- The Rush To A Cashless Society Only Serves Globalist Interests
The Rush To A Cashless Society Only Serves Globalist Interests
Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,
A fundamental pillar of true free markets is the existence of choice; the availability of options from production to providers to purchase mechanisms without interference from governments or corporate monopolies. Choice means competition, and competition drives progress. Choice can also drive changes within society, for if people know a better or more secure way of doing things exists, why would anyone want to stay trapped within the confines of a limited system? At the very least, people should be allowed to choose economic mechanisms that work best for their particular situation.
This is NOT how our society functions today, and free market do not exist anywhere in modern nations including the US. Whenever I hear someone (usually a socialist) blame free market “capitalism” for the oppressive ailments of the world, I have to laugh. The alliance between governments and corporate monopolies (what Mussolini called national socialism or fascism) makes free markets utterly impossible. What we have today is an amalgamation of socialist economic interference and corporatocracy. Our system is highly restrictive and micro-managed for everyone except the money elites, who do not have to follow the same rules the rest of us do.
Of course, I might be preaching to the choir when it comes to these issues. But, there are some underlying developments being pushed forward by globalists hell-bent on a one world monetary system and a one world government that even many liberty activists are not fully aware of.
In alternative economic circles, the US dollar is seen as the end-all-be-all of fiat currency dominance. Many activists see it as the key to the power of the global elites and they think the Federal Reserve is the top of the globalist pyramid. This is not exactly true.
The US dollar is itself just another tool of the banking cabal, and tools sometimes lose their usefulness over time. While it could be said that for the past several decades the dollar as the world reserve currency was the core of globalist influence, this is about to change and we can see the signs today. The rush towards a cashless society in the past few years is startling and unfortunately too many liberty activists have been suckered into thinking that it’s is a good thing.
There are a number of reasons for this. As mentioned above, activists see the dollar (or Fed note) as fuel for the globalist machine, and so obviously they would like to see it go down in flames. They also are generally proponents of free markets, and the exploding trend of cryptocurrencies has given them the illusion that “choice” is returning to economy through “monetary competition”. I understand the basis for this attitude, and I appreciate where it’s coming from. I also have never been a proponent of the dollar or any other central bank fiat system. This article should not be misinterpreted as a defense of dollar hegemony.
That said, there is a much bigger agenda at play here, and the dollar is only one fading part of it as it is being quietly replaced by a completely digital framework. We have to once again ask ourselves – Who really benefits from a sudden shift in the economic and monetary world? Who gains political and social power through a cashless society? Is it the public? Or, is it the same banking elites and globalists that have always held sway over our economic structure?
In 2017 I published an article called ‘The Globalist One World Currency Will Look A Lot Like Bitcoin’. In it, I warned that the trendy marketing of cryptocurrencies to the general public by the mainstream media was extremely suspicious and contrary to the notion that the establishment was “terrified” of Bitcoin or blockchain tech putting them out of business. I also warned of the deep involvement of international banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan in the progress of blockchain infrastructure and more specifically Goldman Sachs and the IMF’s love affair with digital monetary systems. Goldman Sachs even referred to the blockchain as “the new technology of trust…”
Clearly, the banking elites are not worried about this technology. In fact, they have been investing in it heavily. But why? I have long held that current popular cryptocurrencies are nothing more than a beta test for a global digital currency system controlled by the elites.
This is not to say that many people are familiar with using Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. In fact, only a tiny percentage of the population ever comes into contact with or trades crypto. What I am saying is, the terminology, the idea of cryptocurrencies, is now widespread.
Thanks to a vast amount of media attention, Bitcoin is a household brand even though most people have never owned a bitcoin (or a portion of a bitcoin). Whale investors have hyperinflated the price of Bitcoin and certain other coins to levels beyond all reason as demand by the investment world and average people for the mechanism is minimal at best. These price explosions, though brief, have spurred public curiosity. And, in the minds of many if something is considered valuable, no matter how ethereal or arbitrary the measure, there must be a reason…right? Therefore, in the minds of bitcoin cheerleaders high market prices prove by default that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are necessary and desirable and anyone who is critical or skeptical is merely “upset” that they “missed out on the opportunity”.
I have always said when asked about my position on Bitcoin and crypto that if you want to try to make money on one of these coins and think you can play the market, then by all means, the more power to you. But, for those who thought that cryptocurrencies are a tool for activism and fighting the central banks, all I can say is you have been duped.
Over the course of a decade, the masses have been acclimated to the idea of a digital currency system. They are now being acclimated to the idea that physical currencies should be done away with and replaced with the “more efficient” blockchain tech – Death to the dollar, death to the Fed and death to the globalists say activists as they cheer for the new digital landscape! But this is not what is really happening. The death of the dollar and physical cash is only the primer for a new and even more invasive world order.
In the past two years the agenda for a cashless system and a one world currency has gone mainstream. The plans that liberty analysts were once called “conspiracy theorists” for talking about ten years ago are now out in the open. The latest barrage of propaganda was launched by the governor of the Bank Of England, Mark Carney, who openly warned of the end of the dollar’s world reserve status, comparing it to the end of the Pound Sterling’s reserve status after WWII. He also noted that the dollar could be replaced by a new digital currency system and that this would be advantageous the banking system.
This piggybacks on comments made by globalist and PIMCO CEO Mohamed El-Erian in 2017, who stated in an op-ed that the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights basket system could be used to replace the dollar as world reserve and that this would help to “fight the rise of populism”.
Next, Facebook introduced the concept of the “Libra” digital currency, which Mark Carney also suggested central banks would be watching closely. Libra, in my view, is a test designed to lure wider public into using digital currency on a regular basis. As noted, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies gained exposure but not preference. Where they failed to infiltrate the daily trade of the average citizen, Libra could eventually succeed.
So far I think the reaction is not what the globalists hoped for. Instead, Facebook is taking it slowly by introducing a new internal payment system called “Facebook Pay” similar to Paypal. Libra, or something like it, will likely make a reappearance in the next couple of years on Facebook and on other platforms.
Next, former ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet argued in favor of a digital version of the SDR basket system at the Caixin conference in Beijing, arguing that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were not stable enough or “legitimate” enough to take on the role of central bank currencies. Many argue that this is proof that the globalists are afraid of cryptocurrencies. On the contrary, I see this as yet another example of the ongoing fake battle between bankers and crypto. They criticize certain aspects of the technology while at the same time investing in it and promoting it. Like the false left/right paradigm, there is a kind of false central bank/crypto paradigm as well.
Trichet’s argument for an IMF dominated crytpocurrency was surely welcomed in Beijing, where the Chinese have long supported the proliferation of the SDR and have called for the SDR to replace the dollar. The Chinese are not the only one’s. The Russian government has also called for the IMF to take over the global monetary system with the SDR basket. Russia has all but decoupled from the dollar, dumping it’s US treasury holding, stockpiling a large supply of gold and removing the dollar in bilateral trade agreements with other nations.
Last year Europe began establishing a new alternative to the US controlled SWIFT payment system. Germany in particular criticized the US system as a geopolitical weapon. Now, an association of major banks in Germany and in the EU is calling for a digital Euro based on the blockchain ledger.
The IMF has been openly publishing white papers that agree with the assessment that a global digital currency is needed, and with former IMF head Christine Lagarde now in charge at the ECB, it is likely that a Euro cryptocurrency system will soon make a public appearance.
In the meantime, multiple central banks are pursuing a cashless system and digital currencies of their own. China has announced a national digital currency system will be realized in the next 18 months. The Swiss central bank is exploring digital currency options, and Russia is considering launching a cryptocurrency as well.
The rhetoric coming from the mainstream media and the banking establishment is that physical methods of payment will soon disappear. This is being called the “democratization of money”, and the “multipolar world order”; I’m sorry to say that it’s the exact opposite.
The claim is that the end of cash and specifically the end of the dollar will result in more choice in the monetary world. But the end of physical cash is actually a removal of choice and the result is MORE centralization. The banking elites are so excited about the digital currency model because it removes all privacy from trade. As I have outlined in past articles, cryptocurrency and blockchain tech have no anonymity whatsoever despite claims originally circulated by proponents and cypto-activists. It is also clear that central banks intend to introduce their own highly managed currencies and most other coins will be buried in the process.
The multipolar and multilateral world order memes are also a fraud. China, Russia, Europe and other nations are demanding an alternative to the dollar, but if that alternative ends up being a digitized version of the SDR basket under the IMF’s control as these countries have suggested, then this means total global centralization, NOT decentralization.
Real decentralization would mean the removal of bureaucratic oversight and micromanagement. It would mean that physical currencies backed by gold and silver could be offered as an alternative option, not just cryptocurrencies or fiat backed by nothing. After all, gold and silver have far more individual investors worldwide than cryptocurrencies do. How about some real competition instead of price suppression of metals by the likes of JP Morgan?
It would mean localized currencies and payment systems backed by hard commodities, not one worldwide currency and payment system backed by nothing. It would mean nations breaking from dependence not just on the dollar, but also breaking from globalist institutions like the IMF, BIS and World Bank. The globalists are attempting to sell us on slavery by packaging it as “free markets”. The solution is to not use the systems they promote and be ready to fight tooth and nail for real decentralization.
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Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 23:30 - 673 Million People Still Defecate Outdoors (Not Just In San Francisco)
673 Million People Still Defecate Outdoors (Not Just In San Francisco)
With World Toilet Day having just passed, the United Nations released a report focusing on water, sanitation and hygiene around the world. It has found that approximately 2.2 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water, 4.2 billion have to go without safe sanitation services and three billion lack basic handwashing facilities.
