- The Censorship Industrial Complex Exposes The Kleptocracy's True Intentions
The Censorship Industrial Complex Exposes The Kleptocracy’s True Intentions
Authored by Mitch Nemeth via The Mises Institute,
In the past decade, the growth of the Internet and social media has brought with it a dramatic uptick in populist sentiment.
Legacy institutions have declared war against populism, referring to its claims as “misinformation” or “disinformation” and calling on the government or government-adjacent actors (herein referred to as “the censors”) to clamp down on such claims as they spread across the Internet like wildfire.
The censors rarely decline these opportunities to silence criticism, justifying the censorship as a matter of “national security.”
More than other Western nations, the United States champions freedom of speech.
But it has frequently failed in its aspirations, beginning in 1798 with the Alien and Sedition Acts.
There are countless examples since then of the US failing to adhere to its core value system, too many to recount in one brief article.
The Internet Lets Claims Spread Like Wildfire
Beginning with the Arab Spring in 2010, the extent to which social media could foster grassroots campaigns against perceived tyranny or injustice became increasingly apparent. Martin Gurri, a former CIA analyst, has commented on such phenomena at length in his book, The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millenium.
The nation-state correctly perceives in revolutions a threat to its existing foundations and deploys various methods to crush dissent. Western nations do not typically deploy the military against the masses or declare martial law. The US has taken a different but directionally similar approach, whereby law enforcement and intelligence agencies form cozy partnerships with private actors, such as social media platforms, financial institutions, and other digital intermediaries.
After the Great Recession, populist movements, like Occupy Wall Street on the Left and the Tea Party movement on the Right, garnered dramatic support across Western nations. As with most populist movements, a significant number of the activists embraced ideas branded as “conspiracy theories” by the established order. Rather than examining these allegations, the established order preferred to label the entire movement “crazy” or “conspiratorial.”
Since the movements began, there has been a significant convergence of Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party thought leaders. It is no coincidence that, despite their different politial affiliations, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, and Michael Shellenberger often sound like Tucker Carlson, Dan Bongino, and Donald Trump when it comes to criticizing the government and legacy institutions.
Each of these men has been personally targeted by the censorship industrial complex.
The Twitter Files Expose the Censorship Racket
On March 9, 2023, Michael Shellenberger delivered his testimony to the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which he titled “The Censorship Industrial Complex.” In sixty-eight pages, Michael Shellenberger outlines how “Americans taxpayers are unwittingly financing the growth and power of a censorship-industrial complex run by America’s scientific and technological elite.” He also discusses how the Twitter Files documents “have revealed a large and growing network of government agencies, academic institutions, and nongovernmental organizations that are actively censoring Americans citizens, often without their knowledge.”
In his testimony, Shellenberger aptly describes the censorship industrial complex as “a network of ideologically-aligned government, NGO, and academic institutions that discovered over the last few years the power of censorship to protect their own interests against the volatility and risks of the democratic process.” This contention strongly rebuts the ridiculous claim made by corporate media outlets that censorship is often necessary to “protect our democracy.” For legacy institutions, an apparent devotion to democracy is often little more than a cover for kleptocracy, something Fred Siegel touches on in The Revolt against the Masses: How Liberalism Has Undermined the Middle Class.
On August 7, 2023, Michael Shellenberger’s Substack exposed the censorship racket between Facebook executives and the White House. The authors note that “newly released internal emails show that Facebook executives felt pressure to comply with White House demands in order to resolve a European Union ban on the social media company’s ability to transfer the data of European users to its servers in the United States.” In the past few years, the European Union has taken a heavy-handed regulatory approach toward US-based social media platforms. These platforms relied on the US to advocate for them during the negotiation of the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Without a clear, negotiated framework, these firms would feel significant financial pressure. As the authors of the Substack article note, “The series of events suggests a quid pro quo. Facebook would bow to White House requests for censorship in exchange for its help with the European Union.”
In the past decade, the censorship industrial complex has gained considerable momentum and institutional support. Elite support for censorship is so entrenched that the Harvard Kennedy School published a commentary in September 2022 titled, “Mis- and disinformation studies are too big to fail.” While Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has dimmed opportunities for the censorship industrial complex, there is still much to be done.
In February 2021, an article in Time described a “shadow campaign” that manipulated the 2020 election in the legacy institutions’ preferred direction.
If activists are to dismantle the censorship industrial complex, they must do more than expose the machinery—they must win elections.
Tyler Durden
Sun, 09/24/2023 – 00:05 - Alzheimer's, Now A Leading Cause Of Death In US, Is Becoming More Prevalent
Alzheimer’s, Now A Leading Cause Of Death In US, Is Becoming More Prevalent
Alzheimer’s disease is now one of the leading causes of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Alzheimer’s is a degenerative and incurable brain disease that predominantly affects older people.
Early symptoms include memory loss and lapses in judgment, but at a later stage these can progress to problems with a wider range of functions too, such as balance, breathing and digestion.
As Statista’s Anna Fleck details below, while heart disease, cancer and Covid-19 claimed by far the highest numbers of lives in 2021 (which was the latest available data), Alzheimer’s disease ranked in a high seventh place with 119,399 deaths that year, equating to 31 people per 100,000 population.
You will find more infographics at Statista
The rate of people dying of Alzheimer’s disease in the United States more than doubled between the years 2000 and 2019, according to the Alzheimer’s Association’s latest report.
Where an average of 17.6 people per 100,000 died from the form of dementia at the turn of the millennium, the figure had climbed to 37 per 100,000 people nearly two decades later.
You will find more infographics at Statista
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, this is likely the result of an aging population, since age is the predominant risk factor for Alzheimer’s dementia. However, they note, it could also reflect a rise in the number of formal diagnoses of the disease or even in the number of physicians who are reporting Alzheimer’s as a cause of death.
The charity’s analysts forecast that by 2025, the number of people aged 65+ with Alzheimer’s dementia in the U.S. could reach 7.2 million, and up to 13.8 million by 2060, if there were to be no medical breakthroughs in that time to prevent, slow or cure the disease.
On that note, pharmaceutical companies have a number of drugs in development, targeting different symptoms, from inflammation to synaptic plasticity/neuroprotection pathways.
According to AgingCare, neurological damage and muscle weakness can lead to patients finding it difficult to manage even simple movements such as swallowing food without assistance. This is the most common cause of death among Alzheimer’s patients, since it can result in the inhalation of food or liquids to the lungs, which in turn can lead to pneumonia, since it more difficult to fight off bacterial infections.
The Alzheimer’s Association stresses the importance of seeing a doctor when someone develops Alzheimer’s symptoms. This is because an early diagnosis allows for treatment from earlier on, which may be able to lessen symptoms for a limited time as well as to make more time for people to plan for the future.
God bless nana.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 23:30 - Robots From China Don't Strike
Robots From China Don’t Strike
Authored by Anders Corr via The Epoch Times,
The United Auto Workers (UAW) went on strike on Sept. 15. The strike affected the “big three” in Detroit—General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis, maker of the Jeep. The union wants to increase average labor costs from $65 per hour, including benefits, which is already above market rates. Nonunionized Tesla, for example, pays “just” $45 per hour in labor, considering the cost of benefits.
The UAW’s demands would roughly double labor costs and, according to management, make the companies unviable. Where will the workers go when the automakers go bankrupt, further mechanize their assembly lines, or move yet more production to China?
Many workers in these companies who aren’t on strike are already getting fired. Striking unions attempt to inflict maximum pain on their own companies with as little effort and expenditure as possible. The companies are forced to let go of misguided workers, who they can’t keep busy because other misguided workers on whom they depend are striking. All the strikers and fired UAW workers are getting paid from union funds that came from dues imposed on workers, whether they like it or not. They’re getting paid by the union to halt production.
This ludicrous practice introduces massive inefficiencies into U.S. manufacturing, yet Americans over the decades have gotten used to the deadweight it attaches to the economy.
The supply chain chaos of the latest strike is purposefully engineered by the UAW, which keeps management guessing which factory will close next. Downstream and upstream workers, including from hundreds of other companies, depend on a reliable supply chain and are made redundant by the UAW’s actions as soon as the factory can’t produce vehicles and supply them to paying customers.
Shareholders in these companies have felt more pain than strikers in recent months, with shares of Stellantis falling by more than 7 percent and shares of Ford and GM falling by more than 20 percent. Compare that to rising inflation, which is less and hits the pocketbooks of both shareholders and workers.
Yet union bosses want to grab even more value from shareholders in a manner that’s ultimately a small win and big loss for not only the workers and companies, respectively, but also for the entire economy. What a tiny percentage of U.S. unionized auto workers hope to gain in increased wages, shareholders lose in multiples, and Americans as a whole lose in our market’s competitiveness.
Investors prefer to invest in countries where they aren’t compelled to share profits when times are good. That’s why investors risk their capital. With no significant upside, investors will keep their money in lower-profit but more reliable investments such as bonds, a preference that, if widespread, would impoverish not only the auto industry but all of the American industry. It’s an inefficient form of investing and removes the critical element to the economic growth of risk-takers as decision-makers with skin in the game.
