Oct 29

Today’s News 29th October 2021

  • Diesel And Petrol Cars Losing Ground In The EU
    Diesel And Petrol Cars Losing Ground In The EU

    The car industry is one of the sectors most impacted by supply chain disruptions and global chip shortages cause by the coronavirus pandemic. However, as Statista’s Florian Zandt notes, this hasn’t stopped it from being under scrutiny for its role in climate change, whether due to the production process or the cars manufactured.

    When it comes to the latter, car buyers in the European Union seem to be doing their part to lessen the impact of fossil-fuel-powered automobiles.

    Infographic: Diesel And Petrol Cars Losing Ground in the EU | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    In the first nine months of 2021, registrations of petrol and diesel cars went down by 9 and 8.5 percent, respectively, when compared to the previous year’s timeframe according to data by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA). Vehicles with a hybrid electric powertrain, on the other hand, saw a rise in registrations of 8.8 percent, putting their market share of cars registered between January and September of 2021 about one percent behind diesel units. Overall, the share of cars with alternative power trains keeps rising steadily, making up more of a third of newly-registered automobiles in the EU in the first three quarters of this year.

    The shift towards electric cars with chargeable batteries is also not without its downsides. Even though a study conducted by the Universities of Exeter, Cambridge and Nijmegen has shown that the total average carbon emissions of an electric vehicle are still far lower than of one powered by fossil fuels, even with production emissions factored in, there’s still the issue of sourcing the minerals for batteries, their longevity and the increased production of e-waste.

    Even though the automotive industry in the European Union continues to hit its target values for the reduction of average CO2 emissions according to data from the ICCT, those numbers are to be taken with a grain of salt: Without phase-in provisions and extra credits for low-emission vehicles and eco-innovation technology, most big manufacturers like Ford-Volvo, BMW and Volkswagen would miss the mark by a considerable margin. Out of the estimated 7 gigatonnes of CO2 emitted by the transport sector in 2020, passenger cars contributed 2.9 gigatonnes or 40 percent.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/29/2021 – 02:45

  • Migrants Riot In French Town, Attack Police And Firefighters
    Migrants Riot In French Town, Attack Police And Firefighters

    Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

    Migrants in the town of Alençon, France, rioted, set fire to vehicles and attacked police and firefighters after authorities arrested a 16-year-old suspect for dealing drugs.

    Around 20 young men hit the streets to cause chaos in response to the arrest, throwing fireworks at emergency personnel, a common tactic during migrant riots.

    “We deplore this night of urban violence in Perseigne, in Alençon, in which there were a dozen vehicles set on fire,” Françoise Tahéri, prefect of the Orne district, told BFMTV.

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    Photos taken this morning show the remains of torched vehicles.

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    Apparently, the state has been dispersing the migrants over the whole area recently in a bid to help them “integrate” better.

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    That looks like it was a resounding success.

    Cities and towns in France are routinely plagued by migrant riots that are sparked by violent confrontations between police and criminals.

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    In May last year, migrants in Paris staged unrest for multiple nights, attacking police and setting fire to vehicles in protest against the accidental death of a motorcyclist.

    Some areas are so out of control that during the first COVID-19 lockdown, a top government official said restrictions shouldn’t be imposed on migrant-heavy areas due to the threat of riots.

    Unrest in France’s notorious high crime banlieues is commonplace and a clear sign that multiculturalism has failed, although the media has repeatedly tried to frame the very existence of no-go zones as a conspiracy theory.

    However, the issue is treated deadly seriously in France, with mass migration becoming a core issue for voters in the run up to next year’s presidential election.

    As we discuss below, a new poll found that the majority of French people fear they are being replaced by Muslim migrants and that Christianity will go ‘extinct’.

    Emmanuel Macron’s main challenger, author Eric Zemmour, who previously called for migrant areas to be “re-conquered by force,” has moved to within 5 percentage points of the president.

    “Mass immigration, resignation from the state, lack of justice and abandonment of our police officers: # Alençon , it’s all of this at the same time,” tweeted Zemmour in response to the riots.

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    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 10/29/2021 – 02:00

  • Is The Establishment Hiding Mass Resistance To Vaccine Mandates With The "Striketober" Farce?
    Is The Establishment Hiding Mass Resistance To Vaccine Mandates With The “Striketober” Farce?

    Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

    It is perhaps a sign of the waning influence of the mainstream media that even though they have been incessantly pumping the concept of “Striketober” for the past month, the majority of Americans rarely mention it.

    What we do deal with on a regular basis, though, are the constant labor shortages across multiple sectors of the economy as well as the growing supply chain disruptions and stagflationary retail price hikes.

    The media notion of “labor regaining its power” is a background narrative that they are still struggling to plant in the public subconscious while the majority of people try to adapt to more serious concerns.

    That said, the establishment doesn’t really care if the propaganda takes hold, only that they have a useful cover for the very real collapse of the US economy.

    It’s a kind of vicious perversion of the “fake it until you make it” strategy.

    Striketober, like BLM, Antifa, and numerous other Marxist or Cultural Marxist movements has been created from thin air by a combination of news hype and globalist foundation funding. It’s important to first recognize that none of these leftist organizations would have ever been formed had it not been for the ample support of institutions like the Ford Foundation and George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. BLM, for example, was founded by openly Marxist leaders and got its start using millions of dollars in funding from the Ford Foundation and Open Society Foundation.

    Many of the “workers unions” involved in various elements of Striktober also enjoy direct or indirect funding from globalist foundations. The Food Chain Workers Alliance, for example, receives funding from the Ford Foundation, and the National Domestic Workers Foundation gets ample money from the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation.

    As I have said many times in the past, all the evil people are on the side of the political left. All the billionaire elites and corporations they claim to hate are feeding them endless cash. Leftist labor strikes only exist because globalists want them to exist.

    Of course, leftist strikes are actually a minimal problem. In fact, I suspect they are a deliberately fabricated theater meant to obscure the very REAL labor strikes among conservatives over the covid vaccine mandates.

    Let me explain…

    We are all familiar with sensationalist worker walkouts like the Netflix protest over Dave Chappelle’s special “The Closer” which dares to make jokes about trans activists, a highly protected minority of people at the top of the leftist oppression totem pole. Most people have also heard about the workers strike among McDonalds employees over #metoo claims even though there is little to no evidence to support the accusations.

    What we don’t hear much about is that the Netflix walkout was actually only a handful of real employees mixed with a mob of career activists that were bused in from elsewhere. We also don’t hear about the fact that the #metoo claims made against McDonalds are actually from back in 2018, and they are now being conveniently dredged up again as the country faces a labor shortage crisis.

    These high profile strikes and walkouts are starting to eclipse media coverage of the true culprits behind the labor crisis – Namely the Biden Administration and blue state governments enacting global mandates, vaccine controls and covid stimulus.

    The source of worker shortages, supply chain bottlenecks and a lot of our stagflationary issues can be traced directly back to the government’s covid restrictions and the covid welfare programs. Get rid of the restrictions, the mandates and the covid checks and over time the crisis will disappear. It really is that simple. However, the establishment does not want you to see it that way.

    Marxist/Socialist groups are working feverishly to make hay with the covid protests and employee strikes in an attempt to attribute them to “worker discontent” over low wages and “mistreatment” rather than the covid mandates. This is nonsense.

    First and foremost, wages have been rising exponentially in the past year for what I would call “zero skill workers” in the retail and service industries. When a potential employee with no valuable skills can walk into almost any chain restaurant or retail outlet and get $15 or more an hour on top of a signing bonus of hundreds of dollars just for showing up on the first day, there is no unfair disparity for the working class.

