Jan 30

Today’s News 30th January 2024

  • Texas Is 'Prepared' If Biden Federalizes State National Guard: Gov. Abbott
    Texas Is ‘Prepared’ If Biden Federalizes State National Guard: Gov. Abbott

    Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Texas National Guardsmen add razor wire and barriers along the U.S.–Mexico border in Shelby Park, Eagle Pass, Texas, on Jan. 23, 2024. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

    Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that his state is “prepared” to deal with President Joe Biden potentially federalizing its National Guard as the Lone Star State utilizes the troops to secure the border.

    On Jan. 22, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal agents could not be blocked from removing the razor wire that Texas has placed along the U.S.-Mexico border. In response, Gov. Abbott announced that his state will not “back down from our efforts to secure the border.” This triggered Democrats to call on President Biden to federalize the National Guard.

    The razor wire along the border was set up by the Texas National Guard and the state’s Department of Public Safety. In a Jan. 26 interview with Tucker Carlson, Gov. Abbott was asked about his response if President Biden goes ahead with the proposal.

    “Well, first, I’d be shocked. That would be a boneheaded move on his part—total disaster,” Gov. Abbott said. “For one, as you might imagine, we are prepared in the event that that unlikely event does occur to make sure that we will be able to continue exactly what we’ve been doing over the past month, and that is building these barriers.”

    “Whatever we’ve been building, the Biden administration is now trying to attack us because of it, and we will continue to do exactly what we’re doing to expand our denial of illegal entry into the state of Texas.”

    Gov. Abbott pointed out that state forces were already operating at the border and that he expects more forces to come to Texas from other state National Guards.

    “There’ve been about ten [states] so far that have sent National Guard or other law enforcement … They now are joined together with us. This is a fight for the future of America, and they all know it. And so I believe that they will all be in on this effort.”

    In an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, the governor said that Texas was “adding more razor wire as we speak right now to make sure that we are doing even more to secure the border.”

    Gov. Abbott insisted that his state has the authority to defy the U.S. federal government in accordance with the U.S. Constitution since the founding fathers believed that “there would be times when the federal government does not do its job and states have a right of self-defense.”

    On Wednesday, Gov. Abbott accused the Biden administration of failing to fulfill the duties outlined in Article IV, Section 4, which asks the federal government to protect each state against “invasion.”

    President Biden’s failure has triggered “Article 1, Section, 10, Clause 3, which reserves to this State the right of self-defense,” he said.

    The governor declared an invasion under Clause 3 and invoked “Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary.”

    The conflict between the federal government and Texas comes as the U.S. border patrol registered 302,034 encounters with illegal migrants along the southwest land border in December—the highest level since 2021.

    Supporting Texas

    Republicans have announced strong support for Texas in the clash with the federal government. “Joe Biden is defying federal law by allowing 9.6M illegal aliens to flood through our border,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said in a Jan. 26 post.

    “If the federal government won’t step up, Texas has the Constitutional authority to protect itself. I’m proud to stand with Texas and Governor Abbott as we work to stop this invasion.”

    Former President Donald Trump also backed Texas. “We encourage all willing States to deploy their guards to Texas to prevent the entry of illegals and to remove them back across the Border,” he said in a Jan. 25 statement.

    “All Americans should support the commonsense measures by Texas authorities to protect the safety, security, and sovereignty of Texas, and of the American people. When I am president, on day one, instead of fighting Texas, I will work hand in hand with Governor Abbott and other border states to stop the invasion, seal the border, and rapidly begin the largest domestic deportation operation in history.”

    The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), which represents around 18,000 Border Patrol (BP) agents and support personnel assigned to the U.S. Border Patrol, extended support to Texas’ measures as well.

    “Rank-and-file BP agents appreciate and respect what TX has been doing to defend their state in the midst of this catastrophe that the Biden Admin has unleashed on America,” it said in a Jan. 26 post.

    “We want to be perfectly clear; there is no fight between rank-and-file BP agents and the TX NG (National Guard), Gov. Abbott, or TX DPS (Department of Public Safety). It may make flashy headlines, but it simply isn’t true.”

    Meanwhile, calls for impeaching Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the border crisis are gaining steam. Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) is expected to introduce articles of impeachment against the official next week.

    “Secretary Mayorkas has outdone himself yet again—never have we seen such catastrophic numbers, even with historically high encounter numbers on his watch,” he said in a statement. “December’s numbers serve as more undeniable proof that Secretary Mayorkas must be impeached.

    “This staggering number of encounters at our borders only happens by design and a willful refusal to comply with the laws passed by Congress.”

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 23:40

  • Is There A Taylor Swift Psyop?
    Is There A Taylor Swift Psyop?

    Welcome to the matrix. 

    The current news cycle gives the impression that Taylor Swift is everywhere. 

    According to Bloomberg data, corporate media headlines featuring “Taylor Swift” began ramping up in the first half of 2023 and hit new record highs later in the year.

    The singer, who has made an entire career whining about having chosen the wrong men, has been pitched by legacy media as finally finding the “perfect match”: Kansas City Chiefs Travis Kelce. 

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

    The relationship doesn’t pass the sniff test, given Taylor’s terrible choices with men. 

    Let’s begin with Michael Benz, a former Trump admin State Department official whose work has been cited in congressional hearings, posted on X a video from 2019 featuring the Pentagon’s psychological operations research that pitched the idea of turning Taylor into an asset to combat “disinformation.” 

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

    We’re not alone. Fox News’ Jesse Watters also asked: “Why is Taylor Swift Everywhere?” 

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

    Perhaps it’s not by chance that the story count in corporate media for Taylor has exponentially exploded, averaging above 1,000 per day since late September. 

    Taylor’s surge comes as legacy corporate media is terrified about the rise of alternative media. Wall Street Journal Chief Emma Tucker warned WEF elites at Davos this month: “We no longer own the news.” 

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

    Back to Taylor’s relationship with Kelce. Consider this: 

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

    And there’s this.

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

    and this. 

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

    While it remains to be seen if Taylor has become a NATO asset. Certainty Democrats appear to be salivating all over her ahead of the presidential election to turn ‘Swifites’ into blue voters. 

    She’s about to make another bad choice. 

    Welcome to the matrix. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 23:20

  • Oil Shorts Squeezed As Cushing Inventories Tumble To Historic Low For January
    Oil Shorts Squeezed As Cushing Inventories Tumble To Historic Low For January

    With 22-year-old portfolio managers shorting energy stocks and commodities beyond record levels to avoid “career risk” and fund NVDA longs by jumping on the biggest bubble bandwagon since the dot.com days , the inevitable short squeeze will be a sight to behold, and according to Reuters it may have started.

    As Reuters energy analyst John Kemp write4s, portfolio investors “recoiled” from short positions in U.S. crude futures and options in the most recent week as rapidly depleting inventories at the Cushing delivery point “underscored the risk of a squeeze on deliverable barrels.”

    Hedge funds and other money managers purchased the equivalent of 46 million barrels across the six most important futures and options contracts over the seven days ending on Jan. 23.

    Fund buying was dominated by NYMEX and ICE WTI (+56 million barrels) with smaller purchases of U.S. gasoline (+8 million) and European gas oil (+7 million). Investors sold Brent (-19 million barrels) and U.S. diesel (-6 million), according to records filed with ICE Futures Europe and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

    But most of the buying came from covering existing bearish short positions (-28 million barrels) rather than initiating new bullish long ones (+18 million).

    The imbalance was especially pronounced in WTI where managers reduced short positions sharply (-38 million barrels) while initiating a smaller number of new longs (+18 million). As shown in the chart below, money managers cut their short positions in WTI by the most since April.

    At the same time, money managers boosted net longs in WTI by 44k lots last week, the most since September.

    As a result, WTI short positions were slashed to 79 million barrels from 112 million on Jan. 16 and a high of 128 million on Dec. 12.

    Crude inventories around the NYMEX delivery point at Cushing in Oklahoma had depleted to 30 million barrels on Jan. 19 down from 35 million barrels three weeks earlier.

    Cushing inventories stood at the lowest for the time of year since 2012 and were 14 million barrels (-32% or -1.26 standard deviations) below the prior ten-year seasonal average.

    With inventories shrinking, many fund managers concluded it was no longer safe to run short positions potentially requiring delivery at Cushing.

    The net position in WTI jumped to 99 million barrels (6th percentile for all weeks since 2013) up from just 43 million (1st percentile) the previous week.

    The gap between ultra-bearish positioning on WTI and neutral positioning in Brent narrowed slightly but remained very wide.
    There was still significant scope for short-covering to lift WTI flat prices and calendar spreads if inventories continue to deplete.

    Still, despite the squeeze, short positions in NYMEX WTI were still almost 4 times higher than at the start of the current short-selling cycle on Oct. 3. But with the amount of “pent up” wars around the world, they won’t be there for long.

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

    Natural Gas

    Elsewhere, investors trimmed positions in the two major futures and options contracts tied to gas prices at Henry Hub in Louisiana. Investors reverted to selling after trying to build a bullish position, as the big freeze earlier in January was followed by milder weather.

    Hedge funds and other money managers sold the equivalent of 596 billion cubic feet (bcf) over the seven days ending on Jan. 23, the fastest rate of sales since August 2021.

