Jun 30

Today’s News 30th June 2024

  • Don't Let The Elite Get Away With Gaslighting That They Didn't Know About Biden's Senility
    Don’t Let The Elite Get Away With Gaslighting That They Didn’t Know About Biden’s Senility

    Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

    Biden’s disastrous debate performance last week made it impossible to deny his senility, yet the Western elite is gaslighting they were supposedly oblivious to this until now. Time Magazine published a piece titled “Inside Biden’s Debate Disaster and the Scramble to Quell Democratic Panic”, which was complemented by CNN’s about how “Foreign diplomats react with horror to Biden’s dismal debate performance”.

    Both make it seem like Biden’s senility is a surprise for everyone who knew him.

    The reality is that they knew about this all along but covered it up by lying that any claims to this effect were “Russian propaganda” and/or a “conspiracy theory”, all because they actually approved of the Democrats installing a literal placeholder in the White House who the liberal–globalist elite could control. It was a refreshing change of pace from Trump, who was much too independent for their liking despite his occasional capitulations to their demands, and it also reassured America’s allies who disliked him too.

    They both went along with the lie that Biden is in tip-top mental condition for reasons of political convenience, but now it’s impossible to keep up the charade any longer, hence why they’re all feigning surprise and shock. The elite shouldn’t be allowed to get away with their latest gaslighting and should be exposed for one of the greatest cover-ups in American history. The country is being ruled by a shadowy network of transnational and domestic elites that are united by their radical liberal-globalist ideology.

    Biden was chosen as the Democrats’ candidate in 2020 precisely because he was already senile and therefore completely controllable. That party, which functions as the public face of the abovementioned elite network, wanted someone who’d do whatever they demanded on the home and foreign policy fronts. In particular, they sought to turn America into a liberal-globalist hellhole while ramping up NATO’s containment of Russia in Ukraine, but the second policy backfired after the special operation began.

    Nevertheless, they’ll never have another chance to install someone like Biden since 2020 was an exceptional election year due to it being a referendum on Trump – who a significant share of the public was preconditioned to falsely believe is the new Hitler – and mail-in voting due to COVID-19. These conditions can never be replicated in the same way again no matter how hard the elite try, which is why they decided to keep Biden as their candidate instead of replace him early on.

    Although there’s now a push by some for him to be replaced during the party’s upcoming national convention, Politico and NBC News among others both pointed out that this would be a difficult process, so there’s no guarantee that they’ll seriously attempt it. That said, he might also suffer some sort of emergency that incapacitates him more than he already is, so the scenario can’t be ruled out. In that case, they’ll still do everything they can to gaslight that they had no idea that he was so unhealthy.

    Any acknowledgement that they were aware of this would expose their role in 2020’s de facto coup, which was the elite’s latest after the ones in 2001, 1974, and 1963. Back then, 9/11 was exploited as the pretext for taking the national security state to its next level, while Nixon’s resignation in the face of the CIA’s Watergate scandal was meant to remove a truly independent and popular visionary leader. As for Kennedy’s assassination, many believe that it was aimed to stop his planned withdrawal from Vietnam.

    The elite’s latest coup was meant to turbocharge the US’ preexisting liberal-globalist trajectory after Trump partially offset it with his comparatively more conservative-nationalist policies, which necessitated provoking a proxy war with Russia in order to unify the West around this ideological cause. The damage has already been dealt and a lot of it is irreparable, but Trump’s return to power would still be better for Americans and the rest of the world, which is why the elite are dead-set against it.  

    Irrespective of whether the decision is made to replace Biden, which has its pros such as putting a more publicly appealing candidate on the ballot but also its cons like stoking panic about the party’s electoral prospects, the elite will do everything to cover up for their knowledge of his senility. Acknowledging that they knew about this would leave little doubt in the minds of many that the 2020 election was actually the elite’s latest coup, which his why they’re going overboard gaslighting about how they’re surprised.  

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 23:20

  • Are MTA Subway Tracks In Queens Being Held Together By Zip Ties
    Are MTA Subway Tracks In Queens Being Held Together By Zip Ties

    Where is the boatload of tax money New York City takes in going?

    That’s likely the main question on the minds of Gotham’s citizens this week after the NY Post revealed in a report the latest “feature” of riding the prestigious MTA public transit: there appears to be zip ties holding together subway tracks.

    While illegal migrants are being treated to stays in four star hotels in Midtown, it appears NYC citizens riding the train at the Rockaway Boulevard A train station in Ozone Park are footing the bill. They have been left asking if the tracks of the subway they have been riding are barely holding on for dear life. 

    Nursing student Kayle Persaud asked the NY Post: “Should I be worried? If I cut one zip tie, does it start to fall?”

    Photos of the zip ties were first published by AMNY:

    Another subway rider told the Post: “The first time I saw it I thought, ‘Hmm… Is it holding the tracks together?’Even the screws look like they’re not all the way in.”

    A third rider added: “Even if it’s not actually holding the track together, it just looks awful. They could have cut it off or painted it the same color. I hope it’s not holding the tracks together for all the money we pay to travel on the subway.”

    Zip ties on wooden railroad ties are used to prevent splintering and falling debris, according to a track worker and the MTA. MTA officials stated they mark areas needing future repair and are not a safety concern. 

    However, the MTA’s announcement to halt capital projects following Governor Kathy Hochul’s delay of the congestion pricing plan has worried commuters. The congestion pricing was expected to generate $1 billion for $15 billion in improvements. Some commuters criticized the use of zip ties, calling them a “ridiculous” look. 

    “Hopefully, it’s just a sign of laziness,” said New Yorker Rose Mohammed. “We’re supposed to be the greatest city in the world, and we have zip ties around our tracks?”

    MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said: “When inspectors find certain issues, they use ties for temporary protection and to identify locations where following repair crews will make more permanent repairs.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 22:45

  • Trump Sentencing Will Put Merchan's Bias In Crosshairs
    Trump Sentencing Will Put Merchan’s Bias In Crosshairs

    Authored by Kenin Spivak via RealClearPolitics.com,

    On July 11, acting New York Judge Juan Merchan will sentence former President Donald Trump.

    Trump was convicted in a New York State court in Manhattan on a novel theory and on facts never before used to secure a conviction in New York. Disregarding at least a dozen reasons his conviction should be reversed, because Trump was convicted of falsifying records with the intent to commit a second crime – illegally interfering in the 2016 presidential election – the falsification was upgraded to a class E felony, comprising 34 counts, one for each entry. The maximum penalty is four years in jail on each count, not to exceed a total of 20 years.

    New York defendants sentenced to less than a year are usually jailed in notorious Rikers Island, known for its overcrowding, drug problems, and violence. The New York City Council voted to close the facility by 2026. New York Post photos from just a few years ago show the awful conditions there.

    For sentences of a year or longer, Trump could be remanded to one of 41 state prisons for men, though most likely to one of the three minimum security facilities. It seems highly unlikely that the U.S. Secret Service would permit Trump to be held in a New York prison. While space might be made available in a federal prison, or a building converted for exclusive use by Trump, it is more likely that he would serve any sentence in home confinement, wearing an ankle monitor.

    Alternatives to incarceration include probation for up to 10 years, unconditional discharge, or discharge, without probation, conditioned on not committing a further crime during the following three years, and a fine of up to $5,000.

