Jul 24

Today’s News 24th July 2024

  • World War 3: The Catalyst For A New World Order
    World War 3: The Catalyst For A New World Order

    Authored by Nick Giambruno via InternationalMan.com,

    The F-22 Raptor is the best air dominance warplane in the world.

    It’s the top dog fighter jet.

    The F-22’s advanced avionics, stealth capabilities, and maneuverability make it an unmatched platform for hunting and killing other aircraft.

    While Russia, China, and several other nations have their own air dominance fighters, it’s doubtful they would fare well against an F-22 in air-to-air combat.

    In short, the F-22 is critical to the US Air Force’s ability to control the skies in a potential conflict with a sophisticated enemy.

    That’s why the F-22 Raptor is one of the few warplane models the US government does not export to any foreign country—not even to Israel or its NATO allies.

    The F-22’s highly advanced stealth capabilities give it a significant edge over other air dominance fighter jets. In air-to-air combat, enemy fighter jets probably wouldn’t even know there was a Raptor nearby until it was too late.

    The potential presence of an F-22 in an area would give any hostile air force an excellent reason to think twice before challenging the US Air Force.

    That’s why the US stations F-22s in Japan as a deterrent to China’s air force should it make a move on Taiwan, for example.

    However, all of this could change soon… and have enormous geopolitical implications.

    The South China Morning Post has remained Hong Kong’s newspaper of record since British colonial rule.

    They recently published a bombshell article claiming that Chinese researchers had developed a new radar detection technology that neutralizes the F-22’s stealth capabilities.

    They claim that China’s radar system can now accurately pinpoint an F-22’s real-time position. This information could then be relayed to interceptor fighter jets or surface-to-air missile batteries to target the F-22.

    If the claims are true, the impact on the F-22’s combat effectiveness would be huge. It would mean the US is unlikely to dominate the skies in a conflict with China.

    That has tremendous consequences for the island of Taiwan.

    Taiwan considers itself an independent nation with its own government, military, and foreign relations.

    However, China views Taiwan as a breakaway province and has vowed to reunify it with the mainland by force if necessary. Recently, Xi privately warned Biden that China would reunify Taiwan, but the timing had not yet been decided.

    While not explicitly committing to Taiwan’s defense, the US has been a significant supplier of military equipment to Taiwan. A Chinese invasion could trigger a response from the US military, though the extent and nature of this response are uncertain.

    China has one of the world’s largest and increasingly modern militaries. Taiwan has a well-trained military, though smaller and less equipped than China’s.

    In a military conflict, China seems to have the advantage. The only way Taiwan would have a prayer is if the US directly joined the conflict.

    The US government has conducted various war games to simulate and prepare for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. A key finding from these war games is that maintaining air superiority is critical for the US military to defend Taiwan successfully.

    In other words, if the US cannot dominate the skies above Taiwan, it probably won’t be successful in repelling a Chinese invasion.

    If the Chinese have compromised the F-22’s stealth capabilities, then I think it’s unlikely the US will achieve air superiority in case of a conflict in Taiwan. And if they can’t achieve air superiority, then their efforts are likely doomed to failure.

    If the US understands that intervening in Taiwan is doomed to failure, they are likely to leave Taiwan to its fate, which means China will be successful in reunifying it with the mainland.

    That would be a geopolitical earthquake and could fatally undermine the current US-led world order.

    Taiwan is one of the three key proxy wars that will, I think, be decisive in who wins World War 3.

    While many don’t realize it, World War 3 is already underway.

    World War 3 and the New World Order

    Total war between the world’s largest powers that reshuffled the international order defined the previous world wars.

    However, with the advent of nuclear weapons, total war between the largest powers today—Russia, China, and the US—means a nuclear Armageddon where there are no winners and only losers.

    That could still happen despite nobody wanting it, but it’s not the most likely outcome.

    World War 3 is unlikely to be a direct kinetic war between the world’s largest powers, like the previous world wars.

    Instead, the conflict is playing out on different levels—proxy wars, economic wars, financial wars, cyber wars, biological wars, deniable sabotage, and information wars.

    Out of all these domains, I think proxy warfare will determine who wins World War 3.

    Here’s the bottom line.

    Russia, China, and their allies want to change the US-led world order that has been in place since the end of World War 2.

    The conflict is playing out on a level that is below the threshold of direct kinetic warfare because that could invite a nuclear Armageddon.

    Nonetheless, there is a conflict between the biggest global powers to determine the world order, as in the previous world wars.

    As I see it, World War 3 is a conflict between two geopolitical blocks.

    The first block consists of the US and its allies who have hitched their wagons to the unipolar world order.

    I’m reluctant to call this block “the West” because the people who control it have values antithetical to Western Civilization.

    A more fitting label would be NATO & Friends.

    The other block comprises Russia, China, Iran, and other countries favorable to a multipolar world order.

    Let’s call them the BRICS+, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and other countries.

    BRICS+ is not a perfect label, but it’s a decent representation of the countries favorable to the multipolar world order.

    • In short, BRICS+ wants to transform the current world order from unipolar to multipolar and give themselves a bigger seat at the table in the process.

    • NATO & Friends want the unipolar status quo to prevail.

    • That’s World War 3, and it’s happening right now.

    It’s important to remember that world orders are nothing new.

    World orders are how the big global powers have set the rules of the game for centuries. They are simply the architecture for international political relations between countries.

    On a smaller scale, it’s similar to when the most powerful criminal groups in a given city—like mafias and street gangs—come together and agree on how to divide their activities and neighborhoods among themselves.

    Sooner or later, though, these agreements always break down. Then, there is a violent power struggle until the criminal groups reach a new agreement reflecting the new power balance.

    A similar dynamic is at play with the most powerful countries and world orders.

    Conflicts among the most powerful countries typically lead to a breakdown and restructuring in the world order.

    The current US-led world order was the result of World War 2.

    Prior to that, the Treaty of Versailles created a new world order after World War 1 that lasted from 1919 to 1939.

    Prior to that, the Congress of Vienna defined the world order. It lasted from Napoleon’s defeat in the early 1800s to the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914.

    Prior to that, the Peace of Westphalia defined the world order. It lasted from the end of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648 until the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars around the early 1800s.

    Here’s the bottom line.

    Changes to the world order are historical events with enormous implications—investment and otherwise.

    We’re living through one of these rare times right now.

    That’s why it’s crucial to sift through the noise and propaganda, put the pieces together correctly, and see the true geopolitical Big Picture.

    Countless millions throughout history were wiped out financially—or worse—during the previous world wars because they failed to see the correct Big Picture and take appropriate action.

    But what if you get the Big Picture right as World War 3 unfolds?

    You can avoid disaster AND set yourself up to potentially make life-changing profits by acting on the investment implications of WW3 before others figure out what is really happening and how it’s likely to end.

    It’s a rare fortune-building opportunity for those who understand what is happening and make the right moves today.

    That’s exactly why I just released an urgent new report with all the details, including what you must do to prepare. It’s called The Most Dangerous Economic Crisis in 100 Years… the Top 3 Strategies You Need Right Now. Click here to download the PDF now.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 23:25

  • VP Kamala Harris Had 92% Staff Turnover During Her First Three Years
    VP Kamala Harris Had 92% Staff Turnover During Her First Three Years

    By Adam Andrzejewski of OpenTheBooks

    “People really, really do not want to work for Kamala Harris,” wrote former staffer Dan McLaughlin, January 2022.

    Topline

    Under Kamala Harris, the Office of the Vice President has been called a “revolving door,” a “staff exodus” of key aides “heading for the exits.” 

    That’s not hyperbole from the national media. Our auditors at OpenTheBooks quantified an extraordinarily high 91.5-percent staff turnover rate. We used U.S. Senate disclosures to conduct our investigation and those databases can be downloaded below.

    Elected in November 2020, Harris took the oath of office in January 2021. As of March 31, 2024, only four of the initial 47 staffers from the first year are still employed – consistently and without interruption – by the Vice President.

    Furthermore, the turnover chaos isn’t getting better. In the trailing 12-month period, 24 staffers left — that’s almost half the employees.

    Download the Office of Vice President 2021 & 2024 payrolls here (source: U.S. Senate disclosures)

    Key facts

    The “top-to-bottom dysfunction” that The Atlantic referenced in October 2023 is shown in the reported payrolls that we captured.

    “In her first year and a half as vice president, Harris saw the departure of her chief of staff, communications director, domestic-policy adviser, national security adviser, and other aides,” the magazine wrote.

    If only that was all who left.

    The semi-annual Report of the Secretary of the Senate, among other things, lists the names, titles and salaries of staff in the Office of the Vice President (OVP).

    In the most recent publishing through March 31, only four staff from the original 47 listed in the 2021 report remained consistently employed and are among the office’s 50 current staff members.

    The Kamala Harris Fabulous Four – here are the names, titles, employment date, and salaries of the four employees most loyal to Kamala Harris:

    • Yael S. Belkind has been assistant to the chief of staff since Jan. 20, 2021, earning $85,924;

    • Nasrina Bargzie was associate counsel since Feb. 10, 2021, now is deputy council, taking home $118,066.

    • Oludayo O. Faderin was associate director from July 2021, then became deputy director of west wing operations, making $85,924.

    • Olivia K. Hartman was hired in August 2021 as advance coordinator and became deputy director of scheduling, making $94,750.

    Silas Woods, III began his career with the vice president as a vetting researcher on Feb. 17, 2021 making $52,500, became associate director of research, and left in August 2022. He went to work as a press assistant for the White House making $67,000. On March 25, 2024, Woods returned as a personal aid to the second gentleman and deputy director of special projects, where his full salary isn’t reported.

    The other 45 people employed in OVP as of March 31 were hired after Sept. 30, 2021, when staff had already begun leaving the office.

    In the last year alone, (April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024) 24 people left their jobs with Harris.

    Key background—Kamala Harris Tried To Hide Everything

    The Kamala Harris, Office of Vice President, is committed to the opacity of its payrolls and all other office information.

    In our 2021 reporting at Forbes, “VP Kamala Harris Is The Least Transparent Elected Official In The Nation,” we outlined the OVP’s refusal to provide any information to the public and taxpayers. Her office denied our FOIA request and claimed that they were immune.

    We had filed a FOIA request with the OVP for its staff payroll in September 2021. A spokesman replied:

    “Thank you for your inquiry. The Office of the Vice President is not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests. See 5 U.S.C. 552; 44 U.S.C. 2207.”