    It came after fund managers had purchased a total of 1,409 bcf over the previous five weeks, according to regulatory records. Funds cut their position to 186 bcf net short (26th percentile for all weeks since 2010) from 410 bcf net long (42nd percentile) seven days before.

    Nat gas front-month futures prices continued to slide and have averaged just $2.81 per million British thermal units so far in January (8th percentile for all months since the start of the century once adjusted for inflation).

    The end-of-winter calendar spread between March and April 2024 has fallen to flat from a backwardation of 21 cents at beginning of winter in early October, as traders expect the market to remain oversupplied.

    Investors anticipate gas stocks will end winter well above the long-term average so lower prices will be needed to encourage more consumption from power generators and slow production further.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 23:00

  • Shifting Gears: Dealers Urge GM To Prioritize Hybrids Over EVs 
    Shifting Gears: Dealers Urge GM To Prioritize Hybrids Over EVs 

    Two months after thousands of US auto dealers warned President Biden to reconsider the pace of electric vehicle mandates, citing waning demand for those vehicles, a new report from The Wall Street Journal reveals dealers are pressing one major automaker to include a broader range of hybrid models, over fears of losing customers.

    General Motors’ top auto dealers have voiced concern about the automaker’s aggressive push into the EV space while mostly bypassing hybrids, according to people familiar with the matter. They said customers are hesitant to buy EVs and search for a “middle ground between conventional gas-engine cars and EVs.” 

    The people said that GM executives have acknowledged dealers’ pleas but have yet to decide on adding future hybrid lineups. This could complicate Chief Executive Mary Barra’s foray into the EV space. 

    Unlike its competitors, GM went all-in on EVs and skipped the hybrid market. 

    Last month, Barra told reporters at an event in Detroit: 

    “I still believe in the endgame that you want to move to EVs as quickly as you can.” 

    With the EV market slowing, Toyota’s chairman and former CEO, Akio Toyoda, recently offered a dose of reality that EVs aren’t the future but instead hybrid vehicles. 

    Toyoda has noted time after time that EVs aren’t the silver bullet against the supposed ills of carbon emissions they’re often made out to be.

    Toyota has a history of being at the forefront of adopting new technologies. However, its slow EV adoption is because it mistrusts lithium-ion batteries and has positioned itself as a leader in hybrid vehicles.  

    Earlier this month, Ford Motor announced plans to slash production of its all-electric F-150 Lightning in April “to achieve the optimal balance of production, sales growth, and profitability.” This is yet more evidence that EV demand is going the wrong way. 

    “With EV adoption slower, hybrids are going to be a bigger part” of the business, Ford Chief Financial Officer John Lawler admitted at a Barclays investor conference in November. 

    And in late November, 3,900 auto dealers penned a letter to Biden, telling the president to “tap the brakes on the unrealistic government electric vehicle mandate.” 

    “Hybrids are what’s hot right now,” said Chris Hemmersmeier, a Salt Lake City-area car dealer with GM stores. 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 22:40

  • Ilhan Omar Needs To Be Expelled From Congress & Investigated As An Undeclared Foreign Agent
    Ilhan Omar Needs To Be Expelled From Congress & Investigated As An Undeclared Foreign Agent

    Submitted by Andrew Korybko,

    Ilhan Omar is an ethno-bigoted warmonger who embodies everything that she claims to oppose about the US and Israel, and her removal from Congress is required to prevent her from exploiting her position to provoke a regional war.

    Somali-born Congresswoman Ilhan Omar accidentally outed herself as an undeclared foreign agent while speaking with her co-ethnics about the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Ethiopia and Somaliland. The English translation can be watched here at the Somaliland Deputy Foreign Minister’s X account. Omar didn’t refute the translation but only its “interpretation” of her warmongering and admitting to being a foreign agent. The video will now be summarized for the reader’s convenience.  

    She began by questioning the ethnic Somali identity of the Somalilanders, which was a curious angle of attack for her of all folks to make given the fact that she’s built her career on condemning nationalists. By the standards of her fellow “Squad” members, she should be “canceled” for that, but ethno-bigoted double standards are par for the course when it comes to those politicians. Moving along after pointing that out, Omar then said that many Somalis want her to talk to officials about the MoU.

    She specified that they want to find out what she can do to ensure that the US Government (USG) prevents the MoU from becoming a reality, to which she thundered that “My answer to Somalians was that the US Government will only do what Somalians in the US tell them to do!” That was already provocative enough since it implied that this diaspora controls the regional policy of the world’s most powerful country exactly as she hypocritically lambasted Jews for doing by clear innuendo in the past.

    Omar then removed all ambiguity about her role by adding that “They will do what we want and nothing else. They must follow our orders and that is how we will safeguard the interests of Somalia…The US is a country where one of your daughters is in Congress to represent your interest. For as long as I am in the US Congress, Somalia will never be in danger, its waters will not be stolen by Ethiopia or others…Sleep in comfort knowing that I am here to protect the interests of Somalia from within the US system.”

    She concluded her rant after a tangent by repeating the genocidal mantra that “Somalia is for Somalis only” and claiming that “over 45% of Somalia’s population are not even ethnic Somalis” in an allusion to the false claim she made at the beginning implying that the Somalilanders aren’t ethnic Somalis. There’s more to what she was suggesting than just a repeat of the late 1980s Isaaq genocide that led to Somaliland’s redeclaration of independence in 1991, however, as her final words from the clip prove.

    According to her, “Ethiopia and Kenya have stolen and continue to occupy the Somali Region state, which belongs to Somalia. We will liberate the occupied territories that were stolen. What remains of Somalia cannot be further divided.” Recalling what Omar earlier admitted, she seemingly plans to leverage her role “within the US system” to “order” the world’s most powerful country to back militant Somali irredentism against Ethiopia and Kenya, which could plunge nearly 200 million people into war.

    Somaliland is her first envisaged targeted as suggested by her closing words about how “What remains of Somalia cannot be further divided” after repeating the genocidal mantra of “Somalia is for Somalis only” several minutes after questioning the Somalilanders’ ethnic Somali identity. In other words, this undeclared but accidentally self-admitted foreign agent of Somalia is conspiring to pull the USG’s strings in order to secure support for the Hybrid War that the Somalian leader is plotting against it and Ethiopia.

    She needs to be expelled from Congress before she deals irreparable damage to America’s objective national interests in the region through her connivances that risk the largest interstate African war since the two Congo Wars of the 1990s-2000s. Omar must also be investigated to discover the extent to which she’s already damaged those aforesaid interests and bust the rest of Somalia’s foreign agent network, which could include non-Somalis under her influence within the USG and/or on Mogadishu’s payroll.  

    The US’ objective interests are served by getting Somalia to negotiate a “dignified divorce” with Somaliland instead of preparing for a repeat of 1977-1978 Ethio-Somali War that laid the seeds for Somalia’s collapse a little more than a decade later till the present day. Omar is an ethno-bigoted warmonger who embodies everything that she claims to oppose about the US and Israel, and her removal from Congress is required to prevent her from exploiting her position to provoke a regional war.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 22:20

  • US Caught Known Terrorist At The Border, Then Let Him Go Due To Clerical Error
    US Caught Known Terrorist At The Border, Then Let Him Go Due To Clerical Error

    An unnamed individual identified only as a member of the Somali terror group al-Shabaab, was caught crossing illegally into the United States at the San Ysidro, California border on March 13, 2023, then released into the United States, where he roamed freely for nearly a year before he was arrested days ago in Minnesota, the Daily Caller reports, citing an anonymous source.

    The Terrorist Screening Center “deemed him a ‘mismatch’” after running his name through the terror watchlist, according to the memo, which was sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.

    However, on January 18, 2024, the Terrorist Screening Center “made a redetermination” that the individual was “a confirmed member of al-Shabaab” and was involved in the use, manufacture or transport of explosives or firearms, the memo states. Two days later, ICE nabbed the al-Shabaab member in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

    In 2023 the Border Patrol caught 172 suspects from the terror watchlist attempting to enter the US illegally. According to former DHS officials, the constant deluge of illegal migrants through the southern border has made it easier for bad actors to enter the country.

    “Many within the Biden administration, including Secretary Mayorkas, have repeatedly assured us that the vetting process at the border is comprehensive and complete,” said retired ICE field director John Fabbricatore, who now sits on the board of the Immigration Center for Enforcement (NICE).

    “However, we continue to witness alarming instances where terrorists are able to freely roam the United States for months after being released at the border before their criminal and terrorist histories come to light.”

    According to the report, 50 individuals on the terror watchlist were caught between October and December of last year alone. For comparison, there were 30 such encounters between 2017 and 2020.

    “This situation is greatly endangering our nation, and it is clear that our safety is dependent on enforcing our immigration laws and securing the border,” Fabbricatore said.

    The Border Patrol is authorized to hold migrants in custody for up to 72 hours, however it often takes much longer to complete a background check, he continued.

    “The overburdening of the Border Patrol with the excessive amounts of illegal border crossers has forced faster processing times, which doesn’t allow for a more vigorous initial investigation into a migrants background. The background checks currently being run only initially search out criminal history in the United States, not outside its borders. It could take days, weeks, or months to connect derogatory information coming from other databases.”

