chinese Spy To Infiltrate US Politics
    Aide To California Politician Arrested, Accused Of Conspiring With Chinese Spy To Infiltrate US Politics

    Authored by Eva Fu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The FBI on Dec. 19 arrested a close associate of a local California politician, accusing him of scheming together with a recently sentenced Chinese spy to amplify China’s influence in the U.S. political circle.

    The Department of Justice (DOJ) in Washington on Aug. 12, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

    Sun Yaoning, also known as Mike Sun, was the campaign manager and close personal confidante to a Southern California city council member that the Chinese authorities supported, according to a newly unsealed complaint.

    The 64-year-old has worked closely with Chen Jun, or John Chen, who a New York judge sentenced to 20 months in November for bribing the IRS against Falun Gong, a faith group that the Chinese regime has spent 25 years trying to suppress in China and globally, the document shows.

    In conversations with Chinese officials following the politician’s election in November 2022, Chen referred to Sun and the California politician as part of a “basic team dedicated for us,” according to the filing.

    “Mr. Sun has been my helping hand in the Chinese community since 1997,” Chen was quoted as telling one Chinese official in January 2023.

    The politician, whose name authorities redacted from the complaint, was one of the local U.S. politicians Chen assessed Beijing could influence on issues such as Taiwan, according to the prosecutors.

    Sun and the council member co-run a media outlet called U.S. News Center, the complaint noted. In a report Sun allegedly drafted with Chen, they described the politician as a “new political star.”

    Campaign finance records suggest that in 2022, Sun was the campaign treasurer for Eileen Wang, a councilwoman for the Los Angeles-area city of Arcadia. The two also held leadership positions in the American Southwest Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit headquartered in Los Angeles. Wang founded the nonprofit in 2018, according to Chinese language reports. A Chinese consulate official said at its founding ceremony that he hoped Wang could lead the group to promote U.S.–China communications and cross-strait reunification—a reference to Beijing’s ambition to annex democratically-ruled Taiwan.

    Wang didn’t respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

    Sun had previously served in the Chinese military, the FBI agent said in the complaint. Public records show that he is the vice director of the American Chinese Culture Association, one of several U.S.-based pro-Beijing groups where he holds titles. Sun is also the CEO of a U.S.-based media group called N&N Media Group, and has for years organized large-scale events to promote Beijing’s narratives and celebrate key Party anniversaries, according to Chinese media reports.

    U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Martin Estrada said Sun’s alleged conduct was “deeply concerning.”

    “We cannot permit hostile foreign powers to meddle in the governance of our country,” he said.

    Akil Davis, assistant director for the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said the case highlights the breadth of the Chinese regime’s “relentless intelligence and malign influence activities targeting the United States.” He said that the FBI will “continue to use all the tools at its disposal” to identify the Chinese intelligence operations, disrupt Chinese information laundering networks, and “bring to justice those who seek to engage in criminal conspiracies to undermine the integrity of our elected officials.”

    Sun appeared at a downtown Los Angeles courthouse for a hearing on Friday. He faces up to 15 years in prison for the charges.

    Sun’s attorney declined to answer questions from The Epoch Times upon walking out of the courtroom.

    The Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in Los Angeles on June 1, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

    A ‘Basic Team Dedicated for Us’

    The pro-Beijing California politician Sun helped to reelect maintains a close relationship with Chen, conversations cited in the court suggest.

    On Nov. 9, 2022, the election day in California, the individual contacted Chen, writing: “Old Sun is contacting you. Please call him back. He is with me.”

    “Got it, congratulations,” Chen replied from China, adding that they would talk in person in six days.

    The two had held two phone calls for around half an hour and one hour each during the weeks following. In January 2023, the politician wrote a thank you letter to Chen, thanking him for attending her Chinese New Year event.

    “You are doing a good job, I hope you can continue the good work, make Chinese people proud,” Chen said in reply.

    Chen also tasked Sun to brief Chinese officials regarding the politician’s election outcome in late November 2022, saying “the related department is paying a lot of attention to it,” according to the court filing.

    A biography Sun allegedly wrote describing the politician stated she was born in the late 1970s in China’s Chengdu City, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan.

    Three Chinese officials reacted positively to her election victory when separately alerted by Chen, sending a salute emoji, smiley faces, and thumbs up in response.

    Days after that, on Dec. 8, 2022, they formed the “U.S.-China Friendship Promotion Association,” with Sun as the vice president and the politician, who they described as a “Chinese elected official,” as a member, the filing shows.

    A Chinese official who heads a municipal government office in Tianjin, a northeastern Chinese megacity and Chen’s hometown, congratulated Chen for the work.

    “This is the basic team dedicated for us,” Chen wrote, to which the official wrote: “Understood, can’t wait.”

    ‘Struggles’ Against the Regime’s Targets

    In pre-trial detention, Chen, a U.S. citizen, reportedly told his cellmate that he was a Chinese spy working for the 610 Office, the Chinese extralegal agency established expressly to persecute Falun Gong, according to the complaint. The document said Chen described the agency as “a ‘spy agency’ that was 100 times better than the FBI.” Chen seemed astonished that he was caught, the FBI agent said, professing disbelief that the 610 Office “didn’t do a better job watching him.” He also allegedly said the 610 Office paid him $250,000 to move to the United States decades ago and has since paid him $52,000 per month.

    A major topic among Sun and Chen’s conversations cited in the court file was about how to promote Beijing’s agenda in the United States and then report their work to their handlers in China.

    Ahead of a planned trip to China in January 2023, Chen hurried Sun to write a report about the politician’s election win, saying he would present it to the “United Front,” the overseas Chinese influence network.

    Chen allegedly instructed Sun to highlight the “current strategy” with Falun Gong, their “past experience with struggles” against the regime’s targets, and of “you and me cultivating and assisting [the politician]’s success.”

    In a draft that Sun shared with Chen on Feb. 1, 2023, Sun took credit for leading U.S. dignitaries and cultural workers to China “on many occasions” to further promote U.S.–China ties, prosecutors alleged. Sun, according to the court filing, further cast himself as one who “persist[s] in resisting any hostile forces that undermine the friendship of U.S.-China relations, and Chinese secessionist forces.”

    Sun wrote “most proudly of all” of how he orchestrated a team to “win the election for city council member candidate,” the court document stated.

    Prosecutors alleged Chen asked Sun to add context about their “past struggle fighting Taiwanese independence forces” and Falun Gong in a California city. They also allegedly discussed how to protest a Congress member’s proposed visit to Taiwan.

    The two in February 2023 took issue with the presence of Taiwan flags and Falun Gong practitioners in major U.S. parades, according to the complaint. To counter it, they allegedly proposed to Chinese officials a project: they would mobilize the “Los Angeles organization’s professional core team” to organize a float with a 100-person drum band. The budget was $80,000, the complaint said.

    On April 4, 2023, weeks before Chen’s arrest over the IRS bribery scheme against Falun Gong, Chen asked Sun whether Falun Gong practitioners “have locations” in a California city and activities there, according to the file.

    “Can you create some obstacles for them? If you can eliminate one or several locations, or create some obstacles, there will be rewards.”

    He allegedly asked Sun about three weeks later to arrange a meeting with the Chinese consul general in Los Angeles, telling him “there is a major project to report.”

    “National level,” Chen added, sharing an article titled “How the U.S. Neighbors of Falungong See Them” that disparages the belief.

    “Actual operation is strictly classified,” he said, according to the court document. “You will get credit for it.”

    It’s unclear whether Chen was referring to the IRS bribery plot. According to the complaint, Chen intended to report to Chinese authorities by May 20. That would be six days after his meeting with a purported IRS official in order to open a probe against Shen Yun Performing Arts, a New York classical Chinese dance and music company founded by Falun Gong practitioners that showcases “China before communism,” as well as segments showing the abuses happening to the faith group in China. Authorities said the complaint he submitted was facially deficient; Chen had promised the IRS official to pay $50,000 in total for the IRS to open the case.

    Sun and the city council member later joined on a China trip and returned together in September 2023 from Shanghai to Los Angeles, the FBI agent said. According to the complaint, Chen took part in the trip planning, which initially involved six Chinese cities and a meeting with a Chinese leader likely part of the Chinese intelligence apparatus.

    Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, denied knowledge of the matter when asked about Sun’s arrest during a regular press conference on Dec. 20. He said that Beijing “never meddles in other countries’ internal affairs.”

    Alice Sun, a local Falun Gong group coordinator, commended the Justice Department for its diligence in countering the Chinese regime’s transnational repression against Falun Gong.

    “We are aware that the CCP is intensifying its efforts to target Falun Gong through its spies in the U.S., as well as through YouTubers and even U.S. media outlets. Our government must take stronger measures to curb the CCP’s reach and influence,” she told The Epoch Times.

    The Epoch Times recently reported on a 2022 secret meeting where Chinese communist leader Xi Jinping tasked officials to attack Falun Gong via disinformation on social media and media outlets, as well as by subverting legal systems in democratic societies.

    Leaked notes from several recent Chinese officials’ meetings indicate they have been following through, including by providing materials to social media influencers to frame Falun Gong—and Shen Yun—in a negative light. The last of the meetings took place after the election.

    U.S. authorities’ actions, Sun said, “send a powerful message to the CCP’s agents operating within the United States.” She urged elected officials in the United States to “take a firm stand and publicly condemn the CCP’s efforts to infiltrate and undermine our society.”

    Linda Jiang contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 22:45

  • Elderberry: The Immunity Defender That Helps You Fight Cold And Flu
    Elderberry: The Immunity Defender That Helps You Fight Cold And Flu

    Authored by Sina McCullough via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Elderberry has been revered for centuries as a go-to remedy for respiratory infections, fever, and inflammation—both acute and chronic.

    The herb was detected in the charred remains of ancient settlements, leading some researchers to speculate that elder trees may have intentionally been cultivated thousands of years ago.

    Elderberry has been used in traditional medicine for centuries. Illustration by Fei Meng

    In traditional medicine, elderberry is used to treat diabetes, dry skin, diarrhea, headaches, constipation, conjunctivitis, rheumatism, and other ailments. Hippocrates, the “father of medicine,” called elderberry his “medicine chest” because of its wide range of healing properties.

    Ancient Egyptians used elderberry to treat burns and improve complexion. Native Americans used it to treat fever and cough, among other things. Elderberry was even featured in “The Family Physitian” (1696) as a remedy for scurvy, and it was a favorite plant among young boys for making popguns.

