May 28

Today’s News 28th May 2023

  • Gingrich: Where Are Woodward And Bernstein When We Need Them
    Gingrich: Where Are Woodward And Bernstein When We Need Them

    Authored by Newt Gingrich via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The conspiracy between a corrupt set of bureaucracies (including the Justice Department, the IRS, and the intelligence community) and an equally corrupt and enabling elite media is astonishing. The Durham Report is just one more confirmation of the devastating level of dishonesty and manipulation which have characterized the last few years.

    The Department of Justice emblem at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida in downtown Miami is pictured on Jan. 25, 2023. (D.A. Varela/Miami Herald via AP)

    Some analysts believe the open corruption can be traced back to Lois Lerner and the IRS scandal, in which she clearly stonewalled conservative organizations from getting tax status. When she was found to be in contempt of Congress, the Obama Justice Department spent two years ignoring the congressional contempt charge and then decided not to prosecute her.

    As Congressman Jim Jordan said at the time, U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen was “us[ing] his power as a political weapon to undermine the rule of law.” Jordan went on “Mr. Machen … unilaterally decided to ignore the will of the House of Representatives. He and the Justice Department have given Lois Lerner cover for her failure to account for her actions at the IRS.”

    The signal had been sent that protecting the left would itself be protected.

    This lesson was reinforced in the cover up about the terrorist attack at Benghazi. The Obama administration was worried that the killing of an American ambassador—despite his consistent appeals to the State Department for more security—would hurt the president’s reelection campaign. So, the administration adopted a strategy of simply lying to the American people.

    This began the week of the attack when the administration did everything it could to avoid responsibility for a terrorist killing of Ambassador Christopher Stevens. In fact, the Obama White House immediately sent former United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice on five network shows to blame an American-made anti-Muslim video for causing the supposed unrest. It was exactly what Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick had warned against in her famous “Blame America First” description of liberals. We now know that the entire story was a falsehood, and no one in Benghazi was motivated by a film they had never seen.

    When then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before Congress, she dismissed the whole question of responsibility for the failure to protect Stevens. She even failed to be honest about his murder famously saying: “With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided that they’d go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make?”

    The leftists in the national bureaucracies learned a big lesson from Lerner and Clinton. Whatever you need to do to defeat the right or protect the left is OK. You can get away with it. There is no responsibility for your actions if you are protecting the corrupt system.

    That lesson was publicly driven home in late June 2016, when former President Bill Clinton walked uninvited onto the airplane of Attorney General Loretta Lynch at the Phoenix airport. The FBI was investigating the former president’s wife (and Democratic presidential candidate) for a variety of charges including deleting more than 33,000 government emails and having staff destroy computer hard drives with a hammer.

    It is hard to imagine anything more inappropriate than a former president visiting an attorney general while his wife (and presidential candidate) was being actively investigated by the FBI.

    As then-candidate Donald Trump described in a tweet “Take a look at what happened w/ Bill Clinton. The system is totally rigged. Does anybody really believe that meeting was just a coincidence?”

    We now know from the Durham Report—and the reports from Chairman James Comer and the House Oversight Committee—that candidate and then-President Trump has been consistently smeared and defamed by corrupt elements of the Washington bureaucracy on a scale which makes Watergate look trivial.

    At the same time, the corrupt system was working overtime to protect Joe Biden and his family. The stunning dual nature of the corruption makes the present moment so dangerous for the future of the rule of law—and the entire constitutional process which has protected American freedom for more than 200 years.

    As deeply and persuasively corrupt as the bureaucracy has become, the other great decay since Watergate has been the corruption of the elite media.

    The New York Post, Fox News, and a few others have attempted some sense of honest coverage. Smaller conservative publications, podcasts, and social media have called out the big media systems for being active allies of the corrupt bureaucracy. Still, when needed, the elite corporate media have eagerly smeared President Trump and enthusiastically lied to protect the Bidens.

    There are no Bob Woodwards or Carl Bernsteins courageously working to uncover the truth and get it published. (Indeed, Woodward has reinvented himself into a chief Trump smear-monger.)

    There are no courageous editors like Ben Bradley backing up the reporters.

    There are no fearless publishers like Katharine Graham willing to risk lawsuits and withstand the anger of the government.

    Today, there is only a corrupt media protecting a corrupt establishment. The challenge to the American people to get at the truth is far more difficult than it was when Richard Nixon was under attack.

    The establishment rot threatens our survival as a free people, and it is increasingly difficult to uproot. Where are the Woodwards and Bernsteins when we need them most?

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 23:30

  • Counterfeit Drugs Are On The Rise Globally
    Counterfeit Drugs Are On The Rise Globally

    Counterfeit medicines are on the rise, according to data from the Pharmaceutical Security Institute.

    As Statista’s Anna Fleck shows in the following chart shows, nearly 6,000 pharmaceutical crime incidents were recorded by the nonprofit in 2021, up 38 percent from the year before and the peak figure since their records began 20 years ago.

    Infographic: Counterfeit Drugs on the Rise Globally | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    In terms of the geographical distribution of counterfeit pharmaceutical seizures, the greatest number was recorded in North America (2,442) followed by the Asia Pacific (1,747), Latin America (770), the Near East (705), Eurasia (646), Europe (374) and Africa (187). This order is largely due to how well countries in these regions are effectively identifying pharmaceutical crime through law enforcement activity and inspections by drug regulatory agencies. As the PSI notes, competing law enforcement priorities, lack of funding, or inadequate regulatory structures can mean that counterfeit medicines go undetected.

    According to the World Health Organization, roughly 10 percent of medical products circulating in low- and middle-income countries are substandard or falsified. In sub-Saharan African nations, this share is believed to be even higher, rising closer to 19-50 percent. With this in mind, the actual number of incidents of fake pharmaceuticals being manufactured and distributed is likely far higher than this chart shows, considering the many cases where fake drugs have not been detected or reported.

    One reason cited for the surge in the volume of fake or defective pharmaceuticals is the increase of online pharmacies.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 23:00

  • US Nuclear Secrets At Risk From Insider Threats With Devastating Consequences: Report
    US Nuclear Secrets At Risk From Insider Threats With Devastating Consequences: Report

    Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times,

    U.S. nuclear secrets are at risk from insider attacks, owing to the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) lack of security, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

    Allison Bawden, a GAO director for nuclear security, said the insider risk is illustrated by the 1993 movie “Jurassic Park,” when a disgruntled computer programmer tries to steal from his employer to solve his personal financial troubles.

    “Remember that fictional employee who stole dinosaur embryos from InGen?” wrote Bawden on Twitter on Thursday, while sharing a link to the office’s report and a photo of the fictional programmer.

    “Insider threats aren’t just for dinosaur parks – they’re also a risk for federal agencies,” she added. “For example, what if insiders wanted to steal the nation’s nuclear weapons and information?

    “To avoid being like InGen, DOE could better protect nuclear material & information by fully implementing its insider threat program. This includes training all employees & contractors to identify & report suspicious behavior & better monitoring networks for suspicious activity.”

    Report

    According to the report, the DOE established the insider threat program in 2014 but has not yet implemented “all required measures.”

    “The DOE has not implemented seven required measures for its Insider Threat Program, even after independent reviewers made nearly 50 findings and recommendations to help DOE fully implement its program,” the report says.

    The report warned that the DOE’s failure to fully implement all the measures could lead to “devastating consequences.”

    “The theft of nuclear material and the compromise of information could have devastating consequences,” the report says.

    “Threats can come from external adversaries or from ‘insiders,’ including employees or visitors with trusted access.”

    “Such threats could have significant consequences for national security and could include unauthorized release of classified information; workplace violence; or improper access to sensitive nuclear weapons, material, and components,” the report adds.

    The report pointed out that DOE’s employees, as as well those employed by the agency’s contractors, could be compromised and become insiders.

    “As of 2022, DOE had over 13,000 federal employees, and its management and operating contractors and other contractors employed over 120,000 people, who, because of their authorized access to DOE facilities and networks, can be considered to be insiders,” the report says.

    Incidents

    There were about 250 unclassified insider threat-related security incidents in 2017, the most recent data from DOE, according to the report. The incidents included sending classified information over unclassified systems, leaving security areas unattended, and not properly protecting classified information.

    “DOE considered about 100 of those incidents to be serious,” the report says.

    The report pointed to a 2017 criminal case, when Grigory Trosman was sentenced to 18 months in prison for accepting at least $469,287 in bribes in exchange for official acts he performed while at the DOE.