    Read the rest here

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 22:00

  • The Two Biggest Issues That Will Drive Voters To The Ballot Box In 2024
    The Two Biggest Issues That Will Drive Voters To The Ballot Box In 2024

    Authored by Mark Tapscott via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Entrepreneur Juan Pablo Segura looked like the perfect Republican candidate to win the newly-created Virginia State Senate District 31 that includes much of Loudoun County, home of the parents’ rights movement that gained national attention.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images)

    But when the votes were counted in the 2023 race that was among the most expensive campaigns ever in Virginia, more than 52 percent of the ballots went to his Democrat opponent, in a loss that shocked more than a few Republicans who thought it was their year.

    Democrats’ warnings of Republican threats to abortion access were the factor that produced the Virginia surprise that could be repeated nationwide in 2024, according to Democratic strategists.

    But a Republican campaign pollster sees a huge shift among a key voter group concerning the millions of illegal immigrants that have crossed into the United States since 2021 under President Joe Biden’s open border policies.

    That shift could counterbalance the abortion issue.

    Led by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Virginia Republicans had high hopes of gaining a state senate majority to match their control of the state house. Instead, not only did they fail to take over the senate, they also lost their majority in the Virginia House of Delegates.

    One GOP political expert who was not surprised by the Virginia outcome was Mitchell Brown, political strategy director for Cygnal, a Washington-based polling and analytics firm. He sees a lesson in the Segura loss for Republicans in the 2024 campaign.

    “The issue with it is we have to remember that people aren’t voting with their minds, it’s an emotive response to things, so when you’re asked what issue is top-of-the-mind, abortion doesn’t come up among the things we’re seeing nationally on sentiments,” Mr. Brown told The Epoch Times.

    “But if you come up to the Mainline in Philadelphia or Northern Virginia’s suburbs or out in Michigan and scream about how someone is a MAGA extremist who wants to put women in prison for getting abortions, that issue is going to be very powerful for Democrats,” Mr. Brown said.

    Pro-abortion protestors march in Philadelphia on July 4, 2022. (Hannah Beier/Getty Images)

    “I live in Northern Virginia in one of the swing districts, right on the edge of Fairfax County and into Loudoun County. Segura never said anything about abortion, but every Sunday when I was watching football, I kept hearing the refrain saying ‘Juan Pablo Segura is the MAGA extremist. He and his friends want to put women in jail for getting abortions,’” Mr. Brown said.

    “Those ads were powerful, they got your attention and there is no way to differentiate it when every single Republican was getting hit like that, so it was tough,” he said.

    The Virginia outcome was not the only result in 2023 that convinced Democrats that abortion is their best issue for 2024.

    Ohio is a solidly red-trending state that gave former President Donald Trump more than 53 percent of its votes against President Joe Biden in 2020.

    But in a widely publicized citizen ballot initiative battle in 2023, Ohio voters decisively favored an amendment to the state constitution that guarantees the right to abortion. The amendment provides that, “Every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions … on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage care, and abortion.”

    Republican Virginia state Senate candidate Juan Pablo Segura speaks during a campaign rally in Leesburg, Va., on Nov. 5, 2023. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

    The results made Ohio the 13th state to strengthen access to abortions, either through state legislative action or a ballot initiative, since the Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision that nullified the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

    Under Dobbs, each state is re-empowered to decide the abortion issue for its residents. Currently, 21 states either ban abortions outright, with certain exceptions, or permit the procedure up to a specified timeframe in a woman’s pregnancy. In Oklahoma, for example, the procedure is illegal in almost all circumstances, whereas in Utah abortion is allowed anytime up to 18 weeks of pregnancy.

    By putting the issue front and center at the state level, the Supreme Court provided a powerful impetus on an issue that Democrats are now rapidly moving to make the centerpiece of their candidates’ campaigns across the country.

    On Jan. 25, the White House Facebook page featured a video of Vice President Kamala Harris, who is described by officials as the lead voice on the issue, extolling “reproductive freedom.”

    On Jan. 23, President Biden, Ms. Harris, and their spouses were featured speakers at the “Reproductive Freedom Campaign Rally” at George Mason University in Virginia. Abortion will likely be featured prominently in Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign and those of virtually every other Democrat on the 2024 ballot.

    (L–R) First lady Jill Biden, President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff at a ”Reproductive Freedom Campaign Rally

    Democratic campaign strategist Christy Setzer thinks this is a smart strategy.

    “For the Biden campaign, elevating abortion rights as a campaign issue is politically smart, a great contrast with Trump and Republican electeds, and the right thing to do,” she told The Epoch Times.

    “Since the Dobbs decision, Americans have voted decisively to protect that right, winning not just Democrats, but the lion’s share of independents and even some Republicans. When abortion rights are on the ballot, Democrats over-perform and women come out to vote in greater numbers to protect that right.”

    Ms. Setzer emphasized there doesn’t have to be a ballot initiative or other measure explicitly dealing with abortion to motivate Democratic voters to turn out in great numbers.

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 21:40

  • First Human Neuralink Implant A Success, Musk Says 'Initial Results Promising'
    First Human Neuralink Implant A Success, Musk Says ‘Initial Results Promising’

    Elon Musk on Monday announced that the first human patient has received a brain implant from his startup, Neuralink – which according to Musk “Enables control of your phone or computer, and through them almost any device, just by thinking.“

    “Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal,” Musk continued.

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

    (And imagine how many more alleged orgies Hawking could attend!)

    The Neuralink brain implant, called Telpathy, was designed to help people with traumatic brain injuries operate electronic devices only with their thoughts. It uses ultra-fine “threads” to help transmit signals. In May, the company received FDA approval to conduct human trials in a study which uses a robot to surgically place a brain-computer interface (BCI) implant in an area of the brain that controls our ability to move. The company announced late last year that it was recruiting patients with quadriplegia caused by cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

    Musk said that the initial results of the implant “show promising neuron spike detection.”

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

    According to Kip Ludwig, co-director of the Wisconsin Institute for Translational Neuroengineering at the University of Wisconsin, ‘neuron spike detection’ means the company is receiving data from the patient’s brain, Bloomberg reports, adding that monkeys with the implants have been able to play computer games with their brains alone.

    For several years, Musk has said that implanting a human with his device was imminent. In July 2019, he predicted surgery in a human head by year’s end. Meanwhile, other companies such as Synchron moved ahead implanting their own devices into human brains, opening Neuralink to the suggestion it was falling behind. Monday’s news will likely blunt that criticism.

    The long timetable underscores how tough the task ahead is for Neuralink. The startup’s chips aim to go less than 2 millimeters into the brain. That’s still deeper than many other systems, such as the one in development from Precision Neuroscience, which sits on top of the brain tissue. -Bloomberg

    Last June, Neuralink was valued at around $5 billion.

    Hopefully the socialists don’t start a Borg collective.

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

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 21:19

  • Our Democracy™: The Democratic Weaponization Of Government And The Need For Decentralization
    Our Democracy™: The Democratic Weaponization Of Government And The Need For Decentralization

    Authored by Roger Kimball via American Greatness,

    Reading Matt Taibbi’s summary how the Democrats weaponized the government against Donald Trump, starting before the election of 2016 and proceeding right up to the present moment, I am reminded once again that the issue is not democracy but “Our Democracy™.”

    That is, the Democrats and their deep-state allies in the media and the myriad bureaucracies that actually run the country believe that democracy means “rule by Democrats.”  As Taibbi puts it, “To ‘protect democracy,’ democracy is already being canceled. We just haven’t admitted the implications of this to ourselves yet.”

    This is true. Hence the plethora of handwringing articles warning that Donald Trump is a “dictator”-in-waiting, a new Hitler, a refurbished Mussolini who, should he be reelected, will mobilize the military to impose his will on a hapless American populace. Taibbi quotes from a December 2023 “strategy memo” in which Biden’s puppeteers describe Trump as “an existential threat to democracy.”

    It sounds absurd.  It is absurd.  But, as I and many others have pointed out, that is the story we are being asked to swallow. This is the logic:

    Trump is a “threat to democracy.”

    Ergo, we must use “any means necessary” to keep him off the ballot.

    Otherwise, people might vote for him, and that would be “bad for democracy.”

    The arrogance of this gambit is breathtaking. It assumes, with Liz Cheneyesque smugness, that ordinary people cannot be entrusted with so important a task as electing their leaders. Only anointed saviors like Liz Cheney can do that. But alongside the arrogance of the we-have-to-destroy-democracy-in-order-to-save-it mindset is the chilling revelation of the extremes to which the people in power are willing to go in order to preserve their prerogatives. They will, for example, censor any opinion they do not like as “malinformation,” i.e., an opinion that might be true but is not consistent with The Narrative. It all adds up to what I have called “the Sovietization of America.”

    What, as Lenin famously asked, is to be done?

    I am not sure anything can be done.  There is a good chance that Michael Anton is right. “They Can’t Let Him Back In,” he wrote in July 2022. “The people who really run the United States of America,” he noted, “have made it clear that they can’t and won’t, if they can help it, allow Donald Trump to be president again.”

    Anton and Taibbi both outline some of the many things “they”—the agents of the deep state—will do, are in fact doing right now, to prevent this most awful of eventualities.

    My crystal ball is cloudy. I do not know what is going to happen in November 2024. But let’s indulge in what Einstein calls a Gedankenexperiment. Let’s say Trump wins in November. Let’s say further that he somehow manages to evade his enemies and actually take office at noon on January 20, 2025.  What should he do then?

