Jan 23

Today’s News 23rd January 2025

  • The Competency Crisis Proliferating The West
    The Competency Crisis Proliferating The West

    Authored by Alastair Crooke,

    The essayist and military strategist, Aurelien, has written a paper entitled: The Strange Defeat (original in French). The ‘strange defeat’ being that of Europe’s ‘curious’ inability to understand Ukraine or its military mechanics.

    Aurelien highlights the strange lack of realism by which the West has approached the crisis —

    “ …and the almost pathological dissociation from the real world that it displays in its words and actions. Yet, even as the situation deteriorates, and the Russian forces advance everywhere, there is no sign that the West is becoming more reality-based in its understanding – and it is very likely that it will continue to live in its alternative construction of reality until it is forcibly expelled”.

    The writer continues in some detail (omitted here) to explain why NATO has no strategy for Ukraine and no real operational plan:

    “It has only a series of ad hoc initiatives, linked together by vague aspirations that have no connection with real life plus the hope that ‘something [beneficial] will occur’. Our current Western political leaders have never had to develop such skills. Yet it is actually worse than that: not having developed these skills, not having advisers who have developed them, they cannot really understand what the Russians are doing, how and why they are doing it. Western leaders are like spectators who do not know the rules of chess or Go – and are trying to figure out who is winning”.

    “What exactly was their goal? Now, responses such as ‘to send a message to Putin’, ‘complicate Russian logistics’, or ‘improve morale at home’ are no longer allowed. What I want to know is what is expected in concrete terms? What are the tangible results of their ‘messaging’? Can they guarantee that it will be understood? Have you anticipated the possible reactions of the Russians – and what will you do then?”

    The essential problem, Aurelien bluntly concludes, is that:

    “our political classes and their parasites have no idea how to deal with such crises, or even how to understand them. The war in Ukraine involves forces that are orders of magnitude larger than any Western nation has deployed on operations since 1945 … Instead of real strategic objectives, they have only slogans and fanciful proposals”.

    Coldly put, the author explains that for complex reasons connected with the nature of western modernity, the liberal élites simply are not competent or professional in matters of security. And they do not understand its nature.

    U.S. cultural critic Walter Kirn makes rather similar claims in a very different, yet related, context: California Fires and America’s Competency Crisis –

    “Los Angeles is in flames, yet California’s leaders seem helpless, unmasking a generation of public investment in non-essential services [that leaves the Authorities floundering amidst the predicted occurrence of the fires]”.

    On a Joe Rogan podcast earlier this month, a firefighter goes: “It’s just going to be the right wind and fire’s going to start in the right place and it’s going to burn through LA all the way to the ocean, and there’s not a f***ing thing we can do about it”.

    Kirn observes:

    “This isn’t the first fire or set of fires in Malibu. Just a few years ago, there were big fires. There always are. They’re inevitable. But having built this giant city in this place with this vulnerability, there are measures that can be taken to contain and to fend off the worst”.

    “To fob it off on climate change, as I say, is a wonderful thing to tell yourself, but none of this started yesterday. My only point is this, has it done everything it can to prepare for an inevitable, unavoidable situation that perhaps in scale differs from the past, but certainly not in kind? Are its leaders up to the job? There’s not a lot of sign that they are. They haven’t been able to deal with things like homelessness without fires. So the question of whether all those things have been done, whether they’ve been done well, whether there was adequate water in fire hydrants, whether they were working at all, things like that, and whether the fire department was properly trained or properly staffed, all those questions are going to arise”.

    “And as far as the competency crisis goes, I think that there will be ample material to portray this as aggravated by incompetence. California’s a state that’s become notorious for spending a lot of money on things that don’t work, on high-speed rail lines that never are constructed, on all sorts of construction projects and infrastructure projects that never come to pass. And in that context, I think this will be devastating to the power structure of California”.

    “In a larger sense though, it’s going to remind people that a politics that has been for years now about language and philosophical constructs such as equity and so on, is going to be seen as having failed in the most essential way, to protect people. And that these people are powerful and influential and privileged is going to make that happen faster and in a more prominent fashion”.

    To which his colleague, journalist Matt Taibbi, responds:

    “But pulling back in a broader sense, we do have a crisis of competency in this country. It has had a huge impact on American politics”. Kirn: “[Americans] They’re going to want less concern for the philosophical and/or even long-term political questions of equity and so on, I predict, and they’re going to want to lay in a minimum expectation of competence in natural disasters. In other words, this is a time when the priorities shift and I think that big change is coming, big, big change, because we look like we’ve been dealing with luxury problems, and we’ve certainly been dealing with other countries’ problems, Ukraine or whoever it might be, with massive funding. There are people in North Carolina right now still recovering from a flood and having a very difficult time as winter comes, which it doesn’t in LA in the same way, or as winter consolidates itself, I guess”;

    “So looking forward, it’s not a question of blame, it’s what are people going to want? What are people going to value? What are they going to prize? Are their priorities going to shift? I think they will shift big time. Los Angeles will be a touchstone and it will be a touchstone for a new approach to government”.

    So we have this ‘divorce from reality’ and consequent ‘Competency Crisis’ – whether in California; Ukraine or Europe. Where lie the roots to this malaise? U.S. writer David Samuels believes this to be the answer:

    “In his last days in office … President Barack Obama made the decision to set the country on a new course. On Dec. 23, 2016, he signed into law the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act, which used the language of defending the homeland to launch an open-ended, offensive information war, a war that fused the security infrastructure with the social media platforms – where the war supposedly was being fought”.

    However, collapse of the 20th-century media pyramid and its rapid replacement by monopoly social media platforms, had made it possible for the Obama White House to sell policy – and reconfigure social attitudes and prejudices – in entirely new ways.

    During the Trump years, Obama used these tools of the digital age to craft an entirely new type of power centre for himself – one that revolved around his unique position as the titular, though pointedly never-named, head of a Democratic Party which he succeeded in refashioning in his own image, Samuels writes.

    The ‘permission structure’ machine that Barack Obama and David Axelrod (a highly successful Chicago political consultant), built to replace the Democratic Party was in its essence a device for getting people to act against their beliefs by substituting new and ‘better’ beliefs through the top-down controlled and leveraged application of social pressure – effectively turning Axelrod’s construct into ‘an omnipotent thought-machine’, Samuels suggests:

    “The term ‘echo chambers’ describes the process by which the White House and its wider penumbra of think tanks and NGOs deliberately created an entirely new class of experts who mutually credentialed each other on social media in order to advance assertions that would formerly have been seen as marginal or not credible”.

    The aim was for a platoon of aides, armed with laptops or smart phones, to ‘run’ with the latest inspired Party meme and to immediately repeat, and repeat it, across platforms, giving the appearance of an overwhelming tide of consensus filling the country. And thus giving people the ‘permission structure’ of apparent wide public assent to believe propositions that formerly they would never have supported.

    “Where this analysis went wrong is the same place that the Obama team’s analysis of Trump went wrong: The wizards of the permission structure machine had become captives of the machinery that they built. The result was a fast-moving mirror world that could generate the velocity required to change the appearance of “what people believe” overnight. The newly minted digital variant of “public opinion” was rooted in the algorithms that determine how fads spread on social media, in which mass multiplied by speed equals momentum—speed being the key variable”.

    “At every turn over the next four years, it was like a fever was spreading, and no one was immune. Spouses, children, colleagues, and supervisors at work began reciting, with the force of true believers, slogans they had only learned last week. It was the entirety of this apparatus, not just the ability to fashion clever or impactful tweets, that constituted the party’s new form of power”.

    “In the end, however, the fever broke”. The credibility of Élites imploded.

    Samuels account amounts to a stark warning of the danger associated with distance opening up between an underlying reality and an invented reality that could be successfully messaged, and managed, from the White House. “This possibility opened the door to a new potential for a large-scale disaster – like the war in Iraq”, Samuels suggests. (Samuels does not specifically mention Ukraine, although this is implied throughout the argument).

    This – both the Obama tale, as told by David Samuels, and Walter Kirn’s story of California – augment Aurelien’s point about Ukraine and European military incompetence and lack of professionalism on the field: It is one of allowing a schism to open up between contrived narrative and reality – “which”, Samuels warns “is to say that, with enough money, operatives could create and operationalize mutually reinforcing networks of activists and experts to validate a messaging arc that would short-circuit traditional methods of validation and analysis, and lead unwary actors and audience members alike to believe that things that they had never believed; or even heard of before: Were in fact not only plausible, but already widely accepted within their specific peer groups”.

    It constitutes the path to disaster – even risking nuclear disaster in the case of the Ukraine conflict. Will the ‘Competency Crisis’ reaching across such varied terrain trigger a re-think as Walter Kirn – a writer on cultural change – insists?

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 23:25

  • Trump Repeals Embarrassing Biden Policy Allowing Transgenders To Serve In US Military
    Trump Repeals Embarrassing Biden Policy Allowing Transgenders To Serve In US Military

    Sometimes the pen truly is mightier than the sword.  After Donald Trump’s inauguration celebration on January 20th the newly appointed US President went straight to work, spending hours in the Oval Office signing over 200 executive orders while simultaneously answering random questions from reporters.  Among those ledgers were multiple orders essentially vaporizing DEI from the federal government; ending four years of woke cultism imposed by the Biden Administration.  

    Executive orders included the federal government legally recognizing only two genders/sexes and the closure of all DEI related offices.  In tandem with these actions which basically end the open transgender presence within most aspects of the government, Trump also reversed a Biden order allowing transgenders to join the US military.  The reversal sets the stage for the administration to bring back Trump’s original ban on trans military personnel.

         

    Any skeptic thinking woke is “not dead” is getting a lesson today in how quickly things can change.  Most commentators on the hailstorm of executive orders from Trump note that they are “getting whiplash” from the 180 degree turnaround from the previous presidency.  The US military in particular was in a downward spiral by the end of the Biden era, with most branches struggling to meet recruitment quotas and military brass openly embracing woke ideology and CRT initiatives. 

    The trend has stood as a national embarrassment on the global stage, with foreign adversaries increasing their recruitment efforts across the board while America has concerned itself with taxpayer funded gender affirming care for clownish trans military members.  Such medical care is often cited as the only reason many trans activists joined the military in the first place.