    “From approximately 2002 through March 2014, Trosman used his official position in various capacities to assist co-conspirators and various companies to obtain access to federal research funding and contract work in Lithuania, Russia, and Ukraine,” the Department of Justice said in a press release.

    A 2022 report by strategic intelligence firm Strider Technologies found that China has hired at least 162 researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) over the last 35 years. Many of these researchers went on to conduct military research for China, including deep-earth penetrating warheads, hypersonic missiles, and submarine programs.

    At least one researcher hired by China previously held Top Secret security clearance at the DOE, according to the report.

    In September 2020, a former LANL scientist was sentenced to probation and fined for lying about his participation in a Chinese state-sponsored recruitment program.

    The report offered DOE seven recommendations for its insider threat program. In a written response included in the report, the DOE said it agreed with all the recommendations and provided plans to address them. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 22:30

  • GOP Lawmakers Demand FBI Briefing On Jan. 6 Pipe-Bomb Probe Following Whistleblower Disclosures Regarding Suspect
    GOP Lawmakers Demand FBI Briefing On Jan. 6 Pipe-Bomb Probe Following Whistleblower Disclosures Regarding Suspect

    Authored by Debra Heine via American Greatness,

    Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee are demanding an FBI briefing on the status of their January 6 Pipe Bomb Investigation following disclosures that the feds have enough information to identify a suspect.

     

    In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) said the slow progression of the Bureau’s investigation into the pipe bombs “raises significant concerns about the FBI’s prioritization of that case in relation to other January 6 investigations.”

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    Former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin, a whistleblower who worked on the pipe bomb investigation, told the Washington Times that after planting the bombs, the suspect used a MetroRail SmarTrip card to travel through the Washington metro system to a stop in northern Virginia.

    “The FBI used security footage in the Northern Virginia to identify the license plate of the car that the individual entered,” the congressmen wrote. “Still, the FBI has not identified the subject.”

    The suspect was caught on surveillance video. He wore a sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, a pair of Air Max Speed Turf shoes with a yellow Nike logo, a backpack and gloves. He was recorded walking through Capitol Hill neighborhoods carrying what federal investigators said were two live pipe bombs.

    However, Mr. Seraphin said technicians determined the pipe bombs were inoperable.

    His story runs counter to the FBI’s official version that the devices could have detonated at any time. The bureau repeated that story in January while offering a $500,000 reward for information leading to the suspect’s arrest.

    Seraphin also told Times reporter Kerry Picket that a separate individual bought the Metrorail SmarTrip card one year before the pipe bomber suspect used it on Jan. 5, 2021.

    “The card had never been used before. It was bought a year prior by a retired chief master sergeant in the Air Force, and he was a security contractor. So he held a security clearance,”  Seraphin said.

    Mr. Seraphin and his team surveilled the retired airman, who lived in a Northern Virginia townhouse, for a couple of days and learned about his background.

    Although Mr. Seraphin, who also served in the Air Force, wanted to approach the Air Force veteran and talk to him, his bureau superiors forbade him to do so before his team was removed from the case.

    “I don’t know what they [eventually] did on that case, but I know that it was BS and the bombs were BS, and it seems like they had a good lead, and they could have run it down. But as far as I know, they never did,” he told the Times. “He may still be occasionally surveilled. That’s how dumb it gets.”

    The congressmen cited former FBI assistant director Christopher Swecker, who told Picket, “[i]t just doesn’t add up . . . [t]here’s just too much to work with to not know who this guy is.”

    The committee requested an update on the case in a briefing no later that June 7, 2023.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 22:00

  • Black Americans Embrace Florida
    Black Americans Embrace Florida

    Authored by Jeffrey Anderson via American Greatness,

    Governor Ron DeSantis is standing up for everyday Americans, which helps explain why people of all races are moving to Florida in droves…

    These days headlines read like parodies, which is certainly the case with the NAACP’s recent announcement that it has issued “a formal travel advisory for the state of Florida.” That’s right: The NAACP isn’t particularly worried about black people visiting North Korea, Iran, or inner-city neighborhoods in Chicago. It’s worried about them heading to Florida’s beaches or amusement parks. Why? Because Governor Ron DeSantis has led “unrelenting attacks on fundamental freedoms” such as the freedom to teach critical race theory and other divisive racial and transgender propaganda, in the state’s public schools at taxpayer expense.

    In truth, Florida has led the nation in ensuring Americans’ freedoms, and black Americans have taken notice. During COVID, while 40 states issued mask mandates, DeSantis led the resistance against the public-health cabal and ensured Floridians could live their lives as freedom-loving citizens, rather than as masked subjects. As a result of this and other sensible and freedom-promoting policies, black Americans have not only traveled to Florida but have moved there in large numbers. 

    Indeed, based on statistics from the Florida Department of Health, the number of black people who live in Florida rose 5.5 percent from 2018 (the year DeSantis was first elected as governor) to 2021 (the most recent figures available). That’s even more than the 4.5 percent increase in the state’s white population over that span. And it’s more than three times the 1.6 percent increase in the overall U.S. population across that three-year period. 

    Since DeSantis was elected, roughly a quarter of a million black Americans have freely chosen to move to the Sunshine State.

    The disconnect between the views of most black Americans and the views of the modern-day NAACP could hardly be more pronounced. 

    The NAACP has chosen to ally itself with LGBT activists, decreeing that “Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.”

    This “hostility,” the NAACP reports, is evidenced by DeSantis’ opposition to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) programs. The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT advocacy group, issued a parallel travel advisory, claiming that Florida is “hostile” to gay and trans people, while also objecting to Florida’s newly passed pro-life legislation, which protects developing children in the womb against the abortion lobby. 

    Another LGBT group, Equality Florida, suggests Florida’s duly passed laws pose too much of a “risk” for gay travelers to brave the Sunshine State.

    It writes, “Taken in their totality, Florida’s slate of laws and policies targeting basic freedoms and rights pose a serious risk to the health and safety of those traveling to the state.”

    Amazingly, the NAACP accuses DeSantis of trying to “appeal to a dangerous, extremist minority” in opposing critical-race theory (CRT) and DEI programs. In truth, CRT and DEI are pushed by aggressive, well-funded leftist activists who are themselves a dangerous, extremist minority. In opposing their efforts, DeSantis is standing up for everyday Americans. Indeed, he has been a model for doing so, which helps explain why people of all races are moving to Florida in droves.

    Based on statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, from July 1, 2020 to July 1, 2022, Florida led the nation in net domestic migration (which measures how many people moved to a given state from other states, minus the number who moved the other direction). Over that span, Florida added 563,000 residents in net domestic migration—more than the population of Miami. And it can’t just be the weather. Over that same span, California lost 802,000 residents in net domestic migration—nearly equal to the size of San Francisco. 

    The NAACP also preposterously claims that DeSantis is trying to “erase [b]lack history.” Perhaps the NAACP should limit its travel advisory to Walt Disney World, where a beloved ride based on slave folktales—Splash Mountain—was just canceled in an example of just the sort of wokeness that DeSantis is committed to fighting.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 21:30

  • Debt Ceiling Deal Between White House And GOP Reached In Principle
    Debt Ceiling Deal Between White House And GOP Reached In Principle

    The White House and GOP negotiators have reached an agreement in principle to raise the US debt ceiling, averting a default.

    The deal raises the debt limit and keeps non-defense spending ‘near flat’ for two years, while cutting and capping various federal programs, the NY Times reports. After 2025, however, there will be no budget caps.

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    It was structured with the aim of enticing votes from both parties, though it would most likely draw the ire not only of conservative Republicans but also Democrats furious at being asked to vote for cuts they oppose with the threat of default looming.

    If the progressives or the Freedom Caucus don’t blow it up, the plan has a chance of Congressional passage before June 5, the date Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned any deal must be finalized by in order to avoid hitting the “X-date”, when the Treasury can no longer meet its obligations.

    “After weeks of negotiations, we have come to an agreement in principle,” said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, adding that there are “historic reductions in spending” and “consequential reforms.”

    “There are no new taxes, no new government programs,” McCarthy continued, adding that they would be spending tonight writing the agreement.

    McCarthy expects a vote on Wednesday.

    In the House, Republicans hold a narrow majority – meaning unhappy right-wing lawmakers who have demanded significantly larger budget cuts in exchange for raising the ceiling may hold it hostage (lookin’ at you Gaetz).

