Today’s News 30th June 2020

• How Long Will Europeans Work For?
  How Long Will Europeans Work For?
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Tue, 06/30/2020 – 02:45

  Eurostat have released an interesting forecast about how long a person can expect to be active in the European labour market during his or her life.

  The data is measured in years and it’s based on someone who was 15-years-old in 2019. On average, Statista’s Niall McCarthy notes that the expected duration of working life in the European Union was 35.2 years – 3.6 years longer than in 2000.

  In individual member states, it ranges from 32 years in Italy to 42 years in Sweden…

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  The data also includes several countries outside the EU and their figures are diverse.

  In Turkey for example, a 15-year-old can expect a working life of 29.3 years. In Iceland, however, a 15-year-old can expect to work for far longer – 45.8 years in total. Elsewhere, the duration of work is estimated at 42.6 years in Switzerland and 39.8 years in Norway.

  

• London Spins Out Of Control As Met Police Abandon Streets
  London Spins Out Of Control As Met Police Abandon Streets
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Tue, 06/30/2020 – 02:00

  Authored by M.A.Richardson via TheDuran.com,

  “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.”

  – Winston Churchill

  Twenty-two police officers injured as Brixton party ends in violence

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  The US and Britain are at their most perilous point in one hundred years. Once stable democratic nation states made great through struggle and suffering to gain comparative freedom at huge sacrifice to their own population are throwing it all away.  The speed and ferocity of the attack is frightening, but this has been building for years, spreading from the 60s onwards through the university teaching  systems, unquestioned. It emerged into the public arena as political correctness as each generation of students became more radical. Then came the final push to silence opposition with wokism, virtue-signalling, identity politics, and now racial division, an aberration of democracy and freedom of speech.

  The Trump presidency has been under a continual coup, even before taking office.  Involvement from the top down of Obama and his administration and security services is an inconvenience for the Democrats, and many Republicans feel the same. What it does show, is that at this moment in the history of the United States, the deep state are above the law. We are waiting for Attorney General Barr to prove otherwise, but since he has already stated it is unlikely that Obama or Biden will be called to testify, he has issued a free pass, move along, nothing to see. All is swept aside on a media tide of attacks on democracy and the rule of law by the radical left, as BLM take control and politicians scamper down rabbit holes trying to avoid the buckshot.  Those who control the media control the narrative, never more true than it is today, as truth becomes fiction and fiction fact.

  History is no longer the ‘right’ history, facts are no longer facts but interpretations. Our language is corrupted by thought-speak and ‘wrong-thinking’. Intersectionality seeps through to the subconscious of the people as they are dissected, examined and re-assembled from parts into a whole, as independent thought lies discarded on the slab. The monster of BLM has screamed into the world, its children intent on destroying everything that will not acknowledge them, blind, unreasoning, malicious, merciless, they search for the meaning of their own existence and find nothing but their own image staring back from an iPhone.

  We are at the turning point. All opposition is being de-platformed, demonetised and silenced by the tyranny of the social media monopolies of Google, Facebook, Twitter, in the great lurch left to totalitarianism.

  Our language has been acquired, repossessed and annexed, a grand and despicable M&A, dismembered, rendered useless and sold off to the corporates and big tech.  They are laying off the workforce whom they consider obsolete and no longer useful for their purposes. The world has turned on its dark side, an unrecognisable corruption of reality.  Boris Johnson is presiding over a shift into anarchy. The Labour party cannot win through the ballot box, the BLM are useful to them. The radical left have co-opted and subjugated the old left, they are one and the same, because disorder and destruction are their only route to power, and they are taking it.

  As temperatures rise and unrest spreads, London is braced for another week of anarchy.  A combination of  Covid-19 restrictions, a hands-off police policy, and subsequent breakdown of law and order follows years of devolution of police enforcement powers to local authorities, and pushes London towards breakdown.  Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, has announced funding cuts to an already undermanned and demoralised front line police force of £110 million over the next 2 years, #BLM defund the police. The country is undergoing a communist insurrection, a cultural marxist revolution indulged and endorsed by the elites. Far left racial divisionists and mainstream media incite violence, pushing the marxist agenda, whilst the rest of the population is so punch- drunk with the speed of the takeover, it does not even recognise that it is about to hit the canvas.

  THE TYRANNY OF BLM

  BLM is a marketing exercise by the three founders, all trained radical Marxists.  Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Cullors. The public have been played.  No sympathy there. If you put your name or your money to a cause, the least you can do is look it up and see what you are supporting and find out what is behind the hype. Follow the money.

  There is bet-hedging from ‘left-light’ political commentators who are afraid to declare the emperor has no clothes. They advocate that it is not BLM and the rise of cultural marxism that we should be worried about, but the rise of the far-right in reaction to it.  The far-right, or simply put, anyone who sees BLM for what they are, a cultural marxist totalitarian power-grab, are not the ones that require people to kneel before them, pull down and deface statues, injure police, the public and public property. BLM are the ones inciting riots through racial division, bullying small children,  calling to abolish the police, and end capitalism and the family. It is time to get off the bench and stop trying to play both sides of the field. It is cowardly and will end in your own demise as all is swept aside by the mob. Come the revolution, and it is coming, you want to know who will hold the line with you and who will run, so best to find out now.

  BULLY

  At a party in Harrow Road London this week, police were pelted with objects and prevented from entering the area by youths shouting “you’re not coming in”  The police released a statement:

  “Following engagement within the local community we are hopeful that crowds are dispersing.”

  A quick look on Google translate will tell you this means – ‘they threw stuff at us, so we left’

  The message is, don’t bother to call the council or the police, your neighbourhood is now run by youth mobs. The hardest hit by this lawlessness are in the poorest communities, in the council blocks, the housing association accommodation.  The gentrified can sell up and ship out with their kids, the same kids advocating and encouraging the cultural revolution and racial division that is destroying London. The same kids that will be the politicians of tomorrow.

  Local authorities have the power to issue ASBOs (Anti-Social Behaviour Orders) noise abatement orders, and to seize equipment, but in most instances do not have the manpower or the resources to do so. They are the front line community police for out of control raves and parties, and they are the ones that engage with the local community and youth offenders and understand what is happening on the ground.  Most no longer operate ‘out of hour services’ which is a nonsense, since that is exactly the time they are needed. All that can be done is for a complaint to be lodged after the fact. The police rarely engage with locals, instead they have a faceless, distant, centralised Met police call centre.

  Parliament have made mass gatherings and peaceful protests unlawful for the moment, but there is an exception.   Northumbria police issued this statement yesterday:

  “We’ll be in attendance to facilitate a planned Black Lives Matter vigil at Keel Square in #Sunderland tonight.  A Section 14 order is in place forbidding any other public assembly, including counter-protests, to ensure the public’s safety.” – Northumbria Police

  This was echoed yesterday in London as more subsets of BLM demonstrators were allowed into central London in a  Black Trans Lives Matter rally. Thousands of activists marched through central London in place of Pride celebrations that had been cancelled due to Covid-19 health fears. Banners of “White silence is violence” were held above the crowd, and a sign outside Parliament defaced, crossing out ‘Parliament’ and replacing it with “racists”. The law is no longer applied equally. Radical left marxists running BLM take over the centre of London each weekend and grow emboldened, realising the law does not apply to them.

  London 16 Jun 2020:

  “MPs have unanimously approved the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (Amendment) (No.3) Regulations 2020. This new law bans mass gatherings in London in a fight to stop the spread of the deadly virus”

  In Westminster, the government in their elite London bubble, seem unwilling to admit to the sense of unease amongst the public as law-abiding citizens are beginning to wonder if they even cares, They know that Sadiq Khan is intent on causing as much pain as he can to the population of London.  It is likely the police will abandon the streets if a serious riot breaks out.  Londoners see this as a real possibility, it has happened before.

  The last sustained rioting across London was sparked by the death of Mark Duggan in 2011. This saw disaffected youths vandalising property, looting, and assaulting people. Police were unable to respond to the speed of the rioting or to the numbers on the streets. The disorder spread to other parts of the UK and showed the power of social media to ignite and inflame tensions.  An astonishing 3,000 people were arrested and 1,000 criminal charges brought for various crimes related to the riots. It was anarchy.  There were 5 deaths and 16 injured as a direct result.

  These riots are still fresh in the mind due to their speed and ferocity and the opportunistic and senseless nature of the crimes committed.  The same atmosphere is building, this time based on the BLM righteous rage and racial division agenda. If the police cannot shut down a party, they cannot contain a riot.

  The BLM construct lights a fire under race relations, deliberately so. The law-abiding citizen is unprotected and demonised.  It is woke politics on steroids.

  “Developing and delivering training, police monitoring and strategies for the abolition of police.”    –  gofundmeUK BLM 

  BLM has seeped into all aspects of our lives, online, onto the streets and into the language. It is a very aggressive form of indoctrination and advertising, it is impossible to get away from on any media platform, television, radio, advertising and is being relentlessly pushed by corporates.  The premise is, if you are white you are a racist. BLM is controlling the news narrative.  The British and American public are under attack by a cult largely endorsed by their governments who, instead of defending the people that voted them into power, take the side of the mob.

  We are living through a transition to totalitarianism. The attacks are coming in waves, each wave growing in intensity, consuming and feeding off the last. They carry with them the worst disruptors of society of which there are many. They are active at demonstrations,  as trained jihadists infiltrate and disrupt alongside Antifa and BLM activists.

  In America, heavily armed populist militia groups are growing and forming a coalition with the police, preparing for the fight-back.  In the UK, there is no second amendment right to bear arms, so citizens are at the mercy of government policy.  The police and government are working against their own people, the only way to fight back is to move out and find relative safety, this is what is happening in London.

  Left wing councils all over the UK are forcing agreement to marxist agenda. This is a battle between the people vs the elite political class. There is deep suspicion of all that they represent, government, corporate, education, media, church, all seem designed to silence those they claim to represent and to further their own, centralised globalist ideology. BLM are just another branch of this elite. This is Groundhog Day, the same argument that was played out after the Brexit referendum, that democracy does not matter, this is just the next battle in a far more extreme, pervasive and corrupt form.

  This is a race war incited by woke identity politics, facilitated by middle class white malcontents and snowflakes, overindulged by their parents and allowed to continue tantrums far beyond their teens, encouraged and enabled by neoliberal university educators and group-think on social media. It is an assault on the soul of nations, aided by domestic terrorists with the blessing of big government. It is the opposite of the spirit of Brexit, the opposite of independent thought. It is against the rule of law, the constitution, it is the destruction of the West by a decadent and controlling elite completely out of touch with its own people.

  On television, white primary school kids are humiliated and confused as they are asked to explain their white privilege.  This is the ultimate endorsement of bullying by a political elite.  BLM have ignited a race war, it is being played out in schools, on the streets and in the political arena, we are being told we must ‘see colour’, to actively encourage division by colour. There is no room for discussion or debate with this hypersensitive Facebook generation who are incapable of having an opinion unless it is ‘liked’ by consensus. Racial profiling is being endorsed across all mainstream media platforms.

  Both Britain and America have governments that are weak and vulnerable, both countries are ripe for the taking. Shaun King could not have staged this uprising more skilfully, no doubt he has a strong hand in this and directs from his throne at Harvard Law School. Sadiq Khan and Cressida Dick do his bidding.