    When the average minimum wage across the states is around $9 and most service workers are making nearly double that, there is no legitimate problem for Marxists to complain about. So, they have to make things up. To be sure, $15 an hour is not enough to buy a home or start a family on a single income, but people aren’t automatically entitled to home ownership and no intelligent person expects to launch a career in food service or retail. That’s why decades ago these jobs were filled by teenagers, not people in their 20s or older. Doubling the minimum wage only accomplished one thing int he long run: Much higher prices for everyone.

    Workers might feel like they are being abused, but it’s not their paychecks under attack or their managers making sexual advances. These are petty concerns compared to the bigger issue at hand – Their individual civil liberties.

    As noted, there are two major factors in worker shortages: The Biden vaccine mandates and state and federal covid stimulus programs which pay people more to stay at home than they would make on the job. THESE are the reasons for worker shortages and anyone that claims otherwise is ignorant or has an agenda.

    Federal covid checks are not done yet. Contrary to popular belief the cash is still flowing through various programs including child credit programs. Also, most states continue to pump out covid financial aid on top of existing unemployment benefits. This is essentially Universal Basic Income and it’s not over by a long shot. Businesses cannot find enough labor because the government has bribed millions of workers to stay home. The socialists don’t like to address this problem because it conflicts with their Striketober fantasy, so they deny it exists.

    The establishment is well aware that these actions are destabilizing the labor market and I believe the goal is to destroy the small business sector specifically. Small businesses cannot compete with corporations backed by trillions in central bank stimulus. They don’t have the resources to double wage rates for zero-skill workers or to offer large signing bonuses. They also don’t have the resources to police their own employees and customers to ensure these people are complying with vaccine passports and booster shots. Within a year the solid small business foundation of the US will be a hollow shell.

    With the death of small businesses, all that will remain are international conglomerates that WILL enforce the mandates and threaten people with poverty and starvation if they refuse the vax. All other legal alternatives will be removed and that is exactly what the elites want. Without defiant small businesses there’s nowhere left for you to work or shop without the vax passport. Corporate monopolies are the tool governments are using to circumvent constitutional protections for individuals.

    But as this process plays out the resistance grows. And, as they say, the resistance will not be televised.

    The entire premise of Striketober and the rise of the “oppressed proletariat” is a farce, but there is a different kind of revolution brewing. The latest narrative does at least represent something new in the agenda to derail the US economy. For the most part we have been dealing with astroturf protests from Cultural Marxists in the form of crazed social justice warriors funded by globalist foundations. The focus is usually on exploiting cultural taboos or non-existent racism or sexism. The Striketober development is a much more classic rendition of old school Marxist sabotage, and it appears that it was slapped together haphazardly by establishment elites in order to diminish the VERY REAL conservative worker walkouts.

    That is to say, from now on expect that if you walk out of a job or get fired from a job for non-compliance on the experimental covid vax you might be lumped in with a fake leftist movement and no one will mention the real reasons for your sacrifice. But what is the point of this psy-op? Don’t the globalists want to identify and demonize the millions of conservatives refusing the vax?

    I am reminded of a story I read when I was a child about a conversation between an ancient Roman General and a Roman Senator. The senator tells the general that something needed to be done about separating and delineating the slave class from the free Roman citizens because often they all looked alike and were sometimes dressed alike. The senator suggested that the slaves be forced to wear black arm bands so they could be easily identified. The general disagreed, pointing out that if the slaves were given the arm bands they would finally see how many of them there were, and realizing the sheer size of their population the slaves might then be encouraged to revolt against the empire.

    Now, I don’t know if this tale is historically accurate but I treat it as a parable. In the case of the vaccine mandates and the massive worker strikes among airlines, hospitals, police and emergency services, etc., the more the establishment tries to squeeze the US population with forced vaccination efforts the more liberty minded people slip through their fingers and fight back. If mass walkouts and strikes are attributed to conservatives and patriots standing against the mandates, then all the other “slaves” might realize they are actually legion. This would be bad for the globalists and their Reset agenda.

    So, they are attempting to co-opt the vaccine walkouts and rewrite history in real time by creating a fake workers movement through Striketober. And no, it will not end in October, the media will be promoting this idea from now on. That way the resistance becomes convoluted and confused and the mainstream media can say the great number of striking workers are actually on the side of the political left battling the “capitalist machine”, not conservatives and patriots on the side of truth and freedom.

    We are not supposed to know our numbers. By instituting a two tier society through vax mandates the establishment has made an error. They obviously assumed there would be far less rebellion against the passports. They obviously assumed that there would be a vast majority of support and the 10% or less of the population refusing to comply would be overwhelmed and surrounded by the covid cult. They figured we would be compelled by peer pressure and the fear of standing out, and that we would naturally fall in line. Instead, 30% to 50% of the population depending on the state or city or industry is in revolt and we are starting to see how many of us there really are across the country.

    There are three things the covid authoritarians are predominantly afraid of:

    1. Liberty groups recognizing their true numbers.

    2. Those same groups organizing at the local and state level across the country.

    3. And, losing the mainstream narrative that they are the “good guys” and that we are the “evil insurrectionists”.

    Striketober is just another desperate attempt by the power elites to manage optics in the face of unexpected opposition. Their efforts to terrorize people that refuse to become guinea pigs for a barely tested mRNA cocktail is backfiring. Eventually, worker strikes due to forced vaccination will culminate in greater acts of rebellion against the system. And, with each escalation of resistance the establishment will strain their weak think-tank brains trying to create new narratives to obscure what is really happening.

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 23:40

  • Smashing Atoms: The History Of Uranium And Nuclear Power
    Smashing Atoms: The History Of Uranium And Nuclear Power

    Uranium has been around for millennia, but we only recently began to understand its unique properties.

    Today, the radioactive metal fuels hundreds of nuclear reactors, enabling carbon-free energy generation across the globe. But, Visual Capitalist’s Govind Bhutada details below, how did uranium and nuclear power come to be?

    The infographic below, from the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust, outlines the history of nuclear energy and highlights the role of uranium in producing clean energy.

    From Discovery to Fission: Uncovering Uranium

    Just like all matter, the history of uranium and nuclear energy can be traced back to the atom.

    Martin Klaproth, a German chemist, first discovered uranium in 1789 by extracting it from a mineral called “pitchblende”. He named uranium after the then newly discovered planet, Uranus. But the history of nuclear power really began in 1895 when German engineer Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays and radiation, kicking off a series of experiments and discoveries—including that of radioactivity.

    In 1905, Albert Einstein set the stage for nuclear power with his famous theory relating mass and energy, E = mc2. Roughly 35 years later, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman confirmed his theory by firing neutrons into uranium atoms, which yielded elements lighter than uranium. According to Einstein’s theory, the mass lost during the reaction changed into energy. This demonstrated that fission—the splitting of one atom into lighter elements—had occurred.

    “Nuclear energy is incomparably greater than the molecular energy which we use today.”

    – Winston Churchill, 1955.

    Following the discovery of fission, scientists worked to develop a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. In 1939, a team of French scientists led by Frédéric Joliot-Curie demonstrated that fission can cause a chain reaction and filed the first patent on nuclear reactors.

    Later in 1942, a group of scientists led by Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard set off the first nuclear chain reaction through the Chicago Pile-1. Interestingly, they built this makeshift reactor using graphite bricks on an abandoned squash court in the University of Chicago.

    These experiments proved that uranium could produce energy through fission. However, the first peaceful use of nuclear fission did not come until 1951, when Experimental Breeder Reactor I (EBR-1) in Idaho generated the first electricity sourced from nuclear power.

    The Power of the Atom: Nuclear Power and Clean Energy

    Nuclear reactors harness uranium’s properties to generate energy without any greenhouse gas emissions. While uranium’s radioactivity makes it unique, it has three other properties that stand out:

    • Material Density: Uranium has a density of 19.1g/cm3, making it one of the densest metals on Earth. For reference, it is nearly as heavy (and dense) as gold.