    Merchan could order that confinement be limited to weekends or nights, and could permit exceptions for political or business activities.

    He also could split the sentence, for example, requiring 30 days of home confinement followed by conditional discharge.

    Even if Trump is conditionally discharged or given probation but is later convicted of another crime, he could be remanded to prison. In setting the sentence, Merchan will consider a mandatory Pre-Sentence Report and the nature of the crime in addition to Trump’s background, age, and health. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg follows a policy of not recommending incarceration for those convicted of non-violent class E felonies. During the trial, Merchan observed that he sees incarceration as a “last resort.”

    Trump’s indictment for numerous other crimes and his frequent violations of Merchan’s gag order will make unconditional release less likely. However, Trump’s evaluation also will suffer because of recent verdicts that he is liable for civil fraud and defamation, and for presumably refusing to accept guilt during the pre-sentence interview.

    If Merchan properly considers the nature of the offense, that similar offenses have not been prosecuted in New York, the “false records” were internal Trump accounts, there was no monetary loss, and the so-called effort to interfere in the 2016 election failed in New York (where Clinton overwhelmingly won), and Trump has no prior record, there should be no jail time or home confinement.

    However, if Merchan approaches sentencing with the same antagonism to Trump’s rights he brought to the trial, he can be expected to cite a fraud on the national electorate to justify at least a brief period of home confinement. Even then, it would be shocking if Merchan did not stay the sentence until after the election, pending Trump’s appeal.

    Trump likely will appeal to New York’s intermediate appeals court and will seek to have any sentence stayed pending the outcome of the appeal. Given the multitude of errors at trial and the pending election, it is a near certainty that his request for a stay will be granted.

    Trump could also bring an action in federal district court asserting that Bragg and Merchan lacked jurisdiction to accuse him of interfering in a federal election, and he was not given adequate notice of the alleged crimes. It is unlikely a federal judge would get involved prior to a state appeals court. Trump could seek intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court, but federal statutes generally require that the highest court in a state rule before the Supreme Court intervenes.

    In the end, it seems likely that Trump’s conviction will be overturned. Whether the sentence is harsh or a slap on the wrist, the entire process has been a political prosecution intended to keep Trump off the campaign trail and give Biden the talking point that Trump is a convicted felon. That flagrant abuse of due process is not how our justice or electoral systems are supposed to work.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 22:10

  • Pentagon Exposes Biden Lie That Troop Deaths Haven't Occurred Under His Watch
    Pentagon Exposes Biden Lie That Troop Deaths Haven’t Occurred Under His Watch

    The Pentagon is trying to run cover following Biden’s Thursday night debate falsehood claiming that he is the “only” president this century who hasn’t overseen American troop deaths “anywhere in the world”. But journalists forced a belated response.

    Here’s what Biden asserted in the CNN debate with Trump: “The truth is, I’m the only president this century that doesn’t have any this — this decade, that doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world, like [Trump] did.” But the reality is…

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    Newsmax and others have pointed out that all of the following happened under Biden, some which is relatively recent: 

    There have been 16 U.S. troops killed overseas since Biden took office, with 13 during the retreat from Afghanistan on Aug. 26, 2021, and three just five months ago in Jordan. Biden also glossed over the large number of U.S. troops that have perished in training incidents during his time in office.

    In April 2023, nine soldiers were killed during a training exercise in Kentucky and 20 U.S. service members have been killed in Osprey-related crashed alone from March 2022 through November 2023, as noted by NBC News.

    The Pentagon press secretary was asked about the discrepancy in a Friday press briefing, and whether she stands by the president’s statement…

    “Thank you for the question. For more on the president’s comments and on the debate itself, I’d refer you to the White House,” spokesperson Sabrina Singh said, trying to deflect the question.

    “But in terms of our service members who have been killed in some tragic events around the world … you’ve seen the president call these families to express condolences. This is someone that has intimately experienced the commitment and dedication of what our military does,” she added.

    Singh was asked the same question a second time after the attempted dodge:

    “Just to be clear, was the president’s statement incorrect?”

    “Again, not trying to get involved in that,” Singh said.

    A journalist pressed her for the third time: “Has President Biden had service members die anywhere in the world during his time in office?”

    To which she reluctantly responded: “As you have reported on, we have certainly had service members pass during this administration, and you’ve seen not just the secretary, but the president, weigh in and comment and offer condolences,” Singh finally admitted. She clearly tried to initially desperately avoid contradicting Biden’s claim, but the truth proved too obvious in the end.

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    Does Biden himself even remember what he tried to claim in the Thursday night debate? 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 21:35

  • Warren Buffett Reveals Plans For $130 Billion Fortune In His Will
    Warren Buffett Reveals Plans For $130 Billion Fortune In His Will

    Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times,

    Famed investor Warren Buffett has revealed details of his will, with the 93-year-old founder of Berkshire Hathaway charting a charitable course for his vast $130 billion fortune after he passes away.

    In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Buffett said that he intends for nearly all of his immense fortune to be put into a charitable trust that will be used to help the less fortunate.

    “It should be used to help the people that haven’t been as lucky as we have been,” Mr. Buffett told the outlet.

    His three children—Howard, Susan, and Peter Buffett—will manage the trust, he said. In order for a donation to be made, all three will have to be in agreement on the cause, he said.

    “There’s eight billion people in the world, and me and my kids, we’ve been in the luckiest 100th of 1 percent or something,” Mr. Buffett said.

    “There’s lots of ways to help people.”

    In 2006, Mr. Buffett committed to making annual gifts to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as four foundations associated with his family.

    At the time, it was a mystery what he would do with his fortune after his death. However, in the June 28 interview, Mr. Buffett revealed that the donations to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would come to an end.

    “The Gates Foundation has no money coming after my death,” Mr. Buffett told the outlet.

    Besides that, the billionaire investor hasn’t prescribed to his children how to spend the money.

    “I feel very, very good about the values of my three children, and I have 100 percent trust in how they will carry things out,” Mr. Buffett said.

    In a press release issued on June 28, Mr. Buffett said the full contents of his will are to stay secret until his death, but that his Nov. 21, 2023, letter to shareholders set forth procedures of his will that are “unlikely to be changed before my death.”

    ‘Playing in Extra Innings’

    In the Nov. 21, 2023, letter Mr. Buffett noted his advanced age while shedding light on the future governance of his vast fortune.

    “I feel good but fully realize I am playing in extra innings,” he wrote.

    At the time, he disclosed that his three children would serve as executors of his will and trustees of a charitable trust that would receive more than 99 percent of his wealth.

    Mr. Buffett wrote in the letter that, when he started giving his fortune away in 2006, his children were not prepared to assume the “awesome responsibility” of managing the process. However, “they are now,” he said.

    In his June 28 statement, Mr. Buffett announced that he had donated $5.3 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities.

    The $5.3 billion was his biggest annual donation to date, bringing his total giving to the charities to roughly $57 billion.

    Despite having given away more than half of his Berkshire stock since 2006, Buffett still owns about one-seventh of the outstanding shares.

    “I have no debts and my remaining A shares are worth about $127 billion, roughly 99½ percent of my net worth,” Mr. Buffett said in the statement. “Nothing extraordinary has occurred at Berkshire; a very long runway, simple but generally sound capital deployment, the American tailwind and compounding effects produced my current wealth.’

    “My will provides that more than 99 percent of my estate is destined for philanthropic usage,” he said.