Shareholders aren’t all billionaires. In fact, 158 million Americans own shares in companies—about three-quarters of all adults. As should be clear from those numbers, most shareholders are regular folks, and those regular folks are getting fleeced by the union (full disclosure: This author is a regular guy who holds GM shares).
The problem isn’t just with the unions. The problem is with our politicians, who can’t stand up to the unions, or they get voted out of office. That’s why both Republicans and Democrats avoid angering unions, and why they silently endure strikes that debilitate not only the affected companies but the entire economy.
A general view of GMC Hummer EVs is pictured at General Motors’ Factory ZERO electric vehicle assembly plant in Detroit on Nov. 17, 2021. (Nic Antaya/Getty Images)
The more liberal a country is toward strikers, the more illiberal its economy. Strikers have the power to shut down free markets of labor and capital, which is where they get their power to raise wages beyond what the market bears. That power of shutting down markets, like the power of monopolies, is inherently illiberal. It impinges on the freedom of labor and capital to operate in a manner that maximizes economic efficiency and growth.
True liberals should support free markets, including labor markets, as do true conservatives. Yet both liberal and conservative politicians in the United States avoid criticizing unions. That’s a historical weakness in the American economy that too few are working to fix. It’s the historical weakness that leads our corporations to deindustrialize the United States in favor of nonunionized China and mechanize assembly lines with robots that can increasingly be bought in China.
American unions are self-defeating because they lack principles beyond their driving cause, which is more money for themselves in the short term, without regard for long-term consequences and negative externalities. As one honest 20-year-old striker told The Washington Post, “I’m just here for the money.”
Fortunately, only about 10 percent of American workers are unionized, which is low for OECD countries. U.S. unionization rates have fallen almost every year since the 1950s, when it reached a peak of 35 percent.
Unfortunately, the concentration of wealth appears to be negatively correlated with unionization. Higher rates of unionization cause a more equal distribution of wealth in the United States, but at the cost of lower growth.
A more equitable distribution of wealth leads to positives from an American values perspective, such as homeownership, a more vibrant small business sector, broader ownership of stocks and bonds, and more political stability. But there are better ways to achieve this than through damaging strikes, for example, through a combination of right-to-work laws and progressive taxation. The United States already has such taxation, so there’s no need for the supply chain dislocations that result from overly aggressive union leaders.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 22:55 - Chicago's Trillion-Dollar Financial Engine At Risk Of Leaving Over $800 Million Tax Proposal
Chicago’s Trillion-Dollar Financial Engine At Risk Of Leaving Over $800 Million Tax Proposal
As the winds whip through the canyons of Chicago’s skyscrapers, a storm is brewing between the city’s derivatives powerhouses like DRW, IMC, CME, and Cboe, and a new mayoral administration desperate to fill its half-a-billion-dollar budget chasm, Bloomberg reports.
Traders work in the S&P pit on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 2007.Photographer: Tim Boyle/Bloomberg News. The city’s financial giants, traditionally known as the fulcrum of the global derivatives market, have been greasing the gears of global trade for decades in what’s now a $75 billion industry. Now, they find themselves in the crosshairs of an $800 million tax proposal from Mayor Brandon Johnson. The plan? levy every financial transaction. The response? Chicago’s financial elite are rattled – particularly as crime rates surge.
Now, a quiet mobilization is underway. These giants of trade, who typically spend their days outfoxing each other in the markets, are now colluding to push back against what they see as punitive policies. This new front sees them sharing data to amplify their value proposition, making it crystal clear to policymakers the vast economic benefits they bring to Chicago.
“We don’t want to leave… But we cannot be disadvantaged in the world’s most competitive markets,” said Ed Tilly, the CEO of Cboe Global Markets.
Chicago’s political elite, meanwhile, are totally screwed. With projections showing a budget deficit of $538 million for next year and increasing costs driven by a cocktail of inflation and rising numbers of destitute asylum seekers, the city’s officials are scouring for revenue sources. And what better place to look than the gilded halls of the derivatives industry? Which can just… move.
The finance industry has also been a boon for commercial real estste.
While corporate downsizing since the pandemic has left parts of downtown hollowed out, 60% of the trading companies that have signed leases since 2020 have expanded their footprint in the city, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.
The Chicago firms that are sharing information in an informal group include Cboe, market makers Optiver Holding and IMC Trading, as well as DRW Holdings, best known for high-frequency trading. They want Johnson to know that the economic benefits could be at risk if rampant crime makes it too hard to recruit talent or a transaction levy puts the industry at a disadvantage to peers including Intercontinental Exchange Inc. in Atlanta and Nasdaq in New York. -Bloomberg
That said, Mayor Johnson has been hesitant to commit to the transaction tax, signaling an openness to discussions. Such a levy would have to get the nod from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who seems wary of the mass exodus it could precipitate. Chicago’s recent history is a testament to this, as finance titan Ken Griffin relocated his Citadel business to Miami last year, pointing at the city’s crime and fiscal woes.
Chicago Board of Trade Building Johnson also has to try and live up to his campaign promises, such as not raising property taxes. These have left him with few tools in his fiscal toolbox. While talk of taxing the financial behemoths has gained traction among the public, the potential 800% spike in trading costs associated with the transaction tax has spooked the derivatives industry.
According to Ralph M. Martire of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, “Chicago can’t continue with its current revenue stream.“
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 22:20 - Defunct 'Disinformation Governance Board' Sought To Censor Opposing Views On Racial Justice, Afghan Withdrawal, & Other Political Subjects
Defunct ‘Disinformation Governance Board’ Sought To Censor Opposing Views On Racial Justice, Afghan Withdrawal, & Other Political Subjects
We previously discussed the defunct Disinformation Governance Board and its controversial head Nina Jankowicz. After the outcry over the program, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas finally relented and disbanded the board while insisting that it was never about censoring opposing views.
Jankowicz has sued over the portrayal of her views.
Now, Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFPF) has exposed just how broad the scope of the censorship efforts were under the board in combatting “misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation (MDM).”
This range of authority in what the agency called the “MDM space,” included targeting views on racial justice and the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
New documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests show that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) argued that the agency could regulate speech related to “the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, racial justice, U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the nature of U.S. support to Ukraine” as well as “irregular immigration.”
Those subjects stretch across much of the “space” used for political speech in the last few years.
Notably, within DHS, Jen Easterly, who heads the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, extended her agency’s mandate over critical infrastructure to include “our cognitive infrastructure.” The resulting censorship efforts included combating “malinformation” – described as information “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.” I testified earlier on this effort.
So DHS asserted the authority to target viewpoints on racial justice, Ukraine, and other political subjects, including views based on fact but viewed as misleading in context.
What is also troubling is the continued effort to conceal these censorship activities. Homeland redacted much of this information on a now defunct board under FOIA Exemption 7(E), which protects “techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations.” That claim is itself chilling.
After the demise of the board, National Public Radio ran an interview entitled “How DHS’s disinformation board fell victim to misinformation.”
As the title suggests, NPR just repeated the view of Jankowicz despite the objections of many of us in the free speech community. Jankowicz insisted “we weren’t going to be doing anything related to policing speech. It was an internal coordinating mechanism to make sure that we were doing that work efficiently.” Yet, what were the criminal investigations, prosecutions, and enforcement efforts now being claimed as connected to this work?
Recently, a court found that the Biden Administration’s censorship efforts constituted “the most massive attack against free speech in United States history.” Those words by Chief U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty are part of a 155-page opinion granting a temporary injunction, requested by Louisiana and Missouri, to prevent White House officials from meeting with tech companies about social media censorship.
Yet, Democrats have gone all in on censorship, blacklisting, and even red-baiting efforts. The July 4 decision came six months after I testified before Congress that the Biden administration used social media companies for “censorship by surrogate.” Despite furious attacks by congressional Democrats in that and later hearings, a court found that the evidence overwhelmingly shows systematic violation of the First Amendment by the Biden administration.
Now we have a glimpse into the chilling scope of the Homeland Security’s efforts to target opposing viewpoints. From racial justice to Covid to Ukraine, these subjects involve core political speech. Yet, the Biden Administration felt that it had the right to monitor and combat opposing views in these areas.
In the first censorship hearing, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) criticized me for offering “legal opinions” without working at Twitter. I later noted that it was like saying a witness should not discuss the contents of the “Pentagon Papers” unless he or she worked at the Pentagon. Wasserman Schultz tried to portray the Twitter Files allegations as mere opinions; she cut me off when I tried to explain that the Twitter Files contents — like those of the Pentagon Papers — are “facts,” while the implication of those facts are opinions.
Now there are additional facts showing the massive scope and effort targeting opposing viewpoints. Yet, Democratic members continue to oppose further investigation into these efforts. More importantly, the Biden Administration appears to be using every means to conceal the scope of its efforts. Why? The public should know the range of subjects and claimed authority of these government programs.
