Oct 02

Today’s News 2nd October 2024

  • "The Chinese Are Watching", Says Incoming EU Defense Commissioner
    “The Chinese Are Watching”, Says Incoming EU Defense Commissioner

    Authored by Anders Corr via The Epoch Times,

    The incoming defense commissioner of the European Union says that China sees the U.S. and EU responses to Russian aggression in Ukraine as weak. He’s right. Our show of weakness only invites further aggression by other rogue members of the “axis of evil,” including China, Iran, and North Korea.

    As the world devolves into wars that strain U.S. and partner defense budgets—along with the borders that divide the democracies from authoritarian states like Russia, Iran, and North Korea—“the Chinese are watching,” according to the European Union’s first incoming defense commissioner, Andrius Kubilius.

    In the case of Europe’s response to Russia, according to a Sept. 22 report, “The Chinese will make one simple conclusion,” noted Kubilius. “The West is quite weak.” He said that despite economies that are 25 times that of Russia, we are not winning. “What is the reason?” he asked. “It’s a question of political will.”

    It’s also a question of risk avoidance, of course. Democracies are more risk averse than autocracies when it comes to war. This makes sense from one perspective, as democracies care more about people—both in their own societies and those of other states—than do dictators and terrorists. It could also make sense from a strategic perspective if modern war is a “wood chipper” for attacking armies, as Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin rightly noted in 2022 regarding Ukraine.

    The axis dictators are power-hungry to the point of a willingness to kill tens of millions in pursuit of their territorial and ideological ambitions. The number of Russian and Ukrainian dead from the current war has now reached approximately 1 million, according to a Sept. 17 report. Even more have been wounded. And Vladimir Putin is raising the stakes by frequently threatening nuclear strikes that could escalate to a direct war with the United States.

    Iran is following the same strategy of feeding its proxies into the wood chipper, with its pursuit of nuclear weapons and support for terrorist proxies like Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah against Israel, giving just cause for a robust defense. On Sept. 22, the United States warned Israel against starting a full-scale war against the latter terrorist organization after Hezbollah refused to end its cross-border rocket attacks and let tens of thousands of internally displaced Israeli refugees return to their homes in northern Israel.

    U.S. and allied ammunition reserves are running so low due to these wars—for which the United States has served as the “arsenal of democracy” since World War I—that Taiwan is now searching for new sources of ammunition necessary to defend itself in a war against the People’s Liberation Army, according to a Sept. 21 report.

    Perhaps that is why Beijing tacitly approved of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allies with Iran in its negotiations with the United States, thus encouraging its violence against Israel and Saudi Arabia. The CCP bankrolls all of the “axis of evil” companies through energy purchases from Russia and Iran and being the biggest trade partner of North Korea. The CCP has a motive for encouraging these far-flung wars and North Korea’s nuclear saber-rattling. It distracts the democracies, depletes our arsenals, and thus will make it harder to defend Taiwan if that day comes.

    Xi Jinping has told the People’s Liberation Army to be ready for a Taiwan war in 2027, and the chief of Naval Operations of the U.S. Navy, in turn, told her forces to be ready for a war with China by the same date. Meanwhile, the FBI continues to discover Beijing’s preparations for massive cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure that could disable us during a Taiwan war. Such preparations are destabilizing as the first to strike the other’s electricity grid and satellites, for example, will have a major advantage on the battlefield.

    So the question of U.S. and European weakness that Kubilius and Beijing perceive matters. What we do to defend Ukraine matters to whether the CCP decides to launch a war against Taiwan in 2027. Defeating Russia in Ukraine by 2026 could avoid a war with China that year that blacks out the entire United States and destroys us as a global superpower, even if we win. In that case, we would not be very helpful in defending Europe.

    Kubilius of Lithuania is one unlikely successor to former president Ronald Reagan and his doctrine of “peace through strength.” But this is his approach. He wants the European Union to borrow money to massively increase defense spending. He wants to require each country in the EU to stockpile enough ammunition for a war with Russia that could come within a few years, he said. Germany, according to a report in 2022, only had enough ammunition for two days of war. That explains its general willingness to give in to Russia, China, and Iran.

    EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen likewise believes the European Union must spend far more on defense to deter war with Russia. She estimates that the EU must spend approximately $560 billion to account for low defense spending that stretches back to the wishful thinking of the 1990s when some in the United States thought we had achieved global “primacy.” In fact, the enemies of democracy were just regrouping for a future fight.

    The CCP regime is indeed watching as Ukraine and Israel struggle to put down dictatorial and terrorist aggressions against them. Calls in the United States for them to moderate their responses, however popular among our voters, look weak to the CCP. Similar calls over the decades for Taiwan to moderate its response to the CCP also look weak. To keep the peace that is left in the world, we need to meet these aggressions not with fear and weakness but with strength and courage. That is the surest way to not only a lasting peace but to one with justice.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 23:25

  • Watch: The Battle Of The Back-Ups – Vance-Walz Veep Debate
    Watch: The Battle Of The Back-Ups – Vance-Walz Veep Debate

    The two vice presidential nominees – Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz – will face each other in a debate tonight (Oct. 1), one month out from the 2024 election.

    Debate host CBS News announced on Aug. 15 that after proposing four dates for the matchup – Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 1, and Oct. 8 – the Harris–Walz campaign quickly agreed to the third.

    “See you on Oct. 1, JD,” Walz wrote on X.

    In response, Vance said he accepted the date, while also pushing for another debate on CNN on Sept. 18.

    “Not only do I accept the CBS debate on Oct. 1, I accept the CNN debate on Sept. 18 as well. I look forward to seeing you at both!” Vance wrote on X.

    What Are the Rules?

    CBS released the debate rules on Sept. 27.

    There will be no opening statements, and the moderators will begin by introducing the incumbent party candidate, Walz.

    Vance’s podium will be on the left side of the television screen, while Walz’s will be on the right.

    Both candidates will remain behind their podiums for the duration of the debate.

    Like both presidential debates this year, there will be no studio audience.

    Each candidate will have two minutes to answer questions, and the opposing candidate will have two minutes to respond. There will also be an additional minute for rebuttals.

    The moderators are allowed, at their discretion, to give both candidates an additional minute to continue a topic. They will remain seated for the debate and are the only ones in the studio allowed to ask questions.

    CBS will have lights in front of both Walz and Vance to indicate how much time remains for each response. Both candidates will also have a countdown clock.

    Vance won the coin toss to determine the order of the two-minute closing statements and opted to go last.

    CBS may opt to mute the microphones at any given point, but otherwise, they will both remain on for the debate.

    Neither candidate will receive questions in advance of the showdown and campaign staffers are not allowed to interact with the candidates during the breaks.

    Like the previous debates this year, no props or pre-written notes are permitted onstage.

    Vance and Walz will be given a pen, a pad of paper, and a bottle of water.

    What to Watch For

    Walz has labeled the Republican ticket as “weird” while Vance has argued that Walz is too progressive for voters.

    Walz, 60, has a two-decade political record to draw on, including his governing experience in Minnesota and his years representing the state’s first congressional district, which had often voted for Republicans before Walz won it in 2006.

    He also emphasizes his Midwestern roots and plain-spoken rhetorical style.

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    Vance, 40, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022 and has made strong appeals to both rural and working-class America in recent campaign stops, often championing U.S. manufacturing and energy independence.

    While criticizing the Harris–Walz campaign, he has described them as radical liberals, particularly for Harris’s California roots and Walz’s gubernatorial policies.

    Thomas Hollihan, a professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, said that conversationally, Vance is likely to be bold and declarative.

    “I think we’re going to see a much more populist style of presentation from Vance,” he told The Epoch Times.

    John Murphy, a professor specializing in presidential rhetoric at the University of Illinois, said Walz has a more relaxed approach to debating.

    “He enjoys stories, he talks with people, and he uses a regular-guy, dad-joke speaking style. He is preeminently a personable speaker, shaped by the norms of conversation,” Murphy told The Epoch Times.

    Vance has also strongly criticized Walz for mischaracterizing his retirement rank with the Minnesota National Guard.

    Vance served in the Marine Corps as a public affairs officer and was deployed to Iraq for six months.

    Walz has defended his military record, which includes 24 years in the National Guard, but the Harris campaign recently said he misspoke in a 2018 video where he mentioned “weapons of war that I carried into war.” He has never served in combat.

    Aaron Dusso, a political science professor from Indiana University-Indianapolis, said the best strategy for both candidates is to always “try and seem competent on the issues that are not your campaign’s strength and then move as quickly as possible to talking about the issues that are your strength.”

    “So Walz will want to continue to emphasize reproductive freedom and social issues like health care and education and continue to hammer Project 2025,” Dusso told The Epoch Times.

    Vance, on the other hand, should stick to policy and avoid ad-libbing, Dusso added.

    “Be a policy wonk; stick to the border, economy, and crime … even though crime is down and the economy is doing pretty well, it’s still best for Republicans to focus on those issues because the average voter sees those issues as their strengths,” he said.

    Watch the full debate live here (due to start at 2100ET)

    Matt Taibbi has once again done God’s work to make these debates somewhat more palatable, here are the drinking game rules:

    DRINK EVERY TIME…

    • Walz mentions Project 2025.