    Besides the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr. Buffett has donated to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which funds abortion drugs; the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which works to alleviate hunger and improve public safety; the Sherwood Foundation, which supports Nebraska nonprofits; and the NoVo Foundation, which has initiatives focused on minority girls and women.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 21:00

  • He's Just Sundowning: Biden Admin Spins Debate Meltdown – While Family 'Oligarchy' Decides Fate
    He’s Just Sundowning: Biden Admin Spins Debate Meltdown – While Family ‘Oligarchy’ Decides Fate

    How bad must those Hur tapes be?

    Following President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance on Thursday, the world saw that his cognitive decline isn’t some right-wing conspiracy theory fueled by “cheapfakes” – and that the White House’s desperate attempts to cover for Biden’s obvious dementia were nothing more than propaganda.

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    It’s so bad that the NY Times Editorial Board has called for Biden to quit the 2024 race.

    It’s so bad that the White House is now telling Axios that Biden is ‘dependably engaged’ between the hours of 10am to 4pm, and that outside of that range, he’s ‘more likely to have verbal miscues and become fatigued.’

    In other words: he’s sundowning hard.

    Which would explain why he looked like he swapped out Hunter’s Finest for his morning sugar at a mid-day rally on Friday, with no hint of a ‘cold’ we’ve been told explains his debate performance.

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    Yet, Biden will tune out calls to exit the race unless his ‘kitchen cabinet’ of lifelong family advisors counsels him to do so, Axios also reports.

    Dave Smith explains during his debate recap:

    According to Axios, “The only way President Biden steps aside, despite his debate debacle, is if the same small group of lifelong loyalists who enabled his run suddenly — and shockingly — decides it’s time for him to call it quits.”

    Dr. Jill Biden; his younger sister, Valerie Biden; and 85-year-old Ted Kaufman, the president’s longtime friend and constant adviser — plus a small band of White House advisers — are the only Biden deciders.

    …

    This decades-long kitchen cabinet operates as an extended family, council of elders and governing oligarchy. These allies alone hold sway over decisions big and small in Biden’s life and presidency.

    • The president engaged in no organized process outside his family in deciding to run for a second term, the N.Y. Times’ Peter Baker reports.
    • Then Biden alone made the decision, people close to him tell us.

    According to the report, if Biden refuses to quit – it’s because “He and the oligarchy believe he has a much better chance of being former President Trump than Vice President Harris does.”

    Additionally, Axios also notes that:

    • Biden allies have played out the scenarios and see little chance of anyone besides Harris winning the nomination if he stepped aside.
    • Is the Democratic Party going to deny the nomination to the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected V.P.? Hard to see.
    • These allies privately think Harris would struggle to pull moderate and swing voters, and would enhance Trump’s chances. (Harris “fares only one or two points worse than Biden in polls with margins of sampling error that are much larger than that,” The Washington Post found.)

    Meanwhile, Democratic congressional leaders are receiving panicked calls and texts from colleagues who think Biden’s weakness could also cost the party House and Senate seats in November.

    “This is no longer about Joe Biden’s family or his emotions,” said one adviser who’s in ‘constant touch’ with the West Wing. “This is about our country. It’s an utter f***ing disaster that has to be addressed.“

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 20:25

  • Magical, Mysterious, And Sometimes Dangerous Food Ingredients That Are Impossible To Pronounce
    Magical, Mysterious, And Sometimes Dangerous Food Ingredients That Are Impossible To Pronounce

    Authored by Matthew Little via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    Not long ago, people could only dream of the foods we have today. Tasty, cheap, and ready to eat. They last forever, look great, and come in endless varieties. Ultra-processed foods are a dream come true.

    Illustration by The Epoch Times

    These new foods have achieved their incredible feats thanks to innovations in processing and a long list of additives that grant them superpowers denied to the foods eaten by previous generations.

    Some of these additives do important work, like keep food bacteria-free or let it stay safe from spoiling without need for refrigeration. But others are “experiential” and do things like make the food bright red or give it a more satisfying texture.

    Additives come in a variety of types. There are preservatives, flavorings, colors, stabilizers, emulsifiers, firming agents, humectants, and more. They have names like “titanium dioxide,” “sodium benzoate,” and “xanthan gum.” And the fact that people are living longer despite most Americans mostly eating ultra-processed foods would seem to indicate their safety.

    Except that they are linked to many chronic diseases like cancer, and many other issues, including depression, and anxiety, and may contribute to cognitive decline. They may even be addictive.

    Many additives have come under increasing scrutiny, with some states even banning some of them. And in some other countries, additives used in the United States have been banned for years.

    While it’s easy to blame food makers for adding ingredients that may make us less healthy, the truth is that we buy what they sell, and ask for more—at the cheapest price possible.

    My wife and I do stock some ready-to-eat foods though. Many grocery stores stock vacuum-sealed pouches of Indian food for $3, including rich dishes like baingan bharta, madras lentils, and palak paneer. The names may sound unfamiliar, but if you’ve ever eaten at an Indian restaurant, you know the food is well-flavored, typically a little expensive, and very satisfying.

    And the thing that has always amazed me about the instant pouches is the stunning lack of weird ingredients. They are full of whole foods and spices with nothing that’s hard to pronounce. It makes me wonder what kind of foods the innovative companies in the United States could come up with if we really wanted them to.

    America created ready-to-eat processed foods that have spread around the world, delivering exactly what we wanted in terms of price, flavor, and convenience. Now we just need to ask for foods with higher-quality ingredients and fewer additives that have uncertain effects on our brains and bodies.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 19:50

  • Deadly Attack On Israeli Embassy By Crossbow-Armed Terrorist
    Deadly Attack On Israeli Embassy By Crossbow-Armed Terrorist

    A bizarre attack on Israel’s embassy in the Serbian capital of Belgrade has unfolded Saturday, and ended in the death of the attacker, and a wounded security guard now fighting for his life.

    Serbia’s interior ministry is calling the incident a terrorist attack which involved a man armed with a crossbow shooting a police officer, wounding him in the neck, before the officer shot the assailant dead. Authorities are in the aftermath looking at links to Islamic extremism. 

    Via Associated Press

    The Serbian government statement indicated the officer who had been protecting the embassy “used a weapon in self-defense to shoot the attacker, who died as a result of his injuries.”

    A bolt was fired from the crossbow, and lodged in the officer’s neck. He was still conscious but described as in life-threatening condition upon being transported to the hospital.

    Authorities are describing that the assault was likely motivated by Islamic terror. According to a statement:

    “There are some indications that [those arrested] are already known to security services and we are talking about the Wahhabi organization, but that is not confirmed,” Dačić said, referring to a strict school of Islam.

    The officer was in a guard house and the attacker had approached him several times asking him where a museum was. He carried a bag from which at one point he took the crossbow and shot the guard, Dačić said.

    Serbia has maintained close relations with Israel and has even been supplying weapons to Tel Aviv throughout the course of the ongoing Gaza operations.

    For example, Middle East Eye has documented: 

    The Israeli newspaper Haaretz and Balkan Insight recently revealed that Belgrade was still exporting large volumes of weapons and ammunition to Israel, and ramped up exports this year amid the current war on Gaza.

    Both publications reported that Serbia exported at least €16.3m ($17.1m) worth of weapons to Israel through Israeli military planes as well as some civilian aircraft using Greek airspace, possibly also carrying crucial 155mm artillery rounds, produced by the Serbian state company Krusik. 