This controversy goes to the very core of our constitutional values in protecting free speech. The effort to conceal these efforts and claims reflects the unease of the Biden Administration is telling the public what it has been doing secretly in its name.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 21:45 - Liberal, Conservative Dating Apps Explode In Popularity
Liberal, Conservative Dating Apps Explode In Popularity
After the better half of the last decade polarized the country to the extreme, politically oriented dating apps are on the rise.
On the left, those with a penchant for turtleneck sweaters, hatred of orange presidents and a lottery of genders can check out Colorado-based TruuBlue, which matches social justice progressives.
On the right, those who love long shoots at the range, not murdering unborn children, and woke-free zones can check out The Right Stuff.
TruuBlue, launched by Boulder based tech entrepreneur Dennis Hefter, launched a preliminary enrollment period earlier this month with a $500,000 injection from private investors.
“I don’t think you need to be a Democrat to be on TruuBlue, but you need to be a progressive,” the 61-year-old Hefter told the Washington Times, who added “We support all genders, sexualities and gender pronouns.”
“I think we’re going to get a ton of progressive college kids,” Hefter continued. “They’ll come here because they’re fervent about their beliefs and don’t want to waste time dating people who don’t share their values.”
Once TruuBlue hits 5,000 downloads, it will start matching users next month based on their political values and ranked preferences on six social justice causes: “climate change, gun control, abortion, LGBTQ rights, immigration laws and universal health care.”
The Right Stuff – which landed a $1.5 million investment from Billionaire Peter Thiel, has marketed itself over the past year to God-fearing conservatives who value heterosexual marriage, family, and children.
Launched in September 2022, The Right Stuff has had more than 150,000 downloads and is averaging 43,000 monthly active users, said John McEntee, the app’s co-founder and a former presidential aide to Donald Trump. He said 51% of active users are women. -Washington Times
“Conservative daters are looking to date with intention,” said McEntee. “We have six couples [that we know of] getting married from the app, with the first wedding being this month.”
The wait is finally over! pic.twitter.com/8POlHDRyYS
— The Right Stuff (@daterightstuff) September 30, 2022
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
On launch day in 2022, The Right Stuff had 7,000 app downloads, 6,000 the second day, and 33,000 in the first month.
Though ideologically opposed, both Hefter and McEntee harbor a mutual sentiment. They believe the increasing political polarization in America can be a catalyst for niche dating apps’ success.
But as online dating experiences an upsurge, thanks in part to pandemic lockdowns, some industry experts have questioned these new entrants. Amber Brooks of DatingNews.com, warns that while the notion of ideologically-aligned dating apps might be tempting, their practical utility often falls short, especially outside metropolitan areas. She highlights past ventures like BernieSingles and TrumpSingles, which dwindled over time.
Brooks also noted that many apps, such as Tinder, Bumble and Match.com allow users to filter by politics and religion.
That said, a February survey from American Perspectives found that political affiliation is the fourth-highest dating priority after children, smoking and religion.
That finding builds on several earlier surveys:
⦁ The American Family Survey from BYU/Deseret News found that just 21% of marriages were politically mixed in 2020. Only 3.6% were between Democrats and Republicans, Wendy Wang reported in an analysis for the Institute of Family Studies.
⦁ The Pew Research Center reported in 2020 that 71% of single Democrats said they probably or definitely would not be in a serious relationship with a Trump voter.
⦁ Pew reported that the perceived importance of political affiliations in dating profiles rose from 40% of current or recent online daters in 2019 to 53% in 2022, led by a surge of 16 percentage points among Democrats.
Which begs the question – when’s that national divorce?
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 21:10 - A Time Capsule From The 1930s: What's Different Now
A Time Capsule From The 1930s: What’s Different Now
Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
If we compare health and endurance, well-being, security, general attitudes, family and community ties and values, we would conclude that it is we who are impoverished.
We’re taking care of my 92-year old mother-in-law here at home. She has the usual aches and pains and infirmities of advanced age but her mind and memory are still sharp. Her memories of her childhood are like a time capsule from the 1930s.
My mom-in-law has always lived in the same general community here in Hawaii. She’s never lived more than about 10 miles from the house where she was born (long since torn down) in 1931. Listening to her memories (and asking for more details) is to be transported back to the 1930s, an era of widespread poverty unrelated to the Great Depression. Many people were poor before the Depression. They were working hard but their incomes were low.
Prior to the tourist boom initiated by statehood and affordable airfare, Hawaii’s economy was classically colonial: large plantations owned by a handful of wealthy families and/or corporations (known as The Big Five) employed thousands of laborers to raise and harvest sugar cane and pineapple. Pearl Harbor, Hickam air base and Schofield Barracks were large military bases on Oahu. Travel between islands was expensive (ferries) and each island was largely self-sufficient.
Even taking a bus for the 12-mile ride to the island’s sole city was a rare luxury, an excursion that occurred a few times a year.
Plantation workers were not yet unionized in the 1930s, and wages were around $20 a month for backbreaking field labor–work performed by both men and women. Typical of first and second-generation immigrant communities of the time, families were generally large. Six or seven children was common and nine or ten children per family was not uncommon. Many families lived in modest plantation-provided camps of two bedroom houses.
Gardens were not a hobby, they were an essential source of food to feed a table of hungry kids and adults. Candy, snacks, sodas, etc. were treats rserved for special occasions and holidays. Kids usually went barefoot because shoes were outside the household’s limited budget.
Staples were bought at the company store (or one of the few privately owned groceries) on credit and paid off when the plantation paid wages.
Credit issued by banks was unknown. Neighborhoods (kumiai) might pool a few dollars from each family every year and offer the sum to the highest secret bidder or by lottery. Those households that scraped up enough to open a small business often worked 12 hours a day, 7 days a week (or equivalent: 14 hours 6 days a week).
Neighbors helped with births and deaths.
Since no one could even dream of owning a car, transport was limited. Children and adults walked or biked miles to school or work. Many sole proprietors made a living delivering vegetables, meat and fish around the neighborhoods. (This distribution system is still present in rural France where my brother and sister-in-law lived for many years). Each vendor would arrive on a set day / time and housewives could gather to buy from the proprietor’s jitney or truck. Children could eye the few candies longingly, and if they were lucky, a few pennies would be given to them to buy a candy.
Locally baked bread was delivered by boys. Milk was delivered by small local dairies.
Nostalgia is a powerful force, but I don’t think we can dismiss the general happiness of my Mom-in-law’s childhood as airbrushed impoverishment. The poverty seems obvious to us now, but at the time it was normal life. Everyone was in the same general socio-economic class. The plantation manager lived in a mansion with servants, but those with wealth were few and far between. In other words, wealth and income inequality was extreme but the class structure was flat: the 99% had very similar incomes and opportunities–both were limited.
Employment was stable, community ties and values were strong without anyone even noticing, and everyone had enough to eat (though not as much as they might have wanted, of course).
This secure plantation structure of work and community was still firmly in place in 1969-1970 when I lived on the pineapple plantation of Lanai (and picked pineapple with my high school classmates in the summer), and so I was fortunate to experience it first-hand. My Lanai classmates speak fondly and with a sense of loss when they recall their youth. Life was secure and protected, and with unionization of the workforce, the wages sufficient enough for frugal households to save enough to send their children to college off-island.
I can personally attest that fond memories of 1970s plantation life are not distorted by nostalgia. These memories are accurate recollections of a far more secure, safe and nourishing place and time.
Compared to today, the typical 1930s diet was locally grown / raised and therefore rich in micro-nutrients. Grains such as rice and flour came from afar, but other than canned fish and similar goods, food was local and fresh. Little if any was wasted.
People typically worked physically demanding jobs that burned a lot of calories.
There are many people 90+ years of age in our neighborhood. My Mom-in-law’s brother–like many of the men in this age bracket, he was a World War II veteran of the famed 442nd unit–died last year at 96, despite smoking a half-pack of cigarettes daily until the end. A neighbor/friend just passed away at 99 (he was also a 442nd veteran). Our neighbor (cared for by her daughter and son-in-law, just like us) just turned 100. These people are generally healthy and active until the end of their lives.
If we look for causal factors in their advanced age and generally good health, we cannot ignore the high-quality, near-zero-processed foods diets of their youth and their strong foundations in community ties and values.
If we compare the financial and material wealth most enjoy today with the limited income and assets of the pre-war era, we would conclude they lived in extreme poverty and their lives must have been wretched as a consequence.
But if we compare health and endurance, well-being, security, general attitudes, family and community ties and values, we would conclude that it is we who are impoverished and it was their lives that were rich in these essentials of human life.
The world has changed since the 1930s, of course. Materially, our wealth and options of what to do with our lives are off the charts compared to the 1930s. But if we look at health, security, well-being, community ties, social cohesion and civic virtue, our era seems insecure, disordered and deranging.
The irony is that those who have grown weary of our divisive, rage-inducing socio-economic system yearn for all that’s been lost in the rise to material wealth and opportunities to spend that wealth. Those who grasp the emptiness of spectacle and material wealth and who have the means to do so are seeking the few enclaves that still have a few shreds of community and social cohesion left.