Additionally, as Statista’s Niall McCarthy notes, the report also examined the state of open defecation and progress in eliminating it. As recently as 2015, close to a billion people were still defecating outdoors, resulting in widespread disease and millions of deaths. That drove the UN to call for an end to the practice and some parts of the world have proven hugely successful in eradicating it.
In 2000 for example, the rate of open defecation was even worse with 21 percent of the global population – 1.3 billion people – practicing it.
The impact of the UN’s call to action has been telling and by 2017, the global share of people practicing open defecation had fallen to just 9 percent – 673 million people.
Ethiopia saw the largest fall during that period, -57 percent. Cambodia and India also experienced declines of -53 and -47 percent respectively. The latter has been particularly ambitious in installing proper toilets. Before Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, just under 40 percent of India’s population had access to a household toilet. He promised to change that and billions of dollars were invested under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (“Clean India”) campaign which kicked off in October 2014. India’s Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation states that toilet coverage today stands at an impressive 99.22 percent.
Altogether, 91 countries reduced open defecation by a combined total of 696 million people between 2000 and and 2017 with Central and Southern Asia accounting for three quarters of that figure.
You will find more infographics at Statista
The news isn’t positive everywhere though and 39 countries experienced increases during the same period, totaling 49 million people. The majority of that increase occurred in Sub-Sahara Africa which has experienced steady population growth since 2000. That of course means that there’s still a lot of work to do but as India has shown with its toilet building marathon, progress can be rapid.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 23:00 - Henry Kissinger Gets It… US "Exceptionalism" Is Over
Henry Kissinger Gets It… US "Exceptionalism" Is Over
Via The Strategic Culture Foundation,
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made prudent remarks recently when he said the United States is no longer a uni-power and that it must recognize the reality of China as an equal rival.
The furor over a new law passed by the US this week regarding Hong Kong and undermining Beijing’s authority underlines Kissinger’s warning.
If the US cannot find some modus vivendi with China, then the outcome could be a catastrophic conflict worst than any previous world war, he admonished.
Speaking publicly in New York on November 14, the veteran diplomat urged the US and China to resolve their ongoing economic tensions cooperatively and mutually, adding:
“It is no longer possible to think that one side can dominate the other.”
A key remark made by Kissinger was the following:
“So those countries that used to be exceptional and used to be unique, have to get used to the fact that they have a rival.”
In other words, he is negating the erroneous consensus held in Washington which asserts that the US is somehow “exceptional”, a “uni-power” and the “indispensable nation”. This consensus has grown since the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the US viewed itself as the sole super-power. That morphed into a more virulent ideology of “full-spectrum dominance”. Thence, the past three decades of unrelenting US criminal wars and regime-change operations across the planet, throwing the whole world into chaos.
Kissinger’s frank assessment is a breath of fresh air amid the stale and impossibly arrogant self-regard held by too many American politicians who view their nation as an unparalleled power which brooks no other.
The seasoned statesman, who is 96-years-old and retains an admirable acumen for international politics, ended his remarks on an optimistic note by saying: “I am confident the leaders on both sides [US and China] will realize the future of the world depends on the two sides working out solutions and managing the inevitable difficulties.”
Aptly, Kissinger’s caution about danger of conflict was reiterated separately by veteran journalist John Pilger, who warned in an exclusive interview for Strategic Culture Foundation this week that, presumed “American exceptionalism is driving the world to war.”
Henry Kissinger is indeed a controversial figure. Many US scholars regard him as one of the most outstanding Secretaries of State during the post-Second World War period. He served in the Nixon and Ford administrations during the 1970s and went on to write tomes about geopolitics and international relations. Against that, his reputation was badly tarnished by the US war in Vietnam and the horrendous civilian death toll from relentless aerial bombing across Indochina, believed to have been countenanced by Kissinger.
Kissinger has also been accused of supporting the military coup in Chile in 1973 against elected President Allende, and for backing the dirty war by Argentina’s fascist generals during the 1970s against workers and leftists.
To his credit, however, Kissinger was and is a practitioner of “realpolitik” which views international relations through a pragmatic lens. Another realpolitik US state planner was the late Zbigniew Brzezinski, who died in 2017 at the age of 89. Both advocated a policy of detente with the Soviet Union and China.
President Richard Nixon’s groundbreaking visit to China in 1972 is credited to the advice given by Kissinger who was then National Security Advisor to the White House.
That same year, the US and the Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty, also under the guidance of Kissinger on the American side. The US would later withdrew from the treaty in 2002, a move which has presaged a long deterioration in bilateral relations between the US and Russia to the present day.
For all their faults, at least people like Kissinger and Brzezinski were motivated by practical goal-orientated policy. They were willing to engage with adversaries to find some modus vivendi. Such an attitude is too often missing in recent Washington administrations which seem to be guided by an ideology of unipolar dominance by the US over the rest of the world. The current Washington consensus is one of hyper-ideological unrealism and hubris, which leads to a zero-sum mentality of antagonism towards China and Russia.
At times, President Donald Trump appears to subscribe to realpolitik pragmatism. At other times, he swings to the hyper-ideological mentality as expressed by his Vice President Mike Pence, as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mike Esper. The latter has labeled China as the US’s “greatest long-term threat”.
This week President Trump signed into law “The Human Rights and Democracy Bill”, which will impose sanctions on China over alleged repression in its Hong Kong territory. Beijing has reacted furiously to the legislation, condemning it as a violation of its sovereignty.
This is exactly the kind of baleful move that Kissinger warned against in order to avoid a further poisoning in bilateral relations already tense from the past 16 months of US-China trade war.
One discerns the difference between Kissinger and more recent US politicians: the former has copious historical knowledge and appreciation of other cultures. His shrewd, wily, maybe even Machiavellian streak, informs Kissinger to acknowledge and respect other powers in a complex world. That is contrasted with the puritanical banality and ignorance manifest in Trump’s administration and in the Congress.
Greeting Kissinger last Friday, November 22, during a visit to Beijing, President Xi Jinping thanked him for his historic contribution in normalizing US-China relations during 1970s.
“At present, Sino-US relations are at a critical juncture facing some difficulties and challenges,” said Xi, calling on the two countries to deepen communication on strategic issues. It was an echo of the realpolitik views Kissinger had enunciated the week before.
While sharing a public stage with Kissinger, the Chinese leader added:
“The two sides should proceed from the fundamental interests of the two peoples and the people of the world, respect each other, seek common ground while reserving differences, pursue win-win results in cooperation, and promote bilateral ties to develop in the right direction.”
Likewise, China and Russia have continually urged for a multipolar world order for cooperation and partnership in development. But the present and recent US governments refuse to contemplate any other order other than a presumed unipolar dominance. Hence the ongoing US trade strife with China and Washington’s relentless demonization of Russia.
This “exceptional” ideological mantra of the US is leading to more tensions, and ultimately is a path to the abyss.
Henry Kissinger gets it. It’s a pity America’s present crop of politicians and thinkers are so impoverished in their intellect.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 22:30 - Virginia Gun Owners Could Face Felony Charges Under New 'Paramilitary Activities' Amendment
Virginia Gun Owners Could Face Felony Charges Under New 'Paramilitary Activities' Amendment
A proposed amendment to a 30-year-old Virginia law would make it illegal to bring a firearm to any gathering if it can be proven that the goal was to ‘intimidate any person or group of persons by drilling, parading, or marching with any firearm.”
In short, if someone brings a firearm to a permitted event such as the ill-fated United the Right rally, and it can be argued that their goal was to intimidate Antifa counter-protesters as opposed to carrying in self-defense, that person could be subject to Class 5 felony charges under the amendment introduced by State Senator Louise Lucas (D-18th District).
The amendment stems from a lawsuit brought against Unite the Right organizer (and professional provocateur) Jason Kessler and several militia groups, accusing them of violating the state’s existing statute governing “unlawful paramilitary activity.” As a result of the lawsuit, “eleven named defendants had signed consent decrees in which they are “permanently enjoined from returning to Charlottesville, Virginia, as part of a unit of two or more persons acting in concert while armed with a firearm, weapon, shield, or any item whose purpose is to inflict bodily harm, at any demonstration, rally, protest, or march.”,” according to IREHR.
Of note, the statute does not declare tactical training illegal as has been reported elsewhere, as the existing law – which has been on the books more than 30 years – already makes it illegal if someone “teaches or demonstrates to any other person the use, application, or making of any firearm, explosive, or incendiary device” if said training “will be employed for use in, or in furtherance of, a civil disorder.“
Given that most firearms instruction is intended for self-defense in all situations and not specifically during “civil disorder,” we don’t envision Virginia authorities barging in on training courses anytime soon.
The amendment can be seen below. New portions are italicized.
SENATE BILL NO. 64
Offered January 8, 2020
Prefiled November 21, 2019
A BILL to amend and reenact §18.2-433.2 of the Code of Virginia, relating to paramilitary activities; penalty.
———-
Patron– Lucas
———-
Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
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Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That §18.2-433.2 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:
§18.2-433.2. Paramilitary activity prohibited; penalty.