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    Israeli officials have meanwhile feared that the longer the Gaza operation persists, the greater chance of Israeli embassies and consulates abroad coming under physical attack.

    Already there have been been major anti-Israel protests throughout the world, including in front of consulates abroad. However, this is the first time a weapon like a crossbow has been used and resulted in a live fire incident.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 19:15

  • Did Fauci Admit That School Closures Were A Mistake?
    Did Fauci Admit That School Closures Were A Mistake?

    Authored by Ian Miller via The Brownstone Institute,

    Anthony Fauci actually concedes that he may have been mistaken?

    Stop the presses!

    It’s hard to believe considering the list of his policy failures, spectacular misinformation, and revisionist history is almost quite literally endless.

    Yet in a recent media interview, Fauci stated that a nationwide policy that he supported actually didn’t work. Kinda.

    If only he’d been willing to admit this years ago.

    Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the country’s foremost proponents of closing schools in a futile attempt to slow the spread of Covid, now admits that he may have taken it too far. Whoops!

    Fauci is out on his book tour, doing the rounds with friendly media outlets in support of his self-congratulatory, revisionist exploration of the pandemic. And in an interview with CBS Mornings, Fauci explained that maybe, just maybe, keeping schools closed for years was actually a bad idea.

    Co-host Tony Dokoupil asked Fauci about schools, and initially, Fauci downplayed what a disastrous result his advocacy caused. “One clear area seems to be the school closures, which did enormous harm to kids on multiple levels,” Dokoupil said, “and didn’t seem to save lives. And I wonder, can we say today that that is a mistake?”

    Fauci, of course, said “No,” because admitting that a policy he authorized was an unmitigated failure would mean accepting his role in creating that failure. Instead, as is his usual procedure, he deflected blame onto others. Just as a good scientist should.

    “Keeping it for a year was not a good idea,” Fauci said. “So, that was a mistake in retrospect?” Dokoupil asked. “We will not repeat it?”

    “Absolutely, yeah,” Fauci replied.

    Well, look who finally caught up to the damage he caused! And make no mistake, this most certainly is all on him.

    WASHINGTON, DC – Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing at the White House on November 19, 2020. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

    Anthony Fauci Once Again Directly Contradicts Anthony Fauci

    Fauci now pretends as if he had nothing to do with keeping schools closed long after they should have been reopened. But of course, that completely contracts his harmful, unconstitutional, ‘flatten the curve’ mandates to America in real-time during the height of the pandemic in 2020.

    In September 2020, Fauci described reopening efforts as “very concerning.” Even earlier, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spoke about wanting to get schools open as soon as possible, Fauci criticized him and his plan: “If you have a situation where you don’t have real good control over an outbreak and you allow children together, they will likely get infected.”

    Fauci also criticized Sen. Rand Paul for pushing for schools to open amid the clear realization that children were not at significant risk of serious side effects from Covid. “I think we better be careful that we’re not cavalier, in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects,” he said at the time.

    Then in 2022, he told ABC News, “I don’t want to use the word ‘mistake,’” when referring to school closures. “If I do, it gets taken out of the context that you’re asking me the question on,” he continued. “We should realize, and have realized, that there will be deleterious collateral consequences when you do something like that.”

    But that was exactly the sentiment of DeSantis, and even former President Donald Trump in 2020. They warned that keeping kids home wasn’t going to save lives or even prevent the spread of the virus. And as we saw from Europe’s results, they were right. Fauci criticized them regardless because he not only supported school closures, but he even demanded they do so.

    Even now, he still speaks derisively about Dr. Scott Atlas, whose top priority on the Covid task force was getting schools open. In another MSNBC interview, Fauci said that Atlas told Trump “everything he wanted to hear.”

    Fauci didn’t want schools open, because he mistakenly believed closing them and other public spaces would have an impact on the spread of Covid. It didn’t. Just like masks didn’t have an impact, or vaccine passports, or getting huge numbers of people vaccinated. Nothing Fauci said would help actually worked. But admitting that is an impossibility for someone whose ego, willingness to hide information and condescending, patronizing attitude don’t allow for mistakes.

    And his Covid mandates were undoubtedly used for more malicious purposes than ‘stopping the spread’ of a virus.

    *  *  *

    Republished from the author’s Substack

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 18:40

  • How Uninhabited Terrain Became A Hotbed For Black Market Marijuana
    How Uninhabited Terrain Became A Hotbed For Black Market Marijuana

    Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The air is thick with the unmistakable pungent stench of cannabis plants in a massive network of illegal grow operations in a rural part of northern California, as Mount Shasta looms on the horizon.

    (Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images, Public Domain, John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Gated-off with chain link and wire fences—some with tattered shreds of privacy screening—the properties northeast of Weed, Calif., near Montague, are a compound of ramshackle huts, old RVs, and cheaply-made greenhouses of hoops and plastic.

    Several spotters in vehicles patrol the dusty roads, watching for police and intruders near the site off Shasta Vista Drive.

    These “guards” are often armed with automatic rifles, according to Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue.

    The sheriff estimates about 90 percent of the nearly 2,000 properties in the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision are involved in illegal grow operations.

    Miles from Interstate 5, the illegal grow operations are out-of-sight and out-of-mind for most people, but even a glance at a satellite map reveals the vast network.

    “If you zoom out, that subdivision is pretty large—nine square miles,” Mr. LaRue said.

    The lots are on volcanic soil. Unsuitable for water wells and septic systems, the land is far from an ideal spot to build a “dream home,” he said.

    The once essentially uninhabited terrain is now scattered with makeshift shelters and other structures built without permits in camps that look like they belong “in a third-world country,” he said.

    The illegal cannabis operations have brought serious crime, including robberies, theft, and five unsolved homicides, he said.

    A recent armed robbery allegedly involved outsiders robbing people who were selling marijuana, Mr. LaRue said.

    “That doesn’t happen, generally speaking, to people that are growing alfalfa or cherries, or strawberries or corn. So, it’s a crop that really brings just a massive amount of violent crime with it,” he said. “People are willing to die for marijuana for some reason.”

    Hundreds of illegal marijuana grow operations are located outside of Montague, Calif., on May 7, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

    Legalizing Marijuana

    More than 57 percent of California voters approved Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, in 2016, which legalized the recreational use of marijuana.

    Californians have led the push to soften cannabis laws in the United States since 1972 with Proposition 9, a failed ballot initiative that attempted to legalize marijuana. Eventually, in 1996, more than 55 percent of state voters supported Proposition 215 allowing the medical use of cannabis.

    But unlicensed cannabis cultivation and sales are prohibited, and cultivation is still illegal under federal law.

    Around 2015, a group of about 100 people moved from the Midwest and bought private property in Siskiyou County, where they started cultivating outdoor marijuana grows, Mr. LaRue said.

    The land was cheap then; 2.5-acre parcels sold for about $500, but today the same land is worth between $30,000 to $40,000 because illegal grow operations are lucrative and the sites are in high demand, he said.

    He estimates there are currently about 10,000 people involved in illegal cannabis cultivation.

    Nearly 5,000 “hoop houses,” a term the sheriff prefers to describe the makeshift greenhouses, cultivating three crops a year means the black market sites generate billions of dollars in profits, he said.