    • Abundance: At 2.8 parts per million, uranium is approximately 700 times more abundant than gold, and 37 times more abundant than silver.

    • Energy Density: Uranium is extremely energy-dense. A one-inch tall uranium pellet contains the same amount of energy as 120 gallons of oil.

    Thanks to its high energy density, the use of uranium fuel makes nuclear power more efficient than other energy sources. This includes renewables like wind and solar, which typically require much more land (and more units) to generate the same amount of electricity as a single nuclear reactor.

    But nuclear power offers more than just a smaller land footprint. It’s also one of the cleanest and most reliable energy sources available today, poised to play a major role in the energy transition.

    The Future of Uranium and Nuclear Power

    Although nuclear power is often left out of the clean energy conversation, the ongoing energy crisis has brought it back into focus.

    Several countries are going nuclear in a bid to reduce reliance on fossil fuels while building reliable energy grids. For example, nuclear power is expected to play a prominent role in the UK’s plan to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Furthermore, Japan recently approved restarts at three of its nuclear reactors after initially phasing out nuclear power following the Fukushima accident.

    The resurgence of nuclear power, in addition to reactors that are already under construction, will likely lead to higher demand for uranium—especially as the world embraces clean energy.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 23:20

  • Parents Demand California School Board President Step Down After 'F**k You' Hot Mic Incident
    Parents Demand California School Board President Step Down After ‘F**k You’ Hot Mic Incident

    Authored by Vanessa Serna via The Epoch Times,

    After a California school board president was caught swearing on camera towards a parent providing public comment at an Oct. 26 board meeting, parents are calling for her resignation.

    Marlys Davidson, president of the Los Alamitos Unified School District (LAUSD), was heard cursing at parent Lauren Roupoli after speaking out, during public comment, against the K-12 vaccine and mask mandate.

    Roupoli ended her speech telling the board “we are vocal because we are our children’s biggest advocates.”

    Following her comment, Davidson was caught saying “fuck you” while the crowd applauded Roupoli’s speech.

    Following the incident, Davidson issued an apology regarding her comments during Tuesday night’s meeting.

    “I reaffirm my commitment to serve our community with dignity and integrity, and I hope they will accept my sincere apology,” Davidson said in a statement to KTLA.

    While Davidson was not heard by the audience inside the board meeting, those watching online heard the president utter the cuss words towards Roupoli.

    “I didn’t hear it when I was up there because she was wearing a mask,” Roupoli told The Epoch Times.

    “There was a round of applause and you could hear it on the board meeting live online because she had the round of applause muted.”

    Upon realizing the incident, Roupoli was speechless and in disbelief of the comment that occurred at one of her first public comment appearances.

    “It just shows the amount of respect she does have for these parents, and it’s sad that it took the hot mike to expose that,” Roupoli said.

    “Some were saddened to just see the true colors of how they really feel about the parents because if it was the other way around, I would have been labeled a domestic terrorist, and probably escorted out.”

    Davidson was not immediately available for comment.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 23:00

  • "Thank You Federal Reserve": Hilton CEO Says Company Is Hedged Against Inflation Because Room Rates Reset Every Night
    “Thank You Federal Reserve”: Hilton CEO Says Company Is Hedged Against Inflation Because Room Rates Reset Every Night

    Not everybody is feeling the “sting” of inflation. In fact, a few business owners are happy about it.

    Take, for instance, Hilton Hotels, where the room rates reset every single night. It’s a luxury that most stores and business owners don’t have: the ability to change prices daily. Hilton can constantly update (raise) its prices on a day-by-day basis, making it easy to keep up with our totally normal, totally in-control inflation.

    In fact, Hilton’s CEO took to Bloomberg to thank the Fed for the job they’re doing and explain how his business is hedged against inflation.

    Chief Executive Officer Christopher Nassetta said: “We can reprice our product every second of every day. We’re a very good hedge in that way to inflation and we’re being very thoughtful about how we’re pricing our product.”

    Raising prices has helped the hotels offset higher wages, he told investors on a call this week. The hotel is anticipating better margins as the effect of the pandemic continues to fade, the CEO commented. 

    “If you look at the $3 trillion of incremental savings during Covid, there’s a long way to go to spend it all. Thank you Federal Reserve and the U.S. Congress for fiscal and monetary stimulus,” Nassetta said.

    The chain has recorded average daily rates of $140.57 across its global system for the three months ended September. This is down just 3.1% from Q3 2019, prior to the pandemic. Occupancy rates are currently about 19% lower than the same pre-pandemic period, Bloomberg notes.

    Shares of the hotel operator were up this week, hitting an all-time high, on the news. Hilton is up more than 30% this year as the lodging and travel recovery from Covid continues. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 22:40

  • Top Florida Official Suggests 'In-N-Out' Move To Sunshine State After Vaccine Mandate Closures
    Top Florida Official Suggests ‘In-N-Out’ Move To Sunshine State After Vaccine Mandate Closures

    By Jack Phillips of Epoch Times,

    Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, Jimmy Patronis, suggested that In-N-Out Burger should move to the Sunshine State after several In-N-Out locations were shut down by California officials.

    An In-N-Out Burger restaurant in Alhambra, Calif

    Patronis appealed to In-N-Out CEO Lunsi Snyder to move to the state, arguing that Florida has a superior business climate—noting the state has no personal income tax, low corporate taxes, and no mandates.

    “I’m writing you today not only as Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, but as a small business owner who grew up in a family-owned restaurant and worked there for more than 30 years,” his letter reads.

    “I know how hard it is to turn a profit and make payroll on a good day, let alone when your own government is working to crush your business with absurd mandates. Once I heard the news of your shutdown for refusing to act as ‘vaccine police,’ I knew I had to reach out immediately.”

    It came as health officials in Contra Costa County, Calfornia, shut down another In-N-Out Burger location for allowing indoor dining without checking customers for proof of vaccination, coming after a location was closed in nearby San Francisco for a similar reason.

    Contra Costa County District 1 Supervisor John Gioia claimed that In-N-Out’s staff in Pleasant Hill “have just flouted the law.”

    “It was other residents who complained about them,” he told ABC7. “That is why the health department followed up and issued fines.”

    The Contra Costa Environmental Health said in a news release the commercial food permit for the Pleasant Hill location was suspended Tuesday “for creating a public health hazard by repeatedly violating a county health order intended to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.”

    “Despite repeated notices of violation and fine, this business continued to permit indoor dining on site without verifying the COVID-19 vaccination status or recent, negative test result of customers,” the press release from Contra Costa health officials also said.

    The restaurant chain, which has numerous locations across the West Coast, said its staff will not check the vaccination status of customers.

    “The reason for the closure is that In-N-Out Associates were not actively demanding vaccine documentation and photo identification from each dine-in Customer before serving them,” In-N-Out Chief legal officer Arnie Wensinger said in a statement to local media after the Contra Costa location was closed.

    “We refuse to become the vaccination police for any government,” he added. “It is unreasonable, invasive, and unsafe to force our restaurant Associates to segregate Customers into those who may be served and those who may not, whether based on the documentation they carry, or any other reason.”

    Wensinger continued to say that the chain doesn’t agree “with any government dictate that forces a private company to discriminate against customers who choose to patronize their business.”

    The move comes about two weeks after another In-N-Out Burger in San Francisco’s Fisherman Warf was closed down for allowing indoor dining without having its staff check whether they’re vaccinated or not. A vaccine passport mandate was implemented in San Francisco earlier this year by Democrat Mayor London Breed, and similar systems have been implemented in New York City, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and several other U.S. cities.

    The San Francisco location was reopened to outdoor dining and takeout.

