Dec 29

Today’s News 29th December 2022

  • Geoengineering Startup Begins Releasing Sulfur Particles Into Atmosphere In Attempt To 'Stop Climate Change'
    Geoengineering Startup Begins Releasing Sulfur Particles Into Atmosphere In Attempt To ‘Stop Climate Change’

    Authored by Naveen Anthrapully via The Epoch Times,

    A startup is launching weather balloons capable of releasing reflective sulfur particles into the earth’s atmosphere, with the stated aim of combating climate change through solar geoengineering, while disregarding the negative consequences of such actions.

    In solar geoengineering, attempts are made to manipulate the climate by reflecting more sunlight away from earth. Theoretically, releasing sulfur and other such compounds is believed to potentially cool down the planet. Back in 1991, for example, when Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted, it released large amounts of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere that spread around the world and triggered a 1-degree Fahrenheit cooling for the next 15 months. The California-based startup, Make Sunsets, is believed to have launched the weather balloons from Mexico.

    In an interview with MIT Technology Review, Make Sunsets CEO Luke Iseman said that he expects to be characterized as a “Bond villain” for what the company is doing. But he insists that climate change is a threat, and that since the world is moving slowly to address the problem, a more radical solution is needed.

    “It’s morally wrong, in my opinion, for us not to be doing this,” Iseman said.

    What’s important is “to do this as quickly and safely as we can.”

    Make Sunsets is attempting to make revenue out of its efforts, seeking to sell $10 “cooling credits” for releasing a gram of particles into the atmosphere. The startup has raised $750,000 in funding. It plans on raising the sulfur payload in the future as well as using telemetry devices and other sensors.

    Climatic Downsides

    A 2018 blog by David Keith, a leading expert on solar geoengineering, explains that he is opposed to commercial work on such technologies due to the fact that commercial development cannot achieve the transparency and trust that is necessary for the world to make decisions on the matter.

    Solar geoengineering must only be done by “transparent democratic institutions,” he insisted.

    “Solar geoengineering is large-scale climate modification which inherently has global consequences that are difficult to quantify even after deployment. DAC [direct air capture] results in emissions reductions (carbon-neutral synthetic fuels) or net CO2 removal (sequestration), with local impacts that can be measured with reasonable accuracy,” he wrote.

    In an interview with MIT, Shuchi Talati, a scholar-in-residence at American University, says that Make Sunset’s actions could end up negatively affecting scientific study on the matter, even leading to reduced funding, boosting calls for restricting such studies, and decreasing government support for it.

    “The current state of science is not good enough … to either reject, or to accept, let alone implement [solar geoengineering] … To go ahead with implementation at this stage is a very bad idea,” Janos Pasztor, executive director of the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative, said in an email to the media outlet.

    Widespread Dangers

    Solar geoengineering can have devastating consequences for human beings. Such attempts can end up altering the global hydrological cycle, affecting monsoon activity. This can affect agriculture and food security.

    Reflecting sunlight to cool down the earth might also make people carelessly pump out more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Excessive CO2 can cause acidification of the oceans.

    Moreover, if solar geoengineering were to be stopped suddenly after using it for some time, it could lead to global warming at 10 times more speed.

    Solar geoengineering can reduce rainfall on some parts of the earth, thereby affecting the local ecosystem. This would be particularly harmful to evergreen forests and tropical ecosystems.

    A change in rainfall, for example, can negatively affect vegetation, which would be bad news for the wildlife that survives on them.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 23:25

  • Stanford Backpedals On Anti-American Woke Language Guide
    Stanford Backpedals On Anti-American Woke Language Guide

    Stanford University has backpedaled on its woke “harmful language” guide after admitting it was wrong to have included the word “American.”

    The updated guide from Stanford’s “Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative” (EHLI), placed mean words and phrases in various categories, including; “ableist,” “culturally appropriative,” “gender-based,” “imprecise language,” and “institutionalized racism.”

    “The purpose of this [EHLI] website is to educate people about the possible impact of the words we use,” reads the language guide – which also suggested that people should avoid using the word “American,” and instead replace it with “U.S. Citizen,” under the “imprecise language section.”

    “[American] often refers to people from the United States only, thereby insinuating that the US is the most important country in the Americas,” reads the guide.

    Some other recommendations in the guide included replacing the word “Hispanic” with “Latinx, “grandfather” with “legacy,” and “immigrant” with “person who has immigrated.”

    “White paper,” which falls under the “institutionalized racism” section, should be replaced by “position paper,” according to the guide. It argued that assigning value connotations based on color, in this case where white means good, is an act that is “subconsciously racialized.” –Epoch Times

    Shortly after the story went viral, Elon Musk tweeted “Stanford disapproves of saying you’re proud to be an American? Whoa.”

    Musk also said Stanford had “gone too far” and asked for an explanation “for this madness.”

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    In response to the outrage, Stanford’s chief information officer, Steve Gallagher, said in a Dec. 20 statement that the EHLI website “does not represent university policy.”

    “It also does not represent mandates or requirements. The website was created by, and intended for discussion within, the IT community at Stanford,” he continued. “It provides ‘suggested alternatives’ for various terms, and reasons why those terms could be problematic in certain uses.”

    Gallagher added that targeting the term “American” was a mistake.

    “To be very clear, not only is the use of the term ‘American’ not banned at Stanford, it is absolutely welcomed,” he said. “The intent of this particular entry on the EHLI website was to provide perspective on how the term may be imprecise in some specific uses, and to show that in some cases the alternate term ‘US citizen’ may be more precise and appropriate.”

    More via The Epoch Times,

    ‘Proud to Be an American’

    Some Republican lawmakers have taken to Twitter the university’s effort to change the English language.

    “The radical left is attempting to destroy our country and erase our history,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) wrote on Dec. 20. “Now, Stanford University is seeking to ban the word ‘American.’”

    “Stanford University published an index of forbidden words. One of the words they are trying to eliminate is ‘American.’ ARE YOU SERIOUS?” Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) wrote on Dec. 20.

    “I am proud to be an American,” Weber added. “I’ve had enough of the woke liberals trying to destroy America as we know it.”

    “If Stanford thinks the word American is harmful, what are they doing with American taxpayer dollars?” Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) wrote on Dec. 21.

    Opposition

    There is also opposition against the language guide inside the university.

    Dr. Jay Bjattacharya, a professor of health policy at Stanford’s School of Medicine, said he opposed the elimination of the word “American” and added that universities shouldn’t carry out “word policing.”

    “I remember how proud I was when I became a naturalized American citizen. I’m still proud to be an American, and I don’t care that @Stanford disapproves of my using the term,” Bhattacharya wrote in a tweet on Dec. 19.

    “The problem is the @stanford provenance of the list,” he added in a separate tweet.

    “Universities are the wrong place for word policing. There are better ways, more effective & more consistent with liberal norms, to teach students respect and compassion for others than a clumsy list of proscribed words.”

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 23:05

  • Jan. 6 Committee Withdraws Trump Subpoena
    Jan. 6 Committee Withdraws Trump Subpoena

    The January 6th special committee has formally withdrawn its subpoena of former President Donald Trump.

    “In light of the imminent end of our investigation, the Select Committee can no longer pursue the specific information covered by the subpoena,” wrote Rep. Bernie Thompson (D-MI) in a Wednesday night letter sent to Trump’s attorneys, which was obtained by CNN.

    “Therefore, through this letter, I hereby formally withdraw the subpoena issued to former President Trump, and notify you that he is no longer obligated to comply or produce records in response to said subpoena,” the letter continues.