    We even tried to coax the information out of the OVP:

    “I understand the OVP isn’t subject to FOIA — is there any information you can provide me at all about the office staff? Whether it’s total staff employees (without names or any other employee-specific info) or total payroll for 2020 or current numbers for 2021?”

    However, the spokesman replied:

    “Thank you for the inquiry. OVP does not have any information to share at this time.”

    Therefore, we had to rely on the U.S. Senate’s semi-annual report for Oct. 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021, which gives a list of the 28 staff members who had been hired by the new administration between Jan. 20 and March 31, 2021. Over the next few months, the OVP added another approximately 20 staff members.

    We calculated that for VP Harris’s 28 staff listed in the Senate report, the 2021 salaries added up to $2,334, 223.

    But President Joseph Biden’s congressional budget submission shows the OVP got $5 million for 23 full time staff in 2021 and requested over $6 million for 27 full time staff in 2022.

    The OVP wouldn’t answer for the discrepancy in budget and staffing, citing the earlier provision that states only federal agencies are subject to FOIA, and the OVP, it argues, isn’t a federal agency.

    Vice President Kamala Harris, the second-in-command, and possible next president of the United States, is the only elected official in the country not required to share her office’s spending with the public.

    We captured 25 million public employee salary and pension records on 55,000 FOIA requests last year. You can search all federal, state, and local government payrolls on our website for free or with our free AI search tool, Benjamin, named after Benjamin Franklin.

    Biden’s High Turnover

    Harris isn’t alone in her inability to retain staff.

    Since 2021, only 127 of Biden’s initial 560 White House employees remain, a 77-percent turnover rate that would be considered high if not for Harris’ 92-percent rate.

    Between 2023 and 2024, 225 people left, a 43-percent turnover rate that is only slightly lower than the 46-percent between 2022 and 2023.

    (For context, Donald Trump’s payroll turnover from his first year until his fourth year was 72-percent.)

    But Biden’s high turnover isn’t the only staffing failure that should give taxpayers pause.

    He has the largest White House headcount since the Richard Nixon administration, who was the first president to exceed 500 staffers.

    Now Biden employs 565 staffers, costing taxpayers $61 million in salaries. That’s up from the 524 staffers in 2023, costing $52 million.

    Biden has 152 more employees than Trump (413) (FY2020) and 97 more than Obama (468) (FY2012), when each were in the fourth year of their first terms.

    This shouldn’t be surprising, as Biden has made clear his intentions to grow the size of the federal government.

    In the first nine days of his presidency, Biden issued many executive orders expanding the size, scope, and power of the federal bureaucracy.

    During his first three years, more than 40,000 bureaucrats were added across the 123 executive agencies, outside of the Department of Defense, U.S. Post Office, and intelligence services.

    Crucial quote

    Symone Sanders, Harris’ chief spokesperson and senior adviser, in early December 2021 was quoted in The Washington Post responding to critics of the staff departures, saying,

    “We are not making rainbows and bunnies all day. What I hear is that people have hard jobs and I’m like ‘Welcome to the club.’”

    She left the OVP later that year.

    Critic

    “Working for Harris is a nightmare, not just because she rides her staff hard, but also because she does so without the competence, decisiveness, and effectiveness that inspires people in politics to suffer under demanding bosses,” Dan McLaughlin wrote in a January 2022 National Review article titled, “People Really, Really Do Not Want to Work for Kamala Harris.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 23:05

  • Conrad Black: All US Presidential Assassinations Could Have Easily Been Avoided
    Conrad Black: All US Presidential Assassinations Could Have Easily Been Avoided

    Authored by Conrad Black via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump reminds us of how vulnerable American political leaders are to attacks with guns. In retrospect, all four of the assassinations of American presidents could easily have been avoided.

    Charles Jules Guiteau, a disillusioned office seeker, shoots U.S. President James Garfield (1831–1881) in the back at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Depot, Washington, D.C., on July 2, 1881. Garfield finally died of his injuries on Sept. 19, 1881. (William T. Mathews/MPI/Getty Images)

    President Abraham Lincoln was sitting in his box with his wife at Ford’s Theatre in Washington with no security at all, at the end of a terrible Civil War in which 750,000 Americans died in a population of 31 million, and the great animosity of that conflict had scarcely begun to subside. This was a particularly dreadful tragedy for the whole country, not only because Lincoln is generally recognized as the greatest president in American history and possibly the greatest statesman of modern times, but because he was the only person who could accomplish the adoption of a policy of national reconciliation that would have substantially avoided segregation and assured African-Americans the right to vote which, in the southern states, they did not acquire until 100 years later. If President Lincoln had had remotely adequate security, John Wilkes Booth, one of America’s most prominent stage actors, could not have killed him.

    President James A. Garfield was shot at the Washington railway station by disappointed office seeker Charles Guiteau just four months into his presidency and died two months later, largely because of incompetent medical treatment. Again, if he’d had one or two competent security personnel with him, or even adequate medical attention in the subsequent two months, the assassination attempt would have been unsuccessful. Garfield was a capable and promising man, a young and much-promoted combat Civil War general and the only person ever to make the jump directly from the House of Representatives to the presidency (though he was also a senator-elect), but his loss was not as grievous as that of Lincoln.

    President William McKinley was assassinated in Buffalo, New York, by an anarchist, Leon Czolgosz, in 1901, who had a handgun wrapped in a handkerchief when he shook hands with the president in a receiving line. Again, adequate security by contemporary standards would have prevented this, and again, competent medical attention would have prevented a fatality. The president was shot twice and the attending surgeon could not find the second bullet. Days passed with optimistic reports of the president’s recovery, but any informed person would have known that if the second bullet was not retrieved, acute septicemia was likely, and this was the cause of McKinley’s death.

    It was a time of frequent anarchistic assassinations abroad, and Czolgosz had been inspired to commit this act by listening to a speech of the anarchist firebrand Emma Goldman (who often lived in Toronto, and died there). The United States did not have such discontented classes and ethnicities as there were in Europe, but there was no excuse for McKinley’s inadequate security detail and inept medical attention. This was again a terrible personal tragedy to befall a capable and well-respected president and a brave man who had risen from private to major in the Civil War entirely because of his courage and leadership qualities. Fortunately, he was succeeded by one of the nation’s most capable and popular presidents, Theodore Roosevelt.

    All readers will remember or have seen film of the horrifying assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. The president of the United States has not travelled in an open car since then, and President Kennedy’s predecessors, Harry S. Truman and General Dwight D. Eisenhower, were just as visible in their official vehicles which had a bulletproof plexiglass roof. There has never been any explanation for why such a vehicle was not used in Dallas on that terrible day, though Kennedy’s penchant for convertibles was a factor.

    In the last 100 years, five other U.S. presidents apart from Kennedy have been the subject of attempted assassinations. Then President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1933 in Miami, was the target of anarchist Giuseppe Zangara, who missed Roosevelt but shot five others, including the mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, who died. Security was not as extensive as it has subsequently become, but it was only good luck that FDR was completely unscathed. He returned to Vincent Astor’s famous yacht, the Nourmahal, on which he had been cruising, had two stiff glasses of whisky (although prohibition, which he had always personally ignored anyway, had not yet been abolished), and never mentioned the incident again. Of course, he went on to be America’s longest-serving president, and one of its greatest.

    The attempted assassination of President Truman in 1950 was fortunately incompetently conducted and the assailants did not get close to the president. But attempts on the lives of President Gerald Ford in 1975, Ronald Reagan in 1981, and Donald Trump this month, were only unsuccessful for miraculous reasons. President Ford’s first assailant, Squeaky Fromme, was intercepted as she fired, and the next, Sara Jane Moore, was jostled by a retired Marine. President Reagan’s security unit moved with commendable haste and courage and his bullet wound was only approximately an inch from being fatal. There was obviously a severe breakdown in appropriate security measures and coordination that almost cost the life of former President Trump in Pennsylvania on July 13.

    As guns were involved in all of these assassination attempts and the Constitution, in fidelity to the revolutionary origins of the United States, guarantees the right of every law-abiding adult citizen to have a firearm, no screening process or restriction of firearms sales is going to reduce significantly the danger to presidents. All that can be done is to intensify security, and particularly to put bulletproof but completely transparent acrylic screens around presidents during public speeches. Crowds can now be scanned by metal detectors, and presidents travel in automobiles that are both bulletproof and bombproof. We have no idea how many attempts on the lives of presidents have been conceived but undone before they could be carried out, but the fact that six of the last 15 presidents have been threatened by assassins, and one of them murdered, shows that the danger is constant.

    As long as there are discontented people who are severely deranged, the idea of killing leaders will have a simplistic appeal to them, as well as to a tiny echelon of terribly maladjusted people who imagine this to be a satisfactory route to historical fame. Assassins have not become more resourceful or ingenious since the time of Lincoln; it is for those entrusted with the security of the U.S. president to reduce the possibility of the success of assassins to the minimum. The same rules can apply to other elected figures who were victims of inadequate security, such as Robert Kennedy, assassinated in the kitchen of a Los Angeles hotel in 1968, and prominent non-presidential figures, such as Martin Luther King, also murdered in 1968, Malcolm X (1965), and Louisiana Governor Huey P. Long (1935).

    Nor should we imagine that this problem is exclusively American. Margaret Thatcher was nearly assassinated by the Irish Republican Army on a couple of occasions, and Charles de Gaulle was almost killed by opponents of his Algeria policy several times. German interior minister Wolfgang Schauble was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life by an unsuccessful assassination attempt.

    The problem may be slightly exacerbated in the United States because of the constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms, but it is a universal problem, especially in democratic countries where leaders have to be relatively publicly visible. There is no antidote except better security and more and better-trained security personnel.

    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
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 22:45

  • Shocker! Study Reveals That Giving Americans $1,000 Per Month Has Negative Consequences
    Shocker! Study Reveals That Giving Americans $1,000 Per Month Has Negative Consequences

    A new study reveals what common sense could have predicted – giving Americans $1,000 per month disincentivizes them from working, causing them to work less – and earn less, over time.

    Illus: The MIT Press Reader

    According to the 3,000-participant, three-year study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, giving people $1,000 per month increased leisure time, as recipients spent less time on sleeping, child care, community engagement, caring for others, and self-improvement.

