Jul 26

Today’s News 26th July 2024

  • Georgia Is The Next Country That Might Face A High-Profile Assassination Attempt
    Georgia Is The Next Country That Might Face A High-Profile Assassination Attempt

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

    Georgia’s State Security Service (SSS) informed the public that they’re investigating a criminal group linked to the former government which plotted to assassinate the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party. According to RT, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze claimed that these are the same forces that were behind the attempted assassinations of his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico and former US President Donald Trump, while Politico cited local media to report that the Georgian Legion is under suspicion.

    It was explained in early May why “The Georgian State Security Service & The Georgian Legion Are On The Brink Of War”, namely because that pro-US armed group can play a crucial role in catalyzing a spree of urban terrorism ahead of, during, or right after fall’s parliamentary elections. The preceding analysis followed the failed attempt by rioters to storm the parliament over a week prior in protest of their country’s FARA-inspired foreign agents legislation, which readers can learn more about here.

    In brief, although the ruling conservative-nationalist party aspires to join the EU and NATO, it doesn’t want to surrender the country’s sovereignty to the West in exchange and that’s why it’s been targeted for regime change over the past year and a half. The replacement of Georgian Dream with Western puppets would lead to “NGO”-propagated liberal–globalist values destroying their traditional society, hence the need for the foreign agents law, but there are also geopolitical consequences too.

    The authorities warned last year that the prior attempt to overthrow them was aimed at opening up a second front against Russia, while there’s also the chance that a puppet regime would allow Georgia to be used by NATO to send more armed aid to Armenia in preparation of another war against Azerbaijan. Georgian Dream wants to stay out of all regional conflicts, so much so that it hasn’t even sanctioned Russia, which is yet another argument against their continued rule from the West’s perspective.

    Speaking of Russia, its foreign intelligence service released a statement in early July warning that the West is preparing to exploit fall’s parliamentary elections as the pretext for another regime change attempt, and it’s possible that they shared information about this with their Georgian counterparts. That could explain why the local media cited by Politico said that some Georgian Legion members have been detained for questioning, while their leader claimed that 300 others have been added to the wanted list.

    Although comparatively small in number, this pro-US armed group could play a similar role in Tbilisi later this year as the Azov Battalion did in Kiev a little more than a decade ago during “EuroMaidan”, which was explained in the earlier hyperlinked analysis about why they’re on the brink of war with the SSS. The most effective “Democratic Security” policy that Georgian Dream can promulgate right now is banning the Georgian Legion as a terrorist group if the ongoing investigation ties them to the assassination plot.

    Allowing them to continue operating inside the country with impunity would constitute an enormous risk to Georgia’s national model of democracy considering the likelihood that they’ll catalyze a spree of urban terrorism ahead of, during, or right after the upcoming elections at the US’ regime change behest. Cracking down on this group ahead of the vote would greatly neutralize their ability to disrupt the democratic process and make associated Hybrid War threats much more manageable for the authorities.

    Aware that the window of opportunity for destabilizing their country might soon close, the Georgian Legion might desperately try to carry out a high-profile assassination attempt in the near future, even if it isn’t against the ruling party’s founder but someone else like the Prime Minister and they use a patsy instead of their own members. Everyone should therefore keep a very close eye on Georgia since it’s still a major New Cold War battleground given its geostrategic significance in the broader region’s dynamics.

     

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 07/26/2024 – 02:00

  • Civil Unrest Is The Next Most Predictable Crisis For America Now
    Civil Unrest Is The Next Most Predictable Crisis For America Now

    Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

    For the past six months I’ve been writing about the clear uptick in civil war rhetoric within the establishment media in the US, and we all know that the coming presidential election is the reason for it. The bottom line is that no matter who ends up in the White House in 2025 there will be mass violence, but most of this violence will be reserved for the possibility of Donald Trump’s return.

    Set aside the recent attempted assassination (and how the Secret Service made it possible) for a moment and let’s consider the common leftist response to it – Around 30% of Democrats believe the attack was “staged” (virtually impossible given the circumstances and evidence). The rest are enraged that the shooter missed. No event has exposed the political left for what they truly are more than the near-murder of Donald Trump. We are dealing with bloodthirsty mental deficients that will do anything to win.

    The “false left/right paradigm” is dead, at least when it comes to average American citizens. The political left is not just an innocent subset of the population being led astray by false leadership – They are a big part of the problem. They are willing participants in the destruction of the west. Globalists would get nowhere on economic centralization, the DEI agenda, the trans agenda, carbon taxation, anti-2A legislation, open borders, etc. without help from a large portion of leftists.

    I have long cautioned that the political left is slowly but surely becoming a happy cannon fodder army in service to globalism. And sadly, leftists tend to engage in warfare while conservatives tend to engage in politics. Leftists use any means necessary and feel thoroughly justified. Conservatives color within the lines for fear of being accused of “fascism.” We don’t have to abandon our moral compass, but the sooner we realize that war is being waged on us the sooner we can defend ourselves against it.

    As we have seen in Europe (in France the past month), any perceived shift towards conservative influence in government will undoubtedly result in riots and chicanery from socialists. The media has so infected the minds of progressives that they truly believe they are the “good guys” and that conservatives intend to “end democracy.” Thus, in their view all violence or sabotage against conservatives (and independents) is justified.

    In the long run the left’s violence and hysteria is only inspiring conservatives to respond with aggression in kind. This is where the potential for civil conflict arises. Leftists argue that only they are virtuous enough to be allowed to dictate policy and law. Yet, their ideology also embraces moral relativism, so you can see where this thing is headed…

    They will continue to press for the erosion of western heritage and principles and, eventually, regular people are going to fight back; they have no choice. Leftists and globalists expect resistance, to a point. I believe part of their strategy is a classic communist provocation; for patriots to react with violence thereby giving the establishment fuel for a demonization campaign (much like January 6th). It’s not going to go the way they think it will next time and the response will be far larger and more swift than they anticipate.

    Meanwhile, if Trump enters office again the rioting America dealt with in 2020 will be a cakewalk compared to 2025.

    Progressives claim they are “protecting democracy” but you will see very quickly that as soon as democracy doesn’t go their way they will abandon it in a heartbeat and seek to prevail using other methods.

    This means a campaign of “monkey wrenching” followed by riots, looting and disruptions in major cities.

    One rising trend that should have all business owners and preppers on alert is the use of social media apps to coordinate seemingly spontaneous riots. These events can be organized within hours, encouraging some of the worst people to congregate and strike a business block without ever meeting each other before. What I worry about is that these methods will expand beyond business districts and local government buildings.

    Travel routes will come under threat, freight could be targeted and we may even see looters and rioters move into residential areas further away from the city center. Supply chain issues will surely arise. At the very least there will be concerns among freight drivers that they are taking a risk carrying truckloads of goods into places where they could be surrounded by an angry mob and hijacked (or worse).

    Large scale crime in general is bad for the economy. As we’ve witnessed in cities like Chicago and San Francisco, unchecked crime forces companies to move out of a region and leave those places barren. They call it a “food desert” – A place where tens of thousands of people have no close access to groceries or retail goods. Looting and rioting are an accelerating catalyst for this scenario. Once stores are looted or burned, they may never try to rebuild.

    What I am describing is a much larger number of incidents with a longer duration than 2020. I’m talking about prolonged civil unrest and I predict this will become the norm going into next year. Don’t count on the government to provide sufficient aid. Don’t count on FEMA rations or a national guard response that does anything other than exacerbate the problem. Don’t rely on outside help – You’ll regret it.

    There are different levels of civil unrest. Sometimes it starts as a less malicious redress of grievances, but often it becomes a vehicle for random destruction. The best way to counter indiscriminate violence is with directed and focused self defense, along with the proper supplies to keep you going until things calm down.

    Also, don’t think just because you live in the suburbs or a rural town that these threats don’t concern you. In Argentina during their economic collapse in 2001, gangs of looters stalked rural areas with impunity while cities ground to a standstill. Once the cities are hollowed out, where do you think the worst people will go next?

    In the US we have similar circumstances to Argentina in which economic crisis has the ability to feed directly into preexisting divisions. Politically motivated bad actors could be inspired to sabotage normal services in the face of limited law enforcement opposition. There are people who will do anything to get their way.

