- Bovard: The Coming "January 6" Train Wreck
Bovard: The Coming “January 6” Train Wreck
The January 6 Capitol clash may be the gift that keeps on giving to cynics everywhere. In the coming months, Americans will likely see jaw-dropping bureaucratic debacles, stunning abuses by federal prosecutors, and appalling bloodlust by angry Biden supporters.
Perhaps the least likely outcome is that the coming train wreck will restore faith in American democracy.
The Justice Department declared last week, “The investigation and prosecution of the Capitol Breach will be the largest in American history, both in terms of the number of defendants prosecuted and the nature and volume of the evidence.” The feds are sorting through “237,000 digital tips, 1 million Parler videos and images comprising 40 terabytes of data scraped from the Internet — roughly equivalent to 10 million photos, 20,000 hours of video, or 50,000 filing cabinets of paper documents,” theWashington Post reported. Investigators are also sorting through “cell tower data for thousands of electronic devices that connected to the Capitol’s interior distributed antenna system,” information provided by phone companies, Google, and other data aggregation companies. The problem will be compounded because many government employees are slow readers.
More than 500 protestors have already been charged in federal court, but their trials will likely be delayed at least until next year. Federal judge John Bates recently warned that evidence snafus could result in judges “going on the warpath.” If judges conclude that the Justice Department is unreasonably keeping January 6 defendants locked up (often in solitary confinement) too long, judicial edicts could unravel prosecutors’ long-term plans.
Federal cases against January 6 protestors are being built on what one savvy electronic evidence consultant called a “Tower of Babel nightmare.” While federal agents gloated at the 300,000 plus tips that poured into the FBI with regards to January 6 protestors, prosecutors are obliged to sift the hairballs and provide each defendant and their lawyers with potentially exculpatory evidence. The biggest data dump on record will likely spur a deluge of inadvertent or intentional withholding of evidence. The Justice Department recently notified defense lawyers that they would have to “build a system to receive the data” the feds delivered. The prosecution is also whining because a federal judge prevented them from relying on a private contractor to organize secret grand jury evidence.
The Justice Department may be delaying release of the bulk of the more than 14,000 hours of video surveillance from inside the Capitol on January 6 in an attempt to preserve Biden’s “domestic terrorism” storyline of that day’s events. Even before Trump supporters poured into the Capitol that day, Democrats were accusing them of sedition for filing legal challenges to the 2020 election results, including popular Twitter hashtags such as #GOPSeditiousTraitors and #TreasonAgainstAmerica. After the mob delayed congressional proceedings for six hours, congressional leaders compared the interruption to the 9/11 attacks, Pearl Harbor, and the War of 1812. The Justice Department may also be foot-dragging on releasing evidence because it is reluctant to disclose what role, if any, federal informants or undercover agents had in instigating or propagating violence that day.
For January 6 defendants, federal prosecutors are using a simple formula: Trespassing plus thought crimes equals terrorism. On Monday, Paul Hodgkins was sentenced to 8 months in prison, though the feds admitted he was guilty simply of taking selfies, wearing a Trump T-shirt, and carrying a Trump flag into the Senate chamber and “did not personally engage in or espouse violence or property destruction.” Though Hodgkins pled guilty only to one count of obstructing an official proceeding, Biden’s Justice Department demanded a lengthy prison sentence for Hodgkins to “deter…domestic terrorism.” This is akin to prosecutors seeking harsh punishment for a confessed jaywalker because his negligent behavior could have caused a school bus to crash.
At the same time the Justice Department is bumbling towards paralysis, many Americans are howling for the heads of January 6 defendants. In his Gulag Archipelago, Alexander Solzhenitsyn described the vast public outrage that went along with a prominent Soviet show trial of accused wreckers: “There were universal meetings and demonstrations (including even school-children). It was the newspaper march of millions, and the roar rose outside the windows of the courtroom: ‘Death! Death! Death!’” The same spectacle has been stark on Twitter and in the comment section of the Washington Post, among other places.
One Washington Postcommenter declared that “the only effective way for the government to respond to an act of war by domestic terrorists is to be prepared to meet them with machine guns and flamethrowers and mow them down. Not one of those terrorists who broke through police lines [on January 6] should have escaped alive.” Hodgkins’s sentence terrified and enraged Post readers. One wrote, “The pitiful 8 month sentence scares me badly… I’m afraid the government is losing its ability to protect us from madmen (consider the mentally ill and tweakers roaming our streets untreated) and right wing Q inspired terrorists.” Another commented, “He should have been given the death penalty for sedition.” As always, one commenter even reached back to the Nazis for an analogy, writing, “It is comparable to the 9 months that Adolf Hitler served after his participation in an attempted 1923 putsch against the German government. Remember how that turned out?”
Federal judge Randolph Moss, when he sentenced Hodgkins, declared that his action will make it “harder for all of us to tell our children and grandchildren that democracy stands as the immutable foundation of our nation.” Unfortunately, judges seem nonchalant when American democracy is subverted instead by federal agencies. After FBI Assistant General Counsel Kevin Clinesmith admitted falsifying key evidence to get a FISA warrant to spy on the Trump presidential campaign, federal judge James Boasberg gushed with sympathy at the sentencing hearing: “Mr. Clinesmith has lost his job in government service—what has given his life much of its meaning.” Scorning the recommendation of the federal prosecutor (who said the “resulting harm is immeasurable recommendation” from Clinesmith’s action), Boasberg gave Clinesmith a wrist slap—400 hours of community service and 12 months of probation. The Justice Department Inspector General documented many other abuses of power and deceit by FBI officials in the Hillary Clinton or Trump investigations, but not a single FBI official has spent a day behind bars.
Will Justice Department prosecutors be caught in a Catch-22, pressured by the White House to harvest as many scalps as possible but crippled by the lack of proof that most of the accused were guilty of anything besides trespassing or “willfully and knowingly parading” in the Capitol? Political pressure for high-profile convictions resulted in disastrous courtroom defeats for federal attorneys prosecuting Ruby Ridge, the Branch Davidian standoff at Waco, and other cases. If juries rebuff prosecutors on more than a few January 6 cases, then the entire political storyline could quickly collapse.
Federal prosecutor Mona Sedky is calling for harsh punishment for January 6 defendants because of “the need to preserve respect for the law.” But at this point, “respect for the law” is a loss leader in this process. That won’t be remedied when people realize that taking selfies can result in a federal sentencing enhancement.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 23:40 - Lightning Lap Dances? Vegas Strip Club Now Accepts Bitcoin Payments
Lightning Lap Dances? Vegas Strip Club Now Accepts Bitcoin Payments
A strip club in Las Vegas is now accepting bitcoin payments using the Lightning Network. It’s intended to enable faster transactions among guests and dancers as payments will be processed on a “layer 2” payment protocol designed to be layered on top of blockchain-based cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
The legendary Crazy Horse 3 is the first strip club to use the Lightning Network. The club partnered with payment processor OpenNode, which enables guests to purchase “VIP bottle packages with Bitcoin online,” the club’s website states.
🚨BREAKING NEWS! @Crazyhorse3lv is now accepting Bitcoin!!🚨💻 With the new stadium officially opening just steps away from our front door, this new crypto power move allows us to give all of our customers more purchasing power! 👯💰🤩🙌🏼 #crazyhorse3 #bitcoin #vegasstripclubs pic.twitter.com/ddYx7RyIdo
— Crazy Horse 3 (@CRAZYHORSE3LV) July 14, 2021
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Guests will also be able to purchase admission tickets, buy food and drinks, and tip entertainers.
The Lightning Network is reportedly a much better system than cash or card because payments are quick, secure, and private. That assumption will soon be tested.
Crazy Horse 3 publicist Lindsay Feldman of BrandBomb Marketing said the strip club is “committed to innovating the modern-day guest experience and as leaders of the Las Vegas entertainment industry. We are embracing the opportunity to accept Bitcoin as a way to deliver convenience, first-class hospitality, and an added level of anonymity for our guests.”