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    These actions along with the potential confirmation of Pete Hegseth open the path to a far more serious US military based on merit, not DEI.  This includes the end to waivers from physical fitness standards for transgender recruits experiencing “negative side effects” from hormone replacement therapy (which, of course, they get for free after joining).  There is an estimated 15,000 trans military members currently serving, a number which ballooned under Joe Biden.  There is an unfortunate number of trans personnel in leadership positions. 

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    If a country wants to avoid war and maintain peace, one of the surest strategies is to project strength and competence.  It is increasingly difficult for the US to appear strong while the armed forces are actively recruiting people who are getting pumped full of estrogen.  It is also difficult to appear competent while catering to the finicky mental illnesses of over-emotional activists. 

    Trump’s executive orders are a return to normalcy that Americans have desperately needed, but also with a few stokes of a pen he has made the US far more safe.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 23:00

  • Taiwan: Will Xi Or Won't Xi?
    Taiwan: Will Xi Or Won’t Xi?

    Authored by Grant Newsham via RealClearDefense,

    Chinese leader, Xi Jinping has been clear that he intends to get Taiwan – one way or another.

    He has good reasons.

    It would establish Xi as one of the immortals by accomplishing something Mao Tse Tung couldn’t. By taking Taiwan, China breaks through the first island-chain – the island nations stretching from Japan to Taiwan and on to the Philippines and Malaysia – that constrain China’s freedom of access to the Pacific and beyond. Break the chain and the PLA then gets easy access to the Pacific and potentially can surround Japan, cut-off Australia and move onwards.

    These are operational advantages.

    As important are the political and psychological advantages. Take Taiwan and Beijing has demonstrated the U.S. military couldn’t save the 23 million free people of Taiwan. Neither could American economic and financial pressure. And U.S. nuclear weapons didn’t stop China either.

    In capitals all over Asia, the calculus will change, and many will cut the best deals they can and turn ‘red’ overnight rather than try to withstand Chinese pressure on their own. The United States will be finished as a Pacific power. And globally nobody will trust a U.S. promise of protection – explicit or implicit.

    Can China Take Taiwan?

    The recently released 2024 DOD China Military Power Report presents a grim picture of a rapidly developing Chinese military.

    But the report assesses that while Taiwan is a prime target, the Chinese military just isn’t ready for operations against the island. 

    No matter how much progress the PLA makes, it seems it’s never quite ready to attack Taiwan.

    China experts can rattle off the reasons why a Chinese assault on Taiwan won’t be coming in the near future.

    Here’s the bingo card of reasons. And why, perhaps, the arguments may not be all they seem.

    1.  There are only two short windows during the year (April and October) when the weather is good enough for an invasion force to get across the Taiwan Strait.

    When asked about this, a Taiwanese oceanographer noted: “Look at the ferry schedules. They run all year.”  And someone should have told Dwight Eisenhower about the weather in June 1944. He only needed 72 hours of decent weather to get across the English Channel.

    2.  Only a tiny number of narrow beaches on Taiwan’s west coast are suitable for an amphibious landing.

    Amphibious forces sometimes don’t need much of a beach…or one at all…if you’ve hit the defender hard enough or deceived him. The U.S. Marines pushed a division across a beach about 200 yards wide in one day at Tinian in 1944. And amphibious operations include troops delivered by helicopter, airborne, and infiltrated in advance along with fifth columnists.

    3.  PLA needs to seize a port — and that’ll never happen because 1) it’s a port and Taiwan is presumably defending it; 2) The Chinese are not smart enough to have their fifth column, including organized crime, already in place to open up, say, Kaohsiung. 

    The “barges” China is building can, in combination with redundant ships, be used to build breakwaters and other components of an artificial port.

    4.  PLA hasn’t got the ‘lift’ – enough ships – to take troops and equipment across the strait.

    A Marine Corps University professor in the late 2010’s had a PowerPoint presentation making this case. He was counting the wrong ships. Add in ‘old’ amphibious ships and civilian ships and boats that were integrated under the ‘military-civil fusion’ doctrine and the PLA had plenty of lift. It’s got even more now. And the world’s second largest merchant marine has more than enough shipping to deliver up to six brigades and 60 days of supplies (particularly if they build an artificial harbor).

    5.  Amphibious operations are the hardest, most complex military operation known to man.

    This argument boils down to ’the Chinese just aren’t as smart as us.’  That’s mistaken and when it comes to amphibious operations read Toshi Yoshihara’s book on how they performed in the Chinese Civil War.

    6. PLA can’t do joint operations.

    Look at recent exercises and ongoing training. They’re getting better. In fact, they’ve been doing joint training for going on two decades and intensely since Xi came to power 12 years ago. And you don’t have to be perfect. Just good enough to do a specific task in a specific place.

    7.  PLA can’t do ‘joint logistics over-the-shore.’ 

    Once again, the Chinese aren’t smart enough and can’t possibly be our equals.

    8.  The PLAN has aircraft carriers but they’re nowhere near our level.

    Do you see a pattern? The Chinese aren’t intelligent or capable enough. Just as was said about the Japanese in 1941.  Remember, the PLA’s carriers will be operating within and along the edge of the First Island Chain and with the support of the PLAAF and PLA Rocket Force.

    9.  PLA hasn’t got combat experience.

    Neither does the U.S. Navy, except against the Houthi Navy. And the rest of the U.S. military hasn’t fought a high-end opponent in decades.

    10.  The PLA is corrupt.

    Andrew Erickson at the Naval War College gets it right: “If Xi and the PLA were in the disarray that some myopically focused on their system’s chronic corruption imagine, there’s no way China’s military could be developing, deploying, exercising, and otherwise preparing in the ways that the CMPR chronicles.”

    11.  Xi Jinping can’t trust his generals and admirals.

    Neither could Hitler or Stalin. One almost got to Moscow. The other took Berlin.

    12.  The PLA is ‘restive’ and pushing back at Xi’s efforts to give himself total power.

    Have we ever seen any real evidence that any PLA officer has “pushed back”? And on our side, how many U.S. Navy admirals pushed back against the systematic degrading of their service’s capabilities over the last 30 years? It was also said before 1939 that the Wehrmacht Generals – the elite of the elite – would never actually let ‘that Corporal’ run things.

    13.  The Chinese can’t innovate. They can only copy.

    There’s ‘Chinese ingenuity’ just as there was ‘Yankee ingenuity.’ It works well enough, no matter who invented the thing improved upon. the PLA Strategic Rocket Force has been very innovative…anyone heard of the DF-21D, DF-26, and DF-17? Or the new Type 076 amphibious assault carrier that is going to carry and launch drones, fixed wing, and helicopters and put amphibious vehicles on the beach?

    14.  PLA officers and NCOs won’t take the initiative — like ours will.

    Maybe. But have you ever heard a Korean War vet say he wanted to fight the Chinese again?

    15.  China won’t attack Taiwan until 2027, 2035, 2049.

    It’s always some years off. Xi is said to have told his military to be ready to go against Taiwan by 2027. In fact, Hu Jintao in 2008 and Xi in 2013 ordered the PLA to be ready to take Taiwan in 2020. The shoe could drop at any time. Would Xi really tell us his attack date in advance? Remember that the British assessed in the 1930’s that Germany would not be ready to fight a war until 1943.

    16.  China has so many one-child families that Xi wouldn’t dare attack.

    The popular anger over families losing their only child would be too hard for Xi and CCP leaders to handle, it is argued. But make them ‘heroes of the revolution’ and provide a house and a handsome pension- and complain about it and disappear.

    17.  Economic costs would be too high.

    Tough, yes, but Xi is sanctions-proofing the country. And he’s telling his people to toughen up and get ready for what’s coming. What is never discussed is the economic benefits that taking Taiwan and establishing the PRC’s global domination over the global trading system would mean for the PRC. It is always viewed in the negative…but they don’t consider that Xi and the CCP see it as a step towards economic supremacy.

    18.  The blow to China’s reputation will be too high.

    As if the CCP cares about its reputation. If the CCP doesn’t mind the flack that comes from taking organs out of live prisoners and selling them, the criticism from taking Taiwan won’t move the needle much. Nor is there likely to be much. Who is still talking about the subjugation of Tibet or the strangling of Hong Kong?

    19. Taiwan has a million reservists.

    999,000 of whom get about four days training a year.

    20.  Taiwan military and civilians will fight like tigers.

    Maybe. But the Taiwanese may not be the Ukrainians or the Finns, especially if outside support doesn’t come quickly.

    21.  Taiwan has mountains. Mountain combat is tough.

    Just too hard for the Chinese, it seems. However, selected PLA brigades train in the mountains annually and unless there is a war with India, they might be deployed to Taiwan after the beaches are secure.

    22.  Taiwan has cities. Urban combat is tough.

    The Americans, the Russians, and many others have figured out urban combat. But it’s too hard for the Chinese?

    23. The U.S. military has a qualitative superiority with its hardware, training, and experience.

    The French thought ‘elan’ would overcome the German Maxim guns in 1914. It didn’t. They also had faith in the fact their tanks were superior in 1940. And these days, America’s technological superiority is eroding almost daily.

    24.  The U.S. military calculated that taking Formosa from the Japanese in 1944/1945 would have been a herculean effort.

    True. But perhaps Xi thinks it’s worth it for him. And what he thinks matters. And it probably is worth more to the PRC and Xi these days than Formosa was to the U.S. in 1944/1945. Also, let’s not forget that our invasion force had to travel 1200nm to the invasion beaches on Taiwan versus 120nm for the PLA. We only had carriers for air support for the first week. Again, the PLA has the full strength of the Eastern and Southern Theater Command Air Forces as well as the PLARF (PLA Rocket Force). We had nothing to compare to the PLARF in 1944-45.

    25.  The American invasion of Sicily in 1943 was really hard…so the PLA can’t possibly do an invasion of Taiwan.

    Really. One fellow wrote a piece about this a few years ago.

    26.  The Japanese will step in.

    With what? And not if Japan’s business community and the ‘Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ ‘China club’ and the ‘political class’ China sympathizers have anything to say about it.

    These are all practical articles of faith for a sizeable chunk of the U.S. China analyst community. And they create  ‘threat deflation’ – as retired U.S. Navy Captain James Fanell and Dr. Bradley Thayer call it – that justifies complacency.

    It is of course possible that some combination of these reasons may dissuade Xi Jinping from attacking Taiwan. And nothing in war is easy – not least an assault across the Taiwan Strait.