These enclaves then get listed on “best small towns in America” or “best places in the world to retire” and the resulting influx of wealthy outsiders destroys the last remaining shreds of what everyone came for.
I recently harvested some of our homegrown green tomatoes, and my Mom-in-law gave me a handwritten recipe for Fried Green Tomatoes from her collection. The first ingredient was “two tablespoons of bacon drippings.” Um, okay, if we were all working 10-hour days hauling 80-pound loads of sugar cane on our backs, no problem, but we’re a household of three seniors, 69, 70 and 92. I think we’ll substitute two teaspoons of olive oil for the bacon drippings…
* * *
My new book is now available at a 10% discount ($8.95 ebook, $18 print): Self-Reliance in the 21st Century. Read the first chapter for free (PDF)
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 20:35 - American Dream Megamall Sees Losses Quadruple To $245 Million
American Dream Megamall Sees Losses Quadruple To $245 Million
Well if you consider the “American dream” nowadays to be spending money you don’t have while racking up debt, the American Dream megamall outside of New York City (in NJ) might be aptly named after all.
The massive shopping destination inside of the Meadowlands saw its losses quadruple last year, according to the New York Post, sending the facility a stunning $245 million into the red.
The facility is having trouble attracting tenants and is watching customer foot traffic slow, according to the report. Its expenses and debt, as we have documented here on Zero Hedge over the last 2 years, have been burdensome.
The megamall had probably the worst “grand opening” timeline in history, welcoming customers for the first time just five months before the Covid pandemic locked down consumers and ensured the failure of many businesses who couldn’t adapt.
Beyond pandemic-induced closures and building setbacks, the shopping complex has been hit by a series of unexpected incidents, like the collapse of a decorative helicopter model into a pool full of kids last February. Then, in December, an Air National Guard member tragically died in a snowboarding mishap at Big Snow American Dream.
A preliminary financial report indicates that the mall’s operating costs soared to a staggering $428 million in 2022, nearly double the previous year’s $232 million, the Post noted in its writeup.
Separate from operating costs, the mall also incurred $350.3 million in non-operational expenditures, such as debt interest and restructuring fees, according to documents submitted to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s EMMA database. Financial liabilities, including debt repayments, reached $189 million in 2022.
We have previously written about the American Dream mall, writing back in February 2022 that the megamall had just $820 in its reserve account after making a massive $9.3 million interest payment.
That should have been the first sign things weren’t going as planned…
We noted in summer of 2021 that the mall was drowning in debt. We wrote that the mall saw its opening delayed more than once and suffered from the extremely unfortunate timing of the pandemic.
Owners the Ghermezian family were having trouble preventing the mall from “hemorrhaging cash”, according to Bloomberg at the time, who also noted that the family had already hired advisors to help restructure the project’s $3 billion in debt.
Lenders for the project, including J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Soros Fund Management, stood to face losses on about $1.7 billion in construction loans, we noted last summer. The project was carrying about $1.1 billion in municipal debt at the time.
Neil Shapiro, a New York real estate attorney, said of the project last year: “It’s been like watching a train wreck that goes on forever. There aren’t a lot of projects that lose at least $3 billion that we’re still talking about as projects.”
The financial difficulties plaguing the mall serve as a cautionary tale about the dangers of over-leveraging that we believe we are going to see over and over again as the Fed maintains its tight grip on the gears of the economy, via its “higher for longer” stance.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 20:00 - Air Force General Defends Memo That Predicted War With China By 2025
Air Force General Defends Memo That Predicted War With China By 2025
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
The four-star general in charge of the US Air Force’s Air Mobility Command has defended a memo he sent to his officers earlier this year where he predicted the US would be at war with China in 2025.
“My assessment is that war is not inevitable, but the readiness I’m driving with that timeline is absolutely essential to deterrence and absolutely essential to the decisive victory,” Gen. Mike Minihan said last week when asked about his prediction, according to Defense One.
Gen. Mike Minihan, AFP via Getty Images “There needs to be tension on readiness, more than just ‘be ready tonight.’ You need to have readiness that drives urgency. The urgency and the action are paramount,” he added.
Minihan noted that the memo, dated February 1, included the words: “I hope I am wrong.” But the memo to his officers ordered them to be prepared for a fight with China, and while the Pentagon distanced itself from Minihan’s timeline, the US is openly preparing for a direct war with China by building up its forces in the Asia Pacific and increasing military support for Taiwan.
Minihan’s prediction is that the war would be sparked over a Chinese move on Taiwan:
“My gut tells me we will fight in 2025. [Chinese President Xi Jinping] secured his third term and set his war council in October 2022. Taiwan’s presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer Xi a reason. United States’ presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer Xi a distracted America. Xi’s team, reason, and opportunity are all aligned for 2025,” the memo reads.
The memo included several orders for Air Mobility Command personnel, including getting their personal affairs in order.
“All AMC personnel will consider their personal affairs and whether a visit should be scheduled with their servicing base legal office to ensure they are legally ready and prepared,” Minihan wrote.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 19:25 - "Privacy Disasters On Wheels": AOC Blasts NYC Mayor Adams' New Robo-Subway Crime-Fighting Cop
“Privacy Disasters On Wheels”: AOC Blasts NYC Mayor Adams’ New Robo-Subway Crime-Fighting Cop
On Friday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams unveiled a Knightscope K5 Security Robot that will be deployed in the crime-ridden Times Square Subway Station.
“$9 an hour… $9 an hour. I know you wanted to write how we’re wasting money, but I’m sorry I’m taking your thunder away. We’re leasing at $9 an hour,” Adams said at the robot’s big reveal press conference.
Somehow, the mayor and fellow Democrats believe this robot will deter criminals who have only been emboldened by failed social justice policies over the years.
From afar, the fully autonomous security robot looks like a giant trash can on wheels. It’s armed with cameras and will record video but not audio.
The robot comes as the mayor has slashed budgets citywide by 5% amid worsening financial conditions in the metro area, fueled by outflows of residents and businesses and a migrant crisis sparked by the Biden administration’s disastrous open southern border policies.
“This is below minimum wage,” Adams said, adding, “No bathroom breaks, no meal breaks.”
However, not everyone was thrilled about the robot, and there seems to be some in-fighting among Democrats in the metro area. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) posted on X, “NYC schools got defunded to pay for these privacy disasters on wheels.”
NYC schools got defunded to pay for these privacy disasters on wheels https://t.co/jioP61xBbU
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 22, 2023
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
If the answer by Democrats is to deploy robots to fight crime after they pushed failed social justice reform, then this party is in real trouble.
They have no credible solutions to reverse the tidal wave of crime they help spark, and voters will soon catch on to this at the ballot box.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 18:50 - California Democrats Could Guarantee Trump 2024 Win
California Democrats Could Guarantee Trump 2024 Win
Authored by John Seiler via The Epoch Times,
This is so funny. California Democrats are hatching a plot to keep former President Donald Trump off the state’s ballot next year.
But it could backfire and guarantee he wins.
Politico headlined, “California Dems consider unique approach to getting Trump off ballot: California lawmakers are urging AG Bonta to expedite court action against former president.”
The story:
“Nine California lawmakers wrote a letter to Attorney General Rob Bonta over the weekend, arguing that Trump isn’t eligible to be on the ballot for inciting an insurrection when a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“The move, which comes amid several lawsuits to keep Trump off state ballots across the country, is unique because Bonta could use his standing as California’s top law enforcement officer to expedite a state court ruling on the matter. Should the effort succeed, California could be the first state to bump Trump off its ballot, even if the ruling is ultimately overturned.”
This is being debated around the country based on the 14th Amendment’s Section 3, which reads (please excuse a couple of medium-length quotes for context):
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021 supposedly made him the leader of an “insurrection.”
The best argument against that was advanced by former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey in the Wall Street Journal:
“The use of the term ‘officer of the United States’ in other constitutional provisions shows that it refers only to appointed officials, not to elected ones. In U.S. v. Mouat (1888), the Supreme Court ruled that ‘unless a person in the service of the government … holds his place by virtue of an appointment … he is not, strictly speaking, an officer of the United States.’ Chief Justice John Roberts reiterated the point in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (2010): ‘The people do not vote for the “Officers of the United States.”’”
The California State Capitol building in Sacramento, Calif., on April 18, 2022. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
What if They Can Disqualify Trump?
Now, here’s where it gets interesting.
Hypothetically, what if Mr. Mukasey’s argument doesn’t hold up in the courts?
Then California and other states’ attorneys general and governors, or lawsuits by political groups, could throw Mr. Trump off the ballot.
Especially critical would be the swing states with Democratic governors: Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper. Or Fulton County (Atlanta) District Attorney Fani Willis, already prosecuting Trump for allegedly interfering in the 2020 election, could do it.
But then, Republicans could do it in their swing states, throwing President Joe Biden off the ballot.
They could say his alleged bribes from Communist China disqualify him under the 14th amendment’s Section 3 wording for having “given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
Republicans governors invoking that clause could include Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Joe Lombardo of Nevada, and Chris Sununu of New Hampshire.