“The club’s partnership with OpenNode allows us to cater to our tech savvy customers’ needs by offering an innovative form of payment that’s both seamless and secure. With the new Allegiant Stadium just feet away from our front door, this crypto power move allows us to give our customers, including global travelers flying in for conventions, concerts and sporting events, more purchasing power,” Feldman said.
In a piece called “The Future Of Adult Entertainment: Strippers Now Accept Bitcoin Via QR-Tattoos,” we noted how strippers in early 2018 were quickly adopting crypto payments. This dramatically increased during the virus pandemic as studies showed upwards of 3,000 different types of bacteria could survive on paper money.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 23:20 - Taliban Warns Of Retaliation As US Is Continuing Airstrikes In Afghanistan
Taliban Warns Of Retaliation As US Is Continuing Airstrikes In Afghanistan
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
The US launched several airstrikes in Afghanistan against the Taliban this week, the Pentagon said on Thursday. The airstrikes were carried out in support of the Afghan government, which has been losing significant ground to the Taliban since the US started pulling troops out back in May.
“In the last several days we have acted, through airstrikes, to support the ANDSF [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces],” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters. He was asked about alleged airstrikes in Kandahar, but said, “I won’t get into technical details of those strikes.”
US Air Force file image Since the US-Taliban peace deal was signed in February 2020, US airstrikes on the Taliban have declined, but they do happen. The US usually frames the airstrikes as being carried out in the “defense” of the Afghan government. For their part, the Taliban has refrained from attacking the US or other foreign troops since the agreement was signed.
This week’s airstrikes mark the first that the US admitted to since Gen. Scott Miller, the former top US commander in Afghanistan, handed his authority to Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of US Central Command. It’s also a sign that the US will continue bombing Afghanistan until at least August 31st, when President Biden said the withdrawal will be complete.
US airstrikes in Afghanistan are now being launched from outside the country, what the Pentagon has dubbed “over the horizon capability.” The US will maintain this capability after the withdrawal, so it’s possible that the US will continue bombing Afghanistan beyond September.
Taliban warns the US that airstrikes in Kandahar and Helmand provinces will have consequences, calling it violation of Doha agreement. Earlier, US troops announced that they conducted airstrikes against Taliban in Qandahar.
— Tajuden Soroush (@TajudenSoroush) July 23, 2021
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Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the new airstrikes as a violation of prior Doha agreements, vowing “consequences” after multiple Taliban fighters killed:
“We confirm these air strikes and we condemn this in strongest term, it is a clear attack and violation of the Doha deal as they can’t have operations after May,” he said, referring to an agreement between the United States and the Taliban clearing the way for the withdrawal of U.S. forces.
“If they conduct any operation then they will be responsible for the consequences.”
This evening, I spoke with President Biden over a phone call. We discussed the evolving but continuing relationship between the two countries. President Biden reassured me that support for the ANDSF will continue. We have confidence that they will protect & defend Afghanistan.
— Ashraf Ghani (@ashrafghani) July 23, 2021
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The US also has plans to leave about 600 troops in the country that will be in Kabul to guard the embassy and the international airport.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 23:00 - Florida's First 3D-Printed Home Under Construction Amid Housing Affordability Crisis
Florida’s First 3D-Printed Home Under Construction Amid Housing Affordability Crisis
While the federal government and Federal Reserve have been on a mission to inflate the debt away by boosting asset prices through unprecedented amounts of fiscal and monetary stimuli, housing affordability has become a significant issue for many Americans. To counter soaring costs of everything, from lumber to concrete to homes themselves, builders have begun to adopt 3D-printing technology to reduce costs.
Not too long ago, we noted “Screw Lumber, Just 3D-Print Your Next Home,” which is precisely what one builder did in Florida.
Florida’s first 3D printed house began construction last week in Tallahassee, according to Tallahassee Democrat.
“I have to keep pinching myself,” said Kyndra Light, the co-owner of the firm behind the project Precision Building and Renovating. “I can’t believe it’s actually happening.”
Kyndra, and her husband, James Light, have tapped into the world of 3D printing to bring affordable homebuilding to Floridians who’ve been priced out of the market.
Construction began last Thursday on a plot of land in northwest Tallahassee and should wrap up by the end of the week. The automated printer is suspended on four posts and lays about two feet of concrete per day.
Printing walls out of concrete instead of stick building with lumber and other materials is a huge cost saver and requires very little labor besides a small crew manning the printer, which follows a predetermined path for exterior and interior walls.
Construction takes about eight to 10 weeks for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house. It will cost around $175,000 and $200,000, Light said. The cost savings is noticeable considering the median US-existing home price surged to a record $350,000 last month.
“This is the future,” said Chase Miller, the founder of the construction development firm Urban Land Co., who traveled from Ohio to watch the printing of the home. “There are so many possibilities with this technology and it can really help people.”
Miller said that it could be a great tool to rebuild homes after a hurricane strike because the printer works quickly.
“If this becomes the next big innovation construction, which I think it will, we are watching the very first one to be built in Florida,” he said. “That’s unique.”
About a month ago, a home in South Richmond, Virginia, became the first 3D-printed home under construction in the state. The builders wanted to save costs and make the home affordable, considering lumber prices for a new single-family home had risen tens of thousands of dollars over the past year.
With rampant inflation everywhere, a record 71% of consumers said higher home prices were a reason why buying conditions have soured. Perhaps, those who are looking for affordable housing may find answers in 3D printing.
Find a cheap plot of buildable land in a rural area, order up a Starlink satellite connection, and remote-working can be possible while not being house poor.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 22:40 - Despite What Biden Says, Guns Factor In Only A Small Percentage Of Violent Crimes
Despite What Biden Says, Guns Factor In Only A Small Percentage Of Violent Crimes
Authored by John R. Lott Jr. via RealClearInvestigations (emphasis ours),
In response to sharp increases in violent crime, President Biden stressed again last week that his administration is focused on “stemming the flow of firearms used to commit violent crimes.” But critics warn that this “guns first” approach ignores a basic fact—about 92% of violent crimes in America do not involve firearms.
Although firearms were used in about 74% of homicides in 2019, they comprise less than 9% of violent crimes in America.
The vast majority of violent offenses—including robberies, rapes and other sex crimes—almost always involve other weapons or no weapons at all.
Consider Chicago, which has become a national symbol of violent crime. While shootings have increased by about 11% this year, the number of murders has decreased slightly in 2021—to 382 as of July 11 compared to 387 for the same time period last year. The dramatic increase Chicago is experiencing is in sex crimes—a 23% rise (1,068 as of July 11 compared with 868 during the same period in 2020).
Police investigate the scene in which police opened fire during an arrest near 109 S Kilpatrick in West Garfield Park in Chicago, Ill., on July 9, 2021. (Anthony Vazquez/Chicago Sun-Times via AP) In New York City, murders through the same period have dropped by 36.4% compared to last year. But robberies are up by 18%, rapes by 9%, and other sex crimes by 35%—all of which do not usually involve guns, sex crimes rarely so. This year murders make up 0.3% of felonies.
Even if gun crime were to rise dramatically, experts point out that it would still be a small fraction of overall violent crime.
The National Crime Victimization Survey, in the latest year available (2019), shows that there were 5,440,680 rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults and 16,425 murders. Firearms were used in 440,830 incidents for rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults (Table 25) and 10,258 murders. Adding those numbers up, 8.27% of violent crime incidents involved firearms. The percentage has stayed virtually the same for decades. For example, in 2000, it was 8.5%. In 2010, it was 9% (Table 4). Nor do most gun crimes end in murder: just 2% do.
The gulf between Democrats and Republicans on this is large. While Democrats are continuing to push for restrictions on police authority, Republican states are responding by giving police more power to do their job.