    Some would-be customers in Pleasant Hill criticized the move to shut down the business.

    “It’s not their job, they’re here to make hamburgers for us in all reality,” said Sean Vance to ABC7. “Absolute government overreach, it’s too much government control over us, we are a nation of freedom,” said Army veteran Laura Moser.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 22:20

  • Energy Demand Destruction Will Lead To Global Recession, Tellurian Chairman Warns
    Energy Demand Destruction Will Lead To Global Recession, Tellurian Chairman Warns

    One month ago, Goldman said that the one thing that could accelerate the resolution of Europe’s energy crisis was plain, simple “demand destruction” – i.e., a plunge in demand due to prices that were too high until the reduced demand leads to less supply and a lower price. Specifically, Goldman estimated “that the potential capacity for gas-to-oil substitution could be larger should gas rally further, of up to 1.35 mb/d in power and 0.6 mb/d in industry (in Asia and Europe), although such a large demand boost would prove too large for the oil market to absorb, leading to a spike in prices to in turn achieve oil demand destruction, the ultimate solution to widespread energy scarcity.“

    There is just one problem with this: “demand destruction”, i.e., forcible shutdown of manufacturing facilities has direct cost on output.

    And as Charif Souki, Executive Board Chairman at U.S. LNG developer Tellurian, said at the online IEF gas forum, the demand destruction that results from high natural gas prices could lead to global recession.

    “We are dealing not with a gas crisis, the gas is simply the leading horse, but we are dealing with an energy crisis”

    Echoing what Goldman said a month ago, Souki said that the first manifestation of demand destruction is a switch from one fuel to another.

    “But if all fuels become too expensive then you ask people to start changing their lifestyles, start driving less, turning off the lights more often, not putting the air conditioning on, not heat your home.”

    “My great fear is the lack of planning is going to lead us to global recession.” He also added that having adequate gas storage is “critical” as is investment in infrastructure.

    Pointing out the obvious, he also said that current oil prices at about $85/bbl for oil and the equivalent of $200 for gas, are not sustainable.

    “Eventually, after the winter, gas prices will come back down to a more reasonable level. But at the same time oil prices will continue to increase to a more reasonable level, in order to find an equilibrium.”

    Translation: the recent blind (and stupid) push for ESG at all costs, has not only not led to a viable ESG output equilibrium – that won’t be achieved for years if not decades – but the price shock that has already been triggered thanks to the “greens” who has forced fossil companies to shrink spending on existing and new capacity, will be directly responsible for the next big recession.

    Which, paradoxically, makes sense: after all, it is hardly a secret that the Fed will have no choice but to do even more QE after the next downturn (in fact, the only question traders should be asking today is not whether the current yield curve collapse suggests a recession is coming – of course it is – but how forceful the Fed’s response will be). And with Bank of America estimating that some $150 trillion in spending will have to be paid out to enable the “net zero” reality (as discussed in “Here is The Hidden $150 Trillion Agenda Behind The “Crusade” Against Climate Change“) much if not all of which will have to be monetized via global QE.

    As such the recession that the ESG fanatics trigger will be just the catalyst that greenlights the next $150 trillion in global QE that cements the coming Great Reset to every aspect of modern civilization.

     

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 22:00

  • Biden Presses Saudis To End Yemen War, But Kingdom Wants More US Weapons First
    Biden Presses Saudis To End Yemen War, But Kingdom Wants More US Weapons First

    Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com,

    Having invaded Yemen in 2015 with an eye toward reinstalling the Hadi government, Saudi Arabia is facing a reality where the war is being lost, and under growing pressure to end a naval blockade that has caused starvation in Yemen.

    There’s currently a diplomatic push to get a ceasefire in place, and ultimately end the war. While this would get the Saudis out of the negative coverage of the war, the kingdom seems to be focused on what they can get out of the US for heading down this path.

    Image via Reuters

    Saudi officials are emphasizing the need for missiles, air defenses, and attack drones, and are keen to get those from the US. The Saudis are pushing this despite having been buying billions of dollars in weapons annually during the Yemen War.

    Since the Biden Administration is known to be making ending the war a priority, it is entirely possible they’ll throw more weapons at the Saudis if they think it might facilitate that end.

    As Reuters describes:

    But Riyadh first wants US weapons to help the kingdom strengthen its defense systems following Houthi attacks on its territory with military drones and ballistic missiles, the sources familiar with discussions told Reuters.

    “Publicly and privately, we’ve been putting a lot of attention on the port and the airport issue… It’s the right thing for Saudi Arabia to do,” a senior U.S. government official said on condition of anonymity.

    Whether that will actually help remains to be seen, as the Saudi interest in getting out of the war is less about the money they’ve wasted and the thousands they’ve killed, but about threatened international blacklists, more than a little focused on their chief import, weapons.

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    Hostility toward the Shi’ite Houthis will likely remain even if they manage to negotiate an end to the war. The Hadi government, by contrast, would be left with only parts of South Yemen, and fighting to hold on to that with the separatist groups.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 21:40

  • 'Merchants Are Suffering': Shopify's CEO Warns About Deteriorating Macro Backdrop
    ‘Merchants Are Suffering’: Shopify’s CEO Warns About Deteriorating Macro Backdrop

    Shopify’s co-founder and CEO offered a grave warning about online merchants on its e-commerce platform. He said the current macro backdrop of supply chain chaos and inflation is producing hardships for its merchants. 

    “The challenges are, of course, real. There are pressures in the supply chain. There are increasing logistics costs and things like this,” Tobi Lutke told analysts during Shopify’s earnings call Thursday morning. “Inflation is harder for us to judge. There are probably some inflationary things going on. We have no idea if they are shorter or longer term.”

    “I do think a bunch of people are suffering,” Lutke told analysts, referring to the challenging macroeconomic backdrop for merchants on the e-commerce platform. 

    Despite the challenges, CFO Amy Shapero told analysts that the long-term outlook for Shopify and e-commerce would remain strong, adding that expanding the company’s global footprint will support future results. “E-commerce’s share of overall retail has reset lower than the peak last year, but is still several points higher than it was two years ago and is poised to resume a more normalized rate of growth,” Shapero said. 

    Shares of Shopify are up more than 9% after earnings posted weaker-than-expected adjusted earnings in the third quarter, which was the first time since going public in 2015. 

    Lutke’s grim outlook on supply chain woes and inflation is another example of how these issues persist. The impacts of delayed shipments and higher costs have unleashed margin compression for Shopify’s merchants, who have to either painfully eat the added costs or pass it along to consumers. 

    For more on the inflationary landscape, Bank of America’s latest inflation tracker is stuck at the highest reading possible, “non-transitory” inflation doubled to 75 in June. This means that transitory inflation is becoming a losing argument as more persistent inflation is here and will likely continue through year-end. 

    And while it remains to be seen if inflation and supply chains snarls will abate anytime soon, one thing is for sure, these twin terrors could unleash a slowdown in the economy that would make life miserable for many under a regime called stagflation (for a quick preview of what is coming, please read “Is Stagflation Here: Comparing The 2020s With The 1970s…”).

    As for the merchants on Shopify, the challenging economic landscape will persist well into 2022. What does this mean for consumers who want to buy items on the e-commerce platform? Well, it’s going to cost more. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 21:20

  • RBA Calls Bond Market's 'Taper Tantrum' Bluff, Yields Explode Higher Again
    RBA Calls Bond Market’s ‘Taper Tantrum’ Bluff, Yields Explode Higher Again

    After last night’s bloodbath down-under, traders were convinced that The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) would step in to save the day – like they did last Friday – to defend their yield target ion short-dated bonds.