A person
shall beis guilty of unlawful paramilitary activity, punishable as a Class 5 felony if he:1. Teaches or demonstrates to any other person the use, application, or making of any firearm, explosive, or incendiary device, or technique capable of causing injury or death to persons, knowing or having reason to know or intending that such training will be employed for use in, or in furtherance of, a civil disorder;
or2. Assembles with one or more persons for the purpose of training with, practicing with, or being instructed in the use of any firearm, explosive, or incendiary device, or technique capable of causing injury or death to persons, intending to employ such training for use in, or in furtherance of, a civil disorder; or
3. Assembles with one or more persons with the intent of intimidating any person or group of persons by drilling, parading, or marching with any firearm, any explosive or incendiary device, or any components or combination thereof.
2. That the provisions of this act may result in a net increase in periods of imprisonment or commitment. Pursuant to §30-19.1:4 of the Code of Virginia, the estimated amount of the necessary appropriation cannot be determined for periods of imprisonment in state adult correctional facilities; therefore, Chapter 854 of the Acts of Assembly of 2019 requires the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission to assign a minimum fiscal impact of $50,000. Pursuant to §30-19.1:4 of the Code of Virginia, the estimated amount of the necessary appropriation cannot be determined for periods of commitment to the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 22:00 - Some Countries Are Just Prone To Scientific Fraud. So Are Their Immigrants To The West
Some Countries Are Just Prone To Scientific Fraud. So Are Their Immigrants To The West
Authored by ‘Lance Welton’ via VDare.com,
Scientific fraud – falsifying scientific data or manipulating the scientific evaluation process – has become a serious problem. At best, it is a threat to public confidence in science. At worst, if the fraud is not revealed, then public policy could be shaped by bogus data. This problem is universal. But there are distinct national patterns. In particular, fraud is endemic in non-Western countries—and among non-Western scientists who immigrate here.
The most infamous scientific fraudster of recent years did come from the West: the Dutch social psychologist Diederik Stapel. At the time of writing, he has had to retract 58 scientific articles in which he made up or manipulated his data. Significantly, many of these were politically useful from a Leftist perspective, such as the claim that a dirty, untidy environment made people more racist or that people who eat meat are more selfish than vegetarians. [RETRACTED ARTICLE. Coping with chaos: how disordered contexts promote stereotyping and discrimination, By D. Stapel & S. Lindenberg, Science, 2011]
Clearly, any sensible scholar is going to be very cautious about citing anything ever written by Diederik Stapel, even if it has not been retracted. Indeed, lay readers should be careful to ask for the author of any Leftism-helpful social psychology finding, when told about it by acquaintances, lest its author turn out to be Diederik Stapel.
But—breaking news—microbiologist Elizabeth Bik just went public alleging astonishingly massive scientific fraud, between 2004 and 2019, among academics at Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu in India. This may lead to the retraction of up to 200 papers by microbiologists at the university.[ Research fraud in over 200 Annamalai University papers, alleges US scholar, by Megha Kaveri,The News Minute, November 15, 2019]
And this is much more typical. Scientists from some countries are systematically more inclined to make up data or corrupt the peer-review process, than are scientists from others.
In the peer-review process, an academic journal sends a study out to other academics for scholarly evaluation. Many scientists research extremely narrow fields, meaning there are very few people in the world who are qualified to judge the merits of their studies. Consequently, when scientists submit an article to a journal, they are often asked to nominate potential peer-reviewers, and also to provide their email addresses.
A conscientious editor would check who these nominees were and make an informed choice as to whether they were suitable reviewers. But apparently many editors, even of prestigious journals, do not practice due diligence.
Corrupt researchers realize this. Accordingly, they invent a couple of fictitious researchers and provide emails to which they—the study’s authors—have access. Sometimes they give real researchers’ names, but create a new email, bogus addresses for them. They are then able to peer-review their own papers and recommend that they be accepted. Journal editors have gradually got wise to this ruse and are able to see that the that IP address of the author and reviewer are the same, leading to the corrupt scientist being caught out.
There are clear national differences in this practice. The world leader: China. Between 2012 and 2016, 276 studies by Chinese academics were retracted for fake peer review. In a distant second place was Taiwan, with 73, followed by Iran, with 65, South Korea, 33, Pakistan, 19, and India, 16. [The Economy of Fraud in Academic Publishing in China, by Mini Gu, WENR, April 3, 2019].
In terms of fake peer review per head of population, these figures suggest that the most corrupt country, by far, is Taiwan (population 23 million) then Iran, then South Korea.
In other words, you should be generally cautious about trusting the accuracy of scientific papers authored by scholars from these countries.
Author Mini Gu notes some systemic factors behind this corruption. In much of Northeast Asia, as well as in the developing world, many scientists are, in effect, “on commission.” If they land an article in a high-impact academic journal, then they get paid much more than if it is published in a less prestigious journal. Without publishing these articles their salaries are extremely low. Not only are they paid “by result,” but they also paid “per article,” naturally pushing them towards quantity over quality.
Even Western academics must publish a certain number of articles every few years for their contracts to be renewed. But the pressure here is extreme. We can understand how corruption will result. It ranges from self-plagiarism—presenting, essentially, the same paper as though it were two different ones—to the much more serious issue of simply making data up.
A useful leader board on the latter is maintained by the website Retraction Watch . It lists the 32 scientists who have had to retract the most papers for scientific fraud of various kinds. Being slightly woke itself, Retraction Watch gloats that “We note that all but one of the top 32 are men, which agrees with the general findings of a 2013 paper suggesting that men are more likely to have papers retracted for fraud.” But, needless to say, it doesn’t say anything about the national origins of its top 32 most prolific retractors.
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Yoshitaka Fujii (total retractions: 183) See also: Final report of investigating committee, our reporting, additional coverage
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Joachim Boldt (97) See also: Editors-in-chief statement, our coverage
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Yoshihiro Sato (87) See also: our coverage
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Jun Iwamoto (69) See also: our coverage
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Diederik Stapel (58) See also: our coverage
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Yuhji Saitoh (53) See also: our coverage
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Adrian Maxim (48) See also: our coverage
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Chen-Yuan (Peter) Chen (43) See also: SAGE, our coverage
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Fazlul Sarkar (41) See also: our coverage
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Hua Zhong (41) See also: journal notice
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Shigeaki Kato (40) See also: our coverage
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James Hunton (37) See also: our coverage
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Hyung-In Moon (35) See also: our coverage
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Naoki Mori (32) See also: our coverage
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Jan Hendrik Schön (32) See also: our coverage
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Soon-Gi Shin (30) See also: our coverage
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Tao Liu (29) See also: our coverage
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Bharat Aggarwal (28) See also: our coverage
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Cheng-Wu Chen (28) See also: our coverage
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A Salar Elahi (27) See also: our coverage
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Ali Nazari (27) See also: our coverage
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Richard L E Barnett (26) See also: our coverage
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Antonio Orlandi (26) See also: our coverage
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Shahaboddin Shamshirband (26) See also: our coverage
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Prashant K Sharma (26) See also: our coverage
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Rashmi Madhuri (24) See also: our coverage
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Scott Reuben (24) See also: our coverage
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Thomas M Rosica (23) See also: our coverage
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Alfredo Fusco (22) See also: our coverage
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M Ghoranneviss (22) See also: our coverage
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Anil K Jaiswal (22) See also: our coverage
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Gilson Khang (22) See also: our coverage
However, the results parallel, quite well, retractions for corrupting the peer-review process. Thus six of these scientists are Japanese, 4 are Indian, 3 are Iranian, 3 are South Korean, 3 are from the USA, 2 are Taiwanese, 2 are Chinese. Interestingly, some of these Third World scientists have corrupted other countries, most notably the USA. Indian Bharat Aggarwal was based at the University of Texas. Fazlul Sarkar, originally from Iran, was at Wayne State University in Detroit.[Researcher Fazlul Sarkar Has 12 More Papers Retracted, by Sukanya Charuchandra, The Scientist Magazine, September 17, 2018]
Note that one of the people on the list was Taiwanese education minister Wei-ling Chiang! He was forced to resign in 2014 when his role in a peer-review corruption ring was unearthed. [Peer Review Scandal Takes Down Taiwanese Minister, by Yu-Tzu Chiu, IEEE Spectrum, July 16, 2014]
The corruption of science in countries like India, Iran and China is unsurprising. They either have low average IQs and/or are poor and these factors tend to predict corruption. (This tendency is discussed by Richard Lynn & Tatu Vanhanen in their 2012 book Intelligence, pages 152-157).
Quite why scientific corruption should be so prevalent in high IQ and wealthy Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea is less clear. One suggestion: they are strongly shame-oriented—saving face is all important—rather than guilt-oriented, like the West, where individual conscience will sometimes stop people from doing things even when they can get away with them. Shame cultures arguably lead people to be dishonest in order to achieve much prized social status, in a way that they wouldn’t otherwise be [Science as a Matter of Honour: How Accused Scientists Deal with Scientific Fraud in Japan, by Pablo Pellegrini, Science and Engineering Ethics, 2018].
Put simply, some countries are more prone to scientific corruption—and so are people from those countries. I reported a while ago on how trust in universities may be gradually undermined by Political Correctness and the driving of genius scientists from universities due to increasing female dominance of academe.
Perhaps the habit of importing scientists from non-Western countries will be further nail in the coffin of universities.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 21:30 -
- Massive Explosions Rock Texas Chemical Plant, Putting 16% Of North America's Rubber Production At Risk
Massive Explosions Rock Texas Chemical Plant, Putting 16% Of North America's Rubber Production At Risk
Several explosions rocked a TPC Group Southeast Texas chemical manufacturing plant in the hours leading up to Thanksgiving, which could have a profound effect on the production of synthetic rubber used primarily in the automotive industry heading into the end of the year.