Nevertheless, Biden and other Democrats argue that lax gun control, which allows gun trafficking, is responsible for the increase in violent crime. The Biden administration’s focus on gun crimes is seen in the titles the White House put on Biden’s talks in April, June and last week: “Remarks by President Biden on Gun Violence Prevention,” “Remarks by President Biden and Attorney General Garland on Gun Crime Prevention Strategy,” and “Remarks by President Biden Discussing His Administration’s Comprehensive Strategy to Reduce Gun Crimes.”
President Joe Biden speaks on gun crime prevention measures as Attorney General Merrick Garland looks on at the White House in Washington, on June 23, 2021. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) In three speeches on crime, Biden mentioned “gun” or “firearm” 148 times. The term “weapon,” sometimes in connection with “assault weapon,” is used another 21 times. By contrast, when not directly discussing guns, he mentioned the words “crime,” “violence,” or “violent” about half as often—89 times.
Unmentioned by the president as factors in the violent crime increase were last year’s widespread unrest over the George Floyd murder and the dislocations of the pandemic, including mass layoffs, youths kept out of schools and, notably, the early release of many convicts from infection-prone prisons. Against this backdrop, some scholars question the president’s focus on gun laws.
“What change in gun control laws in 2020 could possibly explain the increase in violent crime over the last year?” asked Carl Moody, an economist who specializes in studying crime at the College of William & Mary, in an interview with RealClearInvestigations. “Why did violent crime increase now, rather than two or three or four years ago?” he asked rhetorically.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Republicans, such as former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, point more generally to law enforcement. They argue that in many urban areas, more than half of prison inmates have been released on account of the pandemic and the releases are continuing. Bail reforms allow those accused of crime to remain on the streets. In some places, police have been ordered to stand down and their budgets cut. Prosecutors in many major urban areas have refused to prosecute violent criminals.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents rank-and-file officers, released a statement late last year criticizing Los Angeles County’s then newly elected District Attorney George Gascón’s pledge (since fulfilled) to reduce criminal sentences and eliminate cash bail for misdemeanors. “As homicides, shooting victims and shots fired into occupied homes soar in Los Angeles,” the union wrote, “it’s disturbing that Gascón’s first act in office is to explore every avenue possible to release from jail those responsible for this bloodshed.”
Gascón’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Police officers patrol in their car in Los Angeles, Calif., on Nov. 1, 2020. (Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images) In contrast with Republicans, Biden mentioned policing just four times in his three addresses. He did so once in connection with “red flag” gun laws, and three times boasted that the American Rescue Plan passed earlier this year by Congress provided funds to hire “more police officers, more nurses, more counselors, more social workers.” However, the bill did not require that local governments spend any of the $350 billion they received on law enforcement.
Moody told RealClearInvestigations that the president’s emphasis on violent crime is “understandable if only because of how heavily concentrated murders are in the country.” Over 50% of the murders take place in just 2% of the counties (60 of the 3,140 counties, the 60 making up 27.5% of the population), and even within those counties most murders occur within 10-block areas. These are overwhelmingly gang-related murders. They are surely important, but don’t touch the lives of most Americans. Fifty-four percent of counties have no murders and another 15% have one.
This article was written by John R. Lott Jr for RealClearInvestigations.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 22:20 - Things Are So Bad In California That Farmers Are Employing "Water Witches"
Things Are So Bad In California That Farmers Are Employing “Water Witches”
Some refer to it as “dowsing,” “doodlebugging,” or “water witching”—the practice of using a forked stick or rods to locate underground water. It sounds mysterious, but this practice has been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
So why revive water witching today?
Well, vineyard and farm operators in California are experiencing some of the worst drought conditions in decades. They’re getting desperate for new water sources as their wells run dry and reservoirs hit record low levels.
Rather than have faith in hydrogeologists and “science,” vineyard and farm operators are putting their trust in water witches.
In Sonoma County, California, an area known for wineries, Rob Thompson, a water diviner, said the drought has increased business many folds. He said this is the “busiest I’ve ever been in my entire life.”
Thompson’s claim to fame is that he formerly owned one of Northern California’s largest well-drilling companies. He’s been in the business for decades and claims to have found thousands of groundwater sites across the state.
“This is the worst drought I’ve seen in my lifetime,” Thompson said. “In California, we’re going deeper and deeper,” he said, adding that farmers and land managers are drilling deeper to access groundwater.
Thompson uses rods to locate groundwater in the fractures of the earth’s bedrock. The method has been rejected by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) as there’s no science to support it.
But that doesn’t stop Johnnie White, the operations manager of Piña Vineyard Management, who runs dozens of vineyards in Napa Valley.
“I haven’t ever used a geologist to find water,” White said, who acknowledged water witching sounds a bit “far fetched.”
Davie Piña, the owner of the vineyard management company, called the drought situation in the state a “disaster” and had a gloomy outlook for the future.
While water witching sounds a bit odd, a German study conducted in the 1990s spanned a decade that paired geologists and dowsers in Africa to drill for water and see how accurate they were. In Sri Lanka alone, drill teams drilled 691 wells under the guidance of dowsers and discovered water 96% of the time.
Now the argument that USGS makes is that “water exists under the Earth’s surface almost everywhere.” So it’s like shooting fish in a barrel.
Nevertheless, for whatever reason, farmers and land managers across California are desperate enough to turn to water witches to save their operations from turning into dust.
Still curious about water witching? Here’s a video on water witching 101.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 22:00 - Rep. Jordan Asks IG Horowitz For More Evidence On FBI Official's Alleged Misconduct
Rep. Jordan Asks IG Horowitz For More Evidence On FBI Official’s Alleged Misconduct
Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times,
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) sent a letter to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on July 21 regarding the alleged misconduct of an unnamed former senior FBI official.
Jordan, in his letter, asks for Horowitz to explain to the House Judiciary committee “the extent of this serious misconduct, and evaluate the FBI’s handling of the matter.”
“To allow the committee to better understand the OIG’s findings, determine the extent of his serious misconduct, and evaluate the FBI’s handling of the matter, I ask that you please provide the complete unredacted case file of investigative Summary 21-096, to include all documents, communications, and other evidence related to the report,” he wrote.
The Republican representative asked that Horowitz provide him with the information by no later than 5 p.m. on Aug. 4, 2021.
Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz testifies in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington on Dec. 11, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)
His letter comes after the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) inspector general on Tuesday released the findings of an investigation that found that a former senior FBI official repeatedly violated the bureau’s policy by having unauthorized contact with the media.
According to the report, the unnamed official had “received items of value from members of the media” and had “numerous unauthorized contacts with the media” between 2014 and 2016.
Those unauthorized contacts included “substantive communications” with reporters and “unauthorized social engagements outside of FBI headquarters involving drinks, lunches, and dinners.”
The official had also accepted tickets from media members to two black-tie dinner events, including one valued at $300 and the other at $225. They also received transportation to the event from a reporter, who was not named, the report said.
The FBI described the behavior as a violation of FBI policy.
“When later contacted by the [inspector general’s office] for a voluntary interview, the senior FBI official declined to be interviewed,” the office wrote, adding that it indeed has “the authority to compel testimony from current department employees upon informing them that their statements will not be used to incriminate them in a criminal proceeding.”
But the office “does not have the authority to compel or subpoena testimony from former department employees, including those who retire or resign during” the course of the investigation, the report said.
The FBI conducted the investigation in the months leading up to and after the November 2016 presidential election.
Its findings will no doubt throw more weight behind claims that some members of the FBI and other U.S. intelligence officials have developed a close-knit relationship with journalists and other members of the media over recent years.
Former President Donald Trump and his allies have previously spoken out about the FBI’s alleged collusion with mainstream media outlets, with Trump previously accusing former FBI director James B. Comey of illegally leaking classified information to them, including claims that Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia or regarding allegations surrounding President Joe Biden’s son Hunter’s overseas business dealings.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 21:40 - "Lights Will Stay On:" Texas Grid Operator Prepares For Imminent Heat Wave
“Lights Will Stay On:” Texas Grid Operator Prepares For Imminent Heat Wave
A dangerous heat wave is forecasted for Texas next week.
The state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC) and Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) informed customers Thursday that the power grid is in good shape and can withstand triple-digit temperatures.