    Elderberry gained modern recognition during the 1995 Panama flu epidemic, where it was reportedly used to combat the illness. A clinical trial conducted during the epidemic reported that nearly 90 percent of patients treated with elderberry extract fully recovered within two to three days, compared to six days or more for the placebo group.

    Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

    Fun Facts

    • Native Americans used elderberry for a variety of purposes, including making flutes, which is why the elder tree is sometimes called the “tree of music.”
    • The elder tree is often considered sacred in folklore, believed to protect homes from evil spirits.
    • Elderberries are used in jam, jelly, ice cream, wine, yogurt, pies, and herbal tea.
    • Elderflower cordial and elderberry wine were popular in medieval Europe and remain well-loved beverages today.
    • Some speculate that J.K. Rowling’s “Elder Wand” in the “Harry Potter” series may have been inspired by the sacred and mystical associations of the elder tree in folklore.

    Special Talents

    Elderberry belongs to the Sambucus genus, which includes 20 species, but the most popular and extensively studied for immune support is black elderberry (Sambucus nigra), native to Europe, northern Africa, the Americas, and western Asia.

    Due to its diverse blend of nutrients, elderberry can help combat acute illnesses like the common cold and possibly chronic diseases.

    Its medicinal properties are largely attributed to its anthocyanins, the compounds responsible for elderberry’s deep purple color. These antioxidants shield against inflammation and oxidative damage—two factors that can weaken the immune system.

    In many countries, anthocyanins are prescribed as medicine because of their potential to protect against chronic conditions such as atherosclerosis.

    Elderberries also contain vitamins A, B-complex, C, and E, essential minerals like zinc and magnesium, and antioxidants such as flavonols, carotenoids, phytosterols, and polyphenols, earning elderberry a reputation as a “superfruit.”

    1. Fights Colds and Flu

    Research suggests that elderberry may help reduce the duration and severity of flu symptoms across several strains of influenza. Elderberry reduced the flu’s duration by an average of four days in a clinical trial. When taken within 48 hours of symptom onset, elderberry significantly alleviated fever, headache, nasal congestion, and mucous discharge associated with the flu, according to a 2020 review. Symptoms in most adults improved by an average of 50 percent within two to four days. This effect may be due to elderberry’s ability to block viral proteins, preventing viruses from infecting cells.

    Elderberry also reduced cold symptoms in air travelers, according to a 2016 study.

    2. Slows Cognitive Decline

    A 2024 randomized controlled trial reported that patients with mild cognitive impairment who took elderberry for six months trended toward faster visuospatial problem-solving performance than controls. Several markers of inflammation were also reduced, which is significant because chronic inflammation is associated with cognitive decline. Elderberry juice shows promise in slowing Alzheimer’s-related cognitive decline, the researchers concluded.

    Similarly, a 2023 cell culture study highlighted elderberry’s potential neuroprotective effects by demonstrating its ability to prevent oxidative stress-induced death of neuron-like cells, a major predictor of age-related cognitive decline. The findings suggest elderberry may address oxidative damage in neurological conditions, such as cognitive decline.

    3. Combats Chronic Disease

    Emerging research, primarily in animal and cell culture studies, suggests elderberry’s potential in managing inflammatory and chronic conditions, although more studies are needed to confirm these effects in humans. Some of the most encouraging research is detailed below.

    Heart Disease

    In a placebo-controlled study, 34 healthy people consumed elderberry juice for two weeks. On average, participant cholesterol dropped from 199 to 190 milligrams per deciliter compared to the control group. The decrease was not statistically significant but did show a trend, leading the researchers to conclude that a higher dose may lead to a significant decrease. A second study reported that elderberry extract reduced aortic cholesterol levels in a widely used mouse model of atherosclerosis, indicating decreased progression of the condition.

    A 2024 cell culture study found that elderberry inhibited foam cell formation, a critical step in atherosclerosis and heart disease, without triggering liver fat production. This suggests elderberry may help prevent heart disease by targeting the early stages of arterial plaque development, though further research is needed to confirm these effects in humans.

    Diabetes

    Elderberry has a history of being used as a traditional remedy for diabetes. In a 2016 study, four weeks of elderberry extract supplementation decreased insulin resistance and fasting blood sugar in Type 2 diabetic rats. Another study found that 16 weeks of black elderberry supplementation reduced insulin resistance, triglycerides, and inflammation in obese mice.

    Huntington’s Disease

    Scientists are exploring the potential of elderberry as a therapy for Huntington’s disease. In a 2021 study, compared with controls, rats with an experimental model of Huntington’s disease demonstrated significant improvement in motor function and muscle coordination after treatment with elderberry.

    Depression

    Elderberry was also reported to be a natural antidepressant in a mouse model, according to a 2014 study. The researchers concluded that elderberry extracts “were safe and showed remarkable antidepressant activity.”

    Cancer

    Black elderberry is rich in bioactive compounds, including antioxidants, that may contribute to cancer prevention and support cancer treatment. One notable compound, kaempferol—a flavonoid present in black elderberries—triggered the death of pancreatic cancer cells in both tumor-bearing mice and cell cultures, according to a 2021 study. Additionally, anthocyanins from elderberries caused melanoma cells to halt their proliferation and die in a 2017 cell culture study.

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 22:10

  • Syria's Central Bank Gold Miraculously Still In The Vault, Reuters Claims
    Syria’s Central Bank Gold Miraculously Still In The Vault, Reuters Claims

    In an astonishing turn of events, amid the recent turmoil and shifts in power that have engulfed Syria over the past 3 weeks, one key component of the country’s wealth which has remained unscathed in the fog of war, at least according to Reuters reporter Timour Azhari, is the Syrian central bank’s gold reserves in Damascus – all 25.8 tonnes of gold worth over US $2.2 billion at current market prices.  

    According to the Reuters report, while the bank’s FX balances have fallen to just “US$ 200 million in cash”, the “vault of Syria’s central bank holds nearly 26 tons of gold, the same amount it had at the start of its bloody civil war in 2011.”

    This is despite the fall of Damascus, the escape of former leader Bashar al-Assad to Moscow, and the rise of Ahmed al-Sharaa, leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as commander-in-chief of the new administration, with Mohammed al-Bashir as leader of a caretaker government.

    Reuters news agency, part of Thomson Reuters group (which is majority controlled by The Woodbridge Company Limited, a holding company of the Canadian Thomson family) first admits that…

    “Reuters could not access the central bank vaults.”

    So none of the 600 photo journalists employed by Reuters could get even one photo of some gold bars in the Damascus vault. What a pity.

    Reuters then also admits that “media representatives for Syria’s new ruling administration and for the Central Bank of Syria did not respond to Reuters requests.” This left Reuters to talk to the proverbial “four people familiar with the situation”.

    One of these four unidentified sources told Reuters that “The vault is bomb-proof and requires three keys, each held by a different person, and a combination code to be opened”.

    Two other sources told Reuters that “the vault was inspected by members of Syria’s new administration last week, days after the rebels took control of the Syrian capital Damascus.”

    One week ago on December 10, Reuters’ Timour Azhari also reported that looters had entered Syria’s central bank in recent days and “stolen some money from the central bank building but that the main vault had remained untouched”,

    Strangely however, that Reuters report from last week didn’t mention any gold, and was only based on comments from the “head of the Damascus Chambers of Commerce” who was relaying information from the “authorities”. A more direct source was not available because neither the Syrian central bank governor, Issam Hazima, nor his deputy, Maysaa Sabreen, has responded to Reuters requests for comment.

    Other recent coverage from Damascus did however report that “National Bank of Syria is looted by US backed rebels with dollars, euros and gold stolen.”

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    Back to the Reuters, which continues that “the sources familiar with the situation” said that “the gold was never liquidated in order to keep sufficient collateral for the Syrian pounds circulating in the market.”

    This is all the more surprising however, since the very same Reuters news agency was reporting 12 years ago that…

    “Syria is trying to sell gold reserves to raise revenue as Western and Arab sanctions targeting its central bank and oil exports begin to bite, diplomats and traders said.”

    In that article from April 2012, titled “Syria selling gold reserves as sanctions bite: sources” Reuters stated that:

    “Syria is selling its gold at rock bottom prices,” said a Western diplomatic source, declining to say where it was being sold.

    A second diplomatic source confirmed the information, adding that Damascus was looking to offload everything it could to raise cash, including currency reserves.

    Two gold traders in the United Arab Emirates said the Syrian government had been offering gold at a discount, with one saying it was making offers at about 15 percent below the market price.

    The trader said Damascus was selling small volumes of around 20-30 kilos which were easier to offload, with offers being made through private accounts set up with free email providers.

    Notably, the World Gold Council says that the last time Syria’s central bank reported gold reserves levels to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was in 2011, when it reported total gold holdings of 25.8 tonnes, just before the Syrian central bank’s rumored gold sales of 2012. So how could the Syrian central bank still have 25.8 tonnes of gold given the gold sales in 2012 when it was “selling its gold at rock bottom prices” in “volumes of around 20-30 kilos”?

    But according to Reuters, the Syrian central bank gold reserves are the luckiest gold reserves in the world. They have miraculously defied the odds and survived 12 years of sanctions as FX reserves dwindled, survived multiple attempts to sell the gold being all over the Middle East, survived 3 weeks of recent fighting and chaos, the flight of Assad to Moscow, the arrival of a previously designated terrorist organization (HTS) into power, and an assault by looters into the central bank building last week. It must be because the vault is “bomb proof” and “needs 3 keys to open it”.

    The claim by Reuters now that the Syrian central bank still holds 25.8 tonnes of gold is not credible, even based on its own reporting from 2012. This therefore undermines the entire Reuters story about the gold still being in the Syrian central bank vault.

    Maybe Reuters Fact Check, which claims to “address online misinformation with coverage that maintains accuracy, integrity and impartiality”, should check its own stories before publishing them.

    But why would Reuters report such a story, that’s merely based on four unidentified people that are “familiar with the situation”?

    Could it be because Reuters has received over $ 1.5 billion dollars in US Government contracts for its newswire, network intelligence, and data services over the last 17 years, from the Department of Defense, the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Justice, the Department of State, and many other US Gov departments?

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 21:35

  • Escobar: Putin's Q&A And Thee Forever Wars Riddle
    Escobar: Putin’s Q&A And Thee Forever Wars Riddle

    Authored by Pepe Escobar,

    He spoke for four and a half hours, virtually non-stop, reviewing the results of 2024, mastering all the facts.