There were zero fatalities, but more than 50,000 people within a 4 mile radius of the blast were ordered to evacuate, according to FreightWaves. The first explosion happened at about 1AM on the day before Thanksgiving, injuring three people.
TPC Group said on its website: “TPC Group – is working with the authorities and are forming a team to complete a full investigation and root cause examination once the event has been mitigated.”
There were 30 people at the plant when the first explosion occurred. Additional explosions continued throughout the afternoon of November 27 and fires continued to burn throughout Thanksgiving day. Local officials indicated they intended to let the fire burn out on its own.
Jefferson County (Texas) Judge Jeff Branick said at a press conference: “I don’t think the focus is on putting the fire out, but letting the materials in there burn themselves out.”
Jefferson County is located about 95 miles east of Houston and the plant is located at Port Neches. The city runs “along the Beaumont-Sabine Pass ship channel near the Gulf of Mexico.”
The 218 acre plant produces butadiene and raffinate, and stores a gasoline additive called methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE).
Butadiene is used in synthetic rubber used for tires and automobile hoses and the TPC plant produces about 16% of the continent’s supply. Among TPC’s customers are Firestone Tires, Goodyear Tires and Dow Chemical.
The company’s website says: “Combined production capacity for this facility is more than 900 million pounds per year [of butadiene and raffinate]. Logistics infrastructure capabilities [at the Port Neches site] include pipeline, barge, rail and tank car.”
“TPC has not yet determined the full impact on TPC’s plant, operations or financials. It is not clear at this time for how long the plant will be shut down,” the company concluded.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 21:00 - Chinese Crypto Exchange IDAX Locks Cold Wallet As CEO "Goes Missing"
Chinese Crypto Exchange IDAX Locks Cold Wallet As CEO "Goes Missing"
Authored by William Suberg via CoinTelegraph.com,
Chinese cryptocurrency exchange IDAX has suspended deposits and withdrawals after its CEO allegedly disappeared.
In a blog post on Nov. 29, IDAX, which earlier this week warned it was seeing a run on withdrawals, said the whereabouts of Lei Guorong were currently unknown.
image courtesy of CoinTelegraph
IDAX: cold wallet access “restricted”
“Since we have announced the announcement on November 24, IDAX Global CEO have gone missing with unknown cause and IDAX Global staffs were out of touch with IDAX Global CEO,” it reads.
The blog post continues that as a precaution, the company’s cold wallet was on lockdown to protect user funds:
“For this reason, access to Cold wallet which is stored almost all cryptocurrency balances on IDAX has been restricted so in effect, deposit/withdrawal service cannot be provided.”
IDAX did not directly link Lei with cold wallet access, nor did it suggest that users’ money was specifically at risk.
Exchanges feel renewed pressure
The debacle follows a contentious period for cryptocurrency in China after authorities doubled down on the country’s 2017 trading ban last week. As Cointelegraph reported, a sweep saw the central bank vowing to “dispose of” any exchanges it found flouting the ban.
IDAX stopped serving Chinese users at the start of the week. Its predicament nonetheless provides yet another example of the pitfalls involved when trusting a third party to store cryptocurrency.
Earlier this week, South Korean exchange Upbit likewise halted users’ access to funds after a suspicious transaction saw more than $50 million leave its books at once.
While investors appear to be waking up to the risks, recent data shows that even institutional traders still overwhelmingly prefer trusting others with their funds.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 20:30 - Hong Kong Police May Start Using Painful Wooden Bullets On Protesters
Hong Kong Police May Start Using Painful Wooden Bullets On Protesters
Hong Kong police have threatened to use wooden bullets to disperse protesters, according to comments made by Police Commissioner Chris Tang at a Thursday tea gathering.
Wood baton rounds. File photo: Twitter/Joey Yams. The Hong Kong Free Press reports that the ‘wooden baton rounds’ cause more damage to the human body vs. rubber bullets. According to watchdog group Civil Rights Watch, Hong Kong police have also been using tear gas, bean bag rounds and other nonlethal weapons, which have resulted in multiple injuries.
Police Senior Superintendent of the Operations Branch Wong Wai-shun said at a press conference on Friday that the force had adopted rubber bullets and replaced wood baton rounds 16 years ago, owing of their effectiveness.
But Wong denied that wooden bullets would cause more damage, and said the police will use different weapons wherever it was appropriate, and will use the minimum force necessary.
“The police will constantly review the effectiveness of our ammunition,” he said. –HKFP
The Civil Rights watchdog has accused police of abusing the use of crowd control weapons – in one instance blinding a reporter who was shot in the face.
“The police commissioner seeking to do more damage with non-live ammunition and non-lethal weapons is a violation to the spirit of the United Nations’s ‘Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials’ to avoid deaths and injuries caused by force,” said the group.
Protesters have called for an investigation into police abuses as part of their multi-pronged demands. The movement began some five months ago in response to an extradition bill which would allow suspects in Hong Kong to be removed from the country to stand trial in communist courts.
Over 5,800 people have been arrested during the protests, according to HKFP. Meanwhile, the police are recalling over 1,000 retired officers to staff the riots.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 20:00 - American Life Expectancy Dropping Dramatically Thanks To White Working Class Male Suicides
American Life Expectancy Dropping Dramatically Thanks To White Working Class Male Suicides
Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,
After increasing for decades, American life expectancy is now facing an alarming decline thanks mainly to suicides of white working age men.
A study published by the journal JAMA, found that life expectancy in America increased from 1959 to 2014 but that the number plateaued in 2011 and began decreasing in 2014.
“The study… found that the decline is mostly among “working-age” Americans, or those ages 25 to 64,” reports Live Science.
“In this group, the risk of dying from drug abuse, suicide, hypertension and more than 30 other causes is increasing.”
The decline in life expectancy for working aged males has not been recorded in other developed countries and is a “distinctly American phenomenon,” according to study co-author Steven H. Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.
According to Lisa Britton, CNN’s coverage of the story omitted the crucial point that the decline was being driven by male suicides.
“CNN just did a piece on the declining life-expectancy rate in the US… and failed to mention it’s the MEN’s rate that is declining! Women have maintained a steady rate although there’s been an uptick in the women’s overdose rate (The Wash Post turned their story into that) Wow,” she tweeted.
As we discuss in the video below, the only demographic group that has seen a dramatic rise in suicides and “deaths of despair” is white, middle aged, working class men.
Despite this, the media and the culture still relentlessly blames that same demographic for both historical and contemporary societal ills, de-legitimizing their trauma under the rubric of “white privilege.”
* * *
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Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 19:30 - Man Wielding 5' Narwhal Tusk Helped Subdue London Bridge Terrorist
Man Wielding 5' Narwhal Tusk Helped Subdue London Bridge Terrorist
A quick-thinking bystander who was inside London’s Fishmonger’s Hall when a deadly terrorist attack began grabbed a 5′ narwhal tusk off the wall and helped subdue a knife-wielding man who killed two pedestrians on London Bridge.
The attacker, said to be a recently-released terrorist prisoner believed to be wearing a fake suicide vest and a tracking tag, was taken down by the tusk-wielding hero and a man with a fire extinguisher before police shot him dead.
Sources have told Sky News the suspect in the London Bridge attack was a recently-released terrorist prisoner believed to have been wearing a tag
— Sky News Breaking (@SkyNewsBreak) November 29, 2019
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“A guy who was with us at Fishmongers Hall took a 5′ narwhale [sic] tusk from the wall and went out to confront the attacker,” tweeted Amy Coop.
A guy who was with us at Fishmongers Hall took a 5’ narwhale tusk from the wall and went out to confront the attacker. You can see him standing over the man (with what looks like a white pole) in the video. We were trying to help victims inside but that man’s a hero #LondonBridge
— Amy Coop (@theamycoop) November 29, 2019
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Yup
— Amy Coop (@theamycoop) November 29, 2019
There it is. Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/mWwavqCUMQ
— Adam Gatto (@adamgatto) November 29, 2019
When you wrestle a knife from a terrorist but remembered you picked up for the lads tonight. #LondonBridge #LondonBridgeAttack #LondonBridgeIncident #londonshooting pic.twitter.com/rpo8ZO5fgZ
— RWK (@firedeathpony) November 29, 2019
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After police stepped in:
London bridge shooting #London #LondonBridge pic.twitter.com/H5RJQgh60u
— Jon Stewart (@JonStewartUK) November 29, 2019
Terrorism attacker lay dead on #Londonbridge 💪🇬🇧
Brilliant work by armed police pic.twitter.com/ScOqsyOFX6
— London Crime LDN (@CrimeLdn) November 29, 2019
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Glad you’re okay. Also, this is legit the most bad ass thing I’ve ever heard.
— Tom Strachan (@tstrachanedit) November 29, 2019
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Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 19:00 - Ecofascism: The Climate Debate Turns Violent
Ecofascism: The Climate Debate Turns Violent
Authored by Onar Am via LibertyNation.com,
Recently, the European Institute for Climate and Energy held its annual conference in Germany, with more than 200 attendees. This year, however, the organization met in hiding from the Open Anti-Capitalist Climate Protest, affiliated with the communist domestic terror group Antifa.