The chair of the PUC told customers the number one priority next week is to keep the lights on for Texans.
“We are in a good position,” PUC Chairman Peter Lake said in a Thursday news conference.
“It will be tight for the rest of the summer,” Lake added. “We know the heat is coming, but we are ready for it.”
He stood beside interim ERCOT President Brad Jones, who also spoke about reliability across the power grid next week. It was the second time the Jones and the new chair of the PUC appeared together to reassure the public about grid stability after a disastrous grid collapse during a winter blast in February.
Jim Rouiller, the lead meteorologist at the Energy Weather Group, told Bloomberg that a heat wave would form in the Great Plains this weekend and drive temperatures in Dallas above the 100-degree mark for the first time this year. We noted earlier this week that parts of the agriculture belt would experience rising temperatures and drier conditions over the coming weeks.
Rouiller said, “next week will be the hottest week they have had all summer long. Cooling demand will be the highest we have seen all summer.” Below is the cooling demand for the Midwest. What this means is that demand for energy needed to cool buildings will increase as temperatures rise.
Allison Prater, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Fort Worth, said Dallas-Fort Worth has yet to hit a 100F this year. Usually, the area reaches triple-digit temperatures by July 1.
This summer’s heat has been centered around the Pacific Northwest, setting record high temperatures in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, along with other surrounding states.
The high pressure, or heat dome, will be centered around Oklahoma, making conditions in Iowa to Arkansas brutal this weekend and next week
“This is the hottest one so far for them, this is the dome of doom,” Rouiller said.
Power grid prices are expected to rise through next week. As for the integrity of the power grid, there’s no telling what may happen next week, if that is outages or calls by regulators for customers to reduce power.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 21:20 - Taibbi: The Luke Harding Experiment
Taibbi: The Luke Harding Experiment
Authored by Matt Taibbi via TK News,
Eight days ago, on July 15th, The Guardian published an apparent bombshell by reporting curiosity Luke Harding and two other writers, entitled, “Kremlin papers appear to show Putin’s plot to put Trump in White House.”
The paper claimed to have gotten hold of “leaked Kremlin documents” from January 2016, showing a secret plot by Russia to use “all possible force” to help elect “the most promising candidate,” Donald Trump, in order to bring about the “destabilization of the US’s sociopolitical system.”
The article featured a snippet of the alleged document that purported to show Russian officials copping to the entire Russiagate narrative in a single sentence, even adding what the Guardian called “apparent confirmation” that the Kremlin possessed compromising knowledge about “certain events” involving Trump on Russian territory:
It’s almost impossible to describe how low you have to have sunk for the American media to walk away from a story like this, in a still-vibrant environment of Trump-Russia mania. It’s like being unable to give away video game credits at Chuck E Cheese. Yet the explosive report was picked up by exactly zero American news agencies. The silence was so deafening, the rival Daily Mail wrote an article gloating about it.
A week after the expose’s publication, the Washington Post — maybe the most enthusiastic print trafficker of McCarthyite paranoia in recent years and home to many of the biggest actual intelligence leaks through the Trump-Russia affair — finally addressed the “leaked Kremlin documents.” The piece by Phillip Bump tried to take the Harding revelations seriously, but couldn’t, saying the article “reads like one of those viral Twitter threads from a guy with 4.4 million followers whose bio describes him as ‘resister-in-chief.’”
Ouch. Why so harsh? The Post mentions the reason: the Guardian author, Harding, also wrote one of the most infamous uncorroborated “bombshells” of this era, a November 27, 2018 report alleging Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort met with Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy.
This would-be smoking gun proof of collusion took the news world by storm for days, as the Trump-mad press went blind with eagerness, like high school boys seeing their first boobs. Poor Ari Melber of MSNBC would probably like this broadcast back, where he gushed that the Guardian report might be the “key to collusion,” noting:
Sources tell the Guardian the key meeting lasted 40 minutes, and they have details, like that [Manafort] was dressed in chinos, cardigan, and a light shirt… Now, tonight, Paul Manafort is denying this story. I can report that. I can also report that Paul Manafort is a serial liar.
This wasn’t just a bombshell, it was a bombshell with details. Who could make up chinos? “If it looks like collusion, meets like collusion, and acts like collusion, it probably is collusion,” agreed congresswoman Jackie Speier.
Slowly, however, the minor issue of there being no record of any meeting between Manafort and the most surveilled person on earth began to raise concerns among America’s press wizards that the story might be on something less than solid ground. The Washington Post’s polite formulation was that Harding’s story was a bomb that “still hasn’t detonated.”
The Guardian compounded the comedy. In the face of intense public criticism over the absence of evidence for such a major assertion, the paper essentially made one change. The headline, “Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy” became “Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy, sources say.”
Needless to say, the qualifier didn’t exactly address concerns. This time around, the Guardian did their touching-up in advance, applying in bulk phrases like “what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents,” “the papers suggest,” “appearing to bear Putin’s signature,” “seem to represent,” “appear to be genuine,” “apparent confirmation,” etc. Despite these fine efforts, the silence over the new piece shows unchanged judgment on the Manafort-Assange affair, with editors essentially announcing an unwillingness to be hoaxed a second time.
In response, Harding a few days ago tweeted a link to a YouTube interview with former KGB agent and co-author of American Kompromat, Yuri Shvets:
Former #KGB officer Yuri Shvets says the #Kremlin papers published by @guardian and describing Donald Trump as “impulsive” and “mentally unstable” are real [in Russian]. Shvets collaborated with @craigunger on American Kompromat and worked as a spy in D.C. https://t.co/M6mvSEWyOn
— Luke Harding (@lukeharding1968) July 21, 2021
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Harding has some unique talents when it comes to public defense of his work. At the peak of the Trump-Russia delirium, he wrote a book called Collusion, but walked out of an interview with Aaron Mate when asked where the evidence for the collusion was. “Looks like Luke has logged off,” Aaron commented, as his audience was left staring at an SMPTE color bar.
That incident became Internet legend. This latest kerfuffle isn’t quite that bad, but still head-scratching. Harding has presented as additional backup for his new story this Russian-language interview with Shvets, a handy source for nearly every English-language reporter who’s cycled through Moscow since 1991 (he was a popular quote with pals of mine from the Moscow Times back in the day).
In this YouTube monologue, the former KGB man does vouch for the Guardian story, opining, “This is a compilation of real documents located in the possession of the government of the United States.”
Shvets shrugs off criticism of Harding’s story from Russian writer Leonid Mlechin, who accused the Guardian of being duped, noting “mistakes” in the language and the form of the report. This was in contrast to Harding, who said he’d showed the documents to “independent experts” who claimed the “incidental details come across as accurate,” and the “overall tone and thrust is said to be consistent with Kremlin security thinking.”
Shvets actually concurred with Mlechin on many points here, wincing at the rambling language of the published excerpts. He conceded “there could not be such a document in the time of the Soviet Union,” when a KGB pro would never have “one sentence [go on] for almost a half-page,” because “qualified professionals don’t write like that.”
However, he disagreed with Mlechin that these quality issues were conclusive, saying only that they spoke to the “general degradation of the government apparatus under Putin.” In between, he dropped his assessment that this collection of documents was realniy.
Shvets may or may not be right. What’s funny, though, is Harding neglecting to mention Shvets was one of the harshest early critics of another story he boosted over and over, the dossier of British ex-spy Christopher Steele. Harding worked with Steele on Collusion, which continues to be marketed as “an explosive exposé that lays out the story behind the Steele Dossier.”
As Barry Meier noted in Spooked, the excellent book about (among other things) the Steele affair, internet sleuths at one point believed Shvets was the source for Steele. But when the dossier came out, Shvets gave an interview in Russian that shat with force on the idea. His assessment of the dossier, in fact, sounded quite a lot like Mlechin’s assessment of this new Harding story.