  Norman Brennan, Director of the Law and Order Foundation, on Talk Radio London said of the anarchy in Britain:

  “We are barely able to police everyday issues. We have lost 22,000 officers, 4,000 of them in the Met. Just look how that has depleted backing up their own colleagues dealing with any public disorders that we are beginning to see on our streets, almost daily now. It’s embarrassing, I feel for my colleagues. In thirty-one years of policing I can’ t recall a single time that I ran away from an incident. A). I knew I would be getting back-up and B). we had this sort of fearlessness amongst us that the criminal element were not allowed to run riot, they were not allowed to rule the streets. That’s our job, and we rule the streets on behalf of society. What the Commissioner does {Cressida Dick}, and she does it all the time, is to close it down, you can see her political stance.

  What public order incident that breaks out on the streets, most probably in London,  is going to ignite wide scale public disorder throughout Britain? It takes one. At this moment in time, it’s like a litmus paper. Which incident is going to light it?”

  BLM can only feel encouraged, just like a spoilt child testing how far they can go until the adult in the room says, no more.  The problem is, there are no adults in the room.

  Boris Johnson and Priti Patel are full of platitudes, but they do nothing. This is no longer a Conservative party that are strong on public order, this is a Conservative Party far left of Tony Blair.  A party out of touch with its core voters, so much so that all it can do is steal the ideas from another party to win an election, as it did from Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party in 2019.  It seems to think that to deliver on Brexit is enough, but this terrible unease that has come over the country is at boiling point, as the law-abiding citizen is chastised and knocked back into silence again and again.

  In London, you can feel the tension on the ground, simmering, mostly unsaid, but it is there. The elites in the London bubble don’t see this, and so it festers. They have no sense of place, only a sense of self.  For them it is an experiment in socialism, for the public it is a crisis. When a country has to take up arms to protect itself, will such a diversity of communities, such disparity in wealth, of ideas, of religions, be able to come together to defeat the enemy?  Will it even be able to identify who that enemy is when the government and their agencies, so contemptuous of the public, and yet so naive themselves, cannot.  That question will be answered soon.  The public will get no help, the elites have chosen to go to war against their own people. They have taken to a serpent to their bosom, an insidious viper that is sowing the seeds of racial unrest.  It is a construct by forces wishing to subvert and cause pain and to take power over those already weak and demoralised from Covid-19.  A woke, cultural revolution of media and government institutions against all that the British public hold dear.

  “I believe that the mainstream media in Britain are stoking and inciting people to be disorderly on the streets of Britain. It’s almost as though they would love it if there were wide-scale public disorder.” – Norman Brennan

  More than this, it is the aim of BLM, Antifa and the increasingly marxist socialist left, many of whom preside in Westminster, to cause exactly that.  The public are at this very moment being beaten into submission.

  Anyone who lives in London becomes streetwise very fast, and stories of citizens being marched to an ATM at knife point are common. These are not petty crimes.  In one of the largest local authorities in London run by a Labour council for many years, their crime enforcement team has been reduced to 4 for a population of approx 324,000. The need by government to reduce perceived crime has led to such madness. This hollows out the middle class who are moving away from London as they feel it is no longer a safe place to live or raise children. Judging from the battles in some of the most gentrified and highly-priced boroughs in London, they are right.

  Whilst most citizens are still under restrictions in ‘bubbles’ of social contact, others are totally immune to either enforcement or prosecution. Priti Patel talks tough but if she were serious, she would fire Cressida Dick. Alongside Sadiq Kahn, the marxist agitator who despises his own country, they are killing London, without law and order on the streets, and law and order applied equally, there is nothing. They are poisonous.

  This overtly racist tribalist drive to divide the cities is yet another realignment of the elites. Those outside the London bubble indoctrination zone are not buying into any of this and grow more sceptical by the day.  This is a choice. You chose civilisation, free speech, the constitution and the rule of law, you defend it vociferously, or you let it all crumble to dust and be taken over by the radical left, who will have power over you until death.

  

• Welcome To The New (Pathologized) Totalitarianism
  Welcome To The New (Pathologized) Totalitarianism
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 23:35

  Authored (satirically) by CJ Hopkins via ConsentFactory.org,

  It was always going to come to this… mobs of hysterical, hate-drunk brownshirts hunting down people not wearing masks and trying to get them fired from their jobs, “no mask, no service” signs outside stores, security staff stopping the mask-less from entering, paranoid pod people pointing and shrieking at the sight of mask-less shoppers in their midst, goon squads viciously attacking and arresting them …

  Welcome to the Brave New Normal.

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  And it isn’t just the Maskenpflicht-Sturmabteilung. The new official narrative is omnipresent. The corporate media are pumping out hysteria about “Covid-19 hospitalizations” (i.e., anyone admitted to a hospital for anything who tested positive for the coronavirus) and “major incidents” (i.e., people at the beach). Police are manning makeshift social-distancing-monitoring watchtowers in London. There are propaganda posters and billboards everywhere, repeating the same neo-Goebbelsian slogans, reinforcing the manufactured mass hysteria. Dissent and nonconformity are being pathologized, “diagnosed” as psychopathy and paranoia. Mandatory vaccinations are coming.

  You didn’t think they were kidding, did you, when they started introducing the Brave New Normal official narrative back in March? They told us, clearly, what was coming. They told us life was going to change … forever. They locked us down inside our homes. They ordered churches and synagogues closed. They ordered the police to abuse and arrest us if we violated their arbitrary orders. They closed the schools, parks, beaches, restaurants, cafés, theaters, clubs, anywhere that people gather. They ripped children out of their mother’s arms, beat and arrested other mothers for the crime of “wearing their masks improperly,” dragged mask-less passengers off of public buses, gratuitously beat and arrested people for not “social-distancing” on the sidewalk, shackled people with ankle monitors, and intimidated everyone with robots and drones. They outlawed protests, then hunted down people attending them and harassed them at their homes. They started tracking everyone’s contacts and movements. They drafted new “emergency” laws to allow them to forcibly quarantine people. They did this openly. They publicized it. It’s not like they were hiding anything.

  No, they told us exactly what was coming, and advised us to shut up and follow orders. Tragically, most people have done just that. In the space of four months, GloboCap has successfully imposed totalitarianism — pathologized totalitarianism — on societies all across the world. It isn’t traditional totalitarianism, with a dictator and a one-party system, and so on. It is subtler and more insidious than that. But it is totalitarianism nonetheless.

  GloboCap could not have achieved this without the approval (or at least the acquiescence) of the vast majority of the masses. The coronavirus mass hysteria was a masterstroke of propaganda, but propaganda isn’t everything. No one is really fooled by propaganda, or not for long, in any event. As Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari noted in the opening of Anti-Oedipus:

  “The masses were not innocent dupes. At a certain point, under a certain set of conditions, they wanted fascism, and it is this perversion of the desire of the masses that needs to be accounted for.”

  I am not going to try to account for the “perversion of the desire of the masses” here in this essay, but I do want to dig into the new pathologized totalitarianism a little bit.

  Now, I’m going to assume that you understand that the official “apocalyptic pandemic” narrative is predicated on propaganda, wild speculation, and mass hysteria, and that by now you are aware that we are dealing with a virus that causes mild to moderate symptoms (or absolutely no symptoms at all) in 95% of those infected, and that over 99.5% survive … thus, clearly, no cause for widespread panic or justification for the totalitarian “emergency measures” that have been imposed.

  I am also going to assume that you watched as GloboCap switched off the “deadly pandemic” to accommodate the BLM protests, then switched it back on as soon as they subsided, and that you noted how their propaganda shifted to “cases” when the death count finally became a little too embarrassing to continue to hype.

  So, I won’t waste your time debunking the hysteria. Let’s talk pathologized totalitarianism.

  The genius of pathologized totalitarianism is like that old joke about the Devil … his greatest trick was convincing us that he doesn’t exist. Pathologized totalitarianism appears to emanate from nowhere, and everywhere, simultaneously; thus, technically, it does not exist. It cannot exist, because no one is responsible for it, because everyone is. Mass hysteria is its lifeblood. It feeds on existential fear. “Science” is its rallying cry. Not actual science, not provable facts, but “Science” as a kind of deity whose Name is invoked to silence heretics, or to ease the discomfort of the cognitive dissonance that results from desperately trying to believe the absurdities of the official narrative.

  The other genius of it (from a GloboCap viewpoint) is that it is inexhaustible, endlessly recyclable. Unlike other official enemies, the “deadly virus” could be any virus, any pathogen whatsoever. All they have to do from now on is “discover” some “novel” micro-organism that is highly contagious (or that mimics some other micro-organism that we already have), and wave it in front of people’s faces. Then they can crank up the Fear Machine, and start projecting hundreds of millions of deaths if everyone doesn’t do exactly as they’re told. They can run this schtick … well, pretty much forever, anytime the working classes get restless, or an unauthorized president gets elected, or just for the sheer sadistic fun of it.

  Look, I don’t mean to be depressing, but seriously, spend an hour on the Internet, or talk to one of your hysterical friends that wants to make mask-wearing mandatory, permanently. This is the mentality of the Brave New Normal … irrationally paranoid and authoritarian. So, no, the future isn’t looking very bright for anyone not prepared to behave as if the world were one big infectious disease ward.

  I’ve interacted with a number of extremely paranoid corona-totalitarians recently (just as a kind of social experiment). They behave exactly like members of a cult. When challenged with facts and basic logic, first, they flood you with media propaganda and hysterical speculation from “medical experts.” Then, after you debunk that nonsense, they attempt to emotionally manipulate you by sharing their heartbreaking personal accounts of the people their therapists’ brother-in-laws’ doctors had to helplessly watch as they “died in agony” when their lungs and hearts mysteriously exploded. Then, after you don’t bite down on that, they start hysterically shrieking paranoia at you (“JUST WAIT UNTIL THEY INTUBATE YOU!” … “KEEP YOUR SPITTLE AWAY FROM ME!”) and barking orders and slogans at you (“JUST WEAR THE GODDAMN MASK, YOU BABY!” … “NO SHOES, NO SHIRT, NO MASK, NO SERVICE!”)

  Which … OK, that would be kind of funny (or terribly sad), if these paranoid people were not just mouthpieces echoing the voice of the official power (i.e., GloboCap) that is transforming what is left of society into a paranoid, pathologized, totalitarian nightmare right before our eyes. They’re kind of like the “woman in red” in The Matrix. When you are talking to them, you’re not talking to them. You’re talking to the agents. You’re talking to the machines. Try it sometime. You’ll see what I mean. It’s like talking to a single algorithm that is running in millions of people’s brains.

  I can’t lie to you. I’m not very hopeful. No one who understands the attraction (i.e., the seduction) of totalitarianism is. Much as we may not like to admit it, it is exhilarating, and liberating, being part of the mob, surrendering the burden of personal autonomy and individual responsibility, fusing with a fanatical “movement” that is ushering in a new “reality” backed by the sheer brute force of the state … or the transnational global capitalist empire.

  It is irresistible, that attraction, to most of us. The chance to be a part of something like that, and to unleash one’s hatred on those who refuse to go along with the new religion … to publicly ridicule them, to humiliate them, to segregate them from normal society, to hunt them down and get them fired from their jobs, to cheer as police abuse and arrest them, to diagnose them as “abnormal” and “inferior,” these social deviants, these subhuman “others,” who dare to challenge the authority of the Party, or the Church, or the State, or the Reich, or Science.