    Organize accordingly and keep your own supplies ready. There are plenty of people out there that think they are owed something. They think they are owed a political win, or social power, or maybe they just think they’re owed access to other people’s stuff.

    Right now the US is a powderkeg waiting to go off and the coming election period will be the fuse.

    * * *

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

  • These Are The American Jobs With The Highest Union Membership
    These Are The American Jobs With The Highest Union Membership

    In 1983, one-in-five American adults (20%) were in a union. By 2023, only one-in-ten (10%) were in a union, a record low for the country. However, there are still some industries that see rates of union membership that are on the higher end of the spectrum.

    This chart, via Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao, shows the rate of union membership of those employed per industry in America.

    Data for this graphic is sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for 2023.

    Government Workers are Often in Unions

    Two out of five local government employees are in a union, the highest rate across American industries, as classified by the BLS.

    A significant portion of these employees are police officers, as protective services have some of the highest union rates (32%) by occupation.

    *Excluding the internet. Figures rounded.

    Meanwhile, the utilities sector (energy, water supply, sewage removal) has the highest union membership in the private sector (20%) though this works out to about 200,000 members.

    About 16% of the transport and warehousing industry—one million strong—belongs to a union. Since 2022, workers at Amazon warehouses in particular have organized into the Amazon Labor Union to protest unsafe working conditions.

    Across the top 10 sectors by union membership rate, union employees out-earn non-union employees in eight of them. The wage difference is most noticeable in film & sound jobs, where a union employee makes nearly $1,000 dollars more per week.

    *Excluding the internet. Figures rounded. Wage data available here.

    On the other end of the scale, professional jobs—accounting, legal, tech, and finance—have the lowest rates of union membership (1%). And in them, non-union members out-earn their union peers.

    If you liked this article, check out Visualizing the American Workforce as 100 People for quick insight into the most common jobs people work at.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 23:00

  • Ben-Gvir Endorses Trump, Says He's More Likely to Back War On Iran
    Ben-Gvir Endorses Trump, Says He’s More Likely to Back War On Iran

    Authored by Brett Wilkins via Common Dreams,

    Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir endorsed former U.S. President Donald Trump—the 2024 Republican nominee—for the White House in an interview published Wednesday in which he accused the Biden administration of preventing Israel from winning its war in Gaza.

    “I believe that with Trump, Israel will receive the backing to act against Iran,” Ben-Gvir, who heads the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, told Bloomberg. “With Trump, it will be clearer that enemies must be defeated.”

    Getty Images/AFP

    “A cabinet minister is supposed to maintain neutrality,” the 48-year-old minister conceded, “but that’s impossible to do after [U.S. President Joe] Biden.”

    “The U.S. has always stood behind Israel in terms of armaments and weapons, yet this time the sense was that we were being reckoned with—that we were trying to be prevented from winning. That happened on Biden’s watch and fed Hamas with lots of energy,” added Ben-Gvir, who was convicted in 2007 of incitement to racism after he advocated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

    While Biden, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and other administration officials have decried Israel’s often indiscriminate bombing of Gaza and high civilian casualties—at least 140,000 Palestinians killed, injured, or missing, according to local and international agencies—the U.S. has approved billions of dollars in new military aid and more than 100 arms sales to Israel since October.

    During his White House tenure, Trump—who boasted that he “fought for Israel like no president ever before”—moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and brokered the Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab nations Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates.

    Trump has said that Israel should “get the job done” in Gaza, while criticizing the Israel Defense Forces for posting videos showing its obliteration of the embattled Palestinian enclave.

    “I don’t know why they released wartime shots like that. I guess it makes them look tough. But to me, it doesn’t make them look tough,” Trump said in April. “They’re losing the PR war. They’re losing it big. But they’ve got to finish what they started, and they’ve got to finish it fast, and we have to get on with life.”

    While Trump says he wants a deal with Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, as president he unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—also known as the Iran nuclear deal—and oversaw a “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran featuring deadly economic sanctions.

    On the advice of Iran hawks in his administration including then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Trump also ordered the January 2020 assassination of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Gen. Qasem Soleimani in Iraq.

    Ben-Gvir’s interview was published as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to address a joint meeting of U.S. Congress Wednesday in Washington, D.C. A growing number of Democratic lawmakers have called for not only a cease-fire in Gaza but also a suspension of U.S. military aid to Israel, whose conduct in the war is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.

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    Dozens of Democratic lawmakers and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont skipped Netanyahu’s Wednesday’s speech. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also the Senate president, did not preside over Wednesday’s session. Harris, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in the wake of Biden’s withdrawal from the race on Sunday, said she will meet privately with Netanyahu on Thursday.

    Echoing calls from groups including CodePink and the Council on American Islamic Relations, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said this week that the prime minister should be arrested for war crimes and genocide.

    Karim Khan, the International Criminal Court prosecutor, has applied for arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes including extermination committed on and after October 7.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 22:35

  • An Empire Of Lies
    An Empire Of Lies

    Authored by Brian Maher via DailyReckoning.com,

    Why does government lie so repeatedly — and so atrociously?

    Why does it fear truth as the vampire fears garlic?

    The answer, we hazard, reduces to its desperate quest for prestige.

    Government equals authority. And an authority is an authority.

    Its word must be the final word. Its word must be the ultimate word.

    A supreme authority cannot withstand rivals — else its authority falls into question.

    It cannot endure mockery, ridicule or derision.

    And if its undeniable incompetence is exposed, its back goes up… and its dukes go up.

    Consider for example Monday’s congressional testimony of a certain Kimberly Cheatle…

    The Greatest Sin Against Government

    Ms. Cheatle directed the United States Secret Service when an aspiring assassin made a mockery of the lady’s organization.

    How can a murderous fellow scale a low rooftop with a rifle — some 140 yards from a former and potentially future United States president — and let eight projectiles loose — before being scotched?

    Here he was… placing his thumbs in his ears… wiggling his fingers… and putting out his tongue at Ms. Cheatle and the organization she bosses.

    And in the private opinion of Ms. Cheatle, that is the highest sin. It is not act itself.

    Is greater professional incompetence scarcely conceivable? We do not believe it is.

    “It’s an Ongoing Investigation”

    Yet the lady donned her armor, barricaded herself within fortress walls and deflected all questions concerning her agency’s abominations.

    She could not answer this question or that question because it is an “ongoing investigation.”

    “Was July 13 a Saturday, madam?”

    “It’s an ongoing investigation.”

    “What time did the attempted assassination take place? What was the local temperature?”

    “It’s an ongoing investigation.”

    “What color blazer was the former president Trump sporting?”

    “It’s an ongoing investigation.”

    “In which hemisphere of Earth did the incident occur?”

    “It’s an ongoing investigation.”

    “What color is the sky?”

    “It’s an ongoing investigation.”

    Governing Means Never Saying You’re Sorry

    Could the lady openly and candidly concede her organization’s botchwork? What government functionary ever does?

    Imagine her arguing, for example, that her sniper may have failed to shoot first because his scope was trained not on the rooftop — but on the fetching young lady in the third row with the cropped top and the shortest shorts.

    Imagine her arguing that the 5’4” female agent lacked the height to cover adequately her 6’3” protectee.

    Furthermore, that the identical female agent was admitted to the United States Secret Service on a sliding scale — that she did not satisfy the physical standards required of men.

    Imagine her conceding that her personnel were snoozing on the job.

    Have you imagined these potentialities? Then you have imagined impossibilities.

    Ms. Cheatle would never concede any of them even if true.

    That is because she fears for her (former) agency’s prestige.

    The Bigger the Organization, the Bigger the Lies

    “Why are you stating the obvious?” comes your retort.

    “Every organization, from the smallest business concern to the largest business concern, from any local government to the federal government, fears for its prestige.

    “No organization wants to be publicly embarrassed.”

    You are of course correct.

    Yet the larger the organization, the larger its scope. Thus the greater number of lies — and scale of lies — it must tell to cling to its prestige.

    Imagine you are the proprietor of a local business concern.

    You quake in fear of the competition. And you are hot to scotch it.

    Imagine the lengths to which you proceed… the fibs you tell… to defend and expand your localized little empire.

    What misdemeanor — indeed, what felony — wouldn’t you execute if it advantaged you?