“There are experts in painting who can confidently tell you if you’re looking at a genuine Rembrandt or a fake, and their opinion will be accepted in court, even if they didn’t stand next to Rembrandt himself,” he said. “It’s the same with intelligence documents… The credibility of this ‘dossier’ from a professional perspective is zero.” Asked flat out if the Steele dossier was fake, Shvets replied, “Absolutely.”
Was Shvets authoritative then, or now? Who knows, possibly both times. But Harding in tweeting this week probably could have mentioned that this person’s prior credentials included dismissing the entire basis of Collusion as a fake.
Harding’s gig at the Guardian is curious. When you run a major expose and nobody picks it up, it’s a serious black eye editorially, one that impacts other writers on the staff. The Guardian (which did not respond to queries) must have known what the reaction to this latest anonymously sourced “expose” would be. So why run it? Either it’s one of the great all-time double-downs, or the paper has committed to being an ongoing experiment in publishing transparent trial balloons for the intelligence community.
Just as there’s a fine line for rock stars between stupid and clever, there’s a thin line in journalism between being plugged in, and a dope — and the Guardian is jumping all the way over it, God knows why.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 21:00 - Biden Says New Cuba Sanctions Are "Just The Beginning"
Biden Says New Cuba Sanctions Are “Just The Beginning”
President Biden says the newly announced sanctions against Cuba are “just the beginning” after rare widespread protests took over multiple cities on the communist-run island starting earlier in July. In the Thursday fresh sanctions announcement Biden condemned “the mass detentions and sham trials that are unjustly sentencing to prison those who dared to speak out in an effort to intimidate and threaten the Cuban people into silence,” according to a White House statement.
Specifically these latest sanctions target the defense minister and the National Special Brigade of Cuba’s Interior Ministry (on top of broader decades-long US sanctions against the government and economy).
Cuban Americans at a protest in Miami, via AP Biden said these two officials in particular are spearheading the crackdown on Cuban protesters. He suggested there’s much more to come.
“This is just the beginning — the United States will continue to sanction individuals responsible for oppression of the Cuban people,” Biden said.
The administration further said it’s working to “restore internet access” in Cuba after widespread shutdowns were reported over this month as Cuban security forces struggle to gain control of the demonstrations, largely driven by an economy in tatters, food and fuel shortages, and severe mismanagement of the pandemic crisis.
Currently, the US even prohibits remittances, barring Cuban-Americans from sending money to their families, with last year Western Union also shutting down all money-sending services to Cuba after the Trump administration re-imposed sanctions.
The Biden White House since he took office has vowed to “review” Trump era policies, but so far has kept them in place and now even appears to be ramping up the pressure once again. He again hinted this week that there could be a policy change toward “easing” restrictions.
Cuba has for its part alleged a foreign hand behind the recent protests, especially following the so-called “Cuban Twitter” initiative of the past decade, which was long ago exposed as part of Washington’s covert efforts to stir unrest on the island.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 20:40 - The Deep Seabed Is China's Next Target
The Deep Seabed Is China’s Next Target
By Alex Gray of 19fortygive.com
In late 2020, a Chinese submersible, the Fendouzhe, descended over 30,000 feet to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, home to the deepest point in the earth’s oceans, known as Challenger Deep. Loaded with so much surveying equipment that the crew added additional buoyancy materials to keep it balanced, the Fendouzhe set a national record for the depth of its dive and broadcast a live feed of its exploits back to China. While the expedition was billed as focusing on the animal life of the Trench, state media noted that the surveying experience would be useful for China’s growing interest in deep-sea mining.
The deep seabed, essentially the very bottom of the ocean’s floor, is a potentially rich source of oil and gas; elements like cobalt, copper, and nickel, as well as of the rare earth elements (REEs) required for many new technologies. Chinese President Xi Jinping has spoken repeatedly of the connection between “utilization of the ocean” and China’s quest for both maritime and overall national power. In 2016, he spoke specifically of the deep sea, saying: “the deep sea contains treasures that remain undiscovered and undeveloped, and in order to obtain these treasures we have to control key technologies in getting into the deep sea, discovering the deep sea, and developing the deep sea.”
Policy has followed rhetoric. In February 2016, China began laying the predicate for exploitation of deep seabed resources with the passage of the PRC Law on Exploration and Development of Resources in Deep Sea Seabed Areas. In the 12th (2011-2015) and 13th (2016-2020) Five Year Plans, China prioritized “promoting commercialization of deep-sea mining, manufacturing of deep-sea equipment and utilization of deep-sea bioresources.” Beijing already leads the world in the number of deep-sea mining contracts undertaken, with more likely to follow given the breadth of its surveying efforts and the level of interest shown by senior Chinese Communist Party officials.
Beijing is following a familiar pattern in its focus on the deep seabed. Senior officials are publicly extolling the economic importance of dominance in a particular underutilized domain, and connecting it explicitly to China’s broader role in the world. Xi has pursued similar approaches in the Arctic and Antarctic, declaring China a “Polar Great Power” in 2014. China’s 2018 Arctic Strategy declared Beijing a “near-Arctic” power, with an accompanying “Polar Silk Road” designed to accelerate Chinese economic influence in the region.
In the Antarctic, meanwhile, Chinese officials have spoken regularly of the resource exploitation potential of the continent, despite the Antarctic Treaty’s (of which China is a signatory) constraints on extractive activities. Chinese scholars have gone so far as to propagate the myth of the 2048 expiration of the Madrid Protocol that governs Antarctic environmental conduct, against all evidence and contrary to international consensus. For his part, Xi has publicly called on China to “exploit” the Antarctic.
As in the Arctic and Antarctic, China’s interest in economic dominance of the deep seabed has a significant military component. In 2018, a Ministry of National Defense document identified the domains relevant to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for future global operations. In addition to traditional domains like land, air, sea, and space, the document called for “confrontation activities” in areas including quantum, artificial intelligence, and, revealingly, the deep sea.
Science of Strategy, a premier Chinese military journal connected to its National Defense University, noted the economic value of the deep seabed as early as 2015 and spoke of “military struggle in the deep sea” as a future warfare domain. Revisions to the country’s National Security Law that year also flagged the deep seabed as an area of national interest for Beijing.
Chinese dominance of the deep seabed, whether in already-disputed waters like the South and East China Seas or farther afield in the Western Pacific, where China has conducted extensive surveying, including near U.S. territories like Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, poses significant military challenges for the U.S. and its allies.
As retired U.S. Navy Captain James Fanell, formerly the Director of Intelligence for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, recently told me: “The PRC’s deep seabed survey operations have two purposes. One, and the one most publicized, is to find and exploit natural resources and the other is to collect oceanographic data for the Chinese Communist Party’s strategic goal of expanding the geographic area and lethality of the PLA Navy’s blue-water submarine force.”
Fanell has noted that such operations provide the PLA Navy with oceanographic data on the bottom contours, water temperature, salinity, and other metrics of what the Chinese call the “ocean battlespace environment” (海战场环境). This type of information facilitates the PLA Navy’s objective of neutralizing one of the United States’ longtime warfare advantages: control of the undersea domain.
The current international mechanism for regulating the deep seabed is the International Seabed Authority (ISA), created under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The U.S. is not a party to either arrangement and for good reason. Not only is China the largest financier of the ISA, but its institutional framework remains heavily weighted against both U.S. economic and strategic interests. The Senate has consistently failed to ratify U.S. membership in UNCLOS and ISA out of concerns about sovereignty and the efficacy of either mechanism in upholding American interests.
The United States will most effectively counter Beijing’s deep seabed activities by working proactively with like-minded states, including “Quad” members Australia, Japan, and India and trusted partners like Taiwan, to monitor China’s activities and respond accordingly. Attempts to exploit the deep seabed economically in ways contrary to international best practices, or to militarize it, should be strongly condemned.
An allied strategy to defend the deep seabed from Beijing’s predations requires, as in the Polar regions, both an economic and military response, realizing the intrinsic linkage between them in Chinese statecraft. Like the Arctic strategies created by the U.S. government in recent years, a similar unified document for the deep seabed would assist in coordinating efforts across economic, scientific, and military agencies and focusing attention on China’s ambitions and its challenge to American interests.