  Plus, in the eyes of GloboCap (and its millions of fanatical, slogan-chanting followers), such non-mask-wearing deviants are dangerous. They are like a disease … an infestation. A sickness in the social body. If they refuse to conform, they will have to be dealt with, quarantined, or something like that.

  Or they can just surrender to the Brave New Normal, and stop acting like babies, and wear a goddamn mask.

  After all, it’s just a harmless piece of cloth…

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• It's 2020 & Homosexuality Is Still Punishable By Death In These 10 Countries
  It’s 2020 & Homosexuality Is Still Punishable By Death In These 10 Countries
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 23:15

  51 years on from the Stonewall Riots, global celebrations to remember the event that kickstarted the gay rights revolution have been curtailed due to the coronavirus. The first pride parade occurred a year later and on the 50th anniversary of that occasion, it is thought that the only such march will occur in Taiwan where Covid-19 has largely been contained.

  Globally, a lot has been achieved in the fight for gay rights in recent years but as Statista’s Niall McCarthy shows in the following map, there is a lot more work to do.

  According to ILGA, an international federation campaigning for LGBT rights, homosexuality is punishable by up to eight years in prison in 31 countries and 10 years to life in prison in another 10 countries.

  The following infograpic was made with EQUALDEX data and it shows where homosexuality remains illegal.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Gabon is the latest country to decriminalize homosexuality after introducing laws against gay sex last year. On June 23, lawmakers in the country’s lower house of parliament voted to revise that law which stipulated that having homosexual relations was considered “an offence against morality”, punishable by up to six months in prison and a fine of five million CFA francs or $8,600.

  In 2020, homosexuality is still punishable by death in several countries and it remains illegal in at least 71 others.

  The following infographic shows the countries where the death penalty is used against homosexual activity and it also uses another group, Equaldex, as a source. It is important to note that it is used on a regional basis in parts of Nigeria and Somalia where sharia law has been adopted. Notably, it is also used in Qatar (only applying to Muslims) which will host the FIFA World Cup in 2022.

  

  You will find more infographics at Statista

  Last year, Brunei recently provoked international outrage when it introduced strict Islamic laws that made homosexual activitly punishable by stoning to death.

  

• On Not Going Towards The Trouble: Staying Safe During Civil Unrest In America
  On Not Going Towards The Trouble: Staying Safe During Civil Unrest In America
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 22:55

  Authored by Samantha Biggers via BackdoorSurvival.com,

  No matter what you have to say about the current situation, the one phrase that I think a lot of us can agree on is that we are living in interesting times. Our computers and phones live stream these interesting times to us 24/7. This post is going to concentrate on tips for the average person that wants to avoid taking part in civil unrest or protests. It seems pretty clear that most people would rather not participate regardless of how the news portrays it.

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  There are some that say that if someone doesn’t take a stand then that means things are not going to improve. While that may be true I ask you to consider how dedicated you are to a cause before you take action. As we will discuss later in this post, it can be hard to stop violence if you find yourself in an escalating situation.

  While you may have strong opinions one way or another, there is a difference between that and being “all in”. Unless you are very dedicated then the consequences and risks are probably not worth going towards potential trouble.

  Curiosity is natural but it can also be dangerous.

  Restrictions that were put in place due to COVID-19 are being eased or ignored. Obviously there is some risk of contracting any number of illnesses from being in crowds of people, especially those that are shouting and touching one another a lot.

  While it may be tempting to try to go observe peacefully the events that are occurring in your area, you need to consider just how worth it is really to you. Sure there is nothing like seeing something with your own two eyes but the cost of that could be great.

  Those of you that have kids and teens that are old enough to be going places on their own or hanging out at friends, or that are being left home alone need to talk seriously about the dangers of going towards potential trouble or ongoing trouble and unrest.

  Avoid peer pressure. I am talking about adults and younger people too.

  Getting caught up in the energy and group of a crowd is easy to do. I have heard of these types of incidents in my own area. Somebody gets an idea and suddenly 10 people or more are getting themselves into a situation that is not at all what they anticipated. Emotions are high and it is easy for people on both sides of any issue or argument to see too far into something and make some assumptions that can lead to a major escalation in little time at all.

  Just because everyone else seems to be doing something doesn’t mean it is a great idea. Even if you really like a group of people, it is important to think for yourself and consider your well being and that of your family.

  That being said…..

  Watch out for family trying to talk you into things. Carefully consider any ideas, favors, or anything that they may ask of you during these trying times.

  Family is important but a lot of people have an up and down type of relationship with more than one member. While it is important to band together and try to help one another at times, one must think carefully about these actions. Who doesn’t have someone in their family that loves drama? I bet most of us can name quite a few. You also need to think about if it is worth it to ask for help from someone or invite them to be a part of your life. Sometimes people expect far more in return than is fair or that you can give even if you want to.

  Plenty of families have people in them that are suffering from addiction and substance abuse. Even during good times, it can be challenging to help someone in this position even if they want to be helped. Do you have the resources and determination to deal with the potential trouble of substance abuse and addiction? Has the person made any indication that they are going to meet you halfway? Can they contribute at all to the household?

  Families can be very divided when it comes to politics and moral opinions. It can be very hard to overcome these barriers and help each other out. If you couldn’t hang out or talk before all the unrest and the pandemic, I am not going to say that there is a good chance you can now. I wish it were different but as stressed as the average person is, dealing with long standing issues may be too hard or even impossible without causing both parties a lot of grief and trouble.

  Avoid talking about potentially volatile subjects. I have found that plenty of people find it refreshing to not “go there”.

  A lot of people are simply tired of constantly talking about the state of the world and would love to have a conversation about other things. We all know that some subjects get people really worked up and that it can vary by the person. Don’t bring up subjects you know are going to be upsetting and not do anyone involved any good. This is generally a good habit to be in nowadays because what you say can and will be used against you if you run your mouth in front of the right person. It happens all the time regardless of your personal beliefs and opinions.

  It is just the times we live in.

  I wish I had a magical way to make it different but I am afraid there are a lot of very deeply rooted issues that are going to have to be dealt with before we get back to having a society where people can talk freely and change their opinion later without it getting thrown in their face a month or a decade later. People change and grow and unfortunately, even when they change for the better, even minor or moderate comments that are offensive can be brought up and used for their ruination socially and at work.

  At 37, I am thankful that every dumb or ill informed thing I said as a kid and teen was not recorded in some way.

  Do not give out too much information online or in person.

  I write for a living. It is my job to talk about preparedness and survival skills and try to give advice that can apply to a whole spectrum of situations and people. Part of that job means giving up some of my privacy. I get paid to write though and I don’t dish out everything even though I get that paycheck for talking about some things.

  The people I see on social media or Youtube channels that take pics and tell everyone basically every firearm or prep they have as well as their various opinions on a ton of volatile subjects baffle me, especially since only a tiny percentage are making any kind of money off of these revelations. Stop acting like you want to impress others and get attention. This is far different than trying to impress the popular kids. You could be putting yourself and your family in grave danger.

  We live in a world where too many people want to be famous or a celebrity. People sometimes think it is weird when you don’t. Wanting to be famous or go viral can lead to dumb decisions that endanger you and those you love.

  One thing I have noticed about a lot of the events that have happened is how many people are trying to film or get that shot or video that will go viral. Instagram “Influencers” are going out to events that hold a lot of potential for violence just to get a little boost in their popularity. Since so many have gotten called out for this behavior, they are at even more risk for ridicule and targeting even by those that they have the same opinions of.

  I have to say that trying to get videos when people are pushing and shoving you seems like a terrible idea. Once it comes to that, having a phone in your hand rather than getting out of harm’s way or defending yourself, seems like a big risk to get that shot that chances are you are not going to get much for in terms of fame or monetary value, especially with so many others shooting the same scene.

  You know how many times I have turned down prepper reality shows, interviews, offers to host prepper shows on TV, etc? More times than I can count on my fingers. Some of these same places keep hassling me even after I turn them down. I sometimes even forget to tell my husband when I get another one. They don’t seem to get it that I don’t want the trouble because there is no doubt in my mind that with that type of fame often comes hassle and trouble that is not worth the amount of money one might get in return. Very few people become high paying stars in their field.

  Remember that no matter who you are or your opinions, it is easy to justify terrible acts if one feels they are morally superior or if someone convinces themselves that an act is for the greater good.

  Moral justification is a powerful thing and incredibly dangerous. When you get right down to it, basically anything from treating someone poorly to outright atrocity and brutal violence can feel justified by someone if they feel it benefits the majority or that they are morally superior in some way. Remember that no matter who you are and where you live, there is someone out there that feels “above you” or better in some way. Most of the time it doesn’t really matter and everyone can just ignore each other for the most part but when emotions are high and things are in turmoil, this is a fact that you need to be very aware of.

  Violence is easy to start and hard or even impossible to stop until it simply cannot go on any longer.

  Going into an area purposefully where there is civil unrest increases your chances of experiencing violence. It only takes a small catalyst for an otherwise peaceful protest to turn into something awful that results in a lot of people injured or worse. Remember when a car backfiring caused a stampede of people in Times Square? A single fistfight at an event is sometimes all it takes to turn the tide and cause a snowball of violence.

  You may not be able to talk someone out of committing violence.

  I have been watching some videos online. Who hasn’t? One thing I have noticed is that there are plenty of people that have made efforts to talk others out of escalating situations and committing violence. Sometimes they are successful and sometimes they are not. These same people are actually putting themselves between others to try to prevent violence as well.

  When it comes to friends and family, you may not be able to talk them out of going towards trouble and committing violent acts. They may not be planning violence outright but deep down they might be thinking about what they are going to do if things go a certain way. Emotions are high and a lot of people consider what is going on not just unrest but a revolution.

  No matter where you stand on any major issue there are people that will try to trigger you and use your reaction against you.

  One must be very careful about triggering. Plenty of people have been publicly shamed and humiliated after being manipulated into some type of reaction. Agitators can be extremely persistent. I also think it is worth mentioning that video is easy to edit. The right snippet can portray a very different scenario than what actually happened. Cutting and splicing audio is well within the skill set of most people if they want to do it.

  Will an outburst do any good? You need to ask yourself this and think before you react. I have seen way too many videos here lately showing people taunting and trying to get someone to hit them on film. This is not good behavior no matter how strongly you feel. I completely support someone defending themselves from harm but trying to get someone to hit you merely because you disagree on something doesn’t solve anything at all.

  Do not openly brandish firearms in public places unless your life is truly in danger and you must defend it.

  There is a difference between a gun strapped to your belt and having one in hand that you wave about in an unsafe manner. Pointing a gun at someone will get you arrested. Even if there are open carry laws in your state, you can’t go waving them around at protests. Even if technically the protest is not sanctioned and the legalities get hazy, chances are you are going to bring a lot of trouble on yourself. Also just because you have a firearm doesn’t mean that a crowd can’t harm you.

  I love having guns but one has to be careful about the amount of confidence they give some people to act in a more brash way. A gun is a defense tool and a darn good one but don’t make the mistake that it makes you untouchable in a crowd.