    The study also found that recipients’ income, not including the free money, reduced their incomes significantly, as “for every one dollar received, total household income excluding the transfers fell by at least 21 cents, and total individual income fell by at least 12 cents.”

    “The takeaway from the best study done so far about UBI in the United States is that handing out money isn’t the solution to all our problems,” Daniel Di Martino, a economics researcher and graduate fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told The Center Square. “In fact, sometimes it makes things worse.”

    The study’s authors noted mean-tested welfare encourages recipients to cut hours “to preserve benefits,” leading to advocacy for “unconditional cash transfer programs” without these distortions that would also allow individuals either to look for and secure higher-quality work or spend extra time on “productive non-work activities.” 

    Participants’ individual incomes declined $1,500 per year relative to the control group, excluding transfers, participants’ labor force participation was two percentage points lower, participants and their partners worked approximately 1.4 hours less per week. Participants spent their extra time on leisure, did not improve their quality of employment, and did not improve human capital investments such as training. 

    The study notes how during the 2020 Democratic primaries, candidate Andrew Yang proposed a $1,000 per month “Freedom Dividend,” which he claimed “encourages people to find work” and “increases entrepreneurship.”

    The study found that while “participants exhibited more entrepreneurial orientation and intentions,” that “this did not translate into significantly more entrepreneurial activity,” as “very few people have the inclination to become entrepreneurs in general.”

    According to Di Martino, the study did not address inflation concerns, and remained open to unconditional cash payments in lieu of certain welfare programs.

    “It’s important to remark that this study doesn’t look at the macroeconomic impact of UBI which would raise inflation and affect interest rates if implemented nationwide,” he said. “Now the question that’s more interesting is if the almost null effects of UBI are better (or less bad) than those of our existing welfare programs and whether it might be a good idea to replace them.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 22:25

  • After High Court Ruling, San Francisco Prepares To Clear Homeless Camps
    After High Court Ruling, San Francisco Prepares To Clear Homeless Camps

    Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    After last month’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave cities a green light to enforce laws and clear homeless camps, San Francisco is now crafting policies to allow officials to begin sweeping encampments, according to Mayor London Breed’s July 19 newsletter.

    “Our goal is to bring people indoors—camping or living on our streets isn’t safe for our community, residents, and people in need of support,” she said. “San Francisco is a city that prioritizes compassion, and we will continue to lead with services, but we cannot allow for people to refuse services and shelter when offered and available.”

    San Francisco Mayor London Breed speaks during a news conference outside of Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco, Calif., on March 17, 2021. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

    Officials are contemplating options with the city attorney’s office and more information will be shared soon, according to Ms. Breed.

    The high court’s decision—related to a lower court’s ruling on a case known as Grants Pass that blocked cities from clearing encampments—now allows municipalities to enforce laws against sleeping, loitering, and lodging on public property when people reject attempts to help them.

    “This decision by the Supreme Court will help cities like San Francisco manage our public spaces more effectively and efficiently,” Ms. Breed said in a June 28 press release. “This decision recognizes that cities must have more flexibility to address challenges on our streets.”

    She said discussions underway aim to reduce homelessness while finding people mental health treatment and services to improve the quality of life for all San Franciscans.

    “[Illegal camping] is not healthy, safe, or compassionate for people on the street, and it’s not acceptable for our neighborhoods,” Ms. Breed said.

    One San Francisco local said he supports increased enforcement because of what he described as “filthy” conditions in some areas.

    “The city has become known for feces on the sidewalks and dirty streets,” John Walker told The Epoch Times July 22. “Something needs to be done.”

    After the high court’s ruling was announced in June, the state’s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals quickly moved to discontinue the injunction blocking homeless camp sweeps.

    San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said the legal changes will allow the city to better manage its streets and improve public safety.

    “This will give our city more flexibility to provide services to unhoused people while keeping our streets healthy and safe,” Mr. Chiu said in a July 8 press release. “It will help us address our most challenging encampments, where services are often refused and re-encampment is common.”

    A homeless individual in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco on May 16, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Some homeless advocates argued the new policies could hurt people living on the street.

    “Penalizing individuals, including many with mental health and other disabilities, for merely trying to live is not only cruel but also counterproductive,” Marlene Sallo, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, said in a June 28 press release. “Cities are now further emboldened to ignore effective housing-based solutions, opting instead to punish those with no alternative but to sleep on the streets.”

    She called on the federal government to provide resources for homeless individuals.

    “Too often a lack of housing in the community leaves people with disabilities stuck in institutions or worse, homeless,” Ms. Sallo said. “Affordable and accessible housing is a critical and necessary component for people with disabilities to live independent and fulfilling lives in the community.”

    Other nonprofits agreed and criticized the ruling and discussions about enforcing illegal camping laws.

    “Arresting or fining people for trying to survive is expensive, counterproductive, and cruel,” Jesse Rabinowitz, campaign and communications director at the National Homelessness Law Center, said in the disability network’s press release.

    She added that the “inhumane” ruling “will make homelessness worse.”

    “Cities are now even more empowered to neglect proven housing-based solutions and to arrest or fine those with no choice but to sleep outdoors,” Ms. Rabinowitz said. “While we are disappointed, we are not surprised that this Supreme Court ruled against the interests of our poorest neighbors.”

    In the 6–3 ruling, Supreme Court justices were split on how best to proceed.

    “Homelessness is complex. Its causes are many,” Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, author of the majority opinion, wrote in the ruling. “People will disagree over which policy responses are best … nor can a handful of federal judges begin to ‘match’ the collective wisdom the American people possess in deciding ‘how best to handle’ a pressing social question like homelessness.”

    In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that sleeping outside is the only option for some people.

    “Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime,” she wrote.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom said the ruling gives state and local officials the authority to enforce policies that will benefit Californians.

    “This decision removes the legal ambiguities that have tied the hands of local officials for years and limited their ability to deliver on common-sense measures to protect the safety and well-being of our communities,” he said in a June 28 press release.

    He also said the state will continue to treat all individuals with compassion.

    “California remains committed to respecting the dignity and fundamental human needs of all people and the state will continue to work with compassion to provide individuals experiencing homelessness with the resources they need to better their lives,” Mr. Newsom said.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 22:05

  • Robby Starbuck's Anti-Woke Crusade Expands: "Time To Expose Harley Davidson" 
    Robby Starbuck’s Anti-Woke Crusade Expands: “Time To Expose Harley Davidson” 

    Commentator and filmmaker Robby Starbuck’s strategy to expose all the insane woke activism within mega-corporations with large conservative customer bases has entered the third chapter. After Tractor Supply nuked its diversity, equity, and inclusion program and John Deere scaled back on DEI policies, Starbuck announced on X on Tuesday, “It’s time to expose Harley Davidson.”

    Starbuck’s anti-woke crusade drives a wedge between the corporation and the customer base, forcing high-level executives to immediately respond, as seen by Tractory Supply and John Deere, or risk ‘Bud Lighting’ itself (i.e., boycotts). It’s a genius move by Starbuck and his team as the anti-woke crusade against companies infected with the woke mind virus gains momentum.

    Starbuck claims that under Harley Davidson CEO Jochen Zeitz, the iconic motorcycle brand has been infected with woke activism, supports the Equality Act (which would allow men into girl’s bathrooms, sports, and locker rooms), funded all-ages pride events, and required 1,800 employees to undergo virtual LGBTQ+ ally training. 

    Starbuck notes that Harley Davidson is a founding member of Wisconsin’s LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce, sponsored an LGBTQ+ Entrepreneur Bootcamp, and made February and March “Months of Inclusion.”

    He adds that the company partnered with the United Way for multiple woke training programs, supported the Pennsylvania Youth Congress in creating gender-neutral licenses, and hosted numerous LGBTQ+ events at their corporate office. 

    Starbuck argues that Harley Davidson has alienated its core freedom-loving blue-collar customers by advocating Marxist ideologies pushed by leftists.

    “I don’t think the values at corporate reflect the values of nearly any Harley Davidson bikers,” he said. 

    He added, “My goal with this reporting is never destruction. My goal is to inform consumers about the values major companies are adopting so they can make choices about what they’re willing to support. That’s not cancel culture, it’s capitalism.” 

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    X users respond to Starbuck’s new report: 

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    Starbuck’s mission has been to get politics out of business, especially wokeism that’s cut from Marxist cloth. Consumers would prefer corporate behavior without woke activism and for management to continue to innovate products—not become leftist activists and let the brand decay.

    Bud Light learned the hard way. The clock has begun for Harley Davidson to respond to Starbuck’s report. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 21:45

  • Harris And Biden Met In Person Only Six Times This Summer
    Harris And Biden Met In Person Only Six Times This Summer

    Authored by Philip Wegmann via RealClearPolitics,

    On the White House South Lawn, Vice President Kamala Harris praised the man she is likely to replace atop the Democratic ticket, telling an assembly of student athletes that “I am firsthand witness that every day our president, Joe Biden, fights for the American people.”

    But Harris hasn’t seen Biden in a week. And they haven’t seen much of each other this summer. Their working relationship, and subsequent friendship, has always been complicated by hectic schedules and international travel – including Biden’s trip to France just last month – making it difficult for the president and vice president to sit down in one place together for very long.

    The pair have met face-to-face just six times since the beginning of June, according to a RealClearPolitics analysis of the president’s public schedule.

    The latest meeting took place one week ago for a briefing from the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. A political lifetime has passed since then.

    Biden announced abruptly Sunday, via a post on X.com, that he would not run for reelection and promptly endorsed Harris for the job. It will now likely be up to her to keep the White House for Democrats and continue the work of Biden, who, in just four years, she said Monday, “has already surpassed the legacy of most presidents who have served two terms in office.”

    More than a month earlier, Biden and Harris were both on the South Lawn for a Juneteenth celebration. On June 10, the vice president could be seen dancing to the music along with second gentleman Doug Emhoff. But the president, he froze.

    The cameras caught Biden on tape looking lost. “The president stood there listening to the music and he didn’t dance,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later told reporters. “Excuse me, I did not know not dancing was a health issue.”

    Biden and Harris met for lunch the next day, the president’s public schedule shows. Shortly after his inauguration, the president promised the vice president lunch “once a week,” an optimistic schedule that Biden often failed to keep, an earlier analysis by RCP found.

    Then the debate happened.