Additional intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance resources must be devoted to preventing unmonitored Chinese deep-sea surveying in U.S. territorial waters, exclusive economic zones (EEZs), or the waters or EEZs of the three Freely Associated States (FAS) for whose defense the U.S. is responsible. Allies like Japan and Australia can play important roles in monitoring Beijing’s activity in their backyards.
As China continues to expand its activities across numerous domains, and its economic and military aspirations became ever more intertwined, the U.S. and its partners must adapt and respond accordingly. The deep seabed, like the Arctic and Antarctic before it, will increasingly become an area of Great Power competition requiring Washington’s attention and a clear strategy for the preservation of U.S. interests.
Alex Gray is a Senior Fellow in National Security Affairs at the American Foreign Policy Council. Gray served as Director for Oceania & Indo-Pacific Security at the White House National Security Council (NSC) from 2018 to 2019.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 20:20 - Kodak Deletes Instagram Post After Photographer Called Xinjiang "Orwellian Dystopia"
Kodak Deletes Instagram Post After Photographer Called Xinjiang “Orwellian Dystopia”
Eastman Kodak deleted an Instagram post featuring photos from the Xinjiang region of China, where western governments and media have criticized Beijing for human rights violations against the majority-Muslim Uyghur people.
According to The New York Times, the now-deleted Instagram post featured the work of the French photographer Patrick Wack who released numerous images on Kodak film about Xinjiang’s “abrupt descent into an Orwellian dystopia” in the last half-decade.
The international community, especially western countries, has accused China of human rights violations against the Uyghur people by forcing them into re-education camps, forced labor, surveilling them, and even controlling birth rates.
At issue was a subtitle written by Patrick Wack, the photographer behind the controversial images, which called the region an “Orwellian nightmare.”
After receiving backlash from Chinese netizens, the post was deleted by Kodak, which was followed by a new post on Tuesday that offered an apology:
“Content from the photographer Patrick Wack was recently posted on this Instagram page. The content of the post was provided by the photographer and was not authored by Kodak. Kodak’s Instagram page is intended to enable creativity by providing a platform for promoting the medium of film. It is not intended to be a platform for political commentary. The views expressed by Mr. Wack do not represent those of Kodak and are not endorsed by Kodak. We apologize for any misunderstanding or offense the post may have caused.”
Hong Kong Free Press also said Kodak apologized on its WeChat page, blaming the mishap on “management loopholes.”
“For a long time, Kodak has maintained a good relationship with the Chinese government and has been in close cooperation with various government departments. We will continue to respect the Chinese government and the Chinese law.”
Western firms are increasingly choosing between customers in the West and or its thriving customer base in China. The West has pressured companies like Nike to purge its cotton supply chains from Xinjiang. Swedish company H&M experienced a decline in Chinese sales after it spoke out against cotton from the region.
A little more than a week ago, the US Government issued a supply chain advisory for US firms with supply chains that extend into the Xinjiang region.
Kodak is not the first international company to apologize.
At the moment, Chinese officials have yet to respond to Kodak, but Chinese state-owned Global Times said:
“It’s not uncommon for the West to hype about the Xinjiang issue under the instigation of anti-China forces headed by the United States.”
Wack was frustrated with Kodak’s statement but didn’t believe any other company operating in China would’ve acted differently.
“We have created a globalized world where no company with international ambition can reasonably give up on the China market,” he said to CNET. “Would any other major photo company, or multinational company, behave differently and give up on the China market?”
Yet another international company is bowing down to the communist because they don’t want to lose their massive Chinese market share.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 20:00 - Federal Court Rules CDC's COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium Is Unlawful
Federal Court Rules CDC’s COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium Is Unlawful
By Jack Phillips of Epoch Times
A federal court on Friday ruled that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) overstepped its authority by halting evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Cincinnati-based U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously agreed (pdf) with a lower court ruling that said the CDC engaged in federal overreach with the eviction moratorium, which the agency has consistently extended for months. Several weeks ago, the CDC announced it would allow the policy, which was passed into law by Congress, to expire at the end of July.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), testifies during a Senate hearing in Washington, on July 20, 2021. (Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images) “It is not our job as judges to make legislative rules that favor one side or another,” the judges wrote. “But nor should it be the job of bureaucrats embedded in the executive branch. While landlords and tenants likely disagree on much, there is one thing both deserve: for their problems to be resolved by their elected representatives.”
The ruling upheld one handed down by U.S. District Judge Mark Norris, who in March blocked enforcement of the moratorium throughout western Tennessee.
Under the moratorium, tenants who have lost income during the pandemic can declare under penalty of perjury that they’ve made their best effort to pay rent on time. The CDC claimed the measure was necessary to prevent people from having to enter overcrowded conditions if they were evicted, which would, according to the agency, impact public health.
Previously, the CDC’s lawyers argued in court filings that Congress authorized the eviction freeze as part of its COVID-19 relief legislation, while simultaneously asserting that the moratorium was within its authority. Those arguments were rejected by the three-panel appeals court on Friday.
Demonstrators call for a rent strike during the COVID-19 pandemic as they pass City Hall in Los Angeles, Calif., on May 1, 2020. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images) “What’s the difference between executive-branch experts and congressional ones? Executive-branch experts make regulations; congressional experts make recommendations,” the appeals court wrote. “Congressional bureaucracy leaves the law-making power with the people’s representatives—right where the Founders put it.”
But last month, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision rejected a different plea by landlords to end the ban on evictions.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh had written in an opinion (pdf) that while he believes that the CDC had exceeded its authority by implementing the moratorium, he voted against ending it because the policy is set to expire July 31.
“Those few weeks,” he wrote, “will allow for additional and more orderly distribution” of the funds that Congress has appropriated to provide rental assistance to those in need because of the pandemic.
The CDC moratorium has faced pushback from property owners as well as the National Association of Realtors.
“Landlords have been losing over $13 billion every month under the moratorium, and the total effect of the CDC’s overreach may reach up to $200 billion if it remains in effect for a year,” said the organization in an emergency petition to the Supreme Court.
It’s not clear if the CDC’s attorneys will appeal the ruling. The Epoch Times has requested a comment from the agency.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 19:40 - Dubai Makes Artificial Rain With Drones That Shock Clouds
Dubai Makes Artificial Rain With Drones That Shock Clouds
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) uses drones that fly into clouds and deliver an electric shock to “cajole them” into producing precipitation amid dangerous heat waves regularly surpassing triple digits.
According to Daily Mail, UAE’s National Center of Meteorology (NCM) is flying drones equipped with electric-charge emission instruments that deliver an electric charge to air molecules, which generally encourage precipitation.
NCM has produced “monsoon-like downpours across the country” with drones to deter sweltering 122F heat. Footage shows Dubai battered with torrential rain produced by cloud seeding technology.
The country already uses cloud-seeding technology, such as dropping salt and other chemicals into clouds to stimulate precipitation.
The latest cloud seeding operations via drones is part of a $15 million program that is already producing rain in the country, which ranks one of the top driest in the world. The country has plenty of clouds, so triggering rainstorms with electrical charges via drones shouldn’t be an issue. Not every cloud will trigger, but seeding “increases the amount of rain by between five and 70 percent,” Daily Mail said.
Rain triggered through cloud seeding is much cheaper than desalinated water, where about 42% of the country’s water originates.
Cloud seeding via drones has enormous potential and shows water can be tapped from the sky. This technology might be helpful to North and South America, where huge megadroughts impact water supplies and damage crops.
The downside to artificial rain in arid climates is that these areas aren’t well-positioned to handle downpours and may result in flash floods. There’s always a caveat when playing with Mother Nature.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 19:20 - Biden Gaffe Renews Questions About COVID Transparency
Biden Gaffe Renews Questions About COVID Transparency
Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClearPolitics.com,
President Biden so desperately wants the vaccine-hesitant part of the country to get their shots that he may have spread a little misinformation.
