- Trump Derangement Syndrome Is Going To Get Worse
Trump Derangement Syndrome Is Going To Get Worse
Authored by Mark Bauerlein via The Epoch Times,
Never in my lifetime have so many people been so obsessed with one man.
People despised Nixon; they cheered or reviled Reagan, and they revered or dismissed Obama, but none of those responses comes close to the mania attached to Donald Trump. I mean the hate side, not the adoration. The former feeling and the cult it spawns dwarfs the latter. Liberals mock the idol worship they find among Trump’s supporters, but while Trumpists smile and cheer and vote for the man, liberals abhor him with a passion three times as fierce. It’s visceral, fanatical, knee-jerk. If nearly the entire psychology profession didn’t suffer from the condition to greater or lesser degrees, it would be a likely subject for diagnosis, particularly given the unself-conscious way in which the victims of Trump Derangement Syndrome act out their animus.
It doesn’t occur to the diseased ones to ask why they can’t get the Orange-Haired Man out of their heads. They hate him; they loathe him; they fear him . . . We get it nonstop; we hear them; they can’t stop saying so. But the expression doesn’t bring them any relief—not that we can see. Their exasperation only grows and sputters. Voicing what one feels deep inside is supposed to ease the feeling, to externalize it and let the anger, love, bitterness, joy, etc. flow, not be dammed up within. One of Freud’s patients called it “the Talking Cure,” when he asked her to speak, just speak of anything that pops into her mind, and she and other patients found that they did feel a little better once the session concluded.
But those with TDS don’t. He lingers in their heads. Like a bad penny, he won’t go away. Nothing that has happened has “disappeared” him. Jeb Bush couldn’t beat him, nor could Hillary, the Mueller Team, Avenatti and Stormy, Vindman and House Democrats, or The Washington Post, NPR, and MSNBC. Not even the 2020 defeat, January 6th, and Liz Cheney’s hearings have removed him from the body politic. If anything, the Mar-a-Lago raid will only ensure his continuance. Martyrs have sticking power. The prospect of Trump 2024 appears ever more likely, and if the inconceivable happened once (November 2016), it can happen again.
If Trumpist candidates for Congress do well in the midterms, the agony will only intensify. The media’s reaction as the results of that dark day six years ago unfolded was shock and incredulity. This time, if Republicans take the House and lots of Trumpy types prevail, we will see a different reaction. Liberal elites now know that “it can happen here,” which leads them past incredulity and toward resolve.
He must be stopped! He and his enablers are demons, cretins, bigots, and monsters. They are not fellow citizens and ordinary Americans. They are something else—odd, frightening, unenlightened, vandals, and barbarians. I have seen liberals of sterling egalitarian profile speak of the ones who go to Trump rallies in terms one usually reserves for bugs in the woodwork. Now, in 2022, liberals and progressives and Never Trumpers believe they have tolerated these dunces and villains long enough. They’re out of patience. No more generosity, no more pluralism.
Hence, it’s OK with them to withhold from Trump the rights of free speech, due process, innocence-until-proven-guilty. It is downright extraordinary to see how liberals have flipped on principle now that Trump and his backers have persisted. The intelligence agencies liberals used to suspect and decry earn liberal praise when they target the ex-president. Traditional liberal sympathy with the working class dissipates when Trump wins the lion’s share of that voting bloc. Liberals flatter themselves as cosmopolitical and nonjudgmental, able to mingle with diverse others, jumping from culture to subculture with relaxed facility. But put them amidst a group of MAGA souls and the blood pressure rises—they can’t converse, and any escape route will do.
It would be laughable if not for the power of the cancel. Irrationality rightly gets shuttled off for professional help, but when college students stomp into their president’s office irate at an essay a professor wrote against woke activism, and the president bows and commiserates, the tantrum worked. When a corporate chain bends to a few Twitter posts demanding that produce be withdrawn from its shelves because it’s offensive to the posters, the spirit of the First Amendment is broken.
Donald Trump is the ultimate rationale for this abandonment of American tolerance. Liberals have made him into the embodiment of all the social evils of racism, nativism, etc. He’s done them a favor, offering them a concrete focus for resentments and worries otherwise hazy and fluctuating. Anxiety lessens when it can find an object. It wants to attach to something, and the attachment eases the uncertainty. Trump gives them psychological relief even as they huff and puff at the sound of his voice.
Which means that liberals don’t want to give him up. Every day we watch the obsession continue, the conversation eventually turning to Orange-Man-Bad whether the topic be Biden, Russia, gas prices, or COVID. No person, no thing, and no event in living memory has so unified and mobilized liberals and their institutions—not even 9/11. That attack 21 years ago produced ample debate and divisions on both sides—on the right and the left (for example, Bush conservatives vs. Pat Buchanan conservatives). This time, however, with Trump, there is no debate on the left, no dissenting voices. In their eyes, he is beyond discussion, outside the world of ideas and policy. The Overton Window doesn’t include him. To witness him still in the public sphere, drawing crowds to his rallies and endorsing candidates who proceed to win, is infuriating. They love to hate him, but the hate nonetheless takes a toll on their hearts. They know they’re being illiberal, and so they have to cast him as a demon to justify it.
Don’t expect liberals to resolve this dilemma before November. The pain will only get worse—especially if Trump candidates poll well. Smart populist conservatives such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis aggravate the problem. He spotlights liberal illiberalism and moves forward to squelch it. His popularity, along with Trump’s, widens the public square to include them both, which means that liberals must address them as a political force, not a demonic one. I just read a Tweet from former-Clinton cabinet member Robert Reich calling DeSantis a fascist, but the charge has no force. Liberal outrage is spent. The rabid indignation gets chuckles from everyone except the True Believers, the ones who cling to their outrage as a psychological crutch. That will bring on more manic behavior, more delusion on the left. Be ready for it.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 23:55 - Billion Dollar "Ice Bust" Largest In Australian History As Meth Crisis Worsens
Billion Dollar “Ice Bust” Largest In Australian History As Meth Crisis Worsens
Australian police found a record 1.8 metric tons (2 tons) of methamphetamine concealed inside marble slabs from the Middle East in the country’s largest seizure of illicit drugs.
New South Wales Police said three men aged 24, 26, and 34 — have been arrested and charged in connection with 748 kilograms (1,649 pounds) of meth that arrived at Port Botany (a suburb in south-eastern Sydney) in 24 sea containers earlier this month.
Another 1,060 kilograms (2,337 pounds) of meth encased in marble stone arrived in 19 containers at the same port last week. The drugs were all shipped from the United Arab Emirates.
Police said in total, 1,800 kilograms (4,000 pounds) of meth were seized with an estimated street value of approximately 1.6 billion AUD ($1.1 billion). They said this was the “largest detection of the drug” ever to be seized as part of ongoing investigations by the Drug and Firearms Squad.
Police Detective Chief Supt. John Watson said this criminal drug organization “was extremely well connected in several corners of the globe.”
“The fact that we have seized a further tonne – potentially ten million street deals – of this insidious drug just shows how little regard these types of groups have for the wellbeing of the community.
“Combined with the seizure from earlier this month, NSW Police and ABF officers have stopped more than 1.8 tonnes of ‘ice’ at the border – this is now the largest’ ice’ bust in Australian history.
“It’s once again proof that through the collaboration of all our partner law enforcement agencies, we will continue to stop this dangerous drug from hitting our streets,” Watson said.
Australian Border Force Assistant Commissioner Erin Dale said, “the audacity of these individuals to think they could import such vast quantities of harmful drugs into Australia is astounding … this is the largest seizure of meth at the Australian border and therefore a massive blow to organized criminals.”
Australia’s previous record meth bust was 1.6 metric tons (1.8 tons) in Melbourne from Bangkok in April 2019.
Meth is a huge issue in the land Down Under. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s (ACIC) most recent report found meth consumption in the country was the highest per capita compared with countries in Europe, Asia, and Oceania.
ACIC determined Perth, the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia, has the most meth use among rural Australians.
While alcohol and nicotine are the most popular substances, meth is Australia’s most popular illicit drug.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 23:30 - CIA Paying Agents Who Suffer From A Likely Fake Illness
CIA Paying Agents Who Suffer From A Likely Fake Illness
Authored by Kyle Anzalone via The Libertarian Institute,
America’s spy agency is making compensation payments to agents who claim they suffer from “Havana Syndrome.” The alleged condition was first reported by government employees in Cuba who reported suffering various symptoms, including dizziness, headaches and memory loss.
The New York Times reports that “About a dozen people suffering from debilitating symptoms that have become known as Havana syndrome have either received the payments or been approved to receive them, the people familiar with the program said.”
US Embassy in Havana, AFP via Getty Images file “Several of the recipients are former C.I.A. officers who were injured while serving in Havana in 2016 and 2017,” the Times detailed further. “However, payments are also being processed for current and former officers whose injuries occurred elsewhere.”
The CIA has studied over 1,000 potential cases of the mysterious ailment and has been unable to prove it exists.
Havana Syndrome was brought into the spotlight during the early Trump administration. In 2017, US officials stationed in Havana reported a vague set of symptoms. The White House responded by rolling back President Barak Obama’s policy of normalizing the US relationship with Cuba.
At the time, people who asserted they were suffering from Havana Syndrome claimed it was caused by a foreign power using sonic or microwave weapons. The official recorded the sound generated by the alleged weapon, which was later determined to be crickets.