    Yet your enterprise maintains a very constricted reach. It represents a nearly absolute insignificance to the world beyond.

    Who cares if you claim to be the most superior plumber in Springfield when you manifestly are not?

    A Local Government Can Manage Its Lies

    Next imagine that you are not a business concern. You are instead a local government concern.

    You are its mayor.

    You must tell your lies to glitter before your captives, your residents.

    The business may be difficult at times — yet it is manageable.

    You must lie about the efficiency of the Motor Vehicle Department or the Highway Department, for example.

    You must lie about the bribes you have accepted. You may therefore maintain your prestige.

    Yet the scope of your lies is contained with your narrow borders.

    A nation — a normal nation — must likewise tell its lies to hold up its prestige.

    It may be difficult at times. Yet if the nation is reasonably sized and has little ambition, it is, again, possible.

    In highest contrast stands the government of the United States…

    The Burden of Maintaining Global Prestige

    This is an empire that exerts dominion over each individual, over each local municipality, over each state municipality within these shores — from oceans Atlantic and Pacific, from the border with Mexico to the border with Canada.

    Imagine the impossibility of managing such a vast space.

    The United States government manages the job very poorly.

    Yet by its nature it must maintain its prestige among the American people. It must therefore inform you that it performs the job very well.

    It will stare you in the eyes… and lie to you… even if it knows that you know it is lying to you.

    Yet the United States is the world’s reigning kingpin, its dominant power.

    Its wingspan therefore covers the entirety of planet Earth. Does a single sparrow fall outside its awareness?

    Imagine — then — the lies it must tell to maintain its prestige among all the nations of Earth…

    Lies of Commission and Omission

    Who detonated the Nord Stream pipeline transmitting natural gas from the Russian Federation to the German republic?

    The answers reduce to the United States itself, one of its European allies or the nation of Ukraine.

    Do you believe the United States government is unaware of the answer?

    Yet imagine the catastrophic damage to its reputation if it revealed the answer.

    It would concede that the United States itself executed the largest act of environmental sabotage in all of history — and heavily wrecked the economy of its central NATO ally — or that another NATO ally did the deed.

    Or that the nation it stands impassionedly behind, Ukraine, did the deed.

    It must therefore shrug its shoulders in befuddlement or inform you that Russia blew holes in its own pipeline.

    It is a lie of omission or a lie of commission.

    We’re the Good Guys Here

    Imagine if the United States government conceded that Russia’s unprovoked aggression was very much provoked?

    And that it was the saboteur of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine that would have ceased the bloodletting one month after it commenced.

    Public support for the Ukrainian cause — in the United States and abroad — would collapse in a heap.

    United States government prestige would absorb a fatal blow.

    It must therefore babble lies.

    It must tell you that Mr. Putin’s aggression was not provoked. It must inform you that he will be at the English Channel within no time if he is not heaved out of Ukraine.

    It must inform you that it is battling on behalf of democracy.

    From the Middle East to East Asia, from South America to Africa, the identical dynamic obtains.

    If the Antarctic continent were sufficiently populated, it would extend there too.

    Empire of Lies

    Our co-founders Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin once labeled the United States an empire of debt.

    It is an empire of debt, yes. It is certainly an empire in debt.

    Yet in the more fundamental sense it is an empire of lies.

    The emperor in charge of it is presently being exposed — he is well and truly nude before a gaping world.

    Yet this emperor will never concede his nudity…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 22:10

  • Major American Cities Facing 'Day Zero Water' Crisis, Say Experts
    Major American Cities Facing ‘Day Zero Water’ Crisis, Say Experts

    Authored by Autumn Spredemann via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The term “day zero water” has become synonymous with a worst-case scenario for public water resources. It refers to a moment in which a city or region’s water supply is almost depleted and officials cut tap supply to communities.

    A buoy that reads “No Boats” lays on dry waterbed at Lake Mead, Nev., on July 23, 2022. Water levels in Lake Mead are at the lowest level since April 1937 when the reservoir was first filled with water, according to NASA. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

    This crisis was narrowly averted in 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa, which approached the threshold of a day zero event after rationing was almost not enough.

    Subsequently, environmental researchers and resource insiders have voiced concern over the possibility of water running out in U.S. cities after years of drought have reduced groundwater in places such as the Great Plains and the Southwest.

    In a recent study published in Nature, researchers noted “rapid groundwater-level declines” globally in the 21st century of more than 0.5 meters (20 inches) per year across 170,000 monitoring wells and 1,693 aquifer systems.

    This includes water resources in the United States.

    The study authors further observed groundwater declines have accelerated over the past four decades, highlighting an “urgent need for more effective measures to address groundwater depletion.”

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has also expressed concerns over national water assets.

    The agency highlights on its website a Government Accountability Office report from 2014 that stated that 40 out of 50 state water managers “expected shortages in some portion of their states under average conditions in the next 10 years.”

    Groups such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) attribute much of the groundwater loss to climate change.

    “The conditions in the American West, which we’re seeing around the Colorado River basin, have been so dry for more than 20 years that we’re no longer speaking of a drought,” Lis Mullin Bernhardt said in a statement in May.

    Ms. Bernhardt, an ecosystems expert at the UNEP, called it “aridification” and a “new very dry normal.”

    However, some experts say poor water management and aging pipe infrastructure also play a significant role in depleting groundwater reserves.

    “Given current consumption patterns and the increasing strain on water resources due to factors like climate change and population growth, a Day Zero water crisis is certainly a possibility for some U.S. cities,” Natalya Holm told The Epoch Times in an email.

    Ms. Holm is a U.S. senior project manager for the Climate Risk & Water Stewardship Services Lead at Antea Group, an international environmental consulting firm.

    She explained the cities most at risk include a combination of high population density, limited water sources, and inadequate infrastructure to manage supply challenges.

    “For instance, cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Miami face significant water stress due to their geographical location, reliance on limited local water sources, and high water demand caused by urbanization,” she said.

    Park visitors look at the bleached “bathtub ring” visible on the banks of Lake Mead near the Hoover Dam in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Ariz., on Aug. 19, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

    The Israel-based company Watergen, which makes water from the air, also identified Los Angeles and Miami—along with Atlanta, Phoenix, and El Paso—as urban centers at risk of a Day Zero event due to drought and saltwater contamination.

    “Water supply sustainability and security can present a risk to communities if they are not proactively addressing these risks,” Barbara Martin, director of engineering and technical services at the American Water Works Association, told The Epoch Times via email.

    Ms. Martin said that communities face risks over water sustainability and security if officials aren’t proactive with infrastructure planning, asset management, and emergency preparedness.

    She said that while nothing can eliminate the risk of a Day Zero water crisis, public educational resources will help, as well as water asset managers bolstering their resilience planning.

    Down the Drain

    Water pipe infrastructure in the United States is in desperate need of repair.

    Moreover, the agency expects necessary replacements to cost $500 billion.

    In a May press release, the Biden administration announced a $3 billion initiative to replace toxic lead pipes in U.S. waterworks.

    The funding is part of a more than $50 billion spending package already approved to upgrade American water infrastructure.

    The White House statement called the initiative “the largest investment in clean and safe water in American history.”

    However, the number falls drastically short of the EPA’s estimated need for shoring up water loss due to leakage.

    “Among the 2.2 million miles of pipe that comprise our drinking water infrastructure … the EPA estimates that 240,000 water main breaks occur in the U.S. each year,” Ms. Martin pointed out.

    She stressed that it’s critical to ensure utilities have strong programs for asset management, capital improvement planning, condition assessment, and water loss control in addition to “supporting effective and timely infrastructure renewal and replacement.”

    Ms. Martin emphasized that continued investment in U.S. water infrastructure is needed to address this challenge.

    Ms. Holm called the U.S. water pipe network “unique” in its high number of water systems per capita. She says this creates distinctive challenges.

    “What that means is, especially in rural areas, there are a lot of very small water systems serving a very small population … it leads to fragmentation and inefficiencies in water management, preventing coordinated efforts for sustainable water use and infrastructure upkeep.”

    This fragmentation complicates regulatory oversight and equitable access to safe and reliable water, according to Ms. Holm.