    But one imagines a similar ‘bingo card’ could have been created to demonstrate why the Chinese wouldn’t or couldn’t attack across the Yalu River into Korea in 1950. It’s equally dangerous to underestimate the PRC in 2025.

    So, the United States has a choice: start acting like the threat to Taiwan (and to us) is immediate and not a couple years or more into the future – and move a lot faster.

    Or, if that’s too hard, just read and re-read reasons 1-26 until you are lulled into a comfortable stupor. No points for guessing which one Xi would prefer.

    Grant Newsham is a retired U.S. Marine officer and senior fellow at The Center for Security Policy, The Japan Forum for Strategic Studies, and The Yorktown Institute. He is the author of When China Attacks: A Warning to America.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 22:35

  • These Are The Airlines With The Most Flight Cancellations
    These Are The Airlines With The Most Flight Cancellations

    Dealing with last-minute flight cancellations is incredibly frustrating for travellers, whether they’re flying back home for the holidays, travelling for work, or trying to make it in time for Taylor Swift’s highly-coveted Eras Tour.

    Often times, cancellations are warranted due to unsafe flying conditions like dangerous weather, security concerns, or technical issues with aircraft.

    However, some cancellations are within the airline’s control, such as those caused by staffing shortages, scheduling conflicts, or maintenance delays that could have been managed with better planning.

    This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Kayla Zhu, shows the top 15 airlines with the highest flight cancellation rates and their total number of flights in 2024. The data comes from Cirium.

    Which Airlines Have the Highest Cancellation Rate?

    Below, we show the 15 airlines with the highest cancellation rates, their country of origin, and their total flights in 2024.

    Dana Air had the highest cancellation rate among airlines tracked by Cirium, largely due to its suspension in April 2024 by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority following a runway incident. As of January 2025, the airline remains grounded pending safety and financial audits.

    Most of the airlines with the highest cancellation rates are based in the Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa regions, with only one North American airline (Cape Air) and one European (Ural Airlines) among the list.

    In 2024, Ural Airlines was added to the European Union’s sanctions list for allegedly supporting Russia’s military operations in Ukraine by transporting military personnel and establishing a special ticket-selling scheme with the Russian ministry of defence.

    Smaller airlines that connect remote or island areas—such as Air Seychelles, Winair (Caribbean), Air Austral (Réunion and Indian Ocean islands), and Cape Air (U.S. and Caribbean)—often face higher cancellation rates due to challenges related to weather, infrastructure, and operational complexities.

    Indonesian airlines, such as Lion Air, Wings Air, and Batik Air, also grapple with similar challenges of operating across an archipelago of over 17,000 islands and frequent extreme weather conditions like monsoons and volcanic eruptions.

    To learn more about the best airlines in the world, check out this graphic that visualizes the most punctual airlines of 2024.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 22:10

  • No Free Pass: The Unintended Consequences Of Presidential Pardons
    No Free Pass: The Unintended Consequences Of Presidential Pardons

    Authored by Patrick Keeney via The Epoch Times,

    A presidential pardon is not a get-out-jail-free card. Those who receive presidential pardons face two significant hurdles.

    First, a presidential pardon only wipes the slate clean for federal crimes—it offers no shield against state or local charges. This gap in protection is precisely how Donald Trump found himself entangled in criminal cases across four jurisdictions: New York, Georgia, Florida, and the District of Columbia. Each of these jurisdictions operates independently beyond the reach of presidential clemency, underscoring the limits of federal immunity.

    Secondly, presidential pardons leave the door open to civil penalties. Federal or state governments, as well as private parties, can pursue restitution or damages through civil courts, even in the absence of criminal penalties. Individuals who receive pardons may still face a range of lawsuits and financial claims, including those initiated by the federal government.

    Ironically, receiving a pardon can heighten the risk of civil lawsuits and state or local prosecution. Pardons attract heightened scrutiny from the public and potential plaintiffs, including well-funded advocacy groups eager to pursue justice or restitution. Preemptive pardons, such as those issued by President Joe Biden, are especially prone to being viewed as implicit admissions of guilt, potentially intensifying the drive for civil litigation or state and local criminal prosecution.

    Moreover, since federal crimes are adjudicated in Washington, D.C. – a jurisdiction famous for its Democratic leanings – the chances of securing a conviction would be considerably diminished. Paradoxically, President Biden’s pardons have opened the door for cases to be pursued in courts where political leanings and public sentiment might be less sympathetic to the accused.

    But even if those pardoned avoid criminal charges, the U.S. government has robust mechanisms for recovering money or property obtained through illegal activities, such as bribery or fraud. These include civil remedies like claims of unjust enrichment, which allow the government or private parties to argue that an individual improperly benefited from unlawful actions and demand repayment.

    For instance, under the legal doctrine of unjust enrichment, courts can compel individuals to repay funds acquired through unlawful means, ensuring that financial accountability can still be pursued despite the absence of criminal penalties.

    Another potent tool at the government’s disposal is civil asset forfeiture. Unlike criminal forfeiture, which requires a criminal conviction, civil forfeiture targets the assets themselves rather than the individual. Moreover, unlike criminal law, where the government must prove its case “beyond a reasonable doubt,” civil forfeiture requires only a “preponderance of the evidence” to establish that the assets are connected to illegal activity. As a result, even individuals who have been pardoned can still have their assets seized if they are linked to the offences for which they were pardoned.

    Civil forfeiture has been used extensively in cases involving bribery, fraud, and other financial crimes. For instance, if an individual received bribes to secure a government contract, the funds or property obtained through those bribes could be subject to forfeiture, even if the individual is no longer criminally liable.

    The government’s arsenal also includes the False Claims Act (FCA) and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), both of which can be applied in civil cases. The FCA, for example, allows the government to sue individuals or companies that defraud federal programs and to recover treble damages—three times the amount of the loss—plus additional penalties. Similarly, RICO enables civil lawsuits when illegal activities, such as bribery, are part of a broader pattern of corruption.

    Individuals pardoned for offences involving government fraud or corruption may face these types of civil claims. The pardon does not shield them from such lawsuits, and the financial consequences can be devastating. In some cases, the government’s civil claims may dwarf the penalties the individual would have faced in a criminal court.

    Another significant risk for those pardoned is the potential for restitution and disgorgement orders. Courts may require individuals to return any profits gained from illegal or unethical activities, even if they have been pardoned for those activities. For example, a business executive who paid bribes to secure a lucrative government contract could be forced to repay all profits earned from that contract, regardless of the pardon.

    Numerous civil actions have been pursued against individuals who were previously pardoned. For instance, companies involved in international bribery under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act often face both criminal and civil enforcement actions, including demands to repay illegal profits. Public officials who accept bribes may be sued by state or federal governments to recover the funds.

    President Biden’s unprecedented use of the pardon power has placed those pardoned individuals under a legal microscope. State and local officials can pursue criminal charges, while the distinction between criminal and civil liability ensures the slate is never entirely wiped clean. Moreover, the lower standard of proof in civil cases makes it easier for plaintiffs to succeed. Unlike criminal trials, where guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, civil lawsuits only require proof by a balance of probabilities, making the pardoned individuals vulnerable to financial judgments.

    A presidential pardon is powerful but far from a free pass. By granting these pardons, President Biden may have inadvertently drawn attention to the recipients, signaling to potential plaintiffs, advocacy groups, and government agencies that now is the time to act. For those pardoned, the legal battles might only be starting.

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 21:45

  • U.S. Auto Safety Regulators Probe Nearly 900,000 GM Vehicles For Engine Failure
    U.S. Auto Safety Regulators Probe Nearly 900,000 GM Vehicles For Engine Failure

    Engine failures in almost 900,000 GM vehicles are being probed by the Feds, according to a new report from the New York Post.

    U.S. auto safety regulators are investigating 877,710 General Motors vehicles with L87 V8 engines, including the popular Silverado, following 39 complaints of sudden engine failure.

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said the failures occur without warning, posing a crash risk. The issue, linked to bearing failures, can cause the engine to seize or a connecting rod to breach the engine block.

    The Post writes that the preliminary investigation covers several General Motors models, including the 2019-2024 Chevrolet Silverado 1500, 2021-2024 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, 2019-2024 GMC Sierra 1500, 2021-2024 GMC Yukon and Yukon XL, and 2021-2024 Cadillac Escalade and Escalade ESV.

    In 2024, GM led U.S. auto sales with a 4.3% year-over-year increase, its best performance since 2019. The Silverado pickup was the second-best-selling vehicle in the country that year.

    Last month we wrote that GM may pivot to more buybacks and a renewed focus on an end to end AI in its vehicles. 

    Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu wrote in December that GM’s move to integrate its Cruise division into its core business will be welcomed by investors as GM can reallocate resources to its aggressive share buyback plan, aiming to reduce share count below 1 billion by early 2025, and prioritize investments in Level 3+ and Level 4 autonomy, which have quicker monetization potential.

    Yu also noted GM’s pivot in Cruise’s technology strategy, with the company now leveraging end-to-end AI models rather than its earlier rules-based approach, signaling a significant evolution in its autonomous vehicle efforts.

    Yu commented on GM’s decision to acquire the remaining 10% of Cruise and integrate its development under GM’s operations.

    The move shifts focus from costly robotaxi commercialization to advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), like Level 3 autonomy for consumer vehicles. GM cited the high cost of scaling robotaxis, potentially in the tens of billions, as a key reason for the pivot, deeming it a poor risk/reward investment.

    GM aims to complete the restructuring by early 2025, leading to annual savings of over $1 billion, reducing Cruise’s current $2 billion spend.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 21:20

  • How To Stop The BRICS Nations From Abandoning The Dollar
    How To Stop The BRICS Nations From Abandoning The Dollar

    Authored by Patrick Barron via The Mises Institute,

    The US government is aghast that there is a new grouping of nations that seeks to form an alternative to the US trade bloc and trade settlement system that uses the dollar. These nations have been driven to this extreme, time-consuming, and difficult project by clueless US leaders who have imposed sanctions on Russian assets (literally stealing them) and have denied Russia and other nations from using the SWIFT messaging system for trade settlement.

    In this way, the US hopes to preserve the dollar’s premier status as the world’s reserve currency and its world leadership based upon the dollar and its military might.

    I have a better, cheaper, and more peaceful way to accomplish these US goals (i.e., remove every incentive to leave). It’s as simple as that. At a minimum that means preserving the purchasing power of the dollar and ending the policy of confiscating the assets of other nations, even those with whom the US has serious disputes.