    Here is an incomplete list.

    The overriding imperative, as I have argued before, must be to do everything possible to reduce the place of Washington in the metabolism of American political life. To this end, Trump should endeavor as far as possible to govern the country from outside of Washington. The first symbolic act should be to hold the inauguration someplace other than Washington. I do not insist that it be held in Mar-a-Lago, but why not?

    As to specifics, on the first minute of the first day in office, Trump should take a page from Bill Clinton. He should fire every Democratic prosecutor. All of them. With immediate effect.

    One of the first things the Clintons did was to fire the head of the IRS and put their own man in place. Trump should do the same. Ditto for the FBI. In 2017, Trump left Sally Yates, a left-wing Democrat, in effective charge of the DOJ. She was a disaster.

    There are thousands of political appointments in the gift of the president.  All Democrats and pajama-boy Republicans should be purged on day one by 12:02. All of them.

    Washington is the headquarters of the enemy camp. It is not simply that it is overwhelmingly Democrat, though it is that. More important is the fact that it is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Party State.  What do I mean by the Party State?  I mean that hypertrophied faction that has gained control of the government of the country. It has a monopoly on virtually all the levers of power, cultural as well as political. It presides over a two-tier system of injustice in which its opponents are harassed, indicted, prosecuted, bankrupted, and jailed, even as malefactors in the protected party are quietly sent on their way with muted warnings or a gentle slap on the wrist.

    In The Federalist, James Madison warned about the evils of faction. For most of its history, the United States escaped the worst abuses of that most toxic of political evils. Beginning perhaps with the advent of the ironically named “Great Society” in the mid-1960s, as Christopher Caldwell noted in his steely-eyed book The Age of Entitlement: America Since the 1960s, we have been living under a dual system. There is the Constitution, to which lip service is paid. Then there is what Caldwell calls the “rival” to the Constitution, the apparatus of entitlement. The Constitution aimed to limit the power and reach of government; its rival aims to make government triumph everywhere.

    It took a while for this totalitarian system to mature and achieve full penetration.  With initiatives like DEI, ceaseless, omnivorous surveillance, and the machinery of universal censorship, the Party State has come of age. It finally happened under the aegis of Barack Obama and is consolidating its hold on power further even now.

    I read that thousands upon thousands of truckers, squadrons of police, and national and state guards from 27 states are headed to Texas to challenge the open border proclaimed by the Party State. Will that challenge loosen its grip on power? Would the reelection of Donald Trump? The former, after a little drama, will most likely be absorbed into the paralysis of bureaucratic non-action. Trump’s victory, assuming it comes about, will be Pyrrhic unless he battles the Leviathan head-on. To the extent that he remains a creature of Washington, however, he will fail.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 21:00

  • Rumors Swirl That Top Ukraine General Zaluzhny Has Been Sacked
    Rumors Swirl That Top Ukraine General Zaluzhny Has Been Sacked

    Earlier in the day the Financial Times’ Ukraine correspondent highlighted the unconfirmed reports widely circulating that Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Gen. Valery Zaluzhny has been fired by President Zelensky. “I’ve also heard from sources it’s ‘true’ he’s fired & ‘not yet.’ Ukrainian media claims a decree dismissing him but not yet published. MoD tells media ‘not true’, wrote FT’s Christopher Miller. 

    Another Ukraine war watcher noted the significance of the timing of the persistent rumors: “Rumors suggest that Zelensky will now fire General Valery Zaluzhny – Zelensky is in a very difficult position as Ukrainian lines are about to collapse, and he needs more loyal people around him.”

    Still others said that despite this still being on the level of rumor and unconfirmed, the scope of the ‘leak’ seems broad, suggesting big news is indeed likely around the corner. If it happens it could mark a huge shift in the nearly 2-year long conflict, as Zelensky would likely transition toward finding a scapegoat on which to blame losing the war, and then perhaps negotiations toward ceasefire could finally begin.

    Below is reporting in the Kyiv Independent, as speculation runs rampant:

    Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhny may have been dismissed on Jan. 29, according to sources of the Kyiv Independent and several other Ukrainian media.

    No official decree has been published on President Volodymyr Zelensky’s website yet.

    A Kyiv Independent source in the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces confirmed that Zaluzhnyi was fired. The source wasn’t authorized to speak to the press.

    Neither Zaluzhnyi nor Zelensky have made any public comments yet.

    As far as sourcing, the Ukrainian media report explains, “The news was first reported in the early evening of Jan. 29 by a group of anonymous Telegram channels, including some that have reported insider information coming from the Presidential Office of Ukraine before. At the same time, Telegram channels have been known to report misleading stories and spread misinformation.”

    The Ukrainian government has denied reports of Zaluzhny’s firing…

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s spokesperson Serhii Nikiforov and other Ukrainian sources denied reports that Zelensky was consulting with Western partners about — and maybe already signed — an order dismissing military chief Valery Zaluzhny.

    Is it pure rumor and falsehood? Or are we now witnessing Zelensky officials scrambling to get back out in front of the leak? 

    In December, as a dispute over broader strategy between Zelensky and Zaluzhnyi became more public, Zelensky awkwardly said at a press conference, “He and the General Staff (of Ukraine’s Armed Forces) are responsible for the situation on the battlefield. There are many issues to address there.”

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

    Back in November Gen. Zaluzhny riled the Zelensky administration and external allies by being the first top official to paint a very negative picture of how Ukraine’s military was fairing on the battlefield. He made the remarks to The Economist and the admission quickly caught the eye of other major publications, most notably The New York Times, which underscored “His comments marked the first time a top Ukrainian commander said the fighting had reached an impasse…”.

    Additionally, the NYT described that “It is the most candid assessment so far by a leading Ukrainian official of the military’s stalled counteroffensive.”

    Monday’s rumor mill started with a message from a foreign correspondent with The Economist…

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

    Gen. Zaluzhny had bluntly asserted in the initial interview, “Just like in the First World War we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate.” He then emphasized: “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.” He is said to have been at odds with Zelensky ever since, but firing the head of Ukraine’s armed forces would be seen as a major ‘win’ for Moscow.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 20:40

  • Drought Hits Canada's Hydropower Sector
    Drought Hits Canada’s Hydropower Sector

    By Tsvetana Paraskova of Oilprice.com

    Canada’s western provinces have been hit by the worst drought in years and provincial utilities are getting into losses as their hydropower generating capacities are lower amid low reservoir levels.

    In British Columbia, drought in the past year has forced BC Hydro to draw water for hydropower generation from the least affected areas and to import electricity, executives have told Bloomberg.

    British Columbia’s utility corporation has been importing more electricity from neighboring Alberta and from some western U.S. states. No blackouts are expected but electricity imports have increased in recent months.

    “These are steps we will continue to take in the coming months,” BC Hydro spokesman Kyle Donaldson told Bloomberg, describing the drought conditions as “historic”.

    Last year, BC Hydro said in October that it “prepares year-round and has stepped up its vegetation management program in recent years given the drought and weather-related challenges.”

    “Although BC Hydro’s smaller plants on the South Coast have recovered, its larger facilities in the north and southeast of the province are still at lower-than-normal reservoir water levels for this time of year,” the company said at the time.

    “BC Hydro is taking steps to actively manage the drought, including conserving water by drawing on less impacted regions and importing more power – a common activity during low water years.”

    During the record peak hourly electricity demand in the cold snap in the middle of January 2024, BC Hydro said that “Though the historic drought has impacted some of BC Hydro’s largest reservoirs – the source of water for the clean power it generates – in the north and southeast of the province, its team has been planning in real-time for over a year to manage these conditions.”

    According to data from the federal government, Canada is the second-largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world. Hydropower generation has typically accounted for around 60% of the country’s electricity supply, with British Columbia and Manitoba the key hydropower-generating provinces.  

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 20:20

  • "What The Hell?": Europe Enraged As Biden Trade Policy Risks Maximum Malarkey
    “What The Hell?”: Europe Enraged As Biden Trade Policy Risks Maximum Malarkey

    As the Biden administration risks European energy security with a ‘pause‘ on LNG exports, US foreign trade policy has allies wondering just ‘what the hell’ is going on.

    In short, turns out Biden did not reverse a slew of Trump-era pro-America trade barriers in place, excluded European companies from subsidies designed to help US manufacturers, and poked the panda with restrictions on Chinese access to American technology.

    Many Europeans fear that Trump, seemingly en route to the Republican nomination, might abandon Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as well as inject chaos into global trade. They have nonetheless come to believe that regardless of the winner of the expected Biden-Trump rematch, U.S. economic policies have tilted from their favor. “The honeymoon is over,” one European diplomat said. –Wall Street Journal

    Now, European diplomats and officials are wondering if the bloc can even rely on the US to continue backing the rules-based trading system – or if economic conflict that seemed a certainty under Trump is in the cards no matter what.

    “We are an old couple, and we have our issues,” said French trade minister, Oliver Brecht, to US trade rep Katherine Tai last month during a visit to Washington. “But we should be careful to manage our trade differences.”

    The more things change…

    In 2019, the tone at a 70th anniversary NATO party was somber, according to Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA), who was present at the London party. Attendees suggested that the alliance might not survive Donald Trump.

    “The joke that kept getting repeated, and this was gallows humor, was, ‘Well, let’s enjoy this party because there’s a real question of whether we’ll have a 75th anniversary party,’” said Boyle.