    Wastewater undergoes the microfiltration treatment process at the Groundwater Replenishment System, the world’s largest wastewater recycling plant, in the Orange County Water District in Fountain Valley, Calif., on July 20, 2022. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

    Ongoing water loss through pipe leakage is also a money hemorrhage for those working in resource management, according to Ms. Holm.

    She said that some systems have reported water losses exceeding 60 percent. That kind of loss to pipe leakage is referred to as “non-revenue water.”

    “The utility [company] brought it up from the ground or pulled it from a river, treated it, pumped it out into the system, used the energy to bring it out to the system, and got no revenue back from it.

    “Nobody used it, and the water supplier lost out on 60 percent of the revenue, which means less money going into their infrastructure repair, improvement, and expansion funds,” she said.
    In its latest infrastructure report card, the American Society of Civil Engineers observed a water main break in the United States every two minutes, resulting in an estimated loss of 6 billion gallons of treated water every day.

    “Addressing this issue requires substantial investment in infrastructure renewal and maintenance,” Ms. Holm said.

    “This includes adopting modern technologies for leak detection and repair, prioritizing infrastructure upgrades in vulnerable areas, and enhancing coordination between federal, state, and local agencies to ensure effective management of water distribution networks.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 21:45

  • Tesla And BYD Claim A Third Of Global EV Market
    Tesla And BYD Claim A Third Of Global EV Market

    In the second quarter of 2024, Tesla’s gross margin dropped to a new low after declining every quarter since Q1 2022. Thanks to an uptick in deliveries over the past months, the U.S. automaker and pioneer of getting battery electric vehicles (BEVs) to the mass market still retained the biggest market share among all BEVs sold worldwide. 

    In the past year and the first three months of 2024, Tesla’s share was constant at 19 percent, according to analyses by EV Volumes and Inside EVs for the corresponding periods.

    The competition, however, is hot on its heels.

    As Statista;s Florian Zandt shows in the chart below, the Chinese conglomerate, which produces standalone electric vehicle batteries and associated electronics in addition to plug-in hybrid and fully electric vehicles, increased its market share by ten percentage points between 2021 and 2023. The BEV portfolio of legacy automakers like Volkswagen and Geely-Volvo stood at seven percent, on par with SAIC, which includes the joint venture between the Chinese state-owned SAIC Motor and Wuling as well as General Motors.

    Infographic: Tesla and BYD Claim a Third of the Global BEV Market | Statista

    While the first quarter saw BYD’s share drop by two points, it was only 18,000 cars shy of Tesla’s deliveries between April and June 2024, illustrating how close the head-to-head race between these two companies is.

    BYD is focused on providing BEVs to a more general consumer base, while Tesla’s products have a higher price tag.

    This difference might be slightly mitigated through the increase of tariffs on Chinese-made cars from 25 to 100 percent announced in May and coming into effect in early August, a move that simultaneously seeks to boost domestic sales and will likely increase tensions between the People’s Republic and the United States.

    According to EV Volumes, 14 million electric vehicles were sold globally in 2023, 70 percent of which were BEVs. However, 84 percent of all light vehicles sold still ran on traditional combustion engines or other non-electric fuel sources.

    The biggest exporter and market for both hybrids and BEVs was China with shares of 65 and 59 percent, respectively.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 21:20

  • Federal Judge Overturns ATF Ban On Trigger Devices That Enhance Firing Speed
    Federal Judge Overturns ATF Ban On Trigger Devices That Enhance Firing Speed

    Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

    A federal judge in Texas has ruled in favor of gun rights groups who sued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in a bid to overturn the agency’s prohibition of forced reset triggers, devices that increase the firing rate of semi-automatic guns.

    U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas wrote in a July 23 order that the ATF exceeded its authority when it classified forced reset triggers as machine guns and, with very narrow exceptions, made them illegal.

    “Each time an agency circumvents the legislative process it chips away at the most prudent reason for the separation of powers that is, ensuring unelected and unaccountable individuals do not make the law,” the judge wrote, adding that the country’s foundational documents granted lawmaking authority to duly elected officials in order to “safeguard against future tyranny.”

    “While this case may seem focused on firearms, it represents so much more,” the judge wrote.

    “It is emblematic of a devastating problem that increasingly rears its head in federal courts: rampant evasion of the democratic process.”

    The case was brought by Texas Gun Rights (TXGR) and the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), whose initial complaint challenged the ATF’s classification of forced reset triggers as machine guns on the premise that the ban was arbitrary and capricious, and violated constitutional rights.

    “We are absolutely thrilled that the court has dealt such a decisive blow to the ATF’s unconstitutional agency overreach,” Hannah Hill, executive director of NAGR, said in a statement.

    In response, the ATF argued in legal briefs that outlawing the devices was needed to protect public safety. The briefs included an open letter to all federal firearms licensees warning them that violations of the ban were punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

    In siding with the gun rights groups, the judge argued that the ATF overstepped its regulatory authority and failed to provide a valid rationale for the ban. He declared the ATF’s classification of the conversion devices as unlawful and ordered the agency to cease any actions based on the classification, including seizing forced reset triggers or destroying any previously surrendered ones.

    The judge also ordered the ATF to stop sending any notices or letters to manufacturers or gun dealers stating that the devices are machine guns, or from interfering in their production or sale.

    A spokesperson from the ATF’s public affairs office told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the agency had no comment on the ruling.

    The ATF’s director Steven Dettelbach, who was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, said in a January 2023 statement after the Department of Justice (DOJ) had obtained a temporary restraining order against companies that were selling forced reset triggers, that the conversion devices pose a threat to the public and are increasingly a risk to law enforcement.

    “These machine gun conversion devices—which are machine guns under federal law—can turn any semi-automatic AR-type firearm into a weapon capable of shooting at a rate of fire similar to or exceeding that of an M16 machine gun manufactured for military use,” he stated at the time.

    The ATF’s ban on the forced reset triggers was in part motivated by the October 2017 mass shooting at a concert in Las Vegas.

    Judge O’Connor said in his order that there’s “no denying the tragic nature” of the shooting.

    “But no matter how terrible the circumstances, there is never a situation that justifies a court altering statutory text that was democratically enacted by those who are politically accountable,” he wrote.

    “That responsibility belongs exclusively to Congress.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 20:55

  • Watch: Ukrainian Kamikaze Drone Jet Ski Washes Up On Istanbul Beach 
    Watch: Ukrainian Kamikaze Drone Jet Ski Washes Up On Istanbul Beach 

    Ukraine’s military intelligence service has deployed kamikaze drone boats against Russian military vessels. These sleek, small boat drones have a low radar signature, making them extremely difficult to detect. They are equipped with GPS, optical sensors, a satellite dish (in some cases), and, of course, explosives.

    The unmanned boats are being used to target Russian military vessels and infrastructure across the Black Sea. Ukraine has claimed numerous times these drones have sunk and damaged Russian military ships. 

    Now, Ukraine’s military resourcefulness appears to be converting jet skis into kamikaze weapons. This may give Houthi rebels an idea in the critical maritime chokepoint of the southern Red Sea.

    “An unmanned jet ski loaded with cameras, military equipment and explosives, believed to belong to Ukrainian forces, was found on Çatalca Beach in Istanbul,” Turkish media outlet Bengü Türk wrote on X. 

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    Is that SpaceX’s Starlink dish?

    What’s very clear to military officials worldwide is how drones have transformed the modern battlefield across land, air, and sea domains in Ukraine. Everyone is watching and taking notes.

    Drones represent an evolutionary rather than revolutionary change to warfare, and that’s also evident in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden as the world’s greatest navy (US Navy) fails to counter Houthi boat and aerial drone threats.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 20:30

  • Utah Attorney Catches FBI Deception In OKC Bomb Records Case
    Utah Attorney Catches FBI Deception In OKC Bomb Records Case

    Authored by Ken Silva via Headline USA,

    Last month, the Justice Department asked a judge to pause a lawsuit seeking records about the FBI’s involvement with the Oklahoma City bombing. But in doing so, the DOJ and the FBI made statements so misleading they merit sanctions, according to the plaintiff in that case, Utah attorney Jesse Trentadue.