    In other words, end coercion and begin real world leadership based on trust and fair dealing.

    This will be a tall task, because what nation today would believe in America’s honesty, integrity, and commitment to international law? Nevertheless, it is the only way that the American-led West can find its place in a new world.

    There is a new world coming and the US must be a part of it if it wishes to prosper well into the future and not just through the current election cycle.

    Here’s a short list of actions that the US should consider adopting:

    1. Return all stolen assets to Russia and other nations.

    2. End blackballing Russia and other nations from using the SWIFT trade messaging system.

    3. Turn the ownership and running of SWIFT to neutral hands, perhaps the Swiss or some combination of nations that cannot be sanctioned by America.

    4. Stop inflating the dollar, which of course is the main cause of its loss of purchasing power, in order to balance an out-of-control budget.

    5. Return all gold held in American vaults (the New York Fed/Fort Knox) to its rightful owners as quickly as possible.

    6. Place the dollar on a true gold standard by shipping American gold to neutral hands where it can be exchanged on demand for dollars. In other words, make the dollar “as good as gold.” (This is the most difficult and contentious action, but it is the only way that the world will accept dollars in the future when there is an alternative through membership in BRICS.)

    American attempts to preserve its leadership status in the world will fail unless it enacts reforms such as these, which really are nothing more than behaving in a legal and honorable way.

    What American would not desire this? But who will believe that America will honor its commitments for the long term?

    That is why the SWIFT messaging system and its gold reserve must be placed in neutral hands abroad.

    We have destroyed our reputation and this is the price we must pay.

    Otherwise, we will watch one former ally after another slip away to join BRICS, which is certain to adopt protective measures for its participants so that no one nation, no matter how large and powerful, can game the system for its own unearned advantage.

    Real leadership is bestowed upon leaders by willing followers, not taken or preserved at the point of a gun.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 20:55

  • "Be A Good Democrat"… Or Else – NYC Mayor Says Biden Admin Tried To Silence Him Over Influx Of Illegals
    “Be A Good Democrat”… Or Else – NYC Mayor Says Biden Admin Tried To Silence Him Over Influx Of Illegals

    Embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that the Democratic Party “left” him and the working class behind, during an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that aired on Tuesday.

    “People often say, ‘You don’t sound like a Democrat. You seem to have left the party,’” Adams told Carlson.

    “No, the party left me, and it left working-class people.”

    Throughout the interview, Adams tied his indictment on bribery and corruption charges to his decision to speak out against the illegal immigrant surge in New York City.

    He claimed those who push back on “the norm” within the Democratic party get “demonized.”

    As Katabella Roberts reports for The Epoch Times, Adams was indicted in September 2024 on charges of taking bribes and illegal campaign contributions from foreign sources.

    The charges include accepting improper valuable benefits, including luxury international travel, from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him.

    The indictment alleges that Adams not only accepted but also sought out illegal campaign contributions to his 2021 mayoral campaign.

    The mayor has denied the allegations against him and pleaded not guilty to all charges.

    Adams told Carlson that he felt there were people within the “orbit” of the Justice Department under the Biden administration who felt he was “not a good Democrat” after he raised concerns about the “onslaught” of migrants into the city and various failed border policies.

    Those failed policies ultimately cost the city $6.5 billion in clothing, food, and accommodation for migrants, he said.

    The mayor also said former President Joe Biden and his aides had “basically” told him to “be a good Democrat” when he raised concerns over the alarming number of illegal immigrants arriving in the city and the impact it was having on the ground.

    “You know, one of [Biden’s] aids told me that, ‘Listen, this is like a gallstone, it’ll pass. It’ll hurt now, but it’ll pass,’” Adams said.

    Adams Attends Trump Inauguration

    Adams traveled to Florida last week to meet with then-President-elect Donald Trump, just days before the Republican was sworn into office for a second term.

    In a statement issued shortly after his visit, Adams described the meeting as a “productive conversation” that focused on the city’s needs and how the incoming administration could play a role in improving the lives of New Yorkers.

    The meeting came amid growing speculation that the mayor was seeking a possible pardon from the president for the corruption charges he is facing; something that Trump has signaled he is open to doing.

    Adams insisted that he and Trump did not discuss the mayor’s legal case during their meeting in Florida.

    On Monday, Adams also canceled various planned public appearances at Martin Luther King Jr. Day events across New York, opting instead to attend Trump’s inauguration.

    Dozens of recently arrived illegal immigrants camp outside of New York’s Roosevelt Hotel, which has been made into a reception center, as they try to secure temporary housing in New York City, on Aug. 1, 2023. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    That decision drew criticism from Brooklyn state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, who wrote on X that New Yorkers “deserve a Mayor who puts our city’s wellbeing above his own exoneration.”

    Elsewhere, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander wrote on X: “Imagine if Mayor Adams applied the same focus to making our city safer and bringing down our cost of living as he does to getting himself a pardon.”

    Adams defended attending Trump’s swearing-in ceremony in a statement on X, calling it a “sacred American tradition.”

    “Our country has been through so much, and every president has the honor and responsibility to protect and lead the American people,” he said.

    “On MLK Day, like Reverend Dr. King said, we must put partisan politics aside to do what’s best for our country.”

    The Democrat added that he believes much can be achieved by working alongside the new Trump administration to “support our city’s values and fight for New Yorkers.”

    Adams is seeking reelection in June.

    A Manhattan judge has scheduled his legal trial to start in April.

    *  *  *

    Watch the full interview with Tucker Carlson below:

    (0:00) Eric Adams’ Indictment Is Ridiculous
    (6:04) How Biden Destroyed New York With Immigration
    (17:27) What Do New Yorkers Think About the Illegal Immigrants?
    (19:10) Pressing Adams on His Sanctuary City Policy
    (22:36) How Illegal Immigration Is Fueling America’s Labor Crisis
    (29:43) How to Clean Up New York
    (37:55) Did Eric Adams Leave the Democrat Party?
    (40:34) Will Adams Go to Jail?
    (41:32) Adams’ Conversation With Donald Trump
    (45:54) America’s Mental Health Crisis

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

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 20:30

  • Geography's Revenge
    Geography’s Revenge

    Authored by Christopher Roach via American Greatness,

    Over the last few weeks, Trump has raised a lot of eyebrows by suggesting that our country should annex Greenland, invite Canada to join as the 51st state, and seek the return of the Panama Canal. Together, these remarks signal a break from prevailing norms and a plan to consolidate America’s dominant position in the Western Hemisphere.

    Like much of what Trump does, it all seems cheeky, but only at first glance. Even if these maximalist positions do not prevail, they form an anchor for negotiations. Trump is actively seeking to expand U.S. influence over strategically significant regions within our immediate vicinity.

    A new order is emerging where regions and their shifting balances of power are the dominant force in the world, rather than conflicts between mere nation-states. Among these competing regions, Europe, under the institutions of the EU, is becoming an economic and political force in its own right, often sidelining the U.S. Unlike NATO, we are not a member of the EU, and it provides space for Europe to assert its own collective interests as distinct from our own.

    The BRICS consortium is also gaining power and becoming a viable node of international power, while China is making inroads to consolidate its own influence over Eurasia through its “Belt and Road Initiative.” China also maintains robust commercial ties with Africa and Latin America. Russia, of course, has been asserting its own sovereignty over the former Soviet Union in Georgia, Ukraine, and among the various Stans.

    The U.S. is no longer as powerful as it once was in relative terms. We have done a lot on autopilot in recent years, continuing to assert our prerogatives as if the rest of the world has not taken notice of the humiliations in Afghanistan, Niger, and the Red Sea. Our adversaries and competitors are reevaluating things from a realist perspective, and we should as well, abandoning outmoded ideas about friends, enemies, and our own capabilities.

    After the Cold War, for a time, we were the most powerful, but this led to a failure to set any priorities. National security strategy documents consisted of meaningless word salad without any intelligent effort to rank threats or connect one activity with another.

    From the end of the Cold War to the present, seemingly archaic concerns for resources, strategic geography, and the enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine were dismissed as artifacts of a “revisionist” 19th-century mindset. As in much else, it turns out that our Founders were wise beyond measure. One of our enduring security advantages is separation from the rest of the world and protection by two huge oceans. Even in the nuclear era, the Atlantic and the Pacific protect our country from any conventional attack.

    As President Monroe rightly perceived, these advantages would come to naught if Europe or other foreign adversaries could creep up to our doorstep by meddling with our neighbors, developing and expanding military bases through colonization, or otherwise hurting our good and dominant relations over the Western Hemisphere.

    While not formally developing colonies, recent developments mimic their strategic impact. China has increased its infrastructure investments in Latin America, and Chinese companies now control the Panama Canal, one of the most strategically important locations on earth. The risk presented by a rising China, which was ignored during the Bush and Obama presidencies, is now taken for granted as an obvious geopolitical reality after Trump changed American policy.

    This is an example of one of his great strengths: despite his alleged simplicity, he often perceives big truths that are lost on the experts. The big truth embedded in his recent remarks is that we live in a dangerous world with finite resources and must conduct ourselves accordingly. Thus, he sees that our friendships with EU and NATO countries are overrated and likely to be undone as the zero-sum game of securing supplies of natural resources and access to strategic geography gains momentum.

    Talk of taking Greenland and Canada may alienate Denmark and the EU, but this is an unavoidable cost of renegotiating our relationships with these places in order to maintain military and commercial dominance over the Western Hemisphere. Greenland permits control of the North Atlantic. Canada has endless supplies of fossil fuels, to which the EU is seeking to gain preferred access. Trump is willing to strong-arm Europe on these issues because he knows that our interests are diverging.

    Trump’s endorsement of a muscular foreign policy focusing on the Western Hemisphere may seem at odds with his broader America First position. But the reality is quite the opposite. America First foreign policy is not isolationist; rather, it sets priorities based on the big truths about the nature of the world as described above.

    America First seeks to secure tangible goods that benefit actual Americans, such as safety, prosperity, access to resources and markets, and protection from foreign attack. This contrasts with abstract and utopian goals like “protecting democracy” or the reflexive continuation of yesteryear’s commitments, such as with NATO.

