- Dancing COVID Nurses That Supported Draconian Mandates Switch To Climate Change
Dancing COVID Nurses That Supported Draconian Mandates Switch To Climate Change
Perhaps one of the most unsettling narrative relationships during the covid pandemic lockdowns was the assertion by various governments, think-tanks and media pundits that the mandates weren’t just good for “stopping the spread,” they were also good for “saving the environment” from what they claim will be inevitable Apocalyptic climate change. While the covid agenda has all but disappeared thanks to millions of people and half the states in the US rejecting the restrictions, climate hysteria is still alive and well.
One of the most obnoxious trends in covid propaganda was the constant TikTok dance videos. Dancing politicians, dancing talk show hosts and dancing nurses all telling us to comply while frolicking around like maniacs. Well, it’s not over, because the dancing covid nurses are back, and now they’re here to tell us that accepting carbon controls is just as important as the mandates.
Beyond the numerous question on how nurses managed to have time to make so many group TikToks if the hospitals were “overrun” with patients dying of covid as the media asserted for the first year of the pandemic, we must also ask: If they lied about the effectiveness of the mandates, why should we listen to them about climate change?
Not one draconian policy enforced by governments made any difference whatsoever in the transmission of the covid virus. The lockdowns were pointless. The masks were pointless. Social distancing was pointless. And the official median Infection Fatality Rate of covid is a mere 0.23%, which means that 99.8% of people were never under any threat from the disease anyway. These facts were well known by medical professionals by early 2021, yet many of them continued to push the mandates.
Invariably, as the summer heats up so does the hype surrounding climate controls which would do little or nothing to shift the existing state of the Earth’s temps. “Record temps” are often touted, but these records are limited to a short time from of around 140 years of official data (since the 1880s). But what about before then? When we look at the real history of the Earth’s climate, the temps today are incredibly mild. Not only that, but the global warming events of the past all occurred without human involvement.
One has to wonder, if this is the case, why are no carbon control proponents or climate scientists talking about it? Is the situation much like covid, where they tell you to “believe the science” except for the science that contradicts their claims? And let’s not forget, these same people have been telling us the Earth is on the verge of burning for a very long time.
People stopped idolizing nurses after the pandemic scare. Dancing for the climate feels more like a desperate act to regain relevancy, rather than legitimate activism.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 07/26/2023 – 02:45 - Ukrainian Tanks Are Running On Russian Oil Refined In Hungary & Turkey
Ukrainian Tanks Are Running On Russian Oil Refined In Hungary & Turkey
Kyiv is almost completely dependent on fuel imports to maintain its war effort…
Ukraine’s tanks are increasingly running on oil that comes from Russia in what German newspaper Handelsblatt describes as a paradox of war.
According to the Ukrainian customs authority, Kyiv is importing more and more diesel from Hungary and Turkey, both countries that process oil from Russia to a large extent in their refineries.
Although the market position of Hungary’s MOL Group and Turkish suppliers in Ukraine was already relatively good in the past, it was only recently that the Ukrainian customs authorities reported a striking increase in imports.
For example, MOL, which is closely linked to the Hungarian state, doubled its sales to Ukraine in the past six months.
Since MOL purchases Russian oil to a large extent, it is now likely to be the main fuel for Ukraine’s war machinery.
At the same time, companies that do not obtain their raw material from Russia are losing market share in Ukraine.
This is because MOL has a competitive advantage over other European oil companies: It has an exemption from the European Union to continue supplying its refineries with Russian crude oil.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 07/26/2023 – 02:00 - Escobar: BRICS Problems, BRI Solutions
Escobar: BRICS Problems, BRI Solutions
Authored by Pepe Escobar via The Cradle,
While the five original BRICS states have their geopolitical differences, they are finding enormous common ground on the geoeconomic front as trade volumes surge and trade routes multiply…
As the BRICS approach the most important summit in their history on August 22-24 in Johannesburg, South Africa, some fundamentals need to be observed.
The top three BRICS cooperation platforms are politics and security, finance and the economy, and culture. So the notion that a new BRICS gold-backed reserve currency will be announced at the South Africa summit is spurious.
What is in progress, as confirmed by BRICS sherpas, is the R5: a new common payment system. The sherpas are only in the preliminary stages of discussing a new reserve currency which could be gold or commodities-based. The discussions within the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), led by Sergey Glazyev, by comparison, are way more advanced.
The order of priorities is to get R5 rolling. All current BRICS currencies start with an “R”: renminbi (yuan), ruble, real, rupee, and rand. R5 will allow current members to increase mutual trade by bypassing the US dollar and reducing their US dollar reserves. This is only the first of many practical steps in the long and winding road of de-dollarization.
An expanded role for the New Development Bank (NDB) – the BRICS bank – is still being discussed. The NDB may, for instance, grant loans denominated in BRICS gold – making it a global unit of account in trade and financial transactions. BRICS exporters will then have to sell their goods against BRICS gold, instead of US dollars, as much as importers from the collective west would have to be willing to pay in BRICS gold.That’s a long way away, to put it mildly.
Frequent discussions with sherpas from Russia and also independent financial operators in the EU and the Persian Gulf always touch on the key problem: imbalances and weak nodes inside the BRICS, which will tend to serially proliferate with the imminent BRICS+ expansion.
Within BRICS, there’s a wealth of serious unsolved dossiers between China-India, while Brazil is squeezed between a list of imperial dictates and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s natural drive to fortify the Global South. Argentina has been all but forced by the usual suspects to “postpone” its admission request to join BRICS+.
And then there’s the weak link by definition: South Africa. Squeezed between a rock and a hard place, the organizer of the most important summit in BRICS history opted for a humiliating compromise not exactly worthy of an independent Global South middle-ranked power.South Africa decided not to receive Russian President Vladimir Putin and opted instead for the presence of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov – as Pretoria first suggested to Moscow. The other BRICS members validated the decision.
The compromise means that Russia will be physically represented by Lavrov while Putin will participate in the whole process – and subsequent decisions – via videoconference.
Translation: Putin tested Pretoria and exposed it to the whole Global South as a fragile node of the “jungle” – actually the Global Majority – easily threatened by the western “garden” gang and not a real independent foreign policy practitioner.
St. Petersburg-Shanghai via the Arctic
This South African decision by itself raises serious questions about whether BRICS-led geopolitics is just an illusion.
Geoeconomically though, the group has entered a whole different ball game, illustrated by the multiple BRICS interconnections with the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Chinese trade with BRI nations increased 9.8 percent in the first half of 2023 – compared to the same period last year. That contrasts sharply with the 4.7 percent overall contraction of trade between China and the collective west: Down with the EU by 4.9 percent, and down with the US by 14.5 percent.
Chinese trade with Russia, meanwhile, alongside exports to South Africa and Singapore, raised exponentially by 78
percent. As an example, late last week, a Chinese cargo set sail from St. Petersburg loaded with fertilizers, chemicals, and paper products. It will cross the Arctic and arrive in Shanghai in early August.Zhou Liqun, chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in Russia, went straight to the point – this is just the start of the “routine operation of the Arctic freight shipping route between China and Russia.” It’s all about “the security of logistical channels” inbuilt in the Russia-China strategic partnership.
The Arctic Silk Road, from now on, will be increasingly strategic. The Chinese can keep it open at least from July to October every year. And as a bonus, a warming Arctic allows better access to oil/gas resources. A trademark “win-win” – no wonder since 2017 the development of the Arctic Silk Road is part of BRI.
All of the above shows a sharp shift in the Chinese commercial drive towards the Global South. Trade with China’s BRI partners now amounts to 34.3 percent of China’s total global trade in terms of value – and that number is rising.
From the UAP railway to the Greater Bay Area
On the Russian front, all eyes are on the 7,200 km-long, multimodal International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC) – which alarms the collective west as a de facto replacement of the Suez Canal. The INSTC cuts shipping costs by about 50 percent and saves up to 20 days of travel compared to the Suez route.
INSTC trade – via ship, rail, and roads linking Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, India, and Central Asia – should triple over the next seven years, as Russian Transport Minister Vitaly Saveliev noted at the recent St. Petersburg forum. Russia will invest over $3 billion in the INSTC up to 2030.