    Trump took a victory lap on Truth Social, writing: “Was just advised that the Unselect Committee of political Thugs has withdrawn the Subpoena of me concerning the January 6th Protest of the CROOKED 2020 Presidential Election. They probably did so because they knew I did nothing wrong, or they were about to lose in Court. Perhaps the FBI’s involvement in RIGGING the Election played into their decision. In any event, the Subpoena is DEAD!”

    As CNN notes, the committee has already dropped several subpoenas against other witnesses, and has wrapped up its investigation by referring Trump to the DOJ for potential criminal prosecution on four separate charges. The referrals, however, hold no legal weight.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 22:45

  • China's Employment Outlook & Income Confidence Hit Record Lows
    China’s Employment Outlook & Income Confidence Hit Record Lows

    As the economic slump grew deeper this year, Chinese people’s trust in the labor market, their wages, and their interest in purchasing homes all plummeted to record low levels, a recent survey shows. 

    As Hannah Ng reports at The Epoch Times, The People’s Bank of China’s Employment Sentiment Index, representing residents’ prospects for jobs, fell to 33.1 in the fourth quarter of 2022, down from 35.4 in the prior quarter, according to Bloomberg.

    It is the lowest figure since the data began to be collected back in 2010. Figures under 50 signify a contraction in the industry.

    Meanwhile, the Income Confidence Index—signifying the outlook for income in the next three months, saw a decline to 44.4 compared to 47 in the third quarter. 

    The number indicates the lowest number since 2001, according to the quarterly survey of 20,000 depositors nationwide, released on Dec 27.

    The survey results were among the first indicators of business sentiment in the world’s second-largest economy after China’s sudden relaxation of strict pandemic containment measures on Dec. 7 triggered a still-growing wave of COVID-19 cases.

    Record-Low Business Confidence

    The bleak sentiments of China’s residents came as the country’s private sector—its biggest source of employment—has been plagued by business interruptions due to COVID-19 policies and financing difficulties.

    China’s stringent zero-COVID measures disrupted business and confined millions of people to their homes for weeks and sometimes months at a time.

    China’s Business Confidence index fell to 48.1 in December from 51.8 in November, according to the World Economics’ survey of sales managers at over 2,300 companies, conducted Dec. 1–16. 

    The figure was the lowest since the data began to be documented in 2013.

    The study found that the manufacturing and service sectors’ sales managers’ indices both fell below 50 in December, indicating a substantial decline in company activity.

    “The percentage of companies that claim to be currently negatively impacted by COVID has risen to a survey high, with more than half of all respondents now suggesting their operations are being harmed in one way or another,” the study reads.

    “Many small businesses have run out of liquidity, especially restaurants, gyms, hotels, and other city services,” said Dan Wang, chief economist at Hang Seng Bank China.

    Housing Market Confidence Declines

    Housing market confidence also continued its downward trend in the last quarter of 2022, survey data showed, despite Beijing’s economic stimulus measures.

    Only 14 percent of respondents to the central bank survey anticipated an increase in property prices in the following quarter. That represents a new low in the data, which goes back to 2010. 

    Only 16 percent of respondents stated they intended to buy a property in the following three months, compared to 17.1 percent in the previous quarter. According to the study, nearly 62 percent, up from 58 percent, claimed they were saving more money.

    Ongoing Real Estate Crisis

    The low expectations for the property market persisted despite recent stimulus measures launched by Beijing to boost the sector.

    On the real estate front, the CCP introduced a slew of policy-loosening measures to support developers.

    In November, China’s six largest state-owned banks came out to offer more than 925 billion yuan ($130 billion) in credit support to property developers. The move was an attempt to stop the spread of financial troubles, amidst a continued liquidity crunch in the country’s property sector. China Vanke Co., Midea Real Estate Holding, Country Garden Holding, and China Overseas Land and Investment were some of the developer beneficiaries.

    China’s central bank and its banking regulator released a joint policy document on Nov. 24, outlining ways the country’s financial institutions should set expectations on real estate transactions, including down payment ratios and interest rate boundaries to support the real estate sector.

    However, these support measures are unlikely to alter the negative trajectory of China’s real estate market.

    In 2021, China witnessed the defaults of some giant property names including China Evergrande Group, Sunac China Holdings, and China Resources Land.

    Chinese developers left millions of presold housing units unfinished due to liquidity problems. As a result, many Chinese banks are facing a mortgage payment halt or “mortgage strike”—where homebuyers refuse to pay mortgages unless the developers resume construction.

    S&P Global estimated that 2.4 trillion yuan (about $355 billion) of mortgages could be at risk of being unpaid. That amounts to around 6.5 percent of all outstanding mortgages.

    The rating agency also projects that home sales in China could drop as much as 33 percent this year amid the mortgage strike, further squeezing the liquidity of distressed developers and leading to more defaults, Bloomberg reported.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 22:25

  • Netanyahu's Newly Appointed National Security Chief Wants Preemptive Strikes On Iran
    Netanyahu’s Newly Appointed National Security Chief Wants Preemptive Strikes On Iran

    Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

    Incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week appointed a major Iran hawk to lead Israel’s National Security Council under the new government.

    Tzachi Hanegbi is a veteran Likud lawmaker and a longtime ally of Netanyahu who has repeatedly threatened in recent years that Israel would attack Iran if the US returns to the Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

    Benjamin Netanyahu with Tzachi Hanegbi, via Jewish News Syndicate

    In his most recent threat, Hanegbi said that Netanyahu would order an attack on Iran if the US doesn’t secure a new nuclear deal or doesn’t take military action itself. He told Israel’s Channel 12 in November that in that situation, Netanyahu “will act, in my assessment, to destroy the nuclear facilities in Iran.”

    Back in 2020, Hanegbi, who was settlement minister at the time, warned that if President Biden won the election and returned to the JCPOA, it could lead to a war between Israel and Iran. He made a similar threat following Biden’s election.

    Netanyahu’s new government will be taking over soon as tensions between the US and Iran are soaring. Since JCPOA negotiations fell apart in September, the US has escalated its sanctions campaign against Iran.

    The Pentagon’s recently admitted in its new Nuclear Posture Review that Iran is not trying to build a nuclear weapon, but US and Israeli officials continue to hype up the threat anyway.

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    The US and Iran recently held joint military exercises over the Mediterranean Sea in November that simulated attacks on Iran.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 22:05

  • South Korean Sex-Doll Trade Set To Inflate After Ban Lifted
    South Korean Sex-Doll Trade Set To Inflate After Ban Lifted

    South Korea’s ban on full-body sex dolls has reached a climax after years of hot-n-heavy debate over whether government can interfere in a private citizen’s ability to copulate with a synthetic partner.

    A lawmaker, Lee Yong-ju, who brought a sex doll, speaks during a parliamentary inspection at the National Assembly in Seoul in 2019

    While no official laws or regulations exist which ban the import of sex dolls, hundreds – possibly thousands of them have been seized by customs under a clause which prevents the import of goods that “harm the country’s beautiful traditions and public moral,” the Daily Mail reports.

    The issue was brought to a head after angry importers took their cases to court – most of which agreed, and ordered customs to allow the sex-dolls into the country to be used in private spaces, on the basis that they do not undermine human dignity.