    PHOTO: Rick Bowmer/AP/Shutterstock

    The deception spotted by Trentadue stems from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit he filed against the FBI in February, seeking records about Roger Edwin Moore, who was a CIA asset, an FBI informant and a business associate to OKC bomber Tim McVeigh; as well as for records about the Aryan Republican Army, a neo-Nazi bank-robbery gang also involved in the attack.

    Trentadue filed the lawsuit after waiting nine years for the FBI to process his FOIA request for those records. Despite that long wait, the FBI then asked a federal judge for another nearly 12 years to release the records he seeks.

    Then, last month the bureau represented to a federal judge that many of the records Trentadue wants are already on the FBI’s website. But according to Trentadue, that’s a lie.

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    “That statement is so misleading as to merit sanctions. The BOMBROB records posted by the FBI, for example, consist of just 5,514 pages, not the 36,795 pages of responsive documents that the Bureau claims to possess,” Trentadue said in a Tuesday court filing, responding to the FBI’s request to pause his lawsuit. BOMBROB was FBI’s investigation of the ARA.

    “More importantly, of these 5,514 pages, only 51 pages reference McVeigh. Similarly, the FBI’s website contains just 229 pages of records on Roger Edwin Moore, not the 31,129 pages of responsive records that the Bureau claims to have located, and none of these records involve Moore’s participation in Operation Punchout,” Trentadue added, referencing the FBI operation in which Moore served as an informant.

    Trentadue also took issue with the FBI telling the judge that he agreed to receive records at a rate of 500 pages per month, which would mean it would take about 12 years to receive them all. Trentadue explained that he initially was OK with receiving 500 records per month on a rolling basis nearly a decade ago—as opposed to waiting for the FBI to gather all the records and send them in one batch.

    “Plaintiff agreed to receiving the document sin 500-page increments on a CD as they were processed, whereby he would not have to wait until all of the records were processed before receiving them,” he explained in his Tuesday filing. “Plaintiff NEVER agreed to the FBI processing the documents at the rate of only 500-pages per month.”

    For Trentadue, dealing with DOJ/FBI deception is nothing new. For instance, in a separate lawsuit seeking surveillance footage of the OKC bombing, a federal judge is investigating allegations that the FBI tampered with one of his witnesses. Trentadue referenced that ongoing scandal in his Tuesday response to the FBI.

    “It can fairly be said that the only difference between the FBI and Russian KGB is that the KGB never claimed to be a legitimate law enforcement agency. It can also be fairly said that in cases such as this involving an overarching specter of government malfeasance, the FBI has been and will be anything but honest and candid with the court,” he said.

    Trentadue wants the presiding judge to order the FBI to give him records at the rate of 5,500 pages per month.

    In his Tuesday filing, he noted that the 30th anniversary of the OKC bombing is this April. He argued that there’s immense public interest in that case, and attached two articles written by this reporter as evidence of that. To Trentadue’s point, Headline USA’s article about his initial lawsuit in February is currently the third-most viewed story on the site in 2024.

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    “The court should deny the FBI’s motion to stay and commence with the BOMBROB request because of the upcoming anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing … The court should also order the FBI to process the records at the rate of 5,500 pages per month with interim month-end releases of the documents processed during each month, which will result in Plaintiff receiving all of the records in about 13 months instead of 11-plus years,” he said.

    It’s not clear when the judge might decide on the matter.

    Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 20:05

  • Judge Rejects Disney's Bid To Toss Gina Carano's Lawsuit
    Judge Rejects Disney’s Bid To Toss Gina Carano’s Lawsuit

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

    Disney must face a discrimination lawsuit brought by actress Gina Carano, whom it fired from “The Mandalorian” in 2021, a federal judge ruled on July 24.

    Disney terminated Ms. Carano after she posted on social media, including a post supportive of conservatives, and a quote from an executive saying “she didn’t align with company values.” That termination constituted illegal discrimination, Ms. Carano said in her suit, pointing to California law that prohibits employers from preventing employees from engaging in politics.

    Disney asked the federal court in central California to dismiss the legal action. Company lawyers said the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment “means that a state cannot force an employer engaged in speech to speak through an employee whose own views or public profile could compromise the employer’s own message, even if the employee does not express her views on the job.”

    U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett rejected Disney’s arguments. Under U.S. Supreme Court precedent, for the First Amendment to protect organizations in cases such as the one brought by Ms. Carano, judges must determine if the organization engages in protected association, or joining with others to promote certain views.

    “Although defendants indisputably engage in expressive activity—including, but certainly not limited to, producing and disseminating The Mandalorian—they have failed to establish that they engage in expressive association,” Judge Garnett wrote in her 23-page ruling.

    “Furthermore, at this stage in the litigation, the court cannot conclude, as defendants urge it to, that plaintiff’s continued employment by defendants would inhibit or intrude upon defendants’ rights to expressive association.”

    The Supreme Court in a previous ruling, cited by Disney, ruled that the Boy Scouts did not have to hire an openly gay man as an assistant scoutmaster despite a New Jersey law against discrimination because the scouts aimed to instill values in its members including that homosexuality is not moral.

    In another Supreme Court ruling, also raised by Disney, justices turned down an attempt by the United States Jaycees group to exclude females from becoming members, because, the group said, Minnesota anti-discrimination law requiring the nonprofit to allow female members would burden male members’ freedom of expressive association.

    Unlike the Boy Scouts and Jaycees, Disney is not a members-only, nonprofit, the judge said.

    Then-Disney CEO Bob Iger said after firing Ms. Carano that she did not align with Disney’s values, including “values of respect, values of decency, values of integrity, and values of inclusion.”

    Disney and other defendants, though, “have not identified any evidence—in the complaint or otherwise—to substantiate a claim that they employ public-facing actors for the purpose of promoting the ‘values of respect,’ ‘decency,’ ‘integrity,’ or ‘inclusion,’” the judge said.

    Even if Disney proved that employing actors was a form of expressive association, Ms. Carano has plausibly alleged that defendants fired her to distract from criticisms of Disney’s business dealings in China, according to the judge. In cases where two alternative explanations, both of which are plausible, are offered, then motions to dismiss cases are rejected under court precedent.

    Ms. Carano filed an internal email that was inadvertently sent to her that showed Disney officials initially discussing criticism of the company for doing business with China before transitioning to how some social media users were calling for Disney to oust the actress.

    A lawyer representing Disney and the other defendants, Lucasfilm and Huckleberry Industries, did not return a request for comment.

    Ms. Carano said on the social media platform X that she was moved to tears after learning of the ruling.

    “After a brutal 3 1/2 years, I am being given the opportunity to move forward in the court of law before the judge and my peers to clear my name. I am so grateful for this opportunity,” she wrote.

    “What happened to me was unacceptable, absurd and abusive, among other things. It should not have happened to me, and it should not happen to anyone else moving forward. Let it stop here.”

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    Ms. Carano also thanked Elon Musk’s, X’s owner, who helped fund the lawsuit.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 19:40

  • To Join California's Top 1-Percent, A Household Must Earn More Than $1 Million Per Year
    To Join California’s Top 1-Percent, A Household Must Earn More Than $1 Million Per Year

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

    To rank in the upper echelon of income earners in California, individuals need to bring home more than $1 million annually, a study released July 17 by financial website Go Banking Rates found.

    From 2017 to 2022, the average income of the top 5 percent of households in California spiked more than 37 percent, from slightly less than $450,000 to more than $613,000. (CNN)

    With a population of slightly more than 39 million people, and nearly 20 million income tax returns filed in 2022 for the 2021 tax year, about 200,000 California households make more than $1 million per year, according to the study—which adjusted the amounts earned to 2024 dollars to account for inflation.

    Researchers expected the West Coast to rank the highest, but said that “surprisingly,” two Northeast states had a higher threshold for reaching the top 1 percent: Connecticut and Massachusetts.

    The top 1 percent of earners in five states nationwide—including Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, Washington, and New Jersey, in order of ranking—bring home seven-figure incomes.

    New York was hot on the heels of the top five, coming in $253 shy of joining the million-dollar club.

    On the lower end of the scale, the top 1 percent of workers earn less than $500,000 in three states—New Mexico, Mississippi, and West Virginia.

    In a separate study published July 2, Go Banking Rates found that incomes needed to qualify as “rich”—defined in the report as the top 5 percent of salaries in the state—are increasing across the country.