    However, echoing yesterday’s move, RBA defied market expectations and let’er rip, sending the 2024 bond yield soaring from 40bps to almost 70bps…

    As highlighted in the green oval above, RBA stepped in last Friday to purchase the bond in an unscheduled operation as markets challenged the bank’s dovish outlook and pushed the yield above 0.17%.

    This week, no such luck for bond bulls as yields spiked to their highest since Feb 2020…

    As we pointed out last night, this move (or lack of move) by the RBA means simply that its Yield Curve Control – at least on the short end – is now, for all intents and purposes, over.

    Kit Lowe (@Kit_Lowe) summed up RBA Monetary Policy perfectly…

    Bloomberg reports that some economists have suggested the RBA could drop or amend its yield target for the April 2024 bond as early as Tuesday’s meeting. The central bank already owns 64% of the notes.

    Tonight’s extended move with add further fuel to expectations that Governor Lowe will entertain the idea of an earlier rate hike, but it will reprice the entire short-end of the Australian yield curve, which will soon pancake in preparation for the coming inversion…

    …which in turn will lead to shockwaves that will be felt in Europe and the US as soon as tomorrow.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 21:00

  • Damning Report Details How Four US Intel Agencies Failed To Predict Rapid Taliban Victory
    Damning Report Details How Four US Intel Agencies Failed To Predict Rapid Taliban Victory

    The Wall Street Journal has obtained and reviewed two dozen classified US intelligence assessments on Afghanistan from four different agencies including the CIA, DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency), the State Dept.’s intelligence bureau, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

    All of them examined Taliban advances across the country from the spring of 2020 through the middle of last summer, and while they consistently forecast the eventual collapse of Afghan national forces if US support was withdrawn, not a single agency assessment foresaw the group’s ultra-fast takeover of Kabul by August 15 and the entire country even as US forces were still on the ground attempting to evacuate personnel in Kabul.

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    Media reports in the months leading up to the chaotic and deadly evacuation efforts of August had earlier revealed that the most dire of CIA forecasts indicated a national government collapse at least six months out. Further into the summer US officials began indicating as little as a few months; however, as this latest bombshell WSJ report points out, US intelligence across the board failed to forecast what was in reality a mere weeks and days.

    President Joe Biden during the disastrous Taliban takeover of Kabul in August came under fire for offering what were clearly overly optimistic assessments that US-backed national forces were capable of holding on even as US troops departed.

    The Wall Street Journal report presents some of the various US intelligence agency findings as follows…

    On the DIA: 

    A June 4 Defense Intelligence Agency report, meanwhile, said the Taliban would pursue an incremental strategy of isolating rural areas from Kabul over the next 12 months, according to a summary. In an “Executive Memorandum” on July 7, the DIA said the Afghan government would hold Kabul, according to a person familiar with the report.

    And a pessimistic assessment from the CIA, which still didn’t foresee that the collapse would happen even as American troops were still on the ground:

    The April 13, 2020, report titled, “How Afghanistan Collapses After U.S. Pullout” came from the CIA’s “Red Cell,” whose mission is to conduct alternative assessments. It projected the demise of Mr. Ghani’s government once U.S. troops and funding were gone.

    A report from the ODNI again emphasized Taliban gains across the country only after the US withdrawal:

    Another report, “Implications of Full US Troop Withdrawal,” was published on Dec. 14, 2020, by the National Intelligence Council, which conducts long-range strategic analysis for the Director of National Intelligence. The NIC foresaw a rapid Taliban takeover but said the group’s gains would accelerate after a U.S. troop withdrawal.

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    The WSJ quotes some former officials who said the CIA remained the most pessimistic in terms of its dire predictions of the future of Afghanistan throughout the two decade long war there:

    The CIA, by contrast, consistently warned of potential collapse after a U.S. pullout, the summaries show. During the last year of the Trump administration, the CIA reported that it saw three different scenarios after a U.S. military withdrawal: a garrison state, where Mr. Ghani’s military would control Kabul and its environs; a divided country with the government and Taliban each controlling parts of Afghanistan; or a complete Taliban takeover.

    By April 2021, the CIA was warning of isolated highways, which jeopardized the Afghan government’s tenuous grip on power, and that Afghanistan would pose a terrorism threat outside its borders once the U.S. exited.

    * * *

    To make things easier, perhaps US intelligence analysts could have just listened carefully to the words of Congressman Ron Paul… from a full ten years ago:

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 20:40

  • Doug Casey: Why The Carbon Hysteria Is A Huge Threat To Your Personal Freedom And Financial Wellbeing
    Doug Casey: Why The Carbon Hysteria Is A Huge Threat To Your Personal Freedom And Financial Wellbeing

    Authored by Doug Casey via InternationalMan.com,

    International Man: Western countries are leading the charge in restructuring their economies around the issue of climate change. They’re committed to a comprehensive agenda to “decarbonize” their economies by 2050.

    What’s your take on this?

    Doug Casey: To sum it up in one word, it’s insane. In two words, it’s criminally insane.

    Before the Industrial Revolution, the overwhelmingly major fuel source was wood. After that, we went to coal, which was a big improvement in density of energy and economics. Then, we went to oil, another huge improvement in energy density and economics.

    These things happened not because of any government mandates but simply because they made both economic and technological sense. If the market had been left alone, the world would undoubtedly be running on nuclear. Nuclear is unquestionably the safest, cheapest, and cleanest type of mass power generation. This isn’t the time to go into the numerous reasons that’s true. But if nuclear had been left unregulated, we’d already be using small, self-contained, fifth-generation thorium reactors, generating power almost too cheap to meter. The world would already be running on truly clean green electricity.

    Instead, time, capital, and brainpower have been massively diverted to so-called “ecological” power sources—mainly wind and solar—strictly for ideological reasons. The powers that be want to transition the whole world to phony green energy, like it or not.

    I’m all for green energy in principle. There’s no question that solar and wind are worthwhile and effective for select applications—generally small, isolated, special locations where conventional fuel is inconvenient or too costly. The efficiency of solar has been tremendously improved over the last few decades, as has wind efficiency. But neither make any sense for mass base-load power in industrial economies.

    With further technological advances, they may become more economic someday. Perhaps people will eventually put large collectors in high Earth orbit and microwave the power down to the surface. There are all kinds of sci-fi possibilities. But right now, “green” is just a nice word for “stupid,” “ideological,” or “government-sponsored.”

    Doing things the green way takes power away from the markets, which is where people vote with their dollars. It instead places power in the hands of ideologues and bureaucrats.

    In brief, wind and solar are being promoted at the very time, nuclear and fossil fuels are being damned. It’s the opposite of what should be happening and a very bad trend from every point of view.

    Put me down as liking the birds and the bunnies as much as anyone else, but I’m anti-green. Anyway, ecofreaks don’t really care about the birds and the bunnies so much. That’s just a veneer. They actually just hate people and really want them to disappear. At a minimum, they want to control them. And the great global warming/anti-fossil-fuel hysteria is a great way to do it.

    International Man: As a part of this agenda, the US, the EU, and OECD countries plan to phase out oil, gas, and other fuels, replacing them with zero or low carbon sources of energy.

    What kind of disruptions could we see as the transition is made to energy sources that may not be as reliable?

    Doug Casey: Lots of disruptions, many of them both huge and currently unanticipated. The US has 330 million people. Why should decisions for hundreds of millions be made by bureaucrats and political hacks in Washington, DC?

    Why should they be the ones who decide what kind of power should or should not be used? That’s a question that nobody asks. People simply assume that that’s the way it should be and largely do as they’re told. They never stop and consider that governments have set progress back immeasurably over history. The main products of government are wars, pogroms, confiscations, taxes, regulations, and the like.

    Oil companies like Shell and BP are talking about getting out of the oil business. Oil companies and their employees and investors are looked down upon as the destroyers of the world. Nobody in polite society wants to admit that they’re in the oil business.