Multiple government agencies have examined 1,000 cases of people claiming to be Havana Syndrome victims. Natural causes have explained nearly all cases; many of the people were experiencing psychosomatic symptoms. There are a few cases where an alternative cause that cannot explain the symptoms.
The CIA has begun compensating employees for Havana Syndrome, which CIA Director William Burns acknowledges is not real “in the majority of incidents” https://t.co/oL8eie49Bs
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) August 26, 2022
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A few dozen people who work for the CIA and have unexplained symptoms are now receiving compensation payments. Congress authorized the funds through the HAVANA Act, which was signed into law last October.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 23:05 - Uranium: The Fuel For Clean Energy
Uranium: The Fuel For Clean Energy
Global demand for electricity is set to grow around 50% by 2040.
As the only energy source of low-carbon, scalable, reliable, and affordable electricity, nuclear is set to play a prominent role in meeting this growing demand while satisfying decarbonization objectives globally.
In this infographic from Skyharbour Resources, Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti and Sabrina Fortin take a closer look at how uranium is shaping the future of energy.
Nuclear Power to Backstop Clean Energy Transition
Nuclear is considered an important source of clean energy, being the second largest source of low-carbon electricity in the world behind hydropower.
Nuclear power plants produce no greenhouse gas emissions during operation, and over the course of their life cycle, they produce about the same amount of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions per unit of electricity as wind, and one-third of the emissions per unit of electricity when compared with solar.
Nuclear fuel is extremely dense and generates minimal waste. All of the used nuclear fuel produced by the U.S. over the last 60 years could fit on a football field at a depth of fewer than 10 yards.
To power up reactors, uranium demand is expected to rise ∼160% over the next decades.
Several countries are going nuclear in a bid to reduce reliance on fossil fuels while building reliable energy grids. Not many, however, have uranium deposits that are economically recoverable.
Canada has the world’s largest deposits of high-grade uranium with grades of up to 20% uranium.
The Highest-Grade Uranium Deposits in the World
Canada’s Athabasca Basin region in Saskatchewan and Alberta has the highest-grade uranium deposits in the world, with grades that are 10 to 100 times greater than the average grade of deposits elsewhere.
Uranium was first discovered in the Athabasca Basin in 1934, and today the region remains a major hot spot for uranium exploration.
Besides hosting the richest uranium grades in the world, the region is a top-tier mining jurisdiction, with the best practices for environmental protection.
In recent years, a number of junior uranium companies have made exciting new discoveries in the basin, with Skyharbour Resources among them. The company holds an extensive portfolio of fifteen uranium exploration projects, ten of which are drill-ready, covering 450,000 hectares of mineral claims.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 22:40 - Why Fathers Are Essential To Educating Children
Why Fathers Are Essential To Educating Children
Authored by Noah Wall via RealClear Education (emphasis ours),
In recent years, America has seen parents fighting back against the indoctrination of their children in public schools. School board members have been ousted from their positions, and bills combating the influence of political ideology in classrooms have been signed into law. Teachers’ unions longstanding monopolization of education policy looks like it could finally be coming to an end. With the midterms approaching, the parental-choice movement has reason to feel encouraged.
But raising our voices and electing the right leaders are only parts of the solution. Contrary to what many on the Left claim, parents must play a central role in educating our children. The recent progress we’ve witnessed is the start of a movement not only to keep political ideology out of classrooms but also to increase parental involvement in the education of the next generation. Mothers and fathers must lead this effort.
It is not uncommon for fathers to feel like they don’t have a defined role to play in the education of their children. Even when fathers are involved, they often play second fiddle to mothers when it comes to many aspects of parenting, especially education. After all, if we look around at the parent-led education reform groups that exist today, we are more likely to see a mother- or mother-grandmother-led coalition than we are to see a father- or grandfather-father-led group. This needs to change.
We must encourage fathers not only to get involved but also to become leaders in their children’s lives when it comes to education. In an age when kids face so much pressure to embrace radical and destructive ideologies, fully engaged fathers can act as a bulwark against these ideas.
Though progress has been made in some states to end the brainwashing that too often happens in classrooms, the fight is only beginning. Plentiful reports have emerged about lessons in schools trashing masculinity as “toxic” and shaming boys for being beneficiaries of “the patriarchy.” Does anyone – other than radicalized educators – believe this is what our kids should be taught?
If fathers do not involve themselves in educating their children, nothing will prevent these kids from believing the falsehoods they might be exposed to in the classroom. We cannot allow these lies to take root in the minds of our children. They particularly hurt young men, who will be less likely to become fathers or stay present in their children’s lives as a result. This cycle will only continue if fathers and grandfathers don’t make it their business to stop it.
To break this cycle, we must make a concerted effort to encourage fathers to participate in the education of kids. For too long, the Left’s cultural dominance has undermined the role of fathers in the lives of our children. But even many advocates for parental involvement in education haven’t sufficiently emphasized fathers’ importance.
Fathers must help instill the values in their children that will guide them throughout life. If we fail to do this, our kids will be molded instead by the bureaucrats who continue to exercise control over the education system. Do the same people who closed schools for two years really care about what’s best for our kids?
Now more than ever, it is time for fathers to step up and become advocates for parental involvement in education. Fathers must be the protectors our kids deserve, and this starts by shielding them from the pernicious influence of political ideology in the classroom. Though it is remarkable to see the success of the parental-choice movement in recent years, we cannot become complacent when there is so much work left to do. That work will be much easier and more effective if fathers pick up the mantle and help lead the way.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 22:15 - German Beastiality Buffs Demand Legalization Of Sex With Animals
German Beastiality Buffs Demand Legalization Of Sex With Animals
Germans beastialitists are protesting to eliminate the country’s animal protection law – which forbids having any sexual relations between humans and animals.
To that end, Bavarian zoophiles held a public demonstration demanding recognition in a ‘Zoophilia Pride March.”
Zoophilia pride march in Germany pic.twitter.com/xrzSnDob3R
— samirah (@SameeraKhan) August 16, 2022
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One of the protesters told Russia’s state-owned Ruptly that it’s possible to form a loving sexual relationship with animals – in fact, “it is much easier to build a relationship with animals than humans,” said the man who brought his dog.
Bruh. Look at the dog’s face. https://t.co/RijvublpWx
— Wilfred Reilly (@wil_da_beast630) August 17, 2022
Germany’s animal protection law prohibits any sex acts with animals, or supplying animals to those who wish to bury the bone in fido (or vice versa). Offenders face a stiff penalty of 25,000 euros (US$24,910).
Meanwhile in Australia, the upcoming “Festival of Dangerous Ideas” will host professor Joanna Burke, who will discuss the ethics of “humans loving animals,” according to The American Conservative.
As the Daily Mail notes:
The historian plans to present a modern history of sex between humans and animals and will invite audience members to look at the ‘changing meanings’ of bestiality and zoophilia and the ethics of ‘animal loving’.
‘It is only in very recent years that some people have begun to undermine the absolute prohibition on zoosexuality,’ the speaker is quoted on the website. ‘Are their arguments dangerous, perverted or simply wrongheaded?’
Outraged Australians took to social media to lash festival organisers for allowing a presentation they argued was intellectualising animal abuse.
‘Intellectualising about the abuse of animals isn’t edgy or cool. It IS abhorrent and anyone who attends this event is an immoral c***,’ another said.
Others took to Twitter to share their thoughts with the author and event organisers.
‘This is not about ‘loving animals.’ If you’re going to be heinous at least be honest. This is about abusing animals. Shame on anyone involved in this session,’ one said.
‘They are conflating having sex with animals with loving them. The first is not only unethical it is illegal,’ they tweeted.
Remember folks, woof means woof…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 21:50 - Trump-McConnell Spat Distracting From GOP's Work To Defeat Democrats In Midterms, Strategists Say
Trump-McConnell Spat Distracting From GOP’s Work To Defeat Democrats In Midterms, Strategists Say
Authored by Michael Washburn via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The swift escalation of the feud between former President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) does not help inspire candidates or rally GOP voters in closely watched midterm races in swing states, some political strategists and analysts have told The Epoch Times. The Republican Party infighting may ultimately lead to more disappointing results in the midterms than have been predicted in recent months, unless party leaders can unite on the issues that the electorate cares about most to galvanize voters, they say.
This combination of pictures created on Feb. 16, 2021, shows then U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 27, 2020, and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Capitol Hill on Feb. 5, 2020. (Saul Loeb, Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) Over the weekend, the former president and expected 2024 candidate sent out a fiery post on Truth Social, in which he called McConnell “a broken down hack politician” and denounced the senator’s perceived tendency “to openly disparage hard working Republican candidates for the United States Senate.”
“This is an affront to honor and to leadership,” Trump wrote, adding that McConnell “should spend more time (and money) helping them get elected” and less time helping his wife and family get “rich on China!”
McConnell’s wife is Elaine Chao, who served as Secretary of Transportation during the Trump administration. Trump’s post was in response to McConnell having cast doubt on the quality of Republican candidates in the primaries that have taken place in recent weeks and in the ongoing midterm races. On Aug. 17, McConnell said, in the course of remarks at a luncheon in Kentucky, “I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different—they’re statewide, quality has a lot to do with the outcome.”
McConnell went on to comment on what he sees as the likely razor-thin margins of victory for either side in November.