The protestors’ goal has been to shut down climate debate through harassment, intimidation, disruption, and violence. Americans are familiar with the violent tendencies of Antifa, but its German counterpart is even more radical and echoes the brownshirt terror of the 1920s-30s. This year, therefore, the climate scientists had to hold their conference at a secret location.
EcoFascism
What were the offending words the ecofascists wanted to prevent the audience from hearing? Speeches with titles like “The Real Condition of the Great Barrier Reef,” “The Influence of Greenhouse Gases on Climate Research,” and “What Role Did the Sun Play in Climate Change” presented by top scientists from all over the world.
The activists, however, were recruited with the narrative that the conference attendants were “near-AfD.” Alternative for Germany (AfD) is a nationalist-populist party that has risen immensely in popularity in recent years due to the influx of Third World migrants. Because supporters of AfD want to limit immigration, Antifa views them as neo-Nazis. Portraying climate scientists and conference attendees as “near-AfD” painted a virtual target on their foreheads.
This confluence of socialism and environmentalism is not new. The National Socialists in Germany were pioneers in vegetarianism, ecological food, renewable energy, and animal welfare. On Aug. 28, 1933, Hermann Göring announced in a radio speech that:
“An absolute and permanent ban on vivisection is not only a necessary law to protect animals and to show sympathy with their pain, but it is also a law for humanity itself … I have therefore announced the immediate prohibition of vivisection and have made the practice a punishable offense in Prussia. Until such time as punishment is pronounced, the culprit shall be lodged in a concentration camp.”
The profound commitment by the Third Reich to totalitarian environmentalism is detailed in Ecofascism: Lessons From the German Experience by author Janet Biehl and associate professor at Marquette University Dr. Peter Staudenmeier.
After Germany’s defeat in World War II, environmentalism was picked up by other socialists, first in the 1960s and then in the 1990s. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, disillusioned communists in search of a new leftist ideology became climate activists. Now, 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Soviet failure has been forgotten and suppressed, and a new generation of ignorant youth now openly embraces both communism and ecofascism.
Violence Versus Debate
In the good old days of the late 1990s there was still a vigorous and healthy climate debate, and even those who warned of pending doom conceded that the science was shaky and uncertain. Then, as the influence of ecofascism increased, the message was changed to “the science is settled,” even though the evidence is mounting for the climate skeptic position. Now, we see that debate is abandoned altogether in favor of outright threats of violence.
Fascism, in any form, if it is permitted to grow, tends to end in a dark place. On one occasion, Göring sent a fisherman to a concentration camp for cutting up a bait frog. The Enlightenment philosophers valued free speech as the primary value of a free society because they understood that, if debate as an arena for the outlet of disagreement is stifled, the only alternative is violence.
Nowadays, everyone who disagrees with the radical left is branded as racist, misogynist, homophobic, Islamophobic, and transphobic. Even climate scientists skeptical of catastrophic global warming are given the same treatment. Who’s next?
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 18:30 - "Black Friday Is Dying" – Shopping Malls Turn To "Ghost Towns" Amid Online Shift
"Black Friday Is Dying" – Shopping Malls Turn To "Ghost Towns" Amid Online Shift
Black Friday is undergoing a transformative period where consumers are ditching brick-and-mortar stores for online shopping.
Reuters noted Friday, that traffic volumes at stores across the country on Thanksgiving eve were soft — and it’s likely the trend will continue through the weekend.
Another report via KeyBanc Capital Markets found traffic “somewhat muted at malls” during Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
KeyBanc’s analyst Edward Yruma attributed the decline to more online sales.
KeyBanc’s note said Gap, Banana Republic, Express and Zara offered 50% discounts, but that still wasn’t enough to attract shoppers.
Though traffic was steady at Walmart, Target, and Lululemon.
As of noon, Salesforce.com observed online sales of $7.4 billion on Black Friday, 16% higher than a year ago.
“It speaks to the fact that we’re amidst this digital transformation that’s happening for both the consumers and the retailers,” Rob Garf, vice president of industry strategy and insights at Salesforce, told Bloomberg.
Some other possible reasons behind the weak turn out could be due retailers already offered an entire month of aggressive sales leading up to Black Friday. There are often limitations of how much a consumer can purchase as credit card rates soar to 25-year highs.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) polled consumers earlier this month who said most of their shopping has already been done, many of whom took advantage of the deals leading up to Black Friday.
NRF said retail sales for November through December are expected to increase by 3.8% to 4.2% YoY, for a total of around $730 billion, but a larger portion could be coming from e-commerce.
Another reason for the softer turn out could be generational trends. As millennials take over the workforce, they don’t want to follow in the footsteps of their ‘Ok Boomer’ parents who have been herded like sheep into stores for decades. Millennials would rather “Netflix and chill” while surfing for deals on their mobile devices.
There’s also evidence that the US economy is rapidly slowing and the US consumer is pulling back on spending as a recession could be nearing. The chart below shows the industrial recession has likely transmitted weakness into the consumer, which could produce a rather weak holiday spending period.
As for some evidence of consumers ditching brick-and-mortar stores this Black Friday, we turn to Twitter:
Other Black Friday halftime news:
No Baby Yoda until January. “to keep it a secret”. Plenty of secrets from Frozen II are available. $LB is a ghost town. Specifically the bordello in a ghost town. $M wasn’t terrible(!).
Most traffic at Lulu or coffee. Black Friday is dying. pic.twitter.com/0BsX8eyGxz
— Jeff Macke (@JeffMacke) November 29, 2019
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I found Black Friday Excitement! $LULU released new clearance. Pretty much all the mall traffic is here. pic.twitter.com/LxM9uCyyID
— Jeff Macke (@JeffMacke) November 29, 2019
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Retail of the Damned: plenty of associates available at Forever21, Builda-a-Bear and Express.
Discounts matter not. Customers don’t care.
50% off Santa Furry costumes, for Cosplay (“FancyDress”) people. pic.twitter.com/qQ02fTkfAN
— Jeff Macke (@JeffMacke) November 29, 2019
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A little more traffic @Target this Black Friday am compared to last year #NPDHoliday @npdretail #BlackFriday pic.twitter.com/lxr0CNfkTr
— Joe Derochowski (@JoeDerochowski) November 29, 2019
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Against my better judgement I agreed to take my daughter to the Castleton Square Mall in #Indianapolis for #BlackFriday shopping. I was shocked to see no traffic jams, plenty of parking, and some stores with few customers. I just might liquidate my retail stocks on Monday😂 pic.twitter.com/IV7n38L9NM
— Brian Christopher (@bchrisphotos) November 29, 2019
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Here’s a look at the roadways near shopping areas. No traffic issues right now. Drive safe this #BlackFriday. https://t.co/QSNt3h0GRK @KFOX14 @JessicaKFOX_CBS pic.twitter.com/WYyKUl48n8
— KFOX14 Traffic (@KFOXTraffic) November 29, 2019
Damn web shoppers. https://t.co/cniUWpROy2
— Jeff Macke (@JeffMacke) November 29, 2019
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And to get an idea of what Black Friday used to look like before the consumer went broke and the internet came around. Here are a few short minutes of fights, stampedes, riots, and utter chaos, all over cheap plastic junk that was mostly made in China.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 18:00 - Understand The OPCW Scandal In Seven Minutes
Understand The OPCW Scandal In Seven Minutes
Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,
One of the annoying things about continuing to write about the OPCW/Douma scandal in the near-total absence of mainstream media coverage is the fact that it’s difficult for a new reader to just jump in on this developing story without having followed it from the beginning. There are a lot of details to go over to introduce someone to the story, and if I repeat them every time I write an article on the subject I’m twelve paragraphs in before I get to the new developments, and by that time I’ve bored all the readers who didn’t need the introduction. I’m sure other alternative media figures commenting on this story have encountered the same problem.
Fortunately for us, In The Now and journalist Dan Cohen have stepped up to the plate and put together a concise, easy-to-follow video on both Twitter and Facebook explaining the OPCW scandal in a way that enables anyone to familiarize themselves with the story in seven minutes. This article exists solely to draw attention to this excellent resource.
A leaked email accuses the OPCW of doctoring a report to suit the US government’s justification for its illegal bombing of Syria in April 2018. I explain the scandal mainstream media is trying to supress: pic.twitter.com/MTS4OWwqkH
— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) November 28, 2019
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Cohen has been really great about quickly getting concise, quality videos out to help people make sense of specific developing stories which the haze of western propaganda makes difficult to understand; his recent videos on the Bolivia coup and the Hong Kong protests were very helpful in the same way. He uses robust arguments and independently verifiable facts to clearly show that there’s much more to these stories than the mass media have been letting us know.
I’ll definitely be linking to this video in my articles going forward to enable anyone who hasn’t been following the OPCW scandal closely to quickly familiarize themselves with the story. The more of these lucid, accessible resources we’ve got circulating within the information ecosystem, the better.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 17:35 - "Forget The KKK, Modern-Day Liberals Are The Biggest Impediment": Clarence Thomas Reflects On Biden Experience
"Forget The KKK, Modern-Day Liberals Are The Biggest Impediment": Clarence Thomas Reflects On Biden Experience
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas says that modern day liberals posed the biggest impediment to his career, as opposed to what he was taught to believe.
“I felt as though in my life I had been looking at the wrong people as the people who would be problematic toward me. We were told that, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be the bigot in the pickup truck; it’s gonna be the Klansmen; it’s gonna be the rural sheriff,” Thomas says in a forthcoming documentary, “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words.”