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    That said, McCarthy can at least say he tried – inking in principle a compromise that would effectively freeze federal spending that had been slated to expand. McCarthy and Biden spoke by phone on Saturday to hammer out the final sticking points.

    White House budget director Shalanda Young, senior adviser Steve Ricchetti, and legislative affairs director Louisa Terrell crafted the deal with Representatives Garret Graves, a Louisiana Republican, Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican, and McCarthy’s chief of staff, Dan Meyer. –Bloomberg

    The White House issued a Saturday night statement largely echoing McCarthy’s – noting that the agreement “represents a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want.”

    Needless to say, Democrats are not happy.

    As we noted yesterday, a deal needed to materialize – and fast, as the Treasury’s cash balance has dwindled dangerously low.

    Putting this “deal” in context, the plan passed by the House GOP would reduce fiscal year ’24 spending by $130bn, or about 0.5% of GDP (setting aside the deficit saving from rescinding student debt forgiveness, which hasn’t been implemented yet and which may be struck down by the high court). At the other end, according to reports which indicate the White House may cap FY24 discretionary nondefense spending at FY23 levels would reduce spending by about 0.1% of GDP relative to a plausible baseline. So, the federal spending reduction for FY24 could range from 0.1% to 0.5% of GDP. The final “compromise” outcome – which may be announced as soon as Friday- will be a 0.2% spending cut.

    *  *  *

    Of course, this episode of can-kicking will be much like the next, and the next, until…

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 20:56

  • Top US General: Ukraine Should Not Use US Equipment To Attack Russia
    Top US General: Ukraine Should Not Use US Equipment To Attack Russia

    Authored by Connor Freeman via AntiWar.com,

    The top US general reaffirmed that Kiev has long been asked not to use military equipment provided by Washington to conduct attacks against Russian territory, according to Reuters. This policy is necessary because such attacks could provoke a direct clash between NATO and Russia, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley emphasized while speaking with reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday.

    Milley’s comments came after a neo-Nazi group, which operates as part of Kiev’s armed forces and cooperates with Ukrainian military intelligence, carried out a cross-border raid in Russia. Denis Nikitin is the leader of the Russian Volunteer Corps, which is said to be made up of Russian citizens including some members of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion who fought, since 2014, for Kiev during the Donbas war. Nikitin said his men were using US equipment, such as two M1224 MaxxPro armored vehicles, also known as MRAPs, during the raid. Members of another militia, the Freedom of Russia Legion, also participated in the assault.

    Getty Images

    According to Russian officials, the terrorists launched mortar and artillery attacks against civilian infrastructure and residential areas in the Belgorod region on Monday. Ukraine’s military intelligence hints that they were behind the attack, while stopping short of officially taking credit. Though, some documents included in the Discord Leaks suggest that Ukrainian President Zelensky’s regime was planning similar operations, specifically using these Russian volunteers equipped with “various qualitative types of NATO weapons.”

    According to the New York Times, US officials believe Kiev was behind Monday’s raid and the recent attempted drone strike on the Kremlin, which Moscow believes was an attempt to kill Russian President Vladimir Putin. The officials also believe Kiev is responsible for a series of assassinations and other covert attacks within Russia. Moreover, the deputy head of Ukraine’s main intelligence directorate admitted this week that they are actively attempting to assassinate Putin and other Russian officials.

    Kiev’s position is that the Belgorod raid was carried out independently from Zelensky’s intelligence and military services. But the Freedom of Russia Legion’s special representative, Ilya Ponomarev, said the group received Kiev’s “green light” regarding the attack. Pictures and videos posted by the Russian military have confirmed Nikitin’s claims.

    “It is no secret for us that more and more equipment is being delivered to Ukraine’s armed forces,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday when asked by reporters about the militias’ U.S.-made hardware.

    Contrarily, Milley refused to say Washington has drawn any firm conclusions yet. “I can’t say with definitive accuracy right this minute to you whether that – and I saw the same video – whether that’s U.S. supplied equipment or not, what was the nature of the attack, who did what to whom,” Milley insisted.

    He continued, “…but I can say that we have asked the Ukrainians not to use U.S.-supplied equipment for direct attacks into Russia.” For its part, Reuters stated they were “able to confirm the location of damaged [U.S.-made military hardware such as Humvee military trucks] and surrounding details shown in the video, though could not verify the date it was filmed.”

    Kiev has ostensibly pledged not to use long-range weapons provided by Washington to attack Russia, but leaked documents also show that Zelensky does not intend to keep his word. Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that “behind closed doors, Ukraine’s leader has proposed going in a more audacious direction – occupying Russian villages to gain leverage over Moscow, bombing a pipeline that transfers Russian oil to Hungary, a NATO member, and privately pining for long-range missiles to hit targets inside Russia’s borders, according to classified US intelligence documents detailing his internal communications with top aides and military leaders.”

    However, the Joe Biden administration has now greenlit their European allies’ plans to transfer F-16s to Ukraine. Biden proclaims that he has received Zelensky’s “flat assurance” that the fighter jets will not be used to attack Russia.

    Though, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) told a reporter on Wednesday that he “wouldn’t care if they did,” reflecting the uber hawkishness that has become acceptable within the US Congress. Furnishing Zelensky’s regime with warplanes was long ruled out over fears that it would be perceived by Moscow as the alliance directly entering the war.

    “We see that Western countries are still adhering to the escalation scenario. It involves colossal risks for themselves,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko admonished the alliance after the Western plans to send F-16s to Ukraine became public. When asked about the Russian official’s warning, Biden threatened “it is for them.”

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    Milley explained these restrictions are ostensibly implemented in hopes of avoiding a direct war with Russia. “Why is that? Because we don’t want – this is a Ukrainian war. It is not a war between the United States and Russia. It’s not a war between NATO and Russia,” Milley said.

    The general’s claims fall flat given the fact that, so far, the US has pledged $113 billion backing Kiev in this proxy war. Washington’s Ukraine policy is explicitly designed to “weaken” Russia as Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin made clear last year.

    The White House is shipping Bradley armored fighting vehicles, longer range rockets, Patriot missile systems, and M1 Abrams tanks to the battlefield. Concurrently, the CIA is reportedly conducting sabotage attacks on Russian infrastructure and the Pentagon has tacitly endorsed Kiev’s drone strikes hundreds of miles deep inside the Russian mainland. The UK has armed Zelensky’s regime with depleted uranium munitions, linked to cancer and birth defects, which are being fired at Russian troops by British tanks. Far exceeding the reach of any weapons system the US has pledged, London has equipped Kiev with Storm Shadow missiles with a range of more than 155 miles. The missiles can be fired by the MIG-29 warplanes NATO members Slovenia and Poland sent to Ukraine earlier this year.

    Beyond the Washington-led bloc’s massive military aid, an assortment of NATO commandos, US troops, CIA, and Special Operations forces are on the ground in Ukraine as well.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 20:30

  • State Farm Halts Home Insurance Sales In California
    State Farm Halts Home Insurance Sales In California

    Faltering California took another economic hit on Friday, as America’s largest personal lines insurer said it would immediately stop selling new home insurance policies in the state. California is the largest property and casualty insurance market in the country. 

    State Farm attributed the decision to three factors: “historic increases in construction costs outpacing inflation, rapidly growing catastrophe exposure, and a challenging reinsurance market.” Reinsurance is a method of transferring some of an insurer’s risk to other insurers.  

    Existing policies will stay in effect — for now. There’s always the possibility that, if things keep deteriorating, State Farm could decide to “non-renew” current policy-holders. That’s what AIG did last year, sending thousands of high-end homeowners scrambling to find new coverage.  

    The announcement’s timing — on a Friday afternoon heading into a long holiday weekend — seemed intended to minimize publicity. In statement, State Farm said it “will cease accepting new applications including all business and personal lines property and casualty insurance, effective May 27, 2023. This decision does not impact personal auto insurance.” The halt seems to include renters insurance, though the announcement wasn’t explicit on that count.

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    Inflation has been taking a harsh toll on insurers, who are pressing regulators to approve rate hikes to compensate for rising claim costs. Earlier this month, for example, San Antonio-based USAA posted the first ever annual loss in its 100-year history — a $1.3 billion setback.  

    In California, insurers have also been contending with high wildfire risks, and many have curtailed coverage in wildfire-prone regions, or clamped down on homes that lack certain fire-thwarting characteristics, which range from building materials to clearing space between the structure and surrounding trees. 