    • Vance questions Walz’s military record.

    • Anyone says “Proud of my service.”

    • Vance accuses Walz of favoring socialism or having ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

    • Walz accuses Vance of fomenting anti-Haitian bigotry.

    • Vance mentions a colorful family member. Double if the relative is armed or high or both.

    • Walz brings up January 6th or claims democracy is on the ballot.

    • Vance brings up the Minneapolis riots.

    • Either candidate mentions the middle class or the working class. (Do not do shots of hard alcohol for this rule.)

    • Either candidate uses folksy rhetoric or Midwestern slang, or the word “folks” is uttered, at all.

    • Anyone says, “Right here in New York City.”

    • Either candidate mentions Hurricane Helene or the situation in Asheville, North Carolina.

    • Either candidate accuses the other of being insufficiently protective of Israel or Ukraine.

    • A moderator fact-checks either candidate.

    • You feel like driving off a cliff in despair.

    *  *  *

    Peter Navarro warns that voters may want to consider that 15 of America’s 46 presidents were first vice president.

    This includes Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson following the death of a president; Gerald Ford by succession; and Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, and Joe Biden by election.

    Historically, this puts the odds of either Governor Walz or Senator Vance eventually becoming president at about one-third. Despite these short odds, conventional wisdom has it that vice presidential candidates don’t decide presidential elections. Yet, this time, these candidates should matter a great deal, at least to voters concerned about the economic and national security threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

    Here, even a cursory Vance versus Walz comparison reveals a stark contrast between a Trumpian China hawk in Vance and a China dove in Walz.

    As is well-documented, communist China’s subversive strategies include wooing foreign academics, businessmen, and politicians so that they knowingly or unknowingly advance the CCP’s agenda.

    Walz was born in 1964, just two years before China’s decade-long Maoist Cultural Revolution. From his childhood years, Walz romantically remembers “pictures of Mao Tse-tung, hung in public places and carried in parades.”

    In 1989—the year Vance turned 5 and the CCP slaughtered thousands in Tiananmen Square—the 25-year-old Walz took his first China trip and would rave about the “royal treatment” his CCP hosts provided. Walz would gush a mere year after the slaughter at Tiananmen: “No matter how long I live, I’ll never be treated that well again. They gave me more gifts than I could bring home. It was an excellent experience.”

    By 1994, Walz was honeymooning in Kunming, China, after he had deliberately scheduled his wedding to be on the same day, June 4, as the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. When asked by the Scottsbluff Star-Herald why, wife Gwen said Tim simply “wanted to have a date he’ll always remember.”

    Between early 1990 and 2008, Walz would establish his own personal private and lucrative business, and bring to China young and persuadable American students who surely were indoctrinated. Walz took “travel cost” payments from the Chinese government as well.

    According to Walz’s congressional financial disclosure statements, his China-focused travel company was only dissolved in the fall of 2008, more than a year and a half after he became a member of Congress in January 2007. During that period, Walz would visit China more than 30 times.

    Vance’s experience with communist China and its economic aggression couldn’t be more different. That experience is best revealed in his bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”

    Vance was born in 1984 in the poor, Rust Belt manufacturing town of Middletown, Ohio. In his heart-wrenching elegy, Vance references the all-American ethos of Hank Williams, Jr.’s country classic “A Country Boy Can Survive” and describes how his hardscrabble childhood was filled with lessons from his Mamaw and uncles in eastern Kentucky, including the family lore of “classic good-versus-evil stories” about “defending a sister’s honor or ensuring that a criminal paid for his crimes.”

    Throughout “Hillbilly Elegy,” the specter of communist China and its destruction of the jobs and factories in Vance’s Rust Bowl environs looms large. In his vice presidential nominee acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in July, Vance described China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 as a “sweetheart deal” facilitated by out-of-touch Washington politicians and power brokers that “destroyed even more good American middle-class manufacturing jobs.”

    Vance himself saw firsthand how communities across the United States were “flooded with cheap Chinese goods, with cheap foreign labor, and in the decades to come, deadly Chinese fentanyl.” Meanwhile, as China entered the WTO in 2001, a 37-year-old Walz continued to capitalize on China’s economic rise at America’s expense, organizing more trips to China through his private travel company.

    In 2005, both Vance and Walz were readying to deploy to Iraq, Vance as a Marine, Walz as the command sergeant major of his National Guard unit. Only Vance would go; Walz quit his unit before it was deployed to Iraq in order to run for Congress, was eventually demoted in rank, and later, after he falsely claimed he saw combat, accused of stolen valor.

    In 2007, Vance was honorably discharged from the Marines as a corporal after serving in Iraq. Under the G.I. Bill, Vance completed his undergraduate studies at The Ohio State University in just two years, graduating with a double major, summa cum laude and would follow that with a law degree at Yale that Walz would later inexplicably ridicule.

    Meanwhile, even as a congressman, Walz worked as an international fellow at Macau Polytechnic University, a state-run Chinese institution that backs CCP dictator Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative and touts its “long held devotion to and love for the [Chinese] motherland.”

    In the same year that Vance published “Hillbilly Elegy,” chronicling the economic carnage communist China had inflicted on his community, then-Congressman Walz publicly downplayed the need to stand up to communist China’s aggression, stating in a 2016 interview: “I don’t fall into the category that China necessarily needs to be an adversarial relationship. I totally disagree.”

    Walz would double down on his CCP accommodation strategy in 2019. As the governor of Minnesota, in opposition to the tariffs that form a vital part of America’s defense against China’s economic aggression, Walz called for President Trump to “end the trade war with China.” In Walz’s world view, “there’s just no substitute for 1.6 billion consumers, who are hungry, to get our China trade negotiations normalized,“ and ”there’s not enough market in the rest of the world to absorb our capacity.”

    This year, Walz has met with Zhao Jian, the Chinese consul general in Chicago, to discuss “China–U.S. relations and sub-national cooperation”—a euphemism for facilitating more Chinese influence in the United States at the state level. In response to Walz’s selection as Kamala Harris’s running mate, China Daily, a CCP mouthpiece, wrote that he would bring “sanity” to U.S.–China relations—code for Walz softening America’s stance against Chinese economic aggression.

    During his August acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Walz made no mention of the CCP or Chinese aggression.

    By contrast, during his July acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Vance made a point to defend the American people and explicitly stand up against communist China and the CCP’s aggression.

    Promised Vance: “Together, we will protect the wages of American workers and stop the Chinese Communist Party from building their middle class on the backs of American citizens.”

    If elected, Walz would be the highest-ranking U.S. official ever to have had such extensive dealings with communist China. As vice president, Walz would surely seek to further accommodate the CCP.  With the odds of Walz eventually also becoming president at more than 30 percent, that’s a bad bet for anyone concerned about the existential threat the CCP poses.

    (Left) Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio). (Right) Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Adam Bettcher/Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

    As Jacob Burg detailed earlier via The Epoch Times, a total of 43% of registered voters say that they will watch the entire vice presidential debate live, according to a CBS News/YouGov survey. Those who said they would watch or read highlights made up 27%, compared to 18% who said they would watch part of it live, while 12% said they would not watch the debate. Only 24% said they will be watching the debate to help them decide who to vote for.

    The survey also found that 49% of registered voters believe Walz is qualified to be president, if necessary, while 44% believe the same of Vance. However, 51% said that Walz isn’t qualified, and 56% said the same about Vance.

    Of the registered voters surveyed, 86% said that they want to hear the candidates’ economic views, 76% said they want to learn about the candidates’ immigration views, 56% want to hear their views on abortion. Just 14% of respondents said they want to hear the candidates criticizing each other.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 22:50

  • The Creation Of Our "Permanent Record"
    The Creation Of Our “Permanent Record”

    Authored by David Barnhizer via The Brownstone Institute,

    There is no longer an American democracy, and the American Republic is disintegrating as those in control of what is generally referred to as “The Left” aggressively pursue the elimination of the Constitutionally-created Electoral College, a process created specifically to diffuse power and prevent a single group from gaining total and permanent control of America’s federal government. America was a vast, sprawling, diverse, and complex nation at the time of its creation. That scale, diversity, and complexity have been multiplied exponentially since that point.

    As Aristotle warned, one of the flaws of democracy was that even though such systems began with a sense of shared community, eventually a majority would emerge that understood its voting power essentially provided full power to dictate rules. The flaw that undermined the system was that the members of the controlling majority would come to realize they could help themselves by extracting from the minority a growing share of social goods and benefits. This would allow the controlling majority to impose higher costs on the minority that often disproportionately created greater returns. I guess we could think of this as imposing a “Wealth Tax” or even more a tax on “Unrealized Income” under the rubric of “Fair Share.”

    America is changing by the moment into a new political form, the “Post-Democracy Electronic State.” It has “morphed” into competing fragments seeking power operating within the physical territory defined as the United States while tenuously holding on to a watered-down minimal list of the basic creeds that represent what we long considered an exceptional political experiment. The Rule of Law is significantly weakened and the institutions of law are being used politically by those in power. Freedom of speech and the press are increasingly corrupted to the point that you can’t be certain of the truth or intent of what we are seeing and reading.