    Property owners have brought in illegal pesticides and other toxic chemicals, many from China, that are “destroying the environment,” he said.

    His deputies do the best they can to avoid contamination from unregulated and illegal pesticides found during routine raids, but Mr. LaRue said he worries about the risks they could face from long-term exposure to such toxins.

    Recent traffic stops show that illegal cannabis is going to licensed locations and that the legal market is also being supplied by the black market, he said.

    “Everything has kind of turned into what I call the gray market because everything is just dirty,” he said. “You really don’t know what’s legit and what isn’t … and the average user has no clue.”

    This makes the illegal pesticide issue even more alarming because “those chemicals are now on the product that’s going into legal dispensaries,” he said.

    “People are buying it as medicine for cancer patients and actually just smoking and consuming carcinogens. That should be troubling for the state. That’s a public health issue.”

    Marijuana is weighed on a scale at Virgil Grant’s dispensary in Los Angeles on Feb.8, 2018. In California, it is a felony to plant, cultivate, harvest, dry, or process more than six cannabis plants “to intentionally or with gross negligence cause substantial environmental harm to surface or groundwater,” according to the California Department of Cannabis Control. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

    Penalties for Illegal Cultivation

    Proposition 64, or the Adult Use Marijuana Act, which took effect in November 2016, allowed adults over age 21 to legally grow and harvest up to six plants.

    Under California law, it is a felony to plant, cultivate, harvest, dry, or process more than six cannabis plants “to intentionally or with gross negligence cause substantial environmental harm to surface or groundwater,” the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times.

    Anyone 18 years or older convicted of planting, cultivating, harvesting, drying, or processing more than six living cannabis plants can face misdemeanor charges and up to six months in a county jail or a fine of up to $500, or both, under Article 11358 of the California Health and Safety Code.

    Penalties for anyone under age 18 include up to eight hours of drug counseling or up to 40 hours of community service, or both, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

    The DCC did not provide any statistics indicating how many people, if any, have been convicted and sentenced to jail time and stipulated that the prosecution of such crimes “is dependent on the jurisdiction where they occurred.”

    In practice, for illegal cultivation to be prosecuted as a felony, the crime is usually tied to an environmental infraction, Siskiyou County District Attorney Kirk Andrus told The Epoch Times.

    “It’s a misdemeanor all day long no matter how much you grow unless you have an environmental violation, and so that takes us some work to prove,” Mr. Andrus said.

    Meanwhile, the state is losing tax revenue, and some people who entered the legal cannabis market thinking they can make a profit are going out of business, he said.

    “If they want to make marijuana legal for recreational use, then defend the white market. The black market is killing the white market,” he said.

    “We have a black market in this county that’s the size of a small nation. I’m not a marijuana proponent but if it’s going to be legal, defend your market by letting us eradicate the black market.”

    A worker removes leaves from marijuana plants to allow more light for growth at Essence Vegas’ 54,000-square-foot marijuana cultivation facility in Las Vegas on July 6, 2017. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

    Potential Remedies and Solutions

    While Mr. LaRue admits there’s no quick fix for the crisis, he has urged the governor to take executive action to “free up money” for rural communities where police funding often falls short and implement more “aggressive” enforcement policies.

    “Not just in words but in action,” he said.

    Funding for six deputies to cover nearly 6,300 square miles and only two to deal with illegal grow operations just isn’t enough, Mr. LaRue said.

    He urged state lawmakers to take a closer look at what’s happening in Siskiyou County.

    “They need to look at it as an actual problem and get some laws on the books that would actually deter people from continuing this,” he said, stressing that his intent—and the purpose of tougher laws—is “not to lock everyone up in prison.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 17:30

  • Tropical Storm Beryl Set To Become 'Major Hurricane' 
    Tropical Storm Beryl Set To Become ‘Major Hurricane’ 

    Tropical Storm Beryl, currently in the Atlantic Basin and east of the Windward Islands, could strengthen into the year’s first hurricane before reaching Barbados late Sunday.  

    “Beryl is expected to rapidly strengthen and become a major hurricane when it reaches the Windward Islands late Sunday night or Monday. It will bring destructive hurricane-force winds and life-threatening storm surges,” the National Hurricane Center wrote in a message on Saturday. 

    NHC issued a hurricane watch for Barbados as Beryl gained strength about 820 miles (1,320 km) east-southeast of the island nation. Beryl could soon become the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic storm season. 

    “The storm has been on a steady strengthening trend since it formed yesterday, and now that its structure is more symmetric and compact, it likely will have an opportunity to rapidly intensify given the low wind-shear conditions,” NHC senior hurricane specialist John Cangialosi wrote in a note. 

    Cangialosi said, “The new NHC intensity forecast explicitly calls for rapid strengthening and shows Beryl becoming a major hurricane before moving across the Windward Islands.”

    “There have only been a few storms in history that have formed over the central or eastern tropical Atlantic this early in the year,” he noted.

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    In May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted an above-normal 2024 Atlantic hurricane season of 17 to 25 named storms, including as many as 13 hurricanes.

    We have pointed out that this hurricane season, the Biden administration must contend with an elevated number of storms. It only takes one major storm to disrupt Gulf Coast refineries, which would catapult average gasoline prices at the pump to the politically sensitive $4 a gallon before the elections this fall.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 16:55

  • The Art Of Being Eternally Shocked: How The Press And Pundits Are Again Mystified By The Obvious
    The Art Of Being Eternally Shocked: How The Press And Pundits Are Again Mystified By The Obvious

    Authored by Jonathan Turley,

    No one would think of the Beltway as being a place of the naive innocents of our society.

    Washington is the only ecosystem composed entirely of apex predators.

    Yet, this week everyone seems to be eternally shocked by what has been obvious for years.

    The press and pundits are coming off an embarrassing couple of weeks where the Hunter Biden laptop was authenticated in federal court as real. This occurred in the trial of the president’s son almost on the anniversary of a debunked letter of intelligence officials claiming that the laptop appeared to be Russian disinformation. Biden then repeated the claim in the last presidential debates to avoid answering questions over the massive influence peddling scheme of this family revealed by the laptop.

    After the story was suppressed before the 2020 election, it took years for the media to admit that, oops, the laptop is surprisingly real.

    For years, the press and pundits piled on experts who suggested that Covid 19 escaped from a Chinese lab. The New York Times reporter covering the area called it “racist” and implausible.  Now, even W.H.O. accepts the lab theory as possible and federal agencies now believe it is the most likely explanation.

    The response: surprise and spin.

    This week, the Supreme Court ruled that the Justice Department has unlawfully charged hundreds of people with obstruction of an official proceeding after the January 6th riot. For years, objections to the excessive treatment of these cases were dismissed as the view of the radical right. Now, even Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson voted to toss out these convictions.

    Surprise.

    Whether it was the false story about agents whipping migrants in Texas or the photo op claim in Lafayette Park, false stories were disproven only to have a collective shrug from those who spread them.

    For years, the press and pundits have repeated like gospel that Trump had called neo-Nazis “fine people.” At the time, most of us noted that Trump condemned the racists and neo-Nazis and made the statement about fine people on both sides of the controversy over the removal of historic statues.

    Six years later, Snopes finally decided to do a fact check and, surprise, found that Trump never praised neo-Nazis as fine people.

    The only person not surprised was Biden who repeated the false story on Friday as true.