    On Monday the Korean Customs Service issued a statement that it will now allow life-size adult sex dolls into the country under a revised guideline based on the recent court rulings and opinions from relevant government agencies, including the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

    South Korea has formally ended a ban on the import of full-body sex dolls, ending years of debate over how much the government can interfere in private life (file photo)

    Child-like sex dolls or those which embody certain people will remain banned.

    “‘It’s a reasonable decision though it came a bit late,” said Lee Sang-jin, a former head of a local company that imports sex dolls. “We thought our people’s rights to seek happiness and use (sex dolls) in their private lives have been restricted by the state.”

    “There are various types of people who use (sex dolls), including those who are sexually alienated or those who need them for artistic purposes.”

    According to Lee, his former company has already taken back over 20 sec dolls from customs officials via lawsuits, and that the company has filed separate lawsuits seeking government compensation.

    The decision risks backlash from angry feminists (a redundant expression) who claim sex dolls objectify women.

    While the decision reflects South Korea’s slow yet gradual moves to restrict state interference into personal lives, some women’s rights and conservative organisations are likely to again voice their opposition to the use of sex dolls.

    They say they deepen sexual objectification of women and undermine public moral. -Daily Mail

    Maybe just let dudes do what they want, 캐이른?

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 21:45

  • Funny What Even A Flimsy Border Fence Can Do…
    Funny What Even A Flimsy Border Fence Can Do…

    Authored by Monica Showalter via AmericanThinker.com,

    Well, here we have it.

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    At a time when Joe Biden and his trusty sidekick, Homeland Security secretary  Alejandro Mayorkas, claim there’s nothing they can do about the border surge as they wave illegal aliens through, illegal border crossings in the El Paso area have … gone to almost zero.

    According to Border Report:

    EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Migrant crossings have plummeted in a mile-long stretch of Downtown El Paso where the Texas Army National Guard has set up concertina wire and portable fencing along the Rio Grande.

    The guard began setting up the barrier last week at a gap in the border wall west of the Paso del Norte port of entry. In the space of eight days, the barbed wire has nearly reached a second port of entry and chain-link fence anchored by sandbags extends even farther. The result is that asylum seekers can no longer walk across ankle-deep water in the Rio Grande and turn themselves in to waiting Border Patrol agents in that area.

    “The difference is vast,” said 1st Sgt. Suzanne Ringle. “The 19th, the 20th and the 21st we had large groups of families and individuals who were wanting to come across. Now, it’s almost a ghost town out there.”

    She attributed that to the “visual deterrent” of the barbwire, parked Humvees and soldiers patrolling the area with their semi-automatic rifles. As of Tuesday, 600 guard members were in El Paso on border security duty associated with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star.

    So that’s all it takes?

    It makes sense that it does.

    Put a fence up, even an ugly, flimsy one, redolent of a communist regime, complete with a few guys with guns and patrol cars out there and they won’t come. 

    So much for all the arguments that “walls don’t work” because migrants will find ways to scale,catapult, or tunnel under the walls. Yes, there are a few cases of this, but the big mass surges suddenly end.

    There have been arguments that big, high-tech, and impressive walls are what it takes, but these ideas have been thwarted by open-borders leftists, screaming about wildlife and illegal alien “rights.” President Trump’s border wall was largely thwarted that way, and Arizona’s effort to set up stacked boxcars as an impenetrable wall met their fates this way, too.

    But barbed wire and chain link fences work, too, a hell of a lot better than a naked, open, inviting border space, sometimes with only a puddly river to cross. It’s makeshift and it’s ugly, sure, but the obstructions of open-border leftists and their leftwing lawyers and roundheel judges are why we can’t have nice things. So now we get crappy, unsightly things, like razor-wire rolls and chain link fences, along with a few guards with guns and it works just as well.

    The left has had a grand old time running circles around the larger, and more permanent fencing projects, but it’s a lot harder for them to challenge tiny, temporary, barriers and make an issue of them.

    The success of this old and tried border solution raises questions as to why this wasn’t done earlier, back when President Trump was trying to get his wall built. Hindsight, of course, is easy for us now, but it’s sad that this idea didn’t come up earlier, even as a temporary solution while the bigger battles over the wall construction were going on. While Trump was valiantly battling leftists in the courts over his wall’s construction and funding, the barbed wire fence solution sat right there, seemingly unused. The barbed wire fence apparently could have been dragged through national parks, national wildlife refuges, and perhaps even private lands, with minimal disruption and no big symbolic images such as the border wall for the left to rally round in outrage. Those were some of the obstacles he endured in his battle to get the border wall built.

    A lousy barbed wire fence worked just as well, and could be thrown up quickly, cheaply, and with immediate effects, all of which was in the thinking of that master-problem-solver, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who deserves kudos for this simple and effective idea. Abbott has a lot of those.

    It works because I know it works.

    I’ll share a personal story: My mother has an ambitious kitten whose great goal is to romp around in the canyon behind her house, which is filled with packs of hungry, pet-eating, coyotes. City officials do nothing about the problem and the den is proliferating. Once in awhile, I hear a gun go off at night and with no cops called, it’s almost certainly someone taking out a coyote and everyone else in the neighborhood just keeping quiet. Since kittens don’t belong in canyons, I found that the solution for her issue is to block the hell out of the flimsy fence she has, with flower pots, old boards, dirt, nearby jumping points, anything that will keep the kitten inside his yard and out of the canyon. Rather than wait for a coyote to come, the blocked fence is the one thing that keeps the kitten inside. Focus on the fence openings, I’ve told her, not on taking the kitten back to the shelter, as she frets every time the kitten gets out. We are still working on the fence openings, but when a known one is blocked off, the kitten stays in. When he discovers another, it’s back to the drawing board, but one day, we will have the entire fence turned into a kitten-coyote barrier. We will get there.

    So will the people of Texas, with guys like Gov. Abbott around.

    The lesson here is that even a bad fence works wonders to deter the tens of thousands of unvetted illegal aliens from crossing in, so let’s see more of them.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 21:25

  • NYC Electric Garbage Truck Plans Hit Wall After Trucks "Conked Out" Plowing Snow After Just Four Hours
    NYC Electric Garbage Truck Plans Hit Wall After Trucks “Conked Out” Plowing Snow After Just Four Hours

    In a move that absolutely nobody could have seen coming, New York City is scrapping its brilliant idea for electric garbage trucks after finding out the truck simply “aren’t powerful enough to plow snow”.

    The pipe dream of converting the city’s 6,000 garbage trucks from gas to electric in order to try and limit carbon emissions (because there’s no other problems that need to be dealt with in New York City right now) is “clashing with the limits of electric-powered vehicles,” Gothamist wrote this week.

    The city’s current trucks run on diesel and can be fitted with plows in the winter. 

    Despite the shortcomings, the city Department of Sanitation’ has already ordered seven electric rear loader garbage trucks, custom-made by Mack, the report says. Those trucks cost an astonishing $523,000 each and are to be delivered this spring. 

    Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch told the NYC city council earlier this month: “We found that they could not plow the snow effectively – they basically conked out after four hours. We need them to go 12 hours. Given the current state of the technology, I don’t see today a path forward to fully electrifying the rear loader portion of the fleet by 2040.”

    “We can’t really make significant progress in converting our rear loader fleet until the snow challenges are addressed,” she continued.

    Many other cities don’t use their garbage trucks to plow snow, the report notes. Places that get a lot of snow, like Denver, have their own committed light duty trucks outfitted with plows, which operate more efficiently. 

    New York City, however, has committed to plowing each street and doing so by putting the city’s 2,100 trucks to work to clear the “equivalent of 19,000 miles of street lanes”. 