It would be what in military parlance is called Mutual Assured Destruction.
If that happened, neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Biden would reach the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency in the Electoral College.
Then what?
This combination of pictures created on October 22, 2020 shows President Donald Trump, left, and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden during the final presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 22, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski and Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
Contingent Elections
Then we would have the fourth of what’s called a Contingent Election, although the phrase itself isn’t in the Constitution.
It means the matter is decided by the House of Representatives (or the Senate for vice presidents).
There have been three so far:
-
Thomas Jefferson beat Aaron Burr in 1800;
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John Quincy Adams beat Andrew Jackson in 1825.
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And in 1837 the vice presidential election was given to Richard Mentor Johnson over Francis Granger.
Under a Contingent Election in the House, all 435 members don’t get to vote. Rather, each state delegation gets one vote—50 votes total.
On Sept. 18 Canadian political writer Stephen Marche wrote an article for the left-wing Guardian titled, “Here’s the scary way Trump could win without the electoral or popular vote: In a ‘contingent election,’ he could lose the popular vote, electoral college and all his legal cases and still end up the legal US president.”
He calculated:
“State delegations in the House would favor Republicans as a matter of course. In the struggle for congressional delegates, Republicans would have 19 safe House delegations and the Democrats would have 14, as it stands, with more states leaning Republican than Democrat.”
Ha ha.
So California, by knocking Mr. Trump off the ballot, could guarantee he becomes president.
Again, none of this is likely to happen.
If any state tries to keep him off the ballot, the courts almost certainly would put him back on, possibly reasoning along the lines Mr. Mukasey detailed.
There’s one thing this whole escapade teaches us: A large number of California’s politicians hold in contempt the Constitution, democracy, and the people of the state they claim to represent.
In this train-wreck of a state, with housing, homelessness, drug addiction, schooling, budget, and countless other problems festering—don’t they have anything better to do?
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 18:15 -
- Republicans Embrace Ballot Harvesting for 2024, Some Foresee Legal Battles
Republicans Embrace Ballot Harvesting for 2024, Some Foresee Legal Battles
Authored by Patricia Tolson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
After years of condemning ballot harvesting and early voting, Republicans are switching course for 2024 and embracing both policies wholeheartedly. The results, experts say, can bear good and bad consequences. Some foresee legal challenges.
“Ballot harvesting” is a practice where third-party individuals or organizations collect completed mail-in ballots and deliver them to election officials on a voter’s behalf.
Filing boxes sit off to the side at an absentee ballot processing room at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Ga., on Nov. 2, 2020. (Megan Varner/Getty Images) Hans von Spakovsky—Election Law Reform Initiative Manager and Senior Fellow at The Heritage—prefers to call the practice “Ballot Trafficking.”
“You play by the rules that are in place wherever you are but that doesn’t mean that you allow the status quo to stay that way,” Mr. von Spakovsky told The Epoch Times.
He also suggested that the GOP’s decision to play the ballot harvesting game should not stop voters from trying to convince their state legislators “to change the rules to get rid of ballot trafficking and allowing third-party strangers to go pick up a voter’s ballot because the risks in allowing that are too great.”
Heritage Foundation Election Law Reform Initiative Hans von Spakovsk at a Washington, D.C. event in October 2017. (Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times) “I don’t see anything wrong with taking advantage of the rule if that’s the rule in place but you should try to continue to change it,” he said.
Since 1988, The Heritage Foundation’s Election Fraud Database has documented over 200 cases of proven fraudulent use of absentee ballots. The largest number of confirmed mail-in ballot fraud cases, 36, occurred in 2022.
Ultimately, Mr. von Spakovsky isn’t convinced that having both sides harvesting ballots will give either party an advantage.
“If one party takes advantage of the rules like that and the other doesn’t then it might give that party a step up,” he said. “But if both parties are taking advantage, I’m not quite sure how it would benefit one party or the other.”
Chasing Ballots
By joining the ballot harvesting game in 2024, Sharon Demers sees the potential for both bad and good outcomes.
For the bad, she fears that, just as Republicans have spent years investigating and suing over alleged cases of voter fraud by Democrat operatives, Democrats will do the same. This, she warns, will cause the ever-lengthening election cycle to be followed by an equally protracted litigation season.
For the good, she believes it will help lead to victories that were lost simply because they didn’t keep up with Democrats.
Ms. Demers, a Republican state committeewoman for Flagler County, noted that ballot harvesting is banned in the Sunshine State.
Sharon Demers, Republican State Committee Woman for Flagler County, drops her ballot in a drop box during the 2022 midterm elections in Flagler County, Florida (Courtesy of Susan Demers). “You can knock on someone’s door and encourage them to return their vote-by-mail ballot but they can’t collect those ballots in Florida and deliver them to the Supervisor of Elections or a drop box,” Ms. Demers explained.
“But if another state allows them to do this, we should do it. If it’s legal,” she said. “But if it’s not legal Republicans shouldn’t do it.“
She also advised that Florida is open to what is called “chasing ballots.”
Democrats are already chasing ballots, too.
According to NGP VAN, “the leading technology provider to Democratic and progressive campaigns,” “ballot chasing” is a campaign to encourage voters to take advantage of their state’s early voting schedule in order to “bank votes early” during an election cycle. Organizers can use voter rolls to locate electors who live near early voting locations. By way of phone banks, canvassing, or other outreach programs, organizers can encourage them to get out and cast their ballots.
As Ms. Demers noted, Democrats are known for their well-organized efforts of deploying organizers to pick people up in buses and vans to physically drive them to the polls.
“Those are things Republicans have been lazy about in some areas of the country, not getting out the vote and driving the vote, especially with the young people,” she said, noting how younger voters get most of their information from social media.
“They aren’t involved in politics and that’s a group Republicans in general have ignored,” she said.
‘We Don’t Have a Choice’
As founder of the America First P.A.C.T., Corey Gibson hopes to energize the youth the GOP has ignored.
“We have two choices,” he told The Epoch Times. “Either we participate or we allow Democrats to thrive and win elections because they are ballot harvesting and we’re not.”
As Mr. Gibson told The Epoch Times in June, he has already assembled an “army of social media influencers.”
“We’re the first national ballot harvesting project,” he said.
While also concerned that the GOP’s new ballot harvesting endeavor could become “a legal vortex of doom,” he said “the only thing we can do as conservatives is to pursue this in the most honest and transparent way possible so it’s hard to look at our efforts and find shady business that makes it indefensible.
“The only other choice is to allow Democrats to take advantage of this tool and not participate out of stubbornness.”
However, just as Mr. von Spakovsky suggested, Mr. Gibson said, “We want to ballot harvest until we can make it illegal to ballot harvest.”
“The goal of conservatives is to have free and fair elections. Full stop. Period,” he explained, saying conservatives “would rather lose an election fairly than to win by cheating.”
“It’s time for us to figure out if we want to win elections fairly or sit back and lose just because we’re too stubborn and keep saying we don’t believe in ballot harvesting,” he said.
Mr. Gibson’s greatest wish right now is that “the party structure would allow for a more unified, strategic approach on anything,” because right now, “it’s a hodge-podge of disagreeing tribes.”
“For this to truly be effective,” he said the GOP must have “good strategic leadership to initiate these programs.”
‘That’s something Democrats do well that we don’t,” he said.
‘It Will Be Very Messy’
Richard Frederick is the State Chair for RETHINK! GOP, an organization dedicated to “empowering voters through ballot harvesting, early voting programs and education.”
For the past six or seven months he’s been on the phone with voters from California to Nevada who are confused by the GOP’s sudden switch to advocating practices they’ve condemned for years.
For years we had top people in the GOP screaming that ‘this was illegal, you shouldn’t be doing it, and the Democrats are doing things that are fraudulent,'” Mr. Frederick told The Epoch Times. “Now they’re flipping and saying you have to vote early, you have to ballot harvest. So it’s been very confusing to their voters.”
Curiously though, he also says most of the voters he speaks with never understood why the GOP was so opposed to those practices in the first place.
“They never saw it as illegal. You had Trump, DeSantis, McDaniel, and other public figures saying it’s illegal, and it wasn’t illegal,” he said. “Here in Nevada, we lost a ton of seats because of that. The Party shot themselves in the foot and the Democrats sat back and loved every minute of it because they knew they didn’t have to worry about Republicans ballot harvesting.”
Mr. Frederick then recalled how the GOP’s opposition to early voting also cost Republicans in Nevada because the day before election day in 2020, they got “about a foot of snow.”
“Most people didn’t go out and vote. So all of those Democrats who mailed in their votes had the jump on everybody,” he said.
He also believes the GOP will likely face endless lawsuits after “election season” simply because they aren’t experienced with ballot harvesting.
While organizations like RETHINK! GOP, Turning Point USA, and American Majority “are moving forward with this on their own,” he doesn’t believe the GOP as an entity “will actuality do the things that need to be done simply because they don’t know how.”