“Right now, we have a 50-50 Senate and a 50-50 country, but I think, when all is said and done this fall, we’re likely to have an extremely close Senate, either our side up slightly or their side up slightly.”
Trump may have been particularly sensitive to such comments given the close attention given to Senate races where insurgent candidates he has endorsed are competing against Democrats, such as in Pennsylvania, where TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz is running against Democratic candidate John Fetterman for the seat vacated by Republican Sen. Pat Toomey; Ohio, where author and personality J.D. Vance seeks to defeat the Democratic nominee Rep. Tim Ryan; Arizona, where venture capitalist Blake Masters seeks to oust incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly; and Georgia, where former football star Hershel Walker (also endorsed by McConnell) is running against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock.
Some of the GOP candidates are not doing nearly as well as hoped, according to recent polling. In Pennsylvania, a Trafalgar Group poll on Aug. 22 found Oz trailing Fetterman by nearly five points. In the Arizona race, the incumbent, Kelly, enjoys a nearly nine-point lead over Trump-endorsed Masters, according to FiveThirtyEight polling.
An Unneeded Distraction
The quarrel between Trump and McConnell is not only unnecessary, since the two politicians agree on more than they disagree on and both want to help defeat Democrats, but is also an increasing distraction from the issues of concern to ordinary voters. Public discontent with the Biden administration’s handling of economic and social matters could provide the groundwork for broad GOP victories in the absence of such a distraction, the analysts say.
“I think voters are more concerned about issues like inflation, immigration, and crime, they’re not sitting there saying ‘Oh my gosh, Donald Trump is disparaging Mitch McConnell’s wife,’” John Feehery, a strategist, commentator, and former press secretary to Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), told The Epoch Times.
Feehery finds it particularly ironic that, after having appointed Chao to a top cabinet position in 2017, Trump should single her out for criticism on the grounds of her involvement with her family’s business, Foremost Group, which has received financial support from Chinese state-run entities. Chao resigned her post five days after the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
“It’s ironic that he’s disparaging McConnell’s wife, because she worked for Trump for four years. If he had known that McConnell’s wife is so involved in this stuff, why did he have her in his employ for so long?” Feehery asked.
More importantly, Trump’s criticisms of McConnell are needlessly divisive and undermine the efforts that McConnell is making to help candidates in swing states where results may be extremely close, Feehery believes. Feehery contrasted the financial backing that McConnell has provided to candidates with the more symbolic support of an endorsement.
“Frankly, McConnell is spending time and resources to get Senate candidates elected. It’s not clear to me where Trump’s money is going. He’s clearly making bets, but is he making large financial investments? He’s giving his good name to these candidates and that means something, there’s no doubt about that. But McConnell is buying in, his Super PAC is going in, in a big way,” Feehery continued.
Economy Above All
From the candidates’ point of view, the most practical thing is not to take sides with either Trump or McConnell in their current tiff but to present themselves as unifiers—at least within the GOP—willing and able to take on the policies of the Biden administration on the issues of concern to the average voter, Feehery believes.
“I think it’s never a good thing when Republicans are fighting with one another. There also seems to be a spat going on between McConnell and Rick Scott,” the Florida senator, Feehery said.
Such disunity can deprive candidates on the ground of votes they badly need and may even contribute to a scenario where disaffected Republican leaders are actively helping the other side.
“You do have that. Liz Cheney and the Never Trump people, they’ve been trying to get people to vote against Republicans. She said terrible things against Josh Hawley, and said she couldn’t support Ted Cruz. She seems like someone who’d burn the party down on her way out,” Feehery said, alluding to Cheney’s recent remarks in which she said it would be “very difficult” for her to support Hawley or Cruz after they questioned the integrity of the 2020 election results.
The infighting does not help Republican candidates who want to portray themselves as in a strong position to fix an economy derailed by President Joe Biden, Feehery believes.
“I think the best thing these candidates can do is to keep their focus on Biden. The one thing that unites the party is Biden’s dismal performance,” he said.
Struggling Campaigns
Other observers and strategists echo the view that Republican candidates should keep their focus on Biden’s Achilles heel, namely inflation. Straying from the critical issues has been a tactical and logistical mistake, they argue.
“The Republicans are united in their criticisms of President Biden and the direction in which the Democrats want to take the country. Clearly, what they ought to do is circle the wagons and do the best they can” on economic issues, D. Stephen Voss, a professor in the political science department at the University of Kentucky, told The Epoch Times.
Given the widely criticized missteps of the Biden administration, and its association in the public mind with record inflation, the Senate races should not be as competitive as they are, Voss believes.
“Not only have Trump’s attacks on other Republicans weakened the unity of the Republican Party, but the party’s organizations have had to spend massive amounts of election money in the primaries trying to hold off fairly weak candidates so that they could retake the senate,” Voss said.
“So already, this clash between the Trump movement and the Republican establishment has hurt the party’s resources by causing campaign resources to dwindle,” he added.
The infighting and a potential backlash against Trump could have bad practical consequences on the field, including disappointing results for Trump-endorsed candidates in swing states at a time when control of the Senate hangs in the balance, Voss believes.
“The race everyone’s talking about now is Pennsylvania, where Dr. Oz received the nomination but now his campaign might end up costing the GOP a Senate seat that should have been theirs. We’re seeing how badly Oz is starting to trail in the polls. Oz is underperforming and may not get that seat,” he added.
A similar phenomenon is at work in Ohio, where J.D. Vance currently looks weaker than an insurgent GOP Senate candidate in the state should look at this juncture, Voss said.
Other examples abound. Normally, a popular GOP Senate candidate in Georgia would be doing quite well in the polls, given the political composition of the Georgia electorate and given how opposition parties historically have performed during midterms. But Voss called the Georgia race “one of McConnell’s headaches.” Voss also pointed to the Arizona Senate race, where Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly may end up handily defeating the GOP insurgent in what should have been a much more competitive race.
Again, the possible results run counter to trusted historical models going back to the presidency of John F. Kennedy, Jr.
“The party that holds the White House has not gained more than two Senate seats since JFK, yet the forecast now suggests that the Democrats could gain two or more seats. Prospects for the Republicans taking the Senate are poor, despite the fact that the president is unpopular,” Voss said.
“You can’t blame Trump for this. Having unexpected candidacies has hurt the Republican Party, but so has the ruling on abortion, which has whipped up Democrat voters,” he added.
David Carlucci, a former New York State senator who now works as a political commentator, also believes that the disunity is hurting the Republican candidates, and that the divides may grow as some who received Trump’s support during the primary races may now seek to identify more closely with McConnell.
“Historically, the minority party, or the party opposing the president, does well in the midterms. And with all the criticism that the Democrats are getting, the Senate Republicans should be doing a lot better. But because they’ve endorsed these subpar candidates, things like this are eating away at the candidacies and giving Democrats a much better chance than they had before. McConnell was fun and easy to attack in the primary, but now they’re going to be sprinting to him,” Carlucci said.
McConnell Lowering Expectations
Keith Naughton, president of Silent Majority Strategies, a consultancy based in Germantown, Maryland, concurs about the political costs of the lack of Republican unity.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 21:25 - China Launches Giant Cloud-Seeding Drones To Combat Record Drought
China Launches Giant Cloud-Seeding Drones To Combat Record Drought
With China’s water supply rapidly deteriorating to catastrophic levels – something which could have profound effects on the global food, energy and materials markets – officials in the southwestern province of Sichuan have deployed two giant cloud-seeding drones in the hopes of turning around a dire situation which is now affecting hydropower production.
The Wing Loong-2H UAVs are deploying silver iodide flame bars during four-hour flights to create “artificial rain.”
The move comes as almost half the country is suffering from a record heatwave, according to its National Climate Center – has has affected Sichuan province’s ability to deliver hydropower to cities like Jiangsu and Shanghi, located more than 1,000 miles away, Insider reports.
To improve the situation, the two drones deployed on Thursday will eventually cover an area in Sichuan spanning 2,317 square miles, according to state-owned CCTV. The cloud seeding operation will be carried out until Monday.
Communist Party-owned People’s Daily also reported the news.
China on Thursday used its self-developed Wing Loong-2H UAV to assist fight against drought in SW China’s Sichuan. The drone ignited 20 silver iodide flame bars during its 4-hour flight to create “artificial rain” for the drought-hit region. pic.twitter.com/BhMkuWm0GW
— People’s Daily, China (@PDChina) August 26, 2022
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Since the beginning of the month, hydropower plants in Sichuan have been forced to operate below 50% of normal capacity, leading to power cuts in the province and forcing companies like Toyota and Apple supplier Foxconn to suspend operations, according to Caixin news.
In some instances, groundwater levels have gotten so low that underground aquifers have collapsed – triggering a phenomenon called Land Subsidence, which can cause the ground to cave in over large areas, which in some case renders the aquifer unusable in the future.
The drought has also damaged crops and threatened the fall harvest, forcing China to compete for exports in an already-inflated market. As we noted earlier this week, 60% of China’s wheat, 45% of its corn, 35% of its cotton and 64% of its peanuts come from the at-risk North China Plain – where, in the example of wheat, their annual production of more than 80 million tons is on par with Russia’s annual output, while their 125 million tons of corn is nearly 3x Ukraine’s prewar production.