    In addition to…well, not being able to get the job done, charging has also been a holdup with electric trucks, Tisch said: “..this charging infrastructure requires additional space and often new electrical utility connections that can require substantial capital investments.”

    Harry Nespoli, the president of Teamsters Local 831 union representing sanitation workers also isn’t sold on the idea: “How much power do they have? Can they run 12-hour shifts without a charge? I don’t know.”

    Sanitation spokesperson Vincent Gragnani concluded: “​​With current technology, full electrification isn’t possible now for some parts of our fleet, but we are monitoring closely and really hope it will be.”

    Let us know how that turns out, Vinny.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 21:05

  • What Did Nancy Know & When Did She Know It?
    What Did Nancy Know & When Did She Know It?

    Authored by Julie Kelly via AmGreatness.com,

    The January 6 select committee never intended to act as a truth-seeking mission but rather perform a cover-up for what actually happened…

    The January 6 select committee finally released its long-delayed report late on December 23 after most Americans had happily turned away from politics to enjoy the Christmas weekend with family and friends. The Friday night news dump, a common tactic when government officials want to bury something controversial, was not exactly a vote of confidence in the panel’s ultimate work product.

    As expected, the bulk of the 845-page document spun a well-worn tale that portrayed Donald Trump as the sole villain in a so-called “insurrection” the committee wants us to believe was engineered to keep him in the White House. Page after page included dramatic interpretations of snippets from witness testimony intended to bolster the committee’s preconceived conclusions.

    Analysis of how law enforcement and intelligence services failed to prepare for the “attack,” a promise made by the committee in its original sell job to the public, is buried in a relatively brief appendix at the end. And despite confirmation the government was aware violence might occur—the FBI used a threat tag, “CERTUNREST2021,” purportedly to categorize in advance information related to January 6—federal and local agencies did not prevent what the Biden regime branded a terror attack comparable to 9/11. (FBI Director Christopher Wray’s name is not mentioned once in the report and it appears unlikely he sat for a transcribed interview.)

    Even so, in the face of extensive evidence that those agencies were on high alert, committee members still faulted Trump: “Few in law enforcement predicted that the President of the United States would incite a mob attack on the Capitol, that he would send them to stop the joint session knowing they were armed and dangerous, that he would further incite them against his own vice President while the attack was underway, or that he would do nothing to stop the assault for hours,” the report dishonestly stated.

    Another official who escaped accountability in the report is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the lawmaker mainly responsible for protecting Capitol grounds. Committee members avoided any criticism of Pelosi, instead allowing her to write the foreword. (It’s also unclear whether committee investigators interviewed the speaker.)

    For two years, Pelosi has played the role of victimized bystander in the events of January 6 rather than being recognized as the incompetent steward of public safety she is—or worse, someone who was complicit in manufacturing the entire spectacle. After all, her filmmaker daughter just happened to be on site as the historic event, one usually considered a pro forma ceremony, went down.

    But a competing report also released last week by a handful of Republican House members did not let Pelosi off the hook; to the contrary, “Security Failures at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021” presented new disclosures about how Pelosi’s staff spent weeks ostensibly preparing for the electoral certification vote that afternoon.

    “[Then] House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving—who served on the Capitol Police Board by virtue of his position—succumbed to political pressures from the Office of Speaker Pelosi and House Democrat leadership leading up to January 6, 2021,” the report authored by Representatives Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), James Banks (R-Ind.) and others revealed.

    “He coordinated closely with the Speaker and her staff and left Republicans out of important discussions related to security. Irving only provided information to Republicans after receiving instruction from the Speaker’s office. In one case, Irving even asked a senior Democratic staffer to ‘act surprised’ when he sent key information about plans for the Joint Session on January 6, 2021 to him and his Republican counterpart. The senior Democratic staffer replied: ‘I’m startled.’”

    (Jordan and Banks were appointed to the January 6 select committee before being bounced by Pelosi.)

    According to records obtained by House Republicans, Irving maintained constant communication with two of Pelosi’s top aides—Terry McCullough, her chief of staff, and Jamie Flood, a shared staffer for Pelosi and the House Administration committee—about January 6 in early December 2020. 

    On December 11, 2020, McCullough emailed Irving’s team to request a meeting to discuss “choreography and safety for the opening day and electoral college events.” That meeting took place four days later; no Republicans were present.

    Irving and his office met three more times with Democratic staffers before January 6 and once on the morning of January 6 without Republican lawmakers in attendance. Now, perhaps there’s an innocent explanation as to why Irving intentionally prevented Republicans from being involved in those discussions—except for more alarming disclosures in the report.

    On Monday, January 4, 2021, Irving met with Pelosi in her office. While the specific nature of the meeting isn’t addressed in the report, Pelosi and her aides were furiously working on new COVID protocols to strictly limit the number of lawmakers and staff on the House floor on January 6; a letter to Congress explaining the new rules was sent out the afternoon of January 5.

    But that’s not all that happened on January 5. The day began with a “walkthrough” for the joint session attended by Irving, Stenger, Capitol Police, McCullough, and Democratic staffers at 8:30 a.m.. Irving scheduled another walkthrough for his staff at 1:15 p.m.. Shortly thereafter, Stenger, who reported to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) conducted a separate walkthrough, apparently without inviting Republican lawmakers or staffers.

    And in one of the oddest events of the day, despite repeated assurances the threat for violence was “remote,” Irving led a walkthrough of Congress’ evacuation plan with unnamed participants at 2:30 p.m.; almost 24 hours later to the minute, the joint session recessed and lawmakers were evacuated from the Capitol creating one of the most dramatic images of January 6.

    This also happened at the same time Irving and Stenger repeatedly brushed off requests by Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund for extra protection in the form of National Guardsmen, a process both sergeants-at-arms continued to hamstring throughout January 6. (Sund later testified that Irving expressed concerns about the “optics” of guardsmen surrounding the Capitol.) The guard did not arrive until after 5 p.m., shortly after the disturbance ended.

    The exchanges detailed in the House GOP report contradict the narrative that congressional security officials were unprepared for the events of January 6. So, too, does the appendix buried in the January 6 select committee document. Not only was the FBI allegedly collecting scary posts before the Capitol protest, Pelosi’s underlings engaged in deep discussions and planning efforts weeks beforehand without the involvement of Republicans. What exactly those conversations entailed, the public still does not know.

    Regardless, as of January 7, 2021, Irving, Stenger, and Sund were out of a job, forced to resign at the demands of irate lawmakers. Were they the fall guys in a carefully “choreographed” operation to permanently oust Trump from office and subsequently criminalize his movement? Did they willfully participate or were they duped? Why didn’t the January 6 committee cover this as extensively as House Republicans?

    The answer is obvious. The January 6 select committee never intended to act as a truth-seeking mission but rather perform a cover-up for what actually happened, which is becoming more obvious every day. House Republicans produced a more serious report that requires rigorous follow-up next year.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 20:45

  • Indonesia's All-Women Flog-Squad Under International Scrutiny
    Indonesia’s All-Women Flog-Squad Under International Scrutiny

    One of the biggest international relations stories of the 1990s which captured much of the American public’s attention at the time was the 1994 arrest of 19-year old Michael P. Fay in Singapore. He had been accused of vandalism, and confessed to spray-painting cars and was reportedly found with road signs in his possession, for which he received the harsh sentence of caning by a Singapore court. The caning with four strokes only took one minute, but left blood running down his back, and subsequently strained US-Singaporean relations.