    Our “leaders” have morphed into cartoon characters who unfortunately have no real understanding of the challenges we face and potential solutions that could preserve the integrity of America. We are beset by various crises—economic, the effects of Artificial Intelligence, immigration, and much more—that are weakening and distorting the nation and appear incapable of understanding or coping. Our educational systems in too many instances have become instruments of propaganda over critical matters over which our “educators” are taking one side of issues with complex elements rather than methods for educating an advanced population in ways that provide them the knowledge and focus needed to deal with the challenges we face.

    The post-democracy political order now in power paradoxically consists of a combination of fragmented special interests eager to punish anyone who challenges their desires and a central government that is consolidating its power to monitor, control, and intimidate its citizens. This set of anti-democratic actors also includes an insatiable coterie of Big Data/Big Tech information gathering businesses that are functioning as “enablers” by amassing an inconceivable amount of data on Americans and everyone else for that matter. In some ways they have become a sort of “quasi-government” that subtly and surreptitiously operates almost invisibly but wields incredible influence.

    A flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

    – Alexis de Tocqueville

    None of us can claim the quality of original insight achieved by Alexis de Tocqueville in his early 19th century classic Democracy in America when he observed that the “soft” repression of democracy was unlike that in any other political form. De Tocqueville explained:

    [T]he supreme power [of government]…covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided…Such a power does not destroy…but it enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

    The US, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe are far along in experiencing a “gentle” drift of the kind Tocqueville describes and are rapidly losing their integrity to the point they are becoming “pretend” democracies. The technological power of the Internet, and here I am using that term as shorthand for the host of information and communication capabilities that have developed over the past 15 to 25 years, has come into national and global society with such overwhelming speed that a “social tsunami” has swept through our society in ways that have devastated existing institutions and corrupted the traditional order.

    Linked with the psychological effects of what is certain to be a multi-generational (if mislabeled) “War on Terror,” the changes generated by this incredible “event” involve phenomena we are still struggling to understand. The result is that we have changed seemingly overnight from a world in which government and communications media moved at relatively slow speeds with highly controlled access to political decision-makers, data sharing, and investigation, to one in which everyone is endowed with the unprecedented ability to present their views, establish relationships, and organize networks and action groups for both good and bad purposes.

    On the Internet, we have billions of voices resounding in an uncontrolled cacophony where 95 percent represent ignorance and malice and perhaps five percent useful insights. This “new normal” includes the strange effects of X.com (formerly Twitter) as an “instant public opinion poll” for political hacks who will do anything to remain in office. It can be used to stir up rage and indignation, make absurd accusations, and create false impressions of a non-existent groundswell of support for the agendas of interest groups that have organized to use the Internet’s capabilities to push for what they want and punish those who deny or otherwise threaten their overtures.

    The impact of this still-evolving system on governments and other traditional institutions is profound. One element of what is taking place is a change in the basic nature of society into the “surveillance state.” That newly created system is one in which powerful governmental and private actors increasingly keep track of everything we do in the name of national security, social cohesion, and consumer preference.

    Nor is it solely the fading democracies of the West that are experiencing the angst of uncontrollable communication and all-penetrating surveillance. China, Russia, Egypt, and other Middle Eastern nations are all trying to cope with the fact that they are no longer in control of information and the levers of propaganda. The solution of course is to censor, deny access to specific sites, monitor the communications of citizens and others, and take “legal” steps to punish those defined by the governmental monitors as violators of communications defined as harmful or offensive such as “misinformation” or “disinformation” as defined by the state. China has recently arrested its most prominent blogger and enacted harsh criminal laws that impose multi-year prison sentences for spreading rumors through the Internet.

    The upshot in the West is that there has been a shift in the nature of government from a reasonably representative hybrid form of complex democracy to a strange mixture of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm along with William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Perhaps one of the most ironic features is that as Internet-based communications systems and applications have come into use over the past two decades they have greatly enhanced the ability for widespread communication among a nation’s citizens. For the first time in our history, we have overcome physical distance and separation to the degree that it is possible to achieve face-to-face interchanges of the kind we always assumed were central to true democracy.

    Unfortunately, the ability to communicate has been overwhelmed by numerous competing factors. This includes the discovery that we are a somewhat less than admirable species when provided a “voice”. The Internet has revealed an embarrassing level of ignorance, an increase in cynicism and distrust that has further weakened our views of others, and the loss of any sense of “civic virtue” or community. We no longer seek or achieve compromise in the interests of the larger common community because there is none.

    The anonymous nature of many of our Internet communications is both cause and effect of the disintegration of the American community. Too many people hide behind masks while spewing venom and unfounded claims in a sort of “Urban Legend” syndrome circulated as fact. The cowardice and/or cynicism of anonymity is made even worse by the malice underlying much of the commentary as well as the over-hyped sensationalism of our mainstream media, and the disturbing desire for “fifteen minutes of fame” that characterizes many of our individual messages.

    Along with these go abuses of power, illicit and criminal uses of Internet technology to harm and intimidate, and the inability of governments to know how to draw limits on their desire for information. At this point, we do not have the slightest clue about how to deal with the interacting forces of the new and still evolving forms of government and accompanying social order.

    One thing that seems clear, however, is that much of it is not a positive evolution. The paradox is that the emerging system is in the process of becoming increasingly repressive at the same time it has expanded into a profoundly fragmented society. Each piece, whether representing an economic interest or one of political activism, is committed to relentlessly pursuing its particular agenda. This paradox disappears when we realize that fragmentation works well for the most powerful central political and economic organizations because it implements a “divide and conquer” strategy in which fragmented groups can always be set against each other while the core “power brokers” continue to consolidate power and reap the rewards of their “game.”

    The threat from massive government surveillance of its citizens is psychological. The apprehension about what they “could” be doing and who might be looking at our profiles intimidate and “dumb us down.” We “think” without knowing that the National Security Agency (NSA), Department of Homeland Security, or FBI are building up something like our High School Permanent Record or our “social credit” record. Former Director of US National Intelligence James Clapper eventually was forced to admit he misstated (or lied) to Congress during testimony concerning the extent of his Agency’s illegal monitoring of US citizens’ telephonic communications.

    Our “virtual” NSA Records could contain potentially bad things about us that we are not allowed to see or rebut, including the opinions of people who may have reasons to criticize us fairly or unfairly. Whether NSA or other actors we experience the fear of exposure of things we would prefer to remain hidden.

    The fear exists even though we can never be certain of what “They” actually “know.” It is as if J. Edgar Hoover and his secret files have suddenly been brought back to life. Hoover was long thought to retain his enormous power over politicians in Washington due to possession of secret files detailing the “sins” of our leaders. Now the ability to control all of us by our “sins” if we “get out of line” has been moved to the corridors of the National Security Agency, Homeland Security, Google, Yahoo, and Facebook.

    Republished from the author’s Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 22:25

  • Shocking Investigation Finds CIA Contractor Moved Migrant Children Across America
    Shocking Investigation Finds CIA Contractor Moved Migrant Children Across America

    “The disastrous border policies of the Biden-Harris Administration are only one dimension of the US Federal government’s complicity in the mass trafficking of children. The entire migration pipeline from South America up to the US Southern border is controlled by networks of human traffickers who funnel tens of thousands of alien children into the United States every year. For many alien children, crossing the US Southern border is only the beginning of their problems,” Muckraker’s Anthony Rubin said in a bombshell report titled “Finding The Feds’ Missing Children | CHILD TRAFFICKING IN AMERICA.”

    Rubin conducted a three-month investigation to give readers a glimpse of the exploding child trafficking industry in the United States, all of which was facilitated by the globalists in the Biden-Harris administration. 

    Here’s a breakdown of what Rubin and his team found after tracking down some of the 320,000 illegal alien children lost by the Biden-Harris administration:

    • The federal government is sending children to strangers.

    • A CIA contractor is moving children across America.

    • Children are being sent to labor trafficking rings.

    • Traffickers use deportation as a threat to exact “debt” payments from sponsored children.

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    “This report reveals the cold, hard truth about the reality of the Biden-Harris administration’s open-border policies, which have resulted in the trafficking of untold numbers of children,” Rubin noted. 

    *   *   * 

    Here’s the full report:

    Finding The Feds’ Missing Children | CHILD TRAFFICKING IN AMERICA

    On August 19th, 2024, the Department of Homeland Security announced that they had lost track of over 300,000 children. But what exactly does this mean?

    Since 2021, an average of 400 unaccompanied children have been smuggled into the United States every day.

    These children, who cross into the United States without parents, are subsequently detained, processed by the federal government’s unaccompanied children program and eventually released into the country.

    Per the DHS’ August 19th announcement, 291,000 of the 300,000 unaccounted-for children were released into the United States without a scheduled court date, while another 32,000, who were given court dates, never showed up for their scheduled court appearance.

    In June of 2024, an insider from the department of Health and Human Services provided Muckraker with a list detailing the names of over 8,000 alien children, and their last known addresses. So, we began an operation to find the missing children ourselves.

    Over the course of our investigation, we discovered the dangerous places where children have been delivered, confronted a CIA contractor who moves these children, heard shocking stories from children who the federal government has lost track of, and exposed a child trafficking network in Florida.