    Our ancestors first conquered a land empire in furtherance of our national interest and at the exact moment that the frontier was conquered, they flexed their muscles against Spanish power in the Western Hemisphere. This was the first step to a truly global maritime empire. In recent times, the overseas maritime empire has predominated, while the heartland, our borders, and local issues that directly impact us, such as violence from Mexico’s drug cartels, have been completely neglected. Our legacy policy is not merely idealism but a suicidal anti-idealism, an America Last foreign policy.

    The overseas empire is a plaything of the ruling class and the permanent bureaucracy. In addition to fulfilling their quest for meaning and significance, it redirects substantial national wealth to officials, along with the military-industrial complex, and innumerable lobbyists. It is not so clear that this activity does anything to benefit ordinary Americans.

    What happens in our own backyard is more important than what happens in Eastern Europe, the South China Sea, and parts in between. Resources and their scarcity have always been important, and they will be more so in the future. We cannot do all the things all the time. Trump’s bid to shore up our naturally dominant position in the Western Hemisphere is a smart play.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 20:05

  • Our 101 Trillion Dollar Problem: This Is The Number One Tool The Elite Use To Enslave Us
    Our 101 Trillion Dollar Problem: This Is The Number One Tool The Elite Use To Enslave Us

    Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,

    Right now, a tremendous awakening is happening as people all over the world become educated about the tools that the elite use to enslave us to their system.  The number one tool that they use to enslave us is debt.  The financial powers of the world use it to enslave individuals, corporations and governments.  For thousands of years humanity has been taught the proverb that “the borrower is the servant of the lender”, and yet today billions of people around the globe have willingly made themselves servants of the money powers.  You see, when you borrow money from a financial institution, you not only have to pay that money back, but you also have to pay a significant amount of interest.  In fact, often the interest ends up being much more than the principal of the loan.  Thus the borrower ends up devoting a great deal of his or her labor to earning money for the lender.  Yes, there are times when it is necessary to borrow money.  But what we have been doing over the last 30 years goes far beyond “necessary” borrowing.  The fact that the U.S. government is now 36 trillion dollars in debt gets a lot of attention, but the truth is that state and local governments, corporations, and U.S. households have piled up enormous mountains of debt as well.

    I want to show you a chart from the Federal Reserve that is hard to believe.

    In the mid-90s, the total amount of debt in the system was about 20 trillion dollars, but now we have reached the 101 trillion dollar mark…

    The word “insanity” does not even begin to describe what we have been doing to ourselves.

    It takes a lot of really hard work to add 80 trillion dollars of debt in just 30 years.

    Every time we pile up more debt, there is a winner and there is a loser.

    Debt strips you of your freedom and slowly drains you of your wealth.  It puts the fruits of your labor into the pockets of others.

    That is true for individuals, and it is true for a nation as a whole.

    Getting others enslaved by debt is how the most powerful financial institutions in the world became so dominant.  It is one of the most profitable ways of making money ever invented.

    What many people don’t realize is just how much interest they end up paying on some of their debts.

    For example, if you go to mortgagecalculator.org, you can calculate the amount of interest that you will pay over the life of your home mortgage.  According to that calculator, someone with a $400,000 mortgage at an interest rate of 6.98% over 30 years will end up paying $556,102.18 in interest before the mortgage is finally paid off.

    When those 30 years are over, you will have bought a house for yourself and you will also have bought a house for the bankers.

    So what should we do?

    We need to stop feeding the monster.

    They are getting insanely wealthy by financially enslaving all the rest of us.

    Unfortunately, many Americans find themselves deep in debt because the cost of living has been rising faster than our paychecks have.

    One of the great joys that men in free societies have long enjoyed is the ability to earn an honest wage for an honest day of work.  In particular, the amazing capitalist engine that powered the U.S. economy for decade after decade greatly rewarded the incredible hard work and industriousness of the American people.  America was known as the land of opportunity, and we built the largest middle class in the history of the world by working incredibly hard.

    Unfortunately, things have changed.

    Thanks to globalization and extremely rapid advances in technology, the labor of U.S. workers is rapidly losing value.  Automation, robotics and AI have made many jobs obsolete.  In addition, American workers now must compete against workers from all over the world.  Global corporations often find themselves having to choose whether to build a factory in the United States or in the third world.  But in the third world workers often earn less than 10 percent of what American workers earn, corporations are often not required to provide any benefits to those workers, and there are often very few oppressive government regulations to contend with.

    How can American workers compete against that?

    The truth is that labor is now a global commodity.  It is exceedingly difficult for a worker in the United States to effectively compete with a desperate, half-starving worker in the third world that will work like mad for two dollars an hour.

    But this is what we get for letting our politicians push “free trade” down our throats.

    Most American workers had no idea that free trade would mean that they would suddenly be competing for jobs against workers in the Philippines and Malaysia.

    But this is the cold, hard reality of globalism.

    Of course the top executives at the big global corporations are certainly enjoying this new environment, because their salaries have soared.

    In 1950, the ratio of the average executive’s paycheck to the average worker’s paycheck was about 30 to 1.

    Now it is 268 to 1.

    The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

    That is what globalism is all about.

    The elite make out like bandits as they exploit third world labor pools, while the American middle class finds itself slowly being crushed out of existence.

    Our system has been designed to funnel nearly all of the rewards to the very top.  Meanwhile, the vast majority of Americans are left wondering why things just don’t ever seem to work out for them.

    If you talk to many Americans, they just can’t seem to figure out why they can’t make things work out even though they are working as hard as they can.  Millions of Americans have found themselves taking on second or even third jobs in a desperate attempt to provide for their families.

    Sadly, things just keep getting worse with each passing year.

    As I have discussed in previous articles, demand at food banks is at an all-time high, homelessness in the U.S. is at an all-time high, and homelessness in the U.S. is growing at the fastest pace ever recorded.

    But there are elitists out there that are still attempting to claim that the U.S. economy is in great shape.

    Of course most of us aren’t buying the propaganda anymore, and that is one of the primary reasons why the election turned out the way that it did.

    We need to return to an economy where good workers are valued and where hard work is rewarded.

    We need to return to an economy where having a large middle class is an important national goal.

    We need to return to an economy where we build American businesses, where we hire American workers, and where we buy American products.

    But unless the American people wake up, American workers are going to continue to be devalued.

    And if you think that things are bad now, just wait until AI starts taking millions of our jobs.

    Are we just going to sit back and let American living standards decline to third world standards, or are we going to do something about it?

    Perhaps the greatest victims of the economic nightmare that is unfolding right in front of our eyes are our children.

    The overall economic numbers are really bad, but when you examine the impact that this economy is having on children things get really horrifying.  Today, 16 percent of U.S. children live in poverty and 14 million U.S. children are on food stamps.

    It has been estimated that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point before they reach the age of 18.

    We were once the most prosperous nation on the entire planet.

    How could we let this happen?

    Meanwhile, the rich have gotten even richer.

    In 2009, there were 8 million millionaires in the United States.

    Now there are 22 million.

    If everyone was becoming wealthier, that would be great.  Unfortunately, the poor have been left with an increasingly smaller slice of the pie to divide among themselves.

    At this point, the bottom 50 percent of Americans control just 2.5 percent of the wealth.

    I have been ranting about all of this for over a decade, and yet conditions have just continued to deteriorate year after year.

    We can’t have an economy that works for the top 10 percent but that sucks the life out of the bottom 90 percent.

    Our debt-based financial system needs to be fundamentally reformed, and it is time for us to demand action.

    *  *  *

    Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 19:40

  • Democrats Can't Bully Their Way To A Free Pass
    Democrats Can’t Bully Their Way To A Free Pass

    Authored by Kevin M. Spivak via RealClearPolicy,

    I believe in restraint, tradition, decorum, and the precepts of our system of criminal justice: deterrence, punishment, and retribution. Turning the other cheek accomplishes none of these. Joe Biden’s last-minute pardons for his family, and his unprecedented preemptive pardons for members and staff of the January 6 Committee, Anthony Fauci, and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Milley, underscore the necessity for Congress and Donald Trump’s Justice Department to perform their duties to investigate crime.

    The Supreme Court made clear in Burdick v. United States (1915) that the “confession of guilt implied in the acceptance of a pardon” may be avoided only by rejecting it. In December, the Biden Justice Department advised a federal judge that January 6 defendants hoping for a pardon from soon-to-be President Trump “would first have to accept the pardon, which necessitates a confession of guilt.”

    The Biden administration and its proxies engaged in the unrestricted, weaponized use of our justice system to take down the leading Republican candidate for president and his family, supporters and advisors, as well as Christians, conservatives, and pro-life activists. They censored, investigated, humiliated, intimidated, arrested, indicted, and jailed their political opponents using long-abandoned, novel, and manifestly flawed legal theories.

    Democrats express horror that the Trump Justice Department might investigate whether laws were broken by officials who engaged in these tactics. They angrily assert that if the Trump administration exacts “retribution” it would endanger civil liberties and tear asunder the fabric of our justice system.

    This reminds me of bullies who strike a classmate and then recoil, wag a finger at the victim, and warn him that he better not hit back.

    After ignoring billions of dollars in damage and dozens of deaths caused by violent rioters on the left, the Biden administration terrorized and pursued nearly 1,600 Americans, many with only scant connection to the January 6 demonstrations, jailing some who never entered the Capitol. Trump advisors Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon were imprisoned for refusing to testify before the House January 6 Committee – the first such prosecutions in 65 years. FBI agents targeted parents for advocating conservative values at school board meetings, as well as pro-life advocates and Catholic churches.

    The White House and Biden prosecutors coordinated an unconstitutional and unlawful attack on Trump and his supporters. Jack Smith was appointed as special prosecutor, despite never having received Senate confirmation as required by the Appointments Clause (Article II, § 2). He prosecuted Trump and his associates for keeping classified documents, though no other former president had ever been charged for doing the same, and used statutes intended for the Ku Klux Klan and for evidence-tampering and financial crimes to bring a lawless case against Trump for lobbying against ratification of 2020 election. The cases were dismissed, with the latter case decimated when the Supreme Court held that a president is immune from prosecution for official acts. Contrary to its policies, the Justice Department then issued scathing reports, in which Smith proclaimed that Trump would have been convicted. Who needs trials or juries?