In order to sustain these harvests, water is being pumped to farms faster than nature can replenish it. According to satellite data, between 2003 and 2010, Northern China lost as much groundwater as Beijing consumes annually – leaving farmers struggling to find new sources.
“In order to sustain these harvests, water is being pumped to farms faster than nature can replenish it. According to satellite data, between 2003 and 2010, Northern China lost as much groundwater as Beijing consumes annually – leaving farmers struggling to find new sources.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 21:00 - The New Peer-Review: Why 'Unbiased' Science Is Now Often Misleading
The New Peer-Review: Why ‘Unbiased’ Science Is Now Often Misleading
Authored by Jennifer Margulis and Joe Wang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Peer-reviewed scientific publishing works like this: a scientist or a science team have a scientific question, they come together to design and conduct an experiment to try to answer that question. The experiment may take months, years, or even decades. Once the scientists have collected and analyzed the experiment’s results, they write up their findings, and draw conclusions based on the already accepted knowledge in the field, their new discovery, and their educated speculations of what is yet to be known. Then they send their article to scientific journals within their field of study.
(JNT Visual/Shutterstock*) When a journal editor receives the article, the editor reads it carefully and either rejects it or sends it out to other known experts in the field, who were not involved with the study, to review the findings and the write-up. Once these experts weigh in, the editor then makes the decision about whether to reject the paper or to accept it, in most cases, with notes for the authors to revise their submission.
Peer-reviewers will often ask the researchers insightful questions or query parts of the findings in the paper. These queries help the researchers refine their ideas, review their findings, and double check that their data, and their analyses, are correct.
This sometimes quite lengthy peer-review process is to ensure that journals publish scientific articles that make a real contribution to our understanding to the field, whether it’s chemistry, biology, physics, social science, or any other subject.
2.6 Million Studies a Year
On the order of 2.6 million scientific studies are published every year, according to the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. Given the explosion in published science—today there may be as many as 30,000 peer-reviewed journals providing scientists an outlet for their findings—it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between good science and bad science.
Good science is work that has a high level of integrity and transparency, is conducted in an unbiased way, and leads to findings that can be replicated by other scientists.
Bad science is often ego-driven or industry-sponsored: published not for the good of advancing knowledge or helping people, but to mislead the public, often for financial gain. For-profit industries have and continue to use bad science to convince consumers to buy their products.
Junk Science
Recent history shows how “junk science” can have negative repercussions that harm human and planetary health.
- In 1948 a husband-wife team at Harvard University, Olive Watkins Smith and George Van Siclen Smith, published an article that asserted that a synthetic hormone diethylstilbestrol (DES) not only prevented miscarriage but also made a normal pregnancy “more normal.” Drug manufacturers copied and distributed the Smiths’ study to thousands of medical doctors to encourage them to prescribe DES. The Harvard research was shoddy at best: they used a sample size of pregnant women that was too small to draw statistically significant conclusions and had no control group. The Smiths also failed to disclose that their research was funded by the drug industry. Largely based on this junk science, an estimated 5 to 10 million pregnant women in America took DES. Yet DES was neither helpful nor benign. It caused miscarriages and an aggressive hormone-induced reproductive cancer in teens whose moms had taken it. DES was banned for use in pregnancy in 1971.
- Starting in the 1950s the tobacco industry began a sophisticated public relations campaign to counteract the peer-reviewed science that showed that smoking was harmful to human health. Though it was known by 1953 that smoking caused lung cancer, industry-sponsored science so effectively muddied the scientific waters that the connection was not acknowledged by public health authorities until the early 1990s.
- In the 1990s, when biologist Tyrone Hayes found out that a common pesticide, atrazine, was so endocrine-disrupting that it turned male frogs into females, Syngenta, the company that makes the pesticide, did everything it could to keep this information from the public. Two class-action lawsuits revealed that Syngenta had the goal of publicly discrediting the scientist’s reputation in order to make environmentalists question the validity of his research. Publishing poorly designed studies that could not be replicated was an effective strategy to keep the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating their $14 billion a year pesticide and seed sales. In 2014, as reported by The New Yorker, Syngenta was giving research money to 400 academic institutions around the world.
‘Sneer-Review’
The research that scientists publish affects their job prospects, livelihood, reputation, and even friendships. Given the explosion of scientific publications, it is easy to see how the peer-review process can go awry.
The Epoch Times spoke with a professor who spent more than 25 years in a top 10 medical school. This scientist did not want to be named for fear of reprisals.
“I call it sneer review,” the scientist said. “There is tremendous bias. Reviewers ignore data that doesn’t fit with what they already believe.”
The scientist said that certain fields have fewer problems with special interests than others, and certain topics—including the safety of modern medicine and, especially, the safety of vaccines—tend to push ideological buttons.
“The idea in science should be that we just push towards finding out the answer. We have a hypothesis, we ask questions, we test the hypotheses, we collect more data,” this scientist said. “That’s how we move forward. But when it gets polarized, the sneer-review phenomenon starts to happen. Then it becomes a more ideological confrontation.”
“People will try to publish total nonsense for ideological reasons,” the scientist added.
When Ideology Drives Decisions
When peer-reviewed studies have the potential to harm multi-billion-dollar industries, they often get retracted, several scientists told The Epoch Times.
“Follow the silenced science,” said Dr. James Lyons-Weiler, CEO and Director of the Institute for Pure and Applied Knowledge (IPAK). Lyons-Weiler has published more than 50 peer-reviewed studies on a variety of topics. He recently had a controversial study retracted.
It is especially difficult to publish research that calls vaccine safety into question in the first place, Lyons-Weiler said, and these studies are often summarily retracted by controversy-adverse editors.
“They tend to be retracted after critique by anonymous critics,” Lyons-Weiler said. “This is a problematic new development. The journals are retracting based on criticism from anonymous reviewers, instead of publishing the critique and allowing the authors to rebut. That means the critics’ comments are not peer-reviewed.”
The retraction may happen a week after the science is published, or more than 10 years.
Canceling Critics, a Technique to Silence Science
A Danish medical doctor who worked for the pharmaceutical industry for almost a decade, Peter Gøtzsche saw firsthand how his bosses would manipulate data that did not fit their industry agenda. Largely as a result of that frustration, Gøtzsche co-founded the Cochrane Collaboration, a non-profit initiative with an explicit goal to keep bias out of science.
For years the Cochrane Collaboration was considered the gold standard of unbiased information and Gøtzsche, who himself published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and eight books, hailed as a crusader for scientific integrity.
In September of 2018, however, Gøtzsche was voted off Cochrane’s board (six in favor, five opposed, one abstention). This move led four board members to resign in protest. He was also fired from his position as director of the Nordic Cochrane Center and suspended from the hospital where he worked.
Gøtzsche told journalist and documentary filmmaker Bert Ehgartner that he believed his dismissal was because he and two co-authors criticized a Cochrane review that found “high-certainty evidence” that a vaccine against human papilloma virus (HPV) protected women and girls from cervical precancer. Gøtzsche critiqued the review, pointing out that Cochrane had excluded almost half the trials and ignored glaring safety signals about the vaccine.
A hero of scientific integrity to many, Gøtzsche is now being ostracized by his colleagues and characterized as “an industry scold.”
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 20:35 - "Eliminate Dead Zones": Elon Musk Partners With T-Mobile For New Satellite-To-Cell-Service
“Eliminate Dead Zones”: Elon Musk Partners With T-Mobile For New Satellite-To-Cell-Service
Elon Musk’s SpaceX teamed up with T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert to beam cell service via Starlink satellites to “most places in the US,” including more than half a million square miles of dead zone areas that aren’t covered by cellular networks.
The two companies would create a new mobile network to broadcast T-Mobile’s existing mid-band spectrum via Starlink satellites to anywhere in the continental US, Hawaii, parts of Alaska, and Puerto Rico.
SpaceX and T-Mobile wrote in a press release that the new network would “provide near complete coverage in most places in the US — even in many of the most remote locations previously unreachable by traditional cell signals.”
Musk tweeted that the new service, launching in 2023, will “eliminate dead zones worldwide.”
Starlink V2, launching next year, will transmit direct to mobile phones, eliminating dead zones worldwide
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 26, 2022
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Bloomberg explained how the new satellite-to-cellular service would work through powerful antennas attached to upgraded Starlink satellites:
The new network will be accessible thanks to large, powerful antennas attached to Starlink satellites. Musk said each antenna would measure some 25 square meters (269 square feet) and be “extremely advanced because they’ve got to pick up a very quiet signal from your cell phone and then be caught by a satellite that’s traveling 17,000 miles an hour.” The T-Mobile service will run in a similar way to data roaming, where a user’s mobile will scan for service and if it finds none it will connect to the satellite.
Musk, at an unveiling event at SpaceX’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, along with T-Mobile Sievert, on Thursday evening, gave an “open invitation to carriers around the world” about adding the new service.
Bloomberg noted that most smartphones are already equipped with technology to beam a signal to space so that additional equipment won’t be required.
But there are limitations, and the main issue is bandwidth, as Bloomberg pointed out:
The main issue is bandwidth, which will at first limit the service to text messaging. The coverage area will be divided into large cell zones, with each zone’s connectivity limited to around 2-4 MBs. Musk said that would allow for some 1,000-2,000 voice calls per cell, or millions of text messages, but the service would not provide a substitute for ground cell stations.