Increasing trade between Russia, Iran, and India via the INSTC connects to something that until recently would be regarded as a UFO: the Trans-Afghan Railway.
The Trans-Afghan will emerge as a follow-up to something very important that happened last week, when Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan signed a joint protocol to connect the Uzbek and Pakistani networks via Mazar-i-Sharif and Logar in Afghanistan.
Welcome to the UAP railway – which could be hailed not only as a BRI but also as a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) project – where Tashkent and Islamabad are full members, and Kabul is an observer. Call it a much-needed trade corridor doubling up as a classic Chinese “people-to-people exchange” platform.
The Uzbeks estimate that the 760 km-long railway will reduce travel time by five days and costs by at least 40 percent. The project could be finished by 2027.
The subsequent 573 km-long Trans-Afghan Railway has already got its road map: it’s bound to connect the intersection of Central and South Asia to ports on the Arabian Sea.
All of the above expands Chinese trade in several directions. Which brings us to a fascinating symbiosis in progress between south China and West Asia – symbolized by the Greater Bay Area.
As Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman turbo-charges his immensely ambitious Vision 2030 modernization project, the Greater Bay Area is being hailed by Saudis as no less than “the future of Asia.”
Every investor from Jeddah to Hong Kong knows that Beijing is aiming to turn the Greater Bay Area into a prime global tech center, centered in Shenzhen, with Hong Kong playing the role of privileged global finance hub and Macau as the cultural hub.
The Greater Bay Area, not by accident, is a key BRI plank. As a whole, the nine cities in Guangdong, plus Hong Kong and Macau (more than 80 million people, 10 percent of Chinese GDP), will be configured as an astonishing first-class economic powerhouse by 2035, largely overtaking Tokyo Bay, the New York Metro Area, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
With Saudi Arabia aiming to become a full member of both BRI and SCO, Beijing and Riyadh will turbo-charge their tech cooperation on top of energy and infrastructure.
All eyes on South Africa next month are on how BRICS will work to solve its internal issues while organizing the expansion to BRICS+. Who will get to join the club? Saudi Arabia? UAE? Iran? Kazakhstan? Algeria? The top two BRICS countries, China and Russia keep investing in a geoeconomic roll that has dozens of countries lining up to join.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 07/26/2023 – 00:05 - Woman Found Dead After Grizzly Bear Encounter Near Yellowstone
Woman Found Dead After Grizzly Bear Encounter Near Yellowstone
A woman was reported dead in Montana on Saturday after encountering a grizzly bear on a trail west of Yellowstone National Park.
In a Sunday statement, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) said that the woman was found dead on a trail near West Yellowstone, located in the Custer Gallatin National Forest just west of Yellowstone National Park.
According to AP, the woman was found dead on the Buttermilk Trail “following an apparent bear encounter,” after investigators found grizzly bear tracks at the scene. The investigation is ongoing.
Officials issued an emergency closure of the popular hiking location “for human safety.”
“Bears can be found throughout Montana. In recent years, grizzly bear populations have expanded. People venturing into the outdoors should ‘Be Bear Aware,” officials said in an update on the investigation, in which it also listed precautionary steps – including carrying bear spray, hiking in groups during daylight hours, avoiding sites with carcasses, and making noises to alert bears to one’s presence.
Last week, FWP issued a notice of increased grizzly bear sightings, including in some places “where grizzlies haven’t been seen in recent years, and in some cases more than a century.”
“Vigilance is important for those who live and recreate in the outdoors,” said FWP chief of conservation, Quentin Kujala. “This is a busy time of year for bears and our field staff are responding to calls in these particular areas and across the state.”
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/25/2023 – 23:45 - FBI Carried Out Warrantless Monitoring On Man Who Posted Guns For Sale On Facebook
FBI Carried Out Warrantless Monitoring On Man Who Posted Guns For Sale On Facebook
Authored by Emily Miller via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A Texas man who posted on Facebook that he was selling his own guns was placed under warrantless surveillance by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The ATF investigated the man, found no evidence, yet gave his information to the FBI to monitor him for at least six months.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive personnel in a file image. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images) According to internal documents reviewed by The Epoch Times, two ATF special agents interviewed the Hispanic man who admitted to “advertising” his personal firearms for sale on Facebook. He stated that he had a “habit” of purchasing new guns, tinkering with them, losing interest, and subsequently selling them. The man told the agents that he never made a profit.
“I kept waiting for the part where ATF identified something illegal, and it never came,” Eric Olson, a lawyer for Gun Owners of America (GOA) told The Epoch Times. GOA obtained the records through its ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the ATF and FBI. This production is more heavily redacted than the previous ten, with entire pages covered in black.
“They are monitoring this guy for doing what millions of other hobbyists do—selling part of their personal collection. That’s not a crime, but apparently ATF doesn’t like people turning over their guns at a high rate,” Mr. Olson said.
Secret ATF–FBI Program
ATF spokesman Erik Longnecker confirmed to The Epoch Times that the man who used Facebook was placed under FBI daily monitoring in 2021 for “suspected violations” of federal laws against straw purchasing and dealing guns without a license.
This revelation is part of an ongoing, exclusive series about the unearthed program between the ATF and FBI using the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to monitor individuals for mere “potential” violations of the law. NICS is a database of individuals prohibited from purchasing firearms due to felony convictions, drug use, domestic violence, and other disqualifications.
Every suspect that the ATF submits to the FBI’s “NICS Monitoring Services” is put on a daily, manual check for firearm sales for 30 to 180 days, with the option to renew surveillance unlimited times. A spokeswoman for the FBI said the NICS section declined to comment on whether the man is still being monitored.
Facebook and Guns
The redacted records given to GOA do not specify how ATF initially became interested in the suspect, leaving uncertainty about whether the Facebook posts triggered the investigation. When asked if Facebook tips off the agency about gun posts, the ATF spokesman declined to comment.
The Facebook policy allows licensed gun stores and online dealers to sell firearms and ammunition on their platform, provided they comply with all applicable laws and regulations. However, the Meta-owned company prohibits the sale or trade of firearms and ammunition between private individuals. “It doesn’t make it a crime simply because Facebook doesn’t allow it,” Mr. Olson observed.
Facebook did not respond to inquiries about whether it provides posts related to gun sales to federal law enforcement and how it enforces its firearms policies.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/25/2023 – 23:25 - "King Of Exports": Sig Sauer Dominates US Pistols Shipped Globally
“King Of Exports”: Sig Sauer Dominates US Pistols Shipped Globally
As the federal government expands overseas sales of firearms, Sig Sauer, a gun maker in New Hampshire, has emerged as the leading exporter of pistols.
“The economic and political forces driving those sales were set in motion after the US assault-weapons ban expired in 2004. But they’ve reached new heights since gunmakers in 2020 won a decade-long battle to streamline export approvals,” Bloomberg said.
After the ban was lifted, exports of semiautomatics skyrocketed to 3.7 million units — more than doubling in the past six years.
The global push has led to more pistols exported than rifles.
Thailand, Canada, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Belgium are the largest customers of US semiautomatic firearms.
In 2010, Sig CEO Ron Cohen said, “We have clearly defined our path to growth as being in emerging markets and developing countries.” Since then, Sig has become the largest US exporter of guns, exporting more than 935,000 firearms in the past decade.
In 2017, 2018, and 2020, Sig’s exports topped the entire industry’s totals.
Sig accounted for 18% of all pistol exports between 2017-2021.
Bloomberg’s note on Sig’s rise has an obvious anti-gun slant. The reason, well, there’s a disclaimer at the bottom of the article: “Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates gun-safety measures, is backed by Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.”
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/25/2023 – 23:05 - CIA Says It's Rebuilding Spy Networks In China
CIA Says It’s Rebuilding Spy Networks In China
Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Monday that Beijing would take countermeasures in response to the CIA saying it’s making progress on rebuilding spy networks inside China after losing assets in the country over a decade ago.
CIA Director William Burns made the comments last week at the Aspen Security Forum. “We’ve made progress, and we’re working very hard over recent years to ensure that we have strong human intelligence capability to complement what we can acquire through other methods,” he said, according to The South China Morning Post.
File image via AFP Responding to Burns’ comments, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said, “This is rather concerning. The US on the one hand keeps spreading disinformation on so-called ‘Chinese spying and cyber attacks,’ and on the other hand tells the public about its large-scale intelligence activities targeting China.”