    Matthew Colangelo left the third-ranking position in the Biden Justice Department to concoct sham fraud cases against Trump in New York. Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump and his children liable for “civil fraud,” imposed a $455 million fine, and stripped Trump of his New York businesses, even though there was no fraud, victim, or losses. Colangelo, district attorney Alvin Bragg, and Judge Juan Merchan mangled New York law, convincing a jury to find Trump guilty of 34 felony counts for his private check stubs and legal payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

    Hired by his lover, Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis, to lead an abusive Georgia RICO case against Trump and 18 others, Nathan Wade spent at least 16 hours in the White House developing the strategy. Democratic elected officials declared Trump an “insurrectionist,” and for the first time in American history, tried to throw a major party candidate off the ballot. The Supreme Court unanimously rejected this travesty.

    More than 100 Trump family members, supporters, and advisors were indicted or targeted in these cases. At least 10 Trump lawyers face disbarment and other financially devastating discipline, including Rudy Guliani and John Eastman.

    There is compelling evidence that many of these actions constitute conspiracies to injure, oppress, threaten, intimidate, and abuse power under color of authority, subjecting officials to criminal and civil liability pursuant to 18 U.S. Code §241 and § 245, 42 U.S. Code § 1983, and other federal and state laws and regulations.

    Trump says that success will be his retribution. Attorney General nominee Pat Biondi testified during her confirmation hearing that she will not pursue retribution. Some commentators whom I greatly respect argue that to restore normalcy, the Trump administration should move on.

    I disagree.

    “Retribution” would mean doing what the Biden administration did – stretching laws to improperly pursue political opponents. I agree that that should never happen.

    But anyone involved in the weaponization of our justice system who accepts a Biden pardon should be hauled before congressional committees, federal investigators, and grand juries so we can learn the truth. The pardon will strip them of their right to avoid self-incrimination. Any witness who fails to testify fully and honestly should be prosecuted for obstruction of justice, perjury, and other appropriate crimes.

    Other officials involved in lawfare who broke no laws that are traditionally prosecuted should be subject to appropriate discipline. But any official who broke laws that are historically prosecuted should be held to account for lives ruined, as well as the assault on democracy.

    Doing this will restore normalcy.

    Kenin M. Spivak is founder and chairman of SMI Group LLC, an international consulting firm and investment bank. He is the author of fiction and non-fiction books and a frequent speaker and contributor to media, including The American Mind, National Review, the National Association of Scholars, television, radio, and podcasts.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 19:15

  • Lab-Grown-Meat Backlash Builds As More States Say 'No' To Bill Gates' Fake-Food
    Lab-Grown-Meat Backlash Builds As More States Say ‘No’ To Bill Gates’ Fake-Food

    Two states, Florida and Alabama, have banned lab-grown meat for consumption, while three others have proposed similar restrictions on the controversial 3D-printed meat. Additionally, ten states now mandate labeling of lab-grown meat. Meanwhile, the rest of the US has no regulations governing fake meat. 

    Source: Bloomberg NEF 

    In the era of Trump 2.0, the “Make America Healthy Again” initiative aims to promote nutritious, clean, and natural food—rejecting not just science experiment foods funded by woke billionaires like Bill Gates but also toxic processed foods.  

    On Monday, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced a new legislative proposal to ban lab-grown meat from being produced in or sold in stores across the Cornhusker State. 

    “It’s important we get on the offense so that Nebraska farmers and ranchers are not undermined,” Pillen told reporters at a news conference.

    Under Trump’s second term, we believe the backlash to lab-grown meat will only supercharge from here as a growing number of states will issue proposed legislation to ban the science experiment meat. 

    When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis banned fake meat from supermarket shelves in early 2024, he said his state was “taking action to stop the World Economic Forum’s goal of forcing the world to eat lab-grown meat and insects.”

    DeSantis also said, “Take your fake lab-grown meat elsewhere,” adding, “We’re not doing that in the state of Florida.”

    Recall that billionaires like Bill Gates and the World Economic Forum have pushed a dystopic nightmare across the world in their attempt to reset the global food supply, one where the world eats insects and highly processed fake food. 

    Under the guise of ‘climate change’ … Gates wants to “work towards artificial meat.” 

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    An alternative to this dystopic nightmare is real, clean food. Trump nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and has outlined plans for the most significant transformation of America’s food system—a sweeping effort known as “Make America Healthy Again.”

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    Say “No” to insects and fake food pushed by radical billionaires and WEF. Say “Yes” to real, clean food from small farms. It’s time to reclaim the food supply chain from mega-corporations and return control to mom-and-pop farmers. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 18:50

  • US Will Likely Stop Buying Oil From Venezuela: Trump
    US Will Likely Stop Buying Oil From Venezuela: Trump

    Authored by Owen Evans via The Epoch Times,

    President Donald Trump said on Jan. 20 that his administration would likely stop buying oil from Venezuela.

    “It was a great country 20 years ago, and now it’s a mess,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, hours after his inauguration.

    “We don’t have to buy their oil. We have plenty of oil for ourselves.”

    Trump on Monday laid out a plan to maximize U.S. oil and gas production, including by declaring a national energy emergency. He also signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Accord.

    Venezuela holds the largest proven crude oil reserves in the world, with more than 300 billion barrels as of the end of 2023, according to OPEC.

    U.S. crude oil imports from Venezuela slumped in 2019 when the United States imposed sanctions on Venezuelan state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela.

    Expanded sanctions imposed by the first Trump administration in 2019 significantly restricted Venezuela’s oil industry. The Biden administration later eased some restrictions, maintaining company-specific licenses that allowed companies such as Chevron to operate under limited conditions in Venezuela.

    The United States eased sanctions in November 2022 when The Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces economic and trade sanctions, granted waivers to Chevron.

    In April 2024, the United States reimposed oil sanctions on Venezuela over election concerns.

    Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in on Jan. 10 after a contentious election.

    Opposition leader María Corina Machado called Maduro’s inauguration a “coup d’état” and a violation of the nation’s constitution.

    The Chinese Communist Party has been a supporter of Maduro. In a July 2024 statement, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said, “China will, as always, firmly support Venezuela’s efforts to safeguard sovereignty, national dignity, and social stability.”

    On Jan. 15, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), now secretary of state, said the United States should reconsider Chevron’s sanctions waiver that allows the oil company to operate.

    “The Biden administration has allowed oil to flow. [Maduro] stole the election, completely violated what Biden told him he would do,” he said.

    He said that Venezuela “sadly, is not governed by government.”

    “It’s governed by a narco-trafficking organization that has empowered itself of a nation state. And we have seen, I believe, upwards of seven, eight, nine million Venezuelans have just left the country, more are expected to leave,” he said.

    ‘New President’s Unpredictability’

    Tamas Varga, an oil analyst at PVM Oil Associates, told the Epoch Times that OPEC, with its massive spare capacity, “could easily replace lost Venezuelan barrels.”

    OPEC consists of 12 member countries: Venezuela, Algeria, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

    Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks during the swearing-in ceremony at Palacio Federal Legislativo in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 10, 2025. Alfredo Lasry R/Getty Images

    Varga said that sanctions on Venezuela must be viewed through the prism of the Biden administration’s sanction package on Russia’s shadow fleet, which impacts Venezuelan exports.

    On Jan. 10 the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on 183 vessels that have shipped Russian oil, many of which are in the so-called shadow fleet of aging tankers operated by non-Western companies.

    “If reversed, Venezuelan oil will keep flowing, most likely to China and Iran,” he said.

    If the sanctions stay, he said, the impact on the global oil balance will be minimal. Varga said that whether U.S. oil and gas production grows or not will be more of the “function of market economics than Trump.”

    He added that if the dollar remains strong during Trump’s presidency, it will make oil more expensive in other currencies and consequently lower demand.

    “When we draw a line here, we conclude that the current snapshot is unfavorable for oil prices and at the same time acknowledge that given the new president’s unpredictability, the picture could change swiftly,” Varga said.

    A spokeswoman for Chevron told The Epoch Times that Chevron “conducts its business in Venezuela in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.”

    “We have been a constructive presence in Venezuela for over a century, where we have dedicated investments and a large workforce,” she said. “We remain committed to the safety and wellbeing of our employees and their families, the integrity of our joint venture assets, and the company’s social and humanitarian programs that continue to positively impact the lives of Venezuelans.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 18:25

  • Trump Begins Deep State Purge At DOJ
    Trump Begins Deep State Purge At DOJ

    President Donald Trump has begun delivering on a central promise of his historic 2024 campaign by removing officials who obstruct his America First agenda.

    Numerous top officials have been fired at the Department of Justice’s Executive Office of Immigration Review, which oversees the country’s immigration courts, NBC News reports. The firings, which occurred late Monday evening, include the following officials: chief immigration judge, Sheila McNulty; the acting director of the Executive Office of Immigration Review, Mary Cheng; the office’s general counsel, Jill Anderson; and its head of policy, Lauren Alder Reid, the news outlet noted.

    Reid told the outlet that she was ‘severely disappointed’ that nobody gave her a heads up.

    “My career Senior Executive Service colleagues and I are shocked and severely disappointed in the decision to remove us from our positions without notice or cause,” she bitterly told NBC News. “We have dedicated our careers to upholding the rule of law, regardless of the administration. Our continued pursuit of justice will not be diminished.”

    The terminated officials were all civil servants, not political appointees.

    Additionally, some DOJ officials were reassigned to different roles within the agency, sources familiar with the developments told the Associated Press. Bruce Swartz, veteran head of the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, has been shifted to another job – while George Toscas, a longtime deputy assistant attorney general in the National Security Division, was reassigned. Toscas played roles in both former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information and Trump’s classified documents probe.

    Nearly two dozen officials have been moved to new roles, AP said.

    Trump, who recently faced twin (now closed) investigations from Biden-DOJ-appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith, vowed through his latest White House campaign to “demolish the ‘deep state.”

    “We will expel the warmongers from our government. We will drive out the globalists. We will cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists. We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country,” Trump pledged in Windham, New Hampshire in a 2023 speech.

    Nonetheless, Trump’s efforts to improve the DOJ is already being met with resistance and chicanery from the Left.  

    The Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed the confirmation hearing for attorney general nominee Pam Bondi by one week due to an unnamed Democrat lawmaker. The hearing, originally planned to advance Bondi’s nomination for a full Senate vote, has been rescheduled for January 29th.

    Bondi, who served as Florida’s first female Attorney General, has vowed to restore a “one tier of justice for all” if confirmed to lead the DOJ. 