    Children and minors who enter the United States illegally and without parents are subsequently detained and placed in holding camps while the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR for short) works to find the child a permanent home through their Unaccompanied Children or UC Program.

    The goal of the UC Program is to place alien children with vetted sponsors who are typically relatives or close family friends. However, it is well documented that this program has placed children in the hands of criminal organizations such as MS13, as well as labor and sex trafficking rings.

    We began our investigation by door-knocking the addresses of the most vulnerable children on our list, focusing on the youngest who were at the highest risk of trafficking.

    One of our first finds was an abandoned house where two boys aged 7 and 10 had allegedly been delivered. It is unclear what happened to the boys who were delivered to the sponsor at this address, we were ultimately unable to locate them.

    Our investigation eventually led us to the projects of the Bronx, where we found a girl who told us a horror story from inside the facility she was detained in at Pomona, California.

    The girl pictured above, who we will call Alexa, was ultimately placed with a safe sponsor. However, she told us that while in a holding facility in Pomona, California, she encountered children who would cry because they were being sent to a sponsor who they did not know.

    Alexa explained how children are woken up at 3 o’clock in the morning taken from the holding facility to their sponsors without the opportunity to say goodbye to their friends.

    Alexa also told us about a friend of hers who was with her at the Pomona, California facility. Alexa and her friend had agreed to contact each other on Facebook once they were placed safely with their sponsors. Unfortunately, Alexa never heard from her friend again. It is unclear what the fate of her friend ultimately was.

    The federal government uses contractors to move the children from detention centers, like the one Alexa was held at, into the hands of their sponsors. One of these contractors is MVM, a private security contractor with ties to the CIA, NSA, FBI, and Homeland Security.

    MVM’s work has included providing security at Guantanamo Bay, guarding CIA stations in Iraq, and conducting research for the FBI’s High Value Detainee Research Group which is responsible for conducting interrogations of terrorists.

    Over the past few years, MVM has secured contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to escort detained alien children to their sponsors across America.

    The three states which have received the most unaccompanied children since 2021 are Texas, California, and Florida, with each state taking in over 10,000 per year.

    We learned that two illegal aliens from Guatemala named Baltazar and Juana had requested to sponsor 13 children across 5 different addresses in Bonita Springs, Florida. Even more concerning, was that these same addresses were also being used by other illegal aliens who were attempting to sponsor children.

    At one particular two bedroom house, 13 children were being sponsored by 4 different adults.

    We were told that this trafficking case had been reported to HSI, the FBI, and HHS, but after sitting on the case for years, none of these agencies made any progress.

    We managed to track down a brother and sister from Guatemala who had been delivered to the suspected trafficking ring in Bonita Springs, Florida, a few years earlier.

    They claimed to have a trafficking debt hanging over them and described a labor trafficking system that targets unaccompanied alien children.

    Watch: Finding The Feds’ Missing Children | CHILD TRAFFICKING IN AMERICA

    *   *   * 

    If we want to get to the bottom of who the federal government hired to facilitate the greatest migrant invasion this nation has ever seen, more specifically, which companies are profiting, well, look no further than private security contractor MVM. 

    A quick glance at their website reveals their ‘Mission Solutions,’ which include “Transportation and care for vulnerable populations.” 

    Want to know how MVM made its money? … well, profiting off the endless wars in the Middle East…

    Read this story here…

    MVM has shifted its business model from staffing solutions in the Middle East wars to catering to open-border solutions.

    Read this story here…

    Running migrant trafficking networks is big business for the globalists in the DC Swamp. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 21:55

  • US Oil And Gas Output Slide, Squeezed By Lower Prices
    US Oil And Gas Output Slide, Squeezed By Lower Prices

    By John Kemp, energy analyst

    U.S. oil production growth continues to slow in response to the fall in prices, as the initial shock from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions imposed in response more than two years ago fades.

    Crude and condensates output from the Lower 48 states excluding federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico averaged 11.0 million barrels per day (b/d) in July 2024, according to the latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

    Production had increased by less than 0.4 million b/d compared with the same month a year earlier, the smallest increment for the time of year since the first waves of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020/21.

    Following the invasion, oil prices peaked in June 2022 but have since retreated, and production growth has decelerated with a delay of around twelve months, typical for the lag between a change in prices and output.

    Inflation-adjusted front-month U.S. futures prices fell to an average of $79 per barrel in July 2023 (48th percentile for all months since 2000) from $124 (82nd percentile) in June 2022.

    Twelve months later, production growth had halved to 0.4 million b/d in July 2024 from 0.8 million b/d in June 2023.

    By July 2024, there had been no net growth for eight months since November 2023, as the sector’s expansion ground to a halt.

    Since then, prices have fallen even further to an average of just $69 (38th percentile) in September 2024, which is likely to ensure production remains fairly flat through the middle of 2025.

    If prices stay around current levels, production growth from the Lower 48 will probably fall close to zero by late 2024 or early 2025.

    By curbing U.S. shale producers’ willingness to boost drilling, and forcing Saudi Arabia and its OPEC⁺ partners to postpone plans to increase output, lower prices are heading off an incipient surplus later in 2024 and 2025.

    U.S. GAS PRODUCTION

    Dry gas production averaged 104.3 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) in July 2024, up from 103.3 bcf/d a year earlier, but the seasonal increment was the smallest since the pandemic in 2020.

    Output growth has slowed as prices have slumped from post-invasion highs reached in the third quarter of 2022 to record lows by the early months of 2024.

    Between February and April 2024, front-month futures tumbled to around $1.80 per million British thermal units, the lowest for over three decades, after adjusting for inflation.

    Fewer than 100 rigs have drilled for gas on average in the third quarter of 2024 down from an average of nearly 160 in the third quarter of 2022.

    Even more than oil, gas has been hit by over-production, and unlike crude there has been no equivalent of OPEC⁺ to limit the accumulation of excess inventories by coordinating output cuts.

    Exceptionally mild temperatures slashed heating and power generation in the winter of 2023/24, leaving the industry carrying near-record stocks at the end of the heating season and intensifying the crisis.

    By February 2024, the price slump had become so severe that several major U.S. producers announced plans to curb drilling and production.

    Since then, however, ultra-low prices have encouraged record gas consumption by power generators throughout the summer and gradually returned stocks to more normal levels.

    By late September 2024, working gas inventories were within ±1 standard deviations of the prior ten-year seasonal average.

    In response, front-month prices climbed to an average of $2.40 last month, still only in the 3rd percentile for all months since 2000, but a significant bounce from the multi-decade lows six months earlier.

    If gas production remains subdued, the remaining surplus is likely to be eliminated over the course of winter 2024/25.

    Once the surplus is gone, prices and production will have to increase significantly in 2025 to satisfy the growing demand from generators and exporters.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 21:25

  • Which Countries Are Stashing The Most Wealth Offshore?
    Which Countries Are Stashing The Most Wealth Offshore?

    Individuals and corporations send money abroad for various reasons, including seeking better investment opportunities, minimizing tax burdens, and protecting their wealth in low-tax or no-tax jurisdictions.

    This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti, shows the top 10 countries that owned the most offshore financial wealth in 2022, according to data from the Atlas of the Offshore World.

    Chinese Hold Over $2 Trillion Abroad

    Chinese mainland businesses and individuals hold over $2 trillion abroad, nearly matching Mexico’s GDP. Hong Kong is a top destination for Chinese corporations and individuals conducting offshore operations.

    Meanwhile, the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, and Singapore are common destinations for U.S. offshore operations. American hold almost $1.6 trillion abroad.

    Together, individuals and companies from the UK, France, and Germany hold $2.1 trillion abroad.

    What Is a Tax Haven?

    A tax haven offers foreign businesses and individuals minimal or no tax liability. They also have politically and economically stable environments.

    Entities may legally use tax havens to stash money earned abroad while avoiding higher taxes in the U.S. and other nations.

    For this kind of operation, companies often establish a shell corporation, which is a corporation without active business operations or significant assets in the country they are located.

    To learn more about topics like offshore wealth and tax havens, check out this graphic that shows the top 10 countries hosting the most offshore financial wealth.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 20:30

  • Hypocrisy: Leftist Media Warns Trump May Use Lawfare Against Democrat Opposition
    Hypocrisy: Leftist Media Warns Trump May Use Lawfare Against Democrat Opposition

    Many conservatives remember back in May of this year when the announcement hit the news feeds that Donald Trump was found guilty by a New York court of 34 “felony” charges related to the Stormy Daniels hush money case.  The charges claimed that this was approximate to “election interference” and NY prosecutors used legal wrangling in what would have been a misdemeanor case to create a felony case from thin air.  

    “This was a rigged, disgraceful trial,” Trump told reporters after leaving the courtroom. “The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5th by the people. They know what happened, and everyone knows what happened here.” 

    The conviction could be considered the peak of a long and unprecedented agenda of “lawfare” waged by the Democratic Party in an effort to remove Trump from the 2024 election race before voters ever get a chance to cast a ballot.  The leftist cheers were resounding; they thought they had the White House in the bag.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    At the time, numerous progressive journalists published article’s listing all the ways in which the conviction would end Trump’s political career.  None of them questioned the validity of the charges and how they were brought, nor did any of them question the obvious political motives behind turning a misdemeanor charge into a felony charge.  What they did admit to was the intent to use the label “convicted felon” as much as possible during the campaign cycle. 