She added that China will “take all measures necessary to safeguard national security.”
According to a 2017 report from The New York Times, China broke up an American spy ring by killing or imprisoning more than a dozen CIA sources between 2010 and 2012.
In 2018, a Foreign Policy report said the number of CIA assets caught in China was around 30 and said the spy ring was discovered due to a botched communication system.
Under Burns, the CIA has increased its focus on China by opening a new unit exclusively focusing on the country. CIA officials have said that Taiwan is a top issue for the new China unit. Reuters wrote that—
Burns has previously said that the United States knew “as a matter of intelligence” that Xi had ordered his military to be ready to conduct an invasion of self-governed Taiwan by 2027.
According to Burns, the Ukrainian case exemplifies how a smaller military has had “incredible success in fighting back” and also made evident some flaws in Russian weapons systems.
China will prevent the CIA from conducting intelligence operations in the country after CIA Director William Burns said last week the agency has made progress in rebuilding lost agent networks, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on Monday.https://t.co/bKtWd52gmv
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) July 25, 2023
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Burns said last week that the agency is working to provide early warnings if China ever decides to attack Taiwan.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/25/2023 – 22:45 - US Allies On Alert After Lithium-Rich Bolivia Inks Defense Deal With Iran
US Allies On Alert After Lithium-Rich Bolivia Inks Defense Deal With Iran
Members of Bolivia’s far-right opposition and the Argentinian government are demanding that La Paz disclose the details of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on defense and security affairs signed between Defense Ministers Edmundo Novillo y Mohamad Reza Ashtiani in Tehran last week.
“They say that [Iran] will give us drones. Others say they will give us missiles. All of this sounds strange, even more so considering it involves Iran … I can’t understand why Bolivia is getting involved in such a complex and difficult relationship,” said lawmaker Gustavo Aliaga, who belongs to the Comunidad Ciudadana (CC) party.
Defense ministers of Iran and Bolivia in a ceremony inking the military deal. In 2019, CC leader Carlos Mesa supported the US-orchestrated coup that forced socialist leader Evo Morales to flee Bolivia, leaving it under the control of a far-right government that allegedly conducted multiple massacres of Morales supporters and sought to surrender the country’s massive lithium deposits to western transnationals.
The Argentinian foreign ministry also demanded explanations from La Paz on Monday under pressure from the Delegation of Argentinian Israeli Associations (DAIA), who said the MoU “risks for the security of Argentina and the region” due to Tehran’s ties with Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah.
In a press release, DAIA called on the Argentinian government “to condemn this agreement and demand Bolivia reconsider its decision.”
Buenos Aires blames Hezbollah and Iran for the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center that left 85 dead. Both Tehran and Hezbollah deny the accusation.
The statements by the CC and DAIA came on the heels of a report by the neoconservative Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which claims that the deal between Tehran and La Paz includes the delivery of Iranian drones for the South American nation.
Last week, Iran agreed to help Bolivia combat drug trafficking along its borders and boost cooperation with the Bolivian army. “[Due to] Bolivia’s critical needs in terms of border defense and the fight against drug trafficking, we will establish collaboration in equipment and specialized knowledge,” Ashtiani said following his meeting with the Bolivian defense minister last week.
For his part, Novillo said Iran is a “role model” for nations that seek freedom, highlighting the Islamic Republic’s “remarkable progress in science and technology, security, and the defense industry despite sanctions.”
These Are The World’s Largest Lithium Producers https://t.co/E0ULW3e4YV
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) June 14, 2023
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Bolivia is the latest Latin American nation to ink a security agreement with the Persian nation, following in the footsteps of Nicaragua and Venezuela. Over the past year, the Islamic Republic has also made significant inroads with Brazil.
Iran and Bolivia also among nations with the world’s largest lithium deposits, with the Islamic Republic earlier this year announcing the discovery of a massive deposit holding a reported 8.5 million tons of the rare element. On the other hand, Bolivia has the richest known lithium deposits in the world, with an estimated 21 million tons.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/25/2023 – 22:05 - Democrats Run The Most Crime Ridden Cities In The US – But Is The Situation Even Worse Than We're Told?
Democrats Run The Most Crime Ridden Cities In The US – But Is The Situation Even Worse Than We’re Told?
In the past year we have been seeing a lot of news stories stating something like this: “More Americans believe crime is up in their city, but public perception doesn’t always match reality.”
However, is the problem really public perception? Or is it the manner in which crime data is being collected in the past few years? The FBI’s data collection is generally considered the most complete and accurate look at crime in the US and is referenced consistently by the media and by political leaders, but what if that information is now unreliable?
In January 2021, the FBI officially switched data collection methods from the Uniform Crime Reporting database to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). This was done right before Joe Biden entered the White House. The NIBRS system requires agencies to submit more detailed data, which has caused the transition to the new system to be slow. In 2021, only 63% of law enforcement agencies submitted NIBRS data to the FBI.
There is still no complete data released for 2020-2022, making it difficult to gauge the true increase or decrease in overall crime in the past few years. For example, some large police departments began to report data to the FBI again in 2022, like the Miami-Dade Police Department. But the two largest police agencies in the U.S., the New York Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department, are still missing in the federal data.
The FBI plans to finally release a full crime report with all data included before the elections in 2024, though, it would not be surprising if this information was withheld until after elections conclude.
IIt should be noted that the switch in data methods by agencies including the FBI has mostly benefited Democrats. It was perfectly timed with the covid pandemic crisis, the BLM riots as well as the inflationary crisis, three events which would predictably lead to higher homicides and theft; but with limited data to prove it Democrats could make whatever claims they wanted.
If the establishment planned to hide or suppress a spike in crime, that was the right time to engineer a bureaucratic reset in information collection. When the FBI released its 2021 national crime data last fall, it couldn’t say if crime went up, went down, or stayed the same. The FBI concluded that all three scenarios could be possible because of the gaps in the data collection.The holes in the data have been exploited regularly, primarily by Democrats and the media, because the lack of information makes it appear as though violent crime is on the decline, but this is based on estimates instead of a full overview. It is also often predicated on “successful” homicides alone, rather than attempted homicides, aggravated assaults and other crimes that include violent acts.
If we apply the complete data from before 2020, and add the limited data available after 2020, Democrat run cities continue to dominate the list of most crime ridden cities in America. Of the top 20 most violent places in the US (including homicides, nonnegligent manslaughter, aggravated assault, rape and robbery), 17 are controlled by democrats. They include:
Chicago, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Lansing, Nashville, Anchorage, San Bernardino, Oakland, Indianapolis, Springfield (MO), Albuquerque, Stockton, Rockford, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Little Rock, Memphis, Baltimore, Detroit, St. Louis.
One (Stockton, CA) was run by Democrats previously and now has a Republican mayor who entered office in 2021 in the middle of the crime stat drought. One (Springfield, MO) has an independent mayor, and the last is the mayor of Anchorage who is Republican.
Of the top ten cities with the most property crime, ALL of them except Stockton are run by Democrats.
But what about leftist cities that are prominent in the news and social media with rampant crime? What about places like New York, LA and San Francisco? As mentioned earlier, many of these cities are not reporting full crime data to the FBI, using the new NIBRS system as an excuse. For example, the city of San Francisco does not plan to provide full and accurate crime reports to the FBI until 2025. That’s right, they will withhold full crime stats until after the 2024 elections.
So, when you see Democrats like Joe Biden and Gavin Newsom bragging about lower crime or arguing about “exaggerated perceptions of crime,” just remember that when the stats are incomplete, they can make those stats say whatever they want them to say. Ultimately, Americans can see the rising problem with their own eyes and the condescending nature of the political left’s denials is only making matters worse by encouraging criminals to act with the assumption that they will go unnoticed.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/25/2023 – 21:45 - One Of The Biggest Organizations Helping Democrats Win Elections
One Of The Biggest Organizations Helping Democrats Win Elections
Authored by Katie Spence via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The election of state supreme court justices doesn’t always garner national attention. But Judge Janet Protasiewicz’s win in Wisconsin earlier this year hit the spotlight with a campaign that shattered previous national fundraising records, and flipped the Wisconsin Supreme Court to the left for the first time in 15 years.