    Heading into the presidential debate, the White House and the media attacked Fox News and other outlets for “cheap fake” videos designed to make the President look confused and feeble.

    For months, politicians and pundits have insisted that Biden is sharp and commanding in conversations even after Special Counsel Robert Hur cited his decline as a reason for not charging him criminally for the unlawful retention and mishandling of classified material.

    On MSNBC, Joe Scarborough stated “start your tape right now because I’m about to tell you the truth. And F— you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever. Not a close second. And I have known him for years…If it weren’t the truth I wouldn’t say it.”

    Then the presidential debate happened and, after years of being protected by staff, tens of millions of people watched the president struggle to stay focused and responsive.

    After the debate, there was total surprise, if not shock, on CNN and MSNBC. Suddenly, it is not a cheap fake but reality.

    Just seven days before the debate, the New York Times was running cheap fake articles on how Biden was being wrongly portrayed. The day after the debate, it was calling for him to withdraw from the race after expressing shock at his appearance.

    On CNN, Biden biographer and CNN contributor Evan Osnos admitted that many Americans were likely “shocked” by Biden’s appearance:

     “I don’t think there’s any other way to put it. This was clearly a person who was diminished from where he was on the debate stage four years ago.”

    Pro-Biden columnist Thomas Friedman wrote that he was floored by what he saw and that “heartbreaking” appearance of Biden made him “weep.”

    Washington is now full of surprises.

    It is a city of people who display that practiced faux shock that you adopt when you learn in advance that your friends are throwing a surprise party. The key is to look stunned and then mingle.

    It is a city of Claude Rains:

    The laptop is real, the President is really old, and Washington is really really phony.

    The only thing that would be more surprising is if pundits and the press started being a lot less shocked and more honest.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 16:20

  • Iran Threatens Israel With 'Obliterating War' If It Attacks Lebanon
    Iran Threatens Israel With ‘Obliterating War’ If It Attacks Lebanon

    Iran’s mission to the United Nations has put Israel and the world on notice, saying that if Israel launches an all-out war against Hezbollah in Lebanon the whole region will burn.

    A Friday statement from Iran’s ambassador warned the UN that any “full-scale military aggression” in Lebanon against Hezbollah will mean that “an obliterating war will ensue.”

    The Iranian statement continued by emphasizing that “all options, including the full involvement of all resistance fronts, are on the table” in a statement posted to X. 

    By “resistance fronts” Tehran means the militias it supports in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen will also ramp up their military activities. On a few occasions, Iraqi Shia militias have launched missiles and drones against southern Israel, as have the Houthis, with limited effect.

    Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acknowledged this week that a “seven front war” could open up, in reference to all of Iran’s proxies across the region. 

    For years already, Israeli jets have been regularly attacking ‘Iranian assets’ inside Damascus, also in a continued effort to weaken Assad, despite the presence of Russia’s military primarily in the northwest coastal region.

    Israel has meanwhile continued to pound Hezbollah positions in south Lebanon, amid continued fears of a bigger war at any moment. The US has even sent amphibious military ships closer to Israel and Lebanon in the Eastern Mediterranean to be ready to evacuate Americans if a bigger conflict ensues.

    The Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper wrote Saturday, “In the past few hours, warplanes attacked several Hezbollah targets, including a military site for the organisation in the Zabqin area, two operational infrastructure sites in the Khiam area, and a Hezbollah building in the al-Adissa [Odaisseh] area.”

    Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has told Israel and its allies that a war with no limits will ensue if Israel attempts to invade southern Lebanon. Some Israeli officials fear that the IDF could be stretched too thin if this happens, considering it’s still in the thick of anti-Hamas Gaza operations in the south.

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    Most analysts agree that Hezbollah is far more capable a paramilitary and guerilla force than Hamas, or any other Iran-linked group in the region for that matter. In the 2006 Lebanon war, there were reports that IRGC operatives were on the ground in Lebanon assisting Hezbollah.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 15:45

  • CDC Recommends New COVID-19 Vaccines For Nearly All Americans
    CDC Recommends New COVID-19 Vaccines For Nearly All Americans

    Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on June 27 recommended forthcoming COVID-19 vaccines for virtually all Americans.

    “CDC recommends everyone ages 6 months and older receive an updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine to protect against the potentially serious outcomes of COVID-19 this fall and winter whether or not they have ever previously been vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine,” the agency said in a statement.

    The COVID-19 vaccines now available, which are also broadly recommended, target the XBB.1.5 strain. But observational data indicate they provide short-lived protection against COVID-19 infection and hospitalization.

    U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials, acting on advice from their advisers, recently directed vaccine manufacturers to produce COVID-19 vaccines with updated formulations.

    Updated vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna will target the KP.2 variant, while an updated shot from Novavax will target the JN.1 variant.

    The updated formulations are expected to be available in September.

    CDC advisers earlier Thursday unanimously advised the CDC to recommend the forthcoming vaccines to virtually all Americans, even though no clinical efficacy or safety data are available for them.

    Data from animal testing suggest that the vaccines trigger higher levels of antibodies than the shots currently available, manufacturers said previously.

    CDC advisers considered a risk-based recommendation that would only say certain groups receive one of the vaccines but ultimately opted for what is known as a universal recommendation.

    Dr. Jamie Loehr, one of the members, said before the vote that the cost-effectiveness of vaccinating young people, who are generally at little risk from COVID-19, had him leaning towards a risk-based approach. He changed his mind, though, after listening to a presentation from a CDC researcher.

    Dr. Denise Jamieson, another member, said that members should not “get too caught up in cost-effectiveness currently.” She said, “If we compare it to other vaccine-preventable diseases it seems like a really good investment.”

    Each dose of a new shot could cost up to $130, according to estimates presented during the meeting.

    Pooled effectiveness estimates from studies of the currently available vaccines, which target the XBB strain, and the last slate of shots, which were bivalent, found that effectiveness against hospitalization due to COVID-19 was below 50 percent, the original threshold laid out by regulators.

    Researchers with the CDC and other institutions have also found the protection wanes over time, one reason U.S. officials have turned the COVID-19 vaccine model into a once-a-year update similar to the influenza vaccination program.

    Many Americans took the original COVID-19 vaccines but most have opted against receiving the newer shots. As of May 11, just 14.4 percent of children and 22.5 percent of adults have received one of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines, according to CDC surveys, which also found that many doctors have stopped recommending the shots because they’re focused on promoting other vaccines and worry recommending COVID-19 vaccination could increase hesitancy among patients to receiving the other vaccines.

    Experts said in Thursday’s meeting that the message needs to be that people need another shot.

    “We have to keep saying that over and over and over again—you need this year’s vaccine to be protected against this year’s strain of the virus,” Carol Hayes, who represents the American College of Nurse-Midwives as a liaison to the CDC panel, said during the session.

    The CDC estimated that up to 116,000 hospitalizations from COVID-19 will be prevented over the next year with universal vaccine recommendations, assuming an initial 75 percent effectiveness against hospitalization.

    The effectiveness was projected in certain scenarios to drop to 50 percent after three months, the CDC said.

    The KP.2 strain is the dominant strain in the United States as of May 25, according to CDC data. The closely related KP.3 strain, and the JN.1 variant, are also causing a number of cases.

    Modeling through June 22 projects the rise of a new strain called LB.1.