    Now another southeast Asian country is being spotlighted in Western media for its longstanding practice of flogging – or caning – as an accepted judicial sentence of corporal punishment, given it even has an all female flogging squad, which was formed almost three years ago. The all-women caning squad is tasked with meting out the punishment for female convicts as part of Indonesia’s strict Islamic Sharia law system.

    AFP via Getty Images

    A photo spread and on the ground report featured in Vice News includes women dressed in head to toe Islamic coverings, administering punishments in a setting that ironically enough looks straight out of the US television series The Handmaid’s Tale.

    Typically a rattan cane no more than a half-inch thick is used for all judicial and prison floggings, which can be done for offensives ranging from drinking alcohol, adultery, having any sexual relations outside of marriage, homosexuality, or even being caught in “close proximity” with an ‘unauthorized’ member of the opposite sex. 

    Increasingly Indonesia’s only Shariah-regulated province of Aceh is coming under national as well as international attention and scrutiny for the practice, given that in some instances caning can be so brutal as to result in victims passing out, and skin being ripped off.

    Two women designated to conduct flogging on female convicts. Image source: Vice News

    Vice in its report painted a portrait of the following eerie scene: 

    Officials—mostly men—from the Sharia police are gathered at Taman Sari, a popular public park at the heart of the city. Among the scant crowd is a group of college girls and photojournalists jostling to get the perfect shot. In the middle of the park’s arena, a woman cloaked in a white jilbab with her face covered with a mask, is seated on her knees on a carpet. She’s accused of a crime that wouldn’t even be considered a crime anywhere else in Indonesia: meeting a man who is not her husband.

    Sharia law dominates daily life in this strictest part of Indonesia, making even immodest clothing among women a potential punishable offense. 

    Local authorities claim that female floggers were needed given that crimes committed by women were on the rise. “In official data shared by Sharia police with VICE World News, crimes against morality, such as unmarried men and women caught together, have seen a steep drop in 2021 as compared to 2018,” the Vice report reads.

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    “For instance, khalwat or when an unmarried man and woman are in a secluded place together, was reported 90 times in 2018. In 2021, that number was down to 8. The Sharia police attribute this to flogging. Activists disagree,” Vice continues. 

    The hardline province and its police have long been subject of investigations by external human rights groups, given the ‘morality police’ have been documented actively seeking out ‘criminal behavior’ or public displays of vice – however, activities which the vast majority of countries and societies in the world would consider normal everyday things, such as simply a man and woman sitting together in a public park.

    Apparently, some among the eight women floggers employed by the province were quite eager to quit their professional careers and conduct physical punishments:

    Mariam, Aceh’s first woman flogger, wanted to become a lawyer but joined the Sharia police instead in 2006 and then was appointed by the prosecutor to become a woman flogger in 2018. “I never thought of becoming a flogger but when this regulation was made, I was ready for it,” the mother of four children told VICE World News. 

    Despite that regional authorities claim equal justice and objectivity in how flogging is carried out, the report recounts the following shocking episode from years prior to the women floggers being established: “In 2014, the Sharia police flogged a 25-year-old woman for adultery even though she was handed over to them by vigilantes who gangraped her and doused her with sewage water.” And much more recently: “Early this year, a woman was flogged 100 times for adultery while the man involved, who denied the accusations, received just 15 lashes.”

    European media outlets have over many years documented the abuses of Aceh’s morality police:

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    Concerning this year’s incident involving 100 lashes, Amnesty International Indonesia described, “The fact that the woman had already collapsed once and was still forced to undergo more flogging shows a complete lack of compassion and care for her well-being and health.” The statement continued: “Both the use of flogging as a punishment and the criminalization of sexual relations outside marriage are clear violations of international human rights law.”

    Vice’s full, lengthy photographic report and interviews can be accessed here.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 20:25

  • Report Warns Risk Of Nuclear War At Its Highest Since US Nuked Japan
    Report Warns Risk Of Nuclear War At Its Highest Since US Nuked Japan

    Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

    A Swedish group that assesses catastrophic risks warned in its annual report this year that the risk of nuclear weapons use is higher today than at any point since the US dropped nuclear weapons on Japan in 1945, AFP reported on Tuesday.

    Kennette Benedict, an advisor to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists who led the report for the Global Challenges Foundation, said the risk of nuclear war was greater than during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

    DOD file image

    The report warned that an all-out nuclear exchange would send enough dust in the air to block sunlight resulting in “a period of chaos and violence, during which most of the surviving world population would die from hunger.”

    President Biden acknowledged the risk back in October when he said the chances of nuclear “armageddon” are higher today than at any point since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Despite his recognition of the danger of his policy of supporting Ukraine against Russia, Biden continues to escalate US involvement in the war, and there is no end in sight to the fighting.

    Ukraine’s war effort is entirely reliant on Western support, and the US is not just sending weapons but also providing training, intelligence, and other kinds of targeting support.

    According to recent media reports, the Pentagon now tacitly backs Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory, and the CIA is directing sabotage operations inside Russia.

    Russian officials have made clear that they believe they are not just fighting Ukrainian forces in the war but also the US and NATO. This means Russia has the pretext to launch strikes on the US and NATO, although there’s no sign that such a decision has been made.

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    If Russia eventually chooses to retaliate by using conventional weapons against NATO, the conflict could quickly spiral into nuclear war. If Moscow decides to use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, most experts believe it would lead to a nuclear exchange between the US and Russia.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 20:05

  • Restaurant Staffing Is Finally Returning To Pre-Pandemic Levels
    Restaurant Staffing Is Finally Returning To Pre-Pandemic Levels

    After the pandemic…err…the government’s response to the pandemic…decimated the restaurant industry, it looks as though it is slowly starting to wobble back to its feet and stand up heading into 2023. 

    Staffing in restaurants is finally starting to bulk back up, the Wall Street Journal reported in a new piece out this week. Restaurants and bars have “nearly doubled” their employee counts from the pandemic lows in April 2020, the note said. The industry added 62,000 jobs over the past month alone.

    The piece also notes that all but 2.1% of the jobs that existed in November 2019, prior to the pandemic, are back, according to Labor Department data.

    However, one must also keep in mind that, as we have been saying for months, these are usually the first stops for people working 9 to 5 salaried jobs who have been laid off due to the Fed’s cohesive and calculated plans to strategically napalm the U.S. economy in order to get inflation lower.

    Nevertheless, many recent hires are “returning to the restaurant industry after forsaking it earlier in the pandemic’ the report says. It’s amazing what happens when your newfangled crypto trading empire, established some time between 2020 and 2022, goes bust when its top two positions – dogecoin and Tesla call options – turn out to be worthless. 

    The report notes that it wasn’t the re-opening that led employees back to restaurants. In fact, demand soared and restaurants were still short staffed when Covid restrictions eased, it says. But now that steadier work is dying at the hands of the Fed, and associated layoffs, former employees are crawling back.  

    Beau Duncan (Photo: WSJ)

    Bob Szuter, co-owner of Wolf’s Ridge Brewing told WSJ: “There’s a lot more focus in the hospitality industry on the importance of workers. You’d be hard-pressed to find a lot of businesses now who say that the customer is always right.”

    Beau Duncan, who lost his job as a bartender at Outback Steakhouse, did work in construction during the pandemic, but it wasn’t enough to cover his bills. He has now found new work at a Mexican restaurant, telling WSJ: “It’s been the most difficult industry job I’ve had, but the most rewarding.” 