    His Direct Line received over 2 million questions, from Russia and around the world. And he had to crown the performance with a flourish, in an “I did it, my way” vein:

    “I believe that not only did I simply save [Russia], we moved away from the edge of the abyss.”

    The record would confirm it, compared to the appalling state of the Russia he inherited when first elected president in March 2000.

    President Putin’s end of the year Q&A contains enough substance to be unpacked for weeks, if not months. Let’s focus here on our current geopolitical crossroads: the Forever Wars in West Asia and Ukraine, two vectors of the standard imperial drive, now united in an Omni-War.

    Putin stated that, “we have come to Syria in order to prevent a terrorists’ enclave (…) In general, our goal has been achieved.”

    Whether Syria remains “terrorist free” remains to be seen: the new, “inclusive”, rebranded as woke Emir of Damascus, al-Jolani, a Saudi national, is a certified Salafi-jihadi still with a $10 million American bounty on his head. The “enclave” now encompasses most of former Syrian sovereign territory, otherwise illegally occupied by jihadi gangs and Zionist lebensraum practitioners.

    It’s important to remember that Russia first intervened in Syria in 2015 not so much to keep access to the warm waters of the Eastern Mediterranean: but mostly to protect holy Christian Orthodox sites in Damascus. Christianity was born in Damascus (remember St. Paul) – not in Jerusalem. When Putin went to Damascus, he was on an Orthodox Christian pilgrimage: coming from the Third Rome (Moscow) to pay his respects to the precursor of the first Rome, the cradle of Christianity.

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    It all started with Timber Sycamore

    On the larger Levantine geopolitical picture, Putin is correct. The CIA invented Operation Timber Sycamore way back in 2012 to train and weaponize “moderate rebels” to overthrow Assad – spending over $1 billion a year: the most extensive CIA covert op since the jihad in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

    The UK, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan were Sycamore partners. Over the final years, the Pentagon jumped in to “prepare” Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the “soft” ISIS splinter group.

    Ultimately it was nearly 14 years of toxic US sanctions and relentless siege warfare that led to the final act, complete with Ukrainian drone instructors, mountains of Qatari cash and the Turk-assembled crypto-al Qaeda infantry (no more than 350 fighters, according to Putin himself).

    Now it’s a matter of adapting. Putin said that, “we have established relations with all those that control the situation on the ground (…) Most countries expect the Russian bases to remain (…) Our interests should coincide, a question that requires painstaking examination.”

    He also reminded everyone that politics is the art of compromise – and Russia’s strategic priority is to keep the bases in Tartus and Hmeimim.

    Putin brushed aside the notion that Russia has been weakened by Assad’s downfall in Syria, quoting Mark Twain: “Rumors about my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

    Instead, he practically proposed that the Russian bases could provide humanitarian aid: one can imagine the population of a deeply polarized, fragmented Syria arguing with the Salafi-jihadis to get their share. Were that to happen, Russia would be in direct aid competition with the collective West.

    The EU, via its new, deranged Estonian ultra-Russophobic foreign policy chief, has already ordered that there will be no sanctions relief if the Russian bases stay.

    Erdogan thinking like it’s 1919

    Turkiye is the ultimate thorny issue. Erdogan is relentlessly promoting the notion that “Turkiye is greater than Turkiye itself” – which some have interpreted as Ankara being ready to annex large swathes of Syria.

    And potentially more. A “Greater Turkiye” would historically have included Thessaloniki, Cyprus, Aleppo and even Mosul.

    Putin for his part was supremely diplomatic, focusing on Turkiye “trying to safeguard its safety on its southern frontiers, and to create conditions for the return of refugees back home from its territory to Syrian land. And those territories are now under more or less control of actually Turkiye.”

    He also acknowledged that Turkiye has had “problems with the Kurdish Workers Party for decades. I hope there will not be an aggravation”.

    Well, there will (italics mine) be aggravation.

    Turkish diplomatic sources are relentlessly spinning that everything that happened in Syria was decided by the “Astana process” troika of Russia, Iran and Turkiye. Moscow keeping its embassy in Damascus and – for the moment – the bases in Tartus and Hmeimim might point to a deal.

    Add to it Erdogan gleefully stating on the record that

    Putin and himself are the most experienced politicians on the planet.

    As it stands, all that may be classified as fog of war.

    Immediately after Assad’s fall, the Israelis started bombing every warehouse holding heavy military equipment across Syria, including classified weapons. It’s unclear who provided the exact locations.

    The Americans, predictably, were furious. No wonder: the lame duck White House and the Deep State were betting on transferring all that weaponry to Kiev.

    The exact tone of the secret deals struck between the Astana process troika and between two of them with Israel will remain predictably murky – and the way Putin talked about them suggests that the Long Game is just starting.

    Russia may not have been weakened by the loss of Syria, but quite uncomfortable questions remain. The sacredness of Syria’s national sovereignty has taken a hit. Same goes for the fight against terrorism.

    On the other hand, Putin increased the tone on Tel Aviv – an extremely touchy dossier in Russia. He named Israel as “the main beneficiary” in Syria; directly condemned Israeli invasion and annexation of sovereign Syrian territory; and confessed he does not know what “ultimate goals” Israel is pursuing in Gaza, but “this is only worthy of condemnation”.

    ‘Let’s have a 21st century tech duel’

    Putin all but admitted that Russia should have moved against Kiev earlier – and that the Russian Army was not fully prepared for the start of the SMO in February 2022. What’s implied is that over 10 years ago, a simple Russian police operation might have taken care of Maidan; Yanukovych could have been transported to Crimea; the coup would have fizzled; and there would have been no war.

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    Putin is adamant that Russia is always ready to negotiate with Kiev. The key takeaways: no preconditions; talks grounded in the 2022 Istanbul deal (aborted by the Americans) and the “current conditions on the battlefield”; Russia will talk to Zelensky only if he holds elections and gains legitimacy; and Russia will only sign peace deals with the legitimate leader of Ukraine.

    A lot to unpack here. In sum: Istanbul for all practical purposes does not apply anymore – considering the ever-changing “conditions on the battlefield.” Zelensky will not hold elections – so he will remain illegitimate. So who to talk to? Moreover, signing peace deals with a “legitimate” Ukrainian leader means nothing because the Ultimate Decider is always the “non-agreement capable” (copyright Lavrov) Hegemon.

    All that implies that the SMO may keep rumblin’ on for quite a while.

    The whole Forever Wars riddle directly links with BRICS, because this is a Hegemon war against BRICS (especially top three “existential threats” Russia, China and Iran), inscribed in the Big Picture of the Eurasia v. NATOstan war.

    Putin was adamant that “BRICS is not a tool for countering the West. Out work is not aimed against anyone (…) We adopt all decisions by consensus (…) this is a group based on common interests. And there is one common interest: development.”

    BRICS, added Putin, is driven to generate “more economic growth and transforming the structure of the economy in order for it to be in step with the global development agenda”, positioning BRICS “at the forefront of this progressive movement”. Expect the usual lot accusing Putin of being a Davos/Great Reset shill.

    Arguably the prime cliffhanger of the Q&A was Putin proposing to test the hypersonic Oreshnik against NATO’s Aegis Ashore: “Let’s have a 21st century tech duel”. NATOstan brings all their top defense systems to Kiev and let’s see if they can stop Oreshnik. Could be London instead of Kiev. Or for that matter, NATO’s HQ outside Brussels.

    Will that happen? Of course not. Already utterly humiliated in the black soil of Novorossiya, collective West cowards will flee from being totally humiliated all over again in front of the whole planet.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 21:00

  • In Latest Threat To German Democracy, Dangerous Fascist Elon Musk Tweets Six Words About AfD
    In Latest Threat To German Democracy, Dangerous Fascist Elon Musk Tweets Six Words About AfD

    Authored by Eugyppius via eugyppius.com,

    German democracy, which has existed undeterred since 1949 but is somehow always shaken to its foundations whenever anybody sings the wrong song or holds a televised debate with the wrong person, is once again on life support.

    Christian Lindner, head of the market-liberal Free Democrats, did much to trigger the present catastrophe on December 1st, when he said that the Free Republic should “dare more Milei and more Musk”. Because there is little distinction between praising Milei and Musk and demanding the return of National Socialism, there ensued a brief period of establishment hyperventilation.

    Less than a week later, CDU chief and probable future German Chancellor Friedrich Merz did his part to denounce Lindner’s political wrongthink in a statement to Deutschlandfunk:

    So neither the Argentinian President nor, how shall I put it, the American entrepreneur Elon Musk – let’s put it plainly – are role models for German politics in my view. I don’t see where we can find similarities in German politics. What Christian Lindner meant will probably remain his secret.

    The next day, Merz repeated the same denunciations, only more harshly, explaining to one of our extremely adult and far-sighted pantsuit talkshow hosts that “To be honest, I was completely appalled that Christian Lindner made that comparison.” Milei, Merz said, is “really trampling on the people there”.

    Yesterday, all of this came to the notice of the (honestly rather tiresome) influencer Naomi Seibt, who posted a video statement to X rehearsing all of this old news to her largely American audience.

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    Elon Musk then brought down the hammer on the German democratic order, retweeting Seibt’s video and remarking that “Only the AfD can save Germany”.

    Today a lot of very important and influential people got out of bed and took to their keyboards to denounce Musk’s election interference. His statement might be illegal, at any rate it is very likely fascist and certainly it is beyond the pale for an American to voice an opinion about German politics. Germans absolutely never, ever, utter the slightest word about American politics and certainly would never advance negative opinions about the American President in the middle of an election campaign. Our Foreign Office would never try to fact-check an American presidential debate! Our journalists would never depict President Donald Trump dressed as a Ku Klux Klan member or offering the Hitler salute or decapitating the Statue of Liberty! That’s just not done!

    Like a great stream of green diarrhoea, the outrage is pouring forth. Matthias Gebauer, who writes for Der Spiegel, observes that “Elon Musk… is openly promoting the AfD” and concludes that “Putin is not the only one who loves this party”. Erik Marquardt, head of the Green faction in the European Parliament, says that “The EU Commission and EU member states should no longer stand by and watch as billionaires misuse media and algorithms to influence elections and strengthen and normalise Right-wing extremists”. This “is an attack on democracy”, and “has nothing to do with freedom of expression”. Dennis Radtke, CDU representative in the European Parliament, concludes that “Musk… is declaring war on democracy” and that “the man is a menace”. We are also under siege via “interference from Putin”; “the erosion of our democracy is being fuelled from both within and without”. Julian Röpcke, who writes for BILD, believes that “This is interference in the German election campaign by a tech billionaire who uses algorithms to decide what gets heard”. If Germany does not “respond with penalties, there will be no help for our eroding democracy”.