  I think the advice I have been given since a child is good. Don’t point a gun at someone unless you are really serious about using it. Otherwise, keep it down and your finger not right on the trigger.

  Other Tips and Bits of Advice

  • Plan your shopping and work commutes around areas of potential unrest.

  • Have a get home bag in your vehicle.

  • Consider what you can use for a weapon. A lot of everyday objects can be utilized if necessary. For some options check out my article on improvised weapons.

  • You should carry a weapon or something for self-defense on you at all times. There are many options including pepper spray, tasers, and keychain weapons. A knife is an excellent choice, especially if you cannot carry a gun.

  • Keep a decent medical kit in your car or get home bag.

  • Try to keep the kids and the elderly at home. Sorry, but times like these may mean that you have to move fast. Also keep in mind that if you are worried about kids and elderly family members during civil unrest, it can lead to different decisions that don’t turn out good for anyone. Would you leave someone old behind to get trampled to save yourself? Of course not.

  • Avoid being out in the evening or at night. Consider what you can do to make it easier and not so boring for teens that are having to stay at home more. For more in-depth advice on moving around during times of unrest, check out my previous article.

  • Talk honestly with your family about safety measures and avoiding trouble. Explain the risks and consequences.

  • Be prepared to answer some tough questions and offer a lot of advice to kids and teens. This is a very trying time to grow up in and a lot of them don’t know how to deal with all the emotions and propaganda that is being thrown at them.

   

  

• Richest Liberal Arts School In US Slashes Tuition By 15%, Cancels Athletics Program
  Richest Liberal Arts School In US Slashes Tuition By 15%, Cancels Athletics Program
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 22:35

  The richest liberal arts university in the country, Williams College, has slashed tuition by 15% “in recognition of the extraordinary circumstances and of this academic year and the uncertainty we face in the year ahead,” according to Bloomberg.

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  Williams, which has a $2.9 billion endowment (as of June, 2019) will also be canceling sports competitions and travel for the season according to a Monday statement.

  For the 2020-2021 academic year, Tuition, room and board will set back rich parents and lending institutions $63,200. Of note, four years at the university will set one back more than the average mortgage balance carried by millennials.

  “This reduction recognizes the fact that the pandemic and associated challenges are requiring us to cancel winter study as well as fall athletics competition and many student activities, among other opportunities that we usually encourage families to expect as part of their student’s education,” said school President Maud Mandel.

  Schools across the U.S. are coping with uncertainty for the year that begins in August or September as it’s largely unclear whether in-person courses will be offered given the rise in Covid-19 cases. Students at dozens of schools have already balked at the full price for last semester’s tuition with months of online classes, suing for billions of dollars in refunds. –Bloomberg

  “In higher education, we’re trained to believe that expensive is good,” says Seton Hall University associate professor Robert Kelchen. “Now, in this economic crisis, families are more price-sensitive than they have been.”

  Other colleges have made similar moves – including Davidson College in North Carolina, which announced in April that families would be allowed to postpone payments until August of 2021, and the College of William & Mary, which announced last month that incoming in-state undergraduates would no longer be subject to a tuition increase.

  

• Luongo: Is John Bolton A 'Resistance' Hero Or Traitor To Common Decency?
  Luongo: Is John Bolton A ‘Resistance’ Hero Or Traitor To Common Decency?
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 22:15

  Authored by Tom Luongo via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

  There are few men in modern American history more venal than Former National Security Adviser John Bolton. Calling Bolton a relic of the Cold War in his outlook on foreign policy is a kindness.

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  Bolton is a dangerous and pathetic creature whose entire life is an example of how incomplete men with a talent for violence can rise in a late-stage cesspit of political corruption.

  He is simply someone who has never been in a fight in his life who lusts for the power to kill, main and destroy anyone who dares challenge him. A pathology he’s had the dubious distinction of being able to act out in the real world on more than one occasion.

  This will, hopefully, be the last article I write about his cretin because once his last fifteen minutes of fame are used up attacking President Trump in slavish interview after interview supporting his book, Bolton will be finished in Washington D.C.

  This book is his gold watch for being a lifelong soldier in the service of the American empire and the neoconservative/neoliberal dream of global conquest. $2 million, a handful of residuals and a final victory lap for a life spent in pursuit of the subjugation of those he considers sub-human.

  President Trump’s recent tweet about Bolton is a masterful bit of brevity being the soul of wit.

  I gave John Bolton, who was incapable of being Senate confirmed because he was considered a wacko, and was not liked, a chance. I always like hearing differing points of view. He turned out to be grossly incompetent, and a liar. See judge’s opinion. CLASSIFIED INFORMATION!!!

  — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2020

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  And while Bolton spent the balance of his career in D.C. working nominally for Republicans, his lust for war served both parties equally well. That war lust was in service of the empire itself when Bolton was fired, and he turned against President Trump.

  He was welcomed as a Hero of the Resistance by Democrats intent on impeaching the President after he was fired last year, one of the few good moments in Trump’s nearly four years at the helm of U.S. foreign policy. Given his involvement with Fiona Hill and Eric Chiaramella, the whistleblower whose testimony created the impeachment charges, Bolton really could be thought of as the architect of that process.

  So, it’s no surprise that his book is welcomed as the gossip event of the summer by the media. But remember, this is a guy who refused to testify against Trump for Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff and that’s because he would have never stood up to cross-examination.

  This is because, ultimately, John Bolton is a coward. And he’s the worst kind of coward. He’s the kind of man who deals underhandedly while hiding behind rhetoric in controlled environments to pursue his fever dreams of suppressing the Untermensch.

  What we know now, thanks to Bolton’s unwillingness to keep his trap shut, is that things were as we suspected while he was in the White House. Every event that occurred was an excuse for Bolton to tell Trump to go to war. And every time Trump was led up to that trough to drink, he backed away causing Bolton’s mustache the worst case of sexual frustration.

  Worse than that, Bolton sabotaged any hope of détente with Russia, North Korea and improving the situation in the Middle East. While he was right to hate Jared Kushner’s Deal of the Century for Israel/Palestine, he was instrumental in getting Trump to stay in Syria rather than turn over what’s left of its suppression to the people who actually want it to continue – Israel and Saudi Arabia.

  In the end Bolton is really the best example I can come up with for the monolithic thinking that permeates D.C. Despite his best instincts, Trump took Bolton on because the potential talent pool is so thin.

  Anyone with original ideas, such as Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, are more valuable in their current position rather than coming into an administration that is hamstrung by a permanent bureaucracy unwilling to change, or in open revolt.

  There’s no profit for them to make the jump even if they wanted to.

  This point has been in effect since before Trump took office when he wouldn’t stand behind his first National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, who is still embroiled in the worst The Swamp can throw at a person.

  Progressives, liberals and anti-imperalists I implore you to stop allying with this creature of The Swamp in his quest to do damage to a president you hate. Because by doing so you are strengthening the very people who are the architects of the empire you believe you are fighting against.

  Because that’s who John Bolton wrote this book for.

  He didn’t write it for you.

  Bolton will ultimately be a foot note in the history books. A man whose only claim to fame was failing to allow a president to make some peace with North Korea and set the U.S. on a path to complete alienation with the rest of the world.

  Because of the neoconservatives’ intense war lust, as embodied by Bolton, it pushed Trump, already an arch-mercantilist, even farther along the path of using economic pressure to force change on the world stage.

  But, as I’ve been saying for years now, that is a strategy just as ruinous in the long run for the U.S. as Bolton’s cowardice urging use of a military — which he refused to serve in — to do his dirty work for him.

  These are both expressions of an empire which refuses to accept that it is in decline. And it has invited the chaos now evident in cities all across the U.S. as our wealth has been squandered on endless wars for regime change overseas while building a regulatory police state at home.

  That helped pushed the militarization of our local police, further putting them in conflict with a domestic population growing more desperate and reactionary on both sides of the political aisle.

  Bolton’s projection of all the U.S.’s ills onto countries with no real ability to harm us physically ultimately was not only his undoing with Trump but the U.S.’s undoing as a leader of the post-WWII order.

  

• India Deploys 'Quick Reaction' Anti-Air Missiles To Border While China Warns Of "Prolonged Standoff"
  India Deploys ‘Quick Reaction’ Anti-Air Missiles To Border While China Warns Of “Prolonged Standoff”
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 21:55

  The India-China row in the disputed Ladakh border region isn’t over, despite military leaders on both sides last week announcing a cooling and deescalation after the June 15 Galwan Valley clash which left 20 Indian troops dead and an untold number of PLA casualties. 

  Both sides continue military build-up in the area, despite delegations planning to meet for a third time on Tuesday to attempt a diplomatic way forward and reestablish escalation avoidance mechanisms. 

  China reportedly has tank and heavy artillery units there, based on satellite images which grabbed headlines days ago, while by the weekend India reportedly deployed quick reaction surface-to-air missile defense systems known as the Akash anti-air system into the northern Himalayan region. 

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  “As part of the ongoing build-up in the sector, the air defense systems of both Indian Army and the Indian Air Force have been deployed in the sector to prevent any misadventure by the Chinese Air Force fighter jets or the People’s Liberation Army choppers there,” a government official told Indian media.

  This also after Beijing was enraged at the Indian military a week ago authorizing its troops to not only use fire arms along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), but to exercise “freedom of action” in responding to any engagement by PLA soldiers. 

  India’s military has been saying the “extraordinary circumstances” warrant it. “There is no change in the rules as such. Our side will only react to provocations and in case of extraordinary circumstances,” former Indian director-general of military operations, Lt. Gen. Vinod Bhatia, said.

  Meanwhile, the Chinese military’s media mouthpiece, state-run Global Times, has continued with its posturing and threats:

  If #India wants to take advantage of US support in border dispute with #China, it is terribly mistaken, as the Chinese PLA is fully prepared & capable of defending on multiple fronts including China-India border, South China Sea and Taiwan Straits:analysts.https://t.co/CFm8g4ceqg pic.twitter.com/nTBJ22jgQM

  — Global Times (@globaltimesnews) June 28, 2020

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  The English-language daily described “a prolonged standoff” while warning the PLA was prepared for any provocation, including with tanks and fighter jets. 

  “As senior Indian military officers are expecting a prolonged standoff in the China-India border region with the US reportedly voicing support for India, the Chinese military is demonstrating high military readiness on all fronts, as the intensive, simultaneous military exercises in the South China Sea, near Taiwan island and near the China-India border show India’s wishful thinking of taking advantage of US support is merely an illusion, Chinese analysts said Sunday,” GT reported. 

  

• Social Credit Scores Are Already Here
  Social Credit Scores Are Already Here
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 21:35

  Authored by Derrick Broze via The Last American Vagabond,

  People around the world are already being judged and denied access to financial services because of their social media data – and they don’t even realize it.

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  By now many of our readers are aware of the ongoing rollout of a nationwide social credit system in China. Starting in 2009, the Chinese government began testing a national reputation system based on a citizen’s economic and social reputation, or “social credit.” This social credit score can be used to reward or punish certain behaviors. The idea is that the state can give or takeaway points from a social credit score in order to engineer good behavior from the people.