    Vanessa Chadwick, who switched from restaurants to retail during the pandemic, said she eventually started to “miss” working in a restaurant. When she started applying for a new job this year, she found that hiring opportunities were better than pre-pandemic. 

    “The hospitality industry has caught up and the pay and benefits are much better than they were. I haven’t felt this happy in a very long time,” she said. 

    Adam Noyes, chief operating officer of sandwich chain Potbelly Corp said that the outlook is getting better: “We’re in a much better place. Over the last 90 days we’ve made a lot of progress.” 

    You can read the WSJ’s full report here. 

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 19:45

  • Elon Musk Announces New Twitter Policy To Allow Scientific Debate
    Elon Musk Announces New Twitter Policy To Allow Scientific Debate

    Authored by Chase Smith via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Twitter CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet Wednesday he is enacting a new Twitter Policy related to post on the platform about science.

    Elon Musk’s Twitter profile on a smartphone placed on printed Twitter logos on April 28, 2022. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)

    “New Twitter policy is to follow the science, which necessarily includes reasoned questioning of the science,” Musk wrote.

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    No further details of the plan had been released, but The Epoch Times reached out to Twitter for comment.

    In a follow-up tweet below his original policy announcement, Musk said “Anyone who says that questioning them is questioning science itself cannot be regarded as a scientist.”

    Musk has released a trove of information since taking over the company regarding Twitter’s suppression of certain information related to COVID-19.

    Musk said Twitter employees had a private group on Slack that was a “fan club” of White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, The Epoch Times reported. The employees “had an internal Slack channel unironically called ‘Fauci Fan Club,’” Musk wrote.

    Musk’s post noted that the Fauci Fan Club was set up despite outstanding “glaring issues” regarding Fauci, including the question of whether the White House adviser was untruthful when he denied that U.S. federal money was used to fund risky “gain-of-function” research at a Chinese lab at the center of speculation about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Alleged Twitter Suppression of Scientific Debate

    Musk revealed in the Twitter Files—a collection of internal emails and communications made public by Musk—the company suppressed early treatment options for COVID-19, and vaccine safety concerns, Dr. Peter McCullough said in an interview on Newsmakers by NTD and The Epoch Times on Dec. 14.

    “Twitter had become an incredibly biased and censored platform, where the public knew they weren’t getting a fair, balanced set of information on a whole variety of developments—including the early treatment of SARS-COV2 infection and a balanced view of safety and efficacy of the vaccines,” McCullough said.

    McCullough said he believed he was censored and finally suspended for sharing scientific “abstracts and manuscripts,” which he believed didn’t fit the accepted political view. McCullough said he wasn’t the only doctor targeted by the company’s censorship.

    Musk lifted the suspensions of McCullough and mRNA vaccine technology contributor Dr. Robert Malone—suspended from Twitter in 2021 after criticizing the effectiveness of the mRNA vaccines—after completing his Twitter purchase.

    McCullough said when sites like Twitter posted COVID-19 warnings or labels a post “misinformation,” it amounted to government censorship and control.

    “Facebook, Instagram, and the other platforms. … Anytime a message is posted, and it says, ‘See the COVID information center,’ or it labels it ‘COVID misinformation,’ that actually indicates that there’s government interference. There’s government censorship going on,” McCullough asserted.

    Musk’s latest policy announcement about questioning science while also following it mirrors what McCullough said about advertisements on Twitter regarding vaccine efficacy and safety.

    “So, when Americans were seeing advertisements that said ‘safe and effective,’ of course, immediately, we were jumping and making the case based on the peer-reviewed literature that that’s not correct.”

    Read more here…

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 19:25

  • Brazil Ramps Up Security For Lula Inauguration After Foiled Bomb Plot
    Brazil Ramps Up Security For Lula Inauguration After Foiled Bomb Plot

    Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is set to be inaugurated on Sunday, weeks after a close upset victory over ultra-conservative incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in what was the most consequential election in Brazil in decades.

    Bolsonaro’s supporters alleged widespread election fraud, leading to sporadic protests and clashes with police since October, which two weeks ago escalated into an attack on the headquarters of the federal police in Brasilia. Fierce protests urging an investigation into alleged election irregularities are still ongoing.

    And over the weekend police foiled a bomb plot, reportedly intended to disrupt the Lula inauguration, and which is now driving fears that there could be an attack on the Sunday events in the capital which is expected to have a massive turnout. 

    Via CNN

    The suspect now in custody has been identified as 54-year-old gas station manager George Washington de Oliveira Sousa. He has reportedly confessed to planting explosive devices not far from where Lula is staying.

    According to CNN: 

    The man arrested for being involved in a bombing attempt at Brasilia International Airport over the weekend said in a written statement to police that he intended to “create chaos” so a “siege state in the country” would be installed to prevent former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking office again in January.

    The media is blaming a group of “pro-Bolsonaro election deniers” and is making connections to Jan.6 in America.

    “On December 24, Brasilia police said they had foiled a bomb plot, arresting a man with ties to a group of pro-Bolsonaro election deniers camped outside the army headquarters, who have been urging the military to overturn Lula’s victory,” Reuters reported Tuesday.

    Following the bomb incident and arrest, which has dominated headlines since the weekend, federal police are reportedly taking extra security precautions to protect against some kind of potential ‘terror’ event.

    Brazil’s incoming justice minister Flávio Dino has vowed on Twitter to implement measures that ensure everyone’s safety on inauguration day. “All procedures will be reassessed, with a view to strengthening security,” Dino aid. “And the fight against terrorists and rioters will be intensified. Democracy has won and will win.”

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    While Bolsonaro has not openly or explicitly contested that Lula will be next president, Bolsonaro himself has yet to publicly concede defeat to Lula. A late November attempt by Bolsonaro’s team to appeal to the courts while alleging a fraudulent election was immediately tossed out.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 19:05

  • Red States Texas, Florida Crush Blue New York, California, & Illinois When It Comes To 2022 Population Growth
    Red States Texas, Florida Crush Blue New York, California, & Illinois When It Comes To 2022 Population Growth

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

    The difference couldn’t be more stark between the biggest states in the nation.

    The red states of Texas and Florida grew their populations by more than 400,000 in 2022. Their pro-growth, pro-business, pro-taxpayer policies remain a magnet for both Americans and foreigners alike. In contrast, blue states New York, California and Illinois each had their populations fall by 100,000 or more in 2022. Americans continue to flee those same three states, year after year.

    These findings are based on a Wirepoints’ analysis of the latest 2022 population estimates provided by the U.S. Census Bureau on December 22. The bureau performs a population estimate each year in addition to its full decennial census count at the end of each decade.

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    This redistribution of people among the nation’s biggest states matters for a host of reasons. Florida and Texas are winning the battle for people and their wealth, and that’s key to future growth and prosperity. It’s also key to expanding political influence. Florida and Texas both gained representation in Congress as a result of the 2020 Census, while California, Illinois and New York all lost. And the outflow of people from the blue states may be, in part, a rejection of the draconian pandemic policies those states enforced on their populations.

    Changes in population also help reveal Americans’ policy preferences. The fact that the nation’s largest blue states are shrinking and red states are growing matters because three of those state’s governors, Illinois’ Pritzker, California’s Newsom and Florida’s DeSantis, may vie for the presidency.

    Growing, shrinking states

    Texas and Florida shared the title for the fastest-growing state in 2022. Texas won in terms of sheer numbers, growing its population by 470,708. With a 2022 population of 30,029,572, Texas is now the second state in the nation to have a population above 30 million.