    State Farm diplomatically acknowledged the California government’s efforts to make the state a viable place for property insurers to operate in, but implied their efforts to date have been insufficient:  

    “We take seriously our responsibility to manage risk. We recognize the Governor’s administration, legislators, and the California Department of Insurance (CDI) for their wildfire loss mitigation efforts. We pledge to work constructively with the CDI and policymakers to help build market capacity in California. However, it’s necessary to take these actions now to improve the company’s financial strength.”

    A Napa home is destroyed by wildfire in October 2017 (Josh Edelson, AFP/Getty Images via USA Today)

    The property insurance situation in the Golden State is spiraling into crisis, and horror stories abound. For example, consider a San Diego County homeowners association (HOA) comprising 187 townhouses. The HOA had been been paying $54,000 for property insurance. After the policy was non-renewed, the HOA ended up with a new carrier charging a $293,000 premium — prompting an emergency assessment from each owner. 

    California already has a notoriously high cost of living, ranking second only to Hawaii in the percentage of homeowners (29.7%) who spend more than 30% of their gross income on housing costs. The departure of the country’s largest home insurance provider won’t do anything to help the insurance component of those costs.  

    There could be follow-on insurance-market effects from State Farm’s departure, as homeowners who would have been insured by State Farm are now forced to seek quotes from companies who are themselves increasingly reluctant to expand their exposure in the state. In a vicious circle effect, some could wind up following State Farm’s example.     

    It all promises to put more pressure on California’s FAIR plan, a state-run scheme to provide coverage to those who can’t obtain protection from private insurers. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 20:00

  • Sex Traffickers Are Victimizing Children All Across The US
    Sex Traffickers Are Victimizing Children All Across The US

    Authored by Jana J. Pruet via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    On any given day—in communities across the nation—thousands of children are being victimized by sex traffickers.

    Officials search for missing children as part of “Operation Not Forgotten” in Georgia in August 2020. (Courtesy of Shane T. McCoy/U.S. Marshals)

    In 2022, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received 31.9 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation—up from 29.3 million reports in 2021 and 21.7 million in 2020. NCEMC is a national nonprofit founded in 1984 by John and Revé Walsh, whose son Adam, 6, was abducted from a department store in Florida in 1981. The boy was later found murdered.

    Many are unaware that child sex trafficking is a growing problem in the United States, regarding it as an issue occurring in other countries. But the reality is that this problem happens every day—close to home—in big cities, small towns, and rural areas in every state.

    And it could be happening right next door.

    Children at Risk

    Child sex trafficking is the “recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a minor for the purpose of a commercial sex act,” according to federal law.

    “No child is immune to becoming a victim of child sex trafficking, regardless of the child’s race, age, socioeconomic status, or location, and every child involved in this form of commercial sexual exploitation is a victim.”

    The majority of missing child reports involve children who run away from home, putting them at a high risk of falling prey to sex traffickers, Staca Shehan, vice president of analytical services at NCEMC, told The Epoch Times in an interview.

    Last year, there were 359,094 entries for missing children entered into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC). In 2021, there were 337,195 total entries. The number of entries represents the number of reports, meaning a child who runs away multiple times in that year could be recorded multiple times.

    In 2022, NCEMC assisted law enforcement, families, and child welfare with 27,644 missing children cases.

    One in six runaways who were reported missing were likely victims of child sex trafficking, according to data collected by the organization.

    “The numbers that we have remained consistent the past few years,” Shehan said. “One in six of the more than 25,000 cases of children reported missing to the national center in 2022, who had run away, were likely victims of child sex trafficking.

    Children living in group homes or those who have been part of the child welfare system are “extremely” susceptible to recruitment by traffickers, Shehan said.

    “Traffickers have been known to find where the local group home is and hang out outside, Shehan said. “[They’re] looking to engage and start conversations and start to recruit kids for victimization through trafficking.”

    Social media, online gaming sites, and other seemingly innocuous websites are frequently used by perpetrators for recruiting.

    “[The child] is playing a video game and meets somebody on that game,” Katia Gonzalez of Alliance for Children in Tarrant County told The Epoch Times. “They’re engaging on that site, and that person asks them to switch to a more dangerous site like Snapchat.”

    Messages on Snapchat disappear after 24 hours, making it difficult to track your child’s activity, Gonzalez explained.

    She said the adult would often say things like, “I really have a great time with you” as a way of building a relationship with the child and gaining their trust.

    Many times, children do not realize that they have been exploited because they trusted the adult who victimized them, Gonzalez said, adding that parents should take notice if their child suddenly has money or things they did not buy for them or they become secretive.

    Other risk factors include youth who have a history of mental health issues, drug use, sexual abuse, low self-esteem, poor academics, and minimal social support, according to the National Center of Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE).

    A 15-year-old girl in Arizona went to a high school football game where she “met a friendly 20-year-old woman,” a trafficking researcher wrote on the NCSSLE website. They began chatting, and soon the woman ran across the street to buy the teen girl a cell phone. But the gift came with a catch.

    “The girl would need to repay the newly acquired debt by giving men ‘massages in motel rooms.”

    Many times, human smuggling and sex trafficking go hand in hand, DPS Sgt. Steven Blanco told The Epoch Times, adding that children coming into the U.S. alone are at great risk for child sex trafficking recruiters.

    “Research has shown that there’s a lot of unaccompanied minors coming across the border, and once they are in the United States after being smuggled in, where they go throughout the country is very hard to track,” Blanco said, adding that these youth are vulnerable to recruiters because they are alone and have no money.

    It is difficult to know for certain how many children are being victimized in the U.S.

    “The unfortunate reality is, I don’t know of anyone who has that statistic,” Shehan said. “I don’t know of any organization, [or] anything that has the nationwide total of children being victimized through trafficking. And that’s why we started to track it with the missing child cases to put out at least a trend from what we’re seeing.”

    Shehan said she believes the numbers are “much higher” because there are four forms of child sex trafficking.

    Forms of Child Sex Trafficking

    There are four forms of child sex trafficking, Shehan explained.

    The first form is pimp-controlled trafficking. The trafficker develops an intentional relationship with the child and uses it as leverage for exploitation.

    “We’ve learned from survivors of child sex trafficking that their traffickers would send them home at night or back to their group home,” Shehan said, adding they may have multiple cell phones or apps to provide access to multiple phone numbers making it difficult for law enforcement to track.

    Another type is gang-controlled trafficking, where the child is being recruited, controlled, and sold by a gang member or the organization as a whole as a means of making money, Sheehan explained.

    The third form is familial trafficking. The child attends school and lives in the home with their parents or guardians, but they are being controlled and sold by a family member, or someone the child believes is a relative.

    The last form is buyer-perpetrated trafficking, where the buyer exploits the child’s survival needs.

    “It’s a buyer who’s directly exploiting that child’s vulnerabilities,” Shehan said. “A missing child who runs away doesn’t necessarily have their birth certificate or identification, something they would need to get a job.”

    Without a job, the child has no money for food, shelter, or clothing.

    “So, buyers will take advantage of that and offer to either let them stay with them in exchange for sex” or offer food or money to the child, Shehan continued.

    Blanco said sex trafficking is a problem that requires everyone’s attention and everyone’s action.

    “If you see something, say something. If you’re a victim, or you believe someone is a victim, or you have knowledge of something you believe is suspicious, as far as human trafficking, child exploitation, child abuse or neglect, always reach out to local law enforcement,” Blanco said.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 19:30

  • DeSantis Decks Trump With Accusations Of "Running To The Left"
    DeSantis Decks Trump With Accusations Of “Running To The Left”

    Days after Ron DeSantis (R) announced his bid for president in 2024, the Florida Governor has come out swinging against his Donald Trump – accusing his chief rival of “running to the left” after siding with (woke) Disney vs. Florida.

    “I don’t know what happened to Donald Trump,” DeSantis told WWTN radio in Nashville. “This is a different guy today than when he was running in 2015 and 2016. And I think, I think the direction that he’s going with his campaign is the wrong direction.”

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    More via Bloomberg;

    On spending, DeSantis said Trump shares responsibility for the nation’s $31 trillion in debt. “He added almost $8 trillion in debt in just four years as president,” he said. “I was right on those issues and he wasn’t.”

    On abortion, DeSantis defended Florida’s newly enacted six-week abortion ban against Trump criticism that it was “too harsh” and that DeSantis didn’t know what he was doing. 

    *  *  *

    On immigration, DeSantis accused Trump of supporting amnesty for undocumented immigrants as part of a 2018 immigration bill. “To hit me for taking the America First position I think is pretty strange,” DeSantis said. 