“But it turned out that through all of that, ultimately the biggest impediment was the modern day liberal,” he added. “They were the ones who would discount all those things because they have one issue or because they have the power to caricature you,” according to ABC News.
Thomas has joined public criticism of former Vice President and 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden, whose handling of Thomas’s 1991 Supreme Court hearings when he was a Senator has fallen under harsh scrutiny.
Thomas sat for more than 22 hours of interviews over a six-month period in 2018, according to the film’s publicist. Manifold has advertised the movie as a chance to “tell the Clarence Thomas story truly and fully, without cover-ups or distortions.”
The movie also casts a spotlight on Biden, who has faced renewed criticism from his fellow Democrats for his treatment of Anita Hill, an African-American law professor who had accused Thomas of sexual harassment and testified publicly before the committee during the 1991 hearings. Biden called Hill to apologize earlier this year for his handling of the case. –ABC News
Thomas denied Hill’s allegations, which he referred to during the Biden-led hearings as a “high-tech lynching.”
“Do I have like stupid written on the back of my shirt? I mean, come on. We know what this is all about,” Thomas says in the documentary.
“People should just tell the truth: ‘This is the wrong black guy; he has to be destroyed.’ Just say it. Then now we’re at least honest with each other. The idea was to get rid of me. And then, after I was there, it was to undermine me.”
While Thomas does not mention Biden by name, he is asked by filmmakers to respond directly to Biden’s line of questioning during the hearings on his views of natural law.
“I have no idea what he was talking about,” Thomas says of Biden.
“I understood what he was trying to do. I didn’t really appreciate it,” he added. “Natural law was nothing more than a way of tricking me into talking about abortion.” –ABC News
In response to the documentary, Biden’s deputy communications director Bill Russo said in a statement to ABC: “Then-Senator Biden voted against Clarence Thomas in the Senate Judiciary Committee, he argued against him on the Senate floor, and he voted against his confirmation to a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court. It is no surprise that Justice Thomas does not have a positive view of him.”
Thomas was eventually confirmed in the Senate by a slim margin of 52 to 48 on Oct. 15, 1991.
“Most of my opponents on the judiciary committee cared about only one thing,” Thomas says in the film. “How would I rule on abortion rights. You really didn’t matter and your life didn’t matter. What mattered is what they wanted and what they wanted was this particular issue.”
Thomas speaks at length about his journey from childhood in impoverished rural Georgia, to a stint in a Roman Catholic seminary, and on to the elite classrooms of Holy Cross and Yale. He describes his grandfather, a fuel oil deliveryman in Savannah, as one of the biggest influences on his life, teaching him determination and self-reliance.
Thomas says those values are what sustain him in the face of persistent criticism as a black conservative.
“There’s different sets of rules for different people,” he says. “If you criticize a black person who’s more liberal, you’re a racist. Whereas you can do whatever to me, or to now (HUD Secretary) Ben Carson, and that’s fine, because you’re not really black because you’re not doing what we expect black people to do.” –ABC News
The documentary is set for theatrical release in early 2020 and will air on PBS next spring.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 17:10 - The Fed Detests Free Markets
The Fed Detests Free Markets
Authored by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,
I wanted to write something to address how little people know and acknowledge about how disastrous central bank policies have been for our societies and economies.
Because they don’t, and they have no clue, largely and simply because of the way central banks are presented both by themselves and by the financial press that covers them. Make that “covers”. Still, going forward, we will have no way to ignore the damage done. All the QE and ZIRP and NIRP will turn out to be so destructive for us all they will rival climate change or actual warfare. That’s what I wanted to talk about.
You see, free markets are a great idea in theory. Or you can call it “capitalism”, or combine the two and say “free market capitalism”. There’s very little wrong with it in theory. You have an enormous multitude of participants in an utterly complex web of transitions, too complex for the human mind to comprehend, and in the end that web figures out what values all sorts of things, and actions etc., have.
I don’t think capitalism in itself is a bad thing; what people don’t like is when it veers into neo-liberalism, when everything is for sale, when communities or their governments no longer own anything, when roads and hospitals and public services and everything that holds people together in a given setting is being sold off to the highest bidder. There are many things that have values other than monetary ones, and neo-liberalism denies that. Capitalism in itself, not so much.
It’s like nature, really, like evolution, but it’s Darwin AND empathy, individuals AND groups. The problem is, and this is where it diverges from nature, you have to make sure the markets remain free, that certain participants -or groups thereof- don’t bend the rules in their own favor. In that sense it’s very similar to what the human race has been doing to nature for a long time, and increasingly so.
Now, if you limit the discussion to finance and economics, there would appear to be one institution that’s in an ideal place to make sure that this “rule-bending” doesn’t take place, that markets are fair and free, or as free as can be. That institution is a central bank. But whaddaya know, central banks do the exact opposite: they are the ones making sure markets are not free.
In the ideal picture, free markets are -or would be- self-correcting, and have an inbuilt self-regulating mechanism. If and when prices go up too much, the system will make sure they go lower, and vice versa. It’s what we know from physics and biology as a negative -self correcting- feedback loop. The self-correcting mechanism only activates if the system has veered too much in one direction, but we fail to see that as good thing when applied to both directions, too high and too low (yes, Goldilocks, exactly).
It’s only when people start tweaking and interfering with the system, that it fails. Negative feedback vs positive feedback are misunderstood terms simply because of their connotation. After all, who wants anything negative? But this is important in the free markets topic, because as soon as a central bank starts interfering in, name an example, housing prices in a country, the system automatically switches from negative feedback to positive -runaway- feedback, there is no middle ground and there is no way out anymore, other than a major crash or even collapse.
Well, we’re well on our way to one of those. Because the Fed refused to let the free market system work. They, and the banks they represent, wanted the way up but then refused the way down. And now we’re stuck in a mindless positive feedback loop (new highs in stocks on a daily basis), and there’s nothing Jay Powell and his minions can do anymore to correct it.
The system has its own correction mechanism, but Greenspan, Bernanke, Yellen and now Powell thought they could do better. Or maybe they didn’t and they just wanted their banker friends to haul in all the loot, it doesn’t even matter anymore. They’ve guaranteed that there are no free markets, because they murdered self-correction.
Same goes, again, for ECB and BOJ; they’re just Fed followers (only often even crazier). In fact since they have no petrodollar, they don’t just follow, they have to do the Fed one better. Which is why they have negative interest rates -and the US does not -yet-: it’s the only way to compete with the reserve currency. Of course today even the Fed, and “even even” the PBOC, are discussing moving to negative rates, and by now we’re truly talking lemmings on top of a cliff.
“Let’s throw $10 trillion at the wall just so home prices or stock prices don’t go down!” Yeah, but if they’ve been rising a lot, maybe that’s the only direction they can and should go. It may not be nice for banks and so-called “investors”, but it’s the only way to keep the system healthy. If you don’t allow for the negative feedback self-correction, you can only create much bigger problems than you already have. And then you will get negative feedback squared and cubed.
Unless, of course, you have stellar economic growth, and you find unparalleled amounts of oil, and you have a growing population with way more kids born than people dying. But in case you don’t, you’re merely making an initially relatively minor problem much much worse with QE and ZIRP.
What central banks have been doing is they’ve utterly destroyed savings and pensions, i.e. the only thing “ordinary” people had to stave off their own personal collapse and that of their communities. ZIRP and NIRP move all those savings and pensions towards the bankers. And yes, pension funds may have moved into equities from bonds, and they may look good momentarily, but the current parade of new highs in stock markets only exists because of central banks’ QE and ZIRP.
There are tons of zombie enterprises in the world, many of whom have been kept alive by central bank policies, but wait till it becomes evident that the pension funds and systems themselves have turned into zombies. That’ll wake you up. Because who’s going take care of grandma, or her daughter, in a few years’ time? One thing’s for sure, it won’t be Jay Powell.
* * *
Please support the Automatic Earth on Paypal and Patreon so we can continue to publish.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 16:45 - China Braces For December D-Day: The "Unprecedented" Default Of A Massive State-Owned Enterprise
China Braces For December D-Day: The "Unprecedented" Default Of A Massive State-Owned Enterprise
Something is seriously starting to break in China’s financial system.
Three days after we described the self-destructive doom loop that is tearing apart China’s smaller banks, where a second bank run took place in just two weeks – an unprecedented event for a country where until earlier this year not a single bank was allowed to fail publicly and has now had no less than five bank high profile nationalizations/bailouts/runs so far this year – the Chinese bond market is bracing itself for an unprecedented shock: a major, Fortune 500 Chinese commodity trader is poised to become the biggest and highest profile state-owned enterprise to default in the dollar bond market in over two decades.
In what Bloomberg dubbed the latest sign that Beijing is more willing to allow failures in the politically sensitive SOE sector – either that, or China is simply no longer able to control the spillovers from its cracking $40 trillion financial system – commodity trader Tewoo Group – the largest state-owned enterprise in China’s Tianjin province – has offered an “unprecedented” debt restructuring plan that entails deep losses for investors or a swap for new bonds with significantly lower returns.
Tewoo Group is a SOE conglomerate, owned by the local government and operates in a number of industries including infrastructure, logistics, mining, autos and ports, according to its website. It also operates in multiples countries including the U.S., Germany, Japan and Singapore. The company ranked 132 in 2018’s Fortune Global 500 list, higher than many other Chinese conglomerates including service carrier China Telecommunications and financial titan Citic Group. Even more notable are the company’s financials: it had an annual revenue of $66.6 billion, profits of about $122 million, assets worth $38.3 billion, and more than 17,000 employees as of 2017, according to Fortune’s website.