    Jonas Koch, at Die Zeit, complains that “the richest man in the world is now campaigning for Right-wing populists in Germany”.

    Tech billionaire Elon Musk has spoken out in favour of the Alternative for Germany party in the German Parliamentary election campaign. “Only the AfD can save Germany,” he wrote on his online service X.

    You can almost see Mr. Koch before you, clasping his pearls. He notes that the Government is doing its best to weather this unprecedented assault on the German republic. He quotes longsuffering Government spokesperson Christian Hoffmann saying that “It’s not the first time that Elon Musk has commented on German politics”. Olaf Scholz, he notes, “has been concerned about… X since Musk assumed control of it”, but he has inexplicably not yet decided to delete Government X accounts.

    Nor is this Musk’s only sin against all that is right, free and good:

    Musk is not only increasingly involved in politics in the U.S., where he is advising U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and is to head a commission to reduce Government spending. He is also exerting influence in the U.K. He recently announced a donation of up to $100 million to the Right-wing populists around Brexit pioneer Nigel Farage.

    As early as the summer, Musk had praised the AfD after the European elections. The party was labelled as Right-wing extremist, “but the political positions of the AfD that I have read about do not sound extremist”, he wrote on X.

    Der Spiegel agrees that this is “Not the first time that this super-rich man has interfered in German politics”.

    Musk “repeatedly takes potshots at Germany”, he has “insulted” such national saints as “the former Chancellor Angela Merkel”, he has “criticised Chancellor Olaf Scholz”, and most ominously of all he has “even responded to tweets from the far-Right Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke”.

    He responded to Höcke! Imagine that! It is just the height of political depravity, all that responding.

    Now the billionaire and confidant of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has tweeted again…

    Tweeted again! The absolute madman! Will he never stop?

    …and made a barely concealed election recommendation for the AfD. “Only the AfD can save Germany,” Musk claimed in a tweet. …

    Under Trump, Musk is set to become co-head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. The goal of the institution: to reduce bureaucracy, eliminate regulations and cut spending. This could result in Musk weakening or even abolishing those rules that personally limit him.

    That’s right, Musk wants to make American Government more efficient so that he can suspend elections and establish himself as American dictator. It takes truly perceptive journalists, like whoever wrote this unsigned Spiegel screed, to see through his clever lies.

    Musk constantly uses X for political influence. He not only interferes in German politics from there, but also tries to exert pressure on U.S. Congressmen. … Since Wednesday, he has fired off various tweets to fuel the U.S. budget dispute. He also recently received representatives of the British far-Right [sic] party Reform U.K. at Trump’s private residence Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

    He is like a little antidemocratic Hitler, is Elon Musk, just tweeting whatever he wants, receiving guests, influencing… things.

    But the gold medal for most outrageous reaction must go to Florian Harms, Editor-in-Chief of t-online. Harms writes for a slightly downmarket publication and so he has to enact more indignation than everybody else.

    “This sentence is an outrage,” Harms declares.

    There’s always a lot going on on the big-shot platform X. Since Ober-Big-Shot Elon Musk bought the social media company and reprogrammed its algorithms to inject poison, most posts there have devolved into unfounded claims, wild insults or outrageous nonsense. You can safely ignore it.

    Unfortunately, what the “Grökraz” himself posts on X cannot be ignored. This Friday, our “greatest Croesus of all time” felt compelled to intervene in the German federal election campaign with a one-liner: “Only the AfD can save Germany.” … That’s his prerogative; after all, anyone can now post nonsense on his platform.

    Harms is clearly highly opposed to platforms where anyone can just post anything. People should only be allowed to post things of which Harms approves. Particularly someone like Musk should not be allowed to just post whatever he wants, because Musk is “a global entrepreneur” and therefore “bears special responsibility”:

    His words carry weight because they influence international politics, stock markets and social moods. More than 208 million people follow Musk on X; he has configured the digital machines so that his posts are displayed more often than others. This gives his radical views a disproportionate amount of attention, which is how he makes politics – without democratic legitimisation.

    Vast swathes of the German corporate sector denounce the AfD all the time without the slightest “democratic legitimisation”, and as far as I know Harms has never complained about that even once. If Musk were attacking AfD, of course, Harms would be totally thrilled with it.

    The so-called Alternative for Germany is a crazy party… [A] growing number of its officials are Right-wing radicals and enemies of democracy. This is well known and can be read in in the various reports by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

    German political discourse is so insane, I always feel slightly ashamed translating this stuff for you. It feels like dishing out embarrassing family secrets.

    Only someone who is either clueless or maliciously intent on spreading misinformation would think that this party alone could contribute something constructive for the good of Germany.

    Unfortunately, based on everything we’ve heard from Elon Musk in recent months, we have to assume the latter. This man wants to undermine constitutional and democratic institutions, abolish the welfare state and create a Darwinian world in which the law of the jungle applies. It’s bad enough that he is now gaining so much influence in the USA. This must not happen in Germany. …

    Democratic politicians should… refute Musk’s claim. And… they should take a particularly critical look at future investments by Musk’s companies in this country. Consumers also bear a responsibility: Anyone who is still considering buying a Tesla must accept the accusation of supporting a destroyer of democracy. [emphasis mine]

    This is all so boundlessly ridiculous, it’s like the entire country is suffering from borderline personality disorder.

    If any of these people sincerely believe that Musk’s tweet will have any influence on the German elections in February, they are clinically insane. The only thing here that might influence something is the unceasing hysteria of German establishment discourse, which seems intent on alienating powerful figures at the centre of empire, all for the indecent and passing thrill of a cheap moral orgasm. Any political order that is truly threatened by a six-word remark from anybody – even should it come from the wealthiest, most antidemocratic, fascistic and powerful man in the world – is not a political order worth having.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 20:44

  • Winners And Losers From Last Night's Government Funding Package
    Winners And Losers From Last Night’s Government Funding Package

    After a week of predictable drama, President Joe Biden signed a government funding bill on Saturday, averting yet another government shutdown because of our government’s terminal addiction to spending money we don’t have.

    As we noted earlier, the package limps the government along to March 14, when this is Trump’s problem, and includes $100 billion in disaster aid and a one-year farm bill. It notably did not include a debt limit extension demanded by Trump.

    After passing through the house on the third try, the funding bill passed overnight in the Senate on Saturday by a vote of 85-11, while the House vote was 366-34.

    Here are the winners and losers:

    Elon Musk – whose viral posts on X helped spread the word that the original 1500+ page bill was total bullshit that was packed with pork.

    The billionaire businessman and close Trump ally came out against Johnson’s initial spending plan — which was bipartisan and bicameral — prompting a flood of Republicans to follow suit. The proposal never made it to the floor for a vote amid the widespread opposition.

    When Johnson’s grip on the gavel appeared to be losing its strength, some GOP lawmakers floated Musk as a potential Speaker — a longshot prospect but one that underscored their admiration for the SpaceX and Tesla CEO, and discontent with Johnson’s leadership. A House Speaker is not required to actually be a member of the House. -The Hill

    Rand Paul agrees…

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    Federal employees – Who aren’t getting coal this year from Uncle Sam. Of note, Congress hasn’t seen a shutdown in about six years. During the last one, thousands of federal workers were furloughed or had some type of disruption in pay.

    Farmers – who received $10 billion in economic assistance after some Republicans threatened to spike the stopgap without the aid. The bill also extends the 2018 farm bill by one year.

    Disaster aid – of which there’s roughly $100 billion. A large portion of this, $30 billion, will go towards FEMA’s disaster relief fund, which almost ran out of money during hurricane season.

    Washington DC – Which will receive control over RFK Stadium. Oh boy.

    Losers:

    Donald Trump – who now gets to deal with another round of this bullshit in March.

    Speaker Mike Johnson – who let this become Trump’s problem by refusing to stand his ground, or split the package into separate bills.

    Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) – whose insistence that any attempt to raise the borrowing limit be paired with spending cuts was ‘rewarded’ by a bitchslap from Trump, who took to Truth Social to call for a primary challenger to take on Roy.

    Americans – Who live in a country where spending is so out of control that the government keeps bumping up against its own debt limit like clockwork.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 20:25

  • ​​​​​​​"Deportation Now!": Germans Outraged After Deadly Christmas Market Attack
    ​​​​​​​”Deportation Now!”: Germans Outraged After Deadly Christmas Market Attack

    Update (2000ET):

    Germans took to the streets on Saturday night in Magdeburg to protest a deadly Christmas Market attack carried out by a 50-year-old immigrant from Saudi Arabia. The car-ramming attack on Friday night claimed five lives and left 200 people injured.

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    “Huge protests in Germany, calling for mass deportations following the terrorist attack at a Christmas market,” one X user said. 

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    “It begins,” said another… 

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    And more. 

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    Have the German people finally had enough of disastrous open-border policies? 

    *    *    * 

    It’s a twist that is incredibly convenient for the current failing progressive government in Germany as they face a severe political backlash for their open-border immigration policies and a rising tide of populism.  The primary suspect in the Christmas Market terror attacks in Magdeburg, a doctor and refugee from Saudi Arabia, is allegedly also a supporter of the right-wing AfD party, Tommy Robinson, Elon Musk and Alex Jones according to authorities. 

    50-year-old Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy from the Saudi Arabian city of Hofuf, moved to Germany in 2006 and lives in Bernburg. He has been recognized as a refugee since 2016.  Taleb is a critic of Islamist governments and a pro-asylum activist for people seeking to escape oppressive Sharia law.  Reports claim the Saudi Government may have tried to extradite him multiple times, which Germany refused.  

    German authorities cite posts by the suspect on X showing support for the AfD and popular anti-mass immigration figures.   

    In June, he retweeted AfD party leader Alice Weidel: ‘The left are crazy. We need the AfD to protect the police from them.’

    He also retweeted AfD activist Naomi Seibt with the following quote: ‘Tyranny is based on the docility of cowards. I choose to be brave.’ 

    Posts cited as “pro-Tommy Robinson and pro-Elon Musk” are better represented as anti-censorship and an observation on the speech restrictions enforced by the German government.