    The Trump campaign responded that as a congressman, DeSantis voted for a bill that gave legal status to some undocumented minors as part of a package of tougher immigration restrictions, before opposing a similar plan. 

    DeSantis also spoke with the Daily Wire‘s Ben Shapiro, slamming Trump on his approach to crime.

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    Trump has been taking shots at DeSantis for months – including this video making fun of DeSantis’ glitchy 2024 announcement on Twitter spaces (which received way more attention due to said glitches than it would have otherwise).

    “What a mess it is,” Trump said on Thursday regarding the Disney dispute. “He could have worked out an easy settlement, but no — he wanted to show the fake news how tough a guy he is. He’s not.”

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsDeSantis has gained ground on Trump since late April despite the former president maintaining a clear lead.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 19:00

  • Lindsay Graham Meets With Zelensky – Says Ukraine War 'Best Money We've Ever Spent'
    Lindsay Graham Meets With Zelensky – Says Ukraine War ‘Best Money We’ve Ever Spent’

    Lindsay Graham, a remnant of the Bush era Neocon fold, has been a busy bee in the past year.  He has visited Ukraine at least three times since the war with Russia began, called for the assassination of Vladimir Putin, called for the US to directly attack Russian planes, and he’s even demanded that the US put troops on the ground in Taiwan to fight the Chinese.  It just goes to show that there are certainly a number of politicians that identify as GOP Republicans that do not represent the will of most conservatives and moderates.

    Graham’s latest visit with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has been broadly publicized.  Andriy Yermak, the head of the president’s office, released footage of the meeting, intercut with dramatic piano music for effect:

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    The notion of “bi-partisan support” is broached with Graham applauding, saying that US efforts in Ukraine are “The best money we’ve ever spent.”  Congress approved over $113 billion in funds to Ukraine in 2022 alone, and around 60% of that was directed into Ukraine’s military.   

    Zelensky once again asked for long range weapons and air defense systems at the meeting, which might indicate that Russian missile and drone bombardment has been more effective than the Ukrainians have been admitting.  The recent destruction of a Patriot missile battery in Kiev suggests that current air defenses are not adequate to counter Russian hypersonic weapons. 

    Though full transcripts of the discussion are not available, there was also some coverage of the Wagner Group. According to Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin, topics included “continued joint efforts to counter the criminal activities of the Wagner Group in Ukraine and beyond…”  Even after the Wagner Group successfully defeated NATO trained Ukraine forces in Bakhmut, Lindsay Graham suggests that “the Russians are done.”

    This kind of premature celebration does make one wonder if NATO is giving Ukraine false hope in their chances of gaining back any territory in the Donbas, let alone Crimea, given their long hinted “counter-offensive” has still not materialized.  And Graham’s suggestion of bi-partisan US support is curious given polls show support from both sides of the political spectrum is waning.      

    American zeal for aid to Ukraine was never as widespread as the media made it seem, and there are no streets in the US with Ukrainian flags flying high as Joe Biden once claimed.  However, among Democrats there has been a larger margin of blind enthusiasm for the war effort.  This is changing. 

    Polling now shows that even on the political left there has been a marked decline in support, with the idea of any US military involvement becoming highly unpopular.  After almost 20 years of fighting in a host of countries including Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria under the direction of people like George Bush, Lindsay Graham and Barack Obama, Americans are growing rather tired of the war hawks.  

    In the case of Ukraine, the political dynamic seems to have flipped, with Democrats now becoming the war party while conservatives largely oppose involvement.  Meetings like the one featured from Lindsay Graham may be designed to draw out the war by encouraging empty bravado, when diplomacy and an ending to the conflict should be the goal.  But where does it end?  If Graham has his way, the inevitable result would be WWIII.    

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 18:55

  • Doug Casey On The Death Of Privacy… And What Comes Next
    Doug Casey On The Death Of Privacy… And What Comes Next

    Authored by Doug Casey via InternationalMan.com,

    International Man: In practically every country, the allowable limit for cash withdrawals and transactions continues to be lowered.

    Further, rampant currency debasement is lowering the real value of these ridiculous limits.

    Why are governments so intent on phasing out cash? What is really behind this coordinated effort?

    Doug Casey: Let me draw your attention to three truths that my friend Nick Giambruno has pointed out about money in bank accounts.

    #1. The money isn’t really yours. You’re just another unsecured creditor if the bank goes bust.

    #2. The money isn’t actually there. It’s been lent out to borrowers who are illiquid or insolvent.

    #3. The money isn’t really money. It’s credit created out of thin air.

    The point is that cash is freedom. And when the State limits the utility of cash—physical dollars that don’t leave an electronic trail—they are limiting your personal freedom to act and compromising your privacy.

    Governments are naturally opposed to personal freedom and personal privacy because those things limit their control, and governments are all about control.

    International Man: Governments will probably mandate Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) as the “solution” when the next real or contrived crisis hits—which is likely not far off.

    What’s your take? What are the implications for financial privacy?

    Doug Casey: CBDCs are proposed as a solution, but in fact, they’re a gigantic problem.

    Government is not your friend, and CBDCs are not a solution.

    If they successfully implement CBDCs, it would mean that anything you buy or sell, and any income you earn, will go through CBDCs. You will have zero effective privacy. The Authorities will automatically know what you own, and they’ll be in a position to control your assets. Instantly.

    They’ll be able to add CBDCs to the accounts of favored people and subtract from or block access to the accounts of those who aren’t. Digital dollars will be easy to implement since everybody already has a government ID and a Social Security account. Everybody has a smartphone. Soon everybody will have a CBDC account as well. If you lack any of these things, it will certainly ding your oncoming Social Credit Score.

    I’ll go so far as to say that Central Bank Digital Currencies and digital “health passports” may be the most dangerous threats to the freedom and independence of the average human being in modern history. They will allow the State to easily control where you can go, what you can do, and what you can own. They’re both very big deals, and they’ll be daily facts of life.

    In today’s world, it’s increasingly dangerous to say things that run counter to what’s considered politically correct. If you can’t say something, it’s much harder to do something. And indoctrination through education and the media are making it hard to even think. We will soon be living in a society where you can neither think, say, nor do anything that isn’t PC. Again, the problem is promoted as a solution.

    It’s much like what happened during the great COVID hysteria, which was a relatively minor problem from a medical point of view. The State solution was mass lockdowns and mass vaccination. The solutions were much worse than the problem.

    In any event, free speech is dying with cancel culture, trigger warnings, safe spaces, and penalties for so-called hate speech. Free speech should be an absolute—including so-called hate speech.

    I’d like to reemphasize that although “hate speech” is typically impolite, unpleasant, and acrimonious, it is, perhaps paradoxically, a good thing. Why? Because it allows you to identify what’s going on in the mind of the person who utters it. And I would much rather know what somebody’s thinking and what somebody’s likely to do than have a tight lid put on so-called hate speech. I prefer knowing who I’m dealing with and what they think and feel.

    International Man: It’s not just financial privacy but privacy across the board that is being buried.

    Cellphones, so-called “smart” appliances, electric vehicles, social media, and other electronic devices create an all-encompassing surveillance system that most people voluntarily opt into.

    What is really going on here?

    Doug Casey: It’s been said that while art imitates life, life also imitates art. Especially when we look at George Orwell’s famous novel, 1984. In the book, Big Brother had ubiquitous video screens monitoring what the plebs did. We now have hundreds of millions of cameras all around the world—not counting billions more in smartphones. Universal surveillance is making for very grim times.

    Recently, Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum said that everything will be “transparent”—a euphemism for darker things. But don’t worry: you have nothing to fear, he said, if you do nothing wrong. That’s ridiculous. It’s exactly what the Stasi, the KGB, and the Gestapo said.

    I wonder if Schwab would be willing to have a camera observe him in his bathroom and bedroom, when he visits his safe deposit box and has a private conversation with friends—or fellow conspirators? Of course not. Transparency is only for the potentially dangerous plebs, who may not share the views of their betters.

    One of the differences between a civilized society and a primitive, barbaric society, is privacy. In primitive societies, privacy doesn’t exist. You have paper-thin walls in your hut. Everybody sees everything you do and everybody you talk to.

    One of the nice things about civilization is that you can get away from other people and keep them from observing you. Privacy is one of the central elements of civilization itself.