    Florida was the nation’s runner-up, with an increase of 416,754. Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia rounded out the top five with population gains of 133,088, 124,847, and 94,320 respectively. 

    New York, like last year, was the nation’s big loser with a population decline of 180,341 in 2022. California was next with a loss of 113,649 people. Illinois, Pennsylvania and Louisiana rounded out the top five losers with population declines of 104,437, 40,051 and 36,857 respectively.

    Florida was the nation’s biggest winner on a percentage basis.

    The Sunshine State’s population grew by 1.9% in 2022. Idaho was the runner-up, with a population increase of 1.8%. Next was South Carolina with a 1.7% increase, Texas up 1.6% and South Dakota with a 1.5% increase.

    In contrast, New York was again the big loser with a population decline of 0.9% and Illinois came in second with a population loss of more than 0.8%. Rounding out the bottom five losers were Louisiana with a loss of 0.8%, West Virginia with 0.6% and Hawaii with a 0.5% decline.

    Domestic migration causes growth, declines

    The single biggest source for population changes among the 50 states continues to be domestic migration – the natural movement of Americans between states. Net domestic migration is the number of people who move into a state minus those who move out.

    Neither natural increase (births minus deaths) nor international migration come close to the same impact as net domestic migration. 

    Florida remained the most popular destination in 2022, with a net 319,000 people deciding to make the Sunshine state their home. Texas was next, with a net migration of nearly 231,000 Americans.

    On the flip side, a net 343,000 people decided they couldn’t stomach California anymore – the worst level of out-migration in the country. New York and Illinois were the runners-up, with losses of nearly 300,000 and 142,000 people, respectively.

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    Demographic differences

    There is an interesting amount of variety in why certain states grew or shrank in 2022.

    Texas, for example, grew the most in the nation due to positive numbers in every demographic component. Births outpaced deaths, creating a significant net natural increase (+118,159). That, coupled with international (+118,614) and domestic (+230,961) in-migration, is what allowed Texas to grow so much.

    Florida, on the other hand, had deaths outnumber births in 2020, resulting in a negative natural increase (-40,216). But the state more than made up for that decline with the nation’s largest net domestic migration (+318,855) and the 2nd-largest international migration (+125,629).

    On the flip side, neither California’s positive net natural increase (+106,155) nor its best-in-nation international migration (+125,715) made up for its worst-in-nation domestic out-migration (-343,230).

    In Illinois, a positive net natural increase and net international migration were able to mask the state’s constant, growing domestic out-migration for years. No longer. The state’s tiny natural increase (+4,866), low levels of international migration (+31,529) and record domestic out-migration (-141,656) led to a record population decline of 104,000 in 2022.

    Another round of winners and losers

    Voting at the ballot box is certainly a way to bring about change. But as the numbers above show, so, too, is voting with your feet. 

    Texas and Florida didn’t just win the war for people and their wealth in 2022, their victories have been going on for a decade and more. Texas and Florida were ranked 1 and 2 in population growth over the 2010-2020 period, with increases of 4 million and 2.8 million, respectively. That’s a growth of about 15% each. Structurally, that gives these states a huge advantage in the battle over both investment and political influence.

    In contrast, states like Illinois are seeing their populations shrink. Every person that leaves is another blow to those states’ future prosperity.

    You can’t help but wonder what impact these population numbers will have on the next presidential election – and what they mean for the prospects of the governors who end up running.

    Read more from Wirepoints:

    Appendix.

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    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 18:45

  • Janet Yellen's Not-So-Good Name
    Janet Yellen’s Not-So-Good Name

    Authored by Thomas McArdle via The Epoch Times,

    Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who last year assured the nation that inflation was only a fleeting bogeyman, recently took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to sell the Biden snake oil of a U.S. economy that we are supposed to believe is “resilient,” “strong,” “healthy,” and “robust” thanks to this administration’s endless inflationary spending, because of which she claims “the U.S. will be in a uniquely strong position to capitalize on the future.”

    Funny, but just a few days before her overflowingly optimistic op-ed, Yellen was telling CBS’s 60 Minutes “there’s a risk of a recession,” then craftily adding that “it certainly isn’t, in my view, something that is necessary to bring inflation down”—a suggestion that the aggressive but less-than-Volckeresque higher interest rate policy of the Federal Reserve she once chaired will be to blame for the downturn that likely has already begun.

    Before that, early this month, Yellen appeared on the Stephen Colbert show and blamed the American people for the record-high inflation, because they “suddenly started splurging on goods, buying technology,” leading to “bottlenecks” in supply chains.

    Only last June before the Senate Finance Committee, Biden’s Treasury chief was saying, “I do expect inflation to remain high,” conceding that the administration’s 4.7 percent forecast would have to be revised in the midst of a 40-year high 8 percent inflation rate and a World Bank projection of several years of high inflation and seriously diminished economic growth around the globe. Now, by contrast, she claims “there are signs that the supply-demand imbalances that have been boosting inflation are now easing in many sectors of the economy.”

    So when Republicans like Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin try to alert the administration to the Chinese Communist Party seeking control of an important Silicon Valley company like GEO Semiconductor, they have to wonder whether it will be Janet in Wonderland they’ll be dealing with or the woman who appears not to have swallowed the totality of the Biden propaganda whole.

    “As you know,” the two members of Congress wrote Yellen last week (pdf), “the CCP pursues a strategy to acquire cutting-edge dual-use technology overseas in part to help the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) develop and field advanced military capabilities that are then aimed at American forces in the Indo-Pacific. We are deeply concerned that GEO Semiconductor may fall prey to this scheme, as Chinese-controlled companies are often forced to hand over their technology to the Chinese military or intelligence services.”

    In a taunt regarding the Democrats’ spending excess, Cotton and Gallagher added that “Given that Congress recently enacted legislation to spend billions to promote the American semiconductor industry, it would be malfeasant to allow the Chinese Communist Party to become a beneficiary of American taxpayer dollars and to seize part of that industry.”

    But considering that last month Yellen said, “it’s appropriate for American businesses to be thinking about” China conquering Taiwan, how much action can be expected from her Treasury against Beijing’s infiltration of American high tech?

    President Joe Biden’s main response to the China threat is—is it any surprise?—to establish a new layer of bureaucracy at the State Department that Democrat elder statesman Leon Panetta fears could become “another bureaucratic hellhole in which people establish positions for the sake of establishing positions and don’t develop the kind of sharpness that you need in order to get the job done.”

    Yellen claimed in the Wall Street Journal that “the policies of the Biden administration have propelled the American economy to one of the fastest recoveries in modern history.” Sorry, but the economic growth that returned when Americans came back to work after the COVID-19 lockdown is not the result of Biden policies, any more than COVID was the result of Donald Trump’s pro-growth economic policies.

    The fact that Yellen would make this assertion demonstrates just how dumb she and the president think Americans are.

    …

    Like other Federal Reserve chairmen before and since, Yellen spent years watching her words and maintaining an image of detachment from politics and ideology. Her contradictory assertions and discredited predictions during her time as Treasury chief have ruined her reputation of supposed sagacity.

    *  *  *

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 18:05

  • Incoming PM Netanyahu Vows West Bank Settlement Expansion A 'High Priority'
    Incoming PM Netanyahu Vows West Bank Settlement Expansion A ‘High Priority’

    Incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is busy forming what’s being widely perceived as the most hardline and right-wing government in the country’s history. Netanyahu is set to be formally sworn into office on Thursday, along with his top ministers.