    A spokesperson for the CDC told The Epoch Times recently that LB.1 “has the potential to infect some people more easily based on a single deletion in a spike protein“ but ”there is currently no evidence that LB.1 causes more severe disease.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 15:10

  • NY Times Editorial Board Urges Biden To Quit Race – Did Trump Administer Premature Kill Shot?
    NY Times Editorial Board Urges Biden To Quit Race – Did Trump Administer Premature Kill Shot?

    Thursday night’s presidential debate mortally wounded President Biden’s political career, and now the New York Times has hammered a significant nail in the coffin — publishing an editorial bluntly declaring that “the greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election.” 

    With this development, Biden’s departure from November ballots is taking on an air of inevitability. At the same time, Team Trump is reckoning with what may have been a strategic error —  enabling a premature kill shot that could leave Trump facing a worse matchup. 

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    Repeatedly emphasizing President Trump’s supposed “enormous…danger” to the country, the Times editorial board wrote that Biden is “engaged in a reckless gamble” with America’s future, saying “it’s too big a bet to simply hope Americans will overlook or discount Mr. Biden’s age and infirmity that they see with their own eyes.” 

    You don’t have to respect the Times to appreciate the enormity of a cornerstone liberal media institution declaring an incumbent Democratic president mentally incapable of running for re-election. This move by a “newspaper of record” will embolden other leftist entities and elected officials  to do the same, and the momentum is likely to only grow stronger as the snowball effect gathers force. 

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    Here are some more pointed highlights: 

    • “Voters cannot be expected to ignore what was instead plain to see: Mr. Biden is not the man he was four years ago.”

    • “The president’s performance cannot be written off as a bad night or blamed on a supposed cold, because it affirmed concerns that have been mounting for months or even years.”

    • “[Biden] insisted on a date months earlier than any previous general election debate. He understood that he needed to address longstanding public concerns about his mental acuity and that he needed to do so as soon as possible. The truth Mr. Biden needs to confront now is that he failed his own test.”

    • “Democrats who have deferred to Mr. Biden must now find the courage to speak plain truths to the party’s leader….The clearest path for Democrats to defeat a candidate defined by his lies is to deal truthfully with the American public: acknowledge that Mr. Biden can’t continue his race.“

    Whistling past his boss’s political graveyard, Biden-Harris co-chair Cedric Richmond told CNN, “The last time Joe Biden lost the New York Times editorial board’s endorsement, it turned out pretty well for him” — a reference to the Times backing Senators Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 Democratic primary.  

    In what might be a political first, many of Biden’s most alarming moments in the debate came when he wasn’t speaking

    At this point, the post-debate glee at Trump campaign headquarters is likely infused with some angst. Presidential races are all about the matchups, and Trump couldn’t have asked for a more favorable opponent than Biden. That’s now in jeopardy. 

    In our debate preview, we warned that frontrunner Trump may have made a major strategic error in agreeing to an extraordinarily early date for the first debate:   

    Trump may come to regret agreeing to a debate that’s far earlier in the presidential election calendar than normal — indeed, before either party has even had its nominating convention. If tonight’s debate puts Biden’s mental decline under the national spotlight, the Democratic Party…may scramble to persuade Biden to leave the race with dignity and replace him with someone else.

    Now, as that exact scenario is playing out, the Trump campaign is feebly trying to steer Democrats away from benching Biden and subbing in the likes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom or Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Responding to the Times editorial, the Trump campaign told NBC News that Biden is the “incumbent president, he is the Democrat nominee, he has also said he won’t drop out, it’s too late to change that.”

    Don’t bet on it. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 14:55

  • Dam In East Texas On 'Potential Failure Watch'
    Dam In East Texas On ‘Potential Failure Watch’

    Officials in East Texas declared a “potential failure watch” status over concerns that heavy rains in the Houston region may result in a structure issue at the spillway of the Lake Livingston Dam. 

    On Friday night, The Trinity River Authority confirmed that the spillway “has been adversely impacted by the recent heavy rainfall and flooding in the dam’s drainage area.” 

    “While there is no immediate danger of either failure or breach of the dam, the potential does exist however remote it might be,” the river authority’s statement continued, adding, “The day-to-day operation of the dam will continue as necessary, although normal gate operations may vary as conditions dictate.”

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    “Beginning April 28, the Piney Woods region of the state received torrential rainfall that included more than 20 inches of rain falling in a seven-day period near the lake,” Houston Chronicle said. 

    Here’s footage of the dam:

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    Early last week, a century-old concrete gravity dam on the Blue Earth River in Rapidan Township, near Rapidan, Minnesota, experienced a ‘partial failure.’ 

    To summarize, America’s aging critical infrastructure is deteriorating as the lifespans reach their limits. However, leftist corporate media outlets continue to attribute failing infrastructure to climate change. Rather than funneling tens of billions of dollars of US taxpayer funds to Ukraine, the American people should demand that political elites in Washington, DC, fix America first before any more foreign wars.

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 14:35

  • Lithium: A Clean Energy Solution With A Dirty Secret
    Lithium: A Clean Energy Solution With A Dirty Secret

    Authored by Haley Zaremba via OilPrice.com,

    • Lithium is essential for the clean energy transition, but its extraction often involves severe environmental and health consequences.

    • AlkaLi, a startup company, aims to revolutionize lithium extraction with a lower environmental footprint and potentially make the US more competitive in lithium processing.

    • The demand for lithium is expected to increase dramatically in the coming years, driven by the growth of electric vehicles and renewable energy storage.

    Lithium is essential to saving the world from climate change – but will it destroy the environment in the process? 

    Ironically, lithium extraction is just as associated with sharply negative environmental externalities as it is with clean and green energy initiatives. The communities where lithium is extracted are already suffering from dire health and ecological issues stemming from the extraction of the metal, but the lithium industry is just getting started. To avoid devastation for such communities, something about the lithium extraction process has to change drastically and soon. 

    Gradiant, a unicorn startup company that treats industrial wastewater, thinks that it has a solution to this rapidly expanding problem. It’s opening a new spin-off business called alkaLi which aims to extract lithium from naturally occurring brine and then process it for use in lithium-ion batteries via novel methods. The company’s innovative process “uses resins and membranes to more easily extract the lithium from brine, then relies on its own technology to concentrate the mineral, which ultimately is precipitated into a solid for use in batteries,” Forbes summarized in a recent report. 

    The team behind Gradiant and alkaLi believes that their disruptive lithium extraction and processing approach can turn the lithium industry on its head and jettison the budding AlkaLi  into the stratosphere. “The demand side of lithium is crazy,” Gradiant co-founder and chief operating officer Prakash Govindan was quoted by Forbes. “We believe we can create a billion-dollar company just from the lithium business, but it is in the early stages of revenue.”

    It’s true that the demand for lithium is going gangbusters and shows no signs of stopping. A 2023 report from Popular Mechanics calculated that “an electrified economy in 2030 will likely need anywhere from 250,000 to 450,000 tonnes of lithium.” By comparison, “In 2021, the world produced only 105—not 105,000—tonnes.”

    The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) corroborates this astronomical scale of growth. Its 2022 lithium report estimates that lithium demand for battery-making alone is expected to increase by a factor of ten over the decade between 2020 and 2030. These batteries will be essential to the global clean energy transition to power electric vehicles as well as to store variable renewable energy produced by solar and wind power.

    But there are a few problems with the massive growth of lithium demand.