A ballot is dropped off at an official ballot drop box in Monterey Park, Calif., on Oct. 5, 2020. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images) Judge Protasiewicz’s win against former state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly on April 4 also set the stage for more significant Democratic victories in Wisconsin and beyond.
Republicans hold six out of eight Wisconsin U.S. House seats, but a liberal court majority will likely consider a lawsuit to overturn Wisconsin’s Republican-drawn legislative maps. Nicole Safar, the executive director of Madison-based law firm Law Forward said her firm plans to file a lawsuit once Justice-elect Protasiewicz is sworn in on Aug. 1.
Additionally, Wisconsin is expected to again be a pivotal swing state in the 2024 presidential election.
In 2016, Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by 0.7 percent in Wisconsin, or 22,748 votes. But in 2020, Joe Biden narrowly beat Mr. Trump by 0.62 percent, or 20,682 votes.
If election lawsuits are filed in Wisconsin after the 2024 election—like they were after the 2020 election—Ms. Protasiewicz will be one of seven justices to decide the case.
Judge Janet Protasiewicz onstage during the live taping of “Pod Save America,” hosted by WisDems at the Barrymore Theater in Madison, Wis., on March 18, 2023. (Jeff Schear/Getty Images for WisDems) “By electing Judge Janet Protasiewicz, Wisconsin voters have sent a clear message about the kind of state they want to live in,” the America Votes Wisconsin director and senior leadership team said in a press release.
“For the first time in 15 years, progressives will lead this highly influential court. The Badger State resoundingly voted for a court majority that will protect the fundamental freedoms of abortion and voting rights, the rights of workers, [and] the LGBTQ+ community.”
America Votes was crucial to Ms. Protasiewicz’s win. Its Wisconsin coalition said it knocked on more than 535,000 doors, made 678,000 phone calls, and, with its partner organizations, delivered nearly 2 million pieces of mail and sent over 4 million text messages.
The organization credits its efforts for helping to “deliver historic turnout and a critical progressive win in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election.”
The win in Wisconsin is just the latest victory for America Votes, and a stepping stone for what it hopes to achieve in the future across several key states.
And thanks to the backing of mega-donors like George Soros’ Open Society and the liberal “dark-money” behemoth Sixteen Thirty Fund, its political sway is substantial.
America Votes
Initially designed to get Democrats elected by reducing duplication and wasted resources, America Votes is a 501(c)(4) organization founded in 2003 by Democratic activists and liberal political operatives, including Ellen Malcolm, the founder of pro-abortion Emily’s Group, former Clinton administration official Harold Ickes, Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, Partnership for America’s Families President Steve Rosenthal, and Andy Stern, the president of Service Employees International Union.
The organization was initially led by Cecile Richards, who went on to become president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Since launching, America Votes has become the “coordination hub of the progressive community,” according to its website. It currently has more than 400 state and national partner organizations that it works with to “advance progressive policies, win elections, and protect every American’s right to vote.”
Its partners include the American Federation of Teachers, the Black Voters Matter Fund, the Democratic Governors Association, the Environmental Defense Action Fund, the League of Conservative Voters, the LGBTQ Victory Fund, NAACP, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, the National Education Association, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the Sierra Club, and numerous others.
America Votes’ 501(c)(4) status means it’s a social welfare organization, which permits it to engage in “some” partisan activity, but that can’t be its “primary” purpose.
In keeping with that requirement, America Votes claims on its site that it carries out “non-partisan, education-focused programs to engage voters.” It also admits it focused on helping Democrats in 2022 to counteract the increase in GOP voters.
“GOP primary turnout sharply increased over 2018 in states like Arizona (+60 percent), Georgia (+98 percent), Michigan (+9 percent), Nevada (+42 percent), Pennsylvania (+84 percent), and Wisconsin (+52 percent),” America Votes President Greg Speed wrote on Medium.
“To meet the looming MAGA Surge, America Votes and our state partners are building on our successful Get Out and Spread Out the Vote strategy that worked in 2020. That election was a turning point for elections in America,” he said.
During the pandemic many states rapidly expanded mail-in-voting and early voting, which Speed said “opened up access to the ballot” and “put Joe Biden in the White House and gave Democrats control of Congress.”
During the 2022 midterms, America Votes zeroed in on Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, stating that they knocked on over 17.1 million doors in those states.
“Our coalition is executing in the largest, most-coordinated midterm voter mobilization effort we’ve ever seen,” Mr. Speed said in a press release. “Midterm elections especially are determined by turnout, and in 2022 America Votes is positioned to mobilize the largest, most diverse midterm electorate ever.”
Four days before the 2022 election, Emerson Morrow, the communications manager for America Votes, said the efforts employed by America Votes resulted in “over 32 million Americans casting their ballots already, including high numbers of first-time voters, young voters, and voters of color in many key states.”
The result, according to America Votes, was that progressives outperformed expectations in “nearly every battleground state.”
Money and Power
In addition to being the “coordination hub” for the progressive community, America Votes labels itself the leader of the largest coalition of progressive organizations. It says its coalition “represents the permanent campaign infrastructure built to withstand more than any single election”—meaning they work year-round to advance progressive policies, especially at the state level.
For example, America Votes details how during the “2018-2019 legislative session” it had teams of advocates working to influence legislators and election reform policy in Colorado, Florida, New Hampshire, and New Mexico.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/25/2023 – 21:25 - These Are The World's Top Cobalt-Producing Countries
These Are The World’s Top Cobalt-Producing Countries
Cobalt, an essential component of key chemistries of the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries used in EVs, has seen a significant shift in its global production landscape.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has long been the world’s largest cobalt producer, accounting for 73% of global output in 2022.
However, as Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti details below, according to the Cobalt Institute, the DRC’s dominance is projected to decrease to 57% by 2030 as Indonesia ramps up its cobalt production as a byproduct from its rapidly expanding nickel industry…
Indonesia Became Second Largest Cobalt Producer in 2022
Indonesia accounts for nearly 5% of global cobalt production today, surpassing established producers like Australia and the Philippines.
In 2022, Indonesia’s cobalt production surged to almost 9,500 tonnes from 2,700 tonnes in 2021, with the potential to increase production by tenfold by 2030.
Percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding.
In total, global cobalt production reached 197,791 tonnes, with the DRC contributing just under 145,000 tonnes of that mix.
The EV industry is the largest consumer of cobalt, accounting for approximately 40% of total demand. The exponential growth of the EV sector is expected to drive a doubling of global cobalt demand by 2030.
While the shift in cobalt production is notable, it is not without challenges. Plummeting cobalt prices, which fell almost 30% this year to $13.90 a pound, have severely impacted the DRC.
Furthermore, the longer-term prospects of cobalt could face hurdles due to efforts to reduce its use in batteries, partly driven by human rights concerns associated with artisanal cobalt mining in the DRC and related child labor and human rights abuses.
In a 2021 ruling by a federal court in Washington, Google parent Alphabet, Apple, Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla were relieved from a class action suit claiming their responsibility for alleged child labor in Congolese cobalt mines.
The Future of Cobalt
Despite ongoing efforts to substitute cobalt in battery applications, cobalt is expected to remain a vital raw material for the entire battery supply chain in the near future.
The demand for cobalt is forecasted to more than double by 2030 to 388,000 tonnes.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/25/2023 – 21:05 - EPA’s Power Grid Assumptions Are Disconnected From Reality
EPA’s Power Grid Assumptions Are Disconnected From Reality
Authored by Travis Fisher via RealClear Wire,
The U.S. power grid is already straining under excess regulations, with blackouts possible, but now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed two more rules that promise to cause even more major problems.
One is a tailpipe emissions standard that would require 60% of new cars sold in 2030 to be electric. The other is a rule that would force hundreds of power plants to shut down.
The unintended consequences of these rules are obscured by the flawed assumptions the EPA uses in assessing the effects they’ll have on grid reliability and cost. People simply cannot make informed decisions about EPA regulations—like choosing whether to support or oppose them—when the assessments don’t reflect reality.
The new tailpipe emissions standard is so strict that it requires most new passenger vehicles sold to be electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030. It is a de facto EV mandate that will saddle the nation’s power grid with much more demand (here are the public comments I provided the EPA on this proposed rule).