    He has already promised to put settlement expansion in the Palestinian West Bank highest on the list of priorities. His Likud party released the new governing coalition’s policy guidelines Wednesday, which opens by vowing to “advance and develop settlement in all parts of the land of Israel – in the Galilee, Negev, Golan Heights, and Judea and Samaria.” 

    Source: The Jerusalem Post

    All of these are the biblical and Israeli-recognized names for broad swathes of the occupied West Bank. The new government is essentially warning it will go ‘gloves-off’ in taking more territory.

    Given that the United States and the vast majority of United Nations members oppose an official policy of Israeli West Bank expansion, also given the potential for reigniting explosive conflict in the region, it could see a strained relationship between the Biden administration and the Netanyahu government. 

    Already some 500,000 Israelis are part of dozens of Jewish settlements scattered throughout the West Bank, which European leaders especially have long condemned as “illegal”. 

    These settler groups frequently clash with local Palestinians – the latter who number about 2.5 million, but who have growing restrictions placed on their freedom of movement as the settlements expand. Israeli troops control checkpoints and Palestinians’ ability to travel depending on the proximity of Jewish settlements.

    This leads to frequent clashes and street battles, often with Palestinians hurling rocks and other debris at Israeli security forces. Large-scale settlement under incoming prime minister Netanyahu could unleash another Intifada, observers and human rights activists fear.

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    Some of the incoming government officials under Netanyahu themselves live in ‘illegal’ settlements, as Al Jazeera explains:

    Netanyahu’s new government – the most religious and hardline in Israel’s history – is made up of ultra-Orthodox parties, a far-right ultranationalist religious faction and his Likud party. It is expected to be sworn in on Thursday.

    Several of Netanyahu’s key allies, including most of the Religious Zionism party, are ultranationalist West Bank settlers.

    Netanyahu was removed from office last year over major accusations of corruption and bribery, the investigation of which is still ongoing. He served as prime minister from 2009 to 2021 – and his now rising to lead an unlikely coalition that finally emerged victorious after multiple failed national election attempts. This of course makes him the longest-serving leader in Israel’s history.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 17:45

  • Paul Pelosi Attack Suspect David DePape Pleads Not Guilty To State Charges
    Paul Pelosi Attack Suspect David DePape Pleads Not Guilty To State Charges

    Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

    David DePape, the man charged in the hammer attack targeting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband pled not guilty Wednesday to attempted murder and other state charges.

    DePape, 42, previously pleaded not guilty to federal charges of assault and attempted kidnapping. Wednesday’s arraignment was for state charges.

    The suspect also waived his right to a speedy trial. He will be back in court on Feb. 23 to set his trial date, a judge ruled, according to local media reports.

    In November, during his initial arraignment, DePape pleaded not guilty via his public defender and denied all allegations against him. The Canadian national currently remains held without bail.

    “Mr. DePape will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and held accountable for his heinous crimes,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement on Wednesday.

    DePape’s public defender, Adam Lipson, told reporters that he had no comments after Wednesday’s hearing. He said the suspect is “going to be fighting this case in court, not the hallway.”

    Prosecutors alleged DePape broke into the Pelosis’ residence in San Francisco at around 2 a.m. on Oct. 28 before he went upstairs and asked a sleeping Paul Pelosi where his wife, Nancy, was. The House speaker was out of town.

    Family members said that Pelosi, 82, suffered a skull fracture and was hospitalized for several days before he was released. He was seen with his wife at a public event at the Kennedy Center Honors earlier this month.

    Court papers also said that Paul Pelosi then told DePape that he had to use the bathroom and called 911 from his cellphone. Two officers arrived before encountering DePape and Pelosi struggling over a hammer, prosecutors said. When the officers told the two to drop the hammer, DePape got control of the tool and used it to hit Pelosi in the head.

    The home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in San Francisco on Oct. 28, 2022. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

    In a hearing earlier this month, prosecutors showed new evidence that included Pelosi’s 911 call, body camera footage, and the hammer that was allegedly used in the attack. A 15-second-long bodycamera clip was also played, according to reports, showing the front door opening, the alleged attack, and DePape telling officers that he won’t drop the hammer.

    San Francisco Police Department Lt. Carla Hurley told the court that when she interrogated DePape, he told her that he had other targets, including Hunter Biden, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, actor Tom Hanks, and others. Jenkins and other prosecutors said that the attack was politically motivated—based on statements that he made to investigators.

    “There is evil in Washington, what they did went so far beyond the campaign,” DePape told Hurley, according to a recording that was played in court.

    DePape also allegedly told Hurley that when police approached Pelosi’s home after he entered, he recalled saying, “I’m not going to surrender, I am here to fight. If you stop me from going after people, you will take the punishment instead.”

    Other Details

    Family members, however, said that DePape shared their left-wing views and questioned those claims.

    “‘I’m surprised about the whole thing. There is still a lot of info that hasn’t been given to the public. I have no clue what happened or how it happened. There are more questions than answers right now. Do we even know what really happened?” Sky Gonzalez, DePape’s son who lives with his family in Berkeley, told the Daily Mail in December.

    Front entrance of David DePape’s former house and camper van currently belonging to his ex-wife Oxane Taub at 1526 Woolsey Street in Berkeley, Calif., on Oct. 30, 2022 (Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times).

    While Gonzalez admitted that he hasn’t seen his father in years, he asserted DePape is not “a danger to society” and added he doesn’t “even know if he even attacked Mr. Pelosi.”

    “My father had a lot of political views and told me about a lot of different things, but he didn’t subscribe to either political party, Democrat or Republican,” he said, adding that he believed his father was a member of the left-wing Green Party.

    Days after the attack was reported, DePape’s former partner, nudist activist Oxane “Gypsy” Taub, said that he suffered from mental illness. Several years ago, he disappeared for months and came back believing he was Jesus Christ, Taub told local media.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 17:25

  • Biden Says Ending Title 42 "Long Overdue" After Supreme Court Decision
    Biden Says Ending Title 42 “Long Overdue” After Supreme Court Decision

    In response to a recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision to keep the Title 42 illegal immigration law in place, Joe Biden begrudgingly stated that while the federal government is required to continue enforcing them, the removal of covid-based restrictions is ‘long overdue’. 

    The comment represents even more proof that Biden and Democrats are intent on creating an open migration environment and will do nothing to secure the border. 

    It should be noted that the Biden Administration continues to promote pandemic fear-mongering despite the fact that the vast majority of the country has moved on. 

    Yet, when it comes to the disastrous flood of illegal migrants invading the southern border the White House is not at all concerned about the spread of covid and continues to ignore the crisis. 

    It is this kind of hypocrisy that leaves border states with little option other than to bus the migrants they can’t send back across the border over to Democrat run sanctuary cities.  

    Dissenting opinions from the Supreme Court’s decision argue that the crisis on the border is not a “covid crisis”, therefore Title 42 serves no purpose. 

    They acknowledge the crisis exists, but since it is not covid related they (and Biden) want to remove the only legal tool available to deter migrants from skipping across the border with the expectation of a free ride and welfare benefits.

    Numerous officials including the Democrat Mayor of El Paso (an epicenter of the border calamity) have admitted that the end of Title 42 would result in a massive spike in migrant caravans well beyond what the US is already dealing with. 

    Keeping the law in place is essential if the threat is to be averted.

    Tyler Durden
    Wed, 12/28/2022 – 17:05

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