    A sigh of relief at Biden’s election has quickly turned to worry, however. Despite the US president cheering NATO’s expansion after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NATO members were blindsided by Biden upholding some of Trump’s worldview – casting unfettered global trade as a national-security threat, and warning that the hollowed-out US industrial base has harmed American workers and given China room to expand, dominating several industries.

    Very Trumpian, no?

    For starters, while Biden virtue signaled by suspending Trump-era tariffs on European steel and aluminum, it wasn’t permanent, and European metal exporters were hit to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars last year.

    European leaders sought repeatedly to persuade Biden to kill the tariffs. In October, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, European Council President Charles Michel and other EU officials arrived in Washington for a summit, where they had hoped to put the issue to bed.

    In talks ahead of the summit, U.S. officials had pushed for the EU to impose tariffs on Chinese metals as part of a deal, a step some Europeans worried might violate World Trade Organization rules. The night before the White House meetings, EU diplomats reviewed a proposed joint statement, which was the product of last-minute negotiations between the U.S. and the bloc’s executive arm. After review, some of the diplomats said the statement sounded like the bloc would be willing to back those tariffs as part of an eventual deal. -WSJ

    “There was just a barrage of member states going, ‘What the hell?’” said one European diplomat.

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speaking at a White House meeting on Oct. 20 last year. Photo: Evan Vucci/Associated Press

    Ahead of that October summit, the US tried to temper EU anger over Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which showered tax breaks on clean-energy industries in an effort to lure foreign companies to open US-based factories and source local materials. In short, a Trump tactic.

    While European leaders of course praised the climate-alarmism, from an economic perspective they were pissed – as the law would undoubtedly disadvantage their own clean-energy rackets, luring investment dollars away from the EU.

    “You’re hurting my country,” French President Emmanuel Macron told Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) – who wrote much of that law, at a White House dinner a few months after the IRA was signed into law.

    Europe has further bristled at conditions for a $7500 US tax credit for buying a new EV which stipulates that the car must be assembled in North America, and that its batteries must include minerals and parts from the US or one of its free-trade partners, in an attempt to weaken China’s grip over the materials industry.

    Of note, Europe doesn’t have a free-trade agreement with the US – which Manchin says he didn’t know when he wrote the law.

    Early last year, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz complained to Manchin that the U.S. subsidies hurt the German auto industry. Manchin was dismissive. On his phone, he presented a search result to the German leader that showed EU auto tariffs were higher than U.S. levies, according to a person familiar with the exchange. A German government spokesman declined to comment on the content of the conversation. -WSJ

    Meanwhile, discussions between the Biden administration and European firms on a new trade deal to help European battery producers has been ‘bogged down,’ according to the report.

    They think they’re hot shit?

    According to White House climate adviser John Podesta, the naysayers are wrong.

    “Yeah, there’s a certain amount of bitching, but I think in reality what it’s done is spurred action,” he said in October.

    On Tuesday, US and EU officials will once again meet in Washington – this time for a gathering of the Trade and Technology Council, set up during the Biden administration in order to coordinate on trade, economy, and technology. The agenda includes clean energy and artificial intelligence, however no action is expected according to an EU official.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 20:00

  • Biden To Renew Venezuela Oil Sanctions If Maduro Continues Barring US-Backed Oppo Candidate
    Biden To Renew Venezuela Oil Sanctions If Maduro Continues Barring US-Backed Oppo Candidate

    The Biden administration can’t decide on what to do in Venezuela, though as we’ve noted the priority has clearly thus far been about dropping the pretense that the US actually cares for democracy in pursuit of finding a favorable price at which to stabilize oil during an election year.

    The White House now says it plans to restore sanctions on Venezuela’s energy sector, but only if the Maduro government upholds the ban on prominent opposition candidate María Corina Machado. Buying more time, kicking that can a bit further…

    Just days ago on Friday, the country’s supreme court upheld a ruling that previously saw her banned from the ballot, which was a reaction by authorities to her open support of US sanctions against Caracas and for allegations of corruption. In a sense, she’s the Juan Guaidó back-up plan.

    Going into this year’s Venezuelan presidential election, expected for the latter half of 2024, Maduro officials have accused Machado of doing the bidding of enemy intelligence agencies, namely the CIA. 

    What is clear is that she has indeed long been part of the political opposition which has worked closely with US government groups. She has even made statements calling for the overthrow of the Maduro government such as, “I am saying very clearly that this regime is only going to leave when faced with the real, severe, and imminent threat of an international coalition with humanitarian goals.”

    As for Biden’s ‘playbook’ and options when it comes to potentially seeing through the “deal” it struck with Maduro (Biden’s easing of oil sanctions was supposed to be based on President Nicolás Maduro agreeing to significant democratic reform and an even playing field in the 2024 election), Bloomberg newly reports on Monday:

    The US will allow a six-month suspension on sanctions to expire in April if opposition candidate María Corina Machado is barred from running, and is also considering additional measures, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.

    To some degree, we see the remnant blowback effects of past US policy (and widely known intelligence support for the Venezuelan opposition) on current policy, and Biden’s needing to salvage this deal based on accessing Venezuelan oil…

    George W. Bush welcoming Machado to the Oval Office on 31 May 2005, via Wiki Commons

    As of October, the US had already granted Caracas a license authorizing oil and gas sector transactions as a “good will gesture” but with the key caveat being that Maduro would stick to an agreed-up reform roadmap. 

    However, “The US Treasury Department said at the time that the license would be renewed only if Maduro’s government stuck to an agreed electoral roadmap and met other commitments regarding people who were wrongfully detained.” But so far he doesn’t seem so willing to be “brought in from the cold”. 

    For now, Bloomberg notes the game plan is just about buying time, and yet the Maduro side seems to be in the driver’s seat. “Waiting until April to restore the sanctions would give time for the US to negotiate with the Maduro regime and the opposition to find a way to get Machado on the ballot,” the report says.

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

    Biden admin hypocrisy (and US foreign policy hypocrisy in general) is increasingly being exposed for all to see as he is stuck between a rock of supporting an authoritarian dictator supposedly hell-bent on destroying democracy and a hard-place of rising oil prices (if sanctions are reinstated 200-300k less barrels of supply) and rising gasoline prices – none of which of course is an election winner.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 19:20

  • White House Spox Called Out For Odd Condolence Statement: 3 US Troops Died Fighting For 'This Administration'
    White House Spox Called Out For Odd Condolence Statement: 3 US Troops Died Fighting For ‘This Administration’

    Update(1908ET): Public outrage and massive pushback has ensued after in a Monday interview White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre asserted that the three US troops killed by the drone strike in Jordan had died “fighting on behalf of this administration”…that is Biden, rather than America.

    “Our deepest, obviously our deepest condolences go out, and our heartfelt condolences go out to the families who lost, uh, three, three brave, uh, three brave, uh, three brave, three folks who are military folks, who are brave, who are always fighting, who are fighting on behalf of, uh, this administration…,” Jean-Pierre told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”. She had in the moment tried to quickly correct by adding after “administration”… the words “of the American people, obviously more so, more importantly.” Still, it reveals the apparent thinking and approach of this administration. Watch:

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

    The three soldiers who gave their lives are simply and casually “folks” – as referenced in the interview. Also, we don’t even really have to point this out, but one can only imagine the rage and chaos if the Trump administration had ever claimed that fallen Americans had died for his administration.

    Jeremy Redfern, press secretary for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, was one among many who slammed her statements as “disgusting”. He tweeted, “Say what you will about this word salad, but the idea that anyone in the military is fighting on behalf of any administration is precisely what is wrong with the DC ruling class.”

    Below are the identifies of the three Americans who tragically lost their lives, who were all serving in the same Army unit based out of Georgia: Sgt. William Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Spc. Brianna Moffatt, 23, of Savannah.

    * * *

    Update(1114ET): Some surprising details and admissions have emerged out of the Pentagon on Monday connected to the drone attack on Jordanian base Tower 22, related to the question of how the base’s anti-air defenses could have failed so badly. First, in our prior reporting (below), we linked to Moon of Alabama which asked some key questions not being addressed amid the frenzy of international reporting and growing speculation [emphasis ZH]: 

    The reporting so far does not answer many arising questions. Tower 22 is on the Jordanian side of the boarder but Jordan insists that no attack had happened on its grounds.

    Another anomaly are the high rate of wounded from the alleged drone strike. Drones are used in mass in the Ukraine war but the casualties they cause are usually less than a handful per drone.

    The highly automated short and medium range air-defenses (C-RAMs, the equivalent of naval Phalanx guns) at the base should be able to shoot down any drone. Why didn’t they work?

    Later in the day Monday, some of these questions are being answered. The Wall Street Journal cited US officials who spoke to the failure of the base’s anti-air defenses:

    The U.S. failed to stop a deadly attack on an American military outpost in Jordan because the enemy drone approached its target at the same time a U.S. drone was also returning to base, U.S. officials said Monday. 

    The return of the U.S. drone led to some confusion over whether the incoming drone was friend or foe, officials have concluded so far. 

    The enemy drone was launched from Iraq by a militia backed by Tehran, U.S. officials said. The outpost, Tower 22, sits in Jordan, hard on the borders of Iraq and Syria.