    Eliminating privacy, whether it be personal or financial, is not only an aggression against individuals but destructive of civilization itself. Schwab’s “transparency” is a regression towards barbarism.

    International Man: It seems privacy is dead for most people.

    If that is the case, what comes next? Where is this trend headed?

    Doug Casey: The first time that it became apparent to me on a personal level was at a police station in D.C., where I was paying a fine for some traffic violation. I got to chatting with the cop in back of the computer screen. This was a long time ago, in the late 70’s.

    And as we talked, he said, in a friendly way, “Look, you don’t have any idea how much information we have on you—but it’s a lot.”

    He wasn’t trying to intimidate me; he was just observing a fact. And that was a long time ago.

    About 25 years ago, Larry Ellison, the head of Oracle Corporation, came out and made a shocking statement to the effect of “Privacy doesn’t exist, forget about it.” At the time, I thought it sounded like Ellison approved of it, but now I don’t think that was the case. He was just pointing out a reality.

    Most recently, Arnold Schwarzenegger made an ad during the COVID hysteria. He said, “To hell with your freedom,” encouraging people to stop protesting about getting their shots.

    Children no longer say, “Hey, it’s a free country,” when one says or does something that another doesn’t like.

    People have been programmed not to take privacy seriously. Worse, they’re now suspicious of it and passively accept the fact that it doesn’t exist.

    With China’s Social Credit System, everything you do, everywhere you go, and even everything you say is recorded and reported. We’re going to get our own version. You’ll be rewarded or punished according to what the ruling elite think is good or bad.

    So the question is: when, if ever, will this trend turn around? Well, I’m not sure it’s any longer a question of “when.” It’s more a question of “if”—at least within a reasonable time frame. The trend is not only still in motion but accelerating. A lack of privacy means a lack of freedom. And a lack of freedom is what characterizes a serf—although in today’s world, you’re a serf with a high standard of living.

    International Man: How can the average person protect their privacy and limit their exposure to State and corporate surveillance?

    Doug Casey: Limit airing your personal thoughts and actions on Facebook, LinkedIn, and similar types of social media. It’s all accessible to anybody and makes it much easier for the State to control you.

    In my case, I’ve made part of my living by doing the opposite of what you should do. I understand it’s a contradiction. It’s the path that I’ve chosen. But from a personal freedom point of view, it’s not a wise path. I’m reluctant to say so, but I’d advise others not to choose it. It amounts to painting a target on your back.

    At this point, if you want to maximize your personal freedom, you ought to consider living in a country where you’re not a citizen. That’s because governments consider citizens to be their subjects, their assets, their property. However, when you’re a foreign citizen living in a foreign country, the local government tends to consider you a non-threat, almost a non-person. Sad to say, in today’s world, from a personal freedom point of view, you’re better off not living in your own country. That certainly includes the US and Canada.

    From a financial point of view, it’s very important that you own and hold physical gold and silver, physically in your own possession, as opposed to electronically. Paper or electronic accounts are fine for speculating. But you want to have a considerable cache of the physical metals for safety. Plus, at some point, they will revert to day-to-day money.

    Lastly, put a layer of protection between you and the bad guys. Don’t be afraid to use corporations and trusts in the right jurisdictions. Create barriers to make it harder for the bad guys to find out who owns something and where that person really is.

    *  *  *

    The political and economic climate is constantly changing… and not always for the better. Obtaining the political diversification benefits of a second passport is crucial to ensuring you won’t fall victim to a desperate government. That’s why Doug Casey and his team just released a new complementary report, “The Easiest Way to a Second Passport.” It contains all the details about one of the easiest countries to obtain a second passport from. Click here to download it now.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 18:30

  • Taliban Attacks Iran Border Post – Multiple Troops Dead & Wounded
    Taliban Attacks Iran Border Post – Multiple Troops Dead & Wounded

    Heavy gunfire between Taliban militants and the Iranian military broke out at a shared border on Saturday, resulting in the deaths of at least two Iranian border guards and more wounded.

    The flare-up between Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran comes amid a fierce dispute over water rights, specifically concerning access of drought-stricken Iran to the Helmand River.

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    Each side accused the other of opening fire first, with IRNA claiming that the Iranian side inflicted “heavy casualties and serious damage” on the Taliban side, but numbers of Afghan casualties have remained unclear.

    Later in the day Saturday the situation was described as being under control, with Tehran officials warning against further incursions.

    “The border forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will decisively respond to any border trespassing and aggression, and the current authorities of Afghanistan must be held accountable for their unmeasured and contrary actions to international principles,” Iran’s police chief, Gen. Ahmadreza Radan, was quoted as saying in state media.

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    And in return the Taliban said, “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan considers dialogue to be a reasonable way for any problem,” according Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khawarazmi.

    He added: “Making excuses for war and negative actions is not in the interest of any of the parties.” There’s been a running disagreement over water rights in the tense border region.

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    Ever since the United States’ August 2021 rapid Afghan pullout fiasco, with the Taliban taking firm control and inheriting billions worth of weapons and vehicles in the process, there’s been concern voiced by other countries in the region over border security.

    Afghanistan and Iran in particularly have been historic rivals, given both practice hardline versions of Islam, but one Sunni and the other Shia. 

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    Each side also has a sizeable ‘minority population’ of the other’s religious tradition living within their respective borders, leading to tensions especially within these communities in the border areas.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 18:00

  • China Rebuffing All Contact With US Military: Pentagon
    China Rebuffing All Contact With US Military: Pentagon

    Top Pentagon officials have once again said that China is ignoring and rebuffing the US military’s attempts to establish and open line of communication, which is crucial to avoiding inadvertent conflict in regions such as in the South China Sea where both naval powers operate. 

    “Open communication channels between the US and China are important in maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Affairs Ely Ratner said on Thursday,” regional media reports.

    “The Pentagon’s attempts to reach out to China’s military in recent months have been ignored or rebuffed,” Ratner told an audience at the DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    Via AP

    He sought to stress that the Pentagon “believes in the importance of open lines of communication with the PRC [People’s Republic of China] and we have sought to build out those open lines of communication. Unfortunately… we’ve had a lot of difficulty when we have proposed phone calls, meetings, dialogues.”

    “The US and Department of Defense have had an outstretched hand on this question of military to military engagement, but we have yet to have consistently willing partners,” Ratner emphasized further.

    Earlier this month there was hope that US-China dialogue would be back on track following the meeting between National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Chinese Communist Party Politburo Member and China’s Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission Wang Yi in Vienna on May 10-11.

    That meeting was generally reported and regarded as positive, given that before that all such high level diplomatic contacts had been off ever since the ‘spy balloon’ shootdown incident over the American east coast in early February.

    But even if the rival militaries are struggling to keep open communications, Washington and Beijing are pushing forward with trade talks:

    U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo sat down with her Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao in Washington D.C. on Thursday to discuss “concerns” surrounding bilateral trade.

    Marking the first cabinet-level exchange between the two countries in months, the U.S. talked about American companies operating in China.

    According to a readout by the Commerce Department, “The two had candid and substantive discussions on issues relating to the U.S.-China commercial relationship, including the overall environment in both countries for trade and investment and areas for potential cooperation.”

    Raimondo further “raised concerns about the recent spate of PRC [People’s Republic of China] actions taken against U.S. companies operating in the PRC,” the statement indicated.

    Looming large in the background is the Biden administration’s continuing policy of “arming Taiwan to the teeth” – even if the process of seeing specific weapons deals through has slowed based on bureaucratic red tape, according to complaints from Congress members.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 17:00

  • Christian Students Sue Professor, Claim She Forced Them To Pay $99 To Fund Left-Wing Activism
    Christian Students Sue Professor, Claim She Forced Them To Pay $99 To Fund Left-Wing Activism

    Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Two Christian students at Michigan State University are suing a former professor, alleging that she forced them and hundreds of other students to pay a $99 membership fee to her own left-wing activist group as part of the course requirements.

    An entrance to Michigan State University located in East Lansing, Michigan. (Shutterstock)

    In a complaint (pdf) filed last week in a federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, second-year business students Nathan Barbieri and Nolan Randomski said they enrolled in a required business communication course taught by Amy Wisner this spring.

    Wisner, who described herself as “a single mom by choice, speaker, author, rebel professor, and social justice warrior” on a mission to “cancel the Patriarchy,” required that each of her roughly 600 students pay $99 to sign up for an online group called “The Rebellion Community.”

    “This is a global social learning community with a private space dedicated to this course,” a syllabus of the course read. “You will engage with live and recorded content and connect with peers, alumni, and others for dialogue about important business issues.”