“You are not going to get COVID,” he promised during a CNN town-event Wednesday night, “if you have these vaccines.”
Of course, this is not true. Biden knows it. He said as much later during the forum, explaining that, while vaccinated individuals enjoy significant protections, they can still test positive for the virus. But even if that happens, the president pointed out, the vaccine largely mitigates the most serious dangers. “You are not going to be hospitalized,” he said, reciting the latest scientific consensus. “You are not going to be in the IC unit, and you are not going to die.”
The fact that fully vaccinated individuals can still contract the coronavirus is a medical reality. It has also led to more uncomfortable questions about transparency for the Biden administration.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki revealed at Tuesday’s briefing that there had been previously undisclosed “breakthrough infections” among vaccinated employees at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Psaki refused, two days later, to say how many White House officials had gotten sick.
Reporters pressed her on the issue. After all, as the country learned the hard way during the pandemic, the health of the people working directly for the president can end up influencing the health of the republic. A lot of people have those jobs, more than 2,000 in the White House itself and the adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office Building. According to Psaki, that means “that just statistically speaking, there will be people who are vaccinated individuals who get COVID on the campus.”
Will the White House make those statistics available as they develop? “No,” Psaki said. “I don’t think you can expect that we’re going to be providing numbers of breakthrough cases.”
Well, why not? The story of the pandemic has been told through the charts and graphs presented to the public by members of the White House COVID task force. Why should this data be exempt?
When Kelly O’Donnell of NBC News pressed the White House to explain the lack of transparency, Psaki responded by saying that things are different now:
“Well, Kelly, I think, one, we’re in a very different place than we were several months ago. The vast, vast, vast majority of individuals who are vaccinated who get COVID will be asymptomatic or have mild cases.”
NOW – Psaki refuses to disclose the number of #COVID19 breakthrough cases at the White House.pic.twitter.com/pwJ38GjOgv
— Disclose.tv 🚨 (@disclosetv) July 23, 2021
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Psaki continued by saying that everyone who clocks in and out at the White House campus “has been offered a vaccine.” But those administration employees, like the rest of the federal workforce, have not been required to roll up their sleeves and take the shot. Face coverings have disappeared all the same at the White House, and aides are expected to follow the rule Biden laid out in May: “Get vaccinated or wear a mask until you do.”
But since even vaccinated individuals can become infected with the virus, what happens in those cases? “We have been very clear that we will be transparent with anyone who has had close proximity contact with the president or any of the four principles as deemed by the White House medical unit with all of you,” Psaki said.
And if someone sick with COVID comes into close contact with those principles, the press secretary said that the case itself would be made public but the infected individual would decide whether or not his or her name would be released. She promised, “We will protect their privacy.”
White House staff were made aware of this policy in a campus-wide email sent recently, and Psaki said Tuesday that the White House was abiding by “an agreement we made during the transition to be transparent and make information available.” They had committed then, she insisted, to releasing “information proactively if it is commissioned officers.”
The White House did not provide a copy of that commitment to transparency when asked to do so by RealClearPolitics.
It is a touchy subject. On one hand, the White House would rather not deal with headlines about vaccinated staffers coming down with COVID at the exact moment they are singing the praises of getting vaccinated. On the other, they would rather keep contact tracing apolitical and skip the pandemic parlor game that consumed the press and the previous administration.
In the time before the vaccine, reporters kept meticulous notes of which Trump staffers were and were not wearing their masks. And after Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s ceremonial nomination in the Rose Garden was dubbed a “super-spreader” by Anthony Fauci, the press scrambled to carry out their own unofficial contact tracing to see who might have been the “patient zero” who infected President Trump, the first lady, and several members of Congress. Biden World would rather skip that drama.
The risks aren’t as severe now, thanks to the vaccine. Get the shot and, as Biden explained, “you are not going to die.” All the same, even some Biden allies find the lack of transparency frustrating. “I get they’re trying to show strength and resolve, but I hated this secrecy with Trump and I hate it here with Biden too,” said Bradley Moss, a partner at the law firm that represented the whistleblower in Trump’s first impeachment. “Keep the public informed. Secrecy breeds mistrust.”
So why not just tell the public how many breakthrough cases there have been? Again, as Psaki explained, “we’re in a very different place than we were several months ago.”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 19:00 - Mass Shootings On Course For Record Year As US Transforms Into Violent Mess
Mass Shootings On Course For Record Year As US Transforms Into Violent Mess
To date, the number of mass shootings in the U.S. is 21% higher than the same period in 2020 (Jan.1 – July 20), which is 30% higher than the previous high, according to nonprofit research group Gun Violence Archive (GVA).
GVA’s data so far shows the U.S. has recorded 375 mass shootings in 41 different states (and Washington D.C.) in the first 200 days of 2021. Putting that in perspective, the country had 310 by this date last year.
Compared with the last several years, mass shootings are way above trend in 2021. The below chart clearly shows that pandemic lockdowns didn’t reduce the phenomenon whatsoever, and in fact may have contributed to the opposite.
This year, a combination of defunding the police and relaxation of petty crimes by liberal-run metro areas has transformed the U.S. into a chaotic mess.
More than 1,800 people were injured or killed in mass shootings so far in 2021. That’s a higher total than in 2015 or 2018.
Rising violent crime positively correlates with surging gun ownership and elevated ammo prices. People are arming themselves as the liberal utopia miserably backfires.
Cumulative deaths from mass shootings were more than 370 this year, up 50% over the same period last year.
American mass shootings since 2014:
- 2014: 270
- 2015: 335
- 2016: 382
- 2017: 348
- 2018: 336
- 2019: 417
- 2020: 611
- 2021: 375 (in 201 days)
And in case you’re wondering who’s involved with all these mass shootings – Mass-Shootings.info shows those who’ve been charged, convicted, or wanted for violent crimes in connection by year. The site also notes that 53% of mass shootings in 2021 have no known suspect, however as you’ll see their data is different than GVA’s – perhaps because “mass shooting” has several definitions.
Meanwhile, here’s where the mass shootings are happening, according to the site:
And in what should be a surprise to absolutely no one, Chicago and the state of Illinois take the cake:
If the trend continues, 2021 could be set for a record year.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 18:40 - A Gold Medal Question: Should Women's Sports Even Exist?
A Gold Medal Question: Should Women’s Sports Even Exist?
Authored by Charles Lipson via RealClearPolitics.com,
The Tokyo Olympics prompted the latest furor over transgender participation in women’s sports. It came when New Zealand named a transgender woman to its weightlifting team. This athlete’s participation raises questions far beyond this Olympics or that particular sport. The same questions arise whenever a transgender person competes at any level, from high school to world-class. When the winner takes the victory stand, biological women can’t help but wonder if they were treated fairly. Transgender athletes respond, pointedly, that it would be unfair to exclude them.
“She’s a woman,” they say.
“This is a woman’s event. So she should compete.”
The problem with this debate is that it raises other fundamental questions: Should we have women’s sports at all? Why? What is the rationale—and how compelling is it?
The answers to those questions provide an answer to whether transgender athletes should compete in women’s sporting events.
A century ago, the answers would have been obvious.
Men and women were separated for all sorts of reasons—social, cultural, and biological. Mixed competition would have been unthinkable. Today, our norms about gender and sex are substantially different. The default is that men and women should be treated identically. Treating them differently, such as separating them in competition, requires a strong rationale, at least in liberal, Western societies. Separate treatment violates deeply held modern norms, which oppose discrimination because of irrelevant criteria, such as race, sex, gender, religion, and national origin.
We consider it a national disgrace that black baseball players were excluded from Major League Baseball until Jackie Robinson ran onto the field on April 15, 1947. His race had no bearing on his skill as a ball player. Yet no one today would celebrate Rory McIlroy or Dustin Johnson “integrating” the women’s professional golf tour.