    First is the aforementioned environmental impact of lithium mining and extraction. Lithium extraction is typically extremely water-intensive – according to a 2018 report from WIRED magazine, extracting a single ton of lithium requires approximately 500,000 liters of water. In a cruel irony, lithium is often found and extracted in extremely water-stressed areas, such as South America’s so-called ‘lithium triangle,’ which overlaps with the Atacama, the world’s driest desert. What’s more, extraction through brine ponds also poses a potential threat of contaminating existing, preciously scant water reserves. 

    Moreover, the chemicals involved in lithium extraction are extremely toxic. “The release of such chemicals through leeching [sic], spills or air emissions can harm communities, ecosystems and food production,” reads a recent report from international environment activism group Friends of the Earth. “Moreover, lithium extraction inevitably harms the soil and also causes air contamination.”

    Finally, the lithium industry presents key geopolitical issues in its current form. While most lithium is extracted in Australia and South America, almost all lithium processing takes place in China, creating a potentially dangerous concentration of a vital supply chain. 

    AlkaLi claims that its lithium extraction and processing method has a lower water footprint and carbon footprint than typical methods, and that it’s 50% cheaper to boot. This means that they may not only have found a way to reduce the environmental harm that the lithium boom threatens to cause around the globe, but also allow for the United States to eventually become competitive with China – a target that the U.S. desperately seeks. 

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 14:00

  • Costco To Build 800-Unit Apartment Complex In South Los Angeles
    Costco To Build 800-Unit Apartment Complex In South Los Angeles

    Costco is building a ‘mixed use’ 800-unit apartment complex in south Los Angeles – with 184 units designated as affordable housing, which some have speculated will allow them to fast-track the construction of an actual Costco Big Box store by taking advantage of a state law which removes significant red tape from such projects, the NY Post reports.

    Costco plans to open a new store in South Los Angeles and has teamed with developers to build an 800-unit apartment complex — with 84 units set aside for affordable housing. Thrive Living

    The project, in partnership with  Baldwin Village by developers Thrive Living and architects AO, is still in the permitting stage so no word on when ground will be broken.

    Via @CohenSite

    “The planning and land use system in California and in LA is a Rube Goldberg machine,” housing activist Joe Cohen told SFGATE, “and this project is seeing that machine laid bare.”

    The mixed-use complex would rise on a vacant, five-acre lot that was previously home to a hospital. 

    The plans include a gym, multi-purpose spaces, gardens, a rooftop pool, landscaping and a large parking lot, according to the press release. -NY Post

    According to Cohen – who calls it Costco Prison, the complex is “a bunch of small units along these long hallways, with a massive recreation center as an amenity space,” adding “From a plain view, it looks like an old school prison design,” due to its use of pre-manufactured apartment modules that can he brought to the site by truck.

    The reason for the ‘prison’ look, Cohen says, is that “Costco was facing years of public hearings, millions of dollars of consultant fees, and an uncertain outcome,” in order to gain approval.

    Thrive Living

    “However, mixed-use housing projects that meet certain criteria are automatically exempt from discretionary reviews by state law (AB 2011),” he continues.

    “So Costco did what any good Scooby-Doo villain would do. They put on a mask that says “I’m an apartment building, not a big-box store.”“

    To get the full protection of state housing laws (HAA), mixed-use buildings must be at least 2/3 residential. The Costco itself is 185,000 square feet. So they needed at least 370,000 sq ft of residential.

    (They ended up with 471,000 sq ft of residential plus an additional 56,000 sq ft of amenity space)

    But for a project that big, to qualify for AB 2011, you need to not only pay prevailing wages, but use “skilled and trained” (aka union) labor.

    “luckily”, union labor requirements only apply to on-site construction. So to lower the amount of on-site labor needed, Costco turned to pre-fab building modules.

    Pre-fab modules need to fit on trucks, which results in mostly small shotgun-style one-bedroom units.

    And that’s how you end up with a Costco housing project that resembles a prison! -Joe Cohen

    The Costco store itself will be close to mass transit, and will include a multi-floor, underground garage, pharmacy, and optical center according to SFGATE.

    “Mayor Bass has declared a housing emergency in Los Angeles, and we’re answering the call,” Jordan Brill of Thrive Living in a statement included in the press release. “Our company is focused on addressing the severe housing affordability crisis in Los Angeles, while also attracting retailers willing to make long-term commitments.”

    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 13:25

  • Banksy 'Launches' Migrant Boat Stunt At Glastonbury Festival, Which Has An 8-Mile-Long, 20ft-High Border-Wall
    Banksy ‘Launches’ Migrant Boat Stunt At Glastonbury Festival, Which Has An 8-Mile-Long, 20ft-High Border-Wall

    Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

    The ‘street’ artist Banksy carried out a stunt at the now uber trendy Glastonbury Festival Friday night by launching a mock-up small boat complete with dummy migrants into the crowd.

    The Guardian reports that many in the crowd thought it was part of the band Idles’ set given that their songs are all about lefty political positions such as the idea that limiting mass illegal immigration is right wing and evil.

    The report notes, however, that Banksy was behind the stunt stating “The raft, a reference to the small boats carrying migrants across the Channel that have been such a high-profile target of Rishi Sunak’s immigration policy, was crowdsurfed through the thousands-strong Other stage crowd, which Idles were headlining on Friday night.”

    Given that Sunak has done practically nothing to prevent the boats and the Conservative government has actively incentivised mass illegal immigration for years now, you’d be forgiven for thinking the stunt was some sort of endorsement.

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    Indeed, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what the point of it was. 

    What is the crowd cheering about here?

    The report further notes that the boat was ‘launched’ during a song called Danny Nedelko, which contains the following lyrics:

    My blood brother is an immigrant, a beautiful immigrant. My blood brother’s Freddie Mercury. A Nigerian mother of three. He’s made of bones, he’s made of blood. He’s made of flesh, he’s made of love. He’s made of you, he’s made of me. Unity. Fear leads to panic, panic leads to pain. Pain leads to anger, anger leads to hate.

    The report also notes that “Migration is a major theme at this year’s Glastonbury festival, with a new area dedicated to the topic.”

    Mega cringe.

    It continues, “Entrants to ‘Terminal 1’ must answer a question from the UK government’s citizenship test for prospective migrants.”

    The message being that having some form of secure border and vetting system is oppressive… or something.

    If people manage to pass the test they’re then treated to “music by representatives from Notting Hill carnival and Bristol’s St Paul’s carnival, alongside visual art by global artists including Love Watts, Yoshi Sodeoka and the Turner prize winner Mark Wallinger.”

    No thanks then.

    It perhaps would’ve been more accurate to treat them with a four star hotel, loaded debit cards and free meals.

    The idea that Glastonbury is some sort of moral arbiter on migration is laughable given that it is surrounded by an eight kilometre long 20 ft high hi tech secure perimeter complete with guards and watchtowers.

    The BBC noted in 2019 that “The festival might even be more secure than Mr Trump’s planned border wall between the US and Mexico.”

    Admittance is only granted to the select few who pay the massively extortionate ticket price and can afford to spend more than the majority of people earn in an entire month once inside.

    It’s basically full of metropolitan shitlib ‘creatives’ and influencers with trust funds and disposable incomes.

    So it’s the perfect venue to engage in empty virtue signalling stunts.

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    Tyler Durden
    Sat, 06/29/2024 – 12:50

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