“What will follow will be messy. It will be very messy, and it will drag on,” he predicted. “While we were complaining that it took 45 days to get results in some states after the 2020 election, I think this time around it’s going to be even longer.
By the Numbers
The National Conference of State Legislators shows that 31 states authorize someone other than the voter to return a ballot for them.
Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and West Virginia have essentially banned ballot harvesting in their states by limiting the number of ballots an individual may deliver on a voter’s behalf. Florida and Louisiana only allow a family member to deliver a ballot on a voter’s behalf. Oklahoma “prohibits ballot harvesting entirely.
Six months ahead of the November 2020 election, a Gallop poll showed that 64 percent of Americans favored the idea of mail-in ballots. Stark differences, however, were seen among voters according to their political affiliation. While 83 percent of Democrats expressed support for mail-in ballots only 40 percent of Republicans expressed the same sentiment. Among independents, 68 showed support.
Polling conducted by the Honest Elections Project in July and provided exclusively to The Federalist showed that 76 percent of voters surveyed believe “voting in person is better than voting by mail.” A majority, 73 percent, also “reject automatically sending ballots without a voter’s request,” and 74 percent said ballot harvesting “should be illegal.”
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 17:05 - Murdered Ecuadorian Cartel Boss Buried With "Hundreds" Of Pistols, Shotguns And Rifles
Murdered Ecuadorian Cartel Boss Buried With “Hundreds” Of Pistols, Shotguns And Rifles
Here’s a story straight out of a “trigger warning” scenario for Vice President Kamala Harris’ new federal office of gun violence prevention: a murdered Ecuadorian cartel boss known as “El Fatal” has been buried with hundreds of guns in his coffin this past week, the NY Post reported.
Surrounded by hundreds of pistols, shotguns and rifles, the 39 year old was the leader of “Los Fatales”. He was getting a car wash last week when he was “suddenly ambushed by gunmen” and killed, along with his 20 year old daughter who was with him.
The murder was blamed on rival gang, the report says.
After the murder, the cartel leader, Julian Sevillano’s family refused to let the local police take the body. The family took the remains and planned a “massive funeral” for the next day, the report says.
At the funeral, photos were taken of Sevillano in an open casket that people rushed to fill with weapons so that the boss could be “armed to the teeth in the afterlife and could defend himself.”
The rival gang responsible for his death had tracked his movements ahead of time, the report says. “It seems that they had followed his movements, Julián always came to wash the car in the morning, his enemies took advantage of that,” one local resident told the news.
The murder may have been to “settle scores” for previous crimes committed by Sevillano.
Who knew cartel rivalries extended to the afterlife?
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 16:30 - Lies, Damn Lies, And The Sierra Club
Lies, Damn Lies, And The Sierra Club
Authored by Tucker Davis via RealClear Wire,
Recently, the Sierra Club has been spreading a blatantly false narrative that the rolling blackouts experienced during Winter Storm Elliott in Kentucky on December 23 were the result of the failure of coal-fired generating units to meet demand. Nothing could be further from the truth.
In reality, it was the region’s remaining coal-fired power generation fleet that ramped up to meet the demand during the deep freeze that engulfed the region in December.
Yes, Kentucky-based combined utilities, LG&E and KU, were forced to institute rolling blackouts from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on the evening of December 23. But it wasn’t due to the failure of our coal-fired generation capacity. In fact, during these rolling blackouts, their combined coal units — totaling 5,100 MW of capacity — operated at a collective capacity factor of 90% and provided more than 70% of the energy required to keep our electric grid from complete failure. Had it not been for our coal plants, it is likely the entire grid would have collapsed at the very time when it was needed the most to provide the heat on which Kentucky lives were depending.
This is exactly why the Kentucky Coal Association opposes the closure of any more of our remaining coal generation units, as has been requested by LG&E and KU. Electric reliability is such a critical issue; it should not be sacrificed for political considerations.
If the 1,500 MW of coal units the companies have requested approval to retire had not been available during the critical time on December 23 undoubtedly the power outage would have been much worse, and lives would have been lost. Is this what we want? Is this what Kentucky wants? Is this what Americans want?
Are you willing to gamble the lives of your loved ones on the Ponzi scheme that is renewable energy? Are you willing to accept the empty, proven false promises of the “Big Green Money Machine?”
Coal-fired power generation is a proven technology. For generations, it has met the demands of the growing economic powerhouse that was America, with no problems and without calls for rolling blackouts. Through any weather, the coal trains rolled, each train delivering 10,000 tons of reliable, affordable coal to power plants across the country.
The reality is simple and easy to see… only when the green lobby and their friends in Washington began their relentless assault on coal generation — closing thousands of MW of coal-fired power plants and replacing them with solar and wind generation — did these problems begin, and they get worse with each passing day.
Apparently, the Sierra Club lives in some weird Orwellian world where up is down and left is right, where “reality” is whatever they decide it to be. Fortunately, most people don’t live in that world. We live in a world bounded by objective reality — a world where people need reliable energy, not fairy dust and pixie sprinkles. And we don’t appreciate blatant lies.
However, one thing this did accomplish — it laid bare the contempt for the average American that the Sierra Club holds. It clearly shows they believe they can pull the wool over the eyes of American families.
Everyday, thousands of folks working in the mining industry roll up their sleeves and work hard to benefit all of Kentucky – yes, even those who wish to destroy their businesses. Even the members of the Sierra Club, the industry’s most ardent opposition, benefit greatly from reliable and affordable electricity. Those folks will never acknowledge the many communities that are given good wages, stability, and economic growth all from coal. Energy policy is not just about vague hopes and dreams of a “green future”, its real lives and real jobs.
So, once again this past winter, coal kept the lights on for the people of Kentucky. Coal will keep us safe and warm whether we see the worst snow storms on record, or a mild flurry. And remember, the coal units set to retire provided one-third of the coal generation that kept our power grid from complete and total failure.
Tucker Davis is President of the Kentucky Coal Association.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 15:55 - Tinder Is Now Offering $6000 Per Year "VIP" Subscription
Tinder Is Now Offering $6000 Per Year “VIP” Subscription
Dating app Tinder has a successful history of making a business of cashing in off of lonely people, charging users for advanced features and premium types of messaging over the years. This week, it was reported that the company is going to try and kick that business into hyperdrive.
The app, which – like other dating apps – has seen its fair share of bots, escorts and spam, is now trying the novel approach of offering a $500 per month option called “Tinder Select”. A subscription would amount to $6,000 per year.
The new service is going to include features like “exclusive search and matching,” according to Bloomberg. The company said the option is being offered to “less than 1% of Tinder users who are among the app’s most active”, though we’re sure this “exclusive” waitlist will eventually expand to any desperate incel who has an extra $500 per month to pony up.
“VIP” search, matching and conversation are several of the named services that Select will offer, with the company providing little details on the specific services.
Tinder Chief Product Officer Mark Van Ryswyk told Bloomberg: “We know that there is a subset of highly engaged and active users who prioritize more effective and efficient ways to find connections…and so we engaged in extensive tests and feedback with this audience over the past several months to develop a completely new offering.”
Match Group President Gary Swidler said earlier this month he thinks the offering will attract “a relatively tiny amount of new payers” but that it’ll make a big impact on the company’s top line.
We’re sure from a UX and development standpoint, the cost outlay for Match will be negligible, based on the “VIP” services they are going to offer that almost all other dating apps (including Tinder Regular) offer.
“We expect Tinder payer trends to improve as focus shifts from price optimizations to product & engagement. We believe the best (& perhaps only) way to turn the tide in online dating sentiment is for Tinder payers to stabilize & ultimately return to growth,” JP Morgan analysts wrote last week.
While the firm has witnessed a slide in subscriber counts for the past three consecutive quarters, it has successfully increased its average revenue per user year-over-year, recording its most significant leap in two years, according to Bloomberg data. In its second-quarter financials revealed in August, the company surpassed revenue forecasts and elevated its projections for the next quarter, largely due to the better-than-expected performance and growth of Tinder.
Despite these milestones, the company’s stock performance has remained stagnant this year, contrasting with a 13% uptick in the S&P 500 Index during the same timeframe.
With rates at 5%, we can’t help but wonder how long even millionaires and billionaires say “enough” and start to think about what an extra $500 a month could get them. Hell, if they are lonely, $6000 per year is enough to pay for a trip around the world to actually meet new people…or maybe two really great nights at a Vegas strip club. Then, at least, you’re actually interacting with another human in person…
But we digress…
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 15:20 - Gov. Newsom Attacks Federal Judge As Child-Killing, Extremist, Right-Wing Zealot Owned By The NRA
Gov. Newsom Attacks Federal Judge As Child-Killing, Extremist, Right-Wing Zealot Owned By The NRA
It seems that we continue to struggle with a chief executive who goes on social media to personally attack judges who have ruled against his laws or policies. No, it is not Donald Trump. This week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) went on Twitter/X to denounce U.S. Judge Roger T. Benitez as “an extremist, right-wing zealot with no regard to [sic] human life.”
Four years ago, I wrote how Democrats were becoming more Trump-like in their attacks on judges and hyperbolic rhetoric. There is no better example than Gavin Newsom.