    “Your membership fees are used to (1) pay for use of the technology and (2) pay guest speakers, educators, and facilitators,” it added. “Your professor does not receive any financial compensation from your membership fees as that would be a conflict of interest.”

    However, according to Barbieri and Randomski, Wisner could have just uploaded the course material to the university’s online platform, “Desire to Learn,” which provides all services related to the class and allows all students to use it without having to pay an extra fee.

    The two students, represented by conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, also said they soon discovered that Wisner was the creator and controller of The Rebellion Community and its website and that she had said in different contexts that the money would be used to support left-wing causes, including abortion provider Planned Parenthood.

    “The Rebellion community is a safe place to coordinate our efforts to burn everything to the [explicit] ground. 100 percent of membership fees are donated to Planned Parenthood,” the professor wrote in a Facebook post.

    The suing students also claimed they have reason to believe that Wisner used the subscription money collected from students to fund “The Rebellion RV,” a left-wing activist project she described as “an RV roadtrip [sic] around the United States to cocreate communities of rebels committed to doing the work” and “igniting action at the local level.”

    On May 1, Wisner posted a video to Instagram showing an RV with the caption “Let the games begin!” The students claimed that this vehicle was bought with the money her students were made to pay to The Rebellion Community.

    Barbieri and Randomski, who identify as Christians opposing abortion and the left-wing interpretation of concepts like “rebellion,” accused Wisner and two other university administrators of violating their First Amendment rights by compelling them to fund political causes that contradict their views.

    “They do not wish to financially support the speech of others that contradicts their views, and they do not wish to become members of groups organized for the purpose of promoting messages that contradict their views,” the complaint stated.

    Following student complaints, Michigan State University placed Wisner on leave and assigned another professor to teach the class for the remainder of the semester, according to a March 1 email to students.

    The university also offered a refund—roughly $60,000 in total—to students who paid for their Rebellion Community membership because the platform was “no longer required for the course.”

    Barbieri and Radomski, however, said the refund came from the university and that Wisner still has the money. They want her to refund her students herself and provide a full accounting of how their membership fees were used.

    “A $99 credit to the students’ University account does nothing to erase the constitutional harm that already occurred, nor to stop Ms. Wisner from continuing to use the money she unlawfully extracted from Plaintiffs to support her own advocacy and the advocacy of organizations that Plaintiffs oppose,” the complaint reads.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 16:30

  • Citywide Youth Curfew Begins In Baltimore As Mayor Strives To Restore Law And Order
    Citywide Youth Curfew Begins In Baltimore As Mayor Strives To Restore Law And Order

    About six weeks after an incident where hundreds of teenagers wreaked havoc in Baltimore City’s Inner Harbor area, the city’s progressive leadership finally introduced a curfew Friday night to keep kids off the streets during late night hours. 

    Local media outlet WBAL reported city residents received a message and phone calls on Friday, reminding them, “Curfew ordinance is in effect from 11 pm. to 6 am all summer.” 

    The 11 pm to 6 am curfew is for weekends and holidays and impacts teenagers aged 14, 15, and 16. Another curfew for youngsters under 13 begins at 9 pm. 

    “Under the mayor’s plan, police officers will focus on groups of 10 or more young people, and identification will not be demanded,” WBAL said. 

    The curfew will be enforced in Inner Harbor, Fells Point, and Federal Hill — these areas are home to higher-income households, as well as bars and restaurants. 

    “There will be no pat-downs unless safety is an issue, and officers will not engage until a youth connection worker is at the scene,” WBAL continued. 

    There are a few exceptions to the curfew. One is that parents or guardians can accompany a minor during curfew hours. 

    If a youngster is found breaking the curfew, a relative could face fines of up to $500 for repeat offenses.

    For more color on why the mayor is implementing a curfew on the youth, last month’s incident shows just why:

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    For your safety, it might be wise to steer clear of Democrat cities as crime is rampant. 

     

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 16:00

  • IMF Warns Of Prolonged High Interest Rates, Urges Fiscal Tightening To Tackle Inflation
    IMF Warns Of Prolonged High Interest Rates, Urges Fiscal Tightening To Tackle Inflation

    Authored by Liam Cosgrove via The Epoch Times,

    In a recent statement following its comprehensive assessment of U.S. policies, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) emphasized the need for the United States to maintain higher interest rates for an extended period to curb inflation.

    Additionally, the IMF urged Washington to adopt stricter fiscal measures to address the country’s mounting federal debt.

    Despite the U.S. economy demonstrating resilience in the face of tighter monetary and fiscal policies, the IMF noted that inflation has proved more persistent than initially anticipated.

    The IMF’s evaluation, known as the “Article IV” review, included a growth forecast of 1.7 percent for the entirety of 2023, slightly surpassing the organization’s previous estimate of 1.6 percent in April. On a quarter-to-quarter comparison, output was projected to decline by 1.2 percent in the fourth quarter.

    The IMF anticipates that the federal funds rate will reach its peak this year at 5.4 percent, exceeding the nominal 5.25 percent Fed rate, before gradually declining to 4.9 percent by 2024.

    “While both core and headline PCE inflation are expected to decrease throughout 2023, they are predicted to remain significantly above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2 percent throughout the next two years,” the IMF’s May 26 statement read.

    “With a large share of household and corporate debt contracted at relatively long duration and fixed rates, household consumption and corporate investment have proven less interest-sensitive than in past tightening cycles.”

    The international organization warned that, because of these factors, monetary policy may need to get even tighter than today’s already restrictive levels.

    “This creates a material risk that the Federal Reserve will have to raise the policy rate by significantly more than is currently expected to return inflation to 2 percent.”

    IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva participates in a town hall discussion with civil society organizations at IMF headquarters in Washington on Oct. 10, 2022. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

    During a May 26 press conference, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva stressed the urgent need for the U.S. government to address its deficits, particularly by implementing higher tax revenues.

    “The sooner we implement this adjustment, the better,” she said.

    “It is important to note that the fiscal adjustment can be front-loaded, which would assist the Federal Reserve in its efforts to combat inflation.”

    Georgieva expressed hope that Washington would find a timely resolution to the ongoing debt ceiling crisis, warning against the dire consequences of a catastrophic default that would further disrupt the global economy.

    “The U.S. Treasury market serves as a crucial stabilizing force for the global financial system,” the IMF director said, highlighting the contraction many economies are currently experiencing.

    “If this anchor is disturbed, the world economy—the vessel that carries us all—will navigate uncertain and turbulent waters.”

    She appealed to U.S. lawmakers, urging them to devise an alternative approach to managing debt that eliminates the need for annual debt ceiling brinkmanship.

    “Could you please explore different avenues to address this issue?”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 15:30

  • CNN Poll Says 66% Of Americans Believe Another Joe Biden Term Will 'Lead To Disaster'
    CNN Poll Says 66% Of Americans Believe Another Joe Biden Term Will ‘Lead To Disaster’

    Following an Associated Press/NORC poll in April which indicated that only 26% of Democrats want Joe Biden to run for a second term as president, a recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS now shows that 66% of all Americans (not just Republicans) believe that another four years of Biden could lead to ‘disaster.’  Even CNN can’t dismiss the “horrible news” any longer.

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    The reasons behind this massive decline in support vary.  Biden’s bizarre behavior during the entirety of his first term has led to multiple embarrassing displays during diplomatic events, and many people are beginning to suspect he is suffering from some form of dementia.  Biden has a long list of recorded flubs and outright fantasy tales, from multiple claims that his son “died in the Iraq war” when he actually died of brain cancer…

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    To his constant aimless wandering as if he does not know where he is…

    The feeling of unease is only multiplied by the increasing tensions between NATO and Russia.  With nuclear arms involved, it may be valid to demand that Biden finally take a cognitive test.  Democrats are right to be worried.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 15:00

  • Luongo: No Truce With The Heartland
    Luongo: No Truce With The Heartland

    Authored by Tom Luongo via Gold, Goats, ‘n Guns blog,

    All of us so-called geopolitical analysts owe a debt to Halford John Mackinder. His 1904 paper, “The Geographical Pivot of History” is the basis for nearly all strategic thinking in today’s policy rooms, think tanks, and military academies of the West.

    We’ve all heard the first three rules of Mackinder:

    Who rules Eastern Europe commands the Heartland…

    Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island…

    Who rules the World Island commands the world

    Because of the dominance of Mackinder’s ideas and the policies erected to support it, the world has been subjected to endless conflict over his conception of the “World Island,” which is basically Eurasia.