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    At the same time, Taleb argued that Germany wasn’t doing enough to support asylum seekers from Saudi Arabia and that they were engaged in “crimes” against refugees:

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    Another tweet from 2006 after Taleb arrived in Germany suggests hostile intent against his new home:

    He was arrested following the market crash which took place at 7:04pm in the city of Magdeburg, according to unidentified government officials in the state of Saxony-Anhalt who spoke to the dpa news agency.

    It goes without saying, but the ideological standards are completely contradictory, bordering on the suspicious.  

    Why would an Arab refugee who wants to secure asylum for people trying to escape oppressive regimes in countries like Saudi Arabia also support a party like the AfD which is seeking to shut German borders and end the flood of migrants from Muslim countries?  

    And, if he is truly anti-Muslim, why would he drive a car through a Christmas Market where he is most likely to kill native Germans and non-Muslims?  Trying to determine a motive is a mind boggling prospect.

    Reports suggest that Taleb was critical of the German government’s antagonism towards anti-Islam activists, but this still does not explain his alleged actions.  His recent social media resume reads like a schizophrenic cartoon character; but the media descriptions of him are a perfect amalgam of all the political positions that the progressive German establishment would like to demonize. 

    Currently, the German government is debating a move to ban the AfD from participating in upcoming elections.  The AfD is currently the second most popular party in Germany and leftists are fearful that the movement could defeat them and disrupt their mass immigration agenda.  Leftist governments across Europe and the UK have been engaging in a subversive campaign to thwart democratic elections and prevent the public from voting for right wing candidates. 

    It would not be surprising to see more attacks like the Christmas Market in Germany, blamed on populist and right wing supporters.  After all, it makes perfect sense that conservatives who are winning would suddenly engage in a terror campaign that might ruin their political chances for years to come and hand victory over to the progressive establishment.       

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 20:00

  • FDA Updates Recall On Blood Pressure Medication Due To Possible Carcinogen
    FDA Updates Recall On Blood Pressure Medication Due To Possible Carcinogen

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

    A third blood pressure medication was recalled across the United States in the past several weeks, according to a notice updated on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) website on Dec. 16.

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in White Oak, Md., on June 5, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

    The notice said that New Jersey-based Aurobindo Pharma USA Inc. is recalling Nebivolol tablets in 2.5 milligram doses in 30-count bottles, which are only available by prescription. Nebivolol, a type of beta blocker, is used to treat high blood pressure.

    The reason for the recall is because of the “presence of nitrosamine drug substance related impurity,” adding that discovered N-nitroso nebivolol levels are above the “acceptable intake limit,” it said. N-nitroso nebivolol is a nitrosamine and is considered mutagenic.

    It was first initiated by Aurobindo earlier this month. The FDA classified the recall as Class II on Dec. 16, which occurs when there is a low chance of injury or death, and a possibility of “adverse events” that may have irreversible effects. They are issued if the product can cause medically reversible or temporary health problems—or if there is a small chance of serious health consequences.

    The lot numbers being recalled are: NB0224001A and NB0224001B. It has an expiration date of April 2027 and a National Drug Code, or NDC, of 59651-137-30, according to the FDA.

    Nitrosamines are compounds that can increase the risk of cancer in individuals if exposed to them above levels established by the FDA, or for long periods of time, the agency says on its website.

    “A person taking a drug that contains nitrosamines at-or-below the acceptable daily intake limits every day for 70 years is not expected to have an increased risk of cancer,” the FDA adds.

    People who are taking medications with possible “nitrosamine impurities should not stop taking their medications” and should instead speak with a health care professional.

    Nitrosamines can be found in small levels in the environment and foods, including “meat, vegetables, and dairy products,” the FDA says.

    Some scientists have issued warnings about what they described as widespread nitrosamine contamination in pharmaceutical drugs, noting they are classified as class 1 known mutagenic impurities under the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use, a worldwide health body.

    In 2023, a Journal of Pharmaceutical Analysis-published research paper found that the presence of the compounds “has raised global safety concerns due to their significant genotoxic and mutagenic effects” and that such “impurities, even in trace amounts, are highly toxic and mutagenic, capable of damaging DNA, and subsequently increase the risk of cancer incidence.”

    Other Recent Recalls

    In the past two months, two other drugs used to treat high blood pressure were recalled across the United States, according to FDA recall notices.

    New York-based Evaric Pharmaceuticals Inc. in November recalled about 200,600 bottles of its Lisinopril tablets in 10-milligram doses after a “pharmacist discovered a metal fragment embedded in a lisinopril 10 mg tablet.” The recall impacts Lisinopril tablets in 10-milligram strength in 90-count bottles.

    Weeks before that, Maryland-based Lupin Pharmaceuticals recalled another blood pressure medication, Ramipril, in October because the “active pharmaceutical ingredient was sourced from an unapproved vendor,” the FDA said.

    The recall impacts Ramipril capsules in 2.5-milligram strength in 90-count, 100-count, and 500-count bottles, the notice said. The drug, an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor used to treat high blood pressure, is only available via a prescription.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 19:50

  • It's The Denominator, Stupid!
    It’s The Denominator, Stupid!

    Authored by Mark Jeftovic via BombThrower.com,

    Wrapping your head around Bitcoin’s inexorable rise.

    In every issue of The Bitcoin Capitalist there is a section called “This Month’s FUD”, where I look at the “Death of Bitcoin” narratives that emerged over the last few weeks and mercilessly debunked them. It’s not hard, because most, if not all Bitcoin FUD vectors are belaboured retreads of three or four themes – all of which have already been litigated. It’s rare to see anything new.

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    After the 2022 crypto-winter, Bitcoin has been rising steadily for two years. But for a few months recently, the “FUD” vectors had died down to a whimper. If it wasn’t for Peter Schiff and his incessant twitter meltdowns over Bitcoin, there would have been no FUD at all for awhile.

    Then, November 5th hits.

    Even though Trump had endorsed Bitcoin earlier in the year – giving a landmark keynote at Bitcoin2024 in Nashville, the FUD was relatively lacklustre and muted until the election put Bitcoin straight into the middle of the new zeitgeist.

    Many have likened the stunning election upset (in the sense that it was such an incontrovertible blowout), to a “shift in timelines”, as if our entire reality quantum-jumped into a parallel universe.

    Now the former incumbents are scrambling and in full blown panic. The old zeitgeist and it’s total domination by the far-left neo-Marxists is crumbling in real time. And while Bitcoin is decidedly apolitical beyond the antiquated “left-vs-right” paradigm, the fact is that Bitcoin continues to win, and Trump backed Bitcoin.

    (The real battle, as I have long said, is between the forces of centralization – control freaks, basically – and decentralization but because leftism and socialism requires authoritarianism, if not full blown dictatorships, the Venn diagrams for leftism / centralization largely overlap).

    So now the FUD-o-meter is on 11, all the time: Trump winning again, $100K Bitcoin and Microstrategy eating the stock market is triggering for many – it’s just all so crazy.

    (And while quantum computing may sound like a novel, new Bitcoin killer, it isn’t, and I recently wrote why quantum computing can’t kill Bitcoin)

    Why would this magic internet money become the basis of national strategic reserves? And why should Microstrategy be able to simply issue debt to buy up more of this stuff and be rewarded by the markets for doing so?

    Because, it’s the denominator, stupid.

    If you can’t wrap your brain around Bitcoin, it’s because you’re probably hardwired to look at finance and economic through the lens of everything is an asset (numerator) measured in some “fixed” currency, like a USD – the denominator.

    REAL ESTATE

    ———–

    $$$$$$$$$$$

    or maybe

    MSFT / GOOG / NVDA / META

    ————————–

    $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

    or anything else you want over the $$$$$$$.  But your problem, is you think it’s also

    Bitcoin

    ——-

    $$$$$$$

    That denominator? Those $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$?

    That’s supposed to be fixed. In order to provide a semblance of rationality to the numerator / denominator equation, at least when it comes to measuring value – the denominator isn’t supposed to be moving or if it is, it has to at least be constrained by some kind of economic trade-off.  In the old-timey days, on a gold standard, there was a 2% natural inflation rate that was mostly limited by the ability to discover new gold deposits and actually mine the stuff.

    It was a pretty good system and the world moved to it under its own incentives, not by the decree of a committee of experts.

    By 1900, approximately fifty countries were on a gold standard. including all industrialized nations. The interesting fact is that the modern gold standard was not planned at an international conference, nor was it invented by some genius. It came by itself, naturally and based on experience. The United Kingdom went on a gold standard against the intention of its government. Only much later did laws turn an operative gold standard into an officially sanctioned gold standard.

    – Ferdinand Lips, Gold Wars.

    The last vestiges of the gold standard were dispensed with in 1971, with the Nixon Shock – and since then, the dollar standard, the denominator for the global monetary system, has been on a slow roll into hyperinflation:

    Everybody has seen this chart. It makes your eyes glaze over. Nobody cares even though this is showing you the disintegration of the denominator we use to measure every economic transaction on earth.

    Should be a big deal.

    The only time it seems to matter, is during a hyperinflation, when you can see it clearly in the X-axis of a chart being viewed in logarithmic mode:

    I’ll give you one guess which monetary challenger is flashing the signal today…

    But people are looking at the linear chart, and calling Bitcoin a bubble because they still think that Bitcoin is the numerator in an equation denominated by fiat dollars (a.k.a “cuck bucks”).

    I can guarantee you this: none of the billionaires who are allocating to Bitcoin think like that. Nobody building gigantic mining farms is thinking like that. Nor are the nation states and sovereign states who are about to launch strategic Bitcoin reserves. And Michael Saylor certainly isn’t thinking like that.

    All you have to do is press the “log” button on the chart and it all becomes clear…

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

    So while we’re all stuck (for the moment) in this clown car economy where the numerators are denominated by infinite quantities of fiat literally backed by nothing, and the solution to everything is to print more of it…

    Anybody who truly understands Bitcoin (everybody with the laser eyes), looks at it like this:

    …and is opting out of the clown ride by moving their wealth – as much as they can into THE NEW DENOMINATOR.

    And the new denominator, is Bitcoin.

    It’s still pretty early.

    When you realize that the current monetary base is scaffolded together on about $80 trillion USD in M2 money supply (all currencies) and about $300 trillion in bonds (debt, denominated in a rapidly devaluing currency, which is backed by …nothing) and compare it to Bitcoin’s $2 trillion market cap, you realize how early we are in this story.

    In technological adoption curves, Bitcoin is still somewhere around 1998 to 2002 internet, we haven’t even hit 10% penetration yet, which is that famed “tipping point” for when a new innovation (in this case, decentralized, digital non-state money) takes hold and goes into rapid proliferation.