  By late 2019, Chinese citizens were losing points on their score for dishonest and fraudulent financial behavior, playing loud music, eating on public transportation, jaywalking, running red lights, failing to appear at doctor appointments, missing job interviews or hotel reservations without canceling, and incorrectly sorting waste. To raise one’s social credit score a Chinese citizen can donate blood, donate to an approved charity, volunteer for community service, and other activities approved by the government. The Chinese government has begun to deny millions of people the ability to purchase plane and high-speed rail tickets due to low social credit scores and being labeled “untrustworthy.”

  While most people are likely familiar with this concept because of the popular show Black Mirror, the truth is this practice is much more reality than fiction. According to a new report from cybersecurity experts Kaspersky, 32 percent of adults between 25 to 34 have had issues getting a mortgage or loan due to their social media activity. The denial of loans comes as part of “social scoring systems” which are being used at an alarming rate by government and businesses to determine customers or citizens “trustworthiness.”

  “Based on these scores, systems make decisions for us or about us, from travel destinations and the associated costs, to whether we are allowed to access the service itself,” the report states.

  Kaspersky surveyed more than 10,000 people from 21 countries and found that 18 percent of those polled had issues accessing financial services because of assessments of their social media data. The report notes that more than 4.5 billion people use the internet around the world, and 3.8 billion have social media accounts. These accounts provide governments and companies with thousands of data points to score people. Less than half of those surveyed said they have heard of social scoring or social credit. As few as 13 percent of those polled in Austria and Germany said they were familiar with the concepts, while 71 percent in China were familiar.

  Unfortunately, the survey also found that 67 percent of people are willing to share their profiles to secure online shopping discounts and 52 percent are willing if it means skipping lines at airports and other means of travel. Finally, 51 percent of people said they are fine with government monitoring their social media behavior if it means keeping the public safe. The post-9/11 indoctrination appears to have worked to an astounding degree.

  Kaspersky warned that the public has little protections when it comes to their social media data, stating, “there is no framework we are publicly aware of when it comes to other systems used by organizations and governments to collect our data.” Further, the report states that consumers “can find it impossible to find out what their scores are, how these scores are being calculated and how they can be corrected if there are inaccuracies.”

  Chengyi Lin, a professor of strategy at the INSEAD business school, told EuroNews she believes, “you’re gonna have a holistic view of your behaviours, both financial and digital, and even physical, to give you a single credit score.”

  Lin’s comments point to an ever-increasing centralization of data and the push towards a single score by which governments will rate their populations. When combined with facial recognition, biometrics at the airports, CCTV cameras, drones and surveillance planes flying above major cities — it is clear that the Technocratic State is coming into full view.

  Clearly, the majority of people are completely in the dark about these programs and their dangerous implications. Therefore, the goal for those “in the know” should be to spread the word and warn as many people as possible. We must also take personal responsibility for the amount of data we voluntarily share with social media sites, apps, and the internet in general. The only defense against the complete erosion of privacy — and thus liberty — is an educated public who stands up for their own rights.

  For more information on removing your data from these data collection and aggregation sites, see this.

  

• China Manufacturing Employment Contracts, Demand Disappoints Despite Headline PMIs Beat
  China Manufacturing Employment Contracts, Demand Disappoints Despite Headline PMIs Beat
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 21:25

  In a sign that China’s massive stimulus injections as the nation reopens are working, tonight’s PMIs both rose from May and beat expectations.

  • The government’s official Manufacturing PMI rose from 50.6 to 50.9 (beating expectations of 50.5)

  • The government’s official Services PMI rose from 53.6 to 54.4 (beating expectations of 53.6)

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  However, as Bloomberg report, while parts of the economy have recovered from the virus shutdowns, there’s an apparent divergence between demand and supply – factories and companies have returned and output is growing again, but exports and domestic retail sales are shrinking (and manufacturing employment fell back into contraction at 49.1).

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  “While work restart levels are high, the recovery of demand has been slow, weighing on the pace of improvement in industrial production,” Lu Zhengwei, chief economist at Industrial Bank Co in Shanghai, wrote in a report this week.

  Additionally, a separate PMI indicator that gauges China’s high-tech industries slowed significantly this month. The Emerging Industries Purchasing Managers’ index fell to 51.4 this month from 55.9 in May, according to the bank, citing a research firm connected to the Federation of Logistics & Purchasing that compiled the data.

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  “The new export orders sub-index remained low at 32.6 in June, unchanged from May and April, suggesting sustained headwinds from overseas markets,” Nomura economists led by Lu Ting wrote in a report.

  The surge in exports of coronavirus-related medical supplies is largely due to price rises, which is “likely unsustainable,” they wrote.

  “We expect a bumpy recovery path filled with uncertainty, as China is caught between domestic policy stimulus, remaining social distancing rules and slumping external demand,” according to the report.

  One possible caveat for the lack of momentum is that severe flooding in southern China may also have slowed the pace of production in some areas, and a recent flare-up of the coronavirus has also hit confidence.

  

• Airbnb CEO: "Travel Will Never, Ever Go Back To The Way It Was Pre-COVID"
  Airbnb CEO: “Travel Will Never, Ever Go Back To The Way It Was Pre-COVID”
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 21:15

  Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky said the global travel and tourism industry might never fully recover from the virus-induced economic downturn, though he tells Axios in a Zoom interview, there’s a glimmer of hope as travel trends will shift more domestically, and to smaller communities in a post-corona world. 

  “I will go on the record to say that travel will never, ever go back to the way it was pre-COVID; it just won’t,” Chesky said. “There are sometimes months when decades of transformation happen.”

  He said, “people are getting on airplanes, they’re not crossing borders, they’re not meaningfully traveling to cities, they’re not traveling for business.”  

  Instead, “they’re getting in cars. They’re traveling to communities that are 200 miles away or less. These are usually very small communities. They’re staying in homes and they’re staying longer.”

  Readers may recall, we noted in late March how city dwellers in Southern California were fleeing metro areas for rentals on the outskirts of Joshua Tree National Park, which was a move to isolate oneself from the virus pandemic. 

  “As the pandemic sweeps across California’s largest cities, residents are fleeing their urban settings to isolated communities in the Mojave Desert or the rugged Sierra Nevada. The hope is that a remote area can reduce their transmission risk.”

  “People will, one day, get back on planes,” Chesky said. “But one of the things that I do think is a fairly permanent shift is … a redistribution of where travelers go.”

  “You know, everyone goes to Rome, Paris, London, they stay in the hotel district, they get on the double-decker bus. They wait in line to get a selfie in front of a landmark,” he said. 

  “I think that’s going to get smaller as a percentage of travel in the future, and I think it’s going to get somewhat displaced, or at least balanced, by people visiting smaller communities,” he added. 

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  The redistribution Chesky describes is a reversal of international trips to more domestic ones, but instead of travelers going to big cities and famous landmarks – they will vacation in rural communities. The days of vacationing in New York, London, Paris, Rome, and Hong Kong are limited. 

  So who are the winners and losers in this emerging travel trend Chesky sees playing out? 

  Winners: 

  • Airbnb hosts or super hosts with properties in rural communities, near state parks, or scenic views. 

  Losers: 

  • Airbnb hosts or super hosts with properties in major cities.
  • Commercial real estate in metro areas, such as hotels, resorts, and shopping malls. 

  As for all those overleveraged super hosts, we warned about during the pandemic, who saw rental income collapse – they could very well see depressing bookings for a considerable period while properties in rural communities see boom times.

  

• 9 Things To Buy Every Time You Go To The Store
  9 Things To Buy Every Time You Go To The Store
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 20:55

  Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,

  Lots of folks have mentioned that their grocery stores never fully restocked after the rush on food and supplies back at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown. And with the current news stories about spiking COVID numbers, it may not be long until we’re locked down again.

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  Work on what’s within your control

  It’s important to note that even if you are unconcerned about the virus, there are a lot of things that could be out of your control in the event of another governmental series of actions:

  • Workplaces may close back down

  • Supply chains may be further damaged

  • The economy will take another hit

  • You may not be able to go where you want

  Real, or not real; dangerous or not, the end result for us is the same.

  It’s just like the debate over whether a terror attack in the news is a false flag or an actual terror attack. Every time I write about surviving one of these attacks, people flock to the comments to tell everyone that it was all crisis actors, the whole thing is a hoax, or our own government did it to take away our guns.

  But we’re talking about survival. If you’re there when the bullets are flying or the bombs are going off or the planes are crashing, it doesn’t matter who’s behind it. Your only goal at that point is to survive it.

  With COVID, does it even matter if the numbers are accurate or not? Because the government is using it as an excuse to exercise rigid control over all of us – telling us when we can go to work, when we can visit with loved ones, keeping us away from hospitals and leaving our ailing relatives to die alone, and enforcing laws about masks and appropriate distances.

  Whether or not there’s another lockdown isn’t within our control. There are those who believe the entire thing is baloney and that we locked down for no reason. There are others who believe the lockdown saved countless lives. As it’s impossible to prove a negative, we really have no way of knowing if our lockdown worked or not.

  If stores aren’t open or supplies aren’t available, the end result is the same whether the virus is as deadly as it’s portrayed or not. You may not be able to get what you need.

  This article is about what you CAN do – you can be prepared. With that, at least, we have some control.

  Things to buy every time you go to the store

  We can reasonably predict that some of the things which were out of stock during the last run on the store will be low again. People will remember the things they couldn’t find and they’ll be determined to get them this time. Most stores still have limits on certain products, so I suggest that every time you go to the store, you add the following items to your stockpile:

  • Toilet paper (or you may be stuck with one of these TP alternatives)

  • Bleach

  • Hand sanitizer

  • Canned goods

  • Yeast

  • Baking supplies

  • Powdered milk

  • Rice

  • Beans

  • Meat

  And if you have a baby in the house, don’t forget to grab:

  • Infant supplies like diapers, wipes, formula, etc., if applicable

  You may not need to get these items every time but definitely pick up a few extras:

  • Paper towels

  • Disposable plates and cutlery

  • Disinfecting wipes

  • Disinfecting sprays and cleaning products

  These were some of the most common things that people ran out of or couldn’t purchase the last time around. Allocate some of your budget to purchasing some of these items to put back every time you see them. This will help to replenish your stockpile, which isn’t necessarily an easy task in these days of purchase limits.

  Other things you may want to do

  A lot depends on whether or not you are considered an “essential worker.” If you are, your life may feel somewhat normal. If you’re not, being home all the time could feel like a pretty big change.

  • Save some money – another stimulus check and another round of unemployment + $600 are not guaranteed.

  • Gather the supplies needed for projects to stay productive – organizational containers, paint, hardware, fabric, etc.

  • Get what you need to work comfortably from home – laptop, office chair, headset, etc.

  • Take a look at different homeschool programs for your kids – here are some suggestions for places to start.

  Check out this article – it’s a thorough guide to preparing for the second lockdown.

  Now is the time to prepare

  If you prepare little by little, it’s a lot easier on your budget than buying your entire lockdown inventory all at once. And keep in mind, everyone is thinking the same thing – “I’m not going to run out of toilet paper this time.” You may not even be able to find what you need if you wait until another series of lockdowns are announced.

  By adding an extra $20 or so of supplies each time you visit the store, you’ll be better prepared next time around.

  

• Nearly 40% Of Voters Think Biden Has Dementia
  Nearly 40% Of Voters Think Biden Has Dementia
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 20:35

  Nearly 40% of voters think former Vice President Joe Biden has dementia, including 20% of Democrats, according to a new Rasmussen poll.