“This is really meant to provide basic coverage to areas that are currently completely dead,” Musk said, adding there could initially be a delay of “half an hour, maybe worse” for messages to pass through the system.
Testing for the new satellite-to-cellular service is expected later this year after SpaceX launches the new satellites into low Earth orbit.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 20:10 - Here's California Flooring It To The 'Clean' Energy Future… With Its Transmission Slipping Badly
Here’s California Flooring It To The ‘Clean’ Energy Future… With Its Transmission Slipping Badly
Authored by Steve Miller via RealClearInvestigations,
California’s precariously out-of-date hybrid power grid can’t handle the state’s growing amounts of solar and wind energy coming online, with system managers already forcing repeated cutbacks in renewables and a continued reliance on conventional energy to keep the grid stable, according to state data.
Taras Makarenko The shortcomings of the transmission grid, which energy consultants in this bellwether state have warned about for years, raise the prospect that marquee products of the growing battery economy such as electric vehicles – “emission free” on the road – will be recharged mainly from traditional electricity-generating power plants: energy from fossil fuels, some of it from out of state.
Writ large, the transmission problem threatens the zero-carbon future envisioned by green advocates nationwide. “We’re headed toward duplicate systems whose only benefit is to permit the occasional use of ‘clean power,’” said Grant Ellis, an independent electrical engineering consultant in Texas.
California, along with the rest of the desert Southwest, is adding solar and wind installations at a rapid pace. The state is projected to add four gigawatts of utility-scale solar energy this year alone, enough to power 2.8 million homes. The question is whether that’s going to be enough.
So-called “curtailments” of renewable power have become much more frequent for the state’s blackout-prone power grid because the state hasn’t constructed enough transmission lines, transformers, poles, and other infrastructure to keep up. The amount of renewable energy curtailed in California tripled between 2018 and 2021, according to operator statistics.
Curtailed renewable electricity is wasted energy because it can’t be stored.
CAISOOn top of the conventional power often deployed in its stead, that renewable power was thus wasted, since there is no place yet to store it. The state curtailed 596,175 megawatt hours in April, or 596,175 million kilowatt hours, according to several calculators. With 10,715 kilowatt hours the average annual electric consumption of a home in the U.S. in 2020, as calculated by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, California’s curtailed wind and solar energy in April could power 55,000 homes for a year.
The cutbacks mean that electric power generation falls back on nuclear and hydroelectric power, natural gas, and other more traditional sources, which provided nearly 60% of California’s electric generation last year.
The state also imported 30% of its electric energy last year from other states – 9.5% of it from coal, most of it from the Intermountain Power Project in Utah.
The curtailments come at a crucial time in what the Biden administration insists is a “transition” from a fossil fuel-driven country to one that relies on renewable energy to save the planet from what believers warn will be a climate-change disaster.
Eric O’Shaughnessy, a renewable energy consultant who has worked with the federally funded Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, blames a stalemate between renewable energy providers and electric system operators over who will pay for any infrastructure buildout.
“The system operators say, ‘We need this huge investment, and you are going to have to pay it,’ and the solar developer believes everyone should pay,” O’Shaughnessy said. Then politics comes into play “and that project gets shelved.”
The government’s answer is more taxpayer funding for transmission, although it will take at least 10-15 years to develop a new project, according to the Transmission Agency of Northern California, a group of publicly owned utilities in the state.
That’s been tried before: In 2011, the Obama administration created the Rapid Response Team for Transmission, which included five projects in the West. One is under way, while the others have been cancelled or delayed. A website created to track the projects has been defunct for years.
The messy process of connecting solar and wind plants to the grid is made more complicated by a maze of committees, panels, and lawyers that need to weigh in on the specifics of each project.
“If an energy company in California wants a transmission line, it has to go to a public utility to build it, and to the California Energy Commission and a bunch of other commissions,” said Rajat Deb of energy consultant LCG. “And the cities also have to approve in some cases, so it takes all that to get a transmission line. That’s a lot of hoopla you have to go through.”
There is less resistance to building individual solar plants in distinct locations than to transmission lines, often due to the wider geography needed for the latter. And so more solar plants get built while transmission projects languish.
California’s leading in solar, lagging in transmission.
“Utility-Scale Solar, 2021 Edition,” Berkeley LabStill, the state aims to have a carbon-free electric grid by 2045, a goal set before President Biden took office and declared 2035 as a national objective. With its goal in mind, California has imposed restrictions and requirements that have adversely impacted businesses, home builders, and car makers as well as taxpayers, who pay the highest prices for fuel and the third highest rate for electricity in the U.S., behind Hawaii and Alaska. Electricity prices for residential customers in California have increased 19% in the past year compared with 7% nationally.
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a 2020 executive order mandating that by 2035, all new vehicles sold in the state must be zero-emission. If that goal is reached, it would add a crushing demand to the state’s electric grid, according to some projection models.
With multibillion-dollar development of massive wind farms and solar plants outpacing transmission capacity, the number of miles of new high-voltage transmission has declined over the last decade from an annual average of 2,000 miles nationally from 2012-2016 to an average of just 700 miles from 2017-2021, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
A report issued by the department this year, titled “Queued Up…But in Need of Transmission,” acknowledges the problem: “A large amount of potential clean power capacity is struggling with the wait times and costs of connecting to the transmission grid. …”
The Energy Department’s advocacy of de-carbonization includes technical reviews by representatives of big solar concerns as well as big oil corporations, most of the latter of whom also are investing in renewables.
The department declined an interview request, but Becca Jones-Albertus, director of its Solar Energy Technologies Office, wrote in an email exchange: “DOE is working to improve transmission through the Better Grid initiative, and there are other tools available now to alleviate the long wait times and costs associated with connecting to the grid.”
Jones-Albertus was referring to the Building a Better Grid program, launched in January as part of $20 billion in federal funding for upgrading and developing transmission nationwide. She did not respond to a question regarding the nation’s longstanding lack of ability to transmit solar and wind energy.
Jones-Albertus also downplayed the necessity of transmission in meeting the current government’s green goals.
“While transmission expansion takes time, energy storage, active generation management, and demand flexibility are ready for deployment to help the nation achieve an emission-free electricity grid by 2035 without increasing energy prices,” Jones-Albertus said in the email. She was referring to the Biden administration’s nationwide push for “carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035,” according to a 2021 executive order from the White House.
Encouraged by green advocates, state and federal lawmakers have plowed money into renewable sectors with grants, tax breaks, loans, and other funding mechanisms while often leaving the “how to” of energy transmission to fend for itself.
This year transmission got more funding, including $2 billion in loans for infrastructure in the Democrats’ newly enacted Inflation Reduction Act.
Today, 61% of electricity in the U.S. comes from coal, petroleum, natural gas, and other sources. Without transmission resources – power lines that cut through swaths of land, both public and private, or the much more expensive underground cables – there is little chance of a dramatic reduction of fossil fuel electricity.
The recent rush into renewables has created a situation where solar and wind developers can end up with plants that have to wait a minimum of three years before securing approval to sell energy.
“There are a lot of renewable projects waiting in these lines requesting to connect to the system and they are not getting connected,” said Elise Caplan, director of electricity at the American Council on Renewable Energy.
“The vast majority of transmission has been local,” Caplan added. “The U.S. has done a bad job of building these critical larger-scale [projects].” Her group is among a growing number of renewable energy advocates asking the feds to examine the transmission problem at the local level.
Rajat Deb, the LCG consultant, voiced the frustration of green advocates.
“I am an environmentalist in my heart and the biggest problem we have right now is global warming,” he said. “I have been working on this for 40 years and nothing happens. And while they are talking about this, all these [non-governmental agencies] are making money and the state and federal government is spending money. Where is that going?”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 19:45 - Which US States Are The Best To Do Business In?
Which US States Are The Best To Do Business In?
The United States often ranks as one of the best countries to start a business in, but, as Visual Capitalist’s Avery Koop details below, the ease with which one can do business varies state by state. There are many considerations that factor into starting a business like the available workforce, the condition of local infrastructure, access to investors, a culture that’s open to business, and so on.
This map ranks America’s best states to do business in based on a study from CNBC which measured 88 factors across 10 broad categories.
Methodology
Here is a further breakdown of the weight given to each of the 10 categories:
The Most Business Friendly States
North Carolina—coming in first place in the ranking—attracts an extremely talented and innovative workforce, largely thanks to the state’s investment in its Research Triangle Regional Partnership (RTRP).
Notably, there are three ties in the ranking: New York and South Carolina had the same score, tying for 36th, Connecticut and Nevada tied for 39th, and Hawaii and New Mexico tied for 46th.
Other states ranking high on the list are Washington, Virginia, and Colorado. One of the newest individual metrics CNBC took into consideration was an openness to the cannabis industry, likely playing into Colorado’s move up from 8th to 4th compared to last year.
Some states that perhaps surprisingly don’t crack the top 10 include California and New York, both often considered centers of finance and entrepreneurship. But with the high costs of living and of starting a business in those states, their overall score is reduced.
A Look at the Scoring — North Carolina, California, and Nevada
To better understand how this ranking works we’ve broken down three different states and how they ranked in all 10 categories that gave them their overall spot. Here’s a brief look at their place in each category:
While North Carolina is the number one state to do business in and has an extremely strong economy, they are 26th when it comes to the Cost of Doing Business.