    Of course, the Supreme Court poured ice water on the DNC party when they determined Trump’s presidential immunity precluded him from the charges in question.  It is unlikely that any of the cases brought by Democrats against Trump in the past few years will have any bearing on the election.  Hypocritically, the media is now warning that Trump might use the Department of Justice as a weapon against his Democrat opponents should he win the Oval Office in November. 

    Politico writes in a recent article titled ‘The Coming Trump Revenge Tour’:

    “Trump has campaigned on a wave of retaliatory criminal prosecutions. It’s not the first time he’s promised to lock up his rivals — but a second term would be different…”

    “Trump has been through the legal wringer in the last year-and-a-half and will want payback. He’s a convicted criminal and still faces trials that could send him to prison, and he’s not likely to forget all about that even if his legal troubles essentially disappear once he reaches the White House. He could easily wreak havoc with many of his political opponents’ lives simply by subjecting them to long, costly and highly disruptive criminal investigations and prosecutions…”

    “…Even if the effort failed to produce any real convictions, the process itself would be a form of punishment for the targets. It could also seriously erode public faith in the federal criminal justice system while chilling political opposition to Trump.”

    The Washington Post in a recent Op-Ed titled ‘Trump’s Promise To Exact Revenge Won’t Be Hindered By Mere Laws’, they argue that Trump will go beyond lawfare and enact a full -blown police state:

    “The idea of justice as being blind never seems to have appealed to Trump, any more than does the idea of an independent federal bureaucracy. In each case, he’d rather have the apparatus of power deployed in the way he wishes without constraint…”

    “This is the entire point of the justice system: to work slowly in an effort to avoid mistakes before then bringing the weight of government power to bear. Trump, seemingly like many Americans, appears to believe that it is somehow weak. That removing prejudices in an effort to effect justice evenly means that too many criminals go unpunished…”

    The disconnect leftists have from their own behavior is alarming. These are the same people that rushed to judgement on the Russian collusion allegations and the Steele Dossier, declaring Trump a traitor and foreign agent.  The dossier was debunked and the allegations found fraudulent.  They are also the same people that spent over two years trying to enforce unconstitutional mandates and economic lockdowns on the American public during the covid pandemic.  Nearly all of those mandates were found to be useless.

    Are Democrats suddenly realizing that after years of encouraging race riots, encouraging leftist mobs to target conservative politicians and Supreme Court judges, subverting individual liberties in the name of public health, colluding with Big Tech companies to censor millions of Americans in violation of their 1st Amendment rights, using the legal apparatus as a weapon against their primary political adversary and promoting the idea of assassination which led to two separate attempts on Donald Trump’s life, they might be due for some payback?

    Perhaps the great fear that leftists seem to harbor over the return of Donald Trump is not due to his supposed “racism” or “fascism.”  Maybe they are afraid of Trump because they fear Karma. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 19:40

  • The Digital Puppeteers: Big Tech's Influence On Society
    The Digital Puppeteers: Big Tech’s Influence On Society

    Via SchiffGold.com,

    Tech companies have revolutionized the modern age, allowing for transcontinental communication, instant access to information, and unprecedented connectivity between people worldwide. But this revolution has come at a cost; these companies have undue influence over our lives, possessing the capability to shape public discourse, consumer behavior, and even political outcomes.

    The scale of Big Tech’s market dominance is staggering. Google controls 81% of all general searches and Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp collectively boast 3.27 billion daily active users. Amazon commands almost 50% of all U.S. e-commerce. These figures demonstrate how a handful of companies can wield unprecedented power over our digital lives.

    This concentration of power allows Big Tech firms to design markets in ways that benefit themselves and stifle competition. It can result in higher prices for consumers and reduced innovation as smaller competitors are squeezed out.

    The impact of this monopolistic control extends beyond economic concerns to the sanctity of our democratic discourse. As these platforms have become the de facto public squares of the digital age, their content moderation policies and algorithmic decision-making wield enormous influence over what information reaches the public.

    Big Tech’s selective censorship has become increasingly apparent, with conservative voices often bearing the brunt of content moderation. In 2020, a New York Post exposé on Hunter Biden’s laptop was suppressed on both Twitter and Facebook. After the first Trump assassination attempt, Google intentionally omitted search results which referenced the attack, despite providing suggestions for historical assassination attempts on other presidents. These incidents highlight the growing concern over Big Tech’s power to shape public discourse through selective content moderation

    At the core of this issue lies Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which shields interactive computer services from liability for content posted by users. While originally intended to promote free speech online, this provision has become a double-edged sword. It allows platforms to avoid responsibility for harmful or false content while simultaneously giving them broad discretion to censor or promote content as they see fit.

    This legal framework has created a situation where Big Tech companies enjoy the benefits of both publisher and platform status without the corresponding responsibilities of either. They can curate content to maximize engagement and profits while avoiding accountability for the societal impacts of their decisions.

    While proponents of the current system argue that users have the freedom to choose alternative platforms, the reality is far more complex. The network effects and data advantages enjoyed by incumbent players create significant barriers to entry for potential competitors. As Kashmir Hill’s experiment demonstrated, it’s nearly impossible to avoid the services of Big Tech companies entirely, as their reach extends far beyond their branded products and services.

    As the digital economy often tends towards natural monopolies, simply breaking up these companies or imposing heavy-handed regulations is not the answer. The solution to these challenges must balance the need for innovation with the protection of free speech and fair competition. 

    This calls for a comprehensive reevaluation of our regulatory framework for the digital age. This could include reforming Section 230 to strike a better balance between platform immunity and accountability and increasing transparency in algorithmic decision-making and content moderation practices.

    The promise of the internet was a democratization of information and commerce, but the current reality falls short of this ideal. We must remember that a truly free market of ideas and commerce requires vigilance against the concentration of power, whether in the hands of governments or corporations.

    By fostering genuine competition, protecting free speech, and ensuring accountability, we can harness the transformative potential of technology while preserving the fundamental principles of a free and open society. The stakes are too high to allow a handful of companies to become the arbiters of our digital lives.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 19:15

  • Nuclear Is Back: U.S. Closes On $1.5 Billion Loan To Resurrect Holtec's Palisades Nuclear Plant
    Nuclear Is Back: U.S. Closes On $1.5 Billion Loan To Resurrect Holtec’s Palisades Nuclear Plant

    Following the news of the Three Mile Island restart plans, it looks like our assertion that ‘nuclear is back’ is correct.

    That’s because this week the U.S. closed on a deal to resurrect another nuclear plant, Holtec’s Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, thanks to a $1.52 billion loan from the Biden administration, according to Reuters.

    A senior Biden administration official stated that reopening the plant could take up to two years—longer than the company’s estimate.

    The Reuters report said that the administration aims to triple U.S. nuclear power capacity as demand rises and climate concerns grow, which could include restarting decommissioned reactors like Three Mile Island, site of the nation’s worst nuclear accident. Restarting these plants is a complex and costly process that has never been done before in the U.S.

    “Palisades is a climate comeback story,” said White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi, emphasizing that nuclear power supports high-paying union jobs.

    The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office is providing $1.52 billion in financing, along with $1.3 billion in public funding to power cooperatives Wolverine and Hoosier Energy, for the purchase of power from Palisades. Deputy Energy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small made the funding announcement.

    Recall just days ago we wrote that Sam Altman-backed Nuclear SMR company Oklo announced it had finalized an agreement with the Department of Energy to advance the next phase of sitting at the Idaho National Lab. 

    As we’ve noted last week, the nuclear energy embrace is starting to make its way across the country. Just hours ago Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was urging for Three Mile Island to reopen as quickly as possible, as well. 

    Following Microsoft’s agreement to purchase power from the dormant nuclear plant, Shapiro urged regulators to prioritize the reactor’s connection to the electrical grid, according to a new report from Barron’s.

    In a letter to PJM Interconnection, the grid operator serving Pennsylvania and several other states, Shapiro emphasized that the plant should not face the extended delays typical for new developments, as Microsoft aims to start utilizing the reactor’s energy by 2028.

    PJM Interconnection responded to Shapiro’s concerns, stating that it is developing a “fast track” process to prioritize certain electricity projects, potentially speeding up the reactor’s return to service.

    Shapiro wants the reactor to “be allowed to come online as quickly as possible rather than waiting in the queue as if they were an entirely new development,” he wrote.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 18:50

  • Housing Starts Are Tumbling As Completions Soar, It's Very Recessionary
    Housing Starts Are Tumbling As Completions Soar, It’s Very Recessionary

    Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

    The discrepancy between housing starts and completions is the largest since 1980. Let’s discuss…

    Data from the Census Department, calculation and chart by Mish

    The DotCom bust was unrelated to housing. Most recessions impact housing or housing busts lead to recession.

    The single-family stats aren’t good, but they aren’t as bad.

    Single Family Housing Starts Minus Completions

    The next chart puts the discrepancy into proper perspective.