    While Bitcoin uptake is estimated to be somewhere around 4%-5% of the global population, my guess is with the events of 2024, we just have, or are in the process of “crossing the chasm” – another aspect of the technology adoption curve where it blows through the final wave of doubt, fear, skepticism and mal-investment before permanently breaking through to becoming the new paradigm.

    This happens all the time – just not very often with the monetary base layer – but it does happen there too.

    It’s happening now.

    *  *  *

     The Bitcoin Capitalist Letter, my premium newsletter that covers Bitcoin, crypto stocks and the digital asset space. You can catch a trial deal here »

    Sign up for the Bombthrower mailing list and get a free copy of the Crypto Capitalist Manifesto here »

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 19:15

  • Death By A Thousand Talents: University Pays $700,000 To Settle With NASA Over Lead Researcher's Undisclosed China Ties
    Death By A Thousand Talents: University Pays $700,000 To Settle With NASA Over Lead Researcher’s Undisclosed China Ties

    Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The University of Delaware on Dec. 16 settled with NASA after allegedly failing to disclose a professor’s ties to and support from the Chinese regime.

    In 2020, NASA awarded the university a grant to establish a research center focused on the use of satellites to collect weather, climate, and ocean data, to better understand how sea-level rise affects U.S. coastlines.

    According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware, the university certified that no funds from the NASA grant would be “used to participate, collaborate, or coordinate with the People’s Republic of China.” However, the university allegedly failed to disclose that the center’s lead researcher, Xiao-Hai Yan, had significant ties to Chinese institutions and funding while the grant was active.

    The settlement revealed that between June 2020 and August 2023, Yan was simultaneously a faculty member at Xiamen University, one of the 75 institutions directly controlled by China’s Ministry of Education. During this period, Yan also applied for and received funding from the National Science Foundation of China and China’s State Oceanic Administration.

    Additionally, Yan was a participant in China’s Thousand Talents Program, an initiative offering lucrative financial benefits and research advantages to recruit scientists from abroad to bolster China’s economic and military development. The program has raised national security and academic integrity concerns in the United States and has prompted scores of federal investigations and prosecutions over recent years.

    The university agreed to pay $715,580 to the U.S. government to resolve the allegations but did not admit to any wrongdoing.

    The university said it is “proud of its strong record of compliance” in overseeing sponsored research and remains committed to “promoting and safeguarding the responsible pursuit of scientific research.”

    “The university relies, in part, on the candor and complete disclosures of individuals involved in the grant process,” a spokesperson said in a statement to The Epoch Times. “As noted in the release, this settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing by the university, but rather a strategic decision to avoid costly and distracting litigation.”

    The settlement was a coordinated effort between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware and NASA’s Office of Inspector General, the space agency’s internal watchdog.

    “Federal law requires universities, institutions, and researchers to make disclosures, including certain foreign affiliations, when applying for grants so that the granting agencies can assess whether to fund their research and development,” David Weiss, U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware, said in a statement.

    The FBI has detailed how the Chinese government uses expert recruitment programs, such as the Thousand Talents Program, to attract individuals working or studying abroad who have access to high-priority research or proprietary technologies. The FBI estimates that China operates more than 200 similar initiatives, with some funded unwittingly by U.S. taxpayers.

    A 2019 Senate subcommittee report also highlighted numerous instances of misconduct by Thousand Talents participants. These include downloading sensitive research files before leaving for China, falsifying information on U.S. grant applications, and failing to disclose funding received from Beijing.

    One of the most high-profile cases in recent years involved Xiang Haitao, a former researcher at Monsanto. The Thousand Talents participant was arrested in November 2019 after returning to the United States from China, where he had worked on using a proprietary U.S. technology to boost farm output. In 2022, Xiang was sentenced to 29 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $150,000 fine for conspiring to commit economic espionage.

    Another widely reported case was that of Charles Lieber, former chair of Harvard University’s chemistry department. Lieber was arrested on campus in 2020 and charged with lying to federal investigators about his involvement in the Thousand Talents Program and his undisclosed ties to the Wuhan University of Technology. In April 2023, he was sentenced to two days in jail with two years of supervised release and received a $50,000 fine.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 18:40

  • US Scraps $10M Bounty On AQ-linked Jolani After One Visit From State Dept Officials
    US Scraps $10M Bounty On AQ-linked Jolani After One Visit From State Dept Officials

    On Friday we featured a tongue-in-cheek headline, but which is sadly all too literal and true: Syrian Leader With $10M Bounty On His Head Meets With Delegation From Country That Put The $10M Bounty On His Head.

    US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf led the delegation along with Daniel Rubenstein, who is expected to stay in Damascus as America’s top diplomat there, as they met with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani in Damascus.

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

    “The meeting took place and was positive, and positive results will emerge from it,” AFP cited a representative from HTS as saying.

    The meeting focused on a ‘vision’ for the new Syria and officials discussed sanctions, the thorny issue of the $10 million reward, and locating missing US citizens in Syria.

    It was only within a mere hours of the meeting that the US side decided to remove the $10 million bounty for the killing or capture of Jolani, who merely years ago was a full-fledged commander in ISIS, and subsequently a founder of al-Qaeda in Syria.

    …he likes kittens, long walks on the beach, and spooning his 10 wives at night. Also, he cried during The Notebook…

    “The US has scrapped a $10m (£7.9m) reward for the arrest of Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, following meetings between senior diplomats and representatives from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS),” BBC wrote just on the heels of the talks.

    This is the same man who fought for al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), a group which targeted and killed American troops.

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

    Nonetheless, the US delegation described that they are seeing signs of ‘moderate’ policies from the Al-Qaeda linked leader:

    “We’ve been hearing this for some time, some very pragmatic and moderate statements on various issues, from women’s rights to protection of, you know, equal rights for all communities, etc,” Leaf told reporters. “Again, it was a good first meeting. We will judge by deeds, not just by words. Deeds are the critical thing.”

    We have to ask: Would this fly in a US court of law?… 

    …”your honor, I swear even though I recently had an ISIS phase and later I was founder of al-Qaeda in Syria, I have reformed myself and I am ‘moderate’!…”

    “am definitely so over my al-Qaeda phase your honor… promise.”

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

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 18:05

  • How The Left Will Defend Its Censorship Regime Against Trump
    How The Left Will Defend Its Censorship Regime Against Trump

    Authored by Bradley Smith via RealClearPolitics,

    The reelection of President Donald Trump could serve as a historic turning point for free speech in America. President Trump has said he will investigate censorship practices by the federal government, end the rampant disrespect for First Amendment rights on our college campuses, and take on Big Tech’s Orwellian policing of speech on the Internet. If successful, these efforts would make the First Amendment stronger than ever before.

    Yet President Trump’s opponents will not simply stand by and watch as he dismantles their carefully crafted censorship machine. Controlling who gets to speak and what can be said is essential to the left’s dominance over our institutions. They will not give up such an important source of their power without a fight.

    To ensure the success of Trump’s free speech agenda, the right must anticipate and prepare for the left’s inevitable attacks. Fortunately, their methods are not hard to predict. In fact, Democrats tipped their hand during the campaign.

    Back when the party’s out-of-touch leadership thought Kamala Harris would propel them to victory, they set about making plans to silence opposition to their agenda once in office. At the Democratic National Convention, Sen. Chuck Schumer promised sweeping changes to elections, voting, and campaign finance if Democrats won control of Congress and the White House. All of these efforts would slant the political playing field further in the left’s favor.

    Among the bills was legislation that would strip Americans of their privacy when supporting nonprofit groups that speak out on hot button issues like abortion, crime, the border, or extreme gender politics. The importance of this provision should not be underestimated.

    The left calls it “transparency” when they publicly expose a private citizen’s personal information, including their name and home address, but Americans know it better as doxxing. They also know the purpose is not good government, but power politics. Exposing donors allows the left to build enemies’ lists and harass anyone who backs the “wrong” cause.

    Harris, who co-sponsored the DISCLOSE Act in the Senate, has her own long record of attacking conservative donors and journalists. As California Attorney General, her demand that nonprofits expose their confidential donor lists to her office led to lawsuits and a rebuke from the U.S. Supreme Court. The First Amendment protects the right to give privately, as the justices reminded her.

    Now that the election is over, Democrats’ designs for regulating speech and exposing conservative donors may form the heart of their resistance strategy to splinter the Trump coalition. We have seen this movie before.

    After the fight over Obamacare sparked a massive conservative movement known as the Tea Party, the left painted targets on the backs of the organizations and donors at its heart. IRS bureaucrats began grilling conservative groups about their activities and intentionally slow-walked their applications for nonprofit status. The massive targeting campaign succeeded in suppressing grassroots conservative activism in the run-up to the 2012 elections, where Democrats made gains.

    Yet Democrats do not even need to control the White House to target conservative donors. Threats can arise from inside federal agencies like the IRS, or from state legislation or regulatory actions, or even from unscrupulous media aided by leaks and hacking of confidential donor data. President Trump himself saw his tax returns illegally leaked in a politically-motivated scheme.

    Organizations that are successful in promoting conservative policies have also seen coordinated campaigns to bully their donors into ending their support. These harassment campaigns are one of the tactics that allowed the left to seize control of corporate America. Today, many companies pay a heavy price for any public association with the right.

    America First organizations and citizens are more than familiar with this kind of discrimination. This time, however, they must not merely persist through it but fight back and defeat it. If not, the left’s control over our institutions will soon reemerge, strong as ever, despite our best efforts.

    The solution is simple: Ensure every American can freely, safely, and privately support the organizations that represent their values and beliefs. We must end the ability of bureaucrats and political operatives to spy on donors and nonprofits.

    If the Trump coalition can do this and protect its own, it can achieve its bold free speech agenda – and more.

    Bradley Smith is chairman of the Institute for Free Speech, a former chairman of the FEC, and a professor of law at Capital University.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 17:30

  • US, UK Sanction Georgia's 'Kremlin Friendly' Government
    US, UK Sanction Georgia’s ‘Kremlin Friendly’ Government

    Starting weeks ago Washington had threatened the Republic of Georgia with “consequences” amid accusations of rigged elections, after the ‘Russia friendly’ Georgian Dream Party swept parliamentary elections.

    And this month, 53-year old Mikheil Kavelashvili of Georgian Dream party was named president after 224 out of 225 members of Georgia’s electoral college voted him in (which the main opposition groups boycotted). Large pro-EU protests have all the while a mainstay in the capital of Tbilisi. The United States and European Union are loudly backing the protesters also amid the usual claims of ‘Russian interference’ in favor of governing authorities.