Whereas California ranks low overall, the state ranks first in terms of Technology and Innovation, as well as Access to Capital.
Although Nevada scored highly in the Infrastructure and Business Friendliness categories, the state scored poorly in Technology and Innovation, and was dead last in the Education category.
Doing Business in America
New business applications have actually decreased 4% this year in comparison to the same timeframe in 2021.
Here’s a look at new business applications by region as of July 2022:
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Northeast: 63,058
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Midwest: 70,827
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South: 197,663
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West: 94,150
New business applications in July were the highest in the retail trade industry, numbering around 69,000 new applications, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Applications for professional service businesses were the second highest at 53,000, followed closely by construction businesses at 43,000.
Here’s a closer look at the industry breakdown:
A potential looming recession, alongside rising interest rates and inflation, may be creating a sense of cautiousness among businesspeople, leading to the lower rate of business applications compared to last year. And, at existing companies, the economic situation has lead to cuts in growth forecasts and subsequently, major layoffs.
But overall, the U.S. is a country which values entrepreneurship—even during the pandemic, massive spikes in new business formations were recorded—and certain industries and states will continue to flourish in any business environment.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 19:20 -
- Victor Davis Hanson: Will The Republicans Really Win Back The Congress?
Victor Davis Hanson: Will The Republicans Really Win Back The Congress?
Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,
The late spring scenario of a massive GOP win – in historic proportions analogous to 1938, 1994, or 2010 – is said now to be “iffy.”
The Left boasts that it now has a chance at keeping the House, with even better odds for maintaining control over the Senate.
Polls are all over the place. Now they show generic Republican leads, now Democratic.
The general experience in polling is that they are more often conducted by left-leaning institutions and massaged to show Democratic “momentum.”
Since the polling meltdown of 2016 — when most polls showed a Hillary Clinton Electoral College landslide — they have regained little credibility.
Current progressive heartthrob and spoiler Representative Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., was polled at only 20% behind in her recent primary, only to be crushed in the end, losing by over 37%.
The corporate leftist media does its part by glorifying a now dynamic “Aviator Joe.”
President Joe Biden in cool sunglasses is now constructed into a swaggering “Top Gun” Tom Cruise-like figure, rather than a cognitively challenged 79-year-old.
Biden’s just-passed reconciliation “Inflation Reduction Act,” according to most experts, will raise taxes even on the middle class and spur inflation. So, the media euphemistically renames it a “climate change bill.”
With a stroke of his pen before the midterms, Biden forgives $300 billion in student debt, without a care for the dutiful who paid their loans off or those who did not go to college but will now pay for those that did.
If inflation is running at 8.5% over last July’s prices, the White House giddily announces inflation is “zero” because it did not climb at 9.1% over 2021 prices – as it did in June.
That’s like saying someone entombed in a sinkhole 10 feet below ground is no longer trapped at all since he floated up one foot since falling.
In California, when $6.50 a gallon gas dipped last month to $5.50 a gallon, Biden pronounced the end of high energy costs. He forgets that on his watch, gas prices doubled and remain $2.50 a gallon higher than they were on Inauguration Day.
Despite the propaganda, the Republicans seem confident nonetheless because of the dismal 40% approval ratings of Biden and his even less popular agenda.
Crime is out of control. The Left blew up the southern border. Biden has waged war on energy production and deliberately spiked gas costs.
Foreign policy is in shambles. Racial relations are scary. Historically, presidents are shellacked in their first midterms.
So, there should be a Republican tsunami.
But will there be?
So far, the Republicans have not nationalized congressional races with a uniform contract with America, an agenda that they will seek to enact the moment they take Congress.
If all Republican candidates run on what the Left has done to America in less than two years and offer a systematic corrective, they will win. If they get bogged down in the 24-hour news cycle they will flounder.
Conservatives seem oblivious to the current left-wing strategy. That is odd, since it is unchanged since the Russian collusion hoax and the psychodramatic Ukrainian phone call impeachment.
The left-wing playbook is based on two pillars: the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s home, the January 6 “insurrection” investigation – and selective daily leaking about both.
About every week, in efforts at mass distraction from the dismal record of Biden, we will hear of a new “bombshell” and “walls-are-closing-in” Justice Department or FBI leak to an obsequious media.
In 24-hour cycles, we will hear more about how Trump supposedly stole “nuclear secrets”!
And “informed but anonymous sources insist” that Trump is trying to sell memorabilia. Or is Trump trying to hide January 6 evidence at his home? Or was it those Russian collusion files?
Sanctimonious Attorney General Merrick Garland will fight tooth and nail not to release an unredacted historic fishing-expedition affidavit for a warrant to meander through the closets of the Trump home. But he certainly will redact — and leak.
The January 6 Committee will continue to subpoena and flip witnesses with threats of indictments, certain doom before biased Washington, D.C. juries, and crushing legal bills.
Between the raid and the star-chamber House inquiry, we are supposed to forget unaffordable gas and food, dangerous U.S. cities, over 3 million people swarming the border, and the Afghanistan debacle.
Big Tech in November as in 2020 will again flood registrars with billions of dollars in dark money — while denying it.
They will censor and expunge anything unflattering to the Left on social media, and claim they do not.
The Left will systematically try to ensure that, as in 2020, only 30% of the electorate vote in person on election day, as they plead they are underfunded and disorganized.
Yet if the Republicans advance a coherent national plan of action to restore a pre-Biden America, if Trump will focus positively on national issues and not take the bait to obsess on the wrongs done to him, and if grass-roots conservatives this time around prepare to preempt massive left-wing vote harvesting, they will achieve their blowout.
But that is a lot of ifs. And meanwhile, time grows short.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 18:55 - Hawkish Senator Calls Taiwan A "Country" In 4th US Delegation Visit This Month Alone
Hawkish Senator Calls Taiwan A “Country” In 4th US Delegation Visit This Month Alone
Following the Nancy Pelosi visit which sparked unprecedent sea and aerial Chinese military live fire exercises, Taiwan on Thursday unveiled a huge defense budget increase of just shy of 14%. Specifically at a 13.9% increase, Taiwan’s cabinet has already approved the spending boost and it will next be debated in parliament, and if approve would bring the island’s total military budge to about $19.41 billion for 2023.
The flow of weapons from Washington, which Beijing has vehemently condemned as a severe violation of the ‘One China’ principle, is thus expected to only increase, with provisions being made in the budget for more fighter jet funding and other major hardware.
Taiwan Presidential Office/Handout via Reuters Taiwan cabinet’s chief budget official Chu Tzer-ming indicated in statements that the bulk of next year’s defense spending will be toward the additional military readiness required to fend off a potential Chinese invasion, given the greatly bolstered PLA presence around the island:
“The budget for maintaining operations saw the biggest increase among the defense-spending categories this year in response to the cross-strait situation,” Chu said. “Warplanes need to take off and warships need to go to sea, which all lead to higher expenses.”
The White House has accused Beijing of using the early August Pelosi visit to manufacture a crisis. Chinese state media had at the same time expressly stated the PLA drills were a “rehearsal” for forced reunification.
Meanwhile, the US clearly isn’t backing down, or so much as allowing tensions to cool for a while, given this week marked no less than the fourth Congressional delegation to Taiwan in August alone.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) arrived Thursday in Taipei on a US Air Force plane in an unannounced visit. She’s a well-known hawk when it comes to all things China, for example having posted on Twitter in 2020 that “China has a 5,000 year history of cheating and stealing. Some things will never change.” She more recently backed a proposed bill that would let the Biden administration lend weapons to Taiwan, akin to what’s already been authorized for Ukraine.
I will continue to stand with the Taiwans and their right to freedom and democracy.
Xi Jinping doesn’t scare me.
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) August 25, 2022
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Another well-known moment involved here labeling China as part of a “New Axis of Evil”…
“It’s time we focus on rewarding Taiwan’s commitment to democratic values and ensure they have the necessary resources to combat Communist China and the New Axis of Evil.”
Thus her visit is sure to set off outrage in Beijing, especially given that among Blackburn’s first words upon arrival featured calling for Taiwan pushing forward to become “an independent nation”. The Republican Senator said she “looked forward to continuing to support Taiwan as they push forward as an independent nation.”
She also repeated the Axis of Evil line regarding China…
Blackburn arrived in Taipei late Thursday after visiting Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea as part of a U.S. push to “expand our diplomatic footprint in the area,” her office said in a statement.
“The Indo-Pacific region is the next frontier for the new axis of evil,” Blackburn, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, was quoted as saying. “We must stand against the Chinese Communist Party.”
And on Friday, while meeting with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, Blackburn referred to Taiwan as a “country”, per Axios:
Blackburn’s comment that she remembers her 2008 visit to Taiwan fondly “and the opportunity to get to see some of your country firsthand” is likely to further anger Beijing, which has warned of consequences for the U.S. if American officials continue to visit the island it sees as a breakaway province.
The CCP will stop at nothing to achieve global domination and destroy Taiwan’s independence.