    The White House and Biden campaign insisted for years that Biden had not lost a step, that he was, as Jean-Pierre told RCP, “as sharp as ever.” But for 90 minutes in Atlanta, the worst fears of Democrats were inescapable. The age and diminished mental acuity of the 81-year-old elder statesman were on full display as he meandered and mumbled through answers.

    Democrats started to abandon ship. Fears once whispered about his mental fitness were suddenly being shared on cable news. Harris, for her part, never abandoned Biden. She conceded, as he had to donors during a San Francisco fundraiser in July, that the debate was “not his finest hour.” But she insisted, “the outcome of this election cannot be determined by one day in June.”

    Harris next saw Biden on July 3, again for a lunch at the White House. The next day, the vice president joined the president for a Fourth of July celebration, taking in the fireworks from the South Lawn. On July 8, Harris joined Biden for his presidential daily brief.

    Harris, until recently, served as the most high-profile surrogate for the Biden campaign, crisscrossing the country on her own to fundraise and rally supporters. She was in Kalamazoo, Michigan, last Wednesday, then Provincetown, Massachusetts, on Saturday, stumping faithfully for a ticket that would soon disintegrate.

    Biden and Harris last shared a stage in Philadelphia on May 29. It was hosted by the campaign, and the vice president spoke first, introducing Biden as a president who “not only knows how to fight, he knows how to win.” Biden stepped to the microphone moments later after applause and chants of “Four more years!”

    “Thank you, Kamala, for your partnership,” he said. “And it is a partnership. And how about another round of applause for our great vice president,” he continued. “Isn’t she something else?” Fifty-four days later, he would be gone.

    Biden announced last week that he had again tested positive for COVID-19. The president retreated to his beach house in Rehoboth, Delaware, where he announced that he would not seek reelection. He remains in quarantine, though his physician, Kevin O’Connor, said in a memo released Monday that his symptoms “have resolved almost completely,” and he “continues to perform all of his presidential duties.”

    Those duties do not include addressing the nation as of now. Remarks from the outgoing president are expected but not yet scheduled. Neither the White House nor the vice president’s office returned RCP’s request for comment.

    On Monday, after Biden gave Harris his blessing, she traveled to Wilmington, Delaware, where their campaign headquarters are located. The president called in remotely before she arrived.

    “I know yesterday’s news was surprising and hard for you to hear, but it was the right thing to do,” Biden told assembled staff over the phone.

    “The name has changed at the top of the ticket, but the mission hasn’t changed at all,” he continued.

    The outgoing president then asked his campaign to work as hard as they could for Harris in the coming weeks and months. He won’t be going anywhere soon, though. “I won’t be on the ticket, but I’m still going to be fully, fully engaged,” Biden concluded. “I’ve got six months left of my presidency; I’m determined to get as much done as I possibly can. Both foreign policy and domestic policy.”

    Harris, during that time, is again expected to be away from the White House and the president.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 21:25

  • Taiwan Live-Fire Exercises Aimed At China Muted By Typhoon
    Taiwan Live-Fire Exercises Aimed At China Muted By Typhoon

    Taiwan’s military on Monday kicked off the live-fire component of its largest annual exercise, known as the Han Kuang drills. They are slated to run through July 26, and crucially this comes after China’s recent ‘encircling’ exercises wherein dozens of PLA vessels and aircraft breached the Taiwan Strait median line.

    But this year’s Han Kuang drills look to be muted, given a massive storm is hampering military movements. “An approaching typhoon prompted the cancellation of air force drills off Taiwan’s east coast on Tuesday, although naval and land exercises were set to continue in other parts of the self-governing island democracy, which China threatens to invade,” Associated Press reports.

    Focus Taiwan: “Tropical Storm Gaemi has developed into a typhoon and will potentially make landfall in Taiwan’s northeastern county of Yilan on late Wednesday or early Thursday.”

    The Air Force 5th Tactical Mixed Wing confirmed cancelation of its portion of the exercises, citing the imminent threat of the typhoon.

    “According to the Central Weather Bureau, Typhoon Gaemi was heading westward toward the island with sustained winds of 144 kilometers (about 90 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 180 kph (110 mph),” AP continues. The storm has also resulted in the cancelation of a number of domestic flights as well as ferries on Tuesday.

    Thus the drills are expected to be very limited at this point. They are reportedly focusing this year on defending against a Chinese attack on critical infrastructure and supply lines, especially in and around the capital.

    The typhoon bearing down on the island is named Gaemi…

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    Key to this will also be defending key ports against a potential future Chinese blockade, which analysts have long predicted would be a first step in any military aggression by Beijing.

    In May, China initiated its largest encircling and blockade drills aimed at Taiwan to date. In addition to many aircraft groupings, about a dozen PLA naval ships had surrounded the self-ruled island during that two day exercise, and in response Taiwan’s military deployed warships to monitor the situation and mirror the Chinese vessels.

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    Both sides are watching closely the political situation in the US, especially given a possible Trump second term could return the US to a focus on China, instead of the current Biden administration’s prioritizing of the Ukraine and Gaza flashpoints.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 21:05

  • Federal Judge Rejects Challenge To Chicago Ban On Gun Laser-Sights
    Federal Judge Rejects Challenge To Chicago Ban On Gun Laser-Sights

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

    Laser sights for guns are not protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment, a federal judge ruled on July 22, upholding the city of Chicago’s ban on the sights.

    Firearms are effective weapons without laser sights attached “and thus a laser sight ‘is not a weapon protected by the Second Amendment’” but is instead an accessory unnecessary to operate firearms, U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras said, quoting a ruling in a separate case.

    The organization Second Amendment Arms launched a legal challenge in 2010 against Chicago’s ban, which was imposed in 1999. The group said the laser sight ban violated the Second Amendment rights of its members and other law-abiding citizens.

    Judge Kocoras said he analyzed the ban in light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2022 that found governments that impose gun regulations must show the regulations are consistent with America’s historical tradition of gun restrictions.

    Before looking at the history of restrictions, though, the decision guided courts to first decide whether the Second Amendment covers conduct restricted by a challenged regulation. The conduct must involve items “properly characterized as arms.”

    Plaintiffs had argued that the laser sights are covered by the Second Amendment. The sights “are protected by the Second Amendment, as a modern version of something that has been a part of safe firearm usage for hundreds of years, i.e., firearm sights,” they said in a brief.

    Chicago officials had told the court that “laser sights are not ‘arms’ within the meaning of the plain text of the Second Amendment, but are, rather, mere firearm accessories.”

    Judge Kocoras said the plaintiffs did not meet the burden of showing laser sights are protected by the amendment. That included a failure to differentiate them from silencers, which were previously ruled to fall outside the amendment’s protection.

    “Laser sights are neither firearms themselves nor necessary to the operation of a firearm, and are merely unprotected firearm accessories,” the judge said.

    The ruling also dismissed attempts from Second Amendment Arms and others to obtain damages from an ordinance that banned many sales of firearms in Chicago until a judge declared it in violation of the Constitution in 2014.

    The ruling came on the same day that Chicago announced it was dismissing a lawsuit it had brought against gun manufacturer Glock in March.

    The suit had said the company was improperly selling firearms that could easily be converted into machine guns.

    The notice of voluntary dismissal, filed with the federal court in northern Illinois, did not explain why the city was dropping the case.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 20:45

  • US Rejects China's Gaza Mediation Efforts For Legitimizing Hamas
    US Rejects China’s Gaza Mediation Efforts For Legitimizing Hamas

    This week a fresh United Nations assessment estimated that the Israeli military (IDF) has placed more than 80% of the Gaza Strip under evacuation orders or designated “no-go zone” – Al Jazeera reports, underscoring this means Palestinians have nowhere to go.

    The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the statement said, “As of July 22, nearly 83 percent of the Gaza Strip has been placed under evacuation orders or designated as ‘no-go zones’ by the Israeli military.” The latest order has urged some 400,000 Palestinians out of eastern and central Khan Yunis, where the latest IDF offensive is happening. The new order encompasses nearly nine square kilometers of land.

    “The area of the ‘humanitarian zone’ as designated by the Israeli military has thus decreased by 14.8 percent, from 58.9 to 50.2 square kilometers,” the OCHA report continued.

    Via AFP

    The crisis of “where to go” for internally displaced refugees has been exacerbated already as much of the Strip lacks water, food, and electricity.

    Meanwhile President Biden has newly pledged to end the fighting in Gaza by the time he leaves office at the end of this year. According to Axios, “President Biden pledged to spend his remaining six months in office trying to end the Israel-Hamas war and bringing home the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.” He has announced this week, “We are on the verge of getting that.”

    But this has been claimed many times before, going back months. Just days ago Secretary Blinken declared that efforts to reach a truce deal are “inside the ten yard line.”

    “I believe we’re inside the 10-yard line and driving toward the goal line in getting an agreement that would produce a cease-fire, get the hostages home and put us on a better track to trying to build lasting peace and stability,” the US top diplomat said Friday at he Aspen Security Forum.

    Still, Hamas continues to fundamentally disagree with both Israel and the US on some key points of a potential ceasefire. It should also be noted that Israel and the US also don’t see eye to eye with China’s diplomatic maneuverings of late regarding the conflict either:

    Spokesman Matthew Miller has responded to a Beijing-brokered “national unity” agreement signed between Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian groups today.

    The agreement lays the groundwork for an “interim national reconciliation government” to rule post-war Gaza and has been seen as a bulwark against any governance plans that sideline Palestinians.

    Miller told reporters the United States opposes any post-war plan that includes Hamas.

    “As we have made clear for months, Hamas is a terrorist organization. … When it comes to governance of Gaza at the end of the conflict, there can’t be a role for a terrorist organization,” Miller said. He added the US would “like to see the Palestinian Authority governing a unified Gaza and the West Bank, but no, we cannot support a role for Hamas.”

    AP: China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, with Mahmoud al-Aloul, left, vice chairman of Fatah, and Mussa Abu Marzuk, a senior member of Hamas in Beijing on Tuesday.

    The China-brokered deal is seen as legitimizing Hamas in preparation of the group having some part in a future Palestinian-administered Gaza. Thus Washington has firmly rejected it.