Many of us criticized Trump for his attacks on judges, including Judge Gonzalo Curiel over his hispanic heritage.
Trump would often savage judges for being Democrats or liberals when there were good-faith legal disagreements over his policies.
Newsom seems increasingly to be morphing into the man that he once denounced for such “toxic” rhetoric.
Benitez earned the ire of Newsom by ruling yesterday that California’s limit on high-capacity magazines violates the Second Amendment. He previously ruled against the ban in a partial stay in 2019.
There are good-faith arguments that these bans contradict Supreme Court cases on the scope and meaning of the Second Amendment. It is certainly an open question but gun-rights advocates are challenging these laws as without constitutional or historical foundation. In New York State Rifle &Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, 142 S.Ct. 2111 (2022), the Supreme Court held that
[W]hen the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct. To justify its regulation, . . . the government must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Only if a firearm regulation is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition may a court conclude that the individual’s conduct falls outside the Second Amendment’s ‘unqualified command.’
As a lower court judge, Benitez is required to follow that precedent and, while some may see room for a contrary ruling, he wrote a lengthy opinion in Duncan v. Bonta (below) on why the California law fails under this precedent:
There is no American tradition of limiting ammunition capacity and the 10-round limit has no historical pedigree and it is arbitrary and capricious. It is extreme. Our federal government and most states impose no limits and in the states where limits are imposed, there is no consensus. Delaware landed on a 17-round magazine limit. Illinois and Vermont picked limits of 15 rounds for handguns and 10 rounds for a rifles. Colorado went with a 15-round limit for handguns and rifles, and a 28-inch tube limit for shotguns. New York tried its luck at a 7-round limit; that did not work out. New Jersey started with a 15-round limit and then reduced the limit to 10-rounds. The fact that there are so many different numerical limits demonstrates the arbitrary nature of magazine capacity limits.
Rather than attack the basis for the opinion, Newsom followed the common practice today in commentary and Congress in attacking those who hold opposing views. He posted on Twitter/X:
BREAKING: California’s high-capacity magazine ban was just STRUCK DOWN by Judge Benitez, an extremist, right-wing zealot with no regard to human life.
Wake up, America.
Our gun safety laws will continue to be thrown out by NRA-owned federal judges until we pass a Constitutional Amendment to protect our kids and end the gun violence epidemic in America.
So, rather than offer an opposing view on the historical foundations and constitutional justification for the law, Newsom called the judge a child-killing, extremist, right-wing zealot owned by the NRA.
That is not at all “toxic.”
Such trash talking is now the norm in American politics as members of Congress regularly attack journalists, whistleblowers, and others personally rather than address their underlying views. I have testified over 100 times in Congress over decades and I have never seen the degree of ad hominem attacks on witnesses by members. It is meant to not only appeal to the most extreme elements in our political system, but to chill other witnesses who may be considering testimony that a party opposes.
The attacks on judges by our political leaders are particularly chilling. I denounced it in Trump and it is no less “toxic” by Newsom. Yet, while the media universally condemned Trump in these attacks, reporters have been largely quiet or neutral in reporting the attacks by Newsom.
As for Newsom, he knows that, in the age of rage, the most rageful reigns supreme.
Here is the opinion: duncan-v-bonta-order
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 14:45 - Ukraine Says Sevastopol HQ Strike Left Dozens Of Casualties "Including Senior Leadership"
Ukraine Says Sevastopol HQ Strike Left Dozens Of Casualties “Including Senior Leadership”
Sky News has reported that Ukraine used UK-made Storm Shadow missiles to strike and destroy Russia’s Black Sea Fleet naval headquarters in Sevastopol on Friday.
Russia conceded that one missile scored a direct hit, and videos and images confirm significant damage, but also claimed a further five were shot down by anti-air defenses. However, Ukrainian sources have said multiple missiles struck the HQ, with unverified social media images circulating which suggest at least two or multiple hit the building.
Britain and France began supplying the long-range Storm Shadows starting last spring and summer. President Biden this week belatedly approved that a limited supply of MGM-140 ATACMS missiles, with a range of up to 190 miles, will also be given to Ukraine.
Russia in the aftermath of the Sevastopol HQ strike said that one military service member was missing, but has remained tight-lipped on details or other potential casualties.
What’s clear is that it was a very large attack, given later in the day Friday and into Saturday more and more images emerged showing the significant extent of the devastation, after fires were extinguished by a huge emergency response.
Western analysts and pro-Kiev sources have pointed to images which appear to show more than one Storm Shadow missiles hitting Russia’s Black Sea Fleet HQ…
The strike on the Russian occupiers’ Black Sea Fleet HQ in #Sevastopol that killed Admiral #Sokolov appears to have consisted of at least two bullseye hits. The building was already burning significantly as the second missile struck: pic.twitter.com/8xeu3lTf4x
— Jessica Berlin (@berlin_bridge) September 22, 2023
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Another discrepancy between the emerging Russian and Ukrainian narratives concerns casualties and whether top brass was impacted.
On Saturday Ukraine’s government announced that the strike left dozens of dead and wounded, among them “senior leadership.”
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces owned up to it, revealing that the operation was dubbed “Crap Trap” and involved intelligence which placed senior commanders in the building at the time of the strikes. The Telegram statement said officers were taken out, “including the senior leadership of the fleet.” But the statement didn’t name names.
Online sources are circulating claims like the following in the attack aftermath:
Sounds like a signature strike that would require five eyes national assets to pull off successfully.
Guess it was just a lucky shot tho. https://t.co/7mbXCLMv0J
— Jack Murphy (@JackMurphyRGR) September 22, 2023
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The full Ukrainian military statement said the following:
“The daring and painstaking work of the Special Operations Forces enabled them to hit the Black Sea Fleet headquarters ‘on time and with precision’ while the Russian Navy’s senior staff was meeting in the temporarily occupied city of Sevastopol.”
“The data was transmitted to the Air Force for strike. The details of the attack will be revealed once it is possible. The result is dozens of dead and wounded occupiers, including the senior leadership of the fleet.”
Clearly, Kiev is claiming to have pulled off not only the daring strikes inside Crimea but an extensive intelligence operation as well, given it says it had knowledge of timing of when senior leadership would be gathered inside the headquarters.
Slowed down and zoomed-in footage of the Ukrainian Storm Shadow/SCALP ALCM slamming into (and through) the roof of the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters. pic.twitter.com/c8mas1OzAg
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) September 22, 2023
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According to a separate statement which comes from Ukrainian intelligence:
Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, told Voice of America that at least nine people were killed and 16 injured as a result of Kyiv’s attack on the Black Sea Fleet on Friday.
He claimed that Alexander Romanchuk, a Russian general commanding forces along the key southeastern front line, was “in a very serious condition” following the attack.
However, this has remained unverified by either the Russian side or independent reporting or observers. Al Jazeera has cited a correspondent in Moscow who describes that “both sides have remained tight-lipped about their own casualties” while “downplaying their numbers and significance and playing up the numbers and significance on the other side.”
Via Planet Labs PBC/Handout/Reuters Specifically on the Friday Sevastopol attack, the same journalist said, “Russia confirmed that a service member was killed in the attack, initially we had heard that six people were injured from media reports in the area.”
Meanwhile there were overnight reports saying that Russia unleashed more major airstrike on Ukraine, in retaliation for the Black Sea Fleet HQ attack.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 14:10 - Striking Autoworkers Will Only Harm Their Own Livelihoods
Striking Autoworkers Will Only Harm Their Own Livelihoods
Authored by Connor O’Keefe via The Mises Institute,
On Friday, September 15, 12,700 members of the United Auto Workers union (UAW) walked off the job at plants owned by the “Big Three” automakers – Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis (which owns Chrysler, Jeep, and Ram). The walkout marked the beginning of a series of long-expected targeted strikes aiming to give the UAW leverage as it renegotiates contracts with the three companies. [ZH: And Friday September 22, the situation escalated.]
The strike is grounded in frustrations over worker compensation.
Union members and their supporters point to high profits and CEO pay at the Big Three and compare them to stagnant wages and rising costs of living among autoworkers. They feel like they’re being ripped off.
And they’re right. Like the rest of the working class, autoworkers are being ripped off. Decades of interventionism have built an economic system that harms workers while helping the corporate and political classes. The first reason for this is monetary policy. Ever since President Richard Nixon abolished the gold standard in the early 1970s, a handful of bureaucrats at the Federal Reserve have been charged with determining the value of our currency. And those bureaucrats have decided that the dollar should lose value every year. They aim for a decline of 2 percent annually, but the rate has been higher in recent years.
Dollar devaluation is a political choice. And it hurts workers. In an unhampered market, money becomes more valuable as societies grow wealthier. Goods become better and more affordable. And money saved grows in value.