That’s why I’m in Taipei to discuss ways to strengthen our relationships with @iingwen. pic.twitter.com/mnpmdIrEZa
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) August 26, 2022
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Most likely, this is about to trigger a whole new round of major Chinese PLA drills threatening the island. Certainly Blackburn’s confrontation words just blew past Beijing’s “red lines” concerning the Taiwan crisis.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 18:30 - IRS Waiving $1.2 Billion In Taxpayer Penalties; Here's Who Qualifies
IRS Waiving $1.2 Billion In Taxpayer Penalties; Here’s Who Qualifies
Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced on Aug. 24 that it will waive penalties levied against American taxpayers who failed to file their 2019 and 2020 returns in a timely manner during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A copy of an IRS 1040 tax form is seen at an H&R Block office in Miami, Fla., on Dec. 22, 2017. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) The agency will also issue over $1.2 billion in refunds or credits to taxpayers who received the fees.
According to the IRS, roughly 1.6 million taxpayers, including individuals and businesses, will automatically receive the billions in refunds or credits by the end of September. Spread across 1.6 million taxpayers evenly, that would amount to an average refund of $750 per taxpayer.
The penalty relief is automatic for people or businesses who qualify, meaning taxpayers won’t have to apply for it.
For those who haven’t yet paid fines, the penalties will be abated.
The agency previously extended the tax filing deadline in both 2020 and 2021 to give taxpaying individuals and businesses more time to pay what they owed amid the COVID-19 outbreak.“Throughout the pandemic, the IRS has worked hard to support the nation and provide relief to people in many different ways,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “The penalty relief issued today is yet another way the agency is supporting people during this unprecedented time.”
The decision comes as the agency faces a huge backlog of tax returns and taxpayer correspondence prompted by the pandemic. The IRS said the move will help them to focus resources on addressing those backlogs and return to normal operations for the 2023 filing season.
Who Qualifies?
A failure-to-file penalty is charged when taxpayers do not file their return by the due date; the fine is a percentage of the taxes that weren’t paid on time. It is calculated at 5 percent of unpaid taxes for each month or part of a month that the return is filed late, up to a maximum of 25 percent.
For example, unpaid taxes of $10,000 could see a penalty of $500 per month, up to a maximum of $2,500.
To qualify for the refunds, taxpayers must file any 2019 or 2020 tax returns that were originally due in 2020 and 2021 by Sept. 30 of this year.
The IRS will not forgive penalties in some situations, however, such as where fraudulent returns were filed and where the penalties are part of an accepted compromise or a closing agreement. They also won’t apply to cases where the penalties were finally determined by a court, the agency said.
Other penalties, such as the failure to pay penalty, are also not eligible under the new relief program, although taxpayers in those cases can utilize other existing penalty relief procedures, such as applying for relief under the reasonable cause criteria or the First Time Abate program.
A sign for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Washington on Sept. 28, 2020. (Erin Scott/Reuters) “Penalty relief is a complex issue for the IRS to administer,” Rettig said. “We’ve been working on this initiative for months following concerns we’ve heard from taxpayers, the tax community, and others, including Congress. This is another major step to help taxpayers, and we encourage those affected by this to review the guidelines.”
Additionally, the IRS is providing penalty relief to banks, employers, and other businesses required to file various information returns.
To qualify for relief, eligible 2019 returns must have been filed by Aug. 1, 2020, and eligible 2020 returns must have been filed by Aug. 1, 2021.
However, because both of these deadlines fell on a weekend, a 2019 return will still be considered under the relief program if it was filed by Aug. 3, 2020, and a 2020 return will be considered if it was filed by Aug. 2, 2021.
Read more here…
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 18:05 - Biden Energy Secretary Quietly Bullies US Refiners To Reduce European Fuel Exports
Biden Energy Secretary Quietly Bullies US Refiners To Reduce European Fuel Exports
Back in June, we reported that overall US Nat Gas exports had exploded thanks to soaring LNG flows to Europe which has grown increasingly desperate for any “friendly” nat gas now that Russia has almost shut off all pipelines toward Europe, in the process pushing US nattie prices sharply higher – if nowhere near where they are in Europe currently. And while these exports fizzled after the Freeport LNG explosion in June, it was clear that nat gas prices (and to a lesser extent, inventory) in the US would be a factor not only of domestic demand, but increasingly also of European imports from the US.
The same of course, can be said for oil, which is seeing growing demand in Europe – which finds itself increasingly locked out of Russian oil output, which is expected to shrink even more once a Russian oil ban is imposed at the end of the year – as part of gas-to-oil switching which is becoming increasingly prevalent in Europe, and is why US crude sales overseas are also set to hit fresh records through next year as American oil increasingly takes market share in Europe.
Earlier this month, weekly government figures showed an unprecedented 5 million b/d of US crude being exported. Shipments are poised to average over 4 million b/d over the next few months and into next year, according to the most optimistic in the oil industry.
And just like in the case of gas, rising oil exports to Europe mean not only higher US oil and gas prices – as supply/demand dynamics of the two asset classes converge – but also shrinking US inventories which end up in Europe. Which is a problem for US oil because while prices are dropping for now, they are oblivious of the fact that commercial US inventories have slumped to near record lows.
So wouldn’t you know the Biden Administration – the same administration that has been draining record amount of oil from the US strategic petroleum reserve in hopes of pushing gas prices lower by the midterms – now wants to limit fuel exports to Europe.
That’s the message Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm sent last week in a letter imploring seven major refiners to limit fuel exports. The WSJ obtained a copy of the letter (see below) which the Administration didn’t release publicly, but has since leaked courtesy of Bloomberg’s Javier Blas and others.
Granholm warned that gasoline inventories on the East Coast are at a near-decade low, and diesel stocks are nearly 50% below the five-year average across the region. And while she didn’t address it – as the SPR drain is hardly something the White House is proud of – total crude oil inventories including the SPR have seen a spectacular collapse since the Ukraine war.
“Given the historic level of U.S. refined product exports, I again urge you to focus in the near term on building inventories in the United States, rather than selling down current stocks and further increasing exports,” she writes.
“It is our hope that companies will proactively address this need,” she adds. “If that is not the case, the Administration will need to consider additional Federal requirements or other emergency measures.” In New Jersey they call that an offer you can’t refuse.
This, as the WSJ notes, is a political escalation from President Biden’s June command to refiners to immediately lower gasoline prices. As average gasoline prices nationwide have fallen to $3.88 from about $5 in mid-June, he has been taking a media victory tour. However, the drop in prices is largely a function of the market expecting an imminent recession, hardly something worthy of a victory tour, and in any case, Biden can thank Americans for driving less.
Yet fuel storage levels are running low heading into hurricane season when it’s not unusual for Gulf Coast refineries to be damaged or shut down. The Administration fears a refinery outage that causes fuel prices to spike in the runup to the November election. Hence, Granholm’s threatening letter.
But, as the WSJ editorial board explains, the problem isn’t U.S. exports. It’s the political and regulatory assault on U.S. production and refining. One culprit is the 2019 closure of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery, which removed about 335,000 barrels a day of refining capacity from the Northeast. This made the region more dependent on Gulf Coast and overseas refineries.
Additionally, fuel storage levels would be much higher in the Northeast if not for New York state’s natural gas pipeline blockade, which has made the region more dependent on oil for energy. One-third of New England residents still use oil to heat their homes, and New York this month is generating more electricity from oil than from solar or wind.
Most ironic, however, is that the Granholm export threat is also a slap in the face to European allies trying to diversify energy sources from Russia. Fuel supplies are tight globally amid sanctions on Russia, which had accounted for 40% of Europe’s oil imports. Europe has had to look elsewhere for diesel fuel, which some manufacturers and power generators are turning to as a substitute for natural gas. U.S. refiners have recently been exporting more fuel to Europe, but Granholm is now telling them to stop.
Restricting fuel exports is one more counterproductive Biden policy on fossil fuels that would merely drive up global fuel prices, including U.S. imports. As the WSJ concludes, “Granholm’s bullying of energy companies shows how little she understands about energy markets.”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 17:40 - CDC Finally Admits COVID Mutations Hobbled Vaccine Effectiveness
CDC Finally Admits COVID Mutations Hobbled Vaccine Effectiveness
The CDC has admitted what was ban-worthy ‘fake news’ just months ago – that Covid mutated to evade current vaccines which were created for the original strains, after nearly 40% of the people hospitalized in the US with Omicron were vaxxed and boosted.
As Bloomberg reports, from the end of March through May, when omicron BA.2 and BA.2.12.1 subvariants were the dominant strains, weekly hospitalization rates for all adults spiked, with those over 65 suffering the worst – though it should be noted that total omicron hospitalizations were far lower than when the delta variant was the dominant strain last fall.
Of course, the CDC’s timing is suspect – as vaccine manufacturers are on the cusp of rolling out their omicron-targeted shots by Labor Day.
We knew omicron evaded vaccines nearly 9 months ago, even if Fauci lied about it.
- Moderna President Warns Vaccines May Struggle To Protect Against Omicron (Dec. 2021)
- Pfizer Vaccine Less Effective Against Omicron Than Beta Variant, South Africa Study Reveals (Dec. 2021)
- Omicron evades immunity better than Delta, Danish study finds (January)
According to the ‘new’ report, CDC scientists found that vaccines and boosters did a better job against Delta when it came to keeping people out of the hospital – with efficacy dropping slightly with the BA.1 variant, and then ‘significantly’ falling off when BA.2 hit the scene.
Adults with at least two booster shots fared better than other people when BA.2 was dominant. The majority of those admitted to the hospital also had at least one underlying condition. Unvaccinated adults were more than three times as likely to be hospitalized, but breakthrough infections still represented a significant number of the severe Covid cases, the data show.