    Beijing likely sees its own approach as more realistic, based on a perspective that Hamas cannot ever ultimately be rooted out by military force. Interestingly, some Israeli current and former officials have appeared to admit the same.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 20:25

  • Sugar: A Potential Culprit In Pancreatic Cancer, The 'King Of Cancer'
    Sugar: A Potential Culprit In Pancreatic Cancer, The ‘King Of Cancer’

    Authored by Shan Lam and JoJo Novaes via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Pancreatic cancer, sometimes dubbed the “king of cancer“ due to its malignancy, poses challenges in both early detection and late-stage treatment. Understanding its causes and warning signs enables people to take preventive measures. Rong Shu, director of Dr. Rong TCM Clinic in the United Kingdom and a seasoned traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner with over 30 years of experience, outlined the causes, early symptoms, and effective prevention strategies for pancreatic cancer on the Epoch Times’ ”Health 1+1” program.

    (qoppi/shutterstock)

    The Dual Role of the Pancreas

    In Western medicine, the pancreas is recognized as both a digestive and an endocrine organ. As a digestive organ, it secretes various enzymes to break down proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in food. As an endocrine organ, it produces insulin and glucagon to regulate blood sugar levels, maintaining them at appropriate levels crucial for the functioning of key organs.

    Ms. Rong highlighted that from the perspective of TCM, the pancreas is regarded as part of the spleen system which include the pancreas, liver, gallbladder, spleen, stomach, and intestines. This system is responsible for the digestion, absorption, transformation, and transportation of nutrients from food, providing energy to various tissues and systems in the body.

    Sugar and Pancreatic Cancer

    In the ancient Chinese medical text “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine“ or the ”Huangdi Neijing,” it is documented that the spleen corresponds to sweetness. Ms. Rong explained that while a small amount of sweetness can nourish the spleen, excessive sweetness can be detrimental. Sugar is present in refined sweet foods. Eating too many highly refined sweet foods for too long can lead to chronic damage to the spleen, potentially resulting in cancerous changes.

    Numerous studies have confirmed the close relationship between sugar and pancreatic function, identifying sugar as a driving factor in the onset of pancreatic cancer. A 2019 study published in Cell Metabolism found that elevated blood sugar levels triggered metabolic imbalance in mice, leading to pancreatic cancer.

    Another study published in Cell Reports in 2020 following nearly 500,000 Europeans over 20 years indicated that a high-sugar diet increased the risk of pancreatic cancer in some individuals and promoted tumor growth and spread.

    Challenges in Detection and Treatment

    Ms. Rong explained that the difficulty in detecting pancreatic cancer in its early stages is due to the pancreas’ location. Often referred to as a “hidden organ,” the pancreas is concealed behind several other organs. This positioning makes it nearly impossible for doctors to feel it during a physical examination, and even with an ultrasound, capturing clear images of the pancreas is challenging.

    Furthermore, when tumors form and grow in the pancreas, they typically do not cause noticeable symptoms. Even if symptoms do appear, they are rarely recognized as related to pancreatic issues, making early detection unlikely. It is often only when the tumor cells have metastasized to other organs that the symptoms become apparent.

    According to Limor Appelbaum, a Harvard Medical School instructor and radiation oncologist, “approximately 80–85 percent of pancreatic cancer patients are diagnosed at advanced stages, where cure is no longer an option.”

    In late 2023, researchers from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) jointly developed a new pancreatic cancer detection model called PRISM, which can detect 35 percent of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas, the most common type of pancreatic cancer, compared to 10% with conventional screening.

    Limited Treatment Options

    Additionally, pancreatic cancer cells are aggressive and exhibit resistance to multiple levels of treatment, making a complete cure very challenging. According to the American Cancer Society, the five-year relative survival rate for pancreatic cancer is only 13 percent.

    Treatment options for pancreatic cancer remain very limited. The primary surgical treatment is pancreaticoduodenectomy, but less than 20 percent of pancreatic cancer patients are eligible for this procedure.

    In addition to surgery, treatment options for pancreatic cancer include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted drug therapy, and immunotherapy. However, these methods are generally ineffective in curing pancreatic cancer and can cause significant harm to the body.

    TCM as an Adjunctive Treatment

    Ms. Rong recounted a recent case of treating a pancreatic cancer patient. A late-stage patient underwent five months of chemotherapy with no improvement. When they came to the clinic for a checkup, they had lost all their hair, their face was distorted with pain, and their stomach was bloated like a balloon. After acupuncture treatment, the patient’s symptoms significantly improved, as did their emotional state.

    Ms. Rong stated that TCM intervention can alleviate symptoms in pancreatic cancer patients, significantly reduce pain, and enhance the quality of life for late-stage cancer patients. It also demonstrates some capability to inhibit the spread of cancer cells or even facilitate healing. Patients may consider TCM as an alternative therapy or opt for a combination of Western medicine and TCM for treatment.

    Early Symptoms

    Ms. Rong noted that some patients with pancreatic cancer exhibit no symptoms at all, while others experience only a few symptoms that are often overlooked, such as:

    • Upper abdominal bloating and discomfort
    • Itchy skin
    • Unexplained sudden increase in blood sugar levels or sudden ineffectiveness of diabetes medication
    • Lower back pain, especially at the level of the navel, unrelated to kidney disease or injury
    • Yellowing of the eyes and skin (jaundice)

    Risk Factors

    While the exact cause of any cancer is unknown, the following are risk factors that may influence pancreatic cancer development:

    • High stress, depression, and anxiety: One study showed that depression may be a precursor to pancreatic cancer, with half of pancreatic cancer patients exhibiting psychiatric symptoms 43 months before physical symptoms appear.
    • Unhealthy lifestyle: Uncontrolled diet and irregular sleep patterns.
    • Unbalanced diet: Eating an unvaried and unhealthy diet, such as eating too much meat and not enough fruits and vegetables.
    • Bad habits: Smoking, drinking alcohol, consuming excessive amounts of coffee, and frequently eating charred foods.
    • Underlying health factors: Diabetes is a known risk factor for pancreatic cancer.
    • Pancreatitis: Chronic inflammation of the pancreas can lead to cancer, and benign tumors may become malignant.
    • Genetics: Pancreatic cancer has a certain degree of familial inheritance.

    Preventive Measures

    Ms. Rong emphasized that to prevent pancreatic cancer, it is essential to make lifestyle adjustments and cultivate healthy habits in daily life. Consider implementing the following:

    • Reduce intake of sugary foods: Instead, opt for high-protein and whole-grain foods, nuts, and legumes. For instance, incorporate boiled or lightly fried fish, chicken, eggs, oatmeal, corn, millet, and rye into your diet.
    • Eat a variety of vegetables and fruits: Vegetables and fruits are rich in antioxidants, which combat oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, reducing the risk of cancer.
    • Increase intake of healthy fats: Research has shown that olive oil consumption can reduce the risk of cancer.
    • Engage in regular exercise: Physical activity can strengthen the immune system and lower cancer risk.
    • Maintain a positive mindset and manage stress: Depression may have some association with pancreatic cancer. It is essential to actively manage stress and incorporate relaxation techni

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 20:05

  • Dramatic Video Shows Houthi Kamikaze Boat Drone Blown Up By Container Ship Crew
    Dramatic Video Shows Houthi Kamikaze Boat Drone Blown Up By Container Ship Crew

    Iran-backed Houthis have intensified their unmanned suicide surface drone attacks in the critical maritime chokepoint of the southern Red Sea. Dramatic footage shows the crew of a container ship successfully destroying a Houthi kamikaze boat drone with small-arms fire. 

    The video surfaced overnight on X. There has been no official MSM confirmation of the video so far. Depending on the X user, the crew of the vessel, which is not named, is either Ukrainian or Russian.

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    “This video was making the rounds yesterday and seems to be a Houthi USV attacking a containership with the embarked security team opening fire,” shipping expert Sal Mercogliano wrote on X. The ship’s crew appeared to have successfully repelled the attack. 

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    The timing of the incident remains unknown. Additionally, the IMO ship identification number and the exact location of the incident have yet to be shared on X.

    X user H I Sutton provides a detailed guide on the type of vessel the Houthis could use for drone boat attacks. 

    Source: H I Sutton

    Over the weekend, Israeli fighter jets pounded the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida in Yemen. This was an unprecedented operation in response to a prior deadly drone attack on Tel Aviv launched from Yemen late last week. 

    Houthis have released footage of other recent boat drone attacks in the critical maritime chokepoint. 

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    As previously noted, the continued disruptions in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden have sparked a ‘supply shock‘ in the global economy by sending container rates for certain shipping lanes sky-high. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 19:45

  • How Does The Economy Really Work?
    How Does The Economy Really Work?

    Authored by Gail Tverberg via Our Finite World blog,

    The world economy is an amazingly complex, physics-based, self-organizing system. The three major elements are extracted resources including energy resources, human population, and demand coming through the financial system.

    Figure 1. Major elements of the world economy according to Gail Tverberg. These are human population, extracted resources including energy resources, and financial demand.

    All three of these elements tend to increase over time, but both population and extracted resources tend to hit limits because the world is finite. Financial demand is emphasized by politicians because it seems to increase without limit. The extraction limit is not obvious: It is the amount that consumers can afford to pay for resources and the products they create. This limit cuts off resource extraction at amounts that are far below the amounts that geologists calculate are available for extraction.

    In this post, I will offer some insights into how the world economy actually operates.

    [1] There is a close relationship between world energy consumption and economic growth.

    Figure 2. Relationship between inflation-adjusted world GDP and energy consumption based on data of the 2024 Statistical Review of World Energy, published by the Energy Institute.

    The fitted years are 1965 to 2023. The R2 =.98 tells us that there is a close relationship between energy consumption and GDP.

    [2] There is a physics reason why energy consumption and economic growth are related. The economy requires energy for a similar reason to the reason why humans require food.

    Physics tells us that every action, even the movement of molecules, requires energy dissipation. Within the economy, this energy can be human energy, energy from the sun, or energy from sources such as burned biomass or fossil fuels.

    In physics terms, the world economy and many structures within the world economy are dissipative structures. These structures are self-organizing, and they often grow over time. Examples are plants and animals, hurricanes, and businesses.

    Dissipative structures require energy of the right kinds for their continued “life” and for growth. Animals require food for their continued life and growth. Hurricanes get their energy from warm sea water. The fact that the economy is a dissipative structure has been known since 1996 and is written about today.

    [3] Starting long ago, humans became adapted to eating some cooked food. This change led to humans being able to outcompete all other animals. Eventually, this change led to populations outgrowing available resources and collapsing.