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  Their latest national telephone and online survey found that “38% of likely US voters think Biden is suffering from some form of dementia,” while 48% disagree and 14% are not sure.

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  And Given Biden’s recent gaffes – suggesting that 120 million Americans have died from COVID, just months after he said that 150 million Americans have died from guns – it’s no surprise that 61% of those polled believe it’s important for Biden to address the dementia issue publicly, 41% of whom say it is “very important.”

  Joe Biden is very confused.

  He just falsely claimed 120 million Americans (more than one-third of the country) died from the coronavirus.

  This is after he previously claimed 150 million Americans died from guns.

  He’s not playing with a full deck, folks. #BarelyThereBiden pic.twitter.com/GwKgdiFjdb

  — Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) June 25, 2020

  And as the Washington Examiner‘s Paul Bedard notes, a recent Zogby Poll found that 55% of voters think Biden is in the early stages of dementia.

  “Right now voters have questions concerning Biden’s mental health and stamina,” according to Zogby.

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• Cops Side With Armed St. Louis Homeowners, Investigate Protesters For 'Assault By Intimidation'
  Cops Side With Armed St. Louis Homeowners, Investigate Protesters For ‘Assault By Intimidation’
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 20:27

  Update (2020ET): While reactions to the gun-toting lawyers are sharply divided by political leanings, St. Louis police are investigating the incident as a case of trespassing and fourth-degree assault by intimidation against the couples.

  And of course, not everyone agrees. Local circuit attorney Kimberly Gardner issued a statement on Monday characterizing the events as a “violent assault” on the protesters.

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  “I am alarmed at the events that occurred over the weekend, where peaceful protesters were met by guns and a violent assault,” said Gardner, who says she’s working with police to investigate the confrontation according to Fox19, “We must protect the right to peacefully protest, and any attempt to chill it through intimidation or threat of deadly force will not be tolerated.”

  Gardner failed to mention that the protesters were on private property when the ‘peaceful protest’ occurred, or that the protesters ‘peacefully’ broke down a gate to gain entry.

  Meanwhile, McCloskey attorney Albert Watkins told the Associated Press on Monday that his clients support Black Lives Matter, and only grabbed their guns after several white protesters ‘violently threatened the couple and their property and that of their neighbors,’ according to Fox.

  “The most important thing for them is that their images (holding the guns) don’t become the basis for a rallying cry for people who oppose the Black Lives Matter message,” said Watkins. “They want to make it really clear that they believe the Black Lives Matter message is important.”

  *  *  *

  Update (1115ET): The St. Louis couple seen defending their mansion on Sunday have spoken publicly about what happened.

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  Personal injury lawyers Mark McCloskey, 63, and his wife Patricia, 61, told KMOV4 that they were having dinner with family outside their home when the BLM protesters broke through iron gates marked with “No Trespassing” and “Private Street” and “rushed” towards their home.

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  “A mob of at least 100 smashed through the historic wrought iron gates of Portland Place, destroying them, rushed towards my home where my family was having dinner outside and put us in fear of our lives,” said Mark McCloskey.

  According to police, the couple told protesters that they were on trespassing on a private street and needed to leave. Shortly after, the couple grabbed their guns after noticing several armed protesters in the crowd, shouting threats.

  “This is all private property. There are no public sidewalks or public streets. We were told that we would be killed, our home burned and our dog killed. We were all alone facing an angry mob,” McCloskey told News 4. –KMOV4

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  *  *  *

  A St. Louis couple armed themselves and stood outside their mansion as a group of Black Lives Matter protesters who had broken into their gated community shuffled past while chanting.

  A St. Louis couple defends their home with guns as protesters march through their neighborhood:pic.twitter.com/LqzvrBSREu

  — Alex Salvi (@alexsalvinews) June 29, 2020

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  The couple, identified as attorneys Mark and Patricia McCloskey, engaged in a shouting match with the protesters, waving what appeared to be an AR-15 rifle and a pistol (albeit employing terrible muzzle and trigger discipline and without cover).

  Residents bring out guns against peaceful marchers in St Louis, Mo #respectis #expectus #stlouis #lydakrewson pic.twitter.com/blBOtWjMWS

  — Ryanzo Perez (@RyanzoPerez) June 29, 2020

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  As the Gateway Pundit‘s Cassandra Fairbanks notes, the BLM protesters can be clearly be seen entering a gate into the McCloskey’s private community.

  In this livestream footage you can clearly see the STL black lives matter mob entered through the gate to a private community. This was not a public sidewalk. https://t.co/NeKHgTBWEu pic.twitter.com/UdYq3pGtlb

  — Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) June 29, 2020

  “Private Street” pic.twitter.com/r7VMDo60sm

  — Alex Salvi (@alexsalvinews) June 29, 2020

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  Following the incident people began calling for the McCloskeys to be doxed – resulting in at least one publication removing their address from a 2018 article detailing the extensive renovations they performed on the 1912 mansion.

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  Records show the McCloskeys have donated to both Republicans and Democrats over the years, including $4,000 to the Democratic party and at least $2,400 to the Trump campaign.

  Records show he donated $4k to Democratic Party and also defended man against police brutality

  — The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) June 29, 2020

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  One of those calling for doxing the McCloskeys, ‘anti-racism executive coach‘ Kyle Dennis, restricted his Twitter account after he himself was doxed.  

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  The loser who called for the St. Louis hero couple to be doxed has now been doxed himself and locked his account. pic.twitter.com/7u9UkFldBU

  — Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) June 29, 2020

  And now – watch the left try their hardest to cancel the McCloskeys for letting the protesters, who had broken into their gated community, that they would not be victims.

  Meanwhile, the memes didn’t take long:

  pic.twitter.com/Yh9OFC8cyf

  — Vaiv (@Vaiv71738794) June 29, 2020

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  pic.twitter.com/xSZrugNvSW

  — John Noonan (@JohnPNoonan) June 29, 2020

  #antifaFilms presents: pic.twitter.com/F4kzyprwZP

  — ProjectM@yh3m (@Wotansson) June 29, 2020

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

  pic.twitter.com/t1sfGiVY9u

  — You smell that? (@DonChavez17) June 29, 2020

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• Will China Forming Oil-Buying-Cartel End The Petrodollar?
  Will China Forming Oil-Buying-Cartel End The Petrodollar?
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 20:15

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

  China is building a buyer’s group (or cartel) comprised of its major state oil companies. I’m frankly surprised that this wasn’t already the case, since everything else is tightly controlled in China.

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  A report from Bloomberg (via Investing.com) states that:

  Senior executives from China Petroleum (NYSE:SNP) & Chemical Corp., PetroChina Co., Cnooc Ltd. and Sinochem Group Co. are in advanced talks to iron out details of the plan, said people familiar with the initiative, who asked not to be identified as discussions are private and ongoing. The proposal has won the support of the Chinese central government and relevant industry watchdogs, the people said.

  Since China is now the world’s largest importer of oil it only makes sense they would flip the switch and act as price makers rather than be price takers.

  This makes perfect sense, economically, in the current environment as troubled oil exporters like Saudi Arabia continue to try and exert influence over the oil market.

  The Saudis refuse to admit to themselves that their era of dominance over oil prices is, itself, over. As I noted in my blog from last week their attempt to gain market share through price slashing did nothing more than slash their own revenue to the bone, while making no new friends.

  They shipped out 50% more oil and revenues plunged by 65%. They practically gave the stuff away in April. They had to. With the Riyal tied to the dollar they had to undercut Russian oil which trades in freely-floated rubles.

  Because while China is certainly happy to pay less for oil, the knock-on effects of undermining its capital markets were and are far greater than the savings per barrel.

  And that made them no new friends in the Poliburo.

  That Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) acted to rashly in March I’m sure did not sit well with Chinese leadership. They clearly have no use for such an unreliable partner who refuses to take anything other than the U.S. dollar for its product.

  To remind everyone, MBS threw his tantrum which locked up global markets after Russia’s refusal to agree to further OPEC+ production cuts in March. That precipitated the massive drop in oil prices which started the financial crisis.

  So, it’s pretty obvious to me now that China seeks to further marginalize Saudi Arabia and the U.S. in the oil space.

  The proof? Back to the Bloomberg article:

  For a start, the group is set to collectively issue bids for certain Russian and African grades in the spot market, they said. While it’s unclear how the cooperation will evolve, the group represents refiners that import more than 5 million barrels of oil a day. That’s nearly a fifth of OPEC’s total output, which would make it the world’s largest crude buyer in theory. 

  Because here’s the rub, as always, China is looking for ways to deepen international use and liquidity of the yuan. Saudi Arabia and the U.S. want to continue use of the dollar as the main settlement currency for oil trading, the so-called petrodollar.

  It is the petrodollar that provides the most inertia the world fights against to allow the rise of other currencies as settlement. Dollars are cheap to use, freely accepted and, for now, still a good store of (at least) medium-term value.

  The petrodollar was created by the relationship between the U.S. as the biggest importer and Saudi Arabia the biggest exporter. As long as that relationship held the petrodollar flowed into foreign central banks, deepening everyone’s trust in it.

  Now China is saying things have changed. Europe and China are willing to pay a little more for Russian Urals grade (per my article from Friday) after MBS’s tantrum.

  Moreover, China wants its oil futures contract in Shanghai more dominant in the global market. That contract is a key piece to deepening Yuan liquidity.

  Shifting the oil trade where it can trade in real time versus would be a boon to the market. Most of the Arab states set their tender prices at the beginning of the month and they don’t change.

  Back to Bloomberg:

  Importers … have struggled this year to manage the amount of crude received each month amid fluctuating domestic demand, refining margins and swelling stockpiles.

  Volumes can only be adjusted slightly from earlier-agreed liftings, and final decisions lie with the seller. Saudi Aramco, Iraq’s SOMO and Abu Dhabi’s Adnoc all sell their crude at official prices announced early each month.

  Indian processors and ports went so far as to declare force majeure in attempts to back out of crude liftings after the world’s biggest lockdown slashed demand.

  What this cartel will do is create the opposite dynamic than has existed previously. Buyers will dictate terms to the sellers, which is the way the market is supposed to work.

  And it’s goal, I think, is to break the monthly price tender system and put more volume up for open bid in Shanghai.

  Cartels are inherently unstable but, at times, under extreme circumstances, they can be very effective at creating change to a sclerotic system. I think this is exactly what China is looking to do here.

  Watch to see if this cartel comes together. If it does then in order to save itself, Saudi Arabia will have to come to Chinese importers head scarf in hand looking for business.

  At the same time, because they accept other currencies for their oil, Russia stands to take more market share. They can always grind out the arbitrage in currency terms between the Saudi monthly tender price and their own COGS.

  Lastly, don’t think for a second that China isn’t willing to pay a little more here or there to deny MBS and President Trump a few billion in much-needed export revenue and hand it to their partners in Russia.

  Especially when you factor in the real arbitrage that neither country can offer better terms on, that of the real yield on a Russian government bond and a U.S. bond.

  *  *  *

  Join my Patreon if you need help navigating the Swamp of commodities and their political import. Install the Brave Browser if you want to slow Google’s takeover of our public behavior.