    In total three US service members died and at least 34 were injured, with eight of these having been medically evacuated to a hospital in Germany.

    At a moment some US Congressional hawks are clamoring to start a war with Iran, WSJ writes further, “The U.S. has yet to find evidence thus far that Iran directed the attack, a U.S. defense official said Monday.”

    Below is an example of a C-RAM in action… this is what ideally should have happened as the inbound enemy drone got closer to the Tower 22 base:

    * * *

    Iran has vehemently denied that it was behind the weekend drone attack on a Jordanian base near the Syrian border which killed three American troops, and according to a revised figure injured 34. A one-way drone reportedly slammed into a tent which was housing soldiers at the base, which is why casualties are so high, but questions remain.

    Tehran has called the accusations that it was behind the attack “baseless” after President Biden on Sunday vowed “We shall respond”. Within the hours after news of the attack on Jordan’s Tower 22 base there were widespread reports that Iranian allied groups in Iraq and Syria were temporarily evacuating their bases, expending retaliatory airstrikes.

    Iranian allies are now bracing for a major US response to the deadly attack on the Jordanian outpost, according to the Wall Street Journal. Already there’s been an apparent Israeli airstrike on a Damascus suburb, resulting in the deaths of two people, said to be targeting an “Iranian-backed group”. 

    Via Associated Press

    Even as Iran has denied involvement, an Iranian-linked group called “Islamic Resistance of Iraq” has taken responsibility for the Jordanian base attack. The core of the ‘resistance’ coalition in Iraq continues to be Kateeb Hizballah however, as Washington Post explains further of the details:

    “Tower 22”, the U.S. base in NE Jordan where three American troops were just killed, overlooks a Syrian refugee camp called Rukban, where 15,000 people have been living for years. It is also near the Al-Tanf Garrison, where a couple hundred U.S. troops are based.

    This is a crucial node between Iraq and Syria that Iranian militias have long sought to control. There have been several drone attacks on Tanf since Oct. 7. This is a brazen escalation.

    The group that will claim responsibility calls themselves the “Islamic Resistance of Iraq,” but that’s really a post Oct 7 umbrella group of IRGC sponsored militias. The actual attackers were likely Kateeb Hizballah with support of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujab and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq.

    The Washington Post analysis goes on to claim that Islamic Resistance of Iraq has direct IRGC backing and was formed in order to “target Americans” – also at a moment the Iraqi government has made clear that it wants US troops out of the country.

    Iran appears to be seeking to cool tensions while bracing for potential strikes…

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

    The three US troop deaths constitute the first American military fatalities since Oct.7 and the war in Gaza began, though there have been over 150 attacks targeting US bases and outposts in Iraq and Syria. While the initial assumption has been that the drone was launched from Syria, this has ultimately yet to be determined pending a Pentagon investigation.

    Meanwhile, Axios reports that Biden’s national security team convened several times on Sunday. Biden and his top officials say that a “significant military response” against pro-Iranian militias is coming. “We don’t want war but those who are behind this attack need to feel our response,” one unnamed admin official told Axios on Sunday evening.

    Attack location

    What remains clear is that the US has once again backed itself into a corner in the Middle East. Sporadic ‘deterrent’ strikes either on militant camps or Houthi positions related to the Red Sea crisis have not done anything, and yet bigger American military intervention would inevitably lead to another all-out US war in the Middle East and thus a new endless quagmire.

    “We don’t want a wider war with Iran, we don’t want a wider war in the region, but we gotta to do what we gotta to do,” National security (NSC) spokesman John Kirby said Monday. “We certainly know Iran is backing these groups … we are taking it very seriously.” It’s never a good sign when the NSC, which is absolutely the most ‘insider’ of the deep state, shrugs and says “we gotta do what we gotta do…” when it comes to matters of war (which once upon a time required the authorization of the people’s direct representatives in Congress). 

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 19:08

  • How Courts Are Reshaping 2024 Congressional Races
    How Courts Are Reshaping 2024 Congressional Races

    Authored by John Haughey via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Which party rules the House of Representatives beginning in 2025 could be as much a function of judges issuing rulings as voters making choices between rival candidates.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Public domain, Shutterstock)

    Since 2022’s midterms, court rulings in Louisiana, Alabama, New York, and potentially Wisconsin, have or will have redrawn congressional maps that could imperil reelection odds for as many as nine Republican incumbents in the coming election cycle.

    Those court-imposed revamps are countered by a North Carolina decision upholding maps benefitting Republicans in up to four of the state’s 14 congressional districts. Courts have also decided Republican-drawn maps in Georgia, Florida, and Texas will stand for 2024 elections.

    Rulings in federal court challenges in Louisiana and Alabama determined state lawmakers violated Section 2 of the Voters Rights Act in not creating a second majority-black congressional district in their states. Section 2 states, in part, “prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership in one of the language minority groups identified in Section 4(f)(2) of the Act.”

    The Louisiana Legislature during a Jan. 15 special session adjusted CD 6 to stretch diagonally southeast from Shreveport in the northwest to Baton Rouge in south-central Louisiana.

    Newly-seated Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed it into law on Jan. 22.

    As a result, the state’s six-member U.S. House delegation will likely go from 5–1 Republican to 4–2 Republican after the 2024 election. CD 6 joins New Orleans-based CD 2 as Louisiana two majority-black, Democratic-leaning seats: President Joe Biden would have carried the new CD 6 by 20 percentage points in

    2020; CD 2 would have gone to Mr. Biden by 36 percent.

    CD 6 is now held by Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), who supported one of Mr. Landry’s GOP opponents in Louisiana’s gubernatorial election and did not publicly back House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise’s (R-La.) speakership bid, retaining a strong alliance with the deposed speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

    Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) attends an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington on May 26, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

    Therefore, it’s not surprising he’s the House incumbent that Louisiana Republicans have essentially voted off the island. But Mr. Graves, a five-term incumbent, plans to seek reelection and win in the recast CD 6 in 2024.

    The new redistricting map adopted by lawmakers in January is likely to be appealed, although it’s near certain it will be what Louisiana voters see on their November ballots.

    Alabama Changes

    In Alabama, a lower federal court in October selected a “remedial” congressional map the state will use for the 2024 election, which creates a second black-majority congressional district that President Biden would have won in 2020 by 12 percentage points.

    As a result, the new map is likely to result in the election of a second Democrat from Alabama. The GOP dominates the state’s current House contingent, 6 to 1.

    The court had rejected congressional maps Alabama used in 2022, which had one majority-black, heavily Democratic seat and six majority-white and solidly Republican seats, under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

    Alabama appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against the state in June 2023. A lower court struck down the first redrawn lines presented by the state legislature and ordered a special master to draw remedial map options.

    The redrawn maps could foster incumbent-versus-incumbent Republican primaries between Reps. Jerry Carl (of current CD 1) and Barry Moore (current CD 2) in CD 1.

    (Left) Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.) in Washington on June 21, 2022. (Right) Rep. Jerry Carl (R-Ala.) during a hearing in Washington on March 29, 2023. (Alex Wong/Getty Images, Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

    A Bluer New York

    On Dec. 12, 2023, the New York Court of Appeals in a 4–3 ruling tossed out the 2022 Congressional map that saw Republicans chip Democrats’ 19–8 House bulge down to a 15–11 advantage.

    The court ordered the Independent Redistricting Commission to redraw New York’s 26-district congressional map and present it to state lawmakers no later than Feb. 28.

    The revamped map is likely to change the dynamics benefitting Democrat challengers in one or more of the New York Congressional seats won in 2022 by five Republican freshmen in “crossover” districts that President Biden carried in 2020.

    Those five House seats don’t include the Long Island district formerly held by resigned Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.). His now-vacant CD 6 seat is on the line in a Feb. 13 special election that Democrats believe they can win.

    The revamped map could alter three key Hudson Valley congressional districts already rated as “tossups” in 2024: CD 18, held by Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.); CD 19 represented by Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.), who flipped a blue seat red by 1.5 percent in 2022; and CD 17, won by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), who upset House Democrats’ campaign committee chair Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) in 2022 by 1,820 votes, less than 1 percent.

    (Left) Rep.-elect Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) in Washington on Nov. 14, 2022. (Center) Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) in New Windsor, N.Y., on Nov. 2, 2022. (Right) Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.) in Washington on Oct. 23, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images, Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

    Democrats want CD 17 back. While Mr. Lawler does not face a primary challenger, former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) and Katonah-Lewisboro School Board member Liz Gereghty, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s sister, are among Democrats seeking to take him on in November.

    Democrats are also expected to go all-in for CD 11—where the only Republican representing New York City in Congress, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) faces a stiff reelection challenge, especially if the district is extended into more liberal Brooklyn.

    A Redder North Carolina

    In November, North Carolina lawmakers adopted a redrawn congressional map that creates 10 reliably Republican seats, three reliably Democratic seats, and one competitive seat. Right now, the state’s U.S. House delegation consists of seven Republicans and seven Democrats.

    Democrat Reps. Kathy Manning, Wiley Nickel, and Jeff Jackson now hold seats in the now predominantly red districts. Ms. Manning and Mr. Nickel are retiring rather than seeking reelection.