Why the objections to McIlroy or Johnson on the women’s tour? For the same reason golf courses provide separate tees for women, the same reason the WNBA uses a smaller basketball than their male counterparts, the same reason there are thriving women’s leagues in tennis, soccer, bowling, and dozens more. It is not about the social construction of gender; it is about biological differences that bear directly on performance.
Biological males and females differ systematically in size, strength, speed, height, lung capacity, and agility. Acknowledging those differences is separate from respecting how any individual self-identifies. Given our widely shared opposition to discrimination, those physical differences are the only reason to permit separate events. If gender differences don’t matter for a particular sport, then the rationale for separate events is weaker than our liberal ideal of non-discrimination.
We would never permit, much less require, this kind of gender separation in chess tournaments. It would violate our basic norms demanding equal treatment unless there are very powerful reasons to treat people differently. Those reasons and their persuasiveness will differ from sport to sport. They hardly matter for equine events like show jumping and dressage. They probably don’t matter for target shooting. But they do matter for archery. Top male athletes pull their bows with higher “draw weights” than do top females, so they can shoot arrows with flatter trajectories, less affected by crosswinds. The differences matter in golf, too. On the men’s professional tour, the average drive is 295.5 yards. On the women’s tour, even the longest hitter doesn’t drive the ball that far.
What about competition in the Boston Marathon, where male winners finish 10 to 15 minutes faster than women? That difference is prima facia evidence that we should crown separate winners. A more interesting fact is that Kenyan men and women win the races nearly every year, consistently beating Americans and Europeans. Yet we would rightly consider it invidious racism to segregate marathons by race or national origin. So, why isn’t it invidious sexism to crown separate men and women winners? The answer lies in our common-sense recognition that men and women have major physical differences.
The Olympics certainly recognizes these consequential differences. In Tokyo, men and women will compete against each other only in equestrian events and one division of sailing.
This kind of separation may not last forever. Social norms are changing. But, for now, we still hold separate sports competitions for men and women, and we do so solely because of their systematic physical differences. If that is the only compelling rationale for separating sports by gender, then it should be the only rationale in determining transgender participation.
The best way to resolve this issue is to step back and ask yourself: Is there any compelling reason to hold separate competition for men and women in this particular sport? The answer might be different for golf, shot put, target shooting, or dressage. If the answer is “Yes, there are strong reasons in this particular sport,” then that same rationale answers the question, “Should transgender women compete against other women in this sport?”
Put simply, if there are good reasons for holding separate competitions at all, then transgender women should not compete against other women.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 18:20 - "We're In Fantasyland" – Soaring Used-Car Prices Allow Sellers To Take In More Than They Paid
“We’re In Fantasyland” – Soaring Used-Car Prices Allow Sellers To Take In More Than They Paid
The latest Labor Department report on consumer prices shocked economists when they saw how prices for used vehicles soared 10.5% in Jue, following already-robust increases of 7.3% in May and 10% in April. As the economy overheats and global shortages of computer chips crimps new-car production, an extremely rare phenomenon has turned the auto world upside down.
For the first time in recent memory, prices on used cars are “defying gravity,” according to WSJ.
Once seen as the ultmate depreciating asset, some car owners are being offered even more money than they originally paid for their vehicles, especially for certain popular models like the Kia Telluride and the Toyota Tundra. The problem is that consumer demand for cars and trucks has surged (thanks in part to all the federal stimulus dollars sloshing around in Americans’ bank accounts).
To be sure, for most models, used vehicles can still be had at a lower price than the newer cars. But if things don’t change soon, most in-demand used models will see their prices remain elevated for a long time.
“We have a long way to go before prices come down,” said Tyson Jominy, an auto analyst with research firm JD Power.
But according to data from JD Power, the average price paid by a customer in June for a one-year-old vehicle was only $80 less than the selling price of a brand-new vehicle. Typically, the gap is closer to $5,000.
The impact of this shift can already be seen in dealerships’ marketing materials. Dealers typically run ads advertising prices on cars they’re hoping to sell. Now, they’re telling customers how much their cars are worth.
Some dealerships are even offering “drive-through appraisals.”
“It just seems like we’re in fantasyland,” said New England auto dealer Abel Toll.
And for low-mileage vehicles, offers equivalent to what customers initially paid aren’t uncommon.
Amid this used-car gold rush, some dealership owners say they’re worried customers who buy now will end up being dissatisfied with the high prices when their vehicles depreciate more rapidly in the years to come.
But some are milking it for all it’s worth. One small-business owner traded in his entire fleet of trucks and decided to use the premium to finance upgrades to more “high content” models. “I can’t imagine this will last for much longer, so I decided to go all in.”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 18:00 - Biden's Anti-Gun ATF Pick David Chipman Will Undermine Industry Cooperation
Biden’s Anti-Gun ATF Pick David Chipman Will Undermine Industry Cooperation
Authored by Emily Miller via Emily Posts (emphasis ours),
Click here for my most recent article on Biden’s push for Senate Democrats to vote for David Chipman. Then click here for a refresher on what happened during Chipman’s committee hearing (confiscating AR-15s was the highlight!)
Chipman and Gabby Giffords (from a video paid for by Giffords) Pres. Joe Biden will not withdraw his nominee to run ATF, despite all the Senate Republicans opposing David Chipman. Biden is banking on holding all Democrats and having Vice President Kamala Harris be the deciding vote. The firearms industry is prepared for the worst case scenario.
“If Chipman is the head of ATF, members of the industry will be far less likely to work cooperatively with the bureau,” Larry Keane, who is the top lobbyist in DC for the firearms industry, told me in an interview
Chipman is the Senior Policy Advisor at Giffords Courage to Fight Gun Violence, which was founded by Gabby Giffords and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ). He’s also a member of the advisory board for Mike Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety. And Biden somehow thinks this appointment to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms etc. (ATF) is going to work in reality. Uncle Joe is so wrong.
“When ATF has a zero-tolerance mentality and the place is run by a gun-control lobbyist, retailers are going to think twice before calling ATF to seek guidance or admit a paperwork mistake. Major manufacturers will be less willing to help ATF to train agents and inspectors,” said Keane.
Keane is the Senior Vice President for Government and Public Affairs and General Counsel of the National Shooting Sports (NSSF), which is the firearm industry trade association. The NSSF has taken the lead in DC in trying to stop the Chipman appointment. (If you have my book, look up Keane in the index. He has taught me a lot about the industry through the years.)
I didn’t know what Larry was referencing about the manufacturers cooperating with ATF. He explained that NSSF regularly arranges to have new ATF agents and inspectors tour factories.
“You have these people showing up in the front office of ATF who have the faintest idea how guns are made. How can you regulate an industry you know nothing about? So you offer close up tours to teach the newbies about gun parts and all that stuff so they can learn,“ Keane said. “Our major manufacturers aren’t required to do this. They do it because they are good corporate citizens. But with Chipman, that’s not going to happen anymore.”
Senate Whip Count:
Since the Judiciary Committee voted — without Chipman’s ATF personnel files — two more Republicans said they won’t vote in favor: Sens. Mike Braun (R-IN) and Pat Toomey (R-PA), who is usually squishy on guns. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has not said publicly how she would vote but Republican leaders are confident she will be a nay to hold the 50 total.
As Senators, we took an oath to protect Americans’ Constitutional rights – including the right to keep and bear arms. That’s why @SteveDaines and I took to the Senate floor to strongly oppose the nomination of David Chipman to lead the ATF.https://t.co/YtRmbfkZPW
— Senator Mike Braun (@SenatorBraun) July 15, 2021
The deciding votes are all moderate Democrats in pro-gun states: Manchin (WVA), King (ME), Tester (MT), Shaheen (NH) and Sinema (AZ). They will have to decide if they vote on behalf of their state’s Second Amendment advocates or with their president’s nomination. They are being lobbied hard.
“They are putting an enormous amount of pressure on these senators,” said Keane, who is tracking all the votes. “This could all end if one of the undecided Dems says ‘no.’ But they won’t do that out of deference to the president.”
Read the rest of the report here.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 07/23/2021 – 17:40
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