    And that’s why there can be no losing for the West in Ukraine. To the Mackinderists at the top of the power structures in London, Washington D.C. and Brussels, losing Ukraine means losing the entire world, because they have this very-outdated view of world geography.

    Mackinder-ism in today’s world is a tautology, reducing to: We have to control the Heartland because we can’t lose the Heartland.

    In this singular quest to win the Heartland the West has bankrupted itself — economically, morally, and most importantly, spiritually. This has led to a political crisis gnawing at the center of western society.

    Alastair Crooke’s latest piece sums up the situation perfectly, “The EU Is Over-Invested in the Ukrainian War-Project.“

    But it isn’t just the EU that has done this. So has the UK. So too the US.

    The cost/benefit analysis of continuing the Ukraine project has reached the tipping point. The problem now is too many in power, like European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, still believe they have room to maneuver in a conflict looking increasingly stuck in the geopolitical mud of the Donbass.

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    The optics at the G7 meeting couldn’t be more stark. Meeting in the one city that is the ultimate symbol of Western madness, Hiroshima, the symbolism was very clear. We are united in our self-righteousness and if you don’t like it, remember what happened to Japan.

    We will destroy the planet in order to save it. Indivisible European/Asian security is a euphemism for global war.

    No amount of failure seems to dissuade these people. Because failure is simply not an option.

    The problem however, is that their myopia is predictable.

    Bad Code

    When you reduce all of your guiding principles to three lines of code, defeating that code becomes pretty easy, strategically. It doesn’t matter if Mackinder was right or not. He wasn’t. What matters is that the policy-makers think he was.

    We’ve all spent too many words working through this. It’s very simple.

    If you know your opponent will throw everything they have at a conflict then your strategy is a simple one; destroy everything they throw at it until they run out of money, men, and materiel to throw into it.

    And this is exactly what Russia has done.

    It is exactly what I expected them to do at the outset of the war (here, here, and here) failing a swift victory over Ukraine; continue their war of attrition across all theaters against the West until they either 1) sue for peace or 2) collapse under the weight of their own hubris.

    Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (Who else?), put the kibosh on any early negotiated settlement between Russia and Ukraine.

    To Crooke’s point, the West’s investment in Ukraine was simply too big to give up that easily. Believing the ultimate sanctions package would overthrow Putin and destabilize Russia, both Davos and the Anglo-neocons bet too heavily on this working. As my dad used to say about pro athletes, “he spends too much time reading his press clippings…”

    Two very Establishment Anglo-American media in the UK (in which U.S. Establishment messages often surface) finally – and bitterly – have admitted: ‘Sanctions on Russia failed’. The Telegraph laments: They “are a joke”; “Russia was meant to have collapsed by now”

    Do they not remember their failure in 2014/15 when this whole Ukraine War project started? They threw Viktor Yanukovich out of power and Russia took Crimea from them. So, their ‘shock and awe’ then was to throw an epic temper tantrum crashing the price of oil from $125 to $25 per barrel.

    This was the first instance of the “Ruble to Rubble” campaign. It didn’t work then. In fact, it set Russia and the world on the path it’s on today. There’s a direct throughline from 2014 to today, not just on the ground but in the financial markets and the politics of the rest of Eastern Europe — The Heartland.

    So, while sanctions are a joke, the use of them will only increase as an excuse now to keep third-parties, like say Hungary, from getting out of lock-step with the plan.

    Too bad for them that no amount of arm-twisting by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock changed Hungary’s decision to block any further EU aid to Ukraine. The Heartland, it seems, is increasingly not down with the Commintern.

    Failure Is Not an Option, It’s Just Inevitable

    But this never seems to matter. No amount of failure has ever prompted these people to do a little second-guessing. Then again, when you can’t see yourself in a mirror self-reflection isn’t a dominant character trait.

    Ukraine has always represented the apotheosis of the Neocon/Neoliberal world order. As Crooke points out, they are facing a very unpleasant choice:

    The war is now, in this way, being projected as a binary choice: ‘End the war’ versus ‘Win the war’. Europe is tergiversating –standing at the cross-roads; hesitantly starting down one road, only to reverse, and indecisively take a few cautious steps down the other. The EU will both train Ukrainians to fly F-16s; and yet is coy about providing the planes. It smacks of tokenism; but tokenism is often the father to mission-creep.

    Indeed it is. Because of the closed-mindedness of those in power in the West — their biases, racism, and arrogance — they will not stop in Ukraine until they are forced to by circumstances.

    Those circumstances will likely be dictated by the revamped Russian military now configured to fight a longer and different kind of war than the one that began in February 2022.

    Every day we see signs that Russia’s military-industrial capacity is increasing rapidly while the EU languishes. The US is rapidly trying to bring back onshore manufacturing lost to the ZIRP and Greenspan Eras, but this is a slow and painful process especially since it has run out of room on the balance sheet to deficit spend to accelerate things.

    “Biden” and his merry band of vandals in D.C. are more than happy to burn the place to the ground more thoroughly than the British did in the War of 1812 if they can’t get their way on unlimited taxing and spending.

    So, here we are. Bakhmut has fallen. The Ukrainian counter-offensive is non-existent. If anything it was already absorbed by Putin and Prigozhin. Zelenskyy will now get F-16s to attack Crimea and use that as some moral high ground for justifying NATO’s official involvement after Russia’s inevitable counter-attack.

    Then the air will be thick with the smell of thermobarics in the morning.

    But, regardless of any of that, there will be no truce in the Heartland. Russia will not back down. China will back them to the end, as will OPEC+ and the rest of Central Asia. But they will not escalate one inch further than they need to. Allowing the West to keep thinking they can win is the ultimate form of grinding out a superior opponent.

    Mack-Ender’s Game

    And even if Ukraine winds up being a decade-long meat grinder with no clear victor, it will serve everyday as a warning to the rest of Asia that there is no going back and their future is better served with their neighbors than accepting bribes to remain viceroys on the West’s payroll.

    That’s why the fight for control over Pakistan is actually more important than Ukraine. Because Pakistan represents the East-West corridor tying the World Island together. While Ukraine is the key to breaking up Russia to destroy the North-South axis.

    The Tragedy of Imran Khan in Pakistan is one of those side issues that’s actually more important than the main issue, Ukraine. The unprecedented intervention by the Pakistani military, always aligned with western forces, is a clear sign that Mackinderism is alive and well in central Asia.

    There is a clear civil war incipient in Pakistan as the civilian government attempts to wrest real control of the country away from the military and its globalist order-givers. Khan’s support isn’t a product of his brilliance as a leader. Like Donald Trump, he is a flawed figure, beset on all sides by traitors undermining him.

    He was ousted through the worst kind of backroom dealing, of the type and kind which Italian deep staters were looking at and saying, “Damn! Bravo.”

    But, also like Trump, the people understand implicitly that he’s one of them. He’s on their side, despite his faults. So, while we see the most amateurish headlines and ‘analysis’ of what’s happening there from our quisling media, the Pakistani people are coming out by the millions to elevate Khan as their champion.

    He doesn’t have to do anything more than survive and return to power to win the day in Pakistan.

    While the West fights desperately to stave off defeat of the Heartland, it’s clear the rest of the World Island is making plans to leave them behind.

    At some point there are simply too many people and too much pressure to keep pushing the world towards a conclusion it doesn’t want to go.

    And that’s when everything changes, literally overnight. Until then, it will be another day, another escalation, another pointless political knife fight and thousands of people dying needlessly.

    When he published that paper in 1904 all Mackinder did was formalize British imperial thinking into an easily-digested thesis for morons.

    Today we are being gaslit by these morons into believing our lives depend on fighting for ‘freedom’ in central Ukraine.

    It was written as the British empire’s grip on power was beginning to wane. World War I would put the capper on that.

    It was a reflection of the growing anxiety bubbling up as the fringes of the empire rebelled. If we can’t hold onto south Africa (The Boer War), for example, at least we should make sure no one controls the World Island as we retreat.

    That’s why Sykes-Picot left us with a Middle East in tribal conflict. Israel only made things there worse. Pakistan was created as anti-India and Ukraine was split off from the USSR in such a way as to ensure we would be exactly where we are today.

    All because some imperial-minded Europeans can’t bring themselves to share the world with brown people.

    *  *  *

    Join my Patreon if you have a heart

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 05/27/2023 – 14:53

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