    Read the rest here…

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 19:00

  • Hamas Increasingly Fighting With Israeli-Made Weapons
    Hamas Increasingly Fighting With Israeli-Made Weapons

    Hamas has been using Israeli weapons against the Israeli military, finds a new investigation by New York Times. The Sunday piece posed the question, “Where Is Hamas Getting Its Weapons?” and answered: “Increasingly, From Israel.”

    Israeli weapons were even used to some extent during the Oct.7 terror raids against communities in southern Israel. “Intelligence gathered during months of fighting revealed that, just as the Israeli authorities misjudged Hamas’s intentions before Oct. 7, they also underestimated its ability to obtain arms,” the report says based on intelligence officials and experts.

    AFP/Getty Images

    Hamas has been able to routinely recover undetonated Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza and then repurpose them to become an offensive weapon.

    “Unexploded ordnance is a main source of explosives for Hamas,” Michael Cardash, former deputy head of the Israeli National Police Bomb Disposal Division, told the publication.

    “Hamas has been able to build many of its rockets and anti-tank weaponry out of the thousands of munitions that failed to detonate when Israel lobbed them into Gaza,” the NYT report continues.

    Weaponry in arsenals recovered in the Gaza Strip is also believed the result of Hamas stealing weapons from Israeli military bases. On Oct.7, for example, several border bases and outposts were completely overrun by Palestinian militants.

    In some instances, weaponry and equipment may have been stolen from Israeli bases in the past by another group, and then appeared on the black market (possibly via Israeli soldiers themselves who committed theft), after which they fell into Hamas’ hands.

    The report describes that the ample deployment of Israeli weapons against IDF troops themselves is another example of growing instances of ‘miscalculations’ by Israeli intelligence: 

    For years, analysts have pointed to underground smuggling routes to explain how Hamas stayed so heavily armed despite an Israeli military blockade of the Gaza Strip. But recent intelligence has shown the extent to which Hamas has been able to build many of its rockets and anti-tank weaponry out of the thousands of munitions that failed to detonate when Israel lobbed them into Gaza, according to weapons experts and Israeli and Western intelligence officials. Hamas is also arming its fighters with weapons stolen from Israeli military bases.

    Israeli authorities have in the recent past expressed increaing alarm over the rampant theft of arms and ammo from Israeli bases. “We are fueling our enemies with our own weapons,” one such review cited in the Times stated.

    Meanwhile, recent Israeli media reports have said that about 80% of Gaza’s tunnels remain intact…

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

    There’s also a likelihood that Hamas is increasingly using ambushes and guerilla tactics from out of the tunnels to attack groups of Israeli infantry, and then to take their weapons, as some videos have shown.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 18:40

  • Republican Senator Launches Thread To Track Violent Crime By Illegal Aliens
    Republican Senator Launches Thread To Track Violent Crime By Illegal Aliens

    Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) has launched a thread on X to track serious crimes committed by illegal aliens under President Joe Biden’s administration.

    Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) speaks with reporters during a press conference in the U.S. Capitol in Washington on July 11, 2023. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

    The thread, which comes amid concerns over a border that critics have described as “porous,” will feature stories of violent crimes perpetrated by illegal aliens.

    “Under the Biden administration, every state has become a border state, ultimately jeopardizing our national security,” Mr. Marshall told The Epoch Times. “This is not just another talking point but the reality of Joe Biden’s unprecedented border crisis.”

    So far, the thread catalogues a series of stomach-churning crimes, including child murder, sexual assault, and traffic collisions.

    “For the past three years, thousands of illegal aliens have entered our country; violent crime is on the rise; fentanyl is killing over 300 Americans a day, and a historic number of individuals with ties to terrorist organizations have been encountered at our southern border, ” Mr. Marshall said. “We are sharing the deadly consequences of a nation without borders that have been compounded by Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies.”

    The service comes amid continuing concerns over unprecedented illegal immigration via the southern border..

    Immediately after taking office, President Biden made a series of major changes to U.S. immigration policy—changes, Republicans say, that have contributed to the vast increase in illegal crossings since January 2021.

    The numbers speak for themselves.

    According to Department of Homeland Security statistics, there were roughly 2.4 million illegal alien encounters along the southern border across the entire four years of President Donald Trump’s administration.

    By comparison, in only three years under President Biden, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has encountered over 6.5 million illegal aliens along the southern border since Jan. 2021.

    Many of those apprehended by CBP will turn themselves over voluntarily before being paroled into the U.S. interior to await a court date to determine their eligibility to remain in the country.

    But with such a large intake of illegal aliens, the courts have become overwhelmed. In some jurisdictions, these aliens won’t see a trial until after 2030.

    And according to statistics, many will never turn up to court in the first place, instead choosing to take their chances as fugitives.

    Meanwhile, tens of thousands of pounds of fentanyl, one of the deadliest drugs in the world, has also streamed in across the border.

    Media interviews with those living in border towns reveal a nightmare scenario: many families refuse to leave their homes without a weapon; they’ve encountered dead bodies, drug smugglers, and human traffickers near their homes; children aren’t allowed outside to play without being closely watched by their guardians.

    The policies pursued by the administration, according to whistleblowers, have effectively turned the U.S. government into a “middleman” for the human trafficking of children by cartels.

    The border itself is littered with garbage and the discarded identification cards of foreign nationals from countries all around the world.

    According to some reports, around 200 people on the terrorist watchlist have been caught trying to cross into the country; however, there are likely many more that were not caught, as DHS records 1.4 million known “gotaways” who successfully evaded Border Patrol and made it into the interior of the country.

    Republicans Blame Biden

    Republicans say the blame for this situation lies squarely with decisions made by President Biden upon taking office.

    For instance, President Biden halted the construction of new border wall, even though many of the materials had already been purchased by the U.S. government. Since then, many of these materials have simply sat at the border with no plans to be used, effectively wasting the taxpayer money spent on the materials.

    Additionally, President Biden reinstated the Obama-era policy of “catch and release.”

    Catch and release allows illegal aliens to be released into the country after being arrested by border patrol agents. Under the conditions of their release, these illegal immigrants are expected to appear for a court hearing at a later date.

    Even before the massive influx of illegal aliens since 2021, many of those detained for crossing into the United States illegally didn’t show up to court.

    The Center for Immigration Studies, which describes itself as “a non-partisan, non-profit research organization,” found that about half of these released illegal immigrants failed to appear to court between 2015 and 2017 (pdf). In 2017, 43 percent did not show up to their court date.

    Now, with courts overwhelmed and immigration cases being pushed as far out as the 2030s, that situation has only gotten worse.

    Under DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, CBP has effectively been forced to roll out the red carpet for illegal aliens who so much as make a claim to asylum. This has been enabled in part by an app, the “CBP One” app, that allows illegal aliens to “check in” for a time to appear at the border.

    President Biden also ended President Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, which allowed the DHS to require that illegal immigrants stay in Mexico until their court date. This in effect meant that only those with a legitimate claim to asylum would so much as enter the United States.

    President Biden suspended the program upon taking office, formally ending it in June 2021.

    Last May, the clock also ran out on Title 42, a pandemic immigration authority that allowed CBP to turn away illegal aliens on grounds of public health.

    Despite bipartisan pleas not to end the program, Mr. Mayorkas let it lapse in May.

    Frustrated with the administration’s handling of the border, and lacking the support to impeach President Biden over it, House Republicans have turned their attention to Mr. Mayorkas.

    Mr. Mayorkas is currently facing articles of impeachment in the House for “breach of trust” and “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law.”

    However, even if he’s impeached in the House, his removal from office is unlikely.

    If he were impeached in the House, his case would go to the Senate, where 60 votes are needed for his removal from office. Democrats currently hold 51.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 18:20

  • Spending On Natural Gas To Top $1 Trillion Over the Next Decade
    Spending On Natural Gas To Top $1 Trillion Over the Next Decade

    By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

    The oil and gas industry is expected to spend more than $1 trillion on natural gas supply, driven by demand for gas in Europe, climate campaign group Global Witness said on Monday in a new analysis of Rystad Energy data. 

    The industry is set to invest $223 billion of the projected spending in the supply of natural gas for Europe by 2033, according to Global Witness’s analysis.

    Europe’s gas demand is likely on a structural decline, but the continent needs supply to replace Russian pipeline gas, which was its top source until 2022. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the slashed Russian deliveries of gas, Europe has turned to LNG and increased pipeline supply from Norway and Africa to meet its demand.  

    “Despite climate and energy experts’ warnings that any new fossil fuel production will push the world beyond 1.5°C heating, $223 billion of this trillion dollar sum is set to go on developing and operating new gas extraction sites to supply Europe,” Global Witness says.

    The supermajors ExxonMobil, Shell, TotalEnergies, Equinor, and Eni will be the top spenders of that sum—together, these five companies are on track to spend a combined $144 billion into gas supply for Europe over the next decade, according to Global Witness.

    “The numbers are stark – Europe is hurtling down a dangerous path by doubling down on fossil gas, and needs to pull out all the stops to end the age of fossil fuels,” Dominic Eagleton, senior fossil fuels campaigner at Global Witness, said in a statement.

    “The European Commission must seize its chance to quicken Europe’s exit from gas and set 2035 as a target date to phase out this costly, crisis-ridden and climate-boiling fossil fuel.”

    Just last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that lower prices and higher demand this winter are set to drive a return to strong growth in global natural gas consumption in 2024.