    Between 2017 and 2022—the latest filing data available from the Internal Revenue Service—the average income of the top 5 percent of households in California spiked more than 37 percent, from slightly less than $450,000 to more than $613,000.

    Every state experienced an increase over the same period, with Washington’s average jumping the most—nearly 44 percent from more than $378,000 to almost $545,000—while North Dakota’s nearly 15 percent bump from about $365,000 to approximately $419,000 was the lowest in the nation.

    Workers in 12 states need to earn at least a half-million dollars annually to be classified as “wealthy,” according to the study, a sharp increase from 2017 when only those in Washington, D.C., and Connecticut needed to have such high salaries.

    Some Californians say they’re feeling the pinch, with cost-of-living increases putting pressure on their families’ finances.

    “No matter how much I make or how many hours I work, it’s still difficult to pay for everything,” Mary Smith, a Sacramento-based customer service representative, told The Epoch Times.

    One Northern California resident said the findings were shocking, while commenting on a perceived need to earn large salaries just to make ends meet in the Golden State.

    “I had no idea so many people were making that much money,” Juan Hernandez, a laborer in the East Bay, told The Epoch Times July 22. “But with the housing prices in the Bay Area, if you’re not a millionaire, it’s impossible to afford anything.”

    Homes in the Bay Area cost on average $1.2 million, according to research from Zillow, an online real estate company.

    The median price of homes sold in California hit nearly $860,000 in June 2024, according to online real estate listing firm Redfin.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 19:15

  • Peak Summer Arrives With Maximum Climate Fear By MSM 
    Peak Summer Arrives With Maximum Climate Fear By MSM 

    It’s peak summer, which means leftist corporate media outlets are ramping up climate propaganda, pushing the ‘hottest day’ ever headlines, and of course, blaming ‘cow farts’ and petrol-powered vehicles. 

    Bloomberg data shows that headlines featuring the ‘hottest day’ ever in corporate media soared this month. This spike in climate doom headlines is an annual occurrence in July for the Lower 48. 

    Welcome to peak summer. 

    This year, climate alarmists claimed Earth experienced record heat. However, much of the data goes back several decades, not thousands of years, considering the Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Climate alarmists continue to push short-term data, some of which derive temperature data from sensors located in airports and cities full of asphalt and concrete. 

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    Climate alarmists are missing one crucial piece of the climate puzzle: “Tonga Volcano Contributed To Global Warming.”

    “How can anyone claim to be a “Guardian” of the environment and not know about the world’s recent unprecedented event which is causing today’s global warming spike?” meteorologist John Shewchuk wrote on X. 

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    Sigh.

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    More from X user the Climate Realists:

    The Historic Underwater Volcano Eruption at Hunga Tonga during January 2022, added an additional 5%-10% water Vapour into the Earths Stratosphere, and for the past 18 moths our Planet has seen temperatures well above as to what we expect them to be.

    However the way it’s being presented by various institutions and governments is that it’s human caused, and that if we don’t pay more taxes we are all going to fry.

    My own observations is that regrettably there will be higher than expected rainfall because of the extra Water Vapour, and in the course of time temperatures will fall due to long periods of La Niña over the next 6-7 years.

    To put the burden on the taxpayers to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere, when there is a more logical and scientific explanation as to why there is a recent increase in world temperatures is on a par to the story of the Emperor with no clothes. Whereby the theory of Man Made CO2 causing additional warming is completely naked as far as scientific analysis is concerned.

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    The trick climate grifters use is to show short-term data. 

    This guy…

    However, when you look at the data over a span of 10,000 years… 

    … the propaganda on the “hottest day ever” and Greta’s “we’re all going to burn” narratives completely evaporates. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 18:50

  • Gain Of Function, Loss Of… Everything Else
    Gain Of Function, Loss Of… Everything Else

    Authored by Martin Hoyt via RealClearHealth,

    It did not have to be this way. The COVID-19 pandemic cost American citizens their lives, their livelihoods, education, mental health, reputations and, ultimately, civil and religious freedoms. “The U.S. accounts for less than 5% of the world’s population, but more than 25% of total COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, and it currently ranks among the top 10 countries in COVID-19-related deaths per capita,” wrote the authors of  2023 commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association. And for all that, we have government to thank.  

    For years leading up to the pandemic, the nation had spent billions on preparation and planning for a biohazard attack or event. Whatever we learned was quickly discarded or undone by a lack of accountability, transparency, and humility. Decades of planning and untold man hours of research and training were rendered ineffective by a corrupt culture of greed, self-importance, scientific misconduct, and outright fraud. Because, while the government worked to prevent the worst, it was also helping to create chaos and contagion by funding and facilitating gain of function (GOF) research. 

    GOF research refers to laboratory efforts to make viruses deadlier or to increase their transmissibility. The potential for disaster is obvious. Almost five years prior to the pandemic Dr. Marc Lipsitch and Dr. Alison Galvani noted that GOF pathogenic research posed “a risk of accidental and deliberate release that, if it led to extensive spread of the new agent, could cost many lives … Furthermore, the likelihood of risk is multiplied as the number of laboratories conducting such research increases around the globe.” 

    But according to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s emails and other NIAID communications obtained via FOIA – those that weren’t deleted by the now-infamous “FOIA lady” – the Wuhan lab was working on Covid research with the U.S. as early as 2015. And the worst happened. Dr. Richard H. Ebright of Rutgers University told a Senate committee hearing on June 18, 2024, that “… lapses in U.S. oversight of gain-of-function research and enhanced potential pandemic pathogen research likely contributed to the origin of COVID-19 …” 

    While Ebright said GOF has no medical utility, he emphasized that there are “major incentives to researchers worldwide, in China, and in the U.S. The researchers undertake this research because it is easy, they get the money, and they can get the papers [in science journals].” 

    Not surprisingly, China was selected because it was quicker and cheaper to conduct research without U.S. government entanglements or oversight. Dr. Steven Quay also testified on June 18 and said the Wuhan Institute of Virology is a “level-2 lab,” as opposed to highly secure level-4 labs elsewhere. Moreover, Dr. Fauci et al were able to fund this research because the law was silent. Ebright again:  

    … in this category of research, which is the most significant in terms of consequences and potentially existential risk there is almost no regulation with force of law. No regulation with force of law for biosafety or any pathogen other than the smallpox virus and no regulation with force of law for bio risk management for any pathogen.

    But the U.S. and the world, may have temporarily escaped imminent catastrophe. Consider, according to Dr. Quay, what Wuhan obtained from Canada’s National Microbiology Lab in 2019: “two vials each of 15 strains of virus: seven varieties of Ebola virus, the Hendra virus, and two strains of Nipah virus, Malaysia and Bangladesh.” These virus samples, according to Dr. Steven Quay, are “the top three most deadly human pathogens on the planet.” The samples were obtained under murky circumstances (“described as a possible policy breach”) from a level-4 lab and surreptitiously flown on a commercial flight to Beijing where they were subsequently placed in a level-2 lab overseen by a country with a long history of a disregard for proper safety protocols.

    Gain of function research probably created COVID-19, but our legislative and executive branches created the conditions for the disaster. Congress failed to pass laws governing specific GOF research, both Congress and the executive branch failed to effectively manage the federal health and science bureaucracy, and various agencies failed to monitor the behavior and performance of grantees and vendors engaged in GOF research. When catastrophe struck, self-interest and political survival of those responsible overrode the best interests of our citizenry. 

    Who in the government benefited? How and to what extent did they benefit? Did any GOF research contribute to the U.S. global or response? Is GOF research being rerouted to our defense and security agencies to avoid scrutiny? NIAID continues to stall, obfuscate, and otherwise restrict transparency to its current and past activities. We know there was a concerted effort by senior leaders like Anthony Fauci to hide or delete emails but many other records still likely exist that remain uncovered.

    This must change. Any research activity or sponsorship of scientific endeavors that are capable of mass extinction, such as GOF, must be subjected to a higher level of accountability and scrutiny by our elected leaders and the American public. Accountability, transparency, and public debate after an international crisis like Covid-19 can’t undo the global catastrophic harm that was done. It can, however, reduce the ability of our public health bureaucracy to contribute to the next disaster or looming crisis.