    AFP/Getty Images

    More unrest and large protests are expected given Kavelashvili’s inauguration is set for December 29. Police have been deploying riot control methods against larger and larger crowds all this month.

    Western media describes Kavelashvili as “far right” abd as a critic of the West, as well as ‘conspiratorial’ given he has in the recent past claimed that Western interests are seeking to drive Georgia into conflict with Russia.

    Late this past week the US and UK have begun to make good on their promises of consequences for the new government, citing an ongoing crackdown of the pro-EU protests. Senior officials in the Georgian government are being targeted by sanctions unveiled by the US and UK on Thursday. 

    “The United States strongly condemns the Georgian authorities’ ongoing, brutal and unjustified violence against Georgian citizens, including peaceful protesters, media members, human rights activists and opposition figures,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller announced.

    The US Treasury described that top Georgian officials will have any assets or property held in the United States blocked, and most financial transactions involving these assets will be barred. 

    As for the UK, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has claimed that there is “shocking violence” against protesters, despite little evidence beyond what’s typical for such street demonstrations and clashes with riot police.

    Things seem quite peaceful actually, with little in the way of a police crackdown, which has just been sporadic in past weeks…

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    Lammy called out the Georgian government and Dream Party for an ongoing “an egregious attack on democracy, and the Georgian people’s right to exercise their fundamental freedoms.”

    “Our action today shows that the UK stands with the people of Georgia and will consider all options to ensure those responsible are held to account,” he said, announcing the UK sanctions which were coordinated with Washington.

    The dividing lines for Georgia’s current crisis, which has seen the Dream Party solidify complete control of the government – but with unrest in the streets – is much like Ukraine’s political divide in 2014. But let’s hope the situation doesn’t turn to open conflict involving the US or Russia (akin to the disastrous war in Ukraine), which is something officials in Tbilisi have long been worried about.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 16:55

  • Massachusetts Is The Most Expensive State To Raise A Kid In, Mississippi Cheapest
    Massachusetts Is The Most Expensive State To Raise A Kid In, Mississippi Cheapest

    Although costs vary from family to family, two working parents spend an average of around $23,000 per year raising one child in the United States.

    This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, illustrates the cost of raising a child by state, based on data compiled by SmartAsset as of February 2024.

    Methodology

    SmartAsset used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to compare the living costs of a household with two working adults and one child to those of a childless household with two working adults. Costs include expenses for food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, and other necessities.

    Massachusetts Tops the List

    Massachusetts has the highest annual costs for raising a child, at $35,841 per year. Mississippi has the lowest annual costs, at $16,151 per year.

    Rank State Annual cost of raising a child
    1 Massachusetts $35,841
    2 Hawaii $35,049
    3 Connecticut $32,803
    4 Colorado $30,425
    5 New York $30,247
    6 California $29,468
    7 New Hampshire $27,849
    8 Washington $27,806
    9 Rhode Island $27,630
    10 Minnesota $27,406
    11 Vermont $27,170
    12 Nevada $26,914
    13 New Jersey $26,870
    14 Alaska $26,860
    15 Oregon $26,334
    16 Delaware $25,867
    17 Maine $24,917
    18 Maryland $24,830
    19 Pennsylvania $24,820
    20 Wisconsin $24,064
    21 Virginia $24,043
    22 Arizona $24,026
    23 Illinois $23,821
    24 Michigan $23,075
    25 Ohio $22,926
    26 Nebraska $22,773
    27 Iowa $22,714
    28 North Dakota $21,645
    29 Indiana $21,584
    30 North Carolina $21,510
    31 Florida $21,384
    32 Idaho $21,214
    33 Utah $20,955
    34 Montana $20,839
    35 Texas $20,724
    36 Wyoming $20,579
    37 Georgia $20,480
    38 South Carolina $20,293
    39 New Mexico $20,060
    40 Missouri $19,995
    41 West Virginia $19,558
    42 Oklahoma $19,535
    43 Tennessee $19,525
    44 Kansas $19,494
    45 South Dakota $19,008
    46 Alabama $18,653
    47 Kentucky $18,588
    48 Louisiana $17,918
    49 Arkansas $17,424
    50 Mississippi $16,151

    Regardless of the state, childcare is the highest expense, followed by additional housing and food costs.

    Housing costs include expenses for shelter (e.g., mortgage payments, property taxes, rent, and insurance), utilities (gas, electricity, fuel, cellphone, and water), and household furnishings and equipment. Childcare costs include education expenses, daycare tuition, babysitting, other childcare costs, and tuition for private schools.

    These expenses do not account for the cost of a college education, which can add significantly to the overall financial burden.

    If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out this graphic, which ranks the income a family needs to live comfortably in every U.S. state.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 15:45

  • Santa Claus Rally Or Did The Fed Steal Christmas?
    Santa Claus Rally Or Did The Fed Steal Christmas?

    Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

    Powell & A Government Shutdown Hits Stocks

    Last week, we noted the ongoing market churn that could last into this week’s Fed meeting. To wit:

    “That certainly seemed the case this past week, with the market trading being fairly sloppy. Attempts to push the market higher were repeatedly met with sellers, and we saw a rotation from over-owned to under-owned assets. Notably, that selling pressure arrived as expected, and while such could persist until early next week, we should be getting close to the end of the distribution and rebalancing process. The good news is that the recent consolidation paves the way for ‘Santa Claus to visit Broad and Wall.”

    That process continued as expected this past week but became violent on Wednesday following the Federal Reserve meeting. While the Fed cut rates as expected, the market shock came from the lift in its outlook for interest rates in 2025 by a half percentage point. The market is assuming that the Fed is giving up on the idea that inflation will return to the 2% target next year, an idea that they had confidence in as recently as September. That more hawkish outlook undermined the view that elevated valuations were justified by easier monetary conditions, which now seems to be reversing. We suspect that this view is rather short-sighted, and given the economic dynamics both abroad and in the U.S., slower economic growth will lead to a “dovish” pivot by the Fed in the first half of 2025.

    The markets also struggled with concerns about a Government shutdown. As we discussed in October 2023, shutdowns are NOT a threat to the market in the long term. To wit:

    “What is critical to understand about Government shutdowns is that mandatory spending (social security, welfare, interest on the debt) continues as needed. Shutdowns are primarily about discretionary spending. Such is why it mainly involves Government employment and the shuttering of national parks and monuments. According to Goldman Sachs, the shutdown would have only impacted about 2% of Federal spending overall. Notice that the vast majority of Government spending is directly a function of the social welfare system and interest on the debt.”

    Please note that during a Government shutdown, all MANDATORY spending continues. In other words, the government WILL NOT default on its debt, and social security payments will continue, despite rhetoric to the contrary.

    Furthermore, market reactions to government shutdowns have become increasingly muted. The reason is that the markets have learned that funding typically arrives at the 11th hour via a ‘continuing resolution’ to provide temporary funding through the next political event, such as midterm elections, inauguration, etc. While these short-term spending bills eventually translate into longer-term spending bills, the real problem is that continuing resolutions (CRs) increase spending by 8% annually. Such is why debt has exploded since Congress stopped passing budgets in 2009 under President Obama and opted for CRs. The debt surge is the direct result of automatically compounding 8% annual spending increases plus additional spending.

    However, as shown, government shutdowns, if they occur, can temporarily impact markets, but the event tends to be mild and short-lived.

    Nonetheless, the market has triggered a short-term MACD sell signal, which warned investors that some “event” could exert downward pressure on stocks. As noted, the Fed and “Government Shutdown” drama sufficiently triggered sellers as portfolio rebalancing and distributions concluded. With relative strength oversold on Friday, the setup for a reflexive rally into year-end has become a much higher-probability event. However, the ongoing sell signal is deep enough to limit whatever reflexive rally does arrive. Such is particularly true as money flows have deteriorated over the last few weeks.

    While we still expect a rally into year-end, as we will discuss, there is a not-so-insignificant possibility of further turmoil. We suggest continuing to manage risk, and with significant gains already booked for this year, there is little need to stretch for further returns at this juncture.

    Will Santa Claus Visit Broad And Wall?

    Will “Santa still visit Broad and Wall?” That is the question on everyone’s mind. As we will discuss, there are certainly reasons to be concerned, but let’s start with the market statistics and reasons behind the fabled year-end rally.

    The actual Wall Street saying is, “If Santa Claus should fail to call, bears may come to Broad & Wall.” The Santa Claus Rally, also known as the December effect, is a term for more frequent than average stock market gains as the year winds down. However, as is always the case with data, average returns sometimes differ from reality.

    Stock Trader’s Almanac explored why end-of-year trading has a directional tendency. The Santa Claus indicator is pretty simple. It looks at market performance over a seven-day trading period – the last five trading days of the current trading year and the first two trading days of the New Year. The stats are compelling.

    “The stock market has risen 1.48% on average during the 7 trading days in question since both 1950 and 1969. Over the 7 trading days in question, stock prices have historically risen 76% of the time, which is far more than the average performance over a 7-day period.“

    The end of the year tends to be strong for a couple of reasons. First, professional managers tend to “window dress” portfolios for year-end reporting purposes. Secondly, given that many professional funds make year-end distributions, there tends to be a need to rebalance portfolios. The following graph in orange shows aggregate cumulative returns by day count for the December months we analyzed. In the graph, we plotted returns alongside daily aggregated average returns by day. Unsurprisingly, the recent sloppy trading and correction this past week all coincide with the historical norms of December.

    Visually, one notices the “sweet spot” in the two graphs between the 10th and 14th trading days. The 14th trading day, in most cases, falls within a few days of Christmas.

    However, there is always a risk.

    Did The Fed Steal Christmas?

    While there is a decently high probability that stock prices will climb heading into year-end, there is a not-so-insignificant 24% chance they won’t. With the substantial November advance and new highs into early December, the question is whether anyone is “left to buy?” As noted, not every December has a “Santa Claus Rally.” 2018, as shown, is a good reminder that once in a while, investors receive a lump of coal in their stockings. At that time, the Federal Reserve was on a rate hiking campaign and insisted that it was “nowhere near the neutral rate” on monetary policy. Furthermore, since the market had declined steeply since early September, sentiment and investor positioning were very negative.

    Interestingly, December 2024 has some of the same backdrops as September 2018.