The state-owned company is neither publicly listed nor rated by the top three international ratings companies, although it does have publicly traded bonds whose performance in recent months has been nothing short of terrifying for anyone who thought purchasing a company explicitly backed by Beijing can never fail.
As one can deduce from the above chart, the first time Tewoo Group’s financial difficulties emerged was in April when it sought debt extension from its lenders on its offshore, dollar bonds and sold copper below market rates amid a cash crunch. At that time, Fitch Ratings – the only rating agency to appraise the company’s credit standing – slashed the company’s credit score first from BBB to BBB- on April 18, and then by a whopping six notches, from BBB – to B- on April 29, to reflect its weak liquidity and higher-than-expected leverage.
According to Bloomberg the company has proposed an exchange/tender offer on the three dollar bonds due to mature over the next three years, as well as a perpetual note. What makes what would otherwise be a mundane exchange offer in the US, is that this is the first ever distressed plan of its kind from a state-owned Chinese firm.
What is just as striking is that the Tewoo Group – with its $66 billion in revenues and $38 billion in assets – is likely to default on its $300 million dollar bond due Dec. 16, a Bloomberg source said, unless the exchange is consummated. This means that the company’s bondholders have just a few weeks to decide between either taking as much as 64% in losses or accepting delayed repayment with sharply reduced coupons on $1.25 billion of dollar bonds, something which the rating agencies will describe as an event of default.
A de facto default by Tewoo would be considered a “landmark case,” said Cindy Huang, an analyst at S&P Global Ratings. Central government support for SOEs is likely to be selective in the future, while local government aid will be limited by the slowing economy and weaker fiscal position, she said.
The “distressed exchange offer” comes after Tewoo Group said last week it would be unable to pay interest on a $500 million bond, prompting Industrial & Commercial Bank of China to transfer $7.875 million to bondholders on its behalf. ICBC provided a standby letter of credit on the note – a pledge to repay if the borrower can’t. However, the firm’s remaining $1.6 billion of dollar bonds lack such protection.
Worse, Tewoo Group is already in effective default after some of its units previously missed local debt payments – in July, Tianjin Hopetone missed a coupon payment on its 1.21 billion yuan note sending the company’s dollar bonds tumbling below 50 cents on the dollar, while Tianjin Haoying Industry & Trade missed a loan interest payment due in June. Also in July, rating agency Fitch – which somehow missed all of this when it was rating the company investment grade – withdrew its rating on Tewoo Group due to insufficient information to maintain the ratings. It last rated the issuer at B-.
And as furious bondholders scramble to demand an explanation how a state-owned enterprise can default, Beijing is already bracing for the inevitable next steps: earlier this month, Tianjin State-owned Capital Investment and Management, an entity wholly-owned by the Tianjin municipal government, was appointed to manage the company’s offshore debt. For now, the entity has no plan to hold controlling stakes in Tewoo Group, although that will likely change as soon as the company’s financial situation fails to improve. Meanwhile, Tewoo Group said it plans to take a series of debt management measures, by which we assume it means it will restructure its debt.
The fact that a state owned enterprise such as Tewoo has just days before it defaults, in either a prepack or “freefall” form, suggests that Beijing will no longer bail out troubled SOEs, let alone private firms, perhaps due to the strains imposed by the economy which is slowing the most in three decades. It also raises concerns over Tianjin, where it’s based, following a series of rating downgrades and financing difficulties suffered by some of the city’s state-run firms. The metropolis near Beijing also has the highest ratio of local government financing vehicle bonds to GDP in China.
In short, if there a glitch with Tewoo’s default, the Chinese dominoes could start really falling.
Since the first SOE bond default emerged in China’s domestic market four years ago, 22 such firms have failed to make good on a combined 48.4 billion yuan ($6.9 billion) onshore bonds as of the end of October, according to Guosheng Securities. However, as Bloomberg adds, despite periodic scares such as late repayment, Chinese SOEs have yet to suffer any high-profile default in the dollar bond market since the collapse of Guangdong International Trust and Investment Corp. in 1998.
Tewoo would be precisely that high-profile default.
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There were early signs of Tewoo Group’s debt crisis. The bankruptcy of Bohai Steel Group in 2018 triggered systemic risk in Tianjin’s financial market. The incident involved a large number of local companies and financial institutions, which recorded huge amounts of bad debt. Financial institutions became more conservative in their lending standards, and this resulted in liquidity issues for a number of Tianjin enterprises.
At the same time, Beijing’s deleveraging and capacity reduction reforms made it difficult for a traditionally highly-leveraged company like Tewoo to raise financing. The default in May 2018 by Hsin Chong Group Holdings Limited, a company controlled by Tewoo, showed further signs of financial problems at Tewoo Group.
While normally such a critical company as Tewoo would be quietly bailed out by either Beijing or the local province, investors told Bloomberg that the company’s excessive debt levels will limit Tianjin authorities’ ability to lend support to the city’s troubled firms, prompting them to shun the latter’s debt. In July, Tianjin Binhai New Area Construction & Investment Group postponed plans to sell a three-year dollar bond offering amid such concern.
Tewoo’s debt issues that had surfaced from its current crisis may be only the tip of the iceberg. Tianjin’s economic growth has slowed down sharply since the beginning of 2016. GDP growth dropped to 1.9% in the first quarter of 2018. Even as it started to rebound thereafter, the outlook is still pessimistic, with GDP growth in 2018 less than 4%, which ranked last in the country according to iFast.
On the other hand, according to a 2016 report released by ratings agency Moody’s, state-owned enterprises in Tianjin recorded an aggregate liability-to-fiscal revenue ratio of more than 600%, which was the highest in the country.
At the same time, as shown in Tianjin municipal government’s most recent three-year revenue and debt data, Tianjin government’s fiscal revenue has declined significantly since 2017. Fiscal revenue fell by close to RMB40 billion in 2017, while government borrowings rose rapidly. By the end of 2018, debt owed by the Tianjin government was almost double its fiscal revenue.
The bankruptcy of Bohai Steel, a Tianjin SOE, in 2018 may also be a sign that the Tianjin government has lost control over the local debt crisis. Other than Bohai Steel and Tewoo, there have been a number of state-owned companies in Tianjin that are fighting to stave off insolvencies, such as Tianjin Real Estate Group Co. Limited, which owes RMB200 billion in debt. From the above observations, we think that in the event of a default by Tewoo, the company is likely to go into bankruptcy reorganization in a similar way as Bohai Steel, which has brought in capital from the private sector for its corporate restructuring. But for bondholders, recovery of their investments may be difficult, and potential loss heavy.
So with Tianjin unlikely to step up, in the aftermath of Tewoo’s proposed debt restructuring, which will indicate that Beijing will no longer bail out even SOEs, investors’ skepticism about state support for such state-linked firms will collapse, and a default could have wider implications on how investors assess and price their bonds in the future, said Judy Kwok-Cheung, director of fixed-income research at Bank of Singapore.
“Investors would be going back to basics in assessing credit risk in that the company’s stand-alone ability to repay is the first line of defense when it comes to non-repayment risk,” said Kwok-Cheung.
In short, “investors” would be reacquainted with a thing called “fundamentals.” The horror, the horror.
* * *
It gets worse: should Tewoo’s default spread to provincial-backed debt, an already ugly situation could quickly turn catastrophic as Tianjin has the highest debt burden among megacities and provinces in China according to S&P. Earlier this year, Fitch cut ratings on several government-related entities from the city, which is reliant on heavy industry and commodities trading. As a result of having the highest debt, Tianjin also has to slowest growth – Tianjin’s local economy grew by 3.6% last year, the slowest in China; at the end of last year, Tianjin’s government had 407.9 billion yuan worth of debt outstanding, or about 22% of the size of its economy, said the Chinese credit risk assessor.
And just in case the upcoming Tewoo D-Day isn’t troubling enough, Moody’s said that it expected the number of Chinese defaults to continue to rise in 2020 as economic growth sputters and the government attempts to rein in support to indebted companies. Specifically, Moody’s expects 40-50 new defaults in 2020, up from 35 this year, according to Ivan Chung, head of greater China credit research and analysis at Moody’s.
“The regulators’ intention is to reduce moral hazard” while at the same time ensuring any defaults “won’t undermine socioeconomic stability or trigger systemic risks,” Chung said on Wednesday, who added that whereas state support may be available for companies engaged in social welfare projects, for those that are more commercial in nature, “government support may not be so forthcoming,” he said.
Which is the worst possible news for Tweoo’s bondholders.
So what happens next?
Tewoo’s bondholders must quickly decide whether to accept the exchange/tender proposal by December 9 and 10 respectively, with the settlement date due on or around December 17. Since an event of default is now assured, the next big question is what will bondholders of China’s other SOE’s – those who bought bonds on the assumption that China will always bail them out – do next? A flurry of aggressively selling may be just the catalyst that cracks the market if it emerges in the extremely illiquid days just before Christmas.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 16:20 - "Terror-Related" London Bridge Attack Leaves At Least 2 Dead, One Suspect In Custody
"Terror-Related" London Bridge Attack Leaves At Least 2 Dead, One Suspect In Custody
Summary:
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Met Police are treating the incident as terror-related
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A person is believed to have attacked people with a knife
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A man has been detained by police, he was shot
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There are up to five casualties, according to police, with 2 confirmed dead as of 1:30 pm ET.