    “My overriding objective will be to return the Department of Justice to its core mission of keeping Americans safe and vigorously prosecuting criminals, and that includes getting back to basics, gangs, drugs, terrorists, cartels, our border and our foreign adversaries,” she testified during her confirmation process. “I believe we are on the cusp of a new golden age where the Department of Justice can and will do better if I am confirmed.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 18:00

  • CCP Cyberattacks Stoke Calls To Beef Up Western Counterespionage
    CCP Cyberattacks Stoke Calls To Beef Up Western Counterespionage

    Authored by Venus Upadhayaya via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The Chinese regime’s cyberespionage campaign will likely become more sophisticated in targeting key adversaries in 2025, particularly the United States, experts have warned. The situation calls for collaborative counteroperations among Quad alliance partners—the United States, India, Japan, and Australia. These nations are targeted by Beijing, but several gaps currently impede their collective efforts, analysts said.

    Kacper Pempel/Reuters

    In the past several weeks, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hackers have been in the headlines.

    The latest disclosure came on Jan. 8, as Japan linked more than 200 cyberattacks over the past five years to CCP hacking group MirrorFace. Japan detailed the group’s tactics and called on government agencies and businesses to reinforce preventive measures.

    Those cyberattacks targeted Japan’s foreign and defense ministries and its space agency. Politicians, journalists, private companies, and think tanks were also attacked.

    Early last month, CCP cyberattackers hacked into the U.S. Treasury Department’s workstations remotely and stole documents.

    In the breach, described as a “major incident” by the Treasury Department, Chinese regime-backed hackers compromised a third-party software service provider, Beyond Trust, and accessed unclassified documents.

    The December incident happened amid cybersecurity breaches by another Beijing-backed hacking group, Salt Typhoon, which has been involved in a cyberespionage campaign since 2022. These attacks have already affected nine telecom companies, including Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies.

    Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, highlighted the geopolitical context of Beijing’s increasing cyberespionage in a Jan. 15 blog post titled “Strengthening America’s Resilience Against the PRC Cyber Threats.”

    “A crisis in Asia, precipitated by an invasion of Taiwan or a blockade of the Taiwan Strait, could have very real consequences for the safety and security of American citizens here at home,” Easterly wrote.

    Such an invasion, she wrote, could be followed by disruptive attacks against “everything, everywhere, all at once.” Those attacks could hit transportation nodes, telecommunications services, power grids, water facilities, “and likely much more,” she wrote.

    According to Easterly, the CCP’s goal in such a campaign would be “inducing societal panic and deterring our ability to marshal military might and citizen will to expend American blood and treasure in defense of Taiwan.”

    Neehar Pathare, CEO of 63SATS, a cybersecurity company that stated it has thwarted 20 million attacks on its platforms in the past two decades, told The Epoch Times that state-sponsored attackers often infiltrate systems stealthily, waiting for opportune moments to strike.

    According to Pathare, Taiwanese government departments in 2024 faced 2.4 million cyberattacks daily, predominantly from the Chinese regime.

    “China’s state-affiliated cyber operations focus on intellectual property theft and strategic espionage, aiming for long-term access,” Pathare said. “Increased investments in cyber ranges and critical infrastructure signal China’s readiness for future disruptions, posing risks to India, the U.S., and Europe.”

    He cited the hacking group RedEcho, which was linked to CCP military intelligence and was responsible for targeting India’s power grid after 2020’s bloody Galwan conflict between Indian and Chinese regime troops.

    Cyberthreats to Quad Nations

    Microsoft’s 2024 Digital Defense Report highlights the need for the Quad nations to come up with robust joint counterespionage operations.

    According to the report, “The United States is consistently among the countries most impacted by the nation-state cyber threat activity that Microsoft observes.”

    In the Indo-Pacific, India is the third most targeted country, after Taiwan and South Korea. Australia is the sixth most targeted, while Japan is the eighth most targeted.

    “This past year, nation-state affiliated threat actors once again demonstrated that cyber operations—whether for espionage, destruction, or influence—play a persistent supporting role in broader geopolitical conflicts,” the report states.

    The United States continues to be one of the countries most affected by nation-affiliated cyberattacks.

    Easterly wrote that Beijing’s “sophisticated and well-resourced cyber program” is a threat to the United States’ critical infrastructure, including power grids and gas pipelines.

    According to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the hackers target 16 critical infrastructure sectors linked with digital infrastructure.

    Thirty-three percent of the overall CCP threat activity was aimed at the United States. East Asia and the Pacific received 39 percent of the onslaught, while South Asia received 4 percent, according to the Microsoft report.

    Nishakant Ojha, a senior adviser to the Washington-based Global Policy Institute and an expert in cyberaerospace and national securities, told The Epoch Times that the Chinese regime’s Ministry of State Security plays a central role in orchestrating its cyberespionage campaign. It often hires contractors to conduct cyberintrusions.

    “Looking ahead to 2025, China’s cyber capabilities are expected to become increasingly sophisticated,” Ojha said. “The integration of artificial intelligence into cyber operations is anticipated to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of cyber espionage activities.”

    He said that innovation in Chinese cybertechnologies will likely create new targets and new startups for developing such technologies.

    According to Ojha, the Chinese regime’s military goals for 2025 include enhancing military capabilities, heightening military exercises near Taiwan, cyberwarfare and cyberespionage, strategic military planning, and regional power projection. The aim is to gain military supremacy in the Indo-Pacific and challenge the United States and its partners in the region.

    “These developments suggest that by 2025, [China’s military] will be better equipped and more assertive, potentially destabilizing regional security dynamics and increasing the likelihood of military confrontations,” Ojha said. Cyberespionage campaigns will be part and parcel of these confrontations.

    Counteroperations by Quad

    According to experts, the emerging and heightened geopolitical situation facing the Quad countries requires that they strengthen collective cyber counteroperations.

    Pathare cited the Quad’s set of guiding principles aimed at enhancing the development of critical infrastructure cybersecurity, supply chain risk management, software security, and workforce development.

    The Quad’s senior cybergroup also announced the continuation of the alliance’s “cyber challenge” in October 2024. The theme of the current challenge is “promoting cybersecurity education and building a strong workforce” in the Indo-Pacific. The challenge was launched last year to “promote responsible cyber habits across [Quad partners’] nations, regions, and beyond,” the State Department stated at the time.

    Satoru Nagao, a nonresident fellow at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, told The Epoch Times that cybersecurity comes under the aegis of national security cooperation. While the Quad is not a military alliance, its leaders have emphasized the military aspects of their partnership.

    In some areas, military cooperation has also progressed, he said. This obviously has geopolitical undertones.

    All four Quad countries are also involved in various military exercises involving each other. Thus, joint cyber counteroperations are feasible and attractive to them, according to the Tokyo-based expert.

    “One of the purposes of the Quad is to cooperate with India,” Nagao said. “Because India is the main supplier of software, this area is an attractive area of cooperation for the other three countries with India.”

    He said that cybercooperation has wider potential, including for software development, cyberdomain awareness, and cyberwarfare.

    The joint statement of the Quad 2024 summit highlights the need for protecting critical infrastructure from increasing cyberthreats.

    “We plan to coordinate joint efforts to identify vulnerabilities, protect national security networks, and critical infrastructure networks, and coordinate more closely including on policy responses to significant cyber security incidents affecting the QUAD’s shared priorities,” the joint statement reads.

    Nagao said the statement highlights that cybersecurity cooperation is part of the wider matrix of cooperation between Quad nations.

    According to Pathare, new rules mandate that attacks be immediately acknowledged and reported. This can help identify threats in a timely manner and enable swift countermeasures.

    “Economic penalties and cyber countermeasures should be aligned to deter aggressive state actors effectively,” he said.

    Ojha said that despite growing cooperation, several gaps hinder a joint effective counterespionage strategy. These gaps, he said, include a historical lack of trust in intelligence sharing and asymmetric cybercapabilities among the four nations. The United States leads in infrastructure development, while India is still working on its framework.

    Other hindering factors include diverging legal and policy frameworks, gaps in resources and technology, and differences in strategic priorities.

    “Addressing these bottlenecks requires building mutual trust, harmonizing legal frameworks, closing capability gaps through capacity-building initiatives, and fostering equitable technological collaboration,” Ojha said.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 17:40

  • Massive New Fire Explodes North Of LA, Spreading Rapidly Along I-5
    Massive New Fire Explodes North Of LA, Spreading Rapidly Along I-5

    A massive new fire is spreading rapidly north of Los Angeles, threatening Interstate 5, one of California’s main transportation arteries.

    The Hughes Fire started just before 11 a.m. local time and quickly spread to more than 5,000 acres, spurring evacuation orders around Castaic Lake in northern Los Angeles County.

    All lane of the I-5 highway are now closed just north of SR-126 in the evacuation area and the critical link between northern and southern California is affected by heavy smoke.

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    Cal Fire said there was “an immediate threat to life”, with many already speculating that the latest fire was not spontaneous but is the product of arson The reservoir is about 45 miles from Pacific Palisades, where a devastating fire killed 11 people, destroyed more than 6,380 structures and damaged another 867 since it ignited about two weeks ago.

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

    In a post on X, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said the county’s fire department is “deploying our aerial fleet to knock this out as quickly as possible.”

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

    They will have their cut out for them: according to the National Weather Service, winds are gusting to 37 miles per hour just to the north of the fire. A red flag warning issued from the National Weather Service said wind gusts of 35 to 50 mph will be common over much of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, ensuring a rapid spread.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 17:20

  • Fetterman Votes With Republicans To Advance Hegseth, Says He Won't Switch To GOP
    Fetterman Votes With Republicans To Advance Hegseth, Says He Won’t Switch To GOP

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) voted on Jan. 21 with Republicans to advance the nomination of Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump’s choice for defense secretary, but said that he will not switch to the Republican Party.

    Sen. John Fetterman arrives at the Capitol ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump, on Jan. 20, 2025. Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Getty Images

    Fetterman was the only member of the Democratic Party to join Republicans in passing a motion to proceed with Hegseth’s nomination. Every other Democrat who voted, as well as the two independents in the Senate, voted against advancing the nomination.

    Fetterman’s vote was not required to move the nomination forward because Republicans hold 53 seats in the 100-member chamber, and a simple majority was needed. However, the vote marks the latest instance in which Fetterman has taken a position that differs from many members of his party.

    Fetterman met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago recently, appearing to be the only lawmaker from the Democratic Party to do so. He has also said he would vote for Trump’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, joined Trump’s social media website, Truth Social, and attended Trump’s inauguration.