    Martin Hoyt is the Director for Public Health Reform Alliance, a nonpartisan organization committed to increasing transparency and oversight on the public health system so it works better for all Americans. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 18:25

  • Chief University Diversity Officers Are Not Very Diverse…
    Chief University Diversity Officers Are Not Very Diverse…

    Authored by Emily Fowler via The College Fix,

    Chief diversity officer positions at major universities primarily go to black males and females, according to a College Fix analysis.

    Though black females are only six percent of the population, they obtained about 55 percent of top diversity officer roles among the country’s top 50 colleges and universities. The Fix compiled its list using the U.S. News and World Report rankings of national universities.

    The Fix used photos, names, and other public biographical information to determine the race and sex for the diversity officers. The Fix compiled its data from the highest-ranking diversity officer for the general university or undergraduate population, and not for specific departments or schools within universities.

    Some diversity officers are mixed race and the results are a best estimate.

    While black Americans are only 13 percent of the population, they were 80 percent of the highest-ranking diversity officials. Meanwhile, Latinos were only six percent, despite being 19 percent of the population. Asians were only two percent, despite being seven percent of the U.S. White people did not fare well, also only getting about two percent of the top roles.

    The uneven distribution would appear to violate Professor Ibram Kendi’s “antiracism” theory, which states that racial distribution must be perfectly even, although discrimination against white people is acceptable, according to him.

    The National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education endorses the idea of statistical racial equity and “antiracism. It did not respond to multiple requests for comment in the past month.

    The College Fix asked if NADOHE was aware of the low representation of Hispanic and Asian diversity officers. The Fix also asked if the organization promoted any initiatives to increase diversity among chief diversity officers. The group did not respond to two emails and a phone call left since June 24.

    Males were also underrepresented – despite being roughly 50 percent of the population, they were only 34 percent of the top diversity roles.

    The National Diversity Council, which works to “advance diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging by transforming our workplaces, communities and environments,” remained silent when asked for comment. It has not returned a phone message left in the past three weeks asking for potential solutions to underrepresentation and if it was aware of the problem.

    But a higher education reform group said diversity offices should be abolished.

    “The ideology that dominates most DEI offices does more harm than good on college campuses because it exacerbates divisions and causes people to self-censor rather than bringing them together and encouraging them to freely pursue the truth,” Steve McGuire told The Fix via email.

    He is a former professor who now works on campus freedom issues at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.

    McGuire said universities would be wise to pour the funds used on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts back into the student body.

    “Colleges and universities would be much better served if they eliminated these positions and passed the savings onto students or applied the money to faculty lines or scholarships.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 18:00

  • Netanyahu's Meeting With Lame Duck Biden Was As Inconsequential As Anyone Expected
    Netanyahu’s Meeting With Lame Duck Biden Was As Inconsequential As Anyone Expected

    A lame duck president meets with the leader of America’s closest Mideast ally, who happens to be wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, and the whole thing was somewhat predictably boring and lacking in much substance.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Joe Biden on Thursday where the two reportedly discussed closing the remaining “gaps” for a Gaza ceasefire deal (a ceasefire deal that it appears Netanyahu doesn’t actually want, having vowed to fully eradicate Hamas on the battlefield).

    But as we’ve discussed before, Netanyahu is essentially waiting out Biden, in hopes that Trump enters office. Trump is perceived by the Israelis as willing to give its military more free reign in its Gaza offensive. Politico had reported on Sunday that Netanyahu will likely delay Gaza ceasefire talks for at least another three months until after the US presidential election. In 2020 he called Trump “the best friend that Israel has ever had in the White House.”

    Netanyahu is now being widely accused of intentionally stalling progress on a ceasefire, until a new chapter in relations with the White House opens.

    As Biden looked like he struggled to stay awake and focus, Netanyahu praised the Democratic president and career politician for five decades of supporting Israel.

    “From a proud Jewish Zionist to a proud Irish-American Zionist, I want to thank you for 50 years of public service and 50 years of support for the state of Israel,” he said.

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    But just within the last months Netanyahu has repeatedly slammed Biden administration policy, particularly after the paused weapons shipment of heavy bombs, with the White House citing the likelihood that using them would result in mass civilian deaths among Palestinians.

    These tensions were apparently still on display to some degree on Thursday. According to a debriefing of their meeting: 

    At a news briefing, national security spokesman John Kirby said that Mr Biden and Mr Netanyahu discussed the urgent need for a hostage release deal, the potential of conflict spilling over into Lebanon, the threat of Iran and the need to reach “compromises” in peace talks.

    While Mr Kirby added that “gaps remain” in the US-Israel relationship, the countries have a “healthy relationship”.

    “By healthy, I mean they’re not going to agree on everything,” Mr Kirby said, adding that Mr Biden was  “very comfortable with the relationship he has with the prime minister”.

    And there was plenty of pushback from the press concerning the Oval Office meeting at a time Palestinian civilians continue to be slaughtered by the blunt force that is the IDF offensive in Gaza…

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    Netanyahu is expected on Friday to meet with former President Donald Trump in Mar-A-Lago on Friday,. Likely the mood will be much ‘warmer’ as Bibi expects a future Trump administration will involve even more of a ‘blank check’ for Israel than what it already receives. The Israeli leader is also soon to meet with VP Kamala Harris.

    * * *

    Meanwhile…

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 17:40

  • Illinois' Out-Migration Losses: Measuring The Destructive Impact On The State's Tax Base
    Illinois’ Out-Migration Losses: Measuring The Destructive Impact On The State’s Tax Base

    Authored by Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner via Wirepoints.org,

    One of the most damaging impacts of Illinois’ people loss to other states is the destruction of Illinois’ tax base. When people leave in a given year, they take their incomes (adjusted gross incomes, or AGI) with them, and that means the state’s tax base suffers. 

    A smaller tax base, everything else equal, means less tax revenues for safety, education, road repair and every other core government service – or, as is typically the case in Illinois, more debts and more tax hikes.

    Unfortunately, Illinois’ out-migration problem is much bigger than just a one year loss: the state has lost people and AGI every single year since at least 2000, the first year of Wirepoints’ out-migration analysis. The AGI losses pile up on top of each other year after year, slashing Illinois’ tax revenue growth and destroying Illinois’ overall prosperity. 

    In all, the cumulative impact of out-migration for the last 23 years means the state budget lost out on about $3.6 billion in income tax revenue in 2022 alone. (Said another way, had Illinois not lost all those people over the last 23 years, the state would have had $3.6 billion more in income tax revenues in 2022 alone.)

    The revenue losses for 2022 are even bigger when you take into account all the other revenues foregone – sales taxes, gas taxes, fees, etc. – due to the loss of taxpayers.

    Thanks to the state’s failed spending and pension policies, Illinoisans are paying the price.

    A breakdown of the numbers

    The latest 2021-2022 migration data from the IRS shows Illinois reported $9.8 billion in lost adjusted gross income as a result of losing a net 87,000 residents to other states. Read our full report here.

    That $9.8 billion in AGI, after taking into account exemptions of $1.6 billion*, could have become $400 million in income taxes for the state (calculated at 4.95%). That in itself is a significant amount of lost income tax revenues.

    But the cumulative impact of the AGI losses are much more dramatic. Let’s build out how state’s 2022’s income tax revenues were impacted by the cumulative AGI losses since 2000.

    In 2000, Illinois suffered a net loss of $2 billion in AGI as a result of outmigration, meaning the state lost out on being able to tax $2 billion that year.

    The next year, 2001, Illinois lost another $2.3 billion in AGI due to outmigration. Pile on top of that the $2 billion in AGI lost in 2000 and, overall, the state lost out on being able to tax a cumulative $4.3 billion in AGI in 2001.

    In 2003, Illinois lost another $2 billion in AGI, putting the cumulative AGI losses for that year at $6.3 billion. 

    You get the picture. When Illinois loses a taxpayer, his income isn’t just lost for tax that year. It’s lost for every subsequent year, as well. 

    So when you carry the above exercise all the way through to 2022, it totals nearly $88 billion in AGI that the state couldn’t tax in 2022 because of all the cumulative losses. Subtract exemptions*, and it results in about $74 billion in net income. Multiply that by Illinois’ 4.95% flat tax and you get $3.6 billion in income tax revenues the state could have had in 2022 alone if Illinois had not bled residents for 23 years.