    According to Discover Magazine, pre-humans first began to build fires to cook food at least 800,000 years ago. The consumption of cooked food allowed early humans to have bigger brains, smaller teeth and jaws, and more time for activities other than chewing, such as making crafts.

    Humans are now adapted to having some cooked food in their diets to get adequate nutrition. (A few people today try to consume a raw food diet, but they often use a food processor or juicer to break down cell walls.) As a result of the adaptation to eating some cooked food, two major changes took place:

    (a) Humans were able to achieve dominance over other plants and animals. They could use fire directly to scare away other animals, and they could use fire to help make better tools for hunting and agriculture.

    (b) Because of this dominance, the population of humans has tended to grow until some kind of limiting condition is hit. The resulting pattern is often called overshoot and collapse.

    History shows a repeated pattern of overshoot and collapse. A population would grow until the carrying capacity of the local area was reached. Food surpluses would become lower and lower, so less food could be saved up for fluctuations in rainfall and temperature. Eventually, civilizations would succumb to one or another problem: disease, attack by a neighboring group, climate fluctuations, or governments overthrown by unhappy citizens.

    We tell ourselves that overshoot and collapse cannot happen now, but human population is high relative to fossil fuel resources, and intermittent wind and solar are not working out well as substitutes.

    [4] The financial system provides growing demand through debt and many other financial promises. An important aspect of this financial demand is its time-shifting ability.

    Figure 3. Figure made by Gail Tverberg in 2018 to explain the complex interplay of debt, energy supply, devices using energy, growing efficiency, profitability and government laws.

    Figure 3 shows my view of how the economy works. Debt is indeed important because it helps pull the economy forward. For example, it helps an entrepreneur afford to build a factory and hire workers. As long as the investment pays back well enough to repay the debt with interest, the system seems to work. GDP tends to grow. (Figure 3 also shows five other parts of the system, but I am leaving these to the reader to review.)

    Debt is not unique in pulling the economy forward. Shares of stock issued with the promise of dividends act similarly to debt because they allow investment before a new product is made. Pension plans, even if not funded, stimulate the economy because citizens decide that they don’t need to save for the future (or have children), if they can depend on the government pension plan to take care of them. Even inflation in the price of a home or shares of stock can have the effect of adding to demand. For example, a person owning shares of stock can sell some appreciated shares of stock and use the proceeds to build a new factory.

    It is the time-shifting aspect of debt and related promises that is important. With the help of debt and its equivalents, people can spend today to build a road or factory that will provide a long-lasting benefit. The hope is that the total return will be high enough that the debt can be repaid with interest, or that dividends can be paid on the shares of stock.

    If the economy is growing quickly, interest rates can be quite high without slowing the economy. If energy costs are very high, or if all industries are stagnant, it may be difficult to get any payback at all from a debt-related investment. Instead, interest rates may need to be very low, or debt defaults become likely. Economic growth is likely to be low, or even negative.

    In one their analyses of borrowing by governments over eight centuries, Reinhart and Rogoff unexpectedly discovered the phenomenon of low defaults among rapidly growing countries. They reported, “It is notable that the non-defaulters, by and large, are all hugely successful growth stories.”

    [5] Models become very important in today’s economy. They often are misleading, even if they are supposedly scientific.

    The easiest models to build are ones that assume the future will be very similar to the past, or that the trend from the past will continue. These models tend to be popular with citizens because they suggest that good times will continue indefinitely. Such outcomes are what everyone would like to see, so these models tend to be accepted as “scientifically valid.”

    In a finite world, many kinds of patterns are constantly changing. Depletion of resources and rising population are particular stressors. Figure 4 shows the base scenario of a 1972 computer model of resource depletion, population growth, and pollution growth.

    Figure 4. Base scenario from the 1972 book, The Limits to Growth, printed using today’s graphics by Charles Hall and John Day in Revisiting Limits to Growth After Peak Oil.

    The model used was an engineering-type analysis of the physical quantities involved. This approach did not show growth continuing indefinitely. Instead, it showed a major downturn about now.

    I have looked at the model myself, and I have talked with Dennis Meadows, who oversaw the analysis. The model looks at resources used in each six-month calendar period. The share of these resources needed for getting these resources out and transformed into usable work cannot be too high, or the economy tends to collapse. (Nature doesn’t use accrual accounting!)

    In such a calculation, quick payback of an energy investment becomes very important. Also, the amount of supplementary equipment, such as electricity transmission lines and batteries required, becomes important. I would expect that wind, solar, nuclear, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) would do relatively poorly in such a calculation. Oil, coal, and burned biomass would do much better because their energy payback is immediate–when they are burned. Furthermore, oil, coal and biomass require relatively little specialized equipment for transportation and storage.

    [6] Narratives are created to accompany the questionable models that have been developed.

    One popular narrative is that Financial Demand is all that really matters. Politicians have significant control over the Financial Demand shown in Figure 1. They can see that if they can create more debt, they can perhaps get some of the money that the debt makes available down to ordinary citizens. With more money, citizens can perhaps buy more goods and services from the world economy.

    Historically, raising financial demand has worked well because the extraction of fossil fuels and many other resources were well within physical extraction limits. Higher demand would lead to higher prices, which in turn would lead to more extraction. But as we get closer to the physical extraction limits, this approach works less well. The problem is that at some point, finished goods (such as automobiles and groceries) become too expensive for consumers if prices rise high enough to satisfy producers.

    Because we are now reaching extraction limits, the added debt approach works much less well, as the short tenure of Liz Truss as Prime Minister of the UK in 2022 shows. The problem for countries other than the US is that with added debt, their currencies tend to drop relative to the US dollar. Thus, while perhaps their citizens can individually buy more, the cost of imported goods and services, especially energy, tends to rise. Overall inflation tends to be higher. This causes citizens to become very unhappy.

    The US is in a unique position because it is currently the holder of the “reserve currency.” Its currency can’t drop relative to the US dollar. However, since 2020, the US has added huge amounts of debt, as have other countries around the world. Asset prices have also risen because of temporarily low interest rates. Newly made goods and services don’t increase in proportion to the rapidly growing debt and other financial stimulus. What tends to happen instead is inflation, as we have recently witnessed.

    [7] One popular narrative is that if enough demand can be added to the economy through financial manipulations, energy prices will rise sufficiently to allow the needed amount of energy to be extracted.

    Figure 5. Average annual Brent-equivalent oil prices based on data of the 2024 Statistical Review of World Energy, published by the Energy Institute.

    Unfortunately, this doesn’t work. Affordability is important to the consumer, so oil prices can’t rise too high. At the same time, prices cannot fall too low, for too long, or producers will stop extracting oil. Instead, oil prices tend to spike and then fall back. They are to some extent not very acceptable to either buyer or seller. Whether the buyers or sellers are more disadvantaged varies over time. A similar pattern holds for other resources, as well.

    [8] A third narrative is that climate change caused by excess CO2 is the world’s worst problem, and that the world can voluntarily move away from fossil fuels and fix this problem.

    Unfortunately, the world economy can no more move away from fossil fuels than humans can move away from eating food. In fact, moving away from fossil fuels would likely lead to starvation for a large share of the world’s population. In 1798, Thomas Malthus wrote about his concern that population was growing too fast relative to food supply. The timing was shortly before fossil fuels began being used very widely. World population at that time as only about 1 billion. World population today is over 8 billion.

    In part, the climate change narrative seems to be an excuse to move manufacturing from Advanced Economies to economies that make extensive use of coal, as it tends to be a cheap fuel. The latter economies also tend to have lower wage and benefit levels, so there is a definite cost advantage. China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. The result is easy to see in Figure 8 below. The US now exports coal to India and China, among other countries.

    Figure 6. Coal consumption, divided between the Advanced Economies (members of OECD) and other economies, based on data of the 2024 Statistical Review of World Energy, published by the Energy Institute.

    As a person might expect, world CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use have soared.

    Figure 7. Billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, based on data of the 2024 Statistical Review of World Energy, published by the Energy Institute.

    [9] The truth is that there aren’t enough resources to go around to support a growing world population. We are reaching a turning point where the total amount of goods and services that the world economy can produce will soon turn down. (This is not unlike the situation modeled in Figure 4, above.)

    While the narrative we hear endlessly is “We are moving away from fossil fuels to prevent climate change,” I believe the real issue is that fossil fuels are leaving the world because we are hitting extraction limits. No one wants to hear such an awful story, however. The climate change narrative is a “sour grapes” version of the story that is more palatable to listeners.

    Figure 8 below shows that the year 2020 should have been a wake-up call that the world needs to cut back on diesel and jet fuels. Diesel fuel is heavily used by agricultural machinery, large trucks, trains and boats. Of course, jet fuel powers jets. With rising world population and a growing economy, it would be expected that their consumption would continue to grow. Diesel and jet fuel are both “middle distillates,” which are most abundantly supplied by heavy oils such as Urals oil from Russia and oil from the Oil Sands in Canada .

    Figure 8. Diesel and Jet Fuel Consumption based on data of the 2024 Statistical Review of World Energy, published by the Energy Institute.

    Between 1990 and 2018, consumption of diesel and jet fuels increased by an average of 1.7% per year. Between 2018 and 2023, there has been no increase at all–in fact, world consumption for 2023 is slightly lower than in 2018. If the 1.7% per year growth pattern had continued, consumption of this combination of fuels would have grown by 8.8% during the five-year period from 2018 and 2023.

    In a sense, there is a shortfall of approximately 8.8% of the diesel and jet fuel combination. Some airline schedules (especially in Asia) have been cut back. Farmers in Europe are protesting because the selling prices for the crops they grow are not high enough to cover today’s diesel and fertilizer costs plus other costs of production. Diesel is a problem fuel and fertilizer is very energy dependent. If the price of groceries rises high enough to cover the costs of diesel and fertilizer for farmers, grocery costs become unaffordable to many citizens.

    [10] Added complexity looks like it would be a solution to inadequate energy and other resource supplies. Instead, added complexity leads to wage and wealth disparities and frequent system breakdowns.

    Complexity can take many forms, including greater specialization; more education for some of the workers; larger, more hierarchical businesses; greater globalization; and ever more complex devices. Such devices can often use energy products more sparingly. Because of these potential energy savings, many people assume that such devices can allow the energy supply that is available to be stretched to cover all the economy’s needs.