    Fetterman said in a new interview that he will not be switching parties or even leaving the Democratic Party.

    “If they think, ‘oh, it’s going to be like a Manchin or a Sinema play,’ that’s just not true, and that’s not going to happen,” Fetterman told Semafor. “It’s not gonna happen.”

    Fetterman said that he has informed leaders of the Democratic Party that his party affiliation and his membership in the Senate Democratic caucus is not going to change.

    Former Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), during the most recently completed session of Congress, left the Democratic Party to become independents.

    Neither senator caucused with Republicans, although they each cast some votes with the GOP.

    Fetterman said on Truth Social before Trump was sworn in that it was “appropriate and the responsibility of a U.S. Senator to have a conversation with President-elect Trump’s nominees.”

    He added later: “My votes will come from an open-mind and an informed opinion after having a conversation with them. That’s not controversial, it’s my job.”

    The Jan. 21 full Senate vote followed a party-line vote by the Senate Armed Services Committee on Jan. 20 to advance Hegseth’s nomination to all senators.

    The final vote on Hegseth is expected in the coming days.

    Other Democratic Party senators have expressed opposition to the nomination.

    “The Secretary of Defense is one of the most important roles for keeping our country safe and we need someone who is ready to step into the job and succeed on day one. Pete Hegseth doesn’t bring the kind of experience that prepares someone to do this massive job,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said this week.

    Republicans, on the other hand, have said they still support Hegseth.

    “The President’s pick for Secretary of Defense, Mr. Hegseth, has impressive academic qualifications, conducted himself very well in the Senate Armed Services hearing, and has a commendable record of service in uniform. He assured me he will surround himself with a strong support team,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said in a statement. “I will vote for his confirmation.”

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 17:00

  • This Transition Is Already A Huge Historical Marker
    This Transition Is Already A Huge Historical Marker

    Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

    There is plenty of time ahead for the peanut gallery to discuss the ins and outs of the daily goings-on with the new Trump administration. There will be good and bad, and everyone is free to call out which is what and can do so for fully four years.

    For now, we pause to consider the historic nature of what is taking place in our times and be grateful that we are all around to watch it unfold. And we should consider the lessons it offers for our own lives.

     

    There is the obvious data point that President Donald Trump is only the second nonconsecutive second-term president after Grover Cleveland. That’s interesting but hardly scratches the surface of the significance of this presidency.

     

    Anyone who prophesied two years ago that Trump would be taking the oath of office would have likely been considered a lunatic.

    The whole of corporate media was railing against his legacy. The historians were writing him off. Google was gaming its search results to shame anyone who still defended him. Big tech and nearly the whole of academia were united in loathing. The sneering on late-night television was the only consistent theme.

    Meanwhile, the big guns were coming for him personally with indictment after indictment. There is warfare and there is lawfare but the desire to destroy is the same. There was talk of confiscating Trump Tower and even jail. The revenge fantasies were out of control, while his attorneys’ fees were sky-high, millions upon millions of dollars.

    There was no power center in the United States or really the world that was not overflowing with loathing and brutal attacks, including every attempted extortion and smear.

    It is impossible to not give Trump personal credit for seeing his way through a series of threats and attacks that would have broken even the strongest character. Somehow he managed to get through it all with his physical and mental well-being not only saved but even strengthened.

    How did he sleep? How did he keep his spirits high? How did he see the light at the end of this long, dark tunnel? It’s unfathomable.

    I don’t care what your politics are: If you cannot see this example of steadfastness and courage as inspiring, there is something wrong. Is there anything wrong in your life to compare? It’s doubtful. He made it through and so can you. If nothing else is true, his personal example of courage in the face of grave danger is exemplary.

    He had plenty of competitors for the Republican nomination, and they were right to challenge him, not based on a lack of respect but simply because of their own confidence that they could do the job. But at this stage of history, Trump was already legendary and approaching a status of personal grandeur that no one could match. Thus did he get the nomination and his competitors defer.

    Panic among mainstream opinion makers ensued once again. The unthinkable happened: the first assassination attempt. It’s impossible to look at the circumstances surrounding that quarter-inch miss and not feel a sense of awe.

    It’s difficult to explain without taking recourse to divine intervention. Equally remarkable was Trump’s response, not to cower and collapse but stand and assure the people for whom he felt responsibility that he was alive. And he used that precious and catastrophic moment to rally the people with immortal words, fist in the air.

    Will that moment go down in history? It became obvious in the days following that the powers that be did not want it to do so. Within a week or so, it was hard to find information about this at all, as the major national media simply stopped talking about it. That left it to the masses of regular people who simply could not suppress their astonishment at what transpired.

    Alternative media swung into action as did the meme makers and the merchants with shirts, cups, and posters. There was to be no burying this event.

    Our times are absolutely desperate for examples of masculine heroism. The culture has been nearly purged of such, from movies to television to music. What Trump did was countercultural in every sense of the term: It went against the grain and disturbed the powers that be. This event became a mighty symbol of cultural renewal, a template for an entire generation to understand the sacrifices that are often necessary for success.

    Behind the scenes, the Trump loyalists were hard at work, mostly in private by design, and with one focus: Get him to a second term. How in the world could they have confidence that this was possible? It comes down to one word—math. They knew what the whole of mainstream culture denied, namely that the results of the 2020 election were not mathematically possible.

    Trump actually won more popular votes than he did four years earlier. The difference was the implausible appearance of 15 million to 20 million votes for his opponent that could not have reflected the choices and behaviors of real people. To right this wrong—or at least expose it—they attempted to use the courts, but the challenges were rejected on grounds of standing, as if voters themselves have no right at all to challenge what, for appearances, looked like voter fraud.

    Team Trump knew that the numbers did not add up, and so they plotted a return.

    It broke down to three steps.

    No. 1: They would work with states that were willing to tighten voter registration laws and crack down on mail-in balloting that everyone on the planet knows is more susceptible to fraud. They would recruit monitors. They would empower a grassroots movement to be vigilant against illicit balloting. And they would encourage early voting among the base. They knew that blue states would not cooperate, but they counted on a cultural movement to shame attempts to game the system.

    No. 2: They would fire up the most disenfranchised group in the United States about whom no one seems to care, namely men younger than the age of 35. This is a group that had long lost any hope in elections and has been wholly overlooked by cultural elites. To reach them, Trump went on many podcasts, including Joe Rogan’s and many others. He knew he already had their support, but he needed something else: for them to register and actually vote. That’s a big ask, but it worked.

    No. 3: The need to create a mass cultural movement that was larger and more powerful than the mass media. It needed hats, songs, rallies, and meetings. To this end, he flew all over the country to hold rallies at which he did what he does best, extemporaneous stand-ups talking about the events of the day, filled with humor, fun, and fury. These became massive events, with people lining up for a mile outside the venue, waiting in all weather for 12 hours and longer.

    By the end of the campaign, there was not a single indoor venue in America that could hold all the people who lined up to see Trump speak in any town or city in this country. That is an amazing accomplishment, never before seen in our history. The result was precisely what was planned, a mass movement that competed with or even outpaced the smearbund working to defeat him.

    Again, this was the plan all along, although it was never announced. It was like clockwork. The people least surprised on Election Night were all associated with Team Trump. They had mapped it out for years. As part of their planning, they deployed a method that has never before been seen in U.S. politics: absolute security of all information. No one associated with this group spoke to the press for four years.

    It’s been the same for the transition. It has been privately financed to keep the prying eyes of the administrative state away from understanding and thus subverting what it is they have been planning. This is why nearly every pick for the Cabinet and agency heads has been a shock but for those whom the team released early as a deliberate trial balloon.

    One must stand in admiration of all this, not just the administrative sophistication of the campaign and transition team but also the courage it required to follow through on all these plans despite the terrible odds. This alone is for the ages.

    Now we are at the moment that is the real test: the time of governing. We are in for some huge surprises, of that I am sure. The national media has been locked out and understandably so. Some of what will unfold in the coming days, weeks, and months I will like and some I will not. I’m sure you will say the same. That’s the way the real world works. We have plenty of time to argue about this or that.

    Let’s just take a moment to appreciate that we have this opportunity at all. Against all odds, Trump is president again. Let that be a lesson to all of us. Nothing is written that moral courage cannot overcome. That’s true in politics, and it is true in our own lives.

    Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 16:20

  • Biden's Big Blemish: Wages Didn't Keep Up With Inflation
    Biden’s Big Blemish: Wages Didn’t Keep Up With Inflation

    The largest blemish on Joe Biden’s economic legacy is the fact that, despite robust growth, low unemployment and a roaring stock market, many Americans felt worse off during his presidency than they did before. One of the reasons behind this seeming disconnect is simple and it has to do with inflation, disinflation and wage growth, or the lack thereof.

    Shortly after Biden took office in January 2021, inflation began to surge. The Covid-19 pandemic and the supply-chain crisis that followed, combined with generous stimulus spending and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 had created a perfect storm of inflationary pressures that resulted in prices climbing faster than they had since the early 1980s. And despite inflation coming down notably from its mid-2022 highs, prices have not come down – at least on the aggregate.

    That’s because bringing down inflation, i.e. disinflation, is not to be mistaken for falling prices, which would be deflation.

    While (moderately) rising prices are no problem per se and actually wanted in a functioning economy, hence the Fed’s 2-percent inflation target, inflation becomes a problem if it outpaces wage growth for a protracted period of time. As Statista’s Felix Richter shows in the chart below, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, this has been the case in the U.S. from April 2021 to April 2023, when prices increased faster than nominal wages did for 25 consecutive months, at least on a year-over-year basis.

    Infographic: Biden's Blemish: Wages Haven't Kept Up With Inflation | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    That resulted in an actual decline in real wages as nominal wage growth still hadn’t fully caught up with price increases by December 2024.

    As the chart shows, nominal average hourly earnings grew from $29.93 in January 2021 to $35.69 in December 2024 – a 19.2 percent increase.

    During the same period, prices, as measured here by the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U) climbed 21.0 percent, leading to a 1.5 percent decline in real wages.

    That means adjusted for price increases, people went from $29.93 an hour to $29.49 an hour during the Biden years.

    Considering that these are average earnings, it’s fair to assume that many people suffered considerably larger and actually noticeable declines in real wages, leading to the widespread frustration with the Biden economy.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 01/22/2025 – 15:45

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