  

• "This Is Not Just Accidental": How One Coronavirus Mutation Helped The Virus Conquer The Globe
  “This Is Not Just Accidental”: How One Coronavirus Mutation Helped The Virus Conquer The Globe
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 19:55

  Scientists have been hard at work unraveling the mysteries of SARS-CoV-2 since January, when Beijing finally shared a mapped genome with the global scientific community (though early research also filtered out via the British journal “The Lancet”). At this point, scientists around the world have examined hundreds of thousands of viral samples from around the world. They’ve compared and contrasted their genetic code, and they’ve identified what appears to be an important pattern. That is: the earliest version of the virus that spread in Wuhan is not genetically identical to the iteration that went on to conquer Europe and the US.

  According to a Bloomberg report comparing the findings from four non-peer-reviewed studies, it appears that a notable mutation of the virus that emerged broadly and early during its global campaign helped render COVID-19 more infectious in later iterations than it was during the early weeks of the outbreak, raising fears that the virus could continue to evolve in a way that eludes scientists working on a vaccine, or simply makes the virus more deadly.

  At least four laboratory experiments suggest that the mutation makes the virus more infectious, although none of that work has been peer-reviewed. Another unpublished study led by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory asserts that patients with the G variant actually have more virus in their bodies, making them more likely to spread it to others.

  The mutation doesn’t appear to make people sicker, but a growing number of scientists worry that it has made the virus more contagious.

  “The epidemiological study and our data together really explain why the [G variant’s] spread in Europe and the U.S. was really fast,” said Hyeryun Choe, a virologist at Scripps Research and a lead author of an unpublished study on the G variant’s enhanced infectiousness in laboratory cell cultures. “This is not just accidental.”

  Another team of researchers described the feeling of shock when they realized just how much more effective this mutation made the virus in terms of its ability to break into human cells.

  Neville Sanjana, a geneticist at the New York Genome Center and New York University, was trying to figure out which genes enable SARS-CoV-2 to infiltrate human cells. But in experiments based on a gene sequence taken from an early case of the virus in Wuhan, he struggled to get that form of the virus to infect cells. Then the team switched to a model virus based on the G variant.

  “We were shocked,” Sanjana said. “Voilà! It was just this huge increase in viral transduction.” They repeated the experiment in many types of cells, and every time the variant was many times more infectious.

  The mutation in question is known as D614G, or just “G” for short. So far, the “G” mutation has been found in roughly 70% of the half a million or so samples that have uploaded to a shared database for scientists around the world. This has convinced many scientists of its significance, especially because the mutation occurs in a part of the genome that governs the infamous “spike” protein that gives the virus its name (“corona” = crown in Latin) and is believed to enable it to infiltrate human cells.

  “I think that slowly we’re beginning to come to a consensus,” said Judd Hultquist, a virologist at Northwestern University.

  And although it won’t help the quest for a cure, understanding the role of these mutations is critical for understanding how the virus works. This, in turn, would allow scientists to track mutations and help them discern which might enhance the virus’s capability to destroy human life.

  “Understanding how transmissions are happening won’t be a magic bullet, but it will help us respond better,” Sabeti said. “This is a race against time.”

  Though, to be sure, even with all the research that’s been done so far, scientists can’t say much, if anything, for certain about the mutation. There may be other explanations for the G variant’s dominance in the global pandemic: perhaps biases in where genetic data are being collected has led it to be overrepresented in samples, or quirks that led the “G” variant to dominate in particularly susceptible populations.

  “The bottom line is, we haven’t seen anything definitive yet,” said Jeremy Luban, a virologist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

  Remember that the next time you hear Trump, Dr. Fauci or the White House “vaccine czar” discuss the possibility of having a vaccine available by year end, or next time you see a country contract to buy millions of doses of Gilead’s remdesivir, just keep this in mind.

  

• Forbes Censors Award-Winning Environmentalist's Apology Over Three-Decade 'Climate Scare' – So Here It Is
  Forbes Censors Award-Winning Environmentalist’s Apology Over Three-Decade ‘Climate Scare’ – So Here It Is
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 19:35

  Forbes has decided to unpublish an article by award-winning climate activist Michael Shellenberger, in which he apologizes “for the climate scare we created over the last 30 years.”

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  Schellenberger, a progressive, was named one of TIME‘s “Heroes of the Environment,” while his book Break Through was heralded by WIRED as potentially “the best thing to happen to environmentalism since Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.”

  His book Apocalypse Never was widely praised as an ‘eye-opening, fact-based approach’ to climate science and ‘engaging and well-researched.’

  Now that he’s apologized for three-decades of climate alarmism, Forbes has now blocked Shellenberger’s article without explanation.

  So, here it is:

  * * *

  Authored by Michael Shellenberger via Environmental Progress  (emphasis ours)

  On Behalf Of Environmentalists, I Apologize For The Climate Scare

  On behalf of environmentalists everywhere, I would like to formally apologize for the climate scare we created over the last 30 years. Climate change is happening. It’s just not the end of the world. It’s not even our most serious environmental problem. 

  I may seem like a strange person to be saying all of this. I have been a climate activist for 20 years and an environmentalist for 30. 

  But as an energy expert asked by Congress to provide objective expert testimony, and invited by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to serve as Expert Reviewer of its next Assessment Report, I feel an obligation to apologize for how badly we environmentalists have misled the public.

  Here are some facts few people know:

  • Humans are not causing a “sixth mass extinction” 

  • The Amazon is not “the lungs of the world”

  • Climate change is not making natural disasters worse

  • Fires have declined 25% around the world since 2003

  • The amount of land we use for meat — humankind’s biggest use of land — has declined by an area nearly as large as Alaska

  • The build-up of wood fuel and more houses near forests, not climate change, explain why there are more, and more dangerous, fires in Australia and California

  • Carbon emissions are declining in most rich nations and have been declining in Britain, Germany, and France since the mid-1970s 

  • Adapting to life below sea level made the Netherlands rich not poor

  • We produce 25% more food than we need and food surpluses will continue to rise as the world gets hotter

  • Habitat loss and the direct killing of wild animals are bigger threats to species than climate change

  • Wood fuel is far worse for people and wildlife than fossil fuels

  • Preventing future pandemics requires more not less “industrial” agriculture

  I know that the above facts will sound like “climate denialism” to many people. But that just shows the power of climate alarmism. 

  In reality, the above facts come from the best-available scientific studies, including those conducted by or accepted by the IPCC, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and other leading scientific bodies. 

  Some people will, when they read this imagine that I’m some right-wing anti-environmentalist. I’m not. At 17, I lived in Nicaragua to show solidarity with the Sandinista socialist revolution. At 23 I raised money for Guatemalan women’s cooperatives. In my early 20s I lived in the semi-Amazon doing research with small farmers fighting land invasions. At 26 I helped expose poor conditions at Nike factories in Asia. 

  I became an environmentalist at 16 when I threw a fundraiser for Rainforest Action Network. At 27 I helped save the last unprotected ancient redwoods in California. In my 30s I advocated renewables and successfully helped persuade the Obama administration to invest $90 billion into them. Over the last few years I helped save enough nuclear plants from being replaced by fossil fuels to prevent a sharp increase in emissions 

  But until last year, I mostly avoided speaking out against the climate scare. Partly that’s because I was embarrassed. After all, I am as guilty of alarmism as any other environmentalist. For years, I referred to climate change as an “existential” threat to human civilization, and called it a “crisis.” 

  But mostly I was scared. I remained quiet about the climate disinformation campaign because I was afraid of losing friends and funding. The few times I summoned the courage to defend climate science from those who misrepresent it I suffered harsh consequences. And so I mostly stood by and did next to nothing as my fellow environmentalists terrified the public.

  I even stood by as people in the White House and many in the news media tried to destroy the reputation and career of an outstanding scientist, good man, and friend of mine, Roger Pielke, Jr., a lifelong progressive Democrat and environmentalist who testified in favor of carbon regulations. Why did they do that? Because his research proves natural disasters aren’t getting worse. 

  But then, last year, things spiraled out of control. 

  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said “The world is going to end in twelve years if we don’t address climate change.” Britain’s most high-profile environmental group claimed “Climate Change Kills Children.” 

  The world’s most influential green journalist, Bill McKibben, called climate change the “greatest challenge humans have ever faced” and said it would “wipe out civilizations.” 

  Mainstream journalists reported, repeatedly, that the Amazon was “the lungs of the world,” and that deforestation was like a nuclear bomb going off.

  As a result, half of the people surveyed around the world last year said they thought climate change would make humanity extinct. And in January, one out of five British children told pollsters they were having nightmares about climate change.

  Whether or not you have children you must see how wrong this is. I admit I may be sensitive because I have a teenage daughter. After we talked about the science she was reassured. But her friends are deeply misinformed and thus, understandably, frightened. 

  I thus decided I had to speak out. I knew that writing a few articles wouldn’t be enough. I needed a book to properly lay out all of the evidence. 

   And so my formal apology for our fear-mongering comes in the form of my new book, Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All. 

  It is based on two decades of research and three decades of environmental activism. At 400 pages, with 100 of them endnotes, Apocalypse Never covers climate change, deforestation, plastic waste, species extinction, industrialization, meat, nuclear energy, and renewables.

  Some highlights from the book:

  • Factories and modern farming are the keys to human liberation and environmental progress 

  • The most important thing for saving the environment is producing more food, particularly meat, on less land 

  • The most important thing for reducing air pollution and carbon emissions is moving from wood to coal to petroleum to natural gas to uranium 

  • 100% renewables would require increasing the land used for energy from today’s 0.5% to 50% 

  • We should want cities, farms, and power plants to have higher, not lower, power densities

  • Vegetarianism reduces one’s emissions by less than 4%

  • Greenpeace didn’t save the whales, switching from whale oil to petroleum and palm oil did

  • “Free-range” beef would require 20 times more land and produce 300% more emissions

  • Greenpeace dogmatism worsened forest fragmentation of the Amazon

  • The colonialist approach to gorilla conservation in the Congo produced a backlash that may have resulted in the killing of 250 elephants

  Why were we all so misled?

  In the final three chapters of Apocalypse Never I expose the financial, political, and ideological motivations. Environmental groups have accepted hundreds of millions of dollars from fossil fuel interests. Groups motivated by anti-humanist beliefs forced the World Bank to stop trying to end poverty and instead make poverty “sustainable.” And status anxiety, depression, and hostility to modern civilization are behind much of the alarmism

  Once you realize just how badly misinformed we have been, often by people with plainly unsavory or unhealthy motivations, it is hard not to feel duped. 

  Will Apocalypse Never make any difference? There are certainly reasons to doubt it. 

  The news media have been making apocalyptic pronouncements about climate change since the late 1980s, and do not seem disposed to stop. 

  The ideology behind environmental alarmsim — Malthusianism — has been repeatedly debunked for 200 years and yet is more powerful than ever.

  But there are also reasons to believe that environmental alarmism will, if not come to an end, have diminishing cultural power. 

  The coronavirus pandemic is an actual crisis that puts the climate “crisis” into perspective. Even if you think we have overreacted, Covid-19 has killed nearly 500,000 people and shattered economies around the globe.

  Scientific institutions including WHO and IPCC have undermined their credibility through the repeated politicization of science. Their future existence and relevance depends on new leadership and serious reform.

  Facts still matter, and social media is allowing for a wider range of new and independent voices to outcompete alarmist environmental journalists at legacy publications. 