The emissions standard for power plants has been called the Clean Power Plan 2.0 because it is EPA’s second attempt to redesign the power sector (the first try was rejected by the Supreme Court). The Clean Power Plan 2.0 is so strict that the only realistic way for many plants to comply is to shut down. It is another de facto mandate—particularly mandating the closure of existing coal-fired power plants—that will cause a sharp decrease in the supply available to the U.S. power grid (comments on this rule are due to EPA on Aug. 8 and can be submitted here).
The legal problems surrounding these rules are many, but let’s assume for a moment that the Supreme Court upholds them. Are they good policy? What will happen if they go into effect?
The EPA says neither rule will cause reliability problems or increase prices. One tactic the agency uses to reach these conclusions is to ignore its other rules (for example, to ignore the power plant rule when analyzing the effects of the tailpipe rule). According to the EPA, the increase in electricity demand from the EV mandate doesn’t conflict with the severe reduction in supply from the power plant rule; they simply assume the companion rules don’t exist.
The agency then dodges questions about electric reliability by assuming EV charging will only occur when it’s convenient for the power grid. As we see in California, that is simply untrue—people will charge their EV whenever they want, and many will ignore calls for voluntary conservation during the highest-stress hours on the grid. Such conservation calls are named “flex alerts” in California and have become commonplace during the summer months.
Texas also faces tight grid conditions. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas recently set up a California-style alert program—called the Texas Advisory and Notification System—to discourage electricity use when the power grid is stressed, which seems to happen more and more. Notably, California and Texas are both big on EVs. Among the three leading EV states, the one that doesn’t regularly call for conservation is Florida. But that may have more to do with Florida’s reluctance to force renewables onto its system and close existing power plants, unlike California and Texas.
The importance of reliable supply brings us to EPA’s power plant rule. The Clean Power Plan 2.0 makes it legally impossible to continue operating coal-fired power plants, which contribute about 20% of electricity generation, and represent about 25% of the reliable capacity on the U.S. electric grid. The rule superficially offers three solutions—coal plant owners can use “green” hydrogen (hydrogen electrolyzed by renewables), capture nearly all carbon dioxide emissions, or shut down—but only the last option is truly viable.
Given previous regulatory gamesmanship at the EPA, many see the Clean Power Plan 2.0 as a cynical play to scare owners of coal plants to close, whether or not the rule survives court challenge. The unanimous opinion of the four members of the nation’s independent agency in charge of grid reliability (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) is that coal-fired power plants are essential for grid reliability.
The rule also applies to existing natural gas plants, despite their lower carbon footprint compared to coal plants, and despite resistance from the EPA that the White House plan over-reached into the existing natural gas sector. Perhaps the agency knows better than the White House that—despite billions in subsidies for renewables—natural gas-fired generation is still growing in Texas and is holding strong in green-tinted California, above 40% of the electricity mix and even hitting 60% of all generation during last summer’s heat wave.
That is because intermittent renewables like wind and solar need a more reliable source like gas to satisfy demand when they cannot, which is most of the time.
Regarding cost, the EPA’s denial of reality hits new heights. The agency estimates that the EV mandate could in fact reduce electricity prices in some areas. This is implausible because EVs represent a large new demand on the power grid, and we know they cause utilities to invest heavily in local distribution systems, especially when multiple homes plug EVs into the same radial power line.
A Princeton study analyzing a “net zero by 2050” scenario found that, of the staggering $2.5 trillion in spending needed in the 2020s in a high electrification case, over $1.4 trillion would be needed to support the expansion of electricity generation, transmission, and distribution networks and on EVs and charging stations. California alone may spend $50 billion by 2035 to accommodate new electrification of products such as EVs.
The EPA denies that these costs exist. Once again, agency officials selectively assume that transmission and distribution costs won’t change from the no-policy baseline, a ridiculous assumption that should get the rule thrown out.
When it comes to EPA regulations, buyer beware. The price tags in its regulatory impact analyses are unconnected to reality, and even the most predictable grid reliability problems have been swept under the rug.
This is no way to sell a transition to the American people. The EPA should go back to the drawing board and return with a set of honest assessments.
Travis Fisher is a Senior Research Fellow in Energy and Environment at The Heritage Foundation.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/25/2023 – 20:45 - China Appoints New Central Bank Governor In Latest Bid To Revive Slumping Economy
China Appoints New Central Bank Governor In Latest Bid To Revive Slumping Economy
China has been busy replacing officials in top government roles today: right around the time news broke that Beijing had abruptly replaced its recently “vanished” foreign minister Qin Gang with his predecessor Wang Yi, we also learned that Beijing named Pan Gongsheng as new governor of the central bank, strengthening his position as head of the institution tasked with boosting the world’s second-largest economy.
Pan Gongsheng Pan, 60, was appointed by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on Tuesday, replacing Yi Gang, who has reached the official retirement age of 65 for minister-level officials, state media reported. A former deputy at the People’s Bank of China, Pan had already been named the Communist Party secretary at the PBOC earlier in July, putting him in one of the two top slots at the bank.
As Bloomberg reports, Pan – who has been a long-time central banker – joined the PBOC in 2012 after previous stints in senior positions at giant state banks including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China. His move to the top of the PBOC “signals that Beijing is prioritizing policy continuity at a time when the economic recovery is losing momentum and officials are grappling with various ways to boost confidence.” Some more details from Bloomberg
Since his appointment as party secretary at the PBOC, Pan has held several meetings with visiting central bankers, including South Korea’s Rhee Chang-yong, and attended a central bank governors conference between China, Japan and South Korea in July. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen referred to Pan as “acting governor” when she met with him during her Beijing trip recently.
More importantly, his appointment marks the first time since 2018 that the top two positions at the PBOC — governor and Communist Party secretary — will be held by one person, streamlining decision-making at the very top. Former governor Zhou Xiaochuan held both posts until his departure in 2018, when Yi Gang was named governor and Guo Shuqing held the position of party chief.
Curiously, Pan had actually exited the Communist Party’s elite Central Committee late last year, which to some was a signal that he was on his way out. Without that senior role in the party, there are questions over the central bank’s influence, given the Communist Party’s increasing control over the financial sector under President Xi Jinping.
Unlike the US Federal Reserve and central banks in Europe, the PBOC is not independent (spoiler alert: the Fed isn’t independent either, but it pretends to be for popular consumption). It answers to the State Council, China’s cabinet led by Premier Li Qiang, and needs approval before making major policy decisions such as setting interest rates or managing the currency.
In addition to being deputy governor, Pan was also head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) since 2016, China’s regulator overseeing the country’s $3 trillion in foreign reserves. That experience will stand him in good stead as the PBOC seeks to stabilize the currency amid heightened investor uncertainty. The yuan is down almost 4% against the dollar this year, among the worst performers in Asia.
Looking ahead, at the top of Pan’s priorities will be “steering the economy through its current downturn, which is weighing on financial markets and worrying businesses” according to BBG. Indeed, investors have been clamoring for more monetary stimulus since interest rates were cut in June, though the central bank under Yi has taken a cautious approach, focusing on curbing financial risks.
So far, foreigners hoping for a massive stimulus in China have been repeatedly disappointed. That said, one thing is certain: the key to the economy’s recovery is a rebound in the property market, which remains in a slump after more than two years of restrictions to curb the sector. While Pan has been viewed as more hawkish on property regulation, the Communist Party’s Politburo on Monday signaled a dovish shift in stance, hinting at likely easing in policies in coming months.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/25/2023 – 20:25 - Ramaswamy Unveils Plans To Eradicate FBI, Department Of Education, Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Ramaswamy Unveils Plans To Eradicate FBI, Department Of Education, Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Authored by Nathan Worcester via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy detailed his vision for the administrative state at a New Hampshire town hall on July 20.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during the Faith and Freedom Road to Majority conference in Washington on June 23, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times) Mr. Ramaswamy appeared on stage at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics to the strains of Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town.”
The music video for Mr. Aldean’s song was pulled from the air by Country Music Television over accusations of racism. The country singer has strenuously denied those allegations. Former President Donald J. Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are among the politicians who have come to his defense.
Mr. Ramaswamy began by explaining why he chose the song.
“You want to understand the best measure of America’s health? Here’s what it is: it is the percentage of people who feel free to say what they actually think in public,” the biotech entrepreneur told the crowd.