    First, the S&P 500 rallied strongly this year, approaching our year-end target of 6000. That rally has led to a sharp increase in bullish sentiment between retail and professional investors. As shown, U.S. equity allocations are at record highs among professional investors.

    Furthermore, like in 2018, when retail equity allocations and valuations were elevated, investor allocations are at the highest on record, coinciding with the second-highest valuation levels.

    There is also an abundance of optimism about future stock prices, just like in 2018.

    What is important to remember about 2018 is that investor optimism was fine until the Fed said it “was nowhere near the neutral rate.” Of course, following a 20% decline and two months later, the Fed was magically at that neutral rate.

    Today, investor exuberance is tied to a further accommodative easing in 2025. However, like in 2018, the Fed suggested it isn’t near its “neutral rate,” as shown in its latest projections. While the “long-run” projections are still for economic growth of 1.8% (down from 2.0% and 1.9% previously) and inflation of 2%, the short-term outlooks for 2025 were adjusted modestly higher. That uptick disappointed investors even though the end goals remain the same, which will require Fed funds to adjust lower. (Side note: The Fed’s projections are almost always too optimistic, which suggests the recent bout of hawkishness will give way to a dovish reversal next year.)

    The adjustment to the Fed’s view was minimal from an investing perspective. However, the market reacted violently because the combination of exuberance and overbought factors created the perfect environment for a reversal.

    Technically Speaking

    First, while the market rallied into year-end on many optimistic assumptions, breadth has been deteriorating noticeably. From the NYSE Advance-Decline line to the percentage of stocks trading above their respective 50 and 200-DMA, overall participation has declined rapidly. While such does not mean a market crash is imminent, such previous deterioration has eventually coincided with short-term corrections and consolidations. Unsurprisingly, that is exactly what happened as the collision of the Fed and a looming shutdown gave sellers the push they needed.

    Secondly, the market was, and is, technically extended on many levels after the past two years of excess returns. The monthly market analysis shows the S&P 500 is significantly overbought on a relative strength basis, deviated from the long-term mean, and pushing well into the top of its bullish trend from the 2009 lows. While we discussed the same factors in the middle of 2021, it took several months before the market gave way and corrected the excesses in 2022. Given the market’s current momentum, we suspect the bullish run will likely last into the first half of next year but could be sooner if earnings expectations decline.

    What is crucial to understand is that these technical extremes are just the “kindling” for a correction. To “ignite” the correction, some event must provide the catalyst. In this case, it was the more hawkish pivot by the Fed and the threat of a shutdown. As is always the case, the event that causes a sharp unwinding of the market, like we saw on Wednesday, is always unexpected. The “surprise factor” causes the sudden shift in market expectations for earnings growth and outlooks. The risk going forward is “if” the Fed is correct in its outlook, the more optimistic outlook for earnings expectations will need to be reassessed. If that is the case, the market will decline to reduce valuations for a new reality.

    Given that current valuations are at the second-highest level on record, such an event would seem more likely. Notably, short-term valuations are solely a function of sentiment. Investors are paying well above the earnings growth that is occurring. Historically, earnings have disappointed those expectations.

    Does any of this mean that “Santa Won’t Visit Broad And Wall?” Of course not. However, I would not completely dismiss the risk of “getting a lump of coal” this year.

    Given the uncertainty, both into year-end and 2025, how should we approach it?

    Calculating The Madness

    Let me repeat something that seems apropos:

    Sir Isaac Newton once said:

    “I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of the people..” 

    As we head into year-end, we will navigate the risk of overly extended and bullish markets against the seasonally strong end-of-year period. 

    We believe that capital preservation and risk management lead to better outcomes over the long term. However, managing risk can be frustrating in the short run as the “Fear Of Missing Out” overrides common sense and logic. 

    If you disagree, that is okay.

    When the opportunity presents itself and the “madness has subsided,” these are the questions we will ask ourselves before we add exposure to portfolios:

    1. What is the expected return from current valuation levels?  (___%)
    2. If I am wrong, what is my potential downside, given my current risk exposure?  (___%)
    3. What actions should I take now if #2 exceeds #1?  (#2 – #1 = ___%)

    How you answer those questions is entirely up to you.

    What you do with the answers is also up to you.

    We are all trying to answer the question, “How much of the ‘narrative’ already got priced into the market?”

    By looking at the data, it would be easy to assume the answer is “much.”

    While bullishness prevails, this is a great time to set aside the narratives and return our focus to the basic portfolio management rules.

    How We Are Trading It

    Since we have our “stockings hung by the chimney with care,” we can stuff them with a few essential investment guidelines to follow as we approach year-end.

    • Investing is not a competition. There are no prizes for winning but severe penalties for losing.
    • Emotions have no place in investing. You are generally better off doing the opposite of what you “feel” you should be doing.
    • The ONLY investments you can “buy and hold” provide an income stream with a return of principal function.
    • Market valuations (except at extremes) are very poor market timing devices.
    • Fundamentals and Economics drive long-term investment decisions – “Greed and Fear” drive short-term trading. Knowing what type of investor you are determines the basis of your strategy.
    • “Market timing” is impossible– managing risk exposure is logical and possible.
    • Investment is about discipline and patience. Lacking either one can be destructive to your investment goals.
    • There is no value in daily media commentary– turn off the television and save yourself the mental capital.
    • Investing is no different from gambling—both are “guesses” about future outcomes based on probabilities. The winner is the one who knows when to “fold” and when to go “all in.”
    • No investment strategy works all the time. The trick is knowing the difference between a bad investment strategy and one temporarily out of favor.

    While anxiously anticipating the arrival of the “Santa Claus Rally,” we must also remember the lesson of 2018.

    Nothing is guaranteed.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 15:10

  • Ukrainian Drones Pummel Russian City Over 600 Miles From Front Line
    Ukrainian Drones Pummel Russian City Over 600 Miles From Front Line

    Ukraine’s drone and missile attacks deep inside Russia have already been a near daily occurrence, but now these projectiles are reaching further and further into Russia, often utilize Western-supplied weapon systems.

    “Ukraine brought the war into the heart of Russia Saturday morning with drone attacks that local authorities said damaged residential buildings in the city of Kazan in the Tatarstan region, over 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) from the front line,” The Associated Press reports Saturday.

    Aftermath of suicide drone attack by Ukraine in the Russian city of Kazan, via ABC.

    The regional governor said that eight drones attacked the city, with anti-air defenses only able to shoot down one. The others hit residential buildings and an industrial facility. 

    No casualties were indicated by emergency services, but the attacks halted flights at Kazan’s airport, and all public gatherings were canceled due to the threat of more possible inbound drones.

    The last several days have seen deadly attacks on Rostov and Kursk regions. The several waves of assaults involved US-provided ATACMS, UK-provided Storm Shadow missiles, as well as a HIMARS attack which occurred Friday.

    The Russian Defense Ministry said: “These actions by the Kiev regime supported by Western handlers won’t be left unanswered.”

    Dramatic video shows one drone smashing into the upper floors of high-rise building. The footage was verified by the AP:

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

    President Putin has previously warned that “decision-making centers” in Kiev could be hit, but it appears that has yet to happen on any large-scale, even nearly three years into the war.

    There’s also the looming threat that Moscow could launch more Oreshnik hypersonic missiles armed with conventional warheads, which could do major damage. Clearly these ‘options’ have been largely held back thus far.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 14:35

  • Dem Rep. Crockett: Hispanic Voters Have "Slave Mentality" And "Can Barely Vote"
    Dem Rep. Crockett: Hispanic Voters Have “Slave Mentality” And “Can Barely Vote”

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    One of the most consistent elements of the identity politics practiced by the left is its selectivity. Whether in politics or higher education, the outrage that comes from allegedly racist or insensitive comments is confined to targets on the right.

    A case in point is the deafening silence after a diatribe by Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, during which she accused Hispanic voters of having a “slave mentality” and said that they “can barely vote.”

    There was no vaporous segment on The View or condemnations on the floor from members.

    Crockett has been celebrated in left-wing publications such as Vanity Fair for schooling her colleagues, which she describes as “old as sh*t.”

    She offered Vanity Fair her “distilled summary of what happens within the Latino community.” Not surprisingly, it is identity politics with a race edge:

    “I’ve not run into that with the Asian community. I’ve not run into that with the African community. I’ve not run into that with the Caribbean community. I’ve only run into it with Hispanics. When they think of ‘illegals,’ they think of, you know, maybe people that came out of the cartels and that kind of, like, the criminal-type book or whatever. It’s insane.”

    “It almost reminds me of what people would talk about when they would talk about kind of like ‘slave mentality’ and the hate that some slaves would have for themselves. It’s almost like a slave mentality that they have. It is wild to me when I hear how anti-immigrant they are as immigrants, many of them. I’m talking about people that literally just got here and can barely vote that are having this kind of attitude.”

    The attack on Hispanic voters as including people who “literally just got here and can barely vote” did not even generate objections from many Democratic Hispanic groups. Imagine if Trump or a conservative commentator made this comment.

    Ironically, just before the election, I wrote how recent immigrants seemed to have a particularly strong connection to our defining and collective values. That does not appear a view shared by the congresswoman.

    Crockett was, if anything, inclusive in her attacks based on gender and race. She also attacked black men and women for voting for Trump. She just dismissed black men as hating women: “I’m going to chalk up to misogyny.”

    What is unimaginable is that any woman or person of color could vote on the merits against the Democrats.

    Notably, after her loss, Hillary Clinton offered the same attacks on women as voting against her only because they are weak and self-loathing.

    She claimed that Kamala, who notoriously avoided interviews and could not think of “a thing she would do differently” from Biden, “ran a flawless campaign.” The problem is again self-hating women and minorities, adding, “I don’t trust White women. I said, I’m just telling you, and I think you need to have conversations with your sisters, because they are the group that failed Hillary Clinton.”

    The claim that Hispanics “can barely vote” would not be tolerated from someone on the right. It is reminiscent of the controversy involving Democratic lawyer and former Clinton campaign general counsel Marc Elias over what some called inherently racist comments about Georgia voters. Elias argued that Georgia voters could not be expected to be able to read their driver’s licenses correctly — a statement that seemed to refer to minority voters who would be disproportionately impacted by such a requirement.

    What is striking about the Vanity Fair article is that Democrats continued to rely on identity politics despite every indication that it was not working. Now, after losing both houses and the White House, they are doubling down on identity politics.

    Outgoing Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Jaime Harrison used his farewell address to warn Democrats not to abandon identity politics as the touchstone of future campaigns.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 12/21/2024 – 14:00

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