    The same tax-revenue-loss calculations can be done for all prior years.

    In all, Illinois has lost – counting every single year’s cumulative loss – $700 billion in AGI, that it could have taxed over the entire 2000-202 period. It’s one of the big reasons Illinois is in such a fiscal mess and why it has the worst credit rating of any state in the country.

    The positive impact of in-migration

    The opposite of what’s happened to Illinois is true for the nation’s big winner of people and their incomes: Florida. 

    Gains in people and income pile on top of each other each year, building an ever-growing tax base. In 2022 alone, the state’s tax base was some $272 billion higher compared to 2000 because of the state’s 23 straight years of net in-migration.

    And while the state of Florida doesn’t directly take advantage of that income because it doesn’t have an income tax, it’s understandable why the government is swimming in cash when you take into account all the other tax revenues – sales, gas, fees, etc. – that the state’s growing number of taxpayers pay.

    In all, Florida has gained– counting every single year’s cumulative gain – $2.14 trillion in AGI, that it could have taxed over the entire 2000-2022 period.

    Reversing the flow

    More than anything, Illinois’ lost revenues represent the fundamental crisis this state faces because of chronic out-migration. 

    Illinois is stuck in a vicious downward spiral it can’t hope to escape from without fundamentally changing how it governs.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 17:20

  • Supreme Court Decisions Have Restored Balance Between Public And Private Interests
    Supreme Court Decisions Have Restored Balance Between Public And Private Interests

    Authored by Richard Trzupek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A group of recent rulings by the Supreme Court have led some to speculate that SCOTUS has opened the path to anarchy within the justice system, particularly in those cases that involve environmental regulation. I don’t believe that chaos is imminent—far from it—and will endeavor to make the case that SCOTUS has been reasonable within a Constitutional context.

    The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, on May 12, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

    For simplicity’s sake, we’ll stick to the two most important decisions: Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (Loper Bright) and Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Corner Post).

    Loper Bright did away with the “Chevron Doctrine” that directed the judiciary to defer to public sector experts when confronted with difficult and/or seemingly ambiguous technicalities involving statutes and regulations. Corner Post moved the bar on the six-year statute of limitations that applies when a plaintiff asserts that a particular statute or regulation causes the plaintiff to suffer undue financial (or other) harm. The court held that the six-year window does not open when the statute or regulation is enacted or promulgated, but when the plaintiff first feels the effect of the onerous action.

    Taken together, one could—and many have—made the argument that Loper Bright opens the door for private sector plaintiffs to effectively push forward frivolous and downright harmful legal actions by employing legions of impressive, but entirely prejudiced, experts. The potential mass of such lawsuits could cripple the judicial system by clogging its otherwise efficient pipes. Corner Post then exacerbates the problem by allowing those in the private sector determined to do so within a far wider window of opportunity within which to dispute legislation and regulation.

    While I understand the arguments, I can’t agree with them in substance, or especially in tone. Loper Bright and Corner Post are not earth-shaking decisions that would score far over a “four” on the Richter Scale of American politics. They are rather gentle tremors that reflect a healthy, but not shocking, adjustment of the public versus private sector balance. My reasoning, based on 40 years of representing the private sector in interactions with the public sector, chiefly in matters involving environmental regulation:

    1. The number of companies and trade groups who have both the motivation and the resources to flood the system is as near zero as one could imagine. Industry is going to go to court only if they perceive that doing so will: (1) ultimately be substantially profitable, (2) the likelihood of winning is great, and (3) doing so would not generate a significant amount of bad PR. I don’t believe there are many federal regulations or policies that will meet all three criteria.
    2. Rules and policies that have resulted in large capital expenditures are unlikely to be targets for further action. That capital is sunk and, in most every instance, the operational and maintenance costs to run controls, run monitoring systems, manage records, etc. is negligible in the scheme of things.
    3. For most industries, it is the local permitting authority (state agency, district, county, or municipality) that has the biggest impact—by far—on the nature of the relationship between the regulators and the regulatory community. They are the day-to-day enforcement arm. They process the permit applications and set permit conditions. The Environmental Protection Agency’s primary role in the system is oversight, not operations.
    4. Finally, I continue to believe that the net effect of Loper Bright, Corner Post, et al., will be much more about negotiation than adjudication. I often work with environmental attorneys on enforcement actions directed against a particular industrial facility. There have been many times where I convinced both counsel and his client that the permitting authority had made substantial scientific errors in developing their allegations, but the attorney declined to use this knowledge. The Chevron Doctrine was like a storm cloud hanging over those decisions. With the sun once again shining equally on all sides, I believe that industry will be more emboldened to take on questionable permitting and enforcement actions going forward. Knowing that their experts no longer possess the gift of infallibility, permitting authorities may also be a bit more moved to stay longer at the bargaining before heading for court.

    In my view, Loper Bright, Corner Post, et al. have restored a bit more badly needed balance between public and private interests in America, and have done so in a manner consistent with the language and intent of our Constitution.

    These decisions do not represent a massive, dangerous sell-out to the private sector, nor are they an angry rebuke of the public sector and some of its policies. They rather represent what appears to be the Roberts court’s continuing effort to steer judicial accountability back toward the middle.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 17:00

  • Kamala Harris Receives Bipartisan Condemnation For Her Handling Of The Border
    Kamala Harris Receives Bipartisan Condemnation For Her Handling Of The Border

    Authored by Matt Margolis via PJ Media,

    In a stunning move on Thursday, the House of Representatives strongly condemned “the Biden Administration and its Border Czar, Kamala Harris’s, failure to secure the United States border” in a bipartisan vote.

    AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

    All Republicans supported the resolution, as did six Democrats: Reps. Yadira Caraveo (D-Colo.), Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Donald Davis (D-N.C.), Jared Golden (D-Maine), Mary Peltola (D-Alaska), and Mari Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.).

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    Their condemnation of their party’s presumptive presidential nominee represents a stark departure from the typical unity we see within the Democratic Party in Congress and underscores a growing discontent regarding the handling of immigration, which has become a key issue in the 2024 presidential race.

    The resolution detailed how President Biden appointed Harris as border czar in March 2021 to address the root causes of illegal immigration — something the mainstream media has been desperately trying to pretend never happened. 

    The resolution further explained how Harris took 93 days to visit the southern border and chose to visit El Paso, Texas, which is roughly 800 miles from the worst border crossing.  

    The text of the bill quoted former Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz, who said, “I’ve never had one conversation with the president [Biden] or the vice president [Harris], for that matter. I was the Chief of the Border Patrol, I commanded 21,000 people. That’s a problem.” It also cited current Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens, who also reported no direct communication with Harris since his appointment in July 2023.

    Since Biden and Harris took office, there have been over 9.7 million illegal immigrant encounters nationwide, with 7.9 million at the southern border and roughly 2 million gotaways who evaded Border Patrol. The resolution notes that May 2024 saw a 185% increase in illegal immigrant encounters compared to the average monthly totals under President Trump. This marked the 39th consecutive month where encounters were higher than any month during the Trump administration.

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    The resolution also detailed the migrant crime crises that the Biden-Harris administration’s border crisis has caused, including murders of Americans like Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungary, and Rachel Morin. It also mentioned national security threats, with the Biden administration reportedly releasing over 50 illegal immigrants with ties to ISIS and over 350 individuals on the terrorist watch list who authorities have stopped at the southern border. 

    Additionally, agents encountered a record-breaking 31,077 Communist Chinese nationals at the southwest border in fiscal year 2024. The resolution estimates that the border crisis is costing the U.S. approximately $150.7 billion annually, translating to $1,156 per taxpayer each year.

    The bill also criticized the Biden administration for ending former President Trump’s successful “Remain in Mexico” program in August 2022, attributing the historic border crisis to the administration’s far-left open border policies.

    The implications of the partisan nature of this resolution are huge. For one thing, it casts doubt on Harris’s leadership at a time when she’s attempting to define herself to the entire nation after taking the baton from Biden. The willingness of these Democrats to publicly condemn their party’s presumptive nominee underscores the significance of the border crisis as an issue in this election and as a key weakness of Kamala’s candidacy.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 07/25/2024 – 16:40

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