    Before you drill an oil well anywhere in the world, it’s necessary to ask permission from one or more government entities. In the Western world, where the public has been captured by the notions of PC and ESG,  governments are loath to issue drilling permits. Drillers don’t want to drill because costs are artificially high, and any profits will be subject to discouraging taxes.

    Expect oil production to drop in the West. Throughout the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, more oil was discovered than was being used. Reserves went up. But that’s no longer the case. It’s not because the oil isn’t there; it’s because it’s too politically incorrect to look for it and exploit it.

    Furthermore, scientists, engineers, and investors are staying away from anything to do with fossil fuels. You can plan on both fuel shortages and much higher costs. Markets are being subverted and are becoming ever more politicized.

    In addition, so-called “green technologies” aren’t really green. They just seem green on the surface. Giant windmills and solar farms rely on massive amounts of fossil fuels and metals to be manufactured and installed. They have limited lifespans, and they must be disposed of. Not only can’t they provide mass quantities of power consistently, but they all show losses, even after-tax benefits disguise them. That destroys capital. They’re not signs of progress but monuments to waste and destruction. We’re going to have huge disruptions in the energy markets in the years to come, and since the whole world runs on energy, it’s really serious.

    International Man: Broadly speaking, is the new climate change “crisis” an invitation for more government intervention in the world?

    Doug Casey: Yes. It’s like inviting a vampire into your house.

    For many decades, kids have been indoctrinated with ideas about counterproductive conservation and Greenism. Comic books, schoolbooks, teacher’s lectures, television—you name it—present the earth as being under attack from the forces of darkness. Mankind—especially the scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs—are shown exploiting and raping Mother Nature and her natural resources. They’re presented as evil.

    Bronowski’s Ascent of Man has been subverted into a battle of good versus evil, where all the values have been turned upside down. The problem has permeated society, and it’s even worse in the education system.

    St. Ignatius Loyola, who founded the Jesuits, and Vladimir Lenin, who founded the USSR, both said words to the effect of “If you can indoctrinate a child during his early years, you’ve basically set his direction of thinking for life.” They were right.

    Government is always presented as noble, wise, and forward-thinking. It’s presented as the savior stepping in to stop the evil producers.

    It is one of a number of false and horribly destructive memes stalking the earth today like spectres. The increasing belief in government as a magic solution to problems decreases the average person’s standard of living tremendously and creates all kinds of distortions throughout society. It’s turned the study of economics into a pseudoscience, and its incursions into science are discrediting the idea of science itself.

    In fact, the two big hysterias plaguing the world right now both center on the State involving itself in science—or at least scientism. One is COVID, a relatively trivial flu blown out of all proportion. The other is AGW, anthropogenic global warming, which was relatively recently rechristened as climate change.

    In my view, both will eventually be completely debunked and discredited. But if you run counter to the narrative on either of them right now, you’ll be canceled, fired, and/or ostracized.

    It’s very much like what happened to Galileo when he ran counter to the prevailing wisdom of the Middle Ages. They don’t actually burn books anymore, but only because books today are mostly electronic. But they do the equivalent of that on places like Google and Twitter.

    There’s an excellent chance that these people will discredit the very idea of science because they’ve wrapped themselves in the veil of science. Or, more precisely, what’s become known as “The Science.” They’re creating something much more serious than just another economic disaster.

    International Man: This trend seems to be growing in momentum.

    For example, Google Flights now prominently displays the carbon emissions of each flight it lists.

    Is that a small first step toward charging individuals for the carbon they emit?

    Doug Casey: I can assure you that I pay no attention whatsoever to the amount of carbon that I may be burning on a plane or anywhere else. It’s part of a psychological war the Left is waging, using guilt and shame as weapons. It’s another indication of the lockstep, the groupthink, that people are subjected to today.

    Life on this planet is based on carbon. The element itself is indestructible and essential, but it’s been transformed into a deadly enemy in the mind of the public. But if you deny that it’s destroying the earth, then you’re committing heresy. It’s like denying the existence of God in the Middle Ages. Hating carbon and worshipping “The Ecology” have become tenets of a secular religion.

    A new carbon tax will be implemented. It’s definitely in the cards. Most people will stupidly roll over and say, “Yes, this is for the good of the planet. It’s a tax we should all pay.”

    Of course, governments and the powers that be always want more resources directed towards themselves. In a time when governments are bankrupt and can only generate more money for themselves by printing it, it’s an absolute certainty that the next tax will have a patina of righteousness. A carbon tax on individuals, as well as companies, checks all the boxes.

    International Man: Will carbon credits become a new government-created “commodity” that corporations and individuals will be forced to purchase?

    Doug Casey: Without question, it’s a clever way to turn a tax into something that looks like an asset, an investment.

    Look, this is all about politics and money, but disguised as a religious movement, which is quite clever. There’s no question that Greenism is being promoted as a new religion.

    Christianity is a dead duck in Europe, and it’s dying in North America. But people need some type of religion, a replacement for Christianity, to hold on to.

    People will be encouraged to treat their taxes as tithes to wash away their sins against Mother Nature—much the way they tithed the church to expunge their sins in the Middle Ages. It’s an exact analogy. They’ll buy “carbon credits” as an analog for building cathedrals and monasteries.

    As an economist, as well as someone who reads a lot of science, I think it’s ridiculous and destructive. The whole anti-carbon, carbon sequestration, and Greenism thing is a political hysteria promoted by people who like to control other people. I’m completely opposed to carbon credits or carbon taxes from that point of view.

    But when I put on my speculator’s hat, I’m all for it. There are companies being formed to cleverly capitalize on all this destructive nonsense. It’s still very early days, and the public will pile into the space with a combination of religious fervor and fin de siècle greed. I expect a massive bubble in the space. I’m all for bubbles—if I can buy in early.

    A speculator is a cynic, not a philanthropist—although I hasten to add that most philanthropists are hypocrites. It’s a pity that the vast majority of people have been totally brainwashed by Greenism, and carbon stocks are a great way to turn the lemon into lemonade.

    *  *  *

    We’ve seen governments institute the strictest controls on people and businesses in history. It’s been a swift elimination of individual freedoms. But this is just the beginning… Most people don’t realize the terrible things that could come next, including negative interest rates, the abolition of cash, and much more. If you want to know how to survive what the central bankers and the Deep State have planned, then you need to see this newly released report from legendary investor Doug Casey and his team. Click here to download it now.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 20:20

  • McDonald's Hikes Big Mac Prices To Offset Surging Costs 
    McDonald’s Hikes Big Mac Prices To Offset Surging Costs 

    McDonald’s is faced with higher food and labor costs, is raising menu prices at a much faster pace than historical rates, focused on preserving profits. The problem with higher-priced menu items is that they will diminish the buying power of the working poor who frequent the Chicago-based burger giant. 

    Famous for the Big Mac burger, the company is paying more for food, packaging, and other supplies, CEO Chris Kempczinski told investors Wednesday. He said commodity costs are up 3.5% to 4%, up from the 2% increase earlier this year. On top of that, labor costs are up at least 10%. Rising labor and commodity costs are pushing up menu prices in the US by approximately 6% this year. 

    “Certainly, I was hoping and expecting that we were going to see the situation improve maybe a little bit more quickly than what’s materialized,” Kempczinski said. 

    The news of McDonald’s increasing menu prices comes as the restaurant industry battles a supply chain crisis (read: here & here) and labor shortage that is disrupting operations. The labor shortage issue has been widespread for the burger chain – even forcing some stores to limit hours of operation. It has become harder than ever to retain or even find workers. 

    Earlier this year, some McDonald’s franchisees offered signing bonuses and paid interviews to attract new workers. 