  Nations are reverting openly to self-interest and away from Malthusianism and neoliberalism, which is good for nuclear and bad for renewables.

  The evidence is overwhelming that our high-energy civilization is better for people and nature than the low-energy civilization that climate alarmists would return us to. 

  The invitations from IPCC and Congress are signs of a growing openness to new thinking about climate change and the environment. Another one has been to the response to my book from climate scientists, conservationists, and environmental scholars. “Apocalypse Never is an extremely important book,” writes Richard Rhodes, the Pulitzer-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb. “This may be the most important book on the environment ever written,” says one of the fathers of modern climate science Tom Wigley.

  “We environmentalists condemn those with antithetical views of being ignorant of science and susceptible to confirmation bias,” wrote the former head of The Nature Conservancy, Steve McCormick. “But too often we are guilty of the same.  Shellenberger offers ‘tough love:’ a challenge to entrenched orthodoxies and rigid, self-defeating mindsets.  Apocalypse Never serves up occasionally stinging, but always well-crafted, evidence-based points of view that will help develop the ‘mental muscle’ we need to envision and design not only a hopeful, but an attainable, future.”

  That is all I hoped for in writing it. If you’ve made it this far, I hope you’ll agree that it’s perhaps not as strange as it seems that a lifelong environmentalist, progressive, and climate activist felt the need to speak out against the alarmism. 

  I further hope that you’ll accept my apology.

  

• 'Golden State Killer' Pleads Guilty In Deal To Avoid Death Penalty
  ‘Golden State Killer’ Pleads Guilty In Deal To Avoid Death Penalty
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 19:15

  Update (1800ET): As expected, Joseph James DeAngelo, 74, pleaded guilty on Monday to the first of 13 counts of first-degree murder charges against him.

  As Reuters reports, DeAngelo, dressed in an orange jail garb and seated in a wheelchair between his two attorneys, answered “guilty” in a raspy voice when the judge asked how he pleaded.

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  The former police officer who was finally arrested in April 2018 in Sacramento County and accused of being the Golden State Killer, a serial rapist and murder who terrorized northern and southern California during the 1970s and 1980s, is facing a major hearing on Monday where he will plead guilty in a deal that will spare him the death penalty, but land the elderly suspect in prison for the rest of his natural life.

  Joseph DeAngelo, the suspect, will appear before a state judge on Monday, for a preliminary hearing where he’s expected to plead guilty in a deal to avoid the death penaltyy.

  But instead of being in a courtroom, DeAngelo will be in a California State University–Sacramento ballroom, standing before a large group of socially-distanced victims and family members. With more than 150 victims and relatives prepared to attend, prosecutors secured a room large enough to accommodate everybody while ensuring social distancing would be possible. The ballroom can hold a total of 2,000 people.

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  The “Golden State Killer”, as he eventually became known, DeAngelo may be better remembered as the first criminal suspect to be captured due to the use of a new technique called “genetic genealogy.” American law enforcement keep a database of DNA for Americans and criminal suspects. This database is known as CODIS.

  However, the new technique allows police to find a suspect by triangulating people who might be related to the suspect. That technique turned up several of DeAngelo’s relatives, then a closer look into his profile led to his apprehension. Since his arrest, 150 other suspects have been identified using the technique.

  The Golden State killer had many nicknames over the years, including the original Night Stalker, and East Area Rapist. His MO was breaking into sleeping couples’ suburban homes at night, binding the man and piling dishes on his back. He would rape the woman, threatening to kill them both if he heard the plates fall.

  It’s not a guarantee that DeAngelo will plead guilty on Monday, but such a plea would avoid a trial and preliminary hearings, sparing the victims and their families some grief. Regardless of what happens today, victims are expecting to confront DeAngelo at his sentencing in August, where it’s expected to take several days to tell DeAngelo and Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman what they have suffered before the formal sentence is handed down (unless he somehow gets off between now and then, or commits suicide).

  GSK’s alleged crimes spanned 11 counties in California from 1974 through mid-1986, and he eluded investigators for years.

  

• Three Ideas To End The Rot On College Campuses
  Three Ideas To End The Rot On College Campuses
  
  Tyler Durden
  
  Mon, 06/29/2020 – 18:55

  Authored by Charles Lipson via RealClearPolitics.com,

  In the early 1950s, at the nadir of McCarthyism, the Cincinnati Reds baseball team was so fearful of anti-communist crusaders that it actually changed the team’s name. Overnight, they reverted to their original name, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, and then for several years became the Redlegs. The anti-communism was justified; the mob mentality was not.

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  Today, we are all Redlegs. This time, the repression is coming from the left.

  It’s not just that a careless word can cost your job, it’s that people tremble in fear that they might say the wrong word. Today, as in the past, the loudest, most extreme voices claim the right to control speech and judge whether it is worthy of being heard at all. The giants of technology and media have either bowed to these demands or embraced them enthusiastically. The result, as in the early 1950s, is a shriveled, impoverished public square. Genuine debate is suppressed, even in classrooms, which should nurture informed discussion with multiple viewpoints. All too often they have become pipelines for indoctrination.

  What’s wrong with this rigid groupthink?

  First, it takes real problems, such as police misconduct or Confederate statues, and inflates them for political purposes. It vastly exaggerates their extent and gravity, mistakenly generalizes them (Ulysses Grant is not Stonewall Jackson), ignores significant progress in correcting old errors, calls any disagreement “racist,” and relies on intimidation and sometimes violence, not democratic procedures, to get their way.

  The loudest voices say America and its history are fundamentally evil, that its institutions need to be smashed so they can be reestablished on “socially just” foundations. The mob and their fellow travelers will determine what is just. Who gives them that right? This arrogation of power and attack on public order will not end well.

  The second problem is that America’s major institutions have been overwhelmed by these demands and have bowed down to them. Public trust has eroded in all America’s major institutions since the late 1960s. We now see the supine results. Instead of standing up to this swelling irrationalism and intimidation, they have appeased it—and sometimes embraced it. Predictably, appeasement has only fueled more extreme demands.

  The rot began in America’s universities before spreading to mass media, cultural magazines, philanthropies, museums, and corporations. More and more parents are concerned that it now suffuses K-12 education. They don’t want a Pollyanna history, but neither do they want their children indoctrinated with a grim, doctrinaire view that America is an evil nation, incapable of reforming its own defects.

  Universities have led this parade of self-flagellation. One reason is that so many administrators and professors agree with the mob demands. The second is that prudent faculty and staff know where the risks lay. Their careers would be endangered, perhaps terminated, by resisting the bullhorns and barricades. The smart career move is to affirm the most strident cries, publicly renounce your old (and now wrong) views, apologize on bended knee, and hope you will not be sent to the rice paddies to learn from the peasants’ wisdom.

  Can anything be done?

  Yes. And it should begin in universities, where so many of the problems began.

  First, universities must publicly reassert the first principle of academic inquiry: free and open debate is essential to research and learning. Bad arguments should be rebutted with better ones, bad data and methods with better ones. How do we know which arguments, data, and methods are bad? Only through vigorous debate.

  To understand why this approach is so crucial, ask yourself: Why is social science so dreadful in the People’s Republic of China and other totalitarian states? Because the “wrong” answers lead to dismissal, dishonor, and even death. Knowing that, the best scholars avoid those fields altogether. Even if their current views are approved, they might be forbidden tomorrow and these scholars will inevitably face political restraints in searching for answers to important questions. Those restraints and their consequences are well known. It is madness to impose them on ourselves.

  In the midst of this full-scale assault on free speech, have universities issued full-throated defenses of open inquiry as the foundation of education? No. Hillsdale College in rural Michigan has done so, and perhaps a handful of  “Bible schools,” but they are rarer than Republican professors of English literature. What almost all universities have issued are vapid letters, reaffirming their commitment to “diversity and inclusion.” Many have said they will pump more money into those projects, which they have already sustained for decades. They say nothing about intellectual diversity, which they don’t consider diversity at all.

  Stating principles of free speech and free inquiry is essential, but it is not enough. Sound principles must be reiterated, and they must be reinforced with best practices. Students, faculty and staff need to know the university’s commitment is more than an empty gesture. Before freshmen arrive on campus, they need to be told their university supports free speech and free inquiry and will not tolerate their suppression. These crucial points should be emphasized during Orientation Week. So, too, should the university’s commitment to enforcing the rules. Students accused of suppressing others’ speech should be accorded due process (which has long been missing on campus), but they also need to face consequences if they are found guilty. Otherwise, the principles are vacuous. Deans of students who don’t enforce these rules should become ex-deans.

  There is a role here for university boards of trustees. They should not intervene in day-to-day academic decisions, such as tenure, but they should insist on basic rules supporting free speech and effective procedures to punish violations. Insisting on these rules and procedures is well within the scope of the university’s governing board. Indeed, it is their duty.

  Second, individual teachers should be told they will be protected if they encourage debate and free inquiry in class. They need a “safe harbor,” even if some students don’t like what they hear, see, or read. University administrators need to give them that protection. You and I might be offended by D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” or Leni Riefenstahl’s “Triumph of the Will,” but they are important movies and perfectly appropriate to screen in some classes. Of course, students should be prepared for them and told why they matter. If some students would be traumatized, teachers should try to find ways to accommodate them. But it is no better to exclude important films for fear of political objections than to exclude Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs for fear of religious ones.

  As an alternative to the malleable and weaponized “trigger warnings,” faculty could add to their self-protection (and students’ education) by including a statement of principle to their reading lists. They ought to say—and mean—that they never intend to hurt, insult, or denigrate any student or belittle any group. Rather, they intend to use their scholarly skills to illuminate these issues as best they can. They should add that, if some students disagree with a reading or interpretation, that is exactly what critical thinking plus free speech allows–and what indoctrination prohibits. What students cannot do is shut down legitimate class discussions, however strongly they might disagree. They cannot substitute feelings, epithets, or personal attacks for substantive arguments. Serious academic discussion is based on empirical evidence and theoretical conjectures, presented coherently and debated openly. Students should know these rules when the semester begins and told why they matter. If they disagree in principle, the university should have warned them not to come in the first place.

  Third, state legislatures should insist that public universities adhere to the First Amendment’s protections for free speech and peaceful assembly, with the normal restrictions that apply to those freedoms. (No bullhorns in the dorms at 2 a.m., and no shouting down of invited speakers at any hour.) Like boards of trustees, they should not intervene in day-to-day university activities; that, too, would threaten academic freedom. But they should insist that university presidents and deans of students reiterate the importance of freedom of speech, explain its role in higher education, and avoid watering it down with qualifying statements implying “social justice” can override free speech. Social justice, like other important concepts, must be debated, not used as a “cone of silence” for discordant views. Legislatures, governors, and state boards of higher education have every right to demand clear principles of free speech and effective procedures to punish violations.

  Whether the federal government should insist on similar principles and enforcement, and use federal funding as a lever, is a more complex issue. Worthy as the goal is, it is yet another step toward centralizing all decision making in Washington, crushing both federalism and civil society. That trade-off is worth a serious debate in its own right.

  Whatever role Washington plays, universities need to act now, on their own, to reassert the core value of free speech in education. Free inquiry depends on free speech. These values are the bedrock of liberal education in democratic societies. Right now, that bedrock is being washed away in a tidal wave of irrational outrage.

  

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