    In practice, it doesn’t work this way. Instead, added complexity often adds to energy demand instead of reducing it. For example, moving significant manufacturing to China starting in late 2001 was a type of added complexity. This change added to world coal demand and increased CO2 emission because the goods produced in China and shipped elsewhere were cheaper and therefore more affordable than goods made in the US or Europe.

    Another issue with complexity is the susceptibility to breakdowns it produces. Just this past week, there was an example of this with the update of CrowdStrike computer software that took down computer networks around the world. Another example is the problem Kia is having with engines shutting down unexpectedly. Nature uses complexity, but it also incorporates redundancy so that unexpected breakdowns are not a frequent result.

    A third problem with complexity is that it leads to supply chains for practically everything manufactured in the US or Europe needing to go through China. This makes the US and Europe dependent upon suppliers in China. Even military goods have supply chains running through countries that we are at odds with, including China. This means that China can, in many ways, “hold the US hostage,” by refusing to sell the US rare earth minerals, or by refusing to provide parts of supply chains needed for military armaments.

    Perhaps the most important problem of all with added complexity is the wage and wealth disparities that it leads to. With added complexity, there is more specialization. A few workers with considerable training and advanced degrees get high paying jobs. The wages for these workers, plus the wages for managers, leave little funding left over for less trained workers. Also, competition with workers in low wage countries tends to hold down wages for less-skilled workers.

    Besides the wage disparities, some people, mostly those who are already high-wage earners, become owners of these companies. If stock prices rise, this increases the wealth disparities between the rank-and-file workers and those at the top of the hierarchy. The higher-wage people also tend to purchase homes, and the price-appreciation on their homes adds to their wealth.

    Physicist Francois Roddier, in his book The Thermodynamics of Evolution, explains that this growing wage and wealth disparities are to be expected when energy supplies are short, and added complexity is attempted as a substitute. Already wealthy people tend to get a disproportionate share of the goods and services produced by the economy, while poor people increasingly get squeezed out because of the physics of the situation.

    [11] Ultimately, not enough goods and services to go around leads to conflicts of many types. These include conflict within political parties, within countries, and among countries.

    I believe this issue is behind the conflict we are experiencing today. I will leave this issue for another post.

    [12] Slowing growth is likely to lead to bankruptcies and financial collapse.

    This is another issue that I will leave for another post.

    [13] Conclusion

    I hope these thoughts are somewhat helpful. I have only touched on a few aspects of how the economy really works. Perhaps I can offer more ideas on this subject in the future.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 19:25

  • Watch: Russia Mounts Ballistic Missile Strike On Western Arms Depot In Ukraine
    Watch: Russia Mounts Ballistic Missile Strike On Western Arms Depot In Ukraine

    Russia’s military has released new video as part of ongoing warnings to the West as it pours weapons and ammo into Ukraine. Moscow also continues to warn against the West introducing F-16s into the conflict, which is imminent.

    The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday published footage purporting to show the destruction of a large warehouse filled with US-supplied weapons, specifically including a HIMARS multiple rocket launcher system. The depot was destroyed by a Russian ballistic missile, with the video showing an extensive building engulfed in huge flames. Watch:

    Russian media details that the US-supplied HIMARS system was “discovered by a surveillance drone and was tracked to a hangar in the village of Novopetrovka, in Ukraine’s Nikolayev Region.”

    “The location was hit by a ballistic missile fired by an Iskander-M system, the Russian military reported on Monday, adding that the HIMARS and its crew had been destroyed,” the report continues. The destruction and aftermath was then filmed by Russian surveillance drones.

    Meanwhile, Ukraine launched its own attack, this time sending drones to Russia’s Krasnodar Region’s Kavkaz port, which lies on the eastern side of Kerch Strait.

    It was a rare moment that Ukraine attacked a ferry, resulting in a handful of casualties and one death.

    “The Kiev regime has once again attempted to carry out a terrorist act on the territory of the Krasnodar Region. This morning the drones attacked a ferry in the port of Kavkaz. Unfortunately, there are casualties and a fatality among the crew members and port employees,” the region’s governor wrote on Telegram.

    Port where the ferry was attacked, via TASS

    A fire also resulted after the rare attack on the ferry as it was in operation. However, reports suggest the ferry was not carrying large groups of civilians at the time it was struck.

    Ukraine has not backed off its frequent cross-border drone strikes on Russian territory. Moscow has at the same time stepped-up its targeting of Western assets and weapons inside Ukraine, in a continued escalation spiral.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 19:05

  • Google Reversing Third-Party Cookie Phaseout In Favor Of New Strategy
    Google Reversing Third-Party Cookie Phaseout In Favor Of New Strategy

    Authored by Stephen Katte via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The Google logo in Las Vegas on Jan. 10, 2024. (Steve Marcus/Reuters)

    Global tech giant Google said it plans to reverse an earlier decision to phase out third-party cookies in its Chrome browser and instead focus on a new strategy involving user choice.

    In 2020, Google announced a new initiative, Privacy Sandbox, which would phase out third-party cookies, the data stored in web browsers that lets companies track users and help advertisers target ads.

    At the time, the tech giant said the goal was to make the “web more private and secure for users while also supporting publishers.”

    However, a July 22 blog post from Anthony Chavez, vice president of the Privacy Sandbox initiative, revealed that these plans have shifted after feedback from stakeholders such as regulators, web developers and advertisers.

    “This feedback has helped us craft solutions that aim to support a competitive and thriving marketplace that works for publishers and advertisers, and encourage the adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies,” Mr. Chavez said.

    Mr. Chavez says Google is proposing to give users a choice to limit how third-party cookies are used in their browsers instead of outright removing them. Users will have some input into how they are tracked across Google’s search products. There is already a feature to disable cookies in most browsers, and it’s unclear how this latest proposal from Google would differ.

    “We are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice,” Mr. Chavez said. “Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time.”

    According to Mr. Chavez, Google is discussing its new plans with regulators and “will engage with the industry as we roll this out.”

    Troubled from the start

    In January 2020, Google promised to phase out third-party cookies within two years. The timeline has been extended multiple times in response to concerns from advertisers and regulators.

    Google carried out several cookie replacement experiments, but none gained full support. FLoC, Google’s initial cookie replacement, was scrapped in 2022 after two years over concerns it was inadvertently making it easier for advertisers to gather user information.

    Over the last few years, the advertising and publishing industry has raised concerns about Privacy Sandbox’s impact on advertising effectiveness, campaign performance, and revenue. In January, the UK’s antitrust enforcer, the CMA, also flagged 39 concerns about Google’s Privacy Sandbox and urged the company to pause plans to implement it.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 18:45

  • Kelly Surges Ahead Of Shapiro As Top Contender For Harris' Veep Pick
    Kelly Surges Ahead Of Shapiro As Top Contender For Harris’ Veep Pick

    With Vice President Kamala Harris now expected to secure the Democratic Party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential race, the next crucial decision will be selecting a running mate to complete the ticket.

    As Emel Akan reports via The Epoch Times, after President Joe Biden endorsed Ms. Harris as the party’s nominee on July 21, several names have been floated as her potential running mate.

    As RealClearPolitics notes, her VP pick could make or break her chances at beating Trump.

    The choice of a running mate says a lot about the judgment of the presidential nominee and it can increase support for ticket. Political scientists Chris Devine and Kyle Kopko find that a popular pick of a vice-presidential nominee has the most influence on boosting perceptions of the president who chooses them. This would be of particular importance as Kamala Harris has a relatively high number of Americans who have not yet made up their minds about her.

    Beyond the electoral effects, running mates matter because vice presidents are just one heartbeat away from the presidency, the most powerful elected position on the planet. For this reason, it is important that a presidential nominee get this choice right.

    …

    The most important condition is whether the individual is qualified. Sometimes, out of desperation, nominees give short shrift to this criterion, and they pick an individual for electoral reasons, governing be damned. Arizona Sen. John McCain’s selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in 2008 is a premier example of this. The selection was widely panned, with many believing Palin was not qualified for the position. 

    So with that said – here is a list of the leading candidates who are currently in the spotlight.

    Gov. Josh Shapiro

    Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, 51, has emerged as a top contender for the vice presidential pick. Before assuming office in 2023, he served as the state’s attorney general from 2017 to 2023.

    Story continues below advertisement

    He is frequently mentioned as a strong candidate for the VP role due to his status as a swing state Democrat and his reputation for being moderate. He is Jewish and a strong supporter of Israel.

    Mr. Shapiro endorsed Ms. Harris in a statement on Sunday.

    “I will do everything I can to help elect Kamala Harris as the 47th President of the United States,” he said.

    Gov. Andy Beshear

    Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, 46, rose to prominence with his election as governor in the deep-red state of Kentucky in 2019. He gained reelection to a second term in November 2023. His name is also circulating as a possible VP pick.

    Karen Hult, a political science professor at Virginia Tech, told The Epoch Times that although Kentucky is not a swing state, it is an Appalachian state, making him an “interesting counterpoise” to former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), author of “Hillbilly Elegy.”

    Mr. Beshear endorsed Ms. Harris on X, stating that “she’s incredibly tough & smart, w/ the compassion and empathy to be a phenomenal president.”

    Gov. Roy Cooper

    Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, 67, has served as governor since 2017. Before that, he was the state attorney general from 2001 to 2017.

    North Carolina is a key battleground state, although former President Donald Trump won the state both in 2016 and 2020.

    Mr. Cooper endorsed Ms. Harris for the presidential nomination in a statement posted on X on Sunday.

    “Kamala Harris should be the next President. I’ve known @VP going back to our days as AGs, and she has what it takes to defeat Donald Trump and lead our country thoughtfully and with integrity,” he wrote.

    “I look forward to campaigning for her as we work to win NC up and down the ticket.”

    Sen. Mark Kelly

    Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), 60, has served in the Senate since 2020. He’s a former NASA astronaut and Navy combat pilot.

    Mr. Kelly has national recognition from being married to former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who survived an assassination attempt in 2011. Ms. Giffords was shot in the head at a constituent event near Tucson, Arizona, while she was serving her third term in Congress. The attack left Ms. Giffords partially paralyzed and led to her becoming a gun control activist.

    Mr. Kelly, like Ms. Harris, has advocated for tighter gun control.

    “He’s quite articulate, and he is more conservative and has a fairly strong defense and national security grounding,” Ms. Hult said. “So, he could also be a very attractive candidate.”