    The National Owners Association (NOA), an independent, self-funded advocacy group of McDonald’s franchisees, warned months ago that attracting new workers was challenging because generous unemployment benefits allowed many low-income workers to stay home and get paid more. NOA warned also warned an “inflationary time bomb” was imminent and would be passed along to customers:

    “Inflation is the flip side to all of these changes,” NOA said. “Price increases are happening everywhere you look and will continue as employers pass along these added costs. We will do the same. A Big Mac will get more expensive.”

    “Our government officials need to know what is happening out in the real world,” NOA continued. “They need to know what they are creating; an inflationary time bomb.” 

    Rising menu prices at America’s favorite fast-food burger chain will only impact the working poor the hardest who see their real wages crumble as inflation continues to run rampant through the economy. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 20:00

  • Dave Chappelle Says Distributors Are Cancelling His New Documentary Over Netflix Special Controversy
    Dave Chappelle Says Distributors Are Cancelling His New Documentary Over Netflix Special Controversy

    Authored by Christopher Burroughs via The Epoch Times,

    Dave Chappelle said during a video released on Monday that controversy over his Netflix comedy special “The Closer” is leading distributors to reject his latest documentary project “Untitled.”

    The stand-up comedian noted the media has attacked him over jokes he made about the transgender community in the special.

    “This film that I made was invited to every film festival in the United States and some of those invitations I accepted,” Chappelle said.

    “This controversy came out about ‘The Closer,’ they began disinviting from these film festivals and now, today, not a film company, not a movie studio, not a film festival, nobody will touch this film,” he added.

    “Thank God for [CEO] Ted Sarandos and Netflix. He’s the only one that didn’t cancel me yet,” Chappelle noted.

    The comedian now plans to screen his documentary through a 10-city tour nationwide.

    The cities Chappelle plans to tour throughout November include San Francisco, Minneapolis, Des Moines, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Toronto, Cincinnati, Columbus, Atlanta, and New York.

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    Chappelle’s Netflix title led to backlash from LGBTQ+ advocates and prompted a walkout among some Netflix employees.

    A handful of counter-protestors showed up at the walkout in Hollywood, California, on Oct. 20, to support Chappelle’s right to free speech and stand against cancel culture.

    The Netflix controversy began when Chappelle’s special debuted on Netflix on Oct. 5. Sarandos defended Chappelle’s right to artistic freedom in emails obtained by media outlet Variety, to some staff who found Chappelle’s jokes offensive.

    In his special, Chappelle showed support for “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, who has said, “If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased.”

    “I agree, man,” Chappelle said.

    “Gender is a fact. Every human being in this room, every human being on Earth, had to pass through the legs of a woman to be on Earth. That is a fact.”

    Despite the “cancel culture” response, the comedian said he refuses to back down.

    “This has nothing to do with [the LGBTQ+ community]. It’s about corporate interests and what I can say and what I cannot say,” Chappelle said.

    The comedian added the hate he has received has not come from LGBTQ+ people he personally knows. He considers the issue a matter of freedom of speech.

    “For the record, and I need you to know this, everyone I know from that community has been loving and supporting, so I don’t know what all this nonsense is about,” Chappelle added.

    “To the transgender community, I am more than willing to give you an audience, but you will not summon me. I am not bending to anybody’s demands,” he said in the video.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 19:40

  • Coast Guard Says 100 Containers Fell Off Cargo Ship, Some Carrying Christmas Decorations And Toys  
    Coast Guard Says 100 Containers Fell Off Cargo Ship, Some Carrying Christmas Decorations And Toys  

    The Canadian Coast Guard released an update on the number of truck-size intermodal shipping containers that fell into the Pacific Ocean from a container ship during rough seas last week to more than 100, up from the original estimate of about 40. 

    The Maltese-flagged ZIM Kingston container ship hauled 2,000 containers with 1,000 on deck when stormy seas near Vancouver Island on Oct. 22 knocked 106 containers into the ocean. After the incident, two of the containers containing hazardous chemicals caught fire. The fire has since been extinguished, and the vessel is anchored at Constance Bank, in the Straits of Juan de Fuca off of Victoria, British Columbia.

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    Some of the contents lost at sea include car parts, industrial parts and machines, Christmas decorations, clothing, toys, sofas, poker tables, and other everyday items. There are reports that some of the containers have washed ashore. 

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    A majority of the containers sunk: 

    “They’re out there being battered in heavy seas,” said Mariah McCooey, Canadian Coast Guard deputy federal incident commander. “The watertight integrity is not that great.”

    The incident comes as global supply chains are more snarled than ever, forcing container ships to stack containers to the brim in a technique called containerization. The more containers loaded up on a vessel, the more prone it becomes to an accident at sea in adverse weather conditions. That’s precisely what happened to ZM Kingston. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 19:20

  • Terry McAuliffe Hires Controversial Ex-Clinton Lawyer Marc Elias
    Terry McAuliffe Hires Controversial Ex-Clinton Lawyer Marc Elias

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    As a long-standing associate of the Clintons, Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe has long ties with the Democratic establishment. That history was placed into sharp relief this week when he made a hefty downpayment on the services of former Clinton counsel Marc Elias. 

    Elias is a critical figure in the ongoing Durham investigation and has been accused of lying to the media to hide the role of the Clinton campaign in funding the Steele dossier.

    His former law partner Michael Sussmann at Perkins Coie was recently indicted by Durham. 

    Elias has also led efforts to challenge Democratic losses, even as he denounces Republicans for such election challenges. 

    Elias has been sanctioned in past litigation.

    Like Sussmann, Elias has left Perkins Coie.  He ironically created a law firm specializing in campaign ethics. 

    McAuliffe may be preparing to challenge any win by Republican Glenn Youngkin. He has given $53,680 to the Elias Law Group.  McAuliffe does not appear disturbed by Elias’ highly controversial career or his possible exposure in the Durham investigation.

    I previously described news accounts linking the firm and Elias to the dossier scandal:

    Throughout the campaign, the Clinton campaign denied any involvement in the creation of the so-called Steele dossier’s allegations of Trump-Russia connections. However, weeks after the election, journalists discovered that the Clinton campaign hid payments for the dossier made to a research firm, Fusion GPS, as “legal fees” among the $5.6 million paid to the campaign’s law firm. New York Times reporter Ken Vogel said at the time that Clinton lawyer Marc Elias, with the law firm of Perkins Coie, denied involvement in the anti-Trump dossier. When Vogel tried to report the story, he said, Elias “pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.’” Times reporter Maggie Haberman declared, “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.”

    It was not just reporters who asked the Clinton campaign about its role in the Steele dossier. John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, was questioned by Congress and denied categorically any contractual agreement with Fusion GPS. Sitting beside him was Elias, who reportedly said nothing to correct the misleading information given to Congress.

    The Washington Post also reported that “Elias drew from funds that both the Clinton campaign and the DNC were paying Perkins Coie.”

    That makes the choice of counsel astonishing given these allegations from reporters and McAuliffe’s previous assertion that “someone who lies about the little things will lie about the big things too.”

    Elias also was the subject of intense criticism after a tweet that some have called inherently racist. Democrats used the recent Georgia election law as a rallying cry for federalizing elections by labelling the law, as described by President Biden, “Jim Crow on steroids.” Biden has been repeatedly called out for demonstrably false statements about the law.  Elias argued that Georgia voters could not be expected to be able to read their driver’s licenses correctly — a statement that seemed to refer to minority voters who would be disproportionately impacted by such a requirement.

    Elias’ work embodies the inherent hypocrisy of some advocates and some in the media on election challenges. He often solicits contributions to challenge election results while denouncing Republicans for challenging election results.