    This year, natural gas demand is set for 2.5% growth, following a meager 0.5% increase in 2023, the IEA said in its latest Gas Market Report for Q1 2024.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 18:00

  • Trump Has Reason To Rage… But Needs To Stay Calm And Get Even Rather Than Mad; VDH
    Trump Has Reason To Rage… But Needs To Stay Calm And Get Even Rather Than Mad; VDH

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness,

    Donald Trump gave one of his best and most conciliatory speeches of his political career after his win in the recent Iowa primaries—that might explain why the media would not cover it.

    Later, to answer an ad hoc ambush reporter’s question whether he would hold grudges, he emphatically said he did not.

    Yet after his win in New Hampshire, Trump went ballistic at Nikki Haley’s earlier charges that he, rather than Joe Biden, was cognitively challenged, past his prime, and a perennial loser of popular votes.

    In response, Trump shed his short-lived Iowa temperance. He went wholehog after Haley’s dress and her affectations and trashed her character. He tweeted that she was a “birdbrain,” and on and on.

    For six years, observers have noted the disconnect between Trump’s stellar record of governance, his occasional sense of humor and even self-criticism—and his ad hominem venom that often turns off the 3-7 percent of the electorate in the suburbs who otherwise might vote for him.

    Reasonable calls to tone it down by pundits, aides, and friends do not work with Trump, and perhaps for several understandable reasons.

    One, Trump is reactive in his “they started it, I finish it” mode. His theory of deterrence is to be disproportionate in retort to eliminate future preemptive attacks. Almost all of Trump’s crudeness was in disproportionate response, sometimes even to minor offenses.

    In such a world of Trump deterrence, if you do not relish a crude Trump, then don’t first talk about cutting off his head, blowing him up, stabbing him, shooting him, or lighting him on fire, or don’t spread lies like “Russian collusion,” “laptop disinformation,” or that the influence-selling Biden consortium was innocent of shaking down foreign interests for millions of dollars that were routed into the clan’s coffers.

    To put it another way, remember how Barack Obama went ballistic over the yarns, often fueled by Trump himself, that he was born in Kenya (a mythos he himself fueled by allowing his book to be plugged as the work of a Kenyan-born, exotic-named author, e.g., “born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.”).

    But what would a prickly Obama have done had right-wing prosecutors, mirror images of a Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis, or Jack Smith, indicted him over his garnering and intentionally not reporting the names of major contributors in 2008 (rather than the federal election commission taking five years to fine Obama $375,000 for what was essentially campaign fraud).

    What would Obama have said or done had a federal prosecutor indicted him for bribery, extortion, or tax fraud over the illegal Tony Rezko lot deal? What would have been his reaction to his “wingman.” Eric Holder’s, being jailed for his refusal to obey a congressional subpoena (such a transgression may well earn both Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro jail sentences).

    Trump was pilloried for the Russian collusion farce. But the reality was that the 2015-17 Russian collusion conspiracy farce was discussed and greenlighted in the West Wing by a lame-duck but knowledgeable Obama, who unleashed his FBI, CIA, and DOJ to do whatever, legal or not, it took to stop Donald Trump.

    Currently, Donald Trump was just fined $83.3 by a left-wing New York jury presided over by a left-wing judge in a suit filed by a left-wing writer who was funded by a left-wing Silicon Valley billionaire—all possible because a left-wing state legislator had recently lifted the statute of limitations on allegations of sexual assault to allow three-decade-old charges like E. Jean Carroll’s to be refiled.

    So Trump blew up and charged out of the courtroom, lost his cool in the courtroom, and hurt any slight chance he had to escape such an outrageous and politicized fine.

    But again, note the surreal nature of the suit. Carrol cannot remember even the year in which she and Trump, she claims, ended up in a department store dressing room.

    She was mistaken about the dress she wore on the day of the assault.

    Long after the alleged assault, she praised Trump’s Apprentice as her favorite TV show.

    She created an app game called Damn Love, described as:

    “You’re shown two people who are madly in love. Your object is to break them up. Shown a pair of options, you choose the ones more likely to stir up shit, given each person’s personality and proclivities, and the quicker you can make them split, the more you increase your evilness and rise through the ranks.”

    Carroll’s narrative about being sexually assaulted in a department store dressing room is eerily almost the identical narrative of a 2012 “Law & Order: SVU” episode that focused on an alleged sexual assault in the lingerie dressing room of the very same Bergdorf Goodman department store. Coincidence or inspiration?

    And thus, to refute all the above, Trump was criminalized as a defamer and fined $83 million.

    Under such rules of evidence and damages, what would Joe Biden have had to pay when his former senatorial aide, Tara Reade, accused him of a sexual assault, only to be widely defamed by legions of Biden’s left-wing flacks?

    So much of Trump’s rage is an understandable reaction to the sustained, unhinged venom of the media and left.

    Two, Trump’s base, unlike his other supporters, does not differentiate between Trump’s solid governance and his volatile character.

    They see what he does and says not as antithetical but complementary. Trump, in the base’s view, gets things done precisely because he displays open, unfiltered contempt for the swamp, the bipartisan political class, the globalists, and the media.

    His 24/7 bellicosity, MAGA diehards feel, ensures he will always be hated by the media and establishment—and thus not compromised even if he wished to be. In other words, for MAGA, whom a president is despised by is more important than by whom he is liked. For the base, the role of a mercurial and disruptive Clinton Eastwood gunslinger is preferable to that of a jolly Roy Rodgers crooner.

    Three, Trump is seen as the MAGA rabid pit bull, who, from time to time, is to be unleashed and pointed in the proper direction.

    For those who were smeared collectively and nonstop by Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, or a late John McCain variously as clingers, deplorables, irredeemables, racists, sexists, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic, chumps, dregs, semi-fascists, hobbits, bizarros, and crazies—and as smelly and toothless by the media—Trump is their payback.

    Has a Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid, or Adam Schiff ever apologized to the nation for daily lying to the American people that the Biden family was never compromised by or profited from Hunter Biden’s skullduggery, that Christopher Steele’s dossier was authentic, that Hunter’s laptop was cooked up in Moscow, or that COVID sprung from a bat or pangolin?

    So for the Trump voter, those nightly, serial lies had more deleterious consequences for the nation than a leaked Trump private conversation in which he supposedly said Haiti was a “sh-thole” country.

    All of the above may explain, though not defend, what appears to the bicoastal elite and even many Trump supporters as irrational, if not self-destructive, behavior.

    However, why Trump does what he does still does not address the central question of 2024—what is now in Trump’s own self-interest—and the country’s?

    Before answering that question, most would object that it does not matter. Trump cannot help himself even if he tried, as if Heraclitus was right that a man’s nature is his fate (ἦθος ἀνθρώπῳ δαίμων, often loosely translated as “character is destiny”).

    Yet there are reasons to suggest that Trump, in fact, could scale back the ad hominem invective.

    One, in the past, he has been magnanimous and certainly did not go after enemies or subvert the levers of government in the manner of the Obama administration that weaponized the DOJ and had West Wing meetings, where the Steele dossier and Hillary Clinton’s subterfuge were openly condoned, if not abetted.

    Two, the 2024 election is different from both 2016 and 2020. There is no longer a COVID ruse to change voting laws or conduct a surrogate campaign.

    Instead, the left is open now about its intentions to put Biden on ice in his basement, outsource the campaign to handlers and the media, count on billions from big tech and finance to ensure 70 percent of swing state balloting is not on Election Day, and blast Trump as a January 6 insurrectionary and murderer of women in need of abortions.

    They will seek to keep him off the ballot in dozens of states and coordinate four prosecutions to jail him during the campaign season. The near billion dollars infused into the election to alter voting laws in 2020 will be seen as child’s play in 2024.

    More importantly, the country is imploding in 2024 in a way it was not in 2020, when there was still a border, deterrence abroad, coherent energy policies, deterrent police, and a semblance of the rule of law.

    Now there is simply no margin of error.

    To be elected, Trump will have to win the popular vote by at least 4-5 percent. What’s more, the error/rejection rate on mail-in/early balloting in most states will be a fraction of what it had been pre-COVID. 2020 taught us that the more purple states are flooded with massive non-election ballots under 2020 altered ballot rules, the more the normal rejection percent of unsubstantiated or illegal ballots declines.

    Trump has an enormous responsibility in 2024 to stay calm, reach out, and get even rather than mad.

    Why?

    For millions, he is now seen as the last and only obstacle to what more than half of America believes is the sustained, left-wing attempt to turn the nation into something unrecognizable—an imploding country of open borders, with two million illegal entries per year, racial separatism and tribal chauvinism, the end of deterrence abroad, soaring crime and homelessness, $35 trillion in debt with $2 trillion annual deficits, wars on natural gas and oil, and warping of the administrative state and the law to punish enemies and reward friends.

    In sum, Trump should ignore Haley and his old vulture critics in the media and on the left as much as he can.

    He must concentrate on the disaster of the Biden administration and reiterate nonstop the agendas of 2025 that will save us from tottering on the brink.

    That forbearance demands that he speak and campaign in the only way that can win the election: unite the Republican Party, the conservative movement, the MAGA base, independents, disaffected Democrats, minorities, and even Never Trumpers into an eleventh-hour coalition to stop the revolution in our midst before it consumes us all.

    Tyler Durden
    Mon, 01/29/2024 – 17:40

Digest powered by RSS Digest