    The Arizona senator, in a statement on X, threw his support behind Ms. Harris, stating, “I couldn’t be more confident that Vice President @KamalaHarris is the right person to defeat Donald Trump.”

    Other Candidates

    Other notable names mentioned include Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. However, both have stated that they are not interested in joining the presumptive Harris ticket.

    Some other names considered include California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

    “It’s going to be about balancing the ticket,” David Carlucci, a Democrat strategist and former New York state senator, told The Epoch Times.

    Mr. Carlucci noted that the Harris campaign will be looking closely at who can propel the campaign in crucial battleground states.

    He said he believes Democrats from swing states, such as Mr. Shapiro from Pennsylvania or Mr. Kelly from Arizona, “are going to be eyed very closely.”

    While the vetting process is just getting started, a senior administration official told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly are the leading candidates to be Harris’ running mate.

    According to the latest prediction markets, Kelly is surging ahead of Shapiro…

    Source: Bloomberg

    The two men come from key 2024 battleground states, and have experience battling Trump-endorsed candidates.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 18:25

  • The White-Collar Job Squeeze
    The White-Collar Job Squeeze

    Authored by Jeffrey Tucker via The Epoch Times,

    The other day, I was tooling around at the grocery store and, in line to check out, I noticed a clothes hamper in the shopping cart in front of me. I thought it was pretty nice. I said so to the person pushing the cart.

    Yes, I know it is awkward to strike up such conversations but I’m glad I did. I quickly found that the shopper was not buying for himself but for a customer of Instacart, an online ordering service. He was working and shopping as a customer himself.

    Intrigued, I asked other questions. He has a university degree, recently earned, another full-time job, and just does this to put money in the bank and pay the rent. Casually digging around further, it turns out that this person is deeply grateful for this second job because otherwise he would be bankrupt and have to move home across the country to live with his parents.

    This whole scene struck me as odd, so the next time, I began to wonder about other shoppers and tried the same line of inquiry. As it turns out, several more people there were working for various online shopping companies, Instacart among others. They all had similar stories of hustling as much as possible in the evening hours to pay the bills.

    Truly, I had no idea that many people in our grocery stores today are not there buying for their families but for other businesses. They are gig workers. It’s their second and third jobs. I feel silly not to have known this but I’m not among those who have used such services. But plenty of people do. And that results in jobs for which people are deeply grateful because they have to pay their bills.

    My friends, this is not normal. It has a Weimar vibe: wild economic activity and opportunity amidst a scramble to maintain one’s standard of living. It’s a hamster wheel with just enough payoff to keep it turning. Young people should not be doing this, particularly not those with high-level college training and expectations of the good life just right around the corner.

    A story in the Wall Street Journal has gripped me. It’s about a kid who attended a very fancy school, Loyola University in Chicago. A degree there costs about $280,000 plus four years of lost job experience. You pay it because the credential is great and opens up a world of opportunities. The young person the story chronicled obtained a degree in English literature and imagined a future of working for a major publisher, perhaps advising the next F. Scott Fitzgerald.

    Upon graduation, he started sending out resumes. Ten. Then a hundred. Then several hundred. Then a thousand. Months went by. He heard nothing from any of the companies. Despairing, he started writing to local newspapers. Nothing. Then he tried writing and marketing his material. Nothing. After nearly a year and facing utter bankruptcy, he finally landed a job: a part-time cook but mostly dishwasher at a local diner. For that he is grateful.

    Indeed. Please understand: this person came from a wealthy family and went to the highest-end school. He got excellent grades throughout school. He graduated with honors. He had a network. But when actually going out there and trying to find gainful employment, he had come up with absolutely nothing. It took him a long time but he finally realized that there is nothing wrong with dishwashing. Any job is a respectable job. And all kudos to him for being willing to tell a reporter his story.

    It’s hardly unique. It’s the experience of a whole generation. These days, sending out thousands of applications and hearing nothing is considered normal. A person of my generation cannot imagine this but it is true.

    The WSJ says:

    “The white-collar labor market is entering a more uncertain phase after cooling for more than a year. Job insecurity is climbing and fewer professionals feel emboldened to change their employment. The lack of turnover is stalling hiring even more as companies rethink their talent needs after pandemic-hiring sprees.”

    That much is very obvious.

    The hiring boom was always fragile and sketchy.

    Now it is ending as the financial squeeze from inflation eats away at corporate profits and payrolls shrink across the entire white-collar world. A whole generation has been caught off guard. They followed all the rules. They went into massive debt. They did what they were supposed to do, on the promise that all will work out in the end.

    Sadly, nothing is working out after all. Not even the restaurant and hospitality sector is offering gainful employment. This is a huge change from just one year ago, when at least young people had the option of serving tables. That is no longer true. Those who have such jobs are deeply fortunate. And they know it.

    It’s all the more frustrating for people under 30 to realize that the system that has robbed them of opportunity and income—buying a home is out of the question but not even owning a car is possible—is being run by people with massive retirement accounts who are over the age of 70.

    This is the old exploiting the young, not intentionally but in effect.

    The post-pandemic and actual pandemic economy always had the feeling of unreality about it. It was funded by fake money and debt plus subsidies. Most people had the confidence that all would work out because it always had. But this supposition runs headlong into the reality of accounting. Nothing really added up.

    Inflation is simply not going away and it has eaten into living standards. It is far higher than the government is reporting. Everyone knows this now. Quite simply: the government numbers exclude interest, shrinkflation, added fees, and a realistic accounting of housing prices and insurance. It doesn’t matter how many Nobel Laureates say that all is well. American citizens know it is not.

    For a while, people believed that the magic of technological innovation would once again save us. Artificial intelligence stocks soared and the companies that seized on this new shiny object seemed to be the darlings of Wall Street. But in the last week, that too has changed as major institutional investors are asking old-fashioned questions about price-earnings (P/E) ratios and underlying values. Wall Street says this is merely “rotation.” Rotation is to stocks as “transitory” is to inflation.

    The post-lockdown jobs boom was always artificial, a product of miscounting and misreporting. But whatever strength appeared to be there is now melting away, leaving dislocation and stagnation, even in sectors like hospitality that were reliable only 10 months ago.

    (Data: Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), St. Louis Fed; Chart: Jeffrey A. Tucker)

    Hard times are coming and most people get this. It’s going to be difficult for the new presidential administration. There is no magic solution, as much as we might want one. All budgets, including government budgets, must be cut severely. We have no choice but austerity. It is going to come whether we want it or not.

    The flight to value will continue. The new fashion will be for real jobs, real balance sheets, real assets, and real lives. It’s about time. Nothing in the political theater of our times will change this. These are extremely uncertain days, ripe for all sorts of possibilities. Let us all hope that we will choose freedom and sound money as the only real alternative to stagnation and collapse.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 18:05

  • "Hydrothermal Explosion" Rocks Yellowstone National Park
    “Hydrothermal Explosion” Rocks Yellowstone National Park

    Yellowstone National Park announced on X that a “hydrothermal explosion” occurred earlier today near Sapphire Pool in Biscuit Basin, just north of Old Faithful.

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

    Park rangers provided more color on their website about the incident:  

    • Biscuit Basin, including the parking lot and boardwalks, are temporarily closed for safety reasons. The Grand Loop Road remains open. 

    • No injuries were reported and the extent of damage is unknown at this time. 

    • Park staff and staff from USGS will monitor conditions and reopen the area once deemed safe. 

    Dramatic video footage of the rapid ejection of boiling water, steam, mud, and rock fragments captured by tourists has surfaced on X. 

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

    Hydrothermal explosions can reach heights of 1.2 miles high, ejecting mostly breccia (angular rocks cemented by clay). 

    Park rangers said, “Today’s explosion does not reflect a change in the volcanic system, which remains at normal background levels of activity.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 17:45

  • Was Donald Trump The Victim Of White Privilege? A Democratic Member Wants To Know
    Was Donald Trump The Victim Of White Privilege? A Democratic Member Wants To Know

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    For most of us, this election could not become more confusing. However, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., Tx.) may have added a whole new level of confusion for many in suggesting that Donald Trump may have been the latest victim of systemic racism among law enforcement in the United States.

    Trump previously cited his alleged abuse in the criminal justice system as a point of shared experience with some in the black community.

    Crockett, however, seems to be willing to go further in suggesting that he may be the latest victim of a racist law enforcement system.

    In the hearing with Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, the failure to stop and hold Thomas Crooks was raised by both parties in an unprecedented failure of security.

    Crockett then got her chance and suggested that Trump may have come close to dying at the hands of white privilege.

    “I want to talk about training and the fact that there was a little bit of confusion between this suspicious person and this perceived threat situation, and it seems like a different analysis is being done. One of my questions is what training your officers are getting on bias.

    I’ve learned over and over again, dealing with law enforcement, that there’s generally no perception of threat when it’s a young white male, even if he’s carrying a long gun. Yet a lot of times, at least in this country, when it comes to law enforcement, there’s a perception of threat simply because a person has a little bit more melanin in their skin.

    …Often times, one of the things that we’ve consistently advocated for on my side — and when I say my side, I mean when we’re faced with a tragedy where law enforcement has made a mistake — is bias training and whether or not our officers are getting it. So I’m curious, in some of the training that you’re talking about that’s part of your budget, is bias training part of it?”

    Cheatle responded with “Yes, that’s true.” (An apparent response to the training element).

    Notably, Crockett began by getting Cheatle to acknowledge that this was not a failure due to DEI, or Diversity Equity and Inclusion, policies. She then suggested that further DEI training may be needed in light of the assassination attempt.

    To be clear, there is no evidence that Crooks was allowed to walk away after being spotted with a “long gun.” The current theory is that Crooks hid the gun before the event.

    Moreover, he was identified as a possible threat due to being found with a golf range finder. However, that was not considered a barred or threatening device by the Secret Service.

    Yet, Trump may find common ground here with Vice President Kamala Harris who has long maintained that “We do have two systems of justice” and has added:

    “I don’t think that most reasonable people who are paying attention to the facts would dispute that there are racial disparities and a system that has engaged in racism in terms of how the laws have been enforced. It does us no good to deny that. Let’s just deal with it. Let’s be honest. These might be difficult conversations for some, but they’re not difficult conversations for leaders, not for real leaders.”

    Trump may be willing to have the “difficult conversation” as the now purported victim of white privilege in the dismissal of would-be presidential assassins.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 07/23/2024 – 17:30

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