    That contradiction has been readily apparent in the Virginia election. McAuliffe brought in Stacey Abrams to campaign for him. She has repeatedly declared that the Republicans stole the election when she ran in Georgia. (Abrams was criticized for not conceding after the election).  At one rally, McAuliffe repeated the claim that “she [Abrams] would be the governor of Georgia today had the governor of Georgia [Republican Brian Kemp] not disenfranchised 1.4 million Georgia voters before the election! That’s what happened to Stacey Abrams. They took the votes away.”

    Elias, McAuliffe, and others the media have denounced Republican challenges as advancing “the Big Lie” of stolen or rigged voting in the last election. Yet, Abrams’ defeat is being attributed to a rigged system in Georgia.

    Elias has not been criminally charged in his actions related to the 2020 election. Yet, bringing Elias into the Virginia race in the midst of the Durham investigation is an astonishing decision by McAuliffe. There are a host of election lawyers but McAuliffe selected an attorney accused of lying to the media, advancing rejected conspiracy theories, and currently involved in a major federal investigation that has already led to the indictment of his former partner.

    Then again McAuliffe previously declared “You help me, I’ll help you. That’s politics.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 19:00

  • Biden Wants To Give Separated Illegal Immigrants $450,000 Per Person
    Biden Wants To Give Separated Illegal Immigrants $450,000 Per Person

    The Biden administration is mulling a plan to offer immigrant families separated during the Trump administration $450,000 per person in compensation, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter.

    The payments – part of an inter-agency solution to several lawsuits filed on behalf of separated parents and children claiming lasting psychological trauma could amount to nearly $1 million per family, though ‘the final numbers could shift,’ according to the report.

    According to sources, most of the families crossing into the US from Mexico included one parent and one child. Depending on circumstances, many families could get smaller payouts.

    The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents families in one of the lawsuits, has identified about 5,500 children separated at the border over the course of the Trump administration, citing figures provided to it by the government. The number of families eligible under the potential settlement is expected to be smaller, the people said, as government officials aren’t sure how many will come forward. Around 940 claims have so far been filed by the families, the people said. -WSJ

    In total, the potential payout could reach $1 billion or more.

    Throughout the Trump administration, thousands of children were separated from their parents (and coyotes paid to bring them into the country) after they had crossed illegally into the country from Mexico. The lawsuits allege some of the children suffered various ailments – including malnutrition, heat exhaustion, and were kept in freezing cold rooms with little medical attention. Some claim lasting mental health problems due to the trauma of being without their parents for several months.

    The average amount sought through the courts is roughly $3.4 million per family, according to the report.

    “President Biden has agreed that the family separation policy is a historic moral stain on our nation that must be fully remedied,” said ACLU deputy director, Lee Gelernt. “That remedy must include not only meaningful monetary compensation, but a pathway to remain in the country.”

    Senate Republicans slammed the plan on Thursday afternoon following the WSJ‘s report.

    “The Biden administration’s promises of citizenship and entitlement programs have already caused the worst border crisis in history—a huge cash reward will make it even worse,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR).

    The discussions about the payouts have taken place over the past few months among a group of dozens of private lawyers representing the families and government lawyers. Some government lawyers have viewed the payouts as excessive for people who had violated the law by crossing the border, the people said. One government lawyer threatened to remove his name from the case out of disagreement with the potential settlement offer, the people said. -WSJ

    “It is a complicated, complex piece of litigation” – trying to resolve hundreds of separate lawsuits at the same time, and “sometimes even more complex to try the cases” said Margo Schlanger, who ran the civil-rights office during the Obama administration at the Department of Homeland Security and now teaches at the University of Michigan law school.

    What will the reparations crowd think of this?

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 18:40

  • The Ignoble Lie
    The Ignoble Lie

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via The Epoch Times,

    In a controversial passage in Plato’s “Republic,” Socrates introduced the idea of the “noble lie” (“gennaios pseudos”).

    A majestic fiction, he says, could sometimes serve society by persuading uninformed citizens of something good for them.

    Ever since, many prevaricators have used the excuse that they lied for the common good.

    Take Dr. Anthony Fauci, our point man on the COVID-19 epidemic.

    Fauci misled the country about mask-wearing during the pandemic by claiming they were of little use. But he argued that he lied so the public would not make a run on masks, deplete the supply, and thus rob medical professionals of protective equipment.

    Fauci also told “noble” lies about the likely percentage of the public needing to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. He kept raising the bar—from 60 percent to 70 percent to 75 percent to 80 percent, to 85 percent.

    Apparently, Fauci feared a lower figure, even if accurate, might lull people into complacency about getting inoculated.

    Fauci also lied about his own role in routing U.S. aid money to subsidize gain-of-function viral research at the Wuhan virology lab—the likely birthplace of COVID-19.

    Either Fauci was hiding his own culpability, or he believed the American people might not be able to fully accept that some of their own health officials were promoting the sort of research that was partially responsible for more than 700,000 American deaths.

    Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has serially lied about the number of undocumented immigrants who have crossed into the United States.

    He falsely claimed mounted agents were whipping migrants.

    He fibbed about the purported lack of federal data of apprehensions, detentions, and deportations.

    His assertion that the border is secure was a joke.

    Apparently, Mayorkas believes the public would go ballistic or his own administration would be roundly despised, if he told the bitter truth about the border: by intent, the Biden administration has apparently deliberately left it wide open.

    And it will likely allow 2 million undocumented immigrants into the country in the current fiscal year.

    Lots of other unelected federal officials lied over the past five years by claiming or implying that harming the Trump administration was in the public interest.

    Former FBI directors Andrew McCabe and James Comey likely misled the nation. 

    McCabe admittedly lied that he did not leak FBI information to the media.

    James Comey lied under oath on multiple occasions in congressional cross-examinations and claimed he did not know or could not remember basic facts about his own role in promoting the Russian collusion hoax.

    Apparently, Comey and McCabe believed that by being less than truthful, they might better emasculate Donald Trump. And that result would be beneficial to America.

    Our former intelligence leaders may have been the most brazen liars.

    Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lied to Congress about the NSA surveillance program, though he denied it.

    When caught in the untruth, Clapper reverted to the noble lie that he gave the least untruthful answer, apparently on the pretense that he did not wish to damage the reputation of an important intelligence agency.

    Ditto John Brennan, the former head of the CIA. On two occasions he lied under oath about the agency’s monitoring of Senate staffers’ computers and the deaths of civilians caused by U.S. drone assassination missions along the Afghanistan border.

    Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley lied for days about the details of an accidental drone strike that killed innocent women and children in Afghanistan.

    Either Milley is now lying when he says he warned Joe Biden about the disasters to come in Afghanistan or Biden is lying when he denies hearing any such advice.

    Many of the details of Milley’s conversations with authors Bob Woodward and Robert Costa as reported in their recent muckraking book were abjectly denied by Milley.

    The list of such lies could be vastly expanded.

    IRS functionary Lois Lerner never told the whole untruth about weaponizing the IRS.

    Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch spun an implausible yarn that she accidentally bumped into Bill Clinton on a tarmac in Phoenix and never discussed the then-current FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton.

    Special counsel Robert Mueller told a whopper under oath, claiming to know almost nothing about the Steele dossier and the misadventures of Fusion GPS.

    Both were the two catalysts that prompted his entire investigation of “collusion” in the first place.

    In some of these cases, when caught and exposed, the liars will hedge by claiming temporary amnesia.

    But sometimes they admit they lied but suggest they did so for higher purposes like national security.

    In truth, in most cases there was nothing noble at all in their lying.

    They simply spread untruths to protect their own endangered careers by masking their own wrongdoing or fobbing it onto others.

    In other words, “noble lies” are rarely spun for anyone’s interests other than those of the liars themselves.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 10/28/2021 – 18:20

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