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Officers have cordoned off the bridge
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London Bridge Station is closed
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An explosion was heard at the south end of the bridge, near Borough Market
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Suspect shot dead at scene
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Police declare incident an ‘act of terror’
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Update (1330ET): The number of confirmed deaths in Friday’s attacks has risen to 2…
#LondonBridge: Reports now claiming 2 people were killed in the #London Bridge attack.#UK police have also said that the explosive device strapped to the body of the suspect was fake.#British PM #BorisJohnson has promised that all involved will be brought to justice.
— Paula Slier (@PaulaSlier_RT) November 29, 2019
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Fortunately, the London Bridge station has reopened after the incident.
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Update (1022ET): Met Police have confirmed this is terror-related…
Workers at Amazon distribution centers in Germany have gone on strike for better pay on Black Friday, one of the busiest days of the year for retailers.
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Five people have reportedly been in killed in a series of attacks on or near London Bridge early Friday afternoon, according to Sky News.
Various reports by the media and statements by police described a series of attacks likely perpetrated by numerous attackers. Gunshots were reported on London Bridge, while explosions and an assailant stabbing victims were reported at nearby Borough Market. Early repots suggest most of those dead were killed in stabbing incidents.
BREAKING UPDATE: At least 5 casualties after the stabbing attack on London bridge in central London, condition of the victims unknown at this time, attacker was shot dead by police.
— News_Executive (@News_Executive) November 29, 2019
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Numerous police and ambulance vehicles responded to the scene on the busy thoroughfare as footage of the aftermath circulated on twitter. The BBC is reporting that witnesses saw several men attacking another man, and that at least one individual was shot. Media reports claim a suspect is in custody, while other reports claim a suspect has been shot by police.
Police shouting for everyone to move away. Real panic setting in at London Bridge. Rumours of a shooting? pic.twitter.com/vBZoKu73za
— Timothy Johnson (@timtj) November 29, 2019
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Other clips circulating on line showed cops with their guns drawn and apparently pointing them at an individual on the ground.
Someone just shot on London Bridge #london @BBCBreaking @SkyNews pic.twitter.com/qVk5IPmofb
— amanda** (@AmandaHunter87) November 29, 2019
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Here’s that same scene from a different angle:
Shooting at London Bridge #LondonBridge pic.twitter.com/RB0489E0mw
— Clare (@Clarerobbo1000) November 29, 2019
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Now, more footage has emerged of what looks like police arresting a possible suspect.
London bridge shooting #London #LondonBridge pic.twitter.com/H5RJQgh60u
— Jon Stewart (@JonStewartUK) November 29, 2019
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Here’s a closeup of that frame:
Other photos showed emergency vehicles and cops rushing to the scene.
After the shootings, reporters said there was an explosion at the nearby Borough Market, and that one suspect armed with a knife is at large.
Senior UK officials are monitoring the situation.
I am in close contact with the Met Commissioner.
Please follow @MetPoliceUK for further updates and follow the directions of any officers on the ground if you are near the incident. https://t.co/h4oBVHlhCp
— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) November 29, 2019
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London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed that they’re “in the early stages of dealing with an incident at London Bridge” and have blocked off the area.
We are in the early stages of dealing with an incident at London Bridge. Please follow @metpoliceuk for updates. If you are near the scene, please follow the directions of any officer on the ground.
— MPS Events (@MetPoliceEvents) November 29, 2019
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We are currently dealing with an incident at London Bridge. Please stand by for updates.
— MPS Events (@MetPoliceEvents) November 29, 2019
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Both marches are now in Whitehall / Parliament Street.
— MPS Events (@MetPoliceEvents) November 29, 2019
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While shootings like this happen all the time in the US, they’re much more rare in the UK, where guns are effectively banned. London has been struggling lately with a surge in violent crime, though much of the attacks have been carried out by knife-wielding aggressors.
The incident is looking like a repeat of the London Bridge attacks from 2017, when seven were killed by ‘lone wolf’ jihadi attackers.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 16:15 -
- Mauldin: We're On The Brink Of The Second "Great Depression"
Mauldin: We're On The Brink Of The Second "Great Depression"
Authored by John Mauldin via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,
You really need to watch this video of a recent conversation between Ray Dalio and Paul Tudor Jones. Their part is about the first 40 minutes.
In this video, Ray highlights some problematic similarities between our times and the 1930s. Both feature:
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a change in the world order, in this case the rise of China and the potential for trade wars/technology wars/capital wars.
He threw in a few quick comments as their time was running out, alluding to the potential for the end of the world reserve system and the collapse of fiat monetary regimes.
Maybe it was in his rush to finish as their time is drawing to a close, but it certainly sounded a more challenging tone than I have seen in his writings.
Currency Wars
It brought to mind an essay I read last week from my favorite central banker, former BIS Chief Economist William White.
He was warning about potential currency wars, aiming particularly at the US Treasury’s seeming desire for a weaker dollar. Ditto for other governments around the world. He believes this is a prescription for disaster.
One possibility is that it might lead to a disorderly end to the current dollar based regime, which is already under strain for a variety of both economic and geopolitical reasons. To destroy an old, admittedly suboptimal, regime without having prepared a replacement could prove very costly to trade and economic growth.
Perhaps even worse, conducting a currency war implies directing monetary policy to something other than domestic price stability. There ceases to be a domestic anchor to constrain the expansion of central bank balance sheets.
Should this lead to growing suspicion of all fiat currencies, especially those issued by governments with large sovereign debts, a sharp increase in inflationary expectations and interest rates might follow. How this might interact with the record high debt ratios, both public and private, that we see in the world today, is not hard to imagine.
I called Bill to ask if he thought this was going to happen. Basically, he said no, but it shouldn’t even be considered. It was his gentlemanly way of issuing a warning.
Currency devaluations against gold were part of the root cause of the Great Depression. Coupled with protectionism and tariffs, they devastated global economic growth and trade.
The Repeat of the 1930s?
Do I think it will happen in any significant way in the next few years?
It is not my highest probability scenario. But imagine a recession that brings the US deficit to $2 trillion, possibly followed by a governmental change that raises taxes and spending.
This could bring about a second “echo” recession with even higher deficits. This would force the Federal Reserve to monetize debt in order to keep interest rates from skyrocketing, thereby weakening the dollar.
Couple this with a concurrent crisis in Europe, potentially even a eurozone breakup, resulting in countries all over the world trying to weaken their currencies with the potential for higher inflation in many places.
In such a scenario, is it hard to imagine a desperate president and Congress, toward the latter part of the next decade, regardless of which party is in control, instructing the US Treasury to use its tools to weaken the dollar?
Can you say beggar thy neighbor? Can you see other countries following that path? All as debt is increasing with no realistic exit strategy except to monetize it?
* * *
New York Times best seller and renowned financial expert John Mauldin predicts an unprecedented financial crisis that could be triggered in the next five years. Most investors seem completely unaware of the relentless pressure that’s building right now. Learn more here.
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 15:55 - String Of Attacks Rocks Globe: Hague Stabbings Leave Several Injured, Man Takes Hostages In Rio
String Of Attacks Rocks Globe: Hague Stabbings Leave Several Injured, Man Takes Hostages In Rio
During a day where people from around the world join long lines to begin their Christmas shopping, a string of attacks in shopping centers and London’s famous London Bridge have raised the specter of terrorism and a possible retaliation for the killing of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The string of attacks occurred almost one month to the day after Baghdadi’s murder at the hands of US special forces and one trained military dog.
The latest, a stabbing attack in the Hague (notoriously the home of the ICC and several other NGOs), has left several people injured (the exact number is unclear) wounded. First-responders arrived at the scene within minutes, a sign that hopefully, casualties will be minimal.
The attack in the Hague unfurled Friday evening in the Dutch city’s main shopping street, Grote Marktstraat, which was packed with Black Friday shoppers.
Authorities in the Hague are claiming that the attacks are not “terror related”, or at least don’t appear so at this time, with the caveat that criminal probes of this magnitude often take time and it could take weeks to uncover the truth.
Steekincident met meerdere gewonden aan de #GroteMarktstraat in #DenHaag. Hulpdiensten zijn ter plaatse. Meer info volgt via dit kanaal.
— Politie Den Haag eo (@POL_DenHaag) November 29, 2019
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While this was the second stabbing attack in Europe in a matter of hours, another incident unfolded in the Brazilian city of Rio, as a man armed with a knife held six people hostage at a bar in Central Rio, as a local police Captain confirmed.
LAPA | RUA DO RESENDE segue fechada (ocorrência policial). Reflexos na Av. Mem de Sá. Av. República do Paraguai, Rua Texeira de Freitas e Rua do Riachuelo.
Evite a região da Lapa e opte pela Av. Pres. Vargas, Rua Visconde do Rio Branco ou T. Sta Bárbara. #centro pic.twitter.com/z0iKJqYvZW— Centro de Operações Rio (@OperacoesRio) November 29, 2019
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At 3:34 pm, the first hostage, identified only as Sergio, was released. Another hostage, a woman named Lucia, reportedly the owner of the bar, was released shortly after.
Back in the Hague, a manhunt continues for the attackers, with officers reportedly looking for the suspect, who was seen wearing a grey track suit and is believed to be between the ages of 45-50, and was described as appearing to be of “North African descent.”
Tyler Durden
Fri, 11/29/2019 – 15:41
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