Under our current inflationist fiat regime, the opposite happens. Savings shrink in value by design. The result is spelled out by Saifedean Ammous in his book The Fiat Standard:
The culture of conspicuous mass consumption that pervades our planet today cannot be understood except through the distorted incentives fiat creates around consumption. With the money constantly losing its value, deferring consumption and saving will likely have a negative expected value. Finding the right investments is difficult, requires active management and supervision, and entails risk. The path of least resistance, the path permeating the entire culture of fiat society, is to consume all your income, living paycheck to paycheck.
We can see, then, how monetary policy leads to mass consumption, low savings, and hyperfinancialization—all at the same time. In fact, one of the most notable examples of the financialization of the economy since the 1970s has been the growth of the Big Three automakers’ financial arms—GM Financial, Ford Credit, and Stellantis Financial Services.
In fact, as Ryan McMaken highlights: “By the early 2000s, a majority of GM’s profits were coming from its financial operations and not from automobile production.”
In other words, the automakers have profited from the very same government policies that devalue their workers’ paychecks and savings.
But monetary policy is only one part of the story. Governments at all levels restrict the supply of housing by limiting building. That makes housing less affordable. The federal government also bids up demand for healthcare services while restricting the supply of doctors and hospitals, and it shields drug manufacturers from competition. That makes healthcare much more expensive. Meanwhile, Washington’s agricultural policy aims to prop up crop prices, which impacts the price of many foods. All this artificially drives up the cost of living.
That’s bad enough for autoworkers, but the Biden administration is also trying to force a transition to electric vehicles (EVs). For autoworkers building engines, transmissions, and exhaust systems, that’s a threat to their jobs. And because the ramp-up of EV production is driven by politics rather than consumer demand, the transition is set to hurt all workers who rely on cars.
Considering all that, it is obvious why autoworkers are frustrated with their financial situation. But unfortunately, their justified anger has been hijacked by another source of their problems, the UAW.
Support for labor unions rests on an economic myth from the mid-eighteenth century.
In short, it’s the idea that companies make profits by not paying workers the full value of their labor. Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk dismantled this socialist exploitation theory 139 years ago when he introduced time into the analysis. Companies pay workers in the present for labor services that may lead to saleable goods in the future. Because of the universal trait of time preference, the certainty of money now is often more appealing than the possibility of more money later, which is why so many people choose to sell their labor services on the job market.
Böhm-Bawerk’s insights are easy to see in auto manufacturing, where workers are paid up front to help build cars that will be sold later. Still, the flawed idea that profits signify wage theft caught on, and in 1935, autoworkers founded the UAW. The present strikes speak to the persistence of this myth.
Labor unions often appeal to worker solidarity, but in truth, they epitomize the exact opposite. Because as Murray Rothbard has shown, they can only raise wages for some workers by lowering the wages or eliminating the jobs of other workers. At the Big Three automakers, this can be seen in the heavy use of temporary and part-time workers, who are placed on a lower pay tier—the elimination of which is ironically a core demand of the UAW strike. But this situation is just what’s visible. All those who are blocked entirely from the jobs that would be available to them if not for the union remain unseen.
America’s autoworkers are right to be angry about their economic situation. But the restrictionist labor demands of the UAW are a distraction that will, at most, help some autoworkers at the expense of others. The real solution lies in ending union practices that unnecessarily pit workers against each other, ending the policies that force companies to produce things consumers don’t even want, ending the multitude of government programs and political privileges that artificially raise the cost of living, and ending the monetary system that destroys the value of workers’ paychecks and savings while propping up the financial class. Abolish all that, and the benefits will extend far beyond the auto industry.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 13:35 - Watch: National Guard Rolls Into Eagle Pass, Texas As Biden's Border Crisis Spirals Out-Of-Control
Watch: National Guard Rolls Into Eagle Pass, Texas As Biden’s Border Crisis Spirals Out-Of-Control
Townhall reporter Julio Rosas says the National Guard has sealed parts of the Eagle Pass, Texas, border with Mexico to prevent a further invasion of thousands of illegals crossing into the US.
🚨: The National Guard is preventing illegal immigrants from entering Eagle Pass. pic.twitter.com/tAVe9KyAQd
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) September 23, 2023
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Rosas said, “At a different spot along the Rio Grande, illegal immigrants are finding a way through the C-wire despite the National Guard being there.”
At a different spot along the Rio Grande, illegal immigrants are finding a way through the C-wire despite the National Guard being there. pic.twitter.com/qaapFMS9qQ
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) September 23, 2023
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“After the group passed through, Guardsmen placed more C-wire in the gap illegal immigrants used to enter Eagle Pass,” he said.
After the group passed through, Guardsmen placed more C-wire in the gap illegal immigrants used to enter Eagle Pass. pic.twitter.com/bP8HDAotQl
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) September 23, 2023
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Eagle Pass has been the epicenter of the border invasion this past week.
Thousands of migrants continue to flood into Eagle Pass, Texas, after the Biden administration was filmed removing razor wire intended to deter illegal crossings.
The mayor of Eagle Pass has declared a state of emergency and is “pleading for help.”pic.twitter.com/hlnZI10djO
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) September 21, 2023
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On Wednesday, Fox News reporter Bill Melugin posted alarming footage of the migrant invasion on X.
It’s a total free for all in Eagle Pass right now. Mass illegal crossing taking place for over an hour and a half. Almost 2 years to the day we saw 15,000+ Haitians under the bridge in Del Rio, we now have thousands of predominantly Venezuelans gathering under Eagle Pass bridge. pic.twitter.com/VkfUQnexGZ
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 20, 2023
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Elon Musk then felt compelled to ask: “Strange that there is almost no legacy media coverage of this.”
Strange that there is almost no legacy media coverage of this.
About 2 million people – from every country on Earth – are entering through the US southern border every year.
The number is rising rapidly, yet no preventive action is taken by the current administration. https://t.co/EF7HTS1ktT
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 20, 2023
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Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared an “invasion,” blaming President Biden’s disastrous open border policies.
I officially declared an invasion at our border because of Biden’s policies.
We deployed the Texas National Guard, DPS & local law enforcement.
We are building a border wall, razor wire & marine barriers.
We are also repelling migrants.
More: https://t.co/dEivr1lL2n pic.twitter.com/hzCl6ouTVJ
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) September 20, 2023
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On Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre failed to answer Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy’s question:
“So, what do you call it here at the White House when 10,000 people illegally cross the border in a single day?”
Doocy: “What do you call it when 10,000 illegals cross the border in a single day.”
Jean-Pierre: “What do you call it when republicans…”
Doocy: You’re not answering
Jean-Pierre: “We’re moving on”
pic.twitter.com/rvKDTDLUt9— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 21, 2023
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The Border Patrol Union then blasted the ‘radical’ Biden administration:
“From Sept 1st through 20th the Biden Admin ordered the release of more than 100,000 illegal border crashers-enough to double the population of cities like Yuma, AZ. Think about what Biden is doing to this country with his out-of-control border policies. How many millions more?”
From Sept 1st through 20th the Biden Admin ordered the release of more than 100,000 illegal border crashers-enough to double the population of cities like Yuma, AZ.
Think about what Biden is doing to this country with his out-of-control border policies. How many millions more?
— Border Patrol Union – NBPC (@BPUnion) September 21, 2023
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Then, an alleged video of Border Patrol agents breaking rank surfaced on X.
Border Patrol Agents ARE BREAKING RANKS!! They Are Questioning Why Isn’t Leadership UPHOLDING THE CONSTITUTION ‼️
Border Patrol Chief “We stay focused we continue to do the job and the mission that we signed up for. We all signed up for it, we all raised our hand.”
BRAVE… pic.twitter.com/yLmzFqwKMg— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) September 21, 2023
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The majority of Americans did not vote for open borders. A small fringe minority of financial and political elites are abusing their power over the majority, and folks are getting fed up.
JUST IN: Fox News stops at bar in Bozeman, Montana.
Shocked to find out that out every single one of the patrons is voting for 47..
HAS AMERICA FINALLY HAD ENOUGH? pic.twitter.com/BIBxfERe9e
— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) September 22, 2023
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Biden inherited a border under control and enforced disastrous policies that have only led to “unprecedented illegal entry, human trafficking, and deadly fentanyl killing more than 100,000 Americans a year,” Judiciary Committee Senior Member Congressman Darrell Issa (CA-48) wrote in a statement on Friday.
With over 500,000+ known encounters EACH QUARTER! Which is the equivalent of the entire population of Tucson, AZ! This is our best case scenario as far as murderers and rapists goes… #BorderCrisis pic.twitter.com/mr79oqysky
— Unbiased Crime Report (@UnbiasedCrime) September 19, 2023
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Issa warned: “Make no mistake: the next chapter of the Biden border disaster is here. It needs to be brought to a close, and Congress must act.”
“No nation in history has survived once its borders were destroyed, its citizenship was rendered no different from mere residence, and its neighbors with impunity undermined its sovereignty.”
—Victor Davis Hanson (@VDHanson) pic.twitter.com/dfSr52ZgqM— Larry Elder (@larryelder) September 23, 2023
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… and just in time for the next presidential election cycle as these immigrants flood major metro areas.
Tyler Durden
Sat, 09/23/2023 – 13:00
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