    Housing Starts and Completions

    Housing Starts Minus Completions Detail

    The Strong Economy?

    Fed Chair Jerome Powell put on a strong display during the FOMC press conference.

    But if the economy was as strong as Powell let on, the Fed arguably should have not cut rates at all.

    On September 19, I noted Existing Home Sales Decline for the 24th Time in 31 Months

    From a year ago sales are down 2.5 percent. Sales are down 39 percent from the January 2022 high.

    The Ominous Reason Continued Unemployment Claims Have Improved

    Also, please note The Ominous Reason Continued Unemployment Claims Have Improved

    The brief synopsis is unemployment benefits are expiring rapidly.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 18:25

  • Watch: Matt Taibbi And Walter Kirn Give Epic Speeches Everyone Should Watch
    Watch: Matt Taibbi And Walter Kirn Give Epic Speeches Everyone Should Watch

    Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn gave gave must-watch speeches last weekend at the ‘Rescue The Republic’ rally in Washington D.C. – which was organized to promote free speech and the 8 pillars of ‘Join the Resistance.‘

    Taibbi torched the establishment, starting with John Kerry – who recently said he wants the First Amendment “hammered out of existence” so the elites can control information.

    Taibbi also went full Les Grossman on the ‘anti-disinformation’ dickheads from the censorship industrial complex…

    Let me pause to say something about America’s current intellectual class, from which the “anti-disinformation” complex comes. By the way: there are no working-class censors, poor censors, hungry censors. The dirty secret of “content moderation” everywhere is that it’s a tiny sliver of the educated rich correcting everyone else. It’s telling people what fork to use, but you can get a degree in it. –Matt Taibbi

    But while “the Michael Haydens, John Brennans, James Clappers, Mike McFauls and Rick Stengels who make up America’s self-appointed behavior police” keep trying to censor, they’re on “a fool’s errand.”

    But “Motherfucker, I’m an American. That shit does not work on me. And how can you impugn my patriotism, when you’re sitting in Klaus Schwab’s lap, apologizing for the First Amendment to a crowd of Europeans? Look in the mirror.”

    Watch:

    Novelist Walter Kirn also spoke at the event, telling “a little bedtime story” about his childhood in rural Minnesota – “the land of the deplorables,” that can best be summarized by the man himself via Racket News (emphasis ours);

    When I was a kid in rural Minnesota, the land of the deplorables in the late sixties and early seventies, my mother had a little record player. The problem was, she only had five records, and all were protest music. Pete Seeger, the Weavers, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul, and Mary. I used to listen to the records, and I had a favorite song. Maybe you know it: “If I had a Hammer.”

    It was very strange that my mother had these records, because she was a young Republican. Anyway, I was eight years old, and I had no idea what this song meant. It seemed to have something to do with being powerless, and dreaming or fantasizing that you had power. If I had a hammer, I’d hammer out justice. I’d hammer out freedom all over this land. I’d hammer out love between the brothers and the sisters…

    That was my favorite line, because it was so puzzling. Isn’t love between brothers and sisters incest? As I said, I found this song confusing, and the thing that confused me most about the song was: Why didn’t the singer have a hammer? What had happened? Who’d taken it away?

    This morning, I was reading Twitter and I was reminded of this song in the most unlikely way. I saw a clip of a discussion at one of those big international conferences that you and I are never invited to, and on this video was John Kerry, former Secretary of State, former Skull and Bonesman, that secret society at Yale — the same secret society that George W. Bush belonged to. The guy who ran against John Kerry for president in 2004: Skull and Bones versus Skull and Bones. Talk about the illusion of choice.

    Anyway, what Kerry was talking about was the First Amendment, and how it was a problem. A big, big problem. He had a peculiar complaint about it.

    The First Amendment stopped people like him, he said, from trying to “build consensus.” Now, that’s how these people think about themselves, as builders of consensus. What does that make you and me? We’re construction materials!

    John Kerry, master builder, had a complaint. The First Amendment, he said, was a “major block” for people like him from stopping what he now calls disinformation. It kept him from, he said, “hammering it out of existence.”

    Now, I’m pretty sure that in 1949 when Pete Seeger wrote, “The Hammer Song,” or “If I Had a Hammer,” he didn’t mean if John Kerry had a hammer. He didn’t mean if they had a hammer:

    If they had a hammer,

    They’d hammer out disinformation.

    They’d hammer out vaccine hesitancy,

    All over this land.

    They’d hammer out Kennedy.

    They’d hammer Matt Taibbi….

    That is not the song, and John Kerry has it wrong. The hammer does not belong to him.

    That hammer belongs to us. It’s ours. But why don’t we have it? That’s the mystery.

    That’s the question I’ve spent a lifetime trying to figure out. Look at this gray hair. It’s been a lifetime. Why doesn’t the singer have a hammer? Why? Why do we have to dream to fantasize? Why do we have to wish we had one?

    Well, I think I’ve finally answered it. We have it right in front of us. The question is, will we pick it up? The question is, will we use it? So, I have a request for you. When you go home tonight, when you get home, pick up your hammer. Pick up your hammer and use it. It’s time to build.

    My mother had one other record. It was by Simon and Garfunkel. It also had a song I loved called El Condor Pasa. I think you remember its greatest line: “I’d rather be a hammer than a nail.”

    Don’t be a nail. Pick up your hammers. Go home. Let’s build a New America.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 18:00

  • "Absurd Program" – Texas A&M Cuts LGBT Minor
    “Absurd Program” – Texas A&M Cuts LGBT Minor

    Authored by Gabrielle Temaat via The College Fix,

    Texas A&M University is discontinuing its LGBTQ+ minor due to low enrollment, following criticism of the program from Republican lawmakers over what they called “liberal indoctrination.”

    The Battalion, the school’s student newspaper, reported last week that the university is cutting 14 minors and 38 certificates following an internal review that deemed them “low-producing” programs.

    The university slashed programs that awarded “fewer than five degrees per academic year and fewer than 25 degrees in five years.”

    The description of the LGBTQ+ minor on the school’s website states that it “prepares students to examine the ways in which gender and sexuality are socially constructed and offers a critical understanding [of] how sexuality and sexual orientation shape gender roles, identities, and social statuses in societies.”

    The minor “also examines homophobia and transphobia’s relationship to racism, colonialism, sexism, ableism, classism and other forms of power,” the description states.

    “After months of calling for A&M to end this absurd program, I was pleased to learn…they plan to end it. Proud to have helped deliver this victory for Texas taxpayers, who should never be forced to fund liberal indoctrination,” Texas Representative Brian Harrison wrote in a post on X.

    “I look forward to further discussions with A&M and will continue fighting to keep taxpayers from funding leftist propaganda that does nothing to strengthen our economy or the workforce of tomorrow,” he told the Daily Caller.

    Harrison (pictured) called for the school to discontinue the minor in March to “protect [his] constituents’ tax dollars, as well as the integrity of Texas A&M,” the Battalion reported.

    “I asked them to discontinue this minor or provide to me in writing a justification for this minor to be continued. The most charitable way to characterize the response is as a ‘non-response,’” Harrison told the Daily Caller.

    Texas Representative Chip Roy also called for the school to be “held accountable” for pushing “radical woke policies” earlier this year.

    In contrast, Texas A&M Sociology Professor Mary Campbell said that removing the minor would negatively impact students opportunities and academic freedom. 

    “The minor is a legitimate area of study that you should be able to study at A&M,” Campbell said. 

    “If we want to be a high-quality university, that’s how we do it: by providing those opportunities to students,” she said. 

    “I think we should work very hard to protect academic freedom, the freedom to study any legitimate area of study, which this minor absolutely is,” the professor said. 

    The school also discontinued the Asian Studies minor, along with certificates in “Diversity and Social Justice,” “Popular Culture,” and “Performing Social Activism,” the student newspaper reported.

    However, “courses associated with the deactivated programs will be unaffected,” according to the Battalion.

    The full list of deactivated minors and certificates will not be public until Oct. 14 when it “appears before the Faculty Senate.”

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 17:40

  • WTI Extends Gains After API Reports Another Crude Inventory Draw
    WTI Extends Gains After API Reports Another Crude Inventory Draw

    Oil prices surged today as the record spec shorts suddenly realized that the Middle East is shitshow of geopolitical bomb fuses just ready to be lit. WTI spiked dramatically up near $72 on the Iranian missile attack in Israel before fading back a little

    “Iran sits astride the world’s most strategic energy region, oil- and gas- production facilities and transit choke points,” said Bob McNally, founder of Rapidan Energy Group and a former adviser to president George W Bush.

    “So, when Iran is involved in a shooting war with its neighbours, you have to price in some geopolitical disruption risk, especially when it comes to Israel,” he added.

    Will the already low (tank bottoms) crude and Cushing stockpiles get tested further…

    API

    • Crude -1.46mm (unch exp)

    • Cushing +700k

    • Gasoline +900k (-300k exp)

    • Distillates -2.7mm (-1.4mm exp)

    For the sixth week in the last seven, crude stocks fell last week (and distillates inventories tumbled). Cushing stocks increased for the second week in a row…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Total crude stocks are back at their lowest since April 2022…

    Source: Bloomberg

    WTI was hovering just above $70 ahead of the API print and inched higher on the unexpected crude draw….