“I respect—whether it’s a musical artist, whether it’s a parent, whether it’s a corporate executive who will say in public the things that you are otherwise supposed to keep to yourself.”
Singer/songwriter Jason Aldean performs during Jason Aldean’s 2nd Annual Concert For The Kids, Benefiting Children’s Hospital Navicent Health of Bibb County, raising over $700,000, at Macon Centreplex in Macon, Georgia, on Aug. 11, 2017. (Rick Diamond/Getty Images) The candidate reiterated some of his past promises with respect to the administrative state—for example, instituting eight-year term limits for bureaucrats.
Yet, he went beyond that over the course of an in-depth speech that made ample use of org charts. He explained in specific terms how he intends to “shut down the administrative state and the bureaucracy that sucks the lifeblood out of our constitutional Republic.”
The Founders, he said, “fought a revolution to say that ‘We the People’ decide how to settle our political differences, for better or for worse.”
Mr. Ramaswamy argued that the sprawling administrative state has betrayed that revolutionary promise.
“I stand not on the side of reform. I stand on the side of American revolution,” he said, his fiery rhetoric recalling the title of a famous pamphlet by revolutionary Marxist Rosa Luxemburg, albeit from the opposite end of small-l liberalism.
Plans for Ending FBI, Department of Education
Mr. Ramaswamy argued that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is structurally anomalous, which enables it to “[escape] cabinet-level accountability.”
He pointed out that there’s no FBI-like independent investigative body between local prosecutors and local police, as there is between the Department of Justice and the U.S. Marshals.
“That is a formula for corruption,” the 2024 hopeful stated, arguing that the agency is vexed by waste, redundancy, and mission creep. Its mission creep only worsened after 9/11, he said.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) building in Washington on June 28, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times) Presenting a diagram outlining the dismantling of the FBI during his first year in office, Mr. Ramaswamy said he’d shift some of its employees to the U.S. Marshals, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and other agencies less “politicized” than the brainchild of J. Edgar Hoover.
“The corruption investigations will move to the Secret Service. The counterintelligence investigations—which is a tiny portion of their employees, but important, I acknowledge—will move to the Defense Intelligence Agency under the DOD [Department of Defense],” Mr. Ramaswamy continued.
He then explained how he would take apart the Department of Education (DOE), which he said “should have never existed in the first place.”
“This is the head of the snake when it comes to the spread of woke-ism, transgenderism, [and] indoctrination of our kids,” the anti-woke investor told his audience, adding that the radicalism at some local schools was often downstream of incentives created by the federal agency.
Mr. Ramaswamy said districts seeking money from the DOE must toe the line on those hot-button issues. He said former President Donald J. Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, couldn’t bring her charges to heel.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/25/2023 – 20:05 - "So It Begins": US Supermarkets Hit With Buying Panic As India Bans Rice Exports
“So It Begins”: US Supermarkets Hit With Buying Panic As India Bans Rice Exports
The decision by India to ban certain rice exports has sparked panic buying at supermarkets across the US. Videos circulating on social media show the staple food is flying off the shelves as high demand depletes supplies amid concerns of a global shortage. Some supermarkets have responded by implementing purchase limits, while others have hiked prices. The scenes below should remind readers of the panic buying days during Covid.
Indians being Indians, hoarding started. Big queue outside Patel Brothers, Dallas area after India banned exporting non Basmati rice… pic.twitter.com/8EgvwFWOKo
— Aryabhata | ஆர்யபட்டா 🕉️ (@Aryabhata99) July 21, 2023
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Rice export stopped from India and massive panick hit the Indians in USA. Hoarding has started across the states. There has been multiple food shortages here, hoping rice shortage doesn’t get added to the list. pic.twitter.com/vdP6NBwrN6
— The Thinking Hat 🇮🇳 (@ThinkinHashtag) July 21, 2023
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So it begins. India has banned some rice exports and now people are panic buying up rice. pic.twitter.com/ujpm66ER3n
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 23, 2023
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Apparently the ban is for non Basmati rice. So Tamil and Telugu community would be most impacted as they consume Sona Masoori rice. They started hoarding as if rice won’t be available anywhere else, ever. The fact is that Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican and several immigrants in… pic.twitter.com/s8fRIeubMI
— Mr B (@maddyb65) July 22, 2023
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#MCTrends | The Indian government’s ban on the export of non-basmati rice has triggered panic buying in the US, with many departmental stores reporting empty shelves and putting limits on the number of rice bags customers can buy.@AnkitaSengupta_ reports👇… pic.twitter.com/GgzonuW1tU
— Moneycontrol (@moneycontrolcom) July 25, 2023
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India’s export restriction applies to shipments of non-basmati white rice. The move is to contain food inflation by ensuring ample domestic supplies, as the El Niño weather pattern heavily impacts farm production. India is the largest exporter of rice.
We provided readers with enough understanding that rice, which is critical to the diets of billions of people worldwide, was headed for a shortage:
- Sept. 2022: The Stage Is Being Set For A Massive Global Rice Shortage
- May 2023: Global Rice Shortage Looms, Set To Be The Biggest In Decades
- May 2023: Thai Rice Crop In Crosshairs Of El Nino As Farmers Are Warned About Water Shortages
“India’s export ban needs to be seen in the light of this ominous setting,” Peter Timmer, Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, told Bloomberg. He has studied food security for decades and warned:
“There is considerably more reason for concern now that rice prices in Asia could spiral out of control pretty quickly.”
The president of the world’s largest rice shipper had this to say:
“In the short term, the price is definitely going up, it’s just a question of how high up it will go.
“And it will be a spike, it’s not going to be increasing incrementally,” said Chookiat Ophaswongse, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association.
Bloomberg data shows Thailand White Rice 5% is around $534 per ton, nearly a two-year high, and headed for a possible break above $579, which would mean prices would be back to 2012 highs.
India’s latest move has sparked panic buying of the grain.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/25/2023 – 19:45 - Jason Aldean's "Try That In A Small Town" Becomes No. 2 Hit
Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town” Becomes No. 2 Hit
Authored by Bryan Jung via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Country star Jason Aldean’s single “Try That in a Small Town” has become a No. 2 hit, after controversy over the music video last week.
Jason Aldean performs onstage during the 58th Academy of Country Music Awards at The Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, on May 11, 2023. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images) Mr. Aldean’s song sported lyrics that criticized the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots.
The singer said that small towns would never put up with such riots and lawlessness.
The single initially received little attention after its release in May, landing at No. 35 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.
All of that changed on July 14, when the premier of the music video version triggered accusations of racism at Mr. Aldean.
Some criticized the video as a thinly veiled attack on the BLM movement.
Country Music Television (CMT) pulled his video from the air without explanation, after it had already aired for three days.
The controversy caused a backlash among music fans, who then rushed to hear Mr. Aldean’s song, as streams and downloads of his hit exploded last week.
Country Music Fans Rally to Defense
Audio and video streams from Mr. Aldean’s song have since risen from 987,000 to 11.7 million, a 999 percent increase, a week after the music video was released, Luminate told FOX Business.
Before Mr. Aldean released the music video, the song had sold only 1,000 downloads, but it has since sold 228,000, according to Luminate.
By July 24, “Try That in a Small Town” came in second on Billboard’s Hot 100 list, becoming the country music singer’s first number two spot on the chart, after “Dirt Road Anthem” reached the seventh spot in July 2011.
The video opens with Mr. Aldean performing before an old courthouse with an American flag, followed by real footage of violent riots, robberies, and attacks on police officers in riot gear, from the BLM riots in 2020.
The scenes are then contrasted with images of American flags, children playing, and images from a TV news segment about local farmers helping out a neighbor.
One lyric says, “Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk/Carjack an old lady at a red light,” followed by, “You think you’re tough.”
“Well, try that in a small town,” sings Mr. Aldean.
Jason Aldean performs at the 2023 ACM Lifting Lives Topgolf Tee-Off And Rock On Fundraiser at Topgolf in The Colony, Texas, on May 10, 2023. (Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images) ‘Get Back to a Sense of Normalcy’
Mr. Aldean addressed the criticism following the release of the video and said on social media that, “It’s been a long week, and I’ve seen a lot of stuff.”
Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter that lawmakers “have an obligation to condemn Jason Aldean’s heinous song calling for racist violence. What a shameful vision of gun extremism and vigilantism.”
Mr. Aldean denied that race had any part in the lyrics, or that his hit was a “pro-lynching song.”
“In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests,” Mr. Aldean wrote on Twitter.
He added that “these references are not only meritless, but dangerous.”
“‘Try That In A Small Town’, for me, refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief,” Mr. Aldean wrote.
“Because they were our neighbors, and that was above any differences.”
“My political views have never been something I’ve hidden from, and I know that a lot of us in this Country don’t agree on how we get back to a sense of normalcy where we go at least a day without a headline that keeps us up at night. But the desire for it to- that’s what this song is about,” he concluded.
On Instagram this week, Mr. Aldean again rejected the accusation that his song referenced “race or points to it.”
Mr. Aldean Stands Defiant Against Cancel Culture
At a July 21 concert at the Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati, Mr. Aldean told the crowd that “cancel culture is a thing,” according to Rolling Stone.
“It’s something where if people don’t like what you say, they try and make sure they can cancel you, which means try to ruin your life, ruin everything.”
The crowd then erupted into boos before he added: “Here’s the thing, I feel like everybody is entitled to their opinion. You can think something all you want to; it doesn’t mean it’s true—right?”
“What I am is a proud American,” he said.
“I love our country, I want to see it restored to what it once was before all this [expletive] started happening to us.”
“I love my country, I love my family, and I will do anything to protect that—I can tell you that right now,” he continued.
Chants of “USA” immediately rang out in the theater.
Country Music Veterans, Conservatives Back Song
Meanwhile, some country music fans and public figures have called for a boycott of CMT for pulling the song.
Rep. Ronnie Jackson (R-Texas) wrote on Twitter: “CMT has gone WOKE! Do they know who their viewers are? Guess not!! I’ll tell you this … I’ll NEVER watch CMT ever again. BOYCOTT CMT!!”
A few Republican presidential candidates have also have jumped to the defense of Mr. Aldean, including former President Donald Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“Jason Aldean is a fantastic guy who just came out with a great new song. Support Jason all the way. MAGA!!!” wrote Mr. Trump on Truth Social.
Several country music veterans and entertainers came to Mr. Aldean’s defense, including the singer Cody Johnson, who said at a concert, “If being patriotic makes you an outlaw, then by God, I’ll be an outlaw.”
Famed guitarist Ted Nugent told Fox News, “The idiots hate this Jason Aldean song because they hate when we push back against violence.”
Former “Mumford & Sons” guitarist Winston Marshall also attacked the attempts to cancel Mr. Aldean, telling Fox News that “cherry picking” the music video was “insane.”
However, other artists like Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell, Margo Price, were against Mr. Aldean’s hit.
Ms. Crow attacked the song as “not American or small town-like,” in a Twitter post.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/25/2023 – 19:25 - X Factor: Musk's Rebrand Could Invite 100s Of Trademark Challengers Including Meta, Microsoft
X Factor: Musk’s Rebrand Could Invite 100s Of Trademark Challengers Including Meta, Microsoft
Elon Musk may not have dotted his i’s and crossed his t’s before settling on X.
On Monday, Musk rebranded Twitter to X after months of teasing such a move. However, we now learn that Facebook/Instagram-parent Meta already has a trademark on an X logo for use in “online social networking services.”
Meta isn’t the only heavyweight that could throw a legal wrench in Musk’s rebranding: The X logo that has replaced Twitter’s blue bird is a near-dead ringer for Microsoft’s X Window System logo from way back in 1984, reports Fast Company. Microsoft also owns an X trademark associated with its Xbox gaming console.
Microsoft’s X Windows System logo (left) and the new Twitter logo (via Fast Company) “There’s a 100% chance that Twitter is going to get sued over this by somebody,” trademark attorney Josh Gerben tells Reuters. How popular is X? Gerben tallied almost 900 active trademarks on the letter across a variety of industries. Underscoring the density of the trademark thicket, Twitter Japan may not be able to become X Japan, as that name is already trademarked by a Japanese rock band.
That highly-varied usage could be particularly problematic for Musk, given his vision for X to evolve into an “everything app” spanning social media, bill payments, financial services, retail purchases, entertainment and more.
— Michael Warburton (@MichaelWarbur17) July 24, 2023
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The widespread use by other companies points a double-edged sword at Musk’s use of X. On one hand, it presents him with several hundred potential legal challenges from other companies already using it. At the same time, the use of X is so common that Musk could have difficulty preventing others from joining the X party.
“Given the difficulty in protecting a single letter, especially one as popular commercially as ‘X’, Twitter’s protection is likely to be confined to very similar graphics to their X logo,” trademark attorney Douglas Masters tells Reuters.
Speaking of not thinking things through, in the race to follow through on the rebrand, workers started removing the bird logo from Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters on Monday, but were halted by police. It seems Twitter didn’t apply for permits and, worse, didn’t block the sidewalk to protect pedestrians.
The police shut down the operation to remove Twitter’s name and replace it with X headquarters as Elon Musk reportedly didn’t get permit for all the equipment on the street. pic.twitter.com/K9IrZVNr8d
— Pop Tingz (@ThePopTingz) July 24, 2023
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Where a potential Meta challenge is concerned, the anticipated cage match fight between Musk and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg could be used to settle an X dispute...something like when Southwest Airlines’ comical CEO Herb Kelleher arm-wrestled the CEO of Stevens Aviation over the slogan “Just Plane Smart.” Stevens won, $15,000 in ticket revenue was given to charity, and they ended up sharing the slogan.
To settle a trademark dispute, Southwest CEO Herb Kelleher (right) arm-wrestled before a crowd of 4,500 at the Dallas Sportatorium in 1992 (via Priceonomics) Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/25/2023 – 19:05 - Will Promised DeSantis Reboot Pay Off In Iowa?
Will Promised DeSantis Reboot Pay Off In Iowa?
Authored by Jake Bevan via RealClear Wire,
You may have noticed that Ron DeSantis is a military man now.
Not that it was ever a secret, exactly. DeSantis, who deployed to Iraq as a judge advocate general (“JAG”) officer in 2007, introduced himself to voters as “Ron DeSantis, Iraq War Veteran” in his 2018 contest for Florida governor, and has made passing references to his decision to enlist at early campaign events this year. But personal wrinkles like military service have thus far taken a backseat to the governor’s better-known forays into the culture wars.
The original DeSantis game plan was a presidential campaign that would make its pitch on his conservative credentials and the results he obtained in Tallahassee, more than retail politicking, which is not considered his strength.
But it’s the rare winning presidential campaign that unfolds precisely according to plan from start to finish. And while attempts to rebrand a candidate mid-campaign often turn out no better than the “New Coke” fiasco, sometimes they succeed. Ronald Reagan fired campaign manager John Sears on the eve of the New Hampshire primary and brought back three familiar California hands willing to let “Reagan be Reagan.” Donald Trump’s campaign underwent reboots in both 2016 and 2020, with mixed results.
As part of his campaign reset, DeSantis could be found at multiple events this week specifically catered to military servicemen. Iowans heard him recount war stories from the Coronado Naval base at a veterans’ fundraiser outside Des Moines. He was flanked by WWII-era Jeeps as he unveiled a host of military-related policies to an audience in South Carolina. He punctuated his cable and radio with quick interviews highlighting his status as the only veteran currently in the race for the White House.
“I’m relying on my experience of being in an organization where, at that time, it was ‘mission first,’” DeSantis said Thursday on the nationally syndicated Hugh Hewitt Show.
Standard operating procedure on the DeSantis campaign this week was for surrogates to introduce the candidate as someone who “was attached to” or “supported the SEAL team in Fallujah,” which is how he was described at Saturday’s fundraiser in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny, Iowa. It’s well-engineered language that is strictly true, even if it might imply something more romantic than the legal work typical of a JAG’s advisory role.
In any case, it’s more than anyone else in the crowded Republican field can say. An added emphasis on DeSantis’ military service was one of several plans outlined in an internal memo to his campaign donors, leaked last week to NBC News.