US regulators have pushed Moderna Inc., Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE to expedite development of omicron-specific boosters for a September rollout. The drugmakers this week submitted early data to the US Food and Drug Administration seeking emergency clearance for updated shots that target the BA.4 and BA.5 virus strains. Scientists and vaccinemakers are already beginning to look toward next-generation shots that may provide longer-lasting protection against more variants. -Bloomberg
Stay tuned for more of tomorrow’s news today.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 16:50 - Money Does Matter: The End Of The Gold Standard Led To A Lower Standard Of Living
Money Does Matter: The End Of The Gold Standard Led To A Lower Standard Of Living
Authored by André Marques via The Mises Institute,
On August 15, 1971, Richard Nixon announced that the US dollar (USD) would no longer be redeemable in gold. This was supposed to be temporary. And yet, fifty-one years later, here we are. The gold standard was gradually destroyed in the twentieth century.
Now people are experiencing the consequences: less purchasing power, more economic cycles, and a weaker economy.
In the chapter 4 of his book What Has Government Done to Our Money?, Murray Rothbard goes over the steps the government took to end the gold standard over the twentieth century, from the end of the classical gold standard to the closing of the gold window in 1971.
The Classical Gold Standard (1815–1914)
The classical gold standard tended to prevent the government from running budget deficits and going into debt, as it could not easily create inflation. In 1913, the Federal Reserve (Fed) was born. When the US entered the World War I, US dollars were printed at an excess of the gold reserves. At this point, the US got off the classical gold standard and this money printing contributed to the depression of 1920–21.
The Gold Exchange Standard (1926–31)
In this regime, the USD and the pound sterling (GBP) were the two currencies of reference (“key currencies”). The US went back to the classical gold standard (converting USD into gold). GBP and other currencies were not convertible into gold (except for large bars). The Great Britain converted GBP to USD and the other European countries converted their currencies to GBP. So, the Great Britain inflated GBP and the other European countries did the same with their respective currencies (a “pyramiding” of GBP on USD and of other European currencies on GBP). Consequently, as Rothbard stated:
Britain and Europe were permitted to inflate unchecked, and British deficits could pile up unrestrained by the market discipline of the gold standard…. Britain was able to induce the United States to inflate dollars so as not to lose many dollar reserves or gold to the United States. As sterling balances piled up in France, the United States, and elsewhere, the slightest loss of confidence in the … inflationary structure was bound to lead to general collapse. This is precisely what happened in 1931; the failure of inflated banks throughout Europe, and the attempt of “hard money” France to cash in its sterling balances for gold, led Britain to go off the gold standard completely. Britain was soon followed by the other countries of Europe.
Fluctuating Fiat Currencies (1931–45)
In 1933–34 the US abandoned the classical gold standard once again. The USD was defined as 1/35 of an ounce of gold and only foreign governments and central banks could convert it into gold. So, there was a certain link to gold, but the US was in a floating exchange rate regime. As Rothbard stated, by cutting the ties to gold, this regime
leave[s] the absolute control of each national currency in the hands of its … government [which can] allow its currency to fluctuate freely with respect to all other fiat currencies … [The flaw] is to hand total control of the money supply to [the government], and then to … expect that it will refrain from using that power.
the disastrous experience of … the 1930s world of fiat paper and economic warfare, led the United States authorities to [aim] the restoration of a viable international monetary order
Bretton Woods and the New Gold Exchange Standard (1945–68)
Thus, enter the Bretton Woods system (conceived and implemented by the US at a conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire in 1944, and ratified by the US Congress in 1945). It was similar to the gold exchange standard, but with the USD being the only “key currency,” priced at $35 an ounce of gold and being redeemable in gold only by foreign governments and central banks.
However, this system eventually met its end. The US inflated the USD (“pyramided” it on its gold reserves), and other governments held USD as their reserves and “pyramided” their currencies on those dollars. And throughout the 1960s, the US constantly inflated the dollar in absolute terms and relative to Europe and Japan. This decade was marked by the “War on Poverty,” the Vietnam War, and space programs.
To finance all this, the US started running large budget deficits, with the Fed monetizing the debt (expanding the money supply). However, the Western European countries that had adopted more solid monetary policies (Western Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy), started to oppose the obligation to accumulate dollars. Europe began to redeem dollars in gold, and the Bretton Woods system began to collapse in 1968 (ending in 1971, when Nixon suspended the redemption of the USD in gold).
The Closing of the Gold Window and the Rise of the Floating Exchange Rate Regime (1971–?)
In order to keep the redemption of the USD in gold, the US government had two options:
-
Cut spending and taxes to reduce the budget deficit. The supply of money would decrease, and the USD would appreciate, which would allow prices to fall to levels that would be consistent with an ounce of gold at $35 and restore demand for the currency.
-
Dollar devaluation. This would mean that the price of an ounce of gold would have to rise to a level that would be consistent with the supply of USD and the higher prices for goods and services. But this would require the government to reduce the budget deficit to prevent future devaluations.
Both options were inconvenient for the government. Thus, in February 1973, after two devaluations of the USD that raised the price of an ounce of gold to $42.22, the closing of the gold window became permanent. Therefore, the USD returned to the floating exchange rate regime (as in 1931–45, but with no link to gold).
As a result, the USD devalued and the 1970s were marked by stagflation. In 1980, the price of an ounce of gold was $850. The price of oil rose from just under $3 a barrel in 1970 to just under $40 in 1980. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) was over 14 percent in 1980 (chart 1). It was only in the early 1980s that the CPI began to decline, when Paul Volcker, Fed chairman at the time, raised the federal funds rate to almost 20 percent (chart 2).
Chart 1: Consumer Price Index (1965–85)
Source: Trading Economics; author’s own elaboration.
Chart 2: Federal Funds Rate (1970–88)
Source: FRED; author’s own elaboration.
However, in 1980, the US federal debt was “only” $930.2 billion (chart 3). Thus, it was possible to significantly increase interest rates without causing major impacts on the economy. Today, the federal debt is above $30.5 trillion. The Fed can’t raise rates without crashing the economy. The US has gone from being the world’s biggest creditor in the early 1970s to the world’s biggest debtor today (the US has more debt than all other governments in the world combined).
Chart 3: Federal Debt for the United States (1970–2021)
Source: FRED; author’s own elaboration.
As the federal funds rate rose, the USD appreciated and there was a restoration of confidence in the currency. This (along with the fact that the US dollar was already the currency in which oil and other commodities were priced) allowed the USD to remain the main world reserve currency. And this, along with the fact that the USD has been unbacked since 1971, has allowed the US to inflate it over time, destroying its value. As of August 3, 2022, the ounce of gold costs $1765:
Chart 4: Price of Gold (In US Dollars)
Price of 1 Kg – 1Kg = 2.20462 Pounds (Left Axis); Price of an Ounce (Right Axis).
Source: goldprice.org; author’s own elaboration.
Conclusion
The consequences of the end of the gold standard began to be felt in the 1970s.
The devaluation of the USD substantially reduced Americans’ real wages.
Before 1970, usually only one member of a family was able to support it.
From the 1970s onwards, this began to change to the point where today this is only possible for wealthier people. Despite all the technological advancements, the standard of living today is lower than in the 1950s and the 1960s, as today, in order to live and to buy things they want or need, people need to work a lot more (and even go into debt).
If the USD had not been devalued since 1913 (or even if it had been appreciated, which is what tends to occur when there is no monetary expansion), the standard of living would be much higher today.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 16:25 -
- Watch: WH Press Secretary Refuses To Answer Question "What Is Semi-Fascism?"
Watch: WH Press Secretary Refuses To Answer Question “What Is Semi-Fascism?”
Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,
After Joe Biden declared that so called MAGA Republicans are “semi-fascists” and “a threat to our democracy,” and charged that they “embrace political violence,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to explain what Biden meant.
Earlier in the day, a yelling Biden blurted “The MAGA Republicans don’t just threaten our personal rights and economic security,” and further declared that “MAGA Republicans” are “a threat to our very democracy. They refuse to accept the will of the people. They embrace — embrace — political violence. They don’t believe in democracy.”
“It’s not hyperbole,” he continued, adding “America is at a genuine inflection point. It occurs every six or seven generations in world history,” and further proclaiming “What we’re seeing now is either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy… It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something — it’s like semi-fascism.”
“I respect conservative Republicans,” Biden said, adding “I don’t respect these MAGA Republicans.”
In a later appearance on CNN, Jean-Pierre attempted to word salad her way out of explaining what “semi-fascism” is.
Host Don Lemon directly asked “the President likened what he called extreme MAGA philosophy to semi-fascism. What exactly is semi-fascism, Karine?”
When the Press Secretary immediately veered off the subject, Lemon interjected and stated “with all due respect. We have a short amount of time. I want to get to all those things But if you’ll answer my question, we can get to those things.”
He again asked “what exactly is semi-fascism?”
Jean-Pierre again refused to answer and testily snapped “by having this back and forth we are actually taking away from the time.”
Jean-Pierre repeated the claim that “this MAGA element of the Republican Party” is “attacking our democracy, they are taking away our freedom.”
Despite not answering the question, Lemon thanked her for answering the question.
* * *
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Tyler Durden
Fri, 08/26/2022 – 16:11
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