    “This fresh escalation is serious and justifies oil’s jump,” said Bill Farren-Price, a veteran oil market watcher and senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

    “But we’ve been here before — the conflict needs to show signs of spreading to the Gulf if it is to ignite a broader and sustained oil price rally. At the moment it has not.”

    Helima Croft, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets and a former CIA analyst, said oil traders needed to assess whether Israel would retaliate by directly targeting critical Iranian military and economic assets, including energy infrastructure.

    “In April, the Israelis opted for a muted response to the Iranian missile and drone strikes. And yet in the past two weeks the [government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] has demonstrated an increasingly high-risk tolerance for escalatory actions to achieve their strategic objectives.”

    Of course President Biden (well – whoever is running the show behind getting ‘her’ elected) will not want to see crude prices rising (nor will Jay Powell, so soon after his mission accomplished 50bps cut out of nowhere).

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 17:20

  • Rickards: Biggest Monetary Shock In 50 Years
    Rickards: Biggest Monetary Shock In 50 Years

    Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

    I’d like to start today’s issue by extending my thoughts and prayers to those impacted by Hurricane Helene, which has devastated significant portions of the southeast with massive flooding.

    The death toll is over 100 and may increase significantly. Let’s all hope the affected areas will recover.

    Moving on, with so much attention focused on the U.S. presidential election, the war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza, which is spreading to Lebanon, it’s easy to lose sight of other geopolitical developments that may be even more significant in the long run.

    One of these developments is the rise of the new BRICS currency and its potential role in the global monetary system.

    I’ve been warning readers about the collapse of the dollar for years and I was one of the first people to alert you to the rise of BRICS.

    It’s a monetary shock about to hit the global financial system, and something I consider the most significant development in international finance in over half a century.

    The annual leaders’ summit of BRICS nations is being held in Kazan, Russia from Oct. 22–24, and will include announcements moving the BRICS currency plans forward in material ways.

    The Power of BRICS

    The original BRICs membership from 2009 consisted of Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa was added in 2010 when the group’s name was changed to BRICS.

    That group expanded significantly at the 2023 leaders’ summit in South Africa when Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were added. (Argentina and Saudi Arabia were also permitted to enter but Argentina withdrew its application, and Saudi Arabia deferred its membership saying it was still considering the matter.)

    BRICS has been active over the years in institutionalizing its initiatives. In 2014, the BRICS created the New Development Bank (NDB), which functions along the lines of the World Bank to promote infrastructure development in emerging economies.

    The NDB was capitalized with over $100 billion from its members and currently has 53 projects underway with commitments of over $15 billion to those projects.

    Beyond the nine current members, there is a waiting list of over 20 aspiring members including economic powers such as Nigeria, Venezuela, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Thailand and Vietnam.

    The BRICS are part of an emerging Global South that is challenging the Collective West for world economic and geopolitical dominance.

    The BRICS Currency Defined

    The subject of a BRICS currency is confusing to most observers and is a fraught topic even for many experts. We’ll call the potential currency a BRIC for convenience, although no formal name has been announced.

    The BRICS currency is very far along in establishing itself as a viable payment currency. The prerequisites are: agreed-upon value (which can be fixed to another currency, floating or pegged to a weight of gold), secure payments channels (basically high-speed, encrypted digital pipes for authenticated message traffic), digital ledgers and an agreed issuer (the NDB based in Shanghai may be suitable for this purpose, but another institution could be created).

    The single most important element is a sufficiently large membership in the BRICS currency union such that a recipient of BRICS payments can use them for purchases in many jurisdictions for many goods and services.

    This last point is where most alternative currency payment arrangements fall down. Russia can sell oil to China for CNY (which they are currently doing), but they are constrained in terms of where they can spend the CNY (basically limited to Chinese manufactured goods and semiconductors).

    The same issue arises when Russia sells oil to India (for rupees) or weapons to Iran (for rials). The seller is limited in terms of what they can buy with the trading partner’s currency.

    This constraint goes away in a currency union with 15 or 20 members or more. If Russia earns BRICs from China, they can buy Embraer aircrafts from Brazil or semiconductors from Malaysia.

    For that matter, the use of a payment currency in a multi-member currency union is not limited to members. With access to the payment channels, non-members can nevertheless agree to receive the BRICS currency in payment, confident in their ability to spend it among the other BRICS members who are trading partners.

    The proof of this is the eurozone, which is currently a 20-member currency union with a single central bank and worldwide acceptance of the euro.

    New Developments to Watch

    There are several interesting developments taking place. The first is that the U.S. is squandering its rule-of-law advantage with sanctions on Russia, the freezing of the assets of the Central Bank of Russia and efforts to actually steal those assets and convert them into a $50 billion loan to Ukraine using structured finance.

    Given this rogue behavior by the U.S., countries are becoming more cautious about large U.S. Treasury note reserves. This may account in part for the recent rally in the price of gold.

    The second is that the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia in late October will announce significant progress in building out secure payment channels and will admit new members, which will drive the group closer to the critical mass needed to launch a currency union.

    None of this happens overnight. It’s helpful to recall that the euro took almost 10 years to launch from the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 to the actual creation of the euro in 2000.

    I worked closely with Alberto Giovannini in the late 1990s. He was one of the leading economists and scholars who helped create the euro. I was quite familiar with the technical hurdles to creating a new currency, especially the determination of the exchange rates at which Deutsche marks, lira, francs and other member currencies would be converted to euros.

    A Linkage to Gold

    It will take years to develop a BRICs-denominated bond market, although the process could be accelerated if BRICS members offered bonds directly to their own citizens as retail investors.

    There is a short path to making the BRICs a viable reserve currency — gold. Members of the BRICS currency union could use surplus BRICs to buy gold bullion to hold in their reserves.

    Russia, China and South Africa are all major gold producers and China has an extensive network of refineries so there should be ample gold available for purchase. When needed for purchases or settlements, the gold could be easily sold for BRICS currency. The common thread in these and other solutions is that they obviate U.S. dollar transactions.

    It will still take a few years to add members, build out the infrastructure and firm up some valuation issues. Still, this currency is coming.

    Even as a payment currency, the BRICS unit could be used in a material percentage of global trade giving the dollar a run for its money. The BRICS unit does not mark the end of the dollar as a widely accepted currency.

    Still, in conjunction with the badly misguided weaponization of the dollar, it could mark the beginning of the end.

    Slowly, then suddenly, said Hemingway about how men go bankrupt. The same could apply to the dollar.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 17:00

  • 'Oceans Eleven' Style Jewelry Burglaries By South American Thieves Are Becoming Widespread
    ‘Oceans Eleven’ Style Jewelry Burglaries By South American Thieves Are Becoming Widespread

    Complex, sophisticated ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ style burglaries are becoming widespread across the U.S., so much so that jewelers have been officially put on notice.

    The Jewelers’ Security Alliance (JSA) and Jewelers Mutual warned this week about some stores suffering major losses as a result of the break-ins, according to a new report from JCK.

    Scott Guginsky, the JSA’s vice president, said: “We see burglaries everywhere, from New York to Texas. Some of the hits are in the millions. These are the largest dollar losses we’ve seen in some time.”

    “It doesn’t appear like they’re stopping,” said Howard Stone, vice president of global risk services and analytics for Jewelers Mutual. He started noticing the crimes in June, the report says. 

    Thefts usually happen on weekends, with gangs dressing as construction workers to blend in, the report says. They use cellphone and Wi-Fi blockers, cut power cables, and wait for backup alarms to drain. Sometimes, they set up hunting cameras as motion sensors.

    The JCK report says that the gangs meticulously plan their heists, gathering detailed intelligence beforehand. “They’re all from South America and they are somewhat in communication. But it’s a loose-knit group. It’s not like there’s a [mob boss] John Gotti coordinating everything.”

    Guginsky added: “They usually roll into town for a week and do surveillance. They scout out the store, follow the jeweler home. They often send someone in the store during business hours, with a camera on their hat and their shirt, so they have a sense of the layout.”

    To prevent burglaries, the JSA and Jewelers Mutual suggest several measures for jewelers: stay alert to suspicious individuals who may be scouting the store or following you, and report any concerns to both the JSA and local authorities, keeping a log of incidents.

    They also suggest regularly testing alarms and cameras, updating your emergency contact list, and ensuring contacts are available on weekends and holidays.

    Lastly, they tell store owners to build relationships with local law enforcement and mall security to identify store vulnerabilities, the report concludes. 

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 16:40

  • Chaos As Cover
    Chaos As Cover

    Authored by T.L.Davis via Substack,

    If you’re looking toward this election as anything other than a trigger event, you’re missing the point. It doesn’t even matter who wins in respect to your preparedness. Contact with the enemy is ensured either way. There is no peaceful path other than total and complete compliance; abandoning any hope for the future of the republic and human rights.

    As LTC Steven Murray put it in a recent video, this vote is not like any other, it is the last act of a civilized man participating in a civilized act simply to erase the last vestige of responsibility before becoming absolutely ungovernable. The goal is to make the communists exert every effort to overcome the popularity and vote count to arrive at a Kamala win. The harder they have to work the more careless they become and the more eyes open as to the real status of the coup.