Dated July 6, the document was an attempt to calm the nerves of squeamish investors expecting an ascent, not a decline, in the GOP primary polls still dominated by Trump. DeSantis holds 20.4% of the Republican vote in the current RCP national average. Months ago, he was hovering around 30%. The frontrunner, meanwhile, has expanded his lead and now sits at 53.1%.
“We are grateful for the investment so many Americans have made to get this country back on track.” stated an early paragraph of the memo. “The fight to save it will be long and challenging, but we have built an operation to share the governor’s message and mobilize the millions of people who support it. We are ready to win.”
Below was a bold-faced header assuring readers that “THE BALLOT IS VERY FLUID” and a number of explanations as to why the campaign is sticking to that story. It promised aggressive new messaging, a more disciplined media effort, and hinted tantalizingly at exploitable weaknesses in the competition. Central to it all, though, was a recalibration around the Florida governor’s story.
“We’ve found that when voters hear about the Governor’s bio – principally as a Dad and as a veteran – they like him and are open to hearing more about him,” the document said. “A major paid media effort featuring the Governor’s bio (dad/family/veteran) will help us to convert image to ballot.”
The DeSantis team is betting big on this strategy in Iowa, promising a “saturation” of the airwaves and a host of upcoming, retail-centric events featuring “cookout styled, backyard activities.” It’s a goal that’s called “critical” in the memo, and for good reason: Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus offers DeSantis the earliest opportunity to prove that a third Trump nomination is less than inevitable.
On July 14, the day after the memo was made public, DeSantis was campaigning in Iowa, preparing for a date with Tucker Carlson at the Family Leadership Summit in Des Moines. At least one prophecy in the memo had already come to pass.
Hardly a week after his team reminded donors that “Trump is always the most efficient driver of his own negatives,” as if on cue, the former president launched an unprovoked attack on Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican well-liked among her fellow conservatives.
“I opened up the Governor position for Kim Reynolds, & when she fell behind, I ENDORSED her, did big Rallies, & she won,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account. “Now, she wants to remain ‘NEUTRAL.’ I don’t invite her to events! DeSanctus down 45 points!”
This gratuitous salvo of friendly fire quickly rippled through local GOP circles. It prompted one Iowa State senator, Jeff Reichman, to publicly flip his endorsement from Trump to DeSantis.
RCP spoke with Reichman at the Family Leadership Summit, where he sounded nonplussed by Trump’s remarks.
“In all these other cases where former President Trump goes after people, it’s usually for good reason,” Reichman said. “And sometimes you might shake your head a little bit. But in this case, we know Governor Reynolds. There’s no excuse for it.”
By chance, Reichman was already on his way to Des Moines for a meeting with Reynolds when he was forwarded an email with Trump’s post. He was able to speak with her about it the following morning.
“She said, ‘You do what you need to do,’” Reichman recalled. And, though the Governor handled the post with character, Reichman noted that “of course, it was directly at her, so it was troubling to her.”
Reichman predicted a “bounce” for DeSantis in the near future – something more or less echoed by all fans of the governor who spoke to RCP that weekend.
Rick Peterson, a 72-year-old retired financial auditor from Ankeny, put it bluntly. A Republican who already had cold feet about supporting Trump, he told RCP that Kim Reynolds is “definitely” more popular than the former President in his home state.
“Trump’s Truth post, I’d say, was a major, unforced error,” Peterson said. “It’ll hurt him here.”
While seeking to assure donors that DeSantis is the only “viable” alternative to Trump, the memo takes a pointed jab at Tim Scott, whose devout faith and feel-good messaging has reportedly caught the attention of establishment donors looking for a better way to undercut Trump among evangelical Christians.
“While Tim Scott has earned a serious look at this stage, his bio is lacking the fight that our electorate is looking for in the next president,” the memo reads. “We expect Tim Scott to receive appropriate scrutiny in the weeks ahead.”
Leaving aside whatever innuendo was implied, Scott’s foreign policy came under withering scrutiny from Tucker Carlson at the Iowa family summit.
One attendee, a retiree from Mount Pleasant who identified herself to RCP as Janet, attended the summit to scout for candidates skeptical of the Biden administration’s decision to arm Ukraine with advanced weaponry, including combat tanks and cluster bombs. As predicted, Janet was unsatisfied with Scott’s answers to Carlson.
“Tim Scott’s a good man,” she conceded. “The cluster bomb question, I was disappointed in that. He should have really denounced that.”
DeSantis has long been the de facto favorite of the Never Trump crowd. But, as is evident in the polls, victory in Iowa is nigh impossible if he can’t convert significant numbers of Hawkeye State Republicans who are currently planning to stick with Trump.
That’s proving tricky. The third promise made in the donor memo concerns so-called “soft Trump voters.” The DeSantis game plan is apparently to pitch them from the right.
“Soft Trump voters and America First conservatives do not look kindly on Trump’s record on guns, the deficit and spending, Transgenderism, and his family’s cozy relationship with the Saudi Royal Family,” the memo explains.
DeSantis wasted no time executing this strategy. When he finally took the stage at the Des Moines Family Leadership Summit, Tucker Carlson had barely finished asking his first question – about the prospect of a six-week federal abortion ban – before DeSantis tried to position himself as the more authentic conservative.
“It’s been written about how I’ve lost a lot of really big supporters,” he told the crowd. “Some of them just aren’t pro-life. Some of them think it’s a political liability. And at the end of the day, you get into office to be able to do what’s right. You’ve got to stand on principle.”
He never quite committed himself to that six-week ban, but several in the audience took note of what he did do. One was David Reinke, a retired surgeon from Rock Valley and a Trump fan with a distaste for “conventional” Republicans. Among the MAGA crowd, this word has typically been code for “Ron DeSantis.” But following his time with Carlson?
“[DeSantis] started out that way, but he’s learning he can’t be,” Reinke said. “Getting that answer out there right away was smart.”
In another break from convention, Reinke was one of a few in the audience to actually compliment the stage presence of a candidate who has been routinely described as awkward in person. “It’s a lot better watching him in person than on a TV,” he said.
Is the stage set in Iowa for a soft Trump revolt? It’s tough to say, but Reinke isn’t necessarily the guy to ask. “Once a Trumper, always a Trumper,” he quipped.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/25/2023 – 18:45 - Bankman-Fried Agrees To Gag Order After "Star Witness" Ellison's Diary Was Leaked To Press Last Week
Bankman-Fried Agrees To Gag Order After “Star Witness” Ellison’s Diary Was Leaked To Press Last Week
It looks as though it may be time to re-up some of those Democratic donations for Sam Bankman-Fried, because there’s at least one judge out there that isn’t amused with his antics.
The former FTX founder has now agreed to a gag order that will “largely” prevent him from discussing his case publicly, Bloomberg wrote this week. Prosecutors in the case had accused Bankman-Fried of trying to discredit Caroline Ellison, who formerly lived with and worked with Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas.
US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said this week he was going to deal with the “adequacy and continuation” of SBF’s bail conditions. As Bloomberg wrote, this means SBF’s “current house arrest could be in jeopardy while he awaits trial on criminal fraud charges”.
Bankman-Fried will appear in court on Wednesday for a hearing.
Judge Kaplan has already concerned himself with Bankman-Fried’s bail restrictions, in the past warning that SBF needed to “rein in his use of encrypted messaging apps and VPN programs,” the report says.
The order was filed on Monday and and bans SBF and “other parties” from discussing anything with the press that “could interfere with a fair trial”. Specifically, Bloomberg writes that this could include “credibility of witnesses, information that isn’t admissible at trial and anything that could influence public opinion about the case”.
The “star witness” in the case has already pleaded guilty to fraud in a deal with prosecutors, the report says. Not only did she run Alameda Research, an offshoot of FTX, she also dated Bankman-Fried at one point.
The scrutiny this week came after a story broke last week in The New York Times about Ellison’s diary, detailing her “ambivalence” about her role at Alameda and her relationship with Bankman-Fried.
Prosecutors charged that SBF had leaked the material to “cast Ellison in a poor light, and advance his defense through the press.”
In a note filed Sunday, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said that he had shared documents “in an effort to give his side of the story about topics that have already been reported in the media.” They argued that FTX’s new CEO “attacked” Bankman-Fried publicly while they “stood silent” and did nothing.
Tyler Durden
Tue, 07/25/2023 – 18:25
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