    Where Trump would have to be inaugurated before implementing any of his policies, Kamala could start immediately, bypassing the ordinary transition, because all of her secretaries and sychophants would already be in place. They would basically be those of Barack Obama’s fourth term, anyway. She will then be able to go to sleep like Joe and let them run it all, but with much strengthened zeal toward the outright denigration of the population.

    If you think Trump and his MAGA minions were attacked and brutalized under sleepy Joe, you can’t even imagine the level of hostility to be brought against them post November 5th. Should Trump win; by some massive failure of the left, or “too big to rig” actual overwhelming of the ballot box, it will probably be a short-lived victory for he will become target number one of every crackpot and government agency goon in the current administration. They’ve already proved they can coordinate nut jobs with lax security to produce the desired effect. Times that by 1000 and you might understand the situation accurately. With all of these crackpots and enemy agents activated post election, it will be something to awaken even more and importantly, expose those law enforcement agencies already on the wrong side of the republic.

    It is an election of no serious consequence as to the future. It is bleak no matter how one turns it, but this is why I encourage the masses to vote, to absolve themselves of the slightest hesitance toward self-defense. It is simply a question of willing surrender or fight from this point on and the vote is the first act of willingness to fight those terrible odds.

    I say this not to be inflammatory or hyperbolic, I think the sense of many are starting to realize there’s no help coming from any of the traditional sources. Tennessee and North Carolina can attest to how they are held in contempt and even hostile esteem by the federal government, punishment for not backing Harris.

    This is how it goes, your state either resists and blocks federal action or they submit willingly to it. One must be in one of the states that resist and blocks or the fight will be much harder and nearly impossible to win. What I mean by “win” is to survive it.

    This is no longer a long-range forecast, there’s a little over a month to the election, i.e., trigger point. The facts might come clear even before that, or WWIII, but at least then if not sooner. In my estimation, this is the time to start putting plans into place, if for no other reason than the dock strike is probably to keep last minute preparations from being completed. I’m not at the hunker-down stage yet, simply by virtue of my location, but if I were inner-city or local to a large population center, I would have a different outlook. Going to work, would be more of a day to day decision.

    The two prongs are individual survivability and survivability of those I hold dear. All decisions are weighed against one or the other. Fortunately for us, we have been able to move our jobs to remote status and so work is no longer a question of the journey as survivable or not as we move into this volatile stage of the crumbling republic. Tomorrow the conflict begins, in my mind, with the strike, the squeezing and softening of the resistance to the regime, the breaking of the spirit, the restraint of goods, the civilians at war with each other to spread the chaos they seek.

    This signifies the time to rise, to take advantage of their efforts toward chaos for their purposes and to use it against them. Chaos is the cover action for necessary deeds.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 16:20

  • Strikes (Missiles & Dockworkers) Spark Surge In Oil, Gold, & Bonds; Big-Tech & Bitcoin Battered
    Strikes (Missiles & Dockworkers) Spark Surge In Oil, Gold, & Bonds; Big-Tech & Bitcoin Battered

    Today’s mixed macro picture (construction spending down, National Manufacturing surveys and Dallas Fed in contraction offset by surge in JOLTS) was overwhelmed by Strikes (from Iranian missiles and American longshoremen).

    The widespread union strike deadline passed and bond markets shifted lower in yield on that news overnight. Then as Iranian missiles rained down on Israel, investors poured into safe-havens (bonds, gold) and dumped stocks as oil prices re-discovered geopolitical risk premium.

    Source: Bloomberg

    Treasury yields were all bid today, but are mixed on the week with the short-end significantly underperforming…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Gold was also bid as safe-haven (erasing all of yesterday’s losses)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    The dollar strengthened significantly on the day (more safe haven flows perhaps)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Oil prices surged higher on the missile launches with WTI reaching almost $72 before pulling back a little.

    Source: Bloomberg

    Stocks lurched lower on the Iran-Israel headlines – led by Small Caps and Mega-Cap Tech – but once Europe closed, the algos started trying to BTFD. The momentum did ignite but failed to get any of the majors green before some late-day profit-taking from 0-DTEs dragged everything down again…

    VIX and VVIX both surged higher today…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Bitcoin continued to serve its role as an anti-geopolitical risk asset – dumping every time a MidEast headline hits the Bloomberg terminal (which makes little to no sense to us… but hey we don’t have PhDs)…

    Source: Bloomberg

    It seems BTC and Big-Tech are joined at the hip again for now…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Finally, as Bloomberg reports, while investors are focused on policy cues (and liquidity infusions), earnings momentum has turned negative and could be a drag on stocks if it doesn’t improve with the upcoming earnings season.

    Source: Bloomberg

    Buy hey, for now liquidity is all that matters…

    Source: Bloomberg

    …until it doesn’t!

    And there’s some liquidity stress in the banks’ plumbing…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Let’s just hope it’s quarter-end window-dressing (but this is one to keep an eye on).

    Is that why USA Sovereign risk is also spiking…

    Source: Bloomberg

    Probably nothing..

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 16:00

  • A Dozen Veterans Affairs Staffers Improperly Accessed Medical Records Of J.D. Vance, Tim Walz; Report
    A Dozen Veterans Affairs Staffers Improperly Accessed Medical Records Of J.D. Vance, Tim Walz; Report

    Authored by Eric Lendrum via American Greatness,

    An investigation has revealed that the medical records of vice presidential nominees J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Tim Walz (D-Minn.) at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) were improperly accessed by at least a dozen employees over the summer.

    According to the Daily Caller, the internal investigation carried out by VA investigators found that these employees would be in violation of federal privacy laws, and could themselves face criminal investigations.

    The breaches occurred in the VA’s Veterans Health Administration (VHA), according to anonymous sources close to the investigation. Both campaigns have already been formally informed of the data being compromised.

    Federal prosecutors have already been contacted by the VA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), presented with evidence that could lead to charges.

    Among the accused employees are a physician and a contractor, who allegedly spent “extended time” looking at the medical records without proper authorization to do so.

    “We reported to law enforcement allegations that VA personnel may have improperly accessed Veteran records,” a VA spokesman said in a statement.

    “We take the privacy of the Veterans we serve very seriously and have strict policies in place to protect their records. Any attempt to improperly access Veteran records by VA personnel is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

    The breaches occurred in July and August, shortly after the announcements that Senator Vance and Governor Walz would be serving as the running mates of presidential nominees Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, respectively. The breaches were discovered after officials conducted routine security checks of all of the high-profile accounts with records stored at the agency.

    Back in August, VA Secretary Denis McDonough sent an internal memo reminding all employees that “viewing a Veteran’s records out of curiosity or concern — or for any purpose that is not directly related to officially authorized and assigned duties — is strictly prohibited.”

    The subject of both Walz and Vance’s military records has become a focus of both campaigns, primarily due to controversy surrounding the exact details of Walz’ service, including his rank upon retirement and when he retired. Multiple members of Walz’ former Army unit, including his former commanding officer and his former chaplain, accused him of deliberately abandoning his unit once he found out that the unit was going to be deployed to Iraq for war. Walz also lied about his rank, claiming to have retired as a command sergeant major when he actually never completed the full requirements to achieve the rank. These and other scandals have led to widespread accusations of stolen valor on Walz’ part.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 15:45

  • At Least 6 Israelis Dead In Jaffa Terror Shooting Hours Before Iran Ballistic Missile Attack
    At Least 6 Israelis Dead In Jaffa Terror Shooting Hours Before Iran Ballistic Missile Attack

    On Tuesday there was a mass shooting and large casualties in the Israeli city of Jaffa, in the south Tel Aviv area. A pair of gunmen went on a shooting rampage in or near a strain station on Jerusalem street, local media says.

    Several casualties were down at the scene, amid a huge police and emergency responder presence. Police are calling it a suspected terror attack. It occurred within hours before a large-scale Iranian ballistic missile attack on Tel Aviv.

    Security camera footage showing a pair of attackers in Jaffa.

    “Initial reports in Hebrew media indicate that there were at least two gunmen in the attack and that there are at least 10 wounded, including two in critical condition,” Times of Israel initially reported.

    But as emergency responders made it to the scene, the death toll quickly rose: 

    Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) confirmed that eight individuals were killed in the attacks that occurred Jaffa, the Times of Israel reported.

    Police also stated that two individuals who carried out the attacks had been “neutralized” according to the outlet.

    Some reports are saying that at least 14 people were shot. Initially circulating security camera images showed two Arabs or presumably Palestinian men carrying assault rifles. Reports remain conflicting as police investigate the scene.

    Footage showed a chaotic shootout and many Israelis on the ground (warning: graphic):

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    “Eight people were murdered in the terror shooting attack in Jaffa this evening, MDA says,” according to Times of Israel.

    Tuesday evening has been chaotic and fearful across Israel, given that just as headlines of the deadly Jaffa shootings began emerging, Iran began launching a huge ballistic missile assault on Israel. Millions of Israelis took to bomb shelters amid widespread alarms sounding.

    Tyler Durden
    Tue, 10/01/2024 – 15:25

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